Kay Hooper - Blood Sins

"Damn," Quentin said blankly. "I mean damn , Hollis. Thank the universe for that new ability and the will to survive."

"Yeah. I really did."

Tessa shook her head wonderingly, then looked at Sawyer. "Speaking of the will to survive, what's going to happen to Ruby?"

"I don't know. Her mother and so many of the others seem almost catatonic now. I wonder if, in the end, Samuel will have as many living victims as dead ones."

"Bailey will do what she can up there," Bishop said. "The guardians in the SCU are, among other things, psychologists or counselors. And we have others on the team who can help."

"Can they?" Tessa asked steadily.

"Some. I don't know how much, to be honest. Samuel was a wholly destructive force."

"Will he destroy Bambi?"

It was Sawyer who answered, with a faint grimace. "If Senator LeMott buys her the best defense money can buy, I doubt she'll spend a day in prison. The bastard was abusive, and most of his followers look and sound dazed at best and brainwashed at worst. Hell, I didn't want to have to put her in my jail. Even if I did see her kill him with my own eyes, I'd defend her in court."

"I think we all would," Bishop said. "Even Reese."

"How long will he stay at the Compound?" Hollis asked.

"Probably not long, if I know him. He'll make sure there's someone to run things up there, assuming the congregation wants to continue. He and Galen will make certain all the evidence Tessa found is collected. Not that we need it for a prosecution, but perhaps for Bambi's defense. And to tie up a few loose ends for us."

"You know," Quentin said, "we still have a few unanswered questions." He realized he was being stared at, and qualified, "Even more than usual, I mean. Like, who was Andrea, our spirit who told Hollis where Ruby could be found?"

"Why did Samuel have an obsession about buying up mostly worthless property?" Hollis added. "And did he really intend to destroy the world?"

Tessa joined in. "How was Bambi able to hide her true intentions from Samuel? She didn't read as psychic, and her mind seemed to be an open book."

Bishop had an answer for that one. "It was because she wasn't psychic, ironically. He'll never admit it on the record, but Senator LeMott had her hypnotized, and planted very deeply and very carefully some post-hypnotic suggestions. That word he used out there today, 'viper'? That was the trigger, what activated the order to kill. Until that moment, even Bambi wasn't conscious of what she was going to do. Because she wasn't conscious of it, Samuel didn't read it."

Quentin said, "I thought a person couldn't be hypnotized to do something as drastic as killing against their will."

"They can't, according to all the research." Bishop shrugged. "LeMott found himself someone entirely willing to kill. For a price."

"The female of the species," Quentin said, adding a hasty, "Present company excepted, obviously."

Sawyer said, "Do my questions count? Because I've got a lot of 'em, beginning with why all my officers act like they're finally awake and ending with the significance of that medallion DeMarco said Sarah Warren had on her when she was killed."

"I can only answer the ones about Haven," Tessa told him. "And probably not all of those. But the medallion is something we all carry when we're on assignment."

"It's a start," the chief said with a sigh.

Slowly, Bishop said, "What I really want to know is, who told the Director that Galen was shot and killed?"

Abruptly serious, Quentin said, "Only three witnesses were there that night. We both know it wasn't Reese."

Bishop nodded. "Which leaves the two church members he was withCarl Fisk and Brian Seymour."

"Funny thing," Quentin said. "Brian Seymour hasn't been seen since his last shift in the security control room late last night."

"So was he working for the Director?" Sawyer wondered out loud. "Or for somebody else who wanted to keep an eye on the SCU? Just many enemies do you have, Bishop?"

"At least one more than I need," Bishop answered. "And that's the one I'm going to have to find."

Kay Hooper, who has more than six million copies of her books in print worldwide, has won numerous awards and high praise for her novels. Kay lives in North Carolina, where she is currently working on her next novel.