She’d be fired for this—probably arrested too—but something in this mine was rotten to its depths, and it wasn’t the corrupted empaths.
“Code red,” she said into the radio, desperately hoping Liam was right and he’d pick her up. “Codered.”
“Enjoying your discoveries?”
Aisha whirled around to see Victor Nichols had appeared in the doorway. “Victor,” she said, breathing too hard. “What have you done?”
“What haveyoudone?” he countered, gesturing at the radio in her hand. He seemed more curious than concerned, watching her with his pale eyes behind his glasses.
Aisha ignored the question. “Where are all the other empaths? André, Faith, Timothy—where are they?”
“I’m afraid they and their partners didn’t make it, same as the Pelletier sisters,” Nichols said easily. “Trial and error; you’re a scientist, you should appreciate that.”
“Trial and error forwhat?” Aisha snapped.
“To protect ourselves.” Nichols spread his hands. “Here, on this island, we’re like the ancient humans with the saber-toothed tigers. Only we’ve evolved beyond spears—we’re depending on our minds to create weapons against the empaths.”
“Oh my God. Are you behind the predator theory that’s spreading?” Aisha’s gaze went to Marie, the sweet librarian who’d loved her cat and was now lying dead in Polaris. “Empaths arepacifists.”
“Until they’re evolved,” said Nichols. “And then they become perfect predators, able to hide among us, tocontrolus. This is a war, Dr. Easterby, and the empaths are going to win if we don’t find a way to stop them.”
Two more people appeared in the doorway behind him: Higgins from earlier and one of the men from the helipad.
“But that brings us back to our original question,” Nichols said. “Who were you trying to contact on that radio?”
“The Dead Man, obviously,” Aisha lied. Maybe Nichols could still be scared into sense.
But Nichols lit up. “Oh, good,” he said. “That’s perfect, actually. A little ahead of schedule, but we can be ready for him.”
“What?” Aisha said helplessly.
Nichols didn’t answer, instead motioned to Higgins, who stepped forward. He had a syringe in hand, and given the sedatives Cora had been on, Aisha could guess where this was going.
There was a tiny chime, and Nichols suddenly looked at his watch. His lips tightened. “Deal with her,” he said crisply to Higgins, as he spun around and headed for the door, movements quick and tight.
Aisha tried to squash the tiny ray of hope. Even Jamey wasn’t that fast. She couldn’t be, could she?
“Put her with the other one,” Nichols said, as he disappeared through the morgue door.
Other one?
Aisha looked from the syringe to Higgins, who had the gall to smile at her. “He did say you shouldn’t have come today, Dr. Easterby.”
Nothing had turned up in Marist’s office linking a pair of gloves from Vancouver, British Columbia, with a Washington airsoft course, and the secretary was starting to give Reece and Grayson impatient looks. Whoever had Stensby’s phone hadn’t texted back yet.
They were facing more dead ends, and Reece was getting very tired of those. A Canadian empath was missing, and someone had wanted Reece to go missing too.
They needed answers.
Grayson stepped close to him, close enough Reece’s skin broke out in prickles of want. “I want to search a few more places, but it’s gonna be more obvious,” he said, in a whisper. “Think you could distract the secretary for a few minutes?”
“Sure, sure,” Reece said quickly, like he wasn’t thinking how nice it’d be to reach out and slide his arm around Grayson, fainting be damned.
He stepped out of Marist’s office and into the reception area, where the secretary was texting on the phone. As subtly as he could, he pulled the office door mostly shut behind him, enough to hide Grayson. “We’re wrapping up,” he lied, as he leaned over a reception chair and pretended to go through one of the messenger bags.
She glanced up, meeting his eyes and giving him a smile and a thumbs-up before going back to her phone.
She probably made Marist’s appointments, sent emails on her behalf. Probably knew a lot more than anyone ever gave her credit for. Maybe Marist had asked her secretary to run errands for her—errands like mailing a package to an airsoft course outside of Seattle.
