Chapter 15

We broke out of the circle instantly. That is, Iggy and Nudge and I did. Balthasar and Mattie needed some help. We are better than most grown men at… most things.

"These are no ordinary lieutenants," Huzi muttered.

"Flank them!" Lao Hu yelled. "Lang and Shey, left. Gwan, middle. Huzi, with me."

Iggy engaged with Gwan, a very skinny guy with a shaved head. Huzi and Lao Hu barreled over me. This armor allowed no room for hand-to-hand combat—for the first time I could remember, a bunch of perfectly normal humans may have had the edge on us.

Nudge was trying to strip out of her armor—a mistake. She wouldn't be of any use at all in the fight for a couple of seconds. And in our life, a couple of seconds are worth everything.

I barely noticed Iggy fighting Gwan—they appeared to be an even match—until they stepped on a circular depression in the floor. It collapsed—and clearly it was no accident, because the resulting hole was a perfect circle. Both of them fell down.

The chubbiest and sideburniest of the Five, Lang, looked down into the hole. "Whoa, check it out," he said.

Shey followed his gaze. She was a very sexy woman with cropped hair. "What's that, a vat of acid?"

"Yup," Lang said.

"How long has that been there?" Shey said conversationally.

"It's new," Lang said smugly.

"Well… we're gonna need a new Gwan," Shey snickered.

"Yeah," Lang said. "Too bad we don't have a DNA sample, 'cause then we could make another one that looks just like him."

Lang and Shey burst into laughter. I've fought against Erasers, designed specifically to enjoy killing, who didn't bat an eye when one of their comrades was downed. I wasn't sure what was more grotesque—that, or these guys' jovial laughter at the painful death of their friend.

"Come on, Iggy," I whispered. "Be alive… be alive…"

We took the ability to fly for granted way, way too often. Iggy couldn't spread his wings when wearing his armor.

But miraculously, he rose out of the hole. His armor was gone, his wings were out, his body was coated in a thin layer of mustard-yellow acid that was eating away at his skin, but he was alive and kicking. He grabbed Lang and Shey by the ankles and tossed them off the balcony. Abruptly, he screamed.

"Iggy?" Nudge said, concerned.

"Get this stuff off me," he said in a raspy voice. "Get it off! It's eating me alive!"

There was a water cooler on the back end of the balcony. Iggy unerringly ran toward it, picked it up, and emptied it on his head, sighing in relief as the acid was washed away. He didn't have much skin left, but he was alive.

I flung off my own armor, knocking down the two remaining fighters.

"Balcony, you guys," I called.

Iggy and Nudge followed me as I prepared to leap up to the second balcony. I paused in my flight, looking down the hole into the vat of acid. Gwan was thrashing and screaming, but he'd be dead for certain unless he was pulled out of there fast.

Sure, why not?

I dove into the hole and lifted Gwan out of it. I dropped him on the balcony—I figured, sure, I'll save him, but let him get his own water. Already, Lao Hu and Huzi had begun tending to the acid.

I joined Iggy and Nudge on the upper level, my hands coated with a light sprinkling of the acid.

"Don't move," Jewel said. He was holding up a small canister with a plastic lid.

"This is the virus," he said. "This virus will wipe out every human being on Earth who hasn't been immunized. I was planning to collect one hundred people to immunize, but I can get by fine with only eight. Take one step, and I'll open the canister right now. And just for the record, you're human enough that it'll effect you."

I didn't move. I didn't need to. I had heard the exact spot that the Big Guy had fallen—he wasn't there anymore. Somehow, I got the feeling that was a good thing.

Jewel noticed me looking at the empty space and snuck a quick glance. "Big Guy?" he said blankly.

The Big Guy dropped from the ceiling, landing right in front of Jewel and grabbing him by the wrists. Jewel jabbed at the Big Guy with his extra arms, but the Big Guy didn't let go.

"Fang!" Brigid called.

I turned to her. She tossed me her Vampire gun.

I caught it. "Blowin' in the wind, huh Brigid?" I called.

She scowled. She knew that I knew that she was only helping me because it looked like I would win. As soon as Jewel got the advantage, she'd be his best buddy again.

The Big Guy and Jewel continued to grapple. "Destroy the virus!" the Big Guy called. "Shoot the—!"

The rest of the Big Guy's sentence was drowned out when Jewel shot a chunk of spider silk into his face. The Big Guy transferred one of Jewel's wrists from his hand to his foot—his gecko feet worked almost as well as his hands—and used his hand to rip the silk off. Most of it, anyway.

"Shoot at the canister, Fang!" he yelled again. "The beam will vaporize it! But you have to get the whole thing, otherwise the virus will get away!"

I uncertainly aimed the gun. "I… I don't think I can, Big Guy!" I called back.

"Don't worry about hitting me!" he said hurriedly. "But you only have one shot! Shoot!"

"I can't aim that well!" I protested.

"Iggy can," Nudge whispered.

I looked at Iggy. "Yeah, he can," I said. I passed him the gun. "Take the shot, bro."

"I'm blind, you idiots!" Iggy said shrilly.

"Nobody in the world can aim as well as you," Nudge said. "The canister is in Jewel's left hand. Shoot it."

"I can't hit a canister!" Iggy snapped.

"Take the shot, Iggy," Nudge whispered. "I love you, Iggy. I know you can do it. Take the shot."

"I… I can't…"

"Take the shot!" I snapped.

Iggy shot. The weapon fired a single beam. I winced, not sure if I wanted to see the results of the shot. I opened my eyes. The canister was gone, as was the hand that Jewel had been holding it in. There was a great, circular hole straight through the center of the Big Guy's chest. You could look straight through it and see Jewel's arm on the other side.

The Big Guy's corpse fell limply. Jewel retreated, staring at the fried stump of his hand. "So it's true," he murmured.

Nudge tapped Iggy on the shoulder. He was shaking violently from the stress and tension. "You did it, sweetheart," she whispered.

He pistol-whipped her, then me. "You guys ever make me do anything like that again, I'll shoot you!" he snarled.

"You got yourself a deal," I said.

Iggy laughed, his voice cracking.

"This isn't over, dirty-birds," Jewel called. He had crawled up the wall and was skittering along the ceiling. "I'll rebuild my hand, rebuild the virus. You ain't stopped nothin'."

"Oh, but I think I have," I said. "Iggy, give me the gun. You have any high explosives on you?"

"Who do you think you're talking to?" Iggy countered. He passed me the Vampire and a melon-sized bomb. "Give it three-quarters of a second after you push the button," he said.

"Gotcha," I said. I flew after Jewel. He could handle ceilings pretty well, but nothing beats flight, even if it is indoors. I shot the Vampire at him, blowing chunks off of his legs, arms, torso, anything I could reach.

Jewel spun around and pointed a single finger at me. He shot an invisible beam from the finger, and from there I registered nothing but agony. The pain overtook my entire body, but I ignored it. I kept flying.

"How are you doing that?" Jewel demanded.

"There's a finite amount of pain in the world," I said. "I've already had my share."

"Ooh, that's some deep shit," Jewel sneered. "You stop coming at me!"

"Not a chance," I retorted.

"You won't feel so much pain when your head is detached," he said frantically. "You shoot me one more time, I'll cut off your whole body. I mean it! Fingers, toes, ears, eyes, tongue. See how many more pretty babies you can give Max after I've sliced your dick into strips of bacon!"

That gave me pause. Not the dick part, the babies part. If I sacrificed my own life in the act of destroying Jewel, I wouldn't be able to give Max any more babies. We had never discussed that, but I wasn't going to take any chances. I retreated out of Jewel's reach.

"Thank you," Jewel said.

I pressed the button on Iggy's bomb and threw it. Three-quarters of a second, Iggy had said.

It was too much.

Before the bomb made contact, Jewel batted it away. It bounced off the wall and went to the lower balcony. It exploded right at the feet of Balthasar and Mattie. Two valuable allies were gone, but then again that had been their intention.

As the building went up in flames, Jewel came after me.

"Haul ass!" I yelled.

I took Iggy and Nudge by the hands as we flew straight up. Soon, the burning compound was just a speck below us.

"He'll be back," Iggy said. "It was never going to be this easy."

Suddenly, Keegan was there, flying with us.

"Hey, Keegan," I said coldly.

She winced. What can I say? I could use the tone too.

"I just wanted to tell you that you did a very good job today," she said. "This will be over, I promise. Everything will be over. You'll be free."

I sighed. Sometimes I wondered if my reactions to her pretty words were my own, or still hers. "Thank you, Keegan," I said. "Good to know."

Keegan disappeared. Some distance later, we were interrupted by another flying human figure.

"What the hey?" I muttered. "Hey, I know you. You're Darth Sidious."

The cloaked figure hissed. Its voice was completely unrecognizable. "I felt I should warn you. Your efforts to stop Jewel mean nothing, for Jewel will be stopped by the Survivors."

"Survivors?" I said.

"I believe you knew one of our organization, Mr. Chu."

"Ah, yes," I said.

"So, the Survivors will stop Jewel, then we stop the Survivors?" Nudge said, bobbing her head. "Sounds like a bargain to me!"

She laughed along with Iggy. I smiled and made to pat the figure on the shoulder—my hand passed straight through. It was an illusion. I didn't let that interfere with the flock's routine.

"Good deal," I said. "So, we'll see you then?"

"You will NOT stop the Survivors!" the figure snarled. "The Survivors will win. Even after the world has burned itself down, and you and your beau Max and your child have all perished, the Survivors will…"

"Survive?" Iggy supplied.

I didn't laugh. The notion of Airy dying had taken all the humor from the situation.

"Listen, pal," I said. "Mister or Miss Survivor, whatever. If we ever meet in the flesh, you better pray to the patron saint of out-of-shape a-holes that I won't kill you too brutally. Peace out."

I twirled into a dive; the other two followed me.

"We're gonna get through this, right, Fang?" Nudge said nervously.

I didn't know the answer. So I didn't offer one.