believed in the Easter bunny and the tooth fairy, too, but there weren’t undead creatures worshipping them.
Amy looked me in the eyes, her face calm. “You do not believe in anything, Grace Roberts, so I cannot give you an answer that makes sense. Does it matter if Ra-Ame is real? If the old ones revere her, and offer her sacrifices, and act on her behalf, is she not real?”
“Yes, it matters. If she’s fake, or dead, or doesn’t exist anymore, we’ve got a war on our hands, but one we can win.”
Amy nodded. “And if she is real?”
“Based on what I’ve seen the Re-Animus do, if Ra-Ame is his god, and she’s real, we’re completely screwed. What if Brynner goes to kill that thing and it calls on her?”
Amy went to the kitchen to put on the coffeepot. “Why would the old one dare call upon her name? Consider what it has said. It has created a spawn without her permission, allowed it to be captured, and failed to recover her heart, kill Brynner Carson, or free the spawn.”
I hadn’t thought about it quite like that, but then again, as an atheist, I tended to leave quibbling about nonexistent deities to other people. Except that this one might be more existent than I felt comfortable admitting.
“If I were the old one, I would never speak Ra-Ame’s name, for fear she might hear and find me.” Amy smiled at me.
A knock on the door broke my reverie, and with great reluctance I answered.
A BSI dispatcher stood on the other side, a field duffel bag at his feet, a weapons case in hand. “Amy Rust? You’re going on assignment immediately. Report to dispatch in five.” He turned to walk away and added, “Don’t get dead.”
Amy went back to her room and brought out another duffel. “Are you going?”
“I can’t. The director kicked me off his field team, and I doubt Brynner would want me there, either.” I wouldn’t dare mention her threat to my daughter.
Amy dropped the bag at my feet. “I did not ask those things. I asked if you are going. If you want to go, come with me. If you do not, I will see you when we are both dead, or sooner if we succeed.”
“I can’t. Don’t get dead.”
“Then do not.” She picked up the bag at the door and walked out. “Do not get dead here, either.”
The elevator doors had barely closed before I dumped Heinrich’s journals into the bag, hefted it onto my shoulder, and ran for the stairs. After ten flights down I hit the button just as the elevator arrived. The door slid open and Amy nodded to me, stepping to the side. “It is good when women do what they want, and not what they are told.”
“Then I’m being very good right now.”
Then I hit the basement button. “I’m taking five minutes to get ready.”
“You may not have it.”
I looked over to her with a grin. “I didn’t ask if I had it, did I?”
“I will not let them leave without you.” She got off at the ground floor, sauntering toward the dispatch desk, looking better than I would after hours of makeover.
At the basement, I switched to the secure elevator, holding my breath until the guards let me pass. I nearly ran over Dr. Thomas on the way out, carrying a gym bag filled with weapons and my spare clothes. “Grace, where are you going? And why are you carrying that?”
I could have lied, but he’d allowed me to work with him. “Field trials. Unauthorized field trials.”
He laughed, shaking and holding on to his cane. “My favorite kind. You’ll make full notes on what does and does not work, if you survive, right?”
“Right.”
“Well then, I wish you luck, and may you not wind up on a slab in the crematorium.” He went back to admiring the waterfall, and I ran to my makeshift lab. Bolts and blades, three dozen syringes of my dopamine-serotonin mixture, and a handheld solar flare light went into my bag.
When the elevator door opened to the lobby, Amy stood alone, her arms folded.
“You said you wouldn’t let him leave without me.”
“You said you needed five minutes. It is seven and one half.” After a moment, she laughed. “I told Brynner I am having woman’s problems, that I would meet him there. He could not stop asking questions fast enough.”
I pushed open the door, nodding to the building guards. “You’re scary, you know that?”
Amy followed, carrying her bag like