The Vanishing Stair (Truly Devious #2)(69)

The lights inside the house and the lamp on the porch winked out just as Catalina opened the front door. The sudden fall of darkness and the blinding glare of a powerful flashlight had a brief but disorienting effect on her heightened senses. It took her a beat to realize there was a figure standing on the front porch.

“I’ve been waiting for you, Catalina,” Nyla Trevelyan said.





CHAPTER 32


As far as Catalina could tell, Nyla Trevelyan was not armed with anything other than a flashlight, but she was not alone. Two auras, each with the signature pale wavelengths of true blanks, blazed in the shadows on either side of the door.

One of them aimed his weapon at Slater.

The auras of the two triplets were strikingly similar but there were some small, subtle differences. No two people were ever exactly the same individuals, after all.

“Which one of you is Tony?” Slater asked in a disturbingly casual voice.

“That would be me,” Tony said. “I hear the cleaners got Deke. You’re gonna pay for that.”

“Nothing like a little brotherly solidarity,” Slater said. He glanced at the second man. “So you’re Clone C.”

“What the fuck are you talking about? I’m Jared. Want me to do him now, Nyla?”

“Not yet, you idiot,” Nyla snapped. “And not with a gun. Are you crazy? You’ll wake the entire town.”

“I told you we might need another dose of the drug,” Tony grumbled.

“Even if we had brought it with us, we couldn’t use it here,” Nyla said. “We don’t have time to get rid of the body. We’ll deal with Arganbright later.”

“Where is Olivia?” Catalina asked.

“Don’t worry, you’ll see her soon,” Nyla said. “Let’s go.”

“This is working out nicely,” Slater said. “We won’t have to waste time stumbling around in the woods trying to follow your trail.”

“What trail?” Tony demanded.

“Ignore him,” Nyla said. “Can’t you see he’s just trying to rattle you so that you’ll get careless? Speaking of careless, one of you search him for a gun. Hurry.”

“Hands on top of your head,” Jared said.

Slater raised his hands. “Under my jacket.”

Jared found the pistol and took it. Catalina felt a new chill in the atmosphere and knew that Slater had raised his talent. But he made no move to try to ice Jared.

“Let’s get going,” Tony muttered. “It’s fucking cold out here. Feels like the temperature dropped about twenty degrees.”

“Follow me,” Nyla said. “Keep a close eye on both of them. And try not to lose sight of me, all right? If you do you’ll get lost within about thirty seconds in this fog. I do not have time to look for you.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Jared said. “Let’s get going before it gets any colder.”

Nyla took off, setting a brisk pace. Catalina and Slater followed. The two triplets brought up the rear, guns and flashlights firmly fixed on their captives.

The fog was very heavy now, but it was infused with the ambient glow of some of the foliage in the woods. Here and there fluorescing creepers and vines climbed trees and rocks, providing Fogg Lake’s version of streetlights.

Catalina kept her senses only partially elevated, trying not to waste energy that she might need later. But she could feel the heat, old and new, on the path they were walking.

“You’ve come this way many times, Nyla,” she said quietly.

“For more than fifteen years,” Nyla said. “Ever since I found the infirmary.”

“What infirmary?” Catalina asked.

“You’ll see. I realized at the time that I had discovered a small chamber that originally had been connected to the main facility of the Fogg Lake lab. I have been searching for the rest of the lab ever since.”

“You thought John Morrissey could find it for you,” Slater said.

“Morrissey worked for the Foundation, but he had a nice little drug operation going on the side. He used to purchase specimens from me.”

“Are you trying to tell us you and Morrissey were business colleagues?” Catalina said.

“More like competitors,” Slater said. “Right, Trevelyan?”

“Yes,” Nyla said. “But for a time our interests were aligned.”

“You became allies?” Catalina said.

“Morrissey certainly thought so,” Nyla said. “But it would be more accurate to say that I found him useful. Morrissey wasn’t a botanist. He got into the drug business to finance his private research. He was convinced he had found a way to tune a kind of paranormal compass so that it could be used to navigate the caves. He was sure he could find the main lab facility here in Fogg Lake with it.”

“But unfortunately the person who accompanied him that night fifteen years ago acted too quickly,” Catalina said. “He murdered Morrissey and then he realized there were witnesses.”

“You and Olivia,” Nyla agreed. “I should have gone into the caves myself that night, but I didn’t want to take any chances. I stayed with the boat.”

“You did not want to leave a hot trail behind inside the caves in case someone from the Foundation showed up to investigate,” Slater said. “I knew there had to be a local connection.”