I put my hand in hers. “Hey, it’s me, Jericho. They let me come back and visit for a few minutes.”
Her eyes stayed closed, but I felt her hand twitch in mine. I took that as a sign she recognized I was here. There wasn’t a whole lot to say, so I just sat there, holding her hand until nurse Annie came back in. “I wish I could let you stay longer, but you’ve been here fifteen minutes and the doctors would like her to keep resting.”
Happy just to get this time, “Of course. Thanks for doing this for me.”
“My pleasure young man. Why don’t you go home and wash up? You look like you could use a shower, a meal, and a nap.”
“I think I’ll take your advice nurse Annie.” She gave me a smile as I walked out and didn’t stop until I got to the elevator. I got on with a bunch of doctors who were too busy on their phones or writing notes to even notice me. Sheer exhaustion took over when I made it to the car. I’d used up a lot of energy over the past twenty four hours and was running on fumes.
I slept hard, well into the early afternoon. I was in the middle of getting ready to go back to Heights General when I heard a knock on my door. Uneasy about whom it could be, I looked out the window first. I saw my boss, work boss that is, standing there. The stress in my shoulders lifted as I opened the door. “Making house calls?”
“How’s Heather doing?”
We walked back into my kitchen and sat down at my small table. “They don’t really know what’s wrong with her.” Fuming at myself, “I didn’t even know she was there yesterday!”
John looked as tired as I had felt when I first got home. “And if you did? What could you have done that would’ve saved her? This is on The Negative Man, not you.”
I knew his words meant well, but it still didn’t change the fact. “I owe you a thank you. If you hadn’t found her as quickly as you did, she’d probably be dead.”
“We all do what we can.” He pulled a menu out of his jacket pocket. “Have you been to the new taco place on Wave Street?”
Tacos? “No, I haven’t, why?”
“You look hungry and I know you’re probably heading back to the hospital. Let me buy you lunch. It might take your mind off things for a little bit.”
I wasn’t really feeling it, but I went along with him. I followed him down to Wave and saw the taco joint, The Great Burrito on my right. The parking was pretty open, so I parked my P.O.S. of a car beside his luxury sedan. That reminded me of something else I needed to talk to him about.
Once we placed our orders, I was going to try the two taco special, I got to business. “Not to add even more to your plate, but tomorrow I’ll be getting a job offer.”
“I’m surprised it took this long.”
That wasn’t the answer I was expecting. “You were counting on that, weren’t you?”
“Of course. And you’re going to accept it.”
I looked around; making sure no one was close enough to listen in. I didn’t like being this exposed, but none of The Aces knew DL and I were in this together. Quietly, “He wants me to help him build something dangerous.”
“You do what you need to in order to protect your cover. After yesterday, we know what we have to do.”
He wouldn’t allow any more talk about The Aces or even bring up The Negative Man. Each time I thought I could slip it in, he quashed it with an annoying bug. At the end of the lunch, “Go back to the hospital and do what you need to do. Keep me in the loop with her condition, would you?”
“I will.” I wonder if John would know. “Does she have any family nearby? The only number listed on her insurance was to her sister, but the number was no longer working.”
His face sunk. “I don’t know if I can find the employment files, after what happened at Wonder-Tech, but I’ll look. If I find anything, I’ll let you know.”
“Will anyone have a job to come back to?”
“I’m not planning on firing anyone. There is plenty of work we need to do to rebuild. I’ll need all hands on deck, except yours. Starting tomorrow, you’ll be working for gl-O-bal, okay?”
I couldn’t say I liked being told what to do, but I was glad DL had his focus back. “I’m still on the case then.”
It didn’t take long in the Sunday traffic to get back to the hospital and I went right back up to the floor Heather was. When I checked in, the on call nurse told me she was still in critical condition, but her next round of checkups was currently in progress. I took a seat and began the waiting game all over again.
It wasn’t nurse Annie who came out this time. An older lady stopped by the desk and the on call nurse pointed to me. I got up and met her halfway over. “How’s she doing?”
“She’s awake and coherent. Annie told me you’d be coming back and if I saw you, to let you go visit when it was okay.”
Heather was awake! That was fantastic news. “Does this mean you figured out what’s wrong?”
“I wouldn’t go that far, but she’s been upgraded to stable.” That sounded a bit ominous, but stable was a good thing. “She’s on a lot of drugs right now to help with the pain, but she said she’d take a visitor if it was you.”
I followed the new nurse back and went into Heather’s room. Unlike last time, she was sitting up with her eyes open. Her skin was still super pale, but she didn’t look bad at all. The ear where the phone was resting was covered in bandages, to cover the burns I assumed. She looked so happy to see me. “Jericho! I wasn’t sure if you’d be here.”
“Where else would I be? How are you feeling?”
She pointed up to the button that I knew was the call button for morphine. “Good as long as that stuff is flowing freely. I woke up with the world’s worst migraine.”
I shuddered at the thought of all that electricity surging through a phone so close to one’s head. “You scared the shit outta me, you know that? Thankfully The Dark Lion was close by and rescued you.”
Her eyes closed briefly before opening back up. “You were there too?”
“Yeah, John called me in to help decrypt a strange email he got. After I figured it out, we were sitting around talking when everything went to hell. We got separated in the confusion and, in the lobby, I ran into The Dark Lion.”
I could see her losing focus, the morphine really kicking in. “I’m just glad you made it out unhurt.”
“The tables are turned huh?” She smiled. “But enough talk today. You need to rest.”
She began mumbling something, but her eyes were already closed and she fell asleep, her hand in mine.
Chapter 24 –
Monday Morning; gl-O-bal Labs
Traffic hadn’t been bad from Heather’s house over to my new place of employment. A week ago she’d been able to come home, but the doctors believed she was at least another two weeks away from returning. She asked me a few times how I’d been able to heal so much faster than she had, but I told her it was just different for different people. I also hadn’t been the recipient of the full blast like she’d been. That had been saved for Deputy Mayor Martinez.
I couldn’t believe for the first time in years I was beginning a job that wasn’t with Wonder-Tech. It’d been an awkward last two weeks once I put in my notice, but it was all part of the plan. Besides, it was way different than the last time I’d been here robbing the place.
With that memory in my mind, I walked up to the front kiosk and was greeted by the receptionist. “Good morning and welcome to gl-O-bal Labs. How may I assist you?”
“Jericho Staley, new hire for R&D checking in.”
She typed something into her computer and then looked up. “Seems you are to report to Mr. Walker’s office. Allow me to give you a visitor pass so you can access the Management level.”
With the pass in hand, I found the elevator fairly easily and saw where to slide the pass. As soon as I did, the elevator closed and went up to the twenty-sixth floor. Greeting me as I got off was Owen Walker’s personal assistant, Jeff Trelewicz. It was weird seeing him in a business sui
t. “Welcome Mr. Staley. Mr. Walker’s office is the last one down the left side hallway.”
“Thank you.” He gave me a bit of a wry smile and let me pass.
All the offices were glass, yet a good deal of them were empty. I passed two with people working in them and a third that had Trelewicz on the name plate, but that was it. Owen’s door was also glass, but fogged up so I just knocked. The fog instantly vanished and the door popped open.
Taking that as my sign to come on in, “Mr. Walker? Jericho Staley here for my first day.”
“Come on in and shut the door would you.” I did as asked. “There, with the door closed we’re good to speak freely.”
His office was a bit plainer than I expected. There was a pretty sweet computer sitting on a contemporary style desk, but that was about it. One wall was just a giant window overlooking Pacific Station, but the rest were bare, just a white color. There were no decorations or pictures of anyone.
I took a seat in one of the two guest chairs in front of his desk. “John has no idea you’re Diamonds and that you know his true identity?”
“Mr. Wonderton’s a decent guy but a bit on the clueless side. He spends a great deal of his time trying to figure out how to get his email to work properly.”
Owen just shook his head in disbelief. “His R&D department has to be top notch for an imbecile like that to be running one of the world’s largest tech corporations.” He kicked his feet up on his desk. “Well that’s good for us, as we need to finish the elemental gun. I would’ve liked to have had it complete by now, but I agree with you, not giving two weeks’ notice would’ve been a bit suspicious.”
I had talked Owen into letting me do that. It’d given me time to get John all set up with everything he’d need during the run over at gl-O-bal. “Clubs is going to have his hands full. I bet John turns to him for all of his tech needs.”
“Phil Jenkins can handle it. That was one of the reason’s I was able to turn him.”
This was a subject I was privately curious about, how The Aces came to be. “How did you discover others with super talents?”
“Jenkins was trying to hack into my system a year or so back when we caught him. The way he was doing it, it wasn’t like anything I’d seen before.”
I got the feeling Jenkins was on site and tried to do so by what he called ‘organic hacking.’ “It must’ve been pretty freaky to see someone in the state he’s in when he does his thing.”
“That is was.” He looked like he was reminiscing about something. “A few weeks later we met at a conference and we stayed in touch after that. It took some time for us to gain each other’s trust, but in the end, it all worked out.”
He turned his chair to face out the window. “Jeff and I have been friends for a long time. We both knew at a young age we were different and vowed to make a difference. Believe it or not, there is a point to my madness with The Aces.”
“What’s that?”
He swiveled back towards me. “Fear Jericho, the ultimate motivator. As The Aces we terrify the city, to the point where they’re close to giving up on The Dark Lion. At that instant, when he fails for the final time, a new hero will rise and take control.”
Did Owen fashion himself a hero? “Someone who will miraculously put a stop to The Aces?”
“Yes, in one swipe, an epic battle if the city needs it, a new hero will be born and the people of Pacific Station will cheer for him. Of course,” his smile turned a bit sinister, “the new hero will rule the city with an iron fist.”
I already knew the answer, but I felt like feeding the ego in front of me. “Are you really The Negative Man?”
Delighted shock formed. “Oh no, but that would’ve been a good punch line wouldn’t it?” He laughed for a moment before going on. “I have no idea who he is and where he’s at. I wish I had a chance to speak to him directly, to help my cause.”
“Sounds like you’ve got this all figured out, create an evil the city can’t handle, break the current hero, and then replace him.”
“Exactly! The Negative Man inspired me so much that I want to finish what he started! And we’re so close…” The last part was more to himself than it was to me.
This is where my part came in. “So the elemental gun, is it still in the same state it was when I last saw it?”
“No one’s touched it. It is awaiting you in your new state of the art workshop on level B5. You’ll be the only person, besides me, with access to that level.”
I knew it was a terrible cause, but the thought of my own state of the art workshop excited me a little. “Then there’s no time to waste. Let me get down there and get started.”
He opened his desk drawer and pulled out a company card. “This is your ID card. Much like that guest pass brought you right up here; this one will lock the elevator and take you to B5. You’ll also have a phone down there that’ll connect you directly to me. Any questions?”
“Yeah, there’s a toolbox full of Red Wolf’s waiting for me right?”
“Ironically with the money you help me steal from Wonder-Tech, I was able to fit that into the budget.” He offered a smile and a wink at his little inside joke/dig. “I hope you enjoy you’re state of the art facility.”
State of the art? Hell NASA would want some of this stuff. There was every tool known to man lined up on the far wall, a huge work table on which a steel briefcase was sitting, and a drafting table, full of paper and pencils.
I walked over to the briefcase and popped it open. Sitting inside was the elemental gun, but this time it had all the different chambers in a case off to the side. Each was labeled; heat, electricity, wind, and aether. I had no idea what aether was, but a black liquid was swirling around inside.
I grabbed a screwdriver and immediately opened the power compartment again. Grabbing a pencil, I started making a diagram of the wiring and seeing where I could add new ones. It was tedious work, but it’d been so long since I did actual mechanical work, that I didn’t mind. Don’t get me wrong, I loved computers, but my real passion was building. Even though this was going to be designed to kill The Dark Lion, I couldn’t help myself from enjoying this.
I was like a whirlwind in my workshop. I hadn’t even noticed the time or the fact the elevator door opened. By then, I’d taken the wiring down and had the power cell in a stable container for observation. I wanted to know just exactly what this thing could do before I attempted to create a new gun to house it in.
“Sweet mercy, you’re not one to lollygag are you?”
I had a pair of darkened safety goggles on, to help see but also keep the light out of my eyes. Shifting them to the top of my head, “Mr. Walker, welcome to the madness.”
Besides him was Trelewicz. I could see he was out of his element, but he still seemed very impressed. “Are you sure you’re not some kinda super?”
“That I am. I’m just good with my hands, that’s all. I guess you could say I have a knack for working with currents.”
Owen was already at my table marveling my sketches and the progress at which I made. “I thought I was a genius, but you’re putting me to shame. Jericho,” he looked up and over at me, “I believe your potential exceeds anything I’ve ever seen.”
I was never big on compliments. “Hold off on those thoughts until you get a working gun. I’ve still got a lot to do before then.”
Chapter 25 –
Wednesday Evening; The Big Burrito
The one thing about not working at Wonder-Tech anymore was my hours. At five o’clock on the dot I’d get a call from Owen telling me to leave. The first day there, I ended up working until eight thirty and the next morning he asked me what the hell I was doing. “I’m just working boss.”
“Listen, I don’t know what kind of tyranny Wonderton runs over there, but at gl-O-bal, we leave at five, understand?”
So on Tuesday and again today, he personally made sure I left. Progress on the elemental gun was coming along, I’d built a new outer shell and when I left
today, had been tinkering with a new wiring schematic. Instead of going over to my apartment, I’d gone over to Heather’s and picked her up.
She’d been feeling better and wanted to go out to eat. “I’m really craving Mexican. It’s been far too long since I’ve had a good taco.”
And I just happen to know the place to take her. “You hear of The Big Burrito? It’s a new taco place down on Wave.”
That’s how we ended up here. The place was packed and it took some time to get a seat, but it smelled so damn good that there was no way we were leaving. Heather was practically salivating at the drinks being handed out all around us, but the doctor said no alcohol for the time being.
A very large Pina Coloda was being served at the bar next to where we were standing. “Does it make me an alcoholic that I want to say screw you doc and grab that?”
“I don’t think so. They sure do look good huh?”
“And smell good.” I could totally pick up the hints of rum in the drink. “They better get us to a table quick so I can focus on tortilla chips and salsa.”
I think one of the hostesses heard us as we soon we’re at a nice table in the back. No sooner did we sit down than did the chips and salsa show up. Heather wasted no time tearing in to them. “Holy shit, that’s amazing stuff!”
John and I had been here for lunch, so we didn’t get the complementary chips and salsa, so it was my first taste of it. “Whoa, this makes the stuff I buy at the store look terrible.”
That wasn’t even the highlight of the night. I ordered The Big Burrito’s namesake and the two pound monster they sat in front of me was mind blowing. “I’m not even going to be able to eat half of this.”
Heather had been a bit more practical and ordered the same two taco combo I did the other day. When she picked up her fork to go after the black beans, I heard the zap as she dropped the fork. “That was quite the shock.” At the same time, both our phones lit up as if we were about to get a message before returning to the sleep screen.
The Negative Man: Act 1 Page 13
