Christ, if this technology got into the wrong hands . . . it was absolutely essential they recover it before the NRO re-created the prototype.
“You said it took years to develop the original prototype, and that Dr. Benton destroyed all the research along with the machine before they were taken,” he reminded her.
If it took years or even months to create the machine, they’d have plenty of time to track the scientists down and retrieve them before their invention went online and operational.
“Yes, but Dr. Benton has a photographic memory. He won’t need the research to complete the necessary steps. And he’ll be able to complete those steps faster since he’s done it before. I’m sure he’ll try to slow the process down, but . . .” Her voice trailed off and she swallowed hard, her gaze clinging to his.
He could see the pain from the memory of her murdered friends burning in her eyes. And she was right. They couldn’t count on Benton stalling. The bastards who held him had proved repeatedly that they were ruthless and deadly.
“How long would you estimate it will take them to re-create the prototype?” Zane asked, his voice thoughtful.
Faith shook her head. “I honestly don’t know. But the machine doesn’t need to be fully operational before it can sync with the human brain. Last time it started at sixty-nine percent.”
Rawls frowned, something niggling at him. “How did you find out about the machine’s ability?”
The original intention of the machine had been energy based after all; they hadn’t been doing any research on people’s brains.
“It started small. Lights turning on or off randomly. Machines as well. We thought the lab had an electrical short. We didn’t put it together until Marcy asked Julio to turn on Big Ben and the machine suddenly powered up. Marcy laughed, said, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if it turned off just by asking too?’ And it just . . . turned . . . off. That’s when we started testing her on other machines, the centrifuge, the microwave, the lights, everything. It became obvious fast. All she had to do was think about turning a machine on or off, and it did. But we didn’t know why. Not at first.” Her face tightened for a moment and she took a deep, calming breath. “We didn’t realize her sudden almost-supernatural ability was connected to the Thrive generator until the machine overheated and shut down during our flurry of testing. Just like that, Marcy was normal again. That’s when we put it together. The ability was only present when the prototype was on.”
Rawls’s chest tightened in sympathy. Marcy and Julio had been two of her friends murdered in the lab that day. Apparently two people those bastards hadn’t had any use for.
“You said three of you had the ability to sync with the machine. If they do create the prototype, they can use it too—”
“No,” Faith broke in. “None of the people kidnapped were able to sync with the machine.”
“So they killed those of you who could sync with it?” Cosky asked, a puzzled tone in his voice.
“Not exactly. Whoever attacked us and kidnapped my team didn’t know about the machine’s side effects. We were very careful to keep that quiet. They must have been after the new energy utilization, or possibly they were interested in repurposing the prototype as a clean bomb. It would take very little rewiring to create an energy distributor.” She paused for a moment to frown and then shrugged. “I’m guessing, of course. But if they’d known about the secondary effect, they wouldn’t have killed Marcy or Bekka, and they would have tried harder to find me.”
It took Rawls a second to realize what she’d just admitted.
Oh hell, no.
His whole body stiffened. He didn’t bother praying that nobody else had picked up on that confession because every single person in the room had been trained to zero in on and use such slips of the tongue.
Jesus—Faith had no fucking clue what she’d just brought down on her head.
“Let me get this straight,” Mac said slowly. “You were one of the three who could sync with the machine.”
Rawls’s fists clenched, of course it would be Mac to feed her to the lions.
“I was,” Faith admitted with a frown. She glanced at Rawls, and whatever she saw on his face had her eyes widening in alarm.
“Forget it,” Rawls snapped. Shoving his chair back, he surged to his feet. “We don’t even know if they’ve built the damn machine.”
“But if they have,” Wolf said, his dark gaze fixed on Faith’s profile. “And Dr. Ansell can sync with it . . .”
“No,” Rawls snapped again, his voice rising. “We aren’t talkin’ about a fuckin’ walk in the park, here. You’d be puttin’ her life in danger, and for what? For the possibility that she might be able to sync with a machine that probably isn’t even erected yet? Her team was grabbed less than two weeks ago. That isn’t enough time to build this contraption.”
“You don’t know that.”
He’d expected the cool counterargument, just not from Faith.