I bent down over my mobile and sent another message to Megan. Do you know why Regalia claimed she can make Epics?
This time I got a response almost immediately. She said what?
She told me she’d made someone into an Epic, I wrote back. She seemed to think it would scare me. I think she wanted me to decide that we can’t fight back because she can send an unending string of Epics at us.
What did you tell her? Megan asked.
Can’t remember exactly. I think I laughed at her.
You never were very bright, Knees. That woman is dangerous.
But she literally had us in her grasp at one point! I wrote back. She let us go. I don’t think she wants us dead. Anyway, why do you think she would claim something that ridiculous? Did she really think I’d believe she could make someone into an Epic?
Megan didn’t respond for a time.
We really need to meet, she finally wrote to me. Where are you?
Heading into the city, I said.
Perfect.
Prof is with me, I added.
Oh.
You could meet with both of us, I wrote to her. Explain yourself. He’d listen.
It’s more complicated than that, Megan wrote. I was a spy for Steelheart, and I infiltrated Prof’s own team. When it comes to his precious Reckoners, Phaedrus is like a mother bear with her cubs.
Huh? I wrote back. No, that’s wrong.
What?
I don’t think that metaphor works, Megan. Prof is a dude, so he can’t be a mother bear.
David, you are a complete and utter slontze.
I could hear the smile in her tone. Sparks, I missed her.
I’m an adorable one though, right? I wrote to her.
A pause, during which I found myself sweating.
I wish it was so easy, her message finally came. I really, really wish it.
It can be, I wrote back. You still willing to meet?
And Phaedrus?
I’ll find a way to lose him, I wrote as Prof began to take the sub to the surface. Will message you later. I then tucked the mobile into my pocket.
“We there?” I asked.
“Almost,” Prof replied.
“You’ve been pretty quiet this trip.”
“I’ve been trying to decide if I should send you back to Newcago or not.”
The words hit me like a slug from a .44 Special. I blinked, searching for a response. “But … you said when we came here, you said you were bringing me because you needed me.”
“Son,” Prof said softly, “if you think I can’t kill Epics without you, then you must have a low opinion of my skills. If I decide you shouldn’t be part of this operation, then you’ll be out. Period.”
“But why would you decide that?”
Prof piloted in silence for a moment, steering the sub slowly around a large chunk of floating debris—it looked like a hot dog stand. “You’re a good point man, David,” Prof said. “You think quickly and you solve problems. You have excellent instincts under fire. You’re bold and aggressive.”
“Thank you?”
“And you’re exactly the sort of person I’ve avoided recruiting over the years.”
I frowned.
“You haven’t noticed?” Prof asked.
Now that he mentioned it … I thought about Cody, and Exel, and Abraham, and Mizzy. Even Val, to an extent. They weren’t gun-toting, shoot-’em-up types. They were reserved, careful, slow to act.
“I’ve noticed,” I said. “But I didn’t really put it together until now.”
“The Reckoners are not an army,” Prof said. “We’re not even a special forces unit. We’re trap-layers. We’re patient and conservative. You’re none of those things. You’re a firecracker, always urging us to action, to change the plan. This is good, in a way. You think big, son. It takes people with big dreams to accomplish big goals.”
He turned to me, the sub puttering along slowly, not needing his guidance. “But I can’t help thinking,” he said, “that you don’t intend to stick to the plan. You want to protect Regalia, and you harbor sympathies for a traitor. You have aspirations. So you’re going to tell me, right now, the things you’ve been hiding from me. And then we’re going to decide what to do with you.”
“Now?” I asked.
“Now.” Prof met my eyes. “Out with it.”
28
PROF held my gaze, making me sweat. Sparks, that man could be intense. He wanted to pretend that his was a quiet, careful group—and in truth, it mostly was. If you didn’t count him. He was like me. He always had been.
And because of that, I knew how deadly serious he was.
I licked my lips. “I’m planning to capture one of Regalia’s Epics,” I said. “When we hit Newton, I want to try to neutralize her instead of killing her—then I want to capture her. Like we did with Edmund back in Newcago.”
Prof regarded me for a moment, then seemed to relax, as if that wasn’t nearly as bad as he’d feared. “What would be the point?”
“Well, we know Regalia is devious. She’s planning something more than we’ve been able to figure out.”
“Possibly.”
“Probably. You’ve said she’s wily. You’ve implied she’s very careful, and very clever. Sparks, Prof, you have to be worried that she’s playing us all, even now.”
He turned away from me. “I will admit that it has crossed my mind. Abigail has a habit of … positioning people, myself included, in places where she wants them.”
“Well, she knows you. She knows what you’ll do.” I grew more excited—it seemed that I might have dug myself out of a bad situation. “She won’t expect you to try a kidnapping, then. It’s too bold, and not at all in line with the Reckoner methodology. But think what it could accomplish! Newton might know what Regalia is up to—at the very least, she’ll know how Regalia is recruiting these other Epics.”
“I doubt we’d learn much,” Prof said. “Abigail wouldn’t share that kind of information.”
“Well, at the very least, Newton could tell us places that Regalia has appeared to her,” I said. “Which will help with our map. And there’s the chance she knows more. Right?”
Prof tapped the submarine’s steering stick, the bubble-like window before him glowing with filtered light from above. “And how would you plan to make her talk? Torture?”
“Well, actually, I was kind of hoping that by keeping her from using her powers … you know … we’d make her turn good or something.”
He cocked an eyebrow at me.
“It happened with Edmund,” I said defensively.
“Edmund wasn’t a murderer before his transformation.”
Well, that was true.
“Beyond that,” Prof said, “Edmund is good because he gifts his powers—like I do. He didn’t ‘turn good.’ He just never went evil in the first place. What you really meant, but didn’t want to say it for fear of angering me, is that Firefight seemed to be good when she was with us. You’re hoping that by preventing Newton from using her powers, you can get proof that doing the same for Firefight will return Megan to you.”
“Maybe,” I said, shrinking down in my chair.
“This is just the sort of thing I worried you were considering,” Prof said. “You could have endangered the entire team by pursuing your own goals, David. Can’t you see that?”