“Something in the vault, like Tia thinks,” I said with only some measure of confidence. “Either that or something about the situation. Maybe my father’s specific age let him get through-weird, I know, but there was an Epic in Germany who could only be hurt by someone who was thirty-seven exactly. Or maybe it was the number of people firing on him. Crossmark, an Epic down in Mexico, can only be hurt if five people are trying to kill her at once.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Megan interrupted, turning around in the hallway and stopping in the tunnel to look at us. “You’re never going to figure it out. His weakness could be virtually anything. Even with David’s little story-assuming he didn’t just make it up-there’s no way of knowing.”
Abraham and I stopped in place. Megan’s face was red, and she seemed barely in control. After a week of her acting cold and professional, her anger was a big shock.
She spun around and kept walking. I glanced at Abraham, and he shrugged.
We continued on, but our conversation died. Megan quickened her pace when Abraham tried to catch up to her, and so we just left her to it. Both she and Abraham had been given directions to the weapons merchant, so she could guide us just as well as he could. Apparently this “Diamond” fellow was only going to be in town for a short time, and when he came he always set up shop in a different location.
We walked for a good hour through the twisting maze of catacombs before Megan stopped us at an intersection, her mobile illuminating her face as she checked the map Tia had uploaded to it.
Abraham took his mobile off the shoulder of his jacket and did the same. “Almost there,” he told me, pointing. “This way. At the end of this tunnel.”
“How well do we trust this guy?” I asked.
“Not at all,” Megan said. Her face had returned to its normal impassive mask.
Abraham nodded. “Best to never trust a weapons merchant, my friend. They all sell to both sides, and they are the only ones who win if a conflict continues indefinitely.”
“Both sides?” I asked. “He sells to Steelheart too?”
“He won’t admit it if you ask,” Abraham said, “but it is certain that he does. Even Steelheart knows not to harm a good weapons dealer. Kill or torture a man like Diamond, and future merchants won’t come here. Steelheart’s army will never have good technology compared to the neighbors. That’s not saying that Steelheart likes it-Diamond, he could never open his shop up in the overstreets. Down here, however, Steelheart will turn a blind eye, so long as his soldiers continue to get their equipment.”
“So … whatever we buy from him,” I said, “Steelheart will know about it.”
“No, no,” Abraham said. He seemed amused, as if I were asking questions about something incredibly simple, like the rules to hide-and-seek.
“Weapons merchants don’t talk about other clients,” Megan said. “As long as those clients live, at least.”
“Diamond arrived back in the city just yesterday,” Abraham said, leading the way down the tunnel. “He will be open for one week’s time. If we are first to get to him, we can see what he has before Steelheart’s people do. We can get an advantage this way, eh? Diamond, he often has very … interesting wares.”
All right, then, I thought. I guess it didn’t matter that Diamond was slime. I’d use any tool I could to get to Steelheart. Moral considerations had stopped bothering me years ago. Who had time for morals in a world like this?
We reached the corridor leading to Diamond’s shop. I expected guards, perhaps in full powered armor. The only person there, though, was a young girl in a yellow dress. She was lying on a blanket on the floor and drawing pictures on a piece of paper with a silver pen. She looked up at us and began chewing on the end of the pen.
Abraham politely handed the girl a small data chip, which she took and examined for a moment before tapping it on the side of her mobile.
“We are with Phaedrus,” Abraham said. “We have an appointment.”
“Go on,” the girl answered, tossing the chip back to him.
Abraham snatched it from the air, and we continued down the corridor. I glanced over my shoulder at the girl. “That’s not very strong security.”
“It’s always something new with Diamond,” Abraham said, smiling. “There is probably something elaborate behind the scenes-some kind of trap the girl can spring. It probably has to do with explosives. Diamond likes explosives.”
We turned a corner and stepped into heaven.
“Here we are,” Abraham announced.
16
D shop wasn’t set up in a room, but instead in one of the long corridors of the catacombs. I assumed that the other end of the corridor was either a dead end or had guards. The space was lit from above by portable lights that were almost blinding after the general darkness of the catacombs.
Those lights shone on guns-hundreds of them hung on the walls of the hallway. Beautiful polished steel and deep, muted blacks. Assault rifles. Handguns. Massive, electron-compressed beasts like the one Abraham carried, with full gravatonics. Old-style revolvers, grenades in stacks, rocket launchers.
I’d only ever owned two guns-my pistol and my rifle. The rifle was a good friend. I’d had her for three years now, and I’d come to rely on her a lot. She worked when I needed her. We had a great relationship-I cared for her, and she cared for me.
At the sight of Diamond’s shop, though, I felt like a boy who’d only ever owned a single toy car and had just been offered a showroom full of Ferraris.
Abraham sauntered into the hallway. He didn’t give the weapons much of a look. Megan entered and I followed on her heels, staring at the walls and their wares.
“Wow,” I said. “It’s like … a banana farm for guns.”
“A banana farm,” Megan said flatly.
“Sure. You know, how bananas grow from their trees and hang down and stuff?”
“Knees, you suck at metaphors.”
I blushed. An art gallery, I thought. I should have said “like an art gallery for guns.” No, wait. If I said it that way, it would mean the gallery was intended for guns to come visit. A gallery of guns, then?
“How do you even know what bananas are?” Megan said quietly as Abraham greeted a portly man standing beside a blank portion of wall. This could only be Diamond. “Steelheart doesn’t import from Latin America.”
“My encyclopedias,” I said, distracted. A gallery of guns for the criminally destructive. I should have said that. That sounds impressive, doesn’t it? “Read them a few times. Some of it stuck.”
“Encyclopedias.”
“Yeah.”
“Which you read ‘a few times.’ ”
I stopped, realizing what I’d said. “Er. No. I mean, I just browsed them. You know, looking for pictures of guns. I-”
“You are such a nerd,” she said, walking ahead to join Abraham. She sounded amused.
I sighed, then joined them and tried to get her attention to show off my new metaphor, but Abraham was introducing us.
“… new kid,” he said, gesturing to me. “David.”
Diamond nodded to me. He had on a brightly colored floral-pattern shirt, like people supposedly once wore in the tropics. Maybe that was where I’d gotten the whole banana metaphor. He had a white beard and long white hair, though he was balding at the front, and wore a huge smile that sparkled in his eyes.
“I assume,” he said to Abraham, “you want to see what’s new. What’s exciting. You know, my-ahem-other clients haven’t even been through here yet! You’re the first. First picks!”
“And highest prices,” Abraham said, turning to look at the wall of guns. “Death comes at such a premium these days.”
“Says the man carrying an electron-compressed Manchester 451,” Diamond said. “With gravatonics and a full grenade dock. Nice explosions on those. Little on the small side, but you can bounce them in really fun ways.”
“Show us what you have,” Abraham said politely, though his voice seemed strained. I coul
d swear he had sounded more calm talking to the thugs who had shot him. Curious.
“I’m getting some things ready to show you,” Diamond said. He had a smile like a parrot fish, which I’ve always assumed look like parrots, though I’ve never actually seen either. “Why don’t you just have a look around? Browse a bit. Tell me what suits your fancy.”
“Very well,” Abraham said. “Thank you.” He nodded to us-we knew what we were supposed to do. Look for anything out of the ordinary. A weapon that could cause a lot of destruction-destruction that could seem like the work of an Epic. If we were going to imitate one, we’d need something impressive.
Megan stepped up beside me, studying a machine gun that fired incendiary rounds.
“I’m not a nerd,” I hissed at her softly.
“Why does it matter?” she asked, her tone neutral. “There’s nothing wrong with being smart. In fact, if you are intelligent, you’ll be a stronger asset to the team.”
“I just … I … I just don’t like being called that. Besides, who ever heard of a nerd jumping from a moving jet and shooting an Epic in midair while plummeting toward the ground?”
“I’ve never heard of anyone doing that.”
“Phaedrus did it,” I said. “Execution of Redleaf, three years ago up in Canada.”
“That story was exaggerated,” Abraham said softly, walking by. “It was a helicopter. And it was all part of the plan-we were very careful. Now please, keep focused on our current task.”
I shut my mouth and began studying the weapons. Incendiary rounds were impressive, but not particularly original. That wasn’t flashy enough for us. In fact, any type of basic gun wouldn’t work-whether it shot bullets, rockets, or grenades, it wouldn’t be convincing. We needed something more like the energy weapons Enforcement had. A way to mimic an Epic’s innate firepower.
I moved down the hallway, and the weapons seemed to grow more unusual the farther I walked. I stopped beside a curious group of objects. They appeared to be innocent enough-a water bottle, a mobile phone, a pen. They were attached to the wall like the weapons.
“Ah … you are a discerning man, are you, David?”
I jumped, turning to see Diamond grinning behind me. How could a fat man move so quietly?
“What are they?” I asked.
“Advanced stealth explosives,” Diamond answered proudly. He reached up and tapped a section of the wall, and an image appeared on it. He had an imager hooked up here, apparently. It showed a water bottle sitting on a table. A businessman strolled past, looking at some papers in his hand. He set them on the table, then twisted the cap off the water.
And exploded.
I jumped back.
“Ah,” Diamond said. “I hope you appreciate the value of this footage-it’s rare that I get good shots of a stealth explosive being deployed in the field. This one is quite remarkable. Notice how the explosion flung the body back but didn’t damage too much nearby? That’s important in a stealth explosive, particularly if the person to be assassinated might have valuable documents on them.”
“That’s disgusting,” I said, turning away.
“We are in the business of death, young man.”
“The video, I mean.”
“He wasn’t a very nice person, if it helps.” I doubted that mattered to Diamond. He seemed affable as he tapped the wall. “Good explosion. I’ll be honest-I half keep these to sell just because I like showing off that video. It’s one of a kind.”
“Do they all explode?” I asked, examining the innocent-looking devices.
“The pen is a detonator,” Diamond said. “Click the back and you set off one of those little eraser devices next to it. They’re universal blasting caps. Stick them close to something explosive, trigger them, and they can usually set it off. Depends on the substance, but they’re programmed with some pretty advanced detection algorithms. They work on most explosive substances. Stick one of those to some guy’s grenade, walk away, then click the pen.”
“If you could clip one of those to his grenade,” Megan said, approaching, “you could have just pulled the pin. Or better yet, shot him.”
“It’s not for every situation,” Diamond said defensively. “But they can be very fun. What’s better than detonating your enemy’s own explosives when he’s not expecting it?”
“Diamond,” Abraham called from down the corridor. “Come tell me about this.”
“Ah! Excellent choice. Wonderful explosions from that one …” He scuttled off.
I looked at the panel full of innocent yet deadly objects. Something about them felt very wrong to me. I’d killed men before, but I’d done it honestly. With a gun in my hands, and only because I’d been forced to. I didn’t have many philosophies about life, but one of them was something my father had taught me: never throw the first punch. If you have to throw the second, try to make sure they don’t get up for a third.
“These could be useful,” Megan said, arms still crossed. “Though I doubt that blowhard really understands what for.”
“I know,” I said, trying to redeem myself. “I mean, recording some poor guy’s death like that? It was totally unprofessional.”
“Actually, he sells explosives,” she said, “so having a recording like that is professional of him. I suspect he has recordings of each of these weapons being fired, as we can’t test them hands-on down here.”
“Megan, that was a recording of some guy blowing up.” I shook my head, revolted. “It was awful. You shouldn’t show off stuff like that.”
She hesitated, looking troubled about something. “Yes. Of course.” She looked at me. “You never did explain why you were so bothered by being called a nerd.”
“I told you. I don’t like it because, you know, I want to do awesome stuff. And nerds don’t-”
“That’s not it,” she said, staring at me coolly. Sparks, but her eyes were beautiful. “There’s something deeper about it that bothers you, and you need to get over it. It’s a weakness.” She glanced at the water bottle, then turned and walked over to the thing Abraham was inspecting. It was some kind of bazooka.
I secured my rifle over my shoulder and stuck my hands in my pockets. It seemed that I was spending a lot of time lately getting lectured. I’d thought that leaving the Factory would end all of that, but I guess I should have known better.
I turned from Megan and Abraham and looked across at the wall nearest me. I was having trouble focusing on the guns, which was a first for me. My mind was working over what she’d asked. Why did being called a nerd bother me?
I walked over to her side.
“… don’t know if it’s what we want,” Abraham was saying.
“But the explosions are so big,” Diamond replied.
“It’s because they took the smart ones away,” I said softly to Megan.
I could feel her eyes on me, but I continued staring at the wall.
“A lot of kids at the Factory tried so hard to prove how smart they were,” I said quietly. “We had school, you know. You went to school half the day, worked the other half, unless you got expelled. If you did poorly the teacher just expelled you, and after that you worked full days. School was easier than the Factory, so most of the kids tried really hard.
“The smart ones, though … the really smart ones … the nerds … they left. Got taken to the city above. If you showed some skill with computers, or math, or writing, off you went. They got good jobs, I hear. In Steelheart’s propaganda corps or his accounting offices or something like that. When I was young I’d have laughed about Steelheart having accountants. He’s got a lot of them, you know. You need people like them in an empire.”
Megan looked at me, curious. “So you …”
“Learned to be dumb,” I said. “Rather, to be mediocre. The dumb ones got kicked out of school, and I wanted to learn-knew I needed to learn-so I had to stay. I also knew that if I went up above, I’d lose my freedom. He keeps a lot better watch over his accountants than he does his factory work
ers.
“There were other boys like me. A lot of the girls moved on fast, the smart ones. Some of the boys I knew, though, they started to see it as a mark of pride that they weren’t taken above. You didn’t want to be one of the smart ones. I had to be extra careful, since I asked so many questions about the Epics. I had to hide my notebooks, find ways to throw off those who thought I was smart.”
“But you’re not there anymore. You’re with the Reckoners. So it doesn’t matter.”
“It does,” I said. “Because it’s not who I am. I’m not smart, I’m just persistent. My friends who were smart, they didn’t have to study at all. I had to study like a horse for every test I took.”
“Like a horse?”
“You know. Because horses work hard? Pulling carts and plows and things?”
“Yeah, I’ll just ignore that one.”
“I’m not smart,” I said.
I didn’t mention that part of the reason I had to study so hard was because I needed to know the answer to each and every question perfectly. Only then could I ensure that I would get the exact number of questions wrong to remain in the middle of the pack. Smart enough to stay in school, but not worthy of notice or attention.
“Besides,” I continued. “The people I knew who were really smart, they learned because they loved it. I didn’t. I hated studying.”
“You read the encyclopedia. A few times.”
“Looking for things that could be Epic weaknesses,” I said. “I needed to know different types of metal, chemical compounds, elements, and symbols. Practically anything could be a weakness. I hoped something would spark in my head. Something about him.”
“So it’s all about him.”
“Everything in my life is about him, Megan,” I said, looking at her. “Everything.”
We fell silent, though Diamond continued blabbing on. Abraham had turned to look at me. He seemed thoughtful.
Great, I realized. He heard. Just great.
“That will be enough, please, Diamond,” Abraham said. “That weapon really won’t work.”
The weapons merchant sighed. “Very well. But perhaps you can give me a clue as to what might work.”
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