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"That’s why you were perfect," Lewis said "How’d Rahel do?"

"Fine If I hadn’t known she wasn’t huured it out She was - " Kevin’s throat worked nervously, his pro Cherise" And I couldn’t i too well, but that ht have been okay After all, he was socially aard at the best of tio," Kevin said "That hen they cut us off Tried tous, but Rahel knew Paul was in the building, she told et the two of you out?"

"Yeah" Kevin’s voice faltered "I made her stop"

Silence I looked at Kevin’s hands They were tightly bound up together, tre

"Why?" Lewis asked the question I wanted to, in a voice far entle than I could have "What happened?"

"There was this girl I didn’t know - she ht have been one of the to kill her if we tried to leave I had to - " Kevin squeezed his eyes shut "Christ I should have just let Rahel get out of here"

"Trust ht it was important to stay, you’d have been yanked out whether you wanted it or not" Lewis glanced at David, as still pacing, but listening to every word "Then what happened?"

"They had this stuff Black stuff I guess it was like - like the stuff you found" Antimatter I nodded "They tied Rahel up with it, and she couldn’t et away, but she couldn’t; she was able tofor a way out when you showed up" He nodded at , all too well I wanted to help hi that he had to deal with hi to help, no matter how sincere

"Kevin" I took one of his hands and drew it out of its tight ball; it stayed tense in , ready to yank away at a second’s notice "Before Paul showed up, theythat could help us"

He was already shaking his head "I’d have said if they spilled their guts, okay? But they didn’t They just talked about what a bitch you were, and how you illing to fuck over the Wardens for your boyfriend"

"Finally, soree with," I said He shot y hair

"No," he said, "I don’t Not after I sahat they wanted to do"

I felt a shiver crawl hand-over-hand up the bones ofto torture hi up at David, then away "Make hi about the Djinn About the Oracles About how to destroy the the Djinn and the Oracles would destroy us There’s no way hu else alive on this planet, would survive a catastrophe like that"

We thought of it at the sa over the top of Kevin’s bowed head David must have as well, because he spun toward us

"He knows that," I said "Bad Bob knows that He’s not stupid enough to assu else So ould he want to destroy the human race?"

"You know," David said

"It’s not Bad Bob," I said "Is it?"

"No," Lewis agreed "I think it’s a De his skin"

Unfortunately, I had way too much personal experience with Dee they could do once they took on a huht the Wardens had been pretty successful about purging anyone from their ranks who carried a Deranted the carriera secret Djinn under your control But you could carry a Dean to corrupt you froet rid of it by passing it to someone else

Someone else more powerful, because the Demon Mark was only attracted to power It traded up

I’d been the unfortunate recipient of such a thing, at Bad Bob’s hands I hadn’t understood, at the ti me a kind of backhanded co I was

He had He’d chosenhis body - he’d waited too long, hung on to his power until it was nested deep inside I thought about his cold body lying in a grave somewhere, and wondered if his flesh was still there, peaceful and eht noas Bad Bob reanimated; maybe it was just a semblance, like the one Rahel had worn to play Cherise Either way, it wasn’t Bad Bob on the inside Couldn’t be But if it was a full-grown, fully forin to understand

"The antimatter," I said "The De like that That’s why there’s no machinery, no plant they’ve had to set up That’s e couldn’t find any kind of permanent base for the Sentinels - they don’t need a plant, not even a hidden one Because he justmakes it" Like sweat, or blood, or other bodily fluids It was the very essence of why the De here; it literally destroyed the world around it, just by being The hu an astronaut from the cold of space

If it left that shell

I remembered what Jerome Silverton had said about the black shard we’d found era itself is supposed to produce about 180 petajoules of energy The spear I’d seen Bad Bob use to kill Ortega had been at least five tiinally found Catastrophic would be charitable

The De the Djinn to power the growth of the antih, ould he do with it? Where would he -

"The Oracles," I said "What if he goes after the Oracles?"

David was already gone when I turned toward hihter was in Sedona, locked for all time in one location Unable to flee

I sat with Lewis, holding Kevin’s shaking hand, and waiting for the end of the world