"Alex? Alex? Yo, Alex! What are you waiting for? WAKE UP!"

"Huh? Whassamatter?"

My voice is a bit slurred as I snap out of my daze. I look around and see Steve standing behind me under the streetlight.

"Why'd you zone out, huh?" Steve asks. "And who was that guy? Did you see his face? Did you know him?"

I look down at the fountain again, half-expecting the tall guy to rise back out of the water at any moment.

"I think..." I whisper, my voice faltering. "I think I might've just met my dad."

"How can you be sure?"

"He looked just like Gabe," I say, still looking into the fountain. "I mean, we always suspected Gabe would be practically a clone of the guy, 'cause he looks nothing like our mom. But that was just freaky, seeing the real thing up close and personal like that."

Steve rubs his scarred neck and looks into the fountain as well. "So he actually just jumped in...and dissolved?"

"That's what I saw, too."

"Holy shit," Steve whispers. "It's true. That must mean...oh. Oh God. It all happened exactly like we thought."

"Now what do we do?" I wonder.

Steve turns away from the fountain and looks up the street. "He should be here any second now," he says.

"Who's 'he?'"

"Hang on, I'm gonna ask Crowe..." Steve begins, taking his phone out of his pocket.

He's interrupted as Freddie appears next to me, out of breath like he'd just run across the street. "Was that the guy?" he asks.

Steve's busy texting Penny, so I fill Freddie in on this latest development myself. His reaction is almost the same as Steve's, except he goes for more heavy profanity.

"He's almost here," Steve says afterwards, closing his phone. "Crowe says they've just crossed the town line. That should put 'em here in about a minute."

"Again, who is this guy?" I ask.

Ninety seconds later, my question is answered as a black Acadia Denali double-parks outside the hospital, and its driver jumps out mere moments after shutting the ignition off. He's even taller than the guy I just saw, but not quite as greasy-looking. In fact, he's wearing a nice suit - although I have to wonder, do light blue ties really go with brown suits?

I see his profile for a quick moment before he steps into the hospital, and recognize him by his long, broken-looking nose. I don't actually know this man all that well, but I have met him once or twice at the bookstore. He's Paul's dad, Robert Smythe, co-owner of Smythe and Darknell Books.

Steve and Freddie beckon me to follow them into the SUV.

"Are you guys sure about this?" I ask. "I'm already gonna be in deep enough shit as it is. I'm not supposed to be here. Balthazar's on lockdown."

"Need I remind you that the Aqua Killer has now gotten into the school undetected twice?" Steve points out. "Get in, dude. We're going somewhere safer tonight."

"How can you be sure?"

"Because Mr. Smythe knows how to keep the Aqua Killer out of his place," Freddie says. "We'll let him explain, it's better coming from him anyway."

"Wait, we're not going to the halfway house?" I ask.

"No," Steve says. "Live people aren't supposed to be in there anyway. It's just that Mr. Smythe owns the cabin where the gateway back to the halfway house is hidden."

"So he knows about all this already?"

"Again," Freddie says, trying to sound like he's possessed of infinite patience, "Mr. Smythe can explain it better than we can."

I look around and sigh exasperatedly. At this point, flying back to Balthazar isn't really an option, not this long after dark. And in any case, the school does have motion sensors on the walls, so anybody who leaves during a lockdown will invariably get caught. I'd probably just find myself being brought in to Saltz's office, unable to explain myself without sounding like I need urgent psychiatric attention.

I figure I might as well just go with the increasing insanity that is becoming my life.

So I step into the Acadia, settling into the second row, passenger-side, while Steve and Freddie join Penny in the back.

We don't have long to wait until Mr. Smythe returns with his son in tow, and steps back into the driver's seat. He turns around and sees me, then says, "Alex Snow. I was told to expect you." I've almost forgotten that he's not American - his accent is forever stuck somewhere halfway between American and his native English.

I shake hands nervously with Mr. Smythe. "I sure wasn't expecting to be out here myself."

Mr. Smythe scoffs. "Neither was I. I long suspected this day would come, but all the preparation in the world couldn't get me ready to face Elijah Emery again." He starts the ignition and pulls away with squealing tires, maneuvering the big SUV back to the main highway as quickly as he can.

"'Again?'" I ask, feeling a bit foolish because I'm the only one here who's totally unaware of any of this. Well, maybe Paul is as well, but I can't be sure. "Wait, so you're sure this Elijah Emerson - or whatever his name is - is the Aqua Killer?"

"Yes," Mr. Smythe says. "Elijah Emery is the man you call the Aqua Killer. And I have worked with him before - during Project Red Rain."

My mouth drops open. Mr. Smythe, work on a top-secret military project? I don't believe it.

"Believe it, Mr. Snow," Mr. Smythe says, hearing my thoughts. "I only got into bookselling after Red Rain went pear-shaped. Jack and I agreed it was a good idea, because we couldn't leave this town, and the niche was definitely open for the taking."

My mind wanders for a moment, trying to think who Jack might be, before I remember that it's Mr. Darknell's first name.

"And Elijah Emery?" I ask, taking care to get his name right for once. "That man I saw in front of the hospital just now, was that him?"

"Was he about six-foot-one, dirty-blond, gray-eyed?"

"Yes. Yes, he was."

Mr. Smythe sighs. "Yes, that's Elijah. I see he hasn't changed much - physically, that is. Although I would assume he's let his hair and beard grow in considerably since we last met."

I lean back into the leather seat, my worst fears confirmed. Gabe and I really are the sons of a depraved serial killer. My heart sinks at the thought.

"What's this Project Red Rain bull?" Paul asks, confirming my earlier suspicions that he's just as much in the dark about all this as I am. "One of those woo-hoo weirdo experiments they talk about on TV all the time?"

Mr. Smythe chuckles under his breath as he steers the SUV around a tight hairpin turn. "I have to wonder what sort of TV you've been watching, son, if they talk about 'woo-hoo weirdo experiments' all the time. But yes, that's essentially what Project Red Rain is."

He then launches into an explanation of the finer points of Red Rain - basically the same details Russell showed us in that library book this afternoon. I tune out for a while, hoping to get a better handle on the situation by continuing to think about it. It doesn't work, unfortunately.

"...and Elijah finally lost his patience when he realized that we were no closer to figuring out how to restore his lost powers than we had been the previous month," Mr. Smythe continues from the driver's seat. The souls and I start paying attention again; this information is new to all of us. "He tried to strangle me when I went to take another blood sample from him on - what day was it again? - the 24th. And then the next day, he got out of his cell through the toilet, and took Max hostage - your father, Ms. Crowe," he says, angling the rearview mirror for a moment so he can look Penny in the eye. "He held Max at gunpoint," he continues, "and at that point Rector set off sleeping gas tanks in the main lab - a little secret security measure he'd set up. Next thing I knew, the MPs were coming in, helping all of us out, and they had Elijah in handcuffs and gloves."

He pauses long enough for Steve to ask a question. "Wait, so when was Elijah supposedly shot dead?"

"You got that from the conspiracy book, right?"

"Yes, sir."

Mr. Smythe makes that dark chuckle again. "A lie that Rector's lawyer convinced him to spread. The lawyer wanted Rector to claim Elijah was dead, and that Rector had shot him in self-defense. But no, that's not what happened. Elijah was locked up in a maximum-security stockade, specially built for powerful water elementals like himself.

"But the last thing he said before the MPs loaded him into their paddy wagon was that he would have his revenge. Elijah said..." Mr. Smythe stops and takes a breath. "He said he was going to come after our firstborn children. All of them." He turns to Paul, then to the souls. "All of you are the firstborns of Red Rain angel scientists and demon consultants. And you're not the only ones. There are three more firstborns out there that are all in danger now."

"Jeanne Darknell?" I ask, remembering the girl who'd sold me Cinder.

"Yes," says Mr. Smythe. "And another angel, and another demon. We won't be able to rescue the last demon, or Jeanne, tonight, but perhaps tomorrow. Tonight, though, we'll get the other angel target out of Balthazar."

"So that's where we're going right now?" Paul asks. "To get another one of our classmates?"

"Are you aware they've locked down the school?" I ask, tired of making this point so many times in the course of a few minutes.

"Believe me, Barry wants nothing more than to keep his students safe," Mr. Smythe says. "He'll have no problem giving her to me. He knows where I'm coming from, anyway. He was one of the Red Rain scientists as well."

I'm on the point of expressing surprise, but I don't. Really, at this point, nothing would surprise me anymore. Out of nowhere, another memory pops back into my head, and I ask Mr. Smythe, "Did you recognize me when we first met? You and Mr. Darknell both?"

Mr. Smythe frowns as he thinks back to that day as well. It was almost two years ago, when I was still a freshman, browsing in the bookstore and looking for a potential Christmas gift for Gabe. The two store-owners were walking towards the back door that leads into their office, and had passed by me along the way.

When Mr. Smythe had shaken my hand for the first time, his initial reaction was to ask, "Have we met before? Probably not, but you do look very familiar. Don't you agree, Jack?"

"I know I've seen someone who looks like you before," Mr. Darknell said. "Do we know your mom or your dad, by any chance?"

"I don't think so," I said. "I'm from the Bay Area. I just go to school at Balthazar."

I look at Mr. Smythe again, listening in on his thoughts as he replays that conversation in his head. "You recognized me by my eyes, at least," I say. "Didn't you?"

Mr. Smythe remains silent as he drives into Coldfire Creek. Turning onto the delivery road, he sighs and says, "Yes. I could tell right away that you had to be related to Elijah, but I didn't guess you were his son at first. I didn't think it was possible that Elijah could have had a son your age, not since he'd been in prison all that time."

"Our mother was artificially inseminated," I say. "And my brother's a demon, but he can fly - he's got full-sized wings."

The SUV stops in front of the school gates. "We did take sperm samples from Elijah as well as blood samples," Mr. Smythe says. "I don't know about you, but at the time, I was counting on them just being used for research, not for...not for that." He breaks off this current line of conversation and rolls down his window so he can talk on the intercom. "Barry, you know why I'm here," he says. "You might as well let me in so we can take care of this quickly and quietly."

After a very long pause, the gates finally open and Mr. Smythe drives in. He stops in front of the door, where Dr. Saltz is already standing on the steps, a tall girl at his side.

I have to crack open the tinted window to be sure I'm seeing this right.

The girl we're taking back to Smythe's cabin is none other than Dani Cabrera.

Mr. Smythe leads Dani around to the driver's side and opens the rear door for her. Dani climbs in and looks around, expressing shock as she sees both me and Paul, but then she sees Steve in the backseat, and she's lost for words.

For a minute, anyway. It's not until Mr. Smythe has driven back out the gate and told Dani that he expects she must have hundreds of questions that she says, "Yeah, I do. For starters, what the hell is going on here?"

Mr. Smythe sighs before again explaining the current situation, this time entirely for Dani's benefit. By the time he's finished, we've reached our destination.

The cabin is three stories tall, with a wraparound deck on the second floor. Mr. Smythe parks the Acadia in the detached garage, then leads us upstairs to the living room on the second floor. "Just make yourselves at home, kids," he says. "I'll go back into town to get some dinner. Perhaps some of your pizza, Freddie?"

"Don't tell 'em I sent you," Freddie says with a smile.

Mr. Smythe laughs, then backs out the door, leaving the rest of us sitting awkwardly on the three loveseats arranged in a semicircle in the middle of the living room.