Swarm

by Scott Westerfeld

  “A what?”

  “Some people who wanted to mess with us. They set up that whole disaster, and took pictures, then made you their mouthpiece!”

  Sonia stared at him suspiciously, and he shrugged.

  “It’s all true,” he said in his own voice.

  “That sucks.” She thought a moment. “I thought it was weird, just getting all those photos sent to me. And they were behind everyone going crazy?”

  “Yep. They’re part of what’s been going on all over the country.”

  Way to go, voice! Still kinda true.

  “Who would do something like that?”

  “The bad guys,” the voice said. “People who want us good guys out of the picture. And it worked—we’re getting major heat from the cops. So we’re having a Love Saves the Dish party.”

  “A what party?”

  “It’s just a fund-raiser, so we can go legit. We need your help to pull a big crowd. But the right kind of crowd.” He glanced sideways at Sonia. She was still listening. “Otherwise the Dish is dead and we probably all have to become fugitives. Which would leave you nothing to post about.”

  Sonia’s eyebrows shot up. “Is it really that bad? You’d have to leave town?”

  “Yep,” he said in his own voice. It was just the truth, after all. He let the voice finish up. “You screwed up our thing, so now you gotta help us. Just make it sound like a happy club.”

  That was the core of Flicker’s plan—the crowd’s good vibes, along with the music, lights, and Nate’s and Kelsie’s influence, would win against Swarm’s anger. Ethan just hoped she was right.

  “Am I invited?” Sonia asked.

  “Um . . .” The voice hesitated, and Ethan realized he wasn’t sure if he wanted her there.

  Sure, Sonia was his enemy, sort of, but this party might turn deadly.

  “Well, you had a pretty rough time the other night,” the voice said. “We only want people with happy memories of the club.”

  “Oh, so I’m a bummer now?”

  Great. Now she was pissed, and that was a disaster. If Sonia’s post brought a bunch of bad vibes to the party, Swarm would turn the Zeroes into pulled pork.

  He opened his mouth and let the voice fix it. “Hey, if you can get the right crowd through the door, I’ll personally put you on the VIP list.”

  He felt a stab of guilt as he said it, but after all, they were risking a lot of other people too. At least this might be the last crowd that Swarm endangered.

  And Sonia looked pretty happy. She gestured with her sparkly bandaged wrist. “Just give me a time and date.”

  The voice was on autopilot now, delivering Flicker’s message. “Tomorrow night, starting around eight, and use the word love as much as possible in your post. That’ll get us a nice crowd, not some random mob of . . .”

  Kelsie’s code name in his mouth sent a shudder through Ethan, strong enough to make even the voice falter.

  “I get it,” Sonia answered. “Duh! I’m a woman on the internet. You think I don’t know about hate mobs?”

  The voice went into sleep mode, and Ethan realized the job was done.

  But she was still looking to him for a response.

  “Great,” he said. “I mean, thanks a lot.”

  “Did you actually think I wouldn’t help you?” Sonia rolled her eyes. “Why do you always doubt me, Ethan?”

  “I don’t know. Because you hate me?”

  Her mouth dropped open. “Where’d you get that idea?”

  “Because you turned that video of me in to the cops! Because you made it look like I was best friends with bank robbers, when all I was trying to do was save you from getting shot!”

  “Hey, you knew their names. What was I supposed to think?” She didn’t sound angry, but for a moment her balance beside him felt uncertain.

  “Yeah, but . . . ,” Ethan began, but he didn’t have anywhere else to go. It probably had been pretty suspicious-looking, chatting with Jerry Laszlo in the middle of a bank robbery. “You really thought I might be a bad guy?”

  “Of course! Why else would I turn you in to the cops?”

  “Because I didn’t like Jay White!”

  Sonia stared at him for a long moment; then a sudden peal of laughter spilled out of her. She angled away from him and swooped toward the edge of the rink.

  “Whoa, wait up.” He followed, shaky without her support. But he made it to the edge without face-planting.

  She was leaning over the rail, still laughing.

  “Any time you’re ready to quit that . . . ,” he said.

  “It’s just,” she managed between gasps, “you really thought I was still mad at you for dissing Jay White? I mean, he’s so last June.”

  “Okay.” Ethan hesitated. “But you looked pretty angry at the time. And then you got me busted!”

  She grinned. “You know, whatever it is with you guys, I’m going to figure it out. But until then, it only makes you more interesting, Ethan.”

  He didn’t know what to say to that. He stood with one hand on the rail for balance, as the small army of ice skaters shushed past. No one had ever called him interesting before.

  Maybe it was some kind of fatalism from the whole Swarm thing, or maybe it was because Sonia was a smart girl with cool hair. But whatever, Ethan wished he could tell her just how interesting he really was. How the voice worked, how it always got him into trouble. How he had to fight against it anytime he wanted to really connect with someone.

  Which was what he wanted to do now, he realized. He wanted to connect with her—Sonia Sonic. His worst nightmare from last summer.

  “Oh, crap,” he muttered.

  It was totally nuts. Sonia Sonic was a time bomb who could blow up the Zeroes’ secrets at any time. She was out to increase her own microfame at their expense.

  Plus, there was the fact that he’d just invited her to a party that might become a massacre.

  “I should go,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do before tomorrow.”

  Finally, the look of disappointment he’d been waiting for crossed her face.

  She shrugged. “Okay. Hope you had fun skating.”

  “I didn’t fall and slice my fingers off, which I count as a win.” He hesitated. “Can you put that post up tonight?”

  “Sure. Wouldn’t want to ruin your big party.” She smiled. “Love Saves the Dish!”

  Ethan grinned. Either the voice had done an even better job than usual, or Sonia was in a great mood today.

  “Thanks.” He felt his smile fade. Part of him still wanted to warn Sonia off the party. But at the same time, he didn’t want her to think he didn’t like her.

  So all he said was, “Stay safe, okay?”

  “Okay, freak.” She winked.

  Ethan skated to the exit, with barely any of the wobble he’d had before meeting up with Sonia.

  CHAPTER 53

  ANONYMOUS

  “HOLD IT STEADY . . .”

  Thibault sent the bolt through the steel sheet into the door frame, the drill spitting spirals of metal and wood. When he stepped back, the main entrance to the Petri Dish was smaller, and pretty much indestructible.

  “Booyah,” the Craig said.

  Thibault slapped the man’s huge shoulder, keeping physical contact. The six people working in the Dish were too scattered for the Curve to take hold, but he liked to focus the Craig’s attention when the guy was swinging big pieces of metal around.

  And after what had happened yesterday with his family, Thibault found any connection reassuring.

  “Let’s get those windows covered.”

  “You got it, Tee.” The Craig led the way onto the dance floor, where the scrap was piled.

  Tee, huh? Half a name was pretty good for the Craig. Working together was giving his memory extra grip.

  When they had the next sheet in place, Thibault fished in his pocket for another screw, positioned it, and drilled.

  It was a relief to be in motion, to have somethi
ng to do besides think about his family, even if it meant turning the Dish into a fortress. He and the Craig were narrowing the wide, welcoming entrance so a crowd couldn’t swarm in all at once. The other Zeroes were setting up escape plans A, B, and C.

  Well, not all of them—Glorious Leader was still holed up in his room at home, sending cryptic texts to Flicker. The ones she’d shown Thibault hardly made sense:

  Burner phones in supply closet.

  Fuel leak off the coast.

  Take singles if you need to run.

  Working on my old trick.

  Thibault wondered what kind of trick that was. A new strategy for beating Swarm?

  The last thing they needed was Glorious Leader undercutting Flicker at the last minute. She had stepped up, at least. Fortress Dish was her plan—her gamble.

  The whole thing relied on the Dish crowd being too happy, too inherently good, to change into a deadly swarm. Even if Swarm brought his own angry minions, they could only trickle in through the narrowed entrance. And as they came, Kelsie would Mob them into the happy dance, with help from Crash’s light show.

  To be fair, it seemed like a pretty risky plan to stake all their lives on, especially with Kelsie as upset as Thibault had ever seen her. But he’d also seen the right music cue or splash of spinning colors shift a crowd’s mood in an instant. The Dish experiments had given them the tools; they just had to make it work.

  If all that failed, Ethan and Kelsie were busy narrowing the stairs so a killer swarm couldn’t rampage up to the second floor faster than the Zeroes could reach the back-alley fire escape.

  Running away was sometimes just as solid as the Middle Way.

  “Can I borrow you, Craig?” Chizara called from the second-floor balcony. “We need to rig some more lights up here.”

  “You got it.” The Craig dropped his end of the steel plate, which clanged to the floor.

  “Hey!” Thibault said, but the guy was already trotting away like a puppy.

  Damn. Disappeared again. And he couldn’t lift all this metal by himself.

  “Ethan? Kelsie?” he called. “Give me a hand here?”

  No answer. Too much Curve.

  Story of his life.

  Thibault lowered the steel, fighting off despair. He made himself go back to the dance floor. Ethan and Kelsie were working halfway up the stairs, a bright connection crackling between them.

  “I shouldn’t have said any of that stuff,” Ethan was saying.

  Kelsie jammed a crate into the barricade. She didn’t look at him, but her attention flared.

  Thibault cleared his throat. Neither of them noticed.

  “Seriously,” Ethan said, “I feel really bad about it.”

  Kelsie straightened up. “Don’t apologize. For once your voice was telling the truth.”

  “There’s times to tell the truth, my mom says, and times to shut the fuck up.”

  Thibault stepped closer. “Um, guys?”

  “Your mom says that?” Kelsie said.

  “Yeah, except without swearing.”

  Not a spark of their attention came his way. Too much focus between them.

  Thibault balled his fists. He’d spent his whole life eavesdropping, but always with people who would never see him, never know him. Ethan and Kelsie had worked hard to be his friends—he didn’t want to spy on them.

  But he’d spent all week fighting to be seen. He was done shoving himself into other people’s awareness.

  He turned back to the pile of scrap. Maybe he could move one of the smaller pieces. . . .

  “It was my fault.” Ethan’s words carried from the stairs. “I can’t really control the voice, but it listens to me.”

  “What do you mean?” Kelsie asked.

  “I let jealousy into my head,” Ethan said, busily stacking stuff. “Being jealous of you and Chizara, that’s what got the voice started.”

  Thibault looked up at the balcony—maybe he could help Chizara? But she and Craig had disappeared from sight. And to get to them, he’d have to pass Ethan and Kelsie.

  He took a few steps toward the stairs, but the brightness of their connection made him pause.

  What if they didn’t even notice him?

  “I don’t think there’s anything to be jealous of anymore,” Kelsie said.

  This only deflated Ethan more. “That’s rough.”

  “You’re lucky we didn’t hook up, Ethan. It’s a bad idea getting a crush on me. I’m no good with one-on-one stuff. I only wind up disappointing people. I thought with Chizara it could work, but it turns out I’m still terrible.”

  “You aren’t.” Ethan straightened, arms limp by his sides. “But you don’t exactly sound surprised I had a thing for you.”

  “Ethan,” Thibault murmured. “She’d have had to be unconscious not to know that.”

  Kelsie didn’t even register him. Her awareness had curled up inside her, and her voice sounded tiny. “You were pretty obvious about it.”

  Ethan kicked at a box embedded in the barricade. “I just wish I’d said something. I was meaning to, but the whole frickin’ universe kept interrupting me—first Glitch and Coin, then those cops, then Swarm. I mean, whatever you want is cool. Obviously . . .”

  Kelsie’s attention crept out and took hold of him again. “Maybe the universe was trying to tell you something.”

  “That it hates me?”

  “That there’s someone else out there for you. Someone right in front of you, who’s hot for you right back.”

  Ethan just stared at her.

  “Sonia,” Kelsie persisted. “With the crazy hair.”

  “Sonia Sonic?” Ethan squeaked.

  Thibault rolled his eyes. She fixes on you like a spotlight.

  “She did teach me how to skate, kind of,” Ethan said.

  “Skating’s like dancing. It’s a courtship ritual.” Kelsie picked up another wooden crate and jammed it into the barricade.

  Ethan slumped again. “Not that it matters much, seeing as we’re all gonna die and stuff.”

  “No, Ethan, don’t you get it? This gives you more reason to live!”

  It was the first time Thibault had heard a note of hope in her voice since Davey had been killed. It made him feel ashamed at his own despair.

  He’d had to walk away from his family, but at least they were all still alive. Kelsie couldn’t say the same, and twice this week she’d had Swarm in her head when he’d torn people to pieces.

  If she could still muster a smile about Ethan and Sonia, maybe the Zeroes did have a chance tomorrow night. Maybe love really would save the Dish. . . .

  The Craig appeared at the top of the stairs. “How’s it going, guys?”

  “Good.” Kelsie patted the crate she’d just wedged into place. “No evil horde’s getting past this.”

  The Craig walked down the stairs, inspected the barricade for a moment, then reached out and took hold of the crate. With a single movement he yanked it out, the wooden slats splintering as it came away in his hand.

  “Hey!” she cried.

  The Craig shrugged. “If I can pull it apart, so can a buncha bad guys.”

  “Can’t argue with that,” Chizara called from the second-floor balcony. She and Flicker stood among a nest of new light poles. A tangle of fresh wiring snaked down to the junction box.

  “You oughta just block the stairs off completely.” The Craig socked his palm with his fist. “Just stay up there and leave me down here to do the dirty work.”

  “Yeah, except if things go wrong, he’ll make you his minion too,” Flicker said. “This bad guy controls people.”

  “Maybe other people. Not the Craig.”

  “Don’t worry, you’ll get your shot at him,” Flicker said. “Hey, you guys, come out where we can see you for a second?”

  Ethan, Kelsie, and Craig looked at each other, but stepped out to join Thibault on the dance floor.

  Up on the balcony next to Chizara, Flicker held her cane across one shoulder, like a swashbuckl
er’s sword. Thibault felt an actual smile creeping onto his face. She was a glorious leader in her own right.

  Now that he’d lost his family, he felt luckier than ever to have her as a girlfriend.

  “Craig has a point,” she said. “Keeping the crowd happy is only step one. We also have to take out Swarm.”

  “I’m telling you, no problem.” Craig mimed a bear hug, his biceps popping. “Gimme ten seconds and he’s out like a light.”

  “Ten seconds?” Flicker laughed. “Five, tops. Trouble is, the moment you start thinking about violence, you’ll let Swarm into your head.”

  “I will?”

  “That’s the way he works. Your rage is his key to your mind.”

  “Then how’s this gonna happen?” Ethan asked. “What’s the point of neutralizing his minions if we can’t do anything to the guy?”

  “We have to switch off his power,” Flicker said. “Just for a few seconds.”

  “I don’t see how,” Kelsie said. “He has a feedback loop between himself and the crowd, just like I do.” She looked around, found Thibault beside her. “Can you cut that kind of connection, Anon?”

  He answered slowly, grateful for this moment of the group’s attention. “I can’t chop away links among hundreds of people, no.”

  “So we can’t get rid of the feedback loop,” Flicker said. “But we can use it.”

  She nodded to Chizara, who snapped her fingers. All the new spotlights flashed on, whiting out everything.

  “Yeow!” Ethan cried. The Craig grunted, and Thibault shut his eyes, but the pattern of spotlights was already burned into his vision.

  Crash laughed her mad-scientist laugh and cut the blazing lights.

  “Ow” came Kelsie’s voice, tiny and full of pain. Through the spotlight burns, Thibault saw that she’d doubled over and covered her face. “A little warning next time, Zara?”

  “Sorry,” Chizara said. “We needed to surprise you.”

  “Mission accomplished.”

  Flicker was coming slowly down the stairs, her cane tapping now that everyone’s vision was fritzed. “We had to test what kind of feedback a surprised crowd would produce. So how was it, Kelsie?”

  “Like a grenade went off in my head.” Kelsie straightened up, blinking. “I’m still dizzy.”