Power Play (Book 2)

Chapter 25: Off The Rails

"I'll be okay," she repeats. "Go help Nicole."

I'm not sure I believe her, but I'm going to have to. "Get yourself somewhere safe. We'll come for you," I tell her. She nods and weakly gets to her feet.

I head west.

I fill Tyler in on the situation over the radio.

"We've got some more people headed up your way, but it's going to be a while," he says. "We don't have anyone as fast as you. Or who can fly." In the background I hear Susan yelling about something, and a lot of other noise. Sounds like he's up to his ass in his own alligators.

"She's by the bank where the communications went dead," I tell him. "She's in rough shape."

"We'll get to her," he says, sounding at least partially sure of himself.

The smells get trickier to track as I move, both because of my speed and because they probably weren't in one place very long. I pause to reorient myself, sifting through the powerful smell of the river and the city for scented breadcrumbs of friends and foes.

There's no more damage that I can see. No more electrical blasts. Do I head into the city? Follow the river? Where did they go?

"Tyler, I'm at a dead end here. Any help?" I ask into my earpiece.

"Yeah, things have gone completely batshit crazy on the L north of you! Some reports say a bomb went off. Sounds like a whole train is off the tracks," Tyler says frantically.

I float up out of the river bed and close my mask back over my face.

To the west, the raised L stop is crowded in the morning light. I bet the duplicates jumped on the train to try and ditch Nicole. I hope none of those people need to be at work soon, because I think the trains aren't going to be running on time today.

I rocket towards the station, banking right and following the tracks north. The L line twists and turns between the buildings, and after a mile I see where the destruction starts again. First there's glass and metal strewn in the street under the tracks. After that are cars crashed into each other, probably trying to avoid the disaster that was erupting over their heads.

I keep following the track until it ends in chaos.

The morning crackles with fire and smoke where the elevated tracks collapsed and the train they were carrying crashed through the air and down into the street.

I see why they think a bomb did this. Twisted steel from the tracks are scattered onto the streets, pinning wrecked cars. The last pair of upright supports before the gap teeters awkwardly, struggling to keep another section of rail from toppling onto the road. People stumble through the dusty rubble, bleeding and confused, searching for help.

The train skidded on its side a fair distance before plowing into a building, bringing the front of it down in a pile. Rubble covers half the train, with the rear sticking out onto the curb. There's a jagged hole where the train door used to be, and it points up to the sky. Through it I see a few train passengers. Some are awake and struggling to get free, while others are unconscious or probably worse.

"It's a mess, Tyler," I say, though mess doesn't quite cover it. "The train has plowed into a building, and cops are everywhere. More are showing up every second."

"Where are the duplicates?" he asks.

"No idea," I admit.

"We'll see if there are any surveillance cameras in the area we can tap into to see what's going on," he says.

Police and onlookers fill the street, regarding the wrecked train like audience members at a play, watching the stage with hesitation. They're holding back, cautious, not entirely sure what's behind all the craziness.