Alex nodded without comment. But Jesus, if this was for real...then it was the answer to all their prayers. It also meant that if Willow hadn’t survived, her death had been for nothing. He shoved the thought away before it could drown him.

“And I’ll be there too, Sunday,” added Sophie. She stubbed out her cigarette, grinding it against the concrete wall. “I’ll meet you in the lobby of the Torre Mayor before you go up, and do whatever I can to help.”

“Wow, really? You mean you’re not going to get whisked off to a safe location this time?”

Sophie’s expression didn’t change. “No, not this time. Here.” There was a jingling sound as she pulled the 4 x 4’s keys from her bag and handed them to him. “My hotel’s just a few blocks away – you can drop me off in the truck and get your team back home. Keep it until after the attack; I only rented it in case I found you all.”

Alex accepted the keys; as his fingers closed over them, he thought of something else. “Where’s Willow’s mother? Have you got her someplace where she’s protected?”

Sophie’s brown eyebrows shot up. “Have I what? Alex, didn’t you see on the news? Willow’s mother and aunt were killed in an arson attack, the night of the Second Wave.”

“But I thought...” Alex stared at her in the dim light. “You mean that wasn’t staged?”

“Not by me,” she replied, zipping her bag shut. “I’ve hardly had any resources since the Second Wave; I’ve been working on my own. To pull off something of that scale would be totally beyond me.” She glanced at him. “Why? Is there reason to believe it was staged?”

“No, I guess not,” said Alex after a pause. He had no idea what this meant, but wasn’t about to go into the details of it with Sophie. At least Willow had been able to sense that her mother was okay, wherever she was.

They made the short journey in silence, with Alex driving this time. The team sat quietly, their expressions carefully neutral in the rear-view mirror, though he knew they must be dying to hear what had been said. When they pulled up in front of Sophie’s hotel, she cleared her throat. “I added something else to that memory stick too,” she said. “A sort of proposal for you. Hopefully we won’t need it after the attack, but it’s what I’ve been working on since the Second Wave. Anyway, see what you think.”

“All right,” said Alex, keeping his tone non-committal. “So we’ll see you Sunday, I guess.”