Tamara Broderick was not by any stretch of the imagination a touchy-feely sort of person, but when Avery ran up and embraced her, she returned the hug in the spirit in which it was given. After everything they had gone through in the last few days, it just felt right.
“Hey, save some of that for the rest of us,” Sievers said.
“You just wait your turn,” Tam shot back with a grin.
Avery gave Tam another squeeze for good measure. “How did you guys find me?” she asked.
“Weren’t nothin’,” the Texan replied as he swept Avery into a bear hug. “Not with bloodhound Stone sniffin’ out your trail.”
“Speaking of sniffing,” Tam said, wrinkling her nose. “I hate to be impolite, but Avery honey... you reek.”
“Sorry. I’ll explain... Wait, Stone? You found him?”
“I didn’t realize I was lost,” Stone said, stepping out from behind Sievers.
Avery hugged him, too.
As they made their way back toward the cottages, Tam briefly recounted how Stone had tracked Avery to Paris using the police surveillance camera network. They had almost caught up to her at Lahanier’s laboratory, missing her by only a few minutes. Once they had convinced the radiologist that they were Avery’s friends, he had given them the map of Scotland, but it had taken a little while to figure out where it was leading.
“What about Kasey and Greg?” Avery spoke hesitantly, as if she knew the answer and dreaded hearing it.
“A little worse for wear,” Tam said, trying to sound upbeat. “But they’re both alive.”
Tears were welling up in Avery’s eyes, glistening like diamonds as they reflected the flashlight beams. “Kasey was...”
Tam decided to give her another hug. “Avery. They’re alive. And so are you. You did good.”
Avery nodded, then let go and held Tam at arm’s length. “Thom is the Immortal, isn’t he?”
Tam made no effort to hide her surprise. “That’s right. But how did you figure it out?”
Avery's eyebrows drew together in a frown of consternation. “I’m not sure really. I just sort of...” She shrugged. “What does he want?”
“The Brazen Head,” Stone said. He paused a beat before adding. “You figured out its secret, didn’t you?”
Avery nodded slowly. “I think so. The Brazen Head is just a vessel.”
“A vessel?” Tam asked. “For what?”
Avery pointed back in the direction from which they had just come. “There’s a cave back there. Merlin’s Cave.”
“Merlin as in King Arthur?”
Avery nodded. “According to local folklore, Merlin lived in that cave. I don’t know if it’s true, but the water in the cave has some pretty unusual properties.”
“Ah, of course,” Stone said, sounding unusually sarcastic. “Now it makes sense.”
“Not to me,” Tam admitted. “Does it really tell you the future?”
Avery shook her head. “Not really. More like it opens your mind up to crazy possibilities.”
“The water is probably infused with naturally occurring alkaloid compounds.” Stone said.
“Alkaloids?” Tam glanced over at him. “You mean narcotics?”
“Probably something fungal,” Stone replied. “Psilocybin. Or possibly ergoline. Given the local flora and environmental conditions, it could be either one. That’s just a guess, but a chemical analysis of the water will probably confirm it.”
Sievers asked the question that was on the tip of Tam’s tongue. “You’re saying the water around here will get you high?”
“As the proverbial kite,” Stone said. “Psilocybin is the compound found in magic mushrooms, and ergoline is produced by a fungus that grows in rye crops. It’s a naturally occurring version of lysergic acid. LSD.”
“Actually,” Avery said. “Drinking the water will just make you puke your guts out. You have to inhale it. That’s the other secret of the Brazen Head. You heat it up, and it breathes out the vapors.” She nodded down the long row of empty cabins, just a few steps away. “I’ll show you when we get inside.”
Stone regarded her with a slightly amused expression. “Hallucinogens and psychotropics work by stimulating every part of the brain simultaneously. Basically, processing faster than your nerves can deliver the data, so it fills in the gaps with psychedelic imagery. Most people today use substances like this recreationally, but originally, they had a powerful spiritual component.”
“So it’s basically nitro for the brain?” Sievers said.
“Pretty much. There may also be some cognitive enhancement effects as well. There’s a whole class of substances called ‘nootropics’—smart drugs—that we’re only just beginning to understand.”
“Like in that show, Limitless.”
Stone shrugged, clearly not grasping the reference.
Tam shook her head in confusion. “I don’t understand. If that’s all it is, why was it so important to the Immortal?”
“Maybe he thought it was something more than that,” Sievers suggested. “Real magic.”
Stone’s only answer was a thoughtful nod. No one else spoke as Avery led them to the porch of a dark cabin.
“Anyway it’s over now,” she said as she twisted the door handle. “We stopped him, right?”
“We stopped his attack on Mystic,” Tam replied. “And you kept him from getting his hands on the Brazen Head. If he’s smart, he’ll probably lay low. Shack up with Furst in Switzerland or somewhere.”
“We haven’t seen the last of him,” Stone said, almost absently. “He is smart. Not as smart as he thinks he is, but smart enough to have a contingency plan.”
Before Avery could cross the threshold, a familiar voice issued from the dark interior. “Smarter than you think, Stone.”
Tam reacted immediately, whipping out her Makarov. Sievers drew his pistol as well, but as fast as they were, it was already too late. The air around them was suddenly crisscrossed with blazing shafts of intense light. Even though she couldn’t see past the painfully brilliant illumination, Tam knew that the lights were almost certainly attached to guns that were, just like the lights, pointed right at them.