The Negative Man: Act 1

by Jeremy Croston

  I guess my words were what she needed to hear. Heather left the bar and walked over to the old style juke box and put in a couple of coins. An old, yet classic rock song began playing as she walked back over. “Care to dance with me?”

  “I’m not much of a dancer…”

  She took my hand and pulled me off the stool. “You just trust me and I’ll show you all my moves…”

  Chapter 5 –

  Friday Morning; South Baker Street

  My alarm went off and my head was throbbing. It took me a minute to realize there was another body in my bed. “Heather…”

  My passed out visitor just mumbled something and pulled the blanket up over her. It was Friday, which meant casual wear was going to be fine, so I figured she’d have time to get home and change. I got myself into the shower and let the warm water shake off the effects of an alcohol induced night.

  I nearly jumped outta my skin when I felt a hand touch my back. Heather Adams was awake and smiling at me. “Tsk tsk Jericho. You take a shower without inviting your guests…”

  Suffice to say my shock over her staying the night was soon replaced with my shock that even sober she was still willing to do these sorts of things with me. Not that I was complaining (I’m not), we both ended up showing up a few minutes late for work. As soon as I sat down at my desk, I got an email from DL requesting that I come upstairs. This was going to be pleasant hung-over.

  I guess word traveled fast as he had this shit eating grin on his face when I entered. “I’m glad you enjoyed yourself last night, all things considered.”

  “Hey, The Negative Man wasn’t going to ruin my night.”

  At the mention of his name, DL turned serious. “Diamonds was right. He’s back Jericho and I’m guessing he’s controlling The Aces.”

  Logic told me not to jump to conclusions, but a man like DL was already there. I’d just have to go with the flow here. “What do you want me to do about Jenkins?”

  He rubbed the stubble on his lower face. “We proceed as planned, yet use extreme caution. We don’t know just how deep this goes and how dangerous Clubs could really be.”

  It was hard to think about Jenkins as anything more than a rube. “Got it. I’ll see what I can get outta him. We’re supposed to have beers together after work one evening.”

  “Do you think it’s a good idea to fraternize with the enemy?”

  That was rich considering this was his idea. “Alcohol makes people lose their inhibitions. Maybe a few beers in old Jenkins will get us a good lead.”

  “Well it got you laid, so I guess we can try it your way.”

  My face went from pale to red. “That was low, even for you DL.”

  My boss just laughed and went back to his desk. “I see you emailed me your thoughts and analysis of Diamonds blood. Sorry we didn’t get to it yesterday.”

  I smirked, almost commenting on his ability to read but I let it slide. “Yeah, incapable of feeling physical pain. That’s why none of your blows incapacitated him. As you said, he was really a human punching bag.”

  “That makes sense. The Aces always used him in their more dangerous jobs. Something bothers me though…”

  Oh no, I was afraid to ask. “I’m sure a great many things bother you.”

  “I’m being serious. Diamonds really was just a distraction. Up until Wednesday night The Aces had always covered their tracks so well. Did anything else happen while we were engaged with him?”

  There was only one place to go for answers, The Dark Lion’s lab. “Let me go check.”

  I walked over to the secret door at the back end of his office. I put my hand on the scanner and the wall moved, opening the way down to the hidden floor below. Switching on the lights, I went over to the computers and got to work. This was going to take a while.

  The first few incidents were just of public urination and intoxication. The minor supers dealt with those, like Giga-Girl, The Flying Squirrel, and Mr. Mayhem. Unlike the major league players like DL and Massacre, the minors had one relatively useful skill, but it was normally offset by other baggage. The good thing was they knew to keep the hell away from the big time.

  The first potential scenario that struck me as odd was Pacific National, off South Baker Street, had an alarm go off. The cops were the first on scene and determined nothing at the bank had been stolen – they chalked it up to faulty wiring in the security system. Knowing today that Jenkins was Clubs raised some questions.

  I printed off the police report and went back upstairs. I punched the code in and waited for DL to open the door. It was a protocol we put in place just in case people who don’t need to know are in his office.

  After about five minutes, the door opened. DL looked annoyed. “Sorry, Janice was in here complaining someone was stealing her food from the break room fridge.”

  I couldn’t even imagine running a company like this. “Sounds like an issue above my pay grade.”

  “Did you find anything out?”

  I handed him the police report. “On the same night you guys were dealing with Diamonds, there was an alarm that went off at Pacific National. Nothing was stolen and the cops said it was probably bad wiring.”

  Even though I summed it up for him, he still read on, slowly. “I’m guessing you think Clubs had something to do with this.”

  “A computer genius and an engineer? Yeah, he could pull this off with no problems.”

  DL closed the file and handed it back. “I think we have some expense checks that need to be cashed. Go to Financing, get them, and head over to Pacific National. See if you can figure some of this out.”

  I dropped into one of his chairs. “Whoa whoa whoa! I’m the behind the scenes guy in this team, not the investigator!”

  “You’re the only person I trust with this. As the CEO of a multimillion dollar company, people would think it’s weird I show up to drop off checks and make small talk.”

  Damnit! I hated when he used logic and even more when it worked. “Fine, but don’t I need to take someone else with me since we’re talking about money?”

  He hadn’t thought of that. “Take Adams with you. Since the two of you hooked up last night, let’s make things incredibly awkward.”

  He was on fire with burns today. “You’re an asshole, you know that?”

  “I’ve been called worse by better.”

  I grumbled to myself all the way from his office, to Finance, and then down to legal. When I explained what DL had tasked me to do with Heather, she was all about coming.

  “Are you kidding? I’m hung-over and Janice is being a royal bitch today. She’s all wound up because someone ate her egg, bacon, and cheese bagel this morning.”

  Heather’s breath smelled just like egg, bacon, and cheese. “I don’t think it’ll take a rocket scientist to figure that out.”

  “Shut up and let’s go.”

  As we drove, we discovered that we shared a lot of the same interests. She liked classic rock, horror movies, and ice hockey. Sitting there talking, I couldn’t help but notice even dressed down in jeans and toned down make-up, she was a knockout.

  And then at a red light, I couldn’t stop myself. “Heather, you’re beautiful.”

  “Oh my God!”

  My face turned from pallid white to burning red. “Oh damnit, I shouldn’t have said that! I’m sorry!”

  For the second time today, sober, she kissed me. Right there as we were sitting in traffic. The kiss was only broken when the car behind us laid on their horn. I raised my hand in apology and hit the accelerator.

  “Jericho, that was the sweetest thing anyone’s ever said to me.”

  That surprised me. “Really?”

  “I get Heather, you’re so hot or I’d totally hit that! But no guy’s ever just called me beautiful and meant it just like you did.”

  “I’m just telling you the truth.”

  She put her hand on my leg. “I’m not going to lie, last night was just supposed to be fun with someone I trusted. However,
you keep this up and you’ll be keeping me around a lot longer.”

  I gave a nervous half laugh. “I wouldn’t mind that at all.”

  “Good, now let’s get these checks cashed! I’m getting hungry and I feel like Mr. Wonderton can pay for our lunch after we finish this!”

  Oh man, DL was going to kill me, but it’d be totally worth it…

  Chapter 6 –

  Friday Midmorning; Pacific National Bank

  I gave the teller the checks to deposit. She said it’d take a few minutes, so while we were waiting I opened up with some small talk. “Crazy past few days huh?”

  Her green eyes lowered. “Mm hmm, I told everyone that Negative Man guy, he’d be back I told them.”

  I looked at her name tag and it said Marge Osteen. “Personally, I wish you would’ve been wrong Marge. Between that and all the happenings with The Aces, the city’s in bad shape again.”

  “You don’t know the half of it. Over the past few weeks our alarm keeps going off at random times. Sometimes during the day, sometimes late at night. I’m telling you right now it’s the work of The Negative Man. He controls that sorta shit, mm hmm.” She added the last part with a bit of over-the-top sass. I liked Marge.

  I looked back and Heather was sitting on one of the comfortable chairs the bank lobby offers. She seemed content to mess around on social media until the deed was done. Turning back to Marge, “Is anything missing?”

  She leaned in and lowered her voice. “No, that’s the weird part. I told my manager I think it’s just test runs before the real deal.”

  DL would need to hear about this. The bank manager walked up behind Marge and gave her a deposit slip. She handed it to me and I thanked her for everything. Walking back, Heather saw we were finished and got up. No sooner did we start towards the doors did the alarm go off again. The high pitched squeal took us all by surprise.

  The bank manager emerged from the side door leading to the back. “Stay calm everyone, this situation will be resolved…”

  A bullet shattered through a window high up and entered the man’s forehead. The bank manager died with no recognition of what happened. As his body hit the cold marble floor, the doors flew open. Eight to ten fully covered men with automatic guns rushed in and ordered us all to the ground. Behind the army of thugs, a man in a red heart mask came in.

  Seeing all the customers lying on the ground, “Good, good. Everyone remain calm and we all just might survive this.”

  One of the armed gunmen came over to the area Heather and I were and he pointed a gun at me. “No funny business from any of ya, got it?”

  All of us nodded and he seemed content. Hearts walked over to the front teller area and knocked on the glass. Marge got up and was shaking uncontrollably. “Y-Y-Yes?”

  He dropped a key into the slot. “That will open lock box number 1128. Please bring me the content of that box, plus as much money as you can put in that sack right there.” He tapped the window with his pistol.

  Marge nodded and took the key and disappeared from sight. The main door opened again and a guy with a sniper rifle entered. “Yo Hearts, cops are five minutes out.”

  “We have plenty of time. Kill anyone that gets too close for comfort.”

  The sniper smiled and went back outside. This situation was going from bad to worse fast. Could I do something, anything to get DL down here?

  I slowly began reaching down into my pocket. Heather’s eyes noticed what I was doing and they went really big. I tried my best to visually tell her what I was up to, as I didn’t want the goon with the gun to get suspicious. As my fingers brushed the top of my cell phone, I heard the loud voice. At the same time, the awful squeal from the alarm finally stopped.

  “You there!” I felt a gun jab my back. “Just what do you think you’re doing?”

  Damn! “I’m trying to get my pain meds. The bright lights give me migraines.”

  I felt a hand pull me up. “Empty your pockets.”

  I did as I was told. I took out my car keys, my cell phone, and my bottle of pills. The thug was just about to do something when Hearts came over. “What’s going on here?”

  “This guy had his hand in his pocket. He said he needed his pills, but I think he was trying to tip off the cops.”

  Hearts’ phone went off and he pulled it out of his pocket. He paused for a second, obviously reading a message. Once he was finished, he gave a half laugh before putting the device back in his pocket. He then turned back to us as though he hadn’t taken a text message in a hostage situation..

  With no warning, Hearts shot the man in the head. Blood splattered everywhere and a collective gasp went over all the hostages. Like nothing happened, Hearts picked up the bottle of pills and handed them to me. “I’m sorry for my former associate’s lack of respect. I understand more than most the importance of taking one’s medication.”

  I opened the cap and popped two pills before putting them back in my pocket and returning to my position on the ground. My head was just inches away from the dead thug’s; I could see the bullet hole as clear as day and it made me sick.

  Hearts walked back over to Marge who had everything he requested. “That looks like everything. Very good my dear. Please come over to the door and hand it to me. After that, no one else will be hurt.”

  Marge disappeared again only to reappear at the doorway, the same one where the bank manager was snipered at. That poor man’s body was still in the same spot. Marge did her best not to look down and handed the bag and box to Hearts.

  With his score in his possession, “Let’s go!”

  The thugs still alive ran over to him and they backed out with Hearts being the final one to leave. I looked down at my watch; the entire encounter took only three minutes and twenty-five seconds. A minute later the police arrived, but it was already too late.

  Officers scoured the scene, taking witness statements and looking for clues. Even as they went through the motions, the officers knew who did it and that they wouldn’t find anything to give away their identities.

  I was with Heather over in the corner, she was still in a state of shock. “Hey, it’s going to be alright, we’re alive.”

  Her face was white, like ghost white. She gave me a sorta half nod that she heard me, but I doubt anything I said registered. A cop came over to us and I flagged him down. “Do you need us for anything more? I don’t think my friend is really up for anything more.”

  The worn out looking man looked over at Heather and sighed. “Yeah, go ahead and get her someplace peaceful. Just make sure one of the detectives has your information in case we need to get in contact with you.”

  I did as he asked, giving Detective Lopez both Heather’s and my work numbers. From there, I took her to a small café a few blocks from the bank. She hadn’t said a word in the car, but as we sat down and she took a drink of water, color came back. “Thanks Jericho.”

  “For what?”

  “Well you tried to be a hero back there and nearly got yourself killed. Then after that, you stayed calm and made sure I was okay.”

  I guess I didn’t see it as any big thing. “That’s what friends do you know? They take care of each other.”

  She reached over and took my hand. When they first touched, static zapped both of us, which just made her laugh. “See, there’s sparks between us.”

  I felt my face get red again. “Sorry, I’m just not used to a woman paying me much attention.”

  Her hands closed tighter around mine. “Get used to it hero. You’ll be getting a lot of my attention whether you like it or not.”

  I would like it, that much I knew. I would like it a lot.

  Chapter 7 –

  Friday Night; Wonder-Tech Tower

  “There was no sign of Hearts after the robbery.”

  DL was pissed. He’d seen the robbery happen live and beelined it down to Pacific National. By the time he arrived, Hearts was gone, forcing DL to the streets in the hopes of finding him. Obviously, he wasn’t succe
ssful. “He didn’t display any superhuman abilities. It just seemed like a perfectly planned heist.”

  A picture of Hearts appeared on the monitor. “Every time he strikes it’s the perfectly planned heist. No Jericho, he’s a super – that much I can assure you.”

  Under the picture was a rap sheet listing each of the incidents Hearts was involved in. DL and I never even came close to catching him. “We should focus on Clubs. He’s right here, under our watch, we break him, and we gain access to the rest of The Aces.”

  “I appreciate your opinion Jericho, but we also can’t let them run rampant. Massacre is out there right now looking for any sign or clue.”

  Massacre – that was like sending an overeager child into a toy store. He’d end up causing more problems than what you expected. “Be careful with your reliance on him.” DL’s eyes took a warning stare. “I know you two are old friends, but even you can’t deny he’s gotten a bit reckless lately.”

  Two weeks before we put Diamonds down, Spades sent a bunch of goons out to random ATM’s, breaking into them and getting the cash. Massacre was unleashed and he ended up killing most of the thugs plus destroying six very costly ATM’s. If it wasn’t for the PSPD’s reliance on Team DL and Grimes’ PR for us, we probably would’ve been run out of the city.

  DL didn’t argue with that point. “He’s a good hero Jericho, trust me on that. The Aces have just been doing a damn good job at being better villains up until this point. We will stop them, I promise you that.” Storm clouds started building behind his calm façade.

  “I hope you’re right. The city’s on the brink of chaos, DL. If these guys keep going, Pacific Station will be in even worse shape than when you know who was running around!”

  DL fell back in his chair, looking both angry and tired at the same time. His phone buzzed, a text message from Massacre. He read it and growled in frustration. “He had no luck finding shit.”

  I almost slipped and made a childish sarcastic remark about Massacre’s detective skills, but I bit my tongue in time. “No one’s perfect. They’ll slip up and when they do, we’ll be there, err you’ll be there, and put an end to it.”