Changing the subject, I asked, “Why is Miles even still pushing the research? I mean, we don’t have to worry about protecting ourselves from the rogue djinn any more.”
A lift of the shoulders, followed by a smile I thought was a little too indulgent. “I think he’d go nuts if he wasn’t investigating some scientific mystery. Anyway, he says he thinks he might be on to something — my screw-up actually may have had some benefit, because it has him going in a different direction, trying to see if a certain series of adjustments may be the key to blocking the powers of only the djinn outside its radius, not the ones within it.”
Several days earlier, I would have rejoiced at hearing that news. Now, though, I couldn’t help thinking Miles’s research was an exercise in futility. The rebel factions
