“I’ve tried texting. He won’t answer. Maybe we should check on him.”
Brendan’s phone pulsed. A text from Tina read, “Where r u?”
“Restaurant. Heading to lab.”
“Be there soon.”
“It’s Tina,” Brendan said. “She’s back.”
“Is she okay? Will she be angry?”
“Probably. You’ve got some making up to do. She’ll milk it for all it’s worth. But I’ve got something for us to work on that will put you back in my good graces. I’ll need your help in the lab.”
Vlad nodded. “Of course. But maybe you should get some rest. I didn’t want to say anything, but you look messed up. I’ll make sure I’m free tomorrow.”
“No. We go now. I want to start this right away.”
23. Fatal Crush
It felt like a tap had been turned on in his mind and the ideas flowed. Knowing what part to add was instinctive, and having Vlad there almost slowed him down. It was clear to him now that the meat and water he’d had upstream hadn’t just affected muscle and tissue, but brainpower.
They kept only a few lights on in the lab and the blinds were drawn. If security came around, they would have to look closely to see the two students working during the hours leading to curfew. Vlad was flagging and looked tired but didn’t complain. He had stopped asking questions an hour before.
The skeleton of a wired glove rested on a stand. Brendan was attaching what he hoped would be the power unit. It would work, he was certain. He would be hours if not days from anything close to completion, but he had seen the guts of Charlotte’s glove enough that he could recreate it, and with a few improvements.
A screwdriver fell out of Vlad’s fingers.
“Be more careful!” Brendan said a little too loudly.
Vlad mumbled an apology.
“I’m sorry,” Brendan said. “It’s been a long haul, and I’m testy. I just wanted to get this done while I can. Before it all wears off.” He wasn’t sure if he wanted it to wear off. Was he willing to lose the extra strength and other abilities for good? Was losing control of his temper a side effect?
Vlad nodded. “It’s all right. I can always find you some coffee.”
“No. Maybe we should think about quitting.”
There came a knock at the window. Both Brendan and Vlad jumped, ready to clear the project into a drawer if they had to flee.
“Open up,” they heard Tina say.
Brendan opened the window. She had a gauze wrap around her head and some smaller bandages on her neck and face.
“Go around to the front door,” he said.
“Just give me a hand.”
He pulled her up inside and closed the window.
“What’s up, traitor,” she said once she saw Vlad.
Vlad stumbled through a greeting mixed with an apology, but she put a hand up for him to be quiet. She leaned on the workbench to get a good look at the glove.
“Emulating your girlfriend, I see,” Tina said.
“Don’t be jealous, and yes, that’s exactly what I’m doing. Why should she have all the fun? At least I hope to understand how or why it works. But what I really want to be able to do is have a way to send people home. She says she’s working on one, but I’m not waiting on her.”
“Sounds like a good idea. We could start with sending her home.” Tina nodded at the glove. “Does she even know about this?”
Brendan shook his head.
“We’re gambling that she’s too busy to bother coming to the lab,” Vlad said.
Tina’s withering glare cowed Vlad back into silence.
“And where’s the other traitor?” Tina asked.
“Soren’s not answering Vlad’s messages.”
Tina got her phone out and sent a message. She waited a moment, then tapped her phone and held it to her ear. “It rang once and stopped. He’s blocking me. Why would he block me? We’re in crisis mode.” She zipped up her sweatshirt. “You guys coming?”
***
Soren wasn’t in his room.
Tina had been stopped by the dorm monitor, who reminded them that curfew was in twenty minutes and that girls weren’t allowed above the first floor. Brendan and Vlad had gone up to the room. No one answered, and the room was silent. They checked the rooftop next to see if Soren was on his telescope. A couple of boys were vaping there, but neither had seen Soren.
Tina texted. “Friend from bball says Soren’s in front of girl’s dorm 2. Lucille sighting. Get down here now.”
“Lucille made it back,” Brendan said as he and Vlad headed for the elevator. “You going to be okay?”
“I’ll be fine. If I do anything weird, you have my permission to slap me as hard you can.”
“Maybe we should give Tina the job.”
They jogged across the courtyard. A growing group of students had gathered in front of the dorm. A security guard stood behind a wheelchair, where Lucille sat with a blanket over her legs. Tina hadn’t waited, and she stood on the fringes of the students. Some of the boys and girls were bending over Lucille and giving her hugs. A few were openly weeping. Soren was among them.
A teary-eyed girl grabbed Brendan’s sleeve. “Did you hear? Paul Williams died.”
Lucille saw Brendan and pointed in his direction. The security guard pushed her closer. She appeared cleaned up, composed, and had changed her clothes. Her makeup was perfect. Some others, including Soren, followed along. He didn’t make eye contact with anyone.
“I’m sorry about Paul,” Brendan said. “How are you?”
“Bumps and bruises mostly,” Lucille said. “I heard you had an accident.”
Brendan nodded and gestured with his braced wrist. “Skateboarding.”
“Paul and I were hiking. He insisted on showing off. He fell.”
“While hiking,” he said with disbelief. He had a hundred questions but there were too many people nearby. How many has she charmed to make her story stick?
“They’re going to make an announcement tomorrow. There’ll be a memorial Wednesday after school.”
He waited for more, but she was finished talking. Her gaze lingered on his face for only a second more. But he saw it. The same appetite he had. She was stronger and wanted more.
The others edged him out, upperclassmen and even some faculty, all waiting their turn to offer condolences and support. Brendan tried to get Soren’s attention, but the boy kept his distance and he never looked over.
Tina pulled Soren away from the crowd and ignored him when he tried to twist away from her.
“Soren, come here and talk to us.”
“Leave me alone!” he shouted.
This caught the attention of most everyone nearby. Tina let him go. He edged through the crowd and made it to Lucille’s side. When he put his hand on her shoulder, Lucille grasped it. A look of relief flooded over Soren, as if he’d been freezing and had stepped into a warm bath. Through her mask of grief Brendan saw Lucille smile ever so slightly. The security guard pushed her into the dorm and the crowd followed.
“She gets something out of it,” Brendan said softly.
“Duh. Who wouldn’t? She’s got some magic mojo. Why, oh why couldn’t Torben have brought her over to the downstream Earth so I could have punched her lights out?”
“Because then she might be dead. This is too much power for anyone, for any of us. Torben might have been a regular person at some point.”
“I don’t think so. I saw his tattoos. I doubt he was an upstanding citizen to start out with.”
Vlad nudged Brendan. “Why did she never get to you?”
Brendan thought about it. “I won’t pretend that I think I’m immune. She’s the prettiest girl in school, no offense,” he said to Tina. “But from the moment I first saw her, right off I filed her away as someone who would be too cool and popular to bother with someone like me. I never gave her a second thought.”
“So I’m sloppy seconds,” Tina said.
“That doesn’t
mean what you think,” Vlad said.
“Shut up, traitor.”
“You guys know what I mean,” Brendan said. “There’s the perfect people and there’s people like us. She’s one of the perfect people. My mom could always pick them out. She would call a girl like Lucille a winter girl and say that I was a summer boy. We would never go well together, so why bother?”
“Was your mom trying to set you up with one of your cousins or something when she said that?”
Brendan laughed. “Yeah.”
“What’s my flaw then?” Vlad asked. “How did she get her hooks in me? Does that mean I’m holding on to some crush that she can exploit?”
“Pretty much, lover boy,” Tina said.
24. Breaking Eggs
Brendan was getting undressed for bed when his phone pinged with an incoming call from an unknown caller. He had spoken with his mother for thirty minutes after he reached his room, repeatedly reassuring her that he was all right. Now he was sore and tired, and wanted nothing more than to experience a few hours of sleep. He almost let the call go to voicemail but on a whim he picked up.
“I heard you had an accident,” his father’s voice said.
“Dad. Heard it from who?”
“Your mom. After I last saw you I sent her a text just to let her know we visited and that I thought you were doing well. I gave her a number so she could leave a message if anything came up.”
“Took a tumble skateboarding. Stupid, too fast, broke my wrist.”
“Wrists heal. It’s your head you’ve got to be careful about.”
Brendan felt the old irritation rise, but he kept it in check. Who’s he to lecture me on sensible activities?
“I’m glad you called,” he said. “I’ve got a favor to ask. Remember that ring I gave you? I need to get it back.”
Brendan realized just how tired he was when he found himself actually considering his dad’s suggestion to just overnight ship the ring to Brendan. If it really was a key to some vault with the tools to stop an invading gang of upstream Earth supers from facerolling his world, it would make for a sad epitaph if it was lost in a misdelivery.
“Sorry, Dad. I’m going to have to come get it from you.”
“I won’t have a lot of time, but I’m not far. It’ll be good to see you. How about Wednesday?”
Brendan had to check his phone to confirm his suspicion that it was Monday evening. Wednesday would have to do. He agreed to the time and said good night, then lay down to try to get some sleep. He had school the next day.
***
“So you’re really going to see him again?” Tina asked.
Brendan nodded. His jaw tightened as he tried to concentrate on the glove’s small circuitry. He found it difficult to get the perfect grip on both test probes of his multimeter with his wrist in its brace. Vlad put his hand out for Brendan to give him the probes, but Brendan shook his head. He was guessing he had another bad transistor that would need to be replaced.
“I’m going to go and pick up a few more packs of supers cards. Maybe your dad will be on one of them. But it doesn’t matter. I’ll get him to sign them all. I can’t wait.”
“It’s just going to be a handoff. Briefer than last time.”
Vlad let out a laugh. “Maybe you should let them have a few minutes together without you going all fangirl bonzo over him and attracting attention. It’s called a secret identity for a reason.”
“You’re just jealous,” Tina said. “You didn’t get to meet him. I did.” She plopped down on a stool and stared at the glove as they worked. “So if you’re just going to give Charlotte the ring, why bother with this?”
“The ring isn’t much use to anyone right now,” Brendan said. “If Charlotte can’t get back to Not-Earth, we’ll be in our current situation for a while. We’ll need to defend ourselves.”
“What’s the point of sending people downstream from us? That just passes the problem down the line to the poor saps living on the next Earth over. The headmaster there isn’t a douche. It’s the new model glove we need, and it sounds like Charlotte is the one that has to build it.”
“I know. But I want to understand her tech for myself. Building a copy of her original is my best way to do that. Maybe there’s another way to use this that we haven’t thought of.”
“If you get it to work, you can make more.”
“I guess so. If we can use it as a weapon and if Torben tries to return with friends, we’ll need to.”
“I know that. But we can also have something to show the police. Or the government. Or whoever is out there investigating the L.A. disaster. If we can demonstrate what this technology can do, we can hand the problem off to people who can really handle it.”
Brendan put the probes down and looked at her.
Tina studied him. “But you’re not going to any time soon.”
“Look what contact with the other Earth did to Lucille. I know I wanted more. Maybe I still do. What about you? How’s it going to work if some government goon trips across worlds and feels what we feel? Do you really think anyone we give it to will just do the right thing?”
They were silent for a while.
“It would be just trading one problem for another,” Vlad said, “and making more problems for the rest of us. We have a responsibility.”
Tina nodded. Brendan picked up his tools and went back to work.
***
Brendan’s dad pulled in front of the Bean early the next morning. Brendan had been waiting thirty minutes, and he swirled coffee remnants inside his paper cup. Tina had her head down on one of the tables but perked up when the purring car motor cut out in front of the shop.
Myron Reece got out of the long two-seater sports car and walked through the door. A couple of other patrons gave him a look before returning to their devices and coffee. Myron had on the nicest suit Brendan had ever seen his father wear, a lavender-hued three-piece that looked freshly pressed. His shoes shined a glossy black and were adorned with large faux-gold buckles. The car looked new too, and doubly expensive for still running on gasoline.
Brendan got up and hugged his dad. Tina waited her turn and also got a hug. They sat.
“Coffee, sir?” Champ called over.
Myron shook his head.
“That other job did okay,” Brendan said, looking his dad over. Myron had rings on both hands, and a lapel pin sparkled with brilliant red stones.
Myron offered a humble shrug but couldn’t contain a growing smile.
“Does that get you close to your goal of changing careers?”
“Not quite. But I’ll be in Vegas for a while. I have a couple of leads on opportunities I’ll call safe bets. So tell me about what happened to you kids. I heard it was an exciting weekend.”
Brendan had prepared the story and kept it simple. He told him he didn’t want to talk about the skateboarding mishap because it was embarrassing. He then mentioned the hiking accident and the death of a sophomore named Paul. The school had a service planned that afternoon. Brendan left out that the story was untrue, and that the boy hadn’t even been born on their world. The real Paul was alive but unreachable.
“It was a real tragedy,” Brendan said. “Seemed like a stand-up guy, even though I didn’t really know him.”
Myron appeared distracted. He pulled out his phone and checked it. “Well, let me give you your ring back.” He handed over a small box. Brendan opened it and saw the headmaster’s ring inside.
“Not sure what all the fuss is over,” Myron said. “Is this some sort of initiation deal? Do they have fraternities? Skull and Bones kind of thing? Sigmund Kappa something? Might be a good way to make contacts for the future.”
“Something like that. It’s a bit of a hassle, so I’ll probably not join.”
“I’ll say. Look, if you want to see me, just say so. No reason to make up stuff or come up with an excuse. Like I said, I’m close. I just don’t want to crowd you. Unfortunately though, this morning I’m in a time crunch
. I’ve got a meet to make.”
They got up. Tina had her hand on her bag, where she had stashed a dozen supers cards purchased from a nearby 7-Eleven, but Brendan shook his head. She took the hint. Myron gave Brendan another hug and headed out. The car let out a thrumming rumble as it started. With a final wave, Myron drove off.
“You okay?” Tina asked.
Brendan nodded. “I wasn’t expecting anything different. At least he showed up.”
“Yeah. But next time I’m getting my signatures. I don’t care how weird it makes it for you.”
Brendan took a last look at the ring before sliding it into his pocket.
***
Brendan rang the doorbell to the headmaster’s home. It was a few minutes past one in the afternoon. He was missing class, but it was the only way he could see Charlotte without Tina following. Seeing the house unburned and with its windows intact felt strange, as if the past few day had all been a movie and someone had rewound the film. Footsteps came downstairs, and Charlotte opened the door and let him in.
The bruising on her face was blue and yellow, but she wasn’t wearing any bandages.
“How goes recovery?” she asked.
“It would probably help if I got more sleep.”
“There’s a lot to think about.”
Brendan looked around and peered upstairs. “Anyone else home?”
She shook her head and led him into the kitchen. The counter space alone was three times larger than that of his mom’s apartment. It looked so clean, as if no one had ever used a knife on the butcher block or spilled maple syrup on the floor or burned a ham and cheese sandwich.
“Hungry?”
“Sure.”
She set a pan on the stove and got out eggs and cheddar cheese. She broke the eggs in a bowl, paused to recover a piece of shell, and beat the eggs. Some butter went into the pan, followed by the eggs and then some grated cheddar. She put bread in a toaster that had an absurd number of dials. “This is about the only thing I’ve figured out that my mom used to make.”
The Supervillain High Boxed Set: Books One - Three of the Supervillain High Series Page 43
