by Alan Janney
“That’s horrible,” Hannah said.
“What are people thinking?” I asked angrily. “That they can just put on a mask and cheat death?”
“Isn’t that what the Outlaw does?” she asked.
I had no response.
Despite taking the field with a heavy heart, I scorched the Long Beach Beavers. Anytime one of my receivers came open I threw a laser beam that would either hit their gloves or take their head off. This was our final tune up before playing the Patrick Henry Dragons for the championship, and we executed it flawlessly. Jesse Salt dashed with brilliance and I could have been playing with a flamethrower for all the chance the Beavers had at sacking me. Our beautiful cheerleaders chanted, our band wailed, and our fans cheered as we manhandled the opponents. Our defense devoured their pathetic attack and we rolled out with a 56-0 victory.
On the way home I considered the copycat Outlaw problem. How could I stop them? Make a YouTube video myself? Reveal my secret identity to show how absurd the notion was? Use Craigslist?
One consolation was that Katie should be safe tonight. After all, Tank always had Friday night football games too.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Monday, October 29. 2017
Tank sent Katie a message tied to a brick Monday night. For whatever reason, Katie called me instead of the police.
“I hear someone outside,” she whispered. Despite my leaden limbs and eyelids of sandpaper, I burst through her building’s tree line at a full sprint just seconds later, like a monster acting on pure reflex.
There! A startled figure standing next to a shrub.
I slowed long enough to wrap the ski mask around my face before charging full bore into Tank. Or into who I thought was Tank. The figure collapsed too easily. I landed on top of the body and pinned his head down with my forearm. A shaft of light fell across his face.
“Beans?” I hissed through my mask. “Is that you, Beans?”
“Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no,” the kid whimpered into the grass. “Please Outlaw please Outlaw, don’t kill me man, I’m so sorry, Outlaw, I’m so sorry.”
“Shut up,” I said. “I mean it, keep silent.”
“Okayokayokayokayokay,” he said.
“Silence,” I said as I dialed Katie’s number. He obeyed. “Katie, it’s okay. Don’t come out. I’ll knock on your door in a minute,” and I hung up. “Talk fast, Beans. I imagine the police will be arriving soon.”
“Okay, okay. Okay. What do you want me to say?”
“Keep your voice down. Why did Tank send you here?”
“I don’t know,” he almost cried.
“Tell me, or the police will find you here. Take your time.”
“I don’t know, man,” he persisted. “I’m just supposed to throw this brick through the window. Please, Outlaw, don’t hurt me.”
“What brick?”
“I dropped it when you hit me, mister Outlaw,” he said. “He used a rubber band to attach a flower to it. And a note.”
“What did the note say?” I asked, looking over my shoulder.
“I don’t know, I swear, dude, I don’t know. He told me if I read it he’d break one of my fingers.”
I nodded and said, “Yeah, that sounds like him.”
“He’s like a terrorist,” he whimpered. “Yo, you should just straight kill him.”
“Then why are you helping him?” I demanded.
“You don’t understand, mister Outlaw.” He started crying more freely. “He don’t quit, he don’t stop. He barely sleeps. He just sits up all night, yo, working out, buying and selling on his machine, growing, always growing his empire, dude. He’s a maniac.”
“His empire? Drugs?”
“Nah, no drugs. Doesn’t touch it. Real estate. Like a slum lord kingpin for real. And he bankrolls gangs, you know.”
“What’s he want with me?”
He shuddered and tensed. “He hates you bad.”
“Why?”
“Tank just gets obsessed, man. Like crazy stuck on it. He can’t let you go, but he can’t risk getting caught neither. He’s got to be famous, got to get headlines, you know what I’m saying? Crazy obsessed with being the best. When he finds out I told you…” his voice caught and he started sobbing again. “Just don’t kill me, Outlaw.”
What did that mean? Was Tank jealous? I’d been listening intently to the California night but I still heard no sirens. Maybe Katie hadn’t called the police and I had a few more minutes.
“Where’s he live?”
“Man, don’t nobody know that. He just show up at nights. I’m dead, yo. My ass is gonna be drowned in the ocean.”
“What’s with the white gloves he wears?”
He chuckled darkly between snivels. “Ask him sometime. See if he don’t knock your head off.”
“You don’t know?”
“Ain’t nobody know.”
“Alright,” I said and pulled up on his collar so I was practically in his ear. “I need you to give him a message for me.”
“Oh man…”
“You tell him the game’s over. If he contacts Katie again I’m coming to Patrick Henry and dragging him out of class and nailing him to the wall. I will burn his whole world down, I will beat him until he stops breathing and then I’ll stuff those stupid white gloves down his throat.”
“I’m dead I’m dead I’m dead I’m dead,” he droned miserably.
“No you’re not. Text him and then move. Get your mom and go. Gather your cash, hop a bus and get off in San Diego. Start over,” I said, and an idea occurred to me. “Actually, before you go…what’s his cell phone number?”
As Beans scampered off into the darkness, I picked up the brick. A single red rose was affixed to it with a rubber band. I pulled out the note and opened it.
TELL ME WHO THE OUTLAW IS AND YOU’LL NEVER HEAR FROM ME AGAIN.
I tossed away the brick and stuffed the note into my pocket. I knocked on the door.
“Katie?”
“Who’s there?” came the muffled reply.
“Chase,” I smiled.
“What’s the password?”
“I’m tired,” I said. As the lock clicked and the door began to slide haltingly open, I caught my reflection. With a gasp, I whipped the mask off and tucked it into the small of my back as Katie’s eyes adjusted to the night.
“I heard you talking to someone,” she said.
“Just a kid,” I lied. “From down the street. I scared him half to death and sent him home.”
I was tired of sleeping on Katie’s floor. I swayed unsteadily on my feet, ready to collapse from exhaustion, while I debated spending another uncomfortable night on her floor.
“Go home, Chase,” she smiled, and I would have scaled a skyscraper for her at that moment. “Go to bed. You’re my hero, thank you for coming.” She took my face in her hands and kissed my nose before returning inside and closing the door.
My reflection slid back into place. The boy staring back at me had no answers. I could see Tank’s note sticking out of my jeans’ front pocket.
“I don’t know what to do,” I whispered. “I feel like this is only the beginning.”
Three days later, the nightmare truly began.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Thursday, October 31. 2017
Thursday night, Dad and I were watching television when Katie’s mom called me.
“Chase,” she said. “Please tell me Katie is with you.” Her voice was rushed and desperate.
“Hi Ms. Lopez. Katie’s not with me. What’s wrong?”
“She’s missing!” Her words landed on me like bags of cement.
Katie hadn’t been at school today. I had assumed she was sick, or on a Debate Team field trip. “How long has she been missing?”
“I don’t know,” she choked. “Best I know, the last time anyone saw her was last night after Young Life. Oh dios mio, por favor ayuda. I went to bed early and when I get up I figure she’d already left for the day.”
> “So she’s been gone for over twenty-four hours,” I said, churning through the facts and implications. I stood up. Dad watched me. “Have you called the police?”
“Por supuesto! They’ll be over soon. She’s only gone twenty-four hours so I don’t think it’s high priority for them yet. Chase, it’s that guy, right? T? The one calling her? Do you think it’s him?”
“Maybe,” I said. Absolutely. “I’m going to look for her. Call me if you hear anything?”
“Gracias, Chase. Thank you so much. Will you call her friends? See if they know anything?”
“Yes. Talk to you soon.”
I hung up and said, “Katie is missing. I’m going hunting.”
“Be careful,” Dad called.
“I don’t have that option,” I muttered to myself as I jogged into my room.
It was Tank. Couldn’t be a coincidence. I didn’t know where he lived but I could get close. I’d seen him twice, both times in the same general area, not far from Patrick Henry High School, and close to Natalie’s building across the highway. If I had to, I’d walk around those streets shouting his name until I got a response.
I undressed and tugged on the sleek black football pants and the long-sleeved black shirt. They seemed more snug; perhaps I had put on some muscle recently. Overtop of those, I pulled on a windbreaker suit. I stuffed the gloves, mask, and bandana into my pocket. Hopefully they wouldn’t be required. Hopefully she’d walk through the door any second, or the police would find her alive. But I doubted it.
An idea had been brewing in my mind for several days, the pieces formulating themselves into a real possibility. I couldn’t decide if the idea was brilliant or stupid. But if I was going to try, now was the time. I took out Natalie North’s phone, which, other than communicating with Natalie, I’d only used to text Erica. I punched in Lee’s number and waited for him to pick up.
Here goes nothing.
“Hello?” he said.
“Lee. I need to see you immediately,” I growled into the phone.
“What? Dude, who is this?”
“The Outlaw. I’ll be in your backyard in five minutes. When I call you, come out alone and bring the stun gun you mentioned on Craigslist.” I hung up quickly. Despite the heaviness in my stomach, I smiled picturing Lee’s shocked face.
I parked several blocks away and sprinted to his backyard, and I called him again. I really needed a different phone cover. The Outlaw’s phone shouldn’t be pink.
“H-hello?” Lee said. All bravado had disappeared from his voice.
“I’m outside. Don’t turn on the lights. Bring me the weapon.”
“Dude, is it really you?” he breathed. “Dude. You promise you won’t kill me?”
“Get out here,” I barked.
Lee came scurrying out of the backdoors of his impressively large house but he slowed to a hesitant sidestep when he saw me standing beneath the tree.
“I didn’t know you actually checked Craigslist,” he whispered, looking at me like I was an alien.
“Let me see the stun gun,” I said.
“You can call it the Hazer,” he said, pushing it into my glove. “I mean, if you want. Why do you need it?”
“Why do you think?” I demanded.
“Oh, okay. Sorry Outlaw. Sorry dude. I’ll demonstrate how it works.”
I choked back the words, ‘You already showed me’, but instead I told him, “I can figure out it. Push this to activate, and then use. Very creative.”
“Thanks! This is totally rad, man. I can’t believe you’re here. I worship you, dude. Like for real.”
“I’ll let you know how it goes,” I said and I took off at a run into the blackness.
“What? Where’d you go? Hello? Outlaw?”
My phone, Chase Jackson’s phone, already had a text message from Lee when I got back to my car.
>> DUDE!!! HE WAS AT MY HOUSE!!! THE OUTLAW CAME TO SEE ME! AUUUUGH!!
I smiled into my mask and replied, Shut up, no he wasn’t. Hey, have you seen Katie today? This is important.
>> No, she wasn’t at school. But DUDE!! IT WAS HIM!! I’M NOT EVEN LYING!! HE HAS MY HAZER!!! I had my phone recording in my shirt pocket, I can prove it!!
Ah jeez. More video.
I drove out of his neighborhood and aimed my car towards the skyline bristling with towers. Towards Katie. Towards Tank.
Ms. Lopez called again, more hysterical now.
“They found her car,” she cried. “Not far from here. Have you heard from her?”
“No,” I said. “But I’m looking.”
She hung up without another word.
I mulled this over as I headed into Los Angeles. She hadn’t got lost or been in a car wreck. She had been captured. The abandoned car proved that. It had to be Tank. Why was he doing this? Well, because of me, the Outlaw. Either to cause me pain or to get my attention. He’d certainly gotten it. But now what?
I parked at the same familiar church parking lot and took out the mask again. This mask, this stupid mask, the cause of so much anguish. I wish I’d never put it on in the first place. But now I needed it.
I strapped the mask on, not to hide my identity, but to create a new being. To forge a creature capable of being utterly ruthless. I strapped the mask on and fully became the Outlaw. Tank had to die, and the Outlaw was going to kill him.
I slid Lee’s electroshock weapon over my fingers until the elastic band fit snugly around my hand and the short electrodes stuck straight out of my palm, and then I pulled on the tight glove. I set out for the house. The house. Tank’s house. I bolted straight up the house’s front sidewalk and barreled through the door, discarding all pretenses at secrecy. It crashed open and I landed squarely in the middle of the room. Nothing. Empty. The house held an air of abandonment. I prowled through it, kicking down each door and inspecting the vacant rooms. Gone.
Well, plan B. Walk through this neighborhood shouting. Anything to find Katie.
As I prepared to leave the house I had an epiphany. I had Tank’s cell phone number! How ignorant could I be?? Beans had given it to me. Could I just call him? I used Natalie’s phone and dialed him with trembling fingers.
Ring ring.
This had to work.
Ring ring.
A voice on the other end picked up, and I swore he was smiling.
“This who I think it is?”
“I know it’s you,” I snarled into the phone. “I know you have her.”
“Oh this is rich,” he chuckled. “You’re calling my phone? How pathetic. The great Outlaw is reduced to telephone calls.”
“Tank, I swear to God, I’m going to rip you into pieces.” Raw fury was choking me, and tears leaked out of my eyes. “I know you have her.”
“Of course I have her,” he said. “She’s alive, PJs. And unharmed.”
I had to curtail speaking for a moment and concentrate on not crushing the phone in my fist.
“She’s alive, PJs, but if I see the police coming I’ll drop her over the ledge and disappear.”
Over the ledge? Over the ledge of what?
“Where are you?” I asked.
“Figure it out. I have a busy day tomorrow, so I’m killing her at midnight.”
I glanced at the clock on the phone. I only had an hour left.
“What do you think?” he asked me. “You think she’ll survive a five story drop?”
The line went dead.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Thursday Night, October 31. 2017
It was Halloween night. Seemed about right.
It didn’t rain much in Los Angeles, but rain drops began pelting me like stray bullets as I ran.
Five stories. Five stories. In an interview, Natalie North had confessed to America that she had a secret rendezvous with me on top of her apartment building, which was also five stories.
Tank must have seen the interview, and he had taken Katie there. That’s the only possible explanation, the only way he could expect me to locate
him with just a hint. But why? Why give hints? Why this game? Why that rooftop? It didn’t make sense. Nothing in my life made sense anymore. I missed sanity. I missed sleeping. I missed Katie.
I found out later that Tank had called the news station. He wanted an audience. What Tank didn’t know was the news station had been compelled to alert the police. At the time, in the middle of the worst night of my life, I didn’t pay attention to the news helicopter roaming the sky and probing the towers with its piercing searchlight.
My mad dash into the core of the city did not go unnoticed. I was earning surprised honks and cries of recognition with every street I crossed. The Outlaw ran among them. I made no attempt to hide. My stunned audience was accumulating as quickly as I could leave it behind. They were following me, and many of them wore halloween masks.
I slowed at Natalie’s building, peering at the rooftop from the sidewalk below. Was that a figure on the roof? A dark silhouette sixty feet up watching me? My vision was impaired by the intensifying rain.
Hey is that the Outlaw? Oh my gosh it is! Mr. Outlaw! Is that really him? Can we get a picture? Sir!
I bolted off, moving faster than their eyes could follow, propelled past human limitations by urgency. Crowds of partiers and night owls could only catch a glimpse of me before I vanished. I turned at the Starbucks parking lot, the same location that had granted me access to the rooftops last time, and jumped. I jumped…high! My leg acted like a piston and thrust me upward. My body launched itself impossibly far, airborne longer than gravity should allow. I rotated my arms in a vain attempt to balance my flight pattern, the world swinging madly below me, but I clipped the roof’s edge and went sliding across the plastic coated concrete roof tiles.
I had just jumped onto a two story building from the street.
What has happened to me??
