by Dunne, Lexie
“Maybe we could throw him in Detmer with all of the other supervillains?” Naomi said. “Though, given how easy it is to escape from there, and how bad he has it out for you . . .”
“We aren’t justice. We just save the day,” Guy said though he looked like he wanted to agree with Naomi.
“All right.” Angélica climbed back to her feet. “Let’s go beat his ass, then. He can’t take all of us.”
“Excuse me?” Guy said. “You’re not going anywhere.”
Angélica made a noise like an incorrect buzzer at a game show. “Try again.”
“You can barely take two steps without running into a wall. In this state, you’re more of a liability than a help. You need to stay home and rest. Trust me,” Guy said. “We’ll have plenty of people to take out Cooper.”
“That asshole killed me. I am not staying home like some—”
“As helpful as this superhero posturing isn’t,” Naomi said, cutting off my former trainer, “it’s not exactly coming up with a plan, is it?”
A plan.
I unfolded myself abruptly, sitting up and tilting my head.
“Oh-ho,” Naomi said, pointing at me. “Gail’s got idea-face. This is going to be good.”
It really wasn’t, I thought, as my brain whirled. Unformed bits and pieces that had been sitting at the edges of my mind began to take shape into something that vaguely resembled a plan—if you squinted or were very drunk. “Raptor told me,” I started to say. I paused and licked my lips. My throat was dry. “Raptor told me that I need a plan, and redundancies. And she’s right. I saw Cooper earlier. The acid didn’t kill him, but it hurt him. And when Raptor gassed him, I heard him coughing. It affected him, and I didn’t even realize until now that that’s weird.”
“He overcame it, though,” Angélica said, a frown line appearing between her eyebrows.
“He did,” I said. “Maybe there’s a brief window in time where something will affect him, or maybe he evolves like I do, but either way, I’ve got an idea. Somebody call Kiki. We’re going to need a doctor.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
It didn’t take much research to figure out where Cooper was holding Brook hostage. After all, he’d already made such outrageous demands, it figured that he likely didn’t want to throw any more roadblocks up against my meeting them. In the end, it wasn’t me we should have worried about.
It was Guy.
“I haven’t been back here,” he said, not looking up from the steering wheel of the van I’d borrowed from Jessica Davenport (who had not been surprised to receive my “just in case” phone call almost right away). His jaw was clenched so tightly that I was suffering from a sympathetic tension headache. I couldn’t be sure if it was because he really didn’t like the plan or if the area was affecting him. Either way, I stayed quiet. “Not since the explosion—and I didn’t even want to be here that night in the first place. It just figures he would pick this place. Why is he such a bastard?”
“I’m gonna guess ‘dropped on his head as a baby,’ since any other answer makes me feel depressed about humanity in general,” I said.
It surprised a small smile out of Guy. He looked through the windshield and down the road. We couldn’t actually see the abandoned cement factory, since it was over half a mile away. But that didn’t matter. Not only had Cooper kidnapped Brook, the woman he’d been experimenting on for years, but he was now holding her hostage at the same factory where the Bookmans had received their superpowers. The genesis of it all, as it were. It was such a grandiosely cruel thing to do that I had to wonder why I hadn’t immediately pegged him as a supervillain upon our first meeting. You’d think his cologne would have given him away or something.
“You going to be able to handle it?” I asked Guy.
He nodded. “I’ve been through worse. Hell, I’ve been through worse just today. Coming back to Mobius’s house and finding you gone, that wasn’t fun.”
It hadn’t been fun for me, either, but I didn’t say that. I only reached out and grabbed his hand. The texture of his glove was familiar against my palm. He was back in his Blaze gear again, and I could openly admit that I felt a sense of relief to see him in the green and black once more.
“It’s not too late to escape to that beach resort and get away from all of this,” I said, mustering up a smile I didn’t feel.
“And let all our friends have all of the fun without us?” he asked.
“Good point. They would be lost without us.”
“You realize we can hear you two jerks,” Naomi said in our ears.
Guy and I winced as one. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who had forgotten we were both wearing earbuds.
“Your flirting is also completely sad,” Naomi went on.
“I don’t know.” Vicki was whispering, which made sense as she was already in place. She, Jeremy, and Kiki were already in the building. “They’re kind of adorable, don’t you think? In a G-rated sort of way. Hey, are you two going to get it on now that that Gail’s no longer a jailbird? Curious third parties want to know.”
“Vicki,” Guy said.
“Quit talking, Burroughs,” Naomi said. She had set up camp over two miles away, in another one of Raptor’s vehicles. It looked like a bakery delivery van, but it was lined with monitors. I could just picture her inside, typing away at one of the twelve keyboards. “You’ll give your position away.”
“Fine.” I heard Vicki let out a huff of breath before she clicked off.
Guy tapped his ear to turn his microphone off. “Whoops,” he said. “That could have gotten embarrassing rather quickly. Gail—”
“I’m not going to change my mind,” I said, stopping him before he made the same protest he’d made three times on the way over. The clock was running out. There simply wasn’t time to come up with a new plan. “I’m doing this whether you like it or not. It’s easier for all of us if you just get on board.”
“And if he shoots you on sight?”
“I’ll duck,” I said with a confidence I didn’t feel. “You and Vicki will be there to look out for me. I’m not worried about it.”
“That makes one of us.”
“Don’t let him shoot me, then,” I said. “Otherwise, we’re never making it to that island.”
He squeezed my hand. “You’re very into this island idea.”
“I just really want a vacation.” We didn’t have much time left, and I didn’t want to spend it rehashing a point that neither of us was going to back down over. I slid closer to him and kissed him. He didn’t even tense up in surprise this time, which was a step forward, though he did pull back more quickly than I would have liked. I gave him a questioning look. “What?”
“I’m not taking you to a tropical island for our first date,” he said.
I started laughing. “What? Why not?”
“Because at some point, I will need to top that date, and like I said, you’re very set on this island idea. So let’s work up to it. Maybe start with dinner and a movie?”
“Deal. And—oh, she’s back.” I jerked my head at him to pull down his mask.
With a sigh, he obeyed. “Time to go.”
Portia appeared right next to the passenger-side door with an annoyed look on her face. The first time she’d done that, after transporting Vicki into the abandoned factory, it had made all of us jump. By now, I was completely used to it. “Last trip,” she said, looking considerably harassed. “This is why I never told you about what I can do, by the way. For precisely this reason. This is so gross.”
“Saving the day is gross?” I asked Portia, as Guy climbed out of the van and gave me one last look. Even with the mask on, I knew his expression. He wouldn’t talk in front of Portia, though. Jeremy had worn a ski mask before we’d met up with Portia beforehand, just to keep Blaze’s identity safe. She hadn’t even appeared to notice when we
skipped him in the introductions.
Portia rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean,” she said. When Guy scooped her up the same way he’d carried me away during countless rescues, they both vanished, and I was left alone with the van.
I clicked my mic back on and tried to ignore the fact that my hands were shaking. “Last package on its way,” I said. “Putting five minutes on the clock to let Portia get out of there safely.”
They were the longest five minutes of my life, as only Naomi was able to talk. Everybody else was already hidden away in various parts of the factory. A single noise from any of them could bring the entire plan crashing down. We’d used Portia to sneak them inside without being seen. She hadn’t promised to stick around for the actual fighting, which was understandable, but it looked like I was going to be doing a lot of work in PowerPoint when this was all over.
The clock finally hit zero. I took a deep breath and started the engine. “Here goes nothing,” I said. “Good luck, everybody. And if I don’t see any of you again—”
“Oh, don’t even start with the bravado talk,” Naomi said. “Just shut up and drive.”
I grumbled wordlessly at her. It took every bit of courage I had to stop the van in front of the factory. The building was tall and squarish, several stories in height. It looked like it was built out of concrete cylinders and sheet metal, weirdly enough. Everything was dusty and dirty in a neglected way, though some teenagers had halfheartedly scrawled graffiti over one of the walls. Several smokestacks stretched high.
I stepped over the uneven gravel, grimacing as it gave way under my feet. Some of the rocks underfoot were the size of softballs. Just walking on them dislodged them. Great. Cooper had picked a place where I’d never have my footing. At least I had the body armor Jessica had insisted I use. The material was some kind of next-gen fabric that hugged my figure but would apparently deflect bullets. I really, really had no desire to test it.
“Hello?” I called, clutching the brown paper package Kiki had given me. “Anybody in here?”
“This way,” Cooper called. It was barely noon, but when I stepped inside, gloom immediately descended. The building was little more than concrete framework and open levels. I looked around, memorizing as much detail as I could, before I turned in the direction of his voice.
I didn’t have to fake the way my teeth chattered. This was where Guy had gotten his powers. This was where it had all started for him. I could see the damage from the explosion, the way the back half of the building was blown out, the scorch marks covering what few concrete posts remained. Through cracks in the wall, I could see the sky. It didn’t cut through the dimness at all.
When I stepped around a half-decimated wall, I saw them: Cooper, standing behind Brook, who was definitely no longer unconscious. She was tied up, though, her hands shoved together so that her palms faced each other. Smart. The only person she could zap that way was herself. She was also bolted to the floor with one of the thickest chains I had ever seen. “Nice place. Cozy. You’re just trying to hit all of the supervillain clichés, aren’t you?”
Cooper lazily raised his gun. “I thought you’d appreciate the ambiance. Surprised you actually listened to me and came alone. That was foolish.”
I raised my hands over my head. “I brought the journals, just like you asked. Now it’s your turn. Let Brook go.”
Brook’s eyes widened at her real name. So did Cooper’s.
“Yes, I know who she is,” I said. “And I think you’ve done enough to her. Take the notebooks and go. It’s not going to take Davenport long to catch you. Might as well enjoy what time you do have.”
“I should have just killed you, perfect subject or not,” Cooper said, shaking his head. Brook narrowed her eyes at me, like she was trying to figure me out. “That’s the last time I let my curiosity get in the way of my common sense.”
He thumbed the safety off. In slow motion, I saw him move his aim from my Kevlar-protected chest to my head.
There was a crack of a gunshot in the air, but something hit me and knocked me to the side. I landed and automatically rolled.
When I looked up, Sam Bookman stood between Cooper and me, out of costume and furious.
The Bookman brothers shared some features: the same patrician nose, the shape of their faces. But Sam was solid and broad where Guy was slim. And his hair was the color of straw rather than fire. Either way, though, I’d seen the same fury on Guy’s face that I saw on Sam’s now. Or at least, I saw the fury for a split second, before Sam launched himself into flight and straight for Cooper.
The floors rattled as Cooper was thrown back into the wall behind him.
“What was that?” somebody asked over the earpieces.
“Plan A going straight to hell,” I said. “Sam’s here!”
“Gail, get out of there!” Guy said over the comms.
Cooper launched himself away from the wall and tackled Sam into a pillar, hard enough that it cracked. Brook and I, both frozen in our respective spots, flinched. “But Brook—”
“I’ll get her! Go!” I heard a crashing noise behind me that must have been him emerging from his hiding place. Right as I turned to get the hell out of there, a flash of green and yellow at the edge of my vision made me stop. I turned back around. Brook’s face was screwed up in concentration and hatred. A halo of green-yellow light so bright that it hurt my eyes glowed around her hands. I could see red-hot stress points forming in the metal chains around her wrists.
“Oh, that’s not good,” I said, and Brook’s handcuffs exploded. “Guys, she’s loose.”
And pissed, judging by the way she immediately turned and flew right into the melee. It wasn’t Cooper she aimed for, but Sam, a primal scream of rage bursting out of her.
“Guy, Vicki, now would be a good time to intervene,” I said. What the hell was taking so long?
I scrambled to my feet and took off right as two streaks blurred right by me, one black, the other green: Guy and Vicki arriving to save the day. Or maybe just Sam. My own part of the plan was to provide backup for Jeremy and Kiki. I tucked the notebooks under my arm and scrambled over the uneven ground.
“Cut a left,” Naomi said, nearly making me miss my step.
I bit down on the yelp and obeyed. As I ran, I had to battle down annoyance. Our plan was admittedly so flimsy, one solid breath could knock it over, but Sam’s showing up out of some misguided sense of responsibility for an ex-girlfriend who wanted to kill him just really blew everything to hell. I understood a great deal more about Kiki’s aggravation with superheroes who punched first and asked questions never.
“How’s everything going?” I asked, wincing as the ground shook under my feet. This place didn’t look like it could stand much more structural damage. “Is everything in place?”
“Getting there,” Naomi said. “Make a right and go up the stairs.”
“This place is a lot twistier than I expected,” I said as I made the right turn. “Are we sure they’re going to be able to lure him all this way?”
“Why do you think the others took so long to get to you?”
I reached the top of the steps and finally spotted my friends. Angélica, arms crossed over her chest and tension evident in every line, glared down into the open pit of rocks and garbage below. Jeremy was plugging something into a generator, and Kiki had scaled the tiny control room overlooking what had probably been the main production floor of the factory. Now it was just a little room that gave a bird’s-eye view of the place—and even better, was a small, enclosed space. As I waved to Angélica and raced across the catwalk to the control room, Kiki looked up. She’d been threading a hose into the control room through a hole cut in the wall.
“He doesn’t know we’re here, does he?” she asked right away.
Out of all of us, she had the most reason to fear Cooper. She’d been the one closest to him.
/> And she was the bait.
“Not yet,” I said. “How’s everybody do—”
“Uh,” Naomi said over the comms.
Jeremy stopped, still crouched over the generator. “Uh?” he asked for all of us.
“I just checked the camera Vicki put up outside. There are men in SWAT gear out there, and they’re heading for you, not for Cooper and the others.”
“Oh, good.” Angélica tilted her head, popped her neck, and pushed her shoulders back. “I was worried this was all a little too easy. Cooper must’ve called on backup from Lodi.”
I looked at Kiki and Jeremy. “You two keep working. Angélica—”
“Hey, you don’t give the orders here,” she said, laughing. She gave me an imperious look and gestured. Though I was taking my life in my hands, I climbed up onto her back, clinging tightly as she scaled the railing. She launched both of us into the air and, in the blink of an eye, we were on the ground.
Which was a good thing: less than twenty seconds later, the enemy began to swarm in.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
If they wanted to catch anybody off guard, they shouldn’t have picked the woman who’d survived two encounters with the Raptor in a very short amount of time. I charged for the first soldier through the door, clotheslining him with a sweep of my arm. It knocked him back into the man behind him. He didn’t have time to react before I yanked the pull tab on the flashbang on the front of his vest, midspin. I completed the spin by kicking him in the chest and sprinted away as he landed on two of his buddies.
The flashbang took out the three of them.
To my left, Angélica ran at another one of the men. She disappeared, reappeared behind him, and took her opponent down without missing a beat.
A commando stormed in through a broken-out window behind me. I knocked away the muzzle of his rifle, grinding my teeth at the volume as he fired several times. I grabbed the gun, kicked the man in the knee, and yanked the gun free as he fell. When his buddy jumped in behind him, I swung the weapon like a baseball bat.
