For a couple of beats he just stood there, savoring the sight of her in the morning light. She gave him a searching look and a tentative smile. The questions in her eyes reminded him that he had not yet told her the details of his recovered memories. After what she referred to as a minor tune-up of some dreamlight currents, he had fallen asleep. He had not realized how sleep deprived he had been until now, when he was finally feeling reasonably normal.
“No need to worry,” he said, heading for the coffee machine. “I’m happy to report that I’m not a crazed monster talent who kills people with psychic powers and then conveniently forgets about it.”
The stark silence behind him might as well have been a shrieking fire alarm.
“Shit.”He turned, horrified by his own thoughtless words. “I’m sorry. I never meant to make a joke out of it. I wasn’t thinking. It’s just that I’ve been living with that blank spot in my memory for six very long months.”
He stopped on the theory that the best thing a man who found himself in a very deep hole could do was stop digging.
“I understand,” Alice said. Wry amusement sparkled briefly in her eyes. “Probably better than anyone else.”
“I know. That’s why I—”Stop. Not another word, you idiot.
“Relax. I owed you. If it hadn’t been for you, Sebastian wouldn’t have found that video and I would be back in that cell at Serenity Gardens. And now you’re trying to protect me from Kelbrook and his fixer. I’m gladI was able to return the favor by unlocking a few currents in your dreamlight. It was the least I could do.”
Anger heated his blood. “You make it sound like we’re doing business together. Keeping the scales balanced. That’s not the way it is. We’re partners in this mess.”
“Right. Partners.” She gave him a smile that was as sharp as polished crystal. “Tell me about your lost memories.”
He wanted to argue but he couldn’t think of anything useful to say on the subject of favors. He turned back to the coffee machine and poured a cup, giving himself a moment to decide what to do next.
He felt like a glow-deer caught in the headlights, frantically trying to decide if he should phosphoresce to ward off the oncoming vehicle or run for cover. One wrong move and he would become roadkill.
Unfortunately, he lacked a glow-deer’s natural ability to illuminate when threatened. That left only one option. It was time to change the subject.
He carried the coffee back to the table and sat down across from her.
“It was the artifact,” he said.
“What artifact?”
At least she sounded genuinely curious now. No judgment. Yet. He drank some coffee and concentrated.
“The killer’s name was Howard Gatley,” he said. “He was a strong hypno talent. Called himself Mr. Magic.”
“I remember that case. It was all over the media for a while.”
“Gatley found an Alien relic. An AUP.”
“An artifact of unknown power?”
“Yes. It should have been handed over to the authorities immediately, but Gatley fooled around with it and managed to rez it. The authorities kept that information out of the media.”
“Probably because there are too many horror movies featuring power-mad villains who are capable of rezzing an AUP. The idea of aperson augmenting their natural talent with an artifact makes people nervous.”
“Yes,” he said. “It does.”
“Was the one Gatley found a weapon of some kind?” Alice asked, intrigued now.
“There’s no way to know what it was designed to do. It might have been a garden ornament or a medical device or a child’s toy as far as the Aliens were concerned. But once Gatley activated it, the object locked onto his aura. He figured out that he could channel energy from it to enhance his own natural talent.”
“So he became a much more powerful hypno talent?”
“Yes. Not only that, the AUP allowed him more range. He was able to hypnotize his victims from several yards away. He did not have to get close to them to implant a strong suggestion. That, of course, made it very hard to identify or track him.”
Alice nodded. “He didn’t have to risk being seen in close proximity to the victims before they disappeared.”
“Exactly. He used his talent and the artifact to send his targets into the tunnels, where he was waiting for them. And then he entertained himself by making them pretend to be what he called ‘a volunteer from the audience.’ ”
