Page 150 of Night's Fall
“Not yet, but they’re not thinking good things.”
I was not the kind of person to wish ill on others, even if they had done me wrong.
ButIwaydidn’t wish either of those two to turn up with a blast in the face, even if they were horrid to me.
“Weapons are illegal,Aleksei,”Itold him something he definitely knew. “Unlessyou’re law enforcement, or military, or you jump through a lot of hoops to get a permit for one.Butthose are normally collectors or hunters.Howare they getting their hands on prison issue firearms?”
“They’re tenaciously pursuing this line of inquiry and attempting to lock down who might be able to modify them in the hopes that, if they do, whoever that is can lead them to whoever is behind all of this.”
I had a big question to ask, even ifIdidn’t want the answer.
But it had to be asked.
“Could it actually have stopped your creature’s heart?”
“We can’t know unless someone tests it, which we won’t be doing,” he answered. “Butthe stream is at an intensity that they speculate it would easily drop wolves, bears, big cats, the hardest beasts to kill.Andby dropImean drop dead.Dragonsare a different sort, but they’re concerned.”
“I am too,”Iadmitted.
“I can’t sayI’mnot, darling.Butthey have the weapon the male we captured was carrying.Iincinerated one, but there’s enough of it left, they can tell both weapons had the same modifications.Theunits are at theRoyalArmorywhere they’re studying them, and they’re already at work on a defense weapon.”
“A what?”
“A unit that can throw out an electronic shield that will absorb the stream.Atthe same time, it’ll blast through and disable thePR60so it can’t fire, or if it already fired, it can’t refire.”
“And who would carry that?”
“RS agents.Andme.”
Oh boy.
Aleksei continued. “Thegood news, this takes so much power, it’s essentially a one shot.That’swhy he only fired once.Becauseit has to recalibrate, and recharge, before another beam can fire.Andit takes a full five minutes for this to happen.”
“I guess that’s good, unless whoever is modifying these things can one-up themself.”
“If they can, this will narrow the field of possibles significantly.Tobe able to recalibrate and recharge a weapon of that small size for that amount of power in less time is something that hasn’t been invented yet.Thereare maybe five scientists in allTwentyRealmswho could pull off something like that, and they’d have difficulty doing it, because first, they’d have to invent the means to do it with.”
Well, that was a relief.
“Anything else?”Iasked.
He tossed some more blobs in his mouth, chewed, swallowed and answered, “No.”
“Haveyoueaten dinner?”Iasked suspiciously.
He lifted the tub and smiled.
“Want to watch a vid with me?”Iasked. “Ijust started this one.Wecan go back to the beginning.”
As answer, he handed me the tub, leaned in and kissed my forehead, then angled out of the couch-bed, saying, “I’mgoing to change.Programup some chocolate crackles, pop clusters and a cherry-lime sparkle, would you, darling?”
PrinceAleksei, theTrueHeirofNight’sFall, was going to hang and chill, eat crap and watch a vid with me.
Seriously.
Destiny knew what it was doing.
I rolled out of the couch-bed (a whole lot less gracefully thanAlekseidid) and went to theSnack-Sensation.Igot his chocolate crackles, pop clusters, and added cashew-caramel spots.Ithen went to theBev-Buddyand programmed in another grape sparkle and his cherry-lime.
