“Yes, ma’am,” Alik nodded as he reached for the supplies she offered. Farrow’s eyes were wide as she moved to lower a seatback tray to use as a workspace.
“Evan, I need you to brainstorm with Theo and me. We have to get Meg help now. She’s right. This could be all over long before we get there.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Cole, Sloan, Kylie—take care of Danny and Maze, keep the coffee coming and if you think of anything that could help—even if you think it’s just a stupid idea that surely we’ve already thought of—share it. Meg is alone and fighting not just for her life, but for ours. We are not going to let her down. This isn’t just another battle. Meg believes this is the final battle.”
Everybody in the cabin looked around solemnly for a moment before they hurried into action.
Evan made his way to his mother’s side. She and Theo were near the front of the plane so it was easier to stand in a loose circle.
“Evan, can you use your precognition to see what we should, or rather, will do?” Theo asked.
Evan was shaking his head doubtfully. “I haven’t had time to study the nuances of the rebooted gift, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t work like that. I have to be touching someone to get a vision of their immediate future.”
“Then take my hand,” Margo reached out to her son.
He hesitated.
“What’s wrong?” Margo frowned.
“My visions have caused a lot of hurt in the past; I’m worried my interpretations will be wrong and cause more pain.”
“Just tell us what you see, Evan. We’ll help with the interpretation,” Margo reassured. Her hand still hung in the air between them.
Evan watched her fingers for a moment before taking a deep breath. He reached out and took her hand.
A scene lasting no longer than ten seconds fluttered into view then disappeared.
Evan scowled.
“What is it? What did you see?” Margo pressed anxiously.
“Nothing, Mom. I saw nothing but you sitting right here on the plane. Your purse was in your lap and you were holding your cell phone. Theo was beside you there and you had the same look of worry on your face that you do now.”
“Is that all?” Theo asked carefully.
“That’s all.” Evan cursed under his breath and ran his fingers through his already tousled, shaggy hair.
“Evan, don’t be so hard on yourself. You’ve only just gone through your healing and your body has been through so much as it metamorphosed. Maybe the visions part of your evolution is still under way,” Margo suggested gently.
“I’ve thought of that, but no, Mom. The evolution is complete. I would have all the symptoms of illness if I were still transforming. That’s how it worked for Meg and Alik, remember?”
“Maybe it’s just different with you.”
“Why do I always have to be so different?” Evan muttered rhetorically and flopped down in the nearest seat. Absently, his left hand felt for the case holding his research still nestled deep into the pocket of his jeans before rubbing his left palm on his thigh habitually.
Margo had been watching her son and now exchanged worried looks with Theo. “I’m sorry, son. It wasn’t fair of me to ask you to see into my future and put that pressure on you before you’ve even gotten a chance to learn what you can do.”
She stepped closer to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. His muscles stiffened at her touch, but Margo refused to let go until he hugged her back. With a sigh, he reached up around her and gently squeezed his mother in a typical teenage boy way. Margo was smiling when she stepped back. She cocked her head like he’d seen both she and Meg do a thousand times, and smiled.
“We’ll get through this, Evan,” she nodded reassuringly.
“What makes you think so?”
“Oh, lots of things, but mostly my faith.”
Evan’s eyes darted away, uncomfortable. Since the fire, he’d pushed away from his faith and hadn’t wanted to think too hard about why. Even the miracle that took place through Danny in the salt lake hadn’t sparked a reconnection.
“And by the way Evan. Your vision wasn’t useless.”
“No?”
Margo shook her head. “See, I don’t have a cell phone. I left it on the bedside table back in our yellow house.”
42 “A signature always reveals a man’s character, and sometimes even his name.” ~ Evan Esar
Knowing she needed to access the garage, Meg invested her time in carefully searching the space for spying devices. Finding none, she hurriedly gathered all the weapons and armor she could from the gun cabinet and suited up for battle.
As she took inventory of weapons and ammunition, she wracked her brain to remember tactical strategies she’d learned from studying with her mom and brothers, but the truth was, it was never her expertise.
Evan was the techie—computers, devices, wiring, explosives—anything hard or soft wired was Evan’s area. Alik was the strategist, the memory keeper with dozens of tactical combat strategies successfully used in campaigns around the world, both real-time and historically, indexed in his eidetic memory.