Then Ethan’s voice was in her ears, sounding strained. ‘Um, guys? What’s happening in there?’
‘A shitshow,’ Flicker panted. ‘Is the car ready?’
‘Sure. I’ll start it up.’
And then Chizara was coming at them, laughing as she ran. God, she ran so beautifully, even in that ridiculous costume.
‘This casino is so going out of business.’ She took Kelsie’s other arm. ‘My mother would be proud.’
Kelsie smiled. Zara’s mom disapproved of a lot of things, but she thought gambling was the worst.
Except maybe terrorism, inciting riots, and grand theft casino.
‘Guys!’ Nate’s voice was in their earbuds again. ‘I’m right behind you, but the feds are right behind me!’
Kelsie looked over her shoulder. There was Nate, with four burly men in street clothes in pursuit, along with a couple of casino security guards swept up in the excitement.
Her own legs were shaky, her body weak from fighting off Swarm inside her. Chizara took more of her weight under one strong arm.
Kelsie looked ahead. Fifty feet between her and the doors. She’d never make it.
But she’d die trying.
‘THIS IS BAD,’ ETHAN MUTTERED.
He’d been standing beside the stolen sedan, watching people flee from the casino for the last three minutes. And now people were fleeing back in, shouting about free money.
That was usually a sign that a plan hadn’t worked.
Seriously, the Zeroes had to stop trying to rescue people. That Anon guy was better off without them.
Reception was crap out here, but Ethan had heard Flicker shout something profane about Lily, which couldn’t be good.
Then Nate’s voice was in his earbud, loud and breathless. ‘Get the car ready!’
Yeah. Really not good. Ethan ran around the sedan, opening the doors.
Flicker and Chizara burst out of the hotel, dragging Kelsie between them. Her face was pale, and she stumbled like her feet were on sideways.
‘Into the back!’ Chizara cried, and they hustled her into the car. Flicker took the passenger seat up front.
People were staring, and a guy in a hotel uniform was walking up.
Ethan turned on the voice.
‘Food allergy! We’re taking her to the hospital. Clear the turnaround!’
As the guy jumped into action, Glorious Leader came running out and dove for the driver’s seat.
The casino doors whisked shut again, and a second later they rocked and swayed – six big guys hurtling against the glass and bouncing off it, stunned.
‘That’s just cold, Crash,’ Ethan said as he slid in next to Kelsie.
Nate gunned the engine, and Ethan was pressed back against his seat as the sedan burned rubber across the turnaround.
‘Say,’ Ethan said, scrabbling to buckle up. ‘Did I hear the words ‘Lily fucked us?’
‘Shut up, Scam,’ Flicker said, her voice hard. She shoved a thick folder into the glove compartment. So at least the mission hadn’t been a complete fiasco.
But why did he have to shut up? Flicker had sworn up and down that her sister would never betray them. She’d declared Lily the sole exception to the no-contact-with-Cambria rule, and they’d wound up screwed.
Damn. He’d always thought Lily kind of liked him.
‘Head north,’ Chizara said from the other side of Kelsie. ‘I’ll work the lights.’
‘Straight through the middle of Vegas?’ Flicker asked.
‘More cars to put in front of them,’ Chizara said.
She sounded like she had it under control, in a cackling, mad-scientist kind of way, so Ethan eased back into his seat. Nothing the voice could do in this situation.
Also, he kind of wanted to peek at his new burner phone.
Waiting in the turnaround had been boring, at least before the riot had perked things up. He’d really fought the temptation to send a message to Cambria. But it had been a long month of running and hiding, no contact with anyone who wasn’t a superpowered freak.
So maybe he was a little homesick. And possibly he’d texted a certain someone to ask about ghost boys being caught on surveillance cameras back home.
Um, no, came the answer. Is this who I think it is?
It had taken him five minutes to come up with Maybe.
Holy crap, Sonia had replied.
Too bad the voice couldn’t control his fingers. Then he could’ve texted something brilliant and funny right away. But he’d still been thinking what to say when all hell had broken loose.
Nate swung the sedan onto the Strip. Kelsie was flung sideways, jammed tight against Ethan. He realized she didn’t have her seat belt on, and started to fumble for it.
‘I’m sorry,’ she was murmuring. ‘I didn’t mean to make them—’
‘Not your fault,’ Flicker said from the front. ‘It’s my DNA that screwed us.’
Her voice was breaking. Ethan couldn’t imagine being betrayed by his older sister, Jess. He figured having an identical twin do the honors would be even worse.
Nate was weaving back and forth across all six lanes of traffic. Ethan finally managed to get Kelsie’s seat belt to click just as they darted through an intersection to a chorus of car horns.
Ethan’s pocket buzzed.
Chizara stared at him. ‘Did someone just text you?’
‘I set up a news alert,’ he heard himself say smoothly. ‘For crowd activity.’
Hopefully they were all too distracted to spot the voice in action. He slipped the phone into his palm as Nate sped around an SUV.
Sonia’s message was longer this time. You guys anywhere near the Super Bowl? Some A-grade crowd weirdness happening.
Ethan groaned. Seriously, were some Zeroes messing with the Super Bowl? Might as well declare war on apple pie.
The world outside the car windows turned liquid, they were moving so fast. Ethan didn’t want to look at the blur of concrete, so he stared at his screen.
Another text from Sonia: The ticket scanners all crashed, so they had to eyeball every ticket. But people got into the game with blank pieces of paper!
Blank Super Bowl tickets? That sounded like Coin’s power. But Coin was dead, killed by Swarm.
Swarm was dead too. And Ethan still missed the reassuring presence of the Craig every damn day. But maybe there was another Coin out there, just like there had been another Anon.
Maybe there was another Scam somewhere too. Someone who would understand that the stuff the voice said wasn’t really Ethan’s fault.
More Sonia: My weird-hunter group is obsessed! And they hate sports!
As Ethan tried to come up with something smart, the sedan went practically airborne through the next intersection.
Cool, he managed.
He looked up. ‘Um, those lights up ahead, are they red?’
‘Backseat driver, much?’ Flicker asked.
Nate sped up. Which Ethan hadn’t realized was possible.
The traffic flowed across the intersection like a wall of metal.
Chizara leaned forward, her gaze set on the cars in front of them. ‘Don’t slow down. I got it timed just right.’
Ethan flung his arms over his face and braced for impact.
Horns went dopplering past, and Ethan twisted in his seat to look back. At the intersection behind them, the cars had all stopped dead, leaving an exact sedan-width gap between front and rear bumpers.
‘Red lights don’t matter,’ Chizara said with a chuckle. ‘I went straight for the engines.’
‘Close it up!’ Nate ordered.
Chizara swirled a hand in the air, and a few of the cars jerked forward to block the gap.
‘Nobody can catch us!’ Ethan crowed.
‘It’s not over yet,’ Kelsie said softly. ‘Those marshals felt pretty determined.’
Ethan untwisted to face forward. All along the Strip ahead of them, the traffic lights switched to green. Chizara had built a path right through town.
>
They sped along the wide, sun-drenched Strip, between the rows of palm trees. Tourists were everywhere, walking wide-eyed, taking pictures. It hardly felt like a car chase at all now.
Vegas sprawled around them like an upended toy box. The buildings were random shapes and sizes. None of them matched, except for their shifting light shows. Which, Ethan realized, were starting to go dark.
‘Is that you?’ he asked Chizara.
‘Yeah,’ she muttered. ‘Charging up, just in case.’
‘In case what?’ Ethan said as a vast swath of the city’s signage sputtered out.
‘In case they catch us,’ Crash said with an ominous smile, ‘and I need to show them who’s boss.’
Five minutes later the city trailed off abruptly, like a mirage. The buildings and palm trees were gone. A tall sign flashed past. DRIVE CAREFULLY.
Good luck with that.
Ahead of them was only desert and a long, straight highway.
Ethan looked at his phone again.
You guys busted Saldana out of prison, didn’t you? That was badass!
He smiled. Sent her a thumbs-up.
So where are you now?
Top secret, he typed. Though not really, given that Crash had just darkened half of Las Vegas. So he added, Just watch the news. I BET you’ll never guess.
The reply came about five seconds later.
BET? So you guys are in Las Vegas?
Crap. Too easy. Ethan had always sucked at making up clues.
Not anymore. We’ve got another rescue mission to get to.
Whoa came her reply, and the word made him shiver. Vegas is all over the news, dude.
‘What are you looking at?’ Chizara asked, peering over. ‘Your phone keeps needling me.’
‘We made the news already,’ Ethan squeaked, managing to stuff the voice down into his chest.
‘Thanks to Lily,’ Flicker said. ‘We should ditch this car as soon as possible. And the phones. Crash?’
‘Wait a second!’ Ethan started typing. ‘There’s this story about the Super Bowl that—’
‘Really?’ Flicker said. ‘Since when did you care about sports, Scam?’
‘But it got Zeroed!’ Ethan stalled.
Got to ditch this phone soon but hit you later, he sent.
‘What kind of power?’ Nate asked.
‘Blank paper turned into tickets. Sounds like Coin.’
Nate breathed out of clenched teeth, like the getting-Davey-killed scars were still fresh.
Hope to hear from you soon, Sonia replied. You already made me famous twice. Maybe the third time’s the charm!
Ethan blinked, rereading the words. What kind of charm was she talking about, exactly?
Before he could ask, another Sonia text appeared. Btw, I’m going out of town soon. Weird-hunter conference.
‘You can read about the Super Bowl later,’ Nate said. ‘The feds are probably scanning for us.’
‘Just give me one more—’Ethan started, but Chizara snapped her fingers and the screen went blank.
‘Crap.’ He dropped the dead phone to the floor.
He didn’t even know where Sonia was going to be. But there were more burners in the trunk, and Chizara had to sleep sometime.
‘We’ve got more immediate problems, Flicker said. ‘Eyes in the air.’
There was a thwacking sound above them, like short booms of thunder.
‘Great,’ Chizara said, twisting toward the back window. ‘Choppers are the worst.’
‘WHAT DO YOU MEAN?’ NATE ASKED. His palms were slick on the steering wheel.
‘Helicopters aren’t as simple as cars!’ Crash said.
‘Can you force it down?’
‘Not without risking everyone inside.’ Chizara paused, and
the traffic lights half a mile ahead turned green. ‘The tail rotor has to balance the torque, or the chopper goes into a spin. It’s not like I can do that math in my head! Maybe if I’d had a helicopter to practice with…’
Nate swallowed. Things had changed since he’d gone to prison. Two months ago Chizara had been controlling lights at a nightclub. And now?
Give me a helicopter to play with. No big deal.
And the feds were way too smart these days. Showing up with no tech, just glow sticks that Chizara couldn’t crash. Forewarned and forearmed.
The Zeroes had worked every advantage, meeting in the densest crowd he’d ever seen, and Phan had almost grabbed them.
But prison had also taught him patience. There was no need to panic.
‘Okay,’he said. ‘What can they actually do to us from up there?’
‘They can shoot us,’ Flicker said. ‘I’ve got eyes looking through sniper scopes – aiming for the tires.’
‘Got it,’ Chizara said.
Flicker smiled at Nate. ‘We practiced for snipers during the prison break.’
He didn’t answer, not daring to interrupt Chizara’s work.
‘Okay,’ she said a moment later. ‘Their scopes are useless now. They’ll miss by ten feet.’
‘Can you make it twenty?’ Ethan asked.
‘Good work, team,’ Nate said. He swerved around a slow-moving pickup truck, wide-eyed kids in the back watching the sedan shoot past. ‘So they can’t shoot us. Well, until they get close enough to open up with handguns.’
‘They won’t,’ Flicker said. ‘They want us alive.’
‘Are you sure about that?’ Ethan asked.
‘Afraid so.’ Flicker’s voice dropped. ‘Lily said she’d made a deal. She was trying to recruit me.’
Nate tore his eyes from the road to stare at Flicker. Of course. They had Verity working for them. Why not a Sight-caster?
‘Um, just you?’ Ethan asked from the backseat.
Everyone looked at him.
‘I mean, being a junior G-man might not be so bad,’ he added.
‘Can it, Scam,’ Flicker said. ‘No one’s joining the FBI. But at least if they want us alive, they won’t go all Bonnie and Clyde on this car.’
‘Which means that chopper can only track us,’ Nate said. ‘But they’ll put up roadblocks.’
His thoughts drifted back to what Flicker had said. The whole time he was in prison, nobody had ever offered him a deal. Because they’d thought he was a murderer, and maybe also…what had Phan said?
You aren’t even average.
Phan had known other Bellwethers. Better ones.
What kind of better, exactly? What part of his own power hadn’t he explored yet?
‘Spikes on the road would be bad,’ Chizara said. ‘I can move cars out of our way, but not some dumb piece of metal.’
‘Can you tweak the chopper a little, like a fuel leak?’ Flicker asked. ‘So they’d have to turn back?’
An exhalation from Crash. ‘That might start an engine fire. I told you, helicopters are finicky. We did enough damage back in Las Vegas.’
Nate’s hands tensed on the wheel. This was a great time for Chizara to get safety conscious.
All they needed was half an hour out of view, and he could pull off into the desert and disappear. He’d mapped out a dozen nearby places to hide – ghost towns, abandoned mines – and a couple of used-car lots for a quick vehicle switch. And Chizara could stop anyone who followed them off-road, unless they came on horses.
‘Crap!’ Ethan cried. ‘Another chopper!’
‘Yep,’ Flicker confirmed. ‘And it’s got snipers too. Crash?’
‘On it.’
The helicopters grew louder. One made a close pass overhead, swirling dust across the sedan’s front windshield for a moment. The skitter of sand and pebbles on glass set Nate’s teeth on edge.
Were they trying to force him off the road?
Screw that. He would drive until they shot his tires out.
Junior fucking G-men.
Not even average.
Then a small voice came from the back.
‘I can handle them.’ Kelsie, sounding grim.
‘W
hat do you mean?’ Flicker asked.
No answer came.
Nate adjusted his rearview. Kelsie was huddled back there between Ethan and Chizara, pale and shivering.
He’d felt it back in the casino – what she’d almost become.
‘No,’ he said. ‘You’re not using that side of your power. Ever.’
‘Easy for you to say!’ Kelsie cried. ‘The rest of you can cut a deal. But I was there when a cop got torn to pieces. They’ll put me in isolation!’
Chizara spoke up. ‘It’s okay, Kelsie. Nobody’s going to make a—’
‘I almost didn’t make it out of that casino. Do you know what I’d turn into in prison? What I’d turn the prison into?’
A helicopter buzzed overhead again, drowning her out, but the nightmare answer came unbidden to Nate’s head.
A Swarm would turn any prison into a slaughterhouse. Guards, prisoners, janitors – nobody would survive.
Maybe he could make Chizara understand: a locked-up Mob would be a hundred times worse than a couple of helicopter crashes.
But he’d already played the moral-calculus card with Chizara once this week. She wouldn’t listen to him now.
He wasn’t the leader anymore.
He felt the weight of that insignificance settle on him. Like in the empty corridors of the supermax, when there weren’t enough prisoners for him to feel the Curve at all. Like Phan calling him less than average in front of the other Zeroes. Like Flicker being co-leader now.
It was almost enough to make him contemplate surrender. Let the others take their shot at making a deal. Maybe even Kelsie could swing something. Hadn’t Swarm hunted other Zeroes, as if by smell? Surely Phan would find a use for her.
Nate shook himself. What the hell was he thinking? These were his friends. His allies. They’d saved him from life in prison.
He had made the Zeroes what they were – cemented them together, taught them to pool their talents. Fate had put Verity and Phan in that interrogation room with him, pointing him toward New Orleans.
He wasn’t going to give up now.
Then one of the helicopters swept past again, so close that the skids almost touched the ground, and he smiled.