by Tom Andry
I stood, extending my hand, one of my cards clamped between two fingers. "It was an interesting night, if nothing else."
He laughed, "No doubt." He didn't take my card, "Don't worry, I have the number."
I nodded, "Extensive files, huh?"
"Oh, you'd be surprised who I know, PI. Like I said, I'm willing to help."
"Sorry about your story."
He shook his head, "I'd ask you for an interview with the girl...what was her name again?"
"Please. I'm sure you can figure it out on your own."
He smiled, "Just as I'm sure you'd want to protect her."
My brows furrowed, "Yeah."
He nodded, his expression matching my own, "But you'll mention it to her?"
"If it comes up."
"Good enough." Alan left with a wave and a last glance around the office.
I looked down at Nissa stirring restlessly on the couch. Now what was I going to do about her? I turned back toward the hidden doorway to my living quarters. It was shut, but behind it waited a girl of near infinite power. Alan obviously hadn't remembered her, which was good. I didn't need someone of his intellect to remember the greatest weapon the world had ever...
Oh my God.
I remembered. Remembered. How?
"Bob?"
I turned to see Nissa leaning up on one arm, wiping her eyes with the other. "Yeah?"
Her smile was faint, but fierce, "I did it, Bob. I stopped The Raven."
# # #
Chapter 16
Anger surged through me like it hadn't in months. Red tinged my vision as I took two quick steps toward Nissa, who was only now pulling herself to a seated position. I grabbed her by her gloved arm and dragged her to her feet.
"Hey? Hey!" she called out, more confused than hurt.
"You stopped The Raven, huh? You?" I growled, my voice cracking with emotion. Nissa kicked the ground futilely as I dragged her across the office. As I approached the hidden office door, it slid open soundlessly. Thinking of dealing with whatever else Ted had hidden in my new system further stoked my anger.
"Bob? Let me go! What the hell? Bob!"
Her cries subsided into quivering as I turned her toward the girl. Nineteen was still asleep on the chair at the end of the hall. Nissa was at my feet, her eyes locked on the girl, but unseeing. Her body shook with the memory. She grabbed her temple whimpering like a hurt puppy or apologetic child. She called out a few times, reliving the events not as she remembered them, but as they actually were.
"Oh God. Oh God. Make it stop..."
Her voice trailed off. I let go of her arm and she crumpled in a heap at my feet. I stood, head bowed, ashamed of my anger. It wasn't her fault. She hadn't done it on purpose. But she was wrong. And like a child, she had to be shown the truth. Slowly, on shaking legs, Nissa stood and took her place next to me.
She put one hand on my shoulder, another under my elbow. She rested her forehead on my arm, her mohawk tickling my ear, "Oh God, Bob. I remember. I remember it all."
"Good," I responded, without emotion.
"I was so sure. I could see how I'd done it. How I'd stopped him. But I hadn't. I couldn't."
"No, you couldn't. You lost. And, honestly, you got a lot of people killed."
"What?" she couldn't keep the anger from her voice, "How you figure?"
"We could have gotten some of those people out."
"You don't know that," her voice was shaky.
"You don't know I'm wrong," I countered.
She shivered and grabbed on tighter, keeping herself from falling. "Bob?" was all she managed before her knees gave out.
As I locked my elbow around her hand to keep her from falling, I quickly turned and grabbed her under the arm to support the rest of her weight.
"Damn," I muttered. Maybe I'd been too hard on her.
I pulled Nissa into my arms and continued down the hall. I nudged the corner of Nineteen's chair with my foot to make it face the living room area. I set Nissa down on the couch with a clear line of sight to Nineteen. I glanced at the clock; it was nearly one in the morning. I exhaled audibly, exhaustion setting in. It had been a long day. In so many ways. I just wanted to sleep. To wake up tomorrow and deal with Mel Lepel - Spoon. I'd wring that fat bastard for all the information he had. And then I'd step on what was left. I was busy making myself a drink and thinking about all the ways I was going to hurt Mel when I heard Nissa stir.
"Bob?" Her voice was shaky.
"You want one? You earned it."
"Bob?" she barely choked back a sob.
I turned toward her, unable to make eye contact, "Yes?"
"Bob? I'm so sorry."
I turned back to the glasses, finishing my pours, "Yeah, well. Maybe you're right. Who knows? But I know one thing - you saved my ass in there. Seems I should be thanking you."
She swallowed audibly, "I should have told you. I shouldn't have kept it from you. But I never told anyone. Not even my mom. I never wanted this power. Never wanted to be a super. All I've wanted was to be normal." She stood, "Bob. I've never used it before. In public. Not like that." She shook her head, "I didn't even know I could. But..." she faltered, "you don't understand."
I turned, two drinks in my hands, "Nissa," I put on a smile, "you don't have to explain. You saved me." I pointed to the sleeping child and held out the drink to Nissa in the same motion, "Us. How could you think I could be anything but grateful?"
"Really?" Nissa's face relaxed, relief evident. "Oh, Bob. I was so afraid. You just don't understand." She ran into my arms, grasping me tightly as if I were the last life raft from a sinking ship in the middle of the Pacific. "The Raven...he's..."
"Scary, I get it." I held the two sloshing glasses out to the side, trying not to spill them, "I was there."
"No, it's more..."
"Hey," I nudged her away with my belly, pushing a drink into her hand, "I get it. You don't have to explain." She took the drink and I turned away, putting a bit of distance between Nissa and myself.
"Bob? Is everything okay?"
I scoffed, covering, "Of course not. Weren't you there? People died. Lots of people. I'd say things were pretty far from okay." I took in a huge mouthful of the liquid, practically chewing it down.
"Okay," she sipped her drink, eyes down, brow tight.
We stood for a long moment...minutes, just drinking. Nissa's eyes kept seeking mine out, looking for support. I couldn't meet them. What had happened, at the club...I thought I was mad that she'd lied to me, withheld from me. But now that we were together…it wasn't that. I wasn't mad. I wasn't anything. I was numb. Numb to her. I looked at her and felt nothing. Maybe a little betrayed. Maybe a little hurt. When Nissa wasn't looking at me, she was studying the sleeping child. Nineteen. How her power worked was inconceivable to me. It must be completely out of her control. Completely subconscious.
"How long has she been sleeping?"
I shook my head, "She fell asleep during the fight. In my arms."
"During the fight?"
I nodded, "Woke up just long enough to put The Raven down."
"Wow."
"Yeah."
Nissa took another sip, "So what do we do now?"
"We? We don't do anything. You. You take a vacation." Nissa opened her mouth to protest, but I put up a hand to stop her, "I don't want to hear about it. The Raven? Who knows what he remembers. If you're lucky, he thinks he killed you and left. If not, and he remembers it the way you do, you're going to be number one on his hit list."
"God, I never thought about that!"
"How could you? You just woke up." I finished my drink and turned to refill it, "I've got a few people that owe me favors. Paranoid people. A few of them might even answer my call. You hole up with one of them and you'll be as safe as anywhere on the..."
A light touch at my back. Nissa's hand tracing my shoulder blade. A second touch at my other shoulder. I froze, pulling the decanter away from the lip of my glass before I over-poured. I took a
deep breath. The touch sent shivers up my back. I mentally shrugged them off.
"Bob," Nissa whispered, "thank you. For understanding. For...everything."
I turned slowly, using my drink arm to brush hers to the side. I pulled up the side of my mouth forcing a smile, "Hey. No problem." I took a step around her and kneeled down next to Nineteen's chair, pushing her greasy hair away from her face. Her cheek twitched slightly at the contact. I felt my smile deepen, reach my eyes. "We need to get to bed. I've got a big day tomorrow."
"Big day? I could stay here for a few days if that's the problem."
"No," I replied, perhaps a moment too quickly, "that's not it. I've got some trash to deal with."
She looked at me quizzically for a moment before realization dawned, "That Spoon guy?"
"Mel, yeah." I stood.
"So, what's his story?" she coughed down a bit more of the scotch.
I took a breath. "I'd thought of him as a friend. Or at least a colleague. I've worked with him in the past. He knows everyone south of downtown. Can find out about everyone else."
"You think he had something to do with the fire?"
I thought about it for a moment, "Probably not. If you saw the guy, you'd understand. They call him Spoon because the guy loves honey. It's disturbing. Sits there with a can and a spoon and laps it up. He's got a special spoon just for it. Carries it everywhere. Plus, he can talk to bees."
"Talk to bees?"
I shrugged, "It's more useful than you'd think."
She finished her drink and set it down on the bar, "So, what are you going to do?"
"I'm going to turn him upside down and shake him until the information I want falls out." I looked down, my eyes again finding Nineteen's sleeping form. She took a deep breath and sighed as I continued, "He's probably the reason no one on the street is talking. Once I get in front of him though, he'll spill it. Once he doesn't have a phone to hide behind."
We fell into silence again. I couldn't remember there ever being this much silence between us. I guess we both had a lot to think about.
"Bob?"
"Yeah?" I didn't look at her, instead looking at the bottom of my now empty glass.
"Nothing." She circled the chair and closed in on me. She looked up into my eyes, searching. Finally she took a steadying breath, "I'm going to need some help getting out of this outfit." She touched my arm, turning slowly and putting her head to the side to expose the top of the zipper. "Plus, I'm going to need something to sleep in. It's either that or..."
I put my hand on her shoulder. She leaned into it. I managed to pull the zipper down to her shoulder blades with the glass still in my hand. I stepped away from her, "I've got some stuff. Hold on." I crossed to the bar, put my glass down, and exited through the nearby bedroom door. Shuffling through the back of my dresser drawer, I found some old college shirts. I pulled one out and a pack of matches hit the floor.
"Damn University Club," I muttered under my breath.
There were also some old gym shorts I bought during one of those insane moments in my life when I'd convinced myself that I'd start exercising. The one I pulled out still had the tags on it. I ripped them off and turned to find Nissa in my doorway, vinyl outfit pulled over her left shoulder. The top of her breast was exposed and the tail of what looked to be a green, reptilian tattoo peaked out from the other side. I took a deep breath, the clothes hanging loosely in my hands.
"Bob..."
"Nissa," I interrupted. "It's been a long day. And tomorrow looks to be just as long. Plus, with a kid in the house...it wouldn't be right. You know?"
She fumbled with the top of her outfit, pulling it up, "Sure. Yeah, sure," she stammered, blushing.
I pursed my lips as she looked away, "I've got you something to wear." I crossed the room and handed them to her. She took them in her free hand, "I know last night you slept in here, but I figure we should let Nineteen."
"Sure, that makes sense," she responded quietly.
"I'll stay with her," I added. Nissa didn't look like she'd heard, "I've got a lot of thinking to do and I can't do it if I can't remember her," I lied.
"Sure," Nissa continued to look at the ground. She turned and walked toward the couch, "Goodnight, Bob."
"I'll bring you some blankets and grab the girl."
After I set out linens and a pillow for Nissa and placed Nineteen carefully in my bed, I instructed the security system to lock the door, feeling like there wasn't enough of a wall between the two of us.
* * *
Sparkles. I was in the center of a vortex of them. They had already eaten through everyone I knew. All the supers, tippys, family...everyone. There was only me left. And her. Nissa's vinyl outfit was blood red where it should be green and seemed to seep into the sidewalk, a black puddle at her feet. Her face was deathly pale and her mohawk was so black in comparison that it looked completely devoid of color. I couldn't even make out individual strands of hair. Her eyes were black as well and I could see the blood vessels beneath her skin. She slowly put her palms together again as if she were going to pray. But instead of a green field, she was surrounded by an inferno of purple-black flame. Nissa's eyes narrowed and the microbots swirled faster around me.
I felt a pressure on my hand. A cold sweat jumped to my skin like rats leaving a sinking ship. I forced myself to swallow and looked slowly down. Surrounding my hand was a cloud of the sparkly microbots. I'd seen what they could do. I'd seen them invade and consume Doc Arts and Ed, an innocent tippy, cell by cell. I opened my mouth to scream, but I couldn't. The creatures. They were already in my body. They'd cut my vocal cords. But with the others, they'd eaten them deliberately, logically. Why cut my vocal cords?
They wanted me to suffer, I realized. They wanted me to feel this and not be able to do anything about it.
I tried to pull my hand free, but it was stuck fast. I could feel pressure on it, squeezing tighter. Was that my nerve endings dying? Was that my muscles being consumed? I couldn't see. The sparkles were too thick. I pulled hard, leaning away from my hand and pushing with my legs. I might pull my hand off, but it'd be worth it. To save the whole, a piece sometimes has to be sacrificed.
Suddenly, I saw movement. Something was pushing its way out of the cloud of sparkles orbiting my hand. It was...another hand? Smaller, infinitely delicate. The nails were chewed down unevenly. Something a child would do.
A child.
The cloud around my hand dispersed with explosive force. Now visible, a young girl perhaps two years old. Her eyes the color of a summer sky. She smiled faintly, warmly, lovingly. I knew her. She was familiar, but not familiar.
Abigail?
I shook my head. It was wrong. It was all wrong. Abigail died. She died at birth. It couldn't be her. The young girl frowned and I wanted to cry. I took a knee in front of her. To my left, Nissa roared in fury and we were surrounded in wave after wave of the black fire. Nissa, her face contorted in rage, started to bubble and discolor under the heat. The black fire consumed the sparkles, but we were left unharmed. I wrapped my arms around the girl and pulled her close.
"Don't be sad. Don't be sad," I kept whispering. "It's okay. It'll be okay. I'll keep you safe."
The girl hugged me back and looked up at me. But instead of blue eyes they were all white. Her skin was ashen and lifeless. Her mouth fell open and something black or deep red dripped from her nose.
I screamed.
* * *
"Download complete. Installation in progress."
Waking up to a computerized male voice isn't my preferred method of coming out of a deep sleep. Having the voice feel like it is coming from between my ears is even worse. Considering the sweat on my brow and the beating of my heart, I didn't much mind. "Thanks. Great. What time is it?"
"Seven a.m.."
"Ugh," I groaned. "You and me, security system, we got to have a talk about when to wake me up."
"Would you like to set up your preferences now?"
I sat up from my spot o
n the floor next to the bed, rubbing my hair, "How long will it take?"
"For full configuration - between one and two hours."
I groaned again.
"I am detecting elevated heart rate and unusual perspiration. My files suggest you had a nightmare."
"You can say that again."
"Affirmative," the computerized voice continued dispassionately, "four times. Twice you woke up screaming."
"Lovely," I muttered and glanced over to the bed. It was empty. My eyes shot open.
"Where's the girl?" I demanded.
"Specify target of your search. There are three."
"The girl. The child. The one that was right there!"
"The child designated as Nineteen is in the bathroom. Warning: sensors have detected that she has an elevated temperature. There appears to be no physiological cause."
"Dammit!" I jumped up and sprinted the two steps to the bathroom, the new, automatic door opening infuriatingly slowly.
Nineteen was there, sitting on the toilet. The sound of water dripping let me know she wasn't done. Her white eyes regarded me impassively.
"Crap," I quickly reversed direction and stepped out of the bathroom. Nineteen almost looked comical perched on the toilet. It seemed to me that she was too small to be toilet trained and was in imminent danger of falling in. "Wait, did you say three females?"
"Correct."
"Nineteen, Nissa, and..." I let the sentence hang.
"A female identified as Gale. Nissa's Employee Status provided clearance to bestow access. They have just left the office and are heading toward the living area."
"Crap." The toilet flushed. I glanced around the corner and Nineteen hopped off her perch and pulled up her dirty underwear. "You said she had a fever."
"Correct."
"How bad?"
"My information says it would be categorized as 'low grade' and would be no cause for concern."
Nineteen started washing her hands at the sink. She wasn't quite tall enough so I helped her up. While she worked on her hands, I did the same to her face and arms.
"But you are concerned."
