Sarah’s mind.”
“A Watcher?” A wave of disgust shot from Jeff’s mind to Richard’s. “You don’t think Sarah is our leak, even though someone’s possessing her mind. But you believe a Watcher is helping the center?”
“Someone who could relay the locations of other Watcher teams and even tonight’s mission details.”
“Someone on
our
team?”
One of the trusted comrades they’d served with for years, some of whom Richard and Jeff had personally trained and handpicked for command positions.
Richard didn’t want to believe it either. But there was a bone-deep truth to his suspicion. And he’d long ago learned to trust his ability to knit seemingly unconnected facts into unshakable reality before others could see the patterns. This wasn’t the time to second-guess his own gifts.
It was how, when he was just a boy, he’d known totrust the Brotherhood when his own legacy began spiraling out of control. It was how he’d known over a year ago that Sarah Temple’s mind was in play, based only on a routine Brotherhood status sweep of the family lines they’d tracked for generations. His reputation for alerting the elders when it was time to engage before a legacy’s principals were in play was unparalleled. So he’d been given unprecedented latitude to initiate, monitor, and control the dream testing performed on Sarah.
“You’re going to sell the council on one of our own working with the center?” Jeff asked. “That’s your reasoning for continuing to empower the Temple Legacy, instead of neutralizing it the way most Watchers think you should have a year ago?”
Richard swept his fingers across the touch screen, sending his data scattering. He pushed away from his desk and his feelings for Sarah—and his own growing suspicion that if he had to choose between protecting her and honoring the calling he’d sacrificed everything to follow, he’d save Sarah.
He forced objectivity into his memories of her nightmare and her lucid dream in Lenox. He analyzed and weighed possible alternatives and saw only what had been there. Felt only what the ocean’s murky depths had allowed Sarah to feel. He embraced only the facts that would help him save her and defend the psychic realm.
“Someone’s feeding information to the enemy,” he said, “and I’ve sensed nothing from Sarah that tells me she’s responsible. We have a mole positioned deeply within our order, and the clues to who that is and what the center’s planning are locked in Sarah’s mind. TheBrotherhood has to get back into her nightmare, not just to understand the consciousness Sarah’s labeled as Trinity. We have to identify who’s helping the center target our operations.”
He sensed his friend searching his thoughts for conflicting motives. Hidden agendas.
Jeff tapped his fingers across the screen, returning order to the chaos Richard had created. “The council may have already decided that you’re the weakness the center’s exploiting within the Brotherhood. And that the safest course of action is to return Sarah’s mind to a vegetative state, where she and your attachment to her are no longer a threat or a potential asset to anyone.”
“Then my job is to convince them that they’re being premature.” To honor his Watcher’s Creed while somehow protecting Sarah and her legacy at the same time.
“It’s going to be okay.” Maddie’s head lay cushioned on Jarred’s bare chest. “Once Metting lets me work with Sarah again, it will be okay.”
She wanted to lose herself in the soothing rhythm of Jarred’s breathing. He was alive. She and Sarah were alive. They were free of the center, even though Sarah had agreed to participate in an insane mission to their childhood home that had resulted in more than one of the Watcher team members returning injured. Even though Maddie still couldn’t feel her sister’s mind because Sarah had once again been whisked behind Metting’s dream-lab barriers, for tonight they
“A Watcher?” A wave of disgust shot from Jeff’s mind to Richard’s. “You don’t think Sarah is our leak, even though someone’s possessing her mind. But you believe a Watcher is helping the center?”
“Someone who could relay the locations of other Watcher teams and even tonight’s mission details.”
“Someone on
our
team?”
One of the trusted comrades they’d served with for years, some of whom Richard and Jeff had personally trained and handpicked for command positions.
Richard didn’t want to believe it either. But there was a bone-deep truth to his suspicion. And he’d long ago learned to trust his ability to knit seemingly unconnected facts into unshakable reality before others could see the patterns. This wasn’t the time to second-guess his own gifts.
It was how, when he was just a boy, he’d known totrust the Brotherhood when his own legacy began spiraling out of control. It was how he’d known over a year ago that Sarah Temple’s mind was in play, based only on a routine Brotherhood status sweep of the family lines they’d tracked for generations. His reputation for alerting the elders when it was time to engage before a legacy’s principals were in play was unparalleled. So he’d been given unprecedented latitude to initiate, monitor, and control the dream testing performed on Sarah.
“You’re going to sell the council on one of our own working with the center?” Jeff asked. “That’s your reasoning for continuing to empower the Temple Legacy, instead of neutralizing it the way most Watchers think you should have a year ago?”
Richard swept his fingers across the touch screen, sending his data scattering. He pushed away from his desk and his feelings for Sarah—and his own growing suspicion that if he had to choose between protecting her and honoring the calling he’d sacrificed everything to follow, he’d save Sarah.
He forced objectivity into his memories of her nightmare and her lucid dream in Lenox. He analyzed and weighed possible alternatives and saw only what had been there. Felt only what the ocean’s murky depths had allowed Sarah to feel. He embraced only the facts that would help him save her and defend the psychic realm.
“Someone’s feeding information to the enemy,” he said, “and I’ve sensed nothing from Sarah that tells me she’s responsible. We have a mole positioned deeply within our order, and the clues to who that is and what the center’s planning are locked in Sarah’s mind. TheBrotherhood has to get back into her nightmare, not just to understand the consciousness Sarah’s labeled as Trinity. We have to identify who’s helping the center target our operations.”
He sensed his friend searching his thoughts for conflicting motives. Hidden agendas.
Jeff tapped his fingers across the screen, returning order to the chaos Richard had created. “The council may have already decided that you’re the weakness the center’s exploiting within the Brotherhood. And that the safest course of action is to return Sarah’s mind to a vegetative state, where she and your attachment to her are no longer a threat or a potential asset to anyone.”
“Then my job is to convince them that they’re being premature.” To honor his Watcher’s Creed while somehow protecting Sarah and her legacy at the same time.
“It’s going to be okay.” Maddie’s head lay cushioned on Jarred’s bare chest. “Once Metting lets me work with Sarah again, it will be okay.”
She wanted to lose herself in the soothing rhythm of Jarred’s breathing. He was alive. She and Sarah were alive. They were free of the center, even though Sarah had agreed to participate in an insane mission to their childhood home that had resulted in more than one of the Watcher team members returning injured. Even though Maddie still couldn’t feel her sister’s mind because Sarah had once again been whisked behind Metting’s dream-lab barriers, for tonight they
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