CHAPTER 21

The Smoke Eater headquarters lay in piles of rubble and ash a hundred or so feet away from us, but that didn’t mean that our training field had taken any of the damage. I guess it’s one of the benefits of having fullycustomizable metal puzzle pieces stored underground. We could program it to form any type of structure: house, skyscraper, even the maze we made the rookies run through, with a mechanical dragon that was a bit slower than it used to be. Brannigan had blown it up when we were in trainee school, and the poor robot scaly had never fully-recovered.

But today was going to be all about trying out Yolanda’s new gadgets and turning up the heat to see if this new shit would actually work against a phoenix.

I stood in front of Afu, Renfro, Naveena and her two smokies. Harribow still looked like a scared lamb who knew he was being prepared for slaughter but could do nothing about it. The other guy introduced himself as Calvinson, a red-haired kid who looked a lot like a guy I used to know when I first joined the smoke eaters. Hopefully he wouldn’t be as cocky and get himself killed like the last dude.

“Thanks for asking me to be a part of the team,” he said, shaking my hand.

Him and Harribow were only here because I wanted Naveena by my side and didn’t think it right to split up a crew. And it wasn’t like any other smokies were jumping at the chance to go after an elusive and seemingly-invincible monster.

“Thank you,” I told Calvinson.

He smiled like I’d just given him a commendation and walked over to listen to Afu tell old war stories.

I pulled Naveena away from the others and said, “I have no idea what the fuck I’m doing. I appreciate you agreeing to do this with me. I know Brannigan put me in charge, but believe me when I say I’ll be relying on your expertise a lot.”

Naveena playfully punched me in my armored shoulder. “I wouldn’t miss this for anything. It’ll be good to nail that bastard for what it did to Patrice.”

A big wad of guilt filled my throat and I looked away.

“And hey,” Naveena tapped her power suit’s gloves against my chest so I’d look at her, “when you’ve been a captain as long as me, you’ll appreciate any opportunity to let someone else have the reins. You ask me, anybody who wants to be in charge all the time is the exact person who shouldn’t be leading things. We’re a team. Let’s get in the game and pull off a win.”

“Have you ever considered coaching little league?”

She smiled and shook her head. “I hate sports.”

We walked back over to the others, Naveena’s hand at my back. All of the smoke eaters I’d gathered were waiting for me to say something, to lead them.

I didn’t even know where to start, but Brannigan had always told me that sometimes you have to leap off the cliff and build your parachute on the way down.

I always thought that was stupid advice, because you never knew how short the drop was. But I tried.

“Okay,” I said. “Welcome to the… Ash Kickers.”

Afu snorted, because he knew I hated that name. He’d suggested “phoenix fuckers” but that sounded way worse.

I glared at Afu until he stood straight and shut up.

“This phoenix isn’t like the dragons we’ve been fighting before. None of our weapons seem to do jack shit in putting out its flames. We can’t even tranquilize it. All of you will have seen the video from the day we trapped it in a chain net, so you should know that it can blow itself up and come back later. So, our goal is to end it before it can end itself, and maybe that will mean it won’t come back to life. That’s right. None of the no-kill rules on this mission. We’re back to slaying.”

Renfro raised his hand. I was going to tell him he didn’t need to do that, but I also didn’t want the more green smokies to think they could tactlessly shout questions. I pointed to my engineer.

“You and Afu never got a chance to use your laser weapons. Maybe they’d work if we tried?”

“You’d have to get close enough to use a sword,” Afu said. “Those flames stuck to Captain Williams’ power suit and wouldn’t go out. Have you ever seen dragonfire do that?”

Everyone shook their heads.

“Plus,” I said, “the Sandman didn’t do anything, so it’s probably safe to say that the regular lasers or even a haymo wouldn’t work. I’m not against trying those, but I’d at least like to find some way to take out its main weapon before we get laser-happy.”

Harribow threw his hand up. “And how do we do that?”

A hover-van flew over the ashes, headed right for us.

I pointed to the van as it came to a stop. “Let’s hope she’s come up with a way.”

Yolanda hopped out of the driver’s seat and opened the back hatch.

I told Afu and Calvinson to go help Yolanda bring over the new toys. Since Harribow had been promoted, Afu and the new guy were the lowest smokies on the ladder, which meant they had to do more of the grunt work. Hefting cases as wide as Afu was tall, they waddled over and set them down carefully in the ash at our feet.

Yolanda smiled as we huddled around her. “This should be fun.”

I was glad to see her back to herself.

Turning to the flat, metal training field, Yolanda poked at her holoreader until several sheets of metal rose from the ground and formed a small city block. Another second later, fire ignited from the top of one of the buildings and a hologram appeared over the flames in the shape of a giant hummingbird.

“Um, what the fuck is that?” I asked.

Yolanda frowned, like we were supposed to be impressed. “What do you mean? It’s a phoenix.”

Afu shook his head, his cheeks jiggling. “That doesn’t look like a phoenix.”

“Well…” Yolanda sighed. “It was the best I could do. It’s just for visual aid. The main point is the fire.” She turned back to the flames and the buzzing, toocute-to-kill hummingbird. “Those flames aren’t hot enough yet.”

She tapped on her holoreader and the fire grew bigger. Now, the flames hovered over our tiny, pop-up city like a blanket of fabricated hell. A greater warmth pelted my face. That was more like it.

Yolanda squatted in front of one of the cases. Two satisfying clicks sounded from the latches and the lid swung open by itself. We all bent over to see what was in it, but by that time Yolanda had pulled out what had lay inside.

“This is an Impulse shotgun,” she said. “I took the same style design firefighters had been using a few years ago, but gave it a few nifty upgrades.”

She cocked it and the sound made us all instinctively flinch.

“This sucker packs a wallop when it comes to extinguishing fire. It uses the same technology as your foam guns, but the foam fires in one big wad at a hundred and twenty miles per hour. Added to the foam is a sound wave emitter, and there’s a concussive blast that would kill any normal fire for extra extinguishment.”

Yolanda looked pretty badass hefting that large shotgun on her hip. The weapon looked like a model bazooka my daddy made back when I was eight years old, except this one was metallic gray and way too futuristic compared to the PVC pipe Daddy had used.

“So,” Yolanda said, “who wants this one?”

All of our hands shot up.

“Captain Williams,” Yolanda held the gun out to me with two hands, looking eager for me to take the heavy thing from her. “Since you’re in charge, I’ll let you have first pick. Plus, you’re used to shooting foam, so it won’t be too much of a learning curve for you.”

Afu groaned, the big baby.

The next case opened and Yolanda pulled out a long metal pole, as black as a dragon claw.

“Is that so Renfro can practice his stripper moves?” Naveena said.

Everyone busted a gut. The rookies, however, looked guilty about it.

Renfro laughed, too. “Y’all ain’t shit.”

Yolanda didn’t seem to get the joke. She frowned and said, “No, but it does do this.”

She pressed a button and a crescent-shaped laser blade extended from the top.

“Holy shit!” I said.

“This is a laser axe.” Yolanda swung it around a few times. The blade sliced through the air, leaving behind warbles of heat, making a phrumm, phrumm with each pass.

“That’s mine,” Afu said, before anyone else could claim it.

“Well you’re all getting one of these,” said Yolanda. “I only had time to make one shotgun, but the axes are pretty simple to put together. And they’re magnetic, so you can attach them to your power suit.”

We each took a turn sticking the axes to our backs.

“Why are they better than our laser swords?” Harribow asked.

Everyone turned to look at him.

He swallowed, clearly uncomfortable being the center of attention. “I mean, it looks awesome and all, but we already have something similar.”

“It has better reach,” Yolanda said. “Plus this.”

She hit another button and the axe blade sparked a bolt of electricity through the air. Most of us jumped back. Afu hit the dirt, covering the back of his helmet with both hands. He didn’t get back up until the sparking noise was gone and we were all laughing at him.

A stab of guilt hit me then. It felt strange to get back to usual business when everything – and everyone – had burned. But I swallowed the objection. This was good. This would tie us all even closer. That’s the thing about smoke eaters, firefighters, cops, and the like. Humor is the glue that binds us. It’s the single stone to stand on when the lava surrounds you.

“All right,” I said. “Let’s get this started. Yolanda, will you run the training scenarios?”

“Sure thing, Cap,” she said. “Why don’t you go first?”

I hefted the Impulse shotgun and walked onto the training field. The hummingbird hadn’t moved from its chosen spot above the rooftop, and the giant flames roasting the air around it were starting to warp the top of the building.

“What’s the range on this shotgun?” I asked.

“No more than a hundred feet,” said Yolanda. “The closer the better, but I know that’s not always going to be possible.”

I’d be pushing it if I tried to shoot the hummingbird from where I stood, and I didn’t want to jump onto the same building and risk getting torched. I always believed training should mirror real life scenarios as closely as possible, and I sure as fuck wouldn’t get that close to the actual phoenix.

The building across the street was about a hundred feet away. I slung the shotgun onto my back with the attached sling. After a few jogging steps, I power jumped to the lip of the roof and pulled myself over, keeping the momentum going, rolling into a crouching position and taking aim at the hummingbird through the shotgun’s beaded sights.

Fuck. Where’s the trigger?

My fingers fumbled all over the damn gun as I tried to keep my eye on the fake phoenix. I swore at myself and brought the gun down so I could see what I had to pull to shoot the gun.

I’d had it upside down.

“You want to trade?” Afu shouted from the ground.

“Fuck you!” I readjusted and pulled the trigger.

A white ball flew across the gap between the buildings, leaving a cloudy trail of smoke behind it. The foam wad shattered the hummingbird hologram and exploded against the roof, covering the entire area like a small nuclear blast made entirely of sticky, white goo. The fire disappeared immediately.

The only thing that would have made it better is if it also contained some liquid nitrogen to freeze the bastard. I made a mental note to suggest it to Yolanda. But I was happy with my new toy.

“Hot damn!” Renfro said from the ground. “Yolanda, are you sure you can’t make another shotgun? I’ve got to get me one of those!”

“It’ll take some time,” Yolanda said. “But I’m sure Captain Williams will let everyone have a chance to use it.”

“Sure thing,” I said, and pointed to Renfro. “Just make sure I get it back.”

“So, what are we supposed to do with these axes,” Afu asked, resting one on his shoulder. “Hell, I could swing a tree branch at a hologram all day, but that doesn’t mean anything.”

“Oh the hologram was only for training with the foam, seeing how it extinguishes fire and the range of attack. I’ve got something else in mind for the axes.”

“Um,” Afu scratched his chin. “Like what?”

Yolanda turned toward the training city and poked a finger against her holoreader. A door I hadn’t realized was there slid open at the bottom of the farthest building. I had to lean over the side of the roof to see, but all that stood there was a dark hole. Then the roar came.

I wouldn’t have put it past Yolanda to unleash a living, breathing dragon on us, but out of the dark a metal claw emerged and scraped against the ground. Next came a robotic dragon head, squeaking and fumbling like it was going to fall apart before we ever laid hands on it. Scuff marks covered most of its silver body, and half its teeth were missing. After a clanking buildup within its chest, the robot dragon spit out a few measly flames that wouldn’t have cooked a marshmallow. Mecha Scaly was back in business, but times had been hard.

“Oh, come on,” Naveena said. “This lump of rust isn’t going to give us a good fight. It can barely stand.”

Yolanda huffed and tightened her arms against her sides. “I didn’t have the time or materials to build a mechanical phoenix. Besides, you’ll have to catch the firebird before you can even attempt a fight. So if you want a challenge, Captain Jendal…”

Another command into the holoreader made Mecha Scaly squat. A second later, giant rubber wings fanned out from its sides. The dragon roared and leapt into the air, flapping itself to soar right over my head and the building I was atop. I stumbled backwards and landed on my ass. Mecha Scaly rose fifty feet above the training buildings circled there like a buzzard, daring us to come see if it was as rusty and out of fight as we thought.

“Well,” Yolanda said to the smokies on the ground, “go get it.”

They looked at each other for a confusing second, and then all five of them broke into a run, slapping hands or attempting to trip the smoke eater beside them so they’d be the first to get to the robo scaly.

I shook my head. No one likes a freelancer. And especially a glory hog.

Naveena power jumped and landed beside me on the roof, then pointed to Calvinson who’d gotten to the top of the one across the street. “Cal, shoot at it with your lasers, see if we can get it to attack us.”

The rookie obeyed his captain and began shooting a burst of laserfire at Mecha Scaly, soaring high above. Calvinson’s shots missed horribly, but they got the dragon’s attention. First came a digital roar, then the dragon swooped down, building up speed as it launched toward Calvinson and Afu, who’d just arrived. The rookie continued shooting, but the dragon swerved from one side of the sky to the other, dodging each laser.

Something told me Yolanda had cheated, installed some kind of wise-ass program into the robot, turning it into a laser-dodging juggernaut.

Afu held out his axe and engaged it. As it flew over, Mecha Scaly attempted to chomp Calvinson, but had to divert its path when Afu swung the axe toward its side. Renfro climbed onto my building and began firing his own laser. That got the metal dragon to fly toward us instead.

“Hey! I almost had it,” Afu shouted.

Instead of trying to bite us, the Mecha Scaly squeaked and hacked until a ball of flame dropped out of its mouth. A constant stream of fire would have been more dangerous. Or so we thought. When the fireball hit the roof, it blew apart, sending flames raining down on top of us.

“Shit,” Renfro said, ducking under his helmet. “Yolanda must have upped its programming. I’ve never had this much trouble taking it out.”

Naveena watched the dragon glide away and turn at the end of the street for a second attack. Stepping to the edge of the roof, she looked over and waved Renfro over to join her. “Give me some laser fire right here below us.”

“Why?” I asked. I wasn’t trying to hate on her mysterious plan, I just wanted to know what she was thinking.

“I want it flying right through here,” Naveena said, more to Renfro than me.

Shrugging, Renfro blasted his gun down toward the street. Mecha Scaly roared and tipped its wings to hover lower, flying straight for the shots.

Naveena put the axe pole against the back of her power suit, which magnetically drew the weapon against it with a clang. Stepping onto the roof ’s edge, she held out her arms as if walking the trapeze.

“Wait,” I said. “What are you doing?”

Without answering me or so much as looking my way, Naveena leapt off the roof.

I ran to the edge and looked over, Naveena dropped like a boulder, just as Mecha Scaly passed under her. She landed on its back and held on with outstretched arms and legs. All laser fire ceased as every smokie watched Naveena fly around the city like a squirrel riding on the back of a crocodile.

“I’ve never seen shit like this,” I said.

“Me either,” said Renfro.

Mecha Scaly tried to bite at Naveena but missed each time as its main priority was staying airborne. With more balance than I’d ever seen in yoga videos or those stupid human tricks on the Feed, Naveena sat up and removed the laser axe from the back of her power suit. It only took one swing to bury the blade into the back of Mecha Scaly’s head, even though it continued to roar and spit flames like a demented, flying steam engine as the laser burned through its circuits.

Naveena stood, using her hands to steady her. She and the dragon were circling back toward our building, and when they were about a hand stretch away, Naveena pressed a button on the axe and power jumped toward the roof. The axe’s electricity ripped through Mecha Scaly and sent it churning dark smoke, plummeting toward the edge of the training field, where Yolanda had wisely chosen to run away.

Afu caught Naveena’s arm and pulled her the rest of the way up. We all ran to the edge of the roof. Mecha Scaly lay in a crumpled, smoking pile. Back on the ground, everyone clapped and hooted praise. Calvinson patted his captain on the back. Harribow, who’d just come off the top of a third building, pumped a fist in the air.

“That was impressive, Naveena,” I said.

“Thanks,” she turned to bump my fist.

“Only one problem with it,” I said. “If you jump on the phoenix like that, you’ll burn to death before you can reach for your axe.”

That got everyone kind of deflated, but goddamn it, it was the truth.

Naveena shrugged. “That’s why you’ll put out its flames first, T.”

Yeah, that would be the best-case scenario. But I’d never, not in my entire career so far, been involved in a best-case scenario. They were like unicorns.

Oh no. I tried to think of something else, because if a rainbow-shitting, one-horned horse popped out of the ground, I would officially be done with this crazy line of work.

“All right,” I said. “Let’s have the rest of you try out the shotgun. Looks like Mecha Scaly is going back to the scrap heap.”

Yolanda stood by the dead robot, shaking her head.

“Sorry, Yolanda.” I turned so she wouldn’t see me smirking.

I got a good view of the wasteland around the smoke eater compound. Out on the highway, about half a mile out, a line of large metal things rolled toward Parthenon City. I had to blink a few times and then squint to make sure I wasn’t seeing things.

I asked Renfro, “What’s that going down the road?”

“I can see in the dark - I don’t have power zoom in my retinas.”

“Quit being a smartass,” I said. “I’m serious. Don’t you see that parade out there on the highway?”

Renfro put a hand to his brow to block out the sunlight. “Are those tanks?”

I knew it. The New US Army – what a crock of a name. There was nothing new about them. They were the same pricks from before, who’d scrambled together after E-Day and formed roving platoons, offering their services to city states with problems no one else could find the solution to. Hired guns was an understatement, they were more like a nomadic mafia. And there wasn’t a smoke eater among them because they discouraged our kind from joining up. A guy I knew on Truck 8 who had looked into it and was quickly shot down.

Mayor Ghafoor, despite the controlled demeanor she put on display, had gotten desperate. She’d opened the city to wolves, and here they were storming in to town.