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  Their leader pulled a pistol and pointed it at Wayne's men. "Shitheads." She and her compatriots carefully backed out of the hopper and were gone.

  Wayne turned to Michael. "You’re sure about the kid?"

  "Yes!" Michael pleaded. "They’re getting away! We don’t have much time!"

  "What is it?" demanded Monica. "What’s happening?"

  "Broken is planning something. We have to go now, though, or it won’t work."

  Wayne looked at his troops.

  "We should," Banner said. "It’s the right thing to do."

  "Damnit, Banner, you—" Wayne cursed. "So fucking naïve!" But he was smiling. "All right!" he yelled. "Lift the fuck off! Let’s bring down Sky Ranger!"

  He ran to the cockpit and strapped himself in. With a sickening lurch, the hopper leapt into the sky.

  "Towards the city," Michael instructed.

  "Yahooo!" shrieked Wayne as the hopper sped off in hot pursuit.

  * * *

  The wind whipped through her hair, the cold breeze chilled her face and hands… Sky Ranger’s strong arm was wrapped solidly around her.

  "Hey," she called, the air carrying her words away. "Hey!" She looked up at him.

  "Hold tight," he said, grimacing.

  "I’ve missed you," she said.

  "Yeah."

  "Did you really miss me?"

  "Sure."

  She struggled with herself, plans coming and going. "Well… if that’s true… why didn’t you ever come looking for me?"

  "Can we talk about this later?" he grunted. "It isn’t easy to do this."

  "It was for me," she said. He pretended not to hear.

  She had carried him, when they made love in the sky. He lost control, and she held both of them up. She did it without thought, without effort.

  "Did you come looking for me?"

  "Well, sure. But you were hard to find."

  "How did you find us this time?" she asked.

  He said nothing.

  * * *

  "Hey, I see them!" Parker pointed. A little speck floated off in the distance, zipping towards New York City.

  "Yeah, that’s gotta be them," Kent said, clutching his rifle to his chest. "We’re gaining."

  "Where’d you get this thing?" Michael asked.

  Wayne laughed, high and shrill. "Kent stole it from a hospital!" He giggled uncontrollably.

  * * *

  "What are you going to do with the baby?" she asked.

  "Huh?" Sky Ranger seemed incredibly distracted.

  "The baby. Is he coming to live with us?"

  Sky Ranger shook his head.

  "I have to take him to Australia. Orders." He sighed. "You don’t need to know about that."

  "Okay," she said.

  Below, she spied the coastline, and the sea…

  The sea.

  She looked at Ian’s huge black eyes. He stared back at her, and she saw the future reflected there.

  She glanced back. A small dot showed against the sky. A hopper?

  The sea. A tide pool…

  Memory seared her, leaving foresight behind.

  Sky Ranger never loved her. He never would. He’d lock her in the Tower for the rest of her life. She’d never be free again.

  The dot was growing larger. Following them. Following… Michael. He had picked up on what she had sort of been planning all along. Of course.

  After that, the choice was easy.

  "Sky," she said, tears blinding her. "Sky, I’m sorry."

  "What?" He seemed irritated. "Now what?"

  She brought her legs up and kicked his chest. Startled, his grip on her loosened…and Broken twisted free.

  * * *

  Sky Ranger was a little dark speck, growing ever larger. "I don’t think he knows we’re here yet," Parker said.

  "Look!" Monica cried, grabbing Michael and pointing.

  Something separated from the speck, hurtling towards the ground.

  * * *

  She grabbed for Ian as his arms loosened. But Sky Ranger was too quick, and she missed… and fell.

  Broken watched Sky Ranger’s face recede again. Just like before… except this time, he just looked annoyed. He clutched Ian tightly, faced forward, and sped towards New York, leaving her to descend to earth alone.

  No…

  * * *

  "Broken!" Monica screamed.

  "I saw it, he didn’t drop her," Parker said. "I saw it! She fought free of him."

  "Shiiiiit," Wayne breathed, watching her fall. "She’s toast."

  "She’ll be fine," Michael said. "Sky Ranger—"

  They scanned the sky. Free of his burden, the leader of the Extrahuman Union had sped up and disappeared. Ian was gone.

  "Find him!" Michael roared.

  [CHAPTER 21]

  Waves washed over her, pushing her destroyed body further into the sands.

  The pain was a welcome respite from oblivion. She had come to hate and fear death more than ever these past few days. This time there had been no thrill of falling, only the bitterness of failure. She had hoped to delay him, maybe get him to drop both of them… she felt sure she could have protected Ian from the fall. No. He had turned his back on her, again. He had changed so much... but in some ways he was the same as always.

  She felt saltwater seeping into the closing wounds on her legs and back, stinging like a thousand jellyfish.

  She could smell again, and now she could hear. Gulls cried, the waves roared.

  The sea.

  She hadn’t been to the sea since…

  Pain forced a memory she had kept in the dark her entire life forward.

  * * *

  "Hey, kiddo!" called the woman. "Come on, you’ll be late!"

  (No. She tried to push it away.)

  A woman with red hair and a welcoming smile waved to her. "Sweetie, come on in, it’s late!"

  "Be right there, Mom!" she called.

  (Mom?)

  She wanted to pick a shell out of the bottom of the tide pool. She reached in, but something big moved towards her. She recognized the blue crab, but didn’t withdraw her finger soon enough.

  With a swipe of its claw, it snipped off the tip of her finger.

  (This is it. Steady now.)

  She yelped in pain and surprise.

  Her mother ran as fast as she could. "What happened! What—"

  She opened her eyes and looked down. The ground was ten feet beneath her.

  A sharp pain stabbed at her from her hand. She looked at her finger. It was growing back.

  "Oh, come down, honey!" called her mother. "Oh, no, no, no…"

  She looked back at her mother, who started to cry in despair.

  "Oh, Penny…"

  * * *

  Her eyes snapped open.

  Michael, Monica, Wayne and the others stood over her.

  "Fucking shit," said Wayne. "She really did survive."

  "Broken," Michael said. "How are you?"

  She smiled. It hurt, but she couldn’t help herself.

  "I remember now," she whispered. "My name is Penny."

  * * *

  They sat on the beach as night fell, illuminated by the hopper’s searchlight. Kent had started a fire, on which they had cooked some of the meat the militia had provisioned for the journey. Broken ate ravenously. She could hardly speak, except to apologize over and over.

  "I’m so sorry," she said again. "If I hadn’t—"

  "He’d have taken Ian anyway," Michael reassured her. "You did your best."

  "Did you see it coming?" she asked.

  He smiled. "Yes."

  She nodded. "I’m glad."

  "I’m glad you didn’t betray us," Monica said. "I’m sorry about what I said."

  Broken nodded, but didn’t respond. She had been closer to betraying them than she liked to admit.

  "Still. He's got Ian now, and we’ll never get into Union Tower," Monica said sadly. "They'll be waiting for us. I guess it’s over."

  Broken
straightened up. "Oh. Oh, he told me. They're not going to the Tower. He’s taking Ian to Australia."

  At the mention of Australia, the American Liberation Army, all five of them, perked up.

  "Yeah?" Wayne asked, suddenly interested.

  She nodded. "He said it was ‘orders.’"

  Michael shivered despite the warmth of the fire. "The thin man," he breathed. "He’s in charge of Sky Ranger. He must be taking Ian to him."

  "Who’s the thin man?" Monica asked.

  "He’s… I think he’s like me," Michael said. "Only a lot stronger. He works for Peltan."

  "So he knows what’s going to happen, too?" Parker asked. "Sucks."

  "I know," Michael agreed. "But… I haven’t seen any futures where we don’t have to face him. I… I still don’t. We have to go to Australia. We have to. I know where. There’s a place north of Terra City… I should be able to find it. I’ve seen it so many times…"

  "To Australia…" Monica murmured. "I don’t know… can we survive if we go there?"

  "Maybe," Michael said. "I don’t know. There has to be a chance."

  "Forgive me for saying it, but you’ve been wrong before."

  He grimaced. "I know. I guess I’m not that reliable after all. Maybe you shouldn’t follow me."

  Broken put a hesitant hand on his shoulder. He started at her touch. "I trust you. I’ll go. We’ll swim if we have to." Her gray eyes were bright and sincere. A breeze spun her silver hair around her face; in the firelight, she looked ethereal, angelic, powerful.

  "Thanks," he managed to say.

  Wayne leaned in. "There going to be fighting there?"

  Michael nodded. "Most definitely."

  "Cool," Wayne said, grinning fiercely. "Count us in." He looked utterly mad in the light of the flickering flames.

  After a moment, Banner nodded soberly.

  "Yeah," he said. "Count us in." The others muttered their agreement.

  Monica sighed. "I never wanted to see thirty anyway," she said. "All right. Let’s go."

  * * *

  The hopper lifted off the sand, leaving only the remains of a fire and an eroding dent in the sand where Broken had crashed.

  Aboard the hopper, Michael sat, lost in nervous thought. Wherever he looked, he saw the thin man. He saw death.

  He couldn’t escape it now.

  [CHAPTER 22]

  The bulky gray hopper soared over the landscape, eating up the miles between New Jersey and Australia. Michael and Wayne passed the time by poring over a map of the continent.

  "We can land outside the northern suburbs," Michael said, jabbing the map with his finger. "Sky Ranger probably took Ian to this ConFedMil complex outside the city. I think that’s what I’ve been seeing lately. It’s surrounded by desert scrub, so it’s north of the city somewhere."

  "We can land north of Tenser Field," Wayne said. They both went silent for a moment at the mention of the name. Tenser Field, where the Räton ship Mathapavanka had landed more than fifty years ago, changing humanity forever.

  "Alien scum," Wayne spat , though a hint of awe tinged his voice, belying his words.

  "They brought good as well as bad," said Michael. "More good than bad, if you ask me."

  "Cultural degeneration," Wayne sneered, unconsciously borrowing a phrase from the Reformists. "Twenty thousand dead in the war against the Rogarians, which they dragged us into, not to mention ‘Rattie’ control of the government. That’s good? You’re fucked up."

  Michael shrugged. "They gave us colonies. That’s good."

  "Why? Who needs colonies?"

  "It spreads us out," Michael said grimly. "We can’t all be destroyed at once."

  Wayne looked genuinely thoughtful. "Huh. Never thought about it like that. Yeah, maybe they’re good. But the Ratties as a whole have been shit for us."

  "I’ve never even seen one," Michael admitted.

  "Nah. Me neither. Kent did, once. Ask him to describe it, he tells it real funny."

  Michael sighed and changed the subject. "We’re going to see if we can sneak into the place when we get there. We might not have to."

  "Can we blow it up? ‘Cause I got all kinds of stuff to do that here." Wayne grinned , then leaned back and started humming a nameless tune. He seemed a lot more relaxed. Maybe heading off towards certain death agreed with him. Michael was nothing but tension.

  * * *

  On the other side of the cabin, Monica and Broken conversed in hushed tonesn.

  "… So I bailed out. I was hoping he’d come after me or drop Ian, which would mean he’d have to go chasing after him. Then you guys could catch up."

  "You could see us?"

  "A little. I figured it was you." She pointed at Michael. "He has his ways."

  "He really does, doesn’t he. I wonder why he’s doing all this? He doesn’t seem to like people very much. Why save them?"

  "Because he can," Broken said simply.

  * * *

  Wayne looked at the map again. "It’s gonna be hot, huh."

  "Yeah," Michael said. "Summer, there."

  "Oh, yeah. I forgot. Guess I better ditch the coat, right?" He laughed. "So tell me, prophet-boy, did you see any of this coming?"

  Michael shook his head. "I wish I had ten credits for every time someone has said that to me. No, not really. I didn’t see Broken handing Ian to Sky Ranger, not until it was happening. I didn’t see us working with you. I may have seen a flash of it here or there, but I don’t remember everything I see. The future has millions of possibilities, and I only see a fraction of them."

  Wayne cackled again. "If anything can happen, what’s the point of seeing the future? It’s all random!"

  Michael laughed with him. "You know? You have a point there."

  * * *

  Monica leaned closer to Broken. "Hey, can you tell me? What’s death like?"

  Broken thought. "It really isn’t like anything. I don’t know."

  "…Does it hurt?"

  She nodded. "Sure. Unless it’s really quick." She looked away. "Coming back hurts more."

  "When you were dead… did you see anything?"

  Broken shook her head. "It’s like sleep, but no dreams. Oblivion. But I’m not really dead. I’m still in my body, if that's what you're asking. I don’t go anywhere because I always come back. So real death is probably different, because you go somewhere else."

  "Broken," Monica breathed, "You believe in the soul?"

  Broken looked at her as if she had grown another head. "Of course."

  "Where… where do you think we go when we die?"

  Broken shrugged . "Away. Somewhere that isn’t here."

  That made sense. Monica sat back and absorbed it. "You believe in God, Broken?" she asked.

  Broken thought for a while. "Maybe," she said slowly. “Maybe.”

  * * *

  Michael looked out the window, but there was nothing but darkness beneath. Hours to go. The hopper wasn’t very fast.

  Still, they weren’t being chased, not as far as they could tell. That was a good thing.

  Monica sat down next to him. "All right?" she asked.

  He nodded. "It isn’t going to be easy when we get there."

  "You see that?" she asked teased gently.

  "Don’t have to be a prophet."

  "But you’ve seen this, or at least a bit of it, before, right?"

  "Yeah," he admitted.

  "What did you see?"

  "Lots of things. So many things." He heaved a shuddering sigh. "There’s… there’s a man waiting for me there, I think. A tall, thin man. I think he’s going to kill me."

  Monica frowned at him. "Then why are you going?"

  Michael looked away. "I have to."

  "Does it have something to do with your grandfather?"

  "So you’re the prescient now?" Michael snapped.

  She smiled tolerantly. "I just guessed. But am I right? Is it because of him?"

  "Joe wasn’t my grandfather. He took me in when my pare
nts died."

  "Why?"

  "Because." His worst suspicions came to the surface. "Because I had to do this, I think. He wanted to get me ready. He had seen Ian coming… for years. He was like me, but stronger. He could see all kinds of things. He knew I’d need him. He knew I’d go find Ian someday if he took care of me…"

  "So, what, then? He trained you?"

  "Not exactly. I mean, he taught me what my powers were. But I think he thought he’d be around to help me get Ian, so he didn’t tell me a lot of things I could have used. But…"

  Monica waited patiently, sympathy etched into her face.

  "He died. He died before he thought he would. So I had to go on alone. He didn’t see it coming." Michael shook his head.

  * * *

  Joe lay on his bed in their cramped apartment, struggling to breathe. He had refused to go to the hospital. "All my futures are black now," he had said. "No point in delaying."

  "You said you wouldn’t go so soon," Michael said, fighting back his tears.

  "I know. But sometimes… sometimes the craziest things happen instead of the things you expect. That’s what makes this so hard."

  "What will I do?" Michael asked.

  "Go on. You could find that boy. You’ve seen him."

  Michael nodded, sniffling. "Yes."

  "You don’t have to do it. You know that."

  "I know."

  "But it’s important. We can’t fix any of what’s happening now…" He gestured to the screen. The election. Damian Peltan was winning. Black Bands were celebrating. The UNP was defeated. Darkness was spreading.

  "But it’s your choice. It’s dangerous. If they catch you... if they get their hands on him, he'll be a monster. It'll make things so much worse. And it’s such a slim hope anyway…"

  "I’ll do it," Michael said.

  Joe grunted, satisfied. "I know you will."

  They sat together in silence for a few moments. Then:

  "Joe," Michael said. "Why did you take me in? Was it about that boy? What about my parents? Did you even know them? Was it…?" He couldn’t ask the rest.

  But Joe had fallen asleep. The next time he woke, Michael couldn’t bring himself to ask any of it.

  * * *

  "I just can’t believe it’s all gone," Monica was saying. "Back there. My home and my family. I keep thinking, won’t Andrew think this is strange when I tell him about it, but I won’t… I won’t tell him. Because he’s dead. Jane is dead. Shawn… Fred. Even Lyddie. I just can’t believe it."