“They were only testing the delivery device,” Wax said, shuffling papers. “No bomb on it yet. That would be too dangerous. Plus, it wasn’t ready yet. I’ve got schematics for the bomb here, and until recently they were having trouble creating a big enough battery to make it portable.”
“But they figured that out?”
“Unfortunately,” he said, handing a schematic over—as if Wayne would have any use for it. “Look there. Finally have it working, portable butlarge.That’s what’s giving them such a headache. They have these rockets that can fly a good thirty or forty miles, but not with such a huge payload.” He shuffled more pages, then handed another over. “This schematic is a dead man’s switch. An extremely pernicious one. They don’t want anyone disarming the thing. And here, a design for a much larger rocket. Maybe a last chance at making this work, but they’re worried it won’t fly far enough… and might catch Bilming or other towns and not just Elendel.”
Wayne grunted, tucking the pages in his pocket. Then, digging further into his own duffel, he found a sandwich.
“Hot damn,” he said, unwrapping it. Pastrami? Hotdoubledamn. “Good thing you ignored me and stayed with that woman. She’s quite a catch.”
Wax gave him a flat look.
“I was wrong about her, all right?” Wayne said, digging out a second sandwich and tossing it to Wax. “I’m wrong about people a lot. Maybe even myself.”
Wax smiled, then dug into the sandwich. Wayne did the same, and he hadn’t realized how hungry he was. Some canteens followed—alas, just water. He wished for another beer. But no, they had work to do. One would keep them limber. Any more would be dangerous.
Wayne dug out a replacement metalmind for Wax, filled with extra weight, and tossed it to him. Next were some vials filled with metal flakes, all in a little sheath. Eight of them had been removed already; eight remained. “These ain’t your normal sort.”
“Harmony sent them,” Wax said. “Said they were special.”
“Did he now…” Wayne said, eyeing the last one in line, with a red cork. He set those aside, then took out a small pouch of metals withhis name on it. Rusting woman had even sent him some bendalloy. “So, where do we go, Wax? You said they were buildin’ one final rocket, biggest of them all. Where do we find it?”
Wax scanned the notes. “They’re worried, Wayne. Up against the wall. There’s notations at the end here, from today. They areterrifiedthat Autonomy will cancel their whole project—violently. So they’re scrambling to fend us off, and for any last chance at victory. But where… how…”
Wayne continued fishing in his duffel, then pulled out a strange wicker ball with a weight at the center. “Is this something Ranette made?”
Wax grinned, waving for Wayne to toss it over. Then Wax launched it into the air with a Steelpush. “Max must have helped Steris pack. Sent me a little gift.” He launched it higher next time. Then higher.
Then he caught it and froze.
“What?” Wayne said.
“I know where the bomb is,” Wax said. “You need height. Height first, then you can launch something far. Plus, they needed to build a big rocket someplace where people wouldn’t be able to poke around. Get as much height as they can, in a secure location…”
Wayne breathed out, and the two of them turned toward the center of the city. And the Shaw, the enormous tower there—which had new construction on top, supposedly adding a few new floors. Or was it a different construction project entirely?
“Damn,” Wayne said, noting the number of lights on in the upper floors of the tower, and the floodlights on the top. “They’re busy tonight. Backs against the wall indeed…” He looked to Wax. “It’s a mesa. That spire.That’sthe mesa.”
“What mesa?”
“In my ma’s story,” Wayne said, “it all ended at the mesa. The lone peak in the center of a flat landscape.”
Wayne eyed his friend to see if he complained they weren’t in that story. Because in this, Wax would be wrong. Theywerein it—or at least living alongside it. Because Wayne had decided it was so, and that was the way of things.
“A mesa, eh?” Wax said, letting one leg slip out over the edge to dangle. “Yeah, I can see that.”
“I could never figure out the part that happened next,” Wayne said. “In the story, the lawman went to the mesa to find the bad guy—Blatant Barm, worst villain there ever was. But Barmwasthe mesa.”
“He… was themesa?”
“Yeah, like he’dtransformed into it,” Wayne said.
“That… doesn’t make much sense.”
“Sure doesn’t,” Wayne said. “I never could figure out why Ma told it that way.”
“Maybe it doesn’t mean anything,” Wax said. “Maybe she came up with it because something needs to happen in stories.”
“Nah,” Wayne said. “You didn’t know my ma, Wax. She wasgoodat stories. Real good. It meant somethin’…” Wayne took a deep breath. “If we’ve gotta get to the top, that’s gonna be aroughascent. There aren’t any other buildings around it nearly as tall. You won’t be able to Push us up there.”