by LE Barbant
Halogens flickered in the hall like a scary movie. The battle had done more damage to the building’s infrastructure than she realized. She stepped out into a larger room, where desks were separated by cubicles. Rage and years of misplaced anger raced through her veins.
She knew the ensuing moments would change everything.
“Come on, Dobbs. I’m going to find you. Come out now and I’ll finish you fast. It won’t hurt.” Willa paused. “Much.”
Double doors swung open under a red flickering EXIT sign. Five guys in suits charged into the room. In the dim light, Willa could just make out the first two.
Shit, Rizzo’s crew.
Willa dove, taking cover behind a workspace divider. The pop of gunfire filled the air. They sounded more like toys than she expected, which would have made her laugh if it weren’t for the anger boiling in her stomach.
The spell danced in her mouth before she stood. Rolling out into the line of fire, she finished the poem:
“Who falls into the fire shall burn with heat.”
The first two men dove to the side. They had seen her spell-work before and knew what to expect. The three behind them weren’t so fortunate. Fire burst from her hands, plowing through the men like a chariot.
Those still standing kept their heads down. Willa assumed they’d split up, trying to take her on the flank.
Think, Willa.
The fight against the mech suits had taken its toll. She was losing focus, the words of power eluding her. Without the strength to muster a strong enough spell, hand-to-hand combat was her only option. But the guns made it difficult. She decided to move right, hoping to take one of them by surprise.
She turned the corner, right into the business end of a sawed-off shotgun.
“Don’t move. And if I hear even a whisper coming from you I blow your damn head off.”
Willa stared back at the man. A smile slowly crept across her face.
“You think this is cute?” the man asked. “Dobbs wants you alive, but I’ll cut you in half if—”
A scaly hand cut off the goon in mid-speech. His double-barrel dropped from his hand and landed with a clatter.
A pale, vaguely reptilian creature jerked back the man’s head by the hair. Yellow jagged teeth sunk into his jugular.
Blood spewed everywhere as his body convulsed.
When the man’s legs stopped kicking, the monster looked up, giving Willa a horror-story smile. Blood ran down her neck and onto her chest.
“Thanks,” Willa said.
“My pleasure,” the creature replied, a harsh gurgle rolling off her tongue.
“You must be Rita.”
She ignored her. “I’ll take care of the other one. You find our mayor.”
****
Dobbs was waiting for her in Robert Vinton’s office. Nothing had been moved since the man’s death. It was a memorial—either to Vinton’s life or the fast pace of the election cycle. Thick drapes were drawn, blocking out nearly any trace of natural light. The green shade of the desk lamp was directed at the door, causing Willa to squint upon entrance. The Mayor sat behind the glare, a gun trained on the magician.
“You guys and your guns,” Willa said.
Dobbs laughed. “Not all of us our blessed with your…skills. We’re going to finish this on my terms. I imagine after today I won’t be dealing with the Weil family any longer. Unless, of course, your father gets some kind of revenge lust too. But he doesn’t seem like the type. Hell, maybe we’ll just neutralize him anyway. Cleaner that way, really.”
Willa’s eyes narrowed. The thought of her father in danger pushed her over the edge.
Mayor Dobbs scanned the room, taking in the office of his former Chief of Staff. “I don’t get why people can’t understand how the world works.” He tilted the gun, pointing it around the room. “This, all of this, is the reality of the system. We do what needs to be done because others won’t. The political grind has been ugly since the beginning—but it’s worked. That’s what it means to be a civil servant—keep the nastiest shit behind closed doors. You’re a poet. Here are some lines for you: ‘Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are.’ They are their own kind of magic.”
“Machiavelli died of disappointment months after the people rejected him.” Willa sneered. “You can only kill so many before people start to notice.”
“Now, that’s exactly right. I mean, one can’t be a serial killer and survive in the spotlight. One life here, one life there, that’s the method. The news cycle moves too quickly for anyone to be concerned for very long. But you and your friends, you’ve made an impression that’s sure to last.”
Dobbs leaned casually against the desk. He seemed entirely unconcerned with the carnage he’d unleashed just outside his office.
“I’ve followed your story, Willa. We’ve kept an eye on you for a long time. Even looked into that kid that was killed. What was his name? Sam?”
“Sean,” Willa said through clenched teeth.
“Sure. Whatever. See, no one remembers.”
Dobbs laughed. “Now, Kinnard, that little shit, he’s caused some trouble. People actually have started to believe his pipe dreams, but he’s got no sense of reality. Pittsburgh is a cold, hard place, and it takes someone just as tough to run it. Don’t you think?”
Willa stood motionless, ignoring the rhetorical question.
She looked for an angle.
He continued. “Something needed to wake this city up. Thankfully, you and your freak friends gave me just what I needed. Actually, maybe it’s the chemist who was my true partner in crime. That serum of his sure took care of a lot of my problems. Like your grandfather, for instance…”
Willa moved to step forward but Dobbs raised his gun, locking her in place.
“Come now, he was old and washed up anyway. His little group, the Vox Populi—what horseshit. His death was of little consequence to this city. But when people started talking about monsters, I thought, ‘Now there is something that might just hold their attention.’“
“I think a murderous mayor will hold it even better.”
“Maybe,” Dobbs said. “But I imagine things aren’t going to end that way. If my warriors don’t finish off your friends, the Rizzo crew will. Not to mention that with one phone call, I could have City Hall surrounded by the National Guard and every officer in the city. You kids might have a few tricks, but I have the real power.”
“You won’t get away with it.”
Dobbs laughed. “How cliché. Not only will I get away with it, but tomorrow, as I stand on the steps outside of this building with an arm in a brace, I’ll tell the story about how the monsters broke in. How a private security detail took them down and saved my life. Your fish friend doesn’t have the luxury of hiding her true nature. When I wheel her out in front of the public, my poll numbers will rise faster than a cock in a strip club.”
“You’re repulsive.”
“I know.” The Mayor grinned. “But it doesn’t really matter, does it?”
Willa’s mind raced. Her limitations were strict. If she were built like Elijah, maybe she’d be able to take the bullet. But not being able to move or speak was a problem. She wondered how good a shot Dobbs was. If she could just get to some cover she might stand a chance.
“Good people won’t go away,” she said.
“Good people?” He laughed. “Is that what you teach your students? The white knight is the real urban legend here. Are you good, Professor? You’re out for justice? If I gave you a chance, you’d gut me right here on my desk. I dare say due process isn’t your first priority. What about your chemist friend? You think his work is for the people? No, people aren’t good. They’re just too weak to take what they want.” Dobbs waved around Vinton’s office. “Take Bobby, for instance. Now he had potential. That guy knew how to get stuff done, and I could count on him. But then he turned against us. Maybe it was conscience or fear of getting caught up in our web. I bet it was something
else.”
“What’s that?”
“Opportunity. We’re all motivated by it, my dear. When I hired him, I knew I only had so long. Bobby was a hound dog who had caught a scent and nothing was going to stop that son of a bitch. But Vinton’s will to power gave me a perfect chance to increase my own. My ‘monsters’ beat him to a pulp and turned the whole thing around. Damn, that was good. Knocked it out of the park with Vinton’s death.”
A smile spread across Willa’s face. “Nothing like grabbing an opportunity when it presents itself.”
“Like low-hanging fruit,” the Mayor replied. “See, you get it.”
“That photo. Is that his family?” Willa nodded toward a spot on the bookshelf over Dobbs’ shoulder.
As he turned to look at the nonexistent photograph, Willa dove for cover behind a love seat. The distraction worked, but not as well as she’d hoped.
The snap of gunfire and the smell of powder filled the room.
Willa hit the ground.
Opportunity presented itself and she took it—along with a .40 caliber slug in the shoulder.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Tim dropped next to the mechanized soldier. Salty tears mixed with blood on his cheeks. Her face was dark from the sun of the South, but red blisters had boiled up, as if the sun had taken its toll.
Her pupils dilated, as they looked at him.
“Ferocia Fatum Fugant,” she said, coughing at the effort.
Her face grew pale as its lifeblood drained. Paler than Tim Ford had ever seen it.
“Anna. I’m so sorry.”
The edges of her lips turned up just slightly. “Why do you think I didn’t kill you? That day. Back in the streets.” Her breathing was sporadic; the words came out in a stutter. “I didn’t think it would come to this, Tim. I didn’t sign up to fight you. You know, just making a buck.”
Tim pounded his thighs as he sat with his butt on his heels. “Why? Why did you do this?”
“We’ve done this for years, me and you. It’s the job, Tim. Don’t ask questions. Just do the job.” Her voice trailed off. Anna’s hand reached for Tim’s face but fell short. Her eyes became hollow. Then they stared toward nothing.
“Don’t leave me.” Tim Ford wiped tears from his cheeks with the back of his hands. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”
He watched her and waited.
But there was nothing.
“Come back. Come back to me.”
Tim Ford threw his body on hers. But he and the woman he had always loved were separated by more than just a suit of metal armor.
CHAPTER FORTY
Elijah’s head pounded like he’d spent the week in Tijuana.
His molten form had fallen off of him, leaving behind his frail, damaged body. Fighting the tech soldier had taken its toll, another reminder that he wasn’t impervious to attacks. If it hadn’t been for Tim, he’d have been crushed.
He walked through the office, observing the bloodbath that Willa and Rita had left behind. The quiet of the building sent chills through his still warm body.
A sweater lay draped across the back of an office chair. He wrapped it around his lower body, a poor attempt at covering his nakedness.
I’ve got to get Chem to make me some flame resistant, stretchy pants.
Voices, hardly audible, came from an office down the hall. Elijah hoped his friends would be among the living.
The strobe of flickering lights pushed the jackhammer in his head into overtime. Elijah prayed the fighting was over. He didn’t have much left in the tank.
The feeling of being the metal monster in shape and size but the historian in every other way was bizarre. Strength and confidence came with the power. But now, his normal self, with all of its fear and insecurities, could barely move.
The thought of Willa in trouble urged him on.
A faint voice came from behind the door marked Robert Vinton. He gently pushed it open. Mayor Dobbs sat propped up against a towering bookshelf. Although his chin was high, the man looked barely conscious. A thin trickle of scarlet blood seeped from the side of his mouth.
Willa stood over him. She was nearly unrecognizable. Raged adorned her face. It had taken her over. The twisted face of the once-gentle poet snarled down on the broken man.
“I’ve been thinking about you,” Willa said, “ever since I learned the truth about my mother. You were just an idea at first, a concept I could direct my hatred towards. But now, that vision has a face and a name. Both of them will be struck from the record of the living today.”
Elijah stood breathless. The image of Brooke Alarawn kneeling on Van Pelt’s chest came rushing over him. He had pleaded with her not to kill him, but it was, in the end, an impossible request.
It was happening all over again.
His mouth opened to speak, but the words got lost along the way.
The Mayor’s eyes grew wide. He laughed. “Do it. What are you waiting for? I’m not afraid to die.”
Willa’s eyes narrowed.
“And this will only solidify my dream.” Dobbs coughed; drops of blood spewed onto Willa’s legs. “Monsters killed the man trying to stop the monsters? How perfectly poetic, eh, Professor? This will only drive the one who comes after me harder. Make him stronger. Do it.”
The man was playing a game he had engaged in since early in life. It was his final move for survival. The historian realized the man’s insults were a last-ditch effort to save his life. It was tired reverse psychology, but deep down, Elijah hoped the gambit would work.
“Come on, you bitch. You’re just like your mother.”
Wrong move, Elijah thought.
“Willa, no,” he screamed into the room.
The words interrupted her. She turned; her face softened at his presence and then contorted into confusion.
“You don’t want to do this. You don’t want to be like her. Brooke also thought she was fighting for justice. But in the end, she was just a monster, lost in her own bloodlust.”
Willa furrowed her brow.
Elijah prayed he could win her, that he might just keep her hands from being bloodied with the guilty man’s life.
“You’re right, Elijah. You’re always right, aren’t you?”
A smile crossed her face, but it wasn’t her own.
The maniacal grin was alien.
Shit.
The Mayor’s shoulders dropped as he relaxed. He had taken the magician’s bait, fallen for her deceptive move. And Elijah knew she would enjoy the surprise ending all the more because of it.
Willa kicked Dobbs in the face. “But as this piece of shit knows, right isn’t always the best path.”
The man reach up and held his nose. Fear filled his eyes.
Willa’s face was granite.
“No!” the historian shouted. But her lips started to move.
“’The charge is old’?—As old as Cain – as fresh as yesterday;
Old as the Ten Commandments – have ye talked those laws away?
If words are words, or death is death, or powder sends the ball,
You spoke the words that sped the shot – the curse be on you all.”
A woman screamed somewhere behind Elijah, her voice washing out Dobbs’ final cries.
But Elijah barely heard her.
Willa’s words drowned out all else.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
Chem stared through the oculars of the microscope, trying to make sense of the odd results. To say that this sample of Tim Ford’s blood was different from the one taken just before the fight would be an understatement.
The compound inside of him had broken down entirely. Chem lifted his head and sighed. In one form or another, he had been working on this cocktail for over two years. It had taken manifold iterations, but he thought that, with the magician’s aid, he had finally accomplished what he had set out to do.
Part of him despised her magic and what it was able to accomplish in the lab, but mostly he had been pleased that his li
fe work was taking shape—even if that shape resembled a juiced-up superkiller. But strength and speed were only part of his goal. The healing affects were also profound. When Tim leapt off his table, seemingly unfazed by the bloody beating he had received just hours before, Chem saw true power.
But now, as the compound receded, a downward spiral of physical deterioration had taken over Ford’s battered frame.
The man looked like hell.
Tim sat behind Chem on the discarded love seat, likely left behind by a resident from the 70s. Ford’s pain was palpable; his uncharacteristic silence set a weird vibe over the lab. The chemist wasn’t sure if his brooding was caused by the chemical changes occurring in his bloodstream, or if the impetus had a simpler solution.
Tim Ford had just killed his old friend and occasional lover.
It was a perfect storm.
Chem considered asking about Anna, but his social skills met their limit just beyond small talk and dick jokes. Grief counseling certainly wouldn’t make it onto his curriculum vitae.
“How are you feeling?” Chem asked, not taking his eyes off the microscope.
“I’ve never felt worse,” Tim groaned.
“Physically, I mean.”
The basement smelled like mildew, more so now after a few days of rain. How do I work in these conditions?
“Yeah. That’s what I meant,” Tim said. “After you juiced me up with that stuff, I felt like a million bucks. I could do nearly anything. And…well…I did.”
Chem turned and watched Ford’s eyes fall on his knees.
“Yeah, man. Um, sorry about that. It’s terrible.”
Tim laughed, which caught Chem off guard. “She was a soldier for hire. I did it for years too. Anna was just trying to make bank. Anyone working for Blackbow knows they’re doing some shady business. None of us are dumb. The other night, I did what I had to, but I just can’t believe she’s gone. Thought about talking her out of the company. You know, try to get her to go legit.”
Chem sighed; the therapy session made him uneasy.
“Yeah. You did what was right. You didn’t know.” Chem paused, assuming he had said enough. “So, tell me more about how you feel.”
