Meta (Book 5): New Empire

by Reynolds, Tom

  “I’m not a porter, you idiot. I’m a teleporter!” she shouts.

  “You’re not much of anything in here, 7432. Don’t go forgetting that now.”

  The steel gate rattles as it locks shut. The sound is followed by the guard’s retreating footsteps.

  “Robin Clay, right?” Iris asks.

  “Oh God, don’t tell me you’re another fan. This is why I had to get rid of the last cellmate. I’m not answering any of your damn questions, and I’m sure as hell not signing anything, okay? I’m obviously not a great teleporter if I wound up locked up in this hellhole.”

  “You won’t have to worry about that much longer,” Iris says. “I’m getting you out of here.”

  “I’m taking a nap. Please leave me alone.”

  A cheap mattress creaks as Robin climbs into her bunk.

  “Got it!” Julio interrupts.

  “Excellent. Standby. We’re still waiting for Iris to get Robin on board. Once she agrees to the plan, we’ll have a window to perform the extraction at two p.m. That’s when the metaband vault is opened for its daily inspection. Julio will slip out, get the metabands to Robin and she’ll teleport the three of them out of there.”

  “Um, what time is it now?” Julio asks.

  “It’s 10:43 a.m.,” Midnight says. “There should be plenty of oxygen in the vault for you to remain your normal size until Iris is ready. I’ll give you the go-ahead twenty minutes before so you can shrink back down.”

  “There’s a slight problem with that, boss,” Julio says.

  I don’t like the sound of that.

  “I’m having trouble shrinking right now.”

  “Don’t worry about shrinking yet,” Midnight says. “I’ll give you ample warning.”

  “No, I’m not having trouble shrinking down to miniature size. I’m having trouble shrinking back down to regular size.”

  “Go again?”

  “When I got in here, I returned to regular size like normal, right? Well, I kinda kept going. I thought it’d have stopped by now, but I’m still growing. It’s slow, but I think it’ll become a problem.”

  “Julio, what is your approximate size right now?” Midnight asks.

  “Uh, probably about fifteen feet tall, give or take a foot.”

  Midnight closes his eyes and thinks. He mutes the mic and tells me, “He’s doubling in size every hour. In another thirty minutes, we’re going to have a real problem.” He unmutes his mic. “Stand by, Julio. We’ll move up the extraction plan to get you out of there.”

  He switches over to Iris’s feed.

  “Iris, we have a problem. Julio is growing and can’t control it. We need to get you out of there as soon as possible.”

  Iris sighs.

  “I’m serious, Robin,” she says. “I’m here to get you out, and I don’t have time to argue.”

  There’s what sounds like a scuffle. Iris must have tried to grab Robin, and it doesn’t sound like it was the smartest move.

  “Get your hands off me!” Robin shouts, “Guard! Guard! This woman is trying to escape from the facility!”

  “Uh, guys,” Julio says on the other line. “I’m in trouble here.”

  In the background of Julio’s feed, I hear a loud screeching noise.

  “It’s happening faster, and I can’t stop it.”

  There’s more screeching and then popping. He must be expanding to fill the entire room. The steel walls are buckling under the strain of his increasing size. Alarms are blaring, and there’s unintelligible shouting in the distance.

  “You’re up, Omni,” Midnight says.

  “I’m up? What happened to me sitting this one out!”

  “Go, now!”

  “Fine,” I huff.

  Just this once, I really, really didn’t want to be involved.

  Twenty-Two

  I blast through the water tower’s escape hatch and head toward Silver Island. I’m flying fast and already see the red lights flashing on the roof of the main facility.

  “No, I’m not going anywhere with you!” Robin shouts through my earpiece.

  I hear the jail cell door slide open, then approaching footsteps and the sounds of a struggle.

  “She’s powered!” a guard shouts.

  Sounds like Iris’s cover is blown too.

  Sirens are blaring and the roof of the Silver Island containment facility is bulging. Why hadn’t I noticed that before? As if to answer my question, a King Kong-sized Julio bursts through top of the building. The pained expression on his face shows that he’s trying desperately to stop his growth, but it’s way too late. He’s roughly seventy-five feet tall and growing.

  “Oh crap, we’ve got some big problems here, Midnight,” I say. “Where do you want me to go?”

  “Make sure Julio has the metabands and get him out of there. That’s the priority. Iris can handle Robin.”

  I thrust out my hands and rapidly descend toward Julio.

  “Hey buddy, I’m getting you out of here,” I say over the earpiece.

  He opens his eyes and spots me in the sky. He looks scared. His attitude is much different from earlier that day. He’s in way over his head and he knows it.

  “Any ideas what I should do here, Midnight?”

  “Pull him out of there before he gets any bigger and head east. I’ll find a safe landing spot.”

  I hover in front of Julio, looking for the best way to pick him up. It’s not like I can just hook my hands under his arms. As I’m assessing the situation, I feel a series of stings across my back. I whirl around to find half a dozen guards armed with semi-automatic rifles.

  “Cease fire! Cease fire!” Halpern yells as he emerges from a doorway below. “He’s on our side!”

  He won’t be happy about this next part, but at least they stopped shooting at me.

  “What if I just grab Julio by his jumpsuit?” I ask Midnight over the radio.

  “Not a great idea. That suit grows and shrinks with Julio, but the material isn’t strong enough to support his weight.”

  That means it’ll tear like a silk shirt caught on a nail if I pick him up by his suit.

  Falling to your death is bad enough as is without having to do it naked.

  “Okay, I’ve got another idea,” I say. “Julio, I’m going to land in the palm of your hand. I want you to grab on to me as hard as you can. I’m going to fly us both out of here.”

  “I can’t do that. I’ll crush you to death.”

  “Trust me, I can take it. I need you to hold on as tightly as you can, though, because you’ll be dangling from that grip, okay?”

  “I don’t know about this…”

  “Omni!” Halpern shouts from the ground. “What are you doing?”

  No more discussion. We’ve got to get out of here before Julio grows too large for me to carry. I fly into his open hand and nestle myself deep in his palm. Julio looks at me with deep concern scrawled across his face. Tears well up in his eyes, which are the size of swimming pools.

  Loud pops ring out, and bullets bounce against Julio’s left cheek. I look down and see the guards reloading. Halpern locks eyes with me. He’s now aware that I’m not on his side, that this was all a ruse, and he looks pissed. I took advantage of his trust, and I doubt I’ll ever have it again.

  As I stare at Halpern, a dark shadow falls over me. Julio’s fingers close in from overhead and seal off the outside world. It’s dark and quiet. The only sound is Julio’s rapid heartbeat as his blood moves through the veins of his hand.

  “Tighter,” I say into the earpiece.

  The fingers move in closer, applying pressure to my entire body, but it’s not enough.

  “Tighter,” I say again.

  “Are you sure? I’ll crush you,” Julio replies.

  “I can take it. Just make sure you’re gripping on to me like your life depends on it, because it does.”

  “Okay,” he says. Through his microphone, I hear bullets ricocheting off him. The facility’s reinforcements must ha
ve arrived.

  The pressure increases, and I have trouble keeping my legs outstretched. Julio’s palm pushes them up toward my chest while his fingers push my head down toward my knees. He squeezes harder, and my joints start to give out against his grip. It’s pitch black and hard to breathe. Time to get us out of here.

  “Hang on,” I gasp into the microphone.

  It feels like I’m barely budging, but then I feel Julio’s hand rise into the air with me. I push against his closed fingers, and the strain lessens.

  “Keep holding on, Julio.”

  I push harder and meet resistance. His arm must be fully outstretched over his head. Now to see if I can actually pull this big boy off the ground.

  I place my hands against the flesh of his fingers and push. His grip holds, and we rise.

  “Whoa!” he shouts into the microphone.

  “You’re my eyes, Julio. How high up are we?”

  “I don’t know. I’m not really good at measurements.”

  “I think I figured that out about you.”

  “We’re higher than the bridge, if that means anything to you.”

  It does. It means I can fly east without worrying about the suspension cables.

  “Which way is east, Julio?”

  “I don’t know that kinda stuff!”

  Not good at measurements or directions. Great.

  “Which direction is the sun?” I ask.

  “Um, left.”

  I adjust my grip from inside his fist and fly toward his left, careful not to oversteer and lose altitude.

  “No, sorry. The other left.”

  “You’re killing me here, Julio.”

  I readjust and push in the opposite direction. Julio lets out a small shriek that reverberates through my entire body.

  “What’s wrong? What is it?”

  “I’m afraid of heights.”

  “And you’re just realizing that now?”

  “We were over water before. That was different. Now we’re over land.”

  “Just keep hanging on, Julio.”

  It’s not important enough to tell him this now, but a fall from this height would kill him whether he landed on water or land.

  “Where am I going, Midnight?” I ask into my earpiece.

  “Continue on your current heading. There’s a cornfield thirteen miles from your position that will be suitable for setting Julio down.”

  “Got it. How’s Iris doing?”

  “Not great,” Iris chimes in. In the background, I hear yelling and gunfire. “I could really use some help here, Midnight.”

  “I’m working on it.”

  “Let me know when I’m close to the field so I can descend.”

  It’s getting harder to fly. Julio’s size is increasing, and with it his weight. He has to readjust his grip and squeeze tighter to accommodate. Soon, his hand will be too large to hang on to me.

  “Uh, I don’t think I can stop this,” Julio says.

  His weight is increasing exponentially as his grip loosens. Not good.

  “Did you just say Midnight?” I faintly hear Robin say over Iris’s comm.

  “Yeah, he’s getting us help,” Iris replies.

  “Why didn’t you say you’re working with Midnight?”

  “You didn’t give me a chance!”

  “Iris, if you two have made up, now would be a really great time to give me a hand,” I say.

  “Come on, let’s get out of here,” Robin says.

  “Slow down! You’re descending too fast!” Julio yells.

  The words rattle my eardrums. His size has dramatically increased the volume of his voice, and I lose my balance. His grip slips, and I slide through the gap between his fingers.

  He swipes at me with his other hand, and I grab his thumb. Julio yelps in pain. I feel his gigantic thumb come loose in its socket. The thumb slips from my grip, and he falls.

  “Iris, I need help now!” I yell into my comm.

  I dive toward the earth, blowing past Julio and positioning myself under him to slow his fall. It’s little use, though. I’m too small compared to him. Even if I was strong enough to stop him, I’d wind up tearing right through him. It’d be like he’d landed on a fence post.

  Just when I think all hope is lost, there’s a sonic boom in the distance, and a purple streak rapidly heads in my direction.

  “Where are the metabands?” Iris asks over the radio, her voice strained.

  I immediately realize what she wants to do. I look up and spot the pair of metabands glinting in the sun as they tumble alongside Julio. They’re the size of a grain of rice compared to him.

  “On ‘em,” I tell Iris.

  I dart into the sky. My visor senses my intent and locks on the metabands, highlighting them with red bull’s-eyes. I fly toward the closest one first and pluck it from the sky, then turn on a dime and grab the second.

  With the metabands safely in my possession, I return my attention to Iris. She’s coming in at fast, and I position myself in the path between her and Julio. I hold the metabands in front of me and stay as still as possible. I hope this will work.

  The purple streak blows past me, and the metabands disappear from my hands.

  There’s a flash of light as Robin activates, and an instant later, Julio disappears too.

  Iris finds me and zips back over.

  “Do you think that worked?” I ask.

  “I don’t know.”

  There’s a tense moment of silence between us.

  Robin appears and grabs our wrists. Faster than the blink of an eye, all three of us are back at Midnight’s hideout.

  Twenty-Three

  “Where’s Julio?” Iris asks.

  “Don’t worry, he’s fine. I dropped him in the Atlantic Ocean,” Robin answers.

  “You what?” Iris exclaims.

  “You didn’t let me finish. I redirected his momentum and dropped him in the Atlantic Ocean to break his fall, which it did, thank you very much. Must have been the shock of hitting the cold water, because he returned to normal size instantly.”

  “Then why isn’t he here?” I ask.

  Robin laughs. “This is the last place he wanted to be. Begged me to take him home. To be honest, it was pretty rough to watch. I just wanted to get him out of there so he’d stop crying. He told me where home was, and I took him there. Now here we are. I see you’ve still got a nasty habit of working with kids, Midnight. Just a tip, you might want to screen out the criers.”

  “You’re welcome, by the way,” Midnight says as he rises from his chair and strides toward us with a tablet in hand.

  “I didn’t say thank you,” Robin says.

  “Midnight didn’t mention rudeness was one of your abilities,” Iris injects.

  Now that it’s no longer her responsibility to get Robin’s cooperation, Iris drops her meager attempt at friendliness.

  “Spare me. You broke me out because you must want something. That’s the way Midnight works. At least he usually keeps up his end of the bargain. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have agreed to you flying me out of there. So stop pretending like you’re some altruistic do-gooder, okay?”

  Iris stares, unblinking, into Robin’s eyes. Robin takes a step toward Iris, refusing to break eye contact.

  “That’s enough, both of you,” Midnight says.

  I’ve subconsciously slunk back a few steps. No need for me to get involved, but I am slightly enjoying watching it.

  “Robin, we need your help,” Midnight says. “I won’t sugarcoat it or pretend like you’re getting the better end of this bargain, but the world as we know it might be at risk.”

  “You’re laying it on thicker than usual. I’m guessing this has something to do with the big Christmas tree ornament in the sky?”

  “It does. They haven’t been honest with us about their circumstances. We need to determine their intentions while we can without alerting them to our suspicions.”

  “And how do we do that?”

  “By tele
porting to their home planet.”

  Robin pauses before looking to me, then Iris, and finally back to Midnight.

  “You’re serious?” she asks incredulously.

  “Desperate times call for desperate measures.”

  Robin shakes her head in disbelief. “Wow. I knew you were crazy for dressing up like that, but I didn’t know you were this crazy.”

  “I wouldn’t be asking if there was any other way.”

  “Damn. Well, we’re all going to die someday. Might be nice to be able to say I got to see another planet before I went.”

  “Does that mean you’ll do it?”

  “Hell yeah. I’m in.”

  Twenty-Four

  “Got it. Piece of cake,” Robin says.

  Robin, Iris, and I are seated in front of a large holographic projector in Midnight’s hideout. I asked Midnight if the device was using technology from the Volarian ship, and he told me to shut up and focus. I’ll take that as a very strong maybe.

  Midnight is standing next to a hologram of a sphere, a stand-in for Volaris, and talking about coordinates. He told us to memorize them by heart, even though only Robin really needs to know the coordinates down cold. It deeply concerns me that she’s the one who’s paying the least attention.

  “Repeat them back to me,” Midnight asks.

  “4 … 5 … 8?” she begins.

  “Do I have to explain the consequences of getting this teleportation wrong? You’ll be stranded in the deepest reaches of space. There will be no way to retrieve you. Even if there were, you’d be dead within seconds from exposure.”

  “I know, I know,” Robin says. “Maybe we can take a break or something.”

  “There’s no time to take breaks,” Midnight says. “The Volarians could execute their real plan at any moment, and we won’t see it coming.”

  “Midnight, she just escaped from prison and saved a gigantic fifteen-year-old from drowning in the ocean,” Iris says. “I don’t think it’s unreasonable to take a ten-minute breather. Volaris will still be there after a bathroom break.”

  Midnight’s jaw clenches. I sit and silently pray he doesn’t look at me. Once again, I’d rather stay out of this.