was still perched in the same place, though he glowed more powerfully now; in the night, he was so bright that it was getting tough to pick out his features. This particular rooftop was high enough to get a vantage on him but was still quite distant-only the powerful zoom on my scope let me get a good look. I’d have to move closer to plant the camera.
I zoomed out a step and found that one of the readouts on the side of my holosight was a light meter. “You getting this, Tia?” I asked over the mobile. Megan sat beside me silently, now that I had an open line to the Reckoners. The only video being recorded came from my scope, so I figured we should be safe.
“I can see him,” Tia said. “That’s in line with what I expected-if he follows the pattern from before, we still have a few more days until detonation.”
“All right then,” I said. “I’ll plant the camera and make my way back to the pickup.”
“Be careful,” Tia said. “The camera will need to be pretty close to be effective. You want support?”
“Nah,” I said. “I’ll call in if I need anything.”
“Okay then,” Tia said, though she sounded hesitant. I hung up, deactivated the wireless link to my scope, and pocketed the mobile. I raised an eyebrow at Megan.
“They have this place under guard,” she said softly. “The bridges have all been cut, and Newton frequently runs patrols. Regalia doesn’t want anyone wandering close.”
“Nothing we can’t handle,” I said.
“I didn’t say we couldn’t,” Megan said. “I’m just worried about you improvising.”
“I’d assumed all your complaints about my improvisation back in Newcago were because you didn’t want us to actually kill Steelheart.”
“In part,” she said. “But I still don’t like the way you run crazy all the time.”
I grunted.
“We need to talk about Steelheart, by the way,” Megan said. “You shouldn’t have done what you did.”
“He was a tyrant,” I said, using the scope to check out buildings near Obliteration, scouting out a good place for the camera. I lingered on the gaping block of water where the building had been burned down. Charred beams and bits of other rubble jutted from the ocean like the broken teeth of a giant submerged boxer with his mouth open and head tipped back.
Megan didn’t reply, so I glanced at her.
“I feel sorry for them, David,” she said softly. “I know what it feels like; that could have been me the Reckoners executed. Steelheart was a tyrant, but at least he ran a good city. All things considered, he wasn’t so bad, you know?”
“He killed my father,” I said. “You don’t get a pass on murder because you’re not as bad as you could be.”
“I suppose.”
“Do you have this hang-up regarding Regalia?”
Megan shook her head. “I feel bad for her, but she’s planning to let Obliteration vaporize the city. She has to be stopped.”
I grunted in agreement. I just wished I could shake the feeling that despite our precautions, Regalia was a step ahead of us. I handed the rifle to Megan. “Spot for me?” I asked.
She nodded, taking it.
“I’m going to go for that building just beyond the one they burned down. It’s high enough that if I put the camera on the lip just below the roof, it should have a clear line of sight.” I fished out the box Tia had given me, a waterproof housing with the small camera inside. I put in my earpiece, then attuned my mobile to a private frequency matching Megan’s so we could talk without using the Reckoners’ common frequency.
“David,” Megan said. She pulled her P226 out of the holster on her leg and offered it to me. “For luck. Just don’t drop the thing in the ocean.”
I smiled and took the gun, then jumped off the building.
There was certainly something liberating about the spyril. Jets of water slowed me until I touched down, softly, into the water. From there, not wanting to draw attention, I used the jets under the water to zip me through the streets.
About two streets away I noticed that my dimensional clothing-man, that sounded cool-vanished. I was left in just the wetsuit again. It looked like Megan’s powers only worked at very close range. That fit with what I’d discovered years ago, when I’d figured out that a shadowy figure was always nearby when “Firefight” was seen in Newcago. Megan had needed to stay near to maintain the crossover.
When I reached the building I looked upward. I’d need to go up some ten stories to get into a position where the camera could see Obliteration. The spyril might be able to get me there, but I was close enough to Obliteration now that if I hovered up that high, someone was sure to spot me.
I took a breath and let the spyril lift me up one story, then I pulled my way into the building through a broken window. “I’m going to climb up through the building,” I said softly to Megan. “Have you spotted any of Regalia’s watchers?”
“No,” Megan said. “They’re probably in the buildings too. I’m searching windows.”
I took off the spyril gloves and clipped them to my belt, then stepped into the humid, overgrown innards of the building. Most of the fruit had been harvested but there was still enough of it to see by. I managed to climb out of the orchard over the root systems and find a hallway, then I prowled down it.
I passed an old elevator shaft where the doors had been broken open by tree branches, and I kept going until I located the stairwell. I forced the door open to find a twisting stairwell overgrown with roots and vines. It looked like the plants all sent runners into shafts like this one, seeking the water below.
I turned on my mobile’s light, careful to keep it dim. I didn’t want anyone spotting a moving light through one of the windows, but with all this foliage blocking the view, I figured I should be okay inside the stairwell. I started to climb the steps, making it up the first flight without difficulty.
“This is a nice gun,” Megan said in my ear as I started up the second flight. “Light readings, wind projections … Both active infrared and thermal? A control for remote firing? Ooh, recoil reduction gravatonics! Can I keep this?”
“I thought you liked handguns,” I said, reaching a section of broken steps. I looked up, then jumped and grabbed a root, which I scaled with some difficulty.
“A girl has to be flexible,” Megan said. “Up close and personal is my style, but sometimes, somebody needs to be shot from a distance.” She paused. “I think I just spotted a lookout in the building next to yours. I can’t get a straight sight. I’m going to reposition.”
“Any birds?” I asked, grunting as I climbed.
“Birds?”
“It’s a hunch. Before you move, see if there are any pigeons on rooftops nearby.”
“Okay …”
I managed to climb the system of roots up to the next landing, then I swung off and landed on the steps. The next flight was easy.
“Huh,” Megan said. “Look at that. There is a pigeon on that rooftop there, all by itself, in the middle of the night.”
“One of Newton’s cronies,” I said. “Knoxx, an Epic with shapeshifting powers.”
“Knoxx? I’ve met that guy. He’s not an Epic.”
“We didn’t think he was either,” I said. “He revealed the abilities for the first time a few days back.”
“Sparks! You think …?”
“Maybe,” I said. “My notes listed Obliteration’s teleportation power needing a cooldown time, but he doesn’t seem to have that limitation anymore. Now this Knoxx guy. Something’s going on, even if it’s just some strange plot where Regalia is pretending to have abilities she doesn’t.”
“Yeah,” Megan said. “You there yet?”
“Working on it,” I said, rounding another flight of steps. “This is kind of a lot of work.”
“Whine whine,” Megan said.
“Says the woman watching comfortably from-”
“Wait! David, Prof is here.”
I froze in the stairwell beside a faded number fifteen painted on the concrete wall. “What?”
“I’ve been scanning windows,” Megan said. “David, Prof is sitting in one. I’m zoomed in on him now.”