Age of Power 1: Legacy

by Jon Davis

  Glancing up at me, he said, "You and Dana were damn lucky! She says it barely missed the two of you. How’d you get past that?”

  Grinning, I said, "I don’t know—I was busy cowering!"

  Huh. Dana hadn’t told him about me. Okay, I’d deal with that point later. But he was wondering about it, and that was worrisome enough. He was a good cop, and that included being an investigator. The damage to the statue just didn't look like something a bomb explosion would cause. Yet here it was, dust and bits of rubble all in a pile, yards from the blasts that sent it flying. Yeah, he'd wonder, so would other people.

  But for now, the Chief only said, "Don't be modest. Dana said you tried to shield her as it came at you. You were definitely very lucky."

  He glanced back at the pile and said, "That thing should have crushed you. Thank your lucky stars, kid! I think you get a free life after this! Though, I'd love to know why it blew apart like that."

  I grinned, but inside, I worried. To distract him, I purposely shivered. “Thank you, sir. So is the library warm?”

  Thankfully, he took the hint and nodded as he opened the door. “Just to warn you, the worst cases were brought here before we were able to properly set up ambulance runs to the emergency room. So be ready.”

  I snorted. Gods knew I had seen more than enough death to last me a lifetime! How could anything affect me any worse?

  Wow, was that a stupid thought. I’d seen people bloodied up outside, sure. But nothing—not even the most horrifying of those sights—had prepared me for the smell. Copper and iron rushed at me as we walked in. The smell shocked me. I stopped moving, causing Chief Sinclair to bump into me.

  Cal Hobbs had said that they had made the front area into a triage station for the worst of the bomb victims. There weren’t any victims, thankfully. Ambulances had taken them to the hospital once they were stable enough to move. But the blood—on the tables, the floor, the walls, and chairs, it was all there. I tried to swallow down the bile rising in my throat, but nothing was going to take it away this time.

  Rushing through the room, I passed people who tiredly looked up from stacks of blueprints and street plans. I ignored them and headed to the bathroom. I barely made it to the first stall before my stomach let loose. For what seemed an endless moment, I was on my knees over the toilet. I flushed every few minutes so the smell itself didn’t keep it going. Wonderful, some hero I was. One little sight of blood and I freaked. I’d done it with Jessup and his…ugh. I threw up again.

  After I’d been leaning over the toilet for a while, I heard the door open. Wonderful. This was so not the way I wanted people to see me. Hell, even when I’d gotten drunk with Brand before, I hadn’t gotten like this. For me, the hangover from hell happened afterward, and Brand was the one ‘worshipping’ over the toilet. I thought for a second that he’d laugh about this, but then it hit me that he couldn’t. Oddly, though, remembering his death was like being hit by ice water. It brought my stomach back under control. Priorities.

  Whoever came in said, “Hey, don’t worry about being caught. I did the same thing when all this went down…”

  I gave a blazing retort of a groan. But I didn’t throw up again. Taking it slow, I got up and went to the sink. After a moment of washing the taste out of my mouth, I looked in the mirror, wondering who the ashen guy was looking back at me. The water had plastered my hair down, and I looked like I’d just seen Hell.

  “Oh, yeah,” I muttered, “I just did.”

  Then I looked past my reflection to nod to the guy with blond curly hair and familiar blue eyes. He was taller and a lot thinner than I was. He was wearing an ash-stained red sweater, blue jeans, and boots. And, for the life of me, I could not remember where I’d met him before. I grunted at him as I washed off as much ash as I could. Halfway done, I said, “Blood and ash…not my thing.”

  He sighed and glanced down. “Not mine, either. My sister says I’m usually too prissy to let myself get this dirty!”

  I grinned. “I’ve heard that sisters can be annoying. My mom has one in Seattle. They always argue.”

  I went back to cleaning up as much as I could and, once I dried off, I reached out a hand and said, “Nice to meet you.”

  He grinned and returned the handshake. As thin as he was, he had an impressive grip. I barely noticed a tingling when we shook hands.

  He said, “I’m Alan. Glad to meet ya. Come on, I think there are some doughnuts upstairs.”

  My stomach lurched, and I groaned. I said, “Oh no…still, I have to eat so I can get back into the rescuing thing…”

  Then I shook my head and looked at him. He definitely seemed familiar. But I didn’t know him. So I said, “Sorry, I don’t think I know you…”

  He opened the door for me as he said, “Hey, no problem, Vaughn. I got into town just before all this insanity happened. I’ve been helping in the tents doing gofer work, but I saw you out there. You’re pretty brave going into stores like that, especially after dark.”

  I didn’t catch it right away. I only snorted and said, “My best friend’s old man is an EMT, and he was a fireman for some years before that. He taught me a lot about rescue procedures and stuff. You were smart to play gofer; I don’t think you’d have liked what’s been going on out there.”

  He said, “Oh, no, I was in the library when the first explosions went off. From that point on, I was just helping people.”

  Wait, what? My sludge-speed brain tripped on what he said and I turned and said, “Who the hell are you? Dana had already locked up the library when those blasts hit. You couldn’t have been in here.”

  He took a step back down the stairs and said, “Well, crap. I’m lousy at lying. Look, Hagen…”

  I held up a hand to stop him. I had realized why he looked so familiar. I was looking around to see if one of the cops was in the room when I saw another far-too-familiar face. Sitting across the room and holding a damp cloth to the forehead of an exhausted-looking firefighter was the petite Angela Tursow. She was practically a twin to the guy standing behind me. I turned and glared at him, forcefully pushing him back a couple steps.

  I said, “Let me rephrase that. Who in the hell are you two?”

  Alan started to say something, but I interrupted, “Brother and sister? Cousins? What are you both doing here?”

  Angela eyes widened as she looked up and saw me glaring at her. Handing off the cloth to the firefighter, she came over and tugged at my jacket. I let her pull me back into the shelf area behind the front counter before saying anything. People in the room watched us go, shaking their heads and mumbling about kids and their antics.

  As we got to the corner, Angela turned to me, whispering, “Vaughn, relax. We heard about the disaster and we came to help. That’s all. Sorry, I meant to find you and tell you I was here.”

  I shook my head. “Uh huh. Who are you two? You’re the one who tried bugging my room at the hospital. Then you showed up at the memorial. But when I went to look for you later, I discovered that you didn’t exist. No one had ever heard of Angela Tursow at the newspaper office. So you aren’t a reporter. Now, tell me who you two are!”

  Alan blinked. “Wow, sis, you told him you were a reporter?”

  She glanced at Alan and said, “It was the best way to get to them at the time. Nothing came of it, so I didn’t consider it a problem.”

  She then looked back to me with a slight smile. “You went looking for me? Why?”

  I looked away as I felt my face heat up. “Um…you were the first person to applaud for me after I gave my speech at the memorial. You got the ball rolling…and I wanted to thank you.”

  Angela’s smile widened. And she said, “You’re welcome. And seriously, I think what you’ve been doing to honor Alex Shaw’s memory is great. And we have gotten to know a lot about him from your interviews. I know doing all that had to have been hard, especially given some of the weirdoes.”

  I shook my head. “You have no idea how hard it was. Look, you need to tell me w
hat's happening! Why are you here? I mean, you have a deep interest in Alex, and I want to know why!”

  Then I saw something that looked familiar. “Hey! Alan, what’s that around your neck?”

  Before he could react, I reached out and grabbed the item. He said, “Hey! That was a gift! Give it back!”

  I saw that it was the same kind of microphone that Angela had tried hiding at the hospital. I looked at it, then looked at them and said, “Really, you’re both wired? What is this about?”

  Angela swallowed as her eyes widened. Shaking her head, she said, “God, no! It’s not even a listening device! The design just happens to look like a microphone. Give it back to Alan, Vaughn! It’s more important than you think. Especially around here!”

  I had no idea of what she was talking about, but the fear in her voice was real. Still, I looked at it again, trying to figure it out.

  I said, “Okay, what is it? And why is it so important?”

  They looked at each other for a moment. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I didn’t need this crap. Glancing past Alan, I saw that the snow was now falling heavily. The search for survivors was now going to be that much harder. I needed to get back outside to help. So I tossed it back to Alan. He relaxed once it was in his hand—weird.

  I sighed. “Look, whatever is going on, just go. Grownups are working here, and this is kid stuff! Take your bug…whatever it is…and just go!”

  Alan put it back on as he said, “All right, all right, it’s a phad transceiver. You’ve never seen one before, I take it?”

  “A phad? No! They’re too expensive.” I said as I looked at the thing. White with a silver grill on top, it did have the look of a listening device. But once he said what it was, I recognized it from Brand’s boasts about his phad.

  I said, “Fine, but why keep it with you? It’s designed for the phad, so put it in one.”

  Angela said, “Look, there’s an explanation for all this. But seriously, can we talk alone? I mean, really alone, not with all these people around us. We really need to talk to you about Alex Shaw. He did something that went way past what you think he did.”

  I stared at her, wondering what she was trying to say. I gestured towards the front of the library and said, “Look, this town is under attack by insane people! Do you really want to know what happened? Here it is! Alex is making people blow up my town! That’s what it is. Do you want to know how I feel about the guy, right now? Fine. He’s a bastard. Now go away, and let the adults handle the real mess that he left behind. The bombing is his fault!”

  Angela said, “No, it wasn’t a bombing, it was a—”

  Angela stopped talking when Alan stepped in between us. I thought he was trying to protect his sister, but he surprised me when he said, “Don’t talk about Shaw that way. He saved the world. Whatever else happened, he saved all of us.”

  Oh gods, they were fans of the Avatar. Did I just get more fanatics to deal with? No, not now!

  “Look—go. Just go. Nobody needs you two. Whatever fantasy you two believe about Alex is done! This is hell on Earth, not some game! Just go!” I said to the two of them.

  Before either of them could say anything more, there was yelling from the entryway. I looked to see Kular and a cop dragging in a firefighter. Kular yelled, “Vaughn! Help me with this fool!”

  Forgetting the two behind me, I went to help her put the unconscious man on the table. “What’s wrong? What happened to him?”

  “He’s the Lakes City Fire Chief. I told him earlier not to do anything strenuous! Now, he’s suffering from an acute myocardial infarction, damn it! And we don’t have a defibrillator!” Kular snapped as she ripped open his coat and shirt to get to his chest. I pulled back as more people came over to help. Kular went to work at trying to save him.

  I felt a light touch on an arm. Angela whispered, “We’re not the enemy, Vaughn. Kular is. Whatever you do, be careful around Kular. She knows about you—what you can do—so be very careful.”

  Then there was a bright flash of light; I blinked and whipped around to yell at them. I said, “What the hell are you—?”

  The back of the library was empty. They were gone. And unless they’d broken out a window, it wasn’t possible. But they were gone, just the same.

  There was a resounding thwack, and I turned to see Kular trying to get the man’s heart started. I could only watch as the body stayed unresponsive. Kular screamed for him to wake up. Dammit, no, not another death, please…not another—

  With a sudden gasp, the fireman jerked, his eyes flying open with pain. I whooped with joy as Kular calmed him down and called for an EMT to bring a gurney. Laughter flew around the room. And, just for a moment, I celebrated over the fact that we had held back the reaper at least once. My eyes met Kular’s, and I saw a mix of relief and pride in saving a man’s life. She laughed at my thumbs-up.

  It was all great until I remembered Angela’s last words. We’re not the enemy, Vaughn. Kular is…

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Sundogs heralded the coming of dawn. Colors flared from a thick coating of ice on the buildings and cars, caused by the water spray of fire hoses. Looking out the window, I could see people walking and pointing to the south, where Main Street lay. Where that particular hell was concerned, I didn’t want to see it ever again. I had had enough of burned and smoking cars to last a lifetime.

  Somewhere in the late of the night, I ended up sitting in a plush chair looking out the window. I’m not sure how long I’d been in it. I remember that events had wound down after the high adrenaline rush of the night. The fires were out, and the firemen declared the buildings clear of victims. The only issue that came up was when the cops had to clear people from the apartments near Main Street. While it had been a late decision, they’d all left, and most were in motels for now. It had taken Chief Sinclair’s direct orders to get the holdouts to leave.

  The talk was that the damage was in the millions, possibly in the billions. Yet, the cost in property damage was nothing compared to the lives lost and those who had been hurt. Two hundred and seventy-eight people had been injured and burned. Thirty-six were dead from the fire and smoke, or being caught in the blasts. And all we could do was mourn. I had known some of those people. Teachers from the high school, business owners, and people I’d run into from time to time over the years while living in Riverlite. On top of losing Brand, this was just too much.

  And worse, I was caught up in some strange conspiracy going on behind my back. I thought of what Angela had told me. That Kular knew what I could do. But how did Angela know what I could do? And what was with those disks? Why were they important? And why would Angela say Kular was a problem?

  No, I couldn’t see Kular being some sort of villain. Hell, everyone in the room had seen her do everything she could to save that firefighter. She’d cried with frustration over his near death. I hoped that he wouldn’t have another attack and die. She’d be devastated. And I was getting sick of death. Too much of it had been happening since Yama had come around, and a part of me really had felt hatred toward Alex last night. It wasn’t his fault, but people were dying now, possibly because of his direct actions.

  This was just wrong. On my birthday, I thought things might be getting back to normal. But now, Brand was dead, dozens had been killed, and worse, Chief Sinclair was unsure of how the explosions had been caused. So he couldn’t say that it wouldn’t happen again.

  And I had superpowers. So I wasn’t sure what was more worrisome, that we had a mystery bomber on our hands, or that I could do something I had only seen in comic books and movies. And the person walking up to stand behind me somehow knew about my powers as well, and I wasn't to certain how to deal with her on the subject. Not right then.

  “Vaughn? Are you doing all right?” Dana said. I smiled. The memory of her stunned look—right after I destroyed the wall—would be funny someday. Right now, however, the smile slipped away.

  Looking back at her, I said, “Hey.”


  Dana stood behind the chair, looking down at me with worry in her eyes. Behind her, the inside of the library was now a massive mess of tossed papers and medical garbage strewn across all the tables. Books were on the floor, some dirty and bloodied, and someone had shoved the DVD racks out of place, leaving the cases scattered. Dana herself looked like—well, she looked beautiful, no matter what. I found myself smiling again.

  I began to say something, but yawned in her face. Gods, I am such a witty man, aren’t I? Ugh.

  “Oh my, what big teeth you have,” she said with a trace of an impish grin. I felt my face heat up.

  I started to apologize. Then I did a double take when I realized we were the only ones in the library. When I’d sat down, there had been a number of people talking about the plans for recovery and investigations. It was dark then. Now light was coming in the windows, and I couldn’t remember the time passing.

  I said, “Wow, when did I fall asleep?”

  She nodded with a slight chuckle and said, “Since around three this morning. Dad was going to wake you an hour ago, and have you taken home. But I offered to do it instead. It’s almost six-thirty now, so come on, I think we’ve seen enough of this place.”

  Suddenly a bed sounded fantastic. But I didn’t want to go out and see the unholy mess again. Fortunately, we could avoid that. I said, “Okay. Let’s get out of here. Back way out, please?”

  Dana nodded and said, “Back door it is! I’m parked out that way in any case, so it’s not a problem.”

  Quickly, she turned off the lights as we went down the stairs as I slipped my coat on and zipped it up. I sniffed and looked at it. It was ruined. Eh, the coat would last me long enough to get home. Leaving out the back way of the library, Dana locked the door behind her. She turned and yawned.

  Shaking her head to try to wake up, Dana said, “Yes, I definitely need a long shower, some hot chocolate, and my bed. So I’ll take you home, I’ll go to mine, and we’ll both snuggle under the covers until…oh, who knows when. I just know that I’m so not cleaning up that mess inside.”