“I don’t know,” Olivia said. “Maybe someone on the Foundation team in Fogg Lake will be able to bring him out of the trance. But there’s more going on than a hypnotic suggestion. I think he’s ill. I wonder if we should use the auto-injector you found on him.”

“We don’t know what’s in it. Might be some kind of suicide drug that he’s supposed to use if he falls into the wrong hands.”

“He didn’t attempt to use it,” Olivia pointed out.

“Maybe that’s because he went into shock and then into a trance.”

“I really don’t like the look of his aura. I think we should give him the injection.”

Harlan eyed her. “Is that the oracle talking?”

“No, it’s me, the psychic investigator who has met some people who keep emergency auto-injectors on hand for, you know, emergencies.”

“We don’t know if this is an emergency.”

“Trust me, given the vibe in his aura, it’s safe to say Ash is deteriorating rapidly. Something is very wrong.”

She was right. Everything about the kid’s energy felt off.

“All right,” Harlan said.

He worked one of Ash’s arms free of the black jacket, rolled up the sleeve of the shirt and administered the injection. Ash did not stir, but after a couple of minutes his energy felt cooler.

Harlan looked at Olivia. “Well?”

“Better. Not stable, but calmer. I wonder what was in that auto-injector.”

“I don’t know, but I’ll save it for analysis.” Harlan tucked the empty device into the leather kit and set it aside. “Why isn’t he waking up?”

“I think he’s still under the influence of the hypnotic suggestion. He may not wake up until we figure out how to bring him out of the trance.”

Harlan clamped down on the fierce sense of urgency that was threatening to take control. He had to think. One thing was clear—at the moment Ash was useless.

Harlan picked up the artifact, moved out of the cargo bay and slammed the door shut. He started toward the passenger side door.

“You drive,” he said. “I’ll see if we can figure out how to use this thing to navigate the road to Fogg Lake tonight.”

“Personally, I think that would be a really dumbass experiment.”

“It’s worth a try.”

“It’s not worth our lives,” Olivia said. “That thing may have gotten those guys this far, but they couldn’t use it to find the logging road, remember? You heard what one of them said. There’s too much noise in the vicinity. He’s right. What’s more, that noise only gets worse as we get closer to town.”

“Let me just see if I can activate it.”