"Yeah," she said flatly. "I'm not saying we ask people to put their heads in the sand or to try to convince them that bad things aren't happening out there, or that the economy doesn't suck. But we want to remind them that there's stillmore good than bad overall. And we get our rebels to start playing cuts from every positive artist we can, even if it's old music.Get the Covenant in the loop, too, in order to get word out to the houses of worship to stop talking about everything that's going wrong, but start claiming victory about all the good that is happening, despite the seeming odds. That ought to begin to create a reversal of some of those possessions."
"I'm down with that," Shabazz said. "Makes sense from a manifesting energy standpoint . . . what you think is what you attract-but get to the part where we hunt their asses down."
"Follow the money," Carlos said, stepping closer to the counter.
Damali backed up and watched, loving how his former confidence clicked into place like a loaded Glock the moment he knew his boy Yonnie had his back. It was amazing to witness and they hadn't violated any rules . . . Yonnie knew because Yonnie was Yonnie. She watched Carlos begin to talk with his hands over the surface of the countertop, the heat beginning to cast hologramlike, shimmering images just above it.
"The West Coast is, for all intents and purposes, gone," Carlos said.
J.L.'s presence in the doorway made everyone look up. His eyes were bloodshot with dark shadows beneath.
"I got something here," he said, entering the room with a bucket filled with oddly cut copper piping."Was up all night. Blood Music got gobbled up by a Canadian firm because the dollar is stronger abroad now . . . Council Group Entertainment. You have two guesses what the reference to Council Group means, and one doesn't count. They have a building in L.A., but their main headquarters is in Toronto."
"That's still North American territory, bro," Yonnie said, glancing at Carlos.
"No doubt," Carlos said, rubbing his chin as he and Yonnie exchanged a knowing look. "Nuit called your bluff, so I guess that SOB made the come up. Would explain the power rush you've felt coming off him, since you were linked more directly to him than I was."
"Same board of directors as Blood Music had, but now he's a multimedia conglomerate bigger than Time Warner," J.L. said, glancing between Yonnie and Carlos. "The link that led me to them was that every one of their artists' hits was on the MySpace pages of the teens who'd committed the most recent sicko violent crimes. Ten dollars on red says CGE is Fallon's new playground."
"You'sa bad man, J.L.," Shabazz said, going over to pound his fist. "What's up with the bucket, though?"
J.L. looked at the small assembly of Guardians around him. "Krissy was bad off. Her mind and spirit took a hit from all the negativity. When we went off shift, she couldn't stop crying and she had balled up into a fetal position in the bed."
"You should have come to get me," Marlene said quietly. "Before you put in the filters, that girl downloaded everything off the Net and listened to it all day long-"
"I know, Mar, but I had to do this myself," J.L. said with a frown. "She'd only stop crying when I'd remind her of all the good that was in the world . . . she was looking at the fires, panicking, going into a cold sweat.So I built something, because I figured if it was affecting her like this, what about a regular average person . . . that's why I didn't come to you, Mar. I knew it was something I had to figure out on my own."
"You read the article I'd put under your door last week?" Marlene said, scowling at Shabazz.
"Yeah, of course, Mar," J.L. said. "I always read the cool stuff you give me. That's how I learned to build this . . . the psi around Krissy was all jacked up."
"You owe me money," Marlene muttered to Shabazz. He didn't say a word, just went in his wallet and handed her a twenty.
"What's in the bucket, man?" Carlos said, surveying J.L. from an uneasy distance.
"Prayer-infused, catalyzed resin with copper, silver, and aluminum shavings for conductivity. Then to stand the copper pipes up in the solution till it hardened I used a form board, just a piece of plywood with holes cut into it so the pipes wouldn't fall over. Then I took seven copper pipes, inserted rutilated crystals in them and capped them off. What you then have is a homemade energy transponder.A white-light superconductor. I'm a tactical, right?"
J.L. looked at the group who only returned blank stares. "Okay, so I set my intention on positive white light and read positive info out loud while touching the copper piping, sending a tactical charge into it . . . and then took my hand off it, put Krissy's hands on it, and I watched dark static get sucked out of her body and get trapped in the resin. She chilled right out after that." J.L. smiled when everyone's eyes widened. "Don't touch the bucket, though. That black slop in the bottom caught in the sticky resin is what was making my wife sick-she got it from the airwaves. I figured I can set it in the yard and just let it burn since we're gonna be out soon.Right?"
"Right," Marlene said slowly. "Any other reason why you might not have wanted me to do a standard purge, J.L.-even though your invention is awesome and something we might need in the future? I'm just saying?"
Marlene gave him a sideways glance. Everyone watched J.L. shift nervously from foot to foot.
"I had to be sure I got everything out of her my way, Marlene," he said after a moment. He went to the sliding-glass doors, opened them, and then bounded down the steps.
"She's pregnant," Marlene said flatly. "I'm taking full paycheck bets."
"Lotta that going around," Shabazz muttered. "And hell no, I ain't betting no senior seer."
They all looked at Yonnie.
"Not a word," Carlos warned. "Not one word, man."
"Peace," Yonnie said with a shrug and waited until J.L. rejoined them at the counter.
Damali and Carlos shared a private glance, but said nothing.
"What's the plan?" J.L. asked, seeming so nervous he looked like he was about to leap out of his skin.