Rick coughed. “My hero,” he said as Faith knelt down beside him. The flames were getting very close to him. He had a blackened two-by-four in one hand that he kept using to push away burning pieces.
“I’m going to get you out of here,” she said. Working as fast as she ever had, she found enough debris to lever the heavy beam up with a piece of pipe that she wielded like a pry bar. Rick roared in pain as the pile atop him shifted, but the beam moved when Faith lent her weight to the pipe. Rick dug his fingertip claws into the floor and pulled, his muscles standing out in sharp relief under his golden fur. Then he popped free. The pile shifted and threatened to engulf Faith, but Rick pulled her to safety as well, and the two heroes lay entwined in each others’ arms as the factory burned around them.
With a rumble, part of the factory roof caved in. Faith ran, leading a limping and gasping Rick across the floor. “Elevator shaft,” he said.
They found a shaft with water running down its walls from the fire hoses outside. Rick was in obvious pain and couldn’t put his full weight on one leg. With Faith’s help, he climbed up onto the top of the elevator. For the moment, they would be safe in its steel confines. Faith grabbed her radio. “We’re in a safe place right now. Elevator shaft. We need to rest before we get out. We’re both kind of beat up.”
Unmindful of the pools of sooty water, they sank to the roof of the elevator beneath them.
#
Never before had Harlan had access to tools or a facility like the one in Just Cause headquarters. He itched to get a peek inside that whatever engineering wonderland had first built the highly-advanced Steel Soldier.
He didn’t want to make a sentient suit, but he wouldn’t mind stealing all the secrets he could. Over the past two hours he’d learned so much about the internal systems of the Soldier, his brain felt like a coil of overstuffed sausages. He was already desperate to start applying some of that knowledge, but he knew he’d never work with secondhand junk parts again. A project such as the Destroyer Mark II armor deserved nothing less than state-of-the-art components. That meant money, and Harlan already had some ideas on how he could obtain some and make more.
Before he could do that, he had to ensure the Soldier wouldn’t trouble him in the future. As Javelin dozed while pretending to watch him, Harlan installed a switch that he could trigger either through a radio signal or a sound broadcast. Said switch would dump fuel gases into the Soldier’s battery compartment and trigger its internal capacitors. Harlan smiled as he tightened the connections on the switch. The Soldier would only continue to function as long as Harlan permitted it to.
He replaced a frayed cable, found the spot where it connected and when he plugged it in, the Soldier’s eyes flickered and unintelligible garble issued from its speaker.
Javelin sat up. “What was that?”
“Progress,” said Harlan.
Agent Simmons came back into the workshop. His face was red and veins stood out in his neck as if he’d been shouting. He sat on the workbench beside Harlan and put a hand on his shoulder. “Son,” he began, with the awkwardness of a man destined never to have any children of his own. “I want you to know that I’m very sorry for the loss of your mother, and that the government is going to take care of you.”
Javelin snorted from across the room.
Harlan made his lip quiver a little. “I miss my momma.” He tried to sound small and pitiable.
“My partner is trying to get a judge roused right now,” said Simmons. “That judge will sign an order remanding you to our custody so we can take you away from these so-called heroes.”
“I don’t like them.” Harlan, fine-tuned an adjustment on the Soldier’s electronic brain. “They’re mean.”
Javelin laughed. “Mean? We’re a hell of a lot better than you deserve. As many people died in your rampage tonight, I guarantee you’ll be tried as an adult. You know what they do to sweet young boys in prison?”
“That’s enough,” said Simmons.
“You better learn to love cock,” said Javelin, “because it’s gonna be a real sausage fest.”
“That’s enough!” Simmons’ face darkened again. “Nobody’s going to prison.”
“He’s lying to you,” said Javelin. “He’s a government stooge. Lying is in his job description.”
“You got a hell of a big mouth,” Simmons said. “Somebody ought to stick his boot in it.”
“You think you got the stones, hombre?”
“Rrrrr…” said the Soldier. Javelin and Simmons both stopped in their argument. The Soldier’s eye lights flickered. With the hum of numerous tiny servomotors, one of the focusing lenses opened, then shut, and then returned to partway open.
Harlan made another adjustment. The Soldier made a noise like a cassette tape in rewind, and the eye lights went out. Harlan growled under his breath and reached for the tin snips. He cut a small piece of sheet metal and with a soldering gun, bridged two sections that had been physically connected before the Soldier’s encounter with Destroyer’s bolt gun.
The eye lights lit once more. “Reboot commencing,” said the Soldier in its normal tone of voice. “Diagnostics… Power system at three percent and falling… Writing short-term memory to archive… Motive systems at twenty percent operation… Sensors at fifty-five percent… Fuel reserves at zero percent… Suspending damage control operations pending power input. Standby. Standby. Standb—”
The Soldier’s lights went out.
“Is it dead?” Simmons bent down to look closely at the Soldier’s smooth skull-shaped head.
“No,” said Harlan in satisfaction. “It just needs electricity. Plug it in once the grid’s back online. It’s got its own damage control. It should be able to handle most of its own repairs.” He didn’t mention his own special addition to the Soldier’s innards. The way he’d tied it into the Soldier’s very core, he doubted the android would even detect it.
“Well I’ll be flipped,” said Simmons. “You’re some kind of a savant, kid.”
“What happens next?” Harlan yawned. The lengthy, stressful day had taken its toll on him.
“We wait to hear from a judge,” said Simmons. “And then I take you out of here.”
Harlan rested his head on the table and closed his eyes. “Suits me just fine.”
#
One of the Just Cause house security guards stood watch outside the workshop where Irlene’s brother was trying to fix the Steel Soldier. He nodded to Tommy and Irlene and stood aside to let them pass.
The Soldier’s disassembled carcass lay on a workbench with only a solitary blinking light indicating any function at all. Javier dozed in a chair in the corner while Harlan had his head down on his folded arms. Agent Simmons stared at them, stone-faced, drinking coffee that might have been hot hours ago. “What do you want?” he asked.
“I need to talk to my brother,” said Irlene. Her voice had taken in a hard edge that worried Tommy. He hoped she wasn’t going to become a grim-faced antihero type. Just Cause always seemed to have one or two members like that, who were driven more by anger and a desire for revenge than by a need to help people.
At the moment, Tommy realized with surprise, that anger-driven antihero was him.
“Don’t take him anywhere,” Simmons said. “Soon as we get the signed paper over here, we will be taking custody of your prisoner.”
“He’s ours until then,” Tommy said. “So why don’t you go polish your badge or something?”
“I’m not going anywhere. You got stuff to say to him, you can say it in front of me.”
Irlene shrank the agent down to the size of a plastic army man. She muffled his indignant yells with an overturned styrofoam coffee cup. “We don’t have time for The Man’s bullshit,” she said. “Harlan, wake up.”
Harlan stirred and looked up blearily. “What?”
“Harlan, you know about Momma, right? They told you?”
“She’s dead,” he said. “Yeah, I know.”
“Listen. R
eggie’s missing. Do you have any idea where she is?”
“Yeah I do. When the power went out, I went to talk to Momma but she was gone. I bet she was out there looting like everyone else. People were yelling and breaking glass and setting fires and I didn’t think it was safe in that firetrap of an apartment. So I went to wake up Reggie and took her someplace safe.”
“You took her? Out into the streets? Jesus Christ, Harlan, you could have been killed.”
Harlan shrugged. “You’d rather we stayed and got killed by whoever killed Momma?”
“Harlan,” said Tommy. “Enough of this. Where is your sister?”
“Someplace safe. I already told you.”
“You didn’t tell us anything,” Irlene said. “Stop jerking our chains and tell us.”
“What’s in it for me?”
Irlene’s mouth dropped open in shock.
Tommy shook his head in disgust. “You’re trying to use your little sister’s safety as a bargaining chip for your own skin? That’s pretty low, kid.”
“You all keep saying how much trouble I’m in,” Harlan said. “I’m just trying to get some good will on my side, however I can do it.”
Irlene grabbed Harlan by his collar and dragged him off his stool. He yelped in surprise as she pulled him in close to her. “Where’s Reggie? Where’s my little sister?”
Tommy didn’t stop her. Once he might have, but the events of the day had brought out the cynic in him. A noise made him turn.
Agent Stull stood framed in the doorway, an envelope clutched in his hand. “Let the boy go,” he said. “I’ve got a court order right here remanding him into the custody of the United States Government.”
“Let him go, Irlene,” said Tommy. “If he wants his sister to be lost or taken, that’s his call. The Feds sure aren’t going to help.”
Harlan’s confident demeanor showed some cracks. “Of course they will. Won’t you?”
“Certainly,” said Stull.
“See?” Harlan sounded vindicated.
“He’s lying,” Tommy said. “How many times have adults lied to you? You ought to know not to trust anyone over thirty.”
“You can shut up now or I’ll charge you with interfering with a federal investigation,” Stull said.
“Speaking of federal charges, you better free the other suit before he suffocates under there,” said Tommy.
Irlene grew Simmons back to his original size. The inverted coffee cup perched ludicrously on his head before he shook it free.
“Assaulting a federal officer,” he yelled. “I’ll have your ass for this!”
“Honey, you couldn’t handle my ass,” said Irlene, and shook it at him.
Tommy blasted wind through the room, sending small parts flying. “Enough!”
Javier awakened from all of the shouting. “Christ. What the fuck? Where are they going?”
“They’re taking Harlan,” said Tommy.
“Wait, what about the Soldier? He’s still in pieces.”
“Your robot is fine,” Harlan said. “It just needs power.”
The agents hurried Harlan toward the door. Irlene started after them but Tommy held her back. “He’s not going to help us,” he said. “He doesn’t need to now. We’ll find your sister some other way.”
Harlan stuck his head back in the door for just a moment. “The junkyard,” he said quickly. “Make sure nothing happens to her, or else.” Then he disappeared with the agents, and it was like he’d never been there at all.
“What junkyard?” asked Javier.
Irlene’s face brightened. “There’s this place he used to hang out. Probably still does. Maybe it’s where he built that tank thing. I know where it is. Follow me!”
“Come on,” said Tommy to Javier. “We’ll need your light.”
“I’m beat, man. I got nothing left,” said Javier.
Tommy punched him in the face.
Javier flew backward to land in a heap against the wall. “Motherfucker! Twice in one day!” He rubbed his lips and scowled at the blood he saw there.
“For once in your sorry-ass life, act like a hero worthy of this team,” shouted Tommy.
Javier’s eyes widened and Tommy thought he might be about to fire a particle beam from his gauntlet. Then Javier wilted.
“All right, all right. Jesus Christ. Taking orders from a goddamn faggot.”
“Get a move on.” Tommy shoved the Puerto Rican ahead of him.
#
Gretchen’s world had shrunk until it only contained the building before her, the fire, and Shane. When he wasn’t helping the fire crews with hoses or shoving onlookers back, he floated into Gretchen’s tunnel vision to bring her a cup of coffee and a doughnut, or to see if she was all right, or to just squeeze her hand in passing.
For her own part, Gretchen was using her two-day-old power like a master. She blew out small sections of fire near where the hoses sprayed and held the vacuum bubbles for a minute or two until the water within them froze solid. When she released the vacuum, the sections were slower to reignite or even stayed out altogether. She and the firefighters working in tandem had managed to gain ground, and flames no longer threatened to leap to the next building.
Every few minutes, she would open that tunnel once more in the hope that Pony Girl and Lionheart would get out. They’d radioed in more than half an hour ago. Lionheart had sustained injuries from being pinned. He said he could heal given time, but couldn’t leave the building until more of the fire was out. He and an exhausted Faith had holed up in an elevator shaft. They were resting there to conserve their strength should they need to move with urgency. Firefighters had a hose on the spot where they thought the shaft might be in the hopes that they could keep the area from burning and cooking the heroes alive in a steel oven.
So much power usage and stress had left Gretchen feeling like a worn-out, empty shell. Suddenly someone was shaking her. She was lying on the hard ground with her cheek resting on warm, damp pavement.
“Gretchen? Come on, girl, wake up.”
Shane had one of her hands in his and was rubbing her wrist.
She couldn’t quite make her lips work the way they should have. She realized it was because her entire face had gone numb, like when she’d had her wisdom teeth removed. “Wha’ happened?”
“You fainted,” said Shane.
A young firefighter with a bushy mustache checked her pulse. “She’s exhausted,” he said to Shane, and then looked down at Gretchen. “I know you’re a superhero and all, but you’re not going to do anybody any good if you kill yourself. Take a break. You’ve helped out a lot. Let us fight on for awhile.”
Gretchen nodded. The pavement felt at least as comfortable as her bed back in Dyersville. She realized she might never get to return there and a tear squeezed from one eye. Shane flopped down beside her, wiped out as well.
They hadn’t rested for more than a couple minutes when with a rumbling roar, part of the burning building collapsed. Firefighters shouted as they ran to avoid tumbling debris. Gretchen found herself sitting upright, trying to decide how to use her power to help. Flames hissed and crackled amid the pile of debris.
“Pony Girl!” She fumbled for her radio. “Pony Girl? Lionheart? It’s Gret—uh, Extinguisher. Are you okay?”
The radio crackled and then she heard Pony Girl’s voice. “We’re fine, but a big pile of debris fell beside the shaft. We’re stuck in here at the moment. What happened? It sounded like the building came down on top of us.”
“That’s, uh, that’s pretty close to what happened. It looks like one whole corner of the building collapsed.”
A firefighter atop one of the ladders yelled down to the one manning the pump at the truck. He turned and called to Gretchen and Shane. “Half the roof’s collapsed. I can see the elevator shaft but there’s no way to get to it now.”
Gretchen relayed that information to Pony Girl.
“Oh.” A world of disappointment and fear was conveyed in that single word.
“We’ll keep on fighting the fire,” said Gretchen, knowing how lame it sounded.
“I know you will. We’ll wait here. It’s not like we can go anywhere else anyway.”
“Can’t anyone else on Just Cause get you out?”
“Not really. The only one powerful enough to get to us here and fly us out is in pieces back at headquarters.”
“Oh,” said Gretchen, crestfallen.
“Just tell them to keep the water coming. It’s keeping the temperature tolerable in here, and we’re not suffocating from smoke.”
“I’ll do that. Hey, uh, I wanted to tell you thanks for believing me.”
“My pleasure, Extinguisher. I’m glad to have met you. No matter what anyone else might say, you’re a good person.”
“Th-thanks.”
“Pony Girl, signing off for now. Get this fire out so we can all go home and go to bed.”
“Okay.”
Shane poked her shoulder. “You’re supposed to say Roger that or over and out or something.”
Gretchen shrugged. “She knows what I meant. I’m not part of this world. Jesus, Shane, I’m just a girl from a small town in Iowa. What am I doing here?”
He squeezed her arm. “I’m glad you are here. Otherwise I never would have met you.”
She smiled through her exhaustion. “Same here.”
She looked up at the burning building. Somewhere deep in its bowels was a woman who’d laid her reputation on the line for her.
She intended to make sure it hadn’t been a wasted effort.
Chapter Nineteen
July 14, 1977, 3:00 AM
“Well, that’s it, I guess,” said Faith. She set her radio onto the roof of the elevator car where it wouldn’t be doused by the water running down the side of the shaft. “We’re stuck.”
Lionheart closed his eyes and leaned back. “Super.” He sounded exhausted.
“How’s your leg?”
He didn’t open his eyes. “It hurts. I think I may have broken something.”
Just Cause Universe 3: Day of the Destroyer Page 24
