Sandstorm

7:43 P.M.

SAFIA STOODwith the others on the balcony, as dismayed as the rest. Arguments raged around her.

“What about using one of the RPGs?” Cassandra asked, staring through her night-vision goggles.

“Shoot a grenade at an energized antimatter bomb?” Omaha said. “Yeah, let’s do that.”

“And if you miss the debris pile,” Painter said, “you’ll bring down another wall and block the road even more. Right now, it’s only hung up. If it could be rolled aside a couple of feet…”

Cassandra sighed. Safia noted the woman’s finger still pressed the transmitter, protecting it from anyone’s reach. Cassandra could definitely focus. With all that was going on, all the danger, she was not letting go of her trump card, keeping it in play, clearly intending to use it if everything worked out. She was a stubborn fighter.

Then again, so was Safia.

Clay held his arms crossed over his chest. “What we need is someone to go out and give it a good push.”

“Feel free to try,” Cassandra said with clear disdain. “The first sign of movement and you’ll be bathing in molten glass.”

Coral stirred, previously lost in deep thought. “Of course. It’s movement that draws the bolts, like the rolling ball.”

“Or my men,” Cassandra added.

“The bolts must be attracted to shifts in some electromagnetic field, a giant motion-detecting field.” Coral stared down. “But what if someone could move through the field unseen? ”

“How?” Painter asked.

Coral glanced to the hodja and the other Rahim. “They can be unseen when they want to be.”

“But that’s not physical,” Painter said. “It’s some way they affect the viewer’s mind, clouding perception.”

“Yes, but how do they do that?”

No one answered.

Coral stared around, then straightened. “Oh, I never told you.”

“You know?” Painter said.

Coral nodded and glanced at Safia, then away. “I studied their blood.”

Safia remembered Coral had been about to mention something about that when Cassandra’s forces had attacked. What was this about?

Coral pointed toward the cavern. “Like the lake, the water in the Rahim’s red blood cells-all their cells and fluids, I imagine-is full of buckyballs.”

“They have antimatter in them?” Omaha asked.

“No, of course not. It’s just that their fluids have the capability of maintaining water in buckyball configurations. I wager the ability comes from some mutation in their mitochondrial DNA.”

Dread grew in Safia’s chest. “What?”

Painter touched her elbow. “A little slower.”

Coral sighed. “Commander, remember the briefing on the Tunguska explosion in Russia? Mutations arose in flora and fauna of the area. The indigenous Evenk tribe developed genetic abnormalities in their blood, specifically their Rh factors. All caused by gamma radiation from antimatter annihilation.” She waved an arm out toward the storm raging. “The same here. For who knows how many generations, the population residing here has been exposed to gamma radiation. Then a pure bit of chance happened. Some woman developed a mutation-not in her own DNA, but the DNA in her cellular mitochondria.”

“Mitochondria?” Safia asked, trying to remember her basic biology.

“They are the small organelles inside all cells, floating in the cytoplasm, little engines that produce cellular energy. They’re a cell’s batteries, to use a crude analogy. But they have their own DNA, independent of a person’s genetic code. It is believed that mitochondria were once some type of bacteria that absorbed into mammalian cells during evolution. The little bit of DNA is left over from the mitochondria’s former independent life. And as mitochondria are found only in the cytoplasm of cells, it is the mitochondria of a mother’s egg that becomes the mitochondria of the child. That’s why the ability passes only through the queen’s line.”

Coral swept a hand over the Rahim.

“And it is these mitochondria that mutated from the gamma radiation?” Omaha asked.

“Yes. A minor mutation. The mitochondria still produce energy for the cell, but it also produces a little spark to actively maintain buckyball configuration, giving it a little juice. I wager this effect has something to do with the energy fields in this chamber. The mitochondria are attuned to it, aligning the charge of a buckyball to match the energy here.”

“And these charged buckyballs give these women some mental powers?” Painter asked, incredulous.

“The brain is ninety percent water,” Coral said. “Charge that system up with buckyballs and anything could happen. We’ve seen the women’s ability to affect magnetic fields. This transmission of magnetic force, directed by human will and thought, seems to be able to affect the waters in the brains of lower creatures and somewhat upon us. Affecting our will and perception.”

Coral’s eyes glanced to the Rahim. “And if focused inward, the magnetic force can stop meiosis in their own eggs, producing a self-fertilized egg. Asexual reproduction.”

“Parthenogenesis,” Safia whispered.

“Okay,” Painter said. “Even if I could accept all that, how does any of this get us out of this mess?”

“Haven’t you been listening?” Coral asked, glancing over her shoulder to the vortex of storm, above and now stirring the lake. They were running out of time. Minutes only. “If one of the Rahim concentrates, she can attune herself to this energy, alter her magnetic force to match the electromagnetic detecting field. They should be able to walk through safely.”

“How do they do that?”

“By willing themselves invisible.”

“Who would be willing to take that chance?” Omaha asked.

The hodja stepped forward. “I will. I sense the truth in her words.”

Coral took a deep breath, licked her lips, and spoke. “I’m afraid you’re too weak. And I don’t mean physically…at least not exactly.”

Lu’lu frowned.

Coral explained, “With the storm raging, the forces out there are intense. It will take more than experience. It will take someone extremely rich in buckyballs.”

Turning, Coral’s eyes met Safia’s. “As you know, I tested several of the Rahim, including the elder here. They only have a tenth of the buckyballs found in your cells.”

Safia frowned. “How is that possible? I’m only half Rahim.”

“But the right half. Your mother was Rahim. It was her mitochondria that were passed to your cells. And there is a condition in nature called ‘hybrid vigor,’ where the crossing of two different lines produces stronger offspring than crossing the same line over and over again.”

Danny nodded to the side. “Mutts are basically healthier than pure-breds.”

“You’re new blood,” Coral concluded. “And the mitochondria like it.”

Omaha stepped to Safia’s side. “You want her to walk to the trapped sphere. Through that electrical storm.”

Coral nodded. “I believe she’s the only one who could make it.”

“Screw that,” Omaha said.

Safia squeezed his elbow. “I’ll do it.”