“I hope I have not lost my reflexes,” Roxil said as she unfurled her wings. “It has been many centuries since I last went to battle.” She lifted up on her haunches and, beating her leathery canopy against the moist breeze, rose into the air.
Walter and Gabriel led the way to the power plant, while Ashley walked between Sapphira and Karen, still weak and dizzy. She refrained from talking, trying to recall her studies on quantum physics and the set of formulae she used for the electromagnets she built for the transluminators in the underground lab.
She shuffled her feet, kicking pebbles along the way. Could she do it? The calculations were so intensive, she had relied on computers to sort it out, though she did have to write the programs in the first place. Obviously she had the knowledge, but was that all she needed? Could her intelligence be the second widow’s mite, the latter of the two gifts she should blend with faith and offer to God? She pulled the other penny from her pocket and held it tightly in her hand, her uninjured hand. There was only one way to find out.
Walter led them down to the spillway level and through a wide corridor. “If we go in there,” he said, pointing at the hole the giant had ripped in the wall, “we’ll find Mister Ugly in the turbine room perched on top of the generator, but this hall to the right should keep him from seeing us.”
They walked down a dim corridor and entered a large office where flashing monitors greeted their eyes. Walter pointed at a display on one of the head-high rectangular boxes. “That’s the power grid readout.” He turned and touched the shorter desklike control panel that faced the monitors. “I think Mardon used these gizmos to control it.”
Ashley gazed at the panel, then, alternately looking at the controls and the display, began making slight adjustments to the dials. “I can change the categories of data and the scales,” she said, “but I don’t see anything that actually controls the power.”
“Yeah,” Walter said, “that’s what Mardon told us.”
“But the different screens could give me all the data I need to figure out what’s going on.” Ashley nodded at the bag on Walter’s shoulder. “Could you dig out the bricks and the photometer? I want to see what kind of energy they produce. Mardon’s older technology might give me clues about his new stuff.”
“Sure thing.” He placed the seven bricks at Ashley’s feet and set the photometer on the control desk. “Anything else?”
“Sapphira,” Ashley said, “can you set them in a line and turn them on when I need them?”
“Glad to.” Sapphira picked one up and depressed a button on its side. The brick let out a low hum, and a diode on one end emitted a thin blue light.
Ashley read the beam with her photometer. “Hmmm. Visible seems normal, but there are other frequencies to check.” She did the same for the second brick and memorized its photometer readout.
“Want me to find a pencil and paper?” Gabriel asked.
Ashley raised a finger to her lips. “Shhh! I have to do it all in my head.”
Walter leaned close to Gabriel and whispered. “You stay with Ashley. I’m going to peek outside and see if Roxil’s out there yet. It’s been almost five minutes.”
“Sounds cool. Sapphira and I can handle Mardon if he shows up.”
Karen grabbed Walter’s arm. “Can I come with you?”
Walter glanced over his back at Excalibur’s hilt. “Give me a minute to make sure the coast is clear.”
When he left the room, Sapphira picked up the next brick in line and pressed its power switch. “This one’s ready.”
“Thanks.” Ashley managed a weak smile. “Can you hold them up while I analyze the beams? I’m feeling kind of puny right now.”
Ashley read the data, then looked up at the ceiling. “Okay, the gamma readout makes sense, but when I plug it into the formula …” She grabbed a fistful of hair with her wounded hand and pulled it hard. “There’s a constant missing in the formula. What is it?”
Sapphira held the brick with the red diode close to the photometer. “You can’t do this alone, Ashley.”
She released her hair, leaving a bloody smear. “I couldn’t reach Larry. I already tried.”
“I don’t mean Larry.” Sapphira’s eyes once again blazed. “I think you know exactly what I mean.”
Ashley looked up at her and stared. “If you mean have faith, that’s what I’m trying to do.”