“Did they take anything with them in addition to the body?” Fallon asked.
Vera and Henry turned to Walker.
“Book,” Walker said, voice ringing with certainty. He jiggled anxiously. “One of them had a book. Black cover.”
“Sounds like a lab notebook,” Fallon said.
“Like I said, they took off in a hurry,” Henry said. “At that point we figured everyone in the Cove was probably walking six feet under.”
Isabella stared at him. “You thought you were going to die?”
Henry grimaced. “Hell, as far as we knew it was a secret weapons research lab and something had gone real wrong. What else were we supposed to think? Figured we’d all been irradiated or poisoned.”
“Of course,” Isabella said, nodding in sympathy. “Those are certainly the first two possibilities that would come to my mind.”
Fallon looked at Henry. “What did you do?”
“In another life I was trained as an engineer,” Henry said. “I drove to San Francisco and bought a radiation detector and some basic soil, water and air-quality test equipment. Brought the instruments back here. Ran every test I could think of. There was no detectable radiation. No traces of any poisonous gas leaking out from under the ground.”
“So you decided to go down and take a look, didn’t you?” Fallon asked.
“Yeah.” Henry shook his head. “Guess it was the engineer in me. I had to know what we were dealing with.”
“A-alien technology,” Walker rasped.
“I agree with Vera and Henry,” Isabella said to Walker. “This looks more like a black-ops group conducting research on paranormal weapons.”
Walker pondered that. “Alien paranormal weapons.”
“Well, that’s certainly a possibility,” Isabella allowed.
With a valiant effort, Fallon possessed himself in patience. “What happened when you opened the shelter, Henry?”
“Hard to describe.” Henry stared down at the thick steel hatch with a troubled expression.
Vera took up the tale. “He made everyone move several yards back before he raised the hatch.”
Henry did not take his eyes off the steel lid. “Some kind of energy poured out. Felt like a strong wind but nothing moved. It didn’t ruffle the leaves or my shirt or my hair. But it was intense and very disturbing.”
“We all felt it,” Vera said, “even though the rest of us were standing some distance away.”
“Sounds like paranormal radiation of some kind,” Fallon said.
“I couldn’t handle the wind, whatever it was,” Henry continued. “But the Asshole was still around at the time. He didn’t seem bothered by it. Neither did Rachel Stewart. The radiation didn’t seem to affect Walker, either. So those three went down into the shelter.”
“What happened?” Isabella asked.
“When they came back up, Walker seemed to be his usual self.”
They all looked at Walker, who rocked harder in response to the attention.
“I take it he was always like he is now?” Isabella asked quietly.
“Yes,” Vera said. “Just the same. But Rachel and Gordon Lasher were terribly excited when they came up the ladder, especially Lasher. He was shivering and he could hardly speak.”
“When he calmed down, he told us that he’d seen a lot of lab equipment down there,” Henry explained. “He told us that there were signs of a violent explosion but that the place was so hot with some kind of energy that no one else should risk going down.”
“He said we should let the shelter cool down for a few weeks or months before anyone went back into it,” Vera said.
“By then I couldn’t stand the guy,” Henry added. “But I agreed with him.”
“But the shelter has never cooled down, has it?” Fallon asked. “Paranormal radiation tends to hang around for a while.”
“Yeah, I noticed that,” Henry said. “The Asshole took off with Rachel a couple of days later. That was the last we saw of either of them. A few weeks after that I decided to try going down into the shelter. I made it as far as the bottom of the ladder. That’s the last I remember.”
“What happened?” Isabella asked.
“Damned if I know,” Henry said. “I passed out.”
Walker rocked harder. “The Q-Queen.”
“When I came to, I was lying flat on my back on the ground up here,” Henry said. “Vera and Walker were standing around looking down at me.”
“How did you get out?” Fallon asked.
“Walker was with us when Henry opened the hatch,” Vera said. “Henry went down alone and disappeared. We called out to him but there was no response. I couldn’t get through the energy wind no matter how hard I tried. But Walker climbed down and brought Henry back out.”
“Figure Walker probably saved my life,” Henry said.
Isabella smiled at Walker. “You were a hero.”
Walker rocked and looked confused.
“Yes, Walker was a hero,” Vera agreed. “Afterward everyone who was left in town got together to talk about the situation. We concluded that we could not allow whatever was down there in the shelter to fall into the wrong hands. We also needed to make sure that no children or thrill seekers fell into the shelter.”
“We get a few drifters through the Cove from time to time, as you know,” Henry added. “Didn’t want to take a chance that some of them might try to go down, either.”
Fallon nodded. “So you locked it down.”
“Figured if the government wasn’t going to take responsibility for protecting people from whatever was down there, we would have to do the job,” Vera concluded. “And that’s what we’ve done for the past twenty-two years.”
“Good plan,” Fallon said. “Heavy paranormal radiation can have unpredictable effects. And if there are more of Mrs. Bridewell’s nasty little toys in the shelter, we’re dealing with some very dangerous weapons.” He studied the heavy lock on the steel hatch. “I take it you have the key to this thing?”
“Sure.” Henry reached deep into the pocket of his overalls and removed a large key. “I keep it with me all the time.”
“I’ll go down,” Fallon said, “assuming I can get past the energy winds.” He looked at Isabella. “If anything goes wrong, make sure this hatch gets closed and locked again immediately. Then call Zack Jones. You have the number.”
“I think I should go down with you,” Isabella said.
He said the first thing that came into his head. “No.”
“You’re not being logical here, Fallon,” she said calmly. “You don’t know what you’re going to find in the shelter. You might need backup like I did yesterday, remember?”
“Not the sort of thing I’m likely to forget.”
“I’m good at finding things,” she insisted. “And there is something down there that needs to be found.”
Fallon gave it about three seconds’ worth of thought, but he only needed a fraction of one second to reach the bottom line. She was right. Her talent might prove useful. He pulled a card out of his pocket and handed it to Henry.
“I’ll go first and check the place out. When I give the all clear, Isabella will follow me. Anything goes wrong, seal the shelter again and call that number. Do it real fast.”
Henry studied the card. “Who am I calling?”
“Zack Jones. Master of the Arcane Society. My agency’s biggest client. Don’t worry, Zack will take charge. He always does. It’s a damned irritating habit.”
13
Isabella stood with Walker and Vera. They watched Fallon and Henry open the shelter. The lock gave easily enough, but the men had to use a couple of crowbars to pry up the hatch.
“Don’t know what they made this thing out of,” Henry said. “Some kind of high-tech steel. But given time, anything will corrode in this climate.”
The lid rose ponderously with a grinding squeak and a dull groan. Energy leaked out. Isabella felt the hair on the nape of her neck stir. Icy shivers of awareness slithered across her senses in warning.