“That safe looks much newer than the rest of the house,” Abby said.
“It is. For years Dad used a top–of–the-line security system designed by the head of our Black Box lab, Paul Lofgren. He was an old friend of my father’s. Lofgren died a few years ago. After I moved into this house, I wanted something more secure. I designed a new one. It was made to order by a firm in Seattle. I played around with various crystal devices until I came up with the obsidian lock and the Phoenix keys.”
Abby gave that some more thought. “Did anyone outside the family know that you changed the lock?”
“No. It was another Coppersmith family secret. You’re thinking thatwhoever arranged the burglary that night expected to find the old lock in place, aren’t you?”
“It might explain why things ended the way they did.”
“That’s my conclusion as well.”
He held his ring to the chunk of obsidian that was set into the wall and pushed a little energy through the crystal. The black stone glowed with dark light. The thick steel door swung open slowly. Faint currents of ghostly energy wafted out into the lab. Newton growled.
“I see what you mean,” Abby said. She moved closer to get a better look. “Whatever is inside doesn’t feel particularly hot. The vibes are definitely strange, however.”
Sam hit the switch that turned on the interior light. He watched her face when she saw the small pile of dull, gray rocks inside the vault. She looked disappointed. He smiled.
“Not very exciting, are they?” he asked.
“Nope. If I couldn’t sense a little of the energy, I wouldn’t give them another glance.”
“Each one is a geode. The hot crystals are inside. Dad split one of them, removed the three crystals for the rings and then decided he didn’t want to risk cutting into any of the other geodes. Too many unknowns.”
“Which one did he open?”
“This one.” He picked up half of the split geode and removed it from the vault. “Good old-fashioned rock on the outside, but take a look at what’s inside.”
He turned the cut geode to reveal the senses-dazzling interior.
Abby gazed in astonished wonder at the breathtaking array of multicolored crystals that filled the heart of the stone.
“Oh, my,” she breathed. “This is nature’s version of a Fabergé egg, except that the decoration is on the inside.”
“We think it may be more like nature’s version of a powerful furnace,” he said. “The problem is that we don’t know how to safely accessthe full force of the energy in even one of these geodes. We haven’t got the technology needed to control this kind of paranormal power.”
“You’re able to control the crystal in your ring in order to open the lock on the vault?”
“Sure, I can run a little psi through it, do a few parlor tricks.” He put the geode, cut side down, back inside the vault. “But I have no idea what would happen if I could channel the full power locked in it.”
Abby watched him close the vault door.
“What do you see in your dream?” she asked.
He reset the vault lock. “I see Cassidy walking along the hall to this room. I know she is going to open the door and come face–to–face with her killer. I try to call out to her, to warn her, but I can’t move, and she can’t hear me.”
“Tough dream,” Abby said.
“I’ve had better.”
“I know it won’t help, but I can tell you that I’ve got something similar going on,” she said.
He looked at her. “Bad dreams?”
“Worse than that. I’ve started sleepwalking. Gwen says I shouldn’t worry about it. She says it’s probably just temporary stress caused by the incident in the Vaughn library. But she also said that it might be my intuition trying to tell me that I’m overlooking something important.”
“What do you see in your dream?”
“Nothing that looks like any kind of clue, that’s for sure. I see Grady Hastings, the crazy guy who broke in with the gun that day. He reaches out to me. Begs me to help him. I want to, but I don’t know how.”
