Brandon Sanderson - Firefight

T HE R ECKONERS

STEELHEART

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Text copyright 2015 by Dragonsteel Entertainment, LLC
Jacket art copyright 2015 by Craig Shields

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Childrens Books, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York.

Delacorte Press is a registered trademark and the colophon is a trademark of Random House LLC.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sanderson, Brandon.
Firefight / Brandon Sanderson.
pages cm
Sequel to: Steelheart.
Summary: David and the Reckoners continue their fight against the Epics, humans with superhuman powers, except they may have met their match in Regalia, a High Epic who resides in Babylon Restored, the city formerly known as the borough of Manhattan Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-0-385-74358-7 (hardback) ISBN 978-0-375-99122-6 (glb) ISBN 978-0-449-81840-4 (el) ISBN 978-0-385-39010-1 (intl. tr. pbk.)
[1. SupervillainsFiction. 2. Guerrilla warfareFiction. 3. Science fiction.]
I. Title.
PZ7.S19797Fi 2015
[Fic]dc23
2014028081

Random House Childrens Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

v3.1_r3

For Nathan Goodrich,

A dear friend who was patient enough

To read my books when they were bad.

I watched Calamity rise.

I was six years old then, as I stood in the night on the balcony of our apartment. I can still remember how the old air conditioner rattled in the window next to me, covering the sound of Fathers crying. The overworked machine hung out over a plummet of many stories, dripping water like perspiration from the forehead of a suicidal jumper. The machine was broken; it blew air but didnt make anything cold. My mother had frequently turned it off.

After her passing, my father left it on; he said that he felt cooler with it running.

I lowered my popsicle and squinted at that strange red light, which rose like a new star above the horizon. Only no star had ever been that bright or that red. Crimson. It looked like a bullet wound in the dome of heaven itself.

On that night, Calamity had blanketed the entire city in a strange warm glow. I stood therepopsicle melting, sticky liquid dripping down around my fingersas I watched the entire ascent.

Then the screaming had started.

DAVID? The voice came from my earpiece.

I shook out of my reverie. Id been staring at Calamity again, but nearly thirteen years had passed since Calamitys rise. I wasnt a kid at home with my father any longer; I wasnt even an orphan working the munitions factory in the understreets.

I was a Reckoner.

Here, I answered, shouldering my rifle and crossing the rooftop. It was night, and I swore I could see a red cast to everything from Calamitys light, though it had never again appeared as bright as it had that first evening.

Downtown Newcago spread out before me, its surfaces reflecting starlight. Everything was steel here. Like a cyborg from the future with the skin ripped off. Only, you know, not murderous. Or, well, alive at all.

Man, I thought. I really do suck at metaphors.

Steelheart was dead now, and we had reclaimed Newcagos upper streetsincluding many amenities the elite had once reserved for themselves. I could take a shower every day in my own bathroom. I almost didnt know what to do with such luxury. Other than, you know, not stink.

Newcago, at long last, was free.

It was my job to make sure it stayed that way.

I dont see anything, I whispered, kneeling beside the edge of the rooftop. I wore an earpiece that connected wirelessly to my mobile. A small camera on the earpiece allowed Tia to watch what I was seeing, and the earpiece was sensitive enough to pick up what I said, even when I spoke very softly.

Keep watching, Tia said over the line. Cody reports that Prof and the mark went your direction.

Its quiet here, I whispered. Are you sure

The rooftop exploded just beside me. I yelped, rolling backward as the entire building shook, the blast spraying bits of broken metal across me. Calamity! Those shots packed a punch.

Sparks! Cody yelled over the line. She got around me, lad. Coming up on your north side

His voice was drowned out as another glowing energy pulse shot up from the ground below and ripped the side off the rooftop near where I hid.

Run! Tia yelled.

Like I needed to be told. I got moving. To my right, a figure materialized out of light. Dressed in a black jumpsuit and sneakers, Sourcefield wore a full masklike a ninja might wearand a long black cape. Some Epics bought into the whole inhuman powers thing more than others. Honestly, she looked ridiculouseven if she did glow faintly blue and crackle with energy spreading across her body.

If she touched something, she could transform into energy and travel through it. It wasnt true teleportation, but close enoughand the more conductive the substance, the farther she could travel, so a city made of steel was kind of like paradise for her. It was surprising it had taken her so long to get here.

As if teleportation werent enough, her electrical abilities also made her impervious to most weapons. The light shows she gave off were famous; Id never seen her in person before, but Id always wanted to see her work.

Just not from so close up.

Scramble the plan! Tia ordered. Prof? Jon! Report in! Abraham?

I listened with only half an ear as a globe of crackling electricity whizzed by me. I skidded to a stop and dashed the other way as a second globe passed right through where Id been standing. That one hit the rooftop, causing another explosion and making me stumble. Shards of metal pelted my back as I scrambled to the side of the building.

Then I leaped off.

I didnt fall far before hitting the balcony of a penthouse apartment. Heart pounding, I darted inside. A plastic cooler waited on the other side by the door. I threw open the lid and fished around, trying to remain calm.

Sourcefield had come to Newcago earlier in the week. Shed started killing immediatelyrandom people, no perceivable purpose behind it. Just like Steelheart had done in his early days. Then shed started calling out for the citizens to turn in the Reckoners, so she could bring us to justice.

A twisted brand of Epic justice. They killed whomever they wanted, but to strike back was an offense so great they could barely conceive it. Well, shed see soon enough. So far, our plan to bring her down wasnt going terribly well, but we were the Reckoners. We prepared for the unexpected.

From the cooler, I pulled out a water balloon.

This, I thought, had better work.

Tia and I had debated for days on Sourcefields weakness. Every Epic had at least one, and often they were random. You had to research an Epics history, the things they avoided, to try to figure out what substance or situation might negate their powers.