The gift of second sight didn’t come to Faye Paterson until she was thirty-two, and gift wasn’t exactly the word that she would have used anyway. It was a curse really. A horrible, miserable, wretched curse, and she would give a heck of a whole lot to remove the curse and resume life the way that it had been before, only she couldn’t.

The first vision had come out of the blue while she had been getting ready to go to a movie with some friends. In her vision, the little girl that lived in the apartment across the hall from her, had wrenched free from her father’s grasp and darted into the street, only to be hit by a car.

Two weeks later, it came to pass, much to Faye’s horror.

And then, a few months later, she had another vision while she was out shopping with Cora, her best friend. She saw her friend in a boat. The boat was going fast. Too fast. Suddenly, it raised up out of the water and flipped over. After the vision, Faye had felt disoriented and had had to find a seat in the shop to sit down. Cora had been concerned, of course, but Faye had lied and said that she just needed to eat something. Later that night, alone in her apartment, Faye convinced herself that nothing like that could ever happen to Cora. Cora didn’t have a boat. Cora didn’t know anyone who had a boat. And, besides, it was the middle of winter.

One week later, after a stretch of unseasonably warm weather, Cora’s mother called her and told her that Cora had died out on the lake. She’d been on a first date with a man that she had met online.

From that point on, Faye feared the visions, but still they came, like a plague, haunting her with their absolute accuracy. The visions didn’t always foretell death. On the contrary. Sometimes, they showed her someone winning the lottery, or someone finally becoming pregnant after desiring it for a long time. But, more often than not, the visions were a harbinger of someone’s misfortune, and she was devastated whenever one appeared, unbidden, in her mind.

Faye had always been painfully shy, but eventually she had been driven to reach out to the people in her visions, trying to warn them of what she had seen. Sometimes they laughed, sometimes they feared her, but sometimes they listened and took caution. Had her warning saved their lives? She didn’t know. It was possible that they had only averted the outcome temporarily by being extra cautious, but she liked to believe that it was a permanent fix, if only to make herself feel better.

Over time, the visions began to affect her at work, leaving her sweating, disoriented, and gasping for air as she fought to return herself to the real world. Because of them, it wasn’t surprising that she’d been let go from many of her positions, leaving her in a constant state of upheaval that made her life a living hell. Eventually, with seemingly no other option left to her, Faye had moved to New Orleans and took a position with a palm reader that had her own shop. After she had scrimped and saved for nearly six years, she had finally saved enough to open her own storefront, and, during those long years she had learned how to manage her ‘gift’ better. The visions still came out of the blue, true, but Faye had learned how to slow her innate anxiety whenever they appeared, and she was now able to calmly study the visions, searching for clues that she could give to the client so that they would be better able to make an informed choice about how to avoid the unwanted outcome, or, if fate was offering something fortuitous, to make sure they did whatever they needed to do in order to best facilitate the desired outcome.

This newfound sense of control had given Faye a small bit of comfort, like having a basement in case of a tornado, and she was at least earning a living because of the visions, but she still despised the ‘gift’ of second sight, and always held out hope that sometime, somehow, it would disappear as quickly as it had appeared.

Until then, she woke up every single morning, got dressed, left her house, stopped off for a couple of beignets and coffee, and made her way to her shop in the French Quarter. Usually, but not always, she would already have appointments lined up early in the day, leaving the evenings open for the revelers. Bolstered by liquid courage, they would skulk into her shop, sweeping wide eyes around the dimly lit salon, quaking a bit at the crystal balls, tarot cards, and throwing stones. She hated the silly stuff, honestly, but according to her former employer, it was the exact kind of ambience that people expected, and you had to give the people what they expected, or you’d soon be out of business.

Most of the time, thankfully, Faye would use her natural empathy and attention to detail to read her clients’ futures. She was quite good at it, having learned from one of the best. The key was to pay attention to what their faces said, and they would tell you what they wanted from their futures. It helped that most people wanted to believe, needed to believe, if only for a while, that something good was coming their way. That was what she told herself at any rate, to alleviate the sense of guilt that she felt about using their own emotions to cast a reading for them.

Today had been a good day. She’d seen nearly a dozen clients and had been able to send them out the door with smiles on their faces and relief in their hearts. She went into the back room and filled her cup with hot water. As she dropped a tea bag in, she glanced at her watch. It was almost midnight. With any luck, she’d get to sip her chamomile tea in peace until then and call it a day. She went back out into the main room and took a seat at her table. Large windows let her look out onto the street. A group of loud, inebriated people lurched past her shop, and she let out a sigh when they disappeared. She’d had the misfortune of reading such a group many times before, and it was always just as awful as you would think it would be.

She savored her tea in silence as another, smaller group moved up the street.

“I should just call it a night.” she said to herself, as she pushed back from the table and stood up.

The door swung open, and two men stepped inside.

“I was just about to close.” Faye informed them, as she quickly appraised them.

They were young, probably mid-twenties, fashionably dressed, with haircuts and shoes that looked expensive. From the way they held themselves, she would hazard a guess that they hadn’t yet had too much to drink, which was odd, considering where they were.

“Seriously?” one of the men said.

Faye nodded.

“Dude, now what?” he nudged his taller companion.

“We could pay you extra,” the taller man said, as he reached for his wallet, “The shop down the street is open all night, but they’re busier than fuck.”

Faye sighed deeply. They seemed harmless enough. She could probably do an abbreviated reading and be done in twenty minutes.

“Alright, but it’s going to be twenty dollars extra, each.” she informed them with a pinched expression on her face.

“Awesome,” the shorter one said, as he pulled a chair out and took a seat, “Jude, come on, let’s do this, man.”

Jude pulled his chair out and took a seat at the table.

“So, you each want a reading then?” Faye reached across the table and gently took Jude’s hand in hers.

Jude quickly yanked his hand away, saying, “Do Landon’s first.”

Landon snorted, “Dude, you scared?” he asked, as he offered his hand across the table.

Faye reached for it, wondering silently why these two were even here. They didn’t seem the type to come for a psychic reading, certainly, but since she wasn’t one to turn down a buck, she grasped his warm hand in hers and settled into her customary ‘reading’ pose.

Allowing a full minute to pass, whilst she kept her eyes closed and rocked mysteriously back and forth, Faye felt the young man’s energy. He was a tad high strung, she decided, and prone to act on his emotions without thinking it through.

“You have had too many balls in the air lately,” she spoke, in a near whisper, “You can’t seem to get ahead no matter how hard you try.”

Faye looked at him through slitted eyes. He was nodding. Good. She’d pegged him right.

“You have been worried about work; about getting a promotion…” again, she allowed herself a peek in his direction. He was nodding emphatically, “And your worried about your love life, as well…” he was still nodding, and she could see the almost reverent way that he was looking at her, which meant that he was now believing that she truly knew him, knew all of his struggles and hopes, “there’s a woman that you want to get to know better, but she doesn’t seem interested. She is. You just have to extend yourself in her direction and she will reciprocate…” honestly, Landon was a good-looking guy, Faye thought, so it wasn’t a reach for her to assume that most any young lady would be interested,” she stole another peek, he was beaming from ear to ear, “As for the promotion, I don’t sense one coming on the horizon just yet, but perhaps next year.” She opened her eyes. Landon was still smiling, obviously happy with his future.

“That’s awesome,” Landon said as he sat back in his chair, “Isn’t it amazing that she can see that, dude?” he asked Jude.

Jude shrugged.

Faye’s eyes narrowed. It had been a short reading and he was skeptical. She would need to try harder with this one. She reached for his hand.

His energy was serene, but she sensed a sadness in him as she rocked back and forth, considering the direction she would take with his reading.

“I sense that life has been difficult for…” she began. Suddenly, a vision crowded her words out of her mind. It always started with a dark mist that slowly receded towards the edges, leaving the vision playing out like a movie almost, only it felt to her as if she could reach out and touch whatever she saw.

Jude and Landon were walking down a street. There were groups of people all around them, and the sidewalk was littered with discarded plastic cups and cigarette butts. They were shoving up against one another in a teasing manner as they turned off the main street onto a darker, quieter one. A foreboding sensation settled upon Faye as she watched the men walk; they were being watched; she was sure of it. She looked around, studying the scene carefully. She spotted a luxury sedan up the street. She wanted to warn the men but of course she couldn’t. Not now. Not during the vision. Jude and Landon were oblivious as they approached the car. They walked on by it, but Faye could see two men slide out of the car and go after them. Before Jude or Landon could react, the men grabbed them and forced them into the vehicle. As the car drove away, Faye fought to come out of the vision, but the scene suddenly changed. She could see an impressively sized building, like a museum, really, with ornate columns and stairs that led up, up, up to double steel doors. She turned around. There was a car coming up the long drive; it was the sedan. She whirled back to face the doors, but the vision quickly faded, leaving her feeling anxious and dissatisfied as her mind jolted back to reality.

Jude and Landon’s pale faces were watching her with nervous concern. Faye was used to it. She’d been told that while she was in a vision’s thrall, her eyes rolled erratically beneath her lids, her skin broke out into a sweat, and she made strange, gasping noises that tended to make any witnesses to it think that she was having some sort of seizure.

“I’m fine,” she rushed to assure them. Her voice sounded raspy, even to her own ears, “I just… I just saw something,” inwardly, Faye was processing what she had just seen, trying to figure out how best to relay the information in a calm, professional way, “I saw the two of you walking down a street. There were groups of people walking on the street with you, but you both turned off onto a much quieter street. There was a car, a dark colored sedan, waiting for you. When you passed by it, two men jumped out and forced you both into the car…”

Landon and Jude turned to look at each other. They didn’t seem surprised, which Faye found odd.

“And then, I saw a museum I guess, or something like it, with steps leading up to double doors. The car that I had seen was driving up a long driveway towards the building. I lost the vision after that, unfortunately.”

The young men were still looking at each other, almost as if they had forgotten that Faye was in the room.

“No way, dude.” Landon was shaking his head.

Jude tilted his head back, closed his eyes, and heaved a heavy sigh.

“What a trip!” Landon shook his head in disbelief, “You think they’d really do that, dude?”

Jude’s eyes snapped open, “How the hell do I know?” he stood up, “Come on, let’s get out of here,” he finally turned to Faye, “How much do we owe you?”

“Uh…” Faye was taken aback. She supposed that she had expected them to be surprised that she had envisioned them being kidnapped off of the street and would have questions or want clarification. Something. Anything, but this casual acceptance, “Well, uh…”

Jude whipped out his wallet and tossed four bills onto the table, “That should be more than enough.”

Landon stood up and they both left, leaving Faye staring after them with her mouth ajar. It took her several moments before she looked back down at the table. Jude had left her four hundred dollars for a reading that might have taken all of five minutes.

***************************************************

Two days later, Faye was giving a reading when a man walked into her shop. She smiled and nodded towards a row of chairs by the windows, “Take a seat. I’ll be with you when I’m done here.” she told him.

When the reading was finished, and the woman had paid and left, the man stood up and approached her, “I’m not here for a reading,” he said. He handed her a picture, “I’m looking for these two men. Have you seen them?”

Faye took the picture. She recognized Jude and Landon immediately, “Why do you ask?”

“Because they’re my friends and they’re missing.”

Faye wasn’t sure what to think, “Why would you think they would come in here?” she asked, evasively.

The man took the photograph out of her hands, “They, uh, they mentioned heading down to New Orleans and letting loose for a while,” he shrugged, “I don’t know. Seems like this fortune telling thing is something people do down here.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Look, I’ve been up and down all the shops along here, trying to find someone who might recognize them. I did find a guy at the deli that said he thought they had been in for a sandwich the other night, but he couldn’t be a hundred percent.”

“And you know them how?”

“We’re in IT mainly, maybe do a little light hacking, stuff like that.” he answered.

“Why do you say they’re missing? Maybe they’re just enjoying their vacation.”

The man’s eyes narrowed, “They were supposed to keep in touch. They didn’t.”

“I get a lot of people through here. I’m going to need to think about it for a bit, see if anything pops into my head.” Faye informed him.

With a grimace, he took a card out of his pocket and handed it to her, “If you do happen to remember anything, I’d appreciate it if you could give me a call.”

Faye glanced at the card as he left her shop; it was blank except for the name, Jason Wilcox, and a phone number. She frowned as she remembered the vision. She had warned them, but maybe they hadn’t taken her seriously, or, maybe they had, and were just in hiding. What she really wanted to know was what they had done, but she knew it was probably better not to know any more than she already did. She needed a cup of tea. As she wandered into the back room, she dropped the card in her purse and decided to forget about it.

*****************************************

Faye’s intentions lasted all of about four hours. No matter how she tried to focus on her readings, she just couldn’t forget about Jude and Landon, and what might have happened to them. As she watched her latest client, a young woman that had been wondering if her boyfriend would ever propose, walk out of the shop, Faye reached for Jason Wilcox’s card. She dialed the number before she changed her mind.

“Wilcox.” a male voice snapped.

“Yes, hi,” Faye sputtered, tempted to hang up already. She forged ahead instead, “This is Faye. You came to see me this morning…”

“Oh,” Jason’s tone was suddenly much more pleasant, “Yes, I remember you. I didn’t think you’d call back.”

“Well, I uh, I had some time to think about it, and I remembered that I had actually seen those young men in my shop.”

“Okay. That-that’s good. So, they came in for reading? When was that?”

“Two nights ago,” Faye decided to trust him, “They came in for a reading and I gave the readings, but…” she hesitated, trying to figure out how much she should say. She quickly decided that less was more, “I told them that they were in danger of being kidnapped and taken to a large building…”

“Wait,” Jason interrupted her, “I don’t want to talk on the phone. I don’t think it’s safe. I’ll come there.” He hung up.

Faye stared at the phone in her hand, wondering what she had just gotten herself into.

*****************************************

When Jason arrived, his demeanor was urgent, which set Faye’s nerves on edge. He quickly led her away from the windows, asking, “Is there a back way out of here?”

“Why?” she balked.

“I don’t know if I’m being followed. I think we need to assume that I am and act accordingly.”

“I don’t under…”

“I can’t get into all of that now,” he pulled her towards the back room, “Can we get out another way?”

“Yes. There’s a back door. It leads into the alley, but…” She was being yanked towards the door, but she wasn’t altogether sure if she wanted to go with him. She grabbed the counter and resisted, forcing him to stop moving and turn around to face her.

“Listen to me,” Jason growled, “There are some assholes out there that probably took my friends, and if they even thought for a minute that I was here in New Orleans looking for them, they would be after me, as well. I can’t stay here and talk to you, so if you want to tell me what you know, then you have to do it somewhere else. Now, what’s it going to be?”

Faye didn’t know what she wanted to do, honestly, except maybe just go back to her normal life. But he was waiting for her answer, and he seemed legitimately concerned about Jude and Landon, as concerned as she was, certainly, so she nodded her assent and followed him out the door.

They stepped out into the alley that ran behind the buildings. Two men were standing at one end of the alley. The men looked up and started walking towards them. Jason grabbed her hand, “This way.” he said.

Terrified, Faye dutifully followed, and when his pace picked up into a light jog, hers did, too. When they reached the end of the alley, Jason started running, pulling her along as they ran towards a cab that was stopped at a stop sign.

“Didn’t I just drop you off?” the driver asked, as Jason and Faye climbed into the cab.

“I’m going to need you to step on it.” Jason growled, with a glance behind them.

As the taxi began pulling away, Faye turned and looked out the back window; the two men had reached the top of the alley, watching as they drove off.

“That was close.” she quipped.

“You don’t say.” Jason grimaced.

“Where am I taking you?” the driver asked.

Jason’s expression was one of uncertainty, so Faye said, “Take us to the Botanical Gardens, and hurry, please.”

The city park was apparently the spot to be, Faye thought, as she climbed out of the taxi while Jason paid the driver. The pleasantly cool weather had apparently drove everyone in New Orleans to the park, but the crowds were exactly why she had chosen this destination. If those men were on their tail, it would be the perfect place to blend in and disappear.

When Jason slid out of the car, she started walking briskly, trying not to keep looking behind them for their pursuers, even though she wanted to. Instead, she looked up at Jason, “You want to tell me what the hell’s going on?”

He glanced down at her, “I believe that we pissed the wrong people off …”

“How?” Faye interrupted him, as a group of screaming kids ran around them, heading for the amusement park.

“It doesn’t matter,” Jason snapped, “What matters is that I get my friends away from the people who took them. I need you to tell me where they were taken. Can you do that?”

A frown wrinkled her forehead as Faye tried to bring the vision to mind. The long drive came back to her. She relaxed her face and allowed herself to settle into the memory. The house appeared again. Was it a house? She wasn’t sure. It was very large. Stately, even, with ornate columns and lots of steps leading up to the double steel doors. Had she seen something similar in the Garden District. There were lots of mansions there. No. No, she didn’t think so. This place had a different vibe. She tried to force herself to remember more, but the calliope music and the crowd noise made it impossible. She frowned again as she looked up at Jason’s anxious face, “I can’t do it. Not here. I need someplace quiet so that I can think.”

His disappointment crushed her. He nodded, resolutely, “Then we find someplace quiet. Got any ideas?”

“Actually, I do.”

********************************************

“This place is kind of creepy.” Jason’s torso quivered in half-hearted jest.

“Is it?” Faye’s eyes darted quickly around the dank basement that was filled with Leona Storm’s esoteric castoffs. She supposed the skeletons, witch’s brooms, crystal balls, and the curtained off seance room was a bit creepy, now that she was seeing it from his point of view. Still, it was the one place that she had felt safe coming to. Leona was the first person that she had worked for when she’d came to New Orleans, and she trusted the older woman like no one else.

Jason jumped as his foot dislodged a glass eyeball and it clattered down the basement steps, “Uh, yes. Yes, it definitely is.”

Faye grinned as she continued on down the stairs. She led them over to an old, faded leather couch and cleared it of the piles of astrology books, decks of tarot cards, and other discarded memorabilia. Leona had to be nearing seventy-five now, and all of this was proof of a career that had spanned decades. Finished, she plopped down, sending up a cloud of dust, “Sorry,” she winced, as Jason coughed, waving the air in front of his face, “I’m going to try to get quiet here, and think, alright?”

Jason shrugged before bending over and picking up an ancient looking tome. He carried it over towards the single bulb that hung from the middle of the ceiling, as Faye closed her eyes and tried to bring forward the memory of the vision.

Minutes later, she again saw the grand facade of the building that Jude and Landon had been taken to. She could see the car driving up the long drive, and the sets of concrete stairs that led up to the imposing doors, but nothing that gave away the building’s location. Frustrated, Faye forced herself to calm her breathing and study the memory more carefully. It was a skill that had come from years of having the ‘gift.’ She knew that most people had difficulty remembering dreams in their entirety; they faded so quickly, leaving behind only the most fantastical of details, but leaving out the minutiae that helped set the scene so brilliantly in one’s dreamscape. A vision wasn’t a dream, though. It was different in so many ways, because it was real. What she saw in the vision was actually going to happen, and so the objects and buildings that inhabited the environment were really there, before the vision, and after, as well. This meant that if she had seen a location giveaway, she could be certain it did, indeed, exist.

Faye remembered that she had begun turning around to look back at the doors right before she had pulled out of the vision. She focused on that moment, and that was when she noticed the unobtrusively small number that had been carved into one of the stone steps. Her eyes flung open, “I have something.”

“You know where they were taken?”

“Not exactly,” Faye dug her phone out and did a quick address search, “But I’m going to find out.”

Jason sat down beside her, his hands nervously rubbing his thighs as he watched her scrolling on her phone.

“What comes up for this number is Lister Avenue. I know where that is, sort of,” Faye glanced at him, “You want me to call a cab?”

************************************************

“Stop here.” Jason said. He looked at Faye as he held a finger to his lips.

“Here? You want to get out here on the side of the road, man?” the driver asked, as he obediently pulled the car over.

“Yes. Thank you.” Jason paid him as Faye opened the door and stepped out. Eight feet tall hedges stretched in a line all along the section of road as far as she could see, and, just in front of those hedges was a sturdy looking security fence.

Jason hopped out and the car drove away.

“So, what’s your plan?” Faye asked, as she nodded towards the hedges and fence, “I imagine this encircles the property.”

“I’m sure it does, but let’s just have a look.”

Faye followed him as he started up the road. When they reached the main gate, and she saw the sign that read, ‘INCOG. Station Inc.’, a memory from when she’d first arrived in the city came flooding back to her, “I remember this place. I mean, I remember a commercial from years ago that used to run locally. It was put out by this place. They had an interactive exhibit. If I remember right, it was cloak and dagger type stuff, mainly aimed at kids, I think.”

“Oh, yeah? Huh,” Jason stood outside the closed gates, looking up at the security camera, “Doesn’t look like they’re letting any kids in today.”

“No, I guess not,” she sighed and put her hands in her pockets, “Well, what’s your plan now? Should we just push that button and see if they’ll let us in?”

Jason scowled and pulled her by her arm off behind the hedges again, “I need you to stay here, out of sight. I’m going to go see if I can find a way in.”

“An illegal way in, you mean?” Faye exclaimed, freaking out at the thought.

“They kidnapped my friends straight off the street, Faye,” Jason hissed, “I don’t think they’re just going to let us sweep in and ask after them.”

Faye’s tense shoulders dropped, “No. No, I guess not.”

“I thought you’d see it my way. Stay here. I’ll go have a quick look around.”

Faye felt the enormity of what she’d gotten herself into as she watched him walk off back the way they’d came. As she finally lost sight of him, it occurred to her that the property must be enormous. Why would they need such space, she wondered, as she stamped her aching feet and considered sitting down while she waited.

Ten minutes later, she did just that, settling her back against the hard iron bars as she took out her phone and typed in INCOG. Station Inc. There wasn’t much. The company had been founded almost eleven years prior by two brothers, Bernard and Jeremiah Stanley. Bernard had left the company just five years later, and a man by the name of Dax Lambeau had taken his place. The company specialized in surveillance equipment, tracking devices, and spyware, but the business seemed legitimate, which made them kidnapping Jude and Landon seem highly improbable and strange. Maybe the two men were involved in things that Jason had not been privy to?

Bored and irritated, Faye stood up and dusted herself off. She looked down the road and saw the speck that was Jason. She walked towards him to close the distance.

“Did you find a way in?” she asked, when they met up.

“I think so,” Jason eyed her with a concerned expression, “You work out any?”

“Do I look like I work out?” Faye asked, pointedly.

“Uh…” A pink flush was creeping up his neck, “Never mind,” he said, quickly, as he pivoted and began walking briskly down the road, “Just come with me and you’ll see what I’m talking about.”

As soon as she saw the thick tree limb that hung over both the hedge and the fence, Faye snorted in disbelief, “No way.” she balked.

“Just hear me out,” Jason kept walking and she followed behind, reluctantly. Another quarter mile down the road, the hedges suddenly made a left turn. Jason turned to make sure she was with him as he led her towards a break in the hedges, “Look.”

As Jason stepped aside, Faye stepped up. They were standing in front of a gate door.

“It locks from the inside, but I think you could unlock it for me if I could get you over the hedge.”

Faye was shaking her head, incredulously, “You do understand that I’m not Wonder Woman here, right?”

“Yeah, yeah I get that, and I wouldn’t ask you to do it but it’s the only way I can think of, and I’m trying to save my friends, Faye. I thought you wanted to help me do that.”

When he put it that way, Faye thought, how could she say no. Still, as she plodded behind him over to the tree, she questioned her sanity.

“I’m going to lift you up,” Jason explained, as he knelt down and cupped his hands for her to step into, “All you have to do is reach up and grab it. When I see that you’re safely over, I’ll go wait for you at the door.”

Faye felt shaky as she stepped into his hands. He surged upwards, heaving her up towards the branch that overhung the hedge. A nervous squeak escaped her as she lunged, throwing herself up and over the branch so hard that she lost her breath as her stomach made contact and the momentum threw her torso over the limb. Terror gripped her as she scrambled to hold on.

“It’s good,” Jason said, “It’s good. You got it. Just breathe for a minute.”

Faye slowly came to the realization that she wasn’t going to go flying off the branch, but she still felt like she was going to vomit from the stress of it all.

“Now, I want you to reach your leg over the branch. Can you do that, Faye?”

Faye nodded as she did. Once she was straddling the branch, she felt marginally safer. She dared a look down towards Jason. He was beaming at her like she was a child that had finally managed to ride her bike without her dad holding onto the back of it.

“Good. That’s good. Now, I need you to just inch your way back until you come to where that branch hits the trunk. Once you get there, you can just climb down and go open the gate.”

“You make it sound so easy,” Faye clucked, miserably, “But you’ve got the easy part, don’t you?”

“You know I’d do it if I could,” he grinned in a merry way, “I have all the faith in the world that you’ve got this.”

Grunts slipped from her mouth as she started sliding backwards against the rough bark. She tried not to look down, but when she saw that she had cleared the hedge, relief shot through her. Suddenly, her foot hit something solid and she knew that she had reached the main trunk. She felt around until her other foot touched too. She let her legs fall off to the sides of the branch and slid back until she was sitting astride it, her back against the trunk. She looked down again. The ground was maybe seven feet below her.

“Maybe a little bit Wonder Woman after all.” she quipped, as she leaned forward, wrapped her arms around the branch and swung off, letting her legs dangle above the ground. She closed her eyes, said a quick prayer that she wouldn’t break an ankle, and allowed herself to drop.

After she landed, falling on her butt like a gymnast with too much momentum coming off of the vault, Faye slowly got to her feet and looked around, half expecting to find a security team surrounding her, but there was only verdant green lawn and a few buildings off in the distance. She decided that it was still safer to keep along the fence line, just in case.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this.” she whispered to herself as she hunkered down beside the fence and duck waddled as quickly as she could towards the gate.

“I thought you’d never get here,” Jason hissed when she slid the latch and let him inside the compound, “What happened?”

“Nothing I want to talk about,” Faye muttered, “So, which building do you think they’re being kept in?” she asked, changing the subject.

“I imagine they took them into the main building, but I guess it wouldn’t hurt to check the others if we can do it without being seen.”

They skirted the perimeter until they reached the first building. It was a small, single story with a wall of windows along both sides.

“Wait here,” Jason said, “I’ll go check it out.”

Faye watched him run across the lawn and duck down beside the corner of the building. He waited a beat before creeping over to a window and peering inside. Satisfied by what he had seen, he stood up and disappeared around the side. Faye waited. A dragonfly zipped past her nose, startling her. She looked around. There was another building off to the right. This one shared a parking lot with the main building. From this distance, she could see that there were cars in the lot, though not many. She supposed it was weird that the place wasn’t buzzing.

Jason appeared behind the small building again. He sprinted towards her, “I think it’s for office staff, but no one’s in there. I wanted to break in, honestly, but I restrained myself.”

“Admirable,” Faye gave him a wink, “Should we go see about that bigger one over there, or head to the main one?”

“I have a feeling they’re in the main building.”

“I was thinking the same thing, but how are we going to get inside?”

“Won’t know until we get there. Come on, let’s go.”

Again, they kept to the perimeter, heading down towards the shared parking lot. When they reached the two storied building, they ran across the lawn and hid in its shadows. Suddenly, the sound of a door being opened drifted towards them from around front. And then they could hear men talking. Jason held his finger up to his lip as he gestured that he was going to go check it out. Faye waited for precisely five seconds before following him towards the front. When they reached the corner, Jason carefully peered around it. When he didn’t move back, Faye sidled up beside him and watched as Jude and Landon were marched down the sidewalk, led by a man wearing a suit, quickly followed by another man also wearing a suit.

The men reached the main building but instead of going around front and up the grand staircase that Faye remembered from her vision, they went down a set of stairs on the side of the building and disappeared inside.

“At least we know they’re alive,” Faye said, “We should call the police, I think.”

“We’re this close to freeing them ourselves,” Jason’s mouth settled into a firm, stubborn line, “I’m going in there, and I’m going to do what I came here to do.”

“I’m not convinced that’s smart,” Faye slid back against the cool wall and sank down on the ground, “We don’t know how many people are in there. There could be a lot of them, and we don’t have weapons. They could just take us captive too.”

“Look at the lot, Faye,” he argued, “There’s only a few cars.”

“I still think we should call the police and let them handle it.” she made to stand up, but Jason reached out and pulled her back down.

“Faye, you should at least give me a chance to have a look inside. See what we’re dealing with. Come on. Please.” he pleaded his case.

With an exaggerated sigh, Faye gave in, “Fine, but I’m not staying out here waiting for you. We’ll sneak in and see what’s what, and then we’ll come back out and call the police.”

“Works for me. Okay, let’s get this over with.” Jason stood up and moved quickly towards the building.

Faye ran after him, trying not to think too hard about her decisions lately. They reached the stairwell. Jason rushed down them, but she hesitated, “I can’t believe that I’m about to add breaking and entering to the list of crimes I’ve committed today.”

“Sweetheart, might I remind you that we’ve already done that when we came onto the property,” he so kindly reminded her as he reached for the doorknob and twisted it; the door swung open, “Besides, it’s not breaking and entering if we didn’t have to break in.”

Faye rolled her eyes as she walked down the stairs and followed him inside. They were in a very large room that had been sectioned off into several smaller rooms with freestanding partitions. The smaller rooms looked like testing or training rooms, but she didn’t get a chance to investigate closely because Jason was hellbent on getting upstairs.

When they reached the stairwell on the opposite side of the room, she tugged on his shirt, “We need to slow down. We’re going to get caught if we go charging up there like we just did down here.” she warned him.

Jason seemed to shake himself out of his urgency, “You’re right. Sorry about that. I’m just anxious to get this over with. To save them, you know?”

“Sure. I get that. I do. But we need to do this the right way.” Faye took a calming breath and waited for him to do the same.

“Better?” she asked him.

“Better.” he said.

They climbed the stairs slowly, and when they reached the door, Jason opened it just a few inches and they paused to listen. Only when they ascertained that no one seemed to be in the vicinity did he poke his head around the door to have a look around.

“What do you see?” Faye whispered.

He pulled his head back in, “It’s a corridor. Empty.”

They stepped out into the corridor just as voices drifted down to them from a room further up the hall and to the right of them. Jason took off down the carpeted corridor, leaving Faye no choice but to follow him.

What the hell was wrong with him? Hadn’t they just agreed not to rush into anything? And yet, here he was, charging down the hall with no obvious regard for his, their, safety. He disappeared into the room as she rushed to catch up.

When she reached the room, she almost considered staying out in the hall, but then she heard Jason say, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Her eyebrows drew together in confusion. Now what was he doing? She stepped into the room and her mouth dropped open; Jason was holding a gun on Jude, Landon, and the two men that she now recognized from her internet search earlier, Jeremiah Stanley, and Dax Lambeau.

“Jason, what are you doing?” she stepped next to him, as she gave the men a timid nod of acknowledgement.

“Get the hell over there with them.” Jason gruffly shoved her towards the men who were clustered in the corner of the room.

The force of the shove made Faye stumble and she hit her hip against the corner of the executive desk hard enough to bring tears to her eyes. What hurt worse though, was Jason’s betrayal honestly, she thought, as she finished walking stiffly towards the group. She saw Jude and Landon’s eyes flash in surprise as they recognized her.

She turned around, her own eyes confronting Jason angrily, “I don’t understand, Jason. What are you doing? We’re here to save Landon and Jude. That’s what you told me.”

“I lied. I’m not here to save these pricks, I’m here to get back what’s mine, and then I’m going to make them sorry they ever thought they could get away with fucking with me.”

“You tricked me!” Faye cried, “There were even men that were after us!”

Jason chuckled, “I paid them. I had to convince you that Landon and Jude were in danger so that you would help me find them.”

“You helped him find us?” Landon said, in a bewildered tone, “You used your… your vision thing?”

“Actually, I just remembered the first vision,” Faye explained, flatly, “The one where you both were kidnapped off the street…”

“We weren’t kidnapped though,” Jude told her, “We wanted to meet up with Jeremiah and Dax.”

“Shut the fuck up!” Jason waved the gun, “We’re not here to reminisce, assholes. I want the plans. Now!”

“We don’t have the plans with us, Jason. I told you that.” Jude snapped.

“That’s a lie!” Jason screamed, as his spittle sprayed the air in front of him, ” That’s why you’re here, to sell them to these fuckheads!”

“No, man, no,” Landon insisted, “It’s true that we called and tried to set the meeting up, and it’s true that they decided to accept a meeting with us, but we didn’t even bring the pla…”

“Shut up, Landon.” Jude hissed.

“Bullshit!” Jason stepped forward, waving the gun threateningly, “You’re lying!”

“They don’t have the plans,” Jeremiah Stanley dared say, his eyes never leaving the gun, “We were disappointed, honestly, but that’s business.”

“Then where are they?” Jason asked.

“Someplace safe,” Jude took a step forward, “We can take you where we put them.”

“What plans are you talking about? I don’t understand.” Faye was growing more confused by the second, and she wanted, needed, clarification. After all, she was being held at gun point, wasn’t she?

“Plans that are going to make me so rich that I’ll own the world, Faye,” Jason winked at her. He whipped his head around to stare at Jude, “But these assholes thought they’d steal them out from under me and sell them themselves. Not going to happen…”

Well, that hadn’t helped, Faye thought, and now she had another question, so she asked Jude, “Wait, you and Landon stole these plans from Jason?”

A scowl darkened Jude’s face as he nodded, “We did, but it’s not what you think,” he took another long look at the gun pointed in his direction, “See, Landon and I worked for Jason. IT. But we did some hacking when we were bored, which was often…”

This elicited a snort of agreement from Landon. When Faye glanced behind her at him, she noted that he’d moved up in front of Jeremiah and Dax.

“Jason hacked into the computer of a certain scientist who happens to be well known in stealth technology circles and came across some plans that… let’s just say that if those plans fell into the wrong hands, it could end life as we know it here on planet Earth…”

“You should have let me handle it, Jude,” Jason interrupted him, “I would have seen to it that you and Landon would have gotten a pretty penny, too, but you fucked up, and now you’re not getting anything but a bullet between your eyes.”

Jude’s lips drew back in rage, “You were planning on selling those plans to the highest bidder, Jason. Even rogue governments that would use the technology to kill millions of innocent people. We weren’t going to let that happen, for any amount of money.”

Jason reared back in a show of shock, “Seriously, Jude? You expect me to believe that you were… what? Having a nice sit down with these people for no reason at all? Come on! It’s so obvious that you were looking for a buyer.” He stepped closer, the gun now looming over them.

“We wanted to make sure the plans fell into the right hands,” Jude shrugged, “We knew we couldn’t keep the technology hidden forever, but we wanted it to go to people we felt would use it for good and not evil. It’s that simple.”

“Don’t be stupid, Jude,” Jason shook his head, pitifully, “You can’t stop the march, man. All you can do is make sure you have enough money to insulate yourself. Like I said, you should have let me handle it.”

Suddenly, Landon lunged at Jason and grabbed his arm. The gun went off and Faye dove to the ground with a shriek. She closed her eyes tightly as the men fought for control of the gun. She heard a thud, and Landon cried out in pain, then a gun shot, followed quickly by another. Jude gasped. She opened her eyes. Jason’s shoes were right in front of her.

“Get up.” Jason growled, as he nudged her with his foot.

Heart hammering, Faye slowly got to her feet. She saw Dax first. He was lying in a pool of his own blood. Her breath caught in her throat. She felt Jason clench her arm as she caught sight of Jeremiah, leaning back against the wall. A dark stain was blooming across his chest.

“Get in front. You’re going with us,” Jason pushed her towards the door as he gestured for Landon and Jude to walk behind her, “Move!”

Faye walked to the doorway, stopping uncertainly when she reached it, “Which way?” she asked.

“The way we came.”

She turned left and began walking down the hallway. She could hear Landon’s feet scuffling across the nubby carpet. As she moved, she let her eyes move back and forth, searching for a way out of the predicament. She passed a sideboard. There was an award sitting on it. It looked heavy. Substantial. She could grab it, use it to throw at Jason. No. No, it wouldn’t work. Landon and Jude would be in the way, and besides, she couldn’t trust her aim in the best of circumstances, let alone now. She neared the door that they had entered. She paused, waiting for instruction.

“Hold up,” Jason said. When all of them reached the door, he snapped, “Open it.”

Faye did as she was told, staring down the stairs as she tried to remember the layout.

“Start walking.” she was ordered.

She walked down the stairs slowly, aware of Landon and Jude behind her. They were breathing fast, obviously still in shock at witnessing Jeremiah and Dax’s deaths. She doubted they would be capable of thinking strategically, but she was going to have to try because she didn’t think they were going to live through this. Jason would use Landon and Jude to get to the plans, and after that, he would have no use for them.

The idea formulated instantly in her mind, and it wasn’t much of one. She didn’t think it all the way through; she didn’t have enough time. Feigning a cramp, she stopped short and clutched her leg. As hoped, Landon fell into her, Jude fell into him, and Jason fell into Jude. The men’s combined weight was like a bowling ball rolling down hill, and they started toppling. She was ready for it and launched herself free, jumping down the remaining stairs and darting off into the partitioned room.

Behind her, she could hear the men’s grunts and groans as they tumbled the rest of the way down. She barreled towards the door, reached it, flung it open, but suddenly decided on a different plan. Leaving the door open, she flung herself around the closest partition, spotted a floor length panel behind a desk and darted behind it.

Moments later, just as wrenching regret made her question her decision not to get the hell out of the building when she’d had the chance, she heard Jason, Jude, and Landon running towards the door.

“Where the fuck is she?” Jason bellowed as they passed by the little room she was hiding in.

Faye held her breath as the seconds ticked by. She was just about to stand up and step around the panel when she heard the thud of footsteps coming closer.

A maelstrom of panic swirled in her brain. She’d fucked up. He was going to find her and then she couldn’t help Landon and Jude. Why hadn’t she just left when she’d had the chance?

The men came into the small, partitioned room. She heard a chair being rolled aside, and then heard the desk being pulled out.

“Damn it!” Jason cursed, “She’s got to be here. There’s no way she could have made it to the trees without me seeing her.”

From her hiding place behind the panel, Faye heard Jason’s fist slam down on the desk and she flinched in reaction.

“I’m going to tear this fucking place apart until I find her, and then I’m going to kill her like I already should have.”

“I would have thought you’d have wanted to get the plans, but if you want to, we can stand here wasting time while you look for her.” Landon spoke.

Suddenly, Faye felt something hit her foot and she almost yelped until she saw that Landon was trying to shove her foot behind the panel. Relieved, she quickly pulled it further in, grateful that he had spotted her and come to her aid.

Faye heard another slamming fist hit the desk as Jason barked, “Fuck it! Come on. We’re leaving. Go. Get the fuck in front of Jude, Landon, and no funny stuff unless you want to die like those assholes upstairs did.”

Faye waited a full ten minutes before she felt it was safe to come out from behind the panel. She waited another ten minutes before peeking out of the partitioned room.

“Now what?” she whispered to herself, as she approached the open door and glanced quickly out, first to the right and then to the left, half expecting to have her head blown off. She stepped outside and started pacing back and forth, “What to do? What to do?” she asked out loud, “I don’t even know the first place to look,” Suddenly, she remembered the bodies upstairs. She smacked her hand against her forehead, “Shit! I should call the police!”

Faye went back inside, reaching for her phone. She dialed 911 and explained where she was and what had happened, and then she remembered that she didn’t know how to open the front gates and had to call back to inform them that she would be waiting outside the back gate that she and Jason had originally came through.

After she hung up, she walked across the grounds and let herself out, making sure to hold the gate open with a fallen branch that she dragged across the lawn with her. Inside, she was an absolute wreck, and just sitting there waiting gave her plenty of time to really feel it, unfortunately. When the patrol cars finally pulled up, she jumped up and ran to meet them halfway.

“Ma’am, I’m Officer Brandt, this is Officer McDonald,” he offered, as several other police swept around them and headed inside the gates, “We’ll need to wait with you until Detective Larson arrives,” he pulled out a notebook, “In the meantime, I’ll need to get a statement from you.”

“Okay, sure, but is anyone looking for Jason Wilcox right now, because the men he took, Jude and Landon, their lives are in danger, and…”

“Ma’am, calm down,” Officer Brandt, took her by the elbow and led her towards his patrol car, “I can assure you that everything is under control.”

“His name is Jason Wilcox,” Faye said, “He’s about 6’2″, with dark hair and …”

“Sir, it looks like Detective Larson just pulled up.” Officer McDonald announced, and Officer Brandt seemed quite pleased to hand her off.

Faye watched a short, wiry man with gray hair that matched his gray suit coat, approach. She scowled, infuriated by how slow everyone seemed to be moving. Didn’t they believe her about Jude and Landon being in danger?

Detective Larson looked down at his notepad and then back up to her face, “Ms. Faye Paterson?”

“Yes.”

“You can release her to me,” Larson told the officers, “Ms. Paterson, if you want to come back to my car, I can take your statement.”

“Listen, there are two men in danger right now, and I just want someone to convince me that the police are, in fact, actively searching for them.” Faye stood her ground, daring him with her glaring eyes.

The detective sighed, “Well, there is an APB out for one, Jason Wilcox, and two other men who are considered his hostages, yes, but I still need to get some facts from you if you would be so kind.”

Relieved, she gave him a curt nod and walked with him to his car. He opened the passenger door and grabbed his laptop from the seat. She climbed in and waited for him to go around and get in the driver’s side.

It was everything she could do to practice patience as he booted up his laptop and prepared to take her statement.

Twenty minutes later, Faye was beside herself, and she’d only gotten as far as arriving at the facility and climbing the tree. At this rate, it was going to take all damn day.

“I already told the 911 operator everything. Can’t you just get it from them. I’m sure it’s record…” Suddenly, she felt the familiar sensation of falling through space and time, and an image appeared in her mind. She was seeing a plane coming in for a landing. She watched the plane land on the tarmac and taxi into a hangar. And then she was inside the hangar as the door opened and the stairs were released. Landon and Jude stepped down, quickly followed by Jason, who was barking orders and waving his gun around. A sense of doom settled around her, for she could feel their terror as Jason forced them to walk out of the hangar, around the back and out into the woods that surrounded the metal building. She gasped as she bolted out of the vision, sweaty and shaking.

“Want to tell me what the hell just happened.” Detective Larson’s face looked pale and worried.

“I… I just had a vision. I’m a clairvoyant. I see what’s going to happen, and I just saw a plane land at a small airport somewhere. Jason was still holding Jude and Landon hostage. He… he was forcing them at gun point out into some woods behind the hangar.” she whispered in a voice that was tight with anxiety.

“What, like a dream?” he asked in confusion.

“No. No, it’s not a dream. It’s a vision of what is going to happen sometime in the future.”

Detective Larson was shaking his head, “Yeah, I don’t go for stuff like this. I deal in facts. Pure and simple facts.”

“Detective Larson, listen to me,” Faye beseeched him, “I’m telling you the truth. I am a true clairvoyant. Jude and Landon are in real danger. Jason is going to kill them. I know it,” she rubbed her forehead, feeling like there was something she needed to remember from the vision. She needed to concentrate and see if she could bring it all back, “I think I saw something important, something that could lead us to where he’s taking them, but I need to focus. Will you let me do that, just for a few minutes?”

He shrugged and started typing on his computer.

Permission having been granted; Faye settled back into the seat and drew a few slow, deep breaths. She closed her eyes and allowed the vision to come back. Again, she saw the plane coming in for a landing. She focused on the plane, noting that it was white, but had an orange stripe on the side. There was a number on the tail, but she couldn’t see it. Suddenly she was seeing the men coming down the stairs again. She could see the beads of sweat on Landon and Jude’s faces, and she felt their fear settle around her once more. Jason’s hand was tightly clenched around the gun. His expression was one of uncompromising vengeance, and it made her uncomfortable just witnessing it. Her focus sharpened on a new detail; there was a leather bag hanging off his shoulder. He patted it several times, as if making sure that it was still there. It had to contain the plans, which meant that this was sometime after they had retrieved them. So, where were they? She’d never thought to ask where they had originally come from. Not Louisiana. She was sure about that. The plane though, it should have an identifier, shouldn’t it? The number she’d seen, what was it? Concentrating intensely, Faye pulled away from Jason’s face. She could just make out the numbers that were painted on the tail of the plane.

“NA0G59,” she whispered, as she pulled out of the memory, “The number on the plane is NA0G59.”

“You saw that?” Detective Larson asked, clearly perplexed.

“Yes,” she felt fidgety, ready to leap out of the car and go off to search for them herself, “Yes, I saw it. Call it in. Now. Please. I don’t want Landon and Jude to die. Please!”

The detective picked up the radio and thumbed it on, “Dispatch.” a woman’s voice said.

“Yeah, this is Larson. I need you to put out a search on a plane for me. Registration number of N as in November, A as in Alpha, Zero, G as in Golf, five, niner.”

**********************************************

Faye spent the rest of the evening at the police station, answering questions over and over until she thought she’d lose her mind. Finally, just when she thought she could take no more, they told her she could leave. She went home and paced, unable to sleep for worrying about Jude and Landon. Had they been found in time, or had Jason killed them and left them for dead in the woods. Eventually she fell into a restless sleep full of nightmares until the phone rang, waking her up.

“Hello?” she answered, groggily.

“Faye, Detective Larson here. They were found. Alive. We traced the plane to Jason Wilcox. He was the owner. He filed a flight plan to an airfield in Indiana. We called the local police and had them waiting. He’s been arrested and will be brought back here to stand trial. Sorry for waking you. Just thought you might want to know. It sure is something, that ability you have, though.”

“Thank you for letting me know, and yes, yes, it is.” she said, finally seeing it that way, too.

************************************************

Faye finished sweeping the floors of her shop and thought about mopping. Nah, she thought. It had been a long day and she was tired. She walked towards the back to put the broom up but stopped when she heard the door open.

“There she is,” a familiar voice spoke, sending a tingle up her spine, “Our hero.”

She whirled around, Landon and Jude were standing at the door, smiling, their arms full of flowers.

Faye dropped the broom and ran to embrace them.