“Welcome to our world.” Dot gave me a pat on the shoulder. “Controlling the elements. Effigies passing on their consciousness, but only after they die. Magic. What you do is magic. Magic that shouldn’t exist, but does. And the only thing we mere mortals can do is try to understand magic through science.” With her bony hands, she propped herself against her assistants’ table. “Because really, what else can we do? How can the ability to perform magic be created from inside the human body? Why can we also find it in phantoms?”
There was a wildness to her curiosity, smoldering as she pulled up her safety glasses and faced me. “How is the mind connected to the body? How is the mind connected to magic?” She tapped my forehead twice with her index finger. “How did Natalya’s mind and magic travel into your physical body after she died? Mind, magic, body. One hundred years and we have more questions than answers. But we are trying our best. There’s just so much we don’t know yet.”
“That’s understandable, but it doesn’t really help me,” I said.
Dot rubbed the muscles in her neck as she moved back to her station. “It’s like we’re looking at the wall of a cave seeing only what we can see through our limited scope. Trying to grasp the universe into our hands using nothing but our flimsy, woefully insufficient technology.” She picked up a screwdriver from her table. “But the real truth . . . the real truth, Maia, is always just out of sight.”
10
SIBYL WORKED IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS. organizing a secret mission away from the prying eyes of the vast majority of your highly skilled, perceptive agents must not have been an easy feat. The few that were let into the loop were already in the expansive underground hangar by the time I arrived with Chae Rin and Lake. I could see their tiny forms through the glass of my elevator as it took us down. They were scurrying across the pavement, loading seven white delivery vans. Belle had gone ahead of us. Maybe she was already among them, helping to prepare the decoys.
It was part of the plan. Each van was inconspicuous enough to pass under the average civilian’s radar. Under Sibyl’s orders, they would drive off in different directions, forcing potential enemies to split their forces to get to the cargo they wanted: the rings. Two rings, two vans, two Effigies in each, waiting to strike like snakes in a gift box alongside a small crew of agents for backup. A city-wide shell game. It was Sibyl’s idea, but Rhys was the one who’d figured out the routes, the one directing agents to their respective vans. In his maroon suit, Kevlar-based like the one I was currently chafing in, he leaned against a wide table set up next to one of the vans, a paper map spread across it.
“Howard?” I waved excitedly when Howard Day, the beefy, bald Sect agent I’d met in New York, lifted his shades to greet me.
“It’s good to see you again, Maia.” His voice was just as grave and his expression just as serious as ever. I was glad he was okay; he’d been in bad shape the last time I’d seen him. Cocking his head to the side, he narrowed his eyes. “What is that?”
He pointed at the leopard-patterned bandana around my neck. Lake had lent it to me to hide the steel neck-band keeping the little voices in my head in check.
“Neckwear is against mission dress code regulations,” he started to say, suddenly reminding me how very stuffy he could be. “It can be a distraction on the battlefield and—”
“I think it’s pretty. Howard, relax. We’ve talked about this.” The beautiful woman standing next to him smiled at me through her long lashes, green eyes bright against her tawny skin, a similar shade to mine. “I’m Eveline. The wife.”
She was shorter than I was, which made the height difference between the couple all the more noticeable, yet charming nonetheless. Her black hair was shaved close to her skull, pronouncing the square shape of her head. The three white studs at the corner of her left ear gleamed under the hangar lights.
“Didn’t know you were married,” I said as she greeted Chae Rin and Lake.
“Well, they say the family that slays together . . .” Rhys left his words unfinished as he flashed me a quick glance and an even quicker smile.
Keeping my face unreadable, I dodged both, looking at the map instead. “These are the routes we’ll be taking, right?”
My evasion didn’t go unnoticed. After a slight pause, Rhys straightened up. “Yeah. The routes of the different vans are all here in marker.” I could see the red streaks tracing lines through London and Essex, the two cities sandwiching us here in Epping. “Each will take different paths out of the facility, but, Maia, you and Belle will be in one of the vans going underground.” He tapped the route with the tip of his covered marker. “Route L-9. It’s an underground highway built during World War II. It was used for communications during the war, but since then, the Sect has revamped it and built new structures. There’ll be Sect agents in stations along the way monitoring the route and keeping the tunnel APDs online.”
“We’re not headed to the same place, are we?” asked Chae Rin. I could hear the sound of music from her headphones as they dangled down her chest, her phone deep in her left pocket.
“You and Lake will be in Unit Two, heading out toward Dover Port with Unit Three following close behind as backup. Belle and Maia are heading northwest in Unit Seven with Unit Six as their backup. For security purposes, you won’t be told the location until you get there.”
“I’ll be with you, Maia,” said Eveline, picking up a gun off her table. “And a few other agents.”
“Do I get one of those?” Chae Rin watched, far too interested, as Eveline fitted the gun inside the holster on the small of her back. “Hey,” she added when Howard gave her a sidelong look, “unlike some of us, I can’t generate my own weapon. It’s for protection.”
I peered around the hangar. “You really think we’re going to need all these people?” Several agents were suiting up and equipping themselves. Preparing for Saul. Felt more like preparing for a war. My stomach lurched as I watched them pack into their respective vans.
“We know it’s a possibility that Saul might launch some kind of attack to find the rings,” said Howard. “He wouldn’t come unless he had some trick up his sleeve. We want to be prepared.”
“Don’t worry.” Rhys’s tone was much lighter as he rolled up the map, sweet enough for my heart to speed up. The difference between his boy-next-door and boy-bred-for-battle personas was like night and day. But both were dangerous. “I’ll be one of the agents in your van. And as I seem to remember, we’ve worked pretty well together in the past, right?”
I remembered too. “Okay, whatever,” I said, avoiding his smile. “We should go get ready. Get in position or something.”
I thought I’d be better prepared for the look on Rhys’s face, the quiet but unmistakable pang of hurt in his eyes as he watched me. I pretended not to notice. It was better than dealing with the sudden twinge of pain I felt upon realizing that if he was really innocent, then I was hurting him unnecessarily.
But if this was a ruse and he was playing me . . .
“Good luck,” I said to Howard with a quick nod before taking off.