“I didn’t.”
“Can you prove it?”
“You don’t see any other women walking around with my technology, do you?”
“Just go away.”
“I … I’ve been lonely since Mindy died and … I’m sorry. I feel bad about what the position I put you in. If someone did that to Mindy ... What I did was far beneath me.”
“And you think you can make me feel better by giving me gifts?”
“All I can do is make things. Oh, I also used my 3-D printer to make a new mask.”
Kayleigh looked at the mask. It was shaped like her face, not Mindy’s.
“I don’t have time to argue, and I’m not good at it anyway,” said Harry through Magna’s voice. “I need to meet Stormhead on the roof of the hospital. I won’t bother you again. Throw them away if you don’t want them. “
Magna put the harness and mask on a table and walked away. When the robot got near the door Kayleigh called out, “Thank you, Doctor Von Dyme.”
Magna hesitated before continuing onward. Her metal face did not reflect Doctor Von Dyme’s smile behind it.
On the other side of the medical ward, Gale Force said to Deon, “It must be nice being so pretty that people give you things.”
Deon looked at Kayleigh while applying antibiotic gel to Joey’s stomach wound. “Meh.”
“Come on. She’s a model.”
“Good for her. I’m not into redheads. Black hair with blue streaks, that’s what I like.”
Gale Force swept her blue-streaked black hair back. “Since when?”
“Since I ruined the good thing I had going with you by acting like an idiot. Now that you’re a New York Guardian, you’re out of my league.”
Gale Force grinned. “That’s true. You acted like an idiot, and I’m out of your league.”
Deon picked up a bottle of painkillers. “I need these more than you.”
Gale Force took the bottle. “My leg still hurts. Besides, if you liked me so much, why did you laugh along with Vijay’s fat jokes? That really hurt.”
“It also hurt when you dumped me.”
“I dumped you because you spent so much time with Candilyn.”
“I couldn’t get away from her. She didn’t give up until I gave in.”
“That only took a few days.”
“I figured if you were into me, you’d put up a fight.”
Gale Force almost retorted. Instead, she said, “I should have. I quit things before I should. Especially relationships.”
“Whatever. I’ve got patients to take care of.” In a flash Deon was at Gary’s side, several beds away.
Gale Force looked at the care Deon took when he removed the bug-boy’s bandages. She swallowed the pain pills and thought about how much tenderness he showed his patients. He was different than the rude boy who became Vijay’s toady after she and Candilyn both ended their relationships with him.
Alex tapped Gale Force’s shoulder. He handed her a phone and a sheet of paper. “These are the local metahumans in good legal standing. Tell them the New York Guardians are headed out and the Scientific Six’s away message says they’re in the Mariana Trench so they need to suit up and patrol their beats.”
Gale Force looked at the list of phone numbers that went from the top to the bottom of the paper. “You want me to make phone calls?”
“With as little conversation as possible. I’ll call the MAB agents for the other metahuman teams from DC to Boston to hit the less threatening centers.”
“Somehow I thought being a superhero would be more exciting than that.”
“Boring is good because everyone survives a boring time.” Alex gestured to Bosillos and Ujimushi, who were handcuffed to beds in the corner. “If those two told the truth, they got screwed over too. Still, they're members of criminal gangs. Keep the cyborg away from the tools I took from his pockets and a strong light on the ninja to scramble his camouflaging suit.”
Gale Force dialed the first name on the list. “Hello, Atomic Annie?”
In the corner, Bosillos lowered his oxygen mask and whispered to Ujimushi, “That hijo de puta in the suit who asked us all the questions? He’s the reason the other Iron Pirates are in jail.”
Ujimushi wrapped himself in his electric blanket. “He also defeated the Shade Blades.”
“So what are we gonna do? He’ll put us behind bars if we don’t escape.”
“If we escape, where will be go?”
Bosillos took a deep huff of oxygen. “All I got is an old couch in my sister’s basement.”
“Is there extra space?”
“Don’t the Shade Blades have a hideout?”
“They did not teach me how to disarm the traps around the door before they left last month. I’ve been sleeping wherever I can.”
“That’s sad. But it’s hard enough for my family with me there.”
“Prison doesn’t seem that bad with winter coming.”
“Yeah, well, in the Iron Pirates I changed oil and cleaned gears. If I go to jail, I’ll still have to do crap jobs for the crew.”
“And I’ll be the kohei to the kohei, the least equal of the equals, again. There’s a reason my ninja name translates to ‘maggot.’”
Bosillos huffed more oxygen. “So we don’t want to go where we’re headed, and we got nowhere else to go.”
Two bald men with identical faces and in identical uniforms moved towards Venusta. “Come with us.”
Venusta’s looked around. “Where’s Portia?”
“Come with us,” said the second one in exactly the same way as the first.
“Portia said not to go anywhere without her.”
The man on the right grabbed her arm.
“Don’t touch me! Nothing gives you that right.” Venusta extended her collapsible baton and hit his head.
Before the other guard reacted, Venusta knocked him down with a sweep kick and another smack of the baton. She vaulted over the secretary’s desk and ran back through the gray walls of cubicles.
“Portia? Where are you, Portia?”
An unmarked door opened. Four security guards identical faces and electric prods in their right hands came out.
Alex’s words went through Venusta’s head: “When fighting multiple opponents, jump around and take them out with cheap shots. They’re not fighting fair, you shouldn’t either.”
Venusta rolled and smacked the side of the guard’s knee with her baton. As he fell, the second guard stepped in. He leaned back when Venusta faked a swing at his head, which left him unprepared for her kick to his crotch. As the other two stumbled over the bodies of their fallen comrades Venusta leapt through the door before it closed.
“That’s right, dirtbags,” she said as the door closed. “Nothing gets between good guys and bad guys like a door.”
The door opened.
“Oh, I forgot. This is your place. You can open doors here.”
The two uninjured security men came in with their electric prods pointed at Venusta.
She pointed her baton back at them like it was a fencing sword. “En garde.” With nowhere to jump or move on the narrow catwalk, Venusta swung. Her baton glanced off the closest security man’s shoulder as his prod sank into her stomach. The electric discharge left a smoking mark on her sweatshirt.
“Ow! That really hurt!”
She swung again. The second security man hit her leg. Her muscles buckled under the shock. She fell to the ground.
The two guards shocked her several more times. She curled into a fetal position.
“Ow! Ow! Ow! You win! Uncle! Mercy! Stop shocking me!”
One guard stopped shocking her. He dropped as if he instantly fell asleep.
Behind Venusta, the skinless body twitched. Its lipless mouth opened.
The second security man also dropped. Across the catwalk, the snail-like eyestalks on the large fetus extended.
Venusta peaked through her fingers. “How did that happen?”
The words I s
wapped their minds into the undeveloped clones appeared in her head.
Venusta looked around.
Down here.
Venusta looked down the catwalk. For the first time she noticed the obese woman with tubes going into her chest.
Too much …
Venusta took the clipped badge from the security man’s breast pocket. “Uh, thanks.” She ran to the door and slid it through the reader as Swapper slowly stopped breathing.
Flayer drove the truck out as Venusta charged into the room and pointed her baton at the doctor in a black coat. “Portia? Where?”
The doctor’s mask hid his surprise. “Security!”
Four men, each identical to the ones she already fought, came out of the loading dock and now-empty holding pen with electric prods in their hands.
“How many times do I gotta beat up the same guy?” said Venusta. “This is like a video game.”
She heard a gunshot, followed by another gunshot.
Venusta threw her baton at the security men’s shins and leapt to the door. Her shaking hands barely held the card well enough to slide it through the reader. She sprinted past the monitors on the way to the next door.
In the next room, the Handler stood with his finger on the trigger of a pistol pointing at Portia’s forehead.
Everything anyone ever taught Candilyn – whether it was as Venusta or Zany - disappeared in that instant. She pounced on the Handler.
The lines of code that made the Handler’s spyware network were no longer so strange to Trista. Each chunk of code outlined how bits of information were relayed back to one central computer. The web stretched through the CIA, the FBI, the MAB, even the New York Police Department. And that was only a small part of the spyware network.
Exploring a hidden world and making new discoveries while knowing there was much more to find gave Trista a giddy tickle in her stomach. There was so much potential in this interconnected data. She was so lost in the search Pinwheel had to tap her shoulder to get her attention.
“I’m headed to the cafeteria. Want anything?”
Without looking up Trista said, “Mountain Dew Code Red and Cheetos.” Somehow these seemed to go with hacking.
“Uh, if that’s what for dinner, okay.”
“Wait,” said Ruby. “I need to get out for a bit.” She waddled with her legless feet to the other side of the partition.
“Aren’t you under arrest for something?”
A MAB agent came into the room. “Agent O’Farrell asked us to keep an eye on Quad-Clops. He hasn’t filed charges against her yet.”
Ruby looked up at Pinwheel. “Come on, handsome. You’re my date tonight.”
A second MAB agent said, “You know he’s gay, right?”
“I am not,” said Pinwheel.
“Hey, I saw the Young Sentinels videos. You get a new boyfriend every few week.”
“It’s just a role I played. I’m straight. Really.”
“Yeah, right,” said the third agent. “You hang out with Stardancer and Knockout Rose without putting the moves on them, and we’re supposed to believe it’s a show?”
“And don’t forget the costume,” said the fourth agent. “You look like a walking rainbow.”
Pinwheel cringed beneath his multicolored bodysuit. “I’m going to change this.”
“Why? It is fab – youl – lus.” the agent snapped his fingers.
Pinwheel got so angry his photokinetic field made him glow.
Ruby’s crab-like claw pinched his hand and tugged him past the agents.
Pinwheel said under his breath, “Assholes. I ought to report them.”
“Easy, tough guy. You’re still a kid to them.” Ruby pressed the elevator button. “At least you’ll get older. I’ll always be crabby.”
“Guess I can’t complain to someone like you.”
“No you cannot.”
They got in the elevator. Ruby pressed the ground floor button.
“Uh, the cafeteria is in the basement,” said Pinwheel.
“I’m taking off. Tell Noah thanks for everything. Don’t tell him I what he’s become since we left the farm.”
“What do you mean?”
“Back there, he was a kind leader. Since we came back to the city, though, all he’s done is gripe. His escape attempt … I mean, I didn’t like abandoning Joey or taking that lady and kid hostage, but he tried to fry Gary.”
“Why did you stay with him this long?”
“Where else could I go? I thought he’d still look out for me, but that fancy European is right. Noah can’t protect me. I’ll throw myself out.”
“Where are you going?”
“Back to where I came from. The streets.”
“But …”
“Don’t try to talk me out of it. I lived rough before Noah found me. And if I stick around, Agent O’Farrell will get around to filing charges. Stealing a government agent’s gun can’t be legal.”
The elevator doors opened at the ground floor.
“Wait,” said Pinwheel.
Ruby waddled out the doors. “Don’t make me pinch you in an unpleasant place.”
Pinwheel pulled seventeen dollars from his jacket’s pocket. “Here. It’s all the cash I got.”
Ruby looked him over. “What are you doing?”
“I’m a hero, aren’t I?”
“You’re an actor. I heard your speech up there.”
“Well, as I read in a script once, you can’t be good if you aren’t nice.”
Ruby’s claw closed on the money. “Thanks. You're one of the good guys. Don’t let anyone make you feel like you’re not.”
Pinwheel returned to the hospital room with a bottle of Mountain Dew, a bag of Cheetos, and four bananas.
“What’s this?” asked a MAB agent after Pinwheel handed him a banana. “Are you going to tell us we’re monkeys or something?”
“Maybe he’s going to tell us where we can shove them,” said another after he received a banana.
“Nothing that crude. I can take a joke. I just wanted to give you a souvenir from the time when you met a real superhero. Now how do you like them bananas?” They couldn't come up with a comeback before Pinwheel walked into the room. “They didn’t have Code Red, so I got … are you crying?”
Trista wiped her red eyes with one hand and kept typing with the other. “I’m fine.”
Pinwheel handed Trista a tissue. “Must be allergies.”
“No, it’s just that Vijay associated hacking with his dead mother. She was always in his mind when he used a computer. When I took his hacking skills, I took a lot of those memories too. He didn’t want to forget her. He fought for those memories.”
“Can you give them back?”
“I may have destroyed him.”
“May have?”
“I’m afraid to find out. I hated him so much I didn’t think about what I did.”
“It’s sweet to be sympathetic, but Stormhead said his death is an acceptable consequence.”
Trista kept typing. “All the same, I could’ve …”
“Whatever you did is done. You got what you needed to save the day.”
Trista nodded and continued hacking the Handler’s network.
Noah asked, “Where’s Ruby?”
“Gone,” said Pinwheel.
“That’s the last of my people.”
“They found someone else. His name is Lou.”
“The other live one. He came to us able to speak but knowing nothing. In two years he went from being an adolescent to a full-grown man. A real fast learner, that Lou, yet he knows almost nothing about the world.”
Trista snapped her fingers. “Paper. Pen.”
Pinwheel handed her the pen and notepad he used to communicate with Stormhead.
Trista wrote something down and handed the pad back to Pinwheel. “Take this to Agent O’Farrell. Run.”
“He’s, like, eight blocks away. Why can’t you just call him?”
“Read it.”
Pinwheel read, THE HANDLER HACKED INTO OUR COMPUTERS AND PHONES.
He gasped. “Does this mean …”
“The Handler knows all of our plans.”
“Does he know that we know that?”
“No. This computer goes through the hospital’s router. There’s no spyware here. Go, hurry!”
Chapter Twenty: All My Relationships are Complicated
Venusta saw red.
She didn’t feel her knuckles scrape against the Handler’s skull or his flesh become softer with each punch. She didn’t hear the security men come through the door or Portia gasp her name or herself saying every swear word she knew.
So much adrenaline flowed through her veins that the she didn’t stop when the security men hit her with the electric prods. They zapped her repeatedly before she even felt their sharp electric stings.
The Handler tried every hand-to-hand technique knew to escape. No matter how he turned and twisted, she kept pounding his head. He grabbed her arms but she bit his fingers until he let go. He punched back but she kept too close for him to build up any power.
Portia rearranged her blood flow around the holes in her chest and stomach. She shut off most of the flow through her damaged aorta and grabbed her 9mm pistol. With her left arm supporting her, she focused on keeping the muscles and bones in her right arm stiff with a surge of adrenaline. She fired an arc of bullets at the security men’s head level and kept pulling the trigger until she only heard clicks.
Her bullets hit the security men’s faces. They fell.
Venusta rolled off the Handler. “Portia?”
Portia smiled as well as her wobbling head allowed. “You ... magnificent ...”
“Don’t die.”
Portia’s head rolled back. “Save me … I’ll keep you out of jail.”
Venusta cradled Portia and lifted her.
Portia said breathlessly, “Bleeding ... inside”
As Venusta left the room, the Handler’s clutched his pistol. He aimed at Venusta’s back. The door slid shut behind her the instant before he fired. He cursed when the bullet bounced off the door.
She went through the next room, again ignoring the monitors, and into the medical room. Portia pointed to the doctor’s table. “Go to the operating table.”
The Prospects (Book 2): Nothing Poorer Than Gods Page 21
