The top blades of the chopper hit the side of the building before it began its free fall in earnest, falling directly into the crowd about two blocks away from where he was standing. His view was too blocked by the crowd to see how many people it had struck.

The Gadsden Liners took this opportunity to march, and when Kaveh looked back toward the van, he saw them screwing up their courage—and getting their guns in order. Several had shotguns, one had a rifle, and one had an AR-15.

“No!” yelled Kaveh, putting his body between the mobilizing militia and Nikola, hoping to God that some of the people in this crowd might join him, might do something to protect the alien being in their midst from these fucking rednecks. He looked out into the crowd of cell phone photo takers pleadingly. A few looked like they might be entertaining the idea of joining him, but the guns stopped any potential Good Samaritans where they stood. He looked back up to where Miranda had been standing, hoping that this man of all people might be able to talk them down from doing violence to Nikola’s helpless form, but he had already been ushered away by his entourage.

Now the man in the black eagle jacket, the man who had been holding the NO ONE-WORLD GOVERNMENT sign, was marching toward him with almost religious purpose, the other three right behind him. The man with the AR-15 aimed his rifle at Kaveh, and the other three followed suit. “Get out of the way!” he bellowed.

“No, you don’t understand!” said Kaveh, putting his hands up. “Please, he doesn’t want to hurt anyone!”

“Get out of the fucking way!”

A burst of energy hit, not unlike what he’d felt with Nikola’s invisible wall, sending the four men flying backward. The blast blew them all the way back to the line of people watching the spectacle unfold, and their guns shattered.

“Kaveh!”

He turned to the source of the voice—Cora, and Ampersand right beside her, his eyes blazing fire as they surveyed the carnage. He sent another burst of energy into the crowd, a warning, and it pushed anyone within a hundred-foot radius down like trees knocked over from the force of a nuclear blast. Then he turned his attention to Nikola.

“What the hell happened?” asked Cora.

“I don’t know. They had an EMP or something. They knew that a pulse emitter would knock out their power! How did they know?”

“Oh my God,” said Cora, clapping her hands to her mouth as she noticed the wreckage of the helicopter crash. “We were watching the newsfeed from that helicopter.”

Cora snapped her attention to Kaveh, grabbing him by the shoulders. “Get on the plate, now!”