Lady Superior

by Alex Ziebart

  Ding. Ding. Ding.

  The horde of Daughters fell still. Kristen whimpered as she shook off their grasping hands. She saw their eyes—a sea of neon eyes—gazing above and behind her. Kristen whipped her head back to look.

  Ding. Ding.

  The elevator was descending. Kristen looked at the Daughters again; their eyes made her shiver. They seemed hungry somehow, eager to get at whatever was coming—far more interested in it than in her. She heard the elevator slide into place behind her. She looked back, as the doors slid open, now curious herself.

  Empty.

  “Where is the traitor?” the Daughters hissed.

  A flash and the sound of a small explosion filled the subbasement. Kristen jumped in shock, ears ringing. The earthquake stopped in an instant. The Daughters whirled to look behind them. Todd stood over Delphi’s corpse, the ten-inch barrel of a revolver smoking in his hand, candlelight reflecting off of the shining metal. Blood rushed from the scattered remnants of her head to pool around her.

  The Daughters screamed in horror. They untangled themselves from one another and rushed to her. Todd snatched the ring from her finger and blinked away, appearing at Kristen’s side. His eyes widened with shock, mouth agape in horror. The Daughters formed a circle around Delphi and wept on hands and knees. Kristen shuddered; the sound of them weeping in unison was haunting.

  Todd pressed the ring into Kristen’s palm. He grabbed her arm and hauled her into the elevator, slamming first the lobby button, then the Close Doors button, over and over again until the doors slid closed. The elevator jerked into motion.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  Kristen looked up at him. He looked terrible. His beard was half-burned and the stench of it clung to him. Black soot stained his face, strips of clean skin showing through where sweat ran from his forehead. His face was pulled taut, eyes hollow. She nodded. “I think I’m okay. You? Was there a fire?”

  “Yeah.” He spoke in a hushed whisper. “There was a fire. I knew that girl.”

  “Girl?”

  Todd made a vague motion toward the elevator doors with his free hand. His other still clutched the oversized revolver. “That one. Them. She—They? She worked at Delphi’s store. She was pregnant. She always called my wife for advice. I painted her nursery. She told me to bring my family. She made us dinner.”

  “Were there thirty cribs in that nursery?”

  He shook his head so slowly she was sure he didn’t hear the question.

  The elevator opened to the lobby and they stepped out together. They came face-to-face with a pair of gun barrels.

  Cole and Gabby relaxed at once and popped a switch on their weapons, folding the guns into little block boxes. “Shit,” Gabby cursed. He shrugged a backpack from his shoulders and tossed it to Kristen’s feet. “You two pull it off?”

  Kristen picked up the bag and peeked inside, seeing the wig and clothes she’d ditched in the alley. She forced a smile, still disturbed by the Daughters. “And you two brought toys to a fight?”

  “He didn’t.” Cole gestured to Todd’s monster revolver with an upward tilt of her chin. “Smith & Wesson 500? You didn’t get that from us.”

  Todd looked down at the gun in his hand. Just looking at the way it laid in his palm, Kristen could tell it weighed a ton. He shrugged. “Brought it from home.”

  Cole’s face scrunched with skepticism. “From home? Don’t you live in the suburbs? The hell do you need something like that for?”

  “I have a cabin up north. It’s—”

  Kristen jumped in. “Look, I’m sure your guns are fascinating, but there’s…weirdness downstairs.”

  “Weirdness?” Gabby asked. “You leave something alive down there? You got the ring, right?”

  “Yeah,” Kristen exhaled. “I mean, yeah I got the ring, and yeah something’s alive. They called themselves the Daughters of Delphi. There were at least thirty of them. I might have killed a couple, I don’t really know. They’re all identical. Like clones or something. Naked. Bloody. I don’t even know.”

  Gabby and Cole exchanged a glance. Their faces turned grim. They flicked their wrists and their little boxes snapped open again. Together, they walked past Todd and Kristen into the elevator. While Cole hit the button, Gabby spoke. “You two get back to Temple with that ring. We’ll…clean up.”

  Kristen waited for the doors to close and tapped her earpiece. “Jane, can you still hear me?”

  “I hear you. The quake stopped—did you do it?”

  “Yeah. I got it. I’m gonna bring it home. Jane, that howling…”

  “It stopped. Forget it for now. And that woman you left outside Seidel. She was gone when Cole and Gabby got there.”

  Kristen shook her head. “If you’re still handling extraction, Gabby and Cole are going to need it.”

  “On my way.” Jane added after a momentary silence, “Good work out there. I made some bad calls, and—”

  “We’ll talk later, Jane. Get out here before the cops lock the place down, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  Kristen pulled out her earpiece and tucked it into the backpack. She motioned for Todd to follow suit and waited until he pocketed his before she spoke. “I’m going to change into these clothes real quick.”

  “Good idea.”

  She looked down at herself. Her body, though covered in blood and dirt, was mostly in one piece. Even the wound in her shoulder seemed to be healing already, though she knew it shouldn’t be. That one had been bad. Her clothes, however, were a horror show. Barely hanging on they were so shredded, the sight strengthened her resolve to change—the last thing she wanted to do after a hard fight was provide the media with a peep show. “…right. Anyway, after I change, we are heading back to Temple.”

  “We are?” he asked with a wrinkled forehead.

  “That’s where our cars are. I’ll be in touch.”

  “What do I do?”

  “Get away from Temple. Get out of their reach until you hear from me.”

  “Got it.”

  Hastened by Todd’s teleportation—jumping them forward whenever he was sure nobody would see it—they made their way back to Temple as soon as Kristen was decent again. Walking rather than running, Kristen saw what Delphi’s quake had wrought for the first time. Though nothing seemed to have toppled, there was no shortage of damage. Brick facades collapsed into the street. Statues and gargoyles lay toppled. Windows had shattered, coating the sidewalks in glass. Though some roads were fully intact, others spiderwebbed with cracks or fissures.

  In time, they’d repair it all. Kristen couldn’t help but feel at fault, though; using Seidel Tower as bait had given Delphi the opportunity. If they hadn’t fallen for obvious distractions, the damage would have been lessened, if not prevented entirely.

  I wasn’t ready for this. I didn’t know enough.

  Next time, I’ll do better.

  Todd followed Kristen to her car in the Temple parking garage. He stood by while she popped open her trunk and deposited Gabby’s backpack and opened a bright blue cooler. Kristen tossed Todd a pink sports drink and took one for herself, drinking half the bottle before lowering it from her lips. “Hey, you should get going. Maybe shave your crispy beard.”

  He ran his fingers through his beard and grimaced when they got stuck in melted hair. Pieces of the stuff cracked and fell away in a cascade. “Yeah. I guess I’ll do that. Stay safe, alright?”

  Kristen thumped her abs. “Unbreakable, remember?”

  Todd snorted, turned, and strode to his car. Kristen watched him load in and pull out. It was better if he went first; if someone was watching her, it wouldn’t look like he was following.

  “Ow.” Kristen winced. Hunger pains struck her harder than the blast that’d sent her through a car. Her hands shot into her cooler and came back up with a bagged lunch. She tore it open and shoved an energy bar in her mouth. Half of it hung from her lips while she dug out her sandwich and a plastic baggy of vitamins.

&
nbsp; “Maiden.”

  Kristen jerked at the robotic voice. She tore off her wig and threw it into the trunk. Whirling, she scanned the garage for the archer, granola bar still dangling from her mouth.

  “Don’t worry,” the archer said, “I’m not concerned with your identity. I know the value of a mask.”

  She finally spotted him—worryingly close, only a few cars away, blending into a dark spot where the lights barely touched. Tearing off the dangling granola bar, she spoke with her mouth full. She was too hungry to do otherwise. “Were you following me? You could’ve helped at the tower.”

  “No. I was waiting right here. I knew you could do it once you knew where she was.”

  “You were waiting? You know which car I drive?”

  “I watched the news. That car fit the gas station’s description.”

  Kristen swung her arm down the aisle, gesturing across the row double row of identical cars. “It’s a company car. They all fit the description.”

  “Yes, but only that one had a stack of comics in the back seat.”

  She shivered. “You know I read comic books?”

  “You said something to that effect before you tried to break my spine.”

  “You started it.”

  “You’re not wrong.”

  “Why are you here? What do you want?”

  The archer stepped out of the shadows. Kristen saw his bow in full light for the first time. At first glance, it looked like a maddeningly complex piece of machinery. She remembered from watching too much TV, though, that pretty much all modern compound bows looked more complex than they really were. He held out a small, blocky cell phone. “If you ever need my help, call me. My number’s already programmed in.”

  Kristen crammed the other half of the granola bar in her mouth and took the phone with the same hand. “Oh, boy. Just what I always wanted. More phones.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Comes with the territory, I guess.” Kristen took a swig of her drink. “You’re not going back to Delphi, I hope. I know we killed her, but I know she doesn’t really die, too.”

  “No. I’m not.”

  “Good. You know, if you hadn’t told me where Delphi was, this could’ve been bad. Really bad.”

  “I know.”

  Kristen leaned against the back of her back. “They told me I’m supposed to build a team. Every superhero team needs an archer for some reason. You want in?”

  “Maybe we should take it slow. Get to know each other better.”

  “Did a robot just make a joke?” Kristen feigned shock, letting her jaw drop. “A flirty joke? The future is now.”

  “I’m not a robot.”

  “You saw my wig. Turn off your voice box and prove it.”

  The archer turned away. “Call me if you need me.”

  “Oh, come on. This isn’t fair.”

  “Goodbye, Maiden.”

  “It’s Lady Superior now.”

  “Is it?”

  “Pending trademark negotiations.”

  The archer chuckled. Through the voicebox, it sounded like a dying Tickle Me Elmo. “Good luck, Lady.”

  He walked away, his booted feet never making a sound. Kristen rolled her eyes.

  Weirdo.

  Kristen pulled the lunch bag out of the cooler and slammed the trunk shut. She hopped into her car, arranged her myriad phones, and stuffed a sandwich in her face. From her pocket, she extracted Delphi’s ring—Nenet’s ring—and rolled it around her palm. Such a little thing could do so much damage? She tucked it into her cleavage for safekeeping and picked up her Temple phone—rather, the archer’s replacement for it—and turned it on. She hadn’t expected it to work. She recalled Emma once bricked a pair of cell phones by trying to swap SIM cards; the phones had been locked to the carrier. This did work, though: she had a text waiting from Bernice. Shady dealers like Temple and the archer probably didn’t let themselves get carrier-locked.

  The text contained two words: Got it.

  Kristen started her car and gunned it out of the garage.

  Chapter 15

  Kristen glanced at the hastily scrawled map taped to the center of her steering wheel. She’d plotted her path to Sam’s Salvage on a napkin, the intervals at which she’d call her allies clearly marked. She doubted she had all of it correct; it had all devolved into a nightmare of a math problem. If Kristen leaves the Temple building at 12 p.m. and is traveling 15 miles to Sam’s Salvage at 60 miles per hour for half of the trip and an average of 30 miles per hour for the other half, and Todd leaves wherever he is for Sam’s Salvage five minutes later, traveling at an average speed of god-knows, and Jane leaves the Temple building five minutes after Todd traveling the same speed as Kristen…

  It would have to be good enough. She dug a headset out of her glove compartment, plugged it into her phone, and dialed the first number.

  “Hello?”

  Kristen couldn’t help but grin at the robotic voice. It sounded even sillier over the phone. She kept her eyes on the road as she spoke through the headset. “Hey. I need your help.”

  “Already? We spoke ten minutes ago.”

  “I needed the help before you offered it.”

  “What do you need?”

  Kristen decided to hold no punches while explaining the situation; the archer might not know any of the parties involved. “I was supposed to leave the ring with the Templars. I didn’t. Do you know the changelings? Delphi stole the ring from them.”

  “I’m familiar with them. Have you turned on the Templars so quickly?”

  “No. There’s a princess or whatever with the changelings. She’s holding my sister hostage and offered a trade: I get my sister back if I give them the ring. They want me to come alone.”

  Though the voice box didn’t do a good job of carrying inflection, the rapidity of the archer’s words suggested impatience. “Then why call me?”

  “Because there’s no fucking way I’m giving them the ring or letting them have my sister. I have a plan, but I could use backup. If you’re willing to help me, I want you nearby, but out of sight until things start to go down. I’m going to make it very clear taking the people I love hostage is not a smart way of trying to get to me.”

  “I take it you don’t think the Templars will be willing to help you out of this one.”

  “I think they will, but more backup can’t hurt. Are you in or not?”

  After a long pause, he agreed. “I’m in. What’s the location and how fast do I need to get there?”

  “Sam’s Salvage near the airport. Get there as fast as you can, but stay out of sight, like I said. I’ll be there in about fifteen minutes. If you can get there in twenty, that’ll be good enough.”

  “Make it twenty-five. It’s the middle of the day and my disguise is a little more elaborate than yours. Changing takes time.”

  “Maybe you should rethink the costume.”

  “No.”

  “Twenty-five minutes. Do it.”

  They hung up. Kristen glanced at the time, then her map. Turning her attention back to the highway traffic, she merged a lane closer to the exit lane in preparation. Then she called Todd.

  “Yeah,” he answered.

  “Start moving toward Sam’s Salvage. I’m a little less than fifteen minutes out. You still with me?”

  “I still owe you, so yeah. I’m with you.”

  Kristen winced. “Todd, you don’t owe me. If there was ever a debt, you repaid it when you took care of Delphi. I wasn’t going to be able to do it. Help me because we’re a team, not because we’re trying to keep the scales balanced.”

  “Yeah, okay. Sure.”

  “Todd,” she grumbled, “don’t give me that. We’re a team. We help each other. When we need help, we ask. That’s what teammates do. That’s what friends do. There’s no debt.”

  “I said okay, okay? What’s the plan?”

  Kristen tapped her brakes to let a driver merge over, being extra cautious on account of being on the phone. �
��When we get off the phone, I’m going to send a friend of mine a message with your Temple number. When she gets it, she’s going to forward you some pictures. They’ll be pictures of the building where they’re holding my sister. You need to get there without them noticing you, blink in there, grab my sister, and get the hell out.”

  “How am I supposed to get in there unnoticed?”

  “I’m going to trust you to figure that out. The land around the scrapyard is covered in tall grass. I don’t know, you’re a hunter. Throw on some camo.”

  Todd groaned. “I’ll have to go home for that. I’m driving right now, but I’d have to turn around to get it. I’m sure the cops are still watching my house, too.”

  “I trust you. Figure it out. The scrapyard isn’t too far from where we live; you have time.”

  “Yeah. Okay.”

  “Okay?”

  “Okay.”

  Kristen fell quiet. “Hey, thanks. We only met a few days ago, and it wasn’t in the best of circumstances, but I don’t think I could’ve gotten through any of this without you. All of this was terrifying when I was alone. Just knowing there was someone else…it helped. You helped.”

  She heard a scratching sound from Todd’s end—he was probably scratching his beard. After a long silence, he finally replied. “Don’t thank me until you have your sister, okay?”

  Todd hung up before she could say anything more. Kristen blew out a breath and tapped the message with Todd’s cell number to Bernice. From there, she drove. The highway was like any other: long, straight, and boring. As such, she had nothing to keep her mind from racing. Would this plan work? If she—or Todd—screwed it up and got Emma killed, she didn’t know what she’d do. Would she hold it against him? She liked to think she wouldn’t, but it hadn’t happened yet. She knew she might. And what would it do to him? He was a prickly bastard, but he felt indebted to her no matter how hard she tried to convince him otherwise.