by Tasha Black
“But all hope is not lost for Glacier City. I am proposing a way to take some of the burden off the shoulders of the fine men and women of the GCPD. Starting today, we will begin the privatization of the Glacier City Police Department.”
Murmuring rose from the crowd.
“Now, I know this seems like a drastic step, but trust me, it is not taken lightly. And let me get one thing out of the way up front. This does not mean a loss of a single job for our current officers. They will all be offered the opportunity to work within our new organization, with their salaries and pensions intact. The only difference is that they will now have the resources and leadership necessary to do the job they were meant to do.
“What we intend, is to reorganize the current system, and infuse it with new manpower and equipment. You might be asking how this is possible, given the statements Mayor Hillman just made about the financial state of Glacier City, and that is a good question.
“Fortunately, I have the answer.
“This reinvigoration of our essential safety needs will be a result of a very generous partnership between Glacier City and the well-respected private security firm, Alpha Division. This group, known for utilizing cutting edge technology to improve the lives of wounded veterans, has agreed to provide the manpower and technology we need to make Glacier City a safe place to live again.
“And don’t we all deserve a safe place to live?” he asked.
There was a pause, and then the guests applauded loudly.
Good God, Alpha Division? How could Peter, the mayor, anyone allow this to happen?
How had Cordelia not told him about this?
It was unconscionable.
“I’d like to introduce one of the new members of the force. Felix Gardner,” Peter announced, welcoming a gigantic man onstage.
It took West only a second to recognize him as the man he had fought in the alleyway.
He’d shaved the scruffy beard, but the scar along his jawline was a dead giveaway.
“Felix, why don’t you show the people what Alpha Division has done for you?” Peter asked.
Felix removed his jacket.
The naked prosthetic gleamed under the lights.
A collective gasp went up from the crowd.
So much for having to hunt for evidence. West began recording.
“Alpha division gave me a new lease on life,” Felix said gruffly. “And now I am honored to have the opportunity to protect and serve Glacier City.”
Peter had stepped away to retrieve something.
Felix stood before the crowd, expressionless, as if, having said his piece, he would happily wait there for an eternity until his next instruction was delivered.
Peter stepped back. “Felix, do you feel you are up to the task of protecting Glacier City?”
Peter tossed a baseball at him. It sailed straight for the large man’s face.
Felix snatched it out of the air.
More murmurs of approval from the audience.
“And what about the Glacier City vigilante?” Peter asked.
West locked eyes with Cordelia.
Felix crushed the ball in his mechanical hand.
14
West parked his car in the rear garage of Worthington Enterprises and burst in the door to Med Pros.
Though West thought he’d arrived quickly, Mallory was already there. He couldn’t be sure if she’d raced over when she got his text or if she’d still been here, working late into the night.
“Did you see him again?” she asked immediately, hopping off her lab stool, her beach-colored hair flopping slightly.
“Yeah, but not how you think,” he said.
She looked him up and down.
“You dressed up for me?” she asked with a smirk.
“Good one. No, I was at the fundraiser at the Plaza,” he explained. “The mayor spoke.”
“Fancy,” she said, practically tapping her foot as she waited for him to sit down so she could get the pictures out of his new eye.
“And so did the guy with the prosthetics. Felix is his name. And he’s going to be part of Glacier City’s new privatized police force, courtesy of Alpha Division,” West told her.
She stared at him for a moment. West imagined he must have looked about the same when he’d heard the news from Peter’s speech.
“It’s true,” he told her. “I’m glad this thing takes video.”
Mallory shook her head in amazement, then lifted the thing in her hand to his temple. It looked sort of like a radar gun.
“Hold this,” she told him, handing him the iPad.
West was touched. He’d never seen her put it down before, let alone hand it to someone.
He could see that the video was downloading.
When the image popped up a second later, she put the transmitter on the table and sat beside him to watch.
The lab was silent as they gazed at the screen.
West had tried to zoom in for as much detail as possible.
They watched as Felix crushed the baseball, then the focus shifted to Cordelia for a few seconds before it cut off.
“Interesting,” Mallory said at last.
“Do you think she knew anything about this?” West demanded.
“I was talking about the prosthetic,” Mallory said.
“Oh.”
“It’s definitely one of ours,” she said thoughtfully. “But it’s an early prototype. Maybe we didn’t seal the Palma leak as tightly as we thought.”
West pictured the old Med Pros lab upstairs, Vince Palma downloading the entire Med Pros database onto a flash drive. And then attacking West in an exo-suit and throwing him out the window. West had stopped fighting in order to save the flash drive, and the lives of the people whose future might depend on the work of Medical Prosthetics, which ironically now included himself.
Could Palma have somehow gotten some of those files out anyway?
“I can cross-reference it against our database, give us a better idea what we’re up against. Let’s go to my office,” Mallory said, hopping up.
West tried to follow, but his legs glitched, freezing him in place. They’d never acted up out of the blue before, only when he’d really pushed them.
No, no, no.
Mallory paused at the door.
“Care to join me?” she asked.
“I… I just need a minute,” he muttered.
“I see. Take your time. Nothing at all urgent going on here,” Mallory said, with less tease in her voice and more annoyance.
“You go ahead. I’ll be in a minute,” West said as firmly as he could muster.
“Sure thing,” she agreed.
She turned toward her office, then turned back to him.
“Hey. Can you take a look at this?” she asked, tossing him her iPad.
It sailed through the air, its trajectory telling West that it would land just out of reach.
Without thinking, he tried for it.
But his legs didn’t follow.
The iPad sailed past him and hit the wall.
West overbalanced and fell hard on the floor.
No. No, no, no.
He looked up to find Mallory staring down at him, her expression frigid.
“How long has this been going on?” she asked.
For a crazy instant, West considered denying what was happening to him.
But it was time to come clean.
“Almost since the beginning,” he admitted. “I thought it was just a little glitch. But it’s getting worse.”
“And you didn’t tell me?” she asked calmly.
He had expected anger. But the ice in her voice was worse. He couldn’t find the words to explain.
“This is kind of a big deal,” she said. “There is a kid in the hospital because his prosthetic overloaded his system. Do you have any idea how much sleep I’ve lost since we got that news? How many nights I’ve been here, later than this, trying to figure out what I missed?”
Sean Cooper.
Could West have prevented that?
West reeled under the idea. Reporting his own glitch could have saved Sean Cooper from rejecting his prosthetic.
Mallory paced the floor in front of him.
“This whole project is on hold indefinitely. You’re risking your own life. Because you had to be selfish. Because you were—”
“—scared,” West said softly.
“What?” she turned to him, her hair flopping as if for emphasis.
“Scared,” West said. “I was afraid if I told you, you would take my prosthetics away. And I’d lose everything. But I think I already have…”
“What are you talking about?” Mallory asked. He noticed her voice was calmer now, less angry.
He’d never expected to be baring his soul to Mallory Pruitt, but the words poured out.
“Cordelia,” he admitted. “After my prosthetics, she started acting different with me. Pulling away. I thought if I could prove to her that I was still human, do something worthwhile, she would see. It’s stupid…”
“Yes, it is,” Mallory replied.
“What?” he asked.
“It’s stupid. And you’re stupid,” she said, matter-of-factly. “Did you ever stop to think that maybe she wanted to slow things down because you’re a capricious, womanizing asshole? And maybe she didn’t want to risk you hurting her and her family? Did you really think you could impress her by becoming some kind of wannabe superhero? She’s a grown woman, West, not a 12 year old boy.”
“When you say it like that…”
West shifted his weight to sit up straight and discovered he could feel his legs again. He stood.
“Wait. That’s why you were stalling with Jessica, isn’t it?” Mallory’s face brightened as the truth dawned on her. “You knew something was wrong.”
West nodded.
Mallory sighed.
“You might be an idiot, Westley Worthington, but you have a good heart. Get your ass in the scanner, and let’s get to the bottom of this.”
“You’ll help me?” he asked.
“Only if you promise me one thing,” Mallory said.
“Anything,” he replied quickly.
“When you and Cordelia have kids,” she said, giving him a stern look, “you will teach them to talk about their feelings.”
The whole idea filled his heart. He had to fight back the smile that wanted to lift his face.
He nodded with what he hoped was an earnest expression.
“And if you pull any shit like this again,” she warned him, “I will remotely deactivate you.”
“You can do that?” West asked.
“Do you want to find out?”
15
Cordelia finally felt like she could stop and catch her breath.
It had been a whirlwind since Peter’s announcement.
The entire ballroom was abuzz after Felix’s appearance. She’d already scheduled a dozen meetings for Peter with Glacier City’s elite. Everyone wanted to talk to the man with the plan.
Except West. She’d watched him walk out from her place on the stage. She wished she could have followed him. But the guests stayed late into the night, and Peter mingled the whole time.
That meant Cordelia stayed too.
All the while, she brewed about why Alpha Division would become the city’s privatized police force.
Was this why Peter had scheduled private meetings?
Prince Isaam had nothing to do with Alpha Division as far as she knew. And Peter had no reason to think she had any familiarity with Alpha Division, and therefore no reason to hide the meetings. It didn’t add up. There must be something else.
More than anything, she worried over what they might do to West if they ever captured the Ghost.
The look West had given her as she stood on the stage, paralyzed with shock had been so awful. He must have thought she was in on the whole thing.
How was he to know she didn’t play the role of confidant and advisor with Peter, the way she had with him? That she was just the girl who made the calendar, and ran for coffee?
At last, the caterers began to clear the tables and the room was nearly empty.
The string quartet stopped playing and began gathering the cases for their instruments.
“Wait,” Peter called to the musicians from across the room. “One more song, please.”
As they seated themselves once again, Peter crossed the room to Cordelia.
“Cordelia Cross, may I please have this dance?” he asked.
Although he wore his usual confidant smile, she could tell he was anxious for her to say yes.
In a town filled with women dying to catch the eye of the handsome consultant who was saving the city, Peter wanted to dance with Cordelia.
He waited patiently, gazing at her with a softer smile than ever before.
Maybe if she agreed, she could use the dance to talk with him, draw something out of him that would give her answers.
“Thank you, Peter, of course,” she said with a smile.
His face lit up and he took her in his arms.
It was a waltz. Cordelia was glad her mother had taken her to dance classes when she was a teenager. She fell into the one-two-three rhythm easily, and Peter’s light touch put her at ease.
“Thank you for being here tonight,” Peter murmured in her ear. “You look—”
“Thank you so much for inviting me, Peter,” she interjected. “It was such an interesting announcement. How did you find a private force?”
“The answer would bore you to tears, Cord. They seem tough though, don’t they? Do you feel safer tonight?” he asked smoothly.
Shoot. She tried another tack.
“I guess so. That man’s prosthetics were incredible. How did they do that? I thought Worthington had patents on something like that,” she mused.
“Cordelia, what are you implying?” Peter stopped dancing and stared down at her hotly.
His expression frightened her.
Tears sprang to Cordelia’s eyes. She wasn’t good at lying or sneaking. She’d been engaged in more subterfuge since springtime than she had ever expected she would in a lifetime. And it was all supposed to be for Jess.
“M-my sister,” she managed to blurt before pulling her arms from around his neck to run away.
“Jess,” Peter whispered. “Of course. Oh Cord, I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry, sweetheart. Of course you’re thinking of your sister.”
He pulled her back in and held her close.
She felt sick inside, having used her sister’s physical challenge to get herself out of a jam.
“I’m sure you wish every day for technology that could change her life, don’t you?” he asked pulling back to look into her eyes.
She nodded tearfully.
“Let’s get out of here. Can I take you home?” he asked hopefully.
“Thank you, Peter, that’s so kind, but I drove in today, so I don’t need a ride. I-I’ll see you in the morning,” she stammered as she extricated herself from his embrace.
She waited for an hour for the subway to take her back home to Cobble Slope.
16
Jess stabbed the cereal in her bowl down into the milk, then brought saturated bite to her lips. Heavenly.
Why did anyone ever have anything else for breakfast?
The small air conditioner already hummed in the kitchen window, a relief from the steadily climbing, late-morning heat. Her mom was busy re-organizing the pantry in the basement. There was room to do that now that West wasn’t here to over-stock it.
The small kitchen TV was tuned to one of her mom’s news channels.
A newscaster with crazy big boobs began to talk about new crime initiatives, citing some “incident” that happened earlier this week. Jess zoned out, reading the back of the cereal box, as though it might be different from the last time she read it. But when the woman on the news said the name Peter Watson, Jess looked up.
That was Cordelia’s boss,
wasn’t it?
The screen showed a scene from a few days ago. It was downtown. Was that West’s building?
Peter stood by the big fountain out in front of Worthington Enterprises. And he had his arm around Cordelia.
Oh wow.
“Mom,” she yelled through a bite of cereal.
“I’m downstairs, hun,” her mother yelled back.
“Cordelia’s on TV,” Jess tried.
“I’ll be up in a few minutes, I can’t really hear you.”
Figured.
On television, Peter was speaking in that fake way he had. She’d heard it about a billion times on the answering machine when he was asking Cordelia to come in early.
“First, I would like to say how terrifying it was to be attacked in broad daylight. The criminals in this town are becoming more brazen, Patricia, as too many citizens are already aware, first-hand. These criminals think they own the streets. Well, guess what? The streets belong to the good people of Glacier City, and they deserve to be able to walk them without fear. Whether it’s the old breed of criminal, or the new.
“The increase in crime has even inspired some sort of vigilante. This is not what Glacier City needs. We need law enforcement on the streets to protect us. Officers we can trust Not another hothead who thinks he is above the law.
That means the police, Glacier City’s finest. In order to help the police do their job, I’m meeting with the mayor today, to ask him to set up a tip line citizens can call if they see the vigilante. The police serve and protect us, now we have to help them by getting the vigilante out of the way so they can continue to do their jobs.”
Wow, great idea. Stop the only guy who’s fighting crime and actually getting results.
At least Cordelia looked pretty. She always did, but she had an odd sort of look on her face. Maybe it had something to do with Peter having his arm around her like that.
The scene went back to the news desk. Big Boobs wore a plastered-on expression of concern.
“—particularly in the last few weeks, there have been rampant sightings of the vigilante, whom residents of the Scar have been calling ‘The Ghost’.”
