it out of you?” Chris asked.
“Yes, of course,” I said.
“Well, we can offer her unimaginable resources. There are books in private vampire collections that haven’t been seen in a thousand years. Plus, where better for you to be than in a group like us if you do get taken over. You are aware that Nika is one of the most powerful telepaths in the world, right?” Chris argued.
“Wait, you still want me on the team?” I asked.
“Yeah, we do. Listen Declan, aside from the fact that we like you, I don’t think you understand the value that you bring to us. You are the most powerful male witch known, as well as one of the most powerful witches, period. Beyond that, your particular skillset is uniquely suited to help us deal with a threat we feel is fast approaching all mankind,” he said.
I must have frowned because Tanya answered my unspoken question. “Technology, Declan. Particularly artificial intelligence. Like Stephen Hawking, we feel the achievement of AI might be an extinction-level event.”
“Now with the global awareness of the supernatural, governments all over the planet are putting more resources into finding counters to the threats of vampires, weres, and demons, mostly with technology,” Lydia said.
“You think it’ll happen soon?” I asked.
Chris and Tanya exchanged a glance. “We think it may have already happened, at least once, maybe more. We need your help to find out,” Chris said.
“Me? You must have the best hackers?” I asked.
“We do. But we don’t know of anyone that can do what you do, though—what you did with that robot during yesterday’s game,” Lydia said.
“Oh, yeah. I can see how that might be helpful in tracking the ghost in the machine,” I admitted. “What makes you think there is an AI out there?”
“Do you remember the Tomahawk missile?” Chris asked.
“Yeah, it was on the news. Supposedly a training accident. That’s bullshit, right?” I asked.
“Thing is, we tracked down the captain of that boat. The Navy cashiered him after that, but it was all a cover-up. Nika read him like a book. He has no idea how the missile launched. It just launched itself and assigned itself the exact coordinates that we happened to be occupying. He was thoroughly disturbed by what happened, which was supposed to be impossible,” Chris said.
“Then, during the battle for Washington, or rather, at the end of it, that Star Wars weapon opened fire. Again, we haven’t been able to find out where any order originated to use it. Everyone with supposed control was left baffled. Our lead computer guy, who you will meet, is of the strong opinion that a powerful government program got away from its tenders,” Stacia said.
“And you think I can help?” I asked.
“Can you? If we put you onboard that sub, could you look for traces of something like that?” Chris asked.
I thought about it for a moment, remembering things I done in and to my high school’s computer. “Yeah. Very possibly I could.”
“Can he be trusted? Stealing the witch’s book may have been his plan,” Arkady suddenly interjected.
“What? I get myself stuck by some Fairie death weapon so that an alien book can invade me, all to steal it from you, after it came looking for me, and then I tell you about it? That’s insane,” I said.
“Is insane? Or clever like fox?” he asked.
“Oh,” I said as the answer came to me. “Oh, you’re saying that to prod me into opening up my shields so that she,” I pointed to Nika, “can probe my brain. Clever.”
“Clumsy. I told you so,” Lydia said to the giant vampire.
Chris frowned. “You didn’t tell me, though, did you?” he asked, angry.
“Because you would have said no. You are biased where he’s concerned,” Lydia said, not backing down.
“But that doesn’t give you the right to—” he started, but I interrupted with, “I’ll do it.”
“What?” Tanya asked me, forcing the others to stop glaring at each other.
“I’ll do it. Open my shields. Here,” I said, turning toward Nika and dropping my mental protections.
Keine! I paused, frowning. The others looked baffled, but Nika looked fascinated.
“Internal conversation. Somebody is backsliding into German again,” I said.
“He is open and honest. Very brave too, telling us about the book. He thought we might kill him. There is… another. Odd, it slips away from me. This is fascinating,” Nika said.
“You thought we might kill you? And you came anyway?” Chris rounded on me.
“That’s not how we taught you, Declan,” Tanya admonished. “You don’t go headfirst into dangerous territory.”
“You