“The bird just landed on a window on your building, one story down from you, but on the south side,” Megan said. “He must have heard you, but he wasn’t certain of the location.”
“Good,” I whispered, reaching out and affixing the camera on the outside of the building. This was the east side, so the bird shouldn’t see me. The camera stuck in place easily. “Obliteration?”
“Not looking your way,” Megan said. “He hasn’t noticed. But if that bird really is one of Newton’s Epics …”
If he is …
An idea started to form in my head. “Mmm …,” I said, tapping the camera to activate it.
“David?” Megan said. “What does that tone mean?”
“Nothing.”
“You’re improvising, aren’t you?”
“Maybe.” I ducked quietly back into the room. “Tell me, Megan. What is one surefire way to know if this Knoxx guy has been hiding his powers all along, or if Regalia—either through trickery or some other means—gave him his abilities?”
She was silent for a moment. “Sparks. You want to kidnap him, don’t you?”
“Well, Val isn’t going to be back for another hour at least. Might as well do something useful with my time.” I paused. “I’m really itching to see if that guy has had any nightmares lately.”
“And if Prof or Obliteration notices what you’re doing?”
“It won’t come to that,” I said.
“Slontze,” Megan said.
“Guilty as charged. Can you get into position to cover me through some of the windows?”
Megan sighed. “Let me see.”
37
THIS, I thought as I crossed back through the swanky overgrown office, is crazy.
Moving against an Epic I barely knew? One about which I had no research, no notes, no intel at all? It was like jumping into a swimming pool without first looking to see if your friends had filled it with snakes.
I had to do it anyway.
We were blind; Regalia had us all running. Prof had been unresponsive for a day, during our most difficult stages of planning—but worse, even if he helped, Regalia was probably manipulating us based on her knowledge of him and Tia.
I needed to do something unexpected, and the secrets Knoxx knew could make a huge difference. I consoled myself with the idea that at least I wasn’t trying to take on Obliteration or Newton on my own. This was just a minor Epic, after all.
I wasn’t certain what Prof’s reaction would be. I’d told him my plan about kidnapping an Epic—and he’d said that either I was just what the Reckoners needed, or I was dangerously reckless. Maybe I was both.
But he hadn’t specifically forbidden me to try it. He just hadn’t wanted me endangering the team. This wouldn’t do that.
I peeked back into the stairwell. What I needed to do was make more noise so that Knoxx would figure out he’d gotten the wrong location. When he came up to check on me, I could clock him. Easy as pie.
Not that I actually knew how to make pie.
I stamped on the floor and knocked an old desk lamp off a side table, then I cursed as if I’d bumped into it. After that I moved back to the stairwell and held Megan’s gun up, two-handed and at high ready, mobile darkened so that the only light was the moonlike glow of the plump fruit drooping from branches.
I waited, tense, and just listened. Indeed, I heard something in the stairwell. It echoed, a scraping that sounded far distant down below. Or was it coming from the floor right below me? With the strange echoing, it was difficult to tell.
“He’s moving in.” I jumped at Megan’s voice. Though I’d turned the receiver way down, it seemed like thunder in my ear. “He entered the window and is on the floor just beneath you.”
“Good,” I said softly.
“There’s movement on the first floor too,” she said. “Well, the first floor above the water level, anyway. David, I think someone else is in that building.”
“Scavengers?”
“I can’t get a visual. Sparks. I’m having trouble getting any sort of clear look into your location too. It’s too overgrown. I’ve lost Knoxx. Maybe you should flush him out.”
“I’d like to avoid gunfire if possible,” I said. “Who knows what kind of attention that will bring?”
“Does this rifle have a built-in suppressor?” Megan asked.
“Uh …” Did it?
“Yup, here it is,” Megan said. “Electron-compressed muzzle suppressor. Sparks, this gun is nice.”
I felt a stab of jealousy, which was utterly stupid. It was just a gun. And it wasn’t even as good a gun as my last one. I immediately felt ashamed