“But what if you could do something?” Eve coaxed softly. “You would want to, wouldn’t you?”
Phoebe felt trapped. How could any decent person say no to a question like that? Carefully, she said, “If I ever dream about terrorists, I’ll let you folks know right away.”
Eve nodded. Phoebe could almost hear her mind working. “I’m curious,” she said. “Do you and your sister notice any kind of telepathy? I know many twins do.”
Wondering where this was headed, Phoebe replied, “In some ways we do. We can sense things about one another. When I had my accident, Cara knew. She tried calling my cell phone about twenty seconds after it happened.”
“I had the same experience with my brother.” Eve lowered her voice to a near whisper. “We were fraternal twins. When he died, I just knew. People think you convince yourself of that afterward, and sometimes I wonder. But I felt like something had crushed my body. I couldn’t breathe. It was like dying.” Tears drowned her eyes, and she brushed them impatiently away, plainly uncomfortable to have revealed herself.
“Don’t listen to other people,” Phoebe said. “Part of you died with him. Of course you felt it.”
Eve visibly relaxed. “Yes. That’s exactly what it was. Part of me dying. I hadn’t thought of it that way, but you’re right.”
“You still feel him sometimes, don’t you?”
Eve stared down at the beige carpet. Phoebe sensed she wanted to speak but couldn’t. It dawned on her then that they were being monitored. This was the CIA. There were probably cameras in the bathrooms. What was Vernell thinking, bringing her here? She stole a cautious glance at her companion and reminded herself that no matter how genuine Eve seemed, she was one of
them
. And right now they were being nice to her because they wanted something. What would happen if she said no?
Phoebe had tried to convince them they were barking up the wrong tree. This was not television. She was not superhuman. Even if she wanted to, she couldn’t explain exactly how her powers worked. She fully expected that one day she would wake up and find the gift gone.
“I can tell you something about your brother,” she said, ignoring the fact that Eve had an agenda. She was still a human being and her pain was real. “When you feel him, he’s there. No question. If you speak to him, he’ll hear you.”
“Is it true? What they say about you?”
“That I’m crazy?”
“No.” Eve smiled. “That you’re the real deal.”
“I’m afraid so.”
“And you can talk to dead people just like you and I are talking?”
“Kind of. Although they don’t always make sense.”
“Dr. Karnovich mentioned a woman you were able to summon intentionally. Iris.”
“Yes. She was one of Lester Cordwell’s victims. She led me to his house.”
“Have you had other experiences like that? Where you’ve been able to initiate a communication yourself?”
“No. Iris came because she’s my friend. And I think saving June Feldstein brought her some peace.”
Eve latched onto this like a limpet. “Imagine the peace you could offer victims of the attack. Think about the passengers on Flight 93. They fought back.” Tears welled in her eyes. “Phoebe, please. Give them the chance to do more…to have justice.”
It sounded great in theory, but somehow Phoebe could not imagine how she was supposed to achieve this lofty goal. And even supposing she could conjure up a dead victim, what did the CIA think this person could do for them?
She looked squarely at Eve. “What exactly do you want from me?”
“We think there’s another plot.”
Could one say
Duh!
to the CIA? “Well, I’m sure Osama bin Laden isn’t sitting around playing Scrabble.”
“There’s some chatter that’s raising flags. I can’t go into any detail, but let’s say we’ve had information from very credible sources. We’re wondering if we can authenticate this information by using your er…contacts.”
Phoebe almost laughed. “You want me to ask dead people to go find Osama and see what he’s up to?”
Eve drew a sharp breath. “Could you do that?”
“If I could, I would. But it’s not that simple. The thing is, the people I talk to seek me out, and they all have something at stake. There’s a personal connection. For example, some of them lead me to their bodies, so that their loved ones can have closure. Even if I could contact some of the people who were on that flight, they may not feel any urge to help.”
“If that’s the case, we’ll accept it,” Eve said. “But are you willing to give it a try?”
Phoebe sighed. Did she have a choice?
*
“What do you mean, they have Phoebe?” Cara cradled the phone against her shoulder as she dressed.
“Pack up and get out of there, now.” Vernell’s tone was unequivocal.
“You’re kidding me, right?”
“Just do it.”
“Okay, already.” Cara dragged her suitcase out and dumped it on the bed. “Are you going to tell me how the fuck you got my sister into this mess?”
“It was out of my hands, Cara. The director decided we would be up to our neck in shit if the Company found out about Phoebe and we hadn’t offered to share.”
“Jesus.”
“We’re not having this conversation, either. And don’t use your cell phone to call me. We can only use landlines.”
“Are you telling me they’re listening in?” Cara needed coffee. She couldn’t get her head around what she was hearing. The CIA had Phoebe and weren’t letting her go home. They were spying on Vernell, and Cara was about to get a knock on the door. What planet was this?
“Do not go home,” Vernell said emphatically. “Draw out a couple of thousand bucks in cash from the ATM. Drive to the airport and hand in your rental car. Take a shuttle to Anaheim. I’ve made a reservation for you at the Econo Lodge at the Disneyland Maingate under the name Diane Harris. Pay cash for your room and deposit. I’ll phone you there tonight.”
Cara pulled on a turtleneck and jeans, blown away that Vernell had just laid out a plan for her to disappear. “I don’t get it. Why do they want
me
?”
“So far, they’re not buying that only one of you is psychic. They have you pegged as a backup.”
“Oh right. These are the same geniuses who said Saddam Hussein had a nuclear arsenal?”
“Actually, most of our friends in Langley weren’t convinced of that. But the truth was inconvenient for the Pentagon at that time.”
“And now your pals think my sister is going to make them look good by tracking down terrorists? Did you tell them that’s ridiculous?”
“To be fair, we can’t be certain that it is. We’re only starting to find out what Phoebe is capable of.”
Shoving clothing into the case, Cara said, “You know something. That’s not really the point. If my sister doesn’t want to do this, no one can force her to.”
“On the contrary,” Vernell said silkily. “The CIA can detain Phoebe indefinitely if they think she’s not cooperating.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The Patriot Act. If the Company decides to play hardball, they could classify Phoebe as a material witness to an ongoing terrorism plot. They could lock her up in a military prison and throw away the key. That’s why you need to be on the outside.”
Fear cramped Cara’s gut. This couldn’t be happening. “My sister doesn’t know the first thing about terrorists.”
“Unfortunately, the Company can pretend to believe otherwise, and that’s all it takes.”
“You can’t be serious. This is America. The government can’t just detain a citizen on some phony charge because it suits them!”
“That’s not strictly true,” Vernell said wearily. “Understand something, Cara. All we have to do is label someone as an enemy combatant and we can detain them indefinitely. It makes no difference whether the basis is true or false. They have no access to legal counsel and no right to a hearing.”
Cara’s head spun. She had heard about the sweeping powers of the Patriot Act, but she had assumed the usual checks and balances must apply. “I thought Congress was planning to amend the Patriot Act so this kind of police-state stuff can’t happen,” she said.
“Actually, if Congress passes Patriot Two, we’ll have even wider powers,” Vernell replied. “For example, your sister could be stripped of her citizenship without recourse.”
Struggling to take in the enormity of the situation, Cara carried the phone around the apartment as she gathered up the last of her possessions. “How do we get her out of this?” she asked shakily.
“I’ve told her to cooperate. And I’ve told them she can’t perform under stress. So right now, she’s getting kid-glove treatment. That could change any time if they think she’s withholding.”
Cara slumped down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. “You promised nothing like this was going to happen.”
“Back then I didn’t know what Phoebe could do. I thought we could keep her under wraps.”
“If this goes bad, I’m taking it straight to the media.”
“And the White House will kill the story,” Vernell said in his calm, lucid way. “In the interests of national security.”
“I see.” Cara got back onto her feet and closed the suitcase. Her whole body shook with rage. “So what you’re telling me is we now live in a fascist state but we just haven’t woken up to the fact yet?”
“That’s maybe a little strong.”
“Oh, really? I’m checking into a cheap hotel under a fake name so I can’t be hauled off by a government agency on some bogus pretext. But you’re telling me my constitutional rights are still intact?”
Vernell didn’t respond. “Diane Harris,” he reminded her, and hung up.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Rowe jerked upright and groped for the lamp next to her bed, certain she’d heard something break. The sound came from downstairs. As she hit the switch, the bulb blew. Cursing, she slid out from beneath the warm covers and groped her way to the light switch near the door. When nothing happened, she jiggled it up and down a few times and muttered some foul language. Perfect. Yet another home improvement to add to her expensive list. Rewiring the house.
She stumbled to her dresser and opened the top drawer, feeling around for her flashlight. The dogs were awake now and Jessie instantly rushed to the door, whining softly.
“It’s three in the morning,” Rowe grumbled. “You do not need to go out.”
At the sound of her voice, Zoe’s tail thumped against the floor and Molly woke up, emitting small excited yelps.
Resigning herself to the inevitable, Rowe slid her feet into fleece-lined boots, scooped the puppy from the crate, and opened the bedroom door. The two Labs preceded her down the stairs to the front entrance and she let them out. They never went far from the house during late-night bathroom breaks, content to squat in the snow a few feet from the front steps before rushing back indoors.
Rowe put Molly down near them so she would get the general idea. The little pug caught on immediately and almost buried herself in snow when she scampered back into the house after her role models. Getting colder by the second, Rowe locked the door and tried the downstairs lights. There was no power, and she would probably end up electrocuting herself if she started fiddling with the mains in pitch darkness. The repairs would have to wait until morning. With any luck she could convince Earl and Dwayne to do the job for her if they managed to get over to the island. She had never been much of a butch when it came to electrical problems or car repairs.
She panned her flashlight around the hall, looking for evidence of the breakage. It was probably a light fitting, she decided. She had replaced bulbs in all the chandeliers soon after moving in, but many of the glass shades were broken at the base. A gust of wind would knock them from their brackets. Already a couple had fallen from the decrepit fixture nearest the kitchen. She should have installed new fittings through the entire hall instead of simply replacing the chandelier in the vestibule.
Rowe took a few paces past the stairs, the dogs at her heels. The dank smell of the kitchen had filtered through the crack beneath the door and drifted along the airless corridor. A soft repetitive thud transformed her irritation to a crawling unease. Unable to identify the sound, she trained her dark-adapted eyes on the kitchen door and moved toward it. The floorboards were less likely to creak where they met the skirting boards, so Rowe slid her back along the paneled wall. She was creeping, and she knew that was idiotic. There was no one else in the house. And even if there was, whoever or whatever was hiding in her kitchen already knew she was downstairs.
Reminding herself that she had a couple of big, protective dogs with her, she took a few more steps, then glanced back over her shoulder. Jessie and Zoe were pacing the vestibule, waiting for her to get with the program and return to bed. Only Molly seemed unperturbed, nestling hotly against Rowe’s throat as they inched into the darkness. Listening intently, she stopped at the kitchen door, turned the handle with excruciating finesse, and peered into the room.
The thudding was coming from one of the cupboards near the sink. As Rowe held the beam on it, the door drifted open, then banged shut. Rolling her eyes at her own paranoia, she marched into the kitchen and closed the noisy culprit, fiddling with the antiquated latch to secure it. She turned to leave, but an icy gust of wind cut through the room and the door to the hall slammed violently shut. Rowe jumped with fright and shone the flashlight manically about. One of the cupboard doors below the knife drawer swung back and forth as if an invisible child had hold of it.