The Indestructibles (Book 3): The Entropy of Everything (23 page)

Chapter 45:

This is how things end

      Titus sat next to an unconscious Finnigan in a makeshift hospital room, his friend wrapped in bandages and breathing heavily in his sleep.
Finnigan's wounds weren't healing as fast as they should have been. The old myth about silver appeared to be true. If you want to kill a werewolf, use silver.

      Leto thought he stood a chance of recovering, with some luck and patience. The wound hadn't been immediately fatal—which is why a silver bullet to the head or heart is always the best way to kill our kind, Titus thought—but it tore up Finnigan's insides. If they could keep him breathing long enough, even wounds from a silver sword could heal.

      These days, everyone was short on time.

      Whispering walked in and sat down on the foot of the bed, the frame creaked under his weight.

      "We were close, in this timeline," Titus said. "You and Finnigan. Me and Finnigan."

      "He was one of my best friends," Whispering said. "And my oldest. With Gabriel gone, and Billy, it really was just Finnigan and me for quite a while."

      "I didn't stay with them, in my timeline," Titus said. "Leto said if I left I might never return. That the world of men would never allow me to go home again."

      Whispering let out a huffing, rumbling laugh.

      "She's right," he said, studying his unconscious friend's face. "The world of men will always need you, if you don't watch out. It latches on and can't let go."

      "How did you find them again?" Titus said.

      "I didn't," Whispering said. "Something always got in my way. But when I needed them, this fine old man came looking for me, and brought the others with him."

      "Sounds like Finnigan."

      "Truth," Whispering said. "I don't think he ever forgave himself for Gabriel's death. I think he wondered that if they'd stayed on the outskirts, if they kept to themselves, they might have survived in peace. But nobody was going to survive this in peace. There's nowhere safe in this world. It wasn't his fault. If anything it was mine. I dragged them into my war."

      "How long were you apart?" Titus said.

      "Too long," Finnigan said, his voice rasping and quiet.

      Titus placed his hand on the old wolf's shoulder and smiled.

      "Hi, lad."

      "Hello, old man," Whispering said.

      Finnigan sighed. It was a rattling, ugly sound.

      "Not dead yet," Finnigan said. "Funny that. I thought I was gone."

      "You're too stubborn to die," Whispering said.

      "So are you," Finnigan said. He turned his attention to Titus. "You fought like hell, boy."

      "I do that sometimes."

      "Like a monster," Finnigan said. He glanced back at Whispering. "You would have been jealous of your younger self. Reminding you how fast and strong you used to be."

      "I'm still pretty strong," Whispering said.

      "Not quite as fast though," Finnigan said. He coughed.

      Titus watched Finnigan struggle to stifle the spasms. Pain lanced across his face.

      "Neither am I. How many'd we lose?" Finnigan said.

      "Too many, but fewer than we expected," Whispering said. "It was a fine plan and good fight."

      Leto leaned on the door frame, looked in, and beckoned to Titus and Whispering.

      "The others are back," she said.

      Whispering stood up, placing a paw on Finnigan's knee.

      "I'm glad you're still with us, old friend," he said.

      After Whispering left, Finnigan reached up and clutched Titus's wrist in his hand.

      Titus turned around in surprise.

      "Do me a favor, son," Finnigan said, his voice barely above a whisper.

      "Anything," Titus said.

      "When you get home," he said. "Don't wait so long. To find your family again."

      "What?"

      "Life's too short, lad. Even for the likes of us," Finnigan said. "Here, now, you—the other you? Ten years he was lost. That's a decade my friend was gone, because he didn't believe he'd be welcomed home again, and we were too proud to come find him."

      "I will," Titus said.

      "Good," Finnigan said, lying back down, his eyes growing dim with exhaustion and pain. "Too short, this life. Over in the blink of an eye."

*  *  *

      "We've got some good news and bad news," Annie said in the center of a large open room where everyone had gathered. Jane's stomach tied itself into knots after counting the missing faces among Whispering's pack. They'd sustained heavy casualties in the last two battles. She realized not everyone missing had been killed, that there were rooms nearby where some of those who weren't present lay healing faster than any normal human could, but she read the haunted looks on Titus's face, on Whispering's and Leto's. More ghosts were inhabiting this dying world.

      "It was bad, wasn't it?" Jane asked Kate, who sat in silence beside her.

      Kate's face, as always, was decorated with fresh scratches and cuts, the perpetual pastiche of hand-to-hand combat. She offered no response and stared straight ahead.

      Jane shrugged and turned away.

      "I want to go home, Jane," Kate said softly.

      Jane turned her eyes back to the Dancer, who still looked blankly forward. "Me too," she said.

      "I can't shake the feeling this has all been a mistake," Kate said.

      Jane opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Annie.

      "Our time's running short," Annie said. "Our expedition to try to find a way to track Emily's future self—the source of a lot of our enemy's weaponry, was unsuccessful, but—"  

      "—She knows where I am, and so I know where she is. We can find her," Emily said. "That also of course means she can locate us, but I actually don't think that's a problem."

      "Which is a chance we're not going to take," Annie said, raising one neon-pink eyebrow at Emily. "Emily can feel her other version pulling her somehow."

      "It's so weird," Emily said. "Like when the ocean sucks your feet into the sand. Y'know what I mean? It's not exactly like that, there being no actual sand involved but—"

      "Right. Long story short, Em has a pretty good idea where she is," Annie said. She tapped a button on a small remote control in her hand and a GPS map of the City was projected on the wall behind her.

      "You gotta be kidding me," Billy said.

      "That's what I said!" Emily jumped to her feet and tapped the spot on the map where she'd placed a red mark. "The pull is coming from where our old Tower base used to be."

      "It'd make sense," Doc Silence said. "We didn't plant the Tower at that spot by accident. It's a place where the weird triangulates. Strange things happen there."

      "So we're going to travel right to the source and see about putting that machine channeling the powers of Emily's future self out of commission," Solar said.

      "They'll see us coming," Whispering said, leaning on his spear at the back of the room. "I'd suggest we mount an offensive as a distraction while a smaller team tries to get to this other machine, but my people don't have the numbers now to stand up to the enemy's defenses—especially if they send in some of their giant mechs again."

      "We haven't seen them in a while," Solar said. "But Jane and I were scouting earlier and—"

      "—We discovered two completed robots. Big ones," Jane chimed in. "They looked ready to go."

      "We'll lure them away," Billy said.

      "Who's this 'we,' partner," Emily said.

      "Jessie and I. Team Straylight," Billy said. "We should be able to take on a couple of giant robots, right?"

      Annie implored Solar for feedback.

      "Jessie, you've fought with them previously alongside me. What's your take? It required both of us to put them out of commission before," Solar said.

      "No, I've needed you to take them out," Jessie said. "You could've done it without me. But we don't want them destroyed right away, right? This is a decoy mission. We hope to lead them away. Billy and I can totally do that much."

      "Okay," Solar said. "Retreat if you have to. Call for backup if you need to. Jane or I will come running."

      "Flying," Emily said.

      Everyone ignored her.

      "Why not have one of us go with them? Why risk it?" Jane said.

      Annie nodded.

      "It's a good point, but you'll be with Emily and me," Annie said. "No matter what, our main priority is putting that machine out of commission. We only get one shot at this."

      "If we can demolish it, those robots should both shut down soon after," Solar said. "I'd rather have one of us flying beside the Straylights, but Annie's right."

      "And the rest of us?" Titus said.

      "We have two jobs to do," Doc said. "Take out what's left of the White Shadow's soldiers—there's still enough remaining to be a problem, and they have the weapons to cause trouble if they learn we've commissioned people to disrupt their power source."

      "And the other job?" Titus said.

      "We're going to take out the White Shadow," Kate said.

      The others in the room turned to her.

      "We have to. The Shadow's the mastermind."

      "What are we going to do, kill the White Shadow?" Titus said. "I think we're done with murder for this week. I'm not sure about the rest of you."

      "That's why I'm coming with you," Doc said. "I've got a feeling I know who's really behind that mask. And, if it's who I think it is, I need to be there."

      "Because magic?" Emily said.

      "Because history. Let's leave it at that," Doc said.

      "I'm coming with you," a voice no one had heard in days said.

      A startled Jane almost jumped to her feet.

      Beside her, Kate actually did, standing before Jane even realized she'd moved.

      A makeshift cane in her hand and a black blindfold tied neatly around her eyes, future-Kate stood in the doorway. Dressed for combat, her uniform was darker and more heavily armored than that of her younger self.

      "Are you sure?" Solar said.

      "I'm done being helpless," the future-Kate said. "I'm coming. I wasn't asking."

      Jane watched as Titus and Whispering traded soundless glances. She looked back towards her own Kate, arms folded across her chest, but otherwise expressing no emotion.

      "In case anyone might be wondering, we also have explosives," Emily said. "Tons of them."

      "Not wondering, but thanks, Em," Billy said.

      "And may I just say—"

      "Em, c'mon," Titus said.

      "I just want to say one thing," Emily said.

      Everyone stopped. Acquiescing, they waited.

      "Well? We're letting you talk," Jane said. "What is it?"

      "Today we are
canceling the apocalypse!
" Emily said in the worst fake British accent any of them had ever heard.

      "I knew we shouldn't have let her speak," Billy said.

Chapter 46:

My life as a decoy

      Billy and Jessie flew high and very visible above the crumbling skyline, still amazed at the destruction heaped upon the City.
Whole neighborhoods had been leveled. Familiar spires in the City's profile had gone missing, knocked out like a mouth full of broken teeth.

      I'll never take the City's skyline for granted again, Billy thought.

     
Yes you will
, Dude said.
No offense of course.

      Sometimes you underestimate me, Billy thought. I love this city. I grew up here.

     
'Grew up' is a debatable term,
Dude said.

      Billy banked over the browning expanse of park that dominated a couple hundred acres of space in the heart of the City. He watched Jessie spin playfully in the air, the two of them moved with the grace of dolphins riding along the prow of a boat. Billy stared into the distance, looking at the empty space where the Tower once stood, both in this reality and in his own timeline. Like a missing picket in a fence, the address seemed too blank, too incomplete without its faux-skyscraper standing there.

      "What does it usually take to draw out the robots?" Billy said into an earpiece the others had given him back at the hideout.

      "Depends," Jessie said. "Sometimes they don't bother engaging, other times they can't resist."

      "Why create giant robots?" Billy asked. "I mean, there had to be something easier they could have made. Tanks or airplanes or something. This feels silly."

      "We never really figured that out," Jessie said. "You're right of course. They're not even the least bit practical. I mean the ones we've fought have been powerhouses, I'm not underestimating their strength, I just . . ."

      Emily chirped in over the headset. Her disembodied voice caught him off-guard and startled Billy.

      "The correct answer is, if you can build a giant robot, then you build a giant robot," Emily said. "If you can make a giant robot and you don't, you're basically spitting in the face of everything good in this world."

      "Emily," Jane's voice chimed in as well. "We need radio—"

      "Goo goo?" Emily said.

      "Stop it," Jane said.

      "Gaga?" Emily said.

      "Are you singing Queen right now?" Billy asked.

      "Can we please maintain radio silence? We're trying to save the world here," Jane said.

      "Look, I'm just trying to lighten the mood. Would you rather I sing the Highlander theme?" Emily said.

      "When this is all over, you've got to have Em perform her Freddy Mercury impression," Billy said. "It's pretty epic."

      "If we get through this in one piece, I'll remember to ask," Jessie said. "Meanwhile, check out what's up ahead."

      Billy followed Jessie's outstretched hand to catch sight of two robots, easily six stories tall, walking slowly toward them. They cut a strange, alien silhouette against the backdrop of the morning sun, broad, angular metal shoulders jutting out as arms, just slightly too long for the bodies they were connected to, swayed with rhythmic patience.

      "Y'know, I've wanted to be a lot of things, but the star of my own Robotech movie has never been on that list," Billy said.

      One of the robots turned a massive head toward them. The other followed suit. Soon they both plodded their deliberate way.

      "Ever fought a giant robot before?" Jessie said.

      "Battled robots before. Giant not so much," Billy said. "Fought a giant cyborg mole one time. That was kind of weird."

      "Seriously?"

      "Yeah," Billy said. "Didn't go so well."

      "Where do you find a giant cyborg mole?" Jessie said.

      "Pretty much in this same neighborhood. Just hanging out. Eating buildings."

      "No kidding."

      "Nope," Billy said.

      The robots gained speed, their massive metal limbs pistoning into a run. Thunderous, clanging footstep sounds filled and then echoed throughout the vacant city streets around them.

      "You nervous?" Jessie asked.

      "Are you kidding?" Billy said. "I grew up watching Power Rangers and bad anime."

      "You get weirder and weirder the longer I know you," Jessie said.

      "Hang on," Billy said, tapping his earpiece. "Emily?"

      "Seriously guys. What part of the term 'radio silence' is lost on the two of you," Jane said.

      "Whaddup?" Emily said.

      "I'm about to fight a giant robot. Are you jealous?" Billy said.

      "Are they cool?" Emily said.

      "So cool."

      "Voltron cool?"

      "Cooler than Voltron."

      "I hate you so much Billy Case. I hate you most of all."

      "Love you too, Em. Be safe," Billy said.