Reckoners 01 - Steelheart

kill?”
    “Well,” I said, “who
else
would you hit?”
    “There are thousands of Epics in the city, son,” Prof said.
    “Sure,” I replied. “But most are beneath your notice. You target High Epics, and there are only a few hundred of those in Newcago. Among them, only a couple dozen have a prime invincibility—and you
always
pick someone with a prime invincibility.
    “However, you also wouldn’t go after anyone
too
powerful or
too
influential. You figure they’d be well protected. That rules out Nightwielder, Conflux, and Firefight—pretty much Steelheart’s whole inner circle. It also rules out most of the burrow barons.
    “That leaves about a dozen targets, and Fortuity was the worst of the lot. All Epics are murderers, but he’d killed the most innocents by a long shot. Plus, that twisted way he played with people’s entrails is
exactly
the sort of atrocity the Reckoners would want to stop.” I looked at them, nervous, then shrugged. “Like I said. Nobody had to tell me. It’s obvious who you’d end up picking.”
    The small room grew silent.
    “Ha!” said the sniper, who still stood by the doorway. “Lads and ladies, I think this means we might be getting a
tad
predictable.”
    “What’s a prime invincibility?” Tia asked.
    “Sorry,” I said, realizing they wouldn’t know my terms. “It’s what I call an Epic power that renders conventional methods of assassination useless. You know, regeneration, impervious skin, precognition, self-reincarnation, that kind of thing.” A High Epic was someone who had one of those. I’d never heard of one who had two, fortunately.
    “Let us pretend,” Prof said, “that you really did figure it out on your own. That still doesn’t explain how you knew where we’d spring our trap.”
    “Fortuity always sees the plays at Spritz’s place on the first Saturday of the month,” I said. “And he always goes to look foramusement afterward. It’s the only reliable time when you’d find him alone and in a mind-set where he could be baited into a trap.”
    Prof glanced at Abraham, then at Tia. She shrugged. “I don’t know.”
    “I think he’s telling the truth, Prof,” Megan said, her arms crossed, jacket open at the front.
Don’t … stare …
, I had to remind myself.
    Prof looked at her. “Why?”
    “It makes sense,” she said. “If Steelheart had known who we were going to hit, he’d have had something more elaborate planned for us than one boy with a rifle. Besides, Knees here
did
try to help. Kind of.”
    “I helped! You’d be dead if it weren’t for me. Tell her, Hardman.”
    The Reckoners looked confused.
    “Who?” Abraham asked.
    “Hardman,” I said, pointing at the sniper by the door.
    “My name’s Cody, kid,” he said, amused.
    “Then where’s Hardman?” I asked. “Megan told me he was up above, watching with his rifle to …” I trailed off.
    There never was a sniper up above
, I realized.
At least, not one specifically told to watch me
. Megan had just said that to make me stay put.
    Abraham laughed deeply. “Got caught by the old invisible sniper gag, eh? Had you kneeling there thinking you’d be shot any moment. Is that why she calls you Knees?”
    I blushed.
    “All right, son,” Prof said. “I’m going to be nice to you and pretend none of this ever happened. Once we’re out that door, I want you to count to a thousand really slowly. Then you can leave. If you try to follow us, I’ll shoot you.” He waved to the others.
    “No, wait!” I said, reaching for him.
    The other four each had a gun out in a flash, all pointed at my head.
    I gulped, then lowered my hand. “Wait, please,” I said a little more timidly. “I want to join you.”
    “You want to what?” Tia asked.
    “Join you,” I said. “That’s why I came today. I didn’t intend to get involved. I just wanted to apply.”
    “We don’t exactly accept applications,” Abraham said.
    Prof studied me.
    “He
was
somewhat helpful,” Megan said. “And I … will admit that he is a decent shot. Maybe we should take him on, Prof.”
    Well, whatever else happened, I’d managed to impress her. That seemed almost as great a victory as taking down Fortuity.
    Eventually Prof shook his head. “We aren’t recruiting, son. Sorry. We’re going to leave, and I don’t want to
ever
see you anywhere near one of our operations again—I don’t want to even get a hint of you being in the same town as us. Stay in Newcago. After today’s