Cass walked across the roof to join Sky and Gamble at the edge. The wind was up, chilly even in the full sun. She flipped up the collar of her coat to keep it off her neck. As she crossed, she was amazed by the commanding view the roof provided of the surrounding cityscape.
It was the tallest building for miles around, and even though it wasn’t all that high compared to many places she’d been before, the unbroken urban sprawl that surrounded them made Cass feel like they were on an island mountain amidst a concrete sea. What she saw when she reached the edge, however, took her breath away.
Far below, what looked like hundreds of Weir teemed throughout the enclave and the surrounding area, swarming like insects from an overturned nest. Just in front of the building, however, a stationary knot of them had formed. Most of the ones in motion didn’t seem to be following any particular pattern, but whenever an individual drew near the cluster, it quickly diverted its path to join the group, like iron filings collecting around a magnet. Even stranger, they had all gone utterly silent.
“I just don’t understand it,” Sky said, as he watched the creatures scurrying below. “They wiped out the whole enclave?”
“Looks that way,” Gamble said. “And then took it over.”
“I’ve never heard of that happening before. Ever.”
“Me neither. Like Swoop said, I hadn’t really thought about where they went after dark. Never would’ve guessed that, though.”
Everything about it seemed wrong. Even more wrong than usual. Cass thought back to the night they’d attacked the gate of Morningside. She couldn’t shake the feeling that something about the Weir had changed. Something significant. Something dire.
“You think they can see us up here?” Sky asked.
“Tough to say,” Gamble said. Then she looked at Cass. “What do you think, Miss Cass?”
Cass stared down over ninety feet. Even through her veil, the sunlight affected the details she could make out like a thin mist.
“I’m not sure if they see the same way I do,” she said. “But I can make out the shapes fine, just not much detail.”
“I didn’t think they’d come out in the daylight,” Sky said.
“They usually don’t on their own. It isn’t natural,” Gamble said.
“Nothing about them is,” Sky replied. He gave Cass a little look out of the corner of his eye right after he said it, like he hadn’t meant to say it out loud, or he was afraid she’d take it the wrong way, but Sky didn’t say anything else.
“I think Wren’s right,” Cass said. “They know we’re in the building. But I have no clue what they’re doing about it.”
“Never known them to be much for planning,” Mouse said from behind them. He came up and stood next to Cass, between her and Gamble.
“How’s Wick?” Gamble asked.
Mouse shook his head. “I’m worried.”
“You’re always worried when someone’s hurt,” Sky said.
“Not like this,” Mouse answered. “I think he’s got some internal bleeding. Lots of ways for that to be real bad, and most of ’em I can’t do anything about out here. Could go into hypovolaemic shock, might be fluid leaking into his chest cavity…” He shook his head. “Even if it stops on its own, things get too heavy, his blood pressure could drop to critical.”
“So, what’re you saying?” Gamble asked, and the fear was evident in her voice, no matter how much she was trying to control it.
Mouse wouldn’t look at her. He just kept staring down at all the Weir below. “I’m saying we don’t all get out of here without some kind of miracle.”
“Finn know?” Sky asked.
“Not yet.”
“How about Wick?”
“He knows he’s in trouble. Pretending he’s not.”
They all stood in silent thought after that, each no doubt running through the scenario from every angle they could think of, looking for a good solution. Nothing was presenting itself to Cass. It’d never occurred to her that any of Gamble’s team might not survive, not really. Up until now, they’d all seemed invincible. But now, in that moment, everything became entirely too possible.
And then the Weir broke the silence.
“Spshhhh. Naaaah.”
The call, or chant. Worse this time. A chorus in perfect unison from every single Weir in that cluster.
“Spshhhh. Naaaah.”
The Weir stood down below, packed tightly together, staring up at the roof. Stragglers continued to join the cluster. And as they did, they each took up the call. They were packed so closely together it was almost impossible to get a count on how many there were, but Cass estimated a hundred or so.
“What is going on down there?” Sky said.
“I don’t know, but I hate it,” Gamble said.
“Can I start shooting?”
“Not yet.”
“Spshhhh. Naaaah.”
“I know what it is,” Wren said from behind them. Cass hadn’t even heard him walk up. They all turned and looked at him. He was standing just a few feet away, eyes wide and glassy, even paler than usual. “I know what it is, now.”
“Spshhhh. Naaaah.”
“What is it, baby?” Cass asked, knowing in her heart whatever the answer was, it would be more frightening than the uncertainty.
He looked at her with absolute despair.
“They’re saying ‘Spinner’, Mama. They’re saying my name.”
Cass involuntarily grabbed Mouse’s arm. He in turn caught her arm in reflexive support, but she knew that he didn’t understand what Wren was saying. None of the others did. But now that Wren had made the connection, she knew he was right, no matter how much she wanted to deny it.
“Spshhhh. Naaaah.”
She could hear it too, now. The electronic squall was no longer just bursts of white noise. Instead, inhuman voices mimicking human speech.
“What?” Sky said.
“What are you talking about, Wren?” Gamble asked.
Wren walked closer to the edge and peered down. “It’s Asher. He’s in the Weir.”
TWENTY
Cass regained herself and let go of Mouse’s arm, and his grip on her relaxed, though his hand lingered protectively. She went down on a knee next to her son, spoke in a low voice.
“It can’t be, Wren,” Cass said. “Asher’s gone. You sent him away.”
“But sent him where, Mama?” he asked, not looking at her. She didn’t have an answer.
“I don’t understand,” Gamble said. “You mean your brother’s one of them down there?”
Wren took another step closer to the edge of the building, but Cass reached out and grabbed his shoulder. He stopped in place, just stared down at the crowd of Weir still chanting below.
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “He’s all of them.”
It was almost too much to comprehend, the very idea too much to bear. After the events in Underdown’s throne room, when Wren brought Cass back to herself and Three lay dying, Asher had been there on the floor. At least his body had been. His eyes had been open, fixed and staring, but there had been no life in him. It hadn’t been any use asking Wren what he’d done to his half-brother; he didn’t exactly know himself. But as terrible as Asher had been, and as dangerous, Wren had still never really forgiven himself for taking Asher’s life.
I just wanted him to stop, was all he would say.
Could it be that somehow, in some way, when Asher’s mind had been cast out of his body, he hadn’t truly been destroyed? Cass looked down at her hands, the slender fingers with their metal blades beneath the nails. There had been a time before that she could’ve believed it impossible. No longer. As shocking as it was for her mind to accept, she found she didn’t need to fully understand it to find herself believing.