Superhero By Night (Book 3): The Wraith [Guerrilla Warfare]

by Haskell, Jeffery H.

  We waved at the bus as it pulled out of town. The charter would head north to Cancun where the girls would board a boat and head for the twelve-mile limit. Once there, they could call the US Coast Guard for rescue.

  I smiled, thinking about how ISO-1 was going to deal with the bad press. Multiple groups of trafficked women rescued by the USCG in the same week?

  Patting Neve on the shoulder I gestured to the truck. “Let’s get rolling. I just slept, so you get some rest while I drive the first half. You can have the second half?”

  She tried, and failed, to hide her surprise. “Uh, okay? Sounds good.” We piled in and headed south on the dirt road. It didn’t take long for Neve to fall asleep. My fine-tuned senses told me she really was asleep, not faking it. Her heart rate slowed, muscles relaxed, and she slumped against the door.

  Spice appeared in the bed of the truck, with her back to the rear window just behind me and her feet up on the side.

  “You figure it out yet?” she asked.

  “Lot’s of things,” I replied.

  “You think so?”

  I nodded. “You really weren’t worried about those things biting me, but you were worried about them killing me,” I said.

  “I hate to start over. It’s a pain, literally, to find someone willing to kill. You really are special,” she said. I adjusted the rear-view mirror so I could partially see her face.

  “So you keep saying. I have a different theory,” I said.

  “Hypothesis, you have a hypothesis. Don’t you have a degree from a fancy school?” she asked with a smirk.

  “If I were speaking to a scientist about science you would be correct, but to a layperson the words are practically interchangeable. Do you want to hear my hypothesis then?” She was just acting pedantic because she feared I knew the truth. Which I did.

  “Go for it.” She shifted around in the bed to look at me via the mirror. “Just remember, Madisun Dumas, you need me a lot more than I need you.”

  That sent a shiver down my spine. There was an implicit threat in her words, one I didn’t like. Spice was greedy, never happy with the kills I gave her and always wanting more. It didn’t make for a sustainable relationship. I had to make her behave. No more leaving me hanging without powers as punishment. No more tricking me into giving her what she wanted.

  “You’re right, I do need you,” I said. She smiled at that declaration.

  “Good, I’m glad we understand—”

  “I don’t think you quite understand, my greedy little friend,” I said interrupting her. “After the incident in the swamp, I thought you understood my level of commitment.” Her eyes narrowed at me. She was angry; I could feel it. Like a buzz. “I get it, though. You’re sustained by life force, right? Just like the vampire you claim to be. If you can’t take someone else's, you’ll take mine, am I right?”

  She nodded slowly. “Like I did with Joseph, but you already knew this. I don’t see—”

  “Wait for it. And don’t bother with your disappearing trick, I know you can still hear me, even if you can’t read my mind.” Was that fear I saw on her face? “I told you back in the swamp, I’m ready to do what it takes to get this done, but I’m not going to become like ISO to do it.”

  “Ha! You’re already a better killer than anyone in ISO-1 could ever dream of being. Madi, do you even know how many lives you’ve taken?”

  The question surprised me, because I didn’t. I’d stopped counting after the first dozen, it hadn’t seemed important. I wish I had, for no other reason than to answer her.

  “No, I don’t, and the number doesn’t matter to me. It’s the people. I’m telling you this Spice so you understand where we can go and what we can do. I will not kill an innocent person. Not one. The moment I do that I’m no better than ISO-1 or any other evil person out there. My crusade is worth only my life. Mine. No one else’s.”

  “No one else’s but the people you deem bad,” she said with a smirk.

  “Yes.”

  “That won’t always be good enough, Madisun.” Her using my full name was a dead giveaway that she was angry. “The more you kill, the more power I gain. I like power. I like living. Imagine yourself in my place; decades, sometimes centuries, of living off bread and water, and here comes a banquet... but you’re told you can only have a spoonful at a time.”

  That sounded awful. I could imagine how hard that would be. “I hear what you’re saying, Sara, but you have to understand something about me.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I know your weakness now.”

  A chill swept through the car. My breath came out in a fog and the windows clouded from the sudden condensation.

  “Measure your next words, Madisun Dumas, they could be the last you speak to me.”

  The situation had turned serious in a heartbeat. I thought about pulling over but decided the best thing I could do was stay calm, and not let her get to me.

  “You need a human, Sara. You need to inhabit a human. Otherwise, why care if the beast devoured me? Not only that, you need the human to accept you willingly. Like I did... even if I didn’t quite understand the situation.”

  Her eyes went wide and the cold vanished in the jungle heat. New beads of sweat dripped down my forehead as the temperature returned.

  “You are clever. Too clever,” she finally said after several seconds of silence. “While you have a piece of the puzzle, you don’t have it all.” A wicked smile blossomed on her face. “Nor do I think you ever will. I am far older than you, with the knowledge of a thousand lifetimes at my disposal. What makes you think you can even begin to outsmart me? Don’t ever, not for one second, think you are more clever than I.” She had a sense of grim satisfaction on her face—as if she expected me to capitulate.

  “You don’t understand me at all, Spice,” I said softly.

  Her resolve wavered for a moment, as if that wasn’t the response she expected.

  “I don’t understand?”

  “You keep fighting me,” I said to her. “You keep finding ways to punish me or try and trap me. I want what you want. You can live forever, and as long as I keep killing, I can too,” I wasn’t a hundred percent sure about that, but I was pretty sure. Close enough?

  “You keep resisting me,” she replied. “One day you’ll grow tired of the killing. You’ll see me as the enemy and then it’s Joseph all over again. I’ve played this out a hundred times. From Norwegian raiders to London purists. Every time, eventually the killing turns sour and they blame me for their problems. You will too.”

  I spent a moment making sure Neve was still asleep before I replied. “Spice, you have such a vast knowledge of human history, but no knowledge of humanity. How is that?”

  Now it was her turn to look perplexed. “What are you getting at?”

  “All those people you inhabited, all those killers. What were they before you inhabited them?”

  For a moment I could see the wheels turn in her head. “They were killers, that’s why I chose them. Cold blooded, methodical, they did exactly what I wanted them to do,” she said.

  “And that was your problem. You chose people who killed because they were driven to, or were raised as killers, or were simply broken. Joseph grew tired of the killing because he didn’t know who to kill anymore. He went after cogs. But long before you came along, he was a soldier and he fought in two wars. He’d had his fill of killing then.”

  “What are you saying? That you, an ex-model turned punisher of the guilty, aren’t ever going to lose your taste for the killing? I don’t believe you Madisun, and you don’t either.”

  I smiled. She wasn’t wrong, but she wasn’t right either.

  “Let me put it this way. What if I gave you that banquet you spoke of, every day for a hundred years? Would that satisfy you?”

  “Maybe, but I don’t see you have much choice in the matter.”

  Here it came. Would it work? I shook my head and made a tsk sound. “You forget who you are speaking to, Spice
. Unlike those other people, I chose this. When I told you I’d strap on C4 and blow myself to hell before I let you turn me into something I wasn’t, I was serious. And you knew I was. What I didn’t realize when I made that threat, was you would survive that—hang around maybe as a ghost until you found the right person.”

  Real fear filled her eyes. I was right. Bingo.

  “If you keep screwing with me I know exactly how to end this. I’ll finish my crusade; I’ll use your gifts, I’ll kill and I’ll kill until the Earth runs red with the blood I’ve shed. Then I’ll get on a boat all by myself, drive out to the middle of the ocean, put on a pressurized suit and a few hundred pounds of weight, and jump in. By the time I die, I will be hundreds of miles away from the nearest person. Sure, you’ll get the banquette now and again before then, but after? Nothing but cold and darkness. Can you survive that? Maybe. Do you want to?”

  She didn’t say anything, only glared at me through the mirror.

  “Or,” I said holding up my hand. “We can work together. You can help me be a better killer. Maybe you get your slow kill every once in a while. The doctor back there certainly convinced me there are people who need it. But I stay me. I kill when I say we kill. I will make up in quantity what you want in occasional quality. Maybe fifty years from now I decide I’m done,” I said with a shrug. “It’s not like people are going to stop being evil. I’ll find someone, a person like me. With your help, we’ll turn them into the killer you need and you can move on. Doesn’t that sound better?”

  It was a tense standoff. I was worried she’d say no, keep fighting me, withholding my powers when I needed them, all in an effort to train me to be her puppet. I was no one’s puppet, and I wouldn’t ever be.

  Her eyes flashed blue and a lazy smile spread slowly across her face. “Why Madisun Dumas, you sneaky little bitch. When I said you were special, I had no idea.”

  Then she was gone and I was alone with my thoughts. Had I just made another deal with the devil? Did it matter? As long as I was the only one who paid the price, then I didn’t care what it took. The bill would come due, but at least it was all on me.

  I hoped.

  CHAPTER 34

  For the first time in a long, long time, I slept without the nightmare. No dying family, no holding Spice in my arms as the light went out of her eyes.

  This dream was far different. I was married, living in a suburb somewhere. An indistinct family and house flowed around me as I cooked breakfast, attended school meetings, and lived a normal life.

  The pickup jostled me awake. I wiped my face to free it of the sleep and my fingers came away wet. I’d cried while sleeping? That was new. Were they tears for something I would never have?

  Dying sunlight cast deep shadows on the streets around us as I blinked myself to full alertness.

  “You okay?” Neve asked as she parked the truck and pulled the hand-break.

  “Yeah, just a bad dream,” I said.

  “They call those nightmares,” she said with a smile.

  “No. This was a dream, just a bad one.” I opened the door and climbed out to deflect any more questions. That life wasn’t for me—it may have never been, but definitely not now. One day I would surrender the Wraith to someone else. If I had to guess, that would be the day I died. After all, Joseph wasn’t around anymore, was he?

  We’d come to a stop next to an expensive high-rise in the middle of the city.

  “Where are we?” I asked.

  “It’s where my people are. I need to check on them, then I can leave the city.” Lies and truth.

  “Awesome,” I said with a yawn. “Let’s go.”

  “You... you want to come up with me?” she asked, surprise plain on her face.

  “I didn’t rescue you from that hell-hole just to see you killed by a mugger in the city that ranks 4th in the world for murders per capita.”

  “Uh, okay. Thanks.” She walked to the door.

  I moved around behind the truck as she opened her door. As fast, and as silent, as I could, I picked up the old machete and slid it, blade up, under the back of my shirt, tucking the handle into the waistband of my jeans. With my long torso, the button-up shirt, and the army-style coat I pilfered from the APC, it would take a metal detector to spot it.

  I followed her into the high-rise. The bottom floor had a lobby, business offices, and the like. A bank of elevators carried residents up to their floors. We walked past those to a private elevator in the back. It was labeled as the penthouse, which made sense. Neve seemed uncomfortable as we approached the guard.

  “Senorita Neve? How good of you to come home,” he said. Lie.

  “Thank you, Ruben, it’s nice to see you again,” she said. “This is my friend Madisun. She will be joining me upstairs for a little bit.”

  He bowed to us both. “Of course.” The elevator opened on its own and we got in. I smiled at the man as I walked by; his face was all smiles and happy, but his eyes... they spoke of something darker. I made a mental note to visit him on my way out.

  The lift dinged for the penthouse. Fifty-floors above the ground the doors opened onto a luxury apartment suitable for a King. A huge mahogany table dominated one side, a sunken living room with a white leather couch on the other. Huge bay windows looked out over the ocean and revealed the sinking sun.

  Lights flickered on overhead, replacing the sun as it dropped below the horizon. Two large men, one on either side of the lift doors, stood like statues as we walked past. A cursory glance didn’t reveal any weapons, which likely meant superpowers.

  For all the good it would do them.

  Over in the sunken living room was, I expected, my prize. The man in charge.

  He was older, good looking, and in decent shape. Another man, much smaller and more afraid was with him. He clutched his briefcase like a suit of armor.

  “Neve, so good to—”

  “Please,” I said waving my hand, cutting off the man in charge. “Let’s get to the point where you tell me why you had a shapeshifter impersonate my friend, just so you could bring me here... to what? Kill me?” I asked with a smirk. “Cause that isn’t going to end the way you think it is.”

  Neve turned to look at me, horror plain on her face. “You knew? And you still came?”

  I laughed, pointing at the man in the fancy suit. “If I had to guess, he’s the head of ISO-1. If you knew me at all, you’d know he’s who I’m after. Why do the work when you can make your enemies do it for you?”

  “Quite. Well then,” the man said. “Ms. Dumas, My name is Hector Alvarez. And we are not the enemies you think we are.” He smiled like he was a man with all the answers and no questions. I glanced past him to the window. I needed a few more minutes anyway so I nodded for him to continue. While he spoke, I walked over to the nearest wall, admiring the painting on it.

  “My organization didn’t use to operate in the US. We were much more subtle in our methods as well. We expanded slowly, carefully, only resorting to violence when we had too.”

  “Really? That doesn’t sound like your current structure at all,” I said with an exaggerated grin.

  “Violence,” he replied, “is a most useful tool. Like all tools, it has its time and place. Our current leadership is a blunt instrument, not unlike yourself.”

  I shrugged. “I’m here, aren’t I?”

  The first crack in his facade appeared and I could see the anger behind him. “Let me make it perfectly clear, Ms. Dumas. You are only here because I allowed you to be. And for no other reason. I sent Mimic into that facility to help you escape. If not for her, you would be dead.”

  “I wondered about that. Do you know what they were doing there?” I asked him.

  “Of course. I’m involved in every aspect of this organization, regardless of whether I want to be or not.” Truth.

  That surprised me. I motioned for him to continue while I examined the walls, running my hands along the smooth paint, feeling for the buzz of electricity.

  “Two ye
ars ago my organization was taken over by an outside entity. He has power I’ve never dreamed of, and unfortunately, I fell into his trap.”

  “Mr. Axiom, I presume?” I said as I walked away from him. The two guards at the elevator never took their eyes off me. They were well trained for sure. If Alvarez was like the rest of his operation, they would be invulnerable types.

  “How did you know that?” He looked to Neve who shrugged.

  “I don’t know what you two are talking about,” she said. “I’ve done my part; I’d really like to get paid and leave.” She held out her hand for her money.

  The little man next to Alvarez stepped forward but froze when his boss glared at him.

  “No one leaves until we’re done,” he said. Neve, or Mimic I guess, shrunk back out of the way. She had every right to be afraid. That made her smarter than her boss.

  I stopped where my hands felt the buzz intensify behind the wall. I’d found what I was looking for. Keeping my back to it, I walked to the middle of the room and turned to face Alvarez.

  “What do you want from me?” I asked.

  “You’ve killed a lot of people, but until you kill him you will never avenge your family. I wish to give you the information you need to find him and execute him. Once you’ve killed him, your vengeance will be complete.”

  That was the problem with everyone. They thought I was on a mission of vengeance. Vengeance would have ended with the people who actually killed my family. But justice... justice extends to everyone involved. It’s a fine distinction, one I didn’t feel the need to point out at that very moment.

  “Who’s that?” I asked, nodding at the man next to him.

  “He’s my lie detector. He always knows who is telling the truth and who is lying. So you see, Ms. Dumas, if you want out of here alive, you must agree to my terms with integrity.”

  I couldn’t help the grin that spread on my face. “Who exactly is this Mr. Axiom?”