《Make Your Mark and Other Stories》 The Hermit The Hermit 2015- ¡°Mark?¡± Jane Hillsmierer paused in the outline of the door frame around her. She reached for the switch one side of the door. She had learned to distrust the dark. ¡°It¡¯s me, Jane.¡± ¡°I¡¯m here, Janie.¡± A lamp cut on, casting a glow on a work table. Mark Hadron sat so she couldn¡¯t see his face. ¡°Why are you sitting in the dark?¡± She placed her hands in front of her. ¡°What brings you by, Janie?¡± Mark shifted slightly in the shadow. ¡°The business is closed.¡± ¡°I think you need to think about reopening it.¡± Jane stepped forward. ¡°I got a warning from Nobody. Another rip is coming.¡± ¡°It will have to happen without the Lamplighters.¡± Mark turned to look at his work desk. Scattered parts covered the surface. ¡°Let someone else take up the torch.¡± ¡°There¡¯s no one else, Mark.¡± Jane hit the light switch. She blinked against the sudden glare from overhead. ¡°We were the only business who could do what we did. It¡¯s time to come out of the darkness.¡± Mark blinked. His remaining eye glared at her, while the other was a crater in his face. A long scar ran down to his chin from his hairline. A gray streak in his brown hair followed the scar along his skull. One hand had a hole in it from something being driven through it. ¡°How much more am I expected to give, Janie?¡± Mark looked down at the hole in his hand. ¡°We can¡¯t hide from this.¡± Jane looked around the dusty workshop. ¡°The warning has come. It wasn¡¯t raised psychic energy. It wasn¡¯t something strange acting as a trigger. It was a clear word from somebody who has shown he knows what¡¯s going along the barriers. Those things are going to come after us first just to make sure we can¡¯t do anything to them. If I have to fight alone, I will. But we both know you¡¯re the only one who knows how things work.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll look into it.¡± Mark looked at his table. ¡°I think I have a sensor that wasn¡¯t junked. I¡¯ll start doing surveys tomorrow.¡± ¡°Thank you, Mark.¡± Jane smiled. ¡°I¡¯ll come by at eight, and help you with it.¡± Mark looked at her with his good eye. He blinked after a second. He nodded. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. ¡°And clean up this mess.¡± Jane waved at the dust. ¡°You can do better than this.¡± ¡°The maid has the year off.¡± Mark smiled slightly. ¡°I¡¯ve heard that excuse before, mister.¡± Jane walked out of the room. ¡°Be ready at eight.¡± ¡°You should have married her, boy.¡± The voice drifted softly out of the air. ¡°Big mistake on your part.¡± ¡°He¡¯s right, Mark.¡± Another voice sounded from a small table across the room. Spectral cards dropped on the surface. ¡°Your future would be better than this one.¡± ¡°The lamp is charging.¡± A third voice spoke. A hand of light appeared, pointing at the metal structure they had put in when they had bought the building. ¡°Nobody was right.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t need advice from ghosts.¡± Mark glared at the room. ¡°All I am going to do is a simple survey of the local levels.¡± ¡°Think about it, Mark.¡± Harry Cho appeared at the table. His hands dealt cards in front of him. ¡°You have two futures ahead of you. One is dying a failure, the other is a change for the better. It all depends on the Queen which future you will get.¡± ¡°We don¡¯t have to guess who the Queen is, do we, boy?¡± Milton Kearn appeared, flask in hand. He took a sip, tipping his hat back out of the way. Dyson Baker appeared, bathed in the blue glow from the device they had set up when they had gone into business. He had been a big man in life, and his ghost still retained some of that. ¡°You¡¯re going to need replacements for us, Mark.¡± Baker kept an eye on the lamp. ¡°You¡¯re not going to be able to handle a rip on your own.¡± ¡°I am just doing a survey.¡± Mark frowned at his former friends. ¡°I¡¯m not getting involved in any way except to keep Jane out of trouble.¡± ¡°The future is going to be bad for you, Mark,¡± said Harry. He shook his head at the cards on the table. ¡°Dyson is right. You¡¯re going to need help if you want to keep on going. And you¡¯re not going to shape things with Jane. She is shaping the future with you.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have a chance in Hell of running away.¡± Milton put his flask away. ¡°You¡¯re done.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t let us down,¡± said Dyson. ¡°We started the business to keep the city safe. It¡¯s time to stand up and start walking again. Hiding is not doing.¡± ¡°You¡¯re all dead.¡± Mark stood. ¡°You don¡¯t get a say in things.¡± ¡°Of course we do, boy.¡± Milton faded underneath his cowboy hat. ¡°We¡¯re the ones who did what we had to do.¡± ¡°The lamp is drawing in power.¡± Dyson pointed at the machine as he turned to mist. ¡°It¡¯s going to attract things whether you like it, or not.¡± ¡°Any last words before you fade away, Harry?¡± Mark turned his one eye on his last friend. ¡°The future can¡¯t be fought, Mark.¡± Harry picked up his cards. ¡°It can only be dealt with and sometimes a better tomorrow means a terrible today.¡± Harry stood, tucking his cards away. He smiled as he faded away. ¡°The Queen is coming, Mark.¡± His voice drifted in the air. ¡°And the choice is coming with her. Pick the best path.¡± ¡°Stupid ghosts.¡± Mark looked at his desk. The parts for the technology they had come up with lay covered in dust. He picked up a shell base and inspected it. He picked up a rag and wiped the bowl out. ¡°I¡¯m going to be ready.¡± The Heir 1935- Bobby Benson rubbed his hands together as he looked at the gray sky overhead. The smell of snow was in the air. He needed a place to shelter, or he would freeze to death. Winters in New York were the worst. Bobby drifted through the crowd on the street. Most of them seemed to be heading toward the Bowery. Work was scarce, but the adults were making do with what they could. It was tougher for the orphan kids trying to take care of themselves. The boy fell in beside a guy in a battered coat that looked like he had taken it from some other bum after a knockdown fight. A suit appeared to be under the coat, but it looked like it belonged on someone else. ¡°What¡¯s the problem?¡± The guy glanced down at Bobby. He pulled out a bag of tobacco and papers and rolled a cigarette. ¡°Haven¡¯t you seen a tramp before?¡± ¡°I guess so.¡± Bobby shrugged. ¡°You¡¯re better dressed than most.¡± ¡°Thanks, kid.¡± The guy lit his cigarette and put his fixings away. ¡°There¡¯s a place around the corner that leads into the subway. The word is people are settling in for the winter down there.¡± ¡°Really?¡± Bobby rubbed his hands together. ¡°How does that work?¡± ¡°They are building living spaces to keep off the streets.¡± The guy smoked as he walked. ¡°You might be able to get something for yourself if you¡¯re smart.¡± ¡°That sounds good.¡± Bobby smiled. ¡°Maybe I can get something for myself.¡± ¡°That¡¯s the spirit.¡± The walker smiled around his cigarette. ¡°Just be careful. The underground has a lot of strange types down there.¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± said Bobby. ¡°I appreciate it.¡± ¡°There¡¯s the stairs.¡± The stranger pointed at a set of steps inside an alley. ¡°Be careful and keep an eye out for problems. You¡¯ll do fine.¡± Bobby waved at his helper as he walked over to the stairs. He descended to a door marked with some kind of drawing. He checked the handle. It turned freely under his touch. He pushed the door in and stepped inside. Torches lined the walls. Blocks made up the corridor leading into darkness. A slight wind pushed against his battered coat as he tried to make up his mind. He concluded this wasn¡¯t a subway tunnel. Maybe people moving in was more likely if the city didn¡¯t care about some old access tunnel. And it looked old to his eyes. Bobby wandered down the passage, finding stairs that led to other tunnels, that led to even more stairs. He paused at a crossroads with the realization that he was lost. He could be stuck in the tunnels for days without finding the exit. If people did move in, they would find his skeleton somewhere when they moved far enough into the tunnels. He walked to another staircase. He looked up and saw a light beaming down on the If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.steps. He walked up the staircase cautiously. He thought he heard voices, but he wasn¡¯t sure. He didn¡¯t like what they were saying. He paused at the door framing the beam of light. He wondered what was beyond that. He walked across the threshold and blinked his eyes against the light. This room was decorated with statues and writing carved in the walls. A rack of rolled papers covered one wall. There was no other furniture. The light came from a window in the wall. Bobby shielded his eyes as he walked over to look out the window. He saw a sea of clouds stretching on forever. The sun peeked over the edge of the misty shroud, shining through the square opening. ¡°What are you doing here?¡± The voice was papery thin, and enunciated the words as if they didn¡¯t belong to the speaker. ¡°I was looking for a place to stay.¡± Bobby turned from the window. ¡°I thought this place was underground.¡± ¡°Some of it is.¡± The owner of the room stood on the other side of the chamber. He wore something that looked like a night shirt with a belt around the middle. He had a long stick in one hand for him to lean on. ¡°This chamber looks out on other places.¡± ¡°Would it be okay if I stayed here?¡± Bobby gestured at the door leading to the corridors and steps that had led him to this room. ¡°You won¡¯t even know I¡¯m here.¡± ¡°Certainly.¡± The old man nodded. ¡°I won¡¯t be here long. You are more than welcome to take my place.¡± ¡°Thanks.¡± Bobby smiled. ¡°It feels good to have the sun in my face. I didn¡¯t realize that I had wandered into a building. I thought I was still in the subway.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine.¡± The old man walked to the window. He stretched out his hand through the opening. He pulled it back after it had started glowing from an inner fire. ¡°Take this.¡± Bobby held out his hand. He winced as the glow dropped into his palm. Warmth spread through his body. He examined his hand, realizing it was bigger than it should be. He looked around. He was taller for some reason. He looked down at his clothes. They had changed to look like the old man¡¯s night shirt and belt. His shoes were sandals. He didn¡¯t like that at all. He liked his old wingtips more than anything. A new version of his shoes formed as he watched. They were light blue and white in coloring. He smiled at the fanciness of it. ¡°What did you do to me?¡± Bobby paused at the sound of his own voice. It didn¡¯t sound normal at all. ¡°I have given you free rein of my home until you don¡¯t need it anymore.¡± The old man nodded. ¡°I have decided that your appearance means I can retire in peace and let you take my place.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know if I want to do that.¡± Bobby examined his hands. ¡°It sounds like a big responsibility.¡± ¡°Everything you need to know is in the scrolls.¡± The old man pointed at the rack. ¡°Try not to let me down like my last heir did.¡± ¡°What if I need to ask you something?¡± Bobby glanced at the old man. This had turned out weirder than he had thought possible. ¡°Simply call my name at the window.¡± The old man smiled. ¡°I will hear and talk with you. Don¡¯t worry. You seem smart enough to handle the inheritance I have given you. Do your best.¡± ¡°What is your name?¡± Bobby kicked himself for not asking that first. ¡°It¡¯s Cain.¡± The old man floated off the ground. He flew through the window and vanished among the clouds. Bobby wondered if he could fly among the clouds too. Did he want to do that? He sat down on the floor, not noticing the stone was cold. This was the weirdest day of his life so far. What did he do next? Maybe he should read the scrolls and see what was in them. Surely one of them could tell him how to get back to normal. That would be the best thing to do right now. Then he could figure out the rest of this without a lot of pressure. He hoped he wasn¡¯t just losing his mind. That would put a damper on finding a new home, and turning into an adult at the same time. Bobby heard someone calling for help. He went to the window and looked out. A hole in the clouds let him see the ground below. A woman was screaming about her baby. He looked in the direction she was looking. A perambulator rolled away from the woman toward traffic. What could he do about it? He started floating in the air and smiled. Maybe he could do something after all. He flew out the window in a bolt of lightning. The End of the Light 1956- Bobby Benson smiled as he took a seat at the glass table on the patio in the backyard of Will Williams¡¯s place. He had saved Will¡¯s life during the war, and granted him some of Cain¡¯s power to help fight the enemy. Bobby had empowered several people in this way so that he had help to make the world a better place. And they had done wonders as far as he was concerned. Will had asked him to come by his place for some kind of talk. He didn¡¯t like the sound of it, but he had nothing better to do. His excuses sounded unfeasible to his own mind when he tried to think of one. ¡°I wanted you to know this was Ann¡¯s idea.¡± Will brought out two glasses of tea and put them on the table. ¡°She said you wouldn¡¯t mind.¡± ¡°Mind what, Will?¡± Bobby took his glass and sipped at it. Ann Baker was another of his helpers. She was an orphan like him. He had helped her find a home with a family while enlisting her aid. Will smiled as Ann came out of the house. She wore a simple dress and shoes in shades of green. Green pins held her long, red hair back from her face. Will wore the simple shirt and pants that seemed to be his only outfit. Every time Bobby could remember meeting with him, that was what his friend wore. If it was a special occasion, he would add a jacket and tie. ¡°We wanted to ask you to be the best man at our wedding.¡± Ann smiled. ¡°You¡¯re the only real choice.¡± ¡°You¡¯re getting married?¡± Bobby couldn¡¯t believe his ears. ¡°When?¡± ¡°In a few months.¡± Will laughed at his friend¡¯s expression. ¡°We have most of it worked out, and we¡¯re seeing how much it will cost.¡± ¡°Congratulations.¡± Bobby smiled. ¡°I¡¯m happy for you both.¡± ¡°So you¡¯ll be the best man?,¡± Will asked. ¡°You¡¯ll have to hold the ring for us, and do some things around the service.¡± ¡°I would love to be the best man.¡± Bobby couldn¡¯t stop grinning. ¡°I never thought about marriage before. This is a whole new view of things.¡± Will, Ann, and the table exploded in a beam of fire. Bobby fell to the ground, arm covered in flames. He rolled in the grass in pain. He couldn¡¯t feel it as he tried to get his brain to work again. ¡°I knew this would be the way to do things.¡± The familiar voice drifted to Bobby¡¯s ears from a million miles away. A hand grabbed his neck and picked him up off the ground. ¡°Time for you to die.¡± Bobby took a breath and changed. The source of his power, the green spark, was also the source of his enemy¡¯s ability. Barbarossa changed also as his green spark flowed into his intended victim. His light blue tunic, stained with darker patches of red, became rags. His dark hair tied back in a knot became gray and brittle. Lines of time ran down his face with liver spots keeping pace. Bobby had replaced his initial tunic with a light blue shirt and pants. A pin shaped like a twelve pointed star rode on his right breast. He glared at the man holding his neck. Then the man fell to the ground with a hole through his skull. Bobby turned his attention on his other enemies and walked toward them. He had spared their lives because he had felt that it would be bad to just kill when you didn¡¯t have to do that. As he advanced on them, he thought maybe he had made a mistake adhering to that philosophy. Bad guys always thought they were more ruthless than good guys because they were willing to take what they wanted. Sometimes they ran into a good guy who decided that was enough. Then they found out someone was more ruthless than they were on a personal level. Then it was too late for them to rethink what their plan should have been. Bobby took in the scene in a second. Four of his most dangerous enemies, five if you counted the dead Barbarossa, had driven to a house down the block from Will¡¯s place. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.They had exited the van they had used. Then they had killed Will and Ann with a heat ray. He had let them live for so long. He should have known better. His rage burned hot as he closed with his enemies. They would regret what they had done for the few seconds it would take to deal with them. Dr. Rainey Sybil had lost most of his hair over the years, a few inches in height, and accidentally inflicted several scars to his person from experiments that didn¡¯t work as well as he thought they should have. He stood behind the two bruisers he was using for muscle with the heat ray smoking in his gloved hands. The Butterfly perched on Sybil¡¯s shoulder. This alien insect possessed mental abilities that allowed it to control people, and a knowledge that allowed it to create machines that surpassed anything on earth. Wings of gold glittered in the sun as it turned its mental abilities against the oncoming enemy. One of the muscle was Koal, an immortal caveman. He had tried to destroy civilization to force it back to a society without technology. He carried his club in both hands so he could swing it like a bat. The other muscle was Paul Poindexter. He was known as the Spine. He was almost as strong and durable as Bobby, and as smart as a rock. He was the perfect minion if you could deal with his inability to carry out orders. The only thing he was good at was the application of violence. Bobby headed right at them at full speed. Koal swung his club at Bobby¡¯s head. It looked like freeze framed pictures to the hero. He grabbed the club, smashed the caveman in the face with it, watched as the face started healing, hit him with the club so hard the wood shattered into splinters. Bobby grabbed his enemy by the neck and flung him straight up as hard as he could. It would take a while for the caveman to fall back down. By that time, the fight would be over. The Spine leaped at Bobby. His fist moved almost as fast as Bobby. The hero let it slip by. Another punch sliced the air in the hopes of knocking the hero out of the way. Bobby grabbed Poindexter by the neck. He slammed him into the ground. He punched the man in the face hundreds of times in a second. The villain¡¯s invulnerability prevented him from being hurt, but not from having his head drilled into the ground and trapped there like debris in ice. Bobby turned his attention to his last two foes. Sybil pointed the heat ray at him as the Butterfly perched on the scientist¡¯s shoulder. One trigger pull unleashed a beam at their intended victim. Bobby held out his hand and directed the beam into the Spine. The ray baked him into the ground even more, turning some of it into glass on top of him as the beam heated everything up. Sybil cut the beam as Bobby rushed at him. The hero missed his grab. He paused as his enemy tried to catch him with a different weapon from his belt. Ice formed from the projector¡¯s light. It covered Benson¡¯s arm as he blocked the beam. That was a mistake for the doctor. Bobby dodged around the beam, and slammed into a shield Sybil had set up to protect him and the Butterfly from harm. Benson froze against the wall as all of his force was transmitted into the protective barrier. ¡°You¡¯ll never get through that, Mark.¡± Sybil laughed in his high-pitched voice. ¡°It takes kinetic energy and makes the barrier stronger.¡± Bobby grabbed the ground at the edge of the bubble and tore it up. That threw the bubble into the air. He flew under it and headed into space. He would deal with the Spine when he was done with his more dangerous enemies. Bobby found Koal floating in orbit. He needed to put the caveman somewhere he wouldn¡¯t hurt anyone else. He sent Sybil¡¯s bubble heading toward Mars. The mad scientist probably had some kind of flying device to prevent any ground entanglement. He was fine to use it in the few seconds he would have before he was once again under scrutiny. Bobby only planned to take that long with Koal because he didn¡¯t want him falling back to Earth and becoming a threat again. Sometimes it was best to make sure. He grabbed the caveman by the back of the neck. He flung the frozen body at the Sun. Let him spend the rest of his life in the gravity well of the Sun. Bobby watched his projectile hit the outer shell of the sun. He firmed up his face, glad that some of the anger was fading. He still had to deal with Sybil and the Butterfly. He flew to where he had dropped the scientist and insect in the dust. He knew they would try to think of some way back to Earth from their red crash site. He didn¡¯t plan to give them time for that. Bobby spotted Sybil standing on the ground in a cloud of red dust. He had a gas mask over his face to give him oxygen while he tinkered with his arsenal. The enraged hero picked up the biggest piece of rock he could rip from the ground and dropped it on his enemy. His shield would take the kinetic hit, but the mass of the thing would push on the force field until it collapsed. Psychic pain washed over him as he waited for the two villains to dig their way out. He knew then they never would. Bobby flew back to Earth. He found the Spine where he had left him. The man had not been able to free himself from his cocoon in the short amount of time he had been given. Bobby grabbed him by the neck and ripped him free. The green spark made him stronger by degrees than the other empowered superman. He held the man over his head. ¡°I want you to say I have no spine.¡± Bobby didn¡¯t recognize his own voice. ¡°I¡¯ll never say I have no spine!¡± Poindexter froze as he reverted to normal in a dusting of particles drifting to the ground. Bobby closed his hand. The Sisters 1986- Bobby Benson sat at his window. He looked out at the clouds roaming below, letting his mind drift in memories. Sometimes he saw something that could have been if he could change the past. It seemed better than the present. He heard voices, and dismissed them at first. He was in his castle and was the only one with a key. No one else should be wandering the featureless halls, many stairwells, and rooms placed where the doors weren¡¯t always present. He listened to make sure he hadn¡¯t really heard anything. Someone exclaimed they were tired of wandering around without a sign post. Bobby stood. His green spark washed away the old shirt and jeans he wore and replaced it with the light blue suit and twelve-pointed star he favored for his other face at the moment. His withered arm filled out with muscle as his body changed just as easily as his clothes. He flew down to where he had heard the voices. Maybe someone had wandered in from the street. It didn¡¯t happen often, but it did happen. He directed them to where they had to go, sometimes helping them with money or transport if they needed it. He thought he had closed up the doors leading to the outside over the years. New ones seemed to open on their own while he wasn¡¯t looking. He found three girls arguing over which direction to go. He stood in the hall and listened as they tried to figure out where they could stay for the night. The argument gave him the gist of their story. He knew a lot about being an orphan, and trying to live on your own. These girls could go back to their orphanage and try to get adopted, but they all wanted to be adopted together. He could see that being a problem for prospective parents. ¡°Excuse me.¡± Bobby smiled so they wouldn¡¯t freak out at his standing there. ¡°The door is that way.¡± ¡°Who are you supposed to be?¡± The oldest girl stepped in front of the other two. She was slim and blond. She might be as old as thirteen, but Bobby had no idea. ¡°I¡¯m the owner of this place.¡± Bobby crossed his arms. ¡°Who are you three trespassers?¡± ¡°We¡¯re not trespassing.¡± The youngest, a black nine-year-old with hair pulled back into a ball at the back of her head, peeked out from behind her older companion. ¡°The guy outside said we could find a place to live until we had something better.¡± ¡°Really?¡± Bobby shook his head. ¡°Guy with a cigar and a beige coat?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± The middle girl nodded. She had a hand on the youngest girl¡¯s shoulder. She was close enough to the oldest girl to be a sister, except she was carrying a little more weight. Bobby should have known that Nobody was behind this. He had his fingers in everything. Why would he con some kids to enter Cain¡¯s castle? Of course the same thing was how he had become the Mark in the first place. ¡°So you ran away from home.¡± Bobby hadn¡¯t had a home before he took over for Cain. He still remembered walking the street with the hope he wouldn¡¯t be frozen by the time the sun came up. ¡°It was just an orphanage.¡± The eldest spoke up. ¡°They didn¡¯t really care about us.¡± ¡°So you decided to break into someone¡¯s home and squat.¡± Bobby frowned at the three of them. ¡°So you don¡¯t want to go back.¡± ¡°You can¡¯t make us.¡± The youngest glared at him. ¡°We won¡¯t go back.¡± ¡°I can make you,¡± said Bobby. ¡°And if I take you back, you will stay. Threatening kids is what I do. Come with me.¡± ¡°Why should we?¡± The oldest held her younger companions back. ¡°I¡¯m going to give you a space while I think about this.¡± Bobby wondered if he was doing the right thing. He wasn¡¯t mentor material in his own estimation. Maybe he should carry them back to the orphanage and let someone else take them off his hands. He walked along the similar corridors until he found a large door. He pushed the door open on a meadow full of tall grass. Trees stood in the distance under the clear sky. ¡°Where did all this come from?¡± The middle girl held out her hands as she stepped on the grass. ¡°It comes with the building.¡± Bobby whistled. He watched the grass. Swaying grass told him that his summons had been heard. A gopher lifted out the ground. He looked at the group with ears twitching. It The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.chattered quietly to itself. ¡°I¡¯m trying to decide if I should keep them.¡± Bobby held out a hand. ¡°What do you think, Spiffy?¡± The gopher dropped into the ground and tunneled over to where the group stood. He came out of the ground and stood on his back legs to grab the hand. ¡°This is Spiffy.¡± Bobby picked up the gopher. The beast looked as big as a lion cub. ¡°I¡¯m Eleanor,¡± said the eldest girl. ¡°This is Carrie.¡± She pointed at the middle girl. ¡°And I¡¯m Monique Teckina Natasha Brown,¡± said the youngest. ¡°But you can call me Money.¡± Spiffy stretched out his head to sniff Money. Then he headbutted her as he dropped to the ground. He ambled a few feet away and sat on his haunches. He chittered at her. ¡°Why did he do that?¡± The girl rubbed her forehead. ¡°He wants you to chase him.¡± Bobby smiled. ¡°He wants to play.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll chase him all right.¡± She ran at the gopher, turning into lightning on the way. She missed the animal as he sank into the ground in a cloud of dirt. A furrow led away through the grass. They crossed the meadow at high speed. The older girls stood shocked at their adoptive sister flashing through the grass in bursts of lightning. She still wasn¡¯t faster than Spiffy who taunted her by bursting out of the ground and then diving under again like a dolphin in the ocean. ¡°How is she doing that?¡± Eleanor looked up at Bobby. ¡°She doesn¡¯t have superpowers.¡± ¡°Spiffy must have loaned her part of his.¡± Bobby shrugged. ¡°I imagine he gets lonely without someone to play with him.¡± ¡°You have a superpowered gopher?¡± Eleanor looked at the lightning in the grass. ¡°He belonged to a friend of mine.¡± Bobby shrugged. ¡°I took him in when my friend died.¡± Bobby didn¡¯t think they wanted to hear how his friend had been pulled into pieces before she could activate her spark and defend herself. ¡°Will he give us powers too?,¡± Carrie asked. She brushed back her hair with her hands. ¡°I doubt it.¡± Bobby smiled at her. ¡°Hey, you two. Play time is over.¡± ¡°Ahhhh!¡± Money paused. ¡°Really?¡± ¡°We¡¯re going to eat.¡± Bobby waved her in. ¡°I¡¯ll bring you back something, Spiffy.¡± The gopher chittered at him before sinking into the ground and burrowing away. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± Bobby pulled the spark Spiffy had planted from the girl with a brush of his hand through her hair. ¡°Leave your stuff here. Spiffy will protect it.¡± ¡°Are you letting us stay?,¡± Carrie asked. She took their belongings and made three piles next to the door. ¡°Depends on how dinner goes.¡± Bobby smiled at her. ¡°Spiffy likes you and that¡¯s a good sign.¡± ¡°What¡¯s a bad sign from Spiffy?,¡± Eleanor asked. She kept herself between Bobby and the other two girls. ¡°He rips your arms off.¡± Bobby gestured for them to go first through the door. He smiled to take the sting out of his words. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. He hasn¡¯t done that in years.¡± ¡°That¡¯s comforting.¡± Eleanor looked at her sisters. Their expressions said let¡¯s go ahead. ¡°We don¡¯t have a lot of money for food.¡± ¡°It¡¯s on me today.¡± Bobby closed the door to Spiffy¡¯s room and led the way toward the outside door. ¡°My treat.¡± ¡°Why?¡± Eleanor led the girls like a mother duck. ¡°Why not?¡± Bobby knew she was trying to protect her sisters. Being paranoid about a stranger with a gopher just seemed like good sense to him. He remembered his last day before becoming the Mark. He should have been more paranoid when he talked with Cain. ¡°Come on.¡± Bobby opened the outside door. ¡°I¡¯ll let you get your gear back after dinner if I decide you can¡¯t stay.¡± ¡°Spiffy loves us.¡± Money protested as they stepped outside. ¡°Spiffy bit a man¡¯s leg off out of spite.¡± Bobby closed the door after them. ¡°Don¡¯t think he wouldn¡¯t do the same to you.¡± ¡°Out of spite?¡± Carrie shook her head. ¡°I don¡¯t believe that for a minute. He¡¯s totally tame.¡± ¡°You keep thinking that.¡± Bobby led the way down the street. Buildings reached into the sky all around them, but he steered them to a small diner between two other buildings. He smiled when saw the sign still hadn¡¯t been fixed. ¡°I hope you¡¯re ready to chow down.¡± ¡°We can¡¯t repay for anything like this.¡± Eleanor examined the place as Bobby walked to the door. ¡°It¡¯s on me.¡± Bobby opened the door and waved them to go inside. ¡°I have a tab.¡± ¡°What¡¯s a tab?¡± Money asked as she walked inside the diner. ¡°The restaurant keeps a tally of your bill so you can pay for a lot at the same time.¡± Carrie pointed her to the bar stools that lined an ancient counter. ¡°Let¡¯s use the big booth in the back.¡± Bobby led the way through the tables and booths to a booth designed for eight people to sit in a circle. They sat down. Eleanor sat between Bobby and her two sisters. He didn¡¯t know what she thought she could do to protect them if he wanted to do anything, but he let it go. ¡°It¡¯s the Mark.¡± A waitress with streaks of gray in her dark hair walked over in a red shirt and black skirt. A glove covered one hand. A big knife was in a belt sheathe at the small of her back. She smiled at the girls with genuine warmth. ¡°And I see you brought some kids with you this time.¡± ¡°Hello, Cassie.¡± Bobby smiled. ¡°I need three specials and a reading.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t know your own mind?¡± Cassie smiled as she shook her head. She walked off. ¡°Coming right up.¡± ¡°What did she mean?,¡± Carrie asked. ¡°This is the first time he¡¯s asked for advice,¡± Eleanor said. ¡°What are Specials?,¡± Money asked. ¡°They are meals that have set items on them for a cheaper price.¡± Carrie brushed her hair with a hand. ¡°So we all eat the same thing.¡± ¡°Sounds like the orphanage cafeteria.¡± Money frowned at the thought of that. ¡°This is much better than any cafeteria.¡± Bobby looked out the window to one side of the booth. ¡°Cassie has the best food ever.¡± ¡°Then why aren¡¯t you eating?¡± Eleanor raised an eyebrow at his not ordering for himself. ¡°I already did.¡± Bobby smiled back at her. ¡°What I¡¯m getting is not on the menu.¡± Cassie returned to the booth with a big serving tray. She placed three plates on the table before handing Bobby a folded piece of paper. He opened it and read the contents before putting the paper away in the breast pocket of his jacket. ¡°Which one?,¡± Bobby asked. ¡°Don¡¯t be a jerk.¡± Cassie shook her head. ¡°No one can tell you that.¡± ¡°This is exactly what I wanted.¡± Eleanor examined the plate of salad, yogurt, and toast. ¡°How did you know?¡± Carrie picked up her triple hamburger with an eye roll. She took a bite and smiled. ¡°This is better than the orphanage.¡± Money dug into her pieces of chicken. ¡°I¡¯ll bring you your drinks.¡± Cassie tucked the big tray under her arm. ¡°Come by any time.¡± She retreated to the kitchen. ¡°What did the paper say?,¡± Eleanor asked as she put dressing on her salad. ¡°None of your business.¡± Bobby smiled at her. The Robot Ranger Rescue 1990- Tokyo was under attack by a giant made of stone when the three amateur heroines arrived. They decided to fly over and get a look before asking the locals what the cause could be before throwing their weight around. This was their first mission. They didn¡¯t want to mess it up before they got started. ¡°It has a central core.¡± Eleanor called to the others. ¡°It¡¯s hooked up to other smaller cores. It looks like remains are inside the thing.¡± ¡°Remains?¡± Money grimaced as she flew at the front of a lightning bolt. ¡°Dead people?¡± ¡°Looks like,¡± Eleanor pointed to a tent on the ground. ¡°Let¡¯s see what the authorities have to say.¡± As they descended toward the tent, a giant of gray metal exploded from the city. It punched the stone pile in the face with a wrecking ball fist. It followed up with a kick to keep the attacker from the intact buildings. ¡°That¡¯s one of the Robot Rangers.¡± Carrie smiled. ¡°At least we won¡¯t have to do this alone.¡± ¡°That gives us more options.¡± Eleanor waved at the people on the ground as she touched down. Her sisters touched down behind her to form a triangle. At least the soldiers didn¡¯t try to shoot at them. ¡°Excuse me,¡± said Eleanor in perfect Japanese. ¡°We are here to help with your problem.¡± ¡°Americans?,¡± said a man with untidy curls of red hair turning gray. ¡°I¡¯m Stanley Craft. I¡¯m the control for the Rangers.¡± ¡°I¡¯m Elle Mark.¡± Eleanor indicated her sisters. ¡°This is Blaster and Lightning. What can you tell us before we get started?¡± ¡°The Rangers and I were doing research in the Sea of Japan when this started.¡± Craft indicated a small jet to one side. ¡°Apparently one of the local apartment buildings came to life and ate its residents. Then it started toward downtown to eat as many civilians as it could. We arrived and engaged it to keep the loss of life down. Growth and Multiple are keeping it back while I try to think of a way of stopping this thing.¡± ¡°We should kneecap this joker, Elle.¡± Carrie looked at the stone giant. ¡°That¡¯ll keep him from the people until we figure out how to stop it.¡± ¡°Right.¡± Elle frowned. ¡°There¡¯s no telling what would happen if we get close to the core. It might try to take us and add us to the meal list.¡± ¡°If you can open the thing up, I can get a ranger inside to dismantle things.¡± Craft touched his watch. ¡°That will let us end this situation without anyone else getting killed.¡± ¡°That won¡¯t be a problem at least.¡± Elle looked at the stone giant. She agreed with her sister. A kneecapping looked like the right thing to do. ¡°This is what we¡¯re going to do.¡± Elle launched herself into the air. Her sisters joined her. ¡°Lightning is the distraction. Blaster and I hit the knees. It goes down. The legs have small cores in them, so they have a space to let one of the Rangers in. If not, we¡¯ll have to blast a tunnel through the thing to get the core out. We don¡¯t know if that thing can use us for fuel, and I don¡¯t want to find out.¡± ¡°Why do I always have to be the distraction?,¡± asked Money. She had picked a yellow jumpsuit with a black stripe on the outside of the arms and legs to be her more heroic dress. She still presented as the youngest, but her other form was her in the late teens, instead of the fourteen year old she actually was. Elle had settled on something that looked like what a figure skater would wear. It was light green with the Mark¡¯s twelve pointed star in the middle of her chest. She was still slender but looked like someone in their late twenties. Carrie had gone in for something that she had seen on television in the orphanage. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.She had always liked Mrs. Peel, so she had copied the black leather look in light purple. She looked like a late twenties woman who had become a lot curvier with age. ¡°You¡¯re the fastest.¡± Elle shook her head. ¡°And you leave a visible trail.¡± ¡°When you put it that way, I am pretty great,¡± said Money. ¡°Let¡¯s do this before I have a panic attack.¡± Carrie looked at the giant¡¯s legs. ¡°Which leg you want, Elle?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll take the right.¡± Eleanor frowned as she gauged the distance. ¡°We¡¯re going to need room to make our runs. Go ahead, Money. We¡¯ll be back in a couple of seconds.¡± ¡°On it, sister.¡± Money flew down at the giant¡¯s head. She created a ribbon across its vision with her lightning trailing behind her as she circled around the thing. Eleanor and Carrie flew out over the ocean and then turned around. They headed back to land, burning the air with their passage. They corrected for the ranger slamming into his enemy while it was distracted. Then they sliced through the back of the knees in a one-two punch. The giant fell on its back, trying to recover by boosting its upper body with its hands. That allowed the ranger to kick it when it was down. A cube of gray matter hurried out from cover on legs that were stubs with feet at the bottom of them. It threw itself into the opened channel created when the right shin had separated from the right thigh of the stone giant. Another Ranger adapted himself into a pump to pull water from a broken water main and spray it into the leg after his colleague. Eleanor caught a giant fist trying to strike at the giant ranger. She held it back with both hands as she waited for the Rangers to finish the job. How long could it take? She glanced at the inner workings of the living machine. The ranger filled all of the inside heading toward the chest. All of the orbs inside the machine were knocked down from their web of tissue as the robot expanded with the help of the water. The ranger hit the central core and tore it lose in a liquid metal wave. The orb hit an inner wall and broke apart. The fist that Eleanor was holding back collapsed to the ground in pieces. The part of the left leg that had been separated from the main mass started to change as the main body collapsed into a pile of concrete and steel beams. It took on a more humanoid appearance and picked itself up on two legs. A giant metal foot came down on the smaller block man. The weight of it crushed the menace against the street. Its central core popped like a balloon under the impact. ¡°I didn¡¯t get to do much on this,¡± said Money. ¡°I thought we would have something to make us famous.¡± ¡°Shoot some lightning in that other shin piece.¡± Eleanor pointed at the other foot. It was still intact. ¡°I don¡¯t want it to get up and start moving around.¡± ¡°On it.¡± Money dropped down so she could see the hole in the top of the shin. She pointed both hands. Lightning blasted into the inner workings of the thing. It collapsed immediately. ¡°That takes care of that.¡± Eleanor smiled. ¡°This heroing business might be easier than I thought.¡± ¡°What do we do now?,¡± asked Money. ¡°Go home, get something to eat, find a club?¡± ¡°We help clean this mess up.¡± Carrie smiled at her expression. ¡°That is part of our job.¡± ¡°Where do we start?¡± Money looked down on the path of destruction. It was a miracle if no one else had been hurt in all this. ¡°I guess we should ask the authorities where they want things.¡± Eleanor nodded at the soldiers coming out on the battlefield. ¡°Then we can start helping move things around.¡± ¡°This was pretty easy.¡± Money smiled. ¡°I thought it would be harder.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll be on body detail unless they think some civilians survived this.¡± Carrie shook her head. ¡°That¡¯ll be hard enough.¡± ¡°Oh, not that,¡± said Money. ¡°Can we pass?¡± ¡°No.¡± Carrie shook her head at her younger sister. ¡°Who else could get to them?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not liking that all,¡± said Money. She descended on a lightning bolt to land in front of the scientist they had talked to earlier. ¡°Nice job, ladies.¡± Dr. Craft and an older Japanese man with gray hair and neat mustache smiled. ¡°The Mark would be proud.¡± ¡°How else can we help, Doctor?¡± Eleanor doubted the Mark would be proud. He might say good job, or something. Spiffy might give them a friendly headbutt. ¡°My associate, Dr. Yamada, has asked me to request that you help with rescue work.¡± Craft indicated the other man. ¡°The Rangers are also going to help out until we move things out of the city, and find all the survivors.¡± ¡°We can do that.¡± Eleanor glanced at her sisters. They nodded to confirm they would help out. ¡°We¡¯ll fly over to where the attack began and start looking around.¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± Craft said something in Japanese. The other man nodded. He responded with several short sentences. ¡°Dr. Yamada said the attack started five miles away to the west.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll find it.¡± Eleanor nodded. ¡°Thanks.¡± The trio took to the air, heading west. The trail of destruction was obvious from the air. They headed for the original resting point of the altered building. Some people were trying to help others from the wreckage with whatever they had at hand. ¡°Let¡¯s get to work.¡± Eleanor flew down and lifted a car off a trapped woman. Make Your Mark 2017- Bobby Benson looked up at the sky over New York. The words that had come with his reading so long ago leaped into his mind. ALL OF YOU, OR ONLY ONE OF YOU. He knew this was the decision that would make those words come true. He just didn¡¯t think it would take so long. ¡°What are you thinking, Bobby?¡± Eleanor dropped down out of the sky, long light blue dress flowing around her. A green twelve pointed star marked one shoulder. ¡°Someone has to buy time for the rest of you to save the world.¡± Bobby wore his light blue suit, star for a tie clip. He smiled at her. ¡°I¡¯m proud of you girls. I knew letting you stay was a good decision. It was maybe the best decision I ever made.¡± ¡°There¡¯s no way you can stop this.¡± Eleanor pushed her blond hair out of her face. ¡°The magicians and the Lamplighters have a plan. Let them carry it out.¡± ¡°I need you to take care of your sisters in all this chaos.¡± Bobby drew on his mantle. ¡°I¡¯ll see you when I get back.¡± ¡°You¡¯re not coming back.¡± Eleanor looked like she was about to cry. ¡°How could you?¡± ¡°Someone has to defend the planet.¡± Bobby smiled. ¡°That¡¯s my job, and has been since you were a baby. I kind of slacked up on it, but I never could quite give it up. It has been a pleasure, Eleanor. Thank you for being my friend.¡± ¡°Thank you for being a dad.¡± Eleanor found herself talking to the air. The Mark had exploded into the air before his last words reached her. Bobby crashed through the descending front line of the invasion force. They hadn¡¯t expected his level of force being applied to their ships and armor. And when it was, parts of alien cephalopods rained down on the street. He crossed into the cloud that denoted where Earth was mixing with another place and time. He flew out the other side, catching the invaders by surprise. A human torpedo crashing through their launching platforms sent bent metal and aliens flying from the entrance. He spotted a giant flaming tree in the distance. This tree had eyes of green flame and a mouth to match. It glared at him as he closed on it. It was the biggest thing around, and it had to be stopped to help the others on Earth. The Mark hit his enemy as hard as he could. Saving the Earth meant cutting loose with everything he had. He hadn¡¯t done that in a long time. Since he had killed Barbarossa, very few of his enemies could match the sheer power given him by the green spark. Bobby realized he might have bitten off more than he could chew. Punching through the burning tree did nothing to stop it. It directed more of the invaders to launch through the portal with a wave of its limbs. He crashed into the mass after a flying start. He disrupted their assembly by throwing flying gunships that resembled crabs into each other. The crews abandoned ship or blew up when their boats collided with each other. He was holding them back. That was all he could really do. Hopefully the Lamplighters and their allies planned how to shut the portal down from the other side. Two colossi of stone and metal sprang to life from a floating mountain drifting by the mustering point. They stepped forward, reaching for Bobby as he flung a soldier away. Bobby knocked the head off one with one blow. He didn¡¯t watch it sail away across the liquid sky. The other one swung a massive fist he had to dodge. Then he flew straight in like a bullet and punched a tunnel through the second colossus¡¯s head. It dropped to a planetoid and refused to move. Bobby looked around to see what he could wreck next. He hoped he was helping the others with this big move. He might be able to turn most of the invaders back before they jumped across to Earth. He wondered how the others were doing. How were they handling the ones that were getting through? He knew that his girls, the Lamplighters, and the Rangers were on the scene. Hopefully they were holding the invasion to the scene of the beachhead. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Was he really helping with this solo effort? He grabbed a flying boat and rammed it into another one. However much he doubted he could hold the forces back, he was creating chaos in their ranks. That had to create extensive delays in getting to Earth to set up. And his girls were fast enough to take out groups of these alien soldiers on their own. Help would allow them to expand their net. Sheer numbers could wear the defenders down, but he hoped he was keeping those numbers down with the destruction he was causing. The burning tree stepped across the landscape and swung multiple limbs as one. He ducked the blow. So the general had decided to take him on while the army kept going without him getting in the way. ¡°I have had enough of your interference.¡± The voice was a thousand fingernails on chalkboards eating at his mind. ¡°It is time for you to be removed from my sight.¡± Bobby waited for her next move. He was the one who had to buy time. The longer he could hold her in place, the more time the others had to stop this. Beams of spellfire leapt from her multiple gnarled hands. They swept toward him in lockstep waves. He flew out of their way, blinking across the sky to avoid the burning symbols that made up the rays. Bobby charged in and swung with all the power he had. He landed his haymaker, noting that it caved the bark of the face he had smashed. A second later, the crater popped out while he wound up to hit with his other hand. He could be in for a slugfest as long as he could keep hitting her more than she could hit him. He doubted that he could kill her. He just wasn¡¯t strong enough to do more than inconvenience her at this point. He realized that but he knew he had to try. He couldn¡¯t let his adopted daughters down. He had to do as much as possible until the dimensional rip was sewed back up from the other side. Anything after that would be gravy as far as he was concerned. He slammed into her face again, swinging with both hands. That rocked her head back on the tree trunk body she had. Flames hissed from her eye holes as she fought to keep from going over. She exhaled a sheet of flame at him. He dropped out of the way close enough to smell the air burning from the assault. He didn¡¯t think he could take a hit from anything that powerful. It made his green spark look like a double a battery next to a nuclear power plant. He slammed into her chin to shut her mouth up. He didn¡¯t need her wrecking havoc with her bad breath in his world. A wave of wooden hands crashed into him. He flew into a planetoid and dug a crater in the rock. He staggered to his feet as the tree came on. Maybe he shouldn¡¯t let the thing hit him with its body, along with its spell power. ¡°You don¡¯t have a chance against me.¡± The tree held up all of its hands. They all glowed. ¡°I¡¯m the Queen of Genn, Sister of the Destroyer, Mother of the Myriad. You are nothing to me with your pitiful piece of magic.¡± ¡°I¡¯m the Mark.¡± Bobby felt more energy pour into him from his green spark. It had to be enough to get the job done. ¡°I won¡¯t let you pass. Call off your invasion.¡± ¡°You can¡¯t stop me from passing.¡± The Queen of Genn laughed at the absurdity of his demand. ¡°You have thrown my children in disarray for the moment, but that is of no consideration to me. You can¡¯t stop the inevitable joining of your world to mine.¡± ¡°I can try.¡± The Mark launched himself in the air. He had to keep pushing against her until she gave up. He wasn¡¯t going to overpower her. She had regeneration to burn against his attacks. ¡°Stubbornness in the face of destiny will only cause your extermination sooner than the rest of your breed.¡± The Queen flung her spells from her hands with a roar of flame from her crowning branches. Bobby dodged most of the spells. He moved like lightning in the air. His reflexes were also heightened so he didn¡¯t crash into things while trying to make turns at high speed. A net spread out in front of him. He tried to fly over its golden threads, but it wrapped around his legs. Pain shot through his body as he tried to pull away from the net. More of the sticky spell work covered him as he tried to rip the strands already wrapped around his legs. Soon he was cocooned into immobility by the layers of netting. Bobby tried to pull away from the Queen, pulling on the net like a fish on a hook. She yanked him back so she could grab him with her many hands. ¡°It¡¯s time you learned your place in the many worlds.¡± She marched to the cloud that denoted the boundary. ¡°It¡¯s time your world learned its place.¡± Bobby struggled inside the netting. He had to get free so he could get out of her grip and keep up the battle. He had to buy more time for the others. ¡°You can¡¯t avoid your fate.¡± The Queen of Genn formed a bridge through the boundary and emerged over New York. Bobby wondered if he had made the wrong choice trying to shape the future to something that he wanted to happen instead of what would happen. Had he moved things too far and doomed his family? What if he had doomed the world by trying to play the Lone Ranger? Who would look after his kids now? ¡°I, the Queen of Genn, the Sister of the Destroyer, the Mother of the Myriad, the Sun of a Million Lands, pronounce sentence on this miserable place for the crime of accepting my rebellious daughter as one of your own.¡± The burning tree held up her prize in her grasp. An image covered the world so everyone could see what was going to happen. ¡°You will all be exterminated just like this hero who tried to stop me.¡± The net around Bobby caught fire as magic poured down on him. He felt the green spark in his body being ripped out. Then he blew apart in a cloud of ash and smoke. Cassie¡¯s cryptic reading passed through his mind as he burned away. He knew he had made the right choice and bought the time the others needed to save the world. New Girl 2017- Lynette Harkness stood on the roof of her apartment building in her training suit. She looked at the massive cloud hovering over the island of Manhattan. She must have lost her mind to think she could make a difference in the chaos that had overtaken the city. She must be crazy. Her dad would give her a lecture about trying to jump ahead, when she was still trying to crawl. She frowned behind her face concealing mask. This was an all hands emergency. She couldn¡¯t just sit it out when people needed her. She¡¯d work things out with her dad later. Her danger indicator flashed on the inside of her mask every time she moved her head. It indicated the cloud was the biggest source of danger in white digital clock numbers. Smaller numbers flashed in that direction, but twelve o¡¯clock flashed more often than the others. A scream drifted up from one of the alleys around her building. The visor dropped a crosshair in the direction of the scream¡¯s owner. She ran to the edge of the roof and jumped to the next building. Lynette¡¯s boots were designed to hook into any surface she stood on and support her weight as much as possible. Running across roofs became safer when you could run up and down walls. She paused at the edge of the roof and looked down. A woman was being menaced by a tree in armor. The thing held a spear with a flaming blade in two of its limb-like hands. A man was down on the alley floor. Lynette took a breath. She had an enemy of unknown capability. He was a threat to civilians. Protecting the woman was first. Then she had to deal with the wounded man. That way they both could survive the night. ¡°Net gun, right arm.¡± The array in her right gauntlet changed with a click. ¡°Line gun, left arm.¡± Lynette raised her right arm. A crosshair appeared on her target. She clenched her hand. A diamond-shaped projectile unfurled into a spider¡¯s web. It wrapped around the target and glued him to the wall behind him. He started sawing at the strands with his spear¡¯s blade. She couldn¡¯t let him do that. She raised the other arm and shot another of the diamonds across the alley. The missile extended a line of rope behind it as it smashed against the wall opposite her to form an anchor. She dropped down from her perch, letting the line retract slowly so she wouldn¡¯t hit the alley floor. She dropped down on the soldier with both feet extended. Her suit gave her limited superstrength. She would never be able to hit as hard as the Mark, but she had enough to ruin someone¡¯s day. He cracked under the impact, but he didn¡¯t stop trying to get out of the net. Lynette grabbed the shaft of the spear. She yanked it out of his grasp. Then she swung it like a baseball bat against the monster¡¯s head. That took some of the fight out of him. ¡°He stabbed Paul.¡± The woman went to her husband. ¡°I can¡¯t believe it.¡± Lynette had some first aid, but it wasn¡¯t enough in this situation. She listened and the guy was still breathing. That had to be something. Her danger indicator lit up. She turned her head as a spear flew by her. Apparently the one guy she put down had a bunch of friends. She didn¡¯t know if the training suit could take a direct hit, and didn¡¯t want to find out. ¡°Full Auto Net Guns,¡± Lynette pointed her gauntlets at the crowd. Suddenly the air was full of projectiles as she shot at whatever was in her crosshairs first. The webs glued the hostile soldiers together in a pack. They went down, struggling to free themselves from their bonds. Lynette turned on her radio. ¡°Man down on the eight hundred block of East 40th street. I need an ambulance and a van to haul away prisoners.¡± ¡°Lynette?¡± The voice of her dad came through loud and clear. ¡°What are you doing?¡± ¡°Nothing, Dad.¡± Lynette shrugged at the woman. ¡°I have a stabbing victim. I need Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.him picked up.¡± ¡°All right.¡± Her dad didn¡¯t sound like it was all right. ¡°Help is on the way. Stay out of this. Go home.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t, Dad.¡± Lynette frowned as her danger indicator started feeding her numbers. ¡°It looks like they are sending in troops right where I am. I am going to have to protect civilians in the way.¡± ¡°You are so grounded.¡± Harkness muted his end for a second. ¡°All right. I asked a friend to bail you out. Then I want you to go home until I get home.¡± ¡°I will be glad to do that.¡± Lynette had no intention of going home. The city had to be protected, and she had her training suit. She could protect herself. ¡°Got to go, Dad.¡± Lynette cut the radio off. More of the enemy soldiers were flooding into the alley from the far end. Her crosshair lit up as they crossed her field of vision. It was time to get to work. She sent more net bullets at them as they marched toward her. Some tried to cut the nets as they expanded. That just wrapped the net around their arms holding them together as the web contracted. The reloading warning kicked on below the danger indicator. She had used up too much ammunition on these foot soldiers. She had to go hand to hand until the shooters came back online. She looked around. The woman she was protecting had picked up a brick that had been on the ground. She stood over the stabbed man. If the aliens were going to kill her husband, it was going to be over her dead body. Lynette hoped she didn¡¯t get stabbed to match him. The first soldier through the pile went for the stab to the face that she anticipated. She grabbed the body of the spear, yanked him into a kick in the face. She reversed the spear and stabbed him in the lower leg with it. Then she pulled, spun and broke the spear across his cylindrical head. The shaft caught fire on the broken end. She flung it at the next soldier as he climbed over his trapped fellows. Lynette used a wall to get over her next two attackers, and attack a third. She delivered a kick that vibrated her leg. She needed to stick to using weapons against these goons. She dodged several spear points, using the walls to keep out of reach of counterattack. She could see they were frustrated at her holding them up in a little alley while the rest of their mob did whatever it could. Some of the netted ones had been trapped with their spear blades next to their skins. That couldn¡¯t be pleasant for them. The reloading icon switched to ready. She smiled beneath her mask. Now she could take care of business. ¡°Single Shot Net Guns,¡± Lynette ordered her weapons control. The crosshair lit up green everywhere she looked. She had nothing but targets below her. She began plastering targets to keep them away from the couple at the other end of the alley. She only had one more reload. She had to make every shot count. Her shooting filled the alley with cocooned bodies. The language they used sounded like gibberish, but it was easy to tell what they were saying from the tone. They were saying ¡®Fudge¡¯, but not really. She could live with that. The tree soldiers¡¯ big brother dropped in the street. Glass shattered on impact. He looked around with eyes of flame in his wooden head. He half-turned to raise an arm to point at the mouth of the alley. ¡°That can¡¯t be good.¡± Lynette ran down to where the couple were. She had to get them out of the way. She realized she should have done that sooner. It didn¡¯t matter how wounded the husband was, she should have gotten them out of the way before she had trapped the army. She might have killed them with her mistake. The giant¡¯s hand opened up to reveal fire inside his arm. He smiled as he summoned his attack forward. Killing prey was the best feeling the Queen allowed. ¡°Line gun, right arm.¡± Lynette fired the projectile as she grabbed the man off the ground. She flung him over her shoulder as she grabbed the woman and held her with her arm. The line retracted as she ran at the tank. She leaped into the air, running along the tank¡¯s wooden body, before swinging across the street. She didn¡¯t think she was going to get the three of them to safety in time. All it had to do was turn and fire as she swung across the open space. A streak of lightning descended from the sky. It became a woman in yellow, hovering between the weapon arm and the intended target. The tank fired at her instead. She knocked the shot back with an open hand. ¡°I don¡¯t have time to play around with you, big boy.¡± Lightning blasted through the tank, shattering it into flinders. ¡°I got things to do.¡± ¡°The Mark¡¯s Lightning?¡± Lynette balanced her burden as she stood on the wall above the street. ¡°You¡¯re Dad¡¯s friend?¡± ¡°The impression I got was you¡¯re not supposed to be wearing that outfit in public.¡± Lightning smiled. ¡°Your dad was a little bit irritated.¡± ¡°Could you take these people to the hospital?¡± Lynette held out the two people she fought to keep safe. ¡°I would like to finish my patrol before Dad gets home to ground me.¡± ¡°There¡¯s no patrol.¡± Lightning took the couple in her arms. ¡°You go home, missy.¡± She flew off in a bolt of lightning, taking the intended victims with her. ¡°I, the Queen of Genn, the Sister of the Destroyer, the Mother of the Myriad, the Sun of a Million Lands, pronounce sentence on this miserable place for the crime of accepting my rebellious daughter as one of your own.¡± A giant burning tree held up the Mark in her grasp as she stepped out of the cloud over the city. She stood on a parapet of stone. An image covered the world so everyone could see what was going to happen. ¡°You will all be exterminated just like this hero who tried to stop me.¡± Lynette felt tears cloud her eyes as the Mark burned away in front of everyone in the city. She took a moment to compose herself. She wanted to be a heroine like her father and mother. She had even more reason to carry on the family business now. A Parley 2015- Jason Parley looked at the gates, and the mansion beyond. Business had been good for Robert Tortelli. He could understand wanting to keep that business against all comers. Too bad that the King had arrived, and expectations had to be laid out. ¡°What are we doing here, Jace?¡± Gus Greer sat behind the wheel of their unmarked car. His partner had changed in the last five years in a frightening way. He hadn¡¯t crossed the line yet, but it was only a matter of time. ¡°We shouldn¡¯t be here. Especially not now.¡± The reason they shouldn¡¯t be there was Lily Krantz, an 83 year old accountant. She had witnessed a crime that was tied back to Tortelli and his goons. The Cap had ordered Parley and Greer to guard her until trial. That was why she was sitting in the back seat listening to the detectives talk. ¡°Drive around, Gus.¡± Parley opened the door. ¡°I¡¯m just going to have a talk.¡± ¡°This is a bad move, Jace.¡± Greer stared at his partner. ¡°It could be considered tampering.¡± ¡°I¡¯m just going to have a talk with the man.¡± Jason turned a smile on his partner. The lightning bolt scar on his forehead seemed to gleam against his pale skin. ¡°Just drive around the block until I come out.¡± ¡°What if you don¡¯t come out?,¡± asked Mrs. Krantz from the back seat. ¡°They could kill you.¡± ¡°Then I expect you to avenge me.¡± Parley smiled at her. The thought of a retired grandma taking on the mob was the stuff of movies. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. It¡¯ll be a snap.¡± Parley got out of the car and headed up to the gate. The automobile pulled off at a sedate pace. Gus was an expert driver. If he wanted to crash the party, he could despite his self-doubt. Parley paused at the gate. Two men stood guard on the other side. They looked at him with bored expressions. He knew that he didn¡¯t look that impressive, barely making the height requirement, wearing a rumpled suit, old cowboy boots on his feet. He thought he was the more dangerous of the three of them. But, he admitted, most fighting people did. ¡°Open the gate, please.¡± Parley stood with his hands in his pockets. ¡°Got a warrant?¡± The bigger man on the left moved to stand right next to the bars on the other side. ¡°Otherwise, no. Mr. Tortelli is too busy to see you.¡± ¡°There¡¯s an easy way and a hard way to this.¡± Parley scratched the side of his head with an index finger. ¡°The easy way is to let me by and go in peace. The hard way is to impede me and never open a gate again, much less hold a spoon to feed yourself. Now is the time to think.¡± ¡°The answer is still no, cop.¡± The man pointed down the street with his thumb. ¡°Beat it.¡± Parley grabbed the man¡¯s tie and yanked him into the bars of the gate. He did it again to make sure the man was too stunned to stop him. He pulled the keeper¡¯s arms through the bars and twisted his hands. Cracking of bone followed the move. He turned to the other man, pistol in hand. ¡°Do you want what he got?,¡± Parley asked. The man held up his hands, shaking his head. ¡°Open the gate and let me by.¡± Parley put the pistol away. ¡°It will be better for you in the long run.¡± The second man did what he was told, opening the gate with one hand while holding his other up. He stepped back, raising the other hand. ¡°Take your friend to the hospital.¡± Parley stepped through the opened portal. ¡°They might be able to save his arms if you hurry.¡± Parley walked through the grass island in the middle of the circular driveway leading to the big house. He stepped over the three steps to a stone stage three feet wide. He knocked on the door. Pebbled glass sat in insets on either side of the door, and above the frame. He didn¡¯t see a peephole so he supposed the door man had to open the door to see who was visiting. The door opened like he expected. A goon looked down at him. He shoved the door out of the way and stepped across the threshold. ¡°You can¡¯t come in here.¡± The goon held up his hands. ¡°Get out of here.¡± If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. ¡°I¡¯m here to talk to Mr. Tortelli.¡± Parley shook his head. ¡°Once I am done, I will leave. Getting in my way is only going to get you hurt. Be wise and stand aside for the amount of time I am going to take. I would hate to dash your brains out in an instant if you keep standing there.¡± The tone of Parley¡¯s voice said he would love to dash someone¡¯s brains out in an instant, and he didn¡¯t care how many those brains happened to be. ¡°I¡¯ll get in trouble if I don¡¯t at least try.¡± The door man looked down the hall. ¡°You¡¯re going to have to go.¡± Parley punched him in the face so fast it was like he barely moved before the man crashed against the wall and fell to the floor. He made sure he hadn¡¯t killed the man before he continued his march to the middle of the mansion. The Organized Crime boys said Tortelli had a room in the middle of his place where he did business. No one had been able to bug it successfully. They were sure he had put it in the middle of the house to help defend it from them. Parley found the door to the room. He knocked on it and frowned at the metallic thud that answered. He found a button beside the door and pressed it. He noted the presence of a camera and a speaker. He placed his badge in plain view of the camera. ¡°Who are you?¡± The voice sounded like it was ready for a fight. ¡°Jason Parley.¡± Parley put his badge in his pocket. ¡°Open the door for me.¡± ¡°Or what?¡± The question might have been innocent enough, or maybe the owner felt that Parley wouldn¡¯t do anything since he was a cop. ¡°I start breaking your decor.¡± Parley picked up a vase with a bunch of flowers in it. ¡°When I am done, I will burn the place down whether you open the door, or not.¡± ¡°Put that down.¡± The voice didn¡¯t quite sound scared. ¡°Oops.¡± Parley opened his hands and dropped the vase. He caught it before it could hit the floor. ¡°I wonder how many pieces I can break this into with one kick.¡± The door hissed open. The group of men looking at him were not the picture of happiness. He smiled at them as he put the vase back on its stand. ¡°Hello, Slim.¡± Parley stepped into the room, identifying the one man who was not nervous or angry that he was there. Slim Servo was a fair bodyguard with a realistic expectation of what he could do in any situation. He had probably advised them not to open the door under any circumstances on the grounds he couldn¡¯t protect any of them from Parley¡¯s rage. That earned a little respect from the King. ¡°What do you want, cop?¡± Tortelli was a tall man, bulky like his men, wearing a better suit. He sat behind a desk with a glass top. Papers covered the top. ¡°You¡¯re on trial for RICO charges.¡± Parley hooked his thumbs in his belt. ¡°The prosecution only has one witness. I am guarding that witness. Ordinarily, I would just kill you and make my job that much easier. Naturally I would have to kill everyone in this room to make sure there were no reprisals.¡± The six men meeting with Tortelli drew back as if they had discovered a hungry lion within touching distance. ¡°That¡¯s some talk.¡± Tortelli leaned back from his desk. One hand tried to open a drawer without his visitor noticing. ¡°If your hand pulls a weapon out of that drawer, you will see how prepared I am to back my talk up.¡± Parley gave him a bored look. ¡°The only one of you likely to survive is Slim. That¡¯s because he is closest to the door.¡± The other men realized that Parley stood between them and the exit. If something happened, they would have to roll over him to get out of the office. And they were between the detective and Tortelli. Bullets would fly right through them if things went bad. Servo was on the other side, and could slide out of the room while the other men were fighting for their lives. ¡°My partner feels I should let the criminal justice system do what it will.¡± Parley¡¯s expression showed how much he thought of that idea. ¡°He doesn¡¯t want to have to explain why I kill every criminal I come across. I respect that. Paperwork is a pain. That¡¯s why I decided to give you options so I don¡¯t have to hear the complaints. ¡°The first option is you leave the city, and don¡¯t come back. You can run your territory from somewhere else using the Internet.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not doing that.¡± Tortelli was close to pulling the weapon from his desk. Only the prior warning held him back. ¡°The second option is for you to stand your trial. As long as you leave my witness alone, you can do whatever you want to get out of a conviction. If anything were to happen to my witness, I will be unhappy and I will come back and kill you, your associates, your family, suppliers, anyone even connected to your businesses in any way.¡± Parley¡¯s delivery was cold and exact. His eyes had deadened into things like brown marbles in his face. ¡°What else do you got?¡± Tortelli planned to grab the pistol in his desk and shoot this crazy man. No one threatened him in his own home. ¡°I kill you all now.¡± Parley flexed his wrist, loosening up his arm. ¡°Once I start, all of you will have to die.¡± Tortelli looked at Slim. The gunman had inched closer to the door. He was two steps away from freedom. The boss had the idea that Slim had run into this guy before and had a fair idea of what he could do. And what he could do was kill everyone in the room. ¡°Let¡¯s say I agree to this, what do I get out of this?¡± Tortelli put both hands on the top of his desk. ¡°You get a fair warning whenever our paths cross.¡± Parley didn¡¯t smile. ¡°I¡¯m only interested in murders. Everything else is yours. If you kill anyone else in my city, it had better be more justified than he was in my way.¡± ¡°What does that even mean?¡± Tortelli knew what it meant and he looked at the lieutenants in the room. They knew what it meant too from the looks on their faces. ¡°It means that as long as your operations don¡¯t kill anyone, you will probably not see me again. If they do, I expect a name so I can arrest that person.¡± Parley looked around the room. ¡°It¡¯s the same deal I gave Swift Morgan.¡± ¡°Swift Morgan is dead.¡± Tortelli wished he dared take a drink from the glass of water in front of him. ¡°He got chopped to pieces.¡± ¡°He chose option three.¡± Parley smiled. ¡°Be seeing you, partner.¡± He walked from the room. The Return of the King 2010- Jason Parley paused at the front of the disused church he had been summoned to. He had left his uniform cap in his car so his brown hair fought with the wind that was kicking up. He looked around, but didn¡¯t see a complainer. Did he go in, or did he search for the caller? Parley decided to go in. If the complaint was a false alarm, he could write it up and go back on patrol. If something was going on, he wouldn¡¯t know unless he went in any way. Another patrol car rolled to a stop next to his. The other officer turned on his lights before getting out. Gus Greer rubbed his bald head as he walked over to join Parley at the bottom of the steps leading into the church. ¡°Going in?¡± Gus checked the street as he touched the butt of the department issued pistol at his hip. ¡°Yeah.¡± Parley drew his own pistol. ¡°If you want to take the back, I¡¯ll check the inside. It¡¯s probably a prank call.¡± ¡°All right.¡± Greer made a face. ¡°If someone comes out, I¡¯ll grab them.¡± ¡°If it looks like something I can¡¯t handle, I¡¯ll call for backup.¡± Parley smiled. ¡°If it¡¯s a prank, I¡¯ll write it up for the watch.¡± ¡°You¡¯re on.¡± Greer went back down the steps and started around to the back of the building. Parley tried the doorknob. He paused when the knob turned under his touch. He assumed that when the congregation left, they had locked up behind them. Maybe he was wrong about that. He pushed the door open as quietly as possible. He stepped inside and closed the door behind him. He didn¡¯t bother with a flashlight, instead waiting on his eyes to adjust to the ambient light coming through the stained glass windows. He heard a noise somewhere behind the raised stage at the other end of the room. He looked to either side as he walked down the central aisle. No one seemed to be in the main room with him. He stepped on the stage. He seemed to remember a couple of doors that led to the back of the building. Living quarters and an administrative office for the priest should be behind these doors. He decided to clear the building as best he could before worrying how it would look in a report. He pushed open the door on the left hand side of the stage. He paused to listen. Someone was singing in a monotone way down there. He advanced through the door. Who could be in an abandoned church in the middle of the night? The answer to that question suggested itself as bums trying to find a place inside from the mild weather the city had been having of late. Parley doubted it was something as simple as squatters. Maybe he had some devil worshippers, or voodoo masters, practicing their rites in a place the public didn¡¯t use any more. A deconsecrated church would be perfect for that. He wondered how he knew that. It had surfaced in his memory, but he didn¡¯t recall where he had picked that thought up. He decided he could worry about his brain, when he was done with his search. So far, the only thing out of place was the singing in a foreign language. He felt he should know the words, but the meaning slipped through his mental fingers. He would figure it out when he was done. Parley moved down the stairs toward the bottom of the church. He turned his radio volume down so he wouldn¡¯t be heard. Figuring out why someone was in the building was next on his list, now that he knew someone was there. He paused at a door at the bottom of the stairs. Did he want to go through that door without backup? Did he need backup? He pushed the door open gently. He took a look through the crack. A circle of men stood around a makeshift table. Someone was chained down on the table. One of the circle held a white sword over his head as he said some words. That sword didn¡¯t belong there. It belonged to him. He tried to shake off the feeling, but it seized his mind. The sword should be in his hands. Rage filled him. No one else If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.was going to use his sword to kill anyone. Parley walked into the room. He shot the speaker as he went to bring the sword down on his victim. The speaker¡¯s hands opened and flung the sword at him as he stepped into the room. He reached up and caught it with one hand as he brought the blade around in a circle. Two of the chorus fell over in separate pieces as he completed his circle. Lightning ran up the blade of the sword, lighting the jagged scar on his forehead. He advanced down to the table. Memories flooded through his mind as he walked forward. Parley was just the latest mask he wore. His job was just the latest that he had taken up. He was the King now that he held his sword again. He was the King, and he always would be even if he walked the Earth a thousand more times. The chorus decided to break for the door. He let them. If he ran into them again, he would know them. Then he would mete out long delayed justice. He brought down the blade of his sword down on the chains holding their intended victim to the table they had turned into an altar. He noted that it was a boy. He appeared malnourished and pale as moonlight. He had colored his hair like a parrot¡¯s feathers. ¡°You shot me.¡± The spell caster lay on the floor. Blood surrounded him like a dark halo. ¡°I was supposed to complete the summons. The blood was supposed to bring the Kittikaen again.¡± ¡°Have better luck with that in your next life.¡± Parley¡¯s scar and eyes glowed to match the sword in his hand. Smoke boiled up from the blood on the concrete floor. Parley stepped back. He stood between the cloud and the drugged victim on the floor. He spun the sword in his hand, shifting his grip on it. It looked like the summons had been sent after all. The cloud parted to reveal a face with too many eyes and too many mouths. One of the larger eyes had been sliced apart from the looks of things. Scars crossed the eye. ¡°I forbid you to come across the boundary.¡± Parley gripped the lightning in his hand. ¡°Go home.¡± ¡°You do not forbid me, human.¡± Kittikaen stretched out tentacles to grip the living barrier in its way. ¡°You feed me.¡± The sword danced in Parley¡¯s hand. Appendages fell to the floor around him as he advanced to meet his enemy. He smiled under his lightning lit eyes. His blade stabbed out, jamming through Kittikaen¡¯s face with all of the police officer¡¯s new strength and speed. Parley ignored the cry of pain. He switched the grip on his pistol. He used it like a hammer to drive the sword in deeper. The morass of ectoplasm and fleshly hatred baked away from the blade. Pieces of skin peeled away as the sword ate its victim. It dropped back into Parley¡¯s hand with a final howl from its victim. Parley exhaled a breath. He hadn¡¯t thought that would work. The sword was meant to kill anything it came across. He should have known it would do the same for anything that was not meant to walk the Earth. He looked around the room. He was alone except for the sleeping victim on the floor. He would have to arrange medical treatment for the boy. He turned his radio back up so he could call out. He wondered if Gus had caught any of the chanters when they fled the building. He looked at the chopped bodies near the door. He could check them for identification later if he wanted it. He needed to save what he could and get an ambulance. Punishment could be handed down whenever he spotted his enemy on the street. And he did plan to punish them. Allowing something from outside access to Earth could have resulted in many deaths besides the one they had planned. They needed to be taught a lesson about why that wasn¡¯t a good idea. Parley found the church¡¯s walls blocked his radio. He walked upstairs and out the front. He smiled when his radio started working again. He called for an ambulance and backup to secure the building. Parley slid the sword under his jacket. It twisted into a sidereal space next to reality and faded. It would stay there until he needed it again, or he died. Gus came around the corner. He had a man in handcuffs in his grip as he walked the man back to the steps. The man looked at Parley and tried to get away. Greer threw him to the ground, and sat on him. ¡°Settle down, or you¡¯ll get a boot to the head.¡± Parley turned to go back in the church. ¡°We have a victim they were getting ready to carve up like a jack o¡¯lantern. It was a good thing we came along.¡± ¡°Keep him away from me,¡± said the chanter. ¡°He carved up Roscoe and Floyd like nothing I ever saw.¡± ¡°They deserved it.¡± Parley entered the church. He headed back to the slaughter room. He picked the boy up and carried him out of the church. He placed the boy down at the top of the steps. Where was the ambulance? The chanter tried to wriggle away from Gus. That showed a persistence that Parley admired. That didn¡¯t stop him from taking aim and kicking the man¡¯s lights out. ¡°We got three dead, one prisoner, and one victim who may or may not be able to press charges.¡± Parley put his hands in his pockets. ¡°Not really a good haul.¡± ¡°Maybe the D.A. will get this one to talk so we can round up the rest.¡± Greer looked down at his hands. ¡°Serving warrants should be easy.¡± ¡°We have the warrant squad for that.¡± Parley grimaced. ¡°I memorized their faces. If I see them on the street, I¡¯ll pick them up.¡± ¡°This is still going to be a mess.¡± Greer looked down at their captive. ¡°How did you kill three guys?¡± ¡°With speed and skill.¡± Parley smiled. ¡°Here comes the ambulance. I¡¯m going to ride down to the hospital with our victim. I guess turn everything over to what detectives show up to investigate.¡± ¡°At least I got that covered.¡± Greer shook his head. ¡°This guy probably should go too after the shot you gave him.¡± ¡°He deserved more than I gave him.¡± Parley waved at the ambulance attendants. ¡°Luckily for him, his value as an information source outweighs my wanting to kill him.¡± Cassies Knife 1976- Cassie Troy sat down on a stoop. Her face hurt. Tears dripped down her cheeks. Her dark hair fell to her neck in straight lines. She had taken a hit from a fist that had blotted out her vision long enough for the goons to take her friend, Hector. She wasn¡¯t quite sure what she should do. ¡°You okay?¡± A man in a rumpled raincoat sat down beside her. He produced a cigar and lit it. He puffed on the foul smelling thing with a face of contentment. ¡°Boyfriend leave you?¡± ¡°These guys grabbed him.¡± Cassie looked at the stranger. ¡°I didn¡¯t have a chance to do anything before they blindsided me.¡± ¡°Going to call the police?¡± The stranger puffed on his cigar as he looked at her. One eyebrow seemed higher than the other to emphasize his harmlessness. ¡°They wouldn¡¯t believe me.¡± Cassie wiped her face with the back of her hand. She frowned at the stranger. She usually had feelings about people. The only thing she got from this guy was he was only interested in her if she went along with his program. But he didn¡¯t actually care if she went along. She was a cog he was fitting into his machine and nothing more. ¡°You don¡¯t really care, do you?¡± ¡°I have a responsibility to help people help themselves.¡± The stranger looked up at the sky, holding his cigar. ¡°It doesn¡¯t seem like much, but I can¡¯t do anything until somebody decides they need the help.¡± ¡°I need the help.¡± Cassie got to her feet. ¡°What can you do for me? Can you help save Hector?¡± ¡°I can show you where they took him.¡± The stranger got to his feet. ¡°After that, it¡¯s up to you what you want to do.¡± ¡°You¡¯re kidding.¡± Cassie glared at this pain. ¡°You can show me, but you can¡¯t help me with anything else.¡± ¡°I¡¯m just a nobody.¡± The man stuck his cigar in his mouth. He hunched down in his tan coat. ¡°And nobodies don¡¯t get involved if they don¡¯t have to.¡± ¡°Is that how you justify things?¡± Cassie grabbed his arm. She reeled from the impression of age and experience. Places and people flashed through her mind. She sat down as her brain stopped working for a moment. ¡°What are you?¡± ¡°I¡¯m a nobody who thinks you can be a somebody.¡± He held out a hand. ¡°You want to help your friend, don¡¯t you? I¡¯m going to get you there. You¡¯re going to have to do the hard work after that.¡± ¡°Seriously?¡± Cassie pulled on his hand to get back to her feet. ¡°You can¡¯t do anything beyond that?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not my place, Cassie.¡± The stranger waved for her to follow him. ¡°You guys don¡¯t need much help any way. You¡¯re heroes when you need to be. It¡¯s in your blood.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t make me feel better.¡± Cassie spotted a glint on the sidewalk as she walked behind the man in the coat. She knew she could trust him up to a point, but her talent moved in different directions whenever she looked at him. She examined the glint, and realized it belonged to a knife that had fallen on the sidewalk. She picked it up and tucked it in her belt. The man in the coat led her down several alleys and across streets until he paused at a church. The building seemed to be in a dead zone. No one had worshiped there in a long time, and was likely not to with the dark aura it gave off. Even normals would cross to the other side of the street to get away from that thing. Cassie spotted the car that had grabbed her friend. It had been pulled off the street and on to the sidewalk next to a side entrance. Whatever was going on was going to happen in the back of the building. She looked at the front door. It opened for her hand if she wanted to use it. She decided that was the way to go. The man in the raincoat had vanished while her attention was on the building. She shook her head. He wasn¡¯t going to help her. It wasn¡¯t his job. Cassie entered the church. The pews would never have another crowd to fill them as Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.far as she could see. She made her way to the back of the room. What she wanted was down in the main body of the church. She had to hurry if she wanted to make a difference. Hector didn¡¯t have a lot of time. Cassie headed downstairs, listening to chanting in the air. She saw something forming in the future. She didn¡¯t like the looks of things. She closed her eyes. She had to ignore the potential for disaster. She had to get in there and save Hector. The future was telling her that it was reaching an end for her if she didn¡¯t do something in a hurry. She slipped into the room. Hector had been chained down to a table. He pulled against the chains, but his slim body didn¡¯t have a chance against steel. They were going to kill him to make their circle work to call their patron to Earth. How did she stop them? She could stop everything if she could kill the leader. If she could do that before he killed Hector, she ruined his chances to call his patron. Then she had to worry about getting away before the men in the room tried to take revenge. Her talent flared as she searched for options. It showed her paths that she could take to get what she wanted. She smiled. She could do this. Who needed a nobody anyway? Cassie walked around the room, knife in hand. She stepped inside the circle, appearing out of a shadow almost silently. The cultists pointed at her, but didn¡¯t stop their chanting. The leader intoned the words of command to summon the dreaded being that would grant them power over their fellow humans. She intoned the words, reading the future to get the pronunciation. He looked at her, eyes going wide. He pulled back the white sword in his hands to do the deed. The girl flung her knife at the closest cultist with as much force as she could muster before he could bring the sword down. The man went down with the knife in his chest. A cloud started forming above the circle. The cultists chanted more to open the rip in the air. Cassie chanted as she pulled the knife from the cultist¡¯s chest. Her talent had guided her throw. This was one man who was not going to get up and harm anybody else for a monster¡¯s favor. The cloud opened as she went to the table. Hector was not going to be given to this thing emerging out of the cloud. She saw the head cultist laughing. She saw him dead sometime in the future. She smiled at him. He stopped his chanting at that. ¡°Cassie.¡± The stranger in the coat stepped into the room. ¡°What are you doing?¡± ¡°You?¡± The voices from the thing in the cloud gave Cassie a headache. ¡°You!¡± ¡°Me,¡± said the man in the coat. ¡°Me too.¡± Cassie stabbed the thing in one of its eyes, shattering it with the knife. She struck again and again before black bodily fluids washed over her hand and knife. She dropped to the floor with the pain. Her hand felt like it was on fire. ¡°Oh, Cassie.¡± The man in the coat walked forward. He dropped the stub of a cigar that was in his hand. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t have done that.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll kill you, human scum.¡± The thing in the cloud extended tentacles to grab Cassie. It would do things to this female to teach it to never interfere with its betters. It would be the first human of millions to satisfy its thirst for revenge. ¡°I don¡¯t think so.¡± The stranger extended a hand. He twisted his wrist. The cloud snapped closed, slicing through the tentacles. The air in the room lightened instantly. ¡°You didn¡¯t need me to do that.¡± Cassie examined her hand. It was withered and missing part of its skin. She would never be able to use it for anything again. ¡°You called me.¡± The stranger looked around. The cultists fled from him, heading for the doors. ¡°That was a stupid thing to do, Cassie.¡± ¡°You think?¡± Cassie gritted her teeth to keep from screaming. The future of her surroundings poured through her mind. She closed her eyes against the visions, but that wasn¡¯t working. ¡°Let me look at your hand.¡± He held his own hand out to take hers. ¡°I can do that much for you.¡± She gave him her hand with a lot of pain. She didn¡¯t open her eyes. She felt a chill seep into her flesh. She sighed. The chill washed the pain away. Cassie opened her eyes. Her hand looked bad, but not as bad as it had when the acid blood had washed over it. She flexed her fingers. They looked more like talons now, but they worked. ¡°It¡¯s not perfect.¡± The stranger stood up. He handed her the knife she had used. The blade glowed in the ambient light drifting through windows high up in the walls. ¡°But it¡¯s better than what it should be.¡± ¡°They¡¯ll try again.¡± Cassie clutched her hand to her stomach. She couldn¡¯t find the strength to stand on her own. She needed a second to catch her breath. ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter.¡± The stranger waved his hand. The locks on the chains came loose so the links fell to the floor. ¡°That one guy is holding the sword of the King. Eventually the two always get together. That¡¯s his destiny. So sometime in the near future, the King will arrive to take his sword back. That usually puts a stop to any problem when that happens.¡± ¡°The King?¡± Cassie got to her feet. She felt better. Her hand ached but it was bearable for the moment. ¡°You¡¯ll know him when you see him.¡± The man in the raincoat handed her the knife. ¡°Let¡¯s get your friend out of here. Someone else can worry about the man you killed.¡± ¡°That thing knew you.¡± Cassie stuck the knife in her belt. She hefted Hector over her shoulder. He was heavier than he looked. ¡°You want to talk about it?¡± ¡°No.¡± The man in the raincoat lit another cigar as he led the way from the scene. Light the Lamp 1986- Mark Hadron examined the specifications on the prints in front of him. He thought he had the right mapping on the circuitry. Once he had everything the way he wanted it, he could build a lantern. It would run on local psychic energy if he was right. It might be a clean power source if he could build a lantern big enough to act as a battery for a city. It would run on people power which should be great inside a city. If he could get the first step in motion, he could work out how to power lanterns in the country. All it would take is enough psychic energy to be turned into electricity. ¡°What you got there, boy?¡± Milton Kearn stepped into the shop, adjusting his battered cowboy hat. He looked like he stepped out of some John Wayne movie, with his jeans and shirt with vest worn over it. All he needed was a gun and a lasso to go along with his long mustaches. ¡°You¡¯re only three years older than me.¡± Mark rolled his eyes. ¡°Don¡¯t you have an exam to study for right now?¡± ¡°Already took it.¡± Kearn examined the schematics. ¡°I don¡¯t understand this thing here.¡± ¡°I devised a way to trap mental energy.¡± Mark spread the papers out for him to look at so he could point out the flaws. ¡°I¡¯m hoping to turn it into a clean source of energy.¡± ¡°Never happen.¡± Milton shook his head. ¡°You could maybe absorb psychic energy as you call it, but it won¡¯t turn into electricity. It¡¯ll sit in this thing until it¡¯s used up, or released back in the environment.¡± ¡°So this new type of energy is possible, but using it for electricity is not?¡± Mark sat back in his chair. ¡°I haven¡¯t built a prototype, much less tested things. How would you know that?¡± ¡°I just know things when I see them.¡± Kearn stroked the end of his mustache. ¡°You could set one of these up and use it to clear the air, but not much more than that.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t think I can do anything else with this?¡± Mark looked at his design. He was sure he was on the edge of a great discovery. He didn¡¯t believe his friend was wrong. He hoped he was. ¡°You could probably kill ghosts with it, boy.¡± Kearn shrugged. ¡°I don¡¯t know how much call there is for that.¡± ¡°You¡¯re kidding me.¡± Mark rubbed his eyes. ¡°What do you mean kill ghosts?¡± ¡°If Professor Jenkins is right, ghosts are made up of emotion that uses this pseudo energy you are trying to harness as fuel.¡± Kearn pushed his hat back so he could scratch his head. ¡°If this thing works like you want it, it should stop that from happening.¡± ¡°That¡¯s great.¡± Mark stood, stretching his back. ¡°Who would pay for something to do that?¡± ¡°Anybody who didn¡¯t like ghosts.¡± Kearn shook his head. ¡°If you could prove they had a ghost problem, and that you could get rid of it, you could write your own ticket and get your dissertation done.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a crazy way to do things.¡± Mark paused as he considered the rarity of ghosts that needed to be murdered. ¡°How would I even advertise something like that?¡± ¡°You have to get this built first.¡± Kearn waved at the prints. ¡°Dyson can help with some of this. He¡¯s taking that metal working class.¡± ¡°So we go down and ask Dyson to help us with the basic shape.¡± Mark began stacking the prints together. ¡°Then we can start building the circuitry to get things done.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t see the problem with that.¡± Kearn smiled. ¡°We can ask Harry for parts if we need them.¡± ¡°He¡¯s still working at that new electronics place, right?¡± Mark would give his eyeteeth to work in a job where he could snatch parts as he went about his job. ¡°Yeah,¡± said Kearn. ¡°We¡¯ll have to pay him for the parts. We can¡¯t ask him to give up his job for some harebrained scheme.¡± ¡°I guess you¡¯re right.¡± Mark gathered his drawings and his keys. ¡°Let¡¯s go down and talk to Dyson. He¡¯ll be able to give us some idea on how big we can make these lanterns.¡± ¡°He can probably make a small one as a test.¡± Kearn straightened his hat. ¡°Then we can scale up into something we can use to get rid of any bad influence in the city.¡± Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. ¡°No one will pay for that.¡± Mark waited at the door for his classmate. ¡°It has to be something we can paint as a threat.¡± ¡°Trust me.¡± Kearn waved for him to go ahead. ¡°If we can make this crazy lamp work, I know some people across campus who will write us some advertisements and help us out.¡± ¡°You know people who will do that?¡± Mark blinked. He had gone from planning an experiment to setting up a business to kill ghosts. He wasn¡¯t sure how that had happened. ¡°Some of the kids.¡± Kearn smiled. ¡°They need some experience in copy writing and basic layout. They might give us a good advertising if we hurry over and don¡¯t act like jerks.¡± ¡°That sounds good to me.¡± Mark put the advertisement idea to the back of his brain. If he needed it, he would do research and then help it out. He didn¡¯t see any possibility of his idea being anything more than something to give free lighting. Kearn talked folksy, but he knew a lot about exotic control systems and how to use them. If Kearn said there was no way to convert the gathered psychic energy to real electricity with what they had, he was inclined to believe his classmate. If anyone could reconfigure the diagrams and circuitry into doing something more than glowing in the dark, that person was Milton Kearn. Mark followed his fellow student across campus to the Arts area. Students worked to put on plays, figured out advertisements, ran the campus radio station. They entered a shop area where the students put together props for their productions when they couldn¡¯t find them at yard sales and online. They found Dyson Baker shaping a rod into something that looked like it had a snake wrapped around a tree. He cooled it in some water, then inspected it with dark eyes. He nodded as he set it on a rack nearby. ¡°It¡¯s the Trouble Twins.¡± Dyson smiled at his visitors. ¡°You guys going haunted house probing? I made out big the last time.¡± ¡°How did you do that?¡± Mark remembered that Dyson had come along with two cheerleaders from another school. ¡°You didn¡¯t.¡± ¡°Remember all that moaning.¡± Kearn shook his head. ¡°Thanks for ruining the field trip.¡± ¡°What.¡± Mark considered the pieces for a brief second. ¡°You didn¡¯t. Not at the Lovejoy House. I warned you about the curse.¡± ¡°What curse?¡± Dyson smiled. ¡°The only curse I got was stopped by Gatorade, if you know what I mean.¡± ¡°The Lovejoy House Curse is a real thing, Dyson.¡± Mark shook his head. ¡°People die from it.¡± ¡°You¡¯re kidding, right?¡± Dyson looked at the two of them with disbelief. ¡°Anybody who has sex, there dies?¡± ¡°It takes a while.¡± Kearn pulled out a tin flask. He twisted off the lid and took a sip of the contents. He sealed the can and put it back in his pocket. ¡°You won¡¯t drop dead tomorrow, and we need your metal working skills.¡± ¡°For what?¡± Dyson crossed his arms. ¡°First the scare tactic, then the favor. Is that how things work?¡± ¡°Nope.¡± Kearn smiled. ¡°Look at this. Show him the prints, boy.¡± Mark picked a clean table and spread the sheets of paper out. He picked pieces of metal to hold the corners down. He stepped back. ¡°We need this in a cylinder of metal with a cut out for a glass window.¡± Kearn pointed to a diagram. ¡°We¡¯re going to put some wiring in to create the effect we need.¡± ¡°It looks like a lamp.¡± Dyson scratched his chin. ¡°Two by one by three should be all right from what you got down here.¡± ¡°So you can do it?¡± Mark frowned. Things seemed better when it was just him working on this idea. Now he had Kearn and Baker in on the act. ¡°Sure.¡± Dyson nodded. ¡°I have pieces I can use for part of it right now.¡± ¡°We¡¯re going to have to get the guts ready to go.¡± Kearn pointed at the circuitry diagram. ¡°We¡¯re going to need a space of a couple of inches to slide things into place between an inner and outer wall.¡± ¡°Should be a snap.¡± Dyson smiled. ¡°I¡¯ll set a shim in place to keep things separate until you can plug everything in place.¡± ¡°How long do you think the casing will take?¡± Mark didn¡¯t think it would be done sooner than two days. ¡°Give me a day to get everything together, then a day to work on it.¡± Dyson gestured at the snake stick. ¡°I¡¯ll have to do it after I get done with this caduceus.¡± ¡°We¡¯re in no hurry.¡± Kearn waved him off to get back to his work. ¡°We don¡¯t even know if this thing will work.¡± ¡°It¡¯ll work.¡± Mark didn¡¯t fight the annoyance in his voice. ¡°Once we put it somewhere to gather up the ambient energy, this thing will light up like a spotlight.¡± ¡°He¡¯s right.¡± Kearn nodded. ¡°It¡¯ll do something.¡± ¡°I can get the shell together for you in a few days, maybe a week.¡± Dyson smiled. ¡°Then we¡¯ll see how things go.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll check in with you in a couple of days.¡± Kearn adjusted his hat. ¡°Stay out of trouble.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t I always.¡± Dyson waved at them before reaching for safety goggles on his forehead. He pulled them down over his eyes and picked up the snake sculpture. He started heating it again so he could bang it into the shape he wanted. ¡°He¡¯s as good as dead.¡± Mark kept his voice low. ¡°The Lovejoy House Curse always kills people who have sex in that house.¡± ¡°Hopefully it won¡¯t kill him before we get our prototype.¡± Kearn took another sip from his flask as they walked out of the building. ¡°I¡¯m not going to do it.¡± ¡°If the lamp works, it might stop the curse.¡± Mark held the door open so they could step outside. ¡°We might be able to sell that as a positive feature.¡± ¡°You¡¯re saying that curses work through this ambient energy, and we can stop them cold if the lamp sucks enough of it out of the air to prevent crap from happening.¡± Kearn rubbed his chin as he thought about the implication. ¡°It could promote self help people trying to use the energy to skip exercise and a good diet.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s not get ahead of ourselves.¡± Mark smiled. ¡°But we could keep a lamp around Dyson just in case it can do something. It might stop the curse.¡± ¡°That sounds reasonable for a just in case type thing.¡± Kearn nodded. ¡°And it lets us test the effects without letting Dyson know we¡¯re using him as a guinea pig.¡± ¡°If we can kill a curse, we might have a business as debuggers.¡± Mark nodded. ¡°We can run anyone cursing people with harm out of business. We could stop the effects as soon as we know they¡¯re activated.¡± ¡°And it could be a business on its own if we get it to launch.¡± Kearn nodded. ¡°We¡¯ll be rich.¡± The Four Musketeers 1992- ¡°This is the place?¡± Henry Harkness waved his hand at the Good Eats diner. He felt a little doubt as he noted that the second o, the e, and the s were out so the sign read Good At. The place sat between two skyscrapers, and it was a miracle the place hadn¡¯t been forced closed for a more expensive building. ¡°The food is good.¡± Pablo Estevez grinned. ¡°Cassie and Hector feed us well.¡± ¡°It looks run down to me.¡± Henry scowled at the eatery. ¡°Julio¡¯s looks better than this.¡± ¡°Julio¡¯s looks better, but it isn¡¯t.¡± Pablo pushed the door open with the flat of his hand. ¡°That¡¯s why we meet here every month. I wouldn¡¯t tell Cassie some place is better than hers. She might cut you to pieces.¡± ¡°Who¡¯s Cassie?¡± Henry paused inside the door to look around. There was a small lunch crowd, but no one seemed to be looking at him. ¡°I am.¡± A woman in a red shirt and black skirt smiled at him. Gray laced her dark hair. A leather glove covered one hand. ¡°How¡¯s it going, Pobs?¡± ¡°Still trying to make the world a better place.¡± Pablo flashed white teeth at her. ¡°The old men here yet?¡± ¡°They got the big booth in the back.¡± Cassie nodded at the rear of the room. ¡°I see you brought your kid.¡± ¡°Henry, this is Cassie.¡± Estevez gestured at the waitress. ¡°Cassie, this is my trainee, Henry Harkness.¡± ¡°Nice to meet you, kid.¡± Cassie waved at them to take a seat. ¡°I¡¯ll bring menus for you two in a second.¡± ¡°She¡¯s waiting on all of the tables herself?¡± Henry looked at the crowd. ¡°What¡¯s with the glove?¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t you ask her?¡± Pablo led the way across the room. ¡°I¡¯m sure the explanation is as simple as a heavy burn.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll pass.¡± Henry tried to step where the older man stepped, but he kept getting arms and legs in the way. His respect for the waitress went up at the thought she had to negotiate through her customers like he was doing her whole work day. The big booth in the back already had two older men sitting there. Henry didn¡¯t know them, but guessed they were in the line of work he was training to enter. ¡°Dalton, and T. J., this is my intern, Henry.¡± Pablo waved Henry to a seat on the round booth chair. ¡°Henry, these are the guys you call if something happens to me.¡± ¡°Nice to meet you, Henry.¡± T. J. smiled. It was obvious some of his teeth had been fixed at one point. His eyes hid behind shaded glasses so their color was distorted. His hair only had a few strands of gray. ¡°Chances are something will happen to us first.¡± Dalton¡¯s hair was all white and thin. His face had been shaped by the two furrows on either side of his mouth. His nose had been busted at least once by the look of it. Both men wore business casual. Henry figured they had come in from somewhere outside the city for the meeting. Both looked a little too tan to live in the Big Apple. ¡°You guys meet once a month?,¡± asked Henry. ¡°Why?¡± ¡°We like to compare notes.¡± T. J. waved a hand. ¡°Our operations don¡¯t overlap so much anymore now that I live out west, and Dalton has taken to traveling around. If one of us sees something, he brings it to the meeting in case it¡¯s more serious than it looks.¡± ¡°A few of our guys like to operate around the world,¡± said Dalton. He sat so he could Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.look out the window. ¡°We like to make sure we can see the signs first. The Mark doesn¡¯t break things like he used to back during the war.¡± ¡°You know that¡¯s because of his trial.¡± T. J. shook his head. ¡°Old history.¡± ¡°You guys know the Mark?¡± Henry leaned back with crossed arms. ¡°I thought he was a fake.¡± ¡°Nah.¡± Dalton shook his head while looking outside. ¡°He retreated from the world for a while. He¡¯s got some girls taking over for him now, like T. J. took over for me, and Pablo took over for T. J.¡± ¡°And hopefully like you¡¯ll take over for me when you¡¯re ready.¡± Pablo smiled. ¡°This is a dangerous business we¡¯re in, Henry. One wrong move can get you killed.¡± ¡°I have to go.¡± Dalton shooed T. J. out of the way. ¡°The bladder ain¡¯t what it used to be.¡± He got to his feet creakily and headed for the rest room area at the front of the restaurant. He vanished around the corner. ¡°Is he still looking for the Pyramid?¡± Pablo leaned over to whisper. He had his eye on the front where Dalton had gone. ¡°Probably.¡± T. J. shrugged. ¡°He¡¯s been wanting to put the Murmur down for a long time. That¡¯s probably the only reason he hasn¡¯t retired for good.¡± ¡°Who¡¯s the Murmur?¡± Henry felt silly whispering when the person they were talking about wasn¡¯t in the same room with them. ¡°Undead murderer.¡± Pablo sat back. ¡°He¡¯s the whole reason Dalton took up our line of work.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t understand.¡± Henry frowned at his elders. ¡°Dalton used to be a pilot when he was younger.¡± T. J. sipped at his water. ¡°He crashed his plane and stumbled on the Murmur¡¯s burial ground. He entered to get out of the elements so he could get some time to figure out what to do. He woke the Murmur up somehow. He¡¯s been trying to put him back down ever since.¡± ¡°Guy¡¯s tough?¡± Henry hoped he was tough if he couldn¡¯t be beat for however long Dalton had been chasing him. ¡°Hit him with a jet beam once.¡± Pablo gestured with an index finger to indicate thrust. ¡°He laughed it off.¡± ¡°You¡¯re kidding.¡± Henry had seen a jet beam push a car over. He had a rough idea of how much force could be used against a human body. Pablo shook his head. ¡°Everybody, freeze!¡± Two masked men rushed into the room with pistols pointed at the crowd. ¡°We want your money. Everybody put everything in your pockets on the table in front of you. Otherwise, we¡¯ll have to make an example of you.¡± Cassie pulled a knife holstered at the small of her back and stabbed the closest one in the ribs. He went down in a spray of blood. The other man swung to bring his hand up to point his pistol at Cassie. One squeeze would pay this skirt back for what she had done to Richie. Then his hand caught fire. He screamed and dropped his pistol. ¡°You picked the wrong day, sport.¡± Cassie picked up a metal napkin holder and hit him in the face with it. He went down. She put a boot in to keep him there. Dalton came into the room. He grabbed someone¡¯s water glass and poured it on the fire. A couple of others added tea and Pepsi to the mix to put the fire out. ¡°Let¡¯s take a look at the other one.¡± Dalton bent one knee slowly to inspect the stab wound. ¡°Sliced some muscle there, can¡¯t tell if it hit anything major.¡± ¡°He¡¯ll live if the ambulance gets here soon.¡± Cassie wiped her knife off and put it back in its sheath. Henry stood. The others had gone back to eating. He frowned at them. He didn¡¯t feel like eating after what had just happened. ¡°Too bad I left the first aid kit at base.¡± Pablo slid by Henry. He headed for where the two robbers laid on the floor. ¡°I left mine too.¡± T. J. fell in beside Henry as the two advanced on the small circle around the two robbers. Dalton and Pablo used some things gathered from the kitchen to keep the blood down. The man cried a little as they applied pressure to staunch the red flow. ¡°There¡¯s a lot of blood here.¡± Henry looked at the people eating again. ¡°Why isn¡¯t everyone getting up and leaving?¡± ¡°Because they still have to pay for their food.¡± Cassie shook her head at him. ¡°Let me get the wet floor sign.¡± She walked off at a slow trot. ¡°Burning the other guy was a great disarmer.¡± T. J. checked the gun hand of the spokesman for the robbers. ¡°He might not use this hand again.¡± ¡°I was aiming for his head.¡± Dalton made a face. ¡°It looks like I need glasses like you.¡± ¡°You set fire to the guy¡¯s hand?¡± Henry pushed his dark hair back from his face with a hand. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t it have been easier to just punch him?¡± ¡°At my age?¡± Dalton gave him a look. ¡°I¡¯m not trying to break my hand.¡± ¡°We can wrap it up in some ice in a second.¡± Pablo gritted his teeth. ¡°If I had a staple gun, we could seal this exterior cut long enough to get him to the hospital.¡± ¡°We can cauterize it.¡± Cassie shrugged at the look that earned her. ¡°It¡¯ll seal things up.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll handle it, Cassie.¡± T. J. waved her off. ¡°Take care of your customers. Some of them will want to not to pay the bill after this.¡± ¡°Sure, sure.¡± Cassie handed Dalton a folded piece of paper. ¡°Good luck, old man.¡± Girl on the Road 2015- She stood on the side of the road in a brown and green dress that looked like it was made of leaves. Her hair faintly glowed in the hairdo that lifted it into a bee hive above her head. Her skin seemed to match the trees that she stood next to in its brownness. It was only luck that Denver McGinty had seen her when he rolled by. He put it down to two lights reflecting near her. He rolled onto the shoulder of the road and put on his hazards. Denver didn¡¯t always pick up hitchhikers but this girl seemed more lost than what he usually saw in the middle of the night. Maybe she needed a hand. He stepped out of his truck. He used it to haul parts for his car repair shop and didn¡¯t care how it looked. A wreck would be the best way to describe its dented sides, crooked back bumper, and the tape over one of the tail lights. ¡°Do you need some help, ma¡¯am?¡± Denver wondered how she had got out there without a bag, or car. He put it down that she was a hitchhiker. He still expected some kind of luggage unless she was local. ¡°Yes, please.¡± The girl strode forward. ¡°I am far from where I wanted to be.¡± ¡°No problem.¡± Denver gestured for her to go around to the passenger side. ¡°I can drop you off in the city.¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± She climbed into the passenger side of the truck. ¡°This is very good of you.¡± ¡°I¡¯m heading up to Niagara.¡± Denver shrugged before he climbed in behind the wheel. ¡°New York City is on the way. Are you going beyond there?¡± ¡°No.¡± She looked down at her hands. ¡°I hope to find work there.¡± ¡°Good luck.¡± Denver smiled at her. He started the truck rolling down the road. ¡°You said you were going to Niagara?¡± The girl watched the side of the road as guard rails and signs flew by. ¡°Every year, I go to see the Falls.¡± Denver looked embarrassed at the admission. ¡°My wife and I used to go together, but she died. I carry on with it for her memory.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± The girl made a face. ¡°Nothing to be sorry about.¡± Denver switched lanes as he looked for the right route into the city that wouldn¡¯t cost him that much time. ¡°She had stomach cancer. She insisted we go even though the doctors told her not to. She said it was the last thing we could do together before she went.¡± ¡°I haven¡¯t met anyone like that,¡± said the girl. ¡°My mother tries to keep me away from suitors.¡± ¡°No one good enough for her?¡± Denver raised an eyebrow. He had known quite a few women who thought their kids were fragile glass. ¡°Yes.¡± The girl nodded. ¡°She drives off anyone I might want to talk to about anything.¡± ¡°Is that why you¡¯re heading into the city without any belongings?¡± Denver thought he might have crossed the line with that question, but she looked like she needed to talk about what was bothering her. Strangers were good for that kind of thing. They weren¡¯t invested, and it didn¡¯t matter what they thought. ¡°I don¡¯t have any belongings,¡± said the girl. The lights from the road caught her eyes and made it look like they contained explosions of light inside their orbits before they faded again. ¡°My mother keeps everything. What¡¯s mine is hers.¡± ¡°And what¡¯s hers is hers.¡± Denver nodded. ¡°Doesn¡¯t make things easy.¡± ¡°It was just better if I left without saying anything to her.¡± The girl turned to look out the window, or maybe at her own reflection. ¡°She would have been furious at the talk. She will definitely be furious when she realizes that I have left and don¡¯t plan to come back.¡± ¡°Starting out is going to be tricky in the big city.¡± Denver glanced her way. ¡°I can drop you off further upstate.¡± ¡°That¡¯s kind of you, but the city is what I need.¡± The girl smiled at him. ¡°It will let me blend in while I am taking care of myself. It will make it harder for Mother to find Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.me and try to bring me home.¡± ¡°If you can¡¯t blend in with five million people, you won¡¯t be able to blend in anywhere.¡± Denver smiled. ¡°I wish you the best of luck with that.¡± ¡°I know.¡± The girl nodded. ¡°I am hoping that eventually I will be able to move further away from here. That will make it harder for anyone looking for me.¡± ¡°I get that.¡± Denver saw an exit he could use to head across the bridge from New Jersey into the city. He could drive through and head north again when he was done dropping his passenger off. ¡°Any place in particular you want to be dropped?¡± ¡°You can drop me on the other side of the river.¡± The girl pointed at the other end of the bridge. ¡°I¡¯ll have to make my own way from there.¡± ¡°It¡¯s no problem.¡± Denver nodded. ¡°Do you have any friends you can call for help?¡± ¡°Not really.¡± The girl shrugged. ¡°Mother always chased off any that I might have liked. She wanted to keep me strong of mind.¡± ¡°I see.¡± Denver did a small shake of his head. He had heard of overprotectiveness, but not like this. ¡°Don¡¯t worry.¡± She smiled at him. ¡°I can take care of myself. It should be okay once I have done some thinking, and figured what I can do to be successful.¡± ¡°Good luck.¡± Denver knew the city chewed up young people and spit them out. He had seen more than few as he traveled across the state. He hoped she did better than he expected. They rolled across the bridge silently. It resembled a glowing ribbon leading to a set of lit spools in the distance. Blackness stretched out to either side, with occasional lights from boats plying the river. Denver reached the end of the bridge, ignoring the signs for the Port Authority. His passenger didn¡¯t need to be dropped in the snake pit that marked the end of other people¡¯s journeys to the big city. ¡°Can you take me up to the park?¡± She pointed in the direction she wanted to go. ¡°I think I can start there tonight.¡± ¡°The park is dangerous at night.¡± Denver frowned at her. Central Park had gained a bad reputation over the years. He didn¡¯t want to give it another lamb to slaughter. ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± she said. ¡°Mother might have denied me basic comforts, but she did show me how to protect myself. I feel like the park will give me a better view of what I need to get started. A lot of my skills are in forms of gardening.¡± ¡°I suppose the city will need another gardener.¡± Denver knew the Mayor was big on natural spaces. She would have to work to get through the application process if she didn¡¯t have some kind of extra education. He doubted her mother wanted her to attend a college from what had been said already. ¡°I have other skills.¡± She smiled at him. ¡°It¡¯s just I am best at gardening. If I can get work in the park, that will make things easier. If I can¡¯t, I will look for something else to do.¡± ¡°I suppose you know what¡¯s best for you.¡± Denver held back any comments. He doubted he would see her again. He didn¡¯t want to hurt her feelings by thinking that she could do better closer to her home. ¡°Thank you,¡± she said. ¡°You¡¯re the first person who has said that to me. I know I seem like a bumpkin, but I will be fine.¡± He smiled back. At least she was confident in her ability and had tempered her expectations some. Most didn¡¯t have that when they tried to make a life in the city. ¡°There¡¯s the entrance to the park.¡± Denver pulled up to the curb. ¡°I¡¯ll let you off here, and head up to where I am going.¡± ¡°Thank you for your help.¡± She opened the door and slid out. ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± ¡°It¡¯s Denver McGinty.¡± He smiled at her. Then he reached in his pocket and pulled out his wallet. ¡°Let me give you something to get started. It won¡¯t be much, but you should be able to get something cheap to eat for a couple of days.¡± He handed over a couple of twenties. It wasn¡¯t much, but it was better than nothing. ¡°Thank you, Denver.¡± She put the money in her dress. ¡°My name is Kisara, Princess of the Genn. I will remember this.¡± ¡°Kisara Princess?¡± Denver raised an eyebrow at the weird name. ¡°Be careful out there, Kisara.¡± ¡°The same to you, Denver McGinty.¡± She closed the door and started for the entrance to the park. The nearby lights made her hair gleam like a low fire as she walked away. Denver watched her go. He hoped she took care of herself. She seemed like a nice girl. He pulled away from the curb and headed north in the maze of city streets. Once he was clear of the city, he could head for Canada with no problem. The Falls sounded in his imagination. It would be good to settle in his old place to hang out for the next few days. He hoped Kisara did well. He didn¡¯t think the park would be the best place for her to start. Too many human animals occupied it after dark. At least she knew her own mind, and what she wanted to do. He didn¡¯t think he had that when he was her age. It had taken him years before he found a job he liked and fitted what he thought of himself. Luckily, he had Bonnie to help him over the rough spots then. She brought out the best in him when he didn¡¯t think they would make it. Her encouragement had kept them afloat through the years. Now she was gone, and he was headed up to their vacation spot alone. He briefly wondered if it had been worth it. He decided that yes, everything had been great as long as Bonnie walked along with him. He was being maudlin because he was alone for the first time ever. He could do better than that. He drifted through Manhattan with his mind on the past. He saw the signs for Sleepy Hollow and smiled. At least he didn¡¯t have to worry about headless horsemen. He knew the world was a strange place, but he was sure that Washington Irving¡¯s tale of Ichabod Crane and his phantom pursuer was one of those things that had been made up out of old cloth. And he was sure his pick-up could outrun a ghost on the modern roads that cut through the Hudson Valley. The memory of his hitchhiker faded as he looked forward to reaching his annual spot. She was in the past, and he had to look forward for the next few days. He planned to keep an eye on the papers out of the city just in case. Master and Servant 2010- Al-a-Din sat in a chair at a table in front of a small caf¨¦. He sipped tea from a small cup as he watched the street. Despite his age, people still fascinated him, and he liked trying to figure out what another person did by looking at them. Despite losing his hair to time, he still looked much younger than his real age. His skin was pulled across his flesh, and held none of the blemishes that usually came. His hazel eyes still gleamed when they examined something of interest. His butler stood at his elbow, wearing the uniform of his position. His black hair covered pointed ears, and the hoop ring in one lobe. A bronze tan looked metallic in the sun. Al-a-Din put his cup down. He looked at a man in a coat heading into a market down the street. He stood. He didn¡¯t like the look of that. ¡°Hakim, be ready.¡± The old man straightened his jacket with both hands. ¡°I think we might have a problem.¡± ¡°Understood, Master.¡± The butler frowned as his master started forward. Al-a-din walked toward the market. He didn¡¯t like the way the man in the coat had looked. He supposed his own dress was just as out of place. He wore the clothes of his youth in what was known as Chixian Shenzshou. Then it had been called something else. The centuries had changed the names several times as others had moved in and taken control. He had taken up residence in Arabia when he had gained the services of his butler. Hakim provided him all he needed, and he used that to help others. It seemed a fair trade to him. Hakim didn¡¯t comment on being stuck with an old man who constantly called on him to do things, but he had implied that he preferred his master doing things to help others instead of enriching himself. The market shook as a cloud of smoke erupted from where the man in the coat went. Al-a-Din paused. The man had bombed the market. He watched as people took cover from following blasts. ¡°Hakim, help the wounded.¡± He waved at people fleeing the market. ¡°Get them out of the way. I¡¯ll go in and see if I can help inside the zone. Join me when you are done.¡± ¡°Yes, Master.¡± Hakim split off to start checking the obviously wounded. Things fixed themselves as he spoke to each person in turn. The old foreigner entered the cloud of smoke. Fire burned some of the products so that he didn¡¯t know what they were before the bombing. He worked his way through the aisles, looking for wounded he could help. He found the man in the coat in a small crater. He was still alive, despite losing both legs. He must have not been wearing the bomb when it went off. ¡°Hello.¡± Al-a-Din looked for more of the devices before he approached. ¡°It looks like you will die soon. Do you want to talk about this before you pass?¡± ¡°There is nothing to say.¡± The man¡¯s breathing was harsh and quick. Blood loss would soon kill him. ¡°I decided to do something about the people I hated.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a strong statement from a weak man.¡± Al-a-Din looked around for any survivors close by. It looked like everyone else had been killed, or made their way outside. ¡°Only the weak do something like this.¡± ¡°What would you know of my struggle?¡± The man glared at his interrogator. ¡°You are another that needs to be removed from this Earth. The faith demands it.¡± ¡°We both know different.¡± Al-a-Din frowned. The man might bleed out before he was taken away to be questioned by the authorities. He found two belts and tied off the stumps at the end of the bomber¡¯s legs. ¡°That should hold you until someone wants to know who you work for, and where he is,¡± said the old Asian. ¡°You won¡¯t die, and you won¡¯t have your picture in the paper.¡± ¡°You can¡¯t deny me Heaven!¡± The bomber tried to reach out to grab his rescuer. ¡°I need to be a martyr to reach it.¡± ¡°You were never going to be a martyr.¡± Al-a-Din shook his head. ¡°Someone has to kill you to make you a martyr. Killing others while killing yourself just makes you a suicide. And suicides don¡¯t get into Heaven.¡± ¡°You¡¯re a liar.¡± The bomber started crying. ¡°What do you know about the Koran?¡± If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Nothing.¡± The Asian waved his butler over when he saw the man approaching through the smoke. ¡°Hakim, please push this smoke out of here, and make sure the fire is out. Then make sure this man lives to go to trial.¡± ¡°Should I repair his legs?¡± The butler raised an eyebrow at the area where the man had been cut off at the knees. ¡°No,¡± said Al-a-Din. ¡°He doesn¡¯t deserve to be helped any more than the bare minimum to get him in the hands of the law. After that, what point would it be to give his legs back to him?¡± ¡°Understood, Master.¡± Hakim raised his hands. He performed a set of motions and the stumps scabbed over with new flesh covering the jutting of bone that had been in place. ¡°He will live.¡± ¡°Thank you, Hakim.¡± Al-a-Din nodded at the work. ¡°He¡¯ll be able to stump on those if he practices enough.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll kill you for this.¡± The bomber struggled, but produced a hand gun after a moment. ¡°I will kill you.¡± Al-a-Din stomped down on his arm. The pistol popped out of the hand holding it. The Asian kicked the bomber in the face. That stopped the invective foaming from the man¡¯s mouth. Another kick stopped the man from trying to stand up under his own power. ¡°A true believer.¡± Al-a-Din shook his head. ¡°At least he¡¯s stopped for the moment.¡± ¡°The victims have been healed as far as I can with my abilities, Master.¡± Hakim nodded toward the grounds outside of the open air pavilion. ¡°I could not save some. They had been killed by the blast because they were standing too close when the bomb went off.¡± ¡°Do they need transport to the hospitals?¡± Al-a-Din knew his servant could be literal minded to some extent. It was also a way to double check himself when he did something. ¡°Some.¡± Hakim shrugged. ¡°The human responders seem to be taking care of that.¡± ¡°Repair what you can of the area.¡± Al-a-Din waved at the damaged poles and covers against the Sun. ¡°Then we should turn our prisoner over to the local police.¡± ¡°It is a small matter.¡± Hakim made a hand gesture. The place looked like nothing had happened to kill some people there moments before. Only the dead remained where they had fallen when the bomb had gone off. Hakim could do nothing for them. Once someone died, there was no way for him to intercede for the victim to bring him, or her, back, or ask for forgiveness for them. ¡°What do you want done with the dead?,¡± asked Hakim. He gestured at the scattered limbs that had been sent flying from the pressure wave. ¡°Leave them.¡± Al-a-Din clapped his hands together. ¡°We can¡¯t do anything for them. All we can do is make sure their killer is punished in some way.¡± The ancient bent down and lifted the wounded man from the floor. He plopped the killer in a rebuilt chair. He searched for more weapons to make sure the man made it to prison. He did not want the man to pull another gun and use that to secure his freedom so he could crawl away and try again. ¡°How much longer do you think it will take the rescue workers, Hakim?,¡± asked the ancient. ¡°I think that even the people you healed will want a second opinion.¡± ¡°I have no idea.¡± Hakim straightened his cuffs. ¡°I will see what I can do to hurry things along.¡± ¡°Thank you, Hakim.¡± Al-a-Din smiled narrowly. ¡°I will wait for your return.¡± The butler vanished from the room. A small chime sounded with his passing. ¡°Who are you?¡± The bomber glared at the old man. ¡°What kind of devil are you to try to minimize my accomplishment?¡± ¡°They used to tell stories about me,¡± said Al-a-Din. ¡°Surely you already know who I am. I have walked the Earth a long time.¡± ¡°You can¡¯t be that man.¡± The bomber placed both hands on the table top. ¡°I refuse to believe it.¡± ¡°Does that matter?¡± The Asian smiled. ¡°I have walked most of the planet by now. When I tell you that killing because you wish to hurt the innocent is wrong, it is the truth. There will be no Heaven for you, much less much of an after life.¡± ¡°I will have my glory.¡± The bomber tried to stand, but fell instead as two legs without feet hit the floor. ¡°I will reach my promised place as a warrior of my people.¡± ¡°They are here, Master.¡± Hakim appeared out of the air. ¡°The police are coming this way.¡± ¡°Please show this man the after life he has earned before we go, Hakim.¡± Al-a-Din stood. ¡°He deserves to know a little of what awaits him if he continues.¡± The butler frowned. He pulled a book of metal and wood from inside his coat. He opened it by twisting the lock mechanism on the front. He read down the list until he reached a name that was highlighted. He rubbed that name with a finger. A cloud of smoke appeared. The center vanished so that a world of smoke and fire was revealed. Screams and the sounds of ripping and tearing drifted from the hole in the air. A roar from some giant throat called for more fire to be poured on those who were not suffering enough. ¡°I think that¡¯s enough, Hakim.¡± Al-a-Din nodded at his servant. ¡°Do you understand what I am saying to you? Even if you throw your life away some other day, unless you change, you will suffer like no other. Now is the time to ask for forgiveness and do what you can to make things right.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t believe you.¡± The bomber held himself up right by the seat of his chair while sitting on the floor. ¡°That¡¯s just a trick.¡± ¡°If you think so,¡± said Al-a-Din. ¡°I assure you that you will experience more pain than you ever thought of after your life is over.¡± Al-a-Din waved the police over with one hand as they flowed into the rebuilt market. They surrounded the old man and his butler. Some pointed rifles at the pair. ¡°This man bombed the marketplace.¡± He waved at the bomber. ¡°We could do nothing for the ones he killed outright. If I had been quicker, he never would have been able to do as much as he has done.¡± ¡°Why should we believe you?¡± The lead policeman didn¡¯t stop pointing his rifle at the strange pair. ¡°Because we were down the street when this happened, and we helped most of the people outside on the street.¡± Al-a-Din shook his head. ¡°And we are unarmed, and prepared to make a statement about what we saw.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be an idiot, Abdul.¡± A second policeman shook his head. ¡°That¡¯s the Old Man. Thank you for your assistance. You and your servant may leave.¡± Al-a-Din bowed. He walked ahead of Hakim, heading back to buy another cup of tea. Splinter Cell 2015- Mark Hadron and Jane Hillsmierer frowned at the big screen set up in the lab part of the building. They had plugged in the various sensors that Hadron and his friends had designed to measure the ambient energy in the air. They frowned because that energy was higher than what it should have been according to readings done the year before when the Lamplighters were in business. ¡°What do you think is causing this?¡± Jane waved at the loci represented on the screen. ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Hadron rubbed his temples with both hands. ¡°Only the gate for the Mark¡¯s tower looks steady. Every other point is going up. It might be another event on the way.¡± ¡°Another Destroyer?¡± Jane had been with the team then. They had forced a monstrous being back across a dimensional border to its home address. It had taken everything they had to deal with the monster. ¡°It looks like.¡± Hadron turned from the screen. ¡°Something is trying to reach us from outside. No wonder Nobody issued a warning.¡± ¡°How do we stop it?,¡± asked Jane. ¡°What happens if it actually reaches the city?¡± ¡°It starts changing reality and eating the citizens of New York.¡± Hadron shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m glad that¡¯s not my problem.¡± ¡°It will be your problem if we can¡¯t nip this in the bud, mister.¡± Jane wanted him to face her, but he refused to look at her with his one surviving eye. The doorbell rang. Milton had installed the closest thing he could find to ¡®Shave And a Haircut¡¯ to be obnoxious. The five notes had quickly gotten less funny as the years rolled on. ¡°I wonder who that is.¡± Hadron made no move to check who was at the front door. ¡°Are you going to answer it?¡± Jane put her hands on her hips. ¡°We¡¯re closed,¡± said Hadron as the doorbell rang again. ¡°Fine. I¡¯ll see what these people want.¡± Hadron walked down the central steps to the ground floor. The bottom floor was for the Lamp Mobile, and its maintenance, and the office space the business required. The car had been lost when he lost his eye. The office was covered in dust from disuse. He opened the door for people beside the garage door. He looked out at four women. He took a moment to absorb their features and dress. Then he said, ¡°Go away.¡± He slammed the door in their faces and turned to walk away. One of the women pressed the doorbell again before he could take a step back to the central staircase. He opened the door and looked out on the women. One of them smiled at him, waving her hand. The other hand was close to the door bell. ¡°We¡¯re closed.¡± Hadron glared at the woman and her hand with his single eye. ¡°Do not press that door bell again. Go away.¡± ¡°We really do need your help, Dr. Hadron.¡± The woman dropped her hand. ¡°I¡¯m Patty, that¡¯s Kathy, Jean, and Lin. We have a major ghost problem in San Fran and our first thought was to talk to you, but the phone is dead, and we couldn¡¯t find anywhere you used an email, or Facebook, or Twitter. So we came here in person to ask you to help us.¡± ¡°The answer is no.¡± Hadron started to slam the door again, but the woman had pushed against it to keep it open. ¡°Do you mind?¡± ¡°We need that help, Dr. Hadron.¡± Patty pulled out her phone. ¡°I feel that when you see the footage, you will understand why we came all this way. We just want five minutes of your time, and maybe some technical guidance on how to stop the thing. We want to go into business as Lamplighters, and this could be the first chance we get to do that.¡± Hadron couldn¡¯t close the door with her standing in the way. He wondered if he should punch her in the mouth so she would back up. ¡°Being a Lamplighter killed my friends and cost me an eye.¡± Hadron bunched his hand into a fist so he could punch her. ¡°Are you sure you¡¯re willing to lose the same?¡± ¡°Something has to be done.¡± Patty looked at her friends. They nodded at her to continue. ¡°You¡¯re the only one with experience who can help us.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s see your footage.¡± Hadron opened his hand and held it out to her. He knew he was letting himself in for trouble. He couldn¡¯t help the impulse. She pushed the button for the phone to play the video before she handed it over. The screen was full of screaming people, and a laughing ghost dressed like a pirate. He waved his sword to direct ghost sharks into the crowd. ¡°I wondered where he went after our last blow-up.¡± Hadron dialed the video back and froze it. ¡°When did this happen?¡± ¡°Two weeks ago.¡± Patty looked at her friends for support. ¡°We have been trying to Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.get in touch with you ever since. Finally we drove out here. Took turns, drove through the night to get here.¡± ¡°This is the ghost you want to take on for your first case?,¡± asked Hadron. ¡°Are you sure about that?¡± ¡°We wouldn¡¯t have come all this way if we weren¡¯t.¡± A Hispanic lady with short parrot colored hair and a tattoo of a star on her face spoke. ¡°How tough can this be?¡± Hadron smiled at her. The group stepped back. The smile didn¡¯t suit the scarred face or the trace of gray in his hair. ¡°Come in.¡± Hadron stepped out of their way. ¡°Wait right here.¡± He left them inside the empty space for the car. He whistled as he jogged up the stairs, pulling himself along with one hand on the rail. ¡°Hey, Jane! These idiots want to take on Crenshaw!¡± drifted from the upper floor. ¡°Where did I leave the old Fireflash? Do you remember?¡± ¡°I ain¡¯t no idiot.¡± The Hispanic Jean glared at the staircase. ¡°Who¡¯s Crenshaw?,¡± asked Lin. She was slighter and shorter than her three friends, dark hair in a bun, worried expression on her face. ¡°What are we getting into here, Patty?¡± ¡°I have no idea, but I am sure it¡¯s not really that dangerous.¡± Patty shrugged. ¡°These are ghosts. We should be able to stop this one with the right equipment.¡± ¡°This guy didn¡¯t seem like he thought it was harmless.¡± Kathy waved her hand at the staircase. ¡°He acted like he was going to enjoy sending us into the lion¡¯s den.¡± Kathy was the tallest, and had been on several fitness magazine covers. The chance to change jobs for something more interesting was sharing space with not wanting to rush into danger. Not rushing into danger was winning by her expression. Hadron returned with several boxes of equipment. He put the boxes down on the floor. He was still smiling. ¡°Ordinarily I would never send a bunch of rank amateurs against someone like Bloody Bill Crenshaw, Demon Pirate.¡± Hadron grinned at them now. ¡°In your cases, I will make an exception. This way none of you will bother me again.¡± ¡°This is a common sensor.¡± Hadron opened one of the boxes. A device with a handle and a spot for a laser pointer rested inside. He took the sensor out of the box. ¡°Point and press the button. A reading will show up. Crenshaw is in the eight range. Anything over that is not Crenshaw.¡± He pressed the button on the handle. A blue flame shone from the other end. He showed them the reading. They were all twos and threes like he thought. He put the sensor back in the box. He opened the next one and pulled out a lamp. He lit the fuse inside. Blue flame glowed inside the cylinder. ¡°This is the power box that operates all the weapons that I have loaded for you.¡± Hadron tilted the lantern so they could see the plug on the bottom. ¡°You hang it from a support belt and let it do the rest.¡± ¡°What happens if the fire goes out?,¡± Kathy asked. ¡°Depends.¡± Hadron blew the flame out and put the lamp back in its carrying case. ¡°If I were you, I would be more worried about what happens if the flame is overpowered.¡± ¡°What happens if the flame is overpowered?,¡± asked Lin. Hadron made a poof noise and spread his hands to mimic an explosion. ¡°Now this is the Fireflash.¡± Hadron opened two of the boxes. He pulled out the parts and fitted them together. ¡°Just point and shoot.¡± The Fireflash was as long as Patty was tall. She looked at it with a wince. ¡°Do you have something smaller than this?¡± She waved at the huge rifle. ¡°Do we need a bazooka to take on this Crenshaw?¡± ¡°Have you ever taken on a ghost that can summon a swarm of sharks that can chew you to pieces in a matter of seconds?¡± Hadron held the weapon out for her to take. ¡°What do you think is going to happen when he gets mad that you¡¯re in his way?¡± He made a chomping noise with his mouth. ¡°Now I¡¯m going to help you load this up, and send you on your way.¡± Hadron gestured for the Fireflash. ¡°Good luck with Crenshaw. Don¡¯t let him take you prisoner. He likes the ladies.¡± ¡°Likes the ladies?,¡± Lin asked. ¡°A lot.¡± Hadron took the Fireflash. He took it apart and stowed the pieces in their boxes. ¡°He¡¯s a ghost.¡± Jean frowned at Hadron. ¡°What do you mean he likes the ladies a lot?¡± ¡°He¡¯s a pirate, and he likes booty,¡± Hadron straightened. ¡°Make the connection. You can do it.¡± ¡°Mark, can we talk?¡± Jane descended down the stairs. ¡°Over here.¡± ¡°Sure, Janie.¡± Hadron put on a smile. ¡°These ladies stopped by to borrow equipment to take on Bloody Bill Crenshaw, Demon Ghost Pirate. Ladies, this is Jane Hillsmierer. If you want someone to inform your families what happened and pay for your funerals, talk to Jane before you leave.¡± ¡°Mark, are you serious?¡± Janie glanced at their visitors over his shoulder. ¡°Crenshaw will eat them alive. You can¡¯t send them out after him. You have to look into this.¡± ¡°My dance card is booked, Janie.¡± Hadron didn¡¯t keep his voice down. ¡°Crenshaw is a perfect starter case for some new Lamplighters. They¡¯ll be fine.¡± ¡°I¡¯m putting my foot down, Mark Hadron.¡± Jane glared at him. ¡°You know what Crenshaw does to women. We¡¯re not sending a bunch of women after him.¡± Hadron made a face. ¡°You¡¯re wrecking my ploy of scaring them away and leaving things to professionals.¡± He kept his voice down. ¡°I don¡¯t want them facing Crenshaw either. I also don¡¯t want to be around them.¡± ¡°You need a back-up team.¡± Jane rubbed her forehead. ¡°This could be it.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t need a team since we¡¯re closed for business.¡± Mark reverted to his loud voice. ¡°And these ladies live far away, thank goodness.¡± ¡°I want you to go with them.¡± Jane held up a hand. ¡°You need to get back into the groove. I¡¯ll look around for locals to build another team. We¡¯ll get things started back up again.¡± ¡°Recruits will have to be given tests.¡± Mark did not clench his hand into a fist. ¡°Otherwise, they won¡¯t be able to use the equipment.¡± ¡°You were going to send them out without the tests.¡± Jane waved her hand at the visitors. ¡°What is that?¡± ¡°They have twos and threes on the scale.¡± Hadron looked at the floor. ¡°The Fireflash will work like a charm for them.¡± ¡°You ran a sensor scan on them to make sure you could send them to their deaths?¡± Jane squinted at him with her displeasure. ¡°Seriously?¡± ¡°When you say it like that, it sounds bad,¡± said Hadron. ¡°I expect better out of you, mister.¡± Jane shook her head. ¡°I love you like a brother, but sometimes, I just want to punch you in the face.¡± ¡°And what do you think we should do with these problem children?,¡± said Hadron. ¡°We give them a chance.¡± Jane shook her head. ¡°A fair chance.¡± ¡°Ladies, pull your car into the bay here.¡± Jane waved a hand. ¡°We¡¯ll get things sorted out for you.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know if we want to be all that much trouble.¡± Patty wrapped her hands together to keep from wringing them. ¡°Maybe we should go. That way it won¡¯t be much of a bother.¡± ¡°Pull the car in.¡± Jane¡¯s voice was iron. ¡°We¡¯ll negotiate the rest over takeout.¡± M-37 1995- Shirou Morita frowned at the globe in the cradle in front of him. Liquid stirred at the bottom of the sphere, but the covering only revealed the contents as a sound. How could he examine the contents without touching anything? The sphere, dull and gray, had been recovered from the scene of the living building attack five years ago. The Robot Rangers and three new heroines had been on the scene. They had stopped the rampage from reaching the central precincts of the city. A lot of people had been hurt and killed, but more had been saved. During the cleaning up of the damage, one of the defense force soldiers had found the globe and boxed it up for study. That was why five years later Shirou thought a laser could be used to poke a hole in the cover so he could look inside. Once he knew what was inside, he could start testing it. Shirou fitted the cradle underneath the emitter. He dialed the power down. He wanted a small hole, not a through and through wound. The liquid had to remain inside the shell so he could avoid contamination of the lab. Of course if he messed up, he was as good as dead. The thing had been one of the motivating power sources for a giant humanoid building. If it activated like it had previously, the first person it would seize for power would be him. He didn¡¯t want to be a battery for something that might take over his place of work and kill all of his coworkers. Only the coworkers he didn¡¯t like should be killed. Shirou pulled on his goggles. He looked one more time around the lab. He was locked in and unless the orb activated, the doors should be enough to keep things in if things went wrong. He checked the laser one more time, then the cradle. One shot was all he had. He flipped the switch. The laser cut on with its characteristic whine. The beam burned through the gray shell slowly. He cut the power as soon as he was through the shell. He paused before taking the next step. He had to take a look inside the hole to make sure he hadn¡¯t cooked the contents. Then he could move the cradle to a safe room to study everything and take samples. He hoped that he had something to study. Dr. Yamada had given the thing to him. If he failed, he would be out of a job, and someone else would be trying to figure out what the thing was. Any position in his field would be out of the question if he lost his job at the Institute. No one would hire someone who couldn¡¯t do basic tests without causing problems and getting fired. Shirou pulled the cradle from under the emitter. He didn¡¯t want the thing to drill a hole in his head while he was moving to the next step. He looked inside the hole to make sure the contents were unharmed. The goo inside the shell struck for him as he leaned over the orb. He screamed as it covered his face and the collar of his protective suit. He staggered away. He was definitely going to get fired now. Shirou tried to calm down. His face was covered with the active ingredient of the orb. He was still alive. All he had to do was get it off somehow. It would help if his exposed skin wasn¡¯t telling him his face was being flayed from his skull. At least none of the stuff had gotten inside of him. That would be worse than the problem he had at the moment. Shirou staggered to the wall. He pressed the button to sound the alarm. He also pressed the switch that shut the room down. The stuff couldn¡¯t get loose no matter what it did to him first. He made his way to a field cleaning unit built in the wall. If he could use that to get the stuff off his face, he might have a chance to live. A rumble turned his head to look at the laser. It was the only thing in the room that might be dangerous to him, and the contaminant. Then it came apart into component parts. ¡°Oh, no.¡± Shirou ran to the cleaning unit. He had to get the stuff off of him. He was about to be turned into a living weapon to escape the labs and the building. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Pain ran up his spine. He fell to the floor. He tried to reach the lever for the cleaner. If he could pull that, he might have a chance. He didn¡¯t want to kill anybody. His spine cracked and he curled up in a fetal position. Dr. Yamada would cleanse the room and examine his remains to find out what had gone wrong. The stuff may, or may not, be killed by the radiation. Either way, he was a weapon that would be destroyed, or killed before he became a danger to the others. Changes worked their way through his body. Everything was pain. He didn¡¯t bother screaming because his vocal cords had given out. Then radiation flooded the room. Shirou laid where he had fallen. The radiation wasn¡¯t killing him. It was allowing the yolk to build more skills in his body so he could be taken for a rampage through the city. How did he stop it? He had to get up. He had to do something. How did he save the city, possibly the country? Shirou¡¯s hand closed on the egg. He looked at it. It meant nothing to him. It certainly wasn¡¯t going to help him. The egg expanded wrapping around him and his new machine parts. He tried to fight it off, but it formed a cocoon that bound his limbs together. It dropped to the floor, ten times as big as when he had punched the hole in it. ¡°Can you hear me, Shirou?,¡± said Dr. Yamada. The radio must till be working for Shirou to hear his voice. ¡°Can you talk?¡± ¡°Stay away!¡± Shirou couldn¡¯t make himself shout loud enough. ¡°Stay out of here!¡± If they came into the room, they were as good as dead. He had to do something. What could he do? He had to stand. He had to take control of things. If he didn¡¯t try, someone would do something stupid. And the last thing he needed was someone doing something stupid. Shirou decided he had to stand. He had to get out of the egg. Then he could worry about the other alterations to his body. He already knew he was as good as dead. He might as well try to get some good out of this. He struck at the egg as best he could with his hands. His limited mobility made it hard for him to do anything more than push hard. The shell rolled slightly as he struggled. He braced himself as much as he could and kicked. The egg rolled some more, but it didn¡¯t crack. He kicked again. The shell wrapped around his leg. He tried to pull back. The wrapping went with him. He paused in uncertainty. What did this mean? He realized the pain had settled down to a dull roar. He couldn¡¯t decide if that was good, or not. The shell collapsed around the rest of his body. He felt compression as the thing shrank over his holed protective suit. Images filled his mind as a hose entered his ear. He turned his head and pulled on the wet strand with his teeth. Was this how the people in the apartment building felt as they were stabbed and used up? Other hoses tried to fill his ears. He yanked his head away from them as much as possible. He couldn¡¯t let them seize control of his brain. He had to fight the thing off. ¡°Shirou.¡± Dr. Yamada sounded close. He sounded too close. ¡°Keep away, Dr. Yamada!¡± Shirou felt the tubes going in his ears. ¡°Don¡¯t let me out of this room! Don¡¯t let me live!¡± ¡°I want you to calm down.¡± Dr. Yamada sounded in his ear. ¡°The changes you have been experiencing have been going on for hours. We just now found a way to communicate with you. Do you understand?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not safe.¡± Shirou tried to slip his hands out of the sleeves to pull the tubes out of his head. ¡°This thing is trying to implant itself in my head.¡± ¡°I want you to remain as still as you can.¡± Dr. Yamada sounded way too calm. Shouldn¡¯t he be losing his nerves right now. He could be the next victim if things go wrong. ¡°We¡¯re going to try to get you out of that thing.¡± ¡°What are you going to do?¡± Shirou hoped the procedure saved the city. He knew he had taken a fatal dose of radiation. ¡°We¡¯re going to use the gravity gun we recovered from Dr. Pluto¡¯s attack sub.¡± Dr. Yamada whispered something. ¡°Close your eyes and count to ten.¡± Shirou started counting. He had thought the gravity gun was off-line. How had they gotten it to work? He wished he could see through the shell over his head. When he reached five, he heard a buzzing. The shell over his head vaporized. He took a deep breath of air. He was alive. How was that possible? He looked around. A robot had been pushed into the room. A computer screen with Dr. Yamada¡¯s face on it had been installed in its chest. The gravity gun had been installed on a turret so the robot served as its firing platform. Tentacles from inside the egg grabbed the robot. They took the thing apart and began inserting combinations into Shirou. He screamed once, but the pain wasn¡¯t the same as the initial pain when he first started his transformation. ¡°The thing is turning me into a monster.¡± Shirou hoped Dr. Yamada could still hear him. ¡°Kill me before it figures out how to get to the general population.¡± ¡°I think we have a cure.¡± Dr. Yamada spoke from the radio speaker. ¡°I¡¯m coming in.¡± ¡°Stop.¡± Shirou couldn¡¯t lift his head. At least nothing was trying to get into his ears. ¡°This is way too dangerous, Dr. Yamada.¡± The door cycled open. Dr. Yamada stepped into the room. He wore a protective suit like Shirou¡¯s own. He held a vial in one gloved hand. The tentacles reached for Yamada to meld him with his employee. The doctor opened the vial and threw it on Shirou. Smoke roiled from where it struck. Cracks ran down the front of the shell. Then it broke open. ¡°Don¡¯t move.¡± Yamada held up a hand. ¡°You have been altered in a way that could still be dangerous to others. I want you to stay here while we think of some way to help you.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know if I can.¡± Shirou realized he was floating in the air. ¡°What¡¯s going on with me?¡± ¡°You are still giving off radiation.¡± Yamada held up both hands. ¡°We don¡¯t know what else is going on.¡± ¡°Why aren¡¯t I dead?¡± Shirou raised his hands. Light flicked through his flesh from where gloves used to be. ¡°What have I become?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Yamada shook his head. ¡°We¡¯re going to have to do some tests to see if we can reverse what happened. You might be isolated for a time until we can think of a cure for the radiation.¡± Testing for M-37 1996- ¡°Good morning, Shirou.¡± Dr. Yamada walked into the secured room. He wore a protective suit and helmet. His subject still leaked radiation in the air a year after his unwanted transformation. The Institute was still trying to find a way to stop that so he could be safe to be around. No one wanted to work with a source of cancer and poisoning. ¡°You said you had some things to tell me.¡± Shirou Mirota hovered off the floor, sitting on the air. Shields covered his eyes, while the protective suit he had worn when he penetrated the sample sphere from the Ninety Rampage had become his second skin. ¡°We think we have a way to block your radiation leak so you can go outside for limited times.¡± Yamada sat down on the floor. Chairs and other furniture were absent from the room. Shirou didn¡¯t need them, and didn¡¯t want them since his body slowly cooked them away. No one wanted a reminder they weren¡¯t human anymore. ¡°Seriously?¡± Shirou grinned. ¡°How do you plan to do that?¡± ¡°We believe that we have devised a coating that we can use as a cover on you.¡± Yamada placed his hands together. ¡°We don¡¯t know how effective it would be, but felt it would allow you to leave this room and not kill everything around you.¡± ¡°When do you want to test this coating?¡± Shirou already saw several flaws in the plan. He decided to file them while the experiment went ahead. He was ready to leave his unwanted home to do anything but stare at the same four walls day after day. Even reading, or watching televison, or trying to find things on the Internet, was governed by a screen set up behind a protective shield so he didn¡¯t fry the circuits trying to use it. Waldos enabled him to manipulate what he was looking at without allowing him to leave the heavy shielding of his room. It would be nice to see the world with his own eyes again. ¡°We are making the first batch downstairs.¡± Dr. Yamada nodded at his expression. ¡°It might need some fine-tuning and testing in controlled areas, but we are confident that we can make you safe around other people.¡± ¡°What about the rest of this?¡± Shirou indicated his body with a wave of his hand. ¡°Can you reverse any of this?¡± ¡°We don¡¯t know.¡± Yamada wanted to have a more comforting assessment of his employee¡¯s welfare. All of the experts he had consulted had no clue on how to reverse the alchemy performed on Morita. ¡°Dr. Hassick¡¯s workings are indecipherable. Dr. Craft and others are searching for him, but he has kept his head down after what he did here.¡± Dr. Craft led the Robot Rangers. Shirou had met him and his mechanical minions when they had arrived to save the city. He made it seem like he and Hassick were old enemies. How long had they been feuding before the apartment building man had come to life? ¡°The thing made me into a monster.¡± Shirou glowed slightly. ¡°If you hadn¡¯t arrived with that gravity gun, I would be a mindless thing attacking everyone around me.¡± ¡°You aren¡¯t.¡± Yamada frowned. ¡°The focus has to be on making you better with what we have. We know that the holy water damaged the shell and the liquid that was transforming you, but it doesn¡¯t do anything to you the way you are now. We know that you can fly, are strong, and release radiation. Some of the scientists that are helping with this coat think you can learn how to turn the radiation into some kind of controlled beam.¡± ¡°They think I can fry something on demand?¡± Shirou raised eyebrows. ¡°Like some kind of laser beam shooting out of my eyes.¡± ¡°They think so.¡± Yamada nodded. ¡°The question is one of control. There might be a process inside of you that allows that. I might have destroyed the control when I used the gravity gun.¡± ¡°So what do they expect me to do?,¡± asked Shirou. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Dr. Yamada shook his head. ¡°I don¡¯t want you to do anything until we apply the coating and see if the base does anything. Then if you want to experiment, we¡¯ll have some kind of dampener in place.¡± ¡°Do you think this will work?¡± Shirou didn¡¯t. He didn¡¯t know what the source of his radiation was, but he doubted any coating would stop it. ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Yamada stood. ¡°I do know that you are in a prison and could have mental problems unless we do something. So I am going to try to do something for you. If it helps others in the same circumstances, that is just a bonus as far as I am concerned.¡± ¡°I understand.¡± Shirou nodded. Dr. Yamada and his people worked on strange mysteries. They had found some answers. Those answers had been used to stop other problems from other sources. This was one of those things that could be used for a lot of things that people would never know about unless it failed in some way. If cutting his effect down worked, they could use it other places to mitigate radiation problems. The door buzzed. Yamada went over and looked through the glass into the airlock outside the door. He nodded. ¡°I¡¯m going to open the door and let the others in,¡± said Dr. Yamada. ¡°Then we are going to apply the coating and see what the base does on contact with you.¡± ¡°Go ahead.¡± Shirou waved a hand. ¡°I want to see what this does.¡± Yamada opened the door. Two technicians entered the room. One wheeled a tank with a hose on a dolly. The other had a cart of sensory equipment. They both wore full suits to prevent a lethal dose of poisoning from their subject. ¡°Recording the base setting.¡± The technician at the controls flipped some switches, looked at the numbers and the graphs rolling out on strings of paper. ¡°This is way too high.¡± ¡°Applying the coating.¡± The other technician pointed the hose on the tank at Shirou. He turned the knob all the way open, then pulled the trigger-handle to let the paint out. Shirou barely felt the impact. He turned under the spray. He sank to the floor as the coating stuck to him, a few streaks dropping to the metal surface. He felt cooler. ¡°I feel better.¡± Shirou lifted his arms as more of the paint fell on him. ¡°I feel almost normal.¡± ¡°The temperature and rads are dropping.¡± The sensory equipment showed flatter lines on its output. ¡°Pour it all on?¡± The first technician checked the gauge on the tank as he kept the stream of liquid flowing. ¡°Yes.¡± Yamada nodded inside his helmet. ¡°We want him completely covered so we can see if this is working as planned.¡± Shirou closed his eyes. The coat seemed to be cooling him off as it cut the radiation from the room. He might be able to go outside again. That would be better than looking at pictures on a screen. He knew he would never touch anything with his real hands again. The altered suit and this paint put that to an end. How damaged was he now? He had heard the reports and seen graphs. He had never considered the fact that two of his senses worked as far as he knew. He didn¡¯t know about taste and smell. Would they still work as usual? Was sight and hearing all he had left? At least he might still be able to fly as long as he took it slow and easy. Dropping radiation on the citizens of Japan while he imitated birds would be frowned upon by the government. He knew from some of the scuttlebutt he heard that the Ministry wanted to test him to see how well he held up to their examinations. He was sure that anything major would cause an event. And he didn¡¯t want anyone probing his guts on the chance they might find out how to make more like him. Who wanted to lose their humanity to be living weapons? How much were they willing to give up for their transformations? He knew it was something he wouldn¡¯t want people he hated to have to go through. ¡°We might have done it, Doctor.¡± The second man raised a fist. ¡°Everything is reading what it would be for a normal irradiated room.¡± ¡°Tank¡¯s empty.¡± The other man turned the knob to cut off the flow. ¡°Is it holding?¡± ¡°So far, so good.¡± The second man nodded. He held up the printing line as it rolled through his hand to the floor. Dr. Yamada frowned as he walked over and examined the readings. Everything looked good for the moment. What happened if the paint failed? ¡°We need to run tests to make sure the paint will keep working.¡± Yamada nodded. ¡°We need to know what happens if Shirou exerts himself.¡± ¡°Shirou, see if you can fly with the coating on.¡± The technician pulled the tank back to the inner door of the airlock. ¡°That¡¯s the simplest test we can give him right now.¡± Shirou willed himself into the air. He floated gently as he always did. ¡°The count is up some, but it¡¯s still lower than without the coating.¡± The second technician laughed. ¡°This is great.¡± ¡°No,¡± said Dr. Yamada. ¡°It¡¯s peeling with the trivial exertion he is doing. Land Shirou. Let¡¯s see if that will stop the coating¡¯s degradation.¡± Shirou landed. He checked his hands. Small scales showed through the paint job. He sighed. At least he didn¡¯t have his hopes up for a solution. ¡°May I?,¡± asked Yamada. He held out a hand. Shirou extended a hand. The doctor took it and looked over both sides. He nodded. ¡°We need a little more work on the formula, but this is better than I expected.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t understand.¡± Shirou took the hand back and looked it over. ¡°This looks like a failure to me.¡± ¡°No.¡± Yamada shook his head. ¡°Your body heated up at the extremities when we asked you to fly and cooked the coating at those places. The torso coating is still there, and blocking a portion of the radiation. We just need to get the formula to resist the effects of your powers in your limbs. Once we do that, we can work on actual tests so you can get out of here without killing anyone.¡± ¡°I am all for that plan.¡± Shirou nodded. M-37s First Flight 1997- Shirou Mirota pointed an index finger at a cardboard target. The target blew up. He worked his way down a line of targets that flipped up when he approached. He paused when he thought he had blown up the last one. He felt a little more normal despite his increase in ability. The coating the Institute had developed seemed to be working as intended. A few minutes of blowing things up on the target range and he hadn¡¯t sprung a leak yet. And the sensors hadn¡¯t sounded the alarm. That meant he was safe at his current expenditure of power. His new biology made it difficult to judge, but he felt like he had jogged a mile. He wondered how long he could keep shooting beams of fire before he actually exceeded a limit. At least inside the Institute, he would know when he was a danger to others. If he sprung a leak, an alarm would go off. Then sprayers would drop a chemical radiation absorber on him. Then all he had to do was wait for a mobile room to take him back to his quarters. He might be able to get some sleep if this kept up. It might be nice to dream again. His new condition had eliminated the desire and need to sleep, food ingestion, and most normal bodily functions. The lab people suspected that was because of the metal and energy conduits buried in his body. It was hard to be hungry when your heart was a nuclear battery guaranteed to run for another two hundred years. He briefly wondered what he could do when his battery eventually ran out of power. Another target popped up in his face. His hand came up. The target blew apart under the heat wave he generated. Shirou paused. Then he looked around. Hopefully, no one had noticed the blast. He needed to work on that. He didn¡¯t want to throw around enough power to cut through the range. That might hit someone in some other part of the building. He didn¡¯t want to kill someone on top of everything else he was trying to fix. A siren went off. He looked around. What was going on? What should he do? Did something need to be blasted? ¡°Emergency teams report to launch pads.¡± Misa sounded panicked over the PA system. ¡°We have had a major earthquake. Emergency teams report to launch pads.¡± Shirou frowned. At one time, he would have been grabbing gear and running to the pads. The Institute responded to major disasters all over the country, and he would have been in the middle of the action. Now he was stuck in the building, hoping that his makeover wouldn¡¯t cause him to blow up if he was stressed enough. He walked to the exit. Maybe he could use this as cover so he could get out in the field again. It might be good to get his hands dirty again after spending so much time trapped in his room. All he had to do was get out of the building and fly to the disaster area. He decided it was a lot easier to think of doing it, then it would be in doing since Security would want him to stay put. He thought he could punch through them if he wanted. The problem was he didn¡¯t want to do anything like that. They would be in the right. His power was largely untested, and one wrong move could have him spilling radiation on anyone and anything close to him. Maybe he could join the crews heading for the helicopters. He would have to be fast and blend in until they reached the scene. Shirou decided to take the stairs to the hangar level. He flew up the six levels and You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.paused by the door. He put in his code to open the door to get on the floor. The large doors were sliding open to let the aircraft hover up and then head toward the emergency. He noted several people were pointing at him. He had to do something if he wanted to get free. He looked up at the exit. Then he was gone from the hangar in a blast of wind. Shirou smiled. Dr. Yamada would not like his violating the safety guidelines. He would deal with that when he had to. Now he needed to find out where the disaster was and see what he could do to help out. He should have taken the time to find out those facts before taking to the air. He flew toward the city. The Institute¡¯s grounds were outside the city, but within sight. He knew there was a news feed running on some of the signs in the shopping areas. He just had to find one, and see where this earthquake was. Then he could fly down to see if he could lend a hand. Shirou found the Sony large screen right where it had sat before his self-exile. He landed on the sidewalk in front of it and watched as news unfurled in front of him. Three minutes in, the broadcaster talked about the heavy destruction in Kochi. It was miles to the southwest of Tokyo, the Institute¡¯s base city. How fast could he fly? That was a question he had never really asked himself. How fast could this new form go in the sky? He looked to the southwest. The Institute and the DF would be on the way to the area. Could he beat them? Did he want to? Shirou smiled. Yes, he did want to beat them to the scene. He headed into the sky. He willed himself to go faster. He passed the Institute, and kept going. Helicopters were in the sky ahead of him. He went around them instead of tearing through their formation. He didn¡¯t want them to crash just because he had slipped his leash. He reached Kochi a few seconds later. He hovered over the scene, trying to figure out where he could start. Several buildings had collapsed around what looked like a fissure. He decided the best thing he could do was try to move some of the debris away from the town. People might have been trapped in the collapses. The faster he could dig them out, the less other rescuers had to do. He landed quietly beside a mound of rubble. He wished he had super senses to go with the rest of the powers the liquid had given him. Too bad a x-ray machine had not been in the room when he had been forcibly transformed. He decided that out of the options he had, blasting everything was out. He didn¡¯t want to cause a collapse on someone waiting for rescue, or blow them up. That left his strength and physically moving things with his hands, or the gravity control he used for flight. Gravity seemed the safest to use until an expert showed up to give him a more efficient way of doing things. Shirou concentrated. Rubble floated upward. He worked his way around the closest pile until he had a majority orbiting a central gravity. He found some people at the bottom of the pit. He smiled when one of them took in a breath. He moved his wrecked building to a cleared spot and gently put it down. He pulled the wounded from the excavation with his power before setting them down out of the way. He headed for the next pile of rock to start excavating there. People were on the scene, trying to help him. He waved for them to move back. He didn¡¯t want to lose control over the gravity and hurt them or anyone buried under the ground. One wrong move could bury someone under a unknown weight with no way of digging them back up. He didn¡¯t need that on his conscience to go with whatever risks he was undertaking just being there. The helicopters arrived as he worked his way through another pile. Dr. Yamada jumped from his vehicle before it could settle on its skids. He held a Gieger counter in his hand. It barely registered anything in the air. ¡°What are you doing?¡± Yamada placed the counter on the ground. ¡°I am digging up anyone buried that I can.¡± Shirou moved his turning ring over to another area and let go. Hopefully, his powers were making a difference. ¡°How big an effect can you do with your powers?¡± Yamada glanced at the counter. Everything was normal according to it. ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Shirou looked around. How much could he move at one time? He had never thought how much he could move at one time. Maybe he could move everything at once. ¡°Workers are coming in to help us.¡± Yamada noted the helicopters. ¡°Can you move all of this rubble to a safe spot as you¡¯ve been doing with the smaller piles?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Shirou held up his hands. ¡°I think you might want to clear the area while I try.¡± Shirou closed his eyes and concentrated. He had never tried to expand his powers over such a large scale before. He might break himself in the attempt. Dr. Yamada was right. He had to work better than what he had been doing. He felt energy running through his body as he tried to clear his head. He could do this. He could move everything. He was a star. Everything shaped itself to his bidding. He smiled at the energy activating from his battery heart. He opened his eyes. Why was everything so small? He raised a hand and compared it to a nearby building. He was a giant. He closed his hand. He was a giant, and he still had a job to do. He just had to be more careful than what he had planned to be. Could he move everything? Yes, he could. Crenshaw 1670- Bloody Bill Crenshaw smiled as he noted sails on the horizon. The rumors had been true. A treasure ship headed for Spain was on the sea. He didn¡¯t know if that was the same ship as the one he wanted, but it was sailing in the right direction. And his ship was fast enough to catch any other ship on the open water. He knew it. His crew knew it. Now that he had a boat sighted, all he had to do was lay out sail and run it down. ¡°Ready the cannons, Henry.¡± Crenshaw took a sighting with his telescope. ¡°I want to be ready to shoot the sails as soon as we close. Then we should ready a broadside, for our second shot once we have what we want.¡± Henry shouted orders for the crew as he advanced down the deck from his captain. Boarding actions would be bloody. The men had to be ready with flintlocks and swords to do away with their victims. The captain believed in no survivors. Anyone captured would be thrown overboard to any shark that followed the blood trail across the Atlantic. They would sail to a friendly port and offload the cargo for as much as they could get for it. Henry had seen a number of actions under Captain Bloody Bill Crenshaw. He had no doubt this one would run exactly as all the others. The captain¡¯s reputation had spread far and wide. Once they ran the colors, the Spanish would probably give up and beg for mercy. Crenshaw wouldn¡¯t give them any except a blade to the neck, or a swim with the fish. He tended to keep the women longer, but eventually they also were killed. Henry watched as the men performed their tasks. They also knew what would happen if they didn¡¯t perform as well as the captain wanted. A blade in the guts was the least horrible thing he might do. ¡°We¡¯re ready to shoot with three of the cannons, Mr. Henry,¡± said Boynton, the cannon master. ¡°They¡¯re loaded with grape. The other six are ready to shoot through the keel on the Captain¡¯s order.¡± ¡°Right, Bob.¡± Henry nodded. ¡°I have to make sure the boarding crew is ready. As soon as we get close enough, tear the sails down.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll be ready.¡± Boynton nodded. ¡°You have my word on that.¡± Henry nodded before gathering a gang of sailors that weren¡¯t needed doing anything else as the Cloud Shark closed on its intended victim. They were already measuring out lengths of rope and securing grapnels. Two men were loading flintlocks and handing them out. They were single shot, but a volley might be enough to overwhelm a defense long enough for blades to be used. The rest depended on luck and skills. Once they were on the other ship, they would either secure it, or lose. They had no choice. The captain would be behind them, ready to shoot anyone who tried to retreat from a bigger force. Bloody Bill had earned his nom de guerre handily. And his reputation was such that he could inspire men to walk to their own execution rather than face him in a duel. Henry readied his boarders at the rails. Once they were side by side, the hooks had to be thrown to secure both ships together. Then they would jump the rails to board. ¡°Run the colors,¡± shouted the Captain. He stood in the bow, telescope to his eye. The Cloud Shark¡¯s black flag ran up the mast. A white shark smiled on it with jagged teeth. Anyone who saw that flag knew they weren¡¯t long for this world. The banner was as famous as the Captain. Crenshaw spread stories when he was in port to build its reputation. Scaring people so they made mistakes was better than letting them think they could fight back. Henry had been a part of a few boarding actions that had not gone the way they should have. Losing an ear had caused him to be more cautious than the average outlaw they had onboard. ¡°Ready the cannons!,¡± ordered the Captain. His shout was relayed to Boynton down in the hold. ¡°Ready the lines!¡± Henry stood at the rail. This should be an easy raid. He held a flintlock in his hand. He liked to shoot the enemy captain before the man could rally his sailors to repulse the boarders. The Cloud Shark closed on the ship. Henry waited patiently for the two ships to get The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.close enough so he could get started with his part of the job. The Maria Santos glowed on the stern. A man stood in the stern watching the approaching pirates. Henry didn¡¯t like the way he seemed to be smiling at them as they closed together. What did the man think was going to happen when they got close enough to board? He would be the first man fed to the sharks. The Spaniard pulled a length of rope from his belt. He had a hook tied to one end. He started spinning the hook as he watched the pirates close. Then he flung the hook directly at the bow of the Shark. It hooked to the rail with that one throw. Henry ran toward the bow. They had planned to board the other boat, but it looked like their prey planned to board them first. One shot should fix that problem. The other man swung from his boat toward the Shark. He pulled himself up the line as he flew through the air. He landed against the hull with both feet planted. Then he punched through the hull with his fist. Henry paused. Wood fell into the ocean as the Spaniard plunged into the hold of the ship. Then he heard screaming from below. This was wrong. What should he do? ¡°What was that?¡± Crenshaw headed for the ladder to the hold. He held a brace of pistols in his hands as he ran across the deck. He couldn¡¯t allow his reputation to be ruined by one man. A man screamed below decks. The sound made Henry pause as he tried to join his captain. Crenshaw hurried down the ladder after tucking one of the pistols away. He would deal with this boarder who didn¡¯t know his place. Henry ran to the top of the ladder. He tucked his pistol away in his sash, and slid down the ladder. He waited for his vision to adjust to the dark before he did anything else. Boynton slammed into the deck beside him and lay there. The Spaniard appeared with a white sword in his hand. It glowed like lightning. He blocked Crenshaw¡¯s blade while punching another man in the face. The sailor went down without a working jaw. Henry pulled his flintlock. He needed to get rid of this man so they could get back to raiding their victim. They would have to move the crew to the other boat with the hole in the bow. It was a miracle they hadn¡¯t started taking on water yet. That wouldn¡¯t last long if they ran into rough seas. Henry pulled the trigger on the flintlock. An explosion of smoke sent the ball at his enemy. The man stepped out of the way, slicing the captain across the chest as he moved. Crenshaw fell back from the slash, blood running down his shirt. ¡°I have been looking for the famous Captain Crenshaw for some time.¡± The Spaniard advanced across the deck, sword glowing in his hand. ¡°You have murdered many, and I can¡¯t allow that to continue.¡± Henry pulled his sword and tried to slash this enemy. The captain could defend himself. What would happen to the first mate if he didn¡¯t try to do something? ¡°You are in my way.¡± The Spaniard blocked the cut, directing the blade away from his body. His other hand came up as he spun. Henry went down from the slap. ¡°El Rey doesn¡¯t have time for you today.¡± Crenshaw tried to stab his enemy in the back. That was the proper way of dealing with enemies. The Spaniard, El Rey, spun to let the point of the blade pass by. He kicked the pirate in the chest. Bloody Bill landed close to the hole in the bow. He looked out for a moment at the sea lapping at the edge of the hole. He scrabbled for his sword. He couldn¡¯t lose now. ¡°I have been looking for you for a long time, Capitan Crenshaw.¡± El Rey kicked the ladder from the upper deck. Some of the crew fell to the deck. He kicked them out of the way so he could keep advancing. ¡°I don¡¯t understand.¡± Crenshaw grasped his sword and levered himself to his feet. ¡°I don¡¯t know you. What¡¯s this about?¡± ¡°I have been commissioned to kill pirates.¡± El Rey flicked the white blade he carried. A scar on his forehead was a lightning bolt in reflected light. ¡°You have been raiding for a time. Once I put a stop to you, I can move on to others.¡± ¡°You think I will be beaten that easily?¡± Crenshaw drew his pistol and fired in one swift motion. He heard the ball ricochet, but hadn¡¯t been able to follow its flight with his eyes. ¡°I don¡¯t see why not.¡± El Rey advanced. ¡°I¡¯ve killed so many. One more won¡¯t matter to me now.¡± Crenshaw and El Rey exchanged blows with their swords slicing the air as they moved. The pirate tried to get away from the hole in the bow of his ship. He didn¡¯t want to be pushed into the water. Fins were cruising the surface as he watched. Crenshaw charged forward, hoping to bull through his opponent. A fist stopped that. Then he felt the bones in his face twist slightly. Pain shot from the boot print on his face. ¡°Adios, Capitan.¡± El Rey grabbed the pirate and slung him through the hole into the water beyond. The sharks outside went into a frenzy as Crenshaw fell into their midst. His blood from his wound attracted them to him. Then they began to bite and tear. El Rey pulled his sword down the deck as he walked to the rear of the hold. He had to get back above to the main deck before he went into the water with the pirates. Crenshaw¡¯s disappearance would be a mystery to the rest of the world. Only he and his crew would know why the attacks had ceased. He climbed the ladder as the hull separated behind him. He leaped on the top deck and looked around. What remained of the crew looked at him in anger. His ship floated next to the soon to be scuttled pirate ship with riflemen on deck and cannon ready to fire. El Rey smiled at the pirates as he walked to the rail. He leaped over the gap to his own deck. He waved the man at the wheel to steer away from the Cloud Shark. His job was done, or soon would be thanks to the sharks in the water. He watched as the Cloud Shark slowly coasted under. The men went to dinghies and dropped them into the water. They unshipped oars and began rowing away from the sinking craft, and the Spanish ship. Maybe they could make it to a shore and live. It was a chance. Certain death was what waited for them if they stayed with the Shark. Fins followed the little boats as they made their way from the scene. ¡°Should we sink them, sir?¡± Juan Hernandez, the first mate of the Maria Santos, looked at the escaping boats. ¡°No. I want to see how many return to being pirates after this.¡± The King smiled. Duel in the Desert 2010- Moshe Levram wondered how he had let his sister talk him into going out to the desert. Just because something was happening didn¡¯t mean they had to look at it. And he didn¡¯t want to explain to his father how he had let his sister go alone to get into trouble. He was her protector. Their father would look at it as a failure on his part if he let anything happen to her. He didn¡¯t like it, but he was the elder child. And his speciality made him more capable of protecting her. Everything he grasped was geared to wards and shields. Offensive spells seemed out of his reach at the moment. ¡°Will you come on?¡± Sara Levram waved her hand at her brother. ¡°I finally have a source we can track.¡± ¡°I think we should call Father, and let him deal with this.¡± Moshe brushed dust off of his white shirt. ¡°We don¡¯t have enough magick to stop a major threat.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be mild.¡± Sara shook her head. Her dark curls drifted down from the band she used to tie them back. ¡°Someone has to look. We might as well do that. If it¡¯s too dangerous, one call to Father is easily done.¡± ¡°I think you overestimate our abilities.¡± Moshe knew he would have to carry her home now. That would be almost impossible. ¡°Go ahead.¡± Sara led the way, using the desert to carry them toward their goal. It was like skating, but sand and dirt were the ice. It was the first piece of magick she had mastered completely. And it was her favorite. The siblings drifted to a spot in the desert surrounded by pillars of rock. Moshe raised a shield instinctively against the flow of energy roiling from the sight. He put it in front of his sister to keep her back. The last thing they needed was to rush in and set off spells designed to kill them. He didn¡¯t want to explain to his father how he had let his sister be turned into a burning cloud of ash because he was careless. A man dressed in a hooded tunic shaped something in his hands. He smiled as he worked his hands. The object seemed to be that of a weird looking dog. ¡°How cute.¡± Sara didn¡¯t keep her voice down. ¡°It¡¯s a golem.¡± The magician stood in the circle, putting the last touches on his creation, as he looked for the source of the voice. The energy around the pillars faded as he wrote the last charm on his dog¡¯s back. Moshe felt a piece of magick hit his shield. He knew it was a sensory spell. He hadn¡¯t made his shield as a cloak. The other magician saw him and his sister, and knew they were gifted thanks to his spell. ¡°We have to get out of here.¡± Moshe grabbed his sister and started pulling as he backed up. ¡°This guy doesn¡¯t want witnesses.¡± Energy gathered in the site as Moshe half-carried Sara from the rocks. He didn¡¯t know what was going to be unleashed, and he didn¡¯t want to find out. He expanded his shield and thickened the parts facing behind him as he ran. He didn¡¯t know what the other man specialized in, but he assumed charms. That meant he needed physical things to work magick. That might be something they could use against him if they had to turn and fight. He didn¡¯t plan to turn and fight unless he was trapped in some dead end with no way out. ¡°We should stay and fight.¡± Sara punched her brother¡¯s shoulder. ¡°We can take this guy. He only has one golem.¡± Something exploded against Moshe¡¯s shield. They flew through the air. Smoke trailed behind them until they hit the ground. ¡°What was that?¡± Sara brushed off some of the ash on her brown blouse. ¡°That was your golem.¡± Moshe got to his feet. He looked at the pillars. Glowing dogs rushed forward with mouths open and ears back. ¡°We¡¯re dead.¡± Moshe flung up walls at a distance from them. Some of the dogs hit the shields and blew up. The spells shattered under the force. Most went around, threading the spaces between the walls. Nothing was going to stop them from eliminating the snoopers in a fiery glow. ¡°Not yet.¡± Sara raised her hands. She called on her magick to bring the desert alive. It was temporary, but the word written on the ground produced columns of fists that punched their enemies into exploding oblivion. ¡°More of them are coming.¡± Moshe flung up a wall in front of the pillars. Maybe that would keep them from coming long enough for him and Sara to get out of there. His wall blew apart almost instantly. More of the dogs drifted from the pillars. They growled in unison once they saw the siblings. They started running across the desert. ¡°As long as he¡¯s in there, he can create as many of those things as he wants.¡± Sara flung a word at the pillars. The piece of magic ripped apart before it could do anything. ¡°And it shields him from us.¡± ¡°I figured that.¡± Moshe formed a rotating circle of walls to keep the dogs from rushing them. ¡°Fighting retreat. This is out of our league.¡± ¡°You¡¯re right.¡± Sara looked at a piece of high ground in the distance. ¡°Get ready to move.¡± ¡°Do what you¡¯re going to do.¡± Moshe formed a bubble around them as his wall went This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.down one section at a time as the dogs gave up their lives to kill them. Sara grabbed his arm and pulled. They slid across the desert toward the rock in the distance. Let the beasts climb up after them if they could. The hill pulled them up to the top in front of the exploding dogs. The beasts paused as they tried to think of a way to get up at the siblings. They finally decided to circle the base of the rock like sharks. ¡°They can explode all they want down there.¡± Sara smiled. ¡°I wonder what the charm maker will do now.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t tempt fate.¡± Moshe looked around. ¡°We need another spot to run to when this one is broken.¡± ¡°There¡¯s another rock over there.¡± Sara nodded at the outcrop in the desert. ¡°We can bust through their lines and retreat to there.¡± ¡°More trouble.¡± Moshe pointed to a man crossing the desert. ¡°I told you we should have left this to Father. Now we have two magicians to deal with.¡± ¡°Maybe he¡¯s not friends with our charm maker.¡± Sara squinted at the man walking toward them. ¡°He¡¯s strong. I can see his energy wrapping around him.¡± The dogs ran from the hill. They headed right for the man in black. He paused to assess the attack. Then he caught the lead dog and manipulated it with his hands. He held a staff made from the spellwork. He drove it into the ground. The dogs exploded against the shield made from their pointer. The shield just grew stronger the more dogs it touched. ¡°Did you see that?,¡± Sara smiled. ¡°He¡¯s not with the charm maker.¡± ¡°He¡¯s not with us either.¡± Moshe relaxed despite himself. Maybe an adult could settle this better than he could. The man in the black walked to the base of their rock. He wore a long buttoned coat, trousers, wingtips, and gloves. The collar of his coat concealed the lower part of his face. Sunglasses covered the rest. A hat topped the assemblage. Moshe didn¡¯t like the fact he couldn¡¯t see ears from where he sat on the rock. That couldn¡¯t be a good sign. ¡°Hello, children.¡± The man in black gazed at the pillars. Moshe didn¡¯t like that he couldn¡¯t see the back of the man¡¯s head. ¡°What¡¯s going on here?¡± ¡°This guy was making a charm and I guess he didn¡¯t like us seeing him do that.¡± Sara pointed at the pillars. ¡°I¡¯m Sara, and this is Moshe. That was a great piece of magic you did. I don¡¯t think I have seen anything like it.¡± ¡°Just some word work.¡± The man in black started toward the pillars. ¡°Stay out of the way. This next part could be a little tricky.¡± ¡°The thing only makes exploding dogs from what we¡¯ve seen.¡± Moshe hoped this newcomer knew what he was doing. At least he was making himself a target so the charm maker wouldn¡¯t chase the Levrams. ¡°I saw.¡± The man in black strolled along. ¡°I¡¯m sure he has other tricks up his sleeve.¡± ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± Sara scrambled to get off the rock to follow him. ¡°Memphis.¡± The man in black held his hat on as he walked toward the eldritch display that was almost lighting up the real world. ¡°I always liked that city.¡± ¡°America, or Egypt?,¡± Moshe whispered to his sister. ¡°Maybe both.¡± Sara smiled at him. ¡°This is a good guy. I can feel it.¡± ¡°He feels like a ghost to me.¡± Moshe frowned at her. ¡°He could be just as much a danger as the other man.¡± ¡°He isn¡¯t.¡± Sara hit the ground. ¡°Come on. We need to see this. This might be our first real duel.¡± ¡°We could be running for help.¡± Moshe exhaled with the knowledge he was talking to himself. He dropped down on a spongy bubble and ran after his sister. The last thing they needed was to watch real magicians duel in the desert. Moshe caught Sara as Memphis pushed into the aura around the pillars. He took her arm and pulled her back behind a shield. The last thing he needed was for her to get caught in a backlash from the elder magicians battling. ¡°Can we talk?¡± Memphis gestured with a hand. ¡°I see you¡¯ve tapped into the Spring here. What do you plan to do with your creations?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s any of your business.¡± The charm maker had a cat in his hands. The statue of the dog hung from his belt. ¡°I have been waiting for years to use this spot to empower myself. It will be years before it¡¯s active again. No suit of clothes is going to get in my way when I finally have the resources to change the world to something I want.¡± ¡°That¡¯s an interesting expression of intent.¡± Memphis seemed to be smiling but it was hard to tell since he didn¡¯t have an exposed face. ¡°How are you going to do that against the other magicians and organizations that like the world the way it is?¡± ¡°I will wipe them out.¡± The charm maker glared at his enemy. ¡°I will take control of the Spring and there will be nothing they can do about it.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± Memphis snickered. ¡°You couldn¡¯t stop two kids. You don¡¯t have a chance against real magicians.¡± ¡°Shut up.¡± The charm maker held up his cat. A tiger erupted from the sand. ¡°This is what will happen to the other magicians that get in my way.¡± Memphis punched the tiger in the face. His gloved hand came out the other side. The tiger collapsed to the ground. ¡°I was killing simulacrum before you were born.¡± Memphis shook his gloved hand. ¡°I think you should give up your magic.¡± ¡°Never.¡± The charm maker touched his dog. Replicas surrounded him as guards. ¡°Punch these.¡± Memphis kicked the ground. A wave of dirt rolled over the dogs. They blew up under the cascade before they could charge away from their master. The charm maker went down with his lower legs blasted apart. He tried not to scream. ¡°Hurts, doesn¡¯t it?¡± Memphis didn¡¯t sound all that concerned by the damage he had wrecked on his opponent. ¡°Imagine how bad things would be for you if I weren¡¯t here to help you.¡± Gloved hands took the cat and dog and reshaped them into a mask. He fitted the mask to his face, shaping it over his head. He nodded when he was done. ¡°Now, let¡¯s see what happens when we try to put your legs back together.¡± Memphis fitted the stumps back together. ¡°You might experience some pain.¡± The flesh knitted together in the rags of brown pants. The charm maker screamed as everything came together in a series of clicks, rips, and a sewing machine clank. ¡°That was awesome.¡± Sara ran into the circle of pillars. ¡°What word did you use to do that?¡± Moshe frowned. They were standing at dagger range with a magician better than they were. If he decided to take them out too, no shield was going to stop him for longer than a few seconds. ¡°I don¡¯t use words.¡± Memphis¡¯s mask smiled down at her. ¡°I use waves.¡± ¡°Waves?¡± Sara frowned. ¡°How?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll kill you all,¡± said the charm maker. He raised a hand. ¡°Sleep,¡± commanded Sara. A rune wrote itself on the man¡¯s forehead. His eyes closed and he snored. ¡°Every magician has to have a speciality.¡± Memphis held up his hands. A ribbon danced between the palms. ¡°Mine is waves, and streams.¡± ¡°Mine is words.¡± Sara smiled. ¡°That¡¯s great.¡± He closed his hands together. He pulled them away from each other. Words danced between them. ¡°All I can do is fields.¡± Moshe looked down at his own hand. A bubble sat in the palm. ¡°Is that all I can do with what I have?¡± ¡°You can expand beyond that.¡± Memphis closed his hands together and then pulled them apart. A bubble sat between the palms. ¡°Bubbles just make it easier for you to work your magic. More experience will let you branch out.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± Moshe popped the bubble in his hand. ¡°What about this guy?¡± ¡°He should be imprisoned in a normal prison but no court would believe he was guilty.¡± Memphis looked up. ¡°It¡¯s better that he goes to sleep for a while. When he wakes up, you¡¯ll be able to deal with him if I can¡¯t be here.¡± Memphis summoned the natural power around him. He pushed the charm maker into a coffin of glass. The ground opened up and the coffin sank out of sight. ¡°He¡¯ll be back in a few years.¡± The man in black started walking from the ring. ¡°You might want to practice harder to get ready for him.¡± The Destroyer 1 5000bc- ¡°Yes, I know I need exactly the right spot.¡± The hunchback held his collection of scrolls to his chest. ¡°I don¡¯t need you to tell me what to do.¡± He paused as if listening. Then his lined face twisted in anger. ¡°I know what I am doing.¡± The hunchback paused. ¡°I don¡¯t need you to keep talking to me about it. I just need to find the right place. Once I touch the Spring, I will be able to activate the rest of the words.¡± He started walking again. ¡°Yes, the way will be clear for the Destroyer to arrive.¡± The hunchback walked until he arrived at the city¡¯s harbor. He ignored the various styles, languages, and foreigners. He had a place next to a warehouse. Once he was home, he could divine where he needed to go to carry out the rest of his bargain. The Destroyer would spare him as the summoner. He would have some sort of leverage to keep his part of the Earth as it was. The rest would be gutted and shaped to whatever means the otherworldly force wanted. That didn¡¯t bother the hunchback. The only thing that mattered was that he got what he wanted out of the deal. If the rest of humanity suffered and died, so what? They should have spent years learning how to do summonings and dismissals. Then they could try to stop the Destroyer when he arrived with his army. He set the scrolls on a stand. He settled in his favorite cloth chair. He didn¡¯t remember where he had gotten the chair, but it helped him with the curve of his spine. He needed that relief for a second as he tried to think of his next move. He decided the best thing to do was try to draw a map. That might give him a clue which way he should go to harness the Spring. ¡°Yes, I know what¡¯s at stake.¡± He jumped from his chair. ¡°I¡¯m doing the best I can. The last time the Destroyer was summoned, it required an army of magicians. I¡¯m only one man. Be patient.¡± He exhaled a breath. The spirits inside him didn¡¯t want to give him a moment¡¯s peace. He needed them to work their power to his own ends, but he hated their demands. If he did the wrong thing, he could turn his being into a torch that would burn a millennium. He refused to ruin his chance for a better body because his allies didn¡¯t appreciate the limits on his ability. It was better to be slow and methodical than rushing and stabbing yourself with your own stylus. And his methods had worked for him so far. The hunchback decided to spend the rest of the night reading. Once he was sure the scrolls held what he wanted, he could move to the next step. Then he probably had to arrange for traveling. He doubted the spot he wanted to use would be in the city where he was. That would make things too easy. And the city had a protector whose responsibility was stopping people like him doing the thing he planned to do. He didn¡¯t need a duel with another magician before he put his plan into mission. He had a great deal of personal power but he doubted it would be useful against another magician with equal skill. He prepared a dinner of bread and cheese before he began his reading. He had a barrel of rainwater to drink from. He dipped out a cup from the wooden cask. He spread out the first scroll and went over it while he ate. He didn¡¯t learn anything from the writing. He moved to the next one, and then the third. The fourth one gave him a clue on how to work the portal. The fifth one mentioned the ritual he wanted to perform. He found measurements, effects, and what could be expected when the spell worked. The spell didn¡¯t state what would happen if the Destroyer was successfully summoned. He expected the name of the creature was usually enough to warn off practitioners You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.that should know better. He didn¡¯t really care about that. Once his task was done, then he could walk without pain for once. ¡°All right.¡± He rolled the scrolls up and placed them on the stand. ¡°Everything looks like it¡¯s possible. I just need a power location to get started. I am going to try to divine one, then get some sleep. After that, I will try to find the place, and arrange transportation.¡± He held up a hand at unheard exclamations. He waited for silence. ¡°There¡¯s no way I will be able to do this as rapidly as you want.¡± He gestured at his body with mismatched hands. ¡°Look at me. It will be an act of the gods if I can reach the place of power without dying on the way. I understand how you feel, but you will have to wait.¡± He listened to the air. He ground his teeth together. He had made a mistake absorbing these spirits into his mind. He should have put them in an artifact that he could use at will without having to listen to them. ¡°Enough.¡± The hunchback shouted to the empty room. ¡°I have decided our course. I need you to think about how you can help me in the projected future that I have laid out.¡± He sat in his chair. He shut his mismatched eyes. Maybe he should sleep first before he tried to find where he needed to go to do the ritual. The muttering of rebellion and betrayal decided him. He had to at least try with the writing. Then they would allow him to sleep for a bit. He hoped he was ready to carry the spell out. If he failed, they would chew at his mind until he did something that he would regret later. He should have really tried to confine them to artifacts instead of carrying them around inside of him. They vexed him over which way the sun set some days. He looked over his supplies until he found a piece of vellum he could write on with a pen and ink. He spread the vellum on the table. He held the corners down with rocks he had picked up to use for that purpose. He found his bottle of ink, and a quill pen he sharpened to do what he wanted. He set them on the table. He closed his eyes as he unstoppered the bottle. He dipped the pen in the ink. He pulled the pen out. He murmured words as his hand moved the pen. He stopped when he heard a skritch from the pen. The drawing was complete when that happened. He opened his eyes and put the pen up. He studied the drawing. He exhaled. He knew that the place was represented by a circle of pillars. A sun rising meant it was east of where he was. He had to travel to a desert east of where he was. He was looking at miles of movement to get where he needed to be. ¡°Are you happy?,¡± he asked the spirits. ¡°Can I get some sleep?¡± He frowned at what the voices told him. ¡°No.¡± He sat down in his chair. ¡°There¡¯s no telling where the site is. I am getting a nap before I try to find it. If it¡¯s too far away, it might take another few years to find it for the summoning. I¡¯m not trying to find a place strange to me without some kind of rest because you expect me to be your slave. I am your master, and I require some time before I start on the next step of the plan.¡± He waved the complaints away. ¡°I need the sleep.¡± He closed his eyes. ¡°I¡¯m going to take that rest. Tomorrow will be the day I leave the city for this search. I will need to use the divination to keep us on track. I expect your help with that.¡± He waved aside their objections as he concentrated on getting his sleep. Having them in his body gave him vitality, and relieved some of his pain. The constant arguments on priorities angered him more than he liked. Still, he was making progress, and if there was a problem, he had the perfect sacrifices. Let another magician stand up to a spell powered by a water spirit. He would drown before he came up with the right counter. Using a spirit like that would cause it to destroy itself. It would hurt his personal power to an unknown degree. The only good side was he could use his enemy¡¯s spirit as a replacement if he caught the magician¡¯s last exhalation. Maybe a human spirit would be better as a source of power than inhuman spirits. He ignored his dreams as he slept. Lately, the spirits tried to invade his mind through them. It was better just to lock them away. Then when he woke up, he was back on even footing with the spirits without whatever they tried to plant in his mind to release them. He woke up in the morning, the port already bustling around his little place. It was time to pack up and try to find his destination. ¡°Yes, yes.¡± He didn¡¯t have to check his food. He didn¡¯t have any left after his dinner the night before. He found several water bags and filled them from his barrel. He put his magick supplies in a carrying bag that he could hang from his high shoulder. The scrolls went in another bag. He held the drawing in both hands. How could it help him now? He doubted it could do much, but it should point him in the right direction. He hoped he didn¡¯t have to go far to get to where he wanted to go. He held the drawing as he left his hovel for the last time. He held it in front of him as he walked. He found a boat that drew his sight. He held the drawing in front of the boat. It wiggled in his hands. This was the transportation that he needed. ¡°It¡¯s not exact.¡± He shook his head. He was using a drawing of a place that might not exist to decide on boarding a boat to get to that place in the hope of satisfying spirits complaining about his moves. How had his life turned out like this? He put the drawing away as he walked to the boat he wanted to travel on. If he could get on board, he could ride with it until it reached the spot he needed to go. It wasn¡¯t perfect. That didn¡¯t matter. He could use his spell work to secure passage, and be let off on land where he needed to go. Arranging something to carry him on land would be a different kettle of trouble in his opinion. That would take care of itself when he got to it. The Destroyer 2 The hunchback held the drawing up so he could use it as a comparison to the landscape he was crossing. He was close. He felt that. He just didn¡¯t know how close he was. He didn¡¯t try to hush the voices in his brain. They were pointing out favorable paths for him to walk. He thanked the gods they were finally proving their value to him. The last thing he needed at the moment was for his inner voices to start arguing again. He didn¡¯t want to be the peacemaker until he could get them all harnessed together again. ¡°I think we¡¯re close.¡± He turned in a circle, with the drawing high so he could compare the picture to reality. ¡°We¡¯re very close.¡± He smiled when he saw pillars of rock sticking out of the desert. He looked at the drawing. Then he looked at the pillars. ¡°We¡¯re here.¡± He put the drawing away. Energy crackled at his feet as he touched the Spring. This would boost his power immensely once he got started. The spirits murmured for him to get started right away. Finishing the job had to be done that day. Then they could reap the reward. ¡°Patience.¡± The hunchback walked to the edge of the ring. Some other magician had put the markers in place. He felt the Spring bubbling to that spot. Once he started, the energy would be used up rapidly. He needed to be ready with every tool at his disposal to make the summoning work the first time. If it didn¡¯t, he might have to wait months, possibly years, for the Spring to renew itself in that spot. The spirits would not like having to wait because he miscued his spell work. The future would be full of whispered curses and vitriol. And he already had enough of that. He wanted them to sing his praises and respect his authority. He supposed that would be too much to demand from them. He murmured as he crossed the threshold of the ring. The Spring coursed through him. He could do his spell, but if a stronger magician arrived to stop him, the Spring would answer to the magician faster on the attack. Of course, that was why he had the spirits. They could operate for him while he did what was necessary to carry out the plan. Then he could collect his reward from the Destroyer. It would be good to have a straight back after so many years of being a freak. What would the Destroyer want in return? None of the lore suggested anything. He doubted that simple passage to Earth would be enough to assuage any demand for payment. He could worry about that when his demands were met. Trading the world for fixing his back seemed good enough for him. He turned a circle in the center of the ring. A slab of stone had been laid down as a table, or altar. Traces of prior work drifted above the slab. He didn¡¯t see any bloodstains. He would deal with the setting and then move on to work his own spell. ¡°Yes, I know.¡± He shook his head. Of course, he had to make the proper marks and write the nonexistent words that were required. ¡°I think I know a little better than you.¡± He had trapped them. What did they know about the things he was capable of as a summoner? He definitely was going to check everything before he empowered the spell. He didn¡¯t want to open the door a little, and then get sucked in through the opening to what lay on the other side. He doubted it would be a desert. Other places had their own laws. He doubted any place that housed something like the Destroyer would operate like Earth did. He had to be ready to close the door if he couldn¡¯t make an arrangement with the other land¡¯s king. Of course, the Destroyer may be so powerful that once the door was open, there might be no closing it. He might be dooming humanity without getting his back fixed at all. He was willing to take that chance. Humanity would just have to suffer if he was wrong. He doubted his spirits would serve him well in the face of overwhelming power. He expected them to try to break their locks, and only fight when they saw they would die with him if they did nothing. He smiled at their yammering. Soon he would be able to rework the various contracts that held his servants in place. He expected a lot of anger to express itself as he went about his business. He would call the Destroyer. Then he would have the body he wanted with a part of the world to match. And he might be able to silence the spirits in his mind by fully absorbing them into his being. Their intellects would be gone as they became engines of power he could use at will. And his head would only have his own voice in it instead of sharing it like he did This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.now. He looked at the dimensions of the ring. The gate would be smaller than he liked, but he still had enough room to work with by his calculations. It was time to start creating the diagram that he needed to have to summon the Destroyer to Earth. Then he could keep it bound until he got what he wanted from the spirit. He saw a life of luxury ahead for him. No more drudgery, luck charms, or hovels. A castle would be the start of his rise. Anyone who survived the coming of the Destroyer would have to depend on him and his skills for their protection. He drew a circle around the pillars. That would prevent anyone from stopping him while he worked. He started on the diagram, using his hand to draw in the ground on the inside of the circle. When he had finished the last letter, he drew a circle inside the words to keep the other world in its own place. He doubted the inner circle would hold against the full might of the Destroyer, but he just wanted a few minutes to talk to the fiend. He didn¡¯t want to be the first thing destroyed when the invasion started. ¡°You¡¯re making a mistake.¡± A voice cut through his thoughts, and it wasn¡¯t one of his. He looked around until he saw a man in robe and cloak, smoking a pipe. One eye squinted under naturally raised eyebrows as he examined the drawing in the circle. ¡°This summons is nothing but trouble.¡± ¡°Who are you to question me?¡± The hunchback glared at the creature standing there. It wasn¡¯t a man. He could tell that with a glance. ¡°No one important.¡± The stranger waved a hand. ¡°I¡¯m just telling you that you shouldn¡¯t use this incantation. It will cause a lot of trouble for a lot of people.¡± ¡°I¡¯m willing to take that risk.¡± The hunchback glared at the entity. ¡°And you can¡¯t stop me.¡± ¡°There¡¯s some people coming who can stop you,¡± the stranger said. He checked his pipe. He pulled a pouch of tobacco from inside his robe. He filled the pipe and put the bag away. ¡°I let them know what you were doing.¡± ¡°They won¡¯t stop me.¡± The hunchback frowned at this intruder. ¡°All I have to do is start. They are too late.¡± ¡°Do you really want to kill everything in the world?¡± The stranger lit his pipe. ¡°Don¡¯t you think that¡¯s excessive?¡± ¡°As long as I get what I want, the rest is inconsequential.¡± The hunchback decided the entity couldn¡¯t cross the barrier he had set up. As long as he couldn¡¯t, then he couldn¡¯t stop the spell. His friends were of no account. ¡°Don¡¯t do this,¡± said the stranger. ¡°You could be dooming the world.¡± The hunchback started chanting. Talking to some ghost was not going to change his mind at this point. He had set his course, and he should follow it to the end. A cloud appeared over the ring as he said the words of the spell over and over. He felt the Spring respond to him, lending him strength as he worked. He smiled as he made the gestures. The diagram lit with blue fire as he sent his call across the dimensional planes. He spared a glance at his visitor as he worked. The expression he was one of resignation. The warning had been issued. Things would have to be done to stop the summoning. He saw that, but knew the entity couldn¡¯t breach the circle. He was unstoppable. The cloud formed a disk in the air. The call had been accepted. The Destroyer was coming. A flying missile sliced through the standing stones and slammed into the hunchback. One of his spirits roared and saved him from being killed by turning his body into rock. He was still knocked out of the ring by the blow. One of his spirits caught the hunchback with a stream of wind. He floated to a stop on the ground. He smiled. His summons had gathered enough power to run on its own. All he had to do now was stall until the Destroyer arrived to defend him. The missile became a man in a light blue tunic with a green star on the shoulder strap. He landed on the desert floor with a puff of dust. He looked mildly irritated. ¡°What are you doing, magician?¡± He grabbed the hunchback by the neck. ¡°Stop this.¡± Sand and dirt blasted the newcomer off his feet. It buried him before he could recover from his surprise. ¡°Why should I stop?¡± The hunchback smiled. ¡°I¡¯m getting everything I want.¡± He walked over to enter the circle again. Once he was back in place, he could speed up the summoning portal until it was big enough for his intended guest to arrive. He spotted more men arriving from the air. He grimaced. He should have expected others would try to stop him from his goal. He would not let them. It was time to let his spirits out to do what they liked to do best. A rumbling from the ground presaged the man in the tunic pushing out of the ground. He appeared angry about what had happened. He would be even angrier about what was going to happen next. Hideous forms erupted from the hunchback. He sank to one knee outside of his protective ring. His soldiers would have to fight for him. That was all he could do now. Without the Spring, he wasn¡¯t strong enough to take control of the spell. He had to get back to the inside of the ring while his minions did their part. Then he could feed some of the Spring¡¯s energy to them so they could be better defenders for him. The man with the green star was trying to fight his way through a mobile avalanche that kept trying to bury him. Two magicians tried to disperse a walking fire and a shark made out of water. Every time they did, the creatures reformed and returned to the attack. A jinn fought his air spirit. The jinn¡¯s master and a whirling tower of edges swung swords at each other with the steady clanging of metal on metal. The last man seemed ordinary enough, shooting arrows into the goblin maker the hunchback used to make instant armies at his command. He murmured a spell to get through the protective line. He realized the green star man had not used magic to break the line. He didn¡¯t know what was going on with that one, but he didn¡¯t have time to speculate. He had to get inside and take over the Spring so his spirits could do what he needed them to do. And these meddlers would be the first ones given to the Destroyer when he arrived. He heard a hum. He looked up. The cloud that marked where the borders touched expanded as it pulled more of the Spring¡¯s energy into the sky. This was what he wanted. The Destroyer was coming and no one could stop it. He hadn¡¯t counted on these meddlers, but it didn¡¯t matter. He was going to win this duel. ¡°There¡¯s still time for you to stop.¡± The entity stood outside the circle. ¡°You can write this off and do something else.¡± ¡°It is not my concern what the Destroyer does with the rest of you as long as he fixes my body as he agreed.¡± The hunchback glared at the spirit. ¡°If I were you, I would get away from here before he arrives and crushes you.¡± ¡°If you were me, you wouldn¡¯t be doing this in the first place.¡± The spirit raised a hand. He pressed that hand against the shield granted by the protective circle. ¡°It¡¯s time, and I won.¡± The hunchback pointed at the expanding cloud above. A giant ivory hand reached out of the cloud. ¡°Now you will know what it means to cross me.¡± The Destroyer 3 The hunchback readied himself for his next spell. The lord of the other realm was coming to Earth. All he had to do now was tap that potential power to fix himself and arm himself to stand up to any magician who tried to duel him. His name would be feared as the man who destroyed the world. People would bow down at his passing. He could take anything he wanted. He would be the new master of the world. ¡°Are you sure you want to keep on this course?¡± The entity that had arrived before the others stood in the Spring with him. ¡°It can only end badly for you.¡± ¡°How did you get in here?¡± The hunchback raised a hand. ¡°You let me in.¡± He puffed on his pipe. ¡°There¡¯s still time to change your mind. A lot of people don¡¯t get that when they¡¯ve made a mistake.¡± The hunchback murmured words in the air. A lance of purple light appeared in his hand. He flung it at his gadfly. Destroying a construct should be easy for him to do. The javelin fell to the ground. The target had swept the air in front of him with a hand. That caused the weapon to change course and strike the ground. It shattered to nothingness on impact. The entity puffed on his pipe as he advanced. All he had to do was evict the summoner from his own spell work. That should be easy enough to do. The hunchback invoked protection from his enemy. He felt the grid of signs slide between them. One touch and he could use his power to steal the spirit in front of him and use him as a weapon against the others. That would be the quickest way for him to get what he wanted. ¡°A spirit trap.¡± The smoker shook his head. ¡°You know these can be used on their creators?¡± He tapped the grid with his pipe¡¯s stem. The symbols reversed. A wind pulled on the hunchback¡¯s body, pulling on his inner spirit. The hunchback murmured again, reversing the spirit trap while throwing another lance at his enemy. Let it counter that. A hand directed the lance into the spirit trap. The conjoined spells transformed into a small yellow and white dog. The dog growled at the hunchback. The dog charged with a snapping of its jaws. It snatched at his ankles with growling and the clacking of teeth. A kick sent it across the protective line with a yelp. ¡°I¡¯ve had enough of you.¡± The hunchback concentrated on unleashing a storm inside the pillars. He regretted unleashing all of his spirits to hold the magicians off while he tried to complete his plans. He murmured a call for a monster that should be able to handle this meddler. Then he could get back to his business. A swarm of black appeared out of a cloud. Yellow spots could have been eyes. It flung itself on the man with no name. ¡°Time to fix my back and end this battle for good.¡± The hunchback raised his hands. A set of spells in the middle of the Spring should do what he wanted despite what the others wanted. A fist slammed against his protection. He flew over the line, thrown from his position. He murmured more protections before he hit the sand and rock and slid. The man with the green star floated in the ring of pillars. The summoned beast turned to glare at the flying man. He smashed it together with both hands as it leapt into the air to seize him. The hunchback climbed to his feet. He surveyed the battlefield. How was he going to turn this around? A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. The entity with no name and the flying man were in control of the Spring. His servants had been defeated and dispersed as far as he could tell. He might be able to recall them to action if he had more power. Some of the meddlers had been hurt by his minions. He counted that as partial success. He was going to have to kill them eventually if they got in his way. He had a small chance to do that now. The hand of the Destroyer grabbed the swordsman. The massive fingers closed and crushed the life out of the hero. The hunchback smiled as ash flew into the wind. That was one of his tormentors done. Now he had to kill the rest. An arc of lightning struck the dead man¡¯s sword. It changed as the hunchback marshaled his own forces. The sword flew into the air, a thing of white bone and lightning. It never came back down. The hunchback murmured a spell. He had to get back in control of the Spring. That would give him the power to stop the others. Sand covered him in a cloud. He closed his eyes as the desert became his weapon. All he had to do was inflict as much damage as he could to the other magicians and reduce them to the same condition as the one who died. Two of the magicians turned as he approached. He gathered more sand as he ran at them. He would be a giant crushing gnats by the time he arrived to deal with them. Then he could take the Jinn from the Easterner and use it as a weapon against those in the pillars. He liked the simplicity of it. Twin beams of spells struck his sandy shell. He exploded out of his protection. He hit the ground again. He murmured a summons to provide a distraction. There was no way for him to win against both of the magicians. They knew what he could do, but he didn¡¯t have any clue how to counter their spells at the moment. He needed to escape so he could try some other scheme to gather power. He couldn¡¯t afford to be exposed with no power to fall back on. He hated that he had to abandon his scheme when he was so close, but if he didn¡¯t, he would be at their mercy. His distraction arrived in a fog drifting away from the scene. He threw a screen over it with a few murmured words. Let them stop that. He limped in the opposite direction. There was no need to watch the battle. He had to get away before anyone thought to try to stop him. How long did he have before their magic reached out for him? He needed cover. He was as good as caught if he remained in the open. It was too bad about his guardians. They had been troublesome and frequently loud, but he was almost unarmed without them. He had developed them to be exemplars. Then he had lost them to a gang of motley idiots. At least one of the idiots had been killed by the Destroyer. That was a small victory considering what he had almost done. Killing one of the group was nothing. He wanted to kill them all. He looked over his shoulder. The group seemed to be having problems with his summons. He smiled. He might have the time to get away from this fiasco after all. The hand of the Destroyer started withdrawing back into the cloud between worlds. The entity in command of the Spring must have reversed the call. The overlord would not be striding across the world that day. The hunchback murmured and the ground split at his feet. He sank below the surface. He asked to be carried to the sea. That was the best he could do at the moment. He could hide among regular people until he planned his next chance at power. The Spring would move to some other place. He didn¡¯t know where. He didn¡¯t know when it would come back to the pillars. He could wait for another chance, or actively seek something out before his enemies caught up with him. His hovel was protected from detection. He could use that to build up his power to carry out another scheme. He didn¡¯t know what that was yet, but he was sure he would come up with something. He had counted on calling on something with great power to get what he wanted. He had not counted on the other magicians getting in his way when he was so close. He still didn¡¯t know how that one flying man had been able to cross the line. That should have been impossible. What kind of magic did he possess to do what he had done? He foresaw a huge amount of time researching his enemies before he could kill them in the most painful way they deserved for stopping him from harnessing the Destroyer¡¯s godlike power. He rose out of the ground. He looked around. None of his enemies seemed close. He saw the water ahead. He had husbanded a great deal of personal power. That didn¡¯t matter now. All that mattered was escaping to start over. He walked into the water, murmuring as he went. He sank beneath the waves. He felt for a current and stepped into it. It didn¡¯t matter where he went as long as he escaped. Then he could plan his next move to gain the power he sought. The water pushed him away from the shore. As long as he did nothing more active than making sure he wouldn¡¯t drown, the water should cover him until the other magicians gave up looking for him. Then he could try to get to his hovel. At least he didn¡¯t have to worry about spending all of his power while riding the current. The sea carried him along at a rapid pace. He would not thought of moving so fast under the water. As soon as he was close enough to home, he would think about leaving his shield. Interview 2015- Marcel Hobart checked the address from the ad against the building in front of him. He looked up and down the street. He didn¡¯t see anything else marked Lamplighters, Inc. A lantern hanging over the door seemed to mock him with its blue flame. It looked run down. Should he go inside, or should he just write this job off? He was getting a weird vibe from the building. It was telling him to walk away. Ordinarily Marcel listened to his inner voice. It had kept him from getting shot more than a few times. He needed a job, and the ad said this place needed someone with his skill set. He put the ad in his pocket. He walked over. The place¡¯s front had taken some kind of beating in the past. He saw numerous scoring marks that reminded him of the aftermath of explosions. Had someone attacked the place? Is that why someone with his background was being considered? He took a breath before opening the human-sized door. He looked inside. A pile of trash stood in the middle of the open floor. He blinked at it. He had thought the place was up and running. He stepped inside. No one seemed to be around. Maybe he had come at the right time. He checked his watch. He was a little early for his appointment. Maybe he should write this off. ¡°Hello!,¡± he shouted to the empty room. ¡°Is anyone here?¡± A woman appeared at the top of a central spiral staircase. She frowned at him. Then she smiled. ¡°Mr. Hobart?¡± She came down the staircase. ¡°Come in. Please excuse the mess. We¡¯re trying to get back in fighting shape.¡± ¡°Your ad said you were looking for applicants.¡± Marcel walked deeper into the bay. He saw that a mechanic¡¯s tool shelves decorated the walls. ¡°Have I come at a bad time?¡± ¡°No, no.¡± She waved to a visitor¡¯s seat in front of a desk at the back of the room. ¡°We¡¯ve been shut down for a while, and we¡¯re getting ready to start back up.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± Marcel sat down in the chair. ¡°Thank you for giving me a chance.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be honest, Mr. Hobart.¡± She sat down on the other side of her desk. ¡°You have to pass two tests before I can even think about giving you the paperwork to fill out. You have to test clean for drugs, and you have to pass our eye test.¡± Marcel frowned. He expected a drug test. That part was in the ad. An eye test seemed a little much to base hiring practices on. ¡°An eye test?¡± He had perfect vision as far as he knew. He should be able to pass an eye test. ¡°A lot of our equipment will be keyed to your retinas.¡± She smiled. ¡°If the scanner can¡¯t lock on to your eyes, it won¡¯t turn anything on. That could be suicide in the field.¡± ¡°I get that.¡± Marcel did get it. Your equipment failing and killing someone seemed to be a perfect reason to check your employee¡¯s eyeballs if you didn¡¯t want to kill him. ¡°Is this job dangerous? I didn¡¯t see any specifics in your ad.¡± ¡°It¡¯s one of the most dangerous jobs in the world right now.¡± She smiled. It didn¡¯t ease his alarm at the words. ¡°The owner of the business lost his three partners when a job went bad. That¡¯s what you¡¯re signing up for if you can pass the tests.¡± ¡°Maybe I should bow out.¡± Marcel felt his warning agreeing with the words. ¡°I didn¡¯t really expect any danger.¡± ¡°That¡¯s understandable.¡± She nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll discard your application. It was nice to meet you, Mr. Hobart.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry for wasting your time.¡± Marcel stood up. ¡°I just don¡¯t want to get shot again.¡± ¡°That¡¯s understandable.¡± She stood. ¡°Would you like a sandwich and some coffee for your trouble?¡± ¡°A glass of water would be fine.¡± Marcel nodded. ¡°Thank you.¡± ¡°No problem.¡± She walked up the staircase, pulling off her rubber gloves. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Marcel felt something with him. He looked around the room. He spotted picture frames hidden behind a file cabinet. He walked over to look at them. He knew he shouldn¡¯t, but his curiosity was pulling him even as his warning was saying get out as loud as it could. ¡°I thought you was a marine, boy.¡± A voice drifted out of the air as he started to look at the pictures. ¡°What a chicken.¡± Marcel straightened. He didn¡¯t know what irked him more: someone had caught him snooping and he hadn¡¯t heard them walking toward him, or being called a chicken by someone who didn¡¯t know him. ¡°I don¡¯t see how that¡¯s your business.¡± Marcel wondered why the guy was dressed like a cowboy from a movie. All he needed was one of those long coats. ¡°Your daddy must be proud you turned out such a horrible example of a human being.¡± The cowboy shifted his hat back on his head. ¡°He must congratulate himself every night on the job he done.¡± ¡°My father has nothing to do with this.¡± Marcel knew what was going on. This guy was trying to make him change his mind by angering him and attacking his courage. ¡°Who do you think you are?¡± ¡°Milton Kearn, boy.¡± The cowboy smiled slightly. ¡°It¡¯s something I carry with pride since I never had to run like a dog with its tail between its legs. Is that how you survived when the rest of your squad died? You ran like the coward you are?¡± ¡°That¡¯s not what remotely happened.¡± Marcel glared at his accuser. ¡°What happened, Corporal?¡± The cowboy crossed his arms. ¡°How did you survive?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t tell you that.¡± Marcel had signed a document ordering him not to talk about what had happened that had led to him getting his purple heart. ¡°I¡¯ll tell you then, Corporal Hobart.¡± The cowboy glared at him. ¡°Corporal Hobart and his squad was on a patrol. They walked into an ambush. Enemy fire raked them before they could take cover. Corporal Hobart was shot twice while abandoning his men to the enemy. At least they gave you a purple heart for getting shot in the back when you broke.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not what happened.¡± Marcel glared back. ¡°I was leading the patrol. I was shot when I turned to warn my guys about the ambush. I lucked out and fell into a culvert and was overlooked while the massacre was going on. All my friends died. I managed to crawl out of the area and was picked up by another patrol. All of this was investigated. I was discharged because of my wounds.¡± ¡°Maybe you were discharged because it looked like you ran.¡± Kearn gestured with a hand. ¡°It wouldn¡¯t be the first time they got rid of a suspected chicken.¡± ¡°Maybe, but that doesn¡¯t matter now.¡± Marcel felt his rage dissipating. ¡°What matters now is I don¡¯t have a job, and I am running out of my savings.¡± ¡°This is a job for you, Corporal Hobart,¡± said Kearn. ¡°Too bad you¡¯re too much of a yellowbelly to take it.¡± ¡°You¡¯re not taunting me into changing my mind.¡± Hobart shook his head. ¡°Your pay will take care of your family.¡± Kearn shrugged. ¡°If you get killed, your children will be taken care of for the rest of their lives.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t believe it.¡± Marcel crossed his arms. ¡°Why should I believe you?¡± ¡°Cause I set up the funds to pay for deaths and injuries, boy.¡± Kearn sneered. ¡°How do you think the business is restarting? It¡¯s because I prepared for a day when it had to be set up if there was a catastrophic problem.¡± ¡°So if I take the job, I can support my family?,¡± said Marcel. ¡°If I get killed, the settlement will pay for my kids¡¯ education?¡± ¡°If you¡¯re man enough.¡± Kearn pulled his hat down over his eyes. ¡°If you think you can do better than me.¡± ¡°I can do better than you.¡± Marcel felt his warning telling him to back off. He ignored it. No bigot was going to tell him he couldn¡¯t do the job better. The gauntlet had hit him in the face. He was ready to grab it and slap his accuser back. ¡°I would like to see you try, yellowbelly.¡± Kearn smiled, but it wasn¡¯t a smile with a lot of humor in it. ¡°Mr. Hobart?¡± The lady came down the stairs. A cup was in her hands. She looked confused. Marcel glanced at her. When he looked back at where Kearn stood, the cowboy was gone. The man had gone as silently as he had arrived. ¡°Is it too late to change my mind?¡± Marcel knew that most people wouldn¡¯t hire you after you turned down the job. ¡°Is the opening still open?¡± ¡°If you can pass the tests.¡± She handed him the cup. ¡°I can do the eye test right now, and then call for you to get your drug test at the lab we use.¡± ¡°I would like to do that.¡± Marcel sipped the water. He realized his mouth was dry after the confrontation with Kearn. ¡°Paperwork will be filed after I get the test back?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± She smiled. ¡°Why the second thoughts?¡± ¡°I have to think about my kids.¡± Marcel gestured at the picture frames. ¡°What are you going to do with those pictures?¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to rehang them as soon as I get the place cleaned out.¡± She shook her head. ¡°Mark really let the place go after he shut things down.¡± ¡°Is it okay if I look at them?¡± Marcel felt his warning kick in. He shouldn¡¯t look at those pictures. He should wait. ¡°I don¡¯t see why not.¡± She smiled. ¡°It¡¯ll give me a chance to make my lunch before I give you the eye test.¡± ¡°Thanks.¡± Marcel frowned as he tried to remember the name of the voice on the phone when he set up his appointment. ¡°Miss Hillsmeirer?¡± ¡°No problem.¡± She smiled again. ¡°If you pass, as soon as Mark gets back, we¡¯ll get you set up to train with the equipment to keep accidents down.¡± Marcel nodded. He pushed the stack up so he could look at the first one in the row. It was a newspaper clipping. He frowned as he read the headline. LAMPLIGHTERS DIE SAVING THE CITY. The cowboy hat on the gurney being hauled away in the picture looked too familiar to the applicant. Marcel let the stack fall back in their original position as he thought about who he had been talking to for the minute Miss Hillsmeirer had been upstairs. Ink Buttons 2010- Ten year old Tanner Lerner smiled as he watched the night sky. He had spent a lot of time picking out his spot. He planned to watch as much of the meteor shower that he could before his parents came out to fetch him. They encouraged his interest in the stars, but they had set a curfew they enforced. He was not supposed to be out after ten on a school night. He had picked his spot so they couldn¡¯t find him easily when they came out to call him in. He could put not responding down to having his earphones in while watching the sky. He thought that wouldn¡¯t fly over well, but it would get him time to watch the stars as the shower started. ¡°What you doing, Squirt?¡± His cousin, Darla Huitt, approached from the base of the hill. She was in the same grade as he was, and he thought he couldn¡¯t get rid of her easily. ¡°Star watching.¡± Tanner wondered what he could say to get her to leave him alone. He didn¡¯t need her to get in his way while he was making his observations. ¡°Are you allowed out this late?¡± She grinned at him. ¡°Only big boys are supposed to be able to get out of their play pens.¡± Anger boiled in his system but he forced it down. He didn¡¯t need the pest getting close to his parents and getting grounded because he was not home. ¡°Don¡¯t you have someone else to troll?¡± Tanner gritted his teeth. If he could hold on for a few moments, then his project would fly. ¡°Not really.¡± She smiled. ¡°All my homework is done.¡± Great. She planned to hang out with him and drive him crazy. Maybe he should pack it in and go somewhere else. Packing the telescope would be a pain, but he thought about it and realized unless he went home, she would follow him around to tell him how she felt. And he didn¡¯t care how she felt. He looked at his watch. The shower was supposed to start in a few minutes. He looked for the first streak heading across the sky. Once he had a visual bearing, he could turn and focus the telescope on the meteors heading toward Earth. He could ignore his cousin for the time to the shower starting. Maybe if he ignored her, she would go away. He decided that wasn¡¯t going to work. She would just get in his way to keep him from doing that. Maybe he should pack it in. There would be other meteor showers he could watch without her interfering. He didn¡¯t want to give up his hill. ¡°What¡¯s so cool about these meteors?¡± She covered her mouth as she yawned. ¡°They only show once in a century.¡± He realized that maybe talking to her might not be a good thing and slowed things down. On the other hand, he might be able to knock everything over with a grudge and set up somewhere else. Tanner spotted the leading edge of the storm and smiled. He watched the flames with his telescope. Concentrating on that would be better as a whole than watching for someone who had a problem temper try to get him in trouble. Why didn¡¯t she move on? She didn¡¯t have any interest in the stars as far as he was concerned. Why wasn¡¯t she home? ¡°Parents fighting?¡± Tanner scanned the sky. One of the meteors seemed to be wobbling. What was going on there? ¡°When aren¡¯t they, Squirt?¡± She sighed. ¡°They should just get a divorce and be done with it.¡± Tanner silently agreed. Uncle Bill and Aunt Jamie fought all the time. They never seemed to say a nice thing to each other whenever he saw them together. It was embarrassing to him. He didn¡¯t want to take sides, but frequently they asked him an opinion. His answers seemed to always make things worse. And he could rarely extract himself from the situation without making both of them mad at him. One of the meteors veered out of the stream in the sky. He studied it with his telescope. It seemed to be getting bigger. He looked at it with his naked eye. It was coming down close by. ¡°We should get away from here.¡± Tanner looked at his setup. He didn¡¯t want to lose his telescope, but he didn¡¯t have time to pack it up. He decided to move. If the meteor hit and missed his telescope, he would come back for it. ¡°Meteor hits look like cannon shots afterwards.¡± ¡°What are you talking about?¡± She looked up at the approaching light. She smiled. ¡°Are you crazy?¡± Tanner grabbed her arm. He pulled on her to follow him. ¡°We¡¯ll be killed if we stay here.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine with me.¡± She pushed him away. ¡°It beats going back home.¡± ¡°We have to go.¡± Tanner pulled as hard as he could. She resisted, digging in her heels. ¡°It¡¯s not safe.¡± ¡°Run if you want.¡± She punched him in the face. He went down. ¡°This is what I need.¡± Tanner got to his feet. The light in the sky was closer. He looked at his cousin. Then he did the only thing he could think of to do. He tackled her, pushing her down the Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.hill in front of him. They rolled from the apex, his cousin screaming in his ear. He took a shot to the face as they hit bottom. Darla unleashed a stream of invective as she tried to get to her feet. A fist to the face didn¡¯t slow her down. She retaliated with a kick. Tanner clenched his teeth. The light from the stars hung above them as they wrestled on the ground. An explosion picked him up and sent him tumbling to the ground. He landed on his back. He stood up. Darla lay on her face. She didn¡¯t move. He wondered if she got her wish. He decided to check on his telescope before he dealt with her. He had no interest in getting involved with her parents. He marched up the altered hill. He didn¡¯t have to like astronomy to know he and his cousin were lucky to still be in one piece. The top of the hill had been carved out. The trees and his telescope were gone. He supposed they had been reduced to fragments from the impact. How was he going to explain losing that to his parents. First, he violated his curfew. Then he lost his expensive telescope. And if his cousin said anything, he would be grounded for punching her in the mouth. He should punch her again to make it worth getting punished. He walked to the edge of the crater. He spotted something glowing at the bottom of the bowl. Maybe the meteor had survived impact. If it had, it would be worth losing his telescope. He took off his shirt and touched the edge of the glow with it. He smiled when his shirt didn¡¯t catch fire. The thing was cooling off fast. If he could get the thing out of the hill, he could take it home and look at it. Maybe he could call a museum and ask them what he could do with it. There might be some money in the thing. If there was a reward, he could replace his telescope with the money. All he had to do was get the thing out of the crater and get it home. He heard Darla moan at the bottom of the hill. He needed to grab the thing and head home. He wasn¡¯t going to share credit with her. She had almost got them killed with her reluctance to flee. He decided to wrap his shirt around the glow. If he could carry it away, he expected it to cool while he ran home. It should be completely safe to touch by the time he got it to his house. Then he could come back for Darla, if he felt like it. If she didn¡¯t know about the thing, she couldn¡¯t try to use it as some kind of lever for promises. He wasn¡¯t getting involved with her, or the rest of her crazy family if he could help it. Tanner started into the crater. He looked for the source of the glow as he spread his shirt out to catch it. Once he had the thing covered, he planned to tie the shirt together so he could carry it like a bag. He dropped the shirt. He grabbed the edges and started to scoop up what was left at the bottom of the bowl. Pain ran up his hands. He dropped the shirt. He examined his fingers. Lines colored the pads, then spread up one arm as he watched. He gritted his teeth at the thought he might be dead thanks to Darla. He should kick her to get some revenge before he died from whatever he had touched through his shirt. He picked up his shirt. The shine was gone. He spotted two holes through the cloth. Whatever had poked him in the hands had done it through the shirt. How was he going to explain things to his parents? What was this writing on his arm? It looked like buttons. He realized it looked like a typewriter keypad. He could make things like letters out under the stars, but not exactly what. How was he going to explain a big tattoo like that. Things just kept getting worse for him. He should kick Darla for what she had got him into. He sat down on the edge of the crater and wondered what he was going to do. All of his options looked bad to him. He should have known something bad was going to happen the moment she showed up. He looked down the hill. What was he going to do? Pain throbbed in his hands. He needed to have that checked out. He couldn¡¯t let some unknown fungus eat at him. He should get to the hospital and let them keep him from melting, or whatever he was going to do now. He stood up. At least Darla was safe until she got home. That had been his good deed for the day. He might as well lord it over her as much as he could. He got to his feet. He noticed a stream of glowing particles heading down the hill for the first time. He grimaced. The stream headed right for Darla. He rushed down to pull her out of the way. The last thing he needed was to get blamed for a tattoo on his cousin. He grabbed her shoulders and picked her up in a sitting position. He frowned. Two squares had written themselves in at her temples. An eye disfigured her forehead. Too late to do anything for her now. He couldn¡¯t carry her. He had to wake her up and get her on her way before anyone investigated what had happened. He wasn¡¯t explaining an alien tattoo to anyone if he could help it. He certainly wasn¡¯t going to take Darla home and tell her parents that she had been knocked out and some glowing stuff had pierced her brain. He knew better to expect anything good coming out of that. He slapped Darla¡¯s face. That felt good. He did it again. She moaned. ¡°Wake up.¡± He slapped her again. ¡°We don¡¯t have time for this, Darla.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t hit me again, Squirt.¡± She opened her eyes. They were the wrong color. Tanner grimaced. How were they going to explain glowing yellow eyes. He decided to let Darla handle it. He didn¡¯t want to look out for her. He didn¡¯t need the hassle her parents would cause him if he was reported to his own parents. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± He got to his feet. ¡°You took a bad hit, and I need to change my clothes.¡± ¡°All right.¡± Darla got to her feet. ¡°I feel sick as a dog. My head hurts, and I¡¯m craving some pizza.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll walk with you to your house.¡± Tanner pulled on his shirt. ¡°After that, I have to get home and clean up myself.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t need your help.¡± Darla staggered toward her house five steps. She paused and hung her head. Was she going to be sick? Could she make it on her own? What should he do? He decided the best thing he could do was help her if she wanted it. Then he had to get home and take his punishment from his own parents. He could take it. He was alive. He had saved his cousin¡¯s life. He had been infected with something, but the initial pain was over. He could live with that after he talked to a doctor about it. He needed to make the best of what he could do at the moment. He didn¡¯t want to be confined to the hospital, but if it helped him figure things out, then that might be the best solution to the sudden focus. Maybe the doctors could figure out why the thing resembled a typewriter. He doubted that was accidental, but he had no clue on what it meant. He walked behind Darla as she cut across several lots to her house. He watched as she went inside. He hoped the tattoo on her face wouldn¡¯t get her in trouble. He knew that was forlorn. Her parents liked to fight too much for them to let it go. They would be on her like rabid squirrels. He turned and headed for his own house. He had to get home and sneak inside without his parents catching him. He didn¡¯t want them telling him that he had broken curfew and he was going to be punished. Helping Darla would be seen as a plus, but not mitigating. He shouldn¡¯t have been out there to have to help Darla in the first place. He would figure something out while he was trying to sneak into his house. At least his parents didn¡¯t generally make things hard for him. He was thankful for that. He scratched an itch on his newly tattooed arm. Three of the buttons glowed. He looked at the shining buttons. Then he felt himself shrinking down to the size of an ant. He looked at his surroundings in horror. How was he going to deal with this? Across the Divide 1969- Bobby Benson looked out the window of his quarters. His arm didn¡¯t hurt anymore, but it was still withered from the last attack of his major foes. He supposed he was lucky the beam hadn¡¯t hit him head on like it had Will and Anne. He didn¡¯t feel that lucky. Bobby wondered if his powers would allow him to heal the arm. He hadn¡¯t found anything in the scrolls. Cain had written down other applications of the Spark, but healing seemed to be work for other people. He could be the first user to use the Spark for healing. He just didn¡¯t know how to apply it yet. Something would show up and give him a clue on how he was going to do that. He wouldn¡¯t mind it if he could just get more mobility in the thing without resorting to becoming the Mark. That temporarily fixed things as he used the magic to turn into his other self. He doubted any doctors could fix it. And he wasn¡¯t willing to lose the arm altogether. That seemed like too much of a drastic solution for his tastes. He heard a cry for help coming from the clouds outside his window. Maybe a call to action was what he needed. It had been a while since he had done something constructive. The court had declared him innocent, but people were afraid of him now. They were waiting for him to go on another rampage. He supposed they had a point, but he didn¡¯t like it. He called on the Spark and changed. His jeans and workshirt transformed into a blue suit with a green tie clip. He dove out of the open window. He was still the Mark, and he still had a job to do. He descended into a cloud. When he came out the other side, he flew over a city that resembled New York. Some of the buildings seemed to be in the wrong place, and Manhattan didn¡¯t look like it did back home, but it was close enough to be recognizable. He headed for where the scream had come from to pierce his lookout. He wanted to solve the problem and go back to his research. He had to figure out how to get his arm back to normal. He refused to believe that there was nothing that could help him. He had fought a lot of mad scientists. He didn¡¯t want to talk to them again about what had happened that had led to their incarceration. He found the source of the call. A woman backed from an alley. She held her hands to her mouth. She turned to run from whatever was inside the lane between buildings. Something charged out of the space after her. It had too many mouths and claws for ripping. It sprinted on all fours to catch up to its intended prey. Bobby swooped down and picked it up. It turned to claw at him with a few of its arms. He threw it up in the air. He paused to check the scene. He didn¡¯t want to leave others like the thing running around to attack civilians. He didn¡¯t see any more of the things. He should be able to catch it and put it somewhere it wouldn¡¯t hurt anybody else. He wondered if that shaggy coat would protect it in the Arctic. The danger would be if it could move in the ice zone and decided to track back south to civilization. He wondered if killing it was the right answer to this problem. He noticed a glowing path in the distance. It seemed to be flying around the Statue of Liberty. Maybe he should check that out before he went home. Maybe one of the local heroes was having a problem he could help out with. Bobby caught the furry monster as it fell back down toward the city. He headed out to the Statue of Liberty. It wasn¡¯t quite the copper beauty of his world, but he knew it anywhere. He found a flying man flying around the head of the statue. Her hair formed a green waterfall over a small tiara. A group of men in yellow overalls stood on the hairdo. They shot at the flying man with blasters that seemed too advanced for the rest of the city he had observed on the flight here. ¡°How¡¯s it going?¡± Bobby caught two of the energy bolts with his free hand. The other hand dangled the monster high above the sea. It whimpered as it looked down at the ocean below. ¡°Who are you?¡± The flying man wore a costume of red and gold. A gold mask covered the upper half of his face. ¡°I¡¯m the Mark.¡± Bobby held up the monster. ¡°I caught this thing attacking some woman in the city. I was thinking of taking it to the Arctic, but then I noticed you flying around over here.¡± The flying man frowned at the explanation. It sounded too good to be true. ¡°A new hero?¡± That seemed to be the only piece that made things fit together. ¡°I¡¯m visiting from the next universe over.¡± Bobby wondered if he would believe that. He knew he would weigh it before accepting it. He had seen too many strange things not to believe a story like that until it was disproved. ¡°Would you mind giving me a hand?,¡± the other hero asked. ¡°I have two other emergencies I need to handle at the moment.¡± ¡°Sure.¡± Bobby threw his captive into the air. Then he flew into the mass of shooting This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.men. He smashed into them, crushing equipment, punching enemies before they could run. He flew up and caught the creature. It whimpered now. ¡°Thanks.¡± The other hero smiled. ¡°The police are on the way to pick them up. I have a guy demanding my presence at the airport, and some kind of monster on the Strip.¡± ¡°Which airport?¡± Bobby could handle both jobs by himself, but felt his power allowed him a better chance of stopping someone holding a plane hostage. ¡°Nixon International.¡± The masked man pointed where Bobby knew La Guardia stood in his home city. ¡°I¡¯ll handle it.¡± Bobby smiled. ¡°As soon as I¡¯m done, I¡¯ll help you with your monster.¡± ¡°Thanks.¡± The masked man headed south toward New Jersey. He showed a lot of trust in a guy he just met. ¡°Let¡¯s go, Fangs.¡± Bobby streaked toward the airport. He noted the presence of police helicopters on the way to the Statue. At least he wasn¡¯t leaving criminals to escape after the beating he had given them. He grabbed some rebar from a nearby construction site and wrapped his captive in it. He let it test its prison to make sure it couldn¡¯t escape. Then he placed the cage on the traffic control tower. He knocked on the window to get the controllers¡¯ attention. He pointed down to let them know he was heading for a landing. A group of men in suits and uniforms met him at the door. They looked worried about what was going on. A bevy of questions about Captain Spark led the way. ¡°I¡¯m pinch hitting for him at the moment.¡± Bobby held up his hands. ¡°He had some monster to beat up. What can you guys tell me about the problem? I¡¯ll be glad to deal with it for you.¡± ¡°We got a guy in Flight Four Ten who says he¡¯s got a bomb that he will use to blow up the passengers and himself unless he sees Captain Spark in the next few minutes. We have ten minutes to comply.¡± One of the men took charge. ¡°SWAT says they can¡¯t get a clean shot. He¡¯s in the cabin with the passengers and away from the windows.¡± ¡°Call him up and tell him that Captain Sparks¡¯s brother is coming down to talk to him.¡± Bobby frowned. ¡°Can one of you guys show me where the plane is?¡± ¡°He¡¯s not going to like that.¡± The guy in charge frowned. ¡°Tell him to turn on the news if he can.¡± Bobby shrugged. ¡°Captain Spark said he had a monster to deal with on the Strip. Tell him I¡¯m just going to keep him company until the guy can get here.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll tell him.¡± The man nodded. ¡°If you can get him in the cockpit, SWAT say they can take him out.¡± ¡°As long as he doesn¡¯t detonate when he sees me, I can take care of this.¡± Bobby smiled. ¡°Which one is Four Ten?¡± ¡°Come with me.¡± One of the uniforms led the way across the tarmac. A rifleman and aid took up a spot next to the building. Others were sprinkled behind cover. Bobby noted them, but said nothing. There was no point in letting them know he could see like an eagle. ¡°There¡¯s the plane.¡± He pointed to a plane sitting by itself in the middle of a runway. No one was close to it, and the authorities might be afraid to block it in if the guy decided he wanted to fly out of there after talking to Captain Spark. ¡°Let me go out there and talk to the guy.¡± Bobby frowned. ¡°If he doesn¡¯t push the button when he sees me, we have a shot. If he does, the hostages are as good as dead.¡± ¡°What about you?,¡± the uniform asked. ¡°He needs a nuke if he wants to scratch me.¡± Bobby smiled. ¡°That¡¯s why I have a shot at walking away.¡± Bobby didn¡¯t plan to let the man push the button. He knew the plane and he had speed beyond measure. He wasn¡¯t letting the guy know he was coming as a stall. He was letting him know so he had to be in one of two places. One of those Bobby could see. When he saw the hostage taker step into the cockpit, bomb on prominent display, he launched from the asphalt. His flight bowled over the police as he flickered across the field as fast as a bullet. The bomber knew he was in trouble when something had him by the throat, while crushing his hand with the other hand. Then they were outside on the runway. ¡°How¡¯s it going?¡± Bobby grinned at him. ¡°Are there more of you on the plane?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll never tell you, pig.¡± The bomber tried to free his hand so the switch would fall out of it. He couldn¡¯t break the grip holding the detonator in place. ¡°I think you need to go for a swim.¡± Bobby launched himself in the air. He headed out into the bay. He dragged his enemy through the water. The electronics stopped working after the first minute. He knew this because the man dropped the detonator and nothing happened. Bobby returned to the airport. He dropped the man on the runway away from the plane. Police and fire fighters had crossed the tarmac when Bobby had grabbed the mastermind. ¡°Everyone is okay.¡± The uniform that had acted as a guide for Bobby smiled. ¡°That was a good job.¡± ¡°It¡¯s backfired a couple of times.¡± Bobby pulled the bomb off of his victim with a tearing of cloth. ¡°Most people can¡¯t even see me when I don¡¯t want them to.¡± ¡°I believe it.¡± The uniform pulled cuffs from under his belt. ¡°I don¡¯t know why this guy wanted Captain Spark so bad, but maybe he¡¯ll tell us downtown.¡± ¡°Maybe the plane was rigged somehow.¡± Bobby shrugged. ¡°He might still have something in the cargo that could be triggered.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll get the bomb squad to go over the thing to make sure.¡± The uniform waved at two of his men. ¡°The last thing we need is a disaster here at the airport.¡± ¡°Let me check in with the Captain, then I have to head home.¡± Bobby smiled. ¡°I have my own crooks to punch in the face.¡± ¡°Have a good flight,¡± said the uniform. He found that he was talking to himself. Bobby picked up his homemade cage. The monster hissed at him. He nodded in reply. Then he headed south. He spotted the giant monster being forced off the gambling area by Captain Spark. He wondered how he could stop the thing without knocking over a building. He didn¡¯t want to do more damage than he had to. The monster in the cage started making the noises. It whistled and hooted. The bigger monster paused to look at the cage. It roared in dismay. Bobby flew up and held the little monster in front of the bigger monster. The little one stretched out limbs for the bigger one. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Captain Spark looked at the two. ¡°I think this is the baby.¡± Bobby pulled the cage apart so the smaller monster could climb out. He helped it over to the clutches of the big one. Hooting filled the air. ¡°All right.¡± Captain Spark nodded. ¡°Thanks for the help. How do we get them back to where they belong?¡± ¡°Got me,¡± said Bobby. ¡°I guess I can fly the mother out of the city.¡± The bigger monster turned and headed toward the sea. Her tail knocked out glass windows as she passed. Her baby rode on her shoulder. ¡°It looks like our work here is done when the creatures head out to shore.¡± Bobby smiled. ¡°This worked out better than I thought.¡± ¡°I still have to help repair the damage to the buildings.¡± Captain Spark shook his head. ¡°At least the family is back together.¡± ¡°You can¡¯t do better than that.¡± Bobby looked around. This Atlantic City was just as off as the New York, but it still stood after a close encounter of a scaly kind. He waved his hand as he headed for a cloud to get back to his window. He still had to find a cure for his arm. Showdown in a Small Town 1 1969- ¡°Are we sure this is the place?¡± Doug Fleming looked out of the plane¡¯s window as it soared over a one horse town in the middle of nowhere. ¡°The readings say so.¡± Barry Nicklaus smiled. One hand checked the parts built into his body. He would be ready to go by the time they landed. ¡°If it isn¡¯t, we¡¯ll cross it off our list and go to the next one like we¡¯ve done before.¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t look like much.¡± Marty Morgan climbed up in the seat and looked out the window over Fleming¡¯s shoulder. ¡°I don¡¯t see a strip.¡± ¡°There probably isn¡¯t any airstrips.¡± Barry checked his loads for his pistol. ¡°We might have to land and walk in.¡± ¡°All right guys,¡± said Daryl Honeycutt. ¡°We¡¯re coming in for a landing. Strap in.¡± ¡°You heard the lady, Marty.¡± Fleming pointed out seatbelts to their youngest member. ¡°You don¡¯t want to be slammed around when we hit the ground.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± Marty took a seat and strapped in. ¡°This is usually where the missile battery opens up on us.¡± Barry strapped himself in. ¡°Why do you say things like that?¡± Doug shook his head. ¡°This should be a milk run. Why do you have to tempt fate like that?¡± ¡°I like to give bad guys ideas so I can find them faster.¡± Barry smiled at the expression on his friend¡¯s face. ¡°It makes it easier to punch them.¡± ¡°It makes easier for them to shoot at us.¡± Fleming shook his head. He pulled on a flight helmet. He kept the visor up, but it would protect his head in case something went wrong. Daryl was a great fighter, but she liked to plop her planes down so someone would start making trouble. The faster they got things sorted out, the better the group liked it. Hopefully Marley would keep her from being too reckless. His mental abilities should bolster hers so she didn¡¯t drive the plane into the ground, or against anything solid. ¡°Going in.¡± Daryl reported. ¡°Keep an eye out in case we need them.¡± Marty hoped things went smooth. He didn¡¯t want to fight for his life because everyone else was thinking how great it would be. He would rather have an uneventful look around rather than a search and destroy. Search and destroy led to a lot of collateral damage that he didn¡¯t think looked good when you were supposed to be sneaking around as best you could. The plane shuddered as Daryl touched ground. She rolled the plane to a gentle stop on a country road. She cut the engines. ¡°Everybody out.¡± Barry undid his belt and stood. He rushed to the door and pushed it open so he could kick the ladder from its niche. He liked to be the first person out because his quasi-robotic body was generally tougher than the rest of them. Bad guys liked shooting at Barry because they knew if they took him down, the rest of the group would follow easier. Doug and Marty joined him at the door. Marty held out a hand. A bird leaped from it, flying away on gray wings. That gave him an eye in the sky while they looked Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.around. ¡°Let¡¯s see how bad things are.¡± Barry dropped down to the ground. One hand rested on his pistol. He didn¡¯t draw it yet. There was still a chance they were wrong. Doug slid down the ladder. He moved cautiously under the belly of the plane to look at the other side of the road. He didn¡¯t see anything. Maybe no one wanted to go to a plane parked on the local road because they knew it was a lost cause. He didn¡¯t like it. It meant trouble of one kind, or another. Marty climbed down the ladder. He looked around as he tried to follow the input from his bird. It hadn¡¯t seen anyone on the streets. Farming seemed to be out too. ¡°I don¡¯t see anyone.¡± Doug didn¡¯t like the fact that not even the crops were moving. ¡°I don¡¯t see anyone either,¡± Marty reported. ¡°Where is everyone?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t know.¡± Barry took a bearing. ¡°Maybe we should go into town and see what we can stir up.¡± Daryl dropped from the door and bounced to a stop. She took on a human form wearing their uniform colors. She smiled slightly. ¡°Doesn¡¯t look like anyone is home.¡± She shielded her eyes with a hand. ¡°Which way do we go from here, guys?¡± ¡°People are in the town. They are clustered in the diner.¡± Jim Marley drifted from the door, keeping himself off the ground by two inches. ¡°There is something there that makes them afraid to leave the building.¡± ¡°Where is Cortez?¡± Barry knew his mental ace was working on that. They hated each other, and tried to kill each other as soon as they spotted one another. ¡°I have a signal in the fields beyond the town.¡± Marley floated forward. ¡°I don¡¯t trust it.¡± ¡°So how do we do this, Barry?¡± Doug cracked his knuckles. ¡°We need Jim to figure out what¡¯s going on with the signal.¡± Barry grimaced. They had lost the element of surprise. He knew that he should be expecting Cortez¡¯s armed forces and his lieutenant, but nothing was going on. He didn¡¯t like that at all. It smelled like a trap. ¡°Doug, take Daryl and Marty and scout the diner. Jim and I will check out this signal.¡± Barry hated dividing up their forces. He should have recruited more people, but for now he had to make do with what he had. ¡°If there is a problem, send up a flare. We¡¯ll try to rescue you if we¡¯re not having problems of our own.¡± ¡°There¡¯s going to be problems.¡± Doug waved at the other two to follow him. He headed into town, scanning the buildings for sentries. ¡°I agree with Doug.¡± Jim floated next to his leader. ¡°There¡¯s going to be problems.¡± ¡°We have to make do with what we have.¡± Barry shrugged. ¡°Let¡¯s see if we can scout our problem before we close with it.¡± Barry drew his pistol. He pulled out a round from his arm storage and loaded it in the only clear chamber. His designs required something sturdy without a lot of moving parts, so he had opted for modifying a revolver to do what he wanted. He checked the direction of the wind. ¡°How far to this signal, Jim?¡± Barry¡¯s mechanical parts allowed him to hit anything within the range of his pistol. Some of his rounds were modified with boosters to carry them further than a normal projectile. ¡°A couple of miles that way.¡± Jim pointed. ¡°I don¡¯t think you can hit it from here.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think so either.¡± Barry sighted along the frame of the pistol. He checked the windage again. ¡°But I can put a bug in sight of the signal so we can get a partial look at it.¡± He pulled the trigger. The pistol puffed a cloud of smoke out the barrel. He waited for the projectile to hit before he started moving. If it came down and was destroyed, he would have to think of some way to get around what he would suspect was a magnetic field. His body would be rendered inert by any magnetic field strong enough. And Cortez knew that. ¡°It¡¯s giving me data.¡± Barry started down the road. ¡°It looks like some kind of sensory array. I don¡¯t think it¡¯s designed for radar, but I could be wrong. I¡¯ll have to take a closer look.¡± Jim didn¡¯t say anything. He let his senses range out to look for other things, or people, who might be dangerous to them. Something was there at the diner. He didn¡¯t know what it was, but it was there. He hoped the others didn¡¯t get in trouble while Barry and he were investigating the signal in the field. He had a feeling that the signal and the presence were connected. He didn¡¯t know what it meant. He needed to check the signal, then the presence. Maybe a closer examination would tell him what was wrong with the picture. He spotted the others heading toward the diner. They would be there before Barry and he made it to the signal. ¡°We better hurry.¡± Marley sped up his floating. ¡°The others are almost in position.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll go faster but we have to make sure to still try to keep the direction we¡¯re traveling a secret.¡± Barry broke into a jog. He kept to the edge of the road as his heavy body moved smoothly along. Jim floated quietly behind him. He kept his scan going. Cortez already knew they were there. All they needed was for him to attack. Of course, he might have fled with whatever he wanted by now. Showdown in a Small Town 2 Marty skulked at the corner of a hardware store. He didn¡¯t see anyone on the street. His bird reported people sitting still in the diner. They weren¡¯t doing anything else to show they were alive. What was going on? ¡°How do you guys want to handle this?,¡± he asked into the radio built into his helmet. ¡°I don¡¯t like it.¡± Doug was across the street. He used a column for partial cover. ¡°Where are the rest of the people?¡± ¡°One of us should try to talk to the people.¡± Daryl was on the roof of the local hotel across from the diner. ¡°I¡¯ll do it. If it is a trap, I should be okay.¡± Doug didn¡¯t like that. Cortez had come up with weapons to handle their powers. The diner could be one big trap designed to kill them. They also didn¡¯t have any move where they didn¡¯t try to talk to the people in the diner. They were victims and hostages, or they were in with whatever Cortez had done. Someone had to talk to them. And Daryl was the most invulnerable of them. ¡°Go ahead.¡± Doug didn¡¯t like it, but it had to be done. ¡°Marty, get ready to pull something out of your hat if we have to get out of here.¡± Marty nodded. He already had an elephant ready to call. Something came after him, he was riding out on Jumbo. Daryl jumped from the roof of the hotel. She hit the street and bounced to the roof of the diner. She flattened out to keep from bouncing off the building. She dropped down and swung in the door. Doug scanned the street. He didn¡¯t see anyone rushing to the attack. The diner wasn¡¯t turning into some death trap. What was he missing? Where were the danger signs he expected from a villain like Emmanuel Cortez? Where were the robots, and death rays? What was going on? ¡°How¡¯s everybody?¡± Daryl¡¯s mike sent her words to the others. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± ¡°You got to get out of here.¡± One of the diners waved a hand. ¡°There¡¯s something under the town. We don¡¯t know what it is, but this thing showed up and left it there.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry.¡± Daryl tried to smile. ¡°We¡¯ll think of something. Is that why you¡¯re all here in the diner?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± A waitress spoke up. ¡°We were warned if we tried to leave, the town would be attacked and wiped out.¡± ¡°Buildings can be replaced.¡± Daryl looked around. There were a lot of people in the dining room. ¡°The question is how to get all of you out of here without letting any of you get hurt?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think you can.¡± One of the farmer looking customers glared at her. ¡°That talking cat made it clear that if we try, most of us will be killed.¡± ¡°You can¡¯t sit here for the rest of your lives.¡± Daryl frowned at them. ¡°Eventually you¡¯ll have to do something. Otherwise you¡¯re going to die anyway.¡± ¡°What do you want to do?¡± The old farmer bristled his eyebrows and mustache. ¡°We have a plane down the road.¡± Daryl thought about it. She didn¡¯t really plan things. ¡°I can go get it, and fly you out of here while the monster is looking for you.¡± ¡°What happens if the monster doesn¡¯t want you to load us up?,¡± asked another customer. ¡°My friends will punch it.¡± Daryl smiled. ¡°They are great at taking care of monsters. You can believe that.¡± ¡°So we¡¯re going with this stupid scheme?¡± The one customer, a woman with too much weight, too much bleach, and not enough teeth stood. ¡°This will get us killed.¡± ¡°You¡¯re going to die either way.¡± Daryl shrugged. ¡°My way gives you a chance. You don¡¯t want to spend the rest of your life trapped in a room will all these people, do you?¡± ¡°Heck, no.¡± The farmer looked around the room. ¡°What do you want to do?¡± ¡°My partners are outside.¡± Daryl threw a thumb over her shoulder. ¡°I¡¯m going to get the jet and then I¡¯m going to bring it into town. I¡¯ll load you guys up and fly you to safety. If the monster attacks, they¡¯ll fight it off.¡± ¡°All right.¡± The farmer looked at the crowd. ¡°How long do you think that will take?¡± ¡°It¡¯ll take me a couple of minutes to get back to the jet, and power it up, then a couple of minutes to fly back here to figure out how we¡¯re going to do things.¡± Daryl smiled. ¡°Let¡¯s say twenty minutes. If anything happens, jump into whatever car you got and head off into different directions. It won¡¯t be able to get all of you if you do that.¡± Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°What happens if we do that?¡± The farmer looked at a truck pulled up to the curb. ¡°My partners will try to provide a distraction.¡± Daryl wondered how big a monster they were talking about. What had Cortez made this time? ¡°Just split up as much as possible. If we can¡¯t hold it, we don¡¯t want it able to pick you off because all of you headed in the same direction.¡± ¡°Got it, lady.¡± The farmer went to the door. He looked outside. ¡°Go do you what you got to do. We¡¯ll be ready to move when you get back.¡± ¡°Keep an eye out.¡± Daryl opened the door. ¡°If the monster is triggered by someone leaving, get ready to run.¡± Daryl stepped out on the sidewalk. She looked down the street, before walking to the crosswalk. Nothing moved. The people in the diner looked out at her. The farmer nodded. She headed for the jet, bouncing along for speed. She hoped that she had came up with a scheme that would get the people out of the way. Cortez didn¡¯t mind killing bystanders. She reached the jet. She took a moment to check the locks before opening it up. She climbed inside and bounced to the cockpit. She settled in her seat and went through the checklist. She hoped she wasn¡¯t making a mistake where she got the townspeople killed because they overlooked something. At least Doug agreed with her. He had his eyes on the town. He wasn¡¯t happy with civilians on the battlefield when they haven¡¯t seen the boss himself. Daryl poured power to the jet¡¯s engines. She rolled to a take off and circled back toward the town. She would have to set the engines to hover while she tried to get the people up to the jet. Marty should be able to help with that. He should be able to come up with an animal that could lift people up to the roof of the diner. Then she could drop a ladder down for them to climb up when she was over the pickup spot. She smiled when she saw the diner straight ahead. All she had to do was bring it in so she could hover above the place. Her instruments turned red. She turned away from the town. The wings came off then. She saw the ground coming up as the plane went into a spin. It hit a field and exploded. ¡°Daryl?,¡± Doug ran out in the street. He looked where the fire blossomed in the air. ¡°Daryl!¡± ¡°What happened?¡± Marty stepped out in the street. He looked at the fire in the distance. He flung a bird at the site to see what he could do. A giant eyeless head erupted from under the diner. It smashed apart the building with one shrug of its smooth neck. Residents that had not been caught in the initial impact fled. ¡°Barry, we lost Daryl and the jet.¡± Doug called in his radio. He didn¡¯t know if the team leader could hear him. ¡°We have a giant hostile thing on site.¡± ¡°Do what you can.¡± Barry sounded odd. ¡°We have problems on our end too. Make sure Daryl is okay.¡± ¡°You hear that, Marty?¡± Doug picked up a car. He threw it at the head. He needed to keep the monster¡¯s attention. Marty was a kid and nowhere in this thing¡¯s league. Even an elephant wouldn¡¯t stop what they were facing. ¡°Check on Daryl.¡± ¡°I got a bird on the way.¡± Marty frowned at the giant snake. ¡°How can I help you with this? I don¡¯t think I have anything big enough to knock this thing out.¡± ¡°Daryl has to be rescued if we can rescue her.¡± Doug picked up another car. ¡°Make sure she¡¯s okay and then come back to help me.¡± Marty didn¡¯t like that. Daryl was practically invulnerable, but fires could kill her. Someone had to make sure she had escaped the jet. He ran around the monster as the car flew. He called up a horse and pulled himself on its back. He ordered it to run as fast as it could. There had to be a way to rescue Daryl from the wreck if she was still inside. Marty rode to the scene, sliding off the horse when he reached the edge of the fire. His bird hovered over the wreck. It didn¡¯t see Daryl anywhere. Was she alive? He didn¡¯t have anything to fight a fire. All of his animals allowed him to do specific things, but firefighting was not one of them. He spotted pipes for irrigation. Were they still running? He asked for an elephant to rip up the pipes. Water shot out the open tube. He directed the animal to spray the water on the fire. He needed to get something inside of the wreck to see if Daryl was still inside. He might be able to rescue her. An explosion knocked him down. He looked at the burning mass. There was no way he could get into that. How did he tell Barry he had failed? What about Doug? He was still facing that giant snake by himself. He needed help too. ¡°The plane is gone, Doug.¡± Marty called his horse again. ¡°I¡¯m coming back to help you.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t.¡± Doug sounded desperate. ¡°This thing is too much. Don¡¯t come back to town. Hook up with Barry and Jim.¡± ¡°What about you?¡± Marty couldn¡¯t believe his ears. ¡°I¡¯m done for.¡± Doug gasped in his radio. ¡°Find Barry and Jim. They¡¯re the only ones left. This was a giant trap from the start. Find them.¡± Marty changed course. He held back tears as he urged the horse to head to where Barry and Jim had gone to check. They had to be alive. Barry had a ton of missiles and stuff. Jim had mental powers. They had to be alive. Marty rode to the edge of the field. It had been ripped apart by fire and flying metal. He dismounted and walked into the broken stalks. He found Barry¡¯s metal skull by stumbling over it. All the flesh had been boiled off. He didn¡¯t see the flesh and metal body the skull should go with. Marty found Jim in a cleared space. The mentalist took panting breaths as he watched the boy draw closer. Blood seeped from his chest. One hand kept the wound closed as much as it could. The other hand seemed to be missing. ¡°Trap, Marty.¡± Jim gasped the words. ¡°Powers shut down. Ambushed.¡± ¡°Maybe I can help you.¡± Marty thought a spider could spin a web to seal the wound. How much time did he have? ¡°Listen.¡± Jim panted now. ¡°Cortez never here. The trail was laid by someone else with access. Find that man, Marty. Find him. They took their dead. They didn¡¯t take all of their effects.¡± Jim flopped his handless arm around. He pushed a ring into view. ¡°Whomever owns that ring did this.¡± He closed his mouth to concentrate on something other than breathing. ¡°Better run.¡± Marty took his advice. He grabbed the ring and ran from the field, mounting and riding his horse away as fast as possible. A column of fire marked the passing of his friend. He rode to a stop. The mission was a failure. The town was flattened. The civilians had been killed, or fled if they were lucky. Fire marked the plane crash and Jim Marley¡¯s cremation. The snake monster lay dead. Doug laid next to it. Part of his body was gone. Marty looked at the ring. He didn¡¯t know what the symbols on it meant. He would have to look for it while pretending to be dead. The team had a couple of places that no one knew about. He could retreat to one of them while he tried to work out who owned the ring he now possessed. The last survivor of the Hazard Scouts tossed his helmet down and rode away from their last adventure. Happy Birthday 2002- Henry Harkness punched a man in the face as his helmet phone rang. He punched the guy again before he answered the buzz. He didn¡¯t want to be distracted while he was talking. ¡°Hello?,¡± said Henry. He looked around for more people to punch. Most of the combatants were down. He nodded to himself. It looked like the job was almost over. ¡°Henry,¡± said his wife, Martha June. ¡°I¡¯m heading to Sloane. The baby is on the way.¡± ¡°That¡¯s great.¡± Henry looked around. ¡°I¡¯m in Midtown South. I¡¯ll meet you at the hospital. Can you get there on your own? I can call Pablo to give you a lift.¡± ¡°I¡¯m taking a taxi.¡± Martha grunted. ¡°I¡¯ll see you at the hospital.¡± ¡°I¡¯m on my way, June.¡± Henry smiled under his mask. ¡°I can get across town faster than a taxi.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t waste time, Henry.¡± Martha made another noise. ¡°I don¡¯t think I have long.¡± ¡°I¡¯m on my way.¡± Henry didn¡¯t cut the line. He wanted to be on the air in case his wife needed to talk to him. ¡°Net gun, both arms.¡± He fired the special ammo at the masked men he had punched out. They were just thugs trying to score a quick pay day raiding a jewelry store. He had spotted them on his patrol. Then the punching had started. Now they would be waiting for a while as the police tried to figure out how to cut them out of the cocoons he was leaving them in so he could race across town. Sloane Hospital for Women was situated up in the Heights. He was down below the central part of Manhattan. He would have to move fast if he wanted to meet his wife at the door of the maternity ward. He had no doubt he could do it. Swinging above traffic gave him an advantage of the traffic stuck on the ground. He could cut through the city on a straight line as long as he avoided the Park. The lack of buildings would hamper his speed. Martha June boarded a taxi in his ear. He heard her giving her destination over the open line. He was glad she hadn¡¯t hung up. He wanted to be with her as she rode toward the hospital. ¡°Line gun, both arms.¡± Henry ran as the mechanisms changed out ammo for him. ¡°Plot straight line to phone signal, and Sloane Hospital for Women.¡± He ran up a wall to get to a roof where he could start traversing the city. Running across roofs was easily done, and his line guns would pull him across any space he couldn¡¯t jump. Henry leaped across spaces, using glider wings and his line guns to cover distance. Washington Heights and Sloane Medical Center was across the city from where he was. A voice command turned on a directional locator that told him which way to go to get to his destination faster. Henry dropped on the roof of a building overlooking Central Park South. The park didn¡¯t have enough buildings to provide him a clear route. He looked for something to shoot for on his left. His helmet picked up a call for help. He thought about disregarding it. He had to get to his wife¡¯s side. That person could wait for someone else to help out. He spotted a man running away from an elderly lady. The guy had a purse in hand as he sprinted from the confrontation. He grimaced but he knew June would understand. He jumped from the roof. He extended his wings under his arms to catch the air so he drifted toward the street. He steered to follow the purse snatcher. He landed right behind the guy. He selected for net gun and webbed the guy up before he could take two more steps. ¡°I don¡¯t have time for this.¡± Henry took the purse out of the guy¡¯s hand. ¡°You¡¯re lucky all you¡¯re getting is a cocoon.¡± Henry jogged back to where the old lady was picking herself up off the sidewalk. He handed her the purse. ¡°Thank you, Mr. Bug.¡± She hung the purse over her arm. ¡°Thank you for stopping that thief.¡± ¡°I have to go.¡± Henry looked around. Everyone else on the sidewalk was not stopping to ask if she needed a hand. ¡°Are you going to all right until the police get here?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be fine.¡± She nodded. ¡°I will be waiting here when they arrive.¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± Henry made the call. He spent a terse two minutes on the phone before hanging up. ¡°They say they are on the way.¡± ¡°They¡¯ll probably take their time.¡± The old lady frowned. ¡°It¡¯s not like their criminal can run away now.¡± ¡°Take care, ma¡¯am.¡± Henry jogged down the street. His pointer told him to take a right. All he had to do was head north to the Heights, then zero in on the hospital. He needed to pick up speed. He wasn¡¯t going to go fast on the ground. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. Henry took aim at a building that was five stories tall. His line gun shot a line to the top of the third floor from his forearm launcher. It reeled him upwards as he ran toward the building. He leaped and the line yanked him upward which swung him to the face of the wall quicker. He touched down and pulled himself up toward the roof with the suckers in his gloves and boots. He cut the line from the crushed anchor head before climbing the rest of the way to the roof. Henry ran across the roof, and jumped from the other side. He glided across the wide space to the next building. His pointer kept him on course. He wished that he had jets like the other Scarabs. Then he could just fly to the hospital. He put that down as something to talk to Pablo about after he was done dealing with this problem. How close was Martha June to the hospital? He had to get there before she did. He aimed for a tall hotel as he ran across the roofs. If he could get to that roof, he could glide down close to where the hospital stood in the Heights. Then he could just change clothes. Martha June had made him hide a set there when she had started seeing her doctor. The problem was that the further north he went, the shorter and more residential the buildings were. His course seemed to be pointing through Columbia, and the two schools on the other side of that. If he could clear the campus, he might be able to use the buildings beyond that to help him along. He landed on the front of the forty story building and started climbing. He gritted his teeth at the time on his clock. Martha June should be at the hospital by now. He had to speed things up. He reached the roof of the building and ran across it to the other side. He could see the Lake and the Loeb Boathouse off to his right. He picked out several theaters and museums, but his mask¡¯s vision enhancements wouldn¡¯t let him see pass the edge of Columbia, or most of Harlem. Gliding from this height had to be faster than using the line gun to swing along the streets between buildings. He jumped from the roof, deploying the flaps to catch the air. He sailed across the city. It wasn¡¯t as fast as Pablo, but he was making time. All he had to do was steer where his compass pointed. He passed the familiar outline of the various schools in a few minutes. Harlem drifted by next. He checked his height. He was going to hit the ground close to St. Cat¡¯s on the other side of Sugar Hill. That was close to where he wanted to be, but not close enough. He would have to use the line gun to cross the ten blocks to the hospital. The retractor could pull him across streets in a flash. Henry worked to coax a few more feet of lift. He wanted to hit a building on the other side of Trinity Cemetery. He didn¡¯t want to have to run across the graveyard to get to the other side where he could start swinging along the streets. He saw the Church of the Intercession, and nodded. He was going to hit the Broadway Housing Community. He could start swinging from there once he gained the roof. He focused on that roof. He had to make it so he could keep going without breaking his stride. He hit and rolled to a stop. He jumped to his feet and ran to the north side of the building. He took aim with his line gun and shot an anchor across the alley beyond trees growing in the gap between buildings. He pulled himself over the alley and headed for 156th street. He swung across the gap to reach the building next to Tee-Sack. He ran across the roof and leaped to the roof of Rao¡¯s. He landed lightly and ran and jumped to the building behind the restaurant. He ran across the roofs to Broadway. He could hitch a ride if he was lucky. All he needed was something moving north. Sloane was at 168th street. Eight blocks should be okay. Henry jumped from the roof of the Little Caesar¡¯s to the roof of an oncoming truck. His boots locked into place and he dropped down to grip with his gloves. The compass fed him directions based on the clock as he rode up Broadway. The truck started to turn right at 165th. Henry flung a line at a building on the other side of the street. He retracted the line and swung over the traffic to a landing on the wall. He started climbing. Once he was on the roof, he could jump across the barriers to get where he needed to be. Henry paused. The wall he clung to belonged to New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Sloane was part of the hospital complex. He climbed to the roof. He had hidden his clothes up there somewhere. All he had to do was find his bag, change, then head down to the admissions desk and find his wife. He looked across the roof. He hoped no one had found his bag. He didn¡¯t want to go down to the maternity ward in costume. There were too many people who would be glad to do things to his family to get back at him for what he did as a Scarab. Showing up in his mask would give them an obvious handle to use against him. He spotted his bag¡¯s hiding spot after a minute. He jogged across the roof and jumped down to another roof. He pulled the bag from an alcove underneath an air-conditioner unit. He opened his bag. He pulled his clothes out and inspected them. They looked okay to wear. He quickly changed, stuffing his Scarab suit in the bag. He zipped the bag up and slung it on his back. Now all he had to do was get inside the hospital from the roof and go downstairs. Henry looked around until he found a maintenance door. He picked the lock with a set of instruments he kept around in case he had to break into a place without his suit. Being able to punch through a lot of things was faster than picking locks, but when you couldn¡¯t do that, you had to do what you could. He got through the door and climbed down to the top floor of the hospital. He stepped out in the hall and walked down. No one seemed to pay him any attention as he looked for an elevator. Once he found one, he pushed the button. He stepped in the elevator and pushed the down button for the first floor. Henry stepped out of the elevator and headed for the information desk. He needed to know if Martha June was at the hospital yet. ¡°How¡¯s it going?¡± Henry tried to smile at the receptionist in her sweater and scrub combination. ¡°My name is Henry Harkness. My wife went into labor and she was supposed to be headed to Sloane. Has she arrived yet?¡± ¡°What¡¯s her name and date of birth?¡± The receptionist lifted her claw-like hands to type in the information. Henry gave the information, spelling the last name for her. He wanted to jump over the counter and type in the search himself. ¡°She¡¯s still in transit, Mr. Harkness.¡± The receptionist looked up from her keyboard. ¡°If you hurry, you might be able to beat the ambulance.¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± Henry ran for the doors. He hit the sidewalk and ran down the block. He paused at Fort Washington Avenue before running across the street. He followed the signs as he headed toward 168th. He smiled when he saw the entrance. He slowed down to a walk, triggering the doors so he could enter. He went up to the desk to let the nurses know he was there and waiting on his wife. Special Delivery 2015- ¡°How do you get into these messes, Rangifer?,¡± Rangifer Tarandus asked himself as he hid behind a tree. He didn¡¯t think it was an adequate shield for a man of his bulk and head ornamentation. ¡°How do I get out this time?¡± ¡°All we want is the package, Reindeer.¡± The voice drifted through the forest, amplified by a vehicle¡¯s sound system. ¡°Drop it and walk away. We¡¯ll let you live.¡± Rangifer doubted that. He had dealt with the Black Wolves before this. They always killed anyone in their way. As soon as he dropped the backpack he wore to the ground, they would fill him full of lead. The best thing he could do was keep moving and hope to sneak away like the coward he was. He looked for another tree to use for cover. He had to keep moving. People were counting on him. Stupid Wolves. They always thought they could just take whatever they wanted. Most of the time they got in his way while he was doing things for the locals. He ran from his tree to another one further down the hill from his position. He had to get to the bottom, and then try to cross a river to get to his destination. The swimming part would be hard with the Wolves right behind him. Bullets blasted by him. He felt a twinge in an antler. He ignored it as he dove behind the tree in front of him. He scooted as much as possible behind the cover. Pieces of wood drifted through the air around him as he waited for the firing to stop. He reached up and touched his antler. He shook his head. One of his points had been sheared away by a round as he ran. He would have to wait until next year for it to grow back. He grimaced. At least the bullet hadn¡¯t hit anything important. All this trouble over some medical supplies seemed to be too much. Had he been lied to so he could be sent into a trap? Would the Mayor do that? Rangifer decided that didn¡¯t matter. He had been asked to deliver a package to a small town on the edge of the Jostedalsbreen Nasjonal Park. He had run into the Wolves while crossing the mountains. Now he had to lose them if he wanted to make his delivery. He used the tree as a brace so he could get to his hooves. He looked behind him. He thought he saw black fragments moving along his back trail. He looked ahead. He needed to keep moving, and keep the trees between him and them. He ran to the next tree he marked out. He heard engines behind him. They were going to try to run him to ground. He ran to the next tree. He grabbed the lowest branches and pulled himself above people expecting him to keep running. He climbed as quietly as he could. He didn¡¯t want to give himself away with moving tree limbs. He settled into a perch and waited. He hoped that he could fool the Wolves long enough to ambush them and then make his escape. Motorcycles buzzed to a stop below him. They spread out to search for his trail. All he needed was to let them keep going. Then he would be behind them and able to go off in another direction to get to where he was going. One of the Wolves looked up at the tree he was hiding in. He started to raise his weapon. Rangifer jumped down on top of the man. The Black Wolf saw the antlered Reindeer descending in a mass of fur. He decided to get out of the way. A fist of keratin fingers knocked him flat, sending his helmet/wolf mask flying. The other Wolves turned at the commotion. Quick reflexes brought weapons to bear. He threw the motorcycle at the closest one before ducking behind the tree he had climbed. Bullets chewed up the bark. Rangifer didn¡¯t want to climb uphill to escape. His destination was on the other side of his enemies. He had to get through their line before they could surround him. He had to keep moving. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. He threw himself at a tree next to his. He heard bullets whistling close as he landed behind the smaller tree. He threw himself behind the next tree in line. Then he had bushes to plunge through to a rock exposed in its bed. He peeked over the rock. Black figures were still trying to track his movement. It looked like they still thought he was behind the second tree. Maybe he could sneak away. He backed away from the rock. He descended sideways down the hill. He slipped through the trees. He thought he heard the sound of water. He was close to where he had to be. He needed to make it to the river and swim across to the other side. The Wolves would have to look for a ford to chase him if he could make it to the other bank. Rangifer kept moving. At least his fur helped him blend in with the surrounding trees. He should be able to get away as long as he was quiet and moving slow. He followed the sound of the water. He should have expected someone else would want the medicine he was carrying. Robbing one man crossing the park should be easy for professionals. Too bad he was a one man hreinn. Rangifer crept along until he could see the river. He shook his head. It was close. It was also at the base of a cliff. If he wanted to get down to it, he would have to climb down the cliff¡¯s face. The only other way was to jump. Maybe he could walk the edge until he found a path down to the flowing water. Which way did he want to go? If he walked to the north, he would be walking into the Wolves looking for him. If he walked south, he would be going in the wrong direction. He decided on south since he didn¡¯t feel like getting shot. He would make up for lost time once he was on the other side of the river. He could pick up speed if he didn¡¯t have to look for troublemakers on his trail. A bullet whizzed by his head. He threw himself off the cliff, diving for the river far below. He didn¡¯t have time to chide himself for his instinctive reaction to the sudden threat. He hit the water and headed for the bottom of the river. He hoped they didn¡¯t throw explosives down after him. He swam into the current. Arms like a gorilla¡¯s and legs like a goat propelled him away from the danger. He headed for the surface when he thought he was far enough away from his pursuers that they couldn¡¯t shoot at him. He looked back at where he had jumped from the cliff. Black clad mercenaries stood at the edge of the cliff. He headed for the other side of the river on a slant, using the current to propel him away from his enemies. He exhaled a breath of air as he reached the opposite shore. He climbed up on the rocky shelf at the edge of the river. Water rolled down his fur as he tried to decide which direction he needed to get to his destination. He jogged along the rocks. He hoped he had enough of a lead the Wolves would let him go about his business without any more trouble. He doubted they would keep up the chase when they had to find a place to cross the river themselves. He doubted any of them would do what he had done. No one in their right mind would do what he had just done. That was a quick way to get killed, or injured so bad you might as well be dead. He found a small chimney he could use to climb away from the river. He flexed his hard fingers. He looked up at the top of the thing. He could do it if he wanted. He slid into the chute. He braced his arms and back. He set his feet. He started up. Rangifer dug in where he could. The stone allowed his random toe holes. He paused to take a breath about halfway up. He pulled himself over the grassy lip of the lookout a few minutes later. He took a moment to figure out which he should be going. Then he headed along the cliff to where he thought the path would be to head him toward. He doubted the Wolves would stay on his trail now. They knew where he was going. They could circle around on friendlier trails and roads. His only advantage was being able to move directly across the landscape. He found a trail into the forests. He smiled. Now he could pick up speed and reach his destination faster. Once he was at the town, the Wolves might peel off and hunt others. If they tried to raid the town, he had cover to use to fight back. Rangifer jogged into the trees. His internal compass pointed him on a straight line to the town he had to reach. He crossed the snow line and kept going. His hooves dug into the snow and ice as easily as they moved across dirt and stone. The town loomed above him. He spotted it through some trees. A mountain top loomed behind the wooden and brick houses. He climbed faster. He found a trail cleared of the snow. He turned on that and jogged in a small spiral to the top of a flattened mountain peak. The village formed a circle of red and tan around a brick plaza. He trotted towards the plaza, looking for the address where he was supposed to deliver the package. The residents didn¡¯t look too friendly. Some of the kids called Krampus and hid behind their mothers. He supposed that was fair. He looked like Krampus a little. ¡°Reindeer!¡± One of the men detached from the crowd. He wore a heavy coat and a hat with flaps for his ears. ¡°Thank you for coming. Do you have the serum?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Rangifer took off the backpack he wore. ¡°Can I ask what this is all about?¡± ¡°It is about sheep.¡± The man pulled off a glove. He smiled at his guest¡¯s reaction. ¡°We have an outbreak here of something. We are trying to save the whole flock. I asked my friend, Dr. Nillsson for help since vehicles of any type are fairly restricted due to avalanches. When he radioed to say he had sent you, I knew things would be all right.¡± Rangifer opened the backpack and drew out the cushioned box inside. He handed it over. ¡°Let¡¯s see if this what we need.¡± The townsman led the way to where his patients waited. Blue Flames in San Francisco 1 2015- Mark Hadron looked out the window of the building he was thinking about buying. San Francisco¡¯s prices were sky high, but if he set up a headquarters, he needed it to be around people to feed the defenses from monsters and ghosts his employees would be facing. He didn¡¯t like the thought that he might be sending more people to their deaths. ¡°Dr. Hadron?¡± Patty Page peered through the open door, but didn¡¯t come into the room. ¡°The place looks fine, I suppose. Are you sure you want to buy it?¡± ¡°Janie is insistent that you should be a functioning branch of the organization.¡± Hadron didn¡¯t turn away from the window. ¡°Come in and sit down.¡± Patty sat down on the floor near the door. She had insisted that her group of friends should track Hadron down and get him to help them. This taciturn person was not the same as the man wanting to send them to their doom, or the man she had listened to after his group had done something no one understood. ¡°This place is almost perfect for a home base.¡± Hadron tapped the glass in front of him. ¡°Once we install a major lantern, the city will power it until something happens to the alignment. That should be years down the road.¡± He turned to face her. His one eye glared at the room in general. The empty socket of his other eye made her wish he wore a patch over it. He sat down across from her. ¡°You guys will need a place to stay away from your homes in case of troubles. You¡¯ll need a place to work on your equipment. You¡¯ll need a home base that will provide a shield against some of the things you¡¯ll be facing.¡± Hadron clasped his hands together so she couldn¡¯t see the hole in one of them. ¡°I¡¯m going to show you how to track down Crenshaw, but then you¡¯ll have to monitor the city on your own. This place has to be robust enough to let you do that without a problem.¡± ¡°You¡¯re not going to stay?¡± Patty didn¡¯t like that. She doubted she could hold her friends together in the face of mortal danger. ¡°New York is facing a rip.¡± Hadron didn¡¯t put on a pleasant face to smooth things over. ¡°Janie is putting a group together while I¡¯m out here. If things keep climbing, we might lose Manhattan.¡± ¡°What do you mean by losing Manhattan?¡± Patty hoped he wasn¡¯t talking about the center of New York City sinking into the ocean. ¡°The energy scales are going up.¡± Hadron made a gesture to indicate the normal versus what was going on. ¡°Once it gets in the 80''s, an extradimensional rip is in the offing. Something is trying to open a door from another place to here.¡± Patty frowned. She hadn¡¯t expected that. She had hoped to handle one ghost for the excitement. Now she was going to have to worry about the world ending when she had asked to defend it. ¡°I still have time to deal with that.¡± Hadron smiled. ¡°I¡¯m going to buy this building. Equipment is going to be sent here. I¡¯m going to need you to help me set up everything. Case books will be assembled so you guys will have some grounding. Then I¡¯m going to show you how to build and use the weapons that you¡¯re going to need, as well as the lamps. The big lamp will be the worse because it will have to protect the whole building from attack.¡± ¡°Crenshaw?¡± Patty wondered how the ghost pirate would take his old enemy being in the same city with him. ¡°We¡¯re going to track him down as soon as the parts and equipment get here.¡± Hadron nodded. ¡°I was hoping to do a solo run, maybe call in some help from a couple of guys I know. Now I have you trainees to act as my meat shields. It will be a great way for you to get your feet wet.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think I like being described as a meat shield,¡± said Patty. ¡°No one does.¡± Hadron smiled. It didn¡¯t make his face look more open. ¡°Just remember to keep your guys covered. They don¡¯t run off on their own when you are looking into something. They don¡¯t do anything without thinking about it. Once you guys are set up, it will be up to you to make sure they don¡¯t make the same mistake we did.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t lead anybody.¡± Patty held up her hands. ¡°Why can¡¯t you stay?¡± ¡°I have to head back to New York as soon as you guys get through your training period.¡± Hadron smiled again. ¡°It will be up to you to hold the line here until things settle down.¡± Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. ¡°All right.¡± Patty bent her head. Meeting Hadron in person had shattered her dream of following a new Lamplighter team from afar. She hadn¡¯t expected to be a member of a new Lamplighter team. ¡°Don¡¯t look so down,¡± said Hadron. ¡°It¡¯s obvious the other women think of you as their leader. All you have to do is make sure you don¡¯t get them killed. You can do that.¡± Patty put on a smile at the encouragement. She didn¡¯t think things would go as smooth as Hadron implied. ¡°Let¡¯s have our first staff meeting.¡± Hadron stood. He moved creakily like a much older man. He extended his unwounded hand to help Patty to her feet. ¡°That way we can hammer out some of the starter problems and get the mission objective out of the way.¡± ¡°Is this how the original Lamplighters started?¡± Patty brushed off her pants. ¡°I built the original lamp.¡± Hadron walked from the room. ¡°Milton got us the money. Dyson and Harry helped with the machinery we needed to operate. We set up the company charter over pizza and beers.¡± ¡°And then you started selling your services?¡± Patty remembered stories that had hit the papers that been unconfirmed until the Mark had paused long enough to tell a reporter that the Lamplighters had saved the day. ¡°It took a while before people realized we were serious about what we were doing.¡± Hadron started down the steps to where an open lobby had been almost put together before the place shut down. The other three women waited in various spots. They didn¡¯t seem eager to start a new career of chasing monsters and ghosts. He didn¡¯t blame them. ¡°I am going to buy this building for your franchise, ladies.¡± Hadron put his hands in his pockets. ¡°Equipment will be ordered and installed. I¡¯m going to install a big lamp upstairs to help with security from the local ghosts. There will be a small amount of training so you can fix the batteries, or weapons, in case of trouble. ¡°The Lamplighters didn¡¯t have a training set up. We learned on the job. This is going to be new for me also. One rule that will go in effect is no one goes off alone on an investigation. You will buddy up and watch each other¡¯s back. Radio and cell communication suffers in high energy situations, but I expect you to keep them on so warnings can be passed back and forth when possible.¡± ¡°You¡¯re not going to send us after this ghost pirate right away?¡± Lin Qu smiled. ¡°That¡¯s a relief.¡± ¡°I think you should at least read the casebooks that will be coming,¡± said Hadron. ¡°Then you can make your own decision about whether you want to quit, or not. What the Lamplighters did was a lot more dangerous than ghostbusting. I will understand if you want to quit. A small dorm will be set up here for you so you can live out of here instead of having to commute during emergencies once we get started. I want you guys to walk the building to get used to it as it is, so when we start changing it around, you¡¯ll know how you want to change it.¡± ¡°You¡¯re only doing this because your secretary said so.¡± Jean Lopez glared at him with her dark eyes. Her denim jacket hung over a shoulder. ¡°You¡¯re right about that,¡± said Hadron. ¡°I¡¯m only doing this because my only friend in the world said it was necessary.¡± His single eye was a glaring cube of ice in his face. He blinked and the mask was back in place before he did something he regretted. ¡°I¡¯m going to take a walk.¡± Hadron checked his watch. ¡°Go ahead and look things over. If this is going to be a base of operations, it should be as much of a home for you as it can be.¡± ¡°What about exercise equipment?¡± Kathy Baker wore a green tracksuit. Her fingernails glittered as her hands moved. ¡°Sort it out.¡± Hadron shrugged. ¡°You¡¯re adults. You can do it.¡± ¡°Enjoy your walk, Dr. Hadron.¡± Patty waved a hand at the other three women. ¡°We¡¯ll have a list of things by the time you get back.¡± Hadron nodded. He headed out of the building, pushing on the glass and metal door with a shoulder. He turned at the sidewalk and headed out of sight. ¡°Is he serious about buying the building for us?¡± Lin went to the door. ¡°That¡¯s crazy.¡± ¡°Yes, he¡¯s serious.¡± Patty nodded at her friends. ¡°He already has a room picked out for a lamp to help protect the building. He said the original Lamplighters didn¡¯t have any training in what they did. We¡¯re the replacements and a test case. If we do well, we might spark more Lamplighters across the country. Also we have a problem that you should know about before we go any further.¡± ¡°What kind of problem?,¡± said Jean. She rubbed the palm of her hand on her leg. ¡°Once we get set up, we¡¯re on our own.¡± Patty pursed her lip. ¡°New York City is in danger, and we¡¯re going to have to hold things down here, or be ready to head out to the East Coast to join in.¡± ¡°What do you mean New York City is in danger?¡± Jean looked at Kathy and Lin. They shared her expression of disbelief. ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Patty shrugged. ¡°He said the ambient energy is climbing. It indicates an invasion of some sort. We have to be ready in case we¡¯re needed to stop it.¡± ¡°This is getting out of hand, Patty.¡± Lin fiddled with the fake buttons on her suit jacket. ¡°We can¡¯t stop anything like an invasion.¡± ¡°We can¡¯t do anything without the lamps and guns we need.¡± Kathy shrugged. ¡°We have to do well with them before we can be considered good enough to blow monsters away.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s get our list together.¡± Jean waved at the others. ¡°We can¡¯t sit here gawking at an empty place if we want to be heroes.¡± ¡°Do we want to be heroes?¡± Lin frowned at her friends. ¡°What are we getting into here?¡± ¡°This Crenshaw is going to keep attacking,¡± said Patty. ¡°No one else can stop him. We have to do it. I understand if you all want to leave, but I¡¯m not. I am going to hunt that monster down and take him out. He¡¯ll never hurt anyone else.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s get our list together.¡± Jean waved at the others to go ahead. ¡°Baby steps.¡± Patty covered her face with a hand. She hadn¡¯t meant to let that out in the air. She should have kept it in. She followed her friends as they examined their headquarters and made plans. Blue Flames in San Francisco 2 The new building didn¡¯t feel right. Patty walked the halls and through the rooms. It had a waiting aura about it. What would it be like when they got going? She paused at the lamp room. Dr. Hadron and Jean were surrounded by pieces of circuitry and wiring. Mechanical casing leaned against a wall. He directed her where he wanted pieces soldered together with a small torch. She nodded as she went about her business. Lin and Kathy had decided to set up a small gym on the second floor. She paused as they looked at the boxes of parts that made up most of the equipment Kathy wanted. Dr. Hadron had put it on the company dime. The bell rang. She headed downstairs to get the door. They kept things locked down since they didn¡¯t want people wandering around and looking at things. She looked through the peephole. It was another delivery man from UPS. She opened the door with a smile. ¡°Miss Page?,¡± said the delivery driver. He held an electronic clipboard. A plain brown box sat at his feet. ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Patty smiled. ¡°I¡¯ll sign for it.¡± He handed her the clipboard. She took the stylus from the top and wrote in her name in the signature screen with a flourish. She handed the thing back to look at the box. What had been ordered this time? She picked up the box and looked at the label. The sender was Lamplighters, INC in New York City. Janie must have sent something to Dr. Hadron. Her name was on the receiving line. She frowned. Why would Janie send her anything? She took the box inside as the brown van rolled away from the curb. She locked the door. Her eyes scanned what would be the lobby of the building. She winced that only one chair had arrived so far. The desks and the computers were still in transit. So were the parts for the weapons. She admitted she would feel better if she had something to stave off a monster at hand. She sat down in the chair. She placed the box in her lap. She worried at the tape holding it close with a thumbnail. Finally she had enough to pull on so she could open the box. Notebooks rested inside. She pulled out the first notebook and looked inside. Pages of reports and news clippings mixed together. She opened the others one after the other. They were all the same. She smiled. These were the copies of casebooks promised for them. She put the three copies aside. She noted each one had a different name on the cover. She smiled. Janie was still looking out for them. She picked up the one with her name on the cover and started reading. No one needed her at the moment. And Dr. Hadron wanted her to know what it meant to do what they proposed to do. Each report was a dry recounting of what the call had been about. Pictures of the scenes and graphs of the ambient energy index had been included. Several cases had taken months before something showed itself. Progress reports were included as the group tried to figure out what was going on. Patty smiled. She had followed the Lamplighters from afar for a long time. They weren¡¯t powered like the Mark, or the old Hazard Scouts. They were just some guys trying to save the day against strangeness. She had cried for two days when the news came out that they had been decimated. Then Crenshaw had appeared. It was the same kind of event the Lamplighters chased. That was what had led her to heading for New York to ask for help. If someone could handle the ghost pirate, it would be a Lamplighter. Dr. Hadron¡¯s reaction had been the opposite of what she had expected. It didn¡¯t take a genius to see how angry he was. She had thought he was going to punch her when he answered the door. He might have if Janie hadn¡¯t said what she had. She had been thoughtful and invited her group into the building. A meal and coffee had not warmed Dr. Hadron to their presence, but he didn¡¯t seem as inclined to let them kill themselves as he had stated. She put the casebook aside. The cases swam in her head, the monsters pushing at her resolve. Did she have the gumption to stand up to the Kansas City Twister Sister, or the Jersey City Root Man, or the Los Angeles Cliff Dweller? Why had she gotten involved in this? She frowned. She checked her watch. She had spent hours on the casebook. Her stomach growled to let her know of its disapproval. She had to fix that. She wondered how the others were doing. She hoped they hadn¡¯t noticed her slacking If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.off. She should be helping instead of reliving events she had watched from a distance. She picked up the casebook and put the rest back in the box. She picked up the box in her free arm. She headed upstairs. She could ask the others what they wanted to eat, while giving them the casebooks. Maybe they would want to read them while she was getting food together and bringing it back to the building so they could eat. She looked in the room that was going to be Kathy¡¯s gym. Kathy and Lin had put several of the machines together. They were trying them out. Kathy gave instructions as they rode on what looked like regular exercise bikes to her. She shifted position and saw that screens on the front of the bikes showed pretend scenery to ride through instead of the blank walls around them. ¡°You guys want anything to eat?¡± Patty put the box down. ¡°I thought I would get some takeout for us.¡± ¡°Sure.¡± Kathy smiled. ¡°Can you get me a salad?¡± ¡°Where are you going, Patty?¡± Lin let the wheel of her bike spin down. ¡°I hadn¡¯t considered where yet.¡± Patty smiled. ¡°I was thinking maybe getting everyone¡¯s order and then picking up something from somewhere local and bringing it back.¡± ¡°I would like some chicken and rice, maybe some soup.¡± Lin swung a leg over the seat of the bike and touched down on the floor. ¡°See if they will give you some seasoning packets.¡± Patty pulled out a pen from her pocket. She wrote salad, then chk r won ton under that, on the palm of her hand. She put the pen up. ¡°What¡¯s in the box?¡± Kate pointed at the package in her friend¡¯s hand. ¡°The casebooks arrived.¡± Patty held the box out. ¡°Your names are on the covers. They¡¯re the same as far as what¡¯s in them.¡± ¡°Really?¡± Lin stepped forward. She took her notebook. She took Kathy¡¯s and handed it over. ¡°Is there anything bad in them?¡± ¡°Just cases.¡± Patty shrugged. She didn¡¯t want to scare off Lin. Mentioning the Lamplighters¡¯ last case would do just that. ¡°Scary cases?¡± Lin looked down at the front of the book. Her expression said she didn¡¯t want to look inside. ¡°The scariest.¡± Patty shook her head. ¡°Don¡¯t be scared. It¡¯s just a book.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll read it with you,¡± said Kathy. She stopped peddling and dismounted from the bike. She cut the power to the screen and dashboard. ¡°How bad could it be?¡± Patty smiled before moving on. She paused at the room she planned to use for an apartment. She put the casebook on a window sill. She carried the box to the lamp room. Jean and Dr. Hadron should still be fixing the lamp and trying to get it online. She found the two of them talking about what they needed to do next. The lamp¡¯s base was put together. She could see the lens glittering in the middle of the rig. ¡°I¡¯m headed out on a food run.¡± Patty took the last casebook out of the box and handed it to Jean. ¡°You guys want anything?¡± ¡°A couple of hamburgers and a shake would be good,¡± said Jean. ¡°Do you want me to ride along?¡± ¡°I got it.¡± Patty wrote down the order under Lin¡¯s order. ¡°Dr. Hadron?¡± ¡°Anything is good.¡± Dr. Hadron turned his eye on her. ¡°What are the local restaurants like?¡± ¡°Same as New York,¡± said Patty. ¡°Some are good, some are bad, most are average. It¡¯ll take me a bit to get back. We should have set up for snacks so we could have something between meals.¡± ¡°The refrigerator will be here in a couple of days.¡± Dr. Hadron almost smiled. ¡°We need a couple of parts to finish the lamp. There¡¯s not much more we can do tonight.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be back as soon as I can.¡± Patty nodded. ¡°Are we breaking up after dinner?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t see why not.¡± Dr. Hadron checked his watch. ¡°Anything else we need to do can wait until tomorrow.¡± ¡°All right.¡± Patty smiled. She checked her hand. ¡°I might go by my place and bring some chairs back. Maybe I can get a coffee table we can use until the official stuff gets here.¡± ¡°Do you want any help?,¡± Jean asked. She wiped a spray of ash off her forearm with a thumb. ¡°I got it,¡± said Patty. ¡°I still have that thing Kevin¡¯s mother gave us for our anniversary. I have been wanting to get rid of that table forever.¡± ¡°Go ahead.¡± Dr. Hadron waved his hand at her. ¡°We¡¯re not going anywhere without you.¡± Patty headed down to the exit. She stepped out on the street. At least the fog wasn¡¯t coming in off the bay. She walked down to the parking lot next to the building. She raised the gate with her pass key and walked to her car. She smiled when she settled behind the wheel. She decided to get the table first. She would pick up the food on the way back from the restaurants. She shook her head at the different orders. She thought she could get Kathy¡¯s and Jean¡¯s from the same place while picking up Lin¡¯s last. She made a note to pick Dr. Hadron up something. She pulled out of the lot, watching the arm come down as she turned on the street. Her place was across town. Getting the table out of her living room should be easy. Maybe she should have brought Jean along. She drove through the streets, nodding as she turned into a residential neighborhood made up of condos converted from old houses. She turned into a driveway that wasn¡¯t meant for her to park in. She got out and let herself inside the main door. She walked up to her place and let herself in. She cut on the lights. The place didn¡¯t welcome her like it used to do. She took the pictures off the oval table and put them on the floor. She lifted the table and put it outside. She cut the lights and locked up. She carried her wooden prize down to her car. She opened the trunk and slid the table inside. It didn¡¯t quite fit. She searched inside the trunk and found two old bungee cords. She used them to pull the lid down as much as she could to keep the table from falling out on the street. She went through a drive-thru and got Kathy two of the salads, a couple bottles of water, Jean¡¯s burgers and milkshake, and Dr. Hadron a kid¡¯s meal. She added a bigger burger for him. Then she headed for one of the Chinese places to get Lin¡¯s order on the way back to the Lamplighter building. She pulled into the lot. She gathered the food up and carried it into the building. ¡°Thanks, Patty.¡± Kathy took the food and divided it out. ¡°Didn¡¯t you get something for yourself?¡± ¡°I have some donuts in the car.¡± Patty smiled. ¡°Let me get the table. I¡¯ll be right back.¡± ¡°Let me help you with that.¡± Kathy dusted off her hands and the women walked out to get the prize. Blue Flames in San Francisco 3 Patty looked around her room. She had added a chair, a small foldout couch/bed, and a table. Her laptop rested on the table. She had one finger marking her page in the casebook. The knocking sounded again. She put the casebook down in the window sill, and stood. She went to the door and opened it. Dr. Hadron didn¡¯t quite glare at her with his single eye. ¡°I need a driver.¡± He put his hands in his pockets. ¡°Everybody else is doing something.¡± ¡°No problem.¡± Patty picked up her jacket from the couch. She shrugged it on. ¡°Where are we going?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know yet.¡± Dr. Hadron turned to head to the elevator. ¡°I¡¯ll know it when I see it.¡± ¡°Thank you for the casebook.¡± Patty followed, hiking shoes silent on the concrete floor. ¡°It¡¯s interesting reading.¡± ¡°You noticed our mistakes in the reports?,¡± asked Dr. Hadron, pushing the call button for the elevator. ¡°I saw a couple of instances where the monster, or ghost, hadn¡¯t been taken care of, or came back.¡± Patty fished in her pockets for her keys. ¡°The lamps diffuse the energy that creates ghosts, and stops some monsters.¡± Hadron stepped inside the elevator. ¡°Sometimes that isn¡¯t enough. Then you have to figure out something else and use that.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why you used the giant fans on the Twister Sister?¡± Patty boarded the elevator. ¡°The lamps by themselves weren¡¯t doing the job.¡± Dr. Hadron pushed the ground floor button. ¡°We decided that mixing up the air currents she was using would hurt her enough to get rid of her.¡± ¡°How long does a spirit stay confined?¡± Patty couldn¡¯t remember a lot of repeat business from the casebook. ¡°It depends on what we can use as a prison.¡± Dr. Hadron shrugged. ¡°A lot of these things are created by waves in the world¡¯s energy lines. Sometimes you can force them back into the lines and they are buried again.¡± ¡°And they never return?¡± Patty wondered about Crenshaw. He seemed to have fought the Lamplighters more than once. ¡°Most don¡¯t,¡± said the doctor. ¡°The creation process appears to be unique. Sometimes the process happens again and again so you have to change the area of the source to redirect things.¡± ¡°Crenshaw?,¡± asked Patty. The door opened to let them out of the elevator. ¡°We dealt with him a couple of times.¡± Hadron led the way. ¡°We could never figure out how he kept coming back. We think it has to do with the ocean somehow.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t understand,¡± said Patty. She fished out her car keys as she followed him. ¡°Specific ghosts, or spirits, who keep coming back from being used by the lamps are unusual.¡± Dr. Hadron paused so she could unlock her car for him. ¡°The lamp¡¯s flames eat up their energy when we use the weapons on them. Some are resistant so we have to use alternative means. Most of those are above the twenties. Harry and I theorized that Crenshaw kept coming back with his lower number because of something surrounding his death, or where he died. We could never prove it because we couldn¡¯t track down anything other than he had been killed by the Spanish during the Age of Piracy.¡± ¡°Maybe where he was killed has something to do with it?¡± Patty unlocked the doors. She got in the driver¡¯s seat. ¡°I assume he was hanged.¡± ¡°No.¡± Dr. Hadron got in the passenger seat. ¡°He was killed at sea. His ship was sunk. The Spanish pirate hunters let some of his crew escape, but no one knows where that happened.¡± ¡°So even if we take him down, he might keep coming back to take his revenge.¡± Patty frowned as she started the engine. ¡°Maybe I made a mistake starting this.¡± ¡°The threat exists.¡± Dr. Hadron closed his eye. ¡°I¡¯m going to help you beat this one. After that, you girls will be on your own.¡± ¡°That makes me feel better.¡± Patty backed out of the slot. ¡°Where do you want to go?¡± ¡°I have some things coming in from the docks,¡± said Dr. Hadron. ¡°I figured we could go down and pick them up.¡± ¡°All right.¡± Patty pulled out of the lot after waiting for the gate arm to get out of the way. She headed for the ocean. ¡°The building looks almost like a workplace except for our quarters.¡± ¡°I still have some things to put in.¡± Dr. Hadron watched the city roll by. ¡°A range Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.would be good. Practicing with the weapons has to be done. You don¡¯t want to go out on a job, and hurt yourself.¡± ¡°What do these weapons actually do?¡± Patty hadn¡¯t seen any specifications in the casebook, just names. ¡°They drain spiritual energy.¡± Hadron checked his watch. ¡°A person might be able to survive a hit, maybe two, but it can be just as fatal as a real bullet.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good to know.¡± Patty winced at the thought of hitting a bystander and sucking them dry like a spider to anything it caught in its web. ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± Hadron smiled. ¡°If you do get hit, and it doesn¡¯t kill you, chicken soup will fix you right up.¡± ¡°Really?¡± Patty didn¡¯t believe that. ¡°Yep.¡± The doctor nodded. ¡°We accidentally tested it. Chicken soup and football built the energy back up. It took a couple of days, but no lasting harm was done.¡± ¡°But we shouldn¡¯t put it to the test.¡± Patty almost smiled at the idea of recovering her energy by eating soup and watching sports. ¡°Exactly,¡± said Dr. Hadron. ¡°Let¡¯s drive down to those docks there. I think I see my friend.¡± Patty followed his finger to a boat tied up to a dock. It was painted white and blue with a green stripe down the side. She frowned at the name. She thought she should know the name ¡°Sea Ranger¡±. It would come to her eventually. She pulled in a parking space at the end of the dock and cut the engine. She got out with Dr. Hadron. She wondered what was going on. Did the Lamplighter know people on the West Coast? Of course, he knew people. The Lamplighters had fought monsters everywhere. Some of the people they had met would be contacts later in case something else showed up that needed to be put down. Dr. Hadron led the way down the dock to the boat. He didn¡¯t seem worried about any problems that might be waiting for him onboard. ¡°Who goes there?,¡± said a voice from the boat. Patty couldn¡¯t see the owner. ¡°Mark Hadron, and guest.¡± Dr. Hadron almost smiled. ¡°Is Stan onboard, Mini?¡± A dice-sized block of blue metal sprang into a humanoid figure next to the rail. A wide grin split his features. Pipestem arms ending in three-fingered hands held the rail. ¡°How¡¯s it going, Dr. Hadron?¡± Mini saluted. ¡°Seen any ghosts lately?¡± ¡°Still chasing what¡¯s his name?,¡± said Dr. Hadron. ¡°It¡¯s been years.¡± ¡°He¡¯s gone to ground again.¡± Mini shrugged. ¡°We almost had him in Shanghai, but he created some kind of giant lizard to get away.¡± ¡°Is Stan onboard?,¡± asked Dr. Hadron. He looked around the dock. ¡°Come aboard.¡± Mini pushed out a gangplank of steps. ¡°The survey you wanted was pretty easy.¡± ¡°Hopefully, it will help us track down the ghost we want to deal with.¡± Dr. Hadron climbed the three steps and stood on the deck. ¡°Patty, this is Miniature. Mini, this is Patty Page.¡± Patty gained the deck and smiled at the blue face. It smiled back at her. ¡°Pleased to meet you,¡± said Miniature. ¡°Welcome to the Sea Ranger.¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± said Patty. She kicked herself mentally for not recognizing the name. The Sea Ranger was the mobile home of the Robot Rangers. Everyone knew who they were. Six robots created by Dr. Stanley Craft to face threats no one else had thought were possible had won prizes for their work and exploration into places humans couldn¡¯t go. They had even flown to Mars to do a survey for NASA at one point. ¡°The doc is below.¡± Mini pointed to the hatch. ¡°He¡¯s still trying to make sense of the stuff you wanted.¡± ¡°Thanks, Mini.¡± Dr. Hadron led the way to the ladder heading below decks. Patty followed, noticing the ranger had shrank back to its small height to keep watch on the dock. ¡°You know the Robot Rangers?,¡± whispered Patty. ¡°That¡¯s cool.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t act like a fangirl.¡± Dr. Hadron paused at the bottom of the ladder. ¡°Stan doesn¡¯t need the massage to his ego.¡± The two walked into a hold full of equipment. A man with thinning curly white hair sat hunched in the middle of things. Information danced on the screens in front of him. He hummed as he nodded at the numbers. ¡°Anything interesting, Stan?,¡± said Dr. Hadron. One hand hovered over a machine beeping to itself. Craft jumped at the words. He shook his head as he settled back in his chair. ¡°Give a guy some warning the next time.¡± Craft took a breath. ¡°I about had a heart attack.¡± ¡°How did the survey go, Stan?,¡± asked Dr. Hadron. ¡°Pretty well.¡± Craft pointed at one screen. ¡°This is the coast. Your scanner lit up several places that may be the lair of your ghost.¡± ¡°Crenshaw won¡¯t have a lair.¡± Dr. Hadron bent over the screen. ¡°He¡¯ll have a place to store whatever he steals, and whomever he kidnaps so he can do whatever he wants to them, but it won¡¯t be a lair. These places are native places of things that are already here. They might be stirred up when we take Crenshaw out of the picture.¡± ¡°We?,¡± Craft turned his attention to his other visitor. ¡°Stanley Craft. How do you do?¡± ¡°Patty Page.¡± Patty held out a hand. ¡°It¡¯s great to meet one of my heroes from when I was little.¡± ¡°Thanks.¡± Craft shook her hand. ¡°Lamplighter?¡± ¡°She¡¯s in training.¡± Dr. Hadron tapped the screen with a finger. ¡°Do you have a printout of this, Stan?¡± ¡°Yep.¡± Craft looked around his cluttered lab. He produced a stack of papers and handed them over. ¡°You¡¯re back in business, Mark?¡± ¡°Nobody issued a warning.¡± Dr. Hadron looked the papers over, thumbing through them gently. ¡°Janie is trying to put together a team back home. Patty and her friends volunteered to deal with Crenshaw. I was hoping to enjoy my retirement, but it looks like I¡¯ll have to put it off a little bit longer.¡± ¡°How bad is this warning?¡± Craft sat back in his chair. ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Dr. Hadron turned his one eye on his friend. ¡°The turbulence is high. I expect the Mark and his kids will be busy with every mad magician and psychic in the tri-state area coming out of the woodwork to try to take advantage. The spectral activity might climb off the charts, but so far things were calm according to Janie.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re putting together two teams to deal with this?¡± Craft nodded. ¡°You need any help?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know yet.¡± Dr. Hadron folded the papers and tucked them under his arm. ¡°The numbers are high and close to a rip. We might need the Rangers to help us out.¡± ¡°We lost Hassick just before you called.¡± Craft rubbed his chin. ¡°He might head to New York to take advantage once he knows something is in the air.¡± ¡°If you want in on this action, Stan,¡± said Hadron. One hand made a gesture resembling a what can you do. ¡°You¡¯re welcome to sit in. If I see Hassick, I¡¯ll add him to my to-do list.¡± ¡°Thanks, Mark.¡± Blue Flames in San Francisco 4 ¡°All right, ladies,¡± Dr. Hadron appeared while they were eating lunch together in the common room the quartet had set aside. ¡°We¡¯re going to do some practice shooting before we try a little case.¡± ¡°It¡¯s about time,¡± said Jean. ¡°Crenshaw has been running the police scared the last couple of weeks while we have been holed up in here.¡± ¡°Patience.¡± Dr. Hadron held up the hand with the hole in it as a stop sign. ¡°You can¡¯t expect to hunt the big game if you can¡¯t shoot a gun.¡± Patty wiped the egg yolk off of her plate with a piece of toast. She felt a thrill of anticipation run through her spine. It was nearing the time they would be actively doing their future jobs. She silently agreed with Jean. Crenshaw had been running around town, stalling the police and some of the local vigilantes with his sharks and musket. It was time he was run out of town. ¡°As soon as you¡¯re done eating, please join me on the roof.¡± Dr. Hadron retreated from the room. Patty put her plate in the sink. She washed it off, but left it in place. She could wash it later. She headed for the roof, climbing the stairs. She heard the others clattering around behind her. She had helped put the equipment together. She already knew how they were supposed to work. She just wanted enough practice to get on the job and do something other than work on their proposed headquarters. Patty pushed through the roof access door. She stopped after she crossed the threshold. A target range had been put together with targets on ropes at one end, and a table to mark where the shooters should stand. Some of the Lamplighter weapons had been assembled and plugged into small lamps. Dr. Hadron stood at one end of the counter. ¡°Is this safe?,¡± she asked. ¡°As long as you don¡¯t hit anything alive.¡± Dr. Hadron gestured for her to take a slot. She picked one of the smaller weapons, a rifle that resembled a small flamethrower. She went over it to make sure it would shoot when she wanted to shoot. The last thing she wanted was to be caught trying to use a weapon that wasn¡¯t ready to be fired. The others arrived and Jean whistled at the shooting gallery. ¡°Ladies, pick a weapon so we can get started.¡± Dr. Hadron gestured at the counter. ¡°I expect you to pick this up fairly fast. If you guys are good shots, we¡¯ll move on to your practice case before the sun goes down.¡± ¡°How good do you want us to get with these?¡± Lin picked a weapon close to what Patty had picked for herself. ¡°Let¡¯s say three hundred.¡± Dr. Hadron walked to one of the targets and pointed to a general circle close to the center of the thing. ¡°Say ten shots inside this ring.¡± ¡°And these are harmless against people?¡± Lin gestured to the rifle in front of her. ¡°Mostly harmless.¡± Dr. Hadron put his hands behind his back. ¡°One shot might be survivable, but multiple shots will drain a normal human of their life energy until it¡¯s gone. If it¡¯s weak in the first place, you might kill the person accidentally.¡± ¡°Why are we doing this?,¡± asked Lin. ¡°We¡¯re the only ones who can.¡± Jean shook her head. ¡°Who else is going to protect the city? No one else can do what Lamplighters did.¡± ¡°If you want to walk away, Miss Qi, it¡¯s okay.¡± Dr. Hadron¡¯s one eye squinted slightly as he spoke. ¡°I¡¯ll have Janie cut your contract, and access.¡± ¡°He¡¯s right, Lin.¡± Patty picked up the rifle. ¡°What we are about to do will be really dangerous. No one will fault you for leaving.¡± Lin froze in indecision. She could make excuses and bow out after the hard work she had put in. She didn¡¯t need the money as much as the others, and could go back to her old job in a heartbeat. Did she want to leave her friends in a lurch when they needed her? Did they really need her? She picked up the rifle and checked it over. She didn¡¯t want to do anything dangerous, but she didn¡¯t want to let her friends down. Jean nodded as the moment of dissent passed. She picked up a weapon with a rotary barrel assembly and made sure all the connections were in place. It felt as light as a Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.Nerf gun to her. Kate picked up the last gun. She smiled at the design. It was a copy of the Fireflash Hadron had tried to dump on them when they had met in New York. She placed the stock to her shoulder and sighted down the long barrel. The targets jumped closer as she readied for a shot. This was a weapon she had at least held before this small exercise. ¡°All right, ladies,¡± said Dr. Hadron. ¡°When I give the word, commence shooting at the closest target. The weapons will tally the hits for me. As soon as all of you hit three hundred, we will move on to field testing.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t miss with this gatling gun.¡± Jean smiled. ¡°I¡¯ll see the rest of you downstairs.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll see about that.¡± Kate readied her own weapon. ¡°Go,¡± said Dr. Hadron. He pulled a lever at his end of the counter. The targets started dancing across the roof at the trainees. Patty opened fire in short bursts. She reached her three hundred points before the others could open fire. She stepped back when she heard the loud ding from the computer. She put the weapon down on the counter, and switched it off. Everyone looked at her in astonishment. ¡°Kevin showed me how to shoot when we got married.¡± Patty shrugged. ¡°Go ahead. Get your points so we can move on.¡± ¡°You heard her, ladies.¡± Dr. Hadron waved a hand at the closing targets. ¡°Go ahead.¡± The others look longer to reach their goal. Lin took the longest, carefully trying to line up shots instead of hosing the targets like Jean and Kathy. The rotating barrel hit the same target five, or six, times as the paper swung out of the way. Stray shots hit the building behind the target in a rain of blue light. Kathy rapidly blasted her targets, but only one at a time. Dr. Hadron twitched his lips when the group had amassed the passing points. The look was not quite satisfaction at a job well done, but it meant they could move on to the next step. ¡°Pack up your gear, and meet me downstairs.¡± He headed for the roof door. ¡°We¡¯ll get started on your case.¡± He vanished through the door as Patty shut off her lamp. She found a carrying case with padded insets that looked like it would match the pieces of her weapon. She took the pieces apart with a few twists of her hand. She pulled the cable connectors that held the weapon to the lamp. She put the pieces and cable in the box. She looked up. Jean already had her weapon packed up. Kathy was halfway there. Lin hadn¡¯t been able to do anything but shut the lamp off. Patty walked over. Lin looked up. She blushed slightly. ¡°Let me help you.¡± Patty turned the weapon off so it could be taken apart without discharging. She pulled the cable loose, then broke the weapon down into pieces. She put the pieces in their carrying case. She noticed that a number was inscribed on the lid of the case. It must be the number of the weapon so they knew what they were grabbing to put together if they came under assault from a monster. ¡°Are you okay, Lin?,¡± asked Patty. ¡°You can sit this out if you want.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be okay,¡± said Lin. ¡°I just keep thinking about the risk. The casebook didn¡¯t help.¡± ¡°I know.¡± Patty picked up the case. ¡°Luckily, San Francisco is quieter than other cities. Once we take care of Crenshaw, the next ghost will be easier.¡± ¡°You¡¯re humoring me,¡± said Lin. She took the case. ¡°We both know that¡¯s not true.¡± ¡°I know that you don¡¯t think we have a chance.¡± Patty picked up her own case. The others had gone ahead. ¡°But we do. We can protect the city if it needs it, we can protect the whole state if we have to do that. We can¡¯t do anything if we¡¯re afraid of the future. We can do this. We¡¯ve done worse.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t remember doing anything like this ever.¡± Lin pushed open the roof door so they could go downstairs. ¡°I think that I would.¡± ¡°You saved that guy on the bridge.¡± Patty led the way down. ¡°This is the same thing.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t agree.¡± Lin shook her head. ¡°I didn¡¯t intend to help that man. I acted without thinking and grabbed his shirt before he could jump.¡± ¡°You still saved him.¡± Patty smiled. ¡°You got a commendation from the mayor for bravery.¡± ¡°It was sheer luck, Patty.¡± Lin frowned. ¡°We both ran to stop the guy. I got there first. That was why I got all the credit even though we both tried to help.¡± ¡°This is the same situation.¡± Patty held the door open so they could step into the top hall and ride the elevator down. ¡°We¡¯re going to be helping people who need the kind of help only we can provide.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t like the fact we could get killed instead of leaving things alone.¡± Lin pushed the button for the doors. ¡°It¡¯ll work out.¡± Patty shrugged. ¡°We have to make sure that we¡¯re textbook as much as we can so we can avoid dangerous things happening.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think there¡¯s a textbook that big that could keep those things from coming this way.¡± Lin paused as the doors opened. ¡°Maybe we can divert some of the bad things on other rails.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll protect you as much as I can.¡± Patty smiled. That was an easy promise to make since if something went after Lin, it would probably also be trying to kill her too. The ladies found Dr. Hadron pulling on overalls over his clothes. He zipped the front up as he walked to a van parked in their lot. A blue flame decorated the hood of the vehicle. ¡°I got this second hand.¡± He pulled open the back door. ¡°Place your cases here and we¡¯ll head out.¡± ¡°Do we get overalls too?¡± Jean placed her case in the van. ¡°Yes,¡± said Dr. Hadron. ¡°They should be arriving in a few days. It takes a while for them to put in the kevlar panels I like.¡± ¡°Cool.¡± Jean took the other cases and stored them in the space at the back of the van. ¡°Let¡¯s get going.¡± Dr. Hadron walked to the passenger side of the van and climbed into the shotgun seat. ¡°We¡¯ll want to look the field over before the sun goes down.¡± The ladies piled in, Patty getting behind the wheel. She started the engine. ¡°Where to, Dr. Hadron,¡± said Patty. She glanced in the mirror to make sure the others strapped in before she pulled out of the lot. ¡°Here¡¯s the address.¡± He worked on a GPS and showed her the destination and route. ¡°This is your test case site.¡± ¡°A haunted house?,¡± said Patty. ¡°How hard can that be to clear out?¡± ¡°Depends on how much the ghost wants to stay in place.¡± Hadron leaned back in his chair. ¡°We¡¯ll see how it goes when the chips go down.¡± ¡°This is cool,¡± said Jean. ¡°We might see a real ghost.¡± ¡°We might have to fight it,¡± said Lin. ¡°It could be dangerous.¡± ¡°That¡¯s even better,¡± said Jean. Blue Flames in San Francisco 5 ¡°The first thing on a call is to look at the target structure.¡± Dr. Hadron pulled a hard hat from behind his seat and placed it on his head. ¡°How many exits, where are the exits, who else is in the building with you? Then you can start your survey.¡± The target in question was a squat house in the middle of a row of houses pushed together on the way up a hill. There were no alleys to go down the sides of the place to get to the back. If the ladies wanted to take a look around back there, they would have to go through the place, or go around the block. ¡°Is there anybody home?¡± Kate went to the door, looking up and down the block. Nothing moved on the street as far as she could tell. She rang the bell. ¡°No one is home.¡± Lin didn¡¯t move from the van. ¡°The house is empty.¡± ¡°So we can¡¯t go in.¡± Patty put her hands in her pockets. ¡°We don¡¯t have permission to enter.¡± ¡°We can still look around.¡± Jean pursed her lips. ¡°Let¡¯s look at the back.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll have to walk around the end of the block.¡± Kathy smiled. ¡°Time to get some exercise, ladies.¡± ¡°Jogging?¡± Patty made a face. ¡°I can do without that.¡± ¡°Come on, lazy bones.¡± Kathy jogged down the steps and headed down the hill. ¡°It¡¯s all downhill to the end of the block.¡± ¡°You do need to work out a little, Patty.¡± Jean followed Kathy, running easily in her boots. ¡°I¡¯m walking.¡± Lin suited actions to words, placing her hands in her pockets as she strolled after her friends. ¡°Miss Page?,¡± Dr. Hadron frowned at her. His one eye gleamed slightly in the setting sun. ¡°I¡¯m not walking around to the back of the place.¡± Patty took a bag holding a set of picks from her pocket. She opened up the locks in a few seconds. ¡°Is this legal?,¡± Dr. Hadron almost smiled. ¡°Only if Lin is right.¡± She pushed her way into the row house, pausing on the threshold before moving further inside the house. Dr. Hadron followed quietly. He paused to take in the house before taking the next step and doing a search. Patty stood on the other side of the house, checking things out. ¡°Are you going upstairs?,¡± asked Dr. Hadron. He didn¡¯t move from the welcome rug. ¡°Not yet.¡± Patty moved to the kitchen. ¡°There¡¯s a lot of dust here. No one lives here, do they?¡± ¡°Check the refrigerator.¡± Dr. Hadron crossed his arms. ¡°That usually tells you something about the tenant.¡± ¡°Empty.¡± Patty looked around the open kitchen after closing the refrigerator door. She tried the faucets for the sink. Water didn¡¯t drop into the sink. ¡°All right.¡± Patty brushed her hands together. ¡°We have two exits, plus five windows on the bottom floor. Steps going upstairs. I¡¯m going to say no one lives here.¡± ¡°All right.¡± Dr. Hadron smiled. ¡°I¡¯ll wait down here while you search.¡± Patty walked upstairs. The bedrooms and baths had been stripped of anything from the owner. She put aside the question of why she was searching an empty house. It was a test. There might not be anything horrible in the house at all. She doubted there was nothing there. Dr. Hadron had been all over the city while setting up their new quarters. He probably had already broke in and done his own search of the place. ¡°There¡¯s eight more windows upstairs,¡± Patty said as she walked back down to the ground floor. ¡°Nobody has lived here in a long time. What¡¯s next, Doctor?¡± ¡°You get the scanner and reader to examine the place¡¯s energy output.¡± Dr. Hadron waved her through the door. ¡°Go ahead. The others will be in the back yard in a few minutes.¡± ¡°In the van?,¡± asked Patty. ¡°Yep,¡± said Dr. Hadron. ¡°It¡¯s under my seat.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be right back.¡± Patty headed for the van. Dr. Hadron walked to the back of the living room. He looked out glass sliding doors to the small yard behind the house. A fence blocked his view of yards on either side, and the alley behind the house. Another row of houses stood on the other side of the back fence. Kathy vaulted over the fence. She looked around the yard. She turned and helped Lin over the wooden boards. Jean climbed over with a small amount of grace. Dr. Hadron waved at them from behind the glass doors. They frowned back at him. He opened the glass door. The women walked toward the house. ¡°How did you get in there?¡± Kathy waved at the house. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. ¡°Miss Page didn¡¯t want to take a nature walk.¡± Dr. Hadron stepped aside. ¡°The house is empty, but you might want to familiarize yourselves with the layout in case of trouble.¡± ¡°Are we getting into trouble breaking in?¡± Lin squinted at him. ¡°No, Miss Qi.¡± Dr. Hadron smiled. ¡°No one lives here.¡± ¡°So we didn¡¯t have to climb that fence?¡± Jean crossed her arms. ¡°Nope.¡± Dr. Hadron smiled at her. ¡°You are too young to be so cantankerous,¡± Kathy pursed her lips. ¡°You don¡¯t have to be so uptight all the time.¡± ¡°Thank you for your opinion.¡± Dr. Hadron stepped out in the back yard. He looked around, sniffing the air. ¡°The place is empty.¡± Jean turned around in a circle in the living room. ¡°What kind of ghost would haunt this place?¡± ¡°A level six morph with attendant psychic energy.¡± Dr. Hadron paused to look at a half-empty shallow pool in the middle of yard. ¡°What does that mean?,¡± asked Jean. ¡°It means that we could get killed if the thing shows up and we¡¯re not ready to deal with it.¡± Kathy touched her friend¡¯s shoulder. ¡°I think we need to get our weapons and see if there are more hard hats in the van.¡± ¡°I totally agree with that,¡± said Lin. ¡°I don¡¯t want to be caught without some way to defend myself from anything that shows up.¡± ¡°Hey guys,¡± said Patty. She put down two cases. ¡°It looks like this place might be a bust. No one has lived here in while.¡± ¡°Breaking in, Patty,¡± said Lin. ¡°This could be trouble.¡± ¡°Only if we get killed while we¡¯re looking around.¡± Patty smiled. ¡°Let¡¯s see if there is anything here that needs Lamplighters to deal with before we worry about what the police will do when they catch us here.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± Lin didn¡¯t look that convinced about the logic. ¡°We got the guns.¡± Jean and Kathy plunked the weapon cases down. ¡°Let¡¯s put them together before things get crazy.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have to tell me twice.¡± Lin went to her box and opened it up. She put the small rifle together in a few seconds. She lit the lamp and plugged the weapon into its power source. Patty opened the two boxes she had brought in. One held what looked like a laser distance reader. The other thing was something with a dish and what looked like a smart phone. She took that out of its padding and found a cable to hook the dish to the box. ¡°These two things are the most important equipment you¡¯ll need to use other than the guns.¡± Dr. Hadron came in from the back door. He took the dish and phone from Patty and plugged the pieces together. He pushed the button to turn the device on. ¡°This is a scanner. It looks for activity.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good.¡± Jean made an eyeroll at the explanation. ¡°So the basic energy from this empty house is a one or less.¡± Dr. Hadron pointed the dish at Kathy. ¡°Miss Baker has a three plus. Anything stronger than that will be in the superhuman or metaphysical range.¡± ¡°Sounds reasonable,¡± said Jean. ¡°So what does the other thing do?¡± ¡°Take it out of the box and turn it on.¡± Dr. Hadron handed the scanner to Lin. He smiled slightly. Jean picked the yellow device up and flipped the switch on the side. A small light like a flashlight beam shot out. She waved the thing around. ¡°What is it supposed to do?¡± She frowned at the offending machine. ¡°You put it up to your eye.¡± Dr. Hadron gestured with his hand at the empty socket next to his remaining eye. She put the device to her face, finding a scope to look through. She made a noise as she looked. She pulled the device from her face. ¡°That is not good,¡± she choked out. ¡°What did I see?¡± ¡°It¡¯s the way the world interacts with the past.¡± Dr. Hadron held out his hand. ¡°A lot of people can¡¯t deal with what goes on beside their reality.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t even want to know what that means,¡± said Jean. She handed over the light. ¡°Some things don¡¯t just exist on this part of reality.¡± Dr. Hadron took the light to the back door. ¡°They touch other places too. That¡¯s what creates the reading on the scanner, and what we call turbulence.¡± ¡°So the overlap causes turbulence.¡± Jean shrugged at the other women. ¡°What does that mean for us?¡± ¡°It¡¯s what makes ghosts and evil spirits.¡± Dr. Hadron used the light on the back yard. He made a sound as he looked through the finder. ¡°Miss Qi, please point the scanner out there.¡± Lin did as he requested. The numbers climbed up to a six before leveling off. There was some wiggling, but she decided that six was the number she should have from the screen. ¡°How bad is a six?,¡± she asked before letting the device point at the floor. ¡°It¡¯s doable with you four.¡± Dr. Hadron let the light fall from his face. He thumbed off the switch. ¡°Do you think you can handle it?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± said Kathy. She had her own rifle ready to go. ¡°How long do you think we¡¯ll have to wait before it shows up?¡± ¡°Not long.¡± Dr. Hadron put the view finder back in its case. ¡°Someone is in the house. That should give things a jolt.¡± ¡°It¡¯ll come after us because we just happen to be standing in an abandoned house next to where it lives?¡± Lin put the scanner down on a counter between the kitchen and the open living and dining area. ¡°Yep.¡± Dr. Hadron smiled at her. ¡°Get ready. This should be easy, but things can happen in the middle of a roundup. This is where you guys should talk over what you are going to do when the thing shows up.¡± ¡°Kathy and I will take one side of the room.¡± Patty pointed to where she meant. ¡°Jean and Lin will take the other side. Jean and Kathy are our firepower. We need them to shoot the thing with their weapons. Lin and I will try to keep it in the door with our smaller weapons until the heavy weapons can do what they need to do.¡± ¡°Sounds good.¡± Dr. Hadron retreated to the front door. ¡°Remember to keep an eye on your lamps. You don¡¯t want the ghost to overpower them and blow them up.¡± ¡°Right.¡± Patty put her rifle and lamp together. She nodded when she heard the weapon hum to life. ¡°We can do this. All we have to do is pin it, and then chew it up. How hard could that be?¡± ¡°There are so many ways this can go wrong,¡± said Lin. She took cover behind the kitchen counter. Jean followed her. They used the counter as a rest so they could shoot at the door without worrying about tiring their arms before the thing showed up. ¡°It won¡¯t,¡± said Patty. ¡°We can handle a six. If we can¡¯t, there¡¯s no way we can handle Crenshaw, or anything else that has to be put down.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t quite follow,¡± said Kathy. She shrugged at the look she got. ¡°Just saying.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be afraid.¡± Dr. Hadron stood beside the front door. One of his hands rested on the handle. ¡°Everything will go really smooth.¡± The scanner made a sound like a barking dog and a hissing cat meeting each other in a dark alley. The women glanced at the device before turning their attention back to the door. A mist floated outside, blocking out the setting sun. ¡°That doesn¡¯t look good.¡± Jean took aim at the door. ¡°What do we do if it won¡¯t come inside?¡± ¡°We¡¯ll have to go out there and get it.¡± Patty tried to relax. ¡°We¡¯ll cover one side while you guys cover the other. We should be able to catch it between us and put it down.¡± ¡°We should let one team move up first.¡± Jean looked around to make sure nothing was trying to sneak up on her. ¡°The other team moves up after the first team settles into position.¡± ¡°We¡¯re the first team.¡± Patty walked forward, lamp banging against her leg. ¡°You got the heavy duty firepower.¡± She eased against the wall to look out in the yard. She felt Kathy getting behind her. All they needed was a target. Blue Flames in San Francisco 6 Green mist covered the yard. It seemed thickest around where the pool had been. Maybe something was producing the stuff from the bottom of the hole. Patty doubted it was coming from the bay. ¡°I don¡¯t see anything moving in the fog,¡± said Patty. ¡°Kathy and I will move forward. Jean, get ready to shoot over us. Lin, I¡¯m going to need you to hit anything that Jean misses.¡± ¡°Why are we going out there?,¡± asked Lin. ¡°Can¡¯t we wait for it to come in after us?¡± ¡°It might not.¡± Patty grimaced. ¡°If we can¡¯t take it right now, we might have to come back if we can figure out when it shows up. That might take months. We can¡¯t wait that long. Kathy has the big gun, and I¡¯m a pretty good shot. Once we get it out in the open, you two can wrap things up for us.¡± ¡°It sounds okay,¡± said Jean. ¡°Make sure to duck. I don¡¯t want to kill you by accident.¡± ¡°Good point,¡± said Patty. ¡°Right, or left, Kathy?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll take the right,¡± said Kathy. She gestured at the corner of the yard next to the house. ¡°That will put me in the triangle so Jean can¡¯t shoot me in the back.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Patty. ¡°Let¡¯s do this before I decide to run.¡± Patty ducked around the door. She slid down the wall to the left corner formed by the house and fence. Kathy jogged to the opposite corner, long rifle pointing at the disturbance in the yard. Jean and Lin pushed to the edge of the glass doors, taking a side and bracing against the frames as they waited. Patty looked around. Nothing moved in the yard. She frowned. Something had to happen so they could get to business. She move forward, rifle ready to shoot. She had quick reflexes as far she thought about it. She doubted she was a quick draw like Wild Bill Hickok. She didn¡¯t have to be. She just had to lure the thing out so the others could take care of business. The mist doubled up, cutting into her line of sight. The edges of the fence vanished in the green fog. She decided that what they were trying to take care of was doing it. What did it plan to do now that she was in the yard with it? She realized this was what the scanner and lens were designed to deal with. Too bad they were still in the house. Nothing to do about it now. She had to go with what she had at hand. She paused when she reached a point next to the pool. She couldn¡¯t hear anything in the fog with her. She didn¡¯t like that. Why had the others stopped talking? What did she do to move this forward? Why was nothing happening? Shouldn¡¯t there be a ghost threatening her at the moment? ¡°Do you want to talk?,¡± asked Patty. She looked around. She couldn¡¯t see anything in the fog. ¡°We were wondering why you were producing this green fog?¡± A low growl filled the air around her. She waited. Her rifle felt cold and slick in her hands. She decided that she should have worn gloves because of the sudden sweat in the palms of her hands. Could the others see her? She doubted it. She might have to drop once she started shooting with her pop gun. She didn¡¯t want to get shot in the back. ¡°I just wanted you to know that we¡¯re setting up as Lamplighters,¡± said Patty. ¡°You¡¯re going to have to quit haunting this house and move on to some other spot.¡± Growling answered her words. She looked around. Spots floated in the fog. Was she standing in the middle of a wolf pack? What did she have to do to get out of this? Maybe she should have sent Jean out with her cannon. She smiled. Jean wouldn¡¯t like this. ¡°What comes next?,¡± asked Patty. ¡°I don¡¯t have all night. Dr. Hadron seems to think we should deal with you and move on to the next training exercise. I think you can clear up out of here if you don¡¯t mind.¡± The sparks multiplied as she turned in a circle. It sounded like buzzsaws all around her. She decided that maybe she should retreat. She couldn¡¯t see the house. She decided that it would be good to have a wall to her back. She decided that a wall wouldn¡¯t stop a real ghost, but it would make her feel better while she was defending herself. ¡°This is my last warning.¡± Patty started backing away from the pool. ¡°Don¡¯t make me light you up.¡± Things with too many teeth appeared to match the glowing sparks in the fog. They glared at Patty as they slowly advanced. It was time for food. This one should last for months. A shape emerged from the pool. It was another wolf, but ten times as big. Teeth jutted out of its muzzle the length of Patty¡¯s forearm. Its growl shook the yard as it looked at Patty retreating from the pool. ¡°I guess we can¡¯t be friends.¡± Patty pulled the trigger on her rifle as she backed up from the crowd. The lamp bouncing against Patty¡¯s leg glowed brighter with every shot that connected with a target. The struck pack member vanished partially from the impact. She understood Dr. Hadron¡¯s warning as she backed up. The weapons turned their targets into energy that fed the lamps. Trying to absorb too Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.much would blow the lamps up. She had to get back to the shelter of the house if she wanted to keep working as a Lamplighter. The things were trying to surround her. She couldn¡¯t let them cut her off while she was out in the open. She heard a whine and smiled. Jean was getting into the action. That was good. Maybe the big gun would give her cover to get back to the house. Light streams of blue fire ripped through the green mist. They didn¡¯t seem as bright as Patty¡¯s own, but there were so many of them cutting the air. She backed up as the spray sliced across the yard. The wolf pack rushed the house to cut off the hose. Kathy shot the biggest one with her rifle. The beam lit up the yard as the wolf howled. The pack paused at the sound of pain from their leader. She fired again as the green monster plunged toward her. The blast sucked the wolf into the ether as smoke drifted around the long gun. Patty fired bursts as she broke out of the fading fog. She looked around. The fog was streamers fading away. She shot the pool as she hit the wall. A column of water blasted up from the bowl in the ground. She wiped the sweat off her face with the back of her hand. That hadn¡¯t seemed so tough. She hated having to put down dogs, but she didn¡¯t want to be bit by something resembling Cujo. Kathy smiled as she cradled the rifle in her arms. ¡°You vanished for a few seconds,¡± said Kathy. ¡°We don¡¯t separate during future jobs.¡± ¡°Sounds like a good rule to me,¡± said Patty. She slung her shorter rifle. ¡°Did we get them all?¡± ¡°I hope so.¡± Kathy walked to the back door. ¡°I could feel the snapping of teeth and bad breath when I shot the big dog.¡± ¡°You shot the brain.¡± Patty smiled. ¡°That was a good call.¡± ¡°There¡¯s an aiming lens on the top of the rifle.¡± Kathy indicated the piece of equipment. ¡°It helps screen out some of the weirder stuff so you can shoot at something.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have one of those.¡± Patty sniffed. ¡°Why do you get all the cool toys?¡± ¡°Cause I¡¯m fabulous.¡± Kathy grinned at her friend. ¡°Someone might want to make sure the area is clear.¡± Dr. Hadron stood with his hands behind his back. ¡°We don¡¯t want something attracted by the firefight to try to take up residence now that the old resident is stuffed and cuffed.¡± ¡°I got that.¡± Jean smiled. She grabbed the psychic lens and headed for the door. ¡°I¡¯ll be right back.¡± ¡°Go with her, Lin.¡± Patty smiled. ¡°She might do something reckless without you around to keep her in check.¡± ¡°Keep her in check?,¡± Lin said as she jogged after her friend. ¡°All right, ladies.¡± Dr. Hadron picked up the scanner. ¡°I have to do some readings before we go. You¡¯ll have to write the experience up when we get back to base. I¡¯ll send the reports back to Janie in the morning.¡± Patty unslung her rifle as she followed him into the yard. They had stopped something in the enclosed space. Was it permanently gone? Would they have to keep coming back to deal with the problem? Dr. Hadron pointed the scanner into the pool. He studied the screen with his one eye. He squinted at the reading. ¡°Hold this.¡± He handed the unit to Patty. He pulled a knife from his pocket and opened it. He knelt and probed the bottom of the bowl with the point. He pried up a small emerald out of the concrete. He placed the gem in a small plastic bag and put it into his pocket. He put the knife away. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± Kathy stood behind Patty and Dr. Hadron. She indicated the gem with a finger. ¡°I think it¡¯s the cause of the wolf problem.¡± Dr. Hadron held out his hand for the scanner. He looked at the screen and nodded at the number. ¡°The background radiation is down. It looks like our job is done here.¡± ¡°How did you get onto this, Doc?,¡± said Kathy. One eyebrow was higher than the other as she waited for an explanation. ¡°A friend of mine did surveys for me.¡± Dr. Hadron carried the scanner into the house. ¡°This place was marked out on his readouts as a likely source of energy. The fence helped keep the wolves in, but anyone walking into the yard might have triggered what we saw.¡± ¡°How dangerous were those things?,¡± asked Kathy. ¡°Who knows?,¡± said Dr. Hadron. He put the scanner in its case. ¡°Basic research indicated a lot of pet deaths when residents were here.¡± ¡°So we could have been killed,¡± asked Kathy. ¡°Yep.¡± Dr. Hadron nodded. ¡°Good thing you weren¡¯t. Janie would be mad as a hatter after all the work we did to get you set up.¡± ¡°That would be too bad,¡± said Kathy. ¡°I know.¡± Dr. Hadron walked out of the house with scanner case and empty box in hand. He paused to look for Jean and Lin. ¡°It couldn¡¯t have been that dangerous,¡± Patty said. She looked down at the rifle and lamp. ¡°He didn¡¯t draw a weapon for himself.¡± ¡°Or he¡¯s gone crazy since...,¡± Kathy waved her hand at her face. ¡°You know.¡± Patty nodded. The reports on the last case had been written by Janie Hillsmierer after the fact. Dr. Hadron had been in the hospital, getting over losing his eye and part of his hand. It looked like he had never gotten over losing the eye. She didn¡¯t blame him for trying to scare them off after facing something that could have been extremely dangerous and killed them before they got started. ¡°Let¡¯s stow this gear,¡± Patty said. ¡°We¡¯ll have to write our reports about this and I don¡¯t know what to say.¡± ¡°I know what mine is going to say,¡± said Kathy. ¡°Patricia Page triggered ghost wolves that the rest of us had to shoot for her so she wouldn¡¯t be mauled to death.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think it was like that at all.¡± Patty shrugged. She led the way out of the house. ¡°I think that they were protecting their range, whatever that was.¡± ¡°If you say so,¡± said Kathy. She went back inside to check if the back door was closed before coming back to the front and locking the front up so they could leave. ¡°All right, ladies.¡± Dr. Hadron took the range finder from Jean and packed it up. ¡°You¡¯re carrying a charge from all the ghost energy you drained. If you turn off the lamps, the ghost wolves might escape to go back to hunting.¡± ¡°So what do we do about it?,¡± asked Lin. She looked down at the lamp burning at her hip. ¡°Disconnect the weapons and pack them up.¡± Dr. Hadron gestured with a hand. ¡°Hand over the lamps.¡± The assembled lamps were put in the van. Green fog mixed with the blue flame inside the plastic faces. Dr. Hadron inserted each lamp one at a time into a bigger lamp he had taken from its spot between the front seats. The green fog rushed into the bigger lamp and lit it up. ¡°This lamp gets loaded into the big lamp back at the building.¡± Dr. Hadron locked the lamp down in the van floor. ¡°Never carry ghost energy longer than you have to. If you think you¡¯re going to be on a big job, bring as many of the storage lamps as you think you¡¯ll need and dump your working lamps as often as you can.¡± ¡°Will they overload?,¡± asked Patty. She started taking her weapon apart to be stored. ¡°They¡¯re made to hold one twenty, so you can store a lot of the smaller numbers in one lamp.¡± Dr. Hadron indicated the top of the lamp. ¡°If this strip turns red, don¡¯t put any more ghosts in the storage lamp. Get a new one.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good to know.¡± Jean looked at the house one last time. ¡°Was that it? Will the house be clear from now on?¡± ¡°You¡¯ll have to do a survey later, but I think I have the culprit here.¡± Dr. Hadron showed her the jewel he had dug up. ¡°I have a feeling this was acting as some kind of booster.¡± ¡°So there might be someone behind the wolf pack.¡± Lin grimaced at the thought. ¡°A monster making monsters.¡± Dr. Hadron put the jewel away. ¡°Hopefully you ladies have crimped up his plans.¡± They finished packing up so they could drive home and work on finishing the rest of the duties involved with their job. Blue Flames in San Francisco 7 Patty paused at the stop sign. She looked both ways. The street was empty. Where were the glowing lines that should be there? Shouldn¡¯t she be able to see even a spark? ¡°This survey stuff sucks,¡± said Jean. She had the passenger seat pushed all the way back and the seat back lowered so she was almost lying down. ¡°There should be a faster way to track spooks down than triangulation.¡± ¡°We¡¯re almost done checking things over.¡± Patty smiled. She turned right. ¡°The wolf pack was a good first test. We cracked them in record time.¡± ¡°Hadron hasn¡¯t figured out how that rock works.¡± Jean pulled her shades down to cover her eyes so she could drowse in her seat when they weren¡¯t talking. ¡°I¡¯m glad he put it in a lamp in the vault. Who knows what would happen if it wasn¡¯t kept away from air.¡± ¡°It would probably put another pack out in the middle of the building.¡± Patty slowed as she inspected the street. Nothing stood out to her. ¡°At least we don¡¯t have any other ghosts secured yet.¡± Jean turned her face to the door. ¡°They might band together to take us on.¡± ¡°Do you think Dr. Hadron is right?¡± Patty paused at the next stop sign. ¡°Do you think we can beat Crenshaw?¡± ¡°We have to get to one of his targets before he can evaporate.¡± Jean shrugged. ¡°He doesn¡¯t need a base, or transportation. That limits the way we can do things.¡± ¡°These surveys don¡¯t seem that useful.¡± Patty turned left. She was working her way down towards the water. Crenshaw had hit several places along the waterfront. That seemed natural since he was a pirate. The scanner buzzed in the back seat. Patty pulled to the curb to look at the reading. She frowned at the six on the screen. Crenshaw was rated an eight. This couldn¡¯t be him. She looked around. They were in a small part of the city dealing with jewelry and money. One of the stores was named the Pearl. ¡°Let me have the range finder, Jean,¡± said Patty. She held out her hand for the device. ¡°We have something we should check before we move on.¡± She took the lens and stepped out of the car. She looked through the device and smiled. The strange lines and mist didn¡¯t bother her. She spotted a shark fin cutting the air before sinking out of sight as if it was submerging in water. Patty nodded. This could be the place. Patty held the lens to her eye again. Lines of force flowed along the street. Some of it washed against the stores and their doors. The lines turned away from places that looked shoddy and unkept. She decided that was Feng Shui in action. She didn¡¯t know how to help the ailing businesses. That was out of her hands. She had to worry about the one store that Crenshaw might have interest in. She handed the lens back and went to the hatch on the back of her car. She opened it and extracted her work overall. She slipped that on, glad she had worn her tennis shoes instead of the slippers she preferred. ¡°What are you doing?,¡± asked Jean from the front seat. She straightened her seat and looked through the car at her friend. ¡°Are you getting your gun?¡± ¡°This is the place,¡± said Patty. She opened the case holding her rifle. She opened the case for the lamp. ¡°Call the others and tell them to come over here.¡± ¡°Are you sure?,¡± asked Jean. She got out of the car. ¡°Why here?¡± ¡°Because it¡¯s a pearl.¡± Patty smiled. She put the rifle together with minimum effort. She plugged it into the lamp, and lit the flame. Blue fire danced in the cylinder. ¡°We need those hard hats Dr. Hadron promised.¡± ¡°Are we really going to set up an ambush at this place?,¡± said Jean. She pointed to the small shop. ¡°Yes,¡± said Patty. She slung the rifle so she had free use of her hands. ¡°Please call the others. Crenshaw might show up at any time.¡± ¡°Let me change first.¡± Jean pulled her folded overall out and put it on. She opened her weapon case and twisted the pieces together. She hooked the multiple barrel weapon to its lamp and draped the sling over her shoulder. She hung the lamp from her waist before pulling on gloves. ¡°The Pearl?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± said Patty. ¡°He might not show up today, but he¡¯s coming. His sharks are in the air.¡± ¡°Sharks.¡± Jean pulled out her phone. ¡°What is it with pirates and sharks?¡± Patty shrugged. She closed the hatch on her car and shut the doors. She walked across the street to the store. She doubted that professional courtesy was involved in any personal relationships. She inspected the outside of the store before going in. If they missed Crenshaw, If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.maybe the type of building was a clue in where he was picking his attacks. Was he going after particular places by anything other than the loot they held? The flow she had noted might be what he was using to make his selection. She noted the Pearl had bars over the doors and windows. She pulled on the door. It was locked to keep people like her out of the building. She rang a doorbell to be let in. The manager might not want to listen to her. The best she could do was warn him. If Crenshaw attacked, normal people didn¡¯t have a chance against him. His sharks ripped things in half with their bites. The door buzzed to let Patty in. She stepped inside and looked around. The two men looked at her with the sure knowledge that they weren¡¯t going to sell this woman anything from the cases. ¡°Hi, I¡¯m Patty Page.¡± She smiled to put them at their ease. ¡°I¡¯m a new hire for the Lamplighters. We¡¯re trying to find the Shark Thief and I think your place is the perfect place for him to strike.¡± The explanation didn¡¯t improve the two men¡¯s expressions. They frowned at her in silence for several seconds. ¡°I know it sounds incredible.¡± Patty frowned. How did she break through to them? ¡°I think you¡¯re going to be hit next.¡± ¡°I think we should call the police, Phil,¡± said one of the suits. ¡°That should keep our shop safe.¡± Phil reached for the company phone on the counter. Patty frowned. They were calling the police on her. How did she change their minds? The buzzer went off. Jean stood outside, waving the scanner. She pointed at the screen. She indicated her rifle next. ¡°Gentlemen, you might want to go in the back.¡± Patty unslung her rifle. ¡°Crenshaw is coming.¡± Mist crept across the jewelry store floor. It seemed to be seeping from under the front door. Fins appeared in the air as the three humans watched. ¡°Get out!¡± Patty rushed to the front door. She pushed it open to let Jean into the store. ¡°Kathy and Lin are on the way.¡± Jean pointed her cannon at the mist. ¡°How do you want to handle this?¡± ¡°We got to get Crenshaw out of here without wrecking the place.¡± Patty frowned as more and more fins appeared in the mist. ¡°The place is too small for a fight.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s see what happens when I open up.¡± Jean sprayed small streams of blue fire into the green cloud. Some of it dispersed under the fire. ¡°Not much.¡± ¡°We have to wait for Crenshaw to show up.¡± Patty fired into the cloud to punch a hole for her to move through. ¡°Take cover behind the counters.¡± Jean jogged to the closest counter and hopped over the top without breaking the glass top. She dropped on the other side and ducked down. She kept her cannon on the cloud as she waited. Patty pushed through the opening in the counters to get to the other side. She let the lid slam down while waving the employees out of the way. She didn¡¯t have time to make them believe now. ¡°The scanner¡¯s going crazy, Patty.¡± Jean put the box away. ¡°It won¡¯t be long.¡± ¡°We just have to keep him busy until the others get here.¡± Patty frowned. The sound of the sea hitting the beach drifted to her ears. ¡°Aim for the sharks. We don¡¯t want them thrashing around in here and wrecking things.¡± ¡°Got it.¡± Jean took aim with her cannon. One trigger pull would spin the wheel of destruction into the cloud. Crenshaw appeared on the back of a shark. His out of date clothes were made from streamers of fog wrapping around his skeletal frame. Wild hair was forced back from his face by a bandana. Parts of flesh hung on to the skull as he looked around the room, laughing loudly. Sharks formed around him, swimming in the air. Giant chompers gnashed as tails brushed against the counter tops. ¡°Take everything,¡± ordered Crenshaw, pointing at the counters with his sword. ¡°The trove demands more tribute.¡± ¡°Take this.¡± Patty blasted away with her blue flame, hoping the counter would protect her. Jean opened up with her own weapon from across the room. The crossfire sliced through the swarming sharks, dragging parts of them into storage as the fire swept through the sales area. Crenshaw laughed as he ducked away from the trail of fire. He dropped from the back of the shark as it went up in mist and smoke. ¡°Lady Lamplighters?¡± The pirate couldn¡¯t stop smiling. ¡°You should know better than to try to get in my way.¡± Patty fired at him as Jean worked her way through the sharks. Once he was in the box, the rest would break up. Then his spree would be over until he broke out again. Crenshaw waved his sword. The sharks started taking bites out of the counters, charging the two Lamplighters for a piece of them. Patty dove to the floor as a ghost fish ripped through the counter above her. Jean backed up, firing into the ghosts. They forked around her as the blue flame ate at them. ¡°Hadron should have known better to send amateurs after me.¡± Crenshaw advanced on the counter that had been butchered by his minions. He shook his head. ¡°I think I¡¯ll give you something to remember me by.¡± Patty rolled out of the way as his sword punched into the concrete floor. She blasted him with the rifle at point blank range. Part of the pirate vanished under the blue flame. He fell back from the blast with a howl. Jean ducked around the frenzied sharks to fire her cannon at the pirate. The flames ate at the ghost as she smiled. The guy was going down on their first fight. It didn¡¯t get better than that. Crenshaw threw himself through the window of the store. He looked down at his fading body. He shook his sword at the women before calling a shark to carry him off. ¡°He¡¯s getting away with the loot.¡± Patty blasted at the sharks to clear them out of the way as she rushed to the door. ¡°We have to stop him.¡± Jean followed, firing to clear some of the beasts out of her way. She stopped when she was directly behind Patty. She joined the other woman on the street. Crenshaw faded from sight, shaking his fist at his new enemies as he went. The sharks followed him. As the last tail vanished, the fog evaporated into the open air. ¡°We had him, and he got away.¡± Patty gritted her teeth as she tried to get her emotions under control. ¡°Not all of him,¡± said Jean. ¡°Some of him and his fish are in the lamps.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t do us any good if we can¡¯t use it to track him down.¡± Patty slung her rifle. ¡°We screwed up. We had surprise on our side and he still got away with the jewels and gold.¡± ¡°But he didn¡¯t kill anybody this time.¡± Jean shook her head. ¡°That has to be more important than goods.¡± ¡°He¡¯s a ghost.¡± Patty frowned. ¡°What does he want with that stuff anyway?¡± ¡°We¡¯ll ask the Doc when we get back home.¡± Jean brushed back her short hair with a gloved hand. ¡°We don¡¯t know how much of a kink we put in his plans, but at least we know we can chase him off.¡± ¡°Unless we trap him for good, or find out where he¡¯s buried, he can keep coming back.¡± Patty walked to her car. She opened up the hatch. ¡°We need to do better the next time we run into him.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re not giving up?¡± Jean smiled. ¡°Heck no.¡± Blue Flames in San Francisco 8 The four recruits assembled in the conference room set up in the Lamplighter building. Dr. Hadron had already taken the head of the table. He had a tool kit and a jumble of parts in front of him. The police had held Patty and Jean for a few hours over the destruction of The Pearl jewelry store. They had finally let the women go after reviewing the video tape from the store¡¯s camera. The standard warning not to leave town had been applied. Patty had fumed over the delay, but she didn¡¯t have a next move. At least the scanner and lens finder had worked. They just had to be close enough to target before they could confront Crenshaw and his sharks. ¡°What did we learn?¡± Dr. Hadron slipped a memory card in place before applying a welder to another part of the thing he was working on. ¡°Crenshaw¡¯s sharks have to go,¡± said Jean. ¡°They draw fire, get in the way when we shoot at him, provide him transport, and can bite through brick.¡± ¡°They divert the blue flame.¡± Patty slumped in her chair. She brushed her brown hair back from her ear. ¡°If we shoot at him, he spreads the flame out to the sharks.¡± ¡°So what do we do now?,¡± asked Dr. Hadron. He started putting the pieces of his work together carefully as he waited for his employees to suggest things. Three of the women looked at the dejected Patty. She looked back without a clue. She paused before speaking. What could they do against Crenshaw? ¡°Let me get a drink from the fridge.¡± Patty stood. ¡°You guys want something?¡± The group no caused her to nod before she left the room. ¡°That lens worked great.¡± Jean smiled. ¡°Patty said shark fins were in the air before Crenshaw attacked.¡± ¡°Riding the ether.¡± Dr. Hadron nodded. ¡°The city is full of energy. Spirits and certain types of monsters can use it to move invisibly along the lines. Some of them use dead end pools to feed themselves on negative emotion. The more turbulence between positive and negative, the more things can materialize in our world.¡± ¡°How does that apply to Crenshaw?,¡± asked Kathy. ¡°He¡¯s using these lines to surf across the city?¡± ¡°And as cover.¡± Lin looked down at her small hands. ¡°As long as he is inside the dragon lines, we can¡¯t get at him, and he can¡¯t affect the real world.¡± ¡°So we have to catch him in the real world, without the sharks.¡± Kathy made an eye roll. ¡°That sounds like a tough row to hoe.¡± ¡°If we catch him on the ground, he already knows he can roll over any two of us pretty easily,¡± said Jean. ¡°The Gatling chewed his guys up, but they still kept coming.¡± ¡°So we have to upgrade our weapons, find Crenshaw, catch him in the act.¡± Dr. Hadron closed his one eye as he considered. He had hoped his employees would come up with a scheme on their own. He wouldn¡¯t be there to hold their hands forever. He had his own ghosts to fry in New York. ¡°Can you get us a helicopter?,¡± said Patty from the doorway. She sipped from a can of orange Kickstart. ¡°I have an idea we can use to get things done.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the idea?,¡± asked Dr. Hadron. His fingers packed up his tool kit. ¡°The lens finders and scanners will show us where the sharks are.¡± Patty sipped her drink. ¡°The helicopter will let us search the city so we can track him down faster than driving across the city in our cars.¡± ¡°How do we catch him?,¡± asked Lin. ¡°He¡¯s stood up to our weapons.¡± ¡°He¡¯s only stood up to two of us.¡± Patty finished her drink. ¡°Not all of us. We need concentrated fire on the sharks while the rest goes into Crenshaw.¡± ¡°How many sharks are we talking about here?,¡± asked Kathy. ¡°He might be able to overwhelm the lamps if he can pull up more ghost minions than we can safely drain off.¡± ¡°We need a way to hold as many of the sharks as we can, which means bigger lamps than the ones that go with the weapons we carry now,¡± said Patty. The idea had seemed workable when the first drop of energy had hit her brain. ¡°We can rig extra storage capacity in our storage lamps.¡± Dr. Hadron folded his hands together. ¡°Then all we have to do is put Crenshaw in one of them.¡± ¡°Scanners and lenses?,¡± asked Patty. ¡°They can be tweaked for range.¡± Dr. Hadron nodded. ¡°We still won¡¯t be able to attack Crenshaw while he is in the line.¡± ¡°We don¡¯t need to.¡± Patty smiled. ¡°We just have to all be there when he does attack which we will from the scanners. The helicopter will allow us to patrol and watch the lines from the air. The only obstacle I see is how do we get down once we see a robbery happening.¡± ¡°The helicopter will have to be able to land unless you ladies know how to rappel from anchor points.¡± Dr. Hadron looked around. Kathy smiled at him. ¡°Of course you Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.know how to rappel.¡± ¡°Top of the class,¡± Kathy said. ¡°Let¡¯s take another look at where he hit and what he took,¡± said Patty. ¡°That will help narrow down the targets.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Dr. Hadron. ¡°Anything else?¡± ¡°Can the weapons be tweaked like the scanners?,¡± asked Patty. ¡°The carbine didn¡¯t do that much.¡± ¡°Miss Lopez and I will work on that.¡± Dr. Hadron stood. ¡°She¡¯s going to need to be able to do that when I¡¯m not around to show you how it¡¯s done.¡± ¡°I guess the three of us will hit the Internet and see what we can do to predict where Crenshaw will hit next.¡± Patty shrugged. ¡°I need another Kickstart.¡± ¡°Where would I go if I was a dead pirate?,¡± said Kathy. She stood. ¡°Maybe I would head upstate, or across the line into Oregon.¡± ¡°Really?,¡± said Lin as she stood. ¡°Why?¡± ¡°So I can enjoy the surf,¡± said Kathy. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± Patty smiled as she headed for their workspace. Computers had been set up for them to use for research. She doubted they would stumble over something useful, but it was better than doing nothing while they waited for Jean and Dr. Hadron to get done. ¡°We need a white board.¡± Kathy indicated the clear wall. ¡°That way we can write something down for everyone to look at while we¡¯re working on a case.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll get us one.¡± Patty nodded. ¡°Maybe we can rig up a big television so we can put our monitor stuff on the big screen.¡± ¡°That would be great for movie night.¡± Kathy turned her computer on. ¡°That would be better than the tiny television I have at home.¡± ¡°I could work on courses from here.¡± Lin almost smiled. She flipped the switch for her station. ¡°I could get my license.¡± ¡°I could look at dirty pictures,¡± said Patty. She turned her on desktop on. ¡°Unfortunately we have to stop our marauder before he does something permanent to some bystander in his way.¡± ¡°He wrecked that place good,¡± said Kathy. ¡°You guys did something good to run the guy off.¡± ¡°We lucked out.¡± Patty shook her head. ¡°At least Jean blew some of the sharks up with her cannon.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Lin. ¡°The newspaper has a list of places Crenshaw hit. Some of them deal with exotic jewelry from the descriptions.¡± ¡°How exotic?¡± Patty searched for The Pearl. How unique was the shop? ¡°They claim to deal with material from the ocean.¡± Lin frowned at the screen. ¡°Gold and silver are recovered from the Pacific and refashioned into new jewelry.¡± ¡°Sounds like a scam to me,¡± said Kathy. ¡°The Pearl¡¯s web site says they specialize in pearls and sea stones,¡± said Patty. ¡°Crenshaw is hitting places that are dealing in things from the ocean.¡± ¡°How many stores are left?,¡± asked Kathy. ¡°That might be just what we need to set our trap.¡± ¡°Three here in the city, then other branches in other cities.¡± Lin rubbed an eyebrow with her finger. ¡°This is a pretty niche thing right now.¡± ¡°This reminds me of the animal smuggling ring busted by the Mark Girls.¡± Kathy leaned back in her chair. ¡°Remember, those goofs were bringing in giant otters as pets.¡± ¡°Then they went on a rampage.¡± Patty nodded. ¡°Is Crenshaw robbing places to find something pulled up from the sea? It¡¯ll be hard to prove with his record.¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter, Patty,¡± said Kathy. ¡°He tried to kill you and Jean. He has to pay for that.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s have those three shops.¡± Patty walked over to Lin¡¯s machine. ¡°He¡¯s going to hit one in the next few days. We have to be ready to take him when he does.¡± ¡°Do you think we can?,¡± asked Lin. ¡°Yes, we can.¡± Patty smiled. ¡°We just need an edge.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s see if Jean and the Doc have our guns ready to go,¡± said Kathy. ¡°We¡¯ll need them to handle our business.¡± ¡°You¡¯re right.¡± Patty shut down her station. ¡°Let¡¯s get this done.¡± Kathy and Lin exchanged a look. They followed Patty from the room. They went down to the shop quietly. Dr. Hadron and Jean had their things in pieces on the work tables. ¡°We think he¡¯s going to hit one of these three places.¡± Patty held up the folded piece of paper. ¡°How long do you think we have?¡± ¡°At least until dawn.¡± Dr. Hadron twisted a screw in place. ¡°That¡¯s when the lines will surge.¡± ¡°That¡¯s when he can come back to reality?,¡± asked Kathy. ¡°The lines will lend him enough to manifest.¡± Dr. Hadron put the carbine back together with short moves. ¡°The extent of his power will be impossible to gauge until we put a scanner on him.¡± ¡°We¡¯ve added bigger gauges to the barrels.¡± Jean smiled. ¡°Once we light Crenshaw up, he will have holes punched through him as big as watermelons.¡± ¡°What about the sharks?,¡± asked Lin. She didn¡¯t seem enamored of the bigger cannons. ¡°They¡¯ll fry,¡± said Jean. She tapped her baby with one hand. ¡°They¡¯ll blow up on contact.¡± ¡°The problem is how much can Crenshaw divert to the sharks to keep from being drained and imprisoned.¡± Dr. Hadron fitted a new electronic piece to Kathy¡¯s long gun. He weighed it with his hands. ¡°He¡¯s learned some new tricks since we put him down.¡± ¡°How did you catch him the last time?,¡± asked Lin. ¡°We set up and caught him in a crossfire,¡± said Dr. Hadron. ¡°Dyson had an experimental grenade launcher that ripped Crenshaw apart. We burned him before he got away from being blown up.¡± ¡°No idea how he got out on the street?,¡± asked Kathy. The question implied the Lamplighters had not been as thorough as they had thought. ¡°No,¡± said Dr. Hadron. ¡°We think he is able to use the lines to resurrect himself when he is captured.¡± ¡°That means he can get away from us if we stop him,¡± said Lin. ¡°I don¡¯t like that at all.¡± ¡°How long between resurrections?,¡± asked Patty. ¡°Five, six years,¡± said Dr. Hadron. ¡°If we knew where he had died, we could do something to get his bones and bless them.¡± ¡°You think that will do anything?,¡± asked Jean. ¡°The guy likes siccing his pets on people.¡± ¡°It¡¯s the best shot at stopping him for good instead of throwing him in a jail he can get out of when the stars are right.¡± Dr. Hadron put the next weapon together with practiced ease. ¡°But that is out of our reach,¡± said Patty. ¡°We have to concentrate on what we can do here in the city. Maybe we can ask Dr. Craft to search for Crenshaw¡¯s bones with his Robot Rangers.¡± ¡°Stan would like a challenge.¡± Dr. Hadron almost smiled. ¡°Finding a wreck in the middle of the Atlantic would suit his sense of history.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s test these babies and see how they do.¡± Jean put her own weapon together. ¡°We want to make sure they don¡¯t blow up when we go to work.¡± ¡°They won¡¯t,¡± said Dr. Hadron. ¡°The lamps will blow up before the rifles.¡± ¡°We need to work on the storage lamps next.¡± Jean slung her Gatling. ¡°That will be easier than adjusting the rifles.¡± Dr. Hadron picked up a square carbine and slung it over his shoulder. The group grabbed lamps and headed for the range on the roof. They plugged the weapons into the lamps and the range computer. Dr. Hadron hit the switch. Patty jumped out ahead, but Dr. Hadron was right behind her snapping off shots with ease. The others chased after them. The range computer dinged rapidly as they reached the three hundred mark. ¡°That¡¯s a lot better than the first time you guys tried out.¡± Dr. Hadron unplugged his carbine from its lamp. ¡°Let me work on the storage lamps, then we can set up on those stores.¡± ¡°We won¡¯t be able to get a helicopter, will we?,¡± asked Jean. ¡°Nope.¡± Dr. Hadron shrugged. ¡°We¡¯ll have to come up with something else.¡± Blue Flames in San Francisco 9 ¡°We should be at Fluke¡¯s,¡± said Patty as she drummed her fingers on the dashboard of Kathy¡¯s Chevy. ¡°Crenshaw isn¡¯t going to attack here.¡± ¡°How do you know that?,¡± asked Kathy. ¡°We have a one in three chance of being in the right place.¡± ¡°He¡¯s going after Fluke¡¯s.¡± Patty shook her head. ¡°And Dr. Hadron snatched that up from us.¡± ¡°So you think Crenshaw is going to hit Fluke¡¯s?¡± Kathy raised an eyebrow. ¡°If you want, we can drive over an check on the old man to make sure he¡¯s okay.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s do that.¡± Patty frowned. ¡°I know I¡¯m right. I can feel it.¡± ¡°He¡¯s going to be mad if Crenshaw hits this place while we¡¯re driving across town.¡± Kathy started the engine. She pulled away from the curb and joined the push of traffic. ¡°The air is too clear.¡± Patty waved her hand. ¡°He¡¯s not hitting here. Not today.¡± ¡°If he were hitting, you would see something?¡± Kathy went around a slower moving truck. She wanted a light to put on her dashboard. That would help clear traffic out of her way. ¡°The air gets foggy.¡± Patty frowned. ¡°There¡¯s a wind effect.¡± ¡°I think you should tell Jean and Lin in case we need them.¡± Kathy turned right and paused the car at an elderly woman in the road. She started driving as soon as the woman followed her walker out of the way. ¡°You¡¯re right.¡± Patty pulled out her phone. ¡°If we can get them moving now, they¡¯ll be in time to back us up.¡± ¡°If Crenshaw doesn¡¯t hit either one of our locations while we¡¯re following feelings.¡± Kathy sped up to get through a hole left by slower moving automobiles. ¡°I would have felt better if we could have gotten something faster than cars,¡± said Patty as she triggered the call function. ¡°Go ahead,¡± said Jean. She sounded bored. ¡°We¡¯re heading over to the Fluke¡¯s,¡± said Patty. ¡°Anything going on at your spot?¡± ¡°We¡¯re clear.¡± Jean didn¡¯t sound bored now. ¡°I don¡¯t see a cloud in the ether.¡± ¡°Hook up with us at the Fluke.¡± Patty brushed hair out of her face. ¡°I think that¡¯s where Crenshaw will attack.¡± ¡°All right.¡± Jean didn¡¯t say anything else before the line went dead. ¡°I have shark.¡± Dr. Hadron¡¯s voice broke in over their phones. ¡°I have one shark fin.¡± ¡°Okay, so your feeling was right.¡± Kathy poured on the gas, cutting traffic off as she blew through lights. ¡°I need a siren for this.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t kill us.¡± Patty reached behind her. She grabbed her carbine and lamp. She plugged the weapon in as the buildings flew by in a blur. ¡°Get mine ready.¡± Kathy caused a lot of horn blowing as she sliced around a slower moving van. ¡°I need to be ready to go.¡± ¡°Got it.¡± Patty pulled the long gun out of the back and plugged it into its own lamp. The ready light on top turned green. Sirens warned them that the police were not happy with their speeding. Kathy glanced in the mirror. She shook her head. ¡°Don¡¯t stop,¡± said Patty. ¡°We don¡¯t have time to explain things.¡± ¡°We¡¯re going to have to do something,¡± said Kathy. ¡°They¡¯ll try to pit us eventually.¡± ¡°Let me call Jean.¡± Patty pushed the contact button. ¡°If we stop, we have to make sure someone is helping Dr. Hadron.¡± ¡°It won¡¯t matter if we can drive three blocks.¡± Kathy pointed. Blue flames lit the sky. ¡°That¡¯s our doc.¡± ¡°We¡¯re almost there, Jean.¡± Patty looked at the trails of flame. ¡°Where are you?¡± ¡°About a mile out.¡± Jean sounded strained. ¡°We¡¯ve hit a traffic jam. Lin is looking This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.for another way around on her phone.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll try to hold him until you get there.¡± Patty hung up. ¡°It looks like we¡¯re on our own.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s see what we can do.¡± Kathy veered into an alley, cut across a lot, and slid around a car double parked on the street. She turned right and hit her brakes. ¡°We¡¯re here.¡± ¡°This is bad.¡± Patty jumped out of the car. She slung her carbine over her shoulder so she wouldn¡¯t lose it. The lamp hung from her belt on a carabiner. Its blue fire danced fitfully. Kathy got out the other side, dragging her weapon with her. She hung her lamp on her belt as she looked at the scene. ¡°This is kind of worse than I thought it would be.¡± She raised her rifle. ¡°It¡¯s been nice knowing you.¡± ¡°We¡¯re winning this.¡± Patty raised her rifle. ¡°Shoot the sharks.¡± ¡°No problem.¡± Kathy smiled as she cut loose at the school of glowing green fish. Some of the ghosts, the smaller ones, popped like bubbles under the surprise onslaught. Patty took a moment, looking for the right thing to shoot. The company van sat across the street from Fluke¡¯s. Various cars hugged the curb on both sides, giving cover for both sides at the start. The front of the store was missing some of its brick and glass. The van had holes chewed in it. Dr. Hadron blasted away while he used the driver door as a partial shield. Pedestrians fled in all directions. Crenshaw hovered over the battlefield on the back of a shark, directing his minions with his sword. He laughed at his enemy¡¯s certain doom. The laughter stopped when Kathy started shooting. He turned to glare at the two women. He could still fight on two sides. Patty shot him in the head. She barely had to aim before she pulled the switch. The ghost lit up like a cartoon electrical shock gag before he hit the ground in a cloud of smoke. ¡°Keep shooting the sharks.¡± Patty blasted two aiming for her before they could try to veer away from her blasts. ¡°We have to make sure he can¡¯t gain strength from them, or spread the damage around so he can keep fighting.¡± ¡°Got it.¡± Kathy shot through a cascade, bagging a few with that one blow. Her lamp ticked a little to indicate it was getting full. She might have to dump it in the middle of the fight if she kept blowing up her enemies. She hoped she didn¡¯t lose her car over this. The sharks would try to bite through the metal and plastic to get at her. She didn¡¯t plan to let that happen. Patty stepped forward, shooting holes through any of the sharks in her way. Some of the bystander cars suffered wounds as the fish reacted in a frenzy. Some of them turned on her with empty eye sockets. She kept firing to give them something to chew on. Dr. Hadron kept to the van. Every shot cleared a phantom away from him. He reached into the van and pulled out a set of eight storage lamps with one hand. He put that on the ground as he waited for the right chance to drop Crenshaw. ¡°I¡¯m tired of you meddlers.¡± Crenshaw stood. He grimaced as he floated off the ground. ¡°You should have stayed in New York, Hadron. It¡¯s time for you to join your friends.¡± ¡°You¡¯re going to have to deal with me first,¡± said Patty. She shot at him, but one of the sharks dove in front of the bolt. It kept flying, but there was a hole through it. ¡°I don¡¯t see why not.¡± Crenshaw pointed his sword at her. ¡°Have at her.¡± All the sharks turned to face Patty as they cruised through the air. Rotten teeth revealed themselves. They swarmed in with mouths wide open. Patty backed up, firing as she went. Holes appeared in the ghosts as they came on. She was going to get her head bitten off. She could see it. Maybe she shouldn¡¯t have persuaded the others to help her get the real Lamplighters involved. Dr. Hadron fired from the side, punching hole after hole, busting smaller fish. He hefted the lamps in one hand as he walked over. His other hand held his weapon and pushed the activating button without too much trouble. Kathy fired from the cover of her car. She wasn¡¯t leaving it to be chewed up by Crenshaw¡¯s fishes. She still had a year¡¯s worth of payments on it. Sirens preceded the appearance of four of San Francisco¡¯s finest. They got out of their cars with guns drawn. They looked at the flying sharks and took cover. Some of the sharks broke off and smashed through the light bars and roofs of the police cars. One of the policemen stared at the damage and burst into screaming expletives in the air. He turned and shot at the sharks with bullets. Nothing happened except one of his targets turning to do a charging bite on his head. Kathy blasted it with a half turn and trigger pull. ¡°Get out of here!¡± Kathy waved her hand at them. ¡°Go write tickets.¡± A SUV arrived at the other end of the street. Jean jumped out from behind the steering wheel. She turned. Lin handed her the multiple barrel device she had picked as her weapon. Blue flames cut through the air. Lin dropped down behind her. She grabbed her own carbine and shot at any shark that came close. Their surprise appearance cut a swath through the school. Crenshaw grabbed one of his sharks by the dorsal fin. It carried him along. He whistled for the rest of his monsters to join him in retreat. ¡°You don¡¯t get to walk away.¡± Patty shot his ride until it found itself confined in her lamp. ¡°I¡¯m done chasing your dead butt around the city.¡± She walked forward. Blue flames drove the sharks away from her as she advanced. Crenshaw jumped to his feet with his sword in hand. He stabbed at her as she pulled the switch on her blaster. His sword broke into pieces as the fire ate at his body. Patty ignored the sharks around her. They weren¡¯t important. Their leader was. He had to go to stop the damage they caused incidentally to their robberies. She poured on the blue flame, soaking him in it. Other streams of blue energy joined Patty¡¯s. They ripped Crenshaw into pieces as he was converted into psychic energy and captured in the various lamps. He screamed as he went. The green fog lightened as the Lamplighters readied to deal with the remaining sharks. The glowing fish slipped out of sight, becoming one with the ether. The mist boiled away. ¡°Which one of you want to explain this to the cops?¡± Dr. Hadron gestured at the policemen still hiding behind their police cars. ¡°I¡¯ll do it.¡± Patty slung her rifle. ¡°How hard can it be?¡± Blue Flames in San Francisco 10 Patty sat in her room at the office. She looked out the window. A picture of her husband, Kevin, sat on the sill. She supposed she should get dressed and get something to eat. She decided it was better not to move. Eating didn¡¯t seem that important right then. Someone knocked on the door. She didn¡¯t look at it. Maybe the knocker would go away. ¡°Miss Page?¡± Dr. Hadron¡¯s voice pierced the door. ¡°Can we talk for a moment?¡± Patty frowned at the door. She pulled her light blanket around her and walked to the door. She cracked it so she could look out at her employer. ¡°Yes, Dr. Hadron?¡± She noted he was wearing the business casual he affected when he wasn¡¯t working on something. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± ¡°I just wanted to let you know I¡¯m heading out.¡± Dr. Hadron¡¯s lip twitched in what might have been a smile. ¡°I¡¯m handing everything over to you.¡± ¡°Hold on.¡± Patty pulled her blanket tighter. ¡°You can¡¯t do that. You¡¯re the boss. I¡¯m not really a boss type person. I¡¯m more of a background person.¡± ¡°You led the others to New York, you picked out where Crenshaw was going to strike twice, and you kept the police from throwing us in jail, as well as handling the D.A. and court.¡± Dr. Hadron indicated his points with the fingers of his holed hand. ¡°And you¡¯re the one the others look up to to keep them out of trouble.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think I can do it.¡± Patty frowned. ¡°Your backing and weapons did most of the work. The others did the rest. Mostly I loafed around and stayed out of the way.¡± ¡°You¡¯re the leader, Miss Page,¡± said Dr. Hadron. ¡°Your friends won¡¯t follow anyone else. Without a crew, this office space will be for nothing. And I have other jobs to look at. I can¡¯t stick around to hold your hand. You wanted to stop Crenshaw. Now it¡¯s time for you to stop anything else bumping in the night.¡± ¡°I guess so.¡± Patty rubbed her nose. ¡°Are you leaving now? The others are out celebrating not being in jail. Don¡¯t you want to wait for them to come back?¡± ¡°No,¡± said Dr. Hadron. ¡°You might want to hire an office manager to help file your reports. Janie will keep an eye on the finances from her end. Any equipment problems that Jean can¡¯t solve, just call me on the lab computer.¡± ¡°Let me get changed. I¡¯ll drive you to the airport.¡± Patty closed the door. She exchanged her lounge around sweats for jeans and a flannel shirt. She pulled on her jacket. Running shoes were last. ¡°Do you really think the city will give us a license?,¡± asked Patty. ¡°We already have a license.¡± Dr. Hadron picked up his carry on. ¡°They just don¡¯t want us to break traffic laws again from what I read. You did a good job talking them down.¡± ¡°Kevin¡¯s friend is a lawyer,¡± said Patty. ¡°He did the negotiating. The city wanted us to work for free. Jerry got them to agree to a steady retainer and some tax breaks. I sent Janie the paperwork for her to look at and sign.¡± ¡°Never do anything for free,¡± said Dr. Hadron. ¡°They¡¯ll want you to take care of anything that closely resembled haunting.¡± ¡°You¡¯re going to need help in New York.¡± Patty led the way to the elevator. ¡°How long do you think you have?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Dr. Hadron pushed the call button. ¡°A couple of years, maybe. Right now the turbulence is slow and steady. Ghosts and monsters will start appearing in mass, then whatever is behind it will show up. I expect it will be bad when it does go down.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll handle it.¡± The elevator doors opened so they could step in. Patty pushed the ground floor button. ¡°How many recruits has Janie gotten?¡± ¡°One so far.¡± Dr. Hadron closed his eye. ¡°Most of the people she talked to can¡¯t pass the mandatory tests.¡± ¡°What kind of mandatory tests?,¡± asked Patty. She and her friends hadn¡¯t taken any tests. ¡°They can¡¯t pass the eye exam, or the drug test,¡± said Dr. Hadron. ¡°You can¡¯t use the weapons if you can¡¯t pass the eye exam. And you don¡¯t want to be high when you are dealing with some of things we deal with during a job. That will get you killed, or turned into something that isn¡¯t quite human anymore.¡± ¡°What about us?¡± Patty wondered how they had avoided that. ¡°I did a scan the first night we met when you barged into my place.¡± Dr. Hadron shrugged. ¡°You were all twos and threes.¡± ¡°What about the drug thing?,¡± said Patty. She remembered the scan. He had tried to If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.pawn them off with a single copy of the long gun Kathy had selected for herself. ¡°Since I didn¡¯t expect Janie to butt in, I skipped a drug test in the hopes you would go home and not get in the way,¡± said Dr. Hadron. ¡°Who knew Janie was such a mother hen?¡± ¡°You did,¡± said Patty. ¡°She¡¯s the only one you listen to. Everyone knows it.¡± ¡°Really?¡± Dr. Hadron¡¯s eyebrows lifted. ¡°What makes you think that?¡± ¡°If she wasn¡¯t, you wouldn¡¯t have helped us set up.¡± The elevator door opened so Patty could lead the way out of the elevator. ¡°You would be all frowny, and I can handle everything, and all that.¡± ¡°You think so?,¡± asked the doctor. He switched hands for his bag as he walked. ¡°Extra frowny.¡± Patty smiled at him. ¡°You know me so well.¡± Hadron almost smiled. ¡°I commend your observational skills.¡± ¡°The high number on the scanner means we¡¯re psychic, doesn¡¯t it?,¡± asked Patty. ¡°You¡¯re touched,¡± said Dr. Hadron. ¡°Something caused your brains to flex. I doubt it was your first run-in with Crenshaw.¡± ¡°How reliable is this touchiness?¡± Patty raised her eyebrow. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t bet my life on it.¡± Dr. Hadron covered the empty socket where his eye used to be for a second. ¡°Depending on it could get you killed.¡± ¡°But it could be useful if I knew how to use it.¡± Patty smiled. ¡°I could work on it so I could be the next Mark.¡± ¡°Number twos will never be able to match the Mark.¡± Dr. Hadron shook his head. ¡°Better start smaller. Maybe you could be Positive Man.¡± ¡°Positive Man is dead.¡± Patty opened the doors on her car. ¡°Didn¡¯t he get bitten by a giant snake?¡± ¡°Exactly,¡± said Dr. Hadron. ¡°You have to work up to the giant snake before you can take on the strongest man in the world.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± Patty got behind the wheel of her car. ¡°I get it. I¡¯ll work on reaching the giant snake first.¡± ¡°Good.¡± Dr. Hadron put his bag in the back seat before settling in the shotgun seat. ¡°Don¡¯t call me. I don¡¯t like snakes at all.¡± ¡°They¡¯re cute,¡± said Patty. ¡°Constrictors make the best pets.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll take your word for that.¡± Dr. Hadron looked out the window as Patty pulled out of the lot. ¡°The things I have dealt with have turned me off snakes for good.¡± Some of the things in the casebook were shining examples for the need for animal control in the spirit world. ¡°Which airport are you flying out of, Doctor?,¡± asked Patty. San Francisco International was south from the office. Oakland International was across the Bay. ¡°SFI,¡± said Dr. Hadron. He checked his watch. ¡°I¡¯m scheduled for the five, but I like to get there early. If we get there before the departure is called, I¡¯ll buy you some food from the hot dog place there.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t really like hot dogs,¡± said Patty. ¡°Maybe a hamburger would be okay.¡± ¡°Why did you come to talk to me in New York?,¡± asked Dr. Hadron. ¡°Why the personal interest in this?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t understand.¡± Patty nearly hit a sidewalk but quickly pulled back on the road. ¡°Okay.¡± Dr. Hadron closed his eyes. He had a long flight ahead of him. He didn¡¯t have time to pry a story out of an employee. ¡°I came to you because of Kevin.¡± Patty found a place to pull over so she could talk without driving into a wall, or another car. ¡°Kevin?,¡± asked Hadron. ¡°Your husband?¡± ¡°He¡¯s in the hospital.¡± Patty refused to start crying. ¡°He¡¯s in a coma.¡± ¡°This happened during the first attack.¡± The women had arrived with a video of an attack by Crenshaw to get him interested in chasing down the ghosts. ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± said Patty. ¡°A piece of the building fell on him. No one knows when he¡¯s going to wake up if he does wake up. He suffered extreme damage to his brain. Even if he does wake up, he won¡¯t be the same man.¡± ¡°What are you going to do?,¡± said Dr. Hadron. ¡°There¡¯s nothing I can do about it.¡± Patty pulled from the curb. ¡°A ton of specialists have looked at him. They say he doesn¡¯t have any hope. He¡¯ll be a vegetable, or mentally disabled, for the rest of his life.¡± ¡°After you drop me off, take one of the empty lamps and leave it in your husband¡¯s room.¡± Dr. Hadron glanced at her. ¡°It might help him out some.¡± ¡°Because of the flame?,¡± said Patty. She dipped her head in understanding. ¡°Does that actually work?¡± ¡°Sometimes.¡± Dr. Hadron looked out the window. ¡°It¡¯s a chance. Even if it doesn¡¯t work, he doesn¡¯t have anything to lose, does he?¡± ¡°You¡¯re right.¡± Patty nodded. ¡°Thanks.¡± ¡°If he comes out of it, he might need the lamp for the rest of his life.¡± Dr. Hadron shifted in his seat. ¡°The aura might be enough to keep him going.¡± ¡°It¡¯s better than what he has now.¡± Patty nodded. ¡°We¡¯ll be ready when you need us in New York.¡± ¡°Good,¡± said Dr. Hadron. The car rolled through traffic until the signs for the airport pointed Patty to the terminal. She drove up to let the doctor out. He looked at the terminal with his one eye before he grabbed his bag out of the back. ¡°Remember to hire someone to handle the paperwork.¡± Dr. Hadron leaned down to talk to Patty through the opened passenger door. ¡°You¡¯re not going to want to wrangle your friends over administrative stuff. Call Janie if you need anything else.¡± ¡°Be careful,¡± said Patty. ¡°Thanks for the idea about the lamp.¡± ¡°It might not work.¡± Dr. Hadron straightened. ¡°Good luck.¡± He shut the door and turned away. He walked into the terminal without looking back. Patty rubbed her eye with the back of her hand. What did she do now? She made up her mind and headed back to headquarters. She didn¡¯t have anything else to do. She might as well try Dr. Hadron¡¯s idea out. She didn¡¯t have anything to lose. Patty pulled into the lot slightly faster on the trip back than on the way to the airport. She opened the building and went up to the workshop part of the lab. She glared at the storage lamps still holding Crenshaw in pieces as she looked for an empty lamp. She smiled when she found one. She tested it to see if it worked. The blue flame danced merrily inside the case. She shut the place back down before getting back in her car. She drove to the hospital. She hid the lamp in a gigantic hand bag. She smiled at the size of the thing before she locked her car up and walked into the main building for the hospital. She had been there enough that the guards let her by with a wave. She rode the elevator up to Kevin¡¯s floor, and walked down to his room. She walked in and looked around. The nurses wouldn¡¯t be happy with an open flame in his room. She needed to hide the lamp so it could work without interference. She opened the closet and put the lit lantern on the shelf. She closed the door on it. It should be okay there. She sat down beside her husband and took his hand. Would he ever wake up again? She hoped so. Revenge of the Scouts 1 1979- Marty Morgan looked over the field where he had left Jim Marley to die. He turned in a circle. The damage had been repaired, some kind of grain stretching out of the ground. He would have never known that all of his friends had died around this site if he hadn¡¯t been there. He still didn¡¯t know what he was going to do about it. In ten years, he was no closer to who had killed his friends than when Jim had given him his only clue. An ornate ring meant nothing if you didn¡¯t know who made it, or whom owned it. What was he going to do about it? The place had no new clues to offer him. The town had repaired what it could. They turned the giant snake that had killed Positive Man into a tourist attraction. It was the central exhibit of the Hazard Scouts Museum. Plaques for the dead citizens Positive Man hadn¡¯t saved were also housed in the museum. They lined a wall next to the stuffed snake exhibit. Maybe he should look at the exhibits again. Maybe they would tell him something he had missed over the years. He didn¡¯t have any other options as far as he could see. Mr. Robot and Mental were the detectives on the team. They knew how to track things down, and how to figure out what a clue meant. He had been a kid then, and hadn¡¯t learned enough in the ten years since to be a good detective. His talents had allowed him to get by in case of trouble. The legacy from the team¡¯s trust had taken care of most of the rest. Marty summoned a regular horse to carry him into town. He climbed on its back and let it run while he thought about the events of that day. The Scouts thought they had a lead on a long time enemy, Cortez. They landed the plane and scouted some around the then much smaller town. Mr. Robot and Mental had split from the group to investigate the field where Marty had found Mental afterwards. The giant snake had been under the local diner. Positive Man and Bounce had hoped to bring in the plane to rescue the civilians. The plane had been sabotaged. The engines blew up. Bounce landed in a field not far from the other field where Mr. Robot and Mental had been ambushed. Positive Man had ordered Marty to check on her, and then the others. He found Mental wounded near what was left of Mr. Robot. He had returned to help Positive Man. He was too late to help out. He rode away before something happened to him. Marty spent the next few years trying to survive. The team¡¯s foundation had supported him. He had educated himself as much as he could while living in a bunker away from the team¡¯s headquarters. As far as he knew, it still sat untouched. He doubted it was safe to use the base. Whomever was behind the death of the team was probably watching it like a hawk. He was surprised that he was still walking around sometimes. When were they coming after him to finish the job? He supposed as long as he wasn¡¯t close to finding the man who owned the ring, he didn¡¯t have to worry about being attacked. When he did have something, then he should worry about another giant snake being in his future. Marty rode up to the museum and dismounted. He dismissed his horse after looking around. He didn¡¯t need anyone connecting him to the Scouts while he was trying to look around. He walked inside the building. His eyes tracked the central opening floor. Displays about the team¡¯s old cases were everywhere. He headed toward where the giant snake sat in his stuffed glory. Marty paused when he entered the room. The museum attracted people from all over. A small group followed a guide from display to display. A young man in black studied the snake. He walked around to the other side of the display. The jaw had been broken in the Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.battle. Whomever had stuffed it had fixed that along with the broken bones that had been inflicted on it. ¡°Mr. Morgan?,¡± said the man in the black. ¡°Can we talk?¡± ¡°I guess.¡± Marty called his talent. If things went down, he was prepared to summon something to do things to this stranger. ¡°What can I do for you?¡± ¡°My name is Ren.¡± The young man smiled. ¡°I am the apprentice for Doctor Toubanhei. I have to solve a mystery to graduate from my service and set up my own detective service.¡± ¡°So you want to know what happened to the Hazard Scouts?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°I don¡¯t know what happened to the Scouts. What do you know already?¡± Ren gave him an outline of what happened. It was missing some facts that no one but Marty knew. The picture was almost right. ¡°How is the Doctor?¡± Marty had worked some cases in Japan. He remembered a gruff man in a black suit like Ren wore. He seemed to have his thumb on the criminal world around Kyoto and Tokyo when the Scouts visited that country. ¡°He is well.¡± Ren smiled. ¡°I didn¡¯t know you had met.¡± ¡°It was a long time ago.¡± Marty put his hands in his pockets. He had joined the team a few years before the final case. His encounters with Toubanhei were almost fifteen years in the past. ¡°Would it be all right if I ask you some questions?,¡± asked Ren. ¡°The more information I am able to gather, the quicker I can solve this case and locate the murderer.¡± ¡°Getting out on your own means that much?¡± Marty felt one eyebrow go up. ¡°Doctor Toubanhei is training several other apprentices.¡± Ren made a gesture to indicate that didn¡¯t matter to him. ¡°He wants to make sure that someone is there to defend Japan as much as possible. If I can graduate, I will be able to pick the district I work in. I will be able to solve cases without having someone looking over my shoulder all the time.¡± ¡°I understand that.¡± Marty had been the youngest of the Scouts. His ability didn¡¯t seem that great at the time. He had worked on it in the years he had been on his own. He could do things he only dreamed about doing then. He supposed he wouldn¡¯t have pushed so hard if the others were still around. ¡°Can you find out things about jewelry?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°I have a ring that I need researched.¡± ¡°I can do that,¡± said Ren. He smiled. ¡°It might take some time.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have anything but time.¡± Marty smiled. ¡°Let¡¯s go over to the diner. I¡¯ll buy some lunch.¡± ¡°Did you see anything on that day?,¡± asked Ren. ¡°Not really.¡± Marty headed for the front door. ¡°These people were trapped in the diner. Daryl had gone to the jet to fly over so we could try to save them by lowering a ladder from the air and moving them out of danger. The plane crashed. Doug asked me to try to get Daryl out but the plane exploded before I could do much of anything to help. I went to find Jim and Barry, but I only found Jim. He was barely alive. He told me that his powers had been shut off for the amount of time it had taken to wound him. He wound up burning up his body to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands.¡± ¡°Doug?,¡± asked Ren. ¡°Positive Man.¡± Marty realized the road was better paved than it was on that day. ¡°He died fighting the giant snake they put on display in their museum.¡± ¡°What about Mr. Robot?,¡± asked Ren. ¡°I saw Barry¡¯s skull,¡± said Marty. ¡°I didn¡¯t see the rest of his body. Maybe the murderers took it with them.¡± ¡°Just the skull?,¡± asked Ren. ¡°That¡¯s unusual. I would have expected that to be gone, and the body left behind.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t think about that.¡± Marty paused in the middle of the sidewalk. ¡°I thought Jim had blown himself up. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe the skull had been some kind of bomb.¡± ¡°Seems likely.¡± Ren nodded. ¡°Something had to be done to cover their tracks.¡± ¡°I admit I wasn¡¯t a good detective, and didn¡¯t learn much.¡± Marty led the way to the diner. It looked better than it had the first time he had seen it. ¡°You were the Animal Boy, weren¡¯t you?,¡± asked Ren. He paused at the door leading into the diner, inspecting the place before he walked in behind Marty. ¡°Yes,¡± said Marty. ¡°My powers were useful for rescues, especially at sea.¡± ¡°I see.¡± Ren settled in a booth away from the door. He looked the place over as he waited for a waitress. Marty was forced to sit down where he had to twist to look out the window if he wanted to keep an eye on things. ¡°Doctor Toubanhei said he had not seen any progress on what happened.¡± Ren frowned. ¡°Professional detectives had learned nothing new after the first reports went out.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t think about it at the time but I left Doug¡¯s body when I should have buried it,¡± said Marty. ¡°I¡¯ll find out what happened to it.¡± Ren shrugged. ¡°We need to know that if we want to construct a full picture of things.¡± ¡°Do you think you can find out what happened?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°I have been trained to unravel the thread of stories,¡± said Ren. ¡°This is a problem that I feel that I can solve given enough time and information.¡± A waitress approached their booth. She put two menus down in front of them. She pulled out a pad and pen. ¡°Do you know what drinks you want?,¡± she asked. ¡°I¡¯ll have water,¡± said Marty. ¡°I¡¯ll have tea, please,¡± said Ren. ¡°I¡¯ll be back in a few minutes,¡± she said as she wrote down the drink order on her pad. ¡°I have a lot of questions when we are done eating,¡± said Ren. ¡°I don¡¯t have a lot of answers.¡± Revenge of the Scouts 2 Marty and Ren walked back to the field. The former Scout pointed out where the plane had come down as best that he could remember. He admitted that the town had covered all traces of the incident as it had grown out and around the former farms. Ren nodded as they went. His dark eyes took in the landscape as if almost seeing what had happened ten years before. He raised his hand to shield his eyes and they seemed to glow in the shade. ¡°About here is where I found Jim, and Barry¡¯s skull.¡± Marty looked around to make sure. ¡°The ground had been burned and cratered from the explosion.¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to do a hypnotic trick.¡± Ren looked around, dark clothing making him almost a shadow on the ground. ¡°I want you to close your eyes and count back to one from ten.¡± ¡°All right.¡± Marty did what he was told. When he opened his eyes, he stood in the past. His younger self stood a few feet away. Jim Marley, wounded and dying, lay on the ground. ¡°This is crazy. I can see everything like it was.¡± ¡°Doctor Touhanbei taught me this so I could question witnesses with better accuracy.¡± Ren stepped into the illusion. ¡°This is where your comrade was?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Marty turned. ¡°Barry¡¯s skull was there. The only reason I thought it was his was because it was metal. Could I have been wrong?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Ren made a gesture with his hand. The scene sped up, matching to Marty¡¯s memory. A column of fire erupted from the skull, taking Jim with it into destruction. ¡°It certainly killed your friend. They weren¡¯t taking chances he might have gleaned something to tell you.¡± ¡°If Doug had lived, he would have never given looking up for who did this.¡± Marty spread his arms at the static scene in the air. ¡°I never could find a lead on my own.¡± ¡°It might been your friend¡¯s skull set to explode.¡± Ren folded the image and put it in a wrapper. He put the paper square into a small bag at his hip. ¡°It might been a fake. I don¡¯t like they took his body and left the rest of him.¡± ¡°At the time, he had the most advanced robot body in existence and was always trying to make it better.¡± Marty shrugged. ¡°That was the sixties. Ten years might have been enough time to make robot bodies better than that.¡± ¡°I saw some things in the scene that I need to look at later.¡± Ren took one more look around the scene. ¡°Let¡¯s look at the plane crash and where Positive Man died. Maybe that will give us some more clues we can follow.¡± ¡°You saw some things we can use?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°What did you see?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Ren. ¡°I will have to take the scene apart after we finish our lookaround. If I have something useful, we might be able to advance.¡± ¡°What if you don¡¯t have anything useful?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°I will come up with some other line of attack.¡± Ren frowned at the other man. ¡°I assure you that I will not fail.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± Marty wondered if he had insulted the other¡¯s pride enough that they would come to blows. He decided not to test it. It was too early in the partnership. ¡°Let¡¯s look at the plane crash,¡± said Ren. ¡°That might tell us something about what happened to the jet you used.¡± ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure the engines blew.¡± Marty walked toward where the jet had crashed. It was close enough to walk, but far enough away that it hadn¡¯t impacted what was going on with Jim and Barry. The impact wouldn¡¯t have hurt Daryl at all. Being set on fire would have cut through her defenses and destroyed her rubbery body. The plane had went nose down into the field. That wrapped the metal body around her so she couldn¡¯t get out of the trap. Then the aircraft had been blown to smithereens by the blast. It had been a miracle that the plane hadn¡¯t killed anyone when it went down. It was the perfect trap for a rubbery woman. ¡°Jim had been right.¡± Marty went through the ritual to look at the plane. Watching it crash into the ground and explode froze him in place. He felt depression overwhelm for a moment. He seized control of his mind and directed it to push on. ¡°It was a trap from start to finish.¡± ¡°You didn¡¯t get a look at the snake killing Positive Man?,¡± asked Ren. He set the A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.scene aside like he did the first one. He could unwrap them and look at them again when he needed to do that. ¡°They were both dead when I got back from watching Jim blow up.¡± Marty walked toward the crowded streets. ¡°The diner where we ate was where the snake was nesting.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s look at the memory of that,¡± said Ren. ¡°Then we can get out of here. The town is just the starting point. The masterminds don¡¯t live here.¡± ¡°I suppose you¡¯re right.¡± Marty spotted the diner in the distance. ¡°No one sets a trap in their backyard. Other parties might want to know what happened.¡± ¡°And if someone got traction in an investigation, you didn¡¯t want them wandering around looking for your base.¡± Ren nodded. ¡°Someone might be here to keep an eye out for anybody like us.¡± ¡°I doubt it¡¯s worth it to try to figure out who the lookout is.¡± Morgan shrugged. ¡°We can save that for when we¡¯re really desperate.¡± ¡°Or if we know enough that we can use it trap the lookout so he gives up what we need when do find him.¡± Ren nodded. ¡°I favor that approach myself.¡± ¡°This is the diner.¡± Marty studied the building. ¡°Now that I¡¯m looking at it, it looks different.¡± ¡°They probably had to add on to it, so they could keep their business moving at a regular speed.¡± Ren looked around. ¡°Is this where Positive Man and the snake killed themselves?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± said Marty. ¡°I should have buried the body, but I just walked away.¡± ¡°It wasn¡¯t in the museum.¡± Ren raised a hand. ¡°Close your eyes and count. Maybe something you heard will give us something to look at here and now.¡± Marty did as he was told. When he opened his eyes, he saw the snake sprawled and flicking its tail around. Its jaw had been broken like he expected. Doug had two fang wounds in his chest. He sat against the still standing wall of the diner. He dug a hole in the ground with one hand as he talked to Marty on his helmet radio. He pulled something out of his chest and placed it in the ground. He pulled a rock over the hole and scooped dirt around it. ¡°What did he bury?,¡± asked Ren. He matched the scene to the new landscape. The rock stood in place. ¡°Probably his engine.¡± Marty asked a mole to dig down and unearth the item. The animal returned with something in its talons. It vanished when the ex-Scout took the item from it. ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s his engine.¡± ¡°His engine?¡±, asked Ren. He examined the metal cylinder. ¡°What does it do?¡± ¡°Doug had some kind of machine in his body.¡± Marty brushed dirt off the cylinder and put it in his jacket pocket. ¡°He dialed up the amount of force he needed using the engine. It made him stronger and faster than a normal man.¡± ¡°So we have an array of motives, and personalities to investigate.¡± Ren folded up the scene and put it in his bag with the other two. ¡°We might find more clues after examining the scenes better. We certainly shouldn¡¯t do that here.¡± ¡°We can rule out Cortez.¡± Marty looked around. He didn¡¯t see anyone paying attention to them. That didn¡¯t mean anything. ¡°We were trying to find him when this happened. Jim got a look at the goons involved. He said everything was a trap by a guy with access to our report network.¡± ¡°Makes sense,¡± said Ren. ¡°How else would someone send you into a trap if they didn¡¯t have that access?¡± ¡°I have one more thing to show you in private,¡± said Marty. ¡°Then we can look at the radio logs, if they are still there.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Ren. ¡°I have a room at the hotel. We can go there to plan our next move.¡± ¡°Are you sure you want in on this?¡± Marty remembered that the hotel was a few streets over. The way the town had grown, there might be another hotel he didn¡¯t know about. ¡°I have been trained for a long time to solve mysteries.¡± Ren smiled. ¡°Doctor Toubanhei has said I am almost as good as he is. I have to learn more through experience, but to leave his service, I have to solve a case that no one else has solved. I assure you that I can solve this with some time and patience.¡± ¡°Even if there is trouble down the line?,¡± said Marty. ¡°Especially if there is trouble down the line.¡± The apprentice nodded his affirmation. ¡°All right.¡± Marty nodded. ¡°Let¡¯s see how good a detective you really are.¡± The two of them walked across that part of town, heading for the three story Quality Star hotel. The place only had twenty rooms, but it did have a kitchen and dining room on the ground floor. Ren got his key from the desk. There was no mail for him. ¡°I got a room on the third floor so I could see most of the town from my window.¡± Ren headed for the steps. He started up the staircase. ¡°Elevator?¡± Marty pointed at the cage a few feet away from the stairwell door. He started up the steps a little slower. ¡°Don¡¯t trust them.¡± Ren shrugged as he kept moving. ¡°I have had some bad experiences with elevators. It¡¯s better to use the stairs.¡± ¡°All right.¡± Marty used the hand rail to pull himself up the staircase. ¡°I do have one question,¡± said Ren. ¡°Why are you taking this meeting at face value?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve met Touhanbei before. I think I have met you before but you were a lot younger then.¡± Marty paused to search his memory. ¡°You were like his sidekick, but he didn¡¯t want you talking to us. Barry did the most talking when we worked together. Touhanbei didn¡¯t want you mixing up in our business. I think he didn¡¯t like me tagging along but Barry spoke up for me.¡± ¡°I wore a mask then,¡± said Ren. ¡°I know,¡± said Marty. ¡°It was some kind of bird mask.¡± Ren nodded as he pushed open the door for the third floor. He walked down the hall to his room. ¡°If something happens to me, please notify Doctor Tanbouhei.¡± Ren opened the room door. ¡°I am sure he will take over for me.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have a problem with that.¡± Marty examined the hall before following Ren into the room. ¡°This is better than I expected.¡± ¡°I made some improvements so I could work,¡± explained Ren. The single room should have a bed, chair, television, and drawers, and one end table. A bathroom and closet should be separate doors side by side. Instead the room had been turned into a space with a large table to write on, chairs, and a shelf of books taking up a small section of the wall. ¡°Does the hotel know?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°They can¡¯t see what I have done.¡± Ren smiled. ¡°You said you had a clue other than your memories.¡± Marty pulled out the ring he had been carrying for the last ten years. Revenge of the Scouts 3 ¡°Sir,¡± Oscar Woz stepped into the office. It looked like most of the other offices Oscar had been in. The only thing that made it different was the occupant behind the desk. ¡°Subject Animal Boy has found an ally.¡± ¡°After all this time?¡± The man behind the desk leaned back in his specially built chair. ¡°He hasn¡¯t approached any of the other heroic community before this. Who has he been seen with this late in the game?¡± ¡°We don¡¯t know.¡± Oscar winced at that admission. He should have couched it in doubletalk to show they were on top of their game. ¡°The observer was only able to radio a visual contact. Pictures were fogged over.¡± ¡°That¡¯s interesting.¡± The occupant rubbed a metal chin plate with a metal hand. ¡°Completely fogged over?¡± ¡°That is what the observer said.¡± Oscar winced at that admission. ¡°The description is of a young Asian, dark hair and eyes, black suit, black shirt. Estimated height is at five feet, five inches. Weight at one hundred thirty-thirty five pounds.¡± ¡°That could be anybody from China to Hawaii.¡± The occupant closed his eye. One had been replaced with a camera plugged into his brain. ¡°Do we still have contact with the three potential recruits?¡± ¡°Yes, sir.¡± That was safer ground to walk on. ¡°We have bases and support networks locked in. We can take them any time we want.¡± ¡°Have the Squad get ready.¡± The man behind the desk nodded at the decision. ¡°Pick up all five. I want them in cells and ready for assimilation as soon as possible.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll pass the order along, sir.¡± Oscar turned to leave. ¡°Deploy some of our forces with the Squad,¡± said the occupant. ¡°We want to make sure we take them all and have them under our thumb. We can¡¯t have them looking for us while we are trying to plan another kidnaping for them.¡± ¡°Understood.¡± Oscar left the office. He paused in the hall outside of the office and wiped the sweat off his face with a handkerchief. He hated dealing with his boss. He always feared the wrong word would put him in a box. The Squad was just as bad in their way, but he didn¡¯t fear them as much as he feared his employer. If something bad happened to him while dealing with them, he knew things would be done to repay them for what they had done. There were rules for things, and the boss expected you to follow those rules. That was why he had the best network in place, and was standing off the Deathworm, and others with similar business dealings. He had engineered the deaths of heroes across the world and no one knew about it. The Hazard Scouts hadn¡¯t been the only victims of his schemes. They had just been most out in the open. And nothing led back to the organization after it was all over. And now their tagalong kid was poking around the scene of the battle again. Every time they had lost him, he had returned to the battlefield to look around again and again. This was going to be the last time. Once the Squad was done, he would be using his powers for the organization. No one would even know he had been taken and assimilated to use against other heroes interfering with the boss¡¯s plans. Oscar walked the hall until he reached an elevator. He pushed the down button to call the cab. The Squad¡¯s quarters were down at the bottom of the facility. If anything less than an attack by the Mark happened, they were to retreat down to those quarters and use the Squad¡¯s powers to fight their way out. If anything more powerful than the Mark showed, they were to flee as best they could. Nothing could stand up to his power range. Anything close to that would be more powerful than what they had. Oscar rode the elevator down to the bottom level of the facility. He hated being away from the offices on the top. The amount of dirt over his head made him uncomfortable. He didn¡¯t like the thought all of that could be collapsed and there was nothing he could do about it. He stepped off the elevator and walked to the bulkhead keeping the Squad separate from the rest of the place. It wasn¡¯t for anything other than show. Any of the powered minions could punch through the bulkhead if they wanted to enough. Oscar tapped the code number on the keypad to open the door. The metal aperture Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.slid out of the way so he could enter the set of rooms beyond. The Squad had a common room they could eat together, watch television, socialize. There was a gym that led off to the other side of their quarters where they tested their powers. Their rooms formed a semi-ring between the other door and the door to the gym. Oscar only saw one of the members as he walked in the room. He looked around. Where were the other members? ¡°They¡¯re exercising in the gym,¡± said Thingamabob. He sat at their common table. Electronic parts littered the table top as he inspected them with his magnifying glasses. ¡°What can I do for you, Oz?¡± ¡°You have a mission.¡± Oscar didn¡¯t sit down to face him. He wanted to be able to try to run away if he had to. ¡°What are we doing this time?¡± Thingamabob starting putting the parts together like a man putting together a jigsaw puzzle. ¡°Pick up mission.¡± Oscar made sure to keep his hands away from his body as he watched the process. ¡°We have five targets we want you to pick up.¡± ¡°No problem.¡± Thingamabob snapped the last piece of his puzzle in place. He pressed the button. He smiled at whatever the hum of the device told him. ¡°I don¡¯t how long you have to complete the mission, but there can be no witnesses.¡± Oscar hated to order that. It led to a lot more collateral damage than was necessary. ¡°No problem, Oz,¡± said the gadget user. ¡°I can snatch a baby out of a crib at a hundred paces. This will be just as easy.¡± ¡°Auxiliary troops are to assist your team.¡± Oscar saw the argument coming on, and held up his hand. ¡°Those are the orders from on high. I would appreciate it if you would get your team together and have them come up to the mission briefing room while I get your army to report to the briefing.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll get them there, Oz.¡± Thingamabob stood up. ¡°Is this a one on one thing, or a mass at the same time thing?¡± ¡°I think that will be your call, Bob.¡± Oscar turned to leave. ¡°The boss said don¡¯t miss, whichever tactics you use. He doesn¡¯t want the targets trying to hunt us down.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll see what we can do about that.¡± Bob turned to walk toward the gym. He held his gadget ready to use. Oscar retreated from the room. He had to get a platoon together, and have their officers at the meeting. He hoped he wasn¡¯t asking for his assigned help to wreck everything they see. He walked out of the quarters and headed upstairs. He had to get the support together. He didn¡¯t want to send the Squad on a mission without someone watching over them. He hoped he wasn¡¯t getting his private soldiers killed. He hated thinking what would happen if they got caught in a crossfire between the powered forces. Oscar rode the elevator up to the sixth floor. He stepped out in what was a wide space where bunks and lockers had been set up. Men exercised at the end of the hangar. A shooting range was set up beyond that. A small office set aside for the officer on duty stood in a square of walls one side of the bunks. Oscar walked across the space to the office. He looked inside. Mr. Mercer sat at the desk, reading a book. The soldier looked up from his book without saying anything. ¡°We have a mission,¡± said Oscar. ¡°I need you to come down to the briefing room. You will be supporting the Squad on this.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Mercer. ¡°I will come up there to see what the circus is about.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t call them that.¡± Oscar grimaced. ¡°The Squad is as dangerous as they come.¡± ¡°They haven¡¯t had a real fight yet.¡± Mercer put his book down on the desk. His face of acne scars held two different colored eyes, a busted nose, and small scars across his chin. ¡°Eventually they¡¯re going to run into someone they can¡¯t beat. That will really set your plans back.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why your men are being asked to come in as a support unit.¡± Oscar put his hands in his pockets. ¡°The boss wants to make sure the mission is expedited, and carried out free of complications.¡± ¡°There¡¯s always going to be complications.¡± Mercer stood up. ¡°We¡¯ll do what we can to keep the complications down. Targets?¡± ¡°They¡¯re powered.¡± Oscar winced at the grimace that earned. ¡°That will make the going harder,¡± said Mercer. ¡°We¡¯ll handle it.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll go over everything at the briefing,¡± said the aide. ¡°I¡¯ll have the information ready for you.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll have munitions and weapons drawn,¡± said Mercer. ¡°When is the briefing?¡± ¡°As soon as the Squad gets there.¡± Oscar shrugged. ¡°Go ahead and get whomever you need to help plan things and come up to the briefing room.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll be there in twenty minutes.¡± Mercer frowned at the job ahead. Powered fights could be really messy. ¡°Right.¡± Oscar nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll go up and get the files ready.¡± Oscar walked across the space back to the elevator. He pushed the button and waited for the doors to open. He went up to his office and grabbed the files from his desk. His observers had compiled as much information as they could. He hoped they hadn¡¯t missed something obvious. It would be embarrassing to send the Squad in against people that hadn¡¯t been measured completely. He took the files to the briefing room. He pulled the photos to load in the projector. The three subjects looked harmless in their pictures. He knew that was a lie. He added an old picture of Martin Morgan to the others. Animal Boy had been dangerous as part of the Hazard Scouts. He probably hadn¡¯t lost any of those skills wandering around on his own. The only one he didn¡¯t have was of the black clad unknown helping Morgan at Idaville. He frowned that the unknown was the wild card that could spoil their plans. They couldn¡¯t be prepared for him if no one knew what he could do. The Squad would have to use overwhelming force on the unknown so he couldn¡¯t turn the fight against them. He didn¡¯t like that. He didn¡¯t want to take responsibility for a failure based on lack of information. Oscar gathered the files and went over them as he waited for his assault elements to arrive at the briefing room. He hoped nothing went wrong. Revenge of the Scouts 4 Martin Morgan handed over the ring. He wondered briefly if he was doing the right thing. He decided that Touhanbei had been a good guy. His apprentice should be just as good. ¡°This is the ring Mental gave you?,¡± asked Ren. He examined the ring with the naked eye. He pulled out a loop, and examined the thing once more. ¡°There might be something there I can use.¡± ¡°I dusted it for prints when I could, but there weren¡¯t any,¡± said Marty. ¡°All I could find were smudges.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that,¡± said Ren. He took the ring over to his table. ¡°I can make it say a sentence I believe. That should be enough to give us another toehold.¡± ¡°So you can find the owner?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°If I can¡¯t, the next step is to check your old support network to see who could have set up the trap.¡± Ren took a dish from his shelf. He dropped the ring in it. ¡°And if that fails, we can go back to the memories to see what more we can glean from them.¡± ¡°That sounds reasonable.¡± Marty stepped back. He didn¡¯t want the process to blow up in his face. ¡°Trust me,¡± said Ren. He took two different bottles from his shelf. Marty could have sworn they hadn¡¯t been there before he picked them up. ¡°At the very least, if the man is still alive, I can turn the ring into a compass to find him.¡± Marty liked the idea of a pointer showing him where to go. He had lived with being the sole survivor and knowledge that someone out there still might want him dead. Being able to lay hands on one of the men responsible would be great. Then he would make the man pay for his part in what had happened. Ren poured the samples of the liquids into the dish. He capped them and set them aside before grabbing a lid for the dish. He covered the ingredients and ring as smoke filled the tiny space. He stepped back to let the chemical reaction do its thing. A face appeared on the inside of the transparent cover. Ren replaced that lid with another. He took the marked lid and put it on a stand to look through. The other lid kept the smoke in the storage plate. ¡°I don¡¯t recognize him,¡± said Marty. ¡°Any way to identify him from the picture?¡± ¡°Not really.¡± Ren put the lid on a piece of paper. ¡°We¡¯ll have to see if he has a mug shot somewhere.¡± ¡°That might take a while.¡± Marty doubted anyone would listen to him now. His clearance as a Scout must have been revoked. Maybe there was someone he knew who could speed up the identification process. He couldn¡¯t think of anyone off hand. ¡°Either way,¡± said Ren. ¡°We¡¯ll still have a way to track the man down. His ring will give us that.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t understand,¡± said Marty. ¡°How will it help us?¡± ¡°I need to add a third chemical to the dish.¡± Ren went to the shelf and produced the bottle. ¡°When I add this, the ring will want to go after the former owner.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t believe that,¡± said Marty. ¡°Nothing does that.¡± ¡°Watch.¡± Ren took the second lid off the dish. He poured the liquid in the third bottle into the fog. He closed the lid down on it. The ring had a jewel in it. That jewel pointed southeast of where they stood. Ren picked up the dish and turned it. The jewel kept reaching for the same direction. ¡°So we have a compass,¡± said Marty. ¡°That¡¯s neat.¡± ¡°If we can¡¯t find out the identity of the man through normal channels, we can use this to find him.¡± Ren smiled. ¡°It¡¯s always good to have a fallback.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± said Marty. ¡°Where do we get started?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s start with the radio network.¡± Ren put the picture and ring in his bag. ¡°If we can find the leak through ordinary means, we might not need the memories we have stored.¡± ¡°The Scout headquarters is closed.¡± Marty looked at his hands. ¡°The Foundation is keeping the land maintained. Everything should still be there.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s go and take a look at things.¡± Ren frowned at the hotel room. ¡°Let me pack up and we can take the train up there.¡± ¡°Take your time,¡± said Marty. ¡°I¡¯m going down to the diner and get something to eat.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Ren. ¡°I will be down to join you in a few minutes.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± Marty opened the door. He headed downstairs. He took Ren¡¯s warning about elevators to heart and used the stairs. They were looking for an unknown enemy that had ambushed a seasoned team of powered humans. There was no telling what the A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.bad guys would do to the two of them. He crossed the street to the diner. He didn¡¯t like the fact that his enemy could be anywhere. He wondered how long he had before they came at him. He had no doubt they would come at him once he showed he was making progress in finding out what was going on. They had ambushed his friends and killed them. There was no doubt they would try to do the same to him once he got close enough. He needed a back up plan in case something happened to him and Ren. He didn¡¯t know what he could do about that. He had been on his own for a long time. He stepped inside the diner and went to the table where he and Ren had eaten earlier. How were they going to get down to the base? He had transportation for himself worked out. Maybe he could lift two men the distance to Scout headquarters. He ordered coffee from the waitress as he thought. Maybe he could lift them home. He had been working on new animals to call. One of them should fit the bill. Working on the network should be easy. He had learned a lot of the basics from Barry and Doug. And the equipment had not been updated in the ten years since they died. He should have thought of that. He had abandoned everything to dust. He should have done better than that. The fact that he had been twelve didn¡¯t seem much of an excuse. He wondered what his adopted family would have thought of him. He spotted Ren crossing the street. Once he finished his coffee, they could fly down to the base and get started looking around. Now that he had help, maybe he could finally get things done. He should have thought about asking a detective to help before this, but he didn¡¯t know anyone that fit the bill. The Mark might have helped, but he was too busy saving the world. Ren stepped in the diner. He nodded to the staff. He settled in his old seat. ¡°I¡¯m ready to go,¡± said Ren. ¡°I thought we could take the train up north.¡± ¡°I got the transportation covered,¡± said Marty. ¡°I figured we would fly.¡± ¡°Fly?,¡± asked Ren. ¡°I didn¡¯t know you could fly.¡± ¡°I have some animal friends that I can call that should be able to carry the both of us,¡± said Marty. ¡°The time won¡¯t be as fast as a jet¡¯s.¡± ¡°I would like that,¡± said Ren. ¡°I have never been able to fly on my own power.¡± ¡°I always wanted to, but being able to ride through the air is almost as good,¡± said Marty. ¡°Only Jim could fly on the team. The rest of us were ground bound.¡± ¡°I understand.¡± Ren asked for a glass of water. ¡°Doctor Tanbouhei has only showed me how to glide. It¡¯s not the same as true flight.¡± ¡°Let me finish my coffee.¡± Marty sipped from his cup. ¡°Hopefully we will find a clue at the old place.¡± ¡°We have multiple lines now.¡± Ren smiled. ¡°I am confident we will net someone, if not the head plotter before things are done.¡± ¡°We will have to prove everything in a court of law,¡± said Marty. ¡°How do we do that with old memories?¡± ¡°I am sure that by the time we are done, we will have more than old memories to hand over to a prosecutor,¡± said Ren. Marty finished off his cup. He stood. Ren followed suit. Marty paid for the coffee before they stepped out of the diner. Marty concentrated on his summons. He had been working on his powers the whole time he had been on his own. He could do more than simple animals now. His steed sprang into existence, lifting him up in a natural saddle at its shoulders. It called out its impatience as talons dug into the asphalt around the diner. ¡°Is that a griffin?,¡± said Ren. He stepped back from the lion bird looking him over. ¡°I didn¡¯t know you could do that.¡± ¡°It¡¯s an animal. Calling animals into existence is what I do.¡± Marty extended a hand. ¡°Climb aboard. We have places to go.¡± Ren used the hand to settle into a spot behind the former Animal Boy. He secured his traveling bag to his body. The griffin made a noise half lion roar and half eagle call. It jogged down the street while beating its wings. Then it was in the air and flying smoothly across the sky. ¡°This is wonderful,¡± said Ren. ¡°I love this. I wish I could do this.¡± ¡°It works for me,¡± said Marty. ¡°I used to not be able to do anything this big. I practiced using a book from the library.¡± ¡°A book?,¡± said Ren. ¡°What book?¡± ¡°It was full of monsters,¡± said Marty. ¡°Ah,¡± said Ren. ¡°The library is full of things like that.¡± ¡°I know.¡± Marty pulled out a pair of goggles out of a pocket. He pulled them over his eyes. ¡°We should be at the old place in a few hours.¡± ¡°I haven¡¯t ridden anything like this before,¡± said Ren. ¡°We might need to land sometime to give us a break.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± said Marty. ¡°We¡¯ll aim for a place about halfway between where we are, and where we want to go.¡± ¡°Excellent,¡± said Ren. Marty closed his eyes as he rested in the saddle. The bird lion would wake him if it needed him. It gave a call as it headed down for the ground. Marty¡¯s eyes snapped open. He shook his head to clear it. ¡°It looks like we¡¯re going down,¡± said Ren. ¡°The griffin seems to need to rest.¡± ¡°Good,¡± said Marty. ¡°I need to stretch my legs.¡± ¡°This has been really great,¡± said Ren. ¡°I have never had such a journey that felt this good.¡± ¡°It looks like we¡¯re going to land in that parking lot ahead.¡± Marty pointed at the clear spot. ¡°Good job, Feathers.¡± The griffin touched down, and shook its head. It faded away as its riders dismounted. Marty stretched kinks out of his back as he looked around. ¡°I see what you mean,¡± Ren put his travel bag down. He rubbed his legs with his hands. ¡°I didn¡¯t consider how a long ride would affect me.¡± ¡°You¡¯ll be sore in the morning.¡± Marty pointed at a gas station across the lot. ¡°Let¡¯s get some water, and something to snack on. Then we can get back on and finish the ride.¡± ¡°I believe it.¡± Ren nodded. ¡°I am sore now.¡± ¡°Can you walk?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°Yes,¡± said Ren. ¡°I can manage.¡± Marty led the way across the lot. His mouth felt dry. He smiled at himself. His power seemed to make him thirsty the more he used it. A Gatorade would fix that. He opened the door of the place. Two shelves of food went to the right, pointing to cooler doors. A middled aged clerk with wiry gray hair and too much weight stood behind the counter on the left. Glasses perched on her round nose. ¡°Hello,¡± the clerk said. Her voice was scratchy from too many cigarettes. ¡°How¡¯s it going?¡± ¡°Fine.¡± Marty looked over the small selection of drinks. He found a shelf of Gatorade. He pulled one out. ¡°How¡¯s it going with you?¡± ¡°Great.¡± She smiled. ¡°One drink?¡± ¡°I think I need some crackers too.¡± Marty picked up some Nabs. ¡°Do you know how the weather is up northeast of here?¡± ¡°It¡¯s supposed to rain later.¡± She rang up the drink and crackers as Ren walked in. ¡°Then sunshine for the next few days.¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± said Marty. He opened the bottle and took a sip. ¡°I appreciate that.¡± Ren staggered into the store. He smiled. He walked back and pulled a Coke from the cooler. He added some cookies and a bag of chips. ¡°Is this all,¡± said the clerk, as Marty moved out of the way. ¡°I think so,¡± said Ren. Revenge of the Scouts 5 Thingamabob checked the readouts from his gadget once more. They had decided to go after the most powerful of the targets on their list first. If they couldn¡¯t take down this girl, they probably couldn¡¯t handle the rest of the targets either. He didn¡¯t want to report a failure to the boss. The man was not know for his forgiving attitude. ¡°Everybody ready?,¡± Bob asked his radio. A chorus of affirmations came back. He hoped they weren¡¯t taking this lightly. His crew had some problems. He didn¡¯t need them cropping up in the middle of a mission. ¡°We need to attract her attention.¡± Bob hated this part of the plan. If things took too long, other variables might crop up. ¡°Go with Clown Girl.¡± Clown Girl cartwheeled out in traffic, causing a collision between two cars. Others piled on, unable to stop in time. She seemed to have vanished under the pileup. ¡°Target is powering up,¡± Gaze reported. ¡°She¡¯s coming in at three o¡¯clock high.¡± The reading on Bob¡¯s instrument echoed the statement. The target would pass his post in a few seconds. He hoped the power nullifier worked. Otherwise it was going to come down to brute force. He hated to use that option, but the target had to be taken. If the nullifier didn¡¯t work, his guys would have to earn their money. ¡°I¡¯m going to try to neutralize the target,¡± said Bob. He took aim at the halo of light approaching. ¡°If it doesn¡¯t work, Troop and Puff are to move in and distract the target until a plan b can be put in place.¡± ¡°Ready,¡± said Puff. Subvocalizations played over the radio as he talked to himself. Bob commanded the nullifier to fire. The beam sliced across the sky. It hit the halo. The light went out as the girl generating it turned and used the last vestiges of her power to crash into a window. The glass broke inward as she hit the floor inside the office she had crashed into. ¡°She hit the twenty fifth floor,¡± said Gaze. ¡°Power is out. It looks like she can¡¯t do anything.¡± ¡°That won¡¯t last long.¡± Bob checked his tool. It still had most of its charge. ¡°Go, Troop and Puff. Take her out.¡± ¡°I¡¯m already theeeeerrrreee!,¡± said Puff. Smoke blasted into existence across the street from where Bob stood. Troop formed a living ladder to cross the space. He resembled a gorilla stuffed in a suit of camo, and boots. He drew all of his duplicates together on the other side. He vanished in the darkness inside the office. ¡°Emergency responders are on the way, Bob,¡± said Gaze. ¡°We don¡¯t have a lot of time.¡± ¡°We need you, Clown Girl,¡± said Bob. He gave her the address of the building. ¡°Hurry it up.¡± ¡°I¡¯m going in, Gaze,¡± said Bob. ¡°Keep an eye on things. If the police get close to the building, let me know.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Gaze. ¡°This girl is still strong and fast, Bob. She¡¯s heading for the stairs.¡± ¡°Got it.¡± Bob pressed a button on his belt. He sprang across the space between his lookout and the smashed window on a trail of air. He landed lightly and took stock. The layout was a two room suite. The boss sat in the office with the window. The secretary sat outside. The boss¡¯s office had been partially destroyed by the flying target. He hastened out of the office. He still had a job to do. Bob stepped out in a bullpen of desks. Some of those desks and the furniture that went with them had been used as weapons, and shields. He couldn¡¯t expect Puff or Troop to keep things in hand. They were brute force incarnate. He heard noises across the bullpen through a hole where the door to the hall should have been. He jogged across the battlefield. They had to take care of this fast. He didn¡¯t want to have deal with cops on top of this woman too. He pushed open the door to the stairs cautiously. He didn¡¯t want his own guys to take him out. He shook his head. Troop had gathered his duplicates together because of Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.the space restriction in the stairwell. Puff was nowhere in sight. The woman was trying to strangle the simian-like villain with her bare hands. He considered his next move after the pause in disbelief. Puff appeared in a cloud of smoke with Clown Girl. His dark purple suit and coat swirled around him as he flung his colleague down the stairwell. Clown Girl bounced off a railing in her baggy pants and striped shirt. It was hard to tell if she was really smiling under the makeup smile on her face. She wrapped her legs around the target¡¯s neck and spun around. The woman lost her grip on Troop and went down. Bob pointed his gadget and commanded it to fire. A small dart hit the target in the arm. Electricity surrounded her for a brief second. She collapsed. ¡°Police are at the front door of your building,¡± reported Gaze. ¡°You guys might want to exfiltrate from the scene.¡± ¡°Take the girl, Puff.¡± Bob pointed at the target. ¡°Make sure Mercer¡¯s boys lock her down. We don¡¯t want her coming to, and we don¡¯t want her coming to and trying to shake off the nullifier¡¯s effect and powering back up.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have to tell me twice.¡± Puff slung the girl over his shoulder. He muttered about taking a few punches as he went up in smoke. ¡°Back to the window.¡± Bob turned and jogged across the wrecked office area. A little collateral damage was to be expected, but this was much more than he thought possible when someone¡¯s powers went away. ¡°Troop, take Clown Girl across,¡± said Bob. ¡°I¡¯ll be right behind you.¡± He noticed how the duplicator rubbed his neck. How strong was their target? Could they have taken her in a straight up fight? Did he really want to know that answer? He decided that someone manhandling Troop with her bare hands was someone he didn¡¯t want to meet in a dark alley. Troop threw himself across the gap between buildings. He grabbed Clown Girl and yanked himself over to the other side. He placed Clown Girl on the roof of the other building as he pulled himself together. ¡°We¡¯re bugging out, Gaze,¡± said Bob. ¡°Go ahead and head back to base.¡± ¡°I¡¯m heading out right now,¡± Gaze said. His channel turned to static as he cut his radio. Bob leaped across the space between the buildings with his belt jets. He landed lightly. He walked after his comrades, scanning for enemies. With his lookout gone, he had to be extra vigilant until they were clear of the police activity. ¡°Transport One to Procure One,¡± said Mercer. ¡°Ready to move.¡± ¡°Take the material home.¡± Bob smiled. The job was done. If anything happened now, it would be on Mercer¡¯s head. ¡°We are moving to the next target area to set up.¡± ¡°Understood,¡± said Mercer. ¡°Transport One out.¡± Bob jogged after Troop and Clown Girl. He hated running, but he didn¡¯t want to have to face the cops and draw the attention of some mask who thought he could take them on. No one wanted to draw the attention of the Mark. A sighting was rare, but no one took him on and won. The fact that he had buried two of his enemies under a mountain on Mars, threw another one into the Sun was not lost on Bob. And the fact that the nullifier might not work on him did not encourage Bob to experiment and find out what would happen if his team took on the World¡¯s Strongest Man. Being ripped limb from limb was not something he wanted to try out in person. ¡°Where are you, Puff?,¡± Bob said into his radio. ¡°Riding with Mercer,¡± said Puff ten times. ¡°I am ready if the girl wakes up.¡± ¡°Head to the next target as soon as the target is secured,¡± said Bob. ¡°Got me?¡± ¡°I will be there,¡± said Puff. Bob caught up with Troop and Clown Girl as they waited to jump across to the next building. From there they could run to the next building in line, or cross the street to the block of buildings on the other side. ¡°We have to get away from here,¡± said Bob. ¡°Puff is riding with Mercer and his boys. I sent Gaze ahead. We need to escape any cordon and catch up with Gaze.¡± ¡°No problem, Bob-a-roony,¡± said Clown Girl. ¡°We can jump across the street, and head down to street level so we can use a car to drive away.¡± ¡°Really?,¡± said Bob. ¡°What do you think, Troop?¡± The simian pointed across the street. ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± said Bob. ¡°The faster we get away from here, the better I¡¯ll like it.¡± Troop hurled himself across the gap on one of his living bridges. Clown Girl ran across the bridge as lightly as if she were on the ground. It was a good thing they made her give up the oversized shoes. Bob just jumped across. Troop pulled himself together and they headed down a fire escape to get away from the sirens and lightbars converging on the chaos they had caused. Bob didn¡¯t glance back as they reached an alley and walked out on the sidewalk. He pointed his gadget at a nearby car. The engine turned on and the doors unlocked. They had a long drive back to their base at the Quality Inn. Then they had to fly out to where their next target lived and get started rounding it up. The file said it was some kind of machine. His gadget should shut it down pretty easily. The last target should be just as easy. The file said that target was a martial artist. Troop could wrap that up by himself. Not many normal people could stand up to his gorilla-like strength. Bob got behind the wheel. He waited for the others to get in before driving away. The car would be left at the hotel for the police to find. By that time, they would be packed up and long gone. He debated splitting up the team to take out the next two targets. He decided against it as he drove along. Corona had been almost naturally strong enough to take on Troop with her bare hands. If these others had hidden resources, they would need the full team to take care of business. He definitely didn¡¯t want to get caught flatfooted and lose because he had underestimated the people he was chasing. Overkill was better than having to face his boss with one win out of three. Letting the masked community know they existed would be the same as losing in the opinion of his boss. The targets had to vanish with no clue left behind. Heroes who became interested in their business was trouble one way or the other. And if things escalated enough, that would attract the attention of the Mark. And no villain wanted that. Revenge of the Scouts 6 Marty directed his griffin to land in front of the small building buried in the middle of a small forest of trees. He dismounted and looked around. He didn¡¯t see anything moving. ¡°It¡¯s smaller than I thought it would be.¡± Ren tried to stand on weak legs. He looked around also, gauging what he needed. ¡°This is just the top,¡± said Marty. He waved his hands around. ¡°These trees used to have cameras mounted with hidden guns everywhere. The catapult for the jet was over there somewhere. And the land area is far away from anyone trying to get up here.¡± ¡°Do you think anyone has been up here in the last few years?¡± Ren nodded when he felt his legs would carry him. ¡°Doubt it.¡± Marty walked toward the door. ¡°The Foundation was supposed to maintain property rights until the Scouts were declared dissolved. As that last member, I¡¯m the only one who can declare that. And I haven¡¯t.¡± Marty flipped the lid up on the scanner next to the door. He put his hand on it. The door slid out of the way. He walked inside the darkened greeting hall. ¡°Secretary?¡± Ren pointed at the dusty desk in the middle of the room. ¡°Not really,¡± Marty paused at the desk. He hit a switch. The lights came on. ¡°Barry used this as a checkpoint for the defenses. He liked to direct fire at anyone trying to get up here without permission.¡± ¡°Really?¡± Ren frowned at that information. ¡°Barry created the Scouts from this place.¡± Marty hit another switch. Screens lit up. ¡°First he recreated himself so he would be stuck in a bed for the rest of his life.¡± ¡°This is where he created the parts for Mr. Robot?,¡± said Ren. ¡°That¡¯s beneath us?¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± Marty nodded. He flipped another switch. ¡°He had a lot of money, and bankrolling his research was easy for him to do. Building this place happened before he had his accident. Afterwards, it was his lab and workplace to get back on his feet, then it became home to the Scouts. I am kind of surprised the place hasn¡¯t been looted. I haven¡¯t been here in a while.¡± ¡°Your foundation probably didn¡¯t send anyone out.¡± Ren looked around for another door. ¡°If it was locked up when you left on your last mission, that should be good enough.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Marty. He hit another switch. A panel slid out of the way. ¡°Let¡¯s go down and see what¡¯s left of the place.¡± He led the way into an elevator. He pushed a button to descend. Ren looked around at the metal bullet. ¡°No stairs?¡±, Ren asked. ¡°They¡¯re on the other side of the building,¡± said Marty. ¡°This is the fastest way down into the guts of the place.¡± ¡°What happens if the elevator fails?,¡± asked Ren. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Marty. ¡°It¡¯s never happened.¡± ¡°That is not really comforting.¡± Ren closed his eyes as the cab dropped from under his feet. He held on to the rail provided in the cab at waist height as his feet left the floor. Then the bullet slowed to a stop. His shoes settled to the ground just before the elevator announced its arrival. ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± Marty waited for the door to slide open. ¡°If anything happens, you¡¯ll be stuck in here for a while.¡± ¡°That¡¯s what I am worried about,¡± said Ren. He followed the other man out of the elevator. ¡°I suppose we should look at any recordings related to your flying out to Idaville. You do have recordings?¡± ¡°I think so,¡± said Marty. Marty led the way to a room full of complicated machinery. He blew dust off the equipment. It had been sitting there a long time in the hopes that someone would come back and use it. He looked around until he found a log book. He flipped it open to examine the contents. ¡°The last call to be logged in was Idaville from someone in the Department of Defense,¡± said Marty. ¡°I should have looked at this log book years ago. A Mercer is put down as the primary.¡± ¡°Primary?,¡± asked Ren. ¡°When a call came in, the person who sent the call was the primary,¡± said Marty. He handed over the book for Ren to examine. ¡°Secondary sources are people on the ground calling when we got to the scene. The primary is usually a source inside some other organization needing help.¡± ¡°Did Mercer have enough pull to fake a trail of evidence?,¡± asked Ren. He ran his The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.finger down the column, reading the names of the other primaries. ¡°This was his third call. The other two were for Pearl Harbor and Midway.¡± ¡°Pearl Harbor was some kind of theft,¡± said Marty. He closed his eyes as he tried to remember a case from eleven years ago. ¡°Midway was some kind of monster.¡± ¡°Why the calls from the Department of Defense?,¡± asked Ren. ¡°I assume they have their own response teams to handle problems.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Marty searched his memories. ¡°I don¡¯t remember why we were called.¡± ¡°Can you find out?,¡± asked Ren. He went back to the names. Mercer was the only one with only three calls. The rest of the names were repeated multiple times across the country. Most were emergency situations they thought the Scouts could handle better than the local force on the ground. Another name called from the Department of Defense more than Mercer. Why was there a change in the caller? That might be something. How did he find out? Would the man take a call from Marty after all these years? Maybe that was the way to go if he wanted to follow this line of inquiry. He checked the phone number. It still might be in use. He noted that it was different from the one Mercer used. Different offices? Different departments handling the same kind of problems? Would the other man know what was going on? Was Mercer really an official in the Department of Defense? That was a key question. The earlier calls might have been to build trust. Then they lured the Scouts into the trap with that established rapport. It sounded right in his head. How did they prove it? He knew they were on the right track. He wondered if the man had used his own name to build that trust in him. That would make things easier for them. ¡°Okay,¡± said Marty. He had left and came back while Ren had been looking at the log book. ¡°I found the two other cases that Mercer called in.¡± ¡°Can I?¡± Ren handed over the log book for the files. He went through them slowly. He didn¡¯t think the scale needed the heroes. They were small crimes involving service personnel. He made some notes in a pad before handing the files back. He considered what he had learned. Everything seemed straightforward. He just didn¡¯t have a motive other than hatred for the Scouts. That didn¡¯t narrow the field. ¡°Does your phone work?,¡± asked Ren. ¡°I would like to call and see if Major Ricther is still in service.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Marty picked up receiver. A dial tone emerged. ¡°Looks like the Foundation kept that up too.¡± ¡°Good,¡± said Ren. ¡°I feel like this Captain Mercer is the key to our mystery. If we can locate him, then we can find out the rest.¡± ¡°No magic?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°We still have that to fall back on.¡± Ren took the phone. ¡°I would rather use more mundane methods that can be proven in a court of law so I don¡¯t have to try to explain how I charmed something to work for me. People still tend to frown at magic use.¡± ¡°I can see that.¡± Marty leaned against the counter holding the equipment off the floor. ¡°Powers are treated the same way.¡± ¡°Objectively subjective testimony tends to be flawed,¡± said Ren as he dialed the number from the log book. He didn¡¯t expect anyone to answer, but if they did, it would make his confirming questions easier to ask. He listened to the bell at the other end. Someone picked up. ¡°Major Richter¡¯s office.¡± ¡°I am hoping to ask Major Richter some questions,¡± said Ren. ¡°I¡¯m looking into the death of the Hazard Scouts.¡± ¡°Hold on,¡± said the voice. A switch sounded to show the line was being changed. ¡°This is Ricther.¡± This voice sounded more precise. ¡°My name is Ren,¡± said Ren. ¡°I am helping Martin Morgan look into the deaths of his fellow Hazard Scouts. I noticed that there is an entry for a Captain Mercer as a contact. I was wondering if you knew him.¡± ¡°A Captain Mercer from ten years ago in this department?,¡± said Ricther. ¡°First name?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not listed in the log book,¡± said Ren. ¡°He had two earlier calls about problems on Pearl Harbor and Midway. They concerned a joint project with Watson Security.¡± ¡°That narrows things down a bit,¡± said Ricther. ¡°Do you want to hold on, or let me call you back?¡± ¡°I imagine it will take some time to verify what I have said,¡± said Ren. ¡°We¡¯ll be here at the Scouts base for a bit longer before we move on to follow up on other leads. Do you still have the number?¡± ¡°Yes, I have it,¡± said Ricther. ¡°I¡¯ll call when I have something.¡± ¡°Thank you, Major,¡± said Ren. He hung up the phone. ¡°Major Ricther said he hadn¡¯t heard of anyone named Mercer. He is hoping to look him up in the personnel files for us.¡± ¡°Do you believe him?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°Did he believe me?,¡± said Ren. ¡°He has no reason to help us on the basis of our short conversation. I expect him to call back with something, or send someone out here to talk to us in person.¡± ¡°I see what you¡¯re saying,¡± said Marty. ¡°We might have a unit of infantry coming to confirm our identities.¡± ¡°If he calls back, we might have something we can use,¡± said Ren. ¡°At the very least, he can confirm or deny that Mercer worked in his branch of the government. That will give us something.¡± ¡°You think Mercer wasn¡¯t a real government official?,¡± asked Marty. That would go with everything else they had discovered so far. ¡°There are various possibilities in play,¡± said Ren. ¡°We have to rule some of them out. Confirming a government connection will help us narrow down our suspect pool.¡± ¡°What happens if he wasn¡¯t government?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°Then we¡¯ll have to trace down this alias until we hit a dead end,¡± said Ren. ¡°Then we fall back on the more obscure evidence that we have already gathered.¡± ¡°So everything depends on this Major believing you are who you say you are,¡± said Marty. He rubbed his forehead. ¡°Yes,¡± said Ren. ¡°I think he will help.¡± ¡°Why would he?¡±, asked Marty. ¡°His name is in the log book the most right before the Scouts were ambushed,¡± explained Ren. ¡°I feel that he had enough of an arrangement with your partners that he would want to know what happened to them.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Marty. ¡°That makes sense.¡± ¡°Now I am going to take a nap and meditate about everything we have learned.¡± Ren nodded at his partner. ¡°If Ricthner has something, I am sure he will call back in a few hours.¡± ¡°There are some guest rooms.¡± Marty led the way to a set of stairs. ¡°They¡¯ll probably be dusty.¡± Marty headed down the stairs. He stopped in a hall like any of the other halls they passed. He went down until he reached the fifth door. He pushed it open. Dust covered everything, but the bed didn¡¯t have a sheet or blankets. ¡°I¡¯ll get you a blanket from the closet.¡± Marty turned and walked down the hall. He opened a door and grabbed a blanket off the shelf. He shook it out, and carried it back. He handed it over. ¡°This should do for the amount of time we¡¯ll be here.¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± said Ren. ¡°I appreciate it.¡± Revenge of the Scouts 7 Thingamabob rubbed his face as he waited. Corona had been dangerous because of her natural energy powers. The guy they were after now was dangerous because he was more machine than a living creature. He should be easy pickings for Bob¡¯s gizmo, but if they were wrong, things could get out of hand quick. He went over the plan in his head. He didn¡¯t see any flaws. That didn¡¯t mean anything. There were always flaws in plans. You found them when you tried to put the plan in motion. Hopefully his comrades would compensate and get things done. He didn¡¯t need a lecture from the higher-ups. ¡°I got contact, Bob,¡± reported Gaze. ¡°Target is below us in the sewer.¡± ¡°Give us direction, Gaze.¡± Bob nodded at the others. ¡°We¡¯re going to have to draw him out so we can deal with him.¡± ¡°It looks like it¡¯s just hovering in place.¡± Gaze sounded bothered. ¡°This thing looks like a flying octopus. Are you sure this is the target?¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± said Bob. ¡°Let me have a second before we go after this thing. I need to think.¡± The attack on Corona had been simple. She flew patrols over Detroit. They were regular, and out in the open. It had been easy to track her back to her starting point. This machine hid out under Chicago. There were literally miles of tunnels and other things since the new version of the city had been built on the old versions of the city. If they went into the tunnels after the thing, they would be letting it have home field advantage and losing the element of surprise. Did he want to roll the dice, or go to target number three and hope she was easier to take than a flying metal octopus? ¡°This is the plan,¡± said Bob. He hated the solution he saw to his problem. It involved a lot of personal risk he didn¡¯t think should be taken by him. ¡°Puff is going to drop me on the target, or as close to the target as he can. I shoot the target with the EMP. The target is down. Puff gets Troop. Troop carries the octopus to the closest exit and turns it over to Mercer. Any questions?¡± ¡°What happens if the EMP doesn¡¯t work?,¡± asked Clown Girl. ¡°Then we have to slug it out with this thing until it goes down, or the police show up.¡± Bob didn¡¯t like that. He wanted things to work smoothly and quickly. If they were engaged until the police showed up, that ran the risk of exposure. ¡°All right,¡± said Gaze. ¡°It¡¯s moving. It¡¯s headed our way.¡± ¡°Puff?,¡± asked Bob. He readied the EMP built into his gadget. ¡°I have to get a look at the lay of the land. I can¡¯t just blow in there blindly. That would be bad. I don¡¯t want to lose a limb. I don¡¯t want to lose my head. I like my head, Bob,¡± said Puff. He didn¡¯t pause between sentences, but the others were used to his rapid fire speech. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me about it,¡± said Bob. ¡°Do it.¡± Puff vanished in a cloud of smoke. He returned a moment later. He smiled. ¡°I have a spot ahead of the thing. I don¡¯t know if it saw me. It might have, but I was only there for a second. It might think I was some kind of echo. Ready to go?,¡± said the teleporter. ¡°Yes,¡± said Bob. Puff grabbed him and the world vanished in a haze of fog. The cloud pushed out of the way and he was standing in the dark. A light hovered in front of him. He didn¡¯t hesitate. He commanded the gadget to fire. The beam struck the machine as it raised its many arms, cylinder of a head turning to orientate on the new threat. It crashed to the floor of the tunnel. ¡°Get Troop.¡± Bob aimed his device at the machine and took a reading. He saw that the machine was trying to power up. ¡°Hurry up.¡± Puff vanished. He reappeared with Troop in his grasp. ¡°This thing is trying to come back to life,¡± said Bob. ¡°We need to get it in the cage before it does that.¡± Troop multiplied down the tunnel until he reached a ladder leading up on the street. More of him grabbed the downed robot and he began to pass it along the line as fast as he could. ¡°Gaze,¡± said Bob. His radio crackled with static. ¡°Puff, have Gaze guide Mercer to wherever the exit is. He needs to be ready with the cage quick.¡± ¡°Got it, boss. You can count on me. Be there in a jiffy.¡± Puff vanished. ¡°If that thing wakes up, Troop,¡± began Bob. ¡°Bash it if you have to. We can¡¯t let it A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.have an idea who we are and then let it escape.¡± The simian at the end of the line next to Bob nodded in understanding. He doubted he could do that much against that many arms, but he had a lot of arms himself. One of the tentacles started twitching. Bob followed the line of Troops, using his gadget to keep an eye on the readings from the machine. They were cutting it close. The manhole cover flipped out of the way as Troop started handing the machine up the ladder. Human soldiers stood around the opening in the street. They pulled the thing through the hole with some work. Troop grabbed Bob by the waist and handed him down the line as the duplicates shrank to a single simian strongman. They handed him up to the street before pulling themselves up out of the tunnel and into one creature. Mercer¡¯s mercenaries had the thing in the specially designed cage in the back of a moving truck. They pulled a switch and the cage was bolted down between two magnetic walls. If that wiped the programming, that would be too bad. Reports showed the thing was too dangerous without something set up to keep it at bay. Bob was glad it was loaded in the moving truck. That meant for him, the mission was over. He had to move on to the last target. If Mercer lost the machine, that was on him. The Squad was free of any responsibility. ¡°Load up,¡± ordered Mercer. ¡°We have to get this thing back to a proper cage.¡± The door on the truck closed with guards mounted inside the load compartment. Mercer watched as the driver and the last guard got the truck on the road and headed south. A black jeep rolled up to pick him up. A black SUV rolled behind the moving truck and kept pace. ¡°Tell the guards to keep an eye on that thing,¡± said Bob. ¡°It was trying to shake off the EMP discharge while we were getting it out of the tunnel.¡± ¡°That can¡¯t be good.¡± Mercer climbed into the jeep. ¡°I¡¯ll let them know. I¡¯ll call you when we get to the last target site.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be waiting for it,¡± said Bob. He nodded his head as the jeep rolled away after the other vehicles. ¡°That went better than I thought,¡± said Gaze. Puff dropped him on the street with Bob and Troop. ¡°I didn¡¯t expect the reset,¡± said Bob. ¡°It was almost like it wasn¡¯t a robot at all.¡± Puff dropped Clown Girl with the others. He vanished. He reappeared with a cup of soda in his hand. ¡°Let¡¯s head back to the hotel,¡± said Bob. ¡°We have to head to Seattle to plan to pick up our last target before we can take a vacation.¡± ¡°This Finch doesn¡¯t look so tough. I bet Clown Girl can beat her. Do I really have to go? I want a vacation now,¡± said Puff. He sipped his drink loudly. ¡°That¡¯s the job,¡± said Bob. ¡°Now let¡¯s get a car and get moving. We can¡¯t stand here looking stupid all our lives.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Puff. ¡°I¡¯ll get a car. I do all the work around here anyways. I am the greatest.¡± ¡°I think I can take this Finch,¡± said Clown Girl. ¡°We¡¯re not going to do anything like that.¡± Bob made a face. ¡°If we have to fight her, then we have failed the mission.¡± ¡°And I don¡¯t think we want to give her a fair fight,¡± said Gaze. ¡°Who fights fair?,¡± said Clown Girl, smiling. Troop made a hand gesture. His eyebrows wiggled. ¡°Shut it, you damn dirty ape,¡± said Clown Girl with a grin. A van rolled up. Puff rolled down the driver¡¯s window. He waved a hand for them to get in. ¡°Move over,¡± said Bob. He pulled open the door of the van. ¡°I¡¯m driving.¡± Puff vaulted into the shotgun seat. He muttered to himself as he strapped the seatbelt down. The rest of the Squad got in the back. ¡°We¡¯ll pack up and check out of the hotel.¡± Bob drove leisurely away from the battle scene. ¡°Then we¡¯ll catch a flight out to Seattle, settle in, and figure out where we can ambush Finch.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t we get some sleep first?,¡± said Clown Girl. ¡°I would like to take a night to relax before we have to chase down some other power for the boss.¡± ¡°I agree with Clown Girl,¡± said Gaze. ¡°There¡¯s no point in setting up when we have to wait on Mercer to escort our prisoner back to base.¡± Troop silently nodded. ¡°What about you, motor mouth?,¡± said Bob. He looked over at Puff. The man in purple fell silent for a second. He shook in his chair for a second. ¡°I think we should take five. I think we need to be on the top of our game. This Finch might be better than us. She might be able to knock all of us out,¡± said Puff. He shrugged. ¡°A night off before we take her on couldn¡¯t hurt us by relaxing.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Bob. He didn¡¯t need them balking when he needed them working. ¡°We¡¯ll take the rest of the night off and fly out tomorrow.¡± ¡°Thanks, boss,¡± said Clown Girl. ¡°I knew you would make the right decision.¡± ¡°What if I had made the wrong decision?,¡± asked Bob. He didn¡¯t know if he wanted to hear the answer. ¡°I have a bag for that,¡± said Clown Girl. Puff made a throat cutting gesture while trying to keep it from the people in the back. ¡°What was that?,¡± Clown Girl asked. Her voice had a querulous tinge to it. ¡°Nothing, nothing,¡± said Puff. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t say anything. You are a beautiful human being.¡± He turned to look out the window of his door. He made the throat cutting gesture again. Bob smiled slightly. ¡°That¡¯s what I thought,¡± said Clown Girl. Bob turned and headed for the hotel. The Squad were silent except for Puff. He muttered to himself as he watched the scenery go by. Bob pulled into the underground garage of the hotel. He parked close to the door so they could get to the elevators and stairs with minimum exposure. Puff vanished before the others could get out of the van. ¡°He talks to himself too much, Bob,¡± said Gaze. ¡°I know, but we need him,¡± said Bob. ¡°We wouldn¡¯t have handled the robot as easy as we did without him.¡± ¡°One day he¡¯s going to snap,¡± said Gaze. ¡°We might have to put him down ourselves if that happens.¡± ¡°When we get done, I¡¯ll have him sit down with the Docs,¡± said Bob. He got out of the van. ¡°If the boss pulls his plug, that¡¯s what we will do.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± said Gaze. ¡°I¡¯ll keep my eye on him.¡± ¡°Right,¡± said Bob. ¡°Let¡¯s go up to our rooms and get some sleep.¡± ¡°Yes,¡± said Gaze. The Squad crossed the garage. They headed up the stairs. They didn¡¯t want to explain themselves to passengers on an elevator. They climbed up to their floor. Gaze had the room next to the stairs. He slipped inside his room, pulling back his hood as he shut the door. The rest walked the hall, separating as they reached their hotel doors. Bob was last as his room was at the end of the hall next to a window looking out on the city. He pulled off his green costume and packed it away before heading for a shower. He planned to be asleep afterward. Revenge of the Scouts 8 Marty inspected his work. He smiled. He had not thought that he could get animals to help with basic cleaning chores, but it had worked out well. The base looked better after the time put in to get it back in shape. Between chores, he had gone down the mountain and picked up some supplies. He didn¡¯t know how long they were going to be at the base, but the ten year old food stored in the larder for the team couldn¡¯t be safe to eat. It was better to get fresh stuff and throw the old stuff in the incinerator. The food was a waste in any case. He should have returned before this, but had kept moving around. Occasionally he would stop in a safe house for a night, or two. Then he would move on. Ren had taken over one of the empty labs while they waited for the Major to call back. The apprentice had set their evidence out in a display on a table. He walked around it, studying it while they waited for the phone to ring. It looked like a giant puzzle with more than a few pieces missing to Marty. ¡°If we had a motive, things would be clearer,¡± Ren said as he walked around the table. ¡°It seems like someone paid Mercer to make the call to lure us to Idaville,¡± said Marty. ¡°If we knew who that was, maybe the motive would come.¡± ¡°I doubt it was anyone in the government,¡± said Ren. ¡°The Hazard Scouts produced good publicity whenever they arrived on the scene of a disaster.¡± ¡°That still leaves half of the world.¡± Marty shook his head. ¡°The only one we can rule out is Cortez. Jim ruled him out at the attack, and he hasn¡¯t been seen since the last time we dealt with him.¡± ¡°That seems odd,¡± Ren frowned at that bit of information. ¡°Are you sure?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± said Marty. ¡°He hasn¡¯t done anything since we crashed his volcano explosion scheme. That was one of the reasons we went to Idaville in the first place. Mercer said he had contact with Cortez¡¯s forces there.¡± Ren added that information to his puzzle. It formed a block with years marked on it. He would have thought Cortez would put any scheme in action with the deaths of his nemesis. The phone rang. Ren nodded as he went to the old style wall unit at the door to the lab. Maybe this was more pieces in the puzzle. ¡°Hello,¡± said Ren. ¡°How are you?¡± ¡°Fine,¡± said Major Ricther. ¡°I did some digging. The Armed Services never had problems like you described at Pearl, or Midway. But there was a company leasing facilities that matches Watson Security. The owner is William Watson. I don¡¯t have any background on him. I talked to the base commanders that were stationed at those places during the emergency calls. One of them identifies one of the men he dealt with as a Captain Steven Mercer who he believed was bounced from the service. He was surprised to see the man in with the rest of the detail he saw.¡± ¡°Can you find out why Captain Mercer was discharged?,¡± asked Ren. ¡°I already did,¡± said Ricther. ¡°He was caught using his troops as a band of pirates and Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.mercenaries.¡± ¡°That¡¯s interesting,¡± said Ren. ¡°Do you know where he lives?¡± ¡°No, I don¡¯t.¡± Ricther sighed into the phone. ¡°We don¡¯t keep track of people once they are discharged. I can give you the last known address in his file. Other than that, I don¡¯t know how much more help I can be.¡± ¡°That would be helpful,¡± said Ren. ¡°We will track him down and ask our questions.¡± Ricther gave him the address listed for Mercer. He wished them the best of luck, and hung up. ¡°I doubt he is there at that address, but I would like to look at it all the same.¡± Ren hung up the phone and crossed to the table. He added another chip for Mercer with the calls and the trap line to Idaville. ¡°So Mercer got our emergency line number, created some emergencies, and then lured us into a trap,¡± said Marty. ¡°And then made sure the trap sprung shut.¡± ¡°Being there in person is what gave it away to Mental.¡± Ren adjusted his table displays slightly. ¡°That¡¯s how he lost his ring.¡± ¡°How do you want to handle this?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°We¡¯ll go to the address and see if we can pick up his trail,¡± said Ren. ¡°If we can¡¯t, we will resort to the ring and see if it will take us to where we want to go.¡± ¡°Sounds good to me,¡± said Marty. ¡°We won¡¯t have to use the griffin either.¡± ¡°We won¡¯t,¡± asked Ren. ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Because the Scout van is still in the hangar.¡± Marty smiled. ¡°I already looked it over and it still runs.¡± ¡°So we can drive instead of flying,¡± said Ren. ¡°That¡¯s great. Griffin flying is hard on the butt.¡± ¡°I know,¡± said Marty. ¡°When do you want to go?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s get something to eat,¡± said Ren. ¡°Then we can get started.¡± ¡°Sounds fine to me.¡± Marty led the way to the kitchen. ¡°What happens if Mercer won¡¯t tell us anything?¡± ¡°He¡¯ll tell us something, whether he wants to, or not.¡± Ren rubbed his hands together. ¡°Every criminal leaves a trace, whether they know it, or not.¡± ¡°So this Watson could be the mastermind behind everything?,¡± said Marty. ¡°How do we prove that?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know yet,¡± admitted Ren. ¡°I¡¯m hoping that talking with Mercer will give us enough to figure out Watson¡¯s goals and if he went after the Scouts. A motive will present itself when we know for sure he was involved.¡± ¡°He¡¯s involved,¡± said Marty. ¡°We need to know more about him, but I don¡¯t know who to ask for the information.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have extensive contacts to check on him,¡± admitted Ren. ¡°I doubt he will be in the newspapers.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s ask Mercer,¡± said Marty. ¡°Then we can check on what he says through the newspapers. Maybe we can find a connection that way.¡± ¡°Maybe,¡± said Ren. ¡°Let¡¯s eat, and forget the mystery for the moment. Maybe something will present itself after we are done.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Marty. ¡°I can do that.¡± The two fixed themselves food from the supplies, talking about other cases. Marty talked about the time the Scouts had helped put out a forest fire in California. His part was creating firebreaks with an elephant. That had been his biggest animal at the time. Ren told him of a mystery he had worked on with his mentor. Someone named Nachi was smuggling women into Japan to use as slaves. They had tracked the ring down, and busted it. The women were returned to their own countries. Nachi had tried to hide behind contracts. It was quickly proven that the contracts didn¡¯t entitle him to kidnap people from other places. Marty cleaned up his mess after he was done. He shook his head after the story. He had dealt with similar people. They didn¡¯t think anything was wrong with what they were doing. Other people didn¡¯t matter. This case might be of the same stripe. He didn¡¯t like that. It meant his friends had been killed for some nebulous goal instead of some personal animosity. Personal animosity seemed better in his mind. When he found Watson, he planned to show him how he felt about it. Ren cleaned up his own mess in silence. His mind seemed to be on his own past dealings with criminal masterminds. ¡°I have to use the bathroom,¡± said Marty. ¡°Then I¡¯ll get the van ready to go.¡± ¡°No worry,¡± said Ren. ¡°I have to make sure I have all I need when we talk to Mercer. I doubt he will tell the truth if we ask him questions without some kind of threat.¡± ¡°I would hope I¡¯m threat enough,¡± said Marty. Ren shook his head. ¡°I have threatened people before,¡± said Marty. He left the room to head to his old quarters. Ren went back to his evidence room. He wanted to use the truth as leverage. If he had to use one of Marty¡¯s animals, he would. Learning the truth had become paramount. Revenge of the Scouts 9 Thingamabob checked his device as he waited on the roof of a little mom and pop store. He wanted to get things done so he could go back to his research. All he needed to do was take care of this last target. The others were spread out over the neighborhood. Finch was not out roaming the neighborhood, so they had to wait on her. Gaze didn¡¯t have a lock down with his high powered eyes because he didn¡¯t know what she looked like without a mask. The observers Watson had assigned to look for the mask had narrowed things down to this one stretch of Seattle. They hadn¡¯t been able to narrow it down further. It was up to him to do the rest. He figured that he could locate the heroine with his device if she was powered. So far scans had been negative. He gave it some thought. Maybe they could use a variation of the same trap they had used on Corona. It had worked once, it should work twice. And Clown Girl wanted to test this heroine, so it was perfect for getting that out of her system. ¡°I need you to cause some trouble, Clown Girl.¡± Bob didn¡¯t like that, but some kind of chaos needed to be started to attract the target¡¯s attention. ¡°Maybe we can draw her out.¡± ¡°I am all for that, Bob.¡± She laughed over the radio. ¡°Watch me strut my stuff.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t go overboard,¡± said Bob. ¡°We don¡¯t want to attract a police presence.¡± ¡°I got it,¡± said Clown Girl. ¡°Everybody else, get ready,¡± said Bob. ¡°As soon as Finch appears, we have to take her down.¡± ¡°I¡¯m ready,¡± said Gaze. ¡°Ready,¡± said Puff. Troop grunted in his radio. ¡°Go ahead, Clown Girl,¡± said Bob. ¡°Let¡¯s see who we draw out.¡± Clown Girl dropped down in the street. She ran up to the biggest guy she saw and dropkicked him in the face. The man rocked back on his heels, reaching for his face. She kicked him below the belt. She flipped to her feet and rammed him with her shoulder. He crashed into a window and kept going. She looked around for the next victim. Everyone was looking at her instead of running. She needed to fix that. Clown Girl punched a woman in the face. The victim went over the hood of a parked car. Some of the people on the street went to help the woman up. Some went after the woman in the makeup. ¡°Finch is coming,¡± said Gaze. ¡°I¡¯ve got her real face.¡± ¡°Get ready, Clown Girl,¡± said Bob. ¡°Keep her busy until we can get in there and knock her out.¡± ¡°Will do, boss,¡± said Clown Girl. She evaded capture by the citizens while handing out punches and kicks. Some of the people trying to stop her ran into things like cars and parking meters. Finch came out of an alley, wearing the gold and green fighting outfit that was her trademark. Her mask covered the top of her face. A frown covered the bottom. She pulled a baton from her belt and spun it in her hand. ¡°You think you can take me on, sister,¡± said Clown Girl. She waved the fingers of her hand in a come on gesture. ¡°I would like to see you try.¡± Finch advanced, baton spinning in her hand. She held up the other hand in a guard position as she waited. She didn¡¯t have to hold this crazy for long. The police were already on their way. ¡°As soon as they engage, Puff and Troop, I need you to go,¡± said Bob. ¡°I need you to hold her in place long enough for me to dart her.¡± ¡°Got it. It should be easy. Troop is a big monkey. No one can stand up to a big monkey,¡± said Puff. The two women traded blows in the middle of the sidewalk. It was obvious to Bob The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.that Clown Girl had met her match. Her skill and amazing luck was being tested by the golden warrior. Several times Finch made missteps that she seemed to know were not of her own doing. Bob expected Finch to compensate for Clown Girl¡¯s luck and that would be it. His guys had to do their job first. Puff and Troop appeared over the fight. Then a lot of Troops appeared, falling toward the two women. Clown Girl jumped back out of the way. Finch couldn¡¯t since the monkeys were right on top of her. She began delivering blow after blow with baton and fist, but then the weight of the multiple simians crashed down on top of her. Some of them made noises to show she was still fighting under the pile. If they weren¡¯t weighing her down, Bob expected her to fight clear. He couldn¡¯t allow that. ¡°Come and get me, Puff,¡± Bob ordered into the radio. ¡°Let¡¯s wrap this up before the police get here.¡± Puff appeared, grabbed Bob¡¯s arm, vanished from the roof. They reappeared on the street. One of the monkeys staggered away from the pile. He made small grunting sounds. ¡°Ouch. That must have hurt. Glad it wasn¡¯t me. I don¡¯t like to get punched in the bajonies.¡± He stepped back from the action. Bob silently agreed. The last thing he needed was to get hurt in a sensitive area before they got the job done. He pointed his device at the pile. He didn¡¯t want to dart all of the monkeys and Finch. He needed a better means to the end. ¡°I need some type of exposure, Troop.¡± Bob walked around the pile. ¡°Give me something.¡± The monkeys pulled a female leg out in the open. They held it down despite the shots they were taking from the other limbs. Bob darted the leg. He pressed down on the end of the protruding dart to make sure it had penetrated the cloth. A few seconds later, the blows were weaker and misaimed. That had worked despite the fact that Finch might have been able to take Troop if none of the others were around. They had lucked out that she hadn¡¯t taken Clown Girl in a few seconds. That would have thrown the whole plan out the window. ¡°Transport One, we have the package,¡± said Bob in his radio. ¡°Prepare for arrival.¡± He gestured at Puff to do his thing. The teleporter dragged the drugged fighter into a cloud and was gone. ¡°Let¡¯s get out of here before the police arrive.¡± Bob started walking. ¡°It looks like we¡¯re on vacation while the boss figures out what he wants to do next.¡± ¡°I told you I could take her,¡± said Clown Girl. ¡°What do you say about that, Doubting Thomas?¡± Bob looked at her. Troop stood behind her, shaking his head. He wanted to say something scathing. ¡°Good job,¡± said Bob. He resumed walking. Troop breathed a sigh of relief at the averted violence. He pulled himself together, trying to walk off the injuries that had been inflicted on him. Bob smiled. Things had gone better than what he had thought they would. Once they were off the street, they could head back to their hotel and pack up to fly home. Transport One would already be out of the city, and on the way south hopefully by that time. Puff returned. He grabbed Clown Girl and vanished in smoke. He returned moments later and grabbed Troop. A second later, he appeared and carried Bob to where they had left their own transport in an alley away from the street. ¡°Let¡¯s mount up and head out of here,¡± said Bob. ¡°We¡¯ll head back to the hotel and get our stuff. Then we hit the airport.¡± ¡°You¡¯re not going to let us hit the clubs?,¡± asked Clown Girl. ¡°No,¡± said Bob. ¡°We¡¯re done. Let¡¯s head home.¡± ¡°What if we don¡¯t want to go home?,¡± said Clown Girl. ¡°Are you really pulling this?,¡± asked Bob. ¡°You know the drill. Get in the van, or there¡¯s going to be problems.¡± ¡°You heard the man. Get in the van. We¡¯re not here to have fun.¡± Puff slid into a back seat. He draped his purple coat around his purple suit. Troop climbed in the back of the van. He couldn¡¯t manage one of the seats. He had to settle for riding in a clear space in the back, braced against the sides on either side of the back hatch. He made a grunt. ¡°Let¡¯s go, Clown Girl,¡± said Gaze. ¡°The police are already cordoning off the area. We have to go.¡± Gaze got in the shotgun seat. His dark jacket covered the dark colors of his costume. He wore sunglasses for a mask. It should be enough to pass inspection. ¡°Do what you want,¡± said Bob. He got behind the wheel of the van. ¡°The rest of us don¡¯t want to go to jail.¡± ¡°Fine,¡± said Clown Girl. She took the seat next to Puff¡¯s with a huff. ¡°I¡¯m not happy about this.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine.¡± Bob pulled his hood back and let it drop behind his head. ¡°You can complain once we get home.¡± ¡°Fine,¡± said Clown Girl. The way she said the word meant it wasn¡¯t really fine at all. Bob pulled the white van out of the alley. He turned and headed away from the fight scene. Watson Security glimmered on the side of the van as it passed under a street light. He drove the speed limit to keep from looking suspicious. Things had gone better than he had thought they would. Three targets up and three targets down. All he had to do was get back to base and help with the programming. The trio would soon be valued members of his team. He might be able to replace Clown Girl if they worked out all right. It would be a shame to let her go, but he wouldn¡¯t have to listen to her wanting to play when they were supposed to be ducking out of a city. Everything had its trade offs, and he was willing to trade his prankster princess for someone who didn¡¯t complain at the drop of a hat. Finch would fill that slot nicely. He put that in a back file as he drove under the directions of Gaze. The visionary was pinpointing the dragnet and getting them out between cars. ¡°All right,¡± said Gaze. ¡°Turn right up here and, then take the first left. That will take us straight back to our hotel. We can pack our gear and get out of town before the local masks come looking for us.¡± ¡°Great.¡± Bob smiled. ¡°A few more hours and we are all clear.¡± Revenge of the Scouts 10 Marty drove the Scout van across the country to the address they had been given. He wore a light blue shirt with an H in the shape of an hourglass on the front near his collarbone. It drooped on him, but he didn¡¯t mind. He concentrated on the road, searching for street signs to point him in the right direction. He wanted to get to the house and deal with Mercer as fast as possible. Once he had some answers, maybe he would feel better about leaving his friends alone after they had died. Being able to punch the man responsible would certainly feel good in his mind. ¡°I think we are on the right street.¡± Ren folded the map he had been consulting. He put if back in a pocket of maps in the roof over his seat. ¡°It should be just ahead according to the mailboxes.¡± ¡°How do you want to handle this?,¡± said Marty. He slowed as he read the numbers on the mailboxes on his side of the van. ¡°We knock on the door and make sure this is the right Mercer,¡± said Ren. ¡°Then we ask him why he was at the scene of the crime.¡± ¡°What if he doesn¡¯t want to give us answers?,¡± said Marty. He stopped in front of a small white house with a small porch in front of a green door and a single window. ¡°He will,¡± said Ren. ¡°Even if he says nothing at all, I am confident I will be able to learn something we can use to find out the parts we don¡¯t know.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s see if he¡¯s home,¡± said Marty. He pulled into the gravel driveway, stopping behind an old pickup truck with blue paint and patches of rust. ¡°Then we can see what happens after that.¡± ¡°Remember to keep an eye out,¡± said Ren. ¡°Anything could be waiting for us inside there.¡± ¡°I¡¯m ready.¡± Marty cut the engine. ¡°If he so much as raises a hand against us, he¡¯ll regret it for the rest of his days.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t kill him,¡± said Ren. ¡°We still need what he knows.¡± ¡°I won¡¯t kill him,¡± said Marty. He got out of the van and shut the door before he said in a lower voice, ¡°He¡¯ll just wish he was dead.¡± The two men walked up to the porch. Nothing seemed out of place. Ren paused before he knocked on the door. He looked at the window. A shade and curtain blocked his view inside the house. He knocked on the door three times with the back of his hand. He listened, but heard nothing. He walked down to the end of the porch and looked down the side of the house. Nothing moved in his view of the backyard. He decided to knock again before he entered. He didn¡¯t want to get caught trespassing when he just wanted to clear up some questions. If no one was home, that made looking around that much easier. The presence of the truck said that someone lived in the house. That didn¡¯t mean the resident was Mercer. Ren knocked on the door. He frowned as he listened. He thought he heard footsteps. He stepped back from the door and to the side. Many criminals would shoot through the door to avoid answering questions. Marty took the other side of the door. He held a mental image of a dog in his head. If someone opened the door, and he had a gun in hand, then he would suffer some holes in that same appendage. The door opened. A thin man who had seen better days without alcohol glared at the two younger men on his porch. He wore overalls over a long john shirt but no shoes. His eyes were bleary and bloodshot. It was difficult to say if that was sleep, or drink. Marty held himself from releasing his animal. This guy didn¡¯t look capable of committing murder. He didn¡¯t look capable of checking his own mailbox. ¡°What you want?,¡± the resident demanded of Ren. ¡°I don¡¯t got time for a gook and some bum.¡± ¡°We are looking for Captain Steven Mercer,¡± said Ren. His eyes seemed to glow in the shadow of the porch. ¡°Does he live here?¡± If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°Naw,¡± said the elder man. ¡°He¡¯s been gone since he joined the Army. He was no good as a kid, and he was no good in the Army. It didn¡¯t surprise me when they kicked him out.¡± ¡°You haven¡¯t talked to him,¡± asked Ren. ¡°Not in a long time,¡± said Mr. Mercer. ¡°He said he had a job with some kind of company. He wouldn¡¯t be coming home again.¡± ¡°Did he give you some way to talk to him in an emergency?,¡± asked Ren. ¡°We have some questions we need answering.¡± ¡°Not my problem,¡± said Mercer. ¡°He¡¯s not here, and I don¡¯t know you two from Adam. Get off my property.¡± ¡°Thank you for your time,¡± said Ren. He nodded as he turned to leave. ¡°Come on, Marty. We have other places to look.¡± Marty glared at the old man before walking off the porch. It would have been so easy to set the dog on the guy. Then he would know what a questioning really looked like. Ren waited until the door shut before stepping back on the porch. He waved Marty to the van before he blended in with the slight shadow on the porch. The former Scout took the hint and got behind the wheel of the van. He started the engine and backed out of the driveway. He backed out on the road and slowly rolled down the road. Ren listened at the door. What he heard confirmed his suspicions. The Mercers were in contact, and the father was on the phone with the younger to warn him about their poking around. The old man sounded more bothered by the visit than what he had let on at the door. Should he go in and confront the elder Mercer? He decided not to. He stepped off the porch. He put the piece of the puzzle in its place as he walked to the road. It was time to chase the ring. They had enough circumstantial evidence to talk to Mercer. It was time to find him and see what he had to say about things. Ren expected a lot of lies when they did catch up with the man. That didn¡¯t matter. Something would show up to give him one more clue to put in place to make his case. It would be up to others to try to prosecute the man for a ten year old crime that no one saw happen. He saw the blue and white Scout van waiting down the road. He walked to the passenger door. He knew Marty wanted to follow the ring, and he had to agree. They had exhausted most of their normal lines of attack. ¡°Mr. Mercer was trying to call his son as soon as he thought we had left.¡± Ren climbed into the passenger seat and closed the door. ¡°The number called can be checked for a location.¡± ¡°How do you know that?,¡± asked Marty. Ren pulled out a pad and pen. He wrote the phone number down. He tore the paper off and handed it over. ¡°I heard him dial the number,¡± explained Ren. ¡°Since I have no way to check it, I thought we should follow the ring and see where that leads us.¡± ¡°Hold on,¡± said Marty. He stared at the number for a second. He looked around. ¡°I need a phone.¡± ¡°We can try at one of the gas stations we passed,¡± said Ren. ¡°One of them must have a public telephone.¡± ¡°This might give us a destination quicker than following the ring,¡± said Marty. He pulled away from the grassy shoulder and headed to the next cross street. ¡°It might get us to the guy¡¯s front door.¡± ¡°This will probably lead to some kind of operation for Watson Security,¡± said Ren. ¡°Exactly,¡± said Marty. ¡°It ties Mercer to Watson as part of a conspiracy if the number pans out.¡± ¡°And we already know he worked for Watson ten years ago because of the two cases handled by the Scouts,¡± said Ren. ¡°It¡¯s enough to develop a theory. We still need some kind of proof to fill in the motive. That¡¯s the hardest part of a case to prove.¡± ¡°We have enough for probable cause, but not enough for an indictment,¡± said Marty. ¡°I can see that.¡± ¡°There¡¯s a gas station up ahead,¡± said Ren. ¡°I think it has a phone booth next to it.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fancy.¡± Marty aimed for the lot in front of the booth. ¡°I only expected a thing on the wall. Let me make this call. We might have to wait a while for Barry¡¯s friend to call back.¡± ¡°Can he help us?,¡± asked Ren. ¡°He¡¯ll know someone who can check the number,¡± said Marty. ¡°That¡¯s better than the two of us can do.¡± ¡°True,¡± conceded Ren. Marty got out of the van and walked over to the phone. He fished some change out of his jeans and put that in the phone. He dialed the number, listening to the clicking of the dial as he waited. ¡°Marston Investigations,¡± announced a cool voice after a few rings in the line. ¡°How can I help you?¡± ¡°Is Petey in?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°I would like to talk to him.¡± ¡°Petey?, Mr. Marston?,¡± said the secretary. ¡°Who¡¯s this?¡± ¡°This is Marty Morgan,¡± said Marty. ¡°Petey Marston used to be friends with a friend of mine. I need to talk to him.¡± ¡°Hold please,¡± said the secretary. Marty fed more change into the slot at the top of the phone. He didn¡¯t know how long he was going to be holding. He smiled when someone new asked him who he was. ¡°This is Marty Morgan,¡± said Marty. ¡°How¡¯s it going?¡± ¡°Everybody thinks you¡¯re dead, Marty,¡± said Marston. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± ¡°I would like for you to reverse direct a phone number for me, and give me some kind of location, Petey,¡± said Marty. ¡°I want to know what¡¯s there.¡± ¡°I can do that,¡± said Marston. ¡°Where do I call you back?¡± ¡°I¡¯m on the road, Petey,¡± said the former Scout. ¡°I¡¯ll call back in a few hours.¡± ¡°Give me the number, and I¡¯ll get to work on it,¡± said the detective. Marty read the phone number off the sheet of paper. ¡°Be careful, Petey, and warn anyone you have look into this,¡± said Morgan. ¡°This is about Idaville.¡± ¡°I got it,¡± said Marston. ¡°Are you going to need help?¡± ¡°Just confirm the number,¡± said Marty. ¡°After that, I¡¯m just going to look around and see what I can find.¡± ¡°You need me, I¡¯ll come down and put a bullet in somebody,¡± said Marston. ¡°It won¡¯t come to that, Petey,¡± said Marty. He hung up the phone. ¡°I plan to let bears do my talking for me.¡± Revenge of the Scouts 11 The creature called Cog by the Chicago press floated inside its confinement. The electromagnetic pulse had damaged some of its systems. Repair packets worked on bringing its artificial body back to capacity. It wondered what was going on. It decided that perhaps this had to do with the help it gave to the Chicago authorities. Maybe there were other reasons, but that seemed the most likely. How did it get out of the cage? That seemed the next step. Once it was free, it could start doing things to make sure it remained free. Luckily, Cog had dropped a drone when they had taken it down under the city. The tiny machine was supposed to follow the commander around until it was sure of its terrain. It should help the bigger robot get free of its cell, and then wherever it was. Rebooting had not worked against the pulse. A lot of the core programming had been protected from the blast, but the workings in the limbs had been fried to a certain extent. Internal repairs and rerouting had restored eighty percent of its mobility. The most important part had been the flight systems. They had been the easiest to fix. The drone signaled Cog that it was inside the facility and still working. It had dug into some wiring and was raiding the command communications at random. It sent over what it thought was relevant to the problem. Cog didn¡¯t like what its drone reported. It was the second prisoner of five, the enemy planned to rewrite its programming to serve them, and they didn¡¯t know he was a cyborg. He pondered his predicament. Their first capture was in a cell on the other side of the facility from his. If he could free her, then he could use that as a distraction to free himself. He needed to know more about the first captive. Then he could decide if she would go along with his plan when he came up with one. And he did plan to escape from the situation. It was obvious the enemy wanted to use his artificial body for a war machine. He couldn¡¯t let that happen. He had run away to Earth to avoid being used in that way. The Mark was the defender of the planet. Every tell knew what it meant to take on the Mark. And his furry pet monster was even more dangerous to confront. Cog knew tells that shuddered if he even said the word SPIFFY. Some screamed and ran for their lives. Having dealt with the furry monster, he could understand that reaction. How did he get to his fellow captive? He doubted he could get out alone as long as they had electromagnetic guns ready to shut down his operating system. He needed a big distraction if he wanted to escape his confinement. Breaking his fellow prisoner free might do the job if she had some kind of power. How did he do it? He decided that his drone had to do some of the work. He couldn¡¯t get out of the cage he was in. If he tried, more of his systems would go down. His drone seemed to have free run of the place. It had to initiate contact. If the other prisoner could help him, then maybe the both of them could escape. His escape was foremost in his mind. Helping the other prisoner was secondary. If she got free, he was neutral to that. He didn¡¯t plan on making friends with her. The drone reported an uptick in communications. A third prisoner was being brought in. She seemed to be a normal. That wasn¡¯t much use to his plan. He had to make a decision. The best thing he could do was try to negotiate with the prisoner he could get to at the moment. If he couldn¡¯t reach an agreement with the The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.human, then he would try to talk to the third prisoner. He was getting out of the cage. He was smarter than any human. He was more capable. He had a hundred limbs filled with tools that was coming back to life. The drone picked up some chatter about two of the intended targets poking into company business. They had identified one of the key players and were looking for him. They had tripped some kind of warning sign and were being designated for a cell in the complex. Cog couldn¡¯t wait that long. The humans would try working on him before they captured the other two. He had to get things started before they figured out where they should started investigating his inner workings and found his brain. He planned to be out of there before they figured out how to cut him open. He ordered the drone to locate the cell. He could proceed from there when it sent back an in position click. He would lose the intelligence gathering but that couldn¡¯t be helped. He had to start his shaky plan before they moved against him. He worked on bringing more of his body back online while he waited. He wanted to be more than eighty percent ready when the time came. His drone reported that it was in position. It had secured a nest in a vent over the cell. Microphones and cameras reported on the captive to security. They didn¡¯t want her doing anything without them being able to alert the rest of the compound. Cog ordered the drone to record and reroute the recordings to hide what he wanted it to do next. He didn¡¯t want them to know anything about what he was capable of doing. He wanted to keep as many aces as he could. His helper was one such ace. The drone reported that it had captured and rerouted all the signals so that the watchers thought their captive was pacing and looking for a way out. He carefully raised a dish so he could talk through his drone without the watchers of his own cell knowing what he was doing. He didn¡¯t want to broadcast his plans to anyone who thought they could stop him. ¡°Can you hear me?,¡± he said through his drone. The device nested above the cell. At his command, it could free the other prisoner. Then it could come back to free him from his cell. ¡°Yeah,¡± said the prisoner. ¡°What do you want?¡± ¡°I want my freedom.¡± Cog extended some minor sensors. He couldn¡¯t detect anything sounding the alarm at what he was doing. ¡°I¡¯m a few hundred meters south, southwest, of your position. I¡¯m trapped in a magnetic cage.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± said the other prisoner. ¡°I¡¯m trapped in a room that is nullifying my powers. I don¡¯t see how I can help you.¡± ¡°I can shut off the machinery in your room with a little work.¡± Cog thought that was doable. His drone was fully capable of mechanical work. ¡°When that happens, I¡¯ll need you to free me from my cell.¡± ¡°Deal,¡± said the other prisoner. ¡°How much time do you need?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Cog. ¡°I only have the one drone. It should get the job done in a few minutes.¡± ¡°Do you know what¡¯s behind this?,¡± asked the prisoner. ¡°They want to make us servants.¡± Cog played his dish around. No alarms meant they couldn¡¯t detect his drone wandering around. ¡°They are waiting until they have secured the other three people on their list before they start.¡± ¡°How do you know this?,¡± said the other prisoner. ¡°I have broken into their communications net,¡± said Cog. ¡°They are bringing in the third prisoner now. After that, they think they can capture the last two as easily as they have caught us.¡± ¡°So they aren¡¯t going to do anything to us until they have all five of us,¡± said the other prisoner. ¡°Before we blow this place up, we need to get the one they have away from them.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s necessary,¡± said Cog. ¡°No one asked you, did they?¡± The other prisoner took on a tone of obstinance. ¡°I¡¯m not leaving anyone in the clutches of these monsters. We all go, or none of us do.¡± ¡°Are you going to be stubborn about this?,¡± said Cog. He didn¡¯t have time to argue with someone who didn¡¯t want to go along with his plan. ¡°You can get out by yourself,¡± said the prisoner. ¡°I¡¯ll take my chances without my powers.¡± ¡°You will be turned if you stay,¡± said Cog. Humans. They all thought they were special. ¡°That will be too bad,¡± said the woman. ¡°At least you will be free.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Cog. ¡°We will wait until the third prisoner arrives, then we will go.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said the other prisoner. ¡°Thanks for seeing things my way. Watch out for their masks. They already have powers working for them. I don¡¯t know what they need with us.¡± ¡°How many?,¡± asked Cog. He didn¡¯t have an accurate picture of what had happened to him under Chicago. ¡°At least four,¡± said the other prisoner. ¡°A multiplying monkey, a teleporter, a clownette, and some kind of gadget guy.¡± ¡°The gadget guy explains how they had a pulse gun around to cripple me,¡± said Cog. He didn¡¯t like the implication that they watched him until they saw an opening and went for it. He had thought he was hidden under the city. No one should have been able to track him down. The thought he might need help bothered him more than he wanted to admit. Any human armed with a pulse gun was more than a match for his mechanical capabilities. He couldn¡¯t run into that and hope to keep going. ¡°Don¡¯t fall apart on me.¡± The woman¡¯s voice cut through his calculations. ¡°As soon as they bring in number three, we have to be ready to move.¡± ¡°Cutting the power to the nullifier in your room,¡± said Cog. He issued the order to his drone. ¡°I¡¯m going to have to leave you alone for a bit while I try to monitor when our third escapee will arrive.¡± Three against four wasn¡¯t good, but it was better than him trying it alone. Revenge of the Scouts 12 Marty drove south from the Mercer homestead. It was just as good a direction as any. He wanted to be in motion while he waited to call Marston back. He hoped that Petey hadn¡¯t attracted attention to himself with any inquiries. He had already lost four friends. He didn¡¯t want to add a fifth to the total. Ren kept his own counsel. He checked the ring once in a while as they rode down the road. He didn¡¯t seem concerned about Mercer knowing they were looking for him. He seemed to be bothered by something else. ¡°I¡¯m going to call Petey and see if he found anything.¡± Marty looked for a gas station or diner where a telephone would be there for him to use. ¡°That will give us something to go on.¡± ¡°Mercer¡¯s ring changing position implies that he is in transit to where his father called.¡± Ren showed him the ring in the sealed specimen dish. It slowly rolled along the inside of the dish¡¯s wall. ¡°He is west of us and heading south.¡± ¡°We might be able to catch him on the road if we hurry,¡± said Marty. He saw a gas station ahead. ¡°Barring that, we¡¯ll have a good idea the general location of the place if Petey came through for us.¡± Marty pulled into the gas station. He didn¡¯t see a booth. Maybe there was a phone inside the place. Once he called Petey, he would get back on the road and work his way south and west in the hopes of catching up to Mercer on the road. Marty planned an ambush to disable the vehicle that Mercer was using. Then he planned to let one of his animals do all the talking for him after that. He wanted to know what was really going on, but ultimately considered taking Mercer apart better than nothing. An explanation would not make that objective any more unreasonable than what it was already. Ren probably wouldn¡¯t like Mercer¡¯s limbs being torn from his body, but that didn¡¯t matter. Ten years was a long time to wait to get even with someone wrecking your life. And Marty planned to get even before things were done. Marty walked inside the gas station. A black phone rested on the wall next to a barrel of peanuts. He checked his pockets for change and didn¡¯t have any. He pulled out two dollars and approached the counter. ¡°Can I have change?,¡± Marty asked the guy behind the counter. ¡°I have to make a call.¡± The counter person took the two dollars and handed back a handful of quarters. ¡°Thanks,¡± said Marty. He went to the telephone on the wall. He hoped Petey had something. He dialed the number and waited. ¡°Marston Investigations,¡± said Petey¡¯s secretary. ¡°This is Marty,¡± said Marty. ¡°Is Petey in?¡± ¡°Yes, he is,¡± said the secretary. ¡°Hold on.¡± ¡°Marty,¡± said Pete Marston after a few minutes and some more dropped change in the phone¡¯s slots. ¡°The number traces back to Watson Security. It goes to a switchboard.¡± ¡°So it¡¯s a dead end,¡± said Marty. It looked like the ring was their only lead to Mercer. ¡°I did some digging,¡± said Pete. ¡°The number went from the switchboard to a place in Arizona. The location is some kind of set up in the mountains north of Phoenix. I don¡¯t know how the roads are down there. You might have to come at the mountain on horses.¡± ¡°Can you give me some kind of spot to aim for, Petey?,¡± said Morgan. ¡°Not really,¡± said Marston. ¡°The closest I can put it is Prescott Forest. There are a lot Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.of towns where they could put out spotters for people getting too close to where they have their outpost.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll handle it, Petey,¡± said Marty. ¡°Thanks for the help.¡± ¡°I can get out my gear, Marty,¡± said Marston. ¡°It wouldn¡¯t be a problem.¡± ¡°This is a personal thing, Petey,¡± said Marty. ¡°I¡¯ll call you when we¡¯re done.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t make me come down there and look for you,¡± said Marston. He hung up with a small click. Marty hung up the pay phone¡¯s receiver. Ten years ago, Pete Marston had worn a mask. Now he was retired from the game. He had a chance at a normal life. There was no need to drag him back into the trenches over this. Personal business needed to be kept as personal as possible. It was better to let Pete get on with the rest of his life. And he wouldn¡¯t approve of what Marty planned to do. Marty bought a bottle of Coke and left the gas station building. He had enough fuel for the Scout van to get to Phoenix. After that they would have to look around for fuel. They should be on top of Mercer by that point. Then he would worry about the rest of the Watson Security people and how they fit in to the murders of his friends. He walked back to the van, and climbed behind the wheel. He sipped his soda as he thought. ¡°Petey said the number tracks back to a facility down in Arizona.¡± Marty capped the Coke and placed it in his seat between his body and an armrest. ¡°What do you think?¡± ¡°The ring is pointing generally south,¡± said Ren. ¡°My impression is Mercer is moving from a location to the facility. Do we try to intercept on the road, or follow him home?¡± ¡°We should follow him and see what his place is like,¡± said Marty. ¡°Trust me, I want to catch him on the road, but maybe it¡¯s better to see everything we might have to deal with before this is through.¡± ¡°And we know where he is going, so we can take our time,¡± said Ren. ¡°It gives us a chance to seize records and other evidence.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s head down the road,¡± said Marty. ¡°We¡¯ll grab something to eat before we try to head across the state and then into Arizona. Petey said there were some little towns we can use as cover for a bit before someone tries to turn us in to Watson.¡± ¡°How long do you think it will take before we are close to the site?,¡± asked Ren. ¡°I have no idea,¡± said Marty. He started the engine. ¡°I plan to stop before we get to the border so we can look for the place before we do something dumb, then go in at night to better our chances.¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to move to the back and take a nap.¡± Ren slid out of his chair. ¡°Wake me when you want to get dinner.¡± ¡°No problem,¡± said Marty. He pulled on the road and headed south. The ring rolled in its cage to point where Mercer was in front of them and to one side. They were on parallel roads that would meet some time in the immediate future. Marty smiled at the thought. He hoped Mercer had some explanation other than he was just following orders. He had heard that a lot when he was in the Scouts. It didn¡¯t cut any ice when he was a kid, it sure wouldn¡¯t now that he was an adult. Marty drove for hours, watching the signs on the side of the road. He pulled into a little place north of the border. His stomach growled at him for making it wait for so long. He cut the engine. He glanced at the plate and lid makeshift compass. It still pointed southwest. He could cut across to get behind Mercer. Then it would be a slow chase to his hole. Marty walked back to where the maps were kept. He nudged Ren as he passed. His passenger had sat down at the small booth the Scouts had used for planning. He had leaned over in his sleep, but he had remained mostly in place. The nudge snapped him back to reality. ¡°We¡¯re at the Colorado-New Mexico border,¡± said Marty. He searched the files for a map of Prescott National Forest. ¡°We¡¯re going to have to turn west to get to where we need to go.¡± ¡°Seems reasonable,¡± said Ren. ¡°Is there a problem?¡± ¡°We¡¯ll have to cut across the Navajo reservation to get to where we need to go,¡± said Marty. He pulled out a sheaf of papers. He smiled when he confirmed that they were what he was looking for. ¡°Is it doable?,¡± asked Ren. ¡°If it isn¡¯t, we¡¯ll have to go around,¡± said Marty. ¡°Let¡¯s get some grub and walk off this driving.¡± ¡°I agree,¡± said Ren. ¡°What are those?¡± ¡°Maps of the local area.¡± Marty opened the side door of the van and stepped outside. He held the maps under his arm. ¡°Barry always had a collection in case we had to operate in the area.¡± Ren pulled on his black jacket as he followed the other man. Marty paused to lock the doors before they headed into the diner. Ren hoped his mentor would be happy with his performance so far. He had most of the puzzle in his hands. All he had to do was put the perpetrator in custody and close the case. That last part would be easier said than done in his opinion. They were hoping to arrest a man employed by a huge company with the resources to hide him anywhere in the world. If they missed in Arizona, then they might not get another chance until they tracked the man down and took him from his protection. Marty led the way into the diner. He settled into a booth where he could keep an eye on the van. He put the folded papers on the table top as they waited for the waitress. ¡°How far ahead do you think Mercer is?,¡± Ren asked. He had an eye on the other customers and staff. ¡°If he doesn¡¯t have to stop, he¡¯ll be home before the night is done,¡± said Marty. ¡°If he takes off before we get to where we have to go, we¡¯ll wait for him to get back so we can finish tracking him down.¡± Revenge of the Scouts 13 Cog had his drone ready when they brought in the third prisoner. He watched quietly as they took her leather clothes, mask, and weapons. They dressed her in a hospital gown and retreated from the room. Lusts were denied by the senior officer. The word Becker was used as some kind of warning. They locked her in and went about their duties. Cog went to work sabotaging the security, using the cameras and microphones to play a loop of their victim sleeping. He ordered the drone to take vitals as he thought about the next step of his plan. He had to wake the prisoner up. The drone scanned the room. They hadn¡¯t left anything that might be used as a weapon except the blanket on the bed. That meant there weren¡¯t any drugs present. Cog ordered the drone to administer a small electric shock. It was the best he could do at the moment. The woman woke up instantly. She snatched up the drone before it could flee out of reach. She looked around at the cell. Her face was expressionless. That didn¡¯t bode well for her mental preparedness. ¡°Can you hear me?,¡± asked Cog through the drone. ¡°Yes,¡± said the girl. She stared at the drone, noting the cameras for eyes it used. ¡°We are prisoners in a facility in an unknown location,¡± said Cog. ¡°I have a small plan to bust out of here. Do you want to come along?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± said the third prisoner. She put the drone on the ground. ¡°Do you have any powers that might be helpful in an escape?,¡± asked Cog. ¡°No,¡± said the woman. ¡°Why did they bring you here?,¡± said Cog. ¡°They are going to try to change our minds so we will fight for them.¡± ¡°No,¡± said the woman. She stood and looked at the door. ¡°When do we leave?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Cog. ¡°The other prisoner has been put under a nullifier to turn off her powers. I am waiting for her to generate enough power to fight. Can you fight?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± said the prisoner. ¡°When we get ready to go, I will open the door. There is a motor pool three levels up, and south of your cell. Can you get there on your own while we break out of our cells?,¡± asked Cog. The drone registered a small trace of amusement on her face. ¡°Yes,¡± said the woman. Cog noted she was compacted muscle compared to the other human woman. She also held herself as stiff as a board. Dark hair was messy from her handling. ¡°There are powers here too,¡± said Cog. ¡°I will do my best to draw them off so you can escape without anyone noticing you.¡± ¡°No,¡± said the woman. ¡°Excuse me?¡± said Cog. He mentally braced for an argument, and then wondered how he could have an argument with someone who only spoke in binary. ¡°Kill them,¡± said the woman. The monotone was the same, the expression the same, but menace had crept into her bearing. ¡°Kill them all.¡± ¡°No,¡± said Cog. ¡°We escape. Then you can come back and do whatever you want. Once it goes in the pot, the objective is out.¡± The woman didn¡¯t say anything for a long time according to Cog¡¯s chrono. She stared at the drone. She sniffed the air. ¡°Will wait,¡± was all she said. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Cog took that for a victory for the moment. She could obviously do something. They wouldn¡¯t have secured her if she couldn¡¯t. He put the question in the back of his mind. He had to check on the other prisoner to see how much longer she needed to charge up. ¡°Finch,¡± said the woman. Cog paused. What did that mean? Finch was a Earth bird. It was a songbird. It was deemed harmless by the humans. ¡°I am Finch,¡± said the woman. ¡°I will wait.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± said Cog. He placed Finch in for the placeholder he had been using for the drone. ¡°They want two more of us before they do anything to us. We¡¯ll be gone before Four and Five get here.¡± ¡°Yes,¡± said Finch. One hand clenched into a fist. ¡°Now that we understand each other, I am going to check on things and make sure we¡¯re ready when the chance comes,¡± said Cog. ¡°Yes,¡± said Finch. She relaxed her hand as she looked around the room once more. Anything could be a weapon if you had the right attitude. And she was trained to have that attitude. Cog ordered the drone back to the communications. He needed to do a check on what their captors knew. Then he had to get over to the other prisoner and tell her what was going on. He didn¡¯t like that Finch didn¡¯t have a usable power. It would make things easier for them if she could walk through walls, or had some kind of lightning speed. She might be useful as some kind of distraction. He didn¡¯t like that she wanted to kill the people here. She might break from the plan to satisfy her urge. That placed him in danger and he didn¡¯t like that at all. He sighed. He didn¡¯t have a choice. He had to work with what he had. If she started killing everyone in the place while roaming around on her own, there wasn¡¯t much he could do about that. He was giving her a chance. That was the best he could do. He had to look after his own tentacles before he worried about someone he was planning to use as a distraction. He didn¡¯t like the fact that she could be using him as a distraction so she could commit mayhem when she was let loose. She didn¡¯t have any powers. What was the worse she could do? He decided not to think about that. Chicago had several masks without powers on both sides of the fence in its past. The damage incurred by their battles was not something to sneeze at. He hoped he wasn¡¯t unleashing a monster. The drone fitted itself into the tap it had made in the enemy¡¯s communication gear. The chatter was not good. Somehow Four and Five knew they were looking for Watson Security, and for Captain Mercer. Observers had them to the east of the facility. They acted as if they knew where they were going. Cog winced. Did he wait until Four and Five were captured, or did he break out now and cause enough problems that the last two prisoners weren¡¯t that important. Things were getting way too complicated for his liking of simplicity. Performing a rescue in hostile areas was not something he wanted to contemplate doing. His shipmates were better at that sort of thing than he was. He was just there to make the engines run. And now he was on his own with two humans who might be able to get him out of there so he could head back to his nest under Chicago. Getting out of his cell seemed more advantageous than waiting for the last two to be captured and then the mind warping to start. In his opinion, it was better to be able to run away than being pinned in a room. And running away seemed better than being magnetically depowered by the lunas running the place. Cog ordered his drone to inform the other two what he was doing as he thought about how to take down his own door. It should be as easy as having his drone open the door from the outside. He didn¡¯t want to depend on the other prisoners to free him from the magnetic cage if he didn¡¯t have to do that. They might not be able to get to his cell. On the other hand, if he could get to the security center after getting out of the cell, he could shut down all the mechanical aspects of the building which would make his escape all the more easier. He wouldn¡¯t have to depend on the others to follow a plan. The gadgeteer might find a way to force him from the command center and cage him up again. Cog considered the problems ahead. His first inclination was to run. That was the way of his people. He knew that was opposite of the other two prisoners. He could tell it in the way they carried themselves. The nameless woman sat on her bunk, trying to summon her power. Finch waited by the door with blanket in hand. He wondered what she could do with a blanket. He decided that an escape attempt would be better if the powers were out chasing Four and Five. That meant only normal humans would be in the base with them. That would make things easier for an escape. The others agreed with his assessment. The nameless woman felt it would make it easier to ambush the powers when they came back. Finch just said ¡°Yes,¡± when he told her about the change in plan. Cog wouldn¡¯t be surprised if she killed one of the humans before they overcame her again. So they had to wait a bit more. He could do that. He decided to have the drone work its way to the edge of the command center. Plugging into the system there would give him realtime information about what their captors were doing. And he could use that against them when it was time to go. Revenge of the Scouts 14 Marty Morgan scanned the horizon as he drove through the reservation. He had a compass to keep him on path built into the dashboard of the Scout van. The ring sat above it on the dashboard. They agreed which way he should be going. ¡°Do you think we¡¯ll be there tonight?,¡± asked Ren. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Marty. ¡°We might have to take the last part on foot. I think they¡¯ll have security looking for us since Mercer¡¯s dad called him.¡± ¡°The thing that bothers me the most is why did they take Mr. Robot¡¯s body,¡± said Ren. ¡°They left his skull and took the rest of him.¡± ¡°So?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°What does it matter?¡± ¡°It suggests in my mind that he was the target of the ambush.¡± Ren pulled out a piece of paper and unfolded it on his side of the cab like a large map. ¡°It explains almost everything.¡± ¡°How could they use a headless body?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°I don¡¯t understand.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t see the whole picture but I am sure they wanted his mechanical body,¡± said Ren. He looked at the piece of paper before writing on it with a finger. ¡°We should have asked Mr. Marston to trace what he could about William Watson.¡± ¡°The only reason to take Barry¡¯s body is to use it somehow,¡± said Marty. He looked in the mirror. Something flashed behind them. ¡°If they tracked down Cortez first, would they have taken his body too? He had a robotic tank and life support.¡± ¡°Maybe they took him first,¡± said Ren. He pressed one section of the paper. Cortez and disappearance were highlighted. ¡°Maybe,¡± said Marty. That flash happened again. ¡°Do you think Watson cared enough about me to try to have people follow me around?¡± ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t he?,¡± asked Ren. ¡°You¡¯re the last survivor of the Hazard Scouts. You control their resources to a point, and you know many of the people they knew. I was surprised to find you still alive. I would have had you killed a long time ago to cover my tracks.¡± ¡°If I told you that I think we¡¯re being followed, what would you say?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°I would say let¡¯s make sure,¡± said Ren. He folded up the piece of paper and put it away in his bag. ¡°Give me a second to look before we come up with some plan to waylay the other car. They might be innocents going the same way we¡¯re going.¡± Marty made a head gesture to acknowledge the logic. He could be paranoid. Watson might not know anything about Mercer¡¯s involvement in what was going on. Once they had Mercer, they could reach for the next link in the chain. He didn¡¯t like the thought that Barry¡¯s body could be used by someone else, and that someone was behind killing all of his friends. He planned to extract some answers from his only clue. Ren walked to the back of the van. He looked out the back window with his hand over his eyes. He pulled a spyglass from his bag and used that to look at the other car on the road. ¡°Red pickup,¡± said Ren. ¡°Pretty common. The passengers are white, dressed casual.¡± Marty grunted. That didn¡¯t mean anything. He slowed to a crawl and pulled over on the shoulder. He put on the hazard lights. ¡°Are they still coming?,¡± Marty asked. He pulled the switch to open the engine cover. ¡°No, they pulled into a driveway,¡± said Ren. ¡°What do you want to do?¡± ¡°We can pretend I am working on the engine, while I send something to spy on them,¡± said Marty. ¡°Or one of us can go back there and ask them in person.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll go talk to them,¡± said Ren. He took one last look before putting the spyglass If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.away. ¡°Maybe they are harmless people who live and work here on the reservation. That driveway might have been where they were going.¡± ¡°How much time do you need?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Ren. ¡°The doctor said I needed work on my stealth. I¡¯ll be back as soon as I can.¡± Ren opened the side door and stepped outside. He disappeared into the landscape as easily as a shadow at night. Marty stepped outside and walked to the front of the van. He raised the hood and looked at the engine. He smiled at himself. There was no way he could do anything to fix Barry¡¯s engine if it was really broken. He doubted anyone but another scientist could do anything. He fiddled with the thing, wiping the top off the parts with a rag. He checked his watch. He shook his head. He needed to give Ren more time. He decided to fake start the engine to pretend he was trying to fix things. He climbed back into the cab. He hit the brakes a couple of times. He got out and went back to the engine. He sent a bird back to check on the pickup crew. Marty paused as the bird reported that Ren was questioning the two men. He had apparently put them to sleep so he could check their memories. The bird landed on the ground and watched. Ren nodded when he was satisfied he had gained all the answers he needed. He turned and nodded at the bird before vanishing again. The bird flew back to Marty so it could be dismissed now that its job was done. It landed on the roof of the Scout van as Marty closed the hood on the engine. He pulled it back inside as he climbed into the van. He started the engine so they could start rolling again. Ren appeared and entered the van. He smiled as he took his seat. ¡°They work for Watson Security,¡± said Ren. ¡°They were supposed to keep an eye on us. They have forwarded reports on our interest and location to Watson. I expect when we reach the facility that houses Mercer, we will be given a warm welcome.¡± ¡°I¡¯m surprised they have put up with our prying so far,¡± said Marty. ¡°If I was Watson, I would have guys coming out of the woodwork to kill us.¡± ¡°I think they want to talk to us,¡± said Ren. ¡°Our tail was unsure. They were given a hands off order until someone took over for them.¡± ¡°That sounds like they were waiting for a decision,¡± said Marty. ¡°What kind of decision?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Ren. ¡°Either they want to talk to us so they can learn how much we know, or bury us because we already know too much.¡± ¡°We need to hide the van and take something less conspicuous to get close to the place.¡± Marty frowned at the chain of thought. ¡°We need to do it now that we are clear of their spotters.¡± ¡°How do we do that?,¡± asked Ren. ¡°I don¡¯t see any where we can get another car.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll have to improvise something,¡± said Marty. ¡°First, we have to hide the van.¡± ¡°I can do that,¡± said Ren. ¡°Pull off the side of the road.¡± Marty looked for a place. He saw a gravel driveway leading to a trailer in the distance. He pulled into the driveway. ¡°Get what you think you need,¡± said Ren. He got out of his seat. ¡°Then get out. I¡¯ll hide the van from being spotted.¡± Marty grabbed his coat and followed Ren out of the van. He stood back, pulling on his thin coat. He didn¡¯t see how the apprentice was going to make the Scout van vanish. Ren took a bottle out of his bag. He pointed the mouth at the van. A cloud surrounded the vehicle. When it cleared, the van was gone. The bottle held a tiny replica. Ren corked the bottle and put it back in his bag. ¡°That was impressive,¡± said Marty. ¡°How did you do it?¡± ¡°I hypnotized you into believing the van has been shrunk to fit inside a bottle,¡± said Ren. ¡°Okay,¡± said Marty with lifted eyebrows. ¡°Sure.¡± ¡°Now how do we get to where we need to go other than riding a griffin to the forest and being seen from the air?,¡± asked Ren. ¡°We just ask the owner of this trailer if he has a car we can borrow,¡± said Marty. ¡°Maybe you can hypnotize him.¡± ¡°Maybe,¡± said Ren. ¡°After you.¡± Marty walked up to the trailer door. He looked around. Nothing moved in the yard. He knocked. Maybe no one was home. It was the middle of the day. Marty knocked on the door again. Someone moved inside. He waited for the door to open. A young woman answered the door, dark hair pulled back with a scrunchy, tank top and jeans. She held a baby on her hip. She frowned at the two scruffy individuals on her threshold. ¡°What do you want?,¡± the woman asked. Dark eyes conveyed suspicion as she kept a hand on the door. ¡°We were wondering if you had a car we could buy,¡± said Marty. ¡°You¡¯re kidding me,¡± she said. ¡°No,¡± said Marty. ¡°I¡¯m willing to pay cash if you have something, or know someone who has something we can use.¡± ¡°I know someone who has a car for sale down the road.¡± She looked at her baby. ¡°I¡¯ll call him.¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± said Marty. ¡°I know this seems strange, but we need a car because we had to leave ours behind. If the car runs, we¡¯ll be glad to pay for it.¡± ¡°Hold on,¡± said the woman. She closed the door on them. ¡°Do you think she will call her friend?,¡± asked Ren. ¡°Who knows?,¡± said Marty. The door opened. The woman had the baby in her arms. ¡°Billy said he would bring his car around,¡± said the woman. ¡°How long can you wait?¡± ¡°A few minutes,¡± said Marty. He looked around. ¡°This is a nice place here.¡± ¡°It¡¯s all right,¡± she said. ¡°I haven¡¯t seen either of you before. What brings you to the res?¡± ¡°We¡¯re passing through,¡± said Marty. ¡°We¡¯re heading south to Phoenix.¡± ¡°Good luck on that,¡± said the woman. Revenge of the Scouts 15 Thingamabob met with Oscar in the Squad¡¯s common room. They were three for three. He knew that Oscar wasn¡¯t giving them leave time by the look on his face. ¡°Marty Morgan and his associate eluded their watchers,¡± Oscar sat at the table. ¡°The boss wants you to find him and bring him in.¡± ¡°Where were they last seen?,¡± Bob checked the parts of his various gadgets spread over the table top. He frequently did that so that the gadgets would work any time he wanted to use them. ¡°On the reservation,¡± said Oscar. He handed over a map. A small section was circled. ¡°The watchers reported that their vehicle seemed to be broken down, so they pulled off the road to wait to see what would happen. They report fifteen minutes later the van is gone. They don¡¯t know what happened to it.¡± ¡°Do you know anything about the other guy?,¡± said Bob. He started putting his gadgets back together. ¡°Not yet,¡± said Oscar. ¡°He looks like just another civilian in a suit and coat.¡± ¡°Then why is he traveling with Morgan?,¡± asked Bob. ¡°No. He has some kind of ability we don¡¯t know enough about so we can counter it.¡± ¡°The boss wants him brought in so he can be converted,¡± said Oscar. ¡°If you think he can¡¯t be, get rid of him and just bring in Morgan.¡± ¡°No problem,¡± said Bob. ¡°Let me get the Squad together, and we¡¯ll start looking for them.¡± ¡°Do you want help from Mercer¡¯s people?,¡± asked Oscar. ¡°We might need them as backup,¡± said Bob. ¡°They made things easier for the transport of our prisoners.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll give them orders so you can get started as soon as you can,¡± said Oscar. He stood. ¡°They seem to be heading here. They might know the facility is here somehow.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll figure it out when we have them under lock and key,¡± said Bob. ¡°Maybe they were able to trace the utilities.¡± ¡°Do whatever you have to do,¡± said Oscar. ¡°I¡¯ll talk to Mercer. We have to find these men and find out what they know before we try to change their minds.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll start by setting up along the perimeter,¡± said Bob. ¡°Gaze should be able to spot them unless they are invisible.¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± said Oscar. He stood. ¡°I¡¯ll let Mercer know to get ready.¡± The assistant walked from the room. He hoped the Squad could find the missing men. He had assured the boss they could do anything the company wanted. He had been proven true most of the time. He didn¡¯t need himself or one of them turned into an object lesson for the rest. That would be something unsurvivable in his opinion. He stepped on the hangar bay. Mercer supervised hand to hand instruction for his men. He didn¡¯t look happy with their performance. ¡°Captain Mercer?,¡± Oscar said. ¡°Could I talk to you for a moment?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± said Captain Mercer. ¡°Carry on, Sergeant. I don¡¯t want another Becker.¡± ¡°Yes, sir,¡± said Sergeant Morillo. ¡°All right, let¡¯s go over this again.¡± Mercer gestured for Oscar to take a seat in his office to one side of the training area. He took a seat behind his desk, waiting for his guest to sit down in the visitor¡¯s chair. ¡°Our observers have lost Morgan and his associate,¡± Oscar said as he sat down. ¡°We¡¯re mobilizing the Squad to find them. Your men have been requested as backup.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll get the men ready,¡± said Mercer. ¡°Is there a plan of attack?¡± ¡°Not yet,¡± said Oscar. ¡°The Squad are going to try to search in the direction we think Morgan is approaching. They are going to need to use your men to form a search party to help search.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll talk with Thingamabob,¡± said Mercer. ¡°He¡¯ll have some kind of plan before he deploys.¡± ¡°Thank you, Captain Mercer,¡± said Oscar. He stood. ¡°Who¡¯s Becker?¡± ¡°One of my men tried to molest the third prisoner, Finch, while she was being Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.transported,¡± said Mercer. ¡°She broke three of his facial bones, two arm bones and a hip.¡± ¡°I thought she was sedated,¡± said Oscar. ¡°She was,¡± said Mercer. ¡°She did that in her sleep.¡± Oscar raised his eyebrows. ¡°I know,¡± said Mercer. ¡°Even asleep, she used force on an attacker that the crew in the transport never saw coming.¡± ¡°Becker?,¡± asked Oscar. He would have to be severed from the force if he couldn¡¯t control himself. ¡°Dead,¡± said Mercer. ¡°Excuse me,¡± said Oscar. ¡°He disobeyed a direct order, so I shot him,¡± said Mercer. ¡°We stripped his identification and burned his body. It¡¯s in the report.¡± Oscar nodded. He hadn¡¯t read the paperwork yet. Capturing the five targets had generated a lot of expenditures he would have to explain to the accountants. It couldn¡¯t be helped. These five could be the core of a second Squad. They could also be a failure. He had no way of knowing until they were programmed to carry out orders from the head office. He rubbed his eyes. He wondered if he should have just authorized the first capture, and then worked to program her before going after the others. He decided that they had done the best they could. Morgan was looking for the dark site. Somehow he had figured out where they were. He had to be taken care of before he became a bigger problem than what he was. Oscar stood. He had one other place to visit before heading back up to his office. He still had time to get things done before he reported to his boss. He needed some good news before he did that. ¡°Go ahead and get your men ready, Captain,¡± said Oscar. ¡°Let me know if you need anything before you leave.¡± ¡°Yes, sir,¡± said Mercer. ¡°We¡¯ll bag your two birds.¡± Oscar nodded. He hoped they could do that before he had to report Morgan knew where they were, and was coming to the facility to try to break in. He didn¡¯t want to hear the problems that would cause if Morgan found enough evidence to expose Watson Security to the government. They were contracted to forces in the government. If their experiments came out, that might draw the attention of persons who wanted the research to be stopped by any means. Watson Security would turn into a global target overnight. He couldn¡¯t be responsible for that. The Squad had to prevent that reality from happening. Oscar took the elevator down to the machinist level. He stepped out into a lab devoted to testing equipment for missions. The nullifier gun came out of this place. He waited for the chief technician to notice him. He didn¡¯t want the brains of the place to focus on him. They hated him, had tried to kill him with several accidents over the years. He supposed he shouldn¡¯t blame them. They were brains put on life support to work for Watson until they gave out. That might be years of work away. ¡°Hello, sir,¡± said the chief technician. He gestured for the assistant to join him in the one safe place on the floor: his office. The two men retreated from the floor of labcoats and equipment being used. ¡°What can I do for you?¡± ¡°How are they doing?,¡± asked Oscar. ¡°Still trying to sabotage whatever we can pry out of them,¡± said the technician. He adjusted his glasses. ¡°They¡¯re still stable?,¡± asked Oscar. ¡°Yes,¡± said the technician. ¡°They still try to violate our security and get messages off the floor. So far, we have intercepted all the messages they have tried to send.¡± ¡°Make sure they can¡¯t get to any of the security controls,¡± said Oscar. ¡°We¡¯re trying to get together some powers for a second Squad. I don¡¯t want those two screwing things up.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll run checks on everything myself,¡± said the tech. ¡°They won¡¯t be able to touch anything off this floor.¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± said Oscar. ¡°We¡¯re trying to get our last two recruits. Start on the checks while we are deploying our forces.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll get right on it,¡± said the technician. ¡°The two of them will not interfere in any way.¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± said Oscar. He stood. ¡°If they do anything odd, report it. I can¡¯t take the chance that it could be important and it was ignored.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be glad to do that,¡± said the technician. Oscar left the office. He glanced at the globe at the top of the machinery. He almost felt malevolent eyes on him as he walked back to the elevator. Luckily the transport was on different circuits than the machinist floor. He had no doubt they would try to crash the elevator to kill him. He pushed the button for his office¡¯s floor. He had some paperwork to get out of the way before he sat back to relax. Everything that could be handled was being handled by his nominal staff. There was nothing he could do to affect the outcome. Going out in the field with the Squad and Mercer would be just be adding a millstone to their operational ability. It was better that he remain behind and wait for a report. He didn¡¯t like it, but that was all he could do. Oscar walked to his office. He settled behind his desk and picked up the first file in the IN tray. Work would take his mind off the waiting. He opened the file. He winced. It was the report of Becker¡¯s unfortunate demise. He would have to check for next of kin. Becker had been insured. Someone would have to be paid for his death. Naturally it would be filed as a bear attack, or something of that caliber. He put that file aside and picked up the next one. He smiled. The paper was a requisition for more ammo for Mercer¡¯s company. He signed the requisition form and sent the approval to the quartermaster to get the supplies flown to the base¡¯s drop point. Oscar worked through his paperwork, sometimes calling the person generating the reports for clarifications. He didn¡¯t have an unlimited budget. Some things would have to be traded for others they needed more. A note crossed his desk after a few hours. He sat back and read it. He put the note down. He pulled a bottle of Jack from his desk drawer. He uncapped it and took a sip. He put the cap back on and put the bottle back in its place. He felt like drinking the whole bottle, but one sip would have to do until he heard from Mercer, or the Squad. They were away and hunting Morgan and his friend. He wouldn¡¯t know how they were doing until they got back to base and filed a report. Once the two were taken, he could have the company head doctors shipped in to start working on the five prisoners. Then he could put them through training as loyal soldiers for the company. A lot of his problems would be smoothed over if his second Squad did as well as the first. Revenge of the Scouts 16 Bob had requested a chopper and a pilot to aid in his search. They had a lot of ground to cover. Gaze could pick up some things but his range was about the range of a telescope. He would have to be moved rapidly along the roads until they found the targets. The Squad would have to deploy to block them from the park and headquarters. Mercer¡¯s men would have to form a ring to keep the two intended targets inside the marked area. Some of the men had been issued nullifiers to make sure Animal Boy didn¡¯t use his powers before they put him in a cell. Bob was confident that even if Animal Boy could use his powers, his team could take the former Hazard Scout. Summoning animals didn¡¯t seem that special compared to a teleporter, or a multiplying monkey. Gaze might have a problem since his only power was far sight, but that was why Gaze kept to the background where no one would target him. ¡°Ready to go?,¡± Bob asked his subordinate. Gaze smiled as he sat strapped into his seat. His face mask and hood covered his head so Bob couldn¡¯t see it. ¡°I¡¯m ready,¡± Gaze said. He had one hand on the side exit door of the helicopter. ¡°As soon as I see something, I¡¯ll call you.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll use Puff to move around on the ground,¡± said Bob. ¡°The sooner we get these two, the sooner we can take off for a bit.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll find them,¡± said Gaze. ¡°I have pictures of Morgan, and a description of the other one. It should be a snap.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Bob. He stepped back from the helicopter. He waved at the pilot to get started. The helicopter, yellow with a big red W on the side, lurched into the air. It swung out of the big hangar at the top of the installation. It headed into the sky with the beating of its rotors. ¡°Puff,¡± said Bob. ¡°I want you to take Clown Girl to the main entrance of the park. We don¡¯t know where they are going, so we need someone to keep an eye there. Come back and we¡¯ll have a location for Troop to be placed.¡± ¡°No problem,¡± said Puff. ¡°I may need two, or three, jumps. Site is memorized and etched in my mind. Be there in a jiff.¡± He took Clown Girl¡¯s arm and vanished in a puff of smoke. ¡°Captain Mercer,¡± said Bob. ¡°Since we think our targets are coming down the road from the reservation to the national park, where do you think your men should be set up?¡± ¡°There are several places between the main entrances and here we can set up ambushes.¡± Mercer pulled a topographical map of the area out of his jacket pocket. ¡°The problem is Animal Boy¡¯s powers allow him to leave the road and cut cross country any time he wants.¡± Bob nodded. He had considered that. His team needed a flier to be more effective in situations like this. ¡°I plan to have half my squad use a van and drive up the road toward the reservation,¡± said Mercer. ¡°The plan is to see if we spot them on the road, so we can launch an offensive. The other half will set up in a partial cordon around the base with the hope of stopping the two of them if the rest of us miss them on the road.¡± ¡°I think Troop will be fine here,¡± said Bob. ¡°He can keep watch in that part of the park, and if there¡¯s problem we can recall him with Puff and put him to work.¡± ¡°Sounds workable,¡± said Mercer. ¡°How long do you think it will take Gaze to find them?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t know,¡± said Bob. ¡°If he can give us an actual target area, we can shift the plan to deal with it.¡± ¡°Got it,¡± said Mercer. ¡°Let me get the road party on the way.¡± ¡°We¡¯re at the eastern boundary of the park, Bob,¡± said Gaze over the radio. ¡°We¡¯re above the road. Light traffic back and forth so far. There¡¯s nothing resembling the Scout van so far. A lot of cars and pickups.¡± ¡°Start scanning the cars and trucks, Gaze,¡± said Bob. ¡°Make sure our guys aren¡¯t in them.¡± ¡°Right,¡± said Gaze. Bob frowned as he waited. The Scout van had to have gone somewhere. It was possible they had abandoned it. That meant they were on foot, on animal, or using another car. Another car would be perfect for this. ¡°All right,¡± said Gaze. ¡°It looks like I have a partial match.¡± ¡°Where?,¡± asked Bob. ¡°They¡¯re about twenty miles from the park and heading toward the front entrance fast,¡± said Gaze. ¡°It¡¯s a white Ford Galaxy with green doors.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Bob. ¡°I¡¯ll let Mercer know that we might have a fight in the park.¡± Bob looked around. He spotted Mercer talking to his sergeant, going over the map. He walked over and said, ¡°Excuse me.¡± Mercer stopped talking to look the masked man in the face. ¡°Our targets are almost to the entrance to the park,¡± said Bob. ¡°They are going to be inside the line before you can deploy.¡± ¡°Understood,¡± said Mercer. ¡°Sergeant, take all the men and deploy them in a defensive line around the facility. Tell them to camouflage their presence as much as possible. We don¡¯t have a lot of time.¡± ¡°Yes, sir,¡± said the sergeant. He rushed off, calling orders. The men scrambled to the This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.ground exit, running with gear and weapons in hand. ¡°Clown Girl is down at the entrance,¡± said Bob. ¡°She might be able to slow them down.¡± ¡°See what she can do,¡± said Mercer. ¡°We need to make sure they don¡¯t get inside where this could turn into a tunnel situation.¡± ¡°Can you hear me, Clown Girl?,¡± said Bob. He hoped she hadn¡¯t taken off her throat mike. She had done that in a previous mission. Everything had gone sideways as a result. ¡°Yep,¡± said Clown Girl. ¡°What can I do for you?¡± ¡°The targets are using a white Ford Galaxy with green doors,¡± said Bob. ¡°Can you do something to stop the car, or distract them until we get there?¡± ¡°Will do, boss,¡± said Clown Girl. Bob paused as Puff reappeared in the hangar. This was exactly who he needed. ¡°Puff, get Troop down to the park entrance as fast as you can,¡± said Bob. ¡°We¡¯re looking for a white Ford with green doors.¡± ¡°Come on, you big ape,¡± said Puff. ¡°You might could lose some pounds, you know. Being big doesn¡¯t mean you have to be heavy.¡± He pulled Troop into a puff of smoke as the simian protested the slur about his weight with some grunts. ¡°I need to head down to the entrance myself,¡± said Bob. ¡°I¡¯ll see you, Captain.¡± Bob ran to the hangar entrance and leaped into the air. His rocket boots normally wouldn¡¯t carry him to the battlefield on their own. He had rearranged them to provide a column of air to skate on when he got close enough to the ground. He could slide all the way to where he had to be. It wasn¡¯t optimal, but it was faster than waiting on a vehicle to be driven out and follow the hidden road to the park entrance. He hoped his team could handle things until he got there. The second man had unknown abilities. He might be able to wipe out the whole team on his own. And Clown Girl liked to live too close to the edge for her own good. That woman from Seattle had almost overcame Clown Girl and Troop. If he hadn¡¯t been there to sedate her, she might have escaped and started trying to find them. The boss would have lost his mind if that had happened. Someone¡¯s head would have been on a block. Bob would have made sure to put someone else¡¯s head on it before volunteering himself. He skated across the wilderness. He doubted he would be there in time to do anything. The place was big, and the facility was miles away from the park entrance. He just felt he had to do something instead of waiting on Puff. The teleporter might refuse to help the rest of the Squad out of laziness. If that happened, he couldn¡¯t depend on the man to return to carry him to the scene. No matter how useful Puff was for his ability, it might be better to recommend for him to be programmed again. Maybe that would fix the problems that plagued the man¡¯s brain. Bob slid passed a sign telling him where he was and how far to go to get to the main entrance if he stayed on the normal road. He nodded as he checked his watch. His team should be in combat. Why weren¡¯t they reporting anything on the radio? He doubted they had beaten the two this fast. It was more likely that Animal Boy had taken them down with some kind of animal like an elephant. He tried to remain hopeful as he approached the main park entrance. There had to be something he could salvage from this. He reached the lot inside the park gate. He paused to take stock before he interfered with what was going on. The car was wrecked. The windshield had been busted out of the front. Dents covered the hood. The front had hit another car, crushing the front bumper of the car. Clown Girl and the unknown man in black danced around each other on one side of the lot. Troop and Puff had surrounded Animal Boy. The former Scout had been able to summon a dinosaur of some kind to keep the two back while he tried to figure out how to help his friend. How did he get his team and his targets away from there without further problems? At least the civilians had cleared out of the way so he could work. He decided the best thing to do was to knock them both out with darts and let Mercer pick up the targets to take back to the facility. Oscar would have to explain things to the boss about why it was done like this. He just needed an opening to use the darts. He decided that Animal Boy seemed the most dangerous. He had to be taken down first. Then they could take the man in black out. Bob raised his weapon. He pointed it at the summoner. He flipped the toggle with his thumb. The purple beam hit the Scout. The dinosaur faded away as the target looked at his hands, trying to figure out what had happened. Troop clouted his enemy in the face. That was enough to knock the man out. Bob shook his head. They were supposed to be more gentle than that. The other man locked up with Clown Girl. They tried to force each other back. That was enough for Troop to multiply and throw the man in black down. Clown Girl applied a strangle hold to put the target out. ¡°If he dies, there¡¯s going to be problems,¡± said Bob. He cut his rocket boots and dropped to the ground. ¡°Are we clear, Justine?¡± Clown Girl reluctantly released her grip. She stepped away with her hands behind her back. ¡°Puff, start moving these guys to the base,¡± said Bob. ¡°We have to get out of here before the park rangers arrive. Troop, get rid of the car. We can¡¯t leave it here.¡± Puff grabbed Animal Boy and whisked him away in his cloud. ¡°Captain Mercer,¡± said Bob. ¡°We have prisoners incoming. Puff should be arriving with one in a few minutes.¡± ¡°Got it,¡± said Mercer. ¡°We¡¯ll regroup and take them into custody.¡± Troop squeezed behind the wheel of the car. He checked and found the keys. He backed out of the lot and drove away. He could make his own way back to base with the help of his power. ¡°Return to base, Gaze.¡± Bob looked around. The small crowd still watching things should be taken care of, but he didn¡¯t feel like killing a bunch of people who knew him from the papers. ¡°It looks like we¡¯re almost done.¡± ¡°Right, Bob,¡± said Gaze. ¡°I¡¯ll see you guys when you get there.¡± ¡°As soon as Puff picks up our last prisoner,¡± began Bob. ¡°We should get out of here. There¡¯s still a risk that the rangers will show up to ask us to explain everything for them.¡± ¡°I can handle some rangers,¡± said Clown Girl. ¡°That shouldn¡¯t be any kind of a problem.¡± ¡°We¡¯re not handling anything,¡± said Bob. ¡°We¡¯re leaving. That¡¯s what secret operations means.¡± ¡°You take all the fun out of everything,¡± said Clown Girl. Her makeup had been mussed up in the fight, softening her angular features. ¡°We¡¯re not here to have fun,¡± said Bob. He shook his head. ¡°We¡¯re here to do a job and then go home. Anything else is failure.¡± Puff appeared before they could continue the argument. He grabbed the man in black. He vanished. His explaining of things to himself lingered in the air after he was gone. Bob looked around the lot once more. He wondered if he was going to get a reprimand for leaving so many witnesses alive. He decided it didn¡¯t matter. Killing people wasn¡¯t his thing. ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± said Bob. He picked Clown Girl up in his arms. He pulled a ring on the front of his costume. The shoulders of his costume expanded into a balloon that lifted them off the ground. They floated away from the scene. ¡°This is great,¡± said Clown Girl. ¡°I love it.¡± ¡°The landing is a bit rough,¡± said Bob. He drifted along at tree top level for a bit before pulling the ring again. The balloons shrank, dropping them to the ground. ¡°That was way better than I thought it would be,¡± said Clown Girl. She laughed. ¡°Let¡¯s do it again.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± said Bob. ¡°We have a long way to walk back to the facility.¡± ¡°We can do other things than walk while we¡¯re out here,¡± said Clown Girl. She smiled at him. Bob paused for a second. Then he shook his head. He started walking toward home. ¡°Aren¡¯t I pretty enough?,¡± asked Clown Girl. She started after him. ¡°You¡¯re beautiful,¡± said Bob. ¡°I know better to get involved with you.¡± ¡°What¡¯s that mean?,¡± asked Clown Girl. ¡°You know what it means,¡± said Bob. ¡°I remember how Jody wound up, Justine. I don¡¯t plan to make the same mistake.¡± Revenge of the Scouts 17 Marty Morgan forced his eyes open. His head hurt. He felt disoriented. The light from the overhead was the wrong color in his opinion. He didn¡¯t try to stand. He felt that would lead to an involuntary crash to the floor. He remembered driving down to the national park. He had paid for a car with mismatched doors and an iffy transmission. He had wanted to infiltrate the park quietly. Somehow they had been spotted. Marty thought about it as he tried to recover his senses. What had they stumbled on? How did he get out of this cell to find out? Did he want to get out of the cell? He had plenty of creatures that should work to start his escape plan. All he had to do was call them. He looked around from his place on the small bed. He saw a vent too small for a human to climb through. If he tried, he would be stuck before he could get out of the room. It was still big enough for him to send a rat through to look the place over, and maybe give him some way to escape. He doubted he was going to break the door down from what he could see of it. Marty called on his power. He imagined a rat sitting in his hand. He imagined the whiskers and the twitching nose. He imagined the stiff fur and bald tail. Wide ears and button eyes mounted on its head. Nothing happened. Marty stared at his hands. He had never had his power fail before. Could the clout to his head have taken away his power? What was he going to do now? He forced himself to sit up. He got his feet down on the floor and stood. They had taken his clothes from him. He supposed that was to be expected. He might have had some kind of secret weapon to get out of the cell he was in concealed in the lining. Why wasn¡¯t his power working? He looked up at the faintly purple light. He wondered if the light was shutting off his power. He needed to knock it out to make sure. How was he going to do that? That was the question. The others had physical powers that made them formidable heroes. He didn¡¯t have any of that without his summoning power. He looked around for a weapon he could use to smash the overhead. If he could that, the room would be dark. That would defeat any spies watching him. Where was Ren? He should be here in the cell too. What had they done with the apprentice? Would Doctor Tanhoubei look for them if he didn¡¯t hear from Ren soon? Marty doubted the Doctor would interfere. It was up to Ren to solve the mystery and show the world he had done it. That meant Ren would be on his own for a long time without his mentor butting in. Marty found a chair in his cell. He tried to heft it. He frowned at the bolts holding the chair to the floor. He sat in the chair as he thought about his next move. He decided to take a better look at the vent. Maybe it was bigger than he thought it was. If he could climb out of there, that would be okay. If he couldn¡¯t, at least he tried the idea before he dismissed it. Marty bent down in front of the grate. He saw that screws held the vent cover in place. He didn¡¯t have anything to take the screws out. There had to be something he could use to his advantage. ¡°Can you hear me, Mr. Morgan,¡± said a voice in the vent. It sounded vaguely robotic to Marty¡¯s ear. He had experience listening to voiceboxes that weren¡¯t human, and this voice reminded him of Barry¡¯s partially rebuilt larynx. ¡°Yes,¡± said Marty. He didn¡¯t have anything to lose by listening. ¡°My name is Cog,¡± said the voice. ¡°I am speaking through a drone. We are about to escape. Would you like to join us?¡± ¡°Who¡¯s we?,¡± said Marty. Reflexive caution made him ask the question. He didn¡¯t think anyone contacting him through the vent would have an escape plan, but he wanted to hear something. He had been struggling too long in the dark. ¡°Myself and two females brought in to be mindwiped,¡± said Cog. ¡°One of the women calls herself Finch. I don¡¯t know the designation of the other female.¡± ¡°What about my friend?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°He is already trying to escape on his own,¡± said Cog. ¡°I don¡¯t know how he will get through the door, but he was examining it when I checked on him.¡± ¡°Go over and tell him that you¡¯re getting us out,¡± said Marty. ¡°I¡¯m having a problem with my power right now. You guys might have to leave me behind.¡± ¡°You are under a beam that cuts off powers,¡± said Cog. ¡°I will cut it off before I check on your friend. That will give you a small amount of time to recover.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Marty. The light changed subtly. He squinted. It didn¡¯t look as purple Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.as it had before their talk. He thought he heard scuttling in the vent. He ignored it. It was obvious how Cog had reached him. He had some kind of automaton that Mercer didn¡¯t know about. He had let the robot loose in the facility and had compromised the security somehow. The explanation didn¡¯t mean anything if this was all a trick of some kind. Could he trust the synthetic voice? That was what bothered him. He just didn¡¯t have any choice if he wanted to break out of his cell. And Marty admitted to himself, he wanted to break out of his cell and have another go at the powers that had jumped him on the road. He wanted a rematch with his power against theirs now that he had seen them in action. ¡°Mr. Morgan?,¡± said the mechanical voice. ¡°Your friend has opened his cell. He is coming your way to open your cell and the female¡¯s.¡± ¡°Security?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°I am buying us time with the cameras and microphones,¡± said Cog. ¡°But if someone sees him, there will be trouble.¡± ¡°If Ren can open my door, we will work our way down to free you and Finch,¡± said Marty. ¡°Then I have to get some answers before we break out of here.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not staying,¡± said Cog. ¡°As soon as I get free, I am using an exit and going home.¡± ¡°That¡¯s okay,¡± said Marty. He concentrated on his power. He felt a flare and smiled. It was surging under a weakened restraint. He could use it to get himself out now if he didn¡¯t want to wait on Ren. The back of the door¡¯s lock fell inside Marty¡¯s cell. He waited. Ren pushed on the door from the outside. He smiled when he saw the Scout waiting in the center of the room. ¡°I have to find my clothes,¡± said Ren. He gestured at the hospital gown he wore. ¡°This is not something I want to fight in.¡± ¡°How did you get out of your cell?,¡± asked Marty. He went to the door and looked up and down the hall. ¡°I have a lockpick designed by Doctor Tanhoubei,¡± said Ren. He held out his hand. Something like a tuning fork glowed in his palm for a second before he concealed it again. ¡°It destroys locks easily.¡± ¡°That¡¯s great,¡± said Marty. ¡°For a minute, I thought you were going to tell me you hypnotized the door.¡± ¡°That would be a feat worthy of my teacher,¡± said Ren. ¡°I bet,¡± said Marty. They crept down the hall, looking for other doors. Marty spotted a row of lockers behind a round desk controlling a crossroad. He pointed to it as he looked around. Their clothes might be in one of those. Ren started popping the locks. He frowned at a shirt, pants, and women¡¯s underwear stacked on top of boots. He put the clothes on the desk. He found his black suit and coat, bag, and shoes in another locker. Marty¡¯s old Scout shirt, jacket, and jeans were in the last locker he opened. ¡°It¡¯s always in the last locker,¡± Marty grumbled. He began pulling on his clothes. He threw the hospital gown on the floor. He kicked it under the lockers. ¡°Let¡¯s find this other prisoner, and then see what we can do about helping Cog.¡± Ren hopped over the circular counter. He scanned the clean looking desk top. He shook his head. He looked at the lockers. He hopped back over the counter and looked at the door of the one that held the strange clothes. He smiled. ¡°Let¡¯s see who¡¯s in Six A.¡± Ren picked up the clothes and started searching the doors for numbers. He smiled when he found the one marked the same as the locker. A speaker stood next to the door. He pushed the button with his thumb. ¡°Hello?,¡± he said. ¡°What do you want,¡± said a female voice. ¡°My name is Ren,¡± said Ren. ¡°I think I have your clothes. Would you like them?¡± ¡°Yes, I would,¡± said the woman. ¡°Give them.¡± ¡°Step back,¡± said Ren. ¡°I¡¯m going to have to crack the lock.¡± ¡°Go ahead,¡± said the woman. Ren shoved his tuning fork into the lock. The whole came apart into pieces with a twist of the glowing tines. He pulled the device out of the wreck and put it away. He pushed on the door. It swung inward silently. A blond woman stood in the center of the room. She looked down on Ren and Marty. She held out her hand. ¡°I¡¯m Ren,¡± said Ren. He handed the clothes over. ¡°This is Marty.¡± Marty waved absently. He had his eyes on the corridors leading to the room. All it would take to blow their escape was a guard coming along at the wrong moment. He scratched his chin as he kept his lookout post. ¡°Corona,¡± said the woman. She stared at him. ¡°Sorry,¡± said Ren. He turned around to give her some privacy. ¡°Do you know what¡¯s going on?¡± ¡°Cog said they want to brainwash us,¡± said Corona. She pulled on her clothes swiftly. ¡°Now that you are here, they should be thinking they can get started.¡± ¡°So they have been tracking us,¡± said Marty. ¡°It makes sense. We were looking for them, and they were trying to keep us in sight while we were looking.¡± ¡°Do you know what this is about?,¡± asked Corona. She straightened out her costume, flexing her hands. ¡°We were looking into the ambush on the Hazard Scouts,¡± said Ren. ¡°We connected a man named Mercer and a company named Watson Security peripherally to the attack. We were tracking Mercer to ask him some questions about what he knew was going on.¡± ¡°Mercer was in charge of the normal troops that brought me here,¡± said Corona. ¡°He has mismatched eyes, so he¡¯s easy to spot when you see him.¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± said Ren. ¡°How did you get here?¡± ¡°These goons came after me,¡± said Corona. ¡°There was a monkey, a girl clown, and a guy with a bunch of pockets and utility belts. The guy with the belts zapped me with some kind of beam and I lost my powers. Then I was tranqed while I was trying to strangle the monkey.¡± ¡°Sounds like the guys we ran into down at the park entrance,¡± said Marty. He summoned a mouse and sent it ahead of them. ¡°We need to find an office with records. If we get those, we can expose this to the public.¡± ¡°That will allow me to graduate,¡± said Ren. ¡°The problem is we will have to find them, and we will have to elude the powers and soldiers to escape.¡± ¡°And they can shut down our powers with those nullifier guns they use,¡± said Corona. ¡°You two help Cog and Finch escape,¡± said Marty. ¡°I¡¯ll find the records and cause some kind of distraction for you.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s wise,¡± said Ren. ¡°One man can¡¯t take on the people here. We need to gather our forces and attack while we still have surprise on our side.¡± ¡°Plus I want a rematch,¡± said Corona. ¡°I owe these people something for what they did.¡± ¡°We head for the steps and try to find the others,¡± said Marty. ¡°We take down anyone in our way.¡± ¡°You know it,¡± said Corona. Light and heat played around her hand. ¡°Agreed,¡± said Ren. Marty looked for signs to point him to the exit, or steps. His mouse hadn¡¯t come back. That was good as far as he was concerned. Once it did, he knew they would be facing trouble. The alarm sounded. Marty looked up at the ceiling. He frowned at the cameras. Maybe Cog hadn¡¯t shut them down like he thought the machine voice would. It was obvious that he had fixed the cells so they could get out and wander the halls. ¡°Cog must have made a break for it instead of waiting for us,¡± said Marty. ¡°Let¡¯s find those stairs so we can get off the floor.¡± The mouse ran back. A troop of soldiers were down the hall, and coming fast. Apparently, they were on the way to make sure the other prisoners were locked down. Marty tried the nearby doors. He found one that was unlocked. He waved for the others to follow him and hide in the room. Revenge of the Scouts 18 Thingamabob looked up at the ceiling in his group¡¯s common room. Why was the alarm going off? He stood up from the table he used for a work bench. One of the prisoners must have gotten loose from their cell. He assembled his arsenal as his group gathered around. They had changed to civilian clothes like he had. No one wanted to wear a mask at home. ¡°Puff, get up to the operations command and find out what¡¯s going on,¡± said Bob. He secured the last pieces of his gadgets together hastily. ¡°Gaze, start looking for the problem. Troop and Clown Girl, start searching the facility for whatever is going on. Don¡¯t forget to call in.¡± ¡°Do you think one of them got out?,¡± asked Clown Girl. She had traded her striped shirt and baggy pants for a track suit with BRUINS on the back. Her make up was a pale imitation of what it usually was when she was in action. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Bob. ¡°Go find out.¡± ¡°On it,¡± said Clown Girl. She headed for the stairs. ¡°Come on, Monkey Boy. Last one upstairs is a rotten pistachio.¡± Troop threw his long arms up in the air with a grunt. He branched out as he headed for the stairs and the elevator. His plaid shirt and jeans made it look like he had mugged a lumberjack for his clothes. ¡°The cells are empty, Bob,¡± said Gaze. ¡°The prisoners are spread out and moving around the facility.¡± Puff appeared, pulling on his purple coat over his shorts and T-shirt. He shook his head. ¡°The brains started fighting in the factory,¡± reported Puff. ¡°We might have a meltdown. Gilbert not happy with his pets.¡± ¡°I told him this might happen.¡± Bob pulled on his arsenal over his short sleeved shirt and chinos. ¡°Gaze, vector our guys on the prisoners. Puff is going to take me up to the factory, before helping Clown Girl and Troop.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t let them blow the place up, Bob,¡± said Gaze. He pulled on the radio set he used to keep in touch with the rest of the Squad. ¡°I don¡¯t think Clown Girl and Troop grabbed their radios.¡± ¡°Get me up to the factory, Puff,¡± said Bob. ¡°Then get radio sets to the others. Then help them find the prisoners and put them back in their cells.¡± ¡°Will do, boss,¡± said Puff. ¡°You don¡¯t have to tell me twice. I can get the job done. I have a can do spirit, and an already done brain. Yes, sir.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± said Bob. ¡°The sooner we sort things out, the faster we can go on our vacation.¡± ¡°We¡¯re already at the beach,¡± said Puff. Transportation cut off his diatribe about how much he wanted sand and ocean after living underground too long. He stepped back as sirens warned him of imminent calamity. ¡°Get the radios and help the others,¡± said Bob. ¡°I¡¯ll handle this.¡± Puff vanished between strobes from the alarm lights. ¡°What¡¯s going on, Gilbert?,¡± asked Bob. Gilbert Handley was responsible for the smooth running of the factory and extorting ideas from the two brains he held captive near the ceiling of the floor. He looked like someone had kicked him somewhere sensitive. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Gilbert. ¡°Everything was fine a few minutes ago. Then they started fighting inside their chambers.¡± ¡°What do you mean fighting?,¡± said Bob. He walked over and examined the readings This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.for himself. ¡°They¡¯re just brains in jars.¡± ¡°They have limited control of the factory,¡± said Gilbert. ¡°Both of these guys were heavy duty minds before we locked them in. All they needed was to find an outlet to take over everything while no one was looking.¡± ¡°The fact that we don¡¯t have anything to offer them can¡¯t help us,¡± said Bob. ¡°I think I can pull the plug on this. I need you here to try to shut them down from this console. Do whatever you think you have to until I give you an all clear.¡± ¡°Do what you have to do,¡± said Gilbert. ¡°If they start exerting control outside of this room, there¡¯s no telling how many they could kill while locking us out.¡± Bob didn¡¯t need the reminder. The last thing he wanted was to go up in a fireball because the two brains decided to settle their problem by doing something to sabotage the power source for the headquarters. It was supposed to be impossible, but what they were doing at the moment was supposed to be impossible too. Bob pulled his power rod from its holster. He pointed it at the machinery, tracing the readings as fast as he could. He ignored the lightning playing around the room now. He knelt and took aim at a cable under some of the equipment. He pushed the trigger and a beam of light cut the cable in half. He looked around. He looked at his wand. The readings looked normal. He smiled. He had saved millions of dollars with a two cent expenditure of energy. ¡°Kill the alarms, Gilbert,¡± he shouted at the chief technician. ¡°I can¡¯t hear myself think in this racket.¡± The lights still flashed, but the sirens were silent. Bob smiled. The noise was giving him a headache. ¡°Okay,¡± said Gilbert. ¡°Everything looks like things are going back to normal. You might have saved everyone in the base. Good job.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s double-check to make sure our masterminds can¡¯t do anything like this again before I go,¡± said Bob. ¡°Then I have to help out the rest of the Squad. Our prisoners got loose in the excitement.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Gilbert. ¡°Let¡¯s power down everything in here, and see what we can do to reengage the safety locks. Then we can examine everything without worrying about a stray welding torch, or a shock.¡± ¡°Right,¡± said Bob. ¡°You might want to detach their container while you¡¯re checking everything out.¡± ¡°Right,¡± said Gilbert. He pulled several switches and pushed a button. The globe at the top of the room dropped lower on a boom handle. The ready light turned red to signify they were trapped in the globe and couldn¡¯t touch anything on the outside. ¡°Can you do the check on your own?,¡± asked Bob. He could run it faster, but he had to get to work and help his team. ¡°Sure,¡± said Gilbert. ¡°I need to get my assistants back in here to help out.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Bob. He jogged to the door. ¡°I¡¯ll be back to help you as fast as I can.¡± Gilbert grunted an acknowledgment. Once the check was done to make sure the underground building was safe, he would have to figure out how the brains had gotten enough access to try to kill them all. One of his assistants must have done something to allow them more control. Then he would have that man shot for being dumb as a box of rocks. Bob headed for the stairs. He didn¡¯t feel like taking an elevator until Gilbert had finished his check. He didn¡¯t want an accident that could have been avoided. He idly wondered what had thrown the brains into conflict, but decided that was something to worry about later. First he had to help his team and get the five prisoners back in their cell. Luckily, his nullifier should help with that. Now that they were unable to do anything to the factory, they would have to stew about their confinement until something was done. He checked his radio. He needed a report where he could be the most useful. Troop and Clown Girl should be able to handle all of them but Corona. He would have to take her out with his wand. He noted that he would have to dart her as soon as he cut off her power. He didn¡¯t want the woman to strangle him like she had been trying to do to Troop. ¡°Gaze?,¡± Bob said into the radio. ¡°Can you hear me?¡± ¡°I¡¯m here, Bob,¡± said Gaze. ¡°Finch is two floors up from where you are. Puff is trying to hold her in place for Mercer¡¯s men to try to recapture her.¡± ¡°I¡¯m on the way,¡± said Bob. He headed up the stairs. Puff should be a great distraction with his teleport ability. He was hard to hit, and could strike from any direction. He should have things wrapped up by the time Bob arrived to help him out. Bob pushed out of the stairwell. He expected to find Finch a prisoner again. Then they could concentrate on the more powerful escapees. He found a group of men spread out over the floor with broken bones and some crying. He paused at that. Where was Finch? Where was Puff? He advanced cautiously down the corridor. One of the men groaned from the pain of a broken face, and a broken leg. Their victory had been easy in Seattle. He realized it wasn¡¯t going to be that easy now. Revenge of the Scouts 19 Marty peeked out of the door. The soldiers were running toward their cells. Someone must have become aware of their escape. He shrugged. That was to be expected. He crept out of the empty office. He headed in the opposite direction. He didn¡¯t want to fight anybody unless he had to do it. Corona and Ren seemed able to hold their own in a fight, but why fight when you didn¡¯t have to? Marty made it to the stairs. He heard the elevator ringing across the hall. He held the door for his friends to step inside the stairwell. He stepped in and pulled the door closed. The elevator doors opened to let another squad of goons step out in the hall. One of them pointed at the stairwell door. Marty didn¡¯t have enough room for a big animal like a rhino in the stairwell. He decided that a big cat would have to do what he needed to do. The door pushed in. The tiger leaped at the first man in line before he could think to shoot at anything that might be in the stairwell. The man went down screaming. Corona pulled some of her power into her hand. She leaned over Marty, using his shoulder to aim her hand. Bright light flooded the doorway. The men fell back toward the elevator, blinded by the flare. ¡°Go,¡± said Marty. He called off the tiger to let the door close on the squad. He wondered if they would just shoot through the door the next time. Ren led the way to the next floor. He paused at the landing door, holding up his hand. He took a spot next to the door and waited. The door opened and a goon peered at the landing. Ren touched his face with the palm of his hand. The trooper froze in place. Marty pulled the trooper out of the way and pushed him down the stairs. He let the door close. More guys could come through the door, or the guy was on his own. It didn¡¯t matter. They were obviously using radios to keep track of where the escapees were. They had to keep moving if they wanted to get out of there. The layout of the place seemed familiar to Marty. He put the puzzle aside as he headed up the stairwell. They had to get away from the shaft before they were swamped by armed soldiers and powers. Corona paused long enough to melt the hinges on the door so it would have to be knocked down before anyone could enter the stairwell from that floor. She smiled at the smell of melted metal cooling down. ¡°They¡¯ll have to blow that sucker down,¡± Corona said as she brought up the rear of the line. ¡°We have to find Cog and Finch,¡± said Marty. ¡°Any ideas?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think we can do a floor by floor search unless you want to use one of your animals to see if it can find them,¡± said Ren. ¡°We should look for an exit and hope they are doing the same.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry about that,¡± said a woman from two floors up. ¡°It¡¯s time for beddy bye time.¡± A rain of monkeys dropped down on the three allies. They made sure that some of them had grips on the railings so they could hit the stairwell like a bomb hitting a target. ¡°Rematch time,¡± said Corona. She charged upwards in an arrowhead of fire. The duplicates tried to avoid the flaming aura as she tried to grab them. Several of the monkeys grabbed Marty and wrapped him up in a grip so tight he couldn¡¯t move. He tried a head butt. He missed the skull he had been aiming to hit. More monkeys in clothes tried to grab Ren. He avoided them the best that he could. He wasn¡¯t a physical powerhouse like Corona. His strengths lay in other directions. One of the monkeys grabbed his arm. It smiled at him. He smiled back. Then he Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.vanished. Troop paused in amazement. Where had the man in black gone? How had he gone there? The nullifier had done nothing to him when they had picked him up at the park entrance. Now he was gone like Puff. ¡°Better power down, Corona,¡± said Clown Girl with a smile. ¡°Troop will rip that guy apart if you don¡¯t.¡± Corona blasted at her. The beam melted part of the railing and scorched the concrete of the landing. Clown Girl jumped back out of the way of the beam. A hand touched her face. She tried to turn and swing at the same time. Instead she froze up in the middle of the move and fell over. Ren shook his head. His move had worked almost like he had planned it. Now he had to do something about the multiplying monkey. He just had no idea what he could do. Troop shrieked at the sight of his partner falling over. He lifted Marty up in multiple arms. The meaning was obvious. Give up and your friend doesn¡¯t lose an arm. Ren paused. What could he do about this? Corona fired a bolt of flame through the nearest version of Troop. They tried to scatter away from the attack. Some of them didn¡¯t make it. ¡°It¡¯s all over, Monkey,¡± said Corona. ¡°Put our friend down, or prepare to burn.¡± Marty took a moment to clear his head. He closed his eyes and thought. He was in the center of a living mass, at the wrong end of his new friend¡¯s power, and having stress on his body to show he was about to have one of his arms ripped out of its socket. What could he do about it? He summoned his power. He hoped he was making the right call. He didn¡¯t want to be called Lefty for the rest of his life. A giant bear fell on top of the crowd of monkeys. They had a moment to think about things before it began swinging its big paws around. Some of the crowd tried to push the weight off without leverage. Corona flew into the monkeys as they divided to get away from the onslaught of angry bear. She pushed some of the monkeys over the rail on impact. They were forced to grab the rails to keep from hitting the bottom of the shaft. Her aura set fur alight as she threw punches at the group of simians. That forced more division as some of the monkeys fought to put the fires out while more tried to deal with the bear biting faces. Marty flung an elbow and pushed away from the grips on his body. It wasn¡¯t strong enough to do any real damage, but it was enough for him to roll out on top of the monkeys while they were trying to deal with the twin menaces. Marty dropped on the stairs, holding on to a rail. One of the monkeys came at him. The bear slammed it from behind, sending it over the rail. ¡°Thanks, Winnie,¡± said Marty. He realized that he had to dip into his special monster animal pool. It was the only way they were getting out of this. A soldier appeared above the fight. He said something into the radio in his helmet. He backed into a hand to the face that put him to sleep beside the clown. Things were spiraling out control. They had to deal with the monkey and move away from the scene before more problems showed up. Marty summoned his power. A large reptile unrolled from his hands. Wings spread out from its long body. Saucer eyes burned the air. Smoke drifted from wide nostrils. The monkeys looked at the thing glaring down at them. Did the power want to take on what it was looking at, or did he want to run? Corona looked up as she grabbed one of the monkeys around the neck with a burning hand. She smiled at the giant beast hovering above her. She flung the fragment over the railing. ¡°We have to go,¡± said Ren. He leaned against the door above the fray. ¡°Soldiers are on the way.¡± The dragon blasted flame on the multiple Troops. The simian pulled himself together away from the stream of flame and then dispersed as a swarm of climbers heading upstairs from the confrontation. Corona picked some of them off as they ran away. Marty headed up the stairs. He shook his head as he moved. The dragon flew ahead. Corona flew up next to it. Ren joined the Scout as he climbed. ¡°That was unexpected,¡± said Ren. He kept an eye on the fleeing Troops. ¡°I hoped I wouldn¡¯t have to use it,¡± said Marty. ¡°It¡¯s my only trump card. Door.¡± The door to a floor above them opened. Men poked weapons out in the stairwell. Ren and Marty crashed against the barrier and slammed it on the crowd trying to get at them to shoot. It wasn¡¯t enough to shut the door against the crowd. Then the dragon curled around and lined up its snout on the door. The soldiers tried to retreat in front of the flame that leaped at them. Ren and Marty slammed the door shut on the smell of burning cloth and the sound of exploding ammunition. They waited for the sounds to die down before they opened the door. One of the men was still awake, if hurt. They dragged him in the stairwell before closing the door again. ¡°Get rid of the monkeys if you can,¡± Marty told the dragon. ¡°We can¡¯t let him stay in here with us.¡± The dragon grunted as it climbed after Corona and the fleeing Troop. It blew fire at the monkeys to keep them moving in one direction. Corona helped with fire blasts to keep them from turning around and falling back down on Marty and Ren. ¡°How you doing?,¡± Marty asked the soldier they had grabbed from the mess at the door. ¡°Where¡¯s your boss?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have anything to say to you freaks,¡± said the man. He had to struggle with the words from injuries to his torso. Revenge of the Scouts 20 Cog mentally shook his brain as he looked at the cameras in the command center. The rest of the prisoners were causing havoc in the facility. He should have expected this would happen. How did he help them get out of the place? How did he get himself out of the place? How did he move things into a way that he could use to cover his escape? He should have thought about giving his allies radios so they could talk to each other and coordinate their actions. He had to get them together and thinking about breaking out instead of setting people on fire, or breaking their bones. If he called them over the public announcement center, he would be letting their captors know he had taken the room over. The human monitors were stacked where he had left them. His captors had never gotten close enough to take his tools from him. That was a bad oversight on their part. He had to get Corona, Marty, and Ren together with Finch. They had handled the girl clown and forced the simian to flee from them handily. Finch had turned into a silent monster for the human guards trying to stop her. The human teleporter was trying to stop Finch by using hit and run tactics. In Cog¡¯s opinion, he should run. He wasn¡¯t a match for her, and was taking more hits than he was delivering. If she landed a solid hit on him, Cog thought he would suffer some breakage. He came up with a plan. It was risky, but doable in his opinion. He had to steer the humans together. He doubted Finch was going to listen to him. She was too involved in exerting her vengeance on anybody who came within reach of her hands and feet. That meant he had to steer Corona¡¯s group to Finch. That meant he had to send his drone to talk to the trio. Corona would probably keep fighting, but he thought Marty and Ren were more apt to listen to him. Once he got them together with Finch, maybe the fighter would join the group and head for the exit. He doubted it. She seemed focused on hurting her perceived enemies as much as she could. He didn¡¯t have the ability to deal with that kind of mindset. His instincts said to run away and leave her. On the other hand, she seemed to be drawing a large percentage of the free soldiers in the complex to her position. They didn¡¯t know they were running into a meat grinder. He didn¡¯t have enough compassion to warn them. Cog sent a signal to his drone. It traversed the underground building through the vent systems. It paused when it saw the dragon go by, flame blasting from its snout. He didn¡¯t know there were animals like that on Earth. He filed it into a mental slot of things to look out for as he ordered the drone to make contact. Marty and Ren paused in their climb to look at the vent built into a wall of the staircase. Marty raised his hand in the traditional human greeting. The drone raised a tentacle in reply. ¡°Finch is wrecking things two floors above you,¡± Cog said through his drone. ¡°The plan was for her to join me in the motor pool. She decided to put as many soldiers in the hospital as she can.¡± ¡°We were hoping to gather some of the operational records, Cog,¡± said Marty. He kept a wary eye on the dragon and Corona blasting at Troop. The monkey seemed to want to get to a door and get away from the fire blasting at him. ¡°I am hoping that you can get to the motor pool so we can leave,¡± said Cog. ¡°The Squad and the soldiers might be able to regroup and pick us off if we don¡¯t move faster.¡± ¡°We need those files,¡± said Marty. ¡°You go ahead and leave. We¡¯ll get out on our own.¡± Cog muttered to himself. Of course the humans wanted to gain something from this. They were greedy for more rather than get what they could and get out. He had seen it first hand. Here was another example of the trait. ¡°The offices are on the ground floor at the top of the structure,¡± said Cog. ¡°There should be enough records to keep these people locked down while the government strips everything they can carry. Hurry and get it done.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Marty. ¡°That sounds like a plan.¡± ¡°You have soldiers on guard at all the exits from the stairwell,¡± said Cog. ¡°As soon as you come out, they will try to cut off any powers with portable nullifiers.¡± ¡°Do they know about the dragon?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°Yes,¡± said Cog. He checked the camera feeds. ¡°They think they can handle it with A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.what they have.¡± ¡°We need another way out of this stairwell,¡± said Marty. ¡°And we need directions to Finch. Can you handle that?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± said Cog. ¡°See if you can get rid of the monkey without getting hurt. I¡¯ll try to come up with some other way out of the stairwell without a small army of weapons ready to shoot.¡± ¡°Right,¡± said Marty. ¡°Do what you can. We¡¯re depending on you.¡± Marty started up the stairs. He checked the doors as he went. It felt good to know that no one wanted to take him on. On the other hand, they were in a bottleneck. They needed Cog to come through with some kind of plan. Their captive hadn¡¯t been helpful at all. Ren put him to sleep and they had started after the dragon and Corona trying to get rid of their enemy duplicator. Cog tried to think of a plan as he watched the cameras. There had to be something he could do. What did he have at his disposal? He had nothing but the cameras and remote control of some of the doors. None of that would help the others. He didn¡¯t see a fire bell, or suppression systems in place. Maybe he could have his drone start a fire somewhere that could be blocked off from the rest of the building. The thought that maybe he should join the fight never entered his mind. He had triggered his door with his drone. He had evaded recapture. Opening the door to the command center had been an applied use of his drone. Then he had used his whip-like limbs on the staff before they could resist him. Maybe he could do better than suggesting they run into a stream of concentrated fire designed to put them down. How did he get started trying to save the others? The stairwell was across from the local elevator. If they could get to that, they could use it to ambush the soldiers. Cog checked the elevator out. It could be a back door for the group. All they had to do was cut into the accessway over the stairwell. Then they could go anywhere they wanted. It was better than waiting for the soldiers to flood the stairwell and put them back in their cells. ¡°Mr. Morgan,¡± said Cog. ¡°There is part of the ventilation system at the top of the stairwell. If you can cut into that, it will lead to the elevator shaft. You can use that to get around the troops in the hall.¡± ¡°What about Finch?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°We will have to temporarily abandon her for a successful escape of our own,¡± said Cog. ¡°It¡¯s the only practical solution.¡± ¡°I have a better idea,¡± said Marty. ¡°Seal the doors Corona, except for Finch¡¯s.¡± He pointed to the door he meant. It would buy seconds, but he might be able to stretch that out if the army was afraid to blow things up. The dragon began eating Troops. Apparently it was tired of casting fire at an enemy that kept duplicating to get around injuries. It snatched the simians up and threw them in its mouth and started chewing. The monkeys scrambled for a door to get away from the onslaught. They collapsed into one Troop as the furry fury threw himself through the door above the floor where Finch was supposed to be. Corona sealed the door with a burst of light. She worked her way down the stairwell. Small pulses of light marked her melting the hinges and door jambs together. She finished at the bottom door. Then she headed back up to where Marty and Ren waited by the door to head out on the floor to get Finch. ¡°I¡¯m going out to get Finch,¡± said Marty. ¡°You two watch the stairwell and elevator. I got a feeling that they didn¡¯t rush up to get her when they had to deal with us. Cog said there was a vent at the top of the stairwell. We can seal the door and cut our way into the elevator shaft after we¡¯re done.¡± ¡°Sounds like a plan,¡± said Corona. ¡°Be careful. We don¡¯t know what¡¯s going on here.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll do the best I can,¡± said Marty. He called back the dragon. He summoned a dog of unknown pedigree. ¡°Watch out for anyone with the nullifiers. If someone masses to attack the door, don¡¯t stick around. Go for the exit and get out of here. It¡¯s upwards.¡± ¡°You want us to leave you and Finch?,¡± said Corona. ¡°I won¡¯t do it.¡± ¡°Cog is already heading out,¡± said Marty. ¡°If you get caught, you won¡¯t have any way to get out of your cell the next time. Don¡¯t worry about us. We¡¯ll handle it.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Corona. ¡°I don¡¯t like it.¡± ¡°Who does?,¡± Marty slid out of the stairwell. He jogged to an overturned desk and used it for cover. Nothing but broken men stirred as far as he could see. His dog perked up at a hum. It ran in that direction, ears flopping as it moved. Marty jogged after it, grabbing a discarded pistol as he went. It had been a long time, but he should still know how to handle it. He paused as the dog growled. It ran at someone in green with a rod in his hand. The figure turned around. The rod pointed. A purple beam stabbed out at Marty. The Scout threw himself into an alcove. The beam glowed where it hit the wall. Marty fired back, using the wall as a brace. The bullets sparked off an invisible shield. ¡°Go back to your cell, Morgan,¡± said the man in green. He pointed the rod at Marty. ¡°Your stupid animal power doesn¡¯t have a chance against my technology.¡± ¡°You think so?,¡± Marty asked. He called back the dog. There was nothing it could do against that shield. ¡°I know so,¡± said the man in green. ¡°We studied you. There¡¯s nothing you can do to stop me from putting you to sleep and locking you back down.¡± A grenade rolled to a stop at the Squad leader¡¯s feet. Marty looked for something to hide behind. He threw himself across the room, behind a counter. He hunched over and closed his ears as the grenade went off. He peeked over the counter. The man in green had hit a column despite his shield. A woman in gold and green appeared. She held a staff in her hand as she looked over the scene in a gold mask over the top of her face. ¡°Marty Morgan,¡± Marty said from behind his cover. ¡°I think we might be able to leave now.¡± ¡°Yes,¡± said Finch. ¡°Other masks?¡± ¡°Corona and Ren are waiting by the elevator,¡± said Marty. ¡°I don¡¯t know about Cog.¡± ¡°Other masks?,¡± said Finch. She held a staff in her hand. She nodded at the man in green getting to his feet. ¡°We chased two of them away from the stairwell,¡± said Marty. He called on a rhino and set it loose. It smashed against the shield at full speed. It couldn¡¯t get through the shield, but it could work on it long enough for a search party to look for him. ¡°It looks like you¡¯ve dealt with the other two.¡± Revenge of the Scouts 21 William Watson stood. He reveled in it. Even five years after his conversion, it still felt good to stand on his own. He had taken it for granted before he had been stricken. Now it was a reminder of how his planning had solved his problem. And now he had another problem stemming from the solution of his prior problem. How did he fix it in a way that would let him come out ahead? He gave it some thought as he left his office and searched for his assistant, Oscar. He should have known that Marty Morgan would stir up trouble. His limited power was still useful in its way. Of course, he would have figured out part of what had happened and come looking for answers. Now he had to be dealt with before he found out what had happened to his old mentor Barry Nicklaus. That discovery could ruin the base¡¯s ability to jumpstart technology to fight powered humans. Watson Security made a fortune with their clandestine activities. Most of that fortune came from what had been done to the Hazard Scouts. No one could get in his way and call him to task for that particular business decision. He found Oscar standing with Captain Mercer outside a metal door marked operations. He hoped he conveyed his frowning. His metal face still had a lot to be desired in that department. ¡°What is going on, gentlemen?,¡± he asked. The new voicebox was still better than the old one, but it still sounded like someone playing an electronic keyboard. The next generation should be able to sound almost like a normal man. ¡°Somehow our prisoners have escaped,¡± said Oscar. ¡°One of them has taken over the operations room and locked us out so we don¡¯t know where the others are except from the reports from Gaze.¡± ¡°So if they keep on the move, he can¡¯t tell us anything other than where they are, and where he thinks they are going,¡± said Mercer. ¡°He says they are two floors down right now, with Morgan and Finch battling Bob.¡± ¡°Any plans to open this door?,¡± asked Watson. Operations could see every inch of the facility except for his own office. If they wanted to use the security cameras and lock down the floors, they needed to get inside. ¡°We are bringing up explosives from my training area,¡± said Mercer. ¡°We are going to try to cut through the lock and force the door open.¡± Watson inspected the lock on the door, then the door itself. The thing was like a vault door. They would need a lot of explosives to make a dent in the thing. ¡°We think we can cut through the door,¡± said Mercer. He waved at a squad waiting to go into action. ¡°We have some EMP guns here. We think Cog is the one who is in there. Soon as we get in, we blast him with the EMP pulse. He goes back to his cell.¡± ¡°Understood,¡± said Watson. There was no way he could get through the door. It was too thick even for his new arms and legs. ¡°What about the others?¡± ¡°We plan to go after the other four as soon as we have operations back under our control.¡± Mercer waved at the stairwell door. ¡°We¡¯re going to blow all the doors and swarm them. Nullifiers and nonlethal ammunition will be used. We¡¯ll round up your lost sheep.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll do that now,¡± said Watson. ¡°Make sure to blow the door and get Cog before he can escape. He might have the knowhow to destroy the controls of our generators and ventilation. If he does that, it will take months to bring the facility back to active service.¡± ¡°Will do,¡± said Mercer. Watson strode over to the stairwell door. Mercer¡¯s men retreated from his advance. He noted they were armed with a mix of regular weapons and nullifiers. Once they were through the door, they could take his captives prisoner after cutting off their powers. Only Finch and Ren would be a threat after that. He doubted they could stand up to his strength with the normal human abilities that they possessed. He examined the door. It had been melted into the frame by intense heat. Corona¡¯s handiwork unless they had something else that could do that. He had to make sure to not let her go to work on his body. He didn¡¯t want to replace melted parts because he was careless. He braced himself. Then he launched into the door. It resisted his weight the first time. He repeated the exercise until he had knocked the door down. He looked out on the landing. Nothing moved. He stepped out in the stairwell. He looked down over the rail. Something big and green looked back. He dodged backwards as fire filled the air. ¡°That could be a problem,¡± said Watson. He thought about he could handle the giant beast. He peeked over the railing again. It was gone. He decided the best thing to do was try to take his enemies by surprise. And he had never really tried his new body out against opponents that might be able to match him in some way. The most he had done with it was execute some troublemakers who thought they could take a larger share than he was willing to give them. Don¡¯t be greedy was a rule he lived by in his pursuit of personal satisfaction. He worked his way down to the floor below his floor. He tried to be stealthy. He didn¡¯t think it was a good job. A lance of light confirmed his thought. It missed his head as he dove for the floor. He slid down the steps to the landing between the floor where the group was and where Mercer¡¯s men waited above. Some of the men came out of the door above and fired down at the group. They worked their way down to his side, crouching to keep return fire from being a problem. Watson lifted himself off the ground. He was way too heavy for an ordinary man to Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.lift now. He inspected his metal skin. He noted two dings on the arm that hit the floor first. There was nothing he could do about that. He had to forge on. ¡°Watch out,¡± he warned the men. ¡°They had some kind of giant beast with them.¡± The men nodded. The nullifier carriers fired bursts of purple light at the opened doorway. They might hit something, so shooting didn¡¯t hurt. And the beam guns were rated for hours of use before they had to have their batteries changed. The fight would be over before the guns ran out of power. ¡°Move up slowly,¡± said Watson. ¡°Who has a radio?¡± One man stepped out of the crowd. He wore a large radio on his back. He carried a simple rifle to keep from getting close to the enemy. ¡°Call Mercer, and tell him he might be able to use the elevator to create a two pronged attack.¡± Watson eased up behind the nullifiers. ¡°Tell him to proceed carefully.¡± ¡°Yes, sir,¡± said the radio man. He stepped back to make the call. He didn¡¯t know what the fugitives could do, but everyone knew that Becker had been hurt bad by one on the way back to base. The Captain almost made an example of him. He relayed the message and listened for acknowledgment. He didn¡¯t need to be in the middle if something went bad on either end of the call. Mercer gave him a terse ¡°Got it.¡± ¡°Captain Mercer said he understood the message,¡± said the radio man. He stood behind Watson. If anything went down, he wanted a big shield like the robot man promised to be. Lances of light flared at the men. Nullifiers and rifles answered the beams. Watson yanked the only hit man out of line and rolled him on the ground to put out the fire as fast as he could. ¡°Take him out of the way,¡± said Watson. He handed the wounded man off to some squaddies. ¡°Riflemen, prepare to cover us. Nullifiers, open fire and keep their heads down.¡± He advanced down the steps behind a shower of purple beams. He had to take Corona out of the picture first. She was the only one capable of hurting him. He couldn¡¯t allow that. Morgan would have to go next. He had learned some new applications for his powers. There was no telling what he could call up, or how much damage the beast would cause. It was better not to give him a chance. The other two could be as dangerous, but there was no telling what they could do against a group of men. Finch was said to be a highly trained fighter. Nothing was known about Morgan¡¯s companion. They had grabbed him on the off chance he had something that could be used. And he did have something. Watson didn¡¯t know how to handle it yet. Watson pointed to the edge of the door. He wanted his men ready to cross the threshold when he did. They had numbers on their side. The other side had weird powers. If the prisoners didn¡¯t go down in the first volley, the retaliation could take out most of his men before he could stop them. His metal body should take some hits, but he wanted to keep things to a minimum. Getting hammered in a simple action like this would be embarrassing. Watson peeked around the corner. He smelled burning metal. That was good. His nose worked after months of tweaking. He would have smiled if he could. He saw a glow where metal and concrete had been eaten away. He scanned the room. Where were the powers? The elevator doors opened on his right. Mercer¡¯s men leveled guns, but not at him. Watson advanced into the room. He felt the men spreading out behind him. Their comrades moaned on the floor. He bent down and tapped one in the face. Eyes snapped open at the touch. ¡°What happened?,¡± asked Watson. The men checked their comrades as they kept searching the floor. ¡°That woman,¡± said the wounded man. He raised his hands. All the fingers were broken. ¡°She came out of her cell with a blanket. The next thing I know she was breaking my fingers. She was asking about her stuff. I told her where to find it. She slammed my head against the floor. That¡¯s the last thing I remember.¡± Watson stood. Finch had done all this on her own. Maybe he had underrated her ability. ¡°Get this area clear,¡± he ordered. ¡°We don¡¯t need them in our way while we are looking for our escapees. They¡¯ll just get in our way.¡± Guards formed up at the edge of the fighting area. Other men handed their wounded to people in the elevator. When the elevator was full, they sent it down to the training area. The men could be put there until the company doc could look at them. Watson wondered what their next move should be. He walked over to where the glow still emitted from the floor. He looked down. Thingmabob lay on a desk directly below. What had happened to the man? Watson had wanted to face a real challenge. Here it was. Somehow, his fugitives had engaged his top thinker and leader of his powered assets and put him through a concrete and steel floor. What else were they capable of doing? He left the floor search to Mercer¡¯s men. They had the weapons and attitude to mix it up. All he could do was draw fire. He dropped down through the hole, noting the heavily hot temperature still radiating from the cracked floor. He landed like an anvil beside Thingamabob. ¡°What happened, Bob?,¡± he asked. He looked the man over. The man¡¯s rod had charring around the working end. ¡°Bob, Bob, can you hear me?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± said Bob. His voice sounded dry and whispery. ¡°I thought I could hold them. I was wrong.¡± ¡°What happened?¡± Watson looked around. He didn¡¯t see any of the escapees. That didn¡¯t mean anything. He considered the heat from the hole and thought a normal person wouldn¡¯t have been able to do what he did. The only one he had to worry about doing that was Corona. Naturally she was the only one who could blast his metal body to bits if he gave her enough time. ¡°I was holding off Morgan with shield,¡± said Bob. ¡°Couldn¡¯t use nullifier while shield was up. Corona blasted the shield at full power. Luckily, I had my visor on, or I would be blind. Fell through the floor before the shield gave out. Hit this thing after it gave out. I don¡¯t know if I am all right, or not.¡± Watson frowned internally. He didn¡¯t have the means to check to see if his minion was paralyzed. Any wrong move could cripple Bob for the rest of his life. He decided the best thing to do was call for a medic. Someone had to be able to safely move Bob from the counter he lay on. Then he could search for the prisoners before they hurt anyone else. He had wanted people with ability. He had gotten that in spades. Watson didn¡¯t think he could jump up to climb through the hole. He headed for the stairwell door. Mercer¡¯s men had medics. They would know what to do. He didn¡¯t want to make things worse for Bob. The man had done some good things for the company over the years. It wouldn¡¯t be right to leave him like that. He would have to talk to Gilbert to see if a conversion could be done if that was what necessary. He headed up the stairs. One of Mercer¡¯s men guarded the steps from attacks from below. ¡°I need you get a medic and two men with a litter.¡± Watson paused at the landing. ¡°I need a wounded man checked and secured downstairs.¡± ¡°Yes, sir,¡± said the guard. He went inside the disaster area of hurricane Finch, and talked to several people. He returned with a man with a medical kit and another man. ¡°You said there was a wounded man downstairs, Mr. Watson?,¡± said the man with the kit. ¡°He fell through a hole in the floor.¡± Watson headed down. ¡°He says he can¡¯t feel anything.¡± ¡°I got it,¡± said the medic. ¡°We¡¯ll transport him down to the training area. A real doctor will look him over when we get things sorted out.¡± ¡°Do the best you can,¡± said Watson. ¡°I¡¯ll be down to check on him.¡± ¡°Yes, sir,¡± said the medic. ¡°Let¡¯s go, Ike.¡± Watson watched them disappear into the floor. He needed to check with Mercer. They needed to get inside the operations center. Then they needed to hunt the escapees down. Watson started up the stairs. He had to think about what he could do to speed things up. He doubted that Mercer wanted more than suggestions with a number of his men wounded. It would be a surprise if he didn¡¯t try to kill them instead of taking them alive. Watson stepped on the floor with the operations center. It was time to think of a strategy to get things back in hand. Revenge of the Scouts 22 Marty Morgan crept through the ventilation shaft as quietly as he could. It helped that the facility was so large that it needed duct work heavy enough to carry air down to the bottom of the base. That prevented his climbing around from being heard unless you were directly under the shaft. He couldn¡¯t wait to get out of the network. They were in a trap if the Watson guys figured out where they were. ¡°We can get out up here,¡± said Ren. ¡°We are above a garage full of vehicles.¡± ¡°Go ahead,¡± said Marty. ¡°We want to get out of this before someone realizes where we are.¡± ¡°Damn right,¡± said Corona. ¡°One guy at either end and we¡¯re done.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Ren. He kicked the vent cover. Nothing happened. He kicked again. ¡°Seems jammed. Hold on.¡± Finch pushed him forward and got in his spot. She kicked the cover off with one blow. She dropped through the hole and landed silently amidst the cars and trucks. ¡°I could have done that,¡± said Ren. ¡°Sure,¡± said Corona. ¡°Don¡¯t just stand there. Go ahead. We¡¯ll be right behind you.¡± Ren lowered himself through the hole. He looked down at the concrete floor. It looked higher than he liked. He let go and dropped to the floor. He rolled when he hit to minimize the impact to his body. Marty moved up to the hole. He called for his griffin to carry him down to the ground. He waved it away as he looked around. Corona dropped down in a bubble of light. She looked around. No one was around to stop them from taking a truck and driving away. Marty inspected the closest cars. None had keys in them. He looked the garage over. He spotted sets of keys on a peg board across the room. It was time to get the others out while he went about his business. ¡°All right,¡± said Marty. ¡°This is what we¡¯re going to do. I¡¯m going to walk over and get those keys. I¡¯m going to bring them back. You three take a truck and head out of here. I¡¯ll turn loose the dragon in here and join you.¡± ¡°Nice try, buddy,¡± said Corona. ¡°We all know you¡¯re going to try to sneak back in and steal those files you were talking about earlier. Why else send us ahead when you know I¡¯m the best blow things up person here?¡± ¡°Because one man can get in and out while they are searching for a bunch of us,¡± said Marty. ¡°And someone has to get away to tell the authorities what was going on here.¡± The women looked at Ren. He looked at them, and then understood what they were silently saying. ¡°I need those files to solve everything so I can start my own agency,¡± said Ren. ¡°I can¡¯t walk away now.¡± ¡°Cog wants to go,¡± said Corona. ¡°Let him carry word to the outside.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know that he will do that,¡± said Marty. ¡°Plus it¡¯s not his responsibility to do anything about this. It¡¯s mine. This place. It finally hit me. It¡¯s set up like the Hazard Scouts base. The guy killed my friends and then copied my home. And he just reeled others in on top of that. I can¡¯t let him get away with that.¡± ¡°You can walk away and let others handle this,¡± said Ren. ¡°You don¡¯t have to do anything more.¡± ¡°Wrong,¡± said Marty. ¡°Without those files, we have nothing. Watson and his staff can say we broke in here for no reason. He¡¯ll hold up that it was a coincidence that we worked on helping him with two of his problems before the team was ambushed. Without a paper trail, we have nothing. And the blame will be put on us for violating someone¡¯s civil rights instead of trying to get a search warrant, or a writ for evidence.¡± ¡°So we all go,¡± said Corona. ¡°You don¡¯t get to exclude us from the action.¡± ¡°Finch?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°What do you say about this?¡± ¡°Hurt them,¡± said Finch. Her voice and inflection was flat and emotionless. ¡°Looks like you¡¯re outvoted, Chief,¡± said Corona. ¡°We all go, or none of us go.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Marty. ¡°The first thing we are going to need are disguises.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± said Corona. ¡°Let¡¯s get some keys in case you guys have to leave in a hurry.¡± ¡°Hopefully, none of them will check the shaft over the elevator any time soon,¡± said Marty. ¡°That¡¯ll buy us some time while they try to figure out what we did.¡± The group started toward the pegboard. They divided the keys and put them in pockets, or utility pouches. They walked over to the door leading to the rest of the complex. No one seemed to be on guard. Marty slipped out first, listening for trouble. Corona and Finch followed. Corona should be able to blast anyone who got in their way. Finch had her staff and other weapons that could be used at a distance if she did have to use them. Ren came last, closing the door behind them. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. Hopefully, Cog could get himself clear while they were looking around. One of them should be able to go home after this. And if he spotted them in trouble, maybe he would come back and do something. Marty knew that was a longshot. Cog didn¡¯t strike him as brave, or concerned about others. He simply wanted to get away from trouble as fast as he could. The Scout resolved not to tell Finch that Cog wanted to leave her behind. He felt that would cause trouble that they didn¡¯t need. They had enough to go around without conflicts in the group. Marty paused when he heard people talking and working around the floor. He pressed against the wall as he looked around. The soldiers were working on blasting down a metal door. He wondered how he could grab four of them for disguises. He considered turning his dragon on them. That would clear the hall fast in his opinion. Then he saw three men who attracted his attention. One was a guy in a suit. One was a soldier with what looked like mismatched eyes. The last was a robot about seven feet tall. The design was smoother, but it resembled the visible parts of Barry¡¯s robotic limbs. Marty bit down on his anger so he didn¡¯t do anything stupid. The last thing he should do was turn his dragon loose and alert the soldiers that he was close enough to talk to them. That would be bad. On the other hand, the dragon could take care a lot of the opposition there and then. ¡°Don¡¯t, Marty,¡± said Ren. ¡°All we need are the files.¡± Finch stepped around them. She grabbed a guy by the neck and dragged him back from the crowd. She dropped him in an office. She waved at the others to get inside. Then she grabbed number two before he could even shout a warning. She dragged him back with her. Ren smiled as he looked around the office. He started going through files in the cabinets around the desk. ¡°This may be what we need.¡± Ren started assembling files touching on the Scouts and his new comrades. ¡°So we don¡¯t have to go any further than this,¡± said Corona. ¡°This is great. All we have to do is get out of here with our skins intact.¡± ¡°The guy is here,¡± said Marty at the door. ¡°He¡¯s wearing a copy of Barry¡¯s robotics.¡± ¡°What do you mean?,¡± asked Corona. ¡°One of the overseers looks like a suit of armor that looks like Barry Nicklaus¡¯s robotics,¡± said Marty. ¡°That¡¯s why they took Barry¡¯s body. They wanted it so they could make a copy.¡± ¡°Who¡¯s Barry Nicklaus?,¡± asked Corona. ¡°He was my best friend,¡± said Marty. ¡°You guys get out of here with that stuff. I¡¯m going to talk with this guy.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t, Marty,¡± said Ren. ¡°They didn¡¯t just take Barry¡¯s body. They took his brain too.¡± ¡°What do you mean?,¡± asked Marty. Finch dragged victims three and four into the office and closed the door. She dropped their dead weight. ¡°There¡¯s indications they loaded his brain into a life support and took it,¡± said Ren. ¡°There¡¯s a bill for an estimate on a metal skull here.¡± ¡°Oh, that¡¯s not right,¡± said Corona. ¡°You¡¯re telling me that they killed everyone else, but took Barry¡¯s brain,¡± said Marty. ¡°And where is it?¡± ¡°It¡¯s here somewhere,¡± said Ren. ¡°We need to search this place.¡± ¡°We need to go,¡± said Corona. ¡°These people are ready for us.¡± ¡°Hurt them all,¡± said Finch. ¡°I agree with Finch,¡± said Marty. ¡°I say we hurt them all.¡± ¡°We can¡¯t do that,¡± said Ren. ¡°We have enough to turn over to the authorities.¡± ¡°No,¡± said Marty. ¡°We have disguises. We look for Barry. Then we blow this place up.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Corona. ¡°Are you sure you¡¯re not taking this personal?¡± ¡°I¡¯m totally taking this personally,¡± said Marty. ¡°I am holding back because you guys are here. Otherwise, I would be taking things into my hands right now.¡± ¡°We look for Barry,¡± said Corona. ¡°First sign of trouble, we get out of here.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± said Marty. ¡°Let¡¯s change clothes and get out there.¡± The four changed clothes as fast as they could. Finch had picked four guys who were spookily close to the same size as the four of them. Ren put his clothes in his bag. The others asked them to hold their belongings too. ¡°Right,¡± said Marty. ¡°We know they won¡¯t keep Barry up here.¡± ¡°He wasn¡¯t on the floor where Finch happened to be,¡± said Ren. ¡°He also wasn¡¯t on the same floor as we were.¡± ¡°That gives us five other floors.¡± Marty stepped outside the office. He headed for the elevator. He pulled his cap down to help obscure his face. One of the big three might look his way and recognize him. That would trigger a fight for the door. Ren, Corona, and Finch followed him. They tried to ignore the activity around them. Marty opened the door for them. The four stepped in the elevator. The doors shut on them. Ren pushed the button one floor down below the scene of Finch¡¯s rampage. The door opened. One look said this was the wrong place. He pushed the next button. The elevator opened on something out of a mad scientist¡¯s dream. ¡°I think this is the right place,¡± said Corona. ¡°We even have someone we can ask questions.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s do that,¡± said Marty. He started across the open space. Two guys in white suits were doing grunt work for a guy in a white labcoat. The Scout headed right for the boss. He trusted Finch to handle the other two guys. She had already torn up trained soldiers. Igors should be even easier for her deadly skills. ¡°How¡¯s it going?,¡± said Marty. ¡°I¡¯m wondering what you do here.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think you have the need to know,¡± said the boss. ¡°Who are you? Does Captain Mercer know you¡¯re here?¡± Finch dropped the other two men with quick blows to the head. She paused to let them drop to the floor. The sound attracted the chief¡¯s attention. ¡°You better start talking,¡± said Marty. ¡°Or I¡¯ll let her go to work on you. You don¡¯t want that.¡± ¡°Hurt you,¡± said Finch. ¡°Hurt you more.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t tell you anything,¡± said the technician. ¡°I just manufacture things from plans that Mr. Watson provides.¡± ¡°I think you undersell yourself,¡± said Ren. He examined the controls of a particular panel plugged into a set of boxy computers running on reels of magnetic tape. ¡°What does cerebral fluid tank mean?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know really,¡± said the technician. ¡°That was here before I got here.¡± ¡°Wrong thing to say, bud,¡± said Corona. She let her hair down by putting her cap in her pocket. ¡°Which leg do you want broken?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°That¡¯s what you get for lying.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t,¡± said the technician. ¡°We have a couple of brains preserved over the factory floor. They come up with the designs for the things Mr. Watson wants to use for the company. I take the designs and work out the bugs. That¡¯s all I know.¡± ¡°Brains?,¡± said Ren. ¡°How many brains are we talking about here?¡± ¡°We have two here,¡± said the technician. He pointed to a globe hanging from the ceiling. ¡°Two?,¡± said Ren. ¡°Really?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± said the technician. ¡°How do we get them out of there and into real bodies?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°I don¡¯t have a clue,¡± said the technician. ¡°Break his leg, Finch,¡± said Marty. ¡°I think he can hop along on his left one.¡± ¡°No,¡± the tech held up his hands. ¡°We have mobile tanks for them. We can put them into those.¡± ¡°How?,¡± asked Ren. The technician showed them the procedure and put the brains in two cylinders on rollers. He checked the readings on the tanks to show them the life support was working. He gestured to show things were okay. ¡°Thanks,¡± said Marty. Finch broke the technician¡¯s leg with one kick. He went down with a high pitched shriek. The others looked at her. ¡°Deserved it,¡± she said. Revenge of the Scouts 23 Marty asked Finch to put the technician out. They didn¡¯t need him screaming while they were trying to think about how to get two cylinders of metal and plastic out of a base full of people who didn¡¯t want them to do that. ¡°So whose brains do we have in the tanks?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°Barry¡¯s, or someone else¡¯s?¡± ¡°We¡¯ll have to talk to them,¡± said Ren. ¡°The controls say there¡¯s some kind of speaking thing the tanks have been outfitted with so they can be interviewed.¡± ¡°Do you know how to turn it on?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°We have to know what happened, and if we can reverse this.¡± Ren checked the front of the tanks. He pressed switches to turn on the functions they needed. ¡°What¡¯s going on?,¡± said tank one. ¡°More stupidity to deal with from these idiots,¡± said tank two. ¡°It¡¯s Barry and Cortez,¡± whispered Marty to his three companions. ¡°I can¡¯t believe it.¡± ¡°Cortez vanished before the Hazard Scouts were killed,¡± said Ren. ¡°It looks like he was here all that time.¡± ¡°Who¡¯s there?,¡± asked Barry. ¡°Where¡¯s Gilbert?¡± ¡°Who¡¯s Gilbert?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°He¡¯s the idiot running this place,¡± said Cortez. ¡°If I had my rig, I would gut him for his incompetence.¡± ¡°Him.¡± Marty rubbed his face. ¡°He suffered an accident. Do you know where you are?¡± ¡°No,¡± said Barry. ¡°No, I do not,¡± said Cortez. ¡°How is that relevant?¡± ¡°The year is 1979,¡± said Marty. ¡°You have been held in Pinebrook National Forest for ten years.¡± ¡°Ten years!,¡± said Cortez. ¡°I don¡¯t believe you.¡± ¡°What about the rest of the Scouts?¡± said Barry. ¡°Where are they?¡± ¡°The other members of the Scouts except one were killed in the ambush where they took your brain.¡± Marty gritted his teeth. This was the kind of news he didn¡¯t want to be delivering. ¡°You were believed dead. Only a piece of luck revealed that you were here.¡± ¡°Who lived?,¡± asked Barry. ¡°Martin Morgan,¡± said Marty. ¡°Animal Boy lived?,¡± said Cortez. ¡°The weakest member lived? I can¡¯t believe that.¡± ¡°Shut him off, please,¡± said Marty. It was hard enough breaking bad news. He didn¡¯t need to deal with a maniacal brain of top of everything else. Ren cut off the speaker on tank two. ¡°We don¡¯t have a lot of time, Barry,¡± said Marty. ¡°I¡¯m going to break things down as simply as I can. Then we need to get you out of here.¡± ¡°Go ahead,¡± said Barry. ¡°I can take it.¡± ¡°All right.¡± Marty marshaled his thoughts. ¡°Idaville was a trap. It was set up by Captain Mercer for Watson Security. Jim, Doug, and Daryl were all killed. It looked like you had died too. Marty got away and has been drifting along. Recently he met Ren, an apprentice for Doctor Tanhoubei. They started looking into the ambush so Ren could graduate and set up his own agency. They tracked Mercer to Pinebrook National Park. They were captured by Watson¡¯s powered goons and put in cells with three other powers. The plan was to brainwash the group so they would do what Watson wanted. Corona and Finch, this is Barry Nicklaus. Barry, this is Corona and Finch.¡± ¡°Hi,¡± said Corona. ¡°Honored,¡± said Finch. ¡°Pleased to meet you, ladies.¡± Barry seemed to laugh to himself. ¡°So Watson took me apart. Why?¡± ¡°So he could build a version of your body for himself,¡± said Marty. ¡°I think he used you to design things because this place is set up like the Scout headquarters.¡± ¡°That explains a lot,¡± said Barry. ¡°What¡¯s the next move?¡± ¡°We get you out of here, figure out how to get you a body, and turn in Watson¡¯s files to see what the Feds think about all this,¡± said Marty. ¡°I might take the chance to deal with Watson and Mercer before we get out of here.¡± ¡°What about these powered minions?,¡± asked Barry. ¡°Where are they?¡± ¡°One is asleep, one has been hurt but I don¡¯t know how badly, a third was dropped through a floor by concentrated fire against a force field, and we don¡¯t know what happened to the fourth,¡± said Ren. ¡°I hurt him,¡± said Finch. ¡°We might be four for four then,¡± said Corona. ¡°Good job, girl.¡± Finch nodded at the compliment. ¡°How mobile are these tanks?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Barry. ¡°They don¡¯t let us see anything. I assume you can use them like wheelchairs.¡± ¡°We take them out of here, and use the elevator to get to the motor pool,¡± said Marty. ¡°Then we get out of this place and hide out long enough to turn Watson in.¡± ¡°Sounds like a plan,¡± said Corona. ¡°I¡¯m for it.¡± Stolen novel; please report. ¡°I think we can do it,¡± said Ren. ¡°We just have to cross that empty corridor and hope no one sees us.¡± ¡°If anyone does, we dump Cortez for them to take back,¡± said Marty. ¡°Ten years trapped in the dark doesn¡¯t make up for some of the things he did.¡± ¡°I¡¯m good with that,¡± said Corona. ¡°Let¡¯s get out of here.¡± Ren took the Cortez tank. Marty took Barry¡¯s. They started rolling the tanks to the door. The ladies followed. Finch paused to make sure that Gilbert would sleep until someone found him. They all paused at the door. Ren headed for the elevator first. He hit the button and waited on one side. Marty rolled Barry¡¯s tank to the door and parked it next to Cortez. Finch and Corona took the other side of the door. The door opened. More of Mercer¡¯s men stood inside the elevator. They looked at the foursome and their burdens. ¡°Going up?,¡± said a man with corporal stripes on his sleeves. ¡°Yes, please,¡± said Ren. He rolled Cortez into the elevator. ¡°We have to get rid of this waste.¡± Marty rolled Barry into the elevator. He parked the tank at the back of the cab. The ladies squeezed in on either side. The other group noted Corona¡¯s height and muscles. ¡°I wish you were helping us,¡± said a private. ¡°When we get done, I¡¯ll come looking for you,¡± said Corona. She winked at the private. ¡°Oh yeah,¡± said the private. ¡°Shut it, Dumphries,¡± said the corporal. ¡°You want to wind up like Becker? Let¡¯s have a little decorum.¡± ¡°Yes, sir,¡± said Dumphries. He and Corona exchanged looks and hand gestures until the elevator door slid open. Dumphries¡¯s squad got off to head toward the wounded still trying to be evacuated from where Finch had left them. Corona waved at him as he went. ¡°Flirt,¡± said Finch. ¡°I don¡¯t see anything wrong with having a good time,¡± said Corona. ¡°He might even show me a thing, or two.¡± ¡°We¡¯re trying to put him in jail,¡± said Marty. ¡°That¡¯s a conflict of interest.¡± ¡°I can put him in jail and give a last night of freedom,¡± said Corona with a smile. Marty opened his mouth to object. He closed it. Finch shook her head as she pressed the close door button. She closed her eyes as she waited for the elevator to move. ¡°Are you okay, Finch?,¡± asked Ren. She nodded. A small tear escaped the corner of her eye. The other three looked at each other. Corona reached across and touched the fighter¡¯s shoulder gently. ¡°If you need a moment, it¡¯s cool with us,¡± said Corona. ¡°This has been a set of long days.¡± ¡°Fine,¡± said Finch. She resumed her stoic mask. She nodded at them. ¡°Ready.¡± ¡°Everyone ready?,¡± asked Marty. The other three nodded. ¡°Born ready,¡± said Barry. ¡°Nice idea. I would never have thought of sneaking someone out as some kind of waste.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t believe that for a minute,¡± said Marty. ¡°You caught the Three State Man doing the same thing we¡¯re doing.¡± ¡°That was a long time ago,¡± said Barry. ¡°Shh,¡± said Corona. ¡°The doors are opening.¡± Corona held the door open as she stepped out in the hall. Finch took the other side. Marty and Ren rolled their tanks out of the elevator. The soldiers had retreated behind a makeshift barricade so they could blow the door to the operations center down. The robot and Mercer were out of sight. ¡°Hurry,¡± whispered Marty. He pushed Barry¡¯s tank toward the motor pool as fast as he dared while trying to avoid drawing attention. Corona picked up the other tank and picked up the pace. She carried it on her shoulder as if ready to throw it at the first person who got in their way. Marty didn¡¯t doubt she would use Cortez and his artificial body as a weapon. ¡°Motor pool ahead,¡± said Ren. He rushed to the door. A loud bang behind them signified Mercer¡¯s men had cut through the big door keeping them from Cog. The lack of gunshots meant he had escaped from the sealed room somehow. Marty smiled at that. He deserved to get away after trying to help them, and inadvertently blocking the guards from being able to find them for a few crucial moments. That was worth something despite the mystery man declaring himself a coward and willing to leave everyone else behind. ¡°Let¡¯s get a van to carry us out of here without arousing any questions,¡± said Marty. ¡°Let¡¯s grab the blue one,¡± said Corona. ¡°It looks big enough to carry us all.¡± ¡°We¡¯re going to put you in the back, Barry,¡± said Marty. He wheeled the tank toward the van. ¡°Then all we have to do is drive out of here.¡± ¡°Sounds like a plan,¡± said Barry. ¡°I wish I had my body. This is slightly embarrassing being rolled around like this.¡± ¡°The Camp is empty,¡± said Marty. ¡°Some of your spare parts might still be there. I didn¡¯t check when we were there earlier.¡± ¡°So I can build a replacement,¡± said Barry. ¡°I¡¯ll really be a brain in a jar then.¡± ¡°It can¡¯t be helped,¡± said Marty. ¡°I¡¯m surprised they kept you alive.¡± ¡°Watson wanted weapon designs,¡± said Barry. ¡°Cortez and I gave him things to chase, but weren¡¯t practical from our point of views.¡± ¡°Technology has marched on since you have been gone,¡± said Marty. ¡°Computers have been shrunken for example by the discovery of new types of transistors. Vacuum tubes are on the way out.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll have to do some reading to catch myself up when I get some new eyes,¡± said Barry. ¡°I know what you¡¯re thinking. I¡¯ll be a fish out of water. I won¡¯t know my way around. I¡¯ll have to deal with grief over my friends eventually. I can deal with it. There¡¯s always hope, and I can do that.¡± Marty wiped his face with the back of his hand. This was the Barry that had adopted him into the Scouts when he didn¡¯t have anywhere else to go. The alarm went off overhead. The group looked around. They were halfway to the van. They had to get out of there. ¡°Ren, get the wheel,¡± said Marty. ¡°We got to move before they try to lock us down.¡± Corona jogged toward the van with Cortez¡¯s holder on her shoulder. Light ran up her arms as she called on her power. Finch sped to get the back doors open as Marty raced behind the ladies. He shook his head at being the slowest one there. He thought he had kept in good shape. He hated to admit he was wrong about that. Finch pulled the back doors open for Corona and Marty. Corona slid her burden on its side to the back of the back seat. Marty lifted Barry up and placed him on the metal floor. He jumped in and pushed the tank forward. He made sure to brace it so it wouldn¡¯t fall over if something happened while they were trying to escape. Marty sent a bird back to the door to keep an eye on anyone coming through the door as Finch closed the van doors. Ren started the engine with his tuning fork. He dropped it in gear as Finch climbed in the passenger seat. He started toward the outside door with eyes on the mirror. Corona flew in front of the van. Her body burned the air around it. She pointed both hands at the exit door. The metal ran under the onslaught. A hole appeared as the substance separated from solid to liquid. It wouldn¡¯t be enough to let the van by. ¡°Hold on,¡± said Ren. ¡°I¡¯m going to hypnotize the van.¡± ¡°What?,¡± said Finch. ¡°What?,¡± said Barry. ¡°What?,¡± said Marty. He paused. His voice sounded like the squeak of a mouse to him. Ren touched the dashboard. He murmured something to it as he pressed down on the gas. He drove into the flowing steel of the door. The van passed through to the other side of the opening without harm as far as Marty could tell. ¡°That was pretty good,¡± said Marty when he remembered to breath again. ¡°Good,¡± said Finch. She relaxed in the shotgun seat. ¡°It really worked,¡± said Ren. ¡°I didn¡¯t think it would.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not something to admit,¡± said Barry. Cortez¡¯s tank shook in place as if in anger. Finch grabbed Ren¡¯s closest ear. She squeezed once before letting go. He groaned from the pain in his ear. ¡°You didn¡¯t have to do that,¡± said Ren. He rubbed his sore ear with his hand. Corona flew to match up with the driver¡¯s door. She waited for him to roll down his window. ¡°Pull over,¡± said Corona. ¡°I don¡¯t want to fly back to Detroit.¡± Ren pulled to a stop. He rubbed his ear as he waited for Corona to climb in the back seat. He looked in the mirror. He smiled at the absence of pursuit. ¡°It looks like we got clean away,¡± he said. ¡°No,¡± said Marty. ¡°They¡¯re trying to get their vehicles started so they can chase us. We have to get out of here as fast as we can.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s do that,¡± said Ren. He shifted gears and put his foot down on the gas. Revenge of the Scouts 24 Cog examined the door to the command center. He checked the cameras. They were going to cut through the barrier easily. All they needed was the right materials. He had to vacate the office before they managed to come in and get him. He had no need to fight all of the humans. He might be able to take them on, but he didn¡¯t want to face magnetic guns. He was not going back to that cell. Cog¡¯s tentacles sprouted tools at the end. He worked on the cameras precisely and fast. He was not leaving them a way to track him through the facility. It occurred to him that he could hide in the structure and use it for his own purposes. He decided that he would rather retreat to his own home in Chicago. He didn¡¯t want to hide from amoral humans trying to find him and use his body for a shell. He observed the cyborg moving around outside the command center. He thought he could take it apart. He didn¡¯t plan to stick around and try. That wasn¡¯t his nature. His people preferred to hide from their enemies and use the environment as cover. Cog finished his task and put his tools away. He scanned the cameras. The friendly humans were absconding with the brains from the factory that he had observed. He wished them the best of luck. It was time for the tentacle monster to get out of the room and move to somewhere safer. Cog slipped into the ventilation system. He pulled the grill behind him and welded it in place. They would have to find out what he had used for an exit. The cyborg floated down the duct, swimming in the air away from the locale. His drone monitored the situation from above where the humans worked. He ordered the drone to follow the others until he caught up with them. He worked his way through the vents until he arrived at the motor pool. He heard the bang of the door being blasted aside by the human soldiers. Then his surprise went off. He made a noise that could be a human laugh. The sirens went off to denote a fire burning in the control panel he had rigged to explode to cover his tracks by shutting down the surveillance system. He noted the humans and their burdens moving to a van in the middle of the other vehicles. A bird flew up to the rafters holding up the roof. He decided that was one of Morgan¡¯s animals. It wouldn¡¯t be interested in him. It was there to keep an eye on Watson¡¯s minions. He flew to the van as it started forward. He crammed his metal head under the van, and secured a grip so he wouldn¡¯t scrape the road as the truck moved toward the door. Cog pointed a dish back down on the line. He heard orders being passed in the distance. Watson, or Mercer, had pinpointed their escape already. Clamps locked down on the door. They weren¡¯t lifting the hangar¡¯s entrance by hand. Should he drop off the van and look for some other exit? Had he made a mistake? What should he do? Corona blasted the door in front of the van. White fire punched a hole in the metal. The van changed under his tentacles. He felt the effect but couldn¡¯t explain it. The van punched through the liquid metal and kept going. Cog did a self assessment. Everything seemed to be working as well as could be expected. He hadn¡¯t lost anything to whatever had changed the van for the few seconds the effect had existed. The van pulled to a stop. He listened. The humans were doing the same thing and checking out whether they could move forward. The van started forward from the underground base. Motors attracted Cog¡¯s attention. The pursuit was still going to happen after what had just happened. He ordered his drone to catch up while avoiding the humans. He didn¡¯t want to lose it after all this. Watson¡¯s minions boiled out of the hangar. They roared after the van. As soon as they got close enough, they would fire on the van. Cog had a laser built in tentacle. He could stop some of them if they got close enough. One beam into tires would slow some of them down to let his transport get away. Purple beams blasted at the van. So they had armed themselves with nullifiers. If they hit Corona while she was in the air, she would crash. Did they have the magnetic guns? Did he want to find out? He calculated the chances. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.He decided he should have stayed in the complex and used this as a distraction to fly away in another direction. He had made a mistake hitching his current with the humans. He should have done something else. How did he get them out of this situation? There had to be something he could do. He decided that if he got out of this mess, he would arm himself with some kind of energy weapon that had better range than his laser, and a bigger wave. He decided that maybe a jet booster would be something to add to his body too. Corona exchanged fire with the minions. Purple beams lit up the air as liquid fire sliced through vehicles. Some of the cars caught fire under the onslaught. One of the nullifier beams glanced off Corona¡¯s aura. She lost power after the hit. She descended to the roof of the van. She grabbed the edges of the roof to keep from falling off. Cog shifted position until he was on the roof. He wrapped five tentacles around Corona. ¡°It¡¯s nice to meet you,¡± said Cog. ¡°I¡¯m Cog.¡± ¡°Charmed,¡± said Corona. ¡°You look like a squid.¡± ¡°I know,¡± said Cog. ¡°I have never been able to switch to something more human looking.¡± ¡°It looks good on you,¡± said Corona with a smile. ¡°The light green skin brings out the color in your headlights.¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to transfer you to the inside of the van,¡± said Cog. He felt that he had heard some sarcasm, but couldn¡¯t decide how to react to it. Ignoring it would be all right at the moment. ¡°Tell the driver to speed up so we can get away.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure he knows what he¡¯s doing,¡± said Corona. ¡°I¡¯m sure,¡± said Cog. He peered over the edge of the van and knocked on a window with a tentacle. The window slid down out of the way. ¡°I¡¯m going to lower the female inside.¡± Humans hands stretched out of the window. Cog lowered his burden into the hands. Corona slid inside the vehicle with a nod. He retracted his tentacles so he had the extra appendages to use for work. ¡°Nice job,¡± said Morgan. ¡°What happened?¡± ¡°I got hit with a nullifier,¡± said Corona. She grimaced. ¡°I will be back to normal in a bit. At least I¡¯m not under one of those lamps.¡± Cog watched the burning vehicles fall behind them. The active cars rolled around the bonfire and restarted their pursuit. He wondered how he could stop the rest of them so they could get away. Corona had done a good job on wrecking most of them. He focused on the cars. He didn¡¯t see any of the magnetic guns in the vehicles. Maybe he could do something. He flipped open the cutting bar in one of his tentacles. He eyed the trees passing on either side of the narrow dirt road they were speeding along. He saw a tree that he could cut through in one stroke. All he had to do was drop the tree across the path. How hard could it be? He swung the saw against the wood as the van passed. The top end of the tree fell toward the road. It hit two other trees and froze in place. Branches had caught the trunk and stopped it from finishing its fall. He winced internally at that. Maybe he could do better with the next one that he wanted to drop. He picked two trees in a row. He sliced through both of them with abandon. They fell across the road. He sliced through a third on the opposite side of the road as the van kept going. This was better than he expected. It didn¡¯t make up for having to violently deal with his antagonists, but it suited his personal tastes to cause problems for pursuers while he got away to live another day. He noted that some of the cars hit trees on the side of the road, but some just slowed down to bounce over his obstruction. He had thought his idea would work to get them clear. He needed to think of something else. If only the van could fly. That would help solve some of this within seconds of lift off. He didn¡¯t think he could convert the thing to some kind of flier while they were still in motion. They certainly couldn¡¯t stop to let him work on his idea. His drone signaled a flying machine was heading for them. That couldn¡¯t be good news. He needed to warn the others. They needed cover. ¡°There¡¯s a flying machine on the way,¡± said Cog. He directed his voice to the inside of the car. ¡°Any suggestions?¡± ¡°We need to conceal ourselves to get away from it,¡± said Marty. ¡°Any ideas on how we can do that?¡± ¡°I still can¡¯t fly,¡± said Corona. She lifted her hand. Nothing happened. ¡°Turn right,¡± said Finch. She pointed to a side trail. Ren yanked the wheel to follow her direction. The van fishtailed as it slid into the new path. He pulled to a stop next to a large pile of rocks sticking out from bushes and trees. ¡°What now?¡± said Ren. ¡°We get out and head out on foot.¡± said Marty. He kicked open the back door. ¡°You guys head out on foot any way. I¡¯m going to try to hold them so you can get away.¡± ¡°That¡¯s stupid,¡± said Cog. ¡°We should run together.¡± ¡°Someone has to be a distraction,¡± said Marty. ¡°And right now, I¡¯m the only one who can take out a helicopter as long as they don¡¯t nullify my power.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± said Finch. She pointed at the rock. She started away from the vehicle. Corona followed more slowly. The blast from the nullifier had left her slightly weaker than normal. Ren paused to look at the brain tanks in the back of the van. He looked at the two women heading away. ¡°We can¡¯t just leave them here,¡± he said. ¡°Sure, you can,¡± said Barry. ¡°The worst they can do is drag us back to that hole and put us back to work.¡± ¡°I can handle this,¡± said Cog. ¡°Go ahead. I will be right behind you with these two.¡± The floating cyborg produced his tool kit. He cut into the tanks as Marty watched the road. In a few minutes, the tanks had been reduced to the essential parts which made the brain jars easier to carry in its tentacles. Cog floated after the other fugitives. It carried the brains in a jar in its tentacles as it fled. Marty shook his head. He had to stop the pursuit here. He couldn¡¯t let the Watson boys know they had split up. He had to make enough noise that they focused on him. He moved off the road, heading away from the rock. He wondered how many he could take out before they nullified him. If he could take out the helicopter, that would help his new comrades get away. If he could drop the helicopter on top of the ground pursuit, that would make things even better. He crouched down in the shadow of a bush. He hoped the others used this to get Barry away to somewhere he could fix himself. Revenge of the Scouts 25 Finch paused at a fork in the trail. She looked up in the sky. She raised her hand and pointed east. ¡°You want us to leave you behind too?,¡± said Corona. ¡°We can¡¯t do that.¡± ¡°Go,¡± said Finch. ¡°Catch up.¡± ¡°She¡¯s right,¡± said Cog. ¡°She¡¯s a lot better out here than we are.¡± ¡°We need a better plan than breaking off in sacrificial plays so only one of us is left to deal with things,¡± said Corona. ¡°She¡¯s right,¡± said Ren. He pulled out his telescope to look in the direction Finch wanted them to go. ¡°There¡¯s a shack down there we can use for cover until you get your powers back.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t like this at all,¡± said Corona. ¡°I can carry you down to that shack,¡± said Cog. ¡°It will be no problem.¡± ¡°I¡¯m going,¡± said Corona. ¡°I just don¡¯t like it.¡± Ren put his telescope away as he started for the cabin. He looked around. Finch had vanished while they had been talking. He smiled. Some detective he was to miss something like that. Corona and Cog followed him across the terrain. They bickered about something as they went but Ren only half-listened to them. The tiny house wouldn¡¯t stop a lot of bullets, but it would hide them from anything that couldn¡¯t see through wood. He might be able to do something to help fortify the house. They had to keep the mercenaries at bay until Marty, or Finch, dealt with the problem. He had no doubt that Finch could take care of herself. She had decimated the men inside the complex. She could do the same in the wild with the abundant cover around. He was more worried that the powers would be back in action while they had no way to counter the numerical advantage the simian gave the enemy. He wondered how much Marty¡¯s dragon had hurt the duplicator when it started gorging itself on the multiple bodies. Maybe the villain was out of the action. That would be good in his opinion. That would only leave the teleporter to deal with if they had to worry about other powers. Ren paused at the cabin door. He pushed it open while staying away from the doorway. He didn¡¯t need to be accidentally shot because he was not supposed to be there in the forest. The place was dusty but empty. Nothing adorned the shelves to his right. A small stove was on the left. All it needed was fuel and a spark to keep them warm if they were there when it got cold. Hopefully they would have things settled by the time that happened. He didn¡¯t want to endure anything like snow in this situation with no food. He pulled his map from his bag. He checked their position to the best of his knowledge. They were miles from anything that might be helpful. He definitely didn¡¯t want to walk the distance. He made a note he should learn how to fly. That would make adventuring so much easier. Maybe learning how to make things fly for him would be just as useful. If he had that talent, he could have carried them to civilization in a flying car. At least he knew what had happened to the Hazard Scouts. All he needed to do was take it to a judge and have it proven in a court. That wasn¡¯t likely the way things were going. Ren turned in a circle. How did he turn this situation into something useful? What would his mentor do in this situation? The doctor had a vast sea of knowledge in how to turn things his way. Even taking cover was something he could use to befuddle his enemies. Ren wondered if he could hypnotize the shack into doing something else other than just sitting there. He paused. He liked that idea. The wood wouldn¡¯t be that much tougher, but if he could get it to walk about, it would be some kind of transportation. Then they could get clear long enough for him to send the files he took to people who could use them. He knelt down. The floor was wooden too. He could make a walking cube out of the material. He just had to work on one board to move the rest any way he wanted. It was something he had never seen his master do. A new technique could be as good as solving a mystery if it was helpful enough. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. He smiled. He could get his name in the book of master detectives. His accomplishment might inspire later detectives. He pulled a book out of his bag. He went through the pages. Several elements suggested it was possible. Statues had been used to defend several detectives as they worked. This could be grouped under the same thing. He wouldn¡¯t get his name in the book after all. He put the book back in his bag. He would have to settle for presenting his solution if he could get away from Watson¡¯s minions. ¡°How do you feel, Corona?,¡± asked Ren. If her power came back, that would improve things by a significant amount. ¡°Still weak,¡± she said. She raised her hand. A faint flicker of fire danced across her palm before fading away. ¡°The effect should fade faster as time goes on,¡± said Cog. He floated by the window. He gazed out on the trees. Nothing showed that Marty was doing anything. He knew all he had to do was wait. The Scout should be doing something reckless and foolish any minute. Ren joined him at the window. He pulled out his telescope and looked down their backtrail. He frowned at waiting for something to happen. Then the helicopter with the giant W on the side flew over the tree line. It seemed to be heading right for them. ¡°They know we¡¯re here,¡± said Ren. He put the telescope away. ¡°It looks like we¡¯re going to have to take some kind of action to keep from being recaptured.¡± ¡°What do you suggest?,¡± asked Cog. He throttled down his first instinct of breaking cover and running from the threat. That would just make it easier for them to snipe at him with the magnet guns and causing his prosthetic to fail like they had done in the original encounter that had led to him being imprisoned. Troop dropped from the helicopter in a chain of monkeys. He expanded into a pile falling toward the cabin. His numbers would overwhelm them if something wasn¡¯t done. Marty¡¯s dragon appeared in the sky. It breathed fire on the helicopter. The vehicle tried to veer from the jet of flame playing on its engines. It was too late as something caught fire. It headed for the ground as the pilot tried to keep control. Troop paused at the appearance of his old nemesis. Should he go after the cabin and grab hostages, or flee into the trees? He went for the cabin. The wooden walls grew, expanding upwards. Legs like trees lifted the small house up into the sky. Giant arms ending in fists descended from the sides of the shack. Troop froze in confusion. He had a dragon on one side, and a giant walking house on the other. What should he do? He turned and fled into the trees. He used his multiplication to cover ground like a wave heading for the shore. ¡°That worked better than I thought,¡± said Ren. ¡°I think we can just walk away without too much trouble.¡± ¡°How are you doing this?,¡± asked Cog. ¡°There¡¯s no sign of mechanisms, or interior power sources.¡± ¡°I convinced the house to grow some legs,¡± said Ren. He smiled. ¡°I hypnotized it.¡± ¡°Hypnotized an empty building?,¡± said Corona. ¡°Tell us another one.¡± ¡°I know,¡± said Ren. ¡°It¡¯s hard to believe.¡± Something exploded against a wall. Wood and fire flew into the house¡¯s single room. The stove fell over on its side. Ren and Corona were thrown to the floor by the shock. ¡°What the devil was that?,¡± asked Barry. Cog looked out the window. William Watson stood on the ground below. He was loading a rocket launcher to use on the house. ¡°Looks like trouble,¡± said Cog. ¡°Can you distract him, Ren? I think I can take care of this rather quickly.¡± ¡°I think I can do something,¡± said Ren. ¡°Go, go, walking house.¡± A giant fist descended from on high. Watson stepped out of the way. He brought the launcher up to aim at the cabin. Conversion would have suited his purposes, but now he had to think of the future and cut his losses. No one could be allowed to talk about his hidden facility. He pulled the trigger. The rocket blasted another yawning hole in the structure. He doubted he had killed whomever was making the cabin go since it was still moving. One more rocket should take care of that problem. He looked around for his box of ammunition. He needed a rocket to finish the job. He paused at the realization the rest of the rockets had disappeared. He heard whirring and sizzling and the arc of electricity behind him. He turned to face a small metallic cylinder at the head of dozens of tentacles. Each of those tentacles had something at the end of it. Then the monstrosity fell on him. Watson tried to work his way clear. Pieces of his body fell from him as he tried to get away from the thing reducing him to parts. He fell to the ground without his legs and part of an arm. ¡°Looks like you need to check in with your mechanic,¡± said the floating machine. ¡°He might be able to put you together again after all the trouble you went to so you could grab that body for yourself.¡± ¡°You won¡¯t get away with this,¡± said Watson. ¡°I¡¯ll hunt you down and take you apart like a tinker toy.¡± ¡°Not if I see you first,¡± said Cog. ¡°I¡¯ve already taken you mostly apart in a few seconds. I can finish the job if you want.¡± ¡°I will wreck you, you stupid machine,¡± said Watson. ¡°You had better hope that Marty Morgan doesn¡¯t realize you are sitting here helpless,¡± said Cog. ¡°He will not be as merciful as I am after what you have done.¡± ¡°He won¡¯t do anything,¡± said Watson. ¡°He needs things like due process and courts of law. He can¡¯t do anything to me since he can¡¯t prove anything.¡± ¡°Are you really sure of that?,¡± asked Cog. ¡°Yes, I am,¡± said Watson. The cabin descended to the ground. Its appendages collapsed back inside the building. Corona stepped out of the remains of the place, brushing dust off her shirt. Ren stepped out of the cabin a minute later. He wiped at a streak of blood on his face from a cut at his hairline. The dragon vanished as Marty Morgan appeared. He walked toward the gathering. There might still be enemy agents among the trees. They weren¡¯t going to stop what was about to happen. Morgan stood over the legless cyborg. He crossed his arms. ¡°Take me in, Morgan,¡± said Watson. ¡°You can¡¯t prove anything.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have to prove anything,¡± said Marty. ¡°I¡¯m not a cop.¡± ¡°What are you talking about?,¡± asked Watson. ¡°What do you think you¡¯re doing?¡± ¡°Is Barry okay, Ren?,¡± Marty asked. ¡°Yes,¡± said Ren. ¡°I checked his tank before I stepped out of the remains of that cabin.¡± ¡°Cog,¡± said Marty. ¡°I want you to put Barry into this body, and put this guy in Barry¡¯s tank. Can you do it?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± said Cog. ¡°It should be simple enough to do if the containers have simple plug ins.¡± ¡°Go ahead,¡± said Marty. ¡°I have to get out there and look for the rest of the security force. We don¡¯t need any more problems than what we have.¡± Revenge of the Scouts 26 Barry Nicklaus looked down at his metal hands. He flexed the fingers as he examined them. The face still failed to emote what he felt inside. He stretched, and then did some jumping jacks. ¡°What do you think?,¡± asked Marty. His arms was crossed. Ten years had come and gone, and he was still boy who had wanted to be a hero and avenge the hurt and wronged. Barry shrugged as best he could with the metal body. ¡°What do we do now?,¡± asked Corona. She snapped her fingers. A flame hovered over her hand. ¡°That¡¯s up to you,¡± said Marty. He looked at them. ¡°Barry¡¯s back. He can run the Scouts again. Everything looks like we¡¯ve settled things for Watson and his forces.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not running the Scouts, Marty,¡± said Barry. The voice box needed to be adjusted. He could do that when he had a tool set and some privacy. ¡°I think you should do it. You have a great set of people here. They can take over protecting the future.¡± ¡°What?,¡± said Marty. ¡°I¡¯m not a leader. I don¡¯t think I can handle that.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be absurd, Marty,¡± said Barry. ¡°They all followed you into action. You pointed them at the problem and they solved it. I think you should at least consider it. The five of you can do a lot of good if you wanted to stay together.¡± ¡°We are experts,¡± said Ren. ¡°And we have the records to expose a network of corruption across the globe. I think that is worth working on other mysteries that need solutions.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not a hero,¡± said Cog. ¡°Things worked out so I could help, but I would rather be at home in my tunnels.¡± ¡°I¡¯m in,¡± said Corona. ¡°It was a little scary there for a minute, but we pulled it off and wrapped everything up in a bow. I didn¡¯t see us doing that badly dealing with the problem.¡± ¡°Will stay,¡± said Finch. She leaned on her staff. ¡°Camp has been empty for the last few years,¡± said Marty. ¡°We¡¯ll have to clean it out and make it livable again.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not much of a problem,¡± said Corona. ¡°Exercise,¡± said Finch. ¡°Sounds like a plan,¡± said Marty. ¡°If you ladies will go with Barry, Ren and I will take the evidence over to the ranger station. That¡¯ll start the ball rolling on getting all of these people arrested and tried. Then we¡¯ll take Cog back home.¡± ¡°I¡¯m all for that,¡± said Cog. ¡°Please don¡¯t mention me when you do turn these criminals in. I want to go back to the simple job checking infrastructure and fixing breaks and other things underground¡±. ¡°We will drive you home before we head back to Camp,¡± said Marty. ¡°Thanks for switching brains for Barry.¡± ¡°It was a simple job like I said,¡± said Cog. ¡°I¡¯m sure Watson doesn¡¯t like his new body, or the fact that he has no chance of getting out serving some jail time.¡± ¡°It¡¯ll be fine.¡± Marty smiled. He felt like that was the first smile in a long time. ¡°Let¡¯s get out of here. The rangers can sort everything out with the FBI over who wants this case. We might even be on the news.¡± ¡°No,¡± said Finch. ¡°You.¡± ¡°Only me on the news?¡± Marty indicated himself with both hands on his chest. ¡°Yes,¡± said Finch. She smiled a little. ¡°All right,¡± said Marty. ¡°I¡¯ll see what I can do. Shall we go?¡± ¡°What about the monkey?,¡± asked Corona. ¡°We should try to pick it up before we head out of here.¡± ¡°How are we going to do that?,¡± asked Ren. ¡°It knows the park, and doesn¡¯t want us staying here any more than we want to stay. He¡¯s smart. He¡¯ll probably have a hideout that he knows much better than we do.¡± ¡°So we let him roam around until we can come back up here and take him down,¡± said Marty. ¡°As long as he stays in the park and doesn¡¯t cause too many problems, I¡¯m willing to let him slide.¡± ¡°Anything else?,¡± asked Marty. He looked at the new Hazard Scouts. He felt giddy inside. ¡°Let¡¯s break up and get things done. The faster we get who we do have into custody, the better I¡¯ll like it.¡± ¡°How are we getting to this camp?,¡± asked Corona. ¡°Barry will know where it is,¡± said Marty. ¡°Just head north until you start seeing signs to Pine Mountain. He¡¯ll put you on the right path from there.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Corona. ¡°It looks like I¡¯m driving.¡± She headed toward where one of the trucks had been abandoned by ordinary security forces. Barry and Finch followed at a slower pace. ¡°All right, Ren,¡± said Marty. ¡°We need the Scout Van. We¡¯ll load Watson and Cortez and take them in. Then we can drop Cog off in Chicago. It should be okay.¡± ¡°What about the soldiers here in the woods?¡± Ren gestured at the trees around them. ¡°They¡¯re someone else¡¯s problems now that we have the prime troublemaker in our grasp,¡± said Marty. ¡°All we have to do is get him to the rangers, give them the location of the secret headquarters, and guard our two brains until someone in the government can straighten things out.¡± ¡°That sounds too easy,¡± said Ren. ¡°It¡¯s the best I can do,¡± said Marty. ¡°We could give them to the rangers, but can the rangers hold them?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Ren. ¡°What do you think, Cog?¡± ¡°We should get rid of them while they are at our mercy,¡± said Cog. ¡°That way there is no future problem for us to solve.¡± ¡°I like that approach myself,¡± said Marty. ¡°No one would miss either one of these clowns.¡± This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. ¡°We¡¯re not doing that,¡± said Ren. ¡°We¡¯re going to hold ourselves to a higher standard.¡± ¡°I guess that¡¯s okay,¡± said Marty. He looked at Cog. The cyborg moved its many tentacles in a way that might be construed as a shrug. ¡°Let¡¯s turn these two in,¡± said Ren. ¡°I can get my certificate and start my own agency with their successful capture.¡± ¡°This is not getting me back to Chicago,¡± said Cog. ¡°I have infrastructure I have to protect.¡± ¡°I guess we can¡¯t argue with that,¡± said Marty. He tried not to smile. ¡°Exactly,¡± said Cog. ¡°Let me bring back the Scout van,¡± said Ren. ¡°We can get going.¡± ¡°That¡¯s what I have been saying,¡± said Marty. Ren pulled a bottle out of his bag. He uncorked it and placed it on the ground. The Scout van expanded out of the bottle like a balloon being inflated. It bounced on its tires. Marty walked to the side door. He opened the van for Cog and Ren. Cog grabbed the two reduced tanks and carried them into the van. He settled in the back. Ren stepped in and sat in the shotgun seat. ¡°Trouble,¡± said Marty. ¡°It looks like we sent the others ahead too soon.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s get out of here,¡± said Ren. He checked the mirror on his side. ¡°We got what we wanted. There¡¯s no point staying around if we don¡¯t have to do that.¡± A small group of vehicles drifted from the treeline. Weapons mounted on the back of the trucks sparked. Bullets hit the van as Marty hit the gas. He ducked against the onslaught even though there was nothing he could do to stop it. ¡°Where are these guys coming from?,¡± asked Marty. He tried to stay on the trail. He watched the mirror while trying to keep an eye on the road. ¡°They must be the remains of Mercer¡¯s troops.¡± Ren grimaced at his own mirror. ¡°They probably gathered together after what Corona did.¡± ¡°How fast can we run from them?,¡± asked Cog. ¡°They will shoot us when they catch up to us.¡± ¡°They got to catch us first,¡± said Marty. ¡°That isn¡¯t going to happen.¡± The dashboard sparked. The engine died. The van slowly rolled to a stop. ¡°What just happened?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°Everything is dead.¡± ¡°One of them has to have a magnetic gun,¡± said Cog. ¡°He shut down the electrical systems so they can catch up with us.¡± ¡°How do we fix that in the next minute before they catch up with us?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°I don¡¯t think I can,¡± said Cog. He flowed to the side door. ¡°Hit the engine hood release. I¡¯ll do what I can.¡± Marty pulled the switch. He got out of the van and ran up front where the hood was. He opened it with a thumb of the hook. He tried to ignore the bullets snapping around him as he showed Cog where to work. ¡°There doesn¡¯t look like anything I can do without spare parts,¡± said Cog. ¡°Some of this is burned up.¡± ¡°What can you do?,¡± asked Marty. The pursuit was halfway there. The longer it took to get the van running, the easier it would be to shoot them. ¡°Give me a moment to think,¡± said Cog. His tentacles reached into the engine space. He pulled some things out, put some things in. He seemed calm, but it was hard to read a blank face with two lights for eyes. ¡°Try it now,¡± said Cog. ¡°Let¡¯s see if it will run until we can get more parts for it.¡± Marty ran back to his seat. He reached in and turned the key. The engine coughed to life. Cog closed the hood and scrambled to get back in the van. Marty climbed into the driver¡¯s seat. He hit the gas. The vehicle crawled forward. He pressed the gas pedal to the floor. Twenty miles an hour seemed to be the fastest he could go. ¡°We¡¯re not getting away at this speed,¡± said Marty. ¡°Any suggestions?¡± ¡°Abandon the van,¡± said Cog. ¡°Let me talk to it,¡± said Ren. ¡°Maybe I can hypnotize it into doing what we want.¡± ¡°Better do it quick,¡± said Marty. ¡°We¡¯re running out of time.¡± Ren started talking to the dashboard. Lights turned on as the van started shutting down again. Suddenly the indicators went off. The old thing jumped ahead, rolling as fast as a race car toward help and civilization. ¡°Oh, yeah,¡± said Marty. ¡°This is great. What did you say?¡± ¡°I said it was better than anything on the road, and we would get it some gas and an oil change as soon as we reach a town,¡± said Ren. ¡°It¡¯s resolved to help us, but if something happens, that might be the end for it and us.¡± ¡°If they hit us with another of the magnetic gun pulses, that will damage the engine beyond my limited ability to repair it,¡± said Cog from the back. Marty glanced at the mirror. They had put some distance between them and the pursuit. Smoke drifted from the back of the van. It couldn¡¯t keep rolling at the speed they were going. The engine would explode. ¡°We¡¯re going to try stop those guys from following us,¡± said Marty. ¡°We need to get that breathing space so we can alert the authorities.¡± ¡°What do you plan to do?,¡± asked Ren. ¡°I¡¯m going to set some of them on fire and stall them until we hit a road,¡± said Marty. ¡°Take the wheel for a moment.¡± Ren reached across as Marty opened his door again. The Scout leaned out of his door. He summoned his dragon again. The beast unfurled from his hand like a banner in a high wind. It spread its wings and headed back the way they came. Marty pulled himself back into his seat. He took the wheel after closing the door. Ren settled back in his seat. ¡°Hopefully that will buy us time until we can get help from the authorities,¡± said Marty. An access road cut across their path. Marty turned the van east along the road. He looked back in the mirror. A cloud of smoke was in the air. He hoped the dragon didn¡¯t set the forest on fire. That was something else he didn¡¯t need to have on his conscience. ¡°You¡¯re dragon is coming back,¡± said Ren. ¡°It looks wounded.¡± ¡°It did what we needed it to do,¡± said Marty. He rolled down his window. He held out his hand. The dragon unraveled to fit back in the unknown spaces from where he drew it. Marty rolled up his window. He eyed the road ahead. If they hadn¡¯t turned on something random, it should lead them to an exit eventually. Then they could drop this mess in the laps of the government. ¡°What would you do?,¡± said Marty. ¡°It looks like we made a clean getaway. What would you do to stop us?¡± ¡°I would try to get ahead of us somehow,¡± said Ren. ¡°Then I would spring an ambush and take Watson back.¡± ¡°How could they do that?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°Didn¡¯t we shoot down their only helicopter?¡± ¡°We don¡¯t know what kind of resources were invested in that base,¡± said Ren. ¡°We could be looking at twice as many men looking for us than we thought from what we saw inside the place.¡± ¡°So we might have to run a gauntlet before we meet the rangers,¡± said Marty. ¡°I¡¯m not looking forward to that.¡± ¡°The superhumans might join the fight,¡± said Ren. ¡°We only wounded some of them. They might try to get back in the game to deal with us.¡± ¡°The only one left is the monkey,¡± said Marty. ¡°I don¡¯t think he wants to take us on. We pretty much have trained him to run from us.¡± ¡°We still don¡¯t know what happened to the teleporter, or if the gadget guy is still able to fight,¡± said Ren. ¡°The girl should still be sleeping things off.¡± ¡°So we might only have Mercer¡¯s crowd to worry about,¡± said Marty. ¡°If we can stay ahead of them, we might be able to stalemate Mercer. At least, we can avoid giving his boss back.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll still have to prove we have Cortez and Watson in the back of the van,¡± said Ren. ¡°Then we have to prove they did anything bad. That¡¯s going to be a high bar to clear if we are being chased across the country.¡± ¡°I have to agree,¡± said Marty. ¡°We might be better off arranging a trade.¡± ¡°No,¡± said Ren. ¡°Once they have Watson back, they¡¯ll go back to trying to sabotage their competition and kidnaping powers to add to their arsenal. The last thing we should do is give him back.¡± ¡°So our options are to escape, and make this public,¡± said Marty. ¡°Or get killed trying to do that.¡± ¡°Essentially that¡¯s what it is,¡± said Ren. ¡°Letting Watson go back to his people would allow him to escape and go back to his villainy. The government can¡¯t seize all of his properties.¡± ¡°We would be better off getting rid of him,¡± said Cog. ¡°I like that. It¡¯s simple and easy to do.¡± ¡°We can¡¯t kill him while he is a prisoner,¡± said Marty. ¡°Why?,¡± asked Cog ¡°Because the good guys don¡¯t kill just because it¡¯s expedient,¡± said Marty. ¡°It¡¯s upholding a standard.¡± ¡°Stupid standard,¡± said Cog. ¡°It looks like we are on the right track,¡± said Ren. ¡°The sign ahead says the main entrance is a few miles ahead.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t put the hammer down any more than what I¡¯m doing,¡± said Marty. A horde of monkeys filled the road ahead of the van. Marty noted that rocket launchers were being passed from paw to paw. He looked for a path around the mob. ¡°Get ready to bail,¡± said Marty. He got out of the seat, and ran to the side door. ¡°We¡¯re not getting through that.¡± The monkeys started shooting. Revenge of the Scouts 27 Ren had his hands on the dashboard. He said things under his breath. Sweat dropped from his forehead as he talked to the van. The rockets slid through the van. Smoke filled the cabin as they passed. Then they blew up the trees behind the fugitives. ¡°You hypnotized the van again?,¡± asked Marty. He returned to the wheel and yanked it the other way to straighten up the van so they could get back on the road. ¡°It seemed like the thing to do at the time,¡± said Ren. He leaned back in his chair, trying to calm his breathing. ¡°What just happened?,¡± asked Cog. He had pressed into the side wall of the van. His headlights looked at the intact rear wall of the vehicle. ¡°I hypnotized the van into letting the rockets pass,¡± said Ren. ¡°You know that sounds impossible,¡± said Cog. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t believe it if I didn¡¯t see it.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t believe it now,¡± said Marty. ¡°We need to get rid of that monkey.¡± ¡°How?,¡± said Ren. ¡°He can multiply faster than we can deal with him.¡± ¡°If there was some way to keep him from doing that, he would be easy pickings,¡± said Marty. ¡°Too bad we don¡¯t have a nullifier.¡± ¡°I have an idea,¡± said Cog. ¡°It might get us out of this.¡± ¡°Do it,¡± said Marty. ¡°We don¡¯t have anything to lose at this point.¡± Cog drifted out of the side door. He fell behind the van as it tried to elude the multiplying monkeys. More weapons were being passed out as Troop tried to think of something that would slow the machine down for his human allies to catch up and finish the job. ¡°I hope he doesn¡¯t run away,¡± said Marty. ¡°That seems to be his preferred way of dealing with things.¡± ¡°We can¡¯t worry about that,¡± said Ren. ¡°We are about to hit a bunch of apes who want us to stop. I¡¯m not sure the van will overcome his grasp on reality.¡± ¡°Do what you can,¡± said Marty. ¡°If one of them gets inside, we¡¯re done. One is as much as a hundred in this case.¡± ¡°The problem is we¡¯re dealing with a hive,¡± said Ren. ¡°We can excise individuals but the brain will keep spawning new individuals. We need to figure out the central core if we want to stop this thing.¡± ¡°Except we don¡¯t know which one that is,¡± said Marty. He hit a clump of monkeys. They clung to the front of his van as he tried to shake them off. ¡°This is trouble.¡± ¡°They¡¯re going for the doors,¡± said Ren. He ducked away from a fist slamming against his window. Marty pressed a switch on his door panel. Locks clicked in place. He tried to peer around the shapes blocking his view as he drove. If he hit a tree, that was the end of the chase. ¡°I am out of ideas,¡± said Marty. ¡°As soon as I roll down my window to use my powers, they¡¯ll be able to get inside with us.¡± ¡°Same with any weapons I have,¡± said Ren. ¡°Punching a hole through the windshield will allow him to put a duplicate inside. Then we have a population explosion.¡± ¡°There has to be something we can use to get out of this.¡± Marty ducked as the monkey shot at the front windshield with a rifle. The plastic protection scarred from the impacts. ¡°If he keeps that up, we don¡¯t have long.¡± Marty stood in his seat. ¡°I think we have to think about abandoning ship.¡± ¡°What about Watson and Cortez?¡± Ren stood also. ¡°They¡¯re on their own until we can come back for them,¡± said Marty. ¡°When the van wrecks, we¡¯re going to have to move out and move fast.¡± More rifles appeared in the many Troop¡¯s hands. Bullets worked on the windshield. Cracks appeared in the plastic. ¡°We need to buy some time for the others,¡± said Marty. He moved away from his seat. The van drove itself as he went to the side door. Ren joined him at the door. He glanced at the monkeys trying to get in. The windshield looked like it might collapse at any moment. ¡°Get ready to jump,¡± said Marty. ¡°Once we¡¯re clear, we¡¯ll have to think of some way to take the monkey brain down and get away from whatever guards remain after all the damage we have done.¡± ¡°I¡¯m as ready as I¡¯ll ever be,¡± said Ren. He took a breath. ¡°We better hurry before it¡¯s too late.¡± Marty pushed the side door open. The step ladder almost touched the ground. One of the Troops swung inside to confront the two humans. The Scout let a bull knock his enemy back through the door. ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± said Marty. He dispersed the bull as he jumped from the van. He rolled along the road as the vehicle kept going. He watched as the horde of Troop registered that he was not within reach any more. They dropped one piece off and then combined into that core persona. Ren stood on the side of the road close to where Marty had stopped rolling. He watched the approaching horde dividing to conquer them. There had to be something they could do to stop them. At least the others were getting away and had a chance to defend themselves from more enemy actions. ¡°Too bad Finch isn¡¯t here,¡± said Marty. He climbed to his feet to deal with the If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.problem surging toward them like a wave. ¡°I know,¡± said Ren. ¡°She is an excellent fighter, better than both of us combined.¡± ¡°Tell me about it,¡± said Marty. The van went off the road and crashed against a tree. It remained in place with the engine running. The tanks holding Cortez and Watson rolled around inside before coming to a stop beside the crew table. A purple beam blasted out of the sky as Troop reached Marty and Ren. All of his bodies combined back into one body. He looked down at his hands. He tried to split apart again. He made a noise when nothing happened. ¡°I think you have lost your powers for the moment,¡± said Ren. ¡°I think you should run.¡± Troop went for his throat instead. He could break two normal men. He could rip their arms off with little effort. Ren stepped back. He pulled a piece of paper from his bag. He waited like a bullfighter waiting for the bull. ¡°Are you sure you want to take him on?,¡± said Marty. He flipped through the catalogue of animals he had stored in his brain. Some of them could take on the enemy without breaking a sweat. ¡°I think I have everything in hand,¡± said Ren. He walked away from Marty so the villain had to concentrate on just one of them at a time. Troop roared and charged the detective. Once he was done with this one, he could turn on his hands and feet and run the other one down. He reached out with his hands to grab his quarry. Ren dodged the attack. He jumped forward. He slapped the piece of paper against Troop¡¯s head as he passed. The paper burned away. The monkey fell over, arms still outstretched. ¡°More hypnotism?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°Yes,¡± said Ren. ¡°We should try to get the van on the road again. There¡¯s no telling when more of the soldiers will show up.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s see if we can get it rolling,¡± said Marty. ¡°That was really helpful, Cog. Nullifying his power helped us out of the woods.¡± ¡°We¡¯re not out of the woods yet,¡± said Cog. ¡°Whatever they are. I took the beam from a group of soldiers coming this way. They may want to keep up from getting back on the road.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not good,¡± said Marty. ¡°Let¡¯s look at the van and see if we have a way to get it moving again.¡± The group jogged over to where the van rested. The engine still hummed as it pushed against the tree. The window was a giant spider web of lines sliced into the plastic. The front of the van bent inward from the impact. ¡°Let me back it up,¡± said Marty. He climbed into the side door. He worked his way to the front of the vehicle. He slid the seat back so he could sit down around the wheel that had been shoved forward from the hit. They weren¡¯t driving this thing out of the park. He cut the ignition. He climbed out of the seat and headed back to the door. He shook his heads at his companions. ¡°Nonoperational?,¡± said Cog. He could work on it, but it would take time they didn¡¯t have to fix everything wrong with the van. ¡°Yeah,¡± said Marty. ¡°We¡¯re on foot, guys.¡± ¡°Let me store the van,¡± said Ren. ¡°We can try to repair the damage when we are away from here.¡± He pulled out the bottle he had used earlier. He pointed it at the wrecked transport. It fell inside the mouth of the bottle without a sound. ¡°What happens to Watson and Cortez while they are in the bottle?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°They¡¯ll experience some lost time,¡± said Ren as he put the bottle away in his bag. ¡°It will be like they are frozen. When I take the van out of the bottle, they¡¯ll thaw out.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s get out of here before we run into any more trouble.¡± Marty summoned his dragon. ¡°We talk to the rangers and get a government response to this. Maybe we can get things going before the rest of the security force run away.¡± ¡°If they retreat to their base, it will take months for the government to do anything to get inside without powered help,¡± said Cog. ¡°I will be glad to help them out,¡± said Marty. He climbed on the back of his living gunship. ¡°It will tougher to break in, but I can do it now that I have seen the place.¡± The dragon started to lift off in a cloud of leaves and dust. It grabbed Ren in one paw to carry him away. It grabbed Cog in the other. It flapped its tiny wings and swam into the air. Men ran out of the forest. They leveled weapons and shot at the beast as it climbed out of range. Finally someone called for a ceasefire. They had to make plans to get away from the scene before anything else happened. They had hours to get things done if they wanted to retain their individual freedom. ¡°There¡¯s the Ranger office,¡± said Marty. He pointed at a cabin in the distance. ¡°We¡¯ll set down there and see if we can get some help.¡± ¡°It will take hours for any response,¡± said Ren. ¡°The staff will be able to evacuate.¡± ¡°If we don¡¯t tell someone, we won¡¯t be able to get the law involved,¡± said Marty. ¡°You¡¯ll have to keep Watson in your bag without due process for years while we keep everything to ourselves.¡± ¡°I have no problem with that,¡± said Cog. ¡°That¡¯s because you¡¯re hiding in some underground labyrinth where villains have to be powered to come after you,¡± said Marty. ¡°I have no problem with that,¡± said Cog. Marty shrugged. He had spent the last ten years running. Who was he to tell someone not to hide their strangeness from others? The difference was in the details as far as he could see. ¡°You can work for me when this is settled,¡± said Ren. ¡°I will be able to graduate, and set up an agency. I¡¯ll need support staff.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t see where I would be good for that,¡± said Cog. ¡°I am not one for chasing down clues.¡± ¡°You can be my secretary and technology specialist,¡± said Ren. ¡°Every detective needs a scientist to figure out clues outside his knowledge.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think I can do that,¡± said Cog. ¡°That requires constant visitation to my home. I don¡¯t think you would do that.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why phones are useful,¡± said Ren. Cog didn¡¯t see how that would change things in the long run, but fell silent. The dragon landed with a huff of wings and an explosion of gravel from the lot in front of the Ranger office. It had been done up like a log cabin with the sign and symbol of the park service on the wall next to the glass front door. People stood at the window to watch the beast curl up to let its passengers off. ¡°Let¡¯s see what we can get done,¡± said Marty. ¡°If we can¡¯t get any help, we¡¯ll have to try somewhere else.¡± ¡°I doubt things will go like we want them,¡± said Cog. ¡°We have to do what we can,¡± said Marty. ¡°Even if it¡¯s not productive?,¡± said Cog. ¡°Especially when it¡¯s not productive,¡± said Marty. ¡°I don¡¯t like that at all,¡± said Cog. A couple of park rangers walked out of the station. They were built to a type, lean cowboys in green uniforms, tan hats. One was a bit more beaten by the weather with sad dark eyes in his craggy face. The younger one looked like he had been given his badge the day before. ¡°How¡¯s it going, guys?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°I need some help.¡± ¡°What kind of help?,¡± asked the senior member. His hand was close to the pistol on his belt. ¡°We¡¯ve been kidnaped and escaped our captors,¡± said Marty. ¡°Their camp was here in the park. There¡¯s a mess of them so I think you guys might want to call for some kind of backup before you try to arrest them.¡± ¡°That sounds like a load of bull,¡± said the ranger. ¡°Got any kind of proof?¡± ¡°I can show you where we escaped from if that¡¯s what you want,¡± said Marty. ¡°They might be destroying the evidence while we¡¯re talking.¡± ¡°I can ride up there and take a look see,¡± said the ranger. ¡°How many guys are we talking about here?¡± ¡°A few dozen,¡± said Marty. ¡°We didn¡¯t get a complete count of how many were in the building when we broke out. They¡¯ve got injured to think about unless they left them behind.¡± ¡°Let me get the truck,¡± said the ranger. ¡°Call this in, MacBride. If it¡¯s real, we¡¯ll need support from the other districts, the Indian Police, the local sheriffs, and maybe the FBI.¡± ¡°We¡¯re going to believe this loon?,¡± said MacBride. He gestured at Marty. ¡°It¡¯s been a long time, but I still owe the Hazard Scouts,¡± said the older ranger. ¡°Call it in, starting with our stations. We don¡¯t want our guys involved in a shooting war if these bad guys are breaking out.¡± ¡°Got it,¡± said MacBride. He walked into the station to start his phone calls. Revenge of the Scouts 28 Marty Morgan rode with the ranger up into the forest. He pointed out the path for the other man to drive up to where they had engaged with Watson Security. ¡°The road is for a firebreak,¡± said the ranger. ¡°Let¡¯s pull off and walk down to make sure we don¡¯t run into trouble.¡± ¡°This is close to where we left the monkey,¡± said Marty. ¡°I don¡¯t see him laying around.¡± ¡°They might have took it with them,¡± said the ranger. He parked his truck just off the trail. ¡°Let¡¯s have a look around.¡± The ranger got out of the truck and pulled a rifle off a rack mounted in front of the back window. He looked around, sniffing the air. ¡°I can see signs of a big fight,¡± said the ranger. ¡°Bullet holes are in the trees that I can see.¡± ¡°We wrecked the Scout van over there,¡± said Marty. He pointed at the slightly bent tree. ¡°All right,¡± said the ranger. ¡°Let¡¯s walk along here and follow the trail. Maybe we¡¯ll find some of their wounded to talk to about all this.¡± ¡°Hopefully they didn¡¯t leave them out here for the bears,¡± said Marty. ¡°We¡¯ll see,¡± said the ranger. He led the way down the trail, sticking to the side of the road. The trees should give him some cover as they trekked down the road. ¡°When did you meet the Scouts?,¡± asked Marty. He trailed behind the ranger. He sent a squirrel ahead to give them some head¡¯s up before they walked into a war party. ¡°About fifteen years ago,¡± said the ranger. ¡°We had some kind of problem here in the park. The local animals were attacking people in droves. Campers were getting killed or driven out of the park. Never seen anything like it. ¡°One day, these weird people show up. One of them said they were the Hazard Scouts and they wanted to look into the problem. The service wasn¡¯t getting anywhere. Charlie Connelly, the ranger in charge of the district, told them to go ahead. ¡°They found some nut with a ray gun to stir up the animals. We busted in there, and I got in trouble with a bear. Positive Man saved my life that day. I heard they picked up some kid after that. Then they were wiped out, except for the kid.¡± ¡°These guys wiped out the Scouts,¡± said Marty. ¡°They got away with it too.¡± The ranger nodded at that as he kept walking. After an hour, the ranger held up his hand. He turned his head to take in the scene. He sniffed the air. He started forward slowly. When they reached a clearing, he pointed at the sky. Smoke drifted upwards. He shook his head. ¡°Looks like they¡¯re burning the evidence,¡± said the ranger. ¡°We¡¯re too late to catch them,¡± said Marty. ¡°Let¡¯s see what they left behind,¡± said the ranger. ¡°We could catch some of them before they leave the building.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s see if I can whistle up a ride,¡± said Marty. ¡°At least I can get us there to watch them leave. There¡¯s no way we can arrest them all without help.¡± Marty called up a horse to carry them toward the smoke. He mounted and then pulled the ranger up behind him. He urged the horse into a trot. He kept it going toward the column of smoke in the distance. They topped a ridge. Below them, the smoke drifted upwards from a hole in the ground. The ranger whistled as he slid off the horse. ¡°There was an underground bunker,¡± said Marty. ¡°It was huge.¡± ¡°Looks like it¡¯s a cavern now,¡± said the ranger. ¡°What do you want to do?,¡± asked Marty. He dismounted and let the horse go back Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.to where he stored it. ¡°We need to go down and see if there are any survivors around the edge of that mess,¡± said the ranger. ¡°Then we¡¯re going to have call some firefighters out here to put that out.¡± Marty looked around. He didn¡¯t see anything moving. He didn¡¯t have an animal capable of putting out a fire in his arsenal. He called up a hawk. He sent it to circle around the cave. It would point out if anything was moving for them. He waited for the bird to alight, but it simply circled and returned to him to be dismissed. ¡°No one was moving down there,¡± said Marty. ¡°It looks safe.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s call in the calvary,¡± said the ranger. ¡°The rest of this is going to take a week to clean up.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Marty. ¡°How do we do that?¡± ¡°I got a radio,¡± said the ranger. ¡°MacBride can get things moving from his end.¡± ¡°So that¡¯s all?,¡± said Marty. ¡°I would have loved to have busted the rest of those guys.¡± ¡°The FBI will want to talk to you guys soon enough,¡± said the ranger. ¡°Your testimony will put people on the most wanted list.¡± ¡°I will certainly want to talk to them,¡± said Marty. The ranger spoke into his radio. He gave a series of directions. The other personnel would know where he was as soon as MacBride told them two of the landmarks. ¡°Reinforcements are on the way,¡± said the ranger. ¡°There¡¯s not much more we can do about that mess. We¡¯ll need a water drop to smooth some of that out so we can go in and see if there¡¯s anyone stuck inside.¡± ¡°So we wait,¡± said Marty. ¡°That¡¯s all we can do right now,¡± said the ranger. ¡°There¡¯s no point in going in there to look around.¡± ¡°I totally got that,¡± said Marty. He wanted to go in and look around. He wanted to make sure that some of the forces were out of the picture. A helicopter floated overhead. A bucket dangled under the flying machine. The bottom of the bucket opened. A stream of water dropped down on the crater. ¡°That¡¯s great,¡± said Marty. ¡°How many more buckets do you think they¡¯ll need?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said the ranger. ¡°They might have two of them rotating through by now.¡± Trucks full of men came to a stop behind the pair of watchers. They climbed out and began putting on gear to fight a fire. Cog and Ren dropped out of the last truck. ¡°Looks like my partners are here,¡± said Marty. ¡°This is the end of our partnership.¡± ¡°Too bad,¡± said the ranger. ¡°You guys have done a number on these guys.¡± ¡°We had help,¡± said Marty. ¡°It looks like the ladies made it out okay. I¡¯ll have to let them know they are witnesses now if they want to testify about what went down.¡± ¡°What about you, kid?,¡± said the ranger. ¡°You staying a hero after this?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Marty. ¡°We got the guy behind all this locked down. All we have to do is hand him over to the proper authorities and see if the system will put him away.¡± ¡°Hopefully there will be enough left in the crater to help with that, but we won¡¯t know until we get this fire under control,¡± said the ranger. ¡°We don¡¯t have anybody who can help with this on our side,¡± said Marty. ¡°It¡¯ll be another few hours but we¡¯ll get this under control and go in,¡± said the ranger. ¡°Maybe we can send in Cog,¡± said Marty. ¡°He¡¯s maybe fireproof.¡± ¡°That¡¯s two maybes,¡± said the ranger. He smiled. ¡°We can send him in and see what he can do about fighting the fire while he¡¯s down there.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll ask him and see what he thinks,¡± said Marty. ¡°He might prefer that to fighting soldiers and powered humans.¡± ¡°We don¡¯t have any water to roll down in there without the helicopter,¡± said the ranger. Another helicopter arrived. It dumped a ton of water in the crater before moving out. That damped down the smoke so the hole in the ground was clearer. The top of the elevator shaft and steps drifted into view. ¡°Let me talk to Cog,¡± said Marty. ¡°Maybe he can help get things done.¡± ¡°Go ahead,¡± said the ranger. ¡°I¡¯ll see if we can rig up some kind of hose to take down into that hole.¡± Marty walked over to where Cog and Ren watched people going about their business. Ren nodded as the Scout approached. ¡°I need you to go in and look around, Cog,¡± said Marty. ¡°Can you do that?¡± ¡°Why?,¡± said Cog. ¡°We need you to check to see if there are any survivors,¡± said Marty. ¡°Maybe put out some of the fire so we can find any more evidence to make our case in court.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Cog. ¡°It sounds counterproductive.¡± ¡°Every little bit helps,¡± said Marty. ¡°We can¡¯t hold Watson forever.¡± ¡°Technically we can,¡± said Ren. ¡°I just don¡¯t think it would be in the interest of justice.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll go in and look around,¡± said Cog. ¡°It should be easy enough to do.¡± The alien cyborg glided over to the edge of the crater. He descended into the smoke. The last thing they saw was a headlight snapping on to show him the way. ¡°Do you think he will find anything?,¡± said Ren. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Marty. ¡°It never hurts to try.¡± The first helicopter arrived as they watched the crater. It dumped water in the hole. It circled to get more fire fighting ammunition. Cog returned minutes later. He glided over to the group, floating quietly to a stop. ¡°They left their wounded at the bottom of the place,¡± said Cog. ¡°Then they blew them up.¡± ¡°It wasn¡¯t like they could carry them out of here in the time we gave them,¡± said Marty. ¡°What do we do now?,¡± asked Cog. ¡°I would like to get back to Chicago before it falls in the lake.¡± ¡°The Bureau will want to talk to you about all this,¡± said Marty. ¡°They can visit me in my home,¡± said Cog. ¡°I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll love that,¡± said Marty. ¡°Let¡¯s let the professionals do their job,¡± said Ren. ¡°There¡¯s not much more that we can do here.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Marty. ¡°We can wait for someone to talk to us there. I feel useless here.¡± ¡°I agree,¡± said Ren. ¡°I¡¯m concur with both of you,¡± said Cog. ¡°Maybe we can arrange for transportation from there.¡± ¡°Maybe,¡± said Marty. ¡°We¡¯ll at least be able to grab something to eat.¡± The three started away from the mess. Revenge of the Scouts 29 It took almost a month to get things straightened out. Marty talked to so many officials he couldn¡¯t keep track of them all. Ren¡¯s presentation of the evidence they had gathered was repeated at least a dozen times. In the end, Watson¡¯s and Cortez¡¯s tanks were handed over. They would stand trial, and if found guilty would be sentenced for the various crimes they had committed. Watson had a good defense team, so chances were good he would elude justice. Mercer was not among the bodies found at the bottom of the crater. Experts went over the scene after the fire was put out. Apparently the people killed in the blast had suffered injuries so bad they couldn¡¯t be moved without an effort. The reports didn¡¯t remark on a woman being found, so Marty and Ren felt that at least one of the powers had been moved out of the blast zone. Mercer¡¯s ring didn¡¯t stop pointing at his position. Marty felt he would have to wait until things settled down. Then he would take the ring and find the captain. The five met at the Camp when the law was done. Barry had sat through several examinations to show he was the real Mr. Robot after being held prisoner for ten years. He gathered the others in his workshop to talk about what they wanted to do. ¡°Thanks for coming, ladies and gentlemen,¡± Barry said. He had programmed his voice box to sound more like his normal voice. It was still off, but close enough for business. ¡°How¡¯s things going for you?,¡± said Corona. She had brought beer for the celebratory dinner expected to be thrown that night. ¡°This new body is taking a little getting used to still,¡± said Barry. ¡°It¡¯s smoother than my old parts, but it¡¯s a full on prosthetic instead of just a replacement for missing parts. Thanks for the rescue. I¡¯m glad to be away from Cortez and Watson¡¯s technical staff.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t understand why I am here,¡± said Cog. ¡°I don¡¯t eat.¡± ¡°I called you here to offer you all jobs,¡± said Barry. ¡°I don¡¯t know your individual circumstances, but I felt that it was the least I could do.¡± ¡°What kind of job, Barry?,¡± asked Corona. ¡°I started the Scouts to help people, and to give people like me a purpose,¡± said Barry. ¡°The original Scouts had things they could do, but needed some way to express themselves. Left on their own, they would have stayed in their personal mire and basically dug in and hid away from the world. I felt that we could do more despite our personal problems. ¡°And we did for a long time before Watson took us apart. ¡°Being trapped for ten years has not changed that purpose. I want to rebuild the Scouts into a force for good in the world. I want to get out there and explore again. There will always be problems that need to be solved, and I want to be out there solving them. ¡°The problem is the things I specialized in have moved on without me. I need time to get back up to speed. I need help to renovate this place so the equipment is modern and able to keep up with today¡¯s challenges. I need people not afraid to fight for the future. ¡°I need people like you to help me rebuild and get back out there,¡± said Barry. ¡°I think that each of you needs the same kind of help in one way, or the other.¡± ¡°I think I need to go back to Chicago,¡± said Cog. His metallic tentacles waved slightly as he floated on the air. ¡°I¡¯m not a hero.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll need help bringing things up to speed,¡± said Barry. ¡°Marty says you¡¯re an excellent engineer.¡± ¡°And he was the key to breaking us out of our cells,¡± said Marty. ¡°We couldn¡¯t have turned things around without you, Cog. And you stopped Troop at great personal risk to yourself.¡± ¡°Those were things that had to be done,¡± said Cog. ¡°Being a hero isn¡¯t something that appeals to me. I could perhaps help upgrade things here to the limit of human science, but I see that as a finite task. Eventually I would like to return to Chicago.¡± ¡°I¡¯m in,¡± said Corona. ¡°Down the road, I can see a rematch with Watson¡¯s goons. Having friends willing to help out with that is a good plus for me. And we¡¯re getting paid to help people. That¡¯s just frosting on the cake.¡± ¡°Tasked with Seattle,¡± said Finch. ¡°Cannot be excused to fight other people¡¯s battles.¡± ¡°Would you work with us in your spare time?,¡± asked Barry. ¡°Yes,¡± said Finch. ¡°Good people.¡± ¡°What about you, Ren?,¡± asked Barry. ¡°I have completed my apprenticeship and am ready to go out on my own,¡± said Ren. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.¡°I am willing to lend a hand with any endeavor that the new Hazard Scouts take on. I have actually decided to set up in San Francisco so I will always be close by in case of trouble.¡± ¡°Let me get the paperwork,¡± said Barry. ¡°Then I¡¯ll get your keys so you can come and go to the Camp.¡± He strode out of the room on his metal legs. ¡°What are you going to do, Marty?,¡± asked Corona. ¡°You going in with this?¡± ¡°The Scouts were my family,¡± said Marty. ¡°Barry still is. I¡¯m going to be hanging around here until one of us dies. And dealing with the things the Scouts dealt with has to be done. I still tried to do that when I was on the run. I don¡¯t know how much good I actually did.¡± ¡°So I can relocate here from Detroit?,¡± asked Corona. ¡°This is a big place for five people.¡± ¡°Sure,¡± said Marty. ¡°I¡¯ll show you the rooms. Barry and I packed up everything while dealing with the government and the Foundation.¡± He led the group to the old quarters. He had swept everything, changed sheets, and wiped the dust out of the shelving. Old televisions still sat in their nooks. Closets and bathrooms had been emptied so the new occupants could move their own things in. ¡°Those are some old TVs,¡± said Corona. ¡°Black and white?¡± ¡°It¡¯s been ten years,¡± said Marty. ¡°Getting new televisions would be on the list for renovations when we start doing that. Those will be gone with the old computer systems from what Barry said.¡± ¡°How do you get them to work through the ground?,¡± asked Cog. ¡°Antenna,¡± said Marty. ¡°The wires run through the wall and pointed out at the top of the Camp. Same thing with our radio, and phones.¡± ¡°Excellent,¡± said Corona. ¡°I think this will be good for a separate sanctum,¡± said Ren. ¡°If I have to retreat from trouble, I can come here and think about the next step in whatever mystery I am trying to solve.¡± ¡°You know we¡¯re going to help you with your problems,¡± said Marty. ¡°That¡¯s what being part of a group means.¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± said Ren. ¡°Having help while working a case will be useful.¡± ¡°If we can get our ties to the law enforcement community back, that will help with background stuff you might need,¡± said Marty. ¡°Let¡¯s see if Barry has that paperwork ready. Then we can see about dinner, and transportation to get you folks back home.¡± ¡°I plan to move in,¡± said Corona. ¡°Detroit needs me, but there¡¯s no way I can fly out here under my own power in time to be useful.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Marty. ¡°I¡¯ll go with you to get your belongings and help you bring them back here.¡± ¡°Sounds like a good deal,¡± said Corona. ¡°We can rent a truck and drive it back here. Shouldn¡¯t be much of a problem.¡± ¡°Need transportation from Seattle,¡± said Finch. ¡°No car.¡± ¡°Can you drive?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°I¡¯m sure Barry will get you something you can ride.¡± She shook her head. ¡°We¡¯ll have to pick you up for cases,¡± said Marty. ¡°You can stay here until we can arrange a flight back to Seattle when we¡¯ve stopped your problem.¡± ¡°I have the same problem if I stay in Chicago,¡± said Cog. ¡°It¡¯s a long flight with the baggage in the cargo hold.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll arrange to pick you up,¡± said Marty. ¡°Maybe we can arrange a meeting place close to an exit from the underground.¡± ¡°Sounds good,¡± said Cog. ¡°I have an internal radio that can look for frequencies while I am doing my work. That should make it easier for you to call me.¡± ¡°Sounds good,¡± said Marty. He led them back to the work shop. Barry had five small stacks of papers on his work table. ¡°If you guys want to read and sign these, I will start cooking,¡± said Barry. ¡°I know a thing or two about a spatula.¡± ¡°What are you cooking?,¡± said Corona. She picked up her pile of papers and flipped through them. ¡°I thought we would have some beans, some hot dogs, maybe some french fries,¡± said Barry. ¡°If you guys want to help out, that will be good. I don¡¯t know what kind dietary needs you have. I should have asked first.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll eat anything,¡± said Corona. She signed the papers with a borrowed pen and put them back on the desk. ¡°Let¡¯s see this kitchen of yours.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t read,¡± said Finch. She held the papers in her hand. ¡°Can you read the words for me?¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± said Marty. ¡°Would you like to eat first?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± said Finch. Cog signed his paperwork with a stylus built into a tentacle. The letters were more like symbols comparable to Oriental kana than the Roman alphabet. He put the papers down on the desk. Ren went over the paperwork slowly. He used his finger to mark his place as he read. He finally nodded. He smiled. ¡°This seems fine, Marty,¡± he said. He signed the lines with a pen from his jacket pocket. He put his papers down. ¡°The funds will help pay for my independent office hopefully.¡± ¡°If there is a problem, we¡¯ll sort it out,¡± said Marty. ¡°Let¡¯s see what we can do about food before Barry burns it. He¡¯s not nearly as good a cook as he thinks he is.¡± ¡°How can he cook in that body?,¡± Ren asked. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t that affect things?¡± ¡°The only thing he can¡¯t do is taste things,¡± said Marty. ¡°Even when he had most of his normal body, he wasn¡¯t that much of a cook.¡± ¡°I think you¡¯re exaggerating,¡± said Cog. ¡°No one is that bad except in bad movies.¡± ¡°You¡¯ll see,¡± said Marty. He led them from the work shop to the kitchen part of the Camp. Barry had on an apron with EAT HERE emblazoned on it as he placed ingredients in a frying pan on the stove. Corona had another beer, and made suggestions about what should be going in the pan. She laughed slightly as he puttered around. ¡°Have you got that, Barry?,¡± asked Marty. He pulled a bottle of Pepsi out of the refrigerator. ¡°I might be out of practice, but I think I can cook some ingredients,¡± said Barry. ¡°It¡¯s no different than chemistry.¡± ¡°You guys want anything to drink?,¡± Marty asked his guests. ¡°We have soda, tea, water, and beer.¡± ¡°Tea would be good,¡± said Ren. ¡°What kind is it?¡± ¡°Lipton,¡± said Marty. He extracted a jug from the refrigerator and put it on a counter. He pulled a glass out of a cupboard. He poured the tea out and handed it over. ¡°Same please,¡± said Finch. Marty poured her a glass of tea. He put the jug up when he was done. ¡°What about you, Cog?¡± Marty asked. ¡°I don¡¯t eat or drink any more,¡± said the flying squid. ¡°I¡¯m like Barry. I¡¯m a brain in a jar.¡± ¡°That¡¯s rough,¡± said Corona. ¡°That¡¯s more for the rest of us.¡± ¡°She¡¯s right, Cog,¡± said Ren. ¡°It will increase our shares.¡± ¡°How do you stay alive in that thing?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°My container circulates everything I need,¡± said Cog. ¡°I miss being able to eat real food, but this was the best I could do after my landing.¡± ¡°Do you want to talk about that?,¡± asked Barry. ¡°No,¡± said Cog. ¡°It would be a bit too much.¡± ¡°I understand completely,¡± said Barry. Button Pushing 1 Tanner Lerner stood on the corner where his street and Cobb Street crossed. He had homework to do, but he wanted to shirk for the next few hours. His button power allowed him to finish homework faster than normal so he didn¡¯t feel the need to rush home. In the five years since he had gotten the tattoo on his arm, he had mastered a number of powers it conferred on him. He wasn¡¯t the Mark, but he was good enough in his small town. Tanner decided that he could head down Cobb to the bookstore. He could kill a couple of hours there. He hefted his book bag to adjust it on his back. Maybe he should drop his bag off first. He pressed three buttons on his arm with his other hand¡¯s index finger. A map of space/time opened itself in his mind. He walked forward two steps, and slid to his backyard. He caught his balance before he hit the ground. He had taken a lot of faceplants before he mastered that power. Tanner looked around. He found a door to his room. He opened it and slid his bag into his room. He winced when it hit the side of his bed. He closed the door. He checked the timer on his forearm. He nodded. He had time to get to the book store if he could find jump points that led to it. Tanner picked a line that he felt would get him to the store in a couple of minutes. He had to cut halfway around the world and back again to where he could slide to a stop a few yards down from the brick building. The skill was great, but you could rarely get directly from one place to another. He lived with it since it still allowed him to go anywhere he wanted with a careful finagling of places. He checked the timer, smiling as the power timed out as he walked up to the book store. He didn¡¯t want an accidental cross country trip now that he was where he wanted to be. Wasso Harm owned the Reader Here second hand bookstore. He had installed it in a brick storefront at the end of a small strip mall. A clothing store, a pawn shop, and a computer place shared the brick building and parking lot. Tanner walked inside the place, nodding at the shelves of books in front of him. He loved spending time browsing the shelves when he didn¡¯t have anything else to do. His favorite books were on astronomy and the race to space. He loved the dream of going into space, and always had. His power had come from there while he was stargazing. He hoped one day to get out there and look around on his own. Until then, reading about it was a poor second. Tanner ran his fingers over the spines of the books, looking for something he had not read yet. He had read most of the ones dealing with the solar system. Maybe one of the picture books of other star systems would hit the spot right now. The Mark had gone into space at points in his career. Maybe he would answer some questions if Tanner could figure out a way to call him. He wondered about others he might be able to ask for their experience in space travel. He doubted the Mark was the only one who had left the gravity well over the years. Maybe the Hazard Scouts knew someone. They were out west somewhere and they maintained some kind of message board so they could be called. He smiled at himself. New York and California were too far away while he was still in school. He could slide to either one, but he doubted that the Mark, or the Scouts would give him the time of the day. Being a small time hero didn¡¯t give you the reputation to impress the big guns. They would look at him and be polite, but brush him off as soon as they could. he wouldn¡¯t blame them for that. He found two books next to each other about the edge of the galaxy. They had two different author names on the spine. He picked the first book up and flipped through it. He put it back and did the same with the other one. He paused. The language seemed the same. He picked up the first book and looked at the index. He picked a subject and opened the page to that subject. He did the same for the other book, looking for the same subject. The difference in words were minuscule at best. He looked at the titles. They were supposedly different books by different authors. What was going on? ¡°Hey, Wasso,¡± called Tanner. He took the books up to the counter. ¡°What¡¯s going on with these two books?¡± ¡°What you mean?,¡± asked Wasso. His body had settled in a pear shape with arms and legs. He hid his face behind a beard with glasses peeking out from under a mane of graying hair. ¡°They¡¯re almost exactly the same except they have different writers,¡± said Tanner. He put the books on the desk for the shop owner to look at for himself. ¡°Plagiarism?¡± Wasso flipped to the front of the books. He checked the front pages. He grimaced. ¡°It¡¯s a new edition,¡± said Wasso. ¡°This book was printed earlier. The other one was issued a few years later. I suppose they added some new information prove what they thought in the first book. Scientists do that all the time.¡± ¡°They just add on to a previous book?,¡± asked Tanner. ¡°Why don¡¯t they write a whole new book with the new information?¡± ¡°Probably what they wanted to add was just confirmation on what they thought was a new set earlier,¡± said Wasso. ¡°That¡¯s not enough to write a new book. They just edit Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.in the new stuff inside the old stuff where it¡¯s needed.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± said Tanner. ¡°Let me put the old book back on the shelf. I¡¯ll take the new one.¡± ¡°Still wanting to go into space?,¡± asked Wasso. He handed the older book over. ¡°Or at least be able to watch it for a living,¡± said Tanner. He took the book back to the space section and placed it on the shelf. He walked back up to the front. ¡°There is just something about the stars and planets that I like.¡± Tanner had thought about trying to qualify for astronaut training. He figured his tattoo would be found. They would want to take him apart before they thought about sending him up in a rocket. He was better off finding his own way up there with his powers than relying on the good graces of the government. He supposed he could be wrong, but he didn¡¯t want to take the chance. ¡°It¡¯s eight dollars and ninety five cents,¡± said Wasso. He put the book in a bag for his customer. ¡°They have a star watcher club at the university. You should look into it.¡± ¡°Thanks, Wasso,¡± said Tanner. He handed over the money in mostly change before taking the bag. ¡°It¡¯ll be great to do something like that.¡± ¡°You¡¯ll have to do some asking around,¡± said the book seller. ¡°I don¡¯t think they advertise for it.¡± ¡°If they have an astronomy department, that¡¯s probably who¡¯s sponsoring it,¡± said Tanner. ¡°I¡¯ll go over and ask about it. How did you hear about it?¡± ¡°One of the people at the taco stand was talking about it,¡± said Wasso. ¡°They were having a meeting over the weekend.¡± ¡°That¡¯s in a few days,¡± said Tanner. ¡°I can do that.¡± ¡°Good luck,¡± said Wasso. He waved at his customer as the boy left. Tanner stepped out of the store. He looked around. He should head home to read his new acquisition. He decided get something to eat first. His parents weren¡¯t going to be home any time soon. He checked his money. He had enough for a couple of tacos. He walked over to the taco stand next to the strip mall. He smiled as he walked to the window. A couple of tacos would tide him over to dinner. ¡°Hey, Lolly,¡± said Tanner. ¡°Could I get a couple of tacos?¡± ¡°A dollar sixty, Tanner,¡± said Lolly. She was a big woman with dark hair in a scrunchie, and dark eyes. She worked a grill built into the wall of the van. She filled up two shells with cooked meat and cheese. She wrapped them in paper and exchanged them for the money. ¡°Thanks, Lolly,¡± said Tanner. He hugged his prize to his chest. ¡°I¡¯ll see you around.¡± ¡°Be careful out there,¡± said Lolly. Tanner waved the hand with the book bag in it. He unwrapped one taco and wolfed it down as he walked away from the strip mall. He wolfed the other one down as he reached the end of the street. He should have gotten a burrito instead of tacos. Tanner hit the keys for the slide. He needed to get home before his parents asked him some embarrassing questions about how he got across town. He had hidden the keyboard from them when he had first received the tattoo. He couldn¡¯t hide the loss of his telescope. His explanation was necessarily vague about what had happened other than it had been smashed while he was sky watching. He had shown them the remains of the hill to prove the truth of his words. His cousin and neighbor, Darla, had also been present. She had gotten a tattoo also. It wasn¡¯t a keyboard. She had been fitted with an eye in the middle of her forehead and two buttons at her temples. She covered it up with a headband most days. Her parents had split up shortly after the explosive meteor that had been the empowering event for them both. She resented it, but it was for the best in his opinion. Her parents fought like cats and dogs. One of them moving out was better than everyone around them being miserable. Darla knew that it was a good move for them, but she refused to admit it. Tanner slid to a stop outside his house. He checked the driveway. Neither of his parents were home. He had time to read part of his book before he had to dig in and do his homework. Otherwise, he would spend most of his night being checked on about how fast it was taking him to get things done. They expected him to get straight As even in things he didn¡¯t care about. He admitted to himself that oversight was keeping him on track to getting into a school where he could study the stars all he wanted. It chafed that they were hounding him about his subjects. He knew they were trying to look out for him but they wanted him to be a lawyer, or a doctor. He had no intention of doing either of those two things. He could make more money fixing cars with his keyboard than either of those two professions, and he didn¡¯t want to argue the merits of something, or deal with any kind of surgery where he had to stare at someone¡¯s insides. He had his own path to walk, and the keyboard was a responsibility that he had to deal with until it left him. It wouldn¡¯t alleviate his parents worry if he told them that he could reach orbit any time, but his power would vanish before he could go anywhere with it. What was the point of flying so high when you knew you would pass out and die before you could activate your power to fly down to safety? Reaching another planet was right out. Being able to fly was one of the great things about the keyboard. It gave him options to allow him to get things done. Fixing things with it was just as good as anything else, and probably better than using it as a bus to get across town to buy tacos. And he didn¡¯t have to study to fix things. The power was an automatic scan and rearrange things to fit. He supposed that if the customer took their things to another mechanic he would be hard pressed to figure out how the thing had been done. Tanner let himself into the house and stopped at the kitchen. He put together some sandwiches and a glass of tea. He took his book out of the bag and read while he ate. His mother came in while he was still eating. He heard the jangle of keys and the whisking of cloth. ¡°Tanner?,¡± she called out. ¡°I¡¯m in the kitchen, Mom,¡± Tanner called back. He made sure his sleeves were down, the one covering the keyboard. ¡°How was work?¡± ¡°It was okay,¡± said Mrs. Lerner. ¡°I¡¯m still having problems with Mr. Cruise¡¯s assistant, but that¡¯s nothing new. No one likes her.¡± ¡°Mr. Cruise must like her,¡± pointed out Tanner. ¡°She runs the office for him.¡± ¡°She runs his side of the office,¡± corrected Mrs. Tanner. ¡°She doesn¡¯t run everything yet.¡± ¡°I can see that,¡± said Tanner. ¡°Anything you want to talk about?¡± ¡°Have you done your homework yet?,¡± Mrs. Lerner asked. She had spotted the space book and experience told her that her son had decided to read something other than his assigned reading. ¡°Not yet,¡± said Tanner. ¡°Go ahead,¡± said Mrs. Lerner. ¡°The faster you get it done, the faster you can go back to your reading.¡± ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am,¡± said Tanner. He folded the corner of his page down before he closed the book. Another glass of tea accompanied him to his room where he pulled out his books and assignment sheets. He put his space book on the bed so he wouldn¡¯t be tempted to keep reading when he was supposed to be going over the required reading for tomorrow¡¯s classes. He sorted everything into what he had to do, didn¡¯t want to do, and didn¡¯t have to do. He put the didn¡¯t have to do things back in his book bag. He quickly worked through everything he wanted to do. That left the final pile on his desk. Tanner went through his last pile a lot slower than he liked. He knew it was because he wasn¡¯t interested in the subject matter. He was glad to put away the last book when he was done. Now he could finish reading his book on space. He should have time before any family dinner could be cooked. He turned the last page when he heard his father coming through the front door. He put the book on the shelf. He needed time to reflect on the contents. He realized that he had forgotten most of his school work. At least he had notes to go over before school the next day. Button Pushing 2 Tanner got up the next morning. He got ready for school, then went over his notes. He hadn¡¯t forgotten near as much as he had thought. He should be okay during the reviews and leadup to testing. He needed to put another night into studying the chapters before he went in to take the tests. The review that was supposed to happen would help him focus on what to expect from his teacher. He wondered how many trick questions were going to be on this test. His teacher seemed to love them for some reason. He figured he would pass anything his teacher threw at him. His grades were higher than average as far as he could tell from what the rest of the class said. And if he passed, he never had to think about history again. Tanner decided that he could slide to school instead of riding the bus. It was quicker, and he could study in the cafeteria until the first bell. It also meant avoiding Darla for the first part of the day. That would make things tolerable as Tanner waited for the sun to come up. He activated his keyboard with the opposite index finger as he walked out of the house. The slide put up its map. He didn¡¯t see a direct line to the school, but there was a path through Egypt, then South Africa, that should drop him a block away from it. He ran through the first portal, through a market of people wandering around, then through part of a desert, then across a lot surrounded by skyscrapers. He stepped through a door in the shadow of a statue he didn¡¯t care about and slid down the sidewalk toward the school. A man in a tan coat puffed on a cigar as he watched the school. His eyebrows seemingly arched in surprise at everything he saw. He knocked some ash off the cigar as he stood in the middle of the sidewalk. ¡°Excuse me,¡± said Tanner. He walked around the human obstacle. ¡°No problem, Tanner,¡± said the man in the coat. He puffed on his cigar as he returned to his vigil. ¡°I don¡¯t think I know you,¡± said Tanner. ¡°I¡¯m a nobody,¡± said the man in the coat. ¡°There¡¯s no reason for you to know me.¡± ¡°But you know me,¡± said Tanner. He hitched his bag backward on his shoulder so he could reach his tattoo easier. One wrong move, and someone was getting punched in the face with a gold fist. ¡°I know lots of people, Tanner,¡± said the man in the coat. ¡°Take that guy over there.¡± He pointed at a kid heading towards Tanner¡¯s school. The kid looked down at the sidewalk under him, and not ahead. He wore a jacket against the morning cold, khakis, and red Nikes. ¡°That¡¯s Roland Givens,¡± said the man in the coat. ¡°He¡¯s special to some people because he might have a tenth of a percent of a talent they need. If he does, he will be great for them to use. If he doesn¡¯t, he¡¯ll be executed and left somewhere for somebody to find later.¡± ¡°How do you know that?,¡± asked Tanner. He watched the other boy walk down the street. He didn¡¯t seem special. ¡°I travel around a lot, Tanner,¡± said the man in the coat. He took a long pull on his cigar. ¡°I hear a lot of things from people who don¡¯t see me in the background.¡± ¡°Have you talked to Givens about how special he is?,¡± asked Tanner. ¡°He thinks that¡¯s the way things should be,¡± said the man in the coat. ¡°He doesn¡¯t quite grasp how bad things could get for him if things go the way I foresee.¡± ¡°He¡¯s gambling that he might have the talent for what they need, and the ability to get away from the bad guys interested in him?,¡± said Tanner. ¡°That doesn¡¯t sound too safe.¡± ¡°That¡¯s what I said,¡± said the nobody. ¡°It¡¯s an extremely dangerous route that will probably get him killed.¡± ¡°And you won¡¯t help him?,¡± asked Tanner. He felt there were pieces missing in this conversation. ¡°All I can do is warn him, which I have done,¡± said the man in the coat. ¡°The rest is up to him.¡± ¡°You¡¯re telling me all this for a reason,¡± said Tanner. ¡°What do you think I can do?¡± ¡°More than me,¡± said the man in the coat. ¡°Givens won¡¯t forgive you trying to save him. He wants his moment in the sun.¡± ¡°Why would I try to save him?,¡± said Tanner. He knew that was a rhetorical question as soon as it came out of his mouth. Somehow this guy knew about him using the keyboard to help people. It was the only explanation for why they were talking about this at all. The man in the coat squinted at him before raising a hand to say look at this kid. He¡¯s so humble. ¡°You know about the keyboard,¡± said Tanner. ¡°How?¡± ¡°I listen to things, kid,¡± said the man in the coat. ¡°Your secret is safe with me. Very few people listen to a nobody like me.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t believe you,¡± said Tanner. ¡°How does the keyboard work? Where did it come from? Who are you really? You¡¯re not some nobody.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t give you those answers,¡± said the man in the coat. ¡°I¡¯m not supposed to be talking to you about Roland, much less explaining how someone lost something they shouldn¡¯t have lost here, and how they want to get it back. Once you start using five If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.digits instead of the usual three, your horizons will expand but you¡¯ll be telling everyone who wants the keyboard to come get it.¡± ¡°Wait,¡± said Tanner. ¡°Did you say five keys?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have time to talk to you about that,¡± said the man in the coat. ¡°Givens¡¯s abductors are here.¡± He pointed his cigar at a black van rolling down the street. Even the windows and wheels were black. Tanner looked down at his arm. The cycle for the slide had ended while he had been talking. He could call up his other abilities and stop this before the first bell. Tanner handed his bag to the man in the coat. There was no point in not using the keyboard in front of him. He already knew how it worked. He rolled up his arm to expose the keyboard as he walked toward the van. His mind thought about possibilities. What would be the most effective way of stopping this before it got started? Guys in black suits piled out of the van. Some took up station to keep an eye on the passing cars and pedestrians. Two grabbed Givens before he could run away. They touched his forehead with something and he collapsed. Tanner punched three keys to give himself his gold form. It should be enough to take these guys out. Three of the watchdogs turned their heads to look at the statue come to life. They raised their hands. A device sat in the palm of each hand. Balls of energy erupted from the weapons. Tanner threw himself to the side. He heard the sound of explosions and winced. He had just gotten someone¡¯s house burned to the ground. He flung a gold arm across the space between him and the closest goon. The arm wrapped around the man in black. One yank sent the man flying. The other two blasted at Tanner to cover what their group was doing. He needed to go through them if he wanted to get Givens back. The Givens takers loaded him up in the van. The vehicle jerked away from the curb to get away from the fight. The driver put his foot down as soon as he was sure he wouldn¡¯t hit anything in front of him. Tanner had to make a decision. Did he let the van go, or did he take care of the two guys still trying to take him out. Self preservation won out. He couldn¡¯t catch up to the van and get Givens back if he was being shot at by his enemies. And if he timed out in the middle of things, he could be killed by their strange weapons. Tanner threw himself at the two men. He stretched out his arms, fists ballooning up into pillow-sized bludgeons. He took a hit on his gold skin that burned through the protection right before he swung his makeshift hammers at his enemies. They went down with bloody faces. Tanner looked at the fleeing van. Maybe he could catch up with it if he hurried. It meant cutting through the school lot and getting around the school to try to beat them heading in front of the school. He charged forward, legs lengthening to extend his stride. When he reached the school, elongated arms and legs vaulted him to the roof of the building. He ran across the tarred and graveled surface and dropped down on the other side. He ran toward the van as it sped down the street. He checked the spiral on his arm that replaced the keyboard when he had a power in use. It was counting down to zero fast. If he didn¡¯t stop the van before he lost his gold form, he might lose it for good. He ran after the van, crossing the front lot to try to cut it off. It roared away as he reached the street. He looked at the plate, trying to memorize it. His gold skin flaked away as he slowed to a walk. They had Givens and he had someone he could interrogate. All he needed was the right power for the job. Tanner shook his head. His side still hurt from the blast he had taken. At least the keyboard had healed most of the damage up for him before he changed back. He also needed to talk to that guy now that things were over. He had known about the kidnaping. Maybe he knew where they had taken their victim. Tanner entered the school and jogged down to the other side. He hit the exit door and ran out to where he had left the three goons he had taken down as Gold Man. He frowned at the way they lay where they had fallen. Had he hit them too hard? Tanner turned the first man over so he could check him. The goon¡¯s face was partially eroded. He stepped back from the body. His gold form shouldn¡¯t have done that. He checked the others. They all had similar damage with some burnt holes in their black suits. How did he find Givens now? Tanner patted his last victim down. He found a wallet and a phone. He put them in his pockets. He looked where the man in the coat had been. His bag stood neatly on the ground to mark the guy¡¯s absence. The joker set me up. I can¡¯t believe that. He ran out while things were going down. What did he do about the situation? That was the real question now. Tanner grabbed his bag. There were things he had to do if he wanted to follow things up. The first was to call the police and give them an edited version of what had happened. That would put them on the trail of the rest of the gang. Tanner made the call while walking to his locker. He needed to store his bag. The locker was closer than using the slide to go home and drop it off. He told the dispatcher everything while storing his books for the day. He could get them back when he was done with chasing the bad guys down. He shut the phone off. Now he had to get away from the school and figure out where the van went. Once he knew that, he could get Givens back from his captors. Tanner decided the easiest thing to do was try to locate the van from the air. He had an idea how to track them down if that didn¡¯t work, but he wanted to try the easiest thing before resorting to a deeper tool in his repertoire. Tanner pressed three keys on his arm as he left the school building. He grew wings from his back. Sirens heralded the first police response as he took to the air. He decided to head up as high as he could. That should give him a good overview of the neighborhood. He spotted the van heading for the highway. He descended on an angle to keep it in sight and to get closer to the ground for when his wings wore off. He could resort to other powers since he knew the direction of the van¡¯s travel. The thought of crashing into the ground when his wings wore off bothered him more than he liked. Maybe using five keys would buy him more activation time for each power. Did he want to alert the keyboard¡¯s hunter that he had it? He doubted the guy in the coat had accidentally warned him of the possibility. He had just made it look like an accident. It fit in with the fact he had been watching for Givens and drew Tanner¡¯s attention to the other boy. It wasn¡¯t something that had just happened. Tanner glided along the road, alternating between reading his timer and checking to see if he was still behind the black van. He set down on the side of the road when the circle started fading out from one end. His wings vanished as he walked down the shoulder. Tanner pressed a different combination. He had to catch up with the van. Then he could worry about how he was getting Givens back from the clown squad. The need for speed surged through his body. He leaped forward like a cheetah after a small deer. Gravel from the side of the road flew as he pelted along the white line. He spotted the van pulling off the next exit. He frowned at the sign pointing to the airport. They were going to put Givens on a plane? Where were they taking him? How did he get on that plane? Tanner raced down the highway after the van. He spotted it heading to a private road leading to some hangars behind the terminal. He ran out of steam as he reached the road leading from the entrance of the property. He caught his breath as he headed toward the access road. How long did he have before the plane took off? He pressed the cheetah speed keys again and ran toward the back of the terminal. He had to stop that plane from taking off. Tanner ran to the gate in the fence and headed down the access road as the guard tried to stop him. He paused when he reached the group of hangars housing private planes. Where was Givens? Button Pushing 3 Tanner stood in front of the hangars. He had missed something. Where had the men in black taken Givens? None of the hangars had planes in them. He walked toward the runways behind the terminal. Maybe there was somebody on the field who had seen what had happened to the van. He wasn¡¯t giving up. There had to be something he could do to find the van and its users. What power did he have that could help him? He did have a technological thing he could call on. He didn¡¯t use it that often. It might come in handy to hack the phone he had stolen. That might lead to someone else in the chain. Once he got Givens back, he could hand whatever he found over to the Feds and let them go about their business. That was better than being a one man band chasing after villains everywhere in the world. He wasn¡¯t the Mark. He loved his small corner of the world, and didn¡¯t want to protect anywhere else. He spotted the van sitting by a runway at the other end of the field. He shook his head. All the doors being open told him that he had missed them. He looked up in the air. Planes roared away from the airport. The one he needed had to be one of them. How did he find it? He would have to hack the tower and ask the computer what it knew. That should be easy enough to do if he could get next to one that knew what he wanted. The first step of his plan required that he get up to the roof of the control tower. He summoned his wings and flew up to the top of the tower. He took a position beside some machinery. He didn¡¯t know what it did, and his only interest was in how much access the dishes and such could give him to the files he needed. He tried not to think about how many federal laws he was about to break to find out what he wanted to know. When the wings went away, he dialed another combination. He heard a ton of computer chatter as he leaned against the machinery. He didn¡¯t need to interfere with day to day operations to get what he wanted. He simply asked where was the plane that had launched at roughly the same time as the van entering the lot. Three planes kicked back to him from the system. Only one was a private jet. He checked the location. It was headed for New York. Tanner checked the heading with the equipment. As far as the radar knew, the plane was on course for the northeastern section of the United States. All he had to do was follow it and track it down once it landed. That shouldn¡¯t be too hard. The man in the coat had given him a tough job to crack. And when he got home, he would have to deal with his parents and the fact that he had skipped school. The fireballs against the house across the street from the school would have to give him some pretext to skip out for the day. Maybe he could claim that there had been an emergency and he had been forced to walk home. It wasn¡¯t a perfect excuse, but it should give him some cover until he thought of something better. The bodies left after the attack might give him something else he could use to justify skipping. He decided to worry about that after he figured out a way to get to New York after that plane. Tanner checked for where the plane was due to land. He had a way to get to New York as soon as this power set wore off. It was the fastest way to travel across country. He should get to the airport before the plane landed. What did he do after that? He should call the authorities and let them handle things from now on. He could still try to find the plane and get Givens back. That would be faster than trying to convince someone that he knew where the plane was going. He was a kid. No one would believe him. He would have to check in at the airport to catch them when they land. Until then, he could lead his normal life until it was time to meet the plane on the ground. Then he would have to go on the offensive and do what he could to stop the group. He programmed his phone to give him an alert when the plane was due in. It wasn¡¯t foolproof. The plane could land and put Givens off anywhere. If it did that, he would have to get into the plane¡¯s electronics and see what he could do about finding out where the plane had stopped before its final landing. The mechanical aptitude wore off as he tracked the plane in the air. It was still heading northeast according to the radar. That was the best Tanner could do at the moment. He called up the slide. He frowned that there wasn¡¯t a hole close to the top of the tower. He had to get off the tower to start his slide home. He looked at the nearest location hole. He threw himself off the tower. He hit the point and exited halfway across town. He stepped through another hole and wound up at school. He had to get his books out of his locker. Then he could head home until the plane If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.was closing in on a landing. Then he could use the slide to get across the country. What were his next steps if he couldn¡¯t stop them? How much effort would it take to get Givens back? How did he deal with those ball shooters? One thing at a time, he told himself. The first thing was to get his bag and get away from there before the police asked him some questions he couldn¡¯t answer. He headed into the building and worked his way down to his locker. He freed his gear. No one seemed to be looking at him. Tanner made it outside. The police and fire departments were still busy across the street from the school. He didn¡¯t see any students or teachers loitering about. He checked his timer. He slid across to somewhere in Miami and started making his way back home. He reached the end of his block after several slides and reloading the power from the keyboard. He ran to his house. Both of his parents were gone from the looks of things. He let himself in and headed for his bedroom. He put the bag next to his desk as he thought about what he should do next. He should probably call to say he wasn¡¯t going to be at school. That way they wouldn¡¯t call to check on him. He went downstairs and grabbed the landline receiver from its cradle. He didn¡¯t want to use his own phone in case they suspected he was ditching. He definitely didn¡¯t want the school to call his phone while he was away. Tanner looked up the number for his school on his own phone, then called on the family phone. He waited for someone to answer the ringing. He hoped no one had seen him before he went into action as the Gold Man. That would dampen his lie if someone reported seeing him on the street heading to school. ¡°Robert Wilson High School,¡± said the familiar voice of Mrs. Treadle. ¡°How can I help you today?¡± ¡°This is Tanner Lerner, Mrs. Treadle,¡± said Tanner. He put one hand over the mouthpiece and coughed. ¡°I¡¯m staying home today. I don¡¯t feel that well.¡± ¡°You¡¯ll have to bring a note to be excused, Tanner,¡± said Mrs. Treadle. ¡°I¡¯ll let your teachers know you¡¯ll be absent.¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± said Tanner. ¡°I¡¯ll bring the note in tomorrow.¡± ¡°I hope you feel better,¡± said Mrs. Treadle. Tanner put the phone down on its cradle. He waited on the couch. A few minutes later, the phone rang. He scooped up the handset with a coughing hello. ¡°Mr. Lerner,¡± said the vice principal of the school. ¡°This is Mr. Banks. How are you doing?¡± ¡°Just got a bug,¡± said Tanner. ¡°I¡¯ll be fine when I get some sleep.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t forget to bring in your excuse,¡± said Mr. Banks. ¡°The office will need it to explain your absence.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll bring it in as soon as I see a doctor,¡± said Tanner. ¡°It should be okay.¡± ¡°Take care of yourself, Mr. Lerner,¡± said the vice principal. ¡°I will see you tomorrow.¡± Tanner breathed a sigh of relief as he put the phone down. They might call again, but he could say he wasn¡¯t awake to answer the phone. Unless they came by, they couldn¡¯t prove he wasn¡¯t sleeping. Now that he had an excuse for not being in class, he had to get ready to move. Once in New York, he would have to locate the airport, and then get to the plane before the kidnapers could vanish into the city. He also had to be ready to take the guys on. If they had more of those fireball shooters, he would have to take them out before they could start shooting at him. He had some movement powers that he rarely used, and some energy control. He would have to fall back on those to do what he had to do. He just liked the Gold Man for its elasticity. Tanner decided to raid the refrigerator before he left the house. He had plenty of time according to his phone. Who knew when he would get his next meal? He made three sandwiches of bologna and cheese he toasted in the microwave. He wolfed them down while sipping on a bottle of Coke from the pantry. He grabbed another can of Coke when he was done with the first. He pressed the three keys he wanted to use on his arm and stepped outside. He opened the can and sipped at it before sliding to Boston. He used various links from there to get to somewhere in New York City. He recognized part of the skyline in the distance, but only had a rough idea of where he was in relation to where he wanted to be. Tanner pulled out his phone. He walked down to the next corner. He looked around for a street sign, and a building address. He typed those in to see where he was. He typed in La Guardia to check where he had to go from where he was. He nodded at the arrow on the airport. He checked his timer. He still had hours before the plane came down. Tanner put his phone away and checked the vanishing circle on his forearm. The slide was going away. When it did, he would select the wings, or a speed power low to the ground. Once he was at the airport, he would have to turn on his mechanical power and check on the plane to see if it was still heading to the city. He could track it to the exact runway he needed to be at to intercept and then stop the gang, or whatever they were. Everything about this was strange and he wasn¡¯t sure what he was dealing with at the moment. If he could get Givens back, he might be able to use him as bait to find the chief executive behind the scheme. Then he could use the keyboard to straighten everything out. He imagined a fortress in the heart of the city surrounded by men in black, and robot gargoyles. He put that thought away as he considered that the villains probably had space in some converted warehouse, or storage area. He should build a secret base for himself one day. Maybe get a mask and costume. He smiled at himself. That would be the line that stopped him dreaming of doing anything but vigilantism. He would rather get a job and use the keyboard for that than build himself some kind of lair under the town. He wasn¡¯t cut out to be a full time hero when he could help out without being seen most of the time. Tanner pressed the keys to call on the speed component he wanted. That should let him run to the airport in plenty of time to get set up to meet the plane. He cruised through town, skating along the ground with every push of his feet. He reached the outer perimeter of the airport as his timer wound down to zero. He was going to have to fly to the terminal while watching for security who wouldn¡¯t like his invasion. They wouldn¡¯t see him as friendly. He would be considered a villain that needed to be defended against to protect passengers on the planes, and in the terminal. He pulled on his wings and took to the air. He flew low and fast over the field and landed on top of the tower. He waited until his power went away, watching the field for any reaction to his presence. How many man-sized targets did the tower track in a day? Hopefully they thought he was the Mark, or one of the Mark Girls, and dismissed the radar contact as one of them being really slow and then going really fast to vanish off the radar so quickly. He switched powers as soon as he could. He extended his mechanical expertise into the building and watched everything. Operations were running smooth and his plane hadn¡¯t made radar contact yet. He settled in to wait, letting the machinery run without interference. He reset his power a few times until the plane he was looking for showed up on the edge of the radar. It headed straight in to La Guardia from what he could tell. A controller gave a vector to a runway away from the passenger planes taking off. He asked for the location of the runway from the machinery before disconnecting. He had to get off the terminal and meet that plane when it landed. Button Pushing 4 Tanner waited for the mechanical power to run out before hitting the three button keys for the Gold Man. He leaped off the terminal and stretched his limbs down to stop his fall before his body impacted the asphalt. He ran toward the designated runway, elongated legs swiftly covering the distance. He had to get Givens back and flee before they started shooting at him. He didn¡¯t want to take more hits from those fireballs. The Gold Man was tough, but it had limits. A few bad hits to the face would put him down until the power ran out and he could switch to something else. Tanner spotted the plane coming in. He nodded as it descended to the designated runway. Black SUVs waited at the end of the runway. He should have known more goons would be waiting at the end of the line. How did he stop them from taking off with Givens? He should have gone for some kind of blaster. He had a few in his set but he didn¡¯t like to use them unless he had to face someone he couldn¡¯t physically overpower. He needed to circle around to get behind the SUVs. Then he could sneak up on them with the Gold Man¡¯s ability to flatten his body. Tanner hoped Givens would be smart and help him with the rescue. He didn¡¯t need a victim that wanted to be victimized. Whatever was going on couldn¡¯t be legal with all of the black suits and lack of badges. Tanner sank into a sheet with arms and legs. He crawled to the edge of the runway, picking a path that would take him behind the parked cars. He reached the edge and crept out on the runway. He grimaced at the lack of cover, but he had to do the best he could with what he had. He pulled himself until he was next to the rear bumper of the nearest car. He checked the back door. It opened with the flip of its handle. He held the door and crept inside as quietly as possible. He pooled himself into a pile behind the back seat. He readied giant hands as he steadied himself. He took a deep breath. It was time to go to work. Tanner boiled over the backseat. His gold fists punched soft flesh as he moved towards the front of the vehicle. The driver half-turned in his seat. He tried to unleash a fireball at the gold face coming right at him. A thin pipe of an arm slammed the fireball making hand upwards so the blast went into the car¡¯s roof. The other gold hand came around in a long powerful arc to knock the man¡¯s head against the steering wheel. The Gold Man pulled himself together. He had this car secured. All he had to do was take the other two, and then he could move against the men on the plane. It sounded real easy when he said it to himself. Men in black boiled out of the other two cars. They pointed their hands at the SUV Tanner was in. They blasted the car, pouring power into the fiberglass and steel. The SUV blew up around Tanner. He was ejected into the air on a column of fire. He hit the ground off the runway. Debris fell down around him. He lay there and tried to pick himself up. One finger twitched at his efforts. He concentrated. He got his hands under his body and levered up into a sitting position. It took a supreme effort for that much. Men in black approached him as the plane coasted to a stop. So much for trying to ambush them. He had to regroup before they burned him up. Those fireball makers packed more punch than the Gold Man could handle. He sprang at the closest man and turned him around. He threw the man at the next closest group of suits. He was rewarded that they fell down. He turned and fled the other way. He had to get some distance. His timer for the Gold Man was running down and he needed to catch his breath. At least the ambush was a partial success. The five men in that car would never kidnap another kid. He flung himself into the grass as fireballs flew over his head. He flattened himself out as much as he could and pulled himself away from danger. The plane coasted to a stop a few feet from the SUVs. Men disembarked, one dragging their captive by the arm. Their hands swept around as they looked for targets as they moved to their transportation. Tanner watched as the vehicles pulled away from the runway. He had missed Givens, Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.and was pinned down. What was he supposed to do now? He needed to make his own escape and get after the SUVs. He had to switch powers to do that. That meant becoming visible to the Men in Black while switching powers. The two surviving cars vanished on an access road leading from the airport into the city. He would have to track them down somehow. He just didn¡¯t know how he was going to do it now. He should have gone with a blaster instead of the Gold Man. He relied a lot on the stretching and the toughness. Maybe he relied on it too much. The timer on his arm ran out. He switched back to his normal body laying in the grass. The Men in Black shouted when they saw him. He touched the keyboard on his arm as they shot at him. Tanner flew back towards the burning SUV. He cursed it as he hit the wreck and bounced into the air. Fireballs flew around him as he skyrocketed upwards. The Rocket fired him at something and let him take impacts easily. It turned him into a cannonball that would keep burning until he ran out of time. That was the last thing he needed if he wanted to find Givens and get him back from his captors. Tanner looked down as he soared ever upwards. When the power ran out, he had to look forward to a long fall. He spotted the black vehicles heading into Manhattan. What did he do about it? He grimaced. He was at the mercy of the keyboard¡¯s timer. Too bad he hadn¡¯t asked the man in the coat how to modify that before things went into the pot. He smiled. He was in New York. He had a bead on the bad guys. He only had to wait a few minutes before the power ran out. Then he could switch to something to get out of the jam he was in. He just needed to stay calm and things would work out. The skyrocket cut off. He floated high above the Earth. He could almost see the curvature of the planet. He had to react fast before he ran out of oxygen and died. He put on his wings and dropped toward the ground. He needed to get back on the track of his enemy while they thought he was out of the picture. He found the airport easily. He scanned the streets around the airport. Where had the two car parade gone? They had to still be on the road. Where were they going? He was not going to lose after all this effort to track the gang down, and getting close enough to stop them. Tanner winged over the city, watching the streets. There had to be a way to find the caravan. He decided that maybe he should climb and try to pick up the trail. He didn¡¯t have a lot of time, but he had enough for one shot. If he could climb high enough before the timer ran down, maybe he could spot the SUVs and figure out which direction they were going. Then he could switch to the runner and catch up. It wasn¡¯t a perfect solution but it was all he had for the moment. And if it worked, it allowed him to get close enough for another ambush. He needed to make sure it worked the next time around. And he already knew how they treated someone taking hostages. He didn¡¯t like the feeling of almost being blown to pieces. He knew they were ruthless from the confrontation at the school. He didn¡¯t think they would discard their friends so readily. He should have known better from the way the downed Men in Black had committed suicide after the rest had gotten away with Givens. It was too bad he hadn¡¯t figured a way to con Darla into coming. She had a lot of skills given her by her third eye that would be useful in this situation. She didn¡¯t like using it, and felt like it was a curse. It told her too many things she didn¡¯t want to know was all she ever told him. The few times he had been able to coax her to use her abilities had been emergencies where no one else could help, or was available. He loved his abilities, but didn¡¯t like the new knowledge that pressing more than three keys sent out a signal to someone to invade the Earth. It dampened his enjoyment somehow. He had a ton of abilities with the three keys. Did he really need more than that? Tanner put his thoughts about powers away. He thought he saw a two car parade of black vehicles driving slowly through the streets. He checked his timer. He had to get down, or he was going to have problems. He aimed for a building ahead of the cars. He could switch back to wings, or use the runner option. He had to keep them in sight. He didn¡¯t know what they wanted with Givens but it couldn¡¯t be good just from the methods they were using. He expected that was why the man in the coat had duped him into getting involved. Something bigger than a kidnaping was going on. It was up to him to find out what. He didn¡¯t like that feeling at all. He landed on top of a building just as his wings gave out. He leaned against the wall and caught his breath. A few seconds the other way and he would have been headed for the street. He doubted he could have activated a power to help him before he hit the ground. He looked down at the street. The two cars still rolled down below him. He frowned. He was too high up for the runner. He needed to put on the wings again. He pushed the three keys and let the wings lift him from the ledge. He soared to the next building. He needed to know where they were stopping. He could try to grab Givens there. Once he had spoiled part of their plans, he could work on spoiling the rest. The SUVs pulled into a parking garage. He lost sight of them as they rolled into the deck. He checked each deck from the outside. He found the cars parked on the third floor. He climbed over the rails and watched the cars. Nothing moved as far as he could see. Had they already gone to the exit on foot? He looked at his arm. The wing timer was winding down. Once it had, he needed to switch to something that would help him. He might have lost Givens while trying to find the cars. Where would they have taken him from here? He still needed to check the cars. They might be waiting to meet someone. Darla would have been able to scan the cars and tell him if he was waiting in vain with one look. He lost the wings and waited for a moment. Nothing moved. He gritted his teeth. What could help him in this situation? The Gold Man, his primary offense, had been beaten back twice already. What could he use to get the upper hand and get Givens back. He pressed the three keys on his arm to activate his next change. Button Pushing 5 Tanner threw himself forward as the change took effect. His body slicked over into a gray tube with a nose at the front, fins on his back and where his legs merged into a tail. His hands formed into paddles to help him move forward. He sank into the concrete of the parking deck, swimming in it. He headed for the transports at high speed. He needed to know if the Men in Black were still in their cars. This way was a dolphin that used solid substances as water. It had the disadvantage of not having hands, but that was balanced out by being bulletproof. He leaped from the deck into the door of the first SUV. He expected to see someone sitting in one of the seats. The vehicle was empty except for discarded clothes. He passed out the other side and headed for the other car just as fast as his initial charge. He jumped into the door and slid through the Chevy to fall to the deck on the other side. That one stood empty too. They had parked the cars and walked away while he was looking for the Chevys from outside the deck. Dumping their uniforms made it hard to locate any that he hadn¡¯t been close enough to deal with using his powers. What did he do now? He had time as the land dolphin. He decided to use that time to swim around the parking deck. Maybe he would get lucky and spot one of the group. If he couldn¡¯t locate them that way, he would think of something else he could use. He refused to give up now. Whatever was going on meant bad news for Givens and anybody who might cross his path in the future. He could feel it in his bones. He had to press ahead until he knew something for sure. Tanner slid through a wall and swam in a circle around the parking deck. He moved to the next square of blocks, and then the next, and then the next after that. He gave up when the timer ran out and he hadn¡¯t seen anything to attract his attention. He circled back to the SUVs. Maybe there was something there he could use somehow. His mechanical ability should help glean something. He waited until he got back to the cars before he pressed the three keys he needed. He hooked into the first SUV. He found a hook up to a navigational unit. He inspected that. He smiled. He had a list of everywhere the car had gone in the last few days. One of those places had to be where they were holding Givens. He had to check them to see if he was right. Tanner wrote the addresses down on a scrap piece of paper from his pocket. His phone would give him Google Maps and he could get to work. He disconnected. He was surprised that the vehicle wasn¡¯t trapped. He pulled away from the SUV before finding out the hard way. He checked the directions for the first address. He pulled on his runner form and headed out. He took a couple of minutes to get used to moving around people, but there were plenty of places where he could cut in a direct line toward his goal. The first place turned out to be a restaurant on the edge of Chinatown. Tanner repeated his method until he found himself at a church that had closed signs on the front. He wondered why a church would close. He needed to get inside and look around. If this was the place, he would have to be cautious. He didn¡¯t know what he was facing, or what he should be doing. The last thing he needed was a fight before he knew what he was doing. He transformed into his land dolphin shape and dove through the ground. He swam up to the front wall and slid inside. He hopped into the air. He didn¡¯t see anything on the open floor. He dove into the floor to see what was beneath the church. He found a set of steps leading to a stone table in the middle of an open space. He fell into the floor there. No one shot at him as he looked the room over. Why had they came there? He felt like he was missing something. What should he do now? He decided that he should retreat and think about what he had found. He was at a dead end for the moment. Why had they visited a closed church? What was so important about it? He had his phone. Maybe Google could help him. He swam away from the church and took shelter between two buildings where he could see the front of the church while he tried to think of his next move. Tanner pulled out his phone after he changed back. He opened the New York Times If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.website. He typed in the address. A pocket history popped up. He shook his head. The church had been closed after losing its last priest and another church had been built a few streets over to serve the congregation. Then the police had caught a cult trying to sacrifice someone in the basement where he had found the table a couple of decades after that. Then the Catholics had sold the land back to the city, but nothing has been done with it yet. The sacrifice thing stood out. Is that what attracted the Men in Black to the place? Did they plan to do the same thing to Givens? Were they behind the first attempt? Was it coincidence? He discounted the theory that it was just a coincidence that two different groups were interested in the same place. Either they were connected, or the place was special in some way. What made it special? It had to be something about the building, right? Why else would it attract some kind of cult attention from two cults? How did he prove his theory? Was he on the right track? Were they coming back? What kind of tactics should he use? The Gold Man had been okay on defense, but unable to mount a decent offense. He needed to use something with a bigger punch. He needed to be able to one punch through their defenses before they could figure out what he was doing. He had some powers that might be able to do that. He had to be quick. He didn¡¯t relish another confrontation where he took a face full of fireballs and the bad guys won. He had to be the one throwing fireballs and wrecking the other guy¡¯s day. He took the Gold Man off the table. He decided that Iceberg would be the right powerset if he could get close enough to get Given¡¯s back. He wondered if he should be waiting outside, or inside. Either choice had its problems. He decided to stay out for now. He didn¡¯t want to be in the church and miss them showing up. That would lead to them being inside with him, and able to shoot up the interior while he had to look for cover. Where were they keeping Givens now if they planned to use the church at some point later? Were they planning to use the church? Had he stopped at a dead end? Despite the fact he didn¡¯t like her, he had to admit this was the kind of thing his cousin was better at doing. Her third eye allowed her to track things easily. The rest of the places he had visited had seemed normal. Givens could have been taken to any of them. He would have to get inside and search all of them. He didn¡¯t know how much time he had before they did what they wanted to do. The Church was the only place they visited that didn¡¯t make sense. He liked it a suspect location. How long should he wait before he tried another tactic? He touched his pockets. Did he have enough money to get something to eat while he waited? He had two phones. Why did he have two phones? He remembered he had taken the one from the dead guy back home. He pulled it out and weighed it in his hand. What could be on it? Maybe it held a clue to show where he should go from there. Tanner keyed in his mechanical power again. He realized suddenly that he had used this one power more in the last two days than he had the rest of the month. He shook his head. The things he got involved with didn¡¯t usually require being able to hack electronics and mechanics. He mostly used this power to keep his laptop updated and working right. Sometimes he rerouted a virus back to its creator. He took the phone¡¯s brain apart after his transformation. Text messages indicated movements in code. GPS coordinates for his town showed up. Messages back went to a phone locally there in the Big Apple. A tower transfer showed him the virtual path to the other phone. He couldn¡¯t hack into it at a distance, but he could see the signal moving on the ground. He looked the coordinates up and noted the phone was at a hotel south of where he was. He pulled out his list. It was one of the places the SUV had been. So maybe the church was going to be used after all. Did he want to go to the hotel and search it, or did he want to stick in place? He only had the rest of the day before he had to come up with an explanation for his parents. They were going to want to know why he had skipped school. Feeling bad and not being home didn¡¯t usually go hand in hand. Things were going to get even more complicated if someone saw him in the school and reported it. More questions from the vice principal would have to be answered. He had to wrap this up as fast as possible. He couldn¡¯t wait for whatever they planned to do. He had to take them out first. He had to get to that hotel and find the guy, and then ask him about Givens. Getting Givens back and on a plane back home had to be next. Then he could slide home and try to come up with an explanation for everything to satisfy his parents without telling them about the keyboard. Getting Givens back looked better than trying to explain everything to his parents. Tanner put the phone away and started walking. He would have to wait for the mechanical to wear off before he could use a move set to get to the hotel faster. Hopefully the guy had no reason to move before he could start his search. He called on the Runner as soon as he could. Direct paths opened up for him to slip through, hopping over obstacles that got in the way. He arrived at the hotel in a few minutes. Part of that time was spent finding the place itself. He needed to find the room for the guy with the phone. How did he do that? Raiding the desk computer wouldn¡¯t get him anything since he didn¡¯t know what name the guy was using. But he had a phone number. Would the guy use the cell number so he could be called on his personal phone instead of the room phone? Didn¡¯t hotels take in that stuff? He let the Runner go and called on his mechanical control again. He got the number he wanted from the stolen phone before he approached the desk. He walked over to the clerk who was watching him. ¡°How can I help you?,¡± asked the clerk. She was a little older than him, hair pinned back, professional smile on her face. ¡°Hello,¡± said Tanner. He put his hand close enough to read the computer without touching it. ¡°I¡¯m looking for a guest. His name¡¯s Steve Bueller.¡± ¡°Let me check for you,¡± said the clerk. The name tag said Tammy. It glinted as she moved. Tanner smiled as he ordered the network to search for the phone number he had. A room number kicked back within a few seconds. ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± said Tammy. ¡°I don¡¯t see a Bueller anywhere in the system. Could he have checked in under another name?¡± ¡°No,¡± said Tanner. ¡°He must have given me the wrong hotel. I¡¯ll call him and find out where he is. Thank you for your time.¡± ¡°You¡¯re welcome,¡± said Tammy. ¡°Have a nice day.¡± Button Pushing 6 Tanner walked outside, pretending to make a phone call. He walked slowly until he was out of sight of the desk. Then he ran to the parking garage entrance hooked to the hotel. He put his phone away and slid under the guard arm. He jogged to the elevator/stairs combo inside a glass room. He frowned at the key card lock on the door. He didn¡¯t want to bypass the lock and then wait until the power ran out so he could call Iceberg. He could key in Iceberg and smash the door. He didn¡¯t want to do that. It wasn¡¯t the hotel¡¯s fault that their guests had attracted a vigilante. He needed to do something to get around the lock. He didn¡¯t know how much time he had before Givens was moved to a new location. He decided to key in his mechanical again. He opened the lock with a simple touch of his hand. He plugged into the network camera and programmed the digital recorder not to accept his image. It wasn¡¯t foolproof but it was the best he could do at the moment. He headed up the stairs for two reasons. He didn¡¯t want to get trapped in the elevator when the Men in Black started shooting at him again with their fireballs. The explosions would kill him with the mechanical power activated. And he needed to use up the mechanical so he could key in another power that would be helpful in this situation. And as long as he had the mechanical operating, he could use the cameras in the halls to keep track of his enemy when they decided to move out. The church had to be the final destination. If he messed up here and lived, he could race them there and try to stop whatever they planned to do. He doubted they would be ready for him twice in a row. He smiled at that thought. They had been taken offguard, but had already beat him back twice. The third time might get him killed. Tanner raced up the stairs, checking the timer as he cleared landings. At least all this running around was helping him keep in shape. He idly wondered how many calories he burned every time he activated a power as he reached the fifth floor. He paused on the landing with his back against the wall as tried to catch his breath. He needed to do more step running when he got home. The timer ran out as he felt his heart beat slowly normalize. Now came the tricky part. He had to walk down to the rooms in question, take out any guards, and escape with the hostage. Bystanders could be hurt if he didn¡¯t act fast enough. Explosions in the rooms were almost as bad as getting caught in the elevator. If any pierced a wall, there was no telling who would get hurt in the other room. And he had to consider that the building would be set on fire by near misses. He walked toward the room, hand hovering over the keyboard. He wanted to give himself any extra second he could before he went into the fight. If he ran out in the middle, he was as good as dead. He took a deep breath before he keyed in Iceberg and covered the peephole with a sheen of ice. He knocked on the door with a crystalline hand. He wanted one of them to open the door so he didn¡¯t have to break it in. A guard tried to peer through the peephole. His shadow was visible behind the cover of ice. ¡°Who is it?,¡± the guard asked. ¡°Room service for a Givens,¡± said Tanner. His voice echoed slightly. There was nothing he could do about that. ¡°Givens?,¡± said the guard. He opened the door for the ice sculpture in the hall. A stony fist crashed against his face and he went down without shooting. Tanner stepped over him into the hotel room. He counted three of the guys. He had to work fast before they got their weapons into play. Tanner took aim and fired nets of ice with his hands at the three men. He smiled as they went down in icy embraces. They were out of his hair while he checked on Givens. He rushed to the inner door of the suite. He wondered where the rest of the men were, but hoped he had gotten lucky. Maybe they were out doing a food run instead of getting room service. Maybe they had been dismissed until they were needed later. How many men did it take to guard a kid in the first place? He pushed the door open. A man sat in the middle of the bedroom at a desk. Pots decorated the top of the desk. A smell filled the air. He fought down his gagging as he looked around. ¡°Where¡¯s the kid?,¡± demanded Tanner. He raised a hand so he could use his ice power instantly if he had to shoot the guy. The man stood, dark eyes staring at the intruder. Several scars formed a complex patch on his cheek. His sleeves were rolled up, exposing stains on his hands and forearms. Dark hair lined with gray had been braided and left to fall behind him. ¡°I see my men underestimated you,¡± said the man. ¡°No one thought you would be able to track them to this place.¡± ¡°The boy?,¡± said Tanner. He didn¡¯t have time to have a chat with a crazy guy. ¡°Is not your concern,¡± said the man. He held up a hand in a gesture of negation. Paints stained the fingers. ¡°He is going to be my weapon when everything is done. Save yourself some trouble and go away before you are hurt.¡± Tanner frowned. Did he have the nerve to take on a painter in the middle of a hotel This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.room for the life of a boy he didn¡¯t know? What would he do if there was some other thing at stake. Ice leaped from his hand. He didn¡¯t need to talk to the guy if the church was the endpoint for all this. He could take him, and turn him over to the FBI after he got Givens back. They could sort everything out without his involvement after that point. The painter waved his hand. The ice blast bounced into the wall and covered it in whiteness. ¡°You should have heeded the warning,¡± said the painter. He made a twisting motion with his hand. A fist of rushing air slammed into Tanner. He hit the ground and tried to roll away from the impact. Years of fighting Darla had taught him that much. He produced a wall to protect him from the rushing air. It circled around the ice and slammed into him. He went through the window in an explosion of glass. Tanner headed for the street. He wondered if he would live through the impact. His ice power faded and he reached for his keyboard. He still had a chance if he keyed in the right thing while still high enough. An arm wrapped around him and yanked him through the air. He grabbed hold of the arm with both hands as his rescuer swung him to a ledge at the corner of the hotel. ¡°I know things are bad, but there¡¯s no reason to jump,¡± said his rescuer. ¡°I didn¡¯t jump,¡± said Tanner. Gratefulness turned into irritation in a second. ¡°I was pushed. Now I have to get up there and stop the guy who pushed me.¡± ¡°Leave this to the professional,¡± said the girl in the costume. ¡°I am a professional,¡± said Tanner. He keyed in his Gold Man form. ¡°I have to go. Nice meeting you.¡± He grabbed the window frame with an elongated arm. He yanked himself up to the window. He flung himself into the outer room. His three captives laid where he had left them. They struggled against the ice, but hadn¡¯t been able to break out of their bond yet. Where was the painter? How much time did they have before he did whatever he wanted to Givens? Tanner tried to breathe through his anxiety. He should have dragged Darla along. She would have blasted the guy with her eyebeam before he said one word. ¡°You want to tell me what¡¯s going on?,¡± said the girl in the costume. ¡°Maybe I can help out, and I know some people who could help out if this is too big for me.¡± ¡°Saved many people, have you?,¡± said Tanner. He went to the door and looked out in the hall. The painter was nowhere in sight. Would he use the elevator or the stairs? ¡°Saved you,¡± she returned. She crossed her arms as she looked at him. Her mask was a dark green blank with protective spots where the eyes should be in her face. ¡°Okay,¡± said Tanner. ¡°That¡¯s a good point.¡± He headed down the hall. The elevator was not moving. Did that mean the painter was using the stairs, or had he already used the elevator to reach the exits on the bottom floor? Had he gone down to the ground floor? Which way should he go? ¡°Let¡¯s try the roof,¡± said the girl. ¡°Maybe we can spot him from there.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± said Tanner. He pulled open the door. ¡°Why are you tagging along?¡± ¡°I¡¯m still waiting for my explanation and my thank you,¡± she said. ¡°Seriously?,¡± said Tanner. ¡°Seriously,¡± she replied. ¡°Thank you,¡± said Tanner. He stepped into the stairwell and used the Gold Man to climb the center space of the stairwell toward the roof. She flung out a line and let it pull her up after him. When she reached where the line had anchored itself, she threw out another one. They pushed open the roof door and headed for the edges. If they could grab the painter, they could trade him for Givens. Grabbing him seemed the hardest part of that statement in Tanner¡¯s opinion. ¡°Who am I looking for?,¡± said the masked girl. ¡°Guy with long hair in a braid, scar on face, vaguely Middle Eastern,¡± said Tanner. ¡°You¡¯re chasing Amenophis?,¡± she said. ¡°You¡¯re braver than I thought.¡± ¡°Who¡¯s that?,¡± said Tanner. He spared a glance at her. ¡°But not ready for this,¡± she said. ¡°Amenophis is the number three guy wanted by most of the Middle East governments. A lot of guys have taken him on and gotten hurt.¡± ¡°Wait, what?,¡± said Tanner. ¡°He¡¯s a shark, you¡¯re a guppy,¡± said the girl. ¡°You¡¯re going to get killed chasing him. I¡¯ll call my dad and he can take over for us. He¡¯s dealt with Amenophis a few times. He¡¯ll know what to do about this.¡± Tanner thought about the offer. It was tempting to just give up. He could go home and let someone else rescue Givens. He would be back under the radar. He would prefer that to dealing with a world power. Then his selfish streak kicked in. This was his job. He couldn¡¯t just hand it over to strangers and let them muff it up worse than what he was already doing. ¡°Thanks,¡± said Tanner. The Gold Man wore off. ¡°Someone¡¯s life is at stake. I can¡¯t wait for someone to take over for me. I have to keep going with what I have.¡± ¡°Wait,¡± said the girl. She held up a gloved hand. ¡°My dad really can help us.¡± ¡°You¡¯re out of this,¡± said Tanner. ¡°I¡¯ll figure out how to deal with Amenophis if I have to do that. I just want to free his victim.¡± Tanner pressed the Sky Rocket keys. He blasted from the roof before she could stop him. He knew that was what she wanted to do. He beat her to the punch to get away. He decided to head back to the church. That was the likeliest place the painter would show up. He had to come up with a power to get through his control of the air and take him down. It didn¡¯t need to be more than few minutes, but it had to be done in such a way he couldn¡¯t interfere with getting Givens back. Tanner tried to avoid hitting too many buildings as he cut across town. He felt the power petering out and aimed for a roof he could use for a crash landing. He hit a ventilation unit before the timer marked the exhaustion of the power. He laid there for a minute before climbing to his feet. He pulled out his phone. He asked Google for his current location. He smiled at the red arrow. He asked for the location for the church. He was still blocks away. He put the phone away and keyed in the Gold Man again. He grabbed a flagpole and swung out in space. He grabbed another flagpole further along and dropped to a roof to the right of and below the pole. He stretched his legs out as he jumped over the gaps between buildings. Once he was close to the church, he paused to assess the situation. The Gold Man blinked out as he studied the street. He didn¡¯t see any of the Men in Black. That didn¡¯t mean anything. They could be inside the church, getting ready to do whatever they planned to do to Givens. He needed a way in, and he needed something that could handle them. He was tired of losing every fight he had with Amenophis and his followers. He noted the church had a bell tower. He could get in there with the Gold Man, or the Wings. Then he could descend down into the church. That¡¯s when the fighting would start. He needed to act fast if he wanted to take down Amenophis. His minions could be dangerous, but they hadn¡¯t demonstrated the ability to manhandle him. He changed to the Gold Man as he eyed the bell tower. He could get in there. He just needed some kind of handhold. He couldn¡¯t stretch his body across the intervening space. He pushed back to get running room. He ran forward and leaped. His arms and body stretched out as far as he could extend them as he flew through space. One hand hit the window frame and grabbed hold. The arm retracted, pulling him away from a fall in the street. He checked the timer as he bundled underneath the bell in the tower. He had a small amount of time to get things before he was helpless. He pulled open the trap door leading down from the belfry. A ladder greeted him. He extended his body to take a look around at the vertical space. No one was in sight. He descended toward the ground. Button Pushing 7 Tanner checked the main room of the building. Men in black suits blocked the main access down to the room below the church. He had to get by them before he could try to stop whatever Amenophis was doing to Givens. He checked his timer as he pulled back. The Gold Man was almost out of time. Did he want to call it back, or resort to another form? He needed a shooter to get through the forces acting as a barrier. If he went with brute force, they would pour fire into his altered form until he was down. He couldn¡¯t afford a delay. Givens might already be close to dead by now. He had to make a decision and make his move. He checked his options as he poured over the powers he had unlocked. He had literally dozens of abilities that could be generated by the keyboard. If he moved up to the fourth key despite the warning he had been given, he might have more powers he had never used, or combinations of what he was already using into something new. He decided on the Shooter. It was straight forward, and the ammo might punch through whatever skill Amenophis was using as his shield. He keyed in the call. The change washed over Tanner. He flexed his hands. Guns flickered as he pretended he held weapons. He nodded. He stepped out of the door leading to the belfry. He rushed forward. Blasts of sound struck the guards like hammers in front of the charging vigilante. That was enough to put them down as he ran toward them. Tanner used the guns on the door leading downstairs. He wanted them thinking about him, and not what they were going to do with the stolen kid. The door sprouted holes before it jumped out of the way. No one shot back from the other side of the door. Tanner paused at the door, taking cover behind the wall next to the opening. He heard chanting. Whatever was going on was happening. He had to get downstairs and stop it before Givens was gone for good. He took a deep breath. He could do this. The Shooter still had plenty of time and if he took out some of the rats, that was the price he would have to pay. Tanner headed down the stairs, hands at the ready. Fireballs tried to set him on fire halfway down the steps. He fired back as he looked for cover. He hopped over a rail, and shot two men while they were still trying to set him on fire. Men in robes stood around the table. They held jars in front of them as they chanted. Givens had been forced into a skirt of some kind. He pulled on the chains holding him to the disguised altar. Tanner decided the quickest way to end things was to smash the jars. Once free of contents, the jars would be useless. ¡°What are you doing here?,¡± Amenophis stepped out of the shadows. He had changed his shirt and pants for a metal collar and a belted skirt. ¡°You are in the way of my creating.¡± ¡°Stuff happens,¡± said Tanner. He noted a wave of air heading his way. He threw himself forward, firing from both hands as he fell. His slugs ripped through the jars, shattering them in the hands of the acolytes. The men fell back as tendrils of energy whipped into the open air. ¡°What have you done?,¡± screamed Amenophis. Green light erupted from his eyes. ¡°What have you done?¡± ¡°Ruined your plan,¡± said the Scarab Girl. She shot him with an expanding net from a channel in the back of her gauntlet. ¡°Sit down while we try to fix the rest of this.¡± The tendrils leaped to where Givens had been chained down. They entered his mouth before anyone could do anything to stop them. ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s good at all,¡± said Tanner. He shot one of the acolytes in the leg to get him out of the way. ¡°What were you guys doing?¡± The cocoon split apart as Amenophis pulled the threads apart with his bare hands. He glared at the interloping kids. Scarab Girl shot him with more of the net shells until he was completely buried in the webbing. Givens exploded from his chains. He looked around with eyes on fire, and a smile that was way too wide for a human boy. ¡°Greetings, humans,¡± said the transformed Givens. ¡°It is excellent to have a human body again. Sharing it with these others is a trial, but I will get used to it eventually, I suppose.¡± ¡°What about the boy?,¡± asked Tanner. He shot one of his opponents too dumb to run for it in the foot. He kicked the hopping man out of his way. ¡°He has a life.¡± If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Not anymore,¡± said the new Givens. ¡°I had to eat him to become the king of this conglomeration.¡± ¡°You killed Givens?,¡± asked Tanner. He raised his hands. He still had time to deal with this monster. It couldn¡¯t be allowed to escape after all this. ¡°Essentially,¡± said the monster. ¡°I didn¡¯t need him getting in the way while I took control. And with the spellwork in place, it was tremendously easy.¡± Tanner shot the body in front of him. He had failed to save Givens. He wasn¡¯t going to see him being used as a puppet by a gloating thing. The bullet bounced off a stone chest. Givens smiled even wider if that was possible. He threw a sheet of flame at Tanner and Scarab Girl. He could have fun with these two. Tanner threw himself to the side. His Shooter ability gave him an insight on where things would move and that was enough to let him jump out of the way of the blast. Foam wrapped the floating boy. A spark flickered as it tried to fight through the confinement. A green boot landed in the angry face trying to set things on fire. ¡°My dad knows an exorcist,¡± said Scarab Girl. ¡°We¡¯ll get you out of there and put you back in your jars.¡± Tanner winced at that. He had destroyed the jars in his haste. He should have shot the jar holders. The web cocoon ripped apart to allow Amenophis to step forward. He glared at the two children who dared to oppose him. The foam on the other side of the room exploded under a waterspout. The Shooter ran out of time to some cursing. ¡°My revivalist,¡± said Givens. ¡°You have done some good work.¡± ¡°I will have to start over from the look of it,¡± said Amenophis. ¡°The plan was for you to be my weapon. Running amuck was not part of that.¡± ¡°No one gets what they want all the time,¡± said Givens. He directed water at his creator. It evaporated in the air as it crossed the room. ¡°I do,¡± said Amenophis. He gestured. Givens screamed in pain. He hit the ground, writhing. ¡°I don¡¯t think I need to explain your place in the scheme of things.¡± ¡°He¡¯s getting exorcized,¡± said Tanner. He gestured with a hand. The table came to life and charged Amenophis. The magician paused for a moment, and then the table had rammed him into the wall. The legs did their best to kick him while he was down. Givens writhed on the floor. Tanner wanted to help him. This was all his fault. If he hadn¡¯t shattered the jars, none of this would have happened. Givens rolled so that they could see his smiling face. Then he slapped the stone floor with the palm of a stony hand. Ripples of stone formed a circle of spears spinning around Givens. They spun into a stabbing ring at the two children. These heroic kids should not be allowed to grow up to be heroic adults. Scarab Girl swung over the moving fencework. She landed with both feet on Givens¡¯s head. She bounced away before he could set her on fire. Tanner waved a hand. His ability worked against the control Givens exerted. A spear started fighting its brothers to protect him. He breathed a sigh of relief as he tried to think of a solution to this problem. Amenophis hit him with the table after shrugging it off. He glared at the room. These children had cost too much of his effort to create a perfect warrior. Was it worth to kill them? He considered that as another shell flew at his head from Scarab Girl¡¯s wrist gun. He ducked under it. A net spread across the wall behind him. The very least he should was rip the spirits out of Givens and put them into something he could use as storage. He grabbed a discarded bottle as he approached the spinning spears. His men had retreated in the face of this. He didn¡¯t want otherwise. It was better to handle this himself than hope one of his men got lucky and saved the day without getting killed. Amenophis flowed around the spears like a cloud of sand. He waved Scarab Girl out of his way. She should have known better than to get involved in this. The Scarabs and he were old enemies. Killing the latest wouldn¡¯t raise a drop of sweat on his brow. Givens looked groggy. That was good. That made his exorcism all the easier. One spoken command and a seal on the bottle should take care of things. Once the spirits had been reclaimed, the boy would be as good as dead if the king had spoken the truth. Destroying the boy would be the key to using his body, but usually the spirit just pushed his ride¡¯s mind under. An exorcism might be enough to restore his mind. If it was gone, that was a pity, but it didn¡¯t concern Amenophis all that much. Givens hit his creator with a stone fist. The magician flew across the room. The changed boy stood. He saw the odds. It was him versus the three of them. He should make his escape before Amenophis could make good on his threat. He sent a wave of flame out as a distraction. He used the dancing spears to carry him out of the room. His laughter drifted down on his enemies. Scarab Girl checked Tanner. He seemed to be having problems focusing. She didn¡¯t want to take on Amenophis by herself. She didn¡¯t see any way out of the confrontation. ¡°That didn¡¯t go near as well as I had planned,¡± said Amenophis. He brushed the blood off his face with a flick of his hand. ¡°I should kill you both for the trouble you have caused.¡± ¡°Do you really want to waste your time while your perfect weapon is escaping?,¡± said Scarab Girl. ¡°The next time we meet, it will end differently for you if you cross me,¡± said Amenophis. ¡°Don¡¯t doubt that.¡± ¡°I look forward to the chance to cross swords with you again,¡± said Scarab Girl. ¡°Yes,¡± said Amenophis. He walked away from them. One hand brushed aside the flame that reached for him. ¡°Are you awake?,¡± asked Scarab Girl. She slapped Tanner¡¯s face. He blinked at the impact. ¡°Are you awake?¡± ¡°Hurt,¡± said Tanner. Pain ran through his back. He couldn¡¯t move. He must have taken a bigger hit than he thought. ¡°Need a hand.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll get you out of here,¡± said Scarab Girl. ¡°Hold on.¡± ¡°No,¡± said Tanner. ¡°Left hand. Left hand.¡± ¡°What?,¡± said Scarab Girl. ¡°Left hand?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± said Tanner. ¡°My hand.¡± Scarab Girl picked up the hand. She saw a scarred fingerprint on his index finger. ¡°What do you want me to do with this?,¡± she asked. ¡°Right forearm,¡± said Tanner. ¡°Need you to touch spaces with index finger.¡± Scarab Girl shifted the other arm. Scars that looked like a keyboard ran down the forearm from wrist to elbow. ¡°Top row, third space in,¡± said Tanner. ¡°Index finger.¡± She did what he wanted. The space flared under the skin. He gave her directions for the other two keys. He pushed up to his knees. ¡°Looks like we lost,¡± Tanner said. ¡°But we¡¯re alive,¡± said Scarab Girl. ¡°Let¡¯s get out of here.¡± Button Pushing 8 Scarab Girl put out the fire with more foam capsules from her gauntlet. She led the way upstairs. Amenophis¡¯s men had retreated with their master. There was no sign of the changed Givens either. ¡°What am I going to tell Givens¡¯s family back home?,¡± Tanner limped after his colleague. The keyboard was fixing him up as he walked up to the main floor of the church. ¡°How do I explain this?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think you can,¡± said Scarab Girl. ¡°Amenophis will be out of the country in a few minutes. He can travel fast on his own. His men have scattered. We can look for them but they won¡¯t know anything beyond what we already know. If you say anything at all, it will be to tell them that Amenophis took him. Then you¡¯ll have to explain how you know that.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t tell them that,¡± said Tanner. ¡°It means I have to tell them I caused his transformation and possible death.¡± ¡°I know,¡± said Scarab Girl. ¡°Someone is going to have to break the bad news to them. If we don¡¯t, they¡¯ll be looking for him to come back.¡± ¡°He won¡¯t be coming back from the way he was changed,¡± said Tanner. ¡°Where would he go if he stays in town?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Scarab Girl. ¡°He¡¯s probably in some bolthole he took from someone else. New York has a ton of places for someone to hide if they want to get away strong enough.¡± ¡°So both of them could be beyond our reach,¡± said Tanner. Scarab Girl nodded. ¡°I screwed this up,¡± said Tanner. ¡°If I hadn¡¯t broken those jars, we could have done something else to get Givens back.¡± ¡°Or he could have been turned into a mindless weapon, and used against us,¡± said Scarab Girl. ¡°My dad is going to kill me that I took on Amenophis without calling him. I will be grounded.¡± ¡°Too bad,¡± said Tanner. ¡°I called out of school sick. I¡¯m going to have to forge a note for my school.¡± ¡°Your parents will be looking for you,¡± said Scarab Girl. ¡°Not for another two hours,¡± said Tanner. ¡°But if the school called their work, that might be trouble for me.¡± ¡°I think we should explain things to my dad,¡± said Scarab Girl. ¡°Maybe he can alert the authorities where you live. They¡¯ll take care of notifying the parents for you.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Tanner. ¡°That¡¯ll help me out. Then I have to try to get home and lie to my parents about what I have been doing all day.¡± Scarab Girl shrugged. She had to make her own excuses for bailing out of the last period in school. Luckily, her parents covered for her though they wanted her to not patrol on her own until she was older. Tanner¡¯s phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and checked to see who was calling. He winced when he saw it was Darla. He definitely didn¡¯t want to explain things to her. He thought about ignoring the call. He grimaced and accepted the call. ¡°Hello, Darla,¡± he said. ¡°Where are you?,¡± she asked. ¡°Why?,¡± asked Tanner. He didn¡¯t want to tell her he was in New York before he knew why she was calling. They didn¡¯t get along at the best of times. Why give her ammunition? ¡°The Vice Principal was all over me about you calling in sick,¡± said Darla. ¡°It¡¯s obvious you¡¯re not sick. What¡¯s going on?¡± ¡°I think I got someone killed,¡± said Tanner. ¡°I have to meet Scarab Girl¡¯s dad, then the rest of this mess will be out of my hands.¡± ¡°That¡¯s peachy keen,¡± said Darla. ¡°Who¡¯s Scarab Girl?¡± ¡°She¡¯s a local heroine,¡± said Tanner. ¡°I¡¯ll explain everything when I get home.¡± ¡°You better hurry up with your business,¡± said Darla. ¡°Mr. Butthead might be trying to call your parents to check on you by now.¡± ¡°Thanks, Darla,¡± said Tanner. ¡°I¡¯ll be home as soon as I can.¡± He cut the connection and put his phone up. He grimaced at the thought that the school was trying to catch him pretending to be sick. What was going on with Roland Givens? Had anybody missed him being in class? Had anyone noticed the fight that had happened outside the school grounds? What did he do about that? ¡°Let¡¯s talk to my dad,¡± said Scarab Girl. ¡°Maybe he will have something for you to use.¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± said Tanner. ¡°Let me call him,¡± said Scarab Girl. ¡°We can meet at Good Eats.¡± ¡°Good Eats?,¡± said Tanner. ¡°A diner my dad and his friends use to meet,¡± said Scarab Girl. ¡°He probably won¡¯t like meeting you in civs.¡± ¡°I understand,¡± said Tanner. ¡°I thought about a mask and costume, but I couldn¡¯t decide on what I wanted.¡± ¡°I can see that,¡± said Scarab Girl. She touched the side of her hood with a finger. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.¡°Can you hear me, Dad? I need to talk to you in person.¡± She bent her head as she listened to the radio in her mask. ¡°I have a guest from out of town with me,¡± said Scarab Girl. ¡°We had some trouble with Amenophis.¡± She nodded. ¡°We¡¯re fine, but things didn¡¯t go our way,¡± said Scarab Girl. ¡°We need to talk to you so we can hash this out.¡± She shrugged as she listened. ¡°We¡¯ll meet you at Cassie¡¯s,¡± said Scarab Girl. ¡°Then he has to head home. His parents don¡¯t know yet.¡± She nodded again. ¡°I understand,¡± said Scarab Girl. ¡°We¡¯ll be there in a few minutes.¡± She cut the connection. ¡°We¡¯re meeting at Good Eats,¡± said Scarab Girl. ¡°He¡¯s not too thrilled by this.¡± ¡°I can see why,¡± said Tanner. ¡°We¡¯re about to dump a huge mess in his lap.¡± ¡°He¡¯s used to that,¡± said Scarab Girl. ¡°It¡¯s you he¡¯s not thrilled by.¡± ¡°That¡¯s no surprise,¡± said Tanner. ¡°Follow me,¡± said Scarab Girl. She took aim with an arm. She fired a line from her gauntlet. It pulled her into the air with a yank on the thread. Tanner checked the timer on his arm. It was almost done. He needed one more healing spell. He could do that later after meeting Scarab Girl¡¯s dad. That should be a hoot. He jogged after the swinging heroine until the timer ran out. He put on his wings and leaped into the air. He flew after as she crossed Manhattan. She dropped down on what looked like an old diner in the middle of some skyscrapers. He swooped in for a landing just as his timer ran out. He landed on the roof a little harder than he meant. ¡°You need to work on the landings, Transformer Boy,¡± said Scarab Girl. He sensed she was smiling at him under her mask. ¡°I never found a way to change the timer,¡± said Tanner. ¡°I don¡¯t like to fly unless it¡¯s for short hops. High enough in the air that the fall will kill you is hard to judge against the time it will take me to dial a new power while falling.¡± ¡°Experience?,¡± she asked. ¡°Yeah,¡± said Tanner. He had misjudged the first time and almost killed himself with a car that he just missed when his new power kicked in. ¡°I have had a couple close calls myself,¡± said Scarab Girl. ¡°That¡¯s why I¡¯m still in training.¡± ¡°You¡®re supposed to be in school,¡± said a figure in scarlet and silver dropping on the roof of the diner. ¡°You know better than to ditch.¡± ¡°Dad, this is Transformer Boy,¡± said Scarab Girl. ¡°This is my dad.¡± ¡°My name is Tanner, Mr. Scarab,¡± said Tanner. ¡°I¡¯m sorry about all this.¡± ¡°Tell me what¡¯s going on,¡± said the Scarlet Scarab. ¡°I¡¯ll see what I can do to fix the problem.¡± Tanner told him what had happened from the time he tried to stop Roland Givens from being taken to the fight in the basement of the church, and how Amenophis and Givens had both escaped. ¡°Not good,¡± said the Scarab. He hooked thumbs in his belt. ¡°We can report them but no one will believe that the victim had suffered a personality change.¡± ¡°His family should know,¡± said Tanner. ¡°I don¡¯t know what I can say at this point. I thought this would be an easy rescue.¡± ¡°Amenophis keeps his head down and avoids as many entanglements as he can,¡± said the Scarab. ¡°If you never dealt with him before, he can throw down a lot of heat before you realize what¡¯s going on.¡± ¡°What do we do about the kid?,¡± asked Tanner. ¡°He¡¯s wandering around out of his mind.¡± ¡°We start a search for him,¡± said the Scarab. ¡°If the spirits are running him, there¡¯s not much we can do. He¡¯ll be looking out for us looking for him. They aren¡¯t going to want to be pulled out when they are mobile and can run things any way they want.¡± ¡°So we have to wait for him to start doing whatever spirits want to do,¡± said Tanner. He sighed. ¡°All right. I guess I can do that.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll let the Idaville authorities know,¡± said the Scarlet Scarab. ¡°They can let the family know. They¡¯ve probably got more experience breaking bad news than we do.¡± ¡°So we¡¯re done?,¡± said Tanner. He still had to get home and see if anyone had caught on he wasn¡¯t home. ¡°One more thing,¡± said the Scarab. He pulled a business card for a computer company from his belt. He wrote a phone number on the back. ¡°Something like this happens again, you call for help. Don¡¯t try to take everyone on yourself.¡± ¡°Yes, sir,¡± said Tanner. He stored the card in his wallet. ¡°Remember,¡± said the Scarab. ¡°I¡¯ll call the FBI office and leave the tip. You might want to get home.¡± ¡°Yes, sir,¡± said Tanner. ¡°I guess I¡¯ll see you guys at the next crisis.¡± ¡°Goodbye, Tanner,¡± said Scarab Girl. She waved at him as he walked to the edge of the roof. ¡°Take it easy, S. G.,¡± said Tanner as he keyed in the slide. ¡°I don¡¯t think I like Transformer Boy.¡± He jumped off the roof and slid to somewhere in Texas. He checked his map and worked his way northwest through a series of zigzagging lines. He reached the outside of his house without a problem as far as he could tell. He slipped in the back door. He listened to the house. The place seemed quiet. He went upstairs. He sat down on his bed. This was one problem his keyboard couldn¡¯t fix. At least he could call for help if he ran into Amenophis again. His phone buzzed at him. He checked the caller ID. Darla again. He wondered what she wanted. She wasn¡¯t usually helpful to him. ¡°Hello, Darla,¡± said Tanner. How was he going to explain things to his parents? He had no idea. ¡°You¡¯re all over the news,¡± said Darla. ¡°Dead guys in the street, missing student, your Gold Man running around.¡± ¡°I tell you about it tomorrow,¡± said Tanner. ¡°I have to get something to eat and then get a nap. I¡¯ll see you later.¡± Tanner cut his television on. He switched to the local news. He winced at the damage done chasing Amenophis¡¯s fanatics. He went to the kitchen. He needed something to eat, and then he had to look at the assignments that might be wanted tomorrow. He had failed across the board. How did he come back from that? Maybe he should try to keep the next rescue a little simpler. He made a noise at that as he walked into the kitchen. He searched the fridge for something he could put in the microwave. He settled on some bologna and cheese on bread. He put that on a plate and put it in the microwave for a minute. He looked out the window as he waited for his food to cook. He blinked at the man in the coat looking out at the neighbor¡¯s house. His cigar rested in his hand. Tanner ran out the back door. He held his hands ready to call on one of his abilities as he looked at the man in the coat. The nameless stranger nodded at him with his perplexed eyebrows in evidence. ¡°I lost him,¡± said Tanner. ¡°You knew what was going on. Why didn¡¯t you warn me?¡± ¡°That¡¯s not my job, Tanner,¡± said the man in the coat. ¡°You know that. I can only offer options.¡± ¡°Options?,¡± said Tanner. ¡°Roland Givens is a monster. What kind of options does he have now?¡± ¡°The same as anybody else,¡± said the man in the coat. ¡°You didn¡¯t save him from being scarred, but you didn¡¯t let him become a slave to a bigger menace. Options for him is not the question you should be asking yourself.¡± ¡°What is?,¡± said Tanner. He had a feeling he was about to hear some more bad news. ¡°What is the question you should be asking yourself?,¡± asked the man in the coat. ¡°What are you going to do when Roland Givens comes home?¡± ¡°Why would he do that?,¡± asked Tanner. ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t he?,¡± asked the man in the coat. ¡°You did as well as you could with what you had. No one could have done better. Maybe your cousin could have.¡± ¡°Next time, more information would be better,¡± said Tanner. He dropped his hand. ¡°Maybe a broad outline of the problem.¡± ¡°I wish, kid,¡± said the man in the coat. He puffed on his cigar. ¡°Get ready. He¡¯ll come home eventually. You can count on that.¡± He walked from the back yard, heading for a destination that wasn¡¯t quite clear in his mind, to warn someone who needed it. Recruited Bobby Iger checked the address he had been given on a stick it note. He frowned at the odd block of a building sitting next to similar buildings. The difference was his building looked gloomy. The other buildings looked happy to be buildings. He shook off the feeling. He had a job to interview for in the gloomy building. He might as well go in and see what the scam was. A woman hurried down from the cross street. She had dressed in business casual with a small bag hanging from her shoulder. Sneakers with neon orange laces drew attention away from her polo shirt, and suit jacket. She had a glow that attracted Bobby¡¯s attention as he walked toward the door for his appointment. She paused as Bobby opened the visitor door into the building. ¡°Are you here about the job too?,¡± she asked Bobby. One hand reached to keep the door open so she could step inside after him. ¡°Yep,¡± said Bobby. ¡°It attracted my eye, and I need a job right now.¡± ¡°Maria Garcia-Lopez,¡± she said. ¡°Bob Iger,¡± said Bobby. ¡°Nice to meet you.¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± Maria said. They stepped inside the clear space. A desk sat at the other end of the room. A counter with a gate separated customers from the staff behind it. The inside seemed slightly less gloomy than the outside, but Bobby thought it was a work in progress from the looks of things. ¡°Hello,¡± called a voice from behind the counter. ¡°We¡¯re closed for the moment.¡± ¡°We¡¯re here about the job,¡± said Maria. She glanced at Bobby. He nodded at her statement. ¡°Janie had to go out for a bit,¡± said the unseen voice. ¡°I¡¯m sort of watching the store for her. Come on back. We can shoot the breeze while we wait for her.¡± Maria and Bobby walked back to the counter. He flipped the top for her to precede him into the work area of the floor. ¡°Have a seat,¡± said the Asian sitting behind the central desk. His panama was pushed back from a lean face. He smiled as he shuffled a deck of cards. ¡°Name¡¯s Harry.¡± Maria took the seat directly in front of the desk. Bobby had to grab one from another part of the room and pull it up. ¡°I¡¯m Bob Iger, and this is Maria Garcia-Lopez,¡± said Bobby. ¡°We¡¯re wondering about the job from the ad in the newspaper.¡± ¡°Jobs,¡± said Harry. He smiled as he mixed the cards up one last time. He dealt them in a pattern on the table while he talked. ¡°Janie is looking to hire three more bodies.¡± ¡°What is involved in this?,¡± asked Maria. ¡°The ad just says it wants people who needs excitement in their lives.¡± ¡°The Lamplighters is an organization that needs people who are not afraid of anything,¡± said Harry. ¡°They investigate mysteries from around the world and deal with them.¡± ¡°They solve crimes?,¡± asked Bobby. He smiled at the melodrama. ¡°Sometimes,¡± said Harry. ¡°Mostly what they deal with are unexplained natural phenomena.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t work for the Lamplighters, Harry?,¡± asked Maria. She leaned forward in her chair to concentrate on his face. He hesitated on the answer. A shadow fell across his face as he searched for the right words to address the question. ¡°I had a career ending injury,¡± he finally said. ¡°I can¡¯t climb down elevator shafts like I used to do.¡± ¡°Is the work that dangerous?,¡± asked Bobby. He didn¡¯t want to chase some loon for fifteen bucks an hour. ¡°Sometimes,¡± said Harry. ¡°I didn¡¯t really expect any problems, but I should have zagged instead of zigging.¡± ¡°Who hasn¡¯t done that once in a while?,¡± said Bobby. ¡°Will this Janie hire another woman?,¡± asked Maria. ¡°If you can pass the tests,¡± said Harry. ¡°You have to be able to pass a retina scan, and a drug test.¡± ¡°A retina scan and a drug test?,¡± asked Maria. ¡°The scan is to load your eye into our files so you can use some of the specialized equipment,¡± said Harry. ¡°The drug test is to make sure you don¡¯t take anything that would make it easy to victimize you on the job.¡± ¡°Has that happened?,¡± asked Bobby. ¡°Not to us,¡± said Harry. ¡°Some of the people we¡¯ve dealt with were heavy users and their habits made them vulnerable to con men.¡± ¡°And it¡¯s a risk to anyone who gets this job?,¡± asked Maria. ¡°You don¡¯t want to be in the middle of a case and have gravity start warping everything,¡± said Harry. ¡°That¡¯s a quick way to get killed.¡± ¡°Drug abuse makes that easier,¡± said Bobby. He nodded. ¡°I can see that.¡± Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°You guys will have a great time working here,¡± said Harry. ¡°Janie has already hired another guy. He¡¯s out with her shopping.¡± Bobby smiled. Something wasn¡¯t right. This Harry guy drew too many shadows when he talked about himself, and not enough when he talked about the potential job. What was going on? Career ending injury? What did that mean? How bad was it? Had the company walked away from him after that? What was he not telling them? ¡°I noticed you dealt out a solitaire setup,¡± said Bobby. ¡°I don¡¯t think I have ever seen anything like it.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not for solitaire,¡± said Harry. ¡°It¡¯s for reading your fortunes.¡± ¡°Really,¡± said Bobby. ¡°What does mine say?¡± ¡°This is the line if you tell Janie you don¡¯t want the job,¡± said Harry. ¡°This is the line if you take the job.¡± ¡°Got that,¡± said Bobby. He stood to look at the cards closely. ¡°What does the readings mean?¡± ¡°If you don¡¯t take the job, you live a long life,¡± said Harry. ¡°If you do, you only have three years before you¡¯re killed.¡± ¡°Three years?,¡± said Bobby. ¡°That¡¯s a bad prediction there. I¡¯m as fit as a fiddle.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t die of natural causes,¡± said Harry. He tapped the queen of spades he turned up. ¡°A woman kills you. Don¡¯t worry. Now that you know what to look out for, you can change your future on either side.¡± ¡°So in three years, I should look out for a woman who wants to kill me,¡± said Bobby. ¡°Can you narrow the list down?¡± ¡°I¡¯m afraid not,¡± said Harry. ¡°But I know you will know her when you see her. The card in this context points to something big in your life.¡± ¡°What are the other cards?,¡± asked Bobby. He pointed at the other two lines next to his reading. ¡°They¡¯re hers,¡± said Harry. ¡°It¡¯s the same set up as yours.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think I want to know what my future will be,¡± said Maria. She held up a hand to forestall any explanation. ¡°You don¡¯t have anything to worry about,¡± said Harry. ¡°You¡¯ll live a long life in either case.¡± ¡°Hold on,¡± said Bobby. ¡°She gets to live a long time, and I get killed. How does that work out?¡± ¡°She¡¯s looking for something,¡± said Harry. He indicated several cards. ¡°If she doesn¡¯t get the job, she doesn¡¯t find what she¡¯s looking for in the other line. If she does, she does find what she¡¯s looking for. In both lines, she gets to live a long life according to this. She¡¯d have to throw her life away to shorten either line.¡± ¡°So things work out better for her than me if we both get the job,¡± said Bobby. He rubbed his face with the palm of his hand. ¡°The future isn¡¯t set,¡± said Harry. ¡°You both could change things to change the line of the cards and the future. You just have to know what you¡¯re looking for and put forth an effort. It¡¯ll be like dealing yourself a new hand.¡± ¡°What about the hand you dealt for yourself?,¡± asked Maria. ¡°I know you looked at it.¡± ¡°I was given a choice,¡± said Harry. ¡°And I made it.¡± ¡°It didn¡¯t work out well for you, did it?,¡± said Bobby. ¡°I can see it didn¡¯t.¡± ¡°I admit it wasn¡¯t much of a choice,¡± said Harry. ¡°But it was the only one I had.¡± ¡°I can see that,¡± said Bobby. ¡°Would you have done it again, knowing what you know now?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± said Harry. ¡°I couldn¡¯t change the future enough to change my choice. It still had to be made, and I¡¯m the only one who could have done what was required at the time.¡± ¡°The only one?,¡± said Maria. ¡°Yes,¡± said Harry. ¡°Even with what I did, we still almost lost. Instead we changed the future enough that what I did stopped something bad from wrecking the city. I don¡¯t have any regrets about that.¡± ¡°We¡¯re expected to throw our lives away if it comes down to that.¡± Bobby frowned at the two of them. ¡°That¡¯s what you¡¯re telling us.¡± ¡°No,¡± said Harry. ¡°You¡¯ll be expected to do whatever you can to protect people, and stop bad things from happening. There¡¯s a chance that you¡¯ll get hurt. I won¡¯t lie about that. Lamplighting is a dangerous business. It¡¯s not for the weak. There are better ways to die.¡± Harry picked up his cards. He laid out one more line after a small shuffle. He shook his head as he picked up the cards and put them in his jacket pocket. ¡°How long?,¡± Maria asked. ¡°Excuse me,¡± said Harry. ¡°How long have you been dead?,¡± said Maria. ¡°I know that you are.¡± ¡°A while,¡± said Harry. ¡°So you know I¡¯m a ghost.¡± ¡°I can see it,¡± said Maria. ¡°I¡¯m sorry for you.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be,¡± said Harry. ¡°I made a decision to do something. It was my choice. No one else had the responsibility. You come to work here, you¡¯ll have to make the same kinds of choices.¡± ¡°Even if it kills us?,¡± said Bobby. ¡°Especially if it kills you,¡± said Harry. He smiled. ¡°This job isn¡¯t like any other. You¡¯ll know that you¡¯re making a difference in someone else¡¯s life even if all you want is fortune and glory.¡± ¡°Fortune and glory doesn¡¯t seem that bad,¡± said Bobby. ¡°It is if you get killed trying to get it,¡± said Harry. He stood up from behind the desk. ¡°It would be better if you didn¡¯t tell Janie that you saw me. She wouldn¡¯t believe you, and it would just stir up trouble.¡± ¡°It would change the future,¡± said Bobby. He stood also. He wasn¡¯t sure if he believed the ghost stuff. ¡°It would only force you into the non-job line of things,¡± said Harry. ¡°That would wreck things for Maria, and force you to get a job that you didn¡¯t like to pay your bills.¡± ¡°You think I¡¯ll like this job?,¡± said Bobby. ¡°I think it¡¯s something you will excel at for the three years you have,¡± said Harry. ¡°And having you in a slot will placehold it for the person who comes after you.¡± ¡°You¡¯re on,¡± said Bobby. ¡°I¡¯ll fight the future to prove you¡¯re wrong.¡± ¡°Good luck, kids,¡± said Harry. He straightened his hat. ¡°I¡¯ll be keeping an eye on you.¡± He walked into streamers that thinned the longer they grew before they faded away. ¡°My first time seeing a ghost,¡± said Bobby. ¡°I hoped for something scarier.¡± ¡°I¡¯m scared enough,¡± said Maria. She stood. ¡°Maybe I should get another job. This one is too weird.¡± ¡°That¡¯s up to you,¡± said Bobby. ¡°The only difference not being a Lamplighter will have for you is you won¡¯t find what you¡¯re looking for. Maybe not even trying is the way to go for you.¡± ¡°You¡¯ll die if he¡¯s right,¡± said Maria. ¡°That¡¯s not a good career choice in my book.¡± ¡°I could also change the future,¡± said Bobby. ¡°That¡¯s something worth trying to do.¡± ¡°So you want to try for this job even it kills you?,¡± said Maria. ¡°I don¡¯t see why not,¡± said Bobby. ¡°I¡¯m the perfect candidate.¡± ¡°Really?,¡± said Maria. ¡°How so?¡± ¡°Because nothing will kill me for the next three years,¡± said Bobby. ¡°If I look out for any dangerous women, I might live longer than that.¡± ¡°Are you sure about that?,¡± asked Maria. ¡°Not really,¡± said Bobby. ¡°But I don¡¯t have anything to live for, so this might be what I need.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Maria. ¡°We¡¯ll talk to Miss Hillsmeirer, and see who she wants to hire.¡± ¡°I¡¯m game if you¡¯re game,¡± said Bobby. The vehicle doors slid up out of the way. A white van with a candle logo on the hood rolled into the empty space. The room brightened considerably when the woman driver stepped out of the van. She frowned when she saw the two strangers standing behind the counter. Then she remembered she was supposed to be talking to two candidates. She shook her head. She had muffed that up. ¡°I¡¯m Jane Hillsmeirer,¡± the woman said with a smile. ¡°You¡¯re Garcia-Lopez and Iger. Let me get some coffee and I will be right with you.¡± She headed upstairs as her passenger slowly climbed out of the van. He grimaced at the two strangers as he walked toward them. ¡°Marcel Hobart,¡± the man said. ¡°This place is haunted. Are you sure you want to work here?¡± ¡°This is just as good a place as any,¡± said Bobby. He smiled. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ll protect you.¡± ¡°More like talk to me from beyond the grave,¡± said the other new Lamplighter. Bobby smiled. Secret Service 1 James Rafferty didn¡¯t like the room. There were too many people in it. He had to squeeze into a corner at the back. And too many people seemed to be looking at him as they passed. He should have asked for a different place to meet. The Rotten Unicorn was his drinking spot. Setting up a meeting there had been second nature. Now it felt wrong. He checked his watch. The arranged time was almost there. If the other person didn¡¯t arrive, he would go home and drink everything he had at his place. Sir Laurence Fletcher stepped through the door of the pub exactly on time. He pushed through the crowd until he reached Rafferty¡¯s table. He placed his bowler on the table, leaned his cane against the nearby wall, and sat down casually in the second chair facing away from the door. ¡°Hello, Mr. Rafferty,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°Thank you for having this meeting with me.¡± ¡°What¡¯s going on?,¡± asked Rafferty. ¡°I¡¯ve been canned, and now I am talking to a knight of the realm. We don¡¯t exactly move in the same circles.¡± ¡°I have a job offer for you, Mr. Rafferty,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°It is totally confidential. You can¡¯t tell this to a living soul.¡± ¡°What¡¯s your job, Guv¡®nor?,¡± asked Rafferty. ¡°We want you to harass Mick Brown until something changes,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°Excuse me,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°You heard me right,¡± said the knight. ¡°We¡¯re putting together a secret agency to do things that no one else can do. Part of that is outside the law criminal intelligence gathering. Mick Brown is the biggest target in the city at the moment. We want you to harass him and his operations until the normal police can put together a case.¡± ¡°Going after Mick Brown was why I was canned,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°He has too many friends in the department. Evidence will never be enough to stop him. It will disappear before he goes to trial.¡± ¡°Even so,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°We want you onboard with this project. You are a trained detective and you know the underground. And you¡¯re deniable.¡± ¡°The deniable part seems more important than the rest,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°What we will be doing cannot be shared with other agencies for the Crown,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°If you are caught, you will be forced to pay the price for any crimes you may have to commit in the course of a mission.¡± ¡°Why should I go along with this?,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I don¡¯t see anything in it for me.¡± ¡°It¡¯s the only way we can think of to hurt Brown and his organization.¡± Sir Laurence scanned the crowd. ¡°We need someone capable of hurting him before he does something that can¡¯t be fixed.¡± ¡°He¡¯s already done that,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°We¡¯re talking against the war effort,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°We think Brown is funneling money to the Jerries. We can¡¯t prove it, but if he is, we want it to stop.¡± ¡°And you think I¡¯m the man who can do that,¡± said Rafferty. He made a snort of a laugh. ¡°You¡¯re asking for a lot, Guv¡¯nor.¡± ¡°And I am not promising much in return,¡± said the knight. ¡°There¡¯s only so much I can say at a recruitment meeting.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll go along with this,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I shouldn¡¯t. I should turn you in to the proper authorities. I am curious about this new idea that Brown would help the Germans.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re in?,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°I¡¯m curious about it,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I don¡¯t know how it could be proven in a court. So far Brown has been good about getting rid of any evidence that might tie him to a crime.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why we want you to harass him until something shows up that he can¡¯t make go away,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°I¡¯m going to give you a key. It¡¯s to a flat. Equipment has been put there for you to use for your mission. Do not let anyone see your face while you¡¯re working for us. We can¡¯t allow your identity to be compromised and have it lead back to us.¡± ¡°I understand,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°Are there any rules for this?¡± ¡°We don¡¯t want you to be killed, and we don¡¯t want you killing anybody either,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°The more we can try and break in court, the better my backer will like it.¡± ¡°Who¡¯s your backer?,¡± asked Rafferty. ¡°That will have to remain a secret,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°This is the key to your headquarters. This is the address.¡± He handed over a card and two keys. ¡°Keep it secret.¡± The knight stood. ¡°We want to make this work for the duration of the war. That could be years away from now.¡± ¡°When do you want me to start?,¡± asked Rafferty. He put the key and card away in Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.his pocket. ¡°Sometime in the next few days,¡± said Sir Laurence. He placed his bowler on his head. ¡°Anything we can get for you will be sent to the flat by messenger. If you need something, call my office and ask for me.¡± ¡°Could you get me my job back?,¡± asked Rafferty. ¡°No,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°Your peers have sentenced you to being an embarrassment on the profession. No one wants you around to embarrass them further.¡± ¡°I suppose that¡¯s honest enough,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I don¡¯t like it.¡± ¡°I admit we¡¯re recruiting you because you have every reason to avenge yourself on Brown,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°We are hoping that you are enough above it to keep a clear perspective on the goal.¡± ¡°My life is in ruins,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I can¡¯t promise that.¡± ¡°Do what you can,¡± said Sir Laurence. He picked up his cane. ¡°I¡¯ll be in touch with some information, and how we think things are looking.¡± Rafferty watched the other man leave. No one else seemed to notice his erstwhile new employer. He stood. He put a few dollars down to cover his tab before leaving the pub. It didn¡¯t take a detective to see why Fletcher had asked him to join their operation. Mick Brown had ruined his life with a fake witness, a review board, and the allegation that he had taken bribes. Of course he wanted to pay back the gang lord. What did Fletcher expect him to do to harass Brown? He didn¡¯t plan to kill anybody, or create a false charge. What was left? Did he want to walk this path any further than listening to the offer? How much trouble would he be in if he were caught mucking about Brown after being fired for chasing him? How far was he willing to go to deal with Brown for some secret agency? He didn¡¯t have an answer for that question. He also didn¡¯t know if he was dealing with an agency at all. It might be a one man show with Fletcher as the boss. He was decorated enough, and won a knight hood, but even knights could go bad. At least he was honest about letting Rafferty know he would be out in the cold if things went bad. That was an expected option as far as the detective was concerned, and it had already happened once. How bad could a second time be? Did he want to know what the inside of a prison looked like for a resident instead of a visitor? He walked along the street, heading for the address he had been given. Once there, he could think about what he wanted to do. The safe house would tell him if he was being misled about the ability of Fletcher and his mates. It would be his last chance to turn down their job. Rafferty noticed headlights behind him. He paused to light up a cigarette on the next corner. He turned right and started away from the promised flat. The car turned to follow him. It could still be going in the same direction. London had a variety of places that more than one person had to be at any time. He paused at the entrance of a bookstore that looked ready to close. He reached for the door. The car sped up. Rafferty hurled himself against the door. Bullets went by in front of the small cracks of burning powder. He fell to the floor as the car rolled away. The detective got to his feet. He wondered if the attack was because Brown knew he was coming, or to clean up any loose lips. It didn¡¯t matter. Someone was gunning for him before he could see his bolthole. He should take care of that before he tried anything else. He hadn¡¯t got a good look at the shooter. He had no way of knowing who was after him. He certainly wasn¡¯t going to confront Brown in his new persona. He needed a weaker link to exploit. He needed the person who had helped overturn the court case against Brown. That was where he should start in this new job. Once he had that man running for his life, he could try for someone else. Rafferty turned and headed back the way he came. He wanted to avoid the police response. He didn¡¯t have time for his former colleagues. They would want to know what had happened for hours. It was better for him to vanish. He was the enemy now, more so than when he was on the force. The detective watched the street as he walked toward the flat. He paused at the next building to take a look around. No one was paying that much attention to him from what he could see. He slipped back to his real destination and let himself in. Rafferty examined the lobby before crossing to the steps. He headed up to the apartment Fletcher was using as his base. He didn¡¯t plan to stay there himself. He had a few places of his own around town, and he didn¡¯t want to depend on a flat where the dogs might descend on him at a moment¡¯s notice. He thought that getting a place across the hall from the original place would give him some kind of warning when the authorities arrived to take him in. Then he could sneak out the back and slink away into the night. He stepped out on the top floor and walked down to the flat. He looked along the corridor. Someone might be looking at him from their peepholes. He couldn¡¯t do anything about that. He let himself inside the place with his key. He turned on the light. The wallpaper matched the corridor outside. The same color rug covered the floor. He thought he heard the sound of a refrigerator close by. He noted the front part of the place looked like any parlor anywhere. A small kitchen sat to his left. A closet formed a border that forced the kitchen space into a small L. Rafferty checked the closet. Nothing hung inside it. More importantly there wasn¡¯t a body that could be blamed on him if someone suddenly wanted to have a look around. He found a small bathroom door on the other side of the kitchen space. He nodded at the small tub and the shower above it. It would make it easy to wash blood off his hands. Two bedrooms took up the last of the apartment. One was an actual sleeping area with a cabinet and closet for clothes. The other was an office with a desk and cork board for him to use. A picture of Mick Brown had already been posted on the board. He checked the desk and found files related to Brown and his minions. He checked the closet. Someone had hung a battledress uniform from the bar. A cloth face mask made from a small union jack hung from the hanger, laying on the collar of the shirt and jacket. A chest sat at the bottom of the closet. He opened that and found a pistol with bullets still in their boxes. At least Fletcher had already given him the basis for his disguise when he braced Brown. What was his next move? He decided that he needed to get some sleep. Tomorrow he would start on the witness and see what he could squeeze out of the man. Maybe he could get something the Crown could use for another case. If he could prove the man committed perjury, that might be enough to get him back on the force. He smiled. That was a dream that would never happen. The only way to get back on the force that way was to show Brown¡¯s guilt over the radio. Only a public outcry would make the Home Office think about things and change its mind. If some of the ministers were in with Brown, he would never get his commission back. Rafferty decided that he should see if the place had some food laid in. Then he could think about reading the files and seeing where he could apply pressure. Wearing a mask should help him offer a believable threat. You weren¡¯t threatening when the public knew there wasn¡¯t really anything you could do if you wanted to keep your case intact. Secret Service 2 Rafferty decided that he needed to get something to eat before digging into the files. He didn¡¯t like Fletcher setting him up with this apartment, when he wasn¡¯t sure he could trust him. He decided he had two choices. He could do the job and hope Fletcher was trustworthy, or he could abandon ship and do something else and hope his disgrace didn¡¯t follow him around. He was sure the fallout from the trial was why he had been picked for this daft thing. And he didn¡¯t know if he could get another job except as unskilled labor because of the papers following him around. The detective checked the kitchen and found no food before he left the flat. They had given him what he needed to prosecute their job, but they hadn¡¯t set up the place as a residence. He went down to the street. The Rotten Unicorn was back the way he had come. He decided it wouldn¡¯t be a good idea to go back there until he figured out who wanted to kill him. There were so many people who might want to do that. It might even include people who didn¡¯t want him talking to Fletcher for whatever reason. That might be a list as long as his arm. Rafferty went the other way. He thought there were some open restaurants and clubs in that direction. A good dinner would help him think about what he wanted to do. Extralegal methods were things the government did to hide their involvement. Who was behind Fletcher? He doubted it was a one man show. Someone must have given permission to pursue this, and sealed it. Who had the biggest motive? Who had Mick Brown angered so much that the government had decided to toss out the rules? It didn¡¯t fit with the general appeasement of Hitler that had happened. He had so many questions but knew that Fletcher would only tell him what he needed to know. And he didn¡¯t need to know that much. And what he did need to know he could dig in and find out. That was what he did best. Rafferty found a small place taking up one corner of a shop. He decided that was as good a place to eat as anywhere. And the space was open so he could see anyone in a car rolling up to shoot at him again. That bothered him somewhat. The Unicorn was known as one of his places. Had they followed him there, and tried to kill him after his meeting, or were they following Fletcher first and happened to see him there? He saw a public phone. Maybe he should make a couple of calls before he got something to eat. Fletcher might not have made it home after the meeting. He should check on that. And he had one friend on the force he could call to get some help. Rafferty called the number Fletcher had given him. He might as well see if it actually worked. ¡°Operator,¡± said the voice on the other end of the call. ¡°Name?¡± ¡°Rafferty,¡± said the detective. ¡°Is Sir Laurence in?¡± ¡°No,¡± said the Operator. ¡°How can I help you?¡± ¡°I¡¯m checking on Sir Laurence,¡± said Rafferty. How much should he reveal to this unknown person? ¡°There was a shooting not far from our meeting.¡± ¡°Understood,¡± said the Operator. ¡°I will make a safety check. Phone number?¡± ¡°I am at a public phone at the Quin restaurant,¡± said Rafferty. He gave the listed number for the phone. ¡°I expect to be here for an hour, before I move on.¡± ¡°Understood.¡± The Operator hung up on him. Rafferty stared at the phone. So there was a third man, or woman, in the program. That was okay. Maybe they should use code words to avoid phone monitoring. He smiled at that. He called one of the people he thought he could trust still in the Met. The man probably didn¡¯t want to talk to him. He needed information, and this was the fastest way he knew to get it. He needed something to work on to get to Brown. Maybe the shooter was the way to If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.go about that. At the least, a name would point him to someone he could question. ¡°Hawley,¡± said the rough voice of his mentor. He was probably reading some case file and trying to suss out the details he needed to crack the case wide open. ¡°It¡¯s Rafferty, Inspector,¡± said Rafferty. He kept an eye on things around him. He didn¡¯t want to be trapped in the phone booth. ¡°I need your memory.¡± ¡°I¡¯m listening,¡± said Hawley. ¡°I would like to know if there was anyone connected to Mick Brown that liked to shoot people from a car,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°That¡¯s most of them, Jimmy,¡± said the inspector. ¡°The most prominent to my mind is Johnny Skillet.¡± ¡°I thought the Scots had done for him,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°They thought they had him pinned in a burning building, but they never found the body,¡± said Hawley. ¡°They wrote him off as dead.¡± ¡°So he could be alive,¡± said Rafferty. Hawley never accepted someone was dead until he had body and confirmation from someone, or teeth. ¡°Who¡¯s your second choice?¡± ¡°Billy Bones,¡± said Hawley. ¡°He¡¯s still running loose. Never been picked up as far as I know.¡± ¡°Thank you, Inspector,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I¡¯ll see if I can find him.¡± ¡°What¡¯s going on, Jimmy,¡± said Hawley. ¡°Why the call in the middle of the night?¡± ¡°I have a job,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I have been asked to look into a thing, or two. I¡¯ll let you know when it¡¯s over.¡± ¡°This isn¡¯t about the shooting near the Unicorn, is it?,¡± asked Hawley. ¡°I know that is one of your favorite haunts.¡± ¡°Everyone knows that,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I have to go. I¡¯m expecting a phone call.¡± ¡°Stay out of trouble, Jimmy,¡± said the inspector. ¡°Don¡¯t I always?,¡± said Rafferty. He hung up the phone. How did he make use of the information he had been given? He supposed he could talk to people who knew Bones. Maybe that would give him a way to make the shooter confess to his crimes. Driving around town and taking shots at people had to be stopped. He wondered what Fletcher expected him to do about all this. The costume and the files suggested that he wanted some kind of vigilante action committed on Mick Brown¡¯s organization. And it looked like Mick Brown wanted him out of the way more permanently than making sure he had no authority to oppose him. Could Fletcher find Bones? That would save him some time if the knight had other resources that could be used. Rafferty ordered a small dinner from the restaurant while he waited for his call back. He ate with an eye on the door, and windows. If Fletcher had a leak, that leak would probably pass on where he was to whomever shot at him. If that happened, he had to be ready to move from where he sat. All the other people in the room would have to look out for themselves if something happened. Rafferty finished his meal as the phone began to ring. He walked over to the booth and answered the phone with a curt ¡°yeah?¡± ¡°Sir Laurence reports no problems,¡± said the Operator. ¡°Thanks,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°See if you can find a man named Billy Bones. I would like to talk to him soonest. I¡¯ll call back in a few hours.¡± Rafferty hung up. He didn¡¯t know if Fletcher had anyone out there who could search the city. He did know that he couldn¡¯t search everywhere by himself. Extra eyes were necessary for the job. And he needed a car to get around. If he was expected to wear that costume in the flat, he needed a way to get across town without anyone noticing a man in a military suit and mask. Such a description would point constables at him if he went into action and started doing things frowned upon by the Crown. He wasn¡¯t sure he wanted to cross that line at the moment. It would feel good to execute street justice on his enemies, but he was better than that. A mask wouldn¡¯t change who he was. Still, it was tempting to throw someone through a window like Hawley had done to one of the River Rats when he had first made detective. The inspector had caught the man trying to flee the scene while detectives and uniformed constables surrounded the place. The fling through the glass had been enough to settle the man down for manacles to be applied. Rafferty headed into the East End. There was one man he wanted to talk to that he shouldn¡¯t. He already had the address from an old file. If he could catch the man at home, that would be fine enough. It was certainly against the Met¡¯s policy for what he wanted to do to the man he was going to talk to at the moment. He had thought about letting things lie before talking to Sir Laurence. Now he wanted to see what he could do to shake the man up. He found the address and looked up and down the street. People roamed, but no one seemed to be watching him. Rafferty knocked on the door. He looked up at the windows. No lights came on. Was the man home? Rafferty knocked on the door again. Did he want to go in? Was it better if he waited outside? So far he hadn¡¯t broken any laws. How much would that fly with his former coworkers? He knocked on the door again. He wondered where his accuser could be. Maybe he was at one of the local shops, pubs, or restaurants. Rafferty wondered if the man had left anything lying around that could incriminate him in something. Was he considering breaking the law? Did he really want to do this? Rafferty grimaced. He had to make up his mind. Was he ready to step outside the lines? Was he the man Fletcher wanted for his job? He punched a pane out of the front window on the left. He reached in and turned the lock. He raised the window and slipped inside. He turned on the lights with his sleeve covering his fingers. He found the resident in his bath. He shook his head. He had to get out of there before someone reported him. He turned the lights out and slipped out the front door. Bob Corklin had come forward and accused him of taking bribes to look the other way. A bank account had been submitted as evidence that something was going on. Only the fact that he hadn¡¯t been identified by the bank officials had saved him from bribery charges. He had wanted to ask the man how much he had been paid to have the force turn on him as a crook. He couldn¡¯t do that now. He grimaced as he went back to the Quin. He needed to report this as soon as he could. He was going to look guilty either way. He might as well try to have the machinery collect the evidence and hope he could refute it. Why had they killed Corklin? Was he about to refute his statement? Was it a way to put Rafferty further in a box? Had Fletcher¡¯s people done it to insure his cooperation? He needed answers to his questions. Whom did he ask first? Secret Service 3 Rafferty decided the best thing he could do was call Hawley, and the Operator. Both needed to know about Corklin for different reasons. Hawley needed to know because he would eventually, and he would be asked to run any investigation. Rafferty would be the person at the top of his suspect list. The Operator needed to know because if it was a box, then calling Hawley would blow that up as an option. And if Fletcher was going to help him, this was something he could help with by following reports generated by the Met. It wasn¡¯t perfect, but it was the best he could do at the moment. He had no resources to ask questions, or collect evidence. The Met were in the best position to do that. And if someone was working for Brown, this might draw them out. If Hawley was working for Brown, this would be a great way for him to prove it. He went to the phone booth. He would have to start mixing up from where he called if he was going to keep doing it. Someone would see him using this booth and try to shoot at him eventually. He called Hawley¡¯s office first. Maybe the Inspector was still there. If not, he would try the man¡¯s home address. ¡°Hawley,¡± said the gruff inspector after two rings. ¡°There¡¯s a dead body I need to report,¡± said Rafferty. He gave the address. ¡°Someone has done for Bob Corklin.¡± ¡°How do you know this?,¡± asked Hawley. ¡°I¡¯ve seen it,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I¡¯m only reporting it because I will be the number one suspect.¡± ¡°Bob Corklin is the man who stated that he saw you taking bribes,¡± said Hawley. ¡°I remember him. Did you kill him?¡± ¡°No,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I found him because I wanted to know who put him up to it. He was dead on the floor.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll look into it,¡± said Hawley. ¡°This is bad for you, Jimmy. You can¡¯t even deny you weren¡¯t there because here you are reporting finding the body.¡± ¡°I know,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I have to go. I¡¯ll call back in the morning.¡± Rafferty hung up the phone. He dialed the other number. Two rings and the same voice he had dealt with earlier said ¡°Operator, state your name.¡± ¡°Rafferty,¡± said the former detective. ¡°One of the witnesses in the Mick Brown trial is dead. The police have been alerted. Inspector Hawley should be going to the scene of the crime right now.¡± ¡°Options?,¡± asked the Operator. She was asking him for options? He rubbed his face as he thought. What could he do at this point? Corklin was dead. There was no way to prove that he lied under oath without his admission. What options did he have? He still had Bones. He had to find the man. If he did that, maybe he would have options to do what Fletcher wanted. ¡°The Inspector will be gathering evidence to sort things out,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I need to let him do that. The only other thing I can do is find the suspected shooter from earlier in the night. I¡¯ll call back if I find anything.¡± ¡°Understood,¡± said the Operator. ¡°Wait,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°Can you get me a car?¡± ¡°Hold please,¡± the Operator said. The line buzzed on her end. ¡°Yes. We can arrange for a car to be delivered to you.¡± ¡°Not at the flat,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°Have it dropped at the Rotten Unicorn.¡± Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. ¡°Understood,¡± said the Operator. ¡°Anything else?¡± ¡°Not at the moment,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°Thank you.¡± The Operator cut the connection. Rafferty wondered what he could do next. He still had most of the night ahead of him before the Met had pulled Corklin¡¯s body out of his apartment. It would be at least two days before an autopsy and any lab reports. Hawley would have to have those. Someone would want to know why a man leveling accusations at a detective had been killed without any protection being provided by the police. He didn¡¯t envy the inspector¡¯s position when that inevitably happened. His spot was worse. Someone would get around to wanting to know where he was, and if there was enough evidence to charge him in the killing. The uniforms would turn out to look for him soon enough. How did he take advantage of the time he had before his face was posted in every station across the country? It was time to start asking questions. And he had to do it as someone that didn¡¯t have anything to lose. He hated to admit it, but he had to use Fletcher¡¯s vigilante to do what he had to do. He quit the phone booth and headed for the flat. It was the only place that seemed safe at the moment. Once Fletcher decided to throw him to the wolves, it would be exposed to the authorities. He needed the costume and the files. Then he could act from a place that only he knew about and wouldn¡¯t be in danger of being turned in to the police. He hated to have to hide behind a mask, but he didn¡¯t see that he had a choice. Once the police started searching for him, both sides would be searching for him. He didn¡¯t see a way around that. He scanned the street as he approached the front of the building. No one was on the street, and he didn¡¯t see anything out of order. He let himself in and hurried up to his flat. He had to get in and get out as fast as possible. He doubted Fletcher would get him out of a murder charge. He had to do it himself. How did he do that? The first thing on his agenda had to be finding Billy Bones and finding out what he knew and why the hit man had tried to kill him. Once he knew that, he could move to the next step. It had to be something attached to the Brown case. He didn¡¯t see why. The case was closed. Brown had beaten the rap. The Crown couldn¡¯t win a case with what had happened in the one that had just been dismissed. It would be far easier to prove he had the motive, means, and opportunity to kill Corklin. He let himself into the flat. He grabbed the uniform and weapon box from the closet. He stuffed the files in the box as best he could. Time to go. How long did he have before Hawley dropped by the Unicorn looking for him? He had to pick up the dropped car and clear the area before that happened. Everyone knew he used the Unicorn as his second office. Someone would have the place surrounded when the word went out. He had to get there first, and then escape the manhunt. He should have told the Operator to use a different drop spot. He had acted without thinking. He couldn¡¯t keep doing that. He headed downstairs. He checked the street before leaving the building. He headed toward the Unicorn. He had to find the car, and drive away before Hawley showed up to ask him questions. He didn¡¯t like the fact he didn¡¯t have any answers. Rafferty paused in the shadow of an alley when he got close to the Unicorn. He didn¡¯t see many people around the pub. Where was the car? He spotted a black sedan parked down the block. Someone had left a card with the Union Jack on its face in the window. He crept up to look inside. The delivery man was long gone. It was time he did the same. A quick check showed the keys were in the ignition. He placed the costume and box in the trunk. He got behind the wheel and drove away. When Fletcher decided to get rid of him, the car would be given to the police for them to find. He didn¡¯t know if he could trust the knight, but he had to have resources. Hawley would want to bring him in for holding while they built a case against him. That was how the Met worked. There was no reason to believe they would see things as a frame job following on what had happened in court. He had more reason to kill Corklin after what had happened in court. So how did he start now that he had transportation? He found a quiet place to park. All he could do was read the material in the trunk. Maybe that would give him some place to go. He pulled out the files and carried them back to the front seat. He went through them carefully. He was amazed that some of his own notes were in the paperwork from his own cases dealing with murders associated with the Brown Gang. How had Fletcher got those? So Fletcher had spies in the authorities to feed information to his vigilante. That was good to know, but useless if his vigilante was on the run from both sides. Where could he start his campaign? He noted that Brown owned three clubs and a hidden casino. He needed operating funds. The casino was the best place to hit. It would be well guarded, but they wouldn¡¯t want too much trouble. He smiled. He might be able to make it work. He needed to take a look at the place. And he would have to hit hard. He couldn¡¯t let them get back on their feet and realize only one man was committing a raid. That could get him killed. He put the files back in the trunk and pulled out the costume and gun box. He changed clothes in the back seat and loaded the Webley. He kept the mask around his neck until he needed it. He drove through town to the address listed for the casino. Secret Service 4 Rafferty found the place snuggled in an address that should have been for a boarding house. He inspected the street from his car. He saw one lookout on the street. The man leaned against a stoop, smoking a cigarette. A whistle hung around his neck. If the police arrived to raid the place, he blew the whistle and fled. Someone inside the gambling den would be alerted to usher people out the back way, or through some hidden exit, while the casino was converted back into an empty storage area. No one wanted a petty gambling charge on their record. Rafferty smiled. How did he get in without attracting attention? He should take out the lookout, and then see if there was a way inside the place. After that, he would have to play it by ear. He pulled his mask up to cover his face. The bottom was long enough to tuck in the collar of his shirt. He scanned the street again. He spotted another man in the shadows behind his car. He had to do something. He wasn¡¯t going to get through the front door without a ram. How did he get by security? He decided to keep driving. He rolled along slowly, as if looking for an address. He turned and headed over to an adjacent street. He found a spot between buildings to park his car. He had at least two lookouts covering the front door of the place. How many were covering the back? Was there a way into the casino from the back? How did he find it? Rafferty inspected the street before getting out of his car. He pulled on the uniform cap as he thought about his next move. How did he find the casino and get in? He walked to the back wall of the house. He examined the bricks for something he could use. He pressed several in sequence. One moved under his gloved hand. He smiled as he pressed it all the way down. A door sprang open for him. Rafferty entered the secret room. He pulled out his lighter and flicked the sparking wheel to get a flame. Another door led deeper into the house. He felt around until he found a switch to turn. The inner door popped open. He stepped into a short hall that ran behind the main room of the house. He heard laughter and the click of glasses. He waited for a moment. Ambient light drifted from holes in the walls. He looked around until he found another switch. That one opened a spot behind a bar. He struck one of the bartenders with the Webley before he could react to the uniformed presence. The other man started to turn. The masked man threw him over the counter of the bar. He hit the ground and rolled. Rafferty grabbed the other man and threw him on top of the second man before the other could get to his feet. He smiled underneath his mask as more security approached the bar. He swept the alcohol off the shelves on the counter and floor. Some of the bottles broke open. He used his lighter on the spilled liquor. The bar went up in an explosion of flame. Everyone paused as the flames spread from the initial contact. The thugs moved to put the fire out. The customers started toward the door. Both groups hampered each other¡¯s efforts. Rafferty picked up a bottle that had survived his initial arm sweep. He popped the top and threw it across the flames. He smiled at the trail of fire that ran after it until it landed on the carpet. ¡°Anybody here seen Billy Bones?,¡± shouted Rafferty. He spotted security breaking free of the crowd. They would want to stop him and put out the fire. He didn¡¯t see any guns, but that didn¡¯t mean that much. He needed to spread some more panic so he could move forward from where he was. As long as he was behind the bar, there was no way to get into the crowd and find someone he could question. Rafferty grabbed another bottle from the shelf. He popped the cap as he hopped over the bar. He threw the bottle across the room. Fire followed the pouring liquid as the bottle sailed across the room. The masked man looked around. The crowd still pushed for the front door. He needed someone to talk to and ask questions. Who could he grab? One of the guards made that choice for him with an angry rush. He went down under Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.the weight of the man. He responded with an elbow to the neck. He pushed the man off and pummeled him before he could get his breath back. Rafferty looked around. A lot of the security was being pushed away by the fleeing crowd. He and his captive, and the two bartenders were all that was left in the room. ¡°Where¡¯s Bones?,¡± Rafferty asked. He pulled the security guard to his feet by his neck tie. ¡°Where?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said the guard. He tried to swing a fist into the face of his enemy. He hit a shoulder. That freed his neck tie. Rafferty punched him in the face, then kicked him in the shin. He grabbed a chair and slammed it against the guard¡¯s face. The man went down. The masked man looked around. He shook his head. There was no one close by for him to question. At least they knew he was looking for Bones. That might draw attention to the hitman. What did he do now? He decided that he couldn¡¯t let the bartenders die from burning. He looked down at the guard. He couldn¡¯t let him die. He could but he doubted Fletcher would like it if he did. He grabbed the guard and threw him through the closest window. He went to bartenders and dragged them out of the back door. He closed the secret door and pulled them out of the building. Rafferty dropped the men in the yard. He looked around. He didn¡¯t see anyone in the back lot. He needed to make a call to make sure the burning house didn¡¯t take the rest of the neighborhood with it. He went across the street. Lights were on in the house. He banged on the door. He waited quietly. The door opened to reveal a dowager looking out at him. ¡°What you want?,¡± she said. ¡°What¡¯s that on your face?¡± ¡°You have a phone?,¡± asked Rafferty. ¡°Sure, I do,¡± said the woman. ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Mick Brown¡¯s gambling house caught fire,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I think someone should call the fire brigade.¡± ¡°And you think that someone should be me?,¡± said the woman. ¡°I would but I don¡¯t have a phone,¡± said the masked man. ¡°Could you please do that for me?¡± ¡°All right.¡± She turned from the door. ¡°Hugh, some idiot pretending to be the flag is wanting us to call a fire brigade.¡± ¡°Really?,¡± answered someone who could only be Hugh. ¡°What¡¯s he playing at, do you know?¡± ¡°No,¡± said the woman. ¡°He says Mick Brown¡¯s place is burning down.¡± Rafferty walked away while they were still talking. Other lights were coming on. Someone must have seen what was going on and the word was spreading. He headed for his car. He could call the Operator and see if she could get someone down to the house. Fletcher might want to know what was going on. Rafferty got behind the wheel of his car. He looked around. People were in the street. No one seemed to be looking his way. He pulled out of the alley. He headed down to the end of the block. He needed to get out of the costume until he was ready to do more damage. How was Brown going to take the burning of his casino? Would he levy his troops to look for the masked man? Who would he call to help in his search? How could he leverage this into something he could use against the gang lord? Who would take sides? Should he call the Operator? Fletcher might not know that he had burned down the casino yet. Had he put Billy Bones on the spot? What would the hitman do now that the rumors would fly that someone was looking for him? Would he start looking for Rafferty to stop the detective from burning down any other place owned by Brown. How many could he wreck before Brown started increasing the security to keep him from doing that? He needed to take time to plan an approach where he could get his hands on any paper evidence. Where would Brown keep any books for his enterprises? Rafferty pulled under a bridge. He changed clothes and stored everything in the trunk. If someone stopped him and searched the trunk, his secret would be out. That would be the end of his short career as a vigilante. Fletcher would have to recruit another disgruntled policeman to carry out his missions. Rafferty found a phone booth after some minutes driving. He didn¡¯t know where Brown was, or Bones. One of them would show up eventually. He had to be ready to prove they had committed the crimes he accused them of doing. Right now, if it was proven that he had burned down the casino, he would be brought up on charges of arson. It was bad enough to think he was suspected of taking bribes from Brown¡¯s rival to put him away. Adding other crimes to the pot would get him extra years in prison. At least the mask made it hard to prosecute for the arson. He had the motive, means and opportunity, but anyone else who hated Brown could have the same thing. Maybe he could pin the crime on someone that worked with Bones. He needed a likely suspect with no alibi that could be framed for the crime. He doubted anyone like that would stand out. He stepped into the booth. He dialed the number for the Operator. He watched the street as he waited. He didn¡¯t want to be caught in the phone booth if someone decided it was the perfect chance to get rid of him. At least the car acted as a partial shield from where he had parked it at the curb. ¡°Operator, state your name,¡± said a different voice. So the organization was bigger than he had thought. ¡°Rafferty,¡± said the former detective. ¡°Hold for Fletcher,¡± said the Operator. Rafferty considered hanging up. He didn¡¯t need to talk to the man himself. He just needed to know if Brown had been sighted anywhere that Fletcher¡¯s people had a watch. ¡°Mr. Rafferty,¡± said Fletcher. ¡°What are you doing?¡± ¡°I am looking for Billy Bones,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°You wouldn¡¯t happen to know where he is at this moment?¡± ¡°Why are you looking for Bones?,¡± said Fletcher. He muttered something away from the phone. ¡°He is a gunman that specializes in shootings from cars,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I would like to talk to him about a shooting that happened after our meeting.¡± ¡°Give me the details, please,¡± said the knight. Secret Service 5 Sir Laurence listened with dismay as his erstwhile agent informed him of the night¡¯s doings so far. He made notes as he decided what options he could employ to turn things to achieve his goals. Rafferty might force things if he stayed out in the open. The knight told Rafferty to hold on. He moved to another phone on the desk. He had to make two calls. Fletcher made the first call. It was to a detective they had on their payroll. He asked the man to collect the bullets at the house of the shooting mentioned by Rafferty. He asked the detective to compare the bullets to Corklin¡¯s murder if he could. He also asked for comparisons to any unsolved murder in London. It was better to throw a net wide enough to net a lot of fish, than trying to just net one. The detective acknowledged the order. Sir Laurence called a stool pigeon he used to keep tabs on the underworld next. The man was not reliable, but sometimes he came up with something useful. The knight asked him about Billy Bones and his relationship with Mick Brown. ¡°Well, Guv, Billy Bones keeps to himself,¡± said the informant. ¡°Almost no one knows what he looks like. He supposed to have some woman in the north part of the city.¡± ¡°Do you know the name of the woman, Sam?,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°It might be vital to my business.¡± ¡°Not really,¡± said Sam. ¡°I heard it was something like Margaret, Margie. She works at a clothing shop named Yellow Rose.¡± ¡°Thank you, Sam,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°Your payment will be left in the usual place.¡± ¡°Thanks, Guv,¡± said Sam. The knight hung up. He went back to the open line where Rafferty waited for him. ¡°Rafferty?,¡± asked Sir Laurence. ¡°I¡¯m still here,¡± said the detective. ¡°One of my informants gave me the partial name of a woman associated with Billy Bones,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°A Margaret. She works at a clothing store called the Yellow Rose.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll look into it,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I suppose there¡¯s no home address.¡± ¡°The informer didn¡¯t know it,¡± said the knight. ¡°What are you going to do?¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to see if I can find this woman,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°Is there anything I need to know before I get started?¡± ¡°I have someone trying to match the bullets from your shooting to the Corklin murder, and any other murder that might be filed at the Yard,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°I will let you know if there is news.¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I¡¯ll call you when I know something.¡± Sir Laurence put the headset down at the end of the call. He rubbed his chin. He had expected Rafferty to start rapidly, but not like this. He might have to rethink his project strategy. ¡°Let me know if he checks back in, Greer,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°I have to do some paperwork.¡± ¡°Yes, sir,¡± said Greer. The operator checked his notes. He began typing up what had been reported by Rafferty. He shook his head at the burning down of the casino. He made a note to get a report from the fire brigade when possible. Sir Laurence settled behind his desk. He looked at the reports on his desk. He grimaced. Where did he start? He decided to start with the candidates from Glasgow. The operation wanted to set up offices in other parts of the island and Ireland. He weeded the files down to two. He needed to contact one of his assistants to let them know to keep his candidates under watch. As soon as Rafferty had things in hand, he could talk to them and see if they would be interested in the job. He sorted messages from various sources. Some of them were not that important, but could use a little checking. He might put Rafferty on those to clear them up. A message from MI-6 reported a sighting of a spy activity. They didn¡¯t have any real suspect yet. They thought the Yellow Rose was involved. He paused. Where had he heard that name before? This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. He stood and went to the door to the outer office. Greer worked on his notes. The operator looked up from his typing. ¡°Sir?,¡± said the operator. ¡°Yellow Rose?,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°It¡¯s the place you sent Rafferty to look for Billy Bones¡¯s girlfriend,¡± said Greer. ¡°Problem?¡± ¡°Perhaps,¡± said the knight. ¡°I have to go out. If Rafferty calls in, tell him to watch out at the Yellow Rose.¡± ¡°Understood,¡± said Greer. Sir Laurence picked up his hat and cane as he left the office. He put the hat on as he headed for the elevator. What was Billy Bones¡¯s girl doing with a connection to a foreign government? What had they sent Rafferty to do? He found his car. He got behind the wheel. He had sent his driver home for the day before he had realized he would need him. Things were moving too fast. He smiled to himself. He had wanted Rafferty to stir the pot until he could get more agents into the field. The detective was doing that right enough. He reviewed the facts in his head and he didn¡¯t like the implications that were in the things he didn¡¯t know. How big a problem had Rafferty triggered by going after Bones of all the people associated with Mick Brown? The shooting after the meeting must have been what triggered Rafferty. How had he decided on Bones over the rest of the associated pack of wolves? That was a question for another day. What they did about the Yellow Rose was a more immediate concern. Anything they did could cause the spy apparatus detected by MI-6 to fold up and move. That would waste months of work by the other agency. He couldn¡¯t allow that. He didn¡¯t see how he could stop it with Rafferty already in motion. The best he could do was try to mitigate things so MI-6 still had their trail to follow. Sir Laurence drove through the streets with care and precision. He found the shop tucked between two other clothing places. A small pub was on the corner of the block. He glanced at the window, but didn¡¯t see Rafferty in the crowd. He drove down the block, pulling in at the curb behind a dark green sedan. Where was his agent? Sir Laurence scanned the street on all sides of his car. He didn¡¯t see anyone close to Rafferty, or his masked persona. What was his next move? He decided that he should check the inside of the pub. Maybe Rafferty had stationed himself inside and away from the glass. At the very least, he could get something to drink while he was looking. The knight walked to the pub. He supposed he was looking at a minor center for the local criminals. He made sure his wallet was where no one could get at it before he stepped inside. He didn¡¯t see Rafferty as he walked to the bar. He decided to take up a position at the bar. He could keep his eye on the rest of the room, and the windows from the end. And it let him blend in with the people already there. He ordered a glass of beer and took it to the end of the bar. He could be wrong. Rafferty might be waiting for the next night to break into the place. He might be taking the rest of his first night waiting to see what would happen after he smashed open Brown¡¯s casino. He dismissed that speculation. Rafferty had moved by reflex after deciding to take the job. He had a clear wedge he was trying to push. He wouldn¡¯t stop now except to rest and evaluate his next target. Where was he examining the Yellow Rose? He had to be close by to watch the shop. He didn¡¯t have to be in the street. Maybe one of the roofs overlooking the block held a good spot to watch the street. Sir Laurence appearing on the scene might give him pause. The agency could not destroy an MI-6 operation without getting something to give back. MI-5 and MI-6 covered most of the intelligence gathering for the Crown. Another agency ripping their apparatuses apart would not be appreciated. How did he stop his agent from doing that? He sipped at his beer and watched the other patrons. No one came close. They seemed involved in the conversations they were having. Some asked about him to their friends. He was an oddity at the neighborhood pub. The locals didn¡¯t like that, but they weren¡¯t ready to do anything about it yet. A familiar face entered the pub. Sir Laurence sipped his beer. At least he had confirmation that Billy Bones hung around in the neighborhood. He didn¡¯t see a woman with him. Where was this elusive Margaret? Once the pair were together, he could follow them out of the pub to wherever they were going. Then he could see if there was evidence connecting Bones to Corklin, or the attempt on Rafferty. How did it all tie in with the suspected spy ring, and Mick Brown? Sir Laurence saw an army uniform through the window glass. He stood and drank part of his beer before heading for the door. He checked as he went. No one moved to follow him. He stepped out on the street and looked both ways. He saw the uniform down the street. He walked down to the end of the block so he could have a chat with his new employee. ¡°Mr. Rafferty?,¡± whispered Sir Laurence. ¡°We need to talk.¡± ¡°What are you doing here?,¡± asked Rafferty. He had his mask up to protect his face. ¡°The Yellow Rose is a suspected spy nest,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°I saw the notification and came down to warn you that it was being watched by Intelligence.¡± ¡°Right,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°How does it connect to Brown?¡± ¡°I have no idea,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°Bones and his paramour are in the pub. How do you want to handle that?¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to wait for them to come out, and then I am going to talk to Bones,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I don¡¯t know what to do about the woman. If she is a spy, we¡¯ll need more evidence than MI-6''s say so. We need something we can follow to the source.¡± ¡°Take Bones,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°Find out what you can from him. We want to concentrate on Brown, and Corklin. Drop him somewhere the police will find him.¡± ¡°What about the woman?,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°If I take Bones in front of her, that might cause her to flee.¡± ¡°That would be fine,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°I¡¯m going to find a phone booth to ask for an auxiliary to help us. Take Bones, I¡¯ll follow the woman until the auxiliary can take over.¡± ¡°So we¡¯re going to use Bones to try to find out what the woman is doing,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I don¡¯t see how it will work.¡± ¡°It might not,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°We just don¡¯t have anything to lose by letting her go so we can follow her.¡± ¡°Right,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°Better make that call. There¡¯s no telling when they¡¯ll leave.¡± Sir Laurence walked off in search of a phone he could use to call his contact. Secret Service 6 Rafferty took up a spot outside the pub where he could see the two doors available as exits. All he had to do was wait and hope that no one saw him loitering. The costume was a dead giveaway that he was up to no good. If he went in, he would have to fight the whole pub. None of the people inside had the look that the casino players had. They would all turn on him to protect Bones. Waiting was the best thing to do. He didn¡¯t like it. He would rather force things to happen. If the spy boys were right about the connection to the Jerries, it was worth it to see how much he could disrupt. If they were wrong, Bones¡¯s girlfriend was just guilty of hanging out with a bad crowd. He didn¡¯t think they were wrong, but he had no way to prove anything. And he had no connection to Brown. They could imply anything, but that wasn¡¯t proof. The Intelligence people weren¡¯t going to stand in open court and declare how they hooked everything together. He had to make the connection, but beating a confession out of Bones was not going to hold up in court either. Any sign of coercion and the case would be destroyed before it could be argued in front of the judges. And he doubted he could scare Bones enough to profess all of his knowledge of the underworld to the local copper. Maybe he could trick the woman into notifying her boss if she saw him being picked up. The agency would have to be ready to listen on her phone call. He didn¡¯t see that happening fast enough to catch her. He considered breaking into her place and looking around. That might get him something. He didn¡¯t know what. It would also blow any surveillance Six was doing, unless he arranged for them to chase her down after she discovered him going over her secret messages. Five would be mad that no one had handed them a spy on domestic soil since it was their job to hunt such people down. How did he use any of this? Acting as a vigilante meant punishing people in the act. Bones had done nothing provable, nor was he a threat while he was in the pub. Waiting for him to get orders and go after someone else seemed the only way to solve things so that the regular police could do something. Maybe he should go in as himself and spark a confrontation. Maybe that would get him something he could use. Then Fletcher and the auxiliary could watch the woman and see what she did. Rafferty considered the plans. They wouldn¡¯t get him closer to proving Bones killed Corklin. Punching him in the face was tempting, but he couldn¡¯t think of a way to turn that into a cell and a day before a court. Capturing him was well and good. It was up to the Yard to deal with him. Would Hawley have enough evidence to charge Bones? Would he walk away clean? And there was no way to connect Bones to Brown. That was the most important part of things. If Bones was taken with the gun that killed Corklin, that would be proof that he had killed the witness. The problem was he could claim a crazy masked man had given it to him after taking him from his favorite pub. So the plan was to wait and have a little talk with the hitman when he came out of the pub. A ride in the trunk of the car would follow after that. It seemed better than letting everyone know he had the man. It obviated the need to explain where the evidence came from and how it got in Bones¡¯s possession. And it kept his girlfriend in the dark unless she showed up to meet him. It wasn¡¯t a perfect plan, but it was better than nothing. Rafferty waited patiently in the shadows. The pub started emptying out. Where was Bones? Did he have to go in and take the man? The pub stood empty. All the customers had left. The bar man put chairs up on the tables as he started cleaning up. Where had Bones gone? He would have to go in and ask around. That was the total opposite of what he wanted to do. He checked the Webley. No one said being a masked government requisitioned vigilante would be easy. At least the business was exciting so far. Rafferty went to the pub¡¯s doors. He tried the knob. It was locked. The pub man looked up and saw him standing there. He didn¡¯t look happy at the masked man looking into the room at him. Rafferty smashed the glass inset out of the door with the Webley. He opened the door as the man ran to the counter. The detective fired one shot into the shelf behind the bar. ¡°Bones,¡± said the masked man. ¡°Where is he?¡± ¡°He went out the back,¡± said the bar man. ¡°There¡¯s a door behind the building. It lets out in the alley between the pub and the book store.¡± Rafferty grimaced. He went out the front. He walked to the corner. He noticed the green sedan had lights on. He wondered if that was Bones¡¯s car and if he was behind the wheel. He rushed down the street. The green sedan started to pull away from Fletcher¡¯s town car. He had to make a decision. Did he shoot, or let the car go? He paused long enough to take aim and fired the Webley. A tire expended all of its air out of the hole that appeared in its side. The car dragged the rim for a few feet before the driver gave up. Rafferty ran across the street. He used Fletcher¡¯s car as cover as the driver of the green sedan opened his door and got out. A pistol barked as the detective ducked behind the trunk of the black vehicle. He didn¡¯t want to kill Bones before he had some clue to what was going on. On the other hand, he wasn¡¯t going to let the man keep shooting at him. Rafferty slid down to the corner of Fletcher¡¯s car. He peeked around the side. Bones searched for him over the trunk of his car. The masked man smiled. He was searching in the wrong area. The detective took aim and shot Bones in the leg. The man collapsed to the sidewalk. His pistol bounced once before settling on the concrete. Rafferty rushed forward. Bones reached for the pistol where it lay on the sidewalk. A boot to the head fixed that. The detective stepped back. He had a wounded captive now. What did he do with the man? He muttered an expletive. He had captured Bones, but he didn¡¯t have anything to tie him to the killings. What did he do now? He had burned down an illegal business and shot a suspected gunman. He didn¡¯t have If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.a lot for his actions. Fletcher arrived from his phone call a few minutes later. He looked down at the wounded man. He scratched his head as he considered what he found. ¡°What have you done?,¡± he asked his agent. ¡°I kept this man from bleeding out,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°And now I must go. Tell the police whatever you feel will sell the story. Tell them I was afraid of you.¡± Sir Laurence looked around. No one was on the street. The lights were out at the pub. He frowned. Bones seemed to be out. ¡°Anything else?,¡± asked Sir Laurence. ¡°See if you can get them to test his pistol against the bullets from the house,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°That might be enough to lock him away for something.¡± ¡°Call in in two hours,¡± said the knight. ¡°I might have something we can use to plan our next move.¡± Rafferty retreated from the scene. He pulled the mask down as he vanished into an alley across the street from the block of buildings they were interested in. Sir Laurence hoped he didn¡¯t shoot anyone else before they knew what they were doing. The note about Bones¡¯s woman had thrown things into uncertain areas. Once they knew what she knew, they could proceed with their campaign against Brown. What did the Jerries want with Brown? Sources doubted he would work with them. Maybe people were wrong about him. Sir Laurence checked his watch. His watcher would be on the scene in minutes. Did he dare leave Bones on his own to call the police to pick him up. He had to do something. The man needed to be taken to a hospital. The knight put the man in the back of his green car before going back to the phone booth he had used earlier. He called the detective he had tasked with comparing the bullets from the house shooting. He explained the situation and asked the man to come down and pick up Bones. He walked back to the green sedan. Bones was still breathing in the back seat. He was happy about that. A whistle blew in the distance. The local police were on the way. He could ask the constable to secure the scene while he went about his business. He realized he might be stuck for more than two hours trying to explain all this to the Yard. They definitely needed to work on procedures so he wasn¡¯t involved in missions. The agency was supposed to act behind the scenes, not take the roles of witnesses to manufacture crimes against its targets. The cases should survive the court process without his input. Now he was on the hook as a witness to something he didn¡¯t witness taking place. Perhaps he had been wrong about Rafferty. He hated to admit something like that. It opened the question of what else he had misjudged. Sir Laurence saw a constable running down the street. He waved a hand to direct the man closer. He needed to hand over Bones and get to work on the rest of the problem he was trying to solve. He still needed to put the auxiliary in place on the woman. Where did she fit in? ¡°What¡¯s going on, sir?,¡± asked the constable once he arrived by the green sedan. ¡°I found this man shot,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°I put him in the car to make him comfortable. This gun is his, I assume.¡± He pointed at the revolver lying by the sedan. The constable pulled out a handkerchief and picked up the revolver. He sniffed the barrel and wrinkled his nose. He put the revolver on top of the sedan. ¡°Are you armed, sir?,¡± asked the constable. Sir Laurence raised the tails of his jacket to show he wasn¡¯t carrying a firearm. He turned in a circle so the man could see that he didn¡¯t have any obvious weapons. ¡°I¡¯m going to have to write a report to file for whomever takes over and looks into things, sir,¡± said the constable. He pulled out a pad and pen and held them to write down the facts. ¡°What¡¯s your name, and how did you find this man?¡± ¡°I¡¯m Sir Laurence Fletcher,¡± said the knight. ¡°This is my car. I had been called here to meet someone about a job that I needed done. So far he hasn¡¯t arrived. I waited for a bit, but I stepped away to call my office. I heard shots. When I came back to my car, I found the wounded man laying on the ground. I did a home bandage which will not last long and put him in his car.¡± ¡°How did you know this was his car?,¡± asked the constable. ¡°The door was open,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°When I arrived, the car didn¡¯t have anyone inside it that I could see. This man wasn¡¯t here. When I came back, he was laying down beside his firearm. And there¡¯s the bullet holes.¡± The knight waved at the small marks on the car from being used as cover. A car from the Flying Squad arrived. Two more constables got out on the street. The first constable went over and told them what had happened. One of the men reached inside and called back to headquarters. They assured him that an ambulance and more men were on the way. Sir Laurence made a note that he needed to outfit his commandoes with similar devices so he could contact them in the field. Communications with Rafferty had seemed simpler when he had thought of the operator system. Now he knew he needed to keep a tighter rein on his agents so they do things like sticking him with a wounded mobster and police scrutiny for the next few days. He couldn¡¯t run his organization and dodge detectives interested in what he was doing. He put false credentials on the list of things he might need in the future. ¡°Constable Wombell has told us your statement,¡± said one of the new constables from the Flying Squad. ¡°I¡¯m going to need to look at your credentials to show that you are who you say you are.¡± Sir Laurence pulled out the leather folder he kept for his papers. He handed it over. The constable looked things over before handing the wallet back. ¡°We don¡¯t need to keep you any more tonight,¡± said the constable. ¡°There will be some questions when we figure out who this gentleman is, and how you can help us narrow down things.¡± ¡°My office will be open to you, gentlemen,¡± said Sir Laurence. He wondered if any of the three men worked for Brown, and if they knew that someone was looking for Bones. Could a trap be made from the wounded Bones and the uncertainty of what he had revealed after getting shot? Everyone knew a mad masked man had been looking for Bones. Would they think he had given up after finding the man? Would they think he would move to another target and wreck things until he found the right man? How could they use this to force the Brown crime organization to move to better climes and stay in exile? He didn¡¯t have a solution yet. Maybe Rafferty would come up with something with his targeting of Billy Bones only leading peripherally to something major. They needed to confirm the woman knew something about what was going on, and that evidence was worth something to put people in prison, or hang them. Sir Laurence got behind the wheel of his car and backed away from the green sedan. That had been bad luck parking behind Bones¡¯s car. At least Rafferty hadn¡¯t shot his car up when he had attacked. He made a note that he needed a personal car he could call the office from while he was out on business. He turned in the street and headed pass the pub. The lights were off now. Had the owner and servers hunkered out of the way when the shooting started. Someone might have seen him talking to Rafferty. He couldn¡¯t help that. He had to keep working. He spotted his investigator standing on the next corner. He pulled over at the curb. He doubted the man wanted to be seen by the police while they were looking for a shooter. ¡°How¡¯s it going?,¡± said the auxiliary. His hair had turned gray while young, wrinkles from exposure dotted his face, his suit looked like it belonged to his father. The eyes were sharp and clear. ¡°Get in, Harry,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°I have a job for you, and I don¡¯t want to be seen with you by the police.¡± Harry got in the town car and settled into the seat. He leaned against the door as the car started rolling again. ¡°This is the situation,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°Billy Bones has been shot. He is on his way to the hospital. I have been told he has a girlfriend that works at the Yellow Rose. The only name I have is a Margaret, or Maggie. I want you to find that girl and make a note on everyone she talks to until I tell you to stop.¡± ¡°So I need to identify this woman, confirm her occupation and relation to Bones, and identify everyone she talks to until you say stop,¡± said Harry. ¡°You¡¯re looking at a big undertaking as far as following the woman and identifying her contacts.¡± ¡°I¡¯m looking for someone with connections overseas, Harry,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°He will probably be using an alias and a false history.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll look into it,¡± said Harry. ¡°Do you have a home address for this Margaret?¡± ¡°No,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°Put that down on the things you have to find out and report.¡± ¡°Police involved?,¡± asked Harry. ¡°They are transporting Billy Bones to the hospital in the hopes he survives the gunshot wound in his leg,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°I believe they think I will be identified as the perpetrator since I called for assistance.¡± ¡°The easiest solutions are the best,¡± said Harry. He smiled at the thought of Sir Laurence ever dirtying his hands enough to shoot someone. ¡°Thank you for that vote of confidence,¡± said the knight. ¡°You probably won¡¯t be able to do anything on the block with the police there. If you want to start tomorrow night, that¡¯s understandable.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± said Harry. ¡°I¡¯ll call your office and report anything I find out.¡± ¡°Thanks, Harry,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°You might want to stay under cover until the police are done looking for suspects. You don¡¯t want to be taken in over this.¡± ¡°It¡¯s no problem,¡± said Harry. ¡°Let me off in the next block. I have to make some calls to get started.¡± Sir Laurence pulled to a curb to let his investigator out. Secret Service 7 Rafferty drove the city streets aimlessly. He had dropped Billy Bones in the hands of the Yard. He couldn¡¯t do anything else until he had a clear line of attack. He didn¡¯t know enough about the girlfriend to act against her. Breaking into the Yellow Rose didn¡¯t seem advisable. That would definitely trigger some kind of interference from Six. He needed another path. Chasing down Bones hadn¡¯t gotten him anything he could use. Maybe he should talk to others he knew worked for Brown. He didn¡¯t have to worry about the spy business. If he wrecked enough operations, the spies would make an alliance with someone else. Rafferty wondered how Hawley did with the bullets from the shooting on the street. Would they link back to Bones? He needed to make a call and find out. Would Hawley be at his desk? It was almost ten. Maybe he would be there. Maybe he was supervising something in the field. He pulled his car over in front of a rectangular cube of a phone booth. He had to know something before he acted again. He might need to look at the files on Brown. Maybe there was something buried in the notes that he could use. He had a broad sense of the man, but what he needed was minutiae that he could use to drive a wedge in a chink in the man¡¯s armor. Dressing up as a mad man had helped him some. No one wanted to face a loon. Getting hurt was so easy, and healing so hard. Once he talked with Hawley, he needed to sit down and think of his next move. He couldn¡¯t go on flailing in the dark. He needed to pick a target and take it. Then he needed to repeat the process. Finding Billy Bones so easy had been something he hadn¡¯t counted on. He had expected the man to go to ground after a murder. Maybe Bones hadn¡¯t killed Corklin. That was a possibility. Maybe he had hunted down the wrong man on a bad assessment. Maybe the other man Hawley had mentioned had been the one to take a shot at him. Or it could be someone they don¡¯t know about yet. He dialed the phone number for Hawley¡¯s office. Once he had talked to the Inspector, maybe he would have a better idea of what was going on. ¡°Hawley,¡± said the inspector. ¡°It¡¯s me, Inspector,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°How are things going?¡± ¡°Someone acted fast on the shootings,¡± said Hawley. ¡°Another man in the division was ready to compare the bullets from Corklin to the house near the Unicorn. They were the same.¡± ¡°Have you found Billy Bones yet?,¡± asked Rafferty. He didn¡¯t need to mention he had found Bones and put a bullet in him. ¡°They¡¯re bringing him in right now,¡± said Hawley. ¡°He had a weapon with his fingerprints on it. He says a masked man shot him. You wouldn¡¯t happen to know anything about that?¡± ¡°No,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°A masked man shot him? I¡¯ll keep an eye out for him.¡± ¡°Stay out of the trouble,¡± said Hawley. ¡°If the bullets match up from Bones¡¯s weapon to the two shootings that happened tonight, then he will stand trial for murder. If they don¡¯t, our masked friend shot Bones for nothing.¡± ¡°Good point,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I have to go, Inspector. I just saw someone I know.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t do anything rash,¡± said Hawley. ¡°We¡¯re going over Corklin¡¯s house. There might be evidence he was paid to testify against you.¡± ¡°It¡¯s too late to save my career, Inspector,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°Watch out for yours. If they put a fraud in motion to stop my testimony, what would they do to you?¡± ¡°Good point,¡± said Hawley. ¡°I¡¯ll call back when the sun is up,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I have to go.¡± Rafferty hung up the phone and left the booth. He scanned the street. He nodded when he saw the same car moving along the street. He didn¡¯t see any place to go. If he went for the car, he would be shot trying to start the engine. He started walking toward the car. He still had the Webley, even though the rest of the disguise was in his car. He wondered who was driving the car. Had they followed him around all night? Did they know what he had done? Did they know about the deal with Sir Laurence? The driver leaned out of the window of his car. He pointed a pistol at Rafferty. The detective dove for cover. Bullets punched holes in the wall behind him as he pushed himself down the sidewalk. The car accelerated from the shooting. The driver took one look behind him but couldn¡¯t shoot backwards from the window. It turned a corner and vanished out of sight. Rafferty picked himself up. Maybe he had been wrong about Bones. Maybe there was another guy trying to kill him. What was his next move? He decided to call in and let Sir Laurence know he might be compromised. There was no way to know how long the guy had been watching him, or if he had seen what had happened at the casino, or Bones¡¯s shooting. He had no way of denying what he had done if the man revealed everything about what he had done to the press. How did he deal with this? This was bad. Maybe moving from the flat provided by Sir Laurence had been the Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.thing to do in retrospect. If he had been followed long enough, then the man might know about the place. He needed a place to hide out that no one knew about. Then he had to think of a way to get Brown and tie him to any scheme he was undertaking. He stepped back in the booth and called the agency number. He might as well have someone come out and collect the spent rounds. Maybe they would tie to other crimes. ¡°Operator,¡± said the familiar second voice he had dealt with earlier in the night. ¡°State your name.¡± ¡°Rafferty,¡± said the detective. ¡°Someone took a shot at me. I think I went after the wrong man.¡± ¡°Right,¡± said the Operator. ¡°I will let Sir Laurence know. Anything else?¡± ¡°See if you can dig up anything on a man named Jimmy Skillet,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°He supposedly died in a fire. Dig up what you can about that especially.¡± ¡°Is there a reason for this search?,¡± asked the Operator. ¡°I was given the names of two men who specialized in shooting from cars,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I already turned one of those men in to the police. If the other is alive, I would like to know it. Otherwise, I have a third man with the same method of operations. Since I don¡¯t know his name, I have to engage with what I do know so I can rule out the second man.¡± ¡°Understood,¡± said the Operator. ¡°I will start the search from my end. Call back in a few hours.¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± said Rafferty. He hung up the phone. What did he do now? Maybe Billy Bones would go to his trial for someone else¡¯s murder. That was acceptable to the detective. The core of his problem became the identity of the second man. If he had been followed around town, the man might know where his flat was, and where he had gotten the car. He had to come up with a strategy to turn the tables on the man so he could find out who the man worked for and how to bring them in. There was not a lot he could do at the moment. Hawley and his investigators were handling Billy Bones. Sir Laurence¡¯s people were looking into Jimmy Skillet. Maybe something would jump out at him when he had a nap. And he wasn¡¯t sure that Fletcher¡¯s flat was safe since he didn¡¯t know if he had been seen going in and out of the building. This was the first night, so the landlord probably didn¡¯t know what his tenant looked like. Maybe he should look over the scene of Jimmy Skillet¡¯s death himself. He realized he didn¡¯t have the address. That would wait for the next phone call to the operator. What else could he do about this? He decided the best thing he could do was get some sleep. He couldn¡¯t chase down leads that weren¡¯t there. He needed to let Hawley and the Operator gather information for him to use the next night. He planned to go out the next night. He had jumped at Fletcher¡¯s offer of a job to get back at Brown for ruining his career. Now he wanted to go out because he wanted to know how the pieces fit together. He had to know what was really going on, and how everything fit together. He didn¡¯t have a choice in the matter now. Rafferty found a small hotel away from the center of the city and checked in. His car was parked in a public lot down the road. It was the best he could do for the moment. The next step was to get some sleep and hope someone had answers for him in the morning when he got started again. He went up to his room and placed a chair under the knob to alert him to people trying to get in. He placed a table and lamp in the window for the same reason. A pillow went under the blanket on the bed. He lay on the floor with the bed between him and the window. He hoped his security arrangements were just paranoia. Two people shooting at him in the night were more than that. He wondered if it was the same man as he dropped off to sleep. The sun coming into the window in the morning woke him up. He got up and looked around. Everything was the same as when he left it. He needed to clean up and check out. The next thing he had to do was call in and see if he had any leads. Otherwise, he would have to go around and talk to people he knew in the street. They wouldn¡¯t want to talk to him. He was a disgraced and fired detective from the Yard. The only reason he had for coming around was getting back at whomever had set him up. And he wouldn¡¯t have the money for bribes or the threat of his authority behind him. He would have to make up for it with his own force of arms. He didn¡¯t like that. It meant making threats that he would have to carry out, instead of putting someone in jail and letting things get sorted out from there. It wouldn¡¯t be the first time he had to get his hands dirty. Now that he was working for Fletcher, he doubted it would be the last. Rafferty cleaned up in the sink provided with the room. He put everything back and headed downstairs. He paid his bill and stepped out in the street. He checked and headed back to his car. He checked the car and nodded when everything was like he left it. He got in and started the engine. What was his first move for the day? His stomach growled and told him he had to get something to eat before he did anything else. Once he was done with breakfast, he would call Hawley and Fletcher. Maybe they had something he could use. Then he would start beating the bushes for anyone who wanted him dead. He knew that could be a long list. The thought he had before he went to sleep bubbled up in his mind as he drove around. Maybe he was facing two men who liked to shoot from cars. He turned that over in his mind. It might be possible. How did he prove it? Were they linked to Brown? If they were smart, they wouldn¡¯t talk. Brown had a reputation for making people he didn¡¯t like vanish. Other ganglords dealt with him from a distance. An open war would cause problems for everybody and no one wanted to be the one to fire the first shot. But none of them liked Brown either, so he had no allies if things did turn into an open war. And if some outside force were to apply heat to Brown, the others would take what they could from him. He couldn¡¯t fight all of them and someone attacking his operations. How did Rafferty capitalize on that? Maybe he should talk to the man. That might get him something. He didn¡¯t know what. He didn¡¯t want a bullet for his troubles. Rafferty smiled at that. A bullet would be the least of his problems if he got a chance to talk to Brown. The gangster didn¡¯t allow a lot of people to get close to him. He preferred to push his lawyer and his thugs out in front of the police. There had to be a way to change all that. He didn¡¯t see it. He needed something Brown wanted so he could arrange a trade he didn¡¯t plan to go through with so he could figure out a way to change things around. He didn¡¯t plan to run his whole life from the underworld just because he had been that close to burying his enemy in a prison for the rest of his life. Brown, and everyone associated with him, were going to spend part of their life in prison, or shot, when he was done. He didn¡¯t care which was which at this point. He saw a phone on the wall near the desk for the hotel. He went over and put some change in the slot at the top of the machine. He dialed Hawley¡¯s number first. There was a chance that the inspector had not arrived at his office yet. A call to make sure would be all right. ¡°Hawley,¡± said the Inspector after the third ring. ¡°It¡¯s me, Inspector,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°Did you find out anything yet?¡± ¡°Not really,¡± said Hawley. ¡°Bones¡¯s gun has been tied to some murders in the foreign crowd. I¡¯m sitting on it so far. I don¡¯t want to give him to the French until I know what¡¯s going on.¡± ¡°What about Corklin?,¡± asked Rafferty. ¡°No match there, or the other shooting last night,¡± said Hawley. ¡°The bullets we recovered don¡¯t match Bones¡¯s gun as far as our laboratory people can tell.¡± ¡°So I¡¯m back to square one,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°Who else had it in for both Corklin and me?¡± ¡°Probably anyone who hated Mick Brown and wants to blame you two for letting him off the hook,¡± said Hawley. ¡°That could be anybody,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I have to get started looking around. I¡¯ll let you know how things go.¡± ¡°Be careful,¡± said Hawley. ¡°If they already took a shot at you once, they¡¯re bound to do it again.¡± Secret Service 8 Rafferty called the Operator. There was no news there either. Watchdogs were following Bones¡¯s girlfriend around. Since it was the first day they didn¡¯t have anything to report yet. He wondered if she knew anything at all. He thought about Bones¡¯s gun being tied to foreigners being killed. He thought he saw the scheme there. What would she do without an assassin to help her? Would she get a new one, or simply go out of business? What would the Jerries do without their terror machine in operation? Who else was involved? That was the key to that mystery. If Fletcher¡¯s people could find that out, they might be able to turn everything against the controlling agent and handler. Did he want to get involved in the play for another assassin recruitment? He decided maybe later. He wanted to talk to a couple of people first. He needed a way to get at the mystery hitman, and Brown. He needed to be visible asking questions. He needed to show his face if he wanted to act as bait. He decided to save the car and costume for any night visits he might have to do. The day was fair, so he might as well use the Underground to carry out his errands. When he picked up the car, he could drive to any target he might need to use force to persuade. Rafferty decided that one person could tell him what Mick Brown was doing other than the man himself. That person lived north of central London in the same apartment that he had moved into when he was a kid. He could move on to other places once he knew the lay of the land. The detective used the Underground to get as close as he could before he waved down a cab. He gave the driver the address he wanted and leaned back against the backseat. He noted a brown car following the cab, but there was nothing he could do about it now. He had no way to close with it to get a look at the driver since he wasn¡¯t driving. And it was a free country. Anyone could use the road. Rafferty made a note to keep an eye on it until he was sure the car wasn¡¯t following him. This might be his mystery shooter. If he could lure the driver in close, it might be the chance he needed to prove the driver had killed Corklin and shot at him. That would help close out part of the complicated mess and allow him to concentrate on bringing in Brown. The mob boss was tricky enough on his own. The mystery man just gave him cover to do what he wanted to do. ¡°Drop me off at the next corner,¡± Rafferty said to his driver. ¡°I¡¯d like to take a minute to stretch my legs before I talk to my acquaintance.¡± ¡°Not a problem, sir,¡± said the driver. ¡°Just give me a second to pull up and everything will be right as rain.¡± The cab pulled to the curb. Rafferty noted the brown car had pulled out of sight as he stood on the curb. He paid the driver and started toward the old apartment building he wanted. He wondered if the driver of the brown car was the man who had shot at him. Would the man pay a visit to the apartment he was going to after he had left? He would warn the tenant, but he doubted he could do more than that. Rafferty entered through the gated main door to the lobby on the ground floor. He went to the steps to go up. The elevator didn¡¯t work, and he didn¡¯t want to be caught in the cab since he expected enemy action. He paused when he reached the floor of the apartment he wanted to visit. He didn¡¯t hear, or see, anything out of the ordinary. He walked down to the apartment door, flipping the number back up so it was a three instead of an E. He knocked on the door. He kept away from the door, and an eye watching the doors on the floor. He was fine with the occupant getting killed, but not when he was there. ¡°Who¡¯s there,¡± asked the weedy voice of the occupant. ¡°It¡¯s Rafferty,¡± said the detective. ¡°I need to talk to you for a minute, Spenser.¡± The door opened. A thin man in his sixties with a cap covering his thinning gray hair peered out. He had a small cigar stuck in his mouth. He exhaled a small snort when he saw his visitor. ¡°What do you want, boy?,¡± asked Spenser. He stepped aside to allow Rafferty to enter. ¡°I¡¯m retired. I don¡¯t have time for your shenanigans.¡± ¡°I just need to talk to someone who knows more about how things work than I do,¡± If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.said Rafferty. He went to the window. He peered around the curtain at the street below. The brown car was at the curb. ¡°I heard what happened,¡± said Spenser. He settled in his arm chair. ¡°That¡¯s water under the bridge,¡± Rafferty said. ¡°I have a new job. What I need is to talk about what¡¯s going on and hope you can give me some way to make sense of things.¡± ¡°Go ahead with your blather,¡± said Spenser. ¡°I have the Orchestra on the radio in a bit.¡± ¡°Mick Brown might be tied in with a foreign government,¡± Rafferty said. He smiled at the audible snort. ¡°One of his men has apparently been shooting foreigners for money. I have a strong suspicion that Brown doesn¡¯t know about this side business.¡± ¡°Seems straightforward,¡± said Spenser. ¡°You just have to catch the killer and let nature take its course.¡± ¡°Here is the problem,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°Corklin, the man who testified against me, is dead. Someone has shot at me. I thought at first that it was Brown, but now I am not so sure.¡± ¡°You were thinking it was Brown¡¯s man tying off any problem,¡± said Spenser. ¡°Now it looks like another party is on the scene.¡± ¡°Exactly,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°How do I prove that beyond a reasonable doubt? The Yard has Brown¡¯s shooter by now. I would rather think he will clam up and deny anything.¡± ¡°Which means that you won¡¯t know if you¡¯re correct until he takes another shot,¡± said Spenser. ¡°And any suspicious death can be blamed on the one shooter they know was going around shooting people, so the Yard might not even look into another shooter unless something happens,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°Any suggestions?¡± ¡°The obvious thing is to set a trap,¡± said Spenser. ¡°I know you¡¯ve already considered it.¡± ¡°Yes,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°The problem is what do I use for a bait and where can I set it. I expect he will be following me around to get another chance when I¡¯m alone.¡± ¡°The area is obvious,¡± said Spenser. ¡°Go to one of Brown¡¯s clubs and see if you can get in to talk to the man. Your second shooter will try to kill you when you leave the club.¡± ¡°That sounds like the worst idea for a trap that I¡¯ve ever heard,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°You won¡¯t know if it won¡¯t work until you try it,¡± said Spenser. ¡°Let me know how it goes.¡± ¡°Thanks, Spenser,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I¡¯ll see what I can do.¡± ¡°Just remember Jimmy,¡± said Spenser. ¡°This second shooter might be tied in with the case you were trying against Brown. Maybe you should dig up some details on the victim.¡± Rafferty nodded. That made a little sense. He had thought he was dealing with a stranger tied in with Brown and his gang. Maybe he was looking at a vigilante after all. Who would the shooter target when he was sure Rafferty was dead? There were quite a few people on that list. He expected Brown and his security would get a visit. The barristers arguing the case might be held responsible. The judge could also be a target. A visit to Brown might be the thing he needed to turn things around. Once he had done that, he should check in with Hawley and Fletcher. Maybe they had dug up something while he was moving around. If he could get his second shooter to shoot Brown, he found he didn¡¯t have a problem with that thought. It was amazing how your perspective changed when you might be fighting for your life against a killer used to striking from ambush and moving along criminal lines. He said his farewells and left the apartment. He walked down the stairs with an eye for anybody who might be looking up at him. He reached the lobby and walked across it to the front door. He stepped out on the sidewalk and looked around for a cab, or the local Underground entrance. The brown car rolled behind him at good distance. Unless he wanted to pull the Webley that Fletcher had given him and start shooting, he had to deal with it. He thought about where Brown should be at the moment. He should head over there and see if he could get in and talk to the man himself. There was still a small chance that Corklin and him had been targeted by someone not really caring about the single victim in the woods. It was the only thing that tied him and Corklin together. Rafferty walked down the street. He kept an eye out for the brown car as he looked for a cab he could wave down. Broad daylight with not that many witnesses around was almost as good as the dead of night in his opinion. He kept walking. He might be in the wrong part of town to pick up a cab. He might have to try the Underground. It didn¡¯t matter how much time it took. There was no guarantee that Brown would be anywhere he could reach without brute force. That time of day usually meant the mobster was entertaining in his hotel rooms with a view of the city. Rafferty doubted he would appreciate any intrusion in his holding court. The detective smiled. All he had to do was get in the room and ruin the man¡¯s day. That would be something to think about. Rafferty paused. He looked around. No one looked interested in him. He headed down the street, looking for a call box. Hawley would know what he needed to know. The inspector had a steel trap mind. The idea might not lead to anything, but it kept him moving. And a moving target was a missed target. He spotted a callbox. Would Hawley be in yet? Would any of the other detectives that would speak to him? The man killed by Brown¡¯s gang was named Louis Litner. They couldn¡¯t find anyone who was a member of his family, or closer than the neighbors on his street. That didn¡¯t mean they weren¡¯t out there. And Hawley would know if anyone had came forward to collect Litner¡¯s body from the coroner. It was a long shot, but if he could find a suspect for his shooter, he could visit the man when he was least expected. And if he could turn him in with the pistol he had shot Corklin with, that would be so much the better. A better idea was to turn the fellow loose on Brown and wait for one of them to win the war while he waited in the shrubbery for his chance to pile on. Then he could worry about what he wanted to do as Fletcher¡¯s masked vigilante. He supposed he had already done something in that vein at the casino. Burning the place down had been a bit too much. He hoped that he had hurt Brown¡¯s pockets enough to matter. He spotted a call box ahead. If Hawley could find out anything else about Litner, that might be enough to lay some kind of trap. His other idea was to keep walking around until someone took a shot at him. He didn¡¯t think that as good as finding his opponent first. Secret Service 9 Rafferty paused across the street from the Lion¡¯s Club. He looked up and down the street. The brown car was parked down the street. He didn¡¯t see the driver. He didn¡¯t like the car turning up now that he was about to walk in and talk to Mick Brown. It was a complication he didn¡¯t need. Was he wrong about the driver? Did the man work for Brown? Was he waiting for his target? Was he waiting for Rafferty to show up? The detective thought so. Rafferty went to the door. He wondered if the doorman would let him in. He knocked on the door. He waited for an answer. The doorman opened the slot to look down on him. The eyes were unfriendly. ¡°What do you want?,¡± said the doorman. ¡°Mick Brown in?,¡± asked Rafferty. ¡°I¡¯m not at liberty to say,¡± said the doorman. ¡°Ask him if he killed Bob Corklin,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I¡¯ll wait for his answer.¡± ¡°Why would I do that?,¡± said the doorman. ¡°Because eventually the police will be by to ask him the same thing,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°Go ahead. Tell him Rafferty is waiting outside for him to come out unless he¡¯s going to hide in there forever.¡± The slot closed. Rafferty stepped back from the door. He looked the street over. The brown car still sat in its place. How long did he wait? Did the driver want to see Brown too? Was he in the club with Brown? Rafferty wished he smoked. That might give him something to do other than think. The door opened. The doorman looked down at him from the top of the three steps leading up to the club door. ¡°Mr. Brown wants to talk to you,¡± he said. ¡°That¡¯s good,¡± said Rafferty. He made a gesture with his hand. ¡°Lead the way.¡± The doorman stepped back from the door to let him by. He smiled slightly as he walked inside. They didn¡¯t plan to let him leave. He could see it in the man¡¯s eyes. That was okay. If he went down, he planned to take Brown with him. The doorman shut the door. He led the way through the ground floor where the members made use of parlors to talk about their latest ventures. He paused at the bottom of a short staircase leading to a short hall. ¡°Mr. Brown is in room six at the end of the hall,¡± said the doorman. ¡°Thanks,¡± said Rafferty. He started up the stairs. He smiled. Room six had two thugs in suits outside of it. He walked forward, hands in his pants pockets. They looked like they expected him to pause to be searched. He didn¡¯t pause. He swung his left on that side. The other man charged to grapple with him. Rafferty turned and threw his weight against the other man. They crashed into the door. The detective used the other man¡¯s head for a door knocker. He dropped the guard on the other man. Rafferty bent down and grabbed the other man¡¯s head. He slammed it against the floor of the hall. He searched them and retrieved their weapons. He tucked them in his coat as he straightened. He might need pistols more than they would in the next few moments. Rafferty pushed open the office door. He stepped inside and looked around. He didn¡¯t see any more guards. ¡°Hello, Rafferty,¡± said Brown. ¡°What are you doing here?¡± ¡°Just came by for a talk, Mick.¡± Rafferty closed the door. ¡°I want to know what you know about Bob Corklin getting shot in his place.¡± ¡°What makes you think I know anything about that?,¡± said Brown. He leaned back The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.in his chair. Its padded bulk was twice as big as he needed. ¡°Because he was the witness that got you off the hook,¡± said Rafferty. He went to a sideboard. He poured himself a shot of whiskey. ¡°And you are the one that ties up loose ends.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t have to tie that off,¡± said Brown. ¡°He had already done his job. Matter of fact, I was getting ready to send him overseas to do some things for me in other places.¡± ¡°So his death is an inconvenience,¡± said Rafferty. He sipped the whiskey. ¡°Yes,¡± said Brown. ¡°What is it to you?¡± ¡°Nothing,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I was hoping to squeeze him until he gave me something to use to break you.¡± ¡°Not likely,¡± said Brown. ¡°You couldn¡¯t stop me with a hundred Yards.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have to now,¡± said Rafferty. He finished his whiskey. ¡°Someone killed Corklin. I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll get you next. Have a good day, Mick.¡± He put the glass down on the sideboard. He walked out of the office. He stepped over the guards as he went down to the steps. The doorman wasn¡¯t in sight. He walked back the way he had come to the front door. The doorman stepped out of a cubby set aside for him to relax from his duties. He pulled the door open for the detective to leave. ¡°Thank you,¡± said Rafferty. He smiled. ¡°Keep an eye out. Someone is looking for Mr. Brown.¡± ¡°Someone other than yourself?,¡± said the doorman. ¡°Yes,¡± said Rafferty. The detective stepped out of the club. He looked down the street. The brown car was still there. He didn¡¯t like it. Where was the driver? Was it the same car? Rafferty decided to take a closer look. He checked the street as he walked toward the car. He didn¡¯t see anyone out. He looked inside the car. He spotted trash on the floorboard on the passenger side. He opened the door and slid inside behind the wheel. He opened the glove box. He pawed at the papers in the box. He frowned at the name on the paperwork. He was sitting in a dead man¡¯s car. He looked around. He saw a figure in coat and hat bundled up in a niche so he could look up and down the street. The man pointed a gun at the window of the car. Rafferty ducked. Bullets pushed glass on him. He shook his head. He had hoped to catch the other man unaware. He should have known that the other man would wait on him to get a clear shot. Now he was pinned down inside the car. The man could just walk up and finish him off. It was a good thing he had taken those guns from Brown¡¯s guards. Rafferty took the pistols out of his coat pocket. He peeked over the dashboard. He saw the man advancing toward the car. He started firing back through the window. That should give the mystery man something to think about while he thought about trying to get out of the car. Rafferty pushed out of the open door. He fell on the street. He had the body of the car as a shield now. He looked under the car but didn¡¯t see any feet. He couldn¡¯t shoot the other man in the limbs if he couldn¡¯t see him. He stood. One of the pistols tracked across the hood of the car. The shooter was behind another car up ahead. Rafferty frowned. How did he cross that space without getting shot? He ducked down as the other man lined up another shot and took the mirror off. He looked around. He needed to move. Where could he go? He decided there was something he could do. It was risky, but it was a notion that might give him the upper hand. He reached under the dashboard and worked the wiring. The engine turned over for him. He slid behind the wheel. He pressed the gas down and directed the car out of the slot and toward where his enemy waited. Bullets dug into the body of the car. He fired back through the window. He didn¡¯t think he had scored a hit. He slammed the brakes. He jumped out of the car and aimed a pistol into the space. Where had the mystery man gone? Rafferty cautiously went around the front of the brown car. He looked the area over. Brown and his guards were in the door of the club. The mobster shook his head. The detective frowned. There was only one way the guy could have gone. He didn¡¯t like to chase anyone down an alley. He looked at Brown and his bullies. The mobster made a be my guest gesture. The detective frowned at them. Rafferty moved forward. He paused at the mouth of the space. He didn¡¯t see anything moving. He decided that if he could reach the first trashcan without getting shot at, then he could try for the end to check to see if the shooter was waiting at the end. Nothing moved. He paused behind the trashcan. No one shot at him. He looked behind him. Brown wasn¡¯t in evidence. He moved down to the end of the alley. He didn¡¯t see the man in the coat. He cursed as he looked up and down the street. Rafferty smiled. The guy was slippery, but he was on foot. There was no way he would go back for the car now that he had lost it. Rafferty started back down the alley. He still had to explain this to any constable that showed up to ask what was going on. He paused when he heard the roar of an engine. He started running. The man in the coat had got around him to get the car. He burst out of the alley in time to see the car roll away. Brown pulled back from the doorway. The driver fired at the club as he passed. Rafferty didn¡¯t bother shooting at the car. There was no way to hit the driver from where he was. He walked over to where Brown and his men had taken cover. He put the stolen pistols away. ¡°Looks like I¡¯m not the only one he¡¯s looking to get rid of, mate,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°Maybe you should flee the country.¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to protect me?,¡± said Brown. ¡°I¡¯m not a policeman any more,¡± said Rafferty. He started down the street. What was he going to do now? He needed to check in with Hawley and Fletcher. The car belonged to the man Brown had killed. Who had the access? That was his lead. If he knew who could get the car from where it was, that would give him a lead on the gunman. On the other hand, he had an idea he was looking for a relative of Litner¡¯s. The police had missed them during the investigation. Another fork was a friend that had decided to take up arms. Rafferty knew that Brown wasn¡¯t involved in this. It didn¡¯t mean much, but with the mobster being a target, he didn¡¯t have to worry about the man coming after him until he had this situation straightened out. He needed some food and drink. Then he could think of some way to track his problem down and deal with him. Maybe Fletcher had some kind of thoughts where he should go next. Rafferty looked back at the club. The members were going to have to get someone to fix the front of the building. Secret Service 10 Inspector Hawley looked up from the paperwork on his desk. Catching Billy Bones with the gun that had killed a mass of his fellow countrymen, and foreigners touring the city, had been a stroke of luck. The case had been sent over to the Crown as part of business. Bones refused to finger who had hired him. There was no doubt that Mick Brown had ordered some of the hits he had carried out. The victims had been rival mobsters getting in Brown¡¯s way. His phone rang. He wondered who was going to rain on his parade now. ¡°Hawley,¡± he said into the receiver. ¡°Hello, Inspector,¡± said the voice of his latest pain in the neck. ¡°What do you want?,¡± said the inspector. ¡°I have a lead,¡± said James Rafferty. ¡°I need your help with it.¡± ¡°Go ahead,¡± said Hawley. He pulled a notebook close and picked up his pen. ¡°The man that I am chasing is driving Litner¡¯s auto,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I was able to look inside the glove box for a moment.¡± ¡°Are you sure?,¡± asked Hawley. He made a note to call down to the records bureau and get the license number. ¡°Yes,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°Also whomever it is, he doesn¡¯t work for Brown. He tried to kill Brown as well as me.¡± ¡°So we have a third party on this,¡± said Hawley. He shook his head. ¡°And the connection is the failed murder case against Brown.¡± ¡°I would say so,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°Where was the car kept? I don¡¯t remember a car at the home.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t either,¡± said Hawley. He looked at the files on his desk and pulled out the relevant one. ¡°There was no mention of Litner owning a car from the file.¡± ¡°So no one we talked to knew he owned one,¡± said Rafferty. He paused for a second. ¡°And he had no family, or close friends?¡± ¡°That¡¯s what the interviews said,¡± said Hawley. ¡°Obviously he had one true friend that wants to get back at the people who killed him. Good on you for that.¡± ¡°I know,¡± said Rafferty. He paused as if considering something for the first time. ¡°Wasn¡¯t Litner in the Army?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± said Hawley. ¡°But you know his record will be guarded from outside agencies.¡± ¡°I know somebody I can call,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°Maybe he can get a look at the record and give me somewhere to go.¡± ¡°If you¡¯re wrong?,¡± said Hawley. ¡°Then we¡¯ve lost nothing since we have nothing,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°That seems about right,¡± said Hawley. He scanned the file. He noted that there were bills for a storage company not far from the victim¡¯s place of residence. ¡°Try the Sure Lock Storage Company.¡± Hawley gave the address that went with the bill. ¡°There were two receipts found for the place,¡± said Hawley. ¡°It might be big enough for a car.¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I¡¯ll check it out.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Hawley. ¡°Let me know if you find anything. I have to talk to Billy Bones and then try to find more evidence to close his case on the docket.¡± ¡°Talk to the girlfriend,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°Maybe she will help you.¡± ¡°Doubt it,¡± said Hawley. He looked at the file one more time before he closed it. ¡°Be careful at this storage place. If the car is still being stored there, then the shooter is still visiting.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I can take care of myself.¡± The line went dead. Hawley hung up the phone. He had nothing better to do. He could talk to Bones¡¯s girlfriend and see if there was something to it. First, he had to talk to Bones. Maybe the man would give him something he could use. It couldn¡¯t be a coincidence that his gun had been used to kill targets speaking out against the Jerries. Bones wasn¡¯t political, so someone had paid him to operate on the side while he was still working for Brown. Did Brown know that? Would he care? More importantly, would he get rid of Bones just to erase a loose end when it had nothing to do with him? Hawley felt that Bones was as good as dead as soon as he entered a prison. He found a lack of concern a problem, but it was something he would have to deal This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.with like he dealt with all of his other problems. He would have a pint and play some darts until he felt better, or took everyone else¡¯s money. That should put him right as rain so he could chase the next rabbit that came his way. Hawley walked down to the desk. He asked for the sergeant on duty to have the prisoner escorted to the interrogation room. He needed a talk with the man before he asked the lady in his life some questions. If he could prove the connection to the German Intelligence machine, he could export his problem to the Counterintelligence office at MI-5. They could share Bones with their fellow services. And maybe they would be able to crack Brown with their extralegality. He hoped their reasoning would follow his own, but there was no way to tell. Brown was a local problem. It was doubtful he would be a national security threat except under the most narrow of circumstances. Hawley walked down to the block that included the cells for people of interest and the interrogation room. He hoped he could wring some kind of clue from the prisoner so he could figure out what was going on. Rafferty¡¯s ouster might have been a blessing in disguise. He could do things that the police couldn¡¯t. If he kept pushing for answers on the outside, that might make it easier for Hawley to push from inside. He had been chasing Mick Brown for a long time. The man was as slippery as an eel. This latest trial where Corklin had stepped in and offered testimony to impugn Rafferty was just another in a line of dirty tricks. The problem was they couldn¡¯t break the frame fast enough to clear Rafferty. And the higher ups didn¡¯t want the frame broken at all. He wondered about that, but with Corklin dead, he had no way to fix things. Rafferty was considered just as guilty as if the charges had been proven beyond a doubt. He arrived at the interrogation room. He pushed open the door. Bones and his guards were already present. The two constables stood in the corners of the room. Bones sat the table. They had fitted him with manacles so he couldn¡¯t attack any of them. Hawley thought that was a wise precaution. He sat down opposite the gunman. He leaned back in his chair. What could he say to get anything out of this man? Could he say anything? ¡°What do you want?,¡± Bones demanded. ¡°Nothing,¡± said Hawley. ¡°I don¡¯t believe that for a minute,¡± said Bones. ¡°Why bring down the hall then?¡± ¡°Maybe to see if you can still walk,¡± said Hawley. ¡°Who shot you, Billy? Let¡¯s start with that.¡± ¡°It was some masked man,¡± said Bones. He tried to wave his hands but the manacles prevented wide movements. ¡°He was wearing a uniform from the Great War and a union jack over his face. I thought I had him, but he shoots me in the leg, and takes off. The next thing I know this toff is handing me over to the peelers.¡± ¡°You think this toff and the masked man could be the same man?,¡± asked Hawley. ¡°No,¡± said Bones. ¡°He was taller and he had a different car. I saw it when he left. The first car I shot at was gone.¡± ¡°Your gun was tied to some killings, Billy,¡± said Hawley. ¡°We¡¯re in the middle of asking our counterparts across the channel how they want to handle this. We¡¯re going to reserve the right to try you. That should take care of extradition.¡± ¡°It was the masked man¡¯s gun,¡± said Bones. ¡°Really?,¡± said Hawley. ¡°Yes,¡± said Bones. ¡°He must have dropped it when he fled.¡± Hawley scratched his eyebrow. He frowned at the gunman. ¡°So the masked man shoots you with the pistol we found you with, and drops it on you,¡± said Hawley. ¡°Then he flees before the patrolmen can arrive.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± said Bones. ¡°That¡¯s stupid,¡± said Hawley. He leaned forward. ¡°The bullet in your leg came from an old .38, the gun dropped was a .45, and your fingerprints are all over it and on the bullets. I think the masked man is a figment of your imagination. I think you tried to shoot some victim who decided that he would rather fight back, perhaps someone attached to Mick Brown, and you got shot. I think that¡¯s a better explanation than some masked man, don¡¯t you?¡± ¡°That¡¯s not what happened,¡± said Bones. ¡°I told you the truth.¡± ¡°Except about where the gun came from,¡± said Hawley. ¡°Does Mick know you¡¯re doing work on the side?¡± ¡°No,¡± said Bones. ¡°Why would I tell him that? He would want a cut.¡± ¡°What do you think he¡¯ll do now that you¡¯re going away?,¡± said Hawley. ¡°He¡¯ll get another bully boy until I get out,¡± said Bones. ¡°You don¡¯t have a case except for that gun, and any explanation can be given for that with the right barrister.¡± ¡°I¡¯m going back to my office,¡± said Hawley. ¡°I¡¯m going to decide whether to cut you loose and pick up Mick Brown on your testimony, or see what the Crown prosecutor wants to do. They might second you over to Intelligence to see if our brothers can squeeze something out of you.¡± ¡°You can¡¯t do that,¡± said Bones. ¡°I have rights.¡± ¡°You killed twenty six people according to your gun,¡± said Hawley. ¡°It will be my pleasure to turn you into a target and let whomever wants you have you. That would be a certain amount of justice in my opinion.¡± ¡°What do you want from me?,¡± asked Bones. ¡°Everything,¡± said Hawley. ¡°I want to know who paid you, who got killed and why, how many more are in it with you, and everything else. If you got paper, I want that too.¡± ¡°You can¡¯t be serious,¡± said Bones. ¡°I want it all, Billy,¡± said Hawley. ¡°I want enough that if you die, I don¡¯t have to dig up another pigeon.¡± ¡°This could get me killed,¡± said Bones. ¡°Don¡¯t give me anything, and I will hang a noose around your neck and see who I can flush out with you as the bait,¡± said Hawley. Bones looked up with a hand over his face. ¡°Don¡¯t cry,¡± said Hawley. ¡°It will go over a lot smoother.¡± ¡°I hate you,¡± said Bones. ¡°That¡¯s no way to talk to your new best friend,¡± said Hawley. ¡°I hate you even more,¡± said Bones. ¡°Get Mr. Bones some paper, Constable Packard,¡± said Hawley. ¡°As soon as we get something we can check and prove, we can talk about reducing the charges.¡± Constable Packard left the room. He returned with a pad and pen. ¡°I would rather plead guilty and take my sentencing,¡± said Bones. ¡°If it makes you feel better, you probably won¡¯t get a trial,¡± said Hawley. He gestured for the other man to start writing. ¡°Everything depends on what you tell us.¡± ¡°No trial?,¡± said Bones. He started writing. ¡°What does that get me?¡± ¡°A bunch of nameless men talking to you about what you¡¯ve done,¡± said Hawley. ¡°Then a bullet in the back of the head when they don¡¯t need you anymore.¡± ¡°I would rather take my chances in prison,¡± said Bones. He frowned as he put down his confession. Hawley knew the prisoner had to get his assignments from somewhere. If Bones betrayed his handler, that would be another link in the chain. And once they picked that man up, they could see if he would tell them who he worked for until they reached the end of the line. It wasn¡¯t perfect, but it gave him something to do while he waited on Rafferty to give him something else to chase. He didn¡¯t like a masked man showing up while Rafferty was trying to gather enough evidence to stop a murderer. The timing was suspect in his mind. He would deal with Rafferty about it when this was over and done. Secret Service 11 Rafferty looked at the storage lot and frowned. A fence kept out the casual intruder, while a guard checked everyone going in and out. He turned and walked away. He needed to make an entry close to night to check if the car was there. If the car was there, he could sit on it until the driver came to pick it up. Then they could have a talk about shooting someone on the street. If the car wasn¡¯t there, he could wait and talk to the man when he arrived. Everything hinged on the car being there. Once he knew that, he knew which path to take. He certainly wasn¡¯t going to ask Hawley to watch the thing on a hunch. The police had other leads to chase down on their own. Anything he told them that pointed back to him would destroy whatever case they could build. It had been sheer luck that he had taken Bones while wearing Fletcher¡¯s masked persona. As long as he could keep the vigilante side of things out of most of the limelight, he could use it to figure things out and fix problems. As soon as anyone knew about it, he was done. No one would be able to take his help because a vigilante was not welcome in Her Majesty¡¯s service. Fletcher would have to cut him loose to avoid embarrassment. But he might as well use the mask while he could to solve Corklin¡¯s murder and put the screws to Brown as long as he could before something happened to him. Rafferty went to his car. The easiest thing to do would be to drive up and see if he could store his car in the lot. That would give him temporary access, but he would still have to break in to check on Litner¡¯s vehicle. He decided the best thing to do was to drive around and see if there was a back to the lot he could pierce. Then he could move in and check on his target. Once he had decided on a plan upon confirmation of the car¡¯s presence, he could execute the plan and capture the driver. Once he had the guy, it would be up to Hawley to figure out how to take the case before the Crown. It would be rough since the only witness was someone who was dead. That part wasn¡¯t Rafferty¡¯s problem since he wasn¡¯t a detective any more. He started the engine of his car and drove around the block, watching the buildings crouching over the street. The man he wanted could be in any of those places he could see from the street. He wondered if the killer knew he was closing in on him. Did that matter in the long run? The man wanted to kill him. Rafferty showing up on his doorstep would be an excuse for a gun battle. Rafferty pulled to the curb at a point where he judged the car lot should be. He pulled on the great coat, mask, and cap for a partial disguise. He buttoned the coat to hide his suit. He got out of the car. No one seemed interested in him. He smiled under the mask. That was a good thing. He knocked on the door of the row house he wanted to enter. He wanted to go through and out the back to get to the car lot. He didn¡¯t want to deal with a resident if he didn¡¯t have to do that. He listened at the door. He didn¡¯t hear anyone moving around. He pulled out a set of keys and tried each one in the lock until he got one that opened the door. He stepped inside and closed the door behind him. He moved to the back of the place, looking out the back window. The fence from the storage lot stood across a narrow path that fed the back of the row from either end. It wasn¡¯t big enough for a car, but a man could run to either end quickly if he could get over from the other side. Rafferty cursed that he hadn¡¯t thought to bring something to cut through a fence with him. Rafferty stepped outside into the small yard behind the building. It was cut off from the yards on either side by low brick walls. He closed the back door behind him before he walked over to the fence. At least there wasn¡¯t any barbed wire on the top of the fence. That would have added more risk for him as he climbed over the fence. He pulled himself to the top of the fence and swung over the cross post. He climbed down as silently as he could. He turned and looked around the lot. Where was the car he wanted? Rafferty started walking the lot. He didn¡¯t have a lot of time before someone called to have his car towed away from the front of the house row. He had to find the Litner car as quickly as possible. Then he could decide what he wanted to do with the information. He found the car parked out of the way in a fence corner. Nothing else was close. He noted the storage people would have to walk out of their way to notice the car amidst some of the rest in the lot. He checked to make sure he had the right car. He looked around for a place to watch the car from inside the fence. Once the driver showed up, they could talk about the rights of the individual for personal justice while they waited for Hawley to take the guy away. He checked to see if he had a view from the street before retreating from the car. He This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.had to do something about his own car before it was noticed. He climbed back over the fence and went to end of the brick block. He headed to his car. He got behind the wheel and drove down until he found an empty spot to park. He got out and and went to the alley. He walked down to a spot closer to the car and climbed the fence again. He found a place to wait and used a car for cover to watch Litner¡¯s car. Hopefully, no one would need their cars from the back row before the other masked man got his car. Rafferty leaned against his adopted car and kept watch for anyone passing on the street, or entering the lot on foot. He checked his watch as he waited. If this didn¡¯t pan out, he would call Fletcher and have one of his men watch the lot. If they could catch the killer, that would move things away from him and his new job. Rafferty saw a figure in a coat approaching the corner. He ducked down as he watched the figure walk down to the corner and head toward the gate. The figure entered the lot with a wave at the guard. Rafferty pulled his Webley. If he approached the car, bullets were going to fly. The figure went to another car and pulled out of the slot. The car drove slowly out of the lot. Rafferty relaxed and put the pistol away. At least he hadn¡¯t shot the fellow by accident. That would have spoiled the whole trap. He shook his head. He had to be a little more patient. He couldn¡¯t shoot a stranger without evidence of a crime. He hoped the killer would show up before he lost patience and started looking around for something to do. Rafferty wondered if he could hide in the car. Maybe he could get a nap while he waited. In any case, he could call Fletcher when he got bored. Then he could hand the car off to a watchman. Rafferty opened the trunk and fell inside. He closed the trunk lid. He pushed the back seat so he could get out of the trunk and into the body of the car. He settled in the dark and waited. He should have thought some more about this plan before he decided on it. Did he really even have a plan? He decided that waiting for a murderer in his car was a plan. It was a mad plan, but a plan. It was simple, and didn¡¯t require much effort. He also decided that he should have asked someone else to do it since he didn¡¯t like waiting around. Impatience had always been a weak point for him. He had tried to train it so it didn¡¯t interfere with his cases. You couldn¡¯t beat a confession out of all your arrests. That was statistically unlikely to net you the right man. He heard someone walking outside the car. He pulled the Webley and waited. If the driver opened the trunk, he had to make sure the lid couldn¡¯t come down and block him from making his arrest. And he didn¡¯t want to have to shoot through the lid if he didn¡¯t have a target. The door opened and shut. The engine turned over. The car started rolling. Rafferty pushed on the back seat. He pulled himself out of the trunk space. He pulled the Webley and waited. He sat up. The driver slammed the brakes. He slammed into the front seat and dropped the pistol. The driver pushed open the door, and jumped out. The car started rolling on its own. Bullets struck the door as Rafferty fell in the floorboard. His hand wrapped around the Webley as glass fell on top of him. Rafferty winced as the car hit another car in the lot. That stopped the car at least. He pushed up enough to look out the windows. His target was fleeing toward the fence. He had six shots in the Webley. He didn¡¯t want to waste them, or hit anyone in the houses behind the lot. The killer ran to a car next to the fence and used that as a stepladder. He turned and fired at the car. Rafferty ducked down as the bullets blasted at the back window. The masked man fired back to keep his target from jumping over the fence and getting away. He broke the Webley open and dumped the bullets into his hand. He put the empty casings in his coat pocket. He loaded the pistol before he pushed the door open so he could get out of the car. He didn¡¯t see the killer at first. Then he saw the man running down the alley. Rafferty took aim over the hood of a car. He fired through the fence at his target. He saw the killer go down in the alley floor. ¡°That was a lucky shot, idiot,¡± Rafferty told himself. He did the same thing that the killer had done and used a car to get to the top of the fence and drop down to the other side. He ducked behind the low wall. The killer blasted the brick with the rounds left in his pistol. Rafferty waited. He still had five out of the six reloads. He ducked out to take a look. The killer was gone. ¡°I can¡¯t believe this,¡± muttered Rafferty. ¡°Now I have to hunt this spalleen down.¡± He slid over the low wall. He didn¡¯t see a target. He walked across the small yard. The next yard had plants on their divider wall. He pushed the pots out of the way and hopped over to the next yard. He wondered what the killer planned to do now. A bullet hole put a crimp in your plans. Rafferty hopped the next wall. He spotted a blood trail heading into the house attached to the yard. He walked to the back door. He pushed it open with his empty hand. Nothing came at him. He peeked into the kitchen. He spotted the blood trail heading to the front of the house. He walked along the blood trail. He wondered if his victim would bleed out before he got help. He opened the front door of the house. He noted there was no blood on the steps heading down to the sidewalk. He turned and brought up the Webley. He saw a knife coming down and shot. The killer staggered back. He shot again, taking time to go for the other leg so his victim couldn¡¯t run away. Rafferty kicked the man in the head. He put the Webley away. He needed to do something about this mess. He needed to call Hawley and Fletcher. Once he had told them the news, he could clear out and let the machine do the rest. He didn¡¯t know if he could explain any of this to either of them. Rafferty looked around. He found a phone on a table in the parlor. He went over and called the Operator. Once Fletcher knew what was going on, he could move his whole organization to do whatever he needed. ¡°Operator,¡± said the Operator. ¡°State your name.¡± ¡°Rafferty,¡± whispered Rafferty. ¡°I think I have Corklin¡¯s killer. Can you alert the authorities?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± said Operator. ¡°Anything else?¡± ¡°You might want to hurry,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I had to shoot him.¡± ¡°We will move fast,¡± said the Operator. ¡°I¡¯ll call you later,¡± said Rafferty. He hung up the phone. He walked back to where his victim moaned on the floor. ¡°Hurts, doesn¡¯t it?¡± Rafferty pulled the mask off the killer. He frowned at the sweaty face glaring back at him. He used the mask to cover the wound in the leg and tied it off with the woman¡¯s belt. ¡°The police are coming for you,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°They¡¯ll talk to you about killing Corklin. Now that you¡¯re out of the way, I can go back to doing what I need to do.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll kill you, Rafferty,¡± said the woman. ¡°You let Brown get away with killing my father.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t let him get away with anything,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°If you hadn¡¯t killed Corklin, I would have been able to squeeze him until he admitted what he had done. Now, I can¡¯t. Good going.¡± ¡°You wouldn¡¯t have done anything,¡± said the woman. ¡°I stopped you,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I¡¯ll take that as doing something. Goodbye.¡± Rafferty walked out of the house. He looked around to see if anyone was checking on what happened. He walked down the street, pulling off his mask. He put the mask away in his coat as he headed for his car. He needed to think about what the next step should be. Secret Service 12 Rafferty returned to his seat at the Rotten Unicorn. He had Corklin¡¯s killer, and Bones, but he was no closer to getting Brown. The spy ring would have to be someone else¡¯s problem for the moment. Sir Laurence would have to spend some of his resources on keeping things in check while he figured out what to do. He supposed that his time as a masked vigilante was coming to an end. The woman would tell everyone that he was the masked man on the scene. He had motive, means, and opportunity. Maybe he could throw the authorities off the track if he could get someone to impersonate the masked man while he was visible somewhere else. He didn¡¯t know how well that would go over with Brown. The mobster was not stupid, and would take a lot of convincing that Rafferty and the masked man were not the same man. And he didn¡¯t know if he could be that convincing. Sometimes trying to make people think that you were not the target and someone else was just made them think you and the someone else were in things together. Hawley would want him to come down to be questioned. How did he get out of that? He had used the Webley taking both murderers. Ballistics would match the gun to the two attacks. Hawley would see through any alibi. He would know that Litner¡¯s avenger was telling the truth as soon as he had a chance to talk to Rafferty. The ex-detective couldn¡¯t get out of that except by fleeing the police. And Brown would want to put the squeeze on if he thought there was some kind of profit in letting his own masked man run around London sorting out his enemies for him. There had to be a solution to this problem. At least Bones was not shooting anyone while he was waiting for the bullethole in his leg to heal. And the worst thing about the situation was he had dropped everything on Sir Laurence to fix and walked away. It might have been better to have shot the woman and left her for someone to find. Then Hawley would have to prove he was involved somehow instead of knowing it. Rafferty smiled at the sentiment. Killing someone in cold blood was beyond him. If he had to shoot a man, he would rather do it when he had some reason to do it. He ordered some eggs and tea while he thought about his next move. He needed some way to wreck Brown¡¯s organization without an open confrontation. He needed a way to get at the accounting. That would help him look for chinks in the armor. Then he could work out how to let the police do most of his job. It would make the Yard look like heroes cleaning up the city. He could live with that. How did he get what he wanted? Rafferty decided the needed a way to get at the money. Once he had that, he could dictate terms to Brown. That wouldn¡¯t go over well in his opinion. He didn¡¯t know enough about that side of Brown¡¯s operations. Maybe Hawley did. He couldn¡¯t ask. That would lead to exposure of his new double life beyond one woman claiming it. He needed to minimize that as much as possible if he wanted to continue. The money had to be the key. He needed to seize it in such a way Brown couldn¡¯t earn anything as long as he was holding it hostage. Then he could use that to force something out in the open. He decided that wasn¡¯t a perfect plan, and wasn¡¯t going to be as easy as he thought while he ate his breakfast and readied for the day. Maybe Fletcher knew a vulnerable target he could target and take apart. He seemed to know things that maybe he shouldn¡¯t. Someone might have told him who did Brown¡¯s accounting. Rafferty would love to wipe Brown¡¯s smirk right off his face. Rafferty finished his meal. He left money on the table to cover the bill before he left. He needed to figure out how to get at Brown. That meant walking and talking to people who would rather not be seen talking to him. Once he had enough information, he could make his move. Maybe he could suit Brown up for a frame while he was about his business. That idea entertained him as he walked down the street. He decided that looking at Brown¡¯s club would give him something to work on. The This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.actual business of running his criminal empire was somewhere else, but maybe he could pick up something he could use. Maybe he would be able to pick up someone who could be made to talk. He needed something to get started. Anything would do at this point. At least he didn¡¯t have to deal with the false clues of Bones, and Litner, now. He only had one challenge to work on and he could take as long as he wanted. The target wasn¡¯t going to run to a country where he couldn¡¯t be extradited back to England to stand trial. If he did run, that might solve Rafferty¡¯s problem before he could. The ex-detective smiled. No way would Brown run. He would stay and fight out any legal action. He made a note to avoid Hawley for the foreseeable future. He didn¡¯t need his old boss connecting him to the new vigilante in town. Rafferty made his way across town. He wasn¡¯t in a hurry, and it would be better if he had some idea of what happened at the club. Once he had an idea of how to get in, he could think about what he needed to find when he was inside. Maybe he should stop by the building people and see if there were plans for the building he could peruse. That would help him figure out if there were hidden passages and such. It was the expected thing if the building was old enough. The chances of a secret passage were low. A hidden safe was a better bet in his opinion. Rafferty spotted the club approaching on his right. He expected a lookout to warn Brown that he was coming to see him. He looked around and found a two story store he could enter. He walked past the garments on display to the back of the building. He used the back door to drop down in a space that trucks used for dropping off supplies. He looked around as he walked along. He discovered a fire escape on one of the buildings. He slid a trash can over to get under the bottom rung of the ladder. He jumped up and grabbed that rung. He pulled himself up until he could start climbing the metal rungs. He swung over the rampart to the roof and looked around. He didn¡¯t see anyone else on the roofs with him. He moved to where he could look down on the club and take notes. He spotted a lounger down the street from the club. The man leaned against a light pole and read a paper. The man looked up and down the street more than he read the news. Rafferty spotted another man down the block, sitting on a chair provided by a caf¨¦. A cup of coffee rested by his hand. There might be more, but those two seemed to be covering the front. He pondered if he should take a look at the back of the club. There might be a hole in the net there he could exploit to get in. Rafferty checked again. He might be able to get to the roof of the club from the neighboring buildings if there was a way to get to a roof from the street. He decided to retreat from his post and check the other side of the street. If he could get into the club from the top, he wouldn¡¯t have to deal with the security at the doors. He would need to make sure he didn¡¯t alert the enemy, but he could walk around without attracting attention as long as he didn¡¯t do anything stupid. He smiled. It had been a long time since he hadn¡¯t done anything stupid. He went to the fire escape and worked his way back down to the street. He exited the alley away from the club. He watched the block as he crossed the street. He didn¡¯t see another lookout helping the coffee man. He checked for another fire escape. He found a ladder over a set of trash cans. He jumped up and grabbed the ladder. He swarmed up the ladder to the roof. Rafferty jumped across the gaps to the roof of the club. He found a skylight to look through as he considered his next step. The skylight let him look down at a hall connecting the offices he could see. He realized that Brown¡¯s office was out of sight. He also didn¡¯t know if there were guards in front of the doors. Rafferty decided he needed to know the hall was empty before he broke in. That meant coming back at night and sneaking in. He doubted Brown kept people on post to stop burglars. He made his way back to the end of the buildings and descended to the street. He looked around and made his way along away from the club. He needed more information about the club before he did something stupid, And he didn¡¯t want to get caught breaking in. That would be the perfect excuse for Brown to turn him in and prosecute him. He had enough on his plate. He didn¡¯t need to fight a burglary charge on whatever else he might have done in the last few days. He couldn¡¯t count on Fletcher to get him out of trouble. The point of a secret organization was to be secret. Fletcher wouldn¡¯t jeopardize that for him. The man might have him murdered in his cell to protect his new organization. Rafferty walked down the street. He needed to get a look at the plans for Brown¡¯s club. Then he might be able to break in after hours. He needed to make sure no one was on guard against someone like him doing the deed before he committed to the thing. He wondered what Brown would do if someone did pierce his inner sanctum. He supposed an execution of such a villain would be in the works before you could fry an egg. Rafferty smiled. If he could force Brown to shoot the wrong man, he could maybe get Hawley to press another charge and arrest the man. The problem was Brown would try to buy his way out of a trial. If he didn¡¯t have any money, that might nip that problem in the bud. That made finding the books or the accountant important as a way to close the case on Brown. Then he could concentrate on the next man taking over the territory. Rafferty nodded to himself when he saw the old building that housed the plans for most of the buildings in London. Some of the buildings were so old, there weren¡¯t any plans filed. The club should have something filed that he could use. He doubted it was so old there weren¡¯t any plans at all. Rafferty spent the rest of the day poking around until he had the plans he needed. He spread them out and went over them until he had the layout memorized in his mind. He put the prints back when he was sure he knew where to go and what to do. He left the office and looked around for somewhere to eat. Once he had a full stomach, he would try to get a look at Brown¡¯s office. Anything he learned from that could be turned over to Fletcher to be sent back to the police. Rafferty found a place he could settle into for a bit. He ordered a meal that should carry him for the rest of the night, and tucked in. He planned the next few hours in his mind as he ate. He needed to change into his other persona, go back to the club, and break in. Then he needed to find anything that could be used to locate where Brown was getting his money. Then he needed to get out before there were complications. And he had to avoid being taken alive at any cost. No one could tie his masked face to Fletcher. He finished his dinner and hoped it wasn¡¯t his last meal before he stood and paid for it. He walked out of the door. Secret Service 13 Rafferty took the time to change into his masked identity. He secured some burglar tools for use on the skylight. He drove his borrowed car to a spot a few blocks away from the place so he could make a run for it if he was caught. He checked to make sure he had plenty of bullets for the Webley. He didn¡¯t want to kill anybody, but he wasn¡¯t going to let them take him without a fight. Brown would love exposing him after some of the things he had done as a policeman trying to take him down. Rafferty climbed back up to the roof of the building at the end of the street. He watched the street for a few minutes before crossing the gaps to the club¡¯s roof. He wasn¡¯t sure but more men seemed to be watching the street. More movement meant more security. As long as no one was guarding the boss¡¯s office, he should be okay. He went to the skylight and rapped on it. If anyone heard him, they might step under the skylight so he could see them but they couldn¡¯t see him. No one shined a light at the noise he had made. Now to start carrying out his plan. He had added a bag to his arsenal. Inside were all the burglar tools he thought he might need. He had learned some things from some of the people he had chased over the years. He dug a suction cup attached to a cutter out of the bag. He stuck the cup on and ran the cutter in a circle around it. He yanked the glass out when he thought he had scored enough with the cutter to slice through the material. Rafferty checked the skylight for wires for an alarm. When he was sure there were none, he reached in and unhooked the lockbar. He pulled the skylight out of the way. He tied a rope to the exhaust pipe from the kitchen and dropped down to the floor below. He looked around. Everything remained quiet. He walked over to the office and listened at the door. He didn¡¯t hear anything. He pulled out his ring of keys and tried each one in the lock. Finally the lock turned and the door swung open. He stepped inside and closed the door. He locked it back to give himself some time in case Brown returned unexpectedly. He looked around the room and asked himself where he would put a safe. Rafferty decided that one wall looked more suspicious than the others. It had a book shelf full of books and a picture hanging in the middle of it. The picture was of some dour grump named Reese. He checked the shelf and noted that it refused to move. He tried to take Reese out of his spot. The painting refused to move too. He stepped back and tried to think where a switch would be in the shelf. He started with feeling the front of the shelf. He worked his way from top to bottom. He pulled a chair over to make sure there wasn¡¯t a hook in the top of the thing. He started checking the books next. He pulled them out and stacked them out of the way. He found two books that were locked together. When he pulled them, they tilted and the painting swung on a hinge to reveal a safe door. Rafferty inspected the safe. A dial with a key combination. He could probably fool the dial into opening up, but without the key, he was stuck unless he used something else to pull the lock out. He pulled out a doctor¡¯s stethoscope from his bag. He put the earpieces in his ears and the listening part on the safe next to the dial. He started turning the dial, listening for the tumblers to click. He examined the key hole. He didn¡¯t have any keys to fit that. He did have a bottle of acid he could pour into the lock. Brown would know what happened as soon as he saw the destroyed lock. Cold feet never helped anyone. Rafferty shone a light into the keyhole. He used a magnifying glass and thought the acid should be an okay way to cut the lock open. Then all he had to do was make sure the dial worked on the tumblers and he could open the door. He worked the dial again until he heard three clicks through the scope. He didn¡¯t try to turn the handle. He knew that without a key, the handle would remain locked. He took the glass bottle of acid from his bag and uncorked it. He poured some of it into the lock and waited as it smoked against the metal. It wasn¡¯t enough to cut through the door, but he hoped it would cut the pins on the lock. The handle sagged down and the safe door swung open. He pulled it out of the way Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.and inspected the contents. He found some banded piles of money, some weapons, a scrapbook with all of the Yard¡¯s attempts depicted within. He winced at the coverage the last case had produced. At the bottom of everything was a book full of names and numbers. Rafferty took the book to the desk and started leafing through it. He didn¡¯t recognize the code, but knew he had the heart of Brown¡¯s organization in his hands. If he turned it over to Fletcher, what would happen? He imagined a lot of arrests behind the scenes, some quiet resignations, maybe even a bullet to the temple in some cases would result. It might be enough to wipe out a section of London¡¯s criminal operations with a simple delivery. He might be able to blackmail some of those people if he could figure out who they were. He would never have to chase criminals again. He would be the king of them. Rafferty smiled under his mask. He might be breaking the law a little, but he would never be the king of crooks. It just wasn¡¯t something he wanted. He closed the safe, and the picture. He needed to get the book to Fletcher. Then he could take a step back and see how Brown reacted to being burgled by a masked man. He put his tools in his bag. The book went in his coat pocket. He closed the office up and walked toward the rope. All he had to do was climb up the rope and make his escape over the roof tops. Rafferty ran into his first problem here. As he came out of the office, one of the club men appeared at the other end of the hall. He looked at the rope first, then the opened door with a masked man standing on the threshold. The alarm went up. Rafferty retreated into the office and shut the door. He looked around. He needed to get out of the office before they arrived in force and tried to take him. He slid a chair under the door knob to keep Brown¡¯s people out. He went to the windows. If he could get out one of them, he could try to walk the ledge to another room and get around security. He tried the windows and found that they were nailed shut. He shook his head as he pulled out his Webley. He had the solution for that. He smashed out the glass and cleared the frame with the pistol. He looked outside. Brown¡¯s men on the street were looking up at him. They seemed surprised to see him leaving. He climbed out on the ledge and started around the building. He had to hurry. Once they figured out what he had done, the security would be at the other windows shooting at him. He needed to be off the ledge and running away before that happened. Rafferty reached a drainpipe on the side of the club. He pulled on it. It refused to come loose. He put away the Webley and started climbing. If he got to the roof, he could cross to the fire escape on the building on the end, and use that to get to the street. He pulled himself over the rampart. He noted that no one had thought to climb the rope and cut him off. He ran over and looked down into the hall. Men milled around the office door. Someone was trying to kick the barrier down. He pulled the rope up as quietly as he could. He unhooked it from the exhaust pipe and rolled it up between hand and elbow as he walked to the edge of the club roof. He jumped over to the adjacent building. Rafferty put the rope away as he made his way to the end of the block. He doubted he had gotten away scot free, but he had the accounting book. Brown might chase him, or he might decide to let someone else have the territory while he retired on the money he had hidden away. Rafferty laughed softly. Brown was more likely to tear up the town looking for him than retire. He was the king. No one could insult the king like he had. There had to be blood and vengeance for that. He reached the fire escape and used that to get down to the street. None of Brown¡¯s men had made it that far down the street. He imagined a fair amount of violence if they reached the end of the block in time enough to see him heading for his auto. Rafferty walked away from the block. He kept looking over his shoulder. He didn¡¯t want to get caught before he could hand the book to Fletcher. He turned at the corner and headed toward his car. People on the street looked at him, but they wouldn¡¯t recognize him on the other side of the mask. It did publicize Fletcher¡¯s masked man concept. If someone took a report, a man in Great War uniform and face mask would be all the description they would get. And once he was at his car, he could pull off the mask and change coats to get rid of the disguise until he needed it again. It wasn¡¯t perfect but it would do for what he needed. Rafferty smiled when he saw his car. Once behind the wheel, the chances of his escaping would dramatically increase. He heard the squeal of tires behind him. He looked over his shoulder. He groaned at the sight of cars coming around the corner at high speed. Someone had seen him after all. He decided that he should run if he wanted to reach his automobile. He pulled out his pistol as he sprinted toward where his car was parked. Bullets flew around him as he ran down the street. One knocked his cap off. He caught it on the fly as he dodged behind the cover of a parked car. Rafferty jammed the cap on his head. He took aim with the Webley. He fired out the six bullets at the lead car. He aimed low so the bullets wouldn¡¯t go into the passenger compartment and kill someone. He was rewarded with a tire blowing out. The lead car spun out, blocking the road. He retreated, dumping the empty shells from the cylinder and placing them in his pocket. He reloaded as he ran down the line of cars. He ducked as more bullets filled the air. Glass dropped on his collar. Maybe he should shoot one of them so they would stay back. He spotted his car a few yards away. He could make it if he could give Brown¡¯s gunmen something to worry about. Rafferty turned and took careful aim. He didn¡¯t want to kill anybody. He could wound them. He fired the Webley as fast as he could. Men scattered from the bullets headed their way. One went down, blood on his pants. Rafferty dashed to his car and jumped behind the wheel. He dropped the pistol on the car seat beside him as he cranked the engine. He drove away from the scene. Time to talk to Fletcher. Secret Service 14 Mick Brown looked at his men. He tried to keep the anger inside but he felt it burning in his face. He had been embarrassed and robbed at his own club. The man responsible had escaped to laugh at him. Brown picked up the old revolver on his desk. He had lost the most important part of his business to his masked enemy. He needed to get it back. That meant he needed leverage against the vigilante. The obvious connection was James Rafferty. The copper had been after him for a long time. He had thought he had gotten rid of the pest with the frame he had set in place with Corklin. Now he had a masked man snooping in his business and Corklin was dead. It didn¡¯t take a mastermind to see that Rafferty had to be connected to both events. How did he get his accounting book from the ex-copper? That was the question he needed to answer. He needed to answer it quick before the book could be decoded and the information used against him. Brown forced himself to calm down as he thought about his problem. He needed the book back. He needed to get rid of Rafferty. He needed to stop this vigilante business in its tracks. He needed leverage on Rafferty. ¡°Rafferty still talks to people on the police force?,¡± Brown said as he stood. He had a plan. It was risky, but it had to be done. ¡°Our man says he¡¯s in thick with the Inspector Hawley,¡± said Tony Simpson. The man didn¡¯t see the connection. ¡°Find Hawley,¡± said Brown. ¡°Start at the Yard first. We need leverage to get the book back. We need someone we know Rafferty won¡¯t sell out.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Simpson. He put together the scheme in his mind in a second. ¡°Where do you want him taken?¡± ¡°Take him down to the place on the river,¡± said Brown. ¡°We will have to get rid of him no matter what else happens.¡± ¡°Right,¡± said Simpson. Brown watched him leave. He hoped Simpson didn¡¯t do anything to force the Yard to look at him. He couldn¡¯t afford any more trouble. He grabbed the phone. He needed to make sure his backup books were still in place. He couldn¡¯t afford to lose both sets. Two of his guys were still in the office. He needed to get them jobs. He decided that Luke could watch the book keeper. No one could be allowed to grab him while they were reeling from the break-in. ¡°Cantor?,¡± said Brown. ¡°Someone stole my books. He might be coming down there next. I¡¯m sending Luke and some of the mob down there to keep an eye on you and the master set of books. No one is allowed in, or out, until I call you. Good.¡± Brown hung up the phone. He gestured at Luke. The minion nodded his head on his nonexistent neck and left the room. ¡°Gilly, I want you to go down to the Rotten Unicorn and keep an eye out for Rafferty,¡± said Brown. ¡°I want to make sure I know where he is at all times. If he calls someone, I want to know about it.¡± ¡°Sure thing, boss,¡± said Gilly. He trundled out on thick legs with a smile on his face. There was a chance the mystery man wasn¡¯t Rafferty. Brown thought that was a small chance indeed. As soon as he got word that his mentor had been taken, he would bring the books back immediately. Things had to be brought back under control. He wasn¡¯t going to allow some nutty peeler take him on. Everyone would want to take him on if he allowed things to continue. Brown had silenced many a voice trying to stop his rise to the top of the criminal pyramid. Rafferty was just one more who had to be put down so he couldn¡¯t keep meddling. Once that was done, he would make sure to destroy anyone else trying to get in his way. He supposed he looked soft. He hadn¡¯t really killed anyone in a while, nor really did Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.a big job to make his rivals say what happened. He mostly ran his business like a business, and kept things rolling. Maybe he should kill someone in a public way to let the people know he was still the King of London. While he was thinking about the future, he needed to get a safe in to replace the one the masked man had destroyed. Brown shook his head. He needed a better safe. He checked the rolodex in front of him. He had a card for Louie¡¯s Safes. He searched his memory and thought that Louie had been a burglar before going into safe installation. He called the number and waited for someone to come on the line. His patience was rewarded with a sour voice of irritation. He smiled quietly. ¡°Louie?,¡± said Brown. ¡°This is Mick Brown. Someone broke into my safe at the club. I need it replaced.¡± He listened for a moment. ¡°Just come to the club and look at the space,¡± said Brown. ¡°Then I need you to put the safe in as fast as you can.¡± ¡°No worries,¡± said Brown. ¡°I know who broke in and I¡¯m looking for him right now.¡± Brown set a time and hung up. He had a few meetings to go to that he couldn¡¯t have at the club. It was his operations center, but it was also a conspicuous target for the police to try to raid when they worked up the nerve. The membership gave him cover, but he couldn¡¯t abuse it. He didn¡¯t need anyone reporting what they had seen going on upstairs. He couldn¡¯t kill them all, and he didn¡¯t have enough influence to make them all go his way. He pushed the button to summon Fred, the butler for the club. He pulled on his coat as the old man came into the office. The butler pulled himself to attention. ¡°I have to go out, Fred,¡± said Brown. ¡°Louie¡¯s Safes are coming by to replace the safe. Make sure they don¡¯t take anything when they leave, other than the wrecked safe.¡± ¡°Yes, sir,¡± said Fred. ¡°I will watch them like a hawk.¡± ¡°Some of the boys will be back from their jobs,¡± said Brown. ¡°Tell them to go down to the place on the river. They¡¯ll know where to go.¡± ¡°Yes, sir,¡± said Fred. ¡°I will have some of the staff help clean up this mess.¡± ¡°Wait on Louie,¡± said Brown. ¡°He¡¯ll probably create a bigger mess switching the safes around.¡± ¡°Very good, sir,¡± said the butler. ¡°Nothing will leave this office while you are gone.¡± Brown nodded. He left the room and headed downstairs. He had a couple of guys on permanent club watching. He ordered them to keep an eye on Louie when the safe man got there. He stepped outside the front door. He looked up and down the street. His car rolled down the street to pick him up. He got in the back and gave Kevin, the driver, an address. He had a lot of work to do to keep his status as the king of the underworld. He smiled to himself. When he was a kid breaking in, he just assumed that you could push anyone around if you were tough enough. The years since the Great War had taught him it was better to get leverage on a guy and keep it than killing the guy out right. Putting an enemy down had to be done as a lesson, but it was something to do as a last resort. Killing someone meant having to deal with his replacement somewhere down the road. And sometimes the devil you knew was better than getting to know a new devil that you didn¡¯t have any means to deal with at all. Kevin pulled to a stop outside a restaurant that seemed to have been painted by a blind man. Dents in the bricks had been caused by bullets. Brown got out of the car. He noted his security was already in place as he walked over to an outside table. ¡°Monsieur Brown,¡± said Henri Dumas. He was lean, with a puffy face, and cravat around his neck. His hair still retained some of the red of his youth. ¡°Fox,¡± said Brown. He settled into a seat facing his opposite number. ¡°You are the only one who calls me that,¡± said Dumas. He smiled. ¡°I remember things,¡± said Brown. ¡°Have you come to a decision?¡± ¡°I will buy the weapons,¡± said Dumas. ¡°I have the money transferred to a local bank from my own in France. I am afraid that I will need them sooner than I thought.¡± ¡°Wait here,¡± said Brown. ¡°I will have one of my men take you to the pickup spot. As soon as I have the money, all you have to do is load the weapons on a boat and sail away.¡± ¡°This is the account number,¡± said Dumas. He handed over a paper. ¡°The bank is in the next street.¡± ¡°Pleasure doing business with you, Fox,¡± said Brown. He stood. ¡°I heard someone is taking action against you, Monsieur,¡± said Dumas. ¡°It wouldn¡¯t be the first time,¡± said Brown. ¡°All the same, test the weapons and move them as soon as you can. You don¡¯t want to be caught up in my troubles.¡± ¡°I understand,¡± said Dumas. He stood. ¡°Bon chance.¡± ¡°You too, Fox,¡± said Brown. He turned and started for his car. He needed to get the money from the bank, and then finish his round of meetings. He gestured for one of his men to finish the rest of the deal with Dumas. He still had four more deals to do, and those customers weren¡¯t as smart as the Fox. There was nothing he could do about that. He had learned over the years you could only do so much with what you had. He gave Kevin the next address on his list as he settled into the backseat of his car. He wanted to get things done before one of his idiots decided that they could take advantage of the masked man incident. He wasn¡¯t about to lower his prices, or give merchandise away for free. He also didn¡¯t want to make an example of a customer for the city to see. That drew down the peelers, and he didn¡¯t need that at the moment. Once he had his talk with Rafferty, then he could try to smooth things over with the people he worked with in the other syndicates. He didn¡¯t want to lose business but was aware that was a possible outcome to having someone invade your sanctum and making you look like an idiot. It wouldn¡¯t be the first time he had quelled a rebellion and put down all challengers to keep his part of the pie. It wouldn¡¯t be the last as far as he could see. Everyone wanted to be the King. Secret Service 15 Rafferty drove around after his daring escape. He had to change out of the costume, meet Fletcher, and then think of some other way to hurt Brown. If he knew who did Brown¡¯s books, he could go to that person and see what he had to say. He had Brown¡¯s books, but he couldn¡¯t use them for evidence, and he couldn¡¯t let Brown use them to connect him to his new vigilante friend. Brown had probably thought about all the connections. He probably already thought that Rafferty and the vigilante were one in the same. How was he going to prove it? He needed some way to convince Brown they were separate people. The only way he could think was to have someone from Fletcher¡¯s organization wear the costume while he was establishing an alibi somewhere else. He liked the idea, if he could make it work, it might throw Brown off his trail. Brown didn¡¯t know about Fletcher, or his organization. That might be enough to make things work. On the other hand, it could get the other guy killed for pretending to be him in a dangerous situation. Did he want to throw someone else¡¯s life away to dispel suspicions from the guy he was trying to put in jail? He decided he would save that for a last resort. It was better to set some kind of booby trap and let Brown think he was in action while he was doing something public like sitting in his pub. He liked that, but a lot depended on the trap being blown sky high when the timer went off. He needed to work on that idea. He couldn¡¯t expect Fletcher and his support to cover for him against police suspicion. And it didn¡¯t matter what kind of cover he had to people like Brown. They already knew how to create their own alibis. He paused when he saw a public phone booth. He needed to hand the books off to Fletcher and then he needed to think of some other way to harass Brown. Maybe he should burn another casino down. He also needed to check in with Hawley and see if there was anything going on with Bones. There had to be a way to turn him against his employers. He pulled to the curb. He got out and called the operator to let him know that he had Brown¡¯s books. He needed someone to crack the code so that Brown¡¯s customers could be exposed. Once the normal police got involved, there was no telling where things would go. It might be enough to force Brown overseas if the pressure boiled high enough. Some of his customers would not be happy they had been exposed to the public eye. Maybe one of them would like to take Brown out before he was arrested. As soon as Rafferty had set up a drop with Fletcher¡¯s people, he called the Yard. Hawley had left on business. The desk sergeant said it was something about an old case that had come up. Rafferty hung the phone up and went back to his car. He sat behind the wheel and thought. It wasn¡¯t like Hawley to go on his own on an investigation. The Inspector preferred to have witnesses to what happened when he was out and about. So what was going on with Hawley? And how did he find out? He decided to call Fletcher¡¯s people again. Maybe they could spread a net out to find Hawley. Then he could put his paranoia down to just being paranoia. He went back to the phone booth and called the Operator. He asked for any help in finding Hawley and keeping an eye on him. He would check in an hour to see if they had been able to do anything. He didn¡¯t know how widespread a net Fletcher¡¯s people could throw out, but he knew he couldn¡¯t wait on them to produce results. He had to do something. Where would Brown take Hawley if Brown had taken Hawley? Smuggling was Brown¡¯s main source of income from what they could find. He controlled docks along the Thames for that. Would he take Hawley there? It seemed reasonable to Rafferty. Once Brown was done with Hawley, a ride down the river could be arranged. How did he find the right dock or warehouse that Hawley should be at if Brown had taken him? The fact that might be a little bit paranoid for no real reason danced in his head. He decided to make sure, and when he was wrong, he would go about his business of being a masked nemesis. If Brown thought he was the new masked man on the scene, then using his friend to get the books back was a logical next step. They probably had his pub staked out to keep an eye on him so they could call with the ransom demand. Of course, when Brown got his books back, Rafferty expected a bullet for him and Hawley to settle things. Hurting Brown was a good way to make others think he wasn¡¯t as tough as he used to be. It also pushed him into having to make an example of you when he knew who you were. Rafferty drove through the docklands slowly. He didn¡¯t have the addresses of what Brown owned. He was looking for a familiar face to point him in the right direction. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.Once he had that, he could ask more pointed questions of the next man in line. And if Brown hadn¡¯t done anything to Hawley, it still added on the pressure of pushing the mobster out of position. It was hard to ship guns and cigarettes from a burning pile of brick. Rafferty saw a familiar face standing in a doorway to a cigarette shop. He was busy lighting up, and not watching the sparse traffic. He seemed alone at the moment. The ex-detective drove along the block and pulled into a lot reserved for shopping. He pulled on his mask and got out of the car. It was time to ask some questions. There was a certain liberty about taking the law into your own hands. He wondered if that was how Guy Fawkes felt when he wanted to blow up Parliament. Rafferty walked along until he saw the glow of the cigarette in the dark. He pulled the Webley and held it by his leg as he committed himself to the approach. He couldn¡¯t let the man give the alarm, or pull a weapon. Once the other mobsters were alerted, who knew what they would do to Hawley. ¡°Make a sound and it will be the last thing you do,¡± warned Rafferty. ¡°I¡¯m just standing here on the corner,¡± said the mobster. ¡°I¡¯m not doing anything.¡± ¡°Where¡¯s your boss?,¡± asked Rafferty. ¡°I have no idea,¡± said the gunman. ¡°I assume that he is conducting business.¡± ¡°Then what are you doing down here, Simpson?,¡± asked Rafferty. ¡°Minding my own business,¡± said Simpson. ¡°I guess that¡¯s what I¡¯m doing too,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°Which of these is he in?¡± ¡°Find out on your own, copper,¡± said Simpson. ¡°You wish I was a copper,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°Start walking. No one is going to notice another piece of trash in the river.¡± Simpson jumped at the masked man with hands outstretched. He got the butt of the gun next to his ear and went down. He didn¡¯t feel the next blow to the back of his head. Rafferty shook his head. Something was going on. How did he deal with it? He dragged Simpson back into the doorway and tied him down with his tie. That was the best he could do for the moment. He searched the man and found a set of keys. Which doors did these fit into? What did he want to do now? There were a lot of doors on this side of the street. He checked the one Simpson was in first. One key opened it right up. He slipped inside. He decided that after his search, he could call Fletcher and see if the organization could send people down to search everything for him. That would keep his two identities separate. He liked that as an excuse for tossing the whole district and seeing what would turn up. A lot of Brown¡¯s rivals and colleagues would not like that to happen. Rafferty searched the building. He didn¡¯t find anything. He thought something would be there. Did Simpson have a car? That was a question that needed to be answered. He looked at the keys on the ring. One of them went to a car. If he could find that car, he could use that to hold Simpson until his search was over. He headed back out on the street and walked down the block. He found a parked car in an alley between Simpson¡¯s lookout and the next building in line. He opened the trunk and noted the blood on the edge of the door. Did Brown own the next building too? Rafferty tried the keys and one of them opened the front door. He stepped inside and looked around. Guards leveled pistols at him. He raised his hands. ¡°Is that you in the mask, Rafferty?,¡± asked Brown. ¡°I want my books back.¡± ¡°I already handed them off, Brown,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°Some codebreaker is going over them to see where your money is going.¡± ¡°I doubt that,¡± said Brown. ¡°I think you¡¯re in this on your own.¡± ¡°Maybe,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°But how do you think I caught on to Bones so fast. The people that recruited already knew where he was. All I had to do was pick him up. They had him working for the Jerries.¡± ¡°So some secret branch of the government asked you to come after me?,¡± said Brown. ¡°That¡¯s rich. What¡¯s your next lie?¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter what you do to me, or Hawley,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°These people will just pick another man to wear the mask and send him after you. They¡¯ll say something like the initial bloke didn¡¯t work out, but this one will. And then you¡¯ll have another commando nipping at your heels. Only he¡¯ll be helped by the accounting books I stole and handed over.¡± ¡°So there¡¯s no point in keeping you two around,¡± said Brown. He stepped out of the shadows in the back. ¡°We¡¯ll just have to take you for ride on the river.¡± ¡°Just shoot me now,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I would like that a lot better.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t tempt me,¡± said Brown. ¡°We had that whole frame with Corklin and you still broke it somehow. It got you kicked, but not in prison like I wanted. Then here you are, burning down my property, costing me time, shooting up my employees, making me look bad in front of my professional rivals. What I really want is to hang your head over my door in my office. Since I can¡¯t have that, I will be glad to sink you in the river. If another masked man comes along, I¡¯ll plant him right next to you.¡± ¡°Do you really think so, Mick,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°The next bloke might not want to put you in jail.¡± Who knew where Fletcher would get his next vigilante? Any Army type might want to sit back and just shoot the target instead of proving he did it. Rafferty thought maybe that was what he should have done himself. Petty harassment only got you so far. Now how did he get out of this mess? If he escaped on his own, Hawley could still be killed. If he didn¡¯t, no one would know what would happen. Fletcher might guess but that didn¡¯t mean a lot. He had to do something before it was too late. As long as he was moving, Brown might keep Hawley alive. If he stopped, they were as good as dead. Rafferty threw himself backwards. He fell in the doorway, and rolled out of the building to the sidewalk. He took a step to the rib on his way. He pulled the Webley and waited. Brown¡¯s men rushed to the door. He fired at them, hoping to make them think twice about coming out of the building. He rolled into the gutter and crawled away from his shooting spot. Bullets chewed up the sidewalk around him as he worked his way down the street. Rafferty fired the rest of the bullets in his pistol as he pulled himself to his feet and ran for the corner. He had to get some place where he could defend himself and hold them off until someone showed up to investigate the noise. He took a moment to reload as he watched the front of the building. Would they come out after him? Would they wait for him to try and rescue Hawley? Was Hawley alive? He didn¡¯t see any of the gunmen. What would he do? He imagined he would go out some other way to avoid being shot. How many other doors were there in that building? Rafferty retreated down to the next corner. They weren¡¯t coming out the door he did. Where would they come out? He heard a window open above. He fired at it before he thought. It could have been some washer woman. A gangster fell out of the window. He realized the buildings on this row were connected. He should have known that. Cargo went in one door and out another on the other end of the block to avoid anybody watching them. He went over and grabbed the pistol that had dropped with the mobster and any spare ammunition. He kept an eye on the windows in case someone else decided to attack. He went to the next corner. How did he turn this around to his benefit? He should have stayed in the Army. That would make this so much easier. He decided to see if the ring of keys he had fit one of the back doors on the block. He needed to get in before they cleared out. Hawley might have already taken a bullet to the head to keep him quiet as a potential witness. Secret Service 16 Rafferty decided not to try the door on the end. He already knew some of Brown¡¯s men had taken up a spot there. He needed to get inside one of the buildings in the middle and try to figure out how they connected internally. If he could find Hawley, and get the man away, then the inspector would be able to testify to the kidnaping. Of course, Brown would say he was somewhere else and pay enough people to prove it in court. He had to do something to prevent that. He didn¡¯t know what he could do unless it was to kill the man and then flee before the inspector could arrest him. He considered if Fletcher knew people who could give him another identity somewhere else. Other parts of the country might need a masked man to look into things after this was over. A man of his experience should have no trouble setting himself up somewhere in a new job, with a new name, and a new history. Rafferty ran up the short steps to a door that didn¡¯t look that dangerous. He tried the knob before he used the keys on it. He used the keys to unlock it and push it open. He slipped inside and listened. He heard voices and footsteps overhead. He looked around and saw a set of steps heading to a second floor. He went up the stairs, frowning at the creaking he was doing trying to be sneaky. At least no one noticed him from the way the voices carried on. He realized they were looking for him in the street. He supposed he had ducked inside before they saw him. He checked the Webley. He was ready to shoot as soon as he had a target. He needed to find one. He advanced on the voices, pistol leveled ahead of him. He found a room to his right where two men watched the street. He didn¡¯t have to shoot them if he could get within touching distance. He brought the butt of the Webley down on the back of the right hand man¡¯s head. The man¡¯s hat absorbed some of the blow, but he went down in a daze. Another blow to the head put him down for the count. The other man turned when his comrade went down. A gloved hand slammed him against the window. Then a boot caught him in the chest. He went through the window and out on the street. Rafferty turned toward the door. He went to stand beside it and waited. Three more men crowded through the door. They received gun shots to the legs. They went down as the cloud of smoke spread in the air. Rafferty dropped his revolver in his coat pocket. He searched his victims and took their weapons. He waited for a few minutes before venturing out of the room. He didn¡¯t want to walk into an ambush after being so successful. Rafferty made his way down to the last room in the hall. He scanned it from the door. He thought that maybe there should be a secret door, but he didn¡¯t have an idea how to open it. Did he go out the door, and move down to the next front in line? Did he wait? Someone must have heard the gunfire. Brown would want it checked out. Would they surround the building from the street? They didn¡¯t have to come in after him if they didn¡¯t care about the building. It would be just as easy to burn the place down and wait for him to try to escape. He had done enough of that in the Great War. He walked into the room. He examined the wall. He walked over and began searching for a release with his hands. He heard a click. The wall snapped out a few millimeters. He grabbed the edge with his hand and pulled it open, using the thing as a makeshift shield. Bullets dug into the wood and plaster he hid behind. He ducked down as splinters flew through the air. He pulled one of the stolen pistols from his coat. He opened fire. A cry of pain rewarded him. How many more gunmen still roamed the place? He had lost count. He hoped that he had shot most of them. He needed to advance. Once he cut through the mobsters in front of him, he could find Hawley and get the hostage out of the way. Then he and Mick Brown could have a little talk about things. He doubted he could go back to using James Rafferty as a cover since Brown had just told everyone he was the man in the mask. He needed some kind of next step to protect his life. Before that, he had to rescue Hawley and put a bullet in Brown. When that was done, Stolen story; please report.he could think about constructing a new life outside the mask. He doubted Hawley would like a vigilante sponsored by the government to circumvent the laws. Rafferty pushed through the door. He saw one man writhing on the floor. He didn¡¯t see any others. Could that one man be the only one left? How many more men were in the complex? What would Brown do now? Those two questions seemed more important than anything else. He could still kill Hawley. No one would say he was there. Rafferty wouldn¡¯t be able to prove anything since he was there as his masked alter ego. Only Fletcher would believe Rafferty¡¯s account. No one else would, even with the number of men shot. They would put that down to a rival gang, or the ex-detective. And none of it pointed to Brown. The only thing in his favor was he still had the accounting books. Brown needed them back. If the contents were decoded, a lot of people other than Brown would be headed to court. That would put Brown¡¯s head on the chopping block better than any other thing Rafferty could do. Rafferty kicked the shot man in the head so he could hear other sounds better. If he had time, he would call an ambulance down to haul the mobster away. First, he had to work his way back to Hawley and get him free, if he were still alive. He worked his way forward, eyes on the doors ahead. He didn¡¯t want to get shot because he missed someone hiding in a room. Rafferty heard something click behind him. He looked over his shoulder as he took cover in the next room off the hall. The door to the other building had closed after he had entered the building he was in. The clicking he heard came from someone working the lock on the door. It swung open. Men crowded in the entrance. Rafferty pulled one of the other stolen pistols from his coat. He hoped that would be enough to deal with the crowd he saw. Bullets flew down the hall as the men spotted him bounding for cover. He waited for the shooting to pause. He doubted the gangsters had learned fire discipline. He expected them to run out ammunition at the same time. He hunkered down and waited. Splinters of wood and plaster peeled from the wall above him. He hoped they didn¡¯t adjust for the fact that he might have ducked down from standing at his full height at the edge of the door. The shooting stopped as the gangsters ran out of ammunition, or paused because they didn¡¯t want to waste ammunition on a target that might be dead. Nervous hands reloaded as they waited for something to happen. Rafferty fell across the threshold of the door, arms extended. He shot until he ran out of bullets in the automatics he had stolen. Cries of pain rewarded him as the men were caught in the stream of lead and fell to the floor. The masked man discarded the empty weapons and pushed himself up. He ran down to the end of the hall. He had one more loaded weapon. He had spare magazines for it. Once he crossed the other side of the next secret door, it would be him and whomever Brown had left as guards. He worked the secret switch on the hidden door and opened it. He took a moment to glance around. No one blocked him. Rafferty worked his way down to the next door. He opened that and found himself above where he had escaped earlier. Hawley sat tied to his chair with a gag in his mouth. He didn¡¯t see Brown, or a guard. Where had the mobster gone? Why had he left Hawley tied to his chair? He didn¡¯t see any way down from where he stood. He looked around again. A ladder ran up the wall to the door. All he had to do was slide down that to the floor. He felt that the situation was a trap of some kind. What did he do? The prudent thing would be to go back and go out one of the side doors to the street, and circle around to the door to the room on the ground floor. The ladder had to be the trap. How did he get around it? He gauged the height of the door from the floor. He expected that someone would come in shooting if he remained on the ladder for any length of time. So he had to get down and get to cover before the trap sprang shut. He dropped down to the floor and rolled to one side. That saved his knees so they wouldn¡¯t be hurt by a direct drop. The roll carried him away from the ladder. He heard the door open as he pulled the last stolen pistol from his coat. The door opened on the other side of the room. He leveled the pistol and fired before the new arrival could fire his own automatic. The last thing he wanted at this stage was to get Hawley killed after everything he had been through. Rafferty pulled himself to his feet. He dumped out the magazine of his pistol and reloaded as he ran to the door. He kicked Hawley¡¯s chair over as he passed. He didn¡¯t need the inspector to catch a stray bullet when things were this close to being resolved. If he could take the fight out in the street, he might be able to drive Brown and the rest of his gang off. That would cause Brown to flee the city, if not the country. That would make the gangster someone else¡¯s problem. He paused at the door. He didn¡¯t want to be caught in the same trap as the one he had turned around. Don¡¯t run out if you can¡¯t see where your enemy is. He peeked out. Brown¡¯s men had Browning rifles in hand. He slammed the door shut. He needed help to get out of this. He ran to where Hawley lay tied to his chair. The inspector had some blood and bruising on his face. It looked like all the flying lead had missed him. Rafferty cut the gag away with a pocket knife. He kept an eye on the door as he sawed at the rope holding the inspector in its grasp. ¡°Rafferty?,¡± asked the inspector. ¡°What the blazes?¡± ¡°It¡¯s my new job,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°Can you move on your own?¡± ¡°I think so,¡± said Hawley. ¡°I have to get the blood going.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Rafferty. He went to the front door. ¡°Each of these buildings are connected together with secret doors. Brown has some men outside with military rifles. We have three exits from this room; this door, the door on the other side of the room, and the secret door I used to get in here.¡± ¡°And Brown is guarding that door,¡± said Hawley. He went to the other door in the back of the place. He cracked it open. ¡°We have some men out here too.¡± ¡°I do not fancy charging out there,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°Will they come in through the secret door?¡± ¡°They would almost have to if they want to take advantage of having us bottled up in here,¡± said Hawley. ¡°We have to do something to create a distraction and give us a chance to escape.¡± ¡°I¡¯m thinking,¡± said Rafferty. Secret Service 17 ¡°We have to go up the ladder,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°The faster we move out of this trap the better I¡¯ll like it.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Hawley. ¡°What do we do after that?¡± ¡°There are windows and other doors,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°The chances of being able to escape increase if we can move before they do.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said the inspector. He went to the ladder and climbed up to the door. He checked before pulling himself into upper room. He walked down to watch the rest of the second floor for enemies. Rafferty waited until his colleague had moved away from the top of the ladder before climbing up. He shut the door, but didn¡¯t know any way to lock it from their side. He moved down to join Hawley. ¡°There¡¯s another door at the end of this hall, and two entrances downstairs,¡± whispered Rafferty. ¡°Let¡¯s work our way down to the end and see how big a blockade Brown has thrown up,¡± said Hawley. Rafferty led the way. He knew how to open the doors, and he had a pistol. He could buy time with the weapon while they looked for other ways out. They were in a bind if Brown¡¯s men invaded from both sides of the row and trapped them in the middle. That would be the end of their escape attempt. Rafferty wondered if he would be shot before being dumped in the Thames, or just tied to an anchor and thrown in. He decided that being shot was the more likely outcome of things considering what was going on. They crossed to the next area. Rafferty paused to listen. No one seemed to have twigged to them moving out of the second building. Maybe they could get out of there with their skins intact. He opened the next door. He paused before crossing. He thought he heard a ratchet of a bolt. He ducked back. Bullets sprayed the door as it swung shut. Rafferty pointed Hawley downstairs. This is what they thought would happen. They were going to be surrounded and cut down. The men pulled open the door. They knew Rafferty had been hit in the first volley. Rafferty ducked back in the first empty room. He waited for the door to open. Hawley stood at the front door on the ground floor, waiting for men to burst in from the outside. There wasn¡¯t much the inspector could do with his bare hands. Mobsters charged into the upper hall. Rafferty emptied the pistol as low as he dared. Men went down. He charged forward and kicked one of the rifles downstairs while he seized pistols for himself. The rifle barked downstairs. Apparently Hawley had seen targets that needed to be shot. Rafferty scooted a loaded rifle down the steps as he went to the windows in the upper hall. He looked out on the back. Men stood at the door, trying to get in through the back door. It looked like he would have to kill them to discourage their invasion. He didn¡¯t like that, but he couldn¡¯t let them kill Hawley, and then himself. They had to be forced off the back door before they could take the inspector by surprise. Rafferty opened the window and fired down on the crowd at the door with one of his stolen pistols. Men went down with cries. Some shot back at him, but he had the advantage of cover and surprise. That was enough to force them back. ¡°I think we should go,¡± said Hawley. He opened the back door and emptied his rifle at the fleeing mobsters. ¡°If we can get to a car, we can escape and get help.¡± ¡°Coming,¡± said Rafferty. He fired a couple more shots to give the enemy reason to keep their heads down. He hurried down the staircase and out in the street behind the inspector. He picked up some more pistols as he went. ¡°You have a car?,¡± asked Hawley. He had a pistol in hand to replace the empty rifle. ¡°We¡¯ll never make it while fighting in the street,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°We¡¯re going to have to steal one to get out of this.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Hawley. ¡°There¡¯s one right there.¡± ¡°Cover the area,¡± said Rafferty. He handed him one of his pistols and opened the driver door. He reached under the dashboard and hooked the ignition wires up. The car started a second later. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± The two men rolled from the trap. Bullets punched holes in the car, but it wasn¡¯t If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.enough to stop Rafferty from hitting the gas. He drove out of sight, heading for his own car. ¡°Nice mask,¡± said Hawley. ¡°My employer likes it,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°This is going to get awkward if he knows you know what¡¯s going on. So I need you to keep quiet.¡± ¡°What is going on?,¡± said Hawley. ¡°I have been asked to function as an extralegal agent by someone in the ministry,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°The organization is giving me support, but I have to act on my own and do the best I can, as well as keep my mouth shut. Mick Brown was the first target because the thing is so new, they didn¡¯t have anyone better for me to go after.¡± ¡°Brown is also a threat to any cargo heading from London to the Channel,¡± said Hawley. ¡°They might have picked you because Brown is in the way of government control and we are at war.¡± ¡°Maybe,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°There¡¯s my car. Brown¡¯s books are in it. I¡¯m handing them over and hoping that will lead to some arrests. The question is what will Brown do now that you are on the loose and know he did something wrong?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll have to call up the Yard and get every man I can down there to find him,¡± said Hawley. ¡°He¡¯s likely to run now that he has been exposed. We¡¯ll have to drag every street in the West End for him.¡± ¡°You¡¯re the only witness,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°He¡¯s more likely to go after you so he can kill you before you can testify.¡± ¡°Do what you can to get your ministry to help out,¡± said Hawley. ¡°Maybe both of our organizations can find him if he burrows in.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll switch cars, and then I¡¯ll drop you off at the Yard,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°If the ministry moves, it will be behind the scenes. I get the feeling I¡¯m the only one who is tasked with chasing down lawbreakers. I¡¯ll talk to the governor, and we¡¯ll see where we can help out.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Hawley. ¡°After this is over, we¡¯re going to talk about this mask thing. I don¡¯t think it¡¯s good for you.¡± ¡°It keeps me from doing stupid things,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°No, it doesn¡¯t,¡± said Hawley. ¡°It justifies doing stupid things in the name of the Queen.¡± ¡°Just like the Army,¡± said Rafferty. He pulled his stolen car around to the other side of the black car granted him by Fletcher. ¡°Let¡¯s get out of here before more villains with guns arrive.¡± ¡°I couldn¡¯t agree more,¡± said Hawley. They switched cars and Rafferty drove away with eyes looking for Brown and his cabal. Men struggled on the street as he passed. He didn¡¯t see the mastermind among them. He turned and headed away from the river. He had to get Hawley to the Yard so they could commence a clean up, and then he had to meet Fletcher somewhere and hand over the books. ¡°Stop over by the call box,¡± said Hawley. ¡°I can call the office from there.¡± ¡°Use the car as a shield,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°We don¡¯t know where Brown is and he might be looking for us.¡± ¡°Keep an eye out yourself,¡± said the inspector. ¡°You¡¯ll be sitting still and he hates you a lot more than he hates me.¡± ¡°I know,¡± said the masked man. He pulled in next to the curb and watched the street. One call should mobilize the Sweeney. Regular patrols would be directed down to the battlefield after that. Hawley opened his door and left it open. He pulled the emergency phone from the call box to him. He called the Yard. It took a few minutes to explain what was going on, but he finally got a superintendent to authorize a full push. Anyone not taken by Brown and still alive was going to the hospital for treatment. Evidence would be gathered from what had been left behind. It would be Hawley in court saying that Brown had taken him and tied him to a chair as bait. Brown would swear it was the latest in a smear campaign against him by the police. Rafferty would refuse to testify if called. He could not reveal his vigilante actions in court, nor could he give credence that he and the masked man were one in the same. He needed an alibi to show the court it was impossible for him to be on the scene as Hawley and Brown claimed. He thought Fletcher would help him with that to avoid exposure of his new program. ¡°All right,¡± said Hawley. ¡°They¡¯re on their way.¡± ¡°I have to get away from here,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°Don¡¯t say a word about this to anyone.¡± ¡°Brown probably broadcasted your identity far and wide,¡± said Hawley. ¡°I doubt you will be effective after this. Thanks for saving my life.¡± ¡°That¡¯s something I will take up with the governor,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°It sounds like a radio car is on the way. As soon as I know something, I will call you.¡± ¡°Take care, Jimmy,¡± said Hawley. ¡°Maybe we¡¯ll be lucky and Brown will have pulled the trigger on himself over the losses we inflicted.¡± ¡°He¡¯ll want to kill us first,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I¡¯ll leave you to your business, Inspector.¡± Rafferty drove off. He had to set up a meeting with Fletcher, and hand over the books. Then he needed a nap, and a regrouping. He had been lucky to find Brown and Hawley. He couldn¡¯t count on that for a second encounter. He had to think where would Brown go after this, and how would he act. How much did killing Rafferty and Hawley weigh against a successful escape out of the city? Would he try again? How many of his gang knew that Rafferty and the masked man were the same man? How many would try to use that to get back at him in some way? Fletcher would probably pull him out of the field and fire him. He was supposed to keep the secret. Half the underworld knew what was going on at this point. If he got fired, at least he had pulled down Bones for his killing of Corklin first. That had to count for something. He smiled under his mask. It only counted because Bones followed orders from overseas and needed to be taken out of play. No one really cared about what had happened to him, or Corklin. Tearing up Brown¡¯s organization meant nothing if the man got away and rebuilt. Searching for him could be done after the chaos had settled down. Time would give him something if he let order cloak the streets again. As long as the police flooded the streets, Brown would keep his head down and hide in some property that no one should know about. When the police presence faded, he would move to getting back in business, or fleeing the country. Killing Rafferty might be high on the list of things to do before he fled the country. The masked man pulled to the curb when he saw a phone box. He had to call in and let Fletcher know what was going on. The man¡¯s contacts might be able to find Brown before the police did. And he needed to know that Rafferty¡¯s dual identity might be up for grabs when the mob answered questions for the Yard¡¯s detectives and constables. Secret Service 18 Rafferty waited for Sir Laurence in front of a block of offices just off Fleet Street where the papers had started long ago. The knight walked along with cane tapping on the sidewalk as he came. ¡°Come along,¡± said Fletcher. ¡°We can talk while we walk.¡± ¡°Both Brown and Hawley know who I am,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I asked Hawley to keep quiet, but Brown identified me in front of his goons.¡± ¡°That¡¯s something to worry about if Brown is captured,¡± said Fletcher. ¡°We might have to pull your identity and ask for someone else to take your spot until we think of something.¡± ¡°So I can stay on,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°But not as an enforcer,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°We might have to move you into a secondary role until we know where Hawley stands.¡± ¡°I¡¯m fine with that,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°The costume has some holes in it. It should be fairly easy to sew back together.¡± ¡°Really?,¡± said Sir Laurence. Rafferty hadn¡¯t noticed in the middle of his rescue that bullets had cut through his coat without hitting him. The uniform underneath had suffered some rips as well. At least he could hand it over without worrying about who was going to wear it next. As a reserve, he probably wouldn¡¯t see any action unless someone got mouthy about their lunch dish. Changing clothes and cleaning up was the least he could do before he talked to Sir Laurence about the situation. ¡°I¡¯ll put the word out through the network to keep an eye out for Brown,¡± said Fletcher. ¡°What do you think he¡¯ll do next?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°Grabbing Hawley was an extreme step for most gangsters. Stirring up the peelers is bad for business.¡± ¡°I think he will try to kill you again,¡± said Fletcher. ¡°Kidnaping the Inspector shows that he thought you were behind everything before you confirmed it by going after him. I don¡¯t think he can leave either one of you alive in case something happens.¡± ¡°Well, Hawley is surrounded by bobbies from the Yard, and ambulance people by this time,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I only have to worry about myself.¡± ¡°He¡¯ll probably wait until you show up at your pub before he tries to do anything,¡± said Fletcher. ¡°That¡¯s the only place where I can be reliably found,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°Some of his minions are probably watching it right now.¡± ¡°Come with me,¡± said Fletcher. ¡°Let¡¯s hand the books over and see what can be made of them.¡± Fletcher led the way to a small building tucked away among others that looked the same. He opened the door and peeked before crossing the threshold. A rail kept visitors on side while the workers sat at desks in a open space beyond. A man with a visor and rolled up shirt sleeves ambled to the rail to talk to Fletcher where he waited. ¡°Hello, Larry,¡± said the man in the visor. ¡°What can I do for you?¡± ¡°I need a decoder and accountant for a rush job, Dennison,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°Do you have anyone available?¡± ¡°Murtaugh is back from his vacation,¡± said Dennison. ¡°He¡¯s the best man I have working.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°I¡¯ll pay double your usual if you can crack the code and fill out all the entries before the end of the week.¡± ¡°Do you have the material with you?,¡± asked the manager. Fletcher gestured for Rafferty to hand over the accounting books. The ex-detective did with a questioning look on his face. ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± said Dennison. He tucked the books under his arm. ¡°We¡¯ll suss everything out and have it ready for reading in plain language on time.¡± ¡°Thank you, Dennison,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°I will be waiting your report with anticipation.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Larry,¡± said the manager. He made a waving gesture with one hand. ¡°There¡¯s no code built that we can¡¯t crack.¡± ¡°Come along, Rafferty,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°Dennison¡¯s operators are all first rate.¡± Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! The two men stepped out on the street. Sir Laurence led the way, tapping the sidewalk with his cane. ¡°Dennison¡¯s operation is the core of message interception and translation,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°We¡¯re going to war against the Germans. His people and others are going to be here figuring out what the enemy is saying and helping us plan accordingly.¡± ¡°Decoding the book is something they could do as a matter of course,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°Dennison knows I am authorized to do whatever I have to do,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°So he would have decoded the book regardless. Paying him and his man something extra on top of that will keep them from spilling anything secret they might find.¡± ¡°Now that is out of the way, I¡¯m going home and staring at the walls,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I think we should see if Brown is still waiting for you in case you still have his books,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°There¡¯s no way he could still think that,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I already told him that I passed them along.¡± ¡°He won¡¯t believe that because his people in the police department won¡¯t be able to find the books,¡± said the knight. ¡°He will still think you kept them for whatever reason.¡± ¡°So you think he will come after me again,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°How do we use this to our advantage?¡± ¡°The first part of the plan is to let him see you,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°So you will have to drop into your pub and have a drink. It should just be long enough for anyone looking for you to call in. If we have a bite, you stay until a group of them show up to take you away to wherever Brown is. Then we arrest him.¡± ¡°That sounds so dangerous, I might have to think of something more dangerous just to say there are two things I won¡¯t do,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°Do it,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°I will be waiting for any such group who want to take you away. You will be as safe from danger as I can make it.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t make me feel any safer,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°I have been doing things like this most of my life.¡± ¡°How do you want to do this?,¡± asked Rafferty. ¡°I¡¯ll need time to get things ready,¡± said Fletcher. ¡°Go home and take a break. I¡¯ll need you at the Unicorn in say about two hours.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I just escaped from a bunch of people trying to kill me. I could do with a lot less of that.¡± ¡°Nobody is promised tomorrow,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°Two hours.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be there,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I won¡¯t like it, but I¡¯ll be there.¡± Sir Laurence veered off. He put his hand out and a cab rolled to a stop. He gave Rafferty a wave of his hand before getting into the cab. The dark car whisked him away. Rafferty turned and started walking back the way they had come. He had to get his own car and drive home. He wondered if Brown would make another try of things. The man had lost most of his gang in the shootout earlier. Brown couldn¡¯t afford to have his books floating around where anyone might look at them. He would want to get them back more than he wanted revenge on Rafferty. So he would make another play to get the books back, and then he would go somewhere overseas to run his business from afar. It made sense to Rafferty. You couldn¡¯t be the king of the underworld if you didn¡¯t know how much everyone owed you. Rafferty drove home while keeping an eye out for anyone who might be interested in his dark sedan. He probably should get something in another color to keep things separate. He smiled at the thought. He would be lucky to keep the sedan if he wasn¡¯t Sir Laurence¡¯s attack dog anymore. He would probably get a notice, and someone showing up to pick it up while he was deep in the medicine of dismalness. He parked the car out of sight and went up to his hiding place. He let himself in, glad to be safe and alone. He settled in his chair and looked around. He got up and placed another chair in front of the door. He sat back down. He closed his eyes and let the memory of everything that had happened wash over him. He envisioned his coat and uniform and realized he had been lucky to get out of the showdown with Brown. Did he want to mix it up like that again? Did he have a choice? His name was ruined. Any job other than publican would be met by aren¡¯t you the crooked policeman. He needed to get something of his reputation back. If he helped take down Brown, he might be able to recover some of that. He wouldn¡¯t be trusted as a policeman, but people would know he was a good guy. Rafferty felt himself drift away. He had been in more dangerous situations in the last few days than his whole time as a policeman up to that point. He hadn¡¯t been shot at so much since the war. Maybe he should get out of the masked man business and tell Fletcher that he would be glad to do support from now on. That would keep the danger off of him. There were plenty of ways to check on things without getting shot. Rafferty opened his eyes. He checked his watch. His time was up. He had to meet the knight at the pub. He wondered what would happen if he stayed on. Should he stay on after this? His secret had been revealed before he had really started in the crimebusting business. The barrister representing Billy Bones would be able to spin his involvement as a criminal imposing his will on a weaker criminal. There was no way to fix that as far as he was concerned. Maybe Fletcher had some trick up his sleeve to silence the defense. Rafferty stood and moved the second chair out of the way. He took one last look around his new place. He smiled. He hadn¡¯t had it long enough for it to be a new place. He left the apartment and headed down to pick up his car. Once he walked in the pub, he would know if he had a problem. Brown might have put a man in to find him before he picked up Hawley. That meant the mobster had planned to get rid of his unmasked side a long time before the shootout in the empty buildings. That meant long term planning to get rid of Rafferty. Taking the accounts books must have triggered that response. If he had known it was that easy, he would have broken in and taken the books when he was a policeman. He drove to a spot close to the pub. He left the car in an alley. It should be safe enough until he was done at the pub. He would have to give the car back after this. He shrugged. He couldn¡¯t expect to keep it if he wasn¡¯t going to be the masked man Fletcher needed. He straightened his coat and pulled his hat down. He still had time before things went in the crapper. He might as well use it. Secret Service 19 Rafferty walked into the Rotten Unicorn. He waved at some of the crowd he recognized as he went to a table in the back. It was close to the kitchen in case he had to duck out the back. He settled in place. All he had to do now was wait for something to happen. How long could that take? Josie, one of the servers, approached. She smiled at Rafferty as he watched the crowd. ¡°Expecting someone?,¡± she said. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°Could I have a beer?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± said Josie. ¡°We have some fish in, and some of the chicken you like.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know how long I¡¯ll be able to stay,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°If nothing happens, I¡¯ll take you up on the chicken.¡± ¡°Right,¡± said Josie. ¡°I¡¯ll be right back.¡± She walked away, talking to some of the patrons at the bar. Rafferty watched the crowd. He didn¡¯t see anyone acting suspicious. Maybe they were wasting their time. He had no way of knowing. He was getting paid to wait, so he would wait. Eventually something would happen. Josie came back with his beer. He sipped it as he watched the room. Would Brown enter the pub with guns blazing? Were the customers and staff at risk? Should he be sitting here waiting for Brown to show up? He and Hawley had put a dent in Brown¡¯s manpower. That should keep the gangster down for a bit. No one wanted to deal with someone under official scrutiny. One of the customers got up and went to the bar. He asked for the phone. He made a hurried call. He went back to his table next to the door. Rafferty leaned back in his chair. Should he make a phone call himself? Should he wait for Sir Laurence to show up and extricate him out of this mess? Did he want to remain where he was? How much time did he have before the villains arrived to take him away? He decided the best thing to do was wait. He didn¡¯t know what was going on outside the pub. He didn¡¯t want to walk into an ambush. Buying time seemed reasonable to him. Sir Laurence would have someone waiting outside in case there was trouble. He doubted there would be an excessive presence. The knight seemed to like things on the quiet side. Rafferty watched the room while he sipped his beer. No one else moved for the phone. People going out the door talked about work and what they were doing after. The man who had used the phone sat at his table and smoked as he looked out the window. Josie made her way around the room. She cleaned the tables as she went. She paused at Rafferty¡¯s table before going into the kitchen. ¡°Would you like anything else?,¡± she said. ¡°Could you bring me another beer, and a plate of chicken,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I might be here for a while.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll get you an order,¡± said Josie. ¡°We have some greens to go with it.¡± ¡°That would be good,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°Thanks, Josie.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll bring you another glass in a moment,¡± said Josie. She carried the dirty glasses into the kitchen to be washed. She walked back out and went to the bar. She poured out a glass of beer and carried it back to Rafferty. She set it on the table with a quiet thump. ¡°Is there a problem?,¡± Josie asked. ¡°I angered Mick Brown, and I think one of his men is sitting at the table next to the door,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I think he called Brown to tell him where I am.¡± This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°You don¡¯t seem that worried,¡± said Josie. ¡°He won¡¯t do anything while I am eating dinner,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°He¡¯ll wait until I head outside.¡± ¡°Do you want me to call the peelers for you?,¡± said Josie. ¡°No,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I don¡¯t want the police involved in whatever happens. Brown knows people on the force. It¡¯s better if I handle things on my own.¡± ¡°No, it isn¡¯t,¡± said Josie. ¡°No one messes with the Unicorn.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Josie,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°Things will work out. I just want to eat before there is a problem I have to fix.¡± ¡°Remember what I said,¡± said Josie. She walked through the swinging door to the kitchen. Rafferty smiled. You messed with the Unicorn, and you got the horn. He sipped at the unfinished first glass of beer as he watched the room and waited. If Brown did make a play inside the pub, there would be problems for him. Would he massacre all these witnesses? He realized he had no way to be certain what Brown would do to get back on top of his game. Kidnaping Hawley and not killing him had been a mistake. Now the whole police force was looking for him. The ex-detective watched the man by the door as he waited for his chicken. If the man left, he would too. He couldn¡¯t let the front of the pub be shot up just to trap his enemy. Josie came with his plate after he had finished the first beer. He thanked her as he picked at the food with a fork. He kept an eye on his watcher as he ate. How long did he have? He decided to eat half the chicken at least. The greens didn¡¯t matter that much to him. If the bloke got up to go, he would be right behind. Rafferty sliced off pieces of chicken with his knife and fork. He ate slowly to give the idea that he wasn¡¯t going anywhere for some time. He didn¡¯t want his watcher to know that he had been spotted. ¡°Hey, Jimmy,¡± said Tolliver, the bartender and owner of the pub. He looked like someone had used his face for a punching bag and his body to smuggle a laundry. ¡°There¡¯s a call for you.¡± ¡°Thanks, Toll,¡± said Rafferty. He walked over and picked up the receiver. ¡°Rafferty here.¡± ¡°Operator,¡± said the caller. ¡°Ready for instructions?¡± ¡°Go ahead,¡± said Rafferty. He smiled. Fletcher had a plan to solve the problem. ¡°You are to wait ten minutes, then leave the Unicorn,¡± said the Operator. ¡°Turn right and walk down the street.¡± ¡°Got it,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°Anything else?¡± ¡°No,¡± said the Operator. He hung up. Rafferty handed the phone back to Tolliver before going back to his table. He finished the chicken and his beer in a few minutes. He waited until the time was up before he got up and went the door. He went through and turned right like he had been instructed. The watchman came out of the Unicorn and followed from a distance. Rafferty wondered what trap was going to be sprung. He kept an eye on the street, thinking about how empty it felt. Shouldn¡¯t there be people walking along with him? He heard the thumping of feet behind him. He turned. The watchman had a cosh in hand as he rushed at the detective. He tried to bring the weight in a sack down on his target¡¯s head. Hands grabbed the arm to keep the weapon at bay. He punched with the other hand to free his other arm. Rafferty winced at the blow to his ribs. He pulled on the captured arm while turning. He aimed his captive at the closest wall. The watchman put up a hand to protect his face from the collision. The detective fell on the man and slammed his face in the ground while trying to keep a grip on the wrist to keep the cosh at bay. Cars rolled up. Men got out and surrounded the fight. Some of them had bandages from what had happened earlier in the day. Mick Brown pushed through the remains of his mob. ¡°Hands up, Rafferty,¡± said Brown. ¡°It¡¯s time for a slow ride.¡± Rafferty stood. He held his hands up. He gave the watchman a kick in the ribs. ¡°The police are looking for you, Mick,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I think you should turn yourself in.¡± ¡°I think that I am going to take care of you,¡± said Brown. ¡°Then I¡¯m leaving the country.¡± ¡°Really?,¡± said Rafferty. He wished he had a bulletproof vest. ¡°Yes,¡± said Brown. He pulled a pistol from under his coat. ¡°I need to make a public example out of you. No one can be allowed to stand up to the Brown Gang.¡± A black car rolled up on the other side of the gang¡¯s transportation. A man in an old army uniform and a face mask shot through the windows of the parked cars with a revolver. That sent the gang scrambling. Rafferty charged Brown as he ducked for cover. He hit the bigger man and they both went down. Brown rocked him with a back hand to the face. He gritted his teeth and slammed the man¡¯s head against the concrete sidewalk. Brown brought the pistol to shoot at point blank range. Rafferty fell on the arm, pointing the pistol at the man¡¯s own chin. The gangster pushed to get the weight off his arm so he could shoot. The detective heaved up and crashed down with his full weight on that arm. The gun went off. Rafferty grabbed the pistol. He had seen plenty of men with their faces blown off during the war. What was one more? He rolled from the body and shot at the gang. They had concentrated their firing at the black car and its masked driver. None had considered the detective a threat compared to someone shooting at them. He proved them wrong in a handful of seconds. Rafferty got to his feet. He kicked weapons away from hands as he looked around. Customers from inside the Unicorn poured out in the street. He waved at them. The black car pulled away in a cloud of smoke. Rafferty looked around. Police whistles filled the air. He made a face. It looked like he was going to spend the rest of the night talking to his former colleagues about what happened. ¡°Well, Jimmy,¡± said Tolliver. ¡°It¡¯s a good thing that other man saved your life, isn¡¯t it?¡± Rafferty nodded. He dropped the empty pistol to the sidewalk. Secret Service 20 Rafferty stood on a street corner a few feet from the Yard entrance. He rubbed his face as he thought about what he could do for the rest of his life. He had been questioned by a new detective constable for hours. The man wanted to know everything he had done in the last two days. He stuck with sleeping and drinking off his depression after finding out that Corklin was dead. The murdered man was the only one who could clear his reputation. Now he stood on the corner and wondered what he was going to do next. He doubted Sir Laurence was going to keep him on. He had taken Mick Brown, but his identity had been revealed to Inspector Hawley and the remains of the Brown Gang. Killing Brown had been enough of a reason for them to come calling, but knowing he was a masked vigilante outside the law would just add fuel to the fire. A cab rolled up to the corner. He frowned as the passenger leaned over. Sir Laurence gestured for him to get in. Rafferty slid in the back seat. He frowned at the glass between them and the driver. ¡°It¡¯s for his protection,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°Are you reinstated?¡± ¡°No,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°The Yard has dozens of questions about my involvement in all this.¡± ¡°I know,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°I¡¯m afraid I can¡¯t push from my office to get you rehired. The other job is still open.¡± ¡°So you want me to play dress up and chase down thugs in the night?,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°Seizing Mr. Brown¡¯s books have given us enough information to look at his partners through legal means,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°I imagine that some of the dock criminals will move around as we clear one gang up for another to take its place.¡± ¡°And you want me to harass these growing gangs?,¡± asked Rafferty. ¡°I would prefer surgical strikes where you cut away the parts we¡¯re interested in,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°I expect things will go worse than that.¡± ¡°What about Hawley?,¡± asked Rafferty. ¡°I talked to the Inspector,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°He has been read in to the public face of the organization. He knows he is not to talk to anyone until he is released.¡± ¡°When will that happen?,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°Possibly never,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°The war we¡¯re undertaking will possibly create a hole in the power structures of Europe that the Commandoes will be needed long after our lifetimes are over.¡± ¡°So we¡¯ll be fighting another world war,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°We¡¯ll be fighting a different sort of war,¡± said the knight. ¡°We¡¯ll be fighting in the shadows to do things that no other force could hope to do. More public branches will be moving to help the Allied Command in planning and execution behind enemy lines.¡± ¡°And we will be helping the war effort by keeping problems here at home down,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°There won¡¯t be any glory in it,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°You already knew that when you were assigned to look into the Brown Gang. The mask is more important than the man.¡± ¡°Who was the man who saved my life outside of the Unicorn?,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°You don¡¯t need to know that,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°I¡¯m recruiting more Commandoes from across the commonwealth. You¡¯re the first, but not the last.¡± ¡°What¡¯s next?,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I¡¯m going to drop you off,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°Then you are to take a week to think about things. Call the Operator when you¡¯re ready. There will be an assignment waiting on you.¡± ¡°The spy network?,¡± asked Rafferty. ¡°MI-6 wants to leave it in place,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°Capturing Bones has forced them to look elsewhere for a contract killer.¡± ¡°So we¡¯re going to foil them by letting them try to kill someone and taking out their shooter?,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°No,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°I already have things in place. Enjoy your week. Remember to file a report about everything you have done. We¡¯ll need it to find other links to Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.Brown¡¯s operations. If you want to keep going after that week, call the Operator.¡± Can I ask a personal question?,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°Just one,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°How much of this have you done before?,¡± Rafferty asked. ¡°Quite a bit actually,¡± said Sir Laurence. ¡°The old organization was asked to disband after the war. The ministry didn¡¯t need us, and wouldn¡¯t for a long time was the common view. After the Prime Minister met with Hitler, the call went out to reactivate my old unit. The problem was there was only two of us left. So I was asked to take on the responsibility to execute the Commando Program¡¯s birth, and I agreed.¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°That explains a lot.¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to let you out here,¡± said Sir Laurence. He rapped on the window. ¡°Try not to do anything stupid before you call.¡± The cab pulled to the curb. Rafferty got out, looking around. He had paid sporadic attention to where they were going. He smiled. He had been put out within walking distance of the Unicorn. He should have expected that. He walked down to the pub and stepped inside. The regulars hadn¡¯t started coming in yet. He had time to get something and head for home before he had to start answering questions from the crowd. ¡°Oi!,¡± said Josie. ¡°It¡¯s the prodigal son returned at last.¡± ¡°How¡¯s it going?,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°It was an exciting few minutes after the police hauled you off, Jimmy,¡± said Tolliver. He poured a glass of beer from a spigot behind the bar. He handed it over. ¡°I¡¯m sure,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°It¡¯s been a long boring talk in a featureless room for me the last day, or so. I would like to have your famous chicken dinner if you don¡¯t mind.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t see why not,¡± said Tolliver. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± ¡°Nothing,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I have a job offer to consider, but my days as a detective constable are over as far as the Crown is concerned. You already knew that, so there¡¯s not much to add to it.¡± ¡°Working for that toff we saw you with, Jimmy?,¡± said Josie. ¡°I¡¯m thinking about it,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°It¡¯s investigative work, it pays, and it¡¯s something I¡¯m good at.¡± ¡°Finding bad apples is a knack you have,¡± said Tolliver. He poured himself a shot of whiskey. He sipped it. ¡°What happens to the neighborhood?¡± ¡°Nothing,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°Apparently I will have time off so I can keep an eye on things around here, and the old place. I don¡¯t know what I will be doing next, but it won¡¯t be anything rougher than what I was doing for the Yard.¡± ¡°How many times you get shot at working for the peelers, Jimmy?,¡± said Tolliver. ¡°Maybe you should consider things before you jump into them.¡± ¡°I still have to pay the rent,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°Not all of us are a rich landlord, restauranteur, and wine dealer with an interest in exotic cheeses.¡± ¡°You said you wouldn¡¯t say anything about the cheeses,¡± said Tolliver. ¡°That is between me and my supplier.¡± ¡°As long as that supplier wasn¡¯t Mick Brown, you should be okay,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°You did for him, chum,¡± said Tolliver. ¡°You better watch your back when the rest of those blokes get out of prison. They¡¯ll figure out if they want to start over, or join someone else, and then some of them will come looking for you.¡± ¡°I think that would be a bad idea for them to do,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°War is coming on, and settling scores will be a bad idea.¡± ¡°Having bad ideas never stopped no one from trying them out,¡± said Tolliver. ¡°I can¡¯t argue with that,¡± said Rafferty. He glanced at his glass. He had drank half while they were talking. He might need to keep an eye on that. He didn¡¯t want to get so drunk that his reflexes suffered. Mick Brown¡¯s gang wasn¡¯t the only people who might want to have a talk with him now that he wasn¡¯t protected by the Yard¡¯s authority. The change of living quarters had probably been a good idea even though he had thought he had been compromised as early as his first night going after Brown. He had to be more careful dealing with the next target on Fletcher¡¯s list. He didn¡¯t want them even thinking they could threaten the Unicorn to get to him. He doubted that Fletcher wanted him to burn everything to the ground. He was not opposed to the idea. He doubted he would have to be that extreme chasing down other criminals. Some of them would be reeling from what had happened to Brown. It would make them easy targets. He sensed that Fletcher would use him to target criminals known to be operating against the government in some fashion. It would be up to him to expand the list of potential targets he might want to chase down. He wondered if he could get information on criminals that weren¡¯t targeted by the Commandoes. Josie appeared with a plate of grilled chicken, brussel sprouts, and a piece of celery. She put it on the bar with a flourish. ¡°Looks good,¡± said Rafferty. He finished his glass of beer. ¡°Can I have another?¡± Josie drew more beer from the tap for him. She handed the glass back. ¡°Thanks,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°The toff gave me a week to think about the job. I¡¯m going to call him tomorrow and see what he has for me.¡± ¡°Be careful, Jimmy,¡± said Josie. ¡°Running against the likes of Mick Brown can¡¯t be good.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± said Rafferty. ¡°I¡¯ll protect the Unicorn with my life.¡± ¡°That goes without saying,¡± said Tolliver. Rafferty smiled as he dug into his lunch. He felt this was worth fighting for even if you didn¡¯t know who you were fighting, or why. Fletcher would do what he could for him but if he needed to be sent out to get something done, it would be to get something done and not to waste time on a goal that meant nothing. And Fletcher would help him protect his neighborhood as part of the deal. He still had to work out where he stood with Hawley, but that could wait until he knew where he stood with himself first. Most police did vigilante actions sometimes, but now he had to do it as part of a job. That wouldn¡¯t sit well with the inspector. He wondered how much Fletcher revealed about his organization. He might have traded Brown¡¯s records for silence. On the other hand, he might have said be silent, or it¡¯s to the tower with you. If you were going to abuse the law to set up masked men to target criminals, you were not going to stop because an inspector said something. Rafferty finished his food and beer. He smiled as he headed out the door. He needed to get a nap and then head out into the night life and look around. Other bad men wanted Brown¡¯s spot. This would be his chance to look at some of them. He might have to visit them later as his other face. Inherit the Monsters 1 Deputy Bernard Strife ambled along the sidewalk. He did two walking patrols of the downtown such as it was of Earle City, Georgia. Three stores, a diner, a hotel, the jail, a saloon, and a doctor/vet/dentist office made up the strip that he walked. When he did that, he would take the car and drive out to the edges of the county since he also did two driving patrols a day too. Two other deputies and the sheriff shared responsibilities with him. He didn¡¯t trust the other deputies, and the sheriff seemed a bit lackadaisical. On the other hand, Earle City¡¯s biggest claim to fame was not being burned down by Sherman. Strife paused outside Luke¡¯s General Store to look inside the window. Two kids loaded up their pockets from the candy aisle while Luke rang a customer up. The kids ran for the door while the shopkeeper made change. The deputy blocked their way with his thin body. ¡°Empty your pockets,¡± said Strife. He felt he could catch them if they ran. ¡°We don¡¯t have to do that if we don¡¯t want to,¡± said the older boy. The other boy nodded in agreement. ¡°Empty your pockets,¡± said Strife. ¡°Or I¡¯ll empty them for you.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the problem, Barn?,¡± asked Luke. He and his female customer stood at the door to the store. The woman slid around the boys and walked away. ¡°I caught these two stealing,¡± said Strife. ¡°If they don¡¯t empty their pockets, I¡¯m going to find out who they are and take them home to talk to their parents.¡± ¡°I know who they are,¡± said Luke. ¡°These are Vernon Pressley¡¯s boys.¡± ¡°The drunk on Fifty?,¡± said Strife. ¡°Let¡¯s go talk to your pa. I¡¯m sure he will be glad to see you rolling up in a police car.¡± The two boys dumped out their pockets as fast as they could. Candy dropped to the sidewalk. They looked up at Strife. The youngest held back tears. ¡°Don¡¯t go into Luke¡¯s anymore,¡± said the deputy. ¡°Don¡¯t steal. Don¡¯t be stupid. Now get out of here.¡± The boys ran like the Devil was chasing them. Strife watched them go. He hoped he had straightened them out, but their father was a drunk slob who only worked when he couldn¡¯t freeload. No one knew where Mrs. Pressley had gone. The deputy thought she was buried on the lot they owned. Busting Vernon Pressley¡¯s face with a baton would be the makings of a good day. Putting him in Old Sparky would be even better. Luke looked down at the candy. Most of it had been warped out of shape by being in the boys¡¯ pockets. He needed to get his broom and dustpan to sweep the mess up. Strife walked down to the diner. He frowned at crowd gathered in the place. He liked to hit the diner last because it was right by the jail. He could go in, get a cup of coffee, get a patrol car, then drive his route on the county¡¯s back roads. Now he had a group of black sharecroppers, a group of white townies and farmers, and Bud Leeke, the owner of the diner, shouting at each other. He frowned. He didn¡¯t need a riot. ¡°What¡¯s going on here?,¡± Strife shouted at the top of his voice. It squeaked to his embarrassment. ¡°These negras don¡¯t want to get out,¡± said one of the farmers. ¡°Deputy,¡± said one of the black men. He wore a suit and tie. ¡°We just want some lunch before we go back to work.¡± ¡°Get out of here, Darkie,¡± said the farm boy. ¡°Shut up, Toothless,¡± said Strife. He frowned at the two groups. ¡°So what I have here is twenty five men and boys that will be sharing the three cells of the jail for the next day. That¡¯s eight and a third men to a cell.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t you get them out of here, Deputy?,¡± said Leeke, standing as tall as he could behind his counter. He stepped on a box behind it to give him the extra height he needed to run it. ¡°What do you think I¡¯m doing?,¡± said Strife. ¡°Running a social? The jail is right over there. Start walking.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to be locked up with no negras,¡± said the farmer. ¡°You should have thought of that before you disturbed the peace,¡± said Strife. ¡°I know it will be a bit crowded, and two of your cells will have to hold nine men, but it¡¯ll only be for twenty four hours.¡± ¡°Some of these people still owe me money,¡± said Leeke. ¡°You can¡¯t just lock them up before they pay me.¡± ¡°Yes, I can,¡± said Strife. ¡°Now if these groups of men were to order their food, pay This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.for their food, and leave, I might use the discretionary power of my office to just issue a warning.¡± ¡°What?,¡± said Toothless. ¡°I said get your food in a bag and run for the hills before I decide to open your melon like I was carving a jack o¡¯lantern, you moron,¡± said Strife. ¡°Get in line and let¡¯s go. Otherwise, it¡¯s the hoosegow for whomever wants to stay here and get on my nerves.¡± ¡°You can¡¯t do this,¡± was the general rumble. Strife frowned at the challenge to his authority. ¡°Do I have to shoot one of you idiots?,¡± said the deputy. ¡°You know I will. It will be just like being back in Korea. Let¡¯s go, you knuckleheads. Let¡¯s go!¡± The men got in line like the broken keyboard of a piano. None of them looked too happy about the arrangement. Strife stood by the door, one hand hanging down by the thirty eight he had bought when he was hired as a deputy. He had only had to use it once. One of Jim Lynch¡¯s cows had been hit by a truck. He had come on the scene afterward. He put the cow down to end its suffering. He decided he could put some of these idiots down to end his suffering. The crowd got smaller as Leeke¡¯s kitchen crew made their orders, bagged them, and sent them up front. Bud took the money with expressions of disdain and anger. He looked over at the deputy. Strife glared back with eyes of hatred. When the last man in line left, Strife looked out in the street to make sure he didn¡¯t have to break up trouble out there too. It would be just like the idiots to start fighting after he gave them an easy out. ¡°You cleared out the lunch crowd,¡± said Leeke. ¡°I¡¯ll be back to clear them out for dinner too,¡± said Strife. ¡°Cup of coffee, please.¡± ¡°That mob is going to get you fired, Strife,¡± said Leeke. He poured out a cup of black coffee. ¡°They¡¯ll see it as meddling in the way of things.¡± ¡°Until they do, they better keep the peace,¡± said Strife. He sipped his coffee. ¡°I don¡¯t have time to babysit children because they don¡¯t like the way things are changing.¡± ¡°Good luck on that,¡± said Leeke. ¡°Afternoon patrol?¡± ¡°Someone¡¯s got to do it,¡± said Strife. ¡°I¡¯ll be back to keep an eye on things.¡± ¡°Earle City is losing a bit of itself everyday,¡± said Leeke. ¡°Pretty soon, the only thing here will be this diner and the jail.¡± ¡°And I will still be doing patrols until that day comes,¡± said Strife. He finished his coffee. ¡°Put up a sign that says you don¡¯t want black people eating here, Bud. It¡¯ll cut down on your problems.¡± ¡°Why?,¡± said Leeke. ¡°Their money is just as good as a white man¡¯s.¡± Strife shook his head as he headed out of the diner. He walked over to the jail and got behind the wheel of the patrol car. He turned the engine over and started out of town. The county wasn¡¯t that big, and most of it was given to farms of one kind or another. Earle City served as the county seat, with housing around the strip for people working in town, or out on the farms. It usually took Strife about an hour to circle the area and return to town. Sometimes he would run into something he had to deal with before he could get back to town. That afternoon Strife saw a stranger walking along the road. He wore a dun trenchcoat and smoked a cigar. Upraised eyebrows formed natural question marks on the craggy face. The deputy pulled to a stop beside the walker. ¡°Need help?,¡± Strife asked. ¡°Not really, Deputy,¡± said the stranger. ¡°I¡¯m going down to visit my friend, Joe.¡± ¡°Joe who?,¡± asked Strife. There were five Joes within reach of where they talked. ¡°Carlson,¡± said the stranger. ¡°He lived down the road here the last time I came through.¡± ¡°He¡¯s not living down there now,¡± said Strife. ¡°He¡¯s at Holly Oak Cemetery.¡± ¡°Really?,¡± said the stranger. ¡°What did he die of if I might inquire?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Strife. ¡°I just know one of the other deputies was asked to make a check and they found him dead.¡± ¡°Holly Oak Cemetery?,¡± asked the stranger. ¡°Get in and I¡¯ll take you over there,¡± said Strife. ¡°It¡¯s on my way back to town.¡± The stranger got in the front seat. He puffed on his cigar as he pulled his coat around him. ¡°You know Joe long?,¡± asked Strife. He pulled off the shoulder of the road and headed along the back roads toward town. ¡°Almost all of his life,¡± said the stranger. ¡°I knew his old man too.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t remember seeing you in Earle City before,¡± said Strife. ¡°I come through once in a while,¡± said the stranger. ¡°It¡¯s okay.¡± Strife looked at his passenger. The man smoked his cigar, and looked out the opened window. He seemed harmless enough. The cemetery¡¯s fence appeared as they drove down the road. The deputy looked for the gate as the car rolled along. He pulled in to the main drive and pulled off the road. He got out and looked around. The man in the coat walked around the car. He chewed on his cigar. He examined the generally flat stones mixed with more angelic monuments and tombs. ¡°I think Joe¡¯s grave is over this way,¡± said Strife. He picked a path on the lawn and started walking. He checked the names on the stones as he went. He paused when he reached the Carlson grave. A mound of dirt sat on one side. Carlson¡¯s open coffin rested in the bottom of the opened grave. Strife looked around. He stood alone in the empty graveyard. The man in the coat had vanished while he was looking for the right grave. Strife rubbed the back of his head. He had an open grave and a stranger in town looking for the deceased. What did he do about it? The first thing he needed to do was let the sheriff know about it so they could be on the look out for Joe Carlson, or the other man, walking around. He doubted anything would get done unless he came up with something, but at that moment he was stumped and didn¡¯t like it. Strife walked back to the patrol car. He got behind the wheel. He picked up the radio mike. What should he say? He decided that a simple report should be enough. Once it was logged, the sheriff might run with it, or he might turn it over to the State Police. Strife didn¡¯t think there was enough around to search anywhere for the body. The only evidence he saw was his footprints in the grass. The body snatchers might have left clues for anyone else to find, but he doubted it. He triggered the mike. He might as well get this over with so he could head in and write a report on it. ¡°Sheriff¡¯s Office?,¡± he said into the mike. ¡°This is Strife.¡± ¡°Go ahead, Barney,¡± said the sheriff. ¡°I have a missing body down here at Holly Oak,¡± said Strife. ¡°Did we get an exhumation order no one told me about?¡± ¡°Not that I know of,¡± said the sheriff. ¡°What do you have?¡± ¡°Someone dug up Joe Carlson and took him,¡± said Strife. ¡°I¡¯ll call around and see if there was a problem,¡± said the sheriff. ¡°Stay out there and make sure they don¡¯t take anyone else.¡± ¡°Sure,¡± said Strife. Inherit the Monsters 2 Deputy Strife shook his head as the sun went down. He had been on the scene at the cemetery for hours. The sheriff still hadn¡¯t called back to release him. Abandoning his post looked good at the moment. He doubted anyone else was on the way to take over for him. The sheriff probably forgot to release him. It had happened once before at a wreck heading up to Atlanta. The sheriff had allowed him to stand on the side of the road after the cars and passengers had been cleared out by tow trucks and ambulances. His explanation was he had forgotten to send the all clear. Strife grumbled in the descending dark. Goldbricker probably forgot him again. What did he do about it? He checked his watch. He would give the goobers one more hour. After that, he was going back to the office and checking out. Strife saw a spark in his mirror. He got out of the car. He looked out of the gate. Something burned in the distance. Earle City didn¡¯t have a fire department. Out on the edge of the county, he might be able to call a company from one of the bigger municipalities. He needed to see where the fire burned before he did that. Strife got back into his car and turned it around. He headed out of the gate and rolled toward the glow. If he got back to the cemetery and it was empty, a fire took precedent over a graverobber. The sheriff should have sent one of the others to sit on the cemetery. Sitting in place for hours seemed to be all they were good at doing. Strife realized the burning was on a farm back off the main road. He wondered if they were burning debris. Should he bother checking it? He decided he was still on duty for the next forty five minutes. He might as well at least look at it. He pulled up to a gated fence. He got out of his car. The fire burned behind the farmhouse. He thought he saw people out there. He decided to check it. If it was the owners, it had gotten him out sitting on his butt. If it was trespassers, it had gotten him out of sitting on his butt. The fence consisted of wooden slats fixed in upright planks. The gate rested awkwardly on its hinges. He didn¡¯t bother opening it so he could drive up. He jumped the fence and marched across the lot toward the farmhouse. He wondered what was going on. It didn¡¯t seem right to have a bonfire. Maybe it was the Klan. Strife walked over to the bonfire. The figures he had seen were pylons stuck in the ground. Little flags flew from their tops. He looked at the farmhouse. A family stood there. The father had a bleeding cut on his forehead. ¡°Anybody want to tell me what¡¯s going on?,¡± Strife asked. ¡°These people came and set our yard on fire,¡± said the mother. ¡°Then they danced around the flame, and said some things. Then they piled into their cars and left. Their leader said they had some more fires to set.¡± ¡°How long ago was this?,¡± said Strife. ¡°About sundown,¡± said the woman. ¡°They said that was the best time to do their business.¡± ¡°They hit you, sir?,¡± said Strife. ¡°I tried to stop them,¡± said the father. ¡°The one guy hit me. He told me to stay out of the way. This was the end of negras.¡± ¡°Really?,¡± said Strife. ¡°Let me put this fire out, then I¡¯ll go look for these idiots.¡± The deputy walked back to his car. He opened the trunk. He pulled out the fire extinguisher he got from one of the volunteer fire departments around Earle City. The sheriff didn¡¯t want to spend money on the equipment, so he spent money out of his own pocket to get the thing. He had wanted it in case he had to deal with a vehicle fire. Now he was going to put it to putting out this bonfire. He walked back to the fire. He primed the extinguisher and then let a white cloud attack the flames. Two minutes of spraying blasted the burning pile to smoldering ashes. Strife nodded when the fire emitted smoke and nothing else. The extinguisher had been a good idea. He pulled the pylons out of the ground and stacked them up next to the burnt grass. ¡°I have to go look for these idiots,¡± said Strife. ¡°I¡¯ll come back and file a report if I can find them.¡± Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. ¡°Be careful,¡± said the woman. ¡°They sounded like crazy people.¡± ¡°Go to the doctor and get that crease looked after,¡± said Strife. ¡°I¡¯ll look around for these guys. If I catch them, I¡¯m going to need someone to press charges.¡± ¡°It won¡¯t be us,¡± said the man. He pushed his children into the house. ¡°It would be our word against a bunch of white men. That would never fly.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Strife. He picked up the fire extinguisher. He walked back to the car. He put the red sprayer in the trunk as he thought about his next move. He got behind the wheel. A bunch of whites burning blacks¡¯ property was the problem. Where could he find the whites? He decided to cruise along this part of the county. He expected to see something if he drove along far enough. He didn¡¯t need witnesses if he caught this group redhanded with their hands on the gasoline. He noticed a light in the distance. This could be the group that he wanted. He rolled forward to get a closer look. If he could catch them in the act, it was the hoosegow until the sheriff decided what to do about the charges. The lazy goof would probably cut them loose so they could continue their rampage. A caravan of cars and trucks rolled out of a driveway. They turned and headed away from the police car. Strife paused at what he should do. Should he stop and help with the fire, or chase after the line of vehicles? He braked the car and jumped out. He grabbed the extinguisher from the trunk and ran up to where another family watched their yard burn. The fire had been built around a tree and it stood framed against the sky. Strife aimed the sprayer at the flame and threw out a cloud of white over it. He sprayed as much of it down as he could. Then he handed the red can to whom he thought was the most qualified adult there and told him to keep at it until the foam ran out. He ran back to his patrol car. He had to get after that caravan before they started another fire. Once he had that done, he could run them in for arson and destruction of property. Strife got behind the wheel of his car and rolled down the road. He could still see lights in the distance. They winked at him as the trees and other growth blocked them from sight. He didn¡¯t bother to put the siren or lights on. He didn¡¯t want them to see him coming. They might keep driving out of the county if they saw him coming on after them. He slowed to a stop when he lost sight of the caravan completely. He got out of the car. He looked around in a circle. Where had they gone? He spotted three red lights moving perpendicular to the road he was on. He realized they had turned off on one of the farm roads ahead. He had to hurry if he wanted to stop them from burning anything else. Strife got back in the car and rolled along. He kept his eyes scanning for the right turnoff ahead. He nodded when he came to a gravel road and saw the brake lights ahead. He backed up and turned onto the road. He wheeled down that more cautiously as the patrol car bounced on any irregularity in the road. He pulled up under a tree to assess the danger he might be facing. He counted about fifteen men in what looked like costumes from Ben Hur. Some of them poured gasoline on the ground. Others hammered pylons like the ones he had seen at the other properties into the ground. A couple of the men pointed rifles at the house and shouted for the people to stay inside. If he wanted to stop the men, he had to do something about those rifles. He couldn¡¯t count on them not shooting at him when they saw his badge. It was time for him to get to work. He got out of the car. He pulled his pistol and circled around in the dark. He didn¡¯t think any of the working men paid him any attention. Once he was close enough to do something about the guards, things would get exciting. Strife came on the first man with a rifle while the man was watching the house. He wasn¡¯t watching behind him, or to one side. The deputy whacked him on the head as hard as he could with the butt of his thirty eight. The man groaned as he fell to his knees. Two more whacks stopped that. Strife searched his victim. He took a wallet, loose money, and a bag of something. He didn¡¯t look into the bag. He put everything in his pockets before he picked up the rifle. He put the thirty eight in its holster. Strife looked around. No one seemed to be looking at him. The other guard watched the preparations for the bonfire. His rifle rode the crook of his arm so he would have to adjust his grip to bring it up to shoot. The second man never saw the wooden butt that knocked his lights out. Strife looked at the group of men preparing the bonfire. They had gathered around the perimeter, standing outside the pylons like the wooden stands marked a do not cross line. One of the men pulled out a lighter to set the bonfire ablaze. ¡°Stop, or I¡¯ll shoot!,¡± said Strife. ¡°Just put the lighter down, and everything will be all right.¡± The man with the lighter looked at him. His eyes glinted in the night. He smiled to show rotten, crooked teeth. He thumbed a flame into life. ¡°I will shoot you,¡± warned Strife. ¡°Put out that flame, and step away. This is the last time I am going to tell you.¡± The man dropped the lighter into the gas soaked grass. Blue fire ran through the grass. A shape formed into a word that vanished under a layer of smoke. Strife shot the man. He felt that he couldn¡¯t let whatever was going on keep going, and shooting the leader usually stopped that. The man looked at him in anger, but he didn¡¯t fall down like the deputy expected. The group of men laughed as their leader advanced on the deputy. Smoke trailed from the man¡¯s mouth. ¡°Now is the time that I impose my will on your petty species and wipe out your civilization,¡± said the man. ¡°You can¡¯t stop me now that I have made the call.¡± Strife shot him again. This time he put the bullet in the man¡¯s head. He might be wearing a bulletproof vest. Shooting higher should take care of that. This time the man did fall down. Smoke erupted from his mouth and nose. It fled to the other men that had formed the circle. Their eyes changed as Strife watched. They took on that red glint and smiles as they regarded the deputy. ¡°Give up, or face the consequences,¡± said Strife. He pointed the rifle at the closest man. ¡°You are too late to do anything to stop me, man,¡± said all of the group at the same time. ¡°I have made the call.¡± Something reared out of the drifting smoke. It looked down on the farm with burning eyes. Strife took a step back. He had seen a lot of things in Korea, but nothing like this. If someone had told him he would come home from killing Chinese and Koreans to face a dragon of fire and smoke, he would have punched them in the face. Inherit the Monsters 3 Strife stepped back. How did he stop a thing of smoke and fire? He needed more information. The group around the dragon didn¡¯t look like they wanted to talk. And shooting them didn¡¯t seem the right course of action. Maybe he could get something out of the two nitwits he had knocked out. He waved at the white man standing in the door of his house as he ran across the yard. He didn¡¯t know if the man saw him, or not. He didn¡¯t have time to save him while he tried to secure his captives so he had someone to squeeze for knowledge. He grabbed the two men and dragged them behind the house. A stream of green flame ripped through the wooden structure as he took cover. He slapped one of the men in the face. He needed to wake him up so they could talk. The first slap didn¡¯t work. He did it again. A groan answered his effort. Strife grabbed the man by the neck with one hand. He slapped him with the other. ¡°How do I stop that lizard?,¡± Strife demanded. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said the summoner. ¡°Hoke was the one who found the book, and stuff. He said we could wipe out the blacks.¡± ¡°What book?,¡± asked Strife. ¡°Hoke found this book when we looked through Joe Carlson¡¯s house,¡± said the stool pigeon. ¡°He took it home. He showed us some stuff, so we threw in with him.¡± ¡°Did you take the body?,¡± said Strife. A beam of flame blew up a tractor in the yard. ¡°Hoke said he couldn¡¯t find the fuel he needed,¡± said the summoner. ¡°It was the last place we looked.¡± ¡°I want you to grab your buddy and run,¡± said Strife. ¡°I¡¯ll try to draw that thing off so you can get out of here.¡± ¡°Good luck on that,¡± said the summoner. Strife helped the man to his feet. He picked up the other captive. He draped the man over his buddy¡¯s shoulder. He turned the man around. ¡°Count to thirty and start running,¡± said Strife. ¡°Try to keep low. I don¡¯t know how well it can see in the dark.¡± ¡°Got it,¡± said the summoner. Strife ran down to the other side of the burning house. He pulled his thirty eight. He couldn¡¯t see it working on the monster hovering above him. On the other hand, shooting the circle of callers might do something. He stepped out from behind the crackling wood. He started firing at the circle. He just needed to attract attention. It didn¡¯t matter if the summoners died at this point except as revenge. Green flame lit up Strife¡¯s world. The pressure of energy on the air sent him flying. He hit a burning tree and kept going. Strife picked himself up. He hurt all over. Pieces of his skin flaked away as he tried to figure out why he was still alive. Smoke filled his mouth and nose. He inhaled and let it rush into his lungs. He had a lot of questions. He put his survival down as a fluke. He looked around. His pistol was nowhere to be seen. How did he fight back against that thing? He took a moment to look at the setup. He felt he had time since the thing thought he was dead. The wounded summoners still maintained the circle around the base of the dragon. He had gotten lucky and shot at least one of the men in the head and he had joined his leader. The dragon rose above the circle. It glared at the world. It didn¡¯t try to cross the circle¡¯s line. Maybe it couldn¡¯t. How did he get rid of it? Maybe if he could put the fire out, that would put the dragon out. How did he do that? There wasn¡¯t any water around as far as he could see. He saw a well. He couldn¡¯t get the water out of that fast enough to put the fire out. He needed something else. He couldn¡¯t cover the fire with dirt fast enough to put the flame out. The Mark might be able to do strong man things like that, but he couldn¡¯t. Strife looked around. He saw an outcropping of rock in the distance. It stood above the mowed grass. He couldn¡¯t lift that with his bare hands. He saw a bulldozer. He wondered if the thing would burn him again if he could get that started. He ran for it, using the remaining trees as cover. He climbed up into the seat. He This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.smiled when he saw the keys were still in the ignition. He turned over the engine and put the machine in motion. He lowered the blade so it scraped up the top of the ground as it rolled forward on its treads. Green flame touched the metal. Strife threw himself over the back of the machine. He didn¡¯t want to be caught in an explosion. He landed in the fresh dirt. The tractor kept trundling forward. The top of it glowed under the assault of the dragon. The lizard reached down and picked the hot machine up in a paw. It flung the bulldozer away with a flick of its wrist. Strife looked at the pile of dirt. It was so close. A few more feet and the fire would be covered up. What did he do now? Flame reached for him. He threw himself clear. He caught a glimpse of the caravan. The cars and trucks still had their lights on. He realized the engines were still running. He might be able to make his plan work after all. He sprinted for the closest truck. He ran in front of bursts of burning air. He grabbed a rake on the way. He snapped it in half with a shrug of his arms. He hoped that this worked right the first time. He opened the door of the truck on the driver¡¯s side. He jammed the stick in, and released the brake. He jumped clear as the truck sped off. Strife sprinted to the second car in line. He jumped behind the wheel. He released the brake and hit the gas. He squinted against the whips of flame reaching for the truck. He winced when it blew up in a ball of fire. He watched the dragon whip its head around to shoot at him in the fast moving car. He only needed to last for a few seconds. He saw the beast open its mouth. He gritted his teeth and kept going. The car plowed into the pile of dirt. It drove the soil on top of the flame. Strife turned around in the circle to spread it over the bonfire. He spun out on the other side of the circle. The dragon shrank with part of the fire put out. It turned to hiss at Strife as he looked at it. He got out of the car. He looked up at it. The dragon opened its mouth to fry him again. He ran into the circle. He stamped the remaining flames out with his bare feet. It hurt, but it had to be done. He brought his foot down on the last spot and extinguished the bonfire for good. The men fell. Blood poured from the wounds he had inflicted earlier. The smoke dispersed. It took the dragon with it. Strife looked at the devastation. He shook his head. He wondered how much worse it would have been if that thing had been able to wander around. One of the summoners had come through the mess without getting shot, or burned. He looked around in a daze. Strife walked over and punched him in the face as hard as he could. The man went down with a twisted jaw. Strife decided that maybe he shouldn¡¯t hit people as hard as he could from now on. He seemed to be a lot stronger. The deputy decided that he needed something to wear. He couldn¡¯t walk around without his clothes. He paused. He had lost his wallet, and his pay. He went and took the dead men¡¯s wallets. He looted the living summoner last. He walked to where he had left his car. He needed to call in and see if he could get a fire department out there to put out the flames. Maybe he could get someone to take over for him so he could go home and get his other uniform. He reached his car and was glad he had left the keys in the ignition. He opened the trunk. He pulled out a blanket and turned it into a kilt until he could get some clothes. He looked through the wallets. He found one for Hoke Mosh. He read the address. He decided to go out there and look around. Maybe he could find whatever they had left from Joe Carlson. Strife sat down behind the wheel. This had already been a long night, and it wasn¡¯t midnight yet. He grabbed the mike. He had to call this in. Then he was going to look around Mosh¡¯s place. ¡°Sheriff¡¯s Office,¡± Strife said into the mike. ¡°Anybody there?¡± ¡°I¡¯m here, Barney,¡± said Orrie Zabbai. ¡°How¡¯s it going at the cemetery? Anybody show up to dig up any more dead people.¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t know, Orrie,¡± said Strife. ¡°I¡¯m out here at three five five seven Old Savannah Road. There¡¯s fires, and dead men. You might want to send the State Police, and a fire department.¡± ¡°What?,¡± said Orrie. ¡°You heard me,¡± said Strife. ¡°You might want to get things going. I have to get a new uniform. I¡¯ll write everything up when I get back to the office.¡± ¡°Wait!,¡± said Orrie. ¡°What am I going to tell the sheriff?¡± ¡°Tell him there was some kind of gas explosion,¡± said Strife. ¡°I think he should hurry. He might find some survivors out here.¡± The deputy put the microphone down. He looked in the mirror. He saw a pinpoint of light. He got out of the car. A man in a dun coat puffed on a cigar as he led the two guards and the old man from the burned down house on the road. ¡°You again,¡± said Strife. ¡°How¡¯s it going, Deputy?,¡± said the man in the coat. He helped the others sit on the side of the road. ¡°Who are you?,¡± said Strife. ¡°What do you know about this?¡± ¡°I¡¯m just a nobody,¡± said the man in the coat. He made a half shrug in his coat. ¡°I was passing through and saw things needed a nudge. You came through all right. Good job.¡± ¡°Getting me burned to a crisp was a nudge?,¡± said Strife. ¡°You¡¯re more of a hero than I thought,¡± said the man in the coat. ¡°Joe¡¯s old protections worked like a charm, didn¡¯t they? If I were you, I would think about who else might want to use that old book Mosh wanted from Joe. It might prevent a lot of trouble if you found it first.¡± ¡°We¡¯re not done,¡± said Strife. ¡°Time¡¯s wasting,¡± said the man in the coat. ¡°And put some pants on.¡± ¡°You think you¡¯re funny, don¡¯t you?,¡± said Strife. ¡°A regular Jack Benny,¡± said the man in the coat. He puffed on his cigar as he turned to walk away. ¡°You did a good job, Deputy. Joe would be proud you¡¯re taking up his mantle as the next Herocles.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want this,¡± said Strife. ¡°Who does?,¡± said the man in the coat. He vanished into the dark. ¡°Are you guys all right?,¡± asked Strife. The old man nodded. The surviving summoners looked at the ground. ¡°I have to go,¡± said Strife. ¡°Help is on the way. I told Orrie this was a gas explosion. I think you three should do the same.¡± The old man nodded again. Strife got in his car and drove to Hoke Mosh¡¯s trailer on the other side of the county. He found Joe Carlson still guarding his book in an easy chair while watching television with embalmed eyes. The deputy took the book from the dead hands. He took it outside and set fire to it. He ignored the wailing in the air as it burned. He didn¡¯t know if that was a good thing, or not, but at least no one would use the book again. The Shield 1 Frank Flanagan walked into his lab in New York. He had converted a space underneath a factory he owned part of for this place under the city. He put the cares of the business world away while tinkering with things that drew his interest. He doffed his overcoat and hung it on a coat rack next to the door. He looked around. Everything looked ready to help him with the mysteries of the universe. Flanagan went to the shelf with his log books on it. He wrote down everything about an experiment as he did it. It saved him a lot of trouble of redoing something he had already done. He had two projects he was working on. He planned to create the next generation in bullet resistant cloth. The other project was trying to find a chemical mix that he could use to boost his physical and mental abilities. He admitted that both were failures at this point. The formulas he had tried on his rats killed them. Some became very violent and tried to eat their way through their cage bars. Some curled up and died. He performed autopsies on all of his subjects and most had their brains explode inside their skulls. The cloth burned up under the treatments he tried. He could not get the fiber to react the way he thought it should. He sat down at his work desk. He went over the experiments one by one. He frowned at the results noted in his changing script. He saw something that might be doable. He needed to mix the necessary things together. If this worked, he might be able to at least get his brain chemical to do more than cause gray matter to explode in their bony enclosures. If it didn¡¯t, he would give it up so he didn¡¯t have to cut up another mouse again. He got the bottles of chemicals from their shelves and placed them on his work table. He consulted the log book. He mixed together lower portions of each ingredient and put it in a stand over a Bunsen burner. He turned the flame up and watched as the chemicals started to simmer. The phone rang. He turned from the burner to go get it. Who would be calling him now? ¡°Flanagan,¡± he said into the receiver. ¡°This is Arnold Courtland, Mr. Flanagan,¡± said the caller. ¡°I am calling to see if you thought about our offer.¡± ¡°I thought we talked about this,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I don¡¯t want to sell. I have something I¡¯m working on. I¡¯ll call you back when I¡¯m done.¡± ¡°Wait, Mr. Flanagan,¡± said Courtland. ¡°I can double our offer.¡± The chemicals reached a steady boil in their container. Smoke gathered under the lid. The bottom of the glass turned black. ¡°I have something cooking,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I will call you back, or you can call my office tomorrow. Good night.¡± Flanagan hung up the phone and went back to his heating set-up. He frowned at the bubbles roaring against the top of the flask he was using. He reached for the control knob on the burner. The flask shattered and covered him with the chemical mixture and broken glass. He fell to the floor. He tried to get out of his shirt and tie. Fumes put him to sleep while he struggled with the soggy mess. Flanagan woke up hours later. He didn¡¯t know where he lay at first. He looked around and saw the small amount of damage to his equipment. He should not have answered the phone. He examined the log book. He had put down every chemical he had planned to use on the last page. He realized he had heated the mixture longer than he had intended because of his talk with Courtland. He had no way to know how many minutes the formula had boiled before it cracked the beaker. He figured at least two minutes, but he wasn¡¯t sure. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. He wondered when his brain would explode and kill him. He sat down at his desk. How much time did he have? What could he do with it? The rats had died within minutes of their injections. So he should be dead in a few hours. He didn¡¯t like the thought, but he could fall over at any moment. How did he want to spend his time? He couldn¡¯t do a lot in the time he expected to die. Maybe he could figure out what was wrong with the fiber while waiting. He could give the formula to his partner to create suits for the army. He went back to the log book. He looked at the section that he had set up for the fiber. He read everything in a second. He frowned as he thought about the different chemicals moving in harmony to do what he wanted. He wrote down the formula he felt would create a breed of toughened fiber. He just needed to create some to make sure his formula worked. Flanagan took off his stained shirt and tie. He threw them in the metal trash can he used for failed experiments and went to his spare living quarters to clean up and get a new shirt. He went back to his office and unplugged the phone when he had his new shirt on. Why did Courtland want his company so much? It didn¡¯t make sense. His operation was small and specialized in chemical engineering to make things. Some of his patents had been applied to aircraft, but that was just enough to keep the business going. He supposed the patents were valuable enough if added to something else. He considered the implications for a few moments while gathering up some string from a small pulley and vat he had built. He didn¡¯t have enough information. He wondered how much Courtland would lie to him if he asked him what was going on. He expected something was going that he didn¡¯t know about yet. He should go over his books again. Then he should go over all the contracts his company was involved in. He had feeling the answer was in one of those two places. He had talked informally with Courtland several times about his company. The man refused to take no for an answer. Maybe he should ask his staff to dig into the man. Maybe they could find an answer for him. He worked on the fiber for hours. The hard part was making sure that his creation didn¡¯t break apart, rot away, or become so immobile that no one could wear it. It took him several tries, but he thought he had it. He tried to cut, burn, and bend the strands. They slightly reacted, but not anything like they should. He poured more of the chemical into a mold. He went to his bedroom and got another shirt. He pressed that down in the mold with the mix. He closed the top on the thing. Sleeves and tail stuck out of the lid, but that wouldn¡¯t affect the chest area. Flanagan waited for an hour before he opened the lid. He smiled. The shirt seemed to be stiff as a board and hard as rock. He tried to set fire to it, cut it, or tear it. He couldn¡¯t do any of that. He got his chair and took it to the end of his lab. He placed the altered shirt in it. He got his thirty eight from his desk. He fired into the shirt. He whistled. The material stopped the slugs cold. Flanagan laughed at his partial success. He needed a way to turn this into something someone could wear. How did he do that? He threw the empty brass and the crushed slugs in the failed experiment trash can. He put the gun back in his desk. He walked back to consider the shirt and its bulletproofing. He inspected where the bullets had struck. He found indentations in the front surface. He pulled the thing away from the back of the chair. Nothing penetrated to the back. The chair was untouched. Flanagan considered the evidence. He could make more of the stuff to stop heavier caliber bullets, and knives. The weak points were going to be whatever he used to join the two molds together. He realized that if he wanted to make the stuff into something usable, he might need to know how drilling worked on it. He could use that to put screws in to hold two halves together around the wearer. Did he have a drill in his lab? He looked around. He frowned when he didn¡¯t see the required equipment. There should be one upstairs. He could take the bulletproof ex-shirt upstairs to work on it. The night crew knew him well enough to let him work on his business without bothering him. Once he was sure that the screws would work, or not, he could think of other ways to make a shirt out of his mix. He paused to consider that he probably was going to die before he figured out the problem. He checked his watch and smiled that he had already outlived the first rat he had tested on. He wondered how much more time he had before he keeled over. He carried his burden through the factory floor until he found a drill press. He asked the man using it to let him have five minutes. The guy stepped back from the machine. Flanagan put on safety glasses and put his vest under the drill. He spun the machine¡¯s engine up and then lowered the bit against the hardened shirt. He checked it after five minutes. A hole was there, but it had taken longer than what he would have thought. He thanked his worker and took the shirt off the drill stage. He had something really tough compared to normal protective suits. A knight clad in one of these could take as many arrows as he wanted. He had to get his formula really tested before he tried to patent it, and put it on the market. He had a game changer in his possession. Something crashed through a skylight. He watched it fall to the factory floor. He realized the object had a lit fuse. He screamed at his people to get back as he ran forward with the vest in front of him. He fell on the object, covering it with his new invention. The explosion sent him flying. The Shield 2 Flanagan woke up in a hospital bed. He looked around slowly. He had a basin of water on a table by his bed. Bandages covered his arms from what he could see. He expected some more wrappings around his legs. Light through the shades over the window drifted across the room. He seemed to be alone. How did he get clothes so he could leave? He sat up. He doubted his clothes that he had been wearing had survived the blast. Why was he still alive? That piece of scrap must have been tougher than he thought it could be. It must have taken the brunt of the blast. Was it still in one piece? He paused to take stock. He hadn¡¯t thought the treated shirt would protect him. He had assumed that it would take some of the blow so he could save the factory and his employees. The fact that it had taken a blast at full power meant it might keep soldiers alive on any current battlefield. A big man came into the room. He wore a badge on the front of his jacket. His suit had seen better days. His hat had a hole in it near the band in the center. ¡°How you doing?,¡± the big man said. ¡°Do you know what happened to you?¡± ¡°I fell on a stick of dynamite,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Too true,¡± the detective said. ¡°You lived. Why is that?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Let me introduce myself,¡± the detective. ¡°I¡¯m Detective Dern. What can you tell me?¡± ¡°I was drilling holes in a test material,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I looked at the material. Drilling didn¡¯t seem the way to go. I was about to take it back to the shop when I saw the dynamite falling from the skylight. I threw myself on the dynamite to protect my employees.¡± ¡°It looks like this test material saved your life,¡± said Dern. ¡°We gathered what we could. The lab boys haven¡¯t seen anything like it.¡± ¡°I came up with the formula and mixed it just before the thing with the dynamite,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Do you know who tried to blow up my factory?¡± ¡°That¡¯s why I¡¯m here,¡± said Dern. ¡°Do you have any enemies?¡± ¡°Not really,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I do have one guy who¡¯s been badgering me to sell the company to him. I doubt he would try to dynamite it to persuade me to sell.¡± ¡°What¡¯s this guy¡¯s name?,¡± said Dern. ¡°We¡¯ll have to check him out in the course of things.¡± ¡°Arnold Courtland,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°He says he can pay me money for the company, but I don¡¯t think he¡¯s acting alone. I think he has some backers for the money.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Dern. ¡°Did you see the person who used the dynamite?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Flanagan. He closed his eyes and tried to see the memory. It appeared in front of his mind¡¯s eye like a photo. ¡°I was standing beside the drill press. I had the test material in my hands. Bobby Hatchett, the drill operator, was standing beside me. He was about to take the drill back and start drilling holes for the parts we build. I saw Frank Detillo, the floor supervisor, talking to one of our guys on another machine across the floor from me. I couldn¡¯t see who he was talking to from where I stood. The skylight broke. I looked up. I saw a hand pulling back from the skylight. The stick of dynamite was already falling to the floor. I estimated where it would hit and ran toward it. Various employees were running away. I covered the stick with my experiment and pressed down on it,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°That¡¯s all I can remember. There¡¯s a ladder on the side of the building to get to the roof to service the air-conditioner.¡± ¡°The lab boys dusted it, but they didn¡¯t find any prints,¡± said Dern. ¡°If you remember anything else, I want you to call me.¡± He pulled out a business card and handed it over. ¡°I¡¯ll look into this Courtland and see what he was doing,¡± said Dern. ¡°I doubt he showed up at my factory to blow it up in person,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Right now, he¡¯s the only suspect,¡± said Dern. ¡°He wants your company. An explosion in one of your factories might be something that would make you sell. Only you prevented that explosion from doing any harm except to yourself. He¡¯s viable, but it will be hard to prove unless we catch whomever he hired to do the dirty work. Then we can try to flip them, and see if they will rat the guy out.¡± ¡°The odds aren¡¯t great,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°No, they aren¡¯t,¡± said Dern. ¡°When the doctors release you, I¡¯ll need you to come down to the precinct to make your statement. If we find out anything about Courtland, I might have more questions for you.¡± ¡°You aren¡¯t going to be able to protect the factory,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°No,¡± said Dern. He looked down at the floor. ¡°I don¡¯t have any manpower to put down there as a guard, and you have an extensive list of places that could be attacked. And if I can¡¯t guard one place, I couldn¡¯t guard most of them for this. My feeling is If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.this guy is going to try again. You¡¯re going to have to hire people for protection until I can figure out how to link things together. Right now, we just have Courtland as an obvious suspect. What I can take to court is nothing.¡± ¡°I understand,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I need to make some calls. Thank you for your honesty.¡± ¡°If the guy comes after you here, I have a man on the door until you leave,¡± said Dern. ¡°Once you¡¯re out and about, you¡¯re going to need a bodyguard.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I¡¯m going to take precautions.¡± ¡°All right,¡± Dern said. He started for the door. ¡°Detective Dern,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Yes?,¡± said the policeman. ¡°What if it wasn¡¯t Courtland?,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Then I¡¯ll have to find someone else who wanted to shut down your factory,¡± said Dern. ¡°Get well, Mr. Flanagan.¡± He left the room, shutting the door behind him. Flanagan looked around. He smiled when he saw the phone. He needed to get out of the hospital. Then he could start making arrangements. Arnold Courtland was going to pay for trying to blow up his factory. He would dig up the proof somehow. He knew he could do it. How could he do it? Flanagan reached for the phone. He needed to call the office. Then he could make arrangements to get out of the hospital if his secretary was there. Under no circumstances was Arnold Courtland allowed in any of the properties Flanagan Solutions owned. This went double for any attempt to buy the company. Flanagan reached over for the phone. It hurt a little to move, but he put that down to being caught in an explosion and moved on. The body was a wonderful machine, but like any machine, it was subject to wear and tear. He dialed his office¡¯s direct line. He waited for Josephine Rich to pick up the phone. She handled a lot of the office business. After he had been taken to the hospital, some decisions still had to be made. Josephine would be making them. ¡°Mr. Flanagan¡¯s office,¡± Josephine finally said. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. Mr. Flanagan is not in right now. Can I take a message?¡± ¡°I need you to figure out which hospital I am in, and come down here and get me out,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Mr. Flanagan?,¡± said Josephine. ¡°Thank you for calling. I have reporters calling, that man Courtland has been calling for a meeting, I have people from the board calling. What am I supposed to do about all this?¡± ¡°First things first,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I don¡¯t know where I am. I need you to find me, and come down here and check me out. Better bring a suit and some shoes. I think I have spares in my office. Anyone from the board calls, tell them I am fine and getting back to work, tell Courtland I will talk to him eventually but the answer is still no so he might as well quit calling. Any reporter should be told that everything is okay, and I will be back behind my desk as soon as possible.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Josephine. ¡°I doubt the hospital will tell me where you are. I¡¯ll let the board members know you¡¯re okay.¡± A nurse came into the room. She put her hands on her hips as she waited for him to get off the phone. ¡°Which hospital am I in?,¡± asked Flanagan. ¡°St. Xavier¡¯s,¡± said the nurse. ¡°I have to check your bandages as soon as you hang up.¡± ¡°It¡¯s St. Xavier¡¯s, Miss Rich,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I¡¯ll be there as soon as I can,¡± said Josephine. ¡°Thank you,¡± said Flanagan. He hung up the phone. ¡°Excellent,¡± said the nurse. ¡°I¡¯m Nurse Maybourne. What I am going to be doing is unwrapping your bandages and putting fresh ones on. It might be a little painful but it has to be done so we can check on your wounds and see if they are healing.¡± ¡°How long have I been in the hospital?,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°About thirty five hours,¡± said Nurse Maybourne. ¡°I¡¯m going to need you to lie still. This might sting a bit, but I only have to check if things are healing around the stitches. If they are, you might be able to go home tomorrow.¡± ¡°That¡¯s nice of you,¡± said Flanagan. His hands had some bandages, but not a lot. His experimental shirt had protected him that much at least. Nurse Maybourne rolled a cart over beside the bed. She set out wrap, scissors, and gauze. She pulled down the thin blanket the hospital supplied for their beds. He shook his head at the wrapping around his lower legs. At least he had all of his toes. She took the scissors and cut away the wrapping around his shins. He winced at the sight of the stitches in sight. He counted six wounds, but thought there might be more that he couldn¡¯t see. ¡°Looks good,¡± said Nurse Maybourne. ¡°Looks very good.¡± ¡°So my legs won¡¯t fall off?,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°No,¡± said Nurse Maybourne. ¡°Give me a second. I¡¯ll wrap them up and you can get some rest until the doctor comes to see you.¡± She fitted gauze to the wounds, and then wrapped fresh bandages around his legs. She nodded when the job was done. ¡°Doctor Hughes is treating you,¡± said the nurse. ¡°He¡¯ll probably want you to get plenty of bed rest. This is the first time we have seen someone caught in an explosion and lived.¡± ¡°That makes me feet lots better,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°When will the doctor come by?¡± ¡°It shouldn¡¯t be too long,¡± said Nurse Maybourne. ¡°I¡¯ll prod him along.¡± ¡°Thank you very much,¡± said Flanagan. The last thing he wanted was rest. He didn¡¯t know how long he had to live, and he didn¡¯t want to spend what he had left trapped in a hospital bed. The nurse left the room. Miss Rich better be on the way with his clothes so he could get out of there. He turned on the radio. Big band music played as he watched the shadows from the shades in the window move about. How long did he have bothered him the most. At any second, while trying to protect his company and employees, he could just drop dead. That was the reality he faced. Every second trapped in the hospital meant he had less time to get things done. ¡°This is Mike Colter for NBC News,¡± said the radio. ¡°Top stories are the Mark saves boat at sea. The musclebound hero brought the USS Armand into port here in New York City after the cargo ship was struck by a torpedo. There are an unknown number of dead from the hit. We will update you through the night. ¡°Barry Nicklaus has set a world record by sailing a balloon to the edge of space. He has brought back pictures of the Earth. ¡°The Promethean saved people from a fire earlier today. He vanished without a trace before the police and fire department could arrive. ¡°I am going to turn the broadcast over to Dashiel Montauk in London,¡± said Colter. ¡°He will give us a brief rundown of stories happening in Europe.¡± Flanagan turned off the radio. He looked up at the ceiling. Masked men tended to work outside of the law to get results. Could he do that? Did he want to? What did he gain by investigating this attempt to kill him? Dern couldn¡¯t do anything to gain evidence if Courtland stonewalled him. It would be Flanagan¡¯s word against the other man about the constant demands to sell the company. If he did take on a masked man identity, how did he go about getting evidence? What would be important to show that Courtland had tried to blow up his factory? How did he tie Courtland into anything? Flanagan thought about the problem until the sun went down. His legs hurt. His stomach protested the lack of food. And the turned on radio had decided to treat him to Cass Cassidy, Man of Action while he was trapped in his bed. He had to get out of there before he went crazy. Josephine showed up with a suit and shoes. ¡°Hello, Mr. Flanagan,¡± she said. The Shield 3 ¡°All right, Miss Rich,¡± said Flanagan. He liked being back in his office. He still needed to take steps. Dern might be a whiz of a detective, but he wasn¡¯t going to crack this. He didn¡¯t have enough evidence to do anything. ¡°What do we know about the attempted bombing of the factory in Jersey?¡± ¡°The bomb was a stick of dynamite. It was dropped through the skylight on the main floor of the factory. It didn¡¯t do much damage since you smothered it,¡± said Josephine. ¡°That¡¯s all?,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Yes, sir,¡± said the secretary. ¡°If the police learned something, they didn¡¯t share it with the board as far as I know.¡± ¡°What do we know about Arnold Courtland?,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Nothing,¡± said Josephine. ¡°He wants the company, but that¡¯s all we know about him right now.¡± ¡°So the first thing we need to do is learn more about Courtland,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°That requires detectives on the payroll. Do we have any?¡± ¡°No, sir,¡± said Josephine. ¡°Let¡¯s start with that,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Ralph Couteri heads our legal department. Call him and ask him to recommend somebody. Then we¡¯ll call his recommendation and see what he can do.¡± ¡°Are we going to have more guards for the factory?,¡± said Josephine. ¡°I think so,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°We need more than Pop Stevens at the gate. These guys already got by him once. At least they didn¡¯t kill him while they were trying to kill the crew in the work area.¡± Josephine made a note. Maybe Mr. Couteri had dealt with security agencies as well as private investigators. ¡°What about the factory?,¡± said Josephine. ¡°How much damage was done?,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°They are still looking things over,¡± said Josephine. ¡°They are supposed to give a report to the board later this week.¡± ¡°Let me know as soon as the report is sent in,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I expect the board will try to remove me. A lot of them don¡¯t have that much invested in the company. They¡¯ll want to sell everything and get out.¡± ¡°But you saved the factory from being wrecked with that thing you were testing,¡± said Josephine. ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°They are going to claim that we should give in to Courtland after this. It would be even better if I had been killed.¡± ¡°So someone comes along and bullies them and they fold?,¡± said Josephine. ¡°I don¡¯t think they will. We¡¯re gearing up for war. Everyone sees it. The company will make a mint in the next few years. They won¡¯t let that go.¡± Flanagan nodded. His company would be a small cog compared to others vying for contracts. They stood to triple their earnings if the government asked them to supply parts for the Army and Navy. That could be why Courtland wanted to buy the company before they turned their earnings into something to rival the big boys that also wanted contracts. Once he had control, he could rake in as much as he wanted with no problem. Flanagan frowned. He had a nest of theories. He had to rule some of it out so he could see the real picture. Then he could try to figure out what to do about his saboteur. If anything he expected another attack to try to finish the job. ¡°Go ahead and call Couteri,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Get him working on the security and investigating part of things. Then I need to look at the contracts we¡¯ve signed in the last three years maybe. I doubt there is anything there, but I want to make sure.¡± ¡°Mr. Courtland?,¡± asked Josephine. ¡°Put him through if he calls,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°It will probably be another demand for me to sell with some veiled reference to something else happening to the company if we don¡¯t. If he keeps at it long enough, he can drive our stock down so that he can pick it up for pennies on the dollar and just take over.¡± ¡°I understand,¡± said Josephine. ¡°Let me get the copies of the contracts you want, and then I will call Mr. Couteri.¡± Flanagan rubbed his face with his bandaged hands. How did he protect his company and his employees. All of them could be targets until he figured out what was going on and took care of it. At least his petrified shirt had worked better than he thought it would. It had saved his life when he should be dead. If he wanted to be a masked man, he could do worse than building armor out of the mix. Josephine returned with a stack of folders. She placed them on his desk. He squinted at the paperwork. This could take longer than he had thought at first. ¡°Mister Couteri said he knows someone. They¡¯ll come by to talk to you later today,¡± said Josephine a few minutes later. ¡°Thank you, Miss Rich,¡± said Flanagan. He had the first file open in front of him. His The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.finger marked where he had stopped reading. ¡°If anyone from the board calls, I¡¯ll take it, or if someone calls about trouble at one of our places, I¡¯ll take that. And Courtland. Everyone else will just have to leave a message unless it¡¯s life or death.¡± ¡°I understand,¡± said Josephine. ¡°Let me know if you need anything else.¡± She stepped out of the office and closed the door to leave him in peace. She hoped he knew what he was doing. The doctors didn¡¯t like him checking out of the hospital and going back to work. She didn¡¯t think it was a wise move either. Flanagan examined the papers, focusing on parts that he thought would give him a motive. He admitted he didn¡¯t see anything in the contracts they had signed that would prompt a takeover. There were contracts that his lawyers were working on. Maybe there was something in one of those. He searched his memory. They had two contracts with the government waiting to be signed as soon as the set up work was done. Flanagan leaned back in his chair. Those contracts were confidential. As far as he knew, his people were still bargaining with the appropriations people on how much they would pay to buy the parts they wanted. Could Courtland know about that? If he did, how did he find out? Flanagan had no illusions about absolute secrecy. There were a ton of people involved who could have leaked the information to Courtland, or set him up as the buyer so they wouldn¡¯t be exposed. That was something he would have to talk to Couteri¡¯s investigators about when he called them to get them started. Who was on the negotiating team for his side? He realized he didn¡¯t know. Maybe it was time he found out. ¡°Miss Rich?,¡± Flanagan said into his intercom. ¡°Yes, sir,¡± said Josephine. ¡°Can you find out who was assigned to selling the government parts?,¡± asked Flanagan. ¡°I¡¯ll have to call down to the sales office,¡± said Josephine. ¡°I¡¯m not sure there will be anyone down there at this time of night.¡± ¡°What time is it?,¡± asked Flanagan. ¡°It¡¯s about nine, Mr. Flanagan,¡± said Josephine. ¡°Mr. Couteri called to say he would get on your request. I haven¡¯t taken a call from Mr. Courtland, or the board.¡± ¡°Can you get me a cab,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I would like to go out to the factory and look around.¡± ¡°No problem,¡± said Josephine. ¡°I¡¯ll call one for you. Do you need me to ride down with you?¡± ¡°No,¡± said Flanagan. He locked the contracts up in his desk. ¡°I assume if Courtland is going to call, he¡¯ll call my work area. The board might not even know I¡¯m out of the hospital. When you come in tomorrow, I want you to find out who is negotiating with the government and get a list of everybody on both sides, lawyers, senators, congressmen, everybody. Put it on my desk for me.¡± ¡°Yes, sir,¡± said Josephine. ¡°Is there anything else?¡± ¡°Go home and get some sleep,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°We¡¯re going to have a long day tomorrow.¡± ¡°Yes, sir,¡± said Josephine. ¡°Do you think they¡¯ll try again?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°We¡¯re waiting on their next move while trying to figure out who the players are. If we can identify what Courtland wants from the company, and if he was behind the dynamiting, we might have something we can use to shut the attempts down.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Josephine. ¡°I will get that list the first thing in the morning.¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I¡¯ll see you in the morning.¡± ¡°What are you going to do at the factory?,¡± asked Josephine. She reached for her phone. ¡°I¡¯m going to look around and see what I can see,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I would like to know how much of the blast was contained for example. Falling on top of the dynamite was a stroke of good luck on my part.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll have a cab waiting for you by the time you get downstairs,¡± said Josephine. ¡°Thank you, Miss Rich,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Be careful. We don¡¯t know what Courtland will do once he knows I am out of the hospital and moving around.¡± ¡°I will,¡± said Josephine. ¡°You be careful, Mr. Flanagan. A lot of us depend on you. If something happens to you, the rest of the board would think nothing of tearing the company apart for a little bit of money.¡± Flanagan couldn¡¯t disagree with her assessment. He headed to the elevator, thinking about what he knew so far. He admitted he didn¡¯t know enough about Courtland. The motive of wrecking something just enough so you could take it away from someone else was there, and it was as old as the hills. It didn¡¯t mean much if he couldn¡¯t prove it somehow. He stepped out of the elevator and headed across the lobby. He doubted Courtland knew he would be at the factory, unless he had called to make sure that he would be there. That showed extensive research into his habits. Very few people knew that he used the lab under the factory all the time. Which one would have told Courtland that? Maybe Courtland had him followed around to learn his habits. That was better than thinking that one of his associates was in cahoots with the buyer. He filed the suspicion anyway until he could rule it out. People did things for money they wouldn¡¯t consider for any other reason. If Courtland promised a section of the profit from the company, or keeping the mole on the board, or maybe a huge settlement, then selling the company out might be on the table. Flanagan crossed the lobby. He saw the cab and realized that he didn¡¯t have his wallet with him. He rubbed his face. He needed to get to the factory. His lab had some spare money he could use to pay the cab driver off. Tomorrow, he would have to replace his identification. He should have asked Miss Rich to bring him his spare money when he asked her to get his suit. He patted his pockets as he walked up to the cab. He reached in. Miss Rich had put some money, a spare checkbook, and a pen in his pants before she gave them to him at the hospital. He smiled. He needed to give her a raise. ¡°Where to, Mac?,¡± asked the cab driver, getting out of his car. ¡°I need to get to New Jersey,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I have some business to take care of there.¡± He gave the driver the address of the factory. Flanagan settled in the back seat as the cabbie drove out of the city and across the state lines. Once he was back in his lab, he could take a nap, and look over his notes from that night. He realized that he had sent Miss Rich into the place with the mixture still sitting in its bowl. He put the thought aside. He had to trust someone. Miss Rich had proven worthy of that trust for years. He could count on her. If he couldn¡¯t, he had already exposed his test work to her. She could duplicate it if she had the log sheets from the book. The cab pulled up in front of the gate. Flanagan paid the driver, walked through the gated entrance to the lot while waving to the guard. He headed for the front door of the factory. He descended to the door to his lab. He found it locked. What had happened to his keys? They must have been scattered in the explosion, or left at the hospital. Did the hospital have his personal effects? He hadn¡¯t bothered to ask. He noticed a upside down cup at the foot of the door. He picked it up. His keys lay underneath. He smiled. He definitely was giving Miss Rich a raise after he had everything sorted out. He took the keys and opened the lab door. He stepped inside and looked around. Everything looked like he had just left it. The only difference he could see from his casual inspection was the mix in the bowl had hardened into unusability. He could mix more now that he knew how to do it. The Shield 4 It took Flanagan a small amount of minutes to make a small batch of his formula and let it sit. He noted that after a few minutes it would solidify into a hard shell. How did he apply that to make armor? He realized he could do a chestpiece with a tailor¡¯s dummy using a shirt. He couldn¡¯t build the rest into a suit unless he created pieces to protect him like ancient armor. He would still need to drill holes once he had the pieces set out to put in ties so he could wear everything, unless he used pockets. He sat down and thought about that for a minute. He could make pads and then use pockets to seal them inside the suit. He frowned at that. It would work great unless the cloth was destroyed. The pads would fall out of place. He needed a way to keep the fluid still fluid but also capable of taking the impact he had already seen. If he couldn¡¯t do that, he would have to settle for making a bulletproof vest and wear that under his clothes from then on. He thought about the potential armor for a while. His experiment had protected him from a stick of dynamite as it blew into fragments. He was lucky to still have his legs, but he hadn¡¯t been seriously hurt. He considered that he had been the target. It made sense except for the weapon used. Why hadn¡¯t they used a gun when he left the factory? That made more sense unless they wanted to kill part of the crew too, possibly wreck the place just enough to knock it out of business but not enough where it would cost a lot to renovate. How soon would it take for them to try again? He had too many variables and he wasn¡¯t sure if Courtland was behind the attack. He needed to make sure before his board tried to muscle him out on the street. If he had the armor, he could sell that to the government for the war effort. That would take things out of his hands except as the maker of the armor. The problem was he couldn¡¯t figure out a way to make it mobile. If he could solve that problem, the Army would pay through the nose to have a regiment of bulletproof soldiers. And that would stop any problems with Courtland trying to buy the company. He got the log book. He looked at the formula for the mix. He frowned as the letters moved in his head as he looked at the chemicals and how much of each he had used. He saw some shifting of ingredients as he thought about making a more flexible mix. He wrote down a formula on the next page of the log book with his pen. He regarded the new formula, comparing it to the old one. This might be what he wanted. He had to make a batch and see what happened when he dipped a shirt in it. Flanagan smiled. Once he had a suit, he just needed to test it to see what it could do under pressure. He got a suit out of his office. He frowned when he realized he was almost out of spare clothes. He would have to bring some more down when he had time. He put everything on hangers and hooks on the wall next to his working area. He pulled the chemicals he needed from the shelves. He mixed everything together as precisely as possible. When he sold the formula to the Army, he would have to buy blenders and tubes to place each mix in its bowl to come down an assembly line. The workers would have to be aware to keep the stuff moving, or the hoses empty. Once it was frozen in place, they would have to take the hoses apart and replace the blocked section. Flanagan poured his mix into a vat. He put the frozen mix in a bowl on a shelf. When he had time, he would try to chisel the stuff out of the bowl so he could use it later. He took his suit, folded everything up, and stacked that in the vat inside the mix. He placed his shoes on top. He shut the lid and set the timer. Once the timer went off, he would pull his things out and test them. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. If they were as bulletproof as his original experiment and easier to wear he should be one step closer to what he wanted. The timer went off as he thought about other things he could put to work. His mind seemed to generate methods all by itself. He wrote most of his ideas down in his logbook so he could use them later. He opened the vat. He grabbed tongs and reached into the vat. He pulled out his suit and shoes. He frowned at the color change first. The suit had been a brown when he put it in, now it was blueish purple. Then the suit had looked tacky to the touch. He realized that he should have put the items in one at a time. He pried them apart with heavy work gloves so he didn¡¯t have any of the stuff cover his own hands. Flanagan shook his head. He should have thought about putting everything in separately. That was stupid of him. He hung the clothes up on the hooks. He realized he should have put down a drop cloth first. He went and grabbed an old painter¡¯s cloth and dropped it under the hanging clothes. He placed the shoes upside down on the cloth at the edge. He had really flubbed this. He checked the vat. He still had enough of the mix to try another test. He just needed more clothes. Would the material stay fluid while he went and got another suit and shoes? He watched as the excess dripped off his hanging clothes. He frowned as the color remained. Maybe he had done some of the needed things the wrong way, but he still might have his suit of armor. He waited and watched. The drop cloth turned purple under the clothes. He wondered if he should install a heat lamp to dry new suits faster. Flanagan waited until nothing else fell on the drop cloth before he touched the jacket with the tongs. They didn¡¯t stick to the material. He grabbed the sleeve with the tongs and pulled. The sleeve stretched for a few inches, but no further. He smiled as he put the tongs aside. The mix hadn¡¯t moved from the cloth to the steel at all. Would it be as bulletproof as the original hardened mix he had invented first? He hung the suit jacket on his impromptu shooting range. He got his thirty eight and loaded it. He fired at the jacket. The bullets hit but didn¡¯t go through. The suit jacket filled the dents as he watched. He got a knife and tried to stab the jacket. The point turned aside. He tried to cut it with scissors. The blades wouldn¡¯t close. He got his lighter and held the flame to a sleeve. Nothing happened. Would it stand up to a stick of dynamite? He didn¡¯t have a way to test that other than getting blown up. He decided he didn¡¯t need another trip to the hospital. Flanagan had a suit of armor for protection. Could it be worn? What kind of procedures could he put in place to mass produce the thing for others? Why was it dark purple? He decided that he could wear the suit jacket over his regular shirt and pants. He didn¡¯t want to test the whole thing out if he didn¡¯t need it. He pulled the suit jacket on. He stretched this way and that to make sure the thing would move with him. He smiled at the smoothness. He decided he needed to take a nap. In the morning, he would have to go to the office and talk to Coutri about the contracts and the security force he needed. Then he needed to change his will so his company would not fall into the wrong hands. His board members were okay in their way, but they had no clue about how things worked outside their boardrooms. Selling his company would be number one on their agenda if he couldn¡¯t put a stop to things. He needed to make sure Courtland was responsible, or knew what was going on, before he tried to do anything against the man. Once he had an idea, he could try to gather evidence to hand over to Dern. Others could be vigilantes, but he had responsibilities to his employees and his customers. Running around in a mask was not something he could just do because he wanted to do that. He hoped he could settle things without a prolonged war. The contracts with the government could fall through if this carried on too long. His company could lose one contract but not every contract afterwards which is what he was looking at if Courtland did try to damage his factories and chemical plants. If he couldn¡¯t secure contracts with the government in a reliable way, most of his business would dry up. Then he would have to lay people off. He wasn¡¯t going to allow that to happen. Flanagan decided to take his jacket out and wear it around. If nothing happened to it, then he had a bulletproof piece of cloth as light as anything made. If the formula did something to the fabric, then it was back to the drawing board. He didn¡¯t see any disadvantages. And it was late enough that the streets wouldn¡¯t be full of people. He could hit any late night place that was open, get something to eat, and then come back to work on anything else that he might like to do. And when his mind needed to shut down, he could take a nap without worrying about anyone breaking into his lab. He made sure he had his money. He needed to get his identification replaced as soon as possible. He would have to go down to the license office and get one sometime between all the meetings he foresaw. Flanagan took one look around before he stepped out and locked up his lab. He scanned the hall as he went upstairs. The factory looked like it was going full steam. He waved at one of the supervisors before he crossed the factory to the door. At least no one was throwing dynamite at him. He walked down to the guard box, stepping around the arm blocking the drive. He waved at the guard. He turned and headed down the road. He could see the lights of the city and the walking felt good to his addled brain. The impact of bullets against his back threw him down where he stood. The Shield 5 Flanagan didn¡¯t move. Someone had shot him. He didn¡¯t feel any pain. Shouldn¡¯t he feel something? Was he dying? He closed his eyes and mentally took stock. He seemed to be okay other than lying on the side of the road on his face. Did he want to stand up? Was the gunman still there? What were his options? He heard steps crunching toward him. He decided that the walker was behind him and on his right side. How close was he going to come to make sure that he had committed the deed? The steps stopped. The position wasn¡¯t close enough in Flanagan¡¯s judgement. One of them would have to move closer to the other before he could get his hands on the other man. He heard the click of a pistol hammer drawing back. He knew that his coat would take another impact. His head wouldn¡¯t. He had to take advantage of whatever surprise he had. Flanagan rolled against the other man. He took his assailant¡¯s legs out from under him. He moved the other way as the man hit the road. The gunman tried to crawl away from the confrontation. He had lost his pistol somewhere so he didn¡¯t shoot the suddenly living target like he wanted. He wanted the distance to find the gun, get set for continuing the fight, or running away. He did not like the sudden weight on his back, trying to bulldog him into the ground. Flanagan grabbed his enemy by the neck, wrapping an arm under his chin. He locked his grip with his other arm. He held on until the man stopped moving. He pulled the man¡¯s jacket down to hamper his arms before looking around for the missing pistol. He spotted the revolver lying on the asphalt and scooted over to pick it up. He climbed to his feet and looked around. What did he do now? The gunman got his hands under his body to push up to his feet. A clubbing to the back of the head stopped that. Flanagan emptied the man¡¯s pockets. He kept the small amount of money and the wallet he found. He left the rest on the road. He opened the wallet up and found that his assailant was Ian Shanks. He took the license card and dropped the wallet. He liked having a name for his enemy. It gave him avenues to attack. He walked back to the guard house. The police would know who Ian Shanks was if he had been in business long enough to feel their touch. At least he knew two things. His jacket had muffled the impacts of the bullets so he had barely felt them. He had to be personally killed for whatever plan to continue. Once he knew for whom Shanks worked, he would know who wanted him out of the way. ¡°Hello, Mr. Flanagan,¡± said the guard. ¡°How was your walk?¡± ¡°Some guy tried to kill me,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Let me see the phone. I have to call the police to come out and get him.¡± ¡°It will be the state police out here,¡± said the old man. ¡°They handle anything outside the city.¡± ¡°Thanks, Pop,¡± said Flanagan. His mind turned over the timing. Someone must have told Shanks he was coming back to the factory. Or Shanks had been told to watch for him. Were there watchers on his house? ¡°Operator? I need to call the State Police. Someone tried to shoot me just down the road from the Flanagan chemical factory. I left him on the road to call for help.¡± Flanagan hung up. He leaned against the door of the box. He watched the road. He didn¡¯t see any lights on the road, but that didn¡¯t mean anything. If Shanks had a partner, the partner could drive up without lights, pick up Shanks, drive away, then cut his lights on to see. A minute without lights wasn¡¯t going to slow a determined driver down any. ¡°What went on?,¡± asked Pop. ¡°Someone took a shot at me in the dark,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°He missed. Now I¡¯m hoping the police will arrest him so I can press charges and find out what¡¯s really going on.¡± ¡°A bombing and a shooting,¡± said Pops. ¡°It doesn¡¯t make sense.¡± ¡°Why¡¯s that?,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Why bomb the place? A bombing stops the place from working, but if it misses, then it does nothing,¡± said Pop. ¡°Shooting you won¡¯t stop the place from working. Others will keep it going because of the money involved.¡± ¡°A man named Courtland offered to buy the factory,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°If he blows it up, what good does it do him?,¡± said Pop. ¡°Unless that¡¯s the point. In which case, why offer to buy it? He must know you would never sell.¡± ¡°I would never sell?,¡± said Flanagan. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Mr. Flanagan, you treat this place like it¡¯s your child,¡± said Pop. ¡°You¡¯re here every night. You know everyone, and everyone knows you. Anyone with half a brain would know you would never sell once they heard you say anything about it.¡± ¡°So you think the only way to get the factory is to get rid of me?,¡± said Flanagan. He smiled at the analysis. ¡°Unless getting rid of you had nothing to do with the factory at all,¡± said Pop. ¡°I don¡¯t follow,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Yes, you do,¡± said Pop. ¡°Whomever is trying to kill you might not care about the factory at all. You just think he does because of this offer for it. He might want to kill you for other reasons that you don¡¯t know yet.¡± ¡°So if I can figure out whom Shanks works for, I will know what¡¯s really going on?,¡± asked Flanagan. ¡°I don¡¯t see why not,¡± said Pop. ¡°On the other hand, you might have two enemies acting across from each other. One wants the factory, the other just wants you dead.¡± ¡°Thanks, Pop,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Once you run down this Shanks, and whom he works for, then you can see if it has something to do with the factory,¡± said Pop. ¡°If it is something personal, how many want to kill you?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t really know,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I would suggest you make a list,¡± said Pop. ¡°Then you can check on everyone you suspect.¡± ¡°Good idea,¡± said Flanagan. He considered the idea that he might have been wrong about someone wanting to take the factory from him. It opened up a list of suspects that he had no idea where it ended. He needed to have other people look into things he couldn¡¯t do himself. He might need auditors to check his company finances. Were things going as well as he thought they were? Had he missed something? Flanagan came out of his reverie when he saw flashing lights approaching. He wondered if the state police knew this Ian Shanks. Who had hired the hitman? He considered that Shanks might be an alias. If it was, maybe it had been used often enough that someone real had been attached to it. A pair of state policemen got out of a marked car after it pulled up to the gate. They didn¡¯t look happy to be called out in the middle of the night. One pulled out his pad to take notes as they approached. ¡°I¡¯m Patrolman Broderick, and this is Patrolman Coulsin,¡± said the lead officer. ¡°Someone reported an attack.¡± ¡°I did,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I was walking down the road. Someone shot at me. I fell down. When the robber got close enough to take my things, I jumped him and fled. I left him down where it happened.¡± Flanagan pointed into the darkness beyond the factory. ¡°All right,¡± said Broderick. ¡°That seems straight forward. He didn¡¯t take anything?¡± ¡°No, sir,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I got his gun from him and hit him with it. Then I came up here to call for help.¡± ¡°You got his gun?,¡± said Broderick. ¡°Yes, sir,¡± said Flanagan. He pulled the pistol from his jacket pocket. He extended it butt first. The state policeman checked the weapon¡¯s cylinder, sniffed the barrel. He shook his head. ¡°Been fired four times,¡± said Broderick. ¡°Looks like a .38. Maybe the lab will have a ballistics match when we turn it in.¡± ¡°Serial number?,¡± asked Coulsin. He wrote down the number as it was read to him. ¡°This is the other guy¡¯s?,¡± said Broderick. ¡°Yes, sir,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Do you have a firearm?,¡± asked Coulsin. ¡°I have one in my desk,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I use it to test materials.¡± ¡°What do you mean?,¡± asked Broderick. ¡°I work here in the factory, and some of the things that I work on have to be tested to see if they can be hurt,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Typically I use a .38 like this one. I don¡¯t carry it around with me.¡± ¡°What¡¯s your name?,¡± Broderick pointed at Pop Stevens. ¡°Paul Stevens,¡± said Pop. ¡°What do you know?,¡± asked Broderick. ¡°I saw Mr. Flanagan walk down the road here,¡± said the guard. ¡°I heard some noise but I didn¡¯t see what caused it. Mr. Flanagan walked back here from where he had gone. Then he called you from here instead of calling from inside.¡± ¡°Flanagan?,¡± said Coulsin. ¡°Frank Flanagan,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Why were you walking down there in the dark?,¡± asked Broderick. ¡°I had been working on something,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I just came out to walk some of the frustration off.¡± Flanagan broke into the chemical formulae for the suit of armor he was working on without going into what he had already done. He noted that Coulsin seemed to write two words of his lecture down, but he didn¡¯t see what they were. ¡°All right,¡± said Broderick. ¡°Can you show us where you left this guy?¡± ¡°Sure,¡± said Flanagan. He checked his watch. ¡°He probably came to and fled by now.¡± ¡°If he is still there, we¡¯ll take him in,¡± said Broderick. ¡°The lab will run the gun for his fingerprints. It looks like a robbery gone bad. You¡¯re going to have to file a statement.¡± ¡°I¡¯m ready to do that,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Where did you get that jacket?,¡± asked Coulsin. ¡°It looks purple.¡± ¡°I made it in my lab,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I had hoped for something else, but the chemical dye turns everything purple.¡± ¡°Sounds bad,¡± said Coulsin. ¡°Worse,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°It¡¯s scratchy like you wouldn¡¯t believe.¡± ¡°Bad, eh?,¡± said Broderick. ¡°I would take it off, but I have to put it under a microscope now that I have worn it,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°The faster we get this done, the better I¡¯ll like it.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s collect our robber,¡± said Broderick. ¡°Bring the car, Quin. I¡¯ll walk down with Mr. Flanagan. Turn the high beams on. We don¡¯t want to miss anything.¡± ¡°Right, Pat,¡± said the younger officer. He put away his pad and walked over to the patrol car. He got behind the wheel as his partner and Flanagan started down the road. Broderick had Flanagan stay out of the light from the headlights as they walked. He paused at a spot and put down a quarter. He walked on for a bit more. ¡°He should be a few feet ahead,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I remember the stars when I came around the bend.¡± Broderick looked back, shielding his eyes with a hand. He gestured for his partner to cut the lights. ¡°The factory is out of sight,¡± he said. ¡°The guard might have been able to hear the gunshots, but I don¡¯t think he could have seen the sparks from there.¡± Flanagan looked over his shoulder. He agreed with the eyeball assessment. Even if Pop had seen the sparks of the shots, would he have thought they were gunshots, or something more innocent? Coulsin cut the lights back on and they walked forward some yards. Flanagan compared what he could see in the light to what he had seen in the dark. They were right on top of where Shanks should be. He wasn¡¯t lying there for them to take away. ¡°He¡¯s gone,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°He left some blood behind to prove your story,¡± said Broderick. He pointed at a patch in the road. He looked around. ¡°He could be anywhere by now. We¡¯ll put out a notice and hand the gun over to detectives to trace down. Maybe they¡¯ll get lucky and run him down before he heals up.¡± Flanagan frowned, but nodded. There was nothing more he could do at the moment. The Shield 6 Flanagan sat behind his desk at his office and looked at his notes. The jacket had stopped four bullets without taking a scratch. He had felt the impacts, but had received no damage as far as he could tell. The small soreness he felt could be from the actual fight later instead of getting shot. He wondered how he would have felt if he had worn the shirt under the jacket. Would that have spread the impact even more after the initial hit? He couldn¡¯t expect it to stop heavier weapon slugs, but it had been a good field test. He wished it had been something he had come up with and not because someone had tried to kill him. ¡°Mr. Coutri and Mr. Westwood are here,¡± reported Miss Rich from the outer office. ¡°Send them in,¡± said Flanagan. Coutri, a serious man in a good suit and grave demeanor, and Westwood, smiling too much and wearing a suit pulled off a rack somewhere, came in. Flanagan waved them to padded visitor chairs. He hoped they could help him out. ¡°Thank you for coming,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I need your help with some problems that have come up.¡± ¡°What kind of problems?,¡± asked Coutri. ¡°A man named Arnold Courtland has persistently asked me to sell my interest, or the whole company, to him,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°The answer has been no, but he won¡¯t go away. I need you to dig into him, Mr. Coutri. I need to know everything you can find out about his financial status, and if anyone is behind him. I need a way to attack him, and possibly buy his company, and interests out from under him if I can. In any case, I want the offers to stop, as well as any offers to the board he might be making.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll see what I can do,¡± said Coutri. ¡°It might take some time depending on how he has arranged his businesses to protect his holdings.¡± ¡°Do what you can as fast as you can,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I need ammunition for the next board meeting.¡± Coutri nodded. He wrote the name down on a card and put it back in his suit pocket. ¡°Mr. Westwood,¡± said Flanagan. He looked at a note on his desk. ¡°Mr. Coutri has recommended you as an investigator. I need you to get me everything you can on a man named Ian Shanks. I need you to find him, and keep an eye on him. I need to know everyone he talks to, and everything he does until I figure out how he fits in to things.¡± He handed over the license he had taken from the gunman the night before. ¡°I took this from him last night,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°He tried to shoot me.¡± ¡°Do the police know?,¡± asked Coutri. ¡°The New Jersey State Police know about the attempt, and they have his gun,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I don¡¯t know if they can trace it back to him, or if it belonged to someone else. They don¡¯t know I took the license, or that I know who he is.¡± ¡°That could lead to trouble down the road,¡± warned Coutri. ¡°I¡¯m not interested in the police catching him,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°That would be nice, but it won¡¯t solve my problem. I have someone trying to take over my company, and an attempted bombing of my main factory, and an attempted shooting of me. I doubt that Shanks decided on his own let¡¯s kill Frank Flanagan. I need to know if he is working for Courtland, or someone else. If he is, then I can think about what I can do about it.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll put out some feelers,¡± said Westwood. ¡°If he has a record, he might have some known associates I can use to find him. If he doesn¡¯t, I¡¯ll have to start at this address and work my way outward.¡± ¡°Do whatever you have to do,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Only a few people know about this. A detective named Dern is looking into the bombing. He spoke to me at the hospital. The state police said they were going to hand the pistol over to a detective to chase down. He hasn¡¯t called yet.¡± ¡°It might take a while,¡± said Westwood. ¡°I assume if we find this Shanks, you¡¯ll want to turn him in.¡± ¡°I¡¯m more interested in finding his boss,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°If you see him committing some other crime, turn him in. I¡¯ll be on the look out for his replacement.¡± ¡°He missed,¡± said Westwood. ¡°A new guy might already be out there. We won¡¯t know until he takes a shot at you. I¡¯ll get you a bodyguard to try to keep you safe.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I have some things to do at my factory, but I don¡¯t plan to be out in the open except for transit between here and there.¡± ¡°How do you want to proceed after we complete these tasks?,¡± asked Coutri. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I don¡¯t know if they are connected. If we can prove that they are connected, we can take them both out by proving they¡¯re a conspiracy. If they are separate efforts, then we can take one, then the other.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Coutri. ¡°I¡¯ll see what I can dig up.¡± ¡°Leave everything with Miss Rich if I am not here,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°She¡¯s the only one I trust.¡± ¡°Got it,¡± said Westwood. ¡°Where is this factory, and does it have a phone?¡± Flanagan pulled a card from a tray on his desk. He wrote down the number of the lab phone on the back and handed it over. That struck him for a second. He paused at the thought. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. ¡°Courtland called me on my private line at the factory,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Only four people other than you have that number, and I just gave you the number.¡± ¡°So one of them must have talked to Courtland and handed him the number to call you,¡± said Westwood. ¡°Names?¡± ¡°Miss Rich, Frank Saxon, Jim Rydell, Larry Rutherford,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Saxon runs our West Coast operation. Rydell is on the board. Rutherford is my Treasurer and Financial Officer.¡± ¡°There is a small chance that he didn¡¯t get the number directly from any of these people,¡± said Westwood, taking notes. ¡°He could have stolen it somehow, or hired someone to steal it for him.¡± ¡°Find out,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I would stake my life on Miss Rich, but Saxon could get a promotion out of a change of ownership, Rydell would get some money if he was able to sell his shares, or get more shares in the new company, and Rutherford could want a bigger seat at the table.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Westwood. ¡°I¡¯ll put some men on them and see where they go. If Saxon is out west, I¡¯ll call some people out there and subcontract the work.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Miss Rich, could you come in, please?¡± The secretary opened the door and stepped inside. She closed the door behind her. ¡°Miss Rich, Mr. Westwood is going to need personnel files and so forth from us,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Also he will have someone guarding you until this is over. You¡¯re the only one I trust, and I don¡¯t want any problems for you.¡± ¡°So you think someone will throw a bomb at me?,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°Not really,¡± said Westwood. ¡°I like to be thorough. Mr. Flanagan said Arnold Courtland called him at his lab, but only a few people have the number. Is there any way he could have gotten the number from you.¡± ¡°Yes,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°Depending.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t understand,¡± said Westwood. ¡°I have a list of people I have to call on my desk,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°Mr. Courtland has come here to talk to Mr. Flanagan. All he would have to do is look at the number for Mr. Flanagan¡¯s lab on that list if he had time to read it between my notifying Mr. Flanagan he was here for his appointment and showing him to the office door.¡± ¡°Do you know of anyone else who might know the number?,¡± asked Westwood. ¡°Mr. Rydell,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°He likes to call if there is a slightest hiccup, and Mr. Rutherford, who calls when there¡¯s some problems with our cash flow, or numbers. They call my office first, and then generally say they will call the factory looking for Mr. Flanagan. I assume they both have the lab number.¡± ¡°Anybody else?,¡± said Westwood. ¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°Usually people call me, I call Mr. Flanagan, and he calls them back, or tells me to act on whatever I was asked.¡± ¡°Can you give me an example?,¡± said Westwood. ¡°When Mr. Flanagan came back to work after the bombing, I took a call from Mr. Rydell. He wanted to talk to Mr. Flanagan about what happened. I talked to Mr. Flanagan. Mr. Flanagan told me he didn¡¯t want to be bothered while he was going over some of our production contracts. I told Mr. Rydell that Mr. Flanagan was busy and would call him back when he was done. He became a little huffy on the phone. I told him that Mr. Flanagan was busy, and it was fine to come down, but I was sure that Mr. Flanagan would throw him out of the building. It was better to leave a message.¡± ¡°You told a member of the board I would throw him out of the building?,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Yes, sir,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°Mr. Rydell is too haughty for my liking.¡± ¡°Thank you, Miss Rich,¡± said Westwood. ¡°I am going to need the personnel files for a Frank Saxon, Rydell, and Rutherford for a start. Can you get them for me?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± said the secretary. She left the office. ¡°I like her,¡± said Westwood. ¡°I wish my secretary would threaten some of my clients like that.¡± ¡°I¡¯m surprised Rydell didn¡¯t demand I fire her,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Do you think this Courtland and the attacks are connected?,¡± asked Coutri. ¡°They look that way to me.¡± ¡°There are only so many options,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Either Courtland wants the company so bad that killing me is on the table so he can get it, or I have two enemies acting at the same time. Either way, I have to know what¡¯s going on, and deal with it in some way.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± said Westwood. ¡°If Shanks is connected to Courtland, it will take a bit to dig it up, but we will. He isn¡¯t going to work for free.¡± ¡°Shanks might have a helper,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I hit him on the head pretty good. It took a bit for the State Police to arrive, but he was gone. I am leaning on someone else being there and driving him away while I was calling the law, but his skull could be that thick.¡± ¡°When we find him, we can see if he has someone who helps him out,¡± said Westwood. ¡°Go ahead and get started,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°As soon as I hear from Courtland again, I¡¯ll call you so you know where he is.¡± ¡°Be careful,¡± said Westwood. ¡°I want to get paid.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll set up a fund with Miss Rich to pay even if I die,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I¡¯ll sign the paperwork before I leave today.¡± ¡°Have it filed at the courthouse before close of business,¡± said Coutri. ¡°Otherwise, if you die tonight, we won¡¯t get paid.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not going to die unless I blow up my lab,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°If that happens, Courtland will be able to buy everything for a song.¡± ¡°It was nice meeting you, Mr. Flanagan,¡± said Westwood as he stood. ¡°I don¡¯t think I have ever met someone so cool about someone wanting to kill him.¡± ¡°This isn¡¯t the first time something dangerous has happened to me,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I¡¯ll call you in the next few days to check in. If something happens to me, Miss Rich will pay you to keep digging.¡± ¡°You can call to check in, but it will probably be close to next week before I have something for you,¡± said Westwood. He looked at Coutri. ¡°I don¡¯t know how long it will take to dig into Courtland,¡± said Coutri. ¡°We¡¯ll have to do a ton of searches for his licenses and records just to get a handle on things if he is an honest businessman. If he isn¡¯t, we¡¯ll have to track him through any associates.¡± ¡°See if he is connected in some way to Rydell,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°The man owns a quarter of the company¡¯s stock. He might want the rest.¡± ¡°Makes sense,¡± said Coutri. ¡°I¡¯ll see what I can dig up.¡± He stood up and straightened his suit before joining Westwood at the door. They stepped out to talk to Miss Rich. Flanagan sat back in his chair. He needed information. If they could get him something, that would help him settle things so he could get back to work. He didn¡¯t like the fact that he was a target, but he wasn¡¯t a social butterfly. If someone wanted to get him, they would have to come at him at one of three places. He spent the most time at his lab, then his office, then his townhouse across the city. He idly considered what would happen if he went home. He wondered what would happen if he had protective gear. No one would be watching his house. He hadn¡¯t been home since everything started. Any watcher would be bored out of their mind by now. He needed information. The townhouse was probably safe. If it was watched, would anybody be stupid enough to come after him? Could he grab one of his attackers? Did he want to be bait? Maybe he could use a tougher set of armor for protection just in case. Flanagan leaned back in his chair. It was too bad he couldn¡¯t rule Saxon out of this. It would be nice not to have to worry about something while trying to get to the bottom of things. ¡°Miss Rich,¡± he said into the intercom. ¡°Could you come in here, please?¡± She appeared with pad and pen in hand. Her eyebrows knitted together as she wondered what he wanted. ¡°Please sit, Miss Rich,¡± Flanagan said. He gestured at the visitor chair. ¡°I would like to talk to you for a moment.¡± Miss Rich took a chair. ¡°Do you have a boyfriend, a fianc¨¦, Miss Rich?,¡± asked Flanagan. ¡°Excuse me?,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°I need a date,¡± said Flanagan. The Shield 7 Flanagan walked his townhouse. He nodded at the security guard at the door dressed as a waiter. He had decided on his scheme after five minutes of thought. It had taken him a week to put things in motion. Most of that time, he had spent at the lab. He put together a lightweight suit of armor. He had boxed the armor up and brought it home to his townhouse. It sat in the closet upstairs. He planned to put it on after he had dismissed his guests. He had issued invitations to a bunch of people across the business scene in the tristate area. Rydell and Rutherford were on the list. Courtland wasn¡¯t, but the man had shown up. Westwood had been alerted so he could find out who Courtland had ridden with so they could add that to the list of things they knew. He walked into the miniature ballroom. It stood full of suits and dresses filled by people he barely knew. He noted the presence of guards dressed as waiters moving through the room. Miss Rich stood to one side with Mr. Coutri. Neither looked happy to be in attendance. ¡°What do you think?,¡± asked Flanagan, as he joined them. ¡°I know most of the lawyers in this room, and only like two, or three, of them,¡± said Coutri. He sipped from a snifter in his hand. ¡°Miss Rich?,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°We should have held this somewhere else,¡± Miss Rich said. ¡°It¡¯s like looking at a can of sardines in nice clothes.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°It narrows our suspect list to the people in this room and their staffs.¡± ¡°Not really,¡± said Coutri. ¡°But it does narrow it down from the entire tristate area. We need something physical to narrow it down to someone in this room.¡± ¡°I¡¯m hoping to narrow it down to one person before the night is over if Mr. Westwood¡¯s detectives are as good as they think they are,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I think the dinner is almost ready. We have to get these people outside.¡± ¡°I think that¡¯s your job, sir,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°All right,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Don¡¯t call me sir.¡± ¡°Everybody!,¡± said Flanagan. He clapped his hands to get the crowd¡¯s attention. ¡°Dinner will be served outside in the back yard. Please follow me, and we¡¯ll get you set up.¡± He led the way down the central hall of his townhouse to the back door. He opened it, and stepped outside. The party goers followed, drinks in hand. Flanagan glanced at the caterers. They seemed ready to take care of things. The detectives stood out against the regular wait staff. He hoped they didn¡¯t spook whomever wanted him dead. After all, the whole point of the party was to set the bait for the trap. As long as he was at his office, or his lab, it was going to be hard to get at him. But his townhouse was in the city, surrounded by other townhouses, and anybody could scale the low stone wall that surrounded his back yard. And three of the people he didn¡¯t trust knew he was going to be there all night after the party. He wondered how long he had before someone showed up to kill him. He checked his watch. He figured the party would start breaking up about ten, maybe eleven. The caterers had to clean up. Westwood¡¯s men would have to take up position to watch the outside of the house and then stop anyone trying to leave. He figured the killer would try after midnight. His armor waited on him upstairs. He had timed himself and practiced. He could pull it on in two minutes. As soon as he had seen everyone off the property, he would go upstairs, put on his armor, and wait. If they came for him in the limited window he had opened, he would be able to shrug off most normal impacts and defend himself until the detectives took action. He had to hide the armor before they saw it. He didn¡¯t want people knowing he had it before he was ready to start selling it to the highest bidder. He was still working on ways to mass produce the suit. If it got him through the night, it had more than earned a successful rating from him. Flanagan moved through the crowd as they found seats at the tables brought in for them. He planned to eat his dinner in the kitchen, but he wanted them to think he was thinking of them. It was his first party, and he couldn¡¯t wait to clear these virtual strangers off his property so he could move to the next phase of his plan. After making sure everyone was happy, and the food was moving, he retired to the kitchen. He leaned against the counter holding the sink and watched the backyard through his window. He hoped his plan went off without a hitch. He could see these people expecting him to show up for their garden parties after everything was settled. He didn¡¯t plan to do that. At least the caterers hadn¡¯t been infiltrated. The last thing he needed was his party turning into a blood bath. He noticed Courtland had taken a seat by Rydell. Rutherford sat two tables over. Westwood sat in a spot where he could watch all three. Small talk seemed to rule the evening. That was fine. Flanagan grabbed a plate and went through the prepared food, grabbing what looked Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.good with tongs, or a fork. He poured a glass of milk to drink with his food. He seemed to be the only teetotaler at this shindig. He should have expected that. He hoped he didn¡¯t have to pour the bunch of them into cabs by the end of this. ¡°It looks like everything is going smoothly,¡± said Billy Berra, the owner of the catering service. He was gray haired, thin, and had a jaw that would make a nutcracker proud. He wore the same white jacket, white shirt, black pants, bow tie, as his employees. ¡°I think so,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Your guys have done a good job.¡± ¡°The extra help you rounded up made everything easier,¡± said Berra. ¡°They¡¯re a little brusque but they seemed to have been able to keep things rolling smoother than I would have thought.¡± ¡°Smoother than I thought too,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°This is pretty good.¡± ¡°Just some chicken, some steak, some seasoning, and some sauce mixed together,¡± said Berra. ¡°The vegetables are mostly greens with potatoes and corn mixed in with it.¡± ¡°No cordon bleu?,¡± asked Flanagan. ¡°That¡¯s just chicken with blue cheese,¡± said Berra. ¡°I like to make food with some flavor in it.¡± ¡°It does have that,¡± said Flanagan. He took another bite and chewed. ¡°If I ever need a personal chef, I will call you first.¡± ¡°I own a restaurant you can eat at any time you want,¡± said Berra. He shook his head. ¡°Come by and I¡¯ll fix you my recipe for an omelette.¡± ¡°That would be swell,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I¡¯ll come by one day for that.¡± Berra saw one of his employees doing something, and left the kitchen to talk to the waiter. Flanagan finished his plate, loaded it again, and ate that while watching his back yard. He spotted Miss Rich sitting in a group next to the house. She looked uncomfortable. He put the dirty plate down next to the sink. He stepped outside and walked over to Miss Rich¡¯s table. ¡°Ladies,¡± Flanagan said. ¡°Do you mind if Miss Rich and I talk for a bit.¡± ¡°Go ahead,¡± said Mrs. Kiel. Rumor stated that she had conducted the trade with the Indians for the island, and remained after everyone else was dead. She waved her hand for them to go. ¡°You¡¯ve done a good job with this,¡± said Flanagan. He led her away from the crowd. ¡°Thanks.¡± ¡°The caterers handled everything for me,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°All I had to do was give them the order, and the money from the discretionary fund. I have already filed copies of the receipts and sent the originals to accounting.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve done a good job,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°What do you think of the guests?¡± ¡°Some of them are very sharp,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°Some of them are very stupid. Some of them mix it up in ways I am not sure how they were able to make money in the first place.¡± ¡°They inherited it,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°If something happens to me, Coutri has some paperwork for you to sign. I just wanted you to know so you wouldn¡¯t be surprised.¡± ¡°Paperwork?,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°Yes,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°He¡¯ll go over it with you if it becomes necessary. I¡¯m hoping it isn¡¯t necessary.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°Nothing will happen. You have all these men around you.¡± ¡°I also have one man standing outside your door,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°When this over, it will be back to business as usual. Until then, I want you to be as safe as possible.¡± ¡°Why would they come after me,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°I¡¯m just a secretary.¡± ¡°You also know everything about the company from how many paper clips we buy, to how much material we ship from one port to another,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°If you were to disappear, the company would flounder until we moved someone into your spot who is as good as you are, if such a person exists.¡± ¡°There¡¯s some,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°I know one girl who covers the accounting department.¡± ¡°Put her on your list of replacements if you keep one,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°But I am going to try to make sure that isn¡¯t required.¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°I¡¯ll see you in the office tomorrow. We still have that meeting with the people from the government.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be there,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°The contracts look good, and it¡¯s things we can easily handle.¡± ¡°This has been a weird experience,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°Thank you for inviting me.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t invite you,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I ordered you to put things together, and you did with great efficiency. I couldn¡¯t have got all these stuffed shirts here myself.¡± ¡°I noticed you were avoiding talking to them,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°That¡¯s another reason I ordered you to put things together,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°None of them would have believed it if I had sent the invites myself.¡± ¡°I can see that,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°Now, we¡¯re going to say goodbye to our guests as they leave,¡± said Flanagan, checking his watch. ¡°Then I will put you in a cab to take you home. Lock up when you get there. You¡¯re the linchpin to the company, and even with a guard, I want you to be careful.¡± ¡°If something happened to me, what would you do?,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°If it was because of a person, I would hunt him or her down and eat their liver. Anything else, I would probably have to join a monastery and reflect on the conditions of life.¡± ¡°Really?,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°No exceptions for the liver either,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Thank you,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°I will hold on to that statement until my dying day.¡± ¡°So we have to shake hands, and say goodbye,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°How hard can that be?¡± ¡°That nice old lady I was talking to thought we¡¯re in a relationship,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°Really?,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°What kind?¡± ¡°Getting ready to be married,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°I don¡¯t think I would make a great husband, Miss Rich,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°You could do better.¡± ¡°I seriously doubt that, sir,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°Every uncommitted woman, and some of the committed ones, outside would throw themselves at your feet. I guarantee it.¡± ¡°They would be throwing themselves at someone who doesn¡¯t have time for them,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Exactly,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°But they don¡¯t know that. They just see the millionaire financier entrepreneur who owns parts of five states and will give them anything they want.¡± ¡°Really?,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°What do you think? Would I make a great catch?¡± ¡°If the woman didn¡¯t mind sitting at home waiting for you,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°Otherwise, no.¡± ¡°That is sharp,¡± said Flanagan. He smiled to say he didn¡¯t take offense. He liked his work more than he liked people. He could live with that. ¡°It is better the truth come out now before you let some gold digger get her claws into you and ruin your name and fortune,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°That will never happen as long as I have you,¡± said Flanagan. Miss Rich blushed. The guests filed down the hall as they finished their talk and food. Flanagan and Miss Rich shook their hands and let them out the front door to the street. Cabs and chauffeur driven private cars were summoned to carry them away. ¡°I still want to buy your company,¡± said Courtland when his turn came up. ¡°I can¡¯t sell it to you,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I¡¯m in the middle of an internal investigation. Have a good night.¡± ¡°Internal investigation?,¡± said Courtland. Internal investigation?, mouthed Miss Rich silently. ¡°Someone tried to have me killed,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°The thought is that it was someone in the company. We¡¯re going to root him out and turn him over to the police.¡± ¡°Good luck,¡± said Courtland. ¡°I was wondering who gave you my private number to the lab,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I think I got it from your secretary,¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯ll have to talk to her about that,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Have a good night.¡± ¡°Good night, Flanagan,¡± said Courtland. He stepped out on the stoop, walked the eight steps to the sidewalk, turned right, and started walking down the block. ¡°I did not give him the lab number,¡± said Miss Rich in a low whisper. She looked furious at the claim. ¡°Rydell gave him the number,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°How do you know that?,¡± asked Miss Rich. ¡°It¡¯s obvious they¡¯re old friends,¡± said Flanagan. He smiled at the next guest leaving and ushered them out. The Shield 8 Flanagan placed Miss Rich in a cab and sent her home. He made sure to pay the hack enough to cover the ride with a generous tip on top of that. He told Berra to let him know when they were done cleaning up. He walked upstairs to his workspace. It wasn¡¯t a lab, but it had a ton of books and some equipment he could use for small things. He couldn¡¯t build more armor unless he decided to knock out a few internal walls and have vats and other things dragged upstairs and put in place. He liked to use it to catch up on reading industry reports and new patents. Some of those he could reverse engineer and use for his own company. A few he bought outright because he couldn¡¯t figure out how they were supposed to work, and he didn¡¯t mind paying for things he felt could help his company. He decided he needed a visual aid to keep him up to date on what he was doing, and what he needed to do. He pulled down a chalkboard from the ceiling and picked up the chalk on the tray at the bottom. He spent an hour assembling what he knew in short sentences. Each sentence had a confirmation written down next to it. A lot of question marks took their places where he didn¡¯t know enough to proceed. How did he tie Rydell to Courtland? He had no idea at the moment. He was sure they were working together, even if he had no proof. Maybe Westwood¡¯s detectives could dig something up. And then Shanks sat on the side. Whom did he work for? If he could be tied to the Rydell-Courtland partnership, that would make things that much easier. If he couldn¡¯t be tied in, that meant another party wanted him dead, and he had no clue who that could be. He decided that everyone knew he was going to be home for the next few days. Someone would make a play. Shanks was in hiding. This might draw him out, or someone else who wanted Flanagan out of the way. How long did he have to wait was the one question he really wanted answered. A knock on the door drew him back to the present. He pushed the chalkboard back in its hiding place before pulling the door open. Berra stood on the other side. His tie and jacket had vanished since they had talked. ¡°We¡¯re done,¡± said the caterer. ¡°Everything is as it was.¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°You really came through for me.¡± ¡°You paid the money and provided the extra hands,¡± said Berra. ¡°That was enough to make everything presentable.¡± ¡°No problem,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Let me show you the door and lock up. I have a meeting tomorrow I can¡¯t miss.¡± ¡°The bill is on the kitchen counter,¡± said Berra. He turned and headed downstairs. ¡°I¡¯ll have Miss Rich write you a check in the morning,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°It¡¯ll be in your office tomorrow. I¡¯ll send it by messenger.¡± ¡°Let me know if you need another party catered,¡± said Berra. ¡°It will be my pleasure.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Flanagan. He walked behind Berra. He casually looked around. Everything looked like it was still there. He closed the door behind the caterer, noting a van with the restaurant name on its side waiting in the street. He locked the door. Flanagan searched his townhouse to make sure it was empty. He cut off the lights as he went up to his bedroom. How long did he have before they tried to kill him? He pulled on his armor as he waited. He had taken the week to put the thing together. He wore coveralls, a piece of chain mail, and a tunic over that. He had adopted a welder¡¯s mask and hood to protect his face except for the glass eyeslit. Everything had been dipped in his concoction and was a dark purple. He had dipped a triangle of wood to make a purple shield. He strapped it on his arm. He felt it would stop a blast of dynamite, and as many bullets as it could block. Flanagan sat down in his chair, beside the door of the bedroom. He reached up and cut off the lights. All he had to do now was wait. Flanagan wondered where they would keep watch on his townhouse. He doubted there was any place other than directly across the street. He supposed they might This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.come at him early in the morning. That was the usual time for raids. If they didn¡¯t show up by five, he would get some sleep so he could be fresh for the office in the morning. He would try this the next two nights. If it didn¡¯t work out, he would have to try something else. He doubted it would come to that. As soon as they knew where he was, they should have decided if they were coming right away, and what they were bringing. Any delay hurt them. A noise attracted his attention from downstairs. He went to the door. The solid coat of mix kept the chain mail from rattling as he moved. He looked at the stairs. A light shone somewhere on the ground floor. He crept to the stairs. He realized that he had never tested if the chemical would absorb falling damage as well as it did being shot and blown up. He doubted he could fall three stories in his new suit and just walk away. He didn¡¯t want to test it now that he had intruders in his house. The lights came up the stairs. He counted two flashlights. He couldn¡¯t see how many men were behind the lights. He stepped back from the railing. He wanted them away from his lab, and caught flatfooted when they reached the top floor. He leaned against a wall, raising his shield to maximize his coverage. He waited as the group paused at the top of the stairs. One of the men pointed at his closed bedroom door. They assembled at the door. One of them tried the knob. It twisted under his grip and he nodded. He pushed open the door and the group crowded in the door and started shooting. Flanagan frowned at the new holes he imagined being punched through his bed. He walked forward. It was time to have a talk with his home invaders. He walked up to the last man in the group. He kicked the man into the rest of the group before they realized he was behind them. Then he started swinging as hard as he could as the group tried to get away from him. He realized that he could hit harder because his chemical soaked gloves spread the impact as he punched. He wouldn¡¯t want to hit a brick wall, but it worked great against the bones of faces. Flanagan took several blows to his shield, but he barely felt them. He used it to ram a man into flight across the bedroom. The gunman hit the window and almost crashed through to the street below. The financier took a blow to the face he didn¡¯t feel and backhanded his attacker into a chest of drawers. He followed through with a punch that sent the man to the floor. One of the men scrambled for the door. He had recovered his pistol, or never lost it in the scuffle. He turned and started shooting into the room as he ran to the steps. The obvious plan was to run down the stairs and out the front door. He never expected a crazy man to jump the railing and fall down on him while he was shooting. Then they both rolled down to the third floor. A purple gloved fist ended the fight with two punches. Flanagan got to his feet. He ran up the stairs to the fourth floor. How many of the assassins were still ready to fight? He ran to his bedroom door. He turned on the light. The room was wrecked. He shook his head as he grabbed one man still trying to fight his way to an escape and slammed his face into the wall. The armor had worked better than he had thought it would. He checked it quickly. Several slugs had hit his outer tunic and flattened against the covering. He had barely felt the impacts in the struggle. He started tying the men up with strips torn from his sheets and searching them. The police could pick them up as soon as he was done. He went to the man in the stairwell and dragged him back to the bedroom. He tied him up with the rest. Flanagan looked at the wallets and slips of paper he had tossed on his end table. He went through them, taking any money he found. He paused in his examination of the slips of paper on the end table. It had two addresses on it. One was his townhouse. The other was one he had heard but never seen. Where had he heard it? He realized it was Miss Rich¡¯s place. Had these goons hurt her? If they had, he wouldn¡¯t be calling the police for a long time. He slapped one of the men awake. The gunman struggled against his bonds. He punched the man in the face to get him to pay attention. ¡°This address,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Where did you get it?¡± ¡°What does it matter to you?,¡± spat the captive. ¡°I¡¯m going to count to five, then I am going to throw you out the window,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Then I am going to talk to one of your friends next. Where did you get the address?¡± ¡°Screw you,¡± said the man. Flanagan hefted him up and carried him to the cracked window. He started counting. ¡°What are you doing?,¡± asked the man. His face pushed against the cracked insets of the window. ¡°Where did you get the address?,¡± asked Flanagan, pausing his count. He pushed the man into the window. ¡°Otherwise, you get to fly.¡± ¡°The guy who hired us gave us the address,¡± said the man. ¡°A crew is already over there.¡± ¡°Were they supposed to kill her?,¡± asked Flanagan. If the answer was yes, he was going to get revenge the moment after. ¡°No,¡± said the gunman. ¡°They¡¯re just supposed to hold her until after the meeting that¡¯s going to be called. After that, it won¡¯t matter.¡± ¡°You just saved your life,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I¡¯m going to call her. Then the police. If something has happened to her, I know who all of you are. I¡¯ll find you and make your life hell.¡± He looked at where the phone should be by his bed. He didn¡¯t see it. He looked around. It rested on the floor. He picked it up and asked the operator to connect him to the phone number for Miss Rich¡¯s place. He waited, but there was no ringing tone. He called the police and asked that someone be sent over to pick up the five men he had captured. He told the man on duty he didn¡¯t know where the owner was, but doubted he had wanted his bedroom shot up. He put the phone down. ¡°I¡¯m going over there,¡± said Flanagan. He picked up one of the pistols and stuck it in his belt. ¡°If something has happened to Miss Rich, I will make you sorry.¡± Flanagan left the room. He knew he was too late if the two groups had struck at the same time. Maybe there was a clue waiting there for him. He headed downstairs and found the car his attackers had arrived in. He got in, tossing his shield in the back seat. He pulled away from the curb and headed for Miss Rich¡¯s apartment. What meeting would have been called with both of them out of the way? He thought about it as he drove. The Shield 9 Flanagan arrived at Miss Rich¡¯s apartment building. People milled about. He didn¡¯t see a policeman yet, but he had no doubt one was on the way. What was his next move? He couldn¡¯t stay where he was. Someone would see his getup and call the law on him. He didn¡¯t want to explain anything. And there was a chance Westwood¡¯s man had been hurt during all this. Should he check to make sure? And he didn¡¯t know if Miss Rich had been taken alive, or left for dead in her apartment. He needed to find out in the narrow window he had before the police arrived. Flanagan got out of his stolen car. He decided that it was best to go in the front door. He didn¡¯t have a lot of time for sneaking around. He pushed through the small crowd. He ignored the comments on his costume as he spotted stairs and elevator side by side. He went up the stairs as fast as he could to the third floor. He read the numbers on the doors as he searched for the right place. He paused when he found a bullet riddled mess at the door he wanted. ¡°Miss Rich?,¡± he called out. He held his shield in front of him in case her guard was still capable of shooting. ¡°Miss Rich!¡± He pushed the door out of the way and stepped inside the apartment. He shook his head at the bullet holes in the walls, and furniture. He spotted blood on the tile covering the floor and followed it into the kitchen. He paused when he found the bodyguard lying on the floor. Flanagan frowned as he knelt beside the man. He spotted blood on the man¡¯s shirt. He opened it and shook his head at the hole he saw. He might live if he was taken to the hospital right away. The police weren¡¯t going to do that. It would take too long for them to mobilize in his opinion. He had to do something now if he wanted to save the man¡¯s life. Then he could look for Miss Rich. He found a hand towel and some tape. He packed the towel in the wound. He checked the man¡¯s back. He didn¡¯t find an exit wound. He taped the towel in place, wrapping the tape around the man¡¯s torso as tight as he dared. That caused a cry, but he couldn¡¯t let that deter him. He had to move forward. Flanagan picked the man up and carried him out of the apartment. He took the elevator down. He couldn¡¯t jostle the bodyguard with a three story walk down steps. The hole in his side might soak through towel and tape if he encouraged it. Flanagan had to push the crowd out of his way so he could carry his burden to his stolen car. He placed the man in the back seat, and got behind the wheel. He aimed his car for the nearest hospital. Hopefully the doctors would be able to stop the bleeding and save the guy. He would have to call Westwood after he had dropped the bodyguard off. He needed to know where Rydell and Courtland were so he could plan his next move. He had to get Miss Rich back, and they weren¡¯t going to stop him. He pulled up into the driveway to the Emergency ward at the hospital. He glanced at the sign so he knew where he was, but that was for calling Westwood after he had the victim squared away. He got out and waved one of the nurses over. He opened the backdoor and reached in and pulled the bodyguard out of the car. He carried the victim into the building, watching as one of the women on duty called for a doctor, and a gurney. An orderly arrived a second later with a rolling bed. A few seconds later, the bodyguard was on the way to an operating room. Flanagan almost smiled under his mask. He put the feeling aside. Now he had to get back to work. He got back in the car as a nurse demanded his name. He looked at her for a moment. Then he drove off. He roamed the streets for minutes until he found a payphone. He had to call Westwood¡¯s office so he could tell them their man was at the hospital. He couldn¡¯t go home, and he couldn¡¯t look for clues at Miss Rich¡¯s. He needed information if he wanted to find her. He searched the car and found some change. He got out and walked to the phone booth. He opened the door and dialed the private investigator¡¯s number while he If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.watched the street. He had a distinctive appearance. The police at Miss Rich¡¯s apartment would make the connection if the hospital informed them about the shot man that had been dropped off. He imagined a description of his purple suit and shield was being sent to every radio car in Manhattan with the order to stop him. He couldn¡¯t afford that. ¡°Westwood Detective Agency,¡± said a voice after five rings. ¡°Would you like to leave a message?¡± ¡°Miss Rich has been kidnaped,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°His man is at St. Luke¡¯s. If he checks in, tell him that I need to know if he tracked Rydell, or Courtland, home. Got it?¡± ¡°Who should I say is calling?,¡± asked the message taker. ¡°Tell him it¡¯s Flanagan,¡± said the financier. ¡°I¡¯ll call back in a few hours to see if he has checked in.¡± ¡°I got it,¡± said the voice. ¡°As soon as Mr. Westwood calls, I will let him know.¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± said Flanagan. He hung up. Where did he go from here? He couldn¡¯t drive around in a stolen car all night. He couldn¡¯t go home either. The office or the factory would be places people would look for him to show his face. He couldn¡¯t do that while he was trying to figure out how to rescue Miss Rich. He couldn¡¯t go home until he was sure the cops had hauled away his earlier catch. He needed to think about his next moves. He needed to get off the street. He needed to know things. He decided to drive by his place. Maybe the police had already taken his catch away. He needed to rest for a minute and think about some way to get Miss Rich back. If he could do that, he might be able to figure out where they had taken her. He planned to hurt Rydell if something had happened to his secretary. He didn¡¯t know how much pain he was going to inflict. He decided to wait until he knew which way the wind blew. Then he would see how much the man liked having a broken leg for starters. He pulled into the alley behind his townhouse. The front of the place had looked quiet. He hoped that meant the police had come and gone. He used a key stored in his armor on the back door. He stepped inside. He searched the place. His attackers had been taken away. One of the policemen who had answered the call had left a card. He put that in his armor¡¯s pocket before he went to his phone. He had to call the factory and let them know to keep an eye out for trouble. If he and Miss Rich had been attacked, the factory might be the next target. He went to his parlor and sat down in his favorite chair. How did he fix things? He closed his eyes and thought. Links formed with the assumption that Rydell was behind Courtland. The places they could safely hold Miss Rich narrowed to places that Rydell owned in some way. He discounted businesses and offices. He concentrated on places that he knew Rydell used for pleasure. He didn¡¯t have time to check them all. Miss Rich might be in trouble while he thought. He needed a way to narrow it down more. He decided to call Westwood¡¯s office again. Maybe the detective had checked in and was still there. He needed to know if the agency had trailed Rydell and Courtland around. Maybe the hounds had seen something that would help him. ¡°Westwood Detective Agency,¡± said Westwood. He sounded angry on the phone. ¡°It¡¯s Flanagan,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I need to know where Rydell and Courtland went.¡± ¡°Courtland is in a hotel in lower midtown,¡± said Westwood. ¡°Rydell is at his house on Long Island.¡± ¡°Did Rydell stop anywhere on the way out to the Island?,¡± asked Flanagan. He had been to Rydell¡¯s mansion. It stood up close to a nice beach with a shape like a white Monopoly hotel. ¡°Not that my man saw,¡± said Westwood. ¡°He¡¯s still out there according to the last report I got.¡± ¡°Which hotel is Courtland in?,¡± asked Flanagan. ¡°I have to ask him some questions.¡± ¡°St. Luke¡¯s said some man in a costume brought my investigator in,¡± said Westwood. ¡°I¡¯m sure it looked good,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Where is Courtland at?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a place called the Aviary,¡± said Westwood. ¡°I need you to stay on Rydell,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I¡¯m going to talk to Courtland. If Rydell leaves his house, I need to know where he goes. If he has Miss Rich, I doubt she will be at a business, or his house. He¡¯ll probably have her somewhere close to the house in case something goes wrong and he needs her.¡± ¡°He has two other properties close to his place on the Island,¡± said Westwood. ¡°They¡¯re both rental houses.¡± ¡°Where are they?,¡± asked Flanagan. He memorized the addresses before he hung up. He had a choice on what to do next. Maybe he should talk to Courtland before trying to search houses that might have civilians in it. He went out his back door and vaulted the fence to get to the alley beyond that. He got behind the wheel of the stolen car and started it. He drove down the alley and out on the street. He headed for the Aviary. Flanagan turned over pieces in his mind as he drove south. He didn¡¯t have a lot, but he liked the challenge of thinking about the inside of the box. If he was wrong about Courtland, he was going to have a problem with the rest of his plans. If he was right, there might be something to link the face man to Rydell and the both of them to Miss Rich. And he wanted to be right in this above all others. He parked beside the hotel, grimacing at the flashing sign on the roof of the place. He got out and went to the fire escape on the side of the building. He used a dumpster to get to the bottom rung of the ladder. Then he started up. He climbed up to the second floor window. He let himself in. He crept down the stairs to the lobby. He watched the desk man. When the employee stepped away from the desk, he jogged over and looked at the register. He jogged back to the stairs and hoped Courtland hadn¡¯t switched his room. He climbed up to the indicated room in the register. He knocked on the door. He put a finger over the peephole. He didn¡¯t want Courtland to take it in his head to run. ¡°Who is it?,¡± Courtland asked. ¡°Room service,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I have some extra towels for you.¡± Courtland opened the door. He froze when he saw the purple menace on his doorstep. He tried to swing the door shut. A fist to the face stopped him from doing that. He staggered away from the door. ¡°Let¡¯s talk,¡± said Flanagan. He stepped inside and shut the door. The Shield 10 Flanagan tied up Courtland with his own belt and ties raided from the closet. He dropped the man on the bed as he looked the place over. He found a set of papers with spaces for signing over his company. He frowned beneath his welder¡¯s mask. Apparently the meeting being called after he was dead involved a deal for his business. He noted that the buying business had Rydell as the chairman of the new board and majority stock holder. He didn¡¯t see any of the names of the other stock holders on the paperwork. How did Rydell plan to sell them on the idea? He thought that if they thought he was dead, then that would be enough to sway everyone but Miss Rich. He hoped she would have said no to such a deal when her controlling interest kicked in. How did he turn this around? He wanted to get Miss Rich back. Was she dead? If she was, Courtland would be taking a swan dive out the window. He needed to give Rydell a reason to hold on to her if he had her. He looked at the paperwork. That might be enough to buy him some time. He smiled under the mask. He hoped he could pull this off. He picked up the phone and called Westwood¡¯s office first. He needed to make sure Rydell hadn¡¯t moved. If the detectives still had an eye on him, that would be okay. ¡°Westwood,¡± said the detective. It was a good thing he hadn¡¯t gone home. That would have meant doing things the hard way. ¡°Do you still have an eye on Rydell?,¡± asked Flanagan. ¡°He hasn¡¯t moved according to my guys,¡± said Westwood. ¡°I outfitted the tail cars with radios so they could call in without having to look for pay phones.¡± ¡°Call them and tell them to be on alert to follow him if he leaves,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I want to know what he does.¡± ¡°Got it,¡± said Westwood. ¡°I¡¯ll call back in a bit,¡± said Flanagan. He hung up. Then he dialed Rydell¡¯s private number to his house on the Island. He needed to give his suspected attempted murderer some bait. ¡°Hello?,¡± said Rydell¡¯s growl. ¡°Who¡¯s this?¡± ¡°I know you have Josephine Rich,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I have Arnold Courtland and your precious paperwork. I¡¯m willing to trade if Miss Rich is alive. If she isn¡¯t, your agreement is going into my fireplace.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about,¡± said Rydell. ¡°I suppose that¡¯s okay,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Courtland gets to take a swan dive out the window, and all this comes out in the press. I¡¯ll see you on the front page tomorrow.¡± ¡°You¡¯re going to throw Arnie Courtland out the window?,¡± asked Rydell. ¡°Don¡¯t you think there¡¯s better ways to do things.¡± ¡°I traced Courtland from his attacks on Flanagan and Miss Rich,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I have your paperwork in my hands. I know people who would love to see this. You could lose it all. At least your wife will be able to administer your part of your wealth while you¡¯re away. It wouldn¡¯t be a great solution, but you have the next move. Give me back Miss Rich, and I give you the paperwork and Courtland to deal with as you please.¡± ¡°How do I know this is on the up and up?,¡± asked Rydell. Flanagan read the top of the front page of the deal over the line. ¡°How do you want to do this?,¡± asked Rydell. Flanagan imagined him sitting in his easy chair, thinking of ways to set up an ambush. ¡°I¡¯m going to call back in an hour,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I¡¯ll tell you where the meet is going to be. You bring Miss Rich. I bring Courtland and the deal. We trade. We walk away. You don¡¯t try anything, and you get to keep everything a secret.¡± ¡°No one knows?,¡± said Rydell. ¡°Not yet,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°And they won¡¯t as long as you don¡¯t try to doublecross me. If I don¡¯t see Miss Rich, you won¡¯t see the papers. That¡¯s all I am ready to give you.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Rydell. ¡°I have to make some phone calls and get her. I¡¯ll be waiting on your call.¡± Flanagan hung up. He called Westwood back. ¡°Westwood,¡± said the detective. ¡°Keep an eye on the Rydell house,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I need to know if he leaves, or if someone drives up.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll let my guys know,¡± said Westwood. ¡°Are we raiding the house?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know yet,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I proposed a trade. I am going to call him back in an hour to set up a meet. I need your guys ready to follow him and get Miss Rich out of danger.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll let them know,¡± said Westwood. ¡°Is there anything else I can do?¡± ¡°I might need your help later,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Right now, I just need you to watch until I can call you back to tell you where we¡¯re going to meet. Be ready.¡± Flanagan hung up the phone. He had things to do. Part of that was getting Courtland out of the Aviary without causing a fuss. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. He planned to call Westwood before he went into action, but he needed to move to the staging area first. He made sure that Courtland was gagged before he slung the man over his shoulder. He took the paperwork and tucked it in his belt. He walked to the door. He cracked it open to peer out in the hall without attracting attention. When he was sure the coast was clear, he carried his burden to the stairs. He worked his way down to the second floor and out the window he had used to get in the building. He put Courtland in the trunk and shut the lid on him. Now he had to drive out to the Island before Rydell expected him to call. Then he could think of something to get Miss Rich back. He put the deal in the glove box before starting the car and setting out. If anyone searched the car, they would find Courtland. They might not find the paperwork, and it wouldn¡¯t matter if they did. Either he came through and got Miss Rich back, or he went to the meeting and shut Rydell down there. Either way, he wasn¡¯t giving up his friend, or his company, without a fight. Flanagan drove across town, using the Brooklyn Bridge to get to Long Island. He aimed for Rydell¡¯s mansion on the Gold Coast. He needed to call Westwood to make sure his quarry hadn¡¯t moved. He doubted the man would come along quietly. He had already committed to violence when he had the dynamite thrown to the factory floor. It had been blind luck that no one had been seriously hurt in the explosion. The two personal attacks showed that Rydell wanted him dead so he could get his way. Flanagan stopped at a payphone a few miles from Rydell¡¯s house. It was almost time to call him for the meet. First, he had to call Westwood. He put the change in and dialed the detective¡¯s office. ¡°Westwood,¡± said the private investigator. ¡°Has Rydell moved?,¡± asked Flanagan. ¡°No,¡± said Westwood. ¡°A car pulled up and a gang piled out. My guys couldn¡¯t tell if Miss Rich was there.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I have fifteen minutes to get there. Call your guys and tell them to keep an eye out in case they get a chance to rescue her.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll let them know,¡± said Westwood. ¡°Are you sure about this? We could call the cops and let them handle things.¡± ¡°Maybe,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I would rather make sure Miss Rich is okay with my own two eyes. I got her into this mess. I have to get her out.¡± ¡°Right,¡± said Westwood. ¡°Good luck.¡± Flanagan hung up the public phone. He got back into the idling car and sped down the road. He knew where Rydell¡¯s estate sat because he had visited there for a party and backroom meeting. He imagined the low block wall around the grounds, and the steel gate barring people from driving to the house unless someone triggered the hydraulics holding the gate closed. He would wreck his car trying to drive through that. He needed to get in without anyone knowing he was there, then he needed to take Miss Rich and leave. He couldn¡¯t afford to let his car be wrecked while he was trying to make a getaway. He pulled into bushes concealing the wall around the estate. He winced at the sound of branches scratching the car up, but then reminded himself that the car was stolen. He grabbed his shield and got out. He pulled the shield onto his arm as he climbed on top of the car. He used the roof to jump over the spikes on top of the wall. He landed lightly on the other side and started toward the house. He didn¡¯t see any guards wandering the grounds. Maybe they were all waiting for the call he wasn¡¯t going to make. He skulked to the front window overlooking the lawn. He peered inside. A group of men stood in Rydell¡¯s private office. Miss Rich sat in a chair in front of Rydell¡¯s desk. Rydell sat behind the desk. He stared at the phone as if willing it to ring. He needed to attract their attention from using Miss Rich as a bargaining chip and get her out of the way. He backed up to get himself some room. He ran at the window and threw himself at it. He wasn¡¯t really that light, but he still might have bounced off if he hadn¡¯t been wearing the chainmail covered in his mixture. He crashed through the glass and fell on the nearest men with that extra mass working in his favor. It was enough to knock them into the men behind them, staggering them out of the way. Flanagan swung his shield around him with all of his strength. He saw the angles of attack in his head and followed them. The triangle caught bodies edge on as he threw himself into the fight. ¡°Run!,¡± shouted Flanagan. He threw himself into a diving kick to carry his body over Rydell¡¯s desk and send the fatter man in his wheeled chair rolling away from the desk. Miss Rich stood up. Her hands had been tied behind her with rope. Her legs had been left unbound since they had thought they would be moving her again. She ran for the door. Flanagan threw himself back over the desk and ran after her. He turned and held his shield up. He didn¡¯t want a stray shot hitting her if he could block it. The only piece he was not sure wouldn¡¯t stop a bullet was his headgear. He followed Miss Rich to the front door. He pulled it open and looked outside. No one had jumped through the window to cut them off. That wouldn¡¯t last long if they got their wits about them and started shooting from the cover of the mansion. He had to get Miss Rich to cover so she could get away while he drew the gunmen¡¯s attention. He had been lucky so far but he couldn¡¯t expect that luck to last. ¡°Run down to the gate,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I have a car waiting on the road.¡± He pulled the knot holding her hands behind her away. He kept an eye on the window and the office beyond. His armor would blend into the night, but Miss Rich still wore the tan dress she had picked out for the party at his townhouse. She was a moving target across the dark lawn. He had to buy time for her to get down to the wall. He pulled the stolen pistol from his belt. He calculated angles as he moved across the lawn. He wanted them to shoot at him and not Miss Rich. He waited until he saw a part of a gunman taking aim. He fired his automatic. He held up his shield as a fusillade dumped lead on him. He barely felt any impact. He fired back to keep their attention. A glance told him that Miss Rich was at the gate, looking for a way over the wall. He jogged down to stand with her. This was the most dangerous part of everything. He needed help now. He handed her the shield for protection. He grabbed her in a hug around her thighs. He hefted her to the top of the wall. She dropped down on the other side. ¡°Here,¡± she said. She handed back his shield through the bars of the gate. He took it and strapped it on his arm. ¡°Get in the car,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I¡¯m coming over the wall.¡± He ignored the sounds of bullets cutting the air to look at the wall next to the gate. He saw that it had an electronic pad to let cars out. He used that as a stepping stone and pulled himself over the wall and dropped down to the other side. Miss Rich pulled the getaway car up so he could get inside the passenger side. She waited for him to do that before driving away from the chaos behind them. ¡°Are you all right?,¡± asked Flanagan. ¡°I¡¯m really mad right now,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°What do we do about this mess?,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I didn¡¯t think about calling the cops in on this, and Courtland is in the trunk.¡± ¡°Courtland is in the trunk?,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°Yes, so watch your driving,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°We can¡¯t afford to be stopped. We¡¯ll be the ones on charges.¡± ¡°All right,¡± she said. ¡°We need to find a place where we can talk without worry.¡± ¡°Both of our homes have been invaded,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Someone might be at the factory, or the office. Let¡¯s see if we can find a hotel that will accept your appearance. We¡¯ll leave Courtland waiting for the cops.¡± ¡°I¡¯m for that,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°Thanks for saving my life.¡± ¡°It was the least I could do,¡± said Flanagan. The Shield 11 Flanagan had called Dern. He asked the detective to keep his survival a secret. He didn¡¯t have an idea of what to do next, but he told the detective everything except the fact that he had accidentally created a masked identity and that masked identity had helped out when he needed it. He also told the detective that he had left Courtland in the trunk of the stolen car in a public lot. He didn¡¯t know if the front man would give up Rydell, but maybe they could question him before cutting him loose. He needed to do something about clothes and money. He couldn¡¯t expect Miss Rich to cover their hotel rooms until this mess was over. And his armor was something he couldn¡¯t parade around the city in. It had done the job. He had been hit during the escape from Rydell¡¯s mansion. None of the slugs had punched through his shield, or tunic. He couldn¡¯t see a crack in the fabric. ¡°I called Mr. Westwood like you asked,¡± said Miss Rich. She wore a new dress from room service. ¡°He is going to cover the rooms for us. He wants to know what our next move is.¡± ¡°I have no idea,¡± said Flanagan. He had changed his armor for a suit. Room service had brought him a duffel to store his protective gear while he was in hiding. He couldn¡¯t wear it all the time. ¡°So Rydell wins,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°Only if he can get the rest of the board to sell their stock,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°There is a meeting called for the day after tomorrow. He probably told everyone I was dead.¡± ¡°If you aren¡¯t dead, there¡¯s nothing anyone can do,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°You hold the controlling interest.¡± ¡°If I died, you¡¯d be in charge,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°That just means he would try to kill me too,¡± said Miss Rich. She sat down in one of the padded chairs that came with the room. ¡°I think we should be at that meeting,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°We should invite Dern along to see what he thinks of everything.¡± ¡°He can¡¯t do anything since we can¡¯t prove anything,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°We can prove that Courtland works for him and he plans to take over the company and force everyone else out,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°That might be enough to put him off the board for a new member.¡± ¡°I want him to go to jail,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°So do I,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°The problem is I broke in and saved you. There¡¯s no evidence that you were at his place that couldn¡¯t be refuted in some way. We could call Westwood back and ask if any of his people saw you being moved to the big house before I broke in. Maybe that would be enough for a kidnaping charge to be leveled.¡± ¡°Is that possible?,¡± asked Miss Rich. ¡°If someone saw you getting out of that car, that¡¯s something that would have to be fought,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I liked it better when people weren¡¯t trying to kill me for control of a business,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°So did I,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I think we can get Coutri to figure out where and when this meeting will take place. Then I think we should be there to refute whatever is said.¡± ¡°Will Dern go along with that?,¡± asked Miss Rich. ¡°I don¡¯t see why not,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°He wants someone to go down for the factory bombing. Adding on charges just makes his job easier.¡± ¡°Attempted murder would be good if we could prove Rydell had ordered it,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°That won¡¯t happen unless some of his people break under Dern¡¯s questioning,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I don¡¯t see that happening.¡± ¡°So the meeting is the only chance we have to prove anything,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°I don¡¯t like it.¡± ¡°Neither do I,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Call Coutri and see if he can find out when this meeting is going to happen. We can expect that Rydell had more than one copy of the paperwork he was going to present for the board.¡± ¡°That thing you were wearing took Rydell by surprise,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°He probably thinks that masked man is someone just meddling.¡± ¡°No,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°He¡¯s smarter than that. A masked man shows up to stop the hit on his rival, and then the same masked man shows up to save you. He won¡¯t know if it¡¯s me for sure, but he¡¯s probably guessed that I¡¯m behind both events.¡± ¡°So as soon as he¡¯s knows you¡¯re alive, he will try to kill you again,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°Possibly,¡± said Flanagan. He went to the window and looked out from behind the curtains. ¡°This meeting might be our only chance to break him.¡± Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°I¡¯ll call Mr. Coutri,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°If he can find out the things we need, it¡¯ll put us ahead for once.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t let him know I¡¯m alive,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°The fewer who know, the better in my opinion.¡± Miss Rich used the phone to call Mr. Coutri¡¯s office. The lawyer wasn¡¯t in. She gave his secretary the message and hung up. She sat back down and closed her eyes. ¡°All we can do is wait,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°Maybe Westwood or Dern will turn something up,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°There¡¯s not a lot of evidence floating about, but maybe they can put some of it together without any more interference from me.¡± ¡°I¡¯d feel better if we weren¡¯t waiting for someone to try to kill us while we¡¯re waiting for something to happen,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°It¡¯s not like we can harass the thugs sent to do me in, or any of Rydell¡¯s personal guard,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Why not?,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°Because Westwood is following them around to see where they lead him,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°So what do we do then?,¡± asked Miss Rich. ¡°Do you know how to play Rummy?,¡± asked Flanagan. ¡°That¡¯s about all we can do until something pops.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t like it,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°I might be in trouble with my landlord. And Mr. Westwood¡¯s man got shot trying to protect me. I don¡¯t want to give the next move to Rydell.¡± ¡°There¡¯s not much we can do,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°And we can¡¯t expect to fool him about me being dead if I burst into his office and give him a punch to the face.¡± ¡°I know,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°It would feel so much better if we could do that.¡± ¡°If we can show Rydell the door, that would be good enough for me,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°We don¡¯t need a traitor working to undermine us.¡± ¡°I would like to see him in jail,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°It depends on if we can get him to confess to something,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°We can¡¯t count on Westwood¡¯s men to testify, and I can¡¯t because of what I did to Courtland to find out where you were. The best we can hope for is that we force him out of the company and wreck his reputation enough no one will deal with him from now on.¡± ¡°I¡¯d like that,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°It¡¯s the best we can do at the moment,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Somewhere down the line we might be able to prove Rydell broke the law somewhere. That might be enough to put him away. Until then, we have to act like we don¡¯t know who the purple man is, and how he got mixed up in this.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know how that will work,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°Anyone watching this from the outside will be able to connect that armor to the company.¡± ¡°I want to prevent them from connecting the armor to me,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I¡¯m proud that it took some heavy blows without cracking. It might be something we can use for our troops. I just don¡¯t know what the upper limit is. I haven¡¯t been able to test it so far.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s get through this,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°You might have to use that armor if we can¡¯t get Rydell to back off legally.¡± ¡°I know,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I¡¯m hoping we can keep everything under a shroud. All we need is one reporter getting a picture. The next thing you know we¡¯ll have a flock of them following us around.¡± ¡°You won¡¯t be able to do any more acts of daring do if that happens,¡± said Miss Rich. She smiled. ¡°I can do without being a vigilante,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°It cuts into my work time.¡± ¡°I bet,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°So all we can do is wait?¡± ¡°For the moment,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°The problem is I am bored and want something to do, and we can¡¯t show our faces until we¡¯re ready to go.¡± ¡°I know what you mean,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°I should be at the office, or taking care of errands. At least Rydell thinks you¡¯re dead. As soon as he sees me, I¡¯m back in the soup.¡± ¡°We can go out if we disguise ourselves somehow,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Do you think that¡¯s too dangerous?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a little risky,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°Rydell has those thugs looking for us.¡± ¡°We can still take in a movie as long as we don¡¯t go anywhere we would usually go,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I suppose that would be okay,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°Dinner?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t see why not,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I¡¯ll have to get some money from the townhouse.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s wise,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°They might be looking for you to come back if they aren¡¯t fooled by the police report.¡± ¡°I might have some money in my duffel bag,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°We can use that for a night on the town.¡± ¡°We don¡¯t want any place expensive,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°It¡¯ll be the cheapest dive I know,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Call Coutri, and I¡¯ll call Westwood. That way they¡¯ll know we¡¯re going to be out and about until we call them back.¡± ¡°Mr. Westwood won¡¯t like it,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°He¡¯s keeping an eye on Rydell¡¯s people for us,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°We have to know if there is some kind of movement on that front. If they are just waiting for the meeting, no one will be worried if you are still alive, or not. You¡¯re a lowly secretary.¡± ¡°Then why kidnap me in the first place?,¡± asked Miss Rich. ¡°The first obvious thing is because if they missed me, you¡¯re my right hand and could be used as insurance,¡± said Flanagan. He searched in his bag until he found a wallet. He put that in his pocket. ¡°The second thing is Rydell might know what my will says.¡± ¡°And what does your will say?,¡± asked Miss Rich. ¡°You get my stock in the company if I die,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Everything I own becomes yours.¡± ¡°Why would you do that?,¡± asked Miss Rich. ¡°You¡¯re the only one I trust, and if I die without a will, the controlling interest goes to the state, or becomes nonexistent,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I couldn¡¯t let that happen. Too many people are counting on me.¡± ¡°What do you want me to do if you do die?,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°I want you to keep the company running and protect it against people like Rydell,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I¡¯m sure this move is because of the government contracts we landed. They¡¯re potential long term money makers.¡± ¡°That¡¯s enough to sabotage the factory, and try to have you killed, and kidnap me and shoot my bodyguard?,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°We¡¯re talking about a ton of money with more on the way if we go to war like everyone thinks we will,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Roosevelt is helping the Brits as much as he can. Eventually someone is going to try and stop him. When that happens, we¡¯ll be in the thick of it.¡± ¡°And whomever owns the company will be able to rake in money off the top without worry,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°We¡¯ll never be able to prove any of this.¡± ¡°The best we can do is make sure Rydell doesn¡¯t see a dime of that proposed money,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Go ahead and make your call. I¡¯ll call Westwood and we¡¯ll see a show and have dinner like we talked about.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°I don¡¯t think I can carry the company if you aren¡¯t around.¡± ¡°You¡¯ll run it better than I am,¡± said Flanagan. He waved a hand to shoo her out of the room. He picked up the earpiece for the room¡¯s phone and dialed Westwood¡¯s number. He waited for someone to pick up and talk to him. He left a message to say they were going out for a bit and would call back when they were back at the hotel. He hung up the phone before Westwood could protest and try to convince him to stay in. The Shield 12 Flanagan checked his tie one last time in his office bathroom. It looked as straight as it ever was going to be. He wished he didn¡¯t have to make this play in front of his peers. Most of them would not be happy he was not dead. He stepped out into his office. Miss Rich, Westwood, Coutri, and Detective Dern were waiting on him. ¡°The meeting is getting ready to start in the boardroom,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°Rydell and Courtland just arrived according to Larry.¡± Flanagan nodded. Larry was the front desk man. He knew most of the employees on sight, if not by name. If he had seen Rydell coming into the lobby, then Rydell was coming to the meeting. That meant everything was on. This might be their last chance to get him out of the company and strip his shares from him. ¡°So he¡¯ll be whipping them into a froth to sell in ten minutes,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Everybody thinks I¡¯m dead, right?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± said Dern. ¡°No one knows about the attack on your townhouse except for the wise guys involved. We locked the papers out of it for the moment. All we have to do is get him to admit that he thought you were dead for whatever reason.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I doubt that will happen. Let¡¯s see what we can do when he calls the meeting to order.¡± They waited in Flanagan¡¯s office until the temporary secretary from the pool came in and said Mr. Rydell had gone by. Flanagan nodded, picked up the paperwork he had stolen from Courtland and stepped out into the hall. He led his entourage down to the board room and waited at the door to listen. Rydell was in the middle of his spiel for selling the company now that Flanagan was dead. Courtland stood by his side. Bruises decorated the proxy agent¡¯s face from the punches he had been given. Some of that might have been from the car ride in the trunk. Flanagan smiled. ¡°He just admitted knowing I was dead,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I heard,¡± said Dern. ¡°Let¡¯s go in and see what else he can tell us before I arrest him.¡± Flanagan pushed the door open and stepped inside the room. Dern and Westwood remained by the door, while Coutri followed Flanagan to the table. Miss Rich took her spot by the door to record the meeting for later. A small writing desk had been set up for that for her. ¡°How¡¯s it going, fellas,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Looks like I didn¡¯t get an invite.¡± ¡°You¡¯re supposed to be dead,¡± said Rydell. ¡°Really,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°I heard there was a gun battle at your townhouse,¡± said Rydell. ¡°From who?,¡± asked Flanagan. ¡°I did have some problems, but I don¡¯t remember a gun battle. Are you sure I was home?¡± Rydell froze. He looked around the room. All eyes were on him. ¡°Let¡¯s talk about this paperwork my associate took from Mr. Courtland last night,¡± said Flanagan. There was no point in telling the board about his armor. He wanted to keep it secret, and he doubted he would be able to do that if he told everyone present about it. Hopefully using it to rescue Miss Rich would keep her quiet about it. ¡°It looks like you want us to sell our stakes in the company and make you the sole owner under a new company name. No one here would be at the helm of the new company, but it would have all of our assets. How was that supposed to work?¡± ¡°What are you saying, Frank?,¡± asked one of the board members, T.S. Wannamacher. He owned a small stake in the company, but he owned small stakes in a lot of companies. That made him the wealthiest man on the board as far as Flanagan could figure. ¡°Once you signed over your stakes, you¡¯re out,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°The company has some government contracts coming in, and is about to double our profitability, maybe triple it. Once Rydell controlled it all, he would rake in the dough, and the rest of you would be out on the street with less than five percent of what we¡¯re looking at making in the next few years.¡± ¡°Let me see this paperwork,¡± said Wannamacher. He held out his hand. Flanagan walked around the table and handed the contract over. The elderly financier flipped through the pages, going over the boilerplate with a finger. ¡°It looks like Frank is right. There¡¯s no option for us in the new company.¡± ¡°Rydell promised a stake in the new company,¡± said one of the other board members. ¡°It¡¯s not here,¡± said Wannamacher. ¡°If we had gone ahead with this, we would have Stolen novel; please report.lost everything we had invested in the company, and got nothing to replace it. I think we should consider removing Rydell from the board.¡± ¡°You can¡¯t remove me,¡± said Rydell. ¡°I own more of this company than anyone here.¡± ¡°We can vote to remove you from the board, and take back your stock so you own nothing,¡± said Wannamacher. ¡°As it is, it looks like you committed some crimes that the government might need to talk to you about with this deal.¡± ¡°We¡¯re going to want to talk to him before that,¡± said Dern. ¡°I¡¯m really interested in why you thought Mr. Flanagan would be dead and unable to attend this meeting.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have to explain myself to you,¡± said Rydell. He glared at Dern. ¡°I think that you do,¡± said Dern. He moved his lapel on his coat to show his badge. ¡°The city of New York is going to want to know why you tried to blow up someone in New Jersey, and then tried to have them killed in their own home. And then the New Jersey State Police are going to want to know what you know about such bombing and a shooting in their territory. And then the FBI is going to want to know why you are crossing state lines. So you¡¯re going to have to come downtown so we can talk about all of this.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± said Rydell. He reached under his jacket. He had forgotten that Flanagan was on the other side of him. A grab to keep him from pulling a weapon turned into a struggle that pushed against the table the board used. Dern and Westwood stepped in. They grappled with Rydell, disarming him with a little effort. The detective pulled out cuffs and secured them around the wrists of the attempted murderer. ¡°You still haven¡¯t won,¡± said Rydell. ¡°I¡¯ll have the last laugh and ruin all of you at the same time.¡± ¡°Do you have anything to say, Mr. Courtland?,¡± said Dern. He pushed his captive in a chair. ¡°Not really,¡± said the agent. He looked at his feet. ¡°Sit down, Mr. Courtland,¡± said Dern. ¡°I¡¯ll see if the District Attorney will cut a deal with you over this.¡± Flanagan rubbed the back of his neck. He hadn¡¯t thought Rydell would try to pull a gun and shoot at them. He should have. The man had fallen silent. He kept looking at the clock. Why? What was he waiting on? ¡°Can you take care of him?,¡± Flanagan asked. ¡°I have to go somewhere for a little bit. I¡¯ll come down and press charges on him when I get done with this other job.¡± ¡°No problem,¡± said Dern. ¡°As soon as some uniforms get here, I¡¯ll take my catch down to the 27th Precinct for booking.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll meet you there to swear out a statement,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Could you drive me, Miss Rich?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± said the secretary. She handed her notebook to Westwood to keep as she stood up. ¡°I have to go somewhere,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Thanks for listening to things. I¡¯ll call another meeting when we¡¯ve settled with the government. I¡¯ll have accounting estimate earnings on those contracts then.¡± He fled from the conference room and headed for his office. His armor was in his closet. He felt that he might need it before too much longer. He grabbed the bag, as Miss Rich paused in the door. ¡°We have to head out to the factory,¡± said Flanagan. He threw the bag on his shoulder. ¡°I¡¯m going to have to change on the way. You drive.¡± ¡°Does this have something to do with what Rydell said?,¡± asked Miss Rich. She headed for the elevator. She held it open for him to board. ¡°I don¡¯t want to take any chances now that we have him in the bag for knowing about my attempted murder, and thinking I was gone,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I think he had something else in mind if he didn¡¯t get the sell signatures.¡± ¡°I understand,¡± said Miss Rich. She pushed the button to go down to the basement so they could grab his car and drive out to Jersey. Flanagan handed her the keys as they went to his car. He climbed into the backseat with his bag as she got behind the wheel. She drove out of the parking garage as he started changing into his armor. Miss Rich got on the highway and headed south as fast as she could while trying to avoid the attention of any patrolman on the road. The last thing she wanted was to explain why her boss had dressed in a purple suit of armor. ¡°Why purple?,¡± she asked. ¡°What?,¡± said Flanagan. He pulled on his gloves after getting his visor and hood right on his head. ¡°Why did you paint it purple?,¡± asked Miss Rich. She gestured with a hand at the ensemble. ¡°I didn¡¯t paint it at all,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°It came out this way because of the chemicals in the compound. I don¡¯t care what it looks like as long as it works.¡± ¡°Are you going to wear it around after this?,¡± asked Miss Rich. ¡°I doubt it,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I plan to sell everything to the Army if I can work out a way to mass produce everything.¡± ¡°I think you should keep it,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°You can help people with it.¡± ¡°We¡¯re going to war,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°It¡¯s only a matter of time. If I can build a way to create these faster than what I can now, we can protect our soldiers while they are in the field. The problem is I don¡¯t really know how tough the stuff is, or if there is some kind of hidden weakness in the compound. I don¡¯t want to send someone else out in it if I don¡¯t know how it will take heavy duty fighting. The stuff might stop three bullets and then let the fourth one go through because the material broke.¡± ¡°Then why are you wearing it?,¡± asked Miss Rich. ¡°I haven¡¯t been shot three times,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Pull up to the gate and have Pop call the manager on duty. Tell him to send people out of the building. I¡¯ll go in and look around. Hopefully, we won¡¯t have anything to worry about when I get done.¡± ¡°What if there¡¯s trouble?,¡± asked Miss Rich. ¡°I¡¯m wearing bulletproof armor and carrying a bulletproof shield,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I should be able to handle things as long as there isn¡¯t anything heavy duty involved like a tank.¡± ¡°Pop might connect you to the armor,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°That¡¯ll be okay as long as he keeps quiet,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°As soon as he opens his mouth, he¡¯s canned.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not what I want to hear,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°That¡¯s all I can promise right now,¡± said Flanagan. Miss Rich pulled up to the box and parked out of the way of the entrance lane. She got out and went to talk to the guard. Flanagan pulled himself out of the backseat and headed for the factory. He didn¡¯t want a panic, but he couldn¡¯t let anyone get hurt in case he missed whatever was supposed to happen. Westwood¡¯s people never found Ian Shanks. He could be inside getting ready to do whatever Rydell wanted to shut down the factory. Using explosives would make sure some of the crew would get killed, and blacken things for the rest. His company couldn¡¯t run without its people. He wasn¡¯t going to let Rydell win. He wasn¡¯t going to let his people get killed if he could help it. It would be a pleasure to deal with Shanks for good. Then he could worry about what the future looked like. The Shield 13 Flanagan waved his crew out of the door so he could get inside. The order to leave their posts had produced an orderly abandonment. He waited until an opening showed itself so he could slip inside and start into the main floor while everyone was leaving. Where would he go to sabotage the factory? Would Rydell know that? Where would Rydell go to sabotage the factory? He waved stragglers out of his way as he walked the aisles. More than one stick of dynamite would be involved in this. Rydell wouldn¡¯t have set things up to let the building go about its business if he wasn¡¯t in charge. Flanagan paused when he reached the far end of the open space. He didn¡¯t see anyone moving around on the floor. Someone smart could hide behind the machines. Should he check the offices, or the hall leading to his lab downstairs? He decided to take one more walk around the floor. Any bomb would have to be on the floor if it was supposed to wreck the machinery enough to cause a shutdown. Shanks might have already planted it and left. If he was waiting on the explosion outside, what would he think with all the employees leaving? Would he guess someone was looking for his bomb? Would he come back and try to prevent his bomb from being found? Would he stay out and hope the thing exploded and took the meddler with it? Flanagan put that aside. He couldn¡¯t stop Shanks from coming back inside the building. His armor should protect him from gunfire. He had to worry about the bomb. He didn¡¯t know how big it was, or if his suit would protect him from that. None of his employees had a suit, and didn¡¯t stand a chance if the thing went off while they helped look for it. He found a box under a press during his second inspection. It was the only thing that looked out of place. He would feel guilty if he was dealing with someone¡¯s lunch. He gently pulled the box from under the press so he could take a closer look at it. Flanagan used the edge of his shield to gently pry apart the tape holding the flaps of the box down. He didn¡¯t want to make a wrong move if it was a bomb. He pulled the flaps apart while holding it in place on the concrete floor with his knee. He shook his head at the mass of wiring and what looked like dynamite in the container. So he had been right about Shanks leaving a bomb. He didn¡¯t worry about how Shanks had got into the place to plant the bomb. He felt that Rydell had called to give Shanks a cover story to get him inside the factory. Then he just needed to leave the box accidentally on purpose next to a machine they used to flatten metal into sheets to be shipped out for use in construction jobs. If the press was blown up, it might survive the blast. Its operator would lose legs. He considered the angles and felt shrapnel from the blast would reach four other machines, and three of them were set up so that some other operator would get nailed by the blast. He didn¡¯t have to worry about that now that he had it in front of him. All he had to do was take it apart so it didn¡¯t explode in his face. Flanagan started by checking the wiring. He knew a little about electricity and how clocks worked. He didn¡¯t see any switches to stop tampering. He noted the thing sat on a plate of some kind. It took up the bottom of the box. Maybe that was the backup system if the clock didn¡¯t work. He didn¡¯t like that. That plate might be some kind of explosive itself to trigger the bigger bomb if it was moved. Could his suit take two blasts if he messed up? He didn¡¯t want to find out. Testing is where they used dummies instead of the inventor of the process. Too bad the mixture in his lab was solid by now. He could dip the bomb in that if he could scoot it along the ground without blowing himself up. What was his next best option? He could push it outside so only the outside of the building would be hurt. He would have to ask his employees to move out of the parking lot and find some place to use for cover so he could blow the thing up in an empty lot. The other consideration was somewhere walled in like the restrooms. If the bomb went off in there, he could repair the bathrooms faster than he could repair the machinery for his contracts. The plumbing would be a fixable disaster. The bathroom seemed the best for defusing everything. Then letting the bomber know that Rydell wasn¡¯t going to pay him might get him to stop attacking. Or he might decide he didn¡¯t have anything to lose and try to wreck the factory out of spite. Flanagan picked up the box. He scanned the walls until he saw the sign for the The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.bathrooms. He started over slowly. Once he had things defused, he could retreat and let the Jersey State Police handle the rest. If the blame could be dumped on Rydell, that would be more charges of attempted murder on the docket. He reached the bathroom and was surprised by the sweat on his face. He paused before he took another step. He blinked at a drop almost touching his eye. Once he was done with this, he would be glad to hang up the armor for good. He pushed open the men¡¯s room door. Once he got the bomb over to the sink, he could use that to soak the dynamite down to leech the nitro out of it. That could still cause problems but dumping the nitro should dilute it enough so it wasn¡¯t dangerous. If he was wrong, he was blowing up the pipes underneath the factory. That would cost more than replacing one of the machines to fix. The main problem with this solution was the plate in the bottom of the box. What would happen if he added weight to it under the water. He started running the sink full of water. The worse he predicted happening was the bomb going off in the restroom and killing him despite his armor. At least Rydell wouldn¡¯t get the company where he was going. Miss Rich would keep things straight. He had faith in her. He put the box on the edge of the sink. He worked the tape off the bottom as he watched the water fill the bowl. He turned the water off when it was to the brim. Did it have room for the bomb? He couldn¡¯t tell. The plate was an additional worry. How much explosive was in that? He peeled the tape away from the bottom of the box while holding the flaps closed. He positioned it over the sink of water and moved his hand. The plate tilted in the sink. The dynamite went into the water. He stepped back behind his shield. He breathed a sigh of relief that nothing happened. He checked the plate and saw that it was tied to the bundle of dynamite. If he had tried to pull the sticks out, that would have set everything off. Now all he had to do was pull the clock off the bundle, and separate the wires. He needed a tool for that. He had a wire cutter and some other things in his lab. He could get them and get back in a couple minutes. Once he was done, he could hand the whole thing over to the state police and let them do what they could to find the bomber. He stepped out of the restroom. He spotted men standing around the staff door. He didn¡¯t recognize them from the shift. He spotted the Tommy guns as they spotted him. Flanagan raised his shield as he backed up into the restroom. He couldn¡¯t let them have the bomb. It could still be used if they pulled it out of the water before the nitro was pulled out. Bullets dug into the walls as the machine guns rattled. Flanagan didn¡¯t feel any impact, so they had missed him, or the armor was doing its job. He had to hold the restroom until the police arrived. He slammed the door closed with his foot. He could hold the door closed until help arrived. Should he? His armor should allow him to fight back without worrying about getting hurt. He was trapped in a room with a bomb that could still go off. A small army of thugs could do anything to his factory while he waited for help. He had to decide. Was he going to do something about this mess, or let someone else handle it? He had the equipment, he had the ability, he had the determination. He couldn¡¯t let someone else save the factory when he was right there. He might as well let them burn the place down if he wanted to stay in the bathroom. He flexed his hands as he stared at the door. He needed to attack and keep them from wrecking the factory. He couldn¡¯t let Rydell win. He stepped back as he heard steps coming to the door. He raised his shield to protect his head. The glass shield on the welder¡¯s visor wouldn¡¯t stop a bullet as well as the rest of the suit. The door swung open. He charged behind the shield. He heard the roaring of the Tommy as he ran right at the door. He didn¡¯t feel anything. He didn¡¯t know if that was because the shield and armor was working better than he thought, or he was riddled with holes and couldn¡¯t feel anything. He let the shield push the machine gun out of the way as he kept going with his shoulder. His enemy crashed into the opposite door to the ladies¡¯ restroom. Another man appeared as Flanagan straightened. He started to raise his chopper to take care of the purple menace in front of him. A fist to the face sent him sprawling. A foot applied with more force took him out of the fight. Flanagan turned to the first man and made sure to kick him hard in the face. He didn¡¯t need that guy getting up while he was dealing with the gunner¡¯s friends. Flanagan took a look at the factory floor. He knew there should be three more men. His brief glimpse before he had ducked into the bathroom had told him that. He spotted them moving among the machinery. One was close to where the bomb had been hidden. He knelt and searched the man he had taken outside the bathroom. He found a pistol to add to his collection. He dragged the man into the ladies¡¯ and tied him to his friend after making sure to take their wallets and drop their Thompsons and other pistol in the men¡¯s. Now he had to deal with the other three before they caused too much trouble. Flanagan crept into the maze of machinery and beltways. He looked around as he went from one piece of equipment to the next. He caught sight of one of the three men looking around for him and ducked down. He knelt and looked under the beltways between him and the third man. He took aim and fired once. The man went down with an outraged cry. Apparently he had never been shot. Flanagan looked around for his two friends. He saw number four on the steps heading to the offices above the factory floor. He took aim and fired. The bullet hit the railing and bounced away. That was enough to send the gunman scrambling into the offices. Flanagan shook his head. He would have to go up there and flush the trouble maker out now. He scanned the factory floor. Where was the last man? If he could deal with him, then he could go up and deal with the one in the offices. Gentle taps struck him in the arm and chest. He went down. Now he knew where number five was. He saw feet coming toward him. He aimed the pistol and fired. One shoe blew up and he heard a scream. He jumped up and ran over. He kicked the man in the face to shut him up. He went to the stairs. He climbed up to the offices¡¯ door. He ducked behind his shield as bullets blasted through the glass. He checked the scene when the bullets stopped flying. He pushed through shattered door and went over a desk as the last man tried to put another drum in the Tommy gun. A gloved fist sent the man against a desk. The gunman went for his pistol. Flanagan already had his in hand. He fired once in the man¡¯s hand. The gun fell to the floor. ¡°Hello, Shanks,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I¡¯ve been looking for you.¡± One punch sent Ian Shanks down for the count. The Shield 14 Frank Flanagan eased back from his desk. The last couple of weeks had retaught him why he hated paperwork. He closed the last file and put it in his out basket. Miss Rich could file it in the morning. He stood and stretched. Cracking in his back answered him. He shook his head slowly, listening to the bones in his necks snapping. It would be a month before Rydell got his first real court appearance. He had paid his bail and was free. He called Flanagan to let him know the bad news. Flanagan had informed him that if anything happened while Rydell was waiting for his trial, he would put a bullet in the man himself. And he wouldn¡¯t go to jail over an obvious case of self-defense. The call had sparked another call to Westwood to hire security to keep an eye on things until the court case was settled. Blowing up the factory might be the next move to get even. That would hurt the company now that they were putting things together for the government. Production couldn¡¯t be halted if they wanted to make their deadline. He made sure that Miss Rich had a bodyguard. He couldn¡¯t keep anything organized without her. And she knew about the armor, and hadn¡¯t said anything. That was worth its weight in gold. Flanagan decided he would eat at a diner on the way to the factory. He didn¡¯t want to go home, and he had some notes he had to go over for another concoction that wasn¡¯t quite coming together. He felt he was three, or four, arrangements from a solution to the problem. He would probably get some sleep in the lab when he finished. ¡°Are you done for the night, Mr. Flanagan?,¡± asked Miss Rich. ¡°I think so,¡± said Flanagan. He paused and squinted at his secretary. She had changed clothes. He wondered why. ¡°Good,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°Come along. Norbert is driving us to dinner and a movie.¡± ¡°Norbert?,¡± said Flanagan. He searched his brain, but he didn¡¯t know any Norbert. ¡°Norbert who?¡± ¡°Norbert who is stuck taking me back and forth to my apartment,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°The gossips think he¡¯s my boyfriend.¡± ¡°Oh, Westwood¡¯s guy,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°His name is Norbert?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°Get your jacket. He¡¯s driving us on our date.¡± ¡°Date?,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I¡¯m lost.¡± ¡°You promised a dinner and a movie,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°I¡¯m collecting. Come on. Norbert is downstairs waiting on us.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t remember that,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°And anyway I have to do some work at my lab.¡± ¡°Not tonight,¡± said Miss Rich. She waved her hand. ¡°It¡¯s on me.¡± ¡°You¡¯re paying?,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°You¡¯re taking me out on a date? Can you afford that?¡± ¡°I have money put aside,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°Chop, chop, mister. I don¡¯t have all night.¡± ¡°Are you sure?,¡± said Flanagan. He plucked his suit jacket from the hook on the wall. ¡°I¡¯m not really a dating kind of guy.¡± ¡°I know,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°One date won¡¯t kill you. Live a little.¡± ¡°I have done that already,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°It didn¡¯t strike me as better than working in my lab where people weren¡¯t trying to kill me.¡± ¡°It wasn¡¯t a lot of fun for me either,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°Busting into Rydell¡¯s house like you did saved me from being hurt more than what had already happened. If you hadn¡¯t called, the majority of the company would have been seized by the state.¡± ¡°That was a pleasure,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I would do it all over again if I had to.¡± ¡°How many bosses would do that?,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°You can always get a new secretary from the pool downstairs.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t believe that,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Before I hired you, I went through dozens of secretaries.¡± ¡°Dozens?,¡± said Miss Rich. She picked up her bag as they walked to the office door. ¡°At least,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°They came in, worked a month, then went somewhere else. I just signed the transfer requests when they came across my desk.¡± ¡°And you had no idea why they left?,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°No,¡± said Flanagan. He cut off the lights after opening the hall door so they could step outside. He locked the door behind him. The cleaning staff could only enter his sanctum when one of them was in residence. Otherwise, he didn¡¯t want anyone poking around. ¡°Being the secretary of the boss is prestigious, but none of them stayed,¡± said Miss Rich. She shook her head. ¡°You worked them too hard.¡± You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. ¡°I did not,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°They didn¡¯t have to work unless I was working.¡± ¡°And when was the last time you took time off to go golfing, or sailing, or whatever rich people do?,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°Never,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°That¡¯s for people who don¡¯t have to work.¡± ¡°It¡¯s no wonder you couldn¡¯t keep a secretary with that attitude,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°Let me guess, you were here on the weekends and they had to come in too.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t see what that has to do with anything,¡± said Flanagan. He scratched an eyebrow before pushing the call button on the elevator. ¡°Some people like to have time off to do personal things,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°You worked your secretaries too hard and they quit on you.¡± ¡°That can¡¯t be true,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°You haven¡¯t quit, and you have been here longer than anyone else.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have a life outside my job either,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°I just go home, read some, listen to the radio, and go to bed.¡± ¡°No boyfriends?,¡± asked Flanagan. ¡°How would I meet a boyfriend when I am almost never at home,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°If a thief were to break into my place right now, all I have is my radio.¡± ¡°Sounds lonely,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Maybe,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°What about you? You just go to your lab and work on things until you hit a wall. Then you come to work in the office with smoke rolling off your hair half the time.¡± ¡°Sometimes there are small problems to deal with while trying to figure things out,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Really?,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°Is that what happened with the purple clothes?¡± ¡°I was looking for a formula to build bulletproof cloth and it works,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°The jacket I was wearing stopped a bullet without any additional protection. The armor did better than that. Now if I could figure out how to strap rockets to it so the wearer could fly, that would be worth some money.¡± ¡°Are you going to keep wearing it?,¡± asked Miss Rich. The elevator doors opened and they stepped inside. Flanagan pushed the button to take them to the lobby. ¡°Why would I do that?,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Being a hero is dangerous work, and I¡¯m not a hero.¡± ¡°So you wouldn¡¯t wear it again?,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°Maybe if there was something I could do to help out and the suit was needed,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°But there are already so many masked men out there doing things. They can do that sort of work better than I can.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°I think the world could always use one more protector.¡± ¡°You¡¯re giving me way too much credit,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I am a yellow belly all the way through.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°I think you put it down to saving the company, but you really acted like a hero, and you really did some good.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll see how much good I did if Rydell beats his charges,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Then we¡¯ll be dealing with him again, and he won¡¯t be so friendly.¡± ¡°We can take him,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°We¡¯ve already beaten him once.¡± ¡°That sounds okay,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Since you¡¯re buying, where are we eating?¡± ¡°I think Joe¡¯s,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°Joe¡¯s?,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Why Joe¡¯s?¡± ¡°Because I can afford it,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°We can do better than Joe¡¯s,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°Where would you like to eat?,¡± asked Miss Rich. She crossed her arms as she waited for his suggestion. ¡°There¡¯s Marge¡¯s on the way to the factory,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I eat there all the time.¡± ¡°Really?,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°And it¡¯s cheap,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°That¡¯s why I eat there.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°That sounds like the main criteria is satisfied. We¡¯ll go to the show afterwards if we can get back to the city early enough.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°What show would you like to see?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°I haven¡¯t been to a play in a long time.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll think of something,¡± said Flanagan. He nodded when the elevator door opened. ¡°I admit I haven¡¯t been on a date in ever. This is a totally new side of you. When did this come up as an idea? There are so many other men who are better qualified for something like this.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know any of those men,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°There¡¯s Norbert.¡± A man the size of a redwood stood at the door of the lobby. His suit must have been sewed from sailcloth and tents to fit him. He nodded a solemn face at the pronunciation of his name. ¡°This is Mr. Flanagan, Norbert,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°We¡¯re going to have dinner and a show. Would you be so kind as to drive us?¡± ¡°It would be a pleasure, ma¡¯am,¡± said Norbert. His voice rumbled like a grizzly looking for dinner. ¡°The car is outside. I¡¯ll go first, and then you two.¡± He stepped outside, looked both ways, then went to the car. He opened the back door. He waved for his passengers to come down. He made sure Miss Rich got in first. ¡°Treat her right, buddy, or I¡¯ll rip your arms off,¡± Norbert whispered in Flanagan¡¯s ear as he helped him in the car. He closed the back door before Flanagan could protest. The bodyguard climbed in the front seat and drove away from the curb. ¡°Mr. Flanagan would like to eat at a place called Marge¡¯s,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°Would you mind taking us there, Norbert?¡± ¡°It will be my pleasure,¡± said Norbert. He drove cautiously south. He seemed to check for problems as they cleared the city and reached the state line. Marge¡¯s neon sign glowed red against a clean window with a curtain to block out the sun. There were three cars in the parking lot. Norbert pulled into a space where he could watch all three while he waited for the couple to eat. He got out and looked around before opening the door for Miss Rich. He helped her out of the car. He escorted her to the door of the diner. He checked the inside through the window in the door before opening the door for her. He walked in and watched the room while Miss Rich talked to the lady running the register. Flanagan followed, keeping an eye on things as he stepped inside. He nodded at some of the wait staff he knew as Miss Rich took his arm and led him to an empty booth in a corner of the room. ¡°Norbert doesn¡¯t want me to sit by windows until things are settled down,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°He¡¯s like a giant mother hen.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why I hired him,¡± said Flanagan. He smiled. He noted that he could watch the room with a mirror set up on the back wall and relaxed. If anything happened, he would have some warning to move. ¡°Hello, hon,¡± said a waitress in a pink dress. She put down two menus and two glasses of water with practiced ease. ¡°What can I do for you folks?¡± ¡°My wife would like one of your famous steaks and a baked potato,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I would like the grilled turkey slices and the mac and cheese.¡± ¡°What would you like to drink?,¡± said the waitress. This was the first she had heard of a wife and it showed on her thin face. ¡°I would like coffee,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I would like tea if you have it,¡± said Miss Rich. ¡°Sure do, hon,¡± said the waitress. She wrote their order down on a pad as she walked away. ¡°So I¡¯m your wife now?,¡± said Miss Rich. She smiled. ¡°I accept your proposal,¡± said Flanagan. He drew out a little box from his suit pocket. He handed it to her. ¡°I had to guess at the size.¡± She opened the lid of the box. A diamond glowed up at her. She closed the lid with wide eyes. ¡°Are you serious?,¡± asked Miss Rich. ¡°I am,¡± said Flanagan. ¡°I won¡¯t be a perfect husband, but I will do the best that I can.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Miss Rich. She took the ring out of the box and put it on her hand. ¡°Let¡¯s have dinner and a movie and see where this goes because I know I¡¯m not wife material either.¡± Flanagan looked at the mirror and saw Norbert nodding his head by the front door. The Last Slot Ken Aioki looked at the place where he was going for his job interview. It didn¡¯t look like much to him. He looked around before crossing the street and opening the personnel door to step inside. He looked around inside the door, getting his bearings. A giant stood at the desk. He held two parts in his hands. He looked up at Ken and put the parts down. ¡°Can I help you?,¡± said the giant. ¡°I¡¯m here about the job,¡± said Ken. ¡°I talked to a Mrs. Hillsmierer.¡± ¡°Really?,¡± said the giant. ¡°Are you sure you want to work here? This is a dangerous job you¡¯re trying out for, bud.¡± ¡°The advertisement didn¡¯t say anything about danger,¡± said Ken. ¡°Why would it?,¡± said the giant. He leaned a hip on the desk. ¡°You don¡¯t just tell people they might have their faces fried off on the first day. Then no one would apply.¡± ¡°Do people have their faces fried off on the first day?,¡± asked Ken. ¡°You¡¯d be surprised,¡± said the giant. His bald head reflected a blue light from his dark skin. Ken couldn¡¯t figure out where the source could be. ¡°Why don¡¯t you sit down? We can have a chat while you¡¯re waiting for Janie and Mark to get back.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± said Ken. He sat down in the visitor¡¯s chair indicated by the other man. ¡°What would you like to talk about?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s talk about your criminal record,¡± said the giant. ¡°That was a long time ago,¡± said Ken. ¡°Most of our systems are computerized,¡± said the Lamplighter. ¡°Are you even able to use them without getting into trouble?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± said Ken. ¡°My probation ran out two weeks ago. I already filed my paperwork.¡± ¡°So you want to talk about why a computer thief like yourself wants a job like this?,¡± said the giant. ¡°I wasn¡¯t a thief,¡± said Ken. ¡°I just put some stuff online. Unfortunately, the government doesn¡¯t like it when you expose one of their secrets.¡± ¡°How many secrets did you expose for the betterment of mankind?,¡± the giant asked. ¡°Just the one,¡± said Ken. ¡°It was a doozy.¡± ¡°It also got one hundred innocent people killed, did a million dollars in damage before the Mark could intervene, and unleashed a plague that might kill everyone on the planet given enough time,¡± said the giant. ¡°If we can make it into space without becoming extinct, that last might work out all right.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t mean for any of that to happen,¡± said Ken. ¡°What did you think was going to happen?,¡± asked the giant. ¡°I thought that exposing the government¡¯s super weapon would help the world,¡± said Ken. ¡°I mean they were building a biological weapon.¡± ¡°Exposing it is what caused the break-in that unleashed it,¡± said the giant. ¡°If you hadn¡¯t done that, very few people would have known about the weapon. Fewer still would have known where it was.¡± ¡°What would you have done?,¡± asked Ken. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t have dumped everything on the Internet for anyone to read for one thing,¡± the giant said. ¡°I might have called DARPA from a payphone, or a one use cell, and told them how loose their computer security was. I might have kept things to myself and watched what was going on from a distance.¡± ¡°But they were going to use it,¡± said Ken. ¡°How?,¡± said the giant. ¡°I saw an order for it to be deployed,¡± said Ken. ¡°It was a standby order in case something bad threatened to happen without interference,¡± said the giant. ¡°I didn¡¯t know,¡± said Ken. ¡°I was thirteen.¡± ¡°Thirteen and unable to do the thing you love,¡± said the giant. He sat behind the desk. ¡°Why should we take you in and let you loose in our systems so you can dump our files out on the Internet for everyone to read.¡± ¡°I learned my lesson,¡± said Ken. ¡°I made a bad decision. I understand why you wouldn¡¯t want to give me a chance, but I need the job, and I want to do something good.¡± ¡°Go ahead and look at these boards,¡± said the giant. He pushed a picture down on the desk with a big hand. ¡°They¡¯re not sending the correct signals to each other.¡± ¡°Is this some kind of test?,¡± asked Ken. ¡°I¡¯m not the one hiring you,¡± said the giant. ¡°If you can prove you still have your This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.touch, Mark might hire you despite your record. If you can¡¯t, he might just send you packing. He¡¯s lost a lot of empathy for others when he lost his eye.¡± ¡°How did that happen?,¡± asked Ken. He picked up the two boards and examined them as he thought about their shape, and the way things were laid on them. ¡°He zigged when he should have zagged,¡± said the other man. Ken paused to consider those words. He thought about what it meant to lose an eye because you made the wrong move. The other man nodded at the hesitation. ¡°Lamplighting is a business that deals with problems that no one else can deal with and it is dangerous,¡± said the giant. ¡°I understand if you want to walk away and get another job. If I were in your shoes, I would.¡± ¡°Have you been hurt on the job?,¡± asked Ken. He placed the pieces back on the desk and pulled out his Swiss Army knife. He extended a blade he could use to work on the electronics. ¡°Yes,¡± said the other man. ¡°I got hit hard a couple of times. I didn¡¯t even get a chance to zig, much less zag.¡± ¡°Sorry to hear that,¡± said Ken. ¡°It happens,¡± said the giant. ¡°If you say so,¡± said Ken. He poked at each of the boards. He realized he didn¡¯t know what they were supposed to do. ¡°Where did these come from?¡± ¡°From this baby,¡± said the giant. He picked up a giant lantern off the floor by its handle. It had been concealed by the desk. He placed it on top of the desk. Ken frowned at the lantern. He didn¡¯t see a flame inside of it. Why did it need electronics? Maybe he could do better with a reader, but he didn¡¯t have one, and he wasn¡¯t supposed to touch one until he paid his fines. Ken inspected the gap where the pieces went in the lamp. He frowned at the dust, and something else in the lamp. ¡°Do you have any duster?,¡± Ken asked. ¡°Right here,¡± said the other man. He grabbed a can of spray off a filing cabinet and handed it over. Ken sprayed the slot with the duster. Then he looked around and lucked into some cotton swabs. He used those to clean out the slots. Then he slid both pieces back into where they were supposed to go. He pressed the button on the side of the lamp. Blue flame exploded to life inside the chamber. He sat back. The giant nodded. ¡°It looks like you still have your touch,¡± said the other man. He smiled. Ken put his knife away as he looked at the blue flame. Fixing it had seemed ridiculously easy. ¡°What does this do?,¡± he asked. ¡°It gives off light,¡± said the other man. Ken frowned at him. Of course a lamp gave off light. If it didn¡¯t, it wouldn¡¯t be a lamp. ¡°I think Janie and Mark are back,¡± said the giant. ¡°If you still want the job, just act like you don¡¯t know anything, and don¡¯t give off the vibe that you¡¯re here to plunder the computer files.¡± ¡°I just want a job,¡± said Ken. ¡°Be humble and kind, and you¡¯ll get it,¡± said the giant. He picked up the lamp. ¡°I have to put this back where it belongs. Good luck, kid.¡± He turned and walked out of the office area. Ken thought he went upstairs, but realized that he wasn¡¯t exactly sure how the giant was getting around. That bothered him for some reason. Ken stood at the sound of a small rumble. He looked around. A vehicle bay door rolled up to let a van roll into the building. Yellow lights flashed on the top of the van. People in jumpsuits piled out of the van. They chattered about whatever they had run into on their job. Ken didn¡¯t understand the references. ¡°How did you get in here?,¡± asked one of the men. He only had one eye, and didn¡¯t bother covering his empty socket. ¡°The door was open,¡± said Ken. ¡°I¡¯m Ken Aioki. I¡¯m here about the job.¡± ¡°The hacker,¡± said the one-eyed man. ¡°I¡¯m Hadron. Have you talked to Janie yet?¡± ¡°No,¡± said Ken. ¡°I think I was the only one here.¡± ¡°Ever been in a fight?,¡± asked Hadron. He walked around to the other side of the desk and sat down. He frowned at it for a second. He righted the picture the giant had knocked over. A large hole was visible in his hand. ¡°Not since the sixth grade,¡± said Ken. ¡°As you are aware from the ad, this is dangerous work,¡± said Hadron. ¡°Are you sure you want to take this on? You¡¯ll be running most of the time, and trying not to get beaten like a rug the rest.¡± ¡°I think I can handle that,¡± said Ken. ¡°All right,¡± said Hadron. ¡°Hey, Marcel! Take the new guy down to get him tested.¡± ¡°I¡¯m hired just like that?,¡± said Ken. ¡°We always need someone we can consider expendable,¡± said Hadron. ¡°When you get back, we¡¯ll run the retina test and give you the package to fill out. After that, we¡¯ll get you some target practice.¡± ¡°How expendable am I?,¡± asked Ken. ¡°If you have to ask, you don¡¯t need to know,¡± said Marcel. ¡°That doesn¡¯t sound good,¡± said Ken. ¡°How many of us are there?¡± ¡°If you pass the retina scan, you¡¯re number four,¡± said Marcel. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. If you¡¯re getting a drug test, Hadron must think you¡¯ll pass the eye test with no problems.¡± ¡°What about the big guy?,¡± asked Ken. ¡°Isn¡¯t one,¡± said Marcel. ¡°What do you mean?,¡± said Ken. ¡°I just spent a few minutes talking to a big guy while I waited for you guys to come back.¡± ¡°There¡¯s no big guy,¡± said Marcel. ¡°That¡¯s probably why Hadron is going to hire you.¡± ¡°No big guy?,¡± said Ken. ¡°No,¡± said Marcel. ¡°There¡¯s me, the white guy, and the latina woman. Hadron is the boss, and Janie is his admin. There¡¯s nobody else.¡± ¡°Then who was I talking to?,¡± asked Ken. ¡°Probably one of the dead Lamplighters,¡± said Marcel. He waited until Ken had buckled in before starting the engine. ¡°What do you mean dead Lamplighters?,¡± said Ken. ¡°The place is haunted,¡± said Marcel. ¡°You¡¯re not really sharp, are you?¡± ¡°You¡¯re joking,¡± said Ken. Marcel pulled out his phone as he drove through the city streets. He hooked it up to the van¡¯s wifi and voice commanded it to search for the Lamplighters. He pulled to a stop at a red light. He took the chance to scroll up until he had a group picture from the Times. ¡°Which one was yours?,¡± Marcel asked. ¡°The big guy, Dyson Baker,¡± said Ken. ¡°Makes sense,¡± said Marcel. ¡°He made the original lamps.¡± ¡°So the ghostbusting place is haunted,¡± said Ken. ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Maybe because they died on the job, and the lamps are holding on to them,¡± said Marcel. ¡°The question is do you still want the job?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t really have anything to lose,¡± said Ken. ¡°Keep telling yourself that,¡± said Marcel. ¡°It¡¯ll help you sleep at night.¡± ¡°What helps you sleep at night?,¡± asked Ken. ¡°I don¡¯t,¡± said Marcel. He pulled to the curb in front of a small general medical services office. He looked at the traffic going by. ¡°How expendable am I?,¡± Ken asked before he got out of the van. ¡°You¡¯re just as expendable as Hadron¡¯s eye,¡± said Marcel. He turned to glance at his new co-worker. ¡°Go do your thing. I¡¯ll be waiting for you to take you back to the station.¡± ¡°Why are you working for the company?,¡± Ken asked. He stood outside the van, looking in through the opened window. ¡°Because my ghost said I couldn¡¯t,¡± said Marcel. ¡°And I¡¯m proving him wrong every minute I am on the clock.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t seem like a good reason,¡± said Ken. ¡°It¡¯s all that I need,¡± said Marcel. ¡°Go. I can¡¯t sit out here all day.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Ken. He looked at the small office. Did he really want to die over a job? He walked in and set up to take his test. Scouts Hold the Line Marty Morgan rubbed his bald pate with a gloved hand. Age had taken his hair and carved lines in his face, but he was still fighting trim thanks to his gift. It burned calories like no one¡¯s business. Finch, his wife, stood at his side. Gray strands of hair was the only difference he could see from when they had first met in ¡®79. Who would have thought they would be together so long doing what they did. He looked to his right. Blue flame marked where the Lamplighters were doing what they were doing blocks away. He hoped they knew what they were doing. His kids were out there, and he wanted them to have a chance. ¡°I, the Queen of Genn, the Sister of the Destroyer, the Mother of the Myriad, the Sun of a Million Lands, pronounce sentence on this miserable place for the crime of accepting my rebellious daughter as one of your own.¡± The image of a burning tree held up its prize in its grasp. The image covered the world so everyone could see what was going to happen. ¡°You will all be exterminated just like this hero who tried to stop me.¡± The net around the Mark caught fire as magic poured down on him. He felt the green spark in his body being ripped out. Then he blew apart in a cloud of ash and smoke. Marty¡¯s radio exploded in his ear. He gritted his teeth. Now was not the time to start losing it. ¡°Everybody, pay attention,¡± he said. ¡°We have to hold this line. Fliers, knock anything in the air that¡¯s not one of ours down. Ground troops, keep their armies back as much as possible. We need to give the Lamplighters a chance to do their thing. Rangers, keep moving people out of the way. We don¡¯t want to kill somebody by accident.¡± ¡°I have to go,¡± said Finch. ¡°Be careful,¡± said Marty. ¡°I¡¯m going to try to distract that thing until the Lamplighters can do what they can.¡± Finch moved to the edge of the roof. She vanished over the side. A streak of light appeared over the city. Marty frowned as he watched it head right at the center of the chaos. Then the giant hero known as M-37 punched the Queen of the Genn in the face with a metallic fist. That was a big distraction in Marty¡¯s book. He needed to add to that. Purple pulses lit the night along the line. Air ships came apart as he watched the night sky. What was causing that? ¡°I have some help over here, Marty,¡± said Scarrow on the radio. ¡°We¡¯re covering our point.¡± Another giant blasted through the air. Marty didn¡¯t recognize him, but he was throwing blasts of energy into the Queen as he flew across the city. ¡°He¡¯s with us, Marty,¡± said the Scarrow. ¡°Don¡¯t shoot him.¡± Marty frowned. New players on the board were changing the positions. It looked like their mad scheme might work after all. All he had to do was keep his children safe, and the city by extension. ¡°Mr. Multiverse is here on the ground,¡± said Plus. ¡°He¡¯s everywhere.¡± Marty expected that. Mr. Multiverse often showed up at events where there was a rip in the air. He only stayed around long enough to help out, and then he was gone. The Mark¡¯s kids flew through the air. If the Mark couldn¡¯t make a dent in Big Ugly, they couldn¡¯t either. Other fliers joined them. Marty hoped none of them were his kids. He had to hold the line, and keep the air clear. If the Lamplighters were right, they would become targets soon enough. The Queen wasn¡¯t going to let them pose a threat for long. ¡°How¡¯s it going?,¡± said a voice on his right. He looked down. A teenaged girl with dark hair and eyes smiled at him. ¡°Name¡¯s Sara. This is my brother, Moshe.¡± Moshe stood behind her. He scanned the air for danger as he tried to keep an eye on everything at once. ¡°Our parents wanted us out of the way until they got done helping the Americans build their lamps,¡± said Sara. ¡°Al-a-Din is down on the street with his butler and felt we should help you instead of getting in his way.¡± ¡°That¡¯s kind of him,¡± said Marty. ¡°I¡¯m trying to concentrate here. The goal is to protect the Lamplighters and keep the enemy confined close to the door. Can you do either of those things while I do what I have to do?¡± ¡°I think so,¡± said Sara. She smiled. ¡°What do you think, Moshe?¡± ¡°I think we¡¯re too close to the front line,¡± said Moshe. ¡°I don¡¯t think this is what Al-a- Din wanted.¡± ¡°Concentrate on what¡¯s going on,¡± said Marty. ¡°We have to hold this line one way, or the other. If things get ugly, get clear.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about us, old man,¡± said the girl. ¡°We can handle walking trees.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s right,¡± said the boy. He flung blue balls of light across the roof. ¡°Sorry, something moved over there.¡± ¡°Need some light,¡± said Marty. Sara said a word. A column of light sprang into existence across the street. Trees with jack o¡¯lantern faces looked around at the revealing fire. A rain of blue bolts fell on them before they could snuff the light out. ¡°Keep doing that until the coast is clear,¡± said Marty. He sat down on the gravel of his base roof and concentrated. Marty started out his career as Animal Boy of the Hazard Scouts. His gift was the Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.ability to summon animals to help him out. His foster family had brought him along on adventures until they were ambushed and for the most part wiped out. Barry Nicklaus, Mister Robot, spent ten years as a brain in a jar while Marty was figuring out how to survive without resources. As soon as Marty and his new friends had rescued him, he went back to solving problems with a new body. When the call went out, he had been the first to fly into New York to set up to repel the invasion. He had shifted to help the Lamplighters with his expertise while the rest of the newer generations of Scouts went about their business. Marty had originally only been able to summon animals. Then he had been able to summon mixes of two different animals. Then he had been able to move into imaginary animals after that. He crafted his summoning to keep the Queen busy. The Scouts had to hold the line while he worked. If the plan worked, he would be able to gather his extended family and take them home after a job well done. If it didn¡¯t, he would go down fighting. Either way, he wasn¡¯t giving up. ¡°Are you okay?,¡± asked Sara. ¡°Yes,¡± said Marty. He didn¡¯t open his eyes. ¡°Just keep the roofs clear while I cook up this surprise. It¡¯ll take me a couple of minutes. It¡¯s the biggest crafting I have ever done.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± said Sara. ¡°We¡¯re handling things.¡± Marty didn¡¯t open his eyes to check the veracity of that statement. He needed to concentrate on what he was doing. He had been younger when he had started out. He hoped they knew better than he had. A roar answered his summons. He smiled. He opened his eyes as a wave of heated air washed over him. ¡°What is that?,¡± asked Moshe. ¡°The biggest distraction I could come up with,¡± said Marty. ¡°Scouts, Behemoth is walking. Let him go by.¡± The summoned monster stomped forward, casually knocking aside any building in its way. The fins running down its back glowed in anger as it closed on the fight ahead. It roared its challenge at the Queen. ¡°That is a big distraction,¡± said Moshe. ¡°I don¡¯t think I have seen anything bigger.¡± ¡°Hopefully she hasn¡¯t either,¡± said Marty. Weariness settled into his bones. He closed his eyes again. Maybe he had created too big a distraction. Maybe he should have tried for something a little smaller on scale. The roar of the big lizard was followed by the sound of burning air as it breathed on the Queen while still blocks away. ¡°Are you all right?,¡± asked Sara. She said something else. Marty felt a tingling, but it wasn¡¯t enough to get him back on his feet. ¡°I just need a moment to rest,¡± said Marty. He knew that no matter what happened next, he was out of the fight. Calling on his monster had broken something inside. He could feel it. No one would be able to fix what he had done to himself. He was too old, and at the end of his life. He should have stayed home with his feet up and sipping Pepsi. Saving the world was a young man¡¯s, person¡¯s, game. ¡°I can¡¯t fix this,¡± said Sara. ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± ¡°Everybody has problems,¡± said Marty. ¡°Are we holding the line?¡± ¡°I think so,¡± said Sara. ¡°Your monster is forcing the tree people to defend their queen. They aren¡¯t doing a good job of it from what I can see.¡± ¡°The Mark¡¯s girls are probably wrecking a lot of the mooks,¡± said Marty. ¡°That¡¯s what I expected.¡± ¡°The Mark is dead,¡± said Moshe. ¡°I didn¡¯t expect that,¡± said Marty. ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter if we lose the fight.¡± If they lost, who was going to care how hard they fought, or who fell in battle. The human species would be forced to live under a yoke and possibly put on the path to extinction. He hadn¡¯t joined the Scouts to let that happen. ¡°It looks like we¡¯re pushing them back, Marty,¡± said Corona in his earpiece. ¡°That was some stunt you just pulled.¡± Corona and Ren had come out of retirement to help with this. Their son, Bond, was out there fighting with the other Scouts. She still looked like the blond girl from the poor side of town he had asked to move from Detroit to help him restart the Scouts after they had saved Barry. Ren had aged better than Marty. The former Animal Boy put it down to the magic he used to solve mysteries. Forty years had only given him some streaks of grey in his dark hair and a few wrinkles to go with the scars he had picked up in the battles they had waged. ¡°The lines on the street have stabilized, Dad,¡± said his son, Mark. ¡°We¡¯ll need some more people on the street if we want to start pushing them back for real.¡± Marty tried to talk into his radio. There had to be something he could say to change things. His mouth was so dry. ¡°I have a wedge of clear sky,¡± said Harmon, the Scarrow. ¡°Darla says she can knock down anything flying too close to us.¡± Marty wondered who Darla was. He thought she had something to do with the second giant helping M-37. That made her the source of the purple lightning he had seen earlier. ¡°Finch,¡± said Marty. He didn¡¯t know if the radio would activate. He didn¡¯t know how loud he was talking. ¡°Can you hear me? I love you.¡± It would be beyond expectation to think she had heard him. He couldn¡¯t do anything about it now. He had to hold on to give his monster time to do its work. If he died, his animal would expire too. He had to hold on to buy it time to do its job. ¡°We¡¯re ready to fire,¡± said Mark Hadron over the radio net. ¡°Magicians, get ready to push.¡± Marty smiled. He only had to hold on until the Lamplighters did their job. He could do it for another ten seconds. ¡°Counting down,¡± said Hadron. ¡°Three...Two...One...Fire in the hole.¡± Blue flame pressed against Marty¡¯s eyelids. He tried to turn his head, but he couldn¡¯t. He grimaced as the light seemed to go on forever. Then it shut off and the night sky was back. ¡°Mister Morgan?,¡± said Sara. ¡°Can you hold on? It looks like we¡¯re winning.¡± ¡°Finch,¡± said Marty. ¡°Can you find her?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll call,¡± said Sara. ¡°We¡¯ll get her for you.¡± Marty held his breath as he waited. He couldn¡¯t open his eyes. He felt a hand touch his face. He smiled at the familiar calluses. ¡°Here,¡± said Finch. ¡°I love you,¡± said Marty. ¡°Thank you for the time you¡¯ve given me.¡± ¡°Hospital,¡± said Finch. ¡°I¡¯m broken on the inside,¡± said Marty. ¡°It¡¯s my time, and no one can change that. I just wanted to say goodbye before I go.¡± ¡°Love you,¡± said Finch. The city of New York lit up in a display of blue flames at Martin Morgan¡¯s passing. His gargantuan creation went with him as it became thunderous clouds casting random lightning that broke apart over the ocean. His unknowing enemy, the Queen of Genn, looked down at the hole in her body in shock. A giant fist punched her back into her cloud door. Chanting closed the door as the various magicians summoned into action cast their spells to fill the hole in the boundary between worlds. The fighting continued for a bit, but the children of the Genn were beaten with their queen sent home, and no way to distract the Mark¡¯s daughters. They were rounded up and sent home to get rid of them. The Scouts gathered where Finch had covered Marty with his jacket. Others like the Robot Rangers arrived to report in after the action was done. The city¡¯s emergency services were taking over, surveying the damage. Tanner Lerner and his cousin, Darla, stood at the back of the crowd. A blond man in a dun coat stood with them. He puffed on his cigar as he watched things with his squinty eyes. ¡°So we didn¡¯t save everybody,¡± said Tanner. ¡°Couldn¡¯t be expected to,¡± said the man in the dun coat. ¡°You two still did okay considering.¡± ¡°If you can call running across the country and nearly getting killed fighting someone that killed the Mark okay,¡± said Darla. ¡°What the frack was that?¡± ¡°It needed doing,¡± said Tanner. ¡°Exactly,¡± said the man in the dun coat. ¡°Some things need doing. Have a safe trip back home. I doubt things will be this bad for a while. This Earth has beaten two menaces from beyond. The others might decide to leave us alone for a bit.¡± ¡°What if they don¡¯t, Mister Mysterious Mister Who Likes Crappy Smelling Smokes?,¡± asked Darla. ¡°You¡¯re the heroes who have to fight for the world,¡± said the man in the dun coat. ¡°I¡¯m just a nobody comedy relief.¡± He raised his cigar in a goodbye gesture and walked away. Push All the Buttons Tanner Lerner paused in front of the television screen in the Fro Yo dining room. He put his tray down on a nearby table, and started rolling up his sleeve. He started toward the door. ¡°Where are you going, squirt?,¡± asked Darla Huitt. She wore a sweatshirt with their school name on it, and shorts. A headband covered the tattoo over her eyes, and her temples. ¡°There¡¯s an emergency in New York,¡± said Tanner. ¡°I have to get out there and lend a hand.¡± Darla looked at the screen. She looked at her cousin. ¡°What do you think you¡¯re going to do that the Mark can¡¯t?,¡± she asked. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Tanner. ¡°Maybe they¡¯ll need someone who can do rescues really good. See you.¡± ¡°What do I tell your folks?,¡± asked Darla. ¡°Tell them I had some volunteer work to do,¡± said Tanner. ¡°I¡¯ll be home as soon as I am done.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± said Darla. She followed him out into the parking lot. He ran his finger over his forearm as he walked away. He didn¡¯t turn around as she grabbed his sleeve. He would have shrugged her off except he had stepped to somewhere in Missouri, and dragged her along with him. ¡°What are you doing, Darla?,¡± asked Tanner. ¡°What are you doing?,¡± asked Darla. She looked around. ¡°Where are we?¡± ¡°I¡¯m headed for New York,¡± said Tanner. ¡°Not without me,¡± said Darla. ¡°You can¡¯t leave me in the middle of nowhere.¡± ¡°Take a bus back home,¡± said Tanner. ¡°I¡¯ve got things to do and not enough time.¡± ¡°No,¡± said Darla. ¡°Either we both go home, or neither of us do.¡± ¡°I¡¯m good with that,¡± said Tanner. He started walking again. Darla grabbed his arm as he crossed a variety of landscapes and they wound up on a building in the middle of New York. She looked around. A guy in a mask pointed a bow and arrow at her face. ¡°Keep pointing that at me, and I¡¯ll shove it so far up inside you, a proctologist couldn¡¯t find it, buddy,¡± said Darla. ¡°Don¡¯t mind her,¡± said Tanner. He glanced at his forearm. ¡°She¡¯s moody.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not,¡± said Darla. ¡°I can¡¯t have you civilians up here,¡± said the bowman. ¡°There¡¯s an invasion going on.¡± ¡°I know,¡± said Tanner. ¡°I¡¯m here to lend a hand as soon as my timer runs out.¡± ¡°I, the Queen of Genn, the Sister of the Destroyer, the Mother of the Myriad, the Sun of a Million Lands, pronounce sentence on this miserable place for the crime of accepting my rebellious daughter as one of your own.¡± The image of a burning tree held up its prize in its grasp. The image covered the world so everyone could see what was going to happen. ¡°You will all be exterminated just like this hero who tried to stop me.¡± The net around the Mark caught fire as magic poured down on him. He felt the green spark in his body being ripped out. Then he blew apart in a cloud of ash and smoke. ¡°And you want to take that on?,¡± asked Darla. ¡°Nobody else can,¡± said Tanner. ¡°The Lamplighters have a plan,¡± said the bowman. ¡°I don¡¯t know what the two of you think you can do, but the Scouts and everyone else we can round up are trying to keep the enemy forces from overrunning the city while they do what they do.¡± ¡°Timer is almost done,¡± said Tanner. ¡°Give the Scout a hand, Darla, until I get back. If I don¡¯t make it back, tell the folks what happened.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be crazy,¡± Darla said. ¡°You don¡¯t have a chance against that thing.¡± ¡°Sure I do,¡± said Tanner. He looked up at a streak of light descending from the sky. ¡°It looks like I¡¯m not the only one joining this party. Try not to get hurt. Your mom will have kittens.¡± Tanner counted down the last of his circular clock on his forearm. He knew what he had to do, but didn¡¯t know what would happen. His body might explode from the power he was going to summon up. He hoped the Scouts gave Darla a ride home after this was over. He doubted she wanted to explain how she got to New York if he didn¡¯t make it. ¡°What are you going to do?,¡± asked the bowman. ¡°I¡¯m going to push all the buttons,¡± said Tanner. He ran his finger on all the buttons on the keyboard tattooed to his forearm. Each one lit up at his touch. He had kept his power output to three keys because that was all that was usually needed in the situations he faced back home. Now as the giant tree and the giant hero in a space suit swung at each other. He needed more than the usual amount of power. He paused before he pushed the activate key. His cousin looked furious, but she almost always did. The bowman looked confused, but that might have been because he wore what looked like a scarecrow outfit with the bag over his head under a jacket with the Hazard Scout hourglass on it. He smiled. Then he pushed the button. Tanner exploded upward, becoming metallic and huge in flight. He slammed into the Queen of the Genn as she knocked the other hero away. He punched her in the face as energy blew against her body. He didn¡¯t have long. The Scout said they had a plan in operation. All they had to do was hold the Queen in position. His timer said he only had three minutes at best. He hoped he lived long enough to see what the side effects were. A hundred wooden hands smashed into his metallic face. That sent him stumbling back. He grimaced as energy struck at him. He raised a shield and let the beam wrap around it without touching him. He noted that Darla had started using her eyebeam. It was perfect for knocking down the mooks while he went toe to toe with the big cheese. Purple splashes of color sent flying machines to the ground with a couple of hits. Tanner retaliated with explosive splinters. He didn¡¯t get to use that power too often. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.It felt good to give the Queen a face full of spikes. And then the spikes blew up. He would have laughed, but something caught him in the chest and he started worrying where he was going to land. Tanner brought himself up from crashing into a few skyscrapers. He winced at the cracking of some of the windows. He couldn¡¯t help that. Thunder shook the air. A giant bipedal lizard stalked the streets. Fins on its back glowed with fury. It roared, then emitted a beam of fire from its mouth. Then it charged right at the Queen. ¡°What the heck is that?,¡± Tanner asked himself as the giant lizard and giant burning tree met. The biting and roaring that followed was enough to deafen people. Tanner and the other giant added to the havoc by blazing away at the Queen as the reptile bit and tore. The burning tree blasted them away with a wave of her arms. Her bark regrew as they watched. They didn¡¯t have anything to shut her down, even with the giant lizard helping out. How could they win this? A mental beeping went off in Tanner¡¯s head. He looked down at his arm. His power was about to shut off. He looked around for a building he could land on before his combined abilities went away altogether. He grabbed a roof with one hand. Once his power went away, he would have to wait before he could use it again. He had never used all of the buttons at one time. He didn¡¯t know how long it would take to power up again. He could be dead by the time he could use the keyboard again. The other giant slammed into the Queen, combining his attack with the lizard. He covered his face as the counter attack ripped at his metallic skin. He burned the air as he stood there. The lizard exhaled at point blank range. The dragon fire burned against a hastily erected shield, blowing it apart. It followed that with a headbutt. Someone had taught the monster some wrestling moves before it came out to save the world, thought Tanner. His power burned up. He shrank as his body returned to normal. He pulled himself on his target roof and rolled away from the edge as he looked up at the sky and wondered what else he could do. A jet of blue flame hit the Queen. Tanner looked back at the source of it. He saw something like a cannon in the distance. Blue lights flicked on in a spider¡¯s web as the jet burned through the wooden body and the green energy roiling within. The animated tree stumbled from the almost lethal attack. The remaining giant slammed a fist into the tree, pushing her back into the clouds that formed the door between their realms. Tanner had been too busy to notice, but other flying heroes were on the scene. Had they been there the whole time? He realized that he had been caught up in the struggle and had not noticed other displays of power while trying to hold the Queen back. Light from the street extended into the air in letters, combining into a symbol of light. It capped the cloud cover. Then it shrank, taking the door with it. Tanner sat on the roof for a second. He looked at his arm. The keys were cold. He couldn¡¯t get home until the keyboard became warm again. He shook his head. How was he going to get down? He could already hear Darla complaining now. He wished the best of luck to the bowman Scout. That and some earplugs might be enough to salvage the rest of his night. ¡°It¡¯s transformer boy,¡± said a familiar voice. He turned as a costume in red and silver dropped out of the sky. ¡°It¡¯s Scarab Girl,¡± said Tanner. He smiled. ¡°How¡¯s your dad?¡± ¡°Grounding me when this is all over,¡± said Scarab Girl. She looked out over the city. The lizard had turned into a thunderstorm heading out over the ocean. She pointed at the lightning arcing to the water. ¡°I have to pick up my cousin,¡± said Tanner. ¡°And then I have to wait for the keyboard to activate again. I used up a lot of juice doing what I did.¡± ¡°The Scouts are regrouping on their command point,¡± said Scarab Girl. ¡°They live out your way. Maybe you can hitch a ride.¡± ¡°I doubt they want tagalongs like me and Darla,¡± said Tanner. ¡°Especially since I left Darla with one of their guys, and she is not the friendliest person ever.¡± ¡°You can see if their guy took her to their command post,¡± said Scarab Girl. ¡°I¡¯ll give you a lift over there myself.¡± ¡°Thanks, Scarab Girl,¡± said Tanner. He looked at his forearm. ¡°That¡¯ll be a great help.¡± ¡°Does your parents know you¡¯re out saving the world?,¡± asked Scarab Girl. She fired a line to the next building over. ¡°No,¡± said Tanner. ¡°Just Darla, and I wouldn¡¯t have told her except she got something too.¡± ¡°Mutual blackmail of silence?,¡± said Scarab Girl. ¡°Exactly,¡± said Tanner. Scarab Girl grabbed Tanner under one arm and swung out from the roof. She descended to the street and dropped him on the sidewalk. ¡°It¡¯s this way,¡± she said. She pointed at the glow in the air. ¡°Better hurry if you don¡¯t want your cousin messing things up for you.¡± ¡°As long as she doesn¡¯t splatter anybody, it should be good,¡± said Tanner. He walked down the street. Others joined him. He looked at the masks and costumes. They were as cut up and torn as his own clothes. He nodded at a man in a suit and hat with a clay mask over his face. The other nodded back. ¡°Do you want to have something to eat after we check in?,¡± Scarab Girl asked. ¡°I don¡¯t think your dad likes me,¡± said Tanner. He thought the expression under the full mask could be a smile, but he couldn¡¯t tell for sure. ¡°Hey, kid,¡± said a man in a dun coat. He puffed on a cigar as he came out of a side street. ¡°I didn¡¯t expect to see you here. Scarab Girl. How¡¯s it going?¡± ¡°It¡¯s going fine, Mr. Nobody,¡± said Scarab Girl. ¡°How are things with you?¡± ¡°No mister,¡± said the smoker. He smiled, eyebrows in a quizzical lift over his eyes. ¡°I think things will settle down for a while.¡± ¡°Seen Darla?,¡± asked Tanner. ¡°She flew over with the Scarrow and Emerald,¡± said Nobody. ¡°I expect she¡¯s waiting for you to show up.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t take her home yet,¡± said Tanner. ¡°I¡¯m sure she¡¯ll understand,¡± said Nobody. He opened the door for them to head up to the roof. ¡°Have you met my cousin?,¡± Tanner said. He walked across the lobby, checking the keyboard as he went. ¡°I don¡¯t think understanding is what she does best.¡± ¡°It¡¯ll be fine,¡± said the man in the coat. He smiled around his cigar. Tanner and Scarab Girl exchanged a look. They both knew empty assurances when they heard them. The three of them made their way to the roof. The man in the coat opened any doors that stood in their way. Scarab Girl saw her father talking to the Mark¡¯s daughters. He looked up when she arrived. She could tell he wasn¡¯t happy that she was still in working clothes. And then he saw Tanner and the man in the coat. He definitely didn¡¯t look happy despite the mask. ¡°I think your dad is mad,¡± said Tanner in a low voice. ¡°Really?,¡± said Scarab Girl. ¡°What was your first clue, Sherlock?¡± ¡°You,¡± said Darla. ¡°Where have you been? How could you leave me with someone stupid enough to call themselves Scarrow? What is your problem? Is this your girlfriend? Can we go home?¡± ¡°Not yet,¡± said Tanner. ¡°This is my cousin, Darla. Darla, this is the Scarlet Scarab, and Scarab Girl. Scarab Girl was asking if we would like to eat with them, and anybody else who wanted to go now that the emergency is over.¡± ¡°Are you crazy?,¡± asked Darla. ¡°No, I don¡¯t want to eat with bug people. I have to get home before my curfew, dipstick.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not going to happen anytime soon,¡± said Tanner. ¡°I busted the keyboard.¡± ¡°What did you say?,¡± said Darla. Her hands reached for the headband concealing her third eye. ¡°Who did we lose?,¡± asked Tanner. ¡°Marty Morgan, the Animal, and the Mark,¡± said the Scarlet Scarab. ¡°We lost a couple of others fighting in the street. We¡¯re hoping they¡¯ll show up some time and let us know they¡¯re still out there.¡± ¡°So we didn¡¯t save everybody,¡± said Tanner. ¡°Couldn¡¯t be expected to,¡± said the man in the dun coat. ¡°You two still did okay considering.¡± ¡°If you can call running across the country and nearly getting killed fighting someone that killed the Mark okay,¡± said Darla. ¡°What the frack was that?¡± ¡°It needed doing,¡± said Tanner. ¡°Exactly,¡± said the man in the dun coat. ¡°Some things need doing. Have a safe trip back home. I doubt things will be this bad for a while. This Earth has beaten two menaces from beyond. The others might decide to leave us alone for a bit.¡± ¡°What if they don¡¯t, Mister Mysterious Mister Who Likes Crappy Smelling Smokes?,¡± asked Darla. ¡°You¡¯re the heroes who have to fight for the world,¡± said the man in the dun coat. ¡°I¡¯m just a nobody comedy relief.¡± He raised his cigar in a goodbye gesture and walked away. ¡°That guy gets up my nose,¡± said Darla. ¡°Especially those cigars and the mysterious mystery act. What¡¯s next? He¡¯s pulls a rabbit out of his coat and says presto.¡± ¡°The city is going to be cleaning up for a while,¡± said the Scarlet Scarab. ¡°None of us seem to have the ability to help with that. And the Scouts are going to want to bury their dead. We can get a meal while we wait on your power to come back.¡± ¡°If it ever does,¡± said Tanner. ¡°We may be stuck here for a while.¡± ¡°What did you say?,¡± said Darla. ¡°I said let¡¯s grab something to eat while we can,¡± said Tanner. ¡°Then we can talk about getting home, and covering for leaving like we did.¡± ¡°This is all your fault,¡± said Darla. ¡°No one asked you to come along,¡± said Tanner. ¡°Act like a decent person and let¡¯s have a dinner with two of the best heroes in the city without embarrassing ourselves.¡± ¡°This isn¡¯t over,¡± said Darla. She glared at the three of them. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± The four of them walked down the stairs in silence. Scouting in the Woods 1 Stella Marston crossed the concourse of the airport. Everywhere she looked, people told her about themselves. Some of the things weren¡¯t what she considered nice. She spotted her babysitters. Uncle Marty stood in his beat up old tan jacket with an hourglass on the sleeve and waved at her. She could see the holes in it from where she walked. His wife, Finch, stood at his side. She wore a green and gold shirt-dress over green pants. Her face and mind were empty. Stella paused. She had never met someone who kept their thoughts that much in check. The three children with them had flightier minds, scattered thoughts flying around as they focused on one thing, or the other. ¡°Hey, Stella,¡± said Uncle Marty. He waved at her. ¡°Have you got your bag?¡± ¡°Yes, sir,¡± said Stella. Her dad had told her to pack light, so she had packed two changes of clothing in an overnight bag. ¡°All right,¡± said Marty. ¡°Let¡¯s head to the van and start our trip.¡± Stella fell in with the kids, carrying her backpack in her hand. Mark and Melinda practiced mock punches behind her. She could read the vectors even if she couldn¡¯t hope to match their speed. Bond followed at a distance. He had a book in hand, scanning it as he walked. She got the impression of him reading it as an echo in her mind. ¡°What are you reading?,¡± asked Stella. She walked beside Bond, keeping her distance from the siblings. ¡°The Adventure of Three Coffins,¡± said Bond. He looked up. ¡°My dad wants me to solve the mystery before I reach the end of the book.¡± ¡°Why?,¡± asked Stella. ¡°Because he¡¯s a detective and he wants me to follow in his footsteps,¡± said Bond. ¡°I¡¯m not sure if I am cut out to be a detective.¡± ¡°My dad is a detective too,¡± said Stella. ¡°He doesn¡¯t solve crimes anymore. Mostly he makes sure that one person isn¡¯t doing anything wrong.¡± ¡°There¡¯s nothing wrong with that,¡± said Bond. ¡°My dad just wants to solve mysteries and catch villains because that was what he was trained to do. My mom likes helping.¡± Stella thought about it. Bond¡¯s parents weren¡¯t there. She knew them as Ren and Corona Tamagochi. Ren¡¯s mind was full of formulae and explanations for things that she didn¡¯t understand. Corona looked like a star. ¡°I don¡¯t see your parents,¡± Stella said. She knew that was the wrong thing to say a moment later. ¡°Dad had a case he had to work on at the last minute,¡± said Bond. ¡°He doesn¡¯t like the outdoors that much anyway.¡± ¡°Do you want to go?,¡± asked Stella. ¡°Not really, but Dad doesn¡¯t want me to stay at home while he¡¯s working on this,¡± said Bond. ¡°He didn¡¯t want you to get hurt, dipstick,¡± said Mark. ¡°Yeah, dipstick,¡± said Melinda. ¡°That gets old,¡± said Bond. Stella looked at the Morgan siblings. They looked more like their mother than dad with straight hair, and oriental features. They already had calluses on their hands from practicing to follow in their mom¡¯s footsteps. Bond was taller than the three of them, blond hair burning the light, dark eyes squinting at everything. He wore a suit jacket and slacks for their camping trip. ¡°There¡¯s the van,¡± said Uncle Marty. ¡°Let¡¯s load up and get this show on the road.¡± The family dog sat in the shotgun seat. He barked at the kids as they ran up to the van. The tail wagged. ¡°Back seat, Ruff,¡± said Uncle Marty. He gestured with a thumb. The wrinkled face vanished from the window and reappeared in the side door window. The dog grinned at them. Uncle Marty opened the side door for the kids to climb in. Ruff danced around to make that harder than necessary. His tongue left slobber everywhere he attacked. ¡°Down, Ruff,¡± said Mark. ¡°We¡¯re camping.¡± The dog climbed into the back of the van and lay down. His tail still wagged. They could hear it beating against the seat. Finch placed the boys in the middle seats, and the girls in the back. She gave her children a look. Then she closed the van door. Camping could be traded for work around the Scouts¡¯ home, and helping Barry with his inventions. Something exploding was not all that fun when it set your hair on fire. Stella looked over the seat at Ruff. The dog looked up at her. She didn¡¯t sense anything from it. She turned to face front before she got another face licking. Marty got behind the wheel. Finch took the front passenger seat. She nodded at them. Stella felt a little ping of something from her then. She didn¡¯t have time to examine A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.it before it was gone. Bond turned to the last page of the book. He looked down. Then he shook his head. He pulled out a pen and wrote something down on the last page of the book. He put the pen and book away. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?,¡± Stella asked. ¡°I am in training to be a detective,¡± said Bond. ¡°Part of that is figuring out these mysteries. My dad tears out the last few pages and makes me write down who I think did the deed.¡± ¡°Sounds boring,¡± said Melinda. ¡°You have to train to be something,¡± said Bond. ¡°This is Dad¡¯s way of training me. Look at you two. Your mom makes you run in front of a pitching machine to get fast.¡± ¡°And we¡¯re fast,¡± said Mark. ¡°Same principle,¡± said Bond. ¡°Dad wants me to figure out what happened in the story. He calls it evaluating things. Once I get that down, I can move on to other parts of things.¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t you look up the endings at the library?,¡± said Stella. ¡°That¡¯s cheating,¡± said Bond. ¡°And Dad always knows when I do that.¡± ¡°Really?,¡± said Stella. ¡°Yep,¡± said Bond. ¡°He always knows.¡± ¡°He¡¯s got eyes in the back of his head,¡± said Mark. ¡°Bond is right. You can¡¯t get away with anything when he¡¯s around.¡± ¡°He¡¯s constantly evaluating things,¡± said Bond. ¡°I thought my dad was bad,¡± said Stella. ¡°Eventually I hope to join a sports team and get out of all this training,¡± said Bond. ¡°I¡¯m not quite sure if being a detective is something I want to do.¡± ¡°Sports takes just as much training as detecting,¡± said Mark. ¡°Only you have to be good at running and catching and a hundred other things.¡± ¡°And you¡¯re not that good at any of them,¡± said Melinda. ¡°I could be a great football player,¡± said Bond. ¡°I have grace according to my mom.¡± The siblings sniggered at that. Melinda covered her mouth so she couldn¡¯t howl with laughter. ¡°You two are being mean,¡± said Stella. She frowned at the two. ¡°Fighting is not that great a skill either if it doesn¡¯t get you a job to pay your rent.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a great skill,¡± said Mark. ¡°It has a lot of uses.¡± ¡°Name one other than fighting,¡± said Stella. ¡°Breaking things,¡± said Mark. ¡°Physical fitness,¡± said Melinda. ¡°Taking a punch to the face,¡± said Bond. ¡°The last is covered by fighting,¡± said Stella. ¡°All right, kids,¡± said Marty. ¡°I need to make a call. Try to keep things down to a dull roar.¡± Ruff barked from the back of the van. ¡°That includes you too,¡± said Marty. He pulled on a headset and plugged it into the dashboard. He waited for someone to answer before he started talking. He nodded at something said. Then he disconnected the headset, and put it away again. ¡°All right, guys,¡± said Marty. ¡°We¡¯re getting off at the next exit and then start up toward the forest. There¡¯s a small place to shop for groceries. That will be the place for whatever supplies you think we¡¯ll need. Think about it.¡± ¡°How much can we get?,¡± asked Mark. ¡°Five dollars worth,¡± said Marty. ¡°I think that should be enough for the four of you.¡± ¡°Five dollars apiece, or together?,¡± asked Mark. ¡°Together,¡± said Marty. ¡°That won¡¯t even buy soda pop for the four of us,¡± said Mark. ¡°It should,¡± said Marty. He looked at Finch. She held up two fingers. ¡°All right, I will give you two dollars apiece for your personal use.¡± ¡°Three dollars?,¡± asked Mark. ¡°Two fifty,¡± said Marty. ¡°That¡¯s my final offer.¡± Mark looked at the other three kids. He nodded at the looks he got back. ¡°We¡¯ll take it,¡± he said. ¡°He gets this haggling thing from your side of the family,¡± Marty said, smiling at his wife. Finch shook her head. She pointed at him. ¡°Me? I don¡¯t think so. I never haggled a day in my life.¡± Stella wondered what she could get for two dollars. She planned to keep the fifty cents for later when she got home. ¡°All right, here¡¯s the exit, kids,¡± said Marty. ¡°We¡¯re looking for signs heading to Redwood. The camping area is north of that.¡± ¡°We could have camped around the old place,¡± said Mark. ¡°We didn¡¯t have to drive out this far from home.¡± ¡°Barry is doing experiments at home,¡± said Marty. ¡°I figured that camping away from that would prevent him trying to con us into helping him move machinery around while he got things the way he wanted.¡± ¡°Good call,¡± said Mark. He settled back in his chair. ¡°I¡¯m so glad you approve of my decision making skills,¡± said Marty. ¡°Who¡¯s Barry?,¡± asked Stella. She saw an image of a human looking machine in a Scout coat, waving what looked like a flamethrower in one hand. ¡°He¡¯s one of the Scouts,¡± said Bond. ¡°He¡¯s big on doing experiments to find out things.¡± ¡°He¡¯ll work us like dogs,¡± said Mark. ¡°He says it builds character,¡± said Melinda. She stuck out her tongue at that idea. ¡°Don¡¯t listen to them,¡± said Marty. ¡°Barry is my adoptive father, and Mark and Melinda¡¯s adoptive grandfather. He gets a little enthusiastic when he decides to do things. This weekend is all about taking things slow and enjoying the time outside.¡± ¡°Which we wouldn¡¯t be able to do dodging lightning and some of the stuff he¡¯s testing,¡± said Mark. ¡°Killer frogs with two foot long tongues,¡± said Melinda. She shook at the thought. Ruff added his own sentiment to the description from his spot at the back of the van. ¡°You kids are exaggerating,¡± said Marty. ¡°Those frogs weren¡¯t nearly that big.¡± Stella saw an image in the Morgan siblings¡¯ minds. The frogs looked big to her. The size of a greyhound sprang to mind. Mark held his hands out to show how big the frogs were. Melinda nodded in agreement. ¡°Humongous,¡± said Finch. ¡°They were a little outsized, but we handled it,¡± said Marty. ¡°You guys act like you¡¯ve never seen strange wildlife before.¡± ¡°Mr. Morgan,¡± said Bond. ¡°Those frogs were the single most dangerous things I have ever seen in my life. I think that you are just used to that kind of thing and they looked small to you.¡± ¡°You haven¡¯t really seen anything that dangerous, have you?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°Not like that, no,¡± said Bond. He turned to Stella. ¡°They chased us all over the building, trying to eat us. Mr. Nicklaus found an old flamethrower and lit them up. They exploded and covered us with goo. I spent a week showering to get the smell out.¡± ¡°That was the worst part,¡± said Mark. ¡°The slimy skin and the tongues weren¡¯t as bad as the smell when they blew up. We had to clean that up too. It was awful.¡± ¡°It was horrible,¡± said Melinda. She made a face at the memory of the odor. ¡°Indescribable,¡± said Finch. ¡°Et tu, Brute,¡± said Marty. He glanced at his wife. Her placid mask almost smiled back at him. The van pulled into the gravel lot of the small store Marty had told them about. He counted out two fives and handed them to the four kids. They looked down at the two bills. ¡°How are we supposed to split this?,¡± asked Mark. ¡°I suggest that one of you pick one item and pay for it to get change, then split it like that,¡± said Marty. ¡°Or one of you can buy their two bucks worth of stuff and give the change to the other.¡± ¡°Boys together, then girls,¡± said Finch. ¡°No fighting, no arguing.¡± ¡°Come on, Bond,¡± said Mark. ¡°Let¡¯s see what we can do with our five dollars.¡± The boys went in first, talking about how to maximize their buying power. A giant pool of things to split would be the way to go as far as they could see. And they wouldn¡¯t have to give any to the girls. ¡°Could you help me pick stuff out?,¡± asked Melinda. ¡°I¡¯m not good with numbers yet.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± said Stella. ¡°You hold the money.¡± ¡°I can do that,¡± said Melinda. ¡°No one will take our money as long as I have it in my hand.¡± Stella saw a show of violence rushing through Melinda¡¯s mind at the determination of stopping a thief before he got away with their five dollar bill. ¡°If you girls hurry, maybe you can convince the boys to share their five so you have ten dollars altogether,¡± said Marty. He smiled as they rushed into the store to talk to the boys. Scouting in the Woods 2 Stella mediated a deal between the four of them so they could each get a bit of what they wanted without being too greedy. She glanced at Mister and Mrs. Morgan. They watched the conversation but didn¡¯t interfere. ¡°All right,¡± said Mark. He sipped on his cola. ¡°This is great.¡± ¡°Thank you for helping me,¡± said Melinda. She held out a bag of candy for Stella to take one piece. ¡°Everyone got something?,¡± asked Marty. He had secured a bottle of soda and a moon pie for himself. He offered a bite to his wife, but Finch declined with an upraised hand blocking it from sight. The chorus of yeses made him smile. He took a bite of his moon pie and a sip of soda from the bottle while gesturing for the kids to head back to the van. Finch patted him on the cheek as she passed. ¡°In the back, Ruff,¡± commanded Mark. ¡°We¡¯re headed up into the woods.¡± The dog jumped in the van and made its way to its spot. It loomed over the seat to watch the girls eat their treats. ¡°No, Ruff,¡± said Melinda. ¡°Candy is bad for dogs.¡± Ruff barked before settling with his head on his paws. ¡°She¡¯s right, Ruff,¡± said Marty as he got behind the driver¡¯s wheel. ¡°Candy is bad for dogs.¡± One bark answered that. ¡°Don¡¯t be a trial,¡± said Marty. ¡°I have steak we can cook tonight over a roaring fire.¡± Ruff jumped up to to look over the seat. His ears were pointed at the front of the van. ¡°Yes, steak for us,¡± said Marty. ¡°Everyone else is getting vegetables.¡± Ruff barked. He dropped down. His tail started beating the seat again. ¡°And you said steak was bad,¡± Marty said. He glanced at his wife. She shook her head. ¡°Everyone buckled in?,¡± asked Marty. He looked over his shoulder at the kids. Everyone nodded back at him. ¡°Let¡¯s head up to the camp site. We want to set up our tents before nightfall.¡± The van pulled away from the store and headed down the road. Stella looked out the window on her side. The trees encroached on the road as they rolled along. ¡°There¡¯s our turn,¡± said Marty. ¡°We¡¯re going to have to park and walk up the rest of the way.¡± ¡°Walking?,¡± said Mark. ¡°Not walking,¡± said Melinda. Ruff barked. ¡°Yes, walking,¡± said Marty. ¡°The exercise will do you good.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± said Mark. ¡°And that¡¯s why we don¡¯t pay you to think,¡± said Marty. ¡°There¡¯s our spot.¡± Marty pulled the van into the slot reserved for vehicles like his. He cut the engine and got out. He walked back to the rear of the van and opened the rear door. Ruff sat up. ¡°Coming, or going?,¡± Marty asked. Ruff jumped down to the gravel parking lot. Finch herded the kids out of the van. She checked them visually before sending them to the back. She pointed at the dog. It sat where she pointed. It grinned easily at its surroundings. ¡°All right,¡± said Marty. ¡°We¡¯re going to take our things up to the camp site. Stay together and don¡¯t wander off the trail. There¡¯s still some dangerous animals that like to hang around and eat a kid. Here we go.¡± Marty opened a cargo space in the rear section. He took out two backpacks, and handed them to Mark and Melinda. He pulled out two bags with long sections of cloth and rods in them. He handed one to Mark, the other to Bond. He pulled out a case of canned drinks and handed those to Melinda. He pulled out three big coolers last. He handed one to Stella, one to his wife, and put the last on the ground. He checked to Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.see if he missed anything before closing everything up and locking the van down. ¡°Let¡¯s go, guys,¡± said Marty. ¡°We want to set up our tents and cook dinner before the night comes.¡± ¡°Do you think there are bears?,¡± asked Melinda. ¡°I¡¯m sure there are,¡± said Marty. ¡°That¡¯s why I brought your mother along. No bear is going to get in our camp with her around.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be a scaredy cat,¡± said Mark. ¡°No animal is going to get close with Ruff on duty. He¡¯s a good dog.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t underestimate the scavengers and bugs,¡± said Marty. ¡°Even with a dog around, that doesn¡¯t mean it will stop them from foraging. And larger predators may attack if they are having problems. Again that is why I brought your mother along.¡± ¡°I suppose that¡¯s okay,¡± said Mark. ¡°I¡¯m so glad you agree with me,¡± said Marty. He kept his eyeroll down to one turn. The group trooped into the woods. Marty sang songs from his youth off key and annoying to the kids, and his wife. He didn¡¯t care. He had a cooler on his shoulder and a place picked out where they could take it easy for the whole weekend. He didn¡¯t plan to do anything more than petting his dog, and napping under the shade of a tall tree. ¡°The singing is bad, Dad,¡± said Mark. ¡°That¡¯s the sound of the men working on the chain gang, son,¡± said Marty. ¡°Your mother will explain it to you when you¡¯re older.¡± Mrs. Morgan shook her head. There would be no explanation from her. ¡°All right, guys,¡± said Marty. ¡°Take a left off the trail there and look for a clear spot next to a small pile of rocks.¡± ¡°Should we be going off the trail like this?,¡± asked Bond. ¡°That¡¯s why we brought the dog,¡± said Marty. ¡°Don¡¯t go anywhere without him. Ruff will always return to me.¡± ¡°Always?,¡± asked Stella. She glanced at the hound sniffing trees as they walked. ¡°That¡¯s what his nose is for, hon,¡± said Marty. ¡°He can sniff a trail for almost a week before it gets old. Take him with you wherever you go, he¡¯ll always bring you back to camp.¡± ¡°And he¡¯s a good pillow,¡± said Melinda. ¡°He likes that a lot too.¡± Ruff barked in agreement. He loved the laying around and reading over people¡¯s shoulders. ¡°There¡¯s our pile of rocks,¡± said Marty. ¡°Let¡¯s see what we got to work with as far as putting up our tents and getting ready to eat.¡± The clearing was an oval surrounded on all sides by bushes and trees. A pyramid of rocks had been set up in the center. Stella noticed someone had cut an hourglass in a circle on one of the stones. How many times had Mister Morgan camped in this spot? ¡°All right,¡± said Marty. ¡°Melinda, Mark, gather firewood. Stella and Bond, we want something where we can just drape the tent halves over and then spike them to the ground. If you don¡¯t mind getting the fire started, Honey, that should get most of what we need going.¡± Mark and Melinda vanished into the surrounding undergrowth. Ruff went with them. He didn¡¯t bark as he kept an eye on the younger Morgans. Marty took all the camping equipment out of the storage bags. He set all the tents up with a minimum of effort. He gave directions to the kids as he let them help out. Finch turned the pyramid into a circle of stones. She gathered up some twigs and piled them in the center. She took a dry piece between her thumb and index finger. In a second, it was burning. She put that on top of the pile of wood. ¡°Wait until the kids are adults before you show them how to do that,¡± said Marty. Finch smiled. She breathed on the flame to keep it going. Mark and Melinda pushed out of the trees with armloads of wood. Ruff panted behind them, wagging his tail. Finch and Marty took the wood and set it up to burn without too much smoke. The last thing they wanted was trouble with the park rangers. ¡°It looks like all we have to do is cook our food, and then decide what to do before we go to bed,¡± said Marty. ¡°Tomorrow, we¡¯re going hiking and taking in the great outdoors.¡± ¡°How far are we going, Dad?,¡± asked Mark. ¡°I thought we could walk up to the Peak,¡± said Marty. He placed a grill on the flames. He opened the coolers and placed small steaks on the grill. He looked inside. ¡°Need to slice the potatoes.¡± ¡°Kids,¡± said Finch. She pulled two knifes and handed them to the siblings. She began throwing potatoes at them. Quartered potatoes dropped on the grill. Stella sat back at the display. ¡°Not as bad as the last time,¡± said Bond. He had a pack of candy orange slices in his hand. He opened the bag with a twist of his wrist. ¡°The last time I got splattered with mashed potatoes in my hair.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think Melinda could do that on purpose because she knows what would happen if she did,¡± said Marty. ¡°We can¡¯t really punish people for accidents, can we? Excitement at the use of a new skill sometimes causes things to happen that the person using the skill knows shouldn¡¯t happen.¡± Stella felt the trace of guilt from the younger girl. She had splattered Bond on purpose and made it look like an accident. No one had been fooled by her act. They had just given her punishment and made that look like regular work. Stella didn¡¯t think Melinda knew she was getting punished for bad behavior. Maybe she had, and it had sailed through her mind as something she could deal with without thinking about it. Stella supposed that having a brother like Mark would make any punishment worse than it was. He was the type to rub things in from what she could see. Bond offered her some of the orange slices. She took one of the candies and chewed on it. It was like a jelly bean with a spark of sugar and orange tasting on top. ¡°Are they any good?,¡± asked Melinda. ¡°They¡¯re really chewy,¡± said Stella. ¡°But I think I like them.¡± ¡°Would you like one, Melinda?,¡± asked Bond. ¡°Yes,¡± said Melinda. She glanced at her mother. ¡°Please.¡± Bond stretched out so she could reach into the bag and pick out her own slices. She pulled out three. She popped them in her mouth and started chewing. ¡°You¡¯re supposed to eat them one at a time, Lind,¡± said Marty. ¡°Otherwise, they get to be too sweet.¡± ¡°They¡¯re okay,¡± said Melinda. She chewed the rest in her mouth and swallowed. ¡°They¡¯re pretty gummy.¡± Marty flipped the steaks with a knife. He nodded at the coloring on them. ¡°Did we bring any plates with us?,¡± he asked. Finch pulled out a small stack from a bag. They were wrapped in plastic to protect them. ¡°Let¡¯s divvy up the spoils and eat,¡± said Marty. ¡°Then we can sit back and relax a spell.¡± Scouting in the Woods 3 Stella liked most of the outdoors except for the lack of bathrooms. Everywhere she looked simple brains went about doing what they did best. There was nothing complicated about them and made not listening to them easier. Disregarding the others camping with her was almost as easy. Bond bothered her the most with his worry, but the Morgans seemed to have worked to make things easier by concentrating on one point. Mister Morgan had some concerns but he kept them hidden behind a catalogue of animals moving in his brain. Stella wondered if the Morgans had trained themselves to be unreadable by people like her. She decided not to ask. The answer would be as embarrassing as the question in her opinion. ¡°How do you know my dad, Mister Morgan,¡± asked Stella. That seemed a safe topic to talk about with the adults. ¡°He never told me he knew someone famous.¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t say I am personally famous,¡± said Marty. ¡°I knew your dad when I was a kid. He used to help Barry out sometimes. He retired sometime in the seventies from doing the weirder side of things. When he asked me to look after you, I owed him enough to include you in our camping trip.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t know Dad was a Hazard Scout,¡± said Stella. ¡°He wasn¡¯t,¡± said Marty. He shifted on his log seat. ¡°Your dad operated on his own, and Barry would give him side jobs to look into because we were doing something else on the other side of the planet. Your dad and a couple of others would look into things and get back to Barry if the Scouts needed to do something about the problem.¡± Stella sensed something being left out that was more than just handing her dad side jobs. It was something about the nature of the jobs, and how her dad went about doing them. ¡°Dad said he had a job come up,¡± said Stella. ¡°Do you think it was a weird job? This is the first time he asked me to leave town while he was working on something.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t know,¡± said Marty. ¡°Your dad can take care of himself. If there was a problem, I would leave you and the other kids with Barry, and look into things myself. I have a good record of finding out things since I have been working with Bond¡¯s dad.¡± ¡°Is Mister Tamagochi a good detective?,¡± asked Stella. Fleeting memories of deductions proven right flowed through Morgan¡¯s mind for a second. ¡°He¡¯s decent,¡± said Marty. ¡°He¡¯s better than the others that trained with his teacher.¡± Finch nodded at the assertion. Stella still couldn¡¯t read her. She had to take the assessment at face value. ¡°I¡¯ll be back,¡± said Finch. She stood and vanished into the darkness. Ruff watched her go. He lay with his head on his paws, a small growl escaping his throat as he looked out beyond the campfire. He stopped growling just before she reappeared from the tree line. The dog closed his eyes and settled in place. Whatever had been bothering him seemed to be gone. Stella wondered if Mrs. Morgan had run into an animal and the animal had fled from her. Mrs. Morgan leaned over and said something into her husband¡¯s ear. Stella caught an edge of what was being said from his brain, but all she saw was a bear and cubs. ¡°Okay,¡± said Mister Morgan. ¡°Thanks for telling me. I¡¯ll put up a picket fence around us.¡± ¡°A picket fence?,¡± asked Stella. ¡°We have some wildlife roaming too close to the camp,¡± said Mister Morgan. ¡°I¡¯m going to put out some watchers to let us know if any of it gets too close. We still have Ruff, but something further out will give us a faster warning of things.¡± Stella felt he was hiding something, but she couldn¡¯t break down his defense to get in and find out what. She decided to let it go. If he wanted to tell her, he would. She wondered what her dad was doing. It had been a while since he had taken a case that couldn¡¯t wait. Usually when he did, he let her stay home with her mother. This Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.time they were both out on this case, and she was stuck in the middle of the woods. Mark and Melinda had picked up sticks and were practicing against each other. She could read the variations, but she knew in a real fight she would lose. She just didn¡¯t have the reflexes to match what they were doing. Melinda would take her apart if they ever matched up, and she was smaller and lighter. Bond sat by himself. He waved a hand over the camp fire. His mind processed calculation after calculation without glancing over the work. He caught an ember in his hand. He held it up. It gleamed like a crystal instead of a piece of burning wood. Then it turned black as he watched it. Stella had the impression that he had held a ruby for that brief second. He frowned as he went back to waving his hand over the fire. ¡°Who wants to tell some campfire stories?,¡± asked Mister Morgan. The children except for Stella groaned. She looked at them. This was something she had never done. They seemed to have done it numerous times before. ¡°Dad, your stories are boring,¡± said Mark. ¡°And we¡¯ve heard all of them,¡± said Melinda. ¡°The sick dog?,¡± asked Mister Morgan. ¡°Bit the fingers off a burglar,¡± said Mark. ¡°The concrete truck?,¡± asked Mister Morgan. ¡°The wife was selling the house,¡± said Melinda. ¡°The ghost of San Francisco?,¡± asked Mister Morgan. ¡°Which one?,¡± asked Bond. ¡°Good question,¡± said Mister Morgan. ¡°One Eye Wilson?,¡± asked Mrs. Morgan. ¡°I don¡¯t remember that one,¡± said Mister Morgan. ¡°One Eye Wilson followed his murderer around,¡± said Mrs. Morgan. ¡°Okay,¡± said Mister Morgan. ¡°I do remember that now. All right, kids. I¡¯m going to tell you the story of One Eye Wilson. How does that sound?¡± ¡°Boring, Dad,¡± said Mark. ¡°I would rather listen to Barry talk about lightning making bugs glow.¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t make the bugs glow, it makes the bugs grow,¡± said Mister Morgan. ¡°Do we have any more Negative Nancys in the audience?¡± ¡°Negative Nancys?,¡± asked Melinda. ¡°Whiners,¡± said Bond. ¡°Crybabies.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± said Melinda. She looked at her brother. She pointed at him. ¡°You¡¯re a whiny crybaby. Does the baby need a binky?¡± Bond covered his face with his hand. ¡°Binky?,¡± said Stella. ¡°I got this one, Bond,¡± said Mister Morgan. ¡°A binky is a pacifier, Stella. Melinda, quit bullying your brother. A Negative Nancy isn¡¯t a cry baby. They are wet blankets.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the difference?, asked Melinda. ¡°One whines about life, the other brings people down because they are along for the ride and they don¡¯t like it,¡± said Mister Morgan. ¡°Now since you are all stuck out here with me, we¡¯re going to hear the story of One Eye Wilson. Then you are going to turn in for the night.¡± ¡°But it¡¯s not even eight yet,¡± said Mark. ¡°And what does that have to do with anything?,¡± said Mister Morgan. ¡°We¡¯re camping. I need you to be fresh tomorrow so we can do our camping stuff.¡± ¡°Camping stuff?,¡± asked Mark. ¡°Hiking, and catching fish, and loving nature,¡± said Mister Morgan. He waved his arms to indicate the great outdoors around them. ¡°Plus one of you will have to walk Ruff.¡± ¡°One of us?,¡± said Mark. He looked at the other children. ¡°I¡¯m not going to do it,¡± said Mister Morgan. ¡°All right, let¡¯s get the storytelling out of the way. Tomorrow, one of you can tell a story.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± said Mark. ¡°We¡¯ll think of something we can tell that¡¯ll be scarier than some old ghost story.¡± ¡°This isn¡¯t just a ghost story, son,¡± said Mister Morgan. ¡°This is a story of crime and punishment.¡± ¡°Crime and punishment?,¡± asked Melinda. ¡°Someone did something bad, and got caught,¡± said Bond. ¡°He was caught by his own conscience,¡± said Mister Morgan. ¡°Now gather around, kids. Let me tell you the story of One Eye Wilson. Try not to interrupt until the end.¡± ¡°Really?,¡± said Mark. ¡°The more you heckle tonight, the more I will heckle tomorrow,¡± said Mister Morgan. ¡°And it is bad manners,¡± said Mrs. Morgan. ¡°So let the storytelling commence,¡± said Mister Morgan, trying out the spooky hand gesture for the kids. They looked unimpressed at his efforts. The story of One Eye Wilson was a standard revenge story, except the person who wanted the revenge was dead. Shot down in cold blood outside his favorite eatery, Wilson became the bane of the local crime lord, Ari Schmidt. Everywhere his nemesis went, the body of Wilson appeared. Schmidt broke down and gave a confession of his crimes. He was tired of having the ghost following him around and causing problems with his colleagues. ¡°That¡¯s it?,¡± said Mark. ¡°What more do you want?,¡± asked Mister Morgan. ¡°Why did Wilson come back to life?,¡± asked Mark. ¡°Why was he wandering around? Why didn¡®t anyone else see him? There are a lot of questions in this story, Dad.¡± ¡°He was a ghost,¡± said Mister Morgan. ¡°No one saw him because of that.¡± ¡°So this lame ghost just happened to follow this guy around until he cracked?,¡± asked Mark. ¡°The guy did happen to murder the ghost when he was alive,¡± said Bond. ¡°It¡¯s a standard ghost thing.¡± ¡°It is?,¡± asked Mark, unwilling to concede the point. ¡°Yes,¡± said Bond. ¡°I have been reading about the Lamplighters. They are doing a lot of things about ghosts, how to find them, how to get rid of them. Some of their papers indicate that you can expect a spirit to try to do what it¡¯s modeled after when it was alive.¡± ¡°What does that mean?,¡± asked Mark. He indicated general disbelief at the assertion with a wave of his hands. ¡°It means that according to these Lamplighters, that if a ghost hated someone enough when they were alive, they would want to take revenge if they came back after they were dead,¡± said Stella. ¡°I guess they got proof to prove what they were saying.¡± Bond nodded at the assistance. ¡°So One Eye Wilson could be a true story?,¡± said Mark. ¡°You¡¯re kidding me.¡± ¡°Never,¡± said Morgan. He hid a smile. ¡°You¡¯re too smart for something like that.¡± Scouting in the Woods 4 The Morgans put the kids to bed. Ruff was placed on guard. Any animal who came into the camp site would get a fanged fury to contend with while he was laying by the tents. ¡°Do we have time to snuggle?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°I think that would be nice before we look at this other thing. And it will give the kids time to go to sleep.¡± Finch gestured for him to sit with his back to his log. She sat down beside him. He put his arm around her. She leaned in. ¡°This is nice,¡± said Marty. ¡°Why haven¡¯t we done this more often?¡± ¡°Work,¡± said Finch. ¡°That¡¯s a good point,¡± said Marty. ¡°We do travel a lot. Maybe we should do this every year as a way of slowing down.¡± ¡°Maybe,¡± said Finch. She smiled. ¡°It does seem quiet.¡± ¡°I know,¡± said Marty. ¡°Maybe we could come up here by ourselves. Leave the kids with Barry. The two of us alone in a romantic spot.¡± They sat like that for a while. Marty stared at the fire. He had been on the run for ten years, then gathered some people to be a new version of his adoptive family, and now he had a natural family of his own. It was a lot of change for him to think about with his wife by his side. At one point, he thought he would already be dead by now. ¡°The children are asleep,¡± said Finch. ¡°So we should take care of this other thing?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°I¡¯m enjoying the snuggling too much. Can¡¯t we do the other thing in the morning?¡± ¡°Mark gets his laziness from you,¡± said Finch. ¡°I like to think of it as tactical brilliance and smart use of resources,¡± said Marty. ¡°So does he,¡± said Finch. ¡°All right,¡± said Marty. ¡°Afterwards we snuggle some more.¡± ¡°Maybe,¡± said Finch. ¡°All right,¡± said Marty. ¡°No more snuggling for you. I¡¯ll get Ruff to do it. He loves to snuggle and he doesn¡¯t mind if I move around.¡± Finch got to her feet in one flowing motion. She turned and held out a hand. Marty took it. She yanked him to his feet with a single pull of her arm. ¡°I wonder what Petey got involved in,¡± said Marty. ¡°Guard the camp, Ruff. Protect the kids for me.¡± The dog barked once, but didn¡¯t move from where it was laying. It had an eye on the whole area from its spot. ¡°Let¡¯s take care of this so we can get some sleep,¡± said Marty. Finch led him into the woods for some yards before she stopped. She pointed upwards. Marty pulled a tiny flashlight from his pants pocket and shone it on two men trussed up in their own clothes and left hanging upside down from a tree. Gags from dirty socks had been used to ensure silence. ¡°If I take the socks out, are you going to scream for help?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°If you do, I¡¯ll have to put them back in. I can¡¯t have you waking up the kids. I don¡¯t want them to know my wife likes to beat people up and hang them up like pinatas.¡± The pinatas made noises to show they understood what was being asked of them. Marty reached up and pulled the socks out of their mouths. He dropped them on the ground. ¡°Let¡¯s have some introductions,¡± said Marty. ¡°I¡¯m Marty Morgan. This is my wife, Finch. And you are?¡± Finch handed him two wallets. He opened them and shone his light on the license cards inside. He handed the wallets back. ¡°Joe Constanza, and Mike Mulligan,¡± said Marty. ¡°Why are you here?¡± ¡°We were just doing a nature hike is all,¡± said Constanza. ¡°Then this broad came out of nowhere and hung us up.¡± Finch punched him in the face. He spun on his tether, dragging his partner with him. She stepped back. She showed Marty the two handguns she had taken. ¡°Let¡¯s try again,¡± said Marty. ¡°Why are you here? If you lie again, I will walk away and let my wife beat the both of you until your brains come out of your ears. If you tell the truth, I will take you down to your car and let you drive away with just the beating you have already taken.¡± ¡°Broken bones,¡± said Finch. ¡°Really?,¡± said Marty. She nodded. ¡°One of you is going to have to go to the hospital. Sorry. That¡¯s the way it is. You know how women are.¡± ¡°One of us has to go to the hospital?,¡± said Mulligan. ¡°Which one?¡± ¡°The one that lies,¡± said Marty. ¡°The one that tells the truth gets to go home with everything intact. I think that¡¯s fair. Why are you here?¡± ¡°We¡¯re here to grab the girl,¡± said Mulligan. ¡°Shut up you,¡± said Constanza. ¡°You shut up,¡± said Mulligan. ¡°I need my legs, and I don¡¯t want to go to the hospital.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re not here to bother us, just the girl?,¡± said Marty. ¡°Which girl?¡± ¡°What do you mean which girl?,¡± said Mulligan. ¡°The Marston girl.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± said Marty. ¡°That¡¯s better for you. For a minute, I thought you were talking about my daughter. If that was the case, well let¡¯s just say the bears would be getting fatter in the morning.¡± ¡°They don¡¯t know,¡± said Finch. ¡°I kind of agree,¡± said Marty. ¡°What¡¯s Petey doing to stir you guys up enough to grab his kid for leverage?¡± ¡°What don¡¯t we know?,¡± said Mulligan. ¡°Who are you people?¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to give this to you because I still need a few answers,¡± said Marty. ¡°Your boss sent you into a meat grinder. We¡¯re superheroes. As soon as I am done with you, I¡¯m going to give your names to the mother of the other kid I am babysitting. Her You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.husband will tell her who you work for. By this time tomorrow, Petey Marston will be the last thing on his mind because everything he owns will be burned down. Bond¡¯s mother is a berserker who loves to hurt people.¡± ¡°Are you serious?,¡± asked Constanza. ¡°Hazard Scouts,¡± said Marty. He directed the beam of his light on the patch he wore on his jacket. The hourglass in a circle gleamed. ¡°Your boss didn¡¯t know, did he?¡± Constanza said some expletives at that. ¡°No, he didn¡¯t,¡± said Mulligan. ¡°Marston is supposed to be some divorce snoop. We were just supposed to grab his kid so he would back off looking into Lorraine Greco.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know who that is so I am going to take your word for that,¡± said Marty. ¡°I¡¯m really debating telling Corona about this. Once she starts burning stuff down, she might decide to go after the two of you. I don¡¯t really care, but it seems like overkill. What do you think, hon?¡± ¡°Burn them down,¡± said Finch. ¡°I don¡¯t think we need to do that,¡± said Marty. ¡°I think what we should do is give these guys some time to warn their boss that Corona is on the way, and he should leave the country.¡± ¡°Collateral damage,¡± said Finch. ¡°Yeah,¡± said Marty. ¡°She might burn down the city looking for the guy. We can¡¯t have that. Barry would lose his mind.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re not going to tell your friend about this?,¡± asked Mulligan. ¡°I don¡¯t think we should,¡± said Marty. ¡°I think we¡¯re going to enjoy the rest of our weekend. The only problem I see is what to do with the two of you. We can let you go, but I feel like you would come back and spoil things for us. This is the first weekend I have had in a while, and I don¡¯t want you guys ruining it for us.¡± ¡°Bears?,¡± said Finch. ¡°Do we really want to kill them?,¡± said Marty. ¡°It sets a bad example for the kids. Putting one of you in the hospital just doesn¡¯t seem like enough to keep you out of our hair.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll leave, and you will never see us again,¡± said Mulligan. ¡°I swear. Please don¡¯t break my legs.¡± ¡°They will come back,¡± said Finch. ¡°I think I have an idea where all of us will be happy,¡± said Marty. ¡°This is the situation as I see it. You guys want Stella to use as leverage to stop Petey from doing whatever he¡¯s doing. We want to enjoy our weekend without more of you guys showing up to bug us. Neither of us want to get anyone else involved because your boss might kill you for screwing up, and if something happens to my kids, I will definitely kill you. That seems pretty accurate, right?¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± said Constanza. ¡°It looks right to me.¡± ¡°This is what¡¯s going to happen,¡± said Marty. ¡°I¡¯m going to give you guys a weekend in the woods. By the time you get anywhere with a phone, we¡¯ll be at home, Petey will be done doing whatever he¡¯s doing, and you guys will be safe. Your boss can¡¯t kill you if you¡¯re lost in the woods for two days, and all the bad stuff happened while you were gone. And we won¡¯t kill you in retaliation. That seem okay to you two?¡± ¡°You¡¯re not going to hurt us?,¡± said Mulligan. ¡°No, I¡¯m not,¡± said Marty. ¡°I think you have been hurt enough. What do you say, Honey?¡± ¡°Bears,¡± said Finch. ¡°We¡¯re not going to feed them to the bears,¡± said Marty. ¡°We can take a step back and not be excessively cruel.¡± Finch glanced at him. ¡°To the bears,¡± said Marty. ¡°A people diet isn¡¯t good for them.¡± ¡°I agree with that,¡± said Constanza. ¡°And he agrees with me,¡± said Marty. ¡°I think you should cut them down.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t like it,¡± said Finch. ¡°If they move, break a leg,¡± said Marty. ¡°But we really need them away from the camp site before you do that thing you do if you want to do that.¡± ¡°What thing?,¡± asked Mulligan. ¡°My wife¡¯s teachers taught her how to cut people a hundred times in a minute,¡± said Marty. ¡°It¡¯s really messy, and totally against what I am trying to do here.¡± ¡°Please don¡¯t do that,¡± said Mulligan. ¡°Please.¡± ¡°How many people have you actually killed, Mulligan?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°None,¡± said Mulligan. ¡°I usually do the numbers.¡± ¡°Oh, okay,¡± said Marty. ¡°What about you, Constanza?¡± ¡°I haven¡¯t killed anyone,¡± said Constanza. ¡°I do break things.¡± ¡°A legbreaker and a gambler,¡± said Marty. ¡°I don¡¯t feel that bad with letting you two go now.¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± said Mulligan. ¡°Thank you.¡± ¡°Shut up, wussy,¡± said Constanza. Finch dropped them from the branch after scaling the tree in a moment. She came down just as fast. She retreated to Marty¡¯s side. ¡°Here comes your ride,¡± said Marty. A thing of green and tan erupted from the air. Wings spread to let it flutter in the air. It looked as big as an elephant to the would be kidnappers. Yellow eyes glowed in the dark as it looked at the two men. ¡°I need you to take these two deeper into the park, Daisy,¡± said Marty. ¡°Say about ten miles north of here. Can do?¡± The dragon roared. It lifted off and grabbed the two men with giant claws. It breathed on them, singing their hair. ¡°Take Spike,¡± said Marty. He tossed a yellow squirrel up to the dragon. The animal caught an arm and scrambled to the shoulders of the dragon. ¡°Spike, these guys need some exercise. Make sure they can find some berries and water, but they don¡¯t come back this way. Understand?¡± The squirrel chittered and rubbed its paws together. Little sparks danced around its ears. ¡°All right, guys,¡± said Marty. ¡°Spike will look after you until you reach civilization. Don¡¯t come back here if you know what¡¯s good for you. Understand?¡± Daisy headed up in the sky. She vanished against the night as soon as she was away from the tree line. Marty waved at her captives. ¡°Soft,¡± said Finch. She smiled. ¡°I know, I know,¡± said Marty. ¡°We should have broken both their legs and arms and made them crawl down to the ranger station. Really teach them a lesson. I¡¯m on vacation. I didn¡¯t want to ruin it with something that was a lot like work.¡± ¡°Soft,¡± said Finch. She hugged him close and took his breath away. ¡°Why did we have to bring the kids?,¡± said Marty after a minute. ¡°I could do this all night.¡± Finch smiled. She released him and led the way back to the camp. Marty took the pistols apart and dropped the pieces as he walked. The last to go were the empty magazines. He took the money out of the wallets and threw them in the dark. They reached the camp and found Ruff still in position. He gave them a look, but otherwise didn¡¯t move. ¡°Looks clear,¡± said Marty. ¡°Let¡¯s spread our blankets and sleep next to the fire like cowboys used to do.¡± Finch nodded. She pulled the blankets from the tent and they lay down against the log Marty had used as a rest. She threw the blankets up and they covered the two when they landed. ¡°You have to teach me how to do that one day,¡± said Marty. He held his wife close. ¡°Stella?,¡± said Finch. ¡°Pete must have gone back to criminal investigations,¡± said Marty. ¡°He might have put his mask back on. I thought he was out. He seemed to like divorce work the last time I talked to him.¡± ¡°Some kind of threat?,¡± said Finch. ¡°Maybe,¡± said Marty. ¡°I don¡¯t know. I should have asked Cog to back Pete up.¡± Cog helped out when he wanted, but he liked to stay out of the spotlight, and kept to himself whenever possible. He patrolled underground Chicago when not on a case with the Scouts, and fixed things in the infrastructure with his tentacles and tools. Turning him loose on some Syndicate would be like using dynamite to hunt sheep. But the reports filed with Barry would be something to read despite his dry style and humorless affect. ¡°Corona will be mad,¡± said Finch. ¡°I know, but I can¡¯t just whack every wiseguy I run into in a national forest,¡± said Marty. ¡°There would be piles of bodies if I did that. I would rather keep things down to a dull roar until I¡¯m ready to really do damage.¡± ¡°Soft,¡± said Finch. ¡°It is what it is,¡± said Marty. He kissed her neck. ¡°We can¡¯t all be death dealing divas of darkness like yourself.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t wake the kids up,¡± said Finch. ¡°I¡¯ll think about it,¡± said Marty. Someone stirred in one of the tents. Ruff looked up. ¡°Next time, we¡¯re definitely leaving the kids with Barry,¡± said Marty. ¡°Agreed,¡± said Finch. Melinda peeked out of the girl¡¯s tent. She rubbed an eye. She looked around the campsite. ¡°I thought I heard Daisy,¡± said Melinda. ¡°Is something going on?¡± ¡°Not anymore, Lin,¡± said Marty. Finch lightly punched him in the leg. ¡°What?,¡± said Melinda. ¡°Go back to sleep,¡± said Marty. ¡°If there¡¯s trouble, we¡¯ll wake you up.¡± ¡°Are you sure?,¡± said Melinda. ¡°That¡¯s why we have Ruff, honey,¡± said Marty. ¡°Go back to sleep before you wake the others up and we have to tell another boring ghost story.¡± ¡°All right, Dad,¡± said Melinda. She gestured for Ruff to follow as she climbed back into the tent. The dog settled down where her feet might be and kept an eye on things from his new position. ¡°It looks like the romantic bubble has popped,¡± said Marty. Finch smiled. She snuggled in closer. ¡°Why did we have kids?,¡± said Marty. ¡°Experiments,¡± said Finch. ¡°Barry wanted to do experiments on them,¡± said Marty. ¡°I¡¯m thinking we should have said yes.¡± ¡°Frog children,¡± said Finch. ¡°I am not seeing the downsides now,¡± said Marty. That earned him another light punch. ¡°You keep doing that, and I will have bruises, and not in the good way either,¡± said Marty. He wrapped his arms around his wife with a smile. ¡°The two men,¡± said Finch. ¡°Right about now, Spike is giving them a run for their money,¡± said Marty. ¡°I imagine two days of running from lightning will teach them a lesson, but who knows.¡± Finch kissed him on the cheek. ¡°Hard,¡± she said in his ear. Scouting in the Woods 5 Marty got the kids up in the morning. He cooked breakfast in an old frying pan. He portioned everything out. The family and guests sat down and enjoyed their eggs and bacon. ¡°So the first thing on the agenda is a walk to look at things from Old Baldy,¡± said Marty. ¡°Then I¡¯m going fishing. You kids will be doing exercises with Finch while I get to enjoy the peace and quiet. How does that sound?¡± ¡°Sounds like you¡¯re lazy, Dad,¡± said Mark. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we get to fish too?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t see why,¡± said Marty. ¡°After all, you don¡¯t have a fishing pole. And I do.¡± ¡°So you don¡¯t want us to fish?,¡± said Melinda. ¡°We are good fishers.¡± ¡°Noise scares fish,¡± said Marty. ¡°You would have to be very quiet.¡± ¡°We can do that, Dad,¡± said Mark. He shared a look with his sister. ¡°We¡¯re ninja.¡± ¡°What about you two?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°Want to fish, or hang out with the missus while she practices her yoga?¡± Stella caught a glimpse from the siblings. What she considered yoga, and what they considered their mom practicing yoga was two very different things. And she realized she didn¡¯t want to be chased around by a woman with a stick with the intention of using the stick on her. ¡°We would both love to spend a peaceful afternoon fishing,¡± said Stella. ¡°We would?,¡± said Bond. He looked down at her. She elbowed him to take the hint. ¡°We would love it a lot,¡± said Bond. He rubbed the spot where the pointed elbow had sunk in. ¡°Nothing but fish and quiet.¡± ¡°I¡¯m surprised,¡± said Marty. He smiled. ¡°Let¡¯s go up and pay our respects, then we¡¯ll go down to the fishing hole.¡± ¡°Fishing hole?,¡± said Melinda. Her face twisted at the concept. ¡°Yep,¡± said Marty. He pulled on his jacket. ¡°That¡¯s what we country folk call a small lake full of fish. That¡¯s because it looks like a hole full of water.¡± ¡°Country folk?,¡± said Mark. ¡°What kind of country folk? Strangeville, U.S.A.?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t hurt your father¡¯s feelings like that, son,¡± said Marty. ¡°It¡¯s rude and inconsiderate.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t picture you with a piece of hay in your mouth, chasing some cow around,¡± said Mark. ¡°I could be a cowboy,¡± said Marty. He inspected the kids. ¡°I could even get my own cows.¡± ¡°But you couldn¡¯t eat them,¡± said Mark. He paused to think. ¡°You can¡¯t eat them, right?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve never tried,¡± said Marty. ¡°Seems inconsiderate.¡± Ruff looked at the fussing humans and remained in place next to the tents. He had his head on his front paws, tail curled around him like a blanket. His ears were down. ¡°You want to stay with Finch, Ruff?,¡± Marty asked. The dog huffed, and beat his tail twice. ¡°You know she doesn¡¯t need you to protect her,¡± said Marty. The dog just looked at him. ¡°Are you being lazy?,¡± Marty asked. Ruff grinned at him. ¡°You are being lazy,¡± said Marty. ¡°I can¡¯t believe this. You¡¯re supposed to be looking out for me and the kids. Instead you¡¯re going to lay here and do nothing. We¡¯re fishing later. You can lay by the water all you want.¡± Ruff sneezed in the face of the accusation. ¡°All right,¡± said Marty. ¡°Keep an eye on things. We¡¯re going to walk up the hill and look around, then I¡¯m coming back to get my fishing pole so we can fish later.¡± Ruff barked, but didn¡¯t move. He closed his eyes and settled in place. Marty shook his head. He looked around. Finch had packed the blanket and cleaned the dishes and pan in the time he had sorted things out. She stood with her hands intertwined in front of her. The dying fire was at her feet. ¡°We¡¯ll be back as soon as we can,¡± said Marty. He walked over and they hugged. ¡°Fishing?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± said Finch. ¡°You¡¯ll have to get your own pole,¡± said Marty. ¡°Covered,¡± said Finch. She kissed him on the cheek. ¡°Catch more than you.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not a competition,¡± said Marty. ¡°Fried fish?¡± ¡°Depending on how many caught,¡± said Finch. ¡°I¡¯ll do the best I can,¡± said Marty. He kissed her. ¡°We should be able to catch something between the two of us.¡± He started for the trail. The kids fell in behind him. He pointed out landmarks as they walked from the campsite toward the top of the small mountain that set west of their The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.camp. Marty enjoyed the sunshine and clean air as he walked. It had been a long time since he had walked somewhere just to be idle. It felt good to just be wasting time, instead of spending it to chase someone down before some invisible deadline passed. ¡°You used to come up here with the Scouts?,¡± asked Bond, pulling him back to the present. ¡°Jim loved it up here,¡± said Marty. He shrugged. ¡°I think it made him feel better to just look around and not have a lot of human minds around.¡± Stella knew that feeling. She reached out a little. Their group and the local animals were all she could feel. It seemed restful compared to the city. Maybe when she was older she could move up here and just live here without worrying about other people. ¡°Was that thunder?,¡± asked Mark. He looked around. ¡°I don¡¯t see any clouds.¡± ¡°Probably some freak of sound,¡± said Marty. ¡°If it starts raining, we¡¯ll head back to camp and have some cold vittles tonight.¡± He looked around himself. Stella got the impression he knew what had caused the faint blast of thunder. She didn¡¯t say anything since she wasn¡¯t sure. ¡°All right, guys,¡± said Marty. ¡°We¡¯re reaching the start of the trail to head to Lookout Point. You¡¯ll be able see for more miles from there.¡± ¡°What about snow?,¡± asked Melinda. ¡°We¡¯re not high enough to have to worry about that,¡± said Marty. ¡°We would have to climb up a blank stone wall to get to where we could play in the snow. The rangers wouldn¡¯t be happy with me taking you kids up there.¡± Stella caught an impression of something else also going on, but she didn¡¯t know what. She wondered if climbing the stone wall was such an obstacle as Mister Morgan pretended, or there was something where he couldn¡¯t climb it like he normally would and he didn¡¯t want them to find out. Stella fell into line as Marty ushered them up the trail. It was a climb up the large cone with the path circling the mountain to reach an outcrop where a telescope was mounted to look out over the valley. A small coinbox collected tourist coins for the pleasure of a close look at the scenery. ¡°You can see for miles from up here,¡± said Mark. ¡°It¡¯s a straight line back down from here,¡± said Melinda. She was at the rail, looking down. ¡°We don¡¯t have to walk back if we climb down this way.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± said Bond. He kept his distance from the edge. He had not learned how to fly yet, and didn¡¯t want falling off the side of a mountain to be the way he learned. Stella went to the telescope. She fed in coins to unlock the telescope. She smiled as she looked out at the greenery. It was a nice view. Her time ran out all too soon. She stepped back to give the others a chance to look through it. Mark and Melinda took their turns after flipping a coin to see who would go first. They stepped back when they were done looking around. Bond went last. He scanned everything slowly. He paused at one point. He looked on either side, then back through the telescope. He stepped back. ¡°Mister Morgan,¡± Bond said. ¡°I think lightning is shooting up from the ground over there.¡± Marty smiled to cover the grimace. He should have expected one of the kids seeing Spike on the job. That had been careless of him. ¡°That¡¯s probably Spike,¡± Marty said. ¡°I turned him loose on some aggressive deer last night. Don¡¯t worry about it.¡± ¡°Aggressive deer?,¡± said Bond. Disbelief colored his words. ¡°Yeah,¡± said Marty. ¡°They like to wander into camp and stomp on things. I told Spike to herd them away from us. I didn¡¯t want to explain to your mother why you had a hoof print on your face.¡± ¡°Your mom does get angry really fast,¡± said Mark. ¡°That¡¯s true,¡± said Bond. ¡°Aggressive deer?¡± ¡°They¡¯re worse than easy going bears,¡± said Marty. He took a turn at the telescope and nodded. ¡°Way worse than wolves.¡± Stella didn¡¯t think lightning was being used on deer. Her babysitter was hiding something. Whatever was out there was something he didn¡¯t want them finding out about, or going to look for on their own. He had the look of an adult not trying to worry the kids when things were bad. She had seen it sometimes when her dad talked about things with her mom. They both knew how to hide their thoughts from her, but she picked out when they didn¡¯t want her to know something because of the circular talk. It was like listening to gangsters on television giving orders over a bugged phone. She decided that she was supposed to be staying out of trouble. She wasn¡¯t going out there to chase something that lightning was being used on. She could see the siblings wanted to go and find out what Spike was chasing. She spotted the trail of thoughts that were running on parallel tracks. ¡°Can we swim in the fishing hole?,¡± she asked. ¡°I didn¡¯t bring a swimming suit.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t think of that,¡± said Marty. ¡°I¡¯m not much of a swimmer.¡± ¡°He¡¯s graceless,¡± said Melinda. ¡°I would have said clumsy,¡± said Mark. ¡°You keep that up and it¡¯s no pie for you,¡± said Marty. ¡°I happen to have the normal grace of a man my age and ability.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t be much then,¡± said Mark. ¡°Definitely no pie for you,¡± said Marty. He shook his head. ¡°All right, guys. I have to get my fishing pole from camp so we can go to the fishing hole. We¡¯ll have a few hours to fish before the sun goes down.¡± He started down the mountain, following the path. He waved at others climbing up to use the telescope. Stella wondered how she was going to get Mister Morgan to tell them what was really going on. She doubted she could force the issue. The Scouts did dangerous things all the time. Lying to a kid couldn¡¯t be that hard for someone facing villains as part of their day. She fell in line and looked at the others. They were all thinking the same thing as she was. They just couldn¡¯t decide on what Mister Morgan had set Spike loose on. Aggressive deer was not on any of the mental lists she peeked on. She doubted a Sasquatch was on the move, but refrained from saying anything. She had heard stories before going camping with the Morgans. Some of them were weird and outlandish, but her dad had assured her they were the truth. If Melinda thought a Sasquatch was in the area, then there was an outside chance that a Sasquatch was in the area. Her thoughts carried her back to the campsite. She paused as she realized her legs hurt. She hadn¡¯t walked that far ever. She decided she should sit down before she fell down. She hobbled to the log and sat so she could lean back on it. ¡°Something wrong?,¡± asked Bond. ¡°My legs hurt,¡± said Stella. ¡°I guess I haven¡¯t walked that far before.¡± ¡°We were walking pretty fast,¡± said Bond. He rubbed his own legs with his hands. She noted that he winced for a moment, but the reaction was from the pain in his legs going away. ¡°Mom!,¡± called Melinda. ¡°Stella¡¯s broken.¡± ¡°Not so loud,¡± said Mrs. Morgan. She appeared out of the trees. ¡°Where¡¯s your father?¡± ¡°He went to get his fishing pole,¡± said Melinda. ¡°All right,¡± said Mrs. Morgan. Mrs. Morgan walked over to where Stella sat. She hunkered down and looked at the girl. She poked the girl¡¯s legs with her finger. It was like being poked with a piece of metal. She did it again twice more. The pain from the muscle ache faded. Stella smiled. ¡°Nerve block,¡± said Mrs. Morgan. ¡°It should fade. Might have pain then.¡± ¡°Nerve block?,¡± said Stella. ¡°Body has nerves to carry signals to the brain,¡± said Mrs. Morgan. ¡°You can numb them to prevent signals. A temporary block will carry you through minor problems. A permanent block will hurt you in the long run.¡± ¡°Why will it hurt?,¡± asked Stella. ¡°If you can¡¯t feel anything, then you don¡¯t know much you are hurt,¡± said Mrs. Morgan. ¡°If you don¡¯t know how much you are hurt, you can¡¯t judge how close you are to failing.¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± said Stella. ¡°Take it easy when you get back from the fishing,¡± said Mrs. Morgan. ¡°The pain will come back as the block wears off. You¡¯ll have to let it fade on its own.¡± ¡°I understand,¡± said Stella. ¡°All right,¡± said Marty. ¡°Who¡¯s up for fishing?¡± ¡°We are!,¡± shouted the siblings. Stella felt it was a cover to let them break off and chase down the Sasquatch. Mrs. Morgan helped Stella to her feet. Scouting in the Woods 6 Stella watched as Mrs. Morgan broke limbs into the approximate length to be fishing poles. Seconds of hand waving cleared off any branches. The string came next. One end went around the pole. The other end went around a hook on a bobber. Mister Morgan settled on the ground next to the small lake where he had guided the campers. His hook was on the water. Ruff lay beside him, using him as sort of a pillow. One hand petted the dog as he waited for the fish to bite. ¡°What¡¯s the point of this?,¡± asked Mark. He stared at the pole in his hand. ¡°It¡¯s to relax,¡± said Mister Morgan. ¡°It¡¯s to be still and watchful. Fishing is about waiting for things to happen so you can take advantage.¡± ¡°Sounds boring,¡± said Mark. He looked at the lake with a frown. ¡°It¡¯s also about being silent so you don¡¯t scare the fish,¡± said Mister Morgan. He reeled in his line and recast with a flick of his wrist. Mrs. Morgan cast her own line and then settled next to her husband. She carried herself just as alert as she always seemed to Stella. Maybe this was her relaxed state. Stella looked for a spot for herself where the sun didn¡¯t directly shine down. She cast her line out. She didn¡¯t really think any of the fish were going to bite. She liked just sitting and letting her mind wander. She found that fishing didn¡¯t take much effort on her part, just relaxing in the shade was good for her mind, and it was an activity enjoyed with similar mindsets around. Mark and Melinda were trying too hard to catch fish. Their impatience impinged on her ability to relax. Bond almost vanished behind a set of numbers. She glanced over at where he sat by himself. He stared at the water, but he seemed to be seeing invisible factors in the ripples. She wondered about that, but didn¡¯t want to ask. He would know she was peeking into his mind. And she had learned that some people didn¡¯t like that violation of their privacy. She glanced at the Morgan siblings. They were at the other end of the pond from their parents and guests. They seemed to be having a contest to see who could flick the hook on their makeshift poles the fastest. She shook her head. They were supposed to be taking it easy. She supposed the children wanted to be chasing something rather than sitting still. Mark flicked his wrist. The string snapped forward and snapped. His hook and bobber flew along the lake, skimming the surface. It embedded itself in the bank of the pond on the other side. Mister Morgan clapped his hands slowly. Then he went back to taking it easy. Mark made a sound of disgust before stomping around the lake to retrieve the hook. He glared at his family. They mostly stared back, but his sister laughed at him. ¡°We should have left the kids,¡± said Mister Morgan. ¡°Maybe some hard work will grind down this hatred for taking things easy.¡± ¡°Barry?,¡± asked Mrs. Morgan. ¡°He would love some assistants,¡± said Mister Morgan. ¡°Corralling some weird experiment would let the kids know that just hanging out and smelling the roses is a thing.¡± ¡°It would cut down on the whining,¡± said Mrs. Morgan. ¡°I can¡¯t really argue with that,¡± said Mister Morgan. Stella felt her line pull on her pole. She looked around. She seemed to be the only one with a bite. She hadn¡¯t expected to get something. She started pulling on the pole, trying to lift the fish out of the pond. ¡°Do you need help, Stella?,¡± asked Mister Morgan. He made no move to join the struggle. ¡°I think I got it,¡± said Stella. She pulled on the limb until it bent and then released it, and then pulled on it again. She could sense the fish not liking what she was doing. She thought about letting it go. Mark appeared at her side. He tugged on the string and the fish flew out of the water. He caught it before it hit the ground. ¡°What do I do with it?,¡± asked Mark. The fish flapped in his hands, trying to escape. He exerted a small amount of pressure to shock it into being still. This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°Put it in the fish bucket,¡± said Mister Morgan. He indicated an empty cooler beside where he sat. Mark dropped the fish into the bucket. He rubbed his hands against each other. Finally he resorted to washing his hands in the lake. He shook them dry. ¡°Good job, Stella,¡± said Mister Morgan. ¡°See if you can catch another one.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think I like fishing all that much, Mister Morgan,¡± said Stella. She didn¡¯t want to explain the feelings coming from the fish as she struggled with it. They knew about powers, but she didn¡¯t want to reveal her own until she had no choice. ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± said Mister Morgan. ¡°No one has to like everything.¡± ¡°I got one!,¡± shouted Melinda. She yanked the pole backward so fast the fish had no choice but to fly to her hand. ¡°I caught one.¡± ¡°Put it in the bucket,¡± said Mister Morgan. ¡°A couple more and we¡¯ll have the making of dinner.¡± Melinda dropped her catch in with the other. The fish flopped around inside the bucket. She stepped back, a sad look on her face. ¡°I don¡¯t think I like fishing either, Dad,¡± she said. ¡°I can¡¯t explain it.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine,¡± said Mister Morgan. ¡°How would you guys like to go play? I think I can catch dinner by myself.¡± ¡°No more fishing?,¡± asked Mark. He looked around at the unexpected freedom of movement he had been given. ¡°No more fishing,¡± confirmed Mister Morgan. ¡°Don¡¯t wander around and get lost. Stay in sight.¡± ¡°We can do that,¡± said Mark. ¡°Come on, guys. No more gross fish for us.¡± He waved his arm for the kids to follow him away from the water. ¡°That boy,¡± said Mister Morgan, shaking his head. ¡°Go with them, Ruff. I don¡¯t want to have to search for them for days because they went off the trail.¡± Ruff grumbled as he got to his feet and fell in behind the children. He walked up beside Stella with a wag of his tail. Maybe she would give him some scratchings. He liked those when he could get them. Stella wondered what they were supposed to play if they couldn¡¯t leave the trail. Mark wasn¡¯t too afraid of being out in the wilderness. Melinda and Bond didn¡¯t like it. She didn¡¯t mind it one way, or the other, but preferred her own room with her books beside her. Ruff settled in so he could watch them. One ear listened for anything bigger than a squirrel that might be coming their way. Experience had taught him that Mark would be the bigger troublemaker if there happened to be a problem. Stella settled in beside Ruff. She rubbed his fur at his shoulders. He wagged his tail to show he liked it. ¡°We¡¯re going to play hide and seek,¡± said Mark. ¡°Ruff will be home base. Let¡¯s draw to see who¡¯s it.¡± ¡°Dad said not to leave the trail,¡± said Melinda. ¡°I don¡¯t think we can play hide and seek and stay on the trail. Maybe we should do something else like Pirates.¡± ¡°Pirates?,¡± said Mark. He looked around and picked up a short limb. ¡°I¡¯m Captain Blackbeard.¡± ¡°I¡¯m Barberrossa,¡± said Melinda. She grabbed another limb to act as her short sword. ¡°I¡¯m the scourge of the Barbary Coast.¡± ¡°I¡¯m Captain Decataur,¡± said Bond. He picked up his own sword. ¡°I killed all the pirates in my day.¡± ¡°What about you, Stella?,¡± asked Melinda. She waved her imaginary sword as a rallying gesture. ¡°What kind of pirate do you want to be?¡± ¡°Sitting here with Ruff is good enough,¡± said Stella. She moved to sit with her back to a tree. Ruff moved with her, settling at her feet. ¡°We¡¯ll watch out for you until Mister Morgan gets done fishing.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Mark. ¡°How do we do this?¡± ¡°Hand over your treasure, you cowardly coward that cowers,¡± said Melinda. She pointed her sword at Mark. ¡°The better captain is here to take it.¡± ¡°Both of you heave to under the command of the United States Navy,¡± said Bond. He alternately pointed at the siblings with his sword. ¡°I¡¯ll be putting you both in prison.¡± ¡°Blackbeard will never see the inside of a prison, you scurvy cur,¡± said Mark. He waved his sword around. ¡°I would rather go down fighting.¡± ¡°What he said except for Barberrossa,¡± said Melinda. She grinned. ¡°I would rather eat grass than give up my ship to a spineless spine such as you.¡± ¡°Really? A spineless spine?,¡± said Bond. ¡°Couldn¡¯t you think of something more practical?¡± ¡°You¡¯re breaking character,¡± pointed out Mark. ¡°Come on with the comeback so we can have a duel to the death.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think I know any comebacks other than die fiendish knaves like the vicious animals you are,¡± said Bond. His delivery came with a look of puzzlement. He smiled. ¡°Die fiendish knaves like the vicious animals you are!¡± ¡°That¡¯s what I¡¯m talking about,¡± said Mark. ¡°On guard, running dog of the oppressor capitalist pigs.¡± Stella shook her head. She rubbed Ruff¡¯s neck. He barely moved. A faint wagging of his tail told her he liked the attention well enough. The other three kids mock sword fought up and down the trail. It was mainly Mark against Bond. Melinda attacked both sides, usually when one side looked stronger than the other. Stella noted that the Morgans slowed down to let Bond have some moments in the sun. She didn¡¯t know if he knew that. He seemed content enough as he chased after them. And she didn¡¯t want to spoil that feeling. Ruff looked up. The fur on his back stood straight. He vanished into the woods without a sound. Stella stood up. She brushed off her pants as she looked around. She saw something on the edge of her senses. They weren¡¯t alone on the trail. That must have set Ruff off. ¡°Hey guys!,¡± she called. ¡°Ruff took off.¡± The fighters froze in mid-motion. Mark looked around. He waved Bond and Melinda over to where Stella stood. He joined them silently. ¡°Ruff doesn¡¯t usually do that,¡± said Mark. ¡°I think we need to head back to Dad and Mom. They¡¯ll want to know about this.¡± Stella looked around. She spotted Mister Morgan¡¯s thoughts about fishing in the distance. They were close, but still out of sight. ¡°They¡¯re that way,¡± said Stella. She pointed at the direction of the thoughts. ¡°All right,¡± said Mark. ¡°Lead the way, Stella. Keep an eye out, Lin. Ruff might need help if he went after some animal he didn¡¯t like.¡± Stella set off for the pond. Mark didn¡¯t think Ruff had taken off after any animal. She could see it in his thoughts. Bond followed her. His hands glowed as he walked. She didn¡¯t know what that was about, but felt it had something to do with his mother. Melinda vanished into the brush as they went. Stella wanted to call out, but didn¡¯t in case there was trouble on the way. Scouting in the Woods 7 The kids found the Morgans by the lake. They weren¡¯t fishing any more. Whatever had set Ruff off had seemed to have warned them. Stella didn¡¯t quite follow the link. ¡°There¡¯s someone on the trail, Dad,¡± said Mark. ¡°We think Ruff went to see who they were.¡± ¡°Could be other campers like us,¡± said Mister Morgan. He looked down the trail. ¡°Where¡¯s Lin?¡± ¡°She went into the woods while we were coming back,¡± said Stella. ¡°She¡¯s a few minutes behind us.¡± ¡°Waiting,¡± said Mrs. Morgan. ¡°I¡¯ll go down to get her while you take the kids back to camp,¡± said Mister Morgan. ¡°Ruff can get back to camp on his own when he is satisfied.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll go,¡± said Mrs. Morgan. ¡°Faster.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Mister Morgan. ¡°Maybe we can salvage the rest of the trip after we¡¯re sure that we¡¯re dealing with regular campers.¡± Mrs. Morgan nodded and then vanished in the trees. Stella marked a presence but couldn¡¯t see her at all. ¡°Get the fish bucket, Mark,¡± said Mister Morgan. He made sure his fishing line was wound up and secured. ¡°Bond, get the other fishing poles in case we want to fish tomorrow. Stella, police up any trash. Then we¡¯ll walk back to camp.¡± The kids hurried to get things done. Stella noted there was a couple of candy bar wrappers but nothing else for her to grab. ¡°How did your mother vanish like that, Mark?,¡± Stella asked. ¡°Training,¡± said Mark. ¡°She does it constantly. Everything she does is part of her training. Even folding laundry is used to train reflexes.¡± Stella caught an image of Mark having to fold laundry while defending against a stick. It made things twice as hard as it had to be. ¡°Why?,¡± asked Stella. ¡°Because she wants us to be ready to take over for her when she¡¯s gone,¡± said Mark. ¡°There¡¯s been a line of Finches fighting since ever. And she wants us to be ready to step up and take our place if we want to do that. If we don¡¯t, we still have to deal with stuff that the Hazard Scouts carry with them. It¡¯s like two sets of weights for two different things. We don¡¯t have to be either, but we have to be ready for people who think we are. And Lin and I didn¡¯t get Dad¡¯s animal power.¡± ¡°It¡¯s the same for me and my dad,¡± said Bond. ¡°He¡¯s a detective that¡¯s trained all his life to be a detective from a long line of detectives that have all trained all their lives to be detectives. And he¡¯s a Hazard Scout too. Sometimes when we visit Japan, I know the adopted cousins look down on me because I don¡¯t train as hard as they do in all the techniques we can use.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have that,¡± said Stella. She understood how the others looked at things from the feelings she picked up. ¡°There might be some excitement before we get to camp,¡± said Mister Morgan. He shepherded the kids along with gestures of his arms. ¡°Mark, I want you to get Stella and Bond back to the van. Your mother, or I, will come to get you.¡± ¡°I can do it, Dad,¡± said Mark. ¡°So much for our camping trip.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think it will be that bad,¡± said Mister Morgan. He glanced behind them. Stella looked behind them. She saw Mrs. Morgan and Melinda off to one side of the trail. A group of hostile feelings were beyond them and closing fast. She imagined they were mad because they didn¡¯t want to be in the woods, and they had to come up to look for her. She didn¡¯t like that last part at all. She wondered where Ruff had gone. She couldn¡¯t sense him, but she thought there should be something to tell her where he went. Maybe there was something about him she couldn¡¯t read. ¡°I think you kids should keep going,¡± said Mister Morgan. He waved them to move faster down the trail. ¡°I¡¯ll see what¡¯s going on.¡± Stella didn¡¯t like that. She brushed off Mark¡¯s hand. ¡°They¡¯re looking for me,¡± she said. ¡°And I think they shouldn¡¯t find you, so go with Mark and Bond so I can handle this without worrying about you getting hurt,¡± said Mister Morgan. ¡°Go ahead. If there¡¯s any real trouble, Finch will take care of it.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Stella. ¡°This is about what my dad¡¯s doing, isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Talk about that with him when you get home,¡± said Mister Morgan. ¡°Now go ahead. This is nothing but trouble, and you don¡¯t want to be around to see this.¡± Stella didn¡¯t like it. Her dad trusted the Morgans, and she did too. They shouldn¡¯t have to protect her at the cost of their own safety. She would talk to her parents about this. She was old enough to take care of herself. Her gift made it easy. Mark led the way, swinging the fish bucket in one hand. Somehow he had taken Mister Morgan¡¯s fishing pole and carried it in the other. He hummed as he walked along. ¡°Your dad could be in trouble,¡± said Stella. She glared at him. How could he be so This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.cheerful when things were going wrong on their camping trip? ¡°Anybody who hurts Dad, better be looking for Mom,¡± said Mark. He gave Stella a smile. ¡°Cause she will hurt them right back.¡± ¡°Mark¡¯s right,¡± said Bond. ¡°Mrs. Morgan is formidable.¡± ¡°And she lives for stuff like this,¡± said Mark. ¡°Are you two sure about this?,¡± asked Stella. Maybe they were right. They seemed unconcerned about a group of men talking to Mister Morgan in a hostile way. ¡°Trust me,¡± said Mark. ¡°They¡¯re not going to let us get anywhere close to anything exciting. This is their day off. I¡¯ll start worrying when part of the park goes up in flames.¡± ¡°Not that we need to be anywhere near anything exciting,¡± said Bond. He ran his hand through his blond hair. ¡°I¡¯m happy just waiting at the van for the grownups to show up to tell us everything is okay.¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t go that far,¡± said Mark. He shook his head. ¡°Maybe if Ruff shows up. Everything will be all clear then.¡± ¡°Ruff will be back when the trouble is over?,¡± asked Stella. ¡°Sure,¡± said Mark. ¡°He¡¯s supposed to watch out for us. When there¡¯s nothing to look out for, he¡¯ll come back.¡± ¡°How do you know he¡¯s doing that?,¡± said Stella. ¡°He could be hurt and lost.¡± ¡°He¡¯s one of Dad¡¯s animals,¡± said Mark. ¡°He¡¯s not hurt, or lost. He¡¯s hunting. When he¡¯s done, he¡¯ll come back.¡± ¡°I thought he was alive,¡± said Stella. ¡°I thought I was picking up a weird vibe from him, but I didn¡¯t think it was because he wasn¡¯t alive.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know if he¡¯s alive, or not,¡± said Mark. ¡°Dad still doesn¡¯t know how his power works. He could be alive, just smarter than a normal dog.¡± Stella kept her assessment to herself. She hadn¡¯t picked up thoughts from Ruff because he was more like a machine than a normal animal. She should have seen that. Mister Morgan was known as the Animal. At least she could let Mark and Melinda pretend that Ruff was alive. That made it better for them. She had liked Ruff enough to wish he were alive instead of a furry puppet. He didn¡¯t behave like a furry puppet. Stella realized she only had her talent telling her that he wasn¡¯t alive. She wasn¡¯t that sure of it. She put aside the question of Ruff¡¯s mortality and looked back behind them. The hostile feelings had run into Mister Morgan¡¯s animal categorization of his thoughts. Neither seemed that happy about it. ¡°There¡¯s going to be trouble,¡± said Stella. ¡°I can see it in the way they are looking at each other.¡± Some of the hostile thoughts vanished to Stella¡¯s senses. She paused in their escape to search for them. They were afraid of something. She couldn¡¯t figure out what it was. Then they were painfully knocked down from the real world. ¡°There¡¯s something behind the group talking to your dad, Mark,¡± said Stella. ¡°So?,¡± said Mark. ¡°We should keep moving.¡± ¡°It¡¯s something other than your mom, or Melinda,¡± explained Stella. ¡°It¡¯s probably Ruff,¡± said Mark. ¡°This is what he supposed to do when he¡¯s not looking out for us.¡± ¡°Whatever it is, it is scary,¡± said Stella. ¡°It¡¯s just grabbing minds and causing fear.¡± ¡°How do you know this?,¡± asked Bond. He looked back where they had walked from the pond. He couldn¡¯t see the interaction going on himself. Stella realized she had said too much. No one was supposed to know about what she could do. She supposed she thought they would miss it in the excitement. She should have known that Bond would catch the slip. ¡°I can sense things from a distance,¡± said Stella. ¡°And I know that the group with Mister Morgan are starting to realize that someone is picking them off one by one. They want to know what¡¯s going on.¡± ¡°Mom¡¯s probably taking some of that action where Ruff couldn¡¯t grab someone,¡± said Mark. ¡°Dad¡¯s not going to like us getting too close. Do you see Melinda? We should get her and take her down to the van with us.¡± ¡°She¡¯s closer to us,¡± said Stella. She searched for a more precise direction. ¡°I think she wants to join in, but she¡¯s holding station.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s go up and get her,¡± said Mark. ¡°Then we can head back to the van like we¡¯re supposed to be doing instead of getting in trouble.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± said Bond. ¡°We can¡¯t let them see us. We really can¡¯t let them see Stella if that¡¯s why they are here. They¡¯ll stop what they¡¯re doing to go after her.¡± ¡°I agree with that,¡± said Mark. ¡°We can¡¯t ask her to stay behind either. What if there are more goons out here? Dad will be irritated if we lost her.¡± ¡°So we all go as sneaky as we can,¡± said Bond. He nodded. ¡°Let¡¯s do this before more trouble shows up.¡± ¡°This is better than running from expanding frogs,¡± said Mark. He grinned. ¡°Which way do we go, Stella?¡± Stella pointed at where she felt Melinda¡¯s thoughts. Mark set off, vanishing in the undergrowth like a ghost. Bond started after him, working his way slowly along. She fell in with the blond boy, helping him push branches out of the way. Mark and Melinda met while Stella and Bond were halfway to the spot. The siblings came back toward them faster than they could travel the same distance. ¡°All right,¡± said Mark. ¡°Mom and Ruff are taking care of things. We should get to the van before Dad does. He doesn¡¯t look like he¡¯s in a good mood.¡± ¡°His weekend is ruined,¡± said Bond. ¡°I can see why he wouldn¡¯t be in a good mood. I mean we have his fish dinner right here that he won¡¯t be able to cook because of what¡¯s going on.¡± ¡°I know,¡± said Mark. ¡°Let¡¯s go. Maybe we can salvage something if we beat him down to the van.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± said Stella. ¡°I think we¡¯re going to be packing up the camp and going home early.¡± ¡°Maybe that will blow over if we don¡¯t say anything,¡± said Mark. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± Mark led the way down to the van. He kept an eye open for more trouble. Ruff usually ran interference when possible. The guardian was back on the trail with their parents. They reached the van without a problem. Cars marked by trail dust were in other slots. Mark checked them but he didn¡¯t see anyone sitting inside. ¡°I think we should key them,¡± said Melinda. ¡°No,¡± said Mark. ¡°If any of them make it back here after dealing with Mom, Dad would want them to be able to get out of here without problems. We just need to get in the van and make sure they can¡¯t see us.¡± He opened the back and stored the fish and the poles. He closed the hatch. He went to the side and opened the door and helped Melinda inside. He pointed for her to get in the back, and be ready to hide if someone other than their parents showed up. Bond and Stella took their own seats. Stella looked out the window. There were a few people close by, but nobody was interested in them. Mark took the front after closing the side door. That gave him two doors to use if he had to get out of the van for any reason. And his dad had been showing him how to drive so he was reasonably sure he could follow the signs to any ranger station that might be near by. ¡°Who knew camping could be so exciting?,¡± said Bond. ¡°This is because of my dad,¡± said Stella. ¡°They were looking for me. I wonder what he did.¡± ¡°Your dad is a detective, right?,¡± said Mark. ¡°Maybe he found out something he shouldn¡¯t have.¡± ¡°But he¡¯s been handling divorces,¡± said Stella. ¡°All he does is prove people are cheating on each other.¡± ¡°That¡¯s all he does now,¡± said Bond. ¡°He might have taken a criminal case again.¡± ¡°Those guys looked like criminals,¡± said Melinda. ¡°Maybe your dad took a divorce case that involved criminals.¡± ¡°The main thing is they didn¡¯t know who Dad and Mom were,¡± said Mark. ¡°If they had, they probably wouldn¡¯t have come up here after you.¡± Stella looked out the window and saw Ruff sniffing along the trail. Mister Morgan walked behind him. He seemed in a better mood than what she had felt previously. ¡°It looks like we¡¯re eating fish tonight,¡± said Mark. Scouting in the Woods 8 The rest of the day went by in a whirl for Stella. She had to sit back and watch everything from the sidelines, but the Morgans and Bond acted like what came next was something they did all the time. Mister Morgan asked them to stay in the van while he went to get the park rangers. Then he returned with men in uniform and they went up the trail. About an hour later, the adult Morgans and rangers escorted a group of men in torn clothes and battered faces from the trail. Ruff rested his body on Stella the whole time so she had to struggle to watch what was going on from inside the van. The beating of a tail on the seat didn¡¯t help. As soon as all of the goons were taken away, Mister Morgan got the fish bucket and had them go back to their camp. They had to cook the fish for dinner. The next part was the preparation and cooking of the fish. Stella was glad to sit that out as the Morgans did all the work. The strips of fish were speared and set over the fire to cook. A pot was produced and noodles were dropped in. Mister Morgan used water from a bottle for cooking. He frowned when the water didn¡¯t boil over the open fire. He asked a small animal to heat the pot to the right temperature to boil the noodles. The salamander agreed, and soon they had fish and noodles ready to go. Mrs. Morgan cut up vegetables and put them in the pot with the noodles and let them simmer for a bit. Then she served all of it out on paper plates. Plastic forks were given to Bond and Stella. The Morgans had chop sticks. The meal went fast. Stella noted that no one talked about what had happened in the woods, or the men being hauled away by the rangers. She also noted that being a furry puppet didn¡¯t stop Ruff from trying to sample some of the food from her plate. She finally pushed some off on the ground so he would be stalled in his efforts to take the whole plate from her. That worked for the six seconds it took for him to clean the ground with his tongue. Then he was back for more with his puppy dog eyes. ¡°Down, Ruff,¡± said Mister Morgan. ¡°Let the girl eat. We have some dog food for you.¡± The rest of the dinner went a bit faster with Stella being able to eat without a pest at her elbow. When she was done, she put the small amount left down for Ruff to eat. He devoured it with gusto. ¡°All right, kids,¡± said Mister Morgan. He put his own plate down on top of Stella¡¯s. It was empty to Ruff¡¯s annoyance. ¡°We have to head home tomorrow. Stella is going to have to catch her flight home in the afternoon. Let me feed Ruff, and then you can tell me a story better than the one I told you yesterday. Then it will be time to hit the sack.¡± ¡°It¡¯s pretty early, Dad,¡± said Mark. ¡°Can¡¯t we stay up longer?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Mister Morgan. ¡°Do you think you have earned the right to stay up longer?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± said Melinda. ¡°We didn¡¯t do anything bad the whole day.¡± ¡°And we kept out of the way when you wanted us to,¡± said Mark. ¡°Plus Bond solved his mystery in his book.¡± ¡°If you guys want to take Ruff for a walk and play,¡± said Mister Morgan. ¡°I guess that will be fine. Don¡¯t wander off that far. When you get back, you can tell your scary story.¡± ¡°Then it will be bed time?,¡± asked Mark. Stella could see he was already trying to find ways to stretch out his awake time. ¡°Sure,¡± said Mister Morgan. ¡°I want a good scary story.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll see what I can do about that,¡± said Mark. He jumped up. ¡°Come on, guys. We can hide and seek.¡± He rushed off into the dark, calling not it behind him. Melinda and Bond rushed off after him. Ruff looked up from his dog food and then continued to eat. He could hunt the kids down at his leisure. Stella remained where she had sat through dinner. ¡°Something wrong, Stella?,¡± asked Mister Morgan. He put another log on the fire. He sat down against his log. ¡°The thing that happened today,¡± said Stella. ¡°That was because of me, wasn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°What do you mean?,¡± asked Mister Morgan. ¡°Those men wouldn¡¯t have come up here if I hadn¡¯t been here,¡± said Stella. ¡°So I caused that mess.¡± ¡°Do you think so?,¡± asked Mister Morgan. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. ¡°Yes,¡± said Stella. ¡°They come up here because they were looking for me to find my dad.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a good chain of causality,¡± said Mister Morgan. ¡°Take yourself out of the chain. If you weren¡¯t around, what would they have done to find your dad?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Stella. ¡°You were the easiest fix for their problem,¡± said Mister Morgan. ¡°If you hadn¡¯t been around, someone else would have been used to put pressure on your dad. The thing is you can¡¯t make people do what you want. You can trick them, you can make them think the thing they are doing for you is what they wanted to do in the first place, you can pay them to do what you want, you can coerce them. There¡¯s always going to be people who only do what they want and nothing you do is going to change that no matter what you do.¡± ¡°If I hadn¡¯t been here, they would have threatened someone else?,¡± said Stella. ¡°I guarantee it,¡± said Mister Morgan. ¡°People who threaten other people¡¯s loved ones will find something else to threaten if there aren¡¯t any loved ones at hand. Something else deemed as valuable would be used. I¡¯ve seen it a few times since I have been doing this heroing stuff. Most people who do that are bullies on the inside.¡± ¡°Is that why you started being a hero?,¡± asked Stella. ¡°No,¡± said Mister Morgan. ¡°I was a kid, and I was adopted. Being a Scout was adventuring with your family. It was about doing things to help people when no one else could. When the Scouts were killed, I lost my family. I had to make do on my own for a while. Then I adopted others as my family, and then I had a natural family to go with the one I helped forge. Protecting the planet like we do is the same to me as protecting my family.¡± A lion drifted across Stella¡¯s mind. She understood what he meant. ¡°And he¡¯s the finest example of the saving the planet hero I know,¡± said a voice out of the darkness. ¡°Dad!,¡± shouted Stella. She jumped to her feet with a grin on her face. Pete Marston stepped out of the darkness as if appearing out of thin air. He wore a smile on his thin face. Keen eyes took in the camp as he caught Stella on the run. ¡°Hey, Petey,¡± said Mister Morgan. He waved a hand. ¡°Eavesdropping is bad for you.¡± ¡°It¡¯s how I make my living, Marty,¡± said Marston. ¡°I heard you had some excitement up here.¡± ¡°Nothing the wife couldn¡¯t handle,¡± said Mister Morgan. He looked around. ¡°She must be watching the kids to make sure they¡¯re not scaring the bears. I didn¡¯t expect to see you until tomorrow.¡± ¡°When the Goreman Mob left town, I came up after them,¡± said Marston. ¡°I heard what happened on the radio. You made the news with your capture of them.¡± ¡°So much for my weekend off,¡± said Mister Morgan. ¡°It¡¯s a good thing we¡¯re leaving in the morning. Reporters will be all over the park looking for us.¡± ¡°Thanks for looking after Stella for me, Marty,¡± said Marston. ¡°I didn¡¯t think the mob would go for her, but I wanted her to be safe in case I was wrong.¡± ¡°The next weekend I get off, you can look after my terrors for me,¡± said Mister Morgan. ¡°Look out for Lin. She¡¯s a biter.¡± Marston laughed. ¡°Could I say goodbye?,¡± said Stella. ¡°I don¡¯t think it would be good if I just left without a word.¡± ¡°Go ahead,¡± said Marston. ¡°I¡¯ll be waiting for you to come back.¡± Stella walked down the trail. She saw the thoughts of the children, but not the placid lake she associated with Mrs. Morgan. She wondered where the woman had gone. Maybe she was back at the campsite doing something to get ready for their leaving. ¡°Hey, guys,¡± Stella called out. ¡°My dad came to pick me up and I have to go.¡± ¡°What?,¡± called Melinda. She appeared out of the darkness. ¡°Your dad¡¯s here? I thought he was meeting us at the airport.¡± The boys joined them. Mark frowned at the thought that Mister Marston had arrived at the camp and Ruff did nothing. Shouldn¡¯t he have signaled danger, or new guest, or something? ¡°So you¡¯re going home now?,¡± said Bond. ¡°That¡¯s too bad. Mark and I have been trying to come up with a scary story to tell.¡± ¡°It was great hanging out,¡± said Stella. ¡°Mister Morgan already asked my dad to look after you guys the next time the weekend is free. I think Dad said you can come visit us.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Mark. ¡°We¡¯ll be in the city. Maybe we can chase some bad guys or something.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think Dad is going to do let us do that,¡± said Stella. She smiled. ¡°Wait,¡± said Bond. ¡°You live in San Francisco?¡± ¡°No,¡± said Stella. ¡°I live in Los Angeles. San Francisco is a train ride away.¡± ¡°I was thinking if you lived in the Bay area we could hang out,¡± said Bond. ¡°I think all of you should come down and see the neighborhood with me,¡± said Stella. ¡°It might even build character.¡± She smiled at the faces the siblings gave her for that. ¡°I have to go,¡± said Stella. ¡°I just wanted to say goodbye so you wouldn¡¯t think I just left because I didn¡¯t have some fun this weekend.¡± ¡°It¡¯s all right,¡± said Mark. He put out a hand. She shook it. ¡°Scouts for life.¡± Bond did the same, then Melinda. The younger girl looked like she was going to cry. Ruff held out a paw to be shook with a grin and floppy ears hanging. He wagged his tail at the paw shake. ¡°Let¡¯s go back to camp,¡± said Mark. ¡°It¡¯s too bad you¡¯re going to miss the scary story we¡¯re going to tell.¡± ¡°I know,¡± said Stella. ¡°Come up with an even scarier one for your visit.¡± ¡°I can do that,¡± said Mark. The four of them traced their way back to camp with Ruff bringing up the rear. They found the dads talking around the fire. Stella didn¡¯t see Mrs. Morgan anywhere. She knew that her ability might be clouded by the other¡¯s control of her thoughts. ¡°Kids,¡± said Mister Morgan. ¡°Say hello to Petey. You already know my kids, Petey. The other boy is Bond. He¡¯s Corona¡¯s and Ren¡¯s.¡± ¡°Hello, kids,¡± said Marston with a smile. ¡°Thank you for looking after Stella for me.¡± ¡°No problem,¡± said Mark. ¡°She¡¯s cool,¡± said Melinda. ¡°Pleasure was ours,¡± said Bond. Mrs. Morgan appeared out of the darkness. The kids jumped back a little. Ruff wagged his tail. He snuffled in the direction of the box she was holding under one of her arms. She gestured for the kids to come closer. ¡°I totally forgot about that,¡± said Mister Morgan. He got to his feet. He walked over and opened the box. He smiled. ¡°Look what we have here. Who would like a piece of cake? We were going to save it for tomorrow, but since Stella is going home now, I don¡¯t see why we can¡¯t divvy it up now.¡± He handed out slices for the kids before taking one for himself. Mrs. Morgan sliced the last piece in half and gave one half to Marston while taking the other half. She threw the box in the fire to let it burn. ¡°We should have got a bigger cake,¡± said Mister Morgan. Will of the Universe When the hand of the Destroyer reached out, it pierced the veil between two worlds. That created turbulence. That turbulence created something to fight back the intrusion. It knew its purpose as soon as it was born. It knew everything that the spirit world knew. It¡¯s ability to convert the energy of the world into magic matched any magician without the years of training. It felt small compared to what was trying to come through the veil between universes and wreck the Earth. It looked up at the giant hand reaching into its mother¡¯s reality. Its purpose asserted itself. This has to be pushed back. ¡°Are you all right?,¡± asked one of the humans on the ground with it. Magic formed around his hands. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± it said. The sound was thought changed to phonetics and spoken without speaking. ¡°I don¡¯t know what I am.¡± ¡°Decide quickly,¡± said another man. He drew an arrow from a quiver and shot it into the giant hand reaching for them. It reached out and started trying to close the door. Its personal power was nothing compared to what it was facing. It just wasn¡¯t able to channel more energy. If it could, it might destroy the planet by accident while fighting the invasion. The human magician tried to boost its power. It felt will pour into it. It wasn¡¯t enough. What could they do if they couldn¡¯t close the door? ¡°I didn¡¯t think this would be happening when I became an adventurer,¡± said another. He wore clothes from some faraway land. ¡°What can we do here, Hakim?¡± ¡°I have no idea,¡± said the other, a servant by his clothes. ¡°I don¡¯t think I can do much on my own. Perhaps I can bolster the closing spells.¡± ¡°So the three of us will try to reverse things while Cain and the other try to stop the summoner,¡± said the human magician. ¡°Let us see what we can do.¡± It joined with the magician. Their control of the energy being poured out by the Well of the World made some resistance, but it wasn¡¯t enough. Then the servant added its efforts. They had built a crumbling wall to hold the giant hand back. Then the veil shook. It perceived that the others that had arrived had seized control of the Well. They had engaged with the summoner and he had been knocked out of position. ¡°We need to keep up the pressure,¡± said the human magician. ¡°We can¡¯t allow the portal to stabilize again.¡± It asked for more power to meet the challenge. The world blazed with the effort. It knew that it could be causing mortals to be expiring from what it was doing. It felt like it had no choice. If they didn¡¯t fight off this invasion, then there would be no world for mortals to enjoy. ¡°We¡¯re doing it,¡± said the magician. ¡°We just need a little more.¡± ¡°We have a problem,¡± said the master of the Djinn. ¡°It looks like our summoner has spirits to fight for him.¡± It turned to face a pillar of fire bearing down on it. It didn¡¯t have time for this. It was trying to save the world. Didn¡¯t the summoner know what would happen if things were allowed to stand? Didn¡¯t he care? It diverted some of its energy into trying to blast the fire away. The Destroyer was about to open the door so wide they couldn¡¯t close it. That had to be more important than a fire elemental. The fire elemental disagreed with its assessment. The arcane blast didn¡¯t slow the flames down as it tried to burn the new being in front of it. ¡°Allow me,¡± said the magician. The magician waved a hand. His opponent was some kind of fish made out of water. Ice ran through the core of the thing, freezing it in the air as it flew at him. He diverted the flight into the fire elemental. The opposites began battling each other instead of trying to kill the summoner¡¯s opponents. The magician buried them both in the sand as a way to get rid of them. Once they decided to stop fighting, they might be back. Until then, their natures demanded satisfaction. It looked around. The others were busy holding off their own opponents. It was critical to get the Djinn back in play to help close the door. The two mortals should be helped as a matter of course, but it wasn¡¯t strictly necessary from its point of view. There were always more mortals to draw life from to keep going until something happened and there were none left. It decided that the best thing to do was to help the Djinn with the other air spirit. Then it could deal with the last two problems easily. ¡°Bottle it, Hakim,¡± said the master. He smiled as he exchanged sword blows with the thing of clockwork trying to cut him to pieces. ¡°Then get rid of the monster summoner trying to deal with the King.¡± Hakim reached under his long white coat and brought out a bottle as the whirlwind This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.reached for him to drive him into the ground. Suddenly the Djinn was ten times as tall, and the bottle had grown to still fit his hand. One brassy hand brought the mouth of the bottle down on the whirlwind, trapping it. Then a cork went into the opening to keep it sealed tight. The servant placed the bottle back under his coat. The Djinn grabbed the mushroom like mass full of arrows and sword cuts. It tried to produce more of itself to fight as he picked it up in the air. He decided that just throwing it up high enough would be enough to get rid of it like his master commanded. The tower of blades decided that it needed to double its efforts before it was removed from the battlefield. If it could kill the Djinn¡¯s master, that would be enough to remove the Djinn too. A wave of light punched the very core of its being. Then its copper body fell over and it was inside a stone in the magician¡¯s hand. ¡°We have to get back to work,¡± said the magician. He put the stone away in a carrying pouch. ¡°At least the summoner wasn¡¯t able to take advantage of our distraction.¡± It agreed. It was time to shut the gate for good. The archer sent an arrow through the breach. He didn¡¯t have any magic to his name. He just wanted to save the world. The hand of the Destroyer grabbed the swordsman. The massive fingers closed and crushed the life out of the hero. The hunchback smiled as ash flew into the wind. That was one of his tormentors done. Now he had to kill the rest. An arc of lightning struck the dead man¡¯s sword. It changed as the hunchback marshaled his own forces. The sword flew into the air, a thing of white bone and lightning. It never came back down. ¡°We lost the King,¡± said the other fighter, the controller of the Djinn. ¡°There¡¯s nothing we can do about that now,¡± said the magician. ¡°The rest of us might follow him in the next few seconds if we don¡¯t get this door shut.¡± ¡°This being is called the Destroyer for a reason, Master,¡± said the Djinn. ¡°I¡¯m sure it¡¯s not because of its good looks,¡± said the fighter. Sand covered the summoner in a cloud. He closed his eyes as the desert became his weapon. All he had to do was inflict as much damage as he could to the other magicians and reduce them to the same condition as the one who died. Two of the magicians turned as he approached. He gathered more sand as he ran at them. He would be a giant crushing gnats by the time he arrived to deal with them. Then he could take the Jinn from the Easterner and use it as a weapon against those in the pillars. He liked the simplicity of it. Twin beams of spells struck his sandy shell. He exploded out of his protection. He hit the ground again. He murmured a summons to provide a distraction. There was no way for him to win against both of the magicians. They knew what he could do, but he didn¡¯t have any clue how to counter their spells at the moment. He needed to escape so he could try some other scheme to gather power. He couldn¡¯t afford to be exposed with no power to fall back on. He hated that he had to abandon his scheme when he was so close, but if he didn¡¯t, he would be at their mercy. His distraction arrived in a fog drifting away from the scene. He threw a screen over it with a few murmured words. Let them stop that. It perceived that the little group was winning the struggle. The Summoner had been forced from the fight. The presence in the ring had reversed the call. All they had to do was hold on. The fog sweeping in with whatever was inside of it concerned it, but the door had to be shut first. ¡°I think this is trouble, friends,¡± said the master of the Djinn. He swept his sword in a circle with the flick of his wrist as he adjusted his grip. ¡°And I don¡¯t see anything solid to fight.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a death cloud,¡± said the magician. ¡°It has to be contained and dispersed in an area away from life. It looks like there is a protective shield to keep our magic from shredding it in place.¡± ¡°Hakim, bottle this cloud the same as the air spirit, and take it away from any living thing,¡± said the Easterner. ¡°I feel like that should handle things unless we need to do something more permanent.¡± ¡°Yes, master,¡± said Hakim. He brought out his bottle and grew tall enough to face the cloud. He uncorked the bottle and forced the air and fog to flow inside with a minimum of problems. He corked the bottle and held it against the shaking in his hands. The next part was trickier. He needed a place where there was no life around to feed the death cloud. And he needed to get rid of the air elemental without allowing it to hurt anyone. Hakim left the Earth. He glanced around from the edge of the air. He couldn¡¯t fly much further without hurting himself. Only the order from his master allowed him to go this far. He saw the perfect place for both of the problem spirits. And they would never be able to return to Earth across the void. He lined up the course he wanted, and placed the bottle on a sailboat pushed by the wind from the Sun. He pushed it out into space with a flick of his wrist. He watched as the sailboat cruised across the solar system, picking up speed as it went. It struck the edge of the planet that would one day be known as Jupiter and broke apart. Elemental and Death Cloud fell into the high winds of the planet. Hakim nodded. He had to return to his master and hope they had done enough to save the world from destruction. It nodded as it took in the Earth. The pressure was easing. It had accomplished its mission with the help of the mortals that had arrived on the scene and the guardian. It could go back to the spirit turbulence without a care. ¡°The summoner got away,¡± said the magician. ¡°I can¡¯t see where he¡¯s gone.¡± ¡°He¡¯ll be doing this same scheme again in the future,¡± said the Easterner. ¡°Hopefully, he burned up a lot of his power so he¡¯ll be easier to beat.¡± Two others joined the group. It nodded to the guardian. ¡°An unexpected ally,¡± said the guardian, smoking his pipe. ¡°Who would have thought? How do you feel, spirit of the air?¡± ¡°The work is done,¡± said it. ¡°I am returning to the aether.¡± Its body, magic and the parts it had forged into something that looked almost human, broke apart as the mortals and immortal watched. The spark of it vanished into the last surge of turbulence as the rivers of the Earth became placid again. ¡°We lost the King, and our new friend has turned to dust,¡± said the man who would be known as Al-a-Din. ¡°We¡¯ll see the both of them again,¡± said the guardian, gesturing with his pipe. ¡°One will be reborn to fight mortal troubles over and over, and the other will act to protect the Earth from other Destroyers.¡± ¡°What makes you so sure about that, No One?,¡± said Cain. He floated in the air. Their ally was mysterious to a fault, so he might not answer. On the other hand, he knew things men were not meant to know and might answer just to give them a small glimpse of what they might have to fight in the future. ¡°Because it was destiny and the will of the universe for this to happen,¡± said No One. He smiled at the expressions his words elicited. ¡°Forces had to be brought to bear that we couldn¡¯t do ourselves. And now that those forces are in motion, they can never not be in motion. Our friends will return to aid us again when we need it. Have no fear on that.¡± ¡°It seems a bad trade,¡± said Al-a-Din. ¡°I know,¡± said the guardian. ¡°That¡¯s why it¡¯s up to mortals to choose whether to make that trade, or not. You are the ones that can change the world. A man with no name like me can only sit and watch while others do the real work.¡± He gave them one more smile as he turned and started across the desert. He vanished when a small dust devil obscured him from view. ¡°I think he puts others on his work because he¡¯s lazy,¡± said Cain. ¡°I¡¯m sure,¡± said the magician. ¡°Until we meet again, friends.¡± The heroes went their separate ways. Meet Yourself Stephen Scry sat at a table in the middle of a saloon in some little town in the Nevada desert. He looked at the glass of water in front of him. What was he doing here? He should have just worked on trying to get his life back together instead of agreeing to this. He smiled at his cowardice. He didn¡¯t have a life. The other Scry had stolen it from him. He couldn¡¯t even hold a job in some mundane profession. As soon as his paperwork went to the government, someone showed up to try to kill him. They had hounded him across the world. He would still be on the run if he hadn¡¯t run into an old friend. No one had believed him about having his life stolen. A spell had been carved to keep him from just stepping back in his place. His friend had known what had happened with one look at his disheveled appearance. A promise of help had been given. Scry knew he was doing the most dangerous part on his own. His friend didn¡¯t like to take a hand in things except as an enabler. Actively fighting would be out of the question unless pushed into it. That would take a lot of pushing in Scry¡¯s opinion. So he sat at his table and waited. It wouldn¡¯t be long. His friend had sent word to his double where he could be found. He was on his way. Scry smoothed his too long hair back. He used to like haircuts. Now his hair had taken on the appearance of Einstein¡¯s without the gray. He felt it starting to stick up again as soon as he lowered his hand. His friend came into the saloon and nodded as he passed. He puffed on a cigar as he headed for the bar. He wouldn¡¯t be much help unless directly pressed but he was there in the bar offering moral support. His presence might be enough to give Scry a chance at grabbing the upper hand if he had to fight a duel with his double. He hoped his friend¡¯s friend arrived before the other Scry did. He would know for sure if the cause was hopeless. He could leave and go somewhere else if it was. Lights played over the front windows. His double was there. More lights pulled up. His double had brought help like they suspected. He frowned. How many would he be facing? He took a deep breath. There was nothing he could do about it now. He had to deal with what was there, not what he wished would be there. He sipped his water and let it flow through him. The ice had melted a long time ago and the liquid was room temperature. That didn¡¯t matter. He needed something to keep him focused on the task at hand. A sip of water was enough to keep him from fleeing out the back of the saloon as fast as possible. The other Scry walked into the saloon. He wore his dark suit well. Someone had trimmed his hair down. He looked around the room as he marched toward the table. He stood, looking down at the original Scry. ¡°So we finally meet,¡± he said. The voice wasn¡¯t quite the same, but he was close enough to fool people who didn¡¯t know the original all that well. I should have made more friends. Scry waved for the other sit down across from him. They might as well talk without resorting to violence. This parley wasn¡¯t going to last that long. The goons stated that much to him. ¡°We have gone to a lot of trouble, but yet here you are,¡± said the double. He sat down after surveying the chair. ¡°It will be a pleasure to get rid of you after all this time.¡± ¡°You¡¯re not what I expected,¡± said Scry. ¡°I thought you would come alone.¡± ¡°Why would I do that?,¡± asked the double. ¡°My organization has you as a front. I can¡¯t allow you to escape to complicate things.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re going to kill me and everyone in the bar?,¡± said Scry. He waved at the patrons taking an interest in their conversation and the goons standing in front of the front door to stop any escapees. ¡°I don¡¯t see why not,¡± said the double. He smiled. His teeth were better than Scry¡¯s. ¡°Everyone has to die sometime.¡± ¡°I guess that¡¯s true,¡± said Scry. He picked up his glass and sipped some more water. ¡°But you won¡¯t leave here alive. I promise you that.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have anything in your bag of tricks that can do anything worthwhile,¡± said the double. ¡°I know. I studied you before I took over.¡± ¡°I have been picking up other tricks since I have been on the run,¡± said Scry. He took another sip of water. ¡°That¡¯s why I can make sure you die first. Your guys might get me, but it won¡¯t matter to you.¡± ¡°Do you really think you have a chance?,¡± said the Double. ¡°It will be a pleasure to get rid of you after all this time.¡± ¡°Put your money where your mouth is,¡± said Scry. He raised his hands so his palms This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.pointed at his enemy. Instantly the double raised a shield to block anything that might hurt him. He didn¡¯t expect the table to be upended and pushed on top of him. The goons raised weapons to shoot at anything that moved. They were in a place with a lot of hostile looking people where people went armed as a matter of course. And their primary target was considered dangerous. One of the patrons turned and raised his gloved hand. A wind lifted the goon on the left end of the line and threw him through the front window. The other goons decided that had to be a priority target. They could kill everyone else later. Scry smiled. His friend had come through after all. Now it was just him and his double until the other magician was taken out of the fight. He had always been on the weaker side as far as magicians went, but he had a narrow focus that could be applied in a lot of ways. That¡¯s why he decided to blast the table from his spot behind it. The Double blocked the table with raised arms and expended energy. The top broke against the shield he summoned to protect himself. ¡°So there¡¯s two of you?,¡± said the Double. ¡°I can kill both of you just as easily as I can kill one of you.¡± He concentrated and fire erupted from his chest. It expanded into two arms that kept growing as he fed more energy into the spell he was unleashing. The burning hands reached for his opponents. Scry unleashed his own spell. He knew this would happen and planned for it. He had thought it was the only way he could get the upper hand. Magical energy warped the air as glowing lines of force wrapped around one of the burning arms. The lines yanked at the embedded power, pulling it from the false Scry¡¯s body. He fell to the floor, trying to catch his breath. Scry dumped the burning mass into the bar¡¯s ice maker. The machine sat behind the bar with the lid open. Ice fell out of the side so the bartender could scoop it up and put it in glasses for drinks. Heat and ice created a steam cloud screaming in pain as it rushed to the ceiling. The sound faded as the hot fog vaporized on the air. The Double tried to get back to his feet. Part of the enchantment he had agreed to bear was gone. He looked up at the real Stephen Scry. The other man slapped the small fire on his coat sleeve to put it out. He could still cement his identity theft if he could kill the real man before he was pushed out in the night. Scry raised his hands. His enemy did the same. They looked like two martial artists readying for a brawl. Whomever got off the more powerful cut would win the day. Then Scry¡¯s friend of a friend would have to deal with what happened after that. The two magicians triggered their spells and let the energy rush at each other. The Son of Set employed a summons for a blast of sand to cut through his enemy and anything else that got in the way. Scry slid out of the way of the blast, moving across the floor. Both of his hands pushed on his double¡¯s chest. The man hit the inner wall next to the door like a speeding bullet. He collapsed to the floor and hugged his chest as he tried to will away the pain of broken bones. Scry took a moment to catch his breath and dive for cover as spells ripped the air around him. He had forgotten the Double¡¯s backup. What was he going to do about them? The magician flipped over another table to give himself a barricade as he readied to face his enemies. He took a moment to check the odds. He frowned. The Double had brought three three man squads to the saloon. He had lost track of the nine men in the fight with the impostor. Two of the squads were down. His friend¡¯s friend had taken them apart in the few moments he had used to fight one magician. The other magician stood in the middle of a cleared space. He adjusted his dark hat and sunglasses with a gloved hand. His coat collar was up to hide his face from view. The coat had taken a couple of hits, but he acted like it didn¡¯t bother him. ¡°How¡¯s it going, Steve?,¡± asked the other magician. ¡°That was a smooth move with the demon extraction. He never saw it coming before you steamrolled him.¡± ¡°I¡¯m okay,¡± said Scry. He didn¡¯t move from behind his table. ¡°How do you want to handle the rest of this?¡± ¡°You heard the man, guys,¡± said the other magician. ¡°How do you want this to go? We can let you take off, or we can fight it out to the end. I¡¯m going to have to warn you. I still have a lot of pep in my step. It might be better if you walk away and come back and get your wounded after we leave.¡± Scry would have left. He didn¡¯t feel obligated to fight it out with a stronger magician. If he had a chance to flee, he would. He knew the Sons of Set wouldn¡¯t see it that way. They liked to fight, and they had a master to serve who would look down on any cowardly behavior. It was better to try and lose than to just walk away and try again on a winning day. He readied his own attack. He didn¡¯t want to get blasted after he had taken his duplicate. He looked at the odds. They told him that his helper would have to take every attack from the three mooks. He wasn¡¯t on the radar. He was fine with that. The air took on the smell of lightning. They were going for it. He closed his eyes and looked for the proper moment to attack where he could do the most damage. The three minions pointed twisted wooden rods at the other magician. Fire leaped from serpent heads carved in the ends. The streams hit a bigger blast going the other way and ripped up the walls. Then the spell took the squad in its embrace. They hit the window and door. Scry wondered if they bounced when they hit the gravel lot in front of the saloon. He stood and approached his impostor. The man groaned from the pain he was in. Apparently he had never learned to heal himself. That was a failure of forethought. ¡°When you go back to your master,¡± said Scry. ¡°You¡¯ll have to use your own face. I¡¯m taking mine back.¡± Scry raised his hands. He let the energy flow, pulling everything he wanted out of his enemy. He felt strength flowing into him as he took back his name. The world reverted back to the way it should be where he didn¡¯t have to run, and no one believed him. His clothes became cleaner and stronger as he shed his years of exile. ¡°I hope you like returning to your old life,¡± said Scry. ¡°I¡¯m sure going to like returning to mine.¡± Scry looked outside. The patrons from the saloon stood outside. Some of them looked flabbergasted at the pyrotechnics thrown around. He couldn¡¯t blame them. ¡°You okay, Steve?,¡± asked the other magician. ¡°Yes,¡± said Scry. He had been on the run for five years. It felt good to take something back from his enemies. ¡°Thanks for helping out. I know it¡¯s dangerous crossing the Sons. I appreciate what you did.¡± ¡°Amenophis and I are old enemies,¡± said the other magician. ¡°I¡¯m just repaying my own debts. If you need any more help, just ask for Memphis. Someone will let you know where I can be found.¡± Memphis touched the brim of his hat before he started off down the road. A wind covered him with dust and he was gone when it settled down. Flight of the Rocket Man 1 Frank Saxon looked at the fire in the ring of rocks in front of him. He had decided to take the weekend off and head out of Idaville for a while. He would have a ton of work to catch up on Monday, but he didn¡¯t care at the moment. His boss, Frank Flanagan, had landed some contracts with the government to make parts. Production had been slow at first since America was neutral at the time. After Pearl, production had ramped up to meet the increasing demand. Saxon had been promoted up to help the two men already in charge of the lines. His job entailed making sure all the parts were right, and shipped on time. Sometimes he had to run checks to do it. He had been working sixty hour weeks for a while, and could feel burnout arriving to take him away. He decided a couple of days away from the hustle and bustle would do him good. Camping had been something he had enjoyed as a boy before moving to the big city of New York. He had done some in the Barrens south of the city until he had earned his first promotion and moved west to California. Business had demanded that he give up his relaxation until he could leave crew chiefs in charge without having to look over their shoulders. Two days didn¡¯t seem that much to ask of his crews. Saxon hoped he hadn¡¯t made a mistake heading up into the woods to get away from it all. After getting off from the plant, Saxon had driven home and grabbed his pack and tent. He drove north after that. He arrived at his campground a few hours later. He had brought a cooler full of steaks. He had built a fire and placed a steak on a stick over the fire. He supposed he was sending a signal to the wildlife that good eating was being done, but he couldn¡¯t do without that unless he wanted to eat cold steak. It wouldn¡¯t be the first time he had eaten cold food, but this time he could choose to do without instead of having it taken away from him. He turned the steak slowly on the stake so it would cook evenly. He planned to catch some shuteye after eating. The next day he would hike around, read underneath a tree, maybe swim in the local pond. He had no idea what to do with most of Sunday, but at some point, he would have head home and get ready for work on Monday. He would probably leave from the camp at around dark. There wouldn¡¯t be that many people on the road, and he should have a smooth sail down to his place. After work Monday meant laundry. He would have to take care of that after he went from the office. It felt good to be out on his own away from everything. Even after work, he still had a ton of paperwork to manage. He had set up a home office just to keep it in one place in his house. He had never thought that would be something to worry about when he had taken his promotion. He nodded when his steak looked ready to eat. He got a plate from his supplies and put the steak down on it. He stuck his stick in the fire before he hunted up a knife and fork to cut up his meal. He frowned as a streak of light appeared in the sky overhead while he ate. Where had that come from? He watched it for a few seconds, unsure of what he was seeing. He realized the streak was heading right for his camp site. He placed the plate next to the fire as he stood. He headed away from the camp, watching the thing turn into a glowing ball heading down on top of him like a cannonball. Saxon started running. He didn¡¯t want to see a meteorite up close. He dove to try to get out of the impact zone. A pressure wave helped him by flinging him away from his camp site with a loud roar. Saxon picked himself up after taking a moment to make sure he was intact. His pants were on fire, but he was glad that he hadn¡¯t hit a tree in the dark. He beat the small fires out on his pants. He kicked off his shoes. They were practically destroyed. He looked at his camp site. A crater sat where his fire should be. He didn¡¯t see his tent, or any of his supplies. If they survived, they might have been blown clear like Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.he was. Small fires had been set around the pit. Some of the trees seemed to be on fire too. He had a fire extinguisher in his car down at the ranger station. He could go down there and get it and come back to put the fires out if he hurried. Frank went to the crater and looked down at the cooling pool in the ground. He frowned at the liquid. Where was the rest of the meteor? Could it have melted on impact. He didn¡¯t believe that. He reached down and put his hand over the liquid. He was surprised to find that the air was cool. Shouldn¡¯t it be burning hot? He frowned as he studied the glow. Flanagan would love to have something like this. He tinkered with stuff in his off time. Everyone knew that. This would be something he would be glad to have under a microscope to see if he could make more of whatever it was. Saxon thought maybe he could store the liquid in his canteen if he could find the metal flask in the remains of his camp. He went to straighten up so he could look for his canteen. He overbalanced and touched the liquid with his hand. He yanked his hand away as pain shot up through his arm. He spasmed on the ground as he tried to get the fire running up his arm under control. That was stupid. That was incredibly stupid. Saxon lay on the ground looking at the moonlight. The pain receded until he could think. He shook his head. He had to get back in the game and survive to tell people how he had been so stupid and clumsy. It might even get a big laugh out of his audience. He sat up and looked down at his hand to see how much damage the liquid had done to it. Three squares of black lines over a circle formed a tattoo on his palm. He frowned. What was that? He looked inside the crater. The liquid was gone. He shook his head. How was he going to prove what he saw now other than the still burning fires? He touched the squares with the index finger of his other hand. They lit up at the touch. He thought they felt warm too, but not excessively so. He pressed the circle. The tattoo turned into a circle with a line at the top. The line started moving counterclockwise along the circle. Saxon felt lighter. He looked down. He floated off the ground. He concentrated to keep from screaming. He spread his arms and spun around. He could feel jets of air at his back. He needed a mirror. His car had a sideview mirror. He could walk down and check out his back in the sideview. A red arrow appeared in his head. He realized the arrow indicated where his car sat in the lot at the edge of the camping ground. He took a step and he vaulted in the air. He closed his eyes as the jets on his back pushed him high over the trees. He spotted the small mountain rising to the north as he headed at a tangent away from his car. He twisted to turn his back toward the car. The jets obliged and he rocketed toward the paved lot. He was flying and he had it under control. Did he tell his boss about this? What would Flanagan do? He decided he needed to test it to see what else he could do. He didn¡¯t know how long he could fly, if there was a visible effect, or how to use it beyond his own transportation. He spotted his car from the air, and realized his vision was much better while he was flying. He smiled. Now all he had to do was land beside the car, get the fire extinguisher, fly back to the camp site, and put out the fire. Then he could worry about the limits on his new ability. He brought himself up next to the driver¡¯s door of the car. He shifted until he could get partial looks at both sides of his back in the driver¡¯s mirror. He frowned at the two jets of air moving along his shirt. That was going to be hard to hide when he went back to work. Maybe he could explain things to Flanagan so he could find something else to do instead of flying around the factory. He would have to demonstrate the ability at the very least. That meant a flight back to New York. How did he get on a plane with two jets of force pushing against everything behind and below him? He decided he was worrying too much about something he needed to plan for and not enough about what was going on at his camp site. He floated to the back of the car and opened the trunk. He pulled out the extinguisher and closed the trunk. He needed to get back to his camp site. A red arrow appeared in the sky to mark where he had to go. He felt the jets kick on to lift him in the air. He angled toward the arrow while pulling the pin on the sprayer. He circled over the camp site for a few seconds before taking aim with the red metal sprayer and spraying foam everywhere. He concentrated his actions on the trees and worked in to the crater. He floated over the last fire for the seconds it took to put it out. He dropped the cannister when he was done. He looked over the destroyed camping gear. He was better off just burying it in the ground and buying new stuff. Even his cooler had been turned into shrapnel and the steaks inside were feeding the local wildlife that hadn¡¯t run from the impact, and following wave of air. What did he do about it now? He didn¡¯t have an entrenching tool to work with in his car. He would have to get a shovel come back and bury his wrecked gear. He didn¡¯t think any store would be open at the moment. He would have to do it tomorrow. What did he do for the rest of the night? The jets cut off and he dropped to the ground. He looked at his hand. The three squares and circle were back. He realized the circle and line was a countdown clock. That governed how long his power was active. So he didn¡¯t have to worry about flying and losing the power in the air. He could just look at his hand and it would tell him when the power was going to cut off and dump him to the ground. He felt his palm. It was cold to the touch. He frowned as he thought about that. Flight of the Rocket Man 2 Saxon gathered his trashed gear into a pile. If he had a shovel, he could bury it. He shook his head. His shovel was miles to the south. He thought about flying down to his house, getting his shovel and flying back. Could he do that? How fast was he? Had he burned up his flying in the one trip to the car? He touched the palm of his hand. It felt warm again. He closed his eyes. Pushing all three squares, then the circle, allowed him to fly for a short amount of time. A clock appeared to let him know how much time he had left. As long as the clock ran, he could fly as high as he could breathe. The drawback seemed to be a period where he couldn¡¯t use the power at all. What happened if he only pressed one button? He decided that he could test the power application later. He needed to deal with his wrecked stuff before a ranger came by to ask how his campsite was ruined. He didn¡¯t have an explanation that didn¡¯t sound crazy. And using the flight power to prove it would wreck his personal life as far as he could tell. Saxon looked around. He seemed to be alone. He could use the flight power to fly home and get his shovel. The cooldown period seemed to be only a few minutes. Even if he couldn¡¯t fly down in one jump, it wouldn¡¯t take all night to fly home and fly back. He decided to do it. He planned to fly high to get over obstacles and then come in for a landing right before the clock gave out. He didn¡¯t know how much time he would have for that, but it shouldn¡¯t be a problem as long as he kept his eye on things. When things cooled down, he could figure out how long flight time was with a stopwatch. He pressed the buttons on the palm of his hand. He lifted off the ground. He thought about his house. A red arrow appeared to point the way. He imagined that was because he couldn¡¯t see the house from where he was. He leaped into the air and headed south. He wondered how fast he could go. He didn¡¯t see any controls for speed in his head. He focused on the arrow and followed it. He passed cars heading south. He doubted any of them saw him in the air. He laughed as he left them behind. He needed to test how fast his cruising speed was. He figured it was faster than forty miles an hour but he wasn¡¯t sure. Another arrow sprang up in the distance, hovering straight up in the air. That arrow marked where his house stood. He wondered how many arrows he could cause to appear at once. He decided to get his shovel and deal with one crisis at a time. When he had taken care of his gear and retrieved his car, he could think about testing the potential of his new skills. Trying to mark more than one destination while he was in flight was just asking for trouble. He could do after he was comfortable with the next few steps he was taking. He saw the roof of his house. No one looked like they were roaming the neighborhood. He landed next to the shed in his back yard and hovered to where he kept his shovel. He checked the clock on his hand. It seemed to be slowly fading out. He had flown home in the same amount of time it had taken him to fly to his car, and put out the fire in the park. How fast could he fly? And it was protecting him in flight. He realized that when he looked at his hands and didn¡¯t see any windburn. He didn¡¯t think that protection would extend to physical obstructions. He smiled. He touched down and realized he needed something else other than a shovel. He needed socks and shoes. He jogged to the door of his house and let himself in. He went to his bedroom and grabbed socks and tennis shoes. He pulled them on while waiting for his cooldown minutes to tick away. Could he fly to New York? How far east could he fly before his power gave out? He doubted it was going to go away for good. Could he fly to New York in one shot? Did he want to try? He had to take care of his wrecked camp before he could test his new ability more than he had already done. He stamped his feet inside his tennis shoes and went out to his shed. He could take the shovel up to the camp site, clean up, and leave the shovel in his car while he tested his power. He hoped he wasn¡¯t using up a finite source of energy with this testing. Saxon grabbed the shovel and activated his power. A red arrow pointed him toward his camp to the north. He leaped along the indicated path. He soared through the air back to the park. He homed in on the arrow pointing toward the spot on the ground he had aimed for from Idaville. He descended to a hovering stop in the middle of the wrecked camp site. He went to work digging a hole in the ground. He stopped when he thought he had something deep enough. He used the shovel like a broom and swept everything he could into the pit. He pushed the dirt over his excavation. It didn¡¯t look good to his eyes. He looked around and rolled a fallen tree over the pile. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.That looked a little better. He added some fallen limbs to the pile to completely cover the mound. If anyone found it, he doubted they would figure out what happened and who he was. He decided he would have one more test run before coming back and picking up his car. If he was tired, he could sleep in the car before driving it home. He couldn¡¯t camp out now. Saxon had used up his power cleaning up his camp. He timed the recovery process. He had to wait two minutes before the flight power came back. If he flew somewhere, and there was problems, he would have two minutes before he could fly back out. If he wanted to fly somewhere overseas, he might have to spend a large amount of time in the water. And he didn¡¯t know what his top speed was at this point. Flying home had been quick, but he had no way to judge if he had been moving really fast, or if his house was closer than he thought when he could ignore the road network between the mountain and Idaville. How did he want to test how fast he could go before he drove home for the night? He could fly to a random spot and see how long it took him to get there. Then he could take a look on a map to figure distance traveled. It wasn¡¯t perfect, but it should give him some idea of how much ground he could cover before his flight wore out. The only problem he saw was winding up on a place that wasn¡¯t on the map. He couldn¡¯t figure the distance if he landed in unmarked territory. He decided that he should try his experiment from home. He needed to eat, and he should drive his car back before he got involved in any experimentation. He could pick a point on a map and set everything he needed up on his kitchen table. He looked around and gathered up the empty fire extinguisher and shovel before he activated his power and flew down to his car. He realized he had no way to cut the power off after floating to a stop beside the car. He stowed the gear and watched the clock for his flight to run out. Saxon got behind the wheel of his car when he thumped to the ground and started the engine. He pulled out of the lot and headed for home. He planned to stop at any truck stop on the way to get gas. He admitted he wasn¡¯t that afraid of running out when he knew he could just fly home and get a gas can and fly back. It made being stuck not that much of a consideration. And the built in arrows would tell him where he left his car so he could easily find it. The only drawback was someone moving his car while he was gone. He wondered if he could transfer his power to his car. A flying car would be convenient. He dismissed the idea after some consideration. He didn¡¯t know how the keys worked in the first place. He had no way of knowing how to lift his car, and what happened if he did a transfer but couldn¡¯t transfer the power back. He drove on, considering ways to test things as he went. He needed to know what each button did. It was just luck that he had discovered the flying power first. Maybe each key was a component that he could use separately. Could he use the components together in different ways? He thought that he could use the buttons in different combinations, but the appearance of the clock meant that once activated he couldn¡¯t go back to the well. Whatever he picked was what he had until the clock counted down. And he didn¡¯t know if he could activate single keys at this point. He might only have the ability to fly and the navigation system that went with it. He put the thought away as he looked for a place to stop. He nodded when he saw an exit with some lights ahead. Someone was open. He could get gas there and finish the trip home. He smiled at the thought he was making the same trip in hours in what had taken minutes earlier. He must be really fast in the air. The place with the most lights on looked like a truck stop. He drove up to a spot beside a gas pump and cut the engine. He looked around as he got out. He and four trucks were the only ones there. His stomach growled to remind him of his exploding steaks. He needed food to recharge. He smiled. He should order something while he was pumping his gas. He walked inside the station and looked around. Part of it looked like a general store with bagged food and bottled drinks lining the shelves. The other part looked like a restaurant with a counter separating the public from the cooking area. A set of tables alternated with booths. He counted two others in the dining area with the waitress and cook. They must drive two of the trucks outside. Where were the other two drivers? Saxon decided it was none of his business. He was just there to get gas and food. Once he had done that, he could get back on the road and finish his drive. ¡°How can I help you, hon?,¡± asked the waitress. She stood at the counter next to the register. An order pad sat next to the adding machine. ¡°I need to fill up and grab a quick bite to eat,¡± said Saxon. ¡°Could I have a burger and fries?¡± ¡°Drink?,¡± asked the waitress. ¡°Coffee is good,¡± said Saxon. ¡°Go over to the register by the door to pay for your gas,¡± said the waitress. She leaned over the counter and pointed across the other part of the store. ¡°Bill will take care of that for you.¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± said Saxon. ¡°Let me get my gas. I¡¯ll be right back to get my food.¡± ¡°No problem,¡± said the waitress. ¡°We¡¯ll get it done for you in a jiffy.¡± Saxon nodded. He crossed back over to the store part of the truck stop and looked around. He saw an old guy sweeping the floor with a dust mop and thought this must be Bill. ¡°The lady said to come see you about paying for my gas,¡± said Saxon. ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± said Bill. ¡°How much do you need?¡± ¡°Could I have ten dollars worth?,¡± said Saxon. ¡°That should get me back home.¡± ¡°Sure,¡± said Bill. ¡°Heading far?¡± Bill walked behind the counter and stood beside the register. He put in numbers for the payment of the gas. He took the ten and put it in the register. ¡°I¡¯m headed down to Idaville,¡± said Saxon. ¡°That¡¯s a ways,¡± said Bill. ¡°I thought I was going camping up north, but my gear was wrecked,¡± said Saxon. ¡°I¡¯m headed home.¡± ¡°Good luck with the rest of your weekend,¡± said Bill. He nodded as he slouched to where he had leaned his dust mop against a shelf. ¡°Thanks,¡± said Saxon. He went out and pumped his gas. He drove the car into an empty slot in front of the building when he was done. He should be home in a couple of hours. He could check to see if he had some real food in his refrigerator when he got there. He doubted a burger and fries would be enough for the rest of the night. He thought he might still have a steak in his fridge. He wasn¡¯t sure. He hoped he hadn¡¯t brought them all to feed the bears. The waitress put his food on the counter after he took a stool. He smiled at the sight. He wondered if his flight needed to be fed. The energy for the jets had to come from somewhere. It was another question he would have to think about while he was testing his ability. He might need to eat more so he could fly more without burning up. He wolfed down his food. He sat back. Hunger still gnawed at him. He looked at the menu on the counter. They sold ice cream. Maybe he should get some of that. ¡°Would you like anything else?,¡± asked the waitress. She picked up the empty plate. ¡°Could I have two servings of ice cream,¡± said Saxon. Maybe that would calm his stomach down. ¡°I¡¯ll add it to your ticket,¡± said the waitress. She took the empty plate away. She returned with two large bowls of vanilla/chocolate mix ice cream and put that in front of him. ¡°Thanks,¡± said Saxon. He dug into the ice cream. It felt good. This was what he needed to cool the fire in his stomach. He added that to the facts he knew about his new skill. He needed to eat more if he used it more than twice a day. He would have to guess at what the actual cost was to his system. He wondered what other things he would find out in the days ahead. Flight of the Rocket Man 3 Saxon arrived at his home a few hours later. He felt better after having a small meal, but he needed to fuel up if he wanted to really fly and check his top speed. He found some sandwich ingredients and bottled milk. He grabbed a plate and made himself a plate full of sandwiches. He drank the milk while he ate. He decided that he would fly to New York, or as far east as he could in one jump. He had no doubt that he could reach the Big Apple eventually, maybe faster than the prop planes in the air could. He didn¡¯t need to fly that far to see how fast he was. He looked around the house until he found an atlas. He put that on the kitchen table. He checked his watch. It was still running fine. He grabbed a pair of goggles from a drawer and put them on. The buttons felt warm and alive. He was as ready as he would ever be. It was a good thing he was doing this in the dark so no one would recognize him. He didn¡¯t want to wind up in the papers. He also didn¡¯t want to explain to his boss about what he could do all of a sudden. Flanagan would want to test him to see if he could build more like him somehow. He didn¡¯t plan to spend the rest of his life in a box being prodded. Saxon went out to his backyard. He looked up at the night sky. How high did he want to go? He decided it was better if he flew high enough to get a straight path east, but not high enough that he could die when his power ran out. He checked his watch. He pressed the buttons. The jets fired him into the air. He laughed as he roared through the night sky. He had decided on New York on a destination because that was the only place he knew. He doubted the arrow would point to some random point east. It needed his input, and he needed to know the place where he was going. He soared east, climbing to get through the mountain range that separated the state from Nevada. He didn¡¯t know how fast he was going, but he figured it had to be hundreds of miles per hour. He figured if he hit something, it would turn him into a rotten tomato hitting a brick wall. He didn¡¯t care. He looked behind him. His passage had swept snow up in a small cloud as he went by. He smiled. Some mountain goat probably wasn¡¯t enjoying the sudden wind, but that was okay. He started down into Nevada. He checked the clock running backwards on his hand. He figured he still had a few minutes. He should look for a spot to land before his time ran out. He passed a few places without stopping. The test was to see how far he could go with the time he had. He needed a spot somewhere ahead of him. He looked at his hand and thought he was in the last thirty seconds of his flight. He saw a sign ahead. If he could reach that, he would know the approximate distance he could fly in one shot. The clock started running down and fading as he pulled up in a sliding hover just feet above the ground. He came to a running stop as his power ran out and he kept going. He ran the speed off and laughed as he checked his watch. He had been in the air ten minutes from the moment he pushed the button to his landing. He nodded. He looked at the sign on the side of the road. Last Stop, Nevada, no population. He looked around. He saw some buildings in the distance, including one that looked like a rundown saloon. He didn¡¯t know where he was, but that didn¡¯t matter. He had landed in a place he could find on a map when he got home. All he had to do was look at the distance, and the time in flight. That would tell him how fast he had been going. He might have been flying faster than a speeding bullet. How did he do more with his new ability other than flying around for the fun of it? He decided he needed to get home. Once there he could figure out how far he had flown, then he could think about testing for other abilities. He doubted any other thing he had been given by the meteor would be as great as flying, but there might be something there that could be useful. He waited by the sign for his cooling period to finish. He wondered why that was a function of the buttons. The only reason he could come up with was that the powers that be didn¡¯t want the button pusher to be able to use his powers constantly. He doubted he would be able to ask them why. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. There might be some kind of strain inherent in the powers that he had no idea how to overcome. He did know that he had to eat if he wanted to not waste away while he was flying around. Maybe the power would kill its user if they hadn¡¯t put that feature in. He didn¡¯t have enough facts to be sure, but he was willing to use that as a guideline for future endeavors. Fly around, eat a big meal. He could deal with that as long as he wasn¡¯t paying his salary out in food. He needed to find places that would serve big meals for a small amount of money if he wanted to keep flying. Did he want to keep flying? He decided that yes, he did want to keep flying. He loved the way he could push through the air like a bird. He couldn¡¯t give that up now. He checked the palm of his hand. It was warm again. He activated the flight and headed west toward his home. He tried to call up every place he knew and mark them with arrows. His internal navigator switched arrows as soon as he thought of a different place than where he was going. So he could only call up one arrow at a time, and only for places where he had been. He looked behind him and thought of Last Stop as his destination. The arrow appeared over the Welcome sign. He nodded at figuring that out before turning his face and attention toward home. He still had a lot of unanswered questions, but he could work on that while he was trying to figure out what to do. He probably would never know why the meteor had come down upstate, or if it was a natural thing or manmade somehow. On the other hand, he could figure out what he could do with some careful testing, and keep it under wraps as much as possible. He wondered if he could reach the moon with what he had. He had to check the distance flown first. He could maybe leave the Earth¡¯s atmosphere under his own power. He would still need air, and protection from the void. He didn¡¯t know what that would entail, and he doubted his power would protect him from things floating in space. He definitely knew when it cut off he would be floating in the same direction he had been flying with no way to turn for the two minutes it took his power to recharge. What happened if gravity took over and pulled him down while he was still waiting for his power to kick on? He didn¡¯t want to fry while trying to keep from falling to the Earth fast enough to turn him into a splotch. It was a thought. He should read up on it to see how far he could push himself. There had to be some astronomy books that would be useful for something like this. Maybe some of the engineers in the company could tell him what to expect if he did fly above the sky. He wondered what Flanagan would say about all this. He had fought off a takeover bid with the help of some purple knight guy. Would he fund another guy running around in a mask? Saxon doubted that. He smiled as his house came into sight. He landed in the backyard just as the jets cut off. He rubbed his hands together to keep them from shaking. He had no doubt in his mind he was incredibly fast in the air. He looked around before heading inside. He didn¡¯t see anybody, but that didn¡¯t mean much. He hoped his secret was safe from the neighborhood busybodies. He poured himself some whiskey from a bottle he had hidden in his pantry. He took a long sip from the glass as he tried to get his nerves under control. He scrounged up a notepad and pen and carried them to the table and put them beside the atlas. He sat down and closed his eyes. Was he faster than a speeding bullet? He wrote down the ten minute time, and the name Last Stop on the pad. He looked up Idaville and Last Stop. He used the legend on the maps and figured he had flown something like three hundred miles in that ten minutes. Last Stop was on the edge of the Utah border on the other side of the map. He wrote down sixty miles in an hour is a mile a minute as the first part of the equation. So at sixty miles an hour, ten minutes would be ten miles. He thought about it and wrote three hundred miles in ten minutes. He looked at the numbers and didn¡¯t like what they said. It meant he was going about thirty miles a minute from his eyeball. That put his actual flight speed in the hundreds of miles an hour, faster than any plane in the air. He might be as fast the Mark was reported as being. But it didn¡¯t translate into any kind of personal speed. He was a bullet to his destination, with a small ability to turn in flight. On the other hand, he could reach New York in about five or six hops of ten minutes plus the two minute cooldown. He could reach anywhere close to California in a matter of minutes. What good would it do him? He needed to think about the possible uses other than never being late for work again. Right now, he had only thought of it as a skill to reach other places. How could he use it to better himself without causing more trouble? He didn¡¯t have an answer for that. He supposed he could volunteer for the Army Air Force to fly missions overseas. Someone would take his place at the company. Flanagan wouldn¡¯t hold the spot for him. Maybe he would hold a spot. Everyone said Flanagan was a soft heart under a machine of steel. He had spoken with the man a couple of times. He seemed concerned with work more than any other boss Saxon had dealt with over the years. Saxon sat at his table and looked at the maps in front of him. Three hundred miles in ten minutes was incredible. He smiled at the thought. And he hadn¡¯t felt the effects of friction on his skin while he flew. His body seemed immune. Maybe something about the flight protected him while he was in the air. It was another thing that he needed to figure out. Did friction work on him when he wasn¡¯t flying? When he knew that, he would know if he could move through the air without worrying about how the air moved on his body. The goggles had been a big improvement. He hadn¡¯t felt wind pressure on his eyes that much, but it had been there. Wearing the goggles stopped that cold. And they would work as a partial mask if someone saw him in the air and reported it. A man wearing goggles could be anybody. He decided he should eat another sandwich before going to bed. His stomach wouldn¡¯t wake him up with demands if he did that. Saxon made himself another big sandwich. He ate it quickly, putting the plate in the sink to wash later. He put the atlas up on his way to his bedroom. He kicked off his shoes and lay on his bed. He thought about being able to fly. He had been looking at it as a strange gift. Could he be wrong? He decided he should wait until tomorrow before he tried to decide that. He still had a lot to learn before he could say either way. Flight of the Rocket Man 4 Saxon woke up in his bed. He stared at the ceiling. He went over the memory from the night before. He had flown across Nevada in ten minutes. Nothing human could do that. What had that meteor done to him? Could he still do it? He looked at the palm of his hand. The three squares and circle were there. He could still fly. Did he want to? He rolled to his feet and put his shoes on. He went and washed his face. He had planned to camp over the weekend and go to work in the morning. He could spend the day checking out what else he could do. He needed a place to do that. He couldn¡¯t do anything weird around his house. He wondered if the company had a place he could use to practice. He couldn¡¯t think of any place off the top of his head. Maybe he could fly back to the camp and practice there. He thought about that. He would need to pack a lunch. His flight ability would need to be fed. He decided the first thing he needed to do was get some breakfast. He could review what he knew while he ate. Then he could pack some breakfast. After that, he could take off without letting his neighbors know about his new ability. Should he call Flanagan and tell him what had happened? The boss was smart. He might be able to duplicate the meteor back east. Saxon decided against it. He didn¡¯t want to be a guinea pig being poked in a lab somewhere. He would rather be out and about. If he ran into trouble, he would call his boss then. Flanagan would want to minimize any exposure to the company. Some anger would also be involved. He hoped if it got bad enough to call his boss, he would be alive at the end of it. Hopefully Flanagan wouldn¡¯t laugh at him in disbelief. Saxon made a heavy breakfast. Flying burned up a lot of personal energy. He had to be ready for that. Loading up ahead of time seemed to be called for until he had a grasp on how much he actually had to eat. And if he really didn¡¯t need that much, he could cut back. He ate in silence as he went over the night before. He had been struck by what he had thought was a meteor, but now he wasn¡¯t so sure. His camping gear was wrecked and buried where no one could find it. He had flown home, back to camp, drove home, and then flew to Nevada. Maybe it had been a dream. He looked at his windows and noticed they were cracked. How had that happened? What had he done? How many windows had he broken with his experiments last night? He definitely needed to use his power away from others until he was sure what had happened. Had he accidentally killed someone activating his power and taking off? He pushed his plate away at the thought. Saxon decided that he was afraid to check on his neighbors to make sure they were all right. He leaned away from the table. He had never thought his ability would hurt anyone. What should he do? He decided the best thing he could do was go outside and check the neighborhood. Maybe only his windows had been broken. Then he could worry about his neighbors, and making sure they were all right. He wondered what had broken his windows. Maybe something in the way he moved through the air had done it. Maybe some kind of pressure wave went with his flight power. He thought about being a human sized rocket flying as fast as a bullet. Would that be enough to crack windows whenever he really took off? He hated that he broke his windows. They would be a pain to fix with his work hours. Saxon stepped out in his back yard. He noted his shovel leaning against the wall of the house. A spot of blasted ground marked where he had launched. He would have to remember that in the future. He walked around the back of the house. Every window in the back of the house had cracks running through them. He had been lucky none of them had been knocked out of the frames. Still he would have to replace all six of them. That was a big expense. ¡°Hey, Frank!,¡± called Maury Chadwick from the yard next door. The older man waved a hand to indicate where he stood in his own yard. He wore his Sunday best for morning services. ¡°Did you hear the booms last night?¡± ¡°I got in late,¡± said Saxon. ¡°What booms?¡± ¡°There these big booms like close thunder,¡± said Maury. ¡°I think there were two of If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.them. They woke me up.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t hear anything,¡± said Saxon. He pointed at his windows. ¡°My windows are broken. What about yours?¡± ¡°They seem all right,¡± said Maury. ¡°I¡¯ll take a look at them when I get back.¡± ¡°I have some things to take care of,¡± said Saxon. ¡°If you hear any more booms, let me know.¡± ¡°What do you think was going on?,¡± asked Maury. ¡°I have no idea,¡± said Saxon. ¡°If you get one, let me know,¡± said Maury. ¡°I don¡¯t like fireworks being shot off so close to the house.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll let you know if I see anything,¡± said Saxon. He waved at the man. Then he walked back into his house. Saxon walked to his kitchen table. He rubbed his face with his hands. He created those booms when he launched. How many windows had he broken shooting out of his neighborhood for his test runs? He shook his head. He could definitely fly faster than a speeding bullet on one of his long hauls. He doubted he could dodge one coming right at him. Could he dodge a bullet in midflight? How fast were his reflexes? Was this something he wanted to test out? He decided that he didn¡¯t want to find out if he could catch a bullet in his hand, dodge a bullet, or outrun one in the air. Those kinds of tests were more trouble than what they were worth. And he didn¡¯t like the thought that if his reflexes weren¡¯t fast enough, he would catch a bullet for his pains. Saxon threw the rest of his cold breakfast away, washed the plate off, and set it in the plastic drying rack. He cleaned and dried the skillet before putting it on the stove. He put together two sandwiches, noting he didn¡¯t have a lot left in his refrigerator. He was going to have shop when he got done for the day. He could do that. He looked at the palm of his hand. He had three buttons. All three together allowed him flight and a navigation system of sorts. He had three single pushes, and three double pushes. Once he had those down, he would know everything he could do. Then he could start thinking about testing limits. And he knew he couldn¡¯t launch from his backyard any more. The sonic booms of his flight would tell everyone in the neighborhood who was breaking their windows as he headed out of town. He couldn¡¯t afford to fix every broken window around him. He wrapped his sandwiches in paper and put them in his lunchbox. He went out to his car. He put the tin container on the floorboard on the passenger side before getting behind the wheel. He pulled out of his driveway and headed south to the company parking lot. That would be just as good a place to leave his car as any. He couldn¡¯t leave his car at home because his neighbors would want to know why he wasn¡¯t answering the door. He didn¡¯t want to leave it in public view as he flew around. The lot would be empty, no one would be at the factory, and the asphalt would take his launch better than the grass in his backyard. The rest of the week the place would be going full blast and if he wanted to fly somewhere, he would have to find some other launch point away from people. Saxon pulled his car into a slot next to the building. He looked around as he got out. No one could see his car from the road as far as he could tell. He might be wrong. He shrugged. If someone saw it and reported it to the cops, he would deal with it when he got back from the camp site. He grabbed his lunch pail out of the car and walked out of sight from the main gate. He looked around to make sure he was alone. He pressed the three buttons for flight and launched into the air. He summoned the marker for his camp and rocketed north from Idaville. He thought he would touchdown in a couple of minutes. He spiraled down into the trees and pulling up into a hovering position. He checked the clock on the palm of his hand. He still had minutes before his flight wore off. He wondered why the power didn¡¯t have an off switch. You would think that would be something installed to keep people from overusing the power and burning themselves out. He waited the time out, dropping down to the grass when the jets erupting from his back cut off. He smiled. What else could he do? It took Saxon a few hours to figure out each combination. Most of that was waiting for the power to wear off, and then for the buttons to get active again. He had a floating mode that wasn¡¯t quite flight, but allowed him to move along solid surfaces without problems. He had a jet punch that allowed him to push things away from him as long as it wasn¡¯t too heavy. When he combined the two buttons, he had a skiing effect and he could fling himself through the air at will. The third button just highlighted things for him. Combined with either of the other two, it gave him arrows of direction, and highlighted things he could shoot with his jet punch. He ate his two sandwiches and wished he had thought to bring something to drink. Experimenting was thirsty business. He smiled. He could fly down to the general store he had passed coming up to the park and get something to drink. He already knew he could fly the distance in the time he was given by each power activation. He also felt like his power wouldn¡¯t go away unless he was hurt too much to use it. He didn¡¯t want to test how tough he was by ramming something. That was just asking for some crippling injury. The last thing he wanted was to hurt himself and be taken to the hospital. He didn¡¯t want any doctor probing his insides and wondering why his body was different from a normal human¡¯s. Was his body different than a normal human¡¯s? He realized he didn¡¯t want to know. He shook his head at himself. He did all this testing, and now he was scared to have an x-ray and a blood test. He decided that normal medicine couldn¡¯t tell him what had happened, and until it became enough of a science that it could read everything about him with a machine, he could do without any testing, or dissection. He had a general working knowledge of the basic effects of his talent. Now he needed a way to use it without causing any problems for himself. He couldn¡¯t think of anything except for going overseas and doing spy runs over German territory. And when he thought of that, he couldn¡¯t think of any way to present himself and his powers and keep his personal freedom from the government. The Department of War would want to know everything about him, and if they could duplicate his ability without keeping him around. He didn¡¯t see living his life under the constant scrutiny of faceless men as being a net gain. He decided he needed to get that drink. Then he could use a bit more food. Then he had to pick up his car and head home and think about fixing his windows. He had never considered how fast he could be until he saw those cracks. Imagine doing that with just flying in the air. He activated his flight and headed out of the park. He realized it was better to pick up his car and get something to drink on the way home. There was no point stopping, waiting out his time limit, and then starting again when he could reach his car, wait until the time limit passed and drive the rest of the way home. At the very least, he could save himself money on gas flying back and forth to work. Flight of the Rocket Man 5 Saxon spent the rest of Sunday relaxing at home. He had spent some money on a diner after picking up his car, and then settled in for the night to listen to the radio. He had thought about going to see a movie, but had discarded the idea after thinking about sitting in a place with a bunch of strangers. He thought about just flying until he got tired. He discarded that idea because of the refueling he would have to do after an extensive flight. He didn¡¯t want to stuff himself before rolling into bed and getting ready for work in the morning. And he didn¡¯t want to be around people enough to go to the local saloon, or dance hall. His camping trip had been ruined, but he had been given something in return. He didn¡¯t know how to use it to his advantage, but he was sure something would come up and give him some kind of inspiration. Something always did. He decided that if he wanted to keep his identity concealed, he needed a mask to cover his face. The last thing he needed was newshounds chasing him around while he was trying to work, or heading out from the city on his own. He wanted to enjoy what he had. Becoming a celebrity would ruin that. Saxon thought he could range across the Southwest with no problem, and reach into Canada in a couple of jumps. There were some places up there unseen by humans, where the Indian hunters didn¡¯t go. His ability meant he could camp up there, and then head south for supplies without worrying about the weather blocking him in. What would he do above the Arctic Circle? He thought he would be bored after the first week. The radio hissed. He looked at it. Naturally, it would develop a problem when his favorite show was on. He stood. Maybe the antenna needed to be adjusted. ¡°This is Len Flynn, Kay Cee Eee ESS news,¡± said the radio. ¡°Something extraordinary is going on downtown. We¡¯re seeing a flying ship over Los Angeles. No one has any idea what¡¯s going on. Fear of a Japanese attack is running high. City government has no comment.¡± Saxon cut off the radio. He frowned. The Mark would be on the way. What if he doesn¡¯t show? What if this is something serious? He needed a disguise so he could look things over himself without showing his face to the world. Flanagan would love to know how someone had built a plane big enough to frighten the city. It would help the company if they could do that. If it was bad guys, and the Mark didn¡¯t show up, something had to be done to help the police deal with the problem. And he was the only flying man around who could get close enough to take a look. And he admitted to himself, it wouldn¡¯t be the first time he had done something stupid just because he could. Saxon pulled on tan overalls, an old pair of boots he found in his closet, his goggles, and a scarf to cover his face like an old bandit. He grabbed gloves last in case he had to touch something. He didn¡¯t want the police finding his fingerprints and holding on to them until they figured out who he was. Los Angeles should be on his map. He had been there several times for the company. He wondered if the map would give him an address in the general area if he hadn¡¯t been there. He hadn¡¯t tried that one out. He decided to take it slow and easy lifting off from his neighborhood. He could pour on the speed when he was sure he wasn¡¯t going to break windows. He activated his flight and headed straight up out of the neighborhood from his yard. He kept the speed down so he wouldn¡¯t cause any more booms against the windows. When he thought he was high enough, he marked out a space for Los Angeles and poured on the speed. His arrow pointed the way to the city as he roared along. He wondered how anyone could build an airship big enough to be a threat to a city. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.Shouldn¡¯t there be years of testing going on? The press should have heard of something like this and published it. He wondered what he could do when he did arrive. Saxon flew over Los Angeles with plenty of time to spare on his clock. He spotted the giant ship drifting in from the ocean. It looked like a carrier supported by some of the biggest fans he had ever seen. He couldn¡¯t think of any way he could bring that down without hitting the center of the city. This was definitely something for the Mark to handle. He circled the flying craft. If he wanted to bring it down, he would have to take out the rotors. Once he had done that, he could let the thing crash. If he took them out one at a time, he could lower the thing to the ground with minimum injury to people on the street. The other way could lead to a giant explosion, certainly a high speed crash into the local buildings. The world was at war and some nutjob wanted to spread terror and misery. Saxon needed something he could use to damage the rotors. Once he had that, he could go ahead with the rest of his plan. The upper deck spread apart. Machinery rose in the air. What was this about? Saxon circled in closer as the machine started powering up. What did it do? Did he want to be flying around when it activated. He had a few minutes still on the clock if he wanted to land somewhere and wait to launch again. He heard a loud hum in the air. He flew in closer to get a look at the thing. He needed something to do damage with if he wanted to be a hero. His hands weren¡¯t going to cut it. He felt a change in the air pressure as he flew in above the deck. He looked around. Something had interposed between the ship and rest of the air around it. He was in a bubble with the ship. This wasn¡¯t good at all. ¡°Citizens of Los Angeles,¡± said a high pitched voice in the air. ¡°I have just cut you off from the rest of the world with my latest invention, the Electrostatic Force Wall. You can¡¯t leave unless I say you can. There will be no help from anyone on the outside of the Wall. You are at my mercy. And Doctor Rainey Sybil has no mercy. In a few days, I am going to conduct experiments on the city¡¯s population. Those that survive will be allowed to leave my new home. Those that don¡¯t will be left where they failed the tests. That is all.¡± Saxon hovered over the deck. He had to stop this. How did he get inside to shut the force field off? There had to be a way. He definitely should have armed himself before he came up here to look into this. A pistol might do wonders on the machinery powering the bubble around the ship. So how did he break it? Saxon had some change in his pocket. He unzipped the coverall and reached in to get a quarter. He threw it at the machine. It bounced away with a clink. He wasn¡¯t going to shut it down from the deck. He needed to get inside the air ship and look for a power switch. Something hit the bubble. Saxon looked around. He spotted a flying man punching the wall around the city. He looked frustrated. It was one of the lesser Marks from the looks of things. He waved at the hero from where he stood. Then he pointed at himself and then the ship. He floated along the deck, looking for a way inside. Hopefully the junior Mark had gotten the message. If he distracted Sybil, that would be even better. Saxon couldn¡¯t find a hatch in the deck. He checked his clock. He still had a little bit of time. He went over the side and looked for a hatch on the side of the flying ship. There had to be something there. How else did the guy get on deck to fix his machine if he couldn¡¯t lower it down inside the boat. He refused to believe the ship had been built without a way to get inside. He found a hatch next to a ladder leading back up to the upper deck. He grabbed on the ladder. His power failed. He hung there for a second before getting his feet under him. He had a couple of minutes before he could use the buttons again. He needed to get off the ladder and inside. He grabbed hold of the wheel and spun it with both hands, using his feet and weight to stay on the ladder. He exerted himself against the stubborn mechanism. Finally it spun for him. He opened the door and slipped inside. Saxon decided that the motors for the power would be at the rear of the ship. If he could find the controls, he could shut everything down and let the Mark handle it. Shutting down the wall would allow the hero to get inside. Could he push the carrier away from the city? That would be the optimal solution. Two metal men stepped in the corridor. They froze when they saw the intruder. They clanked toward him with a determined stride. Of course there would be some kind of security. He should have seen that coming. Saxon decided to run the other way. They clanked behind him like mad drummers in a jazz band. He activated two of the buttons and turned. He held up his hands and hoped he had enough juice to knock the metal men over. His vision marked out where he should hit the metal men in the legs to trip them up. Jets formed at the ends of his fingers as he pointed at the guards. Sudden force slammed against what would be kneecaps in normal humans. He adjusted his aim as his markers showed him the actual impact compared to the impact he wanted. The legs bent under the impact of the jets, crippling the steel sentries. They tried to drag themselves toward the rocket man with their knobby hands. He took aim and fired jets into what looked like battery packs at the small of their backs. The rectangular boxes crushed down under the impact. Sparks shot up from the wounds. He fired again and again until he had nearly hammered the containers into bent up horseshoes. The metal men stopped moving. Saxon checked his clock before moving on. That had gone better than he had thought it would. Flight of the Rocket Man 6 Saxon followed the wiring and pipes down to where he wanted to go. He used his shoot power on anything that looked like it supplied the rest of the ship. He couldn¡¯t tell how much of an effect he was having, but the Mark was outside. If the ship fell toward the city, he would have to trust the hero to catch the thing and drop it where it wouldn¡¯t hurt anybody. He ducked back as more of the metal men came out of a storage closet. He supposed they were going to fix the sabotage he had committed. They were going to see him first. He raised his hands and prepared to fight. He was able to fire off a couple of shots before his power ran out. He looked down at his hands. He turned and ran. He was powerless until his cooldown period passed. The metal men chased after him as he tried to keep ahead of them. He should have thought of keeping an eye on the clock. Now he was running. Maybe he should arm himself if decided to keep doing this crazy stuff. His buttons came alive. He pushed the jet buttons as he reached a corner. He nodded as the power rolled into his hands. It was time to reverse course. Saxon turned and used his visual overlay to target legs. He concentrated fire to drop the crew in place with busted knees. He didn¡¯t bother to go for the power packs as they collapsed in a pile and blockaded the hall. He would have to go around. Saxon shook his head. He had a general idea of which way he should go. He worked his way back around the pile up. He reached the door heading into the engine room and paused. He hoped it was the engine room. He stepped across the threshold. Giant engines and dynamos spun power to feed the rest of the ship. He could build his own company from this if he had the schematics. The metal men drew his attention since they were charging him. Saxon decided to concentrate fire on the dynamos. Shutting the power down seemed more important than the advancing artificial men rushing him as fast as they could move. He moved to the right to shoot around his oncoming enemies. He nodded when the lights blinked out for a moment. He had to do more damage to allow the Mark to push the thing away from the city. It was the only way to protect the civilians from harm. He fired jet after jet into the works. Several of his targets folded from the beating without resistance. He knocked a flywheel with a belt off another engine down the way. He shook his head at having to destroy the kind of thing his boss would cut off a hand to work on. The ship shook around him. Had he done enough damage? What did he do now? He decided to head for the top deck and hope he hadn¡¯t made a mistake. Crashing the thing into downtown Los Angeles was a loss. He didn¡¯t want to think about the deaths he would cause when the thing hit. He very much didn¡¯t want to think about his death if he was still onboard when the thing hit. Saxon rushed upstairs to the deck. He took potshots at any of the metal men who tried to get in his way. He didn¡¯t try to wreck them. He didn¡¯t have time for that. He ran out of shooting power as he rushed up toward the main deck. He thought that was what he needed. He didn¡¯t need to get into another fight when he could just run away. He decided his ground surfing power was what he needed for this since his flying power wouldn¡¯t work that well in a confined space. He didn¡¯t want to keep hitting the walls while making his escape. He activated the buttons and slid along the staircase. He jumped up where he thought he wouldn¡¯t hit anything, or could slide along the walls to avoid any impact. He reached the door to the main deck. Had he shut the field down? Saxon paused on the deck. Some of the rotors had stopped revolving. The air ship listed to the left side. He couldn¡¯t tell if the field was still up. If the thing hit the ground, it would still wreck the city more than itself as long as the shield was protecting the main body of the aircraft. The back half of the thing broke off. He looked toward the stern. Had he done enough damage to cause that? It blasted across the sky toward the ocean. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. He realized that Doctor Sybil had rigged part of the aircraft for a quick escape in case the Mark had broken through. That left the bow to crash into the street. He didn¡¯t think he could stop it with his rocket power. Flying fast didn¡¯t equate to moving mass anywhere. Could he push on the bottom of the ship and cushion the impact? Did he want to try? Could he save the city with just his jets? Saxon looked at the clock on his hand. He looked about ready to time out. Did he have enough time to save the day? Two minutes was forever. He touched down on the deck as his slide power ran out. He felt the buttons. They were cold to the touch. He started to slide down the incline to the lower side of the aircraft. If he fell off now, he wouldn¡¯t have to worry about the ship hitting the street on top of him seconds after. Saxon slid toward the edge. He tried to grab part of the deck to keep from falling off. He wound up hitting part of a buckled plate and holding in place. He didn¡¯t like the way the deck kept turning toward the street. How long did he have before it rolled over completely? The buttons on his hand warmed up. He pressed them all so he could fly. He jumped into the air and flew out. The wall was down so he didn¡¯t crash into it. Saxon flew under the aircraft. He picked a spot that looked stable to put his back against. He began to push on it with his jet power. He didn¡¯t think he was doing much, but the jets did seem to be pouring more power into the pressure on him. He knew he would give out before he lifted that weight. His body just wasn¡¯t sturdy enough to move the tons of metal trying to fall to the street. A young man in a red suit appeared. A green twelve pointed star acted as a tie clip. He planted himself against the bulk of the ship and things felt lighter to Saxon. ¡°Let me help you out,¡± said the Red Mark. He smiled as he pushed up against the aircraft. ¡°Sybil?,¡± asked Saxon. ¡°He dropped into the ocean,¡± said the Red Mark. ¡°He¡¯s long gone.¡± ¡°All I can do is fly,¡± said Saxon. ¡°There¡¯s nothing I can do about the rest of this.¡± ¡°Shutting down the force wall was enough,¡± said the Red Mark. ¡°It gave me a chance to break in and drive Sybil off so the city couldn¡¯t be harmed more than it already has. I just need to put this out in the desert somewhere and bury it.¡± ¡°Is it all right if I take off?,¡± asked Saxon. He checked the clock on his hand. ¡°Don¡¯t you want credit for saving the city?,¡± asked the Red Mark. He smiled. ¡°I don¡¯t have time for that,¡± said Saxon. ¡°I have to fly.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said the Red Mark. ¡°I can handle the rest of this. It shouldn¡¯t take a couple of minutes of flight time to get things done.¡± ¡°If you need someone to look the engines over, I know a guy,¡± said Saxon. ¡°Have a good night.¡± He called up the marker for his house and jetted away. He didn¡¯t have a lot of time left, but he should have enough to reach the neighborhood without too many problems. Saxon flew across the country as fast as he could. He wondered if he should have landed and recharged the clock. He decided that he could reach Idaville easily enough. His house loomed up as the clock counted down the last few seconds of his time. He headed down and hovered outside of his back door as the jets cut off. He dropped silently to the ground. He looked around before he went inside. It looked like his arrival hadn¡¯t been as noisy as his other departures had been. He walked inside. His back was sore. His stomach growled. His hands bled some. He didn¡¯t know why but thought it was some feedback from using his shoot power too much. Maybe having the stream so close to his hands rubbed them raw after a while. He decided that he should change out of his clothes and put them away before someone saw him. He didn¡¯t need the neighbors asking any more questions than they already did. He changed in the bathroom, taking a shower to clean up, dropping his dirty costume in the dirty clothes hamper. He put on pajamas and went to the kitchen. He made a late dinner for himself. After he ate, he cleaned everything up and went back to the living room. He wondered if there was band music to listen to so he could relax and sleep in his chair until he felt like moving on to his bed. He listened to the radio until he fell asleep in the dark. Maybe his new power took more of a toll on his body than he thought. Saxon woke up a few hours later to silence. He looked at the radio. The network must have gone off the air for a bit. He got out of his chair, went to his bedroom and found his alarm clock had stopped because he had forgotten to wind it up. He checked his watch. He had plenty of time to get ready to go to work. He heard his stomach growl. Did he need more food in his system? If he kept using his jet power, he¡¯ll be spending all of his money on groceries. He went into the kitchen. He checked the pantry and refrigerator. He didn¡¯t have anything he could cook. He could hit a place on the drive to work. It was the best he could do at the moment. Saxon got dressed, made sure he had everything he needed for the office, and started out to his car. He spotted Maury Chadwick standing at the end of his driveway. He held the morning paper in his hands. ¡°Any good news?,¡± Saxon asked. He checked his watch. He was leaving earlier than usual, so he had a minute to spare to talk to his neighbor. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Chadwick. ¡°Some new hero saved L. A. according to the paper. They¡¯re calling him the Rocket.¡± ¡°You¡¯re kidding,¡± said Saxon. ¡°What do you mean the Rocket?¡± ¡°It¡¯s right here on the front page,¡± said Chadwick. He turned the paper so Saxon could read the headline for himself. Saxon read the story with a deepening frown. He tried not to give away how he felt about things. The Red Mark had told reporters on the scene that someone else had forced Doctor Sybil out of the air. He was proud that a new hero had taken up the mantle to protect the innocent people that would have harmed by the mad scientist. Saxon shook his head. Now Doctor Sybil was going to hold a grudge against him. He was going to have to move to Mars to stay out of trouble. Why hadn¡¯t the Red Mark taken the credit? He wouldn¡¯t have cared. Now he felt like his fun power was another burden to carry. Saxon got in his car and headed for a diner to eat. He didn¡¯t feel like it, but he had to eat. Especially since he was a hero now. Timeline 5000 BC- The Murmur tries to summon the Destroyer and is opposed by Nobody, Cain, Memphis, Al-a-Din, The King and Mr. Multiverse in the Destroyer. The line of Kings is created by the Destroyer. The creature that would be known as Mr. Multiverse was created to stop the Destroyer in the Will of the Universe. 1670- Bill Crenshaw is killed by a pirate hunter known as El Rey (The reincarnated King) in Crenshaw. 1935- Bobby Benson takes over from Cain in the Heir. He becomes the Mark. 1938- Sir Laurence Fletcher starts the Commando X program with its first recruit, James Rafferty. The mission is to investigate smuggler Mick Brown for the Secret Service. 1940- Frank Flanagan decides to become the Protector in the Shield. The Mark brings the USS Armand in to NYC Harbor after it was struck by a torpedo. Barry Nicklaus sets a record for highest a human has been in the air. The Promethan saves people from a fire. 1941- Frank Saxon becomes the Rocket and helps defeat Doctor Rainey Sybil in Flight of the Rocket Man 1955- Barney Strife takes over for Joe Carlson as Herocles in Inherit the Monsters. 1956- Enemies of The Mark wound him and kill his friends and fellow spark bearers. He lethally retaliates against them. Will Williams and Ann Baker were killed. The Mark¡¯s human side was wounded. Barberossa, Dr. Rainey Sybil, the Butterfly, Koal, and the Spine were all killed by The Mark in the End of the Light. 1964- The Hazard Scouts help the Park Service with an animal enrager. 1969- The Mark helps his alternate Earth counterpart, Captain Spark in Across the Divide. The Hazard Scouts are decimated by an unknown enemy in Showdown in a Small Town. Only Marty Morgan, the Animal Boy survives. 1976- Cassie Troy cements her prophetic abilities by stopping a summoned monster in a church for the life of her friend, Hector, in Cassie¡¯s Knife. She is abetted by Nobody. 1979- Marty Morgan leads Corona, Cog, Finch and Ren against Watson Security and You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.their superpowered minions, The Squad, and rescues Barry Nicklaus and Cortez from imprisonment in Revenge of the Scouts. 1986- The Mark meets Eleanor, Carrie, and Money. He introduces them to Spiffy, and Cassie Troy in the Sisters. Mark Hadron develops his lamp and begins to gather the original Lamplighters in Light the Lamp. 1990- Eleanor, Carrie, and Money help the Robot Rangers fight a building come to life in Tokyo in the Robot Ranger Rescue. 1992- Pablo Estevez introduces his trainee, Henry Harkness, to his mentors and Cassie Troy at the Good Eats Diner in the Four Musketeers. The Morgans and Bond take Stella Marston Scouting in the Woods 1995- Shirou Morita becomes M-37 after touching an orb left over from the Apartment Man¡¯s attack on Tokyo in M-37. Stephen Scry loses his identity and goes on the run from the Sons of Set. 1996- Dr. Yamada tests a radioactive coat for M-37 in Testing for M-37 1997- M-37 responds to an earthquake in M-37''s First Flight. 2000- Stephen Scry and Memphis confronts Steven Scry at Last Stop, Nevada in Meet Yourself 2002- Lynette Harkness is born to Henry and Martha June Harkness in Happy Birthday. 2010- Jason Parley gains the sword of the King during a bust of cultists and their summoned monster in Return of the King. Al-a-Din and his butler deal with a bombing in Master and Servant. Memphis helps Moshe and Sara Levram against the Dog Maker in Duel in the Desert. Tanner Lerner and Darla Huitt gain their powers from a meteor in Ink Buttons. 2014- The Lamplighters are decimated. Three are killed. Mark Hadron lost an eye and had a hand punctured. 2015- Jane Hillsmeirer talked to Mark Hadron about restarting the Lamplighters in The Hermit. Jason Parley, the modern King, threatened a deal of nonagression with the local mobster in A Parley. Denver McGinty picks up Kisara, Princess of the Genn, on the side of the road and drops her off in New York City in Girl on the Road. The basis for Lamplighters West is formed when four women ask Mark Hadron for help dealing with Crenshaw the ghost pirate in Splinter Cell. Marcel Hobart is the first new recruit for the new Lamplighters in the Interview. Rangifer Tarandus, The Reindeer, evades the Black Wolves while trying to save a town in Norway in Special Delivery. Patty Page, Kathy Baker, Lin Qi, Jean Lopez form the Lamplighters West and take on Crenshaw with the help of Mark Hadron in Blue Flames in San Francisco. Roland Givens is embedded with seven spirits by Amenophis and the Sons of Set despite interference from Tanner Lerner and Lynette Harkness in Button Pushing. Bobby Iger and Maria Garcia-Lopez join the Lamplighters after a talk with Harry Cho in Recruited. Ken Aioki is hired to be a Lamplighter in the Last Spot. 2017- The Mark is killed by the Queen of Genn in Make Your Mark. Lynette Harkness helps fight the invasion in her training suit in New Girl. Marty Morgan dies leading the Hazard Scouts, the Lamplighters, M-37, the Robot Rangers, and others against the Queen of Genn in The Scouts Hold the Line. Tanner Lerner and Darla Huitt take part in the battle for New York in Push All the Buttons. The Vault 1 ¡°Are you sure we¡¯re supposed to be down here?,¡± asked Money. She looked up and down the corridor. ¡°The Mark said we had free rein to explore except his personal quarters up at the top of the place,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°Usually you¡¯re the one who wants to adventure.¡± ¡°I know, but this place is really creepy,¡± said Money. ¡°That guy in the coat knew this was the Mark¡¯s place. That¡¯s why he directed us here in the first place.¡± ¡°The Mark knew him, so he can¡¯t be all bad,¡± said Carrie. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t go that far,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°It¡¯s more like they know each other but work in different places like neighbors.¡± ¡°But the Mark is letting us live here now,¡± said Carrie. ¡°So he did look out for us.¡± ¡°We¡¯re going to school,¡± said Money. She stamped her foot. ¡°I thought we ran away so we wouldn¡¯t have to go to school.¡± ¡°We ran away so we could stick together,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°You know that.¡± ¡°And the Mark has been cool about things,¡± said Carrie. ¡°He probably couldn¡¯t adopt us. The government probably frowns on superheroes having kids around.¡± ¡°We should ask him,¡± said Money. ¡°I bet he would if we ask him.¡± ¡°And what do we do if he says no?,¡± asked Eleanor. ¡°We¡¯re no worse off,¡± said Carrie. ¡°Money is right. We should ask. If he adopted us, he¡¯s not likely to put us off on another family, or split us up.¡± ¡°And I think he is waiting for us to leave on our own,¡± said Money. ¡°He¡¯s waiting on us to say we want to stay.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t know that,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°I¡¯m positive that¡¯s what¡¯s going on,¡± said Money. ¡°At very least, he likes having us around to take care of Spiffy.¡± ¡°Who doesn¡¯t need us to take care of him,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°That doesn¡¯t change things,¡± said Carrie. ¡°You¡¯re being contrary.¡± She pushed on a door with her hand. A room full of stuff stood on the other side. She stepped into the room and started looking around. The other girls paused in their argument to follow her into the room. ¡°What is all this?,¡± asked Money. She waved her hand at the displays on stands and shelves as far as the eye could see. Models even hung from the ceiling. ¡°There are labels,¡± said Carrie. ¡°Red Mark and Rocket stop Dr. Sybil¡¯s siege of Los Angeles, 1941.¡± ¡°There are books back there,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°I wonder what¡¯s in them.¡± ¡°I think we have stumbled on a batcave,¡± said Money. She spun in place. ¡°This does look like a museum,¡± said Carrie. ¡°Who¡¯s the Red Mark?,¡± asked Eleanor. ¡°Who¡¯s Miss Mark?¡± ¡°Girls!,¡± called the Mark. He appeared in the door and froze. He took in the museum silently. ¡°I thought I had this sealed up.¡± ¡°What is all this?,¡± asked Carrie. ¡°It¡¯s great.¡± ¡°This is Will¡¯s room,¡± said the Mark. ¡°I have to go deal with an emergency. I don¡¯t know when I¡¯ll be back. Get something from the kitchen, or go over to Cassie¡¯s. Just put it on my tab like usual.¡± ¡°Wait,¡± said Money, holding up her hand. ¡°We had a question.¡± ¡°Really?,¡± said the Mark. Money froze. The look on his face showed impatience to go, and a small amount of irritation over the room. ¡°Would you adopt us if you could?,¡± asked Carrie. ¡°Sure,¡± said the Mark. He looked at the three girls. ¡°It would be dangerous for you, and there would be problems with the system. I could call Barry, and ask him to help out, I guess. Are you sure you want to be adopted by me? It would make you three targets.¡± ¡°Barry?,¡± asked Eleanor. ¡°My lawyer,¡± said the Mark. ¡°Remember what I said about dinner, and stay out of this room. Some of the things may still work. Will wasn¡¯t always careful about that.¡± He vanished before they could ask him any more questions. ¡°Barry the lawyer?,¡± asked Eleanor. ¡°Who¡¯s Will?,¡± asked Carrie. ¡°Is the Mark gay?,¡± asked Money. ¡°That would explain so much.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s talk to Cassie,¡± said Carrie. ¡°She¡¯ll know something about this.¡± ¡°She might not tell us,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°He said he would adopt us,¡± said Money. ¡°I knew he would. Why does he have a This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.lawyer?¡± ¡°He never talks about any of this stuff,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°He never said anything about a Red Mark.¡± ¡°Maybe he thinks we already know,¡± said Carrie. ¡°He is famous,¡± said Money. ¡°Everyone knows about the Mark,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°How many people actually know him?¡± ¡°How many people know there was more than one?,¡± asked Carrie. She thought about Spiffy. She remembered when they had met the Mark the first day, he had said Spiffy¡¯s owner had died and that¡¯s why he was keeping him. ¡°What about Spiffy?¡± ¡°What about him?,¡± asked Eleanor. ¡°How do you get a Mark Gopher?,¡± said Carrie. She waved in the direction she thought Spiffy¡¯s grassland was from the museum room. ¡°Hey, guys!,¡± called Money. ¡°Look at what I found.¡± Eleanor and Carrie joined their younger sister. She stood in front of a display of statues. Each had a label with a name and two dates on it. ¡°The other Marks,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°They all died the same year,¡± said Carrie. ¡°How do you know?,¡± asked Money. ¡°The second date on the plaques are the days they died,¡± said Carrie. She pointed at the dates. ¡°It looks like they died within days of each other.¡± ¡°We can talk to Cassie about this,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°She¡¯s the Mark¡¯s friend. She¡¯ll know about these other Marks.¡± ¡°The Mark did say we could eat at her place,¡± said Money. ¡°Let¡¯s go before he gets back,¡± said Carrie. ¡°Emergencies don¡¯t seem to last that long once the Mark is on the scene.¡± The girls hurried from the room. Eleanor made sure to shut the door as they left. Why hadn¡¯t the Mark said anything about the room? She had a suspicion he hadn¡¯t wanted them to find it despite giving them free rein to roam the tower. He might have thought he had sealed it off after Will had died. Who was Will? The girls made their way through the maze that was the Mark¡¯s tower. Cassie would know what was going on, or know how to find out. She and the Mark seemed to be friends. She must know something. Eleanor wondered how they met. Cassie was strange in her own right. She always wore a glove on one hand, and carried a large knife in a sheath at the small of her back. ¡°Do you think this Will guy was Spiffy¡¯s owner?,¡± asked Money. ¡°Maybe,¡± said Carrie. ¡°Five dead Marks. Any of them could have been Spiffy¡¯s owner.¡± ¡°I thought the Mark was invincible,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°Our Mark acts like it. Maybe there is something out there tougher than him.¡± They pushed out of a door in an alley a few blocks from Good Eats. The sign was still half lit. Eleanor frowned as she thought about what they could say to Cassie. The woman was trustworthy, but they had no idea what to ask, and how much of an answer would be helpful. ¡°We should just go in and ask for advice,¡± said Carrie. ¡°Cassie won¡¯t mind talking to us.¡± ¡°There¡¯s the guy,¡± said Money. She pointed at a man in a coat walking by the diner. She ran to catch up. He turned when he heard her approach. He smiled when he saw Money. He waved his cigar in greeting. ¡°You fibbed to us,¡± said Money. ¡°We almost got sent back to the orphanage.¡± ¡°But you didn¡¯t,¡± said the man in the coat. He looked up at Eleanor and Carrie bearing down on him. ¡°I think things have worked out okay for you three.¡± ¡°Who are you?,¡± asked Eleanor. She glanced at Carrie. The middle sister was trying to catch her breath from the brief sprint. ¡°I¡¯m just a nobody, Eleanor,¡± said the man in the coat. He took a puff of his cigar. ¡°A bit part in how the world works.¡± ¡°What do you know about the other Marks?,¡± asked Carrie. Her sisters looked at her. ¡°He knows. You can tell.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s my tale to tell,¡± said the man in the coat. ¡°Have you asked the Mark about it?¡± ¡°We just found out, and he had a job to do,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°You can give us something. You owe us for the lie you told us.¡± ¡°Do I?,¡± said the man in the coat. He seemed amused. ¡°Yes, you do,¡± said Money. ¡°You owe us for almost sending us back to the orphanage.¡± ¡°You had a choice,¡± said the man in the coat. His face took on a dark expression. ¡°You made things work out for you. I don¡¯t owe you anything.¡± ¡°You owe me, bud,¡± said the cheerful voice of Cassie Troy. She leaned against the door frame of her diner. She smiled at the confrontation. ¡°I don¡¯t owe you either, Cassandra,¡± said the man in the coat. He pulled on his cheerful expression a little slower than when he had taken it off. ¡°Remember girls, you all have a choice in what you do. It¡¯s up to you to make it work out for the best. Nobodies like me don¡¯t even have that.¡± He turned and walked down the street, pulling on his coat. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about him,¡± said Cassie. ¡°He doesn¡¯t like to explain himself, and he doesn¡¯t like to state some of the choices he hands out aren¡¯t really choices at all.¡± ¡°He¡¯s a good guy, right?,¡± asked Carrie. ¡°Most of the time,¡± said Cassie. ¡°He¡¯s known enough that people that deal with him expect there¡¯s more to the problem than what he says. What can I do for you, girls?¡± ¡°We would like to ask you some things about the Mark,¡± said Eleanor. She looked down the street, but the man in the coat was gone. ¡°I can talk to you after the rush is gone,¡± said Cassie. ¡°We got sidetracked,¡± said Carrie. ¡°We also came to get dinner. The Mark said to put it on his tab.¡± ¡°Come on in,¡± said Cassie. ¡°I¡¯ll rustle you up some grub and we¡¯ll talk after things settle down some.¡± The sisters settled in the big booth in the back. Eleanor stared out of the window. She tapped on the table lightly. ¡°What¡¯s eating you?,¡± asked Money. ¡°That guy,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°He knows everything we need to know. He wants us to find it on our own. He didn¡¯t just show up. We¡¯re looking at one of his choices.¡± ¡°I think he wants us to take over from the Mark,¡± said Carrie. ¡°I don¡¯t think we can,¡± said Money. ¡°For one thing, the Mark isn¡¯t just going to hand us powers.¡± ¡°He did in the past,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°But they all died. He probably won¡¯t do it again.¡± ¡°So what¡¯s the choice we¡¯re being shown?,¡± asked Carrie. ¡°And why won¡¯t he tell us?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not a choice if someone tells you this is the future,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°It isn¡¯t the same kind of choice as what he offers. He wants us to make a good decision, but he can¡¯t tell us for whatever reason. He was really ticked when we said he didn¡¯t give us any way to handle things.¡± ¡°He probably thought just sending us to talk to the Mark would get him what he wanted,¡± said Carrie. ¡°But it hasn¡¯t,¡± said Money. ¡°The Mark doesn¡¯t want to give us powers, and doesn¡¯t need our help to go about his business. There are plenty of other heroes out there he can depend on instead of us. We don¡¯t have any experience capturing some villain and his masked monkey.¡± ¡°I think we need to know what happened to the other Marks,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°And I don¡¯t think our Mark is going to tell us.¡± ¡°Here you go, girls,¡± said Cassie. She arrived with three different drinks, and three different dishes for the sisters. ¡°Give me a few minutes to settle things, and we¡¯ll talk.¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± said Carrie. The girls ate their meals in silence. Eleanor watched the street. She felt the Mark would show up any second and interrupt their talk with Cassie. The fact that he didn¡¯t said he was facing something serious wherever he was. What happened to them if he never came back from one of the jobs he went on? Eleanor thought the three of them could keep the tower if they fended off anyone trying to break in to use it for whatever reason. And Spiffy would help them. She had no fear he wouldn¡¯t use his powers to do things to protect the maze around his spot. Eleanor noted the dining room slowly emptied out as they waited. She thought Cassie was seeing people out just so they could talk. She didn¡¯t know what to say to that. Cassie locked the door and joined them at the booth. ¡°So what¡¯s the problem?,¡± she asked. // The Vault 2 Eleanor didn¡¯t know what to say. This was the Mark¡¯s friend. Should they be asking her anything about the Mark? ¡°We found a Mark Museum,¡± said Money. ¡°There were a bunch of different Marks, but they¡¯re dead.¡± ¡°And we asked the Mark to adopt us, and he said he would get his lawyer to work on it, but we¡¯re afraid that he¡¯ll put it off somehow,¡± said Carrie. ¡°That¡¯s a lot to take in,¡± said Cassandra. ¡°How do you girls feel about all this?¡± ¡°We were wondering about the other Marks, but we got sidetracked about the adoption, and the Mark is on the job so we haven¡¯t had time to talk to him about it,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°Then we saw Nobody, but he won¡¯t give us the time of day either.¡± ¡°He¡¯s probably not going to talk to you about the other Marks,¡± said a voice from the kitchen. ¡°They¡¯re his greatest failure.¡± ¡°This is my partner, Hector,¡± said Cassandra. ¡°He runs the back for us and knows a lot about the powered community.¡± Hector was short, and muscular. He looked younger than the white hair on his head. He wiped his hands with a rag hanging from his apron. Dark eyes looked sad as he approached the booth. ¡°What do you mean his failures?,¡± asked Carrie. ¡°They were killed by the Mark¡¯s enemies,¡± said Hector. ¡°Wiped out. Only the Mark survived.¡± ¡°And then the government had to put him on trial for what he did afterwards,¡± said Cassie. ¡°He wanted to enter a guilty plea but his lawyer pled him not guilty and fought the charges.¡± ¡°His lawyer, Barry?,¡± asked Eleanor. ¡°Barry Nicklaus, Mister Robot,¡± said Hector. ¡°Mister Robot?,¡± said Money. ¡°Seriously?¡± ¡°Seriously,¡± said Hector. ¡°Nicklaus got him off.¡± ¡°These other Marks,¡± said Carrie. ¡°They were killed on the same day?¡± ¡°Same week at least,¡± said Hector. ¡°One of them was guarding some kind of monster in Georgia. When she died, no one but the Mark could get near her place. Anybody that tried got chewed up. The locals said it attacked from underneath the ground.¡± ¡°Spiffy,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°Remember what the Mark said. He ripped someone¡¯s leg off.¡± ¡°Spiffy?,¡± said Cassie. ¡°The Mark¡¯s gopher,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°Gopher?,¡± said Cassie. She laughed. ¡°Don¡¯t laugh,¡± said Carrie. ¡°Spiffy is as big as a motorcycle and can tunnel faster than a champion sprinter.¡± ¡°Powered up?,¡± said Hector. ¡°Yeah,¡± said Carrie. ¡°The Mark said he belonged to a friend.¡± ¡°That explains that,¡± said Hector. ¡°No one knew what happened to the monster. The local sheriff just said the Mark took care of it.¡± ¡°I think we¡¯re getting sidetracked,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°You said the Mark went on trial.¡± ¡°It¡¯s old stuff,¡± said Hector. ¡°You could look most of this up in a book.¡± ¡°I know,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°But you¡¯re the expert, and we need help deciding what we want to do.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Hector. He went back in the kitchen. He came back with six glasses of soda on a tray. He put the tray down on the table and pulled a chair close for himself. ¡°All right, let¡¯s start from the beginning so you can have a better picture of what happened.¡± He sat down and pulled one of the glasses from the tray. He took a sip and nodded. ¡°It¡¯s Thirty Eight, and America hasn¡¯t joined the war yet,¡± said Hector. ¡°Hitler¡¯s Germany is in motion, but it will be two more years before the Blitz. The Mark explodes on the scene. Don¡¯t get me wrong. There were other heroes before him. There were heroes almost as powerful as he proved to be, but he started as a shining example for people at that time.¡± ¡°Why didn¡¯t he stop the Nazis if he¡¯s so strong,¡± asked Money. ¡°I¡¯m getting to that,¡± said Hector. ¡°When the Mark came on the scene, he attracted people who were basically jealous of him, or who saw him as a big stumbling block to what they wanted to do. So one day, he would be dealing with the Iron Templar trying to steal secrets and committing sabotage, and the next saving some boat that got torpedoed, and then trying to save New York from some scheme cooked up by one of his personal enemies. ¡°At some point around Pearl Harbor, people started noticing other heroes with the Mark¡¯s mark. There was the Red Mark in California, Miss Mark in Boston, and three others that didn¡¯t do as much but did protect areas I guess where they lived like the monster in Georgia.¡± ¡°Spiffy probably lived with the Mark from Georgia,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°He¡¯s smart enough to protect the body until it could be found.¡± ¡°That was probably Dixie Mark,¡± said Hector. ¡°She didn¡¯t operate much, but there were reports of things going down where she saved the day there.¡± ¡°So the Mark created them,¡± said Carrie. ¡°That was always everyone¡¯s guess, but he never said one way or the other,¡± said Hector. ¡°He never took the stand at his trial, so they couldn¡¯t force him to admit it under oath.¡± ¡°So what happened?,¡± asked Money. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. ¡°We won the war,¡± said Hector. ¡°There were stories about things going on, but a lot of it was classified by the powers that be. The Marks and a bunch of other powered heroes helped ease things so there wasn¡¯t a lot of recrimination in that early peacetime. Even the villains seemed to take a break. ¡°But what had happened was a group of villains led by the Mark¡¯s enemy Doctor Sybil found out who all the minor Marks were and killed them one by one.¡± ¡°I thought the Mark couldn¡¯t be hurt,¡± said Money. ¡°A lot of people thought that,¡± said Hector. ¡°It looks like they were wrong. Sybil didn¡¯t get a lot of time to gloat. The Mark crushed him on Mars according to the trial transcripts and books.¡± ¡°What do you mean crushed him on Mars?,¡± asked Eleanor. ¡°Exactly what I said,¡± said Hector. ¡°The report was that the Mark used Sybil¡¯s force bubble invention that he tried to use to cut Los Angeles off from the rest of the world against him and flung him to Mars. And then he dropped a mountain on him.¡± ¡°Really?,¡± asked Carrie. ¡°Crushed him flatter than a pancake,¡± said Hector. He put the palms of his hands together, and rubbed. ¡°You said there was a group,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°What happened to them? Did the Mark kill them all?¡± ¡°No one knows how big a group it was,¡± said Hector. ¡°But he did kill Sybil and a few others when they set fire to his friends right in front of him. The rumor that they were the secondary Marks was confirmed at the trial. The prosecution wanted to know why the Mark had used lethal force in this one instance when he hadn¡¯t before then. Barry Nicklaus had to reveal the connection to prove his self defense claim.¡± ¡°They killed the three who didn¡¯t operate in the open that much, then the Red Mark and Miss Mark?,¡± asked Carrie. ¡°And tried to kill the Mark too,¡± said Cassie. ¡°No wonder he killed them back,¡± said Money. ¡°It¡¯s no wonder he didn¡¯t like us finding the trophy room,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°It was full of reminders of his friends.¡± ¡°After the trial, the Mark semi-retired,¡± said Hector. ¡°Barry Nicklaus¡¯s Scouts, the Robot Rangers, Mister Multiverse, and others took up the load. Every once in a while, there would be some kind of miraculous rescue, or intervention, and people would think he was still on the job.¡± ¡°Wait,¡± said Carrie. ¡°The Mark¡¯s lawyer is a superhero.¡± ¡°Yep,¡± said Hector. ¡°He used to lead the Hazard Scouts until they were wiped out. Animal Boy survived the attack. He assembled a new team of Scouts and found out who attacked the first team. Nicklaus was imprisoned for ten years with his oldest enemy until he was rescued.¡± ¡°This was the same guy as the Mark¡¯s lawyer?,¡± asked Money. ¡°Yep,¡± said Hector. ¡°He was Mister Robot. Before that, he was an old school adventurer and daredevil that did stunts and looked at strange mysteries. He slowly slid over into hero work as an extension of what he was already doing.¡± ¡°Did he lose his team before or after defending the Mark?,¡± asked Eleanor. ¡°After,¡± said Hector. ¡°His team was lured into a trap and they were wiped out except for Animal Boy. I guess he just goes by Animal now since he is older than me.¡± ¡°When did this happen?,¡± asked Carrie. ¡°Sixty nine was when the original team was ambushed, seventy nine was when the Animal put the second team together and found Nicklaus,¡± said Hector. ¡°How do you two know the Mark?,¡± asked Eleanor. ¡°We¡¯ve crossed paths,¡± said Cassie. ¡°Every now and again, he gives me a hand to fix things in the city.¡± ¡°Have you guys met anyone else?,¡± asked Money. ¡°Just the Scarabs,¡± said Cassie. ¡°They come in and have a meeting every once and a while, and Nobody.¡± ¡°I¡¯m just a helpless cog in the machinery of the universe,¡± said Carrie, holding up her hands to make air quotes. ¡°That¡¯s pretty good,¡± said Cassie. She laughed a little. ¡°You got him almost perfect,¡± said Hector. ¡°Maybe raise your voice a little. I don¡¯t know.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll work on it,¡± said Carrie. ¡°Now that you girls know everything, what are you going to do?,¡± asked Cassie. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°Will he even be able to adopt with all this crazy stuff around what he did fifty years ago?¡± ¡°You won¡¯t know until you go to court,¡± said Cassie. ¡°I think you kids need to go home. We still have to finish cleaning up the diner, and you guys have to work on what you want to say to the Mark about everything. He definitely will be reluctant to adopt if he thinks you¡¯re in constant danger being around him.¡± ¡°He had bad luck once,¡± said Money. ¡°It wasn¡¯t bad luck,¡± said Hector. He looked at his glass. Ice floated in water at the bottom. ¡°His enemies figured out how to hit when his friends were at their most vulnerable and killed them. The same thing could happen to the three of you. He¡¯s going to worry about that. You¡¯ll be his responsibility.¡± ¡°And despite his bluster, I think he likes you three,¡± said Cassie. ¡°He¡¯s never had a normal life from the things he¡¯s said. He may look at this as a chance to be a little more normal instead of what his life is usually like.¡± ¡°I think being normal is the last thing on his mind,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°We have to talk to him and figure out what we can do.¡± ¡°So did we help?,¡± asked Hector. ¡°I think so,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°At least we know why he was upset that we found the trophy room.¡± ¡°Was one of the Marks named Will?,¡± asked Carrie. ¡°The two people killed in Los Angeles were Will Williams and Ann Baker,¡± said Hector. ¡°The neighbors testified at the Mark¡¯s trial that they were getting married eventually. Williams had just bought a ring for their wedding, and they were trying to set a date. They didn¡¯t have any idea that the two were powers.¡± ¡°That¡¯s another reason he might have crossed the line if he knew,¡± said Money. ¡°We can¡¯t worry about that,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°We should head back. Tomorrow is a school day, and the Mark is going to want us to have our school work done.¡± ¡°You kids will do great,¡± said Cassie. ¡°Head on out. If there is any more problems, come on by.¡± ¡°Does Nobody really owe you, Cassie?,¡± asked Carrie. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Cassie. ¡°But I like to rub it in that he does. It gives me a good feeling inside.¡± ¡°He¡¯s always been mad that Cassie forced him to take direct action once,¡± said Hector. He gathered up the half empty glasses and put them on the tray. ¡°He likes to do the opposite so very much.¡± ¡°Wait,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°Really?¡± ¡°One day,¡± said Cassie, ushering the girls to the door. ¡°When you need it most, I¡¯ll tell you about the time I stabbed an elder god in the face.¡± ¡°Now you¡¯re pulling our legs,¡± said Money. ¡°I would never do that, midget,¡± said Cassie. She unlocked the door and looked out in the sky. ¡°Head home. It looks like bad news is hitting the city. You don¡¯t want to get mixed up in that.¡± ¡°Did you really stab an elder god in the face?,¡± asked Carrie. ¡°He thought he was an elder god,¡± said Cassie. ¡°But he was a scrub. Go home and lock down for the night until the Mark gets done. Things are looking bad ahead.¡± ¡°Cassie¡¯s right,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°Something is going on. We should head back to the tower.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Carrie. She and Money exchanged looks. Eleanor had something in the works. They knew that look. Eleanor led the way back to the tower. She opened the door and headed for Spiffy¡¯s room at a fast trot. ¡°What are you doing?,¡± asked Carrie. She huffed behind her older sister. ¡°Why are we running?,¡± asked Money. ¡°We need to talk to Spiffy,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°I want to do it before the Mark gets home.¡± ¡°And what are we talking to him about?,¡± asked Carrie. ¡°About becoming Marks,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°Are you serious?,¡± asked Money. ¡°Yes,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°We know he can do it. I¡¯m hoping that he will do it if we ask him. We could be Marks too.¡± ¡°All the other Marks got killed,¡± said Carrie. ¡°If we don¡¯t do something, the Mark will think we¡¯re sponges,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°School is his way of giving us a normal life. It¡¯s also his way of letting us work for our keep.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t get it,¡± said Money. ¡°She¡¯s saying that the Mark lets us stay here because we¡¯re going to school like he asks,¡± said Carrie. ¡°It¡¯s like rent. If we cut out of school, he would think we¡¯re not worth his time.¡± ¡°He would take us back to the orphanage instead of adopting us,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°So why are we talking to Spiffy to get Mark powers?,¡± said Carrie. ¡°Because Cassie was warning us that the city is in danger,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°That¡¯s why she told us to lock the tower down so we would be safe. I think we should so something about that.¡± ¡°We¡¯re going to get into so much trouble over this,¡± said Money. ¡°Going out in a blaze of glory seems okay to me,¡± said Carrie. The Vault 3 Eleanor led the way into Spiffy¡¯s room. It was a meadow inside the tower. Twilight echoed the time outside, but the girls knew this space ran on its own time. There was no sign of the giant gopher anywhere. ¡°Spiffy!,¡± called Eleanor. She whistled as loud as she could in a sharp tone. ¡°I need to talk to you.¡± ¡°Maybe he went out,¡± said Money. ¡°The market does have a good deal on carrots right now,¡± said Carrie. ¡°I know,¡± said Money. ¡°Do you two mind?,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°Spiffy!¡± A trail of dirt heralded the arrival of the Mark¡¯s gopher. He chittered when he saw the three sisters. A streak of green dotted his brown fur. ¡°The Mark¡¯s in trouble, Spiffy,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°We need super powers to help out.¡± ¡°We don¡¯t know he¡¯s in trouble,¡± said Carrie. ¡°Cassie could be wrong,¡± said Money. ¡°The city might be fine.¡± Spiffy trundled closer to Eleanor. He reached up with one of his paws and grabbed her arm. He looked her in the eye with his own brown buttons. He chittered quietly. ¡°We know about your Mark, Spiffy,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°We found Will¡¯s museum and there¡¯s a statue of her there. We know what happened. Cassie Troy said the city is in trouble. We would like to help out. Will you help us?¡± Spiffy seemed to consider the words. He chittered at her. ¡°We know the risks,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°Please help us.¡± Spiffy headbutted her with his hard skull. She reeled back from the contact. Something lit up inside. She had powers now. Would they help her, or turn into a monstrosity? She lifted off the ground. The fact that she could fly was reward enough for the mad scheme they were going to have to do. ¡°Can you give the others powers too, Spiffy?,¡± asked Eleanor. ¡°We¡¯re going to find the Mark and help out.¡± ¡°You look older, Ell,¡± said Money. ¡°It comes with the power,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°So does the toga. How did the Mark get a suit?¡± ¡°Do me next, Spiffy,¡± said Money. ¡°I want to be able to fly too.¡± ¡°This doesn¡¯t seem like a good idea,¡± said Carrie. ¡°What doesn¡¯t seem like a good idea is seeing if we can help out,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°I¡¯m going. You two stay here.¡± Eleanor vanished with the slamming of the door to Spiffy¡¯s meadow. Carrie and Money looked at each other. ¡°Are we letting her get away with that?,¡± asked Carrie. ¡°Heck, no,¡± said Money. ¡°Juice me up, Spiffy. I have to make sure Eleanor doesn¡¯t hurt herself.¡± ¡°We have to make sure she doesn¡¯t hurt herself,¡± said Carrie. Spiffy chittered at the girls. ¡°No carrots for a week, buddy,¡± said Carrie. ¡°I¡¯ll cut you off like that.¡± ¡°That goes triple double for me, Spiff,¡± said Money. ¡°Let¡¯s get this done. We have to save the city, and impress the Mark enough to adopt us. Let¡¯s do this.¡± Spiffy butted both of the remaining sisters. He watched as they changed in front of him. ¡°As soon as we get back, we¡¯ll run around with you,¡± promised Money. ¡°We won¡¯t let you down, Spiff.¡± The gopher chittered quietly. He trundled away slowly through the grass of his room. ¡°Let¡¯s go before he changes his mind,¡± said Carrie. ¡°He didn¡¯t look happy about us borrowing some of his power to run our own schemes.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll have to get him some carrots when we¡¯re done,¡± said Money. ¡°I don¡¯t think he takes bribes either,¡± said Carrie. She shot out of the room. ¡°We¡¯ll see about that,¡± said Money. She followed in a streak of lightning. They flew out of the tower, heading up over Manhattan Island. A swirl of clouds spun above Central Park. Flashes of fire lit up the sky. ¡°Do you see Eleanor?,¡± asked Carrie. Her toga whipped in the wind. ¡°She must have headed for the trouble,¡± said Money. ¡°Do we want to do the same thing?¡± ¡°We can¡¯t sit back and hover over the city until the Mark decides to take the flying from us,¡± said Carrie. ¡°Let¡¯s see if we can lend a hand.¡± ¡°I¡¯m down,¡± said Money. The two of them blasted across the sky. They found Eleanor moving people away from the battlefield. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. ¡°Can you two run interference?,¡± asked Eleanor. ¡°I have enhanced vision to find people but there¡¯s stuff falling down from the tops of the buildings.¡± ¡°We got it,¡± said Money. ¡°We¡¯re lightning.¡± She ignited the air as she ripped around. Brick and steel piled up on the street away from anyone that could be hurt. Carrie joined her at a more leisurely pace. She smiled when the sky finished dumping on the dispersing crowd below. ¡°Do you know what¡¯s going on, Eleanor?,¡± asked Carrie. ¡°It looks like something is trying to hit the city from somewhere else,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°I don¡¯t know how to stop it. Any ideas?¡± ¡°What are you three doing here?,¡± asked the Mark, appearing out of nowhere. ¡°How are you flying? Spiffy.¡± ¡°I asked him for powers so I could come down and help out,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°It was my idea. I didn¡¯t know the others would come down after me.¡± ¡°And Spiffy loves me,¡± said Money. ¡°You three are in so much trouble right now,¡± said the Mark. ¡°I just don¡¯t have time to deal with it right now.¡± ¡°We can still help out,¡± said Carrie. ¡°We got those people out of the way and stopped the pieces broken from the buildings from killing anyone.¡± ¡°And I can shoot lightning,¡± said Money. She held up her hand. Sparks danced around her fingers. ¡°All right,¡± said the Mark. ¡°I¡¯m still mad as a hornet. I¡¯ll deal with you three after this is over. Come with me, Money. You two wait here until I get back.¡± ¡°There goes our adoption,¡± said Carrie after the Mark and Money headed for one building in particular. ¡°It will be okay,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°Can you shoot lightning too?¡± ¡°No,¡± said Carrie. ¡°I just shoot normal energy waves. I wonder why. The Mark doesn¡¯t do that.¡± ¡°I have laser eyes to go with my enhanced sight,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°I have no idea how that¡¯s supposed to work.¡± ¡°Maybe whatever powers the Marks can change up what they do,¡± said Carrie. ¡°That makes sense,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°The others probably only thought they couldn¡¯t do what we can do now.¡± The Mark reappeared. He frowned at his younger counterparts. ¡°Carrie, I want you to circle around the edge of things,¡± said the Mark. ¡°If anything that looks dangerous tries to get out, herd them back in this spot if you can.¡± ¡°If it looks dangerous?,¡± said Carrie. ¡°It will look dangerous to normal people,¡± said the Mark. ¡°You should be able to fend off anything less than Spiffy.¡± ¡°I got it,¡± said Carrie. She sped off to take care of her part in things. ¡°Eleanor, I need you to cover anything I can¡¯t cover,¡± said the Mark. ¡°Use better judgement than coming out here and getting hurt.¡± ¡°I know this isn¡¯t what you wanted,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°We found out about the others. I decided that you needed more Marks running loose. I asked Spiffy to loan me some of his ability. I guess the others decided to do the same thing.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll talk about this later,¡± said the Mark. ¡°Right now, I am really angry that you are here and in danger when you should be far away.¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay, Dad,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°We got this.¡± She flew away before he could continue the tirade. Eleanor spent the next few minutes helping one of the Scarlet Scarabs blasting things out of the sky. Another one crossed her vision a couple of times, but he didn¡¯t have the flying armor of his mentor. Her enhanced vision allowed her to keep tabs on her sisters. Money was with a bunch of mad scientists building a giant lamp from spare parts. Lightning and blue flames kept the area clear. Carrie flew a patrol like she was asked. Anything that got close took a blast of flame from her hands. She seemed to be flying fast enough that her speed was dragging wind behind her. Everything was going better than what she expected. Maybe she didn¡¯t have the experience to recognize the risks. They just seemed minimal as a Mark. Maybe that was the real danger. You didn¡¯t think you could get hurt, but there were things out there that could hurt you if you weren¡¯t ready for them. It wouldn¡¯t be the first time Eleanor had taken a shot to the face when she should have run. She could handle it. The mad scientists blasted at the cloud as soon as their lamp was done. It turned into a blue inferno under glass. The swirl closed as the flames pulled more energy down to be locked in the holding tank. Then the sky was clear of the door to elsewhere. Eleanor saw the other fliers landing on the roof with the lamp. She did the same, after waving for Carrie to join them. The small crowd seemed jubilant after their victory over whatever it was they had been fighting. ¡°Readings are going down,¡± said one of the mad scientists. ¡°It looks like things are going back to normal.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good news,¡± said the older Scarlet Scarab. ¡°I thought for a minute we were going to lose it.¡± ¡°Naw, Hoss,¡± said one of the mad scientists in a cowboy hat. ¡°With Mister Multiverse and Lightning helping us, we could have built a lamp ten times the size of what we had and drained the whole kit and caboodle from the other side of the gate.¡± ¡°Where is Mister Multiverse?,¡± asked the Scarab. ¡°Multiversing,¡± said a man in a black suit. ¡°Showing up to close large doors is his thing.¡± ¡°Who are the kids, Mark?,¡± asked a guy in purple. . ¡°These are my daughters, Rocket,¡± said the Mark. ¡°Who should not be here, and who will be grounded for the next two weeks.¡± ¡°That¡¯s some rough stuff, kids,¡± said Rocket. ¡°Save the city and have to sit facing the corner. I have to take off. I¡¯ll see you guys around.¡± Rocket exploded into the sky and blasted south. He waved as he went. ¡°Could we get a hand moving this downstairs,¡± said one of the mad scientists. ¡°We don¡¯t want it to explode. That might cause more problems.¡± ¡°I got it, Mark,¡± said the Mark. ¡°Girls, say good night to the nice Lamplighters, Scarabs, and Mister Scry. Then head home. We¡¯ll talk when I get home.¡± ¡°Your hero name is Mister Scry,¡± said Money. ¡°No,¡± said Mister Scry. ¡°It¡¯s my real name.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t believe you,¡± said Money. ¡°Young lady,¡± said the Mark. ¡°I don¡¯t see you moving back to the tower. Chop, chop. Also tell Spiffy he¡¯s grounded too.¡± ¡°You can¡¯t ground Spiffy,¡± said Money. ¡°He¡¯s innocent.¡± ¡°March,¡± said the Mark. ¡°You¡¯re supposed to be doing your homework.¡± ¡°I got that done hours ago,¡± said Money. ¡°Good,¡± said the Mark. ¡°We¡¯ll go over it when I get home.¡± ¡°There¡¯s no need for that,¡± said Money. ¡°You didn¡¯t do your homework, did you?,¡± asked the Mark. ¡°Most of it,¡± said Money. ¡°I think three weeks of manual labor is the way to go here,¡± said the Mark. ¡°It was nice to meet all of you,¡± said Money. She vanished in a trail of lightning. Carrie waved and flew off almost as fast. ¡°It was a pleasure to meet all of you,¡± said Eleanor. She floated gently into the air and flew toward the nearest tower door. She smiled the whole time she was in the air. Eleanor found the other girls in Spiffy¡¯s room. They were taking turns throwing carrots for him to grab out of the air. ¡°Three weeks of grounding,¡± said Money. ¡°It could have been worse,¡± said Carrie. ¡°Did you hear what he said?,¡± asked Eleanor. ¡°Which part?,¡± said Money. ¡°I did hear you¡¯re grounded, and Spiffy is grounded too.¡± Spiffy made a noise like I would like to see him try to ground me. ¡°He told them we¡¯re his daughters,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°He just flat out said it like we were his daughters.¡± ¡°I missed that,¡± said Money. ¡°He¡¯s not sending us away,¡± said Carrie. ¡°This is great.¡± ¡°That is great,¡± said Money. ¡°I wish it didn¡¯t come with three weeks of grounding.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be a sour grape,¡± said Carrie. ¡°We were worried that we wouldn¡¯t have a placeto stay, but now we do.¡± ¡°It¡¯ll be nice to have a safe place to live,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°How do we change back?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Carrie. ¡°The Mark will know,¡± said Money. ¡°Hopefully we can keep our powers. I like being able to fly.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll ask,¡± said Eleanor. The Vault 4 The three weeks of grounding flew by for the girls. They were filled with scrubbing the floors and walls, dusting, and learning about the superhuman world. The Mark handled any emergency that attracted his attention, or met with his lawyer about the adoption. A quick look inside Will¡¯s museum netted a new display with their names on it. Eleanor smiled as she dusted the case with its small diorama inside it. They had to go to the courthouse eventually. They stood before a judge and signed the necessary paperwork. Barry wore a suit over his robot body as he stood to one side. He had worked out an agreement with the state of New York. Eleanor wasn¡¯t sure about the details. The court had granted the Mark adoption privileges for the three of them so the tower was officially their home. They didn¡¯t have to worry about going back to the orphanage unless the Mark gave them up. The way he smiled, that wasn¡¯t going to happen. ¡°So let¡¯s celebrate,¡± said the Mark. ¡°Where would you girls like to go?¡± ¡°We should go by Cassie¡¯s,¡± said Money. ¡°She¡¯ll get us a cake and ice cream.¡± ¡°We can try that place with the pies,¡± said Carrie. ¡°I think we should go to the bookstore and shop until we drop,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°We can do all of that and take in a movie too,¡± said the Mark. ¡°Today is our day.¡± ¡°We should get Spiffy and see if he wants to go out with us,¡± said Money. ¡°We couldn¡¯t take him anywhere that didn¡¯t allow animals,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°There¡¯s a few wild places we can take him to see how he likes it,¡± said the Mark. ¡°He¡¯s been in the tower a long time, hasn¡¯t he?,¡± asked Carrie. ¡°If he was a normal gopher, he would be dead of old age,¡± said the Mark. ¡°The spark is what¡¯s keeping him alive.¡± ¡°If he lost his powers, he would die?,¡± asked Money. ¡°Old age,¡± said Mark. ¡°Rodents don¡¯t live that long,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°Spiffy has outlived two generations of gophers.¡± ¡°What do you want to do, girls?,¡± asked the Mark, bringing the subject back on target. ¡°Let¡¯s hit Cassie¡¯s first,¡± said Money. ¡°I don¡¯t have a problem with that,¡± said Carrie. ¡°Ell?¡± ¡°Are we flying there?,¡± asked Eleanor. ¡°If you want,¡± said the Mark. He vanished in a puff of air and a laugh. ¡°Last one there, buys.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t believe it,¡± said Money. She turned into yellow lightning and chased after him. ¡°Cheater!¡± Carrie changed into the purple dress she had practiced on for the last two weeks. She glanced at her sister. ¡°Coming?,¡± she said. ¡°I¡¯ll get there,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°I think I am basking in the glow of happiness. I don¡¯t remember having this feeling before. Now that I do, I want to hold on to it as long as I can before it fades away.¡± ¡°Things are just going to get better from here on out,¡± said Carrie. She blasted into the air. Eleanor smiled as she walked along. She shook herself and laughed. She changed into the light blue dress she had worked on to wear. Then she soared into the sky after her family. She felt ready for whatever might happen next. Years down the road, she would remember that feeling and wonder if she would ever feel it again. She would walk into Cassie¡¯s alone and beaten. The gray woman would smile and take her to the booth in the back and they would talk. Cassie would tell her about how Hector had been taken by a cult one night. And how Nobody had shown her where to go. She had stabbed an alien menace in the face to save her best friend. And she would pull the knife she had kept that gleamed in the light because the metal had warped to glass, and then she would show Eleanor her hand that had been wounded and transformed too. She would tell Eleanor it had been worth it for the extra time with Hector, and all the people she had met in the years since, and how she had known the Mark had felt the same way when he did what he did. He wanted to protect Eleanor and the grandchild that he would never see. He wanted to protect her sisters. The world was a distant second to that. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Eleanor would listen to the assurance. She would sip her coffee. The grayness would fade as she thought about having a child when she didn¡¯t know she was pregnant yet. Cassie would pull on the glove and sheathe the knife in its place at the small of her back where she had carried it since Seventy Six. She would walk Eleanor to the door and tell her that life went on. Eleanor would look back at the Good Eats Caf¨¦ as she walked away. She would wave. And the grayness would disappear with the same feeling she had felt before flying toward the diner to celebrate having a dad when it had looked like her tiny family would break apart. That conversation was decades in the future. The world would change thanks to the Mark Sisters helping out where they could. They would get fame and fortune while their adoptive father kept to the shadows and saved the day without anyone realizing it. Eleanor flew to the Good Eats. She paused when she saw the giant banner inside. Someone had put up a banner saying Happy Birthday in rainbow colors. She smiled at it. Cassie had shut the place down from the look of it. She laughed at it. She wondered who had shown up at their private party. ¡°El,¡± said Carrie. ¡°The Mark had some of his friends drop by. I can¡¯t believe it.¡± ¡°Neither can I,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°Who¡¯s all here?¡± ¡°Those Scarab guys, the Lamplighters, people I never met,¡± said Carrie. ¡°I think Cassie invited them all.¡± ¡°No Mister Multiverse?,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°He¡¯s the only one that didn¡¯t show up from the other night,¡± said Carrie. ¡°Someone said he only shows for danger.¡± ¡°Why would Cassie call these people here?,¡± asked Eleanor. ¡°We don¡¯t know any of them.¡± ¡°So that we can get to know them, I guess,¡± said Carrie. ¡°Come on. These guys are swapping stories like you wouldn¡¯t believe.¡± Eleanor entered the diner. Cassie had set up a buffet for her guests. People had grabbed plates and put on what they wanted. They mingled in groups, talking shop and what was going on in their lives. Eleanor found herself with the younger Scarlet Scarab. He stood by the window, the bottom half of his mask up so he could eat. ¡°Having a good time?,¡± she asked. ¡°Sure,¡± said the Scarab. ¡°I don¡¯t know most of these people so it¡¯s hard to mingle.¡± ¡°I¡¯m in the same boat,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°I¡¯m Eleanor.¡± ¡°I¡¯m Henry,¡± said the Scarab. ¡°I¡¯m in training to be the next Scarlet Scarab.¡± ¡°I noticed you don¡¯t have the same type of armor enhancements as the other Scarab,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°I like a lot of speed,¡± said Henry. ¡°Pablo likes a lot of firepower. He doesn¡¯t want to dodge around when he can blow stuff up.¡± ¡°I can see that,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°Who do you know here?¡± ¡°Just the people that were there the night you guys came out to help,¡± said Henry. ¡°The Lamplighters, Stephen Scry, the Rocket, the Cursor.¡± ¡°There was a Rocket back in the forties,¡± said Eleanor, remembering the display. ¡°Not the same guy, unless he stayed the same age,¡± said Henry. ¡°He might be a legacy like me, and you.¡± ¡°Trained to take over for other Rockets?,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°We can ask, but I¡¯m sure that¡¯s what happened,¡± said Henry. ¡°There¡¯s Mister Nicklaus,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°He¡¯s the Mark¡¯s lawyer.¡± ¡°Mister Robot,¡± said Henry. ¡°It¡¯s a miracle he¡¯s still alive. He was a brain in a jar for ten years. He would still be there if the Animal hadn¡¯t found him.¡± ¡°Who¡¯s the guy with him?,¡± asked Eleanor. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Henry. ¡°Let¡¯s go find out,¡± said Eleanor. They walked over to where the cyborg and the stranger talked with the older Scarab and the Rocket. ¡°Ell,¡± said Nicklaus. ¡°This is my adopted son, Marty. You briefly met the Scarab and Rocket the other night I¡¯m told.¡± ¡°How¡¯s it going?,¡± said Henry. ¡°Hello,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°Marty is leading the Scouts now,¡± said the older Scarab. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t say that,¡± said Marty. ¡°Mostly I make sure my wife only breaks the legs that we need broken. That reminds me that we have to go. I promised to be back in time to let her go to her retreat. We need to go, Barry.¡± ¡°I can carry you out there,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°Do you guys need any special gear for high speed flight?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t, but Marty will,¡± said Nicklaus. ¡°He¡¯s not as tough as I am.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll think of something,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°How much of a problem could it be?¡± ¡°You¡¯re talking about carrying a human body at supersonic speed,¡± said the old Scarab. ¡°Marty could fly apart from the stress.¡± ¡°I got the solution to this problem,¡± said Henry. ¡°All we need is an oxygen tank for Marty. How fast do you think you fly, Ell?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have any idea,¡± said Eleanor. She assumed it was fast. She had flown across the city in a few seconds. ¡°I can get an air supply tank,¡± said the older Scarab. ¡°Give me a couple of minutes. Let¡¯s see how this works.¡± ¡°Are you sure this is safe?,¡± Eleanor whispered to Henry. ¡°Not really,¡± said Henry. The other Scarab left for a bit. Eleanor filled in the time asking questions of Nicklaus, Marty, and the Rocket. She had a small overview of the Scouts and the other Rockets that had worked in the past by the time he had returned. ¡°All right,¡± said the older Scarab. He motioned for the others to join him outside. ¡°This is an air supply, and this is a stopwatch. Press the button when you launch, Marty. Press it when you land. A signal will tell me how fast you were going.¡± ¡°Got it,¡± said Marty. He donned the air supply, making sure the straps were in place. ¡°All right,¡± said Henry. He aimed both of his arms at Marty. Foam covered the Scout from head to toe. ¡°He¡¯s ready to roll.¡± ¡°Get ready to launch, Marty,¡± called out Nicklaus. ¡°Shall we go?¡± ¡°Are you sure you can take high speed flight?,¡± asked Eleanor. ¡°Go ahead,¡± said Nicklaus. He waved a metal hand. Eleanor exploded into the air, one arm wrapped around the cyborg¡¯s metal body. She didn¡¯t know exactly where she was going, but figured west was the best direction until Nicklaus could tell her where to go more directly. They blasted through the Rockies seconds later. Eleanor would have enjoyed it more if she wasn¡¯t looking for a sign to where she had to go. ¡°Turn right a little bit,¡± said Barry. ¡°You are really fast.¡± ¡°This is the first time I really cut loose,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°What should I be looking for?¡± ¡°A helipad with a hourglass engraved on it,¡± said Nicklaus. ¡°That should be the top of our installation.¡± Eleanor spotted the bunker after a second of looking. Her enhanced vision saved the day after all. She touched down on the pad and lowered Nicklaus to his feet. She grabbed the web around Marty and pulled it loose with one shrug of her shoulders. ¡°That was fast,¡± mumbled Marty. ¡°Faster than a plane.¡± ¡°Thanks for the ride, dear,¡± said Nicklaus. ¡°Did you push the button, Marty?¡± ¡°Yep,¡± said Marty. He pulled off the mask for the air supply. ¡°It was like a minute of flight time.¡± ¡°It probably would have been shorter if I knew where I was going,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°This is good enough,¡± said Marty. ¡°Thanks, Ell.¡± He fled inside the bunker like building. ¡°That was a good trip,¡± said Nicklaus. ¡°I would love to do it again sometime.¡± ¡°Thanks for your help with the court,¡± said Eleanor. ¡°That was more important.¡± She blasted into the air and headed east faster than a speeding bullet. Going Home He frowned at the clouds overhead. Wind tugged on his green tunic, and wide brimmed hat as the air moved toward the giant turmoil in the distance. He tested the pull of his bow, and the ease of draw of his sword as he waited. He stood on a roof in the middle of a human city. Ocean and rivers surrounded the island with water. All around him, humans and their champions prepared to fight the invasion ahead. He would have to fight too, but his battlefield was the roof he stood on and the surrounding area. His princess was there, and he had to be there to protect her. He glanced at his princess. She stood radiant among the humans that had gathered to throw their might into the fray. Her gold and silver adventurer¡¯s clothes stood out among the black favored by the magicians. She regarded the oncoming universe with amethyst eyes and a frown on her narrow face. ¡°Threat,¡± said one of the many sprites that circled him. It pointed at another roof across the road. ¡°Threat.¡± He drew an arrow and rubbed the head with his fingers before putting it on the string of his bow. He took aim at the trees coming out of the roof door across the way. He counted five of them before he shot. His arrow caught fire as it streaked through the air. It struck the leader of the strange creatures, but nothing happened. He would have to switch weapons if he wanted to do more than that. ¡°Arrows not doing anything?,¡± said an old man who had come with a butler. He stood on the roof with a sword in hand. He wore a plain tunic of a darker green than the archer¡¯s own. His eyes were the brown of mud. ¡°The one didn¡¯t,¡± he agreed. ¡°I still have some tricks.¡± ¡°Threat,¡± said various members of his entourage. They pointed in different directions. ¡°It looks like we have a crowd coming in,¡± said the archer. He looked around. Some of the trees had mounted flying carriages to attack the roof. ¡°I had better get to my side,¡± said the old man. He walked around the crowd of magicians, spinning his sword to test the grip. The archer wished him the best of luck. The carriages vanished from the sky. He didn¡¯t think the magicians had spared the energy to knock them down. One of the faster champions must have done it while he was concentrating on keeping his roof clear of the riff raff. He reached into his hip bag. He pulled out one of the bombs he had made with the help of his entourage. He lit the fuse with a rub of his fingers and then threw it. The black sphere sailed across the road and landed on his target roof. The trees didn¡¯t pay attention as it rolled into their midst. The explosion sliced at the bottom of the moving trunks. Fire gouted from the wounds. He supposed that was why his arrow hadn¡¯t worked. He frowned. Maybe he could put their fires out with the other arrows he had in his quiver. He decided to hold on in case he had to shoot at closer threats. ¡°Threat!,¡± said his whole entourage at once. The cloud of fairies pointed at the big spinning cloud that denoted a door to another plane of existence. One tugged on his pointed ear and said threat in such a way to indicate they expected him to hack the cloud apart from where he was standing. He couldn¡¯t do that on his best day. The cloud separated downrange from where he stood. A giant tree with a crown of fire stepped out of the cloud. It held up one hand and burned the human in its grip. ¡°She just burned up the Mark,¡± said one of the magicians. ¡°Hold steady,¡± projected the spirit in the middle of them. ¡°We have to be ready to push.¡± ¡°That¡¯s going to take a lot of pushing,¡± said the magician. ¡°The Lamplighters are almost ready,¡± said one of the women. ¡°Ishmael reports they are putting the last connections together.¡± He watched the massing trees on the other roof. He knew they wanted to get to his roof. The magicians here, and at the other roof closer to the cloud, had to be stopped before they could work their magic. He and the old man were there to make sure that didn¡¯t happen to the group on this roof. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. He had just reunited with his princess. He wasn¡¯t going to lose her again. Giants appeared out of the sky. They engaged the giant tree at close range. He doubted they would do anything, but it was an effective stalling tactic as far as he was concerned. If they happened to kill the beast, that would make things that much easier for the gathered magicians. The trees decided to form a bridge to get to his roof. Three braced themselves on the other roof. The others grabbed each other in a living chain to hurl at him. He drew one of his arrows and rubbed the stone head with his fingers. Frost fogged the air around it as he drew the missile back on the bow string. He shot one of the trees in the middle of the chain and watched it freeze over in a coat of ice. The shot trapped the trees in the middle. The one on his end of the bridge grabbed the rampart to pull itself on the roof. He pulled his sword and hacked off the limbs of the thing before it could pull out of the grip of its frozen comrades. Then he stabbed it in the face and let the flame out of its body. The base trees had to haul their frozen links back, or drop them and think of something else. They decided to drop them to the street below. He waved at them in a casual salute. He wouldn¡¯t have done that, but he couldn¡¯t fault them for freeing themselves up for some other scheme. A wingless dragon took shape on the road. He stepped back as it roared its challenge at the tree. Then it attacked with tooth, claw, and fiery breath. ¡°Marty,¡± said one of the magicians. ¡°What have you done?¡± ¡°Ishmael says they are firing,¡± said Ishmael¡¯s woman. ¡°This might our only chance.¡± A blue flame ripped through the dark sky above. He blinked and looked away from the fire as it hooked the roof where the Lamplighters worked to the giant tree. He didn¡¯t have to check to know the blow had struck home from the reactions of the magicians in their circle. ¡°Shut the door,¡± commanded the spirit. The magicians bent their will to the task. With their enemy mortally wounded, there was nothing to block them. He kept an eye out for trouble as the almost tangible push washed over him. He spotted more trees coming up on the other roof. These seemed to be armed. He couldn¡¯t allow them to harm the magicians while they were still working their spell. He would have to go over and handle things if he wanted to stop the enemy. ¡® He hated to leave the princess, but he had to do this to protect her. He pulled a claw on a rope from his bag. He flicked his wrist and the hook grabbed a post on the other roof. He yanked on the rope and the cable retracted to the claw. It dragged him along across the space between buildings. He pulled his sword and sliced around him, using his shield to block blows from the wooden fists. He had to hold on until the spell was done. After that, the magicians could deal with things in their own ways. He left chopped bodies around him as he tried to force the trees off the roof. He saw more of them coming up the access stairs. He would be overwhelmed if he didn¡¯t retreat. And he couldn¡¯t retreat just yet. He still had to buy time. A glowing woman dropped down in the melee. She flung one of the trees off the roof with an almost gentle wave of one arm. ¡°Need some help, elf boy?,¡± said the woman. ¡°YES,¡± said half of the fairies floating around him. ¡°NO,¡± said the other half. ¡°It would be appreciated,¡± he said. He stabbed one of the trees to make sure it wouldn¡¯t get back into the fight. ¡°That¡¯s good,¡± said the woman. She smiled as she raised both of her hands. A jet of blinding light ripped down the access stairs. She stopped after a second to see how much damage she had done. The inside of the space was melted into a burning heap. None of the reinforcements remained after the display of power. He took one of his arrows and armed it. He dropped it down in the glowing mass. Ice covered the display and turned to water, then to steam. ¡°It¡¯ll be a while before that cools down,¡± said the woman. ¡°By that time, all of this will be over, one way or the other.¡± ¡°Thank you for your assistance,¡± said the archer. ¡°Thank you,¡± said the woman. She took to the air in an aura of flame like a miniature star. He made sure all of his enemies were dead before using the claw and rope to get back to the magicians. They seemed to be waiting for something to happen. ¡°The rift is closing,¡± said Ishamael¡¯s woman. ¡°It looks like we won.¡± The princess smiled as the humans looked dazed by their victory. He admitted he hadn¡¯t expected their plan to work, but it had. He could add assistance in killing a practical god to his resume. ¡°Tenacan, this is Mister Multiverse,¡± said the princess. She indicated the spirit as they joined the archer where he stood. ¡°He is going to help us to go home.¡± The archer waited. ¡°I can do this much for you before I leave,¡± said Mister Multiverse. ¡°I have enough power to assist you.¡± ¡°The kingdom will not be as we left it,¡± warned Tenacan. ¡°We have both been away for a long time.¡± ¡°I want to see what¡¯s there,¡± said the princess. ¡°Will you go with me?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± said the archer. ¡°You know I will.¡± ¡°I wish the both of you the best of luck,¡± said the spirit. Tenacan noted that the center spot on his chest linked to another spot on his shoulder. The rest of the lines and circles moved around until those two spots almost touched. A cloud spun into existence. The princess raised one hand. The signs that she had gathered together glowed on the back of it. She smiled. ¡°Thank you,¡± she said. She stepped into the cloud. The archer nodded, made sure his weapons were still ready to draw. He followed her. Mister Multiverse looked around as his map of everything reverted to normal. The danger was over. He broke apart and scattered into the ley lines of the city, and the world beyond. The King of the Wild West 1 Bertram Chandler glared at the small town at the end of the road. The lightning scar on his forehead gleamed slightly against his dark skin. He decided that he didn¡¯t have anywhere else to be. He might as well ride in and get a drink before riding on. Chandler had fought off the plantation where he was born, fought for the Union, fought his way west as a wrangler and scout. He had some money stored away so he didn¡¯t need a job, but if he picked one to have, he knew he was fighting again. And he was fine with that. It was the one thing he was good at above all else. Chandler flexed his hand as he urged his mount on. He felt the connection to the white sword he carried. It was his gift in a blade of sharp ivory that could carve anything, and memories of lives he had used up as stepping stones to where he was now. He knew that if anything happened to him, the sword would wait for him in his next life to pick it up again. He was not in a hurry for that to happen. He saw a sign that said Last Stop on the side of the road. He smiled. A lot of towns had ominous names. He wondered why the townfolk had picked that for their community. He rode slowly into town. He tried to look harmless. He was just another cowboy looking for work. He didn¡¯t know if there were ranches around to hire on, but that was something he could ask about at the local saloon. Chandler rode his horse up to the hitching post of the first drinking establishment he saw. He could listen to the people as he sipped at whatever rotgut they had. It took a lot to make him drunk now, and he couldn¡¯t remember being so drunk he didn¡¯t know which way was up since he took up his blade. He had considered that it was making him immune to alcohol, and the thought hadn¡¯t bothered him. Chandler tied his reins to the hitching post and gave his horse water from his canteen. He saw a trough nearby, but it was empty. He didn¡¯t see a water pump for it. Maybe they didn¡¯t have water coming into town overland. He wondered how the town survived with no water. Did they all drink whiskey and live off of that? Maybe there were wells that he couldn¡¯t see from the saloon. Water rights could lead to private wars. Ranchers didn¡¯t like to share the limited commodity when they had to water their herds for market. He might be able to get work busting up a water monopoly for the other ranchers. He decided to wait and see. There might not be anything here that needed him. His expertise was killing things. There might not be anything that needed killing. The town looked like it had never seen a gunfight before. He patted his horse down and put his wet hat on his head. He stepped into the saloon. He tried to look harmless as he walked up to the counter. The scattered crowd gave him a onceover, but no one said anything. He supposed they had seen enough drifters coming through that one more wasn¡¯t anything new. He was fine with that. He was there to listen to them talk, not to say much himself. ¡°Can I help you, Mister?,¡± said the bartender. He was lean and had suffered from acne from the looks of things when he was younger. He stood away from the bar. ¡°What do you have on the shelf?,¡± asked Chandler. He could read the labels, but he wanted the bartender to recommend something. ¡°We have some bourbon, some brandy, some whiskey, a small bit of rum that I can¡¯t say if it¡¯s good to drink, and some moonshine,¡± said the bartender. ¡°Let me have a shot of whiskey, and a shot of the moonshine,¡± said Chandler. ¡°Is there any work around here?¡± ¡°There¡¯s a lot at the mining camp,¡± said the bartender. He pulled two small glasses from the shelf behind him and put them in front of his customer. He poured whiskey in one, and the clear moonshine in the other. ¡°Not so much any wrangling, or for farming. Not enough water.¡± ¡°You should have something coming down,¡± said Chandler. ¡°Most of it has dried out,¡± said the bartender. He pointed in a direction. ¡°They think the water is blocked upstream somewhere.¡± ¡°Up at the mining camp?,¡± asked Chandler. ¡°Beyond there,¡± said the bartender. ¡°They¡¯re having water problems too.¡± ¡°Anybody check on it?,¡± asked Chandler. He knew that was the wrong question by the way the man¡¯s face closed off. He sipped the whiskey while he waited on an answer. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Some of the town went up there,¡± said the bartender. ¡°But they haven¡¯t come back yet.¡± ¡°I¡¯m headed up that way,¡± said Chandler. ¡°I¡¯ll look around while I¡¯m riding.¡± He sipped the moonshine. He ignored the bigger kick it had. A normal man might have lost their sight from the toxins in the drink. He was tougher than that. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t sell the moonshine to anyone you liked,¡± said Chandler. He shook his head. ¡°You might kill them.¡± ¡°That bad, huh?,¡± asked the bartender. ¡°I¡¯ll have to say yes,¡± said Chandler. ¡°If I see the missing townies, I¡¯ll send them back to you.¡± ¡°That would be great,¡± said the bartender. He took the two empty glasses and washed them out. He dried them off and put them back on the shelf for the next customer. Chandler headed for the door. His inclination was to ride on and let the town die from the lack of water. He paused to pet his horse¡¯s neck. What could he do to help things? He decided the bare minimum he could do was try to find where the water was stopped up. If he could do that and remove the block, the town and mining camp could argue about who needed the water more. He could try to keep things below a frenzy if the town decided they didn¡¯t need the miners. He didn¡¯t want to cause a massacre over something where no one was to blame. He had to take care of his horse before he did anything else. He decided to walk Ulysses down to the local smith and farrier to get feed and more water if he had it. Then he would pick up the trail and see what had happened to the water supply. He doubted the town would last long without more coming in. Maybe something like a landslide had closed the streams off. It had been known to happen. He should be able to break some of the natural dam off with his sword so the water could flow again. He needed to be careful so he didn¡¯t cause a flood, or another landslide on top of himself as he worked. The fact that no one had come back from their survey bothered him, but there was nothing he could do about that. They were either still moving along the dried up banks, moved on to another town, or had faced some kind of calamity that had prevented them from coming back. He hoped to find them still exploring the upper reaches of the river and streams so he could get them back to town without problems. He had seen a lot of death during the war and after. He wasn¡¯t so hungry for it as he once was. Being the King meant fighting for good, but it was also a burden that couldn¡¯t be set down until he died, and some future self picked up his sword again. The Destroyer had set his future in stone with one casual flick of its giant hand. Chandler paused at the door to the smithy. He spotted the local smith making a horseshoe at his anvil. He waited for the man to get done pounding on the red hot metal and cooling it in a barrel of water next to his forge. ¡°How do you do?,¡± asked the smith. ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± said Chandler. ¡°I¡¯m heading up to follow the river and I wanted to get some feed and some water for my horse before I went.¡± ¡°The water is drying up around here,¡± said the smith. ¡°Some people went up there a few days ago to look around.¡± ¡°I expect I¡¯ll run into them on my way,¡± said Chandler. ¡°The bartender said the stoppage is above the mining camp.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± said the smith. ¡°Been a lot of trouble up there since they set up. The sheriff went with the water finders. He left his deputy in town to look after things.¡± Chandler nodded. The sheriff had formed a posse to go look at things and took some men with him. His deputy and whomever would look after the town remained behind. He had seen that after a few bank robberies, or other things, that he had come upon afterwards in his wanderings. ¡°Since I was riding up there, I thought I would take a look,¡± said Chandler. ¡°Good luck to you,¡± said the smith. ¡°How much feed and water do you think you¡¯ll need?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll need enough for at least a week of travel,¡± said Chandler. ¡°I can¡¯t count on finding a town close by. Some of the ones upstream might have already been abandoned and left to die if this drought is wide enough.¡± ¡°Let me get your supplies,¡± said the smith. ¡°Are you coming back this way?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Chandler. ¡°I doubt it. If I find the block, I plan to either fix it, or send a note back to tell the town where it is. After that, I plan to ride on to California, maybe head north toward Canada.¡± ¡°If you find the problem and fix it, the town will hail you as a hero,¡± said the smith. He went back to the back of his work area to barrels crammed into a corner. He opened one of the barrels and filled three empty sacks taken down from a hook on the wall. He tied each sack closed and put the lid back on the barrel. He gave Chandler the sacks to be hung from his saddle. ¡°Let me get a couple of canteens for you,¡± said the smith. ¡°That should hold your horse until you find a stream to let him drink from out there.¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± said Chandler. ¡°I imagine that there are watering holes out there the closer we get to the mountains.¡± ¡°If you go too far north, you¡¯ll be back in the desert again,¡± said the smith. Chandler nodded. He had heard some religious people had settled northeast of where he was. He planned to avoid the place like the plague. He had dealt with enough preachers to not want to run into a city full of them. ¡°Here¡¯s two canteens full of water for your horse,¡± said the smith. ¡°You¡¯ll have to ration them until you find something.¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± said Chandler. He fished out a handful of gold dollars and handed them over. ¡°If I can¡¯t find the problem, you might need to think about where you¡¯ll have to go from here. There¡¯s a couple of towns east of here that need a smith to look after their horses.¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to stick until I run out of water,¡± said the smith. ¡°Thanks for the advice.¡± Chandler nodded. He hung the water on the other side of the saddle away from the feed bags. He needed to grab something to eat, and then he would be headed out of town. He walked his horse down the dirt road to a little diner built in the front of a house. He imagined the owner slept in the back while serving in the front. He thought about what lay ahead and decided he should get his food and ride on before something happened to hold him in town. He didn¡¯t know how much water the town had, but he didn¡¯t see it lasting long. He stopped in the diner and ordered a few sandwiches and some beer. He drank the beer at the bar and took his sandwiches in their wrapping and started his journey out of Last Stop. The King of the Wild West 2 Chandler rode at a slow pace. He wasn¡¯t in a hurry, and he didn¡¯t feel the need to tire his horse out. It had served him well over the years, and he liked to think that he did a good job of taking care of it when he could. He decided to bypass the mining camp. He didn¡¯t want any problems with the miners, and he didn¡¯t have a reason to stop there. It was best for all concerned if he kept riding and didn¡¯t have to break some idiot¡¯s face for him. Chandler knew there was something inside of him that wouldn¡¯t shy away from trouble. He had decided long ago that he didn¡¯t need to look for it. It would always find him wherever he went. It was the burden of being the King. You lived life after life after life but they weren¡¯t peaceful lives where you died in bed surrounded by the family that you helped create. Instead you took on one last stand and died in a blaze of glory until you were born and found your sword again. Chandler spotted the tents and cabins of the mining town off to his right. He kept an eye on it as he rode up stream from Last Stop. He doubted any one miner would load up his wagon to come out and ask him questions, but he didn¡¯t want to deal with that if they did. The King watched the ground ahead after he safely passed the miner camp. He was sure that whatever was blocking the water would give something to him as a warning. He doubted a giant beaver had dammed up the river flow. Of course, it could be a giant beaver. He had seen enough examples of weird things in the world not to rule it out. And he had never seen a beaver that could take a bullet and walk away. He found traces of the posse from Last Stop after a few more hours of riding. They had set up camp a few days ago north of the mining camp. They had pressed on the day after from the signs. That looked good. The group had been able to ride on without problems. He might find them trying to deal with the blockage if he kept on their trail. Once the water started flowing, they could return to Last Stop as heroes. How far did they have to travel upstream before they found the problem? Chandler thought he might find them in a few more days of riding. They hadn¡¯t seemed to be in that much of a hurry. He wasn¡¯t either. He figured to take a job on a wagon train heading into California if he caught up with the posse and nothing was going on. The pay was decent, and people needed a scout to lead them along. Chandler briefly considered what he would do when he reached California. There were ships to China. Maybe he could sail on one of those to another land. He felt that one of his other lives had walked through that continent at one point, or another. He might have crossed the world thousands of times just in being reborn every time he died. Too bad it left him with a hazy memory of lives long abandoned. He decided to put it out of his mind for the present. He could look back on his lives when he settled in for some shuteye. Dreams allowed him to do that much when he couldn¡¯t quite grasp things when he was awake. He could check on places he had been. If China had been one of those places in a former life, he could try for some other continent where he had never been. He didn¡¯t mind that at all. He wondered if that was an effect of his unique being for the millionth time. He decided it didn¡¯t matter. If he felt like traveling, then he could travel as long as he had a way to get around. Chandler realized that he had ridden miles while thinking of the future. He supposed that was what happened when you were all alone in the middle of nowhere. He decided his horse needed a rest if they were going to keep riding north. He had automatically followed the signs of the riders from Last Stop as he traveled. He was pleased about that. They had kept going past where he was stopping his own ride. He might catch up with them if they slowed any. If that happened, he had to find a place to send word back to Last Stop. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Then he could think about where he should go from there. California beckoned to him. Chandler made camp and cooked dinner over a low fire. He fed his horse and unsaddled him. He rubbed the beast down before tying his reins to an outcrop where his mount could graze on the sparse grass around. He ate his own dinner, and then went to sleep. The next day was bound to be more of the same thinking while letting his body do the rest without worrying about what he should be doing. Eventually he would catch up to the posse either at the obstruction, or on their way back to their town. He wasn¡¯t worried about that. He doubted he would have trouble as far as that went. He should be able to cut through any obstruction, as long as there wasn¡¯t a bigger piece moving on the pile of problems. He dismissed the thought the posse might already be dead. That did him no good, and he had to see for himself instead of just thinking it. Chandler woke as the sky started lightening in the east. He made breakfast and some coffee before watering his horse. He put the saddle back on and readied for another long day of riding. He looked in the distance in the direction he was riding. He didn¡¯t see anything out of the ordinary. He should be catching up with the other riders today, or tomorrow. He couldn¡¯t remember a town out this way, but that didn¡¯t mean anything. Towns sprang up around gold and silver and when the material was gone, they crashed. Finding the remains of a place was not out of the question. He watched the road ahead as he let the horse trot by the dried riverbed. He didn¡¯t see signs of any other people using the road through the plain. He supposed not many wanted to ride north when they had every other direction they could go. He spotted a loose horse as he was looking for a place to camp. He stood in his saddle to use the extra height to look around. He didn¡¯t see a rider. He frowned as he dismounted and started toward the strange horse. The animal pawed the ground as he approached but settled when he talked to it. It had been scared by something. That didn¡¯t really mean anything. Horses were skittish by nature. They preferred to run from bigger animals, and kick smaller ones. It still had on its tack, so it had run from its owner and left him behind. Chandler went back to his own horse and poured some water from his canteen into his hat so the strange horse could have something to drink after being out in the desert for so long. He did the same for his own horse. He supposed that the posse had run into some kind of ambush ahead. Should he go ahead before dark, or wait until daylight? He decided that waiting until he could see was better at the moment. There were plenty of things that hunted in the night that could see better than him. It also meant he would have to be on guard for the next few nights until he found out what happened. He put the thought away. He knew that was bound to happen if there was trouble. People didn¡¯t disappear without some kind of reason. Chandler decided to have a cold dinner out of his supplies. He didn¡¯t unsaddle his horse, or the strange horse either. He might have to ride out at a moment¡¯s notice. He didn¡¯t want to fool with a saddle in an emergency. He doubted a person was involved unless they happened to miss the horse as it ran away. He supposed that was possible, but thought the horse had just ran away when it could. That meant something scary was ahead. He decided to go ahead. He debated leaving both horses behind. There might be a need for one ahead, but he didn¡¯t want to run into something and lose the horse. He had to risk it. A fast getaway was better than being stuck on foot and running for his life. He hated thinking that this might get his horse killed. He had got the horse years ago and it had been a trusted companion ever since. ¡°We¡¯re going to try to sneak up on this problem,¡± Chandler told the animals. ¡°Then we¡¯re going to see what we can do.¡± He expected the problem was more serious than what he had thought when he had stopped in Last Stop. Finding a horse without a rider qualified as something going on in his opinion. Something lay ahead. He hoped that the posse had not been killed to a man just trying to find out what had shut off the water to the region. Chandler loaded his pipe and smoked the tobacco up before he tried to get some sleep on the blanket from his saddle bag. He made sure he could draw his pistol and sword without too much effort before settling in. Things happened in the night. He wanted to be ready just in case. Chandler woke the next day. Both horses were where he left them, cropping some grass. He cooked a small breakfast for himself, then fed and watered the horses. He cleaned up the camp and made ready to ride. He had time to think as he continued along the dried up river bed. Chandler watched the area around him. Signs would point out things to him so he could be careful. An ambush made sense to him. He just didn¡¯t see any place where it could happen. The terrain had some slight hills but for the most part lay flat. Vegetation was just as scarce as the variety of ground. He saw some rocks but he didn¡¯t see any sign of horses around them. The strange horse grew nervous the more they rode along the river. He found some grass and left it to crop what it wanted. He didn¡¯t want a horse that would cause problems while he was trying to figure out what was going on. His own horse seemed a little nervy, but had gone into enough situations with him that it trusted him to get them through whatever lay ahead. Chandler pushed forward, scanning the area. A pile of rocks drew his attention. They were right where the river should be flowing. He doubted a landslide had caused that. He found the mummy next. He dismounted to get a better look. Something had dried out a man in his clothes, and dropped him to the ground when it was done. Chandler twisted his wrist and the bone white sword of the King dropped into his hand. He needed to look around before there was trouble for him that he couldn¡¯t overcome. The King marched forward, sword in hand. The King of the Wild West 3 Chandler didn¡¯t like the mummy. It spoke of the unnatural. The desert could dry a man out like that, but not in a few days. Something had waited up ahead and took all the water from its victim. He could be walking close to his next life at the moment. He decided to press ahead. He had nothing to gain by going back and reporting failure. If he could save one of the men and open the waterway, that would satisfy any self imposed rules he lived under. Then he could move on to the next thing with a clear conscience. He debated what he should do about the block in the waterway. He decided that he didn¡¯t know what would happen if he cut the whole dam away, but he could put holes in it to let the water pass. Chandler stabbed the blockage in several places. Water poured out of the holes and dropped into the dry riverbed. The ground would soak any of the small streams up before it got big enough to get to Last Stop. He worked his way around the natural obstruction, noting the way things were stacked up. It just confirmed his first thoughts that someone had put the dam there to seize the water. Where had the water been diverted? Once he knew that, he knew where to go to fix the problem. Chandler found a big hole yards beyond the dam he had punctured. It descended straight down into the ground. Water from the river poured over the edge and vanished into the darkness. A vertical shaft looked bad for exploring. He looked down. Light played on the water at the bottom of the new cavern. Did the posse go down there? Chandler examined the walls of the shaft. He noted pieces had been ripped out of the stone. He could use that for handholds if he was careful. He didn¡¯t see any rope to show that the posse had done the same thing. He wondered if something was at the bottom of the giant well. He also wondered how it liked snoopers. He supposed he should look around down at the bottom of the pit. He decided it would be better to knock the dam out of the way. Maybe the water flowing away would draw out the culprit. Why go down in the other¡¯s dark domain when you could face it in the sunlight? Chandler went back to the dam. The holes he had poked produced streams of water like natural fountains. He picked one and drew an x through it with his sword. He stepped back as the water came through the sudden weakness and pulled part of the wall down. The liquid cascaded away to the gasping towns along the river. He watched the water crowd up on the banks. Anyone caught downstream would be in for a surprise. He couldn¡¯t help that. He had to decide how long he would wait before he went into the ground after whatever had diverted the water. Some of the flow still moved toward the hole. Could he cut that off? Would that speed things up? What would happen if he cut around the edge of the hole and pushed that rim down inside the well? The water could form a lake over any type of plug he might be able to construct like that. It would be better if he had something to just drop down on top of the gap. He looked around. He saw rocks in the distance. He knew there was no way he could move the bigger ones he needed by himself. He was strong, but he wasn¡¯t that strong. He decided that he should try to cut the rim back and drop whatever he could into the water. Whatever was down there would dig up through his obstruction to get the water flowing again. Maybe he would be able to deal with it then. If it was too big for him, he would be on to his next life unless it could stop the endless jumping through time. He expected that his gift was too much for the ordinary sort of monster he ran into on his travels. Memories of other lives indicated he had dealt with this sort of thing more than once. He had allies to help him if he could find them. Should he retreat and come back with someone who could drag the thing out of its hole? How many would die if he did leave the thing out in the desert? Chandler took his white sword and dug it into the ground at an angle. He walked around the rim of the opening until he ended up where he started. The circlet didn¡¯t move. He cut a wedge out of it and let that drop away. The rest slowly fell after it. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. It wasn¡¯t enough. He needed a lot more of the shaft to collapse if he wanted to stop the water from reaching the bottom. He lowered himself on his belly to reach to the edge of the shelf he had created. The surface was too smooth for handholds now. He dug his sword in again and worked his way around the edge of the hole. It was a long process but he had nothing but time. Eventually he was able to cut what he could reach away. He watched it drop down inside the hole. He didn¡¯t think it was enough. Something moved at the bottom of the well. He got to a knee as he watched the water. He doubted it was one of the posse members getting ready to tell him to stop dropping rocks into the hole. He wondered how big it was. He doubted his old Remington would do anything against anything bigger than a cat. He put aside any second guessing as he moved back from the hole. He had been appointed the champion of humanity. He had a lot of responsibility. If he lost, someone else would have to take up the fight. The ground trembled slightly. He stepped back a few more yards. He guessed his adversary was gigantic. Boneless limbs emerged from the hole. They gripped the ground with mouths built into claws. A white body rose next. It reminded Chandler of a worm. It didn¡¯t have eyes as far as he could tell. He supposed it must track its enemies through sound, or touch. He remained still and the thing did not approach him. It dragged its bulk toward the water. Tentacles reached around and began placing rocks in the water to direct the flow back to the hole in the ground. Chandler didn¡¯t like the odds if he went after the thing. He was fast, but he didn¡¯t think he was as fast as the giant tentacles reaching around and placing boulders like they were bricks. He needed something like dynamite if he wanted to do anything to that thing. He could ride to the mining camp and ride back to the hole if they had dynamite he could use. Did he have time? Would the camp still be there? He doubted he had secured enough of a water supply to keep anyone hanging on. Last Stop and the towns around it would probably be dead unless he could keep the water running for more than the two hours since he had destroyed the dam. The gallons that had already flowed wouldn¡¯t do much in his opinion. He frowned as he considered his options. None of them looked good. He should wait until the thing went back into the ground, break this dam, and ride back down river to get the supplies he needed. The digger turned toward where he had left his horse. The animal must have done something. The thing started to rear up. Chandler grimaced. He had no choice now. If he wanted to make it out of the desert, he needed his horse. He couldn¡¯t let this thing eat it. The King picked a spot he thought he could hit with his sword. He leaped the distance instead of running. He felt that running would attract the creature¡¯s attention sooner than he wanted. He stabbed the monster high in its body and dragged the sword down until he touched the ground. Chandler stepped out of the way of the bile and parts of things that came out of the cut he had made. The stink was something he would take with him until the end of his series of lives. The beast turned at the sudden attack. Its tentacles whipped around. He didn¡¯t move. A sound escaped it. Blood poured from his ears. The horses neighed and turned to flee. The beast turned toward them. The movement it detected must have been what hurt it. The water hoarder exploded from the pit, rushing after the running animals. Once it had wrapped its tentacles around the annoying things, it could heal in the water and restore itself. Chandler stuck out his sword as it passed. He braced himself against the ground, but was pushed back by the mass he was slicing through. His victim curled up in pain from the sudden injury. He swiped his sword in the air to shake off the internal liquids of the beast. He saw that it was trying to reach the pit. He supposed it was too weak to dig another hole. He decided to step back and let it go. He didn¡¯t have the resources to deal with it. If he was a little stronger, he might be more pressed to continue the fight until the thing was dead. Wounding it to buy time had to be enough for the moment. He watched the creature drag itself to its hole and drop down inside. He hoped it would die down there, but he wasn¡¯t going down after it if he didn¡¯t have a need. If the posse ran into that thing, he doubted they had survived. There was nothing he could do about that. Chandler sliced through the rock making up the dam and slid what he could out of the way. He watched the water push on the barrier for a moment before slicing the biggest rocks into smaller ones to make the passage easier. He put the sword away as he walked downstream. He hoped his horse hadn¡¯t been in the river bed when he renewed the flood. He needed to ride back to Last Stop, or the mining camp, and come back with something he could use to close that hole. He hoped he was wrong about the posse. Maybe they had kept riding to find someone who could blast the dam open for them. He doubted they had magical swords that could slice through anything. He was going to go back and inform the town he didn¡¯t see them. That was the very least he could do for them. If they showed up later, that was fine in his opinion. A celebration would probably be thrown. He doubted he should wait for that to happen. The thing in the pit might be able to grow back the things he had cut through. He would like to return with dynamite before it healed enough to make another dam. Then he would have to feed it the explosive. He had days to think of a way to do that. Maybe he could trick it into thinking it was something alive and good to eat. He found the horses after a few minutes of walking. They seemed fine after their panic attack. They shied away from him when he approached. He realized that he had some of the beast on his hands and shirt. He needed to wash up before his horse would carry him back to civilization. He put his pistol and boots on the river bank and jumped into the river. He let the cold water wash over him for a few minutes. He climbed out and lay down. He could take a nap before he started south. He had done a bit of work for no pay. The King of the Wild West 4 It had taken Chandler a few weeks to deal with the hole in the ground. Once he was done, he could move on his way. The first thing he did was load the mummy on the recovered horse. He made sure to wrap it in a blanket before placing it over the saddle. He didn¡¯t want it to come apart on the ride back. He rode back to Last Stop, found whomever was the law with the sheriff gone, and explained how he had found the mummy and horse. He didn¡¯t tell the deputy about the monster. That would have been unbelievable. He had then requested as much gunpowder and dynamite the miners could spare. The reasoning he gave them was caving in the hole to keep the water flowing to them and the neighboring town so they could do their business. He wasn¡¯t going to explain that he planned to shut the hole on the monster because he wasn¡¯t sure if it was dead, and he wasn¡¯t going down in its den to find out. It would be enough to just shut the hole and let it dig somewhere else when it healed up. On the other hand, closing the hole would keep the river from turning and going back to the hole and drying the town and miner camp out. The miners gave him a wagon full of explosives and showed him how to arm the various fuses and basic what not to do so he wouldn¡¯t blow himself up. They asked him to return the wagon when he was done. He gave them some extra money for the wagon. He didn¡¯t plan to bring it back. Chandler lit the fuse and pushed the wagon into the hole. Once the front wheels were over the edge, he pushed the bottom forward until gravity took over. He let the wagon fall out of sight. Then he ran to where he had left his horse and the draft horses that had pulled the wagon for him cropping some kind of tough grass. He grabbed their reins and traces and led them away from the hole as fast as he could. He was not familiar with how much of an explosion he was going to cause. He hoped that a shallow cave-in would be the result. The gunpowder and dynamite going off shook the area. Dust jumped up in the air as he fled. He kept his feet, pulling his horses to run with him. The ground next to the hole collapsed down. Water from the river rushed into the depression. Chandler kept running until he was sure the collapsing tunnels wouldn¡¯t reach him. He stopped and looked back. He nodded. It wasn¡¯t perfect but it was the best he could do at the moment. His bomb blast had created a lake with the river filling it up as it rushed down toward Last Stop. Maybe that would help the water beast somehow, but it wasn¡¯t his concern unless he came back through this way and it was still trying to get more water for its domain. The explosion might have killed it with the collapsing ground. He wasn¡¯t going to dig down and make sure. That would take the rest of this life and maybe a few more besides. It was better to walk away now with a temporary win, and come back if he had to later. Maybe if he saw one of his contemporaries, he could pass on the word to keep an eye on things in the area. He patted his horses down and made sure his supplies were still intact. He had to take the draft horses back to the mining camp where they were needed to pull equipment into place. He took one more look around. He wouldn¡¯t say it was a job well done, but it was done. He hoped future generations enjoyed the lake if the beast was really dead. He could see it being a trap for the unwary if the thing still lived. He mounted and rode south, pulling the draft horses behind him. He arrived in the mining camp after another few days camping out under the stars. He found the foreman and handed the horses back, with some extra dollars to cover any expenses. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. He decided to stop in town and get a drink before he headed back out. He still had to head back north like he planned and then west. This detour had cost him some time. He walked into the saloon where he started this adventure. It was more crowded, more lively, and full of people who had some hope given back to them. He walked to the bar, looking around at the mob. The bartender waved him down to the end. A glass with whiskey waited for him on the counter. ¡°What happened?,¡± asked the bartender. ¡°I don¡¯t know what happened to the sheriff and the rest of the men he took up north,¡± said Chandler. ¡°Didn¡¯t see them. I don¡¯t know what happened to the dead man I brought back and turned over to the deputy for burial.¡± He had a good idea based on what he had seen, but he wasn¡¯t going to tell anyone that. You just didn¡¯t say that a monster feeding on water might have dragged a posse of men to their doom when they went to interfere with its dam, and actually left one of the victims out because it forgot to drag the body away, or was reaching for the horse after the snack. The horse was just faster to run away than the man. Maybe the horse left its rider to his doom. If that happened, that was a smarter horse than most. ¡°The gossips are saying that you took a lot of dynamite back north,¡± said the bartender. ¡°There was a big hole in the ground up there,¡± said Chandler. ¡°Now, it¡¯s a lake next to the river. If it stays like that, your problem should be solved.¡± ¡°What if it doesn¡¯t stay like that?,¡± asked the bartender. ¡°Send for the Calvary and tell them to bring all the cannons they can,¡± said Chandler. ¡°Can I have another shot? I have to be moving along.¡± ¡°The town needs a new sheriff,¡± said the bartender. He poured another splash of whiskey into the glass. ¡°I¡¯m not ready to settle down anywhere yet, and I attract trouble,¡± said Chandler. ¡°There¡¯s a place up north I have to see before too much longer. I might sail out to see what I can see.¡± ¡°Good luck with that,¡± said the bartender. ¡°You saved the town. People won¡¯t forget.¡± ¡°They won¡¯t even know,¡± said Chandler. He downed the drink in a gulp. ¡°Hold me a spot for the next time I come through. Get better whiskey.¡± Chandler turned and walked out of the saloon. He pulled his hat down and gathered the reins of his horse. He mounted and pointed his horse north again. The horse expressed its opinion. ¡°I know,¡± said Chandler. He smiled. ¡°But we¡¯re not coming back this time.¡± The horse flicked its ear in disbelief. ¡°Trust me,¡± said Chandler. ¡°We¡¯ve done all we can. The rest is up to the town to put everything together. Hopefully they will have something else when the silver runs out.¡± The King let his horse set the pace. He wasn¡¯t in a hurry. If the animal wanted to walk the whole way, he was good with that. Eventually they would run into something else that needed his touch. It was fate. He dwelled on old memories as he rode out of the town. He drifted by the mining camp without a thought. He reached the limit of the habitation and kept going. He figured he would make camp when the horse refused to walk any more. He could roll up in a blanket and sleep without eating one night on the road. A hearty breakfast in the morning would fix any hunger and get him ready to get back on the road. It wouldn¡¯t be the first time. The moon was high in the sky when the horse picked a place it didn¡¯t want to leave. Chandler gave it some of the feed he had packed, and some water. Then he pulled the saddle off and used that for a pillow as he settled in on the ground. He watched the sky, wondering what the future would bring. Would he keep walking the world when everything else had crumbled away to nothing around him? Would he find what he was looking for in that unknown time? Would he be the last one left out of his contemporaries? He talked things over with himself as he waited for sleep to take him to the land of memory. Maybe he would see his descendants there. Some of his lives had produced offspring. He didn¡¯t know where every one of them happened to be in the world. He thought he would know them when he saw them thanks to his special dispensation. He smiled as he drifted away. He had walked the world, life to life for thousands of years. He saw no end in sight for him. The best he could do was keep walking, try to fix any problem he could, defend humanity from things that shouldn¡¯t be there. Moving into dreams, he saw his lives stretch out behind him from the original King of a forgotten people who had been destroyed by a hand from another reality to who he was now. He didn¡¯t see his next life, but felt it coming closer. He would be stepping into it soon. He could feel it. That wasn¡¯t his concern. He already knew the curse of the King was to die fighting. It had pursued him all of his life so far. From slavery, to war, to banditry and revenge as the West was opened for settlers against the Indians, he had already put down a number of bad men who needed it. Going down in battle against a menace to the world was the most he could expect. He knew the rest of his lives would be doing more of the same. Humanity hadn¡¯t really changed all that much from when his kingdom had existed. It had just changed the tools it used to go about its business. On the other hand, he hadn¡¯t changed that much over the years either. Doctor Strangehold, Ectoplasmic Detective 1 Doctor Dale Strangehold pulled his Packard to the curb away from the police line. He sat back in his seat. He wondered why he had been called. He imagined the scene must be out of the ordinary in some way. He checked his pocket watch. He had time before he had to meet his grandchildren. Timmy and Tooty had afterschool activities at their school. And the school was far enough away from his house that he was obliged to pick them up. He admitted that he had never considered having children living with him before he had met the siblings. He had kept an eye on his relatives from afar, and when their parents died, he offered to take them in as a relative so they didn¡¯t have to go to an orphanage, or foster parents. Sometimes he wondered if he made the right decision. He got out of the car. He didn¡¯t have time to regret decisions in the past. He had lived a few hundred years and had enough regrets to fill a stack of books. Now he had to be sharp. Later he could think about things over some port and trace back how he arrived at this point in his elderly life. He straightened his jacket and frilly shirt cuffs and headed for the policemen keeping people away from whatever had happened. One of the patrolmen, Acuff, recognized him and waved him through. He headed inside an apartment building of brick and concrete. He counted four rows of windows and figured at least four floors with two apartments on either side of the central staircase. He found another set of doors on the other side of the staircase when he looked at the front hall. So twelve apartments were in the building. He looked over to his left. A rack of mail slots confirmed twelve residences. ¡°Third floor,¡± said a patrolman on guard at the bottom of the staircase. ¡°Three Bee.¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± said Strangehold. The police presence was more than he usually saw. He wondered what made this case stand out. He headed upstairs. Three detectives stood in the hall. They had reams of notes in their hands. One noted Strangehold and waved him to their circle. The door to the crime scene blocked its contents from view. ¡°How¡¯s it going, Doc?,¡± said Sergeant Roscoe Burly. He chewed on a small stogie as he looked down at his notes. ¡°It¡¯s fine, Sergeant,¡± said Strangehold. He nodded at the younger detectives. He knew they didn¡¯t want to call him. He could see it in their eyes. They wanted to solve this, and get the credit. Burly, on the force for twenty years, joining up right after the war, carrying a little bit more weight from that twenty years and a little less hair, didn¡¯t care about credit at this point. He was never going to get promoted any higher so it was easier to call a consultant to get a leg up than flounder on a murder that might never get solved otherwise. And certain experiences had made Burly swifter than other police to call when something was weirder than usual. ¡°It¡¯s a murder, Doc,¡± said Burly. ¡°I need your impression of the crime scene, and anything you can give us.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°Has your technicians already gone through everything?¡± ¡°Yep,¡± said Burly. ¡°We had to move the rest of the body out before you got here. You¡¯ll understand when you see the scene.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°I¡¯ll have to look at it when I¡¯m done here.¡± ¡°I got you clearance with Fern,¡± said Burly. ¡°He¡¯ll be waiting for you down at the morgue.¡± Strangehold nodded. Fern was the head of the coroners that serviced the city and county. He would share whatever findings without comment. Burly opened the door for his consultant to step into the crime scene. The doctor winced at the damage from the door before stepping in and taking a good look around. He shook his head at the wreck of an apartment. He could see why the sergeant had called him. This looked like the work of a monster. And he dealt with monsters as part of his advocation. Strangehold looked everything over, careful not to step in any splashed blood. He expected the victim to be missing one limb at least. He examined the wrecked furniture and decided that the victim might have tried to fight back, but maybe was used as some kind of bludgeon. Vampires and werewolves were neater than this for the most part. He concentrated for a moment. Currents of life stroked the air. Pieces of goo floated around him. He watched as they assembled themselves into the last few visitors and went about their last acts in the apartment. Then he saw the beast ripping the place apart, and thought the victim never had a chance against the thing. The thing went to the door and shrank into someone else that the victim had opened the door to admit. The image was a blur to the doctor. He frowned. The murderer had knocked on the door and looked nonthreatening to the victim until the attack. Was it a planned attack, or something that had come through some casual encounter? The obvious motive seemed like hunger. The problem was a hungry monster usually didn¡¯t knock on the door of their victim¡¯s home and attack before walking away. Something like that usually attacked more than one victim. A vampire was capable of doing such a thing, but they left far less blood than this. Matter of fact, the smarter ones rarely left a body anymore. If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. He stepped out of the crime scene. He didn¡¯t have much to go on. He should look at the body. He checked his pocket watch. He needed to pick up the kids pretty soon. What did he tell Burly? The sergeant was going to try to track this person down. That would lead to a confrontation with the other half. Would silver bullets help in this case? It couldn¡¯t hurt since a long line of monsters wouldn¡¯t survive silver entering their body. Would the monster think that the police had an expert on the scene? He probably counted on his human disguise to protect him. No one suspected the small man of ripping a big man¡¯s arm off. It defied nature. He reviewed the scene one more time before checking his pocket watch. He had to get moving if he didn¡¯t want to be late to pick up the kids. He could talk to Fern after dropping them off at the house. ¡°Did you get anything?,¡± Burly asked when he stepped outside in the hall. ¡°The murderer knocked on the door, and appeared nonthreatening to the resident,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°He commenced his attack as soon as the resident opened the door. The actual murder took place in the living room next to the door. The rest of the scene comes from the brawl and the eating.¡± ¡°Some kind of werewolf?,¡± asked Burly. ¡°I don¡¯t know, but it could change its look almost immediately,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°You don¡¯t see that with most werewolves.¡± ¡°What do you think about the mask side of things?,¡± asked Burly. ¡°A small human,¡± Strangehold said. ¡°I couldn¡¯t tell the gender. There wasn¡¯t enough in the air for that. I wouldn¡¯t let anyone approach if I were you.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll put the word out they shouldn¡¯t approach,¡± said Burly. ¡°That might make the beat patrolmen cautious enough to save their lives.¡± ¡°If this thing comes at them, they won¡¯t have time to shoot before they get ripped up,¡± cautioned Strangehold. ¡°We¡¯ve seen the speed of these things. And if they are immune to regular bullets, a man has no chance.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± said Burly. ¡°The whole department will be aware that we are looking for a small murderer and to keep their distance.¡± ¡°I have to pick up my grandchildren,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°I¡¯ll talk to Fern afterwards. I can¡¯t imagine he missed anything with a scene like this.¡± ¡°I have to get the machine running,¡± said Burly. ¡°I¡¯ll call if something shows up.¡± ¡°This might not be the last victim,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°If he lives in the city, he might be looking for another victim right now. We have no idea how much time between kills we have.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not great,¡± said Burly. ¡°I¡¯ll make sure you¡¯re called when another scene is discovered.¡± Strangehold nodded. There were bound to be other victims. That was what usually followed a scene like the one he had just examined. A panic would lead to accidental deaths, and murders disguised as what he had seen. There was nothing he could do about any of that until he amassed enough clues from the crime scenes to point them at one monster. He hoped he could find out how the monster decided its victims with the next victim. That would allow him to spring some kind of trap eventually. A dumb monster always picked a central ground to hunt. That made it easier to hunt back. A smart monster hunted according to what it wanted. Strangehold walked back to his Packard. He had bought the car right before the second world war. It had carried him into battle for two decades. It would carry him another two decades if he was careful with it. He got behind the wheel and drove to Timmy and Tooty¡¯s school. He still had plenty of time, so avoided pushing his car to its limit. The rest of the night had been decided for him. He had to drop them off at home, then talk to Fern. He might circle back to the crime scene and see if he could pick up anything else. That would allow him to throw a net out so he could grasp some kind of trail. He doubted that would do anything but you never knew. Sometimes something was overlooked. And that gave you a trail to follow back to your monster. He certainly was not going to call Burly if he did find the trail. They didn¡¯t need to know what had happened until it was over. Letting them trail him around would just put them in danger while he was trying to deal with his adversary. The last thing he wanted was to be responsible for was dead policemen. He pulled to a stop in front of Middleton Middle School and checked his watch. He was a little bit early. That was fine. He wondered what his grandchildren thought of him. They probably thought he was an old duffer that needed to do more than consult on medical and police mysteries. He smiled at that. He had thought the same about his own parents when he was learning medicine, and how to navigate the world on his own. Tooty came out, waving at him. She had a duffel bag of school books and required material for her classes. She had decided to join the band for her extracurricular activity. Strangehold got out and opened the trunk of the Packard. He placed the bag in and made strapped it down. ¡°What homework do you have to do?,¡± he asked. ¡°I have a lot of reading to do,¡± said Tooty. She climbed in the back. ¡°Have you thought of getting a new car?¡± ¡°No,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°They don¡¯t make them like this any more. A friend of mine made sure that it¡¯s tougher than the cars that are on the road now.¡± ¡°I guess that¡¯s okay,¡± said Tooty. ¡°Why does it have to be tougher?¡± ¡°So I can ram monsters and kill them,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°What kind of reading do you have to do?¡± ¡°Oliver Twist,¡± said Tooty. ¡°The orphan child that makes good and ends better than he started,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°Did you have to read when you were growing up?,¡± asked Tooty. ¡°Yes,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°We had to read the Latin version of the Aeneid.¡± ¡°What¡¯s that?,¡± asked Tooty. ¡°It¡¯s the story of how survivors of Troy founded Rome,¡± said the doctor. He checked his pocket watch. ¡°I have to do a visitation. Can you two look out for yourselves until I get home?¡± ¡°Sure,¡± said Tooty. ¡°I¡¯m teaching Tim how to cook.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°How is he doing?¡± ¡°He could be way better,¡± said the granddaughter. ¡°Still, he knows how to scramble eggs now.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said the doctor. ¡°Here he comes. Let me take you two home, then I have to visit Doctor Fern.¡± Strangehold went and opened the trunk for Tim¡¯s much smaller bag. He made sure it was strapped down so it wouldn¡¯t move. His grandson got in the back seat beside his sister. Strangehold got behind the wheel and headed for home. Once, he had the kids situated, he still had to drive across town to the morgue. He doubted that the coroner would be able to tell him something that he hadn¡¯t already seen with his viewing. Still he wanted to be sure. Ectoplasm didn¡¯t always duplicate everything as evidenced by the way the human side had blurred out before and after the attack. There might have been some kind of physical evidence he could use to track his quarry down. He might need to load his blunderbuss if he wanted to face this thing without police assistance. His ability helped him, but he doubted it would stand up to the type of onslaught he had been called in to investigate. He might need to see if he had silver bullets laying around when he got home. ¡°Working for the cops again?,¡± asked Timmy. He leaned back in the backseat. ¡°Someone was murdered in a way that suggested I needed to be consulted,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°I¡¯m hoping Doctor Fern saw something I didn¡¯t.¡± ¡°Do you need us to help out?,¡± asked Timmy. ¡°No,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°Part of our agreement was for you not to get involved in what I do and have a normal life.¡± ¡°I know,¡± said Timmy. ¡°But I still have the bat. It would be great for this.¡± ¡°I would rather you carry on the family name,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°In a few years, we¡¯ll talk about possible apprenticing, but monster hunting scars people. It¡¯s not something you should do on a whim.¡± Doctor Strangehold, Ectoplasmic Detective 2 Doctor Strangehold parked his car outside of the medical examiner¡¯s office. The square block of a building sat next to Middleton University¡¯s Medical School, and the hospital the university used to train their students. A few visits to the morgue went with that. Strangehold frequently visited both to keep his training up so he could keep his license as a doctor. He admitted he had forgotten more old techniques with the advent of newer practices. The guard on duty waved him through to the working part of the morgue. He nodded as he walked back to the colder part of the building. ¡°Strangehold,¡± said Doctor Robert Fern. He had on an apron and hair protector. ¡°Burly said this was one of your cases.¡± ¡°How bad does it look, Robert,¡± said Strangehold. He knew it was bad from his reading and from the way Fern winced at the question. ¡°It¡¯s worse than some of the car accidents I have seen,¡± said Fern. He waved for his visitor to follow him back to where the bodies were kept in a walk-in refrigerator before they were released, or turned over to the city for burial. ¡°The autopsy was short because of what I had to work with.¡± Strangehold nodded. The cause of death was obvious. The only thing that needed to be reported was physical injuries. The injuries themselves would look like some kind of animal attack. It would be put down as a big animal like a grizzly, or some kind of panther. The speed of the attack would be unknown to Fern so he would only think about some kind of wild animal, or an escaped zoo animal. He would never think of anything like a werewolf, or a skinwearer. Before Stranghold started hunting monsters, he would have never thought about anything like that either. Time and experience had changed his position. It was hard to deny something, when you had killed its cousin several times. Fern opened the refrigerator. He led the way down the rows of shelves full of bags. He paused beside one and checked the tag. He opened it up and stepped back. Strangehold looked at the remains of a body in the bag. It was hard to tell if it had even started out human. He noted the remaining arm and hand. He frowned at the damage. Not even werewolves did this much damage. ¡°This is the worst I have ever seen,¡± said Strangehold. He stepped back from the bag. ¡°I have seen several attacks like this, but nothing so drastic.¡± ¡°I know,¡± said Fern. He closed the bag up. ¡°Whatever did that was moving fast. That and that it was big are the only things I can testify to in court. The rest is pure guesswork.¡± ¡°I have to agree,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°Most animal attacks I have seen aren¡¯t that thorough. Usually to get to that requires days, and a horde of scavengers raiding the body.¡± ¡°How did a wild animal get to the guy¡¯s apartment to do that?,¡± said Fern. ¡°I¡¯m going to say somebody brought it in the building, and took it with them when they left,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°I have to do some errands, and then check on my grandchildren. I¡¯ll let you know if I find anything to contradict your findings.¡± ¡°Good luck with that,¡± said Fern. He followed his colleague out of the freezer. He locked it down with a padlock when they were both outside. Strangehold nodded as he walked down the hall. He wouldn¡¯t be bringing any evidence to show what they were dealing with to be given to the general public. He would simply go about his business and make sure Burly found enough evidence to close the case. The culprit would never see the inside of a human court the way things looked at the moment. Strangehold got into his car and drove back to the apartment building. There was a chance there was enough ectoplasm left in the scene to give him some kind of clue. He needed more to put a face on his quarry. He parked where he had parked when he had first arrived at the apartment. The sun had gone down, and dark shadows dominated the street in a way that made the street lights look dim. He went inside and headed up to the apartment. He tried the knob. Burly had locked the scene up to keep out rubberneckers. He thought that was a good precaution in case their culprit came back for whatever reason. He summoned up the free floating ectoplasm in the air. It was enough to summon his extra arms. He concentrated on the lock. One of his spongy hands squeezed into the lock. He felt around until he was sure he could push the tumblers out of the way. He stepped inside the apartment and started going over everything with his normal senses first. Nothing had changed as far as he could tell. He didn¡¯t envy the person having to clean this up and trying to get rid of the smell. He exhaled a breath. Solid wisps danced through the air. He concentrated on the door. He needed a clearer view of the murderer before the change. He could get a picture for Burly to post as part of a newscast. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. He frowned as the ectoplasm warped when it reached the door. It refused to give him anything more than a blank. He had seen that before. Usually the person was also using ectoplasm in some way. Maybe it was someone creating a monster from inside. Ectoplasm could be used to build a body. It put a more human motive on the murder, unless the murderer was a cannibal instead of someone using a weird murder method. He would have to look at people who knew the victim and work his way outward. Somewhere they had crossed paths. He just needed to find that point and work his way back to the killer. Burly would have a small background check done by now. He should get a list of names from the detective and start working on it. Just because he had killed his target, that didn¡¯t mean he would stop. And being human didn¡¯t stop him from being a monster that needed to be put down. Strangehold pulled in his ectoplasm. He should see if Burly was still at his station house. Then he needed to get home. He had to check on the kids to make sure they had their homework done. He could start looking around for his murderer in the daytime. He locked the apartment behind him, and walked down to his car. He checked his pocketwatch as he went. He had time to check in with Burly, and get home before the kids¡¯ bedtime. Should he just try to call from the house? He decided to drive by the station on the way home. It wasn¡¯t that far out of his way. If Burly wasn¡¯t there, he would try again in the morning. He got behind the wheel and pulled away from the curb. He crossed the center of town, pulling in a visitor¡¯s slot in front of the station. He headed inside, waving at the desk sergeant. The detective squad had a room upstairs they used as an office. He doubted everyone would be out on calls. He pushed into the squadroom, taking in officers working on cases. He knew they would be heading home as soon as they finished their reports. He spotted Burly in a little office in the back of the room. He was typing up a report on the typewriter the city had given him when he made detective. Strangehold walked back to the office and knocked on the frame of the opened door. Burly waved him in. ¡°I don¡¯t have long, Sergeant,¡± said the doctor. ¡°Do you have a list of colleagues for the victim? I¡¯m going to have to look at them in the morning.¡± ¡°The only thing I got for Crenshaw is his workplace,¡± said Burly. ¡°The landlord said he didn¡¯t have anyone over ever. Went out every night.¡± ¡°We¡¯re dealing with someone who wanted him dead,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°I did another examination of the apartment. We¡¯re looking at a person who can manipulate the air. The monster was an affect instead of something you would see in the wild.¡± Strangehold didn¡¯t want to get into an explanation of ectoplasm, how it worked, and what it could be used for in the hands of an expert like himself. He didn¡¯t have the time, and Burly didn¡¯t really care. ¡°That¡¯s good and bad,¡± said Burly. ¡°It¡¯s good because he might stop with this one murder, and let things die down. It¡¯s bad because he might do it again and we have no idea who he is and what he wants.¡± ¡°Without a motive, we have nothing,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°The weird manner of the murder strikes me as significant, but I can¡¯t see how it¡¯s much better than a gun. I guess it confuses the issue which can only help our suspect.¡± ¡°It also narrows things down for us too,¡± said Burly. ¡°The only thing we have on the victim is his name is Adam Crenshaw. He lived at the apartment building for the last ten years. He worked for a printing service. No wants, nothing more than a traffic ticket on his record. Never been married. I don¡¯t have a line on relatives yet. He might not have any.¡± ¡°So we have to start at the printing service if we want to find out why he was killed,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°I guess I can go by tomorrow and look around.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll go by,¡± said Burly. ¡°They don¡¯t have to talk to either one of us, but at least I can get a warrant and seize anything we might need.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°If we trigger our murderer, I would suggest you move away from the scene. You don¡¯t want to get in the way if he can stop bullets from going through his monster.¡± ¡°Silver bullets?,¡± asked Burly. ¡°They might not work,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°On the other hand, they can¡¯t hurt either.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Burly. ¡°So looking around and asking questions at the printing service is the next step.¡± ¡°They might have a contact to call in his personnel file. That will help us find any relatives,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°If he has anybody, they should know they won¡¯t be able to see him again.¡± ¡°Good idea,¡± said Burly. ¡°I have to type in this status report, and then I¡¯m done for the day.¡± ¡°I have to get home and check on the kids,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°I don¡¯t want them to have problems because I am chasing things in the dark.¡± ¡°I know,¡± said Burly. ¡°I¡¯ll pick you up in the morning, and then we¡¯ll hit the printing company. It should be a snap.¡± ¡°You know better than that,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°I¡¯ll see you in the morning.¡± He made his way out of the station. He put the problem out of his mind. He didn¡¯t have anything to work on except he was facing another ectoplasm user. Methods to disrupt the process could be used. Strangehold drove home, listening to a station specializing in classical music. When he was younger, he never imagined this piece would be with him so far in the future. He didn¡¯t think that it would last longer than his generation as new people were born and forgot what had happened before. It was funny how life worked out. He pulled the Packard into the garage he had constructed behind the main house. It had started as a cottage, but he had added on to the building until it loomed over the street. When he had settled in, there hadn¡¯t been that many houses around. Now they stretched as far as the eye could see. He entered the back of the house. The kids had toasted sandwiches on plates, and milk. He raised eyebrows at the dinner. ¡°I¡¯m teaching Tim how not to burn baloney,¡± said Tooty. She picked up a chopped section of her dinner and took a bite. ¡°I see,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°Homework?¡± ¡°Still working on it,¡± said Tooty. ¡°Done,¡± said Tim. ¡°Do you need a review?,¡± asked Strangehold. ¡°Mrs. Franks will go over it tomorrow,¡± said Tim. He took a bite out of one of his sandwiches. ¡°Any mistakes I made will be corrected in class.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°I¡¯m done for the day. I have to go out with Burly and talk to some people tomorrow. So far we have nothing to go on in this case.¡± ¡°Is it bad?,¡± asked Tooty. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°It¡¯s a weird murder weapon for sure. I haven¡¯t seen anything quite like it.¡± ¡°We can help out,¡± said Timmy. ¡°No,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°There¡¯s nothing to help with at the moment. I have no idea how to find this person at the moment. And you still have to be ready for school tomorrow. I¡¯ll let you know if I need help with anything.¡± ¡°I never get to have any fun,¡± said Timmy. ¡°And you never will,¡± said Tooty. Doctor Strangehold, Ectoplasmic Detective 3 Strangehold took the kids to an early breakfast at a diner on the way to school. He bundled them out at the school, making sure they were ready to go. Then he drove home and retired to his meditation room at the top of his house. He needed to take a minute to get ready for his day. He reached inside and charged up the ectoplasm he used to keep his longevity. He knew that it would eventually fade to being unuseful and he would start aging again. There was nothing he could do about that. He had to concentrate on helping others in the amount of time he had left. He at least wanted to hang on to see his grandchildren reach adulthood and head out on their own without him. Once he was recharged, he made sure he was presentable. He made himself a cup of coffee as he watched for Sergeant Burly to arrive. He hoped there wasn¡¯t any problems at Crenshaw¡¯s employer. They needed some kind of lead to their killer, and his work might be the only way to get it. His home hadn¡¯t provided any clue. The only fact that helped them eliminate suspects was that he didn¡¯t have visitors. So how had his killer found him. That put something of an onus on the people in the apartment building. Either one of them knew enough to create the ectoplasmic disguise, or they didn¡¯t. Once the visit to the printing service was over, he would have to go back to the apartment building and go over it again with an eye for that detail. The other thing was that Crenshaw never stayed home. Where did he go night after night? If they knew that, that would give them a suspect pool while eliminating other people. Strangehold would have to look into places around the building that catered to the night life. There was a chance that he was driving across town. People did that, but usually with a goal in mind. He had a mental list of what they needed to know. He had no way to find any of that out unless he tried to use ectoplasm to trail Crenshaw around on his nightly wanderings. That would be something if he could do it, but he doubted there would be enough traces in the air to give him a viable picture. Too many people would have already passed through where Crenshaw went and mixed their own traces in. Ectoplasm was good for a lot of things as a manifestation of energy from inside a person¡¯s body. Tracking people across the city was not one of them unless something was added to the mix. Strangehold washed his cup out when he saw the unmarked sedan pull up in front of his house. He walked back through and stepped outside as Burly got out of the car. The sergeant nodded. ¡°I looked this place up on a city map,¡± said Burly. ¡°It¡¯s out in the sticks.¡± ¡°The faster we get this done, the better it will be,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°I still have to pick up the kids after school.¡± ¡°I called Crenshaw¡¯s bank before coming out here,¡± said Burly. He got back in the car and waited for Strangehold to get in. ¡°They won¡¯t let me have a thing without a warrant. I¡¯m going to have to get one to see if he was spending money he wasn¡¯t supposed to have.¡± ¡°I doubt this was a stranger killing,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°The signs point to someone he knew. So someone at his building, his work, or wherever he went every night has to be the murderer. If we had some kind of motive, we could pinpoint who, but the only motive I can see is personal hate for the victim which seems odd.¡± ¡°Why odd?,¡± said Burly. ¡°According to the manager of his building, he was never home,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°Who did he encounter in there that hated him so much when he never saw anyone? In my experience, neighbor issues are brought about by people rubbing against each other.¡± ¡°So his coworkers and anybody at his watering hole are his prime suspects,¡± said Burly. ¡°We¡¯ll find out why when we have enough evidence to point at who,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°The real problem is will we be able to prove things in a court. I can prove ectoplasm is real, but I can¡¯t make someone cough it up on demand.¡± This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. ¡°So we need something that will prove conclusive guilt without bringing in the giant disguise bit,¡± said Burly. ¡°That¡¯s going to be a hard sell for the D.A.¡± ¡°It¡¯s worse than you think,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°How can it be worse than what I think?,¡± asked Burly. ¡°The person we are looking for will be physically unable to do the damage we saw,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°The defense will want us to prove that the culprit could rip a man apart.¡± ¡°And that¡¯s going to be impossible to do, isn¡¯t it?,¡± said Burly. ¡°And dangerous to try,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°The murderer can create his effect almost instantaneously which could be bad for us if we do uncover his real identity.¡± Burly didn¡¯t need that spelled out. He had seen enough to know he was being advised to shoot first if he ran into a giant thing, and just take retirement after he explained why he had been afraid of someone smaller than him. The department might cover it up, but he would be done if he spouted off about a giant monster disguise that vanished when the wearer was dead. He drove on in silence. Worrying about retirement meant little if he didn¡¯t live to see it. Burly pulled into the parking lot of the Frakes Printing Company and parked. The building was a gray cube with a rampart of red with the company name in giant white letters. The only windows were in the front, next to the glass front door. ¡°I hope this guy had some friends,¡± said Burly. ¡°We could use something beyond what we got right now.¡± ¡°I hope he had someone who is an obvious enemy so we know who had the most reason to kill him,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°I doubt he will be wearing a sign,¡± said Burly. ¡°I¡¯m a murderer. Arrest me.¡± ¡°We can¡¯t make the policeman¡¯s job easier,¡± said Strangehold. He led the way to the front door. He hoped he didn¡¯t have to fight a duel in the middle of a crowd of people. Someone was bound to be hurt. ¡°How you doing?,¡± said Burly to the front lady. He showed her his badge. ¡°Is your boss in? We have some questions about an employee.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll have to call the office,¡± said the counter person. ¡°He might be walking the floor.¡± ¡°Go ahead,¡± said Burly. ¡°We¡¯ll probably need to talk to someone in Personnel also.¡± She called up from the desk. She talked to whomever was on the other end for a minute, then nodded to herself. She concluded with I¡¯ll send them right up before hanging up the phone. ¡°Mildred said Mister Frakes is upstairs in his office,¡± said the counter lady. ¡°She said she would tell him that you were coming up.¡± ¡°Thank you very much,¡± said Burly. He smiled, and they walked behind the counter, through the door separating the public area from the work space. The detective followed the signs to a set of concrete and metal stairs leading to a box above the machines and crews on the floor. They spotted a woman behind a desk through a window that ran around the cube. She waved for them to step inside. They did, noticing how much quieter the office was compared to the floor below. ¡°Mister Frakes is waiting for you,¡± said the secretary. ¡°Go inside.¡± Burly pushed open the door and they stepped inside an office that had a great view of the floor below and the ceiling. Frakes looked like a pear on legs with half his hair gone, and the rest looking for a life boat. He stood behind his desk. ¡°Hello,¡± said Burly. ¡°I¡¯m Sergeant Burly. This is Doctor Strangehold. We¡¯re here to talk to you about Allan Crenshaw. We were wondering what you could tell us about him.¡± ¡°Crenshaw worked in the design office on the other side of the facility,¡± said Frakes. ¡°I don¡¯t know a lot about him. I don¡¯t really remember any complaints from his supervisor. What is this about?¡± ¡°Mister Crenshaw was killed at his home,¡± said Burly. ¡°We¡¯re trying to find out what we can about him. His neighbors appear to have never seen him more than a few minutes at a time.¡± ¡°Ed Dorsey is the design head,¡± said Frakes. ¡°He would be Crenshaw¡¯s direct supervisor.¡± ¡°Can we talk to him?,¡± said Burly. He made a note in his pad. ¡°Also we would like to look at Crenshaw¡¯s file. We need to know if he had any relatives that need to be called.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll have Mildred pull it,¡± said Frakes. He backed the words with a call to his secretary. ¡°How did Crenshaw die?¡± ¡°We¡¯re still trying to find what the murder weapon was,¡± said Burly. ¡°You¡¯ve never seen the man?¡± ¡°Not since I went over his application with him,¡± said Frakes. ¡°He came from HPU with a degree in design work. His only recommendation was his professor. Dorsey would have called to let me know if there was a problem, or if he was going to fire the guy.¡± Mildred came in with the file. She handed it off to Frakes before leaving. He handed it to Burly. The detective did a quick scan. He handed it to Strangehold before pulling out his notebook and pen. ¡°You said his only recommendation was his professor¡¯s?,¡± said Burly. ¡°Do you happen to remember the name?¡± ¡°It was Coley I think,¡± said Frakes. ¡°I asked him why he didn¡¯t have anyone else. He said this was his first try at a job in the field. His professor was the only one who would vouch for him.¡± Strangehold scanned the thin file and frowned at the lack of information there. He and Burly had already uncovered most of this at the crime scene. There wasn¡¯t even a next of kin listed in case something happened to him on the job. ¡°We would like to talk to Mister Dorsey, and see if he can tell us anything,¡± said Burly. ¡°We might have more questions later. I¡¯m not sure right now since we¡¯re just starting our investigation.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be glad to help you any way I can,¡± said Frakes. ¡°I¡¯ll call down to let Ed know you¡¯re on the way.¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± said Burly. Strangehold handed the file back. He discarded Frakes as a suspect just on his appearance. They needed someone slimmer, and shorter. A disguise might be possible, but he was sure he would sense the ectoplasm being urged to settle in place. Doctor Strangehold, Ectoplasmic Detective 4 Strangehold and Burly looked the work area over as they walked through to the private office set aside for the manager of the section, Ed Dorsey. He stood at the door and waited for them to cross the distance. The doctor judged he was thin enough, but too tall. They were looking for someone shorter in height. Some of the people working at their design tables might fit the bill, but they were all sitting down and it was hard to say how tall they were. He doubted he could ask them all to stand up so he could measure them against a door frame. They had to rule out everyone they could while they were there. Then they could work on the ones that fit the body type of the killer. Then trying to figure out a way to trap the killer would have to be done. Strangehold let Burly ask Dorsey the normal questions. He didn¡¯t have a lot himself. He was more concerned checking for ectoplasm in the air. Free floating ectoplasm could be from anything. He could narrow it down to something specific to tie to someone. Strands of the stuff around someone in particular was a good indicator that person was his murderer. That wasn¡¯t that great an indicator if the culprit had learned to hide his energy gathering from others. All it would take was internal storage with the body covering the esoteric material with his own life. Burly asked to see the victim¡¯s desk. Maybe there was something there they could use. Dorsey agreed to the search. He had nothing against Crenshaw, and the boss wanted him to help out. The dead man¡¯s desk was covered with pictures of clubs. Some had men with musical instruments. Strangehold ran his hand through the air in front of the photos. Nothing leaped out at him. Burly took notes about the desk as he sat in the dead man¡¯s chair. He made sure to copy any names he found in the small rolodex on a file cabinet. ¡°Some of these clubs have closed,¡± said Burly. ¡°Bought out, or closed down by the city.¡± ¡°This could be where he was spending his time at night,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°I wonder how good a musician he was. I didn¡¯t see an instrument in his apartment.¡± ¡°Why was he keeping it away from his neighbors?,¡± said Burly. ¡°Would they care that he was a musician? Would that even be a problem?¡± ¡°We could be looking for some kind of rival at one of these clubs,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°He could have been ruining some other player just by playing.¡± ¡°And they rip the guy to pieces?,¡± said Burly. ¡°It depends on how they started powering their ectoplasm to make their disguise,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°We might be looking for someone who uses these masks for different things like playing music, or athletics, or even medicine like myself.¡± ¡°So instead of a werewolf, we might be looking for a Lon Chaney?,¡± said Burly. ¡°I don¡¯t think I like that at all.¡± ¡°It will make things more difficult,¡± admitted the doctor. ¡°I need to check these clubs. If I can identify the murderer, maybe we can construct a trap for him.¡± ¡°What are you doing at Allan¡¯s desk?,¡± asked a woman coming down the aisle with a cup of coffee in her hand. ¡°I¡¯m Sergeant Burly from the police department,¡± said the detective. ¡°Mister Crenshaw had an accident and we¡¯re trying to determine what happened. Can I have your name?¡± ¡°I¡¯m Lisa Raye,¡± said the woman. She put the cup down on a nearby desk before she dropped it. ¡°I¡¯m a storyboarder here at the printer. I draw cartoons to show the advertisers what a commercial would look like if we did one. I also do graphic art for signs and things.¡± ¡°Television ads?,¡± asked Burly. ¡°I know it seems confusing but the company does all kinds of ads for everything,¡± said Raye. ¡°We do ads for television, the radio, newspapers, magazine inserts, anything that comes our way. There is a small studio for the television and radio stuff a few blocks over.¡± ¡°Did Mister Crenshaw work on any of those?,¡± asked Burly. ¡°He played music for some of the radio ads,¡± said Raye. ¡°He is a trumpeter.¡± ¡°Have you known Mister Crenshaw long?,¡± asked Burly. He leaned against the desk. ¡°Just the two years he¡¯s worked here,¡± said Raye. ¡°He¡¯s a good draftsman, and great at coming up with ideas to match what Mister Dorsey asks for as far as the customer wants.¡± ¡°His neighbors said he was never home,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°Did he talk to you about that?¡± ¡°He liked playing at some of the clubs,¡± said Raye. ¡°He said he was just good enough to sit in on a jam session, but not good enough to start his own band.¡± ¡°We¡¯re still at the start of our investigation and don¡¯t really know much about Mister Crenshaw,¡± said Burly. ¡°Is there any club he sat in regularly? We¡¯ll need to talk to the people there to see if they know anything.¡± If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. ¡°I don¡¯t understand,¡± said Raye. ¡°I thought this was an accident.¡± ¡°Right now, we don¡¯t know what happened, why it happened, or if Mister Crenshaw had any life outside of this building,¡± said Burly. ¡°We don¡¯t know what he was doing before he was hurt, or if anyone saw him get hurt in the first place. So we have to dig into his personal stuff a little to see if there was anything untoward going on.¡± ¡°Allan can¡¯t tell you what happened?,¡± asked Raye. ¡°No, he can¡¯t,¡± said Burly. ¡°Until he can, we have to act like he never will be able to tell us and look around. And if he can tell us at a later date, that will make it easier because we¡¯ll have looked in that direction already.¡± ¡°I see,¡± said Raye. ¡°He liked playing at the Note and Robin¡¯s Nest.¡± She pointed at cards for the clubs on Crenshaw¡¯s desk. ¡°He was supposed to go to the Note¡¯s next open mike night,¡± said Raye. ¡°I heard him talking to himself about what song he should play.¡± ¡°Is there anyone else we can talk to for more information?,¡± asked Burly. ¡°Allan didn¡¯t talk to other people that much,¡± said Raye. ¡°He told me he found it hard to talk about himself. The only reason I know about the music is Mister Dorsey asked for volunteers for the radio ad, and he jumped at the chance.¡± ¡°And he was good enough to keep doing that?,¡± asked Strangehold. ¡°I think so,¡± said Raye. ¡°I never got to go over myself. I wanted to, but I had deadlines with my own work. I did go to the Note one night and watched him play. He sounded better than the others that were trying out.¡± ¡°Thank you for your help,¡± said Burly. ¡°If I need to talk to you again, I can call you here?¡± ¡°I have a card,¡± said Raye. ¡°The company gave us a stack of them instead of a raise last year.¡± She went to her desk and opened the top drawer. She pulled out a deck of cards in a box. She took one of the cards out and handed it to Burly before putting the box back in the drawer. ¡°Thanks again,¡± said Burly. He put the card in his coat pocket. ¡°What are you going to do now?,¡± asked Raye. ¡°We¡¯re going to go down and talk to the people at these clubs and see if they know anything about Mister Crenshaw,¡± said Burly. ¡°When you have nothing, anything is good.¡± ¡°It was a pleasure to meet you, Miss Raye,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°Thank you for your time.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t remember your name,¡± said Raye. She frowned at the doctor in his Edwardian clothes. ¡°Doctor Dale Strangehold,¡± said the doctor. ¡°But I think we have taken enough of your time. We have more work to do before we can put things to rest.¡± Strangehold and Burly left for the door. The detective made notes in his notebook. He made sure to tell Dorsey to keep the victim¡¯s desk like it was in case they had to return for something else. And he had put a paperclip in the crack of the drawer in case he wanted to know if someone had searched the desk after their visit. A detective showing up might cause all kinds of reactions. ¡°What do you know about these clubs, Burly?,¡± asked Strangehold as they left the building. ¡°The Note is still going strong down by the Theaters,¡± said Burly. He frowned at the memory stirred by the other club. ¡°The Robin¡¯s Nest was where the Caulder murders happened, and it¡¯s been closed since then.¡± ¡°Gangland shootout?,¡± asked Strangehold. He had not been called in on that one. It wasn¡¯t strange enough to need his talents according to the police department, and what he read in the papers. ¡°Yeah,¡± said Burly. ¡°We never caught the guys either. No one wanted to come forward to give statements. The Caulders had a million holes in them from the looks of things. The word was their turf went to Sunny Castione, but someone whacked him too. Things started settling down after that.¡± ¡°Do you mind if we look at the Nest?,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°I have time before I have to pick up the kids after school.¡± ¡°Do you think you can solve the murders?,¡± asked Burly. ¡°Not after all this time,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°I¡¯m just interested in why Crenshaw was going there when it has been closed for years.¡± ¡°Good point,¡± said Burly. ¡°He might be related to the Caulders somehow. Apparently he didn¡¯t have family, and neither did they, but someone must have brought him into this world.¡± ¡°There may be a connection with Sunny Castione,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°We don¡¯t know enough about Crenshaw to put those pieces together yet.¡± ¡°The only other lead I can see is the professor,¡± said Burly. ¡°We may have to talk to him eventually, but right now we should look at the Nest, then see if we can dig up anything around the Caulders, or Castione,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°There may be a connection between them and Crenshaw, or the killer.¡± ¡°Maybe if he was hanging around the Nest, he dug up something no one wanted dug up,¡± said Burly. ¡°But it¡¯s a stretch.¡± ¡°We¡¯re not exactly drowning in clues,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°We need something to point us in the right direction. If we can explain where Crenshaw was going, it might point to motive for the crime.¡± ¡°Maybe he saw something at the Nest he wasn¡¯t supposed to,¡± said Burly. ¡°Maybe he saw a ghost.¡± ¡°That¡¯s possible,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°Maybe he saw the person who killed him practicing with his gift.¡± ¡°I like that as a motive if the guy didn¡¯t want people reporting him,¡± said Burly. ¡°I like it too,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°But why practice there other than it¡¯s abandoned? It would be better to practice in a place that allowed for secrecy.¡± ¡°Maybe he doesn¡¯t have a place like that,¡± pointed out Burly. ¡°Maybe the Nest is the only place he can practice at all. Protecting that would be enough to kill someone over if things escalated from words to fists.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°That¡¯s a possibility. We just don¡¯t know enough about what is going on.¡± ¡°So we go down to these clubs and see if anyone knows if Crenshaw had a problem with the other musicians, or patrons,¡± said Burly. ¡°Then I have to write up what we have so far, and you have to get the kids.¡± ¡°Sounds like a plan,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°And I will be home for George Burns,¡± said Burly. ¡°That¡¯s the best part of all this.¡± ¡°And I have classes to get ready for in the next two days,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°We¡¯re going over the heart.¡± ¡°I will take a rain check on that,¡± said Burly. ¡°Have fun.¡± ¡°Teaching is a reward in itself if you have the right students,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°What about the wrong students?,¡± asked the sergeant. ¡°You fail them and wish them the best of luck in their future endeavors,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°I can see that,¡± said Burly. They got in the car and drove out of the parking lot. Burly aimed for a section of town off the main roads where Downtown congregated. Smaller buildings and houses dotted the landscape. He pulled to the curb in front of a brick building with boarded over windows. A frame for a sign stood empty over the sidewalk. ¡°This is where the Nest used to be,¡± said Burly. He gestured at the deserted building. ¡°I doubt Crenshaw broke in there every night.¡± ¡°If you don¡¯t mind, I would like to go in and look around,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°Sometimes what you see isn¡¯t what¡¯s actually going on.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± said Burly. ¡°I don¡¯t think we need a warrant to snoop around.¡± ¡°Who would we serve such a paper to at this date?,¡± asked Strangehold. ¡°If we need to seize something, we can check who owns the building then.¡± ¡°Good point,¡± said Burly. They got out of the car and approached the former club. Doctor Strangehold, Ectoplasmic Detective 5 Strangehold examined the front door. If the victim was using that door, he had a key. He couldn¡¯t find any signs of forced entry. He tried the door, and nodded at it being locked. ¡°So he didn¡¯t use this door, or he had a key,¡± said the doctor. ¡°Let¡¯s see if the back entrance has been used.¡± ¡°Maybe he was meeting someone who did have a key,¡± said Burly. ¡°A possibility,¡± conceded Strangehold. He started walking down the narrow ally next to the former bar. ¡°Once we confirm it, we¡¯ll have someone we can consider a suspect which is more than what we have now.¡± And they had precious little at the moment. The doctor examined the back door. He didn¡¯t see any damage to the lock, or door. He tried the handle. Locked. ¡°So he had a key, or a way inside that left no damage to the lock,¡± said Strangehold. He put his hand over the lock, and summoned a strand of ectoplasm. He twisted his wrist, and the strand did the same inside the lock, moving all the tumblers out of the way so he could open the door with his other hand. Burly pulled a small flashlight out of his jacket pocket. He sent a beam into the dim kitchen area ahead of them. The doctor looked on the wall and found three switches. He tried them all. No lights snapped on. No one had kept up the power. ¡°It looks clean,¡± said Burly. ¡°Maybe the lady was wrong about Crenshaw coming here.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s look at the other rooms,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°Did anyone clean up after the shooting you told me about?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have any idea,¡± said Burly. Strangehold nodded. Someone might have cleaned the place up after the shooting. The fact that the club still stood abandoned might come from the victims and their cohort. They walked into the dining room and stage area of the club. A bar stood in front of the kitchen. Chandeliers had been put in, but they were dusty. Furniture and pictures had long been moved out. ¡°Someone has been here,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°The floor is clean of dust, the area around the bar also.¡± ¡°Whomever was here left their bottle,¡± said Burly. He pointed to a lone bottle of whiskey standing by itself where there should have been much more stored for use. ¡°So what do we know from our looking around?,¡± asked Strangehold. He turned in a circle, examining the room. ¡°We know someone has been in here,¡± said Burly. ¡°We can surmise it was our victim and at least one other person. Someone was drinking a little at least. That might not be Crenshaw. He didn¡¯t have any alcohol at his place.¡± ¡°We also know that Crenshaw told his coworker he came here to play,¡± said Strangehold. He knelt and studied the floor. ¡°No chairs, but there is an impression of a box.¡± ¡°Maybe it¡¯s a case of some kind,¡± said Burly. ¡°That goes with carrying an instrument.¡± ¡°I agree,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°Who did he play with here?¡± ¡°Good question,¡± said Burly. Strangehold raised a hand. He felt connections reach into the room and draw forth a fuzzy mist of yellow. He frowned. Someone had been practicing their skill, and draining the local life out of things. ¡°Our man was here at least some of the time,¡± said Strangehold. He tried to throw up an image. A sketchy silhouette emerged and then vanished. ¡°But there¡¯s not enough to tell us who he is.¡± ¡°Another musician, maybe?,¡± asked Burly. ¡°Maybe, or a fan,¡± said Strangehold. He released the ectoplasm and let it fade back into the background. ¡°I can see that,¡± said Burly. ¡°Who knew about the music part of this?¡± ¡°The people on the print company¡¯s orchestra, anybody at the other club, and anyone Crenshaw told,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°It¡¯s a pool but it¡¯s not as big as the entire city,¡± said Burly. ¡°You would never know a bunch of guys were killed in here.¡± If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°That¡¯s something strange too,¡± said the doctor. ¡°Let¡¯s look at the other club. Maybe we¡¯ll stir up something there.¡± ¡°I know,¡± said Burly. ¡°I feel like this is the more important place. The victim was here. The murderer was here. The other club could just be an off the books hustle.¡± ¡°We still have to rule it out,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°I don¡¯t like how low the ectoplasm is. Our murderer might have used it all up on his mask.¡± ¡°So he comes in here and drains off what he needs?,¡± asked Burly. ¡°Or he drained it from Crenshaw while Crenshaw played his instrument,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°Ectoplasm is from the living. And someone who knew how could transfer life from someone else to himself.¡± Strangehold didn¡¯t mention that the more living beings, the more ectoplasm would be in the air. The more people around, the more that could be drained and used. The murderer could be operating out of the other club, and Crenshaw had followed him back to this one and saw something that he shouldn¡¯t have. It suggested a motive, but he would have to rule any others out as they went. The ectoplasm angle just complicated things. If it wasn¡¯t present, he would have been able to actually see the murderer going about his business. And Crenshaw didn¡¯t seem to be a practitioner to be killed in the way he had been killed. He agreed with Burly that the deserted building seemed the more important place, but they should check on the other club. If ectoplasm was at both clubs, that would indicate their killer was at both clubs, moving among the musicians and staff without a problem. If they could hook anyone to Crenshaw, that would give them someone to check on until something better came along. His main consideration was the more people around, the bigger the flow of ectoplasm that could be present. And that would obscure things in its own way. ¡°Let¡¯s see about this other club,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°I will still have to pick up the twins after we¡¯re done.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll check with the uniforms in the area about any lights being on in here,¡± said Burly. ¡°I doubt they saw anything, but we might get lucky.¡± ¡°We¡¯re looking for someone slender and short,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°If he wore some kind of mask, we won¡¯t get an accurate description of what he was actually wearing, or what he looks like.¡± ¡°Slender and short won¡¯t get us much other than a starting point on whomever Crenshaw had hanging around when he played,¡± said Burly. ¡°I know,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°The mask pulled all of the natural energy in the room to it, but I think the blur I saw was a second effect.¡± ¡°What do you mean?,¡± asked Burly. ¡°It¡¯s possible that when our murderer powered up his disguise, he used a splash effect to keep from being recognized,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°Not many people think of doing that.¡± ¡°So he becomes Bigfoot while using that to make sure no one can get a good look at him?,¡± asked Burly. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure that¡¯s what he did,¡± said the doctor. ¡°We¡¯ll have to catch him in the act to prove it.¡± ¡°Which means we¡¯ll have to figure out who he is and trap him somehow,¡± said Burly. He led the way to the back door. ¡°And trying to spring the trap will have its own dangers,¡± said Strangehold. He took one last look around as he followed his friend out of the closed club. Burly made sure the triplock was thrown before they stepped outside. They might need to come back, but why leave the door open to anybody but their quarry. And he might miss their footprints in the dust. They might be able to identify him with a simple stakeout if they were patient enough. If he did see the prints, he would know someone had already tracked the club down. He might decide to set up somewhere else. Burly wanted to get the guy, but he didn¡¯t see a way from where they were. He glanced at the doctor. The man rubbed his chin as he thought. The detective shrugged a little. The other club was the only other place with someone who knew the victim. Maybe they would get lucky and find someone who knew Crenshaw and the musicians he played with enough to jump start the case. If they couldn¡¯t find out anything, he doubted that any of his suspects would open up and confess to the deed. It would make his job that much easier if the criminals would do that. Strangehold locked the club up again and followed the sergeant around to his car. He decided to come back in the night. Maybe the doctor would stumble over his quarry while he was recruiting another musician to supply him with ectoplasm. If they found the same thing at the other club, he might be able to keep watch for a draining operation going on. That might lead him to his murderer. It would also make any battle problematic. If they started using ectoplasmic abilities in a crowd, it might kill some of the frailer people around. Ectoplasm had to come from somewhere. Some people didn¡¯t have enough life to support having some of it pulled from them so it could be used as weapons. If he tried to pin the other down long enough for Burly to shoot his enemy, the chances were someone would drop dead from the loss of their life energy. He needed to prevent any problems from cropping up in the middle of a crowd. If his enemy was smart, that would be the perfect area for him to attack. And the murderer¡¯s mask would be able to run until he had drained all of the nearby sources of their ectoplasm. Burly drove them across the city to the other club. They got out and inspected the outside. The place was closed until five. The crew hadn¡¯t come in to start preparing for the night yet. ¡°I have to pick up the twins,¡± said Strangehold. He extended his sense out to feel the outside of the building. He noted some cold spots. ¡°I think our murderer came here too. I¡¯m going to come by and take the place in after it opens.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Burly. ¡°I¡¯ll drop you off and come back and talk to some of the staff. Maybe they saw something.¡± ¡°Try not to alert him,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°If he starts using his ability in the middle of the club, it could be a disaster.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± said the detective. ¡°I plan to just come by and see if anyone can give me a description of anyone they knew hung out with Crenshaw. I plan to avoid looking at anyone.¡± ¡°Try not to be alone,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°He might wait to try to kill you if there are a bunch of witnesses he has to deal with too. I wouldn¡¯t count on it.¡± ¡°That makes me feel better,¡± said Burly. Doctor Strangehold, Ectoplasmic Detective 6 Doctor Strangehold picked up the twins a little later than he had planned. He inquired about their days as he tried to push his current case out of his mind. Maybe some connection would present itself if he didn¡¯t think about it too hard. Tooty felt she had aced her tests and was doing better with her afterschool program. She was on the bench until someone couldn¡¯t play. She didn¡¯t claim to be better than the other girls on her team, but the doctor felt she was. Timmy was playing. He couldn¡¯t wait until the first game. He thought he could hit home runs on the school field. He didn¡¯t know how good he was doing in his classes. He admitted he didn¡¯t have an interest in most of the subjects. Strangehold warned him that he had to do well academically if he wanted to keep going with his sport. He didn¡¯t want to get kicked off the team because he didn¡¯t understand his studies. Timmy assured him he would be a better monster hunter than baseball player any day of the week. The doctor was not amused by that assertion, and assured his grandchild that all the great monster hunters knew a little about everything, some of them knowing everything about one thing. Timmy would do well to follow their example and learn everything he could while he could. Timmy didn¡¯t seem convinced by the argument, but said he would do the best he could. The family had a quiet meal, went over homework, and planned for the next day. Strangehold still had to teach the next day despite the crime he was working on. Maybe he could use it as an example of a strange death, and use that as some sort of test. He doubted anyone would think an ectoplasmic monster was involved. After the twins were in bed, and he had set measures in place, the doctor drove down to the Note. He wanted to look at the place for himself before he marked it down as harmless. He had decided that if his murderer was on the scene, he would try to keep any mayhem down. He didn¡¯t want a crowd of civilians getting in his way while his enemy could act as he pleased. Threatening to rip off someone¡¯s arm would put the onus on Strangehold on how he could proceed without letting that person suffer amputation by manual manipulation. And the doctor was not sure he could win a duel with the murderer. His mask was superhumanly strong and fast. He would need a lot of luck to beat anyone like that who was ready for him. He pulled into the parking reserved for that area. All he had to do was look around, maybe trace some ectoplasm. He should be ready to fight, but it was possible that the murderer had moved on, or waiting for the police to give up before he came back. Strangehold got out of his car and went to the club door. The first step was to walk in and order something to drink, or eat. After that he would play it by ear. The doctor paid the booth girl, and nodded at the doorman holding the door for him to step inside the club. Music drifted over him as he looked around for a place to sit. He saw a small table on one side of the room. It was just out of the overhead lights shining down on the space. He took the spot and watched the room for anything that might be a clue. Small tendrils that could have been smoke drifted in the room. Some of them wrapped around the patrons with one end drifting in the air. Strangehold frowned at the sight. Someone was farming ectoplasm in plain sight. He decided to wait. He couldn¡¯t tell who the culprit was so there was no point in exposing himself. He did make sure to fake the loss of his own ectoplasm. He didn¡¯t want his enemy to know that another medium was in the audience. His consideration was based on the physical mask. If someone created something like that in the middle of the audience, some of the bystanders would simply die. The rest might be weakened. And the mask was strong enough to rip a man apart in a few seconds. There was no telling how many would get hurt in a melee like that. If he ran into the murderer here at the club, his best tactic was try to move the fight outside and stop the drain of ectoplasm from the bystanders that would be on the street. Once he had cut off the flow, he could just wear the other magician down with his own reserve. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. He hoped it would be that easy, but he had seen enough plans going askew because his enemy decided on something he would have never considered doing himself. And this enemy had already shown he liked to make things personal. Why had he killed the victim? Strangehold felt if he knew that, the rest would drop into his hands. He would be thinking of ways to arrest the murderer and prove that he had committed the crime instead of trying to figure out who he was. He listened to the music. He frowned as the ectoplasm grew around him. More of it drifted away. The idea that Crenshaw had played the same song and generated the same manifestation crossed his mind. Were they partners? Did the one partner cut the other out when he was no longer useful? He liked that as a possible explanation of events, but it didn¡¯t bring him closer to a solution unless the partner was somewhere in the club and collecting the ectoplasm for his own use. Strangehold reached out with his senses. The ectoplasm flowed out of the room. Some of the people slumped in their chairs. He stood up. He needed to do something to put a stop to this. He reached out with his own ectoplasm and used the four tentacular arms he created to touch each of the victims around him. They woke up and sucked in their ectoplasm with a gasp. The move caused the drain to stutter. He stretched his four arms out and worked on everyone in the room from where he stood until everyone seemed to be back to normal. He decided the music had to go. He could hear the notes in the ectoplasm he touched. And that explained why Crenshaw had been selected as a pawn in the game. The music put the unwary into a trance. It regulated the flow of ectoplasm from the victim to the thief. And once a band started playing it, a single musician wasn¡¯t necessary if he knew what was going on and didn¡¯t like it. And now it came down to what he would do now that someone had stepped in and stopped his recharging for the moment. Would he come out on the center stage, or try to hide in the shadows? A physical match up was the expected outcome of his interference. He still had to shut off the music and look around. He had questions that they could answer about the music and if anyone hired them to perform, or if they were given the song and asked to play. Strangehold decided the quickest way to stop the music was cut the power. Then he could usher everyone out of the club before he tried to hunt his quarry down. There was no doubt in his mind that the killer was near, maybe as close as the next room behind the stage, or in the alley beyond that. He had to work fast if he wanted to catch the man once the lights went out. Then he realized he had no way to cut the power since he didn¡¯t know where the breaker box was in the building. He frowned at that. He had to do something else. He flicked one of his arms at the drum set on stage. It punched through the skin with a loud pop. The drummer sat back from the sudden breaking. His bandmates looked around at him. It threw the song off, which threw off the culling of ectoplasm into a loss. That should keep the audience from having any more adverse reactions while he went about his business. Strangehold looked around as he made his way to the stage door. He needed to get behind the scenes. He doubted his enemy was in the kitchen. Too many people would see what he was doing. Being close to the band and out of sight of anyone not allowed backstage would be perfect. He walked through the door. Nobody was behind the stage. Where would he set up to collect ectoplasm from innocent bystanders? He decided to try the ready room for the band. Nobody was supposed to be there since the band was on stage. He could try the alley behind the club after the ready room. The doctor cautiously walked to the closed ready room door. He knocked before he pushed the door open with one of his tentacle hands. Nothing came out of the room after him. He took a moment to do a quick search. The room had clothes on hangers, a dressing table to check your look, and cases for instruments. He didn¡¯t see anything that might be used to collect ectoplasm for later use. How close did the other master have to be for his collection to work? Was there a spot under the club? He considered that there might be a cellar under the club as he went to the back door. He needed to make sure his enemy wasn¡¯t outside. Then he could think about searching the building itself. He hoped he didn¡¯t have to deal with a fully charged menace when he did catch up with the murderer. That would make things more dangerous than he liked. He sent his sense down the alley to the street. No one lurked in the shadows. He closed the door and turned his attention to the building. He should clear it, but he had no idea how to do that other than setting something on fire. That was a last resort in his opinion. He started searching for a cellar door in the back of the club. He worked his way across the dining area, ignoring the band. The drummer valiantly tried to make his part sound like it fit the music they were playing, but the music wasn¡¯t draining ectoplasm from the people at their tables. The bar and kitchen had to be next. He doubted the employees wanted him looking around back there. He had to get back there and hope that his idea was right. He waved the bartender over and gestured for him to lean closer. The bartender frowned at him in a what do you want way. ¡°Do you have a cellar?,¡± asked Strangehold. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said the bartender. ¡°Why?¡± ¡°My name is Strangehold,¡± said the doctor. ¡°I¡¯m looking into something for the police. I was wondering if you had a cellar. I¡¯m looking for a small gas leak.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± said the bartender. He glanced over his shoulder at the kitchen. ¡°You don¡¯t think there is a gas leak, or you don¡¯t want to let me look around?,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°Both.¡± Doctor Strangehold, Ectoplasmic Detective 7 Strangehold felt the urge to let his extra hands talk for him. He pulled them in before they seized the employee and did something bad to him. He decided he could step back and figure another route to what he wanted to know. He had time. He could be patient. He doubted someone else would be ripped apart unless the murderer was personally crossed. He turned from the bar and looked across the room. No one looked out of place to him. Unless the ectoplasm was going in a storage container somewhere, someone had to be close by to collect the life force. Either the roof, or a basement, had to be in play. He could check the roof, and wait for anyone to leave the club when it closed. He could check the basement when no one was around to get in his way. He didn¡¯t want to hurt someone trying to do a legitimate job and not involved in the crime. He wanted to save that for someone who deserved what they were about to be handed. The doctor left the club and walked around the outside of the building. He scanned the skyline from the ground. He didn¡¯t see any warps in the air he associated with ectoplasm freefloating without a wizard to give it commands. He still needed to check the roof to make sure. Once he had done that, he could wait for the building to clear. Then he could clear the basement. He knew that he might not find anything. It didn¡¯t take much to move ectoplasm around. And his quarry might have already got clear when the music stopped playing at the right frequency to drain the audience. He frowned at his options. He decided that all he could do was eliminate the obvious until he had something to work on. His four liquidly arms sprouted from his back. He secured handholds and pulled himself up the side of the building. He stepped on the roof of the Note. No one readied to fight him for the dominance of living energy. He extended his sense out to cover the roof. He didn¡¯t see any traces of ectoplasm. He nodded to himself. The raider had decided to set up his gathering point somewhere else. He needed to check out the basement. If that was clear, he would have to think of some other place the ectoplasm could be going. Maybe there was a siphon somewhere outside the club. There had to be something unless it was just floating around and vanishing into the air. Strangehold didn¡¯t believe that for a second. His quarry had assembled a song to draw out the living substance of people. No way was he just letting all that dissipate in the air. You couldn¡¯t get any of it back if you did that, and that did nothing but slowly kill whomever you drew the ectoplasm from since it was made of people¡¯s inner workings. The next question after where was the ectoplasm going was why did the man need so much of it? Why use the club to harvest it? Why not just use a park, or some other public place with more people to gather more of the stuff? And why kill Crenshaw over it? If he knew that, maybe that would be the key he needed to turn the rest. Strangehold sat on the roof. He closed his eyes. There had to be some trace he could use. He extended his senses out as far as he could, stretching out over the neighboring buildings. He felt nothing reaching back to him. He frowned at that. The traces he would normally feel were absent. Had his enemy cleared all the places around the club with his gathering? Strangehold tried to reach out further with his sense. He couldn¡¯t feel anything at the edges of his reach. He wondered how far the clear zone reached. How many people were missing their ectoplasm? He let his sense return to his body. He had a puzzle related to the one he was already investigating. It was too much to say they weren¡¯t caused by the same man. He listened to the air. The patrons of the Note were leaving. Another show was advertised, but he didn¡¯t know if he had wrecked the song for good, or just for the night. The band might not be able to play it without a drum to hit the right notes. It would be fortunate for him that he had stopped things for the night. That would force the brain to reset his scheme, or start somewhere else. He had until the second show to figure out his next move. He decided to drop off the roof and gain another vantage point. Maybe the patrons would give him something to look for later. Strangehold grabbed his roof with two of his arms and swung out over the street. His other two arms grabbed the roof of a building on the other side of the road. They yanked him across to a precise landing away from the rampart. He turned to watch the street. People moved along the sidewalk toward cars parked in lots, or hailed cabs. He didn¡¯t see anyone with the glow he used as an indicator. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. He needed to check the basement of the Note. Once he had cleared that, he could start expanding his search. How did he get pass the staff? He could still wait until after the second show was over and then break in. It wasn¡¯t heroic, but he didn¡¯t want to hurt people who might not be involved in this. He could ask Burly to shut the place down long enough for him to look around. That would cause some friction with the police. He could yank the manager into a dark alley and ask some pointed questions. That could cause trouble down the line. The man might deserve any beating the doctor desired to hand out. Strangehold shook his head. Middleton wasn¡¯t a frontier town that needed Wyatt Earp to tame it. It was a quiet place that had survived because of shipping down the local waters to the Mississippi. It did draw a collection of mages and monsters who wanted to set up shop. This master of ectoplasm was just the latest to come along with a scheme to build something that was bound to get out of control and cause problems for the local populace. The doctor wondered if there was something in the air that enticed the menaces he dealt with to the city. He supposed he should consult with another mage who could point him to the local siren of his adversaries so he could think of some way of cutting it off. He wanted his grandchildren to have safer lives than the one he had lived. Learning to use ectoplasm to prolong your life had not been the expected result of his experiments. He had wanted to find a way to cure things that no one could then. Now science had cured some things, and held others in abeyance. When the news had gone out that a doctor had found a cure for smallpox, he had drank himself stupid for the first and last time. Strangehold checked for how many more were in the club. He could read their energy thanks to the ectoplasm in the air. A small staff was setting up for the next show. He could use that to get inside and check the basement under the building. He just had to act like he belonged. He dropped down to the street and crossed to the club. He circled to the back door. One use of his ectoplasm and he was inside the kitchen and looking around. He spotted a trap door under a heating cabinet on wheels. He pushed the appliance out of the way and opened the trap door. He descended down before anyone called for him to stop. The place could use a light, he thought as he looked around. Glowing lines danced where he assumed the ectoplasm would be gathered. He frowned at the number of right angles he could see. So he had the end point for the stolen life from upstairs. Did he stake it out? Did he destroy it and throw down the gauntlet? Did he want to be a target with his grandchildren under his roof? Could he make this into some sort of trap to use against his theoretical rival? He examined the drawing and thought about it. He could reverse the effect. If he did, he had no idea what would happen to the people upstairs, or the mage. He might supercharge them with the mage¡¯s own supply of ectoplasm. That might cause side effects in them that included sociopathy and a form of dementia. It might kill the mage if he lost too much too fast. The case had to be closed for Burly, but the detective could put down accidental death with the help of the medical examiner. It wouldn¡¯t be the first time they had covered up something with a cause of death that didn¡¯t quite fit what had happened. Burly would have to come up with connections to Crenshaw¡¯s death, but his own consultancy would be over as soon as the case was closed. It didn¡¯t matter how the case was closed to the commanders of the law. It didn¡¯t matter to him either as long as he had the right man. There were a few times where he had made mistakes and almost punished the wrong man or woman for something they didn¡¯t do. He had been able to correct his mistakes so far, but it had made him cautious in accusing people, and examining things that could lead more than one way. He didn¡¯t have a clear picture of his enemy. Anyone could use this ectoplasm gatherer if they were told how by the person who set it up. He could get a minion and miss the real villain if he turned it into a trap. On the other hand, minions were just as guilty as their chiefs more often than not. Strangehold decided the best thing to do was to turn the function of the gatherer off. That would protect the people upstairs, and it would cause a problem for the maker. Then maybe they could have a meeting and talk about Crenshaw being ripped apart. If the person he talked to was the murderer, he figured the talk wouldn¡¯t go as smoothly as he would like. He would have to deploy his arms and skills against the giant mask he had observed. Then Burly would have to think of a way to make the charges stick if he could. That also wouldn¡¯t be the first time they had done that particular misdeed. Modern judges didn¡¯t believe in werewolves except as mental problems for an unlucky few. Those people belonged in a hospital instead of a jail. Strangehold and Burly disagreed with the sentiment when it was covered in fur and fangs trying to kill them. The doctor looked up at the trap door over the ladder he had used to get down to the floor. He didn¡¯t see anyone taking an interest in what he was doing. Maybe the staff knew better than to intervene in whatever went on below them. They might have been told they would be exsanguinated if they caused too much of a ruckus. And everybody he knew liked their blood to remain in their bodies. Strangehold used his four ectoplasmic arms to seize various lines he thought were the center of the floating diagram. He grabbed the air with his real hands and yanked on the energy like yanking a blanket to him. He watched as the drawing spun around and parts of it broke off. Let¡¯s see you gather up ectoplasm with that. He hadn¡¯t detected an alarm possibility on the drawing. That didn¡¯t mean anything. Either the creator knew his spell was closed, partially destroyed, or would check on it when he didn¡¯t perceive it working. Something would happen soon enough. He had to stay on the job until the club closed at least. He doubted any of the staff had the skill to set something like the gatherer up. That person would arrive eventually to deal with his destroyed power source. Some kind of fight would break out as soon as he revealed himself. That was a given. He needed to be ready to identify the suspect so he could pass the word to Burly and let the detective do the rest of the work. Either holding the murderer in the basement, or forcing him to expel his reserve of energy and run, would be a victory in Strangehold¡¯s book. That would force him on a clock where he had to get things done before his own reserve ran out, but he should be fine. He had been storing and using ectoplasm for decades. He should have enough to fight a small war before he had to retreat and restock. Knowing who the enemy was had to be the better thing. If the man got away before he could be identified, he could just start over somewhere else. Who knew how many would be killed accidentally by another ectoplasm gatherer draining their life force for someone else to use? Strangehold decided he couldn¡¯t allow that to happen if he had to engage. One of them had to go down as soon as they closed on each other. This was a small menace at the moment. It couldn¡¯t be allowed to grow into something bigger. Doctor Strangehold, Ectoplasmic Detective 8 A shadow passed over the opening. Strangehold watched it. He had made a fatal miscalculation. He was at the bottom of the hidden hole. His enemy was at the top with one hand on the metal door he had found and opened. He lashed out with his ectoplasmic arms. They couldn¡¯t stop the heavy door from dropping into place. He pushed on the door, astounded by the extra weight on it. He remembered the cabinet he had moved earlier to get to the door. That was extra weight he would have to lift if he wanted to get out of there. He had trapped himself while his enemy could reset without worrying about him interfering any more. He slapped the wall with his normal hand. He had to do something to get out before something got in that he didn¡¯t like. He decided that he should see if he could move the cart with an ectoplasmic hand. That should be enough of a distraction for him to move the thing and open the door so he could climb out. Strangehold looked up at the closed door. He let the ectoplasm glow to combat the dark. He had thought he was being so clever. His enemy had probably been in the kitchen the whole time and took the chance to try to make sure he couldn¡¯t interfere in his ectoplasm gathering again. This was not going to stop him from doing what he could to prevent any more of the harvesting. People would die eventually. Someone with a weak body would give up under the pressure of ectoplasm being forced out of their body. It would look like a heart attack with some kind of complication. If the music was played long enough, even healthy people would start dropping dead. The human body was not designed to have its living essence forced out of it for someone else to use. Strangehold looked up at the door. He needed to get through that and the cart above it. Then he could try to track down his enemy. How did he do it? He reached up with his glowing arms, looking for cracks. He could push his ectoplasm through any opening. Then the cart should be easy to move one way or another. His waxy hands flattened against the seam the ceiling of his cell. He closed his eyes as he asked for it to spread out. He found a crack that let air through. He pushed his ectoplasm through that. He felt his hands stretching out on the other side of the door. He felt around until he felt the cart on top of the door. He pushed the cart as much as he could with his hands. It rolled out of the way. He grabbed the handle of the door and worked it. A surge of his arms pushed the door out of the way. He grabbed the edge of the opening with his four arms and yanked himself through to land on the floor. The crew stared at him. He glared at them. One of them had probably told his quarry he was waiting below. He could deal with them later. He had to find his murderer before he got away. He flicked his normal hands to see the traces of people who weren¡¯t there. His spell locked on someone heading out the back door. He jogged after the moving mist. Strangehold stepped out the back. His marker headed for the street. That was not good. Traces from other people could dilute his spell. He grimaced as he chased after it. He hoped the murderer stayed on foot. An enclosed area like a car would cut off the flow of the trace and stop him dead in his tracks. He thought he could figure something out if that happened. Strangehold walked after his spell. He examined anyone who crossed his path for the spell to latch on. That would be the man he would have to try to take in for Burly to question. The line of ectoplasm stretched to a set of stores fronting the sidewalk. They were short, brick, and had bars over the windows and the glass of the door. The strand flattened against the door for a woman¡¯s clothing place that was closed for business at the moment. Why would his ectoplasm farmer go in there? He looked around. The sidewalk had people coming from the clubs, but no one seemed to be paying attention to him. He needed to get into the shop and look around. His grandchildren would learn the wrong kind of lessons about burglary if he allowed them to accompany him on his cases for the police. He saw a shadow moving beyond the glass as he approached. Was that his sasquatch murderer? Was it a clerk putting things in order for the night? Did he want to wait until the person came out, or go in while he had the element of surprise? He decided he needed to find out where his farmer had gone beyond the store. If he had to talk to a clerk, then that was all right. Any clue to what was going on was better than the morass he was mired in at the moment. He flicked one of his phantom arms and the hand at the end entered the keyhole for the door. He willed the hand to work the tumblers. The knob turned, the door opened under the pressure. He pulled his hand free. He couldn¡¯t remember the first time he had broken into some place. He thought it was long before the city had gone from a small town to a small city. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. He looked around before he entered. No one seemed to have noticed what he had done. He supposed something that looked like a tentacle in the middle of the air would be disbelieved immediately. That wasn¡¯t his problem at the moment. He stepped inside the shop and closed the door. He looked around, letting his mental senses pick up anything living. Nothing fit that bill in the shop. Where did the farmer go when she stepped inside the shop? Why had she come here in the first place? Was this another of her ectoplasm farms? Strangehold sent out a flash of ectoplasm to see what he could find. His quarry had gone out the back. He didn¡¯t sense anything strange. He wondered what would happen if he came back in the daytime. Was the place a farm from the customers that came in to buy clothes? Where was the collector? He decided to take a closer look after he had tracked his enemy to his lair. Another farm could cause women changing clothes to give part of themselves to the collector. Storage meant the farmer could come around any time to pick up the ectoplasm to put in his personal reserve. The problem, like the club, was that someone weak enough could die from such a taking and not know why. A doctor, or coroner, would put the death down as dehydration, or something related, and just move on. Ectoplasm extraction would not be on their top ten causes of death in those cases. Strangehold would not blame them. Without his senses, he would do the same thing. He went out the back of the shop. His opponent had got away from him while he was navigating the shop. He sensed another cut off and realized his spell had locked on again when the other man had come out of the shop, but a car had stopped it long enough for an escape to be made. What did that leave him? He decided to ask Burly about the women¡¯s clothing store and the Note. Maybe there was a connection he could put together. He wondered if there was a connection to the victim¡¯s work place. That might get him something to look at once the police had sifted through the paperwork involved in a business ownership. Before he called Burly and asked for that information, he had to make sure any collector in the store was broken. That would prevent problems for them while helping to cripple their enemy. How many other places had been set up with collectors? He put that down as something he would have to look into in the course of the investigation. Strangehold cast a search with his ectoplasm throughout the shop. He found the inactive collector in the ceiling, drawn in the wood. He suspected either a knife, or a phantom limb like he used. It was more permanent than the club¡¯s so he thought that it had been done first and etched in to gather power passively from the customers. It didn¡¯t matter. It wasn¡¯t an indestructible artifact. That meant he could take it apart with a pull of his extra arms. He squinted at the drawing. Maybe he could use this to his advantage. He wondered if Burly would approve of what he was about to do. He decided in the negative. The policeman would already be upset that he had chased their suspect and let him get away because he wanted to act alone. Another scheme like this would not please the sergeant. He decided he should at least call and tell the detective he was curious about who owned the Note and the women¡¯s clothing shop. Maybe the same person owned both of them. That might be the connection they needed to wrap the case up and bring in their culprit. He definitely didn¡¯t want the detective to try to arrest their quarry on his own. There was no telling how much protection the ectoplasmic disguise gave him with the additional strength and speed. Strangehold sprouted his limbs as he looked up at the engraving on the ceiling. He checked every angle with his eye. He nodded to himself that his idea could work. He used the fingers of his ghost limbs to write his own spell on the collector. He imposed his will on it to activate it. Then he went to the phone behind the counter. It was time to update Burly and watch what happened to the shop. He had the feeling that the killer would not wait for his reserves to drop to zero because of his collector. He would come back to fix things. When he did, the doctor would be waiting to deal with him. Strangehold hoped he came back before the sun came up. He still had to take the kids to school and teach. He couldn¡¯t watch the shop that whole day to see who tried to fix the carving. There was another way he could use the drain to his advantage if he hurried. He needed to let Burly know in case he was killed going ahead with his scheme. Strangehold picked up the phone and asked for the sergeant¡¯s home phone from the operator. He doubted that the detective was still at his desk at this hour. He was either called away on a case, or at home. Trying home seemed the best bet, then he could call the station and see if Burly was there. Letting him know about the clothing shop might allow him to tie some bit of evidence to the murderer without the connection to magic, and the other esoteric things about the case. He doubted this murderer would be tried in a criminal court. There just wasn¡¯t enough real evidence for a prosecutor to take to a judge, or a jury, and prove beyond a reasonable doubt that it was possible to rip a man to pieces. And his finding of the collectors would mean nothing to anyone who didn¡¯t know how ectoplasm worked. And Strangehold admitted to himself that he didn¡¯t want to sit in court and prove ectoplasm existed to people who would just dismiss it as some kind of power like the Rocket, or the Mark. ¡°Burly here,¡± said the sergeant. ¡°Go ahead.¡± ¡°I have found something at Fine Looks clothing store,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°I just need to know who the owner is, and if they have a connection to the Note.¡± ¡°Give me the name again,¡± said Burly. Strangehold did, hearing the scratching of a pen in the background. ¡°I won¡¯t be able to search the records until tomorrow when the hall of records opens.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°I just want to know in case I miss. It might be a lead to the identity of our sasquatch. I have to go. I have some things in the fire, and I need to put them out.¡± ¡°Are you at this clothing store,¡± asked the detective. ¡°I¡¯ll be gone,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°I¡¯m going to try to execute a trick and see if I can at least identify our villain. I¡¯ll call if it works.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the trick?,¡± asked Burly. ¡°It¡¯s something that only magicians like me can do,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°I¡¯m trying to use his own spell against him. If it works, then we might see something.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t do anything I will have to explain to your grandkids as reckless and foolish,¡± said Burly. ¡°There won¡¯t be any explanation necessary,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°They know how dangerous this is, and what my will has left them.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s my point,¡± said Burly. ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± said the doctor. ¡°If this works, you will be able to close your case as an exotic animal attack.¡± ¡°That¡¯s great,¡± said Burly. Strangehold hung up with a smile. Doctor Strangehold, Ectoplasmic Detective 9 Doctor Strangehold stepped out of the shop. He looked up into the sky. A line of ectoplasm led from the shop to the collector¡¯s creator. He smiled. His idea was working. He wondered how long it would take before the other magician realized that he was being drained by his own creation. Strangehold decided that it wouldn¡¯t take long. The first symptom would be something like low blood sugar. Eventually other symptoms would emerge. If the magician was attuned to his own body, he would realize what was going on and terminate the line from his end. That was how long he had to find his enemy. Once engaged, whomever had the better control of their ectoplasm would be the victor in any battle. Strangehold thought he could win. He had fought other magicians, and monsters for a long time. He should have some tricks the other hadn¡¯t seen before. Still, the sasquatch mask gave him pause. He couldn¡¯t allow the thing to get close enough to grab him. That would be the end of the fight. He walked after the line, watching as it kept moving. The other magician must be heading for a lair, possibly his real home. He might not have noticed the drain on his resources yet. If he had, he might be preparing a trap of his own to deal with his enemy. The doctor followed the line across town. He wondered where he was going. It looked to be the same apartment building as his victim. Why? What could possibly be there for the murderer to come back for? Had he left something on the scene the police and their consultant had missed? Maybe the victim and his murderer were closer than they had thought. Strangehold didn¡¯t like the fact that he had missed something crucial at the scene. It meant he was losing his touch. He couldn¡¯t have that. He might have to go back to school to study his forensics again if he was losing his touch that much. He wondered if his murderer had noticed the drain and was setting a trap for him. That would mean the killer was waiting in the building so he could get the drop and then rip the doctor apart. It wouldn¡¯t be the first time he had walked into a trap to find out what was really going on. He wondered how he should approach this. He expected his enemy to think he would just blunder into whatever trap was set for him and have to give up his ectoplasm to replace what he had taken. He decided not to call Burly. He didn¡¯t want the sergeant in his way if a full blown duel broke out. It would be tough enough to explain how he had dealt with a practitioner on his own. He could not see the detective getting on a stand and saying they had killed a magician and not be laughed out of court. The method used was already hard to swallow in his opinion. The line cut through Crenshaw¡¯s building and went out the other side. That relieved Strangehold. That meant they hadn¡¯t missed something in the apartment building when he did his scans earlier. Where was it taking him? The line extended toward the edge of the city. He frowned. There were some places out there that had become new force lines because of the construction of more houses. Some of that was good. Some was bad. What did he do about it? He decided to press on. It was too late to go back and get his car. He wondered if the other magician regularly used their ectoplasm to travel. Was that another mask he hadn¡¯t seen yet? He decided it was something to look for when they met. He didn¡¯t want to be on guard against a giant ape, only to deal with a giant bird. He wondered where the other magician had learned to shape ectoplasm. He had learned from an old man who had taught him some basic medium type tricks. Then he had expanded his knowledge, bit by bit. His slowed aging had come out of those experiments. The same thing might have happened to this magician and this was how he was learning to be immortal like the doctor. Taking from other people was just faster than growing it from your natural surroundings. And it killed people if you weren¡¯t careful. He followed the line across town from Crenshaw¡¯s building. He resorted to using his extra arms to hitch on passing cars and trucks moving in the direction he wanted to go. He frowned at not going back to grab his car. He found himself walking in a new neighborhood on the edge of Middleton. The glowing line pointed him to one small house in particular. Then it snapped. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. He was glad that he hadn¡¯t brought Burly along. If he got into a duel now, protecting the detective would put him at a disadvantage with an enemy who had an unknown capability with his spell work. Being alone meant he only had to worry about what would happen to his grandchildren when he was gone. He decided that he should knock on the door and see who answered it. The other magician probably already knew he was close. Discovering the line meant he knew about the drain. That meant he knew he had left a trail across the city. That meant he knew Strangehold was coming. So there was no need to beat around the bush. The doctor decided there was one thing he could do before he went into the lion¡¯s den. He could let Burly know about the address and that he should look at the owner. He pulled some of his ectoplasm from his inner reserve and shaped it into a bird. He nodded at the way it acted like a bird when he held it with his two hands. He imprinted a message on it. He threw it up in the air and it took flight back toward the center of Middleton. His messenger would wait for Burly at the police station and tell him about the address. The rest would be up to him about how he wanted to handle things. This case would never get to court because of the means used. No jury in the world would believe anything short of a trained bear would do what had been done to Crenshaw. And any expert worth their salt would be able to prove a bear couldn¡¯t do what had been done. Strangehold walked up to the door. He noted the brick fronting, white trimmed windows to show the front room, and the white door glimmering under the starlight. A carport protected a car with shadows as he drew closer. Two doors and possibly a third behind the house meant he could only see his enemy from the front and left side. The murderer could slip out the back easily with his command of ectoplasmic masks. Strangehold thought his presence would be met with violence. The man hadn¡¯t missed a beat when Crenshaw had come to the door. He wouldn¡¯t with someone on his doorstep. A bell button glowed in the door frame, but the doctor knocked. He wanted to show that he wasn¡¯t afraid of the owner. The problem was he was afraid of the owner, and what the owner could do to him if he wasn¡¯t careful. He knocked again when his first knock wasn¡¯t answered. He wondered what the other magician was thinking. He listened for movement. He heard steps. They sounded confident to him. The owner wasn¡¯t afraid of someone showing up in the middle of the night. He wouldn¡¯t be either if he had a seven hundred pound sasquatch to wear to a fight. The door opened. The owner of the house glared at the doctor. He frowned back. He stepped back from the threshold. ¡°Miss Raye,¡± said Strangehold. He had not expected to find Crenshaw¡¯s coworker at the house. She raised a hand. Wax bubbled from her fingertips down the length of her arm. He stepped back again as the change worked its way down her body in the blink of an eye. Strangehold stepped back again, letting his extra arms pop out to defend him. He had not expected his search to lead to Crenshaw¡¯s coworker, but he knew he was about to get killed if he didn¡¯t do something. He cursed himself since she was the obvious suspect. He should have known that she would be the mastermind. He had simply thought the method was more something you would see in a man. A giant hand came at him. He used his tentacles to grab it and throw the giant mask into the yard. He couldn¡¯t let her grab him. That would be the end. He needed to run her energy out. That was all he had to do. She couldn¡¯t keep the mask up for long. He could just sit back and let her power run out while his remained active at its normal range. His tentacles barely drew anything off his own reserves. There was a small chance that she could overextend her ability and it could wind up hurting her. He couldn¡¯t worry about that while she was trying to rip his head off. That was something to worry about if he survived this encounter. Strangehold used his tentacles to move away from the giant he was facing. They acted as grapnels, grabbing on to part of the house, or the surrounding greenery and pulling him out of reach. He concentrated on dancing around his enemy so she couldn¡¯t grab him. He knew of one way to stop the fight, but he had to get close. He didn¡¯t know if he wanted to chance that when his initial tactic was wearing her down. He had no idea if he could execute his tactic before she ripped his arm off. Did he want to risk it? If she escaped, she could go back to farming ectoplasm from people, maybe hunt Burly down because he knew too much. He couldn¡¯t let that happen. He fired a spread of ectoplasmic buckshot to punch holes in the mask. He frowned as the wounds healed up in no time. She had a bigger reserve than he had thought. He needed to press her harder. How did he do that? He frowned. He had to grab some part of the mask with his bare hand. That was the only way things would work out for him. She leaped at him. He caught her in his tentacles and held her off. She grabbed one of his limbs and pulled him off his feet. He saw the other hand coming around in a clawing motion. He held out his hands and caught the massive wrist behind the giant hand and claws. The sasquatch bore down, trying to reach his face. He grimaced at what he was going to do. He commanded her ectoplasm to move to him. The mask shrank as he compelled the substance it was made of to move to his reserve. The face the mask sat on showed dismay through the disguise. Apparently she had never considered that to be a legitimate move. Maybe she hadn¡¯t learned that ectoplasm shaping was vulnerable to external forces. She pulled her arm out of his grip, replacing the hair and muscle with a shake. She swung the other arm in a counterswipe. His tentacles tried to trap that arm for him to grab, but the momentum from the swing sent him to the ground. He held his tentacles up to defend himself as he tried to blink the stars out of his eyes. ¡°I don¡¯t know what you think you¡¯re doing,¡± said Raye. Her voice caused her mask to shake. ¡°But I¡¯m not letting you hold me back. I have an ability, and I am going to use it to control this city.¡± She stalked forward to finish him off with a kick, or stomp. Her mind made the ectoplasm heavy. That made it perfect for imitating the monster she wanted. Exterminating a rival was not that big a deal compared to her goals. Strangehold looked up at her. Determination had taken over from the earlier stunning. He clapped his hands together. Dozens of tentacle arms sprouted from his back. They wrapped around his victim and lifted her off the ground. He ripped the mask from her body before slinging her against the wall of her house. ¡°I protect this city from monsters,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter if they are human, or not.¡± He got to his feet, dusting off his jacket and pants. He added the mask¡¯s ectoplasm to his own. He walked forward. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter why you decided to endanger people to farm their lives, or why you killed your pawn,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°All that matters is stopping your threat to anybody else.¡± His tentacles struck out. Doctor Strangehold, Ectoplasmic Detective 10 Sergeant Roscoe Burly nodded at the attendant at the desk as he walked inside. He hated hospitals, and he hated asylums more than that. He didn¡¯t know why the doc had called him down to the place, but figured there was a reason. ¡°Thank you for coming down, Sergeant,¡± said Strangehold. He appeared at the door leading deeper inside the building. ¡°I have something to show you after we talk.¡± ¡°The clothing store, the Note, and the other place all belong to Foot Enterprises,¡± said Burly. ¡°I¡¯m still trying to find the owner. The company owns a few other places in town.¡± ¡°The owner is probably Lisa Raye,¡± said Strangehold. He indicated they should use an office for their talk. He closed the door. He sat behind the desk, inspecting it as he thought about what he wanted to say. ¡°She probably owns a piece of the printing company too. I don¡¯t know if her supposed bosses know that.¡± ¡°How do you know this?,¡± asked Burly. He sat on the edge of the visitor¡¯s chair. He pulled out his notebook. ¡°I confronted Miss Raye at her home,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°I found paperwork afterwards, but I don¡¯t have the expertise to trace it like you, or an accountant would be able to do. Some of the papers were certifications of money flowing from the printing company to her pockets.¡± ¡°How do I justify checking into that?,¡± asked Burly. ¡°I don¡¯t think you will be able to since Miss Raye has not given you probable cause to probe her finances,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°So what are doing here?,¡± asked Burly. ¡°I¡¯m going to lay out what I know, and what I speculated happened,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°I don¡¯t think you will be able to use it, but you should know what I think happened.¡± ¡°Does this have something to do with that empty house your magic bird asked me to go to yesterday?,¡± asked Burly. ¡°I¡¯m getting to that,¡± said Strangehold. The magician leaned back in his chair. ¡°This is going to take a bit so let¡¯s start with the murder method.¡± He held a hand over the desk. A blob of buttery light dropped from the palm of his hand. It became a miniature of what it had looked like ripping Allan Crenshaw apart in his apartment. ¡°This is a replica of the mask Lisa Raye used to kill Crenshaw,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°You could never get a conviction as long as she didn¡¯t use it in front of witnesses.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll give you that,¡± said Burly. ¡°I would look like a nutter.¡± ¡°She didn¡¯t use it all the time when she needed to kill someone, just in a few special cases when she cared about the victim being tied back to her in some way,¡± said Strangehold. He made a gesture. The model jumped back in his hand with a slurping sound. ¡°It¡¯s effectively strange enough to make most policemen not try to chase down something that can rip a man apart in seconds.¡± ¡°So why did she kill Crenshaw?,¡± asked Burly. ¡°That goes with her second scheme,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°She was farming ectoplasm for her personal use. Crenshaw helped her with it, by helping her perfect the song that she gave to other musicians to play in her club. Everyone listening to the song would give up part of themselves without realizing it. She had a collector set up under the club to catch the ectoplasm to be absorbed later. It was the same thing with the clothing store. An ectoplasm collector took life force from women trying on clothes for her to use later.¡± ¡°What was the first scheme?,¡± asked Burly. ¡°She was using the proceeds from her businesses to buy more businesses to buy more businesses,¡± said the doctor. ¡°Anyone who got in the way got a visit from her special friend.¡± ¡°So if I look around, I should find a trail of ripped up by animal attack bodies?,¡± asked Burly. ¡°Probably,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°So Miss Raye has two plans in motion. ¡°The first plan was to accumulate businesses with her mask as her enforcer. The people she threatened would never come forward to report a monster threatening them over property they owned. Only people like us would believe them. ¡°The second plan was to accumulate ectoplasm from others to keep making her mask more powerful. The more she could take, the bigger it would be. I have no idea if she could do anything more than those two spells, but their combination was bad enough.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± said Burly. ¡°The house?¡± ¡°It¡¯s Miss Raye¡¯s house,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°She inherited it from her parents. They are still in their bedroom whenever you want to collect the bodies.¡± ¡°Really?,¡± asked Burly. ¡°Why?¡± ¡°She might have been trying to bring them back to life,¡± said the doctor. ¡°She might have even been summoning them through her control of ectoplasm from wherever their spirit life had taken them.¡± If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. ¡°I think you¡¯re pulling my leg,¡± said the detective. ¡°How exactly could she summon them?¡± ¡°Summoning them might be too strong a word,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°There are people out there who can really tap into the afterlives of the dead. Ectoplasmic mediums can usually only deal with memories of the dead. We take a memory and some ectoplasm and make a facsimile of the dead person. It may look and act like the dead person but it isn¡¯t the real person.¡± ¡°She might have thought they were her dead parents?,¡± asked Burly. ¡°Possibly,¡± said the doctor. ¡°What she was doing was playing roulette with the lives of the people she was farming. Any of them could have died from the ectoplasm being forced out of them because it¡¯s part of their life force.¡± ¡°And we couldn¡¯t prosecute her for that,¡± said Burly. He was well aware of what people would believe. He would have a better chance of suggesting Lisa Raye had poisoned a large group of people with some unknown substance than saying she was sucking people¡¯s souls out of their bodies. ¡°You could if you could prove ectoplasm existed to the satisfaction of the court, and proved that Miss Raye knew how to harvest it, and was harvesting it in some way,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°I could demonstrate my own talents as part of that effort. My inclination is that everything would be written off as some kind of trickery.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t disagree with that,¡± said Burly. ¡°The district attorney would laugh me out of the room, and ask for my badge.¡± ¡°Most of this I found out from a search that I shouldn¡¯t have conducted,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°The prosecutors might have problems with any evidence presented, and then the strange nature of the evidence itself would not give us any favors.¡± ¡°So what does that leave us?,¡± asked Burly. ¡°From where I¡¯m sitting, she¡¯s going to walk.¡± ¡°That¡¯s the other reason I called you down here, Sergeant,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°All right,¡± said Burly. ¡°What did you do?¡± ¡°I tracked Miss Raye down from the clothing store, we exchanged blows, and I was obliged to bring her here until her trial,¡± the doctor said. ¡°Since we agreed there was no way for her to stand trial, I have signed her in under another name for treatment to help her need to not kill people.¡± ¡°She¡¯s here?,¡± asked Burly. ¡°I placed her here,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°When she recovers, she will be able to leave. But we won¡¯t be able to prosecute her for her crimes unless you can dig up something in her financial chicanery.¡± ¡°I can ask some financial people to go over it, but I don¡¯t know,¡± said Burly. ¡°You said you tracked her down. What happened?¡± ¡°We engaged in a duel, and I defeated her,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°Then I removed her ability to use her magic. She will have to resort to more mundane means from now on.¡± ¡°Can you really do that?,¡± asked Burly. ¡°This particular brand of magic, yes,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°There are other teachings. If she finds one of those, she could go back into business killing and looting.¡± ¡°How long will she be in here?,¡± asked Burly. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°It depends on how long it will take for her to recover, and hide her true self. Some years maybe. It¡¯s been a long time since I have done anything this horrible to another person. It is a fate worse than death in some circles.¡± ¡°I can see that I guess,¡± said Burly. ¡°Like losing your legs.¡± ¡°Like being blinded and deafened,¡± Strangehold said. ¡°But essentially yes, that is what I did.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Burly. ¡°This is a violation of several laws, and the Constitution. I don¡¯t see any way around that.¡± ¡°Right now, Miss Raye is undergoing psychiatric evaluation for fitness to be released back into society,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°Her businesses will keep depositing money into her accounts until they are closed, or she walks out of here and closes them. All of her magical dealings can¡¯t be prosecuted, and as the loser of a magical duel, she should be dead, or worse. I am hoping to take the least harmful road for her, and society at large.¡± ¡°But you think she will still engage in criminal activity once she is released,¡± said Burly. ¡°She trained her magic to do what she wanted, not the other way around,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°That means all the people she killed would still be dead, just not by the weird means she used.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll close the case as a weird animal attack,¡± said Burly. ¡°I would like it more if she was standing trial and we could prove all of this.¡± ¡°No one is going to believe this woman killed people with her mind,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°Even with powers out there such as the Mark, our society is not ready to accept that people will stay in the shadows and kill without trying to build up their ego by announcing things. If she had thrown on a costume and killed Crenshaw in broad daylight in front of witnesses, then we could make that case against her. This way we have nothing, and despite her initiating the duel, it will still be my word against hers in a court. That wouldn¡¯t be enough.¡± ¡°And you would look bad saying a woman was a witch,¡± said Burly. ¡°Nobody believes that any more.¡± ¡°Exactly,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°There are two problems with the way I did things, other than the legality.¡± ¡°Go ahead,¡± said Burly. ¡°The illegality is bad enough.¡± ¡°Miss Raye had to have been taught by someone else,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°That person might take an interest in Middleton after this. That could lead to unknown problems in the future.¡± ¡°So we might have some more monster activity in the future,¡± said Burly. ¡°That¡¯s great.¡± ¡°And it will be directed at me, or us, if you are thought to have anything to do with this,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°So do your routine, and then cover up what you know as best you can.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the other problem?,¡± said Burly. ¡°Miss Raye will remember me,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°She might remember you. When she is released, she might decide to kill the both of us over what happened to her.¡± ¡°But she will be powerless,¡± said Burly. ¡°She will be powerless, right?¡± ¡°She will be more than capable of buying weapons to try to kill us,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°It will have to be something to watch for when she is released.¡± ¡°So what is the good that has come out of this extraordinarily bad situation?,¡± asked Burly. ¡°A threat has been removed,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°No one will die accidentally due to our suspect¡¯s callousness to other people¡¯s lives. And if I hadn¡¯t found her, the threat to our own lives would have escalated if we had got close to what she was doing.¡± ¡°So what am I doing here?,¡± said Burly. ¡°This is her file and new name,¡± said Strangehold. He handed over an envelope from a drawer in the desk he sat behind. ¡°You might need that if you want some warning when she¡¯s released.¡± ¡°So you can¡¯t keep her in here forever?,¡± asked Burly. He made a note of the name in the file before sliding it back. ¡°Wrecking her schemes and making sure she can¡¯t bring her parents back to life as soul sucking abominations will have to be the measure of success for this,¡± said Strangehold. ¡°You might want to give the skeletons a proper burial under aliases when you can get the time.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll get right on that,¡± said the sergeant. Timeline 5000 BC- The Murmur tries to summon the Destroyer and is opposed by Nobody, Cain, Memphis, Al-a-Din, The King and Mr. Multiverse in the Destroyer. The line of Kings is created by the Destroyer. The creature that would be known as Mr Multiverse was created to stop the Destroyer in the Will of the Universe. 1670- Bill Crenshaw is killed by a pirate hunter known as El Rey (The reincarnated King) in Crenshaw. 1885- Bertram Chandler, the current King, deals with a river problem for a town in King of the Wild West. 1925- Bobby Benson is born. 1935- Bobby Benson takes over from Cain in the Heir. He becomes the Mark. 1938- Sir Laurence Fletcher starts the Commando X program with its first recruit, James Rafferty. The mission is to investigate smuggler Mick Brown for the Secret Service. 1940- Frank Flanagan decides to become the Protector in the Shield. The Mark brings the USS Armand in to NYC Harbor after it was struck by a torpedo. Barry Nicklaus sets a record for highest a human has been in the air. The Promethan saves people from a fire. 1941- Frank Saxon becomes the Rocket and helps defeat Doctor Rainey Sybil in Flight of the Rocket Man 1945- Roscoe Burly musters out of the Army, and joins the Middleton Police Department. 1954- Timmy Strangehold is born. 1955- Barney Strife takes over for Joe Carlson as Herocles in Inherit the Monsters. Tooty Strangehold is born. 1956- Enemies of The Mark wound him and kill his friends and fellow spark bearers. He lethally retaliates against them. Will Williams and Ann Baker were killed. The Mark¡¯s human side was wounded. Barberossa, Dr. Rainey Sybil, the Butterfly, Koal, and the Spine were all killed by The Mark in the End of the Light. 1959- Marty Morgan is born 1960- Jim and Darby Strangehold die in an accident. Their children go to live with their only living relative, Dr. Dale Strangehold. 1964- The Hazard Scouts help the Park Service with an animal enrager. 1965- Doctor Dale Strangehold helps Sgt. Roscoe Burly and the Middleton Police Department deal with a monster in Dr Strangehold, Ectoplasmic Detective. 1969- The Mark helps his alternate Earth counterpart, Captain Spark in Across the Divide. The Hazard Scouts are decimated by an unknown enemy in Showdown in a Small Town. Only Marty Morgan, the Animal Boy survives. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. 1976- Cassie Troy cements her prophetic abilities by stopping a summoned monster in a church for the life of her friend, Hector, in Cassie¡¯s Knife. She is abetted by Nobody. 1979- Marty Morgan leads Corona, Cog, Finch and Ren against Watson Security and their superpowered minions, The Squad, and rescues Barry Nicklaus and Cortez from imprisonment in Revenge of the Scouts. 1981- Bond Tamagochi is born 1982- Mark Morgan is born 1984- Melinda Morgan is born. 1986- The Mark meets Eleanor, Carrie, and Money. He introduces them to Spiffy, and Cassie Troy in the Sisters. Mark Hadron develops his lamp and begins to gather the original Lamplighters in Light the Lamp. 1987 Eleanor, Carrie, and Money find out about the other Marks and are adopted by the Mark. The Lamplighters are credited with saving New York by the Mark in the Vault. 1990- Eleanor, Carrie, and Money help the Robot Rangers fight a building come to life in Tokyo in the Robot Ranger Rescue. 1992- Pablo Estevez introduces his trainee, Henry Harkness, to his mentors and Cassie Troy at the Good Eats Diner in the Four Musketeers. The Morgans and Bond take Stella Marston Scouting in the Woods 1995- Shirou Morita becomes M-37 after touching an orb left over from the Apartment Man¡¯s attack on Tokyo in M-37. Stephen Scry loses his identity and goes on the run from the Sons of Set. 1996- Dr. Yamada tests a radioactive coat for M-37 in Testing for M-37 1997- M-37 responds to an earthquake in M-37''s First Flight. 1999- Darla Huitt is born 2000- Stephen Scry and Memphis confronts Steven Scry at Last Stop, Nevada in Meet Yourself. Tanner Lerner is born. 2002- Lynette Harkness is born to Henry and Martha June Harkness in Happy Birthday. 2010- Jason Parley gains the sword of the King during a bust of cultists and their summoned monster in Return of the King. Al-a-Din and his butler deal with a bombing in Master and Servant. Memphis helps Moshe and Sara Levram against the Dog Maker in Duel in the Desert. Tanner Lerner and Darla Huitt gain their powers from a meteor in Ink Buttons. 2014- The Lamplighters are decimated. Three are killed. Mark Hadron lost an eye and had a hand punctured. 2015- Jane Hillsmeirer talked to Mark Hadron about restarting the Lamplighters in The Hermit. Jason Parley, the modern King, threatened a deal of nonagression with the local mobster in A Parley. Denver McGinty picks up Kisara, Princess of the Genn, on the side of the road and drops her off in New York City in Girl on the Road. The basis for Lamplighters West is formed when four women ask Mark Hadron for help dealing with Crenshaw the ghost pirate in Splinter Cell. Marcel Hobart is the first new recruit for the new Lamplighters in the Interview. Rangifer Tarandus, The Reindeer, evades the Black Wolves while trying to save a town in Norway in Special Delivery. Patty Page, Kathy Baker, Lin Qi, Jean Lopez form the Lamplighters West and take on Crenshaw with the help of Mark Hadron in Blue Flames in San Francisco. Roland Givens is embedded with seven spirits by Amenophis and the Sons of Set despite interference from Tanner Lerner and Lynette Harkness in Button Pushing. Bobby Iger and Maria Garcia-Lopez join the Lamplighters after a talk with Harry Cho in Recruited. Ken Aioki is hired to be a Lamplighter in the Last Spot. 2017- The Mark is killed by the Queen of Genn in Make Your Mark. Lynette Harkness helps fight the invasion in her training suit in New Girl. Marty Morgan dies leading the Hazard Scouts, the Lamplighters, M-37, the Robot Rangers, and others against the Queen of Genn in The Scouts Hold the Line. Tanner Lerner and Darla Huitt take part in the battle for New York in Push All the Buttons. The Fairy Man and his princess help the magicians close the door on the Queen of Genn in Going Home. Stars in the Sky Sam Starn wondered if he was going to die. Walking trees were all around him. Why had he flown into New York? That was a dumb question. He knew why he had flown in. His strategist had asked him for transport and he had agreed. He just hadn¡¯t known what would happen would happen. Seeker had known because she had kitted up with her heavy assault gear. She must have thought he would run when he saw how bad things were. Maybe he would have. ¡°All right, Cap,¡± said the third member of their team in his ear. ¡°I¡¯m coming in on the trees to your right. I think I can punch a hole for you two to get through.¡± ¡°Moving,¡± said Sam. He jumped across a car hood, ran to a wall cutting him off from a small park beyond, and scaled it in a second. He dropped down on the other side, baton in hand. The Rocket came down and turned at the last second. Blasts from his power caught the nearest trees in their wooden faces and knocked them over. He flew up in the air. Sam dropped fire extinguisher foam on the burning trees as he ran through the playground. He left the invaders trying to light themselves back up before the Rocket came back and did something to them. Seeker was somewhere ahead, moving toward some unknown goal. She carried her rifle at the ready. She had opted for a long coat to conceal the body armor and equipment she wore. A dark face mask covered her round features. Her eyes glittered copper sometimes when she moved under street lights. Occasionally the rifle spoke. When it did, a dead tree fell with the flame escaping its body. Sam¡¯s team was at the edge of the deployment. He had heard of big hero battles before he put on his mask, but that had seemed removed from what he and his team did. His sister had been the Captain before him. She had led a team that had vanished during an assault on a mad scientist lair. He found her lair and trained up to replace her. He had changed the colors on his copy of her uniform to stand out and make his own way. Seeker had joined after he had established himself. She said she needed work to hone her ability. Just picking stocks made money, but wasn¡¯t helping her skill any. She wanted it to be better than that. The Rocket had found out about what they were doing and asked to join them. He had already been a hero for a while, a legacy from World War Two. They needed someone who could do high speed chases and air searches. He was perfect for that. And his dad had been on the Stars with Sam¡¯s sister when the team had disappeared. It had felt wrong to turn him away. So the three of them had trained up with Seeker taking any weapon she could from any armed bandit they caught up with. Half of the things she was carrying was stolen from crooks they had taken down in the middle of their crimes. Rocket¡¯s grandfather flew by over head. He pulled one of the flying platforms into a roll. The crew fell out as the ship rolled into the ground. He flew off to find someone else he could knock out of the air. Sam knocked a tree out of his way with his shoulder. He told some onlooker to get clear and try to move away from the battle. They didn¡¯t need for a civilian to be stomped into the ground while they were trying to protect the city. The civilian waved at him with a lit cigar and strolled down the road. Sam headed along the road, leaping over anything in his way. He had worked for hours to learn how to move smoothly over obstacles. He paused when he saw someone using the roof of a building to shoot out in the night. ¡°Seeker?,¡± Sam said into his radio. ¡°Can you see me south of a sniper shooting into the park?¡± ¡°That¡¯s me, Captain,¡± said Seeker. ¡°I¡¯m giving cover fire for others fighting down there.¡± ¡°Can you point me and Rocket in?,¡± said Sam. ¡°We¡¯ll help take care of this.¡± ¡°Uncle Steve is down there with some of his friends,¡± said Seeker. ¡°He¡¯ll probably shoot a flare now that you¡¯re close enough to help out.¡± A rocket flew into the air and exploded in a cloud of fireworks. That must be my mark, thought Sam as he raced deeper into the park. The embers slowly faded away as they fell. Sam rushed forward. Seeker¡¯s Uncle Steve used to adventure back in the day. He had met the man a couple of times. He had probably flown in to help Seeker when the news of the battle had broken out. The Captain saw the older adventurer in the middle of a pack of wolves. The wolves had too many eyes and teeth. He supposed they were shock troops of some kind. He noted some other costumed adventurers with the retired aviator. He decided he could introduce himself when he had saved the day. He booted the nearest wolf from behind as he charged up on the scene. The animal flew out of his way and landed with a whimper. It jumped to face Sam with a growl on its lips and a glare in its eyes. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. ¡°Seeker says hi,¡± said Sam. He readied himself for an attack from the wolves. His baton didn¡¯t seem that much of a threat to them. A bullet streaking through the park punctuated his statement. ¡°You kids shouldn¡¯t be here,¡± said Uncle Steve. He unloaded his shotgun into the wolves from his side of the ring. Some of them went down, while the rest scattered. ¡°This is some end of the world stuff going on here.¡± ¡°Seeker would have tried to come on her own if we tried to back out,¡± said Sam. He booted another wolf out of his way. ¡°She¡¯s really stubborn.¡± The two Rockets did a fly by to try to keep the sky over the park clear of the enemy. They attracted some weird birds that they allowed to chase them before using their jets on them. Sam looked around. Why were they holding the park? They should move out to the other side and push the trees back where they would be easier to take apart. The weird animals could be rounded up by Animal Control, or some other agency, and taken in when this was over. ¡°Am I too late, Steve?,¡± asked a man in a dark suit, blasting wolves out of his way with glances. ¡°No, Steve,¡± said Charlton. The adventurer adjusted his old pilot¡¯s hat. ¡°Are you sure you can do this?¡± ¡°I guess,¡± said the other Steve. ¡°I still think Memphis could help you more.¡± ¡°Your talent is the only thing that can help us,¡± said Charlton. ¡°Cap, this is Stephen Scry. Steve, this is the Captain from the Shooting Stars. When the push comes, Steve, that¡¯s when we¡¯re going to need you the most.¡± ¡°I got it,¡± said the man in the dark suit. He rubbed his hands together. ¡°I haven¡¯t done anything like this in a while. I¡¯m going to need a second to warm up.¡± ¡°The push is getting ready to happen,¡± Charlton said. He looked up at the sky. ¡°Marty is getting ready to do his thing.¡± Sam wondered what was going to happen. He looked up too. Explosions marked purple light blasting the enemy from the sky. Giants appeared as a giant flaming tree emerged from the cloud bank that had issued the trees and invading species. He wondered again how he had thought he would make difference in the face of the power being thrown around, when the Mark had been killed like that. A kaiju appeared on the street. It rushed forward and helped the giants with the tree. It roared a blast of fire against the enemy. ¡°This is it,¡± said Charlton. ¡°This is the end.¡± ¡°Once I get started, I won¡¯t be able to defend myself,¡± said Scry. ¡°We¡¯ve got you,¡± said Charlton. He blasted a crow out of the air. Blue flame blasted across the city. It went through the tree queen. She staggered back into the cloud. Letters of light formed to disperse the cloud. ¡°Now, Steve,¡± said Charlton. He kept an eye on the park. Sam took the other side. He wasn¡¯t worried. Seeker had a rifle away from the fighting. The Rockets were in the air overhead. Other costumed adventurers were spread out away from his position. He saw one of the Finches using something for batting practice and winced. An eye of light formed around Scry. He stood still and closed his eyes. Sam heard the sound of pages snapping in the air. Another cloud ring formed in the park. The grayness thinned to reveal a place of gray stone on the other side. Costumed and masked people jumped through the door, looking around at the park. They held themselves ready to fight. The magician let go of his spell and the cloud collapsed. He held himself together, taking deep breaths to steady himself. Sam looked at one of the people who had come through. She wore almost the same costume he had in blue. He couldn¡¯t keep a grin from his face. ¡°Amanda?,¡± he put his baton in holster. ¡°Amanda?¡± ¡°Sam?,¡± said the woman. ¡°Why are you wearing one of my costumes?¡± ¡°Where have you been?,¡± asked Sam. ¡°What happened?¡± ¡°Not now,¡± said one of the other heroes. ¡°We¡¯re still in trouble.¡± ¡°It¡¯s almost over,¡± said Charlton. ¡°The main enemy has been defeated. The rest is the clean up.¡± One of the others took to the sky, reuniting with the Rockets. Sam grinned as the three flew through the air. They chased each other. ¡°I think we have some catching up to do,¡± said Amanda. ¡°We¡¯ve been stranded for thirty years.¡± ¡°The current situation is an invasion from another dimension,¡± said Sam. ¡°We¡¯ve lost the Mark, and who knows who else. I have a couple of partners helping me, and Captain Charlton figured out how to get you back somehow.¡± ¡°Steve did it,¡± said Charlton, gesturing at the man in the dark suit. ¡°But the rest will have to wait until we make sure the park is clear, and the enemy hasn¡¯t decided to kill civilians since they might be stuck here.¡± ¡°I think we can handle that part,¡± said Amanda. ¡°This is more masks than I have ever seen.¡± ¡°It¡¯s one of the bigger assemblies,¡± said Charlton. He pushed his cap back. ¡°The excitement is dying down. We¡¯ll be gathering our dead until morning. You folks should go ahead. There¡¯s a place south of here. We¡¯ll meet there in a couple of hours.¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± said Sam. He shook Charlton¡¯s hand, then Scry¡¯s. He was all grins. ¡°Everyone safe?,¡± asked Seeker over the radio. ¡°Yes,¡± said Sam. ¡°We¡¯re moving south. Your uncle said his group would catch up with us now that the fight is almost done.¡± ¡°I have one more shot to take, then I am on my way,¡± said Seeker. He nodded, despite knowing she couldn¡¯t see him unless she was looking at the group with the scope on her rifle. ¡°Why are you wearing a version of my costume?,¡± asked Amanda. ¡°I found your files and decided to take over for you,¡± said Sam. ¡°Seeker and the Rocket decided to pitch in. We¡¯ve been doing okay.¡± ¡°I have so much to catch up on,¡± said Amanda. ¡°Wait. Why were you going through my stuff?¡± ¡°The county foreclosed on your house,¡± said Sam. ¡°I went in and cleaned everything out and put it in a storage unit. I¡¯ll give you the key when we figure out what to do.¡± ¡°All of my friends must think I ran off,¡± said Amanda. ¡°They know you were missing,¡± said Sam. ¡°I don¡¯t know how you can explain this to them. You might have to say you were stranded and couldn¡¯t call.¡± ¡°This is going to take some getting used to,¡± said Amanda. ¡°Thirty years is a long time to be away from home.¡± ¡°The worst part is people got over you being missing and moved on with their lives,¡± said Sam. ¡°Except for me.¡± ¡°It will be like coming back from the dead,¡± said Amanda. ¡°I¡¯m not ready for that yet.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s find this place Cap Charlton was talking about and see if we can get some food, and I¡¯ll try to explain some of the things that have happened since you¡¯ve been gone,¡± said Sam. ¡°I admit I never thought I would see you again.¡± ¡°Same here,¡± said Amanda. ¡°We built a base out there to survive. Baseline could never quite get us close to home. The call today, tonight, had come out of the blue. When we get out there, someone will find that place if it is still standing and go I wonder what happened here.¡± ¡°That¡¯ll be a couple of centuries at least,¡± said Sam. ¡°Maybe,¡± said Amanda. ¡°We found some things out there we can use to expand the space programs here.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re going to be an astronaut?,¡± asked Sam. ¡°I don¡¯t see why not,¡± said Amanda. ¡°There might be some trouble ahead,¡± said one of Amanda¡¯s group. He wore a mask with an eye on it. ¡°Sean, this is my brother, Sam,¡± said Amanda. ¡°Sam, this is Sean. He¡¯s our recon expert.¡± ¡°Nice to meet you,¡± said Sam. ¡°Okay,¡± said Sean. ¡°Are we looking into this?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t see why not,¡± said Amanda. Desert Storms 1 Mark Hadron realized as he stepped out of the airport that the air felt better than New York¡¯s. He pulled on sunglasses as he looked around. This was his first time in another country, and he wanted to enjoy some of it before he had to go to work. Harry Cho adjusted his fedora as he paused beside his friend. He looked around until he saw a cab stand. ¡°Let¡¯s catch a ride to our hotel,¡± said Cho. ¡°Then we can figure out whatever we¡¯re supposed to be doing.¡± ¡°What we¡¯re supposed to be doing is a scan of local energy readings,¡± said Hadron. ¡°I don¡¯t see how that is going to help anyone since we¡¯re the only ones who knows what it means, and what we should be looking for. On the other hand, the Israelis are paying us a ton of money for the survey, and Milton says we need it so we can expand our operation.¡± ¡°We need it so he can expand his hat collection,¡± said Cho. ¡°You¡¯re wearing a hat,¡± pointed out Hadron, pointing at the fedora on his friend¡¯s head. ¡°I have one hat, not six hundred,¡± retorted Harry. ¡°He¡¯s like Imelda Marcos and her shoes.¡± ¡°I admit the wig stands might be a step too far,¡± said Hadron. ¡°Exactly,¡± said Harry. ¡°And it¡¯s creepy too.¡± Hadron smiled. Harry asked the driver for a lift to the Hilton when they reached the cab drivers standing around the marker post where they were supposed to pick up their fares. One of the men waved at his cab, and gestured for them to get in. ¡°We¡¯re going to have to rent a car while we¡¯re here,¡± said Hadron. He sat down in the back with his go bag on his lap. ¡°We can¡¯t afford a cab everywhere we¡¯ll need to go.¡± ¡°Maybe we can get a driver,¡± said Cho. He tilted his hat back as he sat down on the other side of the seat. He had a duffle he propped up between them. ¡°I don¡¯t know why they would want a scan for turbulence out here. The lines should be changing all the time.¡± ¡°I doubt it,¡± said Hadron. He looked out the window as the car rolled through the hot sun. This close to the Med brought in cooling winds sometimes, but not now. ¡°We¡¯ll see when we talk to the clients.¡± ¡°They probably want to use the turbulence to power something like a giant robot,¡± said Harry. ¡°Autobots! Let¡¯s roll out!¡± ¡°I doubt it,¡± said Hadron. ¡°I expect it¡¯s something like a new style of power plant powered by the natural energy. I would think there were obvious drawbacks that wouldn¡¯t make it feasible.¡± ¡°Like what?,¡± asked Cho. ¡°Well, that much energy being pulled in means that eventually you are going to start generating ghosts, or opening rips,¡± said Hadron. ¡°Then you have to shut everything down, go to backup power, restart when the lines calmed down whenever that is.¡± ¡°And if they don¡¯t calm down?,¡± asked Cho. ¡°Then you better be able to live with what is going to happen,¡± said Hadron. ¡°Might be a second, or third, level apocalypse. Not enough to affect the whole world, but enough to reroute the lines and leave a lot of things wandering around that you don¡¯t necessarily want wandering around.¡± ¡°Like that thing in Mrs. Havershim¡¯s attic?,¡± said Cho. ¡°Exactly like that,¡± said Hadron with a sigh. ¡°Excuse me,¡± said the driver. ¡°What do you do?¡± ¡°We chase ghosts,¡± said Hadron. ¡°The government has asked us to come over here and look around for hauntings.¡± ¡°Pardon me for asking,¡± said the driver. ¡°That¡¯s what we do,¡± said Hadron. He pulled a business card out of his wallet and passed it over. Lamplighters ran across the top of the card in blue letters. ¡°If you have a problem with some kind of ghost, we¡¯ll check it out for you. We¡¯re only going to be in town for a couple of weeks so we¡¯ll have to charge you for a flight back.¡± ¡°Ask for the discount,¡± said Cho. He smiled. ¡°We¡¯ll burn up two ghosts for the price of one.¡± ¡°But it¡¯s the most expensive one,¡± said Hadron. ¡°Our financial guy won¡¯t let us offer anything else.¡± ¡°Boy, let me tell you,¡± said Cho in a passable imitation of his friend, Milton. ¡°We ain¡¯t bagging a type ten electrical whatsitz and a type two spirit beast, and only charging for the spirit beast. Anybody can kick the hind end off a shadow cat.¡± Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. ¡°Does your friend sound like that?,¡± asked the driver. He put the card in his console. ¡°He¡¯s from Texas,¡± said Hadron. ¡°That explains that,¡± said the driver. ¡°Your hotel is up here on your right.¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± said Hadron. ¡°We don¡¯t have our equipment with us, but if you do have a ghost problem, we¡¯ll fix it for you one way, or the other.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll keep that in mind,¡± said the driver. He doubted he would ever have a spirit problem. Once he let these two kooks go, he could find normal fares to drive around the city. Hadron and Cho got out of the cab. They looked around as they headed into the Hilton. The driver shook his head as he drove off. ¡°Do you really think they would try to harness the turbulence?,¡± asked Cho. They headed for the front desk to check in. ¡°There¡¯s always someone doing something stupid,¡± said Hadron. ¡°Look at what we do.¡± ¡°We did save the city, possibly the world,¡± said Cho. ¡°The Mark and Scry saved the world,¡± said Hadron. ¡°They just gave us credit for some reason.¡± ¡°Because we did most of the work,¡± said Cho. ¡°We¡¯re the only ones who know how to do what we do. Reservation for Cho and Hadron.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s right,¡± said Hadron. ¡°Magicians know how to do what we do.¡± ¡°But they don¡¯t,¡± said Cho. ¡°Your rooms are on the fourth floor,¡± said the clerk. She eyed them from behind her computer screen and the large counter where she stood. ¡°416 and 415.¡± ¡°Thank you very much,¡± said Cho. Hadron led the way across the lobby to the elevators. He wondered if he was grumpy because he didn¡¯t know why they were on the other side of the planet for a survey, or because he needed something to eat. His stomach told him he needed something to eat in a loud way. ¡°I think we should stow our bags and see if we can spend some of the local currency on food,¡± said Hadron as they waited on the elevator. ¡°I don¡¯t see why not,¡± said Cho. ¡°Are you going to last that long?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be fine,¡± said Hadron. He pushed the button to send the elevator to their floor. ¡°I have to call Janie to tell her we¡¯re here and everything is okay so far.¡± ¡°I think she¡¯s sweet on you,¡± said Cho. ¡°Milton said the same thing,¡± said Hadron. He stepped out of the elevator and used his card to open his door. ¡°Give me five minutes.¡± Hadron put his go bag under the bed. He looked around the two rooms of his suite, then the bathroom. It was like every other hotel he had ever visited except for the view outside his windows. Paisley walls, bed, couch, television, desk, chest of drawers. He wondered how much Milton had made the government agree to pay before he even got on the plane. His friend was a shark when it came to money. Hadron picked up the green phone receiver and pushed the international code for the States, and then the full number for their company headquarters in New York. He had talked with Milton about getting radio phones, but their finance man was watching the tech columns for a deal. ¡°Lamplighters,¡± said Janie Hillsmeir after he listened to the ring for a few seconds. ¡°How can I help you?¡± ¡°It¡¯s me, Janie,¡± said Hadron. ¡°We¡¯re down in Tel Aviv and waiting for the rep to meet us tomorrow.¡± ¡°Get back as fast as you can,¡± said Janie. ¡°Milt and Dyson are having problems with a phantom in the subway. He¡¯s leading them around by their noses.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll do what I can,¡± said Hadron. ¡°We don¡¯t even know what we¡¯re supposed to be surveying yet.¡± ¡°Be careful,¡± said Janie. ¡°Check in tomorrow night. Milton is going to want details so he can write the bill up.¡± ¡°Okay, Janie,¡± said Hadron. He shook his head. He wondered how much Milton was going to try to overcharge the Israelis for their services. Milton was in the wrong job to charge people for services rendered since they were there to stop problems from beyond. And do research on the side. He still did research. Most of it was bent on how to kill the spirit that had suddenly sprung into existence and was causing problems. He hadn¡¯t done real research since he dropped out of college. He hadn¡¯t wanted to do that, but he couldn¡¯t keep up with his studies and help with the business like he needed. And the job was making him money and giving him a view of the strange that he had looked for all his life. He hadn¡¯t expected how mundane it would seem after the last year of dealing with things and trying not to get killed. The others seemed fine with it. He took a moment to get a grip on things so he didn¡¯t scream into the phone. It wasn¡¯t Janie¡¯s fault about how things had turned out. ¡°I¡¯ll call in tomorrow, Janie,¡± he said. ¡°This is the phone number, or I guess you can call the front desk and ask to be transferred to our rooms.¡± He gave her the number. ¡°I¡¯m in 415,¡± said Hadron. ¡°Harry is across the hall in 416.¡± ¡°I got it, Mark,¡± said Janie. ¡°Watch yourself.¡± ¡°I do all the time,¡± said Hadron. ¡°I¡¯ll call in tomorrow. I don¡¯t know when.¡± ¡°Right, Mark,¡± said Janie. ¡°Good night.¡± ¡°Good night, Janie,¡± said Hadron. He put the earpiece on the receiver gently. He had to get dinner, and then look at what he needed for tomorrow. He had left parts for a scanner in his go bag. It wasn¡¯t long range, but he could build another one out of bought parts if he needed it. He wondered why they had called the company as he walked out of the hotel room. He locked up before knocking on Harry¡¯s door. Ghostbusting was not something most rational people looked on without derision. They should have turned down the credit the Mark gave them for the save in the city. Then he wouldn¡¯t be dealing with people across the ocean from his home. Harry seemed to be enjoying himself. ¡°Hey, Mark,¡± said Harry. ¡°Nothing looks bad for tomorrow, but if we stay and do a complete survey, we might have a problem.¡± ¡°Reading?,¡± asked Hadron. Harry nodded. He had a talent for fortune telling with cards. He wasn¡¯t hundred percent yet, but he was close most of the time. If they were going to have problems in their line of work, then they might need to have lamps and weapons shipped from home. Milton would love the extra money he could charge for an active job. ¡°Yep,¡± said Harry. ¡°What are we going to do?¡± ¡°We¡¯re getting dinner, then I have to look over the request paperwork we were sent, then I¡¯m turning in,¡± said Hadron. ¡°Do a reading tomorrow after we meet the rep and see if anything changed.¡± ¡°After that?,¡± asked Harry. ¡°We figure out how to get our gear and light some monster up,¡± said Hadron. ¡°That¡¯s what we do.¡± They rode the elevator down to the lobby. Desert Storms 2 Marty taxied the jet to a rented hangar off the main runways at Tel Aviv airport. He put the headphones on their hook before shutting everything down. He leaned back in his seat. He had learned to fly a little when he was ten. Then he had taken refresher courses after he had taken Watson down, and got Barry back. He hadn¡¯t expected to fly around the world without most of his partners to look at some anomaly out in the desert for his adopted father. ¡°That was enjoyable,¡± said Ren. ¡°Flying in a plane is better when you can see everything.¡± ¡°It¡¯s more comfortable than a griffin,¡± said Marty. ¡°Let¡¯s get our bags and go through Customs. We can look at Barry¡¯s problem area tomorrow. The satellite pictures were out in the desert somewhere.¡± ¡°Have you been to Israel before?,¡± asked Ren. ¡°I don¡¯t think I have had the chance,¡± said Marty. ¡°I don¡¯t know if Barry had someone on the ground to help us either.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll figure things out,¡± said Ren. ¡°I have to call Corona to let her know we¡¯re down.¡± ¡°Finch said to call if there was an emergency,¡± said Marty. ¡°She¡¯s taking the kids on a walkabout.¡± ¡°Walkabout?,¡± asked Ren. ¡°That¡¯s what she said, but I think she is making the kids run laps in the woods around the compound,¡± said Marty. ¡°So I can¡¯t talk to her for a few hours, and Barry is experimenting on something and won¡¯t pick up the phone until he¡¯s done in the lab.¡± ¡°So my check in will have to cover both of us,¡± said Ren. ¡°If there is a problem, Corona can fly up to the place and let Barry and Finch know.¡± ¡°Looks like,¡± said Marty. He unstrapped his safety harness and stood. ¡°Let¡¯s see what we can do before we head out to the desert. Barry probably wants us to go out there and sleep in a tent now that we are on the ground.¡± ¡°I would like a hotel,¡± said Ren. ¡°I would like to go over the pictures again before we endanger ourselves.¡± ¡°No problem,¡± said Marty. ¡°I wish Finch and Corona were here. They are our powerhouses.¡± ¡°But they aren¡¯t very good at mysteries unless we want to make someone talk,¡± said Ren. ¡°I don¡¯t see that with some occurrence.¡± Marty nodded. His wife was many things, but she wasn¡¯t a detective unless beating people senseless for information was what was needed. She did that very well indeed. Corona was even worse unless you wanted the beaten person set on fire. She was excellent at that. Marty grabbed his go bag and jacket and led the way to the exit door in the middle of the jet. Cog might have been big help, but he didn¡¯t want to leave Chicago for another country. Being a ball of metal and a hundred mechanical tentacles made him suspicious of anybody who might come into contact with him. He didn¡¯t want to fend off any attention he might gather from the Israelis while they were on the job. Marty pulled on his jacket as he opened the door to the let the steps down. He pulled on sunglasses as he stepped down to the tarmac. Ren had his carrier bag slung on a strap at his hip, and a briefcase for his suits. He straightened his jacket, and the vest underneath as he stepped out in the afternoon sun. ¡°You¡¯re going to overheat in that,¡± said Marty. ¡°The black suit is the tradition of the detective on the job,¡± said Ren. ¡°Besides it is air-conditioned.¡± ¡°How did you do that?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°I hypnotized it into being cooler than the surrounding air,¡± said Ren. Marty smiled as he shook his head. He shouldn¡¯t have been surprised. Hypnotizing clothing was in his friend¡¯s capacity, and need for comfort. He wasn¡¯t a hardbitten private shamus like Mike Hammer. He was a genteel layabout like Nick Charles. He had the wife and kid, all he needed was the dog that was smarter than he was. Marty ran his hand through his hair as they walked toward the terminal. They had to get through customs, then find a hotel and rent a car. The jet hadn¡¯t had room for a car on it like the big one parked under the national forest. It had been parked for almost twenty years. Barry was still getting replacement parts for it to bring back up to state of the art so they could start using it as a mobile base again. The small jet was a replacement for the one the Scouts had lost when the original team had been decimated at Idaville. Ren maintained his silence. He didn¡¯t like to speculate about what a problem could be before they actually started looking at it. He had apprenticed under a master detective and earned his independence in the eight years he had been with the new Scouts. He was teaching his son his methods as well as he could. Corona was teaching him how to control the flames he had inherited from her. Burning down someone¡¯s property was not something she wanted Bond to do by accident. She wanted him to be sure first. ¡°Have your children inherited your powers, Marty?,¡± asked Ren. ¡°Nope,¡± said Morgan. ¡°It might have skipped a generation, or no one else might ever get them.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t seem bothered by it,¡± said Ren. This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°Finch wants them to be trained like her,¡± Marty said. ¡°Adding in what I can do would just cause a lot of problems for all of them. I think it¡¯s better if I sit back and watch for strange animals around the Hub instead of trying to push for them to make an animal that will help them get into trouble.¡± ¡°What if they are making animals without you?,¡± asked Ren. ¡°My wife doesn¡¯t need me to bring out the whupping stick,¡± said Marty. Ren silently agreed with that. Finch was one of the most dangerous people around with her hands. Disciplining children should be child¡¯s play for her. ¡°And if they get bit, it will teach them a lesson about bringing things to life that don¡¯t like them,¡± said Marty. ¡°It¡¯s the circle of life in action.¡± ¡°I think you are way too relaxed about the thought your family could be eaten by made up lions,¡± said Ren. ¡°Naw,¡± said Marty. ¡°Finch can handle that.¡± Ren nodded. He had seen Finch in action himself. She could handle a mountain lion. He didn¡¯t want to see the animal she couldn¡¯t handle. They pushed into the terminal and made their way through Customs. Marty presented his passport and opened his bag which was full of folded t-shirts, cargo pants, underwear and socks. Ren presented a folder that said it was a passport, opened his briefcase which scared the inspector, and was let through with a lot of talk. ¡°What do you have in your bag?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°My library,¡± said Ren. Marty shrugged as they walked across the terminal. He was used to his friend saying things that couldn¡¯t be true but probably were. He turned toward signs that promised rentals for the tourist on the go. He led the way to the counter. There were a few minutes of talk as he and Ren compared Barry¡¯s pictures to a real map and decided they needed a jeep of some kind to get to where they had to go. The counter lady advised them to get extra water and gas cans if they were going out in the desert. Tel Aviv was a long way from the target, but Marty didn¡¯t know of any airports that far south that would take the Scout jet. Driving seemed their best option at the moment. If they had to fly back, he had a couple of things that would do that for him when he summoned them. ¡°Do we get hotel here?,¡± asked Ren. ¡°Or start south?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s get rooms here before we start looking around,¡± said Marty. ¡°I have been in the air for hours. I want to rest my butt.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll call Corona as soon as we check in,¡± said Ren. ¡°Then I can do my review.¡± ¡°I¡¯m taking a nap,¡± said Marty. ¡°Then I am going to get some food in me, then maybe I¡¯m going to hit the night tourist spots before I get some sleep. We can take the jeep out early in the morning and look around.¡± ¡°Sounds like a plan,¡± said Ren. ¡°We might have come to town over nothing,¡± said Marty. ¡°If we did, we just get back on the plane and head home.¡± ¡°We¡¯re here for something,¡± said Ren. ¡°Barry wouldn¡¯t have sent us to look around if nothing was going on.¡± ¡°We might not be the experts needed for this,¡± said Marty. ¡°We might need to call up the Lamplighters and let them do their thing.¡± ¡°How did that go in New York?,¡± asked Ren. ¡°We almost lost the city,¡± said Marty. He checked the key ring against the car in front of him. A driver from the rental car company got out and left the door open for him. ¡°But we worked things out.¡± Ren paused at the matter of fact way Marty put things. He walked around to the other side and got in the passenger seat. ¡°You almost lost the city?,¡± said Ren. ¡°Yep, but the Mark showed up with his adoptees and a few other guys pitched in and we closed things and saved the city from being turned into more of a hell than it is right now,¡± said Marty. He got behind the wheel. ¡°What did you tell Finch about this?,¡± asked Ren. ¡°Another day at the office,¡± said Marty. He smiled. ¡°What she doesn¡¯t know keeps my bones from being broken.¡± ¡°You¡¯re way too confident,¡± said Ren. ¡°Barry will tell her at some point. You will be in so much trouble.¡± ¡°Trouble deferred is trouble avoided,¡± said Marty. ¡°Where¡¯s the closest hotel?¡± ¡°We should turn left,¡± said Ren. ¡°There are a few along the water we can check in.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Marty. ¡°If things get bad overnight, I expect Barry will try to call us through the plane. I¡¯ll have to leave him a message about the hotel phone to call.¡± ¡°Message through the plane?,¡± asked Ren. ¡°Sometimes he forgets that not everybody likes to sleep in their vehicle and move out when the rooster crows,¡± said Marty. ¡°Because of his prosthesis?,¡± asked Ren. ¡°Naw,¡± said Marty. ¡°He was always like that, even when I was a kid. Do you know how many times I have heard the sun¡¯s up, time to go?¡± ¡°You counted how many times he said it?,¡± asked Ren. ¡°Yep,¡± said Marty. ¡°You can keep that to yourself because you are confirming it was a good idea that Corona and I live in San Francisco,¡± said Ren. ¡°How do you afford that?,¡± said Marty. ¡°Afford what?,¡± asked Ren. ¡°The rent and stuff,¡± said Marty. ¡°I don¡¯t have to pay rent and utilities where I live,¡± said Ren. ¡°You hypnotized something to be your house, didn¡¯t you?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°I do not know what you are talking about,¡± said Ren. ¡°I¡¯m talking about you seizing something that isn¡¯t a house and making it into a house, and fooling everyone around you,¡± said Marty. ¡°And I know you are capable of doing that. I have seen you do it.¡± ¡°Corona would never accept anything that wasn¡¯t a real house,¡± said Ren. ¡°I am hurt that you would think such a thing.¡± ¡°I want to see this house when we get done with this,¡± said Marty. ¡°I know you¡¯re hiding something.¡± ¡°Again you stab me in the heart,¡± said Ren. ¡°I think I will never talk to you again.¡± Marty glanced at his friend as he pulled to a stop in front of the hotel. He knew he was right. He wondered what Ren had turned into a fake house for his family to avoid San Fran¡¯s climbing prices. ¡°I will find out,¡± said Marty. ¡°You might have to come up with something for me to get away from the kids.¡± ¡°I think making Finch angry is not worth it,¡± said Ren. Marty smiled at that. They had thought they were rescuing her from Watson Security when they first met. Instead they were rescuing Watson¡¯s personnel from her, and they didn¡¯t rescue all of them at that. They went in and checked into separate rooms. Marty took time to leave a message that he was down. Then he lay on the bed and went instantly asleep. He woke up with sun going down. He took out a note pad and wrote a note for Ren. He put that in the crack at the bottom of his friend¡¯s door before he headed out of the hotel. He couldn¡¯t remember being in Tel Aviv. He had spent time traveling with the Scouts, and then roaming the United States on his own, and then traveling with the new Scouts. He couldn¡¯t remember any mysteries, or problems, bringing him to the Middle East. He considered that lucky. He didn¡¯t think the other Scouts had traveled much from their homes except Ren. Cog was a special case. He had settled in Chicago and preferred to stay there unless he was helping out with support. Crashing on Earth had put him in the position of not wanting to do anything other than what he preferred. He helped out but complained about everything. But for a non-combatant, he could be just as dangerous as the rest of them in his own way. Marty didn¡¯t push unless he thought the world was going to end and he needed all hands with no exceptions. He personally picked Cog up when that happened and dropped him off when the emergency was over. He thought Cog¡¯s people were territorial and didn¡¯t like to venture too far away from their homes. It made it weird that Cog would even go into space to wind up on Earth. Marty looked for a place to eat and watch the street. He wanted to stay out of trouble, but had never given up the habit of people watching. Once he was done, he would walk around for a bit before heading back to his hotel. He hoped the local criminals left him alone. He didn¡¯t want to be hauled in for feeding some clown to a wood chipper. He especially didn¡¯t want to ask Barry to bail him out for feeding some clown to a wood chipper. He would never hear the end of the jokes that would be spoken at the wrong times. Marty watched the street and enjoyed his food. He paid with his card before heading along the street. He created a hound dog to walk beside him as he went. They talked about things as they roamed the capitol. A few times the dog went on alert and then relaxed. Marty made it back to his hotel and settled in for the night. Desert Storms 3 Mark Hadron looked out the window as the sun came up. He got ready for the new day before pulling out the equipment case from his go bag. It was the smallest they had been able to make their sensor with the electronics they had access to. He supposed it was a wonder that it actually worked. He made his check in call to let Milton and Janie know that they were getting breakfast and meeting the rep from the Israelis after breakfast. He had to make sure Harry was ready to go first. He didn¡¯t let them know about Harry¡¯s prediction, but did enquire if it was possible to airdrop some carbines and lamps if they needed it. Janie said she would make a note so Milton could look into it. After he hung up, he admitted he would feel better with the familiar blue flame close at hand. Surveys of turbulence shouldn¡¯t be dangerous, but he had already seen three cases where the survey stirred up something that didn¡¯t like humans knowing it was there. Burning those monsters down had solved some heinous crimes for the locals when they were done. Hadron had been glad to get out of the charnel houses when they were done. He locked up his room after storing his bag back under the bed. He walked across the hall and knocked on the door to Harry¡¯s room. He listened but didn¡¯t hear any movement. He knocked louder. ¡°What you want?,¡± asked Harry through the door. ¡°It¡¯s time to go to work,¡± said Hadron. ¡°I¡¯m going down to breakfast. Get ready.¡± Hadron walked down to the elevator and headed down. He sniffed the air and followed it to a bar of food and coffee. He got a plate of buns and a cup of coffee. He sat down at the table in the small caf¨¦. He checked his watch as he ate. Harry was going to miss breakfast if he didn¡¯t get a move on. He wondered how much they would have to do on the first day. He planned to figure out the area of the survey and a route to cover it before they went out. Tomorrow they could actually see the scene. If the area was close enough, and small enough, they could probably handle it today, and fly back the next day. Milton would not like the end of the revenue stream. Harry arrived with hat pushed back and case in hand. He put the case down and grabbed some food before settling at Hadron¡¯s table. He had twice as much as his friend and dug in like a wolf. ¡°You got ten minutes before the rep is supposed to arrive,¡± said Hadron, sipping his coffee. It was a little stronger than he usually got but he could live with that. ¡°I¡¯ll be finished before then,¡± said Harry. ¡°You learn to eat fast if you want to get away from the table before a squabble breaks out.¡± ¡°I can believe it,¡± said Hadron. Harry seemed to have as big a family as Columbo and Hadron couldn¡¯t keep all of them straight in his head. He just shook his head at a story and kept moving. He had met some of them and they were as quirky as Harry said. He had no doubt that his friend¡¯s ability ran strong in his family. A man in a short sleeved shirt came into the lobby, glancing around. A smile cut through his beard as he spotted the Lamplighters at their table. He turned to approach their table. ¡°Mark Hadron, Harrison Cho,¡± said the stranger. ¡°I¡¯m Ishmael Levram, the representative from the Department of Psychic Studies and Research. I¡¯m here to show you the survey area, and talk about your technology.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll call you Ishmael,¡± said Harry. ¡°That¡¯s what everyone says,¡± said the representative. He smiled, but it was easy to see he wasn¡¯t a fan of Moby Dick at this point in his life. ¡°What do you need to know about the technology?,¡± asked Hadron. He wasn¡¯t planning to sell anything. And he doubted Milton would agree to an end to their monopoly. As long as they were the only ones using the lamps and carbines, then there was no worry that someone would do something stupid like collect blue flame until it exploded into a giant demon and started killing people. ¡°I¡¯m interested in how it works, and how you can detect turbulence,¡± said Levram. ¡°The region has had several problems that were stopped by chance. I want something preventative for the future.¡± ¡°We can¡¯t give you anything like that,¡± said Hadron. ¡°We can do the survey and point out where you might have problems in the future. We can¡¯t give you equipment without some kind of binding agreement in place. Plus we¡¯re not sure anyone else can make the lamps, sensors, and carbines right now. They seem to run on mind power at the very least.¡± Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. ¡°Mind power?,¡± asked Levram. ¡°I can demonstrate right here before we go out on the survey,¡± said Hadron. He opened his case. He pulled out a box of electronics and a dish antenna to plug into one end. ¡°This is the clerk.¡± He pointed the sensor at the clerk and pushed the button. A small black and white screen gave a zero back. He pointed at Harry and got back a two. He knew that was because of his friend¡¯s fortune telling ability. He pointed at Levram and he paused when the Israeli came back with a three. ¡°Borderline superhuman,¡± said Hadron. ¡°What can you do? Talk to birds? Surround yourself with sand?¡± ¡°No,¡± said Levram. ¡°But I have always had a knack with technology.¡± ¡°Really?,¡± said Hadron. He put the box back in the case after powering the machine down. ¡°How good a knack?¡± ¡°I could rebuild your sensor to be easier to carry and have more range while using less battery power,¡± said Levram. ¡°Really?,¡± said Hadron. ¡°This technology can be horribly abused in a lot of ways. Why should we trust you with this?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t really justify my standing,¡± said Levram. ¡°But I would like to see if I can use this to protect Israel from things coming out of the woodwork.¡± ¡°You would need a mobile team to protect the whole country,¡± said Harry. He finished his meal. ¡°How many people are in your department?¡± ¡°Me,¡± said Levram. ¡°Of course, I answer to people above me, but I¡¯m the only one in my department right now.¡± ¡°If we gave your our gear, you would be dead the first time you took something on,¡± said Hadron. ¡°There¡¯s no way that you could take anything over a five, or six, by yourself. Crenshaw is an eight, and you would be dead in the first five seconds if he showed up here.¡± ¡°I was hoping that we could work out something where I can set up sensors so I could pinpoint problems and solve them without the actual weapons,¡± said Levram. ¡°The sensors tend to set off whatever you are looking for,¡± said Hadron. ¡°You would have agitated monsters exposing themselves to civilians and killing them just because they were spotted.¡± ¡°I think we should get back to the original problem,¡± said Harry. ¡°Why did you need a survey in the first place?¡± Hadron couldn¡¯t help his face telling them he was getting ready to walk away. One of the uses for his sensors would be locating superhumans who didn¡¯t want to be located. Some of them should be located because they were thieves and murderers, but most were just people trying to mind their business. Why should he give any country the ability to round up any superhuman who didn¡¯t want to work for them? The world already knew some governments were doing just that. ¡°There is some kind of problem in the south,¡± said Levram. ¡°We have observers marking a storm that hasn¡¯t moved. At some point, something has to be done. The department has been asked to look into it, which is why I called your business.¡± ¡°So you are wondering if some kind of monster or ghost is there?,¡± said Harry. He pushed his hat back. ¡°I have ruled out other energy being present with my own equipment,¡± said Levram. ¡°I think we can do that,¡± said Harry. ¡°I have to say this could go bad by the end of the week.¡± ¡°How bad?,¡± said Levram. Harry made an explosion with his hands. ¡°That doesn¡¯t look good,¡± said Levram. ¡°It¡¯s in the future,¡± said Harry. ¡°And we can change that if we work hard enough.¡± ¡°Do you have a shop?,¡± asked Hadron. ¡°We might need carbines and lamps.¡± ¡°I would be glad to show you the workshop,¡± said Levram. ¡°I have requisitioned everything that I could.¡± ¡°Everything?,¡± said Harry. ¡°Yes,¡± said Levram. ¡°Some things have shown to be valuable in some of the cases I have dealt with for the ministry.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s look at the area,¡± said Hadron. ¡°Then we¡¯re going to need access if I think we can handle it on our own. If we can¡¯t, we¡¯ll have to get Milton and Dyson here.¡± ¡°I will arrange a plane to fly them here from New York if that will solve the problem,¡± said Levram. ¡°Can you do that?,¡± asked Hadron. ¡°I have tons of surplus in my budget,¡± said Levram. ¡°Mostly I use it for replacement parts. Chartering a plane and getting it here on top of your fees will be fine.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Hadron. ¡°Let¡¯s look at the problem in person. Then we can decide on what we want to do.¡± ¡°I have arranged for a flight to the scene,¡± said Levram. ¡°I have an observation point buried out there so we can set up there until we decide what to do.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Hadron. ¡°Let¡¯s go ahead and do this.¡± ¡°My car is outside,¡± said Levram. ¡°The heli is at the airport. We can fly down in a few minutes.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Hadron. ¡°You finished, Harry?¡± ¡°Almost,¡± said Harry. ¡°How long have you been with the government, Ishmael.¡± ¡°A few years,¡± said Levram. ¡°I earned my position after my conscription. I have been the department since it was created. I was told that other governments have the same thing but I have only worked with the British.¡± ¡°Haven¡¯t seen any American unit,¡± said Harry. ¡°We might depend a lot more on the Mark than people think,¡± said Hadron. ¡°Or they have one guy who¡¯s glad that someone is doing stuff that he would normally be responsible for,¡± said Harry. ¡°Where¡¯s that report on the bridge troll? Lamplighters blew it up. I still need a report.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Hadron. ¡°Hurry up. I have a bad feeling about this.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve always got a bad feeling,¡± said Harry. ¡°You need to relax a lot more, maybe take Janie out on the town.¡± ¡°Why would I do that?,¡± asked Hadron. ¡°Because she¡¯s interested in you,¡± said Harry. ¡°Everybody sees it.¡± ¡°I would rather not,¡± said Hadron. The tone of his voice said he didn¡¯t want to talk about it. ¡°Okay,¡± said Harry. ¡°It¡¯s just one future, but it¡¯s something for you to consider. You don¡¯t want to be alone if something happens to the rest of us. You¡¯ll need her to keep steady.¡± ¡°If you were to drop dead, I would be fine,¡± said Hadron. ¡°All right,¡± said Harry. He shook his head in disbelief. ¡°Shall we?,¡± said Levram. ¡°I think so unless my friend has more romantic advice for me to dismiss,¡± said Hadron. ¡°I¡¯m good,¡± said Harry. ¡°Let me grab some more of these cookies to take with us.¡± Levram seemed amused. He stood and walked across the lobby. Hadron grabbed the equipment boxes and followed. Harry hurried to catch up with the two of them, putting cookies packed in bags in his jacket pocket. Levram went to a Audi with government plates. He gestured for his guests to take seats as he got behind the wheel. The three of them rolled to the airport for their flight. Desert Storms 4 Marty and Ren loaded up the rented Jeep with supplies from the plane. Then they headed south. The local news pointed Ren to the area but none of the reporters had an idea of what was going on down there. Ren had an idea but he didn¡¯t like what it meant if he was right. ¡°This might be a bigger problem than what we thought,¡± said the detective, consulting the map. ¡°We might need help before this is done.¡± ¡°We can call Barry when we reach where we can see things,¡± said Marty. ¡°This might just be weird weather.¡± ¡°We know this isn¡¯t weird weather,¡± said Ren. ¡°This is being caused by someone. I can already see the patterns in the air.¡± ¡°Can you stop them?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Ren. ¡°My speciality doesn¡¯t lend itself to mystical dueling. I have seen something like that when I was younger. The Professor said it was a failure on his part since he had not been able to gather the evidence needed and had to resort to a petty trick.¡± Marty nodded. He had met the Professor once with the Scouts, and when Bond was born. The old man and Barry had got along splendidly as the younger generation looked on. Evidence gathering methods had been the thing for a long time that night. Marty wondered sometimes about his parents. Barry had been a good father before he had been reduced to a brain in a jar despite the constant danger. He didn¡¯t have a clue how he had come into his adopted father¡¯s custody. He had never asked Ren about his parents. ¡°How did you start working with the Professor?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°I was sold to him,¡± said Ren. ¡°How did you start working with Barry?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Marty. ¡°I just always have as long as I can remember.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t remember how you came to be with the Scouts?,¡± said Ren. ¡°No,¡± said Marty. ¡°Jim always said that they found me during one of their cases. They said they didn¡¯t know what happened to my folks.¡± ¡°I could look into it for you,¡± said Ren. ¡°It¡¯s part of what I do.¡± ¡°It has been a long time,¡± said Marty. ¡°That would be a mystery that might be out of reach.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll see,¡± said Ren. Marty smiled. His friend loved breaking mysteries. The longer away it was, the more he loved it. He could take it, or leave it. He drove on in silence. He wished Finch was with them. He felt more confident when she was close. ¡°Yes,¡± said Ren. ¡°We are looking at something unnatural. I think I am going to call Corona in case we need someone to come looking for us.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have a problem with that,¡± said Marty. ¡°Tell her to leave Bond with Finch.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Ren. ¡°She¡¯ll love visiting the desert.¡± ¡°That will be one of us then,¡± said Marty. He followed the road south, keeping an eye on the other drivers. Any one of them could do something stupid that he might have to use his power to fix. ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± said Ren. ¡°We might not have to do anything at all. This might be a natural event.¡± ¡°Like the Bermuda Triangle?,¡± said Marty. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t go that far, but yes,¡± said Ren. Marty wondered if Corona could fly there from the States. He had never asked what her range was. He just knew she was fast in the air. She might have to catch an airplane flight to reach them. They drove south quietly. Ren took readings with a coin on a string. He frowned at each one. A cloud appeared on the horizon. Marty pulled off the side of the road. He got out of the car and looked into the distance. He frowned at the storm floating in front of them. Ren got out on the other side. He held up his coin on a string. It dropped straight down at first. Then it rotated in the still air violently. Ren put the coin away. ¡°Whatever is going on is kicking a lot of loose energy into the air,¡± said Ren. ¡°Better call Corona,¡± said Marty. ¡°We¡¯ll have to do something, but we might need someone to rescue us if things goes sideways.¡± ¡°Solving this would be good for this part of the world,¡± said Ren. ¡°I would like it even better if we don¡¯t get killed doing it.¡± ¡°I know,¡± said Marty. ¡°Finch will kill me if something like that happens.¡± Ren gave him a look before shaking his head. ¡°Where do you think we should try to set up?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°We can let luck decide for us,¡± said Ren. He swung the coin on its string over his head. He gave his wrist a flick and released. The coin flew up and away. ¡°Follow that dowsing coin.¡± ¡°Really,¡± said Marty. He created a bird to follow the flying currency. Its sharp eyes should keep the thing in sight until it lands. They got back in the jeep. The vehicle rolled toward the cloud, keeping an eye on the bird. Fighting a stationary tornado was a new one on them. A stop at the next town might give them some cover to think about how they were going to pierce the storm and look for the source. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. They certainly needed some way to get close without risking the rental. Marty had dealt with high winds and knew they could lose the Jeep if he turned the wrong way. He doubted the extra insurance he had asked for would cover a magic tornado lifting the vehicle up and throwing it across the desert. He didn¡¯t have anything close to dealing with the phenomenon other than his dragon scaled up to carry him above the cloud and swirling sand. He wouldn¡¯t know what creature could stop the wind without killing itself. ¡°I can¡¯t see your bird any more,¡± said Ren. ¡°It must still be in the air,¡± said Marty. ¡°Look for a flare. That¡¯s where the bird will land to mark the spot where your thing hit the ground.¡± ¡°Do you think your bird can fly into that?,¡± said Ren. He nodded at the swirl of air ahead. ¡°I don¡¯t see why not,¡± said Marty. ¡°It¡¯s living flame. It should be able to stay in the air in a long glide forever.¡± ¡°There is a helicopter,¡± said Ren. He pointed at a small chopper headed into the desert. ¡°Should we go after that?¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Marty. ¡°Keep an eye on where the bird lands.¡± Marty pulled off the road and headed across the country. The helicopter would set down long before he could catch up to it. He had a general direction and thought it was heading for a spot at the edge of the bad weather. Maybe the local government had decided to figure out what was going on. Marty wondered if Barry knew someone he could call to ask for information. He should have thought about whether there were masks operating in the area that he could check for assistance. ¡°There¡¯s the flare from your bird,¡± said Ren. He pointed at the small column of flame in the air. ¡°It¡¯s just on the other side of that helicopter.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s drive over and see what¡¯s going on,¡± said Marty. ¡°An unmarked heli could mean anything. Once we have that sorted out, we can try to find your coin on a string.¡± ¡°Whatever is out there has to be causing the storm,¡± said Ren. ¡°If we have the right tools, we can disperse the cloud and settle things to normal.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t get too excited about having another mystery to solve,¡± said Marty. ¡°This could just be something that is once in a lifetime caused by the desert.¡± ¡°How likely is that?,¡± said Ren. ¡°I have only seen it a couple of times,¡± said Marty. ¡°We didn¡¯t find the source other than something was in the ground. Once we ripped that up, the whirlwind broke apart.¡± ¡°So this could be the same thing,¡± said Ren. ¡°What if we¡¯re wrong?¡± ¡°The first explanation is it¡¯s something natural and something we can interfere with it at some level,¡± said Marty. ¡°The second explanation is someone caused this and no one knows how to stop it yet.¡± ¡°And we¡¯re going to be the ones to try to stop it if it¡¯s unnatural?,¡± said Ren. ¡°I can see that.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± said Marty. ¡°Finch can punch a storm out.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± said Ren. ¡°We both know that isn¡¯t true.¡± ¡°Have you ever seen her try?,¡± asked Marty. He smiled. ¡°I haven¡¯t actually,¡± said Ren. ¡°I choose to disbelieve the statement until I see it with my own eyes.¡± ¡°Just pretend to be surprised when she does it,¡± said Marty. ¡°That way I won¡¯t have to tell her I told her secret to you.¡± ¡°If she can punch out a storm like that with her bare hands, I will be the most amazed detective that you ever saw,¡± said Ren. ¡°Do you want to put money down?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°No, because we will have to do something about this without Finch,¡± said Ren. ¡°I just don¡¯t know what yet.¡± ¡°Something will present itself,¡± said Marty. ¡°We¡¯re homing in on that heli. We should be able to see a pad with glasses in a few minutes. I don¡¯t know how long it will take to drive across the desert to it.¡± ¡°I think there is a camp, Marty,¡± said Ren. He pointed to a set of tents under the flag of Israel in the distance. ¡°Maybe explanation two is the right one.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll know if they start shooting at us,¡± said Marty. He smiled at the sour grimace on his friend¡¯s face. ¡°I think that¡¯s the last thing we want,¡± said Ren. ¡°I see some security,¡± said Marty. ¡°Let¡¯s see what happens when we roll up to the checkpoint. Be ready to hypnotize the car.¡± ¡°I am,¡± said Ren. He placed one hand on the dashboard as the Jeep sped toward the camp. He placed the lines of work in the dashboard to wait for him to activate them at the right time. A group of soldiers approached. They held their rifles pointed down, but ready to bring up in case of trouble. They frowned at the two strangers rolling to a stop beside them. ¡°How¡¯s it going?,¡± said Marty. ¡°Is there a problem?¡± ¡°Go back to the road,¡± said the sergeant in charge. He pointed back the way they had come. ¡°There¡¯s nothing for tourists here.¡± ¡°Have you seen my bird?,¡± Marty asked. ¡°About yay big, kind of red and orange.¡± ¡°No,¡± said the sergeant. ¡°What kind of bird is that?¡± ¡°My wife calls it a fire chicken,¡± said Marty. ¡°They don¡¯t get along.¡± ¡°Are you having some kind of problem we can help you with?,¡± asked Ren. ¡°There¡¯s a lot of armed men for a sandstorm.¡± ¡°I think you should turn around and go back the way you came,¡± said the sergeant. ¡°You can hunt your bird after we¡¯re done.¡± ¡°What if he attacks and pecks you?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°We will shoot it?,¡± asked the sergeant. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t do that,¡± said Marty. ¡°That will make it angrier.¡± ¡°Excuse me,¡± said a man with a beard and short sleeve shirt. ¡°What is going on here?¡± ¡°The sergeant is helping me with my fire chicken,¡± said Marty Morgan. ¡°I¡¯m Marty Morgan. This is Ren.¡± ¡°The famous Marty Morgan?,¡± asked the bearded newcomer. ¡°The Hazard Scout Marty Morgan?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll give you an autograph if you want,¡± said Marty. ¡°Come inside,¡± said the chief. ¡°Sergeant, have someone park the jeep out of the way in case the storm turns and comes this way.¡± ¡°Yes, sir,¡± said the sergeant. ¡°Are you sure that is wise?¡± ¡°The Scouts have been solving weird problems for a while now,¡± said the chief. ¡°I think they can help us with this.¡± ¡°We would be glad to do that,¡± said Marty. He got out of the jeep. ¡°It¡¯s a rental. I need to turn it back in when we¡¯re done driving around.¡± ¡°We will do our best, sir,¡± said the sergeant. He didn¡¯t look pleased about the development. Ren got out the other side, pulling on his bag. He walked around the car, keeping his hands in plain sight. It was too easy to be shot by accident in a situation like this. ¡°I¡¯m Ishmael Levram,¡± said the bearded man. ¡°It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you.¡± ¡°The pleasure is all ours,¡± said Marty. ¡°Having problems?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± said Levram. ¡°That¡¯s why I hired consultants to help me figure this out.¡± He led the way into the tent. Marty paused to let his eyes adjust to the change in lighting. He saw two familiar men going over charts with some technicians. ¡°Hadron?,¡± said Marty. ¡°Mark Hadron?¡± ¡°Morgan?,¡± said one of the men. ¡°What are you doing here?¡± ¡°What are you doing here?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°It¡¯s a long way from New York.¡± ¡°Ishmael hired us to do a survey,¡± said Harry Cho. ¡°I didn¡¯t expect to see the Hazard Scouts out here.¡± ¡°Barry said he wanted to know what was going on,¡± said Marty. ¡°This is Ren. Ren, this is Mark Hadron and Harry Cho, the guys who saved New York.¡± ¡°Pleasure to meet you,¡± said Ren. ¡°The Mark saved New York,¡± said Hadron. ¡°We do need help, Marty. I was about to ask Ishmael to get the others on a plane with our gear. The sensor readings here are higher than the World Trade.¡± ¡°So Israel could be ripped up?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°Like a sheet of paper,¡± said Hadron. ¡°We didn¡¯t bring anything with us because we didn¡¯t think it would be this bad.¡± ¡°It¡¯s magical in nature,¡± said Ren. ¡°I have a marker to point us in the right direction.¡± ¡°Ren and I can go into the wind and find the source of it,¡± said Marty. ¡°Maybe shut it down.¡± ¡°Maybe get flayed alive,¡± said Ishmael. ¡°There is no doubt the sand propelled by the wind is capable of skinning people if they were in the middle of that.¡± ¡°We need access to your workshop, Ishmael,¡± said Hadron, eyeing the sensor. ¡°We need to build lamps and carbines. This thing is not going to wait for Milt and Dyson to get here.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Levram. ¡°It¡¯s south of Tel Aviv. We can fly back, build what you need, and fly back.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think we have time for that,¡± said Cho. The wind picked up to underscore his words. ¡°It looks like we have to do things with what we have here.¡± Desert Storms 5 ¡°I don¡¯t think we have anything we can use,¡± said Hadron. He looked around the forward base. ¡°All I see are screens and computers.¡± ¡°We can break a couple monitors open for parts,¡± said Cho. ¡°The main problem is we don¡¯t have any storage if that storm is caused by turbulence.¡± ¡°We might have a problem,¡± said Ishmael. He checked the reports coming in from the small radar he had set up to monitor the dust cloud outside his tent headquarters. ¡°The storm is coming our way.¡± ¡°How fast?,¡± asked Marty. He had a dragon he could call up, but he doubted he could carry everyone to safety. ¡°A few meters per second,¡± said Ishmael. ¡°It will hit the tents before we can get the heli into the air.¡± ¡°Get cover,¡± said Marty. ¡°Under desks.¡± He went to the door of the tent. He waved the soldiers inside. He didn¡¯t know how many were out there, but he didn¡¯t want them to be flayed alive in the face of what they were facing. He looked for any stragglers before closing the tent flap and zipping it tight. ¡°The wind is going to hit the tents and try to bury us,¡± said Marty. He started pushing one of the tables towards the others. ¡°We need a temporary cover to let the sand flow over us without killing us.¡± ¡°Turn some of the desks up,¡± said Ishmael. ¡°Use the gear as a brace. We will have to dig in to avoid the brunt.¡± In a few minutes, the group had built a shelter with desks and tables as shields. The desktops and monitors were placed to block the anticipated wind, but it was a better than even chance they would fly away on impact. A hound appeared to dig into the ground so sand was piled around them while they were in a pit under the tables. The tent flew away, pulling the tent poles with it. Sand blasted their cover. Some of the furniture started to shift to fall on top of them. A small gorilla caught the desks and held them in place the few minutes they needed. The wind retreated from their position. Marty waited at the bottom of the pit for the all clear before he thought about exposing his head. ¡°Is everyone all right?,¡± asked Ishmael. A chorus told him that most of the group had come through the attack unscathed. He just needed to fight clear of the pit and figure out the next move. And now that he knew something intelligent was behind things, he could use that to get cooperation from the other parts of his government to do some thing about things. Marty got to his feet, shaking off the sand that had covered him. He looked around at the damage of the destroyed base. Everything light hit by the wind had been thrown for yards. The makeshift cover from the furniture had saved their lives. ¡°Where¡¯s Ren?,¡± he asked. A visual search said his friend was not half-buried with them. ¡°I don¡¯t see him,¡± said Ishmael. ¡°Could he be buried?¡± ¡°The wind took him,¡± said Hadron. He shook the sand out of his hair. ¡°We¡¯re going to have to go in there and get him back.¡± ¡°Into the storm?,¡± said the bureaucrat. He looked at the whirling wind at the edge of their camp. ¡°Yeah,¡± said Hadron. ¡°We need access to your shop, Ishmael. Then we¡¯re going to try to solve your problem.¡± ¡°The vehicles look down,¡± said Ishmael. He started out of the pit. ¡°We¡¯re going to need fast transport.¡± ¡°I got that covered,¡± said Marty. ¡°What are we doing?¡± ¡°Harry and I are going to put together lamps so we can cut our way through that cloud,¡± said Hadron. ¡°Then we¡¯re going to see what¡¯s behind this, and where your friend went.¡± ¡°You think there is something intelligent behind this?,¡± asked Ishmael. ¡°I would be surprised if there isn¡¯t,¡± said Hadron. ¡°We won¡¯t know what¡¯s going on unless we go in and look for ourselves.¡± ¡°I¡¯m for that,¡± said Marty. ¡°I don¡¯t want to explain to Corona how I lost her husband.¡± ¡°So let¡¯s do the plan,¡± said Hadron. ¡°The first step is to let Milton and Dyson know that we have some kind of thing behind this. Then we get back to the workshop to get some kind of gear together. Then we come back and disperse this.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Marty. ¡°You¡¯re going to have to hang on tight.¡± ¡°We¡®re ready,¡± said Cho. ¡°Let¡¯s get this over with. I told you things would get bad but I didn¡¯t think it would start this soon.¡± ¡°Something changed,¡± said Hadron. ¡°Maybe whatever is behind this sensed Ren and took him because he was a threat.¡± ¡°He is kind of a magician like Scry,¡± said Marty. ¡°That might be why he was targeted.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Hadron. ¡°That makes sense. So the cloud either needs magicians to work, or there is a magician inside of it that doesn¡¯t like rivals. That means we have something we can deal with once we¡¯re properly armed. Let¡¯s get started.¡± Marty raised his hand and a dragon expanded out of the air. It looked down on the group with yellow eyes. A flap of its emerald wings sent sand into the air. ¡°That¡¯s impressive,¡± said Ishmael. ¡°I¡¯ve been working on Daisy for a while,¡± said Marty. ¡°Climb aboard.¡± This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Ishmael gave orders for the soldiers to leave everything and fall back. No one else needed to be hurt if the cloud decided to rip into them. They could salvage their gear and vehicles later after everything was dealt with by the Lamplighters. ¡°Next stop is Tel Aviv,¡± said Marty. Daisy lifted him up so he could perch on her head. ¡°You¡¯re going to have to give me directions when we get closer.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not in the city proper,¡± said Ishmael. ¡°The ministry didn¡¯t want me to work on my things where something could go wrong and blow down a city block.¡± ¡°That¡¯s some foresight,¡± said Cho. He smiled as he clutched his hat to his head. Daisy had allowed him and Hadron to climb on her shoulders. ¡°How are you doing this?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Marty. ¡°I¡¯m going to say practice. I used to only be able to summon small animals, then I worked up to bigger animals, then imaginary animals.¡± ¡°Could be tapping the turbulence somehow,¡± said Hadron. ¡°Internal wants, external energy.¡± ¡°As long as it does what I want it to do,¡± said Marty. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter how it works.¡± ¡°It could kill you,¡± said Hadron. ¡°That will make my wife very mad,¡± said Marty. ¡°Let¡¯s go, Daisy. Up, up and away.¡± The dragon flapped its wings and leaped into the air. Within moments, they were high in the air with the passengers clinging on tight. Marty smiled as he rode on the head of the beast. ¡°This is a lot more exciting than what I usually do,¡± said Ishmael. ¡°Another day at the office for us,¡± said Cho. He smiled at the Israeli. ¡°The cloud expanded,¡± said Hadron. ¡°That¡¯s why it took Ren.¡± ¡°Corona won¡¯t like that,¡± said Marty. ¡°I have to start bringing everybody to these things. I didn¡¯t think the cloud would be magic.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll get him back,¡± said Hadron. ¡°It¡¯s the only way to shrink the cloud, and that¡¯s what we need to do.¡± The dragon soared through the sky. Ishmael called ahead to prevent problems. There were some vigilantes operating in Israel, and they were wanted, so cutting through the confusion so they could get to his workshop without having to deal with the Air Force seemed the best way. ¡°Land next to the gray building on the right,¡± said Ishmael. He pointed at the clear space below. The dragon descended, gliding in a circle to cut speed. It thumped down and folded its wings. Hadron and Cho staggered away from the landing. Ishmael slid down the side of the beast and jogged toward a warehouse across from the gray building he had used as a landmark. ¡°Good job, Daisy,¡± said Marty. ¡°Hold on because we have to fly back.¡± The dragon nodded. It settled down in a circle to wait for its passengers to return. Marty climbed down and followed the others to the brick building. Ishmael let them in with a swipe of his identification, and the press of his thumb. ¡°You said you have electronics here?,¡± asked Hadron. ¡°I have a general collection downstairs,¡± said Ishmael. ¡°I don¡¯t always know exactly what I might need, so I keep a lot of general parts for building something mission particular.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Hadron. ¡°Let¡¯s get to work, Harry. We might not be able to build full lamps, but we should be able to get some rifles out of this.¡± ¡°Got you,¡± said Cho. He pushed his hat back. ¡°Let¡¯s see what we got to play with here.¡± The two of them searched the shelves, bringing the parts they needed to a work table. It took them minutes to put together a pair of rifles made from calculators, tubing, and wiring. They hooked the rifles to boxes that should work the same as their lamps but they wouldn¡¯t be able to measure things while they were going about their business. Hadron hooked his sensor to the rifle he planned to use so he had an idea of what spirit needed to be extinguished first. ¡°Don¡¯t try to use these once we¡¯re done,¡± Hadron told Levram. ¡°Throw them in the ocean, or bury them somewhere you know people won¡¯t dig them up.¡± ¡°Dangerous?,¡± asked Levram. ¡°If I said you could lose the city, would that be the best explanation?,¡± asked Hadron. ¡°I see,¡± said Ishmael. ¡°And we¡¯re going to be using these?¡± ¡°Harry and I are going to try to cut a path,¡± said Hadron. He nodded at his partner. ¡°Marty is going to come in after us to make sure we don¡¯t get killed by whatever is there. If we can get Ren back, that will shrink the cloud. I am sure of that.¡± ¡°That will make Corona happy,¡± said Marty. ¡°The source?,¡± asked Levram. ¡°Either we destroy it, or we find out enough to destroy it on a second try after we can get Milt and Dyson here with better equipment,¡± said Hadron. ¡°We¡¯re going to have to lance this before it gets big enough to wreck the entire region.¡± ¡°I will write you a check when this is over,¡± said Ishmael. ¡°This expertise is what I needed to get things done.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Hadron. ¡°We have to get back to the cloud and see what we can do.¡± ¡°I have to call Barry and let him know what¡¯s going on,¡± said Marty. ¡°We have to call Janie so she can get the guys to get ready,¡± said Harry. ¡°I have two phones we can use,¡± said Levram. ¡°I mainly use them to request supplies.¡± ¡°Do you have pictures of the area before the cloud materialized?,¡± asked Hadron. ¡°I would like to look at those while the guys are leaving their messages.¡± ¡°I have some I requested from the American intelligence agencies,¡± said Ishmael. ¡°I asked for them when I saw the radar readings.¡± Levram retrieved the pictures from a file cabinet on the other side of the room. The murmur of Harry and Morgan talking on the phone drifted to Hadron but he was already thinking about other things. The Lamplighter went over the pictures with a glass from the desk. He frowned at what he saw. He checked each picture, laying them next to each other. He frowned as he straightened. ¡°The guys are getting ready,¡± said Harry. ¡°It will be hours before they can get here.¡± ¡°I asked Barry to pick them up,¡± said Marty. ¡°He was going to need to refuel before he could cross the Atlantic, so I asked him to get your guys too.¡± ¡°I will tell Airport Security to pass them when they arrive,¡± said Ishmael. ¡°This is a manmade thing,¡± said Hadron. ¡°So when we go in, we have to look for Ren, and the guy behind this.¡± ¡°Are you sure?,¡± asked Ishmael. ¡°There was a guy almost center of where the cloud would be,¡± said Hadron. ¡°He didn¡¯t leave according to these photos.¡± ¡°So he caused this cloud with a power?,¡± asked Marty. ¡°Or he took advantage of the nearby turbulence to boost himself up,¡± said Hadron. ¡°Whichever one it is, we¡¯re going to have to take him if he tries to stop us from getting Ren back.¡± ¡°I better arm myself,¡± said Ishmael. ¡°Are you sure we can handle this without the others?¡± ¡°We don¡¯t have to fight it out,¡± said Hadron. ¡°We just have to complicate his plan enough so he can¡¯t get it done before the others get here. Then we can try for a full push on him and clear him out of wherever he hid in the sandstorm.¡± ¡°Corona and Barry will be here,¡± said Marty. ¡°That will increase our firepower.¡± ¡°I have a feeling that it is essential that we get Ren back before we do anything else,¡± said Hadron. ¡°If Ren can be used to expand the effect of the cloud, it will eventually reach parts of the country essential to life.¡± ¡°Which will reduce the greener lands to more desert,¡± said Ishmael. ¡°At the very least,¡± said Harry. ¡°We are talking about what happens when a giant belt sander meets human beings without protection.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± said Marty. ¡°Daisy can get us back. Then we can do what we have to do to stop this.¡± ¡°And after that, you¡¯re going to have to get rid of this makeshift equipment in such a way it doesn¡¯t hurt anybody when it blows up,¡± said Hadron. ¡°You have my word,¡± said Levram. He held up a hand. ¡°Let¡¯s see what we can do,¡± said Hadron. ¡°At least we¡¯re here ahead of whatever disaster might have resulted if we weren¡¯t here.¡± Marty led them back to where Daisy waited. The dragon perked up and lifted her upper body, spreading her wings and giving them a testing flap to ready for flight. ¡°We¡¯re going back to where we were so we can stop the cloud,¡± said Marty. He patted Daisy on the head. The humans climbed aboard so their living aircraft could take flight. Desert Storms 6 Ren opened his eyes to a voice asking if he was all right, and sand rubbing everywhere. He should have stayed home. He could be eating flapjacks with Corona and Bond instead of being trapped wherever he was at the moment. He was in a cylinder of light. Signs had been engraved in a platform under him and in the ceiling above him. He touched the transparent wall with the sleeve of his coat. Smoke rolled off the cuff as he watched it. ¡°If you try to jump through the cage wall, you will be burned badly,¡± said the voice again. Ren examined the rest of the room he was trapped in. His cylinder stood in a triangle facing two other cylinders. An old man dressed in the style of ancient China and a man dressed in what the detective thought of as butler tuxedo took up one of the cylinders. The old man was bald, wrinkled beyond belief, and calm about being trapped. His servant stood at parade rest behind him, as impassive as any butler born. Ren wasn¡¯t sure the butler was human. The other cylinder held a woman with dark hair and green eyes. She wore a t-shirt, shorts, and sandals. A rune covered the back of her hand. ¡°How do you do?,¡± asked Ren. He looked down and didn¡¯t see his bag. He looked around the room and spotted it on the floor next to his cell. ¡°Caught by the storm?,¡± asked the woman. ¡°Yes,¡± said Ren. ¡°My friend and I were looking at the cloud when it expanded. I think I took a hit. My name is Ren.¡± ¡°I¡¯m Al-a-Din,¡± said the old man. He gestured at his servant. ¡°This is Hakim.¡± ¡°I¡¯m Rachel Rosenbaum,¡± said the woman. ¡°The cells prevent the use of magic.¡± ¡°That is unfortunate,¡± said Ren. He checked the pockets of his coat. He smiled when he felt his tool kit in his jacket. ¡°Is that why we¡¯re in these magical cells?¡± ¡°We think the person who put us in these is draining our ability to cast magic to do whatever he is doing,¡± said Rachel. ¡°He¡¯s in control of a giant sandstorm,¡± said Ren. He pulled out his tool kit. ¡°We were examining it when it caught me. My friend was not taken, so he might be working on a way to get here and do something to stop the cloud.¡± ¡°Is he a magician?,¡± asked Rachel. ¡°No,¡± said Ren. He smiled. ¡°He¡¯s an adventurer.¡± ¡°What good is that going to do us?,¡± said Rachel. ¡°He will act as a distraction while I think of a way to get us out of here,¡± said Ren. ¡°I would love to see that,¡± said Rachel. She threw up her hands. ¡°How will you get us out of here?,¡± asked Al-a-Din. He leaned forward as much as he could to watch Ren work. ¡°I plan to open my cylinder, and then yours,¡± said Ren. He looked through his tool kit until he found a pair of pliers. ¡°Then we shall look around to see what we can do about the man behind the giant cloud.¡± He dug at the material in the floor of his holding tank. He found a loose stone and worried it until it popped loose. He placed the stone out of the way. He needed to pull a few more before he could make the burning light wall fail. He worked on the stones as carefully as he could. The last thing he needed was to trigger an alarm. Any capable mage would see what he was doing at a glance. Then reinforcement would happen and his chance would be gone. He frowned at the way the floor tried to grow over his attempt to fracture it. He pulled out a rod from his tool kit. He yanked one of the stones from the sign. He sank the rod into the floor to keep it from closing the wound he had made. ¡°That¡¯s interesting,¡± said Ren. He took out two more of the rods. He would have enchanted them, but his reserve of magical energy had been eaten by his cell. ¡°What¡¯s interesting?,¡± asked the old man. ¡°The enchantment on the bottom of our tanks heals when we do things to them,¡± said Ren. He pulled another piece of stone out of the way. He drove a rod down inside of the wound. ¡°I wonder how much I have to destroy before the wall cuts off.¡± ¡°Perhaps as much as half,¡± said Hakim. ¡°The wall is fading. You should perhaps hurry. I don¡¯t think we¡¯ll be alone long. The storm king will want to question you about your capabilities soon enough.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think what I have will be that useful to him,¡± said Ren. He extracted one more piece of the floor and saw the beams stop above the bottom of the cylinder. ¡°I was taught things to help me solve mysteries.¡± ¡°Anything is useful in more than one way,¡± said the old man. ¡°There are two exits that I have seen. One is behind you. The other is to your right. I don¡¯t know if either leads outside.¡± Ren put away his tool kit and covered his head as he rolled through the gap in his cell. He stood up. That worked better than he thought it would. He looked around for The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.a switch to turn off the other cylinders. ¡°You might want to leave,¡± said the old man. ¡°That will cause some trouble for the enemy.¡± ¡°Let me think of a way to cut your cylinders off first,¡± said Ren. He picked up his bag and draped it over his shoulder. ¡°If I can get you three out of those things, that will cut the cloud off. Marty will have an easier time breaching this place to help us.¡± ¡°All of this was formed from a magic command of the sand,¡± said Rachel. ¡°You would need something to punch through both of the caps.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t really have anything that can do that,¡± said Ren. ¡°I do have a pocket knife that I can pass one of you so you can work on freeing yourselves while I look around.¡± ¡°Give it to Al-a-Din,¡± said Rachel. ¡°Hakim is more powerful than I am in the right circumstances.¡± Ren took out his tool kit and picked out the pliers, a chisel, and a small hammer. He pushed them through the wall of the cell. The metal smoked as the magical laser wall ate at them. Hakim waved his hand over the metal to cool the tools off. ¡°I¡¯m going to look around and see if there is a way to let Marty in,¡± said Ren. ¡°I will come back and get you people out of this.¡± ¡°Take your time,¡± said Rachel. ¡°We¡¯ll be able to free ourselves soon enough,¡± said the old man. He waved Ren away as Hakim dug into the bottom of their cell. He shoved the rocks out on the floor with his feet. Ren decided to take the door to the right. It seemed to lead deeper into the facility. Maybe he could talk their captor down. He thought his chances were poor to do that. He had come to some conclusions with the information he had, and things looked bad at the moment. He was obviously dealing with a magician capable of shaping stone. He had seized a spot in Southern Israel that gave him control of the local area. The captured magicians had been drained to help power his sandstorm. The only question was what was he trying do with his magical storm. Ren had a few ideas and none of them were conducive to a peaceful resolution. And he would have to do something to hold the magician in place until the others were free, or Marty arrived to save the day. And he was sure that Marty would track him down. The Animal had waited ten years, but had finally hunted down the killers of his former family and freed his adopted father. He would try to find Ren, one way or the other. The detective skulked along until he found what looked like a wide open space turned into living quarters. He looked around for another exit in case he had to retreat. He didn¡¯t have a lot of magical power, but he should be able to distract the brain behind this long enough for others to take a hand. How long would he have to hold? He doubted he would be able to do that for long. Still, he had a few tricks that should be useful. ¡°How did you get out of your battery?,¡± said a voice to Ren¡¯s right. Ren raised an eyebrow at the man confronting him. The man had wrapped himself in a cotton tunic, with sandals and a pharaoh¡¯s wimple. Gold bracelets covered his arms. He held a hooked staff in one hand. ¡°How do you do?,¡± asked Ren. ¡°My name is Ren. I am here to talk to you about my accommodations. There is a need to improve them if you want me to stay here.¡± ¡°I¡¯m afraid my plan doesn¡¯t call for your comfort,¡± said the sand king. ¡°I have been designated by Amenophis to gather as much of the sand to me as I can and hold this position until he orders me to action. You will have to go back to your cell until I receive that word.¡± ¡°I expect that you will trouble long before Amenophis will be able to order you into action,¡± said Ren. ¡°You¡¯ve attracted too much attention. The Israelis know you are here and plan to root you out.¡± ¡°Do you really think that is possible?,¡± said the sand king. He made a gesture with his staff. ¡°I have control over a wide expanse of the desert. They will not be able to do anything to stop me once I start the cloud moving.¡± Ren didn¡¯t like that. As long as the cloud was in the desert, it was mostly harmless. People and animals could avoid it, buildings were out of the way, water was confined to oasis that could be dug out after a storm. If the storm was diverted into a metropolis, the toll would be outstanding. Anything living caught on the street would be flayed alive. Anything loose would be turned into dangerous projectiles. Even cars could be thrown around in a high enough wind. ¡°I see you understand the implications,¡± said the sand king. ¡°And there is nothing anyone can do to stop me.¡± ¡°I¡¯m willing to try,¡± said Ren. ¡°Do you really think you can stop me?,¡± said the sand king. ¡°I don¡¯t think you have any spells that can touch me.¡± ¡°I have one thing,¡± said Ren. He raised a hand. Light blasted across the room, blinding his opponent. He fled the room back toward the cell room. That didn¡¯t go as well as I thought it would. He paused in the cell room. He looked around and spotted the other exit. He dashed toward that, waving at the others. He didn¡¯t take the time to explain what was going on. He was sure they would understand as soon as the other man appeared. He just had to buy time so Marty could find him, or the others to escape and shake off the drain. He didn¡¯t know how long that would take and knew his own power was at low ebb. He didn¡¯t have enough to hypnotize a door yet. He found a long tunnel on the other side of the exit door. He ran down its length. If there was a door leading outside, he might be able to do enough to get through the storm. On the other hand, if he didn¡¯t have enough power, this might be his last stand and being thrown outside could flay him alive. At least he wouldn¡¯t have to deal with Corona being angry at him for being trapped like a rat. The sides of the tunnel narrowed. Dust fell to the floor. The roof shook. ¡°I don¡¯t have time to do this,¡± said the sand king. He advanced down the tunnel from the other end. ¡°You are going to be contained, then I will make sure that you can¡¯t escape again.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± said Ren. ¡°I think as long as I am free, I am a stick in the spokes of whatever Amenophis planned. So I think I will remain free to do whatever I want.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have the power to do that,¡± said the sand king. He pointed his staff at Ren. The end of the exit tunnel wrapped around the detective. ¡°Get out of that.¡± ¡°Give me a second, and I will,¡± said Ren. He smiled to show his good cheer. ¡°I think I won¡¯t give you that chance,¡± said the sand king. He gestured with his staff and the hand moved down the wall, dragging Ren with it. He dragged the detective back into the cell room. He paused. His captives glared at him, but they seemed to be hiding something. He gestured the hand to carry his captive to the third space. He ejected the rods and urged the platform to heal completely. ¡°I don¡¯t know what you three think is going to happen, but Amenophis will be here soon,¡± said the sand king. ¡°Your position will be worse then.¡± ¡°What makes you think you will still be here?,¡± asked Rachel. ¡°Your plan is crumbling around you.¡± ¡°Whatever happens, I will use you to power my creation,¡± said the sand king. ¡°Not even the Mark will be able to stop the destruction ahead.¡± ¡°I think you are wrong,¡± said Ren. He smiled again. ¡°I think you are overestimating what you can do.¡± ¡°What makes you say that?,¡± asked the sand king. He looked up. ¡°What is going on up there?¡± He placed Ren in his cell and fled toward his living quarters. He couldn¡¯t hide his alarm. ¡°What do you think is going on?,¡± asked Rachel. Ala-a-Din and Hakim stepped out of their cell. ¡°My friend is back to help us out,¡± said Ren. Desert Storms 7 ¡°We need to fly a few more miles that way,¡± shouted Hadron. He pointed in the direction he wanted to move. ¡°We¡¯re close to the center.¡± ¡°The cloud has shrunken,¡± said Ishmael. ¡°Observations are saying that it contracted while we were getting the equipment together.¡± ¡°We can¡¯t worry about that,¡± said Hadron. ¡°Ren might have done something, but the thing is still going to try to stop us from dispersing it.¡± ¡°Concentrated beam?,¡± asked Cho. ¡°Yeah,¡± said Hadron. ¡°We can¡¯t fire more than fifteen seconds, but that might be enough to punch a hole in the center of this and cause it to collapse.¡± ¡°Got it,¡± said Cho. ¡°Give me the high sign when you are ready.¡± Hadron watched the scanner. The energy in the cloud had dipped, but not completely gone out. Then it had dipped even more. He couldn¡¯t see a passage in the ground but he was sure that whatever was causing this was underground. The scanner would have shown any person, and most monsters, capable of shoving the sand like they were witnessing. They were going to have to dig the problem out after they set part of it on fire. ¡°Can you hover here, Morgan?,¡± asked Hadron. ¡°Can we hover for the nice man, Daisy?,¡± Marty asked his dragon. Daisy made a noise that said yes, they could hover for a bit. She flapped her wings to hold them in place in the air. ¡°Shoot, Harry,¡± said Hadron. He aimed down into the storm and lit it up. The blue flame wasn¡¯t as hot as he liked it, but it was burning the cloud into submission. Cho fired down into the cloud as close as he could to where Hadron had targeted. The second blast helped create a clear circle in the center of the whirlwind. Cracks appeared in the sand below. ¡°Take us down,¡± said Hadron. ¡°We have to find what we¡¯re looking for before the sand comes back at us.¡± Marty tapped Daisy on the head and she dove to a landing inside the cleared circles. Hadron and Cho corrected their direction of fire to push against the moving walls they had created. The dragon landed with a thump. ¡°We need to find the door to where we want to go,¡± said Hadron. ¡°It should be to my right.¡± ¡°Looks sealed,¡± said Ishmael. He pulled out a pack from his belt of tools. ¡°We¡¯re going to have to make our own door.¡± ¡°Do it,¡± said Hadron. ¡°We won¡¯t be able to hold this back for long.¡± Ishmael opened the pack. He took out a brick of explosives and jabbed in a detonator. He pushed the button and fled from the area of effect. He had picked a spot where Daisy and the Lamplighters wouldn¡¯t be affected. He smiled when the sand dropped down into an opening. ¡°Take off, Daisy,¡± said Marty. He dismounted. ¡°Get ready to scoop us up if the sky clears.¡± Hadron dropped down the hole first. He swung his cannon both ways before marching along the tunnel. Ishmael and Marty dropped down next, then Cho. Harry kept an eye on their back as they moved toward the source of energy. Someone had been digging out smooth tunnels from the looks of things. Hadron paused when he stepped into what looked like a throne room. He swung the scanner around, pointing the cannon wherever it indicated. He didn¡¯t see a mastermind. ¡°I don¡¯t see Ren,¡± said Marty. ¡°Which way do we go?¡± ¡°That way,¡± said Hadron. ¡°All right,¡± said Marty. ¡°Let me turn loose something to break open this cracker box.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± said a relic from another age. ¡°I still have work to do. You¡¯re going to have to go in a cell until I am done. Amenophis will decide what to do with you when your use as batteries is done.¡± ¡°I think you should wear some clothes, bud,¡± said Harry. He tipped back his fedora. ¡°And while you are looking for a suit, we¡¯re going to need our friend back and for you to stop your cloud.¡± ¡°Who do you think you are?,¡± said the sand king. He raised his hands. ¡°I control the flow of the Earth. You can¡¯t stop it.¡± Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. ¡°Light him up,¡± said Hadron. Hadron and Cho fired their cannons at the sand king. A wall of earth blocked the twin streams. Marty ran along the side to try to get around. Ishmael didn¡¯t know what he should be doing, but he needed to help out. If the Lamplighters fell, his country would go back to being in danger from the magician in front of him. He had a pistol and had been trained. He felt bullets wouldn¡¯t go through the wall. How could he use it to end this fight. He moved to one side. He shot once at the minion of Amenophis. The sand blocked the bullet as soon as it came within reach. He frowned. How fast could the wall block his bullets? He decided to empty the magazine to see what would happen. He pulled the trigger until the slide locked back when the gun was empty. The wall exploded to knock his projectiles out of the air to protect its master. Hadron moved forward. He frowned at the way the wall kept him from wrecking it. The blue flame dispersed magic, but the cannon wasn¡¯t powerful enough to disperse everything like he wanted. Even with Harry helping him, they were barely holding on. ¡°I think you should give up,¡± said an old man dressed like a Chinese peasant. ¡°Now that we are free, your scheme is over.¡± ¡°The old man is right,¡± said a woman in t-shirt and shorts. ¡°You are done. And Amenophis will be done as soon as we¡¯re through with you.¡± The sand king half-turned and flung a battering ram at the new arrivals. The woman stepped in the way and raised her arm. A shield of light stopped the sand on contact. The ram broke down into a pile at her feet. ¡°Hakim?,¡± asked the old man. ¡°Please counterattack.¡± The butler pushed the air with his hand. All the loose sand in front of him blasted at the sand king who fought to divert it from his body. The carrying wind was enough to fling him into the air. He caught himself with soft earth before crashing to the ground. ¡°You attacked us out of the shadows when we couldn¡¯t defend ourselves,¡± said the woman. ¡°Now that the ground is more even, how do you like it?¡± She chopped the air with her hand, cloaking herself in protective armor. A helm covered her face last. She pulled a blade as she marched forward. ¡°Do you really think we can take Amenophis?,¡± Cho asked. He pointed his rifle vaguely at the sand king. ¡°Ask me that if he does show up,¡± said Hadron. ¡°It looks like the magicians are going to take care of the rest of this for us. We need to find Ren and be ready to move out if Amenophis does show up.¡± ¡°I have no objections,¡± said Ishmael. He had one full magazine for his pistol. He exchanged that for the empty as he moved away from the magic combat. The last thing he wanted was to catch a stray curse. Hadron waved the others to pull back before he did. The sand king and the armored woman traded physical spells across the room. He paused as Hakim punched the enemy through a sandy wall. ¡°The old man is well known,¡± said Ishamael. ¡°The government leaves him alone because of his butler.¡± ¡°I wonder why,¡± said Cho. ¡°All right,¡± said Hadron. ¡°We¡¯re letting them fight. We need to get Ren and pull back. If our side wins, your sandstorm is done. If he wins, we get the others and come back to burn as much of this down as we can with real guns and equipment.¡± ¡°I agree completely,¡± said Ishmael. ¡°The door out is that way.¡± Hadron pointed his cannon down the tunnel they had used. He frowned at the reading he got from the attached scanner. Someone was already in the tunnel. He opened up with blue flame to deal with whomever was there. He paused when he saw the flame hit something down there and stopped pushing forward. ¡°Time¡¯s up!,¡± shouted Hadron. ¡°Amenophis is here!¡± ¡°Where¡¯s Marty?,¡± asked Cho. ¡°We don¡¯t have the weapons for this.¡± ¡°Hakim?,¡± said the old man. ¡°I think we need an exit strategy for our young friends.¡± The butler grew upwards, smashing through the ceiling with his giant body. He grabbed a helicopter out of the air and crashed it into the ground. He looked around for anyone else to challenge his physical power. The exit tunnel collapsed on Amenophis and whomever else he had brought with him. Hadron saw the shield take a hit before it vanished under the earth. Maybe they could have taken him in a straight fight, but he doubted it. People had been chasing Amenophis for years and he always walked away. Just driving him off and breaking his minion had to be a win today. Daisy swooped down and landed inside the newly renovated bad guy base. She looked around for Marty. At least he was still alive. ¡°Everybody on the dragon!,¡± shouted Hadron. ¡°We have to back up and regroup.¡± Hadron pushed Ishmael and Cho in front of him toward the giant lizard. He waved at the old man to run, wondering if he had to go over and lift the guy up and carry him out of danger. The woman pointed her sword at the hole the sand king had plunged through. Dozens of blades punched through the wall. The helmet hid her expression so it wasn¡¯t clear if she had actually hit with her finishing move. Daisy looked around with her dish eyes. She growled at Hadron as he reached for her foreleg. Marty and Ren appeared out of the other door. The Animal waved at the dragon as he ran toward her. His friend trailed behind at a slower pace. ¡°We¡¯re leaving?,¡± Marty asked. ¡°As fast as we can,¡± said Hadron. He looked at the two places he expected his enemies to pop out. The sand king showed himself as everyone else boarded the dragon. He lit the magician up with the blue flame. He threw the cannon away when smoke poured out of the device. ¡°We have to go before the gun blows up.¡± ¡°You heard the man, Daisy,¡± said Marty. He started climbing the arm to the dragon¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Let¡¯s go before we get caught in an explosion.¡± The group pulled themselves together and Daisy lifted up. She flew through the hole in the roof and headed for a clear sky. She headed south. ¡°What are we waiting to happen?,¡± said the woman. Her armor faded away. ¡°My weapon was cobbled together make believe,¡± said Hadron. He watched the hole fade away behind them. ¡°And it is going up. I don¡¯t know how much damage it will cause when it goes up.¡± Hakim landed beside Al-a-Din. He raised a hand in a warding gesture. A column of blue flame erupted from the hole. Sand and wind blew outward from the explosion. A network of veins collapsed under the pressure. Hakim diverted everything he could as Daisy carried them to safety. ¡°I think you should power down the semi-flamer,¡± said Hadron. ¡°Then I think we should take it apart before it blows up on us.¡± Cho held his hat to his head as he nodded at the thought. Desert Storms 8 Mark Hadron stood in the desert of southern Israel. He looked at the crater he had dug with his device. Ishmael Levram stood at his side. They both held devices to check the surrounding area. ¡°No bodies,¡± said Levram. ¡°No radiation from the blast. So we had a partial success here.¡± ¡°The turbulence is high,¡± said Hadron. ¡°There might be an influx of spirits and other things coming into the area after how I stirred everything up. I guess we¡¯ll have to check it periodically. Milt will make the arrangements when we¡¯re sure that¡¯s what we want to do.¡± ¡°That was a good demonstration of what could go wrong with the equipment,¡± said Levram. ¡°Our real throwers would not have blown up like that,¡± said Hadron. ¡°Unless we meant for them to do that.¡± ¡°However you look at it, you ruined whatever Amenophis had planned to do,¡± said Levram. ¡°If we had his body, I would be happy to declare him dead. Since we don¡¯t, I am going to say he escaped somehow.¡± ¡°He¡¯ll probably want to pay us back for what happened,¡± said Hadron. ¡°Just one more thing to look out for in the future.¡± ¡°Pay me back is more likely,¡± said Ishmael. He smiled. ¡°I would like to talk to him about the plan he hoped to enact. Then I would like to shoot him in the face.¡± ¡°He probably hoped to get control of the ley lines running out here and use that to boost up to what he really wanted,¡± said Hadron. ¡°There¡¯s no telling if the geomancer would have kept the boosted power, or not. I¡¯m going to say not.¡± ¡°So this turbulence,¡± said Ishmael. ¡°How bad do you think it will be?¡± ¡°No telling at the moment,¡± said Hadron. He put away his scanner. ¡°We¡¯ll figure out a list of things you should look out for until things calm down. High on the list will be animal mutilations of any sort.¡± ¡°Why animal mutilations?,¡± asked Ishmael. ¡°The spirits will be hungry, but they won¡¯t eat a whole carcass of anything they kill,¡± said the Lamplighter. ¡°So you have to be aware of any report that shows animals are missing body parts and the rest is discarded.¡± ¡°Understood,¡± said Levram. ¡°And if such a thing is going on?¡± ¡°It will get worse before it gets better,¡± said Hadron. ¡°Al-a-Din suggested that he might be able to keep an eye on things,¡± said Ishmael. ¡°That¡¯s fine, but he isn¡¯t going to pay us to sooth over any problems,¡± said Hadron. ¡°Is money everything?,¡± asked Ishmael. ¡°It is if you¡¯re poor,¡± said Hadron. ¡°Is the woman going to help you? You seem to need it.¡± ¡°I haven¡¯t asked her,¡± said Ishmael. ¡°I don¡¯t quite understand what she did. I don¡¯t know if having someone with an unknown potential on staff would be good for the department.¡± ¡°You only have you,¡± said Hadron. ¡°You have to be kidding me.¡± ¡°I will need approval to hire her,¡± said Ishmael. ¡°Do you think that I should?¡± ¡°I think you need some type of magician-slash-superhuman on staff other than Al-a- Din who might drop dead at any second from the looks of him,¡± said Hadron. ¡°Hire her, but pay our bill first.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Ishmael. ¡°I will be glad to see what she has to say.¡± ¡°She might want the government to back her up if she wants to take on Amenophis after this,¡± said Hadron. ¡°What does it look like, Mark?,¡± asked Harry. He shuffled his cards in his hands, his hat on the back of his head. ¡°Janie says Milt and Dyson are still having problems with their case.¡± ¡°We might have to set up a lookout with Ishmael to make sure nothing bad happens,¡± said Hadron. He frowned at the group in front of him. ¡°There could be a spirit jump here that might flatten out in the next few years.¡± ¡°Mister Hadron,¡± said Ishmael. ¡°Suggests that I should hire you, Al-a-Din and Miss Rosenbaum, to assist me if an emergency happens.¡± ¡°You want to hire us?,¡± asked Rachel. ¡°What makes you think we want to work for you?¡± ¡°Because he will need someone who knows what they are doing,¡± said Hadron. ¡°We can¡¯t hold his hand forever. He needs experts who can deal with things on the ground instead of waiting for us to fly in from the States to save the day.¡± ¡°And Mark hates the desert,¡± said Harry. He hid his smile from his friend. ¡°That was going to be my next point,¡± said Hadron. ¡°Thanks for jumping in with that.¡± ¡°You¡¯re welcome,¡± said Harry. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. ¡°The Scouts will gladly help out,¡± said Morgan. ¡°But we have the same problem as the Lamplighters. We¡¯re based in Cali, and the flight time is crazy. Plus we might be anywhere doing anything against anyone at any time.¡± ¡°Barry likes us to look into things when we can,¡± said Ren. ¡°So you¡¯re going to pay the old man and me to solve mysteries and save the day?,¡± said Rachel. She frowned at the bearded bureaucrat. ¡°Yes,¡± said Ishmael. ¡°I know Al-a-Din has spent a long time protecting the region so this is basically just asking him to do what he is already doing for money, but I will need help if Mister Hadron is right.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t bind myself to working for a government,¡± said the old man. ¡°So many have come and gone here that I no longer have an interest in listening to nationalists.¡± ¡°And he is made grumpy dealing with bureaucrats,¡± said Hakim. ¡°I think I will be the only one you will be working with, and I will be in the field with the both of you,¡± said Ishmael. ¡°And what will your head say to this?,¡± asked Rachel. ¡°I do not know what the ministry will say, but since I am the head of the department, I think I can hire the both of you as contractors and turn you loose on any problem that comes under my purview,¡± said Ishmael. ¡°I have not been audited, but all of my records are up to date and I will be able to go into my budget review with a clear conscience.¡± ¡°I think you two should look into it,¡± said Morgan. He smiled. ¡°You don¡¯t want to get into trouble and not have someone to call to get you out. The Israelis might be able to give you a look out into bigger problems in the region.¡± ¡°And you can¡¯t fix anything wrong if you are on the outside looking in,¡± said Hadron. ¡°Harry and I have to go, Ishmael. We¡¯ll send you a report with our bill. We¡¯ll also put you on as a priority customer if the turbulence starts bringing things out here. Harry and I have to get our stuff and head back to the Big Apple.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll give you a lift, Mark,¡± said Morgan. ¡°We¡¯re heading that way ourselves. I have to call Barry to tell him that I did all the hard work of dispersing that major menace of a cloud. And I blew up Amenophis with my mad skills.¡± ¡°That¡¯s exactly what I want to hear,¡± said Hadron. ¡°We¡¯ll put the work contract in with the rest of the paperwork, Ishmael. It was good to meet you, and everything.¡± ¡°The future looks good for you, Ish,¡± said Harry. ¡°Thanks for having us visit.¡± ¡°I will be glad to call you the next time I need some out of country help,¡± said Ishmael. ¡°Thanks for your help, Mister Morgan.¡± ¡°De nada,¡± said Morgan. ¡°Barry will call if he has questions we can¡¯t answer.¡± ¡°I will be ready with anything I can say,¡± said Ishmael. ¡°The ministry might not want me to share anything I might have discovered with your help.¡± ¡°I think Barry has some kind of dispensation,¡± said Morgan. ¡°I will ask when we get home.¡± ¡°How did he get that?,¡± asked Ishmael. Morgan shrugged. Barry Nicklaus had been around for a long time before he had been captured by Watson Security. There was no telling which governments owed him for what was done. Marty had run across old friends in some places where there should not be people. There was no telling what he had done for Israel and what he was owed by the government. ¡°Thanks for the ride home, Marty,¡± said Hadron. ¡°I don¡¯t know what would have happened if you guys hadn¡¯t shown up. We might have lost Israel without you.¡± ¡°No problem,¡± said Morgan. ¡°It means getting back to my kids that much sooner.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll have to load up,¡± said Hadron. ¡°Good luck, Ishmael.¡± ¡°We have to report our rental as being destroyed,¡± said Ren. ¡°The rental agency won¡¯t like that.¡± ¡°I forgot about that,¡± said Marty. ¡°Let¡¯s take care of that while Mark and Harry get their stuff from their hotel.¡± Daisy lifted her head as the men approached. She stared at Marty. How could he expect her to carry all this weight when an emergency had not been declared? She wanted to laze in the sun more than flying. ¡°We¡¯re heading home,¡± said Morgan. ¡°Don¡¯t make me talk to the wife.¡± Daisy grumbled but readied to jump into the air. She put up with the four men climbing on her. She flapped her wings and took to the air. Ishmael watched them go. He looked back at the hole in the ground. He decided that he would leave the scar in the ground. The desert would reclaim that soon enough. ¡°How many people are in your department, Mister Levram?,¡± asked Rachel. ¡°Just me,¡± said Ishmael. ¡°I gather information and investigate things. Some things I can deal with easily, and some things I have to get help to solve the problem.¡± ¡°Just you?,¡± said Rachel. ¡°Where is the rest of your government?¡± ¡°My department is a last ditch thing,¡± said Ishmael. ¡°Unless I do something that is newsworthy, they don¡¯t know I exist except at the funding hearings.¡± ¡°I would like to consider working with you,¡± said Rachel. ¡°I have been doing things on my own. I am not sure if I have been successful in my efforts. Maybe I need someone objective to tell me what happened after I was done.¡± ¡°I would appreciate it,¡± said Ishmael. ¡°I¡¯m afraid the job comes with a lot of paperwork. I will have a ream to fill out over this.¡± ¡°Then you have hired me at the right time,¡± said Rachel. ¡°I have never seen a form I have not been able to not fill out.¡± ¡°Hakim thinks I should form more connections,¡± said Al-a-Din. ¡°Perhaps working with younger people will give me a better perspective.¡± ¡°Really?,¡± asked Ishmael. ¡°No,¡± said the old man. ¡°He just thinks that the two of you will blow up the countries around us doing something you should not be doing.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Ishmael. ¡°I haven¡¯t really considered that, but maybe you¡¯re right.¡± ¡°I think I will walk into town to get a drink,¡± said the old man. ¡°Is there something you want from me before I go?¡± ¡°This is a phone,¡± said Ishmael. ¡°I will call when I am able to get you clearance. You will have to fill out forms for your identification.¡± Al-a-Din gestured for Hakim to take the device. The butler slid it inside his jacket. ¡°Come along, Hakim,¡± said the Old Man. ¡°Let¡¯s see what adventure we can find.¡± ¡°Yes, sir,¡± said the servant, shaking his head. ¡°You¡¯re going to spend some time bailing them out of trouble,¡± said Rachel. ¡°That is a concern for the future,¡± said Ishmael. He handed her a phone. ¡°This is your phone. The agency number and my phone number are already programmed in. I will expedite your paperwork when you have it filled out so you can start receiving pay while I write my report on this. Amenophis will probably try to do something in retaliation. If you see anything strange, call me and I will do what I can.¡± ¡°Have you run into many strange things?,¡± asked Rachel. She put the phone in her pocket. ¡°I have seen some things,¡± said Ishmael. ¡°You can go through the files when you come onboard.¡± ¡°That seems like a lot of work,¡± said Rachel. ¡°I have to justify what I do,¡± said Ishmael. ¡°As my assistant, you will have to come up to speed and show me things I can do better than what we did already.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Rachel. ¡°What¡¯s next?¡± ¡°I have to fill out the reports, get you and Al-a-Din your work clearances, set up a post here in case Hadron is right, and warn the ministry that the area might be tainted for a bit until it straightens out,¡± said Ishmael. ¡°You have to come in and fill out the packet for new hires.¡± ¡°Let me get cleaned up,¡± said Rachel. ¡°Then we¡¯ll see about all this.¡± Revised Timeline 5000 BC- The Murmur tries to summon the Destroyer and is opposed by Nobody, Cain, Memphis, Al-a-Din, The King and Mr. Multiverse in the Destroyer. The line of Kings is created by the Destroyer. The creature that would be known as Mr. Multiverse was created to stop the Destroyer in the Will of the Universe. 1670- Bill Crenshaw is killed by a pirate hunter known as El Rey (The reincarnated King) in Crenshaw. 1885- Bertram Chandler, the current King, deals with a river problem for a town in King of the Wild West. 1925- Bobby Benson is born. 1935- Bobby Benson takes over from Cain in the Heir. He becomes the Mark. 1938- Sir Laurence Fletcher starts the Commando X program with its first recruit, James Rafferty. The mission is to investigate smuggler Mick Brown for the Secret Service. 1940- Frank Flanagan decides to become the Protector in the Shield. The Mark brings the USS Armand in to NYC Harbor after it was struck by a torpedo. Barry Nicklaus sets a record for highest a human has been in the air. The Promethan saves people from a fire. 1941- Frank Saxon becomes the Rocket and helps defeat Doctor Rainey Sybil in Flight of the Rocket Man 1945- Roscoe Burly musters out of the Army, and joins the Middleton Police Department. 1954- Timmy Strangehold is born. 1955- Barney Strife takes over for Joe Carlson as Herocles in Inherit the Monsters. Tooty Strangehold is born. 1956- Enemies of The Mark wound him and kill his friends and fellow spark bearers. He lethally retaliates against them. Will Williams and Ann Baker were killed. The Mark¡¯s human side was wounded. Barberossa, Dr. Rainey Sybil, the Butterfly, Koal, and the Spine were all killed by The Mark in the End of the Light. 1959- Marty Morgan is born 1960- Jim and Darby Strangehold die in an accident. Their children go to live with their only living relative, Dr. Dale Strangehold. 1964- The Hazard Scouts help the Park Service with an animal enrager. 1965- Doctor Dale Strangehold helps Sgt. Roscoe Burly and the Middleton Police Department deal with a monster in Dr Strangehold, Ectoplasmic Detective. 1969- The Mark helps his alternate Earth counterpart, Captain Spark in Across the Divide. The Hazard Scouts are decimated by an unknown enemy in Showdown in a Small Town. Only Marty Morgan, the Animal Boy survives. 1973- Eleanor Benson is born. 1974- Carrie Benson is born. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. 1976- Cassie Troy cements her prophetic abilities by stopping a summoned monster in a church for the life of her friend, Hector, in Cassie¡¯s Knife. She is abetted by Nobody. 1977- Money Benson is born. 1979- Marty Morgan leads Corona, Cog, Finch and Ren against Watson Security and their superpowered minions, The Squad, and rescues Barry Nicklaus and Cortez from imprisonment in Revenge of the Scouts. 1981- Bond Tamagochi is born 1982- Mark Morgan is born 1984- Melinda Morgan is born. 1986- The Mark meets Eleanor, Carrie, and Money. He introduces them to Spiffy, and Cassie Troy in the Sisters. Mark Hadron develops his lamp and begins to gather the original Lamplighters in Light the Lamp. 1987- Eleanor, Carrie, and Money find out about the other Marks and are adopted by the Mark. The Lamplighters are credited with saving New York by the Mark in the Vault. The Shooting Stars are blasted into space. The Lamplighters and Hazard Scouts team up with Ishmael Levram to save Israel from a whirlwind in Desert Storms. 1988- Sam Starn becomes the second Captain to take after his sister. 1990- Eleanor, Carrie, and Money help the Robot Rangers fight a building come to life in Tokyo in the Robot Ranger Rescue. 1992- Pablo Estevez introduces his trainee, Henry Harkness, to his mentors and Cassie Troy at the Good Eats Diner in the Four Musketeers. The Morgans and Bond take Stella Marston Scouting in the Woods 1995- Shirou Morita becomes M-37 after touching an orb left over from the Apartment Man¡¯s attack on Tokyo in M-37. Stephen Scry loses his identity and goes on the run from the Sons of Set. 1996- Dr. Yamada tests a radioactive coat for M-37 in Testing for M-37 1997- M-37 responds to an earthquake in M-37''s First Flight. 1999- Darla Huitt is born. Moshe Levram is born. 2000- Stephen Scry and Memphis confronts Steven Scry at Last Stop, Nevada in Meet Yourself. Tanner Lerner is born. Sara Levram is born. 2002- Lynette Harkness is born to Henry and Martha June Harkness in Happy Birthday. 2010- Jason Parley gains the sword of the King during a bust of cultists and their summoned monster in Return of the King. Al-a-Din and his butler deal with a bombing in Master and Servant. Memphis helps Moshe and Sara Levram against the Dog Maker in Duel in the Desert. Tanner Lerner and Darla Huitt gain their powers from a meteor in Ink Buttons. 2014- The Lamplighters are decimated. Three are killed. Mark Hadron lost an eye and had a hand punctured. 2015- Jane Hillsmeirer talked to Mark Hadron about restarting the Lamplighters in The Hermit. Jason Parley, the modern King, threatened a deal of nonagression with the local mobster in A Parley. Denver McGinty picks up Kisara, Princess of the Genn, on the side of the road and drops her off in New York City in Girl on the Road. The basis for Lamplighters West is formed when four women ask Mark Hadron for help dealing with Crenshaw the ghost pirate in Splinter Cell. Marcel Hobart is the first new recruit for the new Lamplighters in the Interview. Rangifer Tarandus, The Reindeer, evades the Black Wolves while trying to save a town in Norway in Special Delivery. Patty Page, Kathy Baker, Lin Qi, Jean Lopez form the Lamplighters West and take on Crenshaw with the help of Mark Hadron in Blue Flames in San Francisco. Roland Givens is embedded with seven spirits by Amenophis and the Sons of Set despite interference from Tanner Lerner and Lynette Harkness in Button Pushing. Bobby Iger and Maria Garcia-Lopez join the Lamplighters after a talk with Harry Cho in Recruited. Ken Aioki is hired to be a Lamplighter in the Last Spot. 2017- The Mark is killed by the Queen of Genn in Make Your Mark. Lynette Harkness helps fight the invasion in her training suit in New Girl. Marty Morgan dies leading the Hazard Scouts, the Lamplighters, M-37, the Robot Rangers, and others against the Queen of Genn in The Scouts Hold the Line. Tanner Lerner and Darla Huitt take part in the battle for New York in Push All the Buttons. The Fairy Man and his princess help the magicians close the door on the Queen of Genn in Going Home. The Shooting Stars return from space in Stars in the Sky. Cape Fear 1 Wes Wesolowski knew he was going to die. He was in his car, driving for his life, hoping that he was wrong about the car that was behind him. He needed to get somewhere that he could hide until he could write his story and present his evidence to save his life. As a reporter, he had covered a lot of stories. This was the first one that could get him killed. He should have given the story to McKay so he could get killed. The car sped up and hit him from behind. He steered away from the impact. If they knocked him off the road, he was as good as dead. He had to find a place where he could lose them and then get back to the paper. Once the story was out with evidence to back it up, he would be in the clear. There might be some reprisals. Big time criminals didn¡¯t like reporters poking into their business. It was the nature of the beast. He had dealt with some of them over the years. They didn¡¯t even want to be treated badly as they waited for their sentencing. He checked his mirror again. The other car was coming up for another ram. He weaved side to side so they couldn¡¯t get a clear shot. He had to stay on the road. If he was knocked off here, he would drop into a valley and have to be carried out with a basket from above. He couldn¡¯t let them have the records he had stolen. If they got them back, all of his proof would be gone. His story would be dead. He rocked in his seat as his car took another hit. How many more could he take before the tires gave out. That would be just as bad as anything else that might happen. Another hit and he lost control. He saw the guard rail coming up and tried to turn to catch it with the side of his car. He took another hit and his Pontiac was airborne. He tried to steer on the way down but he hit something and the car flipped and rolled towards the bottom of the valley. He had worn his seat belt and it cut into his hips and legs as the car carried him to his crash. He felt blood on his face and his suit was ripped up. He had to get out of the car and get away from there before the guys who pushed him off the road came down and finished him off. All they had to do was shoot into the car and that would be the end of it for him. If they only wanted to stop him, shooting the car until it caught fire with him inside of it was the best thing for them to do. He had to get out and find cover. Then he could think of patching his wounds and getting things to his desk to write up for his editor. He realized he was upside-down. That was bad for him because it made it easier to shoot at the gas tank. And it made it harder for him to undo the seatbelt so he could flee. He worked at the buckle until the belt snapped loose and he could drop down to the roof of his car. He cut himself squeezing through the window. He lay on the ground for a minute to catch his breath. He had to get away from the car. If they started shooting at it, he could be caught in the blast. If they started shooting at him and hit him, he could be wounded bad enough that he couldn¡¯t escape. Then he would be one more missing reporter that was lost somewhere while doing a story. He should have asked McKay to cover this. He didn¡¯t care if McKay got shot and set on fire. Wes dragged himself away from the car. His legs didn¡¯t work right for the moment. He pulled himself along with his hands. He reached another downslope to a mass of trees. He pulled himself to a roll that carried him to the trees. He reached the trees and hit painfully against the wooden sentinels. He took a moment to catch his breath again. He had to get into the trees to get cover from the other car on the mountain. He could see the lights up there. Everything hurt. Blood was everywhere. He felt the world sliding to the side. He had to keep going until he got help to get him to the paper. He had never hurt this much before. He could see being in the hospital after he got this story cleared. Maybe he could write a story about the hospital while he was stuck in it. He should have taken another road to get away. He dragged himself deeper in the woods. He had to get away from the road. He had to protect what he had taken. He had to try to keep going. Wes knew he had no chance of reaching a rescuer. He was going to die on the mountain. They were going to find the files. Maybe they would set his body on fire to hide the evidence. He hated losing like that. Wes struggled along. He couldn¡¯t wait on them to find him. He was going to die, but he was going to make them work for it. He tried to smile at that, but the pain turned it into grimace. He heard a sound like a whistling above him. He wondered where it was coming from. He put it out of his mind. If it wasn¡¯t help, then it was useless. The ground exploded to his right. Trees jumped into the air. His hand caught fire. He rolled as more pain flooded his system. He glanced over and saw a fire burning Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.in the trees. Had they shot a rocket at him? Is that what had caused the explosion? He rubbed his hand. The pain there eclipsed everything else he was suffering. He looked down at it. He saw that he had acquired some kind of burn mark that looked like four diamonds. He rubbed it to clear some of the ash and blood off of it. He blinked as the diamonds lit up. He thought that he was about to pass out because he was hallucinating. His body stretched out into a ribbon. He floated above the fiery crater. He tried to look at himself but he couldn¡¯t see his hands. What was going on? He found his clothes and stolen files laying on the ground. He frowned that he was running around naked and apparently floating above the ground. The pain was gone. He tried to frown but he couldn¡¯t feel his face. He tried to feel around with his hands, but he couldn¡¯t tell where his hands were. What was going on? Wes decided that he had to get out of there and figure things out later. He had to get to the paper to write up his story if he could use the typewriter. He floated to his belongings and gathered them up. He flew down the mountain side to the city below. He wondered how fast he was going. He had so many questions but he had no way to work on that yet. If he could get to a doctor, maybe then he could worry about not feeling normal. He was glad that the pain had faded away with the change of shape. Maybe there was someone he could ask about this. Maybe there was someone like the Mark who knew what happened to him. If the Hazard Scouts were still around, Mr. Robot had been the expert on strange stuff like this. And they were based in California. He could have called and arranged for an appointment. He looked behind him. The fire in the trees still burned from what he could see. He didn¡¯t see anyone checking out the explosion. A secondary blast answered the first. He frowned at the realization that his car had finally gone up in a fireball. He was going to get the blame for the fire. He couldn¡¯t believe it. He paused to consider going back up to the top of the mountain in his new body and doing something. He wasn¡¯t quite sure what that something was. He found a payphone. He could call the paper if he could still talk. He could report the fire and his attempted murder, even if he didn¡¯t know who had actually did the deed. He returned to normal as he searched his clothes for change to make his call. He looked around. No one was around to see him bent over his clothes in the buff. He quickly pulled on his clothes before someone came along. He frowned at the blood and dirt on everything. He felt better. Maybe turning into a blob had healed up the injuries to him. He winced as he moved. He hadn¡¯t healed up as much as he thought. Maybe he was going to die from internal injuries, but he was able to keep moving at the moment. He put change in the payphone and called the night editor for the paper. He had to give a verbal breakdown for the fire story so it could be written up before the deadline. Then he had to work on his bigger story. ¡°Clancy,¡± said the night editor. He didn¡¯t have much to do, but when he did, his slow talk turned to a fast clip. ¡°What¡¯s your story?¡± ¡°Clancy, this is Wes,¡± said the reporter. He looked around for a location. ¡°A fire has started up in the mountains. An explosion on the ground started it. I don¡¯t know what that was. Also my car was pushed off Old Pine Road through the guard rail before the fire. My car exploded when the fire reached it from the looks of things. I need to call the fire department and see what they can do.¡± ¡°Where are you, Wes?,¡± said Clancy. The scribbling of a pen, or pencil, came over the line. ¡°I am at a pay phone at the corner of Burnes and Winchester,¡± said Wes. He had to look around for street signs. ¡°The fire is on the mountain where Old Pine Road is. It¡¯s in the trees below the road. You can see it from where I am.¡± ¡°What happened?,¡± said Clancy. ¡°I¡¯ll chop anything too outlandish.¡± ¡°I was pushed off the road down the side of the mountain,¡± said Wes. ¡°Guys started shooting at me. I got into some trees. There was a boom, and then there was a fire. And then my car went up.¡± ¡°That is a lot of outlandish,¡± said Clancy. ¡°I know,¡± said Wes. ¡°They were chasing me over some files I have. I was going to bring them in so I could work on the Delveccio story. I didn¡¯t think they would try to kill me over it.¡± ¡°Delveccio is connected, Wes,¡± said Clancy. ¡°Everyone knows it. I¡¯m surprised he hasn¡¯t had you killed before this. He¡¯s definitely going to want to kill you if you have some kind of evidence against him.¡± ¡°I have been chasing this story for a long time,¡± said Wes. ¡°I¡¯m sure I can prove something with what I have. I¡¯m coming in to write everything up.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t come here,¡± said Clancy. ¡°This is the first place they will look for you if they think you¡¯re alive and got away. Don¡¯t go home either. Pick a random place and go there until some of this blows over. Thanks, Bel. All right. Some of your reporting is not so outlandish after all.¡± ¡°What do you mean?,¡± asked Wes. ¡°The Observatory reported a meteor impact out your way,¡± said Clancy. ¡°There¡¯s your explosion.¡± ¡°I almost got killed by a meteor?,¡± asked Wes. He couldn¡¯t believe that. ¡°There was nothing left as far as I could see.¡± ¡°You lucked out,¡± said Clancy. ¡°I am going to call the police and tell them about your car, and tell them that you called in. Are you hurt?¡± ¡°A little,¡± said Wes. ¡°I have had worse from my old man.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t come here, don¡¯t go home,¡± said Clancy. ¡°Find some place you can hunker down until things quiet. Delveccio might have some of the cops on the payroll. Don¡¯t tell them anything until you have your story written. I¡¯ll talk to Fleming and see if the paper can do something for you.¡± ¡°So I¡¯m in the cold until I can get things done,¡± said Wes. ¡°If they are waiting for you here, you¡¯ll be picked up before you can get to your desk,¡± said Clancy. ¡°Remember Marsden.¡± ¡°I remember,¡± said Wes. ¡°Fire trucks are visible, Clancy. It looks like they¡¯ll be finding my car in a minute.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll have Rewrite go over things before the press starts up,¡± said Clancy. ¡°I will not put anything in about you, your car crash, or your presence. You¡¯re going to have to explain things to Fleming in the morning. Until then, hide out. If you really have the goods, be ready to protect your source from the police.¡± ¡°I can do that,¡± said Wes. He was the source, and he had committed burglary to get what he had. ¡°Thanks, Clancy.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t thank me yet,¡± said the editor. ¡°Fleming will want to know what you got, and how to use it. Make sure you have the real thing to justify driving you off the road and down a cliff.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll have to hire an expert, won¡¯t I?,¡± said Wes. ¡°If you want your story to go, yes,¡± said Clancy. ¡°You¡¯ll need a third party to back up your conclusion. And that¡¯s if Delveccio doesn¡¯t kill you first.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know any finance guys,¡± said Wes. ¡°All right. I¡¯ll work on that to get the backup for the story.¡± ¡°Fleming and Golding will want to talk to you,¡± said Clancy. ¡°I¡¯ll let them know what is going on.¡± ¡°Thanks, Clancy,¡± said Wes. ¡°I¡¯ll call back when I have something for you.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Clancy. ¡°Stay out of trouble until we can get things sorted.¡± He hung up the phone. Wes put the receiver on its hook. He hated to be reminded of Marsden. He had been the first to go after Delveccio. They had found his body anchored to a buoy off the coast. Parts of it were missing because someone had taken a knife to him. He had been on his way to the paper after finding something. He had never made it. Wes didn¡¯t want that for himself. Cape Fear 2 Wes decided he could hold out at the Capriano Hotel for the next few hours. He just needed a place where he could wash up and think about getting new clothes without having the police called on him. Some of the police worked for Delveccio. So he was on the east side of the city. The Capriano was on the west, near the beach. How did he get there without a car? Could he become the monster again and fly there? Was that part real? He decided it had to be since he had to pull his clothes on after reaching the streets. He didn¡¯t relish flying around naked. He wondered if there was something he could use for clothing when he transformed. Maybe there was something out there he could cover himself with when he transformed but he had never heard of such a miracle substance. He decided to think about that when he got to the hotel and found an empty room he could hide in until he could figure out what he was going to write with the material he had stolen. Maybe he could call around and find something he could use. There had to be other heroes with clothing problems out there. How did they handle things? He touched the four diamonds on his hand and changed into his two dimensional other self. He pulled himself out of his clothes and wrapped part of flat body around them and his files. He took to the air and headed toward the beach. Wes swam through the air. He was glad it was nightfall hiding him, but he really needed clothes he could wear in his flat form. He reached the hotel roof in plenty of time. He also didn¡¯t want his power running out while he was doing something extremely dangerous. Maybe some kind of rubber suit that stretched when he stretched and returned to normal when returned to normal would be the way to go. How did he get something like that? He pulled on his clothes on the roof and went to the fire escape. He climbed down until he reached a window at the end of a hall. He jimmied the lock with his pocket knife and climbed through the window. He needed to find an empty room without letting the clerk know he was hanging out on the premises. He might be able to use his power to sneak around and search the register. He could just sign himself into a room and then sign himself out when he was ready to go. Being flat would make him hard to see, and he could stretch a lot so he could hide most of himself while he was getting a room. He nodded to himself. He could do that instead of his original plan of just taking a room and hoping he wouldn¡¯t be discovered by housekeeping. And staying under a fake name would help him against Delveccio when the man got around to looking for him. If they checked the car after the explosion, they knew he was still out there with the material he had taken. At this point, he wasn¡¯t sure he could admit he had the material. He paused as he entered the stairwell. He sat down on the steps. Did he actually have any proof of wrongdoing since he had taken the evidence from someone¡¯s home? Had he poisoned the well with his actions? Was he going to end up like Marsden? He still had to get a room, and get some rest. Then he could puzzle out the rest when he was fresh and ready to go. At least every time he transformed back, he felt better. Maybe turning into a flying ribbon was healing up the damage from the car crash faster. He liked that. At one point, he couldn¡¯t walk, and now he could. He still had some pain, but it was nothing like what he had felt right before he had been struck by that meteor. He worked his way down to the lobby of the hotel and cracked the door open to look out. He saw the desk clerk sitting behind the desk, book in hand. He needed to sign in while the guy was distracted. How did he do that? The clerk was bound to see him even if he was flat against the floor. Why were things always tougher than they had to be. Wes looked at the clerk. The man refused to move under the intense gaze. His nose was in his book. He touched the diamonds on his hand and slipped out of the stairwell. He reached out and took a better look at the clerk. The man was sleeping. That made things easier. He grabbed the registration book and slipped back into the stairwell. He looked for an empty room to match the keys on the pegboard behind the clerk. He filled in a fake name and an address for one of those rooms with a tentacle formed from a corner of his body. He snuck the book back and grabbed the room key. He waited for the transformation to wear off before putting himself back together and heading up to his new room. So he had two goals. The first was to get out from under Delveccio¡¯s sights and publish his story with the checked over information as a basis. Either that was enough to spur the police into taking a better look at the mob boss, or it wasn¡¯t. In any case, he would have to look for reprisals for the rest of his life. No gangster sat there and took it while a reporter pried into their affairs and wrote stories about them. Examples needed to be made like Marsden. The second thing was to get some flexible clothing for the weird other form he had. Once he had that, he could try to use the flying flatworm to keep digging into any mobster that happened to set up in town. A mask to cover his face would be helpful if his power ran out and someone saw him doing the type of extracurricular digging that got reporters news prizes, and papers sued for slander. He doubted he would step out in public like the old Scouts, or the Mark. It was rough enough to be a reporter. Being a reporter and a masked man seemed a little too much. He wanted to write his stories and blend in as much as possible. Throwing down with someone like Doctor Sybil was not something he was ready to try. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. It was good thing the Doctor was dead and buried on Mars. Everyone knew he was there. No one knew which mountain he was buried under. Wes had no desire to look for the body either. Sybil had fought against the Mark during the war, trying to carve out his own empire in the middle of what Hitler was trying to do. The fact that he almost killed the Mark, and had killed some of the other heroes of those years earned him no pity from the reporter. And he had succeeded in forcing the Mark out of the public spotlight as a force for good even if he couldn¡¯t enjoy that victory. Wes took off his clothes and thought about washing them. He decided he could wait on that until he knew what he was going to do. He did look in the mirror and found he was covered in bruises and cuts but they looked days old, not what he had earned in his trip down the mountain. Could the transformations be putting him back together, fixing the injuries he had taken? It could be. No one knew what powers did to a person. He might have lucked out and got something that would heal him up if he didn¡¯t die immediately. Maybe he could take a bullet, but decided it was foolish to try to find out how much of a shot he could take. If he got shot, and healed that up after becoming the flatworm, that was one thing. Jumping in front of the bullet was just asking for trouble in his opinion. He wondered how heroes found out what they could do. That was something he could write a story around as long as he didn¡¯t reveal his new power. He decided to shower and get cleaned up. He would have to get clothes from somewhere else before he could back out in public. He had to plan on how to get around anyone watching the paper so he could turn in his work. He could write his story anywhere, but he had to show the evidence and turn it in person. He couldn¡¯t expect the paper to open itself to a lawsuit just on his word. He had to back up anything he said because the truth was an ultimate defense against such a lawsuit. Wes settled on the bed and decided to get some rest. He didn¡¯t have a long time before someone tried to find him. Eventually, Delveccio was going to learn he was still alive. They would then try to fill out him full of holes. How much could his other form take if someone did shoot at him? Could he heal that up using the tattoo to change? Wes scratched his eyebrow and thought about what he could do. Maybe he should go on the offensive and do something to Delveccio to persuade him to stop looking for him. What could he do where he didn¡¯t end up like Marsden? He thought about his new ability to break in some places because he could fly, and was like a blanket. He could elongate some of the corners to grab things, but he didn¡¯t seem to have a lot of fine control. He didn¡¯t seem to need to breathe, so what could he do with that? He already had records that he could publish if he could get to the newspaper bullpen. He could write everything up and then use his stolen files as a check. He could give copies to the police, but everyone knew they supported Delveccio and would try to stop him for their mob boss. He didn¡¯t know what he could do next. He had to keep moving if he didn¡¯t want to be taken in. Even though he had a room under a fake name, eventually someone would turn him in and goons would be on his neck. He thought he could get to the paper if he could get across the city to the newspaper without changing back in the middle of the flight. He could use the roof access to get down to the bullpen and his desk. The only problem was would there be someone waiting to take him away once he tried to type everything up and finish his story. He would have to be ready to call up his flat body to do things before he could be exposed in the public. He didn¡¯t like the nudity aspect of things either. Turning back in the middle of doing things could be embarrassing or problematic depending on what he was doing at the time. He didn¡¯t want to be naked in the middle of breaking into Delveccio¡¯s house. Wes could get a typewriter and write his story in his stolen room. Then all he had to do was submit the story with copies of his evidence. Then he could just watch out for the goons because they would be looking for him to retaliate. They couldn¡¯t let him live to testify on the authenticity of the records he stole. He wasn¡¯t a member of the police. It didn¡¯t matter how the record fell into his hands as far as proving things against Delveccio. He would face jail for burglary while the mobster faced jail for money crimes. And if they went to the same prison after their trials, Wes would be dead in a matter of days unless he used his ability to escape. He gazed up at the ceiling and wondered how long could he stay in the hotel before he was reported to Delveccio, and someone showed up to kill him. How long would it take for him to write his story? How long did his transformation last? What was going on with that? Would it kill him? The meteor strike Clancy told him about had to be the explanation for his new ability. It didn¡¯t tell him how long he had to live if the ability went rogue on him. He needed to push for someone other than the city police to investigate his claims. He needed to find a better place to hide. He needed a place only he could get in and out of with his new flattening power. He needed not to wind up like Marsden. Wes decided that if he wanted to keep using the flat body, he needed to talk to an expert who could point him to something he could use. He couldn¡¯t call Mr. Robot since the murder of the Hazard Scouts. Who else could he call? Flanagan Solutions might be the people to call about a sizechanging suit. There were rumors that they had come up with clothes to handle powers since the war. They might be able to give him something he could use. At the worst, they could direct him to another company he could use to get the thing he needed if he wanted to keep using his power. He made a note to check into them. If he could get them to help him out, that would make things that much easier for him. He wondered if there was a story behind the company. There were rumors that the first Rocket was connected to them, and some guy in armor in New York. How many other heroes did they help out over the years? He could do a set of stories based on that if he could turn anything up. He could follow links to everyone to whom they had provided equipment. If they helped him, he could write it from an insider¡¯s perspective. He doubted they would want this business in a spotlight. He had heard rumors but Flanagan kept their problems to themselves. There had to be a connection to the Rocket. Why didn¡¯t they use that to get more business for their company? He decided that was some of the questions he could try to answer while he was writing their story. A noise came from the hall. Wes glanced at the door. Maybe laying on a bed in sight of the door was a bad idea. He slid off the top of the bed and slipped into the shadow of the mattress. He waited for someone to break in his door. The sound of someone retreating from his door caused him to breathe again. What would he have done if it was someone looking for him? He would have had to use his flat body to attack. How effective would that be against someone with a gun? Wes frowned. Maybe he should try to leave town. Maybe that would throw Delveccio off enough that he could start his career over in some other city. He couldn¡¯t count on that. They had run him off a road and then shot at him when he tried to get away from the crash. A small forest fire starting hadn¡¯t stopped them from trying to kill him. If the explosion from the meteor and his body change hadn¡¯t happened, he would be dead because his legs had stopped working. Now he was hunkered down, but eventually he would have to move. He wasn¡¯t looking forward to that. Either way, he couldn¡¯t call Clancy from the room. The lines could be checked, and that would lead anyone with the knowhow back to the hotel, and then the false registration. He could expect gunmen to show him the bottom of the ocean after that. He could call from a phone booth across town. He could return to his new room with a typewriter. He could write the story and get everything done before Delveccio could stop him. The rest would have to play out in the court. He might be just as much as a fugitive as Delveccio, but he would be alive and on the run with some worry of killers trying to track him down to settle the score. He should have went into some other line of work. You didn¡¯t worry about people trying to kill you when you worked in a factory. Wes closed his eyes and tried to get some sleep. The next day would be busy. Cape Fear 3 Wes woke up. He had to get his clothes out of the bathroom and figure out what he wanted to do. He decided that he should avoid the paper¡¯s office. If someone was looking for him, that was where they would try to get a line on him. He was better off not letting them find him so easily. So he needed a typewriter to turn his story into something that could close some of the trouble off. Where could he get one? Did he dare go out and find one to bring back to the hotel? Should he be wandering around in the daytime at all? How many people would Delveccio spare to find and kill him? He decided that he should wait until nightfall and get a typewriter then. He could type the story up and hand it in to Clancy, or wait until the next day and just hand it in to the day desk. Delveccio might not know he survived the fire. Why give him a free pass of information by walking around where his minions watched everyone going about their business? Wes looked out the window. He could wait until nightfall. His flat form made it possible for him to sneak around even if he had to do it naked. He needed to research on clothing if he wanted to keep using the form to break into places and steal evidence. He wished he had paper to write down his thoughts. Then he could turn his thoughts into something that could be polished into a respectable story. He made a mental note to get some and a pen when he went out again. He put out the do not disturb sign on the door. He didn¡¯t want the maids to see his bloody suit before he could get a replacement and throw it away. One call to the cops might be enough for Delveccio to home in on him. That was in the records too. He decided to try to make any kind of connection he could before trying to turn his story in. Once he had everything in hand, then he would fly over to the paper and drop the thing in Clancy¡¯s tray. Wes wondered if he should have let things go. There were other stories he could have dug into. There were other menaces out there threatening the public. He had turned this into a crusade, and crusades got reporters killed. He decided he was in until he could do something to stop Delveccio. The mob boss would want him dead as a doornail after the theft of his records from his accountant. There was nothing he could do about that except hide until someone other than the local police took the gangster out of the picture. Once Delveccio was gone, Wes could turn his attention on the other criminal masterminds making Northern California a terrible place to live. He decided to be sneakier with his new body so he didn¡¯t have to hide in a hotel room and hope that he wasn¡¯t going to be murdered. He could use less excitement in his line of work. How did other heroes operate to keep their masked faces separate from their real faces so their enemies didn¡¯t track them down and try to kill them. He knew what had happened to the Hazard Scouts, and the Mark, and knew that keeping things separate wasn¡¯t a guarantee of safety. He figured his example should be someone like the Rocket. He flew around, he helped out, no one knew who he was. And the Rocket still flew across California. An interview with him would go in a file of other interviews with other reporters, but a talk about costumes might net Wes something to wear in his other form. Then he could worry about other issues involved with being a flying flatworm. And he didn¡¯t exactly have a plan to keep living now that he was hidden from his hunters. The Rocket might be able to give him tips about keeping his real face separate from his masked face. That would be worth an interview in itself. He had no idea how he could arrange a talk with the old vigilante. He laughed at himself. He was too far away from talking to someone who had been flying the skies under his own power for thirty years. He might as well get on a plane and fly to New York in hopes of attracting the attention of the Mark. He might as well try to fly to the moon the next chance he got. Wes looked out the window and put his list of things to do in the front of his mind. As soon as he had a typewriter, he had to write his story to turn in before the deadline. Then he had to make sure he had pieces of the records ready as evidence. The main thing was keeping out of sight while the underworld looked for him. Delveccio would kill to get those records back. He had to get the story out while keeping his head from anyone trying to cut it off. Once everything was out in the open, he could go back to reporting on how the police Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.handled things. He had no illusions that the police would pursue the mobster with due diligence. Just reporting on their corruption was enough to have them try to retaliate against you. The reporter had put abuses out on the wire and attracted the attention of others to the problem. Some things had changed, but not enough to give Wes confidence that the beat cop that picked him up would not hold him for Delveccio¡¯s men to put a bullet in him inside the police station. It was better being out in the open and avoiding Delveccio as much as possible. He wanted to believe in the police, but he was in the camp that vigilantes at least tried to protect you from problems. They very rarely made your situation worse just from standing around. Wes liked the idea of helping people from the shadows. He doubted he would be taken seriously thanks to his power of turning into a frightened flying carpet. Wes nodded when he saw the sun going down. It was time for him to call Clancy, and get a typewriter. Then he could work on his story and turn it in. It might not get Delveccio off his back, but it would give him something else to think about in the immediate future. He pulled on his ragged suit. He needed to get new clothes and throw the old one away. It looked like someone had thrown a bucket of blood on it with knives cutting it. It belonged to a slasher movie villain, not an honest muckraker like himself. He decided that maybe clothes would be needed before the typewriter. Then he could get one of those and call Clancy. Then he could finally sit down and write his story. He took the records he had stolen and hid them under the bed frame. He doubted any hotel maid would move the bed to make it. He went to the window. Now all he had to do was wait until it was dark enough to conceal him and then he could jump from his window and fly down to the ground. How hard could that be? He didn¡¯t want to think about what would happen if he jumped and his new ability didn¡¯t come on. He would hit the street hard enough to be flat. And once he started shopping, he would have to think about staying concealed while he went about his business. He didn¡¯t want a flood of hitmen following him to his new home and trying to put holes in him. He nodded when it looked dark enough to him. The stars were out but he should be a cloud against them and not some inhuman monster. He touched the tattoos on his hand and jumped. He flattened into his flying form and expanded out of his suit. He carried the clothes to another hotel across the way and descended that fire escape to the ground. He got dressed as soon as the effect wore off and started walking. Now his next trick was to break into some place and grab some fresh clothes without getting caught. Then he could scrounge up a typewriter. He could have made better time flying across the city, but he didn¡¯t need to do that. It was better if he walked on his target when they were closing and then sneaking in. Then he could get what he needed and take off. The main problem was any place with an alarm system. He would have to learn the alarm codes, or smash and grab. His other self gave him a lot of options for exits. He could maybe squeeze through the cracks of doors if they were wider than he thought. He might not be able to get through a key hole and didn¡¯t want to test that unless he had to. He definitely didn¡¯t want to try to get through the key hole and turn back to his normal self. Either he would be squeezed out of the key hole, or cut in half when his body tried to expand into that tiny space. Finding out was something for emergencies while he was trying to get out of locked rooms with murderous thugs trying to kill him. Wes found a clothing store on the verge of closing. He transformed and skirted around the check out counter to slip into the changing room. He hid himself on the ceiling when he heard someone checking the changing rooms for customers so they could tell them to pay and get out. He waited until they were gone before dropping to the floor and condensing into his normal body. He listened as he got dressed again. He definitely needed some kind of costume that changed when he did. All of this dressing himself was starting to get on his nerves. Why couldn¡¯t he have got a better power from the meteor strike. Turning yourself into a flying carpet was okay but he would rather be invisible and flying. That would be better than being a stretching menace in his opinion. He wondered if there was someone he could consult other than the Scouts. There had to be someone out there familiar with the problems involved and capable of coaching him into using his abilities better than what he was already doing. Was this how villains came into existence? First, they had a power. Then they started using it to take what they wanted, and then they became full fledged menaces. Was he becoming a menace with his need to conceal himself, and having to steal until he could get out of the trouble he was in? Did he want to know the answer to that question? He decided that when he had Delveccio off his case, he would throttle back on stealing, and doing unethical things that he would call someone else on. Until then, he had to do what he could to survive and get out of trouble so he didn¡¯t wind up like Marsden. He didn¡¯t know if his other self would help him survive being cut to pieces and dropped out in the middle of the ocean. And he didn¡¯t want to find out. The lights went out and he heard the door locking up. He needed to wait before he tried searching for something to wear. There was always a chance they forgot something and came back inside the store. When he was sure he was alone, he exited the changing room and looked around. The place was empty and the alarms were only on the doors. He could get out without setting them off if he was careful. He expected that he could escape any jail if he wanted to as long as they didn¡¯t know about his other form. It was better that no one knew about his shopping. No one could press charges if they didn¡¯t know he had been on the job in the first place. He picked out two suits and everything that went with them. He put his new belongings in a bag to carry with him. He looked around for another exit other than the doors. The last thing he needed was to set off the alarms and let someone know that he had been stealing clothes to replace his rags. He found an air vent he could get into next to the back wall. He worked the screws out, and used his ability to get inside the metal shaft. He pulled the grate back into place and turned the screws the best he could with no fingers. He worked his way to another vent below the air conditioning unit on the roof. He changed back to normal and had to wait for a few minutes before he could change back and work the screws loose on this grate and move it out of the way. He put the cover back and flowed back to his room at the hotel. He stored his new belongings in the closet before thinking about how he could get a typewriter. Cape Fear 4 Wes decided that he could get the typewriter the same way he had got new clothes. He just needed a place he could break into without being seen. How hard could that be with his other body? He liked the plan. The hard part would be getting it to his hotel room without anyone seeing it. He could write his story after he had it, then turn everything in to Clancy before Delvecchio¡¯s mob caught up with him. He doubted his new body was bulletproof. He certainly didn¡¯t want to find out by being shot. Wes decided to go out after sunset, find what he needed, break in and steal the typewriter with paper and ink, then try to sneak everything through the lobby when he got back to the hotel. He certainly wouldn¡¯t be able to take it through the air vents. Then he could write his story. Someone else was investigating the fire for the paper, and no one knew where he was and some were speculating if he was dead. Clancy was letting them do that. Hopefully the night editor was letting the other administration think the same thing. He doubted they had ties to Delvecchio, but he didn¡¯t want to find out at the worst moment. It was bad enough he wasn¡¯t sure he was safe at the hotel. They could be combing every one in town, looking for him. The moment someone saw his face, they could converge on his hiding spot and he wouldn¡¯t know until someone kicked in the door. At least his other body could get him out of trouble if he could get out the window before they caught up with him. Flying, even as a flesh carpet, felt good. It felt like swimming through the air. If he could just do that without all the rest, it would be a win in his mind. Wes waited for the sun to go down. He opened the window of his room. The hotel didn¡¯t have balconies so people could take in the breeze from the ocean moving miles away. He hoped getting a typewriter was as easy as getting a new suit. Once true night had fallen, he slipped out the window and drifted down to the street. He floated along to a shop. He frowned at the typewriters on a shelf next to one wall. Taking one was going to be a problem to surmount. He decided that he could get in through the vents. Then he would have to walk out of one of the access doors. They were alarmed, but he could get away with his machine before the police showed up to try to take him in. Being able to fly was great for the thieves of the world. Wes floated up to the roof of the building. His power ran out and he donned his new suit so he wouldn¡¯t be naked. He waited for the shop to close and empty out. He didn¡¯t want to cause trouble for the people he was robbing. He just wanted a typewriter that he could return when he was done with it. Eventually the staff emptied out of the little shop. He listened and then watched as the last man locked up the doors behind himself. Now he had to go in and get his prize. Wes tried the easy approach first of trying to get through cracks in the frames of the doors. He wasn¡¯t narrow enough for that. There was two grills that punched through the wall. That had to be his point of entry. He used his superior strength to take the screws out of the vent grills. His carpet body was able to grip the metal better than his fleshy fingers could. He slipped inside and worked on the grill over the inner vent. He fell out on the floor just before his power ran out. He took a moment to get back together. He stood up and went to the typewriter he wanted. Smith-Corona would never let him down. Now he had to hit the exit, get his clothes back, and fly home to the hotel. He unlocked the door from the inside. He put the typewriter outside next to the door. He made sure he had ribbons to load the typewriter so he could use it. He locked the store up and used his power to get back to the roof through the grills. He made sure to put them back in place as he went. He picked up his clothes, swooped down and grabbed the typewriter and flew back to his hotel. Wes landed in his room after several small stops to let his power recharge. He dressed again and put the typewriter on the provided table. He winced that he hadn¡¯t grabbed paper with the ribbon. He hadn¡¯t thought about it since he was so worried about getting the machine in the first place. He flew back to the shop and repeated himself, but this time he had an easier job. He decided he would bring the typewrite back when he was done with it. He flew back The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.to the hotel with the paper in hand. He went out and got some food and brought it back. Now he had to write his story and put it together in a whole that couldn¡¯t be butchered that much by Editorial. Of course, no story, no matter how good it was, survived the touch of the editor. He put the story to the side when he was done. He took the ribbon out of the machine for later if he needed it. Now he had to return the typewriter to the store before anyone realized it was missing. Once he was done with the typewriter, he could call Clancy and tell the night man he was coming in with his story. Once he was done with that, he could sit back and see what the city did to prove or deny his claims. Once he had his story in, and it was printed, he would still have to worry about reprisals but there was a good chance that Delveccio got sent away, and the next boss would leave him alone. He returned the typewriter in reverse moves from how he had taken it in the first place. He got his clothes and found somewhere open to eat, with a payphone he could use. Once he talked to Clancy, most of his major problems would be something else when the sun came up. He ate his dinner, watching the time. As soon as Clancy came on deck, he would make the call. Then he would turn in his story to be printed and that would be that. The only weak spot in his plan was he had to go down to the paper and physically turn in the copy. He didn¡¯t like that at all. On the other hand, he couldn¡¯t get the story printed for days if he mailed it to the paper. He had to turn it in and be ready to talk to any manager, or legal department, that wanted to talk to him. He expected they would want the papers he had stolen for evidence. He didn¡¯t know if he should give those up unless he had to go to court. They were evidence against Delveccio, and himself. If the mobster got them back, he was definitely as good as dead. Breaking into a bad guy¡¯s place did not make him a good guy in the eyes of the law. They would throw him in jail for burglary at least unless the mobster refused to press charges so he could do to Wes what he did to Marsden. And Wes didn¡¯t want to be set out to sea after being tortured. He found a payphone and called the paper. He asked for Clancy. He had to turn in his story in time for it to be pressed out and put in tomorrow¡¯s papers. ¡°This is Clancy,¡± said the editor. ¡°What do you want?¡± ¡°I¡¯m coming in with the story,¡± said Wes. ¡°I¡¯ll have it turned in for copy checking in a few minutes.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Clancy. ¡°I¡¯m ready for you when you do get here. Is any of it provable?¡± ¡°All of it is written down in Delveccio¡¯s handwriting,¡± said Wes. ¡°If we have to go to court, an expert will confirm the source of the handwriting.¡± He didn¡¯t know that for sure, but why not throw that in if it helped get his story in print and out in the city. He went back to his hotel room and got his story and tucked it in his jacket. He took the stolen file and hid it behind the toiletry shelf in a corner in the bathroom. He didn¡¯t want the stuff to be found and be taken by anyone before he got back to the hotel. If he needed it, he wanted to be able to come right back to the hotel, grab it and leave before anything happened to him. Wes snuck out of the hotel. He didn¡¯t want the clerk to figure out that he had forged the paperwork to stay in the place. That would get him booted back on the street and out where the goons could see him. He kept an eye out as he crossed to the paper. He was in trouble if he got caught out on the street. His cape body might be super stretchy and strong, but he had to be able to press the buttons. One wrong move on his part would be enough to put him in a position where he couldn¡¯t get to the buttons on his hand to transform. After that was a concrete bath and a burial somewhere no one would ever find him. He spotted the paper building as he walked. He could turn in his story, talk to Clancy, and go back into hiding. He was home free. He didn¡¯t spot the car rolling up behind him until it was right on top of him. Men jumped out and commenced to beat him until he had to roll up and protect his skull from their blows. They tied him up with his tie and threw him in the trunk. Wes lay in the darkness and tried to get his wits back. He hurt more than from the car crash. He should have known they would be watching for him to try to get in the paper to file his story. He should have been more careful. Now he was going to pay for his mistake. He tried to twist around to reach the buttons. His arms were tied in such a way that he couldn¡¯t touch the scars without doing some major work first. He didn¡¯t know how long he had, but felt he only had until the ride was over. So the first thing he had to do was get his hands where he could touch the marks with his other hand and transform. Visions of Marsden danced in his head as he worked on the tie around his wrists and hands. How much time did he have left before they stopped the car and started working on him? He had to get out of the trunk before that happened. He found an edge of something in the trunk. He felt around and found it was a screwdriver. He began stabbing the tie with it, trying to unravel the knot enough to free his hands. If he could do that, escaping would be a snap. The transformation would also heal the wooziness and headache he had. He had taken too many shots to the head in his opinion. He paused when the car stopped. Was this last time for him? He had to get out of the trunk as fast possible. His next breath might be his last. He had to get one of his hands free enough so he could touch them together. If he could become his other self, he could get out of the trunk and heal up. He doubted he could take revenge for being tied up and readied for his sea burial in his initial move. Getting away to be the priority over staying around and being executed by the people who had beat him in the street. The tie loosened enough for him to stretch his hands. He pushed the buttons and the transformation activated. He expanded out of his makeshift manacles and his clothes. Now he had to escape without being seen. He didn¡¯t want to find out he wasn¡¯t as bulletproof as he thought by being shot. Wes felt round in the dark. The inside of the trunk had a hook in a ring to hold it shut. He could feel it with a flattened edge of his body. He tripped it and the hood cracked open. He pulled himself and his clothes out of the trunk and floated to a gentle landing. He let the car keep going while he tried to come up with a better plan than run and hide. Cape Fear 5 Wes wondered how long they had watched the paper to grab him. That took some patience. He supposed that they had known he had escaped and survived to finish the job. And they knew he was a reporter. Linking him to either paper would have been easy to anyone who knew who to call. The fact they had taken Marsden the same way had not escaped his mind. He wondered about that. He pulled on his clothes off the road and looked around for a place he could hide until he could sneak away. He didn¡¯t like the fact that they waited for him. He thought they had known he was going to be at the paper. If they had, someone had told them he was going to be there. Could Clancy have sold him out? He thought about it as he marched across the countryside. Had Clancy sold him out? Had he sold out Marsden? There was a way to test the theory. It was simple and direct. If he was right, he didn¡¯t know what he would do about it. He wasn¡¯t much of a vigilante. Dropping people off a building seemed too much like work. He wondered if Clancy had put any extra money in his bank. That should be easy to check with his skills. Everything was starting to be computerized. Banks were investing millions to switch their old record books to networks that could be reviewed instantly. He doubted they could keep someone like him out. All he needed was where Clancy banked, and what his file number was. Then he could just ask at the bank for the account statement. He doubted he could steal the passbook from Clancy since he didn¡¯t know where the editor kept it. But he did know that Clancy kept his checkbook at the paper in his desk. All he had to do was get inside and get a check from it. The rest would follow from that simple move. He paused as he contemplated what he was thinking. He had made a bad move breaking into Delveccio¡¯s place and stealing his ledgers for the evidence he needed. Now he was thinking about doing the same thing to one of his managers on the suspicion that the guy had tried to get him killed because he was a mole. He had no proof that Clancy had done anything. He might be letting paranoia run away with him. Did his new condition lend itself to being paranoid? He might be cracking up. And what did he do if Clancy was crooked? First he had to know for himself. He could look at the bank records. He could call Clancy and tell him he was free to move, and wait to see what happened. He could tell Clancy that he was at his place, and wait to see if goons showed up. He liked that. It was simple. And if they showed up, he knew Clancy was involved. He didn¡¯t know what he would do if he did confirm things. He wasn¡¯t particularly violent, so he didn¡¯t want to beat the editor while he was calm and thinking. That might change if he got angry enough. The first thing was proving his suspicions. He might be wrong. It might still be bad luck that goons showed up the same time as he was arriving to deliver his story. They might have been watching the building. Wes looked around. A piece of civilization was ahead. If they had a phone, he would be able to call Clancy and tell him he was okay. He could fly to his place and wait for the goons to show up to pick him up. He had to figure out where he was before he made any calls. He didn¡¯t want to give the goons any clue where he had gone when they found the trunk was empty. He had to fly home and set up before they showed up. He could watch them looking for him while he thought of his next move. He doubted he could call the police on anyone. It was a thought. Wes found a road sign that told him he was ten miles out of the city. He nodded. Now all he needed to do was make the phone call and see what happened. He also had to consider that the phones at the paper were bugged. He didn¡¯t know what to do about that, but it could clear Clancy if he could find them in the phones, or buried anywhere else in the office. Once he called, he would know in a few hours if someone was handing Delveccio information from the paper. He didn¡¯t know if Clancy was involved, but barring someone else knowing about him getting to the paper and a hidden mike, it was the only explanation for what had happened. He could test that too. He just needed Clancy to pretend to call from a phone not at the paper. How hard could that be? Would Clancy figure out he was being tested with this scheme? That was the spot he didn¡¯t know. It all depended on how stupid they thought he was. They would think he was really stupid if he fell for the same scheme again. So he had three real options. Delveccio had someone other than Clancy in the The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.newsroom giving him information. Or, Clancy had sold him out with a phone call. Or, they had watched the building until he had shown up and took him to do the things they wanted to get the stolen records back. He doubted he would look the same after they were done with him. He believed he would have wound up at sea like Marsden with more injuries from the beating he would have taken. He decided to call Clancy from home to make his call more authentic. If anyone traced the call, they would see the call came from his apartment. He flew home in his flat form. He let himself in with a spare key he had hidden in a gap behind the outside light. He looked around at the row of tiny cabins pushed together. He didn¡¯t see anyone watching the place and he was happy about that. Time to go to work, Wes. Once you know one thing, you can ask about others. Stealing the ledgers without telling anyone had been a good idea if there was someone on the paper telling Delveccio who was investigating him. He hoped he was wrong. He didn¡¯t want Clancy to be calling the mob on him. He wanted to hand in his story and move on to the next. And he had no idea what he was going to do if Delveccio¡¯s mob showed up at his place. He would have to have words with Clancy if that happened. He doubted he could commit violence on the man. It had been a long time since he had tried to hurt someone intentionally. Maybe he should think about turning the ledgers over to the police, or the Feds. He doubted the locals would do anything, but maybe he could get someone to look at the operation and draw some of the heat off himself. He reached for his phone. He needed to make this call before he chickened out. Then he could make his next move to try to get out from under with his skin intact. If Delveccio¡¯s men showed up, it showed that he couldn¡¯t trust the paper to help him out of his problem. He would have to think of some way to get the mobster off his back that didn¡¯t involve being filled with holes and set on fire. He called the newspaper and asked the switchboard to connect him with Clancy¡¯s desk. The night editor instantly answered the phone. ¡°I had some problems coming in with my story,¡± said Wes. He moved to keep an eye out one window while he talked. ¡°I am at my place getting some clothes together. I am going to have to take off for a while until the heat goes down. I¡¯ll let you know when I get back in town.¡± ¡°What do I tell the boss?,¡± said Clancy. ¡°We were counting on that story.¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to leave it and the ledgers in the bedroom closet of my house,¡± said Wes. He went to the closet and took the clothes out of it and bundled them in a bag to take back to the hotel. ¡°I¡¯ll leave the door unlocked for you.¡± He placed the bag next to the door. No one was outside yet. The longer he waited, the more likely he would run into Delveccio¡¯s stooges. He needed to get somewhere he could watch the door without being seen. ¡°I have to go, Clancy,¡± said Wes. ¡°I will call when I am back in town.¡± He took his bag and flew over to the roof of another set of row houses across the street. He laid down to keep his outline out of sight as much as possible. He wanted them to go in without figuring that he was waiting on them to show up. Wes watched his watch as he waited. He planned to give the goons a couple of hours before he headed back to his borrowed room at the hotel. Either Clancy, or someone close to him, told Delveccio where he was, or they didn¡¯t. He wasn¡¯t going to wait around all night to see which it was. He really hoped Clancy showed up to get the story in person. Then he could watch what happened without any problem. The most likeliest thing to happen if he did show up, was he left with the box of shoes. The rest would be making sure he went back to the paper and opened the box. That was the only way to make sure Clancy hadn¡¯t tried to get him killed. Tracking the leak if he could clear Clancy would be a small problem, but it could be doable with the right bait. He couldn¡¯t string any inside man along for long before he became suspicious that someone was suspicious of him. Then he would bail and let know Delveccio know he was blown. Two cars rolled up outside of his house. He recognized some of the men who got out and started for the front and back doors of his place. It looked like Clancy had turned him in. He should have known he couldn¡¯t trust the night editor. What did he do now? How many other papers did Delveccio have his fingers into? What happened if he approached someone else with what he had? He needed to think about going full on vigilante. He couldn¡¯t let Delveccio hunt him across the city. He had to turn things around. He couldn¡¯t run forever. He had to get to his room and stow his baggage. He needed to make sure that his registration was still legitimate as far as that goes. He had to fix things if it wasn¡¯t. Then he had to get something to eat and think of how to get out from under. He had not ever thought things would go this way. He had thought reporting was the way that he could change the world for the better. He had never thought that he would have to put on a mask to protect himself. He needed to think about how he wanted to go ahead to deal with Delveccio. He definitely wasn¡¯t going to be able to do anything through the system. He decided that going down there and busting those guys up for breaking into his place would get him nothing. He might have a small twinge of satisfaction but he would still have the same problem. He was on the run from a criminal chief who wanted him dead and he had no way of fixing that except by doing something like drowning him in the ocean. He wasn¡¯t ready to do that yet. He needed clothes he could wear when he was flat. He needed another permanent place to stay. Eventually someone would get wise to the hotel dodge. When that happened, he was out of a base of operations. And he needed a way to get Delveccio to confess to his crimes so the mob boss would be off his back. He had no idea on how to do that. He needed ideas and he had no one to talk to about this. He needed to look into what other masked men did if he wanted to be one himself. He couldn¡¯t use the newspaper morgue. Clancy would call the mob on him as soon as he showed his face. He decided that he could use the library to do what he needed to do. Old papers were kept for a bit, and there was a microfiche reader with older prints than that. He could read up on other masked men and see what kind of methods he could use to help himself out. He would have talked to Mister Robot, but the adventurer had been killed with his team of allies years ago. No one knew what had happened to Animal Boy, or if he was still around. The Mark had vanished from the spotlight. Wes had no way to call him, or anyone based out of the East Coast. The closest active hero to him was the Rockets. There had been talk that the second one was moving east to join a team, but no one knew for sure. He made a note to look for a way to call either one. Maybe they could give him pointers, or point him in the direction of someone who could help him. That would be better than flailing around waiting to be caught out in the public and shot dead before he could use the tattoo to heal his wounds with the transformation. Wes transformed and flew off into the night. He still had things to do. Cape Fear 6 Wes hated that Clancy had betrayed him. He didn¡¯t know what to do about it. He put the thought away while he tried to map out a successful exposure of Delveccio¡¯s criminal empire. He decided that he needed to talk to someone for advice. He couldn¡¯t trust anybody at the paper. They might all be in it with Clancy. Who could he call? He wondered if he could get ahold of either of the Rockets. If he could, maybe they would have some good advice. Maybe they had some way he could wear something while he was transformed into a flying carpet. That would be just as good as the advice if it worked. He was tired of running around naked while people shot at him. He wasn¡¯t Ray Stevens¡¯s Streak. Wes used his power to break into the library. It was amazing how easy that was when you were flat as a pancake and could stretch down some small holes to the other side of a vent, or pipe. He kept low to the floor until he found the microfiche reader in an office at the back of the library. He stepped inside and closed the door. He set the machine up. He frowned at the lack of microfilm in the office for him to go through. He wondered where the material could be. He decided to use his power when it recharged to break into the office area of the place. Maybe there was something there waiting for someone like him to find it. He throttled down the excitement of trying to find out something amazing from his face. He was just doing this as part of his job, and if he could get a story out of it, that would be the cherry on top. He still had to worry about any possible alarms he might trip wandering around the place. If only Mister Robot was still around. He had been based in California, and had a public persona to call. He would have been perfect for passing on the stolen ledgers to the authorities, and getting Wes out of the jam he was in. He frowned. He needed to think his own way out of his problem, and hope that he didn¡¯t get killed trying to get out from under. He knew he couldn¡¯t trust anyone in town, so he needed to get in touch with some kind of lawman outside of town that would help clean things up. Finding the Rocket and hoping he had a contact was a little farfetched now that he thought of it. He didn¡¯t trust anyone at the paper. Any one of them could send him right back to Delveccio with no problem. He needed help from outside the city. There was a television guy he could call for a recommendation. And he lived in San Diego. Was that far enough away to escape the net? He had to try. His contact list was back at the paper. Did he want to break in there and steal it back? Did he want to try public access first? He decided to call information and ask for the station number. Maybe someone there would pass a note to his contact, and he could get the ledgers in front of a camera and beamed over Southern California in a way that would turn attention on Delveccio from outside sources. Running for the rest of his life on top of hiding his new power didn¡¯t seem the best way to keep his secret from the public. And he didn¡¯t want to expose himself to scrutiny. Ever since the Mark killed the members of his rogues gallery, the public wasn¡¯t as trusting of people who wore a mask. He knew enough from the court proceedings to know that he would have probably done the same thing if he was placed in the same position. Wes decided he could use the public phone in the Librarian¡¯s office. It was out of sight, and he could use the door to block the alarm. No one knew where he was, and as long as he didn¡¯t attract attention, he could stay in the place until the staff came in the next morning. He was horrible as a superhuman. He had a power that allowed him to break into places and fly, but so what? He was on the run and unable to go home because he had stolen a mobster¡¯s records. He was convinced someone at the paper was telling the mobster where he was. And he had no idea how to get out of the mess he had made of all that. His one idea was to call for help and he wasn¡¯t sure how he could do that. He decided to break into the Librarian¡¯s office and get started. He wasn¡¯t getting anything done just sitting in this room with a reader that needed things to be read. Wes activated his power and flattened out. He pushed open the door to the reader room just enough to slip through. He dragged his clothes across the floor to the door he wanted to enter. He reached through a crack in the bottom to unlock it and turn the knob so he could slip inside. He closed the door gently and went to the desk set up for office work for the staff. He checked around until he found a phone book. He shook his head. The number he wanted to call was out of town, and out of the phone book. He doubted that the local affiliate would be able to point him in the right direction. And would calling the station put his life in danger just by letting Delveccio know he was still in town? And it would point at the guy he wanted to call for help if that got leaked also. He sat in the chair provided with the desk after his power wore off and he got dressed. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.He thought about what he knew about the broadcaster. He tried to remember the station where the guy worked. Then all he had to do would be to call an operator and ask for the number. He picked up the phone. He doubted anyone would be looking for him to call for an out of town number from a public facility so they could check the number. He dialed for an operator and waited. He gave the station as the target of his request. A few minutes later, he noted the number down on a pad on the desk. He thanked the operator before he hung up. He made the second long distance call right away. He needed to try to get this help so he could get clear of this mess. He had taken his pursuit too far. He should have known that Delveccio wouldn¡¯t let things go when he did it. ¡°KSAN,¡± said a bored voice that handled a million calls a day. ¡°How can I help you?¡± ¡°I would like to talk to Brad Corning,¡± said Wes. ¡°I¡¯m working on a story around Idaville, and I need some help.¡± ¡°Mister Corning isn¡¯t in the station at this time,¡± said the receptionist. ¡°Would you like to leave a message?¡± ¡°Tell him that Wes Wesolowski called, and I have some things that I need looked at by someone else before I file my story,¡± said Wes. ¡°I¡¯m willing to share credit for the story. I¡¯ll try to call back in a few hours.¡± ¡°This is about a story?,¡± asked the receptionist. ¡°I work for a paper up here, and I met Brad at a convention,¡± said Wes. ¡°I don¡¯t know if he remembers me. I have some things to get done, so I¡¯ll have to call back when I can.¡± ¡°I made a note, Mister Wesolowski,¡± said the receptionist. ¡°Mister Corning usually comes back to the station before the night broadcast to go over things he needs to work on for the next day.¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± said Wes. ¡°I¡¯ll call back then.¡± Wes hung up the phone. He sat back in the chair. He had to do something about having to get dressed every time his change wore off. If he could shake his pursuers off his trail, he could turn his attention about trying to find a suit he could wear. He hoped he could get Corning to help him with Delveccio. If that happened, the rest could be managed. He tore off the note with Corning¡¯s work number and put it in his pocket. He didn¡¯t want to wait on his fellow reporter, but he had no idea on how to hurry things along. He doubted he could fly down to San Diego. He examined that thought, and wondered if he could fly down to San Diego. He would have to fly through San Fran, L.A., and smaller cities to get there. Did he want to try to do anything like that? He could fly down to that city and talk to Corning. He didn¡¯t know how fast he was in the air, but he could fly as far as his power could carry him, and walk until he charged up to make another long jump. He could reach a train station and ride down if he could get out of the city. The more he thought about the idea, the more he liked it. His flight power gave him enough mobility to get beyond Delveccio¡¯s grip, and reach some kind of public transportation to get where he needed to be. And he could stow away on the train until he had to get off at the right stop. His stomach rumbled as he thought about how he wanted to proceed. ¡°The first thing I have to do is get something to eat,¡± said Wes. ¡°Then I can worry about getting out of town. The mob will have the train station and airport covered. I don¡¯t want to have to use my power in front of a crowd.¡± He thought of the exact steps he would have to take to carry out his plan. He thought he might be able to do it all without a problem. He had the cover of the night to help him until the sun came up. He changed form and slipped out of the library. He found a place to get dressed and found an all night diner. He went and ordered as much food as he could buy. He ate his fill, astounding the cooks and the small amount of customers sharing the space with him. He left the diner, made sure he had the proof he needed, and changed form. He lifted into the air and headed south. He called for as much speed as he could. He thought he was going as fast as a car, but it was hard for him to be sure in the dark. He should have checked for the tracks heading south out of town before he got started, but decided that it was better to just move than get hung up and become a sitting duck for anyone who wanted to turn him in to the big boss. He landed when his power started to fail. He dressed and hurried down the road. He kept away from lights as much as possible. He didn¡¯t want anyone to stop to take a look at him while he was moving. He wondered how far he had come from the diner. He looked back toward town. The lights were small dots in the distance. If he could keep making these huge jumps, he might be able to reach the area where he could get a ride without having to worry about being identified. He might be able to fly down to San Diego under his own power if his power held up. He felt his body burning inside. The more he flew, the more he would have to eat. He instinctively knew this. He wondered how much he was hurting himself every time he used his power. He needed to check for doctors who worked on superhumans when he was done fixing this problem. He walked until he felt charged up, then flew as far as he could in the time allowed, landed and started walking again. He saw a sign for a town he recognized and realized he had flown almost to San Francisco in a couple of hours. He could make it to Los Angeles to catch the train south in a couple more hours if he couldn¡¯t catch one in the oceanside city. He realized that he could follow the one oh one all the way down to Los Angeles from San Francisco if he could get directions at the next place with someone who knew where they were. The rest of his trip would be pretty easy after that. He could fly down to Los Angeles, and then board a train from Union Station, and arrive in San Diego in the early morning hours, or after the sun came up. All he would have to do was keep his head down and be alert for anyone who might want to find him before he wanted to be found. He needed to find a payphone to let Corning that he was on the way down, or at least was thinking about coming down. He doubted the television reporter wanted him showing up on his doorstep, but he had to keep going now that he was committed. At least he was out of town, and away from the manhunt trying to bring him in. He wished he knew what Delveccio was doing to stop him. It would make planning his next steps easier to do. Wes found a payphone on the outside wall of a closed gas station. He kept an eye on his surroundings while he called the television station again. Hopefully Corning would talk to him over the phone. ¡°KSAN,¡± said the receptionist he had talked to earlier. ¡°How can I help you?¡± ¡°This is Wes Wesolowski again,¡± said Wes. ¡°I thought I would try to catch Mister Corning again before he went home.¡± ¡°He left a message for you,¡± said the receptionist. ¡°He said for you to call him on his office line tomorrow afternoon at two. It¡¯s the station¡¯s phone number with extension five thirty six.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Wes. ¡°Thanks for helping me out.¡± ¡°Mister Corning said you helped him out when he was up north, and he remembers you,¡± said the receptionist. ¡°He doesn¡¯t always return calls like this.¡± ¡°Thanks again,¡± said Wes. ¡°Have a good night.¡± Wes hung up the phone. He checked his watch. He had sixteen hours to get to San Diego so he could talk to Corning in person. How far could he get with his power? He didn¡¯t have to close the whole distance, but he wanted to be close so he could meet Corning face to face. He took to the air and soared south to Los Angeles. Cape Fear 7 Wes arrived in Los Angeles well before the sun came up. He found a place to store all but one of the ledgers he had taken. He was going to need that to convince Corning he had a story. He found the local train station by buying a city map from a local gas station. Then he used the posted schedule to pick out the train he needed to get to San Diego. Paying for a ticket cut into his funds, but doing that provided the explanation of how he had covered the ground to get to the other city. He certainly wasn¡¯t going to tell people he could turn into a flying carpet at will. He planned to keep using that ability to stay away from Delveccio. He took the chance to sleep while the train carried him south. He couldn¡¯t arrange for a meeting with Corning before the afternoon, so he had time to relax and think about his next moves beyond simply surviving. The sun came through the window of his carriage as he leaned against the wall adjoining his seat. He blinked and looked around. No one else seemed interested in him from his quick scan. He checked that he had all of his belongings and the ledger to make sure no one had stolen from him in the middle of his ride. Wes watched as the city came into view. It seemed sunnier than his hometown, and he knew the beach was behind the facade of buildings blocking his view. The Navy had a home here, as well as the Merchant Marine. He waited for the train to pull into the station. If he kept going south, he would be able to cross the border into Baja and be under Mexican authority. He had heard that the coast there was the home of the tourist fisherman, but he had never traveled that far. He supposed that tracking down stories had kept him rooted at home. Maybe he should go down and see what the tourists did when he was done with this manhunt. He expected Delveccio to find him eventually. The man had a network, had the means to use that network to find his reporter nemesis, and the money to pay for any information he wanted. The word had probably gone out as soon as he had skipped town with the ledgers. Someone on the train might have the wherewithal to call down a storm on him while he was looking for a place to hide in San Diego. Part of what he had to do was find a place to hide until he could give his sample ledger to Corning and see what kind of fireworks went off. Another reporter looking into things might be enough to lessen some of the heat on him. It might get Corning killed as soon as he went on air and told the world he had proof of Delveccio¡¯s wrongdoing. On the other hand, Corning might not be able to use the ledger since it was stolen, and Delveccio might be able to use that to get out of any court date. Then he would come down and kill the television reporter to get his ledger back. This was turning into a bigger mess than what he had wanted when he had gone after Delveccio in the first place. He should have planned better for the fact that he would be considered a criminal by the law, and could be imprisoned right beside Delveccio. He was in the middle of it now. He had to do what he could to make things horrible for the gangster while trying to fly under the radar. If he could find something to use against Clancy out of all this, he would. He had no doubt the editor had sabotaged any attempt by the paper to investigate Delveccio, and anyone under his authority. Stopping that would make going to jail almost worth it. And he still had his flying carpet body he needed to think about when everything was said and done. It had helped him out, but did he want to fly around naked to finish whatever business he was doing. Wes waited for the other passengers to get off the train before he did. He didn¡¯t want to be stabbed in the back while waiting to climb down the stairs built into the carriages. He dropped down on the concrete platform covered in checkered tiles. He looked for other exits than the front doors. If Delveccio figured out where he went, and how he got there, he could expect a welcoming party from the mobster¡¯s men, or from rivals and associates trying to earn some credit. Either showing up could be disastrous to him. He saw signs pointing to doors to one side of the building. He decided to take that instead of walking across the station to the front door and stepping out on the street. Wes stepped out on the street, wary of another ambush. He might have made a clean getaway but he couldn¡¯t expect to stay unnoticed for long. If Corning put out that he had one of Delveccio¡¯s ledgers and what was in it, a hornet¡¯s nest would be kicked up. He was glad that he had hidden the rest. Delveccio needed them for his operation. Not The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.having them was making him rely on trusting his subordinates for the money they were making him. He had no way of checking until he got the ledgers back. And the reporter could keep moving them around at will until he was caught himself. The longer he could hurt Delveccio, the better it would be for the city. Wes smiled shortly. Reporting was a way to tell people what was going on. It was also a means to show the wrong things that needed to be made right by the people. He walked down the street, wondering if he had a home to go back to after what he had done, and was planning to do. He might be in trouble with the local cops, but there was nothing he could do about that except avoid them. Most of them were on the pad, and the rest were singled out and alone for not being bribable, or stupid. He decided to keep moving until the meeting with Corning. Then he could find a place to settle in to rest and recoup some of his energy he had expended staying ahead of his pursuers. He also wanted something to eat while he was moving. That should kill some of the time before the meeting. He started looking for places to eat as he walked. He found a place called Archie¡¯s off the main strip. It had fake wood walls, tables in the middle of the dining area, booths along the walls, and a counter at one end in front of the kitchen. He supposed alcohol was sold behind the counter, but he couldn¡¯t afford to get drunk. He needed to be ready in case his meeting with Corning led to him having to escape from the other reporter and whomever showed up at their meeting. He wondered how much Corning could help him as a broadcaster. Could he trigger the FBI into launching an investigation? It would be hard to prove anything from San Diego. If the news got out, he might be able to turn everything over to the Bureau and see what they could do with things. It would be up to a judge to decide if the evidence was admissible. He settled into a booth at the back of the place. A woman in her fifties wearing a pink dress approached with pad in hand. He gave his order, picking the cheapest things he could. He didn¡¯t have a lot of money left and he needed to conserve what he had until he got home. He wasn¡¯t on an expense account with the paper while he was on the run. He might be able to get some of the money back at the end of all of this, but he doubted it. Expenses were always up for review and denial by the accountants. If Corning and his station played ball, part of his troubles would be over. Everyone would be worried about continued publicity. A lot of the people involved would be shoved into the light. He could write his own ticket if he wasn¡¯t charged for his thievery. Wes ate his food and thought about his future meeting. This was the only way he could see to get out from under. He had no idea what he would do if the talk soured. When he was done with his meal, he paid for everything and put a tip on the table. What good was money going to do him if he wound up dead in the next few days. He left the diner and headed toward the television studio. This one shot might be enough to get Delveccio off his back. If it didn¡¯t work, he would have go somewhere else and start over. At least his other body made travel easier. He could avoid the roads, trains, or planes as long as he could fly under his own power. He decided to leave the ledgers in the locker. In thirty days, the locker would be opened and they would be someone else¡¯s problem. As long as Delveccio didn¡¯t get them back, that had to count for something. The next few hours could make or break the rest of his life. He walked into the reception area of the plain brick building. It had the station logo and the business address in small letters on the wall. He looked around at the various chairs for visitors as he walked across the tiled floor to the main desk. A friendly looking lady was on the phone directing a call deeper into the building. He waited for her to finish, examining the room. She put the phone down and looked up at him. ¡°How can I help you?,¡± the receptionist asked. She had her hands on an appointment calendar on her desk and a pen. ¡°I have an appointment with Mister Corning,¡± said Wes. He put on a smile. He knew he looked like a wreck, but it was the best he could do at the moment. ¡°Wes Wesolowski.¡± ¡°He wanted you to go to the bullpen on the second floor,¡± said the receptionist. ¡°Take the elevator upstairs, then turn right and you will see the cubicles. I¡¯ll let him know you are on the way.¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± said Wes. He followed the directions and found himself in a large space much like the reporters¡¯ work area back at the paper. He looked for Corning as he walked around the short walls. ¡°Wes,¡± said the broadcaster from an office at the back of the room. He held up a hand to indicate where the word had come from. The reporter walked across the space. He felt eyes on him. Everyone seemed to be watching him as he moved. He hoped some of them would be assigned to help him out. ¡°What brings you to San Diego, Wes?,¡± asked Corning. He indicated a plush visitor¡¯s chair as he sat down behind a large desk covered with paperwork. ¡°I need your help,¡± said Wes. ¡°I have in my possession some of the ledgers used to pay off people in town by a local mobster up north. The problem is he knows I took them and is trying to get them back. I need this information broadcasted to take the heat off of me.¡± ¡°He¡¯ll just claim they¡¯re forgeries,¡± said Corning. ¡°I know,¡± said Wes. ¡°But I need to spark off an investigation by outside forces. The police are deep in his pockets. One of our editors told him where I was so they could pick me up. You¡¯re the only one I told I was coming down here for that exact reason.¡± ¡°We can broadcast something,¡± said Corning. ¡°It would have to be coached so the station couldn¡¯t be sued by everyone and their mother up in your neck of the woods. I¡¯m going to need some kind of proof to help protect the station.¡± ¡°I have one of the ledgers,¡± said Wes. ¡°I confirmed part of it. If you want to have your own guys go over things, I don¡¯t have a problem with that. I have more.¡± He handed over the book. The broadcaster flipped it open to a random page. He read some of the entries, frowning. He nodded. ¡°Let¡¯s see what we can do with this,¡± said Corning. ¡°I have to go on in two hours. It¡¯s not a lot of time to confirm everything, but we don¡¯t have to. We only have to confirm one of these entries, and check the rest as we go.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re going to help me?,¡± asked Wes. ¡°If we can confirm any of this in this book, this might break a huge corruption scandal up in your neck of the woods,¡± said Corning. ¡°I can already see the Feds wanting a piece of this action.¡± Corning picked up his phone to get things rolling. Cape Fear 8 The next two hours before Corning went on the air was full of phone calls and experts. The station accountants went over the ledger and pronounced it likely to be real evidence of a problem. Corning wrote out the script for his story. There were legal things he had to stay away from since the station could get sued for blatantly saying that a businessman in the northern part of the state was a gangster and bribing key officials in his grasp as well as killing reporters investigating him. Wes hated giving his story to another reporter to report, but he felt he had no choice. He needed to get out from under Delveccio looking for him. That meant giving someone else a reason to look into the mobster¡¯s businesses. Corning went on the air. The segment on Delveccio was in the middle of the broadcast. He laid out he had one of the ledgers in his possession, and who was paid from it. He also said that he would be looking into any crimes above and beyond the embezzlement and corruption outlined in the book. The station started receiving calls as soon as Corning went off the air. He and Wes had moved back to his office. If anyone official came for the ledger with a warrant, they would have to give it up. Otherwise, it could sit in the station safe. A few of the calls were from other news agencies, wanting to interview Corning on the details about the ledger, the provenance, and how they could confirm what he said. The Bureau called at one point. They didn¡¯t like Corning besmirching their reputation for ratings. He offered to give them the ledger to use to check out things, but he had already sent copies to other people to help him dig in to the corruption. He expected that confirmation would be quick as the news hit the wire and went nationwide. The Bureau was less than happy about that. Several state agencies called next, wanting to know about effects in their specialities like tax evasion, and money laundering. Specific entries were read back to them with specific names attached. It would be up to them to serve warrants before everybody moved their money out of state. ¡°This has stirred up more than I thought it would,¡± said Wes. He sat in a visitor¡¯s chair and shook his head. ¡°All I wanted was a little story. This has blown up into something reaching across the state.¡± ¡°Probably across the region,¡± said Corning. ¡°Some of the people named in your book live out of state. The Feebs will have to track them across state lines. It probably won¡¯t stop Delveccio wanting to kill you, and me, for the broadcast. Hopefully, he will be too busy defending himself to get around to that until he is in court.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t think that,¡± said Wes. ¡°He will hire someone to get rid of me before I give you the rest of the ledgers. He will know it was me. He probably has someone looking for me right now. I¡¯m going to have to go underground.¡± ¡°The Bureau are going to call back to talk about the rest of the ledgers,¡± said Corning. ¡°I¡¯ll drop them off with someone I can trust,¡± said Wes. ¡°Putting some of these people on the air might make them run. Maybe I can figure out something to get me out of the hole I¡¯m in.¡± ¡°Wes, this is going to be a big story,¡± said Corning. ¡°There will be a mad scramble over this.¡± ¡°I need to go somewhere and sit the rest out,¡± said Wes. ¡°Delveccio is not going to stop looking for me after what I did to him. The best I can expect is a shallow grave down in Death Valley. You should think about getting protection too. You¡¯re the one that broadcasted his money moving stuff all over southern California. He isn¡¯t going to forget that.¡± ¡°The station is going to want to send someone up to cover things if they break open,¡± said Corning. ¡°Tell them to stay away from my place,¡± said Wes. ¡°They already tried to kill me there once. They might think any reporter on the scene is connected to me somehow. That will lead to trouble.¡± ¡°They¡¯ll be in danger?,¡± asked Corning. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Wes. ¡°But taking them hostage for the ledgers is something I would expect Delveccio to do if he was desperate enough.¡± ¡°He definitely will want any proof we currently have,¡± said Corning. ¡°So will everyone else.¡± ¡°Sticking your neck out like this will get you a pulitzer,¡± said Wes. ¡°That will get you Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.a lot of free drinks across the country.¡± ¡°It could get me killed depending on how things go,¡± said Corning. He smiled to take some of the sting off his words. ¡°I¡¯ll let the local color guy know to keep an eye on things and watch from as much of a distance that he can.¡± ¡°He might need to wait for the Feds to start cleaning house if they do get around to it,¡± said Wes. ¡°That way they can do interviews with the slant the Bureau was on to the crooked members of their agency and was waiting for the chance to weed them and their underworld contacts out.¡± ¡°I like that approach,¡± said Corning. ¡°How do you plan to get through things?¡± ¡°I thought about heading into Mexico for a bit, maybe circle around and watch things and see who gets arrested and who walks,¡± said Wes. ¡°My life is shot no matter how I slice it. I made a mistake grabbing those books. I made a mistake thinking I would be more effective than I am.¡± ¡°It wasn¡¯t a mistake, it was something that could only be done by someone with nothing to lose,¡± said Corning. ¡°It would have taken years for an outside agency to get involved and take those books. And it still might take years for this to wind down. Take a few days and see if there are places that can hire you. You know we can¡¯t over the conflict of interest things, or I would despite the trouble you might be in for your vigilantism.¡± ¡°I know,¡± said Wes. ¡°You can¡¯t be seen hiring the guy who is wanted and stole the documents you used to flush a criminal enterprise down the drain.¡± ¡°Especially with the Bureau wanting to fix their image after their traitors made the rest of them look bad,¡± said Corning. ¡°So I¡¯ll be the first to help them do that if they catch up with me,¡± said Wes. ¡°You are going to have to go underground, Wes,¡± said Corning. ¡°There¡¯s no lie about that. Law enforcement across the state and anybody hooked to Delveccio are going to be looking for you all the harder now.¡± ¡°I hadn¡¯t really thought it would come to this when I stole the ledgers,¡± said Wes. He smiled. ¡°I thought I would just be able to walk away like the Lone Ranger.¡± ¡°Instead, you are going to have to run away like Richard Kimball,¡± said Corning. ¡°I guess I¡¯ll give you the other ledgers before I leave town,¡± said Wes. ¡°Keep them,¡± said Corning. ¡°You are going to need some kind of insurance in case someone catches up with you. They are going to want those books, no matter what side of the law they are on. They¡¯re not going to give up on you if you hand them over to be read on the air, but when the time comes, you can use them as hostages.¡± ¡°I doubt that will do me any good, but it¡¯s something to consider,¡± said Wes. ¡°I better head out and figure out what to do with the rest of my life.¡± ¡°Be careful,¡± said Corning. ¡°Stirring up the waters will help you for a while, but eventually things will settle enough for someone to look for you.¡± ¡°I hope that I will have a new name and job as a cover so I can hide for the rest of my life before anyone even thinks about trying to get even with me,¡± said Wes. ¡°If I uncover something else, I will turn it over to you first. Your coverage has blown a hole in this big enough to drive through.¡± ¡°The ledger was the key,¡± said Corning. ¡°Your word against Delveccio¡¯s would have meant nothing if you hadn¡¯t been able to shame the Bureau into moving. I expect they will want to talk to you, so you might want to clear out before they try to keep you locked down for the rest of your life, and sweat the rest of the ledgers out of you.¡± ¡°You¡¯re right,¡± said Wes. ¡°Thanks for your help, Steve. Keep an eye out. You might be in as much danger as I am with this.¡± ¡°I¡¯m just a lowly newscaster,¡± said Corning. ¡°Getting back at me would gain nothing with the authorities sniffing around.¡± Wes stepped out of the office. He walked to the stairs. He wasn¡¯t getting on an elevator again unless he had to. And it would be easier to fly off the roof to wherever he wanted to go from here. He could expect a bunch of flying bullets if he went home. Where did he go from here? He would have to start over and build a new identity for himself. Did he want to do that? That meant giving up his dream of reporting the news. It meant giving up his life such as it was. On the other hand, his life was ruined. As soon as the Feds got through with investigating the one ledger¡¯s worth of information he had thrown out there, they would be trying to find him to get the others. And Delveccio would not forget how he had ruined his power base, even if he went to prison. Someone would always be looking for the reporter to shut him up. He opened the stair doors to head up to the exit on the roof to fly away. He could rig up another few nights in a hotel before deciding where he wanted to go. Men waited in the stairwell. He froze, and so did they. But one snapped out of his surprise to pull a gun on Wes. He pulled the reporter into the stairwell by his jacket. ¡°If you say anything, we¡¯ll have to leave a bunch of dead witnesses behind,¡± said the gun man. ¡°Understood?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± said Wes. He held up his hands. ¡°What now?¡± ¡°Put your hands down,¡± said the gun man. ¡°We want to make this as quiet as possible. We¡¯re going to walk downstairs and get into a car. We¡¯re headed back up north. You can talk to the boss, and he¡¯ll make his demands known.¡± ¡°I guess I will be put in the water after this is over,¡± said Wes. He put his hands down. ¡°Not my call,¡± said the gun man. ¡°Mike, go down and get the car and bring it up to the front door. Walt, go with him and watch the front for anyone who might get in the way. Head down, reporter. We¡¯ll put you in the back, so you can ride back home in style.¡± ¡°So you don¡¯t want the rest of the ledgers?,¡± asked Wes. He started down the steps. ¡°That will be up to the boss to decide,¡± said the gun man. He kept a respectable distance between himself and Wes as the designated members of his mob hurried to carry out their part in things. ¡°He¡¯s up to his neck in alligators because of you. I think the books are the last thing on his mind. If he wants them, I guess he will send us to get them from wherever you hid them.¡± ¡°That seems fair,¡± said Wes. They headed down to the front door. Cape Fear 9 Wes sat in the back of the car. He felt that he could turn into his flying carpet form and escape if he got the chance to get out of the car. The problem was goons sat on either side of him, with two more in the front. He could maybe deal with one, but not all four if he wanted to get out of the car. There was nothing stopping them from shooting him if he tried to do something to the driver. He decided to wait on his chance. Something would present itself. Maybe he could stall Delveccio somehow. The mobster still needed his books back. He couldn¡¯t run a business, or collect debts, or make payments, without them. His business was paralyzed. Exposing the little he had with that one ledger might have caused outside forces to look at him, but he was still king of the castle. He could fight the authorities long enough to make witnesses and evidence disappear. That was what he planned to do with Wes after all. And no one would miss the reporter, or if they did, they wouldn¡¯t be able to prove anything against Delveccio. He had hoped to get some kind of costume from the industrial place so he didn¡¯t have to run around naked when he changed. He closed his eyes and waited for the trip to be done. He doubted they would spend the whole time in the car. Maybe they would give him a chance to escape on the way back to the city. Maybe he would get a chance once they reached the meeting point. All he needed was three seconds to press the buttons on his arm, and then a clear sky to fly through to make his escape. He would have to run after that. He would have liked to get his hands around Clancy¡¯s throat. It was clear the editor had turned him in. He wanted to pay the man back for that. At least Corning had allowed him a chance to strike back at his oppressors. Maybe that would help clean up the city. He doubted it, but he didn¡¯t want his effort to be for nothing. Wes watched the road pass along as the car headed north. He didn¡¯t say anything. He knew that any talk would be refused. The mobsters would not let him go just because he was afraid of them. He watched for his chance but doubted he would be able to get clear in a neat way. He was being guarded too closely. He could maybe escape from a bathroom through a vent if he could get a few seconds. ¡°We¡¯re going to stop ahead,¡± said the mob leader, pointing at a roadside diner ahead on the side of the road. ¡°Mike, go in and get us some food. Then we¡¯re going to go to the bathroom one at a time. We give this guy something to eat and a chance to use the bathroom. Then we hit the road again. Walt, finish driving us to the house.¡± ¡°Got it, Lou,¡± said Mike. He pulled off the road and picked a parking spot away from the building to keep their exposure to a minimum. ¡°Don¡¯t give us any problems, reporter,¡± said Lou. ¡°The first time you think about crossing me, I will kill you and any witnesses to the deed. The boss wants you back alive, but I¡¯m not going back to jail over this. Am I understood?¡± ¡°You¡¯ll kill me and anyone in your way if I do anything you don¡¯t like,¡± said Wes. He counted four cars in the gravel lot. He didn¡¯t want the mobsters just opening up on bystanders just because he decided to make a break and didn¡¯t get away before he was killed. He could wait a little bit longer before he made his move. He still had time. ¡°I¡¯m glad we understand each other,¡± said Lou. He scanned the lot. ¡°Two of us stay with him, one goes to the bathroom. Mike, you can go first since you are getting us the food.¡± ¡°All right,¡± said Mike. He got out of the car, checked his wallet and headed inside the restaurant. Wes thought he could escape the bathroom easily. Did he want to have people used as hostages so he would come back? Was he ruthless enough to run and let Lou carry out his threat? He wasn¡¯t that ruthless. He would rather wait until no one was around and then fight his way clear. That was best for himself and anyone who might see what happened when he became his carpet form. He hadn¡¯t want to return to the city, but this might be the best way to get out from under so he didn¡¯t have to hide from people wanting to kill him. If he could burn down Delveccio¡¯s house on the way out, that would be something to smile about after all this. He wondered if his carpet form could burn. He decided that was something he could avoid testing. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. The last thing he wanted to do was take to the air and leave behind trail of flame to show the gangsters which way he went, and that he might be hurt bad enough to be recaptured. Mike came back with bags of food and a cardboard tray for drinks. He handed that off to Walt before going back in and getting the rest. He came back a few minutes later. He distributed those bags out before sitting on the hood of his car and starting on his meal. Wes chewed on his food slowly. It wasn¡¯t an impressive last meal, but you had to take what you could get. He sipped the cola through the provided straw. He wanted to break free, but the threat Lou had given seemed too easy to carry out with all of them watching him, and the surrounding parking lot. He would have a better chance when they got back on the road. He just needed to be ready to take advantage of an opening. He didn¡¯t want to be stuck in Delveccio¡¯s mansion while the mobster decided what needed to be done to get his ledgers back, and how much he had to be hurt to give a lesson to anyone else standing in his way. The first opening he got, he had to fly away before he could be shot, or a hostage could be taken. If he could hurt the goons holding while he did that, it would be a solace on his soul. They gathered up the collective trash and threw it in a metal drum of a trashcan at the edge of the lot. Everyone went to the bathroom. Then they got back in the car with Walt taking over for Mike for the last leg of their trip. Wes wanted to make a try at jumping out of the car, but he was between Lou and the other guy. Lou, at least, was keeping a close eye on him. If he tried anything, he could catch a bullet before he could transform and jump out of the window. He needed to be able to take them by surprise. He just didn¡¯t see it happening before they got to where they wanted to take him. He realized he didn¡¯t know how long it took him to transform. He had never measured it. Did he want to try, basing his action on an unknown? What happened if he couldn¡¯t become the carpet fast enough to get out of the mess he was in? He forced himself to wait. As long as he wasn¡¯t causing trouble, he still might be able to get away if they stopped again. All he needed was a moment¡¯s distraction and his other body could hide almost anywhere until the time ran out. He closed his eyes. He thought that if Delveccio didn¡¯t want his books back, he would already be dead and headed for a burial at sea. As long as he didn¡¯t give them up, he could stay alive. He was still looking at a lot of pain when they started trying to make him talk. He had to get away from the goons before they reached the house, or wherever he was going to be tortured. Anything else meant he would be tortured and dead. He should have seen if there were other powers besides turning into a flying carpet. Those would have been useful in this situation. And the goons weren¡¯t talking to him. That said they were saving their breaths for when they could really beat on him, instead of wasting time in the car. Why talk in transit, when you were going to have to talk in front of your very dangerous boss? Wes thought he could escape if he could force a door open. He just had to be ready to try to push a guy out with him when he went for it. He doubted he could do that. How strong was his other form in the first place? He had no idea. He had been too busy escaping and trying to turn things around, he had never thought to see what else he could do. But now he needed to know since he had a knife to his throat. He needed to escape before they finished the trip back north. Even with his carpet power, he doubted he would be able to escape a cell unless he got tricky. If he did escape, what was next? Delveccio had his goons drive down across the state to pick him up. How far could he run from someone with that kind of desperation to get even. Wes thought about it. He would rather run and see how far he could go, than get murdered because he did nothing. If he wrecked these guys while he was doing it, so much the better. He touched the tattoo on his wrist. He felt the buttons come to life. He pressed them down and expanded in the back seat, wrapping around the two in the front and slamming them together. Wes felt the car go out of control. He slammed the man on his left into the door while extending part of himself to catch the door handle. He yanked the handle as he pushed on his victim again. Both of them fell out of the car. The transformed reporter floated above the road as the mobster hit and rolled along the asphalt. The car hit the guardrail and scraped along in a shower of sparks. It came to a stop before going off the road and into a patch of grass and trees beyond. Wes floated away from the wreck. He needed to make as much time as he could before the gang got over their surprise and started shooting at the flying carpet heading away from them. Flight wasn¡¯t that extraordinary among superhumans, but it was just the thing he needed at the moment. The problem after that became how did he keep avoiding the hunters looking for him and live a life without a way to make money. His next move had to be going to ground and getting away from Delveccio¡¯s part of the state. And he needed enough money to keep his enemy from locating him within minutes of hearing about his daring escape and the sudden explosion of a blanket in the back of his kidnappers¡¯ car. He thought for a moment and laughed. He would love to be there when they tried to explain how he had jammed open a door and vanished. He wasn¡¯t going to turn around. Delveccio wanted his books back, and Wes¡¯s head on a pike. It would be the next best thing to suicide to keep taunting him. It was better if he just vanished. He would be like any number of Richard Kimbles in the world, moving around and trying to escape the long arm of someone wanting to kill him. Wes landed out of sight of the wreck. He started walking. If he could hitch a ride, that would carry him east and out of the state towards Colorado. He would have to plan his next move after he found some place he could hide and regroup. He had to keep moving, let the power recharge, and fly when he needed to. And he would have to keep a lookout for more goons looking for him. Maybe one day he could head home, but it wouldn¡¯t be any time soon as long as Delveccio was free. He wondered if he should turn around and see if he could rob Delveccio of some living money. He wondered if he could make the man madder than what he already was. Wes turned the thought over in his mind as he made his way east. It would be nice to figure out where some of the money came from and scoop up some for himself. It would make his fugitive witness status easier to deal with than just trying to eke out a living while constantly looking over his shoulder. Maybe that was something he should do.