Edge of Danger (43 page)

 
These complex factors were solely due to Gabriel being able to extract the information directly from Eden’s mind, and translate them into something tangible.

 
The idea was as terrifying as it was fascinating.

 
Another masterpiece of engineering mastery, she thought bitterly, looking at the ungainly little bot in front of her. She ran her fingers through her hair to press on her aching scalp.

 
“Headache?” Gabriel asked, replacing her fingers with his own, and gently massaging her scalp. Her tension was palpable. Her stress evident.

 
How could he
not
touch her?

 
She groaned. “That feels good enough to be illegal.”

 
“What touching you does to my body should be illegal,” he told her gruffly. She rolled her head on her neck to release some of the tension. Then nuzzled her lips to his palm when he cupped her face.

 
He tipped her head back, moving his lips across hers, wetting them with a swipe of his tongue, enjoying her small hiss of pleasure. “Like that?”

 
“Yes.” She did it back, mimicking the same seductive sweep of her tongue. Gabriel felt the jolt of desire clear to his toes and pulled her to her feet so he could kiss her properly.

 
Unfortunately there wasn’t time to linger. “Let’s test the video feed one more time.” He moved back to his position, leaning against the workstation across the room.

 
Eden bent to make a final adjustment for flexibility on the new robot’s flat feet. It was good to go. She joined Gabriel and MacBain. The butler had arrived a few minutes earlier to whisk away the bag of cold fast food and replace it with a selection of fruit, cheeses, crackers, and a large thermos of coffee.

 
It was a nice thought, but neither she nor Gabriel had the time or inclination to eat, and they were wired enough without consuming a gallon of coffee. No matter how excellent it might be.

 
Through the bot’s impervious eyes, they’d be able to see what was transpiring so that Eden could override and voice manipulate its actions when it was away from the castle if necessary. She’d already given it specific instructions with variables so that it could anticipate, and think for itself.

 
“Video feed. On,” the robot stated in an even voice.

 
Beside her, MacBain started. “My goodness. It sounds quite—human.”

 
“Dr. Kirchner’s findings in voice recognition are—were brilliant. I just…tweaked what he’d done and came up with a new tool for specifying and establishing semantic dependencies. Go to the table under the window,” Eden told it.

 
“I integrated syntax and semantics. It understands natural language…” Her voice trailed off, the train of thought already forgotten as she placed one knee on her chair, and leaned over to watch the monitor. Through the eyes of the robot she observed its progress as it crossed the room to the window.

 
It moved well, she thought with satisfaction, and its eye scans were excellent. Earlier she’d laid out seven pens on the table. Five black, two blue. “Pick up the blue pen on the left.”

 
Mechanical fingers deftly lifted the correct pen from the table.

 
“Shit. That’s amazing,” Gabriel said behind her.

 
“So precise,” MacBain murmured admiringly. “What an exceptionally clever young woman.”

 
“Hell,” Eden said absently, leaning over to tap out a series of numbers on the keyboard beside her. “No. No. No.” She sent the new data to the bot, who’d crushed the pen instead of just holding it. “Damn it. This needs more time. I want to—”

 
“Eden?”

 
She finished another sequence, glancing up at Gabriel almost absently as she considered adding one more feature.

 
“We’re not going for perfect or even fully functioning,” he told her softly, feeling an empty ache opening inside him as he imagined the rest of his life without seeing her every day with just this look of intense concentration on her pretty face. The rest of his life remembering, but not seeing, the way her silky dark hair looked just-out-of-bed mussed all the time.

 
He drank in the way her big brown eyes resumed focus as she looked at him.
Ah, Eden. What the hell am I going to do without you?
“We’re going for getting this done as quickly as possible so we can send it in. Remember?”

 
She blinked. “Right. Yes. Got it.” She straightened from her uncomfortable half-kneeling position to stand beside her chair. Digging her fingers into the back of the seat, her knuckles showed white as she gave him a resolute nod. “We’re ready.”

 
While she’d been testing the bot, Gabriel had discussed at length the best coordinates for the drop with Sebastian and the team he’d assembled at T-FLAC HQ. The topographical map of the Yellowstone area was up on the other computer, which he’d set beside her monitor so they were side by side for easy viewing.

 
“That blinking red circle is the drop zone. Knowing how fast Rex can travel made it pretty easy for Sebastian to calculate his approximate location in Yellowstone. So, now it’s just a simple case of zapping this bot into the general area and letting him—
it,
letting
it
do its thing.”

 
Eden turned to look. “Teleport?”

 
“Yeah.”

 
“Now?”

 
“Right…now.” A glowing green dot blinked in the middle of Gabriel’s monitor as the robot was teleported in the space of seconds from the castle to the location selected in Yellowstone Park. “Let’s see what he can see.”

 
“The tour bus was here, in the lot outside the Old Faithful Visitors Center in the Upper Geyser Basin. Verdine could easily obtain the schedule of when each geyser erupts.”

 
“Don’t you think it’s a little too coincidental that Jason picked Yellowstone Park for this?” Eden asked.

 
“The Park has some ten thousand thermal features, according to our geologists. Yellowstone is where the majority of the world’s geysers are located. It’s not coincidental. It makes sense.”

 
“He could have chosen to contaminate the water supply from the Arctic. Or the Alps, or any other place with substantial mountain runoff and/or glacier melt. But he’s practically in
your
backyard.”

 
“Or T-FLAC’s backyard. Our headquarters is almost next door.” Gabriel watched as the bot navigated a small grouping of bodies on the boardwalk near Old Faithful. Gabriel’s gut tightened as the robot weaved through the grim site. Many of the bodies were already bloated from the high concentration of the toxin. And that wasn’t the only side effect. Most of the faces showed signs of sudden death with unclotted blood from all orifices. It was a testament to their quick but painful deaths.

 
If Verdine wanted a graphic and shocking display for his bidders, he’d done a hell of a job.

 
“Oh God,” Eden whispered hoarsely, hand to her throat.

 
Gabriel expelled a breath as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and tugged her close. “Verdine is a sick bastard.”

 
Eyes fixed on the screen, she shivered. Gabriel ran his hand up and down her arm. Her skin felt like ice. “I agree,” she said quietly. “But I guess my biggest question is
why?
”

 
“Yeah. Mine, too,” he admitted. “The simple answer could be that when dealing with terrorists it doesn’t have to
be
personal. But I’m with you on this one. As are my cohorts both at T-FLAC and in T-FLAC/psi—we have a dozen teams working on this one.”

 
“Why Yellowstone?” she demanded, frowning. “Why now? Why would a wizard that nobody’s ever even
heard
about, pick a location
this
close to not only Edridge Castle, but also T-FLAC’s top secret headquarters? And three hundred miles
is
close.”

 
He put his arms around her waist. “We’re working on finding the answer.”

 
She leaned back, and wrapped her cold fingers around his forearms. Her sweet-smelling hair tickled his nose. She tilted her head, resting it against his chest as she watched the horrific video. “I’d say Jason has more on his agenda than a splashy and gory freaking marketing push. He wants
you
to notice him. He wants you to…
engage
him.”

 
“Yeah. I agree.”

 
CNN was now exclusively covering the massive deaths in Yellowstone Park and the surrounding area. Thousands of people had already been evacuated. They believed at least three hundred people were already dead. On the TV hanging on the wall above their monitors, Gabriel observed the joint forces gathering at an “undisclosed” location as they tried to figure out who, how, and what.

 
All T-FLAC operatives had been called in yesterday. Wizards from around the world were standing by to offer assistance.

 
And Gabriel was waiting for Verdine to return to the castle. It was his logical next move.

 
“Got you, you bastard!”

 
“Thank God,” Eden whispered as the backpack came into view. They’d watched the bot’s progress for the past twenty minutes as it maneuvered past Rex’s victims. She wanted to look away from the shocking visuals, but she couldn’t, no matter how much the sight sickened her.

 
Her penance for inventing Rex in the first place.

 
These graphic images would stay with her forever.

 
“Where is it?” Eden asked hoarsely as the second bot closed the distance to the little red backpack that was innocently leaning against a rocky outcrop inside a railing separating the wooden boardwalk from the geyser.

 
“Fifty yards to the left. Verdine must be doing a visual feed as well. He’s waiting for the geyser to erupt; when it does the boiling water will hit the chemicals in the bag and disperse them, as well as drawing them back deep beneath the earth to contaminate the aquifer.”

 
“Let’s ruin Jason’s day,” she said determinedly, opening the mic to talk to Bot 2.

 
“Absorb backpack.”

 
Nothing happened.

 
She tried again. “Eliminate target.”

 
Thanks to the GPS read on the monitor to her left, she was able to give the bot exact coordinates for the backpack. “Damn it. It’s not working! I’m not getting any error messages; why has it stopped responding?”

 
“Verdine’s controlling it. Keep the bot moving, like he’s still trying.” Gabriel stood directly behind her.

 
“He
is
still trying, damn it.” She closed her eyes briefly in gratitude when she felt the brush of Gabriel’s fingers on her nape, and the cool strength of his hand as he left it there in a strangely comforting gesture. She’d desperately needed the human contact. His contact. With him there she could handle anything.

 
He massaged the knots in her neck as he spoke. “Keep it going a little longer. Jesus,” he said roughly. “Verdine is strong. I can feel the son of a bitch pushing at our little guy. Okay, ease off a little. That’s it.”

 
He stopped kneading. “I have a few tricks up my sleeve too…Watch this—”