“How will you convince them you weren’t kidnapped and that you aren’t being forced to hand over control of the JC?” I asked the mayor.
“I don’t know. Certainly be easier if the optics were better. By which I mean not being thrown inside the trunk of—”
Caroline’s exited voice cut across him. “The pilot has seen something.” She pointed toward the cityscape below. “Hold on, he’s trying to go closer. We’ll be able to show you shortly.” While she was pointing, the helicopter tilted to the side at speed. Caroline Black lurched outward, and the view of the camera spiraled away, showing clouds and sky.
“She is strapped to that helicopter, isn’t she?” The view of the camera returned to showing Caroline still gesturing at where she wanted the cameraman to aim. “She is.” Still, my hand gripped the sides of my mouth, watching her. The helicopter tilted again, going lower, and Caroline swung outward once more. Whatever else I thought about the anchorwoman, I couldn’t help but be impressed by her fearlessness.
As the cameraman regained his balance, the view on the screen rotated back down toward the city streets, sweeping past the three black cars and across the flat rooftops of the buildings on our left hand side.
“There, stop,” Caroline said. The view jerked back a few notches, then clarified.
On the roof, facing away from the camera, stood a man dressed in a long black trenchcoat. Becoming aware of his overhead watcher, he glanced up, revealing a red demon mask. He was a firedrake.
He began to sprint, disappearing from the view of the cameraman.
A thump hit the roof, two indentations appearing in the ceiling above us.
Chapter 15
Wednesday 11:10
The mayor’s face turned white. I gestured him away from the sunroof, then I summoned my right firesword and held it ready. The car interior lit up with red light.
When a face appeared, I thrust upward. The face vanished, but not before I realized it had been Noah. “Sorry!” I called up, letting my firesword dissipate.
Noah’s face reappeared with a grin. “Keeping me on my toes—I like that. ”
“Have you seen this?” I nodded at the TV, which showed a firedrake crouched down by a chimney stack, watching the traffic-logged street—watching us.
“Persia and I have been keeping an eye on them,” Noah said. “We’ve spotted three, and we suspect there are at least six or seven. We have to get out of here before they strike. I’ve come to tell your driver to keep up and to warn you to be ready. This is no time to have your feet up, watching TV.”
“I wasn’t… I just…”
“I kid.” Noah reached down and slapped me on the shoulder. “If that helicopter is broadcasting an eye in the sky view of what’s happening, then one of us should be watching it. Perhaps, sir, you could do that for now.” Noah looked at the mayor who nodded. “Great.” Noah gave me a wink. “Let’s ride, brother.”
“Ride what?” I asked, but he was gone.
I grabbed hold of the sides of the sunroof and pulled myself up. Noah had jumped back onto the lead car, which had begun to emit a police siren. “How did you get the siren?” I asked.
“That clever sister of yours figured out how to get a mobile to play a siren, and we’ve plugged it into car’s speakers and turned it up.
“She’s not my sister.” It appeared that, with a bit of imagination, cellphones had many uses these days. “She’s certainly clever though.”
Ahead, cars responded to the siren by easing to the side, shifting out of the way to create a lane to allow us though. Nathan drove into the gap created, and Pete and Harriet made sure that the three Lincolns stayed close together.
Our attempt to escape seemed to act as a signal for the firedrakes to attack. Three of them leapt at once from the rooftops and down onto the streets below. A short time later, two more appeared and also began to close in. Beelzebub.
Noah crouched down and slapped on the roof. “Faster!” he shouted down the sunroof. “This isn’t the time to worry about the rules of the road.”
Nathan accelerated, bumping first one car, then another out of the way.
“The siren isn’t loud enough,” Noah said, glancing behind him. “We need to really get the attention of the drivers ahead.” He held his hand in front of him and his multani appeared, a long firewhip. He snapped his wrist, and the whip shot out in front of him. Red light glinted off the black roof of the Lincoln, and I turned around to see that Persia had also fully emerged from her car to stand on the roof and that she had summoned her multani, a spiked ball of fire on the end of chain—a chain mace—which she rotated above her head.
I began to raise my hands, then let them fall to my side, deciding against summoning my multani. The weapons of the two Hastings put my fireswords to shame. Plus, their show of force had done enough to get us moving. Tires spun and metal shrieked as the cars ahead accelerated, not caring about the other vehicles they slammed out of the way. Even then Nathan, driving the lead car, didn’t wait for space to fully open, ploughing vehicles fully out of his way as he picked up speed.
On top of Nathan’s Lincoln, despite it careening back and forth below him, Noah maintained his balance. He continued to snap his whip out in front of the car, a charioteer urging invisible horses forward. The lashing firewhip sent a cascade of orange and yellow sparks shooting in all directions.
A whooshing sound to left caused me to turn. One of the firedrakes stood on top of a crashed car, his legs braced and arms thrust outward, and a fireball shot from his hands. I summoned my fireswords and crossed them in front of me. Fire met fire in an explosion that blasted me backward. My back painfully cut against the edge of the sunroof.
Noah took one large stride, then he leaped forward and to the left off his car. As he reached the peak of the jump, he flung his arm forward and his whip snaked out above him. The end of it wrapped around the railing of a fire escape on the closest apartment window, and Noah was able to use the whip to swing in a large arc toward the firedrake who’d shot a fireball at me.
I stared, thoroughly impressed. I had no idea a multani could wrap around an object and grip onto it like that. The firedrake attempted to form another fireball, but before he had the chance Noah’s feet crashed against his chest, sending him flying backward, then Noah gracefully landed where the firedrake had stood. Noah’s wrist snapped and his whip released the railing, then lashed out at where the firedrake lay on the pavement, his mask askew.
The firedrake wasn’t so stunned that he couldn’t defend himself. He raised a hand, and a glowing fire shield formed. Both the whip and shield flared red when they made contact. The firedrake held the shield in front of him as he scrambled backward, and he disappeared behind an overturned SUV.
Not far away, Persia had moved to intercept another of the firedrakes. As she hopped from car to car, the lightness of her steps made it seem like she was gliding through the air, held aloft by the rotating fire chain mace over her head—a weapon that she wait long before deploying. She sent it flying out before her, and the chain expanded, allowing the spiked ball of fire to travel several car lengths before boomeranging back toward her. The firedrake dived out of the way in time to avoid getting hit.
Watching the two of them sent a thrill of excitement running through me—that was what we fire sentinels were capable of. I vaulted out of the car and onto the roof, intending to race across to join him. Then I hesitated. A battle with fire magic flying was exactly what I needed to avoid. What if I, or one of the other fire sentinels, used our power and allowed elementals to cross from Brimstone? A bad situation could get much worse. The firedrakes, as a group, likely wouldn’t even exist if I hadn’t turned Conor Duffy into some sort of uber-shade that drew other shades to him.
Just then, the nose of Pete’s Lincoln rammed against the back of an SUV in front of it. The car slid sideways out from under me, sending me flying backward. I crashed hard on the tarmac, then immediately bounced back up, seeing the front of Harriet’s
Lincoln bearing down on me. She braked enough that I was able to jump onto her bonnet, and from there to her roof, avoiding further injury. My heart galloping, I took a moment to regather my breath and my wits.
Persia leaped from car rooftop to rooftop, quickly catching up with the convoy. She landed on the roof beside me, then immediately jumped off again, heading for a firedrake approaching from the other direction.
“Do you need my help?” I shouted after her.
“Stay with the cars. Protect the mayor,” she said without turning back.
After making sure there were no immediate threats, I jumped back onto Pete’s Lincoln, then I slid down through the sunroof to check on the passengers below. The first thing to grab my attention was the excited chatter coming from the TV as Caroline Black commentated over the visuals of Noah and Persia fighting against the firedrakes. “…a real life supernatural battle in the middle of the day in Lusteer with terrorist firedrakes battling real life fire sentinels, and we are bringing it to you live. We believe Mayor Maxwell is in one of those cars, but we still have no confirmation. Still no sign of the L-SED, but I’m told they are converging…” I tuned her out to focus on the mayor. He was scrunched into the corner staring at the TV. For the first time, he looked small, weak, afraid. The pallor of his face matched the grey of his hair.
“Don’t worry,” I said. “We’ll get you out of this.”
“This is not the world I grew up in. This is not the world of even a year ago.” He swallowed. “I no longer know my own city.”
“A year ago you gave a big speech about the existence of supernaturals,” I said. “And you must have known about them well before that.”
“It just never seemed real before. I mean… I knew they were real. Just…” He shook his head. “Not like now.”
“Takes a while to fully digest,” I admitted. I nodded toward the TV. “I think the whole of Lusteer is having the same experience you are. What about you?” I shouted at Pete up front. “How are you holding up?”
“Oh my god, dude.” Pete turned fully around. “This is awesome. Did you see the fire sentinel out there? When I saw the whip, I nearly wet myself with excitement. If Balrog had that whip, he would have defeated Gandalf. And then when he used the whip to fly through the air and knock out the firedrake. Like Spiderman. No, more like Indiana Jones. Except better than either. A firewhip, dude. Did you see it?”
“Two fireswords is better than one firewhip,” I muttered.
Pete, who had faced forward briefly, turned back toward me again. “What was that?”
“Just watch where you are going.”
“It doesn’t matter. Look.” Pete deliberately swerved and crashed against the side of a bright yellow convertible. “You think I’m going to miss out on this chance to play bumpers on the main road into Lusteer in a government car?”
No wonder I was thrown. “Pete, this is serious!”
“I know. And it’s fantastic!”
A loud exclamation from Caroline Black drew my attention back to the TV. “Yes, it looks like the Lincolns are about to break through the traffic onto clear road ahead.” The camera zoomed back; I could see that it was true.
“Pete, concentrate on the road,” I said. “We’re nearly through.”
The bird’s eye view from the helicopter also showed the attacking firedrakes beginning to fall back. Noah and Persia, who had allowed their multani to dissipate, sprinted side by side down the middle of the road in the lane created by the three speeding Lincolns. To either side of them, battered-looking cars were locked together in a crazy looking pattern with each car at a different angle to the road. One or two drivers had cautiously emerged, but most wisely stayed inside their vehicles.
Once Pete ran out of cars to play bumpers with, the ride became smoother. I was able to breathe easier. Then as the camera zoomed out further, the reason for the empty road in front of us became clear. It had been closed by L-SED.
A line of titanium-plated army trucks blocked the street ahead of us.
Chapter 16
Wednesday 11:40
The car jolted in response to a thump from behind. I turned to see a pair of legs in the back window. Noah had jumped onto the trunk of the car. A moment later, Noah’s head popped through the sunroof. “What now?” he asked.
All three cars had reduced speed, but we were still fast approaching the blockade. It was a surreal experience, watching something happen on TV and at the same time being part of it.
“We could stop,” I said. “Caroline Black reported that if Mayor Maxwell wasn’t kidnapped, he would be allowed to attend the news conference.”
Noah’s head was pushed to the side, and Persia’s face joined his in the window of the sunroof. “You can’t be that naive,” she said. “Choosing to put ourselves in the power of that woman would be the last choice we ever made.”
I moved aside as locks of Persia’s black hair fell in my face. “Lowndes had me in her power, and she released me just yesterday.”
Both of them looked surprised. “She did?” Noah asked. “You’re sure she knew you were a fire sentinel?”
“Certain,” I said. “The L-SED is a government funded agency. It’s not like she can do whatever she wants.” I pointed up at the helicopter above. “The world is watching.”
“The media will be told that we were taken in for questioning,” Persia said. “Once we’ve disappeared from the sight of the world, we’ll be forgotten and Lowndes can do with us what she wills.”
Pete stuck his head and torso back between the front seats, facing up toward Persia and Noah. “You two were fantastic out there. Just incredible. I thought the whip was the greatest thing I’d ever seen in my life, then I saw the chain mace. Wow. A chain mace of fire. If I could do that, I’d never stop carrying my weapon around. I wouldn’t care if I never got let into restaurants or hotels.”
“Pete, you’re already not let into restaurants and hotels. Also, you’re still driving, remember.” I pointed to the front. “And it looks like Nathan has made a decision. Follow him.”
Smoke drifted from the rear wheels of the car ahead as Nathan did a handbrake turn, quickly accelerating back the way we had come.
“Good,” Persia said. “At least someone has sense.”
Pete pulled himself forward until he settled back into the front seat, accelerated, then locked the steering wheel in a full turn and yanked on the handbrake, letting the car do a quick spun. He then released the handbrake and floored the gas. The engine roared, and the Lincoln bucked forward. Within seconds, he was back on Nathan’s tail. When he was paying attention to the road in front of him, Pete had some skills, it appeared.
“Were you a rally driver in another life?” I asked.
“Just a misspent youth,” Pete said. “Don’t challenge me to a game of pinball or throwing cigarette butts into cut-off coke cans.”
“I’ll remember that.” I looked up. Only the fingers of Noah and Harriet remained visible, white knuckled and clinging to the side of the sunroof. “Are you two okay up there?” I shouted.
Persia pulled herself forward until she was visible once more, her hair whipping behind her. She said something, but the wind snatched the words away. Suddenly she reminded me of how Sash had looked in the dream with fire all around her. A wave of nausea flowed over me. “I didn’t catch that,” I said, fighting against the surge of emotion. This was no time to lose myself.
“We’re both good,” Persia said. “What’s the plan?”
“I’m not sure.” I glanced down at the TV screen. The camera had zoomed out so much that Noah and Persia hanging onto the roof of the Lincoln were barely visible. What it did show was L-SED trucks converging from all directions. There was nowhere for Nathan to go.
“Ok Google. Talk. Are you following all this, Jo? Any suggestions? EndTalk.”
“Talk message. I’m listening to the radio messages of the L-SED. They believe they have you surrounded.”
“I believe they’re right,”
Noah said. He had regained his position beside Persia and was looking down at the TV screen.
“Talk message. I’ve scanned the area on Google Maps and have found one possible escape route. A large derelict warehouse off to your right has an exit that might bring you outside the cordon set up by the L-SED. However, I assume the warehouse is closed.”
I shifted across to look out the side window and quickly saw the place she must have meant, a big hulking building in a bad state of repair. I grabbed Pete’s shoulder and pointed out the place to him. “Head for that,” I told him.
“I’ll gesture for the others follow,” Noah said.
“Sometimes you have to know when you are beat,” the mayor said. “No need to double down on one bad decision with another.”
“Put on your seatbelt and hold tight,” I told him. Then, ignoring my own advice, I leaned between the front two seats so I was alongside Pete. “Do you see a way in?”
“Sure. There’s the locked metal gate, then beyond them, the wooden double-doors, also locked.”
“Good. You know where to go then.” I was glad that Pete sounded fearful rather than excited. Perhaps this would be the last time he ventured stupidly into danger. I quickly checked the TV. It showed Noah on one knee, gripping the edge of the sunroof with one hand, and waving for the other two black Lincolns to follow us with the other. Harriet was already coming our way, and Nathan had started to turn. Over a dozen L-SED trucks trundled in our direction, but they weren’t close enough to intercept.
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