فصل 60

CHAPTER 60

BRIGHTER THAN DAY

LEONARD ASTER WAS SURE the flash meant the end of the world.

He had watched the rocket launch, standing with Molly and Bakari on either side of him, their faces pressed against the bars of the jail-cell window. As the rocket climbed, they heard anxious shouting—Viktor Glotz’s voice especially—and saw a hundred palace guards running around in the torchlight. But they couldn’t tell what was happening. All they knew was that the rocket had gone up.

Peter had been unable to stop it.

A short while later, they once again heard shouting. They’d looked out to see the rocket cross the sky directly above the palace. For a few minutes, nothing; the three of them had stood by the window watching, listening, waiting….

Then the sky grew brighter than day, illuminated by a blinding white light that seemed to come from everywhere at once.

This is it, Leonard thought. This is what Ombra described.

He held his daughter close and looked over at his friend, awaiting the end of the world.

The brightness dimmed. Night returned, the sky still streaked with meteors. The palace walls still stood. Men were shouting from the courtyard, their voices tinged with panic.

The world had not ended.

But something had happened.

Leonard stared out the window, wondering what it was.