Free Canyons Of Night by Jayne Castle

thick woods. The branches of the trees that crowded close to the edges of the pavement blocked out what light came from the stars and crescent moon.
    Charlotte glanced at Rex who rode on Slade’s shoulder. “You two are lucky. You can both see in the dark. Must come in handy.”
    “Night vision has its uses.” He wondered how much longer he would have the paranormal eyesight that allowed him to see in total darkness. He wouldn’t need it to know if Charlotte were nearby, though, he thought. No matter how psi-blind he became, something in him would always respond to her presence.
    “When did Rex attach himself to you?” Charlotte asked.
    “Shortly after I got out of—” He stopped abruptly. “After I finished my last job for the Office. I was living in an apartment in Crystal City. Heard a sound out on the balcony one night. I opened the slider and there was Rex. He just sat there for a while staring at me. He looked like he was waiting for something.”
    “Food?”
    “That’s what I figured. I gave him some leftover chicken. He ate it and then he left. The next morning he was back on the balcony with a nice little rock.”
    “A rock?”
    “A very green rock, psi green. I knew it had come from the underground rain forest.”
    There was no mistaking the unique, acid-green glow that was the hallmark of so much of what the long-vanished aliens had constructed. Aboveground the ancient ruins of their dead cities glowed with green energy after dark. Down below, the endless labyrinth of catacombs they had built were lit with the strange green light day and night. The vast reaches of the bioengineered jungle buried deep in the Underworld were illuminated with an artificial green sun.
    No one knew what had happened to the aliens who had first colonized Harmony. But human anthropologists and researchers had concluded that something in the environment of the planet had proved poisonous to them. The psi infused into the walls and buildings of their elegant, graceful cities and into the engineering marvel that was the Underworld had clearly been intended to be the antidote.
    But in the end the forces of nature on Harmony had evidently proved too much for the aliens. No one knew if they had simply died out as a species or if they had called it quits and abandoned the planet. Whatever the case, they had vanished thousands of years before the human colonists from Earth had arrived on Harmony. The experts could not establish a firm date for the era of the alien colonists because the green quartz that they had used to construct virtually everything they had built or manufactured was indestructible. It showed no signs of weathering or erosion.
    “So Rex brought you a rock from the rain forest to cement your relationship,” Charlotte said, amused. “What a clever, charming gift.”
    “He’s been hanging around ever since,” Slade said. “Sometimes he takes off on his own for a while, usually at night. He started doing that here on Rainshadow on the night we arrived. I’ve gone with him a couple of times.”
    She laughed. “Isn’t trespassing still illegal?”
    “As illegal as it was fifteen years ago when you and I went in. But things have changed.”
    “Like what?”
    “For one thing, I’m the chief of police now. I can go anywhere I want on the island without having to worry about getting arrested for trespassing.”
    “Oh, right. I forgot. You carry a badge. Must come in handy.”
    “It does.” He paused, wondering how much to tell her. “But that’s not the only thing that has changed here.”
    She must have picked up on the seriousness he had injected into the words because she turned her head quite sharply to look at him.
    “What do you mean?” she asked.
    “According to Chief Halstead’s notes, the fence was strengthened about five years ago after two people managed to sneak into the Preserve and died on the grounds. The Foundation’s search-and-rescue team brought the bodies out. Then they sent an