Superheroes In Denim

by Lee French

  Reassured about the time frame, Bobby nodded. “Is that the price you gotta pay for a favor like that?”

  “Depends. My Uncle is a Senator on the Armed Services Committee. If he has to call in a favor, then I’ll have to make it up to him somehow. More than likely, though, when Hanstadt hears the message, that’ll be enough.”

  The idea of meeting the top dog for all the military made Bobby squirm. Maybe if his Daddy hadn’t been a Marine, it wouldn’t be a big deal. He rubbed his face, wishing it could be a secretary or something instead. Liam’s phone chirped a few minutes later. Bobby turned at the sound and watched the other guy read the message, then nod with satisfaction.

  “Hanstadt will meet with us tonight at eight. Do we want to change the plan?”

  For whatever reason, everyone looked at Bobby for an answer. Even Hegi flicked his eyes up to the rearview mirror to check on his reaction. Head Cowboy liked that. Bobby wasn’t so sure. The boots seemed to fit, though, so he pulled them on and took a deep breath. “Nope. Us being quiet’s got to not even seem like a thing he’s got the ability to ask for. I ain’t going quiet-like nowhere never again if’n I don’t want to. Plus, if’n we’re gonna face down Kanik, I want Stephen at my back.”

  Liam pursed his lips, like even though he’d expected that answer, he’d hoped for a different one. “What if Privek or Kanik are there?”

  “I got a few things I’d like to say to Privek,” Bobby growled. “Most of it’s about him eating dragons.”

  “Bobby.” Riker’s tone reminded him of his Daddy. He looked up to find the Sergeant staring at him intensely. “Don’t walk in there looking to kill him. The job is to save lives, not take them.”

  Bobby turned away and tried to stop thinking so hard about kids with their chests blown out. He wanted, so badly, for all of that to be Privek’s fault. Privek set the whole thing in motion by grabbing him in the first place, by framing him for Mr. Patterson’s murder, by sticking them all into those cells and the rest of it.

  Actually, what he wanted more than anything right now was to go home and have Momma tell him all this had been nothing more than a crazy nightmare. Then he could wake up tomorrow and go back to work with no dragons or vampires or precogs.

  Except he couldn’t, and right now, he needed to get his head on straight. When they reached the building, the nine of them would break in and free as many of the others as they could. God, he missed Lily. Having her smack him upside the head, or glare at him, or throw his gifts back in his face was so much better than not having her around at all. He’d give a lot right now even to have her look at him the awful way she did when he showed up in uniform.

  He rubbed his face with both hands, trying to make the images go away. It didn’t help. Pulling his hands away, they broke apart into dozens of dragons, all of which sat on his legs and looked up at him. They didn’t understand right and wrong, not like he did. Each of them was too tiny to get the whole picture, that’s why. They were fragments of him, little pieces of his soul.

  No, he didn’t really believe in the idea of a soul, not anymore. His stains weren’t there to be judged by anyone or anything else. They were there for him to judge himself. Could he find a way to bleach them out? Maybe not, but he’d for damned sure try. For however long he had left in this world, he’d do whatever it took to atone for those people. Like Riker said, he had to walk with the goal of helping, not hurting. For Sebastian, for the world to be a place where a little boy could grow up not worrying about some asshole made of dragons swooping down out of nowhere and killing him and everybody he ever knew for no reas

  It was his fault and it would always be his fault. No one else deserved the blame for what happened. Privek bore some responsibility, too, just not for any of the things Bobby did. Same for Kanik. Without them, he never would have been in those situations. He still might have done horrible things on his own.

  “We gotta step light, hear?” He said it quietly, talking to the dragons and knowing the whole car could hear him anyway. He’d already said these things. This time, he did it for himself more than them. “Too many died already, let’s not make more bodies if’n we can help it.” The dragons nodded and re-formed back into his hands.

  “It’ll turn out okay,” Kaitlin said with firm conviction.

  He glanced at her. “You saying that ‘cause it’s true or ‘cause you think I gotta hear it?”

  Her mouth curled into a smirk. “I’m going to live through this.”

  “I think that means ‘yes’,” Riker said with a half-grin.

  Bobby snorted. “Reckon so.” To keep his sanity, he focused on his best memories of Lily while the scenery went by. There would be new ones at some point. Hopefully.

  Chapter 10

  The building showed no sign of heightened alert or extra security. Bobby broke into the swarm as soon as Hegi parked the car, eager to get inside and do his part. His dragons flew around, looking for a vent. As they poured into the first one he found, one noticed something strange: a squirrel sitting on a branch of the nearest tree, watching the swarm with more interest than a critter ought to have. He dove into one dragon and sent it that way, trusting the rest to find the drawers and open them up.

  One paw waved at him excitedly, confirming he’d found Jasmine. She put out her paws and the dragon, still quite small compared to her squirrel shape, landed in them. He had no real way to explain the plan, and she presented an unexpected wrinkle. Did that mean Will was loose? Did they miss noticing Will at Adelphi? Kaitlin might not have recognized him, especially with so many bodies there.

  He needed to get her to the others, because he needed them to be able to talk to her. Not just for Will. She could screw up the whole operation by trying to help. The dragon gestured to try to get her to stay put, but she ran down the branch to the trunk of the tree. Once there, she changed into Jasmine and held out her hand.

  “Hi, Bobby,” she whispered, not as cheerfully as he remembered her being. “They have Will. They said they were rescuing him, but they tried to shoot me and now he’s inside. I followed them here, but I don’t know what to do. Are you a dangerous terrorist? They said you were a dangerous terrorist, but they lied to me about Will. Did they lie to me about everything else, too?”

  Bobby nodded, grateful for finding her so focused and able to get to the heart of things. He wished he could give her all the details.

  “Are you getting everyone else out?” Nod. “Is there a plan?” Nod. “Can I help?” Shrug. “Okay. I’ll wait here, then. If I see a way to help, then I will.”

  He never expected something that useful and coherent to come out of her mouth. She’d always struck him as flighty. An intelligent, capable woman lurked inside, and he’d never bothered to look. Will probably knew already.

  The dragon patted her hand as it nodded, then pointed off in the direction where she could find the others. That done, he took off to go keep the people that ought to be waking up soon from freaking out without him actually there. Jasmine turned back into a squirrel behind him and ran down the tree trunk.

  Jumping out of the one dragon, he re-formed most of his body in the freezer drawer room, where he found the doors already open. As he pulled the slabs out, he found the collection of people stashed her interesting: Stephen, Jayce, Owen, Anita, Dan, Lizzie, Matthew, and Andrew. Considering he’d been in this bunch, Privek might have chosen all the ones he considered the most dangerous to put here. Or, he thought with a smirk, the most difficult.

  Stephen groaned first. Bobby grinned and thumped his arm. “Who’s the dumbass now?” he chuckled at the vampire.

  “Jesus, Bobby,” Stephen breathed as he cracked an eye open. “I will never, ever doubt you again.” His voice was a hoarse rumble.

  “Where are we?” Jayce rolled and fell off his top rack drawer, crashing into Lizzie, Anita, and Matthew. The four of them landed in a heap on the floor. The girls and Dan wore nothing. The rest had some sort of pajamas on, except for Stephen, who still had everything he�
��d been taken with.

  “In the guts of a Federal building,” Bobby told them, trying not to laugh, “working on escaping. Less crashing and noise would be a good idea, since you’re all drugged, and can’t do nothing but stumble around like idiots.”

  “You want to give pointers, then?” Anita flopped and glared at Stephen when he dropped a sheet on top of her.

  “Sure,” Bobby shrugged, still smiling. “Relax and let it work its way outta your system. I got a plan, and we got others on the outside. Kaitlin’s free and I got two guys what were on the other side to help. Plus Jasmine is out there. Plan allows for none of you being able to use your stuff, so just take a minute to be able to walk on your own.”

  Dan sat up slowly, careful to avoid hitting his head on the bunk above him. “I don’t suppose you thought to bring clothes for us?”

  “Thought of it, sure. Couldn’t manage it.” Bobby gave Stephen a hand getting down. The vampire felt unusually heavy. “There’s some waiting outside, in the car.”

  “Ung. I’m starving,” Stephen rasped out. “Any volunteers before I go on a rampage?”

  “They done knew you drink blood and they didn’t give you none in the drip? That’s kinda messed up.” Bobby shook his head and waved him off. “Y’all been under for near on a week now. I done got ya out soon as I could. I got no idea where the rest are, there’s only just this one bank of drawers, but everyone done got took, so they’re someplace. Hopefully here. We gotta find ‘em and get out, at any rate.

  “There’s still a few of us on the other team what might be around to try and stop us from leaving, and the guards here got them dart guns what they used to take us down at the farm in the first place. Out of the eleven they got, I got three, and I think the one named Kanik is actually Privek’s master, or maybe his slave. So, we got seven folks to convince they’re being used and one what probably ain’t gonna be convinceable.”

  While he explained, Stephen scanned the room, his eyes flitting from one person to the next. He took a step towards Lizzie, but Bobby stepped in the way. “You need fresh blood, ya idjit. Without this stupid drug in their system.”

  Anita, now wrapped up in the sheet, held her arm out. “Here. You need enough to be sane, right? Take that much.”

  Looking her over with suspicion, Stephen asked, “Are you volunteering to take one for the team? ”

  She pursed her lips and looked away. It had to be hard to find something to rest her eyes on that didn’t include Dan and Lizzie checking each other over more carefully might be considered tasteful, a shirtless Owen on his hands and knees and breathing deeply, an equally shirtless Jayce sitting and rubbing his face, or Andrew sitting in a tight white shirt and briefs and staring up at the fluorescent lights. The scene reminded Bobby one of those weird underwear or cologne ads.

  The long pause meant everyone watched her, even Lizzie and Dan. Bobby pitied for her, realizing that must have been a weird thing for her to offer.

  Her hands all over Dan, Lizzie smiled. “It’s okay, Anita, we can still all think of you as a raging bitch if you want.”

  Jayce snorted out a laugh. Matthew and Stephen both chuckled. Dan kissed Lizzie’s neck with a dirty little smile and pulled a sheet down for her. Andrew and Owen both grinned, and so did Bobby.

  “Fuck all of you,” Anita snapped, She left her arm out, though, still offered to Stephen. The vampire took it and bit her. She gasped and collapsed into him while he drank. Still weak himself, he had to sit down to hold them both up.

  “Do we know what Kanik can do?” Jayce stood up and stretched. Bobby could relate to the impulse. More importantly, it took attention off Stephen and Anita.

  “He can mess around with your head. In fact, I got pictures proving he done it to you before, in particular. No idea why you and not me, but if you don’t remember it, maybe he did do it to me and Alice and Ai, and we don’t remember it neither. Then again, Paul—he’s one of the two of them I got convinced—couldn’t do nothing with my head, and he’s a telepath, so maybe he didn’t hit me with a head whammy.”

  Jayce nodded and held up a hand curled into a fist while his other hand braced on the steel of drawer. Nothing happened. “Nope, I can’t do my thing yet. How long did it take you to get this crap out of your system?”

  “I dunno,” Bobby shrugged. “Ten minutes, maybe.”

  “It’ll probably take us all twice as long, then.” Stephen set Anita down on the floor and straightened. “I feel so damned heavy. I forgot what it’s like to not be able to fly.” He poked himself in the gut for no apparent reason, then swore. “I can probably be killed like this. All of us can.”

  Bobby shrugged. “So long as we stay in here, ain’t nothing to worry about, not really. Least, I don’t think so. I done planned on it taking a while to get out like this, expecting to have to explain everything and folks needing help. This room ain’t got cameras so far as I could tell, and it don’t get checked by the guards. There’s a guard post right outside it.”

  The door behind him, however, opened, and a guard stood there. Liam said— But then, Liam also said he thought maybe Privek knew to expect something. They must have changed the routine because of it. Fortunately, not having their powers failed to make these people useless. Bobby broke into the swarm to prevent the guy from leaving, Jayce stepped up and grabbed him, Stephen decked him, Owen yanked the radio and dart gun off his belt. Once they had him under control, Bobby re-formed to shut the door again. The poor guy hadn’t stood a chance.

  “So much for your intel, Bobby,” Jayce grunted. He shoved the guard up against the wall.

  “Great.” Bobby grabbed the guard’s other gun, the real one. “You know who we are?” The question was directed at the guard, who held his hands up in surrender.

  The guard held his hands up in surrender. “N-not really, no. I was just told to check the room.”

  “He’s lying,” Stephen snarled. “Break his damned neck.”

  “Wait, no! I’m just a guard, I’m not worth it.” The guard’s voice went high pitched and panicked, his eyes wide and darting from man to man. “They said the people in the drawers were dangerous. I’m supposed to check to make sure all the dosing packs are the same and the drawers are locked. That’s really it, I swear!”

  Bobby nudged Stephen to get him to back off, hoping the guard would see it as him being in control. He wanted the guy to believe he’d be fine so long as he played straight with them so no one had to think too much about how far they wanted to go to get information. “How long before you get missed?”

  “Um, a few minutes. There’s another guard outside. I check in with him on the way out and go on the rest of my rounds.”

  Owen passed the radio to Dan, keeping the dart gun for himself. “What’s on the rest of your rounds? ”

  The guard blinked and bit his lip. Jayce tightened his grip on the guy’s shirt. He gulped. “Um, there’s a pair of separate rooms. Just down the hall. One has a woman and a kid, the other has just a woman.”

  Bobby’s jaw clenched, because he knew exactly who the woman and kid had to be, and could have found them when Liam broke him out. He wanted to kick himself for not doing it, but then, what would that have accomplished? It would have pissed him off even more. At the time, it probably would have made things worse. “Which way? Be specific. And what guards are between here and there?”

  “Down the hall to the left, first door on the right. One guard outside this room, one more outside theirs. No others on the way. Two down by the elevators.”

  Glancing around, Bobby could tell no one else had any brilliant ideas. The guard needed to be handled, and every option—letting him go, taking him hostage, killing him, sticking him in a drawer—seemed stupid and counterproductive. “Jayce, let him go, he’s got the point. Unload this and give it back to him. Owen, unload that dart gun, too, and give that back. Dan, give the man his radio back. He’s gonna walk right outta here like he’s s’posed to, and he’s gonna finish his rounds, then he’s gonna t
ake a break outside.”

  “Head Cowboy,” Lizzie said, like she found it both annoying and delightful.

  “This ain’t no time for that. None of you got your stuff back yet. I do. He ain’t going alone.” Bobby popped a dragon off his thumb and held it up for the guard to get a good look at it. “You see this little guy? He’s kinda cute, looks real harmless.” It danced and flapped its wings, pretending to be a kiddie toy. Then it stopped and fixed the guard with a hard stare, one that matched Bobby’s own. “He ain’t even close to being harmless. You even think about tipping the other guards off, he’s gonna blast his way into your mouth as hard as he gotta.” The dragon let off a puff of fire and flashed its fangs. “Then he’s gonna crawl down your throat until he reaches about where your heart is, and he’s gonna rip his way outta your chest. We got an understanding?”

  Standing there, the guard stared at Bobby, his mouth hanging open. “Jesus Christ.”

  “He ain’t gonna help you,” Bobby growled. “You do what I done told you to, and you get to walk away. We ain’t got no real beef with you, it’s with your bosses. Just on account I ain’t sure I can trust you, I’m sending a few others with you, and they’ll be happy to just burn and claw you wherever they can reach.” He let off the rest of his hand, and they dove into his clothes. Bobby made sure at least one went into a pants pocket to threaten the guy’s manhood, figuring that would be plenty motivating.

  “O-okay, yeah, sure. I got it.” The guard squirmed uncomfortably. “Finish my rounds and take a break outside.”

  Bobby shooed him off. “Get going.”

  The door closed behind him and Bobby turned around to see everyone but Stephen staring at him in shock. Actually, Lizzie seemed aroused more than disturbed.

  “Stop it,” the vampire said with a roll of his eyes. “Just because he’s learned how to kill people efficiently doesn’t mean he’s suddenly a psychopath.”

  Giving them all his back again, Bobby rested his hand on the doorknob. Of course they thought he’d jumped off the sanity cliff. Right about now, some of them had to be wondering what exactly he did while they were out, maybe even back in Afghanistan. Jayce and Matthew could probably find all the right conclusions. “C’mon, we ain’t got time for this. We’re gonna knock the guards out without killing them, and get as many outta here as we can find.”