The Book of Destiny by Melissa McShane

Author:Melissa McShane [McShane, Melissa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Night Harbor Publishing
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

17

“The hell you are!” I burst out. “Make Abernathy’s the center of your experiment? I don’t think so!”

Wallach looked surprised at my outburst. “It’s perfectly safe. The oracle doesn’t use a tenth of the power generated by its node—”

“How do you know that? The oracle isn’t like anything else. What happens if you’re wrong, and you suck all the power out so it dies?”

“I’ve studied this node on and off for twenty years, Mrs. Campbell.” He sounded placating rather than angry, and it made me even more upset, like he thought I was a child to be soothed. “The oracle sits atop the node rather than being integrated into it—”

“I know that.” I hadn’t known that, not really, but it fit with what I’d suspected after hearing Claude talk about the Athenaeum moving, and with the transport of the store from England to Portland.

“—And it generates its own power,” Wallach continued as if I hadn’t interrupted him. “The node is simply a backup, if that.”

That, I really hadn’t known. “That doesn’t make sense,” I said. “Ariadne Duwelt told me the named Neutralities are the largest nodes in the world. If the oracle isn’t using the node, why would it need to be so large?”

“It’s not about need,” Wallach said. He returned to the box and hoisted out another contraption, this one bigger than the first and resembling a scared cat. “The oracle’s proximity to the node encourages its growth—you know nodes grow and shrink naturally over time? All the named Neutralities have the same effect on their nodes, though some, like the Sanctuary and the Labyrinth, are more integrated than others. The oracle will be in no danger.”

I still resented his high-handed assumption that he had the right to use my Neutrality any way he chose. “You’re planning an untested experiment on Abernathy’s’ premises. Even if it doesn’t drain the oracle’s power, how do I know there won’t be other side effects? I heard about the houseflies!”

Wallach scowled. “The interbreeding worked,” he muttered. “Create a couple of self-propelling organic cameras the size of ponies and nobody ever lets you forget about it.”

“It’s going to be fine, Helena,” Viv said, a note of pleading in her voice. “We’ve done all sorts of testing and planning, and it’s perfectly safe.”

“And this will end the Long War, Mrs. Campbell, I can promise you that,” Wallach said.

“Meaning that even if you screw up, it won’t matter, because there won’t be any more invaders to fight?” I said sarcastically.

Wallach closed his eyes and tilted his head heavenward as if praying for patience. “Mrs. Campbell,” he said, finally looking at me, “you have done nothing but try to obstruct this project from the beginning. You—no, let me finish. You are worried about irrelevancies and issues I’ve already corrected for. I’m not sure where your hostility comes from, but I promise you this: I know this plan will work. I’ve poured a lifetime’s worth of scientific study into it, I have performed small-scale tests successfully, and I

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