by Toby Minton
“No,” she said seriously, looking him in the eye and putting her sarcasm and snark aside for a minute. “I don’t know what you feel when you’re juiced up, but I feel invincible. I feel like I’m on top of the world and nothing can touch me. What could be more than that?”
“Don’t you want to know what else you can do besides smash things?”
“That’s what Michael and I can do,” she said, smiling a little. “No big mystery to our ability. It’s pretty simple.”
He shook his head and narrowed his eyes. “You don’t know Savior like I do. Nothing he does is simple. Nothing he designs works like it looks on the surface, especially not us. Trust me, there’s more to your abilities. If you take the time to work on it, you’ll find other things you can do.”
Nikki laughed but without a trace of humor. “That’s easy for you to say. You have all this.” She waved a hand to indicate the bunker in general. “Michael and I have to worry about things like where we’re going to sleep or get our next meal. We’ve never had time to sit around thinking about self improvement.”
“You would have the time if you stayed,” he said, looking her in the eyes. “You’re the one who wants to leave.”
Not him too.
“Yeah,” she said, getting to her feet and wandering a few steps toward the door before looking at him again. “Well, I don’t want to be taken care of, and I don’t want to spend my time trying to get better at being me. I like who I am. And I love what I can do.”
He shook his head and looked at Nikki like he felt sorry for her. “I don’t want to be just what Savior sketched out when he made me,” he said. “I won’t be, Nikki. I can be stronger than he imagined. I can be more. We can be more.”
Nikki took another couple steps toward the door, then turned back. “Why do you hate him so much? Savior, I mean.”
Impact stared at the floor in front of him instead of answering, the muscles in his jaw clenching and relaxing as he thought. Finally, he shook his head and looked at Nikki. “Why don’t you?”
“Aside from that business with the train, he’s never done anything to me,” she said honestly, “except make me a super hero. If I ever run into him, I think I’ll kiss him.”
“If Elias and Gideon hadn’t gotten us away from him when they did, he would have had us all killed without a second thought,” Impact said.
“OK, so I’ll punch him in the face after I kiss him,” she retorted. “But you don’t know for sure he would have killed us.”
“I do know,” he said. “I think you do too.”
They stared at each other for a few breaths, agreement nowhere in sight.
“Yeah, well, I think I need some air,” she said, turning away and walking to the door, pulling her sarcasm back up around her where it belonged as she did so.
She paused outside the door and looked back. He was still watching her. “Have fun on the not-good-enough mill. You should try the self-pity press or the I-suck rower next. They look fun.” She gave him a big, toothy smile. “Hey, if you need somebody to shoot at you again, I’m your girl.”
Nikki walked off before he could respond. Few things felt quite as satisfying as getting in the last word—life’s little pleasures and all—but this time she walked away feeling just as glum and hollow, despite her fading smile, as she had before. They really needed to get out of this place, and soon.
Nikki walked the now too familiar arched halls of the bunker toward the galley, Impact’s words lingering in her head. They could stay if they wanted. Michael had been parroting that same refrain to her for the past three weeks.
She wondered what it would be like not to worry about food and shelter. She’d never had that kind of luxury, at least not for more than a few days at a time, and then she’d always known it was coming to an end. To not have to worry about it for the foreseeable future—that was something she just couldn’t process. Maybe she was being stubborn, or stupid, turning down an easier life.
Nikki crossed the dining area in the galley and mounted the spiral staircase, taking the steps two or more at a time as usual. She found herself humming one of those awful German techno tunes as she climbed, which made her laugh a little. She needed a club night something terrible.
As soon as she swung the hatch open and climbed through into the church, Nikki felt a wash of relief. Real sunlight, even filtered as it was through stained glass, had an immediate soothing effect on her nerves. Being cooped up indoors with nothing but artificial light was just not for her, which probably had a lot to do with why she found the thought of staying at the bunker so distasteful.
She rounded the pulpit, as she’d learned it was properly called, and stepped into the nave/dining hall of the little church, her eyes gravitating to the big bank of real windows on the far wall. The late afternoon sunlight had almost the same orangey glow as the stained-glass light, which was to say it made Nikki feel all warm and glowy inside.
She smiled her first truly happy smile of the day as she walked to the little door hidden beside the windows. These little trips to the surface were the highlight of her captivity. Although her freedom was limited—she had to stick close to the church—she felt a lot less trapped when she could see open sky and feel the wind whipping around her.
She spotted them as soon as she stepped out into cooling autumn air. Michael and Kate were practically sitting on top of each other near the edge of the bluff overlooking the sound. She should have known they would be out here. It was too much to hope that Kate would be inside hard at work solving the com issues.
Oh well. Nikki was happy enough to be outside that not even the sight of them together could bring her down. Maybe she’d even have a full conversation with them without getting snippy. She laughed aloud at that thought as she walked toward them, drawing their eyes from a tablet in Michael’s lap. Maybe Kate had put their faces on pictures of babies or something. That girl just oozed crazy stalker.
“Hey, Nik,” Michael said, his eyes going right back to the tablet he was cradling almost lovingly in his hands. Kate nodded to Nikki and gave her a smile, but it held all the warmth of three-day-old soup.
The fact that Nikki was still wearing Kate’s loaner clothes—the soft phoenix shirt at the moment—attested to the fact that they’d reached a sort of understanding, made peace, sort of. But there definitely weren’t any pillow fights and gossip sessions in their near future.
“Planning our route when we leave?” Nikki asked, tipping her chin toward the tablet as she crossed her arms and stopped a few paces from the edge of the bluff.
“No,” Michael said, missing or ignoring the same old fight in her words. “This is one of Kate’s physics books from school. She still had it on a hard drive, so she downloaded it for me.” He beamed at Kate, who smiled at him like he was the only guy in the world. They were so disgusting.
“It’s just an intro book. Nothing too exciting,” Kate said. “And if you need help with any of the concepts, you should probably ask Gideon instead of me. I can handle most of the math behind it, but some of that stuff just escapes me. I just took it as a general requirement.”
“I will,” he said, swiping through the file, completely absorbed.
Gram had created a monster by telling Michael he had an engineer’s mind. Then he’d poured gas on that monster by adding that with a little help and training, Michael could rival university grads. Nikki could have socked the old man. What was he trying to do, keep Michael at the bunker? As the overprotective grandpa, Gram was supposed to be on Nikki’s side about them leaving. Traitor.
Nikki’s mood was teetering on the edge of falling back into the sticky pit it had been wallowing in for the last week, so she did the logical thing—she gave it a push.
“So, hard at work on the com situation, are you?” she asked, looking at Kate.
Kate looked up at her with a strange mix of emotion behind her eyes. Nikki could swear she saw confusion, frustration, and a dash of annoyance in the mix before Kate looked at Michael
like he was going to jump in and help. What was that about?
Michael missed the look though, much like he’d apparently missed the question. He was lost in physics land, leaving Kate on her own.
“We’re still trying to work some things out,” Kate said, meeting Nikki’s eyes and looking like she really wanted to say more. “I have a new encryption plan, but…there are still issues.”
Nikki nodded and gave Kate her best disappointed look. “Issues, huh? Is one of them that you’re out here playing grab-ass instead of working on the problem?”
Kate chewed her lip, holding back something that was just dying to get out. Nikki could see the anger in there, but the girl just wouldn’t let it out, and she kept looking at Michael.
“Oh, for crap’s sake,” Nikki said. “Tell me you’re not one of those girls who has to have a man fight her battles. If your encryption plan sucks, own up to it.”
“Hey!” Michael snapped, realizing what was going on around him. “Nikki, back—”
Kate stood and talked over him, the sparks finally flashing in her eyes. “There’s nothing wrong my encryption. In fact, it’s brilliant.”
“There she is,” Nikki said with a smile and nod.
“And I do fight my own battles, Nikki,” Kate said, stepping around Michael to get closer to Nikki. She crossed her arms, maybe to keep from taking a swing. “But I’m not fighting Michael’s.”
“Huh?” Nikki said. She liked seeing the fire in Kate—the woman was a lot more appealing when she wasn’t gushing at Michael—but her argument didn’t make sense.
Kate looked over at Michael, giving him a glare and eyebrow raise that Nikki had no trouble interpreting. If that look wasn’t screaming “I told you so” per some previous discussion, Nikki would eat her boots. And she loved her boots.
When Kate looked back at Nikki, the fire was still there, but Nikki knew it wasn’t all directed at her. “Your issue is with your brother, Nikki. Have it out with him.”
Then she stalked inside without another glance back at Michael.
Nikki watched Kate go, appreciating her straight back and quick stride. She turned to her brother with a smile. “I told you that whole thing was a bad idea. Now that you’ve screwed it up, you ready to leave?”
“Now that I’ve…?” Michael growled the rest and set the tablet down as he stood. “In case you haven’t noticed, the only time there’s a problem is when you’re around.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, really. Leave her alone.”
“I’d love to,” Nikki said, “but until she fixes her com issues, I can’t leave squat!”
“That’s my fault, Nikki! Not hers, not Gideon’s, not anybody else’s,” he said. “I’m the one asking you to stay until we figure out how to keep Savior from tracking us. Everyone else is sick of your attitude. If you want to take it out on somebody, take it out on me.”
“Love to,” she said, clenching her fists. Before he could react, she shot out a right cross that snapped his head to the side. She followed with a left jab as the tingle of power started, but Michael twisted and pushed her hand aside, shoving her off balance and firing a quick shot under her ribs as he stepped past her.
Nikki smiled as she caught her balance and turned to face him. “Let’s do this.”
“No,” Michael said, his voice and face radiating his frustrating determination. “We’re not doing this. Not now.”
“What?”
“We can’t,” he said, stepping as she did to keep distance between them, his hands up and his body angled to hers like he was actually going to defend himself. “I have a theory.”
“Oh, you have a theory,” she said, the pitch of her voice rising. “Well why didn’t you say so? That changes everything.” She lunged forward, but he slipped away.
“I have a theory that Savior might be able to detect the genesis energy in us,” he said, backing and circling as she tried to close on him. “If we charge up, we might make it easier for him to find us.”
Nikki stopped trying to get to him and threw up her hands in frustration. “Are you kidding me? Two minutes with a science book and you’re spouting theories? Gram was just being nice, idiot. You’re as dumb as I am. You don’t have theories!”
“Nikki,” he said, his voice still firm and calm even though she could see that her words had stung him, “I’m not fighting you, no matter how much you insult me. Or insult us, I guess. And I’m not leaving until I know more. End of discussion.”
Nikki glared hard, grinding her teeth. The fury swelling in her was more than a shouting match was going to fix. She needed the fight, needed the satisfaction. But if her brother’s monkey fu was good for anything, it was avoiding her attacks. She suspected that was one reason he practiced so much. Dammit.
Nikki clenched her fists at her sides and screamed, but it didn’t make her feel any better. She turned and stomped toward where Michael had been sitting with Kate—
“Nikki, no!”
—and stomped her heel down onto the tablet, crushing the screen and grinding the bent frame into the dirt with her boot.
Better. Not the full release of rage and tension that she needed. But it was a start.
She left Michael picking pieces out of the dirt and headed inside, mind racing to find a way to turn this day around.
Chapter 25
Nikki
Nikki slipped into the hangar, moving as quietly as she could. She was wearing her pink sneakers, which helped. The heavy inner doors to the hangar were open, which also helped.
She paused at the top of the steps and looked over what she could see of the dimly lit bay. She didn’t see anybody, but the big transport blocked much of her view. She adjusted her bag on her shoulders and crept around the transport. It was even darker on the other side, but the rest of the hangar looked to be deserted. So far so good. She crouched in a darker patch against the wall and waited a few minutes just to be sure no one would wander through.
When she was convinced no one was coming, Nikki pushed herself away from the wall and walked to the skimmer. To her it kind of resembled a narrower version of the wave runners she’d seen on their one pass through Tahoe. But instead of the bottom being one big piece that curved up like a boat, it curved down to form two arches, one at the back under the seat and another at the front past the handlebars. According to Sam, the arches focused the air cushion the skimmer floated on.
She’d cornered Sam before dinner and had him show her how the thing worked. He’d looked a little suspicious at first, but when she’d reminded him of his promise to teach her about it, he’d relented and talked her through the basics as a first lesson.
“Let’s see how well you paid attention, Nikki,” she muttered to herself. Accelerator—check. Gear selector—check. Power button—check. Key to activate the power button—no check. Damn. The slot for the key was there, but the key was nowhere to be seen.
“No, no, no,” she breathed as she scrambled around the skimmer, looking on, over, and under the thing for the key. Nothing. She couldn’t call off the plan, not now that she’d gotten herself so worked up over it.
After her latest fight with Michael, Nikki had spent the rest of the evening wandering around the church, across the edge of the bluff, through Sam’s garden, all the while trying to come up with a solution to “everyone’s” problem. They were sick of her attitude, which came from being trapped at the bunker. She was sick of feeling trapped, which…came from being trapped at the bunker. So she’d decided that the best way to make things better would be for her to get out and have the night she wanted, to spend at least a few hours feeling free again.
She had to find that key.
She spotted a lockbox hanging on the wall over one of the workstations, and something Sam had said earlier clicked. He’d mentioned securing keys and startup codes, but since he’d already told her how to work the skimmer, she’d zoned out.
She jogged to the lockbox, digging through her memory to see if he’d mention
ed the code to get into it. When she got a good look at the box, she stopped digging. On the side of the door was a faintly glowing thumbprint scanner. Of course.
No need to panic, Nikki, she thought as she closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. The hangar was full of tools of every shape and size. She’d just have to find the right one to crack the box open and she’d be back in business. No problem.
Nikki looked around on the table under the box, but most of the tools there were either too small or powered. That wouldn’t work. She might as well go wake everybody up and ask them to ignore the horrible sounds coming from the hangar while she stole the skimmer.
She stifled a giggle at that thought, and behind her the skimmer hummed to life. Nikki’s heart tried to jump out of her chest. She spun around so fast she lost her balance and fell into the work table, setting several of the tools to rocking and rattling. She fanned her hands out behind her to still them as she looked up right into Sam’s dark eyes.
He was straddling the skimmer with one foot on the ground, idly resting one hand on the key and looking at her with a small, knowing smile.
Nikki was so shocked she was actually speechless for several seconds, which was not a familiar feeling. She opened her mouth to make some excuse for what she was doing, but the look in his eyes said he knew exactly what she’d had in mind. She closed her mouth and gave him a sheepish smile in return, shrugging her shoulders.
He laughed soundlessly and shook his head, putting his hands on the handlebars and shifting the skimmer into gear. Without looking back at her, he thumbed toward the few inches of seat left behind him, giving Nikki her second shock of the night.
“Don’t have to ask me twice,” she whispered to herself. She ran over and hopped on behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist.
Sam looked over his shoulder and nodded. She nodded back. Then they shot forward through the curtain of fake ivy and out into the night.
