She felt the straps on the gurney loosening and then she started prying her eyes open. She thought, hoped, it was Stone, but she couldn't see well enough to be absolutely sure. Her mind and her vision were still overflowing with horrifying nightmares of time gone awry. What did all those bizarre dreams mean?
She was groggy but was coming alert. Perhaps it was the sense of electricity in the room, but something very unscheduled was going on.
When she finally got her eyes open and focused, what greeted her was a blinding row of white lights directly overhead that seemed to isolate her. But there was tumult all around her in the lab, a cacophony of alarmed voices echoing off the hard surfaces of glass and steel. She squinted into the light as she felt Stone slip his arm around her shoulders and raise her up.
Thank God, he's here, she thought.
"Come on," he was saying. "She's not interested in you. She just wants Kristen out of here. This is the only way."
"Who . . . ?" She was startled by the sound of her own voice, mildly surprised to discover she was even capable of speech.
She gazed around, trying to find her when . . . Jesus!
Katherine Starr was standing next to Kristen. She was moving in a surreal way, gripping Kristen's hand and pulling her along.
Stone had found her. He had understood. Katherine Starr appeared to be wearing a blue bathrobe under a gray mackintosh, but the part that got Ally's attention was the knife she was holding, glistening like a scalpel.
No, it was a scalpel, shiny and sharp as a razor.