Harris laughed. “Yeah, I knew that. It was a sort of shot in the dark, something I tossed out to Kit and he told me to run with it.” He rubbed his hands together. “I figured it was my way of contributing to the deal. If you showed in time, great. If not, you’d be here soon enough after we found Dykovski’s base.”
“We’d have been here as soon as it hit the fan,” I said. “I guess Kit figured it was a win-win no matter what happened. I show up early, he takes the team after I call them in. I show up late, he still gets to be the hero and takes the team.”
Harris nodded. “I didn’t think it’d take so long for the damned postcard to get to you. It took, what, a fucking week?”
“Could have just called.” I nodded towards the hotel phone. “I’d have accepted the charges.”
“Couldn’t risk Dykovski listening in and coming here to intercept you before we were ready to take him on,” Harris replied. “We heard rumors he could hack into the links and track you down through your IPs. That’s why I sent the postcard, keep it simple.” He jammed his right fist into the palm of his left hand, shaking his head. “I mean, it shouldn’t have been a problem. Not like the post office didn’t know who you were. And then I thought you’d fly here in that private jet of yours, not take the slow boat to China via the bus. We’d have had plenty of time to fight this out.”
I caught a whiff of the ancient bedspread, the moldy smell making my nose wrinkle. “How did you know I’d be in the diner anyway?”
Harris let out a chirp of laughter. “Told Bernie if a woman came in and started eating ’em out of house and home, to give me a call. Given it’s the only diner in town, I figured you’d end up there sooner or later.”
“I’m not sure if I should be flattered or pissed.” I wrestled with a bag of chocolate raisins.
He studied the clock. “Now we’re all there is between Masters and Dykovski tearing up the town.”
I shook my head, trying to banish the image of Kensington Grove going up in flames. “What was Kit’s plan? The one he told you, the one he sold you.” I rocked on the edge of the bed and started popping chewy morsels of goodness into my mouth.
“I was to meet Dykovski and his thugs in the diner. Chat with them, sign on the dotted line, all that stuff. When we left, Kit would follow back to wherever Dykovski was holed up. Get all the toys and his boys at the same time.” He gave me a sad smile. “It was a pretty good plan, really.”
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep a nasty reply from slipping out. “Any idea how many thugs he’s bringing along? What sort of powers they’ve got?”
“Two or three, maybe. Since he lost Lamarr and that girl he’s been working on getting others—think you scared some of the more eager ones off with the way you took Lamarr out.” He made a clicking noise with his tongue. “Messy. Very messy.”
I flinched inside but forced a steady tone. “Well, you run with the big dogs, you’re going to pay.”
“But he’s still got a few pit bulls on the team. Don’t know who. No big names, if that helps any.”
I scratched the tip of my nose, trying to hide my nervousness. “How busy is that diner? If a battle goes down, who’s going to get hurt?”
Harris looked at me as if I’d asked him if water was wet. “There’s a seniors home a half-block over. And two apartment buildings a block behind it. It won’t be pretty, I can promise you that.”
I sighed. “I miss Las Vegas.” Tossing an empty chip bag towards the worn plastic garbage bin, I slid down to sit on the floor—catching some nasty germs was low on my worry list right now. “What was Kit supposedly going to do when he followed you back to Dykovski’s den? Just bash into their home base and start throwing punches?”
“Basically,” he admitted. “I was more for backup, breaking things down from the inside. Go turncoat and all that after gaining their confidence.” He wrestled with the hem on his flannel shirt. “Burn through power lines, that sort of thing. I’m not much on the stand-up fighting bit, as you know.”
I smiled, remembering how he stood toe-to-toe with the alien ship in Toronto. “Yeah, I remember. You’re a freaking wallflower, Harris.”
He blushed, still fiddling with his shirt. “It was time for us to step up and all that.” A wistful look crossed his face. “I felt kinda good after that. Miss the rush.”
I decided not to go into the psychological addiction of dashing into danger. Lord knows Mike’d warned me enough about the euphoria of getting into a good fight and out again. “Figure Kit’ll go to the diner without you?”
“No doubt in my mind. He wants Dykovski bad.” Harris shook his head. “I mean, my Guardian was grumpy at times, but Dykovski is a nut-bar supreme with extra craziness on the side. Kit got smacked around a few times. He yelled about that when he got drunk.” His fingers stilled on the soft fabric. “Which was a lot, now that I think about it. And he never returned the empties.”
I chuckled. “So much for the perfect roommate.”
“I’d take Peter and Steve anytime. So, what’s the plan?” Harris put the remote on the arm of the chair and rubbed his hands together. “I’m ready to go.”
“First thing is that you call your buddy Dave. Tell him to start evacuating the town as quietly as he can, one family at a time, starting from the diner outwards. Don’t empty the diner, leave it alone.”
“Bernie.” Harris licked his lips. “She’s a good woman. I don’t want her caught in the middle of this.”
“I don’t want anyone caught in anything. But if the town empties out, both Kit and Dykovski are going to know something’s up.”
Harris nodded. “Dave may not believe me. I mean, we’ve only chatted over coffee. It’s a big jump from that to ‘hey, I’m a super and your town is about to become ground zero for a brawl.’”
I watched a cockroach the size of a Chihuahua scuttle out of the corner and head for the garbage can. My skin itched.
“Give him the phone number to the Lair. David’ll verify, and if we need to bring Outrager in, we bring him in.” I jerked a thumb towards the door. “How far from here to the diner?”
“Walking, about an hour. Flying, much less.” He lifted one hand, palm towards me. I saw the edges of his fingertips glow, the wave of heat playing over my bare skin. “Don’t cut me out of this, Jo. I’m ready to put the smackdown on them both. I don’t like being played for a fool.”
“That’s good because we’re going to need you to make this work.” I thought for a minute. “Dykovski may or may not know it’s a trap and he may not care, figures he can get out of anything we toss at him. But he knows you don’t have any protection against him grabbing your code, so he’s going to show, no matter what. He can’t pass up the chance to get another super under his thumb.” I wrestled with the wrapper. “He doesn’t know Kit is still alive, and we may be able to use that to our advantage.” I bit into the chocolate bar. “Bleh. Coconut.”
“I’ll take it.”
I tossed it to Harris and worked on another bar. “We’re going to go back to town. First thing I’m going to do is try to find Kit and talk him into doing this meeting the way he told you it was going to be—the two of us following you back to Dykovski’s base and waiting for the rest of the team to arrive. You go into the diner, see what’s up with the situation, play it through. Dykovski’ll drag you back to his hideout no matter what. Whether you’re willing or unwilling won’t make a difference once he has your frequency.”
He reached around, feeling the scarred tissue. “He’s not going to pop me on the spot.” It was more of an attempt to reassure himself, not a question to me.
“No benefit in it. I think he’d much rather have you under his control and running with his dogs.”
Harris licked chocolate off his fingers. “And you think you can talk Kit into going along with this? We sort of parted on bad terms, in case you forgot.” He nibbled on one fingernail. “He’s sort of an angry drunk as well.”
“No shit, Sherlock.” My fingers traced t
he thin scratches on my throat. “I’m going to see if I can appeal to Kit’s ego, promise him the big photo shoot when we take Dykovski down. Maybe play the repentant little girl, going along with the Alpha but just tweaking it a little bit.” The scenario ran around in my mind, cutting Mobius strips.
“Too bad you don’t have the leather outfit on,” Harris leered. “Think he liked that one. Especially if you get on your knees and beg.”
I stuck my middle finger up, letting the sparks fly.
“God I missed you.” He chuckled. A second later his expression became serious. “It’s gonna be dangerous. Like Hunter said, we don’t have any jammers.”
“Waiting just isn’t an option. Dykovski’s been raiding Agency equipment caches and taking some weapons. Along with an armored flight suit.” I scrunched up the wrapper. “He might not show with the armor in public, but who the hell knows?”
Harris curled his lips into an O. “That’s not good. That’s so not good.” He looked at me. “We’ve got to stop him.”
I tried not to grin. “And we’re going to.”
“It’s settled, then.” Harris got to his feet and brushed off the front of his pants.
My pulse hammered in my ears. “If it goes bad, we’ll have to play it by ear until the team arrives. We can’t sit back and let them demolish the town.” The scratches on my throat burned. “Draw them out of town, away from the public. Keep that in mind if it all goes to hell.”
“I sure hope it doesn’t come to that,” Harris said. “I’m okay with the first version—you and Kit follow me back to their base.”
“And wait,” Hunter interjected. “I just told the pilots to jack it into high gear. The FAA may bitch, but they’ll live with it.” His voice dropped a notch. “Don’t be a hero, Jo. Remember the first rule.”
Harris laughed. “Women.”
I resisted the urge to taser one man and swear at the other.
“Make sure to call me when you get near the area. You may have to do a team jump out of the jet.” I frowned. “Did you even discuss that with Rachael? Can she handle that? Bringing you all down without killing everyone?”
“Don’t know. Might be a good time to try it out,” Hunter replied. “She’s here and eager to go. Just get Kit on your side if you can. If you can’t, hold on until we arrive.” A clacking came over the link, keys being bashed hard and without mercy. “We’ll be there as soon as we can. I’m also alerting the National Guard via Outrager along with everyone and the kitchen sink. Reinforcements are on the way. Do. Not. Engage.” His tone changed, low and definitely Guardian-like. “I’m not kidding, Jo. If Dykovski and Masters get into it, save the civilians and keep out of the way.”
“Yeahsureyoubetcha.”
“Do you two fight like this in bed?” Harris’s eyes gleamed. “Do tell.”
“Shut. Up,” Hunter and I replied in unison.
Chapter Six
Harris tapped the remote control. “I can’t believe we’ve got porn on every channel.”
I kept my eyes closed, running through another set of Hail Marys. “Thank you for keeping the sound off.”
“Waste of time. I’ve seen them all.” I heard the remote bounce on the bed. “It’s about time to go.”
“How’d your cop friend take it?”
“Like I was confessing I was a mafia killer. Laughter, denial and slow acceptance. Didn’t hurt when I told him who you were.”
I smiled. “Guess the disguise wasn’t all that great.”
“Hot is hot, Jo.” Harris chortled. “Can’t hide that under a baseball cap and glasses.”
I’d lost both somewhere between the apartment and the hotel. “Smartass. Don’t get cocky now that you’re on the front lines again.”
“Me? Never.”
“Okay, just so we’re clear. Best-case scenario first. You go in, talk to Dykovski and work your magic.” I stumbled to my feet, candy wrappers and discarded chip bags falling everywhere. “He’ll want you, willing or not. Try to be willing. Imagine he’s your favorite porn star ready to give you a chance.”
Harris scowled at me. “Tease.” He got up off the bed where he’d been laying. “What about Kit? What if he’s still angry with you, with me, with us? What then?”
I studied the faded wallpaper. It might have been flowers once. Or exploding kittens. “All I can do is try to appeal to his sense of right and wrong. Dykovski fucked him up real good in Atlanta, I can’t blame him for wanting revenge. But we have to save the town from being the real casualty between these two egos.”
The room was warm, almost stifling. We’d turned the heat up because of Harris’s lack of a coat. He’d stopped shivering, at least with the cold. I wasn’t so sure about his nerves.
“What if Kit doesn’t go along with it? Are you ready to fight him?” Harris toyed with a candy bar wrapper.
“I don’t want to.”
“But if you have to?”
I sighed. “I’m not keen on a two-front battle. Fighting Dykovski and Kit Masters at the same time.”
“Sort of ugly threesome.” Harris shot me a halfhearted leer.
“Not my scene. I’d rather worry about Dykovski and the power armor, thank you very much.” My attention returned to the Rorschach wallpaper.
Harris lifted his right hand, pulling the fingers into a clenched fist. “I can do this.” He looked at me, his jaw tensed. “I can do this, Jo.”
“I know you can.” I smiled. “Just play it the way we agreed, and wait for the team to jump in and save the day. No solo heroics.”
“Like you’re one to talk,” Hunter added dryly. He’d been quiet for the past few hours. It made me nervous.
“Okay. Let’s go find Kit and get ready to meet Dykovski.” Harris ran his hands up and down his arms. “Before I lose my nerve.”
“You won’t,” I reassured him as we stepped out of the hotel room. “You’re solid.”
The words didn’t help quell the quivering in my chest. My fingertips were cold despite the heat radiating off the ground. The gravel crackled under my feet as I took a deep breath and reached for Harris’s hand.
A few seconds later we were airborne, skipping along the tops of the trees. The deep cut in the forest signaled the highway, making it easy for me to navigate towards Kensington Grove and the diner.
The town crawled onto the horizon in an oasis of civilization. Harris squeezed my left hand.
“Let’s land there.” He gestured towards a vacant parking lot next to a supermarket. “Good dumpster diving there.”
“Don’t tell me why you know that.” I set us down in the shadows, light as a feather. “Where would Kit be if he’s not in the apartment?”
The slightly obese super stood up straight and slicked his hair back with one hand. “Ah, let’s see. He doesn’t leave the apartment much. Sort of mooches off of me.”
“No problem. Where does he go online? I don’t remember seeing a computer in your apartment. You spring for a laptop?” I dug my chin down into my chest as we walked out onto the street, pulling the jacket’s lapels up. It was unlikely anyone would start screaming and demanding my autograph, but I didn’t want to tempt fate.
“On my wages?” Harris laughed. “Not. We go to the library for all our fine computing needs. It’s around the corner here, a block down and to your left.”
He stopped so quickly I ran into his back. I bounced away, trying not to look silly. “He’s been talking to Dykovski from there. We don’t do cell phones or anything else. You think he’s there now?”
I nodded to the single police car passing us slowly, Officer Dave studiously ignoring us. The streets were quiet, and I hoped he’d been able to get the word out without panicking anyone. One pickup truck drove by at the far end of the street and meandered out of sight. The shops we passed either remained locked up or had never opened for business, the metal signs still flipped to the Closed side.
It wasn’t a clear victory, but it sure helped. The weight on my chest lifted a fraction, jus
t enough to help me breathe easier.
“I think your apartment is going to be the major focus of attention right now with people wondering where the hole came from, if they didn’t see us brawl outright. He’s got to go somewhere to avoid questions about the apartment and about us. The library sounds as good a place as any to hide out until Dykovski arrives.”
Harris nodded. “Makes sense.”
The patrol car turned the corner, away from us. “Does he have his own computer account or does he use yours?”
Harris flushed a deep scarlet. “Always mine. We figured it’d be easier to avoid being found, him being an Alpha and all.”
“So he’s got your passwords and everything. Jessie?” I resisted the urge to look skyward to my techno-angel.
“Already on it.” He was all business, short, clipped tones. “Geez, Harris. Did you have to pick that as a password? Got it on the first try.”
Harris coughed as we rounded the corner. “Thank you for not saying it out loud.”
“Get my ass burned by two women, one of whom is sitting here beside me? No thanks.” Jessie chuckled. “Okay, Jo—Harris logged on about a half hour ago at the Kensington Grove Library, not too far from where you’re walking.”
“Can you backtrack who he’s chatting with? Do that mojo with the emails and find out where Dykovski’s sending his emails from?”
“Bet you five bucks he’s using a disposable cell phone with web access. I might be able to lock down the cell tower he’s using, but don’t count on a street address.”
I repressed the urge to scream. “Do the best you can.”
We stood on the corner. Harris pointed to his left. “Diner’s down there. We got time before Dykovski arrives.” His hand moved to the right. “Library’s that way.” A quaver worked its way into his words. “You sure you want to talk to him alone?”
“No option.” I took a single step to the right before pausing. “You need to be in that diner. I’ve got to give Kit a chance to fix things, put it right. So far no one’s gotten hurt yet.”
Heroes Lost and Found Page 8
