by wildbow
I glanced at Rachel as I said that last bit. She’d instructed her dogs to stay, so they wouldn’t trip any of the traps in our way.
I made my way over a hump of bodies. The members of the Nine who’d spilled acid all over the place had melted nine police officers and left them in a heap. Crawler? Only one that fit.
Our destination was the kind of spot, like a courthouse’s steps, where someone could give a speech. There were two objects covered in tarps, a man who was in a reclining position at the far end of the stairs, and ten dead bodies arrayed in a star shape, limbs bent to mark the direction of the spiral.
I checked under the tarps, then bit my lip.
I turned around and gave Golem instructions as he made his way past the traps. He created platforms to step over to serve as a shortcut. Grace, Tecton, Wanton and Cuff hung back, looking grim. They were joined by Chevalier and the others.
Golem joined me at the top of the stairs.
“How’s your headspace?” I asked.
“Terrified.”
“In a way that’s going to impact our job here?”
“No. No. You told me what to expect. Kind of. I didn’t imagine this.”
I shook my head. “No.”
There was a voice from beneath the other tarp. A strangled scream.
“What was that?”
“A recording,” I lied. Then I elaborated. “It’s a trap. Two tarps, have to guess the right one. Guess the wrong one and you blow up. This one. Move the tarp.”
He hesitated.
“Trust me,” I said. Even as I lie for everyone’s benefit.
Rachel and Golem worked together to move the tarp aside.
A television.
“The tape’s already in the machine, you can hit play to start it,” the man sitting at the edge of the stairs said.
“Wait, Weaver, stop. Who was that?” Revel asked.
“Who?” I asked. “What do you mean?”
“Look to your right.”
I did. The other tarp, more corpses, the man who was now standing at the edge of the stairs, the little crenelation at the top of the stair’s railing, then beyond that, cabins, restaurants, hotels and motels, the rest of the town, and mountains in the background.
“Not sure I get what you’re saying,” I said.
“What’s wrong?” Grue asked.
“I don’t know. I’m getting communications from Revel, and she’s acting funny.”
“Here,” the man said. “Let me get that for you.”
The others stepped out of the way as he approached me, Golem, and the television set. He reached for the play button.
I caught his wrist.
“He’s dangerous,” Revel said.
“I beg your pardon?” the man asked.
“Attack.”
Attack?
I shook my head a little, releasing the man’s wrist. “I appreciate the offer, sir, but let’s be safe and make sure this isn’t a trap.”
“Can’t argue with that,” he said, smiling.
“This is what hell is like,” Revel said. “Listen to me.”
“Tattletale, are you there?” I asked.
“I am.”
“Tattletale?” Revel asked. “Damn all of you. It doesn’t matter. Listen, Taylor, master and stranger protocols are in effect. Your perceptions are altered, understand?”
I felt my heart quicken a little at that. “I understand.”
“There is a person to your right. Not a teammate, former or current. I need you to kill that person, don’t ask why, don’t think too much about it. Draw your knife.”
I drew my knife.
“Look. I’ll tell you who to attack.”
I glanced to my right, my eyes falling on Rachel. It was a bit presumptuous to say she wasn’t a teammate. Not a team player, but she’d done her share.
“No, to her right.”
I looked past the man and set my eyes on Golem.
“I’m more inclined to think you’re a voice in my head that’s fucking with me, than to suspect Golem’s up to something, but—”
“Oh hell,” Revel said.
“I got this. Taylor, do me a favor, give the order to ‘go dark’.”
“Go dark,” I said.
To my left, Grue surrounded himself in thick darkness.
Nothing happened.
“It didn’t work.”
“Wait.”
A spray of blood leaped from the man’s throat. We each stepped away, and I hurried forward to stop Rachel from backing into the other tarp. We watched in stunned silence as blood poured from the wound.
“Hey,” a female voice said, “Do me a favor, let me know if there are any traps at the bottom of the stairs?”
“Who—” Golem started.
“Just tell me.”
“Acid,” I said, raising my knife so I could defend myself if I had to.
Imp appeared as she booted the bleeding man in the small of the back. He rolled down the stairs, leaving spatters and sprays of blood as he made his way down, and then collapsed in a pile of bodies. He started screaming, a gurgling sound.
I could see Chevalier and the others staring in shock, adopting fighting stances, unsure of how to proceed. It looked like Chevalier was talking to someone, gesturing with his free hand. Was it Revel, on the comms?
“My schtick,” Imp spat the words at the dying man.
I could mark the moment he died, because the blanks in my perception began to fill in.
Nice Guy, I thought. I’d badly underestimated the severity of his power. I’d known he would be in their roster, had kept it in mind throughout, even told myself to be ready for him, and then the moment we ran into him, well, he was another face in the crowd. The connection wasn’t possible.
I watched as the acid ate away at him, burns creeping upward and spreading across his flesh, bubbling as it reached the cartilage of his nose and ears.
“Thank you, Tattletale,” Revel said.
“All good.”
“I… think I can tolerate your presence on this channel for the moment. Provided you don’t cause any trouble that makes me regret it.”
“I’d do that anyways. So. One more trap down. Keep in mind there are eight more of him.”
“What was he going to do?” Golem asked.
“Probably ask you all to stand there and stay still while he murdered each of you in turn,” Tattletale said.
“Oh.”
“Tattletale,” I said. “Call my phone, and I’ll put you on speaker.”
“Okay. Let’s see.”
“Six-three-zero-five-five—” Revel started.
My phone rang. I picked up and put Tattletale on speaker, as Revel sighed audibly in my ear.
“Is the video player safe?” I asked. I turned my head towards the television.
“Yeah. All the rest of this, it’s to scare. It’s also meant to delay. Jack probably expected the heroes to take a little while to find this, to get by the traps. The spiral you mentioned, it would have been maybe a day or two before they put the pieces together, then another three to six hours before they navigated it to the center.”
“Yay us,” Imp said.
She got more powerful, I thought. She’d been able to speak while using her power. Nuances.
“Press play.”
I hit the button.
It was Jack, here, in the center of the plaza. The camera wobbled as someone followed him, recording. I could see shadows of the other Slaughterhouse Nine in the background. Hookwolf. Skinslip. Night Hag.
“This message is intended for Theodore Anders. Kaiser’s son. Stop the video here and go find him. Time is of the essence, I should say. How much essence and time you have available depends on how incompetent you heroes are. Hurry now, I’ll wait.”
“No need to wait,” Tattletale commented. “He’s standing right here.”
There were a few looks of surprise at that. Eyes fell on Golem.
There was a pause, then Jack started s
peaking. “You missed the deadline, Theodore. Simple game of hide and seek, and you had two years to do it, to find and kill me. You failed.”
Golem’s gloves made a small creaking sound as he clenched his fists.
“You remember the deal, right? Two years to find me. Two years, you fight past my minions, you look me in the eye, and then you kill me. And if you fail? A thousand people die. Your sister joins them, and you’re the last on the list.”
“Golem,” Revel said. She started to say something else, but Jack cut her off.
“That pain you feel, that self loathing? The fear and dawning realization of what you’ve done? Capture that, Theodore Anders. Hold on to that feeling and use it, because I’m pulling your leg.”
Golem startled as if he’d been slapped. His eyes had lowered, and now they returned to the screen.
“Circumstances beyond my control delayed me. So I’m going to do you the favor of extending the deadline, and you’re going to do me the favor of forgiving my lateness. Agreed? Agreed.”
“Can we not agree?” Imp asked, uselessly.
Jack continued. “This is a prelude. See, all of these guys just woke up, and they needed a chance to stretch, flex their abilities and make sure everything works right. Turn the camera around, Bonesaw dear.”
The camera panned around. There were other members of the Slaughterhouse Nine present, standing in a loose half-circle. Hundreds of them. Nine of each. Thirty groups. I recognized most, could guess as to the others, who didn’t have their powers or full transformations going.
In the middle of that semicircle, lying on the ground, civilians had their hands folded on the backs of their heads. In many cases they’d been stacked like cordwood. Many bound, others too terrified to move.
“Oh god,” Golem said.
Jack spoke, his voice calm, clearly relishing this. The camera returned to him, focusing on his face. “I promised a thousand bodies. A thousand kills, if you failed to meet the challenge we set in our bargain. Except there’s a bit of a problem. See, things have changed. The Endbringers have apparently doubled down. Terror is a fact of life. As commodities go, this one has depreciated quite a bit in the time I’ve been gone. We’ve really got to step up my game if I’m going to pass muster and get on the front page of the paper, don’t you agree?”
“No,” Golem said.
Silent, I took his hand, holding it. My eyes didn’t leave the screen as I studied it for details, matching members of the Slaughterhouse Nine to the files I’d studied in recent months.
“Now, I’m still a man of my word,” Jack said. “The original deal stands, of course. That’s why each member of my army here is going to walk away with three or four of the locals here. We’ve whittled down the number to an even nine hundred and ninety-nine. Let’s say you have… hmm. Until the twenty-fourth. Five days.”
We watched in silence.
What’s the rub, the trick?
“If you fail to kill me, I disband the Nine.”
“What?” Imp asked. “What?”
I frowned. Not what I expected.
“That’s not an enticement to leave me alive,” Jack purred the words, sounding pleased with himself. “See, Bonesaw did a very good job of putting my army together. Each is in the prime of their life, fit, in fighting shape.”
“Aw shucks,” a girl’s voice said, offscreen.
“Their psychologies are close to what they should be, all things considered. Except for tweaks, here and there. I’m good when it comes to wrangling the wicked, but Bonesaw apparently felt two hundred and eighty would be too many, even for me. She’s made them loyal. They’ll listen better. The most unpredictable and dangerous have been touched up, the edges rounded off. While interacting with me, anyways. I won’t sully your experience on that front.
“No. They’re obedient and servile only when I require them to be. If you fail in your task, then I’ll give them one last task, to kill the one thousand people we agreed to in the terms of our wager, and then I’ll disband the group. They’ll be free to run rampant, to do as they see fit. Wreak chaos. I’ll take a vacation, sit back with a Mai Tai and watch the show.”
“Fuck me,” Tattletale said.
“Fuck,” I echoed her, agreeing.
Golem, for his part, had gone stone-still.
“I’ll be leaving members of the Slaughterhouse Nine behind at regular intervals as I beat a not-so-hasty retreat. Your choice if you deal with them or leave them be. But if I get one report from them that you’re getting help, one report that you’re using others as a crutch, then that’s it. Order goes out, hostages die, Nine go off leash, and you get to watch the body count rise.”
“Five days, Theodore. Noon on the twenty-fourth. I look forward to meeting you.”
The video cut out.
“Tattletale?” I asked.
“Already on it. Word’s going out to all the major players.”
I noted Chevalier’s approach. He had used Golem’s platform to reach the base of the stairs, stepping around Nice Guy.
“Major players?” Grue asked.
“Everyone Tattletale’s been meeting with,” I said.
“I heard through the feed,” Chevalier said. “The restrictions stand.”
“The restrictions stand,” I agreed. I explained for the benefit of the others. “We treat this as a Simurgh situation. Control feedback, control exposure. Anyone and everyone that potentially comes in contact with Jack could be a factor in Dinah’s end of the world scenario. Powerful individuals are especially important in this. The more powerful they are, the more important it is to minimize or prevent contact.”
“Um. I probably sound dumb as I ask this,” Imp said, raising a hand as if she were asking a question in class, “But what about the nearly-three-hundred lunatic psycho people with crazy powers that he’s threatening to unleash on the world?”
“We’ll deal with them,” I said. “With your okay, Chevalier?”
He fell silent.
“Chevalier, I thought—”
“Yes. You proposed your strike squad. You’ve shown their ability to deal with different situations. Fine. But I’m assigning two tertiary squads to you.”
“Chicago and Brockton Bay teams.”
“I was going to say—”
“They’re teams I’m familiar with,” I said. “Please.”
He fell silent again.
“Work with me here, and if we’re all standing at the end, I’m yours. Whatever you want to use me for, however, it doesn’t matter. If this blows over and the end of the world doesn’t happen, like some think it won’t, then the deal stands.”
“I’ll get in contact with Miss Militia and Crucible.”
“If it’s alright, can we have Clockblocker take control of the Wards for this excursion?”
“Whatever you need,” Chevalier said. “You realize we’re pinning a lot on you?”
“On Golem more than me,” I said. “We’re going to cheat our way through this, bend every rule, but it all hinges on Golem being able to hold his own.”
“Jack’s going to try to set Golem up with a long chain of lose-lose situations,” Tattletale said. “Force him to either let the innocents die and maintain the chase, or let Jack pull away. We already got one big advantage by getting to this tape as fast as we did. Let’s not show our hand. Dragon’s on the line. We’ve got Dragon’s Teeth and Azazel models moving to the front.”
“Close in the net, then act decisively,” I said. “Coordinated strikes. If the Thanda are willing, a meteor strike in the right time and place could do wonders.”
There were nods of agreement from around the group.
Golem turned around and walked away.
“Golem,” I said.
He was already halfway down the stairs. He used the panels at his waist to form an even footpath, with hands turned at right angles, positioned where he could put his feet on them.
“Golem!” I called out. I handed my phone to Grue, then hurried after hi
m.
He stopped as he set his foot on the first outstretched hand of pavement, but he didn’t turn around. His voice was low, barely a whisper. “Stop, Taylor. Leave me alone. Please.”
“You’re running?”
“I’m… no. I’m definitely in. I have to be, don’t I?”
“But?”
“But this is a lot to take in. Jack, he talked to me about ripples. About stuff extending outward, the lives that are affected.”
“I remember. You told me that.”
“Right here, in this dinky little ski resort, he murdered a few hundred people, just as a warm up. How many people on the periphery of it all are affected? How many people across America, across the world, know people in Killington? Or know the people who know people in this town?”
“You can’t think about things on that scale.”
“I have to. Jack does, and I have to understand him. If I don’t pay attention to it, if I ignore it all, pursuing only the end result, the target, then I’m acting like my dad. Kind of. Either way, I lose.”
“You care about the people who died, and you’re thinking about them that way for a good reason. That’s not putting you on a path to being like either of them.”
“But that kind of consideration, letting it really sink in, it eats away at you, doesn’t it? Shouldn’t it?”
“It should,” I said.
“There’s a reason we go numb, and I get that, but I don’t want to go down that road, not so quickly. Not knowing just how easy it would be to revel in it, or to stop caring about the dead. I’m there, and I’m…”
“What?”
The stoic face on his helm stared down at the ground.
“Theo?”
“I hear you guys talking about it, and you’re right there, in your element. This is something that you’ve been working on for a long time, and there’s almost an excitement to you. Like you’ve been in a kind of stasis for the entire time I’ve known you, and only now are you really coming back to life.”
