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Authors: Christine Pope
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ended with him being taken away in one of the Los Alamos crew’s Hummers. Zahrias listened, jaw hardening, but he didn’t interrupt me. When I was done, though, he said,
“Tell me of this Los Alamos.”
Despite myself, I couldn’t help blinking at him in surprise. After all, he’d known for some time that the threat to the djinn appeared to originate in that mountain community. I’d assumed he must have been picking the brains of the Chosen gathered here in Taos to gather what intel he could about the place.
“I don’t know what you’re expecting me to say,” I told him. “I mean, I’ve never even been there.”
“But you are a native of this place — this New Mexico, as you call it?”
“Well, yes. But there are still corners of it I’ve never visited. Los Alamos has — had — a lot of scientists working at the labs there. I’m assuming at least one of them was Immune.” The image of the man with the black box was as clear to me as if he were standing there next to Zahrias, so I went on, “That must be who the guy holding the box was. Some kind of scientist. It seemed to be his baby.”
“‘His baby’?” Zahrias repeated, one eyebrow lifting slightly at my use of the word.
“Well, he seemed pretty engrossed in using it. He hardly even looked around. In fact, I’m not sure he glanced up once, except to see where he was walking so he wouldn’t trip over something.” That had been strange, now that I was recalling the scene in detail. You’d have thought the man would at least have looked to see who he’d caught in his net, but apparently not.
“Have you ever heard of anything like this box? Seen anything like it?”
I shook my head at once. “Zahrias, up until yesterday, I didn’t even know that the djinn were real.”
His mouth compressed. “Foolish of Jasreel. He should have told you the truth immediately, and not let it go for so long. You could have been safely here with the rest of us.”
Funny how I’d been thinking more or less the same thing. Hashing over Jace’s mistakes — real or perceived — wouldn’t change anything, though, so I only shrugged and said, “Maybe so. Anyway, no, I’ve never heard of a device like that. But I suppose if one of the scientists was immune, and he figured out what had happened…then I suppose it’s possible he came up with a way to interfere with djinn powers somehow. I say ‘somehow’ because I’m not a physicist or an engineer. I have absolutely no idea how something like that would even work. Obviously it does, though, because I saw him using it. I saw — I saw what it did to Jace.” On his name, my voice broke, and I raised the glass of wine to my lips and drank again. I doubted that fooled Zahrias for a second, but at least it gave me a chance to attempt to regain my composure.
He frowned, then stepped over to the table so he could pour a bit more from the bottle into his glass. Since I’d only had four or five sips so far, he didn’t offer to give me any more, but only set down the bottle and turned back toward the fire, his expression settling into that same blankness I’d first seen when I approached him. At the same time, I could see those odd, fiery flickers around his head, cousins to the ones that danced in the hearth. Did they materialize when he was worried, or troubled, or were they something that came and went at their own whim, like little companion dogs?
I certainly didn’t have the courage to ask.
Because he didn’t seem inclined to speak further, I only stood there, growing increasingly uncomfortable as the silence stretched between us. Through sheer force of will, I kept myself from drinking too much of the wine out of the impulse to be doing something…anything.
At last he shifted back toward me. “This puts us in a difficult position. You know how several of our Chosen went to Los Alamos to gather what intelligence they could, and did not return?”
I nodded. At this stage in the game, I
“Tell me of this Los Alamos.”
Despite myself, I couldn’t help blinking at him in surprise. After all, he’d known for some time that the threat to the djinn appeared to originate in that mountain community. I’d assumed he must have been picking the brains of the Chosen gathered here in Taos to gather what intel he could about the place.
“I don’t know what you’re expecting me to say,” I told him. “I mean, I’ve never even been there.”
“But you are a native of this place — this New Mexico, as you call it?”
“Well, yes. But there are still corners of it I’ve never visited. Los Alamos has — had — a lot of scientists working at the labs there. I’m assuming at least one of them was Immune.” The image of the man with the black box was as clear to me as if he were standing there next to Zahrias, so I went on, “That must be who the guy holding the box was. Some kind of scientist. It seemed to be his baby.”
“‘His baby’?” Zahrias repeated, one eyebrow lifting slightly at my use of the word.
“Well, he seemed pretty engrossed in using it. He hardly even looked around. In fact, I’m not sure he glanced up once, except to see where he was walking so he wouldn’t trip over something.” That had been strange, now that I was recalling the scene in detail. You’d have thought the man would at least have looked to see who he’d caught in his net, but apparently not.
“Have you ever heard of anything like this box? Seen anything like it?”
I shook my head at once. “Zahrias, up until yesterday, I didn’t even know that the djinn were real.”
His mouth compressed. “Foolish of Jasreel. He should have told you the truth immediately, and not let it go for so long. You could have been safely here with the rest of us.”
Funny how I’d been thinking more or less the same thing. Hashing over Jace’s mistakes — real or perceived — wouldn’t change anything, though, so I only shrugged and said, “Maybe so. Anyway, no, I’ve never heard of a device like that. But I suppose if one of the scientists was immune, and he figured out what had happened…then I suppose it’s possible he came up with a way to interfere with djinn powers somehow. I say ‘somehow’ because I’m not a physicist or an engineer. I have absolutely no idea how something like that would even work. Obviously it does, though, because I saw him using it. I saw — I saw what it did to Jace.” On his name, my voice broke, and I raised the glass of wine to my lips and drank again. I doubted that fooled Zahrias for a second, but at least it gave me a chance to attempt to regain my composure.
He frowned, then stepped over to the table so he could pour a bit more from the bottle into his glass. Since I’d only had four or five sips so far, he didn’t offer to give me any more, but only set down the bottle and turned back toward the fire, his expression settling into that same blankness I’d first seen when I approached him. At the same time, I could see those odd, fiery flickers around his head, cousins to the ones that danced in the hearth. Did they materialize when he was worried, or troubled, or were they something that came and went at their own whim, like little companion dogs?
I certainly didn’t have the courage to ask.
Because he didn’t seem inclined to speak further, I only stood there, growing increasingly uncomfortable as the silence stretched between us. Through sheer force of will, I kept myself from drinking too much of the wine out of the impulse to be doing something…anything.
At last he shifted back toward me. “This puts us in a difficult position. You know how several of our Chosen went to Los Alamos to gather what intelligence they could, and did not return?”
I nodded. At this stage in the game, I
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