“Don’t worry; I’ll run it through so many proxy servers they’ll never be able to trace us. Sarah, we’ll make sense out of this. And then we’ll find a way to deal with these people.”

“You’re so sure we can deal with them.” She shook her head a little. “How? How can you deal with people willing to kill a cop? How can you deal with people who bug cars? Who abduct children? Who kill people only because they’re…different? How are we going to deal with people like that, Tucker?”

He didn’t have a ready answer, and admitted that reluctantly. “I don’t know. But we’ll find a way.”

Still looking at him, she nodded slowly, but her voice was remote when she said, “Don’t underestimate them, Tucker. Whatever you do…don’t do that.”

“No, I won’t. Not again.” He hesitated, and then, needing to regain the sense of control her questions had shaken, said, “I’ve been thinking. It’ll probably be smarter to avoid staying any place where either of us has stayed before. Even at the places I have no traceable tie to, I probably used credit cards in local stores, or talked to people who might remember. We have to assume somebody asking the right questions could find out about those places. And find us.”

“So we stick to anonymous hotels and motels?”

“I think it’ll be safer, and not just because it’ll be harder to find us. If we’re surrounded by other people and not isolated, it won’t be easy for them to move against us.”

Sarah nodded again, but said, “Unless they have another Sergeant Lewis on the payroll. People usually don’t interfere with the police.”

“That’s a cheerful thought.” He managed a smile. “Look, everything they’ve done so far has either been designed to look accidental or scheduled for the dead of night with no witnesses. Lewis didn’t come to ‘arrest’ us openly, and I’m betting no other cop will. They don’t want to be that visible, Sarah. What they’re doing is secret, and they want to keep it that way. That’s our ace.”

“Our only ace.”

Deliberately, he said, “No. You’re our ace too. One vision warned us to move. You could have others.”

“Don’t count on me, Tucker.” Her pale eyes were completely unreadable, her voice matter-of-fact. “I can’t control what I see. Or when I see it. Don’t forget—I never saw them coming to the lake.”

He frowned slightly. “But somebody did. Somebody knew, and warned us.”

“Using technology in a way you said was impossible.”

“Next to impossible, given the safeguards in my system and the fact that I wasn’t even connected to the Internet at the time. I know what you mean, though. If they can manipulate technology with that kind of expertise, then maybe we have some nameless friends who do know how to deal with our enemy.”

“So how do we ask for help?”

“We don’t. Not until they surface, at any rate.”

Sarah nodded, and said, “So we’re still on our own. And we can’t count on another warning—either from our nameless friends or from me.”

“True. But I think the enemy will be more cautious now; they didn’t catch us off guard when they expected to, and that has to give them pause. They can’t know how much you see. I think that’s one reason they move at night.”

A flicker of interest narrowed her eyes. “Because I’m presumably asleep?”

“Yeah. It’s just a hunch, but…Sarah, the day we met, the day your house burned, I watched Lewis when he talked to you. I noticed that he started to touch you—and then drew back.”

“A lot of people are that way about psychics.” She shrugged. “Or so-called witches. They’re afraid their darkest secrets will be revealed to me if I come into contact with them. I’ve noticed quite a few friends and acquaintances doing the same thing.”

She looked briefly at the careful foot of space between them and added, “It surprised me when you touched me so calmly that day.”

Tucker refused to let himself get sidetracked. “But Lewis wanted to touch you, I could see that. He didn’t stop because he was afraid. It was more like he…remembered something he wasn’t supposed to do. Sarah, what if they know their darkest secrets will be revealed to you if you touch them? What if that’s the reason they keep their distance except at night when you should be sleeping? Because if they get too close or linger too long when you’re awake and aware, you’ll recognize them for what they are.”

“Lewis was close, even if I didn’t touch him.”

“Yeah, but he was also a cop. You had no reason to be wary of him, you thought. Trust dulled your sense of self-preservation—and all your other senses as well. Plus, he may not be one of them in the strictest sense, but rather a tool they use when necessary.”

Sarah thought about that, her gaze returning to the cross on the other side of the street. “You are good with puzzles, aren’t you,” she murmured at last. “That makes sense.”

“It makes sense, but it’s still only a guess. Plus, even if I’m right, this is still new to you, so I can’t see how we can use the theory, make it work for your protection. As you said yourself, it’s something you haven’t yet learned to control; they may very well be wary of you but we don’t yet know how to use that.”

“So…half an ace?” She offered him a faintly twisted smile.

“Better than nothing.”

Her smile faded, and Sarah said, “If only there were others like me I could talk to. Psychics with more experience than me. People who know how to control this, how to use it.”

“Maybe there are.”

“Still alive?”

“It’s possible. According to the research, there have been psychics in the news recently for reasons other than death or disappearance. Names we’ve ignored because they didn’t fit our search criteria.”

“Psychics who aren’t targets? But why isn’t the…the other side interested in them? If they’ve killed and taken so many, if they’re after me now, why ignore others?”

Tucker frowned. “Maybe there’s some common denominator among some psychics that makes them less valuable, or less of a threat. That has to be it. A particular kind of ability, maybe, or the strength of their abilities. Hell, maybe it’s something so subtle we could be looking right at it, something as simple as eye color or background, something like that. The only way we’re going to find out is to get more information, and then…”

“And then…approach another psychic?”

“It’s a possibility. Another psychic, one more experienced, could probably help you, Sarah. Help you learn to use your abilities.”

“Have you considered that it’s also possible those psychics aren’t targets because they already belong to the other side?” she asked steadily.

Tucker had not considered that, and the possibility chilled him.

Down to the bone.

NINE

It was fairly late when they got to Cleveland, nearly nine o’clock that evening. They found a hotel with rooms available, and Tucker got them a small suite on the tenth floor.

“I think we should stay together,” he told Sarah. “But at least in these suites, there’s a separate bedroom to give you a little privacy.”

Sarah didn’t argue. She was slightly surprised that he wanted them to be together now when, presumably, they had a bit of breathing room; when things had been a lot more tense en route to Chicago, he had gotten them separate rooms. Keeping a careful distance, she’d assumed. She didn’t know what his reasoning was now and was too tired to think much about it.

The hotel had an underground garage, which was one reason Tucker had chosen it; their Jeep would have a bit more security than if it were parked out in the open, and it would certainly be less visible to passersby. It was also a fairly busy hotel, with people coming and going; it was hosting some kind of business convention, and that made it a virtual certainty that there would be people about at all hours.