Reuben turned to me. “Questions later.”
I nodded quickly, still trembling from surprise and joy. His powers had fully returned two months before they were supposed to. How? When? Were Jillian’s back? Had she already escaped? What was going on?
The urge to cut and run for Annapolis was all-consuming. I had to force myself to recite Berenice’s cutting remark again. No running. Just stay put for a little while longer.
Once again, Reuben took control of the situation by merely being there. He stood head and shoulders above most of us, shoulders back, jaw squared. After him, Lark stood the most imposing, completely unscathed, grimly confident, and armed with a staff I still feared. She turned her back to our foes, instead surveying the rest of us with steely eyes, practically daring everyone there to attack.
None, not even Berenice and Abby, protested. The former had scrambled backwards on her elbows after being thwacked with the staff. Abby hung around Ember’s elbow, her mouth open the whole time.
Reuben and Lark were the mountains. We were all just howling storms.
Reuben took a knee in front of Buck, his face impassive. He glanced around until he caught Ember’s eye. Ember nodded once. Reuben turned back to Buck. “Kyle and Daisy are dead, Buck. It’s time to call it quits.”
Buck grit his teeth. “Raphael will—”
“We both know that my younger brother isn’t here,” Reuben replied, a hint of humor lacing his words. “And even if he were, he wouldn’t fight two of his brothers. He has both enough familial loyalty and common sense to know that would be a foolish decision.”
Buck’s dead eyes grew round. “Did he tell you we were coming?”
Odd—his ferocity had turned to wounded disbelief. Had he been so sure of Raphael’s fidelity that he hadn’t once considered that the third Fischer brother would forewarn the other two?
“No,” Reuben said calmly. “This is all a happy coincidence. Emily here tipped us off that the strike team was in town, so thank you, Emily.”
I liked Reuben even more now. He could’ve crowed that Buck had been betrayed by his teammate, like I would’ve. Compassion could’ve been the only root for his choice, since there wasn’t any strategic reason for protecting Raphael from Buck’s wrath. The strike team commander probably only had a few more minutes to be mad about losing.
Emily bowed her head. “I’m sorry, Buck,” she whimpered.
Buck smiled sadly in her direction. “I’m not mad at you anymore. I know you used your best judgement.”
Once again, the emotion in his response threw me for a loop. That had been almost decent of him. I was much more comfortable imagining Buck as either a carbon copy of James, his racist younger brother, or another version of Patrick. A sensitive guy who cared for his teammates didn’t match either picture, and it bugged me.
Reuben drummed his fingers on his knee. “You’ve put us in a difficult position.”
Buck scowled again. “Just kill us, traitor.”
Reuben raised his eyebrows. “The elders are the traitors. They failed to protect Emily’s sister from the Westerners. I would’ve thought that you’d be less willing to work for them since finding that out.”
“Don’t you dare lecture us!” Emily shouted. “You married a civilian!”
“I married the woman I love,” Reuben replied, still level. “Perhaps I broke our rules, but what did Gabriela do to deserve death?”
There was a dark silence.
Finally, Buck said, “It’s cruel to draw this out, Fischer. They said you were a decisive combatant. Just…just do it. Please. We’re down.”
Reuben stood and brushed the snow off his pants, then held out a hand to me. “You’re right, this has dragged on too long. Mercury, come here, please. You need to do this.”
All eyes waited for me to kill my second and third superheroes.
Ember inserted herself in my brain. It’s going to be okay, Benjamin. She spoke as though she were coaxing a child into the doctor’s office for a vaccine.
Please get out of my head.
Reuben wants—
Out. Please.
Ember retreated, and in the corner of my eye I could see her pout.
My brain commanded my legs to move, but my feet would not obey. Nausea twisted in my stomach. Now that it came to it, why couldn’t I hand him the tools of execution? I’d done it so many times before when I’d executed the dying victims of my family. Buck and Emily had preyed on us and hindered our mission. They were dangerous beyond the telling of it. They needed to die so that others could live.
So why couldn’t I go to Reuben?
“Mercury,” Reuben said, his voice just a hair firmer. “Come here, please. Give me your knives.”
I could not disobey this time. I strode towards him and handed him the knives I’d taken from Buck. “Here.”
My voice sounded hollow. What was he going to do? What did he want me to do? Why could I not make myself comfortable with this? It wasn’t like when I was with my family. It wasn’t like what the Sentinels did to the Westerners. This was protecting myself and my loved ones from people who would hunt us to the ends of the earth. Kill or be killed.
“You don’t look good,” Reuben said. “Having second thoughts?”
“No,” I murmured.
Everyone else in the clearing moved back, some covering their mouths.
Reuben held up the knives, inspecting them. “These are warrior’s blades,” he said quietly. “Did you know that if we carry weapons, we have to earn them before going into service? Lark and Jillian had special training before being issued theirs. They had to show that they were responsible and dependable.” He turned his peaceful gaze to me. “We’re not in the camps, but I still think it’s a good idea. I want you to earn these.”
“By killing them?”
Reuben took my hand and placed one of the knives in it, then folded my fingers around the hilt. “Show me you know how and when to use them.”
His gray eyes met mine, conveying his true meaning.
He was asking the impossible.
I gasped. “What?”
He nodded. “I could order you if you want, but I don’t think you need that.”
“I…I don’t understand,” I stammered. “Why—”
“Just do it,” Emily said, gazing up at us. Her eyes were large with fear. “Stop drawing it out, for pity’s sake.”
“You heard her,” Reuben said. “Just do it.”
“Fine,” I spat. “Ladies first.”
Emily shuddered and bowed her head, whispering almost inaudibly just as Reid had done earlier.
“Emily,” Buck breathed. “I’m sorry.”
I gripped the knife and stared down at the woman who’d nearly killed me. She’d stabbed Jen, who’d probably never hurt anyone in her life. She’d stabbed Reid, who’d called her a friend. Emily Begay was lethal, and I didn’t want to share the earth with her anymore. She didn’t deserve to live in the world that was rising up from the ashes of the camps.
The barest fragrance of coffee, poured weeks before, raised the hair on the back of my neck as invisible lips brushed my ears. We don’t always get what we deserve, my love.
With a cry of anger, I hurled the knives into the snow and ripped off my gloves. Reuben smiled.
My fingers grazed Emily’s battered face, her long hair brushing them as healing energy coursed down my arm into her body. She croaked and inhaled deeply. “What?”
Before I could convince myself not to, I touched Buck’s cheek, the same energy flowing into him. The churning heat in my stomach faded as his eyes brightened and focused.
He gazed up at me in shock. “Did…what just happened?”
“I healed you, obviously,” I grumbled. I turned on my heel and marched away towards Reid, who was in as much shock as the two captives on the ground.
Reuben, ever pleasant, kneeled down again in front of Buck. If he was afraid of Buck’s powers, he didn’t show it. Instead, he tutted while he chose his words. “I’m taking
the teams with me in a minute,” he said, his voice a new deadly quiet. “And your bonds will disappear. Go back to your hole.”
He leaned closer to Buck, just inches from his face. “But from this moment forward, if I ever catch so much as your scent on the wind, I will hunt you down and kill you without a shred of guilt. That’s a promise. You may have orders, McClintock, but I have a wife and child to protect. If you threaten them, a knife to the throat will seem like a pleasant death.”
Buck blanched. “We can’t go back. They’ll kill us for failing.”
Reuben narrowed his eyes. “Then I suggest you seriously reconsider your current employment situation.” He stood and stared down at Buck with disgust. He sounded more heated than before.“Our lives, as we know them, are changing. The government is closing in. It’s only a matter of time before the camps are emptied and shut down. I’m giving you a chance to take control of your future and start a new life. I don’t care what the hell you do, as long as it’s nowhere near me and mine. Give the message to the other strike teams.” He turned around and faced his brother. “Reid, get us in the air. I’ll give you the directions when we’re airborne.”
Reid obliged, his eyes glowing white as large sidewalk slabs emerged from the snow and hovered together in the air near all of us. I helped Ember and Abby hop on, then jumped on myself.
When the rest of us were situated around Reid, we began to drift upwards, the icy wind quickly turning devastating now that we weren’t shielded by buildings. The melted snow that had leaked into my undergarments refroze. I hoped we were headed towards someplace warm. Maybe an iron foundry.
“Where—?” I began to ask. Buck and Emily were staring up at us, though I couldn’t see their expressions. I couldn’t think of a place where we’d be safe from them.
“Jen’s apartment,” Reuben said, his arms around tiny Abby. She clung to him, her emaciated frame wracked with shivers.
Marco swore, then swayed on his feet. “C-c-can’t we walk?” His eyes were dull with fatigue and cold.
Ember pulled him into a hug. “Reuben doesn’t want to leave tracks. This is faster.”
Dark, snowy Baltimore passed beneath us. Reuben and Berenice guided Reid to an apartment block near Johns Hopkins University. It said much that even when exhausted, starving, and unaided by light, they knew the way. Clearly I was in the presence of rebels; a surge of respect warmed my otherwise frozen chest.
We landed in the deep snow and stumbled off the platform, which Reid neatly deconstructed and guided to a clear spot near the cramped, dingy smoker’s station. We silently followed Reuben and Berenice towards a stairwell.
While we tromped through the snow, I could see where two people had walked before us, and I smiled. Gabriela and Jen were warm and safe, and though I’d known them for less than a day, I felt better knowing that at least someone in my circle of acquaintances was out of danger.
Reuben had only knocked twice when the door flew open and a crying Gabriela threw herself at him. We let the married couple reunite in private, trooping past them where they stood in the walkway and collapsing in the living room.
For all the people there, it was nearly silent. Jen came out of the kitchen and helped us out of our snow-crusted outer layers. Someone pressed a steaming mug of coffee into my hand and guided me to the couch. Marco whispered something about needing to sit down. Berenice, Lark, Ember, and Abby disappeared into a far bedroom down the hall without so much as “good night.” Reid was standing against the wall—and then he was slumped over on the floor, snoring into his knees. Reuben and Gabriela finally blew inside and walked hand-in-hand into the kitchen.
I sat on the couch with my coffee, too keyed up to sleep. Instead, I sipped the bitter instant coffee and tried to be furious about Reuben forcing me to heal Buck and Emily. Nobody…can make me…they didn’t deserve…stupid strike team…Reuben’s a butthole…
Each nattering thought swirled, then incinerated like flash paper. I just couldn’t make myself be angry about it, though I didn’t understand why.
Grasping at the rage was mentally painful, similar to how I’d felt while taking my junior year-end tests in high school. I’d stayed up the night before on a job with Beau. The next day, each question on the papers had swam in front of my eyes. Thinking had been beyond me. It was only through my parents’ heavy “encouragement” had my teachers allowed me to retake the exams.
As soon as I gave up on fuming, I turned my thoughts to far more important matters.
Jillian. More specifically, her powers.
If my family were to catch wind that their “powerless” captive wasn’t, they’d put a bullet in her head without a second thought. She was simply too dangerous with her powers. My wife was smart and shrewd, but I didn’t know if she understood how essential it was for her to keep her powers secret. How could she? She had no way of knowing that we’d mounted a rescue mission. Beau wouldn’t tell her, since nothing wore down a person like the belief that there was no hope of salvation.
I laid back on the couch, dizzy from the fear. She must have been so afraid.
I had to go to her. Clearly, my teammates were exhausted and they needed rest, but I could go. I would go. I had to go.
Now that I had coffee and warmth, everything made so much sense. The blizzard had ended a while ago and the Maryland Department of Transportation would’ve cleared the freeways and major roads. All I had to do was get the truck from Gabriela’s and drive to Annapolis. I’d surprise them all and rescue my wife. It was so easy.
I placed the coffee onto the table—what a cheap mug, spilling all by itself—and searched around for keys, not bothering with winter clothes. They’d slow me down, and Gabriela’s baby needed them more.
After several seconds, I remembered that the keys were in my pocket. Laughing to myself, I tiptoed to the door, making sure not to disturb the slumbering people in the room with me. I pushed on the door for a few seconds before remembering to pull.
“Where are you going?”
I spun around to see Reuben and Gabriela standing in the kitchen doorway.
I pointed to the door. “To rescue Jillian.” Duh.
He looked at me strangely, then kissed Gabriela’s forehead. “Querida, can I have a moment alone with Benjamin, please?”
She nodded and went back into the kitchen. Reuben came up to me and gazed at me, the same odd expression still on his face. “Why are you going by yourself?”
I gestured to Reid and Marco. “Because they’re all sleeping and I can’t disturb them.”
He continued to assess me. “And…you’re not tired, right?”
“Well, a little. But her powers could be back. I can’t waste any time.”
Reuben put his arm around my shoulder and gave it a light squeeze. “I was just talking to Gabby about a great rescue plan I came up with. I’m pretty sure it’s solid, but I need your input. Beau is expecting you, but he’s not expecting this, I guarantee it. There’s going to be at least one explosion. You’ll love it.”
My heart sped up. This was why Reuben was such a great leader. “Really?”
He smiled warmly at me. “Really. It’ll take a few minutes to get the computer up, so in the mean time I want you to lay on the couch and rest. That’s an order, brother. Let the coffee kick in. Just between us, you sound a little loopy right now, and you need to be in top form when you fight Beau.”
“Hell, yeah.” The words slurred. He pushed me towards the couch. I laid down on the cushions, closing my eyes and waiting for the caffeine to fully wake me up.
“Ten minutes?” I said. “We need to go soon.”
I cracked open my eyes and saw him gently arranging Reid on the floor, placing a pillow under his head and a blanket over him.
“Tell you what,” Reuben said softly without looking up. “How about you count out six hundred seconds?”
I closed my eyes and began to whisper the numbers. “One…two…three…”
I was asleep before I made it to ten.
Item Twelve
Excerpt of letter from Rabbi Avner Cohen, resident of New York City, to his younger brother Mordechai, resident of Los Angeles, dated January 22, 1913.
…it is a travesty and shame that Avigail would marry such a young man as the Fischer boy and unite our frum name with that of an apikoros one, but we both know of your daughter’s iron will and long for her happiness. It may be the mysterious and unknowable will of Hashem that he should become a worthy Jew with Avigail sitting over him.
As both your brother and a Rabbi I agree that Avigail has been touched by Hashem’s blessing and should seek a husband with the same blessing, but—are you sure that Benyamin Fischer is the only Jewish boy with the blessing in all of Los Angeles?
California is not a small state, you know. I have a friend, Daniel Shochet, in San Francisco who says his son Avram is a rare intellect at just six years old. If Avigail is willing to wait just a few more years, she might find that Avram is just as blessed as she…
12
A loud crash made me jerk awake. My pillow, no longer held down by my head, fell to the floor. “What’s going on?”
Jen was on the floor, disentangling her legs from the laptop cord. She grimaced. “Sorry,” she whispered. “I was just trying to clean up the living room before the others came back. You can go back to sleep.”
I sat up and scrubbed at my face, the sleep clearing from my eyes a little bit. My body felt heavy and achy, as though I hadn’t moved in hours. Judging from the light streaming in through the small, high windows in the front door, it was around noon, maybe later. Who knew that a couch could provide such complete rest?
I stretched my arms, then slouched. “Where’s everyone?”
Jen finally stood up. “Reid, Marco, and Reuben went out about five minutes ago to get some things from your truck, but I don’t know what. All the rest of the girls are still sleeping in the bedroom.” She shook her head. “Whoever said that women don’t snore as badly as men never met that crowd.”
I couldn’t help a smile. My whole being felt lighter and more peaceful now that I’d had a full night’s rest. Of course, I remembered where I was and what was going on, but even pessimistic me couldn’t deny that we’d defeated the strike team, in a matter of speaking, and had an extra superpowered combatant with us that we hadn’t counted on. The scale’s hands had finally swung onto our side.
Mercury Page 11
