What any of it means, she has no idea.
Unexpectedly, her sadness overwhelms her. She rips the sheet from the pad, and crumples it into a tight ball. When she finally gets up, she drops the paper into the trash and never thinks of it again.
Patricia Mendes is also in mourning. In her case, it’s for a brother and an uncle. Their deaths are surprisingly similar to the man in Perth’s, and two other people in Cleveland, though she will never know this.
The police have already decided that Rodrigo must have discovered a drug lab and had let Uncle Hector know. It’s as good a story as any, and both her brother and uncle come out heroes who were trying to do the right thing.
The true story of what happened, she keeps to herself, along with the guilt she will carry until she takes her last, gasping breath.
Jeannie Saunders is coughingagain.
Thankfully the attack only lasts for a few seconds. Her chest muscles are so sore, and her throat so raw, she is sure that soon she’ll pass out from the pain. It would be a blessing, actually. A way not to think about anything.
Corey is dead. No one has told her this, but she knows. She can see it in their eyes, even behind the protective suits they wear when they come into her room.
What happened to Blanton, she has no idea. She should ask, but she doesn’t have the strength.
What she really wants is to go home and lie on her bed.
She closes her eyes, that thought on her mind, and dreams that’s exactly where she is.
In a vacation home on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, Tamara Costello and Bobby Lion spend their time either watching TV or walking along the nearly deserted shore. It is cold and the ocean looks angry, but the only thing on either of their minds is the phone Tamara carries in her pocket. Will it ring? And when it does, will Matt tell them it’s time? That the video they hope they never have to show anyone needs to be released?
There is no way to know the answer. All they can do now is wait.
Rich “pax” Paxton once more tries to reach Gagnon on his satellite phone. For hours his calls have gone unanswered, and he is concerned. He has tried Captain Ash, too, but received the same results.
He and his team know the research facility on Amund Ringnes Island is exactly what it claims to be and not home to Project Eden. This means either their assumption about Bluebird’s location is wrong, or it’s on the same island Ash and Chloe and Red are on.
That’s why the unanswered calls trouble him so much. If Bluebird is on Yanok, he worries that something has happened to the others. He wants to go there right now and make sure they’re all right, but even if Gagnon answers, Pax and his people won’t be going anywhere soon.
A storm is moving in, and it’s a big one.
In a secret basement known as the Bunker, below the burning hulk of a building that was once called the Lodge, a teenage girl named Josie Ash sits alone in her room, her back against the wall.
Though there are others in the Bunker with her, she has never felt so isolated. Her thoughts run to her father, off on some unknown mission, and to her brother, trapped outside the Bunker where the killers are. She is supposed to be watching over him, taking care of him. She can do neither now.
Without realizing it, she begins to rock.
Then she realizes that while she isn’t asleep, a nightmare is exactly what this is.
Brandon Ash puts a hand against the cut on his cheek. He got it while he ran behind Mr. Hayes. It stings but it’s not too deep.
“We’ll wash it out once we get some water,” Mr. Hayes whispers.
Brandon nods. Water or no water, he’ll be fine.
He wonders how far they’ve gone into the woods. It can’t be too far. He can still hear the thumping of the helicopter, and thinks he can hear the crackling of the fire, too. He can’t, but it doesn’t matter.
They’d seen the blaze for a few minutes while they hid near the edge of the forest. Two blazes, really, because both the Lodge and the dormitory are on fire. Brandon worries the flames will reach the Bunker where his sister and the others are. More than once, Mr. Hayes tells him it’s impossible.
He hopes Mr. Hayes is right.
The coming storm has moved ashore on Yanok Island. Both wind and snow are fighting for dominance, though neither can claim victory.
Captain Daniel Ash knows nothing about the storm at this moment, but even if he does, he wouldn’t care. His focus is on the woman at the other side of the room.
Their eyes are locked. He knows what she is going to do. He wishes there were another way he could stop her, but there isn’t.
There is only one thing he can do. As he makes this decision, he sees in her eyes that she’s made hers, too.
Her finger is already in motion when he pulls the trigger.
