Worm

by John Mccrae Wildbow

I gave chase to the nearest one, abandoning Atlas to pursue the subject into an alley, through a hole in the wall and into a derelict building, past a pile of rubble… this wasn’t right. It was too nimble, moving through spaces too small for even Bonesaw.

  And before I even returned to Atlas, there were a half-dozen trails in total that were branching out around us. In another few minutes, there were a dozen.

  Our group had used this method some time ago, using Grue’s power to slip away from the bank robbery. But how were they doing it? It wasn’t just the wind carrying the gas down misleading alleys. Were there living creatures carrying vials of the stuff?

  Mechanical spiders. They’d found their maker, and Bonesaw was using them to distribute the vapor and cut off my swarm sense.

  They’d escaped.

  14.11

  I continued my search for the pair, but my tentative explorations of the trails of extermination-mist made a sweeping search all but hopeless.

  It felt like I was facing a series of decisions where every answer had some merit, but picking the wrong one would spell disaster. I’d had to make the call between staying at the school in case Jack and Bonesaw were preparing a trap for Amy and Glory Girl, or leaving in case they’d made a run for it. I’d left, and I’d been lucky enough to be right.

  Except the Nine were now covering their tracks with a dozen decoys, mechanical spiders leaving trails of bug-killing smoke, leaving me to guess which direction they’d gone.

  Two solid possibilities dwelled with me.

  The first was that they’d headed back downtown to rendezvous with Siberian. If I was drawing the right conclusions from what I’d overheard, Bonesaw had drawn together a cocoon for Siberian similar to the one that Amy had created for Glory Girl. They could be recovering her real body, maybe doing something to recover Mannequin or Crawler.

  It hadn’t even crossed my mind while I was under the miasma’s influence, but I also had to wonder whether Regent would have maintained his control over Shatterbird.

  The second possibility was that they’d gone after Cherish. My conversation with Coil had clued them in.

  I checked my phone. No service.

  Damn the Director. Damn her for making this so hard, and for complicating matters. We’d been playing by Jack’s rules, more or less, and she’d given him an excuse to pull out all the stops.

  He probably would have anyways, but she gave him an excuse.

  If I headed away from the downtown area, toward the water, I could put myself in a position to track down Cherish, or to get to another point where the satellite phone would work and make a call to Coil. If they were checking the harbor for Cherish, going by what she’d revealed on the phone, then I could get there first. Lay a trap, or get in position to shoot them again. I figured out how to remove the magazine from the gun and checked the number of rounds remaining. Six.

  The problem was that the whole reason I’d let Panacea keep using her power on me instead of giving chase to Jack was that I was supposed to cure the others. I could kill and replace the parasites that were carrying the prions. The sooner I did it, the less damage they’d do in the meantime. Some of the damage would be permanent, and the potential victims included Brian and Lisa.

  I wanted to head back downtown, to help my teammates and friends, but I couldn’t shake the nagging doubt in the back of my mind.

  The difference between Jack and Bonesaw going downtown and their going to the coastline was that the former was almost kind, taking care of a teammate. The latter case allowed them to inflict some terrible torture on an ex-teammate of theirs.

  It was the most inconvenient possibility, but my gut told me they’d go after Cherish. If I had to put numbers on it, I’d have said there was a sixty percent chance they’d go that route, a thirty-five percent chance they’d headed downtown. And there was always the possibility I was wrong, that they had something else in mind, so I was leaving room for that extra five percent.

  But if I was wrong, if I went to the harbor to try to get ahead of them and Jack didn’t go that way, then my friends would suffer for it. Brian had been through enough, and while Lisa had seemed to deal okay after she’d been scarred, I was willing to bet she valued her mind more than she valued her face.

  I headed downtown.

  No matter which way I chose to go, I’d have that awful feeling of regret in my chest. I tried to quiet it by telling myself that with Tattletale and the others, I’d actually be able to do something against the Nine. A gun and knife didn’t cut it, no matter how scattered or few in number they were.

  I couldn’t quite manage to convince myself.

  As it didn’t cost me anything significant in terms of forward momentum, I let Atlas carry me higher. I was getting more comfortable flying him, and there was little difference in being a hundred and fifty feet above the ground and being five hundred stories up. I wanted to assess the situation. Was my dad one of the people who was depending on this cure?

  The topography of the city had impacted where the miasma was spreading. As far as I could tell, it wasn’t really advancing into the north end of the city.

  Bakuda’s bombing campaign and the militarization of the ABB had predominantly focused on the Docks. Leviathan had arrived in the Docks, and his destruction of the city’s water infrastructure and power had hit that part of the city hardest. I wondered if this would be the first real instance where the Docks weren’t hit as hard by the ongoing series of disasters and attacks in Brockton Bay.

  I descended back to a safer distance, where falling wouldn’t be terminal, and tried to plan.

  Finding Tattletale was number one. With her assistance, everything else would be easier. As much as I wanted to make Grue my second priority, I knew that there were other things that took precedence. Siberian was a big one. Finding a way to distribute the cure was another. Once I started, it would set up a chain reaction, but I had to decide how to start it off.

  Tattletale first. She could help me find Siberian and figure out how to distribute the antidote.

  I tracked the trails of extermination smoke as I flew. I was faster than they were, but they were elusive, staying out of sight and moving through awkward positions. I spotted one mechanical spider moving through a trash-littered alleyway and changed my route to close in on another trail.

  My second confirmation of a mechanical spider left me with the feeling that I’d made the wrong call.

  But it was too late to turn back. It would be faster to go help Tattletale and get her assistance than to turn around and fumble along on my own.

  They were traveling on foot, I hoped, and they still had to find Cherish. She was bound to be in a remote spot, and they didn’t have many clues to work with. It would take time.

  Things hadn’t exactly been quiet while I’d been gone.

  “Calm down! If we all just stop fighting, then this doesn’t end in tragedy.”

  “Why should I believe you?”

  “I’ll tell you as soon as I can think of a convincing reason!”

  Tattletale was on the street, alone, facing down Bitch, two dogs and one wolf on full-tilt mutation-mode. They advanced with measured steps, keeping close to their master.

  I landed beside Tattletale, and the two of us made eye contact.

  “L-mist.”

  “A-Carnelian,” she answered. “You understand if I don’t trust you implicitly, here?”

  “I do. Listen, I’ve got a cure-”

  “Who the fuck are you!?” Rachel shouted.

  I shut my mouth and turned to face her.

  I was secretly glad the dogs hadn’t turned on her, as that probably would have meant the death of a teammate, but I was getting a firsthand look at what our enemies had to deal with. The dogs were big and vicious enough that if they attacked, there wasn’t a whole lot I could have done. Heck, Tattletale and I together couldn’t have managed much of a defense against one of the creatures, let alone three.

  “We’re teammates,” I told her. “I wa
s just fighting the Nine, I’ve got a cure for this thing.”

  “Or you’re going to kill me the second I let my guard down.”

  I’d been conned by the Nine. Tricked into letting them get access to certain information. Bitch wouldn’t have fallen for that, but that came with the caveat that she was that much harder for us to reassure.

  “I can put my weapons away. Or give them to you.”

  “I’m not that stupid,” she growled the words. “Don’t treat me like I’m retarded. I’m not. I know you have powers.”

  “That wasn’t what I wanted to say,” I said. I kept my voice low, my tone as calm as I could manage. “I was just saying I’d disarm myself if it would reassure you.”

  “The only thing that’s going to make me feel any better is getting the fuck away from here. But she wouldn’t get out of my way.”

  “If you leave,” Tattletale told her, “You’ll go straight to the Trainyard, to your other dogs, and you’ll get worse. You’ll wind up isolated from the rest of us. And I think the Nine want that. They wanted people for their group, and doesn’t this set their candidates up for easy recruiting? Separate them from their previous attachments, leave them vulnerable and lost, then give them the hard sell.”

  “Not that you’re wrong,” I said, glancing at Tattletale while trying to keep the dogs in sight, “I saw Jack trying that with Panacea. But Bitch tends to see it as slimy or conniving when someone talks a lot.”

  “I see. You want to try, then?”

  Bentley growled. It didn’t sound like a dog growl. What worried me, though, was Bastard. He was untrained enough that he wouldn’t necessarily listen to Bitch, and big enough to feel confident about attacking.

  Not that I was positive she would stop him if he attacked. As much as she felt like she’d feel more secure on her own, Bitch might well decide she could resolve this situation by killing anyone who threatened her. It wasn’t that she was the murdering type, but she didn’t have the innate sympathy for her fellow humans. She cared as little about murdering us as I might feel about killing two dogs if I felt like my life was on the line.

  I’d been in a similar headspace, trying to figure out who was friendly and who wasn’t. Jack had been more on the ball than I, and I’d fallen for his ploy. I’d deal with the guilt over what that might mean at a later point.

  “A little while ago, we spent some time in one of your shelters. I’m guessing you don’t remember who, but you remember chilling out and eating Greek food with someone?”

  “You could have found that out through someone else.”

  “I know. That’s not what I’m saying. I’m just wanting you to think about that feeling. I’d like to think we got along, as far as people like you and people like me can get along with others.”

  “Doesn’t mean anything to me now.”

  “Okay.” I let my arms drop to my sides.

  “That’s it? That’s your argument?”

  “I don’t really have much better. I know that if I tried to convince you using logic and a well worded argument, you’d feel like I was being manipulative. All I can say is that we had a good time then, we were friendly. I know we parted ways some time after that, but I’d really like to get back to that point. So I’m appealing to that emotional attachment, I guess.”

  “You think I’m attached to you?”

  This again. This situation seemed to be highlighting the worst parts of people and twisting others. Amy’s paranoia, Legend’s battle instincts, Bitch’s antisocial tendencies, and my… whatever it was, that led to me trusting Jack.

  “Yeah. I’m making that assumption,” I told her.

  “Fuck you.”

  She advanced, and I stayed put. Sirius growled.

  “I’m not your enemy,” I said.

  “We’ll attack you.”

  “If you do, maybe the cure will get transmitted to your dog, and then to you.”

  “You’re not that stupid.”

  I shook my head. “Not really. But I don’t think you’ll attack me, either.”

  She advanced closer. Sirius growled again, and she held one hand out to stop him.

  So glad they still listen to her. This would be a disaster if the dogs were on a rampage. I supposed the miasma was slower to affect them, given their mass, or the vectors it affected weren’t present or as predominant in dogs.

  She stepped close, until her nose was an inch from mine. She stared unflinching into my eyes. I met her gaze with that same unforgiving hardness.

  “No way I could like someone like you.” The words were like the twist of a knife. Hostility and aggression combined with pure, petty malice.

  “Just going by looks, when you can’t see half my face?” I asked. Without breaking eye contact, I reached up and pulled down the lower half of my mask. “You don’t recognize me?”

  She didn’t glance away from my eyes. “No. Now move. I will order them to attack.”

  She would. She could.

  I leaned forward and planted a quick kiss on her lips.

  Her punch knocked me off my feet and sent my glasses flying off my face to land in the water somewhere nearby.

  “The fuck!?” She shouted. One of the dogs growled, deep, as if to complement her anger with a threat of his own.

  “You’re cured,” I told her. ”That’s it, that’s all it takes.”

  She stared down at me.

  If this doesn’t work, she might kill me for real.

  Tattletale helped me to my feet and handed me my glasses. I got my mask in place around the lower half of my face and then gathered bugs over the mask and glasses to hide my features.

  “How’s that work?” Tattletale asked.

  “The effects are being generated by a parasite. Panacea changed the parasite to some kind of symbiotic species that overrides the effects of Bonesaw’s work and heals the effects on the brain. My bodily fluids are carrying it. That means that right now, the parasites in Bitch’s bodies should be dying or getting replaced or transformed or something. I hope.”

  I dusted myself off, wiped at my costume where I’d landed in the water, and made sure none of my belongings had dropped from their positions in my armor or my belt.

  I didn’t hurry to meet Bitch’s eyes, because I knew that when I did, I’d have to maintain that gaze. Only when I was done did I meet her eyes.

  She took her time responding. ”I was going to have Bentley break you.”

  It worked.

  “Glad you didn’t.”

  “Why?”

  Why had I done it? I’d tried to explain it to her so many times. I couldn’t bring myself to do it again.

  “Doesn’t matter.”

  Tattletale pointed down at the water just behind me. I turned around and looked. Where I’d landed on my back, the water was changing from red to a relatively clear state. ’Relatively’ only because the water hadn’t been that clear to begin with. ”Guess it’s working.”

  “Good,” I said. The last swirls of red disappeared from around my feet, and the water around me began to change back to normal. With increasing speed, the water around us began to transition back to normal at nearly the speed the effect had spread in the first place. It extended out in every direction, promising to revert most or all of the affected bodies of water.

  “You couldn’t have waited until after you’d cured me before you put the bugs on your face?” Tattletale asked. She was smiling as she asked it. ”Unless you want me to drink that water.”

  “Sorry. No, I’ll help you out.”

  She gave me a stern look, pointed at me, and said, “No tongue.”

  I rolled my eyes, scattered the bugs, pulled my mask down and leaned over to give her a quick peck on the lips.

  “Now fill me in. I’ll fill in the blanks as you explain, and hopefully it’ll work fast enough that I can catch up.”

  “Jack and Bonesaw tricked me and Coil to figure out where both Cherish and Amy were. I gave chase, and Jack left before he accomplished anything
more than head games.”

  “State she’s in, head games are pretty serious.”

  “Maybe. But at least she didn’t cave on his demands.”

  “Sure.”

  “The bad thing is… Jack knows about Dinah’s prophecy.”

  Tattletale looked as though I’d slapped her. ”Shit.”

  “I mean, her numbers weren’t that good as far as our mortality rate going up against the Nine, so maybe she’s wrong about-”

  I stopped as Tattletale shook her head.

  “Depends how you interpret it,” she said. “The kid sounded pretty certain. Anyways, keep going.”

  “Siberian’s somewhere downtown, her real body in some kind of case, maybe.”

  “I think we might have run into her,” Tattletale said. ”I wasn’t paying a lot of attention to details, mostly just trying to avoid trouble. But I’m pretty sure she was hauling around something big. Fuck, I think she might have had a friend.”

  “A friend?”

  “Hookwolf.”

  I nodded slowly. ”Where was she headed?”

  “North.”

  “Where did Coil stick Cherish?”

  Tattletale made a face. “North.”

  If there had been a wall in reach, I would have punched it. “Wonderful.”

  “Explain?” Bitch asked.

  “They’re heading over to Cherish’s location, I’m almost a hundred percent positive,” Tattletale explained. “If Siberian’s heading there to rendezvous with them, then any further encounters with them are going to be ugly. Doubly so if they have new blood on their team.”

  “Hookwolf’s under the influence of Bonesaw’s miasma,” I added. “Don’t know what his reasons were for staying here, but the miasma seems to have eliminated that. He’s with the Nine. Maybe permanently. Bonesaw will keep it from killing him, I guess.”

  “So they got their candidate?”

  “And,” I addressed Bitch as I spoke, “They might be looking for more candidates to round out their group. If they left Siberian behind to try to recruit Hookwolf, and they tried a pretty aggressive strategy against Panacea, then they might make another stab at recruiting you. Or Regent.”