“Marge and the other inmates at the hospital?”

“Yes.”

“But where did he get the weapons?” Sierra asked. “I still think that if Loring had found the old Vortex lab the news would be all over the underground market.”

“I agree. But this tuning device and those weapons could have come from the lab that Griffin Chastain and Crocker Rancourt controlled inside the Fogg Lake complex. That facility was huge. It covered miles inside those tunnels. There must have been hundreds of rooms, labs and offices. The Foundation has barely begun to excavate the site. Trust me, if the Chastain-Rancourt lab had been discovered I would have heard about it.”

“Then where have those artifacts been all these years?” Sierra asked.

“Maybe our witness, Marge, will be able to fill in some of the missing pieces of the puzzle.” North looked at the semi-dismantled tuning machine. A frisson of certainty snapped across his senses. “It all began in Fogg Lake,” he said. “The answers must be there, too.”

CHAPTER 29

Ithink I just saw a wisp of fog,” North said.

“Too early,” Sierra said. “We’ve got another couple of hours before sunset.”

“Olivia warned us that the fog was becoming more unpredictable lately,” North said.

“Yes, I know, but—” Sierra caught a glimpse of gray mist gathering in the heavy woods on either side of the road. A chill zapped across her senses. “Damn. You’re right.”

They were deep into the mountains now. She was still at the wheel. They had passed the last tiny town with its lone gas station an hour ago.

Olivia had explained that, in addition to the natural hazards of the narrow, winding highway, the fog that always made driving in the area impossible after sundown had begun rolling in off the lake earlier in the evening and was lingering longer after sunrise. Ever since the explosion in the old Fogg Lake lab, the strange mist had been infused with paranormal energy. But in recent weeks the radiation was stronger and more disorienting.

Some of the Foundation scientists engaged in exploring and mapping the recently discovered ruins of the Fogg Lake lab attributed the phenomenon to global warming. But according to Olivia, the people who lived in the small community were convinced the new problems with the nightly mist were caused by the researchers and technicians who were disturbing the powerful forces that had been sealed inside the lab tunnels for decades.

“Night comes early in the mountains,” North said. “And paranormal energy is always enhanced by darkness, regardless of the technical time of sunrise and sunset.”

“So long as we don’t make any wrong turns we should be okay,” Sierra said.

They were using Olivia’s carefully written directions because the closer they got to Fogg Lake, the less they could rely on the vehicle’s navigation system. Sure enough, GPS had gone down an hour ago. The cell phones had stopped working shortly afterward.

“According to Olivia’s directions we’re only about ten miles away from the town of Fogg Lake,” Sierra said.