“Oh, yeah,” Josie muttered. “This one is a real doozie.”
“You’d better tell me then.”
“We had a visit from someone from the future.”
Steve snorted. “Of course, you did. And you know this how?”
“Because they told us so. I know, not very convincing, but believe me, we were convinced. There are other things that makeit a little more believable, but we’ll get into those later. For now, just accept—the world as we know it is going to end.”
Steve shook his head. They’d come to a stop at a red light, and he turned to look at her, his eyes narrowed. “I take it you have a plan?”
“Yes, but it’s a pretty crappy one and so far, it isn’t working out too well. The problem is we don’t know how, or exactly when, the world is going to end so there’s not much we can do to stop it. On the positive side—”
“There’s a positive side to all this?”
“Five percent of the population do survive. And those that do are all in Australia. So, we’re setting up a base there, complete with nuclear bunkers which are being built and stocked as we speak.”
“You can’t take everyone to Australia.”
“No, we can’t, and most people wouldn’t come any way. But the good news is—we can take you.”
“If you want to go,” Josie said.
He was silent for a moment, concentrating on driving. It was rush hour, and the roads were full of cars, black cabs, big red buses, all moving along, carrying on with ordinary life.
She stayed quiet as well; it was a lot for Steve to take in and at least he wasn’t screaming that they were all crazy. She thought about dipping into his mind but decided against it. Finding out that he thought they were all insane would not really help at this moment.
“Are you going to Australia?” Kaitlin realized he was asking Josie, and she waited for the answer.
“I’m not sure yet,” Josie said. “It depends.”
“On what?”
Josie was silent and Kaitlin decided—in her role as matchmaker—that she could legitimately butt in right now. “I suspect it depends on you, detective.”
He ran a hand through his already messy hair. She caught sight of his eyes in the rearview mirror, they looked a little wild. “I can’t just up and leave my job and everything I know. My family.”
“You can probably take them as well,” Kaitlin put in. “We all have people we want to save. And they usually have families. We’re making room for them.” Sadie had told them there would be space for a thousand in the bunkers. Supplies to last for five years in case of nuclear fallout. She didn’t even want to think about five years in a bunker. With the colonel. And Kane. She shuddered.
What would they do all that time?
No, she had to find a way to save the world. The alternative wasn’t an option.
“I’ll go, if you go,” Josie said.
“That’s a lot of pressure to put on a person,” Steve replied.
“Well, the end of the world can force you into a corner,” Kaitlin said. “But there’s no reason to make a decision right now.” At least she didn’t think there was a reason. Who knew? But they were expecting some sort of warning. And the time machine was still counting down. They had to presume it was something to do with the cataclysm.
“Just tell me what you’re doing to stop this thing.”
“Well, we need to know more about what causes the cataclysm. We believe the two guys who tried to take me on New Year’s Eve were working for some agents from the future—”
“Whoa, there. Back up a little. Why the hell would you think that?”
“Because we’ve met them before—or more likely some of their friends—and there were similarities.”
“That I’m guessing you won’t go into right now.”
