Chapter 30 #2
Nodal glanced up from his conversation, the lanky, lean man with his straight black hair appearing as if he belonged to the desert.
He had traded in his cowboy hat and boots for a pair of fatigues, but he somehow still looked as if he should be on a horse in the late 1800s riding fence, not behind a desk.
Eyes sharp, he studied me as he motioned for the two uniformed people with him to leave.
“You too, Evander,” Nodal said when Lev didn’t move, and I stifled a grimace.
“You wanted some water, right,” he said, not waiting for an answer before spinning on a heel and stomping down the stairs. Yeah, I wanted water, but I thought Lev brought it up as a way to get himself back in the room.
“Pluck. Petra Grady.” Nodal tidied his paperwork as the door slammed shut.
“Have a seat. I was not keen on making a public show here when Lev said you needed help getting out of a supposedly sealed vault, but when Marshal Cameron Owens and then Dr. Strom confirmed you were trapped in it, I thought it worth investigating if only to protect my investment.”
Pluck fizzed sourly through me. Investment? I didn’t sit, didn’t move an inch closer to him or the door. “I don’t work for you,” I said, and he actually laughed, his low voice making it a pleasant sound.
“That last deposit into your bank account says different.” Nodal set the papers aside to focus fully on us.
“That vault was sealed. I can guess how you got into it as Ms. Vean is an airologist. But I’d like to know how Pluck got you out of an empty shadowproof vault.
You can’t make a field, and there was nothing down there to work with. ”
I dangled a hand in Pluck’s head, using the chill to ground me. “You seem unusually well-informed.” Again I wished for my staff. It would be nice to have something to smack into the floor for emphasis. Not to mention there was dross in here, burning like little suns in the corners.
Nodal’s gaze flicked behind me to the door. “Evander told me because he was worried about you.”
“You manipulated information out of him,” I accused, and the man grinned, totally unashamed.
“I impressed Ranger Evander with the precariousness of your position and my need for all available information to get you out safely.” Pushing from the desk, he laced his hands over his flat middle.
“That he wants to continue to work with you probably figured into it. So. Ms. Vean has a warrant for your arrest for the recent destruction of the vaults in St. Unoc. Your actions tonight tend to substantiate it.”
“That’s not Dana,” I said. “It’s Thoth. Best I can figure, he has possessed her.”
The older man’s gaze went to Pluck as if adding that particular ability to his résumé. “That checks with what I’ve been told. I wasn’t aware that shadows could do that without leaving the possessor insane.”
“Thoth is the only one who can,” I said reluctantly, and Pluck’s ears flattened. “It’s also why he’s the devil to catch.”
Pluck fizzed miserably, but it was admit to it or we lose everything.
“Sir, where are Benedict and Herm?” I asked, desperate for news.
Nodal glanced at the report at his elbow. “That brings me to my next point.” Exhaling, he flipped the top page over. “When Ms. Vean—”
“Thoth,” I interrupted, and his eyes narrowed in annoyance. “Sir,” I added.
“When Ms. Vean,” he started again, “advised a campus-wide search and containment of shadows, both Benedict and Herm were very outspoken, claiming you didn’t flee but had been trapped in one of the vaults at Biosphere 2.
She put them in custody to shut them up, but not before they divided the entire St. Unoc campus. ”
Divided? fizzed through me, hope tempering Pluck’s bitter mood.
“Benedict has been stripped of any association with the university.” He tapped the pages in thought, eyebrows high. “I’m starting to believe you. Ms. Vean doesn’t move that fast. Maybe Dr. Strom will come work for me when his wounds heal.”
“He’s hurt?!” I said, stiffening. “You think maybe you could have opened with that?”
Nodal raised a comforting hand. “Bad word choice,” he said. “I meant metaphorically.”
I took a slow breath. Not hurt, but being held. Disgraced. Again. Because of me. “And Cameron?”
“AWOL,” he said as if it bothered him. “She and Mr. Ryan have disappeared.” His attention flicked from Pluck back to me. “So, this is what is going to happen, Ms. Grady.”
He doesn’t dictate to me, fizzed through us both, but I wasn’t sure who was more insulted.
“The world thinks you are dead,” Nodal said cheerfully.
“That right there is worth having brought my people out here to crack open Biosphere 2’s vault.
You will do nothing to contradict that. You did not break the vault; we did in trying to get you out.
As far as the mundane public knows, someone sealed a door and pressurized lung number two and accidentally broke it.
Too much air pressure can do amazing things.
The university will be told we broke it in a desperate effort to reach you before you suffocated. Unfortunately we were too late.”
“Is that so?” I said, not liking his controlling grin.
“It is. We are arranging a corpse this very moment.”
Shadow spit…Pluck fizzed, and I was very glad I had no extended family who would think me dead. Benedict and Herm, though, would believe the lie. I had to get word to them. No, I had to get to them.
Let’s go, Pluck fizzed, and I forced myself to not look at the door behind me. There’s nothing here to help us and much to hinder.
“Nodal,” I said, again wishing I had a stick. “I don’t understand why you’re doing this. I can’t make a field anymore,” I lied. Sort of. “I’m useless.”
Nodal set his clasped hands on the desk.
“Clearly you are not. I’m giving you a parachute, Petra Grady.
Don’t cut it from your back. You and Pluck will continue to work with Lev under a new identity.
Along with Benedict and Herm if you can convince them.
You will be responsible for finding and instructing weavers.
You found one; there will be more. With some luck, your abilities may return in time. ”
Worry for Marty and Aasta lifted through me as Pluck’s tail phased in and out of existence. Finding weavers is my goal, but not to make them soldiers, he thought.
I could hear a soft, amicable conversation outside at the foot of the stairs, and I forced my hands to unclench. “And if Pluck and I don’t want to become the militia’s secret weapon?”
Nodal sighed. “Your inability to make a field limits your opportunities. Make the smart choice. You have a chance for something good to come from this.”
Thoth has not destroyed everything, echoed in my mind, but I wasn’t sure who thought it. If the campus was divided, then someone believed me. Us. And I didn’t like how he was talking only to me, as if I was the one making the decisions for Pluck.
“Master Ranger Nodal,” I said formally, and the man’s smile took on a forced look. “Thank you for your offer. Pluck and I would like some time to think it over.”
Nodal leaned forward, squinting at us. “You misunderstand me,” he intoned, and tension tightened my gut.
“No, sir. You misunderstand us.”
Pluck flicked an ear, the play gone from him as he stood, as still as death, at my heel.
Nodal took a breath, but his words remained unsaid when his gaze flicked to the door at the decisive knock.
I turned, knowing my face still held my anger when Lev came in, eyes bright and a bottled water in his hand.
“Excuse me, sir. Petra, we’re at limited rations, but I found you some water.”
I took it, the cold damp from the ice water feeling almost warm after I’d dangled my fingers in Pluck. “Thank you,” I said, but he was already gone, having apologized and beaten a hasty retreat before Nodal could reprimand him for interrupting.
Immediately I cracked the top, throat moving as I downed about half of it. It wasn’t until I recapped the bottle that I realized Lev had written thirty seconds on the top.
Oh, I thought, and Pluck’s presence in mine bubbled as he read my mind. Apparently Lev isn’t happy, either. You good to go?
Pluck’s feet hazed in anticipation. Nodal’s offer isn’t conducive to finding a balance.
I took that as a yes. The scrape of Nodal’s chair sounded, and I tensed when the man stood.
“I’m sorry it has to be this way,” he said, clearly done with the carrot and ready to use the stick.
“Sergeant Michaels is outside. She will find you a bunk, stay with you until we can find a more permanent situation. You want some time to think about my offer? You do it under my auspices.”
“Yeah, I don’t think so,” I said, and his expression darkened.
“Sergeant!” Nodal bellowed, and then I yelped at the thunderous boom outside, my knees bending to keep my balance when the floor shook.
Pluck evaporated, green eyes glowing from a swirling haze. I suggest we leave.
“Grady! Stay put!” Nodal demanded, and I bolted, flinging the door to the RV open and crashing into Sergeant Michaels. The woman pinwheeled backward off the lower step to hit the ground hard, and I ran into the dark.
Flames were rising up out of the broken vault. Somewhere, an alarm began to ring. What have you done, Lev?
Look, Pluck fizzed, and I skidded to a halt. A Jeep was racing toward us, Lev at the wheel, the man gritting his teeth in delight as gravel popped from under the tires in his quick stop.
“Get in if you want to live!” he shouted gleefully.
The butt of a staff showed beside him, and I yanked myself up and in, holding on when he hit the gas hard and we jolted forward with a roar of the engine.
It wasn’t my dad’s stick, but I’d take it.
“I’ve always wanted to say that,” he added.
“Buckle up. We’ve got two gates and a news van to get through. ”
I reached for the dash, struggling to fasten my belt as he careened around a group of startled men and women. So far, no one was shooting. So far…