Written in Fire (The Brilliance Trilogy Book 3) by Marcus Sakey

Author:Marcus Sakey [Sakey, Marcus]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
ISBN: 9781477827642
Published: 2016-01-11T17:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 21

Hawk was reading volume six of a graphic novel series when someone knocked on his door.

He didn’t really know if there was a difference between comic books and graphic novels, but the latter sounded better. A comic book might be some silly story of a rich duck and his nephews. What he was reading was a philosophical exploration of the devil’s continuing war with heaven. This devil wasn’t red and scaly, and he wasn’t exactly evil, although he certainly wasn’t good, either. More like doing his own thing, no matter what. He wanted free will, and heaven was all about predestination. Hawk knew on which side his mom would have fallen, and he was kind of falling the same way.

The knock was three soft raps, could be anyone, and so as he walked to the door, he let himself imagine it was Tabitha. Maybe asking for help with something. He was a better shot, maybe she wanted to practice—

John Smith stood in the hallway. “Hiya, Hawk.”

It was John who had first given him the nickname, and while Aaron had always liked Aaron Hakowski okay, it was no match for being the Hawk. He straightened and brushed his hair back. John had never come to his room before. Why would he? He was in charge of everything, and Aaron was just a kid whose mom had . . .

“Can I come in?”

“Ah, yeah, sure, of course.” He held the door open.

John stepped inside, took in the room, and Aaron suddenly saw it through his eyes, the crumpled blankets and piles of stuff all over the desk and, shit, a comic book propped open on his bed.

“What are you reading?”

“Nothing, just—”

“Ah.” John picked up the book, held it with a smile. “I love this series.”

“I—you do?”

“Great writing. Plus, I identify with him some. Plenty of people think I’m the devil, too. Risks of forging your own path.” John put it back on the pillow. “You mind if I smoke?”

“No, no, go ahead.”

“Thanks.” He slid a cigarette from the pack, snapped a silver Zippo. “Bad habit, but it helps me think.”

“Aren’t you worried about . . .”

“It killing me?”

Aaron nodded.

“Tell you the truth?” John shrugged. “I would be, if there was any chance I’d live long enough. Okay if I sit down?”

“Yeah.” Aaron took the chair from the desk, dumped a pile of books off of it. “So what do you mean about living—”

“I’m playing a game against the whole world, Hawk. I have been since I was eight years old. Do you know what happened to me then?”

Aaron shook his head.

“I took a test. It was new then, the Treffert-Down. Everyone was very excited about it, this scale for measuring brilliance. I’d been taught to do well on tests, so I did. I did so well, in fact”—John dug a Coke can from the garbage and ashed his cigarette into it—“that government agents came and took me away from my mom. They put me in an academy. They changed my name and started trying to break me.

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