Resistance (28 page)

“Good. What else?”

“Well, I might have sent a fairly detailed description of everything I found to every government official in the world. I think about twelve of them might not be Utopic servants. Anyway, and to every judge, military chief, police officer and superteam everywhere. Big mailing list. Miraculously immune to spam filters. So, you know, war, death, chaos, scandal. When I have some time, I’ll make the news.”

“Right,” says Jai. “What do we want to do with this lot?”

“We?” asks Uzma.

“Yes,” says Jai. “We work together now. And there’s a lot of work to do.”

Uzma and Aman look at each other.

“Are you sure?” asks Aman.

Jai laughs. “Yes, I’m sure,” he says. “Believe me, I’ve thought about it. Do you trust me?”

“Not at all,” says Aman with feeling.

“Well, I don’t trust you either,” says Jai. “But I’ve been in love with Uzma for eleven years.”

He looks at Uzma’s flabbergasted face and grins.

“Do you remember what your powers are?” he asks.

Uzma’s mouth opens and closes.

“Will you marry me?” asks Jai.

“No,” says Aman.

“Uzma?”

“No,” says Uzma.

“All right,” says Jai. He winks at them.

“I’ll ask again later,” he says.

“Can we please talk about something else?” asks Aman.

“Yes, yes,” says Jai. “What’s the plan?”

“I honestly don’t know,” says Aman.

“I do,” says Uzma. She waves her hand at the assembled supers. “You work for me now,” she Says. “We’re going to go to the Unit headquarters and take it over. Then we’re going to make the world better. It’s going to be complicated. Applause.”

The stadium shakes as the super-army hoots, whistles and cheers. Uzma raises her hand, and silence is restored.

“Are you really planning to keep them all under your control?” asks Aman.

“I’ll think about it,” says Uzma.

“Right,” says Jai. “So, we take our building back, and then we spend tomorrow drawing up plans.”

“No,” says Aman. “We really need to go to Japan.”

“I don’t like Japan,” says Jai.

“Well, I need to,” says Aman. “Norio Hisatomi has kidnapped Kalki. I think he’s going to make Kalki take everyone’s superpowers away.”

“That could be a problem,” says Jai. “Where is he, and how quickly can we get there?”

“I don’t know,” says Aman.

“You’re useless,” says Jai.

He turns to the crowd.

“Time to save the world!” he calls. “What are you waiting for?”

The sounds of explosions and screaming have died down, and Aman has deflected another missile attack. It is time for coffee.

Uzma, Vir and Aman sit in the Unit’s control room. Uzma and Vir watch with rapidly diminishing interest as Aman juggles a swift-moving whirl of holo-screens in a sphere of light around him, manipulating news, closing bank accounts, cutting off communications and monitoring super-fights across the globe.

The Unit’s tower is full of supers. There have been seven waves of attacks since the previous night, some from Utopic, others from government agencies, still others who did not survive long enough to declare their affiliations. The world is churning. Already seventeen governments have fallen, thousands of Utopic subsidiaries have closed down, twelve Utopic super-containment facilities have been transformed into government super-prisons. Riots have broken out in twenty-two capitals.

None of the supers in the room seem particularly impressed by any of this. The smile that lights up Uzma’s face as Jai enters the room, covered in blood, and sets a tray with five coffee mugs on it down on the table is the first sign of emotion she’s displayed in hours.

“I just killed Reload again,” says Jai.

Uzma shakes her head, tries to suppress a grin and fails. Reload had unfortunately (for him) shifted his save point, base of regeneration, to the Unit’s tower just a few minutes before Jai had led a swarm of supers into the building. The assassin is now in a cage in the barracks, seriously reconsidering his life decisions, and getting killed every now and then by every super in the tower who wants to de-stress.

Aman opens his eyes. “Norio’s not in any of the bases I’ve managed to track,” he says. “He’s off the grid.”

“Rowena?” asks Uzma.

“Tia has her, back at my old island. We have a few Tias coming here soon, by the way.”

“Sundar?”

“No. Which means we’re stuck with nothing. Norio has been back in Tokyo for hours. He’s probably got Kalki in that mind control device of his right now.”

“Well, the world hasn’t ended,” says Uzma. “It’s almost midnight in Tokyo, thirteen hours ahead. And humans seem to be doing fine. That’s a good sign.”

“Wu said the world was ending today,” says Aman. “She didn’t say what time. Or time zone. Is she awake yet?”

“No,” says Vir. “Aman, a few minutes ago. Viral’s broadcast. New second-hand megastore. It said ‘End of the World Discounts’. Could that be what Wu sensed? Everyone in the world thought it for a second.”

“Well, until we separate the all-powerful child god from the anti-super billionaire nut we really can’t bet on that,” says Aman. “I have a hundred Tias going door-to-door in Tokyo. Every Japanese super-squad is out looking for Norio. I have face recognition running on every street-cam. Tokyo’s the most well-mapped place on earth. Nothing so far.”

“No teleporters among the new lot?” asks Vir.

“There is one,” says Aman. “But there’s no way of telling her where to go.”

“Tokyo,” says Uzma.

“But where in Tokyo?”

“Wherever it is, we’ll be closer, won’t we?”

Aman shrugs. “That does make sense. I’ve asked the magicians if they can track him, but it’s pretty obvious what they said.”

“Just relax and drink your coffee,” says Jai, and sits. “The solution’s been right in front of you all along.”

Everyone stares at him in silence as he takes a sip of cappuccino and wipes foam from his mouth.

“I’m surprised none of you ever saw it,” says Jai. “I knew it all along: you just wanted me for my body.”

“Jai, if you know how to find Norio, please tell us,” says Aman, as evenly as he can.

“I have a question first,” says Vir. “You say this Norio is going to get Kalki to remove everyone’s superpowers. Now I love my powers – but look at the world. Are we sure we should stop Norio?”

“Yes,” says Aman.

“That’s good. Now, my question. If Norio does get Kalki to remove everyone’s powers as you say he will, how is that the end of humanity? Doesn’t that put humanity back on top?”

“Well, if we lose our powers we’ll get killed in a few minutes. So I for one really don’t want to put ordinary humans back on top,” says Uzma.

“Yes, Vir,” says Aman. “But the real danger is that Kalki’s insane. Tia said he takes requests, and then does whatever he wants.”

“But you said Norio has a mind control machine,” says Uzma.

“Is it stronger than Kalki?” asks Aman. “What if it just makes him mad? I’d rather not find out on a day when the world’s supposed to end.”

Uzma blinks, and shakes her head. “Sure. Do any of the rest of you have a problem with the words that come out of your mouths sometimes?”

“Yes,” says Aman. “So, Jai. What’s the answer?”

“He is,” says Jai, pointing at an empty seat. The others look at it.

“All right,” says Aman after a while. “He’s lost his mind. Back to work, people.”

That Guy appears in the seat.

Jai smiles.

“I wasn’t sure that would work,” he says.

“I didn’t mean to intrude,” says That Guy. “I’ll be—”

“Relax” says Jai. He walks around the table, sits next to That Guy, and holds his hand. That Guy is trembling visibly.

“Do you know you’re going to be the greatest hero of us all?” asks Jai.

“No,” says That Guy. “I’m sorry, I’ll—”

Jai squeezes his hand fondly and That Guy’s face turns blue, then white. Jai looks around the table.

“All these years and everyone was too busy to notice,” he says. “I suppose I was the only one who was still able to think clearly. That Guy teleports to wherever the most significant events in the world are. He even gets to know how dangerous they’ll be before he goes, and gets to choose. Whatever Norio’s doing with Kalki, it must be more important than anything else in the world, right? That Guy’s going to be there. And so will I.”

“That actually… why are you holding his hand?” asks Aman.

“Because we don’t know when Norio’s going to start, and it wouldn’t really help if he went to stop Norio by himself, would it?” asks Jai.

“True,” says Aman. He solemnly walks to That Guy and takes his other hand.

Uzma holds her face in her hands. “You’ve all gone completely mad,” she says. “We’ve solved a dozen massive problems. He was never there.”

“I was,” says That Guy. “If it’s important enough, I always land up for at least a bit.”

“You weren’t there in Prague,” says Uzma.

“I was,” says That Guy.

“In Tokyo last time.”

“I was,” he says. “Sometimes I’m not in the same room. I always leave immediately when it’s dangerous. Sometimes I manage to go somewhere else, if it’s important, like a movie premiere or a press conference. There’s always a lot happening.”

Alarm screens pop up. Two hoverjets approach Liberty Island.

“Here we go again. Battle stations,” says Uzma.

“The others will take care of it,” says Jai. “We’re spending the rest of today holding on to our friend. It’s the only way to reach Norio and Kalki. And we’ll only get one chance.”

“Why did you never tell us you could do this?” screams Uzma.

“You never wanted to talk to me!” That Guy starts to cry.

Vir watches the hoverjets as they launch missiles at the tower. A man in blue appears in the sky in front of them, and waves his arms. After a second, the missiles explode in mid-air.

“Someone will take care of it,” says Jai. “You must learn how to delegate better.”

“I don’t like this plan,” says Vir. “We don’t understand how That Guy’s powers really work.”

“We have at least a thousand supers in the building,” says Jai. “Get over here now.”

“I am not spending the whole day touching That Guy,” says Uzma. “If he gets a warning, he can tell us, and—”

That Guy, Jai and Aman disappear.

* * *

Aman recognises the room at once. He’s been here before. Large hall, closed windows. Empty chairs.

On a chair by a window sits Kalki. His many arms are tied, each arm to the other on the same side. On his head is a tinfoil helment, stuck on awkwardly with tape. Two wires connect the chips on top of the helmet to Sundar’s computer on its bulky trolley. Aman is too far away from the monitor to see what’s on it. Kalki’s eyes are open and glowing.

Norio stands in front of the trolley, typing on the ancient keyboard.

Aman, Jai and That Guy stand in silence for a second.

Norio shows no sign of having realised they’re in the room.

“Ahem,” says Jai.

Norio turns and smiles.

“Of course you’re here,” he says. “I was wondering when you’d show up.”

“Step away from Kalki,” says Aman.

Norio looks from Aman to Jai.

“Is that Aman in the armour? Aman and Jai teaming up? Classic!” He laughs, his voice is strained and ragged. His eyes are bloodshot, his clothes stained, he’s twitching: he clearly hasn’t slept or bathed in a while.

That Guy disappears.

“I knew you’d find a way to get here,” says Norio. “You wouldn’t want to miss this.”

“Surrender,” says Jai.

“Kalki’s been having fun in Tokyo,” says Norio. “He hasn’t seen much, of course, but he loves wasabi. Not with anything else, though. Just lots and lots of wasabi. We went to see his Uncle Sundar today. That was fun, wasn’t it?”

Aman raises his arm. He takes aim at the computer.

“Just wait a minute,” says Norio. “It hasn’t even started. He’s not in any pain, he’s having fun. You know, I think he wanted to be here? He’s a good kid.”

“Let him go,” says Aman.

“In a bit. You know, I really hoped Sundar would have made something new for me. Some armour like yours, or something to beat Jai with. But Sundar doesn’t do requests, does he? If you went and told him you were going to fight a giant bear, would he give you a giant bear-fighting device? No. He’d show you something he’d made to make burgers healthy.”

Jai starts walking towards Norio. Norio whips out a gun.

“Really?” says Jai.

“But I hunted around in a heap of junk in his lab,” says Norio, “and I found something nice.”

Aman looks closely at the gun, and quickly recognises it. He’d seen it last in a video eleven years ago. He’d been racing up a Versova street in an auto, had seen their enemies advancing on Sundar, had seen Sher preparing to jump, and then a flash of white light. He remembers what Sundar’s ray-gun does…

“Dive!” he screams. Norio fires.

A flash of light, and Jai disappears.

Aman stares at the empty space where Jai had been a moment ago, too shocked by the sheer absence of Jai to process the danger he is in.

Norio turns towards Aman – and goes flying backwards as the armour launches a pulse-blast at the ray-gun. The gun flies further, bounces on the floor and comes to rest, a twisted mass of metal, plastic and wire.

Norio’s right hand and arm are broken, twisted, but he leaps to his feet, his face contorted with rage. He races towards the computer, but Aman fires another blast, and Norio goes flying across the hall, rolling on the floor.

Aman walks up to the computer as Norio struggles to find his feet.

“You’re done,” says Aman. “Stay down.”

Norio shakes his left hand. Holograms spring up around it.

Aman hears a loud whine above him. The ceiling shakes as, on the floor above, the Goryo ghost-mecha springs to life.

“No,” says Aman.

The whine stops.

“Remote control,” says Aman. “Bad idea.”

Norio staggers, moaning in pain, and stands up. He smiles.

“I’m glad you’re here,” he says.

“Stay away from the computer,” says Aman.

“All right, all right,” says Norio. “Supers beat humans. I get it.”