She made sure Catalina, Slater and the two clones were seated before she carefully got aboard herself. She untied the rope that secured the craft to the trunk of a tree. She sat down in the back of the boat and picked up a long pole.
Catalina held her breath as Nyla used the pole to guide the rowboat toward the entrance of a partially flooded cave.
The boat glided silently into the deep darkness of a cavern. Tony switched on a flashlight, revealing the tunnel walls. In several places, large stalactites and rocky outcroppings loomed dangerously low over the water.
“Keep your heads down,” Nyla advised. “It’s a little tight in places.”
Catalina shivered. Even though it was cold, she was sweating. It helped that the boat was moving, but the unrelenting darkness all around combined with the unknown depths of the cave river was unnerving. She focused on the thought that she would see Olivia soon. Unless Nyla was lying.
“When did you realize Catalina and Olivia had discovered the main lab facility on the night Morrissey was murdered?” Slater asked.
“Not until a few days ago,” Nyla said. “I finally tracked down one of the old logbooks from the Fogg Lake facility. It described the generator chamber the lab had constructed. I could not believe that all those years ago I had come so close to what I’d been looking for. But at the time I thought the girls really were hallucinating when they described what they called a ballroom.”
“You looked for the logbook first in Ingram’s collection, didn’t you?” Catalina said.
“There were rumors that he had just acquired a cache of valuable Fogg Lake lab artifacts,” Nyla said. “There were several interesting items in his vault, but nothing that described the generator chamber or anything else that was useful.”
“But six months later you heard more rumors,” Slater said. “This time it was about Royston’s collection. You talked him into showing you the items in his vault. When you saw the logbook you knew it was what you were looking for.”
“Everyone in the artifacts world knew that Royston was a very careful man. He wouldn’t let someone he did not know into his vault. So I sent another collector to see him, someone he considered a rival. Royston was only too happy to show off the latest additions to his vault.”
“That person murdered Royston and stole the logbook,” Slater said, “and probably several other artifacts as well.”
“The only thing I cared about was the logbook,” Nyla said. “It recorded the results of several experiments conducted in a special power-generating chamber developed in the Fogg Lake lab.”
“It was the description of the chamber that made you realize Catalina and Olivia had found it fifteen years ago,” Slater said.
“Fifteen years wasted.”
“You sent the clones to grab Olivia and me in Seattle,” Catalina said.
“What’s with the clone shit?” Jared demanded.
Catalina ignored him. “They succeeded in kidnapping Olivia, but by the time they came for me, Slater had arrived on the scene.”
“I swear, it seems that everything that could have gone wrong with this project has gone wrong,” Nyla said. “But now I’ve got you and Olivia, who, I’m sorry to say, hasn’t been of much help.”
“Maybe because you shot her full of drugs?” Catalina asked.
“Conducting experiments on human subjects is something of a challenge around here,” Nyla admitted. “I may have had the team use a little too much of the drug on Olivia. It’s been two days and she’s still groggy and delusional. Now that I’ve got you I won’t have to take the risk of making a similar mistake.”
“Why should either of us help you find the main lab facility?” Catalina asked. “You’ll just murder us afterward.”
“No,” Nyla said. “I will give you a dose of the drug that I gave you fifteen years ago. You’ll get the two-point-oh version. I’ve perfected it. You won’t remember anything this time.”
It didn’t take paranormal-grade intuition to know that Nyla was lying, but Catalina kept her mouth shut. The atmosphere got a little colder. Slater had jacked up his talent again.
They rounded a bend in the underground river. Artificial light glowed inside the entrance of what looked like a man-made tunnel.
“There’s the infirmary,” Jared said. “About time.”
He sounded hugely relieved. He isn’t the only one, Catalina thought.
Seconds later the boat bumped gently against an old wooden dock.
Nyla got out first and dealt with the ropes. Catalina stood and stepped carefully onto the dock. Jared and Tony followed. When they were safely out of the boat they ordered Slater to stand and step onto the dock.
Catalina followed Nyla through the opening and stopped at the sight of the large chamber inside. It was furnished with a lot of metal and glass cabinets and workbenches that all appeared to be the same vintage as the items in the ruins of the old power generator control room. The chemistry apparatus on the workbenches, however, looked modern and sophisticated.
On one side of the room a figure huddled under a thin blanket on an old-fashioned hospital gurney.
“Olivia.” Catalina started toward her.
“Stop,” Nyla said. “Or I will give her a dose of the same thing that was used on Royston and Ingram.”
Catalina halted.
Olivia sat up suddenly. “Cat. I was afraid she would get you, too. Meet the mad scientist of Fogg Lake. All these years we thought she was such a nice person. You’d think a town full of people with good intuition could have figured it out sooner.”
“Shut up,” Nyla ordered.
Catalina rounded on her. “How could you do this, Nyla? You’ve known Olivia and me since we were kids. You know our parents. You’re a healer. How can you betray your friends like this? Fogg Lake took you in and sheltered you.”
“Only because the people in this town desperately needed someone who didn’t think they were all crazy, someone who knew how to treat their parapsych problems. They thought it was safe to let me live here because I was alone. I wasn’t a threat.”
“Any way you look at it, Fogg Lake has been a refuge for you,” Catalina said. “This is how you repay the town?”
“I said shut up.” Nyla’s voice rose in a shriek that sounded precariously unstable. She regained control and glared at Olivia. “Congratulations on your remarkable recovery. You’re a very good actress, I’ll give you that. But now that I have Catalina, I no longer have any reason to keep you alive. If you want to live through this, you will do exactly as you’re told.”
CHAPTER 33
Slater stood quietly absorbing the heavy vibes of the various artifacts in the chamber. It was not unlike the sensation he got when he was inside the vault of a collector or when he went down into the basement of Gwendolyn Swan’s antiques shop. But everything in this room was a whole lot hotter. He was trying to figure out why.
It made sense that there would be some strong energy in the atmosphere. The infirmary was, after all, part of the Fogg Lake lab. In addition, Nyla had been using the chamber to conduct experiments involving chemicals with paranormal properties for years. That meant everything in the room had been exposed to a lot of ambient radiation.