by R. D. Brady
Frustration rolled through Laney. “I have no idea what that means.”
“But I do. So suffice it to say, there is a connection.”
“Well, gee, thanks for that whole bit of non-information. Now if you don’t mind, I have work to do.”
“What if I told you I know how they find their victims?”
Laney studied him, her mind working furiously trying to figure out Gerard’s angle. Was he trying to throw her off the search by feeding her false information? What would be the point of that, unless he was covering for someone? And if he really was on the outs with Elisabeta, he wouldn’t have a lot of people to turn to for help. But even so, what was the likelihood that the people who had gone after Gerard were the same people who went after the companions?
Laney shook her head. “Look, Gerard, I have enough on my plate. And I just can’t see how the companion killers went after you.”
“Even so, I am willing to tell you what I know. Because I believe they are connected.”
Laney wasn’t sure what to say to that. He wasn’t asking for anything. He was… offering something. It was at least worth listening to what he had to say. It probably wasn’t related, but if it was…
She sighed. “Okay. I’m listening. You said you have an idea about how they’re finding their victims?”
“I’m very good at my what I do. I know when someone is watching me. And due to Elisabeta’s interest in my well-being, I have been even more vigilant since India. No one has been watching me.”
“Great. What does that mean?”
“It means they found me without surveying me first.”
Laney frowned. “Have you left an electronic trail?”
Gerard laughed. “Oh, please. I’m the one Elisabeta sent to track people down; I know how to hide. I did not slip up. I believe they found me by a more,” he paused, “unconventional method.”
Laney’s frustration tolerance was about at its end. “What does that mean?”
“It means that I believe that I, my Fallen brothers, and the companion victims were all found by the same means.”
“And what means is that?”
“Psychics.”
CHAPTER 38
Laney stared at Gerard. She wasn’t sure if she should groan, disconnect the call, or worry about the Fallen’s mental health. “Psychics? Seriously?”
Gerard’s voice was dry. “Yes, ring bearer, this Fallen angel is telling you that psychics may be in the mix.”
Laney shrugged. Well, when you put it that way. “Any idea who the psychics are?”
Gerard smiled. “I need to leave you with something to do on your own,” he said, and the screen went blank.
Laney sat back, her hand on her chin. Psychics. What the hell?
Her phone beeped and she read the new text. Couldn’t trace it. You okay?
I’m good. I’ll tell you about it later.
She stood up and shook her head. Apparently Gerard had taken a turn into crazy town. She headed for the fridge to grab a bottle of water while she chewed over the idea. Psychics. Was that even possible?
Part of her rebelled at the thought, but another part of her observed the hypocrisy of that view. After all, Edgar Cayce was a huge part of almost every event she had been involved in since everything began, and he was an incredibly powerful psychic. And she knew that psychic ability wasn’t limited to the ability to tell the future; it ran the gamut from mediums to remote viewing to intuits to all sorts of other skills.
If psychics were real, was someone seeing the victims and then targeting them?
If so, how the hell was she supposed to stop them?
And now she was, what—taking the word of Gerard? Elisabeta’s right hand man and the man who had kidnapped Max?
She realized that she now had two of her former enemies appearing to help her. If this kept up, she’d soon get an invite from Elisabeta to meet for dinner and a movie.
Patrick knocked on the doorframe, pulling Laney from her thoughts. “Hey,” she said, closing her laptop.
“You look rather far away,” he said, taking a seat across from her.
“I was. I thought you were heading back to the school.”
Patrick shook his head. “There’s some books here I want to go through before I head back. Are you all right?”
She paused, debating what to tell him. “I just got a call from Gerard Thompson.”
“What?”
“He said the companion murder victims are being found through psychics.” She told him about the rest of their conversation.
When she finished, Patrick rested his hand on his chin. “Huh.”
Laney watched him. “Yet again, you do not look as surprised as you should.”
Patrick gave her a small smile.
Laney tried not to groan. “Out with it.”
“Remember how I said there were one or two other factors that led me to believe the Honu Keiki could be the descendants of Mu?”
Laney nodded.
“Well, one of the stranger rumors that has circulated about the Honu Keiki is that they have psychic abilities.”
Laney wondered for a moment if she was dreaming. First Gerard, now psychics. Although if it’s a dream, it needs fewer Fallen and more Chippendales.
“I don’t get it. What does that have to do with Mu?” Laney asked.
“As Jen explained, the people of Mu were much more concerned with their inner life than their outer one. Deep meditations were a daily part of life. As a result, the legends say the people of Mu developed psychic abilities. Highly developed psychic abilities.”
Laney wasn’t sure what to say. It’s not that she didn’t believe in the possibility of psychic abilities. I mean, she was the ring bearer, and Henry and Jen were nephilim. But the truth was, despite everything she’d been through, whenever she thought about psychics, her first thought was of some woman in a turban trying to make a buck, or a con man who had information whispered into his ear by the man behind the curtain. Hucksters and charlatans.
Yet it had been Laney’s dreams of her past lives that had led her to the ring of Solomon. She had first-hand experience with real psychic ability. So why was she so instinctively skeptical?
For some reason, a quote attributed to Nikola Tesla popped into her mind: The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence.
Even one of the greatest minds of the twentieth century recognized that the physical world was not all there was to know. Even with regard to his own intellect, Tesla acknowledged an outside force at work. He had visions of machines that were perfect in their clarity. He could move them around almost like a hologram. His concentration was said to be complete and intense.
Almost like a trance, Laney thought.
Cayce had said his information came from the Akashic Record—an accounting of all that had happened and would happen. And Cayce accessed this information only when in a deep trance.
Was what her uncle was saying all that different from what those incredible men had experienced? Were other people also able to access information outside of themselves, from the greater universe?
So many things had happened in the last two years that on paper shouldn’t be possible. And yet…
Then, of course, there were the tales about the children who had incredible abilities, like the superkids of China. Was it possible? Were the test subjects of the lab experiments that failed to generate positive results just the wrong subjects? Were the real psychics staying as far away from scientists as they could? After all, there was no upside for them to be tested. If they proved themselves, the scientists would just try to devise a more difficult test to prove they were wrong. And if their abilities were not working well that day, then they’d be labeled con artists.
Laney looked at her uncle. “What do you think about that claim—that they have psychic abilities? Do you think it’s possible?”
Patrick was silent f
or a moment. “I can’t help but think of all the similarities in the ancient stories. They all talk about these great monuments being lifted through mental powers. None of them say they magically appeared. They all say someone moved them into place.”
“Like Viracocha or Merlin,” Laney said.
Patrick nodded. “Exactly. And I can’t help but think of how egotistical we are in the modern age, thinking we’re the pinnacle of evolution. Yet there is all this evidence telling us there were far greater civilizations in our distant past—and people who had a knowledge that we’re only just now beginning to tap into. Are psychic abilities possible? I can’t say for sure, but I certainly can’t rule them out.”
Laney nodded, agreeing with everything he’d said. But it still seemed so impossible. Laney felt a headache building yet again. Psychic abilities? They were really going there?
“I can’t believe we’re seriously talking about a secret cult with psychic abilities,” she muttered. “I’m still trying to wrap my head around the idea of a second ancient civilization, one even less well known than Atlantis. I mean, are we even sure yet that the Lemurians existed?”
Patrick smiled. “Cayce spoke about the descendants of Mu. One of the places he said they went was to the Gobi Desert, back when it was lush. Of course, everyone scoffed, because everyone knew the Gobi Desert was a barren wasteland and was never lush.”
Laney knew where he was going. “Until the twentieth century, when archeologists realized the Gobi Desert had at one point been fertile. In fact, it’s turned into a treasure trove of fossils. Dinosaurs, mammals, and lizards.”
“And then there’s the possible discovery of the Uighur capital.”
“Not to mention the blond and redheaded mummies,” Laney said.
Patrick smiled. “Them as well.”
In 1934 a Bronze Age cemetery was uncovered by a team of Swedish archaeologists. The cemetery held two hundred mummies carefully buried in upside-down boats. The mummies were at least four thousand years old, but their clothes were relatively modern in style. In fact, one mummy was buried with ten hats of differing designs. The mummification process was amazing; the mummies were all in pristine shape, considering their age. In fact one mummy still had long thick auburn hair. She was dubbed “the beauty of Loulan.”
The problem was that the mummies were located on the western edge of China, and yet they were all very obviously Caucasian. They should not have existed in China at that time. But there they were. Yet another discovery daring history to explain it.
Laney sighed. “I don’t know why I keep fighting these revelations. Every time something new pops up, I tell myself it isn’t true.”
“Laney, with each new revelation the ground shifts more under our feet. Everything we thought we could count on gets turned upside down. It’s human nature to want things to remain the same, to be sure in our knowledge. But unfortunately, the more we learn, the more we realize how little we know.”
Laney glanced up to see Patrick with a frown covering his face. “What is it?”
“The Children of the Law of One were deceived and killed by the sons of Belial. And from the readings of Cayce, it seems the sons, and the Fallen’s greed, are what doomed Atlantis. I can’t help but wonder…” He went quiet.
“Can’t help but wonder what?”
“We’re in an age of almost gluttonous consumption, without concern for the impact it has on the world around us or on those suffering to create those goods. If the people behind the murders are the descendants of the children of Mu, is it at all possible that they’ve remained untainted? And if so, what must they think about the rest of us?”
“They probably think we’re wasteful, sinful.”
“Yes,” Patrick said softly. “And is it that much of a stretch to think that some of them may think the world would be better off without us, especially those of us that are viewed as helping the Fallen?”
CHAPTER 39
That night, Lou, Rolly, Danny, and Zach were in one of the computer labs back at the school. They were looking for everything they could find on animal hybridization experiments, Anthony Ruggio, and his lab, GenDynamics.
Lou stared at her screen, wishing she had gotten something other than animal hybridization to research. Right now she was staring at a mouse covered in tumors. Literally every pore of the poor thing’s body had been infected with tumors. She wasn’t sure why they had done it to the poor little guy, but she couldn’t think of any reason that could justify it.
“Hey. I think I have something,” Zach said.
Lou moved over to stare at Zach’s screen, hoping for a break from the cruelty she’d been finding on her own screen. She didn’t get one. A man with a gun sat hunched proudly over a giant leopard, blood pooled on the ground next to it. The cat looked an awful lot like Cleo.
Zach nodded at the image. “That guy is Harran Guilding, Russian millionaire. Like, just a few million away from a billionaire. He killed that leopard on his ranch in Australia.”
“Do they even have Javan leopards in Australia?” Rolly asked.
Zach shook his head. “No. Guilding is part of a special sportsman club that specializes in exotic kills. They’ll bring in the animal of your choice and let you track it down.”
“It would be more sporting if they let the animals have weapons too,” Lou grumbled. She squinted. “How big is the cat?”
“Big. Stands four and a half feet at the shoulders.”
That was huge; even the tallest of ordinary leopards stood only thirty-one inches at the shoulder. In fact, leopards were the smallest of the large cat breeds. “So,” Lou said, “you think this is one of Cleo’s relatives?”
“I don’t know,” Zach said. “But it seems like a good bet.”
Danny stared at the screen for a moment before tapping Zach on the shoulder. “Can I get in there for minute?”
“Uh, sure.” Zach stood up and Danny quickly sat down. His fingers flew over the keyboard. Data box after data box appeared on the monitor too quickly for Lou to read. A few seconds later, Danny nodded at the monitor. “The cat was provided by the Halligan Corporation.”
“Did you just hack that guy’s financials in like ten seconds?” Rolly asked.
Danny nodded. “Yeah, why?”
“Uh, no reason,” Rolly said.
“Who are they?” Lou asked.
“Hold on.” Danny’s fingers flew again, then he said, “Get this. Halligan is one of the investors in Anthony Ruggio’s lab.”
“What have you found out about the lab?” Lou asked Rolly.
“Not much,” Rolly said. “It’s right on the western edge of New Mexico. The website says they do high-level genetic testing and specialized private research.”
“What does that mean?” Lou asked.
“That they’re available to anyone who can pay,” Danny replied.
“So do we think these guys actually have more giant cats?” Zach asked.
“I don’t know. But I think we should find out,” Lou said.
“Okay, how?”
Lou smiled. “Let’s go pay them a visit.”
“You want to go there ourselves?” Zach’s eyes were large.
“Are you kidding?” Danny asked. “There’s no way we’re going to be allowed to do that.”
“I wasn’t planning on asking permission,” Lou said.
Zach shook his head. “No way. I caused enough trouble when I got here. I can’t—”
Rolly put an arm around Zach’s shoulder. “Hey, it’s okay. No one is going anywhere.”
“Who else is going to do it?” Lou asked. “Laney, Henry, Jen, and Jake are all tied up in these murders, and everybody else is on some sort of security detail. There’s no one else to track theses guys down. And this is for Cleo. Besides, Henry said we could do research.”
“Even if we went there on our own,” Danny said, “how exactly would we go about it?” Danny asked. “It’s not like we can call them up and make an appointment.”
&nbs
p; Lou shrugged. “I was thinking maybe we’d just knock on the front door.”
“And if that doesn’t work—because you know, we’re teenagers…” Rolly said dryly, “then what?”
“Then we break in.”
They all stared at her like she’d lost her mind. And maybe she had. But damn it, Cleo was lonely. It wasn’t right.
“Look, Cleo is our friend. And now that we know more about who she is, don’t you think we owe it to her to try and at least find out if there are more out there like her?” Lou asked.
“Well, it’s not like we’re going up against the Fallen,” Rolly mused. “I mean, these guys are probably just humans, right?”
“Exactly,” Lou said. “We can just go, check out the lab, and then call in the cavalry if we actually find the litter. We’re just gathering data, like we said we would.”
“Henry also said not to do anything dangerous,” Danny reminded her.
Lou grinned. “It’s a lab. And we’re just going to look. What could possibly be dangerous about that?”
CHAPTER 40
As Laney walked to the main house, she pulled out her phone. Matt picked up almost immediately. “Hey, Laney.”
“Matt, I just got a call from Gerard Thompson. He says the Fallen are being targeted by the companion killers. Cain said the same thing. What do you know?”
“Uh, I mean, the Fallen do get attacked, but no one’s red-flagged anything or even mentioned a connection between the attacks. I told you about that one report a few days ago.”
Laney shook her head. “That’s right. With everything else going on, I forgot. Can you take the aspects of the companion murders and run them against Fallen killings? See if there’s anything?”
“Sure. I’ll call you as soon as I have anything.”
As Laney pocketed her phone, she still wasn’t sure this wasn’t a complete waste of time. Was Gerard just trying to get her to focus on his abduction as a way of getting her help?
But if someone was targeting the companions of the Fallen, it wasn’t that much of a stretch to think they would target the Fallen as well—at least, if they could. Killing a Fallen wasn’t exactly easy. The heart had to be completely shredded. Decapitation might also work; Laney remembered Yoni suggesting that back in Montana years ago.