Page 96 of Sloth
If he could sense her, then she wasn’t controlling herself. The next step could be a mass sleepover party for the citizens of Cardinal City... or worse. If they all felt her fear, it would be chaos. They’d evacuate en masse.Remember your training.She took a deep breath and exhaled, concentrating on the way her breath warmed the inside of her face mask. Compartmentalize. Deal with that fear later.I’ve got this.
Get to Max. Hack the bomb. Get him out. Don’t hurt anyone in the process.
Easy.
Right?
When the two of them, disguised in Deadly suits and armed to the teeth, burst through to the main courtyard, people began to make way for them—they cut ominous figures.
Device in her hands. The sidewalk became overcrowded, and she couldn’t stop the instinct to look up, for only a few seconds, but she caught glimpses of faces she knew. Street lights illuminated local cops desperately trying to hold back bystanders stupid enough to stick around. News networks. Lilo with a cameraman, and her bodyguard—one of Max’s men. The big one with the red-tinged beard. Daymo, Max had called him. Flashes, that’s all she received, and then she forced her gaze back to her program as they pushed through to come to the base of the concrete steps that led up to the Skyscraper courtyard where Max sat alone.
Her breath caught.
Three flag poles stood proudly behind him. One with the national flag, another with the state’s and the third Sloan didn’t catch, except that Max had propped himself against the base of its pole. His face was a Pollock painting of bruises and welts. His shirt, stained and ripped. The tape holding the C4 to him was wrapped around his torso like a bandage. His face was drawn, his skin color, pale. But his beautiful brown eyes… they were alive. He hadn’t given up.
A white piece of paper pinned to his front lifted in the breeze.
Back to the program!
She forced her eyes to ignore everything else but her screen, only catching in her periphery a local police officer as he rushed over. “Is one of you Sloth?”
Parker must have indicated her because the officer addressed her next. “The note says only you can approach. The victim shouted it down, and when one of the squad tried to get close, he was shot by a sniper.”
That meant Daisy was watching… or one of her Faithful.
Parker cursed and immediately relayed the information to Evan and Griffin through his internal hood communication. Griffin’s power was metal manipulation. If a bullet was fired, he would sense it and halt its trajectory before it hit anyone approaching... but they didn’t pass that information onto the officer. As far as the Deadly Seven were concerned, letting Sloan approach on her own first was the best option.
“Keep your officers away,” Parker ordered. “Let us handle this.”
“The bomb squad is on its way. We have men searching for the sniper. When they get here...” The officer didn’t finish. He knew time was precious. He must have signaled for his squad to let them through, because Parker guided Sloan swiftly up the steps.
“Cover me, Greed. I’m taking Sloth up.”
A mild panic twisted her heart. “You’ll get shot.”
“She won’t shoot me.”
“That’s your pride talking. You can’t be sure.”
“You keep your eyes on the program.” Parker continued to guide Sloan up the steps and mumbled observations about their surroundings, so she could keep her eyes on the program. Every second counted. “Liza’s here, twelve o’clock, near the ambulance. An officer down. Must be the one the sniper shot. About five in riot gear approaching from the East.” Almost at the top, Parker cursed. “Bomb squad. Damn. Arriving in full force, pushing through the crowd. One approaching.”
Sloan’s heart rate picked up.
“Greed. You on it?” Parker said.
“I still don’t know where the sniper is. I can’t say I’ll feel the bullet in time.”Griffin’s voice came through their hood-microphones.
“He’s going to get shot if we don’t stop him. Do it, Sloan,” Parker ordered.
“Do what?” she replied.
“What you’ve been training to do. We can’t risk relying on Greed. It’s safer if you remove the squad officer from the equation. Let me take over so you can concentrate.”
She shoved the iPad into his hands. “You’re looking for a pattern shaped like an Atari Space Invader.”
“Got it.”
Sloan cast her gaze down the steps. It was as Parker had said. Already a man dressed in bomb-disposal protection was making his way up, despite the wild gesticulations of the officer in charge. Sloan didn’t let him get far. She jogged down a few steps until she was sure she could target him specifically. She conjured the image of herself getting sleepy, of how she acted it out in the training room, and then with laser focus, she let her power loose.
