The Haunting at Grays Harbor (The River Book 8) (15 page)

They wound through the small forest roads north of the highway
and passed through the tiny town. Steven turned to look at the motel where
they’d stayed many months before, where Roy had bitched endlessly about the
room. He passed the curio shop run by Roger’s wife, happy to see that it was
still in business. Finally they passed the small café where they’d met Bess.
Then the houses and buildings rapidly dried up, replaced by a sea of green
trees that ran nearly to the edge of the road.

Before they reached the turnoff for the Unser Estate, Steven
turned onto a forest road that took them south of the property. Now they were
the only two vehicles on the road. After a couple of miles, Steven turned onto
the small pullout that led to the old prohibition tunnel. They drove up to the
gate, and Roy got out to unlock it, swinging the large metal barrier open until
Steven and Maynard could drive through. Once Maynard’s trailer cleared the
gate, Roy closed it and locked it. He stopped at Maynard’s truck as he walked
back to Steven’s car. He opened the passenger side door to the cab.

“We’re going to be driving through a tunnel up ahead,” Roy
said. “It’s not big, and I doubt you’ll want to bring your truck into it,
especially with the trailer, since there’s no way to turn around once you’re in
there — you’d have to back out. I’ll let our car through, but you park outside
and ride in with us, alright?”

“Alright,” Maynard said matter-of-factly.

Roy closed the cab door and walked back to the Acura. Once he
got inside, they snaked down the narrow dirt trail, crunching over an
occasional fallen branch. When they reached the large metal doors that blocked
the entrance to the tunnel, Roy hopped out of the car once again and opened
them, allowing Steven to drive through. Maynard parked his truck and joined
them, then Roy secured the doors behind them.

They lumbered slowly down the tiny road inside the tunnel.

“Old prohibition tunnel,” Roy explained.

“Uh,” Maynard grunted.

Soon they reached the end of it, and Steven stopped his car.
They all got out of their vehicles and walked to the small set of stairs that
led to the metal door with no handle. Roy pulled out his keys and slid one into
the flush lock on the door, and pulled it open.

“Where are we going?” Maynard asked.

“Above us is the estate of Harold Unser,” Roy said. “He was a
lumber baron in the early part of the last century. He had a wife, Anita, who
was gifted. She passed the gift to their son, James.”

They walked into the room and to the next set of stairs, descending
slowly. Roy continued the story as they walked.

“A group of us were lured out here several months back under
false pretenses,” Roy said. “We were told we’d be sleuthing the house to
discover why it was haunted. Instead, we found ourselves trapped upstairs, our
powers slowly draining from us. A focus we held on our first day here tripped a
device constructed by James. We learned that he hated gifteds, and the man who
tricked us into coming here was trying to revive Unser’s schemes.”

They continued down until they reached the final door, which
Steven unlocked while Roy continued.

“In trying to stop the draining, we discovered this place,
buried far below the estate,” Roy said as Steven opened the door. They stepped
through it and after a few feet they were in view of Eximere. Steven was
grateful it appeared to be normal.

“Good gracious!” was the only thing Maynard said.

Steven led on, and Maynard and Roy followed. “It was in this
house we discovered what Unser was really up to. He was in the process of
killing as many gifteds as he could, and keeping their possessions. The house
is full of their journals and objects, as well as Unser’s projects. We’ve been
trying to return the journals to their rightful heirs.”

Maynard’s mouth was open as they walked through the yard,
along the path from the tunnel doorway. “Where’s the light coming from?” he
asked.

“We don’t know,” Steven replied. “The light goes away at
night. The whole place operates like a house up on the surface. It always
maintains itself. The yard stays perfect. The house is always clean.”

They stepped up to the front of the house, and Maynard saw
the engraving over the entrance. “Eximere,” he repeated. “What does it mean?”

“In Latin it means ‘free,’ or ‘released,’” Steven said. “What
it meant to Unser is unclear.”

Maynard walked up the steps and through the open archway that
was the main entrance to the house. He stopped in the breezeway, observing the
smell of the place, twisting his head in every direction to observe little
details.

“Wow,” he said. “This is really something.”

“Good, then I take it you won’t be reporting us to all your
friends as a waste of time,” Roy said.

“No, I won’t,” Maynard replied, walking through the breezeway
to the back yard. He stopped on the porch before walking down the steps,
staring out into the landscaping.

“A banyan tree,” Maynard said. “Who would believe that? I
haven’t seen one since I went to Hawaii, years ago.”

He walked down to the path that led from the back porch into
the yard, and followed it toward the tree, looking up into the branches.

“There’s a slight wind,” he said. “That’s amazing.”

He turned to look back at the house. “This is astounding.
Unser built it?”

“As far as we know,” Steven said. He pointed to an upstairs
bedroom window, not far from the center of the house. “We found Unser’s body
inside. In that room. We buried him out here.”

Maynard whirled around, looking down. His face turned ashen,
and he walked toward the closest of the mounds.

“Oh, no,” he said, pressing his foot into the surface of the
goop that covered the grave.

“Unser buried the gifteds he killed out here,” Roy said.
“Covered them over in the same crap that Christina was buried in.”

“It’s a suspension substrate,” Maynard said numbly. “It acts
as an encasement.”

“He hated them so much, and their ability,” Roy said. “He
covered them over with this goop to keep their power suppressed.”

“Not suppressed,” Maynard said, looking up at them. Steven
could see that all of the blood had drained from Maynard’s face. “Harnessed.”

“Harnessed?” Roy said. “What do you mean?”

“I mean he used them for their power,” Maynard said. “Just
like Marie buried Christina, to use her power.”

“But that was for a vortex,” Steven said. “This isn’t…
Eximere isn’t…”

“Yes, it is,” Maynard said. “This is a vortex. This place —
it’s the most complex, sophisticated vortex I’ve ever seen. And these bodies,”
Maynard said, pointing down at the graves, “are what keep it going.”

Steven stumbled back and tripped, landing on his back. Roy
rushed over to help him regain his feet.

“Jason,” Steven whispered. “Jason’s buried here.”

Maynard began walking around the graves. “There’s so many,”
he said. “All buried alive. More than I’ve ever seen.”

“Unser was focused on gifteds,” Roy said. “We thought he
wanted to destroy them, that he hated their ability.”

“He may have hated their ability,” Maynard said, “but he knew
what it was worth. He had to have known what he was doing.”

Steven glanced over at Jason’s grave.
He’s not buried in
the goop
, he thought.
And he was dead when I buried him. Maybe he’s
unaffected by all this. Maybe he’s just a normal corpse in a normal grave.
The idea of Jason being used by Unser made him feel ill.
He was gifted,
he thought.
Unser would have liked to use his power, no doubt. But he was
dead when I buried him, and there’s no harnessing substrate on him. He has to be
unaffected.

“Marie’s vortex has been impacting this place,” Roy told
Maynard. “It’s one of the reasons we got involved. As the rod of her vortex
moved, things changed here. Got weird. Sections of the yard blanked out. Lights
went on the fritz. We saw strange things.”

“This vortex is many levels beyond anything I’ve ever
encountered,” Maynard said, still walking among the graves. “Far more complex
than Marie’s.”

“Marie’s isn’t the only one,” Steven said quietly.

“What?” Maynard asked.

“The same people who own this land own Marie’s land,” Steven
said. “And they own two more properties nearby.”

Maynard stood frozen for a moment, looking down at the graves.
Then he looked up at both of them. “We need a map.”

“There’s an atlas in the library, inside,” Roy said.

“Lead me to it,” Maynard said.

They walked back through the yard and up the steps. Roy led
Maynard and Steven into the library, and to a large book he pulled from a lower
shelf. He placed it on a table and let Maynard have access to it.

Maynard flipped to the index and searched for Washington state.
Once he’d located the page, he turned to Steven. “Where are we, about now?”

Steven pointed to a spot just north of Montessa.

“And Marie’s house? Where is that? I see Aberdeen here, to
the west.”

“It’s close to that,” Steven said, sliding his finger across
Grays Harbor to the neighborhood of Barbara’s house. “Here,” Steven said,
holding his finger in place.

“Keep your finger on it, will you?” Maynard asked. “Now where
are the other two properties?”

“Matlock,” Steven said. It’s a tiny town west of Shelton,
about there,” he said, pointing with his free hand. Once he saw the spot,
Maynard used his finger as a placeholder.

“And the third one?” Maynard asked.

“Oakville,” Steven said, pointing to the east. “It’s south of
Porter.” Maynard placed his other finger where Steven indicated, and they
examined the results.

“Three spots, all approximately equidistant from where we’re
standing right now,” Maynard said.

“So?” Roy asked, leaning over the map, looking at the places
they marked.

“That’s how you place rods when you’re making a vortex,”
Maynard said. “He’s using vortexes the way a vorghost would use a rod.”

“Wait a minute,” Roy said. “You think the other two locations
contain a vortex like Marie’s?”

“Yes, three of them, surrounding a giant, complex center. One
of the most unusual ones I’ve ever seen. I’ve heard this theorized and
speculated about, but it’s never existed before, that I know of. I think Unser pulled
it off. If the other two locations contain a vortex like Marie’s, then he’s
using those vortices the same way a regular vortex uses rods. He’s created a
kind of super-vortex that’s almost fifty miles in diameter.”

“With Eximere at the center of it,” Steven said.

“Yes,” Maynard said, looking up from the map. “Someone like
Christina would have been enough to keep a small vortex like Marie’s going. He
may have made similar arrangements at the other two locations. But this place —
this is unbelievable, the size of it, the complexity of what he’s created.
That’s why all the bodies out there in the back yard. It must take a tremendous
amount of energy to keep it all going.”

The lights began to flicker and then went out, leaving them
in total darkness.

“Hold on,” Steven said. “There’s flashlights in the
breezeway.” He stumbled out of the room, feeling his way as he went.

“This is what I meant,” Roy told Maynard. “Lights going out.
Didn’t happen before the trouble with that vortex in Grays Harbor.”

“It makes sense, they’re all connected,” Maynard said. “All
four vortices act in harmony to create one, very large vortex. If one of the
satellites surrounding the center were to go out, it would impact the energy
here.”

Steven bumped into the hallway table and reached down,
searching for a flashlight or lantern. He found one and switched it on, casting
a beam of light through the darkness. He walked back into the library, and just
as he entered, the light overhead returned.

“It’s unpredictable,” Steven said, switching the flashlight
back off.

“So this is something you’ve never seen before?” Roy asked.
“All just theory amongst vorghost specialists?”

“I have friends who think this type of thing has been created
before, historically,” Maynard replied. “But no one I know of has any knowledge
of one currently.”

“Maybe they do, but they’re sworn to secrecy,” Roy said. “As
you are, now.”

“Right, right,” Maynard said.

“We brought you here because we’re not sure what to do next,”
Steven said. “We were concerned that if you took down Marie’s vortex, it might
impact things here.”

“Oh, it probably would have brought down the whole
enterprise,” Maynard said. “Just like Marie’s one rod going wrong was bringing
down her vortex. You’ve got to have at least three rods to keep a vortex going.
I’m going to guess it’d be the same with a super vortex like this — take out
one of the three vortices, it’d come apart.”

Maynard paused and thought. “So, that said, I’m guessing
you’d prefer we fix Marie’s vortex rather than destroy it.”