She pointed to the kitchen and I walked in, not before blasting her with enough electricity to power a small town. “A pity, you were quite cute,” I said to the smoking husk.
In the kitchen, lying on the table, was a piece of paper with an address. Underneath were instructions to Valiant and Hilda. Valiant was to deliver the box truck to Crosby Airfield this afternoon and meet a contact named Mr. Adam. “I knew these idiots weren’t the true problems.”
Unexpectedly my phone rang. It was John Wonderton. “Damnit,” I mumbled as I hit the green accept button. “Hello?”
“Jericho, how is it going finding out about our two magicians?”
Short and to the point as always. “Funny you should call – I just found out the name and address for the guy named Valiant.” I gave him the information, which he excitedly took down.
“Good work,” he praised me, which seemed a bit pretentious. “Why don’t you take the afternoon off and go see a movie or something?”
I had some fun plans for this afternoon. “I think I’m going to take a drive to the outskirts of the city. Maybe some fresh air will do me good.”
“I’ll call you after I check out the house.”
The call disconnected. I couldn’t wait to hear his reaction stumbling upon this little crime scene. “Well, let me go see a man about a plutonium core.”
Chapter 5 –
Saturday Evening; Crosby Airfield
It seemed I was too late to see the exchange being done for the plutonium core, but good old Valiant was still here. He was counting stacks of money out of a black suitcase, all the while laughing to himself. He was a cartoon, a disgrace to all of us who’d been supervillains.
I slid my mask back on and slowly made my way over to where he was. He seemed like a real jackass, however, as I learned with DL, you can never underestimate a foe. There may’ve been backup or the real person or persons behind this could’ve been lurking. Plus, I didn’t know how his power worked; I probably should’ve asked Hilda before I killed her. Oops.
My fears were for naught. I was right within arm’s distance of his back and no traps had been laid. My worries beginning to vanish, I grabbed his shoulder and spun him around. There was nothing quite like seeing a man go from his highest high to his lowest low in a matter of a second or two.
Instant recognition formed, just like it had with Hilda. “You’re…”
“The Negative Man, ding ding ding, we have a winner.”
His quivering and groveling continued. “But, you’re dead! We all saw the fight with The Dark Lion!”
“Much like you, I’m a man of great illusion.” His face annoyed me, so I gave him just a taste of my power, blasting him back just a few feet. Nothing lethal, yet. “There’s no way around it, you’re going to die tonight, just like Hilda died a few hours ago.”
Oh man, he was a crier. I couldn’t understand a single word he was saying as he began blubbering all over the place. Couldn’t he at least die with some dignity? “Shut up.” He did. “This is how this is going to play out – you’re going to tell me how you stole an entire box truck and then you’re going to tell me who you sold it to.”
“If I do that, do I get to live?”
Was he trying to bargain with me? “No you don’t get to live, but your death will be instantaneous and not a long, drawn out painful process.”
Psychology has taught me that given the choice between prolonged pain and an instant, painless ending, most choose the second option. Valiant was no different. “What we did was only an illusion. The truck was still there, just invisible, as were we.”
“How did you two do that?”
“Hilda, she was the super. Her power was to make any object invisible as long as it was in her line of sight or she was touching it.” He swallowed hard. “We had an inside man, the guy in the back. Once everyone left, he drove the truck here and we awaited orders to meet the buyer.”
So everyone the green, environmental terrorists who proclaimed they wanted to save the planet had a price. “Who bought the core?”
“I don’t know. They never said their names and they were masks. I didn’t ask questions, not for half a million.”
I probably wouldn’t have either. The money though, that could probably be traced. “Here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to write a nice long suicide note about how terrible you feel. You also need to tell the world you killed Hilda.”
“I’d never do that!” His face turned green, like he was going to vomit.
“I wasn’t under the impression this was a choice.” I buried another blast of energy into his chest; this time with a little more oomph behind it. “Remember those two options? You’re exceedingly close to option one.”
He pulled out his cell phone and opened his memo app. He went to work, typing as fast as he could. When he was finished, he handed it over to me. I gave it a quick read. “Well, that doesn’t sound too pathetic. Choice one it is.” I supercharged my hand and placed it right on his forehead. Besides the initial spike, he never felt a thing, his brains scrambled.
I left everything right where I found it and walked on out of the airfield.
****
It was later that evening when my phone rang again. It was DL. I answered with excitement, “Did you find something?” I knew the answer to that one!
“They’re dead,” he said with a lot of bitterness. “Valiant killed himself and Hilda. He left a damn suicide note on his phone.”
I had to pull the receiver away from my phone to chuckle a bit. DL was still ranting about how the lead dried up and there wasn’t anything else to do. “The only thing besides his dead body left behind was the cash someone paid him for the core.”
“We might be able to trace the cash, if it’s real, by the serial numbers.”
That glimmer of hope immediately turned the conversation around. “Can you do that?”
“Yeah it’s not –” A beeping noise interrupted me. It wasn’t on my end, so it must’ve been Wonderton’s phone.
It was. “I have a call coming in from a restricted line; hang on.” Son of a bitch! He actually put me on hold. Probably for a telemarketer, too.
A few seconds turned into minutes and I was this close to hanging up on him when the line clicked back over. “I need you at my office first thing in the morning.”
“Wait, why?”
“That was a call from a two star general named Dave Whisant. He wants to talk to me about finding his misplaced plutonium reactor.”
Chapter 6 –
Sunday Morning; Wonder-Tech Tower
I was sitting in one of the guest chairs, watching Wonderton pace the carpet floor in his office as we awaited this general to show up. The moment he stopped pacing, I looked up and saw three men step off the elevator and make their way towards his office.
The lead man was probably in his early forties, straw colored hair and had glasses over his green eyes. The two men behind him looked like certified badasses. The words special ops immediately came to mind.
General Whisant opened the door and stepped in. He had a slow draw to his voice that was immediately likable. “John Wonderton,” he said as he stuck out his hand. Wonderton shook it. “And who might this be?”
I stood up as he made the introduction. “This is my new head of the IT department, Jericho Staley. He is an expert in computer forensics and cyber tracing.”
I actually was, but I figured Wonderton probably didn’t know that and was just trying to blow smoke up the general’s ass. “It is good to meet you, sir.”
“No need for formalities or pleasantries, you gentlemen are about to be asked a very big favor by the United States government.”
Wonderton stepped in and asked a question. “If you don’t mind me asking, sir, who are the rather imposing men you’ve brought with you today?”
Whisant turned and introduced them. “This is Captain Channel Esposito and Captain Joshua Pabon, both Army Rangers. They’re here to assist with finding the lost plutonium co
re.”
Army Rangers… those were some bad men. I’d heard rumors of a black ops team consisting of Rangers and Seals used by the government back east to eliminate supers. It made me wonder. Both of these guys looked hardcore. Esposito had a beard with eagle like eyes. Pabon was more subdued, but the huge tribal tattoo on his forearm was easy to spot.
“On to business then – as I told you last night, a plutonium core was stolen by a few supers. That core is my responsibility and we need to find it. The reason I’ve come to you, John, is simple. You have the most resources in the city and you have a reputation for being a tough as nails businessman. I was hoping to tap into both of those qualities.”
I was a bit dumbfounded this general would come to a civilian for help. I got the impression that if he went to his superiors and said, “Oops, I misplaced a potential bomb,” that they would frown highly upon that. Use a few civilians however, we find the core for him and no one is none the wiser.
John seemed to catch that vibe, too. “You’re coming to me because this is a colossal screw up and you can’t afford having the government knowing about this, right?”
Whisant smiled. “This is why I’ve come to you, John.” He stuck his hand out again. “Are you and your IT expert in or out?”
This was a complete no duh situation. Wonderton grabbed his hand. “We’re in. You can expect complete secrecy on our end as we assist.”
“Good, good. So what can I tell you to get this project off the ground?”
“Just how dangerous is this core? Is it a working bomb or does it need to be enhanced in some way?” I didn’t meant o blurt out my question, I was just naturally curious. This had been the best thing to happen in the weeks since I hung up The Negative Man persona.
Wonderton looked a bit pissed, but oh well. Whisant was quick to give us an answer. “That’s a fair question. I don’t know to be honest. If the plutonium is still in a pure state, than yes, it is a bomb this very minute. If the material has been compromised by years at the bottom of the ocean, then I’m guessing some leg work would have to be done to make it functional.”
“Do you want a functional bomb, general?”
“What I want doesn’t matter, John.” He shrugged his shoulders a bit. “What the government wants is the core back, intact if possible. Now if it can’t be recovered, then we are under orders to dismantle or destroy. However, this is a last resort.”
Captain Esposito stepped forward. “Sir if I may?” Whisant nodded his head. “We will also need a list of as many active supers in the area. The west coast is more lenient when it comes to allowing them to be active, something that is a bit unusual for us.”
I wondered how they would react knowing that the two most powerful supers in not just the city, but potentially the world, were in the room with them. Something told me to leave that tidbit out. “I can compile a list with rumors and such I find on the web.”
Captain Esposito seemed good with that. “The sooner we get that list, the sooner we can prepare ourselves for the worst case scenarios.”
“Let’s not go there, Esposito.” Whisant seemed a bit more rational than his captain. “Our efforts here are strictly to secure the core and get it back home. We’re not here to enforce any laws that this state doesn’t recognize.”
Wonderton and I quickly shared a glance of concern. He decided it was time to end this meeting. “We have our work cut out for us. General, we will get started as soon as possible and keep you in the loop with anything we find.”
That made the general smile. “Glad to hear it. We will continue to mount our own efforts as well. My hope is between all of us in this room, we can find the core quickly and we can get out of your hair.”
“We’re glad to assist the government in any way we can.” C’mon Wonderton, you could’ve sounded a bit more sincere! Either way, the three men across from us seemed to buy what he was selling. We all exchanged handshakes and they left, heading back out the elevator.
We waited until they were out of the building before we headed back to the old secret lair. Once inside, “There is something bad going on here, Jericho.”
“I kind of picked up on that.”
Wonderton flipped open the suitcase of money. Even a rich guy like himself was a bit impressed with the stack of cash inside. “When can you start tracing this money? I just have a bad feeling after that meeting.”
I grabbed a stack of twenties and plucked a few out. “It’ll take some time, but I can get started right now.”
Chapter 7 –
Monday Evening; Station Public Library
The work was tedious, yet I found myself enjoying the challenge. Something that didn’t come easy for me; that’s what my life had been missing. I was in deep on a secure tablet, trying to ping something off the serial numbers I had stored here.
My first stop had been to the national treasury to see if I could pick up the batch that had any of these numbers in it. That produced no results, which was very odd. I got the feeling someone deleted the information, or at least tried to. My next step was to go a bit deeper, really get into the encrypted files and see where the deletion came from. Whoever it had been on the other end, they knew how to cover their tracks. I was chasing a ghost, almost.
From the back corner of the library, it was time to use a little Negative magic. I did a quick look around and breached into the mainframe with my power. I’d used this trick a lot as a young, mischievous kid, and I overpowered the firewalls. I had about five minutes before anyone would notice.
I quickly scanned the lines of information, looking for the lost entries. I found them, deleted just two days before the truck heist by a user named EC. I pulled up the deleted serial number batch and began my trace. From the mint, this particular batch came to Pacific Station and was put into circulation at an ATM outside of Pacific National Bank. No sooner did I get that information than I was locked out.
It was time to go before they could retrace me. I scrubbed the info off my tablet, put my ball cap back on and made a beeline straight for my apartment complex.
****
The next morning, after saying a quick hello to Erin, I immediately went up to Wonderton’s office. His assistant was surprised to see me unannounced, but John waved me right on in. “Jericho, what brings you up here this early?”
“It’s about that cash transaction you asked me to look into.”
He immediately went from CEO to Dark Lion. Lowering his voice, “What did you find?”
“I traced the stack to an ATM right here in the city, outside of Pacific National.”
This piqued his interest. “Let’s talk more about this after hours. I’ll set up a meeting.” This was probably all for show, as his assistant was very nosy. Taking my cue, I walked back out and took the elevator back down to my hole by the server farm.
No sooner did I get off the elevator was I accosted by Erin. “Dude, what’s going on? That’s two visits in less than two days! Plus, I hear you’ve been promoted or something.”
“What?” I thought his line about his new head of IT or whatever crap he told Whisant was just more Wonderton bullshit. Erin had the email printed out and gave it to me.
Wonder-Tech Industries
Congratulations to Jericho Staley.
He is the new head of the IT Department.
-John Wonderton
It was as short and painful as actually talking to the man himself. Then I wondered if this came with a pay raise. Either way, Erin was ecstatic. “This rocks! Beers are on you Wednesday night, Staley!”
I could live with that. “I had no idea. Either way, I don’t think it means a whole lot.”
Well it didn’t to me. The rest of the day, Erin would slide on over and toss in one of his crazy jokes, smiling and laughing each time. We ended up working through lunch as Research and Development accidently closed a firewall to the internal network. That idiot Phil Jenkins was a hazard. I’d only been here a little over a month and I knew that.
At
four thirty, I was done. Wonderton’s assistant hung around until about five, so I grabbed a few gyros at the food truck that was closing up across the street and ate in peace. When I saw the rest of the minions file out, I finished my dinner and made my way back in.
Wonderton was already in the hidden portion of his office when I strolled in. He was working on something on a makeshift work bench, but was doing a lousy job with it. He put down his tools when he saw me. “Okay, we can talk a bit more freely.”
“Like I said, I traced the money back to the ATM at Pacific National. I figured I’d hack into the security footage and maybe get lucky finding the guy who withdrew it. However,” there was always bad news in this town, “I think this goes deep. The files containing the serial numbers of this batch were purposefully deleted just a few days ago.”
“Do you think our new general friend might have anything to do with this?”
That I didn’t know yet. “Anyone could be involved. The best chance we have is getting a face on withdraw. Besides, the amount of cash they paid, either a portion was withdrawn from this ATM or they needed extra funds to meet Valiant’s demand.”
He nodded in agreement. “So it’s settled, you look into that and I’ll do my thing – take to the streets.”
I couldn’t help but notice what he was working on. It was a glove that had what appeared to be claws on the fingertips. The idea was solid, but the execution was horrid. “Do you mind?”
“Oh?” He saw me looking at his glove. “I don’t usually let others work on the gear…”
I went over and flicked one of the claws and it popped right off. “I think it’s about time you did.”
Chapter 8 –
Wednesday Early Morning; Wonder-Tech Tower
I’d been burning the midnight oil. Between working on a better prototype for DL’s glove, I’d been scrolling through endless hours of security footage that I hacked from the ATM. I set up an algorithm to ping each time money was withdrawn that would zoom in on the cash and alert me to the serial numbers taken. Thank the maker for algorithms.
The Negative Man: Act 1 Page 21
