Fatal Strike (McClouds & Friends #10)(81)

Lara held out her hand. Edie passed the sketchbook over.

It was a sharp icicle-in-the-belly feeling, to see something from inside her head externalized. She’d witnessed this scene over and over. It was as disturbing rendered on paper as it had been in her head.

It was a freeze-frame from the worst vignette in her weird sleepwalker vision. The woman in the pink shirt staring out the window, hair uncombed, mouth slack, eyes vacant, while behind her, the toddler wailed desperately in her crib.

Superimposed over the woman’s head was another drawing, an odd, ball-shaped thing with tiny tentacle-like protuberances all over it, like an illustration in a biology book. She had no clue what it could be.

She looked up into their expectant faces, and cleared her throat, trying to make her voice loud enough for all of them to hear.

“This is a scene from one of my recurring visions,” she said. She glanced at Miles. “I had it last night, along with the Tokyo bomb one, remember? It starts in a city park, and things seem normal, but it’s too quiet, and the grass is too long, and deer are grazing in the park. And people are just sitting there, or lying on the ground. Maybe alive, maybe dead. Then I see . . . her.” She indicated the woman in the sketch. “But I don’t know about that thing that’s drawn on top.”

“It looks like a virus,” Kev said. “I’ll identify it, if I can.”

“Another terrorist attack, maybe?” Miles offered. “With biological weapons?”

“Could be,” she said, reluctantly. What a horrible thought.

“Another? What do you mean, another?” Con’s voice was sharp. “You mean there was one already?”

“One she stopped,” Miles said. “Tokyo. Last night.”

“Oh, yeah,” Nina’s eyes widened. “We heard on the radio when we were driving here from Portland that they evacuated the main train station in downtown Tokyo, and the bomb squad found enough explosives on a train to blow up . . .” Her voice trailed off, as she looked into Lara’s eyes. “Wait,” she said. “You mean, that was you? The anonymous tip?”

“Yeah,” Miles said. “She got a Japanese friend to call for her.”

“Keiko, this guy I hung out with in high school,” she explained, suddenly on the defensive. “He has no connection to my life in San Francisco. He lives in Seattle. I figured, why would Greaves or anyone make the connection? A bomb in Tokyo, and me? Why?”

She looked around at the faces of the men in the room. The sense of growing dread in the air. No one would meet her eyes.

“She had to call,” Miles said, more forcefully. “The bomb was going to go off in a matter of hours. There was no time to lose.”

God, how she loved him. Never more than in that moment. Their clasped fingers tightened.

“I’m not saying she should not have called,” Davy said. “I’m saying you should have told us. And we should have ground the f*cking phone into powder and hauled ass out of here. Last night.”

“Why would this high school friend in Seattle calling with an anonymous tip pop up on Greaves’ radar?” Miles protested.

“Don’t even ask. Did he at least understand what he was messing with?” Davy’s voice was uncompromising. “Did you warn him?”

“We told him to leave town,” Lara said, pressing her hand against the flutter in her belly. “I’m sorry. I was just thinking about the four hundred and seventy three people who would have been blown to bits. Body parts everywhere. I’ve seen it so many times. I wanted to stop it. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you guys, but I would have done anything.”

“Of course you would,” Edie said gently. “And so would any of us. And you did save them.” She leaned forward, tapping the sketchpad. “Maybe this is another one of the things you can actually change. That’s what always tormented me about my ability, that it seemed like I could never change the outcomes. But you did, Lara! This is great news! This is a big victory! Chalk one up for the good guys!”

Lara was deeply suspicious of the impulse to see any ray of hope in this mess. Letting herself be happy seemed like a trap.

She smiled at the woman anyway, appreciating the encouraging thought. “I don’t have any hard data for this one, though,” she said. “With Tokyo, I had a time, a place. I saw the bomb, the date clock. With this one, all I have is random images of strangers in a park, and a picture of an unidentified virus. And a sense that it’s very bad. Even worse than the Tokyo bomb.”

“In any case, we need to get out of here,” Connor said. “Let’s settle on someplace for her to be. We talked about it last night, while you guys were resting. The most fortified places are Tam and Val’s place up in Cray’s Cove, or Stone Island, with Seth and Raine. We figured we’d drive up with—”

“No,” Miles said.

His flat negation silenced the room. As if he had said something shocking.

“Ah . . . Miles?” Nina said carefully. “You do know that Lara needs a safe place to recuperate from—”

“I know damn well what she needs,” Miles said. “But these places are not safe. All the physical security in the world won’t stop Greaves when he comes down. And he will come down. He’ll figure out who I am, if he hasn’t already, and he’ll finger all of you.” He turned to Val and Tam. “You’ve got Irina and Rachel up at the Cove. You wouldn’t be able to protect them if he came after us there. Don’t give him any reason to do that. Really. Trust me on this.”