Jackson nodded once in response to Alex’s question.
“We have one Lena. We will not risk her. If you cannot work with her, if you cannot overcome this, then you need to tell me now so we can get someone who can.” He waited a moment while Jackson processed. “You’ve got to make your decision by the time we get to Azcon. We need to be able to make an exchange for a new agent. Lena will have to get started training him immediately. And,” Alex added with a grimace, “We’ll have to hope he’s as quick as you are.”
Jackson raised both brows. “There isn’t anyone in my class as quick as I am. And there won’t be an exchange. I understand.” No apology came, but Alex was satisfied. The men looked at Lena.
She shrugged with one shoulder. Her next words told him what he needed to know: she could pretend all was well if it meant they could move forward. “Can we actually work now? Because I had an idea about why it’s been such a struggle for you men to learn.”
Alex sat on the arm of the chair behind him, one eye out the window at the front of the train. Jackson wasn’t ready to pretend, but he sat stiffly and gave Lena his attention.
“It comes down to how we talk to the Dust. I think the Dust responds to affection.”
Alex could feel his brows lowering. Jackson stared at her with a look halfway to ‘what are you babbling about?’
She rolled her eyes at their faces. “I know how it sounds, I do. But it occurred to me—” she glanced at Alex and then away “—recently, that Alex had significant success getting the Dust to do what he wanted when he was focused on…feeling…affection.”
She rubbed her hands through her hair, mussing it in frustration. He could see the very direct Lena was both frustrated by and not particularly good at being circumspect. Alex had to assume she wanted to spare Jackson the details behind her theory, because it certainly wasn’t because she was remotely shy about sex. Either way, it didn’t matter to him.
“That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard in my life.” He squinted at her. “What happened was related to you and me, not how I was talking to the Dust. They’re machines. You think it was because I was whispering them sweet nothings?” Alex lowered his voice to a husky murmur. “‘Dust, when I put my lips here, you spark out over there.’ Is that what you think?”
Jackson stopped nodding agreement, going still and stoic beside him.
“Well, if that’s how you were going to do it, I’d think your bedroom manner needs work.”
“There’s nothing wrong with my bedroom manner, as you damn well know.”
“Exactly!” She tossed a look at Jackson and held up a finger to keep him from walking away. Her face flushed with frustration and temper under the freckles. “Alex, when you were…using your bedroom manner, were you ordering the Dust to respond? Or were you focused and…seductive? Because whatever you were doing, it was successful.”
He smirked.
“Stop it. That’s not the point.”
“What is the point?” Jackson demanded.
Was he not enjoying the conversation as much as Alex?
“The point is you don’t go around thinking about the Dust affectionately. But I do.” She held up her hands and shrugged. “I think it’s a male-female thing,” she continued. “We express ourselves differently. And yes, I know, intellectually, they are machines. But I don’t get how you cannot feel affection for something that is always there, waiting to do what you want. It’s so eager to please. How can you not respond to the constant comfort of knowing—?”
“What do you mean by ‘always there’?” Jackson interrupted.
“Always there. Waiting. You know, at the back of your mind. Can’t you feel them, even kind of hear them, all the time?”
And suddenly Alex understood. He rolled his eyes and rocked forward, burying his face in his hands as he let loose a string of curses.
Jackson, who must have understood a moment behind him, tried to explain Alex’s frustration to the mystified Lena. “The first lesson we get when we get to the Ward School is how to keep from accessing the Dust when we don’t mean to, so we can keep ourselves and everyone else safe.”
Alex looked up. It made absolute sense. “We learn how to block it off. They teach us to silence it except when it’s needed for charging. It’s the first series of lessons for every powered child, whether they rate the Ward School or not. Except for you. You didn’t stay in school long enough to shut it out. You learned to listen. And I’m guessing it liked being heard.”
***