This wasn’t happening. Nobody else. I wasn’t losing anybody else. “I think we have enough time for surgery to . . .”
“To succeed or not.”
I swallowed. “Right now it just looks like a random shooter event. Not even a celebrity stalker—Shokwave isn’t known yet. If someone finishes it—”
“I agree, they’ll wait to see if she just dies without more help. We can get into place—”
“No.”
“No? Why?”
“If we set ourselves to protect Kitsune at the hospital, we broadcast that we know and invite attack there, a fight in an environment full of the most at-risk bystanders.”
“So we quietly extract her? Directly from post-op?”
“Yes. I can do it with four people and no medical support, if Dr. Beth and Chakra are prepared for her here when we return.”
“Who do you need?”
“Ozma, Artemis, Grendel, Agent G.” I thought the plan through again. “Yeah, that’s it.”
She nodded. “Do it. But you’re not doing it alone. The rest of the team will be ready if it becomes a Charlie Foxtrot.”
* * *
“These glasses are stupid.”
I looked back at Grendel and smiled. Like the rest of us, he’d dressed civilian. I’d been prepared to drop him from the plan but Ozma’d already had several pairs of Anonymity Specs finished. The green round-lensed specs did look a little silly on him, but nobody’d batted an eye when we piled out of our taxis outside Westlake Hospital.
Well, there were some batting eyes aimed at Jacky and Ozma, both of whom could make runway models weep with envy. Nobody paid attention to me or Agent G, who was back to looking like a slovenly undergrad.
“Stick close, everyone.” I led us through the sliding doors and to the reception station where Fisher waited for us. “How is he?” I’d put my wig and shades from my ill-fated Eric adventure back on. It was enough of a disguise for anyone who didn’t know me and not so much that watching for me, Fisher wouldn’t recognize me.
He took in my little party, turned to the nurse giving his unlit cigarette the evil eye. “This is them.” She hit a button on her desk and with a buzz the doors behind her station opened.
“Sure this is a good idea, kid?” he asked, leading us down the hall past two uniforms.
“Dr. Beth has the infirmary prepped as an ICU.”
“And you think this—Kitsune? —is seriously at risk?”
“I think the whole city is.”
He nodded like I’d just told him it was cold outside. “Talk to me.” Stopping by a door marked Observation he waved us in. The room beyond had a door and a bay window looking out on the operating room.
“I’m pretty sure someone primed Nemesis and sent him after ‘Shokwave.’ When he wakes up he can tell you more. If he doesn’t— If he doesn’t then I’ll tell you what I can.”
“Should I be looking into Shokwave?”
“I think you’ll learn more looking into Nemesis.”
“Mmm.” He put the cig in his mouth, turned to watch the surgery. “And you can’t tell me more? I only recognize two of you.”
“They’re closing him up,” Shell whispered in my ear.
Fisher noticed my distraction. “Planning on flying him? Chilly out there.”
“An ambulance is waiting.” If they were closing him up, that was good, right? “Have you considered vaping? Replace those nasty cigarettes?”
“It’s banned in public, so no. No escort for the ambulance?”
“It’s one of the flight-designed ones, so no.” I didn’t say I’d be flying it.
Five minutes later the surgeon finished his post-op scrub and stepped into our little room. The man was built like a fire hydrant, with a manner as short as he was. “I’m not agreeing to this.”
Fisher nodded. “He’s not going to die?”
“Not in the next five minutes. Ten minutes from now we might have to open him back up—he belongs in the ICU where we can monitor him.”
“Astra?” Fisher waved his unlit smoke at me. I held up a finger while hitting speed-dial on my cell.
“Astra?” Veritas echoed on the other end.
“I have the doctor right here.” Handing him the cell, I went back to watching them prep my husband for moving. A minute later I got my phone back.
“Fine. You want him, he’s yours. Have fun with the funeral arrangements.” He stormed out, doing a good job of it for someone barely taller than me. “What did Veritas say?” Artemis asked.
“That unless the doctor was willing to take responsibility for Westlake becoming a smoking crater, he’d let us have him. Let’s do this, people.” I held the door and minutes later we were wheeling Shokwave down the hall to the exit. Pale, tubes in his nose and a portable IV being held by Brian, he looked as close to a corpse as Jacky.
A nurse at the end of the hall opened the doors for us, blasting cold night air in from the receiving dock.
“That’s my cue.” Jacky drew her electro-lasers and went to mist. Grendel just grunted; he’d seen lots weirder stuff at Hillwood. He and I carefully maneuvered the gurney into the back of the waiting ambulance and shut ourselves in. “Everyone set back there?” Dad called back in his crackly Iron Jack voice.
“Go!” I steadied “Shokwave” as we pulled away, moved Malleus where I could grab it fast.
Grendel hung the drip from the hook I pointed out and watched Receiving recede behind us. “So, what do you bet we don’t make it without a fight?”
“I’ve taken this kind of ride before, so, no bet.”
“Right.” He took one last look out the small window, settled in. “So how long has Future You known me?”
“Long enough to know you’re kinda looking forward to the chance to hit somebody hard? It’s why you’re with Ozma. It’s why you’re here.” I sighed. “It’s okay, Brian. I understand anger issues, really I do.”
He flexed his fists, growled. “The Ascendant. Is that how you recruited us the first time?”
“No. Well . . . yes, I suppose. We found out about the Ascendant later, but Ozma knew in advance there was some reason for you guys to accept our offer.”
“The Answer Box?”
I laughed. “The Answer Box. You said it quoted song lyrics to you. And we’ve stopped him, a couple of times. Haven’t got him yet. Maybe this time around. One way or another, we will. I promise.”
“Really? What if you’re here because you failed, there?”
“I— Time travel doesn’t work that way, Brian. If that’s what this is.” I listened as we slowed at an intersection. “I can’t fix things back there by changing them here.”
“Then why did you come?”
“I still don’t know. I know this isn’t my past, or I couldn’t change it. All I can do is the job I see in front of me.” I relaxed as we sped up again.
“Incoming!” Dad shouted from the driver’s seat and swerved us, throwing me to the side before the ambulance rocked with a solid crunch. I threw myself back and across Shokwave to lift the gurney by its rails as we flipped on our side and slid to hit something with a second crunch. Releasing my cargo, and I kicked the doors open.
“Pose!” Shell instructed through my earbud, and I straightened and lifted my arms as a red and white blur settled my “new” armor on me and snapped the latches. Thank you, Sifu!
“Get him to the Dome!” I shouted back at Grendel and my dad as I grabbed up Malleus and lifted. Villain-X hung above me over the street in all his black-masked unglory. “Did you think I was gone?”
“I don’t like you.” I maneuvered between him and the ambulance.
“But did you miss me?”
“Like I miss cancer.” I launched swinging Malleus and when he dodged I let the titanium maul’s weight pull me around to bring my knee into his face. He screamed as his nose crunched like a pomegranit.
“Bitch! I’m going to snap you like a wishbone!”
“Good luck with that! Lei Zi!” I sh
ot away as her stored up thunderbolt ripped the air with a crash I felt to my bones, reversing into a tight turn to hammer Villain-X with one hundred pounds of Malleus before he could recover. Smashing him to the street, I caught him in the ribs as he rolled and lifted up, kept swinging. “Don’t! Go! Any! Where!”
Shell popped in. “Sifu says the street’s clear!”
“Thanks! Black Powder!” Villain-X’s scream framed the echoing snap of the agent’s shot and then he was shooting away, straight up into the night as I followed.
“Astra, return to flag!” Barely hearing Lei Zi over the rush of my own blood, I slowed and then dropped. “The flag is in motion, maintain overwatch support.”
“Overwatch support, understood.” Below me I found the ambulance. They’d righted it and gotten back in gear, emergency lights flashing now, and I didn’t even try and spot the lead and tail cars Lei Zi and the rest were working out of. In minutes they reached the park and then the Dome. More minutes went by before Lei Zi called me inside, and then I didn’t see anything in my race from the flight bay to the infirmary where Dr. Beth looked up from Shokwave’s gurney, pushed against the wall and not hooked up with anything. He put down his stethoscope. “Astra. Any injuries?”
Shaking my head hard, I turned to Jacky and Chakra and the empty bed beside them. “They’re— still with you?”
Jacky held up her arms with her new green bracelets. “Waiting for you. Doc?”
Dr. Beth tapped Shokwave’s shoulder. “All done. You really must tell me how you simulate a heartbeat.” Mostly-dead Shokwave melted and reformed into Agent G. “I’ve got talents, doc.”
“Dr. Beth—”
He smiled. “I understand that minutes aren’t important, so please, let’s take this a step at a time? Artemis? Right here?” He motioned her a bit to the side, arranging a suspended light and checking a camera angle. “Proceed.”
Pulling up her sleeve, she removed the green bracelet she wore on her left wrist, putting it on the floor to give it a tap and step back as it became Ozma. Dr. Beth caught the princess’s elbow as she wobbled a bit. “Steady. How do you feel?”
Blinking, she drew a deep breath and gave him a smile. “Fine, doctor.”
“You’re sure? We have a second bed.”
“I’m certain. Shall we?”
“One moment.” Dr. Beth fussed beside the waiting bed, arranging his equipment tray and monitors. “I’m ready.”
Ozma held out her hand and accepted the bracelet Jacky removed from her right arm. Turning it once and running fingers across it, she placed it on the bed, oriented it and tapped it.
And it was Shokwave.
I stayed where I was, hugging my armored torso, as Dr. Beth quickly stuck medical sensors on his chest, inserted an oxygen tube in his nose, and connected a new drip while watching the monitors and humming to himself.
“Respiration shallow but steady, heartbeat strong, he appears to have taken no harm from his double transformation.” Obviously, the chance to study someone who’d been changed to a fashion accessory and then to mist just thrilled him. He continued talking, to himself now as Chakra stepped up to lay a hand on her new patient’s pale arm. The world went fuzzy for just a moment as I swallowed repeatedly.
“I’m okay,” I whispered when Jacky looked my way. “I’m okay.” Then I had to cover my mouth to stifle the rising giggles.
Should I sit? It didn’t matter.
We’d done it.
We’d done it.
Chapter Twenty Three
thatsjustwrong21: So, what do you think of the Sentinels’ press release?
starbright423: Naming Astra team-leader? She’s as old as Atlas was when he got his breakthrough.
thatsjustwrong21: Atlas didn’t go team-leader until he’d been wearing the cape for three years. Miss Barely Leagle does it in less than six months? I’m not buying it.
starbright423: Okay, what’s your theory?
thatsjustwrong21: That whole Good Girl thing she does? Total act, got to be. Check her kill-score; anyone who fights like she does has been to war. Special ops—who knows what she’s done?
starbright423: So all this is the next move in a long game for bringing her in and making her legit? I don’t know, man.
thatsjustwrong21: Scratch any of the Sentinels, they’re all supersoldiers under the cape now. Got to be. They’re not confirming anything, not denying it, keeping the credibility gap tight. You watch, she’s a super-commando and they’re about to lay a serious beat-down on whoever got Blackstone. Bodies in the streets.
Monitored dark net IRC, NSA JS-47 Program.
* * *
The Day Briefing was going to take longer than twenty minutes.
I didn’t see a single empty chair around the Assembly Room table. A new Bob had served up coffee for everyone while I tried not to wince at seeing him in Willis’ place. Sipping my coffee, I set it aside and gently rapped the table.
“Good morning, everyone,” I said when the buzz had quietened. “I’d like to start the morning with a few updates if that will be alright. First, a medical report. Chakra?”
She sat forward, hands folded. “Rush is speeding enough to live five or six days for every real-time day. But his muscle-damage was extreme, and even with my assistance he’s going to be off the duty roster for the next few days. I’m putting up scheduled times when he’ll be accessible for visits.”
I turned to look across the table. “Sifu? How long will you remain available to meet the team’s speedster needs?”
He shrugged. “I have senior students at my school to handle classes, and can go and return quickly enough to cover my other responsibilities. Rush is going to have some explaining to do when he recovers, though.”
Laughter drifted around the table. Last night Sifu’d proven that, with an identical racing suit and half-mask, he could be out and about as “Rush” without anyone realizing he was a substitute. But he wasn’t out clubbing for Rush or doing our speedster’s usual stops. Posting fans had already noticed.
“Kitsune,” Chakra continued more seriously, “is in stable condition. She’s still Shokwave since she hasn’t woken up yet, but her aura is strong and getting stronger so I expect that to happen any time now.”
And didn’t I have lots of questions to ask him—her—when she did. On that subject . . . “Lei Zi? You wanted to cover yesterday’s action?”
She returned a dry smile. “I’ve decided to assign that task to our resident cyber-ghost, Shelly.”
“Hi!” Shell appeared on the main screen, wearing a blue t-shirt with Sentinels Support Staff—I wear all the hats! written on it. She gave the room a broad grin. “So, what happened last night? First off, Astra figured out that one of the four members of the new band, Polychromatic Sharknado—isn’t that an amazing name and I hope someone else picks it up—was our own elusive Japanese exchange-hero Kitsune.
“Since Kitsune got herself shot while looking for the supervillain mastermind behind what’s been happening, Astra concluded there was a high level of probability that they’d send somebody to finish the job. So the mission was to extract Kitsune from the hospital ASAP.” She brought up all our cape crests and a city map with the hospital and Dome highlighted.
“Astra chose her extraction team, and Lei Zi made one change to the planned op. The team got on-site and as soon as the doctors finished working on Kitsune, Ozma transformed her into a very nice bracelet. As a piece of jewelry, Kitsune’s life-processes remained in stasis. Since jewelry doesn’t, you know, breathe or bleed. Ozma also transformed herself so that both of them could be carried by Artemis, who returned to the Dome in her mist-form. They replaced Shokwave with Agent G, who they more noticeably delivered by ambulance.”
The city-map zoomed and Shell highlighted our route, crest icons giving color to the grayscale map.
“We don’t know exactly how our enemies have been able to specifically target some of us. Hey, it’s magic.” She put magic in air-quotes “So Lei Zi required Artemi
s to stick close to the ambulance. That way if Kitsune was tracked, she would appear to be right where she should be. Lei Zi also used the opportunity for an ambush. The rest of the fielded team led and followed Astra’s ride in two cars and both Lei Zi and Black Powder were able to coordinate with Astra in the attack!”
“Thank you, Shelly.” Lei Zi’s voice was even drier than her smile. “Unfortunately, although we did repel the attack we weren’t able to bring down Villain-X. I agree with Astra that he has indeed been boosted to Ultra-Class level. He was able to withstand multiple hits from her as well as hits from myself and Black Powder and flee the kill-box.”
Riptide thumped the table. “Why didn’t all of them come?”
“If we had attempted to protect Kitsune at the hospital, if they wanted him they would have been able to attack in force. That’s exactly what we didn’t want, a high-impact fight in the middle of a civilian environment.
“Since we moved quickly and were a moving target, they couldn’t scout us and plan an attack that left them avenues for extraction; they’d have risked losing whomever they sent. Villain-X is the only one with the mobility to engage hard and break away reliably before we reached the Dome.” The smile she gave us was a nasty smile. “This game is over if it comes to a straight-up fight where we come prepared. It’s what we want.”
She flattened her hands on the table, looking at all of us. “That they were willing to risk their heaviest direct hitter in a spur-of-the-moment attack tells us something about Kitsune’s value. Since they’ve already shown a willingness to attack us in our own base, I’ve added to Veritas’ precautions by closing the Dome and sending non-essential staff home for the duration. It’s just us and our government friends, the workers can finish repairs later. Everybody keep your earbuds in, and remain at base. The Guardians teams will pick up our normal patrol activities, but we need to prepare.”
And didn’t it just suck that, right now at least, getting attacked again was strategically a positive development? They aren’t ignoring us, anyway.
Recursion Page 19
