‘Come on.’ My coat was just about bulky enough to hide its shape. ‘Let’s take a look at this thing.’
The guard was still unconscious when we passed him. Getting out of the district was even easier than it had been to get in, but we broke into a run as soon as we were past the fence. Suddenly, the sheer stupidity and danger of what we had done was catching up with us. We parted ways with the Rephaim and took another tram back to the centre of the citadel, disembarking close to Waverley Bridge – one of the two bridges crossing the valley that ran through the middle of Edinburgh, dividing the Old Town from the New Town. Rain drenched us as we returned to Anchor Close.
Eliza was bolt upright on the couch. When she saw us, she let out a low groan of relief.
‘There you are.’
Nick leaned down and wrapped an arm around her. ‘We’re okay.’
‘Did you see the depot?’
‘Yes. Be glad you didn’t,’ Maria said. ‘Are the Rephs back?’
‘Upstairs. They said they were doing a séance.’
Maria cleared the table. ‘Right,’ she said. ‘Let’s see what a fully activated portable Senshield scanner looks like.’
I carefully set the scanner-gun down. Maria was the first to lay hands on it.
‘An activated SL-59,’ she said. ‘Our new worst enemy.’
She dragged a finger along the thread of light. Once she had detached the magazine and scrutinised the bullets, she handled the weapon with practised ease. Even knowing that it was empty, Eliza tensed when it pointed at her.
‘Sorry, sweet,’ Maria said. ‘I just want to know what we’re dealing with. The gun itself still seems unremarkable, so I assume it’s the scope that’s—’ She peered through it. ‘Ah. There.’
She let me look. Through the scope of the SL-59, the world lost all its colour. Eliza’s body was surrounded by a faint glow that had to be her aura. Nick, however, was dark.
‘May I?’
Warden had appeared in the doorway with Lucida, who always seemed to be just behind him now. Maria shrugged and handed him the scanner-gun, which he examined. I had never seen a Rephaite hold a firearm; the effect was unsettling. After a few moments of silent contemplation, he removed the scope and took a capsule from beneath it, snapping a tress of wire. The white light ebbed, and the gun was just a gun again.
‘I found no evidence of a single core inside,’ he said, ‘but these were being added to the guns inside the warehouse.’
He held the capsule out in the palm of his hand. It was silver and almond-shaped, about the size of your average painkiller.
‘What is it?’ I asked. ‘Is it an ethereal battery?’
‘No,’ Warden said. ‘There is no spirit inside it.’
‘Let’s see.’
Warden handed me the capsule. Its surface gave way just a little when squeezed. I pressed it between my finger and thumb until it ruptured, releasing a tiny amount of liquid – glowing yellow-green liquid, with an oily consistency. Lucida let out a hiss of Gloss.
‘What is that stuff?’ Eliza said.
‘Ectoplasm.’ I ran it between my fingers. ‘Rephaite blood.’
Handling it drank the warmth from my skin. The ?ther glittered around me, making me light-headed.
Warden’s face was taut in a way I had never seen it before. I felt the barest shadow of his reaction through the cord: disgust.
‘No ethereal battery makes use of Rephaite blood. This is a different sort of device. Notice that the ectoplasm is luminous,’ he said. ‘Usually, a certain amount of time outside a Rephaite’s body will darken and crystallise it, extinguishing its properties. This has been kept active.’
‘How?’ I asked.
‘I cannot say.’
Warden paced slowly around the gun. His eyes flamed brighter with every step.
I watched him. ‘What are you thinking?’
‘There are only two Rephaim who would have had the necessary security clearance, and sufficient knowledge of the ?ther, to help create this technology. Nashira and Gomeisa Sargas,’ he said.
He kept pacing. Nobody else spoke while he considered.
‘As I told you in the colony, Paige, Nashira’s gift is similar to that of a binder – though far more dangerous, as she can not only control a spirit, but steal the gift it had in life,’ he finally said. ‘Let us suppose that she found a spirit with a gift that allowed for particularly good detection of the ?ther. She could bind it to every Senshield scanner, and every gun, through this.’ He nodded to my fingers. ‘Through her own blood. By placing a drop into each scanner, she has been able to link every one to this spirit and imbue them with its gift. The spirit is the core. It powers all of Senshield and every scanner – all through the conduit of Nashira’s blood. That is my supposition.’
‘That’s . . . quite a supposition,’ Maria said.
I wiped the liquid off on my jacket, disturbed by the thought that it might have once flowed through Nashira.
‘A binder’s blood is like ethereal glue,’ Eliza murmured. ‘That’s what Jaxon used to say. He could smear a bit of his blood on to an object to compel a spirit to stay beside it.’
‘He couldn’t attach one spirit to many places,’ Nick said.
‘But Nashira isn’t a normal binder, is she? She must be a sort of . . . super-binder.’
Lucida, I noticed, had stiffened at the sound of Jaxon’s name.
‘Would Nashira ever do that?’ I wasn’t sure I believed it of her. ‘Would she really let humans take pints of her blood and put it into hundreds, thousands of scanners?’
Warden was still looking at the gun.
‘Perhaps,’ he said.
‘Does that mean—’ I couldn’t face this possibility. ‘Does that mean there is no physical “core” – that it’s just a spirit? One of her fallen angels?’
‘Where would it be kept?’ Maria said. ‘Here in Edinburgh?’
‘Not necessarily,’ Warden said. ‘The spirit could be anywhere.’ He paused. ‘But . . . it is most likely with Nashira. Wherever she is.’
My legs could no longer take my weight. I sank into a chair.
‘Are you saying we have to destroy Nashira?’ I said very softly. ‘That’s the answer?’
‘Or banish the spirit.’
‘Can it be banished? We don’t know its name.’
‘Perhaps. This is conjecture.’
‘We need more than fucking conjecture!’ I snapped. ‘Whatever the hell powers Senshield, it isn’t here. We thought we’d find the core in the depot, and we didn’t. All we have is guesswork and another fucking gun. I nearly killed us all in Manchester to get here – I did kill Tom – and for what? For this?’ I showed them the blood on my fingers. ‘For conjecture?’
Nobody answered. I turned away from their eyes, feeling my own fill with heat.
‘Paige,’ Maria said, ‘this journey was always a shot in the dark, right from the start, but that doesn’t mean—’
‘Wait.’ Eliza held up a hand. ‘Do you hear that?’
We listened. A message was coming through the PA system. I pulled my hood up and went back outside.