Jack flushed. “You asked me to do it. I told everyone I was going to do it. Then you won’t let me do it. It’s not fair.” His glasses almost seemed to steam up from the heat of his indignation.
“Listen, Jack. You really want Caine and Drake to be able to dial up anyone they want down here? You want Caine to be able to reach out to kids? Threaten them? Sweet-talk them? Maybe offer to give them food in exchange for guns or whatever? Look how well he fooled everyone the first time around.”
“You just want to be in control of everything,” Jack accused.
The accusation stung. Sam started to yell but choked it off. For a few seconds he just struggled with his temper, unable to speak.
Of course I want to control things, he wanted to say. Of course he didn’t want Caine filling kid’s heads with lies. Kids were desperate enough to listen to anyone who offered an easier life, even Caine. Did Jack not understand how close they all were to disaster? Did Jack not get how tenuous Sam’s control of the situation had become?
Maybe not.
“Jack, kids are scared. They’re desperate,” Sam said. “Maybe you don’t see that because you’re busy with other things. But we are about this far”—he held up thumb and forefinger about an inch apart—“from total disaster. You want Caine to know that? You want kids talking to him or Drake at three in the morning, spilling their guts, telling him all of our business? You really want Caine knowing how bad things are?”
Astrid stepped in to cut off Sam’s increasingly angry rant. “Jack, what happened to get you all worked up?”
“Nothing,” Jack said. Then, “Zil. He’s busting on me in front of everyone, talking about how now that I’m a mutant and all, my brain must not work as well.”
“Say what?” Sam asked.
“He says people who get powers, their IQ drops, they get stupid. He said, ‘Exhibit A: poor old Jack, formerly Computer Jack, who can pick up a house but can’t get the phones to work.’”
“You know, Jack, I’m sorry if he hurt your feelings, but I kind of have stuff to deal with here,” Sam said, beginning to get really exasperated. “You’re the tech genius. You know it, I know it, Astrid knows it, so who cares what Zil thinks?”
“Look, why don’t you just work on the internet thing you’re trying to do?” Astrid suggested.
Jack shot her a poisonous look. “Why, so you can not use that, either? Make me look like an even bigger fool?”
Sam was ready to snap at Jack, tell him to shut up, go away, sto
p bothering him, but that would be a bad idea, so he took a deep breath, summoned all his patience, and said, “Jack, I cannot make promises. I’m dealing with a lot of stuff. First priority, before we worry about techie stuff, is—”
“Techie stuff?” Jack interrupted. His voice was shocked and indignant.
“That’s not a diss. I’m just saying—” But whatever he was about to say was forgotten when Edilio appeared in the doorway. He didn’t rush in as Jack had done. He just stood there looking pale and solemn.
“What?” Sam asked.
“The zekes. They’re in the melon field now.”
“They’re spreading,” Astrid said.
“I could have got all those kids killed,” Edilio said. He looked like he’d seen a ghost. He was trembling.
“Okay. Enough,” Sam said, standing up, pushing his chair back sharply.
Finally.
Finally something he could actually do.
He should have been worried. And he was. But the emotion that filled his mind as he strode purposefully from the room was relief. “The list is going to have to wait, Astrid. I’m going to kill some worms.”
Two hours later Sam stood at the edge of the melon field. Dekka was beside him. Edilio had driven them there in the open Jeep, but he was not stepping foot on the ground.
“How you see this playing out?” Dekka asked.
“You lift them, I burn them,” Sam answered.
“I can only reach a little area at a time. A circle, maybe twenty feet across,” Dekka said.