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"Hey, I can&039;t help it if I&039;ness in oing to help iven me a Djinn"

He stared "You&039;re fuckin&039; crazy Why the hell would Lewis do that?"

"Because," I said, before I could think about it, "I think he used to be in love with ot out of the car, and then leaned in the passenger sideAn east wind ruffled his hair-storm on the way

"Jesus, Jo, he&039;s not the only one," he said, and walked back into his castle

I drove out of Albany not knowing exactly how to feel I loved Paul I&039;d always loved hiraree and the training to become a real Warden

It was because of his in an asyluentle touch, I couldn&039;t have gone on without my powers I would have cracked Paul prevented that

All the good things in s had happened because of Bad Bob

The Wardens have a big fancy ho perfor the walls One of the most talented Wardens ever to join the team, he was also one of the most controversial

He had been a brilliant, terown into a brilliant, tantru, bad-attitude adult People feared Bad Bob Nobody in their right mind wanted to be under him Even at his own level, or above it, people hated to see hiot him as a boss

I&039;d heard all the stories-Bad Bob threw a drink in the face of the President of the United States, and it had taken all the resources of the Association to get hi fro-away party for a retiring National Warden in England and swilled down an entire bottle of Cristal chane, when he didn&039;t even like to drink, just to spite the old boy He was feared, he was revered, and he was legendary for a reason It was considered a badge of honor to have a run-in with Bad Bob, so you could dine out on for months

Weather Wardens sometimes resemble a Keystone Kops coanization That&039;s because no large organization composed of anized Yet, sos from about 80 percent of the crap that Mother Nature throws at us, in our arrogant, mostly chaotic way

Nobody, however, had been able to stop Hurricane Andrew

It had swept in fro very much like all its wimpy cousins who&039;d taken no more than a feell-chosen pressure shifts to counter Nobody in the Florida office was much worried Bad Bob, Sector Warden back then, hadn&039;t even been infors; his responsibility was looking after thethe whole Sector stable over tiot out of hand First two Staff Wardens worked on it, then five, then more Before it was over, there were literally hundreds of Wardens focused on it, trying to defuse the ticking bo with a stornitude It killed more than twenty of them, shattered the powers of at least ten more, and by the time Bad Bob physically made it to the scene, it had already hit the coast of Florida and begun its raving march of destruction

I wasn&039;t there, of course Too young But I heard all about it in school

Bad Bob walked along into the center of the store was done-the worst hurricane to hit the coast in a century But even in the middle of all that devastation, we kne much worse it could have been Andreas a sentient story to hold its fore a path of destruction over land for a thousand s on this planet can be And yet Bad Bob had faced it down and ht he was a jerk and an asshole wouldn&039;t turn down a chance to be on Bad Bob&039;s teae of courage second to none

By the dawn of 2002, I&039;d been a working Warden for four years, mainly up and down the Atlantic coastline Technically, I orking for Bad Bob in Florida, but as with CEOs of major corporations, his presence was mostly made manifest by phone calls to those far above ional Warden John Foster, a capable, easygoing uy you half expected to have a plummy Oxford accent instead of the North Carolina drawl that came out of hisout a tropical stor stor really dra iot bawled out by Bad Bob via telephone It was nothing personal Everybody gets reamed by Bad Bob at least twice, if you survive on his teaust, Tropical Stor Early for hurricane season, but in my experience the worst came early, or it came late Samuel had some very unusual patterns in it, patterns that reminded us of Andrew The decision was made, all the way up at the World Council level, to stop the stor a threat Nobody was co anymore

I&039;m still surprised that my na, not a major event, and I had a solid rep eather stor forwith a Warden on the other side of the pond- Tamara Motumbo, from Mauritania I&039;d done tandes, nothing like the kind of power-sink that lurked out in that wole

The National Weather Service has so smashed to scrap metal and splinters by Hurricane Andrew I arrived that ; working in Florida had given e myself in the quest for the perfect tan and the perfect bikini, and I was feeling confident that I&039;d finally mastered at least one of them Six square inches of aqua-blue Lycra priced at about fifteen dollars per square inch It was in a tiny little shopping bag on Delilah&039;s front seat, my personal reward-in-advance for the job I was about to do The plan was to finish up ridding the world of Tropical Store into the bikini, and hit the beach for the rest of the day

There was nothing unusual about visiting the NWS offices We-ional Wardens-did it all the ties said visitor or researcher, but at least half the building suspected ere soh nobody said it out loud and nobody asked any questions Lots of significant looks, though And people handing you free Cokes

Thatonfor a cover-up later at the beach-and exchanged chitchat with the receptionist, a gorgeous African-A stories, and as we did, I happened to glance down at the visitor log My eyes froze on a naanine

"Bad Bob&039;s here?" I asked Monet

She glanced up atwith somebody," she confirmed "I didn&039;t ask who"

"Well, I think I&039;ll just sacrifice a sod spared me from that"

"Baby, I&039;d sacrificeall right" Monet rolled her eyes "That man eats his own children, I swear"

"He damn sure eats his Staff&039;s children And his Staff" I checked my watch, which told et in there Later?"

"Later," she confirreat place about six blocks down Be there"

I waved and was buzzed through the door into a high-tech wilderness of cubicles, glass conference roo in ists looked up and watched , and so did they

Situation Room B is, technically, a secondary crisis center, but it&039;s rarely in use; the Wardens use it for an informal office most of the time I&039;d been in it five or six times already, so I knehat to expect when I opened the door

Except that there was soanine stared out at the cloudless blue sky, his feet up, drinking a glass of water with bubbles I hadn&039;t seen hi, and I felt ht of him Especially when those laser-sharp blue eyes considered and then disht tenor voice, neutral with indifference

"Yes, sir"

"Just here to observe," he said Observe Like that wasn&039;t worse than any trouble Iover your shoulder was bound to make even the best Warden nervous, and I wasn&039;t quite arrogant enough to consider myself the best Yet

I sucked it up and sat down to review the file: maps of pressure syste circulare in a seaport town in Mauritania narammed for speed dial to reach her Voices don&039;t carry so well in Oversight Landlines are always a plus for long-distance work

"You getting on with it while I&039;?" Bad Bob asked He hadn&039;tat the view Funny how I think of it as a view, even though both of us were looking at a clear blue sky, not even any clouds in sight; ere drawn to the boundless and limitless possibilities When I sed, I felt my throat click There was a carafe of water on the table, sweating dia hiainst blue jeans

"Sure," I said "No problem"

I speed-dialed Taed soernails against the table I hurried along to Step One, which was confiro into a powerful situation with a clear expectation of what you&039;re supposed to walk out with

We decided anted to disrupt Sa to wipe out the story so just as bad Ilike knowing every move you make is on the record

"Ready?" I asked Tah I&039;d lay money that neither of us was really sure

I sucked in a deep breath, let go, and floated out of ray and n, lit up with so ed I wondered if he was sick, but I wasn&039;t about to ask after his health, not now I turned away fro power of the sea, and let the waves of its energy carry h the liquid we call air No clouds in Oversight, either, but there was a low red band of energy over the ocean and a corresponding white one co down from the mesosphere-clouds later, then, and rain in a day at inably powerful engine that drives the ht on the coast, was a sensuous, dangerous experience

I soared In Oversight, crossing huge distances takes a fraction of real ti trip by the ti Sa boy, already well into rebellious adolescence and halfway to beco that kind of storm makes you feel small No, not just small: nonexistent The forces that for I could suh of my consciousness back to my body to ask Tamara on the phone if she had a Djinn