by Daniel Price
“Okay. This is the one. It’s welded shut. You’ll have to do your thing again.”
Zack moved to the ladder and launched his temporis upward. In the dim light of the tunnel, his friends could see the otherworldly glow in his skin and hair, the mighty white beam that burst from his hand. Clearly Theo wasn’t the only one who went up a level today. Mia wondered how many ascensions it would take before the people she loved started looking and acting like true gods.
They emerged into a delivery alley two blocks north of the office building, a thin and lifeless corridor full of concrete ramps and tempic pallets.
David lowered Mia from his back, then scanned the street at both ends. “Where to now?”
“Nowhere,” said Theo. “We wait here.”
“Won’t be long before the Deps expand their search.”
“We’ll be gone before that happens.”
Zack opened his knapsack and cursed at the sight of Mia’s pink journal. He’d grabbed the wrong bag in the rush to flee the office. Every last cent of their money was back in the building.
In the light of day, Mia could see the huge patch of blood on Zack’s shirt. My blood, she thought, with heart-pounding distress. She moved closer to look but was gripped by a sudden violent sickness. The others watched in concern as she dashed behind a truck ramp and threw up the bacon and waffles that Hannah had cooked in Quinwood.
David stroked her back. “You all right?”
She wiped her mouth, grimacing at the mess she made. “I’m okay.”
While Zack pondered the side effects of his temporal healing act, Theo fell into grander worries. The Mia he’d seen in the God’s Eye hadn’t vomited at all. Something happened differently. Events had changed.
He checked David’s watch, then fixed his restless glance on the eastern exit. “He should’ve been here already.”
“Who?”
Theo was afraid to answer. Now that they were off the gilded string, his faith in a perfect outcome fell to rubble. Maybe their ride wouldn’t show up after all. Maybe Hannah and Amanda—
“Someone’s coming.”
The silver van gleamed with sunlight as it sped down the alley. With each approaching yard, the vehicle looked less like a DP-9 cruiser and more like their old Royal Seeker. Were it not for the New York plates and slightly altered chassis, the group might have wondered if their beloved chariot had come to life and followed them.
Theo pressed down David’s gun. “Put it away. We’re good.”
“Wait. Is that—”
“Yup.”
“The real one?”
“Yes,” Theo said, through a weary smile. “That is most definitely him.”
He’d seen Peter Pendergen in enough visions to know the man by sight. Their futures were hopelessly entwined, a twisting braid of kinship and conflict, smiles and shouts. At the moment, the man was nothing short of golden. He was the first glimpse of sunshine after a very long storm.
The Seeker pulled to a halt. The window rolled down. Now the others could see why Rebel cast Bruce Byer as Peter’s impersonator. The two men could have been siblings, with their hero’s jaws, their boxer’s noses, their feathered brown hair and rugged lines of experience. There was a marked difference in the eyes, however, a deep blue soulfulness that Bruce lacked and Peter had in spades.
He shined a handsome smile at Theo, both cheery and glib.
“Don’t tell me I’m late ’cause I already know.”
“Just glad as hell to see you.”
“Likewise, Theo Maranan. You have no idea.”
Peter’s deep and sandy voice danced with Irish inflections. His “T’eo Maernin” nearly chipped a daffy grin on David’s face.
“How did you find us here?”
“I’ll tell you everything you want to know, boy, and a few things you don’t. But right now we’re shy on time. Hop in.”
The side doors rolled open with an electric whirr. David, Zack, and Mia clambered into the cushioned back rows while Theo took the bucket seat up front. His toes brushed against a wooden cane. He couldn’t imagine it was Peter’s. The man boasted a powerful build beneath his blue henley shirt. He looked like he could land a few bruises on Rebel if the need arose.
The doors closed. Peter began a convoluted series of dashboard adjustments. He caught Zack’s stony glare in the rearview mirror.
“If looks were daggers, cousin, I’d be a lot shorter now.”
“Just waiting for you to explain what the hell happened. We called the number you gave us. It served us right up to Rebel.”
“Yeah. They pulled a fast one on me too. I’m just glad you guys are all right.”
“All right? Have you bothered counting us?”
“I know exactly who’s missing. We’re getting them next.”
Theo turned in his seat. “He’s right, Zack. Trust me. They’re okay. They’ll be waiting for us.”
“Waiting where?”
“The roof,” said Peter.
“The roof,” said Theo, a hair out of synch. He cast a leery glance at Peter. “You’re an augur.”
“Nope. Just a guy with good sources.” He tilted the mirror at Mia and smiled. “By the way, darlin’, it’s great to finally meet you. You’re not fat at all.”
Mia blinked at him confusedly. “What?”
“All right. We’re good to go. Strap in.”
David skeptically eyed the dashboard. “Uh, this is a Royal Seeker. If they’re on the roof—”
“Got it covered, son.”
Technically, the van was a Royal Seeker Plus. It cost twice as much as the standard model, with one key difference.
The Silvers jumped in their seats as the vehicle emitted a steamy hiss and rose six inches off the ground. The doors locked. The tires folded inward.
They went up.
—
Hannah sat against the wall, cradling Amanda in her arms while they both stared catatonically out the window. It seemed like decades, not moments, since the Pelletiers yanked Evan away to God knew where. The sisters could have been elderly women by now, a pair of doddering old crones who were as white-haired as Azral and as crazy as Esis.
As the wall clock turned to 12:04, Hannah looked to Evan’s handheld computer and saw several tiny figures bustling about on-screen. The tragic little creep hadn’t lied about the Deps. They were all over the lobby.
“Shit.” She smeared her eyes, then looked to Amanda. “We have to go.”
While Hannah spent the last minute in a dull static haze, Amanda’s thoughts stayed sharp as swords. She played the visceral images of the day on a savage loop—the two young Gothams gored by tempic spikes, the fierce man-demon with the six tempic arms, the giant tempic fist that pulled Evan screaming to Hell. There was no sense to this life. No God. Only cruelty and madness and tempis, tempis, tempis.
“Amanda . . .”
And that was exactly how the world would end again.
“Amanda, the Deps are coming. They’ll get us if we stay here.”
The widow’s deep green stare briefly came into focus. She spoke in a broken whisper.
“Go.”
Hannah shook her head, fighting tears. “Goddamn you. Don’t.”
“Run as fast as you can. They won’t catch you.”
“Don’t do this to me. You can’t give up like this.”
Amanda covered her face with trembling hands, muffling her sobs and her horrible thoughts. What does it matter, Hannah? Where will we run? Where can we possibly hide?
“This is just what Evan wanted,” Hannah cried. “He came here to break us. It’s not supposed to work on you. You’re supposed to be the strong one!”
“I can’t go through it again.”
“You think I can? You think I will? I’ll slit my wrists before I watch the sky come down again.”
“Don’t . . .”
“Don’t what? Don’t check out early? What do you think you’re doing now?”
Amanda closed her eyes. “Hannah, please . . .”
“I’m not leaving without you. You either come with me or we sit here and wait for the Deps together. I can’t imagine they’ll be nice to us, Public Enemies Number One and Two. But hey, maybe they’ll put our brains in matching jars. At least we’ll finally look alike.”
“Hannah, what do you want me to do? My leg’s broken.”
“I’ll carry you.”
“Where? How do you expect to get past them if you’re hauling me around?”
Hannah pinched her lip in busy contemplation.
“We’ll go up.”
“What?”
“You remember when we woke up Theo at the parade? He was all confused and thought he was picking us up from the roof. Maybe it wasn’t a dream. Maybe it was a premonition.”
“That’s crazy. How would they pick us up?”
“I don’t know. Two of them have a direct line to the future. One’s a boy genius. And there’s no limit to the crazy things Zack will do to get you back. He’s probably already stealing a blimp.”
Amanda let out a teary laugh. The maddening artist would jump into fire for her, and yet he fled for the hills at the first sign of romantic trouble. If anything, she wanted to live just to smack him.
“We don’t even know if they got out of the building.”
“They did,” Hannah said. “I’m in the blackest mood of my life, but I know in my heart they got away. I know I want to see them again. I might even be able to handle what’s coming if I had all of you with me. Can’t you understand that, Amanda? Don’t you feel the same way?”
Warm tears spilled down Amanda’s face. She bit her lip and nodded.
“Good. So you’ll quit bitching and let me carry you?”
She sniffed and nodded again. Hannah looked around.
“All right then. I guess the first step . . .”
Her eyes froze wide at the office door. A large black figure stopped just outside the clouded glass. “Oh no . . .”
The armored Dep raised his handheld thermal scanner. He snapped to alertness at the orange figures on his display.
“I have two on the fifth floor! Two on the fifth—”
His body twitched with neuroelectric mayhem as a hidden chaser from the nearby flower pot jolted him. Hannah had snatched Evan’s computer from the rug and frantically mashed at the controls. She knew from Amanda’s painful experience that one of the buttons remotely triggered the weapon. Apparently she’d found it.
The agent staggered forward, his mirrored black helmet crashing through the glass. He toppled back to the hallway carpet.
The other seven elites quickly converged on the fifth-floor landing. Melissa eyed the twitching agent from a distance, then motioned to three of her crew.
“Loop around and flank the other side. Make sure they—”
A small black ball the size of an apple flew out of the broken door of the law office. It bounced off a planter and rolled five yards down the hall.
The Deps watched in puzzlement as Evan’s sleeping-gas grenade exploded in a swirling white cloud, far away from any living targets. Melissa caught a hint of quick movement through the smoke cover.
“It’s the swifter. She’s making a run for it. Go downstairs and guard all exits. Do not let her out of this building.”
The agents hurried down the steps. Melissa held her breath and sped through the gas cloud. She could see the cumbersome figure on the walkway now. To her surprise, it wasn’t just Hannah on the move. The Great Sisters Given were fleeing as one.
Hannah clenched her jaw, struggling to keep Amanda steady on her back. A week ago, she’d taught herself how to expand her temporal field, a trick she hoped she’d never have to use. She knew that if even a small piece of Amanda left the confines of the temporis, she’d be rifted. But with armed and armored agents running around like cheetahs, there was little choice. She had to try. She had to run faster.
Melissa bolted after them, vexed by the widening gap. Even with the burden of a 120-pound sibling, Hannah had the speed advantage. She must have been shifted at twice the suit’s limit.
Before Melissa could line up a decent leg shot, Hannah ducked into the stairwell. Melissa chased her inside and crunched her brow at the heavy footsteps above her. What the hell is she doing?
She activated her transmitter. “Disregard my last order. The targets are ascending. Follow me in pursuit.”
Amanda locked her arms around Hannah’s shoulders, biting her lip to keep from screaming. Every stride was murder on her jostled ankle. Worse, she knew it’d be just a matter of moments before Hannah’s legs screamed with an agony all their own. It was a seven-story climb to the roof. Hannah couldn’t possibly carry her the whole way.
Halfway past the eighth floor, the actress began to stagger. Her lead on her pursuer shrank with each step. Melissa fired a quick shot as Hannah turned the ninth-floor landing. The bullet pierced the wall, missing her thigh by inches.
Hannah’s calves burned with fury. Her lungs stabbed her with broken glass. Between all her dread and blinking red gauges, a cold inner voice assured her that death wouldn’t be so bad. There was a Heaven, it insisted, even for mediocrities like her.
No.
She gritted her teeth and floored her inner pedal, pushing herself past 50×. The air turned ten degrees colder and three shades bluer. The sisters shot ahead of Melissa.
Amanda leered in astonishment at the strange new artifacts in her senses—the rainbow streaks of color in the corner of her vision, the distant sound of wind chimes. A large white butterfly dawdled past her, trailing arcs of light in its fluttering wake. Amanda wasn’t sure if she’d lost her mind or found a strange new corner of her sister’s world. It was mad and it was beautiful.
She glanced up through the indigo haze and saw the metal door to the roof. God, she did it. She really did it.
Hannah kicked the door open and stumbled out into the sunlight. Between all the air vents and glassy solic panels lay a sprawling gray aerolot. Every parking space was empty.
“They’re not here,” Hannah wheezed. “I don’t see them.”
Amanda caught moving shadows on the asphalt and squinted to look up. Three flashing NYPD cruisers circled above like birds of prey. They began their quick descent.
“Go to the edge,” she told Hannah.
“What?”
“Go to the edge. Trust me.”
Hannah staggered beyond the parking lot and stopped at the roof’s southern lip. The last of her temporal energies sputtered away. The world fell back to normal speed and color.
Amanda peered over the side, all the way down to the bustle on Battery Place. She wished she could grow wings and fly them away. She wished she had more than a cruel and desperate gambit.
“Turn us around.”
“M-my legs won’t hold. I can barely stand.”
Amanda squeezed her. “It’s okay, Hannah. You did such a good job. You were amazing. Just one last move and you can rest.”
As the actress spun around, Amanda cast slim white tendrils from her hands. They stretched twenty feet in each direction, forming a tight grip around air vents.
Hannah fell back into her like a sling, her muscles moaning with relief. She didn’t want to think about the cagey white ropes that kept them from plummeting to their deaths.
“You sure about this, Amanda?”
“No, but it’s our only leverage. I don’t want to hurt any more of these people.”
Neither did Hannah. She nodded darkly. “Okay. Okay.”
Melissa burst through the doorway and stopped cold at Amanda’s new threat. She holstered her gun and de-shifted, waving her palms at the policemen as the
y hopped out of their cruisers.
“Lower your weapons! Keep them down!”
One by one, the speedsuit agents made their way to the roof. Now fourteen law officers clutched their pistols at their sides as they nervously eyed the Givens.
“Don’t come any closer!” Amanda yelled. “I mean it!”
Melissa removed her helmet and dropped it. She raised her voice above the whistling wind.
“All right, Amanda. It’s all right. Despite all appearances, this is a very simple situation. You don’t want to die and we don’t want you to die. We’re proving that as we speak.”
“You’re the one who shot at us.”
“I shot at your sister’s leg,” Melissa replied. “Can you blame me? Last we met, she broke the spine of one of my men.”
Hannah’s stomach twisted. “How is he? Is he okay?”
Melissa eyed her somberly. “We got him to a reviver. He’s back in Los Angeles now. Resting.”
Though everything she said was technically true, Melissa omitted the fact that Ross Daley had suffered a fatal aneurysm inside the machine. Reversal was not a foolproof process, as 1.1 percent of patients learned the hard way. Ross had spun the wheel and lost. The outcome didn’t bode well for Hannah, who was now on the books for murder.
“When you see him, can you please tell him I’m sorry?”
“I’ll be sure to do that.” Melissa looked to Amanda with concern. “Those bodies in the elevator bank . . .”
“Esis.”
“That was Esis,” Hannah yelled. “Amanda would never do that.”
Melissa nodded eagerly. “I believe you. I do. I believe you’re both good people in a bad situation, never more so than now. The way I see it, you only have two directions to go from here: forward or down. I know neither option appeals to you, but if you fall, there’ll be no reviving you. At least with us, you’ll have a chance.”
Though their faces were half-obscured by windblown hair, Melissa found something new and dark in their expressions.
“Wouldn’t you rather keep living?”
“That’s all we want,” said Hannah.