Super Heroes (The New Super Humans #4)

by T. M. Franklin

  “My name is Gavin James, and this really is Warden Security,” he replied. “But it's also more. The security business is what the world sees, and we do have employees and clients as you'd expect.” He paused, leaning back in his chair for a moment.

  “Warden is also WARDEN: The World Analysis, Reconnaissance & Defense Network. An international organization created to monitor extra-terrestrial and extra-dimensional threats to our planet.”

  There was silence for a beat, then Tru burst out laughing. “Seriously?” she asked, looking around the table. “You're trying to tell us this is a secret government agency that deals with aliens? Come on!”

  Gavin, however, didn't find it funny. “Not aliens. Not yet, at least. But there are many potential threats to our planet. Supernatural threats we've had to deal with over the years.” He leaned forward, placing his elbows on the table. “One that you did.”

  Tru stopped laughing.

  Chloe's fingers curled into fists. “So you knew about the Chaos,” she said flatly. “You knew about it, and you have all of this—” She waved a hand to encompass their surroundings. “And you let us fight it on our own?”

  “Is that true?” Dylan asked. “We nearly died!”

  “The whole town nearly died,” Miranda added. “The whole world.”

  Gavin leaned back. “We would have interceded if you had failed.”

  “Oh, well that's good to know!” Beck snapped, his hand glowing. “If we died, you would have taken care of it.”

  “That's not what I meant,” Gavin said, his jaw tense. “We would have lended aid if you needed it, but throughout history, it's been the work of the Order to contain the Chaos.” He looked to Miranda. “You know this.”

  “Well . . . yes,” Miranda said slowly.

  “That doesn't excuse you standing by while we fought for our lives,” Chloe interjected.

  “I'm afraid that's my doing,” a woman's voice said, drawing their attention to the door. “Or rather, my department.”

  Chloe couldn't believe her eyes, and suddenly, everything clicked. The woman she'd seen when she'd come to Warden for her interview—tall, thin, dressed in a tailored suit with gray hair in a neat chignon. She'd seemed familiar, and now Chloe realized why.

  “Eve,” she said.

  The woman smiled, a quirk of her lips in acknowledgement. “In the flesh,” she said, taking a seat at the table. It was strange to see her in business attire instead of swirling skirts and turbans. She laced her fingers on top of the table and nodded at Gavin.

  “So you—” Miranda pointed at her, then swiveled to Gavin. “—and you.”

  “We work together, yes,” Eve said.

  “Eve is the head of our precognition department,” Gavin added.

  “Precognition,” Chloe repeated. “So you really are a fortune teller?”

  “Well, that's one way to put it, I suppose,” Eve said with a laugh. “But yes, I am a seer. Like you, in certain aspects.”

  “So that part wasn’t a lie, anyway,” Chloe muttered.

  Eve sobered. “None of it was a lie. I was trying to help you. That was true. I wanted to do what I could to help you learn to access your gift.” She spread her fingers out on the table, pressing against it as she looked at Chloe earnestly. “Everything I did was to protect you.”

  Chloe had her doubts, but instead of voicing them, she asked. “There are more like you? Like me?”

  Eve nodded. “We have about a dozen seers in this division, all with varying levels of talent.” She held up a finger. “So, to get back to your original question, that is why WARDEN did not get involved with your fight against the Chaos. We saw you would win.”

  Chloe was overwhelmed at the idea of so many people like her. Were they plagued by nightmares and visions, too? Could they control their gift? There was so much she could learn, if she had the chance. She wasn't sure if she was intrigued—or frightened—by the idea. She realized Miranda was talking, and tried to focus on the conversation.

  “—watching us?” she asked.

  Gavin swiveled in his chair a little. “We've had the Order under surveillance for a couple years. Not all of you—it took a while to figure out who you all were. But Chloe, we've known about you since before you were born.”

  “What? How?” she choked out, shocked.

  “Your mother was a seer,” Eve answered. “The Seer, as far as the Order is concerned. We knew each other. Of course, that was years ago. Before you were born.”

  Chloe shook her head in amazement. “You're saying my mom was part of WARDEN?”

  Eve frowned. “No,” she said. “She knew about us, but refused to join, even though she knew what her future held. Even though we might have been able to help her.”

  Chloe ached for her mom, living with the knowledge she would be committed, separated from her daughter, and eventually die, locked up in a mental hospital. Knowing what would happen, and doing nothing to stop it.

  “Why?” she whispered. “Why wouldn't she let you help her?”

  “I'm not entirely certain,” Eve said, sighing. “But I believe she saw your future. And she believed the only way to assure your survival was for her to accept her fate.”

  Chloe wondered what else Eve knew about her mother. She couldn't believe they'd been watching her all of her life, waiting for her to grow up and learn her place in this insane world she found herself in. She wondered . . .

  She wondered what they knew about her father. With so many lies littering her past, she was uncertain if they'd tell her the truth, if they actually knew anything at all. Part of her wanted to ask, but the revelations of the past few minutes had her so stunned, she couldn't even form words. She sat, staring at her reflection in the shiny table, fighting tears.

  “It was you,” she said quietly. “You arranged it all . . . manipulated things to get us to live in the house so you could spy on us.”

  “Not at first,” Gavin replied. “You were called as members of the Order always were. But after . . . yes. I decided it was in your best interest to be together.”

  “Where you could spy on us,” Chloe said again. She was not letting him off the hook.

  “So we could monitor you, yes. And so we could protect you.”

  Chloe huffed, not believing it for a minute.

  “What do you want from us?” Miranda asked Gavin.

  He pursed his lips, obviously choosing his words carefully. “WARDEN has been protecting our world for generations,” he said. “In the course of our operations, we sometimes work with governmental agencies, both here and overseas, the military, private research institutions . . . as well as individuals with unique abilities, such as your own.”

  “Are there others?” Dylan asked. “Like us, I mean.”

  Gavin smiled a little. “More than you'd imagine,” he replied. “Psychics, telepaths, teleporters . . . whether they're evolutionary phenomenon’s, like the First Race, or chosen in some way, like the Order, the world is scattered with—for lack of a better word—super humans. And it's our job to find them and determine if they're ally . . . or enemy.”

  Gavin looked at each of them in turn. “Now it's up to you to decide, which are you?”

  “Are you—” Wren met his gaze. “Are you asking us to join you?”

  “Yes, in a way,” Gavin replied. “The Order would remain intact, as it is intended to be. But we'd like to bring you under the umbrella of WARDEN.”

  “What exactly does that mean?” Maia asked.

  “An alliance,” Eve replied. “We would share our resources, and you would share your gifts, when the situation requires it.”

  “So are you talking an army?” Beck leaned back and folded his arms. “Or assassins?”

  “Nothing so dramatic,” Gavin answered. “And nothing that challenges your autonomy. But when there's a threat to humanity, we'd like to call on you. In exchange, we'll provide information and education. Train you to use and develop your abilities, for example.”

  “How do
we know we can trust you?” Miranda asked.

  “Chloe knows,” Eve said quietly. “Don't you? You can sense if we're telling the truth?”

  “I—I can't do that,” Chloe stammered.

  “You can,” Eve replied. “Feel for your gift.”

  Chloe chewed on her lip and searched her inner feelings. Tried to tap into the instinct that seemed to be the only thing she could trust lately.

  “I think—I don't think they're lying,” she said finally.

  “But they could be hiding something,” Dylan said. “They've been doing this a lot longer than us. Who knows what they could be capable of?”

  “He's right,” Tru said.

  But Chloe didn't even care about that. “What about Ethan?” She looked Gavin right in the eye. “Where is he?”

  Gavin puffed out his cheeks and blew out a long stream of air. “He's not here. Not physically. We are able to monitor him, to a small degree, to make sure that the containment is secure.”

  “Containment of the Chaos,” Dylan clarified, and Gavin nodded.

  “But how are you doing that, if he's not here?” Chloe asked. “Where is he?”

  “Ethan, or what remains of him, is not on this plane of existence,” Gavin replied. “We cannot get to him. He cannot get out.”

  Plane of existence? What in the world did that mean?

  “But there has to be a way,” Chloe pleaded.

  “There isn't,” Gavin said sharply. “And you have to stop trying.”

  “But—”

  “If you were able to get to Ethan—” Gavin held up a finger, “—which is impossible, at this point. And if you could get the Chaos to leave him, it would be released, once again, upon the Earth. It would, once again, gather power, inflicting pain and violence to nurture itself. And it would, once again, set out on its mission to destroy everything and everyone on this planet.”

  “Ethan fulfilled his destiny as the Prison, to contain the Chaos,” Eve said, eyes pleading for Chloe to understand. “There is no one else who could serve that purpose. Unless you want his sacrifice to be for nothing, you have to let him go.”

  Chloe slumped back in her seat, defeated and confused. If that was true, why would she be led to WARDEN in the first place? Why was she having the visions about Ethan if there was no way to save him?

  It didn’t make sense, but she could see that arguing the point right now would be pointless, so she nodded curtly, and said nothing.

  “You'll be compensated, of course,” Gavin said after a moment. “As employees of WARDEN—”

  “This isn't about money,” Beck spat.

  “No, of course not,” Eve said soothingly. “But if you choose to join us, you will be taken care of.”

  The room fell silent, and Chloe realized they were all watching her, waiting to see what she'd say.

  “We'll have to discuss it,” she said. “We'll let you know.”

  “Of course.” Gavin stood up. “Take your time. Either way, your summer job is still here, Chloe, if you want it. And if you decide to join WARDEN, you'll be privy to some of the more sensitive parts of the business. Just a little more incentive, if you need it.” He smiled, but Chloe couldn't find it in herself to return the gesture.

  He led them to the lobby, and Chloe was surprised to see the sun rising. The street was still wet with puddles, but the sky was clear. The Order emerged from the WARDEN building and walked silently toward the Victorian, lost in their own thoughts.

  “We should sleep,” Miranda said after a while. “Then we can talk.”

  “They're probably listening,” Chloe muttered. “I wouldn't be surprised if they have our house wired for sound.”

  “I didn't even think of that,” Wren said with a horrified look toward Beck. “Do you really think they've been listening to us?”

  “We have to assume so, from now on,” Dylan said. “We'll find a secure place to figure things out.”

  Later, as they all settled in to get some sleep, Chloe lay in bed, watching the light from the early morning sun move across her ceiling. She wasn't sure what they were going to do. But whether or not the Order joined WARDEN, Chloe knew one thing for certain.

  There was no way in hell she was giving up on Ethan.

  “You're wanted upstairs,” Anne said, her head poking through Gavin's door early Monday morning. “And they don't sound happy.” She grimaced.

  Gavin set aside the report he'd been reading. “Do they ever?”

  “Fair point.” She ducked out, then back in again. “Do you want me to call Eve?”

  “I'm sure she's already up there,” he said, getting up. “Any sign of Chloe yet?”

  “No, but it's not quite nine,” she replied. “Anything in particular you wanted me to have her do?”

  Well, that was a good question, wasn't it?

  “No, not really.” He straightened his tie and slipped on his suit jacket. “I need to talk to her, but I'll find her when I'm done upstairs.” He followed Anne out of his office. “Can you reschedule my ten o'clock? I think this could take a while.”

  “Of course.” Anne gave him a sympathetic look. “Good luck.”

  “I'm going to need it.”

  Gavin was surprised it took until Monday morning for him to be called before the board. He half expected someone to be knocking down his door on Saturday morning after what he did. It wasn't so much that he was trying to recruit Chloe and her friends to WARDEN. That was something he did all the time, after all. But the Order was unique—a group of individuals gifted by a power WARDEN had yet to discern. Yes, they had the research, the history of the Order and the Chaos. But how the Order was chosen? Why them in particular?

  They still had no idea.

  The board was understandably leery about bringing them in. They didn't like not knowing things.

  And Gavin had acted alone, on impulse, without consulting the board before revealing WARDEN to a bunch of kids.

  They really wouldn't like that.

  He took the elevator to the fourth floor, tapping his fingers nervously on his thighs while he waited for the doors to open. He took a deep breath once they did and walked purposefully to the conference room where he knew they'd be waiting. The door was open, and he could hear low voices, although Gavin couldn't discern what was being said.

  He entered the room and the talking stopped.

  Five people, powerful people, sat at the far end of the table—the Board of Directors of WARDEN, U.S. Division. In the middle was the Chairman, Wes Brand, a balding man in his mid-sixties with wire-rimmed glasses and steely dark eyes. Next to him on his right was the Vice Chair, Alice Whitney, a statuesque woman with close-cropped red hair and pale blue eyes. Beside her was Calvin Cho, who looked like he'd just come in off the golf course, wearing a yellow polo shirt and chinos. His black hair was slicked back perfectly however, not a strand out of place.

  On the other side of Wes were the two gifted members of the board—Beth Benaly, a Native Alaskan with the ability to force thoughts into people's minds. And Cyrus Benjamin, who at six-foot-five and one hundred seventy pounds looked like he'd been stretched out like playdough, arms and legs too long for his body. He had the ability to nullify another's gift, which was why Beth was allowed on the board at all, Gavin supposed.

  Eve sat next to Cyrus, watching Gavin with an inscrutable look on her face.

  “Come in, Gavin. Take a seat.” Wes waved him forward and he lowered himself into one of the padded chairs.

  “I think we all know why we're here,” Wes continued. “To address a rather extreme breach of protocol, something very out of character for you, Gavin.”

  “What were you thinking?” Alice asked, shaking her head

  “It doesn't matter what he was thinking,” Calvin interjected, leaning back, his ankle propped on the opposite knee. “What matters is what he's going to do about it now.”

  Beth held up a hand to silence the room. “Perhaps we should hear Gavin's explanation.”

  Calvin huffed in
annoyance, but said nothing more.

  “Thank you.” Gavin nodded at Beth. “I understand there is some concern about my actions regarding Chloe Blake and the Order.”

  “Our actions,” Eve corrected. “I was there as well.”

  “Should we take this to mean that the Precognition Department has intel regarding these . . . people?” Wes asked, trying to mask his distaste. He worked with the specially-abled, and understood their importance to WARDEN's mission. But they made him uncomfortable. He even leaned away from Beth a little, and they'd worked together for years.

  Eve pressed her fingertips together before her on the table. “Several seers have indicated a high probability that the Order would join WARDEN,” she said. “And an even higher probability that we would need their talents in the future.”

  “I did what I had to,” Gavin interjected. “Chloe Blake's visions led her straight to us. She'd been nosing around and it was only a matter of time—”

  “So you thought you'd just invite her in instead of dealing with the situation?” Wes slapped his hand down on the table, the sound echoing through the room.

  “How?” Gavin asked on a humorless laugh. “We tried to divert them. Eve tried. I tried. The only way to deal with the situation permanently would have been to kill them!”

  The silence spoke volumes.

  “Seriously?” Gavin asked. “You expected me to kill a bunch of kids?”

  “They're not just kids,” Beth pointed out. “They’re powerful. A potential threat.”

  “Which is why I decided it was time to bring them in.”

  Wes frowned at that. “We have protocols for a reason. Why would you make contact with these people without prior authorization?”

  “I've been trying to get authorization for weeks!”

  “And you were told that the situation would be taken under advisement.”

  “Which means what, exactly?” Gavin spoke in a low voice, fighting to control his temper.

  “It means,” Wes replied, dark eyes narrowed in fury, “that we would examine all sides of the issue, and make a decision once the time was right.”

  “Well, it's a little late for that,” Calvin muttered, smoothing back his hair.