I go out to the living area to find Vasily there, his face ashen. He holds out my coat.
"What is it, Vasily?"
He shakes his head. I take my coat and shoulder bag.
"Just go. O'Neil is outside waiting for you. Now is test, Eve. I hope you pass."
"Tell me!" I say, but he shakes his head and opens the door.
I follow him down and out to the street where Ed waits in the car. I get in and watch Vasily as we drive off. He looks scared and his expression makes me terrified. My first thought is that Soren's killed Michel.
"What is it? Is it Michel?"
Ed shakes his head. "Julien. He's in custody. We caught him with a dead body and he's now a suspect in the case."
"What?" A rush of adrenaline goes through me. "That's crazy! It's Soren, Ed. I already told you. I felt him, I know it's Soren!"
"Nope," Ed says, shaking his head. "Caught him red-handed. An adept dead, head not sawed off yet though so we caught him before he was finished."
We drive in silence, me trying to figure out what Soren's doing.
"Ed, this is some kind of diversion. It's meant to keep us from focusing on Soren. I'm sure Julien didn't do it. I've touched him and I never saw anything like his involvement in the case."
"You weren't trying. You have to really look for kills, to see them. They don't just come to you unless you look."
We arrive at the Foster Building and Ed leads me inside to the elevator.
"We got a tip that a man was down by the waterfront carrying something that looked like a body. We sent an operative who was able to immobilize the suspect, who turned out to be Julien. He killed a priest who was also an adept and was carrying the body to the shore."
"But all the others were decapitated before they were dumped. This isn't the right MO. The killer – Soren – drained and decapitated and then transported them to the dump sites."
Ed leads me down the hall to a small basement observation room with a window that looks into another larger room. In the center is an old boiler emitting a warm red glow from the inferno in its interior. A hooded figure sits on a huge wooden chair while a guard shackles him and another man attaches an I.V. The chair looks like one of those old electric chairs I'd seen in movies – Old Sparky.
"This is another test, right?" I say, doubt filling me. "You want to see how gullible I am."
"No, this is real, Eve."
"What's the man doing to him?"
"That's filled with colloidal silver. If Julien tries anything, we can activate the drip and he'll be immobilized in a matter of moments."
"Will it kill him?"
Ed shakes his head. "Nope, just give him a hell of a hangover."
I can see that it's Julien despite the hood. He's wearing the same Navy Seal t-shirt and cammo pants he wore the first day in the warehouse. Silver chains circle his ankles and silver clamps hold his arms in place on the wide armrests. I watch from the shadows, my palms sweaty, my pulse elevated.
"I need you to read him," Ed says. "Witness his kills. I want you to really explore his memories to see if he was involved in these latest murders. This last one in particular. I want to give him the benefit of the doubt, but he's not being very cooperative. If he were innocent I expect he'd be all too happy to explain what he was doing at the waterfront with a dead body."
"He's been compelled," I say, my stomach already tightening in anticipation. "Just like you've been. Both of you. Don't you see, Ed? Soren did this. He set all this up."
"Just give it a try," Ed says as if he doesn't hear me. "Besides, you're all we have. We're under higher security due to a threat against Adepts and there's no one who can come at the last moment and assist. It's you or nothing."
While they prepare Julien, I sit on a chair and try to regain control over my rapidly beating heart. After a few deep breaths, I'm starting to feel a bit better, although my stomach is still tense.
"Are you ready?" Ed lays a hand on my shoulder as if giving me strength. "I wouldn't ask you to do this under normal circumstances. Besides the fact you know him, we don't normally use Adepts on cases for the first six months while they train, but we have no other options."
"There isn't anyone else you can use?"