Reckoners 01 - Steelheart

hard on killing the Epics that we’ll forget to live our lives.”
    “He might be right,” I said. “I … I really haven’t had much of a life, other than this.”
    “The work we do,” Prof said, “is not about living. Our job is killing. We’ll leave the regular people to live their lives, to find joy in them, to enjoy the sunrises and the snowfalls. Our job is to get them there.”
    I had memories of the world before. It had only been ten years ago, after all. It’s just that it was difficult to remember a world of sunshine when darkness was all you saw each day. Remembering that time … it was like trying to recall the specifics of my father’s face. You forget things like that, gradually.
    “Jonathan,” Abraham said to Prof, slipping the barrel back onto his gun, “have you considered the things this boy said?”
    “I’m not a boy,” I said.
    They all looked at me. Even Megan, standing beside the doorway.
    “I just wanted to note it,” I said, suddenly uncomfortable. “I mean, I’m eighteen. I’ve hit my majority. I’m not a child.”
    Prof eyed me. Then, surprisingly, he nodded. “Age has nothing to do with it, but you’ve helped kill two Epics, which is good enough for me. It should be for any of us.”
    “Very well,” Abraham said, voice soft. “But Prof, we have spoken of this before. By killing Epics like Fortuity, are we really achieving anything?”
    “We fight back,” Megan said. “We’re the only ones who do. It’s important.”
    “And yet,” Abraham said, snapping another piece onto his gun, “we are afraid to fight the most powerful. And so, the domination of the tyrants continues. So long as they do not fall, the others will not truly fear us. They will fear Steelheart, Obliteration, and Night’sSorrow. If we will not face creatures such as these, is there any hope that others will someday stand up to them?”
    The steel-walled room went quiet, and I held my breath. The words were nearly the same I had used earlier, but coming from Abraham’s soft-spoken, lightly accented voice, they seemed to hold more weight.
    Prof turned to Tia.
    She held up a photograph. “This is really Nightwielder?” she asked me. “You’re sure of it?”
    The picture was a prize of my possessions, a photograph of Nightwielder beside Steelheart on the Day of Annexation, just before his darkness had come upon the city. As far as I knew, it was one of a kind, sold to me by an urchin whose father had taken it with an old Polaroid camera.
    Nightwielder was normally translucent, incorporeal. He could move through solid objects and control darkness itself. He appeared often in the city, but was always in his incorporeal form. In this picture he was solid, wearing a sharp black suit and hat. He had Asian features and black shoulder-length hair. I had other pictures of him in his incorporeal form. The face was the same.
    “It’s obviously him,” I said.
    “And the photo wasn’t doctored,” Tia said.
    “I …” That I couldn’t prove. “I can’t promise it wasn’t, though its being a Polaroid makes that less likely. Tia, he has to be corporeal
some
of the time. That photo is the best clue, but I have others. People who have smelled phosphorus and spotted someone walking by who matches his description.” Phosphorus was one of the signs of him using his powers. “I’ve found a dozen sources that all match this idea. It’s
sunlight
that makes the difference—I suspect it’s the ultraviolet part of sunlight that matters. Bathed in it, he turns corporeal.”
    Tia held the photo before her, contemplating it. Then she began scanning through my other notes on Nightwielder. “I think we needto investigate it, Jon,” she said. “If there’s a chance we can actually get to Steelheart …”
    “We can,” I said. “I have a plan. It will work.”
    “This is stupidity,” Megan cut in. She stood by the wall with her arms crossed. “Sheer stupidity. We don’t even know his weakness.”
    “We can figure it out,” I shot back. “I’m sure of it. We have the clues we need.”
    “Even if we did figure it out,” Megan said, throwing a hand up into the air, “it would be practically useless. The obstacles in even
getting
to Steelheart are insurmountable!”
    I locked eyes with her, fighting down my anger. I got the feeling she was arguing with me not because she actually disagreed, but because she found me offensive for some reason.
    “I—” I began, but Prof interrupted