I gave them a few moments, and that was a mistake.

Remember how I’d protected myself by phasing out enough not to hear? It’s great for avoiding control by super-powered slavers, but not so good for hearing what’s going on.

My fear was that they’d take Julie’s gag out, and she’d start telling me what to do. What I didn’t think of was that they’d take her gag off, and she’d immediately tell them how to turn off the bombs and open the door.

I don’t know if that’s what happened, but as I was about start my final countdown, the door opened, and the Blues walked in with Julie.

She stood with them, trying to order everyone inside the circle to do something.

Not that I had any idea what.

Continue reading Rachel in Infinity City: Part 16 →

She folded like she’d been punched, her hair falling into her face as she bent over.

I hadn’t killed her. I hadn’t planned to either. I’d thought the material looked like the kind my grandfather designed for the League, and then improved again and again over the years. With one shot, I’d proved my guess right.

Better than getting it wrong for sure, but I wasn’t going to dwell on that.

Then I flew completely out of the door, shooting toward the woman I’d shot, and turning invisible.

Not waiting to see the results, I dove back into the building, and grabbing Samita’s jacket I flew down the stairs, through the door, and inside. Continue reading Rachel in Infinity City: Part 15 →

“She’s not,” Travis said.

Rod raised an eyebrow. “How do you know?”

“Remember when she was negotiating how much the Blue Leader’s cut would be? I could hear both sides of the conversation. She’s running off to meet the guy now, and then they’re coming back here. The place might be bugged, but she doesn’t have time to pay attention to us now.”

Rod nodded.

Travis gave everyone a confident smile. “Now we’ve just got to figure how we’ll escape.”

Tara turned away from the wall to say, “But how? She took everything that might help.”

Still sounding confident, Travis said, “I don’t know, but this is our best chance. The League’s been in worse situations than this, and survived. I’m sure you have too. I’m sure if we keep our minds on the goal, we’ll get out.”

And right there, that was the football player coming out. I’d heard him with his team, oh, dozens of times it seemed like while we were together, and he’d sounded exactly like that. Continue reading Rachel in Infinity City: Part 12 →

The ride didn’t seem long, but for all I knew Julie’s voice might have messed with my sense of time. She kept talking the whole time—when she wasn’t questioning us.

She talked to Samita first. “Tell me your name and what you can do that got you into the program. Be quick.”

Samita and Rod sat in the seats behind the driver. Julie had put herself in the third row with Tara and told Travis and I to sit in the fourth.

Samita cleared her throat. “I’m Samita Nanda. I’m being trained as a wizard, and specialize in creating objects with magical powers.”

Julie leaned her head back. I could only guess at her expression. “You do magic? What have you got?”

“Got? A ring. It protects me against being hurt. They told us not to bring anything obvious.”

“How does it work? Like a force field?”

Samita shook her head. “No. It’s just luck, but a very specific kind of luck.”

Julie leaned forward. “It isn’t doing you much good now.”

Samita frowned for a moment. “Technically, I haven’t been hurt.” Continue reading Rachel in Infinity City: Part 10 →