"Hold on a few minutes," you tell Salt. "I just need to make a call."
"Sure," he says. "Take your time."
You call MetaHuman and speak to Claudette Byron. The overall verdict is that a magical replica of the flask can be created—but there's no way to simulate the presence of a jinni under lab conditions, so you can't be sure that it will be 100 percent effective. If you choose to go that route, you'll just have to have faith in the competence of your research team.
You tell Claudette to go ahead with creating the replica flask, and then you hang up.
"Hey," you say to Salt, returning to the laptop. "I'm back."
"So, have you come to a decision?" he asks.
"Sure have. I've found another source. Have a good evening."
You hang up, hoping that you've made the right decision.
Next
You return to Seattle soon after your conversation with Aaron Salt. Katariki chooses to remain in Rabat. You don't dispute this. Perhaps you could use MetaHuman's resources to take him into custody, if you were so inclined, but it's likely that if a team were to land in Morocco he would detect their presence and disappear once more before they got anywhere near him. So you let him be, for now. For all the information that he and Masfiwi have given you, it seems that questions remain unanswered. Too bad; you each have work to do, obligations to fulfill. You must part ways, for now.
Several days later you have the jinn flask in your possession, and you fly out to Rabat once more, this time accompanied by a MetaHuman security team. It is no great feat to find the jinni caves once more, and to retrace the steps you first took with Masfiwi and Katariki.
Only you are capable of crossing the sigils that bind the jinni—the symbol on your shoulder, courtesy of Katariki's magic, gives you that power. As before, the jinni is immense, and mighty; it moves to crush you for daring to enter its sorcerous prison. But the power of the flask has not been exaggerated; the jinni is powerless to resist its lure, and is sucked inside the vessel, a prisoner once more. You replace the flask's stopper. It does not seem heavier, though now it positively hums with the power of the creature within.
You have a weapon to use against the Surgeons, should you choose to. If they don't already know this, they probably will soon. You have a feeling that, as complicated as your life has been over the last few months, it's about to become more complicated still.
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