Page 74 of Circle of Death
Maddy flares her wings and lands beside me. I rematerialize and take a moment to adjust to my man-sized weight and piss-poor vision. In a second, Maddy is human, too.
She’s breathless and excited.
“I could stay up there all day,” she whispers. “The wind feels amazing.”
I nod. “I’d rather be a bird than a rat, that’s for sure.”
We move toward a boxy structure with a metal door. The door looks thick and heavy. A fireball could probably get us through, but it would take me some time to work up the energy. Plus, I don’t want the noise of the blast.
Maddy walks right up to the door and pulls it open. Unlocked. I guess they’re not worried about intrusions from above. Or maybe somebody got sloppy.
We brace the door open in case we need a way out. A few seconds later, we’re standing on a metal landing. I lean over and look down the staircase to the factory floor two stories below. I can hear isolated thuds echoing. It doesn’t sound like machinery. More like somebody being punched.
I point down the stairs, then I disappear. A second later, Maddy vanishes, too.
I remind myself that when we’re both invisible, Maddy can see me, but I can’t see her. In that way, she’s more evolved than I am. But it means I always have to take the lead. Otherwise, I’ll keep bumping into her.
The air smells like paint and fresh cement. Standard new-building scents. At each turn of the staircase, I expect to find workers or guards, but so far, it’s a clear path. Or maybe they’re just waiting for us below.
My heart is pounding hard in my chest. I stop to look through a small port on the second-floor landing. All I see are catwalks and ductwork. Whatever they’re making here, it must all be happening on the ground floor.
There are surveillance cameras at every corner, but that’s one thing we don’t need to worry about. All the cameras are seeing are empty stairs. If they were heat-sensing, we would have heard an alarm by now.
The punching sounds are getting louder, echoing in a large space.
I’m standing with my shoulder against the first-floor door. I feel Maddy pressing in behind me. I pull the door partway open, just enough for us to slip through. I swing to my left, and get hit hard in the gut.
By a soccer ball.
CHAPTER 90
GODDAMNIT!
The factory floor is as wide and long as an airline hangar. And it’s totally empty, except for four kids in the middle—two boys and two girls in cheap athletic gear, kicking soccer balls back and forth. The kicks echo against the bare walls. Like punches. But the kids are oddly quiet.
They look about seven or eight. Maybe they’re workers, or slave labor. But they’re well fed, and they don’t seem to have a care in the world. If they worked here, their bosses are long gone. Along with all the equipment.
I need to find out what the kids know. What they saw. Which means I have a choice to make.
Should I duck around a corner and rematerialize there? Or should I do it right in front of them? Sometimes the shock effect works wonders.
I whisper to Maddy. “Follow me.”
I walk to the middle of the floor, right in the center of the quadrangle of kids. One of them kicks a ball waist-high across the space. I catch it in midair and hold it. Then I make myself visible. Maddy rematerializes right beside me.
I watch for the reaction—the kind I’ve seen a thousand times. Fear. Amazement. Disbelief.
But the kids don’t look shocked at all. They just stand there, like nothing happened. Like seeing two people appear out of nowhere is no big deal. The tallest boy steps forward with a sneer on his face. He turns to the other kids.“Suuder irlee,”he calls out. I feel a chill in my belly.
“What did he say?” asks Maddy.
I give her the translation: “The Shadow has arrived.”
One of the girls points toward the wall behind us. We turn around. My gut does a flip-flop. The wall is filled with a message in giant script. In the Destroyer’s handwriting. No translation needed.
TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE,it says.
“Oh, shit!” Maddy grabs me. She’s looking back over her shoulder. I spin around to see what she’s seeing.
