Firefight (11 page)

Finally, I pulled myself up the five feet or so onto the rooftop. I got a leg over the side and rolled onto the stonework, lying on my back, utterly spent. I was too weak to so much as stand, let alone fetch my gun, so it was a good thing Obliteration didn’t return.

I lay there for some time. I’m not sure how long. Eventually something scraped on the rooftop nearby. Footsteps?

“David? Oh, sparks!”

I opened my eyes and found Tia kneeling over me. Exel stood back a few feet, looking about anxiously, assault rifle in his hands.

“What happened?” Tia asked.

“Obliteration,” I said, coughing. With her help, I sat up. “Dumped me in the water with a chain on my leg. I …” I trailed off, staring at my leg. “Who saved me?”

“Saved you?”

I looked at the still waters. Nobody had surfaced after me, had they? “Was it Mizzy?”

“Mizzy is with us,” Tia said, helping me to my feet. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. You can brief us later.”

“What happened to Obliteration?” I asked.

“Gone, for now,” Tia said.

“How?”

“Jon …” She trailed off, meeting my gaze. She didn’t say it, but I read the meaning.

Prof had used his powers.

Tia nodded toward the boat, which rocked in the water nearby. Mizzy and Val sat in it, but there was no sign of Prof.

“Just a sec.” I fetched my gun, still dizzy from my ordeal.
Near it I found Mizzy’s discarded explosives, which were still attached to the front of the T-shirt that Obliteration had been wearing. It wouldn’t explode unless it got too far from the radio signal. I rolled the bomb in the remains of the shirt and made my way over to the small boat. Exel offered me a hand, helping me down into the craft.

I settled next to Mizzy, who glanced at me and then immediately looked down. It was hard to tell with her darker skin, but I thought she was blushing in embarrassment. Why hadn’t she watched my back like she’d said she would?

Val started the small motor. It seemed she didn’t care about drawing attention any longer. Regalia had located us, appeared to us. Hiding was pointless.

So much for keeping quiet
, I thought.

As we motored away from the scene of the fight, I noticed people beginning to peek out of hiding places. Wide-eyed, they emerged to broken tents and smoldering rooftops. This was only one small section of the city, and the destruction wasn’t wholesale—but I still felt we’d failed. Yes, we’d driven off Obliteration, but only temporarily, and we’d managed it only by falling back on Prof’s abilities.

What I couldn’t figure out was, how had he done it? How could forcefields or disintegrating metal stave off Obliteration?

Judging by the slumped postures the others wore, they felt the same way I did—that we’d failed tonight. We motored past the broken rooftops in silence. I found myself watching the people who’d gathered. Most seemed to ignore us—in the chaos, they had probably taken cover and missed a lot of the details. You learned to keep your head down when Epics were near. To them, we’d hopefully appear to be just another group of refugees.

I did catch some of them watching us go, though. An older woman, who held a child to her chest, nodding with what
seemed to be respect. A youth who peeked over the edge of a rooftop near a burned bridge, wary, as if he expected Obliteration to appear at any moment to destroy us for daring to stand up to him. A young woman wearing a red jacket with the hood up, watching from among a small crowd, her clothing wet …

Wet clothing. I focused immediately, and caught a glimpse of her face beneath the hood as she looked at me.

Megan.

She held my gaze for just a moment. It was Megan … 
Firefight
. A second later, she turned and vanished into the group of townspeople, lost in the night.

So you
are
here
, I thought, remembering the splash, the feel of someone’s hands on my leg in the moments before I was freed.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

“What was that?” Tia asked.

“Nothing,” I said, settling back in the boat and smiling, despite my exhaustion.

14

WE
continued on through the darkness, moving into a section of the city that was obviously less inhabited. Buildings still sprouted from the waters like tiny islands, fruit glowing on their upper floors, but the spraypaint colors were faded or nonexistent and no bridges linked the structures. They were probably too far apart out here.

The area grew darker as we left the parts of the city with the bright spraypaint. Sailing across those waters in the blackness of night, only the moon to give us light, was thoroughly unsettling. Fortunately, Val and Exel turned on their mobiles, and together the glow created a bright enough light to give us some illumination.

“So, Missouri,” Val said from the back of the boat. “Would
you mind explaining why you let David be attacked—and nearly killed—alone, without any backup?”

Mizzy stared at the boat’s floor. The motor puttered quietly behind us. “I …,” she finally said. “There was a fire inside the building I was on. I heard people screaming. I tried to help.…”

“You should know better than that,” Val said. “You keep telling me you want to learn to take point—then you do something like this.”

“Sorry,” the young woman said, sounding miserable.

“Did you save them?” I asked.

Mizzy looked up at me.

“The people in the building,” I added. Sparks, my neck was sore. I tried not to show the pain, or my exhaustion, as Mizzy regarded me.

“Yeah,” Mizzy said. “They didn’t need much saving, though. All I did was unlock a door. They’d gone inside to hide, and the fires had burned down to their floor.”

“Nice,” I said.

Tia glanced at me. “She shouldn’t have abandoned her post.”

“I’m not saying she should have, Tia,” I replied, meeting her gaze. “But let’s be honest. I’m not certain
I
could have let a bunch of people burn to death.” I glanced at Mizzy. “It was probably the wrong thing to do, but I’ll bet those people are glad you did it anyway. And I managed to squeak by, so it all turned out all right. Nice work.” I held out my fist for a bump.

She returned the bump hesitantly, smiling.

Tia sighed. “It is our burden to sometimes make difficult choices. Risking the plan to save one life may cause the deaths of hundreds. Remember that, both of you.”

“Sure,” I said. “But shouldn’t we be talking about what
just happened? Two of the most powerful and most arrogant Epics in the world are working together. How in Calamity’s name did Regalia manage to recruit
Obliteration
of all people?”

“It was easy,” Regalia said. “I offered to let him destroy my city.”

I jumped, scrambling away from the Epic, who was forming out of water beside the boat. The liquid melded into her shape, taking on her coloring, and she settled with one foot up on the rim of the boat, hands folded in her lap, the other foot still merging with the surface beside the boat.

She had an elegant, matronly look about her—like a kindly grandmother who had dressed up to visit the big city. A city she was apparently planning to destroy. She looked us over, and though I clutched my rifle, I didn’t shoot. She was a projection, a creation of water. The real Regalia could have been anywhere.

No
, I thought.
Not anywhere
. Projection powers like hers usually had very limited ranges.

Regalia inspected us, her lips downturned. She seemed confused by something.

“What are you up to, Abigail?” Tia demanded.

So you know her too
, I thought, glancing at Tia.

“I just told you,” Regalia said. “I’m going to destroy the city.”

“Why?”

“Because, dear. It’s what we
do
.” Regalia shook her head. “I’m sorry. I can no longer help myself.”

“Oh please,” Tia said. “You expect me to believe that you, of all Epics, are out of control? What is your
real
motive? Why have you drawn us here?”

“I said—”

“No games, Abigail,” Tia snapped. “I don’t have the patience
for it tonight. If you’re going to spin lies, just leave right now and spare me the headache.”

Regalia bowed her head quietly for a moment, then she slowly stood up, moving deliberately, carefully. She perched on the rim of the small boat, and I saw a hint of translucence to her—the water that made up her likeness showing through.

The sea around our boat began to churn and bubble.

“What,” Regalia said softly, “do you take me for?”

Tentacles made of water broke the surface around us. Exel cursed, and I spun, flipping my rifle to fully automatic and unloading a spray of bullets into the nearest tendril. It splashed water, but didn’t stop moving.

The tentacles of water moved in around us, like the fingers of some enormous beast from below. One seized me by the neck, and another snaked forward and wrapped my wrist in a cold, incongruously solid grip.

The others shouted and scrambled as each of us was snatched in turn. Exel unloaded his handgun at Regalia before being picked up and lifted, like a bearded balloon, in a ropy length of water.

“You think me some minor Epic to be trifled with?” Regalia asked softly. “You mistake me for someone of whom you can make demands?”

I thrashed in my bonds as the entire
boat
was lifted by the tentacles, and the outboard motor’s pitch rose to a whine and was then silenced as some kind of kill switch engaged. Spouts of water curled up around us, forming bars, cutting us off from the sky.

“I could snap your necks like twigs,” Regalia said. “I could tow this boat down into the deepest depths and imprison it there, so that even your corpses never again see the light. This city belongs to me. The lives of those here are
mine to claim
.”

I twisted to look at her. My earlier assessment—that she seemed grandmotherly—now felt laughable. Lengths of water wrapped around her as she loomed over us, her eyes wide, lips curled into a sneer. Her arms were out before her, clawlike hands controlling the water like some crazed puppet master. This was not some kindly matron; this was a High Epic in all her glory.

I didn’t doubt for a moment that she could do exactly as she said she could. Heart beating quickly, I glanced at Tia.

Who was perfectly calm.

It was easy to dismiss Tia as one of the less dangerous Reckoners. At that moment, however, she didn’t show a hint of fear, despite being wrapped in Regalia’s tendril of water. Tia met the High Epic’s gaze while gripping something in her hand; it looked like a water bottle with something white inside.

“You think I’m afraid of your little tricks?” Regalia demanded.

“No,” Tia said. “But I’m pretty sure you’re afraid of Jonathan.”

The two stared one another down for a moment. Then suddenly the water tendrils fell, dropping us to the boat, which splashed down into the water. I hit hard, grunting, as water soaked me.

Regalia sighed softly, lowering her arms. “Tell Jonathan that I tire of men and their meaningless lives. I have listened to Obliteration, and I agree with him. I will destroy everyone in Babylon Restored. I do not know … how long I can hold back. That is all.”

Abruptly she vanished, her figure becoming water that collapsed back to the ocean surface. I found myself huddled between Val and Exel, heart thumping. The sea stilled around our ship.

Tia wiped water from her eyes. “Val, get us to the base. Now.”

Valentine scrambled to the back of the boat and started up the motor.

“What’s the point of hiding?” I asked softly as we began moving again. “She can look anywhere, be anywhere.”

“Regalia is
not
omniscient,” Tia said. She seemed as intent on pointing that fact out as Prof had been earlier. “Did you see how confused she was when she appeared here? She thought Jon would be with us, and was surprised that he wasn’t.”

“Yeah,” Exel said, extending his hand and helping me right myself. His bulk took up about three seats’ worth of space just in front of me. “We’ve been able to hide from her for almost two years … at least we think.”

“Tia,” Val said warningly, “things just changed in the city. She saw us. From now on, everything will be different. I’m not certain I trust anything in Babilar anymore.”

Exel nodded, looking worried, and I remembered what he’d said earlier.
At any time, she could be watching us. We have to work under that assumption … and that fear
. Well, we knew she was watching now.

“She is
not
omniscient,” Tia repeated. “She can’t see inside buildings, for example, unless there is a pool of water inside for her to peer out of.”

“But if we enter a building and don’t come out,” I said, “that’ll be a dead giveaway to her that our base is inside.”

The others said nothing. I sighed, settling back. The confrontation with Regalia had obviously left them disturbed. Well, I could understand that. Why did their silence have to extend to me, though?

Val guided the boat toward a building that was missing a large section of outer wall. The structure was one of the enormous office buildings that were common here in Babilar, and
so a gap wide enough to drive a bus through made up only a fraction of its wall space. Val guided our boat right in, and Exel took out a long hook and used it to unlatch something on the side of the wall. A large set of black drapes fell over the hole and blocked out the world.

Val and Exel clicked their mobiles on, lighting the half-sunken chamber with a pale white glow. Val guided the boat to the side of the room, near a set of stairs, and I moved to disembark and climb them—eager to be off the boat. Tia took me by the arm, however, and shook her head.

Instead she got out that water bottle she’d held earlier, the one with something white inside. She shook it, then upended it into the water. The others dug similar bottles out of a trunk in the bottom of the boat, then dumped theirs out as well. Mizzy dumped an entire cooler of the stuff into the water.

“Soap?” I asked when I saw the suds.