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Talia cleared her throat, because she knew where he was going.“I’m sure the scientists working here in this lab anticipated that their findings would be useful in medical research.”
Luke snorted and sliced off another snaky vine. “But?”
She sighed. “But you’re right. The rationale for the funding was to explore drugs that could be used to enhance the abilities of intelligence agents.”
“You mean spies?” Phoebe asked.
“And assassins,” Luke said.
He cut off a vine dripping with blood-red orchids and fed it back to the gardens.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
The plants grewquieter and, as Phoebe had predicted, less aggressive as the acid-green night began to shift into the violet-infused twilight that passed for daytime in the underworld gardens.
Talia stood beside Luke in the doorway of the lab and watched as the illumination changed colors and intensity.
“The plants seem to have given up trying to get through the door,” she said. “They aren’t exactly dormant, but the change in lighting is putting them into a resting state, just like it says in the logbook.”
“Time to move out.” Luke glanced at the windup clock on the workbench. “It’s almost one o’clock in the afternoon on the surface. If the ferry did make the usual run today, it will have come and gone by now.”
Talia shot him another close look, trying to read him without revealing her concern. He had a right to be in a grim mood. Evidently he was the latest in a recently revived off-the-books program designed to create assassins with paranormal talents. He was alsofaced with the fact that certain people had expected him to go insane and die. It was a lot to handle, but she gave him credit for staying focused. He was determined to finish the mission that had brought them to Night Island: rescuing Phoebe. There were advantages to being able to compartmentalize, she decided.
“I can’t wait to get out of this awful place,” Phoebe said.
“I’m with you.” Talia tightened her grip on the pruners. “Let’s go. Remember to step only on the paving stones. The mushrooms look even more dangerous than the plants. And watch out for the thorns. They are everywhere.”
“Trust me, I’ll be careful,” Phoebe said.
Luke moved out onto the glowing path. “I wonder what the power source is down here,” he said.
Talia pushed aside a wide leaf that seemed to be reaching for her. “Good question.”
“There must be some machine generating the energy that controls the light cycles and feeds and irrigates the gardens,” Luke continued. “If that’s the case, it’s been running since the middle of the last century. Machines require fuel, and none of the conventional sources of power would have lasted this long.”
He was back in professorial mode, Talia thought. All things considered, maybe that was for the best.
“I’ll bet whoever built this facility figured out how to harness some form of paranormal energy,” she said.
Luke eyed a small crop of innocent-looking pink mushrooms. “The fungi, maybe.”
“It’s an interesting problem, but thankfully it isn’t our problem,” Talia said. “We’ve got more immediate issues, such as what are we going to tell the authorities when we get back to the surface?”
“As little as possible,” Luke said.
“Good plan,” Phoebe muttered. “Pretty sure whatever is going on down here is way above the pay grade of the local cops. They won’t believe us if we tell them what happened. Even if they agreed to investigate, I’ve got a feeling that whoever is behind this operation has the juice to keep them off the island.”
“You’re right,” Talia said. “It’s obvious we got tangled up with a secret government project. The alphabet agency running this very dark op will do whatever it takes to make sure it stays out of the news.”
Luke glanced back over his shoulder. “Try not to fall too far down that rabbit hole. I’ve been wondering if this was a revived government operation run by the Agency for the Investigation of Atypical Phenomena, but the more I think about it, the more I doubt it.”
“What makes you so sure?” Talia said. “Everything in that lab looked like government issue.”
“Vintagegovernment issue,” Luke corrected. “Back in the day, Bluestone was as top secret as the Manhattan Project. But it was shut down decades ago, and believe me, the cover-up was thorough. That happens with old programs that might be awkward to explain to the public.”
“Like paranormal horticultural experiments,” Talia said, using the pruners to cut off a branch studded with small suckers.
“Exactly,” Luke said. “It looks like someone discovered the old Bluestone facility here on Night Island, got his hands on the formula for the enhancement drug, and found a way to open up the old lab and the gardens.”
