THE MASSIVE WARSHIP, BIGGER THAN AN AIRCRAFT carrier, becomes visible in the night sky when it’s still five or so blocks away. It pushes slowly through the acrid smoke its recent bombings kicked up. Sam and I had been able to stay ahead of the Anubis earlier that afternoon, fighting our way south as it slowly prowled the skyline to the east. But now, here it is, looming up the avenue, right in the direction of Union Square.

I clench my fists. Setrákus Ra and Ella are on board the Anubis. If I could just get on there, maybe I could fight my way to the Mogadorian leader. Maybe I could kill him this time.

Sam stands at my side. “Whatever you’re thinking, it’s a bad idea. We need to run, John.”

And as if to punctuate Sam’s declaration, a sizzling ball of electric energy gathers in the barrel of the Anubis’s huge hull-mounted cannon. It’s like a miniature sun building up within the barrel, and for a moment it lights the surrounding blocks in a ghostly blue. Then, with a sound like a thousand Mog blasters going off at once, the energy erupts forth from the cannon, shearing through the façade of a nearby office building, the twenty-story structure almost immediately collapsing inwards.

A wave of dust rolls down the street towards us. Coughing, the three of us have to shield our eyes. The dust might give us some cover, but that doesn’t really matter when the warship has a gun that can demolish whole buildings. The Anubis lumbers closer, already prepping for another shot. I’m not sure if Setrákus Ra is aiming at heat signatures in the buildings or if he’s just destroying things at random, hoping to hit us. It doesn’t matter. The Anubis is like a force of nature and it’s headed in our direction.

“Hell with this,” I hear Daniela say, and then she takes off.

Sam follows her and so do I, the three of us retreating the way Sam and I just came from. We’ll have to find another way to track down Nine. If he’s still in the area, I hope he manages to ride out this bombing.

“Do you know where you’re going?” Sam yells to Daniela.

“What? You guys are following me now?”

“You know the city, don’t you?”

Another building explodes behind us. The dust is thicker this time, choking, and my back gets pelted by small chunks of plaster and cement. The explosions are too close. We might not be able to outrun the next one.

“We need to get off the street!” I shout.

“This way!” Daniela yells, hooking a sharp left that momentarily takes us out of the deluge of building debris that funnels down the avenue.