“Anything else?” he prompted, opening his eyes.
“They told me to chase after my umbrella, that it was the only way to help you.”
“A reasonable thing to say and do.”
“Then it was like they could speak to my umbrella as well.” Pansy shifted and pulled her umbrella closer. “She almost went into the river. I thought I was going to lose her.”
“But you didn’t,” he soothed. Even so, his heart thumped in response, and he clutched his own umbrella closer as well. It trembled in his grip as if it, too, were imagining the scenario.
“This has never happened before,” she added.
“Hearing voices?”
“Hearing them like that, yes. But also, this.” She waved a lazy hand in the air. “I’ve never seen the Screamers do this before.”
Most likely because King’s End was—officially, at least—a level one hot spot. Screamers only manifested extreme weather in a level five hot spot. But that was something to investigate later.
“Also?” she said now. “I take back everything I thought about your hat.”
He laughed again. “Yes, it’s more than a mere affectation.”
“But it’s absolutely that as well.”
“Perhaps,” he conceded. “But a fairly marvelous one.”
Around them, King’s End was coming back to life. Children shrieked with delight, their footfalls pounding on the play structure. Chatter rose from the farmers market. The sun was approaching that golden hour glow, and Henry could almost ignore the reason they were lounging here on the green.
Almost.
“When we arrive home, I’d like permission to download the data from your umbrella.”
“Of course.”
“And I’d like to make a small adjustment. I want to hold off sending anything significant to headquarters.” He paused, considered how to phrase this next thought. “For the short term. Until we have a better sense of what happened in the past and what’s happening now here in King’s End.”
“Something’s happening now?”
Abductions? A possible level five hot spot? Henry doubted the list ended there. “Your mother, for one,” he said. “And today. Not normal for King’s End, correct?”
“Not normal.” She exhaled. “But at the same time? Not all that surprising. King’s End is different.”
“I’d like to figure out why, and I’d like to do it with minimal interference.” True, he’d have to placate Botten with a few check-in calls, invent some sort of faux mentoring curriculum, as if the woman at his side needed remedial training.
“All right.” Another exhale, this one filled with relief. “I agree.”
“There’s an override in case anything catastrophic happens. Automatically notifies HQ and triggers a response team.”
“Good to know.”
“I rather hope it won’t come to that.”
Pansy rolled, hair slipping from his fingers. She peered at him now, eyes bright with mischief. She pinned him in place with that gaze. He couldn’t move even if he wanted to.
And Henry didn’t want to.
She gave him a conspiratorial smile. “We’ll just have to make sure it doesn’t.”
Chapter 30
