Seven Wonders (45 page)

  "ALPHA-OMEGA-MISSION-ONE-SUCCESS."

  Joe emptied the magazine into the robot. Unlike the original super robot, the servitor was no more than a skeletal robotic frame, all motive units and mechanisms exposed. But the metal was the same with which the Greek god had built the original SMART. Although Joe's aim was true, his regular firearm was useless. The night was lit with showers of orange sparks as the bullets uselessly hit their target.

  As Joe's gun clicked to empty, Sam dropped and moved forward in a soldier's crawl. Within reach of the Dragon Star's feet, Sam grabbed her ankles and pulled. The superhero's body was surprisingly heavy, but moved just a little. The servitor watched her with its twin optics, but made no attempt to intercede. Sam swore as her grip on the smooth spandex-covered calves of the Dragon Star slipped. Blackbird stepped forward, hesitated, and then ran in to help her. She grabbed one leg with one hand, and yanked at Sam's collar with the other. Sam got the message, stood, and together they quickly dragged the Dragon Star back a few yards from the robot, out of the reach of the white arm. Joe reached for a spare magazine, but Sam called him back. He nodded and limped back to join the others, his injured arm held firm across his chest.

  Someone had turned the Dragon Star over. Her eyes and mouth were open. The body was dead − it had been for several years, and Sam really had no idea whether the Dragon Star breathed or bled or had any semblance of life when she was up and moving anyway. But now the body seemed empty somehow, just a teenage girl in weird fancy dress. Despite the violent impact of the blacksmith's hammer on the top of her head, there appeared to be no physical injury.

  "Where's her staff?"

  Sam looked back at the servitor. While they'd been arguing, it had picked up the magical alien artifact and was holding it in the heavy SMART arm.

  "Fuck."

  The powerstaff had gone dark after the Dragon Star had fallen, but as the robot's thick fingers moved over the shaft, the bright glow from within the weapon relit. The robot flexed the arm, swinging the staff with little effort, and took a step forward. There no longer seemed to be balance issues as power from the staff was transferred into its own systems. It shook slightly, and the red lenses in its head flared brighter.

  Jeannie frowned, her hands on her hips. "Now what, superheroes?"

  Sam thought. She was unpowered. So was Joe, so was Conroy. Jeannie was a halfling, moderately powered, but only to just beyond regular human performance. Which would mean she'd be fast. Sam glanced down and saw the cylinder portion of the Thuban device was still held in the dead Dragon Star's hand.

  "Blackbird," Sam said. "The power core."

  "The what now?"

  Conroy crawled forward on one knee, reaching over the Dragon Star's inert form to place a hand on Sam's shoulder.

  "We can't use the power core. We have no idea what it is capable of. It's dangerous, far too dangerous for any of us to try to use."

  Sam turned to him. "The Cowl –
you –
were planning on using it to take out the Seven Wonders, right? All of them. It wasn't just the Dragon Star. The opportunity was too good."

  He hesitated. "Well yes, but the Cowl never finished building the power coupling device. The only thing that got done was the detector wand."

  "Then what do you suggest? The Thuban sent it for a human to use, so there must be a way." She looked past Conroy at Blackbird. She took a breath to speak, but the Cowl's former sidekick was already shifting into a runner's crouch.

  "You guys talk too much. Do or do not, Yoda said." She bent her head down, eyed up SMART, and took off.

  And she was fast. Not Linear fast, but she would set a new record in the one hundred meters. Even on the smoothly trimmed grass, she hit a sprinter's pace in seconds, tearing up the turf. It was only a couple of dozen yards to where the power core lay under the swing of SMART's arm. Blackbird turned as she ran, skidding into the soft ground, mud and grass showering the robot. By the time she was level with the power core, she was already turned to run back.

  And then she skidded too far, her center of gravity in the wrong place, and she collapsed onto her front, thudding her breastbone onto the power core. She cried out, and scrabbled to get traction. Behind her, SMART's eyes swiveled and fixed on her prostrate form. It raised the powerstaff in a series of jerky movements, the mechanics still adjusting to using the overly long weapon.

  "Blackbird!" Conroy called out. Joe swore and ran towards her. Sam's eyes widened in fear as the powerstaff crackled. Blackbird rolled onto her side and fumbled underneath her. She pushed the power core along the grass a little, finding a one-handed grip awkwardly on its wide surface. She shouted something, and tossed the object towards Sam. Joe watched the throw as he ran, then dived for Blackbird's outstretched arm.

  Sam caught the power core as the servitor fired the powerstaff at Blackbird. Sam watched as the staff glowed, a liquid ball of white energy coalescing at its tip. It detached itself from the staff with impossible slowness, and crawled through the air towards Blackbird's back, just six feet away.

  Sam wondered why it was taking so long to hit her. She stepped forward, finding herself instantly standing in front of the robot. That was strange. Beside her, the glassy blob of plasma was tracking an inch at a time towards its target. Sam reached out gingerly and touched it. It was warm, and slightly tacky. She laughed, and plucked it out of the air. She held it for just a minute, then squeezed her hand. The blob compressed, then popped, miniature drops of the glue-like energy flying into the air.

  SMART was still aiming the powerstaff at Blackbird, but wasn't otherwise moving, and a second shot did not appear to be forthcoming. Sam stepped over Blackbird, reached up, and tugged the staff. It wouldn't budge from SMART's grip, so Sam pulled the huge arm off the skeleton and threw it clear.

  The servitor was really a fascinating object. Taller than a person, it was little more than a frame of some coppery metal, the bulk of it filled out with pipes, electronics, gears, levers, all manner of moving parts. Sam wasn't really sure what was important or not, so she reached into the open abdomen and smashed it all. The robot still stood, so she snapped the thick framework in several places and pushed the robot backwards. It took forever to hit the grass − Sam walked around it as it toppled through treacle. She gave it a shove a couple of times to hasten the fall, which seemed to accelerate it, just a little.

  There was a flash. Sam doubled-over, breathing hard, then looked up. The air she sucked in was cold and hurt her nose. In front of her, she was surprised to see the servitor scattered across the lawn in several smoking piles. The powerstaff lay nearby, remnants of the black robotic claw still attached to it.

  "What the fuck have you done?"

  Sam turned. Conroy and Blackbird were on their knees, looking at her with wild, shocked looks, eyes and mouth so wide in… fright? Sam smiled, and saw Blackbird raise a hand to her mouth. The hand shook.

  Sam laughed, and in a second she found herself standing close − too close − to Conroy and Blackbird. How had she reached them so quickly, in the blink of an eye? The pair jerked backwards in surprise. Sam frowned, and reached out to help them up. Then she saw her arm, and stopped. It was bare, white,
glowing.
She moved it experimentally, and the white glow left a dusty trail in the air. Looking down, she saw her whole body was the same. She was naked −
felt
naked − but the glowing white mist swirled around the appropriate places, wrapping her in light, almost like a… costume?

  Sam turned. On the grass, where she had been standing with Conroy and Blackbird and Joe just a few moments ago, lay the power core. It had split along the sharp faces of the polyhedron, six sides cracking open. It lay, spread like a flower, hollow and empty. Sam looked at her hands and arms again. She glowed in the night. The power core had given her its power.

  "If that's still Sam Millar in there, you need to control the power!" Conroy was speaking. Sam didn't turn, but listened to his voice as she examined her forearms. She felt light, energetic.

  "Because if you can't control it, you'll kill us too!" A pause. "Sam, look!"

  Sam turned. Conroy was approaching her on foot, one arm outstretched in a nervous, almost pleading gesture. Blackbird sat on the grass behind him, keeping her distance.

  As soon as Conroy saw Sam was paying attention, he pointed with his other hand to his left. Sam looked, seeing only a long gray shape lying in the grass.

  Joe.

  She was at his side in an instant, but his body flopped unnaturally at her touch. His skin was warmer than the air, but only just. Square in his chest was a circular burn. Sam tore his shirt off, the body arching as her miraculous alien strength wrenched the fabric apart. The burn was deep, a crater of cauterized flesh reaching down into his chest cavity.

  "What is this? How did…?"

  Conroy approached but kept a fair distance, and even then, kept his legs tense, ready to retreat from the glowing figure that had been Detective Sam Millar.

  "It was a blast from the powerstaff. You stepped in the way and deflected it with your hand. Remember? There was an explosion, energy showered the whole place. One hit Joe − he was running to help Blackbird." Conroy looked Sam up and down. "You've absorbed the power core. Blackbird threw it… I didn't see what happened, perhaps nothing happened. One minute she threw it, the next you were dismantling SMART with your bare − glowing − hands."

  Sam listened, kneeling by Joe's body. She'd caused his death. She was just trying to stop SMART killing Blackbird. Killing a criminal. Executing a criminal. Joe had died for… Blackbird? It was her fault. She threw the power core because she ran too fast, she slipped, she didn't think. It's all a game to her. To Blackbird.

  Sam stood and Conroy darted backward. She bunched her fists by her sides, and they flared with streaky white light. Jeannie saw the look on her face and scrabbled to her feet.

  "What?"

  Sam took a step forward, the grass beneath her smoking with each footfall. "You. You did this." Her voice echoed, energy crackling like fire underneath each word.

  Conroy placed himself between Sam and Blackbird, holding his hands out. At a few yards' distance, Sam's uncontrolled energy burnt the palms of his hands.

  "Wait there, superhero. It's nobody's fault. Somehow the power core opened, and you used it to destroy SMART there. That's all according to plan. If it wasn't for you, we'd all be dead, and there'd be nothing to stop that thing going after the Seven Wonders."

  Sam stopped. The Seven Wonders. Was she a superhero now? Was she more powerful than Aurora? Where were the Seven Wonders?

  Sam lifted one hundred feet into the air on a pillar of white smoky light. She rotated to view the city, still dark without power. There, near the center, near the base of the Citadel of Wonders itself, something darker, not the night or smoke, something artificial, energetic. She listened for a moment, to a thousand conversations on the harbor side as city refugees passed the night watching the dead city, to police radio, fire radio, civil defense. To people trapped in the city, to their rescuers freeing them. To falling masonry and broken glass, to the steel skeletons of the skyscrapers groaning as they cooled in the aftermath of the fire.

  She could see the city in her mind, every sound and sight mapped, giving her a complete three-dimensional view of San Ventura from every angle. At the center, there was no light, no sound. Energy bent around the envelope of darkness, an egg-shaped hemisphere.

  She listened again, just to be sure. A million million sounds and voices. Not one of them from the Seven Wonders.

  Conroy and Blackbird forgotten, Sam flew off to the city to save the superheroes.

CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

Conroy watched Sam skyrocket towards the city, a blazing white shooting star that would not have been out of place in the Draconid shower. Jeannie joined him, following his gaze out to the city.

  "Well, shit."

  Conroy hrmmed. "You're lucky she −
it
− has a short attention span."

  "Do you think there's anything left of the detective in there?"

  "She's strong. It might be the power doing the thinking now, but she'll learn to control it."

  "And if she doesn't?"

  He turned to Jeannie, then looked over her shoulder at Joe's body. "You have a point there."

  "I have a point there, yes." She walked over the lawn, ignoring Joe and stepping over the Dragon Star's body. The alien's powerstaff flickered, lighting the blades of grass up around it. "At least we have this thing."

  "You think you can work it?"

  Jeannie sank to her haunches, observing the staff but keeping her hands tucked into her stomach, unwilling to touch it. It was a dark metal, the surface covered with thick seams and hieroglyphs. Here and there the hieroglyphs shone brightly. Others glowed with a dull light. Jeannie and Conroy had both seen the staff in action many times.

  "I'm not even sure I want to touch it. Could be dangerous."

  Conroy joined her. He gave the staff a nudge with his toe. It rocked on the ground, but there was no change in the pattern of illumination. He nudged it again, rather pointedly, out of Jeannie's reach. She looked up at him from her crouched position.

  "Dangerous, yes." He smiled. "In your hands."

  Jeannie stood quickly. "In my hands? Oh come on. I'm still a prisoner? After all this? San Ventura burns to the ground, the Seven Wonders are missing, and what, you want to get me in powercuffs? Just try it, Captain Virtuous."

  Conroy held her gaze. In her anger, Jeannie had come to within an inch of his face, and their noses almost touched. Jeannie's breath was hot and fast, Conroy's calm, almost imperceptible.

  "When this is all done," he said, "we'll see what we can do. In the meantime, I have need of Blackbird's special skills."