by Lucas Flint
Stinger hopped out of the car, locked its doors, and stepped out into the area between the parked vehicles. The sound of footsteps was louder than ever outside of the car, but when he looked up and down the rows of expensive-looking cars, he saw no one else besides himself. He was now starting to wonder if the footsteps were being broadcast from someone’s phone or recording device of some sort; it was the only explanation he could give for why he couldn’t see anyone.
Doing his best to ignore his fears, Stinger made his way down the rows toward the spot where he had seen a person running. He only got a few feet, however, before someone behind him said, “Young man, where are you going?”
Stinger nearly jumped at the voice, but he managed to retain his cool and turned around to see who had spoken to him.
Standing at the other end of the parking garage was a man in a gray business suit, a black tie around his neck. At first, Stinger thought he was looking at the President who preceded Plutarch, because the man’s face looked nearly identical to that of the last President, but then Stinger noticed that this man’s eyes were green, rather than brown, and he looked slightly chubbier, too. Not that the rest of his body reflected the baby fat on his face; as far as Stinger could tell, this man was well-built and in shape. His sharp green eyes made him look dangerous, despite being unarmed.
The man was probably one of the workers in the Mann Corporation, but his sudden appearance caused Stinger to say, “Uh, um, I thought I heard something.”
The man raised an eyebrow. “Indeed? What might that be?”
Stinger suddenly realized that the sound of footsteps was gone, but he was too busy focusing on the man before him to notice. “Just … footsteps.”
“Footsteps,” the man repeated. “Likely you heard someone’s echo. This parking garage has a tendency to amplify sounds made within it. It is confusing when you first start working here, but you get used to it.” The man eyed Stinger carefully. “But you’re not one of the people who work here, are you?”
Stinger gulped. “Uh, no. Just, um, the Uber driver for the two ladies who wanted to visit. Tourists, you know.”
Stinger knew that lie was not at all convincing and he could tell that the man hadn’t bought it, but the man still said, “Uber. Hmm. I’ve never used the service before, though I know it’s not as lucrative as my current job.”
“And what is your current job?” said Stinger, hoping to keep the focus of the conversation on the man instead of himself. “You look pretty important.”
“I am,” said the man. “My name is Henry Winter and I am the assistant to John Mann himself.”
“Oh, wow,” said Stinger. He found it hard to look away from Henry, like the man was radiating an aura that demanded that everyone look at him. “That is an important job. I bet he pays you pretty well.”
“Quite,” said Henry. “I’ve been his loyal assistant for ten years and he’s given me a pay raise every year for excellent service. I make more than most CEOs do on a yearly basis.”
“Really?” said Stinger. “I knew Mann was a rich guy and all, but I didn’t know he paid his employees that well.”
“Only me,” said Henry, “since I do such important work for him. Mr. Mann believes in paying his employees competitive wages, especially if they do as good a job as me.”
“Uh huh,” said Stinger. He took a step back. “Uh, I just realized that I need to use the bathroom, so I think I’ll be leaving now, but it was nice talking to you.”
Stinger turned around, but stopped dead as soon as he did, because Henry was suddenly standing at the other end of the parking garage. Stinger whipped his head over his shoulder, only to see that Henry was gone. He looked back toward the other end of the parking garage, where Henry stood looking as if he had always been standing there. Only now, Henry’s green eyes were glinting in a dangerous way.
“How did you do that?” said Stinger. He put a hand on his head. “I’m not losing my mind or something, am I?”
Henry’s grim expression did not change. “No, you’re perfectly sane, young man. Or I should say, Christopher Greggs, son of Ariana Greggs, also known as Stinger.”
Stinger’s eyes widened. “How did you—I mean, that’s not who I am.”
“Please, Stinger, don’t play dumb with me,” said Henry. “I know who you are. Mr. Mann also knows who you are. Your posturing doesn’t fool anyone, least of all me. You only succeed in making yourself look like an idiot; not that that is terribly difficult, but it’s never wise to deny the obvious when everyone knows it.”
Stinger bit his lower lip, but said, “All right, you got me. I’m Stinger, one of the Young Neos. I’m guessing that you aren’t just another hard-working employee of the Mann Corporation, eh?”
“You guess correctly,” said Henry. “Allow me to take a more appropriate form for this confrontation.”
Henry’s body started to shift and shimmer, like a desert mirage, until soon the well-dressed personal assistant to one of the richest men in the world was gone. Standing in his place was a masked man with a similar build and height. The man wore a strange mask that covered the entirety of his face save for his green eyes, while he wore a tabarro cape that was partially opened before the chest. And, although still unarmed, the man appeared even more dangerous than before.
“You may call me Bauta,” said the man in Henry’s voice, which came from behind the mask as clear as day. “And I am one of the Venetians, the most loyal of them all to John Mann.”
Uh oh, Stinger thought, but aloud he said, “I see. What are your powers? Teleportation?”
“Illusions,” said Bauta. “I can make deeply realistic illusions. The footsteps you heard, for example, were an illusion.”
“Interesting power you got there,” said Stinger, although he was now wondering if he could get back into the car before Bauta stopped him. “Must make you fun at parties, I imagine. Do you do magician work on the side or something?”
“Enough joking,” said Bauta. “I can tell you’re rattled to learn my identity. And you should be, given how you and your friends thought you would be able to sneak into my master’s headquarters without being seen.”
“You mean you know about Talon and Electrica?” said Stinger in horror.
“Indeed,” said Bauta. “Colombina will deal with them, however. I, on the other hand, have been given the simple task of eliminating you.”
Stinger’s first instinct was to try to contact Talon and warn her, but he realized that it was probably too late by now to abort the mission. Instead, keeping his cool, he said, “Good luck with that. Bolt and Rime are pretty close by. I just need to send them a quick message and they’ll be here to back me up in an instant.”
Stinger raised his watch closer to his face, but froze when he saw that his watch’s display showed a ‘NO SIGNAL’ message.
“We anticipated you’d try something like that,” said Bauta. “Therefore, I brought along a signal jamming device with me. It blocks all incoming and outgoing communications from within the parking garage, which means that it is going to be just you and me today.”
Stinger gulped, but he didn’t waste a second. He pressed a button on the side of his watch and in an instant he was dressed in his green flight suit. He took a fighting stance, holding up his fists before him like how he had been trained back on Hero Island. “All right, then. I’ll just take you down and then go and help Talon and Electrica.”
“You sound more confident than you should be,” Bauta observed. “Then again, I guess you haven’t really seen the fullest extent of my power yet. Allow me to correct your misunderstandings.”
In an instant, Stinger found himself surrounded by dozens and dozens of Bautas. Some of them stood in between cars, others crouched on the roofs of other vehicles, and still others stood at the entrances at either end. They blocked off every potential exit, meaning Stinger was completely trapped.
“Your paralyzing venom only works when on physical beings,” said Bauta, whose voice seemed
to be coming from every illusion at once. “Can you figure out which one is the real me before I kill you? You have five minutes to find and paralyze the real me before I finish you off for good. Good luck.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Talon couldn’t help but feel amazed when she and Electrica entered the lobby of the Mann Corporation Building. She didn’t know what she’d been expecting, but whatever it was, she was blown away by what she saw.
It was a large, wide-open room, with polished marble flooring and soaring columns that supported the high ceiling above. Dozens of men and women moved to and fro across the lobby, some going to the elevators, some heading up the stairs, and still more making their way in and out of the lobby on their way to complete errands. In one corner was a small rest area, where four couches were seated around a large flat-screen TV displaying one of the big cable news channels, where a couple of serious-looking businessmen were rapidly discussing some kind of business deal. Three desks, each one manned with a secretary who were far prettier than they had any right to be, stood at the other end opposite Talon and Electrica, while a small waterfall over to the left sparkled under the lights. The lobby also smelled surprisingly good, somewhat like peach, which made Talon sigh with relief upon smelling it.
“All right,” said Electrica as she and Talon stood somewhat off to the side, watching as the various employees and workers of the Mann Corporation went around doing their work, “we’re in. The next step of the plan is to create a distraction so one of us can sneak into the lower levels, where Rime’s family likely is.”
Talon snapped out of her reverie and looked at Electrica with a little worry. “What about the building’s security systems? There are a few cameras in the upper corners of the lobby recording our every move.”
Talon was correct. Two security cameras hung discreetly from the ceiling in the northern corners of the room, watching the move of every person in the lobby. The cameras, of course, were not focused on Talon and Electrica specifically, but Talon knew that their every movement was being recorded just as the movements of everyone else were. She doubted that the security guards watching the cameras from the other side were paying any special or extra attention to her and Electrica yet, but that would change quickly once they put their plan into action.
“Don’t worry, I know how to short-circuit security systems,” said Electrica. “You just worry about heading down to the lower levels once I create the distraction.”
“Okay,” said Talon in a doubtful voice. “I guess you know what you’re doing, so it shouldn’t be too difficult, right?”
“Things are always more difficult than they first appear,” said Electrica. She winked at Talon. “But don’t worry too much, kitten. As long as you do what I say, we should pull off this plan without a hitch.” Electrica pointed at the elevators. “Go stand next to one of the elevators. Try to look as inconspicuous as possible. As soon as I set off the distraction, head into the elevator.”
“All right,” said Talon. “But how do I make the elevator go into the lower levels? I doubt they’re accessible to the general public.”
Electrica pulled something out of her purse and handed it to Talon. “Insert this device into the elevator’s emergency shut off keyhole. It will override the elevator’s main systems and let you access levels that only employees of the Mann Building are normally allowed to access.”
Talon looked at the device in her hands. It was a plastic black button with a key-shaped tip. Talon quickly put it inside her pocket, however, just in case anyone was looking at them. All of the people in the lobby seemed too caught up in their own affairs to pay attention to Talon or Electrica, but Talon still didn’t want anyone seeing it anyway.
“Now we know what to do, let’s put the plan into action,” said Electrica.
“But how will I get out?” said Talon before Electrica did anything. “And assuming I succeed in finding Rime’s family, how am I going to get them out of there without being seen?”
Electrica smiled. “Don’t you worry about that. The distraction I have in mind is going to take up so much attention from everyone that Omega Man himself could walk around the lobby stark naked and no one would pay him even the slightest bit of attention. Just make sure to bring Rime’s family to the elevator and you’ll know what to do next.”
Talon nodded, although she was still doubtful that Electrica’s plan could work. Nonetheless, she made her way over to the nearest elevator and then stood beside it, leaning against the wall. She pulled her phone out of her pocket, pretending to be looking at it so that none of the various people coming and going would see her as anything other than a normal phone-obsessed teenager. She didn’t even glance up at Electrica; she didn’t want anyone to become suspicious of her for any reason. With luck, she’d be able to sneak into the elevator without anyone noticing.
All of a sudden, a huge smoke bomb went off, creating a gigantic smoke cloud that covered nearly the entire lobby. Loud shouts and screams, punctuated by heavy coughing, could be heard from within the cloud, while Talon quickly covered her mouth with her handkerchief, but her eyes still watered. She heard people running around, trying to find out what was going on, but Talon didn’t pay them attention. She just slammed the down button on the elevator and, to her relief, the elevator doors opened. She quickly stepped in and the doors closed behind her, but Talon didn’t press any buttons. Instead, she drew the key-shaped device from her pocket and inserted it into the elevator’s emergency keyhole panel and turned.
Immediately, a portion of the paneling above the buttons slid aside, revealing a new set of buttons that certainly weren’t part of the elevator’s normal buttons. They were labeled ‘1A,’ ‘1B,’ and ‘1C,’ which didn’t help Talon much, because she had no idea what level Rime’s family was being held on. She had no idea what was on the various levels, nor how long it would take her to search each level. And that was assuming she didn’t run into any security measures that might alert the building’s security to her presence.
Too late to go back now, Talon thought. Let’s see, if I was a crazy billionaire who had his masked minions kidnap an innocent family, I would probably not want them to be able to escape easily. So I would put them on the absolute lowest floor, which would be the hardest to escape from.
Talon pressed the button labeled ‘1C,’ causing the elevator to begin descending immediately. She stepped backwards and then pressed the button on her suit-up watch, causing her costume to pop out and cover her body, as she had a feeling that she was going to have to do some fighting soon. She looked up at the display above the door, which showed her going lower and lower until it showed ‘1C,’ at which point the elevator came to an abrupt halt. A second later, the elevator doors opened and Talon stepped out without hesitation, looking around at the area into which she had emerged. She was surprised by what she saw.
Talon couldn’t say what she had been expecting to see; maybe a lobby similar to the one she had just been in or some type of office floor plan. She had not been expecting to see what appeared to be the interior of an ancient stone temple, like something from the prehistoric era. Huge, ancient-looking stone pillars supported an equally large stone ceiling, both of which were covered with engravings depicting strange pictographs, much like the Egyptian hieroglyphs Talon had seen when she and Mom visited Egypt once when she was ten. Even the torches on the walls, although clearly electric, were designed to mimic ancient flaming torches, casting enough light for Talon to see by. The room smelled of old stone and dirt, a pungent smell, not helped by the lack of any visible ventilation system.
At the other end of the room was what looked like some kind of strange portal; it reminded Talon of that weird science fiction show Stinger and Shell liked, Star Gateway or whatever they called it, the one where US soldiers went to alien worlds through a gateway-like portal. It was set upon a platform and lying on the platform were two women Talon had not seen before, but who she recognized from the pictures she’d seen in Rime’s house as
Rime’s wife, Dana, and daughter, Martha. The two women lay on slabs of stone in front of the portal, apparently unconscious, although they were so still that they could have easily been dead. Given how they were both strapped to the slabs with thick metal braces, however, Talon figured they were both most likely still alive.
Aside from Rime’s family and herself, there was no one else in here. That seemed almost too good to be true to Talon; indeed, she suspected this was a huge trap. On the other hand, she saw no security cameras down here; if the Venetians or John Mann were expecting her to come down here, they would have no way to know unless they came down here themselves.
Maybe I got lucky and got here when the Venetians were on lunch, Talon thought. Regardless, I’d better check on them quickly and try to free them. My claws ought to be able to cut those braces easily.
Talon ran across the room toward the unconscious women, but she only got a few feet before the wall to her right slid open and something huge flew out toward her. Talon noticed it out of the corner of her eye and just barely had enough time to drop to the floor, allowing the huge thing to skirt the back of her neck, leaving a cold sensation, and crash into the opposite wall. Talon looked toward the wall and saw that the thing which had nearly hit her was a huge chunk of ice.
“What?” said Talon. “Where did that come from?”
“From a friend,” came a familiar seductive voice from within the darkness of the new doorway. “Or an ally, I suppose is what he technically is.”
Two red eyes appeared in the shadows, followed slowly by a familiar blue-skinned head and dark jumpsuit-wearing form. Talon’s jaw dropped when she saw who it was.
“Rime?” said Talon, gaping at the ice man. “Is that you?”
It was indeed Rime. He stood in the doorway, cold air radiating from his hands and head, but there was something different about him. His eyes were deep red, rather than green, and he wore a distant, vacant expression like he was unconscious. He didn’t even seem to be looking at Talon; for that matter, he didn’t seem to notice his own family, lying unconscious on the slabs perhaps only a couple of yards away from him.
