Some thick black curtains blocked off the workshop from the living area, which was dominated by Zoya’s workstation with its four screens on one side. On pain of death, nobody was allowed into the workshop without Zoya’s permission. Given the kind of toys she developed, the threat wasn’t empty rhetoric. It really did pay to knock.
Dionne jumped as something unseen in the workshop area made a metallic, crunching sound.
“What’s that?”
“Don’t worry,” said Zoya. “That was supposed to happen.”
Zoya had the worst poker face Dionne had ever seen.
“Still, do you want to maybe go check on it?”
“OK.” Zoya stood up. “Don’t touch anything,” she said, casting a hand in the direction of all her stuff. “I’ve finally got everything just how I like it.”
Dione rolled her eyes and nodded. Zoya’s disappearance behind the curtain was followed by the sound of crashing.
“Is everything—”
“Yes, everything is absolutely fine.”
Dionne examined her nails and Zoya did whatever she was doing back there. Dionne knew far better than to try to interfere. Zoya got incredibly uptight about anyone touching her projects. The woman was a brilliant engineer, but she had the temperament of a true artist.
To make the trip to Nevada feel less daunting the Sisters had thrown in the sweetener that Zoya would have an unrivalled opportunity to test the kind of toys she couldn’t dream of playing with in Brooklyn, given they would be in the middle of nowhere. This meant that for the last couple of weeks, Dionne and the others had spent a lot of time picking up large orders of parts from various locations in Nevada, but it was a price worth paying if it made Zoya feel at ease. A couple of times Zoya had explained what she was working on, but mostly it had flown over Dionne’s head. She did get that it involved super-sizing a drone that Zoya called Birdie, but Dionne could not tell you exactly what that entailed.
Dionne pulled her cardigan a little tighter around herself. “Do you think your aim at the wastepaper basket was thrown off by the crosswind running through here because you have the AC on high?”
“It has to be,” shouted Zoya over the sound of her thumping something with a wrench. “We’re in the middle of a godforsaken desert.”
Dionne considered pointing out that, as Zoya was from Pakistan, this kind of temperature shouldn’t be that unfamiliar to her, but she decided against it. The girl could get funny about any references to her past, and Dionne of all people could respect that. Being back in Nevada had triggered all kinds of memories, and not many of them were positive.
In any case, the girl was right – they were in the middle of the “godforsaken desert”. It had taken them quite a while, but they had found what appeared to be a perfect base of operations. It was about an hour outside Vegas and a similar distance from Longhurst High Security Prison. It was a seven-bed, five-bathroom pad with the two aforementioned large outbuildings, and it was costing them a small fortune to lease, but it had been decided that if they were to do what they had to in order to ensure the safe return of Sisters Bernadette and Assumpta, then now was the time to dip into the Sisters’ rainy-day fund. They needed privacy, a lot of space and a killer broadband connection.
Sister Dorothy, the head of the order, had put Dionne in charge of the operation. Now, at least, it felt as if they were finally doing something, even if they weren’t yet entirely sure what that was. Dionne was not enjoying being in command. When she had mentioned this to Sister Dorothy, the woman had actually laughed.
“I will let you in on a little secret, Sister. I never enjoyed it either. I hope that means that we are doing it right.”
Dionne had her doubts, none of which she felt comfortable sharing.
Zoya reappeared from behind the curtain. Her My Little Pony T-shirt had a fresh oil stain on it, but whatever contraption had been misbehaving had at least stopped.
“OK,” said Dionne. “I believe you have an update for me?”
“I do. Sister Joy is a total badass.”
“She acquired our friend, then?”
“She did. The woman is my muse.”
“Really?”
Zoya almost danced her way back to her chair. “Oh yeah, mamita. She used the voice-activated tear-gas bombs and the hermetically sealed bike helmet to take down that biker gang. Man, what I’d give to have seen that. She is like Batman to my Lucius Fox, James Bond to my Q, Harry Potter to my Hermione.”
“I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself. How long until they get here?”
Zoya’s fingers flew across the keyboard and a map of Nevada came up on one of the screens. “Assuming they don’t stop for tacos, they should be here in a few hours.”
“And what about the other thing?”
“Prisoner DF12395438 is on his way. They left Stanton an hour ago.”
“And you’re sure he’s—”
“Yes,” interrupted Zoya. “He’s the only prisoner being transferred today. There was supposed to be those two guys from Las Vegas, but I messed with the system. They’re getting driven to the other end of the state, where they won’t have any record of them. There will be a great brandishing of paperwork on both sides and possibly some hurt feelings, but they aren’t going to end up at Longhurst until tomorrow, and that’s all we care about.”
“Good,” said Dionne. “And the camera feeds?”
Zoya nodded furiously while gulping down an energy drink in an orange can. She tossed it to one side and belched. “I’m in on seventy-five percent of the cameras, and I’m working on the rest. Half of them were still using the default password. Total newbs. Still nothing on any of the other control systems, though.”
“That is a problem for tomorrow. Have you set up Sister Teresa with everything she needs?”
Zoya shifted in her seat but didn’t answer.
“Zoya?”
“I can keep an eye on stuff.”
“We
