kaitlyn could hear water - a musical gurgling sound. it was soothing and part of her wanted to listen to it and rest.

but she couldn't. there was something... someone she had to worry about. someone...

rob.

not just rob. the others. something terrible had happened and she had to make sure they were all right.

strangely, she wasn't sure just what had happened. all she knew was that it had been awful. she had to piece together just what the awful thing might have been from what she could see around her.

opening her eyes, she found that she was in marisol's van. the van wasn't moving and it wasn't on the road anymore. through the windshield she could see trees, their branches dripping with green moss.

stretching in front of her she could see water. a creek.

for the first time, she realized that there was water around her feet.

idiot! there was an accident!

as soon as she thought it, she looked over to rob. he was blinking, trying to undo his seat belt, seeming as dazed as she felt.

rob, are you okay? instinctively kait used the most intimate form of speech.

rob nodded, still looking stupefied. there was a cut on his forehead. "yeah - are you?"

"i'm sorry; i'm so sorry..." if pressed, kaitlyn couldn't have said what she was apologizing about. she only knew that she'd done something dreadful.

forget sorry. we have to get out of here, gabriel said.

kaitlyn twisted to look behind her. "are you guys all right? is anybody hurt?"

"we're okay - i think," lewis said. he and anna were getting up. they didn't seem to be injured, but their faces were drained of color and their eyes stared wildly.

"help me get this open," gabriel said sharply, wrenching at the side door.

it took all three of them to get the door open, and then kait and rob had to crawl over the center console of the van to go out the same way. jumping out of the van, kaitlyn landed in water so cold it took her breath away. with rob's help, she waded painfully over irregular stones to the bank.

from here she could see what had happened to the van. they'd gone off the road, hit a few trees, and then plunged down a steep embankment into the creek. kaitlyn supposed it was lucky they'd finished right side up. the silver-blue van was dented and battered - the right front fender a mass of twisted metal.

"i'm sorry," she whispered. she now remembered what she had to be sorry for. she was doubly guilty - she'd lost control of the van and she'd failed to interpret her own drawing, the drawing that might have warned her.

"don't worry, kait," rob said gently, putting his arms around her. but then he winced.

"oh, rob, your head - there's a terrible cut."

he put a hand to it. "not that bad." but he squatted down on the fern-covered embankment. rain dripped from the trees around him.

"we should wash it," anna said. "we've got water, but we need some cloth - "

"my duffel bag!" kaitlyn started into the water, but gabriel held her back, seizing her arm ungently.

"that's dangerous, you idiot," he said. his gray eyes were hard.

"but i need it," kaitlyn said. she felt that she could stop the shaking inside her if she just had something to do, some action to perform.

gabriel's mouth twisted. "for god's sake - oh, all right. you stay here." letting go of her so roughly it was almost a push, he turned and waded to the van. a moment later he was splashing back, holding not only kait's bag, but anna's, which contained the files rob had taken from the hidden room.

"thank you," kaitlyn said, trying to look him in the eye.

"the blankets and sleeping bags are all soaked," gabriel said briefly. "not worth saving - we'll never dry them out in this weather."

anna used a t-shirt of kaitlyn's to wash rob's cut and staunch the bleeding. then she said, "hold this, kait," and went hiking up the embankment. she returned with a handful of something green.

"hemlock needles," she said. "they're good for burns; maybe they'll help a cut, too." she applied them to rob's head.

lewis had been staring around at the dripping trees, twirling his baseball hat on one finger. now he said abruptly, "look, what happened? did we skid or - "

"it was my fault," kaitlyn said.

"no, it wasn't," rob said stubbornly. the t-shirt bandage anna had made hung over one eye, giving him the rakish look of a pirate. "there was a goat in the road."

lewis stopped twirling his hat. "a goat."

"yes. a gray goat..." rob's voice trailed off and he looked at kaitlyn. "gray," he said. "colorless, really."

kaitlyn stared at him, then shut her eyes. "oh."

anna said, "you think it was an apparition? like the gray people?"

"of course it was," kaitlyn said. she'd been so shaken by the accident that she'd forgotten what had happened just before. "i'm so stupid - it had red eyes. like some sort of demon. and - oh, rob!" she opened her eyes. "the brakes didn't work. i kept pressing and pressing, but they didn't work!" the trembling at her core seemed to expand suddenly until her whole body was shivering violently.

rob put his arm around her, and she clung to him, trying to calm herself. "so it was a psychic attack," he said. "the goat was some kind of illusion - maybe an astral projection. at durham i heard of psychics who could project a part of themselves in the shape of an animal. and the brakes had been tampered with - it must have been long-distance pk. the whole thing was a setup."

"and we could have been killed," anna said thinly.

gabriel's laugh was harsh. "of course. they're playing for keeps."

rob straightened his shoulders. "well, the van's not worth salvaging - and besides, we'd better not let anybody find us here. they'll ask questions, want to call the police."

kaitlyn could feel her heart skip a beat. she lifted her head to stare at rob in dismay. "but - but, then, what do we do?"

"we go to my house," anna said quietly. "my parents will help us."

rob hesitated. "we agreed, no parents," he said. "we could end up putting them in danger - "

"but we don't have a choice," anna said, just as quietly but with steel behind the softness. "we're stuck without a car or food, we don't have anywhere to sleep... listen to me, rob. my parents can take care of themselves. right now we're the ones in trouble."

"she's right," lewis said soberly. "what else can we do? we can't afford a hotel and we can't sleep out here."

rob nodded reluctantly. kaitlyn allowed herself to feel some relief. just the thought of having somewhere specific to go was comforting. but anna's next words dispelled the comfort.

"it means we'll have to give up following the coast."

anna was saying. "we should just cut straight across to the sound. we'll have to hitchhike, i guess."

" five of us?" gabriel said. "who's going to pick up five teenagers?"

secretly kaitlyn agreed. standing in the rain trying to get a ride - in a strange state - when there were five of you - and you had to be on the alert for the police... well, it wasn't her idea of fun. but what other choice did they have?

"we've got to try," rob was saying. "at least, maybe somebody will take anna and kait with 'em - and then maybe the girls can find a phone and call anna's folks."

helping each other, they climbed through the wet ferns and bracken, up the embankment, and to the road. rob said they had better walk a little distance away from the van to lessen the chance that they'd be connected with it.

"we're lucky," he said. "you can't see the creek from the road, and nobody was around to actually see the accident."

kaitlyn tried to keep reminding herself she was lucky as she stuck her thumb out, staring down the lonely road.

there weren't many cars. a long truck carrying huge logs passed without stopping. so did a black chevy pickup full of orange and green fishing net.

kaitlyn looked around as they waited. the rain had eased to a drizzle, but the world had a sodden look that was rather menacing. all the trees here, including the alders, were covered with thick mint-colored moss. it was a disturbing sight, all those branches that weren't white or brown, but lumpy unnatural green.

she felt a glow in the web just as lewis asked, "what are you doing, rob?"

rob was standing with his eyes shut, an expression of concentration on his face. "just moving energy around," he said. "i could think better if this cut would start healing." he opened his eyes, pulling the t-shirt bandage off. kait saw with relief that the cut had stopped bleeding. there was even a little color in rob's face.

"okay," he said and smiled. "now, how about the rest of you? anybody starting to hurt?"

lewis shrugged; anna shook her head. gabriel kept looking down the road, ignoring the question.

kaitlyn shifted, then said, "no, i'm fine." she wasn't; she was chilled and miserable and her entire left side had begun to ache. but she felt somehow that she didn't merit healing. she didn't deserve it.

"kait - i can feel you're not," rob was beginning, when lewis said, "another car!"

it was approaching slowly, an old pontiac the color of pumpkin pie.

"it won't stop," gabriel said sourly. " nobody's going to stop for five teenagers."

the car passed them, and kait got a glimpse of a young woman behind the rain-splattered window.

then brake lights flashed, and the car slowed to a stop.

"come on!" rob said.

as they reached the car, the driver's window opened. kaitlyn heard the beat of caribbean music, and then a voice. "you looking for a ride?"

it wasn't a young woman, kaitlyn realized. it was a girl. a girl who didn't look any older than they were.

she was slender and small-boned, with a pale and delicate face that contrasted sharply with her heavy shock of dark hair. her eyes were gray-green.

"we sure are," lewis said eagerly. kaitlyn could feel his admiration in the web. "we're a little wet, though," he added apologetically. "well, more than a little. a lot."

"doesn't matter," the girl said carelessly. "the seats are vinyl - it's my granny's car. get in."

kaitlyn hesitated. there was something about this girl - she seemed fragile, but there was something almost furtive about her.

rob? i'm not sure we should.

rob glanced at kait in surprise. what's wrong?

i don't know. she's just - does she seem okay to you?

she seems great to me, lewis interrupted. jeez, what a babe. and i'm freezing out here.

kaitlyn still wasn't sure. anna?

anna had been walking around the back of the pontiac, but had stopped at kaitlyn's first message. now she said gently, you're probably still shaken up, kait. i think she's fine - and besides, we can all fit in this car!

"yes, we can, can't we?" gabriel said aloud, not seeming to mind the girl's inquisitive glance. kaitlyn wondered how they must appear to the girl - all five of them standing frozen and silent - and then gabriel suddenly coming out with this strange rhetorical question.

all right, let's do it, kait said hastily. she was embarrassed, and she didn't want to argue anymore. but as rob opened the door, she asked gabriel, what did you mean?

nothing. it's just an interesting coincidence that we jit, that's all.

anna and lewis got in the front with the girl. kaitlyn slid in the back seat after rob, and gabriel followed her. the white vinyl seats creaked under their weight.

"my name's lydia," the girl said in that same careless voice. "where are you going?"

they introduced themselves - or rather lewis introduced them - and anna said, "we're trying to get to suquamish, near poulsbo - but that's pretty far away. where were you headed?"

lydia shrugged. "i wasn't headed anywhere, really. i took the day off school to drive around."

"oh, do you go to north mason high? i have a cousin there."

anna's question was perfectly innocent, but lydia seemed affronted. "it's a private school," she said briefly. then she said, "are you getting enough heat back there? if i turn it too high, the windows steam up."

"it feels great," rob said. he was holding kaitlyn's hands in his own, rubbing them. and he was right, being in a warm dry car was wonderful. kaitlyn's brain felt almost stupefied at the sudden luxury.

she was aware, though, that lydia was watching them keenly, casting glances at lewis and anna beside her, then looking up into the rearview mirror to examine the three in the back. although lewis seemed to enjoy the scrutiny it made kait uncomfortable, particularly when lydia began frowning and chewing her lip in a speculative way.

"so what were you doing back there?" lydia asked finally, very casually. "you're awfully wet."

"oh. we were..." lewis fumbled for words.

"we went for a hike," gabriel said evenly. "we got caught in the rain."

"looks more like you got caught in a flood."

"we found a creek," gabriel said before lewis could answer.

"so you guys are from around here?"

"from suquamish," anna said - and for her, at least, that was the truth.

"you take long hikes," lydia said, looking in the rearview mirror again. kait noticed that she had exactly three freckles on her small nose.

somehow lydia's skepticism had calmed kait's own suspicions. it wasn't really furtiveness lurking in those gray-green eyes, she decided. it was more defensiveness, as if lydia had been beaten up by life a great deal. kaitlyn felt sympathetic.

they were driving inland, now, through stands of evergreen trees with tall bare trunks. to kaitlyn, they looked like hundreds of soldiers standing at attention.

lydia shook back her hair and tilted her chin up. "i hate going to private school," she said suddenly. "my parents make me."

kaitlyn, relaxing in the warmth of the car, tried to think of something to say to that. but lewis was already sympathizing. "that's too bad."

"it's so strict - and boring. nothing exciting ever happens."

"i know. i went to private school once," lewis said. lydia changed the subject abruptly.

"do you always take duffel bags when you go hiking?"

"yes," gabriel said. he seemed to be able to handle lydia best. "we use them like backpacks," he said, seeming amused.

"isn't that a little awkward?"

gabriel didn't answer. lewis just smiled engagingly.

there was another minute or so of fidgeting from lydia, and then she burst out, "you're running away, aren't you? you don't really live around here at all. you're hitchhiking across the country or something - aren't you?"

don't tell her anything, gabriel thought to lewis, just as lydia said, "you don't have to tell me. i don't care. but i wish i could have an adventure sometime. i'm so tired of private riding clubs and country clubs and key clubs and the assistance league." she was silent for a moment and then added, "i'll drive you to suquamish if you'll tell me the way. i don't care how far it is."

kaitlyn didn't know what to make of the girl. she was a strange, excitable creature - that was certain.

and she felt left out, an outsider looking in on the five of them.

kaitlyn remembered how that felt - being outside. back in ohio she had been outside everything. she'd been too different; her blue-ringed eyes had been too strange, her psychic drawings had been too spooky. no one at her old high school had wanted to consort with the local witch.

but she still wasn't sure about lydia - and she didn't like the way lydia pushed so hard to get in.

don't tell her anything, she advised lewis, echoing gabriel's opinion. after a moment lewis lifted his shoulders in acquiescence.

"we'd be grateful if you'd take us to suquamish," rob said gently, and then they all shut up and listened to the radio.

"turn here," anna said. "it's just down this street - there, that house with the oldsmobile in front of it."

it was twilight, but kaitlyn could see that the house was the same red-brown color as anna's cedar basket. it must be made of cedar, she realized. the spruce and alder trees around it were becoming mere towering shapes as dark fell.

"we're here," anna said softly.

a house, kaitlyn thought. a real house with parents in it, adults who would help take care of them. for the moment it was all kait wanted. she stretched her stiff, clammy legs and watched gabriel reach for the door handle.

lydia blurted, "i guess you weren't running away. i didn't know you really had somewhere to go. sorry."

"it doesn't matter. thanks for the ride," rob said.

lydia hunched her shoulders. "sure," she said. it was the voice of someone who hasn't been invited to a party. then she said in subdued tones, "could i use your bathroom?"

"oh - sure," anna said. "hang on, i'd better go inside first." mom isn't going to be expecting us, she added silently.

moving quickly and lightly, anna ran up to the house. the others waited in the car, looking through steam-clouded windows. after a few minutes anna came back, leading a short, motherly woman who looked bewildered but humorously resigned. kait thought suddenly that she knew where anna got her serenity.

"come inside, all of you," the woman said. "i'm mrs. whiteraven, anna's mother. oh, my goodness, you're wet and half-frozen. come in!"

they went in, and lydia went with them.

inside, kaitlyn got a quick impression of a crowded, comfortable living room and two identical boys who looked about nine or ten. then anna's mother was hustling them into the back of the house, running hot baths and gathering clean clothes.

"you boys will just have to wear some of my husband's things," she said. "they'll be big, but they'll have to do."

some time later kaitlyn found herself warm and faintly damp from a bath, dressed in anna's clothes and sitting in front of the fireplace.

"your mother's nice," she whispered to anna. "isn't she a little surprised to have us turn up like this? did she ask you any questions?"

not yet. she's more interested in feeding us and getting us warm. but i know one thing - she hasn't heard anything from the institute. she thought i was still at school.

they had to stop talking then because anna's little brothers came in and started asking her about california. anna managed to tell them about it without mentioning mr. zetes or the institute.

mrs. whiteraven bustled back in. "anna, your other friend was just waiting in the hall. i sent her to wash up. we'll have dinner in a few minutes, as soon as the boys are ready."

"but she isn't - " anna began. she broke off as lydia walked into the room, looking small and almost pathetic. it would be too rude to say "she isn't my friend" when mrs. whiteraven had just invited her to dinner.

after all, she did give us a ride, anna said to kaitlyn, who shrugged.

rob, gabriel, and lewis appeared wearing billowing flannel shirts and jeans tightly belted to keep them on. kaitlyn and anna nobly refrained from giggling, but lydia grinned. lewis grinned back at her, unabashed. they sat down with anna's mother and father at the table.

dinner was hamburgers and smoked salmon, corn and broccoli and salad, with berry pie for dessert and thomas kemper's old fashioned birch soda to wash it down. kaitlyn had never been so happy to see vegetables. all five of them from the institute dug in with an enthusiasm that made mrs. whiteraven's eyes widen, but she didn't ask any questions until they'd finished eating.

then she wiped her hands on a dish towel, pushed her chair back, and said, "now, suppose you kids explain what you're doing in washington?"