“Look, I—”
Nix shook her head in complete disgust. “And are you planning on asking Joe for that stuff?”
“Good luck with that,” said Riot, and added under her breath, “moron.”
“Hey, wait, I—”
“What were you thinking, Benny?” asked Nix.
“You guys are great,” he said sarcastically. “Thanks for the vote of confidence . . . but I’m not actually stupid.”
He reached into his vest pocket for something and held it out an inch from Nix’s face. The girls studied the papers. Nix took one; Riot took the other. Lilah came and peered over their shoulders.
Nix’s read: URGENT: REPT OF R3 ACTIVITY VCNTY OF DVNP—REL. WIT. *** FTF?
Riot’s read: +36° 30' 19.64", -117° 4' 45.81"
Lilah said, “Wait . . . what?”
“I don’t know what Brother Peter was looking for,” said Benny, “but I’m guessing this is it.”
A slow smile formed on Nix’s face and even her freckles seemed to glow.
“I shoved those in my pocket when I saw the quads. Nothing else in the satchel looked to be important.”
Riot grinned and shook her head. “By golly, boy, you are as slick as a greased weasel.”
“Thanks, I think.”
Lilah gave him an appraising stare as if surprised that he wasn’t mentally deficient after all.
Nix’s smile faltered. “What happens when Brother Peter realizes he doesn’t have these?”
“How do we even know that he knows what he’s looking for?” asked Benny. “They must have been watching us and saw us take the satchel. Then they saw us put stuff back into the satchel, and now they have it. What we need is to get our butts back to Sanctuary.” He paused. “Yesterday Joe told me that when they couldn’t find the D-series records, we lost our last chance to beat this thing. I don’t think that’s true.”
Nix said, “What do you think Brother Peter meant about a storm coming?”
“He was bluffing,” said Benny. “Lilah had a gun on him and he was talking trash.”
Lilah gave a slow shake of her head. “No, he wasn’t.”
“You don’t think so?” asked Benny.
“Snow White’s right,” said Riot. “Brother Peter wasn’t bluffing at all, no sir. You could tell it from his voice. He thinks he’s going to win.”
“Against Sanctuary?” Nix laughed. “Against Captain Ledger and the soldiers? How?”
No one had an answer to that.
“Then it’s some kind of weapon,” said Lilah. “Something we haven’t seen yet.”
“Reapers only use knives,” said Nix.
Riot shrugged. “Before I left them, they would never have used a quad. It was old-world science, totally taboo. Now look. So who knows what else they might try?” Riot shook her head. “N
o . . . we have to be ready for them to do anything at all to win.”
Without another word they got their quads and raced back to Sanctuary.