Dark Oracle

“Dr. Magnusson is very important
to the balance of power, Tara.”

“The powers he is working with are truly immense. . . gravity, time, the void. . . technology beyond imagination. And this power would be very, very dangerous if it fell into the wrong hands. The Pythia thinks—”

“I don’t care what the Pythia thinks,” Tara snapped.

“The Pythia thinks this technology could be misused and result in vast devastation, even global war. He must be found.”

Tara leaned back in her chair. She wanted no part of this. “Sophia, I. . .”

Sophia looked down at her hands. “I would not ask this lightly. We would have asked your mother for her assistance.”

Tara bristled.

Sophia continued, “But she is gone, and you are the only one left in her line who has her particular knack for finding people.”

Tara glanced down at the picture of the scientist. “Even if I wanted to, I’m so far out of practice, I would be of very little use.”

Sophia grinned at her. “No one ever falls out of practice in your art.”

“I can’t.”

Sophia slid the file across the table to her. “No one will make you, and I won’t come knocking again. All I ask is that you think about it.”

Tara could not refuse her that much.

Dark Oracle

Alayna Williams

Pocket Books A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. 1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020 www.SimonandSchuster.com

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2010 by Laura Mailloux

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First Juno Books/Pocket Books paperback edition June 2010

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Designed by Jacquelynne Hudson
Cover illustration by Chad Michael Ward

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

ISBN 978-1-4391-8279-6
ISBN 978-1-4391-8282-6 (ebook)

Acknowledgments

T
HANKS
to the ladies of the Ohio Writers Network for their unflinching support: Michelle, Linda, Rachel, Melissa, Emily, and Faith.

Thank you to the folks at National Novel Writing Month, who continue to celebrate literary abandon.

Thanks to my husband, Jason, who has suffered through my fetish with commas.

And thanks to my editor, Paula Guran, for the opportunity and guidance.

Chapter One

THE AIR
seethed, like a living thing disturbed.

Dust settled from the sky as the roar of the explosion rolled away into the desert. Gradually, the sky cleared, revealing stars. In the sandy haze of dust, a building had blistered open, like an empty shell too weak to hold a great and terrible seed. Chunks of concrete littered the ground, illuminated by weak sparks and fizzles from the severed legs of ruined machinery.

Swimming through the wreckage, dozens of tiny lights milled like fireflies, winking in and out. Unlike fireflies, they burned dark violet, wandering in wayward paths. Undisturbed by the remnants of walls, they glided through twisted I beams as easily as smoke. In bright flashes of light, some flickered out. Others swarmed together, levitating before they vanished with the rushing sound of air, leaving spirals of dust in their wake.

They came from the machine. The hull of the massive mechanism lay open in the darkness. Its skin ripped open by the force of the explosion, wires dangled in heavy tentacles over ruined copper tubing warped into blossoms by the sound. A solenoid switch clicked on and off, on and off, with no circuit to complete. The violet particles rimmed the interior skin of the machine, seething over the steel like the surface of an indigo sun. The machine was like an egg cracked open, pouring life into the night.

But it was not life. The particles drifted away, blazed out, sucking bits of air and time as they disappeared. The faint light illuminated a trace of human wreckage in the debris: a silver watch.

Its face gleamed smooth and unbroken, but the time its hands had measured had stopped. There was no trace of its owner, the man who had keyed the last operating procedure into this apparatus.

No life; no life, at all.

Yet, something more than life. Dim violet sparks crept out into the darkness toward the sounds of distant sirens.

TARA HAD ONCE BEEN ACCUSTOMED TO AWAKENING TO STACCATO
knocks on her door in the middle of the night. She had always answered that summons to roll out of bed in razor-sharp readiness back then. She could dress and launch herself beyond the door in less than ten minutes, her case full of notebooks, guns, and more arcane tools of her trade. Sometimes, she could even squeeze feeding the cat into those preparations.

That was a long time ago, but old habits never really went away.

This knock was different, softer. Tara rolled over in bed, her bare feet skimming the floor. Automatically, she reached for the holstered .38 revolver hung behind the headboard, just out of sight, but close at hand. The cat leaped down from the pillow beside her to hide under the bed.

Found. Here. How?
Tara’s brow wrinkled. She’d never been disturbed in this place by anything but her own dreams.

The shadows of tree branches stained the floor in abstract chiaroscuro shapes. Melting snow rattled through the forest beyond the exterior walls of the cabin. Tara had hoped to feel the thaw in her bones for weeks now, had watched the ice slip and break under the late-winter sun. Though it was nearly March, the ice would be treacherous to most visitors, and would dissuade them from traveling the hidden dirt road to Tara’s sanctuary. There wasn’t even mail delivery this distant from civilization. For all intents and purposes, the little cabin didn’t exist, forgotten in the buzz and shuffle of the outside world. Tara had hoped some of that forgetting extended to her.

Tara walked noiselessly over the pine floorboards. She knew the location of each squeak, sidestepping them in the dark as expertly as a dancer with an invisible partner. She crossed the cabin’s living area, illuminated only by dull embers in the fireplace worming into the sweet-smelling apple wood.

Again, the knock. Tara touched the door, feeling the vibration echo through the surface. She could close her eyes to it, crawl back into bed. She could pretend she wasn’t here, had never been here, that she hadn’t heard.

But the knock rang with a quiet authority that could not be ignored.

Tara slid back the dead bolt and cracked the door open as far as the chain would allow. She held the gun in her left hand, behind the door, invisible to the caller. She thumbed back the well-oiled hammer with an echoing click. In the dark, the ratchet of a shotgun would have been a more effective deterrent to unwanted visitors, but the sound was still unmistakable. Her hand sweated against the rubber grips, her index finger grazing the stainless steel trigger guard.

“Yes.” Her voice felt rusty. It had been a very long time since she had used it, other than with the cat.

“Tara. It’s Sophia.”

Tara swallowed, peered through the gap in the door. The wan porch light illuminated a woman with brilliant silver hair standing outside, her breath making ghosts against her lined skin and dark coat. The woman smiled reassuringly, the expression rumpling pleasantly around her gray eyes.

The smile chilled Tara, tightened her chest. She closed the door, inhaled a deep breath. Slowly, her fingers worked the chain free, then opened the door wide.

“I’m sorry to have come at such a late hour,” Sophia said. “It couldn’t be helped.”

Tara only nodded and stood aside as Sophia stepped into the dark room. Tara reached for the light switch. Though she was accustomed to seeing in darkness, she was certain her guest was not.

When she turned back, Sophia looked pointedly at her gun. “My dear, you won’t be needing that.” Sophia shrugged out of her coat. Tara knew this was all Sophia would say about the weapon.

Tara released the hammer on the gun. The heat from her fingers fogged the stainless steel. She placed the .38 on the kitchen counter, leaned against the sink with her arms crossed. “Why are you here?”

Sophia fixed her with her Athena-gray eyes, serious and piercing. “Your mother—”

Tara made a cutting gesture with her hand. “I don’t want to talk about my mother.”

Sophia did not look away. Tara knew Sophia had been the last person to see her mother alive. And Tara hated the jealousy and anger she felt, thinking about that.

Sophia continued. “Your mother would not have wanted this for you.”

Tara narrowed her eyes. “What would she not have wanted?” She sketched the cabin and the forest beyond with her hand. “I have peace. And I
did
have solitude.”

Attracted by the light and the voices, Tara’s cat drifted into the kitchen. He blinked his golden eyes at Sophia. She rubbed her fingers together, and Oscar trotted over to her, tail up. Much to Tara’s irritation, he began rubbing his face on Sophia’s black pants, leaving trails of charcoal fur. He was far too comfortable with her.

Unbidden, Sophia pulled out a kitchen chair and sat down. Reluctantly, Tara slid into a chair opposite her. Oscar leaped into her lap, purring like a diesel engine. Her silver hair hung in a tantalizing braid over her shoulder, and Oscar took a swipe at it. Sophia let him bat at it until his claws became tangled, and she gently worked them free. “She would not have wanted this isolation for you, especially after what happened.”

Tara bit back her anger, leveled her voice. “My mother is gone. I make my own choices.”

“Dear child.” The older woman reached for Tara’s hand. Sophia’s touch was surprisingly warm. Tara remembered those hands from when she was a child, warm as sunshine, brushing her hair. “You’ve lost much.”

Tara’s jaw tightened. “And you and your sisters would probably blame me for following. . . what was it, you called it? The destroyer’s path?”

Sophia shook her head, quivering her crescent-shaped earrings. “Not that. The warrior’s path. And we would never blame you.”

This old argument, again. “I became a profiler because I wanted to help. And I did.” Tara’s fingers traced a scar disappearing under her sleeve, and she shrugged. “Besides, that’s over now.” She didn’t mask her wry expression, disappointed in herself that she still sought Sophia’s approval. “I would have thought you would have approved of me leaving that life.”

“Leaving
that
life, yes. Not leaving life altogether.”

Tara rubbed her temple. “Sophia, what brings you here? Did you want to see me? Or do Delphi’s Daughters want something?” She pressed her mouth in a grim slash. She’d not spoken of Delphi’s Daughters in a long time, and the name of that secret society was foreign on her tongue. She would not be their tool.

Tara had been a tool for the Feds for too many years, summoned out of sleep to solve unspeakable crimes. Like a doll, she would be taken out of her box, wound up, and set upon a case. When she wound down, drained of all insight, they’d put her back in the box, only to come knocking again. She would not allow herself to be used that way, not again. Not by her government, and not by Delphi’s Daughters. Delphi’s Daughters had existed since the beginning of recorded time, and she was sure they could exist without her.

“Both,” Sophia said, her face honest and open. “Something has happened, and we need your help.”

“I’m all helped out. Sorry.”

Sophia pulled a manila file folder from her bag and set it on the table. Tara did not touch it. Sophia pulled a photograph out of the file and slid it across the table. Still, Tara refused to touch it. But she could not help looking. The picture was of a man in his fifties, dressed in a wrinkled lab coat, with his hands jammed in his pockets. His posture was of one who spent a great deal of time hunched over computers, and his stringy body suggested someone who often forgot to eat. His expression felt intense, even through the photographic ink. She could practically see the gears of his thoughts working behind that blue. . .

Tara shoved back from the table, as if the photo was too hot to touch. She didn’t want to fall into it, didn’t want to have to fight to claw her way back out. “Sophia. I can’t.”

The older woman did not remove the photo. “He’s very important, Tara. His name is Lowell Magnusson. As I understand it, he was involved in some very powerful technology. Dark matter and gravitational fields. There was an accident earlier this evening. His atom smasher blew up. He’s gone missing.”

Tara frowned. “Why is he important to you?”

Sophia laughed, a sound like bells. A sound that reminded Tara of her mother. “Strange, isn’t it? He’s a man, and he has no ability to see into any future beyond what his own imagination can create. . . One would
think
that would land him far outside of the purview of Delphi’s Daughters.”

“One would think that, yes.” Tara waited for an explanation. Delphi’s Daughters dedicated themselves to salvaging hidden things, to preserving the intellectual and physical lineages of esoteric knowledge since the time of the Oracle of Delphi. In all the time she’d observed her mother’s association with the secret society, she’d never seen men involved. It was always the women, whispering their arcane and alchemical lore from mother to daughter in unbroken chains spanning centuries. They trafficked in information and secrets, building empires of influence and knowledge, manipulating world events to their liking. And Tara, who had inherited her mother’s talents, remained a stubbornly broken link. She had refused to follow in her mother’s footsteps and join them.

Sophia’s laugh trickled away, and her eyes darkened to the color of winter storms. “Dr. Magnusson is very important to the balance of power, Tara. The powers he is working with are truly immense. . . gravity, time, the void. . . technology beyond imagination. And this technology would be very, very dangerous if it fell into the wrong hands. The Pythia thinks—”

“I don’t care what the Pythia thinks,” Tara snapped. The Pythia was the strongest of modern oracles; surely she could see Tara wouldn’t help her.

“The Pythia thinks this technology could be misused and result in vast devastation and global war. He must be found.”

Tara leaned back in her chair, balancing on the back legs. She wanted no part of this. “Sophia, I. . .”

Sophia looked down at her hands. “I do not ask this lightly, Tara. We would have asked your mother for her assistance.”

Tara bristled.

Sophia continued, “But she is gone, and you are the only one left in her line who has her particular knack for finding people.”

Tara glanced down at the picture of the scientist. “Even if I wanted to, I’m so far out of practice, I would be of very little use.”

Sophia grinned at her. “No one ever falls out of practice in your art.”

“I can’t.”

Sophia slid the file across the table to her. “No one will force you, and I won’t come knocking again. All I ask is that you think about it.”

Tara could not refuse her that much. That much would, at least, get her out of Tara’s house.

•   •   •   •

THE FILE FOLDER LAY UNDISTURBED ON THE KITCHEN TABLE
for many hours after Sophia left. Tara moved around it, trying to pretend it didn’t exist. But she found herself orbiting it unconsciously, like a star around a black hole. Unable to return to sleep, she made herself a cup of hot chocolate and paced the kitchen, chewing on her thoughts.

It would take a great deal of desperation for the Pythia to send someone to her doorstep. Delphi’s Daughters and Lowell Magnusson obviously needed her help, but she resisted. Altruism warred with her desire to stay clear of the business of profiling again. Absently, she scratched at the scars crossing her belly. The last time she’d gone tracking in men’s minds, she’d nearly lost her life. It was not a risk she was willing to take again, even for an innocent like Dr. Magnusson.

Oscar leaped up onto the kitchen table and sat on Magnusson’s picture. He parked himself on his butt and splayed his toes to take a bath.

“Oscar.” She pulled the picture out from under his furry bottom. She glanced sidelong at the bathing beauty. “She whispered something in your ear, didn’t she? You’re in cahoots with
her,
aren’t you?”

Oscar nonchalantly ignored her, passionately cleaning his paws.

“Traitor.”

As far as Tara knew, Sophia’s particular talents lay in scrying, not in manipulating animals. That didn’t mean she couldn’t. No one but the Pythia ever knew the true extent of the power of Delphi’s Daughters.