Page 85 of North

Again, from Ford: “Yes. I’ll explain⁠—”

“When the Petrov Bratva attacked, they made off with two cases before bullets pierced the exterior of who knows how many containers,” Scarlett said. “The substance inside, obsidite, is a refined magnetic conductor used in the creation of AI hardware and is highly valuable. And flammable when exposed to air. It’s packed in oil so it can be opened, but carefully—and not, by the way, with the sharp end of a jackknife.” She gave North a look.

He held up a hand in defense.

“Swiss Army. Nothing special,” said Knox.

She turned her withering gaze to Knox.

“Why does the Petrov Bratva want these?” Selah asked.

“As far as we can tell, they’ve engineered their own AI program, are developing their own AI soldiers. And my guess is we have the only supply of obsidite in the world.” Scarlett turned to Selah. “But the question is, how did Alan Martin get his hands on one of these?”

“Me? You’re asking me?”

North very, very much wanted to know what had gone down between Selah and James, but the question felt too…Well, he didn’t exactly know how he’d respond to the answer. Maybe he was better off not knowing.

“I don’t know. I…uh…Wait. He left us to get transportation. Came back with a truck. Maybe he found it on the ground?” Selah said.

“Or got one from one of his Bratva contacts?” This from North.

“Why would he have just one? Separate from the ones the Bratva stole?” RJ asked.

Silence.

“Maybe so he could use it for something else?” Knox.

“Or maybe for insurance, in case they failed?” Reuben.

“Maybe he didn’t know whether they’d succeeded,” said Ford. “Backup plan.”

“I just said that,” said Reuben.

Ford looked at him. “No, you didn’t.”

“Okay—listen. Selah. Tell me about your phone,” Scarlett said. “You said it wasn’t working.”

“Yeah. It wasn’t. I mean, it had a full battery but no bars. At all. Like it didn’t have service.”

“It sure had service when I called you and Martin picked up,” North growled.

She looked at him. “You called me?”

Seriously? “I called you a thousand times,” he said. “No answer, except once. Martin said you were taking a bath.”

She just stared at him.

Okay, that came out wrong. “I mean⁠—”

“I was. Upstairs in my room. While the hostess of the B&B found a charger for my phone. I didn’t know you called, North.” She put a hand on his arm as if…

Okay, down, boy.

“So, it did work. But by the time you got it, it didn’t. And then it did again. Let me see it,” said Scarlett.

Selah handed her the phone. Scarlett turned it over, then took off the back.

“Did you have the SIM card from your old phone?”