“Took you two long enough to get here,” she announced.

“This is Marge,” Harmony said. “Marge, meet Sierra Raines and North Chastain.”

“Nice to meet you, Marge,” Sierra said.

Marge grunted.

“Thanks for agreeing to see us,” North said.

“Not like I had a choice,” Marge said. “Got to stop those ETs from Riverview before they launch their attack.”

“ETs?” Sierra repeated.

“Extraterrestrials,” Harmony explained. “Marge says Riverview is their secret laboratory. They use rogue human doctors to conduct experiments on people like her.”

“Oh, right,” Sierra said. “Olivia LeClair explained that.”

North looked at Marge. “You’ll be glad to know that the Foundation has taken charge of Riverview. Dr. Garraway is dead.”

“No loss,” Marge growled. “Who got to him?”

“We think it was one of the orderlies,” Sierra said.

“The clones.” Marge nodded sagely. “That figures. They did all the dirty work for Loring and Garraway. Probably got pissed off when they realized they’d been conned. Did you get the doc and the clones, too?”

“Not yet,” North said. “But we’re working on it. You think the clones were conned?”

Marge rolled her eyes. “The fools believed Loring when he said he could increase their talents and give them serious paranormal powers. But he was lying. He made them practice with something he called a night gun. He said once they mastered it there were more weapons where it came from. But that thing was scrambling the clones’ energy fields. I could see that clear as day.”

North set the lockbox on the table. “Tell me about the night gun,” he said.

Marge drank some soda and put down the can. “That’s what Loring called it. Don’t know where it came from. Looked sort of like a flashlight. You could see clear through it. Made of glass or crystal or something.”

“What did it fire?” North asked. “Bullets?”

“No, some kind of weird light. Hard to describe. Loring said it could destabilize a person’s aura. Called it the perfect murder weapon on account of it wouldn’t leave any evidence.”

“I think someone used that gun on my father,” North said.

Marge scowled. “What happened to him?”

“He’s awake but unresponsive,” North said. “The doctors think his aura has been badly traumatized.”

Marge exhaled heavily. “Sorry to hear that. Loring talked a lot about how the damned thing had to be tuned. He was always telling the clones that he was aligning their aura currents to the wavelengths of the gun but I could see that every time they fired that thing their auras got wobbly.”

North looked thoughtful. “The weapon was too powerful for the clones. They couldn’t handle the psychic recoil.”

Marge shrugged. “Whatever. Didn’t look good for the clones, I can tell you that much. Made ’em real mean, too. They were never what you’d call nice, but after they started getting tuned up to use that gun they got real short-tempered. Violent.”

“Did Loring try to tune the weapon to his own aura?” North said.