Indestructible (Indestructible Trilogy Book 1) (16 page)

“The invasion,” says Nolan. “The fiends are leftovers from the original war, trapped in our world. Most aren’t intelligent enough to remember it.”

“Most of them don’t
speak,”
I point out. “It doesn’t have to do with the Transcendent, does it?”

If Cas’s expression was like a laser before, now it’s a freaking nuclear strike.

“You’re the one who brought it up,” I snap at him. “At the lab. I’m not stupid.”

“She isn’t,” says Nolan. “And Leah… I guess it sort of does. The Transcendent was our secret weapon during the invasion. But we still lost the war, and we thought we’d lost most of the research, too.”

“Right,” I say.
Weapon?
“And what I just did… could the Transcendent do
that?”

“Enough,” Cas snaps. “We need to get back before Murray sends a rescue team after us, or more of those
things
show up.”

“Don’t you try to divert me,” I say. “Fine. We’ll talk on the way back, and you’d better hope Murray gives me some answers.”

“He was right,” says Nolan. “We can’t keep her in the dark.”

“
You
shouldn’t even know about it,” says Cas. “Spying on us, were you?”

“You asked me to keep an eye on her!”

“Me?” I interrupt. “So you don’t think I’m mature enough to hear the truth? Next time I’ll be sure to stand right behind you if I get another freakish power-boost and blow everything up.”

“You can’t kill a Pyro,” says Cas. “And if you get yourself under control, you won’t be harming any humans, either.”

“What the
hell
does that mean?” I bar his way as he makes to walk forward. “You can’t say that and expect me to put my head down and accept it. Am I a danger to everyone?”

“No,” says Nolan. “But you’ll need to talk to Murray. He’ll explain about your powers. Neither of us know enough to be able to help you.”

“Like I’d take
your
help.” I direct this more at Cas, but it’s Nolan who flinches. Wow. I actually scared him. But I feel faintly sick instead of triumphant. My head throbs, and I just want a straight answer. “I can cause… energy blasts. The fiend knew I could. How?”

“I have no idea,” says Cas flatly, but I’m sure he’s lying.

Nolan frowns at him, but shakes his head. “No clue.”

I let out a breath. “So. Did the fiends cause the end of the world, or…?” I can’t end the sentence.
The Pyros didn’t cause it. Did they?

“They invaded,” says Cas, whose entire body is tense, mouth drawn into a line. “We survivors moved back into the mountain, losing most of Murray’s research in the process.”

“Transcendents?”

Cas’s glare means
yes,
I guess. He turns to Nolan, his eyes cold. “You tell Murray to keep her out of future missions. We can’t afford to let her damage our reputation. If the humans turn on us, then we’ve no hope of beating the fiends.”

“Excuse me? Damage your reputation? In case you’ve forgotten, that town refused to let us in before because they didn’t trust your type. The group I lived with were the same.”

“Sorry,” says Nolan. His hand brushes my arm, and I step away. The desire to run seizes me. To run away from the lies and deception. I can survive alone, and even the fiends can barely touch me… but that would mean abandoning everyone here. Abandoning the war.

“Cas,” says Nolan, “If anything,
you’re
the one who’s done the most damage.”

A swishing sounds as Cas drawing his knife and points it at Nolan.

“Don’t even go there,” he says through clenched teeth. “I’m sick of the sight of both of you. And the sun’s going down.”

Crap.
He has a point. The sun’s almost on a level with the distant hills we came from, and we still have to walk all the way back. I glance behind at the divide, and though I see no movement, the hairs rise on my arms at the thought of more of those fiends down there.

“Right.” Nolan puts away his weapon. “Let’s move.”

Cas’s already several metres away, his cloak streaming behind him, knife still in his hands.

I walk, questions whirling around my head. The silence between us grows unbearable. Finally, I say, “That fiend that attacked us was different. How did you know it could speak?”

“I’ve seen it before,” says Nolan. “It’s a genetically enhanced fighting machine, one they taught to speak English. I thought they were all dead, but apparently not.”

“I never saw one like that until we were attacked in the forest,” I say.

“They’re getting bolder.”

“Genetically enhanced,” I say. “So do the
fiends
have, like, scientists?” I always thought of the fiends as brutish, thick-skulled fighting machines. The idea that they might possess near-human intelligence doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence.

“Humans they captured, presumably,” says Nolan, but it sounds like a lie. Perhaps it’s the look on his face. I can’t read it.

“What was that symbol?”

The guarded look flickers. “Symbol?”

“The one tattooed on its arm. It’s the same as our symbol. It looks exactly the same.”

Nolan’s lips press together. “I have no idea.”

Another lie. Anger buzzes under my skin, like residue from the energy blast I caused.

“Right,” I say. “Thanks for clearing that up.”

Nolan sighs. “Leah, what you have to understand is that Murray keeps secrets for a reason. So does Cas, so do all of us. Certain information’s dangerous to spread around. The more people know things, the more leverage the fiends have against us if they attack. If they were to take any of us, we’ve lost the war. We have knowledge which could tip the balance either way…”

“Why, did they take people captive before?”

Is that how they gained the intelligence to create genetic enhancements? More, even worse monsters? Don’t they have the advantage already?

Was someone Murray knew taken already?

“We were betrayed,” he says, rubbing his arm convulsively, like it hurts.

“Last time,” I say, trying a last-ditch tactic to get some information. “The Transcendent died, right?”

He inclines his head.

“The fiends killed him? Her?”

Nolan sighs. “She died after closing the divide—the breach. That’s why they haven’t been able to come back.”

That’s what happened?
My mind spins. Is that what I am—a sacrifice, if the fiends break through to our world again? Is
that
what being Transcendent means?

The words hover in the front of my mind before I open my mouth. “Am I Transcendent?”

The sentence remains hanging in the air, like it’s weighted.

“Don’t lie to me,” I say, quietly. “Val said Murray thought I was, and now I caused that energy blast. I’ve never seen another Pyro do that. So. Am I?”

Nolan inclines his head, looking at me pityingly. The anger buzzes again.

“I am,” I say, answering the question for him. “If that’s the case… does Murray expect me to die for you, like the last one?”

A long pause.

“No, Leah,” Nolan says, softly. “It was an accident, and it won’t happen again. But I wouldn’t talk about it in front of Cas. He was on the front line last time as the Transcendent’s shield. He couldn’t protect her.”

I suck in a breath. “Is that why he’s such an asshat? He thinks I’m live bait?”

“I’m fairly sure he was an asshat since birth,” says Nolan, his expression relaxing.

That almost gets a smile out of me.

“But this whole thing’s worrying.” Nolan sighs. “I was surprised Murray even sent us out that far. I expected him to keep us inside, or at least look for the fiends that got away first.”

“Some of them got away?”

“Apparently. The ones that attacked us sneaked into the area when we were gone, around the back. Murray must have left a gap in security. Nothing can get in now.”

“But some might still be in the area?”

“If they are, they’re keeping their distance. But no one knows what they hoped to achieve by sneaking in. There were too few of them to inflict any serious damage, unless they didn’t know the rest of us had come back. It makes me think they were attempting a stealth mission.”

“What for?”

“To steal something. That’s what Murray says. I know I’m not supposed to talk about it, but I don’t know what he hoped to achieve by keeping things from you. You’ve seen the world outside. You aren’t like Elle.” A shake of the head. “He means well, but he shelters us too much, and her most of all.”

“You can’t blame him for that,” I say. “All they have is each other, right?”

“True. But he thinks pretending the past doesn’t exist is the only way to move forward. I have a bad feeling the fiends don’t agree. If they’re experimenting again, it’s only a matter of time before they make another offensive attack. We have to be ready.”

A rustle beneath his cloak reveals the papers he picked up from the research building. He skims through them, frowning. In the dimming light, it’s impossible for me to read them.

“What exactly are those?”

“Notes on Transcendent experiments. I know Murray wouldn’t want to leave them where the enemy could get at them. I’m surprised they were still there. The enemy would never have let anything useful lie around, especially if they’re performing similar experiments themselves.”

“Wait, what? The fiends are creating a Transcendent? So they do have human intelligence?”

“That was the biggest mistake we made,” says Nolan. “We assumed our own experiments would be of no interest to the enemy. The fiends are unintelligent creatures with no interest in science. But when we were betrayed…” He lifts his head to look in Cas’s direction. “There were unforeseen consequences.”

“Betrayed?” I echo. “How?”

“Another senior Pyro saw that we were losing, tried to make an alliance with the enemy. We think he must have shared some information. And… and if they’re doing
this,
then they might have been one step ahead of us for longer than we thought.”

I don’t know what to say. I’ve not been with the Pyros for long, yet it’s the closest to normality that I’ve experienced in this new world, the closest to order and purpose. I can’t imagine anyone I’ve met so far turning traitor. Who’d help the enemy after what they did to Earth?

“Sorry for freaking you out,” says Nolan. “When that thing appeared, Cas damn near threw himself into the divide. If we lose our lives carelessly, then who will be left to fight? I vouched for you when Val was trying to persuade Murray to let you come outside, but I never expected this.”

“You asked him to let me come?”

“I told you, he’s worried. But you’ve proven yourself. A bit more weapon training and you’ll be ready for the big missions. I just hope I’m wrong and the enemy doesn’t have hold of our technology. The last thing we need is them to find a Transcendent of their own.”

“How
can
they tell?” That part, I don’t understand.

Nolan shakes his head. “If we knew more about how the fiends operated… they track humans by scent, so perhaps that has something to do with it. They can always tell Pyros from ordinary humans.”

“Is there a specific criteria for being Transcendent?” I ask. “Because Cas isn’t—is he?” Nolan knows about his healing power. But if that doesn’t make him Transcendent, what
is
Cas?

“Cas is… a special case.” He looks ahead, and my eyes follow his gaze towards the hills. Cas has disappeared.

“Where did he go?”

It’s dark now, or as dark as it gets in a world where the sky’s eternally red. The sun has slipped out of sight, and a cool breeze sweeps the dry grass flat and ripples over the surface of the water below the cliff. The sea moves continually, pulled towards the edge of the divide.

“Idiot,” Nolan mutters.

“Have you both always lived with the Pyros?” I ask.

“Cas has been there since forever. I joined when I was fourteen. I was orphaned and my uncle was Murray’s assistant. He was the one who found me.” He shrugs. “It was the only option. Luckily they signed me up before I could accidentally give myself away.”

I watch him as he kicks up dust with his boots, wondering if that easy confidence hides something else. Everyone at headquarters has secrets. I think of the novices and wonder how little they know of what’s really going on. Would they be as keen to go out in the field if they knew the enemy might have a weapon we could never hope to beat?

A screech sounds behind us, high and insistent.

“Crap,” says Nolan.

Another fiend. Several, judging by the cries.
Did using that power attract them?

With a nod of understanding, I start to run.

We make it. Just. Crossing the stepping-stones is even worse than the first time, with the knowledge that the fiends are right on our heels, but with Nolan’s help, I make it across. Cas has already disappeared, his cloak a red blot on the hillside as he climbs alone, not on the path but recklessly pulling himself up the rock face with his bare hands.