“They did if they had a car,” Barry pointed out. “Anya, the SUV they came in is gone. They got away.”
There was a curse and the sound of footsteps moving down the stairs.
I let out the breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding and saw Ronnie do the same. Letting her eyes drift closed, she made the sign of the cross and whispered a quiet prayer.
None of us moved, even after we heard the back door to the house swish open then slam closed.
“Wait,” I whispered. I wanted to be sure it wasn’t a trick. I wouldn’t put it past Anya to pretend to be leaving and hang out to see if we scared little mice came scurrying out of our hiding places once we thought the cat had gone.
I listened through Moss and could hear two people walking down the back stairs.
When an engine started, I nodded, indicating the coast was clear.
Ronnie rushed to the window.
“They’re in that big white van,” I said.
Kai hurried to join her at the window. “Can you see the plates?” he asked.
“No.”
“Oh God—they’re getting away.” She turned to me, frantic. “Grace, what do we do?”
I didn’t have an answer. There was no way we could make it down the stairs and into the street in time to hail a cab and follow them.
“I need somebody to tell me what happened,” Kai said. “How did they find us?”
“Barry followed us here,” I said. “Then to the coffee shop.” I briefly went over what happened, leaving out the part where I’d said I’d rather be shot than endure torture.
“I’m telling you, Kai, the dude is nuts. He was talking about vibrations of the universe. And how we’re connected with black energy or something.”
“Dark energy,” Kai corrected.
“Whatever. It was crazy.”
“I don’t know,” Ronnie said. “I think he’s not too far off, at least with what he was saying about dark matter and dark energy. Max Planck was brilliant. Sure, he was an out-of-the-box thinker, like Tesla, but a genius.”
“Are you kidding me?” I asked. “You bought into all that we-are-connected-with-tendrils-of-the-vibrations-of-the-universe stuff?”
“He was talking about Tesla?” Kai asked.
“Not exactly,” Ronnie said.
“Did I just step into the twilight zone? You speak science geek?” I asked Ronnie.
“Hey, I read.”
I shook my head, then realized something. “Where’s Belinda?”
Kai looked at his watch. “Damn it.”
“She’s really late.”
“Call Emma, make sure everything’s okay.”
I did. “Yeah, she’s fine,” Emma said when she picked up.
“Are you sure?”
“Still in with that client, but yeah.”
“Okay.” I explained what had happened as quickly as I could. “We can’t risk staying here. We’re coming to you.”
Kai called a cab while Ronnie and I gathered up the box of Hattie’s stuff, Ronnie’s notebook, the map, and all her chocolate.
Thirty minutes later we were walking through the courtyard door into Belinda’s kitchen.
After greetings, introductions, and a brief overview of our run-in with Barry and Anya, Ronnie asked, “So, where’s Belinda?”
Emma pointed to the hall and the closed pocket door separating the shop from the rest of the house. I’d never seen the door closed. Usually, Belinda kept the heavy curtain in place because it was easy to hear people come and go.
I tiptoed up to the door, listened, and heard a faint meow.
Voodoo.
Hey, my sweet kitty.
Out.
Just a second.
I thought I could quietly push the door open just enough to let the tiny kitten through without disturbing Belinda.
As the thought entered my mind, Voodoo said, Gone.
I paused. Gone? Who’s gone—Belinda?
Belinda, gone, Voodoo confirmed, and showed me where Belinda had gone and who she’d been with.
“Oh no,” I said, my hand still on the door.
“What?” Emma asked as she joined me in the hall.
“They have her,” I said. The knot in my stomach tightened into a lump of cold tension.
“What? Who?”
“Belinda.” I shoved the pocket door open. It rumbled into the wall and bumped to a stop.
I stepped into the shop and was followed by Emma, Ronnie, Hugh, and Kai. Moss stayed in the hallway to greet his kitten, who’d bolted from the room when the door had opened.
There was a man in the room, standing with his back to us.
I knew who it was before he turned around.
“Logan.”
“Grace,” he said, ignoring everyone but Kai, whom he acknowledged by making brief eye contact.
“Where is she?” Emma demanded in a menacing tone.
“I don’t know.”
“What are you doing here, Logan?” I asked.
“I need to speak to you.”
“Well, speak.”
He just looked at me.
“Fine. Guys, can we have a minute?”
After a pause everyone filed out of the room. Everyone except Kai. I expected him to refuse to go, but instead he called out, “Moss, come here.”
Surprisingly, my dog came when Kai called. I cocked a brow at them both.
Giving Moss a pat, Kai said, “Take care of our girl.” He walked out of the room and slid the pocket door closed.
I turned to Logan. “What’s wrong with you?”
“How much time you got?”
“Not much. So get on with it.”
“I came here looking for Anya, but I was too late.”
“Yes. And now she has my friend. Can you help us find her?”
“Anya is very good at covering her tracks.”
“How do you even know her?” I asked.
He didn’t answer.
“Jesus, Logan, you came here to talk to me. Start talking.”
“The company I work for used to fund research on people with ESP.”
“Company?”
“It’s a very big company with many interests worldwide.”
“You mean the government?”
His brow twitched—which was answer enough.
“What are you, a spy or something?”
“Or something.”
“Seriously?”
It made sense in a weird way.
“What about Anya? Who does she work for?”
“Anya’s with SVR. Russian Intelligence. She is highly trained and she is lethal. Barry was one of ours. He’s now working with the SVR.”
“Barry was in the CIA?”
“He was running a program called Deepfield. The objective was to study and develop psychic sensitivities.”
“How can someone develop psychic sensitivities?”
“He’d come up with a way to enhance a person’s latent extrasensory abilities.”
“Enhance? With what?”
“I’m not clear on the specifics, but I think it has something to do with electromagnetic fields and DNA.”
Damn, Barry really was a mad scientist.
“He’s a genius. But the work he did was slow. He’d been able to manipulate the DNA of rodents, but there were issues.”
“Like what?”
“Again, I don’t know specifics. When he didn’t make timely advancements, his funding was cut.”
“And he was fired?” I’d imagined the CIA having a more permanent solution for disgruntled employees.
“A few months back, Barry went off the grid completely. Vanished. A week ago, intel surfaced that he was in New Orleans.”
“And wh
at? They sent you to find him?”
He didn’t answer right away. “I volunteered.”
“Because of Anya?”
“Anya and I have some things to settle, but, no. I volunteered because of you.”
“Me?”
“The agency has always had an interest in the concept of ESP. Since the ’40s, standing protocol has been, if operatives in the field encountered an individual displaying any kind of extrasensory ability, we made a note of it in our reports.”
I let that sink in. “You put me in a report.”
“Yes.”
I felt oddly betrayed by the admission.
“You gave my name to a psycho mad scientist.”
“I didn’t know him. I just followed protocol.”
“Protocol.” I repeated the word.
“When it became clear what Barry was doing, I asked to be assigned to the op.”
“What he’s doing,” I said, “is killing people. Your agency’s protocol has gotten a grandmother kidnapped. And now my friend, too.”
“He’s worked his way through most of the names on the list. Anya is resourceful. When things get desperate, she’ll find a way to get what she wants.”
I knew what she wanted—Ronnie.
“I know you’re not going to let this go,” Logan said.
“Correct.”
“I came here to tell you what I know, because it might help you. And to ask for a favor.”
“What?” I asked.
“If you find them, call me. I’m not asking you to let me deal with it. I’m just asking that we share information.”
“Are you going to do the same?”
He didn’t answer.
“Screw you, Logan.”
“Think of me as backup. And I’d appreciate it if you kept the details of what I told you about my affiliations between us.”
“I’ll think about it.”
With a nod, he said, “Watch your back, sweetness.” And then he left.
I stood there, processing what he’d told me for a full minute. Then I turned to open the pocket door and face what was sure to be a barrage of questions.
My friends did not disappoint.
I managed to edit the conversation down to a few points.
Anya was a deadly Russian agent. Barry, who we already knew was crazy, was working with her. They’d had a list of names they’d been using to find psychics so that they could use them to do research, and make more psychics.
“How does Logan know all this?” Emma asked.
“He and Anya seem to have a beef. He wants me to call him if we find where she’s been hiding.”
“You’re sure he didn’t have anything to do with Belinda’s kidnapping?” Kai asked quietly.
I nodded. “It was Anya. She pretended to be a client, and pulled a gun. Voodoo saw what happened.”
“But I heard voices,” Emma said, walking farther into the room. “So did Hugh.”
She looked at him for confirmation.
“We could hear people talking,” he agreed.
I took a second to think about what Voodoo had shown me. She’d been curled up napping on one of the curio cabinets, which had given the kitten a good vantage point. Anya hadn’t noticed her, but she’d seen what happened from the moment the Russian agent had walked into the shop.
“Voodoo saw Anya put something over here on the bookshelf.” I walked over and found a mini–tape recorder sitting on the shelf.
“But, how is it possible that we didn’t hear a scream or anything?” Emma asked. “We were in the other room.”
“Belinda hates guns, remember? She did everything Anya told her to. There was nothing to hear.” I noticed something and looked around. “Where are Elvis and Priscilla?”
“I dropped them off at the groomer’s when Belinda said she was running behind,” Hugh said.
“We have to find her,” my sister said.
I looked at Kai. “Can we call the police yet?”
He looked as frustrated and upset as the rest of us.
“Right now, with a cat as a witness and no sign of forced—” I held out my hand to stop him. I knew the drill.
I looked at Ronnie. “What about Jason?”
“He might be able to pull some strings, but I don’t know how long that would take.”
“Okay.” I tried to switch gears and turned back to Kai. “What about what happened at the coffee shop? Is there a way to use that to get the cops to look for Belinda? Or maybe just the van? There were people around. Maybe someone got the license plate.”
“I can call Mike. But the plates on the wrecked van were stolen. I’m betting these will be, too.”
“Oh God.” Ronnie clamped a hand over her mouth. “She was there. Belinda was in the van.”
“We can’t know that,” Kai said.
“I can,” Ronnie said. “I felt it.”
“You knew Belinda was there?” Emma asked.
“No. It wasn’t that specific. But when Anya pulled up I got this feeling. It’s the same anytime I’m around other psychics.” She turned to me. “I thought it was you. Remember, whatever it was Barry did to block my ability? I thought maybe zapping him shorted it out or something.”
“You couldn’t have known,” I told her.
“Yeah, actually, I could have, if I had thought to focus on the sensation, on where the feeling was coming from. Damn it!”
“Ronnie, it wouldn’t have mattered,” I said. “Even if we’d seen Belinda being held at gunpoint through the window, we couldn’t have done anything. We barely managed to get away.”
Ronnie drew in a shaky breath and nodded. Between her and Emma I wasn’t sure who looked more stricken.
“Hang on,” Kai said. “Go back a second. What do you mean he blocked your ability?”
I hadn’t told him about the psychic energy block, mostly because it was a lead-in for the part of the story I didn’t want to tell him.
Unfortunately, I hadn’t had a chance to explain to Ronnie that we should keep the bit about me offering to be kidnapped, along with the part where I demanded to be shot, between us. I hoped she would realize I’d glossed over those sections of the story before and would follow my lead and do so again.
“Barry wants to use me to find other psychics,” Ronnie said. For Emma and Hugh’s benefit she added, “I can sense psychic abilities in others and can use it to locate them.”
“Like Professor X from the X-Men,” Hugh said. “Cool.”
“No, not cool,” Ronnie said. “Because he plans to use me to find other psychics so he can kidnap and conduct experiments on them.”
Emma paled. “And now, he has Belinda. She’ll be strapped to a table, too. We have to find her.”
“Wait.” I had a sudden revelation. “What was she wearing?”
“Belinda?”
I nodded. I already knew the answer, because I’d seen it during Voodoo’s recounting of the kidnapping. But I needed to be sure.
“A red and yellow print dress,” Emma said. “Why?”
“This is too crazy,” I muttered. “But it fits.”
“What fits?” Kai asked. “Grace, stop talking to yourself and tell us what you’re thinking.”
“The woman Cornelius saw was Belinda. He wasn’t showing me memories. This whole time, he’s been seeing the future.”
“You’re saying the monkey is psychic,” Hugh said. “How is that possible?”
“Barry,” Kai said.
“Exactly. According to Logan, Barry had figured out a way to alter DNA to somehow turn on a psychic gene.”
“Cornelius could be one of his experiments,” Emma said.
“Right. Think about it.” The idea made more sense the longer I considered it. “Cornelius showed me a snapshot of myself giving him beigne
ts at the museum. He didn’t even know what a beignet was. He wasn’t asking me to meet him there, he was showing me what was going to happen.”
I turned to look at Ronnie. “You know the guy from earlier?”
“Logan?”
“Have you met him before?” I waved the question away and started over. “Has he ever grabbed you?”
“No,” Ronnie said, “and I’d remember, cuz that boy’s hot.”
Kai let out a sigh.
“That means it hasn’t happened yet.” I looked around at the group.
“Finally, some good news,” Ronnie said.
“Getting grabbed by Logan isn’t good news,” Kai said.
“Why? Who is he?”
“Forget about Logan,” I said. “Cornelius is psychic. Which means his vision of Belinda hasn’t happened yet, either. We still have time.”
“Yeah, but how much time?” Emma asked.
“Not much,” Ronnie said. “If you think about how much information Barry gave us when he spilled his guts at the coffee shop, he might be in a rush.”
“I don’t think so,” I said. “He was very confident you wouldn’t be able to track him because he’s figured out a way to suppress psychic energy.”
“He must have done it to Belinda, too,” Emma said. “Remember? She said her intuition wasn’t working right.”
“And she had that headache.” I nodded. “He messed with her ability the way he did with yours, Ronnie.”
“What exactly did he do?” Kai asked.
“I don’t know,” Ronnie said. “Grace had figured out Barry’s plan to use me. She was telling me he wouldn’t hurt me, that I could just leave and use my ability to find her later.”
“You did what?” Emma said, turning to stare at me.
“I was trying to get a message across to her.” I waved at Ronnie. “I could tell she was thinking about going with the lunatic. I had to show her what a bad idea it was.”
Kai hadn’t said anything, but he was looking at me in a way that made me want to squirm.
“It worked, too,” Ronnie said. “But then Barry started laughing and said he’d figured out a way to stop me from finding her. So I tried to sense her power, but it didn’t work. The sensation I get when I know someone’s psychic—it was gone. Instead, I got a massive headache.”
Kai had finally turned his glass-green eyes away from me and looked at Ronnie. “What exactly did he do?”
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