“Great. And while I do that, can you get your software to run an analysis on Riken’s movements, trying to work out where we might find him?”

  “Again?”

  “Again.” I opened the wall panel, which turned out to be the front of a drawer, full of all sorts of implements. “We can’t do anything if we can’t find him.”

  While Jade tapped away at her keyboard, I settled down cross-legged on the floor. Once again, I had the sword in front of me and the grimoires open beside me, but this time, I had more than that. I had a soldering iron, a hammer and chisel, engraving tools, and other implements. I traced the patterns in the surface of the sword, those channels that directed the magic through it. Then I picked up my tools and started making modifications.

  I didn’t just use the tools, but I wielded my magic as well. Using the theory from the books, I turned those tools into improvised amulets that let me reshape magic as well as the physical world. It was hard work because the tools weren’t designed for this, and it took the sort of concentration I couldn’t have managed while wielding amulets in a fight, but it seemed to work. Slowly, carefully, making subtle shifts that other people might have missed, I rearranged the sword’s magical channels.

  While Jade and I worked, Mel went out of the room. After a while, she reappeared with coffee and donuts for all of us. When the coffee was all drunk or cold, she went out to fetch a fresh batch.

  “What are you doing?” she asked, watching me over a steaming cup.

  “Hopefully, I’m amplifying the sword’s powers,” I said. “Making it more powerful at some of the things it does.”

  “I didn’t know that you were a blacksmith.”

  “I’m not. I’ve never done a piece of work quite like this before, so there’s a risk that it won’t work out.”

  “You’re doing it,” she said, leaning over to lay a hand on my shoulder. “It’ll work.”

  At last, I’d done as much as I could with the tools and understanding I had. I leaned back against the wall, set down the cloth with which I’d been giving the sword one last polish, and closed the grimoires. The sword looked pretty much like it had before. To someone who didn’t understand magic or who wasn’t paying close attention, it should be indistinguishable from how it had been before.

  “Have you found him yet?” I asked.

  “I think so,” Jade said.

  I put the sword into its borrowed scabbard, pulled on the rest of my robes, and attached the scabbard to my belt. Seeing me arm up for action, Jade pulled up the cowl on her outfit, turning herself into the enigmatic Crypto. Mel reached for her Mind Game mask.

  “Time for the final mission?” she asked.

  “Not the final one yet,” I replied. “But the one that will set us up for it.”

  “Plans within plans.” Mel smiled. “I love it.” She put on her mask. “Alright, Crypto, tell us where we’re going. It’s time for the Offenders to get to work.”

  Chapter 16

  We ran across the rooftops, superhero outfits adding to the drama of our journey through the city. My robes flared out behind me. The bright colors of Mind Game’s outfit swirled as she ran. Crypto’s circuit board symbols shone in the flashes of neon from street lamps, and her piercings and spikes caught the light like the tips of blades.

  Night had fallen across Caliber City, a shroud that would normally have hidden the criminality taking place in the city’s streets. It was the disguise that so much life in Caliber hid behind, the city’s own superhero mask, its identity shifting from the bright, open life of day to the events that took place under cover of dark: the party people, the insomniac creatives, most of all the criminals out about their work and the superheroes hunting them down. Caliber was a very different city once night fell.

  Tonight, though, there was no hiding the criminal activities taking place in the streets below us. The city was in total chaos. Sirens were screaming, fires were blazing, and people were shrieking at each other around street corners. From three streets over came a crash so loud it had to be more than one car. Closer to us there was gunfire, then a scream of pain.

  I winced at those sounds. I might have been born in another world, but Caliber City was my home now. The city had welcomed me, and I’d grown attached to it. I hated to see it treated this way, to see the pain and suffering that selfish and cruel men caused. Men like Riken.

  The location that Crypto had identified was a mansion in one of the wealthiest parts of the city. I assumed that the neighbors, most of them celebrities and CEOs, had no idea what the mysterious man living behind the walls of this compound did for a living. Or perhaps they did know, but like the wealthy and powerful of previous generations, they were willing to turn a blind eye for the thrill that came with living next door to somebody wicked. The excitement that came from being able to tell your friends and acquaintances that you lived near a gangster.

  Wide streets sprawled around these expensive homes. Each house, including Riken’s, had its own grounds and a wall around them to keep out criminals, the press, and ordinary people. Riken’s place was particularly well-defended. The walls were eight feet tall, topped with barbed wire and jagged spikes of broken glass. They were smooth concrete along the outside, leaving no hint of anything a climber could cling onto. Security cameras watched from regular intervals, surveying not just the walls themselves but the surrounding streets, watching for anyone who approached.

  Crypto whistled.

  “Those are new models,” she said, pointing at the cameras. “Ones with shape recognition software installed so that they’ll pay more attention to people’s bodies, recognize faces, and compare them with criminal databases.”

  “Is that going to be a problem?” I asked. If necessary, I could take out the cameras with fire blasts, but that would draw attention to us straight away, and while some attention was almost inevitable, I wanted to get farther in before that happened.

  “Not a problem for me,” Crypto said, and though her cowl hid her face, I could practically hear her grin in the tone of her voice. She turned to face a camera and pressed her fingers against the side of her head.

  The camera, which had been turning slowly toward us, turned back the other way and stayed pointing in that direction. Crypto did the same for other cameras along the wall until none of them were aimed anywhere near our approach.

  “Sooner or later, someone will notice that the cameras are acting oddly,” she said, “but the flashier the tech, the more people rely on it to operate itself, so we‘ve probably got a while.”

  We ran from the shadows on the far side of the street over to the base of the wall. I caught the boot amulet between my fingers, wrapped an arm around each of my companions, and the two of them gripped tightly onto me. Then I used the magic words for that amulet and for fire. A burst of flames sprang from my feet, rocketing us into the air. I steered us over the top of the wall, then quenched the flames, and we dropped into the grounds beyond.

  We landed behind bushes and crouched there out of sight, surveying the gardens. An open lawn ran past a vegetable patch and an avenue of trees to the house, which was four stories tall with a sloped roof and several satellite dishes sticking out around the chimney stacks. An old building with some modern features bolted on. New money buying into tradition but then marking it as its own.

  Scorpions roamed the grounds in pairs, guard patrols sweeping the area for signs of intruders. We watched a couple of these patrols pass, staying in our hiding place, but no one seemed to be coming our way. Once we were content that no one had spotted us arrive, and we had worked out how long the gaps were between the guard patrols, we were ready to move.

  We watched another patrol walk past. As soon as the Scorpions were around the corner and out of sight, we ran across the lawn and down the avenue of trees, onto a patio at the rear of the house. French windows faced out onto the gardens, and the room within was dark.

  Crypto pressed a gadget against the window, then did something involving a keypad on the gadget’s side. Mind Game and I kept watch while she worked. In theory, we had a few minutes, but there was no guarantee that a patrol wouldn’t arrive early, and the longer we hovered here, the more likely it was that someone spotted us. A confrontation was inevitable, coming here, but I wanted to get convincingly far into the house before that happened. The more we could make Riken think that we were close to hurting him, the more likely he was to play into my plan.

  “Alarms are disabled,” Crypto whispered, taking her device off the window. She turned the handle on the French windows, and they swung open on well-oiled hinges. “Let’s go.”

  We crept into the house. I’d expected a lot of ostentation: big furniture, flashy gadgets, and original art. But Riken lived a more stripped-back existence than most people with houses like this—one perhaps influenced by his martial arts background. The furniture was good, but there was plenty of space around it. Only a single painting hung on the large walls of this first room, and there wasn’t a single piece of technology in sight, apart from the sensors for the alarm that Crypto had disabled.

  We walked quietly across the room, and I pressed my ear against an internal door. I listened for a moment, but all was quiet on the other side. I eased the door open and stepped through.

  The hallway beyond was very similar in style to that first room. There were paintings but not a lot of them; rugs but simple in style; and a lone table at one side holding a set of keys and a bowl of mints. If I hadn’t known better, I might almost have believed that this was a show home rather than one where someone lived. But no one owned a house like this and didn’t make use of it.

  I looked up and down the hallway. There was a wide staircase at one side and a series of doors on the other, old wood in sturdy frames. Which way to go next? What would take us to Riken or to some critical part of his operations? Where could we go that would look like a smart target?

  Mind Game touched my arm, then tapped the side of her head to indicate that she’d felt someone’s thoughts. She nodded toward the doors. Someone was coming toward one of them. It looked like we were about to be found.

  I turned to dash up the stairs, and the others followed me. The soft carpet muffled our footsteps, but surely, someone had to have heard us. I glanced at Mind Game, who nodded and tapped her head again. More people were coming.

  On the landing, I stopped and glanced around, but there was nowhere to hide or even to put on a decent imitation of hiding. Better to just stand proud for this one. I drew my wand, took hold of my other charms, and stood ready.

  A door opened, and a Scorpion stepped through. His eyes narrowed as he looked at us.

  “Intruders!” he bellowed, then charged straight at us.

  The Scorpion was wearing their usual outfit of loose black sports clothes with a silver skull amulet hanging around his neck. I stood in his way and raised a fire shield, but his fist passed straight through the flames, the amulet canceling out the power of my magic. I dodged that punch, then another, but a kick caught me in the stomach and knocked me back against the wall.

  Other Scorpions came pouring out of doorways and up the stairs. Riken clearly kept plenty of his guys around to keep himself secure. I knocked one over the banister with a wind blast, but then the silver skull guy came at me again. I’d have to focus on him and leave my companions to deal with the rest.

  My magic might not be so useful here, but I’d brought along another weapon. I drew Riken’s sword, and its edge gleamed with deadly malice. A similarly malicious look spread across the Scorpion’s face, and he drew a pair of long, dark knives from the back of his belt.

  He stabbed left, but it was an obvious feint. I didn’t even bother parrying it, just stepped slightly away and brought the sword around to block the other blade. Then I brought my own weapon down. The Scorpion backed clear of my first attack, but I had more reach, and there was only so far he could go.

  Pushed up against a wall, he parried my next attack, then ducked and lunged, striking at me with his off-hand knife. Guided by Li Han, I twisted clear, brought my blade down, and sliced into his back. He sprawled at my feet, dead or close to it.

  I turned, ready to help my companions, but another pair of Scorpions were coming down the stairs toward me, both wearing silver skulls and expressions of menace.

  Fortunately, it didn’t look like the others were going to need a lot of help from me.

  Crypto was wearing a pair of gloves decorated with jutting points of metal. She dodged a punch from one of the Scorpions, then caught his arm as it went past. Electricity flowed from her glove into him, and he shuddered, then fell. Another of them approached her more warily. He got a kick in, forcing Crypto back, and then used a moment when she was off balance to lunge in. He knocked her fist aside and punched her in the ribs, winding her, but her other fist collided with his gut. Electricity flowed again, his eyes went wide, and he collapsed at her feet.

  A pair of Scorpions were coming at Mind Game from opposite sides and clearly thought they had her trapped. Whichever one she turned to look at, the other moved closer while she wasn’t watching. No sudden moves, and no dramatic strikes, just a tightening of the net. Mind Game wore an expression of worry, but I knew from seeing her before that it was no more than a mask, her real emotions hidden just like they would be in a courtroom.

  The thoughts of her attackers, on the other hand, were exposed to her. One finally flung a punch at her from behind, but she ducked it without even looking, and the fist slammed into her other attacker’s face. As he stumbled, she kicked back, right into the space the guy was moving into, tripping him up. She kicked his face as he fell, then slammed an elbow back into the other attacker’s nose as he came for her again.

  “Right!” she shouted to Crypto.

  Without a moment of doubt, Crypto did as Mind Game suggested, stepping to her right. A door opened, and a Scorpion stepped out, straight into a punch of her electric glove.

  “Codex, go high!” Mind Game shouted.

  I triggered the fire from my boots and shot up, just as the silver skull Scorpions facing me made a pair of low kicks meant to sweep me off my feet. I swung the sword as I came down, cutting one of them badly on the arm, and he retreated. The remaining guy snarled, drew a set of nunchucks, and swung them at me. I batted one of the chained clubs aside, sidestepped a swing from the other, caught the chain around my sword, and wrenched the weapon from his hands.

  Three more Scorpions had emerged from the doorways around Crypto and were closing in on her. Her eyes lost focus for a moment, and then the lights around them started to flash. As the Scorpions were adjusting to the sudden change, something swept out of one of the rooms—a robot vacuum cleaner, larger and heavier than the ones at our base.

  It slammed into one of the Scorpions, and there was a crunch as his ankle gave way. The second guy kicked the cleaner away, wincing as his toes collided with its hard shell. Then the lights by the Scorpions’ heads exploded, showering them in shattered glass and electricity as deadly as any grenade.

  “I should have known that his moment was coming,” a soft voice said from the stairs above.

  I looked up to see Riken walking slowly down. He was barefoot, dressed only in a pair of loose pants, an outfit that revealed the powerful muscles and intricate tattoos of his chest and upper arms. A scabbard hung from a belt around his waist.

  “We decided it was time to take the fight to you,” I replied, walking up the stairs toward him.

  “It won’t last long.”

  He drew his sword. It wasn’t full of magic like the one I held, but it was clearly a finely made blade with a dangerously sharp edge.

  When I was only a few steps below him, Riken swung. His blade hissed through the air, and I brought mine up, deflecting his strike. His blade hit the banister, slicing straight through the solid wood. Even as I marveled at the strength of arm and the sharpness of the blade it would take to do that, I went on the offensive, lunging at him. He knocked my blade aside and took another swipe at me.

  The ringing of our blades became as constant as the beat of a dance track. The two of us sliced and stabbed, dodged and parried, maneuvering around each other on the stairs. Riken was a martial arts master with an athletic build and years of experience, and without using my magic, he should have had me beaten. But I had Li Han helping me, showing me better cuts to make, where to raise the blade in a parry, and where to move to make a more effective attack when I had my chance. It wasn’t like listening to a set of instructions but like feeling my own instincts kick in—instincts I’d never known I had.

  Riken was sweating as we fought slowly up the stairs, the two of us repeatedly moving around each other and up, trying to use the advantage of higher ground. It was a fierce battle, and my arm was starting to ache from the battering blows, but I kept going.

  We emerged onto another landing. I couldn’t see the others anymore; I could only hear them fighting. It was just me and Riken, alone beneath a chandelier, the light glittering through its crystal glass and off the edges of our blades. We stood for a moment, catching our breath, watching and evaluating each other.

  “Did you really think all those gangsters were going to start following you, just because you’re ripped?” I asked. “I don’t think muscles make for much of a criminal mastermind.”

  “They will learn,” he said, looking down at the carpet.

  “Or maybe they’ll school you. I hear some of those guys are pretty tough.”

  “Not tough enough.”

  “There’s a whole sports stadium that says otherwise.”

  His expression, previously calm despite our exertions, crumpled into a frown.

  “You should not have got in my way,” he said. “Now you will pay the price.”

  “Ooh, so scary,” I said in a voice heavy with sarcasm. “What are you going to do, set your pet zombies on me?”

  “I do not need others to fight my battles.”

  “Really? Because that’s most of what I see you doing, whether it’s those minions downstairs or the ones Ashbearer summoned for you.”

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26