Midnight City (47 page)

The windows of the control center overlooked the dam’s main wall as it stretched in both directions. The structure’s huge metal gates lay along its length, keeping an unmeasurable amount of water behind them at bay.

Even though Holt had an idea what was coming, when it happened, he still couldn’t believe it. He felt his knees shake and buckle.

“Oh my God…,” Holt managed to whisper. And then the unthinkable occurred.

*   *   *

ZOEY LOOKED AT HER
hands and arms and saw they were covered in golden, wavering energy.

Her real body was forgotten. She was the dam now. She was its turbines and generators and controls; she was the energy that coursed through its cables, and the pressure that was building in its pipes and lines.

She traveled through the structure, feeling it as individual pieces and as one giant whole. She found the parts she was looking for, the dam’s main function, and she forced herself into them, filling them with her energy and willing them to obey.

Beneath her, and in every direction, came a sound like rolling thunder.

The giant gates set into the concrete wall began to slide open, groaning and rumbling and spraying sparks and rust.

But they opened nonetheless.

Zoey watched as huge cascades of water exploded out the side of the dam, roaring downward like giant liquid obelisks that slammed and burst apart on the floodplain below.

Bellows erupted from the Spider walkers on the field, no longer tones of triumph or confidence. Instead they were sounds of shock and fear, and Zoey watched as dozens upon dozens of the huge machines, which had been on the verge of victory, turned and ran away from the dam, as fast as their powerful legs would propel them, toward the edges of the floodplain.

But it was too late.

The massive wall of water roared toward them, burying everything as it surged forward.

The flood plowed into the Assembly. Zoey watched them almost instantaneously be hammered forward and disappear under the giant swell.

The Spiders’ panicked, fearful electronic calls were suddenly drowned out as the water pounded them to the ground and enveloped them completely. Zoey watched the giant machines disappear in the torrent as it roared forward, saw them tossed and flipped as if they weighed nothing. And she felt them, too. Sensed their fear and terror as their shells broke open and the water gushed inside. And then, a moment later, the sensations were gone, wiped away.…

The main force of blue and white walkers had been completely washed out of existence.

*   *   *

WHAT REMAINED OF THE
dam’s defenders stared in awe as the gates of the dam slowly closed, sealing off the powerful flow. As the main surge of water began to recede, they saw dozens of motionless blue and white Spider walkers spread out before them, all crushed and destroyed and lying crumpled in the water like mechanical corpses.

The color on their armor didn’t stand out for long. A thick, black, rustlike substance formed on their surfaces, spreading and consuming the machines where they lay, like a metallic cancer. No golden fields of energy rose from their bodies, no crystalline shapes of light. There was only the rust.

Above, the Raptors ceased their firing, circled a few more times, and then their engines roared as they banked hard and flew toward the east, followed by the Vultures and Ospreys. Watching them recede was like watching a giant black cloud move toward the horizon, shrinking and diminishing in the sky until it vanished.

When they were gone, the river valley was filled with a strange, surreal silence that felt very out of place. The crackling of fires on the walls and the lapping of water against the new shoreline were the only sounds.

Eventually, a shocked, disbelieving cheer went up on one side of the dam. It was quickly echoed all along the walls by a hundred young, ecstatic voices.

As they roared in victory, some looked upward toward the very top of the structure. There, a silhouette against the bright sky, stood what looked like a tiny figure, a young girl, her arms extended, her hands and eyes glowing with an unearthly golden light.

The figure stood a moment longer … and then she vanished.

Rumors blossomed from that brief sighting, stories that would be told over the months to come. Tales of a young girl who had stood at the head of the dam while plasma bolts filled the air all around her, and somehow willed the old structure back to life. Willed it back to life … and saved them all.

They were only rumors, of course. But they would spread nonetheless.…

*   *   *

HOLT STARED, JUST AS
astonished as those outside, watching the water cease its flow and everything return to normal.

It took him a moment to realize that the door was no longer shaking at his back, and the buzzing of the Seekers was gone. He stepped to the side and let the ruined door fall to the floor. Beyond it, there was nothing but a dark, empty staircase descending downward.

They were gone. Holt guessed that the pattern had repeated itself all throughout Midnight City. Without the support of the larger force outside, what remained of the smaller Mantis group had withdrawn, taking their Seekers with them.

The city was saved. And Zoey had done it all. Somehow.

He watched as the little girl stepped back through the hole in the ceiling, descending the ladder to the floor. When she finally stood before him, Holt stared at her in a whole new way. His heart beat heavy and fast in his chest. He was stunned.

“Zoey…,” he managed to say. But there were no more words.

Max barked and rushed to Zoey, brushing up against her, and the little girl petted his head and scratched his ears.

Then she kneeled down before Mira and her empty, black eyes. Zoey placed her hands on Mira’s chest.

“Holt,” she said. Something strong in her voice made him look down at her, down at them both. “I need to know,” she continued. “Do you
believe
?”

Holt looked back at her. Ten minutes ago, he would have answered no without hesitation. But not now. Regardless of what had happened to him, or what might happen to all of them … there was finally, ultimately, a reason to hope. He only wished Mira were able to hear the answer herself. “Yes,” Holt said firmly. “I believe.”

Zoey was silent, reading him or weighing his answer, he wasn’t sure which. Then she nodded and looked back down to Mira. “Hold her hand,” Zoey said.

Holt felt his heart begin to pound again. He kneeled down before Mira, on the other side from Zoey, and took her small, still hand in his own.

Zoey closed her eyes. Holt watched expectantly, waiting.…

“Be free,” Zoey said, and a flash of rippling golden light blossomed around all three of them.

When it faded, Mira inhaled a gasping breath. Her whole body shook, and Holt held her down until the spasm ended.

When it did, she opened her eyes. And the world seemed to stop.

They were perfectly clear. Clear and conscious and alive. The veinlike black tendrils of the Tone were gone, leaving only twin seas of intense emerald green.

Her eyes blinked and focused as her awareness returned, and when she saw Holt, she smiled. “Hi,” she said softly, staring back at him.

“Hi,” Holt replied. He brushed the strands of hair off her face, ran his fingers across her cheek and chin, feeling all of her. He couldn’t believe it.

“Still making you work for it,” she whispered. “Aren’t I?”

Holt stared back a moment, feeling life and warmth return to him. When he had held off as long as he could … Holt pulled Mira to him.

The world faded away as they kissed, absorbed and lost in each other, their closeness overriding every other sensation.

Max whined next to them, and Zoey reached out and covered the dog’s eyes. She smiled broadly, and watched as the moment went on and on.…

49.
THE SEVERED TOWER

MIRA SAT WITH HER BACK
against the wall of the old barn they’d made camp in the previous night. After they escaped Midnight City, Holt had doubled back with Max to get his guns and other things from the security lockers at the main gate where he’d left them.

There had been little resistance, everything was still disorganized after the attack, and when he got back, the four set off toward the east. They didn’t stop moving until the sun began to set on the horizon, and they saw the old, abandoned farm surrounded by thick reeds of overgrown wheat.

It was odd, Mira thought. The silence and clarity of life without the Tone. She hadn’t realized how she’d become used to the constant, insistent whisperings and hisses in the back of her subconscious, and she had lain awake in wonder, listening to the sounds of crickets and night birds in the dark outside the barn’s old wooden doors for hours.

Before, she never would have noticed. The sounds of the Tone would have blocked them all out. It was going to take some getting used to.

Mira looked up and saw Max, sleeping near what was left of the embers of their campfire. Next to him, Holt was collecting his things, discarding supplies he no longer needed, sorting and organizing the others. He did everything so meticulously, so exactly, repeating over and over again actions he had drilled into himself in order to survive. Mira smiled, knowing that part of him would never change, even though others might. She was happy about it, actually. It was a part of him she liked.

She watched him pause suddenly, considering something in his hand. She recognized it immediately, the old abacus that was the Chance Generator. He looked at it in a slow, haunted way, and something about it bothered Mira. He hadn’t said what he’d done to get them out of Midnight City alive, but she knew the artifact had played a role. But whether he was disturbed by the results or by something else was unclear. She watched him gently place the artifact beside his pack.

Zoey sat next to her, looking up at beams of sunlight that trailed through the dust-heavy air.

The little girl was different now, too. But wasn’t that to be expected? Hadn’t Mira been affected in her own way by the Oracle? That thing changed you, no matter who you were. Sometimes a little … sometimes a lot.

“You’re thinking about the Oracle,” Zoey said, and Mira felt no sense of surprise at the observation. After everything they’d been through, it was difficult to be surprised by Zoey’s abilities anymore. “I didn’t like it,” the little girl confided.

“What did it show you?” Mira asked.

“Lots of things,” Zoey replied, looking away from the sunlight and back at Mira. “Things I understood and … things I didn’t. It made me remember. Not everything, but some things. Things I shouldn’t know, things it scares me to think about.”

“We don’t have to keep going,” Holt said from behind them, and they both turned to him. “We can stop right here. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. Mira and I will still protect you, no matter what.”

Zoey was silent. “I don’t think I could if I wanted,” she said. “And I don’t think it’s right, either. If there’s one thing I have to do … it’s keep going. But thanks, Holt.” She smiled at him.

Mira watched Holt’s gaze harden. “Then I’ll help you,” he said. “However you need. You asked me to believe, and I do, and before you and Mira … that wasn’t anything I ever thought I’d be able to do again.”

Mira felt a strange emotion at his words. They were closer than they had ever been, but ever since she had kissed him, kissed him in a way she had wanted to for a long time, something had been bothering her. She knew why, too. He had asked her, after all. She owed him the truth. But how could she tell him? Especially now, after everything that had passed between them? Was it even the best thing to do?

“Did it tell you what you need to do next?” Holt asked Zoey.

Zoey looked thoughtful, and Mira guessed she was reliving what she’d experienced in the Oracle. It had taken years before Mira slept through a night without dreaming those images.

“It showed me the beginning,” Zoey said.

“The beginning?” Mira was puzzled. “You mean you need to go where something started?”

Zoey nodded.

“Is it a place?” Mira pushed. “What does it look like?”

Zoey described part of what the Oracle had shown her, and as she did, Mira recognized the images. A destroyed, insane landscape filled with impossibilities. Something like a tower in the distance, split in half, frozen in midair. Mira knew what it was even though she had never seen it herself. There was only one thing it could be, and somehow, it seemed to make sense.

“The Severed Tower,” Mira said, her voice almost a whisper.

Both Holt and Zoey looked at her. Even Max looked up at the tone in her voice.

“That’s what she just described,” Mira said. “I haven’t seen it, but I know Freebooters who have.”

Holt was at a loss for words, but he always recovered quickly from moments like that, and usually with a sour look on his face. This time was no exception. “The Severed Tower,” he said sarcastically. “Well, that’s a relief. I was worried it was going to be something difficult.”

Zoey looked at Mira questioningly. “It’s ‘diff-cult’?”

Mira smiled at the little girl.

“It’s in the middle of the
Strange Lands,
Zoey,” Holt said before Mira could answer. “Where the artifacts come from. It’s
full
of the damn things, and now we have to go marching right through the center of it.”

“You said we needed something before.” Zoey looked at Mira. “To go inside the tower.”

“That’s right.” Mira reached inside her pack. “A radioactive substance.” She pulled out the glass cylinder and the Dampener. The plutonium she’d intended to trade for Ben’s life. She showed it to Zoey. “Something we just happen to have.”

Zoey smiled. “See Holt? It’ll be easy.”

Holt looked up again, eyeing the glass cylinder. “Yeah…”

“Why don’t you take Max outside to play?” Mira suggested.

“Keep away fetch with the Max!” Zoey exclaimed, and Holt tossed her the dog’s chewed-up purple ball. Max watched Zoey with excited, perked-up ears. He ran after the little girl, barking enthusiastically, and they both disappeared into the bright sunlight on the other side of the doors.