The Indestructibles (Book 3): The Entropy of Everything (24 page)

Chapter 47:

The blind woman's gambit

      Kate didn't like this setup one bit. Too many variables.
They'd scouted the area and determined there was only one defensible, livable building in the immediate vicinity of where Emily had identified the lab. Upon arriving there through one of Doc's teleportation spells, they discovered the guesswork seemed right—the place was boarded up and patrolled by some of the White Shadow's remaining loyalists, armed with the gravity guns that had become the signature weapon of this group. Others carried more traditional firearms as well, and Whispering, in full-on werewolf form, warned them of still more surprises to come.

      "The hunters must have left some of their men behind," the older werewolf said. "I can smell the silver."

      Their strike team was not a large one, with Whispering determining that his people needed to be kept in reserve in case things went wrong. Titus shared with Kate privately that the pack had suffered too many casualties to offer the kind of threat they needed. Better to hit small than risk losing more friends and allies if it wasn't necessary.

      Still, they would come if called. Wolves always could be counted upon.

      But that left the break-in of Shadow's hideout to Whispering, Titus, Kate and Doc . . . and Kate's future self—blind and apparently out of her mind, Kate thought. She struggled to look at her future self, disgusted not so much by the injury to her sight but by the strange desperation that seemed to have enveloped her. I've been broken a long time, Kate thought, but I've never been weak. She feels weak to me.

      I need to be better than that.

      Two ragtag soldiers strolled by, gravity guns slung lazily at their sides.

      Again, Whispering's senses remained the strongest. He heard them talking. "Our Straylights have been spotted," the big werewolf said.

      "Time to move," Titus said.

      The soldiers turned the corner in front of the building, their backs to the little alcove where Kate and the others hid.

      "I've got this," she said, not waiting for anyone to protest.

      She ran up behind the two men, her feet silent as she flittered across pavement. Before either heard her, she landed a jumping punch to one, knocking him head-first into the brick wall of the building. The other tried to raise his gun but Kate kicked his hands, knowing just the spot to make his fingers turn numb. He coughed in pain and Kate kicked again, slamming the top of the gun into the man's face. The first man began to stir, she pirouetted into a spin kick, and knocked him out.

      Kate looked back to see Titus transforming into a big silver werewolf, a younger, less scarred version of the creature beside him. Both scrambled up the side of the building like apes, and Kate watched them quietly but ferociously dispatch a pair of sentries. Titus nodded to Kate, his big, shaggy wolf's head looking ridiculous when performing such a small, delicate movement.

      Doc walked up to the front door of the building, blind Kate following close behind him. He put his fingers on the reinforced metal of the door and traced along the creases for a breaking point or weak spot. "Never mind," he said, sighing. "Why go for subtle when you can . . ."

      He took a step back, waved his hands, and the double doors simply became butterflies, an entire flock, colored wings drifting away in stark contrast to the pale gray melancholy of the cityscape.

      Future-Kate held out her hands, feeling the butterflies and their silky wings fly through her fingers.

      "Every time you do something like that," Younger-Kate said.

      "I know. It never gets old," Doc said. He offered her a rare smile. "And I'm the one who casts these spells."

      Together, both Kates and Doc walked inside.

      The interior had, strangely, been left nearly intact, with old black and white tile floors, and a coiling staircase leading up to apartments on the second landing. This was the type of building that survived after the influx of money to the City, Kate realized, the sort of place that refused to change as the world around it was swallowed up by the future. The wood on the railing and staircase was stained dark, deeply chipped, but loved and cared for. History lived here, she thought.

      A gravity gun interrupted her reverie and sent a blast of light at her. Kate bounced back in time to watch the bolt splash off the ground, breaking black and white tiles that had been tread upon for generations. Before she could react, her future self charged up the stairs, following the sound of the gun, moving so aggressively the shooter froze, unable to get off another round. The blind Dancer kicked the rifle out of the man's hands, and then, without hesitation, knocked him off the balcony onto the floor below. The shooter landed with a sickening thud.

      Another soldier stepped out, an ordinary gun clasped in his hand. He raised it and fired.

      Future-Kate reacted, not quickly enough, yet still in time to turn a sure-fired deadly shot into a slight graze along one shoulder. She charged again, forcing the man to fire wildly, missing her entirely. A kick square in the chest, sent him crashing through the railing to the ground below, to join his compatriot on the floor, now both moaning and broken.

      "What are you doing?" Kate asked her future self.

      "What I have to," she answered. She touched her shoulder where the bullet grazed her, checking to see her armor held. Kate saw her future self's fingers come away bloody.

      "You're going to get yourself killed," Kate said.

      "I should have done that a long time ago," her doppelganger said. "I'm going ahead. Tell him not to follow me."

      Kate knew exactly whom she meant.

      "Don't be stupid," Kate said.

      "I always was an intolerant, judgmental brat," her future self said. "I'll race you to the Shadow, then, little me."

      Future-Kate turned and left.

      Doc put his hand on younger-Kate's shoulder. "We'll get to the Shadow first," he said. "Don't worry. She's just . . ."

      "Being me," Kate said. "I need to be better than that."

      "Then be better," Doc said.

Chapter 48:

Strange places in time

      All my life," Emily said, loudly enough to make Jane uncomfortable.
"All my life all I've ever wanted is to fight giant robots. Do you realize how important this is to me?"

      "Saving the world isn't important enough for you?" Annie asked.

      Jane caught the time-traveler smirking behind those red-lensed glasses. She more than anyone had begun warming to Emily's questionable charms.

      "I've saved the world. Couple of times at least," Emily said. "But giant robots? This is a once in a lifetime moment I'm missing out on."

      "You have not saved the world multiple times," Jane said.

      "Don't argue semantics, hot stuff," Emily said. "I think defeating a sentient hurricane is saving the world."

      "Delusional and prone to flights of fancy," Jane said to Solar, while mimicking a doctor jotting down notes and nodding in Emily's direction.

      They ought to make the best of it, given where they were, Jane thought. Working their way beneath the City, through stagnant sewers, the four women were looking for a way in to an underground space Annie and Doc had called the Vault. When Jane had questioned him about it, he said it hadn't been used in years. An empty space located below the Tower that his old team, and their predecessors, always had but never really used for long. Sometimes a prison, sometimes a lab, but more often than not, simply a forgotten basement where weird things ended up.

      "Does it bother anyone else that they're keeping future-Emily in the bottom of our old base?" Jane asked out loud. "It just . . . it strains logic for me."

      Annie shook her head, laughing just a bit.

      "The universe has a sense of humor, Jane," Annie said. "I've been in more timelines than I can remember. Traveled across diverse alternate realities. Places where things are backwards or strange or just completely different. And you know what I've found?"

      "That it would be a lot easier if you owned a Tardis?" Emily said.

      "No, that when a place is important, it's always important," Annie said. "There are locations in our world where significant things happen. Where the events that change everything always seem to occur. Doc told you, the Tower wasn't built on that spot by accident. The founders understood it was a nexus of the strange."

      "So what you're telling us is, if we ever find ourselves in another post-apocalyptic alternate future, the problem is probably in our basement," Emily said.

      "That's not exactly what I said, but it is annoyingly close," Annie said. "Metaphorically speaking."

      "Where else is like this?" Jane said.

      Annie smiled broadly.

      "You want a tour of the weird world? Let's get through this first and I'll take you on a road trip," she said.

      "I love road trips," Emily said.

      She caught Jane frowning.

      "What? I'm carry-on sized and also I can make hauling luggage easy. You want me on your road trips. I'm a boon." Emily listed to one side and bumped into the wall of the sewer tunnel, having trouble staying on her feet. She caught Jane staring and sneered. "What? I got something on my face?"

      "You're walking weird, Em," Jane said.

      "These boots pinch."

      "That's not what I meant," she said.

      "You feeling okay, Emily?" Solar asked.

      "I'm feeling fine. Y'know, I tell Jane she's a mother hen, but you guys are really proving me—"

      Emily was caught off mid-sentence by an uncontrollable urge to walk face first into the wall. "What the deuce!" she yelled. "I bit my lip!"

      Solar rushed to the wall, moving Emily away from the spot where her face collided with the masonry.

      "Just a wall," she said.

      "What do you say, Emily? Do you feel like you're being pulled in that direction?" Annie said.

      "Nope. I feel perfectly normal," Emily said, walking away, taking a hard ninety degree turn, and smacking face first once again. "How many times am I gonna bite my lip! I hate this wall!"

      "So move it out of your way," Jane said.

      Emily looked back at her and smiled.

      "Like in the prison?"

      "In the prison?" Solar said.

      "They got arrested a few months back," Annie said.

      "We got arrested in your timeline?" Solar said.

      "I wouldn't exactly say it was arrested," Jane said. "More like involuntary incarceration."

      "So arrested," Solar said.

      "Totes arrested," Emily said. "I got a bunch of ugly tattoos and did pushups in my cell."

      "We had a couch and a TV in our cell," Jane said.

      "But it wasn't high def," Emily said. "Practically hard time."

      "Move the wall, Emily," Jane said.

      "You're not the boss of me," Emily said. "I don't know why I have to keep reiterating this to everyone." Nevertheless, Emily held up her hands, forming a bubble of float and enveloping the wall in front of her.

      "Gentle, Emily," Jane said.

      "You think I'm not going to be gentle moving a wall that might be holding the ceiling up above us?"

      "I seem to recall you inventing a variation of the bubble of float called a wall of slam," Jane said.

      "Y'know, you incorrectly use something called a wall of slam one time and nobody forgives you for it," Emily said.

      "Because the wall of slam directly led to our incarceration, if you remember," she said.

      "Whatever. I'm moving this wall out of the way," she said.

      "With your mouth?" Annie said.

      "
Et tu, Brute?
" Emily said.

      "Oh don't try to make me feel bad by quoting Shakespeare," Annie said. "I've met him."

      Emily stopped everything and just stared at Annie, slack-jawed.

      "Shut. Up." Emily said.

      Annie pointed at herself. "Time traveler. Remember?"

      "If we survive this, can we make a list of people I'm allowed to meet?" Emily said.

      "That's a terrible idea," Jane said.

      "You get us through this, Emily, and I'll help you at least see, in person, one historical figure of your choice."

      "This is amazing," Emily said. "I am so meeting Simone de Beauvoir."

      "I. Wait. What?" Solar said.

      Jane just shrugged.

      "I can't say I saw that coming, but I don't usually see anything Em says coming anymore," Jane said.

      Emily once again prepared herself to move the wall, arms outstretched, crafting a very specifically sized bubble of float.

      "Maybe we'll get lucky and Jean-Paul Sartre will be there too," Emily said. "Two for one."

      She pulled at the empty air with her hands. The wall moved, sliding and buckling in a perfect sphere. Emily clenched her fists and dragged again, and a section of wall broke free and collapsed, leaving the area around it intact.

      "I'm holding you to that," Emily said.

      Annie threw her hands up. "A promise is a promise," she said.

      "Everyone," Solar said, her voice now tense.

      Jane followed her gaze through the makeshift tunnel that Emily just created and spied what her future self was staring at.

      "Oh no," she said. "This is so much worse than we imagined."