“...Oh,” he said, his voice sounding almost like Tom’s. “My mistake! She seems to be coming around now.” He paused. “Yeah, she’s fine. Yeah. Screwing around with her friends, they’re telling me now.” Another pause. “Yeah. Sorry for wasting your time. Sure. I’ll call back, if that happens.”
Again, without a pause, he took off the headset, stuffing it in his pocket.
Cass expected Tom to protest, but when she looked up at him next, his eyes were blank, faraway-seeming. Cass started to get to her feet, but Jon grabbed her wrist, yanking her roughly back down. Before she could speak, he laid his mouth on her ear, his words a fierce whisper.
“Cass. Don’t. What do you think he is?”
She stared at Jon, then up at the black-haired man. Her throat closed.
“What are we going to do?” she whispered back.
“We’re taking her home,” Jon said.
“Jon! But what about her eyes? Everyone saw! They’ll take her away!”
“No,” the black-haired man said, his voice openly warning. “They won’t. She’s coming with me.” He waited for Jon to look up. “Jon...you know. I know you know. It’s too late to hide it...I can’t push that many. Surveillance goes directly to the feeds. Make this easy. Let me take her. Or you’ll never see her again, I promise you.”
Jon returned his gaze. Frowning, he looked at Tom and Jodi, then around at the diners watching them and the small crowd of kitchen staff crammed in the single door to the back room, peering around the grease-stained wood.
Taking in eyes and faces, Jon looked back up at the black-haired man.
“You can get her out of here?” Jon demanded.
“Yes.”
“You work for SCARB, man?”
“No.”
“The government?”
“No.”
“You’re not CIA? Some kind of fucking trader?”
“No.” The man hesitated. “I’ll take her away from all that, Jon. I promise. You know what they’ll do to her if I don’t. You saw what she did.”
Cass saw Jon’s jaw harden more.
He stared at the wall with the broken glasses. For the first time, Cass noticed his arms were cut from when he fell. His face had nicks as well; he was bleeding, but barely seemed to notice. He was shaking, too, she realized, nearly in shock.
For a moment he seemed to be thinking, staring up at the black-haired man’s angular face, then around the small diner. Cass saw him focus briefly on the surveillance cameras that were standard in every public place, monitored by SCARB and occasionally, with a warrant, by the SFPD or the FBI.
After another pause, Jon raised his voice to the rest of the room.
“She’s okay,” he said. “She’s coming around. Everyone just be cool, okay? Allie’s fine. She’s been tested. Lots of times.”
Sasquatch’s eyes were round as saucers, but he nodded, looking out over the dinner crowd, most of whom remained on their feet. No one said a word, but Cass wondered if even a single one of them believed that, given what they’d just seen.
But Allie was coming around...sort of.
The light in her irises abruptly began to dim.
Then, when they were almost back to normal, her eyelids flickered, then a frown crinkled her face before she reached out with her hands, grabbing Jon’s fingers over her face, then using her other hand to clutch at the leg of a nearby bar stool. When it moved under her touch, she grabbed for the base of the counter, instead.
Jon helped her to a seated position.
Her eyes never came fully into focus, and something was off in them as she stared at her own feet in her thick-soled waitressing shoes, but they’d stopped glowing. Cass watched her face, a face she had loved for the past twenty-plus years, even envied at times.
Now, she couldn’t help but see it as different.
But they’d been friends since they were kids. How could she be a seer? Seers looked like kids until they were around twenty years old. Hell, Jon was right...she never would have made it through adoption protocols if she had even a hint of seer blood, especially given how she’d been found as a baby.
Still, there’d always been something...uncanny about Allie.
Cass never really wanted to connect the dots, but that didn’t mean she didn’t see them.
“Al?” Jon took her arm. His voice grew almost harsh. “Al! You need to get it together.” He hesitated, looking up at the black-haired man. “Al...this guy’s going to help us, okay?”
Cass’s jaw dropped, but Jon didn’t seem to notice.
When Allie didn’t move, Jon helped her slowly to her feet. For a moment Allie just stood there, leaning a palm on the counter while Jon supported her with his arm. Everyone stared at her...customers, the kitchen staff, Tom the manager, Jodi.