Steelheart (The Reckoners #1)

wondering where Fire ght ran o to. It’s bad for you, though—you’ve got two powerful Epics to deal with.”

“I’m telling you, that wasn’t an illusion,” I said, cursing as I tried to juggle the gun and the ashlight. I searched in my cargo pocket, shing out my industrial tape. My father had told me to always keep that industrial tape handy; I’d been surprised, as I grew older, how good that advice had been. “She was real, Tia.”

“David, think about that for a moment. How would Megan have gotten here?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe they … did something to revive her.…”

“We ash-burned everything in

the hideout. She’d have been cremated.”

“There would have been DNA,

maybe,” I said. “Maybe they have an Epic who can bring someone back or something like that.”

“Durkon’s

Paradox,

David.

You’re searching too hard.”

I nished taping the ashlight to the side of the barrel of my ri e— not on the top, as I wanted to be able to use the sights. That left the weapon o balance and clunky, but I felt I’d still be better with it than the handgun. I stu ed that into its holster under my arm.

Durkon’s Paradox referred to a scientist who had studied and pondered the Epics during the early days. He’d pointed out that, with Epics breaking known laws of physics, literally anything was possible—but he warned against the practice of theorizing that every little irregularity was caused by an Epic’s powers. Often that kind of thinking led to no actual answers.

“Have you ever heard of an Epic who could restore another person to life?” Tia said.

“No,” I admitted. Some could heal, but none could reanimate someone else.

“And weren’t you the one who said we were probably facing an illusionist?”

“Yes. But how would they know what Megan looked like? Why wouldn’t they use Cody or

Abraham to distract me, someone they know is here?”

“They would have her on video from the Con ux hit,” Tia said.

“They’re using her to confuse you, unhinge you.”

Nightwielder had nearly killed me while I was staring at the phantom Megan.

“You were right about Fire ght,”

Tia continued. “As soon as that re Epic was out of sight of the Enforcement o cers, it vanished from my video feeds. That was just an illusion, meant to distract. The real Fire ght is someone else.

David, they’re trying to play you so that Nightwielder can kill you. You have to accept this. You’re letting your hopes cloud your judgment.”

She was right. Sparks, but she was right. I halted in the tunnel, breathing in and out deliberately, forcing myself to confront it.

Megan was dead. Now Steelheart’s minions were playing with me. It made me angry. No, it made me furious.

It also brought up another

problem. Why would they risk revealing Fire ght like that?

Letting him vanish after getting out of sight when it was likely we had the place under surveillance? Using an illusion of Megan? These things exposed Firefight for what he was.

That gave me a chill. They knew.

They knew we were on to them, so they didn’t need to pretend. They also knew where we’d placed the UV

floodlights, I thought, and where some of us were hiding.

Something strange was going on.

“Tia, I think—”

“Will you fools stop blathering,”

Prof said, his voice rough, harsh. “I need to concentrate.”

“It’s all right, Jon,” Tia said comfortingly. “You’re doing all right.”

“Bah! Idiots. All of you.”

He’s using the tensors, I thought.

It’s almost like they turn him into another person.

There wasn’t time to think about that. I simply hoped we all lived long enough for Prof to apologize.

I climbed out of the tunnel behind some tall steel equipment cases and panned my ri e with mounted

flashlight around the corridor.

I was saved from the strike by a uke. I thought I saw something in the distance, and I lunged toward it, trying to get more light on it. As I did, three spears of darkness struck at me. One sliced clean through the back of my jacket and cut a line through my esh. Just another fraction of an inch and it would have severed my spine.

I gasped, spinning around.

Nightwielder stood nearby in the cavernous room. I red a shot at him, but nothing happened. I cursed, getting closer, ri e to my shoulder and the UV light

streaming before me.

Nightwielder smiled a devilish grin as I put a bullet through his face. Nothing. The UV wasn’t working. I froze in place, panicked.

Was I wrong about his weakness?

But it had worked before. Why— I spun about, barely stopping a group of spears. The light dispersed them as soon as it touched them, so it was still working. So what was happening?

Il usion, I thought, feeling stupid.

Slontze. How many times am I going to fal for that? I scanned the walls.

Sure enough, I caught a glimpse of Nightwielder staring out from one of them toward me. He pulled back before I could

re, and the

darkness fell motionless again.

I waited, sweating, focused on that point. Maybe he’d peer out again. The fake Nightwielder was just to my right, looking impassive.

Fire ght was in the room

somewhere. Invisible. He could gun me down. Why didn’t he?

Nightwielder peeked out again, and I red, but he was gone in an eyeblink and the shot ricocheted off the wall. He’d probably come at me from another direction, I decided, so I took o running. As I ran I swiped the butt of my gun through the fake Nightwielder. As I

expected, it passed right through, the apparition wavering faintly like a projected image.

Explosions sounded. Abraham

cursed in my ear.

“What?” Tia asked.

“Cross re doesn’t work,” Cody said. “We got a big group of soldiers to re on each other through the smoke, without their realizing that Steelheart was in the middle.”

“At least a dozen shots hit him,”

Abraham said. “That theory is dead. I repeat, accidental re does not hurt him.”

Calamity! I thought. And I’d been so sure about that theory. I ground my teeth, still running. We’re not going to be able to kil him, I thought.

This is al going to be meaningless.

“I’m afraid that I can con rm,”

Cody said. “I saw the bullets hit too, and he didn’t even notice.” He paused. “Prof, you’re a machine.

Just thought I’d say that.”

Prof’s only response was a grunt.

“David, how are you handling Nightwielder?” Tia asked. “We need you to activate phase four.

Shoot Steelheart with your father’s gun. It’s all we have left.”

“How

am





I


handling

Nightwielder?” I asked. “Poorly. I’ll get out there when I can.” I continued jogging down the large, open concourse beneath the

seating. Maybe if I could get outside I’d have a better time of it.

There were too many hiding places in here.

He was waiting for me when I came out of that tunnel, I thought.

They’ve got to be listening in on our conversations. That’s how they knew so much about our initial setup.

That, of course, was impossible.

Mobile signals were unhackable.

The Knighthawk Foundry made

sure of that. And beyond that, the Reckoners were on their own

network.

Except …

Megan’s mobile. It was still connected to our network. Had I ever mentioned to Prof and the others that she’d lost it in the fall?

I’d assumed it was broken, but if it hadn’t been …

They listened in on our preparations, I thought. Did we mention over the lines that Limelight wasn’t real? I thought hard, trying to remember our conversations over the last three days. I came up blank. Maybe we’d talked about it, but maybe not. The Reckoners tended to be circumspect about their conversations over the

network, just to be extra careful.

Further speculation was cut o as I spotted a gure in the hallway in front of me. I slowed, ri e to shoulder, drawing a bead on it.

What would Firefight try this time?

Another image of Megan, just standing there. She wore jeans and a tight red button-up shirt—but no Reckoner jacket—her golden hair pulled back in a shoulder-length ponytail.

Wary,

in

case