The Compendium Read Online Free PDF Page A

move on.”
    “This is me you’re with, remember. To everyone outside, there is no car.”
    “Oh yeah! I keep forgetting about your illusionist side. The mind-reading has a way of drawing my focus, like it did with Rubin, even though he could also influence people. I suppose I should stop comparing you to Rubin.” I looked out the windows all around, unable to shake my concern.
    “In every possible way, thank you.”
    We reached the fork in the road and the signpost from my vision more quickly than expected. Jewel Lake was more like a large pond. The road past the sign got much rougher than the gravel and went on for longer. As the path narrowed and the trees closed in, we bounced and rattled through a claustrophobic amount of foliage. But like my vision, we burst out of the dense forest trail into an alpine meadow full of exotic trees and ferns. Dr. Kingston was nowhere in sight.
    We got out of the car and walked towards the open-air workstation. A portable canvas canopy had been erected overtop to shield occupants from the sun for the few hours it loomed overhead each day. We reached the workstation and found the stack of pizza boxes intact. No notes, files, vials, or specimens were visible. Kingston’s truck was gone.
    Letting my curiosity take over, I asked, “Should we collect some samples for ourselves?”
    “What would be the point? We’re not looking to do our own testing. We don’t have access to a lab anyway.”
    “It seems like a waste. To come here and have nothing to show for it.”
    “Hang on!” Ilya walked towards the rows of teal ferns. “That’s not nothing!”
    He pointed at a pair of shoes attached to horizontal ankles jutting out from the edge of the ferns.

Chapter 4
    “He’s alive!” Ilya said as we closed the gap between us and the body.
    “Doctor Kingston?” I cried out. “George Kingston?”
    He said nothing as we brushed the ferns back to see his whole body. Kingston looked up at us with a pained expression. Blood dribbled from the corners of his mouth.
    “What happened? Who did this to you?” I said.
    “You don’t have to talk. I’m a telepath. Think what you want to tell us,” said Ilya.
    I waited through the excruciating silence, wringing my hands, hoping Kingston communicated something. “I’m so sorry . . . for everything. We will stop Tatiana, I promise. And Casey and whoever else they’re working with, it’s why we’re here.”
    I knelt down and took Kingston’s hand, hoping for a vision of his attack. My focus paid off and the field around me shifted. I saw Kingston look up from pruning a plant. Casey walked towards him with a menacing glare. He flexed his arms snapping them open into four new limbs without breaking stride. Terror seized my heart as Casey closed in, arms ready. I dropped Kingston’s hand to slip back to the present. I took a calming breath as I looked from Kingston’s face to Ilya.
    “Do you have a copy of The Compendium Transmuto ? Or do you know who does?” I said.
    Kingston gingerly reached into his pocket and pulled out a thumb drive.
    “He says it’s not The Compendium , but it’s a snapshot. And he says they took the bees. We have to find the bees.” Ilya still held Kingston’s hand.
    “Is there anything we can do for you?” I met Ilya’s gaze and he shook his head. “We could take him to a hospital in Hope.”
    We sat in silence again for a painfully long moment.
    “He’s gone,” said Ilya.
    I looked down at Kingston’s large limp body before I glanced over at the workstation and past it to the glass and screen bee habitat I’d seen in my vision. The oil slick bees were gone. The image of a chameleon beetle from the Capitol City Motel flashed through my mind. I’d seen at least two species of insects now. Who knew how many more were created? There could be more plant species too. We needed The Compendium to be sure.
    I walked over to the workstation table and punched the stack of pizza boxes. I shouted as the cardboard