Fired Up

much for the first do-no-harm rule.”
    Hulsey was clearly affronted. “I am a research scientist. I come from a long line of talents endowed with a gift for science that can only be described as preternatural.”
    “Oh, right, that makes it okay to poison people.” Her upper arm ached. Whoever had dumped her on the gurney had not been gentle.
    “If it is any consolation,” Hulsey said, “my interest in the formula has been peripheral until recently. I saw it, as my predecessors did, primarily as an adjunct to the main focus of my interests.”
    “Is that right? What are your interests?”
    “Dream psi.” Hulsey rocked a little on his heels and assumed a lecturing air. “Given your own talent, I’m sure you’ll find what I am about to tell you quite fascinating.”
    “I’ll bet.”
    He ignored the derisive tone. “Like a number of my ancestors, including the brilliant Basil Hulsey back in the Victorian era, I have long been consumed with a passion for solving the mysteries of dream energy. You see, Miss Harper, the dream-psi spectrum is still unknown territory. To this day no one can explain the act of dreaming to the satisfaction of any scientist. It is evident that the energy involved in dreaming is almost entirely paranormal in nature. Yet it remains virtually inaccessible in the waking state.”
    “Your goal is to tap into that energy?”
    “Not only to access it but to study it and learn its secrets. The possibilities are endless.” Hulsey sighed. “But one must pay the bills, eh? So, in exchange for providing me with the funding and the facilities that I require to conduct my research I have been obliged to contract with various groups and individuals over the years.”
    “Nightshade.”
    “I am currently involved with Nightshade, yes. But when I was much younger I worked for a clandestine government agency for a while. That was when I managed to re-create Sylvester Jones’s formula with the help of Basil Hulsey’s notebooks. After that department was closed down somewhat abruptly, I was obliged to form an alliance with William Craigmore. Does that name ring any bells?”
    She struggled to concentrate. “The guy who founded Nightshade?”
    “Indeed. I was his director of research. I still hold the position within the organization. Generally speaking, I begrudge the time I am forced to devote to perfecting Sylvester’s drug. Nightshade cares only about enhancing certain talents. Really, it is like working for the government again. Until recently no one in the organization had exhibited any true appreciation for the science involved.”
    “That changed, huh?”
    “A few months ago I was approached by an individual who made me an extraordinary offer, Miss Knight. She had in her possession the journal of one Adelaide Pyne.”
    Fighting the waves of feverish heat, she shoved herself to a sitting position and swung her legs over the edge of the gurney.
    “The woman who worked the Burning Lamp for Griffin Winters back in the Victorian era,” she said.
    “Precisely. After I read the journal I realized that the lamp might be the key I had been searching for all these years, the device that could force open the channels between the dreamstate and the waking state and keep them open permanently in a stable fashion. I was very excited as I’m sure you can imagine. But Miss Knight informed me that there was a problem.”
    “The lamp had disappeared.”
    “Unfortunately, yes. She explained to me that she was trying to find it and that when she did locate it she would make it available to me for my research. In exchange, I agreed to run an experiment on a certain individual for her.”
    The incessant murmurs of pain coming through the wall were growing more anguished. She wanted to cover her ears with her palms to block out the terrible sounds, but she couldn’t seem to muster the strength. She was shivering so hard now it took everything she had just to keep from falling off the gurney.
    “Knight wanted you to run an experiment on that poor man in the other room?” she whispered.
    “Not Subject A,” Hulsey said impatiently. “Jack Winters.”
    She stilled. “You’re the one responsible for kidnapping Jack. But why? What did you do to him?”
    “Verified one of my associate’s theories, of course. There was no point proceeding along that path if the first assumption proved false.”
    “What theory are you talking about?”
    Hulsey frowned. “Why, that the men in the Winters line