Page 17 of It takes a Psychic

She realized that the dustbunny had gone very still on the rear bench and was now gazing into the box with an intent air.

Oliver took another look at the pyramid. If anything, he looked more riveted than the dust bunny. “What do you think? Old World like the other crystals in the box?”

She had to stay cool and collected. The last thing she wanted to do was let him see that she was desperate to get her hands on the pyramid.

“Yes,” she said, leaning into her well-honed academic-expert persona. “Definitely Old World. Also, lab-engineered like the others.”

“Tuned?”

“Oh, yes.” She cleared her throat and stuck to her cool, professional-interest-only image. “Any idea of the purpose of the crystals in this box?”

“The archives are not entirely clear about that, but all things considered, it would be best to assume they are potentially dangerous.”

He was not lying, she decided, but he was definitely finessing hisanswer. He knew a lot more about the purpose of the six round crystals than he was saying.

“I agree,” she said.

“Can you unlock them?” he asked.

“Yes, but it would be stupid to do so outside of a properly equipped lab.” She gave Oliver a stern look. “This artifact should be turned over to the FBPI.”

“I’ll make a note of your thoughts on that subject.” Oliver checked the rearview mirror and pressed harder on the accelerator. “Meanwhile, we’ve got other problems.”

“What?” Startled, she twisted around on the bench. A sled was closing the distance between the two vehicles. There were two men on board. One was at the wheel. The other had a high-powered flamer, the type that law enforcement carried in the Underworld, where mag-rez weapons did not function. “Let me guess. Those are not some of your FBPI pals.”

“No. They aren’t.” Oliver slowed for a corner and then stomped hard on the accelerator. “Those are a couple of the Society’s private security goons. Ex-Guild, probably. How in green hell did they track us? I swept the sled for tracking devices. It’s clean.”

The dust bunny chortled excitedly. She lost interest in Pandora’s box and bounded forward and up onto the dashboard, evidently trying for a better view. She was clearly thrilled.

“What about the artifact?” Leona studied the box. “Maybe it was tagged with a locator code.”

“It was, but I neutralized it when I took it out of the display case. It’s clean, too.” Oliver sped around another turn and shot a speculative glance at the dust bunny. “It’s got to be something I didn’t have a chance to check.”

“Not the dust bunny,” Leona protested, overcome with a ridiculous need to defend the creature. “Don’t throw her off the sled. She’ll get hurt.”

“Not the dust bunny,” Oliver said grimly. “The crystal dildo.”

Leona set Pandora’s box on the floor of the sled behind the front bench and scrambled to dig the small sculpture out of her evening bag. She held it in her palm and opened her senses. “Oh, shit. You’re right.”

“Get rid of it,” Oliver said.

She flung the sculpture out of the sled. The dust bunny did not seem to mind that her souvenir gift had been discarded. She chortled exuberantly, evidently considering the chase a great game.

Leona watched the crystal bounce on the tunnel floor. The oncoming sled did not pause.

“They didn’t slow down to pick up the artifact,” she reported. “They’ve got visual contact, though.”

“As long as they can see us, they can follow us,” Oliver said. “We need a distraction, anything that will buy us a little time so that we can get out of visual range. According to the locator, there’s a rotunda up ahead. If we can get far enough ahead of those guys in the sled, we can turn in to one of the branching tunnels without them seeing us.”

The passenger in the pursuing sled raised the big flamer and fired twice. The jets of fire fell short, but just barely.

“They’re serious,” Oliver said. “Any chance you know how to use a flamer?”

“Sure. Griffin women can take care of themselves. But I had to leave mine behind tonight. It didn’t fit into my evening bag. Got one on board?”

Oliver smiled. “In the console.”

She opened the cabinet and retrieved the flamer.

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