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problem seeing where she was going, though. The tunnels were fashioned of the same green quartz that the aliens had used to construct almost everything they had built above- and belowground. And every object made of the mysterious quartz from the smallest tomb mirror to the towering walls of the Dead Cities gave off an eerie, acid green light after dark and underground. Down in the catacombs, the lights were always on.
    Like so many things related to the long-vanished aliens, the experts could not explain the luminescence. The working theory was that it was a side effect of the odd paranormal energy given off by the stone.
    According to the theory, the energy had been vital to the survival of the aliens. It had become clear to researchers, that, while humans were able to thrive on Harmony, something in the environment had been poisonous to the ancient race that had arrived eons earlier. At some point they had abandoned the attempt to live aboveground. They had gone down below the planet’s surface, constructing an endless maze of green quartz tunnels. They had also bioengineered an entire ecosystem, an underground rain forest, to sustain them.
    But in the end, they had failed and disappeared.
    Gibson bounded down the staircase and vanished into the welling green night. Marlowe wasn’t worried about him. He loved to go underground. Unlike humans, dust bunnies did not need amber to navigate in the catacombs or the rain forest.
    Marlow followed Adam around another twist in the staircase. “Why didn’t you mention earlier that you could handle a vortex?”
    “Because it’s classified information,” Adam said.
    “Classified by whom?”
    “By me, mostly. But also by the Chamber.”
    “You worked for the Chamber?”
    Chamber was short for the unwieldy Chamber of the Joint Council of Dissonance Energy Para-resonator Guilds , the powerful, overarching governing organization of the Ghost Hunter Guilds.
    “I was a Bureau agent for most of my career until I got this cool gig in the Frequency Guild,” Adam said over his shoulder.
    “I know a little about the Bureau. It’s the Chamber’s secret black ops agency.”
    “Sort of like Jones & Jones.”
    “J&J is not a secret black ops agency,” she said coldly. “We just like to keep a low profile.”
    “So does the Bureau.” He stopped on the next to the last step and waited for her. “Careful, the vortex energy starts right about here.”
    “I remember,” she said. “This was as far as I got when I tried to explore these ruins a few months ago. Had to stop and turn back.”
    The first whispers of vortex energy were drifting around her now, setting all her senses on edge. The ominous sensation of creeping panic would only get worse. There was a reason why Guild men and others who worked in the underworld referred to vortex sites as hellholes.
    “You’ll probably see things,” Adam warned. “Just keep reminding yourself that they aren’t real.”
    “But that’s not the worst part, right?”
    “No. The real danger in a vortex is that people panic and start running. The energy storm zaps standard amber and locators immediately. When you do finally stumble out of a hellhole, you’re lost. There is very little chance that anyone will find you, because your amber is shot.”
    “But that won’t happen to us, because you know what you’re doing.”
    “Right.”
    “Let’s get it over with,” she said.
    Adam wrapped his fingers around her wrist. “I’m starting to understand why they made you the head of J&J. Here we go. Remember, when you’re in the eye of a vortex, you won’t be able to trust your vision or your sense of balance. Whatever you do, don’t let go of my hand.”
    “Okay.” Not that she had much of an option, she thought. His fingers were clamped around her wrist like a mag-steel manacle.
    He went down the last step of the alien staircase, drawing her down with him. She followed him into a slice of hell.

Chapter 3

    BETWEEN ONE GLOWING STEP