“I’ve removed him from the feed,” Tia said to the rest of us. “This is bad. I’ve never heard him go this far. We need to pull him out somehow or we’ll lose him.”
“Lose him?” Cody asked, sounding confused. I could hear gunfire through the line near him, and could hear the same gunfire up ahead echoing in the wide corridor. I kept running.
“I’ll explain later,” Tia said in the type of voice that really meant “I’ll find a better way to dodge that question later.”
There, I thought, catching a bit of light up ahead. It was dark outside, but not as pitch-black as it was in the tunnellike confines of the stadium’s innards. The gunfire was louder.
“I’m pulling us out,” Tia continued. “Abraham, I need you to blow that explosion in the ground when I say. Cody … have you found David yet? Be warned, Nightwielder might be on your back.”
She thinks I’m dead, I thought, because I haven’t been answering. “I’m here,” I said.
“David,” Tia said, sounding relieved. “What is your status?”
“Nightwielder is down,” I said, reaching the tunnel out onto the field, one of the ones that the teams had used when running out to play. “The UV worked. I think Firefight is gone too. I … drove him off.”
“What? How?”
“Um … I’ll explain later.”
“Fair enough,” Tia said. “We have about two minutes until I extract. Get to Cody.”
I didn’t reply—I was taking in the field. Battlefield is right, I thought, stunned. The bodies of Enforcement soldiers lay scattered like discarded trash. Fires burned in several locations, sending smoke twisting up into the dark sky. Red flares blazed across the field, thrown by soldiers to get better light. Chunks had been blown out of the seating and the ground, and blackened scars marred the once-silver steel.
“You guys have been fighting a war,” I whispered. Then I caught sight of Steelheart.
He strode across the field, lips parted and teeth clenched in a sneer. His glowing hand was forward, and he blasted shot after shot toward something in front of him. Prof, running behind one of the team benches. Blast after blast nearly hit him, but he ducked and dodged between them, incredibly nimble. He pushed through a wall in the side of the stadium, his tensors vaporizing an opening for him.
Steelheart bellowed in aggravation, firing blasts into the hole. Prof appeared a moment later, breaking out of another wall, steel dust pouring down around him. He whipped his hand forward, throwing a series of crude daggers toward Steelheart; they had likely been cut from the steel itself. They just bounced off the High Epic.
Prof looked frustrated, as if he were annoyed he couldn’t hurt Steelheart. For my part, I was amazed. “Has he been doing this the whole time?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Cody said. “Like I said, man’s a machine.”
I scanned the field to my right and picked out Cody behind some rubble. He was leaning forward on his rifle and tracking a group of Enforcement soldiers in the first-level seats. They had set up a large machine gun behind some blast shields, and Cody looked pinned down, which explained why he hadn’t been able to come find me. I stuffed my handgun into its holster and unwrapped the flashlight from the stock of my rifle.
“I’m almost there, gentlemen,” Tia said. “No more attempts to kill Steelheart. All phases aborted. We need to take this chance and leave while we can.”
“I don’t think Prof is going to go,” Abraham said.
“I’ll deal with Prof,” Tia said.
“Fine,” Abraham answered. “Where are you going to—”
“Guys,” I cut in. “Be careful what you say in the general link. I think our lines may be hacked.”
“Impossible,” Tia said. “Mobile networks are secure.”
“Not if you have access to an authorized mobile,” I answered. “And Steelheart might have recovered Megan’s.”
There was silence on the line. “Sparks,” Tia said. “I’m an idiot.”
“Ah, finally something makes sense,” Cody said, firing a shot at the soldiers. “That mobile—”
Something moved in the opening to the building behind Cody. I cursed, raising my rifle—but without the stock it was very hard to aim properly. I pulled the trigger as an armed Enforcement soldier leaped out. I missed. He fired a staccato burst.
There was no sound from Cody, but I could see the blood spray. No, no, NO! I thought, taking off at a run. I fired again, this time clipping the soldier on the shoulder. It didn’t get past his armor, but he turned from Cody, sighting on me.
He fired. I raised my left hand, the one with the tensor. I did it almost by instinct. It was tougher to make the song this time, and I didn’t know why.
But I made it work. I let the song out.