AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“So we’re having pizza?”
“Phoebe got kidnapped and held in that horrible lab. I figure she’s entitled to eat whatever she wants for dinner tonight. Octavia agreed. Besides, who doesn’t like pizza?”
“Fine by me.” He drank some wine and tried to focus on a non-relationship issue. “There’s something we need to talk about.”
Talia went very still. Her eyes sparked with energy. Expectant tension shivered in the atmosphere. It was as if she was waiting for him to announce the winning number of the lottery.
Time to compartmentalize.
“It’s about my Jekyll-and-Hyde problem,” he said.
The spark did not exactly go out of her eyes—nothing that dramatic—but the aura of excited expectation energizing the atmosphere around her definitely faded. It was replaced with knowing concern. Sympathy was the last thing he wanted. He wondered what she had been hoping to hear. That he planned to check into a hotel this evening?
“I understand, believe me,” she said, very earnest now. “I certainly haven’t told my parents that I now excel at finding dead bodies. They would insist that I go back into therapy. Roger Gossard, the forensics psychologist I consult for, is the only person outside theLost Night Filesteam who knows. I think Roger has convinced himself I’ve just got really good intuition. Let’s face it—I doubt that most people really want to know what I can do, and those who would be interested are probably weird.”
“Pretty sure that applies to my talent, too.” He swallowed a little more wine. “Are you going to tell the podcast crew about my new skill set?”
“No. It’s your secret. It’s up to you to decide how much you want to reveal. You are a man with an extraordinary ability, one that could potentially be lethal, but you are not an assassin.”
“What’s the difference?”
She surprised him with a smile. “One is a talent; the other is a career path, a choice. You chose to become a history professor, not a killer. Now let’s go back inside and enjoy the wine and cheese with Octavia and Phoebe. The pizza will be arriving soon.”
He smiled a little. “Priorities.”
“Yep.”
He followed her back inside, wondering what he had screwed up. It was obvious he had missed some important cue. He excelled at that when it came to Talia.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
Talia curled oneleg under the other and helped herself to a slice of pizza. A few minutes ago she had opened another bottle of wine and refilled everyone’s glass. The food and booze were having the desired effect, she decided—taking the edge off, at least temporarily. She and the others had spent a lot of time in fight-or-flight mode on Night Island. They needed to breathe. They needed to debrief.
“What do you think will happen to those plants in the conservatory and the underworld gardens?” Phoebe asked around a mouthful of pizza.
“I doubt if the fire made it into the conservatory,” Luke said, “or down into the old lab. My guess is that the plants will continue to grow and mutate as long as the power source that keeps the facility running is undamaged.”
Talia munched some pizza while she thought about that. “Maybe the fire will affect the machines that run the conservatory and the lab.”
Octavia shuddered. “I’m telling you, that whole island is contaminated with bad energy.”
“Night Island is now the Foundation’s problem,” Luke said. “We’re done with it.”
“I still can’t believe the government shut down such an expensive project,” Talia said. “And then forgot about it.”
“I told you, there was a very thorough cover-up,” Luke said. “But as is always the case with cover-ups, eventually there are leaks.” He swallowed the last of his pizza and looked at Octavia. “Of all of us, you spent the most time on Night Island. Would you mind if I ask you a few more questions? Talia, Phoebe, and I and the rest of the podcast crew are going to try to find Nathan Gill and whoever else is responsible for what happened to us. We can use all the data we can get.”
“No problem,” Octavia said. She drank some wine. “Just promise me you’ll keep my name out of it.”
“You have my word on that,” Luke said.
Phoebe smiled. “As of tomorrow you’ll have a new name anyway, Octavia.”
“Yes,” Octavia said. She nodded, satisfied. “That’s right.”
Luke took his phone out of his pocket and prepared to take notes.
“That reminds me,” Talia said. “We need to get the roll of film that we found in Keever’s camera developed.”
