Page 21 of Shattering Dawn

“I finally found my notes about the various individuals on that old list,” Shelton said. “I’ll send them to you but I’m not sure how helpful they will be. I marked a handful as unstable. But I don’t think you need to worry too much about them. That sort might end up as low-level criminals, possibly quite violent. Enhancing their paranormalsenses, however, would also exacerbate the underlying instability. Even if they could tolerate the increased sensory input, they would lack the control required to plan and carry out an elaborate scheme involving kidnapping and illegal experiments.”

“They might make useful enforcers for whoever is running the project.”

“Maybe, at least for a while.” Shelton paused. “If you were going to use that type as muscle you’d want to be damned sure you could control them. They would be likely to turn on you in a heartbeat.”

“Got it.” Gideon zipped the bag shut. “The Frankenstein theory in action. Sooner or later, the creatures you create will destroy you. Anything else of interest in your notes?”

“Yep. The people on that list you really need to worry about are the subjects who tested as latent or semilatent but stable. If the full power of their paranormal senses was unleashed suddenly by a drug or trauma or some other means, they could become very dangerous, very fast.”

“I understand.”

“Here’s the important news, Gideon. Your new client is one of the test subjects I marked as stable and, therefore, potentially dangerous.”

Gideon smiled. “You have no idea.”

“What?”

“Never mind. I’ve got to run. Send me those notes.”

He ended the call, gripped the handle of the duffel, and used his cane to thud-thud-thud his way back down the hall and into the living room. Amelia was waiting. The wedding veil was piled on the seat of an armchair.

He looked at the yards of netting and groaned. “I’ve got anengraved wedding invitation and a bouquet of dead flowers to go with the veil.”

“That sounds…complicated.”

“Like I said, it’s a long story, but it’s not complicated. I’ve got a stalker, too.”

Chapter Eleven

“About the bridalveil,” Amelia said. “And the invitation and the dead bouquet.”

She was sitting in the passenger seat of Gideon’s steel-gray SUV. She had volunteered to drive but it was clear he had been irritated by the offer.

“I am not completely incapacitated,” he had growled.

Men and their egos. But she could take a hint. He was a professional private investigator and he insisted on being treated with some respect. He definitely did not want to be coddled or pitied. To his credit, he had single-handedly foiled an attempt to kidnap or murder her during the night. That was definitely a point in his favor.

And it wasn’t as if she had a lot of options. There weren’t any other convenient PIs on the list, and after the events of the night she had to assume that what her intuition had been screaming at her for days was the truth. Time was running out.

“Right,” he said. “A month ago the parents of a teenager asked me to extract their son from a cult called The Colony.”

Amelia studied the highway taking them into the mountains that separated the urban sprawl on the coast from the vast expanse of desert on the other side. A memory stirred.

“I remember seeing something about the arrest of the leader and a few others involved with a cult based just outside of San Diego,” she said. “I think the leader died in custody. Suicide.”

“His name was Ian Luxford.”

“I admit I didn’t pay much attention. My friends and I have been busy with our investigation.”

“Luxford called himself Merlin.”

“How original.”

“Most of his followers were young people in their late teens and early twenties who were living on the streets. Cult leaders are natural-born con artists and Luxford was no exception. But he had a few additional skills. He was charismatic and he had a genuine talent for hypnosis.”

Amelia turned in the seat, startled. “Are you telling me it was apsychictalent?”

“Unfortunately, yes. Not that the police or anyone outside the cult believed he had any psychic ability. Because, you know, only charlatans, frauds, and deluded people actually take the notion of the paranormal seriously.”