djinn wars 04 - broken (5 page)

“I agree. Then we will see you in a few hours.”

He ended the transmission then, and Julia sat in her chair, staring at the now-silent speakers of the ham radio setup. Well, she’d really put her foot in it this time, hadn’t she? All these months she’d been more or less maintaining her cool, and now she’d made it so she’d have to go and see Zahrias in person. A lot of fun that was going to be, pretending that she only saw him as a fellow leader in this post-apocalyptic world. A colleague, so to speak.

Yeah, right.

She kept herself from sighing, then reached over for the phone so she could start making the necessary calls.

Julia Innes, coming to Santa Fe. Zahrias understood her desire to speak to the guards in person, for it was only when one looked a man in the face that one could see the truth of his words. The radio was a necessity, since there was no other way to communicate with the people in Los Alamos, but he disliked the device. It was too easy to hide what one was thinking when only spoken words were involved.

But perhaps it was just as well that he could not communicate with Julia easily or more often. For soon he would have to look at her, speak with her with only a few feet separating them, and that could prove to be difficult. He already had a hard enough time keeping her from his thoughts when the safety of miles separated them. What would he do when they were both in the same room?

Control yourself,
he told himself harshly.
Far more is involved here than your desire for one mortal woman.

That much was only the bitter truth. Everyone who had access to Margolis’ cell swore that they’d had nothing to do with his escape, and Zahrias had no reason not to believe them, for the truth had all but shone from their faces and rung in their words. Something else was at work here, something he had yet to uncover. It was human technology which had barred the door of that cell, and human technology could be just as frail as those who had invented it, yet….

Normally at a time like this, he would have had Lauren take care of making sure that accommodations were prepared for their expected visitors, but Dani had sent word that she had retired to her bed. No signs of labor yet, but she tired easily, and Miguel, the Chosen man who had taken on the duties of healer in their small community — not that they had much use for one, most days — had advised that she not get up again until after the baby was born.

So Zahrias went to Lilias, who he knew had more of an accommodating nature than many of his fellow djinn, and asked if she and her Chosen, Aidan, would assist him.

“If it is not too much of an imposition,” Zahrias said politely as Lilias and Aidan met with him in the living room of their spacious home a few blocks from the plaza. “I thought a group of rooms at La Fonda — ”

“Of course,” Lilias said at once. “It will only take a few snaps of my fingers, after all, and I suppose you have enough to worry about, with that mortal somehow managing to escape.”

There was the faintest trace of accusation in her words, and Zahrias raised an eyebrow.

Aidan looked annoyed on their leader’s behalf. “Lilias, I talked to David, and he said nothing had been tampered with. It’s like the
Enterprise
just beamed Margolis right out of there.”

Zahrias had no idea what this
Enterprise
was that Aidan had spoken of, and, judging by the way Lilias’ fine black brows drew together, she was equally mystified. But she appeared to brush the puzzle aside, saying, “It is no trouble, Zahrias. They will be here in a few hours? Be assured that everything will be ready far in advance of that time.”

There was little he could do then but press his hands together and bow, then murmur a few words of thanks. After that he left, walking in the direction of the U.S. Marshals’ building. He could have made himself appear there in the blink of an eye, but the afternoon air was fresh and fine and clean, and he hoped the walk would help to clear his head.

He would need a clear head when he met with Julia, just a few hours from now.

Chapter Three

After she began putting together a list of the people she wanted to go with her to Santa Fe, Julia realized that the one person she really shouldn’t leave out of the party was Miles Odekirk. He’d been the one to set up the security on Margolis’ cell, and so he was probably the best person to look over the scene of the crime and see if he could find any clues as to how the former leader of Los Alamos had managed to escape.

So she radioed out to the labs and murmured a silent prayer under her breath that either he or Lindsay would pick up. Half the time they didn’t; too involved in their work, Julia supposed. But today Lindsay was on the line soon enough.

“What’s up?”

So she hadn’t heard. The word had gone out, but to the people who patrolled the lab complex, not the labs themselves.

“Richard Margolis has escaped.”

“
What?
”

At least Lindsay sounded suitably shocked. God knows what kind of reaction Miles would have had. Julia said, “I’m putting together a team to go to Santa Fe to get more information, and I need Miles to go, since he’s the best person to try to figure out what happened.”

“I don’t think he’s going to like that — we’re really close to a breakthrough here — ”

Julia prevented herself from letting out an annoyed huff. To hear Miles and Lindsay tell it, they were on the verge of a “breakthrough” every other week. The scientist was still attempting to modify his devices so they could ward off the bad djinn — the ones dedicated to hunting down the last of humanity’s survivors — while tamping down the debilitating waves of energy that affected any friendly djinn within their sphere of influence. Julia knew his research was important, because it would make it much simpler for the people in Los Alamos and Santa Fe to interact with one another, but he had yet to see any real success.

“I understand that,” she said. “But it’s also really important to find out how Margolis was able to escape. It’s only one day, basically — we’re going to stay over in Santa Fe tonight, for safety’s sake, but I’m not imagining we’ll need to spend too much time there.”

“Okay,” Lindsay replied. “I’ll let him know. What time do you need us at the municipal center?”

“About forty minutes from now, if you can manage it.”

“No problem. We’ll swing by the house and get a few things on our way over. See you then.”

“But shouldn’t — ” Julia began, then realized Lindsay had already cut off the transmission. She would have preferred to speak to Miles herself, but if Lindsay wanted to handle it, fine.

If they weren’t there at the designated time…then Julia might have a few choice words on the subject of Lindsay’s presumption. In the meantime, though, she had other things to worry about. After some deliberation, she’d decided she’d leave Shawn in charge during her absence. Taking him along could have gotten awkward, since she had absolutely no idea where things stood with him. And everyone liked and trusted Shawn, so he was a natural choice to watch over the town while she was gone.

In addition to Miles and Lindsay, Julia thought she’d bring Brent Sanderson with her. He wasn’t the world’s best shot, but he was Shawn’s partner-in-crime in the motor pool. If, God forbid, anything went wrong with the Suburban during their round trip, Brent should be able to fix it. The last two members of the party would be Nancy Kovacs, the most experienced person on the Los Alamos security detail, and Eric Gold, who didn’t look all that physically intimidating but who happened to be a black belt in taekwondo. Not that she really thought they’d be facing the kind of threat that would require true hand-to-hand combat, but Eric was also a crack shot…and Nancy’s current boyfriend. If nothing else, Julia figured they might enjoy a night out in a Santa Fe hotel room.

Everyone assembled in the parking lot at the municipal center at a little past six. The drive would take about forty minutes, more or less, but even at the end of September, it would be some time before full dark arrived. Plenty of time to get safely to Santa Fe.

Miles Odekirk looked less than thrilled at being dragged away from his research. However, he didn’t offer any protests, but only shoved the duffle bag he carried in with the rest of the backpacks and duffles and overnight bags everyone else had dumped in the rear cargo area, while Lindsay stood by, holding one of the djinn-repelling devices in her hand. There wasn’t much conversation; everyone knew why they were there.

Julia got in behind the wheel, with Brent taking shotgun and everyone else getting into the second- and third-row seats. And after that they were off, driving along the mountain road that wound down out of Los Alamos to join up with the highway that led to Santa Fe.

This would be the first time she’d actually left the town since she’d come back in the spring to assume her role as reluctant leader of the community. She’d been so consumed with making sure everything ran smoothly that she’d never volunteered to go on one of the scavenging missions in Española, although after a few months she did feel as if she was beginning to get a little stir-crazy. Albuquerque was her former hometown, and she wasn’t used to being cooped up in a place that really didn’t have very many resources. Also, the mountains that sheltered them at times felt almost intimidating, as if they were crowding in from all sides. Back in the wintertime, she hadn’t noticed as much, but that could have simply been because the weather hadn’t been very conducive to travel, and she’d been too busy focusing on all the busywork Margolis kept producing.

It did feel good to get out on the open road — and it
was
open, thanks to her crews expending a good deal of effort so the highway wouldn’t remain littered with the abandoned vehicles of Heat victims who’d succumbed to the disease even as they drove frantically to get away from it. From here it would be pretty much a straight shot down into the heart of Santa Fe, where the U.S. Marshals’ building was located.

And where Zahrias would be waiting for her.

Waiting for your team,
she reminded herself. Most likely he would be far more interested in hearing Miles Odekirk’s insights than talking to her.

She wondered who else would be there; there were a few people she’d come to know while she lived among them so briefly before going back to Los Alamos. Probably not Jessica and Jace; the house they lived in was a good ways outside town, and Zahrias would have no reason to call them in on this matter. Unlike Miles, they most likely wouldn’t be able to offer any particular insights as to how Margolis had managed to escape.

Eventually Julia came to the turnoff that led to Santa Fe’s downtown. In the back seat, Lindsay fiddled with the device, shutting it down so it wouldn’t affect the djinn they were about to meet.

Julia’s eyes flickered from side to side as she drove, trying to take in the changed aspect of the town, which once had bustled with tourists and residents alike. Did the djinn keep the museums and shops open, so they might amuse themselves with looking at relics of a world long gone? She recalled that when she’d last been here, some of the stores had been open for people to take what they needed to furnish their houses, but the museums had been locked up, quiet and dark. The memory disturbed her for some reason, and she tried to put it aside. At least Santa Fe still had life and people, wasn’t dead and empty like almost every other town on the face of the planet.

But not Los Alamos,
she thought then with some pride. Getting that community going might have been Richard Margolis’ one and only good deed. For all she knew, he’d done it for selfish reasons, to have someplace where he could be master, but the fact remained that the town was doing well, thanks to the protection Miles Odekirk’s devices provided and the resilience of its inhabitants. They might be mere mortals, but they’d done well for themselves.

The streets around them now were empty. Julia supposed the djinn didn’t have much need for cars when they could simply “blink” themselves from place to place, and maybe they did the same thing for their Chosen. She did notice a few people out on the sidewalks, probably enjoying the last of the bright afternoon before it was time to go in for their evening meals. Had Phillip, the man who’d acted as chef up in Taos when the group was sequestered in a resort there, opened a restaurant where humans and djinn could mingle and be social?