by Jayne Castle
Chapter 22
“Do you really think you can track the kidnappers into the Preserve?” Rachel asked.
“Yes,” Harry said. “I’ve done my share of search-and-rescue work inside the fence. The prints are fairly fresh, not more than a few hours old. I should be able to follow them.”
They were standing at the rear of the SUV. Harry had the cargo bay door open, and Rachel watched him select items from the emergency kit to go into his daypack. She did not need to view his aura to sense the energy of the hunter whispering in the atmosphere around him.
Darwina was perched on the top of the open door. She burbled encouragingly as if urging Harry to hurry up so that they could get on with whatever adventure he had planned.
“I’m going with you,” Rachel said, just to make sure Harry understood.
“Yes,” he said. He did not look up from the task of filling the daypack.
“Wow,” Rachel said. “You mean you’re not going to argue with me about this?”
“Nope.”
“Okay, that’s good,” Rachel said. “Sure glad I wore my leather boots and jacket again today. But can I ask why you’re being so reasonable?”
“I don’t think you’ll be safe if I leave you behind. Whoever got Calvin will probably go after you next. All things considered, you’re better off with me.”
She took a breath. “Your logic is a little scary and I’m not sure it’s solid. Why would whoever took Calvin come after me now? He’s more likely to concentrate on trying to kill you. Maybe he has concluded that will be easier to do if he lures you into the Preserve. A lot of people have disappeared inside without a trace.”
“I don’t have all the answers, Rachel. I’m going with my gut here.” Harry zipped up the pack, slung it over one shoulder, and reached up to take Darwina off her perch. She scrambled down onto his shoulder, chortling and waving her Amberella doll.
“Any other reasons for not leaving me behind?” Rachel asked, her voice a little too neutral.
“Yes.” He closed the rear door and looked toward the fog-drenched forest. “I sensed almost from the start of this thing that you’re the key. Until I find out exactly what lock you can open, I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
She winced. “Always nice to feel needed.”
His eyes heated a little. “I need you, Rachel. Don’t ever doubt that. Ready?”
She flushed and took a deep breath to fortify herself for the senses-rattling job of getting through the psi-fence.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” she said.
Harry reached out and took her hand. His fingers closed tightly around hers. “I know you can get through the fence on your own, but it will be easier for you if we have physical contact.”
She glanced down at their linked hands. “Can you get anyone in and out this way?”
“Yes, but it’s easier taking a strong sensitive through. High-rez talents seem to have some immunity.”
“Whoever grabbed Calvin seems to be able to come and go fairly easily from the looks of it.”
“Yes,” Harry said. “Which raises a lot of interesting questions.”
They trekked through the fog toward the invisible fence. Darwina mumbled excitedly. Rachel felt the first ghostly thrills of psi and intuitively heightened her senses in response.
“What if I go blank again?” she asked quietly.
“You won’t.”
“You sound very certain.”
“I am certain. Your amnesia last time was deliberately induced by someone. Whoever it was won’t be able to pull that trick again.”
She smiled. “Because you’ve got my back this time.”
“Right,” Harry said. “Easiest way to go through is with your senses kicked up. Counteracts the force field.”
She had done this before, Rachel reminded herself, but the experience of crashing through the psi-fence was never quite the same each time. The unpredictability factor had no doubt been deliberately engineered into the currents of energy that guarded the preserve. But the result was that she could not entirely fortify and prepare her mind, body, and senses for the coming assault.
She summoned up one of the Principles and mumbled it aloud. “Perfection in psychic harmony, as in all else, is not the goal.”
“What?” Harry said.
He spoke absently, his full attention on the task of guiding her toward the fence line across the uneven, tree-studded ground.
“Nothing.” She tightened her grip on his hand. “Just an old HE saying.”
Harry spared her a brief, frowning glance. “I thought the HE philosophy was all about achieving harmony in all things.”
“That’s another misconception of the philosophy. According to the Principles, perfect harmony would set up a closed-loop system that would make it impossible to adapt to changes in the environment. It would be a recipe for extinction, first of the individual spirit, then of a community, and ultimately of a species.”
“Because a true closed-loop system would, in effect, be a machine and all machines are ultimately doomed to fail.”
She smiled. “That’s very good, Sebastian. What philosophical school are you quoting?”
“The school of common sense.”
“An excellent teacher.”
She stopped talking then, because she could hear ghosts murmuring in the fog.
Chapter 23
The warnings of the specters grew louder and more urgent. Rachel knew they were auditory hallucinations, but that did not lessen the impact on her nerves. She flinched and intuitively kicked up her senses. The voices faded but she knew they would return.
“It helps to use your talent to deflect some of the fence energy,” Harry advised.
“I figured that much out for myself. I told you, I’ve done this once or twice.”
“You and Slade and Charlotte and a couple of kids,” Harry said. He did not sound pleased. “No way to know who else has been able to get through the fence lately. So much for the last round of engineering from the Foundation labs.”
The voices in the fog got louder and more anguished. Frissons of prickly energy flashed through Rachel. She knew the sensations would grow stronger and more disturbing until everything inside her would start screaming for her to turn back.
Here there be monsters.
The first vision coalesced in the mist, a shambling figure summoned up from the depths of one of her own dark dreams.
“You okay?” Harry asked.
“Yes.” She spoke through clenched teeth. “Thought you said this was going to be easier if I went through with you.”
“Turns out it’s not the usual cakewalk for me, either. This heat inside the Preserve is starting to oscillate with the fence wavelengths. Not good.”
The hallucinations became more realistic and more horribly detailed. A demonic figure came toward Rachel through the fog. Its face was a cross between a snake and a spider. The creature reached for her with a clawed hand. She pulled harder on her talent. It’s not real.
The image faded, but other terrible creatures with tentacles and glowing eyes took its place. Just fragments from my dreams, she thought. Whirling storms of energy threatened to sear her senses. There were disturbing physical sensations as well—hot and cold prickles of panic shivered through her, triggering a fight-or-flight reaction that was hard to suppress.
“Interesting,” Harry said.
“What’s that mean?” Rachel gritted.
“I think that in addition to the energy of the fence, the fog is acting as an additional barrier.”
“Yes.” Rachel waved a hand in a futile effort to clear some of the mist. The energy of the fog sent icy shivers through her hand and up her arm. “If it gets any denser we won’t be able to see a thing once we’re inside. What in the world is going on here?”
“I don’t know but it doesn’t take a para-engineer to figure out that if the oscillating frequencies get too powerful, things could get a hell of a lot more complicated.”
<
br /> The banshee wailing grew stronger and more unnerving, doomed souls already lost in the fog warning others not to come any closer. Rachel wanted to cover her ears but she knew that wouldn’t do any good. The nerve-shattering cries were coming from the paranormal end of the spectrum, not the normal section.
The only one who was unfazed by the frightening energy was Darwina. Evidently thrilled with the new adventure, she chortled and bounded down to the ground. Rachel caught a glimpse of her furry little body and the sparkle of the tiny crystals sewn onto Amberella’s gown, and then dust bunny and doll vanished into the mist.
“She’ll be okay,” Harry said.
“I know. I’m concerned about us. What did you mean when you said things could get more complicated?”
“I’m no engineer or scientist, but because of the nature of my work I’ve spent a lot of time in tech labs. You hear things. In theory, there’s a possibility that if the fence energy becomes too violent, it might become impassable altogether. Worst-case scenario is that no one would be able to get through to stop whatever is happening inside, assuming we can figure out what is happening.”
Neither of them spoke for a time after that. Rachel didn’t know why Harry stopped talking but she abandoned the attempt at conversation because it required all of her energy, concentration, and willpower just to put one foot in front of the other. Even with Harry’s hand clamped around her own, it was all she could do to keep moving forward. The disorienting effects of the seething currents of psi were definitely being exacerbated by the unnatural fog. The only way she could be sure that they were still heading into the Preserve was because with every inch gained, there was additional pressure on her senses to turn around and flee in the opposite direction.
She knew that it took only a few minutes to get through the unnerving barrier but, like a nightmare, the transit seemed endless.
And then, between one footstep and the next, it was over. They were through the fence and inside the uncharted territory of the Preserve. Rachel was surprised to note that the fog was not so dense now. The thick foliage was illuminated with a weak efflorescence. She knew from previous experience that the paranormal radiance infused into the plants and trees would grow stronger and more perceptible as night fell.
Currents of psi still swirled in the atmosphere, but the dreadful hallucinations and the ghostly cries were gone, along with the sense of panic. The relief was overwhelming. Rachel drew the first deep breath she had taken in several minutes and surveyed her surroundings. It was warm, she thought, and not all the heat was from the normal end of the spectrum.
“You were right,” she said. “This place actually is getting hotter.”
“I told you, if I can’t troubleshoot and fix the problem, I’m going to have no choice but to order an evacuation of the island.”
“And I warned you, the order won’t be very effective. If the Foundation ordered an evacuation without some pretty convincing proof of impending disaster, I think most people here would figure it was a diabolical plot.”
“What the hell kind of plot would involve evacuating the island?” Harry asked.
“The assumption would be that something extremely valuable—say a mine of rare amber or some unusual Alien ruins—had been discovered inside the Preserve. The good citizens of Shadow Bay would leap to the conclusion that they were being forced out of their homes so that the Sebastian family business empire could claim the discovery.”
“Not to get technical, but my family already owns the Preserve,” Harry said dryly. “If there is anything of value here, we’ve got a rock-solid legal claim to it.”
“Doesn’t mean it would be any easier to force the citizens of Shadow Bay off the island.”
“I’m well aware of that.”
Darwina appeared, scurrying out from a small jungle of ferns that were luminous with psi. She waved Amberella, bounced up and down, came to a stop at Rachel’s feet, and chittered. Rachel scooped her up and plopped her on one shoulder.
Harry studied the eerie landscape. Rachel felt energy swirl in the atmosphere and knew that he had raised his talent.
“The tracks go toward that stand of trees,” he said. “They’ve got a few hours’ start on us. We’d better get moving.”
She fell into step beside him. “You know, maybe your theories about the Preserve are wrong. Maybe the Aliens didn’t put up the first psi-fence because there was something dangerous inside. For all we know, Rainshadow was just a big theme park and the fence was installed to make sure no one got inside without buying a ticket.”
“Do you really think this place was ever meant to be a fun, safe place for families?”
Rachel watched the ominous darkness pooling in the trees. It seemed to her that shadows moved within the shadows. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end. It was impossible to imagine little children laughing in such a place.
“No,” she said. “I don’t think the Preserve was designed as a family-oriented theme park. From everything we’ve learned about them, the Aliens found the atmosphere aboveground poisonous. If they had built a theme park, I think they would have put it down in the Underworld.”
“I agree with you,” Harry said.
“Maybe Rainshadow was a huge prison, a penal colony. The Aliens probably had criminals in their population, just like we do.”
Harry glanced at her, a speculative expression in his eyes. “I hadn’t considered that possibility. It’s not a bad theory.”
He skirted a small, dark pond, giving it a wide berth. Rachel glanced down at the black water. The surface of the little pool gleamed with a chilling luminescence. She shuddered and quickened her steps.
“Or maybe this place is an ancient Alien cemetery,” she suggested. “That would account for the old legends of ghosts and specters.”
“But not the fence.”
“No,” Rachel said. “It wouldn’t account for the fence.”
“Whatever the Aliens kept here in the Preserve, one thing is clear—they were worried as hell that it might be stolen.”
“Or that it might escape,” Rachel said.
Chapter 24
They got only a few minutes’ warning before the storm struck. Rachel noticed that the light was fading more quickly than seemed right for the time of day, and in another moment it dawned on her what that meant.
“It’s getting dark and the wind is picking up,” she said.
“Another storm,” Harry said. “No surprise. We need to find some shelter fast. Shouldn’t be too hard. The island is honeycombed with small caves and caverns. I’ve been keeping an eye on our options. I think I see an option over there at the base of that outcropping that will work.”
Thunder rumbled and a jagged bolt of energy flashed in the dark clouds. Darwina chortled, sounding excited by the prospect of getting caught in the storm.
“Everything’s a game to you, isn’t it?” Rachel said. “Except when it’s not,” Harry said. “The dark side of dust bunny life, remember?”
“I’d rather not think about it.”
Harry wrapped a hand around her wrist and hauled her forward through the mist. The terrain had changed dramatically in the past hour, the dense woods giving way to more tropical vegetation.
She ran with Harry across a small, iridescent clearing and into a jumble of boulders at the foot of a stony cliff.
“We lucked out,” Harry said. “There’s a cave. Thought we’d find one here.”
She thought she heard the splash of water into a grotto pool somewhere close by, but it was difficult to be sure because the wind was growing louder. Another shaft of lightning briefly lit up the sky.
Harry drew her into an opening in the rocks an instant before the rain hit. She came to a halt beside him and gazed in wonder at the gently glowing interior of the cavern. The walls of stone were faintly luminous with a pale, violet-hued energy. A frisson of memory whispered through her.
Harry released her hand and slipped off the pack. Darwina bounded down to th
e floor of the cave and bustled about, investigating. Rachel wrapped her arms around herself and studied the glowing walls.
“This is weird,” she said.
“No more weird than everything else inside the Preserve,” Harry said. He gave the cave a quick, assessing survey. “The rock is some kind of psi-quartz. It probably got hot in response to the storm energy or maybe it just glows naturally.”
“That’s not the weird part,” Rachel said. She looked at him. “I remember a cave like this, one that was lit with heavy psi. I’ve been seeing flashes of it in my dreams along with that waterfall.”
Harry stilled. “Was it this cave?”
“No.” She heightened her senses a little and studied the soft luminescence. Memories came rushing back. “The energy was a lot more intense in the other cave. It came from a darker end of the spectrum. It dazzled my senses. There were massive stalactites and those other things, the ones that come up from the floor of a cave.”
“Stalagmites?”
“Right. They were all made of crystals that glittered with ultralight.”
“Any idea what you were doing inside the cave in the first place?”
She pulled harder on the fragments of dream memory but they were already fading. She sighed, annoyed with herself. “No.”
“Were you lost inside the cave?”
“No, not exactly. That is, I knew how to get out. That wasn’t the hard part.”
“What was the hard part?”
“Figuring out how to escape without him seeing me.”
It was the stunned silence from Harry that alerted her to the fact that she had said something very important. She replayed her own words in her head and caught her breath.
“Without who seeing you?” he asked gently.
“The monster.”
Chapter 25
“All right,” Harry said. “Take it easy. Your memory is coming back. Let it happen. Don’t try to force it or you’ll make yourself so tense you’ll start blocking the dream again.”
