Illusion Town (13 page)

“And you discovered this portal.”

“Rafe happens to have a talent for prospecting,” Elias said.

“But now he's a private investigator?”

“Turns out he'd rather hunt bad guys and find answers for people who need answers.”

She smiled. “I get that. But you like the engineering side of the mining business.”

“Like they say, it's in the blood. But finding another portal was just the beginning. After that we had to go back to the drawing board to come up with a way to navigate the energy inside the Ghost City. Amber doesn't work well in there.”

“You discovered something that does work?”

“Yes. There's a certain kind of quartz that can be tuned to the energy in the city. But the quartz is rare. At
the moment we've only got five prototype keys. The core mission of this current exploration team is to test those key stones and calibrate the frequencies.”

“Got any theories about the Ghost City?”

“None that hold water. Some of the experts on the team have suggested that it was an Alien burial ground.”

Hannah shivered. “I can see how they might have come to that conclusion.”

“If you think it's weird here in the cavern, you should see what's on the other side of the portal.”

“Do you think it's possible that you're going to be conducting mining operations in a big Alien graveyard?”

Elias hesitated. “Who knows? We haven't had a chance to go very far into the city. Like I said, we're still in the testing and calibration stages with the prototype keys.”

“And now your director of Security has decided to go to the portal alone.”

“That raises a hell of a lot of questions,” Elias said. “You know, it occurs to me that whatever put the rest of the team into a deep sleep might have had a different effect on Richman.”

“What do you mean?” Hannah asked.

“Think he might be sleepwalking or in some kind of hypnotic trance?”

She studied the burning prints on the tunnel floor. “I can't say for sure, but I don't think that's the case. There's a lot of stress and tension in his prints. People who are in the grip of a trance don't usually generate this kind of energy. Neither do sleepwalkers. They appear unnaturally calm. I think Richman is wide awake and he's in a hurry.”

“There's the entrance to the portal chamber,” Elias said.

Hannah looked at the glowing opening in the cavern wall. The energy radiating from the inner chamber was much more intense than the currents emitted by the cavern walls. Instead of a murky gray light, the portal room glowed with a dazzling quicksilver energy. It was as if hundreds of small lightning bolts were snapping and crackling inside the chamber.

Richman's prints went through the opening.

“He's inside,” Hannah said. “No sign that he came out, at least not through this entrance.”

“There is no other way out except through the portal,” Elias said. “He'd need one of the keys. He has no reason to go into the Ghost City, and even if he did, he wouldn't be fool enough to try it without backup. Wait here.”

When he started forward, Virgil rumbled.

“Elias, stop,” Hannah said urgently.

Elias paused and glanced back at Virgil. “Something you're trying to tell me, pal?”

Virgil muttered.

“That's not his warning growl,” Hannah said. “But I don't think we're going to like whatever is inside that chamber.”

Elias readied the flamer and unsheathed his knife.

“Richman,” he called. “This is Coppersmith. Can you hear me?”

There was no response.

Elias moved to the chamber doorway. He flattened his back against the wall and looked around the corner.

“Damn,” he said. “He's in there, all right. And he's down.”

He went swiftly through the doorway. Hannah followed him. The bright energy was disorienting. It was like walking into the middle of a lightning storm. The flashing sparks of energy made it almost impossible to focus with her normal vision. She had to rez a little talent to take in the scene.

The first thing she saw was the circular, colonnaded ruin that dominated the center of the chamber. The columns were capped with a dome-shaped roof. Instead of the familiar green stone, the structure was made of a strange silvery quartz.

A pool of dazzling energy shimmered in the floor of the ruin. A flight of steps led down into the pool and disappeared beneath the surface.

The second thing she saw was Hank Richman's body. It was crumpled on the floor of the ruin not far from the edge of the brilliant pool. A river of blood ran across the quartz floor and spilled over the edge.

There was a knife on the floor near one of Richman's hands. It was stained with blood.

Elias crouched beside the body and felt for a pulse. He shook his head and got to his feet.

“We're too late,” he said.

Hannah hugged herself and turned away from the sight of the body.

“This is why I hate doing missing-persons work,” she whispered. “It always ends badly.”

Elias did not seem to hear her. She realized he was busy sorting through facts and plausible scenarios.

“There must have been another person in this chamber tonight,” he said. “That person murdered Richman. It's the only possible explanation.”

“But we didn't pass anyone on the way in here,” Hannah pointed out. She looked around the sparking, flashing chamber. “Are you sure there's no other exit?”

“Positive. But that doesn't change the facts on the ground. There must have been someone else in here. Hank hasn't been dead very long. The blood is still fresh. See any recent prints besides his?”

Hannah refocused her talent on the floor of the portal chamber. Hot psi-prints burned.

“Yes,” she said. She took a breath. “The killer entered this chamber and left it the same way. He used the portal pool.”

“Call me psychic but I had a feeling you were going to say that.”

A whisper of familiar energy feathered Hannah's senses. It wasn't portal energy. It was another kind; energy that she recognized.

She turned slowly, searching for the source. It wasn't easy searching the chamber because the dazzling light made it difficult to focus. But she found what she was looking for behind one of the silver quartz columns.

The relic was small, only a few inches across and shaped in a gentle curve. But the instant she touched it she knew that it had not been created for a human hand. It was made of a transparent crystal that was nearly invisible in the sparking, flashing room.

“What did you find?” Elias asked.

“It's a relic,” she said. “Alien. I don't know who murdered Hank Richman but I think I know what triggered the dreamlight gate. And I'm pretty sure why the entire camp went into a trance tonight.”

Two of the five portal keys were missing from the equipment locker.

The whispers began to circulate around the jobsite as soon as the initial shock of the murder wore off and people learned of the missing keys.

The gossip gained strength, feeding on the incendiary fuel provided by fear and speculation. Elias knew that Hannah was aware of the low-voiced murmurs and the suspicious glances angled in her direction.

“Your people think that I'm responsible for using that relic to put the camp into a trance last night,” she said quietly. “They figure I'm involved in the theft of the keys because I was the only stranger in their midst; the unknown quantity. They're convinced I murdered Hank Richman.”

He wanted to reassure her but there was no point lying. The rumors were spreading like wildfire.

They were standing at the entrance of their tent, drinking coffee and pretending to ignore the veiled glances. Virgil was sticking close to Hannah, hovering protectively on her shoulder. Elias figured the dust bunny could sense the vibe in the atmosphere.

The entire camp had been in the process of awakening from the trance by the time he and Hannah and Virgil emerged from the ruins with the relic and Hank Richman's body.

Aboveground, moving a body at a crime scene before a proper investigation had been conducted was a crime in itself. But the rules were different in the Underworld. Getting the body to a lab on the surface as quickly as possible was the primary goal. The natural paranormal forces belowground destroyed biological evidence very rapidly.

A three-person team charged with the task of transporting Richman's corpse to the surface had left an hour ago. They had taken the trance-inducing artifact with them. It was headed for the nearest Coppersmith vault.

The theft of the two navigation keys had been discovered when Elias had ordered an inventory of the equipment vault. The log showed no record of the keys having been checked out.

Hank Richman had been in charge of the log.

Officially, Richman's subordinate, Sylvia Thorpe, was now in charge of camp security and the murder investigation but everyone knew that when a Coppersmith was on site, he or she was ultimately the boss.

“The hell with the gossip,” Elias said. “I'm your alibi.”

But he knew that the vow—because that's what it was,
as far as he was concerned: a promise to protect her—wouldn't be enough to reassure her. True, in the last forty-eight hours the two of them had faced danger together and shared the hottest sex he'd ever experienced, but the bottom line was that they had only met face-to-face a couple of days ago.

Sure, they had been communicating online for a couple of months before their first encounter in Visions, but he doubted that Hannah considered what they had a real relationship. No smart, savvy woman would trust a man after such a short period of time, regardless of what they had been through.

“No offense,” Hannah said, “but I don't think the fact that we slept in the same tent is going to be enough to convince your people that I'm innocent. Some are speculating that I used the artifact to put you into a trance along with the others, lured Richman into the ruins, murdered him, and then returned to rouse you and pretend to help you discover the body.”

“That's not what happened.”

She folded her arms very tightly and gave him a thin, brittle smile. “See, here's the thing everyone knows about a trance—the victim can't recall what happened while he was in dreamland.”

He drank some coffee while he searched for a logical rebuttal to the argument. He came up empty.

“We need to find the killer,” he said.

“Whoever it was escaped through the portal, remember?”

Elias paused his mug halfway to his mouth. “Huh.”

Hannah's brows snapped together. “What?”

“Hank found that trance weapon somewhere, most likely in the illegal Alien-tech market.”

“I won't be able to help you trace it to the original owner, if that's what you're thinking. I don't deal in that market.”

“I do,” he said.

That caught her off-guard.

“Really?” she asked, fascinated.

“Illegal Alien tech, especially the weaponized version, is a major problem for businesses in the Underworld. Pirates are always trying to get their hands on anything that will increase their firepower. Same goes for that Vortex operation I mentioned. Alien tech is almost always based on quartz energy and I'm the company expert on hot rocks. So, yes, I keep tabs on the illegal market.”

“I see. Okay, that makes sense.”

“But I won't be able to start an investigation until I get back to the surface.”

He stopped talking because Sylvia Thorpe was coming toward them. She was in her thirties, a tall, athletically built woman with a preternatural talent for observing details and seeing patterns. If she had not joined the Coppersmith Security team, she would most likely have ended up on a big-city police force or become a Federal Bureau of Psi Investigation special agent. She gave Hannah a reserved, but polite nod and then turned to Elias.

“My team finished searching the jobsite, sir,” she said. “No sign of the two missing keys.”

“Well, it's not like we expected to find them,” Elias
said. “But we had to go through the formalities. Did you find anything else of interest?”

“The time lock on the vault indicates that Richman opened it at two twenty-three this morning. Presumably that's when he removed the keys. Looks like everyone else was in that damned trance at that time.” Sylvia cast a sidelong look at Hannah. “Except for the two of you, of course.”

“We were both asleep,” Hannah said evenly. “It was the currents of the trance energy that woke us up.”

“Right,” Sylvia said. She kept her attention on Elias. “According to your report, sir, you and Ms. West followed Richman into the ruins. As far as we can tell, you were only a few minutes behind him.”

“Took us a while to figure out that he was gone,” Elias said. He realized he was having to work to rein in his temper. “By the time we caught up with him he was dead. The killer escaped through the portal. We assume he took both keys with him.”

Sylvia's jaw tightened. “Hank stole the keys, didn't he?”

“That's how it looks, Sylvia. I think he's also responsible for closing the dreamlight gate.”

“Why would he do that?” Sylvia asked.

“I don't think it was intentional,” Elias said. “It's more likely that it really was an accident. After all, he was carrying a very powerful dreamlight relic around the jobsite. He probably didn't know much about it, just that it could induce a trance. At some point he must have gotten too close to the gate.”

“And accidentally triggered it?” Sylvia asked.

“That's what it looks like. I'm sure it was as much of a shock to him as it was to the rest of the team. I'm sorry. I know you admired him. Hell, we all did. He was very good at his job. That's why he was in charge of security down here.”

“I know. It's just that it's hard to wrap my head around the possibility that he was the thief.”

“Assuming our theory of the crime is right, he met the killer inside the portal chamber,” Elias said. “That raises another very interesting question.”

Sylvia's expression sharpened. “You're thinking that the killer must have had a key of his own. That's the only way he could have navigated the Ghost City to get to the portal where he met Hank.”

“I think so,” Elias said.

Sylvia spread one hand in a short, frustrated arc. “But if the killer had his own key, why take the risk of stealing two from Coppersmith?”

“I can think of one possible reason,” Elias said.

Hannah and Sylvia both looked at him.

“Maybe the killer's key is flawed or failing,” Elias said. “We know it didn't come out of our lab because we've still got three of the five keys. That means it was produced in someone else's lab. It's inferior technology so someone wants to upgrade to a better model.”

“In other words, this is a nasty piece of corporate espionage,” Sylvia said. “That might explain a lot. Hank struck a deal with the devil and got murdered by a partner.”

“There's something else to consider here,” Elias said.
“The killer has found another portal into and out of the Ghost City. We know he didn't use ours.”

“No telling how many portals there are into the city,” Sylvia said. “Coppersmith has already found two. There could be a dozen more for all we know.”

“For now we have to assume that's the case,” Elias said.

Sylvia exhaled deeply. “Well, one thing's certain. If we're right about the killer escaping through the portal, we don't stand a chance of tracking him inside the Ghost City. Our best bet is trying to locate his operation aboveground.”

Hannah contemplated the glowing cavern. “No guarantees, but I might be able to track the killer inside the Ghost City.”

Sylvia looked startled. Then she grimaced. “No one can track through the Ghost City.”

Hannah shrugged. “You may be right. But we won't know for sure until I take a look.”

Elias opened his mouth, intending to tell her that he wouldn't let her take the chance. But her stubborn, determined expression made him hesitate. She wanted to clear her name, he thought. Finding the killer was the only way she could do that.

As Rafe so often said, the longer it took to start the hunt, the colder the trail got. The odds were best if the search for the killer began immediately.

“Hannah and I will go in together,” he said.

“Alone?” Sylvia shook her head. “You should take backup.”

“Who, Sylvia? Richman is dead and you're in charge of security here at the camp. None of the other guards have gone through the portal. As for the rest of the team, they're all experts in their fields but they have zero security training. If we take other people with us, I'll spend most of my time keeping an eye on them. Hannah can handle strong energy. She and I have worked together before. We make a good team.”

“If the killer came through another portal,” Sylvia said, “it will be well guarded.”

“As well guarded as ours is?” Elias asked dryly. “We've had experience with two portals to date. One thing is clear, no one can tolerate the energy inside a portal pool chamber for more than a few minutes. Any guards stationed at the other portal will be outside the chamber, watching the entrance. The last thing they'll expect is trouble coming through the portal.”

Sylvia looked toward the cavern. “Because it would mean that someone tracked the killer through the Ghost City. You're right. It probably won't occur to them that would be possible.”

Hannah spoke up. “It might not be possible. But I won't know until I see what things are like on the other side of the portal.”

Sylvia turned back to Elias. “You'll need to use one of the keys.”

“I know,” Elias said, trying to be patient. It seemed to him that he could hear a clock ticking somewhere. They were losing valuable time.

“The keys haven't been thoroughly tested,” Sylvia
reminded him. “That was the primary objective of this initial exploratory venture, remember? We're still in the early-testing phase.”

“I understand, Sylvia,” he said.

She groaned. “I really, really want to know who murdered Richman and stole the key.”

“So do I,” Elias said.

“I do, too,” Hannah said.

Sylvia gave her a searching look. “You haven't experienced the energy inside the Ghost City. It's incredibly disorienting. What makes you think you can track someone's prints in such a psi-heavy atmosphere?”

“Like I said, I won't know until I try,” Hannah said. “But I'm good.”

“Yes,” Elias said, aware of a flash of pride. “When it comes to reading dreamlight, my wife is the best.”