Chapter Fifty-Four
Fifty-Four
“The what?” Victoria blinked and then she laughed. “Yes, the innocent-librarian-goes-wild-in-the-stacks trope works like a charm every time, especially on a no-talent.”
“This is embarrassing,” Luke muttered.
Deke grunted in a sympathetic way.
Sophy paid no attention. She was focused on Victoria.
“When Luke told me about you, I knew you were almost certainly a reflection talent,” she said. “You should be ashamed of yourself. You have failed to uphold the standards of our profession.”
“If it makes you feel any better, I’m not a real librarian.”
“I knew it. How did you get your fake librarian hands on the crystals in Pandora’s box?”
Victoria’s eyes shimmered with triumph. “Everyone remembers that there were three paranormal engineers on the Kaleidoscope program, but no one remembers there was a fourth talent on the team. My great-grandmother.”
“The secretary,” Sophy said. “Mildred Green. My great-grandfather wrote that he was starting to suspect she was the real Communist spy.”
“There was always a secretary in those days,” Victoria said.
“No one paid much attention to them but they knew all of the secrets. For example, my great-grandmother discovered the combination of the safe. On the day of the explosion, she grabbed the crystals on her way out. Later she went to the trouble of faking her death, but it hardly mattered because everyone had forgotten about her.”
“I understand,” Sophy said. “Librarians have a similar image problem. Everyone wants help from the staff at the reference desk, or readers’ advisory, or the archivist, or the rare books specialist, but no one remembers the person who helped them locate what they were looking for.”
“Luke is right about one thing,” Victoria said. “This place is going to explode. If you don’t unlock the crystals immediately I will leave you and your friends down here. Just think—you’ll have a front-row seat for the fireworks.”
Sophy got a senses-jarring ping.
“Okay, this is interesting,” she said. “Evidently you do realize that we’re all standing in the middle of a ticking time bomb.
You’re scared, as well you should be, but you’re going to try to force me to unlock the crystals anyway.
As soon as that’s done, you’re going to grab them and run, aren’t you? ”
“What is she talking about, Victoria?” Whitley yelped.
“She’s not buying your theory that the towers can store vortex energy safely,” Luke said. “She’s just here for the crystals. Right, Victoria?”
“They’re both lying,” Victoria said, putting a little extra dose of charm into the words. She kept her attention on Sophy. “We’re all running out of time.”
Sophy glanced at Bea, who gave her a reassuring smile. The message was clear: Remember the first rule of the psychic consulting business: never let the audience see you sweat.
She turned to Luke. Cool confidence gleamed in his eyes. His message was easy to read, too: You’ve got this.
Deke winked. I’m in.
Bruce padded close so that he was standing next to her. Message: You’re not alone.
She patted the top of his head, straightened, and walked toward the circle of mirrored towers.
She slipped between two of the batteries and stopped in front of the pedestal.
She studied the six glittering crystals and selected one.
It was locked, but a frisson of awareness zapped through her senses.
She looked at Luke.
“So much power,” she said.
His eyes heated. “I know.”
She concentrated on the crystal, feeling her way into the complex pattern of the lock, searching for the anchor current.
It didn’t take long. Tobias Harper had been good with locks, but she was even more talented.
She pulsed a little buzz of energy to neutralize the currents that secured the crystal.
The stone blazed to life in her hand, pulsing with vermillion flames. Her thrill level was suddenly off the charts. She was intensely aware of the wild energy flooding the chamber, aware that, with the aid of the crystal, she could channel some of it, at least for a short while.
“You did it,” Victoria said, euphoric with relief. “Unlock the others. Hurry. We don’t have much time.”
“I can do that,” Sophy said. She set the crystal back down on the glass pedestal and took the chimes and mallet out of her trench coat. “But I’ve got options.”
“What are you doing?” Victoria demanded.
The charm had evaporated from her voice.
Sophy ignored her. She struck a pure, delicate note, releasing it into the chamber. The crystalline tone soared, growing louder and more resonant until it pealed like a great bell.
Bruce unleashed an unearthly howl.
“What’s happening?” Victoria screamed. “Stop.”
“The towers,” Whitley shrieked. “They’ll overheat.”
Sophy dropped the chimes and the mallet into a pocket and once again picked up the flaring crystal.
“Here’s the really interesting thing about channeling vortex energy,” Sophy said. “I just realized I might be able to use it to let you see what I see.”
She went all the way into her talent, pulling on the wild forces in the chamber to project her visions.
“No,” Victoria shouted. “Stop.”
Hatch got to his feet, his eyes wide. “What are you doing?”
The Tuxedo Twins stood frozen, open-mouthed. Luke, Bea, and Deke watched her, but they made no move to stop her.
The otherworldly fog coalesced swiftly, filling the chamber.
Shadowy figures appeared in the mist. There was no sound, but the visions needed no audio.
It was all too obvious that the figures were screaming, running for their lives, and in the center of the room the mirror towers burned with a terrible radiance.
“Welcome to my world,” Sophy said in her trance voice. “Welcome to the past. The explosion will happen any minute now. They tried to channel the power of the vortex and they discovered too late they could not control it.”
“Ghosts,” one of the twins said. “Impossible. What’s happening?”
“There are no ghosts,” Victoria shouted. But her elegant features were tight with fear. “She’s creating a mass hallucination. Trying to scare us.”
“It’s working,” Hatch said.
The spectral figures moved in the fog. Their silent panic charged the atmosphere.
“Shit,” Twin Number Two rasped. “We didn’t sign up for this.”
“No,” the other twin agreed.
Both women holstered their weapons and ran for one of the two doors.
Whitley shrieked in rage and then fled into the control room. He slammed the door shut, locking himself inside.
“You stupid fucking bitch,” Victoria screamed at Sophy. “You’ve destroyed everything. I spent two years planning for this moment. Two years.”
Sophy struck another pealing note on the chimes and rode the currents out of the dreamstate. She got hit with the familiar flash of fear, afraid that she might be forever trapped in the terrible in-between state…
…and then she was safely on the other side, flying on the dark wings of an adrenaline rush that was unlike any post-trance ride she had ever experienced.
Victoria froze, horrified. “Who are you? What are you?”
Sophy remembered that she was not wearing her mirrored sunglasses. She smiled.
“You may be the secretly sexy librarian,” she said. “But I’m the librarian from hell.”