djinn wars 04 - broken Read Online Free PDF Page B

He’d probably meet her at the U.S. Marshals’, let her speak to the guards who’d been keeping watch on Margolis, and then disappear.
    “Okay,” she replied, hoping he hadn’t noticed the way she’d paused before answering. “If it’s not too much trouble.”
    “We have many unused hotel rooms here. I’ll have my people get some ready for you. How many will be in your party?”
    “No more than six,” she replied. They couldn’t fit any more than that in the Suburban she used for “official” business. “Which is probably overkill, but I’d rather be careful.”
    “I agree. Then we will see you in a few hours.”
    He ended the transmission then, and Julia sat in her chair, staring at the now-silent speakers of the ham radio setup. Well, she’d really put her foot in it this time, hadn’t she? All these months she’d been more or less maintaining her cool, and now she’d made it so she’d have to go and see Zahrias in person. A lot of fun that was going to be, pretending that she only saw him as a fellow leader in this post-apocalyptic world. A colleague, so to speak.
    Yeah, right.
    She kept herself from sighing, then reached over for the phone so she could start making the necessary calls.
----
    Julia Innes, coming to Santa Fe. Zahrias understood her desire to speak to the guards in person, for it was only when one looked a man in the face that one could see the truth of his words. The radio was a necessity, since there was no other way to communicate with the people in Los Alamos, but he disliked the device. It was too easy to hide what one was thinking when only spoken words were involved.
    But perhaps it was just as well that he could not communicate with Julia easily or more often. For soon he would have to look at her, speak with her with only a few feet separating them, and that could prove to be difficult. He already had a hard enough time keeping her from his thoughts when the safety of miles separated them. What would he do when they were both in the same room?
    Control yourself, he told himself harshly. Far more is involved here than your desire for one mortal woman.
    That much was only the bitter truth. Everyone who had access to Margolis’ cell swore that they’d had nothing to do with his escape, and Zahrias had no reason not to believe them, for the truth had all but shone from their faces and rung in their words. Something else was at work here, something he had yet to uncover. It was human technology which had barred the door of that cell, and human technology could be just as frail as those who had invented it, yet….
    Normally at a time like this, he would have had Lauren take care of making sure that accommodations were prepared for their expected visitors, but Dani had sent word that she had retired to her bed. No signs of labor yet, but she tired easily, and Miguel, the Chosen man who had taken on the duties of healer in their small community — not that they had much use for one, most days — had advised that she not get up again until after the baby was born.
    So Zahrias went to Lilias, who he knew had more of an accommodating nature than many of his fellow djinn, and asked if she and her Chosen, Aidan, would assist him.
    “If it is not too much of an imposition,” Zahrias said politely as Lilias and Aidan met with him in the living room of their spacious home a few blocks from the plaza. “I thought a group of rooms at La Fonda — ”
    “Of course,” Lilias said at once. “It will only take a few snaps of my fingers, after all, and I suppose you have enough to worry about, with that mortal somehow managing to escape.”
    There was the faintest trace of accusation in her words, and Zahrias raised an eyebrow.
    Aidan looked annoyed on their leader’s behalf. “Lilias, I talked to David, and he said nothing had been tampered with. It’s like the Enterprise just beamed Margolis right out of there.”
    Zahrias had no idea what this Enterprise was that Aidan had spoken