“One of the researchers at your London facility, Dot Nguyen, has a theory,” said Chafik. “For hundreds of years, philosophers have been theorizing the existence of a fifth element: ether. Experiments were conducted in the nineteenth century to examine its properties as a medium for gravitational and electromagnetic forces. Nguyen believes it’s possible that there were originally five Effigies created, not four, and that Saul has the elemental power of ether. But all we have are our theories. What we need is a way to test them.”
He brought up the satellite image again. “Like you said, Saul can appear and disappear at will. Weeks after Saul’s signal went dead in Greenland, London Communications once again caught hold of an Effigy frequency, this time in the Sahara desert. Of course, they thought it was his, which is why they sent you to capture him. But this time something was different. This time, the signal did not just appear at the location. Rather, it developed gradually tens of meters away from the site before resting at the location.”
He played the footage sent over from the London facility, and sure enough, I could see the red blinking dot materializing from nothing, fading into existence as it traveled through a phantom-infested Dead Zone. It grew brighter and brighter until it came to a resting point, a bloodred heartbeat.
“We know from the time that Langley had Saul in custody that his ability to mask his spectrographic signature only appears when Alice’s personality is in control,” Chafik said. “It would have been Nick that we tracked after your battle in France. Like Sibyl suggested, the fight may have destabilized him. However . . .”
He trailed off, pursing his lips tight, his exhale seeping out from his throat in another deep grumble.
“However?” I prodded him.
“He can still appear and disappear at will,” Chafik said. “Indeed, it would make little sense for Saul to risk traveling through a nest of phantoms to reach that location, especially since he was injured from your fight.”
“So the signal you tracked to the desert may not have been Saul’s, but that dead guy’s,” I said, my mind filling in the blanks. “I mean, if the guy can’t vanish and materialize at will, then he’d have to go through the Dead Zone. Vanishing is Saul’s power, after all, and Effigies . . .” I raked my tongue over my dry lips. Effigies each had their own unique ability. “There really are more Effigies out there. . . .” I shook my head. No matter how many times I thought about it, I couldn’t accept it.
“Perhaps. However, an Effigy’s signal does not fade or grow stronger, nor is it ever unstable,” Chafik continued. He tapped the screen again, and three silver dots appeared just a few miles away from the desert hideout. In Marrakesh. The blinking lights were us. “This is why the Sect can track you once you have come into your powers. Wherever you go,” Chafik added, unhelpfully. I don’t think he realized how creepy it sounded.
“So, number one: That signal we chased out into the desert probably wasn’t even Saul’s.” Chae Rin counted it off with her fingers. “And number two: Even if it did belong to that soldier we found, he may not be an actual, legitimate Effigy? He may be something else?” She pressed a hand against her forehead, fingers sliding against the sweaty black hair matted to her skin. “Then what the hell was he?”
“We need answers.” Chafik stared at the monitor. “How was this soldier able to travel through the Dead Zone on his own? And what are the circumstances behind these unstable frequencies—Saul’s signal in Greenland and the one that appeared in the desert hideout? Is masking a frequency one of Saul’s abilities? Or is it a special property that appears only upon the reappropriation of the current Effigy’s body by the previous Effigy in the line?”
Still too many riddles. Effigies, like the phantoms, were discovered in the nineteenth century. Even after all the studies, all the research, there was so much we didn’t know about them. But I was more concerned over where this conversation was heading. Especially once Chafik’s eyes were on me.
“The truth is, Sibyl Langley spoke to us while you were waiting in the Sect van. We both think it may be time to use our own assets in order to seek out the answers to these questions. For that, we need you.”
My breath hitched. Some of the agents from the bench in front of us were listening even as they worked at their terminals. I caught the shift in their heads as they waited to see how I’d respond.
“What . . . exactly do you need me to do?” I asked, my hands feeling strangely numb.
“It’s our understanding that you have scried before.” Chafik scratched his black beard as he considered what he must have been told by Sibyl. “In New York. Intimate contact with Saul forced you to prematurely open up the connection between your mind and the scattered psyches of the fire Effigies inside you. It is perhaps because of the connection between Nick or Alice and an Effigy in your line. The contact might have awoken that girl, if even just for a moment.”
“Marian,” I whispered. The girl both Alice and Nick were desperate to find for the answers she carried with her.
“Whatever that ‘connection’ was,” Lake said, “had to have been pretty intimate if a kiss woke her up.”
Intimate. Romantic? It seemed so by the way Nick had talked about her the last time we faced each other in France. That faraway look as he said her name . . .
“In either case, Maia’s ability to cross through the psychic barriers into another Effigy’s consciousness can give us a way to study this issue with the frequencies. Are both Saul and the now-deceased soldier you found Effigies? Is it the unstable crossing of two personalities—in Saul’s case, Nick and Alice—that makes the difference in the ability to mask one’s signature? Langley has proposed that we use you, Maia, to look into the matter. And I agree.”
My jaw clenched. “You want to experiment on me?” I took a short step back. “You want to, what, keep me locked up here like a lab rat?”
“We only want to measure your brain waves and spectrographic signature as you scry. It should not take more than a few hours.”
“But the whole point of this is to see what happens when one personality takes over the other. Like Alice did with Nick.” The implications of everything tore through me like a scream. I felt numb from the neck down. “You want the same thing to happen to me.”
“Natalya,” Belle said with an odd, wistful quirk in her voice. It sent a violent shudder through me.
“No. No, no, no.” My head was shaking side to side with each “no.” “She took me over the last time. Do you understand what that means? There’s no way—”
“We will be monitoring you precisely to make sure that doesn’t happen.” Chafik looked sincere enough, the seriousness in his small, dark eyes easing a little as if it’d make the blow any softer. “We want you because of the instability of your scrying. We see you as a closer estimate to Saul’s own psychic battles than, say, Belle, who’s studied and practiced the skill over a period of years.”