Anna didn’t press further. She glanced up in time to see a green-garbed figure sailing overhead, as if leaping from one ledge to Horizon Tower’s familiar thirtieth-floor patio. And how had he found out about this? She expected to feel an embarrassed flush at the thought of talking to Eliot again. But she didn’t have time for that right now.
Arthur and Captain Paulson were waiting at the front of the building. A dozen police cars and a SWAT van fanned out in the street, and the place hummed with the tension of a coming battle. Radios crackled with static and orders, and uniformed men and women arrayed themselves like soldiers before a giant.
“You should have stayed home,” Arthur said.
Anna said, “You’re going to need help. They have their own superhumans. People nobody knows about, who’ve never gone public before now.”
“And I’m betting they’re not on Celia’s list,” Analise said, crossing her arms.
Anna furrowed her brow. “List, what list?”
“Never mind,” Paulson said. “There’s a team of supers holed up in there, and I want them out. You guys have any ideas before my people bust in there?”
For the first time, Anna had a chance to study the building. It looked different in daylight, the glass and bronze of it reflecting light and the overcast sky. On the ground floor, solid steel walls were bolted down in front of every available access point, instead of the glass doors, windows, and shop fronts that should have been there. The place was locked down.
“You’ve noticed the building’s modifications,” Arthur observed. “A squad of hired security are waiting inside.”
“You can sense them?” Anna asked.
“If whatever’s blocking our powers is in there, I imagine we’ll be able to tell exactly how far the range of it is when we start ascending. I can take out the security contingent, but that won’t do us any good if we can’t find a way in.”
“And I’d like to avoid a firefight,” Paulson said. He suddenly seemed old, his hair finally more salt than pepper, his frown sagging. His intense glare focused on the building like it was his enemy.
This was their chance. This was why they had to be there. Anna said, “Teddy … I mean Ghost, can you go in and check things out? Maybe figure out how to open those doors?”
“I’ll still trip anything like an infrared detector if they’re set up for that. But sure, I’ll give it a try.”
“Radio’s on?”
He fiddled with the bud hooked over his ear and smiled. “Yup.”
“Good luck.”
He smiled, took off running, and vanished on his third stride.
Paulson whistled low. “You never get used to something like that, do you?”
Anna didn’t know if the radio would still work while it was invisible. She didn’t want to try it until she knew he was in a safe place, so she held her hands over her ears and listened.
A click sounded in her earbud—the channel switching, and Bethy came on. “Anna? I’m trying to dig up information on the building, like some kind of floor plan, but I’m not having any luck. It’s like nothing was ever filed on it.”
“If you can find anything on how to … I don’t know, shut down the power maybe? The front of the building has these steel doors we have to open.”
Bethy blew out a breath that hissed over the speaker. “I’ll try. This computer is crazy powerful—did you know I can hack into classified city records from here?”
“I’m not surprised.”
Another click, and Teddy spoke in a whisper. “Rose, there’s like thirty guys here. They all have guns, like they’re expecting a war or something.”
“Then please stay quiet and out of sight!”
“I’m fine. But the controls for the doors—I think they’re on an upper floor, with the rest of the bad guys. I think the whole building might be set up with defenses.”
Anna glanced at her father. “Did you get that?”
“I did. Captain Paulson, perhaps we can use helicopters to reach the upper stories?”
“My spotters say there’s some kind of weaponry on the roof and patios. It’ll take time to get past all that, and I don’t want to spook these guys too bad.”