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“It is. And it’s extremely embarrassing. Children learn this, for crying out loud.”
“Earthside children,” Victoria pointed out.
Harmiston stopped by the worktable and picked up a thin book, which he waved around. “It was all in here. And up there,” he added and pointed upward.
Nadia assumed him not to mean the apartment above his, but the surface. She also recognized the book. “That’s the science book you found in Fallen Oaks. In the school.”
“It is,” he said and then seemed to recognize the blank stares of his audience, which included one excited Victoria who was in on it, and eleven ignorant Ghosts. “It’s magnesium and silver nitrate, people.”
“All right?” Nadia looked around to see if she was the only one who wasn’t catching on. She was not.
“They learn this.Teenagers.Listen, guys.” He stepped back over to the bomb. “When magnesium and silver nitrate react with water,” he flicked his hands out like it was the simplest solution, almost hitting the side of the bomb’s tank with the book, “it causes an explosive result. Bang!” he yelled. “You heard it right?”
They all nodded.
“It’s potent stuff. And it contains silver.”
Nadia frowned. “You mean those eruptions on the surface contained that?”
“Yes. I believe they occur when these substances meet under the ground up there. Don’t ask me how. That little pig-like dog makes even less sense to me. But it’s extremely potent. The bang you heard right now was the small sample I took. It’s harmless unless it goes off in your face. But, with enough of it in here …” he pointed at the tank.
“You just said it was highly volatile,” one of the Ghosts said.
“Incredibly explosive,” another added.
Nadia nodded. “How will that work? It sounds like we’ll blow ourselves up.”
“You forget,” Harmiston said, “that the bomb is designed for this. To control the poisons it’s supposed to spread. That’s how it was kept within the confines of the two buildings despite open windows and the like.
“Well, that’s true. And the silver will …?”
“End them.” Harmiston shook his head and smiled down at the book. “I can’t believe it was right there all along. In a book for kids. I need to start studying science. Think of what can be done if we combine it with—”
A smacking sound from the window stopped him talking, and everyone else from breathing. A small clay ball was stuck to the outside of the glass pane. It was a sign from the guards.
“Someone’s coming,” Nadia said.
Harmiston nodded and threw the book on the table, his exuberant enthusiasm gone in an instant. Instead, he conjured up his protective shield, placing the sigils in the right order, before he let it expand and cover the entire apartment. Ten seconds later, a knock sounded.
Nadia felt her pulse increase and forced herself to calm down. Harmiston walked past them and with a quick nod, he went into his kitchen and sealed the magical opening between the two apartments. As long as no one in there spoke, whoever it was wouldn’t hear them.
Nadia pushed past the other Ghosts and put her ear against the wall. She heard a female voice inquire if Harmiston was who her papers said lived there.
“Yes,” he confirmed.
“You seem nervous,” the woman said. “I can hear your heart beating fast.”
“That’s an equally normal reaction to being faced with a zee-bear waving its pointed tusks at you.”
“A what?” the woman asked.
“My point is,” Harmiston went on, “I usually don’t get werewolves knocking on my door.”
Nadia felt anger rise. She’d grown up in Cahlmont Hollow her first twelve years, and though she didn’t recognize the were’s voice, the odds were good that she knew her family.
“I come from the blood donor initiative,” the werewolf told Harmiston. She sounded bored like she’d done this hundreds of times by now. “This building is on our list for tomorrow. This means you’ll show up over on the main square at nine o’clock. I’m sure you know what happens if you don’t. Got it?”
“Yes. Got it,” Harmiston said, his voice sounding strained before he closed the door behind her.
