Kira Petofi, a KGB agent with magical powers has ensnared Maggie Evans in her coils. She has healed Dr. Anderson as a way to gain prestige in Collinsport. Carolyn has married Quentin, who has to obey her directives to use his influcence to destroy Barnabas and Xavier Davenport. Joe has now become the new official head of Megan's agency. Roger tried to kill Quentin, but was stopped by Derek, who using hypnotic powers convinced Roger to look for U.F.O.s instead.


Chapter 1

Kira looked at the audience. The hall was almost full, even if it was still a full fifteen minutes until the meeting officially started.

Bless Dr. Anderson. Since he had walked away from his invalid's bed everyone in town wanted to see and hear Sister Kira. From where she was, she could hear snatches of conversation.

...My sister is a nurse at the hospital and she tells me that they had given up hope on Dr. Anderson...I used to believe that this faith healing was bunk...I wonder...I stopped going to church and now...

Kira composed her face. There should be no trace of smugness in it She must choose her words carefully and the audience would be hers to do whatever she chose to do with them.

At her side, Quentin beamed. People would start paying attention to him again. They had short memories, and soon Louella would be only that.

'Kira smiled indulgently at Quentin. He was using her, or at least that's what he believed. As for the use she had for him...

Sebastian by now should have sent the new tape to Aristide. Given the delays in the U.S. mail, it better left with as much advance as possible.

Soon she would find out if she had chosen right. If there was a notice of Drew Harrison dropping dead of a heart attack in the Longworth Building, then Representative Evans could be considered a full-fledged assassin.

Being a U.S. Representative, few doors would be closed to her.

Quentin came to tell her that it was time. Demurely, she stepped out and advanced to the dais, ignoring the muffled exclamations of the audience.


Her hands were lashed together over her head. She struggled against him as he tightened the laces of her dress.

"No, Josette" Barnabas said "you are not escaping this time."

"I am Maggie Evans!"

"Josette" Barnabas insisted "why are you afraid of me? Don't you remember?"

"This dress is too tight. I can't breathe."

"You always wore it this way."

Suddenly her hands were free and she was holding something...

"Josette" Barnabas said again.

She turned, lifting the object in her hand to his face level. There was a trigger, and she squeezed it...

Barnabas fell down...

Maggie woke up, shaking.

The dream again...Barnabas and her...

Would it ever end? It was not as she was seriously contemplating killing him. He was irritating, sure, but useful at times...

Later, as she drank coffee, she thought about the dream again. What had she used to kill him with? It looked like a gun. But why aim at his face?

Probably Julia could tell her if she asked her.


"Julia" Barnabas thought. How was Julia doing?

Anger came at him as he thought of Kenneth Anderson. he had said loud and clear that Sister Kira was a fraud, and then Sister Kira had cured him. So, instead of being grateful he was just disappointed and angry. And he had taken it out on Julia...

And Julia kept coming apart.

It wasn't all Kenneth's fault. Bitterly he wished it was. If it was, he would be at Julia's side, comforting her, giving her strength.

But Julia refused to see him. Not with words. Just acted distracted as if he wasn't there, as if he didn't really exist.

And each day the distance, the coldness grew...

"Why now, of all time?

A stupid question. There was no good time for it. There was not way to take easily the fact that she had been a willing party to the murder of a friend. Worse, that she had broken her oath as a physician when she had prepared the poison that had killed Dr. David Woodard.

They had buried it, tried to put it behind them, unconsciously trying to find ways to make up for it. but the past wouldn't stay dead.

Angrily he hit the wall with his fist. There was pain and it felt good. He had brought her to this.

He looked at the burning candles, seeing the scene between himself and Julia again. He remembered every one of his own words...every one of hers...

"Why?' he asked, not knowing what it was that he was asking.

"If anything happens to Julia, I will have be the one..."

Unable to stand any more of it, the threw his hand in the flame of a candle, trying to find relief in the pain climbing through him."


Julia looked at her watch. It was getting late and she couldn't stay in Wyncliffe forever. She had to go home.

Home? Where was that? Kenneth did not speak to her. His hurt pride mattered more to him than the fact that he wouldn't be crippled for life...]

...I trusted you, Julia...

No, she tried to control herself. If Kenneth didn't want her, so be it. She would do without him.

...You no longer have friends, Julia...

She fought to control herself. She still had her career. She had Wyncliffe. She was a good doctor...

Yet she couldn't help remembering the Hippocratic Oath. The oath mentioned poisons...

No...no... she was a good doctor. If nothing else, she had that.

"Dr. Hoffman" the receptionist voice came from the intercom. "There is somebody to see you. Mr. Stephen Rogers."

"Yes. I remember him." She wondered if there was any point in talking to that ambulance chaser. But it was better than staying by herself.

Rogers came in, correct as always. he had the same thin smile he had worn the other times he met her. And when he sat down, he still looked as if the seat offered hadn't been dusted properly.

"Hello, Mr. Rogers" Julia forced herself to smile "you haven't changed a bit."

"Neither have you, doctor."

"And to what do I owe this visit? On behalf of whom are you trying to sue me this time?"

"Miss Nora Lane."

"Nora Lane?" Julia thought about it. "I did what I could for her. I regret to say that she wasn't a cooperative patient."

'You still maintain your original diagnosis of her?"

"I am not wrong very often. And not about Nora Lane."

"Did she try to tell you that her symptoms were physiological, not psychological?""

"Yes." Julia shook her head with commiseration "She was afraid to confront her problems, that's why she kept insisting she had an organic disease."

"Did you run tests on her?"

"There was no need to.

Rogers smiled widely, predatorily. "You might be interested in hearing the rest of the story. Nora Lane died. The family insisted in a autopsy. Guess what they found?"

"What did the find?"

"Wilson's' s disease. Produces the same symptoms for which you treated her. An organic disease which can be successfully treated."

Roger bent towards her, noticing with relish how her face was drained. "If you had bothered to run those tests, the disease would have been discovered sooner, and she'd be alive today. You killed by your incompetence, Dr.. Hoffman."

Rogers didn't wait for Julia to dismiss him. Evidently she wasn't in shape to do so. he opened the door by himself and before he crossed it the turned to look at her one last time.

"I knew I' get you sooner or later."


"Megan...uh... Joe shifted his weight nervously.

"What is it, kid?" Megan studied him.

"Can you advance me some money?"

"What do you need it for?"

"I have some bills." Joe lied, knowing that his discomfort gave him away.

"You have a girl?"

"No! I don't"

"Sit down, Joe." she said mildly.

"He did so. "I swear that...

"So what's wrong if you have a girl? In fact I think that it is good that your are rejoining the human race."

Joe looked at her astonished.

"Just why did you think I'd object?"

"Well, you and I...you know..."

"Because you and I have gone to bed together a couple of times? You think I am jealous?

Joe nodded.

"I have gone to bed with practically every male it town."

"But I thought it was different..."

"Yes. It is different. We are business partners. But no more. You take your job seriously and are willing to learn. That does not mean that I am in love with you." she sighed "if I really wanted that kind of a relationship, I wouldn't have divorced Phillip."

"Megan..."

"Don't pity me." she said curtly. "I can't stand it. I know what I can do and what I can't. I am not wife material. I am not girlfriend material I am strictly one-night-stand material... All right, how much money do you want?"

"You are giving it to me?"

"Yes. Just don't make a regular practice of it."

Having finished with Joe, she called Angelique in.

Angelique had dark spots under her eyes. Were those for Barnabas or for Frank? - Megan wondered - Maybe for both. Maybe for herself.

"What do you want?" Angelique made a brave attempt to smile.

"Frank Torrance coming here shook you, kid?"

"No...it has noting to do with it... It was my fault as well as his that it didn't work out."

"All right. Now tell me all you can remember of your attempt to cure Dr. Kenneth Anderson."

"What's to tell? I failed. As you told me, I could have never succeeded."

"Maybe there is more to it" Megan's eyes glinted.

"More to it?"

"When you tried to put the bones in line, did they just refuse to move? Or they began to adjust themselves and the, suddenly went out of joint again?"

"How do you know that?" Angelique sat up straight.

So she's seen it too. Megan thought. And with knowledge, her fighting instinct came back.

"Isn't it an amazing coincidence that Sister Kira was around? Don't you think it was damned convenient for her that accident?"

"You think that she...she might have caused it? I will..."

"You will do nothing." Megan stopped her. "If she is what we suspect she will be on guard against anything you or I can do."

"So what can we do?"

"We are going to put Tammy on her."