There was no way to know what new gadget J.L. had developed for the team security systems, short of going into J.L.'s razor-sharp mind for a subtle thought scan, but that would be cheating. He could tell that he'd made J.L.'s day by being stumped, so he allowed his Guardian brother to revel in the triumph. Curiosity pushed Carlos's other thoughts aside as he stepped closer and peered down at the tiny object J.L. held out for him to inspect.
"You know how all of us have been in a funk ever since we came out of that last battle in Greece?"
Carlos nodded. "Yeah . . . but you know who we were up against, too, so it stands to reason. But the Covenant said we were all clean and would shake it soon."
"True," J.L. said with a wide smile."If we had a chance not to mentally get weighed down again for a little while."
Carlos just stared at his Guardian brother for a moment, studying the quiet warrior burning deep within his almond-shaped, brown eyes. It was as though thousands of years of ancient Asian wisdom had coalesced into one soul as the two men stood facing each other, both expectant of the other's reaction. J.L.'s smile faded, giving way to his more serious side. Everybody's energy had been zapped after that battle, and it felt like they'd been walking through quicksand. Not even Marlene's white baths were helping.
"Talk to me," Carlos said quietly.
"It's been coming through the airwaves . . . the assault. You-know-who is the Prince of the Airwaves."
"Shit . . ." Carlos murmured, more closely studying the tiny bit of silver metal on J.L.'s finger.
"Yeah," J.L. said with triumph. "Once again, Inez's baby girl was our canary in a coal mine. All of us thought we were burnt-out from battle, and Inez's mom just from age and the pure shock of being inducted into this life. But neither of them went to war with us over in Greece. They stayed back home in New York in the Covenant safe house until we got back, right?"
"Right," Carlos said, extracting his hands from his pockets to fold his arms.
"Yeah, well, I get up real early every morning to do my tai chi on the back deck-gotta pass through the kitchen. I have a routine . . . make my green tea, let it steep, while I do my thing. The three-year-old gets up real early like that, too. I pass her every day in the kitchen eating her cereal and every morning her grandmother can barely make it into the kitchen and the kid is always sniffling. So a few days ago I asked the little bird why she was always so sad in the morning . . . and get this, man. She said the cartoons make her cry."
"Huh?Cartoons?" Dumbfounded, Carlos simply stared at J.L.
J.L. gingerly set down the small silver-coated chip on a piece of black velvet on the workbench. "That's what I said, man. So I asked her which ones she watched and the kid said everything makes her cry on TV now. She said it wasn't good anymore."
"That's . . .crazy ."
J.L. nodded. "Yeah, and you and I both know the kid is a seer, right?"
"Right . . ."
"Inez's mom said she was just being dramatic because she wouldn't allow her to bust into Inez and Big Mike's room first thing in the morning, so it was just a daily tantrum . . . but I didn'tfeel that, bro. I wasn't feeling like the kid was making it up. There was genuine melancholy."
"This is too deep," Carlos said, raking his fingers through his hair.
"Uh-huh. My take exactly. So I got some old DVDs ofBarney and other stuff she likes, and the kid was happy. Then I'd try a direct broadcast, and the poor little thing would hide her face and say it was scaring her."
"Whoa . . . man . . ."
"Yeah, yeah, I know," J.L. said excitedly, waving his hands. "It was freaky. So I asked Mom Delores if I could babysit Ayana for the day. I didn't want to say anything to anybody until I had hard evidence, ya know-in case I was just tripping. But I tested her on everything. I used old DVDs of her favorite cartoons and shows and Disney moviesbefore the Greek isle battle as a control group of items, and then I showed her direct broadcasts over cable, satellite TV, images off my cell