(The Push Chronicles (Book 2): Indefatigable (16 page)

"He's right because we all had a mental conference and we put it to a vote (sorry about that but we had to) and then we decided it's 'all for one and one for all' like the Three Musketeers and that's just how it's gotta be so don't be mad be glad," Tank spat out.  Hex just gave me that big Southern grin.

"Well, don't leave ussss in sssusspensse," Medusa said.  "Open the door.  Let'sss ssee what he hasss waiting for uss."

"Indeed," shouted the armored bowman.  "Allons-y!"

I gave my friends a smile and turned towards the door before they saw my eyes water.  Whatever the divides that kept trying to cleave us apart, maybe, just maybe, we had a bond strong enough to keep us together.  With that thought of hope, I grabbed the knob, twisted, and threw open the door.

The room was empty.  More than empty, stripped bare.  As it had been when I was last here, the dividing walls that had separated the apartment into separate rooms were gone, making it one large chamber.  There was only one thing there, a simple folding table with a voice recorder sitting on it.  As the door opened wide, there was a distinct click as it threw an unseen switch, turning on the recorder's playback.

"Hello, Irene," Mackenzie's voice said.  "Or at least I hope in some small way this is Irene Roman listening to this."  I could see the set in Duane's jaw and Rachel's hand hover at the butt of her pistol at the sound of their former mentor's voice.   "I know that must sound odd to you, being as I tried to kill you, but the truth is that there are so very few of us who know and embrace truth that the very thought of killing you is a tragedy."

"I want to thrash this guy already," Ex muttered.

"You're here either because one of my own men talked or you simply followed the lines of deduction.  We both knew about Skyway and, knowing my goals, it made sense as a place to investigate to try to track me down.  Let's face it, I've covered my tracks too well.  What other clues could you possibly have?"

"The arrogance," Choi grumbled.  "I'm this close to -"

"The point is that you are, obviously, too late.  You've realized this is a trap by now, but your innate curiosity is too great to ignore the slim chance you can gain insight by investigating further.  It's understandable really."

"You know, folks, we should really get a move on out of here, don't you think?" Hex pointed out.  I raised my hand for quiet.  I could swear I could hear something else in the background of the tape, an intimately familiar noise.  I strained and focused my enhanced perception to try to make sense of it.

"I strangely hope you survive this as well.  You will bear witness to the beginning of humanity's counter-strike on the Pushed.  I'll have the tools to begin the war and hold off the invaders long enough to put the final solution into place.  Maybe once you see what will be accomplished, you'll think again about joining me.  With your knowledge and my planning, we can do it.  We can remake the world right this time."  There it was, between the stalling rhetoric.  The tolling of bells.  Not just any bells.  They were chimes that I knew by heart because I had worked around them for years.  They were the chimes of the Georgia Institute of Technology's campus clock.

Of course!  Eric may have been paranoid, but he was also arrogant.  He could have easily hidden notes, equipment, and data on the Georgia Tech campus and in their computer system, safely tucked away in case his first laboratory here had been compromised.  No one could have tracked that down, at least no normal person.  A highly-experience FBI agent with an enhanced brain, that was another story.

"Nothing?  Unfortunate.  Still, I hope you -"  I ignored the recording and turned.

"Let's go!  Now!  Move it!"  There was a whump, the first of many, as a demolition charge detonated at the center of the building.

"No!  Clump up!" Extinguisher cried.  He was right.  It was our only shot.

There was a sudden chilling cold, the strange sound of unnatural forces mingling, and then darkness, as the building collapsed down on top of us.

Chapter 17 Dusk

I opened my eyes to a world lit up by an eerie glow.  I suppose it had been plain human nerves that made me clamp my eyes shut for the seemingly endless crash of the apartment building collapsing down on top of us.  It wasn't lack of confidence in my friends, a confidence that was well-placed.

The glow that surrounded all of us, lining the freezing-cold stone we were laying on, radiated from the Human Tank.  His force field was just one layer of the superhuman onion that had just saved all of our lives.  From the look of intense concentration on Mind's Eye's face and the faint shimmer in the air, she too was pushing out to shore up the ice-and-stone construct created by Extinguisher and Medusa.  It was obvious, however, that it wouldn't hold up forever.

"From the frying pan into the fire," Duane muttered.  He pulled himself to his feet and looked around our cramped quarters.  "Anyone with ideas, we could use them."

"Can you lift us out of the rubble in one piece?" Rachel asked the Indian psychic, who replied with a  terse shake of the head.  "Hex?"

"Maybe," the six-armed powerhouse said, "but how do you suspect I could even get to where I could push us?"

"Wait," I said, "that gives me an idea."  I glanced at Archer, who seemed to be adjusting his visor.  "I know you've got sensory equipment.  Any chance you can discern the densest parts of the debris from the least?"

"Indeed, let me simply adjust my penetrating scanner."

"Ex, Meds."  The two Push Heroes, who at the moment were trying to fill in and shore up cracks like a pair of Dutch boys, gave me a half-glance.  "Once Archer has a path of least resistance, do you think you can force open a little space.  Like, let's say, a Hexagon-sized hole."  After a moment, they both nodded.  I turned my gaze to everyone.  "My thought is to tunnel out of here.  Hex will be our drill while everyone else is either moving, clearing small stuff, or shoring up our path.  Objections?"

"That might work," Hexagon nodded.  "Shoot, it's better'n waiting for our powers to give out."

"I don't see many other viable options," Rachel added.  Duane nodded, though his face betrayed a bit more worry than Rachel's did.

"Okay," Ex said, taking the lead, "when Archer points the way, I'm going to need Mind to shove a section of the sphere out in that direction.  Meds and I will lay some quick cover, but you're going to have to move fast, Hex.  We'll be right on your tail.  Tank, I want you bringing up the rear of the train, covering our retreat with your force field for however long you can keep it up.  Everybody else, book it and do whatever you can to help."  There was no objections.  Anxiety and concentration were the only things hanging in the air as we waited for the armored Crusader to give his findings.

"There!" he shouted, pointing at an upwards angle to my right.  "That is our best chance."

Mind's Eye let out a surprisingly loud cry of effort as sweat poured down her delicate features.  There was a rending of stone and a shattering of ice as a roughly circular section of our protective barrier shoved against the rubble on top of us.  Hexagon wasted no time, grabbing onto the edge of the opening with two arms and pulling himself up and in, his other arms starting to move with tremendous speed and force.  Extinguisher's hands flared with ice-blue energy as he focused his powers above Hex's head, just as Medusa's glowing gaze followed his motions.  It looked like we might have a chance.

The worst part of the ascent was that there was little I could do to help.  Hex's furious whirl of limbs made getting too close to help with digging dangerous, even for me.  All we 'normals' could really do to help was to keep any loose debris out of the way of our fellow climbers and stay out of the way.  I lost track of time as we made our way ever higher until, with a final tremendous push, Hexagon heaved a large slab of concrete away to let a rush of fresh air down onto us.

"Fer my next trick, I'll pull a rabbit out of my hat," the big man said with a lopsided grin as he let down his multiple arms to scoop people out of the tunnel.  "Or at least a passel of superheroes."  I made no objection to getting a hand up and out.  As I felt my boots crunch into the shifting rubble of the Skyway apartments, I scanned the skies to try to get my bearings and figure how much time we had until nightfall.

"Damn," I muttered as I saw the few streetlamps saved from the buildings' destruction had fluttered to life.  There was just the barest sliver of the setting sun on the horizon.  Our grace period was up.  The team was spent, at least for the moment, from the exertion of freeing ourselves from an early grave.  Mind's Eye had crawled up on top of the Human Tank and was resting on his chassis and the teen cyborg himself seemed on low charge.  Ex was catching his breath, sitting on a sizable rock with Medusa sprawled out beside him.  Hexagon, despite having done the lion's share of the digging, was the only one who didn't seem tuckered out.

Rachel and Duane, like me, had only had to worry about climbing, so were still fairly fresh.  Duane, from the sound of it, was on the phone with PART and emergency services, while Rachel had pulled out her ever-present notepad and was writing furiously, bouncing back from page to page.

"I hate to be the party-pooper," I said after a few minutes, "but we don't have any more time to rest."

"I agree, Indy," Ex said, rubbing the dust out of his hair.  "I just have no clue where we need to be.  Mackenzie could be anywhere, the same with his troops, if they even exist."

"Mackenzie isn't just anywhere."  I pointed out towards the direction of the Georgia Tech campus.  "I've got a pretty good idea where he is."

"And I think I've puzzled out where his troops are," Rachel practically shouted, hopping to her feet.  "You're getting too arrogant for your own good, Ian, but you've overstepped this time."

"Would you please both explain these locales so we may respond accordingly?" Mind's Eye asked, still laying back on her cybernetic couch.

"Well," I said, "I could just make out a very faint but distinct bit of background noise over Mackenzie's gloat track down there.  He's holed up somewhere on the Tech campus, I'm certain.  Eric and I both worked there, so it would stand to reason that he may have secreted some of his old research there."

"As for his troops," Choi explained, "it simply came down to a matter of logistics.  He has to maintain sufficient numbers of vampiric troops to reliably take over the city, which means there must be at least several hundred mouths to feed.  While we have had a rash of disappearances, it no where matches the numbers we would expect to see to feed so many monsters like this."

"I ssseee," Medusa said.  "Ssso he hasss to have sssome other sssource."

"I cross-referenced all the public and private blood banks and donation centers the region for any reports of theft or unusual shortages and was surprised to see only a few minor reports.  Initially I dismissed it entirely, thinking he must have come across some other substitute, but then it hit me."  Rachel gestured outward across the city.  "He doesn't have one giant stash of vampires.  Ian spread them throughout the city.  Each unit takes their blood from a variety of sources to make them more difficult to track."

"That's great work and all and it make a lot of sense but I don't know that helps us 'cause that just means we're gonna have vampires everywhere in like ten minutes and then it's game over, man!"  Tank pointed out.

"You would be correct if Ian's aim was to destroy the city.  His goal, though, is to take it over, to use it as a base of operations for greater insurgency against the Crusaders.  To do that, he needs to take out the strong points of resistance and quell the local government.  All of his forces will concentrate on that goal first."

"So the Capitol building then?" Hex asked.

"Yes, exactly."  She looked to Duane.  "You're following this, right?"  Brooks just nodded as he continued talking on the phone.  "Good."

"I guess break time is over," Ex said as he slid off of his perch.  "It looks like it's time to split up.  Indy, Meds, and -"

"Hold up one moment, Ex," I interrupted.  "I don't want to overstep here, but we have to prioritize.  Let me go after Mackenzie alone.  You're going to need everyone on deck to have even a chance at holding off those vampires and, frankly, you guys are much better suited than me to fighting those guys."

"Irene ..."  He frowned.  "Look, the last time it was you and him, he almost killed you."

"Look, this isn't a crazy death wish talking here.  Ian only did that to me because he set up everything until that moment to give him the advantage.  His choice of battleground, his choice of weapons, his choice of circumstances.  This time, though, he thinks we're dead.  He thinks he's hidden."  I clenched my fists.  "Most importantly, I'm ready.  I'm rested.  I hate to sound cliched, but I'm chomping at the bit for a rematch."

"That doesn't mean you should go alone," Duane added, snapping his phone shut.  "Rachel and I can back you up."  Rachel nodded in agreement.

"No, not this time," I retorted.  "Somebody has to coordinate all of this.  We're not talking one Push Battle, we're talking a city-wide siege.  If you guys had a super-power, it would be super-coordination.  How else could you keep all of us on task for three months?"

"Methinks Milady is correct," Archer added for the first time since we crested the surface.  "Now, we should dally no longer."  His bow snapped out from it's housing with a resonant twang and a puff of burning oil.

"William Tell is making a lot of good points today," Ex grinned.  "Okay, team, we know what we have to do.  Let's do it."

The past leaked into the present as I slipped past the security guard in the Howey Building.  It had been Eric's home-away-from-home, much as my own laboratory on campus had been.  With over one hundred and fifty thousand square feet of research space, it was very feasible for Eric to have found an unused area and found some way to block it off.  It's not like he wasn't a genius, after all.  His old office was still unused after his disappearance three months ago, so it came as little surprise that the door was unlocked.

Just two days before the Whiteout, I had brought him lunch here.  Eric was horrible at taking care of his basic needs and it was the health nut in me that forced me to always drop by, just to make sure he was eating.  It had just been quiet small talk, chit-chat about the deans, whether we were going to chip in on season tickets for basketball that year or not, but it was real.  It was normal.  How did a casual lunch turn into all of this in just a few days?

The sounds of the start of battle came through over my earbud.  I tried to ignore it as I came back to the present.  There wasn't anything I could do where I was and I needed to concentrate on my job here.  The janitorial staff obviously gave this room little attention.  The dust was an inch thick in most places.  Aside from that, you could almost imagine that Eric could be back any moment.  Nothing was touched.

Almost nothing, that was.  It didn't take my heightened senses to pick up the clues.  The dust itself was disturbed in the floor in two tracks that matched up with the legs of Eric's desk, with a strong build up at the end of each line.  The desk chair still had lingering dust motes, but they were uneven and disturbed.  On top of that, the one picture on his desk, a photo of the two of us sitting in Grant Park, was facing away from the chair.  No one puts out pictures of their loved ones for others, they put them out for themselves.

I carefully let myself down into the plush chair, covering my nose from the cloud of dust that puffed into the air.  Nothing yet.  Glancing around the desk, trying to imagine I was Ian Mackenzie, hot on the trail of Eric's secrets, I could see nothing out of place except that one photo.  My eyes drawn to it, I leaned forward and tried to pick it up for a closer look.  It didn't budge, but did seem to want to twist on it's base.  Huh.  The desk also refused to move as I gave it a small experimental push.

This time, instead of pulling on the photo frame, I twisted it, turning it until it sat facing me in the chair.  There was an audible click, then the whir of some kind of mechanism.  The desk slid forward along the tracks in the dust, a concealed trapdoor in the floor opened wide, and the chair sprang forward, ejecting me unceremoniously out of it and down the trap door.

I cursed under my breath as I slid down the metal tube.  I only hoped this was here because of Eric's love of water slides and not because it was feeding into, say, a lit furnace.  All I could do is force myself to calm down and enjoy the ride.  To my relief, I did not land in a burning pit or a car crusher.

Instead, I landed on a soft layer of padding in a small chamber.  Probably some forgotten sub-basement, there was nothing in the room but the end of the slide, some track lighting that provided dim visibility, and an open archway.  I could only think that all of this construction came about after the Whiteout.  With his nigh-infinite powers, Epic could have easily created this little repository with no one noticing.  Seeing no options save one, I carefully crept to the arch.

What lay beyond seemed like a simple hallway.  The light here was even dimmer, coming from two thin strip lights along each wall.  It was looking at those lights that warned me that this was no normal hall.  I could see places where the light was covered in what I guessed was soot.  Straining my eyes, I could also make out other scorch marks in the walls in intermittent locations.  Glancing at the ceiling, it told the same tale.  This was another melodramatic 'hallway of doom' that seemed to be more and more common among Pushcrooks as the Whiteout wore on.  The main difference here was that Eric was far too brilliant to leave an obvious trigger or light beam or tripwire.  It didn't matter, though, I had to pass.