Page 78 of Smuggler's Beauty

“I’m just saying I’ve seen flashes of all the major moments in our little coup. If I had seen Pearl Locke in any of them, I’d have mentioned it earlier. Then again, I hadn’t imagined any of you were crazy enough to actually converse with the Twins.”

Cairn stage whispered, “Converse,” while making an explicit gesture with his hands. Mathias’ eyebrows raised in shocked delight. “Fascinating,” he said.

“Bottom line, they may or may not be on our trail yet. They may or may not have been hired to find Evelyn, but it would be suicidally optimistic to assume they have no interest in her, given they’re in Las Vegas. That, and they’re the exact solution Emil would look to employ. We move forward assuming they’re looking for us,” Aiden said. He wouldn’t let himself fixate on what would happen to the lot of them if the Twins caught up with them. He needed to be able to concentrate.“How does this impact our path forward?”

Veronique set a mug of steaming tea in front of him before carrying the last few mugs to the table and re-taking her seat.

“Tariel and Lillian have cloaked us quite efficiently. As long as we stay off station cameras when we land to refuel, we should be alright,” Elenor said. She blew on her tea. “I have some questions about the training program you have for the boots on the ground, Mathias, but that can wait for a smaller conversation with Nannette and Veselko.”

Mathias nodded at Elenor. Nannette scowled into her tea.

“I have a rough draft of a script for Evelyn to start practicing. We can shoot and edit clips this week, but if we need to acquirewardrobe, it can be put off,” Veronique said. “Tariel is going to help me with the set dressing.”

“My long awaited return to the cinematic arts,” he said.

“Too bad you can’t add scrolling credits to propaganda ads,” Veselko said with a weak smile, but his eyes lacked their normal sparkle.

“I am accustomed to working in anonymity,” Tariel said.

“The Tanalian media servers have good security. The backdoor in the data stick is going to be helpful when it’s time to blast the airwaves,” Lillian said. “If you’re going to need the week to get your clips ready, I’ll take that time to start poking around the servers and do a test run or two.”

“We divide, we conquer, we get out alive,” Aiden said. “No exceptions.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Evelyn had repeatedher experimental energy storage exercise six times and had broken three more glass jars in the process. Her pride stung every time a glass shattered all over her mental space, but at least she learned something with each failure. How to more delicately maneuver the energy around her mental space. How to play with it. How to get it to go where she wanted.

She now had three jars of energy stored in her mental vault. In the storied history of scientific research, three did not seem like a statistically relevant sample size. In the history of Evelyn’s application of psychic visualization, it felt like enough surety to move on to the next experiment.

Peer review wasn’t going to happen on their timetable.

She opened a jar. The seal on the lid gave a gentle pop as she twisted it open. The energy didn’t spill out the way the Amplifying faucet would have. It bobbed up gently, slowly emerging from the jar to hover at eye level, reforming itself to a perfect sphere.

She was used to directing energy from point A to B, waving a flag to tell the universe where the extra oomph was needed,but this energy needed more instruction than just a wave of her hand. No wonder she had been such a mess after draining all her gadgets. She was experiencing what it was like to be on the receiving end of that sort of Amplification boost, but without a way to use it. All those masses of energy, careening about in her system with nowhere to go and nothing to do.

She picked up the egg timer. Even in her mental space, the device was cool to her touch, the display dead. Evelyn looked at the bobbing ball of energy before her.

“Ready to go home?” she whispered. She felt ridiculous speaking to the energy, but it probably didn’t hurt to be polite.

It glowed faintly as she guided it back to the timer, with only the slightest bit of resistance as she coaxed it back inside. The glow faded, until all that was visible to Evelyn’s mind was a faint vibration along the edges of the device.

Yes!

She opened her eyes. Aiden was entering the storage cabinet with a tall, iced glass full of creamy coffee. She pressed the button on the egg timer, setting it for five seconds.

“I think I’m ready to try a plant.”

The timer beeped.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Aiden insistedthat Evelyn eat lunch before she started experimenting with plant matter.

“I knew you’d figure it out,” he said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “Feeling okay? No zoomies?”

She laughed, and some of the tension brewing in his gut eased. He’d been on high alert since Tariel told the crew about Pearl’s comm call. Rationally he knew they were as safe as could be expected, but anxiety wasn’t a rational mistress.

Forewarned is forearmed. We’re both.