“Are you a betting man, my lord governor?” Reddi asked. “Because I am. And I’ve learned to never bet against one particular man. If Dawnshot says a bomb is pointed at us, it is.”
“We need to evacuate the city.” Steris thumped her notebooks. “I have the plans here. Full citywide emergency plans for various categories of disaster. I had free time a few summers ago and was bored.”
“This is what you do for fun?” Reddi asked.
“Well, the house taxes were already done for the next year,” Steris said. “Here. This plan is the best for this situation. It gets the most people out of the city the fastest. The longer we have, the more we save. It’s one of my most efficient creations.” She looked up to the governor. “Please. We can’t leave. We have to protect the city.”
“Are you coming or not?” Daal snapped from the doorway. Perhaps he wanted the honor—and political bargaining chip—of having saved the governor.
Governor Varlance glanced from him to Steris. Then toward Adawathwyn—whose robes flashed as she vanished out the door. The other senators hastened to follow.
“You,” Steris said softly to the governor, “are the captain of this city. This entire nation. You were chosen by the people to represent them. Ineed your authority to save as many of them as possible. There will be time for you to escape later. For now, help me save this city.”
“You… really have a plan?” the governor said. He wiped his brow. “An evacuation plan?”
“Yes. We can do this, Varlance.”
He nodded. A quick, hesitant nod, frightened. “I want to try. Where do we start?”
49
There wasn’t no cover in this canyon, so Wayne had to do the smart thing: turn into some.
He stepped in front of Wax, who was ducking backward around the corner. Too slow, but fortunately the next shots from the enemy hit Wayne, making him grunt. Bulletsreallyhurt. He supposed that was the point, but some other wounds were so big that your body kinda freaked out and decided not to hurt, least at first. Like it was saying, “Whoa. This is gonna suckhard.Better take a deep breath.”
Bullets though, they didn’t send him into shock or anything. So they just hurt. Like Death’s own eyes.
Still, it kept Wax from bein’ hit. Together he and Wayne ducked back around the curve in the tunnel, out of sight. The two of them waited there, Wax with guns out, ready to fire. They were perhaps thirty yards from where they’dspotted the two doppel-dummies, blocking the way farther through the tunnel.
Wayne rolled his shoulder as the bullet wounds healed, draining his metalminds a little further. He was using up his reserves pretty fast these last few days. Fortunately, most of his work with Marasi hadn’t required much healin’. Her missions didn’tusuallyinvolve things like throwing Wayne out windows like he was a rustin’ cat.
“Oi!” the not-Wayne called from farther down the tunnel. “We can’tshoot you if you keep hidin’! Come out so we can get on with killing you, mates!”
Oh, now that was plainawful.She was trying too hard—that wasn’t a Roughs accent at all. It was inner-city Roughs enclave accent, with a bit of upper-crust theater thrown in—probably from her dialect coach. The resulting accent was ridiculous, just close enough to his natural accent that it was like rusty old spikes being pulled across a chalkboard.
“What the hell is goingonwith those two?” Wayne whispered.
“I suspect,” Wax replied, “that the Set realized they’dneed to face us, considering the ruin we made of their plans a few years back. So they spiked a few of their members with powers to match ours and trained them to fight us.”
“That one isn’t just tryin’ to fight me,” Wayne said. “She’s tryin’ tobeme. You get the same sense from yours?”
“No,” Wax said. “Other than the suit, he merely seems to be a competent Coinshot with a few extra spikes. Watch him, Wayne. He can burn up all of his steel in a single terrible burst, supercharging his Push to extreme levels. But he can also drain your abilities if he gets hold of you.”
“So long as he has metals,” Wayne said.
“The Set has some powerful resources, Wayne,” Wax said. “I’ll bet his chromium outlasts your bendalloy.”
“We’ll see about that.” Wayne narrowed his eyes, peering around the corner. “That one what thinks she’s like me, she’s doin’ a terrible job. I’m not nearly that annoying.”
Wax calmly loaded a few bullets into his pistol.
“Hey,” Wayne said. “Don’t you say it.”
“I didn’t say a thing.” He snapped the revolver closed. “Unfortunately, any delay is to their advantage. Which means we’re going to have to go on the offensive.”
“Close confines down here, mate,” Wayne said. “Not great for Steelpushing. Real easy to get stuck in slow time while they coordinate to trap us.”
“See if you can catch all four of us inside a speed bubble together,” Wax said. “It’s close confines, yes—but for them too.”