Calamity (Reckoners, #3)(49)

It made me sick. Steelheart had done something similar on that day, so long ago, when my father and I had seen him bleed.

Tia pressed something into my hand. A data chip. “My plans,” she said. “For bringing Jon down. I’ve had variations on this in mind for years, just in case. But I’ve tailored it specifically to this city and what he’s doing here. David, there’s something bigger going on with him. I’ve been able to get people in to scout near him. I think Regalia must have given him something—some kind of intel on Calamity. I think she sent him here.”

“Tia,” I said, looking to Abraham for support. “I suspect some of the same things. But you can’t go with Prof. We need you.”

“Then stop him,” she said, “before he kills me.”

“But—”

She crossed the room quickly and grabbed the broken mobile from a table. “You can track this if I stick the battery back in?”

“Yeah,” I said.

“Good. Use it to see where he takes me. I didn’t tell any of the Ildithians his weakness, and I can hide behind that truth for a time. They might be safe, and if he asks about you all, I can say I got separated from you in Babilar. He’d spot a lie from me, but I won’t be lying.”

“He will break you eventually, Tia,” Abraham said. “He is nothing if not persistent.”

She nodded. “Yes, but he’ll act kindly at first. I’m certain of it; he’ll try and bring me to his side. Only after I refuse will he get brutal.” She grimaced. “Trust me, I have no intention of being some kind of noble martyr. I’m counting on you. Stop him, and get me out.”

Abraham saluted again, more solemn this time. Sparks. He was going to let it happen.

People were calling outside the room. Carla ducked back in. “They’ve said we have five minutes to turn over the outsider. I think they believe that we didn’t know who you were. They also don’t seem to know about the other two.”

“Jon’s paranoia works for us,” Tia said. “If he’d been hiding here, he’d never have told you who he really was. He’ll believe that I was trying to blend in.” She looked toward me. “Are you going to make this difficult?”

“No,” I said, resigned. “But we will get you out.”

“Good.” She hesitated. “I’ll see if I can dig up what he’s working on here, what his plot is for this city.”

“Tia,” Carla said from the doorway. “I’m sorry.”

Tia nodded, turning to leave.

“Wait,” I said, then continued in a whisper. “The weakness, Tia. What is it?”

“You know it.”

I frowned.

“I don’t know if your theory is correct,” she said. “But…yes, he has nightmares about something. Think, David. In all our time together, what is the one thing you’ve truly seen him fear?”

I blinked, and realized she was right. I did know. It was obvious. “His powers,” I whispered.

She nodded, grim.

“But how does that work?” I demanded. “He can obviously use his own powers. They don’t…negate themselves.”

“Unless someone else is using them.”

Someone else…Prof was a gifter.

“When we were younger,” Tia whispered urgently, “we experimented with Jon’s powers. He can create lances of light, forcefield spears. He gifted the ability to me. And I—by accident—launched one of those lances at Jon. David, the wound he took that day didn’t regenerate. His powers couldn’t fix it; he took months to recover, healing like a normal person. We never told anyone, not even Dean.”

“So someone gifted with one of his powers…”

“Can negate the rest. Yes.” She glanced at Carla, who was waving urgently, then leaned in to me, continuing to speak very quietly. “He fears them, David. The powers granted him, the weight they bring. And so he lives his life with a great dichotomy—he takes every opportunity he can to gift his powers away, to let the team use them so he doesn’t have to. But each time he does, he gives them a weapon that could be used against him.”

She gripped my arm. “Get me out,” she said, then turned and rushed to Carla, who led her from the room.

—

They let us watch. From a distance, using scopes atop one of the apartment buildings, where they’d hollowed out a nice little hidden sniper nest. We were attended by a couple of guards who—we’d been promised—would let us go, assuming that Prof took Tia and left without demanding more.

Again I had to watch a man I loved and respected act like someone else. Someone proud and imperious, bathed in a faint green glow from the forcefield disc he stood upon.

I felt so powerless as the Ildithians led Tia up to him, then forced her down on her knees. They bowed and retreated from Prof. I waited, sweating.

Tia was right. He didn’t kill her immediately. He surrounded her in a forcefield, then turned and stalked away, her orb trailing behind him.

He never gifted us that power, I thought. He gifted us forcefield protection in the form of the “jackets,” but only in small amounts. The globes, those spears I saw him use the other day…He didn’t let us know about those abilities.