by Lucas Flint
The chambers were also incredibly cold. My suit insulated me from extreme heat and extreme cold, but even I could feel the biting cold, though I didn’t shiver. Christina and Uncle Josh, on the other hand, did, especially Christina. Her skin was paler than ever and she looked like she wished she could be anywhere other than here. It still felt very strange to see the snide, sarcastic Christina I’d always known behave so timidly whenever she was anywhere near Chaser. It made me wonder just how dangerous Chaser actually was.
Then, without warning, the massive door slammed shut behind us, making all three of us jump. Uncle Josh drew his gun from his holster and aimed it this way and that like he was looking for the person who had slammed the door shut.
“Now, now, Joshua Resnick,” said Chaser’s voice from the computer monitor before us. “There’s no need to be so jumpy. I just closed the door behind you so we could have some … privacy.”
“Privacy?” Uncle Josh repeated, lowering his gun slightly. “Since when does Icon respect a person’s privacy?”
“As long as it is mine,” said Chaser.
All of a sudden, the computer monitor flickered on, revealing a strange symbol: An eyeball with a line crossed through it. I realized that that had to be the symbol of Icon, because I had seen that same symbol on the other buildings in the compound around the Tower.
“Welcome to my personal chambers, Jack ‘Trickshot’ McDonald, Joshua Resnick, and, of course, Christina Madison,” said Chaser. “It pleases me to see that all three of you came here without delay. It means we can begin the conversation right away.”
“I don’t want a ‘conversation’ with you,” I said. I stepped forward. “Grandfather. Where is he?”
“You clearly don’t understand how negotiations are supposed to work,” said Chaser. “First, we need to talk, and then I will show you what I plan to offer you.”
“I don’t give a damn about negotiations,” I snapped. “And why are you talking to me through a computer monitor? Too afraid to speak to me directly?”
Chaser sighed. “Cowardice has nothing to do with it. This is just how I prefer to talk to other human beings. I find that speaking through the computer allows for a clarity of thought I would not otherwise achieve, because I don’t have any of that distracting body language to ruin my perfectly crafted sentences.”
“That’s a dumb reason to talk only through a computer,” I said. “Not that I care, though. I want to see Grandfather.”
“Very impatient,” said Chaser. “Just like Gregory, you are inherently unable to delay gratification for the things you want. Patience is a virtue, one you seem to lack.”
“I’m starting to rethink this whole ‘conversation’ idea,” I said. “Maybe I’ll just smash that computer screen of yours and make you give me Grandfather back the hard way. How does that sound?”
“Rather rude, to be honest,” said Chaser. “And anyway, you aren’t in any position to make demands of me. Remember, I am the one who has Gregory, not you. If you keep behaving rudely and hostilely, then I will kill Gregory and then you and your friends, too.”
I bit my lower lip. Chaser was right. As long as he had Grandfather, Chaser had leverage in this conversation. It was annoying and frustrating, but it wasn’t like there was anything I could do about it. I would just have to keep my cool and try to turn this conversation around in my favor. Unfortunately, I wasn’t sure how to do that.
“All right,” I said. “What do you want to talk about?”
“Many things, Trickshot,” said Chaser, “though right now I only want to talk to you about the Trickshot Watch.”
I put my hand over it. “The Trickshot Watch? Why do you want to talk about it?”
“Because I want it,” said Chaser. “And if you give it to me, I will give you Gregory in return. A simple exchange, though one I think both of us would benefit from, wouldn’t you say?”
“I’m not giving you the Trickshot Watch,” I said, pulling my wrist closer to my chest. “Not only is it a dangerous weapon in the wrong hands, but it’s also a priceless family heirloom. My grandfather gave it to me for the purpose of defending Rumsfeld. I’m not going to give it to you, no matter how nicely you ask.”
Chaser was silent for a few seconds, but then he suddenly said, “Tell me, Jack, do you know where Gregory originally got the Trickshot Watch from?”
I folded my arms across my chest. “No. I was just told he was given it by someone, but I never found out who gave it to him in the first place.”
The next words that came out of the computer screen shocked me to my core:
“Then let me inform you: Gregory received the Trickshot Watch from Icon. And now, the Trickshot Watch shall return to Icon, where it rightfully belongs.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“What?” I said. “Did you just say that the Trickshot Watch came from Icon?”
“Correct,” said Chaser. “And not just from Icon in general, but from me in particular. I gave your grandfather the Trickshot Watch over fifty years ago now, back when he first started out as a superhero.”
“You mean you knew Grandfather back in the old days?” I said. “Impossible.”
“Not as much as you think,” said Chaser. “I am nearly as old as Gregory, just off by a couple of years or so. I gave him the Trickshot Watch when he told me he was thinking about becoming a superhero. That is a fact.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “No way. You’re lying.”
“I’m not ‘lying,’ Trickshot,” said Chaser. “You know I’m not. Ask yourself, if Icon did not originally own the Trickshot Watch, then how were we able to capture your grandfather? Why did we capture him in the first place, if not to take back what was rightfully ours in the first place?”
I put a hand on my forehead, trying to understand what Chaser was telling me. “If the Trickshot Watch originally belonged to you guys, then why didn’t you just ask Grandfather to give it back to you, rather than kidnapping him like this?”
“Because Gregory had no intention of giving it back,” said Chaser. “He wanted to keep it forever, even though he had originally accepted it on the basis that we could take it back anytime we wanted. That is why we kidnapped him ten years ago, because it was the only way we’d get the Trickshot Watch back. Sadly, Gregory managed to figure out how to send the Trickshot Watch to you anyway, which is how you got involved in all of this.”
“Why did you give Grandfather the Trickshot Watch in the first place?” I said. “And why didn’t he want to give you guys the Watch back, if he was just borrowing it?”
The computer screen seemed to glow a little brighter. “Because we wanted to test the Watch and see its full capabilities. I suppose we could have just tested it in a lab somewhere, but I’ve always had a preference for testing things out in the real world, where you can see real results from your efforts. By having Gregory use the Trickshot Watch in his superhero career, we had hoped to find out the mysteries behind it, given its alien origins.”
“But there’s more to it than that,” I said. “Right? Otherwise, Grandfather wouldn’t have refused to give it back to you guys.”
“Correct,” said Chaser. “You see, Gregory discovered what our actual plans for the Trickshot Watch were and he … disagreed with them, to put it mildly. He realized how destructive the Trickshot Watch could be in the wrong hands, so he did everything in his power to keep it ‘safe’ from us.” A low chuckle came from the screen. “But what Gregory did not realize at the time was that Icon always gets what it wants eventually. He could have hidden the Trickshot Watch on the moon and we would have still gotten it. But he was quite persistent, I’ll give him that much, and we did waste a lot of time and agents trying to capture him until we finally succeeded ten years ago. And with luck, Gregory will never see the light of day ever again.”
“What are your real plans for the Trickshot Watch, if scientific progress isn’t what you really want?” I said. “Were you planning to mass produce the Trickshot Watc
h and make a fortune? Because if so, then you’re in luck, because the last guy who wanted to do that is dead, so the market is wide open.”
“Profit is hardly my main interest,” said Chaser. “To the extent that it is an interest at all, it is only because I need to make a profit in order to keep Icon afloat. But if profit was all I wanted, I would simply increase production on Power and distribute it even more than I already have. Icon has barely tapped the true profit potential of Power. With just a few simple adjustments, I could increase production of Power tenfold and see profits rise twenty times and yet still not make even as much money as I could if I cared for that sort of thing.”
“If not money, then what?” I said. “Power?”
“Close, but not quite,” said Chaser. “Power—not the drug, but the concept—is indeed one of my goals, but even that isn’t what I really want. And I am not so sure I should tell you, because you don’t need to know it. You just need to know that I want the Watch and that I will give you your grandfather in return if you give it back to me.”
I covered the Trickshot Watch protectively. If money and power were not Chaser’s goals, then I had no idea what he could possibly want. Whatever it was, I had a feeling that it was not entirely noble, so it would be better to figure out a way to keep it from him.
“You say you knew Grandfather,” I said. “I take it Icon has been around for a while?”
“Certainly,” said Chaser. “Icon is an old, old organization, stretching back hundreds of years, well before I was born.”
“You mean you didn’t found it?” This question came from Christina, who sounded as shocked as I felt at this revelation.
“Yes,” said Chaser. “But my family, the Chaser family, has always played a crucial role. My great-grandfather, Roland Chaser I, was the first Superior, being handed the role after the establishment of the organization’s modern form. Icon has taken many different forms over the years, adapting to the times and places in which its members find themselves, but always it has moved toward its founders’ ultimate goal, albeit slowly due to the immense scope of the project.”
“And what ‘project’ would that be?” I said. “World domination?”
“That’s another thing you don’t need to know,” said Chaser. “You only need to know that I’ve been redirecting Icon’s resources toward my own plans for quite a while. I haven’t forgotten the founders’ mission yet. It’s simply been put on hold for the past fifty years while I work hard at my own goal, which is nearing completion even as we speak.”
“What an irresponsible waste of resources,” said Uncle Josh, shaking his head. “I am glad that Pinnacle isn’t run by someone nearly as shortsighted as you.”
“Shortsighted? Hardly,” said Chaser. “Should everything work out the way I want it to, it will be Ephraim who will be seen as shortsighted. But I’ve spoken at length about this enough. The time for your decision is now, Trickshot. Either give me the Watch or watch as your grandfather dies a horrible death. The choice is yours.”
My hands curled into fists. Normally, my mind would have been blown by all of these revelations, but at the moment I was too distracted by our current situation to really think them through deeply. I needed to find some way to save Grandfather while keeping the Trickshot Watch away from Chaser. And yet Chaser had obviously planned this out well enough to put me in a situation where he would get the Trickshot Watch no matter what.
“Well?” said Chaser. “I’m awaiting your response patiently, Jack. Will you give me the Watch or not?”
I looked at Uncle Josh and Christina briefly, hoping that one of them might have a plan. But they looked just as stuck as me. Christina still looked too afraid to even speak to Chaser, while Uncle Josh seemed as frustrated about this situation as I was, if not more so. He was probably angry that we had not been able to retrieve the Atlas Armor, too, which was something that had crossed my mind, though I didn’t care about it as much as he did.
“Make your choice,” said Chaser. “Do it soon. The longer you go without saying anything, the more I will consider your silence a yes.”
I opened my mouth to reply, but at that moment, the Trickshot Watch started beeping and its surface started glowing. I looked at the Trickshot Watch, as did Uncle Josh and Christina, and I thought that Chaser was looking at it as well.
“What is this?” said Chaser, who sounded genuinely astonished. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing,” I said. “I—”
All of a sudden, through a thick fog of static, I heard Grandfather’s voice say, “Don’t do it, Jack! Don’t give him … don’t give him the Watch!”
“Grandfather?” I said in shock. “Is that you?”
“Don’t give it to him!” said Grandfather again, his voice clearer now. “Don’t worry about me! Just make sure it doesn’t—”
Grandfather’s voice was abruptly cut off, like his phone’s battery had died.
“Grandfather?” I said. “Grandfather, are you still there?”
“He is not,” said Chaser. “Not anymore, anyway. I managed to figure out how he was contacting you and shut him off before he could blab some more. Holding a very technical man like him prisoner has been … tricky, to say the least.”
“You did that because you didn’t want me to listen to Grandfather,” I said. “Let me guess, you were never planning to let me, Uncle Josh, and Christina go even if I gave you the Watch, right? You were planning to kill us as soon as the Watch was out of my hands, because then we would be powerless to stop you. You wouldn’t even give us Grandfather.”
Chaser was silent for a long time, but when he spoke again, he sounded even colder than before. “You have found me out. I suppose you aren’t interested in giving up the Watch anymore, then?”
“Absolutely not,” I said, shaking my head. “You’re going to have to pry it from my cold, dead hands.”
I expected Chaser to start screaming and threatening me with all kinds of horrible things, because that was what supervillains usually did whenever you thwarted or figured out their master plan.
Instead, however, Chaser said, in a calm voice, “I suspected something like this would happen. Gregory wasn’t ever one to comply with those he deemed ‘supervillains,’ even when it made sense to do so. I should have known better than to expect you to be any different. I guess the apple really doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
“And?” I said. “What are you going to do about it?”
“Nothing.”
There was silence for a moment until what Chaser said actually sank in.
“Wait, what?” I said. “Nothing? Are you just going to … to let us go?”
“Obviously not,” said Chaser. “I’m no fool. I’m not going to let you three get away that easily, just because you have rejected my offer.”
“Then what did you mean by doing ‘nothing’ to stop us?” I said, tilting my head to the side. “You weren’t trolling us, were you?”
“I do not ‘troll,’ as kids these days say,” said Chaser. “But just because I am not going to do anything does not mean that I will not have one of my agents kill you instead.”
All of a sudden, a portion of the wall underneath the computer monitor slid open, revealing a pitch black dark room on the other side. Even with my night vision goggles, it was hard to tell what was in there, but I could very clearly hear two large, heavy metal boots clanking against the floor. Clank, clank, clank went the boots, which was a sound I wouldn’t ordinarily find frightening, but under the circumstances, I could not help but feel a little tense. I pulled three disks out of my pouch and held them close to my face, while Christina extended two energy ropes from her hands and Uncle Josh raised his gun, aiming it at the dark room and the clanking sound coming from within.
Then a figure who I had never seen before stepped out of the room. He was sleek and tall, with shiny green-and-black armor that covered his whole body from head to foot. His face plate was a shiny chrome color, reflecting the lights above lik
e crystal. It made him look almost alien. At any rate, I found the lack of a face disturbing, kind of like Holes, except Holes didn’t look like he walked straight out of a science fiction horror movie.
“Who is this?” I said to Chaser. “Another one of your agents?”
Uncle Josh, on the other hand, looked almost as pale as Christina now. “Jack, I know what that is. I saw it before the last time I was here.”
“You’ve seen that thing?” I said, looking over my shoulder at Uncle Josh. “What is it?”
“Allow me to introduce it,” said Chaser before Uncle Josh could respond. “This is the full and complete Atlas Armor, the newest and greatest weapon built by Icon’s greatest minds. And Atlas here will crush you like an ant.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
As soon as Chaser finished his sentence, Atlas suddenly flew toward us on rocket boots. He pulled his fist back and slammed it into my face, knocking me flat on my back onto the floor, where I lay stunned from the blow.. I looked up to see Atlas raise his fists above his head to bring them down on me, but then Christina’s energy ropes wrapped around his arms and jerked them down, nearly causing Atlas to lose his footing.
“Jack, get him!” Christina shouted. “Now, while I have him distracted!”
Shaking my head, I jumped to my feet and aimed a punch at Atlas’ mask. But he immediately flew upward into the air, with my fist completely missing where his head had been mere moments before. Christina yelped as she was yanked into the air with Atlas, screaming for help as he flew around the room.
“Christina!” I shouted. “Watch out!”
But I didn’t think Christina heard me because she was screaming so loudly. Atlas suddenly made a sharp turn and somehow shook Christina’s energy ropes off him, sending her flying uncontrollably toward a wall at a shocking speed.
