Steelheart (The Reckoners #1)(81)

“Delightful,” Tia said.

“A grand word to choose,” Cody said. “It, of course, is originally a Scottish term. Del coming from Dál Riata, the ancient and great Scottish kingdom of myth. Why, I think one of the great piping songs is from that era. ‘Abharsair e d’a chois e na Dùn èideann.’ ”

“Ab … ha … what?” I asked.

“Abharsair e d’a chois e na Dùn èideann,” Cody said. “It is a sweetly poetic name that doesn’t really translate to English—”

“It means ‘The Devil Went Down to Edinburgh’ in Scottish Gaelic,”

Tia said, leaning in toward me but speaking loudly enough that Cody could hear.

Cody, for once, missed a step.

“You speak Scottish Gaelic, lass?”

“No,” Tia said. “But I looked that up last time you told this story.”

“Er … you did, eh?”

“Yes. Though your translation is questionable.”

“Well, now. I always did say you were a smart one, lass. Yes indeed.” He coughed into his hand.

“Ah, look. We’re at the base. I’ll continue the story later.” The others had arrived at the hideout just ahead and Cody scurried up to meet them, then followed Megan up the tunnel.

Tia shook her head, then walked with me to the tunnel. I went last, making sure the cords and cables that hid the entrance were in place.

I turned on the hidden motion sensors that would alert us if someone came in, then crawled up myself.

“… just don’t know, Prof,”

Abraham was saying in his soft voice. “I just don’t know.” The two of them had spent the trip back walking ahead, speaking softly. I’d tried to edge up to hear them, but Tia had pointedly placed a hand on my shoulder and drawn me back.

“So?” Megan asked, crossing her arms as we all gathered around the main table. “What’s going on?”

“Abraham doesn’t like the way the rumors are going,” Prof said.

“The general public does seem to accept our tale of Limelight,”

Abraham said. “They are scared, and our hit on the power station has had an e ect—there are rolling blackouts all over the city.

However, I see no proof that Steelheart believes. Enforcement is





s w e e p i n g the


understreets.

Nightwielder is scouring the city.

Everything I hear from informants is that Steelheart is searching for a group of rebels, not a rival Epic.”

“So we hit back with a fury,”

Cody said, crossing his arms and leaning back against the wall beside the tunnel. “Kill a few more Epics.”

“No,” I said, remembering my conversation with Prof. “We need to be more focused. We can’t just take out random Epics; we have to think like someone trying to capture the city.”

Prof nodded. “Each and every hit we make without having Limelight appear in the open will make Steelheart more suspicious.”

“We’re giving up?” Megan said, a hint of eagerness in her voice, though she obviously tried to cover it.“Not by a mile,” Prof said.

“Perhaps I will still decide we need to pull out—if we aren’t con dent enough

about

Steelheart’s

weakness, I might do just that. We aren’t there yet. We’re going to keep on with this plan, but we need to do something big, preferably with an appearance by Limelight. We need to squeeze Steelheart as hard as we can and drive that temper of his. Force him out.”

“And we do that how?” Tia asked.

“It’s time to kill Con ux,” Prof said.

“And

bring

down

Enforcement.”





27

CONFLUX.

In many ways he was the backbone of Steelheart’s rule. A mysterious

gure, even when

compared to the likes of Fire ght and Nightwielder.

I had no good photos of Con ux.

The few I’d paid dearly to get were blurry and unspeci c. I couldn’t even know if he was real.

The van thumped as it moved through the dark streets of Newcago; it was stu y inside. I sat in the passenger seat, with Megan driving. Cody and Abraham were in the back. Prof was running point in a di erent vehicle, and Tia was running support back at our base, watching the spy videos of the city streets. It was a frigid day and the heater in our van didn’t work— Abraham hadn’t gotten around to fixing it.

Prof’s words ran through my m i n d . We’ve considered hitting Con ux before, but discarded the idea because we thought it would be too dangerous. We stil have the plans we made. It’s no less dangerous now, but we’re in deep. No reason not to move forward.

Was Con ux real? My gut said he was. Much as the clues pointed to Fire ght being a fabrication, the clues surrounding Con ux added up to something being there. A powerful but fragile Epic.

Steelheart moves Con ux around, Prof had said, never letting him stay long in the same place. But there’s a pattern to how he’s moved. He often uses an armored limo with six guards and a two-motorcycle escort. If we watch for that, wait until he uses that convoy to move, we can hit him on the streets in transit.