Chapter 99: Challenge

My phone was on the TV stand.

That was the first thought that ran through my head as I heard the door click. It was a thought so absurd, so frightening, I had to clamp my jaw to stifle a panicked giggle. I finally got, not just understood, why Lena never let her phone out of reach anymore.

Two months ago, I would’ve frozen. If the shock of an intruder didn’t do it, the whiplash from my heart-to-heart with Lena to sudden fear would have.

A month ago, I would have scrambled for my phone, but wouldn’t have made it. Fight over flight, however desperate.

Now, I marked the phone’s location and how long it would take me to spring to it, but didn’t move.

In a few minutes I’d know if that meant I was wiser, or just fooling myself.

Bernie growled.

The door of the hotel room swung open. The light from the hall silhouetted the triangular cutout of darkness that was Mask’s cloak. The tip of his hood reached the doorway’s lintel and at the base, the flared cloth completely occluded the light around it, leaving two smaller triangles on either side.

The effect looked so dramatic that, if we’d bothered to turn off the lights in our room before going to bed, even I might have had to admit to being impressed.

Instead, I got my clearest look yet at Mask’s porcelain namesake, as well as his clothes. Jeans with kneepads, a long-sleeved tee, and what looked to me like the chestplates people wore for paintballing. All black, of course; the man had his aesthetic.

He wore his phone strapped near his shoulder, similar to how Lena did when she was scouting with her smart glasses but still wanted quick access to it. Mask had his slung higher on his chest, though. He wouldn’t be able to access his screen quite as fast, but his cloak almost entirely hid its light. Probably a good trade for him, since he liked sneaking around and I’d never seen him adjust the Reactant he used in combat the way most of us did. If he ever needed a change, it would slow him down. Something to keep in mind.

Take away the closet cosplay edgelord aspect of his getup and I’d consider it a pretty sensible set of equipment. Seeing it in the light from our room rendered it a lot more mundane than it seemed in the depths of Cinder Alley or the darkness between street lights.

I wondered how much that annoyed Mask.

Not as much as he had Lena. She pushed Bernie behind her and surged to her feet. Her phone was in her hand already, of course, plucked from her back pocket.

Courtesy of a shot of adrenaline, her earlier exhaustion had vanished. Courtesy of Third Eye, it wouldn’t come back in the form of a crash – at least, not a physical one.

From her hand motions, I knew she’d conjured an object but hadn’t fired it off. Yet. She growled, “You ever heard of knocking, asshole?”

Mask’s voice changer emitted a burst of feedback that I took for a snort. “Heard, yeah.”

Lena’s fingers twitched, reinforcing her conjured object. Still, she didn’t send it flying Mask’s way. “I don’t know if you were eavesdropping or not, but we were kinda in the middle of something.”

“Oh?” Mask tilted his head. “Should I come back later?”

“Actually,” Lena said, “yeah.”

“Too bad.” He stretched his hand out.

Without my phone, I couldn’t see the effects of his gesture. Manipulating the Third Eye version of his cloak, presumably, since that seemed to be his go-to move, but I had only his hand motions to go by and they weren’t the same as the ones Lena and I had learned from Albie.

I wasn’t just a bystander right now. I was a bystander who couldn’t even gawp at the forces beyond my control.

Another reminder of how helpless I was.

Another reason to panic.

I refused to.

I said, “Wait.”

Mask’s head tilted slightly.

“Cam –” Lena began.

I shook my head. “You don’t want to fight here.”

For just a second, her glare flickered my way. “Wanna bet?”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Despite the situation, I smiled at her. I waved a hand at our surroundings, bringing it to rest atop Bernie’s head.

If Lena relaxed, it wasn’t so much that I could catch it with a glance.

“We,” I said, “don’t want to wreck our hotel room.”

Her lip twitched. After a moment, she gave a single, harsh nod.

Mask said, “I don’t see how that’s my problem.”

I turned my focus back to him. My smile widened. “Oh, I know you don’t want to fight here. Figured that went without saying.”

His shoulders shifted before he could stop himself. At least, I was pretty sure I hadn’t imagined it.

God, I wanted to rip his stupid namesake off so I could do more than read into his body language. He did an annoyingly good job controlling the latter.

As it stood, all I got was the creak of the leather of his glove when he curled a fist. “You think I came here just to chat?”

“You came here,” I said, “to challenge us.”

He said nothing. Didn’t move, either.

I stepped away from Lena and Bernie and spread my hands. My motion brought me a step closer to my phone. From here, based on what I’d seen of Mask, I could grab it before he struck me. Certainly before I ran out of HP.

Still, I didn’t make a move.

“If you’d wanted to catch us sleeping,” I said, “you would’ve waited until there was no light under our door.”

For just a second, his mask tilted toward the floor.

Meaning he hadn’t thought to check. Meaning he’d have been perfectly happy to ambush us.

Meaning I was playing with a lot more fire than I’d thought.

I tried not to gulp. No idea if I succeeded or not.

When I spoke, though, my voice sounded calm. “And since you knew we were awake –” He hadn’t. “– you knew there’d be a fight.” He hadn’t. “Having it out in public isn’t in your interests.”

He shrugged. “It’s not my hotel room, OldCampaigner. Not my problem.”

I cocked my head. “The hallway security cameras aren’t your problem?”

He didn’t turn to look, but his stance shifted. One foot into the hall, one into our room. Wary, but also, unless I missed my guess, ready to bolt.

Did the hotel have security cameras in the halls? I had no idea, but it sounded plausible enough.

“Why should I care?” he asked, with nonchalance I had to believe he was faking.

“Why don’t you tell us?” I asked. When he didn’t respond, I added, “When you thought Zhizhi was broadcasting us to a live audience, you didn’t seem real happy about it.”

From the way his mask shifted, I thought he’d turned his nose up. “Scaring the normies will just make it harder for other people to grind.”

“Did you seriously go with ‘normies?’” Lena asked. “Like, with zero irony?”

Despite all the very good reasons not to – not least, the fact I was pretty sure she’d used that word herself once or twice – she barked a laugh.

Mask’s gloves creaked.

Lena’s laughter cut off instantly. “Try it, pal, and we’ll see what gets more fucked up. Our room or your secrecy.”

“Keeping in mind,” I said, “you’d better beat us both in an instant, because the first thing either of us will do with a moment’s respite is call the cops on your ass.”

“Cops ain’t shit,” he said.

“They bring a lot of noise. A lot of attention.” I tried to smile and probably ended up grimacing. “Even if you win and get out of here before they show up, they might figure out enough to scare the normies.”

Mask stretched his neck. “What’s your alternative?”

“You issue your challenge,” I said, “and we answer it. Somewhere that works for both of us.”

I watched his hands. He might or might not control the rest of his body language, but if he wanted to go at us in Third Eye, those had to move.

Instead, they relaxed.

He asked, “Where?”

“I’ll show you, if you let me.” I nodded to the phone I’d forced myself to stay away from during our entire conversation.

Maybe Mask realized I could have grabbed it before he could stop me. Maybe he held me in such contempt he didn’t give a shit.

Either way, after a second’s hesitation, he nodded.

I scooped up my phone. Tempting as it was to blast Iron with maximum Air into Mask’s face, I opened Maps instead of Third Eye. I showed him the screen. “There’s an open field a couple blocks northeast from here. It’s off the main streets, away from street lights. Nothing but grass, dirt, and a couple of shipping containers.”

“And you expect me to believe you’ll show up?” he asked. “What stops you from running away and wasting even more of my time?”

“We posted a find from the lobby of our own hotel,” Lena said. “You seriously think we’ve been running?”

“... Fine. You’ve got fifteen minutes.” Mask flicked his hand to the side, deselecting his conjured object, and turned on his heel. “If you don’t show, I might start to get pissed.”

Lena gave him the finger. “Right back at you!”

Mask stormed into the hall.

As soon as he was gone, Lena sagged against me. Her conjured Iron clattered to the floor. When I turned to her, I found Bernie in her arms.

I wrapped both of them in an embrace. When my heart stopped pounding, I whispered, “Holy shit.”

“Right?” Lena shuddered. “You were awesome, btw.”

“Likewise.”

She kissed my chest. “God. Are we really going out there, Cam?”

“He’s got our friends.” I rested my chin on the top of her head. “And as long as he’s hunting us, we’re not going to feel safe. We have to finish this.”

“I know.” She tilted her head to look up at me. “Besides, I owe him for interrupting us.”

“I don’t know where you thought that conversation was going,” I said.

She wiggled her eyebrows.

Obviously, I couldn’t help but kiss her.

Then I forced myself to let go of her and step back. “It’s time to finish this.”

“I know.” Lena sighed. She raised her phone. “Let’s make some calls.”