I nodded, then felt foolish because she couldn’t see that. I forced myself to start climbing again. “Thank you, Megan,” I whispered over the line. What she’d given me just then had taken a lot of guts to say.
She let out a breath. “Yeah, well, you’re never willing to just let things alone. You’ve got to find answers. So … well, maybe you’ll find this one.”
I reached the next flight of stairs, then twisted around the stairwell to keep going up. As I did, my foot trod on something that crunched.
I shivered and looked down. Another fortune cookie. I was tempted to just leave it there—the last ones had been seriously weird. Nobody in the base had been able to make sense of them. But I knew I couldn’t just leave it. I knelt down, anxious about making too much noise, and held up the slip of paper to the light of a glowing fruit.
Is this a dream? the paper asked.
I took a deep breath. Yeah. Still creepy. What did I do? Respond?
“No, it’s not,” I said.
“What?” Megan asked in my ear.
“Nothing.” I waited, uncertain what kind of response I expected. None came. I started up the stairwell again, watching my feet. Sure enough, I found another set of cookies growing from a vine on the next flight.
I popped one open.
Gnarly, it read. I get confused sometimes.
Was that a reply? “Who are you?”
“David?” Megan asked.
“I’m talking to fortune cookies.”
“You’re … Huh?”
“I’ll explain in a minute.”
I made my way upward slowly. This time I was able to catch a vine curling down, cookies sprouting from it like seeds. I waited for one to grow to full size in front of me, then pulled out the slip.
They call me Dawnslight. You’re trying to stop her, right?
“Yes,” I whispered. “Assuming you mean Regalia, I am. Do you know where she is?”
I broke open a few more cookies, but this pod all read the same thing, so I climbed up a little bit until I found another cluster.
Don’t know, dude, it read. I can’t see her. I watched that other one, though. On the operating table.
“Obliteration?” I asked. “On an operating table?”
Sure. Yeah. They cut something outta him. You’re sure this isn’t a dream?
“It’s not.”
I like dreams, the next cookie read.
I shivered. So Dawnslight was an Epic for certain. And this city was his.
“Where are you?” I asked.
Listen to that music.…
That’s the only response I got, no matter what questions I asked.
“David,” Megan said on the line, worry bleeding into her voice, “you are seriously freaking me out right now.”
“What do you know about Dawnslight?” I asked her, continuing upward at a slow pace in case any other cookies appeared.
“Not much,” Megan said. “When I asked Regalia, she claimed that he was ‘an ally’ and implied that was all I needed to know. Is that who you were talking to?”
I looked at the slips of paper in my hand. “Yeah. Using a kind of bizarre Epic texting plan. I’ll show you later.” I needed to get this camera placed and move on. Fortunately, floor twenty was the final flight. I pushed on the door out of the stairwell, but it didn’t budge. I grunted and shoved a little harder.
I winced as it opened with a loud creak. Beyond was an entryway accented by dark wood trim, with a very nice rug covering a marble floor, though that had been broken up by the plants.
“David, what did you just do?” Megan asked.
“Might have opened a door a little too loudly.”
“Well, the bird just looked your direction. Sparks! He’s flying toward the building. Hurry.”
I cursed softly, making my way through the room as quickly as possible. I passed an overgrown reception desk and pushed into the office beyond. The window here looked out right at Obliteration.
I climbed up on the windowsill.
“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.