Firestorm

Silence, and then… 'Kind of a modern name, isn't it?' Cherise asked. 'Jonathan, I mean. Wouldn't he have an Egyptian name or—'

'Cherise. This is my story. You talk later. The thing is, once Jonathan made the agreement, which was supposed to be temporary, the Wardens didn't keep their end of the bargain. They didn't let the Djinn go once the emergency was past all those thousands of years ago. There was always some disaster or another to serve as an extension on the contract, and then they didn't even bother making up excuses. Some of the Djinn have had enough of waiting for the Wardens to grow a conscience, and the Wardens forgot that any such agreement ever existed. So the Free Djinn—'

That term caused a rustle of throat-clearing and shifting in chairs, and the inevitable interruption. 'There aren't any such thing as—' someone began to declare, in much the same way people once insisted the world was flat.

'Yes there are, Rosa.' That was Marion, and her tone was surprisingly sharp, coming from a woman who was normally so level and soothing in manner. But then, we'd all had a damn hard few days. I could see that it might be difficult to suffer fools with the same level of grace she usually displayed.

'Continue,' Paul said, watching me.

I swallowed, wished in vain for a drink of water, and got on with it. 'So some of the Free Djinn started killing Wardens, trying to free their brethren, as well. But some didn't agree with that tactic, so there was fighting in the Djinn ranks. Jonathan—' What the hell had happened to Jonathan? Something catastrophic. 'Jonathan died. And when he died, the agreement between the Djinn and the Wardens, the one that kept them under our command, that went sideways. We don't own the Djinn anymore. Not as of the moment he stopped existing.'

Paul's face went a paler shade of scared. 'You mean, they're no longer under our control at all?'

'Yes, that's what I mean.'

'Well, that's just great. You drove all the way from Florida to tell me we're dead?'

'You want me to go on, or what?' I glared back. He finally closed his drug-glazed eyes and nodded. 'Right. Well, we've always thought we were fighting the planet, one on one. A fair contest. But I have to tell you, it isn't fair, and it isn't even a contest. She hasn't even been awake.' Inarticulate noises of protest and denial. I ignored them. 'She's not even concentrating on us at all. We're like little mosquitoes she's been swatting in her sleep.'

Paul's face had drained of what little color he had. 'Jo—'

'Hang on, I'm still getting to the bad news.' I sucked in a deep breath, then blew it out. 'She's starting to wake up. Once she does, she can control the Djinn absolutely, and that means we'll face a thousand times the power we did before. Maybe worse than that. And without any help from the usual sources.'

He looked glassy-eyed. 'Was that the bad news? Because for fuck's sake, don't tell me it gets worse than that.'

'Yeah, that was it.'

He didn't say anything. The silence ticked off, one cold second at a time, until Marion murmured, 'Then that would be the end of it.'

Paul looked up sharply. 'I'm not throwing in the towel, and you're not either,' he snapped. 'Jo. What else you got for us? Anything on the plus side?'

'I may—' I edited myself carefully, well aware of the way this might go. 'I may know of a Djinn who can still help us.'

'I'm the guy in charge of handing out life preservers on the Titanic. Anything you got that can help, let's have it. I mean, we're talking about Band-Aids on a sucking chest wound, but—'

'I don't know if this Djinn has the ability to do much,' I said quickly. It wouldn't do to get anybody's hopes up, and I wasn't even sure where Imara was, or what she was up to. 'But I'll check into it. Maybe we can get some intelligence about what's happening to the Djinn without too much risk. Meanwhile, we have to get off our asses. We're powerful in our own right, but we've been relying on the Djinn for too long. You need to get all hands on deck, make them quit playing politics and doing under-the-table deals. Put them to work for a change.' I bit my lip, debating, and then continued, 'And get the Ma'at on board. The Wardens got lazy, using the Djinn to help them. We have to learn a whole new way of doing things. The Ma'at can help.'

There was another stir of resistance. Not denial—this was confusion. Marion knew about the Ma'at, and I'd presumed she'd reported everything to Paul, but surprise… he wasn't looking like he recognized the name, and neither did anyone else. I shot Marion an alarmed, semidesperate glance. She raised an inscrutable you're on your own eyebrow.

I tried for a calm tone. 'I thought you knew, Paul. The Ma'at. I guess you'd call them a rival organization, who can raise up powers that can influence the same things we can. I met them in Vegas.'

'Rival organization? Vegas?' Paul's face went from white to an alarming shade of maroon. 'Vegas? You're telling me you knew about all this months ago?'

Well, crap, I'd quit, hadn't I? Why would I have narked on the Ma'at, at that point? 'You guys weren't exactly keeping the communication channels open, you know! The Ma'at aren't as powerful as we are. Okay, to be honest, I don't know how powerful they are, but I know they're not as widespread. Still, they have a different approach. They might be able to help.'

'Are you working for them?'.

'What?'

He surged to his feet and leaned on the table as the other Wardens exploded into babbling argument. 'Are you working for them? Is that what this is? You get inside and kill off the rest of us? You bring this Djinn along with you to finish the job?'

'Paul—'

'Shut up. Just shut your mouth, Jo.' He upgraded the shout to a full-out bellow. 'Janet! Nathan! Get in here!'

That brought in the two guards, who'd been hovering politely out of sight around the corner. Paul gestured toward me. 'Stick this one in a room while we talk this over. Do not let her sweet-talk you, and do not let her leave. If she tries anything, you've got my permission to shoot her. Someplace painful but nonvital. Got me?'

Cherise whirled around, eyes wide. 'They're arresting you?'

'Looks like,' I said. I was feeling a tight flutter of panic about it, but there was no point in showing that to her. She couldn't help. 'It's okay, Cher. You go back to the car and head for home. I'll be all right.'

'Oh, hell no. I'm not leaving you like this!'

'You are,' Paul said flatly. He nodded the two guards toward Cherise. 'Escort the lady out first. Nicely, please.'

It was going to be nice until Cherise grabbed Janet's hair and kicked Nathan in the balls, and then it got a little ugly. Cherise fought like a girl, which meant she fought dirty. There was screeching. Nathan finally got her wrists pinned, and Janet—pink-cheeked and disarranged—looked like she wanted to do some hair-pulling herself, but she restrained herself with dignity.

The table full of Wardens looked on, wide-eyed.

Cherise continued to struggle even after they had good hold of her. I went over to her, put my hand on her shoulder.

'Cherise, stop it! I'll be all right,' I promised her. 'Trust me. Go home. This isn't your fight.'

I was right, and I was lying, of course, because it was everybody's fight now. It was just that the regular folks, the ones who were going to be mowed down by the uncounted millions, couldn't do a damn thing about it. You can't fight Mother Nature. Not unless you're a Warden. And even then, it's like a particularly brave anthill taking on the Marine Corps.

She didn't say anything, just stared at me. Hair cascading over her face, half-wild, completely scared. I'd done this to her. Cherise had been a comfortable, self-absorbed little girl when I'd first met her, and I'd dragged her into a world she could neither understand nor control. Another stone on the crushing burden of guilt I was hauling around.

'Go home,' I repeated, and stepped back. Janet and Nathan escorted her to the door—carried her, actually,