Calamity (Reckoners, #3)(78)

“Sure does,” Knighthawk said, growing excited again. “He—”

“He’s here for Larcener,” I broke in. “He’s here to make a motivator from Larcener’s assumer abilities, then use that to absorb Calamity’s powers—all of them—thereby becoming the ultimate Epic.”

Mizzy blinked in shock, and Abraham looked up at me.

“Oh,” Knighthawk said. “So you did read the data?”

“No,” I said. “It just makes sense.” The pieces were falling into place. “That’s why Regalia brought Obliteration to Babilar, isn’t it? She could have come up with a hundred different ways to threaten the city and force Prof to use his powers. But she invited him because she wanted to make a motivator out of his destruction powers to hide what she was really doing.”

“Making a teleporter,” Knighthawk said. “So she could get to Calamity, once she had Larcener’s abilities. But she died before putting her plan into motion, so Prof is doing it instead. Sharp guess, kid. You’ve been holding out on me; you’re nowhere near as stupid as you act. As a side note, I’m abandoning my base here. Manny is already carting me to the jeep. I’m not going to hang around here when the most dangerous Epic in the world can likely teleport anywhere he wants in an eyeblink.”

“He’d alert Obliteration if he did that,” I said. “Part of the reason for the bomb in Babilar was to keep Obliteration from knowing that his powers were being stolen.”

“Still leaving, at least until Jonathan cools off from my little goose chase.”

“Knighthawk,” Abraham said. “We need your harmsway. We have wounded.”

“Tough,” he said. “It’s the only one I’ve got right now. I love you guys—well, I don’t actively dislike you guys—but my skin is more important than yours.”

“And if I could give you something to make another one?” I asked, digging in my pocket. I pulled out the tissue sample container and held it up. Abraham obligingly turned his mobile around to give Knighthawk a view.

“Is that…,” Knighthawk’s voice said.

“Yes. From Prof.”

“Everyone else get out of the room. I want to talk to the kid alone.”

Abraham raised an eyebrow at me, and I nodded. Reluctantly, Abraham handed me his mobile, and he and Mizzy left. I slumped back against the wall, looking at Knighthawk’s face on the screen of the mobile. His own mobile seemed to be secured before him with some kind of device he wore around his neck, as Manny carried him through one of his tunnels.

“You did it,” Knighthawk said softly. “How? His forcefields should have protected him from harm.”

“Megan reached into an alternate dimension,” I said, “and pulled out a version of Prof. Kind of.”

“Kind of?”

“His daughter,” I said. “His and Tia’s, I think. She had his same powers, Knighthawk. And…” I took a deep breath. “And that’s his weakness. His powers. At least, so Tia claimed.”

“Hmm…,” he said. “Makes sense, knowing Jonathan. Odd that his daughter has his powers. Children of Epics here have been born without powers. Anyway, she got past his abilities?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I managed to blow a chunk of skin off him and bag it for you.”

“Man,” Knighthawk said, “we are really asking for it here, you realize. If he knows you have that…”

“He does.”

Knighthawk shook his head, rueful. “Well, if I’m going to get murdered, might as well let an old friend do it. I’ll send you that harmsway via drone, but you send me back that sample. Deal?”

“Deal, with one condition.”

“Which is?”

“We need a way to fight Prof,” I said. “And make him face his powers.”

“Have your pet Epic summon another version of him.”

“No. It didn’t work; we were able to bypass his powers, but he didn’t turn. I need to try something else.”

That was true, but only halfway. I glanced at Megan, unconscious and breathing softly. Doing what she’d done tonight had nearly destroyed her; I wouldn’t ask her to do something like that again. It wasn’t fair to her, and it certainly wasn’t fair to the person we brought through into our world.

“So…,” Knighthawk said.

I held up the sample container. “There’s another way to make him confront someone using his powers, Knighthawk.”

The man laughed. “You’re serious.”

“Serious as a dog about to be given treats,” I said. “How long would it take? To make devices for all three powers. Forcefields, regeneration, disintegration.”

“Months,” Knighthawk said. “A year even, if any of the abilities are tough to crack.”

I’d worried about that. “If that’s the only way, we’ll have to do it.” I did not relish being on the run for a year, keeping Larcener out of Prof’s hands.

Knighthawk studied me. His mannequin set him into his jeep, then did up the seat belt. “You’ve got guts,” Knighthawk said. “You know how I said we did testing on early Epics and discovered that a living Epic was pained by a motivator created from them?”