Calamity (Reckoners, #3)(76)

The rain felt good at first, washing some of the dust from my skin as I lay in the litter beside Megan. But by the time we approached the bridge in the park, I was soaked through. The lumpish sight of our base, growing under the bridge ahead like some strange fungus, was a beautiful thing.

Megan was still unconscious, but she seemed to have fared better than I had. No broken bones that Abraham could find, though she was going to have some serious bruises, and her arm was burned and blistered.

“Well, we’re alive,” Cody said as we stopped at the doorway to the hideout. “Unless of course we didn’t spot a tail and Prof is lurking out there, waiting for us to lead him to Larcener.”

“Your optimism is so encouraging, Cody,” Mizzy said.

It took a little work to navigate our litter through the entrance, which we’d made as a small tunnel covered in rubble on one end. I was able to help by pushing with my hands. My legs still hurt, but it was more a “Hey, don’t forget about us” kind of hurt than the “HOLY HECK, WE’RE BROKEN” it had been before.

The hideout smelled of the soup Larcener liked—a simple vegetable broth with almost no taste. Abraham lit the place with his mobile.

“Turn that off, idiot,” Larcener snapped from his room.

He must be meditating again. I sat up in my litter as Mizzy crawled in, then sighed and dropped her equipment into a pile. “I need a shower,” she called to Larcener. “What’s a girl got to do to get you to conjure one?”

“Die,” Larcener called back.

“Mizzy,” Abraham said softly, “check over the equipment, and return to Larcener the things he created for us, with our thanks. It probably does not matter, as they will just fade away, but perhaps the gesture will mean something to him. Cody, watch outside for any signs of pursuit. Now that we have more time, I want to check these two over more thoroughly.”

I nodded dully. Yeah. Orders. Orders needed to be given. But…the trip here was something of a blur to me. “We need a debriefing,” I said. “I’ve discovered things.”

“Later, David,” Abraham said gently.

“But—”

“You’re in shock, David,” he said. “Let us rest first.”

I sighed and lay back. I didn’t feel like I was in shock. Sure, I was clammy and cold—but I’d been rained on. Yes, I was trembling, and hadn’t been able to think of much during the trip here. But that was because of how thoroughly draining it had all been.

I doubted he’d listen to my arguments. Despite the fact that he agreed I was in charge, Abraham could be downright motherly. I did convince him to see to Megan first, and with Mizzy’s help he carried her away to change her out of the wet, ripped evening gown and make sure she hadn’t suffered any unnoticed wounds. Then Abraham returned to splint my legs.

About an hour later Abraham, Mizzy, and I huddled together in the smallest of the rooms in our new base—far enough from Larcener to speak privately, we hoped. Megan lay bundled up in the corner, asleep.

Abraham kept eyeing me, expecting me to doze off. I remained stubbornly awake, seated against the wall with my splinted legs stretched before me. They’d given me some industrial-strength painkillers, so I was able to confidently stare back at him.

Abraham sighed. “Let me check on Cody,” he said. “Then we will talk.”

That left me and Mizzy. She sipped some hot cocoa she’d bought at the market a few days ago. I couldn’t stand the stuff. Way too sweet.

“So,” she said, “that…wasn’t a complete disaster, right?”

“Tia’s dead,” I said, my voice hoarse. “We failed.”

Mizzy winced, looking down into her cup. “Yeah. But…I mean…you got to test one of your theories. We know more than we did yesterday.”

I shook my head, sick with worry over Megan, frustrated that we’d gone through so much to save Tia only to lose her for good. I felt adrift, and defeated, and pained. I’d looked up to Tia; she’d been one of the first of the team to treat me like someone useful. Now I’d failed her.

Could I have done more? I hadn’t said anything about how I’d survived the gunfire. Truth was, I didn’t know the answer myself. I mean…I suspected. But I didn’t know, so what use was there in talking about it?

Lying to ourselves, are we? a piece of me asked.

“That parachute,” Mizzy said, glancing at Megan. “She made it, didn’t she?”

I nodded.

“She put it on you, instead of on herself,” Mizzy said. “She’s always like that. I suppose if you’re reborn when you die, it makes sense….” She trailed off.

Abraham stepped back in. “He’s as happy as a jackrabbit in its den,” he said. “Hunkered up on the bridge in his raincoat, chewing on beef jerky and looking for something to shoot. Nothing so far. We may actually have escaped.”

He settled down, sitting cross-legged. Then he carefully removed the pendant he wore, the symbol of the Faithful, and held it before himself. It sparkled, silvery, in the light of the mobiles we’d set out.

“Abraham,” I said. “I know that…I mean, Tia was a friend….”

“More than a friend,” he said softly. “My superior officer, and one I disobeyed. I believe we made the right call, and she the wrong one, but I cannot take her loss lightly. Please. A moment.”