Free Revenge of the Brotherhood (Book 3 in the Tom & Laura Series) by John Booth Page B

their pistols pointing straight at them. Tricky started to raise his hands.
    Alice screamed telepathically, but it wasn’t out of fear, and this time it was accurately targeted. The men dropped their weapons, put their hands to their ears and fell to the ground as consciousness fled.
    Tricky walked up to Alice and took her hand.
    “I forgot you can do that.”
    “I didn’t,” Alice said. The two made good their escape at a walk, Alice limping slightly.
     
    Daisy felt probabilities shift like an earthquake. Futures that had been almost certain became indistinct and unlikely. She had to work to stop from vomiting at the dining table. She was in the Officer’s Mess and it would have been highly undignified.
    “Is everything all right, Agent Drew?” Captain Trentwood asked politely.
    Daisy took a shuddering breath as the world settled to take up a new set of futures. “I will be fine. A touch of the vapors, nothing more. If you gentlemen will give me leave, I shall return to my quarters.”
    Nobody said a word in protest so Daisy left the mess and headed to her room to try and figure out what had just happened.
    Most Precogs, even the most powerful, have dreams that might come true. The more intense the event, the closer it is tied to the Precog, the more likely they are to see it and the clearer the vision.
    Daisy saw scenes during the day and night, snapshots of possible futures that related to her friends. She had seen a blurry, but intense event, that cut across all her friends’ timelines as the hearings started. This event would bring death and destruction on an industrial scale unless someone could find a way to prevent it. The only thing she was sure of was that the Royal Family was involved, along with Trelawney.
    The brightest futures for Dougal all required him to go to America. He would come to her when she needed him most. Tom would be in India when Ebb died unless she sent him to Dougal, in which case Tom and Dougal would come home together.
    That was the plan except that now they would not come at all. The most likely future she saw for them was death in an attack by natives. Images of Ebb’s funeral slipped unbidden into her head.
    If Tom had come for Ebb and Dougal for her, then Laura would survive. Now she saw Laura’s death in nearly all the possible futures. In one version she was shot wearing the dress she bought for the wedding, in most of the others she was hanged or shot by soldiers. Daisy’s future mirrored Laura’s, though her fate was usually imprisonment for the rest of her life.
    All the good futures seemed to have gone. Daisy lay back on her bed and wept.
     
    Arnold wondered why he had been summoned this time. Despite staying and listening to Trelawney’s conversation with Tricky he was no wiser as to what was going on, so there were no secrets to give away even if he wanted to.
    At least the morning traffic had been kind and he was early.
    Harris ushered him into Baxter’s inner office.
    “What do you know about a girl called Alice Short?” Baxter asked as he entered the room. There was no social chitchat and no offer to shake his hand.
    “She was one of the children kidnapped and sold to Lord McBride.” Arnold waited for the outburst and curt denial that always followed accusing the late Lord McBride of any crime. It didn’t happen.
    “What else?”
    “She can broadcast telepathically to non telepaths. I believe she is unique in that talent.”
    “You became friends with the child?”
    “She was more Tom and Laura’s friend than mine. They saw more of her than I did.”
    “You know she is in London, staying at the school we set up for the freaks?”
    Arnold was shocked at Baxter’s language. Trelawney would never have said such a thing. “I’m aware there is a school for children with aberrant talents.”
    “Have you any idea why she would be interested in Military Magic’s communication centre?” Harris asked impatiently.
    Arnold made an effort to keep his face