The Hot Zone (A Rainshadow Novel Book 3) (14 page)

Sedona stood with Cyrus, Joe, and a small, handpicked group of ghost hunters that included Duke and Tanaka, the hunters who had recently engaged in a game of dust bunny tossing.

But no one was playing games now, not even Lyle. He was crouched on Sedona’s shoulder, alert and energized.

She was dressed for fieldwork in jeans, a long-sleeved pullover, and boots. Her hair was in a no-nonsense knot at the back of her head. Like everyone else on the team, she wore a small day pack filled with emergency supplies.

They all looked at the solid wall of gently radiant green quartz. There was no sign of a gate. But then, there rarely was any outward indication of one. Gates got discovered either by accident or by gatekeepers—those with a talent for working gate energy.

“You’re sure this is the place, Joe?” Cyrus asked.

“Yes, sir,” Joe said. He nodded toward a small pile of green quartz objects. “I marked it with those artifacts before I went aboveground to get help.”

Cyrus glanced at Sedona. “Well?”

She pulsed some energy through the tuned amber that she wore in her ring and got a whisper of heat in response. The green quartz wall shimmered faintly.

“There’s a gate here,” she said.

“Can you open it?” Joe demanded anxiously.

“Yes, I think so.” Sedona looked at Cyrus for direction.

“Go for it,” Cyrus said. He glanced at his team. “Flamers on standby until we know what we’re dealing with here.”

The flamers were simple, amber-fueled devices that fired short bursts of flame. They were new in the Underworld, an invention that had come out of the Sebastian labs. The range was limited to about fifteen or twenty feet at most, depending on the talent of the person rezzing the trigger. But they were one of the few weapons that worked in the catacombs besides knives. Even bows and arrows were undependable underground.

Not every ghost hunter had adopted the new technology with enthusiasm. Everyone knew that the real weapons in the tunnels were the energy ghosts that strong hunters could forge out of the ambient psi in the atmosphere. But when facing the unknown—a daily event underground—everyone liked to have some backup. Flamers were the latest experiment in defense weaponry.

Sedona set to work, trying to ignore the little rush of energy she had experienced when they had descended into the catacombs. It was good to be back, she thought; good to be working again. She had Cyrus to thank for that.

She pulsed more energy through the amber in her ring and got a clear, sharp focus. Charlotte Attridge, Slade’s wife and the owner of Looking Glass Antiques had done a beautifully nuanced job of tuning the currents of the stone to Sedona’s personal aura.

The section of the wall that had shimmered a moment ago quickly dissolved as Sedona applied more power. The green quartz gave way to reveal the gate—a raging storm of glacial blue psi.

One of the men whistled in astonishment. “Never saw anything like that before.”

The energy gate was large enough to accommodate a truck but Sedona knew that no vehicle designed and built by humans would be able to crash through the violent currents.

“I spent fifteen years in the tunnels and never saw anything like this,” Tanaka said.

“Same here.” Duke studied the portal. “This doesn’t look anything like the gates into the Rainforest. I’m thinking that there’s probably a damned good reason why this one is so hot.”

Joe stared at the gate and then he looked at Sedona. “My boy’s in there.”

“I understand,” she said.

Cyrus looked at Sedona. “Recognize the energy?”

“No, it’s new to me, too, but I’m sure I can unlock it. Piece of cake.” She smiled. “Okay, maybe not exactly a piece of cake, still, I can handle it.”

They were all watching her now.

This was it, she thought. The time had come to prove to herself and everyone else that she could still control gate energy.

She heightened her senses, slowly at first—getting a feel for the hot psi churning in the portal. The currents were unfamiliar but it did not take long to find the frequencies.

She got a fix and gently sent out pulses of counterpoint energy. The secret to handling the most powerful gate was to employ a delicate touch. It was an intuitive skill, one she had honed over the course of her career. She had met some gatekeepers who used raw power to break through a locked gate. That approach worked on less formidable portals. But when it came to dealing with Category Five gates, nuance was the key. Too much blunt force and the gate might literally explode, creating a lethal vortex that sucked in everything and everyone within range.

She went closer to the portal, probing cautiously with her talent. Lyle chortled and bounced a little. She understood. The sensation of controlling gate energy was always exhilarating, and this particular gate was the most powerful she had ever encountered.

She did not try to fight the currents. Instead, she allowed them to draw her deeper and deeper into the heart of the storm.

. . . And then she was there and in control. She went to work adjusting some of the frequencies.

A moment later the gate winked out of existence. The portal was open. Sedona stood on the threshold and looked into a dazzling crystal-and-quartz landscape. The energy in the atmosphere was strong enough to send shivers across her senses. The sensation wasn’t unpleasant, just disorienting. She had to concentrate to stay focused.

“Son of a ghost,” Duke said. “Thought I’d seen everything down here.”

“Welcome to Wonderland,” Cyrus said.

It took a lot to stun a team of experienced ghost hunters, Sedona thought. Heck, it took a lot to dazzle her. She and the others had seen many strange marvels in the course of their work in the Underworld. But she had never encountered anything like the scene on the other side of the portal. Judging by the low-voiced expressions of awe and amazement behind her, none of the others had ever seen anything like it, either.

The hidden world on the other side of the portal was a vast realm of glacial blue and mirror-bright quartz and crystal. It was a landscape illuminated by an eerie azure radiance that came from the ultralight end of the spectrum.

A stream of what looked like frozen mirror-quartz—the surface flashing sparks of blue sunlight—wound through a forest of glittering crystal blue trees studded with sapphire leaves.

Cyrus moved to stand beside Sedona in the opening. The others crowded closer.

“What in green hell is this place?” one of the men asked.

“It’s another underground world constructed by the Aliens,” Sedona said. “But unlike the Rainforest, which is alive with a thriving, balanced ecosystem, this place feels as if it’s frozen.”

“But it’s not cold,” Tanaka said. He came to stand in the opening and extended one arm over the threshold. “The temperature feels the same as it does everywhere else in the catacombs.”

“This place isn’t frozen,” Cyrus said. “Not literally. It just looks that way because everything seems to be made of quartz and crystal.” Experimentally he kicked at the glittering pebbles that covered the ground. The blue gems scattered, revealing hard blue rock. “There will be time enough to study it later. We’re here on an S-and-R job.” He looked at Joe. “You said your son is wearing an amber locator?”

“Right.” Joe moved forward, stiffening a little when the hot atmosphere hit him. “A Sebastian model seven-point-oh. The latest on the market.”

Cyrus unclipped his own locater. “Give me Henderson’s code.”

Joe rattled off a string of digits. Cyrus plugged them into the device and nodded once, satisfied.

“Got a location,” he said. “He’s not far away. Looks like he was smart enough to stay near his entry point.”

For the first time, Joe’s expression lightened with something that might have been hope.

“He’s still alive,” he said.

Cyrus glanced at Sedona. Neither of them spoke. Everyone on the small team knew that all the signal meant was that the locator was still functioning. It did not mean the person it belonged to was still alive. Joe knew that, too, Sedona thought. But he had a right to nourish his hopes.

“Try calling him,” Cyrus said to Joe.

Joe cupped his mouth with one hand and shouted into the unnatural silence.

“Henderson.”

The name rang from the crystal trees and echoed for seemingly endless moments. But finally there was silence.

Then they heard the answering shout.

“Pa. I’m here. Hurt my leg. Trapped. Can’t get out.”

Joe’s face glowed. “He’s alive.”

“Tell him we’re coming to get him,” Cyrus said.

Joe relayed the message. When the crystal forest finally stopped ringing, Cyrus turned to one of the hunters.

“Dinkins, run a ghost check.”

“Yes, sir.”

Dinkins, a burly man who looked like he’d seen plenty of action in the catacombs, moved through the doorway. Like Joe, he winced a little when the currents of psi hit him. But he got himself under control immediately.

He concentrated for a moment. Sedona’s senses were sparking in response to the high levels of energy so she was aware of the subtle tension building in Dinkins’s aura. She knew that he had heightened his talent in an effort to pull a ghost.

Dinkins lowered his talent and looked at Cyrus. “No luck, sir. The energy in this place isn’t the same as the stuff in the catacombs and the Rainforest.”

“No surprise there,” Cyrus said. “Everyone back into the tunnel.”

Sedona and the others obeyed. Cyrus waited until they were safe on the other side of the gate before aiming his flamer through the portal at the nearest crystal rock and rezzing the trigger. Flame leaped in a long, narrow beam. The blue stone was undamaged but there was no explosion.

“All right, we know the flamers work in this atmosphere,” Cyrus said. “Keep them out and in your hands. Duke, Tanaka, and Gibbons, you’ll come with me. Everyone else will stay inside the tunnel. When we find Henderson we’ll assess the situation.”

“I’m coming with you,” Joe said. “You got to let me come, too.”

Cyrus hesitated and then nodded once. “All right.”

No one argued. The boss had spoken. Sedona got the underlying message. Cyrus was not about to risk any more of his team than necessary. But she could hear chimes clashing in some other dimension.

“Cyrus,” she said, “I think I should go with you. I can sense energy building in the atmosphere. Feels a little like a river. You might need someone with my kind of talent.”

Tanaka squinted into the glittering forest. “She’s right, boss, something’s happening in here. Feels like a storm brewing.”

Cyrus looked grim. “I can feel it, too. Come on in, Sedona. Stay close. Visual contact at all times.”

She went back through the portal, into the crystal forest. Lyle rumbled softly and opened all four eyes.

The small group moved cautiously into the shimmering, glittering blue forest. Quartz pebbles and crystals in a million shades of ultralight blue crunched and skittered beneath their boots.

“Watch your footing,” Cyrus said. “We don’t want anyone going down in this sea of quartz.”

“Be a real hard landing,” Duke said.

Lyle got distracted by a small, glowing blue gem. He bounded down from Sedona’s shoulder, retrieved his find, and offered it to Sedona with a cheery chortle. The stone looked like all of the others scattered about the floor of the strange forest but she bent down to take it. A little murky energy sparkled through her when her fingers came in contact with the rock.

“It’s amber,” she said, amazed. “Blue amber. It’s beautiful.”

She tucked the gem into a side pocket on her pack. Lyle appeared much gratified with the reception of his gift. He sped on ahead, pausing here and there to examine other small pebbles. Sedona watched him for a moment, wondering what qualified some of the stones as gift-worthy.

When he disappeared from view behind the blue trunks of a stand of trees, she reached out to touch one of the sapphire leaves on a low-hanging branch. The leaf was perfect in every detail but it was solid stone. Experimentally, she tried to snap it off the branch. The stem looked as fragile as the stem of a champagne flute but she discovered that she could not break it.

“Hard as a rock,” she said. She looked around, fascinated. “What happened here?”

“I don’t know,” Cyrus said. “But I’m starting to wonder if this was the Aliens’ first attempt at bioengineering a world they could comfortably inhabit.”

“If so, I’d say that something went horribly awry,” Sedona said. “Nothing we’ve seen is alive. It’s like everything has been turned to stone.” She caught her breath. “Petrified.”

“Yeah, petrified,” Tanaka said. He looked around. “That fits.”

“One thing we’ve learned is that when it comes to Alien science and technology, there’s a hell of a lot we don’t know,” Cyrus warned.

He stopped and turned in a slow arc. When he halted again he was looking toward a jumble of glacial-blue, boulder-sized crystals in front of the entrance of a cave. The interior of the cavern glowed with a strange blue radiance.

“Got him,” he said. “He’s inside that cave.”

Joe lurched forward, skidding recklessly on blue stones.

“Henderson.”

“I’m here, Pa.”

Tanaka, Duke, and Gibbons followed Joe through the tumbled boulders.

A moment later Duke emerged.

“The kid’s okay, sir. Scared half out of his wits and his leg is broken but he’ll live.”

“Rig up a sling and let’s get him out of there,” Cyrus said. “I don’t want to hang around here any longer than necessary.”

He clipped the locator to his belt and went toward the entrance of the cave. Sedona started to follow but a subtle shift in the atmosphere stopped her.

Ominous energy whispered across the nape of her neck. Not gate energy or the familiar currents of a psi river, she thought. An ancient, Old World quote from a play she had watched when she was in boarding school flitted through her mind.
Something wicked this way comes
.

She had worked in the Underworld long enough to pay attention to her intuition. Automatically she looked at Lyle.

He hopped up onto a nearby rock and made the low, rumbling sound that she had learned to interpret as a growl of warning. But he was still fully fluffed and only his blue eyes were open.