The Indestructibles (Book 2): Breakout (30 page)

Chapter 59:

The greater good

      Caleb Roth watched the sky as a girl engulfed in flames appeared, leaving a trail of fire and smoke behind her. She landed on the street in front of him and then walked up to him with a ferocious purpose never missing a step.

      "You and I are going to talk," the girl said.

      Her hair resembled fire as well, and her cape drifted behind her like it had a life of its own.

      "You're the leader of the Indestructibles," Caleb said.

      "And you're the one who is about to kill a whole lot of people," Jane said. "I want to know why."

      Caleb looked at the ground, stuffed his hands into the pockets of his sweatshirt.

      "You would not believe the week I've just had," Jane said. "Don't try me. I want you to reverse what you've done, and I want to know why you've been trying to kill all these people."

      "You think I can just stop this?" Caleb said. He looked up at Jane, startling her with his desiccated face, his sunken eyes. "You think this is something I can stop?"

      "You can start it, can't you?" Jane said. "That's why it hasn't spread. That's why the doctors and nurses don't get sick. You infect people on purpose."

      "I can't," Caleb said. "Once someone gets sick they just stay sick. I can't take it back. I don't know how."

      "Then you're going to try!"

      "It doesn't work that way!" Caleb said.

      "Then explain it to me," Jane said, pleading. "Tell me how it works. Make me understand."

      "I'm a bomb," Caleb said. "That's what they made me. A plague bomb. Did you ever read about how the Europeans would wipe out whole tribes of Native Americans just by giving them blankets infected with smallpox? That's me. I'm the blanket. You can't put a bomb back together again."

      "Who made you? What does this all mean?'

      "You know who made me," Caleb said. "You know, because you destroyed them. They made the storm girl, they made the boy who destroyed the City's downtown, they made the girl who set Wyoming on fire. And they made me."

      Jane was silent a moment. She stalked back and forth, like a caged animal.

      "You were all weapons," she said. "Every one of you was a weapon."

      She pointed at him, the tip of her finger lighting on fire.

      "You are going to stop this," Jane said.

      "I told you, I can't," Caleb said.

      "How do you know?"

      "Because I just tried," Caleb said. "I . . . I changed my mind. I changed my mind. I made a mistake and I tried to take it back and I just keep making it worse."

      Jane's voice grew very low.

      "What did they do to you," she said.

      "My parents thought the scientists were going to make me better," Caleb said.

      Jane gestured around at the empty town. She could hear low moans of the sick and dying from inside nearby buildings.

      "Why this? Why the town? Why the hospital, the mall, the diner? You sound so remorseful but you . . . you did all of this. You knew what you were doing. You did all of this on purpose."

      Caleb smiled. It was a horrible thing, a tight, toothy death's mask.

      "I was jealous."

      "No," Jane said.

      "I was jealous of the healthy kids, the people who didn't spend their whole lives sick," he said. "Of people whose parents didn't give them away to scientists because their kids were so sick they bankrupted them. I was jealous of all of those normal people."

      "And that's why you killed everyone?"

      "No," Caleb said. "I started making people sick because I wanted you to find me."

      "Me?"

      "You and your friends," Caleb said. "All your beautiful powers. All the wonderful things you could do. Because even when I got super-powers, all I could do was be sick and make others suffer. They made me a villain. I thought . . . I thought the last thing I should do was play the part."

      "Last thing you should do?"

      "I'm a mass murderer," Caleb said. "Neither of us can fix that."

      "Don't," Jane said, touching the earpiece connecting her to the rest of the team.

      "Straylight?"

      There was a pause. For a moment, Jane thought she'd been somehow disconnected.

      "Straylight? Billy? What's happening? Is Sam's power helping?"

      Finally, Billy's voice filled her ear.

      "He's trying, Jane," Billy said. "But it's . . ."

      Emily's voice joined in.

      "It'll kill him," Emily said. "And even if it did, it's not enough. He's slowing down the virus but not curing it."

      "Jane, people are dying here," Billy said.

      "That's not hyperbole," Emily said. "We don't have much time left."

      Jane sighed.

      Caleb leaned back on his bench, then stood up.

      Jane whipped around, pulling Titus's knife from the belt around her waist.

      "You stand right there," Jane said.

      "I met a girl," Caleb said.

      "Stop talking," Jane said.

      Another voice in the earpiece. Titus, sounding calm. Reassuring. Strong.

      "We're here with you, Jane. All of us," he said. "You don't have to do it. No one will blame you."

      "I met a girl," Caleb said, repeating himself. "And she was nice to me. And I thought it was so strange. That someone would be nice to me. I didn't understand."

      "You stop talking!" Jane said.

      Billy spoke into the communicator again.

      "I'm coming to you," he said.

      "It's too late," Jane said. She kept Titus's dagger leveled at Caleb's chest as if to hold him at arm's length, but Caleb walked right up to her, letting the knife's point touch his chest.

      "I thought, why would she be nice to me? No one has ever been nice to me. No one has ever been kind," Caleb said. "And I realized ..."

      "Jane," Kate's voice now, low, husky. "I'm so sorry this fell on you."

      "Titus?" Jane said.

      "It will be so fast, Jane. It will be over so quickly."

      "Thank you," Jane said. "I'm signing off now."

      "Jane, don't," Kate said.

      Jane took her earpiece out and threw it on the ground. She left the tip of the knife pressed into Caleb's chest.

      "You realized," Jane said.

      His eyes grew watery, wistful, his voice soft, almost hopeful.

      "I realized that so many people had been kind to me all my life," Caleb said. "And I just never saw it. Just never knew. Never listened."

      "Why are you telling me this?" Jane said.

      "The girl I met is dying," Caleb said. "And it's my fault. All of this."

      "It's their fault," Jane said. "The Children. The scientists. They did this to you."

      "And I have done terrible things with it," Caleb said. "And I liked it."

      Jane shook her head. A tightness in her throat. A cold sweat across her skin.

      "Why are you saying this?" Jane said.

      "Because," Caleb said, smiling, tears in his eyes. "Because I'm going to make this easier for you."

      With unexpected strength Caleb grabbed onto Jane's wrist with boney fingers, holding the knife in place. Before Jane could react, Caleb pulled himself onto the blade, using Jane's grip as leverage, the knife sinking easily between his ribs and up into his heart.

      "Don't!" Jane yelled, but it was too late. The moment had passed. The boy stood there, impaled on the werewolf's weapon, a gleaming, joyful smile still on his face. Caleb's blood ran down over Jane's fingers as his grasp loosened. Jane helped him as he sunk to his knees. He looked at the knife in his chest.

      "Your friend lied," Caleb said, his breath shallow.

      "What do you mean?" Jane said, lowering the dying boy onto his back. She tried to smile, brushing his brittle hair back from his face.

      "I could hear him. He said it wouldn't hurt," Caleb said. "It hurts a little."

      "I'm sorry," Jane said. "I'm sorry for what was done to you."

      "I'm sorry for what I did," Caleb said. His voice was nothing more than a whisper now. "I wish I could have been a hero, not a villain."

      "You did okay at the very end," Jane said.

      "I did?" Caleb said. But then he was gone, his eyes becoming glassy and vacant as the life went out of him.

      Jane slid Titus's knife from the boy's chest, wiped it on her skirt absentmindedly and placed it back into the scabbard. She cradled the dead boy in her arms. He weighed next to nothing, a shell of a boy, a paper doll.

      She could hear someone talking. Emily. Emily's voice chirping through the earpiece. "Jane? Jane? Dude, you did it. What did you do?"

      Jane picked up the earpiece so she could listen, but did not respond.

      "Everyone's . . . like, whoa, this was so fast, Jane, there's babies crying, can you hear them? It's like someone turned on a light in here. Billy's coming to you, he left the second you . . . Jane?"

      Someone came staggering out of a nearby storefront, a clerk, some teenaged boy in a white short-sleeved dress shirt. Behind him, others followed, customers, a manager. A confused jogger wandered down the main street, looking back and forth for signs of life. The sounds of humanity shuffling back into reality began to fill the town.

      Jane did not want to be there to see it. Instead, she took to the sky in a streak of flame.

      She flew high and bright over cities and towns, a passing comet, ignoring Billy's signature white and blue glow in the distance as she saw him searching for her. She tuned out a waving Titus and Bedlam in the courtyard of the Labyrinth where they stood trying to catch her attention, and returned instead to the Tower. She touched down in the landing bay, unbuckled Titus's belt, and dropped it to the floor.

      Billy's mutt came jogging into the bay to greet her. A flash of annoyance crossed her face, but then she knelt down and pressed her forehead to the dog's, letting the furry little creature lick her face. Watson stopped abruptly and turned around, and Jane looked up. For just a brief flickering moment, she thought she saw someone in the corner, pink-haired and almost translucent, but in a blink, she was gone. She scratched the dog behind his ear, set him aside, and jumped right back off the landing platform again, breaking the sound barrier as she left.

      She had a dream to follow up on, and at that moment, she needed something good and right to happen.

Chapter 60:

Doc Silence

      Jane landed on the deck of the derelict oil rig, the entire structure rusted and forgotten. The elements had washed away most evidence of violence, but the scorch marks and bullet holes made it clear that this had not been a peaceful evacuation.

      The mangled helicopter on the flight deck offered an exclamation point that emphasized the damage.

      Jane headed below deck, wrapping her cape around her like a poncho to keep it from snagging on sharp edges and debris. She checked room after room, discovering moldy bunks, overturned desks, forgotten clothing and weapons. Most of the valuables left behind had been removed, either by the mercenaries who'd been stationed here, the Children of the Elder Star themselves, the Children's own personnel, or by roaming scavengers brave enough to come aboard and search for treasures.

      One dark room remained intact, though. It smelled of old flowers and extraordinary places, strange luxuries scattered about like thick pillows and barely-used candles. A huge mirror dominated one wall, and Jane got a look at herself for the first time in days.

      I've aged, she thought, staring back at herself. Her return to the sun hadn't brought her strength back completely, not yet, and her face was still gaunt, her eyes still shadowed. She realized that she no longer looked like a child.

      She remembered Doc Silence's instructions in the dream, to look for a blade on the floor. She worried that perhaps the scavengers had found it, but no, like everything else in this room the knife remained untouched, laying on the deck like a shard of broken glass. The handle was clearly bone, but from some sort of animal which could not have existed on Earth. The blade itself looked like water, rippling and translucent, so sharp it all but disappeared if she looked at it sideways. Jane bent down and picked up the knife and turned it over and over in her hands. She could sense the strangeness of it. The handle was warm, like a living thing, and the edge gave off a noticeable chill.

      "If this turns out to have just been a weird dream, Doc, I'm never going to forgive you," Jane said. "You need to come home."

      And, following the dream-Doc's instructions, Jane slashed away at the air in front of her.

      The world itself parted, splitting open in a razor cut of purple-blue light. Jane's heart raced. She stepped closer to the light, peering inside.

      And she spoke Doc's true name.

* * *

      In the Dreamless lands, Doc Silence and the Lady Natasha Grey sat under an endless sky, the stars above them in all the wrong places, the sighs and screams of waking dreams echoing in the distance. They were in a field outside the Lady Dreamless's castle, under the watchful eye of her guardians, one of the demon hounds Doc had given her sitting like an oversized puppy beside them. Doc scratched behind the monster's ear absently.

      "We should start considering other ways home," Natasha said.

      "Give her time," Doc said. "She'll come through for us."

      "You said they were imprisoned," Natasha said. "These were children you left behind, Silence. Any number of things could have gone wrong. They could be incarcerated. They could be dead."

      "Jane will come through for us," Doc Silence repeated. "You really need to have more faith in people."

      Natasha opened her mouth to speak, then laughed.

      "All these years," she said. "And you still think you can get me to have more faith in people."

      "You're not nearly as terrible as you think you are, Natasha."

      "Is that so?" she said.

      "Yes," Doc said. "If I didn't have faith that you weren't the monster you claim to be, I wouldn't be bringing you home."

      "Bringing me home if, if your little girl comes through for you," Natasha said.

      "Which she will."

      And then Doc heard his name. His true name, the one no one knew. He was on his feet in instant, pulling Natasha with him. A hundred yards away, he could see a break in reality, his home world's light, comforting and familiar, shining through.

      He bent down to the hound, scooped the creature's face in both hands, and kissed the beast on the forehead.

      "Tell your mistress I thank her," Doc said. "And thank you for looking out for her, you big old pup."

      The demon hound seemed to understand, running back to the castle as soon as Doc released his face from his hands.

      Doc grabbed Natasha's hand.

      "I told you she'd come through for us," Doc said.

      "I hate when you're right."

      "Come on," Doc said. "That gateway won't last forever."

* * *

      Jane waited, staring into the glowing abyss she'd created out of nothing. For a moment, she thought she had made a mistake, that she misspoke his name, that there was some other step she should have taken that she'd forgotten from Doc's instructions. She was just about to give up when she saw a familiar silhouette appear in the light. The glowing violet eyes, the swaggering walk, the long coat nearly touching the ground, the figure coalesced into a real shape, a genuine person, and suddenly there he was, standing in front of her, smiling like a madman.

      "I knew you'd do it," Doc said.

      Jane opened her mouth to speak, but then changed her mind, charging into Doc, throwing her arms around him, pressing her face into his coat.

      "I messed everything up," she said, digging her hands into the fabric of Doc's long jacket. His arms circled her, his chin pressed against the top of her head. Don't you dare cry, Jane thought. Don't you dare. But she heard a strange noise in Doc's throat, a soft little hiccup, and she could feel him fighting back as well, his breath catching in his chest as he held himself together.

      "No you didn't," Doc said. His voice was a hoarse whisper.

      "Everything went so wrong when you were gone," she said. "Everything."

      "Is everyone alive?" Doc said.

      Jane pulled back and looked up into his eyes, hidden as always behind those ridiculous red sunglasses.

      "What?"

      "Your team. Your friends. Is everyone still alive," Doc said.

      "Yes," Jane said.

      "Then you're doing just fine," Doc said.

      "I killed a boy today, Doc."

      He studied her face, taking in every little detail. Doc put his hands on her shoulders.

      "Did you have any other choice?" he said.

      "So many people would have died," Jane said. "There were so many people . . ."

      "And are you sorry you had to kill him?" Doc said.

      "I am so sorry, Doc. I'm so sorry he had to die," she said.

      "It should never come easy, Jane. And it should never be the easy choice," Doc said. "But that's why I wanted you to lead. Because I knew you'd always make the right choice."

      "I . . ." Jane said, but paused when she saw the Lady appearing over Doc's shoulder. "Who is that?"

      "Lady Natasha Grey," Natasha said imperiously. "You must be his favorite."

      "Is this the woman you told us . . ."

      "Natasha's the reason I disappeared," Doc said. "But she's also the reason I was alive to come home again. No one is completely evil, Jane. And magicians have to pay our debts."

      Natasha smiled broadly.

      "It's only fair," she said. "He's the idiot who left that knife on the wrong side of reality."

      "I don't understand," Jane said. "She's . . . she's one of the bad guys."

      "I should have warned you," Doc said "I'm sorry I didn't explain."

      Jane disengaged herself from Doc to size up Natasha. The Lady was taller than her, and her presence made her seem even bigger.

      "You saved Doc's life?" Jane said.

      Natasha gave Doc a disapproving look, but Doc just stared back at her.

      "Fine, I'll say it," Natasha said. "I hate you for making me say this, Doc Silence."

      "They're just words, Natasha."

      "You of all people know the powers of words," Natasha said. She looked back to Jane. "Neither of us could have found our way home alone. And your moronic mentor . . . I'll stay out of your way, little hero. If you stay out of mine. That's my bargain for helping bring your Doctor back."

      Jane held out a hand. The Lady laughed, but then took it in her own.

      "Thank you for bringing him home," Jane said.

      "And thank you for allowing him to bring me home as well, little hero," Natasha said. She turned to Doc Silence. "I expect to see you around, you ridiculous man."

      "I'm sure you will, Natasha," Doc said.

      "And for the love of all magic, stop calling me by my first name in front of people," she said. "It makes me so much less scary."

      The Lady Natasha Grey touched Jane on the chin, a strangely affectionate gesture, shook her head disapprovingly once more, and then walked away, sprouting vast raven wings as she shuffled off, her entire form swirling with shadows.

      "It's so good to be home," she said, before disappearing into the night.

      Jane frowned at Doc.

      "Maybe I wouldn't have brought you home if I'd known you were bringing her," she said.

      Doc held out his arms again, and Jane hugged him again. They walked together back to the surface of the rig, the fresh sea air a welcome change from the cloying smell of flowers and magic.

      "Where are the others?" Doc said.

      "Probably waiting for me," Jane said. "I didn't want to see them. After the boy. I wanted to see you first. I had to see you first. I didn't want to wait."

      "Well I'm here," Doc said. "Why don't you fill me in."

      "On all of it?" Jane said.

      "Everything you want to mention," Doc said.

      And so they sat on the edge of the rig, legs dangling over the churning sea, and, like old friends, Doc and Jane began to talk.