Fire and Thunder

by Bowen Greenwood

  Sebastian gave him a couple moments of silence, and then said, “Here’s the plan. Drake’s waiting near where the mugging took place because I think Jackson will come back for the phone she dropped. Meanwhile, I want you two to go find the mugger. I’m hoping Spooky’s power to know the truth will help find him. When you find him, recover Jackson’s purse, or else get him to tell you where he fenced it. I’m guessing there’s some information about her in there. If she’s going to lead me to Pitch, I want to know everything about her.”

  “What are you going to be doing?” Linc asked.

  Sebastian gave him a significant stare. “I’m going to keep an eye on Drake. Somebody once told me I should be worried about him.”

  Chapter 10

  Mr. Moses argued all the way to the front door. He went most of the distance sideways so he could face her as he gestured with his hands.

  “You’re too important, Ms. Jackson. God says you hold the key to saving millions of lives. You can’t leave!”

  “I think I can best save those lives by warning the AAA about the prophecy, Ethan. They need to know that their worst fears are confirmed.”

  “They won’t believe you!”

  “Of course they’ll believe me. The agency exists for the purpose of dealing with the fact that some people have unexplainable abilities. You’re not even the first person we’ve studied who can tell the future.”

  The two of them paused at the door to the Sons of Thunder’s headquarters. It opened into a foyer served by a single elevator, which Terri could take down to the hotel’s taxi stand.

  “I won’t hold you against your will, Ms. Jackson. That’s not who we are here. But I’m begging you, don’t go on without us. God told us to find you. I’ve got to believe he wants us working together.”

  “We’ve been over this. We’re all likely to be arrested if we go there together and the AAA is waiting in force, as I expect they will be. I’ll try to persuade them that you’re the good guys. I’ll tell them you’re not like the Legion and try to get them to accept your help stopping the bomb. But I have to go alone.”

  She took his hand in both of hers, shook it, turned, and walked out.

  The moment the door clicked shut, Mr. Moses hurried back down the hall to where Renee taught her history class, with most of the Sons of Thunder attending the lecture. Standing outside the open door, he pointed at Pitch and at Anna. They came right out.

  “Ms. Jackson is leaving us,” he announced. Both the young people gave him confused expressions.

  “I thought you said she was important,” Pitch said. “Why won’t you tell us what this prophecy says, anyway?”

  “Never mind right now. For the moment, she feels like she needs to leave and not with us. I think she’s wrong about not wanting us with her, though. Would you two follow her? If you can’t catch her before she leaves and keep an eye on her, I’m guessing your teleport gift will come in handy, Anna. I don’t want anyone to panic yet, but this prophecy is serious business. Don’t lose her. If you hurry, you can get to the exit before the elevator gets her there.”

  Both of them nodded at once. Anna put her hand on Pitch’s shoulder, closed her eyes, and said, “Lord, we’d like to be in the valet parking lot please.”

  ***

  Drake grew tired of the coffee shop. The seat cushions of pretend leather stopped being comfortable hours ago. The fake wood tables felt greasy under his arms. He switched to water, after his tongue rebelled against stale burned coffee.

  In his early days with the Legion, he used to go out on missions with other members working to bring in new kids with powers. Sebastian planned every mission out, with Spooky and Kila helping him. Pitch, Drake, and others like them executed the plans. It felt cool; it felt like being part of something bigger.

  That feeling was gone. What once might have qualified as a mission was now just a maddening act of arrogance from Sebastian, assuming he still had the right to give orders. Sitting here gave him time to get madder and madder about their interaction earlier in the morning. It also gave him time to think.

  Sebastian told him, “Wait at the Star of Fortune until she comes back. She lost her purse and phone in the mugging; she’ll come back looking for them. That’s the best chance we have of getting back in contact with her. When she does come back, call me. We’ll follow her and wait for Pitch to show up.”

  Well, Sebastian wasn’t the only one who wanted revenge against Pitch. Drake had cause to want that himself.

  And not just Pitch. Sebastian, Spooky, the whole group of them were to blame for Hope’s death. Maybe this was better. Just him alone, without any of the guilty parties.

  Since Hope had died, his life had been a constant emotional pendulum between rage and bleak despair. Slowly — glacially — the swings of the pendulum grew shallower over time. Right up until this morning. The fight with Connor, and the way Sebastian treated him afterward — those brought the rage back full force.

  Now, Drake tried to get his mind off it. He tried to calm down. But all thought of Sebastian just made him remember that night, and the people responsible.

  So if Pitch did show up with Terri Jackson, maybe he wouldn’t call Sebastian. Maybe he’d just take the revenge himself. Spooky’s words of truth just said “someone he wronged,” after all. That could be him as easily as it could be Sebastian.

  He stood up from the table to walk outside. It was over 100 degrees with very little shade, but that felt like air conditioning compared to the heat of his anger at all these people who had their fingerprints on Hope’s death.

  ***

  Morning classes ended at 11:30. Weary from trying to take notes of Renee’s lecture on the prelude to the Revolutionary War, Connor tried to get his bad mood under control. It was one thing to try to be like a normal college student. That was a great idea. But normal college students got the summer off. He liked Renee Wales a lot, but he liked her for her friendliness, her willingness to listen to him, and for being Anna’s sister. What he didn’t like was Renee Wales the professor. She personified the word boring.

  He shook his head, still getting over the drowsiness instilled by her class. Connor woke up enough to hurry toward the conference room. The prospect of a burger from Sol Tower’s room service made everything seem better, and lunch always followed the last morning class quickly.

  In addition to the lunch, there was always the hope that he might get to talk to Anna.

  Instead, though, it was Kila who came alongside him as they entered the conference room. Other Sons of Thunder attacked the midday meal with gusto. As they eased into chairs — the one next to Anna was already taken — Kila asked if he’d seen Pitch.

  “I want to carry on a conversation he and I were having earlier this morning,” she said.

  Connor bit off about a third of a grilled ham and cheese in one shot. He chewed briefly, and then gulped it down. “Mr. Moses sent him off with Anna. Following that Terri Jackson woman.”

  A boy across the table said, “She was kind of pretty. Do you think she’ll come back, Connor?”

  Kila rolled her eyes. She nibbled a corner of her sandwich and chewed very thoroughly while Connor shrugged.

  Renee walked up and took the seat next to Kila. She used a fork to spear three sandwich-halves from the tray, and then ate almost as greedily as Connor. When she’d put a full one away she asked, “Any ill-effects from this morning?”

  Kila said, “Yeah, it looked like you got hurt this morning before breakfast. Did you have to fight while you were out finding this Jackson woman?”

  Connor let out a groan. “Fight is an understatement. Not only did Sebastian clobber me again, but the Legion has some new guy who’s a hundred times worse.”

  “Still haven’t figured out how to fight something you can’t see, huh? I told you. Don’t be a lone warrior, be part of a team. What makes this new guy so bad?” Kila picked up a glass of ice water after she spoke, taking a long drink.

  “He throws fire. I got burned
pretty badly but thank God Renee was here when Anna brought—”

  Connor cut off in mid-sentence when Kila dropped her glass. Ice and water spilled all over the table, getting the remaining sandwiches wet. The boy across the table from Connor leapt up and back to avoid getting it on his pants.

  “Kila?” Connor asked.

  “He… He throws… The new guy? He throws fire?”

  “Yeah. I know. Scary power, right? As if Sebastian isn’t dangerous enough on his own.”

  She grabbed Connor’s sleeve as if she were drowning and he was a life preserver.

  “No, Connor. You don’t… Tall? Long brown hair? Really good looking?”

  “Well, I don’t know much about what’s good looking in guys, but his hair wasn’t really that long…”

  Their ruckus had attracted Mr. Moses, who walked up behind them and asked what was going on. Even the warm sound of his pacific voice couldn’t calm Kila down.

  “And you met him with Terri Jackson? And Pitch — just now — Pitch went after Terri Jackson?”

  “Yeah, why? Kila, it’s bad, but it’s not like…”

  “Connor, he’s not new. He’s been with the Legion since before they tried to recruit you. And he wants one thing and only one thing out of life:

  “To murder Pitch.”

  Mr. Moses said, “Excuse me? Murder?”

  Connor just stared. Kila stood up from the lunch table, knocking her silverware onto the floor.

  “We have to find them before they find each other. Pitch will die if we don’t!”

  ***

  Anna’s ability to teleport first took them to the base of Sol Tower. They couldn’t find their quarry there, so she prayed to be taken to where Terri Jackson was. They wound up standing in the middle of a crowd of tourists waiting for the signal to change at a street corner. They got some startled looks when they popped into existence, but people seemed to write it off to the confusion of standing in a big crowd.

  She and Pitch milled around among the crowd for a moment, wondering why God had brought them there. Terri Jackson was nowhere to be seen. After a moment, though, Pitch thought he saw her going by in a taxi.

  Anna prayed to be where Terri Jackson was going, rather than where she was. They disappeared again.

  They reappeared in the vacant parking lot of the abandoned Star of Fortune.

  Discarded advertising leaflets littered the asphalt. Very few cars parked anywhere nearby. The only sign of life came from a coffee shop across the parking lot. The owners apparently leased a little bit of the Star of Fortune’s space for their small business.

  “Shall we check it out?” Pitch asked, pointing at it.

  Anna shrugged. “Not sure. Maybe God meant she was coming right to this spot or maybe he just brought us here because we could see the coffee shop. Or maybe she’s headed somewhere else to do with the Star of Fortune. Let’s look around. We can cover more ground if we split up.”

  ***

  Kila jabbed her thumb mercilessly against the elevator button, hopping from foot to foot. With Anna accompanying Pitch, they would have to travel the old fashioned way — Connor’s motorcycle. Every delay pulled another bead of sweat from the brown-haired girl’s brow. Deadly danger threatened her friend, and her cheeks glistened with tears.

  Connor held two helmets, one in each hand. His black leather jacket hung on his slender frame, and he’d made Kila don his spare one. Her sweat, though, had nothing to do with wearing the thick garment.

  “What is wrong with this-”

  The door chimed at that moment, and she squeezed inside before the elevator finished opening. Connor followed and after another attack on the buttons, they finally headed down.

  “Why does this kid want to kill Pitch?” Connor asked as he handed her the helmet.

  Muffled by the struggle of tying the strap, she managed to mumble, “Drake’s girlfriend really hated Sebastian. There was a big fight. After we won, Sebastian ordered Pitch to take her out in the desert and execute her.”

  “And he did?!”

  “We were in the Legion back then, Connor. Evil stuff happened. I’m not proud of it, and I know Pitch isn’t either, but—”

  The elevator bell rang, and Kila pushed her way through even as the doors barely began to crack.

  “Come on!”

  Connor ran after her once the gap was a little wider, pulling on his helmet as he ran. The Tower of the Sun possessed a vast underground parking garage, the better to get gamblers inside quickly. He caught up to Kila and passed just in time to show her the way to his motorcycle. He threw his leg over it, jabbed the key in, and pushed the electric starter. The Harley’s loud pipes echoed in the cement garage as Kila climbed onto the saddle behind him and wrapped her arms around his midriff. Connor tore out into the blazing midday sun.

  The engine roared too loudly to talk, especially with helmets covering their ears. Connor wondered if Kila had any prophetic knowledge of where Pitch would be. If she did, she’d kept it to herself before. Now it was too late; conversation was impossible. When Mr. Moses sent Anna and the telekinetic young man out, he told them to follow Terri Jackson, but Connor had no idea where that would lead. He only knew one place to look: the abandoned skyscraper that had once been the Star of Fortune casino. The parking lot there was where this all began. It was where he’d first met Terri. Mr. Moses said she was going to try to retrieve her phone and that she may have dropped it during the mugging.

  The bike roared as Connor weaved around a city bus. The noon rush gripped the flow of traffic like a tourniquet but being on two wheels gave him a freedom of which full-sized cars could only dream. He raced directly between two lines of traffic in order to be right at the front when the light turned, then accelerated sharply the moment before red became green. He felt Kila’s grip squeeze in on his middle when he zoomed around a big tractor trailer, but he didn’t let up on the gas. If Pitch really was in danger, that was worth a little bit of drastic riding.

  In the distance, the Star of Fortune tower hove into view. From this far away, the damage that had closed it down wasn’t visible, but the lack of any lighting set it apart from the rest of Las Vegas. Normally, everything taller than three stories glowed in pastel neon.

  Connor grabbed the brake when a stoplight switched to red. The engine growled too loudly to hear but from the way Kila moved behind him, he thought she might have screamed. He knew his bike, though. They stopped in plenty of time.

  The Harley leaped off the line when he asked for it. In seconds, Connor was far enough past the rest of the traffic to maneuver over to the right lane. The Star of Fortune drew nearer and nearer. He wanted to be in the best position to pull in as soon as he saw the parking garage. He remembered the approach well even though it felt like months since he’d been there that morning.

  Was Pitch OK? Had he really murdered someone? Would this Drake person really do the same thing to him? The answers lay in front of him, coming in fast. If the boy who set him on fire that morning really had murderous intent, Connor was racing his motorcycle into deadly danger. Nothing guaranteed he’d find Anna before he found Drake. So this time, there’d be no quick teleport back to the headquarters and a healer. He heeled the bike over to enter the parking garage. Whatever danger waited with Terri Jackson, the waiting was almost over.

  Chapter 11

  Black was not camouflage. If someone wanted to hide, black clothing did a poor job of it even at night, let alone on a bright Las Vegas day. When a soldier or law enforcement officer wore black, it was because they wanted to be seen — seen and feared. Black clothing conveyed threat, menace, and fear.

  Black fatigue pants tucked into black tactical boots. Black base layer, black ballistic vest, black raid jacket with “FEDERAL AGENT” in block letters on the back. She donned a ball cap with AAA on the front and boarded the truck with the rest of her team. Personnel were being dispatched all over the city of Las Vegas to look for Special Agent Jackson, but she chose the most likely spot for her o
wn personal supervision. Of all the places she might be, the only one with any record was the Star of Fortune.

  Director Maven Flake hadn’t worn a raid jacket in months. She’d sat out the assault on the Legion’s base, preferring to direct it from the Operations Center. She cast her thoughts backward as she tightened the straps on her bullet proof vest — meant to stop handgun bullets but not necessarily rounds from a high-powered rifle. She didn’t know whether the vest would even matter. None of the people they were after had ever been seen to use a gun.

  She and the other agents expected trouble of some kind. Whatever was going on, they were headed for the center of it. Waiting for the truck to roll out, Flake gripped a handhold on the ceiling and spoke to her people.

  “You all heard Penn’s briefing. We’re here to save Las Vegas from a nuclear bomb — and maybe most of the southwest. Most of you have experience dealing with abnormal abilities. You know these fights can get pretty freaky, with stuff flying through the air and the weather itself turned into a weapon. We can’t let that stop us. Do whatever you have to do to bring these people in. Whatever it takes.”

  ***

  Terri Jackson emerged from the yellow taxi at the Star of Fortune’s parking lot. Rising out of the air conditioned car, the heat hit her with an almost physical force. The change from an inside temperature that felt like about 60 degrees to an outside temp higher than the century mark nearly knocked her down.

  She came here assuming that other agents from the AAA would already be searching for her. That, however, proved not to be the case. There were no flashing sirens outside. No unmarked black sedans lined the streets or what had once been the parking garage. She decided to check around for any of the agents she knew had to be there.

  Her eyes adjusted gradually to the blazing light. She squeezed them shut after accidentally looking at the sun.