“And that’s why no one likes us,” Stefani said. “In case you were wondering.”
“I get it,” Jeff said. “At least I think I do.”
“Hubble, Aspen, Oak, Einstein, Monk, and Slipstream were all slowly destroyed while the Apostles fought one another. Their battles left billions dead from collateral damage. But the most shameful part of the entire story is how humans killed more humans than the Apostles did. The vacuum of power created an environment where—”
Carlee stopped. Jeff looked out in front of them to where they were going to stop. He knew it, and apparently, so did Carlee, even before the caravan slowed.
“What is it?” Stefani asked.
“I don’t know,” Carlee and Jeff both said at the same time. The caravan slowed from rocket speed and circled around something that they couldn’t make out from their transport.
“Sure doesn’t look like Dallas . . .” Stefani mumbled.
The transport stopped, and they exited and joined the other vagrants as they converged in the center of the circled antigravity vehicles. A small stream of smoke rose from the middle of the destroyed leech. Long metal arms were strewn across the ground. The leech had been sliced clean in half down the center, and the remnants of its body were the only sign that a conflict had taken place in the area.
“It’s a shame,” one of the twins said softly as they walked by. “To think, this perfectly good leech is dead, and you’re still with us, Stefani.”
Stefani pulled the force-field knife from her side, and the blade activated at her touch.
“Sounds like you’re ready to play round two,” Stefani said. The twins chuckled to each other as they walked away. For the life of him, Jeff couldn’t tell the two men apart or what race they were, although his best guess would place them of South American descent.
“You don’t see this every day,” Carlee said as she ran her hand down the perfect cross section of the leech. “Single blow cut this thing right in half.”
“Most leeches we come across look like how we left the last one,” Stefani said quietly. “Other leeches don’t do this kind of work.”
“Right. So, it was an Apostle?”
“Unless you know of something else that can slice a twenty-foot leech in half without a fight, then you’re probably right.”
“Another sign of the danger that lies before you,” Jane said. Her voice carried over the gathering, drawing every speck of attention back to its source. “I won’t protest anyone who wishes to pursue another path. Dallas will surely be a dangerous affair, but there will be a great need for us there.”
Jeff watched as Stefani noticeably looked to Carlee, but their leader didn’t shy away from Jane’s message.
“Great,” Stefani murmured so softly that Jeff wasn’t sure that he hadn’t imagined it.
“I won’t lead you to certain death, but when Apostles battle, humans suffer. And the path we are on will reveal much suffering,” Jane said. With that, she turned back to her transport. The lumbering Talon followed after her.
“We stay with Jane,” Carlee said.
“I was thinking the same thing,” Stefani said. “We know for sure one giant death machine lives in Dallas all of the time, so of course we want to head that direction when we know another is joining the first for afternoon tea.”
Carlee ignored Stefani as they loaded themselves into the antigravity transport. Jeff settled back into his seat in the center, and Stefani sat down next to him while Carlee sat as far away as possible. For being such close friends, the two of them seemed to heckle each other quite a bit, and sometimes it didn’t seem fully good-natured.
“You don’t want to go to Dallas,” Jeff said quietly once they started moving again.
“No, I don’t,” Stefani said loud enough that Jeff was certain Carlee would hear. “Petra is far from the worst of the Apostles, but it will still incinerate a vagrant on sight.”
“I see why you’d be reluctant . . .”
“Because it’s suicide,” Stefani said, once again speaking in an uncomfortably loud voice. “Carl and most historians believe that some Apostles are better than others. ‘Oh, Bud is better than the rest because it only gave up protecting us after it realized that was just encouraging the others to kill more humans.’ Or, ‘Petra is the best because it loves animals and only selectively blows people away.’ I don’t buy any of that crap. To me, they are all Apostles. And they range from awful to putrid.”
“I agree,” Jeff said.
“Petra’s no better than any of the others.” Stefani looked to Carlee as she spoke, which finally drew Carlee back into the conversation, and she wasn’t happy about it.
“We’re not going there for Petra; we’re going there to help people. In case you forgot, that’s what we do.”
“People need help everywhere. In fact, I think Petra’s pets need less than most.”
“Do you not listen? Horus is heading there. It’ll be the first clash of Apostles in a decade if Horus gets its wish. People are going to need more help than we’ll be able to give them.”
“Two Apostles is twice the reason not to go there, and you know it. Those people are dead already,” Stefani said.
Back in Fifth Springs, a fight like this always ended in a brawl. He was confident the vagrants wouldn’t fight each other, but he was ready to break it up just in case.
“We stay with Jane,” Carlee said, turning away from Stefani.
“Bobby wouldn’t have let someone else make decisions like this for him,” Stefani said.
A silence fell across the transport. The energy in the argument changed. Stefani fidgeted in her seat, and Carlee froze in place.
“I’m sorry,” Stefani offered, but it didn’t cause Carlee to budge. “Carl . . .”
“Don’t.”
“I didn’t mean it,” Stefani said.
“Yes, you did.” Carlee turned around now, but the anger was gone from her eyes, replaced by a defeated sadness. “Do you want to know the truth?”
“I’ve earned that.”
Carlee paused when she made eye contact with Jeff, almost as if she just remembered that he was in the transport with them.
“I won’t say anything,” Jeff said. “I promise.”
“We’re being tracked by that other Apostle. The white one. And it’s getting closer every day. We don’t know if it’s working with Horus, and we don’t know how it’s tracking us. The hope is that the other Apostle will keep its distance from the originals, and then we can use their battles as a shield—throw the one tracking us off our trail. We don’t plan on hanging around or helping anyone. It’s all about us. Keeping us safe. That’s why she didn’t want us training Jeff right now—because she was worried that just teaching him might be enough to ruin her plan. Are you happy now?”
“No,” Stefani said after a long, thoughtful pause. “It’s impossible to be happy around Dallas. There’s nowhere to get a decent steak.”
18 PRESSING
“Well, it’s hard to imagine this being any worse,” Stefani said.
The vagrant caravan had stopped its winding journey to quickly investigate the scene. It only took Jeff a few seconds to decide that if he were in charge, the caravan would turn around and head in the other direction.
As far as he could see, the flat landscape of what used to be Texas was sprinkled with destroyed leeches and dimpled with craters. Any grass that had survived the fighting was burning, sending black smoke signals thousands of feet into the air. At the center of the carnage lay a huge platform, mostly melted. Massive energy artillery and laser cannons were hardly recognizable. It was hard to imagine what was capable of destroying such a formidable structure, but the Apostles defied logic.