Total pages in book: 210
Estimated words: 200837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1004(@200wpm)___ 803(@250wpm)___ 669(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 200837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1004(@200wpm)___ 803(@250wpm)___ 669(@300wpm)
I’m looking straight at Anneeta now. “I already know what she wants.” Then I narrow my eyes and just say it. Because this day is whatever it is. It’s the beginning, it’s the end, it doesn’t even matter. It’s happening, right now, and we’ve got to make choices. “She wants forgiveness. Don’t ya, Anneeta?”
“Forgiveness?” Clara is laughing. But that’s because she doesn’t know yet.
She doesn’t have any idea what this child is.
Because she didn’t hear Edward’s slip-up last night in Stayn’s office. “We heard that every tower has one.” And he was talking about the Looking Glass. Which I was lying about. But it’s what he said next that clued me in. “And that the new god needs—”
But that’s where Stayn stopped him.
“Why would she be asking us for forgiveness?” Clara is looking bewildered.
I point to Anneeta’s book. Because I remember now. I remember why she carries it around. It’s got a picture of her mother in it. “Show her, Anneeta. Show her why you need to be forgiven.”
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
The augments live in towers, my father said.
They have powers, he said.
They walk between worlds, he said.
They do God’s work, if God’s work was that of the Devil.
I mean, it goes way, way beyond that. But this is the take-home message for me. Jasina can sort the details, she’s the one with the fuckin’ notes. But this is all I need to know.
It’s nearly one in the morning now. Jasina has been writing, and rewriting, and outlining, and paraphrasing everything my father said since we saw the blue man hovering above our city like a threat.
He has my Clara.
He has my Clara.
That’s the real message. The only one I can concentrate on as Jasina does all her busywork with her notes.
I’m not delusional. I understand that I bear some responsibility for what’s happening. I gave her to him. I handed her over.
But it’s much easier if the enemy is not me so I table all thoughts about how badly I fucked up and concentrate on what’s coming next instead.
I go back into the room, close the door, and look at the countdown. We’ve got five hours, forty-seven minutes, and sixteen seconds. Which doesn’t seem possible.
Where the hell did five hours go?
I exit the room, leaving the door open, and pace in front of the windows, trying to sort out all the many, many things I have learned tonight.
There’s still a crowd down in front of the god’s tower even though the blue sphere of spark, and the couple kissing inside it, disappeared last night and didn’t return.
I’m surprised when Mitch doesn’t come back to escort Jasina home. But then again, not really. Because if all that I’ve learned about Mitch is true, he’s panicking. And it’s got nothing to do with the down-city girls.
It’s because he knows.
He knows about all of this.
He knows what this room does, he knows what the tower is, he knows there are devils pretending to be gods, and he knows that the augment we all saw kissing my Clara last night is something that’s neither human or machine, but both.
And the augment has Clara.
But even more importantly, as far as Mitch is concerned, the whole fucking city now knows that Clara Birch is alive. Not here, but alive. And not only that, they think that man was the god.
They think they saw God.
They are not panicked, they are celebrating.
And this wasn’t in the plan.
Neither was I, actually. I was just some dumb fool whose father kept him in the dark. Was he protecting me? Was I a ploy? Or did he just realize that his life’s work was about to be upended by this false god, and I was his last-ditch effort to save his legacy?
I guess I’ll never know. It’ll haunt me, I’m sure. I’ll probably write a book about it one day and it will be filled with nothing but spite.
Neither here, nor there.
Because the motivations of the last Extraction Master aren’t important. What’s important is that in five hours and however many minutes and seconds, Tau City will be gone.
I know this because that’s what the countdown is. It’s set to blow the Extraction Tower, but taking out the tower takes out the Looking Glass. And my father was very clear on what, exactly, this Looking Glass does.
“Firstly, the Looking Glass controls the tower doors. It opens them. But more importantly, it communicates with the god’s world, Finn. Without the Looking Glass, there is no connection. And without this connection, the city will die. The explosion of the Extraction Tower won’t be enough to take out the whole of Tau City, but it will mark the beginning of the end of everything. And I know what you’re thinking, son. You’re thinking… this is a terrible idea. But you only think that because you are unable to imagine how much worse it could get. There is no easy way out. The time for an easy way out is long past. This must be done or the worlds will never be the same again. We will never have this chance again. We must end it, Finn. You must end it.”