By then the Spire's prompt had reached its last line —> [ …for Mario is his own companion — who wants to share your fate! ]Black Mario dropped out of the sky and slammed the ground into shuddering. Cole's eyes pulled tight; without hesitation he drew the giant match.Across the board, Roy yelped, "An ability!"Karl was sprawled where Cole had kicked him; black Mario's eyes went straight to Cole. It looked at the match in his hand, its lightless eyes glittering, broke into its bouncing run, and kicked at Cole's right leg. Cole dodged it — and then Mario's right hand came at his head at a speed that nearly outran his sharpened sight.Cole could track an ordinary pistol round in flight now. This hand moved faster than a bullet.He had no time to bring the match up to guard his skull. He snapped his head back and away, pulled the match into the wrist-tattoo and drew it out again in the same instant — out at the exact angle to sit against his right cheek. Mario's fist struck the match; t

Mario hadn't expected him to dither so long and then, all at once, declare he was jumping. "Oh? Child — nothing more to say? You'll jump now?" Exposed line after line, Uncle Mario still beamed. It straightened the crooked red cap on its head. "Uncle Mario loves a clever child. Won't you say a little more about all the surprises Uncle Mario has prepared for you?"Six Convict squares in a row are a surprise?Cole gave it a cold glance. "I'm jumping backward."Mario waved a giant hand. "And to which square?""Square one.""Oh — square o—" The sound cut off; the whole giant Mario froze in the air, as if someone had hit pause on an old television, the great puppet locked absurdly mid-gesture. Two seconds later it ground its head around and fixed its black eyes on Cole.Roy said, baffled, "Square one? Did he misspeak?"Walt's brow knotted; he said nothing, thinking hard.Mario's mouth curled. "I didn't mishear, child? You want to jump to square one?"Cole ignored it entirely and called up a

"I'm not an ability-user," Walt said. "I won't join your organization." The offer held no draw for him.Felix thought a moment. "That's fine — you don't have to join; we have standards too, not just any ability-user gets in. We can trade information instead. You tell us the inside of Instance Two, and we'll give you intel of equal value."Cole's steps stopped. He turned, walked back unhurriedly, and stood beside Roy.Roy said, alarmed, "You left — why'd you come back?"Cole gave him a look. "Can't a man take a walk?""Sure — sure—" Roy plainly didn't dare say otherwise.Felix and his two partners understood at once, and all three looked at Cole. This one, they thought, is the real spine of the three.The organization's base was in Brooklyn, half an hour's walk, and at the end of it stood a mall — five connected buildings between several residential blocks, sprawling, the only mall for miles, the surrounding towers all apartments. People clustered around it, in and out. Strangers drew

Four days later, in the city, a park.A plump, honest-faced boy darted into a convenience store like a streak of lightning. The food and water had long since been picked clean; not giving up, he ran into the stockroom and dug under the staff cot until he'd turned up three boxes of crackers and half a case of bottled water.There weren't many survivors left — but food had shelf lives, and by now the edible things were running out. He hurried back and handed the water to a tall, thin boy.The bean-pole boy drank deep. "Finally. Toby — food's so hard to find now, maybe we should get out of the city. Too many people here. We'll run out."Toby crammed two crackers in at once. "I'll eat less. Give the rest to you."The thin boy reddened. "That's not what I meant.""I know." Toby swallowed. "I'm a Registered Player, I barely get hungry anymore; you're a Reserve, weaker body. I notice I eat less and less every day and never feel it. You too, right — eating less. Maybe it's like Cassie said —

The earthworm was far bigger than he'd imagined. The tunnel ran six feet high, and the worm's body filled half of it; out past the lamp's reach, its tail slammed boom, boom against the walls. Seeing Cole, it shrieked, lifted its huge deep-brown head, and without a beat charged straight for the lamp in his hand.Cole sidestepped fast, ran three meters back, and set the lamp on the ground — far enough to light the worm's girdle, near enough that the worm couldn't smash it. Finding it couldn't destroy the hateful light, the worm shrieked in fury, then opened its small toothless mouth and bit at Cole's shoulder.Cole pushed off and dodged. He swung the club, and as the worm turned its head to bite he brought the club down on the pale ring of its girdle with everything he had. The recoil flung him into the wall; the worm writhed in pain — and on its girdle there was only a thin crack.Cole's eyes pulled tight. He went back in at once.The worm's hide was the hardest iron. Every blow Cole l