“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 are immune to the side effects of Sylvester’s formula.”
She looked at him, appalled. “You injected Jack with the drug.”
“Four times over the course of a twenty- four-hour period. Very high doses each time. He received more than enough of the drug to ensure a successful experiment. I had intended to keep him here another day or two to monitor the results, but he somehow managed to escape. No harm done, however. Miss Knight and I are both quite satisfied.”
“You son of a bitch,” she whispered. “I thought you said you only used volunteers.”
“Come now, Miss Harper, we both know that it was highly unlikely that Jack Winters would cooperate. It all had to be handled very delicately given his high profile not only within Arcane but also within the business community. I was careful to use a strong, amnesia-inducing sedative so that he would not remember anything of the experience. I assured Miss Knight that if he survived, any memories that might come back would seem no more than fragments of an unpleasant dream.”
She hugged herself against the fever chills. “Bastard. You could have killed Jack or driven him mad with that awful formula.”
“I am happy to report that the experiment was, all in all, a complete success. Winters seems to have done very well after being cut off the drug. Miss Knight is not the only one who is pleased.” Hulsey grimaced. “So is my current employer.”
“What made Knight think that Jack could tolerate the formula?”
“Allow me to explain,” Hulsey said, waxing enthusiastic. “The formula works by tapping into the latent power of dream energy. That’s how it enhances talents. It opens up the channels between the normal and the paranormal, allowing access to the reserves of energy available at the far end of the spectrum. But those channels are extremely narrow and very fragile. Furthermore, once open, only continuous doses of the drug can keep the channels functional. If the individual misses even a couple of doses of the drug an irreversible instability sets in. The result is insanity and death within a very short period of time.”
“But that didn’t happen with Jack.”
“Miss Knight suggests, and I’m inclined to agree, that outcome is likely the result of the genetic mutation created in Nicholas Winters all those years ago when the lamp was first used on him. You see, the Burning Lamp accomplishes, essentially, the same thing that the formula does. It opens up the channels between the dreamstate and the waking state. But when the lamp was first used it evidently affected Nicholas’s DNA. Certain of his descendants, including Griffin Winters and Jack Winters, evidently inherited a genetic ability to access the power of the dreamstate naturally. They don’t need the formula. From her reading of the Pyne journal, Miss Knight was convinced that age was a factor.”