City Without Heroes

by Tanya Lisle

  “There were a few unforeseen complications,” Penny told him. “We’re going to have to compensate for them for next time, but for now we aren’t going to worry too much about them. The important thing is making sure we deal with the guy who took the fall for us and making sure we set things right.”

  “That guy’s name is Quantum,” Indira said from the back of the room. Her voice wavered as she tried to remember how to force her mental presence to take on a physical form in the room. This was a lot more difficult than she remembered, but it had been years. Following her voice, she got an image of herself to manifest in the room as well, staring down Penny with crossed arms. “In case you didn’t actually know his name. He’s not one of the famous heroes.”

  She watched as they looked around, some going to the walls and the black specks embedded into every surface like they were expecting them to hear her. Others went right to her, Esther’s gaze in particular flickering between her and the door. “How long have you been here?” she demanded. “I thought you just...” Her words faltered and she made a gesture at her head.

  “There was a power jammer,” Indira continued, despite the gestures and protests that she stop talking immediately. “When they tried to break in, they tripped it and called in reinforcements. And then Alan got shot in the back. It’s weird how they didn’t shoot below waist level, though, right? I’ve been wondering about that. Though it might have just been a mistake with the memory.”

  “Shut up!” Brittany snapped at her, looking around at the walls and ceiling. “You’re going to screw all of us!”

  “No,” Laura said next to her, eyes narrowing at the spot where Indira stood. She waved her hand, her fingers dancing in the air as she frowned. “It’s fine. She’s not there. All in our heads.”

  “Not…?” Curious, Esther climbed over the desks and put her hand right through Indira’s face in a heavy backhand, her hand moving right through her like she was air.

  “That wasn’t very nice,” Indira said. “You know, you could have just told me there was a powers club. I mean, not that I didn’t already figure it out, but doesn’t this seem like the worst way to do it? You guys can’t even talk without setting the specks off like this, right?”

  “Stay out of this…” Brittany stopped herself, the glare saying the words that she couldn’t without doing exactly what Indira had warned. “I knew that was you on Saturday.”

  “Didn’t anyone tell you that you shouldn’t talk to people that aren’t there?” Indira countered, earning a smirk from Esther. “This got personal. I know the guy who saved you and I’m very interested in making sure he gets out of whatever it was that they’ve done to him.”

  “You knocked her out?” a younger girl demanded, looking back and forth between Indira and Brittany, then to Penny. “And you think she’s not going to be useful?”

  “Get out, Noa,” Penny said. “Take Justin and Ash with you. I think I’ve almost got the best way to do this.”

  “We know what we’re doing. You could probably use us more than-”

  “No. Get out. And lay low.”

  Noa looked at her for a long moment before she stepped away. “Can’t lay low forever, Penny,” she said before she left, taking more than a few others with her.

  “Every time,” Laura muttered, though didn’t move from her seat.

  “There is no best way,” Indira told her once the door shut. The crowd was much smaller now, easier to manage, though Indira was starting to regret this. She realized now that she should have probably waited, watched a meeting happen and found out how they worked before she decided to barge in with her own plan, but it was far too late for that now.

  “Then what do you propose?” Matt asked.

  “The plan right now is to go back and try to break him out, right?” Indira asked. “Except that you have no idea where they’re keeping him and, with Alan gone, you can’t even try to get down in there to scout out what’s going on for yourselves, right? That wasn’t even the main tower. That was just the one you figured would have the least security.”

  “She’s good,” Esther commented.

  “You pick your team and I’ll make your plan,” Indira told them.

  “That is a stupider plan than listening to Penny,” Brittany muttered. “How about dropping the whole thing and calling it a day? That way we don’t end up with any more problems until someone actually does something. If we all keep our heads down, we’ll be fine.”

  “Didn’t you guys walk into town with, like, six of you when you first got here?” Esther asked. “You good with abandoning the other four?”

  Brittany flushed a brilliant red, pushing herself to her feet and letting the chair clatter to the ground behind her. “We don’t have to stand for this,” Brittany said loudly, pulling Laura with her. “Come on, let’s get out of here. You can all kill yourselves for all I care.”

  No one tried to stop them as they stormed out, slamming the door behind them.

  “Now that that’s done,” Penny said, “let’s hear the rest of this idea.”

  “Let me try to find this place and get an idea of where everything is. I can let you know if it’s even feasible to get anyone out of there. If possible, I’ll be able to coordinate with everyone and watch your backs without even being there.”

  “Aw, you’re not coming with?”

  Indira shook her head. “I’m not the punch people in the face type. And you’re going to need that. Once I figure out everything I’ll let you know how to get in. But I can actually find the place and get an idea of it better than any of you can. And a power jammer usually doesn’t affect me if I’m not close to it.”

  “You’ll get caught,” Esther said finally. “There’s way too many timing issues. The… if we do it at the optimal time, then… ugh, why does she get to talk all she wants and I don’t?”

  “Because she’s apparently been holding out on us,” Penny said. She looked betrayed, but she would get over it. “You got a week. If you don’t come up with something by then, then we’re back to what I can come up with.”

  “I… later.”

  Indira disappeared from the meeting and snapped herself back to her body in the library. She wasn’t alone at her table any longer, her ears catching the sound of something. Her hands felt a tapping on them. She looked up to see Shiraz sitting across from her, going through his homework and occasionally flicking his pen into her hand.

  “When did you get there?” Indira asked.

  “Not long,” he said, finishing up his question. “Can I get a ride home? There’s something I need to pick up on the way.”

  Indira nodded. Despite his words, she knew he had seen something he wanted to tell someone about. She packed her things together and slung her bag over her shoulder, walking with Shiraz down to her car in the parking lot in relative silence, trying not to assume the worst. She waited until they were in the car before she tapped the clock and asked, “Which way?”

  Shiraz gave her directions and they drove through Whitten. He stayed otherwise silent next to her, playing with his fingers and looking around at the inside of the car. After they were half way through town he nodded at the clock and said, “It might not be strong enough.”

  Indira didn’t understand. He knew as well as everyone else in the family that Uncle Ness had ensured their cars were free from surveillance. They hadn’t even come from the city, so there were no specks in here watching. But she said nothing, letting Shiraz worry if he thought it was necessary.

  Your friends are going to… well, some of them are going to do that thing other than die, he said. Ronnie’s got that death mark on him now. I followed him back to that meeting room with your friends in it. A couple of them are not making it past a couple weeks, but the twins, Penny and Matt? They’re getting that other thing.

  Indira nodded. I’m already working on making sure that doesn’t happen. I have a lot of ground to cover, though, so there’s some stuff I need to take care of and check out first. They’
re feeling guilty about Uncle Ness and now they want to go and save him from whatever actually happened to him.

  They’re idiots, Shiraz said. There was an edge of anger in his voice. If Ronnie wants in, you aren’t going to be able to talk him out of it either. He’s stubborn as hell when he gets it in his head. He’ll probably follow them out when it happens too. Like, it’s still a bit off, but-

  Indira stopped him and he waved them to take a left. She could feel the stress coming off of him, hitting her like a wall. He was sensing something and, if it was bothering him this much, it was something big.

  I’m handling it, she told him. I’ll try to convince Ronnie not to do it. But the plan right now is that they want to rescue Uncle Ness because Uncle Ness showed up and saved them. And I don’t really want to stop them from doing that, but I also don’t want them to die while they’re doing it, so I’m going to try and give them as much help as I possibly can.

  Shiraz let out a small laugh, though it rang hollow. Going to punch someone in the face? he asked. The laugh choked into silence and he began to fold in his seat, the stress coming off of him so strong that Indira was having trouble concentrating.

  “I’m pulling over,” she told him out loud, looking for a part of the road that didn’t have cars parked along it. For a district that looked like it was mostly industrial, there were a lot of cars parked around here, but she couldn’t keep going with Shiraz like this.

  “I’m fine,” he insisted. “Really. Just keep going.”

  He was absolutely not fine, but she continued. “Hey, you remember that thing I used to do as a kid?” she asked. “You need me to do that now?”

  Shiraz didn’t even need to think about it, nodding immediately. Indira put her hand on his shoulder and let herself flow over him as a shield. Shiraz straightened up almost immediately as it washed over him, the impending sense of doom lifting off of him and the stress disappearing.

  There wasn’t a day that went by that she wasn’t glad she cheated the powers test, especially now. After years of not using any of her abilities, all the ones that would have been locked away were suddenly becoming very useful.

  “The hell are you trying to show me?” she asked, drawing her hand back. It wouldn’t last long and she wanted to be far away from here when it started to wear off.

  “Keep going, it’s just a little further.”

  Indira shook her head and started driving again, following the last two turns until they came to an empty lot near the middle of the district. There were energy plants down the road and a lot of places that looked like they manufactured wood, as well as some places that repaired cars. Shiraz indicated something that looked like it was a parking lot, filled with cars and a single small building nestled in the middle that she might have missed if she wasn’t looking for it.

  That and something about it felt very strange. Indira wasn’t sure what, but it wasn’t right.

  “There,” he said, pointing at as they drove past. “We went past it with Ronnie and his brother earlier this week. That feeling started coming right when we went past it. Just a lot of it, all at once. That not quite dead feeling. I think Uncle Ness is in there somewhere.”

  Chapter 18

  Late Night Visitor

  Indira’s hair was fantastic the next week, given how much she was brushing it in the evenings. After homework and dinner, she followed her brother’s lead and sequestered herself in her room, brush in hand and combing her hair as she tried to find out as much information as she could about where she was going to be sending her friends so that they could rescue Uncle Ness.

  It took a while to get used to the distance, though much of that was just from the amount she had not been using her powers over the last few years. She checked back to make sure she could still feel her body and the steady brushing of her hair before she let her focus shift to just how strange this place was.

  The small building consisted of two doors, both with a set of stairs that went down into the same room. Down below there was a large room that looked like a call center, with several adults who sat at computers with headsets. Occasionally the screens flickered on and someone would lean forward, watching what looked like security footage. The video was strange, but Indira wasn’t interested in that.

  Past those walls, there was more of this facility calling to her. Though there appeared to be no doors leading out to it, there was a large hallway that encircled the call center with several more spiraling off of it. The rooms felt wrong somehow, but they were not what drew her onward. There was something else in there, something powerful that drew her in. Something near the back, far away from the doors. A room that she needed to see.

  The first day, she felt herself drifting close to it and it started to pull her in. It was subtle at first, pushing her closer and tempting her. When she got close, she could see thin white tendrils reaching out from it like a web, ones that she wouldn’t have seen with her actual eyes. Her psychic presence felt almost stuck in it at the edges. Until they started to pull her closer to the white mass where they came from.

  She snapped herself back to her body immediately, panic flooding through her as she rushed to the toilet and emptied the contents of her stomach. That room, she knew immediately that it was the place she wanted, but for the first time, she wasn’t going to be able to see it like this. Someone was going to have to actually go there to see what was inside.

  When she went back again and again, she focused on figuring out how to get down there without getting caught. She watched as people moved in a fairly regular pattern through the halls in hazmat suits, walking rigidly in and out of the rooms. Very few people ever came into the facility, Indira making careful note of their faces, but it took a while to find the door that they passed through. At the side of the neighbouring tile facility, there was a single door with a simple thumbprint scanner that appeared to be malfunctioning, as for two nights they had to rely on a passcode and a key to get in. She knew the code and hoped desperately that they would not change it before she figured out what to do.

  Whenever Indira was there, she could feel the pull of the room. It knew she was there and called to her, tempting her with what might be inside. She tried to stay away from the white tendrils reaching out of it, but she could almost hear it calling to her. There was pain and suffering on the other side of it, the sound of a thousand people she was leaving behind, and amidst them she knew Uncle Ness was there. She swore she could sense him, almost hear him calling to her.

  Go to him. Save him.

  One look. She could handle just one look in the room. If she was going to be sending people in there, then she needed to know what they were getting into. She had to be sure that people were actually in there, that the power radiating from the room was what she thought it was, so that she knew how to proceed. She couldn’t just send them in to get a look and be sure. This was a rescue mission. She had to see that Uncle Ness was there. To save him.

  She could just get in and get out. It was only a room. And she wasn’t even physically there. There was nothing that anyone could do to her when it was only her mind wandering around the facility. No one even knew she was here. That feeling that there was something keeping an eye on her, following her around, was all in her head. She was perfectly safe.

  Just a little closer. Go to him.

  Indira went to the edge of where the white tendrils reached out along the hall. They didn’t move, didn’t stretch out toward her as she drew closer, didn’t do much of anything but exist there. They felt strange, like nothing she’d ever felt before, but they were doing nothing to keep her from getting any closer. Even they wanted her to go see, just for a moment, to confirm what she already knew so well.

  The closer she got, the more clearly she could hear the people in the room. They were calling for help, tired and in pain, desperate for release. She could hear Uncle Ness the closer she got.

  Come to me.

  That… wasn’t right. This wasn’t right. She was almost at th
e door, surrounded by the web of white. The calls of the people inside - of Uncle Ness right on the other side of the door - were so loud that they were all she could hear. This was wrong. There was something else in her head telling her to go closer. Something other than her.

  She tried to pull away and couldn’t. The white stuff around her held her fast, keeping her in place. She felt that voice, that other presence that had gotten into her head, trying to pull her closer through the doors. In front of her was nothing but the white web she was now trapped in, surrounding her. She could see the tendrils lift and start to move.

  Desperately, she pulled as hard as she could to get away. It felt almost like she was physically there and trapped in a sticky web holding her in place. Yanking herself back, throwing as much of her presence into the effort as she could, she felt the grip on her tear away from her, thread by thread. She was strong, she knew she was strong, but it took all of the strength she had to finally pull herself out.

  As soon as the grip was loose enough, she threw herself far away from that room and from that facility, away from that other presence and that voice. She had to get back to safety. To her body. She had to get back to her body. Where did she leave that?

  It was a strange thing to not know where her body was. Normally, she could feel herself brushing her hair and go back to that, but she couldn’t feel that any longer. She knew she had left it at her house. She could just go back to her house, but she wasn’t entirely sure where she was. There were warehouses all around her, large buildings that looked like they were designed to hold large machines, and she wasn’t sure which direction she should go to find the rest of Whitten.

  Indi.

  That was her ears hearing that. Right. That way. Her body was right over that way. The world felt like it was wavering around her, but she at least knew where to go. Slowly, she followed that sound that her body was hearing, feeling more nauseous with each passing moment, even like this.