Unmasked Read online

  Unmasked

  A Psychic Visions Novel

  Book #14

  Dale Mayer

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  About This Book

  Complimentary Download

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Excerpt from Deep Beneath

  Author’s Note

  Complimentary Download

  About the Author

  Copyright Page

  About This Book

  Childhood dreams can come true—so can nightmares …

  Lacey always dreamed of a trip to Pompeii but never thought it would happen, until her cousin calls out of the blue, asking if Lacey would like to replace their photographer on their archeological dig.

  Sebastian wasn’t expecting Lacey to be, well … Lacey. But he’s intrigued from the start, and then he sees what she can do—even before she does.

  As the images of the past rise in front of Lacey, taxing her artistic ability to document them, strange events start happening. Without reason, the atmosphere on the dig shifts to something supernatural that scares her, intrigues her, then consumes her.

  For Sebastian these events all bring back memories of the worst dig in his life, and he can see history repeating itself. He needs to stop it this time. He must protect his team and his friends, but especially Lacey … before everyone dies—just like they did last time.

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  KILL OR BE KILLED

  Part of an elite SEAL team, Mason takes on the dangerous jobs no one else wants to do – or can do. When he’s on a mission, he’s focused and dedicated. When he’s not, he plays as hard as he fights.

  Until he meets a woman he can’t have but can’t forget. Software developer, Tesla lost her brother in combat and has no intention of getting close to someone else in the military. Determined to save other US soldiers from a similar fate, she’s created a program that could save lives. But other countries know about the program, and they won’t stop until they get it – and get her.

  Time is running out … For her … For him … For them …

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  Chapter 1

  Lacey Paulson stepped outside of the Naples International Airport building, stepping away from the crowds where she could take a moment to realize she truly was in Italy. Not just Italy but Naples, almost at her last stop, Pompeii. She was a long way from Kansas. Lacey tilted her face to the sun and took a deep breath—loving the hot dusty air. Inside, she wanted to shout and cheer and scream for joy. This was her dream trip, the one she never thought she’d take.

  Lacey wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for her cousin Chana phoning to say their photographer had just quit on her archaeological dig. And that Lacey could come join Chana for a couple of weeks this summer and take the other photographer’s place. Lacey had screamed yes. What perfect timing. She was a teacher, and her summer holidays had just started. But she’d have done anything to make her dream trip finally happen.

  Ever since she was a little girl, she’d dreamed of Pompeii—as in seriously dreamed of that place.

  She didn’t understand why, but her fascination was soul deep. The older she got, the more Pompeii had taken over her life.

  This was an opportunity of a lifetime. And her first trip overseas. Her first true vacation in years. And this one was paid for. What luck!

  She’d never had a chance to go into archaeology, even though she was a history buff. Still, her hobby was photography, hence Chana’s suggestion. Lacey slung her duffel bag over her shoulder and walked toward where all the cabs were lined up. Chana had said someone from the dig would pick her up. Lacey stood still, her gaze glancing across the multitude of faces, wondering how she was supposed to find anybody in this crowd. There—a big white placard with her name on it caught her eye. She walked toward what looked to be a twenty-seven, twenty-eight-year-old male, still dusty from being on the dig, but his smile was bright when he saw her.

  “You must be Lacey,” he said, holding out his hand. “I’m Tom Masters, one of the interns working the dig. Chana sent me to collect you.”

  Lacey gave his hand a good shake and smiled back. “I’m glad to see you. I haven’t traveled much, so I was worried how I would find you.”

  He chuckled and motioned at the vehicle behind him. “Not a problem. Come on. Let’s get out of the crowds and head to the apartment.”

  “We can’t go to the dig first?”

  He shook his head as he turned on the engine and carefully pulled the vehicle out into the traffic. Of course many others were leaving the airport too. “No, it’s after five o’clock. There’s no point. Chana should be at the apartment when we get there. Hopefully there will be time before we go out for dinner. Gives you a chance to freshen up or to take a nap to help with jet lag.”

  Lacey nodded, holding back her disappointment. What did she expect? Of course it was too late today. “How’s the weather these days?”

  “For the work we do, it’s not too bad. It’ll get hotter and dustier as the summer deepens. But, at the moment, it’s quite nice out there.”

  “And where exactly are you working?”

  “We enter at the Stabian Gate then continue into one of the back, less traveled corners. We’re not interested in a dig with all the big mansions and temples. We’re doing the work on the common people. It’s a much less popular area of Pompeii for both archaeologists and tourists. But, for us, it’s very satisfactory to uncover the day-to-day routines of the people who supported the city of Pompeii.”

  Lacey sagged back in her seat with a happy sigh. “Sounds fascinating.”

  “It is,” he said, “even for those of us who work here day in and day out. It’s like opening small windows into people’s lives, seeing what they’re doing, and how they did it, even though it was thousands of years ago.”

  “I’ve been dreaming about coming to Pompeii for decades,” she said. “I’m sure that’s the only reason Chana invited me.”

  “She speaks of you very highly and very affectionately,” Tom said with a laugh. He turned the vehicle onto a big roundabout, caught another right-hand exit and kept going. “I think she’s really looking forward to your visit.”

  “Not as much as I am,” Lacey said, staring out the side window, watching so much new and old whip by, enjoying the surrounding areas. “It’s really beautiful here.”

  “Have you ever been to Italy?”

  “No,” she admitted. “I had always planned to visit, but I never seemed to quite have the time or the money.”

  “Right. Both of those things need to happen at the same time for vacations. Unless, of course, you find a way to make the holiday your job.”

  “Which would be absolutely wonderful,” she said, “but hasn’t happened so far.”

  “Are you looking for paid work over here?” he asked in surprise. “I mean, there’s lots of work, but it’s usually internships. And often you have to be an archaeology student to qualify for most of the ancient sites.”

  “Understood,” she said, her gaz
e never leaving the world outside the window. “I haven’t been seriously looking. It was just in the back of my mind.” She pointed out several buildings. “The architecture here is something else.”

  “Very different from North America, that’s for sure.”

  “Where are you from?” she asked, suddenly turning to look at her companion.

  “I’m from Indiana, but I’ve been over here now for most of the past eight months. Long enough for it to be home but not so long that I’ve lost that joyous awareness of how lucky I am to be doing what I love.”

  She appreciated that about him. “That’s a good thing,” she said. “Most people forget very quickly.”

  Tom drove in silence while she gasped, oohed and aahed at the world around her. She twisted as they went past something too fast to take a close look and then bounced in her seat to lean forward and see what was happening on his side.

  Finally he laughed. “I’ll be happy to take you around the city a little bit when you’re ready to do some touristy day trips.”

  “And I’ll take you up on it,” she said, beaming. “I’m sad I’m only here for fourteen days.”

  “Well, if you love it that much,” he said, “I’m sure you’ll find other opportunities.”

  “I hope so,” she said fervently. “I’ve thought of nothing else for years and years.”

  “About coming here?”

  “Coming to Pompeii,” she confessed. “Sometimes I think it’s in my DNA. It started as a little girl, and that dream never disappeared.”

  He slowed in the traffic, took several more corners in quick succession and said, “We’re almost there. We have several apartments we all share. There can be up to fifteen people here at any given time. But there are always a couple coming or going. You’ll be sharing a bedroom with your cousin. I hope that’s okay.”

  “It’s absolutely perfect,” she assured him. “We’ve shared living spaces before.”

  He nodded. “She said you’ve done some weekend trips with her when you both lived in the same town.”

  “Exactly,” she said. “I was in Washington when Mount St. Helen’s blew. But I was young. That was just another reminder I needed to come to Pompeii.”

  “Did you like Mount St. Helens?” he asked curiously.

  She nodded. “I did, but it’s not the same as seeing an entire city reawaken after such a catastrophe.”

  “And such a volcanic catastrophe is one of the reasons why I’m here,” he said slowly. “I try to never forget that what I’m doing on a dig and everything we’re learning about a place and a time was brought about by a major catastrophe with a massive loss of human life.”

  That sobered her up. “I know. It’s a terrible reminder. The only way to make it any easier is to realize it happened so long ago.”

  “But it could easily happen again in another location,” he said. “For all intents and purposes, the original people of Pompeii had no clue they were living on top of a massive volcano. And, when it erupted, I don’t think any of them knew how to protect themselves.”

  “Do we even know now?” she asked him thoughtfully. “I guess we evacuate, but I don’t imagine it would have been very easy to have escaped a city as large as Pompeii back then. It’s not like they had vehicles to clear people out or to move the lava flowing through to the ocean in any contained manner.”

  “True. There were other dangerous elements besides the lava too. The gases, the ash, the lack of oxygen, the panic … it’s amazing anyone survived. Many sites in Pompeii have been excavated, but massive amounts of the city remain undiscovered to this date.”

  “But you’re not working the main tourist spots?”

  “We call it the forgotten corner,” he said with a laugh. “It’s close to the Stabian Gate, but it’s a hell of a long way out of the public paths, overgrown with plants and greenery because nobody started any work thereabouts. We’re not expecting much in the way of wealthy individuals at our dig site. Like I said, we’re more interested in the way of life of the common people.”

  “I like that,” Lacey said. “So often people are only concerned with the royalty of a civilization. But, in order to keep that royalty functioning, thousands of people work for them.”

  “Exactly,” Tom said. Finally he pulled up in front of a small apartment building and shut off the engine. He turned and grinned. “We’re here.”

  Lacey bounced out of the vehicle, reached into the back seat and grabbed her duffel bag. There she stopped and stared. “You can see the ruins from here?”

  He nodded. “It’s only a couple blocks away.”

  She gasped. “Oh …”

  “Tomorrow,” he said firmly. He grabbed her elbow gently and nudged her toward the corner of the block. “The front entrance is around here.”

  Twisting her head so she could still keep an eye on the ruins and the surrounding area, she allowed herself to be led around the corner until the ruins were out of sight. With a sad smile she said, “I guess I’ll be there tomorrow.”

  He just shook his head with a smile on his face, pushed open the door to the main entrance and let her inside. “We’ll take the stairs.” He glanced down at her bag. “Do you want me to carry that?”

  She shook her head. “No. I only travel with what I can carry. If I can’t lug this around the world, then I need to learn to take less.”

  He shrugged as if he didn’t care and led the way upstairs.

  She followed along. By the time she got to the top of the second landing, her arm had registered the extra weight. She sighed, shuffled the bag so it was slung over her other shoulder and carried it on up.

  The air was even different here. She wasn’t used to the heat and humidity. And it sounded silly, but there was no dirt in the air back home, while a fine dust floated around her here.

  She was thankful when Tom opened the door at the top of the landing of the third floor. She followed him into the hallway as he stepped to the door right across from the stairwell.

  There he pulled out keys, unlocked the door and pushed it open. She stepped in behind him, sadly disappointed to see it wasn’t a whole lot different from a basic apartment in the States, except no carpeting was anywhere. Probably due to all the dust in this region. She wanted to experience Pompeii as authentically as possible. And yet, of course, she wanted to live in today’s contemporary world too.

  Running water, electricity and cell phones weren’t something she wanted to do without. At least not for long.

  He motioned toward the bedrooms and said, “Yours is on the left with your cousin.”

  She walked into the bedroom on the left, saw two single beds, one messed up—evidently her cousin had been sleeping there—so Lacey put her duffel bag on the other.

  As she turned around, she walked over to the window and smiled. This window showed her the entranceway to the Pompeii sites. She gave a happy sigh and returned to the living room.

  She could hear voices as she stepped into the living room. She caught a look on Tom’s face. There was worry. He held out his hands, his voice whispering something she couldn’t quite hear. The woman he was talking to, her face also creased with fear, caught sight of Lacey. A serene mask immediately dropped down on the woman’s face, and then, as if realizing who the stranger was in her apartment, her face exploded with joy.

  She raced over to grab a hold of Lacey. “Oh, my goodness, you’re finally here.”

  The two women hugged joyously. They’d always been the best of friends. Very similar in age, with Chana about six months older.

  Finally she stepped back, held Lacey by the shoulders and took a good look at her. “I’m so happy we could finally get you here.”

  Lacey chuckled. “Not half as happy as I am.”

  The two women hugged yet again, and then Chana turned to speak to Tom, but he had left them alone. She glanced at the front door, but it was closed.

  “I’m sorry. Did I interrupt something?” Lacey asked. “I should have just stayed in our room.
”

  Chana chuckled. “No. It’s just there’s been a bit of an upset. We’ve had a couple accidents on the site. Tom left early today, and, of course, something else happened at the end of the day.” She shrugged. “Not a whole lot we can do about it now.” She glanced down at herself. “I need a shower before we go out for a meal in an hour or so, unless you’re really hungry now.”

  “I’m fine for a little while.” She waved at her cousin. “Go. I’m sure you’re hot and dusty after a day on the excavation site.”

  “That I am,” she said. “No matter how much I tell myself that I’ll take it easy, I just can’t. I end up working long physical days, and that’s just part of the job.”

  Chana had said it so simply and without any anger or regret that Lacey realized just how much her cousin enjoyed her work. “I have some emails to send,” Lacey said. “You go have a shower. We’ll talk when you come out.”

  Chana smiled and nodded as she walked into the bedroom. She called back, “Thanks. You’re a doll.”

  Lacey waited until her cousin had whatever she needed from the room and headed into the bathroom; then Lacey went to her carry-on bag and grabbed her laptop. She took it over to the little table in the kitchen and sat down. She’d forgotten to ask her cousin for the internet password. She walked over to the bathroom door and, not hearing the water running yet, called out, “Chana, what’s the password for the internet?”

  “Pompeii,” Chana called out with a laugh. “What else would it be?”

  Smiling, Lacey returned to the table, sat down, typed in the password and crowed with delight when the internet connected. With that up, she opened her email and sent off several messages to friends and family, letting them know she was happily here at Chana’s apartment.

  After that, she went onto Facebook and downloaded a couple photos she’d taken with her cell phone, posting them on her Facebook page with the caption, I’m finally here.

  As soon as she posted it, she got comments from lots of her friends. She answered a few until she looked up to see her cousin walking in, a towel wrapped around her head and the rest of her covered in a light cotton shirt and shorts.