Reckoners 01 - Steelheart

He wore a black buttoned shirt beneath it.
    The Reckoners were obviously worried about being followed, but I felt they overdid it. I was hopelessly lost after fifteen minutes, and Enforcement
never
came down to this level. There was an unspoken agreement. Steelheart ignored those living in the steel catacombs, and they didn’t do anything to bring his judgment down upon them.
    Of course … the Reckoners changed that truce. An important Epic had been assassinated. How would Steelheart react to that?
    Eventually the Reckoners led me around a corner that looked like every other one—only this time it led to a small room cut into the steel. There were a lot of these places in the catacombs. Places where the Diggers had planned to put a restroom, a small shop, or a dwelling.
    Hardman the sniper took up position at the door. He’d taken out a camo ball cap and put it on his head, and there was an unfamiliar emblem on the front. It looked like some kind of royal crest or something. The other four Reckoners arranged themselves facing me. Abraham got out a large flashlight and clicked a button that lit up the sides, turning it into a lantern. He set it on the floor.
    Prof crossed his arms, his face emotionless, inspecting me. The woman with the red hair stood beside him. She seemed more thoughtful. Abraham still carried his large gun, and Megan took off her leather jacket and strapped on an underarm gun holster. I tried not to stare, but that was like trying not to blink. Only … well, kind of the opposite.
    I took a hesitant step backward, realizing I was cornered. I’dbegun to think that I was on my way toward being accepted into their team. But looking into Prof’s eyes, I realized that was
not
the case. He saw me as a threat. I hadn’t been brought along because I’d been helpful; I’d been brought along because he hadn’t wanted me wandering free.
    I was a captive. And this deep in the steel catacombs, nobody would notice a scream or a gunshot.

6
    “TEST him, Tia,” Prof said.
    I shied back, holding my rifle nervously. Behind Prof, Megan leaned against a wall, jacket back on, handgun strapped under her arm. She spun something in her hand. The extra magazine for my rifle. She’d never returned it.
    Megan smiled. She’d tossed my rifle back to me up above, but I had a sinking suspicion that she’d emptied the chamber, leaving the gun unloaded. I started to panic.
    The redhead—Tia—approached me, holding some kind of device. It was flat and round, the size of a plate, but had a screen on one side. She pointed it at me. “No reading.”
    “Blood test,” Prof said, face hard.
    Tia nodded. “Don’t force us to hold you down,” she said to me,removing a strap from the side of the device; it was connected to the disc by cords. “This will prick you, but it won’t do you any harm.”
    “What is it?” I demanded.
    “A dowser.”
    A dowser … a device that tested if one was an Epic or not. “I … thought those were just myths.”
    Abraham smiled, enormous gun held beside him. He was lean and muscled and seemed very calm, as opposed to the tension displayed by Tia and even Prof. “Then you won’t mind, eh, my friend?” he asked with his French accent. “What does it matter if a
mythological
device pricks you?”
    That didn’t comfort me, but the Reckoners were a group of practiced assassins who killed High Epics for a living. There wasn’t much I could do.
    The woman wrapped my arm with a wide strap, a bit like what you use to measure blood pressure. Wires led from it to the device in her hand. There was a small box on the inside of the strap, and it pricked me.
    Tia studied the screen. “He’s clean for certain,” she said, looking at Prof. “Nothing on the blood test either.”
    Prof nodded, seeming unsurprised. “All right, son. It’s time for you to answer a few questions. Think very carefully before you reply.”
    “Okay,” I said as Tia removed the strap. I rubbed my arm where I’d been pricked.
    “How,” Prof said, “did you find out where we were going to strike? Who told you that Fortuity was our target?”
    “Nobody told me.”
    His expression grew dark. Beside him, Abraham raised an eyebrow and hefted his gun.
    “No, really!” I said, sweating. “Okay, so I heard from some people on the street that you might be in town.”
    “We didn’t tell anyone our mark,” Abraham said. “Even if you knew we were here, how did you know the Epic we’d try to