Zeroes

by Scott Westerfeld

  The hospital visit had been painful, and dangerous. But now she knew.

  The big crash at the CCPD had made her stronger. Maybe her fixing power had faded in the end, but her willpower had grown. A week ago she couldn’t have set foot inside that hospital.

  Sure, Nate’s training had worked, had strengthened her bit by bit. But Chizara could train herself, create her own missions with her own Ultimate Goal, which was to do no harm. She didn’t need the other Zeroes around, complicating things, distracting her. Using her for their own selfish ends, making her destroy property and put people’s lives in danger.

  And she didn’t need to be part of some plan to pay ransom for a bank robber. If someone was kidnapped, you called the police, not a bunch of teenagers with powers they didn’t understand.

  Too bad Kelsie didn’t see that. But that was her choice.

  “Come on, Zara!” Ikem danced back to her. “Aren’t you starving?”

  She was, Chizara realized as she pushed open the door into the ice cream joint. She was hungry and exhausted from fighting against her power.

  She couldn’t stop Nate from playing with other peoples’ lives, but she could walk away. She could nurture her power her own way.

  And if he came around to charm her again—well, that was fine too. She would test her will against Glorious Leader’s any day.

  CHAPTER 66

  ANONYMOUS

  “SO THE FICTIONAL BOYFRIEND IS real,” Lily said.

  Thibault smiled, resisting the urge to snip her gaze and disappear into the shadows of the attic. He had promised Flicker to make this meeting work. Her theory was that the two of them would never be really connected until he got to know Lily, too. Because of magic twin stuff.

  Besides, at seven o’clock tonight the Zeroes were paying Jerry’s ransom to the Russian mobsters. If it went like most of Glorious Leader’s plans, there would be a lot of stress and chaos, the sorts of distractions that made people forget Thibault existed. So this afternoon was probably a good time to cement his connection to Flicker.

  Thibault stuck out a hand. But instead of shaking it, she brushed past him and sat down on the attic couch beside her sister. Okay, Lily was feeling territorial.

  Well, what did he expect? This stuffy little attic was the twins’ sacred place. It was full of their old toys and clothes, and the walls were covered with the tactile maps from which Flicker had learned the shapes of the continents when she was little. His being here was like Scam invading the Magnifique.

  “I thought you’d be taller,” Lily said. “And I was expecting a nicer shirt, like in Nate’s photos.”

  “I told you,” Flicker said. “He lost everything.”

  “Oh, right,” Lily said. The beam of her attention trembled, like a barbell over a weight lifter’s head. She was trying really hard not to lose him. “Guess there’s no time to pack when you get busted hiding in a hotel room.”

  Keeping eye contact, Thibault sat down on the musty leather chair with its squashed-flat cushion. “It’s not like I can get a job and pay rent.”

  “Couldn’t you be a spy or something?” Lily asked.

  He smiled. “My spy boss would forget me. And do you really want the government using my power?”

  “Dude. You’re already in my house. Would working for the government make it any creepier?” Lily gave the wry mouth twist that passed for a smile with her. “But you get spied on yourself, don’t you? All those photos. All those theories of Nate’s. He’s kind of obsessed with you.”

  Thibault pulled a maybe face. The way he felt about that file was pretty much the way Lily felt about him.

  “Don’t worry. You’re in good company.” Lily put an arm around her sister. “He used to be obsessed with Riley, too.”

  “Don’t be weird, Lily.” Flicker pushed her sister’s arm away. “Nate studies all of us Zeroes. That’s just his Glorious Leader thing.”

  “Yeah, but he loved you.” Lily turned to smile at Flicker, but her awareness of Thibault didn’t fade. It was growing steadier, if anything. And it still contained a touch of acid.

  Thibault could tell that he fascinated Lily, but she didn’t trust him, or much like him.

  Suddenly Thibault wished they’d done this in a bigger, airier room with more distractions. He wasn’t used to someone focusing on him for this long. It was wearing him out.

  Maybe if he lightened the mood. “I should thank you, Lily. For helping Riley remember me.”

  “Yeah, you owe me. I painted such a pretty picture.” She smiled. “At least that’s one thing you live up to.”

  Thibault met her gaze, trying not to blush. Lily wasn’t bad-looking herself. It helped that she had Flicker’s eyes, Flicker’s wide, clear forehead and strong cheekbones. Though her face was sharper, and where Flicker’s senses were smoky and soft, Lily’s awareness was like daggers.

  But their connection to each other was unwavering. Maybe twin bonds were something special. Like those long-married couples sitting side by side in the Magnifique lobby, never speaking, never looking at each other, but aware of each other right down to their bones.

  “Give me time and maybe I can live up to your fairy tales,” he said.

  Lily gave a quiet guffaw. “You sound like you’re asking for her hand in marriage. But it’s okay, Anon.” She patted Flicker’s knee. “You have my blessing, you two.”

  “Oh, get over yourself, Lil-Pill,” Flicker said. “You know where you can shove your blessing.”

  She rolled her eyes for Thibault. This was the version of the twin face he felt comfortable with: the rounder, more open one. A solid band of attention angled at him via Lily’s eyes. Flicker was seeing him directly for a change, not in glimpses through a stranger’s vision.

  But it was better when he and Flicker were alone, when he was a voice, touches, smells, and tastes. He felt himself starting to blush at the memory of Flicker’s fingertips, light and sensitive on his face, traveling down his body, her voice whispering in the stuffy darkness.

  “OMG, look at you two.” Lily laughed. “Is this true lurve I see before me?”

  Thibault grinned. Maybe Flicker had been right, and meeting Lily really would make their connection stronger.

  “Forgot to warn you.” Flicker was grinning too. “Lily said we weren’t allowed to be, and I quote, ‘all over each other’ in front of her.”

  “You guys have to break me in gently,” said Lily. “I’m a fragile flower, you know.” And she did the mouth-twist thing again, but it didn’t seem as funny.

  How many levels of sarcasm was Thibault dealing with here? Was this a conversational game, thick with in-jokes? Or a quietly brutal fight where the combatants knew all the buttons to push?

  He dared some sarcasm himself: “A fragile flower. So I’ve noticed.”

  “I’m sure you notice a lot of things.” Lily’s voice lost its jokiness. “You found all those crazy friends of Riley’s first, didn’t you? And you still spy on them?”

  “Annnd she goes for the guts,” Flicker said wearily.

  “Must be handy,” Lily powered on, “finding out on the sly what’ll impress a girl. Were you ever in this house before? Like, when Riley didn’t know you were here?”

  “No,” he said with a clear conscience. “But yeah, I’ve spied on the others. To stop them doing too much damage.”

  “So you only use your power for good? Plus the occasional nice shirt or fancy hotel room?”

  “Sorry, Anon,” said Flicker. “She promised to be polite. But Lily’s always been jealous of the Zeroes.”

  “Jealous?” Lily asked. “I’m just worried about you, Riley. Your power is a blessing. But as far as I can tell, the rest of these guys are pretty much cursed.”

  Thibault actually flinched—at the word, at the vicious stab of attention that went with it. For an awful second it was like Lily knew him, really knew him, the way Scam’s voice did.

  Flicker turned to face her sister. “That’s a shitty thing to say, Lily.”
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  “It’s true!” Lily’s eyes were off him now, her focus flowing toward Flicker.

  And in that moment of relief, of no longer being the focus of all this drama, Thibault instinctively reached out and snipped the rest of her connection, just to give himself a rest. Just for a moment.

  He stood and walked softly to the other end of the attic. He realized he was sweating all over.

  Lily was still talking. “He can’t live here, Riley.”

  “He doesn’t want to!” Flicker protested. “There’s just this one thing we’ve got to do with the Zeroes this evening—”

  “And what if there’s another thing after that, and then another? And he just erases your memories of it? What if he’s moved in before and you can’t remember?”

  “Lily!” Flicker’s voice was soft and horrified. “That’s not even how it works.”

  Thibault turned and cleared his throat. But he’d severed the connection too well.

  “You don’t even know him,” Lily said. “And his family’s so screwed up they abandoned him in a hospital! Shit like that turns people into psychopaths. Serial killers!”

  “Lily, stop!”

  I can hear you, Thibault tried to say, but his voice caught in his throat.

  Lily turned at the strangled sound, and her eyes widened.

  “Oh. Shit. You’re still here.”

  Silence thickened the air. Thibault reminded himself to breathe. When Flicker had remembered the hospital story, it had meant everything. But from Lily’s mouth it was an ice pick in his stomach.

  Her words had skated so close to what Scam had said last summer.

  “I can’t believe you, Lily,” Flicker said.

  “How was I supposed to know he was there?” Lily turned to Thibault again. “Honest, it’s like you disappeared.”

  Her awareness left him again, folding in on itself in embarrassment and humiliation as she stood up from the couch.

  “This is too weird, Riley,” she muttered as she crossed the attic. “How am I supposed to know when he’s watching us?”

  “Lily,” Flicker called. But her sister lifted the handle in the floor and hurried out of sight. The hatch slammed closed with a bang.

  Flicker’s eyes glistened. “I’m so sorry.”

  “It was my fault,” Thibault said. “I cut the connection.”

  “But you promised.”

  “I just needed a break from . . . from all that focus. It was like . . .” Like Scam’s voice, knowing Thibault well enough to hurt him. “I’m not used to that kind of drama. People aren’t supposed to notice me.”

  He tried to compose himself. Without Lily’s eyes to use, Flicker couldn’t see him anymore, but he felt utterly revealed before her.

  She stood up, the strands of her listening drawn to his ragged breath. She crossed to him and put her hands on his shoulders. “She’ll forget what she said, right? We can try again.”

  “I guess.” He looked down into her worried, unseeing eyes.

  “So can you forget what she said, Anon?”

  Thibault wasn’t sure. But that didn’t matter. “She’s a part of you, Flicker. I’m not going to give up.”

  “And it’s not like she really thinks you’re a serial killer,” Flicker said. “This is just weird, that’s all. Finding out a stranger’s in your house.”

  “I know. And it wasn’t fair, disappearing like that. My bad.”

  “It wasn’t anyone’s fault.” Flicker leaned warm against his chest, her fingers in his hair. “But next time, do us all a favor and stay.”

  CHAPTER 67

  BELLWETHER

  NATE KEPT HIS EYES ON his parents’ old Cadillac a hundred yards in front of him. Mob and Scam were in it, headed to meet the Bagrovs. The exchange was fifteen minutes from now, at an industrial park at the edge of Cambria.

  “Anybody following them?”

  “All clear, Bellwether.” Flicker sat next to him in the front, scanning the cars ahead for anyone showing too much interest in the Cadillac.

  If the Bagrovs had someone watching Mob and Scam, then that someone might be trailing the two of them right now. So Nate was staying a hundred yards back, careful not to be spotted bringing in backup.

  Which was just him and Flicker, because Crash had remained obstinate about not coming along. Oh, and also . . . Nate glanced up, and there, sitting in the middle of his rearview mirror, was Anonymous.

  “Oh, hey,” he said.

  “Hello again,” Anon said.

  Nate sighed. “Could you guys, like, talk or something?” The two had been holding hands at the meeting at Nate’s on Sunday, but now there was a heavy silence between them. “I need to focus on driving, not on remembering you exist.”

  “Okay, here’s some small talk,” Anon said. “After we get Mob’s father out of danger, I’m finding a new place.”

  “Right,” Nate said. So that was the reason for the silence—hiding in Flick’s attic wasn’t working out. He didn’t feel any hostility in the car, but Nate knew better than anyone that loving someone left you vulnerable. A lot of things could go wrong with an anonymous boyfriend.

  “You don’t need to know where I live, Bellwether. If for some reason e-mail and phones aren’t working, you can always ask Flicker.”

  “What he means is, don’t try to find him.” Flicker smiled at Nate, at if she were a reluctant bearer of this message.

  Nate raised his hands from the wheel in surrender. He was just glad that Anon was connected to someone in the group. He’d always been worried by how isolated the guy was.

  “Ten minutes,” he said, eyes on the car’s GPS. “It’s all under control.”

  “Okay. This is weird,” Flicker said. “The driver behind us just checked out your license plate.”

  Nate took a slow breath, easing off on the pedal a little. The Cadillac with Scam and Mob in it drifted a little farther ahead.

  “Maybe he’s looking for a letter,” Anon said. “Like that game people play on road trips.”

  Flicker shook her head. “The passenger’s watching us too.”

  Nate swore. “If it’s the Russians, we’re screwed. It’s only supposed to be Scam and Mob at the meet-up!”

  “They’re not looking at the Cadillac.” Flicker’s finger drummed the armrest between them. “Just us.”

  Nate stared at his rearview mirror. The car was too far back to tell anything. “What do they look like, Flick?”

  “I don’t have eyeballs on them,” she said.

  “I got it” came a voice from the backseat.

  Nate told himself to focus. Anonymous was here, of course, and he could turn around and stare straight at them without being noticed.

  A moment later he said, “The passenger’s a big guy, wearing a hat. The woman driving is almost as dark as Chizara. Not exactly Russians.”

  “Worse,” Nate said. “Cops.”

  Anonymous leaned forward between the front seats, making his presence felt. “So you know them?”

  “Detectives King and Fuentes,” Nate sighed. He’d connected too well with Ethan’s mother, so she’d put out an APB on his car in case he went to meet Scam. Some cop along the way had spotted him and alerted the detectives.

  “They still haven’t noticed Scam,” Flicker said.

  “That’s because they’re following me,” Nate said, slowing a little more to let the Cadillac get still farther ahead. “Short version: I was stupid, and let my research get in the way of the Goal.”

  “We can’t lead them to the industrial park,” Anon said. “If the Bagrovs smell cops, everything goes to shit.”

  “And if those detectives see Scam, they’ll pull him over,” Nate said. “And he’s in a car with the bank robber’s daughter and thirty grand. Even the voice won’t be able to explain that.”

  “Can you lose them?” Flicker asked.

  “Eventually.” Nate gripped the steering wheel. He could gather a posse of truckers around him, the way he used to do with bicycles, then slip away d
own an exit ramp. And if he couldn’t find any truckers, there was the traffic coming into town for the big Fourth of July display tonight. “But it’ll take a lot longer than ten minutes.”

  Anon pulled out his phone. “So we call it off, right?”

  “No,” Nate said. They needed to help Mob rescue her father, or she’d never trust them again. “You two go in, just like we planned. You keep watch, Flick, and, Anon, you slip in and do whatever needs to be done. You can do this without me, right?”

  There was a moment of hesitation from them both, but then Flicker reached her hand back and took Anon’s. Nate could feel the pulse between them.

  Whatever had gone wrong at home, Flickonymous was still happening.

  “But how do we get there without bringing the cops along?” Flicker asked.

  “It’s me they’re following. They don’t even know who you guys are. I’ll let you off as close as possible.”

  “I’ll cut off their attention,” Anon said. “And once Flicker whips out the cane, they won’t think twice about her.”

  “Screw you,” she said, and reached back to smack his knee. “Cops fear me.”

  Nate’s eyes dropped to his GPS map. The sooner he veered away from Memorial Drive, the less chance the detectives would have of spotting Scam. He could let Flicker and Anon off on the far side of the industrial park, maybe ten minutes’ run to the Hurricane Hauling and Demolition building.

  The plan was sound, even without Nate there to guide them.

  That was real leadership, after all. Making your people strong enough to stand without you.

  But it had never quite worked that way with the Zeroes.

  “Text Scam and Mob that you’ll be a few minutes late. And that I probably won’t get there at all.”

  CHAPTER 68

  MOB

  KELSIE LET ETHAN DRIVE. SHE was too nervous to do anything but stare out the window, and the Cadillac they’d borrowed from Nate felt too fancy for her to be in charge of.

  They were on Memorial, headed east toward Hurricane Hauling and Demolition. It was quiet out here. Not as quiet as the tenements had been, but empty enough that her crowd power felt hollow in her ribs.