Firefight

38

I tried to dodge, of course, but there was no chance I could get out of the way quickly enough. Beyond that, I was worn out and had just been shot in the leg.

So, when I came out of my awkward roll, I was surprised to find myself still alive. Val was surprised too, judging by her expression, but that didn’t stop her from shooting me again.

The bullet stopped at my chest, implanting itself into my wetsuit but not breaking skin. Little spiderweb cracks of light spread out from it, then quickly faded.

Though I was glad to be alive, dread washed over me. I knew that effect-Prof’s forcefields sometimes looked like that when they absorbed a blow. I looked up and found him, a silhouette in the night, standing on the single bridge leading to this rooftop. It swung slowly back and forth in the darkness.

Prof wasn’t lit at all. He was a brick of blackness, lab coat fluttering in the lethargic breeze.

“Stand down, Valentine,” Prof said softly, drawing her attention.

Val turned to look, then visibly jumped. She obviously hadn’t figured out how I’d survived-but of course, she didn’t know that Prof was an Epic. To her the forcefields were a product of advanced Epic technology.

Prof stepped onto the rooftop, the glow of the mural beneath lighting his face. “I gave you an order,” he said to Val. “Stand down.”

“Sir,” she said. “He’s been-”

“I know,” Prof said.

Uh-oh, I thought, sweating. I started to rise, but a glare from Prof made me flop back down. The pain in my leg flared up again, and I pressed my hand back against the wound. Odd how in a moment of panic, I’d completely forgotten that I’d been shot.

I hate getting shot.

“His mobile,” Prof said, holding out his hand to Val. She produced it, and Prof typed something in. I had the screen set to lock with a passcode the moment it was turned off-so he shouldn’t have been able to get it back on. But he did.

“Text the person he’s been communicating with,” Prof said to Val. “That is Firefight. Say exactly this: ‘Everything is all right. Val thought I was one of Regalia’s men with Knoxx at first.’ ”

Val nodded, lowering the gun and sending a message to Megan.

Prof looked at me, crossing his arms.

“I …,” I said. “Um …”

“I’m disappointed in you,” Prof said.

Those words crushed me.

“She’s not evil, Prof,” I said. “If you’d just listen to me-”

“I have been listening,” Prof said. “Tia?”

“I’ve got it, Jon,” Tia answered, her voice coming in over my earpiece. “You can listen to the entire thing again here, if you want.”

“You bugged my phone,” I whispered. “You didn’t trust me.”

Prof raised an eyebrow at me. “I gave you two chances to come clean, the latest being just earlier this very night. I wanted to be wrong about you, boy.”

“You knew?” Val asked, turning to Prof. “All along, you knew what he was doing?”

“I didn’t get where I am without learning to read my men, Val,” Prof said. “Has Firefight replied?”

Val looked down at the screen of my mobile. I lay back, sick to my stomach. They’d been listening in. They knew. Sparks!

“She says, ‘Okay. You’re sure everything’s all right?’ ”

“Say yes,” Prof told Val. “And say, ‘You should stay away for now. Val called Prof over, and we’re going to head back to base. I think I can explain things away to them. I’ll let you know what we find out from this Epic.’ ”

As Val tapped on the phone, Prof walked over to me. He placed his hand on my leg and got out a little box, the thing he called the harmsway-his “technology” for healing others.

The pain in my leg went away. I looked at him and realized I was having difficulty holding back tears. I didn’t know if they were from shame, pain, or pure rage.

He’d been spying on me.

“Don’t feel so bad, David,” Prof said softly. “This is why you’re here.”

“What?”

“Firefight did exactly as we expected,” Prof said. “If she was so good she could infiltrate my own team, I knew she’d have little difficulty compromising you. You’re a good fighter, David. Passionate, determined. But you’re inexperienced, and you melt for a pretty face.”

“Megan’s not just a pretty face.”

“And yet you let her manipulate you,” Prof said. “You let her into our base, and you told her our secrets.”

“But I …” I hadn’t let her into the base. She’d done that on her own. Prof didn’t know everything, I realized. He’d bugged my mobile, but obviously that only gave him information when I had it on. He didn’t know things Megan and I had talked about in person, only what we’d said over the line.

“I know you don’t believe me, David,” Prof said. “But everything she told you, everything she has done, has been part of a game. She played you. Her mock vulnerability, her supposed affection … I’ve seen it all before, son. All lies. I’m sorry. I’d bet even this ‘weakness’ she told you about is a fabrication.”

Her weakness! Prof knew Megan’s weakness. She’d told it to me over the mobile. He didn’t believe, but he still knew. I felt a spike of alarm.

“You’re wrong about her, Prof,” I said, meeting his eyes. “I know she’s being sincere.”

“Oh?” Prof said. “And did she tell you about how she killed Sam?”

“She didn’t. I-”

“She did,” Prof said quietly, firmly. “David, we have it on film. Val showed it to me when I got to Babilar. Sam’s mobile was recording as he died. Firefight shot him.”

“You didn’t tell me that!”

“I have my reasons,” Prof said, standing up.

“You used me as bait,” I said. “You said … this is why I’m here! You were planning a trap for her from the start!”

Prof turned to walk back to Val, who nodded at him, showing him the screen of my mobile.

“Let’s move,” Prof said. “Where’s the sub?”

“Down below,” Val said. “I didn’t plant the supplies. I tracked David instead. You should have told me.”

“The plan required him to believe that we didn’t know what he was doing,” Prof said, taking my mobile and putting it into his pocket. “The fewer who knew, the better.” He looked back at me. “Come on, son. Let’s head back.”

“What are you going to do?” I demanded, still sitting where I’d been shot, my blood a stain beneath me. “About Megan.”

Prof’s expression darkened, and he didn’t reply.

From that, I knew. The Reckoners had used ploys like this before, luring an Epic into a trap with a series of false texts they thought were from an ally.

I had to warn Megan.

I turned and threw myself off the rooftop, engaging the spyril. Which didn’t work. I had about enough time to let out a shout of surprise before I hit the water four stories down from the roof.

It did not feel pleasant.

Once I sputtered out of the water and grabbed the side of the building, I looked up. Prof stood on the edge of the roof, tossing something up and down in his hand. The spyril’s motivator. When had he lifted that? When he was healing me, probably.

“Fish him out,” he said to Val, loud enough that I could hear. “And let’s get back to the base.”