Outside, I heard the telltale sign of Titan’s boosters. A large part of me wanted revenge for it humiliating me and chasing me off like a child. However, now was not the time to let something as petty as pride get in the way. I left the office and went around back. From there, I still had a decent vantage point of Titan’s activities.
I heard the monstrosity enter the office. A few whirls and random buzzing sounds echoed all around. Then there was some static, like a communicator. “Hijack is dead. The Negative Man was here; his signature is all over the place.”
The voice that answered was none other than Chief Grimes. “Shit, he was going to be a good mole. Come back to the station, he’s probably long gone. I’ll send two units over to handle this.”
From inside the building, the boosters kicked back on and Titan exited through the roof. I watched in intrigue as it flew off, back towards the center of the city. I reentered the building to see if there was anything left behind. At first glance, other than a dead body and a big hole in the roof, the place looked clear.
I took a second look before calling it a night. When Titan blasted through the roof, it looked like a gear or something was caught in the roof. I ran back outside and found the ladder that led up. I went over to the hole and sure enough, caught in a piece of rebar exposed in the concrete was a shiny gear. I picked it up and it zapped me. The damn thing fell down the hole to the floor below.
When I got back into the office, I found a pen on the desk I could use. Carefully, I slid the pen through the center hole and scooped it up. Hijack had a lot of small brown paper bags lying around, so I took one to stash the gear in. Satisfied that was all Titan left behind; I left the scene before the actual police showed up.
My night was only just beginning to get interesting. On my way out of the south side, I spotted the other person of great interest to me – The Dark Lion’s son. He stuck out like a sore thumb with that yellow cloak on, looking even more like his father. He was above me, jumping from rooftop to rooftop with determination. I was playing this one close to the vest and so I took chase.
He was faster than he was when he had come around my house. With the gear in my pocket, I couldn’t phase into the power lines for fear I’d lose a critical piece to the Titan mystery. Thankfully the yellow streak gave me enough to go on, even though I was losing ground fast.
Suddenly the streak stopped moving in the industrial district, giving me a chance to make up lost ground. I hoped he wouldn’t up and move again because I’d probably not be able to take a second chase. I stayed on the street level even as I got closer, looking to see what this newcomer was up to in my city. The building he was on was one of the old fishing supply warehouses, but these were all vacant. I looked back up and the yellow streak dropped down.
There was only one window I could see, on the far side of the brick exterior. I hurried over to see what my new friend was doing. Inside, the place was indeed empty except for targets of sorts positioned around the perimeter. He stood in the center; it looked like focusing on something. Then in the blink of an eye, he took off like an airplane, crushing the first target with his fist. The impact of the attack shook the vacated district.
In that moment of watching that attack, realization washed over me. It wasn’t the SVIS or Titan that discovered Cooper’s theories – it was this mystery man. Shit, DL’s kid was even more dangerous than I thought.
Doing the only thing I could, I shattered the glass and raged into the warehouse. “You can’t hide from me Wonderton Jr.”
He didn’t even flinch, his mettle was certainly there. Instead, he charged up the attack again, just as he practiced and shot full speed at me. I barely had time to throw up my shield before his fist contacted me.
The force from the attack sent us both backwards. His body landed in the middle of the warehouse and mine hit the wall behind me. I wasn’t in any pain, but I felt like all the wind in my body had been expelled. Also, a good deal of my energy was gone, like it disappeared into the air.
I struggled to a sitting position and what I saw forming in the warehouse was spectacular. Electricity was taking the shape of lightning, sizzling in the open air above us. On a molecular level, all the atoms confined in this building were alive, charged to capacity. Every so often a strike would bury itself in the cement floor, taking huge chunks away. As much as I wanted to go after my attacker, I knew from Cooper’s research that this wasn’t a safe situation. We were witnessing The Stormfall.
DL’s spawn was back to his feet and we locked eyes. “It seems you weren’t going fast enough. It’s a shame you blew your chance.”
Angrily, “You know?”
Another strike shattered the floor between us. The power from even a failed attempt was a thing of beauty. “That fool Cooper was always looking for a way to kill me, even when I was just a young boy. Maybe another, more skilled super could accomplish what you’re trying to do, but not you.”
He looked as if he wanted another chance, but the centralized Stormfall was making it impossible to reach me. “This isn’t over. One day, you’ll meet your demise and it’ll be at my hand.”
A yellow flash bolted out the opposite side of the warehouse leaving me alone. I turned to the crumbling wall and put enough of a charge into it to make a good sized hole. Once to the safety of the outside street, I stayed to watch what happened. Light flashed over and over again in the warehouse until one final massive strike took over. The entire warehouse imploded, leaving no trace besides rubble that a building was there just a minute ago.
The encounter was worth the trouble. “What an amazing occurrence. It seemed you finally figured out something worthwhile Cooper. It’s just too bad you’re dead and your research ended up with a novice.”
Chapter 18 –
Tuesday Morning; gl-O-bal Innovations
I didn’t often come to the gl-O-bal building, as most of the work needed to be done from my office at Wonder-Tech Tower, but this morning was a rare occasion. Some of the most brilliant minds worked in the Innovations department in this building and I needed their insight. With the gear from Titan still in the paper bag, I exited the elevator on the R&D floor to find my query, Russell Jackson.
Jackson was an old scientist who had worked for gl-O-bal from the beginning. It took a lot to convince him to stay (a pay raise and running this department helped too) and a year later, he was very loyal to me. I saw the crazy mop of steely white hair behind a large monitor and walked over. “Morning Russell, what’s the good word?”
Not even looking up, “Jericho, you’re just in time. My algorithm to increase the Predator’s connection speed is finished. We’re about to put it online.”
“With no testing?”
“Testing is reserved for those who don’t know if their work is perfect.” He looked up from the screen, his confidence booming. “I don’t need such inconveniences.”
I joined them behind the station as his assistant began uploading the data on to the network. After each line, the network speed increased. When the final line was successfully uploaded, our connection rate was soaring. “Russell, this is amazing.”
“I’m sure in due time you would’ve come up with this, especially if you weren’t stuck doing copious amounts of paperwork each day.” He spoke the truth. “However, I feel this isn’t the reason for your visit as I hadn’t even bothered with emailing out this latest upgrade to the company.”
This guy was fantastic. He had such a disdain for most people that he didn’t even bother to hide it. The man was brilliant and everyone within three states knew it. I pulled out the paper bag containing the gear. I dumped it on to the desk as he looked on. “I found this random gear a few mornings ago. It emits some low level energy signature, yet as you stated I don’t have the time to figure it out. I was hoping you’d look into it.”
Unlike me, he could pick it up with no ramifications. “Hmmm, this is an odd alloy indeed. Let me take this back to my lab and run some tests on it. Will you be hanging around
or should I email you when I’ve found something?”
I wasn’t expecting miracles. “Take your time and run whatever you need to do. When you’ve cracked the code, get me over here and we’ll go over it.”
He placed the gear back in the bag and closed it up. “Is this a top priority?”
Treading carefully, as to not raise suspicions, “Think of it as a fun side project. Who knows what the material will be able to tell us.”
With the gear in good hands, I was getting ready to head back to the main office. Outside, I saw the need to flag a cab down was moot. Heather was standing out front, with her car parked on the curb. “Hey sweetheart, what’re you doing here?”
She motioned to get into the car. “I just have a few things to go over with you. Figured it’d be nice to do it out of the office.” On the passenger seat was a bag from the Oceanside Café. “Darla says hi.”
I quickly got in and started eating Darla’s famous breakfast sandwich. As I was eating, I noticed Heather hadn’t turned the car on yet. “Uh-oh, is this a trap?”
She pulled a tablet out from her bag in the backseat. “Watch.” She hit play on the preloaded video and I had to blink twice at what I saw. It was the warehouse from the previous night and someone had captured The Stormfall destroying it. Fortunately, neither I nor DL Junior was caught on film. “This video is everywhere Jericho. You told me Titan didn’t find you. Something about this video seems to contradict that.”
The cat was clawing out of the bag. I don’t think I could keep it in much longer. “That wasn’t due to Titan. What you just witnessed was something called The Stormfall. It was triggered when The Dark Lion’s son tried to kill me.”
There was like this veil that separated us. I don’t really think what I said registered. “One more time?”
“That was the after effects of The Dark Lion’s son trying to kill me. It’s called The Stormfall. A long time ago, a Dr. Cooper found a way to kill me and so last night the kid tried to pull it off.”
Heather started the car up. “You’re telling me John Wonderton’s son has a viable way to kill you?”
“Pretty much. As you can see, it failed. The kid doesn’t have enough skill to do it.”
“AND YOU HAVEN’T TOLD ME YET?!”
The volume her voice hit nearly ruptured my ear drums. “Hey, we’ve got enough going on with Titan and trying to get rid of the SVIS. I figured this was something I could do on my own.”
I knew I was in trouble and I should’ve told her about the folder I found in my office that outlined The Stormfall. I just didn’t see the need to do so at the time. It was all theory and hypothesis, nothing about it seemed possible in a real life setting, no matter what Cooper said. Last night was too close; if the little bastard had been faster, he would’ve succeeded.
As we pulled out on to the street, “No one knew about this. I felt like this was my personal crusade; to stop the son from avenging his father.”
“We’re a team Jericho, ‘til the end. You might think you’re being all heroic and noble, but we don’t keep secrets.”
Ever since revealing myself as The Negative Man to her, I’d been completely honest with my goals – no matter how catastrophic they could be. “You’re right and I’m sorry. But please let me take care of this on my own.”
She didn’t look pleased, but she relented. “Fine, but if I sense you’re in trouble, I will stop at nothing to protect you.”
That was something I believed and it just reinforced some of my conversations with Father Reigart. Not wanting to deal with that, I changed the subject. “Russell just increased the Predator’s network speed. Depending on how our next market evaluation pans out, we might be ready to start phase two of our plan.”
My entire goal to put the country under my control was relatively simple. With a market share of fifty-one percent and all those cell phone numbers stored in our database, no one would be able to hide from me. Heather’s powers in conjunction with mine would make threats, espionage, even assassination something at my fingertips. We just needed to hit that magic fifty-one percent to gain maximum coverage, where there wouldn’t be a chance of failure. I didn’t want to reveal my hand until I knew success was a certainty.
“So what about tonight? Can we put the rest of the SVIS in the ground with Elephant? I’m getting an itchy finger.”
The time to finish off the threats on the home front was here. “We know that Titan is usually with them in the field. As much as it disdains me to say this, the option for an honorable face to face attack is gone.” I still had the list of their assumed names in my pocket. “We’ll do this the old fashioned way, cloak and dagger style.”
She rubbed her hands together. “I’ve always wanted to be a sexy assassin, dressed in black and ready to kill. I hope I can look them in the eyes as the deed is done.”
In my mind, “Her lust for bloodshed is too much Jericho.” The voice of Father Reigart was haunting me. When I looked over, I couldn’t help but think much like Cooper had made me a monster, I had done the same to Heather.
Chapter 19 –
Tuesday Night; Vacanti Avenue
Wendy Chalmers was getting ready to punch out for the night. Unfortunately, my concentration kept being interrupted by Hammerspace. I knew it was a mistake to let him use my office as point. “Can you guys really hear me loud and clear through these ear buds?”
For what felt like the tenth time, “Yes we can. Can you please shut up, or do I have to shock you?”
“Nope, got the message crystal clear boss. I’ll monitor the situation inside and give you a heads up when she’s about to leave.” The ear bud cut off.
Across the street was Heather, with a cell phone prepped for the assault. Chalmers took the bus, so we’d have to hit her hard and fast to avoid any detection. The last thing I wanted was Titan showing up before I learned its secrets.
The lights in the shop went out and I heard a few people say their goodnights. “Okay, according to your hack, Chalmers is clocking out right now.”
“Thanks Hammerspace. We’ve got it from here.”
Walking out the back by herself was Wendy Chalmers. It was easy to tell because of the oversized shirt and the crocodile tale she was concealing. I wondered what she told people it was. No matter, in a few moments she wouldn’t be telling anyone anything.
She started to walk down the street, humming whatever song she had playing in her headset. It was time for me to do my job; I took out all the street lamps, sending the whole block into black.
I heard her voice, “Who’s there?”
The only reaction that question got was an explosion. Heather’s cell phone hit her square in the chest and blew her into oblivion. The SVIS was now down to just two. With the deed done, the two of us disappeared into the night as shouts and screams from adjacent buildings could be heard.
At a safe distance, “Well done Heather. As much as it pains me not to humiliate them on a grand scale, this is much quicker and efficient.”
“It doesn’t matter how it’s accomplished, the thrill of it really gets me going!”
“Stay focused, we have two more targets.” I pressed the ear bud, patching me in to Hammerspace. “Wendy Chalmers is dead. Up next is Nick Parson.”
I heard some very slow one fingered typing/pecking. “Nick Parson – according to the tracker I placed on his car, he’s at a comic book store. Texting you the name and address.”
He was a faster texter than a typer. His message came across – Krum’s Comics and Collectables. It was downtown on one of the main roads, at the corner of Inlet and Salt Water Cove. I thought about this for a moment; this was the place the SVIS had a fondness for. Could there be clues there? Maybe, but more likely it was just due to the fact they were all nerds. I passed on going after Rhino for the time being.
“Parson’s in too high risk of an area. Human casualties would be high and a very good chance of Titan showing up. Where’s Barbra Constance?”
While Hammerspace
went to work locating her, “Since when do casualties bother you?”
“Heather, we’re trying to repair this country, not burn it to the ground. Powered targets are one thing, but I’m not going to turn into a mass murderer of regular old people for no reason.”
She folded her arms across her chest. “Bullshit – you’ve taken out many normals before.” She started listing off the gang leaders and their followers as examples.
I put my hand up to stop her. “Yeah, bad people, the kind that don’t deserve a second chance. A comic book store is going to be full of kids. There are some lines I’m not willing to cross.”
Our philosophical debate was broken up by Hammerspace. “Barbra Constance is in an odd location. She’s over at the run down industrial district; you know the place where that building went up in the freak accident?” Oh I knew and so did Heather. “I have no idea why she’s there, but her facial recognition was pinged by a street cam you hacked into.”
Thanks to Hammerspace getting me a few pictures of these people, I was able to upload them for us in the hopes facial recognition would work. “Alright, we’re on our way. Try to keep a visual on her if you can.”
The industrial district was quite the hike from where we were. We backtracked to where Heather’s car was parked and she drove like a bat out of hell to get over there. As we approached, she found a quiet, dark spot to put the car and we made the rest of the trip by foot. According to Hammerspace, Constance had gone into one of the buildings and stayed there. No one else had entered or exited since last visual.
We opened the door only to discover the harsh truth. In her Antelope mask, she’d taken her own life rather than deal with the idea of facing me. Her body was hanging from the rafter of the old warehouse. This was the coward’s way out and just proved how little the SVIS did for the city. “A true warrior and protector doesn’t kill him or herself in the face of danger.”
The Negative Man: Act 1 Page 32
