Lupi 09 - Mortal Ties

about them? I could’ve sworn I heard those
     words come out of my mouth.” Cullen sighed. “I feel a bit better knowing it was Umbra
     who got through my wards. Not a lot, but some. He was supposed to be the best.”
    Rule’s eyebrows lifted. “Was?”
    “Two or three years ago word went out that he wasn’t taking jobs anymore. Rumor was
     divided about why. Some said he’d retired. Some said he’d died. Looks like he was
     just on sabbatical.”
    Lily made a note. “Huh. Guess we’ll have the chance to ask him. How did people reach
     Umbra to hire him?”
    Cullen considered the question a moment. “I can tell you that much. Here in the States
     he used an agent, a big fat guy named Hugo. I met him once on an unrelated matter.
     Back then—this was maybe five years ago—he hung out at a dive called Rats in San Francisco.
     He’s Gifted—can’t tell you which one because I don’t remember. Maybe one of the Air
     Gifts. Caucasian, around fifty, bald or else he shaved his head. Tattoo of a lightning
     bolt on his forehead. Looked like prison work.”
    “Last name?”
    “No idea. He went by Hugo.”
    “How big was he?”
    “About Rule’s height and maybe three hundred pounds.”
    “Okay, I’ll see if Arjenie can do anything with that.” Sheturned to Rule. “I need to ask Cullen some more questions before we get to the airport.
     Want to read that file now?”
    No. “Yes.”
    She bent and dug a folder out of the case that held her laptop. It would have been
     easier to send the material to his iPad, but that left an electronic trail. Technically
     Lily had the authority to share information with a consultant; technically Rule could
     be called a consultant. But there was always the chance that someone would decide
     to make an issue of it.
    He accepted the folder and opened it. The first page was a brief bio.
    Jasper Frederick Machek
    Born: San Francisco, California
    Two years and nine months after she handed me to my father and walked away and never
     looked back…
    Father: Frederick Alan Machek; b. 12/7/1929
    Mother: Celeste Marie Machek, nee Babineaux; b. 9/27/1928 d. 3/11/ 2006
    Rule stared at the page, his eyes dry and unseeing, his mind blank save for one thought.
    Dead. She was dead.

SIXTEEN

    L ILY did not watch Rule read the file she’d handed him. She wanted to, but she was pretty
     sure that was a bad idea. When you’re raw you don’t want people studying your reactions,
     even if you’ve convinced yourself you’re just fine.
    Maybe especially then. She leaned forward and pulled her notebook and pen out of her
     purse. “Okay, Cullen, I need you to tell me more about the prototype. You’re not the
     only one working on the problem—everyone from mega-corporations to individual practitioners
     are giving it a shot. But this is the first really promising device for shielding
     tech from magic, right?”
    “Wrong.”
    “You said it worked. You said that several times. That isn’t promising?”
    “I mean that it’s not a shield.”
    “But it’s supposed to protect tech from magic.”
    He nodded. “Naturally you think ‘protect’ equals ‘shield.’ I did, too, at first. So
     has everyone else. The problem is, the only way to absolutely, positively shield against
     every type of magic is to be you.”
    She blinked. “Ah—be a touch sensitive, you mean?” Able to feel magic, but impervious
     to it.
    “Right. The first thing you need to know is that no substance shields really well
     against raw magic. Earth comes closer than most, but it’s too varied to shield predictably.
     And it takes a lot of dirt to do much good.”
    “Raw magic is what comes from nodes.”
    “Right. Ambient magic is at least ninety percent raw. A small percentage is elemental,
     but the vast majority is raw—unless you’re in an old forest, of course, but that’s
     a special case, and there’s not much tech deep in the Sequoia National Forest, so
     it doesn’t matter. Now, some substances do offer minimal shielding, like the silk
     case you use for your phone, but they’re ineffective near a node, a ley line, or even
     the ocean. Or if there’s even a small surge. We don’t get the kind of power blasts
     we did when the Turning hit,” he added, “but there are frequent small surges, and
     the level of ambient magic continues to rise.”
    Rule looked up from the folder. He was on the second page, she noted. “A company came
     up with a polymer that showed promise initially, but