Illusion Town (14 page)

“It's a little like underwater cave diving,” Elias said. “Except you don't need a flashlight and you can breathe the atmosphere. But you go in on a line and you never, ever let go of that line until you're on the other side. Understood?”

“Understood,” Hannah said.

“You don't have to physically hold the line—it's locked on to the vest you're wearing. But we've had a couple of people panic and try to unhook themselves. One went so far as to strip off his vest. We barely got him out in time.”

“I'll try not to panic,” Hannah said.

Her excruciatingly polite tone made Elias smile briefly.

“I know,” he said. “Don't know why I'm bothering with the lecture.”

They were standing inside the ancient portal ruin, looking down into the pool of glowing liquid crystal. It was
like looking into a white-hot mirror except that there were no reflections. Even though she was standing above it she could not see anything beneath the surface.

The silvery lightning bolts of dazzling psi were very intense this close to the portal. Once again she had the feeling that the Aliens who had constructed the portal had built in a series of psychic warnings. It was as if there was a very large sign over the portal that read:
You really don't want to do this
.

She had Virgil tucked under one arm. He was fully fluffed. His Arizona Snow doll was clutched in one paw. He was evidently unconcerned by the heavy waves of energy rolling off the surface of the pool.

Elias was crouched nearby, checking and double-checking the contents of the two packs they were going to carry. The key to the portal hung around his neck on a metal chain. It didn't look very impressive, just a chunk of murky gray quartz, but every so often Hannah caught flashes of power seething deep inside the stone.

Sylvia Thorpe and two of the guards hovered near the entrance of the chamber. They were clearly uncomfortable with the energy in the room. It was also obvious that they were not optimistic about the outcome of the tracking mission.

Bunch of downers, Hannah thought. None of them had any faith in her ability to find the killer. She thought about telling them that she was the Finder—she could find just about anything. But she knew they wouldn't be impressed. After all, most of the team was still convinced she was involved in Richman's murder and the theft of the two keys.

No one trusted her except Elias.

The sooner she and Virgil finished this investigation, the better, she thought. This wasn't her world. She belonged in the Dark Zone where she had friends and family she could trust.

Satisfied with the contents of the packs, Elias got to his feet and held one of them out to her.

“This doesn't come off, either,” he said.

“Like the vest.” She touched the leather vest she was wearing. “I understand. But why would I be tempted to take off my pack?”

“Because it gets very weird inside the Ghost City. The energy sometimes makes people want to do stupid things.”

She didn't try to remind him that she'd had a lot of experience in the Underworld and that she wasn't likely to do anything stupid. That would just make her sound inexperienced. People who spent time in a psi-heavy environment knew that every twist and turn in the catacombs or the Rainforest was fraught with the unknown.

“What's inside the pack?” she asked.

“Just the usual field gear. Energy bars, water, an emergency medical kit, a couple of extra cartridges for your flamer and some spare tuned amber.”

“Which won't do us any good inside the Ghost City.”

“No. Nav amber doesn't work inside but if we find the portal the killer accessed and get an opportunity to go through it, we can use our amber to get a fix on the coordinates. That will help us track the pirates.”

“Got it,” she said.

She slipped the pack on, trying not to let the others see her uncertainty. She was good at putting on a mask of cool confidence. But the truth was she had no idea if her plan would work. All she knew for sure was that she had to try. It was the only way to clear her name.

She was a very small player in the world of hot antiquities, but within that world, reputation was everything. The rumors already circulating around the Coppersmith encampment could ruin her if they were not squelched fast.

She plopped Virgil on her shoulder so that both of her hands were free.

“Ready,” she said.

Elias tugged on the line one last time, testing the hookups, and nodded at Sylvia.

“All set,” he said.

She nodded once. “Good luck, boss.”

Elias looked at Hannah. “Follow me. It will feel like we're going into a pool of warm water at first, but it's actually just a unique kind of psi-gate. Once you're under the surface you'll find yourself in a storm zone. You'll get hit with a lot of dark energy that will try to scare you into turning around and going back the way you came. Use your talent to push through it. When we get through the energy storm you'll see the doorway to the Ghost City.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Elias started down the flight of quartz steps into the mirror-surfaced pool. The liquid crystal did not splash or create ripples and small waves; instead it began to churn in a vortexlike manner. Hannah felt the energy level in the
chamber start to flare. Sylvia and the guards retreated farther into the relative shelter of the cavern tunnel.

Elias walked down through the quicksilver storm and disappeared into the fathomless depths.

Hannah felt the line between them grow taut. She took a breath and went quickly down the steps. The strange liquid crystal lapped at her boots. Her feet disappeared beneath the surface. Now the small pool of energy was up to her knees . . . her waist . . . her neck.

Now that she was actually in the pool she realized it did not feel at all like water; it was more like walking through the eye of a storm—intense, disturbing, and oddly thrilling.

One more step took her under the liquid crystal barrier. Virgil's fur stood on end. So did her hair. Instinctively, she closed her eyes and held her breath but Elias was right; once she was beneath the swirling surface of the mirrorlike energy pool she could breathe normally.

Virgil chortled with excitement and waved Arizona Snow.

“Piece of cake. Right, pal?” she whispered.

Below the surface of the pool was a storm of hot, bright energy. Elias was a dark shadow moving ahead of her. She realized there was a narrow beam of energy radiating from the gray quartz he wore around his neck. His ring was hot, too.

She kicked up her senses and followed him deeper into the silently howling gale.

The violent energy swirled around them in a senses-blinding whiteout. The harrowing images came from all directions, some mere ghosts in the dazzling fog, others
unnervingly realistic. Monsters from the primordial past, crazed killers, wildly burning ghosts—the storm sent all of them and more.

And every spectral vision carried the same message:
Go back
.

But years of handling her talent had given her the tools she needed to keep the visions at bay.

The journey through the portal seemed to be endless. But abruptly she found herself following Elias up another flight of gray quartz steps.

They surfaced through a liquid crystal pool similar to the first and climbed out in an identical colonnaded rotunda made of the same hot gray quartz as the cavern pool.

But this rotunda was inside a featureless structure fashioned of the same gray quartz. There were no windows but there was a single, arched opening. Through the opening Hannah could see a heavy gray fog.

Virgil chortled and shook himself as though shedding water from his fur.

“Welcome to the Ghost City,” Elias said. He gave Hannah a critical survey. “How are you doing?”

“I'm fine,” she said, going for her patented I've-got-this vibe.

“Yeah.” Elias smiled, looking coolly satisfied. “I can see that. In which case, it's time to get to work. Can you detect the killer's prints in here?”

Her senses were still rattled from the trip through the portal but she pulled herself together and focused on the gray quartz floor.

She saw the hot tracks immediately. The killer had
been in the grip of strong emotions when he emerged from the crystal pool. The combination of having committed a bloody murder and navigating the disorienting portal had rezzed his senses.

“Got 'em,” she said. “Looks like he was nervous—scared, maybe—anxious to get to safety.” She motioned toward the door. “He went through that opening.”

“Straight into the heart of the Ghost City.” Elias contemplated the endlessly shifting fog on the other side of the arched opening. “Whoever he is, he's strong.”

“Yeah, well, so are we.”

Elias gave her an oddly cheerful smile. “We are, aren't we?”

“Plus we've got Virgil and Arizona Snow.”

“We're a hell of a team. All right, the key is our lodestone. It's tuned to this portal so we can find our way back. One piece of advice—try not to think about the fog when you walk through it. For some reason it's easier that way.”

“All right.”

She followed him through the arched opening and out into a fog-drenched landscape. The strange, seething mist threatened to overwhelm her senses. Panic whispered through her. How was she going to track the killer through such a miasma?

She remembered Elias's advice, cranked up her senses, and concentrated on finding the killer's prints.

The great weight receded somewhat. She was finally able to make out her surroundings.

They were standing in a narrow, fog-infused lane. A strange array of structures loomed in the mist. The
buildings were unmistakably Alien in design—the proportions struck the human eye as slightly wrong. But unlike most of the ruins Hannah had seen both aboveground and in the Underworld, everything in the Ghost City appeared to be crafted of the same smoky gray quartz. And all of it glowed with an icy energy that raised the hair on the back of her neck.

“Just like the old fairy tale,” she whispered. “
The City of Ice and Fog
.”

The city was enveloped in an eerie silence. Nothing moved. No creatures stirred in the ruins. The strange mist that swirled in the streets had a muffling effect.

“This isn't normal fog, is it?” she said.

“No. It's infused with paranormal currents. We haven't had a chance to analyze it.”

“I have to admit, I'm curious. What
was
this place?”

“Good question,” Elias said.

“I'm not sure we want to know the answer,” Hannah said.

“Always better to know the truth.”

“A counselor once told me that wasn't always the case, at least not when it came to asking questions about the past.”

“Obviously you didn't take that advice,” Elias said. “You went out and hired a professional genealogist to dig up your past.”

She almost smiled. “This is true. Several of them over the years, actually. I've spent a lot of money on genealogists.”

“I wouldn't have taken the advice, either,” Elias said. “Like I said, knowing is always better than not knowing.”

She reached up to touch Virgil, expecting a reassuring chortle in response. Instead he rumbled in her ear and hunkered down on her shoulder. She turned her head to look at him and was startled to see that all four of his eyes were open.

You knew you were in trouble when a dust bunny got serious, Hannah thought.

Belatedly, she remembered she had a job to do. She pulled hard on her talent, pushing back against the endless waves of fog, and looked at the gray quartz street. A familiar set of hot psi-prints glowed in the strange mist.

“He went down this street and turned to the right,” she said. “He was in a hurry. Running, I think.”

“Let's go,” Elias said.

They walked the street side by side, their flamers at the ready. The trail led through a narrow canyon formed by the looming quartz structures. Every so often they passed a doorway sealed with some mirrorlike energy.

It was hard work pressing forward, demanding physical as well as mental energy because the seething energy in the atmosphere was unrelenting. It just kept coming in seemingly endless waves. At this rate they would be exhausted by the time they reached the pirate's portal. On the plus side, the pirate would probably be tired, too.

“What's behind the doors?” she asked at one point, more for the sake of hearing Elias's voice than for anything else.

“Only tried a couple so far,” Elias said. “Nearly got psi-fried both times. We're working on a better strategy.”

“Meanwhile, don't open any doors, right?”

“Right.”

“What if the pirate opened one?”

“We'll face that question if it arises.”

The trail led deeper and deeper into the fogbound city. Every few steps, Elias called a halt to check the key stone. Hannah wondered if he was afraid it would fail because of the heavy psi they were encountering. The keys were prototypes, after all.