Steelheart (The Reckoners #1)(74)

“He’s got standard re Epic powers,” Megan said. “He can turn to ame—in fact, he pretty much always remains in re form. He can y, throw re from his hands, and manipulate existing ames. He creates an intense heat eld

around him, capable of melting bullets—though they likely couldn’t hurt him even if they didn’t melt.

It’s a basic fire Epic portfolio.”

“Too basic,” I said. “Every Epic has quirks. Nobody has exactly the same portfolio of powers. That was what rst tipped me o . Here’s the other clue.” I tapped the series of photographs—each was a shot of Fire ght taken on a di erent day, usually with Steelheart and his retinue. Though Nightwielder often went out on missions, Fire ght usually remained near Steelheart to act as first-line bodyguard.

“Do you see it?” I asked.

“See what?” Cody asked.

“Here,” I said, pointing to a man standing with Steelheart’s guards in one of the pictures. He was slender and clean-shaven and wore a sti suit, a pair of dark shades, and a wide-brimmed hat that obscured his face.

I pointed to the next photo. The same person was there. And the next photo. And the next. His face was hard to make out in the other pictures too—none of them were focused on him specifically, and the hat and shades always masked his features.

“This person is always there when Fire ght appears,” I said.

“It’s suspicious. Who is it, and what is he doing there?”

Megan frowned. “What are you implying?”

“Here,” I said, “take a look at these.” I got out a sequence of ve photos, a rapid-re series of shots capturing a few moments. The scene was Steelheart ying through the city with a procession of his minions. He did that sometimes.

Though he always looked like he was going somewhere important, I suspected these were really just his version of a parade.

Nightwielder and Fire ght were with him, ying about ten feet above the ground. A cavalcade of cars drove beneath, like a military convoy. I couldn’t make out any faces, though I suspected the suspicious person was among them.

Five pictures. Four of them showed the trio of Epics ying side by side. And in one of them—right in the middle of the sequence— Fire ght’s shape had fuzzed and gone translucent.

“Fire ght can go incorporeal, like Nightwielder?” Cody guessed.

“No,” I said. “Fire ght’s not real.”

Cody blinked. “What?”

“He’s not real. At least, not in the way we think. Fire ght is an incredibly intricate—and incredibly clever—illusion. I suspect that the person we’re seeing in those photos, the one wearing the suit and hat, is the true Epic. He’s an illusionist, capable of manipulating light to create images, a lot like Refractionary—only on a much more powerful level. Together the real Fire ght and Steelheart concocted the idea of a fake Epic much the same way we’re concocting Limelight. In these photos we’re catching a moment of distraction, when the real Epic wasn’t concentrating on his illusion and it wobbled and nearly vanished.”

“A fake Epic?” Megan said, dismissive. “What would be the point? Steelheart wouldn’t need to do that.”

“Steelheart has a strange psychology,” I said. “Trust me. I’ll bet I know him better than anyone other than his closest allies. He’s arrogant, like Abraham said, but he’s also paranoid. Much of what he does is about holding on to power, about forcing people into line. He moves the location of his sleeping quarters. Why would he need to do that? He’s immune to harm, right? He’s paranoid, scared that someone will discover his weakness. He destroyed the entire bank because we might have had a hint at how he was hurt.”

“Lots of Epics would do that,”

Cody noted.

“That’s because most Epics are equally paranoid. Look, what better way to surprise would-be assassins than to make them prepare for an Epic that isn’t there? If they spend all their time planning how to kill Fire ght, then go up against an illusionist instead, they’ll be caught totally off guard.”

“So will we, if you’re right,”

Cody said. “Fighting illusionists is tough. I hate not being able to trust my eyes.”

“Look, an illusionist Epic can’t explain everything,” Megan said.

“There are recorded events of Firefight melting bullets.”

“Fire ght made the bullets vanish when they reached the illusion, then made illusory melted bullets drop to the ground. Later some of Steelheart’s minions went and spread some actual melted bullets down as proof.” I took out another pair of pictures. “I’ve got evidence of them doing just that. I have mountains of documentation on this, Megan. You’re welcome to read through it. Tia agrees with me.”

I picked up a few more pictures from the stack. “Take this. Here, we’ve got photos of a time that Fire ght ‘burned’ down a building.

I took these pictures myself; see how he’s throwing re? If you look at the scorch marks on the walls the following day in this next set, they’re di erent from the blasts Fire ght created. The real scorch marks were added by a team of workers in the night. They cleared everyone from the scene, so I couldn’t get pictures of them, but the next day’s evidence is clear.”