"Yeah. Someone with ruby slippers to heel-click a way outta this mess.” I risked a glance over the table edge. The New Man gazed around as if searching for something, oblivious to the carnage. I figured he was scanning the place for the location of the book. I couldn’t tell if Hunter was ok. Some help he turned out to be.
“Look, I think I gotta get in closer to the New Man. Cover me. Now!"
I ran as they rose and opened fire. The bullets ricocheted off his armor as expected, but at least he seemed to feel them. That let me get close in on his blind side. I leaped in for a close up shot from the Mean Ol’ Broad. The New Man turned my way at that exact moment, raising his gauntleted hand. The device attached to his palm hummed and glowed like an angry furnace.
Time slowed to a crawl.
The Broad roared. The sound swelled as the air became jelly, rippling as the slug simply disintegrated in front of the New Man's hand.
The fun didn't stop there. The Mean Ol’ Broad turned to slag in my hands, dripping to the floor like heated wax.
Then the wave hit me.
I guess red-hot nails punched into your entire body simultaneously might compare to the agony. I slammed against the floor before I realized I’d fallen. A high-pitched whine screeched loud in my ears.
It took a minute to recognize my own screams.
The New Man dismissively dropped his hand, and I collapsed. My bones were sponge, and I felt like I’d been horsewhipped with razor blades. I couldn't get up even if I wanted to.
Which I didn't.
The world was a hazy roar of sounds and blurred movement. As I wriggled like a dying cockroach, I became aware of other people. Selene arrived with a pistol in one hand and a Bushido blade in the other. She sliced into the Specters, followed by her Gutter Girl forces. Tommy Tsunami barged in from another hall, followed by a few surviving goons.
The New Man turned and pointed. The marble table exploded into powder, knocking Poddar, Rob, and Ms. Kilby back like bowling pins. Rob roared wordlessly, his pistols blazing. Specters closed in on him like beetles on a fresh pile of dung.
The New Man withdrew a disk from inside his coat, oblivious to the chaos. He muttered an incantation, and the disk glowed red. He slowly revolved as he pointed it toward the walls.
Arms slid under mine and raised me to a sitting position. A familiar voice spoke in my ear. "A little help would be appreciated. You're not exactly light, you know."
My Angel. Even though it was painful, I smiled. “So you were a mole in Tommy’s organization, that it? Lemme guess — a Gutter Girl affiliate?”
I managed to move my limbs, and Angel half-dragged me to the stairwell. She whipped around and took out at a Specter at point blank range with her cute little pistol. "You better believe it. Like I’d really work for a skel like Tommy. Keep your head down, and maybe you'll live through this."
It didn't look like any of us were gonna live through it. A line of Specters almost laid out Selene, but somehow she flipped over their heads while firing her pistol. She landed near Tommy. He had run outta bullets, but used the butt of his gun like a club. They fought back to back as though they’d done it all their lives.
I saw Christina go down, but Jen and Kelly stepped forward, dicing the robed attackers. They supported Cristina on their shoulders as they desperately fended off more of the endless Specters. Goons killed Gutter Girls. Girls killed Specters. Street sweepers tried to smoke everyone. I closed my eyes. Maybe it was all a bad dream I would just wake from.
Hunter dashed that hope to pieces. "He must be looking for the Grimoire." I hadn’t noticed him approach, but he’s one sneaky synoid. He didn't look any worse for the wear, either. Then again, his kind didn’t have to worry about getting hurt. He continued his helpful observations. "It’s too late to stop him. But we can hit him while he’s vulnerable."
At that point I didn't really care about that musty old book. All I wanted to do was die in peace. Of course, Hunter wasn’t about let that happen. He snapped his fingers under my nose, discharging something which drove ammonia fumes right into my brain. I sat up, sputtering and cursing.
Hunter wasn’t impressed. "Listen. The disk is an access key. It will link to the device within the book, and to himself. We have to let him get the book, then we strike. If we destroy the thermal orb, we destroy him.”
It took a few minutes for the information to travel across my badly rattled egg. "Get the…? But you just… Yeah… it's risky, but—"
"It's the only chance we have. Get ready."
The disk flashed, and the New Man roared in triumph. One of the sidewalls exploded, raining mortar and pieces of railing on street sweepers and Specters. Behind the wall was a hollowed-out cubby. A dusty safe levitated out, then turned to slag with a wave of his hand just like the Broad had. A book floated out from the molten cavity. It was an old, leather-bound volume with parchment pages. A monstrous skull was embossed on the cover. It sailed through the air into the New Man's hands.
"At last.” His voice boomed over the din of fighting. "At last, the Grimoire is mine.” He planted the disk on the forehead of the gleaming skull. Something like lightning flashed as it slowly opened; the pages became wafers of pure light.
"The Next Day is at hand."
The radiance flashed from the pages to his hands. His robes faded from black to shimmering white; so brilliantly we had to shield our eyes. He pointed, and streams of pure energy flashed from his fingers. Specters, Gutter Girls and goons screamed as it struck them. They toppled over with blank eyes, just empty shells that hit the ground. When the beams struck the street sweepers, they immediately short-circuited and fell over in twitching heaps of useless scrap metal.
Something like lightning flickered. A vertical slit ripped the air, a glowing slash which slowly widened. It tore across the walls as it slowly opened into a glowing doorway.
Beyond it was the interior of a massive domed building. It appeared impossibly complex, lined with tech I couldn’t possibly begin to imagine possibilities for. Men and women in labcoats turned in obvious alarm. The ones who didn’t run away screaming, anyhow.
I knew what it was, if only by process of elimination. The Command Hub, known to most folks as the Beehive. The center of New Haven which controlled the environment, the Tesla units, and all the city’s utilities. Not to mention the access point to the Tram Station. I figured the labs where the Savant did his memory reprogramming were somewhere inside as well.
Tommy verified that for me. “He’s going for the memory core!” His voice was thick with fear.
He suddenly shrieked when the New Man glanced his way; clutching his head as he writhed on the floor. I almost felt sorry for him, having endured a recent bout of hornet head myself.
The New Man spread his arms like a back alley preacher as the door widened. “The time of illusions is over. The imprisoned minds of this Haven will be set free forever.”
“Stay directly behind me.” Hunter blurred past me at synoid speed, heading for the New Man.
That was about the last thing I wanted to do, but for some reason my legs had a different opinion than my mind and followed the suicidal synoid. I ducked low, trying not to catch a stray slug from the battle which still raged around us. I thought I glimpsed Poddar pulling Ms. Kilby behind him, while Selene and her girls frantically tried to fight their way to the New Man.
Hunter drew closer, pausing only to snatch up a bio-gun from the floor.
That’s as far as he got.
The New Man raised his hand, and glowing whips struck through Hunter like razor wire. Somehow he managed to twist and tossed the gun backward before he ungracefully convulsed and ate the floor.