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For a long moment she just stood there and watched Oliver and Roxy prowl around the machine. She could not shake the heavy sense of incipient panic that had enveloped her, but Oliver was clearly intrigued by their discovery.

She reminded herself that he was the director of a museum that specialized in objects with an Old World paranormal provenance. He was an artifact hunter at heart. It was only natural that he was fascinated with Vortex. It was a relic he and his obscure organization had been chasing for a very long time.

She struggled to center herself. She would deal with her anxiety issues later. When you were in the Underworld, hazards were everywhere. You had to stay focused. She was a para-archaeologist. It was time to look at the scene from the viewpoint of a professional—the same way Oliver was looking at it.

Reluctantly she went forward, braced herself, and put the fingertips of one hand on the metal side of the machine. She rezzed a little talent and found the vibes that told her something about the history of the artifact.

“There’s no question but that this is Old World tech,” she said. “The only reason it hasn’t rusted to pieces in the past two hundred years is because it’s been down here in the tunnel. Nothing rusts in the Underworld. I wonder which of the First Gen colonists smuggled it through the Curtain.”

Oliver grimaced. “For all I know, it was someone associated with the Foundation who couldn’t resist running experiments here in an environment that has much higher levels of paranormal radiation than Earth. At some point, Vance got hold of it. He must have been unstable even before he climbed inside this thing and dosed himself with radiation from Old World crystals.”

“I suppose so,” Leona muttered.

“No question. No one in their right mind would take a chance like that.” Oliver stepped back from the machine and surveyed the glowing chamber. He shook his head in disbelief. “And to do it down here where the para-rad is already intense and unpredictable. Talk about insane.”

Leona tried not to dwell on that observation. She and Molly were not insane. They were not monsters, either. We’re not Vance knockoffs , damn it .

Once again she forced herself to focus. She considered the pulsing pyramid crystal in her hand. “I think this stone is more than just a locator device designed to guide someone to the machine.”

There was a flash of movement in the doorway. Belatedly she realized that Roxy was growling. She whirled around.

“You’ve got that right,” Hester Harp announced from the entrance of the chamber. She had a flamer in one hand, and her eyes glittered with a disturbing energy. “It’s much more than a GPS. According to Vincent Lee Vance, it’s the key to Vortex. The key to the future. You are the bride, and you will unlock the enhancement machine.”