by Lucas Flint
“It’s kind of cute, I guess,” I said reluctantly. “Lots of kids his age want to be superheroes or sidekicks when they grow up. I know I wanted to be a sidekick when I was his age.”
“Yes, all the little boys and a fair few little girls want to be superheroes when they grow up,” said Sasha as she put the picture back down on her desk facing away from me. “Why, when I was a little girl, I always admired Princess Fairy Wings. Do you know who she was?”
I shook my head. “No, I’ve never heard of her.”
“She was a superhero in the same generation as that awful Iron Angel, active when I was not much older than Michael,” said Sasha. “She was so pretty and kind. She looked like a real life princess from an actual fairy tale book. Of course, her career ended when she got married to another superhero, the second Prime Man, and they had a child together, so she retired to focus on being a stay-at-home mother.”
That meant that this Princess Fairy Wings lady must have been the mother of Nathan Grace, the current Prime Man. I didn’t say that aloud, however, mostly because it was irrelevant and because I was still trying to figure out Sasha’s real game.
“That’s nice,” I said in a bland voice. “Sounds like a good woman.”
“She was,” said Sasha, nodding. She sighed. “Unfortunately, I never felt called to become a superhero or sidekick myself. My father, Charles Munroe, wanted one of his children to inherit Munroe Acquisitions. And, since my sister got married and became a mother, I ended up inheriting the business from my father when he retired, though if he had had any sons, I’m sure he would have passed it on to one of them instead.”
She spoke normally, but I could tell that she was leaving out some facts. Perhaps her ‘inheritance’ didn’t go as peacefully as she implied or there was some other important information she was leaving out.
“But I’m not complaining,” said Sasha. She leaned back in her chair, a satisfied look on her face. “I may not dress up in tights and go out into the streets to fight crime, but working in the superhero acquisitions business means I get to know all sorts of people who do. It is one of the most satisfying businesses in which to work and I work tirelessly to continue my father’s legacy.”
“Right,” I said. “Tell me, does stealing information from competitors and allowing one of your superheroes to stage a kidnapping and put the lives of innocent people at risk part of your father’s legacy? ‘Cause if so, that’s a pretty terrible legacy.”
It was amazing to see Sasha’s attitude change so abruptly. One moment, she was smiling and looked a bit like a kindly old aunt or schoolteacher; the next, anger dominated her middle-aged features. She leaned toward me, her eyes glaring at me with such intensity that I almost believed that she was going to shoot lasers from them herself. Even knowing that she was a powerless, I had to admit that she could be very intimidating when she wanted to be.
“I didn’t invite you into my office to make snarky comments about my father, boy,” said Sasha. Her tone was a sharp and cold as an icicle. “Or talk about things that happened a long time ago.”
“They weren’t that long ago,” I said. I folded my arms across my chest. “Not that it matters either way. You’ve prattled on enough about your nephew and your father. Why don’t we get down to business? That is, to the real reason you blackmailed me into coming here to meet you personally?”
For a moment, Sasha looked like she was about to tell Takeshi to grab me by the collar of my shirt and throw me out of the office (or out the window behind her). Takeshi even inched toward me; it was a subtle movement, one he probably thought I missed, but I’d been keeping a close eye on him as well ever since I entered the headquarters and so I didn’t miss it.
But then Sasha sat back in her chair, took a long, deep breath as if to calm herself, and then said, “Straight to the point, I see. An admirable quality in a man, though one I didn’t think you had yourself. Perhaps working for Rubberman has made you a little tougher.”
“Nah, I just know what you’re really like,” I said. “And if you keep insulting me like that, then I’ll just let myself out of the building and never see you again.”
“And risk having your identity leaked onto the Internet?” Sasha said. She smirked. “It’s your choice, of course, but most sidekicks aren’t so eager to throw away their jobs like you are.”
Damn it. I got so caught up in talking bluntly to her that I had forgotten how she had gotten me here in the first place. No doubt she saw me as just another stupid kid now, if she hadn’t before. I’d have to be careful not to do something stupid like that again.
“Given how you are still sitting in your chair, I can tell you were just bluffing,” said Sasha. “But you are correct that it is time we get down to business. I am a busy woman, you know, and don’t have all the time in the world to waste talking with teenagers like you.”
“Fine,” I said. “Tell me what we’re going to talk about. I’m all ears.”
“Very well,” said Sasha. She glanced at Takeshi. “Takeshi, could you please show Mr. Beams the documents? He needs to see them in order to understand what we’re about to talk about better.”
Takeshi nodded once and pulled out a blank folder seemingly from nowhere. He rested it on the desk and then slid it across the desk’s smooth surface toward me, which I caught before it could fall onto the floor. Opening the folder, I found myself staring at a picture of Rubberman and a fairly recent one, too, based on the way his hair was done. Underneath the picture of Rubberman was a fairly lengthy bio detailing his history, powers, estimated yearly business revenue, and a whole bunch of other facts and details that most people didn’t know or that weren’t even public.
I looked up at Sasha. “What’s this?”
Sasha’s smirk never left her face. “A nearly complete document detailing everything we know about Rubberman. Some of it we’ve gotten through Internet research, some from private detectives we’ve hired to look into Rubberman’s past, and still some from Takeshi’s own personal research methods.”
By ‘Takeshi’s own personal research methods,’ I figured she was talking about the time Takeshi broke into the Elastic Cave and stole some files from us, but I was too curious—and worried—about why they kept such a detailed file on Rubberman than on that.
“We also have one on you, naturally enough,” said Sasha. “It’s underneath Rubberman’s file, though it’s not a detailed as his due to your young age.”
I flipped Rubberman’s page over. Sasha was right. Staring up at me was a picture of my own face, smiling at the camera. Underneath it was my name, age, powers, family members, and even my address. I didn’t spend too much time reading it, but from what I read of it, it seemed very complete and, more importantly, accurate.
I looked up at Sasha again, except now I was more afraid than curious. “Why do you have this information on us?”
“Simple,” said Sasha. She steepled her fingers together. “For years now, I’ve been trying to get Rubberman to sell me his business. I’ve spent a long time studying him, finding out what makes him tick, yet he’s always refused every offer I’d made to him. That document is the fruit of five years’ worth of research, compiled from a variety of sources. I even know how he got his powers in the first place.”
I froze. “You mean you know about the Rubber Ball?”
“Of course,” said Sasha. “But the actual question I thought you would ask—the question you should be asking me—is why I am showing you these documents in the first place. Did that question ever occur to you?”
I blinked. “No, it did not.”
“Let me answer it anyway,” said Sasha. She rested her hands in her lap. “I want you to know that I could destroy you and Rubberman. I want you to know that we know who your family members are and where they live. I want you to know you can’t hide from me, that no matter how clever or strong or fast you think you are, you are not safe from my reach.”
Sasha no longer sounded even remotely reasonable. Her eye tw
itched slightly, while her voice had a manic edge to it. Even Takeshi looked slightly uncomfortable by her change in attitude, though based on his resigned expression, it was pretty clear that she had acted like this before.
“You think that because you’ve beaten a few supervillains, that you are invincible,” said Sasha. Her hands balled into fists. “But no one is invincible, Alex. Not you and especially not Rubberman. Do you understand that?”
I nodded, albeit reluctantly. “I do, but I don’t see why you are telling me this. Are you just trying to make me scared or something?”
“The reason I want you to know this is so you will do exactly what I want you to do,” said Sasha. “And what I want you to do is this: Go back to the Elastic Cave and kill Rubberman.”
My jaw dropped. I almost fell out of my seat, but I managed to catch myself before I fell onto the floor. “Wait, what?”
“You heard me,” said Sasha. She leaned back in her chair, though she still looked as mad as ever. “I want you to walk into the Elastic Cave and kill Rubberman. It’s that simple.”
“You want me to murder my boss?” I would have picked wax out of my ears, but my helmet made that impossible to do, and anyway I knew I was hearing her just fine. “Are you serious?”
“Quite,” said Sasha. “And don’t think of it as ‘murder,’ per se. That will just make it harder for you to do.”
“I … uh… what …” I shook my head. “This is insane. How will murdering Rubberman help anything?”
“Once Rubberman dies, ownership of the Rubberman business will likely be put up for auction, seeing as he doesn’t have any children or family members to pass it onto,” said Sasha simply. “Once it is up for sale, I will swoop in and buy it for a bargain price and add it to the diverse range of superhero businesses that Munroe Acquisitions already has. Then, once the Rubberman movie comes out later this year, I will see record growths for Munroe Acquisitions’ revenue and profits.”
I guess what she said made sense, from an abstract, purely financial point of view, but her request was still so crazy that I had to say, “This doesn’t make sense. You’re asking me to commit murder. Murder.”
“It’s all a part of doing business, boy,” said Sasha coldly. “You don’t know what I’ve done in the past to get what I want. Or what Takeshi has done to get me what I want, for that matter. And I know you will do it, do it and not tell anyone else why.”
“I’m not a killer,” I said. “I mean, not a murderer, because I’ve killed in self-defense, but I would never intentionally murder another human being, especially not my own boss.”
Sasha smirked. “Hmm, I suppose under normal circumstances, you wouldn’t murder another human, would you? But would you murder another human being to protect the freedom of your thief girlfriend? Or the safety and lives of your mom and dad? Or perhaps to ensure that your older brother is able to graduate from college without needing to eat through a tube?”
I understood the implied threat immediately, but even so, I said, “You wouldn’t.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t,” said Sasha in agreement. “Takeshi, on the other hand, is a lot less nice than me. He isn’t exactly bloodthirsty, of course, but he has spent many decades perfecting his assassination techniques and has never been caught. Personally, I think he is an even better assassin than ZZZ, given how he isn’t in prison at the moment, but that may just be my bias talking.”
I looked at Takeshi. The ninja had not said a single word since the start of the meeting, but he had obviously paid attention to everything we discussed. While I couldn’t guess at what he was thinking, I had no doubt that he could harm all of my loved ones that Sasha just listed.
And even worse, I couldn’t stop him if I tried.
I looked at Sasha again. “How do you know I won’t tell the police or Rubberman that you asked me to murder him?”
“Then I will assume that you don’t really care about the safety of your family and will allow Takeshi to do with them as he sees fit,” said Sasha without missing a beat. “But if you do kill Rubberman, Takeshi will not lay even one finger on anyone you care about. You will lose your job as Rubberman’s sidekick, of course, because someone will need to be arrested for his murder and who better to be arrested than his actual murderer?”
Sasha was right. If I refused to kill Rubberman, she would likely have my family members killed, and maybe even kill me, too. But if I killed Rubberman, I would become a wanted murderer and likely go to jail for the rest of my life.
It was easily the hardest dilemma of my entire life. Neither choice was good and I couldn’t see some third way compromise or decision that would allow me to get out of this with my integrity, freedom, or life intact. Sasha had carefully designed this entire situation to trap me, and so far it was working like a charm.
“One last thing I forgot to mention,” said Sasha suddenly. “If you do decide to kill Rubberman, I’ll give you a week in which to do it. While I would like to have Rubberman’s business right away, I don’t mind having to wait another week for it, if necessary. But just a week. If you fail to kill Rubberman by the end of the week, then I will have Takeshi kill your family members just as if you had refused to do it in the first place.”
I had perked up a little at hearing that I was going to have a week to do it, but when Sasha added the rest, I became depressed again. Once more, I found myself facing an awful choice no matter what I did.
“So?” said Sasha. “Make your choice. I’m a busy woman, you know, and don’t have all the time in the world to wait for your decision.”
You’re not the one being forced to decide whether he cares more about his boss or his family, I wanted to scream, but I kept my mouth shut. I already knew what my decision was going to be, but even with that knowledge, I didn’t feel very comfortable about it and I didn’t want to say it aloud.
Despite that, my mouth seemed to work of its own accord, because I heard myself saying, “All right, Sasha. I’ll kill Rubberman for you. Just don’t harm my family, okay?”
Sasha’s sweet smile returned, but this time it looked more like the smile of a cat about to pounce on an unwary mouse. “Excellent. I knew you’d make the right choice, Alex. You will probably end up in jail, but don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of ‘friends’ in there who would be more than happy to show you around, I’m sure, if only because you put them in there yourself.”
I nodded, but deep down I wanted to get up and blast that stupid smile off Sasha’s stupid face. Takeshi would probably kill me the very next second after that—heck, he might even kill me before my lasers kill Sasha, he was very fast, after all—but it would be worth it just the same to burn that evil smile off her face permanently.
But with a supreme force of will, I stayed in my chair and said nothing. I didn’t trust myself to not start shouting and screaming at her if I opened my mouth.
“Now, Takeshi, please escort young Mr. Beams out of the building,” said Sasha in her normal, businesslike tone of voice. “Drop him off wherever he wishes to go.”
Takeshi bowed. “Yes, Miss Munroe.”
Then Sasha looked at me, her smile never leaving her lips. “And Beams, remember, you have only one week in which to complete your mission. If Rubberman is still alive by the end of the week, your family won’t.”
I said nothing to that. I just rose from my chair and followed Takeshi out of the office. Right before I passed through the doorway, I thought about turning around and shooting Sasha with my lasers.
But that thought lasted only a moment. And when I passed through the doorway, I stopped thinking about it entirely, because now my focus was on how to get out of this situation.
CHAPTER FIVE
I did not go to the Elastic Cave immediately. I probably should have, because the sooner I got this stuff out of the way, the better, but even though I’d accepted Sasha’s demands, I could never bring myself to kill Rubberman. The thought of murdering my boss was too much; it was like thinking about murdering my own dad or
uncle. I only really agreed to Sasha’s demand so I could get out of there, anyway. The Munroe Acquisitions’ headquarters may have looked like an ordinary office building from the outside, but I knew that on the inside, the worst kind of evil plans were drawn up and put into action. I wondered how many other evil or illegal plans Sasha had come up with in that office, and whether or not this would be the last of them.
In any case, I asked Takeshi to drop me off at my house out in the suburbs. I wanted to see Mom and Dad. I couldn’t tell them what I had promised to do, but I wanted to make sure they were okay. Takeshi said he had not harmed my parents or my brother, James, and that he would not touch any of them unless I failed in my mission, but I still wanted to see them anyway and make sure they were okay. Maybe it was irrational to worry about them like that, but given the circumstances, I didn’t think so.
On the way there, I got out of my Beams costume and put on my normal clothes, making sure to put my Beams costume safely inside my backpack where no one could see it. Thanks to the dark window between the driver’s part of the limo and the passengers part, Takeshi did not see me change; even so, I had a feeling I was being watched anyway, like maybe there were hidden cameras installed in the limo’s interior. Maybe there were hidden cameras in here which Sasha had installed so she could spy on people she did business with. Wouldn’t put it past her.
When I got out of the limousine, Takeshi didn’t give me any last words. He just drove the limousine up the street, around a corner, and out of sight. I thought it strange that he didn’t have some sort of ominous last warning for me to make sure I kept my end of the deal unless I wanted to see my family suffer, but then I realized that Takeshi must have been so confident that I was going to kill Rubberman that he didn’t need to threaten me to do it. Either Takeshi didn’t know me at all or else he knew me better than I thought. Both thoughts troubled me greatly.
Regardless, I slung my backpack over my shoulder and made my way up the driveway to the front porch. James’ red truck was parked in front of the garage, which meant that he was visiting again, though that wasn’t shocking because James usually came home to visit on the weekends. The windows were lighted, which meant that everyone was probably home; again, not surprising, because Dad got the weekends off as well, so it wasn’t unusual for the whole family to be home on the weekends.
