“We were driving back here,” Steve said. “There was a diversion. I didn’t like it—I knew something wasn’t right—but there was nothing I could do. They boxed us in, then a van hit us in the side. We couldn’t get out.”
“Before it happened, did Kaitlin say anything?” Rose asked. “Give any indication she was in…pain?”
“No. Nothing.”
“She was wearing a reflector device at that point,” Janelle said.
Rose frowned. “Then presumably they must have found her earlier but waited. And they must have known she’d pick them up, so they stayed out of her head. Maybe they even knew we were trailing her. Shit. They’re on to us.”
“Go on,” Kane urged.
Steve frowned. “There’s not much more I can tell you. A man got out of the van.”
“What did he look like?” Kane asked.
He frowned. “Like you lot. He was tall with black hair.”
“It’s them,” Rose said.
“Who’s them? Are you talking about the people from the future?”
“Just how much does he know?” Kane asked.
“Josie and Kaitlin told me. Just before the crash. About the cataclysm.”
“Jesus.” Kane ran a hand through his hair. “What happened next?”
“They wrenched open the door, and something hit me. I thought I’d been shot, but obviously, that wasn’t the case. Anyway, it knocked me out, and I didn’t see anything else until Rose pulled me out of there.”
“It could only have been minutes later,” Rose said. “But the van was long gone.”
“Did you get the number?” Kane asked.
“Yeah. I wrote it down.” He pulled a notebook out of his pocket and tossed it to Kane. “I’d run it through the police databases, but I’m guessing you’ve probably got something better.”
“I’ll get it to Ethan,” Rose said. “I doubt they’ll find anything useful, but he can get the CCTV feeds from the traffic cams around the area. We might get some idea what direction they’ve gone in. It will give us somewhere to start anyway.”
Jesus. They had to find her. They could be torturing her right now. He should never have let her go through with this. Or he should have been here to protect her.
“It’s not your fault,” Janelle said.
“Of course, it’s my fucking fault. I should have protected her.”
“Not your job. Well, not any more than it’s any of ours. We all underestimated them.”
Kane pressed a finger to his forehead. “And Kaitlin is paying for that mistake.”
“And Josie,” Rose said. “Christ, we’d better let Sadie know.”
“What happens now?” Steve asked. “How do we get them back?”
Kane blew out his breath and cleared his mind. Thinking about what could be happening to Kaitlin would not help. And truthfully, there was no reason for the agents to hurt her physically. They didn’t need to; they could just go straight into her mind and get the information they wanted. Though that probably wouldn’t be without pain. There always seemed to be pain when they pushed inside. But hopefully, no permanent damage. There was no doubt that they would get access to everything in her head. That had far-reaching implications. He couldn’t worry about that now—except for letting the others know they were compromised.
Most important right now was finding Kaitlin and Josie and getting them back unharmed. These people were ruthless…though they hadn’t killed Steve. Likely they hadn’t wanted to risk killing Kaitlin and so their weapons had been set to stun.
“First, we need to contact Ethan, get him looking into the vehicle—anything he can find. Also get him to arrange a plane. If we find them, we’ll need to leave here immediately.”
“I’ll do that,” Rose said.
