my father and liberated Newcago. I’ve never felt so good.”
Mizzy nodded.
Now, what I didn’t say was that killing Steelheart had left me wondering what to do next. The sudden and abrupt removal of my all-consuming goal … well, it was like I was a donut, and somebody had sucked all the jelly out of me. But I could stuff new jelly in there. It would just get my hands a little sticky in the process.
I’d moved on to killing other Epics, like Mitosis and Sourcefield. Which had its own problems. I’d interacted with Epics, even fallen for one. I couldn’t see them uniformly as monsters any longer.
That look in Sourcefield’s eyes as I shot her still haunted me. She’d looked so normal, so frightened.
“You take this all really seriously, don’t you?” Mizzy asked.
“Don’t we all?”
“Yeaaaah, you’re a little different.” She smiled. “I like it, though. You’re what a Reckoner should be.”
Unlike me, that line seemed to imply.
“I’m glad you have a life, Mizzy,” I said. I gestured toward the party. “I’m glad you have friends. You don’t want to be like me. Parties, real life … these are why we’re fighting, in a way. To bring that world back.”
“Even though Babilar is fake, like you think?” Mizzy said. “That this city, and everything in it, is a front for some plan Regalia is concocting?”
“Even then,” I said.
Mizzy smiled, still shifting back and forth to the beat. She was cute. Not like Lulu at all, who was demandingly attractive. Mizzy was just … nice to be around. Earnest, amusing. Real.
I’d stayed away from people like her my entire life. I hadn’t wanted attachments, or so I’d told myself. Really, I’d been so focused that I’d kind of weirded everyone out. But Mizzy … she considered me a hero.
I could grow to enjoy this sort of thing. I wasn’t interested in Mizzy—not that way, and particularly not with Megan on my mind—but friendship with some people my age was something I did find myself longing to have.
Mizzy seemed distracted by something. Perhaps she was thinking along similar lines. Or—
“I need to be more like you,” she said. “I’m too trusting.”
“I like you how you are.”
“No,” Mizzy said. “The person I am hasn’t ever even killed an Epic. This time it’s going to be different. I’m going to do what you did. I’m going to find that monster.”
“That monster?” I said.
“Firefight,” Mizzy said. “The one who killed Sam.”
Oh.
Megan was far from a monster, but I couldn’t explain that to Mizzy, not until I had proof of some sort.
For now, I changed the topic. “So, what did you find out from your friends? We’re here for intel, right? Any clues that could lead us to … what we’re looking for?” I didn’t want to say it out loud, even though with the music—and with no water exposed to the air directly nearby—it was unlikely Regalia would be spying on us.
“I’m still looking, but I did find one interesting tidbit. Looks like Regalia has been bringing in scientists.”
“Scientists?” I frowned.
“Yeah,” Mizzy said. “Smart types of all kinds, apparently. Marco heard that a surgeon from Great Falls—one of Revokation’s personal staff—relocated here. It’s odd, as we don’t have a lot of trained professionals in town. Babilar tends to attract people who like free food and fatalism, not scholars.”
Huh. “See if any other professionals have come to town lately. Accountants. Military experts.”
“Why?”
“Just a hunch,” I said.
“Right. I’ll get back to gathering intel.” Mizzy hesitated. “Everything really is all about work for you, isn’t it?”
Not by a mile. But I nodded anyway.
“I am going to find the Epic who murdered Sam,” Mizzy said. “Then I’m going to kill her.”
Sparks. I needed to clear Megan’s name, and quickly. Mizzy nodded to herself, looking resolute as she stepped out of the dancing area.
I went and checked on Newton as surreptitiously as I could. The Epic still lounged by the bar, sipping her drink, standing out like a punk guitarist in a mariachi band. Farther down the improvised bar—it was mostly made of old wooden boxes—Exel chatted with a group of women. They laughed at something he said, and the whole crowd of them looked sincerely interested in him.
Sparks. Exel was a ladies’ man? And at least he was sticking to the plan. I toyed with the idea of looking for Lulu so I could ask her if she’d ever seen Regalia. Instead I found myself walking to the bridge at the edge of the building, then out into the night,