Siege of Shadows (Effigies #2)(36)

My eyes followed down the aisle all the way to the huge monitor hanging on the wall at the front of the lab. There were other computer screens, much smaller, screwed into the wall, but this one showed a map of the world against a black screen. Some areas lit up with red spheres of different sizes, its color fading as it radiated outward.

“What’s that?” I pointed at the monitor, walking ahead of Lake down the walkway.

“A map. Novel, isn’t it?”

I stopped in my tracks. Behind one of the terminals to my right, just in front of a glass case filled with Sect-grade weaponry and Sect maroon suits, stood Rhys, dressed in a blue-gray baseball jacket and a pair of faded jeans just tight enough to showcase his long legs.

“Uh, I swear I’m not stalking you,” he said, noticing my surprise.

As he started toward me, I thought back to the momentary silence that’d stretched between us in the gym and started shifting on the balls of my feet, my brain sputtering for some kind of excuse to leave.

“Those red circles represent cylithium-rich areas.” He tossed his black hair with his long, delicate fingers. “Helps them anticipate phantom attacks.”

“Right, right. Cylithium.” I took a step back. “What are you doing here?”

I asked because I couldn’t look at him without thinking of Natalya. It was difficult enough to approach the questions with a clear mind even when he wasn’t around. But when he was . . .

“I said, why are you here?” I repeated a little too sharply.

Rhys stopped dead in his tracks. It could have been disappointment softening his eyes—or hurt.

“They made some upgrades to our suits.” He pointed at the glass case. “I came to make sure everything was ready for the mission. That’s all . . . really.”

Maybe it was because of the accusatory sting in my tone that he sounded so insecure.

He started toward me again, but before I could run, he stopped at a terminal to his right by the wall, tapping someone on the shoulders. I couldn’t see what the very short woman was welding at her desk, but I could see the smoke sizzling from the little pen she gripped gingerly in her hands. She jumped a bit at Rhys’s touch, lifting up her safety glasses to glare at him, her sleeves pushed up past her elbows. But with an amused look, he pointed at me instead.

She whipped around, blinking when she caught sight of me. “Oh, you’re finally here?” Grinning wide, she waved me over. “Oh, good, good. Get over here and take off your clothes.”

“Excuse me?” Lake exclaimed behind me.

I could barely see the woman’s face before she whipped around again.

“Dot, you’re thinking of someone else.” The blonde at the terminal next to her shook her head. “These are two of the Effigies.” She nodded at me. “You’re Maia, right?”

“Yeah,” I said. “And I’m definitely not taking off my clothes.”

“Oh, right!” The woman named Dot smacked her own forehead. That’s when I finally took stock of her tiny face and nut-brown eyes, wide and bright like jewels against sallow, sickly skin. “Oh, I’m so sorry. Forget that, go away, I don’t need you. Oh, wait, no . . .” A pause. “Sorry, the neck-band, right. I was working on that. Come here, come here.”

Blindingly pink high heels clicked on the tiled floor as she adjusted her seat at the bench, her lab coat swishing behind her.

“Just working on a bit of tech for you. I’d explain, but I’m not quite done yet,” she said, picking up her welding pen. “You’re welcome to wait here while I work. Actually, I would have had this finished earlier, but there was a bit of a mix-up with the equipment storage down the hall. Luckily, Pete and Mellie over there were here to help me out with that.”

At the terminal next to her, two young lab techs reacted to hearing their names, and the young blond woman who’d spoken earlier rolled her eyes.

“Yeah,” Mellie said, peering up from her monitor. “You forgot your own code. Again.”

“Even though you’d just reset it. Again,” Pete said after rubbing the back of his brown neck, but he wasn’t looking at Dot. He was leaning over the desk, fiddling with some wires linking up to one of the monitors. There was something beside him—some kind of box—but his tall frame blocked it from view.

“Yes, well, that’s why you’re my assistants.” Dot rubbed her sunken cheek with a gloved hand, and it was only when I saw her cheekbones jutting out that I noticed how thin she really was. “You assist me.”

“Yeah, we assist you in remembering what day it is,” Mellie grumbled, her short blond bob bouncing as she shook her head.

“This is Dot Nguyen, by the way,” Rhys told me, and I could tell he was suppressing a laugh. “Weapons and Tech expert. We got her from the facility outside Toronto a few weeks ago. She was the one who designed that inoculation device you used against Saul.”

“Really?” Dot Nguyen. Director Chafik had mentioned her before. I certainly remembered that gadget, too. In Buenos Aires, I’d jammed the long tip into Saul’s neck to temporarily disrupt his powers. It was brilliant. It saved my life.

Dot shook her welding pen as if it were out of ink, jumping back when she nearly dropped it on her knee.

“Uh.” Rhys scratched his head. “All that matters is she’s good at the things we pay her to do.”