Superhero Detective Series (Book 4): Hunted

by Brasher, Darius

  Avatar had The Mountain; Lobb had this. I felt the tiniest pang of envy. Maybe it was time for me to spring for a nicer office.

  Ms. Marina led me towards Lobb’s desk. Her heels twisted a bit in the deep, rich carpeting. If she fell, there would probably be no need to catch her. The plush carpeting would swaddle her like a hammock.

  We soon arrived at Lobb’s desk. He was bent over his desk, reading and initialing documents at a steady pace.

  “Mr. Lobb, Mr. Lord is here to see you,” Ms. Marina said.

  Lobb’s eyes flicked up, and then back down to his paperwork.

  “Sit down,” he said. His voice sounded distracted. “I’ll be with you in a few moments. That will be all Donna.”

  Ms. Marina flashed me another smile before turning to leave. She made the trek back to her office, closing the door behind herself. Despite the opulence of Lobb’s office, it had been richer still with her in it.

  I turned my full attention to Lobb. He ignored my presence. He did not offer to shake hands. Nor did I. If he was involved in Avatar’s killing, I wanted to poke him in the eye, not shake hands with him. I sat down in a heavy chair across from him.

  Lobb was thinner than he had appeared the times I had seen him on television. He was white, tall and lanky, and in his early forties. Young for a man of his immense wealth. But, he had essentially been a child prodigy, having started college early and inventing UWant while he was there. He had been a multimillionaire within two years of graduating, and his wealth had built steadily since. Despite Lobb’s relative youth, he had gone prematurely grey. He wore it long and wavy, a slightly unkempt look I was sure it had taken a stylist quite some time to produce. His grey hair was a startling contrast to his mostly unlined face.

  Lobb had on a white shirt, a solid red tie, gray suit pants and black shoes. The color of his pants matched that of his hair. I was sure that was no accident. The matching suit jacket hung on a coat rack near his desk. The dark wood of the coat rack matched that of his desk. Maybe the reason I was not also the CEO of a major company was I was not a stickler for color coordination.

  The top of Lobb’s desk was mostly bare. I would have expected the CEO of a tech company to have computers everywhere, but the only one I saw was an open laptop on Lobb’s desk. As I watched him, Lobb continued to read and initial documents, taking unread papers from a wooden tray on one side of his desk, only to put the initialed papers in another tray on the other side of his desk a minute or so later. I surmised that one was his inbox, and the other was his outbox. Well, that was one mystery solved. The person who killed Avatar did not stand a chance.

  “Nice office,” I said after several minutes had passed, mostly to break the silence. I was unsure if Lobb was genuinely working, or if he was simply making me wait to attempt to psychologically dominate me.

  Lobb’s eye flicked up at me and then returned to his paperwork.

  “It’s an overly opulent monstrosity,” he said, his eyes still on his paperwork. “See that leather couch over by the fireplace? The one all the way in the corner? The damned thing cost more than what I paid for my first car. And yet I have not sat on it once in the years I’ve owned it. And this overpriced monkey suit I’m in? If I could, I’d come to work in sweatpants and a stained tee shirt like I did when I first started working on UWant.”

  “So why not get rid of it? Get rid of all of it?”

  Lobb’s eyes flicked up at me again before returning his paperwork.

  “Surely you can’t be that simple,” he said. I did not much care for being called simple. Lobb did not seem to care at all about what I cared for. Being a billionaire perhaps had that effect. I would not know. “Because of the way these things look, of course. The appearance, trappings, and symbols of power are integral to maintaining and growing power. I can’t do what I do without looking the part. People would not to take me seriously as the head of this company if I did look like someone who should be the head of this company. Symbols are key. I would think that you, a licensed Hero, would understand that better than most. Isn’t that part of the reason why you people run around in your underwear?”

  “I think most Heroes would say they wear costumes to protect their secret identities and the people they care about. And, you’ll notice that I don’t wear a costume.” I did not bother asking how he knew I was a licensed Hero. I had not mentioned that fact to his underlings when I had called and made an appointment. But, who and what I was was a simple UWant search away. The fact I was a Hero was no state secret.

  “Perhaps you should. You might be a more effective Hero. The way you look and the way you present yourself are key in how people react to you. It sounds childishly obvious when you come out and say it, but the implications are profound. Psychologists did a study a few years back. They put a man in a nice business suit and had him cross the street against traffic over and over again. Later they put the same man in jeans and a tee shirt and had him cross the same street. When he was dressed in a suit, time and time again people followed him across that street, even though they did not have the light and risked getting hit by cars. The man did not tell those people to follow him, they just did. When he was casually dressed, people tended to not follow him. Why the difference? Because when he was wearing the suit, people subconsciously viewed him as an authority figure, someone who should be trusted, someone who should be followed. Despite all our advancements and our technology, humans are still primates. We carry around the same DNA our cavemen ancestors did. We’re hierarchical in our thinking. We’re always looking for the leader, the alpha, someone we can place our trust in, someone who can make decisions for us, someone who will protect us. In being careful what we wear and how we present ourselves to the world, those of us who are capable of thinking past our noses can take advantage of that primate impulse. The canniest of you people understand that. Instinctively if not consciously. It’s why most of you dress like you’re going to a costume party. Yes, I know many of you say you dress that way so you can protect your secret identities. I suppose that might be partially true in some instances. But fundamentally what it is about is adopting a symbol. Clothing yourselves in authority. Exerting control over the rest of us.” I was strange to have someone spout all that stuff off while he was still reading documents and making notes on them.

  “And by ‘you people,’ you mean whom?” I asked. “Handsome men sporting blazers and a sparkling wit?” I wanted to keep Lobb talking. Without me even bringing it up, Lobb was talking about Metahumans. And not in the most flattering way. If Lobb was involved in Avatar’s death, was that why? Distrust of Metahumans?

  For the first time Lobb put the papers he was going through down. He looked at me directly. His green eyes bore into mine. I could feel the intelligence and personality of the man like they were a tangible force. It struck me that one does not build a successful multinational corporation by accident.

  “You’re obviously being deliberately obtuse. I mean Metahumans of course.” Lobb pushed the papers on his desk away from himself a bit. He leaned back in his chair, lacing his thin fingers together on his stomach. “But I suspect you did not come here to discuss the psychology of power and authority. What can I do for you?”

  “Why do I get the feeling you already know? Just like you knew before I called to set this appointment that I would be calling.”

  Lobb smiled at me. When he did so his eyes narrowed to slits, the skin around them crinkling. He suddenly looked older than he was and somewhat sinister.

  “Me predicting that you would be coming to visit me was not magic, Mr. Lord. I did not examine the entrails of a chicken or consult with tea leaves. I run the most widely used search engine in the world. I am in the information business. Just as UWant can anticipate the needs, wants, and future questions of its user, I can use it to predict what will occur. Not with one hundred percent accuracy, of course. But, with each question a user asks UWant, with each bit of information UWant gleans, what is going on in the world becomes clearer to
it. The clearer the present is to it, the clearer the future becomes to it.” He smiled that sinister smile again, his eyes slit like cracked windows. “That of course means the future becomes clearer to me. I told Donna weeks ago it was likely you would be paying us a visit.”

  “And do you also know what I am here about?”

  “I have no idea.” Although I had been monitoring Lobb’s bodily functions with my powers, there was no change in his vitals. Regardless, I knew he was lying. How could he be The Spider and not being lying?

  I decided to lay most of my cards on the table. Sometimes the direct approach was the best one.

  “Here’s what I know,” I said to Lobb. “I know that you use the alias The Spider. Operating under that alias, you have funded and supported certain criminal enterprises. I am here today about one such enterprise in particular. You hired a teleporter named Antaeus to break into where they are holding the Metahuman Chaos in MetaHold. In addition to paying Antaeus for that service, you provided him with money to bribe certain MetaHold officials to provide Antaeus access to Chaos. Once he gained access, Antaeus drained off someone of Chaos’ energy using a storage device you provided him. That storage device was then handed over to one of your representatives. Shortly after that, Avatar was shot and killed despite the fact he was thought to be invulnerable. I have reason to believe that the reality-bending nature of Chaos’ energy can be used to get around that invulnerability. In light of the fact Avatar died so soon after the break-in to Chaos’ cell, the obvious conclusion is that not only can Chaos’ energy be used to kill Avatar, it in fact was used to kill Avatar.”

  I took a breath. I monitored Lobb’s bodily functions carefully.

  “So, I basically have three questions. First, did you shoot Avatar? Second, if you did not, who did you provide the Chaos energy to so they could shoot Avatar. Third, are you going to confess now, or do you prefer me beating the tar out of you first?”

  Lobb just stared at me unblinkingly for a bit. I noticed his green eyes were flecked with gold. His heart rate, blood pressure, everything, was steady and even. The silence stretched out between us like a rubber band. I wondered when it would finally snap.

  After a while, Lobb stood up. He turned around, taking a few steps to the glass wall. He looked out over the city. I could see the side of his face. It had a proprietary cast to it. I wondered if Zeus had the same look on his face when he surveyed the world from Mount Olympus.

  “Have you heard of the Flynn effect?” Lobb finally said.

  “Oh sure. I have all their albums.” Lobb’s mouth twisted into a smile. Despite the fact he had a hand in murdering the world’s greatest Hero, at least he had a sense of humor. Then again, Hitler loved dogs. That did not mean Hitler was not a sociopathic mass murderer. Even bad people had good traits.

  “The Flynn effect refers to the phenomenon where, since around the 1930s, IQs around the world have been going up,” Lobb said. “There are a number of theories about why that might be. Better nutrition, people live in more stimulating environments, increased literacy rates, the reduction and eradication of certain diseases, that sort of thing. I personally believe the reason for the Flynn effect is the fact that, thanks to technological advances, people’s brains are slowly evolving to better cope with a more complex environment.

  “The thing is, the Flynn effect has been leveling off for about the past fifteen years or so after almost three-fourths of a century of consistent IQ increases. In fact, by some measures, IQ rates have started decreasing. Do you know why that is?”

  “Reality television?”

  Lobb turned about to face me. He smiled again.

  “A good guess. But no. I believe the reason for the IQ decrease after years upon years of steady increase is because of you. Well, not you personally, but people like you. Metahumans. Heroes. In the past several decades there has been an explosion in the number of Metahumans, as well as an increase in the number of licensed Heroes. The proliferation of Metahumans generally and Heroes specifically tracks the decrease of IQs in the general population.”

  “Correlation does not equal causation.”

  “No, but it does not preclude it either. I think the reason IQs are on the decrease is because people are coming to rely more and more on Heroes to solve their problems for them. Consider a child. Will a child ever become an independent adult if his parents always baby him and constantly come to the rescue every time he gets himself in a jam?”

  “Non-Metas aren’t children.”

  “No, but they are becoming childlike because of Heroes. Not only are IQs on the decrease, but there are many other indications that people are stagnating because of the existence of Heroes. For instance, there has not been a major war since World War Two.” His words reminded me of my conversation with the Sentinels and how they believed Avatar’s presence had single-handedly led to there being no major wars since World War Two.

  “Isn’t war a bad thing?” I said.

  “Not necessarily. Sometimes a wars are beneficial. They often lead to major technological advancements. Both the space age and the Internet Age were made possible because of military technology.” Lobb shook his head. “Besides, the fact a lion cannot kill other animals because he’s trapped in a cage in a zoo doesn’t mean being caged is good for the lion or that he’s happy about it.”

  “Surely you’re not saying Heroes have put the rest of humanity in a cage.” Lobb proceeded as if he had not heard me.

  “Patents granted to Metas are sharply up over the past several decades,” he said. “The Sentinels’ own Mechano holds the record for the most patents registered to an individual. In contrast, the numbers of patents applied for and granted to non-Metas is sharply down. The amount of original scientific research being conducted by non-Metas is down as well. Aside from my own work and that of handful others, there has not been a significant technological or scientific breakthrough by a non-Meta in thirty years. Metas, on the other hand, are creating so much new technology that you all have almost totally eclipsed non-Metas technologically. And, I can’t help but notice that you all are keeping that technology to yourselves. It’s for the protection of non-Metas, you Heroes say.” I thought about the transporter technology the Heroes’ Guild used, plus its secret space station armed with advanced weaponry non-Metas did not have access to. The guards at Sentinels mansion plus the grounds themselves were armed with Hero developed technology non-Metas did not have access to. “As an outsider looking in, it’s hard to not imagine something sinister afoot.”

  “You can’t really believe Heroes are conspiring to hold people back. For the purpose of world domination, maybe? As a Hero, I can assure you there is no grand conspiracy. Heroes are sworn to protect people, not subjugate them or somehow hold them back. Heroes make the world a better place.”

  “Yes, maybe, but at what price to non-Metas? A good master makes a good home for his slaves, but that does not change the fact that the master is still the master and the slave is still the slave. I for one would rather reign in Hell and to serve in Heaven.”

  I recognized the Heaven and Hell allusion Lobb made. It was to Dante’s Inferno.

  “Isn’t that what Satan said in the Inferno? Guess who that makes you?” I suggested. Again, Lobb proceeded to speak as if he had not heard me. Rude.

  “As for the idea there is no Hero plot to hold everyone else back and for world domination, I should believe you why, exactly? You are a Hero, after all.” He smiled at me, as if to take the sting out of his words. “As I indicated before, I have looked into you. I actually like what I see. I think your heart is in the right place and I think you do what you can to help people. I don’t think you have any interest in world domination. But, that does not mean that all of your fellow Heroes feel the same way. There are plenty of supervillains whose stated goal is world domination. The only difference between a lot of supervillains and licensed Heroes is the piece of paper your license appears on.”

  Lobb shrugged.

  “But, t
o be honest with you, I do not have any direct evidence a grand conspiracy is in place among Heroes to keep people down. But remember, there was a time when both our species, Homo sapiens, and the Neanderthals roamed the world at the same time. I don’t think our ancient ancestors got together and agreed to wipe the Neanderthals from the face of the Earth. But, that is what happened. Something about our species made us smarter, stronger, and tougher than our Neanderthal cousins. As a result, we gradually wiped them out. I believe the same slow genocide is happening to non-Metas. No, let me correct that: I know it is. The data trends and the projections from my UWant software do not lie. Math does not lie. Destiny does not lie.” Lobb’s green eyes burned with fervor. He suddenly went from looking like a well-dressed businessman to looking like a fanatic. “If someone does not do something to stop it from happening, it will happen. Unless something is done by someone, and done quickly, non-Metas will be little more than animals kept in a Metahuman zoo.”

  “And you are that someone? Are you admitting you did kill Avatar? You decided to strike a blow against a possible Meta take-over by killing the most visible and powerful Hero of them all?”

  Lobb was breathing hard. He closed his eyes for a moment, visibly calming himself. He sat back down behind his desk. He laced his fingers together on top of his desk.

  “Murder is a crime. I am an honest businessman, not a criminal. So no, I did not kill Avatar. I did not even know he was dead. I did not pay someone to break into MetaHold. I am not engaged in any criminal enterprises. I am not the person you call The Spider.”

  Lobb’s eyes twinkled. He seemed to be enjoying himself.

  “But let us say I was the person who decided he was uniquely qualified because of his wealth, position in society, and technological prowess to do something about the gathering Metahuman menace to non-Metas. I am not saying I am that person, of course. I am merely speaking hypothetically for the purpose of our discussion.