Maya came from out of nowhere, hurling her slight frame against the hulking musculature of the guard. She rebounded off him with a meaty thwap, but it was enough to throw his shot wide of me. The bullet that would certainly have ended me shattered the front windshield of our van instead. I dropped down and grabbed the lightning gun, coming up in a roll and aiming at the guard all in one smooth, fluid motion. I pulled the trigger, and the gun bucked and discharged a massive bolt of electricity right into the guard. He jittered and shook, dropping his gun and falling off of Miss Typewell. I fired again, wracking his body with thousands of volts.
I walked over and helped Miss Typewell to her feet. Looking down on the prone form of the guard, I spat, “Asshole,” then kicked him hard in the ribs. The guard grunted but stayed down. I reached down and grabbed his gun, flicking the safety on and stuffing it into a coat pocket. “C’mon, we need to get out of here.” Already in the near distance, the sound of police sirens broke through the hubbub of Downtown life.
I found Maya, laying in a bit of a daze on the ground, and helped her up. “Good job, kiddo,” I said. “You saved the day twice today.”
“And it’s not even, uh, noon,” she said with a smile.
“No, it’s not,” I said, returning her smile. “But I still think this calls for a drink in celebration.”
IX.
With Carmen’s data cache in hand, it was time to go visit Dr. Korpanty at Shurburg Chemical. There was just the slight problem that I was still a very wanted man. I couldn’t just walk into the biggest biotech company in the city like it was no big deal.
“I need a disguise,” I mused.
“Groucho glasses?” Miss Typewell suggested.
“No one even understands that meme anymore,” I replied. “No, I need something simple and bland. I want to blend in, not stick out like a gangrenous thumb.”
“I think the old saying is, um, ‘sore thumb,’ sir,” Maya chimed in.
“Is it? That doesn’t sound right,” I said. “Whatever. Regardless, sticking out would be bad.”
“What would be best would be you not even going in there at all,” Vera said.
“How the hell am I supposed to talk to her if I don’t enter the building?” I asked, chaffing at the idea of sitting another mission out.
“We have these nifty communication devices called ‘phones,’” said Ellen helpfully. I gave her the stink eye.
“Okay, fine, I’ll stay here. But I still don’t like being left on the sidelines.”
“I’ll find you a nice bottle of something to smooth things over,” Vera said.
I relented a bit. “Okay. Apology accepted.”
* * *
“This is unacceptable,” I grumbled, holding up the bottle Vera had handed to me.
“Why?”
“It’s sparkling water,” I said. “There’s no alcoholic content to it.”
“No, there’s not,” Vera replied. “This is better for you.”
“I can’t imagine how my prolonged sobriety is better for anyone,” I muttered.
“I find you slightly less insufferable this way,” Vera replied.
We were back in the minivan, sitting in the parking lot of Shurburg Chemical. Maya and Ellen were making their way through the lobby, where Dr. Korpanty was waiting for them. She smiled, and we heard her over the earpiece Miss Typewell was wearing.
“Good afternoon,” Dr. Korpanty said. “I assume you are the Detective’s friends?”
“Yes, that’s us,” Miss Typewell replied. Everyone introduced themselves, then Dr. Korpanty ushered them off down a hallway into a private office. With the door closed, Dr. Korpanty turned to Ellen again.
“Can you hear us, Detective Hazzard?” she asked.
“Loud and clear,” I replied. “Nice to see you again, Doctor.”
“I’d say ‘likewise,’ but…” She grinned.
“Yeah, my friends are all concerned because I’m public enemy #1 and everyone is out to get me right now,” I groaned. “Anyway, what do you have on Gregor Cornwallis?”
Dr. Korpanty frowned. “Not much, I’m afraid,” she said. She pulled up a vid window and handed a datachip to Maya. “This is everything that was available on the general access data files on Mr. Cornwallis. He worked here for about two years, and then he was murdered. Though it’s weird…according to records, someone tried to swipe into the building using his old ID card a couple of years later, but he’d been taken out of the system and the user was rejected.”
I nodded. “That lines up with what he told me,” I said.
“Wait, you spoke with him?” Dr. Korpanty asked. “How? He’s been dead for nearly twenty years!”
“Rumors of his death have been greatly exaggerated,” I said. “Ellen, can you give the doctor the blood sample?” Miss Typewell dug the vial out of her pocket and handed it over to Dr. Korpanty. “Think you can do some DNA analysis on that?” I asked.
“Sure,” she replied. “It’ll take a couple of days, though.”
“That’s fine,” I said. “I’ve got nothing but time on my hands these days.”
Miss Typewell and Maya said goodbye and headed back for the exit. Once outside and making their way back toward the van, Miss Typewell started talking again. “Eddie, I think we’re being followed,” she said.
“Hang on, let us take a quick look.”
Vera scanned the parking lot using Shurburg’s own security cameras. “Looks like you’ve got three tails. They’re wearing suits, not security uniforms.”
“They might work for Esperanza, then,” I said. “Get back here now.” I pulled the lightning gun out of my holster and flipped the safety off. “Get ready to lay down some cover fire,” I told Vera.
She sighed. “We can solve things without violence, you know,” she said.
“We could, but that seems unlikely.” I yanked on the handle and slid the side door of the van open. Maya and Ellen were standing right there, their hands in the air. A few meters away stood three men in nice suits with guns trained on my two employees.
“Ah, the elusive Detective Hazzard,” said the man in the middle. He favored me with a grin. “I thought you would be sitting this little ‘mission’ out.” I could hear the air quotes he dropped around the word “mission” and kinda hated him for it.
“Chief Li,” I said, nodding at him. “I see you’ve traded the private sector for the public sector. Lateral move at best.”
His grin didn’t slip. “And you’ve gone from being a useless private eye to a wanted crime boss. A step up, I’d say.”
I shrugged. “Probably. Pay’s better, at any rate. Now, I’m gonna have to ask you and your buddies to put down your weapons and step away from my friends here.”
Chief Li chuckled, though there wasn’t any real humor in it. “I’m afraid I can’t do that, Mr. Hazzard. As I said before, you’re a wanted man, and if these two young ladies are abetting you, well…” It was his turn to shrug. “I’m sure we don’t want this to get messy, do we?”
“Oh, we absolutely want it to get messy. Now, please, Vera.” Ms. Stewart appeared beside me and tossed a small grenade-shaped object at Chief Li and his men. It bounced once, then exploded into a clear polymer bubble that engulfed all three of them and began rolling away from the van.
“God, I love those things,” I said. The technology was similar to the popgun, my old sidearm. I’d spent a good million dollars of Vera’s Organization money to develop the things, and they worked like a charm.
Chief Li and his men were finding their feet and staring daggers at me. “You’ve made a terrible mistake, Mr. Hazzard,” Chief Li said.
“Probably so,” I replied as Maya and Ellen climbed into the van. I got out and walked toward the bubble. “Thing is, I think I’ve got a while before I have to face any consequences for it.” I pressed an auto-injector against the bubble and hit the button. An aerosol spritzed into the bubble. “That’s a fast-acting…well, let’s call it knock-out gas. You should feel the effects i
n – oh, never mind, you’re already unconscious.” Chief Li and his two goons were passed out in the bottom of the bubble, a puppy pile of muscle and Ray-bans. “This is working out better than I’d hoped,” I said as I climbed back into the van and we took off for the safe house. “Kinda makes me wonder what horrible thing is about to happen to us.”
X.
The horrible thing happened the very next day.
Vera was allowing me to watch news feeds for an hour a day. It wasn’t much, but it was a chance to see what was going on out in Arcadia. Vera felt limiting my time kept me from going apoplectic over the smear campaign Mayor Esperanza was waging against me. She was mostly right.
“She keeps saying I tried to kill Chief Li and his goons!” I shouted, waving my hands at the television. “I clearly just knocked them out.”
“I don’t think they actually care about the reality of the situation,” Miss Typewell said.
“Man, the first thing I’m gonna do when I’m a free man is write a scathing op-ed about the new mayor,” I grumbled, muting the TV.
“She’s just doing what she thinks is right,” Miss Typewell said.
“No, Esperanza’s had it in for me since day one! Ever since she was Chief of Police, she’s never liked me. She doesn’t trust ex-cops. You remember what happened after the Cromhower case, when I got that abysmal write-up in the Sentinel? She smelled blood in the water and almost got me killed.”
“As I recall, you almost got yourself killed by tracking down the reporter and trying to convince her to change the story she’d printed,” Miss Typewell corrected.
I waved away her assertion. “Regardless, Esperanza tried to have me blacklisted there and then. And things have only gotten worse over the years.” I stood up and started pacing the room. “She’s got every cop in Arcadia out looking for me and our minivan. Thank God Vera’s got a whole fleet of the damn things.”
I sighed. We were getting nowhere sitting around like this, but there wasn’t really anywhere to go at the moment. We were spinning our wheels, waiting for other people to do their part.
“Has Maya had any luck cracking open the data cache?” I asked.
Miss Typewell shook her head. “Not yet, but she’s working on it. Well, technically, she’s working on upgrading her gear so she can have a better chance, but you know what I mean.”
I nodded. “Any word from Dr. Korpanty yet?”
“No, but she said it could take a few days.”
“Well, I guess there’s nothing else to do but veg out in front of the TV,” I said, unmuting it just in time to hear Mayor Esperanza say something horrible about me.
“Eddie Hazzard is an absolute menace to the city of Arcadia,” she said. “His reckless behavior, cavalier disregard for the rule of law, and persistent flaunting of his criminal status are an insult to all the good men and women who live in this city. I have issued a warrant for his immediate arrest, and directed the new chief of police to use any means necessary to bring him to justice.” A figure loomed up behind Mayor Esperanza, and my jaw dropped. “Let me introduce my new chief of police, Edison O’Mally. He is intimately familiar with Hazzard’s operations, compatriots, and habits. Chief O’Mally?” He stepped up to the podium, his walrus face a stern mask of dignified, righteous anger.
“Citizens, Edward Hazzard has been public enemy number one for three months now. During that time, he has brazenly staged one assault on the city after another, even going so far as to enter a police precinct and steal files from it. This has to stop. It is going to stop. I am officially forming a task force to deal with the Hazzard issue. Heading up that task force will be myself and an individual from outside the department, the leader of the private security firm the Pinkertons, Miss Clarissa Williams.”
My blood ran cold. “Oh, shit, we are in it now,” I muttered.
“Why’s that?” Vera asked as she walked into the room.
I gestured at the image of Clarissa Williams on the TV. “Because that woman is actively hunting me now,” I said.
“And who is she?” Vera asked. Then she saw Miss Typewell and was taken aback. Everything about Ellen, from her facial expression (eyes wide, mouth hanging open) to her body language (fists bunched up, body hunched over), screamed fight or flight. “Seriously, Eddie, you two are frightening me.”
“You should be afraid of Clarissa,” I replied. “That woman is dangerous. She leads the Pinks.”
“The Pinks? Are they going to rumble with the Jets and the Sharks later?” Vera joked.
“They’re no laughing matter,” I said, which wiped the smile off Vera’s face fast. There was almost nothing I wouldn’t joke about, and Clarissa Williams and the Pinkertons were on the taboo list.
“Look, the Pinkertons were a security firm started back in the mid-1800s. Did security work for the President of the United States, sort of like a prototype Secret Service. Name lost a lot of cache[DS7] in the late 1980s, when they started working as a private security firm for oil refineries and the like. Then, about ten years ago, whoever held the rights to the name let their copyright lapse, and Clarissa pounced. She and the Pinks work mostly in Arcadia as a private security concern, but I don’t know anyone who’s ever felt secure letting Clarissa handle things. She likes to blow things up.” This was an understatement. Five years ago, Clarissa and I were pursuing the same suspect in a case. She got there just ahead of me and ended up leveling a building.”
“You’ve leveled multiple buildings,” Vera pointed out.
“Yeah, but I wasn’t ever gleeful about it,” I retorted. “She gets a kick out of it.”
“And it sounds like she’s going to have free rein to hunt me down using any means necessary.”
Vera frowned, joining Miss Typewell and me. “This is not good,” she said.
“Yeah, no duh.”
Vera gave me a look. “There’s no need for childish retorts, Eddie.”
“I know you are but what am I?”
“Eddie, you have to leave the city,” Ellen said from out of nowhere.
I turned to her. “What? Are you finally losing it on me, Ellen?”
“No. You can’t stay here. Clarissa will kill you if she gets the chance.” Ellen turned to me. I could see that she was really, truly afraid. “Don’t you remember? She promised she’d kill you last time the two of you fought.”
I waved away her concern. “Name a case where someone didn’t threaten to kill me. It’d be a lot easier than listing all the times when someone did make a threat.”
“But she might actually do it,” Ellen said.
“She’d have to find me first,” I replied, “and then get through a cadre of highly-trained ninja warriors to get to me. And then get through you guys, I assume?” Vera had the decency to not meet my eyes. “Well, whatever. The point is, she doesn’t have any idea where I am, so it’s all rather moot.”
XI.
The next few days were full of an anxious energy. We jumped at every sound, always expecting Clarissa and the Pinks to come busting through the wall at any second, guns blazing. When they didn’t appear, we didn’t suddenly relax. No, we stayed keyed up, our hands always hovering near our holsters, too jittery to sleep and too tired to do much of anything else.
Well, I say that. Maya was lost in her own little world of computer circuits and microchips. She was having trouble breaking the encryption Carmen had used on the data cache. “I could just smash through it, but I might do a lot of damage to the information it’s protecting,” Maya said.
“Well, definitely take your time, then,” I said.
Dr. Korpanty finally got back to us a couple of days later with some startling revelations.
“Mr. Cornwallis’s DNA was definitely gen-modded,” she said over the phone. Ellen, Vera, and I sat around a table, all listening as Dr. Korpanty filled us in. “But it’s the cleanest, finest gen-mod I’ve ever seen.”
“What was he modded with?” Vera asked.
“A tardigrade,” Dr. Korpanty said.
<
br /> “A whosit now?” I asked.
“They’re commonly known as water bears. They’re microscopic organisms that can survive virtually anything. They’re functionally immortal.”
“Well, so is Cornwallis,” I replied. “And now, we know how. Still don’t know why, though.”
“I think I can provide a bit more insight, actually,” Dr. Korpanty continued. “See, when most labs do a gen-mod, they leave a signature. There’s a couple of reasons for it. First, they’re proud of their work, and second, if anything ever goes wrong with it, you know who to call to chew out about the ten-foot tall gorilla man rampaging through downtown.”
“So, who’s signature is on this gen-mod?” Ellen asked.
“There is none,” Dr. Korpanty said.
We all sat there for a second.
“That was extremely unhelpful,” I said.
“Actually, it tells us exactly who did the work,” Dr. Korpanty corrected. “The only group that never puts a signature on their work is the US military. Work this well-done, no signature? It could only be the military.”
“They were trying to create a super soldier,” Ellen said quietly.
“Yes,” Dr. Korpanty said, “and I think they may have succeeded.”
I sat back and whistled low. “They’ve made a soldier who can’t die.”
“Or one who can die again and again and again,” Vera said. “One who can get back up and keep right on fighting.”
“But, wait, hold on a second, what about the amnesia he experiences each time he dies?” Ellen asked.
“Oooh! Eureka!” came a voice from the other side of the room. We all turned to see Maya, standing triumphantly with her hands held in the air. “I broke the encryption! Take that, Carmen!”
“Hang on, doc, we’ll hafta call you back in a minute,” I said, hanging up on Dr. Korpanty. “Maya, what’ve you got for us?”
Maya grinned at me. “What do you want?”
“Let’s start with what she’s got on me,” I said. Maya nodded and started typing. A vid window popped up and started scrolling page after page of information about me.
The Long Fall Into Darkness Page 8
