Diana said, “Poor Megan. She was upset about Paul and turned to the one man who had done nothing but admire her since her teens. At least that was what she believed. All she really wanted was a little comfort, a little solace. She didn’t bargain on an obsession that would get her killed.”

Hollis said, “Nobody ever does.”

DeMarco eyed her, but all he said, to Bishop, was, “What was that he said about the gadget he rigged to control the air into Simon’s would-be coffin?”

“That he found it on the Internet.”

Hollis covered another yawn and said, also to Bishop, “You need to do something about that.”

“About the Internet?”

“Yeah.”

“Such as?”

“I dunno.” She lifted a hand and sort of wiggled her fingers. “Do your Yoda stuff.”

“I believe it’s been said that the Internet is forever,” he told her politely.

“All the more reason,” Hollis returned. “You don’t want to destroy my faith in you, now, do you?”

“I would certainly hate to do that.”

“And it causes us a lot of problems, you know that. The Internet. An information superhighway for the bad guys.”

“And for the rest of us.”

“Yeah. Maybe a special pass or something.”

“For the rest of us?”

“Why not? So we can use the Internet and the bad guys can’t. You can do that. You’re good with secret stuff.”

“Hollis, I can’t control the Internet.”

“Have you ever tried?”

He stared at her, brows raised.

“Sleep on it. I’m sure you’ll come up with something.”

Bishop looked around at all the smiles and said dryly, “Don’t encourage her.”

Leo rested his chin on Nellie’s knee and listened drowsily to chuckles from the humans. He knew them well enough to understand a release of tension. Still, they were very curious creatures.

Very curious indeed.

CHARACTER BIOS

HOLLIS TEMPLETON—FBI SPECIAL CRIMES UNIT

A slight woman of medium height, she has regular features that become memorable when animated, and extremely unusual and striking blue eyes that make her face unforgettable. Brown hair worn in a short, no-fuss style.

Job: Special Agent, profiler.

Adept: Her primary ability is as a medium, and she’s the most powerful medium in the unit, but Hollis is unique in several ways, not the least because she has, from case to case, awakened or even created numerous other psychic abilities, more than any psychic in the SCU or Haven, more than any psychic Bishop has ever known. And those abilities tend to be full-blown almost immediately, though never perfectly under her control.

One theory that could explain Hollis’s numerous abilities could be the extreme trauma of her psychic awakening (see Touching Evil), which was the most horrific and brutal on record. But other agents in the SCU and operatives in Haven have suffered extremely traumatic psychic awakenings without continually gaining new abilities as Hollis has.

She is unique within an extraordinary group of unique people.

In addition to being a medium, she is able to see auras, heal herself and others, and recognize true evil no matter how it attempts to hide itself; she possesses the ability to sense, define, channel, and use sheer energy, even dark energy, without being harmed by it; and most recently she has awakened or created an extraordinarily strong ability as an empath. She may also be clairvoyant, though she and Bishop disagree about it. And she consistently tests at the higher, more powerful end of the scale the SCU has developed to measure psychic abilities—with every new ability gained.