“If you’ll excuse me, I’m going outside to pee,” she announced.

“Good plan.” North shoved his fingers through his hair and squinted a little.

“Still seeing and hearing things that aren’t there?” Sierra asked.

“Yes, damn it. But the whispers are not nearly as loud as they were yesterday. I can suppress them now.”

“Those poisoned crystals disrupted your talent for a few weeks. It’s going to take some time to recover. You didn’t sleep well last night, did you?”

“I spent a lot of time wondering exactly how this connects to the past.”

“Isn’t it obvious? Loring is after a dangerous and valuable artifact.”

North shook his head. “I don’t think this is just about a relic. There’s something else going on here. Trying to murder my father and blind me feels like an act of revenge.”

They used the woods for personal business and rinsed their hands in the nearby stream before munching on the nutrition bars. They each drank a bottle of vitamin water and slung their packs over their shoulders.

“With luck there will be coffee waiting for us in Fogg Lake,” Sierra said.

“Let’s just hope they send out a search party to look for us,” North said. “Otherwise it’s going to be a long day. Ten miles in these mountains is a serious walk.”

“What if the Puppets decide to return this morning?”

North shook his head. “They won’t come hunting on foot. They’ll be driving that SUV we saw last night. Don’t worry, we’ll hear them long before they get anywhere near us.”

“Can you still see the quicksilver energy you detected last night?” Sierra asked.

“Yes. Shouldn’t be any problem following it back to the road.”

“I can sense it but I still can’t see it.”

North started toward the entrance, but he stopped and turned around.

“What?” Sierra asked.

“Before we leave I want to take a quick look down that side tunnel to see if I can determine the source of the quicksilver energy.”

“I’ll come with you, but we shouldn’t go too far. Olivia says people can get lost forever in these tunnels.”

“Don’t worry. This will just take a minute or two.”

North led the way into the side tunnel. Sierra fell into step behind him. The energy stream got noticeably stronger, tugging at all of her senses.

“It’s sort of exciting, isn’t it?” she said. “Like walking through a thunderstorm.”

North glanced back over his shoulder. He looked amused. “Exactly like that.”

They rounded a bend in the tunnel. North stopped so suddenly that Sierra nearly collided with him.

“What is it?” she asked.

He gestured with one hand. “Take a look.”

She moved a little to get a better view and caught her breath when she saw the tower of glowing, multicolored crystals. The stones were cut in hexagonal shapes and stacked in a way that reminded Sierra of a honeycomb.

“Someone turned that machine on back in the last century and left it running,” she said, awed.