Book One: A Storm of Glass and Ashes

Chapter Twenty-Three: To Rise at Midnight

Nearly an hour later, at nearly three o'clock in the morning, Hawk gratefully sank into a bathtub. According to Kaiser's people, the skyscraper they'd camped out in was high enough to avoid most of the Glass energy at its feet. It was safe to stay and rest here, at least for now. Well, it'd be safe for Hawk anywhere, as long as the honeypot nectar held out. But it was also safe for the plethora of people that one required when one wanted civilization around. She hoped they were right about safety for their sake; there were enough aural spikes coming off the base of the tower to put her back on edge. Gunshots at the Event Horizon hadn't slowed that advance one iota. Fortunately, she'd been told they kicked the evacuation into high gear, as soon as their cameras had caught the giant bugs.

She had advised a flamethrower for the giant bugs. She'd been given a towel in return and told that they'd installed showers on the twentieth floor, with bedrooms on the twenty-second. There were another ten stories for them to work with, so she assumed they were settling in for more than just basic supervision of disaster.

The bathtubs proved to be aluminum bins, almost like pools for cattle. Hawk wasn't going to argue. The building had a very impressive system of boilers, and they'd attached garden hoses to multiple sinks for hot running water. At least, what came out of the attached hose was warm enough to satisfy her urge to soak. Alex and the others were all sent to their own metal tubs. She could hear Alex whistling as his tub filled up, and Em and Dyson were speaking to each other, hushed and low. She might have been worried if she didn't hear the sheer joy in their conversation. Happiness like that defied death and convention and gave lie to fear. Everything else aside, Henry's little fear-addled confession had just made Hawk's day. She hoped it'd made Emile's too.

She sighed and eased down into the water, and very pointedly did not look at the towel she'd been given when they carted off her khaki. It sat beside her small pile of belongings, her shirt, her pants, her cell phone--safe to assume that was now bugged, or tracked, or whatever else Kaiser could do to a phone--and her purse and wallet. She could look at those things, but her eyes kept tracking back to the towel, no matter how hard she tried not to look.

That was, after all, what held the orb the Ape had left behind.

It'd been tricky getting it past security, and she'd had to sacrifice her Queen to get it. Handing over the dead male had been easy. It was, as mentioned, very dead, and she'd gotten a good enough look at the dead insects in the apes' baskets that she could relinquish her own sample without too much pain. The live Queen—showing every sign of being fertile as hell, including dropping eggs already, despite a gas station cup being completely unsuitable for a founding chamber—had been a more painful sacrifice. She was huge and gorgeous, and Hawk really wanted a chance to prove her out...But she agreed with Alex. Regardless of what she felt or wanted, letting Kaiser get his hands on the orb was going to be a mistake.

It lay quiescent beneath the white terrycloth towel. She'd juggled it into the rough, pale folds as she handed over the other items she'd collected on this little adventure. Of course, Kaiser would find out about the orb and their ruse as soon as he watched all the footage from the go-pros.  She hoped they'd have enough time to find a better hiding spot for the orb before Kaiser got to that part. If they ask, I'll tell them I lost it.

Why did it feel so wrong to just let Kaiser have it?

For the same reason you didn't feel okay just letting Kaiser have Mrs. Cummings and her backyard. Hawk realized this was the first time in days she'd been able to sit down and really think. Not test theories. Not worry about ants. Not run for her life. She could breathe and wash the beige dust off her skin, and try to understand just what in insanity was going on here.