The Indestructibles (Book 3): The Entropy of Everything (10 page)

Chapter 20:

The spy

      Jane stood in front of a monitor hooked up to what her older self had explained was the remnants of Neal's computer system from the Tower.
She was afraid to ask the elder Solar what happened to the Tower and why Neal was now a set of boxes plugged into an improvised power supply, but she figured that was a question for another time.

      Finnigan tinkered with the keyboard and cursed. "I never know how to work this bloody thing," he said.

      A younger werewolf, a dark-haired male in human form, pushed Finnigan out of the way and tapped away.

      The elder Solar paced back and forth in the front of the room, a large classroom that had been arranged as a makeshift communications suite. Whispering, the older Titus, sat calmly in a creaky office chair, still in full-on werewolf form, flanked by Leto, the elegant werewolf who seemed to be his advisor. The others trickled in after that. Kate took up residence in the back of the room, sulking. Emily sat near her, mocking the Dancer's sullen body language. Doc and Annie arrived, speaking in hushed tones. Finally Billy and his future counterpart, Jessie, walked in, followed by the Titus.

      "Is everybody here?" Solar said.

      "All those who will be," Whispering said, his voice rumbling.

      Solar gestured to the monitor.

      Jane mimicked Solar's body language, then both women leaned forward on the back of a chair to watch the screen flicker to life.

      Jane hardly recognized the face on camera when she saw it. The beard had grown in, lines around his eyes added gravity to his features, but she knew that face.

      "Broadstreet," Jane said.

      Solar looked at her.

      "You know Broadstreet in your timeline?" her older self asked.

      Jane nodded.

      "He's a reporter," she said. "A friend."

      "Well here, he's our man on the inside," Solar said. "He's infiltrated the enemy's organization, pretending to be one of them."

      "What do you mean by organization?" Billy asked. "I'm still fuzzy on this. I thought the bad guys were destroying the world. Do they have a great retirement package or something?"

      "Someone will always want to join in on destroying the world," Kate said quietly from the back of the room.

      Solar nodded.

      "Remember, when our enemies started, they were on our side," she said. "They went after the same enemies we did. They were better at it, in many ways. These were the people who destroyed the Children of the Elder Star."

      "They portrayed themselves as ruthless heroes," Whispering said. "A lot of people signed on. They had a global presence."

      "How can there still be followers now?" Titus said.

      "Belief is a hard thing to shake," Leto said softly.

      The heroes occupying the room instantly turned their attention to her. Jane wondered if she'd taught Whispering how to do that, or if it was some sort of trait werewolves develop as they grew older. "Many of these men and women dedicated their lives to this cause years ago. It's difficult to admit when you've made a mistake, that you've wasted your life."

      "So they just keep trying to see it through to the end?" Billy said.

      "Nihilism is easier than admitting you're wrong," Emily said.

      Attention spun to her now, but in a completely different tone—not with the reverence everyone showed Leto or Whispering, but rather shock at her response.

      "What?" Emily said.

      "Nihilism?" Billy said.

      "The rejection of all moralism, and the belief that life is meaningless," Emily said. "Seriously, Billy, did you not read any of the books I've given you this year?"

      "Regardless of why they're still working with the enemy organization, we have a situation," Solar said. "Jon Broadstreet was able to get a message out to us this morning. Neal has only now been able to decode it. Neal?"

      "Designation: Solar. There are two of you present in this room. How would you like me to address you?"

      Jane smiled at the tone of Neal's voice. Twenty years into the future and the AI sounded exactly the same.

      "It doesn't matter, Neal. Call her Jane for now. But play the video," Solar said.

      Broadstreet's image came to life.

      ". . . key information on the leadership of the enemy," Broadstreet said. ". . . finally got a name for you. Details on their power source. Need you to retrieve the information from the Jupiter dead drop . . . "

      "Pause it," Solar said. She turned to Doc and Jane. "All these years, the leaders of this group have been a mystery to us. We've never seen them in public. They work through envoys who are given only enough information to complete the tasks assigned to them. We know there's a core cadre at the top, but who they are and what their motivations are have been entirely concealed. It's remarkable. Keep playing, Neal."

      ". . . definitely think they're onto me," Broadstreet said. "I'm stationed . . . the Waterfront District outpost. Going to try to extricate myself within the next 12 hours, but if you don't hear from me, good luck. Do not send extraction team, not worth the fallout. Please make the dead drop your priority."

      "Pause it, Neal," Solar said. "When did we receive this message?"

      "Four hours ago," the young werewolf at the monitor said.

      "He could already be dead," Jane said.

      "Neal, call up the satellite view of the Waterfront District. See if there's been any combat in the past four hours," Solar said.

      "We're not going to let him die out there," Jane said.

      "We absolutely are not," Solar said.

      Whispering stood up slowly, taking command of the room.

      "I don't want to sacrifice Broadstreet any more than you do, but he's right. The information at the dead drop takes priority," the older werewolf said. "We can't risk losing that intel."

      "You're going to lose it anyway if he's captured, right?" younger-Titus said. "Won't they be able to find out where the drop is?"

      Titus's and Jane's older selves exchanged a grim look.

      "So these guys who used to be considered heroes torture people?" Billy said. "I'm feeling so much better about every bad decision I've ever made in comparison to this."

      "Sentimentality or not, you may have to rescue your insider," Annie said, finally joining the conversation.

      Jane noticed that the time traveler steered clear of participating in decision-making if she could, and wondered if Annie did so to avoid having too much influence on the events in the timeline. It would make sense for her to make that her habit, even if in this case it was entirely Annie's fault they were trying to change the course of the timeline at all.

      "You've basically doubled your superhero numbers in the past 24 hours, y'know," Emily said. "Mathematically, you could do, like, both. Things. At once. Am I wrong?"

      Solar smiled. "You're absolutely right," she said.

      "Two teams," Jane said.

      "How do you want to do this?" Solar said.

      "You're going to want to make a show of rescuing Broadstreet," Kate said.

      Kate's voice startled Jane. Dancer had been silent so far. "Even if you fail to rescue him, you want it to look like he's the mission. They may not know about your dead drop, but they probably know you had a man inside their organization. If they think he's got the information you need, they'll not go looking for the drop and devote their forces to stopping your rescue."

      "You're a cold one, lass," Finnigan said, sounding halfway between impressed and terrified of Kate.

      "She's right," younger and older-Titus said simultaneously. The boy and the scarred werewolf exchanged glances; the older wolf nodded to his younger self to continue. "Send the big guns to rescue Broadstreet, and send a stealth team to get the drop."

      "But we don't want to risk running into trouble if they've already found the drop," Whispering said. "We'll want enough heavy hitters to go along in case there's trouble."

      "Do we want to risk them finding out you've got body doubles now?" Emily said.

      "No," Whispering said. "You're right. . . . Solar?"

      "I'll lead the team to rescue Broadstreet," Solar said.

      "And I'll bring in my werewolves for a ground assault," Whispering said. "Put on a show of it."

      "I want to go with you on the rescue," Jane said. "I can be more help there."

      "And we'll give our secret away if we're both there," Solar said. "You should go with the stealth team to back them up in case they need a big gun to step up."

      "Titus and Kate are used to quiet operations," younger-Jane said. "They can lead the drop run."

      "Finnigan, go with them as a guide. You know the area," Whispering said. The ginger wolf nodded. "Annie, will you go with them as well?"

      "Of course," Annie said.

      Billy and Jessie exchanged looks, then shrugged.

      Jane found their similar body language more alarming than she expected.

      "I'd like to go on the main assault so I can get a feel for what we'll be fighting," Billy said. "Dude tells me that if they're using sensors and the like to monitor us, my energy signature and Jessie's will be almost identical. They won't know until the fight's over that we're different."

      "Unless they're using their eyes, is all," Jessie said.

      "That works," Solar said. "And Jessie, you know our dead drop system, you'll be a bigger help with the stealth team. But please try to be stealthy this time."

      "I'm always stealthy," she said.

      "See? We're always stealthy," Billy said.

      Jane ran a frustrated hand through her hair.

      "What about Emily and Doc?" she said.

      "I call assault team!" Emily said.

      "You should hang back," Doc chimed in. "Be ready to jump in if either team needs you, but right now, our best secret is that they don't know we have you here. You're our ace."

      "Aces do not hang out by themselves at the clubhouse," Emily said petulantly.

      "Em," Jane said.

      "Fine," Emily said. "But if I see any type of trouble, I'm bubble of floating my butt out there and causing some mayhem."

      "And what about you, Doc?" younger-Jane said. "The main attack?"

      Doc shook his head.

      "I have my own mission," he said. "Lady Natasha's never been dealt with, has she?"

      "No," Whispering said. "After you were murdered, she went off the grid. We never had any trouble with her again."

      "If I know anything about the Lady, it's that she hates feeling like she's been outdone," Doc said. "The second she knows I'm here there'll be a problem. I'm going to take her out of the game."

      Jane stomped her foot.

      "You're not going to disappear again!" she said. "I won't allow it. We lost you once; we're not losing you again."

      Doc smiled wide and laughed.

      "The benefit of that year I was trapped with the Lady in those other dimensions, Jane, is that I've got a much better idea of what she's capable of. And I half-expected her to betray me the entire time. I have all sorts of new ways to deal with her now, especially if she doesn't even know I'm alive. I've devised a better plan this time."

      "I think you're lying," Jane said.

      "Jane, I lost a year with all of you in one timeline and let myself get killed in another. I'm done toying with Lady Natasha Grey. Trust me on this."

      Jane didn't, but she stopped arguing.

      Doc visibly relaxed and turned his attention to the future versions of the team.

      "Did you happen to save any of my things when you had to leave the Tower?" he said.

      "We did," Solar said. "Leto knew more about what your belongings were, so . . ."

      "I'll show you what we still have," Leto said.

      "Good," Doc said. "Because I'm betting the Lady hasn't become any weaker these past twenty years. I'm going to need a few things to make sure only one of us is knocked out of play this time."

Chapter 21:

Wizards and werewolves

      Doc Silence walked with Leto through the dust-covered halls of the school, the elegant werewolf led him to a vacant room where she'd stored the magician's effects.
He marveled at how unchanged she was. They knew each other long ago, before the Indestructibles, when Doc Silence wandered the world, trying to figure out how it worked and how he might make it better.

      Leto seemed to sense Doc's reverie and glanced back over her shoulder. She'd reverted to her human form, her face alien and angular and breathtakingly beautiful in ways Doc could never quite articulate. Leto looked like something from before humans were human, when immortal beings roamed the earth instead.

      He felt shabby next to her.

      "You're thinking," she said.

      "I'm always thinking," Doc said. "Were you able to get your warrior out of Titus? Did you find what you needed in him?"

      Leto shrugged one lean, muscled shoulder.

      "Did you?" she asked. "You're the one who stole him from us."

      "I didn't steal him. I gave him a chance to be a part of the world, instead of apart from it."

      "Like yourself. You could have been a shaman on the edge of the village too, if you'd only been able to take a step back from it," Leto said.

      "You miss too much there," Doc said. "The shaman on the hill can see the whole countryside, but can't smell it. Can't feel the warmth of humanity on his skin."

      "So you took him from us."

      "I believed you were all dead, Leto," Doc said. "And you did a fine job of making sure the world thought the same thing."

      Leto grinned. A smile like moonlight, soft and bright, but cool. "Perhaps I was curious what a Whispering would become if he lived among humans instead," she said.

      "It couldn't have turned out to be too much of a disappointment for you," Doc said. "You're here by his side at the end of the world."

      Leto stopped by a doorway, the room dazzled with natural light from the outside.

      "Whatever choices we made, we got a hero out of it," she said. "When a hero calls you, you stand by his side."

      "We got a lot of heroes from this group," Doc said.

      "We did."

      Doc entered the room to discover much of his old gear still in one piece. Old travel cases, a large box that looked like a treasure chest from a pirate movie, a violin case that never contained a violin, a hatbox decades old. Doc opened a leather chest, the smell of magic and mothballs flooded his nose. He peeked over his shoulder at Leto.

      "It's good to see you again, my friend," Doc said.

      Now Leto's smile grew warm.

      "What would the world do without wizards and werewolves?" she said.

      "And some of us are both," Doc said. "Did you help them pack this stuff? Someone who knew their way around my trinkets had to. Everything worth keeping is still here."

      "Titus asked for my help," Leto said. "I didn't want to touch your things, but I thought, better to make sure we know where they are than to have them out in the world."

      Doc nodded. He removed a thin, blackened necklace from the case, a ruby vial hanging from it, and draped it over his neck. A leather cuff studded with cloudy gray stones went onto his wrist. He lifted a simple red sash, ran it once across his fingers, then wrapped it around his waist.

      "Do you really know how to stop the Lady?" Leto said. "It's been twenty years since your death. She may have become even more powerful than before."

      Doc upended a stitched leather pouch into the palm of his hand. A half-dozen rings fell out. He sifted through them, selecting one made of dark metal with reddish wood embedded in the band, another with a dark blue jewel. He put one ring on each hand, then added another to his left hand, a wide silver band cut with runes.

      "Here's the thing," Doc said, tucking a dirk with a bone handle into the sash around his waist. "I've always held back with her. I care about her. You know that. I've never considered her my enemy."

      "Which no one in the magician community could ever quite understand," Leto said.

      "You did though," Doc said.

      "Werewolves have complicated relationships. Of course I understood," she said.

      "Well, now there's no holding back," Doc said.

      "What does that mean?" Leto asked.

      "It means I know just as many secrets as Natasha does," Doc said. "And this time, I have no reason not to use them."