Page 25 of Yankee in the Wind

Lilly switched on the bedside lamp, casting a warm light on the bed. She put her hands on Jack’s shoulders to wake him gently. But he continued mumbling something unintelligible and moved his head from side to side. Beneath her palms, his muscles tightened, and all of a sudden, he shook off her hands, grabbed her and tossed her on her back. All air rushed from Lilly’s lungs.

“Jack, stop!” she cried out.

He suddenly froze, still hovering above her. It took another second before his eyes focused, and he appeared to recognize her.

With a curse, he let go of her and sat back on his heels.

“Fuck! Lilly, I’m so sorry. Did I hurt you?”

She sat up, still a little shaken, but no worse for wear. “No, you didn’t. I’m fine. You had a nightmare.”

He took a few quick breaths. “Not a nightmare. A premonition.”

“Oh! You have them in your sleep?” she asked, curious, since he hadn’t talked much about this subject earlier.

“No.”

“But—”

“What I mean to say is not normally. My premonitions come to me when I’m awake. This is the only one that comes in my sleep. And it’s not the first time.”

“Are you saying you get the same vision repeatedly?”

“This one yes. And I’m not the only one who gets them. The other Stargate agents get them too. But nobody has yet figured out what they mean.”

“What do you all see?”

“That’s just it, we all see something different, but we know we’re seeing the same thing.”

She wrinkled her forehead. “Uhm, that doesn’t make sense. How would you know that if you all see something different?”

“It’s a sense we all get. We know it’s the end game, a big event that we’re meant to prevent.”

It sounded ominous. “What kind of event?”

“We’re not sure. There is a massive explosion, dead bodies, a shockwave…” He ran a shaking hand through his hair. “I feel an explosion…” He hesitated. “Somewhere in Washington D.C. I see the White House, and then I feel a shockwave, indicating that the explosion is happening somewhere behind me, but the moment I turn around, the premonition ends.”

Now she was trembling and instinctively pulled the duvet closer to her naked body. “Do all your premonitions come true?”

He nodded. “So far, yes. That is, unless I interfere and change the outcome like I did yesterday. I haven’t always been able to stop what happened in my premonitions, particularly not during the last three years. There’s a risk.”

She stared at him. “What kind of risk?”

“That I’ll be recognized.”

“But you had plastic surgery. Not even I recognized you.”

“Not recognized by my face, but by what I do: prevent an impending disaster. Whoever is hunting Stargate agents is watching the news for people who might have had prior knowledge of an accident or some other calamity and intervenes.”

Her heart beat frantically now. “Do you think somebody saw that you saved me from the shooter yesterday?”

For a moment, Jack was silent, contemplating his answer. “Yes, the shooter did. That’s why I had to get you out of there quickly and change cars. I’m sure he’s already reported to his boss what I did. And Mr. Smith has most likely already put two and two together and realized that I’m one of the men he’s hunting.”

“Wait! Mr. Smith? You know who he is?”

“No. But we know that he calls himself Smith, because Fox’s girlfriend had contact with him.”

“So she knows what he looks like.”