Chapter Four
She shook her head. “I don’t understand any of this.”
Sensing the sudden change in her mood, Sebastian left off his exploration of a small chamber and fluttered back out into the main hallway to offer comfort. She scooped him up and held him close. He muttered reassuringly.
“I’ve got a lot of questions, too,” Owen said.
“But this is getting complicated and we don’t have time for an extended discussion.
” He glanced at the locator. “We’re only a few feet away from the staircase that leads to the aboveground ruins.
Let’s get out of here. Once we’re in the car and on our way, I’ll tell you what I know. ”
So many questions. She was feeling lightheaded. She needed answers. But once again she heard Cadence Ballantine’s warm voice in her head reminding her of Core Principle Number Seven. Do not be distracted by chaos. Find the steady anchor current and follow it.
The anchor current in this situation was the need to put a lot of distance between herself and the Hotel of Dreams.
“Okay,” she said.
Owen’s locator flashed a small green light.
“We’re here,” he said. “The staircase is in that small chamber.” He angled his head toward an arched doorway. “I’ll go first and make sure there’s no one waiting for us.”
“You should probably let Sebastian do the recon,” she said as she followed Owen into a circular stairwell. She looked at the spiral of glowing quartz steps. Each tread was proportioned for feet that were humanoid in shape but not quite human. “He’ll let us know if there’s any danger.”
Owen eyed Sebastian. “Do you think he’ll understand he’s on a scouting mission?”
“Yes. He’s the one who let me know that I was being hunted in the hotel tonight.”
“All right, let’s see what happens.”
She looked at Sebastian. “We need your help, sweetie. We’re going up those stairs. Please let us know if there’s any danger.”
He chortled obligingly and tried to wriggle free of her grasp. She set him on the bottom step and he immediately bounded upward, quickly vanishing around the twists and turns of the staircase.
A moment later a cheery chortle echoed down the steps. Alice smiled in relief.
“I’m sure that’s the all clear,” she said to Owen.
“He doesn’t sound worried.”
Owen started up the stairs. She hurried after him, trying to decide if she was doing the smart thing by throwing her lot in with a man she had met less than thirty minutes earlier.
Impulse or intuition? More like a case of having no other viable option.
He was right about one thing—he had found her, so others could find her, too.
Life, as she had known it for the past seven months, had come to an end.
Core Principle Number Four: Plan for the future; don’t try to rewrite the past.
At the top of the staircase she found herself in a vestibule in the center of what looked like an ancient Alien gazebo. The proportions were slightly off to the human eye but beautiful in an eerie, ethereal way. The structure was in the center of a hexagonal plaza framed by six walls.
Twin rows of elegantly rounded urns, each about five feet tall, stood in two parallel rows across the plaza. They were also made of green quartz. Several were cracked.
As was the case with many of the aboveground sites, the seemingly impervious stone that had been used to construct the Alien structure had been damaged by unknown forces. Through the ragged opening in one quartz wall, Alice could make out the hulking silhouette of the hotel in the distance.
The plaza and gazebo-like structure were inland, set amid a gritty, windswept landscape of defiant bushes and straggly but fiercely determined trees.
Aboveground Alien outposts anywhere near the coast were rare.
It was no surprise that, given their aversion to the surface world, the ancients had shown little interest in waterfront property.
The plaza within the six broken walls was free of the dirt, vegetation, and debris one would expect to accumulate in a human structure that had been standing outdoors in the elements for four thousand years.
There was no indication that rodents or insects or anything else had built nests inside the barriers. No moss grew on the ancient stone.
The experts maintained that something about the specific paranormal energy infused into the quartz discouraged the growth of organic matter, but no one could explain why dirt and sand didn’t build up over time.
They were still trying to understand what mechanism prevented stormwater, flooding rivers, and the occasional tsunami from washing down the open staircases into the tunnels.
Alien engineering was very much a mystery.
It was the middle of the night, so the ruins were radiant. Paranormal energy was always strongest after dark.
“This way,” Owen said.
She adjusted her go bag and started across the plaza to join him at a fissure in the wall.
“Time to go, Sebastian,” she called softly.
He popped out from behind a nearby urn and trotted toward her. Moonlight sparked on the face of the hand mirror.
She scooped him up and followed Owen through the opening in the wall. A gray, nondescript compact was parked in the deep shadows beneath the trees.
“I rented it under another ID,” Owen said.
“You just happen to carry a fake ID?”
“You never know when it might come in handy.”
“I wasn’t being critical,” she said quickly. “I understand, believe me.”
“Sure you do. You’ve been living under a false identity for seven months.”
“I’m not proud of it. Needs must and all that.”
“I know.”
“Who are you, Owen March?”
“Owen March, president and CEO of Forensic Psi-Genetics Consulting and occasional screw-up artist.”
He used a remote to unlock the vehicle and start the engine. Alice slipped into the passenger seat, Sebastian on her lap. Owen got behind the wheel and floored the accelerator.
Thrilled, Sebastian gripped his treasure and vaulted up onto the back of the seat for a better view. He waved the mirror exuberantly.
“We’re not out of the woods yet,” Owen warned.
“Maybe not,” Alice said, “but Sebastian and I are in a much better situation than we were a short time ago, thanks to you.”
“I keep telling you, I’m the one who got you into this mess.”
“Yes,” she said. “About that. Perhaps you would care to explain?”