Dream Eyes

chamber.”
    “I’m sure you’re exaggerating. Evelyn was very careful.”
    “I doubt if she had any idea what she was dealing with,” Judson said. “This geode has to go into Sam’s vault for safekeeping. Like I said, we’ll make it worth your while financially.”
    Gwen drew herself up and fixed him with a cool glare. “I’ll give your offer some thought.”
    He was pushing her, and it was clear she didn’t like it. Gwen had every right to resent his actions. He was, after all, taking possession of her inheritance.
    “Look, I’m sorry,” he said. “I realize I’m hitting you with a lot of information that is new to you. I give you my word that I’ll explain everything later. Meanwhile this strongbox is coming with us. The energy in this chamber is hot enough as it is. If the psi levels in these mirrors go much higher, this whole place could go up in flames. It’s a wonder that there hasn’t been an explosion already.”
    “Hmm.”
    She did not appear convinced, but at least she was no longer arguing with him. A fresh tide of intuition was riding him hard.
    “There’s something else to consider,” he said. “This geode is worth a fortune to certain people. Hell, it’s priceless. I can guarantee you that there are folks who would kill for it.”
    Gwen stared at him. “Are you saying that it might have been the motive for Evelyn’s murder?”
    “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
    “Maybe that’s why she left the note on the back of the photograph that sent me here. She wanted to make sure I realized that someone was after the geode. But this map has to be important, too.” Gwen looked down at the folded map in her hand. “Otherwise she would never have hidden it here in the mirror engine. She was always very careful to keep this space free of any materials that could potentially interfere with her experiments.”
    “Let’s get out of here,” Judson said. He made it an order.
    Gwen shot him a questioning look, but she did not argue. Without a word, she led the way back through the mirrored canyon.
    They retraced their path through the shadowed lab, moving from one patch of illuminated concrete flooring to the next, leaving darkness in their wake.
    At the front of the building, Gwen opened the heavy metal door and started to step outside.
    Maybe he caught the small flash of light in the trees on the opposite bank of the river because his senses were spiking on high alert. Or maybe it was just dumb luck. Whatever the reason, he reacted before the logical side of his brain could present a laundry list of reasonable explanations.
    He wrapped one hand around Gwen’s upper arm and dragged her out of the doorway.
    There was a solid
thunk
when the rifle round punched into the metal door frame. The sound of the shot echoed endlessly through the woods, audible even above the relentless roar of the falls.

Thirteen
    I ’m guessing we aren’t going to assume that shot was fired by a hunter who just happened to mistake me for a deer,” Gwen said.
    It wasn’t easy to talk because she was flat on her back, pinned to the floor by Judson, who was on top of her. He weighed a ton, and she was pretty sure it was all muscle.
    “No,” he said. He rolled off of her. “We’re going for worst-case scenario here. Someone just tried to kill one or both of us. Get away from the door. He may try a couple of wild shots, hoping to get lucky.”
    Under most circumstances, she didn’t take orders well, but Judson seemed to know what he was doing. And it wasn’t like she was an expert in this sort of thing, she thought.
    She sat up and crawled quickly away from the partially open door, moving deeper into the lab. In the weak illumination cast by a strip of floor lighting, she watched Judson shift position in the shadows. A small shock snapped through her when she realized he had taken a gun from an ankle holster. Until that moment, it had not occurred to her that he might be armed.
    Judson flattened himself on the floor and fired three fast shots. She could see from the angle of his weapon that he was firing into the thundering falls, not straight across the river into the trees. Warning shots.
    The shooter in the woods did not return fire. A moment later the sound of a rapidly accelerating engine reverberated in the distance; the roar faded quickly as the vehicle sped away.
    “He didn’t expect me to be armed,” Judson said.
    Gwen exhaled the breath she did not realize she had been holding. “That