Guild Boss (Ghost Hunters #14)(37)

“Hang on, Otis,” Gabriel said. “You won’t be able to stop the damn thing.”

Otis paused, but he didn’t look patient. The room was getting colder. Lucy was statue-still.

Gabriel slipped his pack off, opened it, and took out the gadget the museum curator had given him. He rezzed it and aimed it at the clockwork doll.

The device generated a beam of white light. The doll stopped moving. The energy in the crystal eyes faded.

Lucy recovered with a gasp, as if she had been underwater a moment too long. Otis dashed back to her. She scooped him up and held him close.

“Are you all right?” Gabriel said.

“Yes, I think so.” Lucy took a couple of deep breaths. “It felt as if I was being sucked down into the coldest part of the ocean. What did you do to stop that thing?”

He held up the small, hand-sized device. “Dr. Peabody, the curator of the museum, gave it to me on the off chance the doll might have been activated. It’s designed to jam the thing’s frequencies.”

“Hmm.” Lucy glanced at the body. “Think Croston activated the doll, maybe accidentally, and it killed him?”

“That’s what it looks like.”

“Well, the good news is that it’s mission accomplished for us. We found the thief and recovered the doll.”

Gabriel walked closer to the doll and crouched beside it to get a close look at the lethal toy. “Your work is done, but I’m a long way from finished.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because I doubt Croston would have taken the risk of stealing this particular artifact unless he had a buyer lined up.”

“Oh, right,” Lucy said. “I guess a Guild boss’s work is never done.”

He looked at her, unsure of her meaning.

She gave him a dazzling smile. “Let me know if you need a weather channeler for the next part of the investigation.”

He relaxed. “I’ll do that. Always a pleasure to work with a true professional.”

She turned abruptly serious. “I owe you for giving me a chance, Gabriel. Because of you, I’ve got a real shot at rebuilding my reputation. I appreciate it.”

“You don’t owe me a damn thing. I wanted the best channeler in the business. That’s who I got. Give me a couple of minutes to take some photos of the scene, and then we’ll head back to the surface with the doll.”

“What about the body?”

“I’m not going to haul a dead man through the streets of the Ghost City and try to get him through the portal. Croston’s not going anywhere. Coppersmith will send in a team to collect him.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

High-tech phones and cameras didn’t work in the paranormal environment underground, but photography was fundamentally a simple technology. Old-fashioned, amber-based cameras worked fine belowground. Every Guild agent carried one. Gabriel took out his and snapped several shots of Croston and the chamber.

When he was finished he hoisted the doll under one arm. The thing was surprisingly heavy, because it had been built with old-fashioned materials from Earth in an era before plastics and synthetics had been developed. He gripped the flamer in his free hand.

“You can do the navigating,” he said to Lucy.

“Sure. Let me check the weather first.”

She went to the door. He was aware of energy shifting in the atmosphere as she heightened her talent. The sensation stirred his senses. Everything inside him tightened a little.

He made himself focus on the job at hand. Priorities.

Lucy stepped through the shimmering silver door. Otis bounded after her. A few seconds later they both reappeared. Otis chortled.

“All clear,” Lucy reported.

Gabriel tightened his grip on the big doll and followed Lucy and Otis through the shimmering doorway.

A thin quicksilver fog drifted in the empty lane. There was no way to know if it was day or night. In the Ghost City, it was always twilight.

“Now I see why that doll would have been worth stealing,” Lucy said. “It’s not just a valuable artifact; it’s a serious weapon that functions in the Underworld. There are people who would kill to get their hands on that technology. But a large doll isn’t what you’d call a convenient weapon.”

“Whoever paid Croston to steal the queen must have been convinced the technology could be reverse engineered. Theoretically, once you understand the basic operating principles, you should be able to design a much more convenient version of the weapon.”

“Maybe. But paranormal physics is complicated. It’s possible that only someone with the same talent as the original engineer—”

“Mrs. Bridewell,” Gabriel said.

“Right. There’s a good chance that only someone with her talent could re-create the power source in that thing,” Lucy said.

“That’s Peabody’s theory.”

Otis fluttered ahead down the lane, pausing here and there to examine a small piece of quartz. As far as Gabriel could tell, nothing he had found so far met his high standards.

The dust bunny darted through a shimmering door and disappeared.

“Don’t worry about him,” Lucy said. “He’ll catch up with us.”

She glanced down at the locator. “Turn left.”

They rounded the corner into another foggy lane. And stopped.