of the goddess could a pendentive have to do with anything?

" now grant looked

confused. "i dont even know
what a pendentive is." "that much i do know," said merrill. "i learned about them
during a class on the
renaissance. its an architectural term for the spherical triangle that creates the
transition between the rectangular or square building
and the round dome. its kind of luike fitting a square peg in a round hole. but i
can
t think of what that could have to do with any of this." "i m not sure," jan said,
shaking
her head. "i think it is a name of soeme kind. but i will tell you one thing. when
i
was connected i could feel this guy building some kind of energy even with merrills
shielding.so, i suggest
we do a ritual and try to build something stronger." "no," said grant. "that might
be the prudent thing to
do but right now we dont have time. we have to get dowb and find where those things
are
being produced. besides, they have him now and believe me, this is not a place he
is going to get
out of or have a chance to talk to anyone." "i personally dont think they can
handle him" merrill
sounded adamant. "have him kept sedated or just kill him but dont let them try to
keep him like
any other prisoner. it just isnt going to work." jan was nodding in agreement with
merrill. "i dont
believe in killing of any kind, grant. you know that. but this gut isnt even human
anymore. hes
i dont even have a classification for what he is but he cant be allowed to escape."
"i
understand," grant responded patiently. "but you and i both know that the agency
doesnt work like that. you can
t ask them to just kill the man and they arent ever going to fully believe in
magick, not
even rusty. i had a hard enough time convincing him to let us do our part of the
interrogation." merrill
and jan looked at each other and realized that this was going to get them nowhere.
besides grant was right,
they had to stop production of the canisters and traveler was the agencys problem
now. "jan," grant said. "nice
work, ill get this map over to rusty so he can have teams retrieve the other
canisters and we
ll meet up with sarah at the cdc. they should have the room set up for you to look
at
it when we get there." "actually," jan cut in. she looked a little distant. "i dont
think we have
to." she closed her eyes and stood there still for a moment then put in the
earphone to her watch
and pressed the third button. "hello?" sarahs voice was as clear as if she were
standing there. "hi, this
is jan. there isnt time enough to explain right now but youre standing in the
isolation room aren
t you?" "yes, i m taking some samples using the gloves." "do you know the
orientation of the room as
for as east-west?" "pretty sure," sarah replied. "in which direction are you
seated?" "almost due south." sarah s voice sounded
strange like she was distracted. "is there anything removable from the canister
like a nut or bolt, just anything that
could be decontaminated and taken?" "actually there is a screw lying on the table
that they took out when they
removed one of the hatches. will that work?" "perfect, how soon can you get that
read to go?" "about twenty
minutes," sarah said. her voice had returned to its normal vibrant self." "that
should work. i ll have grant call
you back. it looks like we re about set to move on," "i ve searched the tests i
wanted done
so i ll be ready as soon as i get that sample for you." "thanks sarah, that s
should do
it. see you in a little bit." merrill looked at jan. from his side it seemed like
an odd conversation
until jan asked for the first map and marked a line that went from washington dc
and crossed through tacoma,
washington. "how did you do that?" "i m really not sure," jan replied. "when grant
mentioned joining sarah, i had
a wave of sensation as if she was standing right next to me and somehow i knew i
could sense
in my normal way through her." grant looked at her incredulously. "you could sense
her presence?" "actually, i felt more
as if we had joined in some way. i can t really explain it better than that. that s
something
i need to talk to her about." "well, you ll get your chance real soon," grant said.
"that just saved
us at least an hour." he pressed the first button on his watch and spoke. "hi, how
soon can you
wrap things up there?" he paused as if listening. "good, when you re done head over
to the airport, we
re going to be o to seatlle as soon as we can... ok, i ll see you there... i love
you too." grant had that faraway look he always got when he had just talked to
sarah. jan thought it
was cute. grant and sarah shared that closeness that creared warmth even in the
middle of a crisis. she looked
up at merrill reminded that they shared that same kind of closeness as well. "dj
vu," merrill said as he
climbed in the back seat of the rental car at seattle-tacoma international airport.
"seems like we have done this before
somehow doesn t it?" he was referring to the first time he and jan had been swept o
on a
mission with grant and sarah. in a way the circumstances were similar. they were
getting into a rental car at
the same airport going out into the area with nothing but an item belonging to
someone and jan s unique
ability to have that item guide them somewhere. that time had resulted in their
being ambushed. grant lauged. "don t
worry merrill; we re headed south this time. i thought we d head down to the the
tacoma dome district and
start from there. i don t see any need to head up to seattle right now." grant
drove the luxury
ford out of the harsh cement parking garage and entered the parkway. jan was
relieved to find the rear seating
in the crown victoria warm and comfortable and cuddled up to merrill. they had
departed from washington dc fairly early.
even going through security they were in the air by 5:30 pm and with the time
change they had arrived
by 7:30 and now a half hour later the hours were starting to catch up with her. she
looked out
of the drizzle coated window at the dark shadows of the hillside half hypnotized by
the light posts they passed.
the wetness created a starry collage of color that strained her eyes. she was
beginning to fade out when grant
s voice sounded out from the front seat. "does it seem like we re headed in the
right direction jan?"
jan slowly sat up rubbing her eyes and then reached into her purse and took out the
half inch bolt
that sarah had given her earlier. holding the metal in her left hand she closed her
eyes and focused on
the energy and the secrets it contained. "yes, this is the right direction; the
place seems almost directly in front
of us." when jan looked at the signs that overhung the highwat, she could see that
they had turned south
on interstate 5. she glanced o to her left and could see that they were passing a
large shopping.