by Jayne Castle
“Something over there near the wall.”
The second man tensed and swung around, searching for the source of the threat. “I don’t see anything.”
“Shadows. There shouldn’t be any shadows there.”
Harry moved forward, pushing the shock wave of his talent ahead.
“There’s something here,” the first man said. His voice rose in fear. “Can’t you feel it?”
“Shit,” the second man looked around. The heat of panic burned in the atmosphere around him. “What’s going on? Maybe one of the monsters got out of a tank in the lab room.”
“None of those weird things can live long out of water.”
“How do we know what they can do? You heard the doc. He says he hasn’t even begun to figure out the secrets in this lab.”
“There’s something here,” the first man screamed.
He whirled and started to run back toward the far end of the tunnel. Harry jacked up his talent and touched the kid on the back of his neck. His mouth opened on a silent cry of horror. He dropped, unconscious, to the floor.
“Gil?” The second man stared at his companion. “Gil, get up.”
Harry tapped him on the shoulder and pulsed a little more energy.
The young man collapsed without even a groan.
Harry dropped the shadow cloak. He had burned a lot of energy in the past few minutes and the ambient psi in the aquarium chamber was playing havoc with his control. He needed to conserve his talent.
Darwina bounced enthusiastically and started to chortle.
The chortle ended in a warning rumble. Darwina sleeked. Her claws tightened on Harry’s shoulder as she prepared to spring.
Harry spun around and saw Rachel walk slowly into the crystal tunnel. She was not alone. A rumpled, middle-aged man with shaggy gray hair and an unkempt beard was with her. He wore a pair of black-framed glasses.
A second man followed behind Rachel and her companion. He kept what was either a respectful or very cautious few steps to the rear. Harry was pretty sure it was caution that made the newcomer keep some distance between himself and the other two.
“Control your silly pet and your boyfriend, Rachel,” he said. “Or I’ll kill them both, starting with Sebastian. He’s the bigger target.”
“Darwina, run,” Rachel said quietly. “Hide with Amberella.”
Darwina seemed to get the message. She vaulted off Harry’s shoulder and dashed away toward the far end of the aquarium chamber.
Harry looked at the rumpled man with the glasses. “Calvin Dillard?”
“I’m sorry about this,” Calvin said. He shook his head in a forlorn, world-weary manner. “I never meant for things to end this way.”
“You never had any say at all in how this would end,” the second man said.
“Who the hell are you?” Harry asked.
Rachel wrinkled her nose. “His name is Nathan Grant. He’s on the staff at the Reflections retreat operation out at the old lake lodge. Turns out he was the human monster I was trying to remember. It was his energy I picked up on the cup at the tea-tasting event.”
“I knew you were going to be trouble, Sebastian,” Grant said. “But I must admit, I’m surprised that you got this far, this fast. How did you manage to figure out that Rachel was the key?”
“I knew that as soon as I heard about her little fugue episode and the convenient amnesia that followed it,” Harry said.
“I was his chief suspect,” Rachel said grimly.
“I just knew that you were the key to the lock that had to be opened,” Harry said.
“I was suspect number one on your list, admit it.”
“Only at the beginning,” Harry said, trying to project a calming tone. He really did not have time for this.
But Rachel was not in a mood to be placated. “That first night you wound up on my doorstep in the middle of the storm—”
“I don’t have time for this,” Grant snarled.
“My thoughts exactly,” Harry said.
“How did you get her to recover her memories?” Grant demanded. “The amnesia was for real. She didn’t fake it. That was obvious when she failed to connect Dillard to what happened to her.”
Chapter 29
Fury flashed through Rachel. She’d had enough. Harry and Nathan were talking about her as if she wasn’t even there.
“My memory has been coming back for the past few weeks,” she announced. “What’s more, the memories of those two kids you sent to firebomb the old gatekeeper’s cabin would have eventually returned as well. Whatever you used to implant the hypnotic suggestions is not one hundred percent effective, not by a long shot.”
Nathan shrugged. “Dillard’s amnesia drug works well enough. But the good news is that this little device works even better. Just ask the doc. He saw me demonstrate it.”
Harry glanced at the oddly shaped weapon. Then he quirked a brow at Calvin.
“That right, Doctor?”
“I’m afraid so,” Calvin said. “He used it to murder one of the young guards a while back. He found out the kid was planning to try to get away from this place.”
Rachel tightened her hands into fists at her side. Her charms clashed lightly, ominously, but none of the men appeared to notice. She looked at Nathan.
“I remember everything now,” she said. “I was riding my bike home to my cottage that afternoon. I saw you standing at the side of the road next to your car. It looked as if you were having car trouble. I asked if you wanted me to go back to town to alert Brett at the service station. You said thanks, that you had already called him and then you aimed that device at me.”
Nathan glanced briefly at the black weapon. “On the lowest setting, it induces unconsciousness. Take it higher and it kills. You have to have a sufficient amount of talent to rez it, but I’ve got more than enough.”
“When I woke up, I was in this place,” Rachel said.
“But you managed to escape,” Nathan said. “I know you had some help from Dillard, here, but we won’t go into that now. What fascinated me was the manner in which you got out of the aquarium complex. I picked you up initially because—”
“You mean you kidnapped her,” Harry said.
“Semantics,” Nathan said.
“And a little matter of twenty-five years to life in prison,” Rachel said. “Why am I so important to you?”
Calvin shook his head. “Don’t you understand, Rachel? The only reason you and I are still alive is because he needs both of us. He’ll kill all of us when this is over.”
Harry watched Nathan with the unblinking gaze of a predator waiting to strike. “Why do you need them?”
“At this point, Dillard is the only one who can tune the navigational flutes,” Nathan said. “The instruments are necessary to chart a course through the heavy psi of the Preserve. As for Rachel, I’ve got a little problem with some crystal. I think she can resolve it for me.”
“The rainstone waterfall,” Rachel said. “You want me to unfreeze it for you so that you can get into that crystal chamber.”
“What’s inside the chamber?” Harry asked.
“An incredible trove of Alien artifacts,” Calvin said. “Most of it appears to be of a technological nature.”
Harry whistled softly. “Alien technology. Worth a fortune on the black market.”
“You are so bloody right,” Nathan said. “But I can’t get at the artifacts because of the damn rainstone.”
“How did you know I could work rainstone?” Rachel asked.
Calvin exhaled heavily. “That’s my fault, too. I made the mistake of telling him that I had watched you energize some of the small rainstones that the kids found on the island.”
“It wasn’t proof that you could open the chamber, but I thought it was worth running a test,” Nathan said. “That’s why I brought you here. But the next thing I knew, you were awake and running away through this chamber, straight toward the crystal vault that contains the artifacts. I saw you go t
hrough the solid rainstone as if it were liquid. You did it again on the other side of the vault.”
Calvin looked at Rachel. “He chased you that night. So did the guards. But they were too late. The waterfalls at both ends of the vault froze solid right after you went through them. And then you were gone.”
“I was pissed, to say the least,” Nathan said. “But I figured you’d never survive the Preserve. Thought I’d have to waste a lot of time trying to locate another talent who could do what you had done.”
“He didn’t know at first that I had given you one of the flutes,” Calvin said.
“Imagine my surprise when you showed up alive and well the next day,” Nathan said. “The only reason Dillard here is still alive is because he assured me that he had given you the hypno-drug and a command to forget everything that had happened.”
“What is this amnesia drug you keep talking about?” Harry asked.
“I designed it years ago,” Calvin said wearily. “It’s a long story that doesn’t end well.”
Rachel looked at Nathan. “Once you knew I was alive, you started plotting a way to kidnap me again, didn’t you? But you had to be very careful because if I went missing a second time inside the Preserve, the local police were certain to call in Foundation security, to say nothing of what my family would have done. My father would have been here in a heartbeat, demanding answers.”
“I couldn’t risk that,” Nathan said. “Before I could figure out my next move, you had returned to Frequency City. I notified my business partner there immediately and told him to keep an eye on you from a distance.”
“Marcus Lancaster,” Rachel said. “So that’s how he became obsessed with me. He was spying on me.”
“I told him not to get too close. I didn’t want any more mistakes. He found you working in that low-rent tearoom easily enough, but the next thing we knew, you had joined the staff at the Chapman Clinic.”
“That was when you discovered what a real wacko Lancaster actually is,” Rachel said. “He checked himself into the clinic just to get close to me.”
“I’ll admit I didn’t see that coming,” Nathan said. “Your diagnosis is correct. Lancaster is bat-shit crazy, at least when it comes to you.”
“If you had asked me, I could have told you he fit the profile of a psychic stalker,” Rachel said crisply.
Nathan smiled. “What a colorful way of expressing his little instability problem. But in fairness, I have become rather obsessed with you, myself.”
“Seems to me you’ve miscalculated a lot in the course of this project,” Harry said. “Must have come as a shock when you discovered that the town of Shadow Bay had just hired a new chief of police and that he was ex-FBPI. Then you found out that Slade Attridge could track inside the Preserve. Before you could adjust to that problem, you discovered that Attridge had called in Foundation security to investigate the trouble inside the fence.”
Rachel clicked her teeth, tut-tutting. “Things got bad for you, Nathan, and then things got worse. I thought it was Lancaster who sent those kids to firebomb the gatekeeper’s cabin, but it was you. You’re the one who got desperate and brought the boys in from Frequency City. You programmed them to set the fire while Harry was inside but you had no way of knowing I’d be there at the same time.”
“Everything that could go wrong, went wrong,” Nathan growled.
“What did you expect?” Harry asked. “You used a pair of street kids, not trained assassins.”
“It’s not like reliable professionals are easy to come by,” Nathan said. “And pros are dangerous. If I’d gone with a professional and he had figured out what I was hiding here in the Preserve, I wouldn’t have survived any longer than it took to pay him. The pros will sell you out in a heartbeat.”
“It’s harder to get rid of the professionals, too,” Harry said. “You used the kids from the Second Chance House because you thought no one would notice later when you made them disappear.”
“And also because I knew they had some degree of talent,” Nathan said smoothly. “That’s the purpose of the Second Chance operation, you see. It’s a big net that we use to pull in a lot of street people that no one cares about. We feed them, give them a place to sleep, and assess them for paranormal talent. We keep the useful ones and throw the others back out into the street.”
“When the firebombing plan didn’t work, you decided to try to lure me into the Preserve where I could conveniently disappear,” Harry said. “You grabbed Dillard, knowing that I would follow his psi-prints.”
“It didn’t occur to me that Rachel would be with you when you finally got here,” Nathan said. “But that turns out to be a piece of luck. About time. This will save me having to figure out how to grab her again.” Nathan motioned with the Alien weapon. “Enough chit-chat. Move, all of you.”
“Where are we going?” Rachel asked.
“You know where,” Nathan said. “You’re going to unlock that vault for me. I’m going to grab as many of those artifacts as I can carry out of here in a backpack and then I’m going to get the hell off this damn island. Move. You first, Sebastian.”
Harry turned and walked along the crystal tunnel through the indoor sea. Rachel and Calvin fell into step behind him.
“I’m sorry,” Calvin whispered again. “So damn sorry.”
“It’s all right,” she said quietly.
“No, it’s not all right,” he muttered.
“Shut up, both of you,” Nathan barked.
Harry did not appear to be paying any attention to what was going on behind him, but Rachel sensed that he was just waiting for an opening. She cast a quick, covert glance around and was relieved when she saw no sign of Darwina.
“You do know why the Foundation is focusing on Rainshadow, don’t you, Nathan?” Harry said almost casually.
“You’re here because that bastard, Attridge, contacted you,” Nathan said.
“The reason he called us in is because something is happening here on Rainshadow,” Harry said. “The Preserve is getting hotter. Or maybe you hadn’t noticed?”
“I noticed,” Calvin offered uneasily.
“Not my problem,” Nathan said. “But it is just one more reason for getting out of here as soon as possible.”
Rachel locked eyes with one of the bizarre creatures on the other side of the crystal wall. Its tentacles writhed as though it was aware of her interest and was sizing her up for lunch. She could have sworn that she felt a pulse of raw, inhuman energy through the transparent barrier.
She jerked her gaze away from the monster and looked at Calvin.
“At least one of those escaped recently, didn’t it?” she said.
Calvin gave her an uneasy look. “How did you know about the accident?”
“What accident?”
“Several of the tunnels that lead to the main aquarium chamber contain smaller aquariums,” Calvin explained. “The entire complex is linked to the sea via a network of caves that flood at high tide. There is a series of floodgates. The system has been functioning for centuries without any problem, but this genius”—Calvin jerked a thumb at Nathan, who ignored him—“tried to test fire one of the gadgets he found here in the complex. There was some damage to one of the gates. It failed to close when the tide came in. A lab tunnel flooded. After the tide receded we discovered that two of the small aquariums had shattered. The specimens escaped. I had hoped that they were all swept out to sea.”
“Why?” Rachel asked.
“Because they won’t last long in the wild. They have all been genetically bioengineered for a heavy psi environment. I ran some experiments with some of the small specimens. They don’t survive under normal psi conditions. But if some of them got into the cave system here in the Preserve, they may do very well because of the high levels of paranormal radiation throughout the island.”
They walked out of the crystal chamber into what appeared to be a lab. The walls were lit with an eerie ultralight. An array of workbenches and tabl
es—none of which were quite the right height for humans—marched down the center of the hall. The furnishings were constructed out of the familiar green quartz that the Aliens had used to build their cities and the catacombs.
Smaller aquariums lined the walls. More hideous examples of the Aliens’ experiments swam in the glowing waters. Sensing the presence of potential prey, the bizarre creatures came close to the crystal windows of their tanks, jaws and beaks open, tentacles and fins twitching.
Rachel turned away from the cold eyes, shuddering.
“You ran through this room and straight into that vault at the other end,” Nathan said.
She looked at the crystal vault at the far end of the chamber. The last of the misty images from her dreams coalesced into solid memories.
The transparent room was sealed with what looked like a solid wall of rain that had been flash-frozen into a crystalline form. But unlike the cold stones in the jar in her kitchen, the huge rainstone waterfall was infused with a chilling energy. Currents of ominous power swirled in the atmosphere. The far side of the chamber was blocked by another, identical door of stone. Beyond that, a glowing tunnel extended into the distance. It was the route she had used to escape.
A vast number of crystal and quartz objects—some smaller than a human hand, others as large as a rez-screen—were stored inside the vault. The Alien devices were neatly arranged on a series of green quartz shelves that were stacked to the ceiling of the tunnel. One shelf contained several of the small flute-shaped devices that she had used to find her way out of the Preserve.
On the floor in the center of the vault was a murky gray crystal that did not resemble any of the other artifacts. It was just a chunk of stone, not a precision-engineered object. And it glowed psi-hot.
Harry looked at the hot crystal.
“Well, hell,” he said very softly.
“I’ve tried everything I’ve found in this place on that rainstone,” Nathan said. “Nothing has worked. Now you see why I need you so badly. Those relics inside that vault are hotter than a mine of ruby amber.”
“Probably in more ways than one,” Harry said. “You do realize that the Aliens may have had some good reasons for locking up those devices?”