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“She was one of the Diviners created by Project Buffalo,” Evie said, excited. “I read her chart.”
Sister Walker frowned. “I don’t remember her. But she could have been one of Rotke’s, or someone else’s in the department. What else did you get from her chart?”
“She was a little younger than we are. She’d be about fifteen now. Yes, I remember! According to the notes, she had an imaginary friend.” Evie’s eyes widened. “A man in a stovepipe hat.”
“That don’t sound like a good thing to me,” Bill cautioned.
“Sarah Beth said he lied to her. That somebody named Miriam told her the truth,” Isaiah said.
“Sam’s mother!” Evie said.
“Gee, how would she know about Sam’s mother unless she was on the up-and-up?” Theta asked.
Evie frowned. “There was something written at the bottom of Sarah Beth’s chart. A recommendation that they not continue. Why would they say that?”
Sister Walker shook her head. “I don’t know. Maybe her powers were too strong. Maybe they frightened someone.”
“I thought that’s what your bosses wanted—to make us into weapons,” Henry said.
“They saw you as weapons. But for those of us doing the work in the Department of Paranormal, it was apparent that there was so much more to explore—the potential to create something new. Something that could connect us to the infinite and unseen. Something just outside our grasp.”
“We still don’t know what we’re capable of. We know we can create an energy field and disturb matter, possibly even change its atomic structure,” Ling said, ever the scientist. “But is that it? Is there more?”
“There has to be. I think we’ve barely scratched the surface,” Sister Walker said. “Give me a chance to work with you, and we can find out just how strong you are together. We could still unlock wonders.”
“But do you know that?” Jericho asked. “I saw what happened to the men of the Daedalus program. They got stronger, and then they weakened, went mad. They were on Marlowe’s serum—the serum you all developed to make Diviners.” The serum that had been flowing through Jericho’s body for ten years. The serum he was now without. Jericho shoved his hands in his pockets and squeezed his fingers tight, making fists.
Ling looked concerned. “Will we get weaker over time the more we use our power? Will it make us vulnerable to the King of Crows and his dead? Are there consequences we don’t know about?”
“I told you, Sarah Beth can help us!” Isaiah tried again. “She knows how to stop him. And she sure seemed scared of him. She’s all alone out there.”
“Is there a way to stop the King of Crows that doesn’t put us in Nebraska?” Theta asked. “You ever been to Nebraska? It’s a real flat tire.”
Henry snugged his arm across Theta’s shoulders, smiling. “On the bright side, it’s all the corn you can eat.”
“You’re not listening to me!” Isaiah shouted.
“Easy, Little Man,” Bill warned.
But Isaiah didn’t want to be easy. He wanted to be heard. “Sarah Beth said we’re not safe on our own. We’re in danger. We need to go to Bountiful!”
“Did she say how we can stop the King of Crows?” Ling asked.
“No. She said we have to get to Bountiful first. That we all have to be together for it to work. She saved us from a ghost in the tunnel!”
That got everybody arguing again till the room was like sitting ringside at a boxing match, everybody talking at once, shouting one another down, until Madame Seraphina let loose with a sharp whistle that hurt Isaiah’s ears.
“I won’t have this bad energy in my house,” she said firmly.
“I think we should go to Bountiful,” Evie said.
“Evie, you don’t know anything about this girl,” Sister Walker cautioned.
“Nor do you!”
“Let me work with all of you, strengthen your powers—”
“I’m not going to Bountiful,” Ling said. “I have to help my parents with the restaurant. Some of us have responsibilities.”
