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I’VE witnessed the fearsome depths
I was in Babilar, Babylon Restored For red star known as Cala inside ed
The depths had claih I’ve pushed them back, I still bear their hidden scar
They insist that they will have ain
THE sun peeked over the horizon like the head of a giant radioactive otten hoeird the things smell
“We good?” I whispered over the line Instead of using ed to ith headsets The audio snapped and popped as I spoke Priy, but essential for this job
“Wait a sec,” Megan said “Cody, you in position?”
“Sure am,” crackled the reply, laced with a calm Southern drawl “If anyone tries to sneak up on you, lass, I’ll put a bullet up his nose”
“Ew,” Mizzy said over the line
“We’ll move in five,” I said fro a “tree stand,” which was really a glorified camp chair strapped some thirty feet up the trunk of an elame
I put my Gottschalk—a sleek, h the trees Nor on an Epic: one of the super-powered individuals who terrorized the world I was a Reckoner, saerous Epics
Unfortunately, life for the Reckoners had stopped o Our leader, Prof, was an Epic hiht in a rival’s intricate plot to find a successor Consualia’s empire in Babilar, but had taken with him her hard drives, complete with notes and secrets We intended to stop him And that led me here
To a large castle
Seriously A castle I’d figured those were just in old n countries, yet here one was hidden in the woods of West Virginia And despite the h-tech security syste before Calamity appeared in the sky—lichen covered the stonework, and vines twisted up one of the weathered walls
Pre-Calamity people had been weird Awesome too—evidence: castle—but still pretty weird
I looked away fro in a nearby tree I could pick him out only because I knew exactly what to look for His dark outfit blended well into the dappled shades of , which was—our informant said—the best time to assault this particular location: Shewbrent Castle, also known as the Knighthawk Foundry The world’s priy We’d used their weapons and tech to fight Steelheart, then Regalia
Noere going to rob them
“Everyone have their mobiles off?” I asked over the line “Batteries out?”
“You’ve asked that three tian replied
“Check anyway”
They all gave the affirmative, and I took a deep breath So far as we kneere the last cell of Reckoners Two n of Tia, which h I’d gotten the job by default Abrahahed when I’d asked if they wanted it, while Mizzy had gone stiff as a board and al
Noere putting my plan in motion My crazy, foolhardy, incredible plan Honestly, I was terrified
My watch buzzed Go time
“Megan,” I said into my radio, “you’re up”
“On it”
I shouldered an would launch her assault I felt blind With an’s view to follow her attack, or I could have at least brought up a local map and watched my team represented as blips Our hthaho alsothose to coordinat
e an attack on Knighthawk’s own installation see
“Engaging,” Megan said, and soon a pair of explosions shook the air I scanned throughin the sky, but couldn’t see Megan; she was on the other side of the castle Her job was to renades she’d thrown at the front gate
Attacking the Knighthawk Foundry was, of course, absolutely suicidal We all knew this, but ere also desperate, low on resources, and being hunted by Jonathan Phaedrus hione completely silent to our requests
Our choices had been to try to take on Prof unequipped, or to come here and see e could steal This seemed the better of two bad options
“Cody?” I asked
“She’s doing fine, lad,” he said over the crackling radio line “It looks just like that video The place released drones right after the explosions happened”
“Pick off what you can,” I said
“Roger”
“Mizzy?” I said “You’re up”
“Groovy”
I hesitated “Groovy? Is that some kind of code word?”
“You don’t know…Sparks, David, you can be a real square sometimes” Her words were punctuated by another series of explosions, larger this time My tree shook from the shock waves
I didn’t needthe castle’s flank Soon after the blast, a group of basketball-sized drones—sleek and metallic, with propellers on top—popped froer machines rolled out of shadowed alcoves; spindly and about as tall as a person, each had a gun arm on the top and moved on tracks instead of wheels
I followed these withinto the woods where Mizzy had planted flares in buckets to give off heat signatures Ree squad of soldiers was out there hiding We kept all the shots aih We didn’t want Abraham in the crossfire when it was his turn to move
The Knighthawk defense played out exactly as we’d been shown on the video from our informant Nobody had ever successfully breached the place, but roup, a reckless paramilitary force out of Nashville, had taken videos, and we’d uess,the hallways Noever, they were out fighting
Hopefully that would give us an opening
“All right, Abraham,” I said into the line, “your turn I’ll cover”
“And off I go,” Abraham said softly The careful, dark-skinned man rode a thin cable down from his tree, then slipped silently across the forest floor Though he was thick of ar nimbleness as he reached the wall, which was still shadowed in the early-ht infiltration outfit wouldas the heat sinks on his belt were functional