Blaze of Glory

by Sheryl Nantus

  I couldn’t help smiling. “Glad I’m making a pain in the ass of myself.”

  “Oh, yes. You will be. Or you are. I’m never quite sure how to say these things. One of the problems with being a precog, it all gets messed up.” Pushing the walker to one side, she pursed her lips, the faint hint of lipstick still on the faded skin. “So, I guess you want to know a few things.”

  “I guess.” My mind was a total blank, all of the questions I had so meticulously prepared gone in a haze of confusion and battle fatigue. Mike would be furious.

  She cocked her head to one side as if listening to something or someone and smiled. “You’ve got a few minutes to spare for me then?”

  “You’re one of the reasons we came here. Well, that and shutting down the plugs. Not that you didn’t know that already. I mean, about me. And the plugs,” I stammered, suddenly very self-aware. “I guess I have to ask you, I mean, what was, I think, ah…” My mind was more scrambled than a dozen dropped eggs.

  She reached over and patted one gloved hand. “I have that effect on people. Not as dramatic as May, but still it tends to make people unfocused. So let me make this easier for you.” Jenny placed her hands in her lap and sat up ramrod straight. “You’ll win over enemies. You’ll lose some allies. And someone you care about is going to die.”

  I moved closer, my voice an angry whisper. “Can you be a bit more specific?” A stabbing pain began behind my left eye, signaling the onset of yet another migraine.

  The woman leaned forward until our foreheads were touching, her cool skin a startling contrast to my own. “Do you want me to be?”

  Chapter Eleven

  “I’d like it.” I felt as if I’d fallen down the rabbit hole yet again.

  Jenny bent away from me, wincing as she settled back into the chair. “These things aren’t really built for comfort. Those sneaky salesmen may say so, but it’s not true. Always something to get you to shell out the cash without giving you anything of value. And then it breaks if you turn the wrong way or push it too hard.” Her deep blue eyes met mine again. “Sorry, I tend to babble.”

  “Understandable under the circumstances.” I squeaked like a teenage boy on his first date.

  “We’ve found the room.” May’s voice intruded on the surreal scene, the link transmitting the words from underneath us. “Mr. Limox is doing his thing with the burning and the fire and stuff.”

  A series of lights flashed on and off on a panel near us, and a siren went off somewhere in the distance in short, measured beeps and bursts of panic. Jenny smiled. “That’s the backup system they just destroyed. Just to be sure.”

  “Just to be sure,” I echoed her, a low buzzing in the back of my mind. Maybe it was May being nervous, maybe not—but it wasn’t helping at all. I tried to sound casual. “So, who dies?”

  She let out a soft giggle, so faint I thought I had imagined it for a second. “I can’t tell you that. Those are the rules.”

  Now at this point I have to confess that I have always tried to be polite, sometimes to the point of excess. My mother raised me to say please, thank you and to be nice no matter what the circumstances. Heck, she taught me which fork to use in case I was ever invited to have tea with the Queen.

  She was probably cursing me in Heaven when I jumped to my feet, screaming at the old lady in front of me.

  “What the fuck are you jerking me around for? I’m trying to save you, May and all the other supers out there from getting their damned heads blown off, not to mention stop an alien invasion, and you’re jacking me off with some story about rules?” The sweat on my forehead started trickling down my nose, causing it to itch something horrible. “I don’t care about the rules—the rules are what got me into this mess. Got all of us into this mess.” The static began building both in my head and in my hands as I roared at the top of my lungs. “You’re the one who got us fucked up, telling the Agency where to find us.”

  Jenny didn’t move an inch, just sat and watched me. I slumped to the ground, kneeling not far from her chair, the tears pouring down my face and mixing with the sweat. I looked up at her, my voice almost gone. “What do I need to do?”

  “What you’re doing is what you’re going to do.” She smiled as if I hadn’t had a nervous breakdown right in front of her. “And Mike would be proud of you.”

  It was like a string snapped inside of me, releasing all that anger and pain that had been forced into a small box. Mike, the fight, everything. I buried my face in my hands, feeling the waves cover me like a warm blanket.

  “I did screw up.” The small voice came to me from a long way away. “I didn’t think it would happen for years yet. Plenty of time to train you, get you ready. Maybe even a second generation.” A note of sadness crept into the words. “It would have been nice to see children here. Not those teenagers who figure they know it all. Young ’uns.” She sighed. “I could tell you I’ve felt every death, every scream and moan of those who’ve died. But that doesn’t matter now, does it?”

  I shook my head, afraid to open my eyes.

  “What you’re doing is exactly what the Agency hoped would happen—a super taking charge. Declaring their independence and throwing off the chains of slavery we forced you into. They just didn’t think it’d happen for years and years yet. Give you all a chance to really become comfortable with what and who you are. Maybe even get married and see if the powers passed down to your children.” Her voice took on a dreamy tone. “That would be something to see.”

  “How did all this get started?” It shouldn’t have been a priority in my mind, but it was. “How the hell did we get here?”

  The white-haired senior rocked from side to side, a pained look on her face. “I could lie to you, but there’s no time for that.” She paused for a second before continuing. “It was about ten years ago. My husband, Harry, and I were driving back from our anniversary dinner. We didn’t drink at all, we worried about driving drunk.” She let out a sigh. “Unfortunately the fellow who smashed into us wasn’t so considerate. I woke up a widow. And I could tell the nurses what they had to worry about, which patients were likely to code in the next day or so. That’s when the government got involved.”

  “And they created the Agency.” I exhaled the words.

  “And they created the Agency,” Jenny repeated. “But don’t be too hard on them, dear…I told them about the attacks and they freaked, for loss of a better word.”

  “Hrmph,” I snorted. “So you told them where to find us, all of us?”

  “One by one.” She nodded. “There’s other precogs, of course, all around the world. And the governments all had the same problem, how to recruit you supers to the cause without causing a worldwide panic or having you refuse. It wasn’t really an option.”

  “Whatever.” I waved my hand in the air, cutting her off. “Tell me about the aliens. Tell me something I need to know now.” I sniffled, still wrapped in my cocoon.

  “You’re right—they’re here to fight us. They’re all…as you would say, fucked up as well. Go to Pittsburgh and save the city and you’ll see what I’m talking about.”

  “Jo?” Hunter’s voice intruded, soft and low. “We’re on our way back up. Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine.” Pushing myself to my feet, I groaned. Mentally and physically, I was a wreck. I stared at the old woman still sitting in her chair. “Tell May to be ready to send another psychic blast out if we need it. We’re cutting it close with these guards, and I don’t really want to keep knocking them out unless we have to.”

  “Right. Be there in a minute. Tell Jenny to get ready to leave.”

  She gave a sharp shake of her head, one hand reaching for her walker. “Thank you, but no thanks.” Her finger tapped the side of her face. “I have a destiny as well.”

  “But you can’t stay here.” I glanced around the room, the monitors now spraying gibberish in row on row of code. “They’ll blame you for all this. They’ll know you helped us. And I don’t know how kindly the
y’re going to take to anything right now. Besides, we could use you.”

  “I’m sure you could.” The white-haired woman grinned. “But that’s not what happens.”

  “I wish you’d pick a tense and stick with it.”

  “Me too, dear.” She laughed, moving out of the chair and back to the walker, shuffling her feet along the floor. “Me too.”

  Following her into the dimly lit corridor, I watched her slowly walk away from me. “I don’t understand.”

  “That computer bay you just destroyed? That’s also the self-destruct sequence.” Jenny turned to face me. “Don’t blame Hunter, he didn’t know. You’ve got about five minutes to evacuate.”

  “Five minutes!” Limox appeared behind me, breathless and red in the face. “It’ll take us longer than that to get out of here.”

  “Guess you better figure something out, then.” She winked at me then made her way down the hallway.

  “What’s with the fruitcake?” he growled as May and Hunter came through the stairwell door.

  “Nothing. Everything.” I studied my gloves, seeing the charge emanating off them. “Limox, get on my back and grab that harness, wrap it up over your forearms and keep your hands free. Same with you two. Get in close and grab on.”

  “What are you going to do?” Hunter grabbed my right hand as May clutched at my left, a worried look marring the usually peaceful face.

  “Rocket out of here.” I glanced over at the woman disappearing into the distance with her slow gait. “Limox, get those hands over my head and give it all you’ve got.”

  “Roger.” The firm voice coincided with a burst of heat, so hot I swore I smelled hair burning. I felt him press up against my back—a feeling that would usually have me kicking back like a mad mule, but right now there was nothing about it other than business. “We’re going up, straight up, and there’s no do-overs.”

  “May, curl up here.” Hunter stood in front of me and wrapped his arms around my waist. Opening up one hand, he pulled May in closer, a grim smile on his face. “Keep your head down.”

  “Ready,” Meltdown announced with a confidence I didn’t know he had.

  We rose slowly at first until his palms hit the ceiling above us, dissolving the thin panels and thrusting up into the concrete layer.

  “Go!” he screamed in my ear. “Go, go, go!”

  We shot through the remaining floors as if they weren’t even there, the melted metal and cement falling around us in chunks and hunks, rebar screaming as the metal shattered. One spar came dangerously close to dinging May in the head, prompting her to burrow even closer into Hunter’s chest. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t envy her just a wee bit.

  We exploded through the top of the barn just as the detonation started, the heat singeing the bottom of my sneakers as we kept rising into the air. Finally I got enough control to turn and burn for an empty field not too far from where we had crashed originally, spiraling around to land much like a helicopter would.

  Limox gave out a moan as we settled, unwrapping his arms from the harness. “Thanks for the ride, dear, but next time—let’s take our clothes off.”

  I felt too good at our escaping certain death to slap him. Right then, at least. Instead I busied myself with extracting May from the death grip she had on both me and Hunter. Prying her free from my left hand, I helped Hunter pull himself away. His thick turtleneck sweater was dotted with minute tears where her nails had gone through to bare skin.

  The sound of sirens rose in the distance, near the farm. Hunter nodded. “That’s not good. Usually the Agency doesn’t like to have outsiders anywhere near the property, even if it’s on fire.”

  “Well, ain’t no one left alive to complain now, is there?” Limox crossed his arms, looking a bit too smug and more like the supervillain he had portrayed.

  “Except for the innocents.” I forced the whirlwind of emotions going around in my mind back into the box. “They didn’t deserve to die.”

  May nodded, burying her face in Hunter’s shoulder.

  “Let’s take a minute to get it together and then we’ve got to get back to base.” The sun was beginning to peak over our heads. “Hopefully we’ve got reinforcements back home.”

  “Because…” Limox prompted, shaking his arms in the air.

  “Because we’re going to Pittsburgh next. And kicking alien butt.” I rolled my shoulders, pulling energy from the ground. “We’re not going to let them win.”

  The flight back was quiet, more from exhaustion than from a lack of things to say. Limox kept silent as he maintained a healthy distance from me. May mumbled to herself, but stayed calm. Hunter said nothing, sneaking glances at May every now and then. We managed to get back to Toronto without my stomach announcing another midair crisis, which was just as well. I didn’t think I could deal with anything else.

  Unfortunately we couldn’t take advantage of the darkness so I had to bring us in low and fast, so much so that we skimmed the water on the way in, landing not too far from where I had originally washed up on the lakeshore. May laughed, shaking the water from her pant legs while Limox grumbled about sand in his shoes, and I wondered yet again what I was going to do to save Pittsburgh. Not that it wasn’t a nice city and all, but most of the Alphas had died in New York City, and here I was about to take this crew into battle. The Agency wouldn’t have even put us on a marquee at third billing.

  “David? Jessie? We’re back on friendly ground.” I looked up into the morning sky. “Everyone safe and sound.”

  “Glad to have you back.” David’s voice was soft and reassuring in my ear. “I assume that mess on the other side of the border was your doing.”

  “Maybe.” I didn’t bother hiding a wide smile, knowing it wouldn’t be seen. “What’s the news calling it?”

  “Meth lab explosion. Sad thing.” His neutral tone continued. “Strange what you’ll find out there in the farmlands.”

  “Horrible.” Walking up the sandy beach, I tapped my ear. “Anyone show up?”

  “Well…sort of.”

  Hunter looked at me, I looked at May and she looked at Limox, who was busy hopping along with one shoe off, trying to knock out the sand.

  “We’ll be there as soon as we can grab a streetcar.” I turned around, trying not to appear sheepish. “Anyone got spare change?”

  The ride back was as quiet as the flight. May slumped against Limox, who didn’t seem to mind her company and kept his hands to himself. Hunter sat next to me.

  “Jenny didn’t have to stay behind,” I said in a quiet whisper so that the two behind us couldn’t hear.

  “But she did.” Hunter scratched his neck. “Remind me to remind May to cut her nails. She’s got a killer grip.”

  “She could have come with us. We could have taken her.” I jostled the harness inside my jacket, the mass of nylon cord hidden from plain view. “We had room for one more. And she was light, no more than a hundred pounds, if that. I could have done it.” A small voice in the back of my mind noted that I was rambling and repeating myself but I didn’t pay attention. “We could have carried her here. She wasn’t that heavy. I would have been fine.”

  “Yep.” He looked at me with deep, sorrowful eyes that startled me. “But she knew it wasn’t supposed to be that way. She knew the way it was supposed to play out.”

  I shook my head. “Don’t you start that crap,” I snapped, not caring if the pair behind us heard. “I’m not in the mood for this sort of shit. If she really wanted to help us, she would have told me how to beat these aliens down and who the fuck was coming to help us.”

  “That’s not how she works. Worked.” Hunter turned away, staring out at the downtown streets as we slowly edged along the tracks. People ran between stopped cars to get to the streetcar doors while others pushed their way off the Red Rocket. “I only met her a few times but she had a way of…of getting inside your mind.”

  “That’s true,” I admitted, giving an inward shiver at the memory. His left leg pushed
against mine suddenly, bringing me around to face him.

  “Do you want me to go to Pittsburgh?”

  “No.” There wasn’t any way to sugarcoat it. “You’re a liability. No offense, but I don’t think I want to put May under the extra pressure of having to worry about you.”

  “Too bad I don’t have a suit like Mike, you mean.” Ouch. He looked out the window, away from me.

  “Hey, there were plenty of Guardians playing sidekicks. Why didn’t you apply?”

  He jerked a thumb back at the woman behind him and lowered his voice. “Do you know how she got into the program?” Not waiting for my response, Hunter continued. “Her husband was terminal, brain cancer. Decided to both go out in a suicide pact, he put the car in the garage and left it running. Carbon monoxide poisoning. Except she didn’t die.” His voice went even lower, down to a whisper. “She woke up able to do what she does, scramble minds. I was the first agent she saw, and she latched onto me like a mother bear on a lost cub. How could I go into battle alongside her and risk breaking her heart again?”

  My mouth opened and closed like I was one of those many goldfish I’d had as a child, at least until the tank turned slimy and green and they’d visited the toilet bowl.

  “So while some of you might like having the Guardians fight beside you, don’t forget there are plenty others who either got killed accidentally, on purpose or just plain old refused to get into the game like me.” He returned his gaze to the window. “Our stop’s coming up.”

  I put my hand atop his as I got to my feet. “I’m sorry. I’m still a little raw here.”

  Hunter nodded. “Mike always thought you had a lot of potential just waiting to come out.”

  We shuffled through the crowd to the back doors, waiting for the streetcar to come to a slow, swaying stop. “Mike said a lot of things,” I replied. “I wish he had said a lot more.”

  “He did care a lot for you, you know,” Hunter said in a low whisper. “He told me so.”