djinn wars 03 - fallen (8 page)

“Sorry,” Lindsay said, apparently noticing the pained expression Jace currently wore. “I keep forgetting how rough that must have been for you. I mean, here we’ve got it set at the lowest level we can use and still have it do anything useful. But they weren’t that nice about it in Los Alamos, were they?”

“In general, no.” But he gave her a crooked smile as he replied, as if to let her know that he wasn’t upset by her remark.

She seemed to get the message, because she smiled a little in return. Then it was gone, her expression serious as she went back to business. “As for how it all works…I can only guess. Like I try to keep telling everyone, I was an engineering student, not a physicist. But I figure, everything in the universe is energy, at its most basic level. All things have their own energy signatures. So my best guess is that the guy who created this thing — ”

“Miles Odekirk,” I supplied.

“Odekirk. Yeah. I think he must have figured out a way to detect djinn energy, which has got to be very different from the energy signature human beings put out. Once he’d isolated the djinn energy pattern, or whatever you want to call it, then he probably moved on to determining a way he could disrupt that energy pattern.” She shrugged. “For all I know, his original intent was to use this device to kill djinn, not just mess with their powers. But once he saw what it could do, he decided that was better than nothing. Obviously, it worked just fine to protect the people in Los Alamos…and now here as well.” She stopped then, as if not sure what else she should say.

“I think that’s an excellent start, Lindsay,” Jace told her.

The compliment didn’t seem to improve her mood any. Once again she lifted her shoulders, and then went to the desk so she could pick up the box and shift it from one hand to the other. “It’s all just hypotheses. Not-so-educated guesses. Even if I turn out to be right, how much does that help us? It’s getting from that idea to whatever’s in here” — she tapped one corner of the box, being careful to stay away from the touch screens on any of its sides — “making that happen…that’s the important thing. And I don’t have a clue how Odekirk even went about doing it.”

That made two of us. It was probably asking a lot to expect a grad student in a completely different field of science to decode the secrets of a device only a handful of people in the pre-Dying world would have understood.

Which left us with…what? Finding some way to cope with our new reality? Jace somehow managed that better than the rest of the djinn; maybe he could train them to ignore the effects of the device as best they could. It wouldn’t be a very pleasant existence, but it was better than nothing. Or maybe Zahrias could come up with some way to contact the other djinn, those who weren’t part of the One Thousand, but who probably weren’t working with this Khalim and Aldair and the rest of the thugs. It was possible they didn’t even know what was going on. After all, they’d probably made their pact and then gone on their way, not bothering to check in with the dissenters.

No, that didn’t make a lot of sense. The djinn, if not all-seeing and all-knowing, still saw a hell of a lot. True, we were blocked to them now, but they had to have possessed some inkling of what was going on in this little corner of the planet. Obviously they weren’t concerned enough to interfere. Which meant we were on our own.

And if we couldn’t reverse-engineer this goddamn thing….

…well, then, we’d just have to have the person who’d engineered it in the first place fix it somehow.

My eyes must have lit up, because Lindsay asked, voice sharp with curiosity,

“What is it? You look like you just had the proverbial light bulb go on over your head.”

“Yes, Jessica,” Jace added. “It seems as if something has just occurred to you.”

Oh, it had occurred to me, all right. I drew in a breath, then said, “Lindsay, I know you feel as if you’ve been beating your head against a brick wall — ”

“That’s for damn sure.”

I grinned. “So how about some expert assistance?”

One of her eyebrows went up. “Assistance?”

From the way Jace crossed his arms, I could tell he didn’t like where this was leading. I had a feeling he was going to like it even less in a few seconds.

“If we really want to figure this thing out” — I paused, and decided I’d better just get this over with — “then we’ll have to go back to Los Alamos and kidnap Miles Odekirk.”

Chapter Five

Both Lindsay and Jace were staring at me as if I’d suddenly lost my mind. Maybe I had. But now that I’d thought of it, the solution seemed clear enough. We couldn’t expect Lindsay to come up with a solution to our problem. Even if she’d been a graduate student in physics rather than engineering, having her attempt to ferret out the workings of such an arcane device would be like asking me rebuild the solid fuel boosters on a rocket just because I’d helped my father once unclog the fuel-injection system on the car he’d owned before he bought the Cherokee.

At last Jace spoke. “Beloved, such a scheme couldn’t possibly work. While I agree that the man who invented this device is the best person to modify it, there is no way we could safely return to Los Alamos, let alone manage to sneak in and abduct Miles Odekirk. Don’t you remember how many guards were stationed at the labs there?”

Unfortunately, I remembered all too well. Nothing like the complement of men who’d probably watched over the facility before the Dying had swept away most of the world’s population, but still enough that getting in there undetected wouldn’t be easy.

Lindsay seemed to find her voice as well. “And it’s more than sixty miles from here to Los Alamos. Sixty-plus miles of being completely unprotected against the rogue djinn, since you’d have to leave the device here to make sure everyone else was safe.”

“I know,” I replied. “But once we’re away from here, away from the device, Jace’s powers will return. That’s got to help us, right?”

Jace shook his head, his expression about one-fourth pride and the rest utter bemusement that I was still pursuing this wild scheme. “I’m gratified by your confidence in me, Jessica, but even at full strength, I am still only one djinn.”

“True, but I’m not suggesting that you would be the only one to come with us,” I argued. “If the device is protecting Taos, then we don’t have to worry about leaving a bunch of people here to keep it safe. We can take a large group — maybe even half — and we’ll move quickly. Once we’re outside the field of effect, maybe the djinn can ‘blink’ us — or whatever you call it — from here to Los Alamos. One djinn carrying one mortal. You told me when we escaped Los Alamos that you could have brought me here that way, if you’d only had me to worry about and not Evony and the dog, too.”

At first Jace didn’t reply, instead cocking his head to one side and pursing his lips slightly, as if considering my plan. That seemed to be Lindsay’s cue to cut in.

“You’re not seriously thinking about this, are you?” she demanded. “I mean, you do know that it’s completely crazy, right?”

“Not completely,” he responded. His tone was serious enough, but something about the way one corner of his mouth twitched told me he was willing to entertain the idea. “Believe me, if there were a better alternative, I would gladly pursue it. But I’m fairly certain there isn’t.”

She folded her arms and glared at both of us. “Okay, I know I haven’t been making great progress. But I had to oversee getting the solar panels Jeff and Tony found yesterday hooked up to the resort’s grid, and then there was switching over to an electric pump powered by a generator so we’d still have running water, and — ”

“We know you’ve been doing more than your fair share,” I said. “And I know everyone appreciates it, even if they haven’t said so to your face. But be honest with me — would you be any farther along with the device even if you didn’t have to do all that additional stuff?”

A long, long pause. Her eyes wouldn’t quite meet mine, and at last she shook her head, defeat clear in the slump of her shoulders. “No. I’m afraid to open it up, Jessica. I can’t break it, or we’ll all be dead. I was probably glad of all the distractions, just because they gave me an excuse to not work on this thing. In fact, I only came down here a while ago because Lauren more or less told me I had to, that everything else was being handled for now.”

“We all can do only what we can,” Jace said then. “You included. Jessica’s plan may sound insane, but we must move forward somehow, and I know that my fellow djinn will not be content to let the status quo continue for any longer than is strictly necessary. Turning on the device saved us all, and was necessary…but in its present configuration, it will also end up destroying us.”

A shiver went through me at his words. I supposed I’d been telling myself that the djinn would learn to manage somehow, would get by until we could discover a better solution, but recalling the way Zahrias had looked earlier made me realize now that we didn’t have as much time as we’d thought. He had to be very strong, or he wouldn’t have been made the leader here, but his innate strength obviously wasn’t enough, not when it was being destroyed in small, soul-crushing increments. Jace’s only advantage was that he’d had weeks to get accustomed to the device and its effects on him, had been subjected to it at much higher levels, and therefore had built up a slight tolerance. Even that tolerance wouldn’t protect him completely; I’d seen for myself how easily tired he became, how his mouth would go taut with pain when he thought I wasn’t looking. No, this couldn’t continue. We had to take the risk.

Lindsay seemed to get it as well, because she nodded. “Maybe you’re right. I know it’s just awful to see Rafi the way he is right now. Maybe that’s why, deep down, I’ve been almost glad that I’ve been so crazy busy. I can tell him to stay in bed and rest, and then I don’t have to see him looking like a shell of himself. That’s one devil of an invention that Miles Odekirk cooked up.”

“I know,” I said grimly. “So maybe it’s time to make the devil pay.”

Zahrias didn’t offer much in the way of protest when we went to him with our scheme. Sitting in his chair, he listened quietly, then said, “If you can find enough djinn and their Chosen to go on this expedition — at least ten of each — then I suppose it is something we should try.”

As it turned out, ten of each was a very low estimate.

I couldn’t blame the djinn. It was a risky plan, but I got the feeling that most of them were more than willing to take that risk if it meant a few hours or even days of being away from the influence of Miles Odekirk’s device. And the Chosen went along with it because they wanted their djinn back the way they’d been before all this began. This post-Dying world was frightening enough without having the person who’d been protecting you the whole time more or less down for the count.

In the end, we had twenty djinn and their Chosen. Because none of the djinn were certain how quickly their powers would bounce back, we made the collective decision to drive to Los Alamos, rather than rely on magic that might or might not fail us at a critical moment. Lauren helped Jace and me with the final selections for the raiding party, just because she knew this group and their strengths and weaknesses far better than I did. Her own Dani was going, since he apparently had been quite a warrior back in the day, before he decided he’d rather be a lover than a fighter. But Lauren would stay behind, since Zahrias needed her.

“Besides,” she told me frankly. “I’d be worse than useless on a trip like this. I don’t know how to shoot a gun — if a gun even works on a djinn — and I’d just be in the way. Might as well stay here where I can be of some use.”

I actually didn’t know whether bullets would have any effect on a djinn, either, but I figured I’d find out if I had to.

The person who surprised me was Evony. She confronted Jace and me in the hallway as we were headed back to our suite once the final kidnapping party had been selected. Her arms were crossed, and I could tell from the determined jut of her chin that this was one discussion I wouldn’t be able to avoid.