The Awakening (18 page)

34

O
UTSIDE THE ROOM
, R
ENATA LISTENED
with growing fear.

The nucleus…That has to be the huge silver ball in the lower cavern. But there’s no way I can get to it, not if it still has that null-field around it.

She heard someone coming and ducked out of sight. Two soldiers passed by, one of them carrying a tray of food, the other checking through a set of keys.

Renata followed them at a distance and watched as the one with the keys drew his gun before unlocking a heavy steel door. The other soldier put the tray of food on the ground and used his foot to slide it into the room.

They locked the door behind them and moved on.

Another prisoner,
Renata realized. Checking that there was no one around, she approached the door and knocked quietly on it. “Who’s in there?”

After a pause, a faint voice said, “Who’s out
there
?”

Renata kneeled down and put her face to the narrow gap under the door. “My name is Diamond.”

Another pause.
“Diamond?”

“That’s right.”

“Diamond, my name is Solomon Cord. You knew me as Paragon. I don’t suppose they left the key in the lock?”

“No.”

“OK. See if you can find something to get this door open.”

Renata smiled. Paragon might remember her name, but he didn’t seem to be able to remember what she could do. She pressed her hands flat against the surface of the door, then curled her fingers, pressing them into the metal. She tensed her muscles, pulled, and then—with a loud
crack
—the lock snapped.

She pulled the door open enough for Solomon to step through.

He stared at her. “Never thought I’d see
you
again. Thank you. Where are the others?”

“To be honest, I really don’t know what’s going on. Max is here. He’s got Titan and Energy prisoner. And a boy, I think he’s their son.”

“He is. That’s Colin. Where’s the other boy? Where’s Danny?”

“I don’t know. Max has some machine called a power-damper. It’s supposed to remove our superhuman powers. Is that possible?”

He nodded. “It’s happened before.”

“The woman—Rachel—said that there’s something wrong with the machine. It’ll almost certainly kill Colin and Danny and me, and probably cause fatal seizures in thousands of people!”

“Do you know where the machine is?”

“There’s a huge room, way down on the lowest level. But it’s protected by something called a null-field. I don’t think there’s a way to stop it.”

“We’ll stop it. We don’t have a choice.”

“Max, I’m
begging
you not to do this!”

“I’m sorry, Caroline. I really am. If there was another way, I’d take it. Danny’s already showing signs of being unstable. Before he escaped, we did some tests on his powers. He’s incredibly dangerous.”

“You’re willing to sacrifice Colin and Danny and Diamond and thousands of other people just because of Quantum’s prophecy?”

“Caroline, I don’t do this lightly.”

“What if one of your children was a superhuman? Would you sacrifice them just to remove a threat that might not happen?”

“Yes…yes, I would.”

“Max, this is crazy,” Façade said. “This is cold-blooded murder!”

Max turned on him. “You think I don’t
know
that?” he yelled. “You think that this is
easy
for me? And do you think I’m ever going to be able to sleep again? Their deaths will be on my conscience for the rest of my life! But if I
don’t
do it, I’ll be allowing the deaths of billions of people!”

“
If
the war happens.”

“It will happen! Quantum was right. You know that he foresaw much of what’s transpired here today? He knew that he’d be killed by his own son. He also saw that a boy would make a difficult journey to find Solomon Cord.”

“What else did he see?”

“Before the battle with Ragnarök we taped a lot of interviews with him, made after his visions. Most of what he said concerned the coming war. He said…there was a young girl, trapped in a ruined building, her leg pinned. She was starving to death. And at the same time, the
same
girl was outside the building, helping others to dig through the rubble. There was another one: an old man, desperately trying to defuse a powerful bomb…and failing.”

“Look, did he say what causes the war to start? Maybe it happens because of what you’re doing right now.”

“Warren, we
have
thought of that. But I have to go ahead anyway. I have to do what’s right.”

“But this
isn’t
right, Max,” Caroline said. “You’re willing to put innocent people to death. All those years we worked together, we were fighting on behalf of those who couldn’t fight back. We were protecting the innocent.”

Max looked at her. “Sometimes the innocent have to suffer for the greater good.”

She glared at him. “Who are
you
to define the greater good? You’re not God!”

He turned away from her and to Façade he said, “How long before the machine is fully charged?”

“A couple more minutes. Max, don’t do this!”

Max Dalton shook his head. “You were a second-rate villain, Façade. It’s a bit late now to be growing a conscience.”

Façade started to respond, but Max held up his hand. “Wait, wait…” He signaled to one of his guards. “Take this man to one of the holding cells. He’s served his purpose.”

Façade backed away. “What? Wait a second!”

“If he tries anything, shoot to kill.”

35

S
OLOMON AND
R
ENATA KEPT TO THE
shadows as they made their way down to the power-damper’s cavern.

“Left at the next turn, I think,” Renata said.

“Quiet—someone’s coming!” Cord looked around. There was no clear hiding place. “Hell. Diamond, we’re going to have to face them. Turn yourself solid.”

“What are you going to do?”

Cord grinned. “What I was
born
to do. You know any unarmed combat?”

“Not really, no.”

“Then watch and learn.”

Cord ran silently to the end of the corridor. He could hear footsteps.

Three people,
he said to himself,
maybe four
.

The voices were louder now, loud enough for him to recognize Façade.

“I’m telling you, Davison,” Façade said, “Dalton’s gone over the edge. I thought that Victor was bad, but at least we knew where we stood with him.”

“Shut up, Façade. I do what the senior officer tells me to do.”

“That so? Well, Dalton’s not an officer. He’s a civilian.”

“So are you.”

Cord ran back to a doorway set into the wall, flattened himself against the door and peeked out.

Façade was approaching, followed by three soldiers. Façade’s hands were clasped behind his head and the soldiers were clearly experienced at this sort of thing; they remained more than an arm’s reach behind him.

Cord waited, unmoving, until Façade had almost reached him, then leaped out, knocking Façade to the ground and swinging his legs out to take down one of the soldiers.

He made a grab for the soldier’s gun, but it was kicked aside.

He looked up to see the largest of the soldiers looking back at him.

“You must be Solomon Cord. Formerly known as Paragon.” He looked around. “That was a nice move. You took down two at once. Stupid, though. I mean, Façade was clearly our prisoner. You should have left him alone. You’re out of practice.”

Solomon made a grab for the man’s gun, but the soldier jumped back out of reach.

He slowly pushed himself to his feet and faced him. “You’re pretty fast, boy.”

“Faster than you, old man.”

“Think you can take me?”

“I have an AK-47 here that says I can.”

“How about putting the gun down?”

Davison laughed. “How about I put
you
down instead?”

His colleague said, “We don’t have time for this, Davison! Just shoot him!”

“Shut up. Get Façade into a cell. I’ll deal with this relic here.”

Neither of them took their eyes off the other as the soldier dragged Façade to his feet and forced him down the corridor.

Davison said, “So…where do you want it? Head? Chest?”

“Just listen.”

“You don’t have anything to say that I want to hear.”

“No, I mean,
listen.
”

From the far end of the corridor was a muffled thud, followed by a short, sharp scream.

Cord said, “That was your other man being taken out. Now the odds are in
my
favor.”

“You’ll notice that I still have a weapon aimed at your throat.”

Cord took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Fear, he remembered. That was the key to this situation.

He stared at Davison. The soldier was taller than he was, though certainly not stronger. But he moved like a fighter and he was a good twenty years younger than Cord. Plus,
he
hadn’t been retired for a decade.

“What’s the matter, Cord? Having second thoughts?”

“No.” He decided to try a trick that he’d once used on Rayboy. Cord held up his right hand, palm inward, and concentrated on it. He slowly closed it into a fist, then, just as slowly, moved his arm out to the right and pulled back a little, as though he were ready to strike.

Then, while Davison was watching this, Cord snatched out with his left hand and took the soldier’s machine gun away.

Davison had just enough time to say, “What the—?” before Cord’s right fist did what it was supposed to do and collided with his jaw.

Renata and Façade came running.

“That was good!” Façade said.

Cord turned the gun on him. “Tell me why I shouldn’t kill you right now!”

“Because you need me, Cord,” Façade said. “I might be able to find a way to shut the machine down.”

Renata suddenly shouted, “Paragon!”

He whirled around to see that Davison had pulled out a handgun.

“I
said
you were out of practice, Cord. You should have frisked me.” He angled the gun toward Façade. “And you…I was ordered to shoot you if you tried to escape. That’s an order I’m happy to follow.”

He pulled the trigger.

36

D
ANNY
C
OOPER WALKED AROUND THEM
,
trying to figure out what to do.

Davison was lying on the ground, his gun aimed at Façade. The girl was leaning forward, her arms outstretched toward Façade, as though she was about to push him out of the way. The black man was in the act of raising his own gun toward Davison.

The bullet was now halfway between the gun and Façade. From Danny’s speeded-up perception, the bullet would reach its target in about twenty seconds.

I can’t push him out of the way,
Danny thought.
At the speed I’m moving, that would do more damage than the bullet.

He stepped close to the bullet. It was moving forward slowly and rotating.

He reached out and grabbed the bullet, then pulled his hand back immediately; it was too hot for him to touch.

I need something to deflect it.

Danny pulled the gun out of Davison’s hand, then held the handgrip of the gun in front of the bullet.

The bullet pressed against the handgrip, slowly forcing the gun itself toward Façade.

Danny angled the gun a little and the bullet began to change direction. When he was sure that the bullet would miss Façade, he switched himself back to normal time.

Façade ducked as the bullet plowed into the wall above his head.

Davison stared at his hand, where his gun had been a second ago. “What the hell?”

Cord lashed out with the AK-47, cracking Davison across the jaw with it. “This time he really
is
unconscious.”

“He missed?” Façade said. “How could he have missed? He was aiming right at me!”

“It was me,” Danny said, appearing next to him. “I took his gun, used it to deflect the bullet.”

Façade grabbed him. “Oh, thank God! You’re all right! We didn’t know what had happened to you!”

Danny pushed him away. “Don’t touch me! I only saved your life because a shot in the head is too good for you! You don’t get off that easily!”

“Save it,” Cord said. “We’re wasting time here. We have to shut the machine down.”

“Follow me,” Façade said.

“Someone has to free Colin’s parents,” Danny said.

Renata said, “I’ll do it. I know where they are.”

“What can you do?”

“I’m strong and I can make myself completely invulnerable. I can do it. You want me to free Colin too?”

“Colin is here? Then yes! Go!”

Caroline Wagner stared at her son, trying to think of a way to help him. She was the only one in the room who was watching Colin; the others, even the guards, were clustered on the far side of the room, focused on the computers that controlled the power-damper.

As she watched, Colin made another attempt to escape from the cables, but with no leverage he wasn’t able to snap through them.

If he could at least
see
what he was doing,
she thought,
he might have a chance.

A movement at the door caught her attention; Caroline turned to see Diamond peeking in. No one else had noticed her.

Diamond stared at Caroline and mouthed the word, “Energy?”

Caroline nodded toward Colin and mouthed, “Help him!”

Somehow, Colin could sense other people in the room, but he couldn’t hear or see them. He could feel their tension pressing down on him, like an approaching storm, and that tension was growing rapidly.

I have to act fast,
he said to himself.
I have to get out of these cables.

He concentrated all his strength on pulling himself up, but it was still no use. He took a deep breath and relaxed, ready to try again.

Then he felt a pair of hands grabbing him around the waist, effortlessly lifting him up.

Colin slipped his right hand from the loop of cable, then his left, and pulled the helmet off his head. He looked down to see a girl of about his own age holding him up.

She smiled at him and lowered him to the floor.

Colin started to ask the girl who she was, but stopped; this was not the right time for introductions.

He looked around the room. He saw Max Dalton talking to Rachel and his parents handcuffed. His father was watching Max intently.

His mother was the only one looking in his direction. She partly covered her mouth with her hands and whispered, “Can you hear me?”

Colin nodded.

Caroline Wagner gestured toward Max. “Finish this.”