by Jayne Castle
“But the money has been going into your project here on Rainshadow,” Alice said.
“Unfortunately, I haven’t had the budget I needed to hire the kind of professionals I wanted, the kind I deserve to work with. I was forced to make do with low-rent talents like Pete, here, and Karen Rosser.”
“To summarize, you’ve been running an illegal, off-the-books operation here on Rainshadow and you’ve screwed it up so much the whole island is about to blow.” Alice nodded. “Nice work, Dr. Tucker. This should certainly earn you a place in the journals of para-archaeology, not to mention a nice long vacation in prison, assuming you survive.”
“Shut up.” Zara’s eyes were chips of ice. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Then let’s cut to the chase. How am I supposed to rescue you?”
“You’re a light-talent, a strong one, evidently. We didn’t know just how strong you were back at the start.” Dr. Tucker clicked her teeth in mild disapproval. “You certainly kept your ability to bend light a secret from Fulton and the rest of us. I didn’t believe you were anything but a run-of-the-mill talent until you started doing your little magic tricks for the kids in Shadow Bay.”
Alice smiled.
Zara raised her brows. “No, you won’t try that magic act with me. For one thing, although I know that you can go invisible, it’s just a trick of the light. You certainly can’t walk through walls or the door of this cell. And just to make sure you don’t try anything clever, you will be handcuffed to Pete, who will be closely guarded by the head of my security team.”
“You are no doubt referring to your last remaining thug-for-hire,” Alice said. “That would be Egan.”
“Egan Quinton,” Zara said. “He has proved to be an extremely useful and versatile employee.”
“Okay, so I can’t escape. What do you expect me to accomplish?”
Zara’s hands clenched around the clipboard and the diary. Her eyes narrowed. “You are going to go into that overheated Chamber and retrieve the two crystals. Once they’re out, I’m certain that the Chamber will cool down. When the energy levels start to fall, the fog will recede and I will be able to get off the island.”
“What makes you think I can get the crystals out of the Chamber?”
“Only a light-talent can enter that Chamber now. But it’s going to take one with a lot of power to find the crystals and bring them out. Let’s hope you’re stronger than Pete or Ms. Rosser.”
“And if I refuse to give it a whirl?”
“In that case, Egan will start killing people in Shadow Bay. One by one.” Zara glanced at Pete. “But we’ll let him start with Pete so that you can be certain that I mean business. Egan?”
There were more footsteps in the glowing hall, heavy boots this time. Egan Quinton appeared on the other side of the steel bars. He was no longer in costume and he had removed his makeup. Minus the scraggly, long-haired wig, heavy eyebrows, and the facial prosthetics that had altered the lines of his face, he looked remarkably ordinary; remarkably unremarkable.
“How’s that enlightenment thing working out for you, Egan?” Alice asked. “Any insights into Zara, here?”
Egan gave her a brief, irritated look and then fixed his ghost-gaze on Pete.
“Want me to do him now?” he asked. There was no trace of emotion in the question. He might as well have been asking Zara if she wanted him to take out the trash.
Zara removed her geeky glasses. “That depends on Alice. It’s her decision.”
Pete watched Egan the way a small creature watches a cobra. “Please, don’t.”
Egan reached into his jacket and pulled out the Alien weapon he had used on Alice and Houdini.
“At full power it causes the heart to stop,” he explained.
“Forget it,” Alice said. “I’ll try to get those crystals for you but only if you leave Pete alone.”
Zara gave her an approving smile. “Excellent. I assure you, I have no wish to kill Pete or anyone else. I would prefer not to waste the time or the energy in the weapon. No telling how long it will last. My only goal now is to get off Rainshadow and disappear.”
“Probably a good idea,” Alice said. “Because it won’t be long before the Sebastians come looking for you.”
“I vanished once, quite successfully. I can do it again.” Zara turned away from the cell gate. “Egan, bring them both to the Chamber. Time is running out.”
Chapter 34
DRAKE CAME TO A HALT AT THE GRAVESTONE. THE others caught up with him, breathing hard. The weeds and grass around the weathered grave marker had been trampled by a pair of heavily booted feet on more than one recent occasion.
Houdini jumped up and down on the stone, making urgent noises.
Fletcher frowned at the name on the stone. “William Bainbridge. Why does that sound familiar?”
“Because it’s engraved over the front door of the library and it’s the official name of the town park,” Myrna said. “Bainbridge was a smuggler who worked the Amber Sea area years ago. Technically speaking, he’s the guy credited with founding Shadow Bay.”
Fletcher grimaced. “Oh, yeah, right.”
Houdini continued to bounce up and down. He was becoming increasingly agitated.
Drake crouched beside the flat stone marker. Methodically he ran his hands around the edges. It didn’t take long to find what he was looking for. He pushed the concealed lever.
The gravestone opened ponderously with only the faintest of groans. Someone had been keeping the hinges well oiled, he thought.
Currents of Alien psi wafted out of the opening. He looked down at the flight of glowing quartz steps that descended into a tunnel illuminated with eerie green light.
“Son of a ghost,” Jasper said. “So there are some catacombs here on the island, after all. Always figured we’d find them someday.”
“Looks like old Bainbridge stumbled into a hole-in-the-wall,” Fletcher said.
“If Bainbridge isn’t buried here, what happened to him?” Rachel asked. “Not that it matters now.”
Houdini darted down the steps, pausing expectantly.
“I should have done a more thorough investigation after I saw that so-called ghost wandering around here in the middle of the night,” Drake said.
Jasper shook his head. “Not like you’ve had a lot of spare time to investigate anything. Doubt if you would have found this trapdoor, anyway. Hell, Fletcher and I have been living here for a couple of decades—spent our former careers in the tunnels—but we never stumbled onto this entrance.”
“Well, at least we now know how Egan managed to contact Tucker frequently without having to go through the Preserve,” Charlotte said.
“And how he kidnapped Alice without having to carry her through the fence and across a lot of psi-hot territory,” Drake said. “I’m betting that this tunnel is a shortcut to the Chamber ruin. He can’t be too far ahead. I’m going after him.”
“This island has never been under the control of the Guilds,” Fletcher said. “That means the catacombs down below have never been cleared of ghosts. Egan is a hunter. He can handle ghosts. But you don’t have that kind of talent. Looks like you are going to need some backup.”
“I’d appreciate it,” Drake said.
He started down the glowing staircase. Jasper and Fletcher followed him into the catacombs.
Chapter 35
ALICE SENSED THE SEETHING ENERGY EMANATING FROM the pyramid before they walked into the subterranean chamber. The instant she saw the glowing ruin she knew that it was only a matter of time before it exploded. The dark, heavy currents coming off the crystals that formed the pyramid felt inherently unstable. They flooded the atmosphere with an invisible sea of hot psi.
The only part of the structure that was man-made was the heavy mag-steel door at the entrance. Under most circumstances, mag-steel was strong enough to block paranormal radiation, but Alice had a feeling that in this case the door would not last much longer.
The fierce, wild energy swirling in the outer chamber lifted Alice’s hair as if she were floating in water. Goose bumps prickled her skin. The waves of psi were both unnerving and exhilarating. She did not know how it was possible to be terrified and at the same time thrilled, but she did know how to conceal her emotions. She kept her stage face in place.
“I gotta tell you, Zara, as a research scientist, you’re a real loser,” she said. “What did you think you were doing, fooling around with Alien technology this powerful? That pyramid feels like it’s going to blow at any moment.”
“You can save the sarcasm,” Zara said. “Because if it does blow, all of us, including you, are going with it.”
Alice glanced at Pete. His right hand was handcuffed to her left hand. A two-foot-long chain connected them. Egan gripped Pete’s upper arm.
Pete was probably even more frightened than she was, Alice thought, because he had been inside the pyramid and knew what they were about to encounter. But he was doing his best to appear calm and stoic. Maybe he actually had some faith in her promise that rescue was on the way.
Alice turned back to Zara. “That Chamber is big, and according to what I’ve been told, I’m not going to be able to see my hand in front of my face once I’m inside.”
“That’s correct,” Zara said. “You’ll be completely blind. One step past the entrance and you won’t even be able to look back and see the opening. The para-energy inside overwhelms light from the normal end of the spectrum. It’s like going into a cave.”
“How am I supposed to find the crystals?”
“Trust me, you’ll sense them. They’re so hot now that even someone without much talent can pick up the energy emanating from them.”
“So why don’t you send Egan in after them?”
Fury and frustration flashed across Zara’s face. “Because only someone with a strong light-oriented talent can get through the force field at the entrance without going unconscious within seconds. Back at the start, it was possible for any talent to come and go from the Chamber. It was similar to walking through the psi-fence that surrounds the Preserve. But now it’s a thousand times worse.”
“Because you heated things up with the crystals. You’re a real twit, aren’t you?”
Zara’s eyes were hot with rage, but she pulled herself together with visible effort. “Egan will put a rope around your waist. He’ll hold the other end. When you have the crystals, signal him by yanking on the rope a couple of times. He’ll pull you out.”
“We both know if it was that easy, you would have done it yourself. You’re a light-talent. But you can’t even get past the entrance, can you?”
Zara gave her a thin smile. She was still in control, but cracks were appearing in her icy composure. “You are wasting time, Ms. North. Egan will slide open the door for you.”
“What a gentleman,” Alice said.
She walked slowly toward the entrance of the Dream Chamber, drawing Pete with her.
“Shit,” Pete whispered. “I hate this place.”
Egan followed. He picked up the rope that was coiled on the floor at the entrance and looped the noose-like end around Alice’s waist. She shuddered in revulsion when he touched her. He did not appear to notice, let alone take offense.
Satisfied that the line was secure around her, he grasped the other end firmly in one hand. Then he used both hands to haul aside the heavy steel plate blocking the entrance.
Night and energy from the farthest end of the spectrum swirled just inside the opening. Fog-like tendrils of power stormed in the Chamber.
“Hurry,” Zara shouted. “There isn’t much time left.”
“Too bad you didn’t think of that before you started fiddling around with those crystals,” Alice called over her shoulder.
“This is your fault, damn you,” Zara shrieked. “Get those crystals out of there or we are all dead.”
A frisson of awareness whispered through Alice. Drake was somewhere nearby. She could sense it.
She glanced toward the vaulted opening at the far end of the cavernous room. She could not see anyone, but the certainty that Drake was close was growing stronger.
She was equally certain of another fact. Zara and Egan would not hesitate to use Pete and her as hostages.
Not yet, she thought. Too dangerous.
There was no such thing as telepathy, or so the experts claimed. But she shared some kind of psychic connection with Houdini. On stage he always seemed to get his cues right. As for her bond with Drake, that was a lot more complicated, but she no longer doubted that it existed. He certainly could not read her mind but he had a gift for strategy. If she gave him an opening, he would seize it.
Step one was to keep Zara and Egan distracted for a few more minutes.
“It’s going to be okay, Pete,” she said quietly.
She reached back for his hand, gripping his fingers tightly, and moved to the entrance. She needed physical contact for what she was about to do.
Pete looked as if he might be ill but he stumbled forward with her.
“Trust me,” she whispered.
“Not like I’ve got a lot of choice,” Pete said. “Sure hope you know what you’re doing.”
“I’m the box-jumper,” she said. “The magician’s assistant. That means I know the secret of the trick.”
“Yeah? So where’s the magician?”
She was careful not to look back over her shoulder. “He’ll be on stage any minute now.”
“What part am I playing in this performance?”
“You’re the volunteer from the audience.”
“I was afraid of that.”
She tightened her grip on his hand, kicked up her talent, and pulled him with her through the wall of midnight.
Chapter 36
THE GREEN GHOST FIRE BLOCKED THE QUARTZ TUNNEL, forcing all of them to a halt. The ball of Alien energy was fueled by the chaotic currents that burned at its core. It had no doubt been blazing just as fiercely ever since the Aliens had vanished.
Drake watched the ghost through his mirrored glasses. He could have removed the shades because all of the energy that emanated from the quartz catacombs was paranormal in nature. But he did not know what surprises Zara might have in store. Even a simple amber-rez flashlight could temporarily blind him.
Houdini, stationed on Drake’s shoulder, rumbled impatiently and blinked his hunting eyes.
“No way Egan could have made it past that ghost,” Fletcher said. “It’s possible that it drifted in from a connecting passage after he went through, but more likely he deliberately planted it here on the off chance that someone found the gravestone entrance and tried to follow him.”
Although they were called ghosts, the balls of psi-fire that floated through the maze of Alien catacombs were not the remnants of sentient beings. The technical name for the phenomena was Unstable Dissonance Energy Manifestations, also called UDEMs. They were one of the many hazards of the tunnels and the primary reason for the enduring power of the Ghost Hunter Guilds. Only those with a talent for dealing with the unique psi of the UDEMs could neutralize the dangerous, unpredictable storms of psi that drifted randomly in the eerie underworld.
“Are we sure this is the right passage?” Jasper asked. “What if Houdini is wrong?”
Houdini bounced on Drake’s shoulder, agitated by the delay.
The vast array of green catacombs was a bewildering maze to human senses. Only a small portion of the Underworld had been mapped. No one knew how far the passages extended. The Guild did its best to guard the known entrances and restrict unauthorized access, but there were thousands of secret holes-in-the-wall that were used by illegal antiquities hunters, thrill-seekers, and the occasional serial killer.
“Houdini is leading us in the right direction,” Drake said. “He’s got some kind of psychic connection with Alice. Dust bunnies have no trouble navigating underground.”
He did not add the obvious point: Houdini’s guidance was their best hope—make that
their only hope—of finding Alice in time to save her. His intuition told him that if Zara Tucker and Egan managed to get off the island, Alice would be dead within hours.
“We’ve seen how some dust bunnies bond with humans,” Fletcher said to Jasper. “Drake’s right, got to trust Houdini here. Not like any of us can track a man through the tunnels.”
Jasper stepped forward. “I’ll take care of this sucker. Haven’t done this kind of work in a while. Got to admit, sometimes I miss it.”
Drake felt energy shift in the atmosphere and knew that Jasper was raising his talent. A second, smaller ghost flashed into existence directly in front of the blocking storm. Jasper’s UDEM oscillated with hot energy at its core, but unlike the wild ghost it was under his control.
Jasper used his talent to maneuver the second ghost until it collided with the furnace of hot psi that blocked the tunnel. There was a flash of green lightning. Energy roared in the atmosphere. A moment later the wild ghost winked out.
Jasper quickly extinguished the ghost he had created. He was grinning.
“That was fun,” he said.
“Good to know you haven’t lost your touch,” Fletcher said. “Nice work.”
Houdini bounced up and down and rumbled ferociously, urging everyone forward.
They moved swiftly, but distances underground were difficult to gauge. Drake reasoned that the Chamber could not be too far from Shadow Bay via the Underworld tunnels because Egan had evidently come and gone frequently between the two locations. But there was no way to be certain how their position belowground related to the aboveground terrain.
They rounded a corner. Houdini abruptly stiffened on Drake’s shoulder and growled a warning that brought them to a halt in a large, high-ceilinged chamber. A dozen glowing passages branched off on all sides. Houdini was gazing intently at one of the corridors. He was tensed with the anticipation of a predator.