“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.”
“Sparks.” Well, he had said he’d come back to the city tonight. “What’s he doing?”
“Watching Obliteration,” Megan said softly, the tension bleeding from her voice. “He’s not here for us. He doesn’t seem to have spotted me.”
“He’s checking in on Obliteration,” I said. “You know that building that collapsed out here?”
“Yeah.” Megan sounded sick. “I couldn’t stop it, David. I—”
“You didn’t need to. Prof saved the people.”
“With his powers?”
“Yeah.”
Megan was silent on the line for a while. “He’s powerful, isn’t he?”
“Very,” I said, excited. “Two defensive abilities, either of which would categorize him as a High Epic. Do you know how unusual that is? Even Steelheart only had the one defensive power, his impenetrable skin. You should have seen Prof when he saved us back in Newcago.”
“In the tunnels?” Megan asked. “When I …?”
“Yeah.”
“My fail-safe transmission didn’t capture that,” she said. “Only you talking.”
“It was incredible, believe me,” I said, still excited. “I’ve never read about an Epic like Prof and his ability to vaporize solids. Plus, his forcefields—they’re class A for sure. He made an enormous tunnel under the water and—”
“David,” Megan said, “the more powerful an Epic, the harder it is for them to resist the … changes.”
“Which is exactly why this is so exciting,” I said. “Don’t you see, Megan? If someone like Prof can remain good, it means so much. It’s a symbol, maybe even a bigger one than killing Steelheart! It proves that Regalia and the others could fight it off too.”
“I suppose,” Megan said hesitantly. “I just don’t like him being here. If he sees me …”
“You didn’t betray us,” I said as I climbed over a large section of roots. “Not really.”
“I … kinda did,” Megan said. “And even if I didn’t, there are other issues.”
“You mean Sam?” I said. “I’ve explained that you didn’t kill him. I think I nearly have them convinced. Anyway, I’m almost to the top. Where is that pigeon?”
“Building directly south of you. So long as you’re quiet, you should be safe.”
“Good,” I said, catching my breath as I reached floor number eighteen. I’d started
on floor ten, and there were twenty in this building. Two more and I could place the camera and be gone.
“David,” Megan said, “you really believe this, don’t you? That we can fight it?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Fire,” Megan said softly.
I stopped on the stairwell. “On what?” I asked.
“It’s my weakness.”
I grew cold.
“Firefight,” she explained, “is my opposite. Male where I am female. In that universe, everything is reversed. Here, fire affects my powers. There, fire is my power. Using him as my cover was perfect; nobody would use fire to try to kill me if they thought my own powers were fire-based, right? But by the light of natural fire, the shadows I summon break apart and vanish. I know, somehow, that if I die in a fire I won’t reincarnate.”
“We burned your body,” I whispered. “Back in Newcago.”
“Oh sparks, don’t tell me things like that.” I felt as if I could hear a shiver in her voice. “I was already dead. The body was just a husk. I always had Steelheart’s people bury my bodies after I died, but I could never watch it. Seeing your own corpse is kind of a trip, you know?”
I waited on the steps. A few pieces of fruit dangled here, lighting the stairwell in a gentle glow.
“So why doesn’t Firefight vanish?” I asked. “He’s made of fire, which should negate your powers, and then he would go away.”
“He’s just a shadow,” Megan said. “No real fire. That’s what I’ve been able to figure. Either that or …”
“Or?”
“Or when I pull his shadow through, he brings with him some of the rules of his universe. I’ve had … experiences that make me question. I don’t know how this works, David. Any of it. It frightens me sometimes. But fire is my weakness.” She hesitated. “I wanted you to know what it was. In case … you know. Something needs to be done about me.”
“Don’t say things like that.”
“I have to,” Megan whispered. “David, you need to know this. Our house burned down when I was just a kid. I was almost killed. I crawled through the smoke, holding on to my stuffed kitty, everything burning around me. They found me on the lawn, covered in soot. I have nightmares about that day. Repeatedly. All the time. If you do manage to interrogate other Epics, David … ask them what their nightmares are about.”