djinn wars 02 - taken (34 page)

“I figured out some of the basic mechanics,” Lindsay Adarian said, turning the box over in her hands. She was about a year older than I, and had been getting her master’s in engineering when the Heat cut her education off at the knees, just as it had mine. Zahrias had put her in charge of this little task force, an appointment her consort, an earth elemental named Rafi, hadn’t seemed too thrilled about. However, around here it seemed that Zahrias’ word was law, and so Lindsay was spearheading the effort to delve into the device’s mysteries. “But
how
it does what it does?” She lifted her shoulders, and her dark blonde hair slipped down her back. Like every other Chosen I’d met, she was gorgeous, her warm skin echoing the shade of her hair, and her eyes a startling green. “I don’t have any idea. This is an order of magnitude beyond anything I was studying. This Miles Odekirk must be a genius.”

“That’s one word for it,” I muttered, and Jace sent me a warning glance before saying,

“Jessica told me that this Los Alamos place was a center for research, some of it quite advanced. So it makes sense that Dr. Odekirk would be able to invent something quite outside the scope of your studies.”

Amazing that Jace could still be so formal, so correct when referring to Miles Odekirk, the man who’d concocted a series of increasingly painful “tests” to be used on his captives and who had overseen the death of a fellow djinn. Although maybe that wasn’t exactly the truth. I’d gotten the impression that Margolis had engineered that particular piece of torture, and Miles Odekirk had gone along with it so he could observe the effects of the waterboarding. Then again, he hadn’t seemed too broken up over Natila’s death, more intrigued that he would have a dead djinn to study.

I shivered, then sent a surreptitious glance under my lashes toward Evony, who was sitting on a stool in the corner of the auto repair shop we’d more or less turned into the local equivalent of a lab. Lindsay and a few others, including Aidan, who’d admitted that he taken “a few” physics classes in college, looted the high school for whatever useful equipment they could find, and so the workbenches were now covered with microscopes and oscilloscopes and soldering irons and a few other pieces of equipment I didn’t recognize.

Although Evony knew less about physics and electrical and mechanical engineering than I did, she’d been granted a seat at the table, so to speak, just because it had been her idea to steal the device in the first place. She still wasn’t speaking to me. That is, if there was absolutely no way around it, she’d reply to a question with a nod or a monosyllabic answer, but she clearly had no interest in having a real conversation, obviously still thought Natila’s death was my fault because I’d gone and gotten myself caught by Margolis and his goons.

And you know, I really couldn’t blame her much. Jace kept insisting that Margolis would have gotten to that particular torture sooner or later anyway, but it was the “later” part of his protests that bothered me. Yes, maybe Margolis would have gone ahead with the waterboarding, but if he’d done it a week later, or even more, it was possible that in the meantime I would have come up with a more coherent plan than “I’ve got to save Jace now!”

Or maybe Margolis would have managed to kill both Natila and Jace while I waited to come up with the perfect escape scenario. I’d never know, and that was was probably the worst of it all.

Lindsay was frowning, turning the box over and over in her hands. Standing a few feet away, Aidan looked on with interest but didn’t seem to have anything useful to offer. Then again, why would he? This was a thrown-together group of people who might have a smattering of technical knowledge. Really, the idea that any of them could crack something put together by a mad genius with a couple of Ph.D.s and years of research experience under his belt was pretty laughable.

But they were all we had.

“The surface is like one big touch pad,” Lindsay said. “It’s off now, so my handling it can’t affect you, Jace.”

“Thank you for that,” he replied. One corner of his mouth twitched, and I could tell he was trying not to smile.

She seemed to note his amusement. One eyebrow — several shades darker than her hair — went up, and she added, “Evony figured that out for us, and she showed me how it works. The switch is a small recessed button on the underside, here.” Flipping the box over, she held it up so we could all get a better look. There was a dimple, for lack of a better word, in one corner of the box, and in that dimple was a button, black against black. It would be hard to find if you didn’t know where to look, which I guessed had been Odekirk’s intention all along.

At least now, even if we didn’t know how the device functioned, we could turn it off if necessary. And that meant we knew how to turn off the boxes that were still back in Los Alamos. Julia had said she thought there were three altogether, so now the survivors were left with two. Maybe Miles had had time to make another, maybe not.

“Luckily, I’ve had a couple of volunteers to help me with testing the area of effect. I wasn’t going to ask you to do it, Jace, not after you had to live with one of these things practically in your lap for almost a month, but Dani offered to be a guinea pig, and so did Reyna and Tivon.”

“That was generous of them,” Jace said.

Lindsay shrugged. “I think they were more curious than anything else. Stories have been circulating, and they wanted to experience it for themselves. I think they believed it couldn’t really have the effect you’d described.”

“I assume they changed their minds after a little demonstration,” I remarked, and Jasreel nodded.

“Oh, yeah,” Lindsay said, obviously trying hard not to smile. “They were…well, ‘shaken’ isn’t exactly a word I’d generally use to describe a djinn, but I think that sums it up pretty well. Anyway, I was able to determine that the more concentrated the field, the smaller it is…but you already knew that, right?”

Jace gave a single somber nod. “Yes, that’s in line with what I experienced.”

“At its greatest attenuation — a level where all the djinns’ powers seemed to be blocked, but they experienced far reduced physical discomfort — it looks as if the field has a diameter of around a mile.” She set the box down on the worktable and finally allowed herself a grin. “Good thing we’d decided to do our testing away from here, out on the road to the pueblo, or I think I would’ve had a bunch of pissed-off djinn on my hands.”

“That’s for damn sure,” Evony put in, her mouth twisting. “They probably would’ve all gone crying to Zahrias.”

That remark earned her a very sharp look from Jace, but he didn’t say anything. Since he was the only djinn currently in attendance, that left the rest of us mere mortals to not-quite look one another in the eye. It was clear enough that no one appreciated Evony’s comment. At the same time, we were all probably telling ourselves that she was speaking from a place of grief, and so it was best to let it go without comment.

After an awkward pause, Lindsay continued, “So I’m guessing that two of these devices aren’t quite enough to protect all of Los Alamos. Jessica, Evony, do you know if the survivors were living all over town, or if they were concentrated more toward the town center?”

Evony only lifted her shoulders. Clearly, she didn’t intend to contribute anything helpful.

“I’m not entirely sure,” I said. “It did seem as if some neighborhoods were more populated than others. But it was more than two miles from the house they gave Evony and me to live in to the labs, so I don’t see how they could have complete coverage for all that area with only two of the boxes. Then again, Julia Innes told me that Miles was getting faster at making them, so he could have replaced it already.”

A few days ago, the last thing I would have wished for was to have any more of those goddamn devices in the world. But knowing we’d left innocent people vulnerable…I didn’t like the idea of that at all. True, whatever else his faults, Margolis was pretty damn good at getting things done, and it was entirely possible that he’d made sure anyone outside the area of effect had relocated to a safer spot closer to the center of town. The problem was, I could tell myself that, but I didn’t know for sure.

“If he keeps making more of them, do you think they’ll ever get to a point where they’ll come attack us here in Taos?” Aidan asked. He was fiddling with the drawstring on his hoodie and looking a little green around the gills. I couldn’t blame him. The prospect of the Los Alamos survivors showing up with their own post-Dying equivalent of pitchforks and torches wasn’t exactly appealing.

There was another of those uncomfortable silences, and then Jace said, “I’m sure it’s what Margolis would like, but he is not so foolhardy as to attempt such a thing until they have a good number of these devices. Even if he’s getting faster at making them, they’re not the sort of thing that can be produced like a batch of cookies. I can’t imagine he would try coming here until he had at least ten, because of course he’d have to leave several behind in Los Alamos to protect the people there.”

Everyone looked relieved at that calm assessment of the situation. Of course Jace was right. Miles might be getting to the point where he could put together a box in less than a week. Even so, that would still require months for him to get up to fighting strength. I hadn’t been part of the inner sanctum in Los Alamos, but I’d gotten the impression that the scientist preferred to work alone. He probably wouldn’t trust the construction of the devices to anyone but himself.

“Well, good,” Lindsay said in her calm, firm way. She didn’t seem like the type to be easily rattled, and I wondered then how her djinn had come to her in the aftermath of the Dying. He must have announced who and what he was early on, but I would’ve loved to see someone with an analytical, rational mind like hers attempting to wrap itself around the idea that djinn even existed, let alone that one of that mythical race had selected her to be one of the few who survived the end of the world.

Maybe someday I’d get a chance to ask her. In the meantime, we had a lot more important things to do. Because although it would take time, I couldn’t imagine Margolis letting the whole thing go and allowing an uneasy detente to settle in between the colonies in Los Alamos and in Taos. No, he thought that because of the devices, he would have the upper hand eventually, and he would bring the battle to us.

All we had to do was figure out a way to stop him.

Chapter Eighteen

After the meeting in the auto repair shop-cum-lab, Aidan drove Jace and me back to the resort. The Suburban wasn’t much use with its windows blown out, and we hadn’t yet laid claim to a new vehicle. I found I didn’t much care; even though I told myself it didn’t matter, I still mourned the loss of the Cherokee, the sturdy vehicle that, almost as much as Jace, had helped me escape Albuquerque more or less unscathed.

Lauren was waiting for us, saying that Zahrias wished to speak with Jace and get a status update, since Lindsay had stayed behind at the lab to tinker with the box some more. I had a feeling her djinn consort was going to get pretty cranky at her extended absences if this went on for any amount of time, but that was between them, and I knew I’d stay well out of it.

Another part of me was irritated that Zahrias hadn’t asked me to accompany Jace. I tried to put the annoyance away, telling myself that it was perfectly logical for the two of them to be talking. Even if they weren’t precisely friends, they’d still known each other for a long, long time. How long, I wasn’t sure I wanted to guess, but it made sense that Zahrias would feel more comfortable having an in-depth conversation alone with Jace.

It was late enough in the afternoon that I thought I could take Dutchie out for a walk to kill the time. With any luck, Jace would be back in our suite by the time I was done.

However, luck didn’t seem to be with me right then. I hadn’t even gotten halfway to the room before I found the corridor blocked by Aldair, who didn’t seem inclined to step out of the way. Instead, he stood there, arms crossed, staring at me. This time, rather than the “civilian” clothes I’d seen him wear the last time we met, he had on the typical djinn garb of flowing, open robes and loose pants, these ones in shades of dark gray and deep blue. The amount of muscled chest those robes revealed probably would have impressed me a few months ago, but these days I only had eyes for Jace.

Had Aldair been lurking around, waiting for a moment when I was alone to intercept me? Jace and I had been more or less joined at the hip ever since we arrived in Taos, so I could see why Aldair would have been stymied up until this point. That realization didn’t make me feel any better about being here alone with him. Just the opposite, actually.

“Afternoon,” I said in my most casual tones, hoping that would be enough to make him move aside so I could pass.