Of course, if I stood there and worried about whether or not we’d lose, we probably would.
Instead I decided to help Izzy. Hiding among a new group of trees, I held out my arms and fired off a few more “killbots.” It seemed like a good enough name for bots that would cut through armor and then explode.
If I was honest with myself, they weren’t good for much else.
Well actually, they might be useful for mining–not that I was planning to do any.
“Ghost,” Travis said, “get up there and observe. Let us know what you see.”
I made a mental note to shoot off a few of the observation roachbots when we got out from under the shield–which would be soon. Rachel faded out, her white costume turning transparent. The last I saw of her was an amused smile as she eyed Travis, reminding me of the Cheshire Cat–except that she wasn’t a cat, and I’d never been completely sure what Cheshire was.
It sounded like it ought to be a place, but why would anyone name a cat after a place in the UK when it lived in Wonderland?
Maybe it was Alice’s fault? I hadn’t read the book in a long time.
Lim continued, “We’ll be using the strategies and tactics we practiced yesterday, so you shouldn’t have had time to forget them yet. There will be one additional wrinkle. We’re already evacuating Stardock just like we are the rest of the city. That means that if we do decide to blow Stardock, we won’t be looking for you to evacuate the people below. We’ll need you to watch out for each other. Don’t leave anyone in your unit behind.”
He paused, looked us all over, and then, when we thought he’d finished, he said, “There’s one more thing. Stardock isn’t the only alien technology in New York City. We fought the Abominators in the 1970’s, and we collected everything we could find. I’m not going to tell you where it is, but none of you should be surprised to discover that we’re studying it, or that we’re doing our best to reverse engineer it. When you fight, you need to use tools that can do the job. Our own tools won’t, so we’re getting better tools.That’s why we may redirect a few of you if we have to blow Stardock. Don’t hesitate if we call you in. Trust me, it will be important.
If Mom’s voice wasn’t the last one I expected to hear then, it would be hard to name a less likely one.
Ok, not that hard. Dad’s would be less likely.
Rachel turned and her eyes widened. “Mom?”
She’d been saying something to Jaclyn, but she stepped toward Mom as Jaclyn stepped out of her way. Jaclyn blinked, and muttered something to Rachel.
I missed whatever it was, and I’m not sure Rachel caught it.
Not sure where else to go, I said, “We could go to the lab. It’s over—“
Quietly, Mom said, “I know where it is.”
Given that she was down here, it made sense that she would. Given that she’d never made any reference to it during the entire rest of my life… Well, it felt a little weird. Continue reading Spin: Part 8
“Wow,” I said, “you’re early.”
Mindstryke shook his head. “Not really. I told you the latest we’d be here was ten, and some of us happened to finish up earlier than expected.”
He was right. Now that he’d mentioned it, I remembered him saying that. I also remembered a couple other things he’d said.
“We’re still waiting on part of the current League, and one member of the board.”
I was about to ask him who that was when the words, “Entered: Accelerando, C. Retinal scan confirmed,” appeared on the bottom of my screen.
Shortly after that one of the tunnel doors swung open, and Jaclyn walked through with her grandfather. She wore her purple costume—not really more than a jumpsuit, but she didn’t need it for protection. The hard part was creating a fabric that could handle hitting the speed of sound. Continue reading Spin: Part 6
I stared at the screen. “The board? As in the League’s board or the Defenders’?”
Mindstryke shook his head. “Not the Defenders’ board, the League’s. But that’s for later. Right now I’d like you to explain what happened from the point where you first became aware this was possible through to your response.”
We did. Rachel told him about first hearing about the possibility in Infinity City. I described how I’d recognized a clue after months of searching. Then everybody explained their individual part in the plan.
He nodded as we talked, no longer smiling, but taking notes, and asking questions.
After we were done, he said, “Ok, I’ll summarize this, and then we’ll go over what to talk about and what to skip if someone asks you about it.
Haley landed the jet in the parking lot between the storage building and the factory.
We’d arrived less than an hour before, and aside from a little debris from the bombs, it didn’t look much different. It was lighter (past the factories and warehouses, the eastern sky glowed), and the tornado sirens were still going, but it was close to the same.
An inch of snow still covered the ground, and the temperature felt cold—if not as cold as Michigan.
For that matter, all the buildings that had been standing when we arrived were still standing. The ones that weren’t visible from here.
Still, it felt like we’d been there a week.
Tapping my fingers on my palms, I brought up our group’s location. Daniel and Izzy’s location came up as “Unknown”—which didn’t necessarily mean that they were dead. It could mean that the bomb had kicked out enough of an EMP that it killed their comms.
For that matter, if their signal came through, I realized, it didn’t necessarily mean that they were alive.
The thought that I needed to include people’s health in the next iteration didn’t distract me enough. I was still aware that Izzy and Daniel might both be dead or near to it.
The bombs weren’t nuclear, but they obviously included materials that I wasn’t familiar with. Even if they were only briefly radioactive or poisonous, they could still kill.
Then Daniel and Izzy’s status flickered from red to green. A good sign.
“I’m just about to tag the bombs with roachbots, but I’ve got time for that. How long do you have?”
“I don’t know.” He spoke hesitantly. “I caught that they set the bomb, but they didn’t even know how long they had. All they knew is that they might die even if they hurried.”
So apparently in real life, bombs on timers didn’t have convenient displays.
“Crap,” I said. “You don’t have time for me to figure out how to disarm it. I think your best bet is to have Izzy poke holes in it. I’ll send you a schematic showing where. It’ll still be a powerful bomb, but you’ll only get a 100 foot radius blast instead of a mile.”
“Why not have her break it in two?” Daniel asked.
“Better chance of it going off,” I said. “Well, unless you’ve got Cap’s sword.”
“Got it,” he said. Continue reading Chance & Fate: Part 10
“Storm King, are you ready?”
Vaughn didn’t seem to hear me at first, but as I was about to ask again, he said, “Almost, it’s hard to get the position right—unless you want it to suck us up too?”
“I’m against that.” I eyed Camille, realizing that I didn’t know her codename if she had one. “Hey, are you ready to float them upward?”
She nodded, taking a breath as she did it. I hoped she wasn’t already too tired to manage it. I wondered if we shouldn’t have had Vaughn create a tornado around the storage building from the beginning. Then Camille could have been backup if the bombs escaped.
She wouldn’t have the strength to do much after this.