Tina was right; they needed to watch her.
He waited outside the humanities building and studied the few passing students and school staff. Were there others besides Poser and Paul who had been swapped with doubles? No one paid him any mind. He checked the time. Tina wasn’t there yet, but he didn’t feel like waiting.
The headmaster’s temporary new office was in a classroom. It was a Spartan affair compared to his old digs, a single space he shared with his assistant and his secretary. The headmaster stayed seated as he spoke with a student who looked like he had just run in from the track, judging by his tank top, running shorts, and shoes. The headmaster looked better since being rescued from Not-Earth. His skin looked less pale and his cheeks were no longer sunken. Still, this man’s eyes didn’t carry the same fire as the other headmaster’s. Perhaps they never had. It was as if their own headmaster was cut from the poorer extremities of the same cloth.
“Good morning, Mr. Garza,” the secretary said. The woman behind the desk had a wooden face that barely moved when she smiled. Her small eyes appeared large behind her thick glasses. Perhaps the woman was partially blind. Had she not noticed when the headmaster had been kidnapped and replaced?
“I need to talk to him,” Brendan said.
“I’ll see if we can slip you in. Have a seat.”
Tina came inside the office and sat next to Brendan without saying a word. She was sweating and breathing heavily. She was going through basketball tryouts, so perhaps she had been working out. He liked it when she sat so close to him. They waited. A pair of students entered who had appointments. The secretary had them sit and told them it would be just another minute.
Brendan had his backpack in his lap and he gripped and twisted at one of the loop handles. Tina put her hand on his and patted it. He took a deep breath and tried to calm down.
“Mr. Garza. Ms. Collins,” the headmaster said.
The other two students and the secretary looked up at him as he escorted Brendan and Tina across the room to his desk.
“I have just a few minutes. How may I be of service?”
Both Tina and Brendan tried to speak at the same time. Brendan said, “We needed security last night at the admin building. Only one guard arrived. Someone was inside.”
“I read the report. It was a false alarm. Two students unlocked one of the windows and got in. They were given a warning.”
“That’s not the point. What if it had been him coming back?”
The headmaster nodded solemnly. “Mr. Garza, I appreciate your zeal in this matter. We have the building under our own surveillance, and our security staff is committed to preventing another incident. But we mustn’t overreact to non-emergencies.”
“This was a little more than an incident!” Tina kept nudging him as he spoke, but he ignored her. “At least two of your students and two of your security staff are still missing. You were kidnapped and had to be rescued. The police have yet to be informed of any of this. They know about the men attacking the campus, but what else have you told them?”
A placid smile crossed the headmaster’s face. “The investigation is ongoing.”
Brendan started to stand, but Tina’s nails dug into his arm.
“We’re concerned that you’re not taking this seriously enough,” Tina said. “We’ve been keeping watch on the building, and we don’t see much in the way of security helping out. I know there’s been a few false alarms, but maybe if security showed its face more often, we wouldn’t feel the need to spend every night guarding the place.”
“Your commitment is commendable. I’m still in your debt for bringing me back here. I’ve reached out to a contact within the FBI who might have some insights. I was going to let you know once he and I met. But we do have cameras set on the building. The footage is monitored around the clock by both security and state-of-the-art surveillance software. In the meantime, I encourage you to get rest, focus on schoolwork, and leave it in the school’s hands. If my counterpart were still a threat, I wouldn’t be able in good conscience to allow students to continue with their normal activity.”
Brendan was at a loss for words.
“Thank you,” Tina said. “Please keep us informed as to what your investigation finds. We’re deeply concerned about our missing friends. The adjustment to our world has been difficult for the new Poser—Brian O’Neil—and we’re worried about him too.”
“I’ll speak with the nurse and have her call on Mr. O’Neil.”
“Thank you,” she said warmly.
It was clear that the headmaster had nothing more to say. They got up and he escorted them to the door.
As they walked out of the building and towards the student restaurant, Brendan was fuming. “If security has the place so buttoned up, how did two students sneak into the building?”
“I know,” Tina said. “But blowing up in there won’t help anything.”
He tried to unclench his jaw. She was right. “Sorry about earlier,” he muttered.
“Don’t worry about it.”
They each filled a tray with food. Brendan grabbed a sandwich and an apple, while Tina piled a plate with pasta salad, grilled vegetables, chicken-sage sausage links, and a few apple-walnut crostinis. Her eating habits didn’t faze him anymore, but he still marveled at the amount of food she was preparing to polish off.
“So Charlotte was a no-show,” Tina said.
“I sent her a message. She wanted to be here every time I talk to the headmaster.”
Tina held her fork in her hand and considered her plate with the keen eye of a mountaineer deciding where to begin her route of ascent. “We need to check on her,” she said. “Make sure she’s okay. See what she’s up to.”
Brendan took a bite of his sandwich. The turkey, sweet pickle, and mustard were in perfect proportion. The bread had been baked that morning.
“I can do it if you have things to do,” he said.
“And have you get all huffy and play the martyr again? I think not.”
She took an emphatic bite of her crostini, and he knew the discussion was over until after lunch.
4. Neighborhood Watch
Tina and Brendan walked the residential streets of Dutchman Springs, taking in the well-decorated front yards and tasteful single-family homes of the middle-class neighborhoods closest to the school. The properties got bigger the further east they traveled. More gates sequestered homes from the street. The houses now had second floors, their upper windows peering out over the walls at the passersby. Gardeners were busy with their leaf blowers, and they passed several pairs of moms with children in strollers. A private swim club was having some sort of event, and announcements from its PA system echoed through the trees. The parks they passed were full of kids playing.
“I never saw the headmaster leave for home,” Tina said. “I didn’t even think he lived in town.”
“Ours lives here. I don’t think the fake one ever left the admin building, but went back to his own world to sleep.”
“Well, I hope our Sperry didn’t have pets that needed feeding.”
Charlotte had given Brendan the headmaster’s address when she had agreed to move in there, but he had never been invited to see the place. Every time he and Charlotte met it had been on campus. The house was near the end of a cul-de-sac. Tall hedges and a pair of palm trees lined the street side of the property. The two-floor home was covered with cream-colored stucco and had red shingle tiles on the roof.
Brendan rang the doorbell. After waiting for a moment, he knocked.
“Oh well,” Tina said after no one answered. “Nice afternoon for a walk.”
Brendan plopped down his pack and took out a drone.
Tina did a quick shoulder check. “What are you doing?”
“We have good cover here. I just want to take a look.”
“It would be less conspicuous to just break in.”
He started the drone and sent it flying. The loud vibrating hum reminded him of a weed whacker. The
machine flew to each upstairs window and looked inside, and got a view of the backyard, most of which had been made into a rock garden featuring an ornamental Japanese bridge. The screen showed a sparsely furnished home, the furniture large and dark. It was all extremely tidy, as if the place were a museum. He wondered how people managed to live without making any kind of mess. He reasoned that housecleaners figured into the equation. Some sort of maintenance staff would also explain how the house hadn’t fallen into neglect while the real headmaster had been kidnapped.
Tina shifted around uncomfortably. “You also realize that if Charlotte is home, it makes you look really creepy.”
“I’m just confirming that’s she’s not here. It’s possible her phone is dead or she forgot it. But if something happened to her, I need to know.”
A silver SUV coasted past, heading up the court.
“Someone saw us,” Tina said. “We’re loitering.”
“If they just glanced at us, they only see two kids at the front door. They don’t know what we’re doing. That’s not illegal.”
“How many tools do you have with you that might be classified as burglar tools? That plus drone equals possible B and E. Didn’t they teach you anything during your bad-boy days?”
“Almost done.” He had the drone finish its loop. It landed on the porch in front of him.
Tina was peering through the glass top of the door. “Looks quiet inside. Can we go?”
He stuffed the drone away and they left. A woman stood behind the SUV, which was now parked in a driveway two houses up. She was on the phone. They walked quickly down to the corner and then broke into a run.
Tina was laughing by the time they made it to a pedestrian walkway that connected to a parallel street. Their spot was relatively hidden from any passing cars. They paused while Brendan caught his breath.
“What’s so funny?” he asked.
“Feels good to do something crazy. We work too much.”
His phone pulsed. He saw a message from Charlotte.
“Charlotte wants to know if I already saw the headmaster.”
Tina stopped him before he could type a reply. “Have her meet you at the Bean.”
“Why?”
“Because we’re going to follow her.”
They walked there. The fall afternoon still held some heat, and both Brendan and Tina were sweating by the time they made it to the coffee shop. Only two tables were occupied, and Champ was nowhere to be seen. The TV was off. A sappy pop duet played over the sound system, but the volume was low.
At one table sat Paul’s double and an overmuscled boy named Tyler. Brendan had had a single run-in with him. Tyler knew Brendan’s father was Drone King and he claimed Silver Eagle was his father. Both of their dads had tangled before, with Drone King winning the last fight before getting shot by a police sniper. Silver Eagle was one of the few supers to survive the bomb blast in New York’s financial district. Brendan was unsure if what he saw in the boy’s eyes was bravado or a real threat.
Tyler and Paul whispered to one another as Brendan and Tina entered.
Brendan hesitated, not wanting a confrontation, not wanting to retreat. He saw Charlotte sitting alone at the table underneath the television. Neither of the two boys said anything as they passed their table, but Brendan felt their eyes burning into the back of his head. His right hand curled into a fist. As Brendan tucked his pack under his chair, both boys got up from their table. Their chairs screeched on the tile. Brendan readied himself for anything, but the two left without a word.
“I’ve never seen them here before,” he said.
“I wouldn’t worry about them,” Charlotte said. “They’re harmless.”
Her hoodie was balled up on top of her backpack on the seat next to her. She had a glass of iced coffee, white with cream, in front of her. The sunlight pouring in through the front of the shop made her green eyes look yellow.
“Thanks for meeting here instead of on campus,” she said.
Tina poured two cups of water and put a bill in the tip jar. She joined them at the table and gave Brendan a cup.
“Haven’t seen you around,” Brendan said. He saw dark lines under her eyes.
“I’ve been busy. I know you’ve been keeping an eye on the building. I’m sorry I missed your meeting with Sperry. I wanted to be there. How did it go?”
“He’s distracted. It seems the more days pass, the less concerned he is with figuring out how to get Brian and Paul back. Someone broke into the building last night, and security only sends one person over. He says he’s investigating, getting help maybe. Said something about a contact at the FBI. I have no read on him to know if he’s lying.”
“What have you been up to?” Tina asked.
“Working,” Charlotte said. “Seeing if we can make some sort of detector to leave in place inside the admin building. That way we’ll have an alarm if the door to Not-Earth gets switched on. That will relieve you of having to keep watch.”
“That would be nice,” Brendan said.
“And Sperry has been talking to someone. They’ve come to the house at night and have been on campus. Really low-key. I don’t know if they’re FBI or what. With the L.A. disaster, just about every science and law-enforcement agency has ongoing investigations, even some from other countries, the U.N., and a bunch of universities. It was only a matter of time before someone came looking here.”
“They’ve been by while you were home?”
“I’ve seen them come over. They’ve been on campus too.”
Tina frowned. “Could be anybody.”
“Maybe,” Charlotte said. “But they’re interested in the admin building. They haven’t gone in there yet from what I saw. Could be nothing, but I’m keeping an eye out. I’ll see if I can get some information from Sperry.”
“What’s it like staying with him?” Tina asked. “Is he home much?”
Brendan nudged Tina under the table, but she showed no reaction.
“No, not much,” Charlotte said. “Works a lot, in his office at home after hours, on the phone with parents of students. If he’s working in a secret lab after hours, I couldn’t see when he would manage.”
“And what about you?”
Another nudge. This time Tina moved her chair away from Brendan.
“I think you know my secrets already. Brendan still has the ring. I’ve told you what I’m working on. And believe it or not, I’m actually going to class. Sperry came through with my ID. I’m a real person now in your world. Won’t get far if I can’t get a high school diploma.”
“You’ll have to excuse Tina her paranoia,” Brendan said.
Tina shot him with a look of unconcealed disbelief. “It’s not paranoia, and I’m not just speaking for myself. You said it yourself, Charlotte. You made another portal knowing that your father destroyed Los Angeles. You can say you have the math right all you want, but this isn’t something anyone would trust to a fifteen-year-old girl.”
Charlotte gave Tina a hard look. “I understand where you’re coming from. I feel the same way about my father’s twin here. The man has the same mind and makeup, and I’m just waiting for the cracks to show. I know your trust has to be earned. You and Brendan put everything on the line to stop my father, and I’ll always be grateful.”
Champ came out of the back and eyeballed his patrons. “Anyone need anything? No? Just holler.” And he vanished. The music made an abrupt genre change, and now it sounded like a Muppet with laryngitis was crooning along with an electrified string ensemble.
“Tell me about the sensor,” Brendan said.
“It’s like a seismometer. Pretty basic, really. I’ve printed the parts I couldn’t find, and I’m adding a thermometer since his gate kicks out so much thermal variation. It should be easy to put this in and have it signal when anything happens.”
“Sounds great. But what about how when the gate opens? If phone signals get blocked, won’t that interfere with the sensor signal?”
“Hmm.
Good point. I’ll add a subroutine to the software that will send an alert if the connection gets interrupted. Won’t be hard. We’ll know the moment it gets disconnected.”
“What can I do?”
“Nothing, really. Unless you want to give me back my father’s ring. It would be easier if I had it to program the sensor.”
“You’ll have to manage without it.” Brendan yawned.
“Looks like we all need some rest. I’m almost finished. I’ll bring it tomorrow, and we can set it up.”
***
They watched Charlotte leave. Tina got up and pulled Brendan from his chair. Once outside, they saw her heading up the alley towards the street. The Bean was located behind a pet food outlet. At the front corner of the store, they saw Paul and Tyler waiting. Brendan grabbed Tina’s arm and they ducked back by a fence. He got low and peeked. The two boys were on the move, falling in behind Charlotte and following her as she crossed the street.
“Does she see them?” Tina said.
“She’d be blind if she didn’t.”
They hurried to catch up. A car honked at Brendan as they rushed across the street in front of it. Brendan ignored the driver’s gestures.
Charlotte and the two boys were heading away from campus. It quickly became evident they weren’t walking in the direction of the headmaster’s home.
“Getting our exercise for the day,” Tina said.
“You’re the one who wanted to get off campus.”
Their new route took them along a street near the hyperloop. The raised white track was the tallest structure in town, dominating much of the west side. The soft hum of passing pods occasionally filled the air, but aside from a distant barking dog and some street traffic, Dutchman Springs was quiet. Soon they passed through the commercial district and were once again among residential homes, these ones much more modest than those on the other side of town. All were single level and many of the garages would only hold one car. When Brendan saw Paul and Tyler stop, he and Tina ducked behind a parked van. The two boys lingered near the front of a house, then sat down on the curb.
The Supervillain High Boxed Set: Books One - Three of the Supervillain High Series Page 26
