“I dunno.” Walt massaged his temples. “I told you. The woman did something to me with her necklace.”

“Loring is going to be pissed when he finds out that Chastain has the machine,” Joe observed.

Ralph scowled. “Dr. Loring said there was a second machine, remember? That’s what we’re after.”

“Let’s get out of here.” Walt slumped against the door. “I’m beat. That bitch really did a number on me. I need to sleep.”

“I’m not feeling so good, either,” Joe muttered.

Seth banged one fist against the back of the seat. “Fuck. It was all going so well. Now the whole plan is falling apart.”

Back at the start Loring had made it sound so simple, Ralph reflected. The night gun was the perfect weapon. It left no forensic evidence. All that was required was proper tuning. He and the others had fired the gun on several occasions. They were adjusting to the powerful psychic recoil, growing stronger. And once they had mastered the gun, Loring promised there were plenty more from the cache of paranormal weapons.

Ralph was the one who had used it on Chandler Chastain. Loring had been sure the authorities would assume Chastain had suffered a stroke and died.

Ralph had felt weird afterward but Loring had explained that the crystal that powered the gun sent out some major psychic shock waves. It took time to adjust to the device. It was a little more complicated than the explosive they had set in the abandoned apartment building.

But Chandler Chastain had not died and the Foundation had not bought the stroke story. Within hours North Chastain had arrived on the scene. Then Loring had disappeared and he had taken the night gun with him. Now North Chastain had the special machine. Loring was not going to be happy about that.

Ralph watched the upstairs windows of the inn for a couple more minutes and then he fired up the SUV’s heavy engine.

“If Chastain found the right artifact we’ll know soon enough,” he said.

“How?” Joe asked.

“He’ll head straight for Fogg Lake.”

CHAPTER 27

The whispering hallucinations finally began to retreat shortly after dawn.

“They’re becoming faint,” North said. “Just shadows now. I can’t believe it. All these weeks I’ve been convinced I would go mad if I took off the damned glasses.”

Sierra opened her senses and studied his aura in the mirror that hung over the fireplace. “The unstable vibe I noticed in your aura has diminished considerably. Got a feeling you’ll still see a few hallucinations once in a while until the last of the effects of the poison are gone, but you are definitely recovering. If I were you I would destroy those glasses.”

He looked at the mirrored sunglasses sitting on the coffee table next to the machine. “I’d like nothing better, but at the moment they are evidence. I should be able to use them to find out who poisoned the crystals.”

“Good point.” She glanced at the glasses. “Best keep them in lead or steel. You don’t want any of that radiation leaking out. I’ve got a lockbox in the back of my vehicle that I use for transporting small artifacts. The glasses will be secure in there.”