Page 63 of Shattering Dawn
“Sir, this place is coming down around us. There’s a fire. I can smell the smoke. We have to get out of here…”
“What about the subjects?” the man in the surgical mask and gown asks.
“There’s nothing we can do,” the one in charge says. He’s angry. “The experiment is terminated. We have to get out of here. Don’t worry, the fire will take care of the evidence and the subjects.”
The men are leaving now. The one in charge looks back at her. For the first time she sees his face…
“Amelia. Wake up.”
Gideon’s command pulled her out of the dreamscape. A euphoric rush of certainty hit her like a powerful tonic. She opened her eyes.
“It worked,” she said. “I saw him and I know where I’ve seen him before.”
Gideon watched her as if she was some fey creature who had materialized in front of him. “Are you all right?”
“Yep, and the good news for you is that it’s obvious you can control your talent more than you realized. You can use it for somethingother than scaring bad guys. Don’t get me wrong—as far as I’m concerned that’s a fine, respectable, socially acceptable career path, but now you know you’ve got options.”
Gideon sat, unmoving. “What are you talking about?”
“Think about it. With your ability and some practice you might be able to assist the police in interviewing crime scene witnesses. Or maybe help people deal with night terrors and bad dreams. Who knows?” She widened her hands in a sweeping gesture. “There are all sorts of possibilities.”
“Before you waste any more time trying to give me career counseling advice, why don’t you tell me what you saw in your dreamscape?”
“I told you, I saw the man who was in charge that night.” She jumped to her feet and went to her tote. She pulled out the Night Island photos and held up the one that showed the two men on the boat dock. “That’s him. The older one. I’m sure of it. He was involved with the Night Island experiments and he was at the old hotel when my friends and I were kidnapped. He was the one giving the orders.”
Gideon sat forward and took the photo. He studied it for a long moment and then looked up. “You’re sure?”
“Positive. I may not be the best photographer in the world but I’ve got a good photographer’s eye.”
“Okay, you’ve tied him to the case, but it doesn’t help us identify him.”
“I recognized someone else, as well. Falcon was there that night.”
“We’ve got three dead bodies and a couple of attempted kidnappings courtesy of Falcon,” Gideon said, “and the only thing we know about him is that he’s dating your neighbor.”
“Irene can help us identify him.”
“She thinks he’s a cop, remember?”
“Yes, I know,” Amelia said. “But—”
Her phone rang. She whirled around and grabbed the device. When she saw the identity of the caller she put the phone on speaker.
“Irene,” she said. “Thank goodness you got my message. Where are you? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Irene said. “I should be asking you that question. It’s almost three in the morning. I know you’re a night owl, but you don’t usually leave messages for me at this hour.”
“Are you alone?”
“Yes, unfortunately. Falcon is away on a mission. What’s going on?”
“Falcon is the reason I’m calling. Your new boyfriend murdered three people tonight and I’m pretty sure he would have killed me and my assistant, too, if he’d had the opportunity.”
There was a short, shocked silence on the other end. When Irene spoke she sounded very worried.
“Amelia, are you on something? Please don’t tell me you are doing drugs on the first date you’ve had in months.”
“Gideon is my assistant, not my date. We’re in Lucent Springs on an investigation for the podcast but everyone here thinks we’re doing a photo essay of the ruins of an old hotel and—damn it, never mind. The point is, we had a meeting with an informant tonight but it looks like we interrupted a major drug deal gone bad. Falcon was there. He got away.”