Gale Force

''And here I was hoping you'd have some bright, easy answer,'' I said. ''Because I've got no

clue, man. I've never seen anything like it before.''

''Have you shown it to David?''

I hadn't, and as he mentioned it, I wondered why I hadn't. And why he hadn't immediately

sensed it. Strange.

''No,'' I said slowly. ''And I-don't think I should. Don't you think?''

Lewis nodded, not looking at me. His face had gone the color of old newspaper, and his lips

looked gray. ''I don't, either,'' he said softly. ''Why is that?''

''What?''

''Why do we think that? Wouldn't we usually ask the Dji

Usually, but this time . . . it just didn't feel . . .

I had no answer. I just stared at him, then shrugged. Lewis took a deep breath, started the

Hummer's engine, and pulled back out onto the road.

The rest of the trip was spent in silence.

''You're kidding,'' I said as Lewis negotiated the Hummer into a parking space built for a

Hyundai. ''We're meeting at De

president?''

''Emergency meeting,'' he said. ''This was the closest place we could find where we could have

some privacy. Besides, I could use some food-how about you?''

Well, I supposed I could use a Grand Slam or a Moon Over My Hammy or something.

Getting out of the truck in the narrow space between two other vehicles proved to require moves

illegal in some Southern states. I managed not to scratch the other car, which was good, because

it was a Ferrari. Bright red.

De

shake zone. Plate glass windows were intact; diners still sat at tables; waitstaff circulated with

trays and plates. Lewis and I walked in, out of the cloying humidity and into the frigid embrace

of air-conditioning. I shivered a little-still fighting off the chill I'd gotten on the aetheric, I

guessed.

Lewis led me back to a private room, one with sliding doors. Inside were four of the most

powerful people in the Southeast, never mind Florida, and they were all digging in to breakfast.

I half recognized Luis Rocha from his signature on the aetheric; he was medium height, medium

build, a bit broad in the shoulders. His skin was a dark, warm bronze color, and his eyes and hair

were black. The hair was long, trailing down around his face and past his collar. His sleeveless

gray muscle T-shirt revealed strong, defined arms inked up with flames and intimidation, but his

smile was warm and rather sweet.

He was the only Earth Warden in the room. Two of the others-Sheryl Brewer and Nicholas

Mancini– were both Weather Wardens, solid technicians, if not spectacular. Usually, trouble in

Florida came from weather, after all-it wasn't known as Hurricane Central for nothing.

The fourth was, of course, a Fire Warden. Nobody I wanted to see. She no doubt went with the

red Ferrari out front, and her name was Janette de Winter. Good at her job, but my God, didn't

she know it. We exchanged narrow smiles. She was eating a delicate little fruit cocktail thingy.

Even now, in the midst of crisis, she was perfectly put together-a tailored white suit, long

ta

quality of having been put on in layers, until she looked more like an animated magazine cover

than a human being.

Maybe I was just feeling catty because I was sweaty, bruised, and covered in dust.

She raised an eyebrow at my appearance, looking coolly amused. Nope. It wasn't because I

looked like crap. I felt catty because I just plain disliked the woman.

Lewis and I took seats at the table. He slid in next to the Weather Wardens, leaving me stuck

next to de Winter, but also next to Rocha, who winked at me as he shoveled syrup-drenched

waffles into his mouth.

The server appeared, and Lewis and I gave our orders-I went for waffles, after seeing Rocha's

evident happiness with his. Also, just so I could see de Winter look pained. Waffles were clearly

declasse. Hooray for waffles.

''First of all,'' I said as the waitress closed our doors, ''and just to get it out in the open, this is

not my fault. Ask Lewis.''

All eyes turned to him, if they weren't already there. He sipped coffee and nodded. ''She's in the

clear,'' he said. ''Whatever's going on, I don't think any Warden is behind it.''

Luis Rocha put down his fork. ''It wasn't natural. No way in hell. Did you see it?''

''We saw,'' Lewis said. ''And I agree. It wasn't natural. But it's nothing a Warden could be

powerful enough to do alone, either.''

There was a moment of silence. Brewer said, softly, ''Dji

dreading and the reason, on some level, that Lewis and I hadn't wanted to go to David about

what we'd found. Because either he knew, which was bad, or he didn't know, which was worse.

Either way, it put him, as the leader of the New Dji

''That's certainly a possibility,'' Lewis said. I knew what he was thinking: Ashan, and the other

half of the Dji

Ashan would have driven that evil black thorn into the skin of Mother Earth. In a curious sort of

way, he cared more for her than for himself, his people, and certainly humanity. He wouldn't

have done it, and he wouldn't have allowed it to be done, not by any of his people. Or David's, I

thought suddenly. There'd have been war first.

Nothing scarier than a war between the Dji

Been there. Had scars.

''Did you try to get it out?'' Rocha asked Lewis. Lewis nodded and held up his hands. They

were blistered. ''Madre de Dios. That happened on the aetheric?''

''Yeah.'' Lewis studied his palms with a frown. ''Shouldn't have.'' I knew that self-healing was

one of the toughest things for Earth Wardens, and so did Luis Rocha; he gestured to Lewis, and

the two of them went off to a side table to sit close together, backs to us. Healing was,

sometimes, kind of a private thing. Intimate. I sipped coffee and tried to ignore the fact that I'd

been left on my other side with Janette de Winter, who was shooting me looks that could kill.

''Any report on injuries?'' I asked the table at large. They all glanced at each other, and then

Sheryl Brewer took on the job.

''Minor stuff so far,'' she said. ''We've got some superficial cuts and a couple of broken bones,

but nobody dead or seriously injured. The damage was contained pretty quickly. Whatever you

guys did-''

''Wasn't much,'' I said, ''at least on my part. Rocha deserves the credit for containment,

definitely.''

Credit for more than containing the earthquake, apparently, because when he and Lewis rejoined

us– coincidentally, the same time my waffles arrived, all fluffy and begging to be drowned in

syrup-Lewis's palms were smooth and blister-free again. ''Surface damage,'' he said to our

questioning looks. ''Looks like the thing's hot.''

''Hot hot, or radioactive hot?'' Brewer asked. It was an excellent question, and not the one

Lewis had been hoping to answer.

''Radioactive,'' he said reluctantly. ''We need to find this thing in the real world and contain it.

Fast. Jo, I want you to talk to Paul, figure out if we've got anybody who specializes in

radioactivity. We're going to need somebody who knows what they're getting into.''

I nodded and dipped my first bite of waffle into syrup. It never made it to my mouth, because my

phone rang. I stepped away from the table to answer it-it was a number that didn't pop up with