She propped herself up against the rock wall. The cells were small, with no light and no bedding; just a hole in the ground to defecate. It wasn’t as bad as a hot box in Somali, but it wasn’t great. She shuddered at the memory of the worst six days of her life.
Kate, at some point you need to revise your strategies. This is the third time in your life you’ve undergone torture. Let’s not make it a fourth?
Her inner critic, always ready with helpful advice, made her smile. She closed her eyes for a moment, letting the tension drain out of her body and double checking that she could activate Amelia’s arm if she needed too. So far, her captors still believed they were the ones in charge. That thought brought another smile to her face.
Which immediately turned into a frown as she thought of Carlos. He had to be chomping at the bit to come get her. As the Protector of Humanity, he could be anywhere in the world in seconds. When she pressed him on the how, he had said: “When I’m in orbit I just think of where I want to go, or who I want to go to, then throw the spear. It does the rest.”
He had always liked her. All men did, at first. After he came back as the Protector though... he’d changed, not just in body but his mind. There was something… special about him. Thinking of him warmed her heart and heated her cheeks. She shook her head, forcing her feelings down. Now wasn’t the time to be dwelling on Carlos.
She moved a little to the side to dig a rock out of her back, letting out an unconscious groan as she did so.
“Kate?” a man said.
“Who’s there?” she replied.
“It’s Major Nelson. Tony,” he said.
“Major, I’m glad you’re still alive.” It wasn’t a lie. The man had only done his duty, she knew that. She even respected it, even though it had led to her current situation.
“I’m so sorry, Kate. I didn’t know,” he said.
“How much of what you told me was true?” she asked.
Silence was his only answer. She waited patiently for him to decide to speak. As she did, she worked out the kinks in her muscles, stretching them and encouraging them to heal.
“I’m so sorry,” Nelson said again.
“Tony, listen, I get it, you’re sorry. Now, how much of what you told me was true? The only weapon I have is information and I need as much as I can get.” It frustrated her not to be able to use her empathic powers of persuasion on people, but it wasn’t her only gift.
“Only a little. I’m afraid. My orders were to stall you so I figured I would play into your hands with a story about conspiracy and deception.”
“How did you keep me from sensing that you were lying to me?” she asked.
“That machine I turned on—it mimics human alpha waves. It fed you what you wanted to believe.”
Kate frowned; that kind of technology didn’t exist as far as she knew. But then again, it happened.
“Don’t worry, Tony. Tell me what you do know, please?”
“Sure. I guess it doesn’t matter now. Part of what I said was true, key personnel have been replaced. But I thought it was the normal rotation of duty. My orders came from my new CO, a General Havloc. I should have known something was wrong; the man didn’t know the first thing about the Air Force. Sometimes, though, you get officers like that. Promoted for their ineptitude—to get them out of the way.”
“Do you think he was some kind of impostor?” she asked.
She heard the sound of fabric on rock as he shrugged and repositioned himself. The sound came from the cell across the hall from hers. The doors to her cell were wrought iron and closed with a chain. The doors looked old, but the chain was brand new. Standing up, she placed one hand on the wall and walked forward until she was standing next to the cell door.
She had guessed right; when he spoke again she heard him much more clearly.
“Maybe. I wasn’t paying attention and I should have. Considering the men who attacked you weren’t part of the military, I can only assume he was an impostor—or so deeply on the take it doesn’t matter.”
She nodded silently. “Amelia and I ran into an FBI agent who was like that. It was like... he wouldn’t listen to reason. He was pathologically convinced of Amelia’s guilt and there wasn’t anything anyone could do to convince him otherwise.”
“Huh,” Nelson said.
To Kate, there was a question in that sound. “What is it?”
“Well... I hadn’t thought about it until you said that, but I noticed that in my CO. He really doesn’t like superheroes—Amelia in particular. He kept wanting updates on their locations, activities, capabilities, that sort of thing. It was a little unusual, but not unheard of.”
Before Kate could answer, the far door down the end of the hallway opened and light spilled in. Several men marched in with determination on their faces and evil in their hearts. She didn’t need her empathic powers to understand what they planned to do next.
“I guess they got tired of water boarding.” She’d learned all she needed to know or could learn from them anyway. It was time to make her exit. She moved back against the far wall, cracking her neck muscles and loosening up her shoulders.
A key turned the lock and the first man pulled the chain off the cell door.
“Leave her alone,” Nelson yelled from the other side.
“Shut up,” was the only response.
The door creaked open and they poured in. They were big men; six feet, two-fifty each. If she were a normal woman this would be a problem.
“Get down on your knees and put your hands behind your back,” the first one said as he pulled out a long, sharp knife.
Kate grinned, she couldn’t help it. Not a mirthful grin—a merciless one.
“What’s so funny?” he asked. All six of them were in the cell now, spread out in a semi-circle around her. Every one of them was slightly more than an arm’s length away and any moment they would charge her.
“That you think I’m locked up in here with you,” she said. Confusion spread across his face as his brain tried to process the conflicting data. Her lips spread to a wide smile as she spoke. “Full beast mode.”
TWELVE
Kate blocked the knife blow, taking the edge on her bionic arm as she spun, dropped down and swept the man’s feet out from underneath him. He fell in a heap on the ground smacking his head on the stone. She leaped up, smashing her metal fist into the jaw of the next man in line. He was unconscious before he hit the ground.
Two down.
The last four, who had been stunned into inaction, moved. They didn’t come at her one at a time; instead, they rushed as one. Normally, Kate would agree that it was a smart move. No matter how good an unarmed opponent is, four-to-one is rarely winnable.
Kate wasn’t unarmed. Four-inch claws made from Amelia’s single molecule, diamond coated blades slid from under her fingernails. Visually, Kate’s bionic arm was an exact duplicate of her real arm. Amelia had gone to great lengths to program the Animetal with the exact texture, warmth, and feeling of a flesh arm. So much so that Kate often forgot it wasn’t flesh and blood.
The first man she hit didn’t even scream when her claws severed his jugular; the next man did as hot blood sprayed on him. She silenced him with a slash through his throat.
The third man unleashed a powerful blow, all his weight coming down on her jaw. Kate spun around, slashing out with her claws. She caught something and was rewarded with a howl of pain. Her vision cleared as she stumbled backward. A wave of sympathy hit her—one she was easily able to ignore. Still, she’d cut the man’s hand off and she would feel bad about that. Later. Not now.
The last one came at her with a look of grim determination. No witty banter, no taunts, just a pure desire to kill her. She batted his arm aside and jabbed him in the face. Even with her powers suppressed she was a skilled fighter and incredibly fit. Her blow snapped his head back, forcing his eyes closed for a split second. Kate dropped to her knees and lashed out with her bionic arm, her hand forming a knife edge as i
t slashed into his thigh, slicing a massive gash through his femoral artery. He collapsed, clasping his hands around the wound in a vain attempt to stem the bleeding.
She stood and watched him. Once his eyes closed for good, she looked around. All six were down. It was a far cry from her superhero fighting style. In her costume, she would never use her claws to kill. Not unless she had no other choice.
Here, though, it was kill or be killed and the ruthless assassin she had spent the last six years hiding was in her element.
She searched their bodies, looking for anything that would help her. A set of keys was all she found. No ID, no info on who they might have been. Two were still alive but she didn’t want to stop to question them. She just choked them out to make sure they stayed unconscious for a good long while.
The chain around the door broke in pieces under the strength of her bionic arm, falling with a rattle as she pulled it off. The door opened easily enough then.
“Kate?” Major Nelson said in shock. “How?”
“I’d tell you, but then I would have to kill you,” she said with no humor. The only person in her life who knew about her spy past was Amelia. Even working at the Pentagon, Nelson wouldn’t have the clearance or the ‘need to know’ to find out about her past.
“I thought they suppressed your powers?” he asked. “How?”
“They did. They just made one mistake,” she said.
Grabbing his locked door with her bionic arm she heaved. The door groaned before giving way with a screech of tortured metal. She tossed the door aside with a loud clang.
“What mistake was that?” he asked, eyes wide from shock at witnessing her do something she wasn’t supposed to be able to do.
Using her arm without her powers fully active came at a cost; pain. It flashed down her shoulder into her back. If she didn’t get her powers back soon, she’d feel that for a while.
“They thought they were smarter than Amelia. Everyone should know by now, no one is smarter than Amelia,” she said with a grin. “Let’s get out of here.”
Nelson agreed. Though the circumstances were grim, he couldn’t help but smile either. “If there is one thing I’ve learned in the last couple of years, it’s no one outsmarts Amelia for very long.”
Kate slapped him on the shoulder. “Good man.” She took off at a run down the hall while Nelson followed along behind. Since they had knocked her unconscious before depositing her in the cell, she didn’t have any recollection of the area. However, when the men came to kill her it was from this direction.
Her hunch and awareness paid off. A door at the end of the hallway was closed and when she tried the handle, locked. It was an old oak door, solid, and banded in iron.
“Where the hell are we? A dungeon?”
“Maybe...” Kate said. She held out her hand, palm up and focused on the image of her sword. Nothing. She had some basic vocal commands with her arm, but without her powers she couldn’t form the more complex shapes. That was okay; the only other thing she needed was to call Milton.
“Call Milton,” she said.
“What? I don’t have a—”
“Kate! So good to hear from you, mum. Carlos is wearing a hole in the carpet and Tigress is about to go mad from lack of attention.”
Nelson’s eyes went wide. “You could have done that the whole time?”
She nodded and held up her other hand to stave off any more questions. “Where are we?”
“Scanning. You are three miles East of Guadalajara Mexico, approximately thirty meters underground. Shall I notify the Protector?” Milton asked in his upper-crust English accent.
Kate shook her head. “No—”
“No?” Nelson asked, shocked.
“Keep the line open, you’ll know when to send him,” she told the AI. She flexed her hand a few times focusing on her inner mind. The place where her empathic powers resided, deep within her.
“You were playing them for information?” Nelson asked. It was rhetorical, as if he was working out a math problem. “You were a spy, weren’t you? Empathic powers, F3 physicality, it makes sense.”
Kate opened her eyes to mere slits and glanced at him over her shoulder. A spike of wonder and awe filled her awareness, one that was not her own. She grabbed it and focused on it, pulling it into her, breathing in his emotions as if they were a cloud. She pulled herself along his emotions, using them to jumpstart her powers and overcome the drugs in her system.
Every second that went by her powers grew until she had them all back. Her wounds faded and her body refreshed as her cells went into overdrive. It happened so fast she let out a sharp gasp as not just Nelson’s emotions hit her, but everyone’s within a hundred meters. A slow smile spread on her lips.
“Stay here until you hear the screaming, then come running,” she told him. He nodded. She focused for a moment on the feeling of fear. She’d felt it often enough to know exactly how to produce the pheromone for it. “You might want to back up a bit,” she told Nelson.
Once he complied, she brought up her hand above her head. Three feet of mono-molecular blade slid out of her palm and she brought it down on the iron bands holding the door in place. Sparks flew as the sword cut through the iron. Even without her enhanced strength the blade would have done the job; with it, no mere piece of iron stood a chance.
The door shattered and Kate ran through, silent as a shadow behind the collapsing door. She slashed her sword across on man’s chest then plunged it into another’s. She ran past their falling bodies and up the stairs out into a main courtyard.
Several four-by-fours were parked against the far wall. A dozen or so men and a few women were gathered together, making what Kate thought was a drug transfer under a bright, noon day sun. The backs of the trucks were loaded down with pallets of white powder wrapped in plastic bags. The far truck looked like a military surplus vehicle with six wheels and a covered back. Kate counted at least a dozen women and girls, some of whom were clearly American, chained to the bed.
So not just drugs but trafficking too... Wait... This is about money? Kate shook her head in disbelief. She was prepared for a world domination angle or a plan to control the western hemisphere... but money?
Dominguez spun around to face her, his eyes going wide as she slid to a halt in the dirt. He and his crew were fifty feet away from her. A distance she could easily cross before they could stop her. However, Dominguez had Kronk with him. If he really was an F5 then he was more than a match for Kate. Engaging him in hand-to-hand wasn’t an option.
“I don’t know how you escaped but dying in your cell or up here makes no difference,” Dominguez said, punctuating with a spit into the hot Mexican dirt.
Kate smiled. “I escaped because you’re an idiot,” she said, relaxing her body and standing up straight. “You made a couple of mistakes, Dominguez. One, you thought you were smarter than Amelia Lockheart; no one is smarter than Amelia.”
“Quite,” Dominguez replied sarcastically. “Your glib tongue does you no good, woman. You’re alone, and out gunned. Your powers may have returned enough for you to escape your cell, but clearly you can’t teleport, or you would be gone. And dead, as they say, is dead. Kronk... kill her.”
“With pleasure,” the bald man said, stomping forward.
“Yeah that was mistake number two.” Kate smiled.
Sunlight reflected off a bronze spear, lighting up the courtyard with a brief flash as it fell from the sky to strike the ground between Kronk and Kate.
“Oh shi—” Kronk started to say but was cut off when a pair of sandaled feet crashed into him from above, flattening him against the ground in a landing of earth shaking proportions.
The Protector, one of the strongest supers ever known, stepped off the unconscious invulnerable Kronk, pulled his spear from the ground and faced the group of criminals. “Who’s next?” Carlos asked.
It was rhetorical; they were all next.
THIRTEEN
Tia followed Tessa down the alley
behind the biker bar on the outskirts of Phoenix. While she had only recently met the girl, they’d hit it off fabulously on the Protectors’ trip to Argentina. However, the alleyway Tessa led her down left a lot to be desired. She suppressed a shudder as she stepped over a pool of what had to be vomit.
“This place doesn’t exactly strike me as nice,” she said.
Tessa smiled. “That’s the point, doll. It’s seedy as hell.” Tessa stepped up to a large metal door with a slit for security. She banged against it three times, waited a moment, and banged three more times. Tia pulled her hat down farther, despite the dark shadows that already obscured much of her vision. She felt exposed here. Tessa, however, seemed right at home in her knee-high black leather boots, cut-off jeans that only just covered the important bits, and a white tank-top she’d tied in the front to expose as much of her stomach as humanly possible.
“Are you sure you want to go in dressed like that?” Tia asked in a hushed whisper.
Tessa responded with a pshaw. “I could say the same thing about you; you’re gonna stick out in there. Don’t accept any drinks.”
Tia shuddered. Reaching deep within herself she opened the valve, increasing her mass, density, and weight by a factor of fifteen. The extra strength and protection relaxed her considerably. While she couldn’t exactly say how heavy she was, she knew from experience she had about the same mass and density as six cubic feet of granite—making her all but impervious to physical harm.
The door opened and a large man with a beer gut looked out. His eyes slowly roamed up and down Tessa for a moment before he glanced at Tia. A frown emerged on his face. “You a cop?” he asked point blank.
“No,” Tia said, laying her accent on thick. “I’m her second cousin from Argentina. She wants to show me a good time. She said this is the place to go for some fun.”
The man glanced back at Tessa. “You sure you want to bring her in here?”
“Oh, yes I do,” Tessa said with a mischievous grin.
Ancient Arsenal (Full Metal Superhero Book 7) Page 6
