by Lucas Flint
Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I answered the call and said, “Hi, Kyle. Any reason you’re calling me at six in the morning?”
“It’s not six,” said Kyle in a puzzled voice. “It’s eight.”
I blinked several times before looking at my phone’s clock and seeing that Kyle was correct. “Oh, sorry about that. I must have slept in and I have all of the curtains in my room drawn, so it’s practically pitch-black in here at the moment.”
“Yeah, whatever,” said Kyle, who spoke as if he had just drunk ten cups of coffee. “Anyway, I was calling to update you on that eyepiece you gave me. Remember, the one that Baron Glory’s assassin dropped?”
All of a sudden, my drowsiness instantly vanished. I sat up, tossing my blankets off me, and said, “What have you found? Did you find out who made it?”
“Yeah,” said Kyle, who sounded even more excited than me. “According to the documentation in its files, the eyepiece was designed, manufactured, and distributed by Rector Tech, Inc.”
“Rector Tech?” I repeated. I yawned and rubbed my eyes again. “Never heard of them.”
“I hadn’t, either, until I did some research,” said Kyle. “According to what I found, Rector Tech, Inc. is a weapons tech company. They design, manufacture, distribute, and sell highly advanced technological weapons to governments all over the world. They’re based in Washington, D.C., but they have offices all over the country, including three in Texas. I couldn’t find the eyepiece itself on their website, but I did find a video where this Rector Tech engineer shows off a prototype of the eyepiece at some tech show back in twenty-eleven.”
“If they sell weapons to governments, then I doubt you can just go to their website and order their weapons directly from them with two day free shipping,” I said. “Still, this is a very good find, though I’m not sure how this will help me find the assassin.”
“It’s another lead you didn’t have before, at least,” said Kyle. “But that Internet video wasn’t all that I found. I also found this article written four years ago in the Rumsfeld Journal talking about a deal Rector Tech made with the Rumsfeld Police Department to supply them with weapons they could use against supervillains.”
“So?” I said, scratching my back. “I bet Rector Tech probably provides weapons to police departments all over the country for that same reason. That doesn’t seem very notorious to me.”
“That’s not the big part, though,” said Kyle. “The actual big part is that this deal includes weapons for Bug Bite, too.”
I sat up a little straighter when Kyle said that. “Bug Bite?”
“Yeah,” said Kyle. “According to the article, Rector Tech also supplies Bug Bite with all of his high tech gadgetry, like his wrist knives and stuff. It does say that he works personally with Rector Tech’s weapon designers to make sure they design weapons that work for him, but it’s still a really interesting find.”
“I don’t get it,” I said. “I thought that superheroes provided their own equipment.”
“Actually, because superheroes are technically government employees, the city or state they work for is what provides them with weapons and equipment,” said Kyle. “And according to the article I read, Rector Tech provides weaponry and equipment for other superheroes, too, including Baron Glory, apparently.”
I nodded and yawned again. “That’s … I’m not sure what to make of that. It seems like an awfully big coincidence that the assassin used the same tech that Bug Bite and Baron Glory do.”
“It is weird, but there’s only one way to find out for sure,” said Kyle. “Though you can’t buy weapons from Rector Tech’s website, you can do a search for individual parts by typing the serial code into their search bar. It shows you who owns the weapon that the part belonged to.”
“Did you type in the eyepiece’s serial number?” I said.
“No,” said Kyle. “I didn—”
“Then do it,” I said, almost snapped. “And tell me what it shows you.”
“Uh, sorry, Jack, but I can’t do that right now,” said Kyle. “Mom and I are going to the doctor this morning because Mom’s been feeling sick and we’re leaving in a few minutes. I just thought I’d call you and give you a quick update before we left, because I’m not sure when we’re getting back.”
“Can you at least text me the eyepiece’s serial number and Rector Tech’s website URL so I can check it out for myself?” I said. “Because this lead is too big to just ignore for a couple of hours.”
“Okay, okay, okay, I’ll do that,” said Kyle. “I’m sending it to you now. Tell me if you got it.”
I looked at my phone and saw an unopened text message from Kyle titled ‘RECTOR TECH.’ “Yeah, I got it.”
“Great,” said Kyle. “Anyway, Mom is yelling at me to get out of my room, so I’ve got to go. But let me know if you find anything juicy, okay?”
“Sure,” I said. “See you later and hope your Mom feels better.”
I ended the call and opened the text message. I copied the serial number in the text and, opening Rector Tech’s website (where I was greeted by a large banner at the top that read ‘WEAPONS FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY’), pasted the serial number into the search box. I clicked the search button, but their search engine must have been really slow, because it took forever before the screen refreshed and showed me the website’s results.
Only one result showed up on the search, which I clicked to see more information. It opened onto a new page and my eyes immediately fell on the name of the owner of this particular eyepiece at the very top of the page.
I couldn’t believe it. There was no way this could be true. But, unless Kyle gave me the wrong serial number, there was no way I could deny the accuracy of the information displayed before me:
REGISTERED USER: Daniel ‘Bug Bite’ Adams, Rumsfeld, Texas.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
I put a hand over my mouth to keep myself from gasping too loudly, but I didn’t tear my eyes off the page, which had more information than just the name of the device’s registered user:
ACTIVATION DATE: 05/12/18
LAST REPORTED USAGE: 06/25/18.
MORE INFO.
I clicked ‘MORE INFO,’ but the page suddenly put a ‘PLEASE LOGIN TO YOUR ACCOUNT FOR MORE INFORMATION.’ Because I didn’t know what Bug Bite’s email address and password were, I closed the page and lowered my phone, though I didn’t stop staring at the blank screen or thinking about the horrific implications what I just found out.
All of a sudden, TW flashed into existence next to my bed, a grim look on his face. “I overheard your conversation with Kyle. What did you find?”
“I found out that the eyepiece belongs to Bug Bite,” I said without looking at TW. “He activated it in May and the last time it was used was on the date of Baron Glory’s assassination.”
“You mean that that eyepiece actually belonged to Bug Bite himself?” said TW. “Then how did the assassin get his hands on it?”
I looked at TW, unwilling to say what I was going to say next, but I couldn’t keep my mouth shut forever. “Bug Bite gave it to him.”
TW’s eyes widened. “Hold on. Are you implying that Bug Bite killed Baron Glory?”
“Not Bug Bite,” I said, shaking my head. “But I think he hired the assassin to do the dirty deed in his place.”
“What … why would Bug Bite do that?” said TW. “Admittedly, I am not very familiar with Bug Bite, but he always seemed like a genuine superhero to me. There’s no way a superhero would ever hire an assassin to kill another superhero. That doesn’t make sense, especially because Bug Bite and Barn Glory were best friends.”
“I don’t know,” I said. “Bug Bite started the rumors about me being the killer, right? What if he killed Baron Glory in order to smear my reputation and make the people of Rumsfeld distrust me even more than they already do?”
“That seems far-fetched to me, especially given how Baron Glory and Bug Bite were close friends,” said TW. “Surely there
are other ways Bug Bite could have ruined your rep that didn’t require murder?”
“Maybe,” I said. “We don’t have proof that Bug Bite was involved one way or another, but this evidence is damning. And besides, you saw how much Bug Bite hated me last night. He probably would have killed me himself if I hadn’t beaten him.”
“Bug Bite just struck me as a man who cares deeply about the rule of law,” said TW. “I thought he just thought you were another criminal to put behind bars.”
“And isn’t it suspicious how he was waiting in the apartment there for me?” I said. “I know he said something about criminals returning to the scene of the crime, but what if Bug Bite was the criminal returning? Perhaps he returned to clean up any evidence the police may have overlooked that might point to him being the bad guy?”
I could tell that my idea was starting to make sense to TW, but he said, “I’m still not sure. There could be many other explanations for all of this. Perhaps the assassin stole the eyepiece from Bug Bite in an attempt to frame him.”
“Perhaps,” I said doubtfully, “but we won’t know one way or another until we can find more proof, now will we?”
“You are right,” said TW. “But where could we possibly find proof? We can’t go back to the scene of the crime, because that would just risk another confrontation with Bug Bite, but I don’t know where else we can go.”
“Isn’t it obvious?” I said. I gestured at the window above my bed. “We go straight to the source: Bug Bite himself.”
TW’s eyes widened in surprise. “You mean go to his headquarters? Now?”
“Not now,” I said with a yawn. “I just got up and haven’t had breakfast yet. But yes, we should go sometime soon and poke around for a bit, see if we can find any clues that might help us figure out what is going on.”
TW frowned. “I’ve never been to Bug Bite’s headquarters, but I assume they must be heavily defended. How do you plan to break-in?”
I lay back down in my bed, stretching my limbs and yawning once more. “How do I plan to break in? I’m not sure. I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.”
“Come on, now,” said TW. “This isn’t something you can do by half. Bug Bite is an officially-licensed government superhero. If you break into his headquarters and get caught, you could go to jail. It’s not like breaking into that car factory where you fought Lethal Injection a month ago.”
“I know,” I said. “So why don’t you spend a bit more time analyzing Bug Bite’s headquarters and let me know what you find? You can find anything on the Internet if you look hard enough.”
TW scowled. “Why do I have to do it? You’re the one who came up with this harebrained scheme. Perhaps you should do it.”
“Don’t you want to find out for sure whether Bug Bite framed me?” I said. I waved my phone at TW. “This is our only real clue. I mean, I could do the research myself, but I thought Grandfather sent you to help me train for the coming threat to Rumsfeld. I can’t train to save Rumsfeld if you refuse to help me clear my name, after all.”
TW folded his arms across his chest, but then he sighed and said, “You’re right. This is truly our only lead and it would be foolish of us not to follow it on the basis that it seems to lead to absurd conclusions. Even so, I think this is a dangerous idea and I will continue to believe that no matter what happens.”
“Right,” I said. “Why don’t you just go and start analyzing Bug Bite’s base? You can get back to me with your analysis on it after lunch, which should be plenty of time to learn everything you need to know about it.”
TW nodded curtly once and then flashed back into the Watch. For being an artificial intelligence, TW sure could be more emotional than even my own mom. Perhaps it was due to the fact that his program was starting to decay and it was messing with his emotions or something like that.
Regardless, I was glad that this investigation was finally going somewhere, even though I didn’t like where it was going. The idea that Bug Bite, of all people, was behind the assassination of Baron Glory made me sick to my stomach, but all of the evidence pointed to that very conclusion at the moment. Perhaps more evidence would point in a different direction, but somehow I doubted it. I had entered the eyepiece’s serial number and found Bug Bite’s name. The evidence was impossible to ignore.
Of course, I agreed with TW that it didn’t make sense. However much Bug Bite might hate me, I knew that he wasn’t a bad guy. At heart, Bug Bite was a real hero. He’d spent the last ten years defending Rumsfeld from all sorts of criminal and supervillain threats after Grandfather’s disappearance. He could be cold and ruthless, true, but I knew from experience that Bug Bite always directed his energies toward fighting for what was right and protecting the innocent.
But perhaps Bug Bite really did want to kill me. Maybe he was so frustrated with the idea of another superhero operating in Rumsfeld that he was willing to do anything, even break the law, to take me out. I couldn’t imagine what kind of stress he was under from the government to do something about me. Illegal superheroes were considered a big deal to the government, local, state, and federal, and I was sure that they were putting all kinds of pressure on Bug Bite to capture me.
Thinking about this brought my mind back to Marge and her mysterious vision. What did it mean? She surely couldn’t have been telling me the truth. People didn’t get visions of the future in real life like that. It was probably just a really weird dream, that was all.
But maybe not. I thought about how Grandfather had warned Marge about the upcoming threat to Rumsfeld before he disappeared. That was ten years ago, meaning Grandfather was well aware of a threat to the city even before he sent me TW. After we left Marge’s house, I asked TW if he remembered Grandfather telling him about any threat to the city, but TW admitted that he did not remember Grandfather ever mentioning any sort of threat to him and that he was just as surprised as I was to hear that Grandfather had already been aware of a particular threat to Rumsfeld.
“What?” I had said. “But you spent all your time with him. Couldn’t you read his thoughts like you could mine?”
“I could, but Gregory was very good at hiding his thoughts from me when he wanted,” TW had said. “It’s possible he kept his knowledge of this ‘threat’ a secret even from me, though I don’t know for sure.”
My theory was that Grandfather had become aware of Icon much sooner than we originally believed, which was the ‘threat’ he had mentioned to Marge. I didn’t know why Grandfather did not stop Icon ahead of time, but maybe they got him before he could do anything. It fit with Icon’s modus operandi, though it didn’t tell me what Icon was trying to do. Somehow, I doubted that their plans had been foiled with the disbanding of the Injectors last month.
Shaking my head, I tossed my blankets off my legs and was just about to get out of bed when I heard several loud, clear knocks against the door to my room, followed by Uncle Josh’s voice saying, “Hey, Jack, are you awake? Can I come in?”
Startled by Uncle Josh’s knocking, I nonetheless said, in a slightly tired voice, “Yeah, I’m awake. You can come in.”
The door opened and Uncle Josh stepped in. He was still in his own pajamas, a white t-shirt and blue shorts that went down to his knees, but he also held a large cup of steaming coffee in his hands, which probably explained why he was so energetic so early.
“Hey, champ,” said Uncle Josh, waving at me with his other hand. “I was just walking down the hallway back to my room and thought I heard you talking to someone in here.”
“Oh, uh, I was just on the phone with my friend Kyle,” I said quickly. “He was calling me to, er, figure out when we can hang out later today.”
“Kyle, eh?” said Uncle Josh as he sipped his coffee. “I thought it might be your girlfriend, but—”
“I don’t have a girlfriend,” I said.
“You should,” said Uncle Josh, nodding at me. “Girls are fun. Well, as long as you don’t get on their bad side, anyway. And watch out for Mexic
an girls. They’re the worst. Ask me how I know.”
I honestly didn’t want to, so I changed the subject and said, “How’s your construction job going? Do you like it?”
“Eh, it’s okay,” said Uncle Josh with a shrug. “Physical labor isn’t my favorite, but it’s better than sitting around in the house all day playing video games like a lot of kids your age.”
“Sure,” I said. “I need to get a summer job myself, actually, but I haven’t had much luck, unfortunately.”
“Well, you should just ask Walter for a job at the company,” said Uncle Josh. “I’m sure he can have you pick up nails or something like that.”
“Dad told me that the company isn’t hiring at the moment,” I said with a sigh. “At this rate, I’m probably not going to get a job this summer.”
Uncle Josh nodded. “Sure sucks. When I was a kid, I never had any trouble finding summer jobs between school semesters. Wish I could say the same for you.”
“I know,” I said. “But it’s not all bad. I’ve got lots of free time, more free time than if I had a job.”
“Right,” said Uncle Josh. “Anyway, today’s my day off work. I was wondering if you wanted to go fishing with me later today.”
“Fishing?” I said. “Why?”
“Just a way to catch up,” said Uncle Josh with a smile. “The last time I saw you, you were just a baby. Fishing will be a good way for the two of us to catch up.”
I frowned. Uncle Josh’s offer seemed to come out of nowhere, which was why I was hesitant to accept it. On the other hand, Uncle Josh seemed to genuinely want to get to know me better. I still didn’t quite know why Uncle Josh had become estranged from Mom in the first place, but maybe this fishing trip would be my best chance to learn. Besides, it would take TW a while to come up with any information on Bug Bite’s hideout, so why not take some time off from superhero stuff to hang out with my long-lost uncle?
