I heard a crack as I connected and realized that something had broken, all right—but I was pretty sure it was my foot. Full Metal Jackass went staggering back and fell over, which was the only saving grace in the whole thing, because I dropped to the ground, clutching at my foot, which felt like I had slammed it in a door well over a hundred times. I let out a stream of curses as I went down.
As I lay on the ground, clutching my appendage and plumbing the depths of my error in judgment, I tried to roll over. I had enough presence of mind to realize that the metallic monkey wasn’t going to be down for as long as I was and that I needed to do something to avoid him and that screaming and rolling around wasn’t going to do it. I got to one knee as I saw him rising to his feet, a hulking metal goliath. His eyes were two slits, and behind them I could see pupils staring back at me as I rested my weight on one leg. I raised my hand in a defensive posture that was purely for show; I doubted I’d be able to effectively evade him while hobbling.
“Hey Man of Steel!” Zack’s shout caused him to turn. I saw Zack holding a very familiar weapon in both his hands. He’d been to the trunk of the car, clearly. “I bet you think you’re invincible, beating up a girl like that. Boy, are you in for a shock.”
I cringed, partly from his pun, partly from the ache in my foot as Zack discharged the weapon into the metal-suited man. A forked bolt of lightning arced from the barrel and made contact with the front plate of Full Metal Jackass’s armor. The metal man shuddered only slightly, and then took a menacing step toward Zack, then another, before breaking into a run toward him, the electricity diffusing harmlessly off the metal as though it weren’t conducting it.
I took two aggressive hops forward before the metallic tool could get any momentum and slammed into him with my shoulder, knocking him face-first into the snow. I saw a joint open between his helmet and his neck as he fell, a patch of exposed skin no wider than my fist that showed a strip of weathered flesh. I reared back, letting fly a punch aimed at the open spot. I connected and heard him shout in pain as his face slammed into his helmet, which impacted into the snow.
He started to stir and the gap in his armor closed as he lifted his head, making him effectively invulnerable again. “Let’s get outta here,” I said to Zack and limped my way to Kurt, slinging his bulky ass over my shoulder in a fireman’s carry. I made my way to the car one hobbled step at a time. I threw Kurt in the back seat unceremoniously and heard him let out a moan as he landed on the padded cloth. I slipped into the passenger seat as Zack tossed the gun onto the floorboard at my feet.
In the rearview mirror I could see Full Metal Jackass rising to his feet as Zack floored the car. He didn’t chase us, but his eye slits were watching as we slid out of the parking lot, following us until we rounded the corner and disappeared from his sight.
Chapter 6
“Do you want to grab some breakfast with me?” Zack’s words shocked me enough that I think my head spun. The ride back to the Directorate had been long and filled with Kurt’s surliness. I didn’t even bother to defend myself as he loosed a profanity-laden tirade about Reed colluding with me that lasted until we were well out into the farmland. I felt fortunate Zack was driving because with the fat man wailing and gnashing his teeth as he was, I had no faith he could have driven the car without putting us into a snowy ditch.
I blinked at Zack, amazed that he would offer after what had just happened, and I wondered if my head was twitching like Dr. Sessions did, brain trying to understand the question that was posed. “You want me to go like this?” I gestured to my coat, which was shredded from the collar to halfway down the back and hung open, the zipper ripped from the seam. My shirt and jeans were soaked and filthy, my hair was still wet from the snow in the parking lot and I could feel the grains of dirt in it. I couldn’t see my cheek but the throbbing in it told me that I had a bruise of no small scale where I had been punched.
“You look fine and the cafeteria’s bound to be open by now.” He smiled at me and I felt my better judgment slipping away. “I’m starving. The last leg of the flight feels like the longest trip I’ve ever taken. Facing off with your friends in the warehouse didn’t help matters at all.” His voice hit a sour note and I couldn’t tell if it was because of Reed or the armored ass.
“Friends? I don’t know if you saw, but that armored tool damned near took my head off.” I snorted, more from annoyance than anything, and it faded fast. “All right,” I said, taken aback by his...I don’t know, boyish charm. I felt my stomach roll over and knew that either I was hungry or Wolfe was reacting to my mooning over Zack. Forgotten was the fact that I avoided the cafeteria and the people who visited it, those people who hated me so. I watched Kurt limp off toward the medical unit for a once-over by Dr. Perugini.
The cafeteria was showing the first signs of life when we entered, with workers behind the glass counter adding food to the display and a few people already sitting at tables. The cafeteria was huge, a massive structure with glass windows for walls that stretched a hundred feet into the air on two sides, giving it an open feeling. I looked at the edges of the room and realized for the first time that the panes along the perimeter were doors that could be opened to what I presumed was a patio outside; with the snow covering the ground it was impossible to tell, but it seemed like there was an eating area out there.
The framework of the whole thing was metal struts that held the glass in place. I wondered idly if one could climb it, then wondered why I’d ever need to. I decided that I could, probably with ease, because the segments were no more than four- or five-foot square. On the opposite side of the room I shifted my attention to the cafeteria workers. When they saw me enter the line with Zack, several of them scowled. After we had collected our food, I let Zack lead me to a table by the windows, in the corner.
Others were here, a half dozen people scattered throughout the cafeteria. One caught my eye; a young man who I’d had words with in the past, here in this room. He’d been the only one in this place with enough guts to confront me after the first incident where I’d gotten agents killed. Everyone else had just gossiped behind my back. He had a rounded nose and his dark hair was curly and cut short. He hadn’t caught sight of me yet, and was focused on the doll he was sitting across from.
When I thought of her as a doll, I shuddered. Damn Wolfe. She was tanned, with blond hair that fell below her shoulders, and green eyes that seemed very alight. Her smile was wide and genuine, and left me with the feeling that she had too many teeth, or they were too big for her mouth, or something. I wasn’t jealous of her good looks, really. Well, not much anyway.
“Scott,” Zack called out, stirring the young man out of his conversation. He turned and saw Zack and broke into a wide grin as he stood. Zack put his tray down and they did one of those manly greetings where they gripped hands and bumped shoulders.
The man he called Scott shook his head, his smile still wide. “When did you get back?” I wondered how well they knew each other.
“Just now.” He nodded to me. “Have you met Sienna Nealon yet?”
Scott’s features tensed and he looked me over. “Briefly.”
I felt a flash of annoyance as I remembered what I probably looked like. “Have we met?” I kept a straight face. “I don’t recall.”
“My God,” the girl next to Scott breathed. “What happened to you?”
“I got into a fight with a guy who thought he was the Black Knight,” I quipped. “It turns out he didn’t get so much as a flesh wound, but maybe next time things will be different.”
“Sienna, this is Scott Byerly,” Zack said. “He might be in training with the agents soon.” Zack nodded back at me. “You better watch out, Sienna’s pretty powerful. If she decided to go into training I think she’d give you a run for your money.”
“Is that so?” Scott’s reply was cool, far cooler than I would have given him credit for. He seemed like a hothead based on our first meeting. “I heard she might have some power, but there was a rumor she didn’t have the...” He paused, as if searching for the right word, “...motivation to use it.”
Courage, he means
. Wolfe was so helpful. I was seeing red, and he was encouraging me to wrap this guy’s head around the nearest table edge. I had to restrain myself to keep from showing Scotty Byerly exactly how motivated I was to use my power by throwing his limp and battered body through the nearest window. I wondered if I punted him how far he’d fly before landing headfirst in the snow like a lawn dart.
“Oh, she’s motivated,” Zack said before I could answer. “She killed that maniac Wolfe, you know.”
“I heard about that!” Scott’s companion bubbled with the enthusiasm he was lacking. “It’s all everyone talks about since I got here, how this crazy meta killed dozens of agents and how she,” she nodded at me, oh-so-helpfully, “went into a basement with him and was the only one to come out alive.” Her eyes were as glowing as they had been when talking to him.
“This is Kat Forrest,” Scott looked pained as he introduced her to us. “She just got here from our Arizona campus a few days ago.”
Arizona Campus? I made a mental note to ask Zack about it later. Kat seemed to vibrate as she stuck out her hand for me to shake. I did, feeling the pressure of her grasp through the leather of my glove. “So glad to meet you,” she squealed, and I could tell she meant it. “I don’t know that I could have done what you did, facing off with that monster.”
I pulled away as soon as I could, not wanting to find out if I could drain her soul through my gloves. “Thanks,” I said, with as much sincerity as I possessed. “I’m surprised that everyone’s talking about me in pleasant terms. It was my understanding that I wasn’t very popular around here.”
“Well, you’re certainly popular to talk about,” Kat said, almost gushing, “but I would have to say that the overall tone hasn’t been terribly flattering.” She looked a little chagrined, as though it was her sad duty to inform me that people hated me. “But it’s difficult being the new kid in town, I know.”
“Oh, you’ve had people say nasty things behind your back and send you a letter telling you that they hope you get raped to death, literally?” I kept my tone light and wore a smile, even as her face fell. Dark clouds gathered around Zack’s eyes, and even Scott looked taken aback.
“Who did that?” Zack’s voice was a low, strained murmur.
“I don’t know. Does it matter?” I said.
“Yes. I want to know who it was,” Zack said. I looked back at him, and his face was dark, as though he was in shadow.
“It wasn’t the sort of work that the author would want to be associated with,” I said.
“I wrote it,” Scott said. “And it didn’t say anything about anyone hoping you got raped to death. It said we all hated you for hiding while people were dying and we’re rooting for him to turn you inside out.”
I saw the punch coming, and I suspected that if Scott Byerly had any power as a meta, he did too. Zack took a long windup and swing that connected with Scott’s jaw. The meta fell back, landing on his rump, his hand cupping his jaw lightly. “You done?” he asked, unconcerned.
“Maybe.” Zack’s hand quivered at his side.
“I didn’t have to tell you.” Scott sat on the floor, not bothering to get up.
“Which raises an interesting question,” I said. “If you’re so proud of what you did, why admit to it now when you left it unsigned before?”
“I’m not proud of it,” he said with a shake of his head. “My aunt and uncle lived in Minnetonka. They got killed by that maniac while he was trying to root you out. And like I told you the last time we talked, I knew a lot of those agents that died for you.”
“Which time?” I asked, voice laced with bitter irony.
He looked up at me, and I could see the loathing, the intensity with which he looked at me. “Both times.”
“I was there.” Zack’s reply came out in staccato bursts, his whole face twitching with rage. “Sienna saved my life. I wouldn’t have come out of that basement if she hadn’t carried me out. I’d have been another body for Wolfe to torture.”
It would have been so fun
, Wolfe said in my head.
“Yeah, and?” Scott vaulted to his feet with the speed and agility of a meta. “There were a lot of other guys that didn’t get carried out. Guys that we’ve known for a long time. Then she finally goes after him and miraculously kills him?” He smirked and I resisted the urge to give him a punch that I could guarantee he wouldn’t see and would feel. “Why didn’t she kill him sooner?” He threw his hands out. “Hell, HOW did she kill him? That’s what I want to know—and nobody’s saying a word about that.”
“You want to see how I killed him?” There was enough menace in my voice that Byerly actually took a step back. “No? Then mind your own business.” I wondered how much of his willingness to back down was based on the fact that I looked like I’d already been through at least one fight this morning.
I steered past him, guiding my tray toward the table in the corner that we’d been heading to before our detour. I sat down, my back to all of them, and started to attack my food with more violence than was necessary. It wasn’t as if the eggs were going to stage an uprising and attack me, but I speared them on the end of my fork with enough vitriol to be certain.
Zack’s tray hit the table in front of me a minute or so later. I’d heard him make a modicum of peace with Scott, enough that it sounded like they’d be on speaking terms but not enough that they’d be greeting each other like they did when we entered the cafeteria. He sat across from me and ripped into a strip of bacon with displaced anger. I didn’t find it funny enough at the time to overcome my irritation with (still) being the most hated person on the campus.
“Amateur bullshit,” Zack pronounced after throwing his bacon strip back on his plate.
“Excuse me?” I was halfway through a mouthful of eggs.
“When we take on the job of being an agent, it’s understood that we’re going up against metas. Most of them aren’t that powerful. Some of them are.” He stared at me, his eyes smoldering. “Policing metas is a dangerous business; especially since we have no powers and no way to know if we’re up against an innocent person who’s never done a violent thing in his life or the next psycho criminal who’ll be glad to gut you and serve you for dinner.” His eyes darted left and right. “It’s a hazard of the business. Scott’s got no right to take you to task for those guys dying.”