Page 106 of Shattering Dawn
“What are you calling normal?” Benedict said.
“Living in an apartment without bodyguards hovering in the shadows. Having a friend down the hall, someone to share a bottle of wine and a pizza and a streaming movie with.”
“You’re talking about Amelia Rivers, aren’t you?” Celina said.
Adriana nodded. “She saved my life there at the end.”
Celina’s eyes widened. “What do you mean?”
“Cutler concluded I had betrayed him. He had a gun and he was unstable. I’m sure he would have pulled the trigger. But Amelia convinced him that I hadn’t turned on him. Fortunately for me, he believed her.”
“Look at it this way, you never intended for her to get kidnapped and killed,” Benedict said. “In a way you were trying to protect her from Falcon and the others.”
“I hope she realizes that,” Adriana said. “Because I told her the truth when I said that in another life we could have been friends.”
Chapter Fifty-nine
And on another unnamed island in the South Pacific…
“That does it.”Gwendolyn Swan sat back from the computer and scrutinized her online handiwork. “The last traces of our communications with Cutler Steen are gone. There’s no way the Foundation can connect his operation to us. We’re good.”
“I told you it was a mistake to use Steen,” Eloisa said.
“No, you did not.” Gwendolyn got to her feet and stretched. She had spent hours scouring the dark web to make sure every hint of Aurora Islands Pharmaceutical Laboratory had been erased. Fortunately, the extremely expensive vanishing program appeared to have worked as promised. “I distinctly remember you complaining because Steen’s drug trials were progressing too slowly.”
“He was paid to test the latest version of the formula—not to create psychic assassins.” Eloisa grimaced. “At least we got some answers.”
“Face it, all we really learned was that some people can tolerate the new version without a dose of paranormal radiation to activate it.”
“No, we learned much more than that,” Eloisa said. “Wediscovered that the formula can release previously latent or semilatent core talents. That’s a huge step forward.”
“And in the process we managed to do what we most definitely did not want to do,” Gwendolyn said. “We not only attracted the attention of the Foundation, we caught the eye of the Sweetwaters.”
“Don’t worry, we’re safe.” Eloisa surveyed her small laboratory with an air of satisfaction. The room gleamed and sparkled with state-of-the-art equipment. “And we now know that Aurora Winston was on the right track all those years ago when she speculated that the right dose, given to individuals with the right paranormal profile, can greatly increase the sensitivity of the paranormal senses.”
“True.” Gwendolyn opened the door of the lab and walked out onto the veranda. The balmy island atmosphere settled over her. She savored the view of the diamond-bright ocean, the sandy beach, and the lush tropical foliage. “I don’t know about you, but I need a drink. The past few days have been exhausting.”
“Good idea,” Eloisa said. She switched off the lab lights and followed her sister outside.
Gwendolyn stopped when a thought struck her. “It occurs to me that in one sense our experiments are still running.”
Eloisa raised her brows. “What do you mean?”
“It will be interesting to see if the offspring of the test subjects inherit their parents’ paranormal senses.”
“They will get some version,” Eloisa said. “No doubt about it. The formula works at the DNA level.”
Chapter Sixty
“It adds acalming, meditative element to the room, don’t you think?” Amelia asked.
Gideon contemplated the aquarium. “I’m not so sure about that. The hum of the air pump is annoying.”
“We’ll get used to it.”
It was late. The others had left after the pizza delivery dinner. The podcast crew was booked into a nearby hotel. By now they were probably continuing the celebration in the lobby bar. Shelton and Dr. Pike had taken their leave after making arrangements to continue their intense discussion the following day in Shelton’s personal library.
She and Gideon were alone, kicked back on the sofa, stocking-clad feet propped on the coffee table. The long stretch of sleep deprivation was finally catching up with them.