The Indestructibles (Book 3): The Entropy of Everything (19 page)

      They can't be
hers
, Titus thought. He felt himself coming back down again, his blood no longer boiling. As the rage melted away, so did the beast, his body slowly returning to its human shape. He caught Leto's voice raging at the survivor.

      "We let you live," Leto said, her voice more angry than Titus had ever heard it. She was always as impassive as the moon. "You will return to your mistress, and you'll deliver a message to her from us. You'll tell her she should have stayed among the dead. And she will regret this day."

      Finnigan put a hand on Titus's shoulder. Titus turned and slipped an arm under Finnigan's to help the red-headed werewolf stay on his feet.

      "Took a knife in the leg, lad," Finnigan said. "Help an old man, would you?"

      Together, Finnigan and younger-Titus watched Leto drag the surviving man in black away, effortlessly. They disappeared around a corner.

      "I've never seen her fight before," Titus said.

      "I hope you never do again," Finnigan said. "Although, it's a specter of terrible beauty."

      "How bad did we make out?" Titus said. "Who did we lose?"

      "Too many, son," Finnigan said. "This is the sort of day that ends wars."

Chapter 38:

The limits of gravity

      Keaton Bohr checked his readings again, and again.
He went for a cup of coffee, paced around the near-empty lab, ignoring his few remaining minions, and returned to his workspace to review the results from scratch.

      He hoped he was wrong.

      Bohr got up, abandoning his coffee, and went down to visit her. He did this more often than he liked to admit, and never told the White Shadow how many hours he spent talking to the girl in the bubble, waiting for her to answer him back. Maybe he thought the Shadow would be angry with him. Or think Bohr was starting to lose his mind. But in the end, Bohr thought, he didn't tell the Shadow because he wanted these conversations to be private. They were none of the vigilante's business. They were between scientist and subject, between jailer and prisoner.

      Between failed father and distant daughter. No, Bohr thought. You just think of her that way, because she's been in your care for so long. Because she's your responsibility, and because all of this is your fault. Everything that went wrong is your fault. And this latest news, this latest data, this tragedy . . . this is your fault as well.

      She was sleeping when he arrived, but she was always sleeping these days. That was part of the problem. If they'd worked harder, if they'd taken better care of her. But they always needed more from her. She could change the world with her powers, but only if they had her on their side, only if they could take that irresistible force and make it functional.

      "We didn't make it useful," Bohr said, looking at the girl inside the sphere, old before her time, too thin, purple bags sagging beneath her eyes. The latest readings were quite terrifying.

      They never understood her, Bohr thought. Not really. Theories about matter and anti-matter, about Hawking radiation and particles and anti-particles . . . All we ever did was take advantage of what she was capable of, the scientist thought. All we did was see a tool, an infinite engine, a thing to be exploited to remake the world in our image.

      But she was just a little girl when they took her, and they wasted her life.

      "And now you'll have your revenge," Bohr thought. "And we'll deserve it. Oh how we'll deserve it."

      He put his hand against the sphere, wondering how many days they had left before their own personal event horizon.

      "We wanted to save the world, and we've destroyed it in the most spectacular fashion," Bohr said. "I'm so sorry, Emily. I wish there was some way you could know that."

      Bohr turned and slowly walked away, heading back up into reality, toward the surface. He strode absently past the eccentric young people who still thought they were on Heaven's side, who truly believed in the White Shadow and his plan.

      We're the villains, Bohr found himself thinking. We did so well at first, he reflected. We performed good deeds. Together they eradicated the Children of the Elder Star, wiped them from the Earth and from all memory, a brutal war the Children never stood a chance of winning. They put the Atlantean uprising to rest before the governments of the world even knew it was happening. An alien invasion waiting in the wings, a century in the making, and with the power Emily provided, the White Shadow shut it down.

      But that wasn't enough. Without enemies to fight, without someone to go to battle with, they started making their own wars. Enforcing peace, the Shadow called it. Babysitting the planet because the planet couldn't babysit itself. And when heroes rose up to stop them, well naturally, they couldn't be trusted either. You were either for us or against us, and before long, everyone was against us.

      And still people flocked to their banner, to fight for a world without conflict. Without realizing that they were rushing to join the conflict just by doing so.

      He located the White Shadow in the place he often found his friend, in an apartment replete with aging, splintered wooden chairs and a couch with worn springs, a generation too old to be much use. The Shadow always camped in places where things were slightly old-fashioned, not antiques, not vintage, simply weary and out of time.

      Out of time, Bohr thought. Everything is out of time these days.

      "We've got a problem, Shadow," Keaton Bohr said. He couldn't tell if the Shadow was awake or asleep, sitting perfectly still on the dusty couch, but the vigilante straightened and turned to him as if he'd been waiting for his arrival.

      "The world is full of problems, my friend," the vigilante said. "What's wrong?"

      "Emily," Bohr said. "You need to check out the latest readings."

      "What is it?" the Shadow said.

      "At first I thought she was sick," Bohr said. "We've seen fluctuations in her power output before when she's ill. But I looked deeper, and her output is neither up or down—it's different. She's changing."

      "And what's that mean for us?" the White Shadow said, standing up to look Bohr straight in the eyes.

      Bohr wondered, as he always did, why his employer insisted on wearing the mask so often. I want to look you in the eye when I tell you this, he thought. I want to see your face when I inform you that we've killed the world.

      "The sphere isn't designed to contain the new energy she's giving off. I really can't predict what's going to happen next. Either she's going to release enough radiation to obliterate everything on this entire continent, or she's going to create a spatial vacuum significant enough to destabilize the planet. Shadow, she's going to die, and she'll take all of us with her."

      "Didn't we always suspect this might be a possibility?" the Shadow said, far more calmly than Bohr was comfortable with.

      "A possibility? We always knew she was dangerous, but Shadow, we're talking about an extinction event. Worse. Worse!" Bohr said. "This will be the end of everything. There won't be any moles to rise up and evolve to inherit the Earth after we're gone. There'll be no Earth. We've got to do something."

      "No, we don't," the White Shadow said.

      "What?"

      "Do you know how to fix it?" the Shadow said.

      "No. I need more time. Maybe if I had more time . . ."

      "Keaton," the Shadow said, putting a hand on Bohr's arm. "It's okay. Everything will be fine."

      "It won't be okay," Bohr said. "You're not listening to me. Why aren't you hearing me?"

      "Because this is the outcome we've always wanted," the Shadow said. "We understood people didn't deserve this world. And so, we'll simply take it away from them."

       Keaton Bohr nodded incredulously, and took a couple of steps backwards.

      The White Shadow returned to the lumpy couch and his somnambulant state.

      Bohr turned and walked away, heading for his lab with a growing dread in his heart. He had signed on to this expedition, to this mission—all those years ago—to change the world, not end it. And now, he didn't have a clue how to stop it.

Chapter 39:

Everyone has a job to do

      Emily, Billy, and Annie found their friends miles away from where they left them, at an impromptu base camp in an abandoned apartment complex.
Billy had to ask Dude to reach out with his alien senses to locate them because everyone knew that the evacuation of the strip mall hideaway meant something terrible had happened.

      After finding so few familiar faces when they arrived, Billy realized the worst had occurred while they were gone.

      "What's going on?" Annie said, reaching a hand out to take Leto by the arm as they landed.

      "We were ambushed," she said. "The hunters have returned."

      "Hunters?" Billy said.

      "Predators we thought we drove away a long time ago," Leto said. "Slayers of monsters. Killers of our race."

      Billy and Emily exchanged a quick, terrified glance.

      "Titus?" Emily said.

      "I'm right here," younger-Titus said, looking beat up but whole.

      "Fido!" Emily said, throwing her arms around him. "You look like someone dropped you off a building."

      "Near enough," Titus said.

      Billy extended a hand for him to shake, but the young werewolf pulled him into a hug instead.

      "What. Was that?" Emily said.

      "Just happy you guys are okay," Titus said. "Any word from Doc and Kate?"

      "We're here," Doc said, materializing nearby with Kate in tow. "What the hell happened?"

      "Trouble," Titus said. "Don't worry, Jane's patrolling the area with Jessie right now looking for signs we might have been followed. I think we're okay."

      "Except we're not," Titus's older counterpart said, stomping toward them. "We lost a third of our people back there."

      "We're going to kill them all," Finnigan said. The red-haired werewolf was covered in someone else's blood. "We just lost another one. Amy. The girl from . . ."

      "I know who she is," Whispering said. "I know the names of everyone we lost tonight."

      Doc rubbed his eyes beneath the red-lensed glasses. "They'll come again," he said. "Do you have a plan?"

      "I think so," Whispering said. "Follow me."

*  *  *

      Nearly everyone gathered in one of the larger apartments. A few stragglers were stationed elsewhere in the building, caring for the wounded. Kate waited in the back, as always, observing reactions. Emily looked worked up, almost buzzing with energy, clearly dying to tell someone something she'd learned. Billy spoke with Doc, pleading his case for something. Jane paced, her eyes flicking over to Kate every so often, looking for something Kate couldn't quite figure out.

      Titus, strangely, stayed very close to the other werewolves. He carried himself differently than his future self, but there was a familiarity there, a pack mentality or something Kate couldn't quite put her finger on. He appeared visibly shaken by the fight with the hunters. They all did. Kate had a feeling the werewolves hadn't suffered a defeat like this in a long time.

      Whispering spoke first. He took the center of the room, his lieutenants remained close by.

      "We thought we'd wiped out the hunters years ago," he said, his voice sounding inhuman and echoing coming from that massive wolf's snout. "Clearly they've been waiting for us. Waiting for a time to take us on."

      "Leto," Titus said. "I heard you say something about their leader. Their mistress. Were you trying to bait her out?"

      Leto nodded softly.

      "Their leader is the glue that binds them together," she said. "The hunters have only been a threat as long as Rose is free and in charge."

      "Rose," Titus said.

      Leto and Whispering suddenly looked at him with greater interest.

      "You know her in your timeline?" the Whispering said.

      "I do," Titus said. "I thought I killed her last year. I've never been sure."

      His eyes darted over to Kate in the shadows as he said this. She remembered that fight between Titus and Rose, the brutality of it. Rose nearly killed him, and Titus had barely escaped with his life before he threw the knife-wielding sociopath into the ocean to drown.

      "So if you were calling her out," Titus said. "Is it your hope she'll engage us again directly?"

      "That's the plan," Leto said.

      "Rose won't send minions to do it this time," Whispering said. "She'll come herself. With her best. We've got to wipe them out completely."

      "I want to be there, to help," Titus said.

      Whispering glanced towards Doc and Annie.

      "They're going to be tracking the entire pack anyway," Annie said. "Better they're all together than if he's off on his own."

      "What about the injured?" Jane asked. "Will you try to draw the hunters here, using them as bait?"

      "I can help with that," Doc said.

      Leto tilted her head at him.

      "I know you have a bit of magic, Leto, but I can use an obscura spell on this place the hunters will have trouble seeing through. You can at least leave your injured here for a few days without protection."

      "We'll head out away from the rest of the group and get their attention," Whispering said. "We know they've been commissioned to take us on, to thin out the people pursuing the White Shadow. They'll follow us. It's in their nature. It's what hunters do."

      "We should try to take her alive," Kate said, suddenly.

      Those in the room turned to look at her.

      "She dies for what she did to us," Leto said.

      "Oh, she can die later," Kate said. "But if you think the White Shadow called on her to hunt you, I've got a feeling she'll know where we can get to the Shadow ourselves."

      "I make no guarantees," Whispering said. "If it comes down to her killing more of my people or us killing her first, my decision is easy."

      "Let me come along, then," Kate said.

      "No," the Whispering said.

      "Yes," Titus said instead.

      The older werewolf stared at him with furious golden eyes, but the younger didn't flinch. "She's seen Rose fight. Kate can beat anyone she's watched move before."

      The big wolf smiled, revealing rows of sharp white teeth. "We'll see," Whispering said, but he stopped arguing.

      "What did your team find, Doc?" Solar asked.

      Doc looked at Kate as if to ask if she'd like to speak first.

      She shook her head.

      He stood up. "We discovered an obituary for the original White Shadow," Doc said. "So either the old man faked his death, or there's a very spry ninety year old running around right now. To be honest, neither prospect is very appealing, but I think we need to confront him."

      "Are you going to yank his mask off Scooby Doo style?" Emily said. "I would have ended this world, if not for you meddling kids."

      "And what did you find, Em?" younger-Jane said, cutting Emily's rant off before it could get out of control.

      "How to break stuff," Emily said.

      "We found preliminary research Bohr performed on this . . . Entropy sphere Emily keeps calling it," Annie said.

      "And I can totes break it," Emily said. "We have to find it, but if we locate it, I am so breaking it."

      "Any idea how to find it?" Solar said.

      Emily jumped to her feet and started pacing, her hands folded behind her back like a pompous professor.

      "It has a unique energy signature. Same reason we don't want flyboy over there flying around," Emily said, pointing at Billy. "That's how we can track it."

      "You know how to identify that energy signature?" Solar said.

      "I am a genius, yo. Give me a lever and I can move the world," Emily said.

      "We need the right kind of satellite interface, something that'll let us scan the area from above," Annie said. "The sphere, and the girl inside it, have got to be close. She's providing power for all of the Shadow's tricks, the giant robots and gravity guns. It makes no sense for that engine to be far away."

      "What about trying to look for it from below?" Billy said.

      Everyone turned to look at him as if he'd just belched at a funeral.

      "It's so cute when you brainstorm," Emily said.

      "Listen, girl genius, I'm serious," Billy said. "If it's gravity based, won't the sphere be creating some sort of pull or something on the ground around it? Wouldn't there be some kind of . . . seismantic activity?"

      "Seismic activity?" Emily said.

      "Seismological activity?" Billy said back to her.

      "Seismogorical?" Emily said.

      "Semicolon?" Billy said.

      "Semiconductor?" Emily said.

      "Stop messing with my vocabulary, Emily," Billy said. "I'm serious."

      "I'm messing with you because you're right and I'm mad I didn't think of it first, cupcake," Emily said.

      "Cupcake?" Jessie said.

      "It's a term of endearment," Billy said. "So I'm right?"

      Emily looked at Annie, and they nodded together.

      "Ten points Gryffindor," Emily said. "Are there any seismometers around here though?"

      "The lab over at the Institute for Technology and Math has one," Jessie said.

      "How do you even know that?" Billy said.

      "He says one thing right and he thinks he's the smartest guy in the room," Emily said. "But seriously, have you been there?"

      "My older sister went to school there, before . . . all this happened," Jessie said. "Don't tell me you know how to work a seismometer."

      "I can work it out," Emily said.

      "You are so full of garbage sometimes," Billy said.

      Emily threw her hands up.

      "I can't work under these conditions. You're hampering my genius," she said.

      "Okay," Jane said, pulling the two combatants apart. "You're going to the Institute. Anything else you need in order to shut down this sphere?"

      "I need some things," Emily said.

      Jane frowned. "I'm afraid to ask," she said.

      "They mostly do not involve explosives," Emily said.

      "Mostly?" both Janes said simultaneously.

      "In their inert form, I mean," Emily said. "Though if you could find a decent artillery shell that would be helpful too."

      "Artillery shell," Jane said.

      "Unexploded landmine would do as well," Emily said.

      "We need you to break it so it doesn't do any more harm, not just blow the thing up, Em," Billy said.

      "I got this, yo," Emily said to Billy, then turned to Jane. "But seriously, I'll write down a list. Try not to get the land mine too hot, it might explode."