“Does she have a connection to Fogg Lake?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Statistically speaking, there is a small percentage of the population with a naturally occurring sixth sense. Over the years a lot of people have claimed to see auras or tried to invent gadgets to read energy fields. The experts at the Foundation believe that some psychic ability is probably a latent talent in many people, but no one knows what is required to kick-start it.”
“You mean it takes something like what happened to the residents of Fogg Lake on the night of the explosion in the caves.”
“Evidently. Whatever the case, if you don’t grow up in a community that takes psychic ability as normal, it’s difficult to learn how to control your talent and even harder to figure out how to pass for normal. Sounds like your friend Marge never got the hang of it.”
“Sadly, no.”
“Let’s go talk to her.”
CHAPTER 7
Tony Harkins yanked open the door of the black SUV and vaulted into the passenger seat. He slammed the door, wiped the sweat off his face and pulled a bottle of water out of the console. “Almost had her,” he said. He gulped some of the water and lowered the bottle. “But for some reason she suddenly turned and shot off in another direction.”
Deke eased the vehicle away from the curb and out into traffic. “We knew it was a long shot trying to grab her on a busy street. Think she picked up on you?”
Tony reflected briefly on the abrupt way Catalina Lark had veered off to the right when he had come up beside her.
“Nah. Pretty sure she saw someone she knew and changed course to meet him.”
“Did you see the guy?”
“I got a quick look at him just before I turned the corner. Probably a boyfriend.”
“We need to get her but we can’t risk another near miss. She’s got some talent, like the other one. Sooner or later she’ll figure out what’s going on.”
“Relax, we’ll pick up Lark tonight or tomorrow. How hard can it be to grab a single woman in Seattle?”
“No more spur-of-the-moment shit,” Deke said. “We need a real plan, because we have to get it right next time. There’s a lot of money at stake here.”
“You don’t have to tell me that.” Tony drank some more water. “Score of a lifetime.”
“Think Lark will recognize you if she sees you again?”
“I doubt it. But so what if she does? I’m just a guy who happened to be out for a run. If she sees me again she’ll assume that I live somewhere in the neighborhood. No big deal.”
“Huh.”
“What?”
“Maybe the easiest way to handle this is a straight-up introduction,” Deke said. “You intercept her, tell her you’re new in town and that you saw her on the street today when you went for a run. Ask her for the name of a place that does a good happy hour in the area. You invite her to have a drink with you. You put the drug in her glass.”
Tony gave that some thought. He smiled.
“The old game,” he said.
“It always worked in the past. No reason it wouldn’t work again.” “It worked because we were careful to pick the right targets,” Tony said. “Don’t forget, Lark is not a normal. We don’t have any idea how strong she is.”
“The drug worked just fine on LeClair. No reason it won’t work on Lark. You just need to get close enough to give her a dose. That will take care of her senses, whatever they are, for a few hours.”
“Or maybe a few days,” Tony said. “Olivia LeClair was still out of it when we took her to the pickup location. I think we used too much. If she doesn’t wake up, the client is going to be pissed.”
“So we’ll cut back a little on the dose we give Lark,” Deke said.
He brought the SUV to a halt at a stoplight. He smiled in anticipation of the action.
Tony met his brother’s eyes in the mirror, eyes that were the exact same shade of blue. There was no bond like the bond that existed between identical siblings.
CHAPTER 8
Marge was still huddled in her alcove, seated atop the bedroll. There was another empty soda can on the ground beside her.
When she saw Catalina and Slater coming toward her, she stiffened.
“It’s all right, Marge,” Catalina said. She went forward quickly. “This is Slater Arganbright. He’s going to help me look for Olivia.”
Marge fixed Slater with an assessing gaze. “Huh.”
Slater ignored the less-than-encouraging greeting. He crouched in front of Marge so that he was face-to-face with her.
“I would appreciate your help, ma’am,” Slater said. “I’m after the people who kidnapped Olivia but I don’t have much to go on. I could really use a good description of the men who drove off with Ms. LeClair.”
Catalina was relieved that he was speaking to Marge in a calm, professional manner, as if she were a normal person.
Marge studied him for a long moment. “Never seen anyone like you. That’s some weird energy you’ve got goin’ on.”
“So I’ve been told,” Slater said.
Marge accepted that and let it go.
“Not much I can tell you,” she said. “Couple of clones from Riverview grabbed Olivia and shot her full of some crap. She went to sleep real quick. They took her away. They’ve got this secret research lab where they do experiments on people.”
Catalina stifled a sigh. Marge was evidently about to launch into her conspiracy theory.
Slater was unfazed.
“Tell me more about the clones,” Slater said. “Were they male or female?”
Marge perked up a little at the question. Probably because Slater seemed to be taking her seriously, Catalina thought.
“Male,” Marge said. “One in the back seat. One in front. Didn’t see the clone in back until Olivia tried to get out of the car. He reached out to haul her back inside. That’s when I got a quick look at him. Got a glimpse of the driver at the same time. It was the one in back who used the needle on her. Poor Olivia is going to wake up in hell.”
“Not if we find her first,” Slater said. “You’re sure the two men in the car were clones?”
“Didn’t get a good look at their faces, but I saw their auras. No two auras are one hundred percent identical, but those two were so close most folks would have a tough time telling them apart.”
“Twins,” Slater said quietly.
Catalina glanced at him, startled. She turned back to Marge. “Are you saying the two men who grabbed Olivia were identical twins?”
“If they were human you could call ’em twins,” Marge said. “But those two weren’t human. They’re from Riverview. That makes ’em clones.”
Time to give Slater some credit, Catalina thought. Two minutes into the interview with Marge and he had already extracted a description that might prove extremely valuable.
“What else did you see in the energy fields of the two people in the car?” Slater asked.
Marge eyed him. “You see energy fields, too?”
“Yes,” Slater said. “Not the way you do, but yes, I can sense them.”