Revelation

to speak with him at length. We learned a lot about what he wants, and what he hopes to gain by conquering the Wasteland. You can expect him, or at least part of his army, to be here in two months.”

The gangsters looked at each other. Clearly, they had been unaware of this. Of course they had been unaware. Nova Roma was two thousand miles away.

“How large is their army?” Rey asked.

“The vanguard that will be arriving first — the one with vehicles and horses — will be several thousand strong. The rest…forty thousand.”

A silence hung over the gathering. Makara had just shocked them all with that news.

“You are sure?” Cain asked, his blue eyes concerned. “You have seen this, personally? What do they plan to do with the winter?”

Makara nodded. “As far as what the plan is for the weather, I don’t know. I’m only repeating Augustus’s own words. He said two months, and my crew and I were there not one week ago. We barely escaped with our lives. The Novans are dealing with dragons, too, so maybe that will pen them there for a while. Then again, maybe not. With Carin Black on his side, we won’t stand a chance if we allow both of their forces to join. The point is, we have to move quickly to counter this. If the Blighters don’t get to us first, they surely will.”

Everyone stood quietly, absorbing that thought. Rey appeared troubled. Troubled, because finally someone more powerful than himself was coming along — and that changed everything.

“All this is the main reason I’m here,” Makara continued. “Not because I need protection. You all do. We need to save this city from the Great Blight, because there are lots of fighting people I can use to strike back at this thing. Carin Black is strong, and if Augustus gets here in two months, as he has already said he would, their alliance will make them unstoppable.”

“How are we supposed to stop that?” Grudge asked.

“The answer is simple,” Makara said. “We have to cross the Wasteland and attack Los Angeles head-on, and conquer Black’s stronghold before Augustus can join up with him. We need to find settlements along the way, tell them what we know, and get their help. We have two months to do this.”

Silence reigned once more — silence, save for the out-of-place snicker from Jade. Cain shot the Weasel a murderous look, which at once silenced him.

“Forty thousand…” Rey said.

“We cannot fight that,” Cain said, blue eyes blazing. “Even with every fighting man, woman, and child in the Wasteland…we cannot fight that. Even if we kill the Reapers, it is hopeless. At best, we can produce ten thousand men. Maybe twenty.”

“We do have several advantages,” Makara said. “Because of Odin, our spaceship, we have time on our side. Augustus had not thought that we could return in time to prepare, because he did not know about Odin. The speed of the ship means we can communicate easily, and transport groups of men to where they need to be, quickly. The New Angels also have another spaceship, the Gilgamesh.”

As she spoke, Rey’s eyes glazed over with greed. He wanted those spaceships.

“We have plans to liberate two more, housed in Bunker Six,” Makara said. “Four spaceships will allow us to crush a large part of Augustus’s army, or set up flanks he cannot possibly defend against. His army does not have the same level of technology as we do. They have guns, but not enough to equip all of their soldiers. If you go down to Nova Roma, it’s almost like stepping back in time hundreds of years. That’s part of the reason Augustus wants to conquer the Wasteland. The Bunkers have tons of weapons and supplies that simply cannot be found anywhere else. If we get to the Bunkers first, then Augustus’s army will be all the weaker for it.”

The gang leaders looked at one another.

“You know their locations?” Rey asked.

“We know the locations of several,” Makara said. “And it would be easy to find the locations of the rest, once we access any of their servers. We know of two Bunkers to the north which might actually still be online. With their help, we could bolster our numbers even more.” Makara looked at each of the gang lords in turn. “We have time. If we make all the right steps to prepare, we can set ourselves up in such a way that Augustus can be crushed before he even begins. It’s all about preparation. We have all the resources. But do we have the drive? The unity?” Makara paused, letting that sink in. “Those are the only two things working against us.”

“Even if we did do all that,” Jade said, now serious, “what makes you think we will win? Nothing ever goes the way you want it to. If all those things line up perfectly, sure…maybe we can win. Maybe not. I’m just going to say it, right now, because I’m sure you all have already thought about it.” He paused, flaunting a smile. “We need to join up with Augustus.”

Several of the men grumbled. We had assumed these Vegas gangs would want to be free of Augustus as much as we did. It turned out that they were more mercenary than that.

“I don’t want any foreign king telling me how to run my gang,” Rey said. “I’ll take the Empire’s batts, but that is as far as I will go. The Wasteland is ours.”

“Augustus is powerful,” Jade said, almost soothingly. “How can we stand up to that when it comes? We can’t. It’s best to join up with him, while we still have a chance.”

“He is over two thousand miles away,” Grudge said, face reddening. It looked like he had a mind to use his gun. “If we have time to prepare for his attack, why would we join him?”

“I agree,” Cain said. “But I won’t follow this girl. Cain and the Sworn go their own way.”

Then, all the gangsters were arguing over what to do next. Our chief fear had been quashed — they were actually taking Makara seriously. It was funny how they took the threat of Augustus and Carin Black more to heart than the Great Blight. To them, crawlers and dragons were unruly critters that only needed to be slapped a few times so that they could get back to business. To the Vegas gangs, other people were the more tangible threat.

“And who will lead this expedition to Los Angeles?” Grudge asked. “I don’t trust any of you enough to walk three miles, much more three hundred.”

“That is why Makara leads!” Char shouted.

Everyone stopped short in their arguing, looking at Char. Now that he had everyone’s attention, he hurried to speak before anyone else could get in another word.

“The Raiders and the Exiles have already sworn their loyalty to the New Angels. You do not have to do the same. You can march with us, as allies, to Los Angeles. We will take Carin Black out before he even has a chance to prepare. Once there, the wealth of the city will be open to us all — batts, slaves, whatever you want.”

“No.” Makara stepped up. “I will not allow slavery. This is the rebirth of the Lost Angels, and neither Raine nor I would stand for it.”

“Well,” Jade said, “tough luck, lady. Slaves are part of the deal. We want the whole city…don’t we, boys?”

Rey nodded. “The whole city. If you are going to take Vegas from us, we want to own Los Angeles. It is a fair trade. For all our risk…for our gamble…we need to have a reward that’s worth it.”

“Apparently, your survival isn’t rewarding enough?” Makara asked.

Rey shrugged. “It’s not about our survival. It’s about you needing us. You need our help to fight Black, and Augustus. You only get it if you give us what we want.”

“Augustus is just the first step,” Makara said.

Rey arched an eyebrow. “Really. Well, what other services do you require?”

“The Great Blight is going to destroy Vegas soon. It won’t stop at Vegas. It won’t stop until the whole world is swallowed and everyone is dead. If anyone wants to survive this, we have to attack the Voice. We have to attack Ragnarok Crater.”

No one said anything. This was bad news, and they didn’t want to accept it. I could see them now, looking for flaws in Makara’s argument, wanting it not to be true.

“We can show you the Black Files, if you want,” Samuel said. “We can give them to you to read for yourself. They were authored by the Chief Scientist of Bunker One, Cornelius Ashton, and are the most advanced study ever done on the xenovirus. Read them, if you do not believe me.”

“I don’t need to read that to know this world is going to hell,” Cain said. “More hell than usual, anyway. We