explosive, shielded with depleted uranium and linked to each other and the control computer.
I know I could have gotten out of mine, but I’m also pretty sure that would have set the others off and I would have lost everyone,” he said, looking bleak.
“Wow, that absolutely sucks,” I said.
“A no-win scenario,” Caeco agreed. “Losing your team that way would have been horrible.”
“It would have been apocalyptic,” he said, eyes flashing violet. “So, my request is for you two whiz kids to come up with multiple options to defeat this kind of thing. Think you can do it?”
Still pondering his use of apocalyptic and its ramifications, I took the collar from him and could immediately feel it humming. Caeco touched it and I felt a little zing of electricity that told me she was reading it with her nanites.
“This is most definitely within our skill set, Chris,” she told him.
“Yeah, if you can leave it with us, we should be able to find some different ways to counter it,” I said, ideas already running through my head.
“Great. I can’t tell you how important this is to me,” he said.
“Or the world,” Caeco muttered under her breath. He heard her but let it pass without comment.
“Now the last thing is this: The book is gone. Darkest Sorrow. It disappeared from where we hid it and we don’t know who took it.”
“Where did you store it?” I asked.
“The bottom of the East River, in an armored box that was chained to the river bottom and booby trapped to explode if tampered with.”
“Salt water in the East River?” I asked.
“Yes, we thought it would mask the book’s presence.”
“It should have. Was the armored box opened?”
“It was just gone, explosives and all.”
“Then it may have been the book itself that did it,” I said.
“Huh? How could a book move itself and a chained metal and plastic box?”
“How could a necklace slice a SWAT truck in half? Chris, that book has power and the damned thing feels like it’s self-aware or something. It wanted me to go to it and pick it up when you had it our place. It was like a pressure or something. Who knows what it could do.”
“Would you know if it got near you?” he asked.
“I would definitely feel it. But I’m not sure that would even be necessary,” I said. He raised both eyebrows and waited. “I think if I could feel it, then it would be able to feel me and, well, I think it would call out to me.”
“Because it wants you to use it?”
“Because it wants the most powerful witch or warlock it could find to use it. If it’s in the hands of a more powerful witch than me, maybe not.”
Caeco snorted. “Like that’s gonna happen, Mr. Modesty.”
“Anyway, it’s not likely to appear in Burlington, but if it does, I’ll call you first,” I said.
“Okay. I’ll be checking in periodically to see how this thing is going,” he said, waving at the building around us. “And you two think you can come up with options for those things?” he asked, pointing at the collar in Caeco’s hand.
“I’m certain of that,” I said, which I was. Between her nanites and my Craft, we’d crack it.
“Good. I lost my first family because I was helpless. I almost lost my second family because I couldn’t find a way to bypass that technology. I will not be helpless again,” he said through clenched teeth. I think if it had been darker, his eyes might have actually glowed. Pissed? Whole new definition of the word pissed.
He said goodnight and we headed back to our rooms. The apartment door closed behind us and we entered the stairwell.
“We’ll have to work hard to get as good an offer as possible from Oracle,” Caeco mused.
“Huh? Earth to Caeco, we don’t want to work for Oracle. We want to work for the real good guys, right?”
“Of course, but Chris as much as implied that Demidova Corp would beat any other offer. We just want to make sure they have a little competition,” she said matter-of-factly.
“Wow, you are devious,” I said admiringly.
“I was built to be devious, as well as brilliant, deadly, and attractive,” she said, smirking.
“And oh, so modest,” I said.
“Bah, what is this modesty you speak of? It serves no purpose,” she said, attempting some foreign accent.
“That was horrible, but almost funny. Be careful… you might actually develop a sense of humor,” I warned.
“You decroatded piece of crap. I have all kinds of humor,”