City of Burning Shadows (Apocrypha: The Dying World) (26 page)

“I’ll stop worrying once rain is falling on the city,” Vogg said.

“Agreed.” I was already thinking ahead to the next few steps, once Spark was safely ensconced in the Jansynian labs. The terrorists. The shadows. I’d have to find Syed again. Check in with Amelia. Rain would solve most of our problems, assuming Spark could get the satellite fixed quickly, but it wouldn’t make the monsters go away.
 

A pang of hurt struck me as we rose through the level of the Web where Copper and Micah had lived. I looked over at Spark, but of course she didn’t know—I hadn’t told her yet. There hadn’t been a chance. And this was hardly the time, as the lift slid smoothly to a stop. We’d reached the top.

The doors slid open. The receiving room was nearly empty. Seana waited for me—for us—alone. None of the other staff I was used to seeing bustling around in here were present.
 

Behind Seana, the doors into the hallway were closed. And for the first time in all the trips I’d made through here—night or day—most of the lights in the receiving room were off. Other than the one desk lamp illuminating Seana, the room was dark. Very, very dark.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

A Run through the Web

I reacted entirely on instinct. I slammed my hand against the lift controls. The doors closed and the lift began to descend. We had seconds, maybe, before Seana called down to override the controls.

“We need out!” I yelled at Vogg. Had to act quickly, had to stay in motion. Couldn’t stop to think. If I stopped to think… “Can you break the glass?”

Vogg didn’t ask questions. He slammed his fist into the glass, angled so the bony knobs over his knuckles drove directly in. It bounced off. “It’s too strong.”

The lift shuddered to a stop. As I’d feared. We had no time. If we got back up there…I knew…I knew…

“Give it a running start.”

Vogg nodded, obedient. As he backed up, I closed my eyes to focus. One chance. That’s all we had.
 

Vogg ran. Eight feet of bulky muscle and plated skin. Mass times acceleration. Velocity gathered. Rearranged. Focused. All the force of him narrowed down to a pinpoint. All that energy in a single burst.
 

Now.

Vogg struck the glass and it shattered. I marveled at his unquestioning trust—if I hadn’t sucked away all his forward motion to break the glass, he would have kept going, straight over the edge and hundreds of feet to the ground.
 

Vogg wasted no time questioning his good fortune. He swept his foot, pushing shards of glass over the edge, and held out his hand to Spark as the lift started once more to ascend. “There,” he pointed at a platform, twenty feet up and approaching fast. It would be close enough to jump to as we passed.

Glad I didn’t have time to consider the consequences if we missed, I moved with Vogg again to the center of the lift. Another running start. Vogg scooped up Spark and swung her around to cling to his back. We ran together, his longer strides countered by the fact I weighed half as much and could move my legs faster. We jumped together.

I landed hard, stumbled forward, fell. My momentum sent me rolling across the too-narrow platform. Towards the opposite edge. My head and shoulders went over—I felt the open air beneath me—

The collar of my robe snapped tight around my neck as someone grabbed it from behind. “No you don’t, Ash.” Iris’s voice.

As the alarms sounded above and below.

I sat up, rubbing at my neck. Vogg, Iris, Spark, they were all staring at me. Waiting for instruction. Or explanation. “It
was
an ambush. They were waiting for us.”

“The Jansynians?” Iris asked.

“The shadows.”

Seana. Standing there in the darkness. Ready to attack. I’d seen it in her eyes. Seen the shadow swimming in her eyes.

I wrenched my mind away from the thought. Later—if we survived, I’d have to deal with it later. “They’re going to be looking for us. We need someplace safe to hide.”

“We
had
someplace safe to hide,” Iris snapped.
 

“How much do they know?” Spark asked, her voice still calm.

They had Seana. They had her resources. “Everything. We have to assume they know everything.”

“The temple,” Iris said. “Your temple. It’s the only way. Even if they can find it, they can’t get in.”

The idea was brilliant, and a sure sign Iris’s mind was working better than mine right now, except for the problem of getting there. As I was reminded by Vogg, who stood at the platform’s edge, watching below. “They’re coming up. Armed men and women on hover-platforms. We can’t stay here.”

They’d come from above, too, as soon as they got organized.
 

Iris could escape, could hide, but the rest of us—we’d never slip the Jansynians. Not without a distraction. “Further in. We’re sitting ducks here.”

We moved as fast as we dared across walkways of unsecured boards and swaying nets. Vogg took another flying leap between the thick pipe that had turned into a dead end to a platform fifteen feet below, then he and Iris helped catch Spark and me as we followed. We struggled through the maze, but it was obvious from the start we were losing ground to the Jansynian guards on their three-man platforms that flew them towards us. And as I’d feared, the lift was coming down again, with Kaifail-only-knew how many passengers.
 

No way we could escape. Not like this. “Vogg, Spark, go with Iris. She’ll take you to the temple. Wait for me inside the wards.”

“Ash—” Iris started to argue.

“Go! I’ll slow them down.”

A flush of red spread over her skin in a wave, but she jumped off the platform onto a net below, and turned to help Spark. I couldn’t watch them long—not if I wanted to provide cover to their escape. I just had to hope I could do enough.

Fortunately, over the last few days I’d had a lot of practice at what I had in mind. The Jansynians thought they had a clear path of pursuit, that flight gave them an advantage. Time to see if I could even the odds.

I knelt down, tracing invisible patterns along the splintery wood. Some charcoal or chalk would have made my life easier, but easy seemed to have taken a hiatus. The gestures helped my focus, but I’d have to hold the patterns in my mind.

Five trios of armed Jansynians flying through the Web. All near-identical to my eye. I’d have to deal with them one at a time, because I wouldn’t be able to keep them separate in my head.

All five had continued chasing Spark, Vogg, and Iris. I wasn’t sure if it was good or bad that I was lower on their priority list. For now, it meant I could work undisturbed.

The lead group cut down, flying through a gap in the girders about twenty feet below my friends. In a second, they’d be ahead of Iris and the rest, cutting them off.
 

I focused in on one of the loose-boarded walkways just above them, and with a hurried gesture and practiced twist of my mind, redirected some of the momentum of the last group of guards into the boards. The walkway splintered and boards spun down, right into the heads of two of the lead Jansynians.
 

Another vehicle swung wide, on a route that would bring them around to flank. This time I pulled energy from the still-moving front car into a nearby net. This plan worked even better than the boards, as the netting came free and tangled around the hover-platform, fouling its engine somehow. They wobbled and sank, unable to continue pursuit.

The third and fourth guard trios broke off from the pack and turned back towards me, drawing their guns as they came. Which answered the important question about their instructions regarding me—apparently I was a legal target to kill.

I didn’t have the time or the tools to do a complete energy transference like I’d used to stop the car that had been chasing us. And I didn’t know enough about how the hovercrafts worked to be sure I could duplicate what I’d pulled off with the net. Which left only one choice.

I ran.
 

#

I heard gunfire behind me. Vogg handling his pursuers. I tried to look back, but one of the big support struts blocked any view of my companions, and then I had to pay attention to my own footing.
 

A shot from a Jansynian weapon burned through the plank I was running along. I jumped for a wide girder just below as another shot blackened the thick guy-wire above my head. The girder was as wide as I was tall, but slanted more than I’d realized. I couldn’t catch my balance and fell forward. I caught the edge, stopped myself from rolling off, but the fall had cost me any chance at escape. The Jansynians rose up on either side of me.

I still had the gun in my robe. With however many bullets were left after I’d shot Micah. But what was the likelihood I’d be able to hit anything I aimed at? The Jansynians weren’t going to be cowed by me waving a weapon at them. If anything, it would get me killed faster.

They were so close. Close enough I could hear Seana’s voice issuing from their communication system.
“Leave him! The Fyean’s your target.”

They spun in the air, flew away, and I was out of tricks to stop them. No time for any magic grand enough to cause them real problems. No way to give chase. I just had to hope I’d given Iris and Vogg enough of an opening to manage their own escape.

Seana. How had they…I had to warn Amelia. Had to let her know what happened. I couldn’t call her—didn’t dare use the wireless now that…

The next step. I had to focus on the next step. A message to Amelia, and then get Spark safe into hiding. One thing after another, and I wouldn’t stop to think. I couldn’t…oh gods…Seana.

I’d left the bike at the safehouse. Without it, there was no way I could get to Amelia’s house and back. But I could make it to P&B. Best case scenario, someone would be in the office. Worst case, I could leave a message. Even if Amelia wasn’t in, someone else would be able to get it to her.

My heart pounded all the way down to the ground. Halfway through the climb, the adrenalin wore off and by the time I got to the street, I was more tired than I’d ever been in my life. No choice but to push forward, and so I did. I held myself to a walk, tried not to draw any undue attention. Once I got to the tube station, once I made it downtown, into the crush of people, I’d be safer.
 

Saf
er
. Not safe.
 

In the tube station, I tried to watch every direction at once, but didn’t spot any Jansynian faces or anyone at all who seemed to be paying undue attention to me. Even once I was on the train, though, I didn’t relax. The car was near empty, and no one approached me, but still I couldn’t relax. I did what I could to steady myself by running through the pattern that would show me any Jansynian surveillance. I didn’t see any of the telltale blue glows, but I wasn’t confident of my concentration either. Possible the magic wasn’t working at all.

The downtown station was packed. Late afternoon and people were on their way to their twilight destinations. I welcomed the camouflage, did my best to move with the crowd and keep my head down.

I made it safely to my building and waved hello to the security guard who was just closing down for the day. “Anyone still upstairs?” I asked him, hoping the cheer in my voice didn’t sound forced.

“Most’re out for the day, Mr. Drake,” he answered with only a brief glance in my direction. “But Ms. Price went up a while ago, so you’re likely to catch her.”

So not all my luck was bad today. I thanked…no, I didn’t.
 

I went straight for Amelia’s office. Walked in without knocking. She sat at her desk, frowning at her computer. I didn’t know how to start. “Amelia—”

She stood. Her hand came up. She held a gun. Pointed it in my direction.
 

“Amelia! It’s me! It’s still me!” The words tumbled out as my mind froze. Too many shocks today to manage any cleverness. “Don’t shoot, I promise it’s me.”

“I know,” she said, and as her thumb flicked back the safety catch, I saw it.
 

The shadow swimming in her eyes.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

No Escape

“Stop!”

The voice came from behind me. Seana’s voice. I scrambled to the side, put my back to the wall. Amelia’s gun followed my movements, but she didn’t pull the trigger.

Seana stood in the door. And beside her…

Shadow number three, and the final piece of the puzzle. I recognized his face. I’d seen it on the news yesterday morning. They’d flashed through several videos of protestors outside the city council building, the protesters outside the reservoir, and the crowd gathered watching the fire at the university.

Too late, I saw the whole of what the shadows had been doing. How they’d played both sides. One shadow whipping the citizens into a wild, desperate frenzy. The others working the city council, making sure the leadership gave no response to the city’s pleas. And Miroc slowly pulling apart. Until Spark came along with a chance to save the city and disrupt all their plans.

None of the shadows were trying to hide from me. I saw the truth in all their eyes. I was alone in the room with three monsters.
 

“He had his chance,” Amelia—not-Amelia—said, her voice cold.
 

“And I’m giving him another,” Seana answered. “Put the gun down.”

I got it now. I understood. Iris had said, hadn’t she? Amelia went to the Crescent, met with Seana in person.
After
that, she’d agreed to the Jansynians taking Spark. I hadn’t made anything of it at the time because I hadn’t known Seana—

And when I saw Seana had been taken, everything else happened so fast, I hadn’t taken the leap. A stupid mistake, and possibly the last one I was going to get to make.

Amelia hadn’t lowered the gun. “He
hurt
me,” she whispered, unmistakable hatred in her voice. No, this wasn’t Amelia at all.

“You tried to kill him,” Seana countered, her voice as cool as ever. “Against my orders. What was he supposed to do?”

Amelia hadn’t…no, this was the shadow talking. The shadow…the shadow that had been in Micah. In Copper before that.