Reaper's Legacy: Book Two (Toxic City)(50)

“Oh, grow up,” Jenna said.

“That's my girl!” Sparky laughed out loud. “That's my Jenna!”

“Seriously,” Jenna said. She looked down at the woman at her feet, then walked across towards the clothing shop. The Choppers there were gathered against one wall, drawn back from where Shade knelt slumped down on the floor. He had yet to look up, but already he was looking less there to Jack. Fading back to the shadows.

“Can't we lock them away somewhere?” Jenna asked. “Or, like…freeze them, or something?”

Reaper stood on his own in the middle of the street, expressionless, motionless. Jack knew that he could probably kill every surviving Chopper with one shout. But there was something going on behind his eyes that Jack recognised.

His father was thinking.

“Breezer?” Reaper asked after another few seconds.

Breezer shook his head, shrugged.

“I can do this,” Jack said. “Sparky, Jenna, give me a hand. If everyone else can just make sure they don't try anything?”

He and Sparky approached Jenna and the shop, and as they drew close Jack grinned at his friend. She raised an eyebrow and propped a hand on one hip.

“So what are you going to do, Superman?” she asked quietly.

“Just watch.”

Ten minutes later they had split into three groups again, after arranging where to meet to execute their assault on Camp H. It had to be quick. It had to be soon. And Jack knew that his mother and sister's lives depended upon whatever plan they all came up with being a success.

“That was pretty cool,” Sparky said.

“What, locking them in the basement?” Jack and his friends had ushered the Choppers down into the shop's basement, and Jack had melted the hinges and lock mechanisms of the two sets of doors between them and the staircase. They'd break their way out, given time. But Jack's final words to them, telling them that if they did break down the door there would be something waiting for them in the darkness, probably doubled the amount of time they'd stay down there.

They might be Choppers, but they were also people. They valued their lives as much as anyone.

“Huh?” Sparky said. “Oh, that. The doors. Nah, that wasn't cool, that was just heat. I mean you!” He leaned into Jenna and slung a hand around her shoulders, and she giggled like a schoolgirl.

“I've got to admit, you're right,” Jenna said. “I was pretty cool.”

They moved quickly, descending from the streets and travelling between Underground stations. Twenty minutes later they were a mile from Covent Garden, and they had an hour to wait until their rendezvous with Breezer and Reaper.

They sat on the old station platform, darkness around them made deeper by the flashlights they'd lifted from a station office. None of them felt like eating, and Jack could not shake the notion that they were wasting time. But they could not risk another confrontation with a larger, heavier-armed troop of Choppers.

Time ticked by, the darkness loomed, and they chatted about lighter, happier times.

“One thing,” Jack said to Reaper when they met again that afternoon. “Why did you let Miller live?”

Fleeter accompanied Reaper, and Sparky and Jenna were with Jack, as always. Other small groups of Superiors and Irregulars were moving towards their rendezvous point three miles to the east, from where their assault on the container park would commence. They hoped to leave it to the very last moment before giving away their presence.

Jack had reluctantly admitted that it was Reaper's people who should lead the assault. They were the ones with the most disruptive, destructive powers, and there was no telling how long it would take to find the relevant containers.

“I told you before, he interests me.” Reaper and Jack were in the lead, but it could not be said that they walked together. Even if they were shoulder to shoulder, Reaper's dismissive aura would have meant he walked alone.

“It seems like a strange sort of mercy to me,” Jack said.

“It's not mercy. I have none for Choppers, and less so for the monster who leads them.”

“They why? You had him kneeling before you, defenceless. Yet you let him live, and allowed him to pursue me and my friends.”

“I knew he'd never catch you,” Reaper said.

“What?”

Reaper glanced over at Jack, and a ghost of something passed from his face, leaving only his brutal expression behind. What the hell was that? Jack thought. It sounded for a moment like he cared.

“Miller is a man obsessed,” Reaper said. “London is his playground, and Irregulars are his test subjects. You know all that. He yearns to get his hands on Superiors, too. See how different we are.” Reaper tapped his head.

“He's never caught one of yours?”


“Some. They haven't been seen since.”

“Probably dead, then,” Jack said coldly.

Reaper shrugged as if unconcerned. “As to why I left him alive? London is much more my playground than his. And he is one of my toys. Get rid of Miller, and things around here won't be as…exciting.”

“You mean that,” Jack said. “You really mean it.” Reaper walked on ahead and Fleeter followed, walking close to the tall man in black. She touched his arm, slid her hand down, and for the briefest moment they entwined fingers. Then Reaper shook her off, and Fleeter hung back to let him walk ahead.