The Reckoning: Quantum Prophecy Book 3 (21 page)

In Wyoming, Colin slowed as he approached the Trutopians’ specially built town.

Yvonne had been feeding him directions for the past two hundred miles, and now—finally—he would see her face-to-face for the first time since her betrayal of the New Heroes.

He wanted to tear her apart, but knew that he wouldn’t be able to get within arm’s reach of her.

She directed him to the roof of the tallest building, and he saw that she was already waiting for him, standing next to one of the four huge automated sentry guns that were mounted on the corners.

He landed just as a set of large hangar doors were closing at the far end of the roof. Colin couldn’t see what was inside.

He wanted to throw himself at Yvonne, to hurt her for what she had made him do, but he could only stand there, waiting for her to speak.

“You left the New Heroes alive. Why?”

“They’re my friends. My father.”

“I ordered you to kill them. Why didn’t you do so?”

“I’m not a killer.”

She began to slowly walk around him. “Most people aren’t, but they would kill if I ordered them to. Why not you?” Without waiting for Colin to respond, she said, “Do you understand that you have been used?”

Colin nodded.

“And how does that make you feel?”

“Angry. Betrayed.”

“You thought that Reginald Kinsella was your friend, right?”

“Yes.”

Yvonne smiled. “Now here’s the bit you’re
really
going to hate. Kinsella died months ago. The man who took his place—the man you met in Satu Mare—was Victor Cross.”

“No!” A wave of anger and hatred surged through Colin, staggering him. His knees weakened and he slapped his hand over his mouth as he felt the bile rising through his throat.

Yvonne gave him a thin-lipped smile. “He played you for a fool, Colin. All of you. Victor and I orchestrated this whole thing. From the moment I made contact with him, the New Heroes were doomed.”

“You’re lying! That’s not possible!”

“There was no way we could predict everything that would happen—we really thought that Dioxin would be able to kill you—but it’s all worked out the way we wanted. And everything led to this moment. The world’s governments are about to fall. They have the New Heroes on their side, but we have you. And you’re more powerful than any of them. There is only one way that this is going to end.”

“Why are you doing all this?”

“You saw what was happening in Lieberstan.
We
didn’t set that up: the so-called civilized nations did. Human beings have proven over and over that they are incapable of living in peace. For any one nation to be comfortable, others must suffer. That’s the way it has always been. We will put an end to that by creating only one nation.”

“That’s what Kinsella—
Cross
—kept telling me.”

“He was right.”

“Maybe he was. But who are you to decide how other people should live their lives?”

“I’m a superhuman. I’m smarter than everyone else.”

“I’m a superhuman too. And I’m more powerful than you can even imagine. So by your logic
I
should be the one in charge, not you.”

“But I can control you.”

“Not perfectly.”

Yvonne sighed. “Many cultures share myths and legends, did you know that? Even cultures that seem to be very different often have the same roots to their folklore. One of the most common is the story of the flood. You’ve heard of that, I take it?”

“Noah and the ark, and all that. Yes, I’ve heard of it.”

“The basic story exists in almost every culture. The world is filled with corruption and evil, and God—or the gods, depending on what you believe—sends a great flood to wipe out most of the human race and start again. That’s what we’re doing here.”

“Killing innocent people to save other innocent people. You can’t justify that.”

“History will prove me right.”

“I’m sure that Adolf Hitler believed the same thing. If you want to save the world, why can’t you just use your power to order everyone to be nicer to each other?”

Yvonne’s face contorted with disdain. “Oh
please
. Even you can’t be that stupid. Human beings are like sheep. They spend their lives worrying about money and transient comforts while they ignore the real problems of this world. Overpopulation, pollution, corruption, crime, poverty…All of these problems can be solved, but the humans don’t do anything about them. Not because they can’t, but because they won’t. Sure, maybe I could order everyone to be nice, but then they’d be no better than zombies. I want them to
choose
to be nice.”

“You can’t always get what you want.”

Yvonne raised an eyebrow. “
I
can.” Then she smiled again. “Besides, the humans owe me. They owe me big-time. I spent the first three years of my life in a glass jar, and the following decade imprisoned purely because of who my father was. General Piers
was desperate to find out whether Mina and I were superhuman. Every day there was a new test, and the tests were not always painless. No matter what happened, I was never going to have a normal life.”

“But—”

“They could do anything they wanted to us, and the law was on their side because technically and legally Mina and I are not human beings.” Yvonne looked out over the town and spread her arms. “But despite all that, look what I’m doing for the humans. I’m going to create a whole new world for them. A better world, a stronger world.” She glanced back over her shoulder. “Of course, to do that I have to get rid of the old one first.”

“You’re mad.”

“By whose standards?” She walked to the edge of the roof and peered down. “This place is not what it appears to be. There are no civilians here. We built it to look like an ordinary town, but it’s not. It’s a fortress. We have weapons that can track and take down even the most advanced missiles before they get close enough to do any damage. And if the military tries to approach over land, they’ll discover that most of the buildings on the outskirts are actually disguised heavy weapons. Nothing short of a nuclear strike is going to penetrate our defenses, and even then this building is strong enough to withstand that.”

“They’ll stop you!” Colin said.

“Let them try. The more firepower they direct at this location, the less they’ll have to defend the rest of the world against our troops. I want you to familiarize yourself with this town and its defenses. Your friends will be coming here.”

“How do you know that?”

“Haven’t you figured it out by now?” Yvonne said, turning toward the open hatch. “I know everything.” She smiled again. “The world is filled with corruption and evil, Colin. Here comes the flood.”

Stephanie Cord pulled the remote control from Grant Paramjeet’s hand and switched the channel to UNC.

“Hey!” Grant tried to snatch it back.

“My house, my remote.”

On-screen, the female news anchor said, “Related news coming in from Monticello, Arkansas: According to witnesses, several dozen armed members of the local Trutopian community have raided a supermarket and cleared the shelves of supplies. This could be in retaliation for the earlier attack on the Trutopian community in nearby Jefferson County. Tom?”

The male news anchor said, “That…uh…that seems unlikely, Diana. The attacks happened within minutes of each other, and it looks very much like the Trutopians were provoked. It’s understood by all Trutopians that the only way forward is through peace.”

Grant said, “It’s started.”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” Stephanie said. “No one’s that stupid.” She switched to the local news channel. It displayed nothing but a card reading,
WE ARE EXPERIENCING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES. PLEASE STAND BY.

“That’s probably just a coincidence,” Stephanie said.

Alia came into the room. “The guy on the radio just said that the Trutopians have been declared illegal. If they don’t disband, the army’s going to be sent in. And there’s a curfew. No
one’s allowed out on the streets until further notice.” She glanced at Grant. “You’ll have to phone your parents, tell them you’re staying here.”

Stephanie switched the TV back to UNC. The female news anchor was saying, “…getting literally dozens of similar reports from all over the world. The Trutopians are said to be heavily armed and more than willing to use their weapons against their enemies. Fifteen people are confirmed dead, with upward of a hundred injured. It’s believed that—”

Her companion interrupted her. “Diana, we’re getting a transmission from the new leader of the Trutopians.”

The screen changed to show a teenage girl walking up to a podium that displayed the Trutopians’ logo. There was a flurry of camera flashes.

“Oh my God! It’s Yvonne!” Stephanie stabbed at the remote control’s mute button.

“Hey! I want to hear that!” Grant said.

“No you don’t,” Alia said. “She’s got the power to make you do anything she says.”

They watched in silence as the camera closed in on Yvonne and she began speaking.

“What’s she saying, Grant?” Stephanie asked.

Grant began to recite Yvonne’s words: “The governments of the Uni5ted States of America, Brazil, Germany…something…and Poland have all declared their intentions to invade Trutopian territory. We will not allow this to happen. I have a message to all the Trutopians listening. You all understand that what we’re building here is a utopia, a perfect world. But it’s not logical to build a perfect world on imperfect foundations. The old world
has to be destroyed before the new one can begin.” He turned to Stephanie. “My God!”

Stephanie pointed to the TV set. “She’s not finished!”

Grant continued: “Something…didn’t get that…Now it’s time to stop talking about peace, and start making it happen. Some people say that fighting for peace doesn’t make a lot of sense. They’re wrong. It makes perfect sense. You will fight and kill anyone who is not a Trutopian. You will keep fighting until we are triumphant.”

Yvonne simply turned and walked away. The camera panned to a shocked-looking reporter.

Stephanie hit the mute button again.

“Tom, Diana…I…I don’t know what to say. We’ve just heard what sounded very much like a call to arms issued by this unnamed teenage girl who, it is claimed, is the new leader of the Trutopians.”

Someone shouted off-camera and the reporter looked around wildly. The camera shook and began moving, bobbing and swaying as it followed the reporter. Breathlessly, he said, “Don’t know if you’re still picking this up…. We’ve just been told that we are trespassing on Trutopian soil. We’ve been given five minutes to evacuate the building or we will be declared prisoners of war.”

The screen cut back to the two news anchors.

The woman said, “Well, Tom, it appears that the president was right to call the Trutopians an evil, illegal organization, especially if they’ve appointed this young girl as—”

Tom lashed out with his fist, knocking the woman to the floor. “
You’re
the ones who are evil! You broadcast lies and slander about
us!” He leaped to his feet, picked up his chair and was about to bring it down on her when a security officer darted in from offscreen and tackled him to the ground.

A voice shouted, “Go to commercial! Go to commercial!” and the screen was suddenly showing an advertisement for coffee.

Stephanie swallowed. “OK…
Now
it’s started.”

I
N THE COOPER FAMILY’S QUARTERS IN
Sakkara, Danny watched as Façade carried his pajama-clad brother Niall into the sitting room and sat him down on the sofa, next to his mother.

Rose Cooper was wrapped up in her dressing gown, and looked blearily at them. “So what’s wrong now?”

“We’re leaving,” Façade said. “Not all of us. Just myself, Danny and Renata. Warren’s still recovering from surgery and can’t travel, so he and Caroline are going to stay. Plus there’s Mina and the baby to consider. Butler still believes in Sakkara, so he’s staying too.”

“What about Razor?” Rose asked.

“He’s definitely staying,” Danny said. “And we want you to stay too.” He crouched down next to his mother. “This is probably the safest place for you. Sakkara is practically impregnable, you’ve got the U.S. Army camped outside, and Butler has promised to make sure you’ll be OK.”

Niall looked up at his older brother. “So you’re going off to do superhero things?”

“Yep.”

“OK then. Just don’t get killed or anything stupid like that.”

“I’ll do my best.”

Rose said, “You don’t have to do this.”

“Somebody has to.”

Then the door to the apartment opened and Impervia strode in, followed by six armed guards. “No one is leaving.”

Façade asked, “And how do you know what we’re talking about?”

“After the attack on General Piers we started monitoring everything. I’m surprised you didn’t figure out we’d do that.”

Façade smiled. “Oh, we did.”

“This situation is too volatile for us to allow you…to…” Her shoulders sagged. “Where’s Danny?”

Danny Cooper arrived on the roof of Sakkara to find that Renata had already taken care of everything: She stood on the StratoTruck’s ramp, surrounded by unconscious soldiers.

“Let’s go,” Renata said, racing up the ramp.

She jumped into the pilot’s seat to see that Danny was already sitting next to her. “I wish I could do that,” she muttered. “All right…. Razor, you hear us?”

“Loud and clear. It’s all set. The equipment’s stored in the back, and you’ve got enough fuel for about six thousand kilometers.”

The StratoTruck’s turbine engines whined into life and the vehicle rose sharply into the air.

“You’re sure you know how to fly that thing?” Razor asked.

“Yep,” Renata said.

“I hope so, because you’re now officially on the wrong side of the law.”

Renata laughed. “Hey! Doesn’t that make us supervillains?”

The morning sun rose over the Rocky Mountains, illuminating Colin Wagner as he floated in midair. He adjusted his eyesight to compensate and resumed scanning the sky.

“OK, Control. I can see a fighter, moving fast. It’s going from north to south. It’s pretty far away.”