Swarm

by Scott Westerfeld

  Thibault stared back. “You guys are just dicking with me.”

  “Poor baby.” Glitch reached back and patted Thibault’s knee. Then she fixed him with her eyes, her black hair thrashing around her face in the wind. “I’ve got some advice for you. It might save your life, so listen: That stuff we pulled at your club? All the other big stuff you’ve done? It attracts attention. The wrong kind.”

  “You mean, like, the government?” Thibault said.

  She laughed. “The least of your worries. Here’s what you and your friends gotta do—spread out wide and keep moving. Don’t hang around together. Leave town.”

  “Leave town?” He glanced around. They were practically out the other side of Cambria already, headed east.

  “Don’t stop anywhere for long. Be a moving target.”

  Davey’s reflection refused to meet his eye. Ren’s gaze had him pinned back against the seat. Their connections made a perfect triangle, all three sides equally bright and firm.

  “A target for what?” Thibault asked.

  Ren got a faraway look in her eyes. Her plum-painted lips closed tight, like she was afraid of what might come out. Then she spoke. “For the guy who killed our Stalker friend. He’s after us, and we just waved a big red flag telling him where we are—where you are. He’s not picky. He’ll chew up anyone who’s got a power.” And her eyes pinned him again.

  “And you waved that flag here? Why?”

  “It was kind of your wedding present to us,” she said. “You guys are a diversion so we can relax on our honeymoon. Thanks for that!”

  Thibault stared back at her. “If we’re a diversion, why would you warn us?”

  Davey gave a braying laugh. “The longer it takes him to hunt you guys down, the farther we can run. So try not to die too fast. How many are you?” He lifted his chin to peer at Thibault in the mirror.

  “Six.”

  “Beautiful.” Davey hit the brakes, pulling onto the shoulder. The wheels sent up a cloud of dust around them. “Six of you should distract him for a good long while. Go tell your pals to spread out.”

  “What? You’re just dumping me here?”

  “We didn’t ask you to come along,” Ren said.

  Thibault looked around—this was miles out of town. And Flicker was still in the middle of that disaster. He had to get back to her somehow, especially if there was some kind of Zeroes killer around.

  But he also had to know. “What does he look like?”

  “He looks like a thousand zombies.” Ren kept her expression absolutely bland. “Every one of them hungry to rip you to pieces.”

  Thibault matched her expression. “Really.”

  “Yeah, really.”

  Davey thumped the steering wheel. “Got a long drive ahead of us, dude. And it’s already a long walk back. You Stalkers kind of suck at hitchhiking.”

  Thibault sat up on the back of the seat and swung his legs over the side. “Thanks for the, uh, advice.”

  He stepped off onto the empty road.

  Davey looked straight ahead, his attention a clear beam at Ren. Her eyes were boring into Thibault like lasers.

  “No problem,” she said in a flat voice. “Take care, dude. And keep your eye on that DJ.”

  She rapped Davey on the shoulder and he threw the Ford into gear. They took off with a squeal of tires, kicking up a cloud of dust, like they didn’t trust Thibault to disappear all by himself.

  CHAPTER 21

  BELLWETHER

  “THEY MUST HAVE KNOWN ABOUT us since last summer,” Thibault said. “When we blew up the police station. They saw Sonia’s posts and came looking for us.”

  Nate watched the others’ attention sharpen. It was tricky for Thibault, taking the floor like this. Usually at meetings with all six of them, he only interjected from the corner. But there he was, up on the riser in the front of the home theater, trying to hold their attention.

  The fact that Nate’s little sisters had decorated the theater for the annual family viewing of Frosty the Snowman probably wasn’t helping. But for the moment Thibault had the Zeroes riveted.

  “They’ve known lots of people with powers,” he said. “Some in their hometown, and probably others along the way. Even someone like me.”

  “Whoa,” Ethan said. “Another Anonymous?”

  “Yes. But Ren called him a Stalker.”

  “You gotta admit that’s a cooler name,” Ethan said.

  Flicker stared at him. “Thibault’s not a stalker!”

  “I didn’t mean as in ‘crazy ex-boyfriend.’ ” Ethan sank into his chair. “More like Death-Stalker, the supervillain.”

  “Go on,” Nate said, drawing the room back together. Ethan was trying to be part of the team, but his talent for scattering the group’s energy was undiminished.

  Thibault’s voice went soft. “Ren said he’s dead now. Someone killed him.”

  There was a moment of stunned silence, the lines of attention that held them all together sharpening in the air.

  “Maybe they did it themselves,” Chizara said. “They have that whole Bonnie and Clyde thing.”

  “It wasn’t them,” Thibault said firmly. “The killer is after them too. That’s why they left town. They keep moving all the time—they’re on the run.”

  Chizara leaned forward, her attention steady on Thibault. “So they pissed somebody off besides us? Big surprise. They’re assholes.”

  Thibault shook his head. “They didn’t blow up the Dish just to be annoying. They planned every bit of it, so that this killer knows about us, too. We’re a diversion.”

  “Holy crap,” Ethan said. “You mean there’s, like, a Zeroes killer out there? And we’re decoys?”

  Fear surged through in the room. Nate felt it echo from Kelsie into a feedback loop. But Chizara was already on it, reaching out to take Kelsie’s wrist.

  The fear dropped back a little.

  “Is this guy like us?” Nate asked. “Does he have a power?”

  Thibault shook his head. “Not sure. But Ren said to stay away from each other, that we’d be easier to find in a group. So maybe this guy can sense people with powers. I guess that’s a power in itself.”

  Nervous attention arced through the room again, but Nate kept his voice firm. “We need to know more about him. We have to find Glitch and Coin.”

  “They were headed east,” Thibault said. “They’re planning something special for their honeymoon.”

  “Honeymoon?” Flicker snorted. “You know, I don’t think a marriage is official when you hijack someone else’s wedding.”

  A flutter of laughter went through the room, and Nate scribbled her a quick note: Good move. Keep them laughing.

  Thibault wasn’t smiling. “You saw them up there, Flick. They were taking it pretty seriously.”

  “Why get married if a killer’s chasing you across the country?” Ethan asked.

  “Because they’re lying about the whole thing,” Chizara said. “They’re just trolling us.”

  “Or because they don’t expect to make it,” Thibault said. “Maybe you were right about them being Bonnie and Clyde.”

  Nate spoke up before that thought took hold. “If they took the wedding seriously, then they’ll take the honeymoon seriously too. Something with a big crowd.”

  Thibault nodded. “Ren said it would be in the desert, Christmas Eve.”

  Nate stood up. “The day after tomorrow. Not long to figure this out. But maybe we can get Sonia to help us.”

  That got another laugh, and for a moment the room seemed steady. Until Ethan opened his mouth.

  “Great. A Zeroes killer. Just what I wanted for Christmas.”

  “It’ll be okay,” Nate said, stepping onto the riser. “We’ll track those two down, find out more, and deal with this. Thank you for that, Anonymous.”

  A moment later Nate was alone on the stage, with Thibault a wavering presence in the back row of the theater. As he slipped from their minds, the fear caused by his bad news subsided
a little.

  “In the meantime, we have another problem.” Nate steadied himself as the center of their attention. “At the hockey game, Ethan was using his voice to ditch some cops, and it mentioned an investigation. Internal Affairs. In other words, the police department is looking at itself.”

  “The voice could’ve been lying,” Chizara said.

  “I wasn’t trying to scam them,” Ethan said. “I was trying to piss them off. And you could tell from their faces it was true.”

  “So they’re investigating dirty cops?” Flicker asked. “Like, cops who take bribes?”

  “Yep,” said Nate. “And it’s a secret investigation, like with wiretaps and maybe bugged cop cars.”

  “Oh,” Kelsie said, and everyone looked at Ethan.

  “Yeah,” he said.

  Chizara let out a strained laugh. “Just so you know, my police station–destroying days are over, Ethan.”

  “Gee,” he said. “Thanks for the confidence builder, Crash.”

  “We’re not going to let it get that far,” Nate said firmly. “On the way out of the game, Ethan finally spotted our two corrupt cops. When we made contact, they were pretty pissed, but it’s not like they could do anything in front of hundreds of other policemen. I’ve set up a meeting for tonight.”

  “To give them real cash?” Kelsie asked. “What if they’re under surveillance?”

  “Let me guess,” Chizara said. “That’s my job.”

  “Exactly,” Nate said. “You’ll check for hidden cameras in their car. If you find anything, maybe it’s not too late to erase the footage from two nights ago.”

  “Maybe,” Chizara said. “But maybe Ethan’s mom is already watching video of him handing over that bag of money.”

  “Fake money!” Ethan corrected.

  “Or maybe those cops got turned,” Kelsie said quietly. “And tonight’s just a setup to arrest us all.”

  “Anybody else remember what happened last time we tried to pay somebody off?” Flicker said. “Two of us got kidnapped.”

  Everyone looked at Ethan again, and Nate could feel their fear curdle into anger. They blamed Ethan for his voice, for the way it dragged them all in whenever he went down. They always would.

  “Best. Christmas. Ever,” Ethan said.

  CHAPTER 22

  SCAM

  HAVING JESS HOME WAS GOOD, in more ways than one.

  Mom was relaxed with Jess around. Like she could finally take her eyes off Ethan, now that his big sister was here. As an added bonus, Jess was a girl, and she dated girls. Which made her a walking encyclopedia of girlness.

  And what Ethan really needed right now was some advice on girls. Because he needed to talk to Kelsie before he was arrested for police bribery.

  “Say you thought you were about to die,” Ethan began.

  “Mom’s not going to kill you.”

  “Kill me for what?”

  Jess shrugged. “Whatever it is you did this time.”

  They were outside under the mountain oak tree in back of the house. When they were kids, Dad had tied a swing to one of its branches. They’d stay outside until dark, until Mom was so tired of yelling for them to come in for dinner that she’d have to drag them into the house.

  The swing was long gone. Ethan leaned back against the trunk, staring at the branch where it used to hang, wishing his life was still as simple as it used to be, back then. He sat with his back to the trunk. Jess lay on the ground looking up at the sky, rubbing an apple on the hem of her shirt. Even on leave, she was wearing faded army khakis and a T-shirt with FORT JACKSON emblazoned across a very angry cartoon dog.

  This conversation wasn’t going to be easy. He had to use his own words, because Jess had been calling bullshit on the voice for as long as he could remember.

  “Aren’t you cold?” Ethan asked. “My butt is frozen.”

  “I like the cold.” Jess bit into her apple. “It burns calories. Like a mini workout.”

  “Say you thought you were going to go to jail—”

  “What did you do, Ethan?”

  Ethan swallowed. It wasn’t like he could tell her about the crooked cops, or the cash drop in front of the Dish tonight, or any of the rest of the mess he was in.

  So he said, “It’s a hypothetical, okay? You’re going to jail, or dying, or whatever. But first you want to tell someone how you feel about them. You know, romantically.”

  Jess’s face crinkled into a grin. “I see where this is going. You finally found a girl to tame the wild Ethan Cooper lust?”

  “You know, it kind of cheapens it if you put it like that.”

  “Wow. You’re serious.”

  Ethan was. Tonight he had two tasks. Pay off Murillo and Ang, the cops he’d bribed with Coin’s fake money. And tell Kelsie Laszlo he was in love with her, no matter what. He’d promised himself the same thing last night, of course, before two superpowered dickheads had butted in.

  But this time Ethan was for real. It was happening tonight.

  Unless the crooked cops shot him. Or took him to prison. Or the Zero killer who was out there somewhere showed up.

  “Forget it,” he said, standing up. “Let’s go in. It’s way too cold.”

  “Mom told me to keep you out here,” Jess said. “Two detectives are here, talking to her.”

  “Crap! Are you serious?” Ethan peered through the living room window, and saw the familiar round outline of Detective Fuentes. No doubt his partner, Detective King, was with him. Were they here to arrest him for bribery already? Why else would they visit Mom at home? “Why isn’t she talking to them during office hours?”

  Jess shrugged. “Must be secret DDA stuff. What’re you doing?”

  Ethan had drawn his hoodie down over his eyes, and was standing on tiptoes.

  “Watching. I know those guys.”

  Jess took another bite of apple and talked around it. “They gonna kill you?”

  “No. They’re the detectives who were hassling me last summer.”

  “When you went AWOL?” Jess groaned. “Do you know how much stress Mom heaped on me that week? You’re lucky she can’t afford military school.”

  “Don’t even joke about that!”

  Dad used to always threaten Ethan with military school. Like they could train the voice out of him. But the voice would have loved a place like that. It thrived in situations where men shouted meaningless macho crap at each other. Ethan’s brief high school football career had proved that. He couldn’t run, catch, or throw, but he could talk booyah like nobody’s business.

  He might come back from military school an empty shell, but he’d probably have a ton of medals.

  Jess was smiling. “Maybe I should go in there and invite those detectives to Christmas dinner.”

  Ethan ducked back down beside Jess, nearly dislodging the half-eaten apple from her hand. “Are you crazy? They hate my guts.”

  “Okay, okay.” She was laughing now. She sat up and moved so she was shoulder to shoulder with Ethan. “Forget them. Tell me about this girl. What’s she like?”

  Ethan sighed, wishing he could just forget Fuentes and King. He hoped they didn’t mention the hockey game to Mom. She’d never believe he’d gone to a sporting event for the fun of it.

  “Her name’s Kelsie,” he said. “And she’s really cool.”

  “So, not like you.”

  Ethan ignored that. “I’ve known her for six months, which is way too long for some stupid crush. So it’s real, right?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “And also about time I tell her how great I think she is. But I think maybe she’s too good for me.”

  Jess stopped chewing on her apple. “Ethan, you have the worst self-esteem of anyone I know. If you ever joined the army, they’d use you for target practice.”

  “Is that supposed to help with the self-esteem thing?”

  Jess chuckled and ruffled his hair. He hated when she did that.

  “Okay,” she said. “So you want to tell this girl how you feel, but
you’re worried that she thinks you’re the lamest person she knows.”

  “I guess, yeah.”

  “First things first,” Jess continued. “Why are you into this girl in particular? That’s usually a good place to start.”

  “She’s totally pretty.”

  “I hope there’s more to it than that.”

  “She’s smart and has great taste in music.”

  Jess looked bored.

  Ethan started speaking faster. “And we’ve been through a lot. Like the first time we met, she saved me from this guy who was going to beat me up.”

  He could still see Kelsie in the doorway of Thibault’s hotel suite, come to warn them about the Craig. Sparkling in a clubbing dress and matching high-tops like she’d just stepped out of a music video.

  “So she’s big and strong like your sis, huh?”

  Ethan had to laugh. “Not exactly. She saved me with a heads-up, not a beatdown. And then I saved her from being alone. Because there’s this stuff she and I share—secret stuff.” He hadn’t planned on doing this tonight, but why not? In a couple of hours, he could get killed or arrested. “She’s kind of like me.”

  “Like you, how?”

  “She can do weird things.” When Jess raised an eyebrow, Ethan added quickly, “I don’t mean in a kinky way. I mean . . . she has a superpower, like I do.”

  Jess tossed the apple core across the lawn. “So you’re a superhero now?”

  “Not a hero.” That word was ridiculous, at least in relation to Ethan. “But you know how I can spew out all kinds of stuff I shouldn’t know? When I talk like that, it’s a superpower.”

  Jess didn’t blink. “If that’s what you want to call it.”

  “That’s what it is,” Ethan said. “I don’t even know what I’m going to say when the voice talks. The words just come out of me.”

  “Listen, little bro. I’ve known since you were three that there’s something oddball about you.” Jess paused, like she was thinking her words through carefully. “Like, there was smart you and there was good you. But smart you is a faker. That’s why smart you was always getting into trouble—”