“So, Mr. Donner. On your application you mentioned that you were a SecOps engineer, but you didn’t give many other details. Who did you work for?”

  “...For?”

  Terrance helped support Naomi on her carousel horse. She giggled and squealed, absolutely thrilled. Naomi’s face passed every few seconds, sometimes snapping a picture, sometimes grinning and waving. Terrance grinned back. He thought he might be even happier than his little girl in that moment.

  “Can we have another one?”

  “Of course, baby. Of course.”

  “Good morning, Brick.”

  “Shit!”

  Brick threw his attacker off of him, pulled his gun from under his pillow, and levelled it at her.

  It was Mantis. She was laughing. Laughing so hard she couldn’t immediately pull herself up from the hotel room floor.

  “A simple ‘no’ would have sufficed, Brick,” the small woman finally said with a devilish grin.

  “You said you wouldn’t. You promised! I should kill you right now, you little bitch!” If he could. Shones, she was leagues above him. He placed his left hand across his stomach, the one wearing the ring. Would it be enough if she decided to attack?

  “I didn’t,” Mantis said, her face suddenly serious. “I told you I wouldn’t attack you or try to make you a victim. That wasn’t what I was doing, silly! I was trying to do the regular thing!”

  Brick rubbed his sleep-filled eyes. His muscles still ached. He was still bruised. He felt like utter shit. The gun shook slightly in his hand. “The ‘regular thing?’”

  “Come on.” She sat on her own bed, glancing at her nails, her shift falling off one shoulder in a calculated manner. “It’s been a long time for me. I never do it, you know. Not with the men I kill, I mean. And you? Well, your family is gone, right? To you, anyway. You’ll have to rebound eventually. Might as well be with me.”

  “‘Rebound?’”

  “Oh, sure. I know what loneliness does to men, Brick, believe me. I can be anything you want. Anything your wife never wanted to try? I’ll do it. All that pent-up frustration out of your system, all at once. Just say the word.”

  Brick kept the gun trained on her. “You know what I want you to do? I want you to never Shones-damn mention my family, and I want you never to try that again.”

  Mantis sniffed. “Fine.”

  “Fine? Is it really that simple?”

  “It’s only complicated if it comes from someone who makes things complicated. I don’t. You’re a dull bastard, but it’s fine. I’ll never bring it up again.”

  Brick lowered the gun, incredulous. This woman. “You’d better not.”

  “So, we gonna kill Fulgen?”

  Brick groaned and leaned back, but he kept hold of the gun. “We’re screwed beyond recognition. You know how care packages work, right?”

  She nodded. “Cases and cash. One more chance to complete the mission. Any other resources are on us to get. I know.”

  “And our target is in freaking G-Tech headquarters. Maybe the most secure building in the city. It’d make raiding that precinct look like a walk in the park.”

  “Actually I just checked the news. He’s on his way to City Hall to sign his pardon.”

  “Yeah, that sounds much easier,” Brick grumbled.

  “We could intercept the van.”

  “No good if we can’t secure the artifact. We can’t just shoot him through a window and run, you might remember.”

  “So, what, you’re just going to give up? Might as well put that gun in your mouth if that’s your plan.”

  Brick sighed heavily. “We’ll need more weapons. Maybe allies. G-Tech’s got plenty of enemies… but shit, it could take months. And they have our descriptions. I know they ID’ed you. They’ll be looking for us.”

  “Now you’re talking. They’ll be looking for us, so we can lure them out.”

  “What good would that do? They won’t send Fulgen.”

  “No, they’ll send their on-call sorcerers. Which might leave the building less defended. Worst case, we’ll have a chance to isolate and hunt down their star players, leaving Fulgen more exposed. Either way, we win.”

  “Unless we get caught or killed.” Still, Brick pondered the idea. The Garrison’s mandate, while not expressed in so many words, was clear: Complete the mission, or die trying. There was a third option, of course. Die running. That was the worst option, he’d heard. So any idea with even a slight chance of success, no matter how suicidal, bore consideration.

  That was the point.

  Brick heard a soft click, and realized his implant had switched on. Double M spoke, like a devil whispering in his ear.

  “Mantis’s idea is sound. At least, it could be useful. Encourage it.”

  Shit, was he going to listen to them at all hours now?

  “All right,” Brick said. “We’ll keep that idea in our back pocket and make some other plans. In the meantime we got some shit to do.

  “First, we gotta case the hell out of that building. Every in and out, their emergency response and deployment patterns, all of it. To do that, we need a base of operations on or near topside, and we need to look the part so we can fit in with rich topside pricks without attracting attention. To do that…” He waved his gun, his lips tight. “We’re gonna need more money.”

  Mantis grinned. “Now we’re talking.”

  I had never seen City Hall in person. At least, not the topside level of the enormous building.

  It was part of the Government Quad at the dead center of the city, one of three superskyscrapers that broke the mold of Gigopolis’s usual square-shaped cells. It was an imposing cylindrical tower that rose to a point high above level 10, earning it the nickname “The Spire.” It was almost surrounded by two other superskyscrapers, dubbed the North Crescent and South Crescent, with narrow corridors between them allowing access to the Spire itself.

  So if you’re struggling with the visual, let me put it a different way: If you look down on the Grand City of Gigopolis from space, it kind of looks like it has a giant eyeball peeking out of the middle.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Definitely not ominous.

  For what it was worth, they did try to make the spire look shiny and sleek and not like a portentous tower of doom. But Wally and I weren’t looking at the Spire. We were looking at the absolute throng of reporters and cameras gathered at its base.

  We were riding in a G-Tech van again, with Team Ambassador split in half and both leading and tailing us. Wally looked white as a sheet. “Hey, bud,” I said, carefully putting a hand on his shoulder. “You okay?”

  “Honestly? I’m starting to miss the giant murder-cat.”

  “Listen, Wall. Thanks for coming out and supporting me today. But you don’t have to walk with me through that mess. You can wait out here, or hang back, or whatever makes you comfortable. The sharks are out for me, okay?”

  Wally took a deep breath and let it out. “But there’ll be a next time, and a time after that, and I can’t sit them all out. This is just like the skid circuit. I just have to get used to it again.”

  I glanced down at Wally’s metal-encased legs. “It had better damn well not be like the skid circuit.”

  “No, Jett.” He smiled thinly. “It’s even more dangerous.”

  “You got me there.”

  We pulled up in front of the building. True to Marin’s word, Team Ambassador disembarked first and formed a protective wall between us and the reporters before we even opened the van door. Like bodyguards, if bodyguards were goofy. Both Isabel Marin and Catalina Castillo fell in behind us.

  The camera clicks went off like quiet machine guns, and the questions started peppering me.

  “Mr. Fulgen!”

  “Mr. Fulgen, can you comment on last night’s events?”

  I’d faced crowds of reporters once or twice before. When I started making headlines in the skid world. But the feeling was completely different. Back then they were like bottom feeders trying to snatch up a scrap of glory. Today they were sharks out for blood.”

  “Mr. Fulgen, is it true that you taunted and provoked GPD officers for years—”

  “Hello, Gigopolis!”

  That was Brandon, who started posing and… flexing. He acted as if the cameras were there for him. “I’ll tell you what happened! My new friend Jett kicked some assassin ass…butt last night!”

  He wiped his brow, as if he had averted disaster, and gave Catalina a thumbs up. She had her palm to her forehead.

  Tina, the cheerful healer, just kept saying “Hi! Hi, everyone!” and waving as we moved toward the front steps, occasionally doing that thing with the wink and the peace sign.

  The other healer, Yuki, and Dante actually hung back and flanked us like they were supposed to, though they both looked like they were being forced to judge a manure odor competition. I couldn’t even see the twins, and had to look around before I spotted them at the very back of the group, looking almost as anxious as Wally.

  Despite Team Ambassadors antics, the questions continued to fall like a hailstorm.

  “—do you think accepting a pardon from Corporal Faxton is appropriate given your history—”

  “—did you unduly influence Corporal Faxton’s decision—”

  “—is the monster sighted at L5-I12 a fabrication—”

  “—is your relationship to Corporal Faxton strictly—”

  Shit. A lot of questions about Jessie’s involvement. I wondered if she was being similarly bombarded.

  “—do you take any responsibility for the officer casualties—”

  “—how did the Fire Guardian amulet end up in your—”

  “—are you responsible for the injuries suffered by Wally Donner during—”

  “No!”

  Wally latched on to that question and started cursing at the reporter, and I actually had to restrain him. His cybernetic legs ground against the pavement, and in a moment of panic I realized I might not be able to stop him, even with my enhanced strength, if he decided to lunge.

  “Come on, Wall,” I said quietly. “Let it go. I’m the loose cannon here. Don’t do my job for me.”

  Once we were all inside the building I had to take a minute to calm Wally down, as well as myself. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he kept saying, near tears.

  “Here,” said Yuki. She placed a hand on his forehead. There was a brief glow, and Wally suddenly relaxed, looking at her in surprise.

  “Th-thanks,” said Wally, taking a shuddering breath.

  “No problem,” Yuki said flatly.

  “Whoa, what was that?” I asked.

  Yuki shrugged. “A small neurotransmitter adjustment. Anxiety and trauma are real in this line of work, so I synthesized a skill to help. I was going to be a psychiatrist before I bonded my artifact, and I may yet finish my doctorate. I care greatly about people and their emotional states.”

  I raised an eyebrow. She said that with about as much inflection as my amulet telling me my health was at 88%.

  “How are you feeling, Wall?” I asked.

  “Better,” he said, still shocked. “Incredible, really. Nothing’s ever worked like that before.”

  “It’s not a miracle fix,” said Yuki. “It only lasts a short while, and repeated uses close together have a greatly diminished effect. So Mr. Donner, if you have any other calming techniques that work I suggest you still use them. Hopefully you will be able to self regulate by the time it wears off.”

  She turned to walk away, then looked back over her shoulder. “He will need to transfer to a wheelchair.”

  Sure enough, next up was a security checkpoint. That included not only metal detectors but an aether scan. A security guard stood next to a device I recognized from the precinct the previous evening. The thing that had almost but not quite detected my amulet. It honestly looked like the scanners they used to check minari bills for counterfeits, only with more controls and an interactive screen.

  ?Looks like I’ll have to use Coat Check. Will you have to stay with the amulet??

  [We first spoke while the amulet was checked, if you’ll recall. I won’t be able to manifest my avatar, though, as that’s a skill that requires contact with the artifact.]

  ?Ugh. So you’ll be back in the skull library??

  [Not if you object. Though I was hoping to read more about this ‘internet.’]

  ?Sometimes the less you know, the better.?

  Wally had calmed down, but he looked quite uncomfortable and more than a little embarrassed as he was forced to unstrap himself from his mechanical legs, slide into a borrowed wheelchair, and submit to a patdown. My amulet, along with a small pile of other jewelry, went into a tray. Guards then escorted our crew to an elevator, and we rose up into the Spire proper.

  One of the guards carried a pouch on his belt that jingled. With a start, I realized it was all of our artifacts. He shrugged, noticing my glance. “We’re going up high. Out of range for most of you, and it’d trigger your automatic recall. Can’t have your rings and necklaces popping back into place.”

  The elevator had a glass wall facing the outside. At first all we could see was the inner wall of the North Crescent. As we ascended the Crescent fell away, and then we rose from the midst of the other tall Topside buildings until the scale of the Grand City took shape before our very eyes. Soon we could see the edge of Topside and the slope of the ziggurat. I felt a moment of vertigo as the city’s true vastness struck me.

  The base of the city was thirty cells square, nine hundred individual superskyscrapers forming a grid over ten miles wide. Each level tapered going upward, the outer ring of superskyscrapers ending, leaving Topside with a mere twelve by twelve cells. Every bit of real estate open to the sky was covered in standard skyscrapers, resorts, mansions, and the occasional park. As a result, the “slopes” of the city resembled mountainsides covered with steel more than clear steps leading down to sea level. At the foot of the ziggurat a vast urban sprawl fanned out, eventually giving way to plains, forests, and mountains in the distance.

  Cars, hovercraft, drones, and a few helicopters zipped about below like ants, even so early on a weekend. They crawled across the cells, crossed the bridges between them, or descended ramps into the maze below.

  I pressed a hand to the glass, feeling tiny and overwhelmed. A country-sized city spread out below me. Many of those people faced fear and oppression, and I was somehow supposed to meaningfully help them. There were also people among that mass who were hoping I would fall, and at least a few wanted me dead.

  Wally was thinking along the same lines. “Geez,” he breathed. “We’re supposed to protect that?”

  “Well. Not alone, right? There are supposed to be twelve Guardians. We just need to find the rest, and we’ll be killing it.”

  ?What are all of the Guardians, anyway? Fire and ice, obviously. You mentioned earth, so do they all specialize in some kind of element??

  [More than half do. There are the four primary elements of fire, air, water, and earth. Then the secondary elements: electricity, mist, ice, and metal. Finally the two life domains of plant and beast, and the two human domains of mind and spirit.]

  I shuddered a bit at the mention of Mind and Spirit guardians, realizing there was a dimension to this warfare that I couldn’t easily stop just by applying fire. I thought of the strange girl from Squid’s. My mind was my enemy often enough as it was.

  ?And what happens when they come together? Do their powers combine to make some kind of Superguardian that does all the hard work for them??

  [Not exactly, but their powers do combine, combining their domains into powerful hybrid skills. They’re stronger together than apart, and they’re pretty damn strong individually.]

  That made me feel slightly better. Maybe G-Tech was on the right track. With twelve Guardians forming a team bigger than the sum of its parts, maybe that giant city below would feel a little smaller.

  Maybe.

  But for the moment, it was just me and Chris. I had to survive this part first.