“Sophy Harper is going to be a problem,” she announced.
“Whatever gave you that idea?” Harry said. His mouth twitched at the corner. “Judging by what I overheard, it sounds like the two of you have a few things in common.”
“That is not funny.”
“You can worry about Sophy Harper some other time. Right now we’ve got a bigger problem.”
“I know,” Angela said. “Kaleidoscope.”
Harry headed for the door. “We need to go down to the vault.”
Fourteen
“Your grandmother is a formidablewoman,” Sophy said.
Luke almost laughed. “You noticed that, did you? All I can say is that you handled her brilliantly. I am in awe.”
They were out of the mountains now, driving through the rolling hills of the northern California wine country, heading for the Santa Rosa airport. A corporate jet was waiting to fly them to a small regional airport in Arizona. After landing they would drive the rest of the way into the state’s dramatic red rock region. If all went well they would arrive at the art colony in the evening.
“I’ve been thinking,” Sophy said. “Maybe we’re wrong about Deke and Bea’s relationship. It’s possible they could have been thrown together by circumstances.” She paused to scratch Bruce’s ears. “Like you and me.”
“We don’t know how or when Deke and Bea got together, but it’s clear that what they have is more than a casual relationship. The scene in the bedroom of that cabin looked damned cozy.”
She groaned. He was right.
“It’s amazing that they’ve been able to keep their affair a secretfrom all of us,” she said. “Wait until I tell Chloe. But that’s a problem for another time.” A thought struck her. “Did your parents ever discuss the history of the pact and the breakup of the partnership?”
“Not in detail. I don’t think they knew that much about it. Or cared. My dad is an engineer with his own Wells lab. Mom is a doctor. They’ve always been focused on the future, not the past. What about your family? Did they talk about it?”
Sophy absently rubbed Bruce’s ears. He grinned, showing his fangs in what was probably intended as a friendly gesture.
“Chloe and I lost our parents and our grandparents in a car crash when we were very young,” she said. “They were driving to a convention together. A drunk driver hit their vehicle and sent it over a cliff. Aunt Bea took on the responsibility of raising us.”
“Raising two orphaned girls is a huge responsibility for a young woman.”
“Bea was in her early twenties, just starting out in life. She was my father’s sister. Chloe and I have a few other relatives but none of them stepped forward. Bea took us into her heart. Money was tight but she managed to hold things together until her business got up and running. Chloe and I are very aware that we are extremely fortunate. We would do anything for Bea.”
“I assume everything you know about the feud came from her?”
“Yes. She’s always been very keen on the history of the families, but it’s possible she was a tad biased in favor of the Harpers.”
Luke smiled his fleeting smile. “The way my grandmother is when it comes to the Wellses. It might be interesting to compare the version of the history of the pact you and your sister got with the one my brother and I received. I doubt if they are identical.”
“That’s the thing about history, isn’t it?” she said. “No two people tell it quite the same way.”
“No two families do, either. What version did you get?”
She contemplated the vast fields of grapevines that lined both sides of the road. “Aunt Bea told us that my great-grandfather and yours were recruited for the Bluestone Project. They were assigned to the Fogg Lake lab. Their small department was tasked with designing the perfect spy weapon—a gun that used paranormal light to take down a target without leaving any evidence.”
“The way Smoking Ghost killed his victim,” Luke said, a grim edge on the words.
She shuddered. “Yes. The code name for the project was Kaleidoscope because the design involved mirrors and crystals.”
“Tobias Harper and Xavier Wells succeeded in building two prototypes, but ultimately the project was shelved.”
“Literally,” she said, slanting him a sideways look. “In your family’s private vault.”
“True,” Luke said. “Harper and Wells made the decision to shut down development for several reasons. One was the recoil problem, but another issue was range. Even in the hands of a strong psychic the guns were effective only within a very short distance. Ten or twelve feet at most. Human-generated psychic energy has a very limited reach.”
