Page 10 of It takes a Psychic

She hurried after him. When she got closer, she picked up a faint, familiar trickle of energy. She looked at the pack on his shoulder in disbelief.

“You stole Pandora’s box?” she asked.

“I didn’t steal it. I recovered it. The artifact is why I’m here tonight.”

She decided this was not a good time to debate the semantics of the wordstheftandrecovery.

He turned another corner and led her down a narrow, cramped corridor. Halfway along the hall he stopped in front of what looked like a blank wall. He rezzed a concealed button. A panel slid aside.

Leona looked past his shoulder and saw a well of darkness. Underworld energy wafted up a cracked concrete staircase. With it came the dank smell of a deep basement.

Oliver rezzed his phone flashlight. “There’s a hole-in-the-wall entrance to the tunnels down there.”

“Why aren’t the members of the Society using it to escape the raid?”

“Because they don’t know about it. They are trying to escape through another hole-in-the-wall but the task force team is guarding it. Let’s go. Close the panel behind you.”

He went easily down the steps, apparently assuming she would follow. She hesitated, but when another round of shots rumbled in the distance, she followed him, sliding the panel shut.

They reached the bottom of the steps and, guided by the flashlight,crossed the darkened basement. Oliver stopped in front of a mag-steel vault door.

“Don’t worry, I can open it,” she said.

“So can I.”

He took a small gadget out of the inside pocket of his jacket and rezzed it. There was a muted hum from the interior of the door and then a sharp click.

She wondered if she had offended him by her offer of assistance. Probably. She had a list of exes who had indicated that she had an annoying habit of telling them what to do and how to do it. During the course of the recent—unfortunately, explosive—breakup with Matt Fullerton, he had made her faults quite clear.

She put the issue aside. It wasn’t as if she was trying to fire up a romantic relationship with Oliver. They were temporary partners in crime. Sort of. And she had to admit, the fancy lock pick was impressive.

“Cool gadget,” she said. “Where did you get it?”

“Company labs.”

She decided it would be best not to ask the name of the company. If he had stolen the lock pick, she would just as soon not know the details.

“Amber check,” he ordered.

“Right.”

First things first. Rational people did not go into the Underworld without making sure their navigation amber was properly tuned. To do otherwise was to take a risk that was borderline suicidal.

She rezzed a little energy and got the reassuring feedback from the amber in her jewelry that told her it was functioning properly.

“I’m good,” she said.

“So am I.”

He pulled open the vault door, revealing the glowing green quartz tunnel on the other side. The powerful currents of paranormal energythat flowed throughout the vast maze of underground corridors stirred her senses. It always did. The flash of sheer, unadulterated wonder that she experienced in the ruins never got old. There was so much to learn, so much to discover, among the antiquities the long-vanished Aliens had left behind.

Oliver moved through the opening, waited for her to follow, and then pulled the vault door closed.

The jagged opening in the tunnel wall was taller than a normal door but narrower. Oliver had to turn sideways to get his broad shoulders through it. The experts had plenty of theories about the forces that had been powerful enough to rip holes in the seemingly indestructible quartz—nothing human engineering had produced could even chip or dent the stone—but no one knew for sure what had caused the cracks and fissures. Currently the most popular notion was that nothing less than massive natural forces deep inside the planet—tectonic plates or underground volcanoes—could have created the openings. But who knew?

Inside the tunnel, Oliver switched off the flashlight. There was no need for it. The green quartz the Aliens had used to construct the sprawling network of passageways was infused with an eerie radiance that glowed day and night.

“Stay close and stay focused,” Oliver said. “Don’t get distracted.”

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