Prof shook his head and stirred his beaker.
“You going to be all right?” I asked.
“I’m feeling fine,” Prof said. “I’m planning to head back into the city a little later in the evening. Might return to the base tomorrow; might stay away another day. We’ll need to give it enough time that Val’s team will believe I went to check in on another Reckoner cell.”
That had been Tia’s explanation for his absence. I watched curiously as he mixed another beaker with a liquid of a different color.
“We’re hitting Newton in two days,” I told him. “Tia made the call, since she said you weren’t being responsive.”
Two days was well before Obliteration’s expected deadline, which would give us some wiggle room in case things went poorly.
He grunted. “Two days? I’ll be back by then.” He mixed the two beakers into a jar and stepped back. A large jet of foam launched from the container, reaching almost to the ceiling, then fell back in a frothy splat. Prof watched, then smiled.
“Hydrogen peroxide mixed with potassium iodide,” he said. “The kids used to love that one.” He reached over and started mixing some other materials.
“Could you come back sooner?” I asked him. “We still don’t have a plan to deal with Obliteration, and he’s got a gun to the city’s head.”
“I’m working on how to deal with that,” Prof said. “I think if we bring down Regalia, it might scare him away. If it doesn’t, we might find intel on his weakness among her notes.”
“And if we don’t?”
“We evacuate the city,” Prof said.
Tia had theorized the same possibility, but it seemed like a bad option to me. We couldn’t start a theoretical evacuation until Regalia was dead-otherwise she’d surely move against the fleeing people. I doubted we’d have enough time to get everyone out before Obliteration wasted the place.
“Tell Tia to call me a little later tonight,” Prof said. “We’ll talk about it.”
“Sure thing,” I said, then paused as he worked on another mixture. “What are you doing?”
“Another experiment.”
“Why?”
“Because,” he said, turning away. His face fell into shadow. “Remembering the old days helps. Remembering the students, and their excitement, their joy. The memories seem to push it back.”
I nodded slowly, but he wasn’t looking at me. He’d returned to his science experiment. So instead I inched forward to see if I could catch a glimpse of the photos he’d been looking at.
I reached the cot and leaned down and picked one up. The photo showed a younger version of Prof, wearing casual clothing-jeans, a T-shirt-standing with some people in a room filled with monitors and computers. Other people were scattered throughout the room, wearing uniform blue shirts.
Prof glanced at me.
I held up the photo. “Some kind of lab?”
“NASA,” he said, sounding reluctant. “The old space program.”
“I thought you said you were a schoolteacher!”
“I’m not the one who worked there, genius,” Prof said. “Look more closely.”
I looked back down, and realized that in the photo Prof looked more like a tourist, grinning and getting his picture taken. It took me a second to spot that one of the many people in the photo wearing a blue NASA shirt had short red hair. Tia.
“Tia’s a rocket scientist?” I asked.
“Was,” Prof said. “That was a long time ago. She let me visit right after we first started dating. Highlight of my life-bragged about it to my students for months.”
I looked down at the picture. The man in this photo, though it was obviously Prof, looked like a different species entirely. Where were the lines of worry on the man’s face, the haunted eyes, the imposing stature?
Nearly thirteen years of Calamity had changed this man. And not just because of the powers he’d gained.
Another photo peeked out from underneath the sheet. I pulled it out. And Prof didn’t stop me, turning back to his experiment.
In this picture, four people stood in a line. One was Prof, wearing his now-trademark black lab coat, goggles in the pocket. Beside him Regalia stood with hand outstretched, a glob of water hovering above her fingers. She wore an elegant blue gown. Tia was there, and there was another man, one I didn’t know. Older, with white-grey hair sticking out from his head in an almost crown shape, he sat in a chair while the others stood.
“Who is this man?” I asked.
“Those are also memories from another time,” Prof said, not turning to me. “And ones I’d rather not revisit.”
“Because of Regalia?”
“Because I thought the world could be a different place back then,” Prof said, stirring a solution. “A place of heroes.”
“Maybe it still can be that place. Maybe we’re wrong about what is causing the darkness, or maybe there’s a way to resist it. Everyone’s been wrong about the Epic weaknesses, after all. Maybe we don’t understand all of this as well as we think.”
Instead of replying, Prof set down his beaker. He turned toward me. “And you’re not afraid of what would happen if we fail?”
“I’m willing to risk it, Prof.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “Can I trust you, David Charleston?”
“Yes. Of course.” Where had that question come from? It didn’t seem to follow our conversation.
He studied me, then nodded. “Good. I’ve changed my mind. Tell Tia I’ll head into the city as soon as you leave; she can tell Val and Exel that the emergency with the other Reckoner team got solved quickly, and I came back early.”
“All right.” Prof had a motorboat from a hidden Reckoner dock. He could get back to the city on his own easily. “But what was that about trusting-”
“Go finish loading those boxes, son.” He turned around and began packing up his things.
I sighed, but put the picture down and climbed up, closing the trapdoor, leaving him in the hidden chamber. I grabbed a box of supplies, then almost ran headfirst into Val as I left.
“David?” she said. “What were you doing in there?”
“Sorry,” I said. “Had to catch a breather.”
“But-”
“You left the sub?” I asked.
“I-”
I hurried past her. Sparks! What if some scavenger found it and decided to take it on a joyride? Fortunately, it was still there, sitting in the calm black waters.
Val and I got the boxes loaded quickly, with minimal conversation. I tried to bring Val out again with some questions, but she didn’t say much. Even during our ride back in the sub she was mostly quiet. She knew I was hiding something. Well, I didn’t blame her for feeling annoyed at that-I felt the same way about the entire situation, honestly.
At the base, we docked and climbed out into the dark room. The docking mechanism was completely airtight, fitted exactly to the submarine. Quite ingenious. They still left the room dark though, in case of a leak. Even outside of Regalia’s range the Reckoners were careful. It was one of the things I liked about them.
I found the guide ropes in the darkness and grabbed two pairs of night-vision goggles off the rack on the wall. I handed one down to Val, then put on the other pair. Together we began unloading the boxes. Eventually I grabbed one and hefted it onto my shoulder, then left the darkened docking room and hauled the box toward the storage room down the hallway.
The bright Reckoner base-with its plush couches and dark woods-was an enormous contrast to the desolate landscapes I’d spent the day visiting. It was almost like being in a different world. I carried the box to the storage room and set it down. Behind me I could hear voices from the radio drifting out of Exel’s room. He was pulling extra hours on recon duty, listening to broadcasts, double-and triple-checking Newton’s routes.
There were more boxes to unload, but I figured I should pass on Prof’s message first. I walked down the hallway and rapped on Tia’s door.
“Come in,” she said.
On the walls she’d plastered maps of Babilar that showed Newton’s routes. In the center of the city, several pins noted where Tia thought Regalia might be hiding. There were still too many buildings to search effectively without giving away what we were doing, but we were close.