Chapter Two

QUINN

Blackness surrounded us and kept us safe as we drove down the dark highway. We sped away from a place that had never felt like home. I drove while my father slept. He would take the second shift. I wondered where we would go. It didn't matter as long as we remained hidden.

When I noticed the car behind me, I initially dismissed it. As it crept closer yet never passed us, I felt terror creeping up on me. Had the Sons of the Heavenly Father followed us? I hadn't imagined that possibility. What if someone had been watching our house? Would they do that?

I had the impression that the Sons of the Heavenly Father, although murderous, were a bunch of dumb, unsophisticated hicks with poor organization. In my mind, only a bunch of rednecks and bullies would go around burning people in this day and age.

If they had followed us, it meant there were some people in their organization that had brains and were able to use them. They were more than typical bullies. They were intelligent, coordinated bullies.

I hoped the car was an elderly grandma that didn't want to pass us at night, but my idealistic dream didn't ring true. I knew it was them. Sometimes I have hunches that seem like something more, and they're usually right. I've learned to listen to my gut. Dad calls it my 'sick sense'. He has an odd sense of humor.

If it was them, I needed to decide where to go immediately. I shouldn't go to an isolated location. I should drive us to a mall or some other place with lots of people. That should keep me safe. They were known to get their victims alone to hurt or kill them. None of the reported attacks had any witnesses — at least, none left alive to tell their tale.

I sped up and frowned at my rear-view mirror when the car behind us kept pace. Damn. My father snoozed on, and I debated whether to wake him or not. I decided to wait a little longer. When I turned off the road, I would know if the car was following us. I didn't need Dad's advice for that. I also didn't want to say my fear out loud because that would make my terror real.

I passed a sign that said the next town was ten miles away, and I drove on. My hands gripped the wheel so tightly my fingers started to ache. When we drove through the town, I realized it was too small a place to turn or stop because the sleepy village was already closed for the night. It was only eight o'clock, but nothing was open.

I needed to continue until I hit a big city, and find a place where people were awake and businesses were open. The next half hour passed slowly. Our pursuers remained behind us. I still nursed a faint hope. Any number of people could be going to the city. It was the only one in the area, and all the communities shopped there for items they couldn't get at home. It wasn't unreasonable to think someone else was going there and not pursuing me.

The problem was the dreadful feeling in my guts. It told me that something was very wrong.

When we arrived at the city, Dad finally woke up. "Quinn?" he said, yawning and stretching his arms. "Where are we?"

"We're in the city already. I'm afraid that someone might be following us."

He turned around. "It's the black car," I said, praying that I was wrong.

"What do you think we should do?"

"I thought that we should go somewhere to hide in a crowd."

"Quinn, if that's the Sons of the Heavenly Father, why do you think they're following us?"

"To kill me," I whispered.

"We need to go to the police immediately. There's no need to risk your life."

I glanced over at him and then back at the road. "You're right."

He found the nearest police station and sent the coordinates to the car. I put it on autopilot, and it proceeded to get us there in a few minutes. There was nowhere to park on the front side of the building, where civilians were allowed to enter. Maybe there was a staff entrance in the rear next to the parking lot.

"I'll drop you off. You run into the building," Dad said. "They're not that close to us. You'll have time to get in. Don't stop until you're safely inside."

"Okay," I said, pulling over. As soon as the car stopped, I jumped out and moved towards the door of the police station. It had no windows — probably to keep them from being broken all the time in a seedy neighborhood like this one. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the black car pulling up behind us. The window opened, and I raced for the door. I reached the steps and scrambled up as quickly as I could.

As I reached for the handle of the door, I felt something sting my neck. I put my hand up to feel a dart embedded in my skin. Pain shot through my neck, and it started swelling immediately. I looked around and saw shadowy figures running toward me. I tried to move. My legs weren't responding to my brain. Then my legs collapsed, and I felt myself falling. Before I hit the ground, I was out.

AIRIK

I sat up in bed. Sweat rolled down my face. My eyes were open, but I didn't see the world around me. I was having a Precog.

As soon as I realized what was happening, my training kicked in automatically.

"Precog," I said. My computer beeped and began recording my speech, as well as my brainwaves and other vital signs. Saying the keyword also alerted the ground crew back at headquarters. The team worked continuously to record and interpret our visions.

I began to describe what I was seeing. It took Precogs a lot of training before we could speak while having a vision. After ten years of working for the Precog Division and recording over a thousand visions, I had the hang of it.

"Someone's following me," I said. "I'm in a vehicle."

"Which planet are you on?" came the familiar voice of Miroll, my regular Recorder.

"I don't know. The car is driving itself. Does that help?"

"Did you say car?"

"Yes, it's a car," I said, feeling mildly annoyed.

"Continue to monitor your surroundings for signs of the location," Miroll's calm voice instructed me through the communications unit I wore behind my ear. "What else do you see?"

"It's night. I'm scared."

"Are you male or female?"

I glanced down at my hands and clothes. I had breasts. There were some things about being a Precog I would never think were normal.

"Female," I said.

"Why are they following you?" she asked gently.

"I don't know. I think someone wants to hurt me."

"Hurt you how?"

"I'm not sure. This sounds ridiculous, but I think they want to burn me."

Miroll continued with her quiet questions. She asked me what I could see and what was happening. She wanted to know the colors, sights, smells, and sounds. Recorders were trained to get as many pertinent details out of Precogs as possible before the vision ended.

"She's important, Miroll."

"Please estimate on a scale of one to ten." We were taught to give the importance of the person in a vision a number.

"Eleven," I said immediately. I could sense Miroll's surprise. "Wait. There's a road sign coming up," I said. As it got closer, I inspected it. The writing was in an unfamiliar language to me. Fortunately, the words were not unfamiliar to this woman's body, and I could understand them in the vision. "Or-land-oh? Ten miles," I said, repeating it aloud.

"Spelling please," Miroll's gentle voice requested.

"O-r-l-a-n-d-o. It's sweltering here, Miroll."

"Yes, you've said that..." There was a pause as she counted under her breath. "Five times, sir."

They were going to a police station. She was traveling with a man, and she was afraid of the people in the car behind her.

I felt the woman jump out of the car and sprint for the doors of the police station. Something pinched her neck, and I felt her pass out.

"She's unconscious," I said.

"How did that happen?" Miroll asked, sounding surprised.

In real life, I heard a noise. I crashed back into reality as my girlfriend, Sornalee, walked into my room.

"Hey babe, why are you still awake?" Her voice trailed off when I glared at her. "Were you working?"

She had the grace to look like she was sorry. Being sorry wouldn't bring back the scene in my mind. I hadn't found out why she fell unconscious. The woman might die if we didn't do anything, but now I had no way to learn how she would be knocked out.

"When I receive a Precog, a light activates on my door. That means that you can't come in, Sornalee."

"I know, Airik, I know. I forgot to look."

"I was having a Precog about an important person in a dangerous situation. You interrupted before I could get enough information to save them."

"Oh no." She put a perfectly manicured hand up to her lips. Sornalee was the picture of dismay, but I sensed she was annoyed.

I completed my call with Miroll, but there wasn't much more to say. My vision was gone. Sornalee got into bed with me, but neither one of us could sleep.

When I asked Sornalee to move in, it seemed like it would be perfect. We had been dating for over a year and a half. I thought I knew her. She understood the difficulties and challenges of my job. She was tall, blonde and loved sex. What could go wrong?

As it turned out, everything could go wrong. After a few weeks of living together I realized I had made a terrible mistake with Sornalee. She was terrific in small doses, but I couldn't stand to be around her all the time. Before, I could go home when she started annoying me, or I could hang up the phone, and she vanished in an instant. I could ask her to leave if I needed to work.

Not anymore. Sornalee was a constant presence in my life. She rarely left because she didn't have a job. Her father was independently wealthy. She had a trust fund in her name that provided her with more than enough to survive.

I don't know what she did all day, but she was always home when I needed a break, except for girl's night out. I needed to end this and tell her to move out. I couldn't believe I had been ready to ask her to marry me. That would have been a nightmare - being saddled with her for the rest of my life.

"Sornalee, you know I care about you."

She frowned. "I don't like how this conversation is starting. You're not breaking up with me, are you?"

"I'm afraid we're not working out," I said, shaking my head.

"Is this because I walked in on one of your stupid visions?" she said. "What a waste of time. I can't believe I went out with you. Now I only have six months to find a life partner, thanks to you, Airik. You bastard."

"I was going to ask you to marry me, but I just feel like it would be a big mistake."

"Did you foresee that?" she spat out sarcastically.

I tried to remain calm. "I don't need a vision to tell me the future of our relationship. Do you think we have problems?"

"Of course we do, but I wish you had broken up with me earlier. We're both so close to The Akuna. Now I have to go looking for a mate all over again. It's a pain."

I gazed at her compassionately, wondering how I had ever thought that she and I might be a good match. She was right, though. We were both getting uncomfortably close to The Akuna.

"Sornalee, you're exaggerating. You have at least half a year still. You know there's a two-year minimum for people to choose their life partners. That gives you two years and six months."

"I know," she said, her eyes tearing up a little. "But I have always dreamed of getting married on my Akuna. You know? Like in the story books?"

I sighed.

"I'm sorry, Sorna. I really am."

"So am I," she said, not looking angry anymore. "I'll have a hard time finding a life partner who's as good looking as you are, Airik."

"And as rich," I added as a joke. She took it seriously.

"That too."

I shook my head. Good thing I dodged that bullet. What had I been thinking?

I walked into a large room filled with Recorders. The area was a disorganized mess. They sat, stood, walked on treadmills, or wandered randomly at will, all while extracting necessary information from their assigned Precogs. I spotted Miroll in a corner throwing a ball against the wall as she talked to another of her Precogs.

I made my way over to her. Recorders who caught my eye waved to me. I waved back and smiled at them though this level of interaction wasn't necessary for someone of my rank.

I rubbed my third eye, which tingled. For thousands of years, the spot had been recognized in spirituality as a place of great significance in the body. We now knew better. The cortex of intuition and precognition — the part of the brain directly beneath the third eye on the forehead — could receive visions of the future.

As I walked to her, Miroll held up one finger, and I patiently waited for her to finish. After a few minutes, she pressed the communications unit behind her ear.

"Hello, Director Buhari. What happened to the Precog?" she asked. I rolled my eyes, still irritated that I had not received the complete vision.

"My girlfriend walked in and startled me out of it, Miroll."

"Oh," she said, looking uncomfortable.

Too much information, I supposed. Being the Director of the Precog Division was a great honor and something I had been striving for my whole life, but it also kept me apart from my people. The separation wasn't something I had anticipated or desired. I pushed my personal thoughts out of my head and focused on the vision.

"Did you pinpoint the location yet?"

She nodded, tapping her temple. I knew she was activating her personal computation device. It was an ocular implant used by knowledge workers, allowing her to see a computer screen and access information from huge mainframe computers, all private to her line of sight. She stared at something I couldn't see for a moment and blinked a few times.

"Here it is," she said. "It's on Earth." She looked at me in dismay.

"Earth?" I couldn't believe it.

The planet was one of the most backward and economically disadvantaged in the galaxy. Most civilized species ignored the humans. If we deigned to notice them, it was usually because some do-gooder decided they needed charity or one of them broke a law.

I didn't know why they were allowed to join the Union. Their civilization was barely ready for interstellar contact. In my opinion, they had pockets of social unrest that should have prevented their acceptance. That planet had problems to fix.

"Earth," she confirmed. "Director, have you ever had a vision of someone off-planet before?"

I shook my head. "Never."

"You ranked her significance at eleven?"

"I did at the time. I'm not sure anymore."

"Let's debrief you and see if we can find out more about this Earther."

"Okay," I said. We walked through the buzzing room, and Miroll pulled out a debriefing checklist, a bunch of questions designed to draw out more information about a Precog vision.

"When you think about the woman, the subject of your vision, how do you feel?" Miroll asked.

It was a standard question. I closed my eyes, trying to recapture the feeling of the Precog. When I opened my eyes, I felt my skin heating up, and I was thankful for my dark skin that hid my blush.

"Director?" Miroll said, confused by my hesitation. She repeated the question. "When you think about her, how do you feel?"

I thought momentarily about lying. Most Recorders were empaths, so there was no point in concealing the truth. She would know. It didn't matter whether she called me on it right now or not. She would have to note it on my file. In any event, my integrity was important to me. I would never jeopardize it by lying to prevent a momentary embarrassment in front of my Recorder.

I looked away from her and recited my feelings quickly.

"Love, happiness, and…" I hesitated. This was ridiculous. "Desire."

"Noted." That was the only thing she said, but when I glanced at her, she gave me a speculative gaze. "I will send you a full report in the morning, Director Buhari."

"Thank you, Miroll. Long life."

"Long life, Director."

When I looked back at her, she was reaching up to activate the communications unit behind her ear. There was another Precog coming in already.

As I stopped to put on my coat and hat before I headed out of the government building and back home, I thought about my vision. Why was I dreaming about a woman from Earth? Why did I think she was significant?

When was she going to die?