Wild Country (The World of the Others #2)- Anne Bishop Page 0,135
in Bennett. Your counterpart in the Northeast cabin needs to make an urgent call to Steve Ferryman at the mayor’s office in Ferryman’s Landing.” Jesse stopped. Thought. “No. Your counterpart needs to make an emergency call and inform Steve that Tolya Sanguinati is sending him a prophet drawing via e-mail. Steve needs to get it to the right people as fast as he can. He’ll know who they are.”
“When is Tolya Sanguinati sending this e-mail?”
“As I speak. But Steve needs to know it’s coming, even if he gets the phone message a minute ahead of the e-mail.”
A weighty silence. “What kind of emergency?”
“Life or death for all of us.” Her words weren’t an exaggeration; they were the painful, terrifying truth.
Some commotion suddenly in the background. Raised voices. The man said, “Hold on a minute.”
Jesse listened to the voices, then looked at Jana. “Something’s wrong there.”
“Are they under attack?” Jana asked.
“You there?” The man sounded spooked. Since he was an Intuit, that wasn’t good.
“I’m here,” Jesse replied.
“You said Steve Ferryman at Ferryman’s Landing. That’s the Intuit village on Great Island, near Lakeside and Talulah Falls. Is that right?”
“Yes.” Definitely something wrong.
“A rider from the other cabin just came in with a printout of an e-mail that was sent from Ferryman’s Landing to a long list of Intuit villages as well as the Northeast communications cabin. It’s asking everyone to be on the lookout.” He hesitated. “Does that picture you’re sending have anything to do with the Lakeside Courtyard?”
“Why?”
“Because the Lakeside Courtyard’s Human Liaison was abducted a short while ago by a man named Cyrus James Montgomery.”
Jesse felt her stomach roll. Fighting against the nausea, she said, “Then let’s all hope that what we’re sending will help them find her in time.”
* * *
* * *
Parlan had done his duty, flirting with his business partners’ wives enough to make them feel good without flirting so much that the husbands might feel a flicker of jealousy—if they could take their eyes off the prettier, younger women who were traveling on the train. Now he wanted to go back to his private car before the train left the station—and before one of the women invited herself to join him.
“If you ladies will excuse me …” He pushed his chair back.
“It’s outrageous,” a man said as he and a companion entered the car and took the table on the opposite side of the aisle. “And no explanation!”
“There’s a problem on the tracks?” Parlan suddenly felt uneasy in the same way he did when a game turned sour. “My apologies for intruding on your conversation, but what you just said sounds alarming.”
“Alarming?” The man huffed. “Damned inconvenient, that’s what it is. The station in Bennett is closed, so now all the trains are being held at whatever station is their nearest stop until … Well, that’s the point. No one will tell us why the Bennett station closed, so no one can tell us when we’ll get moving again.”
“There was that robbery at the way station the other day,” the man’s companion said. “Maybe the authorities are closing in on the robber. He shot one of the people working at that station, didn’t he?”
“If that was the case, you’d think they’d want the trains moving instead of being sitting targets. Might as well put up a big sign that says, ‘We’re stuck here, come rob us.’ ”
Spotting the conductor as the man entered the car, Parlan raised a hand, a quiet command that received more attention than the men who, also spotting the conductor, were loudly demanding answers.
“Gentlemen,” Parlan said sternly. “We’d all like to hear what the conductor has to tell us, so be quiet now.”
They wanted to argue—oh, how they wanted to argue—but they looked in his eyes and saw a hint of why he was the leader of the Blackstone Clan, why he, who seldom got his hands dirty, had influence over a man like Judd McCall.
“If you could tell us what you know,” Parlan said quietly, shifting his gaze back to the conductor.
“Station master at Bennett said the Others are hunting for a human enemy, and he was closing his station until further notice. No trains allowed in and nothing going out. Every station master who received the message is holding the trains.”
“Why? Surely a problem at one station shouldn’t put a freeze on the trains throughout the Midwest.”
The conductor gave him a strange smile. “One of the Sanguinati is the station master in Bennett. If he’s giving the warning … Well,