Swarm (22 page)

And with that fervent desire, the voice leaped right back up into Ethan's mouth like it had never left.

“We head back to the mall!” it said. “Whose turn is it to steal a car?”

THE CAR CRASH HAD STOLEN
was fast, but it wasn't a Mercedes.

Nate hadn't called the police yet, or Papi. The Mercedes had a serious theft prevention system. It could be shut down remotely, or tracked, and he couldn't risk Glitch winding up in prison.

Not after what she'd just lived through.

What they'd all lived through.

Everyone was quiet in the back, tired and stunned, consumed by what they'd seen. Kelsie's mood sat over them, thick as smoke from an oncoming wildfire.

Nate wished someone would talk. He didn't want to think, to process what had happened.

What he'd
let
happen. What he'd been unable to stop.

A Zero had been torn apart, right in front of his eyes.

Swarm was stronger than anything Nate had ever seen before. His hold on that crowd had been steely, brilliant. What kind of purpose drove that awesome hunger? Beside it Nate's ambitions looked paltry, his power a plaything.

Dolls,
he thought, revulsion deep in his belly. Revulsion and
fear
—he was truly afraid, and he didn't like it.

But his power had been useless. When Swarm had taken over the crowd, Nate had tried to claw every strand of their attention toward himself.
Stop. Listen to me. Heed.
But no one in the lethal mob had even spared him a glance.

Maybe if he'd been down in the melee instead of up on the escalator, he could have matched Swarm's willpower with his own.

Of course, they might've torn him to pieces instead of Davey.

As it was, all the Zeroes' powers combined hadn't been able to save the poor guy.

Losing Papi's Mercedes was nothing compared to the hole that Swarm had punched in Nate's world.

When rain began to mist the windshield, Flicker finally broke the silence.

“The sad thing is, we finally got it right. All your training worked perfectly, Nate. We saved that crowd from Glitch and Coin.”

“But not the other way around,” Nate pointed out.

“And what if he comes for us next?” Ethan said. “We don't even know what he looks like!”

“Did you see him, Flick?” someone asked—Thibault, of course.

As she considered the question, Nate felt the energy in the car grow tense. Mob was echoing their fear, their horror. She'd been in the crowd's mind for the long, awful minutes of the murder—and on top of that, Ren had called her a baby Swarm. Could Nate summon the energy to even
start
bringing her back from that?

And what if Ren was right? He couldn't get his mind around what that might mean.

“There were hundreds in that crowd.” Flicker's words came slowly. “But yeah, I think I spotted him.”

She hesitated, and Nate concentrated on steering. Suddenly everything felt dangerous—his fatigue, the rain-slicked road, even Flicker's voice. Was that Mob's emotion, or his own?

“There was a guy near the back,” Flicker said. “About our age.”

“Born in 2000?” Nate hadn't asked Ren her and Davey's birthdates. An opportunity to learn, missed. Everything he could have found out about Coin's power, gone for good.

“Yeah, probably. And about my height,” Flicker said. “Kind of preppy. He had a little suitcase, one of those rolling ones. He was super neat, in this blazer and long pants. White socks. Terrible haircut. And he was skinny, like not-eating skinny.”

“Why do you think he was in charge?” Anon asked.

“He was the only one not . . . not
buzzing
, is all I can call it. And he had this smug little soft smile on his face, like he was keeping a secret.” Flicker paused. “He was enjoying it, like Glitch said.”

“Don't call her that,” Anon said. “Her name's Ren. His was Davey.”

Silence fell again at those names, and Nate felt his will petering out. What did it matter who'd done it, beside the appalling fact that it was done? The pictures flashed across his eyes again, the blood leaping, the
force
it took to break a person—

He clung to the wheel.
Just watch the road. Just do your job. Just get these people home alive.

“WE LOST A ZERO,” NATE
began. “That can never happen again.”

He stood in front of them on the dance floor of the Dish, his hands out, trying to draw in their attention. But the pose had nothing behind it. He was spent, waiting for someone to laugh at him.

“We didn't
lose
Davey,” Anon said. “We
killed
him.
I
killed him. The handcuffs were my idea.”

Ethan groaned. “Who
cares
who screwed up worse? That guy's coming for the rest of us. We have to get ready!”

“Ready? But we don't know anything about his power,” Chizara said. “I mean, besides the obvious—he makes crowds kill, and Bellwether can't stop him.”

All their bright, needy focus turned toward Nate, and he had to fight not to look away.

Six against one, and they'd lost. What kind of leader let
that
happen?

“We should just skip town!” Ethan threw a shimmering glance at Kelsie. “Split into pairs, maybe. Hide out in the wilderness. That guy's helpless without a crowd to do his dirty work.”

“So are we,” Nate said, trying to sound calm as he fought off panic. “Alone, we're nothing.”

“Yeah, but I'd rather be nothing and
alive
!” Ethan argued. “Beats dead superhero any day!”

Chizara sat forward, throwing out a whip of attention. “
Your
power would work fine in some hick town, Ethan. Not so much the rest of us. And you expect us to just ditch our families? And everything we've put into the Dish?”

Nate looked at her, trying to feel pride in how the nightclub had bound her to the group. But all his strategies seemed inconsequential now.

Flicker's voice broke in: “We need a better plan than running away.”

Everyone's attention brightened on her, hopeful.

“We could throw Swarm off our scent,” she said. “Create some sort of crowd disturbance a few hundred miles away.”

“Wasn't that Ren and Davey's genius plan?” Ethan asked. “It didn't work!”

“Because Swarm can sense us,” Anon said. “Especially in a group. We shouldn't do
anything
together.”

Before the group's feeble strands of hope could fall to the floor and die, Nate spoke up. “Ren and Davey could have been wrong about that. We found them without any special powers, and they found us. Swarm knows how to search the internet, just like we do.”

“Then we're dead, thanks to Sonia Sonic!” Ethan said.

Nate didn't answer, didn't give Ethan so much as a glance. He had to take control and give them some solid hope.

“Swarm's been following Ren and Davey this whole time. He's obsessed with them. Even when they came to Cambria and painted a target on our backs, he didn't take the bait.”

“Which was
us
,” Ethan mumbled.

Nate ignored him again. “He may see that job as only half done, and keep looking for her.”

It sounded so cold-blooded, and so flimsy—nobody's attention was tightening in his grasp, not even Flicker's.

“And even if he's bored of chasing her,” he forged on, “he's just as likely to be distracted by some other bunch of people with powers. Zeroes are popping up everywhere.”

Too many words. He was practically babbling.

But they were still listening, at least. They must all desperately want to believe.

Then Kelsie said, “He won't go anywhere else. All he wants is me.”

It was like ice water drenching the room. Those were the first words she'd spoken since they'd stolen the car.

“What do you mean?” Chizara asked.

“He wanted me, after he killed Davey. Not to kill me, though. He wants me to join him.”

Her cold dread echoed through them, and Nate felt the spine-creep of Kelsie's feeling singled out, like a wolf was staring at her through the trees. He tried to speak, but the feedback loop was too strong.

“Because I'm like him,” she added softly.

“Is that what you really think?” Chizara said, and Nate was amazed she could fight Mob's fear. “Or are you just scared it's true?”

“Oh, it's true,” Kelsie said, but as she stared back at Chizara, her voice rose a little. The question in it made a space where Nate could jump in.

“You can't be sure of that,” he said. “And Swarm doesn't know where you live, Kelsie. That mall is hundreds of miles from here.”

It had taken all his effort, but here they were, in his hands again.

“All he knows is that you're part of a big group of people with powers. Which means we should split up.” He saw Thibault glance at Flicker. “Or at least stick to small groups. No more than two Zeroes together, maybe.”

Damn. Babbling again.

“What about when Ren and Davey were here?” Chizara said. “If anyone puts up pictures of that night, he could recognize us.”

Anon spoke up. “Last I checked, Sonia was still posting about the wedding. Much bigger news than a nightclub riot. We got lucky there.”

Even from Anonymous, the words resonated in the group. They all wanted to believe they'd been lucky. That they might keeping being lucky.

But Nate's own heart was aching at the thought of splitting up the group he'd worked so hard to bring together. He needed to keep them here just a little bit longer.

“We should do something about that stolen car. Wipe it down for fingerprints, for a start.”

“Buckets are in the storage closet,” Flicker said. “We need detergent, too.”

The connections broke apart, full of bright relief at doing something practical.

But again Kelsie let loose a cold rain.

“I hope Swarm does come here to Cambria.”

“Are you nuts?” Ethan sputtered.

She looked older, grimmer. “I hate what he did to that crowd. He took all those connections, those human bonds, and made them
evil
. I hate that he gets to walk away from killing one of us. We should deal with him ourselves.”

Nate knew that he should speak now, say something to defuse the others' alarm. But he didn't have it in him.

“Well, I'm totally okay with someone
else
handling that,” Ethan said. “I've got a big sister to pacify and Christmas presents to wrap.”

A relieved sparkle of laughter went through the room. Ethan's good-natured cowardice had broken Kelsie's spell.

But his outburst also reminded Nate of the sobering fact that it was Christmas Eve. How the hell would everyone get through Christmas after what they'd seen today?