Canyons of Night lgt-3 Page 6

  First-date syndrome, she thought. A woman never outgrew it. She wondered if men had the same issues. If Slade had agonized over his own attire this evening, there was no evidence of it. At least he was not wearing his uniform. That boded well, she thought. He was dressed in jeans, a dark shirt with the sleeves rolled up on his forearms, and a pair of low boots. She was pretty sure that he had shaved again, too. There was no sign of a five-o’clock shadow.

  “No such thing as a hundred percent in anything, I guess,” Slade said. Satisfied that the salmon was off to a good start, he put the spatula aside and picked up the bottle of beer on the table. “Are you good on the wine?”

  She glanced at her half-full glass. “Fine, thanks.” She picked up the glass and took a small sip. “Something I’ve always wondered.”

  He looked at her. “Yeah?”

  “How did things work out for you at the FBPI?”

  Slade lowered himself onto one of the picnic table benches. “Good, for the most part. You could say I had a talent for the work.”

  “What, exactly, did you do for the Bureau? I realize you were a special agent, but what kind of bad guys did you go after?”

  He was silent for a time. Then he started to talk. “Here’s how I work, or how I used to work. Set me down in the middle of what appears to be the perfect crime or an old cold case and I can tell you if the perp committed the crime by paranormal means. I could usually find the evidence, too. I was so good at it that I eventually wound up working for a special department within the Bureau. It was known as the Office.”

  “Never heard of it.”

  “Which is exactly the way the Bureau wants it. The Office exists for the exclusive purpose of profiling and taking down the worst of the worst, rogue psychics who use paranormal talent to commit crimes.”

  “The Ghost Hunters’ Guild is rumored to have an agency that does something along the same lines.”

  “It does but its agents work almost exclusively down in the catacombs and the underground rain forest. The Office handles the aboveground cases. But in the past few years a solid working relationship has developed between the two. Some situations require coordination.”

  “Makes sense. Bad guys who commit crimes on the surface sometimes try to escape into the Underworld.”

  “And vice versa,” Slade said. “It’s not uncommon for a bad actor who violates the law underground to try to hide in a city or town where he knows the Guild can’t easily track him.”

  She raised her brows. “Or apply its own brand of justice if it does find him.”

  Slade smiled his rare, fleeting smile. “I can see you’re not a great admirer of the Guilds.”

  “They do have a certain reputation,” she allowed.

  “Things are changing. You should know that. You’re from Frequency. That Guild had the most notorious reputation of all. It will be different now that Adam Winters is in charge, trust me.”

  “You know Winters?” she asked.

  “We’ve worked together a few times in the past. Good man.”

  “Well, he’s certainly a local hero back in Frequency, I’ll give you that. If you can believe even half of the news reports, he and Marlowe Jones apparently saved the Underworld from certain destruction. Their wedding will be the biggest social event of the season.”

  “One thing’s for sure, by marrying into the Jones family, Adam has forever linked the Guild to Arcane.”

  “For better or worse,” Charlotte said dryly.

  “I can see the Frequency Guild has some public relations work to do, at least in your case.”

  “Yes, it does.” She lounged back in her chair. “If you liked your work with the FBPI and this Office you mentioned, why change your career path?”

  He drank some more beer and got to his feet to check the salmon. “It was time for me to move on.”

  Something bad had happened, she thought. But she knew she would not get the truth out of him that evening.

  “You mentioned you had a project going,” she said. “What is it? Or is it a secret?”

  “I’m keeping quiet about it here on the island.” He glanced over his shoulder. “And I’d appreciate it if you didn’t say anything. I don’t want the word to get out that I’m a short-timer. Bad for morale at the station.”

  “I understand. I won’t tell anyone. What’s the new career plan?”

  “I’m going to set up a private security consulting business. Hire the talents I need. I’ve got some connections from my days with the Bureau. Figure those will help land the first clients.”

  “How is the plan going?”

  “Slowly, but it’s going.” He turned back toward the grill. “The fish will be ready soon.”

  “I’ll get the salad.”

  She went up the steps. Apparently sensing that dinner was fast approaching, Rex chortled excitedly at her as she went past him. She opened the screen door and moved into the small spare front room of the cabin. It was clear immediately that Slade was making no attempt to turn the place into a home. Everything was neat and orderly. That did not come as a surprise. But aside from the computer on the desk, there was almost nothing of Slade in the room. He was treating the place like the short-term rental he obviously intended it to be.

  The cabin was typical of many of the small rentals on the island. The furniture was sturdy but battered. The well-worn couch and the pair of reading chairs set in front of the fireplace looked as if they had been around for several generations. The two framed pictures on the wall were faded generic landscapes of Amber Island scenes that had probably been in the house as long as the furniture. There was a bedroom and bath but the cabin also boasted a sleeping loft in the high-ceilinged front room designed to accommodate additional guests. The loft overlooked the main room and was accessed by a narrow wooden staircase.

  She crossed the old braided rug and went into a vintage kitchen. Opening the elderly refrigerator, she took out the bowl that contained the cucumber, tomato, olive, and basil salad she had brought with her. She poured the dressing that she had made earlier over the salad and tossed everything together. When she was ready she picked up the bowl of salad and the loaf of zucchini bread she had brought and went back outside. The sun was sinking fast. The evening was growing cooler. By the time she left she would need the sweater, she thought.

  “Devin Reed stopped in to see me today,” she said. She set the salad and the bread on the picnic table. “I assume that was your doing?”

  “I may have given him a push in that direction. I figured out he was the most likely suspect.” Slade eased the fish onto a platter. “Devin just turned thirteen. He is obviously coming into a talent of some kind. He’s attracted to the energy in the shop. But I’m sure he didn’t steal anything.”

  “I gave him one of the antiques.”

  “Yeah?”

  “An old Damian Cavalon compass.”

  “An original?”

  “Yes.”

  Slade whistled. “Nice gift. Was he thrilled?”

  “He seemed pleased. I did a little tuning work on the compass. It suits him now.”

  “The way that pocketknife you gave me suits me?”

  She shrugged. “It’s what I do. Speaking of young Devin, I’ve noticed that he hangs around you every chance he gets. Looks like he even managed to find a pair of sunglasses that looks exactly like yours.”

  “I talked to him today about what’s happening to him.”

  “The development of his talent?”

  “Right.” Slade sat down on the opposite side of the table. “He doesn’t have any idea of what’s going on and he’s afraid to talk to his grandmother for fear she’ll think he’s got mental health issues.”

  “It’s a reasonable concern. He wouldn’t be the first kid to get sent to a shrink after coming into a nonstandard, non-amber-related talent. What kind of ability do you think he has?”

  “Not sure,” Slade said. “It’s still unfocused.”

  “He lost his mother a few months a
go. That kind of trauma can delay or even totally screw up developing senses.”

  “He’s a good kid but he’s caught some bad breaks.”

  “I understand that there’s no father in the picture.”

  “No,” Slade said. “The kid’s got his grandmother but that’s it.”

  “Myrna isn’t going to have an easy time of it. It’s hard enough to raise a teenage boy alone. Trying to deal with one who is showing some serious talent will be even more complicated.”

  “Especially if the person doing the raising isn’t comfortable with the concept of nonstandard talent, herself,” Slade said.

  “Who is, unless you happen to be Arcane? And even within the Society, very strong talents tend to make other sensitives nervous.”

  “That’s the thing about power of any kind,” Slade said. “It can be scary. I told Devin that what was happening to him was normal but that most people wouldn’t think so. I advised him to keep quiet about his new senses until he’s older and until he’s figured out how to control them.”

  “Good advice. Meanwhile, he needs guidance. No matter how you label it, what he did last night certainly fits the definition of illegal entry.”

  “It won’t happen again.”

  “A kid like Devin could go either way,” Charlotte said.

  “I know.”

  “Sounds like you speak from personal experience.”

  “I do.”

  Chapter 5

  HE WALKED HER HOME SHORTLY BEFORE ELEVEN o’clock, using a flashlight to illuminate the unlit road that wound through the trees along the bluff. The flashlight was for Charlotte’s sake. In spite of the damage to his talent, his night vision was still good, especially when he was a little jacked, as he was now. He had tried to keep his senses tightly shuttered all evening but just being around Charlotte was enough to give him a slight buzz, enough to illuminate the world with a faint ultralight radiance. Enough to keep the sweet ache of semi-arousal going deep inside him.

  But Charlotte would have been walking blind without the artificial light. Darkness on the island was absolute once you were away from the town’s small business district and marina. There were no streetlights. The cottages and cabins scattered along the cliffs and bluffs were set far apart and veiled by thick woods. The branches of the trees that crowded close to the edges of the pavement blocked out what light came from the stars and crescent moon.

  Charlotte glanced at Rex who rode on Slade’s shoulder. “You two are lucky. You can both see in the dark. Must come in handy.”

  “Night vision has its uses.” He wondered how much longer he would have the paranormal eyesight that allowed him to see in total darkness. He wouldn’t need it to know if Charlotte were nearby, though, he thought. No matter how psiblind he became, something in him would always respond to her presence.

  “When did Rex attach himself to you?” Charlotte asked.

  “Shortly after I got out of—” He stopped abruptly. “After I finished my last job for the Office. I was living in an apartment in Crystal City. Heard a sound out on the balcony one night. I opened the slider and there was Rex. He just sat there for a while staring at me. He looked like he was waiting for something.”

  “Food?”

  “That’s what I figured. I gave him some leftover chicken. He ate it and then he left. The next morning he was back on the balcony with a nice little rock.”

  “A rock?”

  “A very green rock, psi green. I knew it had come from the underground rain forest.”

  There was no mistaking the unique, acid-green glow that was the hallmark of so much of what the long-vanished aliens had constructed. Aboveground the ancient ruins of their dead cities glowed with green energy after dark. Down below, the endless labyrinth of catacombs they had built were lit with the strange green light day and night. The vast reaches of the bioengineered jungle buried deep in the Underworld were illuminated with an artificial green sun.

  No one knew what had happened to the aliens who had first colonized Harmony. But human anthropologists and researchers had concluded that something in the environment of the planet had proved poisonous to them. The psi infused into the walls and buildings of their elegant, graceful cities and into the engineering marvel that was the Underworld had clearly been intended to be the antidote.

  But in the end the forces of nature on Harmony had evidently proved too much for the aliens. No one knew if they had simply died out as a species or if they had called it quits and abandoned the planet. Whatever the case, they had vanished thousands of years before the human colonists from Earth had arrived on Harmony. The experts could not establish a firm date for the era of the alien colonists because the green quartz that they had used to construct virtually everything they had built or manufactured was indestructible. It showed no signs of weathering or erosion.

  “So Rex brought you a rock from the rain forest to cement your relationship,” Charlotte said, amused. “What a clever, charming gift.”

  “He’s been hanging around ever since,” Slade said. “Sometimes he takes off on his own for a while, usually at night. He started doing that here on Rainshadow on the night we arrived. I’ve gone with him a couple of times.”

  She laughed. “Isn’t trespassing still illegal?”

  “As illegal as it was fifteen years ago when you and I went in. But things have changed.”

  “Like what?”

  “For one thing, I’m the chief of police now. I can go anywhere I want on the island without having to worry about getting arrested for trespassing.”

  “Oh, right. I forgot. You carry a badge. Must come in handy.”

  “It does.” He paused, wondering how much to tell her. “But that’s not the only thing that has changed here.”

  She must have picked up on the seriousness he had injected into the words because she turned her head quite sharply to look at him.

  “What do you mean?” she asked.

  “According to Chief Halstead’s notes, the fence was strengthened about five years ago after two people managed to sneak into the Preserve and died on the grounds. The Foundation’s search-and-rescue team brought the bodies out. Then they sent an engineering crew to crank up the power of the fence. It’s definitely much stronger now, a lot harder to get through than it was the night I took you inside. But that’s not the only thing that has changed. The Preserve itself feels different, at least in parts.”

  “Really? How?”

  “It’s hard to explain. There are still a lot of pretty places, but in some sections the energy is darker and heavier.”

  “I recall that it was very disorienting the night you took me in,” Charlotte said. “If you hadn’t been with me I would have been hopelessly lost within ten or twenty feet.”

  “Back in those days the psi fence and the fear of getting lost was enough to keep out most folks. But now I’m pretty sure that only someone with a heck of a lot of talent and just as much determination could get through the barrier.”

  “You said some of the places inside feel different?”

  “I spent a lot of time inside the Preserve fifteen years ago. It was an irresistible attraction to a nineteen-year-old guy who had come into a strong talent.”

  “I remember,” she said. She smiled, thinking about it. “I felt the lure, as well.”

  “The two times I went in this past week I came across some features that were definitely not present fifteen years ago.”

  “Such as?”

  “Ponds and lakes that seem to simmer with dark energy. Canyons of intense night.”

  “Canyons of night?” she repeated, fascinated.

  “I don’t know what else to call them.”

  “But the beautiful places are still there? That meadow that you showed me that night, for instance. It was like a fairyland. I’ve never forgotten it.”

  “It’s still there,” he said. “Still as pretty as ever. But it feels hotter now.”

  “Got any theories?”

  “Not yet
. But I’ve been doing some research online and I’m working on a theory. Ever heard of a paranexus?”

  “Sure. According to the Arcane experts it’s a natural geologic hot zone of paranormal forces, a location where there is a confluence of several kinds of powerful natural energy currents. Similar to a vortex, I think. There are records of such places back on Earth and I’ve heard that they’ve found some here on Harmony down in the catacombs.”

  “A nexus is more powerful and more complex than a vortex because there are more forces at work. In addition to the energy of the planet’s magnetic field, there are ocean currents and strong tides, as well as tectonic and geothermal forces involved in a true nexus. When they come together in certain ways in certain locations they produce a lot of ambient energy like the kind inside the Preserve.”

  “You think it’s a nexus?”

  “Yes.”

  “How did you do your research on the Preserve?”

  “I found some old navigational charts and ships’ logs and diaries from the First Century expeditions. They’re housed in the online collections of the University of Old Resonance. I also turned up a few accounts of the Amber Sea Islands left by smugglers and pirates. I haven’t had a chance to read all of them yet but I can see that a theme is emerging.”

  “What kind of theme?”

  “Some of the early navigators were convinced that Rainshadow was haunted by ghosts of the aliens.”

  She laughed. “Okay, that’s an original notion but I think you can ignore that theory.”

  “The first expedition that went into the part of the island that is now the Preserve disappeared. There were two rescue attempts made but in both cases the teams were forced to turn back. The bodies of the first group were never recovered. Later a couple of expeditions were able to get a short distance inside but none of them got far and most of the territory remains unmapped.”