Contagion (Toxic City, #3)(6)

“Dunno,” Jack said.

“I mean, they'll be even more determined to keep the Doomsday survivors trapped now, won't they?” Sparky asked.

“Yeah,” Jenna said. “Make sure Big Bindy gets them all.”

Sparky stared at Jack, waiting for him to respond. Jack felt uncomfortable beneath his friend's gaze, because he knew what Sparky was thinking. Perhaps what they were all thinking, including Rhali, who'd already had a glimpse at what Jack could do.

He skimmed the starscape inside, and that throbbing red giant was still there. Watching him. Waiting.

“I can't do anything,” Jack said.

“What?” Sparky said. “Nothing?”


Jack shook his head. “I've thought about it. Looked. You've seen what I can do. There's other stuff, but I'm not certain of any of it yet. Some of what I've been able to do has been because I've been close to someone else doing it, like Reaper and his shout. Other stuff has come to me…sort of instinctively.” He shrugged.

“Tell everyone,” Sparky said. “That's what we need to do. Spread the word about the bomb, arrange a meeting place ready to break out of the city. Now that she's not working for them—” He'd nodded at Rhali, and she stood, angry.

“I've never worked for them!” she shouted. “Have you any idea what they did to me to make me tell them things? I'll tell you one day. Big, brave boy, I'll tell you.”

“Hey…” Sparky said, and they could all see how sorry he was. “I didn't mean that. Really.”

Rhali nodded, and even offered him a half-smile.

“And there's what Miller said,” Jenna said softly. “About how using the powers has led to people getting sick.”

“Yeah,” Sparky said. “This is all so shit.”

“So what's new,” Jack said.

“I'm not sick,” Rhali said. “Malnourished, yeah. And the drug they were giving me, whatever it is, it's got side effects you don't even wanna know about.”

“Not everyone's ill,” Jack said. “Not yet. But there are more and more. My mum was working as a healer in a hospital set up in a tube station, and she was seeing lots. No way to treat them. No cure, even from a healer.”

“I guess all these powers are new,” Jenna said. “And so's the disease.”

“A cure is for later,” Jack said. “Our priority now is finding Lucy-Anne and getting everyone out of London. I'll do whatever I can to make that happen.”

“Or finding the bomb,” Sparky said.

“You know how to disarm an atom bomb, dickhead?” Jack asked.

Sparky raised his eyebrows and slowly raised his middle finger at Jack. “Well, my young Padawan, I was only thinking—”

“Sure he does,” Jenna said. “He's seen James Bond.”

“But if we can find it and—”

“Stick it up his butt and jump in the Thames, float it into the North Sea,” Jack said.

“Right then,” Sparky said. He turned and stomped off, mock-offended. Jenna chuckled.

“Miller,” Rhali said softly.

“He said he doesn't know where it is,” Jack said.

“We don't need to know,” she said. “Like you said, none of us could do anything about it even if we did. But that bastard Miller's the boss. He could call off his thugs, open a way out of London.”

“But would he?” Jenna asked.

Rhali looked at Jack, one eyebrow raised. And Jack grinned.

“You're a genius, as well as pretty,” he said, and Rhali glanced down at her feet, embarrassed.

“Hey, now, who's getting jiggy with it?” Sparky said.

“You could persuade him?” Jenna asked Jack.

“If not me, then I know a man who can.”

“Yeah!” Sparky said. “That dude with Breezer. ‘Drop your weapons,’ and every Chopper in sight did it.”

“Might work,” Jenna said. “If we can find Miller, and if he isn't surrounded by a hundred Choppers, and if he's even still in the city.”

“And if your father left him alive,” Rhali said.

“He'll have left him alive,” Jack said. “And he'd have made sure Miller couldn't leave. He was enjoying torturing him too much for that.”

“So where is he?” Jenna asked.

“That's something else Breezer could help us with,” Jack said. “So right now, he's the man to find.”

“Right then,” Jenna said after a few moments. “Clock's ticking.”

“Yeah, and we don't even know how long's left.” Sparky's tone was grim. It was daylight now, and Jack was already nervous about going out into the streets again. Ever since they had arrived, each dawn had brought a more vicious, brutal London to life.

As plans went, it seemed hazy at best. But it felt good to be doing something positive rather than sitting in the furniture shop, letting the weight of events crush him down. And as they left, Rhali's hand felt good in his.

Jenna and Sparky followed behind, comfortable in their closeness. A couple only for a matter of days, it seemed to Jack that they had been together forever. He loved them. They were his friends, and the idea of anything happening to them was horrible. They will die, he thought, an idea that often impinged upon him about the ones he loved. Sometimes he hated his sense of morbidity. They'll die, we'll all die. But I want them to live first.