Page 33 of Amethyst Flame
Oh yeah, I knew all about the times to come.
Well, notall. But Dane had sent me to figure it out.
As we started our tour, Oluwa talked about the different areas of focus, and how each of our specialties of study might benefit from training with the various units. She went through each of my cohorts with enthusiasm starting with Will and his biomolecular engineering—until she got to me.
She glanced down at her sleek little tablet with a frown. “Imogen, I seem to be missing the report on your area of interest.”
I smiled at her a little tightly. Thanks for nothing, Dane. “Oh, it all interests me,” I said with an airy wave. “I thought to myself, self, why limit…yourself.” I gave her a sheepish smile. “Uh, I guess I just didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings by making it seem like I cared about one specialty over another, you know?” That sounded ridiculous. Did engineers even have feelings? I hadn’t yet decided if spies had feelings.
To my relief, she nodded. “It’s true everyone in BantaMatrix thinks their project is the next breakthrough miracle.” She laughed. “But in our case, we’re right!”
We all laughed dutifully.
Then her expression turned a little sharper. “You will have to decide who you want to be at some point though,” she told me. “So, Imogen. Feelings aside, what would you choose?”
I’d choose to have listened more closely when she went through the different units. “Uh…”
Next to me, Will shifted his weight. “Imogen, you mentioned nanotech, didn’t you?”
I slid a glance at him. No, I hadn’t mentioned nanotech at all. Definitely not. “Yeah. That’s an interest of mine.” My heart was pounding harder than ever.
Howandwhatdid he know?
“Wonderful. Let’s start there.” She marched through the central area of low cubicles and open workstations, heading toward the back wall…
The wallhad beena bank of huge mainframes that I’d set on fire in order to escape with Mom. Since then, it had been remodeled into more walled workrooms—like the one where Alling had strapped me down and sucked out part of my hive…
“Are you going to faint?” Will wrapped a hand around my upper arm. “You are gray.”
Better than purple.
Oluwa was waving us all into one of the little rooms. Too small, too close…
I sucked in a bunch of those deep breaths really fast—notthe way mindful breathing was supposed to be done—and the white white white began to spin. The memory of toxic smoke and fire-suppression vapor clogged my lungs. Staticky pins-and-needles prickled all over my skin as the moths ramped up to defend me.
Against nothing.
Will whispered, “Your eyes…”
I pressed my palms over my face.
“Everything okay here?” Oluwa’s Boston accent brought me back to the present—not so muchhereashe-ah.
“Forgot breakfast,” I mumbled.
“If you need to step out—”
“No.” I dropped my fisted hands to my sides. “No,” I said in a calmer voice. “I just got a little lightheaded for a second. I’ll make sure I get more protein tomorrow.”
The rest of my quintet watched me. Since I wasn’t lying—last night’s beers and this morning’s sugary smoothie had obviously not provided enough energy to my hive—they took me at my word.
Oluwa gave me a slightly longer look. “Since this is your area of interest, would you like to take the first turn? If you’re feeling all right…”
I clenched my jaw to bite back a grimace.
“I’d love to show you what I can do,” I said with utter sincerity.
Will made some uncertain sound under his breath, but I ignored him as I stepped up to the workbench. Since I’d been fuzzing out, I had no idea what it was she’d been telling us about— something something self-assembly, atomic-level control, biomimetics, something something.
