Steelheart (The Reckoners #1)(112)

I didn’t know what was on the other side of that wall. It was opposite the eld. Was he outside, then? I couldn’t stop to look up the map on my phone. Instead I ran for a nearby concession stand.

We’d dug a tunnel through there, wrapping down through the oor.

Hopefully, if I could keep moving while Nightwielder was outside, he’d have trouble tracking me down once he peeked in again.

I got into the concession stand and crawled inside the tunnel.

“Guys,” I whispered into my mobile as I moved, “I saw Megan.”

“You what?” Tia asked.

“I saw Megan. She’s alive.”

“David,” Abraham said. “She’s dead. We all know this.”

“I’m telling you I saw her.”

“Fire ght,” Tia said. “He’s trying to get to you.”

As I crawled I felt a sharp sinking feeling. Of course—an illusion. But … something felt wrong about that.

“I don’t know,” I said. “The eyes were right. I don’t think an illusion could be that detailed—that

lifelike.”

“Illusionists wouldn’t be worth much if they weren’t able to create realistic puppets,” Tia said. “They need to— Abraham, not left! The other way. In fact, throw a grenade down there if you can.”

“Thanks,” he said, pu ng

slightly. I could hear an explosion twice—once

through

his

microphone. A distant portion of the stadium shook. “Phase three is a failure, by the way. I got a shot o on Steelheart right after I revealed myself. It didn’t do anything.”

Phase three was Prof’s theory— that one of the Faithful could hurt Steelheart. If Abraham’s bullets had bounced o , then it wasn’t viable.

We only had two other ideas. The rst was my theory of cross re; the other was the theory that my father’s gun or bullets were in some way special.

“How’s Prof holding up?”

Abraham asked.

“He’s holding up,” Tia said.

“He’s fighting Steelheart,” Cody said. “I’ve only been able to see a little, but— Sparks! I’m going o ine for a moment. They’re

almost on me.”

I crouched in the narrow tunnel, trying to sort through what was happening. I could still hear a lot of gunfire and the occasional blast.

“Prof’s

keeping

Steelheart

distracted,” Tia said. “We still don’t have any con rmed cross re hits, though.”

“We’re trying,” Abraham said.

“I’ll get this next group of soldiers to follow me around the corridor, and then let Cody goad them into ring across the eld at him. That might work. David, where are you?

I might need to set o a distraction blast or two to ush out the soldiers behind cover on your side.”

“I’m

taking

the

second

concessions tunnel,” I said. “I’ll be coming out on the ground oor, near the bear. I’ll head westward after that.” The bear meant a giant stu ed bear that had been part of some promotion during the football season, but which was now frozen in place like everything else.

“Got it,” Abraham said.

“David,” Tia said. “If you saw an illusion, it means you’ve got both Fire ght and Nightwielder on you.

On one hand that’s good—we were

wondering where Fire ght ran o to. It’s bad for you, though—you’ve got two powerful Epics to deal with.”

“I’m telling you, that wasn’t an illusion,” I said, cursing as I tried to juggle the gun and the ashlight. I searched in my cargo pocket, shing out my industrial tape. My father had told me to always keep that industrial tape handy; I’d been surprised, as I grew older, how good that advice had been. “She was real, Tia.”

“David, think about that for a moment. How would Megan have gotten here?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe they … did something to revive her.…”

“We ash-burned everything in

the hideout. She’d have been cremated.”

“There would have been DNA,

maybe,” I said. “Maybe they have an Epic who can bring someone back or something like that.”

“Durkon’s

Paradox,

David.

You’re searching too hard.”

I nished taping the ashlight to the side of the barrel of my ri e— not on the top, as I wanted to be able to use the sights. That left the weapon o balance and clunky, but I felt I’d still be better with it than the handgun. I stu ed that into its holster under my arm.

Durkon’s Paradox referred to a scientist who had studied and pondered the Epics during the early days. He’d pointed out that, with Epics breaking known laws of physics, literally anything was possible—but he warned against the practice of theorizing that every little irregularity was caused by an Epic’s powers. Often that kind of thinking led to no actual answers.

“Have you ever heard of an Epic who could restore another person to life?” Tia said.

“No,” I admitted. Some could heal, but none could reanimate someone else.