Blood Sins

was that he was now reasonably sure that the sarcastic voice in his head was entirely his own.

He finished his coffee so quickly that he burned his tongue, then set the cup on the kitchen counter, saying, 'Hollis was rightit's been a long day. And no matter how tomorrow goes, I think we should all rest while we can get it.'

'Yes. You're probably right.'

She set her own cup aside and walked him to the front door, her slight frown worrying him until she said, 'On second thought, maybe we should spend some of our time tonight practicing. Whose idea was it to do this tomorrow, instead of waiting a few days? Oh, rightmine.'

Sawyer wanted to put his arms around her but fought off the impulse, determined not to make a second mistake on the heels of the first one. Instead, he said, 'Well, you and the weather forecasters seem to be in agreement on this one. Get some rest, Tessa. I have to go see a friendly judge about some paperwork.'

'See you tomorrow.'

'Yeah.'

Tessa closed the door behind him and leaned back against it.

'That,' Hollis said from the stairs, 'was mean.'

'I thought you were going to take a nap.'

'I changed my mind. Besides, it's so late now I might as well just wait for bedtime. And don't change the subject. Why didn't you throw the poor chief a crumb or two? In my book, he gets points for not being a practiced smooth talker.'

'In my book too. But wrong time and place. Maybe when all this is over and the dust settles'

'Seize the day,' Hollis advised. 'When all this is over and the dust settles, there may be only a few of us left standing.'

'Yeah,' Tessa said. 'That's what I'm afraid of.'

* * * *

'Sure you want to do this?' Galen asked.

Bishop looked up from the map he'd been studying to find both Galen and Quentin watching him. 'I'm sure.'

'We're banking on an awfully big maybe,' Quentin pointed out. 'A whole series of them, in fact. Maybe the weather will cooperate. Maybe our abilities will be affected in ways we can usehell, just controlinside the Compound. Maybe Samuel won't figure out what we're up to until too late.'

'My favorite maybe,' Galen offered.

'It's a doozy,' Quentin agreed.

Dry, Bishop said, 'If either of you has a better idea, now's the time.'

The other two exchanged looks, then Galen shrugged. 'I've got nothing.'

'No,' Quentin said. 'Me either. Sadly.'

'Then we go with what we've got.'

Quentin sighed. 'Reese hasn't been able to find evidence in that place in more than two years of trying, and he's good.'

Galen muttered something under his breath.

Quentin ignored him, keeping his attention fixed on his boss. 'If there was anything there to hang a warrant on, he would have found it. So even if your friendly federal judge agrees we have cause and signs a warrant, all that does is get us inside legally. And since we're trying to avoid Samuel's apocalyptic version of Waco, we go in low-key and casual.'

'Wouldn't do any good to go in heavily armed anyway,' Galen pointed out. 'Not against Samuel.'

'Which will probably reassure the judge, since he has no idea we're dealing with something a lot more dangerous than guns.'

'Actually,' Bishop said, 'Judge Ryan knows all about psychics and how dangerous psychic abilities can be.'

'Judge Ryan.' Quentin stared at him. 'Ben Ryan?'

'Ben Ryan. He was appointed a federal judge a year or so ago, and we're in his district.'

'So how's Cassie?'

'Cassie's flourishing. And so are the girls.'

'Ah,' Galen said, making the connection. 'Your cousin Cassie. Did she ever get her abilities back?'

'She's telepathic with Ben, but with no one else. Which suits both of them completely.'

Quentin was thinking along different lines. 'So Ben's out on this limb with you. I mean, if we leave that Compound without Samuel in custody and/or without enough evidence or enough willing witnesses to make a case against him, there's going to be egg on a lot of faces.'

'Worth the risk,' Bishop said briefly. 'And Ben agreed with me.'

'The Director could use any failure against you, Bishop. Especially something as potentially explosive as going after a religious leader, cult or no cult. It's exactly the kind of thing he's been waiting for.'

'I know.'

Looking at Galen, Quentin said, 'But no pressure.'

'We should be used to it by now. How many times have we gone into a high-stakes situation functionally blind?'

'A few. And yet we prevail. So far, at least.' Quentin frowned. 'But I sort of wish Hollis wasn't here. She's got more lives than a cat, granted, but she's used up most of them by now. And with Samuel's fear of mediums'

'It's a weakness,' Bishop said. 'We use it against him if we have to.'

'And how do we do that?' Quentin inquired politely.

'Hollis knows what to do.'

'Yeah, and knowing that is fine and dandy if the energy in the Compound affects us the way we hope it will. But if it doesn'tif things go horribly wrong, as things so often do in the kind of confrontation we're setting upthen what? Hollis is standing in the open doorway between this world and the nextand one good shove the wrong way means we lose her.'

'I know,' Bishop said.

'My guess is that Samuel won't hesitate to shove. In fact, I'm guessing that'll be his knee-jerk response.'

'I know,' Bishop repeated.

'And then there's Tessa. Not only will she be going into that place alone, but the chances are damn good Samuel will know she's coming and have the time to conjure a nice little welcome for her.'

Bishop didn't repeat his words, but merely waited.

Galen murmured, 'Making your point the hard way.'

'I don't know any other way to make it,' Quentin told him.

Galen opened his mouth to comment, but the summons of his cell phone distracted him.

'That's another thing,' Quentin said in a lowered tone as Galen took the call. 'Cell reception down in the valley seriously sucks, and Sawyer said the police radios weren't much better. Especially now, with all the fluctuating energies trapped in that valley. The very energies we're hoping will enhance our abilities is going to make it tricky as hell for us to time this thing, especially when we aren't sure how much time Tessa will need to do her part.'

'I have an idea about that,' Bishop said.

Galen snapped his cell phone closed and said, 'Huh.'

The other two looked at him.

'Reports of my death,' he said, 'have apparently reached the Director.'

'He's still in Paris,' Bishop said slowly.

'Yeah. But my question is, how would that information have gotten to Washington, let alone Paris? Nobody here reported it. Aside from Reese, only two people witnessed me being shot and killed. Neither of them could have known I was FBI. And both are supposedly loyal members of Reverend Samuel's church.'

Washington