Steelheart (The Reckoners #1)(109)

Still, I couldn’t rely on the pistol.

I had trouble hitting anything smaller than a freight train with one of those. I’d need to get close to Steelheart if I wanted to try it. It had been decided that we’d let Abraham and Cody test out the other theories rst before risking sending me in close.

“They’re pulling up to the

stadium,” Abraham said in my ear.

“I’ve lost them.”

“I can see them, Abraham,” Tia said. “Camera six.” Though she was outside of the city in the copter, with Edmund’s gifted abilities to power it, she was monitoring a rig of cameras we’d set up for spying and for recording the battle.

“Got it,” Abraham said. “Yes, they’re fanning out. I thought they’d come straight in, but they’re not.”

“Good,” Cody said. “That’ll make it easier to get a crossfire going.”

If Steelheart even comes, I thought. That was both my fear and my hope. If he didn’t come, it would mean he didn’t believe that Limelight was a threat—which

would make it far easier for the Reckoners to escape the city. The operation would be a bust, but not for any lack of trying. I almost wanted that to be the case.

If Steelheart came and killed us all, the Reckoners’ blood would be on my hands for leading them on this path. Once that wouldn’t have bothered me, but now it itched at my insides. I peered toward the football eld but couldn’t see anything. I glanced back behind me, toward the upper stands.

I caught a hint of motion in the darkness—what looked like a ash of gold.

“Guys,” I whispered. “I think I just saw someone up here.”

“Impossible,” Tia said. “I’ve been watching all the entrances.”

“I’m

telling

you,

I saw

something.”

“Camera

fourteen … fifteen … David, there’s nobody up there.”

“Stay calm, son,” Prof said. He was hiding in the tunnel we’d made beneath the eld, and would come out only when Steelheart appeared.

It had been decided that we wouldn’t try blowing the explosives down there until after we’d tried all the other ways to kill Steelheart.

Prof wore the tensors. I could tell he hoped he wouldn’t have to use them.

We waited. Tia and Abraham

gave a quiet running explanation of Enforcement’s movements. The ground troops surrounded the

stadium, secured all the exits they knew about, then slowly started to in ltrate. They set up gunnery positions at several points in the stands, but they didn’t nd any of us. The stadium was too large, and we were hidden too well. You could build a lot of interesting hiding places when you could tunnel through what everyone else

assumed was un-tunnel-through—

able.

“Tap me into the speakers,” Prof said softly.

“Done,” Abraham replied.

“I am not here to ght worms!”

Prof bellowed, his voice echoing through the stadium, blasted from speakers we’d set up. “This is the bravery of the mighty Steelheart?

To send little men with popguns to annoy me? Where are you,

Emperor of Newcago? Do you fear

me so?”

The stadium fell silent.

“You see that pattern the soldiers set up in the stands?” Abraham asked over our line. “They’re being very deliberate. It’s intended to ensure they don’t hit one another with friendly re. We’re going to have trouble catching Steelheart in a crossfire.”

I kept glancing over my

shoulder. I saw no other movement in the seats behind me.

“Ah,” Abraham said softly. “It worked. He’s coming. I can see him in the sky.”

Tia whistled softly. “This is it, kids. Time for the real party.”

I waited, raising my ri e and using the scope to scan the sky. I eventually spotted a point of light in the darkness, getting closer.

Gradually it resolved into three gures ying down toward the

center of the stadium. Nightwielder oated amorphously. Fire ght landed beside him, a burning humanoid form that was so bright he left afterimages in my eyes.

Steelheart landed between them.

My breath caught in my throat, and I fell utterly still.

He’d changed little in the decade since he destroyed the bank. He had that same arrogant expression, that same perfectly styled hair.

That inhumanly toned and muscled body, shrouded in a black and silver cape. His sts glowed a soft yellow, wisps of smoke rising from them, and there was a hint of silver in his hair. Epics aged far more slowly than regular people, but they did age.

Wind swirled about Steelheart, blowing up dust that had collected on the silvery ground. I found I couldn’t look away. My father’s murderer. He was here, final y. He didn’t seem to notice the junk from the bank vault. We’d strewn it around the center of the eld and mixed it with garbage we’d brought in to mask what we’d done.

The items were easily as close to him now as they had been when he’d been in the bank. My nger twitched on the trigger of my ri e —I hadn’t even realized it had moved to the trigger. I carefully removed it. I would see Steelheart dead, but it didn’t have to be by my hand. I needed to remain hidden; my duty was to hit him with the pistol, and he was too far away for that at the moment. If I shot now, and the shot failed, I’d be revealing myself.