I could focus only on keeping myself afloat and pointed toward civilization. It was slow going. Too slow. Keenly, I felt the shame of having rushed in to be a hero only to end up limping along, having nearly created a new crisis instead of solving the first one. What better example of Prof’s warnings could I get?
Fortunately, my terror was manageable, so long as I had that spyril jet to give me some measure of control over the situation. As I got closer to the city, the water warmed around me. Eventually, blessedly, I reached one of the outer buildings, a low one with the roof only two stories or so out of the water. The single jet was enough to propel me upward—if at an unexpected angle—and I grabbed the rooftop’s lip and hauled myself over, coughing.
Though the spyril had done all the work, I was exhausted. I flopped over, smelling smoke in the air, and stared at the sky.
Those people. I tried to climb to my feet. Maybe I could …
The building blazed nearby, only one street over. Fully alight, the top half had burned completely, an inferno. I could feel the heat even from a distance. This was more than the work of just one or two firebombs. Either Newton had continued throwing more in, or the place had been primed to go up. Around the structure, water coursed in a vortex, revealing a broken, wet street far below.
A few corpses spotted the ground. People had tried to leap free of the flames.
Even as I watched, the water was released. It crashed back in upon the building, and the hissing indicated that the fire had managed to creep down toward those levels that had formerly been submerged. The impact caused the top floors of the building to collapse into the water, blowing steam into the air with a horrible noise.
I stumbled to my feet, feeling utterly defeated. On a nearby roof I saw Regalia’s watery projection standing with hands clasped before her. She looked toward me, then melted into the surface of the sea and vanished.
I collapsed onto the rooftop. Why? It was so pointless.
Prof is right, I thought. They murder indiscriminately. Why did I think that any of them could be good?
My pants buzzed. I sighed, fishing out my mobile. I got a little water on it, but Mizzy said it was fully waterproof.
Prof was calling. I lifted the mobile beside my head, ready to accept my lecture. I could see now what had caused the spyril to malfunction—I hadn’t done the wires correctly leading to the left leg. They’d come undone. A simple problem, one that wouldn’t have happened if I’d been more careful putting on the equipment.
“Yeah,” I said into the phone.
“Is she gone?” Prof’s voice asked.
“Who?”
“Regalia. She was watching, wasn’t she?”
“Yeah.”
“Probably still is, remotely,” Prof said. He sounded winded. “I’ll have to sneak these people out in the sub, somehow.”
I stood up. “Prof?” I said, excited.
“Don’t look too eager,” he said with a grunt. “She’s probably watching you. Act dejected.” In the background, over the line, I heard a child crying. “Can you quiet her?” Prof snapped to someone.
“You’re in the building,” I said. “You … you saved them!”
“David,” Prof said, voice tense. “This is not a good time for me. Do you understand?”
He’s keeping the water and the flames back, I realized. With forcefields.
“Yes,” I whispered.
“I left the sub behind. I had to run across the bottom of the ocean to get here.”
I blinked in surprise. “Is that possible?”
“With a forcefield bubble extending in front of me?” Prof said. “Yeah. Haven’t practiced it in ages.” He grunted. “I came into the building from below, by vaporizing a section of ground and crossing over into the basement. I’m going to make a forcefield tunnel through the water for these people and hike back to the building we left. Can you meet me there?”
The thought of going back into the bay nauseated me, but I wasn’t about to admit that. “Sure.”
“Good.”
“Prof …,” I said, trying to look morose, though I felt distinctly the opposite. “You’re a hero. You really are.”
“Stop.”
“But, you saved—”
“Stop.”
I fell silent.
“Get back to the building,” he said. “I’ll need you to pilot the sub and take the people to a place well outside Regalia’s range, then let them go. Do you understand?”
“Sure. But why can’t you pilot it?”
“Because,” Prof said, voice growing soft. “It’s going to take every bit of my willpower over the next few minutes not to murder these people for inconveniencing me.”
I swallowed. “Got it,” I said, then fixed the wires on my boot. I pocketed the phone and pointed the streambeam at the water, testing to make certain everything was operating—then I double-checked the wires just to be certain.