Sanctuary Read Free Page B

had just focused his camera. At the Manhattan side of the bridge stood a Sentinel, its operating lights glowing in the darkness.
    It was true, then, Tirsh realized. All true. Magneto had somehow commandeered an entire fleet of Sentinels from the U.S. government, and was using them to claim Manhattan island as a haven for mutants. The mutant outlaw, wanted in nearly every civilized naiton for his crimes, had interrupted all broadcasts to announce the establishment of this haven, and to detail the rules for residency. Mutants were now the ruling class on Manhattan, and all mutants were welcome. Humans were invited to stay as long as they could live within the new heirarchy. If not, they could take their things and leave, on foot, calmly and without incident.
    Magneto and his mutant Acolytes would see that his instructions were obeyed, and the island's perimeter would be patrolled by the stolen Sentinels. Trish had never seen one before, and she knew the sight would be with her always. It was colossal, at least eight stories high, and its robotic eyes burned with a cold, artificial intelligence. She had been stunned to see the orderly exodus on the bridge. No longer. She understood completely how intimidated those people must be.
    "The hell with this waiting around," Trish snapped, suddenly angry. "Magneto didn't say the media couldn't enter the city. We're going in."
    "You sure you wanna do that, Trish?" Kevin asked, obviously against the idea.
    "Look, it may look all hunky dory down there, but there are fires burning, so obviously not everyone is meekly cooperating with this mutant terrorist's orders. I mean, the guy stole a city. We've got to cover it," she decided, and turned to Billy, the pilot.
    "We go in," she ordered, and Billy nodded in response.
    Immediately, the helicopter lurched as it rose quickly over the buildings. Seconds later, they were flying south over Manhattan's Upper West Side, trying to glimpse whatever activity might be taking place in the great steel canyons below. There were people milling about, but from what Trish could see, very little by way of chaos. It certainly wasn't any riot, or mass destruction.
    As they approached the south end of Central Park, they saw the fire at the park's southeast corner. She was going to instruct Billy to head for it, but he was already maneuvering them in that direction.
    "Ya gotta be kiddin' me," Kevin hissed, then uttered a small, incredulous laugh.
    "What is it?" Trish asked, trying to figure out what it was that was burning.
    "F.A.O. Schwartz," he responded, the disbelief evident in his voice. "Who the hell would want to burn down a toy store?"
    "This is it," Trish said. "Billy, set it down in the park, over the skating rink."
    "Set it down?"
    "We're not going to get a story from up here, and the park's the only open space you're going to find," she reasoned. "Set it down and we'll find out what's happening here."
    Billy shrugged, and Trish wished she could tell him how strongly she shared his reluctance. She was afraid. Not only of Magneto and the Acolytes and the Sentinels, but afraid of anarchy. If Magneto was truly in complete control, they might actually be safer than if there were resistance. And after all, this was New York City. Chances were pretty good that there would be heavy resistance, much of it armed.
    Then there were the apathetic vultures who would use any situation to gain something, to pick off the corpse of a barely dead America. Trish figured that, somehow, looters and anarchists were responsible for the fire at F.A.O. Schwartz, and she wished she were far away from Manhattan. But she wasn't. if there was danger, that was part of the job. The only way to face it, she decided, was to wade right in.
    She only hoped she wasn't going to get herself and her crew killed in the meantime.
    • • •
    The crowd in Washington Square Park was surprisingly orderly. A man dressed in preacher's garb addressed the people from atop a park bench not far from