1

"I'm proud of you," Karl said. "Not many people are joining the Empire these days…the cowards."

Jarrod said, "Somebody has to stand up to the ABB. My sister died in a bombing last week, and the PRT didn't do a damn thing about it. They don't care about the little guy…just the capes."

"Well, normally we wouldn't have somebody as green as you guarding something so important, but we need our best fighters out there on the front lines."

Jarrod nodded.

He'd suspected that he wouldn't be allowed to fight; he didn't have any combat skills, and the Empire didn't need another body, they needed someone who could kill one of Lung's lackeys.

But if he could free up someone who actually knew what they were doing, it was like he was doing it himself.

He wasn't entirely comfortable with the Empire's attitudes toward other races; he'd had black friends himself when he was younger.

However, the Empire really was the only one fighting Lung, and he'd felt he had no choice but to join up, no matter what he had to do.

They were so desperate for members that they hadn't even made him beat up a minority. They'd accepted him right away, and they'd all been incredibly nice toward him.

"So what do I do?" he asked.

"Well," Karl said. "Have you shot a gun before?"

"Yeah, drunk drivers are scum," Karl said. "Kill whites more often than anybody else, right, since the whites are the ones with the cars."

In Jarrod's experience, the blacks had cars just as often as the whites; sometimes they weren't good cars, but it wasn't as though his car was particularly good either.

"Show me what you know about gun safety," Karl said.

Jarrod showed him that he knew how to use the safety and he explained about not pointing the gun at anyone he didn't intend to kill. He showed that he knew how to reload.

"We'll have to see how you do on the range; if you haven't done it since you were a kid, you're probably rusty. You remember the basics, so hopefully you won't kill anyone here."

Jarrod nodded.

"The job isn't that different from any security gig," Karl said. "All the warehouses on the block are owned by the Empire. That means that there is no reason to have any traffic in this area that we don't know about. We have cameras covering the streets and the roofs over the entire block."

"So I'm supposed to watch the monitors?" he asked.

"Yeah," Karl said. "I'll be with you, and I'll guide you through the whole process."

"Are we the only ones here?"

"No," Karl said. "There are thirty guards. Our responsibility is to alert them to any threats so that they can respond to them."

"Thirty guards?" Jarrod asked. "That's a lot. What are we guarding?"

"Drugs, weapons, money…who knows?" Karl said. "it's smart not to ask."

"Drugs? I thought that was just the Merchants?"

"All the gangs sell drugs. The difference is that the Merchants use their own product. That makes them stupid and weak. We're supposed to stay clean. It takes a clear mind to protect America from the hordes."

"O.K." Jarrod said. "Where do we start?"

Jarrod had worked in security before, and so what followed was familiar to him. The only difference was the sheer number of cameras, and the fact that he could see the guards making their rounds on camera as well.

He'd been watching for a couple of hours when Karl called for him to take a break. It was necessary to take periodic breaks, or you'd lose focus and start missing things.

As he got up, he thought he saw a flicker of something on one of the rooftop monitors. A quick check showed nothing.

He stepped outside, heading for the break room.

It was dark in the hallway; some of the gang actually lived here, sleeping in shifts. They received room and board in addition to their salary.

For a moment he thought he saw something in the shadows. He reached for the light switch, and there was nothing there.

Returning from a snack in the breakroom, he was surprised to see that Karl was nowhere to be seen. Maybe he had gone to the bathroom.

He settled in, and it took almost fifteen minutes to realize that something was wrong. There weren't as many guards as there had been earlier.

There had been thirty guards, but now he could only see twenty-five.

He reached for the landline; his job was to call if there was anything suspicious. Five guards weren't supposed to go off shift at the same time. Even if they were just slacking off, the leadership would see the recordings if anything went wrong, and they'd blame him.

The land line was dead.

He reached into his pocket for his cell phone, but it wasn't there. Had he left it on the table before he left for his break? He couldn't remember.

Karl had apparently taken his walkie talkie with him as well.

He blinked as he saw something on one of his screens. It took him a moment to recognize it, but it almost looked like there was someone in the shadows cloaking the tall ceiling.

The camera had been placed there because of the skylight, but that looked to be unbroken.

There were three guards, and one of them fell to the ground. The other two pulled their guns, but a moment later they both fell down.

The camera in that room went dark.

Other cameras began going dark, one after the other. They were under attack and he didn't have any way to alert the others. The only way he could think to do it was to warn them himself.

He left the security room, holding onto a heavy crowbar beside the door.

Moving quietly, he peered around a corner to find an empty room, except for an ominous looking puddle of blood on the floor.

He grimaced, but he moved on.

A shadow was ahead of him barely visible in the darkness. He grabbed for the light switch, but when he turned the light on, there was nothing there.

Gunshots from another part of the building pushed him into a run.

Room after room was filled with emptiness. No one was where they were supposed to be, and other than pools of blood on the floor, there was no one anywhere.

Someone had killed them all.

He was just deciding to make a run for it, when he saw Karl floating in midair, with a woman in a hood staring up at him.

"Start talking," she said in a voice that was cold as ice. "I want to know where the Empire keeps its safehouses. Feel free to volunteer; I'm happy to give extra credit."

Jarrod walked as quietly as he could, lifting the crowbar over his head. The woman was a cape, and she was incredibly dangerous. Still, unless she was a brute or had some weird defensive power, a crowbar to the head would incapacitate her as quickly as anyone.

"They'll kill you for this," Karl spat. "The Empire protects its own."

"Half the Empire is dead," she said. "And they haven't avenged any of them. They haven't avenged Othala, Rune, Alabaster, or Crusader. They haven't even avenged Victor, and they know who killed him. Why would you think they'd avenge you of all people?"

Jarrod swung his crowbar, hitting the woman in the head. She didn't flinch. Instead, she pivoted and stared at him, while keeping Karl in view.

"I was going to give you a chance," she said. "Since you hadn't joined yet when… but I suppose you've made your choice."

He felt a coldness spreading from his chest, and he looked down. She'd stabbed him multiple times and the pain hadn't yet fit him.

He found himself falling to the floor. She didn't look at him again, instead staring up at Karl.

"Now, let's get back to what we were talking about."

Blackness eventually overtook him.

**********

Kaiser stared at the footage.

"All this was uploaded to the server before she destroyed it?"

"It was always a risk," Terrence said. "Tinkers are pretty good at detecting that kind of thing. I thought it was worth it because so many people have been disappearing."

Terrence wasn't a tinker, or even a cape at all, but he knew his business. Kaiser enjoyed employing intelligent and competent people; unfortunately, he didn't have the option of being picky when it came to capes or the rank and file.

"You did well," he said. He frowned, and then looked at the others sitting around the conference table. The remaining capes all looked disturbed, as well they should.

"She attacked Justin in his house," Krieg said. "We have to make an example of her."

"We'll get to that in a moment," Kaiser said. "Unfortunately, we have more important strategic matters to discuss. She destroyed all three of our main weapons depots in the course of a single night. She killed ninety-six more men as well."

"That's going to make resupplying our men with ammo difficult, right at the time the ABB is making a big push," Hookwolf said. In contrast to his normal shirtless cape attire, he as dressed in a business suit. He still moved stiffly, and Kaiser cursed the loss of Othala.

"We need alternate supplies of weapons and especially ammunition, and we need them yesterday. I've called affiliates in Durham, Nashville and Detroit, and they'll have shipments delivered in three days. We're going to have to fall back until them, or risk having our people run out of ammunition."

"Will they send any capes?" Hookwolf demanded.

Kaiser grimaced and shook his head. "I had to call Berlin. They'll be sending Night and Fog."

Everyone grimaced.

"Those bastards never give anything for free. What did you have to promise them?" Hookwolf asked.

"A foothold here," Kaiser said. "So they can satisfy their own people that they are advancing their cause."

Everyone grimaced, but they didn't argue with his decision.

"We need to do something about that bitch," Hookwolf growled. "She looks familiar."

Now it was Kaiser's turn to grimace.

"She was a dishwasher at Whites," he said. "I'd hoped that she might be a healer, and so I was going to have her abducted. Coil got to her first."

"Coil's dead, right?" Menja asked.

"And his base is destroyed," Kaiser said. "My source in the PRT says it happened before the monster was released."

"So she took Coil out?" Menja asked.

"It could have been the Undersiders," Kaiser admitted. "They left town and they've vanished from everyone's radar, which would take more money than they likely had."

"Suspicious that it happened right after she let herself be kidnapped," Hookwolf said.

Kaiser raised his eyebrow.

"She can do all that," Hookwolf said. "You think a few mercenaries would give her any problems?"

Kaiser frowned.

"According to the PRT, she's named herself Harvest. They believe that she gets weaker copies of people's powers when she kills them, or maybe just when she touches their blood."

Everyone shifted uneasily.

"They think those weak powers get stronger the more that she uses them, and their thinkers aren't sure that the powers are limited to being only as strong as those of the person she got them from."

"So, she's been harvesting the Empire. Why us?"

"She went by the name Emma Hess," Kaiser said. "But the PRT believes her name is Taylor Hebert. She is the daughter of Danny Hebert."

Hookwolf said, "You were the one to tell us to get control of the Dockworkers. Hebert wouldn't budge. The boys were only supposed to threaten him, get him to give in."

"Apparently things went wrong," Kaiser said. "And now she wants us all dead."

"So how do we find her and kill her?" Hookwolf asked.

"I'm having flyers sent out," Kaiser said. "To every sympathizer and affiliate in the Empire. There's a fifty-thousand-dollar reward for her location, and everyone is cautioned to stay away from her."

"She's a crazy bitch," Hookwolf said. "But she's no match for the group of us. That's why she's doing all this hit and run shit."

"I'd agree," Krieg said. "But given the number of powers she has demonstrated, I wouldn't be too overconfident."

"She can teleport," Kaiser said. "When the PRT first saw her, she could teleport no more than ten feet. Now she can teleport a half-block, according to a report from Glory Girl."

"You think she was the one who offed Oni-Lee?"

"It's possible," Kaiser admitted. "And painting us as the killers would only sow chaos and make her task of killing us easier."

"She's crazy," Hookwolf said." She attacked Justin in his home! There are rules!"

"You sent people into her home," Kaiser said mildly. "I'm sure that she'd argue that she was only returning the favor."

"The rules only apply to capes," Hookwolf said.

"I doubt she's even heard of the Unwritten rules," Kaiser said. "She went from victim to killer, and as far as we can tell, she doesn't have any acquaintances from this world. She has no family."

"Didn't she bring a couple of people in from somewhere else?" Hookwolf asked. At Kaiser's look, he said, "I read the reports sometimes."

"Yes," Kaiser said. "And I've already set their kidnapping in place. Hopefully she'll turn herself over once we make it clear what will happen to them if she does not turn herself in."

"I want the first crack at her," Hookwolf said. "Bitch killed Justin and she doesn't deserve to live."

"What weapons did she get?" Krieg asked suddenly. "She's a cape, and she doesn't need normal weapons, but she took them anyway."

"Two thousand guns, a half million rounds of ammo, around a hundred grenades, and some plastic explosives," Kaiser said.

"She wants to kill us, and we're all clumped together here," Krieg said. "And she knows all our faces. You think this would be a great opportunity to…"

The world went white, and suddenly all Max Anders could feel was pain. He'd responded to Krieg's alarm by instinctively beginning to create his suit around him, but it hadn't all been done.

The room was on fire, and Fenja and Menja were dead. Stormtiger was bleeding out, and Cricket was screaming, but he couldn't hear anything.

The windows had exploded outwards and the walls were burning.

Kaiser surrounded himself with a wall of blades, but he felt himself starting to black out as he felt a sharp pain at his neck.

Mercifully he remained conscious, and he saw Hookwolf beginning to ramp up.

The girl was there, suddenly, a hand at Fenja's throat. Before Hookwolf could lunge at her, she was gone.

Kaiser felt another pain, this one worse.

The girl was there again, moments after Crusader's whole body suddenly jerked and he was still. She looked up at him and she grinned.

Krieg was standing. His ability to control kinetic energy had protected him from the initial blast and from the shrapnel. However, his clothes were still burned by the fire.

Kaiser tried to send metal shooting toward the girl from the floor, but she ignored him. He barely managed to graze her before she was gone again.

Krieg jerked, and a long slash appeared on his body. Had the girl gained the power to become invisible? Kaiser's head whipped around, and he didn't see anyone.

For the first time he was glad Purity had gone to the PTA meeting for Theo instead of coming to this meeting. She'd have been killed in the blast, and the last thing he'd have wanted was for the girl to have any of her powers.

Krieg fell, his body slashed to ribbons by an unseen blade.

Kaiser sent blades shooting in every direction around Krieg's body, hoping to deny the girl his powers.

Instead, the girl appeared over the body, summersaulting and touching the body so that it disappeared.

Brad grabbed him, and he grabbed Cricket. He jumped out the window, and although Kaiser was confused, he was able to use his powers to create a metal slide to the ground.

It was covered, in the hope that the girl needed some kind of line of sight to affect them. It seemed to work, although once they reached the ground, he had to continue the tube in a straight line

He wasn't sure whether they would be able to escape. It was likely that his identity as Max Anders was blown, and it wouldn't be long before they found out who Purity was.

The stupid bitch had as much as given the city to Lung almost without even trying.

She'd literally used their own weapons against them; both their powers and their explosives.

He saw the girl waiting at the end of the tunnel. He blocked both ends of the tunnel off and he trapped her inside. He gripped his fist, and a moment later, that portion of the tunnel crushed in on itself while the rest of the tunnel made an abrupt turn.

He didn't know whether he'd killed the girl or not, but they still had to get as far away from Medhall as possible. There might be a way to salvage the whole thing, although he wasn't sure if it was possible.

As they emerged from the tunnel into the light, he felt a hand lightly brushing the back of his neck. He looked up to see the girl, and a moment later everything changed around him.

Where it had been daylight before, now it was night. There was fog everywhere around him, and he could the decrepit remains of a building.

Cricket was here too, but Hookwolf was nowhere to be seen.

In the distance, he could hear the sound of air raid sirens beginning.

As the world shifted around him again, he had an uneasy feeling.2012