“Hey, I know him,” Scott said. “That’s Rajeev.”
“He looks familiar,” I said, squinting out into the dark. “He’s from the Directorate, I assume?”
“Yeah,” Scott said, already reaching for his door handle and stepping out. “Rajeev! How you doing?”
I followed a moment behind, stepping out into the dark of the night, the snowfall lit by my headlights and the front porch lights of the nearby trailer. I got a look at Rajeev and he looked a little familiar, dark hair, the faintest beginnings of what would probably be a mustache in about five years lining his upper lip.
“Scott,” Rajeev said, and when they got close they shared one of those bro-hugs where their right hands met in the middle and pulled close, like a shoulder bump, but slightly more masculine. I didn’t roll my eyes, exactly, but it was only through epic self-restraint.
“Glad to see you made it okay,” Scott said.
“I’m glad to see I made it okay, too,” Rajeev said. “You were gone long before it happened, right?”
“Yeah,” Scott said, a little hushed. “I was far away when the Directorate went boom.” He shifted a little uncomfortably in his shoes. “Listen, we came up here—”
“I know why you came,” Rajeev said, nodding. “They had a meeting about it this afternoon, about this threat that’s coming.” He made a gesture to encompass the cloister. “They’re talking about leaving. Pulling up stakes, going to Canada.”
“Yeah,” Scott said with some discomfort. “I bet they end up doing it tomorrow, too, now that they know what’s coming.” He clapped Rajeev on the shoulder. “Listen, we could use some help. We’re going to take on this thing that’s destroying the metas. You should come with us.”
I gave Scott a searing look. “He’s like twelve.”
Rajeev looked offended. “I’m thirteen.”
I tilted my head at him. “Have you even manifested yet?”
He shook his head. “Well, no.”
“How old is the oldest of the kids who came with you?” I asked.
“Sixteen,” Rajeev said.
“Yeah, we’re not recruiting any of them,” I told Scott with great finality.
“Their lives are in just as much danger as ours,” Scott said.
“Still no,” I said. “I’m not taking a bunch of teeny-boppers into battle, unless I find out that Sovereign’s secret weakness is high levels of angst or a deep affinity for Justin Bieber.”
“Hey!” Rajeev said, “just because I’m young doesn’t mean I like Justin Bieber. Besides, we all want to stay with the cloister anyway,” he said, stopping Scott from what was looking like a really burgeoning argument. His face was red and everything. “We took a vote.”
“Smart kids,” I said.
“What?” Scott said, turning his red face to Rajeev. “The entire species is being wiped out, do you realize that?”
Rajeev gave a nod. “Yeah, and that’s tragic, but we’re not that old, and none of us want to die. This thing is killing metas thousands of years older than us and more powerful, and besides, we already had one brush with them outside Brainerd and barely got away.”
“What?” I asked, honing in on Rajeev again. “What do you mean you had a brush with them?” Scott turned his attention on the boy as well, fully attentive.
Rajeev hesitated, thrusting his hands deeper in his pockets. “We stole some cars to get up here. We were on the road and a helicopter dropped down on us, caused one of our cars to flip on the icy road.”
“Rajeev,” I spoke quietly, my mouth dry, “was everyone else all right?”
“Mostly,” Rajeev said. “We were lucky, none of them were metas. They shot up the cars, almost killed me. They would have, if not for—” His face bore a subtle hint of anguish. “We managed to get in the other car and speed away while—”
I felt a flash of fear. “Who was it? Who died?”
“They saved our lives, the three of them,” Rajeev said. “It was unbelievable. He took out all the men that were after us, I think.”
“Who?” I asked, more insistent. “Who died?” I had a sickening sense I already knew.
“Jeremiah Stevenson,” Rajeev said, hushed, the snow falling around him as he cast his eyes downward in the reflected light of the headlamps. “They shot him first, right through the head. He didn’t stand a chance. Sara Astley did much better, managed to take a few rounds in the body and still kill one of them with her strength.” Rajeev wore a ghostly smile. “And Joshua, he—”