“According to the media, his last victim survived because Mr. Magic died of a stroke before he could murder her.” Alice paused. “I’m assuming that was not a lucky coincidence?”
“No. Bad guys tend to fall into patterns and habits, just like everyone else. Once Gatley had perfected his so-called magic show in the tunnels, he did not want to be bothered by changing locations. I was able to put together a psi profile that allowed the Feds to track him down in the Underworld. The FBPI was prepared to send in a task force, but I knew that even if they caught him, Gatley would make sure they didn’t find the last victim or the bodies of the others.”
“He would have tried to use the locations as bargaining chips with the authorities.”
“I’m sure that’s how it would have gone down. And in the end, Gatley would have let the last woman die anyway, because she knew too much. She would have been able to give testimony at his trial.”
“You went in alone, didn’t you?” Alice said. Understanding lit her eyes. “You allowed him to think he had hypnotized you. He intended to make you one of his victims.”
“He knew I was hunting him and he developed an obsession with me. His goal was to prove that he could outwit me and then force me to be his next volunteer from the audience.”
“Instead, you took him down. How did you do it?”
“I intended to do it the old-fashioned way,” he said. “Draw him out of hiding and flame him unconscious. I didn’t want to kill him if I could avoid it, because the task force wanted to question him. Gatley assumed he could control me with his talent and the artifact, so I figured I would have the advantage of surprise.”
“He couldn’t manipulate you with his enhanced hypno talent?”
“No. My own talent has a narrow range, but it’s strong. It gives me the ability to think like the predators.”
“In other words, you’re a natural-born detective.”
“I never thought of it in those terms, but whatever. The upside is that I’ve got some natural immunity to other people with strong talents, including hypnotists.”
“What happened with Gatley?”
“That’s where the blank spot in my memory was. Now, thanks to you, I remember. I had tracked Gatley to his lair in the Underworld. From his point of view, I had walked into his trap. We were in a large rotunda with a lot of intersecting passageways. The victim was in one of them. He had stripped her of her amber. Gatley claimed I had one chance to find her and save her by picking the right hallway.”
“That would be impossible if you weren’t able to lock onto her amber.”
“That was the point as far as Gatley was concerned. I refused to participate in his so-called magic show. He tried to force me to search for the woman by rezzing the AUP. He used it to focus his talent on me. Afterward the experts decided that either he had lost control of the artifact or it had overwhelmed his senses. Those AUPs are always unpredictable and potentially dangerous.”
“What happened?”
“The relic lit up like a volcano and unleashed a storm of hot energy. Gatley got slammed because he had physical contact with it and he was actively focusing through it at the time of the explosion. He was killed instantly.”
“Being within the blast radius of a burst of energy from an artifact certainly accounts for your memory issues.”
“I realized the storm was not going to stop just because Gatley was dead. The artifact was still going strong. I knew I had to shut it down or eventually it would kill me, too. I couldn’t run, because the victim was trapped in a nearby chamber.”
“You couldn’t abandon her,” Alice said with a knowing look.
“The currents of energy were so strong, I could not balance on my feet. Instead, I crawled across the rotunda, picked up the artifact, and…shut it down.”
Comprehension lit her eyes. “Oh, my. In other words you discovered that you…?”
“That I could rez the artifact, too. Yes.”
She cleared her throat. “And you did not mention that to the authorities.”
“People who can rez Alien artifacts end up on FBPI lists and attract the wrong kind of attention.”
“Got it. You were very wise to keep quiet. How did you explain the AUP to the Bureau?”
“I said it had shut down after Gatley died.”
She nodded. “That was the truth.”
“As far as it went. And there you have it, my nightmare story.”
