We Could Be Heroes

by Mike Chen

  “I thought you watched horror movies.”

  “They have some pretty bad ’70s spy movies too. Come on, we go in, we take her down and we finally figure out who I really am.”

  “You’re mistaken. I think...” Harsh lines creased across Jamie’s forehead, visible even through the brown hair that drooped over his eyes when he looked down. “I think you’re an optimist. Maybe that’s who Zoe Wong really is.”

  “You could be all that too. We can do this.”

  Jamie lifted the cup of coffee, his lips stuck on the rim for several seconds. Which meant he was either thinking or stalling, because she’d seen him empty the mug a few minutes prior. He lowered it back to the table with a clink, his eyes still drawn low.

  “Okay, look,” Zoe said. “Let’s assume you get out, go to the Caribbean or wherever. Kaftan would still be out there. She’d still be experimenting on people, people who never asked for this sort of thing. Think for a minute, really think about those people.

  “Those people went to Telos for help. With addiction or depression or other stuff that was eating away at their lives. And Kaftan, she took that good faith and completely betrayed it. Used it for her own gain. She took advantage of people in need. People like Zoe. The old Zoe.

  “People like Frazer.”

  That pulled Jamie’s gaze up to meet hers.

  “The ends don’t justify the means. That’s what real villains think. We’re better than that. We can stop Project Electron. Maybe it goes beyond us. Hartnell City, the rumors elsewhere. We can help people like them. We can help people like us. We do this, Kaftan stops hurting people and you get to live without guilt.” Guilt. That single word fired off a cycle of colors in Jamie’s heat signature, from the burning in his cheeks to the rapid increase in his heart rate.

  She’d hit a nerve.

  “I mean, that’s what’s driving you, isn’t it? Guilt?” she continued. “Guilt about Francisco brought you to Telos in the first place.” She selectively omitted his clear guilt over lying about the rooftop. “And now it’s all you feel. That’s why you only rob big banks that are insured. It alleviates the guilt. That woman who got injured, I saw how it weighs on you. Let’s absolve you of this. I’m pretty sure taking out the mastermind behind countless genetic experiments and shady deaths balances the karmic scale.”

  His fingers rapped against the table, a rapid-fire beat left to right and right to left, eventually leading to a heavy sigh.

  “Besides, we pull this off and I’ll still help you rob a bank. No more Kaftan, you save San Delgado, and you get all the money you need to hang out on a beach with nothing but coffee and cats. Forever.”

  He looked up, meeting her gaze. “Seriously?”

  Now she had him. “A deal’s a deal.” She threw her right hand out and waited. His eyes darted in different directions, first at her open hand, then the coffee mug that needed a refill, then the exit, then the barista cleaning the counter who seemed far too spry for this time of night.

  “What the hell,” he said in a soft voice, and their hands clasped together for one good shake.

  “Besides,” Zoe smirked, “they’re insured by the government.” She sighed. “I just wish I remembered how I made my suit.”

  “Ah,” Jamie said, his energy perking up. “Well, I don’t have sewing patterns or anything. But I do have the next best thing.”

  Zoe’s eyebrow ticked up into a firm arch.

  “You wanna give your powers a test?”

  26

  A GOOD NIGHT'S REST didn’t come easy after the late-night coffee shop talk. Zoe told him that he’d drank too much coffee, but Jamie knew better. What-ifs swirled through his head, gathering momentum until he’d stared straight at the dark ceiling over his bed for most of the night. Normal must have picked up on that. She circled between his legs on the bed, meowing and kneading and plopping down, only to repeat the whole thing every ten minutes.

  Zoe, on the other hand, had zero issues falling asleep. For a solid eight hours, her snores filled the front room, as if someone had simply flipped a switch and knocked her out on the futon, though it might have been the antihistamines. However she managed it, she seemed rested and refreshed.

  Now, they waited together on a rooftop, Jamie biting down on his lip in tentative measure, fatigue and anxiety tearing at him from both sides, the only reprieve coming from redoing his calming counting every few minutes. Next to him, though, Zoe’s internal motor already seemed to be running at top speed, waiting for a green light to let loose. They watched together, staring at the window four across and two down.

  The light turned on.

  “There,” Zoe said. “Let’s get my suit.”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let’s not get your suit just yet. Remember, this is a test of your powers. So, close your eyes. Can you sense him?”

  “I sense a lot of people in that building. They kind of look like ghosts.”

  “Okay, good, but focus. You’ll get a lot of cross-chatter if you let them all in. Lock in on just one person if you can.”

  Jamie waited, thumb nervously rubbing against the warm side of his coffee thermos. Jumping in this far, this fast suddenly seemed like a bad idea. What if Zoe came with other powers that she didn’t understand yet, that she couldn’t contain? Was there more Kaftan waited on? “Just...take it slow,” he said, as if that gentle reminder would keep things in check.

  A strange sound came from Zoe, and he checked himself to make sure he heard it correctly.

  Was she...laughing?

  “I’m okay,” she said, words tangled in the chuckles. “I’m okay. It’s just, this is so weird.”

  “Not that different from yesterday.”

  “Yeah, but that was like the demo version. This is the real thing.”

  “Focus, Zoe. We shouldn’t be doing this for too long. We’re too exposed to be fully protected from Kaftan’s people.”

  “Right, right. Okay.” Zoe held up her fingers, the little twitches indicative that she was sorting through her target’s memories.

  “Remember, you don’t have to find anything specifically with him looking at the suit or touching it. It could be in the background or—”

  “He’s got it in his closet.”

  So much for that.

  “Are you sure?” Jamie asked. “It’s not just, like, a leather jacket or—”

  “No, he’s looking at it right now. It’s his most recent memory. He’s telling a...friend, I think, about it. He’s filming it on his phone.” Zoe stood up, eyes open. “Motherfucker. He’s posting this on social media.” Her knuckles cracked as she flexed her fingers outward. “That’s my suit, you asshole.” Her voice came out somewhere between a statement and a yell, and Jamie’s hands waved with a shushing sound.

  “Don’t give us away,” he said, probably quieter than was necessary given they camped out on a rooftop.

  “Sorry. It’s just that, you know, that guy has my suit.” She turned to him, a gust of wind blowing hair in her face. “How did you even find this guy?”

  “Well, I had some free time waiting for you to figure out the clues. So I did some scouting.”

  Zoe grinned. “Look at you, taking the initiative. See, you are a badass.” Her fist landed on his shoulder, and though the punch was playful camaraderie, it still hurt way more than it should have. Jamie winced and reminded himself to give her a pass. Either she didn’t recall the last time she’d punched him jokingly or she failed to contain herself.

  She was, after all, pretty excited right now.

  “So what does ‘scouting’ mean?” Eyes closed, her fingers stretched outward again, multitasking her newfound powers with the mundane task of listening to the person next to her.

  “I went back to Telos a few times. Followed some of the staff around, dove into their minds to see what they knew.”

  “Yeah?” Zoe
was in full pump-up mode now, bouncing on the balls of her feet and swinging a few punches into the air.

  “Most of the staff seemed to have no clue what’s really going on. But I found one guy guarding the back. He led to something much juicier. And that guy led to a meeting of a few of them. After that, it was just investigating.” He laughed, which drew her attention. “I used a detective board.”

  “Shut up. How come I didn’t see it?”

  “Well, Normal kept clawing the strings I used between pieces, so I had to put it in the closet. But this guy, he asked specifically for the suit as a keepsake. Not the best guy around, that’s for sure.”

  “Does he deserve an ass-kicking? Because I can oblige.”

  Zoe probably figured the more gung ho she was, the more it’d rub off on Jamie. But that wasn’t the case, and in fact, it felt like it pumped more of his internal brakes. “Okay, remember what I said about your newfound confidence? Let’s try to rein it in a little. Besides, you’re here to practice. Try to brain-stun him.” Jamie fought the urge to cringe, thinking at how long it took in his early days to master brain-stunning. “We’re not winging it this time.”

  Zoe grimaced, alternating between staring at him and across the street long enough that several cars passed by on the road below. Finally, she gave in with a grunted affirmative. “Right, right. Forgot about strategy.” She blew out a breath and pointed her finger back across the street.

  “Just like we practiced.”

  “Can you hit people from this distance?” she asked.

  “It’s tricky but I can do it if he’s by the window. Structures complicate things a little bit.”

  “Great, so how do we get him by the window?”

  That was a good question. They hadn’t really thought that part through, Jamie focusing too much on the actual mechanics of teaching brain-stuns and not enough on the logistics of the actual event. “Okay, let’s see—”

  “Hey! Fuckface! Give me back my suit!” Zoe yelled, though Jamie didn’t know if that involved extraordinary vocal cords or if she was just really, really pissed. “What’s the guy’s name?” she asked at a normal volume.

  “Richard,” Jamie said, regretting the decision instantly.

  “You! Richard! That’s my suit!”

  While Zoe continued berating the neighboring building—and drawing the unwanted attention of other residents, causing random lights to flash on and windows to open—Jamie reached out with his mind, tracing his path. He saw the man’s movement; first a stop, then a turn, then another stop, then finally a step toward the window. “It’s working. Get ready.”

  Zoe and Jamie crouched in unison, shoved up against the building’s concrete ledge. Zoe had her fingers outstretched inches over the ledge while Jamie pulled out binoculars to get a better look.

  The window slid open and the man’s closely shaved head poked out.

  “Now,” he said. “Now, now, now.”

  The man looked down at first, probably thinking the voice came from a heckler on the sidewalk. Then he looked left, then right, then his head snapped back, as if an invisible fist punched him.

  Okay, so that didn’t happen when Jamie executed his brain-stuns. “I think you hit him too hard,” he said, watching as the man stumbled out of view. Zoe stood up and perched on the edge, and as she did, Richard fell forward, his momentum throwing him halfway through the open window. “Oh shit, he’s gonna—”

  “I see it,” Zoe said, scooping Jamie up before he could protest. She leaped. They zoomed across the divide, Zoe’s lack of aim getting them too far up; she braced their impact with one outstretched hand, then they dropped straight down, slowing only when they got close. Still holding on to Jamie, she took one boot and shoved the man by the shoulder back into his apartment. “Get inside,” she said, and Jamie clambered over the ledge, not bothering to check if anyone saw them.

  Zoe landed looking no worse for wear. Richard, though, lay facedown, his arms and legs spread in awkward-but-not-broken directions.

  “Might want to go easier the next time you do this,” Jamie said.

  She didn’t respond, and instead marched straight over to the closet by the entry door. She opened the closet, then gave the door a good yank to tear it off its hinges and threw it on the floor, hard enough to earn a giant crack in the middle of the wood. “My suit,” she said, picking up the folded stack of leather pieces. “Hey. While we’re here, we should investigate. See if he has access to anything Kaftan’s been up to.”

  “I’ll dive into his memories, you search around the place,” he said.

  “Good call,” she said. Shortly after, the sound of drawers opening and closing came from the bedroom.

  Jamie didn’t bother to check if she was making a mess and instead focused on the man’s memories. He flipped through the different images, skipping past mundane stuff like Richard’s previous job as a plumber or the bag of groceries that remained unpacked on the counter (he took a minute to double-check and indeed, some ground beef and eggs sat in the bag, and he briefly considered putting them away so they didn’t go bad, at least until he imagined Zoe’s reaction to that); digging further, he saw that the man bought a dozen lottery tickets tonight, and slightly further back, perhaps an hour or two, he’d loaded a large sum of cash into a backpack.

  That bit felt familiar.

  But where did he get the cash?

  Even further back, the man was at the facility, not the dingy lab part but a place that looked like a clean conference room. Kaftan was there, but Richard must not have been paying attention because her voice came in and out. Only bits and pieces landed, “for your service” and “coming to completion” and “severance package.” She handed paperwork for the people to sign, sheets that looked like a nondisclosure agreement, and handed them each stacks of cash.

  Jamie pulled back to the present, teeth digging into his top lip. Kaftan was getting rid of her security protocol. But why? Why give them severance packages and NDAs?

  Why—

  Because something must have convinced her that Zoe’s latest serum was working.

  “Zoe!” he yelled as he stood up. “We’ve got a—”

  The sight of a trashed apartment stole his words. Every drawer and cabinet lay open, clothes and mail spilled all over the floor, forks and spoons lay sprinkled across the kitchen linoleum. The mess tickled at Jamie’s nerves, pulling at him to scramble onto the floor and begin restoring everything back to its proper place. He took in a breath and counted to five, and as he did that, Zoe walked out of the bathroom—Jamie didn’t want to know what she possibly could have done there.

  She patted him on the shoulder as she passed. “What? This guy stole my suit. Besides,” she said, holding up a key card with Richard’s photo, “look what I found.”

  “Right.” Better make that a ten count. “We should get going. I think Kaftan is happy with your serum.”

  “What makes you say that?” she said, grabbing a bottle of vodka and pouring it all over the unconscious man’s head and shoulders. “See, he did this to himself. Proof is in the empty bottle.”

  “Okay. Fair enough. Look, I dove into his memories. Kaftan paid off her security team today and made them sign NDAs. I think whatever it is she was looking for out of you, she’s satisfied.” Everything started to line up, puzzle pieces tumbling together and locking into place when Jamie considered the bigger, more frightening picture. “She said she needed two things to bring back Waris. You. And the city’s electrical grid. I knew she’d be monitoring your powers, but...oh shit.”

  Zoe took a swig of the last few drops remaining in the vodka bottle then set it on the floor next to the man’s hand. “What do you mean, ‘oh shit’?”

  “They gave you a phone this time. I thought it was just a logistical thing or something, but they must have used it to track you. You have mind powers now. I think that’s what she w
anted to confirm. Waris needs his mind and body to be stable. You already showed the physical strength, the mind powers must be the part that affects the brain, that keeps it stable during this process. Shit,” he said, “they must know we’re here. And if she’s close to activating Project Electron...”

  Zoe’s eyes snapped to attention, locking into his. “Jamie. This is it. We gotta go stop her. If she takes the city’s grid, it’ll be chaos for who knows how long. Let’s go right now.”

  “What?” There was that enthusiasm again, but sprinting to the front gate seemed like the easiest way to get killed. “I’m not sure if an impromptu attack is our best way to stop Kaftan.”

  “You have a better plan?”

  “Okay, let’s think this through. If we just show up there, she’s bound to be waiting for us. Her or whatever security detail they have left. It doesn’t matter how strong we are, they’ll be prepared. They’ll be watching for us.” A facility. In the middle of nowhere. With just two people approaching it, and the element of surprise seemingly evaporated. That wasn’t going to work. Jamie’s mind raced, considering all the ways to turn their disadvantage into an advantage.

  “But what if it’s more than us?” he finally said.

  “And who would that be? We’re not exactly social people—”

  “We don’t have to be,” Jamie said. He pulled out his phone to check the time. Nearly seven in the evening. They’d need to move quick. “I’ve got someone in mind.”

  Zoe pumped her fist and immediately followed it with a full-body seizure that caused her limbs to stiffen and back to arch. She fell on the floor next to the puddle of spilled vodka, motionless for several seconds before she picked herself back up.

  “What the hell was that?” Jamie asked.

  She blinked several times, then looked at him, staring in a way that made him fear she’d lost her memory again. “Jamie,” she said, tension in her voice giving him chills, “I don’t see your heat signature.”