“I’ve never told anyone, though I think my parents knew.”She stopped and frowned, then shook her head as if shaking away a distracting thought.She tried again.“I never thought anyone would believe me.”
“What won’t we believe?”Mel’s tone was mild, but with a core of firm.
“I can tell when something isn’t right.”
Mel blinked.“I don’t…”
Rita shook her head, interrupting Mel.“Not right and wrong in the moral sense, though I hope I have that, too.I can see whentimeis wrong.”For the first time she broke away from Mel’s gaze, pushing her hands into her hair.“It’s more than that, really.I can tell when something is dangerous to time and I can feel when something I do reduces the danger.”
Now she looked between Con and Mel, giving a hopeless shrug.
“I know it sounds crazy.”She waited and when they didn’t speak, “I see it and feel it.When I saw those two agents back in Roswell, I felt danger.I should have activated my recall, but that felt wrong, too, and somehow even more dangerous.So I asked Con for help.”This shrug was both helpless, hopeless.
“So when you were sent on all these missions, did they feel wrong?”
Rita finally looked up and frowned.“Not wrong.Odd.But it was nice to get out on my own.Only…I don’t think I was alone.I thought maybe they were testing me, but they were setting me up, weren’t they?”
Mel stared at her for a long moment, then said, “I think so.”She frowned.“Could they have figured out your special ability?”
Rita’s eyes widened.“I don’t know how.”
“You never felt that sense of danger during any of your missions or around anyone?”
“I didn’t like John—well, at first I thought it was amazing that he was training me because he was the top agent.But he wasn’t someone you liked.”
“When did your feelings start to change?”
Con thought Rita had forgotten she was still hooked up to the machine.She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the metal edge.
“It didn’t take long, and it was a relief when he left.He always wore dark glasses so I couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but I never felt like he…approved of me?”She made it a question.“I’m not sure what it was, but it wasn’t comfortable.I felt awkward and stupid around him.”
“Well, you aren’t stupid,” Mel said dryly.
Rita’s eyes widened.“Thank you?”She didn’t sound sure it was a compliment.Con wasn’t sure either.
Mel sat back, but if she’d come to a decision, she didn’t share it.
“We’ll need to think about all this,” she gestured vaguely toward the polygraph.“We’ll get you set up in a room.It will be in a section with a Faraday Cage, I’m assuming you know what that is?”
Rita nodded, her face showing relief.
Mel leaned forward and began detaching the sensors.“Let’s get you settled in then.”
At first Con felt relief, but this was quickly followed up by the realization that nothing had really been settled.Not until they figured out what to do next.
Chapter11
Stella looked at the torn and wet pieces of paper collected from the grave of Alastor’s daughter.The writing had blurred to the point of being unreadable, but since she’d written it, that didn’t matter.
What mattered was which envelope he’d read.She added the date and location to a very special map that only she had access to.
How ironic that it was a system that Alastor had designed.
She leaned back, considering.He had to know she’d use it against him.His confidence might be annoying, if justified.So far he’d done a good job of hiding.He was always long gone by the time facial recognition found him—and that had only worked in few rare instances.
She rose abruptly and began to slowly pace back and forth in front of her desk, mentally examining every professional interaction she’d had with him.The personal ones were no use to her, since they’d been designed to manipulate her.
And being angry was not conducive to clear thought.
