Chapter 33

That first secretary had been excellent, I reflected as I walked into the last building’s foyer. The nicest of the six I’d barged in on so far. She’d sworn a bit as I made my announcement, but she’d been very, very cooperative in helping me get people out of the upper floors. She’d even overridden the elevators so I could send them to where people needed them; most could take the stairs.

Each of the previous six buildings had been fast to evacuate. The elevators had worked, and the apartments’ occupants took me seriously. So did the secretary. But one glance into the last building’s foyer and I could see that that wouldn’t work here.

The building was old–or at least older than the rest of the towers in Sooke. Some of the TVs in the atrium were burned out, and the woman sitting at the counter didn’t even look up. I strolled up and did my speech. “Don’t panic, Miss. I’m Magical Girl Luciole, and I’m here to make sure everyone gets in the shelter. Could you make an announcement, please?”

She rolled her eyes. “Nope. Intercom’s been broken. Put in a work order, but no one’s come to help. What’s the crisis?”

I paused, flummoxed. She hadn’t even really looked at me or reacted to my title and alias. It had worked so well up until now, too.

“Time is slipping away, Luciole. Try one of Overclock’s tricks; maybe it’ll work here,” Bentley suggested.

I nodded. Then I switched from hands on my hips to hands behind my back. I straightened my posture and stared at the woman. “As I said, I’m Magical Girl Luciole. Why are Magical Girls usually here, Miss?” I tried to clip my words and make my voice sound as serious as possible.

“Oh. Another Emergence? Well, honey, the intercom is still broken, Emergence or not. What do you want me to do about that?”

I sighed. What did I want her to do about that? “How about you go to the top floor on the elevator, and I start down here? We’ll knock on doors until people know to shelter up.” Come to think of it, why didn’t I just have access to everyone’s optical augments?

That was a much better idea than knocking on each door. “Actually, stay here for a second. Bentley, can you get access to the optical augs for this building? When the Emergence at West End happened, I got an Emergence message on mine. We could do the same thing here.”

“That system is usually for emergencies, and it’s run directly by the Sanctuary AI itself. It’ll fire just before an Emergence, and it causes panic and chaos when it does. It might be better to do things manually.”

“But,” I said, closing my eyes, “this is an emergency. Just see if Sanctuary can help out with this or contact SHOCKS leadership or something, okay?”

“I’ll try, Luciole. In the meantime, you must get the residents into the shelter.” Bentley went silent.

“I’m not climbing those stairs, uh-uh. And the elevator's broken too.” The woman took a drag from something. Was she smoking inside? That had to be against the rules–my neighbors had to do that on their balconies if they had them. “You start at the top, magic-pants. I’ll meet you on my way up. That way, I get a break every so often.”

I nodded. “Just move as fast as you can, okay?” When she started walking toward the stairs, I joined her. “Get people to the building’s shelter.”

“I’ll get ‘em across the street to Tower 14. Their shelter works.”

I groaned and facepalmed as we climbed. “Bentley, we’re going to find whoever runs this building and make them fix it when we’re done here, okay?”

“I’m not sure that’s in the bounds of what most Girls do, but it might be good public relations for you. I’ll look into the precedent for a job like that.”

“Thanks, Bentley. Okay, miss…what’s your name, anyway?” I asked the secretary.

“You can call me Annette. Lemme guess, this is where we part ways?” The woman shrugged and stepped through a fire door. I watched her start banging on a door, then I started jogging upward. As I did, I reached back and tried to rub some of the tension out of my shoulders. I hated having to be the person in charge, and faking it for that long? That had hurt.

Or had it? I’d been so focused on being in charge, on being that ideal Magical Girl, that my worries about my friends and family had disappeared. As the ‘fake it ‘till you make it’ tension bled off, that familiar anxiety was coming back. I ran up the stairs faster, mana letting me take them two or three at a time all the way up to the fifteenth floor. I took two deep breaths and knocked on the first door. “Magical Girl Luciole here. There’s a big Emergence coming. Head to the nearest shelter, please.”

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Some of the authority I’d felt like I had was still there. I grinned and headed to the next door. And the next one.

And the next one.

And the one after that.

I fell into a rhythm by the end of the top floor. Most residents didn’t say anything back; they just started moving. A few kids wanted to know more about me–I answered a couple questions and then left to the next door. But once, someone responded…poorly.

“I ain’t going! If you come in here to make me, I’ll shoot you!”

I took a step back from the door. “Bentley, he says he won’t go, and he’s–”

“I heard.” Bentley’s voice was calm and quiet. “Your life is worth a lot of potential lives saved. If whoever it is actually has a weapon, maybe they can take care of themselves, but don’t risk yourself to save someone who doesn’t want saving. Not when they’ll hurt you for doing it, at least.”

I nodded slowly. “Sir, if you reconsider, the shelter across the street should be open for a while longer. Good luck.” Then I walked to the stairs and started jogging down to the next floor.

“Luciole, two bits of news. First, Sanctuary will push that message to everyone in Sooke Tower 21 in about five minutes. The AI agreed that the situation merits the use of the Emergence emergency system, so you don’t need to knock on every door in the building.”

“That’s good. We’re done, then? We were going to meet at the Prestige, right?”

Bentley cleared his throat. “We were. That’s the other bit of news. Overclock has a situation on the waterfront. There’s a guy with a gun.”

I sighed. I’d just dealt with a guy with a gun. Why couldn’t Overclock? “So, why hasn’t James told her to just leave him? That’s the right call for her as well.”

“Well, it’s a very big gun. Like, an old anti-tank gun from like eighty years ago. It’s probably got enough punch to knock through a class one or class two Mack’s armor, if he can keep it loaded and firing.”

“What?”

“He runs a military surplus story, and says he can hold out for a while. Overclock is worried he’ll hurt other people, or she’d just leave the guy like you did. She wants the rest of the team there as soon as possible.”

“Okay, we’ll head over.” I jogged down the stairs and started running as I left the foyer.

As I ran, I let my mind drift. It was only a three-minute run, but Bentley had an update for me before I arrived at the waterfront. “Luciole, the warning has gone out to the residents in Tower 21. We’re also starting to get Emergence reports on the east coast. The strike teams are handling them for now.”

“What does that mean for us?” I sucked in a breath and kept running.

“It means you’re likely to see any Emergences in the Sooke area sometime soon.”

“Oh.” I pushed myself a little faster. But not fast enough to keep up with a white blur that passed me. Sam was just that much quicker than me. I needed to actually exercise, I supposed.

“You’re coming up on Overclock’s position.”

“Thanks,” I said. I slowed down. The other three Girls stood a good distance from a short, stocky building with a flat roof. As I got closer, Overclock started talking.

“Okay, kids. This is a new one for you, but it’ll be good for getting some training in. The guy in there doesn’t want to shelter up. I’m sure you all encountered some people like that today, right?”

Sam nodded. “One of the front desk workers didn’t like the idea at all. He said it wasn’t ‘Sooke’s first rodeo.’ I mean, he’s not wrong. I took the phone from him and made the announcement myself, then told him he could stay at his desk.”

“Good job,” Overclock nodded. “Most people, you can do something similar with. This guy in here? He’s a danger to everyone around him. Look at the window–that’s an anti-tank rifle.” She pointed, and sure enough, something round and long was sticking out the window. It angled slightly into the air and was almost as wide as my wrist. A wider round bit stuck to the end of the barrel.

“If he’s got that rifle–I think I saw one in a museum–he’s got other firepower. Maybe explosives or things that could cause problems for anyone who didn’t make it to the shelter. Ideas on what to do?” Overclock asked.

“Can’t we just keep people away from him?” I asked. It made sense to me. If he was a problem, maybe he just wanted to keep his own place safe. He could stay there, and we could keep people away, and they’d be safe from whatever weapons he had in there.

“We need to get in there and stop him. I know the guy by reputation. He’s a weirdo. No one from Sooke actually visits his store–I have no idea how he stays in business. I don’t trust him not to do something dumb, though,” Sam said.

“If we go inside, we’re putting ourselves at risk,” Li Mei offered. “Charlie keeps telling me my life represents a lot of saved lives, and that I shouldn’t throw it away on something pointless. Maybe there’s a way to get him out of there without getting shot?”

As we debated the pros and cons of each idea, something started tingling on the back of my neck. I reached back to scratch it, but it wouldn’t go away. “Uh, Girls. I think something’s about to happen,” I said. A moment later, my optical augment activated with an eerily-similar message to the one I’d gotten at West End High.

Warning!

Emergence Detected

An Emergence event has been detected at or near your location. Internet connectivity has been disabled. Phone systems have been disabled. Audio and visual surveillance have been disabled. Electrical power has been rerouted to emergency systems. Emergency ordinances and State of Emergency laws are in effect.

* Make sure all civilians make it to a shelter. Assist anyone who needs help.

* Defend civilians from aberrant Machines at all costs.

* Assist any other Magical Girls operating in your area.

A second later, the anti-tank rifle fired.