Was he asking her to speak? She hesitated; Jake was their leader. Or Kane. But then she realized that she could do this. Sheshoulddo this.
She opened her mind to them all and felt the first stirring of something new. It was almost as though she could draw them to her, bind them together with her mind. Was this the Foci waking at last? Unfortunately, it was too late to do her any good today, so she ignored the feeling.
All of them turned her way…and she felt their love, their trust. She knew then that however much she was hurting; she could go on.
She took a deep breath. “As you all know, the agents from the Tel Group managed to steal the time machine. There are two things to take from this—they clearly knew how it worked, and their purpose, all along, was to get control of the machine. We can’t know for sure what their plan is, but I’m guessing they intend to detonate the bomb at the designated time and place.It could be to stop the cataclysm, but I personally believe it’s to start it. Or maybe for some other reason. But the cataclysm will still be a direct result.”
She looked around at their faces; they were all listening intently. Her gaze slid to Kane—all except him. He was gazing into space, clearly contemplating his own thoughts and failures.
She couldn’t deal with that right now. She had to look forward.
“So we can expect one great big bang on the 28th of February. Unfortunately, we don’t have the exact location right now. But we do know that it’s likely somewhere in North America, and that the only place that can sustain life after the cataclysm is southern Australia. So, what do you want to do next, people?”
“What do we think the chances are of stopping them?” Imogen asked.
“Non-existent,” Kane muttered from beside her.
“Not quite that bad,” Kaitlin said. “While we don’t know the exact place, we already have a lot of monitoring systems reporting into us. If anything out of the ordinary occurs, we will know. Likely, this is going to be something big. We can mobilize fast and hopefully be there to meet them.”
Kane snorted. “Not if it’s blowing up some sort of military facility, resulting in a nuclear retaliation. There will likely be no warning.”
“Kane. Shut the fuck up!”
He went stiff beside her, but he didn’t say another word. Jake grinned; he’d obviously picked up the interaction.
She sighed. “The chances aren’t good. But there is a chance. We can’t give up now. And on the positive side, there’s not a lot we can do at this point except monitor the situation. You all might as well do that from Australia, where you’ll be safe if we don’t get a location in time.”
“What areyougoing to do?” That was Josie putting her on the spot.
She hadn’t actually thought it through, but really there was nothing to think about. “I’m going to head back to London first. Say some goodbyes—” And offer a few people she knew and liked places in Australia if they wanted them. “—then I’m going to the States—probably New York—and hope that I can figure out where this is supposed to happen. And then I’m going to stop it.”
“You should go to Australia,” Kane said.
She turned to look at him. “Is that what you’re going to do?” She didn’t believe it for a moment.
“I might.”
“If I go, will you go?”she asked.
“Again—I might.”
She scowled. But left it at that.
Josie was talking quietly with Steve. She turned back to Kaitlin. “I think we’ll come back to London with you. Steve has some things he wants to clear up, some family to talk to, and then we’ll go to Australia.”
“Good.” She was glad. Josie deserved another chance at happiness.
Rose stood up. “Dave and I will come to New York with you, too. I’ve never been there. We might head to Australia later on, if we don’t find anything closer to the time. We don’t want to be martyrs, but we want to help if we can.”
“That’s great.” Kaitlin had quite expected to be alone, and it warmed her that Rose and Dave would be with her. “I don’t expect to have any more visits from the Tel Group, but who knows with time travel? It will be nice to have some backup.”
“We’ll come as well,” Imogen said, waving her hand to encompass Dexter, Stefan, Finn, Chase, Connor, and Ryder. “We love New York. There’s no reason we can’t have fun while we wait for the world to end.”
“Good.” She looked to Jake who was the only one not to answer. But she knew what he was going to say. He had different allegiances this time.
“We’re going to Australia,” he said. “I’d have come if you needed me, but you have plenty of friends.”
He was right, and for a moment, she felt all warm and fuzzy. It didn’t last.
