The Pagan Stone Page 0,61

the trouble's been outside."

"This house," Cybil continued. "Incidents since we moved in, and there may have been some during previous Sevens, but no deaths here, no fires. The old library." She paused to look at Fox. "I know you lost someone important to you there, but before Carly's death, there'd been no major incident there. And again, the building itself has never been attacked. There are several other locations, including Fox's family farm and Cal 's family home that have proven to be safe zones. Fox, your office building's another. It can get in, but not physically. Only to create its illusions, so nothing it's been able to do in those places is real. Nor, more importantly, I think, have any of those locations been attacked by those infected during the Seven."

"So the questions are why, and how do we use it." Fox scanned the map. "The old library was Ann Hawkins's home, and my family farm was where she stayed and gave birth to her sons. If we go back to energy, it may be that enough of hers remains as a kind of shield."

"There you go." Quinn planted her hands on her hips. "So we dig and find out what connection the safe zones, or even those places that see less violence, have."

"I can tell you that the land the center sits on was the site of the home Ann Hawkins's sister and her husband built." Cal puffed out his cheeks. "I can check the books, and with my grandmother, but what I remember is it was originally a house, then converted to a market. It morphed and evolved over the years until my grandfather opened the original Bowl-a-Rama. But the land was always Hawkins's land."

"I think that's going to be our why," Layla commented. "But we need to remember that the old library was, well, breached, during the last Seven. It could happen to any of these locations this time."

"There wasn't a Hawkins in the library over the last Seven." Gage continued to study the map, the pattern. "Essie'd retired by then, hadn't she?"

"Yeah, she had. She still went in most every day, but... It wasn't hers anymore." Cal stepped up to look more closely. "They'd already started building the new library, and approved plans to make the old one a community center. It belonged to the town then. Technically, it had for years, but..."

"But emotionally, essentially." Cybil nodded. "It was Essie's. How long has your family owned this house, Cal?"

"I don't know. I'll find out."

"I bought my building from your dad," Fox reminded Cal. "Yeah, that's going to be the why. So how do we use it?"

"Sanctuaries," Layla said.

"Prisons," Gage corrected. "The question will be how do we hold a couple thousand infected people bent on murder and mayhem in a bowling alley, on a farm, and in a law office, to start."

"We can't. I'm not talking about the legal crap," Cal added.

"Hey, if anyone's going to talk about legal crap, it should be me." Fox took a pull from his beer. "And I'm not going to deny trampling over civil liberties isn't a big issue with me during the Seven, but the logistics won't hold."

"How many could we convince to camp out at your farm before they were infected?" Cybil met Fox's eyes as he turned to her. "And yes, I realize what an enormous risk this would be, but if a few hundred people could be talked into going there before the Seven, staying there through it-or until we kill this bastard-then others might be convinced to leave altogether for that period, or hole up in what we'll designate as safe zones, or as close to safe as we can define."

"Some leave anyway," Cal pointed out. "But the majority don't remember, don't get it, not until it's too late."

"It's different this time," Quinn added. "It's been showing itself, showing off. This is all or nothing for both sides. Even if only ten percent of the town moves out or holes up, it's a stand, isn't it?"

"Every step we take toward the positive counts," Cybil agreed.

"But doesn't kill it."

Cybil turned to Gage. "No, but it uses tactics to try to weaken us. We'll counter with those that may weaken it." She gestured toward the board with the Tarot outline. "We all have our strengths, too. Knowing who and what we are is a positive step. We have a weapon in the bloodstone, another positive. We know more, are more, and have more to work with