The Fate of Ten

“I . . .” I find myself having to recycle the pick-your-battles logic that made me bristle so much when Sam used it on me. “There are too many to keep fighting. It might not feel like it now because you’ve just started using them, but our Legacies aren’t a limitless resource. We can push too hard, get tired, and then we’re no good to anyone.”

“Good advice,” Daniela says. She remains rooted in place. “Too bad you couldn’t answer any of my other questions.”

“Look, I don’t know why you have Legacies, but it’s an amazing thing. A good thing. It’s destiny, maybe. You can help us win this war.”

Daniela snorts. “Seriously? I’m not fighting any war, John Smith from Mars. I’m trying to survive out here. This is America, yo. The army will take care of these weak-ass dust aliens. They got the drop on us, that’s all.”

I shake my head in disbelief. There’s seriously no time to explain to Daniela everything she needs to know about the Mogadorians—their superior technology, their infiltration of Earth’s governments, their endless amounts of disposable vatborn warriors and monsters. I never had to explain those things to the other members of the Garde. We always knew the stakes, we were raised understanding our mission on Earth. But Daniela and the other newly minted Garde who might be wandering around . . . what if they aren’t ready to fight? Or don’t want to?

An explosion shakes the ground under our feet. It emanates from a few blocks away, but is still powerful enough to set off car alarms and rattle my teeth. Thick smoke darker than the night sky floats into view from the north. It sounds like a building just collapsed.

“Seriously,” Sam says. “Something’s headed our way.”

Another explosion, closer, confirms Sam’s suspicion. I turn desperately to Daniela.

“We can help each other. We have to, or we won’t survive,” I say, thinking not just of the three of us, but of humans and Loric. “We’re looking for our friend. Once we find him, we’re going to get out of Manhattan. We heard the government’s established a safe zone around the Brooklyn Bridge. We’ll go there and—”

Daniela waves off my whole plan, stepping towards me. Her voice is raised, and I feel her telekinesis buffet my chest, like a jabbing index finger.

“My stepdad got roasted by those pale scumbags and now I’m out here looking for my mom, alien guy. She worked down here. You saying I should drop all that and join your army of two, running around my city that you played a part in getting blown up? You saying the friend you’re looking for is more important than my mom?”

Another explosion. Closer, still. I have no idea what to say to Daniela. That yes, saving Earth is more important than saving her mom? Is that my recruitment speech? Would I have listened to that if someone said it about Henri or Sarah?

“Oh my God,” Sam says, exasperated. “Could we at least agree to all run in the same direction?”

And that’s when the reinforcements come into view. It isn’t a squadron of Skimmers or warriors come to kill us.

It’s the Anubis.

Chapter FOUR

THE MASSIVE WARSHIP, BIGGER THAN AN AIRCRAFT carrier, becomes visible in the night sky when it’s still five or so blocks away. It pushes slowly through the acrid smoke its recent bombings kicked up. Sam and I had been able to stay ahead of the Anubis earlier that afternoon, fighting our way south as it slowly prowled the skyline to the east. But now, here it is, looming up the avenue, right in the direction of Union Square.

I clench my fists. Setrákus Ra and Ella are on board the Anubis. If I could just get on there, maybe I could fight my way to the Mogadorian leader. Maybe I could kill him this time.

Sam stands at my side. “Whatever you’re thinking, it’s a bad idea. We need to run, John.”

And as if to punctuate Sam’s declaration, a sizzling ball of electric energy gathers in the barrel of the Anubis’s huge hull-mounted cannon. It’s like a miniature sun building up within the barrel, and for a moment it lights the surrounding blocks in a ghostly blue. Then, with a sound like a thousand Mog blasters going off at once, the energy erupts forth from the cannon, shearing through the façade of a nearby office building, the twenty-story structure almost immediately collapsing inwards.

A wave of dust rolls down the street towards us. Coughing, the three of us have to shield our eyes. The dust might give us some cover, but that doesn’t really matter when the warship has a gun that can demolish whole buildings. The Anubis lumbers closer, already prepping for another shot. I’m not sure if Setrákus Ra is aiming at heat signatures in the buildings or if he’s just destroying things at random, hoping to hit us. It doesn’t matter. The Anubis is like a force of nature and it’s headed in our direction.

“Hell with this,” I hear Daniela say, and then she takes off.

Sam follows her and so do I, the three of us retreating the way Sam and I just came from. We’ll have to find another way to track down Nine. If he’s still in the area, I hope he manages to ride out this bombing.

“Do you know where you’re going?” Sam yells to Daniela.

“What? You guys are following me now?”

“You know the city, don’t you?”

Another building explodes behind us. The dust is thicker this time, choking, and my back gets pelted by small chunks of plaster and cement. The explosions are too close. We might not be able to outrun the next one.