Skeleton Crew by Cameron Haley Page B

diabolical scheme!”
    I squeezed his hand and twitched one side of my face at him. I didn’t really feel like smiling. “Well, I gave him Hollywood.”
    â€œI know! Brilliant!” He nodded and grinned some more. “I’m Dr. Tyler Niles.”
    â€œOkay,” I said, and looked at Lowell. “Why am I here?”
    Lowell nodded to the scientist and was about to say something but Dr. Niles started talking first. “Okay,” said the scientist, “you’re a sorcerer, so you already know ectoplasm flows through the earth’s crust. Arcane energy, magic, juice—call it whatever you want. There’s certainlyno scientific name for it. We call it ectoplasm. It’s funny.” He bobbed his head and grinned.
    â€œHilarious,” I agreed.
    â€œRight, so the ectoplasmic flow is concentrated in ley lines. This building is constructed on the site of a major convergence of two ley lines—the trunk lines that follow the Santa Ana River and the San Andreas Fault.” He crossed his forearms and giggled. “ X marks the spot.”
    â€œThere’s a ley line on the San Andreas Fault?” Dr. Niles nodded. “The largest in North America.”
    â€œThat doesn’t concern you, though, because…”
    â€œWhy should it? There’s no evidence the ley line interacts with the tectonics of the region, if that’s what you’re getting at.”
    â€œSo it’s a coincidence that this huge flow of…ectoplasm…in the earth’s crust follows the same course as this huge seam in the earth’s crust?”
    Dr. Niles shrugged. “Okay, like you, we’ve been thinking about ways to empirically measure—and monitor—the ectoplasmic flow.”
    â€œI haven’t really been thinking about that,” I said.
    â€œEarly warning,” said Lowell. “Magic is returning to the world. If we can measure and localize it, we might be able to predict the instabilities and other events it produces.”
    â€œRight,” said Dr. Niles. “There’s just one problem.” I waited. He bobbed his head and grinned some more. “Ectoplasm doesn’t interact at all with machines. Our technology can’t detect it, can’t measure it, can’t do anything with it. As far as the machines are concerned, ectoplasm doesn’t exist.”
    I frowned. “That’s not right. I have spells that affect machines.”
    Dr. Niles thrust an index finger in the air. “Precisely!Spells can affect machines, but raw ectoplasm cannot. Magic can only interact with a machine through a medium. ”
    â€œA sorcerer,” I said.
    â€œA human, or at least a sentient mind. As we discovered, the medium doesn’t have to be a sorcerer.” The scientist leaned down and tapped on the keyboard in front of him. The panel in front of the viewing window retracted into the ceiling with an electric hum.
    The control room looked out onto an open space that must have occupied most of the building. A massive green wheel pattern was etched into the concrete floor, and three glass and steel cylinders were positioned at the center of the wheel. The cylinders were filled with liquid and a woman hung suspended in each of them. The women wore respirators but were otherwise naked. Tubes snaked from their arms, and electrodes spotted their bodies.
    â€œJesus fucking Christ,” I said. “Who are they?”
    Dr. Niles glanced at Lowell. The agent frowned and cleared his throat. “They’re indefinite detainees. Another agency sent them to us from Pakistan. They’re sisters. They’re all widows and they were being trained as suicide bombers.”
    â€œThis is disgusting.”
    â€œI agree,” said Dr. Niles. “It’s fucking fascist. If it makes you feel any better, the Sisters volunteered.” I could hear the capitalization in his almost reverent