The Awakening (19 page)

37

“T
HE NUCLEUS IS NOW FULLY CHARGED
, sir,” Rachel said. “Ready to go. Once we hit the button it’ll take a few minutes to trigger the charge.”

Max nodded. “Do it.”

Rachel reached out toward the computer console, then hesitated. “Sir…”

“
You’re
having an attack of conscience too?” Max pushed her aside. “I’ll do it.” He put his finger on the “Activate” button—

And suddenly found himself on the other side of the room, sprawled across the floor.

Colin stood over him, his fists clenched and his eyes blazing.

Behind him, Renata punched her fist right through the computer screen; it exploded in a shower of sparks.

Max coughed, a bubble of blood on his lips. “You’re too late. It’s started.”

Colin reached down and grabbed hold of Max’s shirt, lifting him easily into the air. Then he threw him back across the room, where he crashed heavily against the computer console.

The two remaining guards raised their weapons and suddenly found themselves facing Renata. “I wouldn’t if I were you,” she said.

As they watched, Renata’s body shimmered, became transparent and glistening for a second, then returned to normal.

“You can’t harm me,” she said, “and the last thing we want is bullets ricocheting around the room.” With that, she reached out, grabbed the barrels of the rifles and pulled them out of the guards’ hands.

Colin turned to Rachel. “How do I stop it?”

She began to back away from him. “It
can’t
be stopped!”

“Where
is
the machine?”

Renata said, “I’ve seen it. It’s on the lowest level. I’ll take you.”

“No, you stay here. Protect my parents.” Colin grabbed Rachel’s arm. “
You
can show me how to get there!” He ran from the room, dragging her behind him.

Solomon Cord stared at the silver ball that was floating in midair. “That’s it? That’s the power-damping machine?”

“That’s it.”

Danny looked around. “So how do we stop it?”

“This is how,” Façade said. He walked over to a control panel set into the wall. He punched a code into the keypad. “All you have to do is…Hold on…”

He tried again. “Oh hell. It’s locked out.”

“Just pull the plug or something!” Danny shouted.

“It doesn’t work like that! This thing is totally self-contained. It was built to stay online forever, just in case any other superhumans are born.”

“Is there an override?” Solomon asked.

“No. There’s no override. It’s not designed to be shut down!”

“How long do we have?” Danny asked.

Façade pointed to a computer display. “Not long.” The screen showed 00:02:54 and was counting down.

Solomon moved toward the silver ball, but Façade held him back. “Don’t! Cord, get too close to that thing and it’ll kill you! It’s completely surrounded by a null-field.”

Solomon said, “What the hell is a null-field?”

“It’s like…a really thin layer where nothing can exist. If anything passes into the field, it just disappears.”

They jumped as a siren sounded.

“Damn! The rest of the defenses have been triggered! Get out of here!”

Even as Façade spoke, Solomon could see several pieces of machinery sliding down from the ceiling, turning, aiming toward them.

Façade grabbed the others and pulled them toward the door. “Come on!”

They darted from the room and took cover in the corridor. “The guns have motion-tracking and heat-seeking features,” Façade said. “Cord, they’re rail-guns. Thirty-millimeter shells, depleted uranium tips.”

“What’s that mean?” Danny asked.

“It means that they’re
much
faster than ordinary bullets—and much harder,” Solomon said. “Danny, think you can outrun them?”

“I can try.”

“It wouldn’t do any good,” Façade said. “Even if you dodge the defenses, you still wouldn’t be able to get through the null-field! And even if you
could
somehow disable the null-field, the thing is spinning at a couple of million revs a second.
And
it’s armor-plated.”

With a deafening crash, something ripped its way through the ceiling of the corridor, showering them with plaster, dust and fist-sized chunks of concrete.

Amid the debris, Colin landed lightly on his feet.

Through the hole in the ceiling, the others could see Rachel peering down.

“That’s it?” Colin asked, looking into the room.

Façade nodded. “We can’t stop it. Can’t even get to it.”

“How long do we have?”

“One minute forty-seven. Colin, if you can get through the guns, there’s a panel on the far wall that controls the guns’ sensors. Destroy that and it should shut the guns down.”

“I don’t think I’m bulletproof,” Colin said.

Danny said, “I know someone who
is
…” He took a deep breath and focused. So far, his superspeed had activated only by itself; he’d never been able to trigger it deliberately.

This time it
has
to work.

“No…It’s no good. I can’t go into slow-time!”

Cord reached out and slapped Danny hard across the back of the head.

Danny whirled around and glared at Cord. His burst of anger had done the trick; he was moving in slow-time again.

He ran back through the mine, back to the room in which Colin had been held prisoner.

He paused long enough to take in the scene; Colin’s parents were now free of their handcuffs. His mother was holding a gun on the guards while his father crouched over Max Dalton. Renata was standing nearby.

Danny grabbed her, picked her up and ran.

Colin jumped. A second ago, Solomon Cord had hit Danny. Now, Danny was standing in a different place and the girl was next to him, looking confused.

Renata looked around. “What? How did—?”

“You said you can make yourself invulnerable, right? You’re bulletproof?” Danny asked.

“Yes. When I’m in solid form. Why?”

“No time for questions! Do it! Now!”

Renata nodded and instantly became unmoving and transparent.

Colin understood exactly what Danny was suggesting; he picked up Diamond and rushed into the room, holding her in front of him as a shield.

Façade shouted after him, “Colin, just keep well clear of that silver ball!”

The noise was almost deafening; bullets rattled off Diamond’s inert form, almost knocking her from his grasp.

Ahead, Colin saw the panel that Façade had mentioned. Still holding on to Diamond with his left hand, he clenched his right fist and pushed it through the panel.

Instantly, the bullet fire stopped and the others rushed into the room.

“Eighty-one seconds!” Façade said.

Colin looked around. “What next?”

Danny pointed to the machine’s nucleus. “That thing…That’s the heart of the machine. We need to disable it, but it’s got a force field around it.”

“No problem,” Colin said, moving forward.

“No, wait!” Façade said. “It’s not that simple…That force field can kill
anything.
Even you. You get closer than three meters and bits of you will just disappear. It’s a null-field. It’ll destroy any kind of matter.”

Solomon Cord said softly, “Wait…We can see through the field. If it doesn’t affect light, then maybe something moving at light-speed can get through. Danny?”

Danny stepped back. “No
way
! I can’t move that fast!”

“You have to try, Dan,” Façade said. “If you can get through, there’s a small control box somewhere on the nucleus. Pull the cables and it’ll deactivate the field.”

“It’ll kill me!”

Façade said, “Danny, if the machine activates, then you’re dead anyway. And so are Colin and Diamond—and thousands of other people. You can do it, son. I have faith in you.”

Colin turned to Danny. “He’s right, Dan. You can do it.”

The two friends looked at each other.

Danny swallowed. “All right.” He forced a smile. “If I don’t make it, you can have my bike.”

He concentrated, switching himself into slow-time. The silver ball was now moving slowly enough that he could see its rotation.
I need to be
faster.

The ball slowed further and the room grew darker.

Oh great. If I’m moving faster than light, then I’m not going to be able to see!

He angled himself so that he was facing the nucleus and concentrated harder.

The ball stopped and everything went black.

Danny ran forward and stopped when he was sure he’d passed through the null-field.

He allowed himself to slow down a little…The light returned and he could see that the nucleus was directly in front of him, rotating. As he watched, a control box about the size of his hand rolled into view.

Danny reached out and pulled the cables from the box.

Is that it? Did it work?

He turned to the others and shifted back to normal time. They were all still looking at where he had been standing.

“It’s done,” he said.

They whirled around to look at him.

“You’re sure?” Solomon asked.

Renata said, “Only one way to find out.” She walked right up to Danny and smiled. “I’m not dead? Then it worked!”

“We’re not done yet,” Façade said. “We still have to destroy the nucleus!”

“
I’ll
take care of that,” Colin said. He rushed up to the silver ball and punched as hard as he could.

The nucleus was spinning so fast that his fist was knocked aside. “Uh-oh. How do we stop it from spinning?”

“The base,” Façade said. “It generates a magnetic field to keep the nucleus levitated.”

Colin slammed his fists through the base beneath the nucleus.

The huge silver ball slowed, wobbled, then, with a crash, dropped to its base and stopped spinning.

Solomon Cord raised his AK-47 and aimed it at the enormous, armored ball. “Everyone take cover!”

“That won’t work, Cord,” Façade said. “It can withstand almost any attack. That’s reinforced titanium.”

Colin scrambled onto the top of the nucleus and began to punch down.

“You’ll never get through the casing!” Façade said.

Through gritted teeth, Colin said, “Oh yeah?”

He punched down as hard as he could, leaving a small but noticeable dent in the surface.

“Twenty-eight seconds,” Façade said.

Colin punched again and again in the same spot. It was beginning to buckle, but slowly. Too slowly.

Solomon turned to Renata. “You have to help him, Diamond! Rip a hole in it or something!”

She stepped forward and pressed her hands against the nucleus’s casing. As she had with the door to Solomon’s cell, she curled her fingers into the metal and then pulled. “It’s working!”

Colin jumped down next to her, grabbed the torn edge of the ball’s armor plating and ripped it off.

There was another layer of armor underneath.

Diamond reached out again, but this time was unable to make even a dent in the armor. “I can’t. Whatever this is, it’s too tough for me.”

Colin began to punch his way through the second layer.

“I’m sorry,” Diamond said. “If we had more time, I could do it.”

“Nineteen sec—” Façade suddenly turned to Danny. “More time? She’s right! Danny! It’s up to you, son! You have to shift Colin into another time frame! Slow everything down long enough for him to get through the casing!”

Danny nodded, moving into slow-time even as he did so.

He walked up to Colin, who was now punching at a tremendous rate, almost faster than even Danny could see.

Colin’s fists silently pounded off the ball’s titanium casing. Danny stood beside him.

How can I do this?
he wondered. He put his hand on his friend’s shoulder, hoping that in some way Colin would also find time slowing around him, but there was no noticeable effect.

He glanced toward the computer monitor. Eighteen seconds.

Danny began to panic.
What can I do to help?

Then, for the first time, he asked himself,
What would my father have done?

Danny instinctively knew the answer:
He would have phased himself through the armor and disabled the nucleus from the
inside.
But how could I disable something as complex as this? I can barely wire a plug! And if I’m unsolid I won’t be able to touch anything!

And then Danny Cooper realized what he had to do.

He shifted back to normal time. Seventeen seconds remaining. “Colin! Stop! Get out of the way!”

Colin shook his head and continued pounding. “No! I’m nearly through!”

“You’ll never make it!” He grabbed Colin’s arms and pulled him back, throwing him away from the nucleus.

Then he turned his attention to the machine.
OK. I jumped through a solid metal door earlier—somehow—so I know that I can do this.

He concentrated, willing his right arm to become unsolid and then, almost casually, his arm slipped in through the casing and into the machine itself.

“Three seconds!” Façade said.

Danny swallowed.

This is going to hurt.

He closed his eyes and concentrated.

His right arm became solid once more.

Pain tore through his entire body as his arm fused with the inner workings of the nucleus.

Danny Cooper screamed for a long, long time before he finally blacked out.

38

C
OLIN ENTERED THE CONTROL ROOM TO
see Rachel crouched over Max Dalton. The guards were handcuffed and lying facedown in one corner of the room, being watched by Colin’s parents.

Rachel looked up when she saw Colin approaching. She had a walkie-talkie in her right hand. “We need to call for help. Max is alive…I think he’s broken a couple of ribs.”

“Did I ask how he was?” Colin took hold of Rachel’s arm and pulled her to her feet. He took the walkie-talkie out of her hand. “So you have medical training?”

“Yes.”

“Go back down to the nucleus and see what you can do for Danny.”

“But Max—”

“Forget him.” Colin pushed her toward the door. “Just go.” He turned to his father. “You’d better follow her, Dad. Danny’s in a bad way.”

As his father ran out of the room, Colin’s mother wrapped her arms around him. “Oh, thank God you’re all right!”

“Are
you
OK?”

“I am now. What happened?”

“Danny…He stopped the machine. He pushed his arm inside it, made his arm solid again.”

“Oh my God.”

“There was no other way.” He paused. “Solomon says the arm will have to be amputated. So what do we do next?”

“I don’t know. In the old days we used to contact Max. He always organized the cleanup of these things. We need to call in the authorities. And not just the local police—there used to be teams who specialized in investigating superhuman activities. Maybe Max’s sister or brother will know how we go about doing that.”

“I don’t trust them. Not after what Max did.”

“Right now, we might not have much of a choice.”

Caroline Wagner followed her son down to the power-damper’s room, where her husband and Rachel were examining Danny. She was stopped at the doorway by Façade. “Don’t go in there, Caroline. Really. You don’t want to see.”

“Is he going to be OK?”

“I don’t know. Warren says he’ll live. Probably.”

Caroline lashed out with her fist, slamming it into his face, knocking him to the ground. “This is your fault!
You
did this!”

Façade pushed himself to his feet, wiping at the blood that gushed from his nose. “I know. I’m sorry.”

“Sorry isn’t good enough, Façade! It’s not
nearly
good enough!”

She moved toward him again, but Colin held her back. “Leave him, Mum. He helped us in the end.”

“I only wanted what was best for Danny—for us all,” Façade replied.

Caroline sighed and turned back to her son. “How’s Diamond?”

“She’s OK. Mum, who
is
she? How did she get here?”

From behind him, Renata said, “I was going to ask you the same thing.” She walked over to Caroline. “Energy, what happened? When I woke up I found a newspaper. It said that after the battle with Ragnarök everyone disappeared.”

“Ragnarök had a machine to strip all of our powers. You were still solid when he used it.”

“The paper said that it was ten years ago, is that true?”

Caroline nodded.

“What about my family? Do they know what happened to me?”

“Diamond, no one knew who you were! We didn’t know how to get in touch with them!”

“But
Max
knew. I told him everything about me.”

Caroline Wagner let out a deep breath and gritted her teeth. “That man has a lot to pay for.”

Solomon Cord came out of the room, saw Caroline and smiled. “Hello, stranger.”

She hugged him. “It’s been a long time, Sol. Thank you for everything.”

Solomon patted Colin on the shoulder. “This is one brave kid you’ve raised.”

“And yours? How are they?”

“Growing up fast.”

They began to talk of how they’d spent the past ten years and Colin shook his head in dismay.
What is it about adults that enables them to switch into small-talk mode no matter how strange the situation is?

He turned to the girl, Diamond. “And you are?”

“I’m exhausted, that’s what I am. Who are you?”

“Colin. What’s your real name?”

“Renata.” She swallowed. “What am I going to do about my family? My friends? My little sister is eight years older than I am now! Colin, what am I going to
do
?”

“I don’t know.”

She looked over to Caroline and Solomon. “They all lost their powers?”

“Yeah. There are only three superhumans now. You, me and Danny. Me and Danny didn’t lose our powers because when Ragnarök’s machine was used they hadn’t developed yet. They don’t kick in until puberty.”

“I see,” Diamond said. “But…well, maybe I’m wrong about this, but surely there are others?”

“How can there be?”

“You were three years old when it happened, right?”

“Almost three.”

“So what about all the
other
potential superhumans who were older than you?”

In the cab of the truck, Victor Cross switched off the walkie-talkie and tossed it out of the window. “Damn it! They destroyed the power-damper! You wait
years
for a superhuman to show up, then three come at once!”

Beside him, Laurie was driving. “So now what?”

Victor ripped the miniature force field generator from his wrist. “Now this thing is useless! All that work!”

“So who was it for?” Laurie asked. “You said it was for someone very special.”

“It was. Me.”

Laurie turned and stared at him. “You? You’re a superhuman too?”

Victor nodded. “I was ten years old when Ragnarök’s power-damper was used. Two years later my abilities kicked in.”

“What can you do?”

Victor tapped the side of his head with his index finger. “I can use this. My brain works faster and more efficiently than anyone else’s.”

“That was your plan? Build the power-damper and protect yourself, so that you’d be the only superhuman left in the world?”

“Exactly. We needed to test another superhuman in order to build the machine. The girl was useless, but when Danny Cooper’s powers manifested, we knew we could use him.”

“So you needed the superhumans so that you could strip their powers, but instead they used their powers to destroy the machine. That’s ironic.”

Victor closed his eyes and leaned back against the headrest. “On the positive side, the only person who knows enough about me to cause any trouble is Max, and he’s out of commission. I suppose it could be worse.”

Laurie snorted. “It
is
worse, for the others. You murdered them.”

“In the big scheme of things, they’re better off. Now they won’t ever have to worry about being arrested, put on trial and imprisoned. And
I
won’t have to worry about them squealing on me. So everyone’s happy.”

“Why did you let
me
live? Why didn’t you put a bullet in my brain like you did with the others?”

“Oh, several reasons. Partly, it’s because we’ve got a long way to go and I don’t want to do all the driving myself. Partly, it’s because I like intimidating you. But mostly because I’m going to need you. You’re smarter than most people and a lot of fun to push around.”

“Mr. Cross, you’re a sick, twisted,
evil
…”

Victor raised his eyes. “Evil isn’t an absolute, you should know that. Evil is an opinion. What’s evil for you isn’t necessarily evil for me.”

“That much is obvious. You’re a murderer.”

“Yeah, I have realized that myself.”

“What now?”

“Now I’m going to have to go with Plan B.”

“And what’s Plan B?”

“You don’t need to know that, yet. Just drive.”

Victor closed his eyes again.

He thought about Colin Wagner, Danny Cooper and the girl, whatever her name was. Together, they would make a very powerful team. Possibly too powerful for him to deal with.

He reminded himself that the true mark of genius is in finding the simplest solution to a problem, not the most complex one.

If the problem is that Danny and Colin and the girl will be too powerful if they team up, then the simplest solution is to separate them. Turn them against each other. Get one of them on my side.

Aloud, he said, “You know something, Mr. Laurie? I think I’m beginning to like you. You’re not in my league—no one is—but you’re still a smart man. You and I have a little work to do. We are going to build an evil empire.”

He grinned. “You’ll love it! Trust me.”