Super World

by Lawrence Ambrose

  "I see desert and mountains nearby."

  "That could be here," said Jay, pointing to the nearby mountains.

  Jamie flipped out her cell and called into Headquarters. She told Mort the situation, and he put some techs on locating likely targets while checking in with his NSA, FBI, and DHS contacts for the latest intelligence regarding Brian Loving.

  A few minutes later, Mort got back to her saying that a conversation between Loving and what sounded like a high-ranking member of the Augmented Americans for Freedom had resulted in a meeting at the Last Days church in Las Vegas. Surveillance video of the church showed several people emerging from a stretch SUV and entering the church.

  "Any idea who those people are?" Jamie asked.

  "Not a clue. They parked right in front of the back entrance and ducked inside. No chance for facial recognition." He added with a smile in his voice, "Maybe you'll recognize them when you get there."

  "Can we legally enter the church to arrest Loving?"

  "Probably, but we're not taking any chances. You'll have a full search warrant waiting by the time you get there. The local FBI's handling it. They'll meet you near the church on your arrival. After you arrest and secure Loving, your new orders are to assist the FBI in searching that church. Leave no pew unturned."

  "Ha. Okay."

  "Let me know when you have him secured."

  "I will, sir. We're on our way."

  Jamie gathered her troops into her telekinetic cocoon and they flew northwest, everyone excited and happy to be back on mission. Jamie was happy, too – she disliked letting Loving slip out of their grasp – but she couldn't deny also feeling some relief that he hadn't been home. She couldn't shake the feeling that attempting to arrest him wouldn't end well. Still, given that arresting him was now inevitable, she preferred getting it over with.

  Anticipation crackled in their air bubble as they flew over the bright lights and glitzy buildings of "Sin City." Many predicted the imminent demise of Las Vegas as telekinetics and psychics threatened to sabotage all games of chance. The casinos responded with anti-cheating strategies that included requiring patrons to show their DARE registration cards, telekinetic countermeasures, and even hiring mind-readers and psychics to check out major winners. So far the casinos were still going strong.

  Jamie got off the phone with the city's Special Agent in Charge, Ralph Rothberg, and they met with him and a full contingent of armored and standard SWAT vehicles filled with FBI and Las Vegas Police and LV Sheriff's Department personnel one street removed from the church. Close to a hundred heavily armed people.

  Apparently, Jamie thought, all local law enforcement had been chomping – or was it champing? – at the bit for some excuse to tear into what had been the United Calvary Church since the Last Days Foundation purchased it, and now they all wanted to get into the act. She guessed they still didn’t get that their traditional weapons and body armor and armored vehicles, so impressive and intimidating mere months ago, now offered little protection against even medium Class 2 augments. Hadn't what happened with battle ships in the China Sea given them any clue about how antiquated conventional weapons had become against a good percentage of humanity?

  "How do you want to play this?" SAC Rothberg asked Jamie as he handed her a copy of the search warrant. "Where do you want us when you enter the church?"

  "Right here," said Jamie. "Until we clear the building and have Brian Loving secured. I'm leaving our medical officer, Terry Mayes here, in your care." She nodded to the young, fellow North Dakotan, who was looking more awkward by the moment. "I'll let you know."

  Rothberg clenched his jaw as if he were biting down on a jagged rock. "With all due respect, Commander Shepherd, we have over one hundred highly trained men at our disposal. Surely we can offer support in some small capacity here."

  "Special Agent Rothberg, with all due respect." Terry Mayes surprised them both by speaking. "Jamie could turn you and all your men into mush with a single thought. And so maybe could someone in that church." Agent Rothberg scowled fiercely but paled at the same time. "So staying here until we know it's safe is a very logical idea."

  "Thank you, Terry." She gave him the smallest of winks. "I'll call you, Agent Rothberg, as soon as the church is secure."

  She rejoined her team a block away from the police battalion.

  "They're not going to get in our way are they?" Jake asked, his voice loud enough to be possibly heard by the nearest police.

  Jamie shook our head. "Let's get in there and find Loving as quietly as we can. We'll enter together and stay together. There might be other people in the church, even if there is only that one SUV in the parking lot. Don't engage anyone who doesn't engage us."

  "And if someone does?" Horner asked, smiling at the possibility.

  "Use the MPRs until I authorize lethal force."

  "If you get a chance to," said Belinda/Hot Girl.

  "Right. My point is that to keep this as low-key as possible. I don't want to be the one responsible for razing a church with innocent people inside."

  "Why don't I go ahead in N-Space and check the place out?" Jay suggested.

  "No. You're not invisible to some augments – maybe not to Brian Loving himself. We'll stick together."

  The others murmured their agreement. They checked their rifles and then walked as a group around the block and into the church parking lot. The stretch-SUV remained the only car in the lot. Small break there. Maybe.

  The rear doors were unlocked. Jamie didn't take that as necessarily a good sign. Very few standard locks could stand against even an average augment. They eased inside, Jamie in the lead. She held up a fist, and they slowed while she peeked into the nave, which was vacant. They jogged in near-silence down a hall that encircled the nave and sanctuary, checking offices and doors. There were a lot of doors.

  After completing a sweep of the ground floor, they descended to the basement. More corridors and rooms and one large, open area. The place looked like it could handle thousands. But no sign of anyone present now.

  "Could there be secret room?" Tildie whispered to the group. "Or a lower level?"

  "Jay, check out what's below and in the walls," said Jamie.

  "You got it."

  He vanished. A few seconds turned into a full minute.

  "He found a sub-basement," said Tildie. "About twenty people there."

  Jay appeared. "There's a basement – "

  "We know," said Jamie, with a nod to Tildie. "Tell us about the people."

  "I'll never get used to that," he said, giving Tildie a pained smile. "Anyway, Loving's down there with maybe twenty people. Some of his people, and some are visitors - from the car, I assume. They're discussing something. Can't hear what they're saying, of course, but the vibe is not friendly."

  "Loving didn't see you?"

  "He never looked in my direction. I stayed partly submerged in the wall."

  "What are the people like?"

  "They're a nasty-looking bunch. A lot of attitude. I'm guessing Class Twos and up."

  "Where's the entrance to this place?"

  "A double closet door in the last room opens to a stairway."

  Jamie reflected for a few moments. ""Okay. Let's go down there as quietly as we can. We'll try to get Kyle and Joy a clear line of sight so they can put them to sleep and/or bedazzle them. If that works, we'll go in and cuff Loving and haul him out of here. If it doesn't..." Jamie arrived reluctantly at what seemed the most sensible course of action. "We'll withdraw and wait for the visitors to leave. Then take Loving."

  Judging from the number of frowns and scowls, it was not a popular decision.

  "Bullshit," said Hulk Horner. "We don't take him now, that slippery sumbitch will disappear on us. For good, maybe. I say we go in there, take him down, and if anyone gets in the way, we take 'em down, too."

  "We're outnumbered and we don't know who those people are."

  "Who gives a fuck? They gotta be bad guys. And there ain't no way tho
se people can stand up to us. Ain't twenty people on the planet who could take us on."

  "You can't know that." Jamie dialed back her annoyance – the worst part of which was that she wanted to go in there herself. "So we go with the very real possibility of killing nineteen unknown people?"

  "They don't surrender, that's their choice," said Jake with a shrug.

  Jamie shook her head. They all knew that in practical reality you almost had to go in "guns blazing" against beings of suspected exceptional power. Even the tiniest hesitation – giving them an instant to surrender – could allow them a first strike from which you might not recover. She had some experience with taking the first strike, and it wasn't something she was keen on experiencing again.

  "My orders stand," she said. "Kyle and Joy will do their thing, and if that doesn't work we'll withdraw quietly, if possible."

  "And if they spot us?" Jake asked.

  "I'll step forward and identify us and demand they surrender. If they attack me, it's on."

  "Lethal force?" asked Jay.

  "Yes. As necessary. But lead with our MPRs."

  Her team nodded – some members with much less enthusiasm than others. They headed toward the rear room. It was a sloppy situation, Jamie thought, but then dealing with super-people was inherently messy. Too much power, and often too much ego. The possibility of devastation loomed in every confrontation. A simple traffic stop could lead to a minor Armageddon.

  Two downward flights of stairs ended in a broad steel door. No window, of course. But Jamie opened the door without issue – just wide enough so that Joy and Kyle, hunched against the crack, got a clear view of the room. The people were separated in two groups, with Loving at the front of one, calm and smiling as always as he addressed a tall, sullen-faced black man fronting the second group.

  Jamie narrowed her eyes as a shock of familiarity buzzed through her. The image that flashed in her head was of a man with an Afro and a goatee, but this man, while clean-shaven and short-haired, shared the same build, height, and posture. It has to be him.

  Sandman and Head Games were starting to make an impression on the gathering. Several of them appeared woozy, as if standing around a bar after the last call. The man she suspected as Thomas Mayes seemed more drunken than most, waving a finger in Loving's face and slurring his words. Others looked around in apparent confusion, as if hearing voices or wondering where the heck they were.

  Brian Loving didn't show any effects – naturally, Jamie thought - and was casting a suspicious gaze at the door. Meanwhile, Joy and Kyle's powers were diminishing, and their effects had probably peaked. Decision time. Were the people compromised enough to be taken down with a modicum of safety? Could she pass up a chance to arrest the Most Wanted Thomas Mayes?

  She glanced back. Her team's faces shone with anticipation. Hulk was standing so close he was practically pushing her out the door. His hard blue eyes blazed: Let's fucking do this!

  She edged back from the door and spoke in a low whisper: "Thomas Mayes and some of his people are in there, too. I'll take him out first. Focus on Brian Loving, but we'll probably need to take down the others."

  "Yes!" Horner hissed, grinning.

  "All right," said Jamie, easing Joy and Kyle aside. "Here we go."

  Jamie burst through the door, MPR raised, launching herself across the forty yards between them shouting: "Interdiction and Enforcement! Drop to the floor!"

  Thomas Mayes' mouth started to open. She mentally tapped him in the jaw and he went down. A salvo of electroshock rounds, including hers, flashed toward Brian Loving. Jamie swept the group back into the far wall with moderate force. Loving flopped on his back, impaled by at least three electroshock rounds, grabbing at them with twitching hands. Thank God –

  Jamie's thought halted as the others struck back. The air thrummed with telekinetics. An older Asian guy and a young black dude were on the floor, holding their hands behind their backs in clear surrender. The others didn't share that mood. Jamie was struck four or five times simultaneously – hard taps to her head and chest – enough to drop her to her knees. Her people swarmed past her, casting aside their assault rifles. Belinda fired up her plasma beam while Denise Rogers projected a chilly welcome from the other end of the temperature spectrum. Barry Apple punched his particle beam into the center of the opposition. Tildie's lightning boomed at eardrum-busting volume in the confined space.

  In the nightmarish cacophony, four of their opponents tried to respond with their own beam weapons, but were splattered, frozen, and fried by the IDE onslaught. One bald, rat-faced dude sprang off the wall, managing to dodge the barrage, charging them with a demented grin. He ran into Hulk Horner, sporting an equally crazed grin, and they exchanged blows – with highly unequal results: a headless, blood-spurting body twitching on the floor while Horner charged on, still grinning, one bloody triumphant fist raised.

  His next opponent, his body shimmering in a ghostly form, proved less obliging. He reached an ethereal hand into Horner's chest, stopping the former Marine in mid-stride.

  Mr. Immaterial, Jamie thought, her blood turning cold. As far as she knew, no one had an answer to his super power. Now Hulk's opponent was sneering as he did God knew what inside the larger man's chest. Horner gasped and reached for the man's throat, but there was nothing to grasp.

  The air crackled as Tildie delivered a multi-forked lightning strike to the interlocked bodies. Both men went down: Mr. Immaterial on his back, suddenly solid again, while Horner braced himself on one knee coughing out a breath, clutching the forearm still buried in his chest. Horner swung his free hand down like a sledgehammer, crushing his opponent's head.

  Their remaining opponents had seen enough, and fell nearly as one face down on the floor. Brian Loving's attempt to dematerialize was foiled by another electroshock round. He extended his arms willingly, even eagerly, to receive a pair of the new Electrified Augment Restraints. Another pair was snapped on his ankles.

  While Belinda, Barry Apple, and the others stood guard over the prisoners, Jake joined Jamie and Tildie at Hulk Horner's side.

  "Greg," said Jake, "are you okay?"

  "Other than a hand...grabbing my heart...fucking great," Horner grunted.

  "Gee, Hulk, I never realized you were so handsome," said Tildie.

  Horner made a choking sound. He grabbed the forearm with both hands, bunching his shoulders as if preparing to rip it out. Jamie grasped his wrists.

  "Hold on," she said. "Let medical deal with that."

  "I have an idea," said Jay.

  He bent down and wrapped his hands around the imbedded forearm, closing his eyes in deep concentration.

  "Um, Jay, that might not –"

  But he was gone. And so was Mr. Immaterial and his arm. Horner took a deep, shuddering breath, the hole in his chest making flapping sounds. He started to rise, then sank to the floor. Despite the small gaping wound, which appeared to be reducing as he sat there, the color returning to his face suggested he'd be okay.

  Jay reappeared, smiling at his handiwork. He exchanged high-fives with Jake and Tildie and even received a weak hand-slap from Horner.

  "Good thinking," said Jamie. "You, too, Tildie."

  "Yeah," Jay chuckled, draping a hand over Tildie. "My girl was the one who saved your over-muscled posterior."

  "That's right, Telly," Horner grumbled. "Rub it in." But he held up his hand to the slim "Time Girl," not quite looking at her, and she snared it in a quick soul-shake.

  "Thanks," he murmured.

  Then Jamie noted Denise Rogers was down. Her already pale complexion had assumed a downright funereal shade as she lay stretched out on the floor, her icy beauty suggesting a skilled mortician's hand.

  "Jay," Jamie said with muted urgency, "get Terry."

  Terry was down on his knees beside her moments later. Jake kneeled on her other side, his face tight with desperate hope and repressed grief. That was the first clear sign Jamie had seen of just how close they'd become.

&n
bsp; But after a two or three minutes, Terry shook his head, his body sagging against the hands he'd placed on her chest.

  "She's missing whole organs," he groaned. "I can't re-grow them fast enough. Too much circulatory damage..."

  "Don't give up on her, Mayes." Jake's growl fell just short of a threat. "Do something to keep her going. Anything. We'll get her back to headquarters and one of those freaks will work a miracle."

  "Who's more of a freak than I am?" Terry spoke with a sad smile. "I'm sorry, Jake."

  "Don't fucking tell me that."

  "I can see the course of injury clearly. If there was any chance..."

  "Let me help."

  For a second or two people looked around with puzzled faces, unable to identify the speaker as any one of them. Jamie knew the voice but couldn't associate it with anyone who would be helpful. But she couldn't deny that it was Brian Loving sitting up, his self-assured smile firmly restored, and his gold-flecked brown eyes beaming their usual message of boundless compassion.

  "What the fuck can you do?" Jake demanded.

  "I can save her," said Loving. "If she so chooses."

  "She's not in a position to choose anything, asshole."

  "You're wrong. She's still here. Her thoughts are still strong, but they are fading quickly."

  "What can you do?" Terry asked, sounding honestly puzzled.

  "I can give her eternal life."

  Jake rose slowly, bristling with dire menace. "I'm going to kill you where you sit you fake Jesus lying sack of shit."

  Jamie raised her hand, and Jake stopped in place. Brian Loving met her gaze and smiled.

  "If you can help her without being released from your cuffs," said Jamie, "do it. Do it now."

  Loving rose a few feet in the air and floated over to Denise under the baleful eyes of Jake, who took a grudging half-step out of his way. The long-haired Last Day leader lowered his forehead against the Ice Queen's. He spoke into her ear in a soft voice that carried over the silence in the room. Even the prisoners appeared to be listening raptly.

  "Denise," he said, "do you wish to live?" Loving waited as though listening intently. "By the grace of the Father, I offer you eternal life. Do you renounce your worldly sins and agree to be reborn?" He paused. "Good. The Father will receive you."