“Yes,” he said before anyone could ask a question. “I got played. And they murdered my brother. The only thing I can say for myself is that I managed to pull the emergency evacuation alarm before the Scary Blondes showed up. At least the staff and the test subjects had time to get away.”
Marlon Whitley stepped out of what appeared to be a control room. His shaved head gleamed in the light. There was a feverish energy around him.
“Welcome to my little project,” he said.
Sophy looked at him. “And you wonder why nobody likes a critic.”
Fifty-Three
Whitley chuckled. “If I werea real art critic I would take offense, Ms. Harper. But I’m an engineer. I specialize in rare earths, a subject about which I’m sure you know nothing, so your opinions are of no interest. You’re probably wondering why I invited you here today.”
“I’m here because you kidnapped my aunt,” Sophy shot back. “And Deke Wells, too,” she added somewhat belatedly. “You belong in prison, you asshole.”
“Uh, Sophy,” Luke said quietly.
She ignored him, righteous fury igniting her senses. “You’re playing with forces you can’t control.”
Whitley smiled. “Which is, of course, why you’re here. The six crystals were created precisely to control extremely powerful forces such as vortex energy. Once you unlock the stones, I will be able to use them to channel the raw power of the natural forces in this area and store it in the mirror batteries.”
She stared at him, so outraged she could barely speak. “If you think for one minute that I’m going to help you—”
“Congratulations,” Luke said, smoothly interrupting her.“You’ve found a material that can store vortex energy. Impressive. A rare earth alloy?”
Sophy glared at him but he did not appear to notice.
“A previously unknown element that my great-grandfather discovered after Bluestone was shut down,” Whitley said eagerly. “He never gave up on the project, you see.”
Deke folded his arms. “Your ancestor was Maxwell Coburn, the third engineer involved in the development of Kaleidoscope.”
“Exactly,” Whitley said. “He survived the explosion. In the chaos that followed, he faked his own death. But he had his logbooks and, even more crucially, he had classified information that made it clear the Fool’s Gold Canyon lab had been working on the battery problem, too. He tracked down the facility and found it in ruins.”
“Because the researchers here managed to destroy their own lab, apparently,” Bea said.
“They didn’t have a way to control the energy they were trying to harness and store,” Whitley said. “But now that problem has been solved, thanks to the crystals.”
“Thelockedcrystals,” Sophy said.
“You will unlock them,” Whitley said coldly. “If you don’t, the security team will start shooting people. Your aunt will be first.”
Sophy glanced at the blondes. Their faces were expressionless. She couldn’t tell if they would follow Whitley’s order or not.
“No,” she said, horrified. “You can’t do such a thing.”
Whitley shrugged. “Your choice, Ms. Harper.”
“Grabbing me turned out to be a miscalculation,” Bea said using her professional psychic consultant voice. “But I’m afraid you have made an even bigger mistake thinking you can control the forces of this vortex. There is already too much energy stored in this chamber. It’s been accumulating over the decades. Your experiments have made things a thousand times more dangerous.”
“She’s right,” Hatch muttered. He fixed Bea with a despairing look. “A few hours ago I realized that the chamber was in a very unstable condition. Don’t know why I didn’t see that sooner. I’ve tried to explain the situation to Whitley but he refuses to listen.”
“The crystals can control the forces of the vortex,” Whitley shouted.
Sophy looked at him. “Assuming I unlock the crystals, what do you plan to do with them?”
Luke answered the question. “He thinks the crystals can be used to channel the energy in this room into the battery towers and lock it inside. The crystals will then be used to release the energy in a controlled fashion on demand. Think of a nuclear reactor.”
“Or a nuclear bomb,” Deke growled.
Sophy looked at Whitley. “Even if I can unlock the stones, you’ll need someone who is very good with crystals to channel energy through them in order to control the battery towers.”
