Just Cause: Revised & Expanded Edition

by Ian Thomas Healy

  “Señorita?” Diego stood in the doorway, a plastic shopping bag filled with ice clutched in his hands. “You okay?”

  She nodded even though she thought she might faint. “I’ll live.” It felt good to close her eyes. “Where are Jack and Stacey? I need to talk to you all.”

  “They’re on their way back here. I’ve already contacted them.” Glimmer sounded weary. “I need to rest. And so do you.”

  “But…” Consciousness fled from Sally as if the Quetzalcoatl had flown away with it.

  Her eyes flew open and she took a great gasp in surprise. It was dark outside the window. A light burned on the bedside table. She glanced around. Diego sat on the floor next to the bed, asleep against the wall. She looked down at her leg. The swelling was gone. It still hurt, but it felt more like she’d done a heavy workout or run a few hundred miles, instead of the pain of injury.

  There was a knock at her. “Yes?”

  “Are you decent?” Jack’s voice came from behind the door.

  “Yes, come in.”

  The door swung open and in walked Jack, Doublecharge, and Glimmer, who still looked exhausted. Stacey sported a fresh suntan, and Jack looked as smug as ever. “Hey, gorgeous, how’s the leg?”

  Sally slipped off the bed and tested her weight on it. It hurt, but it held. She jogged in place a few steps to check the mobility. “Seems sturdy enough. Thanks, Jay.”

  “Anytime,” he said.

  “How about your boyfriend?” Jack asked.

  Sally shrugged. “He’s asleep. And you know very well he’s not my boyfriend.”

  “He’ll stay asleep,” said Glimmer. “I still think he’s a spy. Induced sleep is the only offensive ability I dare use. We’re better off this way. Sally, are you up to a group mindlink?”

  “What’s that?” Sally rummaged in her bag for a pair of sweat pants and a tank top and pulled them on over her bikini.

  “Like a séance, but without the dead people,” Jack said.

  “It’s how we disseminate the information your brain recorded earlier,” said Glimmer. “And no, it doesn’t hurt.”

  Sally yawned. “Oh. Okay. Do we do it for everyone?”

  “No,” said Doublecharge. “The rest of us weren’t set up for it. And I don’t have much to share anyway.”

  “Me neither,” said Jack. “This town’s full of people who don’t know their heads from their asses.”

  “Or they’ve been psionically prepared,” said Glimmer. “I can sense a lot of low-level psionic usage throughout the area. I think this whole town may be a sham.”

  “What did you get, Jack?” Doublecharge asked.

  “Very little. Nobody seems to remember much about Harlan Washington except that he doesn’t talk to anybody when he comes to town and receives deliveries. Everyone thinks of him as a typically rich eccentric American. It’s been somewhere between a week and a month since he last came into town. Other than that, no information to speak of. How about you, Jay?”

  “De Barros checked out of his room four days ago. Nobody has seen him since then. They think he’s left town.” Glimmer sat down on the edge of Sally’s bed. “I think he’s dead.”

  Doublecharge asked, “What leads you to that conclusion?”

  “Nothing that I could get my mind around,” said Jay. “But he knew we were coming. He was waiting to meet us. The only reason he’d disappear voluntarily is if he was running for his life.”

  “Nothing going on at the docks, either. I couldn’t find anyone who’d received anything for Destroyer, and no records either. This entire town’s a blank book. I agree with Jay. Business as usual around here is to avoid drawing attention to that compound or anything related to it.”

  “Then you’re going to just love what I’ve got,” Sally said. “Do your thing, Jay.”

  “Everyone get comfortable and close your eyes. I’ll set up the link and rapid playback,” said Jay.

  Sally did so. There was a moment of contact, like a switch being thrown in her mind, and then the day’s events replayed like a movie on fast forward. In spite of the speed, she saw and heard everything clearly.

  “Holy shit!” said Jack when the events at the compound unfolded. Once Sally’s memories got to the part where she and Diego were on their way back to town, Glimmer halted the playback. They all opened their eyes.

  “It’s a goddamn army,” Jack grumbled. “War’s over, man. Wormer dropped the Big One.”

  “So what do we do?” Sally asked.

  “Go back home. Forget about Guatemala. Drink margaritas,” said Jack.

  “We need to get inside that compound,” Doublecharge said. “That looked suspiciously like a nuclear reactor from what I could see, and that’s way out of league for small-time criminals. Whatever is happening there is huge, and we need to find out what it is.”

  “Then what?” asked Sally.

  “Nuke it from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure,” Jack said.

  “Enough is enough, Jack.” Doublecharge didn’t bother to look at him. “We don’t have the resources to fight an army of parahumans. We stick with the original assignment. We find out what’s going on and report back.”

  “You think they’ve worked out a method of creating parahumans artificially?” Jack asked.

  “There’s too much evidence for it to be all coincidence.” Doublecharge stood. “We go in tonight.”

  Chapter Twenty

  “Whoa. I didn’t expect that to happen!”

  -Crackerjack, hosting Saturday Night Live, March 13, 1999

  February, 2004

  Porto San José

  Night settled over the coastal town like a heavy, wet blanket. A storm front had moved across the region, trailing thick moist clouds that trapped the heat of the day. Glimmer kept a psionic eye out for anyone who might observe the group as they hiked out of town, away from anyone who might see. Once they were well clear of town, Stacey ordered them all to change into their nighttime suits.

  “No peeking, Sally.” Jack whispered at her from behind a tree as he changed.

  “Please, you’re like old enough to be my father,” she said. “Are you taking Viagra yet?”

  Muffled snickers came from Glimmer, and she thought she even heard a snort of amusement from Doublecharge.

  “Definitely spending too much time with Sondra.” Jack tightened his equipment belt as he stepped out from behind the tree. With his face blacked out and a black skullcap over his hair, he looked like a living shadow.

  “This is pretty much your element, isn’t it?” Sally eyed his matte-finish weapons. She counted at least four guns and three knives before she stopped.

  “It’s a living.” He smiled, teeth white against his darkened face.

  Doublecharge and Glimmer added military-issue Kevlar vests over their black suits. Sally had one as well, but she hadn’t put it on. Jack offered to help her adjust the fasteners.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “Isn’t there already armor built into my suit? How can I run in this thing if I can’t move right?”

  “Can you see bullets coming at you?” Doublecharge asked.

  “Most of the time,” Sally said.

  “Most of the time,” Doublecharge repeated. “Put it on and keep it on. That’s an order.” She coiled her blonde hair up and tucked it under her skullcap. It took a little extra work, but they managed to get Sally’s braids wrapped around her head and covered as well. “Think you can find your way back to the compound from here, Sally?” Doublecharge asked as she smeared black across her forehead and cheeks.

  Sally looked around. The jungle was pitch-black with the stars covered by the thick clouds. The only light at all came from the pale smudge of the obscured moon. “I don’t know. I think so. I wish Diego was here to guide us.”

  “I wish I had a tank with GPS and a cappuccino machine,” said Jack.

  “Jay, can you help her?”

  The telepath nodded and connected with her to trace out a firm map in her mind. When she cl
osed her eyes, she could refer to it and found it like having a You are here light in her head.

  “Okay, yeah,” she said. “I can find it from here. What now?”

  “We move. Jay is slowest, he’ll set the pace. We’ll rest after thirty minutes or when we get halfway there, whichever comes first.” Doublecharge flew a few feet into the air and hovered, waiting. Glimmer closed his eyes and levitated both himself and Jack off the ground. They all looked at Sally.

  “This way.” She chose the path and led the others along it at—for her—a slow jog.

  In a few minutes, Jack stopped her and handed her a pair of night-vision goggles. “They’re not much,” he said, “but it’s better than tripping over every tree root in the dark.” The goggles gave everything a bright green tint and made Sally feel like she’d slipped into a video game.

  They climbed the route that Sally and Diego had followed earlier in the day. Glimmer couldn’t levitate much faster than Diego’s dirt bike, so it took almost as long as it had before. She stopped them at the volcanic ridge she remembered and they took a short break. Jack passed out some nutrient bars to everyone, and Sally was surprised by how delicious they tasted.

  “Make ‘em myself,” he said. “Can’t tell you what’s in them. Trade secret. Besides, if you knew, you wouldn’t want them.”

  “Microphone checks, everyone,” said Doublecharge. They all tested their throat mikes and earbud speakers. “Normally under these circumstances we’d operate using Jay as a psionic switchboard,” she said to Sally, “but he’s uncomfortable with that so close to the target area.”

  “It’s all the evidence of psionic activity in the area,” Glimmer said. “With that big-time psi here, I bet there are booby traps in half the minds of San José.”

  “You’re no slouch in the mental powers department yourself, Jay,” Jack said. “You really think this mystery psi is that bad?”

  “Yes I do.”

  “Whatever the case,” said Doublecharge, “I don’t want these radios used except in an emergency. With Destroyer involved in this operation, we can’t trust that our signals will be secure, even with encryption. Use hand signals whenever possible.”

  “I don’t really know any hand signals,” said Sally.

  “Don’t worry, neither do we,” said Jack. “Except the old standby.” He raised his middle finger in salute. “But seriously, they’re very straightforward. This means come here, this means get down… look… go there… and take him down.” He showed a series of simple gestures to Sally that ended with a finger drawn across his throat.

  “Okay, I think I can remember that,” she said with a shudder.

  “All right, it’s time to go,” said Doublecharge. “The most important thing is we stay safe. If anything goes sour, the standing order is to bug out. This thing is bigger than any of us. It’s only a matter of time before we’re found out, and we need to get as much information about this facility as we can.”

  They traveled on through the midnight jungle until they found the clearing that overlooked the compound. A few sentries walked or floated on patrol duty. The compound was well lit by powerful floodlights, which made an unobtrusive approach seem impossible. Jack watched the compound carefully for almost an hour to examine the patrol patterns and habits of those who walked them.

  “Okay,” he said at last. “On my mark, follow me in. We’re going straight across to the near corner of that building.” He pointed to the target. “Stealth mode from here on out. Watch yourselves and be ready for anything.” He handed pistols to everyone.

  “What do I do with this?” Sally whispered. “I don’t know anything about guns. I never took any firearms classes at the Academy.”

  “Safety’s here.” Jack showed her the switch. “It’s on. Don’t touch it. Parahuman powers aren’t always obvious, the locals might not speak English, but everybody understands a gun. If there’s going to be any shooting, it’ll be by me.”

  Sally nodded and hefted the unfamiliar weapon. Jack sighed and adjusted her grip on it so it at least looked like she’d held one before.

  “Ready? Okay, go.”

  The quartet crossed the clearing and reached the cinderblock building without incident. Jack peeked over the edge of a window and then ducked back down. He motioned for the others to follow him. They advanced along the side of the building to a metal door. Jack took a device out of a vest pocket and quickly ran it across the edges of the door to check for electrical current. Satisfied with the results, he checked the handle to see if it was locked. The knob turned without a hitch and they slipped inside.

  They found themselves in a storeroom filled with cases of personal hygiene supplies. “It’s a dorm,” whispered Jack, “but it looks empty. All these boxes are sealed.”

  “That means they’re planning on more people arriving,” said Doublecharge. “Or more troops being made.”

  They all froze as they heard a door open and footsteps outside the storeroom. Jack glanced at Glimmer, who had his eyes shut in concentration. He opened them and held up three fingers.

  Shit, mouthed Jack.

  Outside, they heard slurred conversation in a language that might have been Spanish with a strong tequila accent. Jack wrapped his hand around the storeroom door’s knob and turned it. The only noise it made was a twang of the spring inside the mechanism. He cracked open the door and peeked out. Then he looked at Sally and drew a finger across his throat.

  How? she mouthed back at him.

  He rolled his eyes, grabbed Glimmer and turned him around. Then Jack reversed a pistol, touched the butt to a spot on the back of Glimmer’s head, and looked at Sally to see if she understood. She nodded. He raised his hand, held up three fingers, and gave her a countdown.

  When his last finger dropped, he yanked on the door and the world shifted into slow time as Sally ran into the dormitory itself. She saw three soldiers sitting on bare mattresses, smoking cigarettes and passing a bottle back and forth. One of them had skin that looked like blue candle wax.

  She swung the pistol into the first man’s head. His eyes rolled up and he started to slump forward. Sally grabbed his bottle as it started to fall and set it out of the way so it wouldn’t break. The second man just started to turn his head as Sally clocked him. She turned her attention to the waxy-skinned soldier.

  When she hit him, the pistol butt sank several inches into his flesh, which started to flow like thick mud. Sally gasped as it enveloped her hand before she could pull away. She couldn’t free herself and muffled a shriek as her hand started to burn like it had been dipped in strong acid. In slow motion, the door to the storage room swung open and the others rushed out.

  Tears of pain ran unchecked down Sally’s blackened face. The guard’s entire body shifted and moved like liquid plastic as it crawled up her arm. Jack tried to pull her free, but to no avail.

  Electricity crackled between Doublecharge’s hands with a sound like paper tearing. Teeth clenched in fury, she placed her hands on either side of the guard’s head and let him have a huge jolt. His strange, polymer body insulated Sally from the electricity. A ripple flowed through him and he released Sally. She fell to the ground and held her hand in pain.

  “Bastard.” Doublecharge growled, upped the voltage and gave him another concentrated blast. The guard toppled into a quivering puddle and remained still.

  “Let me see your hand, Sally.” Jack pulled a medical kit off his waist. The skin was raw and blistered. He clucked his tongue in sympathy and spread burn cream over the injury.

  “I’m sorry, Sally,” said Doublecharge as she checked the other guards. “I should know better than to have you taking point with your inexperience.”

  “I can handle it.” Sally winced at the sting of the cream.

  “How is she?”

  “Looks like some kind of acid burn.” Jack as he wound a bandage around Sally’s hand. “It’s good we got to her when we did. I’m no doctor, so I don’t know what kind of aftereffects this stuff might have
.” He smiled at Sally. “My advice to you is to start drinking heavily.”

  “Animal House,” she said with a sniffle. “I love that movie. What do we do now?”

  Doublecharge looked at the three unmoving guards. “Search them.”

  Glimmer complied with her request and turned up some basic personal effects and three key cards. “Think these will get us into the main building?”

  “We’ll find out,” said Doublecharge. “Strip their uniforms off. We’ll try a more direct approach.”

  “Good,” said Jack as he withdrew some zip-tie binders from a pocket. “I prefer a straight fight to all this sneaking around.”

  “Star Wars,” said Glimmer. “Even I remember that one. You’re on a roll.”

  “You’re pissing me off,” said Doublecharge. “Stay on task so nobody else gets hurt. These two soldiers we’ll lock in the storage room. Jay, see to it they don’t wake up anytime soon. Jack, can you find something to pour this other guy into?”

  Jack shrugged and vanished into the storage room, to return a moment later with a large footlocker. “He might get out of this eventually,” he said of the gelid puddle. “But he’ll have to work at it, if he’s even alive. How do you check Jell-o for vital signs?”

  “Well, scoop him in, Mr. Invulnerability,” said Doublecharge, “and you’re wearing his uniform when you’re done.”

  In a few minutes, Jack, Doublecharge, and Glimmer had dressed in the three guards’ uniforms. Jack passed around a packet of baby wipes to the others so they could clean the black off their faces. “Best cleaning supplies ever,” he said with a cheerful grin.

  “What about me?” Sally asked.

  “Not much we can do. These guys were twice as big as you. Maybe we can find a smaller guard somewhere,” Doublecharge said. “In the meantime, we’ll take the overt risks and you follow when the coast is clear. Jack, what’s the time?”

  “Almost midnight,” he said. “Think they’re going to do a shift change?”

  “Let’s wait and see.”

  They watched out the windows of the dormitory, careful to remain in the shadows. Sure enough, outlying guards climbed or flew down from their towers and others came in from the perimeters. Replacements exited the dorms, yawning and flexing stiff muscles.