He couldn’t actually reach them. The burning chemicals went a few yards from the rooftop and sputtered out a dozen feet above the ground. He didn’t have the lung power for anything more. But it got their heads down and let him leap across the street to the top of the ivy-covered building. He sent another curtain of fire over the intersection and the crowd scattered a bit. Some of them fired into the air.
The flames died and their eyes found him. His bare chest gleamed in the sun above the dark, bullet-scarred jeans. The wind spread his hair behind him like a mane. “If you come to the Mount,” St. George roared, “we will fight.”
He reached down, never taking his eyes from the crowd, and tore a basketball-sized chunk of brickwork from the edge of the building with one hand. He held it up for them to see and then brought his fist around to shatter it.
“All of us will fight you. And we will not hold back.”
The hero let the red dust run through his fingers before he hurled himself up into the air.
Twenty-Two
NOW
Cerberus stomped across the streets of the Mount and keyed her microphone. “Sun’s going down. People are panicking.”
“And this surprises you?” Zzzap’s voice was crystal clear over her helmet speakers.
“Just the level of it. We’ve kept them safe for over a year—”
“And now they think they’re not safe. What have you done for me lately, eh?”
“Nothing, apparently.”
“I could come out and brighten things up.”
“No,” cut in Gorgon’s voice. “The last thing we need right now is for the power to go out and everyone see you flying off into the air.”
“Fair point.”
“I’m trying to get generator crews out, but until they’re up and running you stay put. Got it?”
Cerberus keyed her mic. “Who put you in charge, anyway?”
“I did. One of you guys want it instead?”
A long silence filled the airwaves.
“Yeah, that’s what I figured.”
She tried to come up with something clever and the motion sensors went mad. “Hang on a minute. Got a big crowd.”
A crowd of a dozen families, couples, and individuals was jostling its way up through the long shadows of 3rd Street. Their bodies were wrapped in backpacks and duffel bags. Their arms were filled with bundles and suitcases. One little boy clutched a cat carrier that shifted and yowled.
In public address mode, the voice of Cerberus echoed down the street. “Everyone stay calm,” she thundered. “There is no need to panic, no need to rush. Calm down.”
She switched back to standard volume and singled out one man, fortysomething with a dark ring of hair. A special effects expert who’d become a repairman inside the Mount. “Where do you think you’re going, Henry?”
The nearby crowd stopped to see who she was talking to, and he glared up at her. “Are we prisoners here? Do I have to answer to you?”
She shook her armored head. “Of course not. You’re free to go where you want.”
“Damn right I am.” He pulled his wife and son in tight. “And we want out of here. We all do.”
The crowd murmured and barked in agreement.
“I understand,” Cerberus said. “I just think you need to step back and think for a minute.”
“Don’t tell us what to do!”
“I’m just telling you to stop and think, that’s all,” the titan said. A few blinks raised the suit’s volume by three decibels. “Everyone calm down, stop for a minute, and think. Yeah, what happened a little while ago was scary as hell. I don’t understand it either and I’m scared too. The Seventeens are coming and there’s going to be a fight. A big one.”
“All the more reason not to be here,” the repairman snapped. He tried to shove past her and she blocked him with a hand twice the size of a hubcap.
“Oh, please,” she scoffed. “How can you be safer outside the Mount, Henry? In here you’ve got guards, lights, and walls. Out there the sun’s going down and there are five million exes waiting to eat you.”
A few people near her flinched. Half the crowd had stopped to listen.
“That’s right. They’re going to eat you,” she repeated. She kept the suit’s unblinking gaze on Henry and ignored the dozens of families around them. “The second you’re through that gate they will tear the flesh from your bones with their teeth and fingers. They will rip you, your wife, and your son apart in a matter of minutes.”
The crowd shuddered as a whole. Henry turned away and met his wife’s eyes.
“That’s if you’re lucky,” she continued. “If not, you might survive and get to watch them change one by one. And then you’ll have to smash their skulls or put a bullet in their brains or just let them kill—”
“Shut up!!” a woman screamed. “Just shut up.” Nervous talk rippled back and forth across the crowd.
Another few decibels. “I don’t like it either, but we all know it’s true. It’s easy to forget because we’ve got a life in here, but out there it’s still hell.” The battlesuit took a few steps back, thudding on the cobblestones. She upped the volume again, almost back to PA levels. “If anyone wants to leave, I’ll walk with you to Melrose right now. I’ll try to protect who I can when you go through the gate, but my priority has to be the people inside the walls. You all know this.”
Some of them glanced at the gate. They could all see it from here. None of them moved.
Henry figured out he was the example, and she felt a wave of sympathy for him. He hated her and he knew she was right. It would take him months to live this down. If he was alive months from now. “What should we do, then?” he growled.
“Get home,” Cerberus said. “Seal the stages, just like we’ve always planned. Anyone who can fight, I’m pretty sure we’ll need it and we can use you, but it’s more important to stay and protect your families.”
She stomped back a few steps and the last rays of sunlight gleamed on her armor. “And for God’s sake, everyone try to stay calm,” she added. “Tonight’s going to be bad enough without a riot inside the walls, okay?”
* * * *
Stealth had covered half a mile. She raced across rooftops, hurled herself over alleys, and dispatched any ex in her way with a savage blow. When St. George caught up, she was charging down Doheny Drive, her hood draped back over her shoulders. He dropped down, grabbed her by the shoulders, and bounded back up to the rooftops.
“You okay?”
“I am fine,” she panted. She took three deep breaths, stilled the gasping, and pulled her hood back into place. “You are bruised.”
He looked at himself. Red and purple spots blossomed across his skin. And most of his pants had crumbled away. “You notice I’m bruised before you notice I’m almost naked?”
“I have seen naked men before. I have never seen you bruised.”
“Yeah, well, it takes a hell of a lot. For the bruising.”
“Are you all right?”
“Yeah, I think so.” He looked at her, hidden in the shadows of the hood. “Since when do you actually care?”
“Of course I care,” she said. “You are a valuable asset.”
“Flattery will get you everywhere.”
She glanced at the sky. “We have less than half an hour until darkness.”
St. George shook his head and gestured for her to rest. “Don’t worry. We’ve got a good lead. Even if they were ready to march, they can’t make it across the city that fast.”
She glared at him. “If he was controlling the ex in our cells from Century City, what kind of range does that indicate?”
A map of Los Angeles blossomed in his mind, covered by a wide red circle. “Hell.”
She pointed at the street below them. The milling exes were all still shuffling and stumbling, but there was a rhythm to their movements. They were wandering north. “His army is already at the Mount,” she said. “You should go on ahead of me.”