Jason hung up the phone. He hoped he'd sounded casual enough. He hadn't wanted to sound too worried. But then again, if Tommy wasn't at home and hadn't told Kat why, should he have sounded more concerned? He'd been so worried about trying not to sound worried if Kat answered that he'd been totally thrown by her news. And still he was in a state of semi-panic.
He had to talk to Tommy.
"Hey! Ninja guys!" he yelled to his empty apartment. "I need to talk to Tommy or Billy." Only silence answered him. All appearances suggested that the apartment was indeed empty.
"Come on. I know you guys spy on my," Jason went on, speaking to the air. "Do something useful and tell Tommy I want to speak to him."
"Why are you trying to contact us?" asked a voice, making Jason nearly jump out of his skin. He spun round to see a ninja standing in his living room.
"Don't you have a less sneaky way of arriving?" asked Jason.
"Why are trying to speak to us?" the question was filled with undisguised dislike. "You were told that you would be allowed to live on the conditions that you didn't speak of us to anyone or try to interfere in anyway."
"I need to speak to either Tommy or Billy," said Jason, not about to be intimidated. "It's highly personal and very important. I'm not interfering." Sure, it did involve these guys in a major way, but Jason considered the contents of his mind to be extremely personal so he didn't feel too guilty about bending the truth.
"You could do with losing the attitude. You should be dead."
"And I think most of you guys will continue to think so no matter how polite I am, so will you go and get my friends."
The ninja vanished into thin air and Jason was left alone in his apartment again. Or at least was given back the appearance of being alone. But not for long. Maybe a minute later, another ninja appeared from nowhere, but this man wore a blue sash across his chest.
"Hi," said Jason, suddenly awkward. "No Tommy?"
"No. If you want to talk to Tommy, you do have a phone," said Billy. Jason knew that the Order had changed Billy, but hearing him talk without dropping in a dozen polysyllabic words into every sentence really drove home how different he was now.
"I tried calling. He's not home and Kat doesn't know where he is. I figured he was with you guys."
"Well he's not." Billy didn't sound too concerned. "What's this about?"
"Is anyone else in the Order listening in?" Jason asked.
"No."
"Are you sure?"
"I'd know if they were."
Jason hesitated. He trusted Billy and they had to know this, but he still hated the thought of actually bringing up in words what was going on in his head. Speaking about it just made it more real to him.
"I had another of those dreams where I'm connected to her." He didn't say her name. He didn't even dare think her name. He knew he was supposed to be under the protection of the Gem now, but the thought of her still frightened him. She could get into the mind of anyone who thought her name and Jason didn't want to go through that again.
"Jason, we agreed you'd ignore this. If anyone else in the Order finds out you're still telepathically connected to our enemy, no matter how tenuous the link may be, you won't survive a week."
"But this is important. She's found a way through your defences."
"Impossible."
"She is confident she's found a way to get one of her soldiers inside the temple."
"Then she's mistaken," Billy said, sounding far too confident.
"You got us in," Jason pointed out.
"I was able to penetrate the physical shields protecting the temple. But she has to overcome not only that, but also the Gem's power. A great deal of its energy is channelled into ensuring she can never locate or enter our temple."
"She is certain she's found a way."
"How?"
"I don't know. All I know is that it has something to do with the twins."
Billy shook his head, "The twins are safe. They're not even going to be Bearers. Tommy's seen to that."
"Billy, trust me. Take this threat seriously."
"I'll keep an eye on the twins. But I can't say anything to anyone else without raising suspicions. The only reason you're still alive is because no one wants to directly go against Tommy's orders."
Jason supposed that was better than nothing. He understood the importance of secrecy and knew his life depended on the Order thinking him perfectly ordinary again. But that often made it harder to deal with the nightmares. Snatches of thought and feelings were able to seep into his subconscious while he slept. Last night, he'd known she was thinking of the twins and feeling smug. Yet the people who most needed to know couldn't be told outright.
"She's planning something big," Jason said.
"I'll do what I can," Billy answered. Jason could at least be sure that Billy believed him. That had to be something.
"Good luck."
The two shook hands and then Billy vanished again. Jason stood alone in his apartment, still worrying. He'd hoped this would ease his concerns, but now they were worse than ever. If Tommy wasn't where he should be and he wasn't with the Order, where the heck was he?