“I’m thinking it’s at least possible.”

“Great.”

Finn shook his head slightly but said, “Okay, but what about you guys? He obviously went out of his way to—to use this gray time you’re talking about. Why invite you to the party?”

“You told us Aylia Blackwood had her vision of a killer stalking Salem on Sunday night.”

“That’s when she told me about it, yeah.”

Miranda lifted her brows at him.

“He knew?”

“We believe so. Word spread quickly—you told us that yourself. He had to guess you’d call Noah, and that he’d send a team in. He must have hoped that by giving Diana that very spooky visit to the gray time, she and Quentin would be the team sent. Neither of them is telepathic or empathic; he had a far better chance of hiding himself from them, at least from their abilities. He thought.”

Hollis half raised her hand, as if to ask a question, then dropped it and muttered, “Oh, crap.”

Bishop was smiling slightly as he looked at her.

She eyed him, then sighed and looked at Diana. “Dammit. I did get pulled in.”

“What?” Diana frowned, then realized. “When I opened the door? But Daniel said we were both needed here.”

“I’m guessing he was adjusting his plan once I popped in. Maybe why he showed us all those walking dead in living color. To shake us up. Me up. And I doubt he knew how powerful Reese is, if he even knew anything about him at all.”

Before anything more could be said about that, Bishop looked at Finn and asked, “Are your people deployed?”

“Yeah. All around the Dryden place, as instructed. It’s fairly isolated, farther out in the valley, and there’s plenty of cover. It’s a small farm, basically supplies the family with most of their food. No movement inside, but Daniel’s Jeep is there.”

Bishop started to speak, then turned his head sharply and looked at Hollis. She was very still, looking ahead of her with eyes narrowed as though gazing into a great distance.

“Hollis?”

Softly, she said, “Just woke up. She just woke up. She’s confused and her head hurts. And she’s afraid.”

“Who, Hollis?”

She was still a moment longer, then caught her breath. “Aylia. Aylia Blackwood. He’s got her.”

—

THEY LEFT THEIR SUV and Finn’s Jeep some distance from the small house and moved silently, armed and wearing vests, toward it. Nellie had stopped protesting that there was any reason for her to be here, even though it had taken all the persuasion she had to convince Leo to remain in the Jeep.

“What if he gets out?” she whispered to Finn.

“He won’t. You convinced him. And I locked him in.”

“He’s a Pit bull,” she said witheringly. “If he wants out, he’s coming out.”

Finn smiled faintly. “He’ll be fine, Nellie. And you stick close. I know you can take care of yourself, but still.”

“I’m not calling down a storm,” she warned, glancing up uneasily at the heavy gray clouds promising snow.