Blackjack Messiah

by Ben Bequer

  I shrugged and she gave me a nice little smile. This wasn't mocking. She was letting her hair down, as it were. Taking the tangled pant leg, she slid it around my foot, letting me much too close for someone who was afraid. She let go of me and sat on her legs in a way only flexible woman could. "I did what I had to do."

  "Tell me," I said.

  She seemed to snap out of it, "Like you want to hear."

  I nodded. "I do."

  "I guess you have nowhere else to go, right?"

  "Sort of," I said.

  "I know that you're planning something, that you're working me - don't take me for a fool. I mean, I'd like to help you, I really would, but I've never welched on a deal."

  "I'm a villain, Primal's a villain. I'll pay more. A lot more."

  "You think it's all about money for me?" she said, and I fought the urge to remind her of what she had told me earlier. It's okay, a little hypocrisy is part of the package.

  "No?"

  She looked down at the deck. "In part," she said, chuckling at herself. "Back when I was running with Apogee, we were kind of darlings of the media. It was pretty awesome. We had sponsors, our own MySpace page...that's how long ago it was. Anyway, it was awesome. See, me and Maddie were friends since high school. When her powers blossomed, she hooked me up with Jeff..."

  "Superdynamic," I said.

  "Yeah, that's right. Anyway, he designed my porter device. And that's how we managed to stay a team as long as we did. But as you can imagine, that wasn't going to last long."

  "What happened?"

  "What do you think?" she said. "Apogee's a superstar, she was destined for great things. I'm a one-trick pony. Don't get me wrong, I could kick your ass all over this blimp, but she...Madelyne's a goddess, man. You know..."

  I nodded.

  "She got recruited to some team I can't even remember the name," she said, wiping tears from the edges of her eyes. "I know you probably think I hate her or something but I don't. I really don't. Kidding me? I love her. She meant everything to me. Maddie changed my life. But after she went off, I kind of struggled. See, being a super - to me, at least - was all about running with her. We were like a buddy cop movie or something. It was really great."

  Whisper stopped a moment, wiping her nose, fighting back the urge to cry.

  "I really love her, and I never wanted anything bad for her," she said again. "So that part's a bunch of bullshit, okay?"

  "I didn't know, sorry."

  "I just handled it all wrong, and I was angry. Then, you see. Not now. And I said things I shouldn't have..."

  She shook her head, wiping more tears. "Anyway, after she and I split - and I told her to do it, by the way. I knew it was the right thing for her. But after that, I had a real hard time. It wasn't as fun. I hooked up with some other dude, but it was just about him, and he was kind of a selfish creep..."

  I wanted to try a guess at who it was - Atmosphero - but I stayed quiet and let her continue. "Then I fell in with some weird people. Not bad, mind you, but weird as hell. I got all the tattoos you see," she gestured to her arm sleeves. "And I got piercings everywhere, and I started doing some hard drugs. Before I knew it, I got arrested for possession, then I did six months for the second time. I was out and I was a felon - what the hell was I going to do."

  Now I could empathize and boy did I have stories. But no, shut up and listen, Dale.

  "Well, I had the tech, right? So I robbed a Denny's."

  "A Denny's? Jesus!"

  "I know, right?" We shared a laugh. She eased herself into the chair. "I got $378.29, exactly, from the till and ran off. I'd never done that before. Anyway, I was so scared they'd recognize me, and wouldn't you know it - it was all over the TV. They had a camera on the cash register. It was so stupid."

  "You embraced it," I said recalling a dirty bathroom in some L.A. bar. I’d foiled a robbery that night and in the same breath robbed the guy I had saved. I thought about telling her, but I didn’t want to break the mood.

  "Of course I embraced it! I mean, no one can touch me. I had a nice run there, put together a nice bit of scratch and then I met a nice guy and got pregnant. Then I got pregnant again. Then the guy left and I got stuck raising two girls."

  She stopped a long while, her eyes staring at nothing.

  "Where is this guy?" she said, getting up and heading to the door. I reached out and stopped her.

  "Why this? If you have money, and two kids that need you, then why risk it all for this?"

  Whisper looked down at my hands and I realized I had moved too fas to be under the full effect of the collar. She cocked her head, and I saw her realization. She pulled her hand away, and I let her go. She took two steps away, a hand on each dagger.

  "Hey, we're just talking here."

  "If you-"

  "I'm not," I said. "I swear."

  I thought she might teleport, and then it was going to get ugly, but she stayed, even as she crept closer to the door. Her eyes flicked between me and Doctor Destroy, who waited outside. I had one chance to salvage this. She didn’t want to be here. I had to reach her. "I don't want to hurt you, Whisper. I'm only trying to understand you." I tugged at the collar "Here, set it to full if you want."

  Her eyes bounced between my eyes and the collar. Her hand went to dongle at her belt, unlatching it. She looked from the red blinking light to me, her eyes narrowing. Her mouth moved as if she wanted to speak, but instead, she backed out of the room. The wail of sticky hinges was the only sound as the closed the door behind her.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  Goodbye, Razorstrike

  The blimp shifted and bounced as it came to an approximate stop. I say that because it stopped moving forward, but continued to sway. The Chosen, as Primal called them, came to get me soon after. I was having trouble choosing a stupid name for them. My choices so far: The Decimal Cunts, Ten Little Bitches and Tinker Tailor Soldier Twats. Too many good ones to choose from. I heard them stomping down the hall and saw Doctor Destroy's anxiety level hit eleven. He was twice the size and five times the mass of any one of the Bitches but inched away from them as they approached, like a small child avoiding a large animal.

  A couple of weeks eating good in Kansas City had packed some weight on me, but they still picked me up with no problem. It was the same weightless sensation as riding a rollercoaster. The other two arrayed around me in a wall of bodies meant to intimidate and impress. The blue-eyed guy from the bridge was there, along with the one that glowed yellow, and they seemed to be in charge, though none of them spoke. Telepathy, maybe? Were they able to create custom powers? Nothing scary about that.

  There was no introduction or explanation. The two who grabbed me shoved me into the hallway, Blue Eyes in front and the fourth guy behind. Doctor Destroy wandered off as we rode the lift to another level I hadn’t seen yet with wider hallways and larger storage rooms. Reaching the central axis, a strong breeze hit us, and ahead bright light streamed from a wide opening. If I had to guess, we were in the midline of the blimp, heading towards the nose.

  I got shoved hard into the wall, an elbow settled on the nape of my neck as a group of workers rolled a large pallet into the ship. It was about fifteen feet wide, double that long, and loaded with bales of hundred dollar bills. The bricks were loaded about ten feet high, and in my rough estimation, it was about half a billion dollars. Was that what I was worth to them, for the Baron and his Dogs' services, or was there more going on here? I didn't think that a guy like Baron Blitzkrieg would work as a mercenary. Was money enough for a guy that arrogant to serve under another villain, even one as powerful as Primal?

  When we got to the opening, my suspicions were confirmed - they had docked the Baron's blimp by the nose to an abutting landing platform and were in the process of loading the airship with food and supplies. What was curious was another dozen of Primal's Chosen standing at attention. I thought they were waiting for us, but our group passed them and headed across the windy platform towards another tunnel
cut into the bedrock. Primal’s castle from Point Nemo climbed out of sight above us.

  With the ten Chosen from the bridge, four of whom were part of my escort, along with the dozen I’d just walked past, that made at least twenty-two in total. The chances that there were more were high, and Primal seemed invested in creating as many jello-bot soldiers as he could. I knew there were other captives, but how many did it take to create one of those things?

  "You fellows have names?" I said, trying to shrug them off. I could walk, dammit. But I couldn't get out of their grip. They were strong. I wanted to test them, but I still didn't have a handle on my power levels. My face still felt like mashed potatoes and the last thing I needed was another beating.

  "I'm going to call you TK-421," I said, but they ignored the jibe like pros. Where I could get under the Doctor's skin, if only for my own personal satisfaction, the Chosen were obviously trained men before their transformations, making for a damned horrifying Royal Guard.

  We moved in silence into a vast underground facility that Primal had dug into the rock. I looked back and saw Whisper appear behind us. It seemed that her babysitting duties weren’t over. Her teleportation didn’t make a sound, but the blue-eyed Chosen rounded on her, and for a second I thought he would take a swing. The rest of the group moved on as they stared each other down. I tried to keep loose. If things got crazy, there were worse places to fight a bunch of bulky supers who probably didn’t know their own strength than an easily collapsed tunnel. I knew I could take a cave-in, and not just on a physical level. Being trapped was a huge psychological trigger. These guys were cold but still human. Some of them would panic.

  I kept Whisper and Blue-Eyes in view as he jogged back to us. Whisper teleported once more, beating him to the group and though his face was flat as he passed her, I noticed the tension. Some kind of split between the powered and powerless? Maybe the ones who got their powers from Primal thought they were better? Nice little Utopia he was building.

  I caught Whisper out of the corner of my eye, she was looking right at me. I wish I had telepathy. This tunnel wasn’t endless, and I really wanted to punch someone. I gave her a wink and a smirk, then pinched the Chosen carrying me in the arm, adding a twist on the end that dimpled his flesh. Blue-Eyes noticed and stopped. The guy flinched, turning on me with a snarl.

  "Is something wrong?" Blue-Eyes said, his voice containing a low-level vibratory quality that made it sound like he was speaking through a running fan. He looked between me and the guy I pinched, expecting an immediate response.

  "I was just checking to see if they’d installed nerves in Data here," I said.

  "Silence!" he said, and my ears rang with it, "I asked you a question, Chosen."

  "Nothing, sir."

  Blue Eyes stared him down, but the other guy didn't waver. It was like a dick measuring contest between lifeless bricks. "Good, let's continue."

  And we were off.

  "Sorry about that, dude," I told the guy I had pinched, but he didn't react at all. Well, I had tested my hypothesis and had new data. They had working brains and weren't automatons. How that information was going to help me, I didn't know. But you don't get to the moon in one day. Little by little, problem by problem, I was going to crack this nut - I was going to Neil Armstrong this sucker.

  We reached what felt like an outer ring, breaking to the right and avoiding several small carts. Most of them were shuffling cargo, but one had a back bed designed to carry personnel. It had another dozen Chosen and was headed out to the blimp. After traveling about a quarter rotation - something like a half-mile to my reckoning, the group turned to an outward tunnel that led into a darker area.

  Where the lighting had been bright before, here it was dusky and the floor wasn’t polished stone but metal grates atop raw granite. The tunnel opened into a vaster cavern that doubled as a lab. In front of us was a bank of computers and monitors placed against and around a metal support beam. An observation post with more computers and monitors overlooked the cavern as it opened to a deeper level below, with a metal stairwell dropping two stories to the main level.

  Doctor Snyder and four of his techs were clustered around the main computers, and only he seemed to care as we came closer. He stepped in our way, adjusting his glasses. "I understand you're a scientist of sorts," he started, directing my attention with a gesture. "I'm sure you'll recognize that."

  Down on the main floor, dominating the center of the lab was a massive version of one of my designs. It was my fusion power generator. I'd shared the schematics with Superdynamic a while back, so it didn't surprise me to see it here. What did was the size of the thing. "I'm sorry, doctor, but I'm going to have my attorneys reach your attorneys," I said. "That's clearly theft of intellectual property."

  Snyder blinked a couple of times, then turned to Blue-Eyes. "Can you take my orders?"

  "Depends, Doctor Snyder."

  "Would you have one of your men hit him in the stomach?"

  Then something happened that was quite interesting. The Chosen leader said nothing. He was processing. Maybe there was some sort of electronic component or some weird mind powers at work. He said nothing, did nothing, for almost five seconds. It wasn't a difficult question either, and when he said "Yes," it seemed kind of foolish that he took so long.

  "Hit him once," Snyder said. "Not so hard that he's harmed."

  Blue-Eyes looked over at the guy I had pinched, who let go of my arm and threw a powerful kick into my stomach. I felt the full weight of the blow, flying backward out of his grasp and into one of the rocky walls. My rib cage was on fire, my lungs lacking oxygen, and it hurt so much I barely felt the strike against the granite cavern.

  "No more jokes," Doctor Snyder said as the two Chosen moved to pick me up. I was coughing my guts out, gasping for air. "Take him to the holding cells," he said and went back to the monitor bank.

  I looked at the Chosen that had kicked me, "Snyder's not what you'd call...congenial."

  The guy said nothing, carrying me down the stairs. Thick piles of cables were strewn all over the place, some through small pools of viscous, clear fluid. The chamber was deep beyond the huge reactor, and I eyed it with pride as we passed. I never envisioned it would power anything larger than a house or a single room, much less a massive lab with all of its energy requirements.

  A catwalk crossed above us with more monitoring centers. It was an extension of the main lab above, and Snyder followed us along the right walkway. Ahead was a series of large glass tubes - eight of them in total - large enough to fit a large man. The first seven were dark, but the last was engaged and illuminated, with a floating figure inside. It was a naked woman, her body a canvass of dark sprawling tattoos.

  "Nice, Empire," I said, another joke lost on the humorless Chosen. This too was stolen Superdynamic tech, inspired by the Lucas movie and intended to replace the healing bays with theoretically improved mending properties. Opposite the row of tubes was a grand command center, with another half-dozen techs busy at work.

  I wanted to shrug off my captors and rush the figure inside the tank if only to see who it was. Something about her was familiar, but she wore a heavy mask that allowed her to breathe and I couldn't see much of her face. "Stop!" Snyder said from the catwalk. "Let him see."

  The group paused right in front of the tube, turning so I could get a better view and that's when I identified the person inside. It was one of the Ladies of Pain - Razorstrike. We'd met only in passing during the D.C. incident and I'd never heard from her - or the rest of her team - again. She wore the same power dampening collar as me, futilely pounding the glass as I came into view. I didn't need my gear to know she was strong enough to beat her way out of that enclosure.

  "Now, gentlemen!" Doctor Snyder said, and one of the men at the console began to turn a large knob. As he did, a whine started from the large base of Razorstrike's tube. The sound grew louder and louder, accompanied by a bright glow within the tank.

  Razorstrike’s muffled
pleading became more frantic and loud enough that we could hear, as her pounding got more desperate. After thirty seconds, the machine's wail was deafening, and she began to convulse - slightly at first, then so violently I thought she'd slam her head into the glass and break it. But the process was only getting started. Her muscles were in full spasm, then she seemed to stop, but on closer inspection, I could see a slight, almost imperceptible shimmer. Her body was creating a sheen of tiny bubbles that pooled at the top of the tube.

  Razorstrike doubled over, light draining from her pores, only a small bit, but it stood out against the clear fluid inside. That must have been the juice they were looking for because it raced down a series of siphons at the base of the tank, disappearing almost as fast at it drained out of her.

  She shook more and more and I saw her eyes roll back as she fought one last time and failed. The stuff trickled from every orifice and pore in her body, narrowing to a wispy trail as her body grew still. Her head lolled, her corpse spinning slowly within the tube, carried by the eddies formed by her movements.

  Razorstrike was dead, but the process wasn't done. The light still flowed from her. It was a pittance, but they continued harvesting. Her skin grew pitted and mottled, purpling veins pushing through the skin as if her body was being forced inside out. Her eyes shot open, articulating a wail that we barely heard, then her whole body rippled and exploded. I turned away, her muffled death cry echoing in my head.

  "No, no," Snyder said. "I want him to see it all!"

  One of the Chosen forced my head around. Her body was shredded, shards of bone mingled with chunks of lumpy organs swirling around unidentifiable masses of flesh and tissue. The tube had contained the eruption and the fluid was now a pinkish purple conglomeration of muscle and viscera, spinning in a whirlpool. Her right hand, almost intact came around the twisting husk, still twitching, clawing at the glass. Snyder was beaming. One of the techs shouted, "Seventy-two thousand Sieverts, Doctor."