William looked as stunned as she. He held up his hand, examining his fingertips.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but you need to stay the hell back—”

Something smashed against the windows outside—a limb, or perhaps a piece of a nearby house. The howling was shockingly loud, and more debris began to crash outside.

He continued to look at his hands, his voice low. “That’s it. How I can stop Lily.”

He raised his head. “Give me your hand. You can stop this. We can stop this. People are going to die if we don’t—”

The battering against the window was so intense, even the hurricane-readied glass began to crack. The walls and floors shook.

William rushed forward and grabbed both her arms. She began to fight back, when she found she could not wrest her eyes from his. She was unable to even blink.

The glass shattered as the storm roared in.

THIRTEEN

The men in suits were waiting for her outside the Oval Office. They stood at attention as she exited, their director towering over them.

“Senator—”

Kate kept walking. “Give me a moment, Director Wolve,” she said, heading out into the hallway.

The Secret Service agents eyed them cautiously as they strode past. As they walked into the adjoining hallway, she stopped.

“The president made it clear we were to discuss this only in private. Is your car waiting?”

“It is,” he said.

As they brushed through the West Wing, one of the SSA agents quietly called to have the car pulled around. They went out a set of double doors to a private exit, where the Secret Service was sweeping their vehicle. Kate could hear the tapping of the director’s shoes as they waited for the nod of approval to enter.

As they slid into the backseat, he turned to her. “Is he on board?”

“He is frustrated, he is angry, he is not one hundred percent sold, but yes,” she said.

“How much does he know? You were only in there for an hour—”

“He is still poring over everything.”

“Should you have left—?”

“I would have loved to have stayed. But I have yet another crisis on my hands, thanks to the inability of your men to keep my mother safely protected.”

“I’ve already explained—”

“You were the one who convinced me that she was some sort of danger to people! I had my own mother practically arrested and quarantined—”

“As we’ve explained, if all of the abducted are being activated, then at some point, she will be too. You’ve seen what they can do. We have no idea what she is capable of doing.”

“And yet my little sister was able to lead a parade of reporters in and waltz her right out?”

He sighed, silencing his phone buzzing in his suit coat. “Frankly, we never anticipated what your sister had in store.”