Tim Lebbon - Reaper's Legacy

“It’s all so shit,” Jack said softly. “Who’d have thought it would have come to this?”

“We knew what we were doing when we came in,” Jenna said.

“No,” Sparky said. “We didn’t. Not a clue. We came because we were desperate.”

The three of them fell silent at that, because Sparky was right. Jack had been desperate to discover the fate of his parents, Sparky his brother, and Jenna had come because of what the Choppers had done to her father—arrested because of his investigations into Doomsday, and returned a changed, lesser man.

That’s why we came , Jack thought. We had no intention of leading a crusade .

“So you’re going to ask Breezer and his people to help your dad,” Jenna said.

“Between Breezer and Reaper and their people, they should be able to discover the location of Camp H,” Jack said.

“So how do we do that and avoid detection by the Choppers?” Sparky asked.

Jack smiled. This was where it got interesting.

Dawn across a silent London, and a glorious sunrise gave the cityscape the look of an expressionist painting. Clouds boiled pink, looking beautiful and promising rain, and the city was sheened with promise. If I didn’t know any better I might take it as a sign , Jack thought. But in these strange times, perhaps that was exactly what it was.

“Gorgeous,” Sparky said.

“Girl,” Jenna said. He nudged her in the ribs, she pinched his arm. Then they leaned in together, keeping contact and taking comfort. Jack experienced a fleeting memory of him and Lucy-Anne when they had still been close. He didn’t think whatever had been between them had been anything like this.

“What?” Jenna asked self-consciously.

“You two,” Jack said. His friends glanced at each other.

“I took pity on her,” Sparky said. “Someone had to love her.”

“He’s such a loser, he needs looking after,” Jenna said.

You going to stand here farting around all day? The voice came from behind Jack, and when he glanced back he saw a shadow moving away from him, flowing against the old market’s front façade. Shade. Even his voice was like a shadow, a thing not truly there. When Reaper had called Shade to him and told him what was happening, Jack had shaken his hand, and it had felt…not quite there. He was nothing like Fleeter. She was solid and real, and able to shift between blinks and heartbeats. Shade was something that Evolve had moved to a different realm of reality. He was out of synch, and when Jack had squeezed his hand he’d felt a moment of sickening vertigo, as if he was about to tumble an unimaginable distance. Perhaps I could find his talent within me , he’d thought, but I really don’t want to .

“No,” Jack said. “We’re going.”

“Don’t like him as a bodyguard,” Sparky said. “Spooky bastard.” He didn’t bother keeping his voice down.

“We’re taking Breezer what he wants, surely?” Jenna said. “Hooking up with the Superiors?”

“Maybe,” Jack said. “But I think since meeting me, he might want me more.”

They set off. Shade moved with them, and sometimes he was as visible as someone normal. He wore jeans, a shirt, and a jacket, all black, and his short cropped hair was the same colour. His skin was very pale. He did not smile. The world seemed to weigh on his shoulders, and Jack wondered whether gravity had become his enemy.

More often, Jack caught sight of Shade from the corner of his eye. Then he would be a shadow brought to life, flowing through the streets like darkness given form. Sparky and Jenna were jumpy, and Jack knew they were seeing the same thing.

They were probably wondering whether Jack could do that, too.

It felt strange approaching the skyscraper they had so recently escaped. Yesterday they had leaped from the roof of this building in a rickety hang glider, trusting their lives to fate. Coming back made the memory of that escape unreal.

“Bloody high, isn’t it?” Sparky said.

“We’d have made a mess on the pavement.” Jenna was clasping Sparky’s hand, and Jack could not shake the growing feeling that he was alone. Left out. He hated it, because there was a selfishness to that thought.

“It might be best if you…” Jack started saying, but Shade was no longer there. They heard breaking glass from somewhere, a shout, and then several more voices joining in. They sounded confused and scared.

“So much for diplomacy,” Sparky said.

“Come on,” Jack said. “I’m hoping this’ll be pretty easy.”

The three men and two women on the ground floor of the office building let them pass when they saw Jack. They were all surprised, but he also saw an element of respect as well. Maybe their daring escape had livened up these people’s day.

They climbed, and Shade led the way. He flowed up the stairs, moving from shadow to shadow and making it appear that the stairwell was flexing and bulging, some monstrous gullet sucking them upwards. After fifteen storeys doors started opening behind them as they passed, and faces peered into the stairwell to watch them go. Several people followed them, including two women bearing rifles. But no one spoke.

Breezer was waiting for them on the twentieth floor. He leaned against the stair railing, looking down casually as they climbed the last flight towards him. They were panting hard, sweating from the climb, and Jack had been ignoring the temptation to dip into his powers to find something to help. His friends could not do that. He wanted to work as hard as them.

They stopped on the landing. Shade was a flight below them, standing in the corner and almost not there. He said nothing, only watched. The threat exuding from him was overt and did not require voicing.

“You owe me a hang glider,” Breezer said.

“Bill me,” Sparky said. “My address is 55 Don’t-give-a-shit Avenue.”

Breezer looked past them at Shade and quickly looked away again.

“You told me you weren’t really the leader here,” Jack said. “I’m hoping that was a lie.”

“Hoping?”

Jack sighed, probed, grasped a point of light inside, squeezed it tight. A rush of information. He used Breezer’s talent against him. “It’s how the others see you,” he said. “You’re strong. Resourceful. And you never were a heating engineer.”

“Oh,” Breezer said. “Well. That’s a pretence I’ve kept up since Doomsday.”

“So what was he?” Jenna asked.

“Police,” Jack said. “Serious Organised Crime squad.”

“Amazing,” Breezer said. “How do you do it? What does it feel like?”

“Unnatural,” Jack said. He closed his mind to what Nomad had given him and spat, trying to rid himself of her taste.

“Hungry?” Breezer asked.

“Burgers?” Sparky asked hopefully.

Breezer laughed. It was such a natural, unforced sound that it put Jack instantly at ease, and he glanced back at Shade and gestured.

“Come on,” Jack said. “You do eat, don’t you?”

Not so anyone would notice .

“Fine.” Jack followed Sparky and Jenna through the doorway, and as it swung shut he saw Shade slip through from the corner of his eye. Their guard. Jack was already quite certain he would not be required.

The same cooking barrel, the same people around them, but this time Breezer seemed more deferential. He had underestimated Jack and his friends last time. Now, they had proved themselves more resourceful than he could have imagined.

“So you went to your father,” Breezer said. He glanced around the open-plan office, looking for Shade. Dawn sunlight bathed them, casting shadows behind screens and in doorways, and Shade could have been anywhere. “Got one of his monsters protecting you.”