Steelheart (The Reckoners #1)(50)

and what didn’t.

Diamond packed up the gun and, to my delight, tossed in the pen detonator and a small pack of the “erasers” that worked with it. I was feeling pretty good about getting something extra. Then I smelled garlic.

I frowned. It wasn’t quite garlic, but it was close. What was …

Garlic.

Phosphorus smelled like garlic.

“We’re in trouble,” I said immediately. “Nightwielder is here.”





17

“THAT’S impossible!” Diamond said, checking his mobile. “They’re not supposed to be here for another hour or two.” He paused, then held his ear—he wore a small earpiece —his mobile twinkling in his hand.

He grew pale, likely getting news of an early arrival from the girl outside. “Oh dear.”

“Sparks,” Megan said, slinging the gauss gun’s bag over her shoulder.

“You had an appointment with Steelheart today?” Abraham said.

“It won’t be him,” Diamond said.

“Assuming he were a client of mine, he would never come himself.”

“He just sends Nightwielder,” I said, sni ng the air. “Yeah, he’s here. Can you smell that?”

“Why didn’t you warn us?”

Megan said to Diamond.

“I don’t speak of other clients to —”“Never mind,” Abraham said.

“We leave.” He pointed down the hallway, opposite the way we’d come in. “Where does it lead?”

“Dead end,” Diamond said.

“You left yourself without a way out?” I asked, incredulous.

“Nobody would attack me!”

Diamond said. “Not with the hardware I’ve got in here.

Calamity! This is not supposed to happen. My clients know not to arrive early.”

“Stop him outside,” Abraham said.

“Stop Nightwielder?” Diamond asked,

incredulous.

“He’s

incorporeal. He can walk through walls for Calamity’s sake.”

“Then keep him from walking all the way down the hallway,”

Abraham said calmly. “There are some shadows back there. We’ll hide.”

“I don’t—” Diamond started.

“There isn’t time to argue, my friend,” Abraham said. “Everyone pretends to not care that you sell to all sides, but I doubt Nightwielder will treat you well if he discovers us here. He’ll recognize me; he’s seen me before. If he finds me here, we all die. Do you understand?”

Diamond, still pale, nodded again.

“Come on,” Abraham said, shouldering his gun and jogging down the hallway past the rear of the store. Megan and I joined him.

My

heart

was

thumping.

Nightwielder would recognize Abraham? What history did they have together?

There were piles of crates and boxes at the other end of the hallway. It was indeed a dead end, but there were no lights. Abraham waved for us to take cover behind the boxes. We could still see the walls full of weapons back where we’d been. Diamond stood there, wringing his hands.

“Here,” Abraham said, setting his large gun down on a box and aiming it directly at Diamond.

“Man this, David. Don’t re unless you must.”

“Won’t

work

against

Nightwielder anyway,” I said. “He h a s prime invincibility—bullets, energy weapons, explosions all pass through him.” Unless we could get him into the sunlight, assuming I was right. I put up a good front for the others, but the truth was, all I had was hearsay.

Abraham dug in the pocket of his cargo pants and pulled something out. One of the tensors.

I immediately felt a surge of relief. He was going to cut us a path to freedom. “So we’re not going to wait it out?”

“Of course not,” he said calmly.

“I feel like a rat in a trap. Megan, contact Tia. We need to know the tunnel nearest to this one. I’ll dig us a route to it.”

Megan nodded, kneeling down and cupping her mouth as she whispered into her mobile.

Abraham warmed up the tensor, and I folded out the scope on his machine gun, ipping the switch to burst

mode.

He

nodded

appreciatively at the move.

I sighted through the scope. It was a nice one, far nicer than my own, with distance readouts, wind speed monitors, and optional low-light compensators. I had a pretty good view of Diamond as he welcomed his new customers with hands open and a wide smile on his face.

I grew tense. There were eight of them—two men and a woman in suits alongside four Enforcement soldiers. And Nightwielder. He was a tall Asian man who was only half there. Faint, incorporeal. He wore a ne suit, but the long jacket had an Eastern air to it. His hair was short, and he walked with hands clasped behind his back.

My nger twitched toward the trigger.

This

creature

was

Steelheart’s right-hand Epic, the source of the darkness that cut Newcago o from the sun and stars. Similar darkness stirred on the ground around him, sliding toward shadows and pooling there.

He could kill with that, could make tendrils of that dark mist turn solid and spear a man.