Page 115 of The Light Within

“Because she…” Julien trailed off.

Eleanor sighed. “Do you remember meeting L, that day you found us at the crevice, after the earthquake? Well, Béatrice was working closely with them.”

A sudden recollection dropped into Julien’s lap. “Hey! That L person told me thatyou’dmurdered Béatrice!”

Eleanor’s eyebrows knitted together lightning fast. “What? You’re mistaken.”

“Non, I…” Thinking back to it, that wasn’t exactly what L said. “They said your name!”

“Yes, because L and I have had several heated arguments about involving Montaignes in AP business! They were likely trying to force my hand, dragging you into it against my will.”

“So, it’s L’s fault that Béatrice got involved in AP?”

Eleanor sighed. “Julien, the sooner you stop trying to assign blame for everything, the sooner you can start to move forward. But yes. L recruited her, specifically because they couldn’t resist the direct link to your father that Béatrice offered.” Her lip curled up in disgust. “Béatrice hinted to L that she’d made significant progress in their line of enquiry. Then, shewas summoned to the Philippines on her aid mission, and died before she could meet with L again.”

“Line of enquiry…” Elliot repeated. “What was L getting her to do? Béatrice barely spoke to Lucien, especially in the last year before she died. She could hardly suddenly cosy up to him for information.”

“Which was why she made herself so suspicious, and ended up paying the price.”

Nausea rose inside Julien, mixing with the simmering rage that had embedded itself within him since the church. His father would get his just desserts for Béatrice if it was the last thing Julien did.

Cinn cleared his throat. “The priest told us about the machine. He called it ‘the dark machine.’”

“Yes,” Eleanor said, on a sigh. “That’s the one.Machina Tenebris. Béatrice was supporting us by sourcing information about it.”

“Father Gérard couldn’t even promise me it was real,” snapped Julien. “Béatrice might have died for nothing.”

“I can assure you, it’s definitely real. Surely the fact that Lucien had her removed suggests she discovered something. Regardless, we have substantive evidence the machine exists.”

Eleanor wheeled her desk chair to the side, presenting them with a wall of computer monitors, all blue background and white text. She stood up, rolling her shoulders back in a long stretch. Malik stepped forward, but she waved him away.

A keyboard terminal with a dozen wires flying around it sat on a desk. Eleanor pressed a few buttons, and the largest display unit changed into a line graph.

“The obscure rumours about this mysterious machine started almost twelve years ago now, but we believe it was fully operational the day before your mother’s death.”

“What does it do, please?” asked Darcy, ever the epitome of polite.

More tapping of buttons on the keyboard, more displays showing wiggly graphs that Julien would need his glasses to read. Then Eleanor reached into her pocket and removed a small metal bar, identical to the one Malik used to unlock the door. “In the last ten years, motecells have wormed their way into everything.” She held up the bar. It was seamless—there was no need to replace a motecell, usually. They were designed to recharge themselves by drawing ambient motes from the air, ensuring a near-endless supply of power.

“The invention of motecells shortly predates the rise in climatic activity, both of which shortly follow theMachina Tenebrisproject being completed. AP believes the machine draws power from the shadowrealm to fuel the production of them.”

Julien rubbed a hand over his bleary eyes. Being nearly two a.m. in this dingy secret laboratory was hardly ideal for making sense of Eleanor’s squiggly graphs that all followed the same curve.

“Okay. This… machine. The motecells. The natural disasters. Keep talking.”

“Lucien registered his patent for an early prototype of the motecell in winter, nineteen eighty-five.” Eleanor moved to the next graph on another display. “Production begins the following year, coinciding with the Kamchatka Peninsula eruptions and the Horn of Africa experiencing their worst drought on record. We finish up eighty-five with back-to-back tsunamis across Southeast Asia, and then, in eighty-six…”

Eleanor sounded like she’d made this entire speech many, many times. She walked them through another couple of years, constantly referring to her motecell growth graph until Julien’s eyes hurt.

“Okay, point proven,” said Julien. “Your data makes a great argument, I’m sure. So where is this machine? I’ll take great joy in taking a sledgehammerto it myself.”

“I’ve already explained to you that we don’t know.” Eleanor pursed her lips as if Julien was wasting her time, even though she was the one who had dragged them there.

Julien moved on to another thought. “Hold on. These motecells are used in motetech all over the world. Every single production company has access to them, somehow.”

“HorizonTech produces and distributes every single one from its Paris site. But your father owns almost every company in the world, Julien, as you know.” Eleanor sounded more irritable by the minute.

“How come you think this machine thing draws power from the shadowrealm?” Cinn stared at the array of glowing displays.

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