Dillon wondered if he should just let him die. But that didn’t seem to be his place to decide. He’d stopped them. That was enough.
Dillon shot down and caught the driver a few inches from the ground. The man was still screaming, and a wet stain was spreading on the crotch of his pants.
Dillon dropped him to the cement. “Police were called. How far you think you can get?”
The man got up and tried to run but only went three steps before his blood pressure dropped, and he hit the cement.
“Shame.” Dillon flew back to the top of the building.
The other two men were still in the car, but the woman had jumped out and was climbing down a fire escape. One of the men got out and pointed a pistol at Dillon.
“That’s a bad idea,” Dillon said.
“What are you?”
“Poet, lover, warrior. You name it.”
The man lowered the pistol.
Dillon nodded. “Good choice. Get back in the car.”
When the man obeyed, Dillon lifted the SUV and took it down to a spot near the police cruisers that had gathered on the street in front of the building. He saluted the officers, who appeared to be in shock. Dillon flew off and found the woman running down the street, crying.
“You okay?” he asked, hovering in front of her.
She screamed.
“Yeah, I get that a lot. Sorry.”
“What are you?”
“I’m just a man in a Halloween costume. You okay?”
“Yes.”
“Do you want a lift back to your husband?”
“No. No, I’ll walk… thank you. For what you did.”
“Tell your husband to keep the doors locked. Lotta weirdos out.”
He sped upward, firing past the clouds, until the sky slowly melted to black. The stars were as bright as the moon, and he could see the cloudy puffs of violet galaxies.
He decided to hang out there for a while.
8
A limo was waiting when they stepped off the plane. Tyler opened the car door for her, and she climbed in. He had brought clothes for her to change into on the plane, and she’d chosen the black dress with the heels and a gold necklace. The limo driver was staring, so Tyler told him to roll up the divider.
Once they were on the road, Tyler took out the tin of black fluid and handed it to her. “For you, Queen.”
She took it and held it to her mouth. The fluid seemed to crawl out on its own. A tentacle crept into her mouth and pulled the remaining matter inside. She closed her mouth and swallowed.
“What are they?” he asked.
“They came to my people long ago from the sky. They taught us how to engineer marvels. And we were paid with destruction.”
“What happened?”
“A war unlike any this world has seen. We were spread across the earth like seeds. We fought everywhere one could fight, and we destroyed ourselves. Neither side was victorious, and we existed no more.” She looked at him, and his heart fluttered. Her eyes changed color rapidly. “I have heard you, servant. And I have waited for you. I knew you would come for me.”
“I would die for you, Queen.”
“You have the blood of my people in your veins?”
“Yes.”
“No man acts for the benefit of others. What do you wish for in exchange for this?”
“I wish to become like you—immortal.”
“I am not immortal.”
“You’re as close to it as someone like me can get.”
“This is true. As you wish. Get me my army, and I will help you.” She placed her ice-cold hand on his thigh. “My name is Atlantis, after the birthplace of my father. You have earned the right to call me by that name.”
“I am honored.” Tyler could hardly move. He kept looking at the slender hand on his thigh, the fingers perfect and timeless, the nails glossy and long. “I have waited for you for twenty years. It took me so long to find you that I wasn’t sure you existed anymore.”
She put a hand behind his head and brought his face close to hers. She kissed him, and her lips were as cold as her hands.
Mark Adler sat in the boardroom of the Nyriad Oil and Gas offices and watched a plane fly past the window. Night had fallen in Los Angeles, and he should have been out with that stewardess he’d met last week. But instead, he waited with five other executives for their founder, who’d sent a text calling for the meeting.
“Anybody know what this is about?” Mark asked.
The chubby man next to him, Gary Jordan, shrugged. “We all got the same text telling us to be here.”
Mark checked his watch. “Well, I’m only waiting another ten. If he’s not here, I’m gone.”
“Gone where?” Tyler Edgar asked as he entered the room.
Behind him was a woman who made Mark’s mouth fall open. She moved to stand behind Tyler as he sat down at the head of the conference table.
“Change of plan, boys,” Tyler said. “All of our resources—the drills, the wells, the refining plants, and especially the wildcatting teams—are all being diverted.”
Mark glanced at the other men. “Diverted to what?”
“We’re looking for something more valuable than oil and gas. My… associate, Atlantis, knows the locations. Some of them are going to be more accessible than others, but we’re going to get all of them.”
“What the hell are you talking about, Tyler?” Gary said. “What are you looking for?”
“Ancient artifacts.”
“What? Are you crazy? You don’t have the authority to do this.”
“This is my company.”
“This is the shareholder’s company. And they are absolutely going to go ape shit over this. We’re talking lawsuits. No way. You can’t do it.”
Tyler started to speak, but the woman placed a hand on his shoulder, and he stopped. She crossed the room and stood before Gary. Mark picked up a scent coming from her that he couldn’t place. It was alluring, like soft femininity and ice. A chill went down his spine.
She smiled at Gary and ran her fingers over his face, lightly touching his jaw and neck. Suddenly, she spun his head all the way around so his eyes were glaring at the ceiling.
Mark jerked away from the table. “Holy shit!”
The woman glided gently back to her place.
“Any other concerns?” Tyler asked, seeming completely unfazed. “Good. Work with your units to get everything geared up. And, Mark, one of the locations is in the Pacific in the Marianas Trench. What do we got there?”
“N-nothing, boss,” he said, his eyes glued to the woman. “It’s… um, the deepest part of the ocean. We’ve never drilled there.”
“Find a way to do it. We don’t need to go far into the earth, just kind of collapse the floor around something.”
“Um, yeah. Yeah, I’ll figure something out.”
“Good. Well, if there’s nothing else, I’m showing Atlantis around the town. ” He rose and headed for the door, with the woman behind him. Before stepping out, he stopped and said, “And get rid of that body. I don’t care where. We don’t have to be afraid of the police any longer.”
9
Dillon floated softly onto the beach in front of his house. No one was out at such a late hour, so he sat in the sand and let the waves lap at the suit. He could feel the water, the coolness of it, even through the thick layers of the suit.
The suit was magical; there was no other word to describe it. He was a rational person and thought there must be physical laws that governed its operation, maybe even obvious laws that hadn’t been discovered by modern science, but at that moment, all he saw was magic. He remembered a quote by Asimov saying that technology was just magic, anyway.
He thought about his life. Jaime was right. The suit put her and the kids at the orphanage in danger. Eventually, someone would find out about it. But the thought of giving it to Henry made him uneasy. Anyone willing to pay twenty million was looking to make it into a weapon, and that didn’t s
it well with him. But he had one edge: the suit was bonded to him. It only opened on his command. It was possible that they would never be able to use or study it. And he wouldn’t transfer possession until he got the money.
Jaime came over and sat next to him, appearing like a child next to the gargantuan suit. “Really? You’re just gonna wear that out, huh?”
“I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be wearing it.”
“You’ve been thinking about Henry’s deal?”
“Yeah. I think it’s what I need to do. Not just for the kids. For us, too. We could retire. We’d never have to worry about money again. And you’d never have to worry about me.”
“I don’t want you to do anything you don’t want to do, Dillon.”
“I’m scared they’re gonna use it as a weapon.”
“Of course they’re gonna use it as a weapon, but so would someone else, eventually.”
“Do you know the buyer?”
“The military. The United States military.”
He nodded. “That’s better than terrorists but not as good as a museum.”
“I’m not sure any museum will pay you twenty million dollars for it.”
“If I do this, I want to leave. I’ll set up the orphanage with a trust, but you and I have to go. I can’t stay here with all this.”
“I know.”
“And you’ll come?”
“Yes. I will.” She placed her hand on his chest and kissed the suit where his cheek would be. “Oh, look at this.” Pulling out her phone, she held it up so he could see the screen then played a YouTube clip. The video had been taken on a cell phone. It showed Black Onyx lifting a car into the air and dropping it onto the roof of a building. A few moments later, a man came rocketing down, but Black Onyx grabbed his ankles a few feet before he would have splattered on the sidewalk.
“I didn’t even see anyone else there.”
“This is the twenty-first century, Dillon. Everything’s on camera.”
“Huh.” He stood up. “What’dya say I get out of this thing and into the hot tub?”
“I say yes,” she said, taking his hand and rising.
10
Tyler watched as Atlantis glided gracefully into the restaurant, taking in all the decorations and people. She stared for a long while at a glass encasement that held a waterfall.
“Your table is ready, Mr. Edgar.”
Tyler took her hand, and they followed the hostess to a table by one of the windows that looked out over Beverly Hills. Sitting beside her, he noticed the other men staring and grinned.
“I grew up in this city,” he told her. “This is the wealthy part that we’re in right now. My family was poor, and much of the time, I didn’t have enough to eat. So I used to come to these restaurants and go through their garbage. They throw away in one night more than a man needs to eat in a year.”
“You have great pain,” she said, looking steadily at him. “I sense it in you.”
“We all have great pain.”
“I can take that pain away, servant.” She placed her hand over his.
“I know. That’s why I’ve been searching for you for so long.”
Noise at the table next to them made him look up. Some teenagers in evening gowns and tuxedos were watching something on a phone.
“What is that?” Atlantis asked.
“I’ll show you.” He took out his phone and opened the web browser. His home page was the LA Times. “All of humanity’s knowledge can be accessed on this little device. And you can use it to speak across oceans to someone else.”
She stared at the screen. “What is that?” She pointed at a photo of Black Onyx lifting an SUV into the air.
“I forgot to tell you about him. He’s what allowed me to find you.”
“Who is he?”
“I don’t know.”
“He wears the armor of my soldiers. What does he use it for?”
“So far, he’s just used it to help others. He hasn’t tried to gain power over anyone with it.”
“I must have it.”
“Why? There are hundreds of them buried in the city.”
“No one can be allowed to have one, save my soldiers.”
He shrugged. “No one knows who he is.”
“Then we must bring him to us. You said he helps people. How?”
“He stops them from getting hurt.”
She rose from her chair. Her eyes lit up a deep red, as if they were on fire, and she turned to the people in the restaurant.
11
Dillon got out of the hot tub around ten o’clock. Jaime had already gone to bed, but he’d wanted to stay and get drunk. After one and a half beers, he felt sick, so he just got comfortable on the lounge chair and closed his eyes.
His cell phone buzzed. He reached for his discarded pants and pulled the phone out of the pocket. Checking the caller ID, he saw Henry’s name.
He answered. “You must have some sixth sense about people in fragile conditions who have something valuable to sell.”
“I’m your friend, Dillon, just like I was your father’s.”
The pain of James’s death came tumbling back into him and pulled at his guts. “What do you want, Henry?”
“I was calling to let you know you’ve made the right decision.”
“I haven’t made any decision.”
“Really? I got a text from Jaime, saying we have a deal.”
“She’s really been spearheading this thing, huh?”
“She cares a lot about you. She knows where this will go.”
“And where’s that?”
“I knew a man once in this situation. He was Special Forces, real robust gentleman. He lived in the Virgin Islands, just a little town of roughly one thousand people. The police they had were from a neighboring town, so they could never get out in time for anything. One night, this man stopped a robbery. It felt so good that he decided he wanted to do it again. A week later, he helped recover someone’s car. He became the town’s de facto police force, helping everyone he could.”
“What happened to him?”
“He was shot in his sleep. People don’t want heroes, Dillon. Not really. Not when it’s inconvenient. One day you’re their hero, and the next day, you’re their villain. Don’t fall into that trap.”
Dillon shook his head. “I don’t want them using this as a weapon.”
“That’s exactly what they’re going to use it for.”
“I don’t want that, Henry.”
“You don’t have a choice. Just be glad it’s our military. Look, it’s no worse than a nuclear weapon, and everybody’s got those.”
“I guess.”
“I’m right about this. Jaime is right about this. I’ll come by later this week to pick it up.”
“All right.”
“And maybe we can catch some waves?”
“Catch some waves? What are you, from Leave it to Beaver?”
“Don’t tease your elders.” He paused. “You’re doing the right thing, Dillon.”
“I hope so.” Dillon hung up and headed into the house.
He felt restless, so he decided to take a run on the treadmill in the basement. He put in earbuds and ran until his legs hurt and all the tension had left his body. After a quick shower, he went down to the kitchen and made a sandwich.
Dillon took a bite of his sandwich on his way to the front room. He sat on the couch, picked up the remote, and flipped on the television.
A news reporter’s worried face filled the screen. “We don’t know who this woman is or how all this happened, but it appears as though a bomb may have gone off in Beverly Hills.”
The camera panned the scene behind the reporter. Cars were overturned, and several businesses were on fire, with flames licking the sky.
In the center of the street stood a single woman in a black dress.
A crowd was running past her. She picked up one of the men and flung him into the glass doors of a clothing store across t
he street. He flew through the thick glass, which shattered on impact.
Red and blue police lights blinked in the background. A couple of warnings were given, and an officer shouted for her to drop her weapons. When the woman didn’t comply, the police opened fire.
The woman held up her hands. The rounds floated in the air before spinning and firing back at the officers. The bullets were targeted at their heads and necks, killing almost all of them.
Dillon jumped up and ran to the garage.
12
Dillon hovered over the area. The destruction didn’t seem real. The scene looked like something from a war documentary, with the street being a movie set that’d been destroyed in a fake disaster rather than a real section of the city where people lived and worked.
Bodies were scattered on the ground like loose gravel—so many that Dillon couldn’t count them all. Interspersed with the bodies were severed arms and legs.
Dillon touched down in the middle of the street. All he heard was the crackle of flames from the cars and businesses that’d been destroyed. No screaming, no running, no sirens, or gunfire.
“I’m surprised the armor allowed you to enter.”
Dillon turned to see the woman from the news standing behind him. She was even more beautiful in person. He couldn’t help but stare at her, his mouth agape.
She grinned and put a hand on her hip. “The armor does not allow just anyone to enter. It can sense inside you and responds to what it finds.”
“Who are you?”
“I am Atlantis, your queen.”
“My queen? Did we lose a war or something?”
“You were allowed inside the armor. Only my people are allowed inside the armor, which means you have my blood in you. I have descendants, young one. Thousands of generations before you, I gave birth to your line.” She walked over and ran her fingers down his suit. The material shifted and spun furiously, as though it were excited. “That makes me your queen.”
Black Onyx Reloaded - A Superhero Thriller (The Black Onyx Chronicles Book 2) Page 3
