In Too Deep

circles is still going strong. We need to find it fast.”
    “Any idea where to look?” Isabella asked.
    “Maybe.”
    “You never say maybe.”
    “A connection to Portland, Oregon, came up not long ago when Jack Winters and Chloe Harper nearly got themselves killed in Seattle. One of the Nightshade people who died, a guy named John Stillwell Nash, was the CEO of a vitamin and health supplements company named Cascadia Dawn.”
    “A company that sells supplements and vitamins would make an excellent cover for an illicit drug lab. Did you check it out?”
    “I’ve had people watching it. A new CEO took over shortly after Nash died. She used another name, but I think she might have been Victoria Knight. Before that I think she was Niki Plumer.”
    “Who was Niki Plumer?”
    “A Nightshade operative. Figured in the case in which Zack and Raine were involved. She wound up in a psychiatric hospital. Supposedly she committed suicide but I’ve had my doubts.”
    “You think she became Victoria Knight.”
    “If I’m right, she’s the para-hypnotist who showed up in Las Vegas in the Burning Lamp case a few weeks ago. My talent tells me she was the new CEO of Cascadia Dawn. But the first thing she did was sell the company and disappear again.”
    “Why sell it?”
    “She probably realized that we were aware of the company. Also, she needs money. I think she sold a very profitable business, pocketed the cash and went somewhere else to fire up another circle. I’ve been waiting for her to pop up again. I believe she may have done just that.”
    “That fits. I told you that Sylvia mentioned that her new business associate was a woman who thought I should be neutralized.”
    “I realize it would have been very hard to poison you,” Fallon said. “You would have detected the bad energy in the vicinity of the stuff. But I am very grateful to Walker. I owe him.”
    “We all do.”
    “We lost Knight’s trail, but we know one thing for certain,” Fallon continued. “Like everything else that has happened in the Nightshade case, the weapons procurement operation was centered here on the West Coast. For whatever reason, the organization, or what’s left of it, appears to be based on this side of the country.”
    “Maybe because this is where Craigmore established it?”
    “That could be it,” Fallon said. “But I’m starting to wonder if perhaps it has something to do with the natural energy grids that run from Washington down through Oregon, California and Arizona. There aren’t many nexus points as strong as the Cove, at least not that have been mapped, but there are a number of vortex sites like those in Sedona. Maybe there’s one in Portland that hasn’t been charted.”
    “You think Dr. Hulsey is trying to use the power of the grid to enhance the formula?”
    “That’s how it feels. If I’m right, it narrows the scope of the search somewhat.”
    “Lot of country between Washington and Arizona.”
    “True. But over the years several of the hot spots have been mapped. And there are talents who are good at sensing nexus and vortex points. We might be able to construct a map of the most likely locations for a Nightshade lab.”
    Isabella sipped some more whiskey and lowered the glass.
    “Something happened today, when I put Tremont into the trance,” she said. “I don’t know how I did it, but I think that, just for a second, I tapped into the nexus energy in this area. I’m strong, but I’ve never felt anything like that before in my life. It was very strange.”
    “It wouldn’t be the first time that a strong talent managed to pull some nexus energy. But it’s a very high-risk pastime. It’s like picking up a live electrical wire. The currents could short out your senses or even kill you. Promise me you won’t make a habit of it.”
    A chill went through her at the memory. “You have my word on it,” she said. “What’s our next step?”
    “If someone was running a research lab out of Cascadia Dawn, there has to be some trace of it left in the building. I’m going to send an agent inside to take a look around.”
    “Who?”
    “The same one who helped clean up things in Seattle a while back. He’s an illusion-talent. The guy’s as cold as ice, but he gets the job done. I’ve learned not to ask for details afterward, though.”
    She glanced at him and smiled. In spite of the exhausting day, he looked energized. Sherlock Holmes with a bunch of new clues and leads to sort