Page 27 of Breaking Danger
No one told the cardiologist that Sophie had spent an afternoon with Aunt Emma on the 17th. And no one told him that Sophie spent the next week in bed, too weak to get up.
From that moment on, she was forbidden to help anyone.
Sophie had never tried to heal the spirit, but she felt that Jon had an ailment as deathly as an aneurysm. A bone deep sorrow that in any other human would have been crippling.
The sorrow was profound and deep and old. Not linked to the suffering outside the window. That was like rain falling on an already flooded plain.
So she Touched him, and was nearly staggered by the waves of pain and sorrow.
“Go on,” she urged. “Tell me.”
Jon shook his head, frowning. He looked at her, opened his mouth and shut it. Something was happening to him, something he couldn’t explain. She was absorbing his pain, trying to withstand the onslaught.
“Mac knew of an abandoned mine inside—inside Mount Blue.”
“Yes,” she said softly. “That’s the place Catherine mentioned.”
He had hesitated just a second before saying the name of the location, just as no last names had been exchanged when she was talking with Elle and Catherine Young.
Jon’s head was still in the Old World. In this New World, all secrets were gone. How could there be state secrets when the state had disappeared? He hadn’t understood this yet, but he would.
“Right away, we had people who just…come to us.” He raised his eyebrows, rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand. “The damndest thing,” he muttered. “It’s like we became this, this magnet. For people on the run, for misfits, for people with gifts that got them into trouble. One of the first was an engineer who’d worked for a criminal construction company that got a lot of people killed and framed him for it. He just—showed up one evening.”
His eyes slid to hers.
“You have to understand something. Mac and Nick and I are experts in security. We’re the best. The very first thing we did was surround our hideout with remote sensors so thick a fly couldn’t fart without our knowing about it. And Eric—he just waltzed right in. No one should have been able to do that but by God he did. So we knew he was either going to be a dangerous enemy or a strong ally. Turns out he was a strong ally. He built us a beautiful place that somehow just attracted people, the right kind of people.” His beautiful mouth kicked up in a half smile. “Do you know who our cook is?”
Sophie shook her head. “But I’m not up on trendy chefs, so I might not recognize the name.”
“Oh, you’ll recognize this one, all right. Stella Cummings.”
Sophie’s mouth fell open. “Stella Cummings?TheStella Cummings? The?—”
“Actress, yeah.” Jon looked as if he were enjoying her astonishment.
“Wasn’t she?—”
“Slashed by a stalker, yeah.” Jon’s face turned grim again. “Took her two years and ten surgeries to get over it and she was badly scarred. She just left Hollywood behind. Got a job slinging hash up north because she’d always loved to cook. I was with her in the diner in a small town when there was an announcement on the news that her stalker had escaped from prison. She’d barely put her life back together. Working as a cook at the diner grounded her, she said. We’d struck up a sort of friendship. We never exchanged names, though I knew who she was. She looks like Stella Cummings, only chopped up and put back together again. She was shaking so hard she could barely breathe. I told her I could take her to a place where she would be safe and she came and now we can’t do without her.”
“So all these refugees streaming into…your headquarters are?—”
“Eating like kings. Speaking of which—” he lifted a forkful of her zucchini omelette. “Fabulous.”
“Thanks. So you guys set this place up. People came and found refuge with you. Did I get that right?”
“You did. And since the people who came don’t want to be found, we keep it hidden. And we’d prepared for the worst case scenario—a siege. We’ve been working nonstop on our community and it is almost completely self sufficient in water, food and energy. Now Catherine and Elle are setting up a clinic. Refugees are pouring in, but we have space and huge food reserves so we’re going to be okay. Haven will survive this storm. We just have to make sure as many people survive as possible.”
A howl came from outside. It sounded like an animal cry but it wasn’t. Sophie shivered. There might be one safe space left, but it was far away and too late for this city she loved.
Now it was Jon’s turn to comfort her. He put down his fork and leaned toward her, arms open. Sophie burrowed there, arms sliding around that broad back, hands pressed flat against the thick muscles of his back
“It’ll be okay,” he said softly, and kissed her hair.
Yes. Maybe. Sophie’s gift was great but she wasn’t going to be able to save the world. All she could hope for was to make it back to this safe community, snugged inside a mountain, and help produce as much vaccine as possible. If they made it. Another howl came from outside, and another. Sounds of animals snarling, fighting.
Only they weren’t animals.
They were people.
