The Indestructibles (Book 3): The Entropy of Everything (13 page)

Chapter 27:

Behind the curtain

      Everyone gathered around the unit where Neal now resided, waiting for the AI to decode the message Broadstreet left behind.
Ordinarily, this sort of waiting was intolerable to Billy, but for the moment, an opportunity to do nothing was welcome. Across the room, he eyeballed the new version of Straylight, Jessie, conversing with both Janes. Billy found himself wondering if her conversations were anything like the sort he had with Dude on a regular basis. Was the alien different with another host? Did he find her less obnoxious? More?

      Before Billy could obsess too much on the question, though, he was reminded, quite bluntly, that Emily also did not like waiting around, and at the moment she was far less tolerant of it.

      "Waddup?" Emily said, plopping down next to Billy. "How'd it go with your future not girlfriend?"

      "Look, it's weird enough that I know about it at all," Billy said. "Could you not make it weirder by putting it like that?"

      "But you ran a mission with her," Emily said. "What was it like, bro? What was it like? Bro. Bro. Bro. Did you talk to her? Tell me. Tell me. Tell me."

      This would've been annoying enough on its own, but Emily punctuated each period with a jab to Billy's shoulder. Finally devolving into just punching his arm and saying "bro, bro, bro" over and over and over again.

      "Stop the jabbing," he said. "Stop it."

      But Emily hit him one more time for fun.

      "So seriously, how bizarre was it?"

      "We're in the future. Everything's strange right now," Billy said.

      "But we're really not in the future," Emily said. "Think about it. The future implies that we're somewhere that will eventually happen. No matter what we do here, this is a life that will never take place. This isn't the future. It's just a different 'when.'"

      "Have you been reading Neil DeGrasse Tyson again?"

      "Igor Novikov, actually," Emily said. "A physicist who developed a theory called the Self Consistency Principle. I think we're proving him right."

      "Is this going to make my brain hurt?"

      "He thought that the ability to impact the future by changing the past is basically impossible," Emily said. "He thought time always balanced the scales to keep order."

      "You're going to try to make me read again, aren't you?" Billy said.

      "Shut up. You like when I school you with my brain," Emily said. "So seriously though. I'm obsessed by the you-and-Jane thing. Obsessed."

      "Why?"

      "Because I thought you were more into girls who are half-robot and I thought Jane was more into anybody that isn't anything like you," Emily said.

      "Are you sure you're my friend?" Billy said.

      "Your best."

      Billy sighed.

      "I just think it's ridiculous," he said. "Different timeline. Different people. Different actions. Nothing's the same here."

      "Got that right," Emily said.

      One of Whispering's people waved everyone over to gather around Neal. The AI lit up, projecting a holographic screen in the air.

      "Designation: Solar. I have decrypted Jon Broadstreet's last data drop," Neal said.

      "Play," Solar said.

      Broadstreet's sweaty and lined face appeared on screen.

      "I think I finally got what we're looking for," Broadstreet said in the recording. "All these years, we had no idea who was pulling the strings. No idea. But the longer I'm here the more I'm meeting some old timers, people who joined up with the crusade right at the very beginning. Someone mentioned seeing the boss back in the good old days. Got me thinking, and thinking got me digging. Take a look at this."

      The hologram shifted, showing surveillance footage from before the world began to fall apart. A candid shot of a man in a white silk mask, slender in a perfectly tailored dark suit.

      "Old shots of someone who appears to be the leader of this outfit from about ten years back, maybe a little longer," Broadstreet said. "No names attached, but I realized, I know this guy. Or at least this costume."

      The hologram shifted again. Now an older photo. The white-masked man on the cover of a newspaper. This shifted to live action footage, grainy handheld images of the same person in a suit bounding into the darkness of an alleyway. This morphed into a sort of ID screen, with biographical information and a headshot of the masked suspect.     

      "This can't be possible," Annie said, interrupting. Solar waved a hand to pause the recording when Annie walked to the front of the room. "This can't be him."

      "Well, whoever he is, he's wearing a mask," Emily said. She pulled her scarf up over her face and continued talking in a muffled voice. "I could be Princess Leia right now, see? Hard to tell."

      "I know him. I've met him," Annie said. "And there's no way the White Shadow is still in commission, let alone operating on the side that's destroying the world. He's a hero."

      "Doesn't look like much of a hero," Jessie said. "Looks like a creep in a mask."

      "He is, he was a street-level vigilante, like Dancer," Annie said. "Doc knew him too. I mean really knew him, like they were friends."

      "Doc has a great track record on his friends in this timeline," Jane said. "Present company excluded of course. No offense. But I mean, his other 'friend' murdered him."

      "The White Shadow, though—Jane, did Doc never tell you about him?" Annie said.

      "Wait, not the guy from when Doc was a kid?" Jane said.

      "That's him. The White Shadow. He met the President. Was almost on a postage stamp. He's a good person," Annie said.

      "People change," Billy offered.

      "Not this much," Annie said. "I wish Doc were here. He'd be able to tell you more. The White Shadow was a pacifist. He'd also be well into his nineties by now. The guy wasn't a young man when Doc first arrived on the scene. Rumor had it he'd died!"

      "Impersonator?" Billy said.

      "Copycat?" Jane said.

      "Clone!" Emily said. "Clearly a clone. From a bad batch. That's why he's evil."

      Annie waved them all off.

      "Solar, let's see what else Broadstreet uncovered."

      The AI broadcast was restarted and Neal continued to play Broadstreet's message.

      "The White Shadow. Hero of the City. He who guarded the night," Broadstreet said. "One of the City's most influential vigilante superheroes. Never killed, never fired a gun, this guy was impeachable. But he dropped off the map before I was even out of school. Everyone just assumed he'd retired. What would he be doing leading this coalition of forces? Did he get fed up with being one man fighting evil? Is he under mind-control? Is this just someone trading on his name? That's the first piece of the puzzle we need to uncover."

      The hologram moved again and now showed a balding man with fair hair and spectacles.

      "This is Keaton Bohr," Broadstreet said. "He was easier to track down once I got a look at his face. Controversial scientist. Had all these great ideas for alternate energy consumption, robotics. More. But he's another one who seemed to disappear from existence. Last anyone heard of him he'd been stripped of his credentials under a cloud of questionable activity years ago. But—"

      The slide moved again. The man in the white mask standing with Bohr at a facility of some kind. The photo was years old.

      "—Here he is," Broadstreet said. "With the man in the white mask. Who is he? He's certainly intelligent enough to have developed some of the weapons we've encountered, but again, there's little information about what he's been up to in recent years."

      A series of schematics scrawled across the screen, too fast for Billy to make sense of them. In the back of his mind, he sensed a quiet thoughtfulness from Dude. You get any of that? Billy thought, directing his question at Dude.

     
This man could have put your species into deep space
, Dude said.
There is significant value in his theories. Gravity propulsion. Faster than light travel. Where did he go wrong, I wonder?

      Maybe he's just crazy, Billy thought.

     
Don't confuse misguided for crazy,
Dude warned.

      Way to be ominous, Dude, Billy thought. Jessie gave him a dirty look from across the room. She can tell I'm talking with you, he thought. Is she jealous? Freaked out? What's her problem?

     
You're not exactly without flaw in your interaction with her,
Dude said.
The two of you should talk.

      About what, you? Billy thought.

     
About what you have in common,
Dude said.

      "So we've got a scientific genius who wanted to do away with fossil fuel consumption and turn us into a green society working with a guy who, while he should be dead of old age, was a legitimate hero before all this started," Jane said. "And somehow they get together and decide to destroy the world?"

      "I don't understand it," Solar said. "You're right. What was the trigger? Where did they turn?"

      "Quiet," Whispering said.

      It was only when older-Titus spoke that Billy realized his younger version had never returned after racing off to find Kate. Ordinarily Billy would think of ways to tease Titus about wandering away, but for once he was legitimately concerned. Where'd they go?

      The older werewolf held up a hand, forcing everyone to be silent.

      "There's something—" Whispering said.

      And then the room exploded.

Chapter 28:

To end in fire

      Well, this isn't going to be fun, Emily thought as the roof collapsed above her in red flames.
She wondered if this would be house she'd die in, crushed to death by a ceiling in a community college of the future.

      "I never got to read the end of
Game of Thrones
," she said out loud.

      And then everything got peculiar.

      The flames started to move slower, appearing more like dripping pudding than open flames. Emily saw everything moving in slow motion. Werewolves transforming into their more powerful forms, trying to run from the room; Whispering making a valiant effort to reach the machine where the last remnants of Neal's consciousness remained, the large wolf's body outstretched in a powerful leap; Billy and Jessie's bodies alighting in mirrored blue-white glows as the protective energy Straylight provided began to activate; Jane and Jane, Solar and Solar, both women staring defiantly as the building exploded upon them.

      Everything frozen in time, creeping along, it was like watching a movie one frame at a time. And through all this, Emily saw Anachronism Annie strolling toward her as if she had all the time in the world.

      Annie put a hand on Emily's shoulder.

      "You're going to make one of your bubbles of float," Annie said. "You're going to make it big, and you're going to make it envelope the entire room. You got that?"

      Emily tried to speak.

      "IIIIIIIIIII gggoooooooottt iiitttttttttt . . ."

      "Okay," Annie said. "I can't hold this forever. Stopping time isn't as easy as it looks. Be ready."

      "Wwwwwwhhhhaaatttt aaabooooouuttttt . . ." Emily attempted to talk again.

      "I'm going to stay right next to you, and you're going to save my life. Got it?"

      "Yyyyyyeeeeeeeeeesssssss . . ."

      "Here we go," Annie said, and then she crouched down beside Emily and covered her neon-pink hair with her hands.

      As if someone hit the play button, the world began moving again. The noise from the explosion was a brutal roar in Emily's ears, but she threw out her hands, envisioning the biggest, strongest bubble of float she could think of. She felt gravity alter and end, springing out from the center of her chest and all around her.

      Then the world got weird again. But this time, it got her kind of weird.

      Flames flickered and died as the bubble touched them, the freakish gravitational manipulations made combustion impossible within its sphere. Huge chunks of building stopped falling in mid-air and suspended there like balloons of brick and concrete. Whispering hung there as well, mid-jump, all momentum lost as the bubble of float grabbed hold of him.

      Billy floated by, unable, within the bubble, to control his own flight path; instead, he just looked at Emily expectantly.

      "Seriously, Em?"

      "Sorry," she said.

      Billy continued to drift past. He shrugged at Jessie as she floated in the opposite direction, cursing.

      "What do I do next?" Emily yelled.

      "This is about as far as I thought things through," Annie said, holding onto Emily's ankle to prevent her from floating away.

      "Okay," Emily said. "Okay, I have an idea. I think I have an idea."

      "Whatever you're thinking, don't do it," Billy said, drifting toward the edge of the room, bumping into chunks of building along the way.

      "Everybody hold onto something," Emily said.

      "This sounds like a terrible plan," Finnigan said, but he grasped a gap in the floor with one clawed hand, and grabbed hold of Leto with his other.

      "Everyone ready?" Emily said.

      "Do it," Whispering growled. He hung onto the Neal computer with one arm and using his feet and hands to grip the nearest wall that hadn't caved in yet.

      "Please don't hold it against me if I mess this up," Emily said.

      And then she pushed her bubble of float outward.

      Debris from the building flew through the air like meteors, some reignited as they escaped the radius of the bubble. Billy was also among the flying debris, spinning out into the night sky while cursing Emily's name.

      "I wasn't ready!" he said, his voice trailing off in the distance.

      The area illuminated as Jessie took off at high speed in an attempt to catch him.

      "I'm sorry!" Emily yelled. "But to be fair, I did warn everyone. Right?"

      "Let's never do this again," Annie said.

      The sounds of the aircraft that had struck them grew louder as they returned for another pass.

      Jane and Solar looked at each other knowingly and then took off together to intercept.

      "Everyone out," Whispering yelled, the scorched Neal-computer tucked under his arm like a crate. He pointed at Finnigan. "Move it. Find Kate. Make sure she's okay."

      Finnigan nodded and ran off.

      "Grab what you can. The building's compromised," Whispering said. He swore and breathed sharply.

      Looking down, Emily saw a shard of metal sticking out of the werewolf's side.

      "Dammit," Whispering said.

      "Let me help you," Leto said.

      "It'll heal," he said.

      "Give me the bloody computer, you oaf," Leto said.

      Whispering huffed, half-annoyed, half-amused. He looked around the room. "The flyers will have to catch up. Annie, take the wounded to the nearest safe zone. My people are going to grab what we can."

      "Where are the other kids? Where's your Titus and Kate?" Annie asked Emily.

      "You're asking me like I would know?"

      Explosions echoed in the distance while the two Solars went to battle with incoming jets. More engines growled in the air though. More incoming bombers.

      "We'll find everyone," Whispering said. "Go!"

      Annie grabbed Emily's arm and pulled her along.

      Not sure what else to do, Emily just ran beside her, hoping her friends weren't following far behind.