by Tom Andry
"You're not the only one with sources."
"I've got to say, I'm a bit surprised you're calling me so soon."
"Disappointed?"
"Oh now, I wouldn't say that."
"I didn't think so. I've got a story for you."
"Really. Just like that?"
"Well, I'll want something in return."
Alan laughed, "I figured as much. Give me a hint and I'll tell you what I'll be willing to trade."
I laughed back, "Being a reporter is making you paranoid."
"I thought you'd appreciate that."
"I do, of course. But hey, we're friends here. You'll be getting a lot more than me."
"Oh will I?" He paused, "Just because I don't see the value in what you want, doesn't mean I don't recognize it has value to you."
"And yet, not knowing what it is worth to me means you don't know what you can get for it." I paused, "Come on, reporter, we're both good at this. I'm telling you, you're not giving me anything I couldn't get for myself. Just making my life a bit easier." Another pause, "And, of course, you'll owe me another one."
"We'll see," he chided. "What's your scoop?"
"You've heard of Siddeon?"
"You're kidding."
"It was rhetorical. Anyway, apparently he didn't make it through the Tournament. But his henchmen did. According to my source, they're scooping up super tech here in town. They hit the TOP office, looking for either tech or information. Rumor is, they're not just here. They're in every major city. They're gathering as much stuff as possible."
"Jesus."
"You said it."
"If these guys are half as bad as Siddeon..."
"Yeah, that's what I was thinking."
I could hear a pencil furiously scribbling. Alan didn't say anything for a long time while he considered the implications. He could have asked me - most people would have - but Alan wasn't most people. He could work out the angles for himself. Finally he stopped writing.
"And you want..."
"Well, not credit or anything," I laughed. "I just need you to get the word out. Word about a stash of tech. Word to people that these guys might talk to."
"Holy moly. You're going to get them killed."
I lied, "Possibly. That's not the point. I'm trying to save lives."
"I don't get it."
"You don't have to. Do we have a deal?"
"I need a source. A credible source. They can be anonymous, but I have to believe them."
I nodded, "I can do that."
"Fine. Deal. Where?"
"I'm working on that. Either I or my assistant will call you."
"Your assistant? Didn't I just see her on TV?"
I laughed, "I called in a temp. We'll see how she works out. Might keep her around for a while."
In my head, Mind interjected, "Funny."
"Congrats, I suppose. Thanks for the tip," Alan mumbled distractedly.
"No problem. See, you're getting a lot more than me."
"Seems to me that I'm taking more of the risk in this."
"Nah," I retorted, "you're just being paranoid," and hung up.
It was up to fate now. Fate and Mind. If the supercomputer, AI, super trapped in a computer, whatever, could figure out in time where the supers and The Raven would gather to fight; if Alan could get word out to the henchmen; if the henchmen arrived in time to distract The Raven - maybe. Maybe it could work.
I looked down at Nineteen. I didn't want to bring her into this, but I didn't see that I had much of a choice any more. If Ted didn't live, she didn't have a hope. And the way it was, if Mind was right, it didn't look like he would. Or any of them. Gale, Rod, whoever else they had. And Nissa. If I had given Nineteen to them, to the supers, they'd put her front and center. Either that or in a box. But if I took her, I could keep her safe. Out of sight. She could weaken The Raven. Slow him down enough for the rest of them to take him out.
There were a lot of maybes in this plan. I didn't like maybes. But in desperate times, when there was so little hope for Nineteen, maybes were better than nothing.
# # #
Chapter 23
If I had been asked two days ago what I would do if I had an afternoon with my daughter, I'm sure I could have come up with something poetic. Something amazing. Amusement parks, zoos, skydiving...I don't know. Something over-the-top awesome and romantic. Day at the beach followed by a pony ride and a shared ice cream sundae. Petting zoo, helicopter ride, and a clown. But now that I was faced with free time with Nineteen, I realized that what I knew about little girls and what they wanted could probably fill a thimble.
After I cleared out the living room and set up the teleportation base for Ted, I went ahead and calibrated one of the glowing transmitters to the base and stuck it in my pocket. I also took one of the transmitters that was calibrated to Ted's base along with the button box. Just in case. If Mind couldn't find him, I could use the teleporter to get there and back with Nineteen although it would be my last resort. Ted said he'd have fixed it, but I didn't want to trust that. Not with her life. Or mine. On a whim, I grabbed the glowing, blue ember in the plastic box off my desk. It fit, barely, in the pocket of the overcoat. It wasn't much of a weapon, and might do more harm than good, but it was better than nothing. At least I hoped.
When I was done, I put Nineteen in the car, stuffing her with as much fever reducing medication as I dared, and drove around. I didn't know what to do with her, but I knew it would start with a drive. Eventually, I came to a nice suburb and the requisite park. It was around two p.m., so there weren't many people out. Just a few brave moms with their young ones. The Raven might have been on a rampage, but kids still needed to exercise. I was hesitant at first, but Nineteen caught sight of the kids and tilted her head in confusion.
Could these have been the first children she'd ever seen?
Nineteen kept her glasses on while she played with the other kids. She was hesitant at first, standoffish. I tried to intervene, but one of the moms - a rather outspoken one on all matters of childrearing including, but not limited to: natural childbirth, breastfeeding, and baby talk - chided me.
"Let her be," she said. "Don't be one of those fathers."
I sat down with a smile. Fathers.
She was right. Eventually, Nineteen got in there with the best of them. The mothers and I talked about her delayed speech. They were reassuring, even though I caught a few worried looks being exchanged. I made up facts about Nineteen. How her mother had left us. How she always fell asleep to stories I made up about her but attributed to a girl I called Emmanuelle. I don't know where the name came from. I decided if she lived, that's what I'd call her. I watched her play and mouthed the name.
Emmanuelle.
It just seemed right.
Every thirty minutes or so, I excused myself to use the pay phone. I told the moms I was checking in with "the office", which was true enough. During one of the calls, one of the kids had a fit. Some sort of seizure. It happened right after he'd thrown sand in Nineteen's face. The mom took him away screaming. I'd held Nineteen like the other parents did their children. They were busy soothing their children; I was busy calling off mine. After that, I'd been more vigilant. But there wasn't much I could really do. Luckily, there weren't any other incidents.
When it got later and the sun started to hang low in the sky, people started to leave the park. Nineteen, the fever making her sluggish and tired, had placed her head on my lap, lying across my overcoat I had laid out on the grass. She slept. I could see how the moms were impressed. How they wished their husbands were more like me.
It was all a lie, of course. But for a few hours, it was a lie I was happy to live.
I left Nineteen lying on my coat and checked in with Mind again. It was four-forty. She'd found them. She'd already informed Alan.
When I arrived back, Nineteen was awake, a weak smile on her pale, flushed face. One of the moms invited us to the restaurant where they were having dinner. It was a fast food pl
ace. Nineteen's food came in a small cardboard box. She gobbled it up like someone used to inconsistent feedings and I helped her with her toy. It was a plastic frog that jumped when you pressed a tab on its butt. Nineteen smiled every time it shot across the table. Once, when it hit me in the face, she'd even laughed.
It was the first sound I'd heard her make. I turned to look out the window as my belly tightened and my heart ached.
I couldn't eat. The hamburger tasted like blood, the french fries like sawdust. All I could see was her face. Her small face. Her pointed chin, curly hair, button nose. In a few hours, I'd know. I'd know if I'd killed her, if Ted had killed her, or if somehow, we'd managed to save her. Anticipation wasn't just a rock in my belly, it was my belly. It was my limbs, my heart, my head. My skin crawled with it. I wanted it to be over. But however horrible I felt, however much dread made my pulse race and my sweat freeze, I wanted this time, these moments with Nineteen, not to end.
It was five-thirty when I strapped Nineteen into the seat next to mine. We had two hundred miles to drive and, if Gale and the rest of the supers were right, The Raven was on his way. Nineteen slept most of the journey. When she was awake, I told her stories of Emmanuelle. When she slept, I tried to keep my eyes off her as much as possible.
Nothing had ever been so hard.
# # #
Chapter 24
There was a time when I supposed I might have been able to see the launch hatches from the surface, but that time, if it existed, was long ago. Years of neglect and abandonment had allowed the desert to reclaim most everything man-made on its surface. Now, if it wasn't at least a story tall, it was covered with sand. I sat in Automageddon, parked at the bottom of a small but steep hill. I peered up at a rickety building perched on the edge. All corrugated metal and rust, it was like a huge, barely standing, LEGO block with a shallow roof and windows just a bit too low. The only hint that it was anything other than a building thrown together by overly zealous transients was that the walls looked like they were sunk into the ground and not held down by cinder blocks.
"Liz."
I repeated her name for a third time. It had all started with her and my search to find out what had happened. Where had it gone off the rails? I glanced down at the flush face of the little girl. Nineteen had been asleep for the last hour. Her head was hot. Too hot. I was out of medicine, but at this point, I didn't think it would matter. She needed more than traditional tippy medicine could provide. If she was going to survive, she needed something super. And God help me, Ted was my only hope.
I was parked a good hundred feet from the structure. If I'd learned little else, it was that you could never be too far away from a super fight. I didn't need to witness The Raven at Inhumanitas or at the Tournament to know to park far away. Supers had a well-earned reputation for using other people's property for their own ends. Usually leaving the property in the sort of condition that causes insurance companies to deny your claim or drop you after they paid out. While I wasn't so worried about the car (Shawn could use an upgrade anyhow) the fact was, I was stuck. Or the car was. The lawnmower engine in the subcompact just wasn't up to pushing its way through the inch or so of sand as I had tried to circle the hill from a distance. Mind had said there was an entrance around the far side. A blast door a foot thick and nearly as tall as the hill. It wasn't my way in, but it was what I was looking for.
An overcoat, slacks, hat, jacket, and shirt was a fine outfit for the city in the winter but not so much for the desert. This evening, I was lucky that a cool breeze was blowing, only slightly warmed by the sand, keeping me reasonably comfortable. In a few hours, however, it would be a different story with the temperature likely to plummet. I glanced at my clock in the car: nine-thirty. Outside, loose sand swirled into vortexes that would disappear as quickly as they formed. I stepped out of the car and put on my overcoat. Nineteen, awoken by the noise, looked up at me through the window. I smiled and opened the door for her. She reached down to grab her sunglasses from the center console, but I put a hand on her shoulder.
"Don't bother." I led her from the car, closing the door behind her. Using the car for cover, I leaned down in front of the girl, her white eyes confused. "Listen, we're about to do something very, very stupid." I rubbed my hair and replaced my hat, "But we don't have a choice. If Mind is right, The Raven is going to slaughter them. Normally, I'd let the supers work this out for themselves, but we don't have the time." I put the back of my hand on her forehead, and then felt her cheek. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to feel, but it seemed like everyone did that. Her head did feel hotter than her cheek. That probably wasn't good.
"This is the thing. We've got to make sure the supers win. And by 'we', of course I mean 'you', since I can't do anything." I pulled the blue glowing teleporter transmitter out of my pocket and examined it. My backup plan. I could use it to get in but God knows where in the structure that would get us. Knowing Ted, some storage room near the bottom of the complex. Better to get in there on foot.
I smiled at Nineteen, trying to look reassuring, "If you can, try to do that thing you did with Mel. Make it so no one can see you. And then, when you can, delay The Raven. When it is clear the supers are winning, we'll hide until it's over." Provided Ted makes it, we then pop out, find Ted and his friends, and they'll fix her. Provided that they made it.
Geesh, this was a crappy plan.
I stuck the transmitter back in my pocket, nudging the second one I'd brought. Worst case, we could use the red teleporter thing to transport straight home where, presumably, Ted would meet us when it was all over. I sighed, "So, get in, stop The Raven, don't be seen. Got it?" Nineteen stared at me blankly. "Of course you don't. Damn."
I looked over the top of the car at the building on the hill. This was a stupid idea. I hated this idea. A week ago, I wouldn't have considered such an idea. I would have mocked anyone who would have suggested anything so thin. But these were desperate times. A week ago, Ted wasn't my only option. A week ago, the world was full of supers, including healers for Liz. A week ago, Nineteen had been well on her way to dying under Tay's "watchful" eyes, as unknown as the rest of her clone twins. By now, Twenty would have been in transit to take her place.
Small arms wrapped around my neck, gripping me tightly. I choked on my breath, my eyes watering.
"Oh, okay."
She gripped me tighter.
"If there is any way you could make Ted forget you...um...just in case." I rolled my eyes at my own awkwardness. I didn't know what I was thinking when I had let Ted remember. It was just stupid. Another in a string of bad decisions. I wasn't even sure Ted remembered her or not. There was just so much I didn't know.
My eyes had mostly adjusted to the dark and standing here thinking wasn't getting Nineteen any closer to a cure. It was time to go. I dislodged Nineteen from my neck and took her hand. I kept low to the ground, as low as I could, and moved as quickly as Nineteen could manage. I tried not to get any closer to the building and to keep to the valleys between the small dunes. Anything to hide my approach. The shape of the hill was more of an oval than the rounded peak it looked from our vantage at the car. The building was perched on the far edge and the long side of the hill was a good hundred feet deep. I felt exposed with no trees or bushes to hide behind. I would hope they'd be looking toward the sky or for something a little more Raven-y and less Bob and little girl-esque, but I continued to keep low. It didn't hurt to be careful.
I wanted to take off my overcoat, but I didn't want to hold it. I glanced back at Nineteen. She looked more flushed than I'd hoped. I thought that the combination of her thin sundress and the cool desert night air would keep her temperature down, but her exertion looked to be working against her and her eyes looked glassy and distant. I'd thought that my body heat would be worse than the walking, but apparently I was wrong. I reached down and scooped her up into my arms. At least she wouldn't be running any longer. She placed her head on my shoulder and I continued on.
When I
finally got far enough around the hill, I started to make out the blast doors. Or at least what I thought were the blast doors. If I had approached the structure from this side, I'd have thought I was looking at a train tunnel or the entrance to a mine. There were railroad tracks, mostly covered with sand, leading into a rectangular opening in the hill. The opening was lined with carved blocks half as tall as me. Within the opening was a complete lack of light.
I didn't see it at first. A black SUV on a dark night parked half in the shadow of the mammoth opening of utter blackness. It didn't exactly stand out. There could be any number of supers who would own such a vehicle, but none of them would be stupid enough to park it so close, so conspicuously. Only someone willing to risk losing the vehicle in order to make a quick getaway would park someplace so monumentally stupid. Either that or they thought the place was empty so they didn't have to be careful where they parked.
Siddeon's henchmen. I swallowed back a curse, the rock of tension in my gut briefly forgotten as a flash of anger shuddered through my body. Liz. Damn, they made good time. I'd hoped to get here before them. Find a hiding place and wait to see where the bodies fell. Now I might have to face them. I patted the pocket of my overcoat, feeling the sharp edges of the plastic case. Maybe bringing the plastic box with the potentially explosive blue ember inside wasn't such a bad decision after all.
I ran forward, moving Nineteen to a cradled position. She stared up at me sleepily as I scanned side-to-side for any signs of movement. I reached the car and put my hand on the hood. Still warm, but not hot. I didn't hear the engine ticking so they must have beaten me by no more than a half an hour. I hadn't seen anyone in front of me, but perhaps they'd taken a different route.
The windows were tinted, so I had to set Nineteen down and cup my hands around my eyes to see in. The SUV was large enough for three rows of seats, but only two were visible. The large back area was filled with empty containers and discarded clothes. They must have changed out here or maybe on the way.
