“Procured?” Shock registered in my already blown mind. “We saw the murder victims on the news before we left Redemption. You were the one killing those women?”
He smiled at me like I was an idiot. “Just figuring it out, are we? I needed their Gift to sate my needs. Problem is, I had to cut the collars off them, and they didn’t live long afterward.”
“You murderer!” I fired a bolt of lightning across the room, striking him in the chest. The bolt flashed out and hit the table in front of the kitchen.
“Tsk, tsk,” he said with that damn smirk on his face. “Your power can’t touch me, so now you can head down the hallway, and we’ll see how long you can sustain me for. The others’ Gifts took time to mature, no matter what incentives I gave them.”
“The guy who exploded in the street. It was because of you?” Could this get any stranger? Max was a serial killer and a vampire to boot.
He shrugged. “I got sloppy, and he escaped, but his Gift engaged too rapidly without me taking off the excess, and he blew up. I won’t make the same mistake again.” He came at me, waving the gun toward the hallway. “Move.”
As he passed the wall, Abby leapt out, catching his wrist. The gun discharged; the bullet pulled at my side but not enough to add to my power level. Abby swung at Max, striking him in the face. Her arm recoiled like she’d hit a Carbinium wall. She fell to the floor clutching her hand, swearing her head off.
“Oh, you brought dessert. How nice.” He pointed the gun at Abby’s head. “Now you help her up, and we go together down the hall.” He cocked the gun to emphasize his point.
“You win, Max,” I said, putting my hands up in surrender. “We don’t need anyone else getting hurt.”
I glanced at Abby; she still swore, but hid a smile behind her fist. Max turned the gun on me, not realizing it couldn’t hurt me. Abby scissored her legs, knocking him to the ground. The gun fired, bullet flying past me. I wrenched the weapon from his hand. Abby leapt to her feet, snatching Max by the front of his shirt, and threw him into the wall next to the hallway door where he’d been planning on imprisoning us.
I started to help Mimi up, but Abby threw her over her shoulder, and we ran for the elevator. The door hissed open as we jumped in. I banged the up button, trying to get the doors to close faster. Max ran around the corner, but he was too late. The doors closed and we sped up to the main floor. I pulled Blaze’s office chair over and wedged it in the elevator door to keep it from closing. There were other ways out of the safehouse, but they would take longer.
We pelted across the store. As we hit the front door, I slowed to retrieve the key. Abby had other ideas, slamming her booted foot against it, shattering the door frame as the lock ceased to be. Out and across the street we ran, heedless of prying eyes. Suddenly, the comm-link sprang to life. “This is Mr. Wizard. Respond please.” Marcel’s voice sounded frantic with worry.
I hadn’t realized we’d been cut off from the team. “Mr. Wizard, we are headed to extract location Alpha. We need immediate pick-up.”
“We’ve got your back trail covered, and you aren’t being followed. Two minutes to pick-up.” Dad’s solid voice reassured me things were okay. I didn’t know I’d been holding my breath until I let it out explosively.
Mimi muttered incoherently when Abby lowered her to the snow-covered ground. Man, I didn’t miss the snow and gloom of Montana winters.
Even after carrying Mimi for two blocks, Abby didn’t have the decency to look tired at all.
“How’s the hand?” I asked as we waited.
She shook her head. “Hurts and it’s broken.” She grasped her right hand in her left and pulled while rotating it. A few sickening cracks and pops later, she stopped. “I think that will do it. Don’t want it to heal wrong. Couple days and it will be good as new.”
The sudden appearance of blue lights interrupted the conversation, not that either of us minded. The portal opened onto the control room back in Castle. Abby hoisted the unconscious Mimi and stepped through. As I started to follow, I heard a voice from behind me.
“Tommy, I’ll be seeing you!” Max yelled down the street from where he stood. I flipped my middle finger at him and stepped into the safety of Castle and my family. I arrived to see Marcel grabbing a sweatshirt off the table and bunching it into a makeshift pillow for Mimi’s head. I got out of the way of the second portal, which popped up a minute later. Mom, Dad, and Alyx entered from the rooftop they’d been staking out.
Helmets came off, hugs were exchanged, and there was a bit of Mom checking us over for wounds. You would think having the ability to absorb most damage-causing events would make Mom worry less. Not so.
Alyx rolled over to me. “You guys know how to keep things lively. I’d love to stay and help out, but I’ve got another convergence in the great white north to go investigate.”
“Alyx, can I speak to you before you leave?” Dad asked. Alyx nodded.
“Meet up in the living room in thirty to go over what just happened,” Dad said, then spoke softly with Alyx as they moved away from the rest of us.
After the quick checkup, Mom had Abby carry Mimi to a room to get her settled. Marcel ran off to tell Blaze, and I decided a shower sounded like the thing to do with my time.
In clean clothes and freshly washed, I even had time to grab a box of Pop-Tarts and a Mountain Dew before we discussed the mission. I brought the mission bag with me, setting it by my feet as I dropped on the couch.
The others filtered in, taking seats around the room. Mom arrived last. “Blaze is watching over Mimi. She’s in bad shape, but nothing sleep and food won’t cure.” She turned to where Abby and I sat on the couch. “What the hell happened down there?”
Abby told the story, explaining about the trashed conditions and the weird clicking noise. I filled in about finding the body and Mimi since Abby had been out of it for that part. Abby finished up with fighting Max and making our getaway.
Dad interrupted Abby, looking to me. “Wait, so did your shot miss?”
“I don’t think so,” I said slowly, pulling up details from the fight in my mind’s eye. “It was like it bounced off him. The energy hit the table instead of him.”
“Abby, what happened when you punched him?” Dad’s tone didn’t betray the concern, his face did.
“I might as well have punched the wall. I felt it connect, but then the force seemed to come all the way up my arm. I felt the bones snap.” She shook her head. “Actually, punching walls has hurt less.”
Marcel whistled. “Do you think Max has some sort of feedback Gift?”
“I don’t know, but the fact he’s feeding off Gifted makes him extremely dangerous. We need to keep well away from him.” Dad wasn’t pleased. Obviously, he knew more than he told us.
“We can’t let him keep torturing and killing Gifted,” I said, a little more unsure than I’d have liked. The scene in the room had unsettled me quite a bit.
“Tommy, we have larger objectives than chasing this down. Blaze and Oliver need to come first. We’ll deal with him later.” Not stopping a serial killer pissed Dad off, but he’d stay on the mission regardless.
Marcel started to laugh. All eyes went to him. “Sorry.” He adjusted his glasses before speaking. “We don’t need to handle him. I can hack the Reclaimers database and put an arrest warrant out for a Syndicate Gifted. If I list the Secret Lair as the hideout, they’ll handle Max for us.”
Mom smiled. “Now I like this plan. Let the Reclaimers handle the dirty work. I’m sure Max not having a collar will raise some questions, but it’s worth the risk.”
“Not really,” Marcel explained. “By marking him Syndicate, they’ll assume he’s with Reaper, and none of them are collared.”
“Marcel, you’re a genius.” Mom gave him a quick grin.
“Agreed. Marcel, take care of it.” Dad sighed. “You two did well keeping your heads about you. Good job retrieving the data we need. Marcel, can you find the machine you were telling us about?”
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Marcel nodded enthusiastically. “I just need the backups, and we’re all set.”
I reached down, grabbing the bag to retrieve the device.
Mom frowned. “Tommy, what happened to the side of the satchel?”
I looked, and my heart sank. Unseen by me in all the excitement was a ragged bullet hole. The shot had missed me but had struck the bag. I barely felt the tug on the bag. I’d forgotten about it until now. I reached in and found jagged pieces of metal as my hand fastened around the destroyed backup device. My head lowered in defeat as I held it out.
Our last chance to save Blaze sat dead in my hand.
28
The room fell silent as everyone took in the view of the destroyed backup. Worse yet, we had eradicated the systems to make them irretrievable. I couldn’t believe my bad luck.
Marcel grinned at me.
“You think this is funny?” I asked, my anger rising.
“Not really, but I have a backup.”
“Huh? This is the backup.” None surpass my grasp of the English language.
Marcel shrugged. “Once I verified the system, you didn’t turn it off, and since you said there was somebody down there, I backed up the system to the control room. I figured if you started throwing lightning around delicate electronic circuits, it might fry the drive.”
I could have kissed Marcel. “Seriously?” If he had a backup, we could save Blaze, and that was the only thing that mattered.
“Yeah, my gear doesn’t have a great track record around you.” He smiled his shit-eating grin at me. First taking out Turk with a chair, now this. I’d never have any peace. “Since I still had a full connection, I figured it didn’t hurt anything to be safe.”
“Good call, Marcel.” I could tell Dad was pleased. “How long will it take you to get the location of the medical site?”
“Geez, rush the miracle man, and you get rotten miracles.” Marcel grabbed his tablet and swiped across it rapidly. “Boo-yah! I’ve got the location already. The safehouse name is Harker, and it’s in the Adirondack Mountains in the North Eastern Region. The odd part is there isn’t a team’s name associated with it.” His hand started racing once more across the screen.
“Why is that odd?” Abby twisted her watch as she asked, obviously nervous about something, or maybe just shaken over the chamber of horrors we’d encountered.
Mom glanced at the distracted Marcel before answering for him. “These safehouses were huge investments. A team must have owned it.”
“True.” Dad scowled a bit as he thought. “Could be it wasn’t completed before the Dark Brigade attacks. I hadn’t heard of any bases so far north.”
“Nada. It will take some time to figure out where the entry is and any security there, but the intel says there is a Cellular Regeneration Immersion center in Harker. It’s what we need. I’ll hit the Bat Cave and geek up the particulars together.” Marcel hopped up, gave Mom a quick hug, and headed for the control room.
Mom studied us for a minute. “Abby, are you okay?” Worry flooded her words and for good reason. Abby spun her watch manically as we sat. “You look upset, honey.”
Before Abby could deny it, she broke down and started sobbing. Mom shot across the room to console her, holding her as she cried. I moved to the couch where Marcel had been seated. Dad dropped into the seat next to me.
“How about you, Tommy? You’ve been through a lot, but the room sounded like a scene from a horror movie.” Dad put his hand on my shoulder awkwardly. Our father-son bonding hadn’t progressed as far as I’d have liked, but when you’re running for your life, such things drifted to the background.
I thought about it before giving my answer. I wasn’t upset, not really. I still felt numb after seeing Wendi dead on the floor of the Megadrome. I forced the image out of my head, focusing on her the night of our first kiss. She meant the world to me, and I refused to forget the amazing times we had together.
“I’m fine. I’ve seen worse.” Wendi disappeared, replaced by the remnants of Cliff and Ryder rising in my brain instead, charred husks of guys who hadn’t done anything wrong other than be friends with a psychotic bully. Brunner had always been that way, but not them. I’m sure each time he bullied a collared kid for laughs, Clint and Ryder had become deadened to his casual cruelty. Kind of like putting a frog in a pot and raising the heat. It never saw the situation as dangerous until it was too late.
Dad squeezed my shoulder. “You have. I don’t think I tell you enough, but I’m proud to have you as my son. I’ve seen veteran soldiers panic in situations far less intense than what you’ve faced over the last few months. I know how hard it can be to discuss the terrible things we see or are forced to do. If you ever need to talk, I’m here for you.”
I didn’t know what to say considering how many times I had panicked, so I settled for “Thanks, Dad. It means a lot to me.”
The ten-year-old in me screamed that I’d waited for years to meet him, and I was blowing it. It would have to be enough for now. Maybe one day we could do the stuff the Norm kids did with their dads: fishing, hunting or whatever else. I’d fight the bad guys of the world to find a place where we could be safe, if such a place existed.
A loud wail shook me from my reverie as Abby launched into another crying jag over what Mom had said to her. Dad gave me a shocked look. “I’m going to get some coffee.”
“They were torn to shreds when I woke up,” Abby said among the tears. “When I walked into the room, it was like stepping into a scene from my past.”
The words stopped me cold in my mental tracks. Abby had told me she had hunted to survive but never about dead bodies. I felt for my sister, knowing the burden of killing a person. The guilt and remorse of being responsible are horrible. I struggled with it and could see she did as well, and she’d been younger than I was when it happened.
Dad cleared his throat from the entry into the living room. “Look who I found wandering around.”
Mimi stood next to him, one hand holding on to his arm for support. “Blaze is sound asleep, and I didn’t know where I was.” She smiled when she saw me. “Hey, Sport. I’d hoped to see you at the Lair but not like that.”
I laughed. “Hey, Mimi.” I crossed over to her, and she threw her arms around my neck. I returned the hug, but thought she might break my back before she released me.
“It was Max killing those women.”
I swallowed hard. “I know. We put an end to it.”
She pushed me back to arm’s length. “You did? How? He’s crazy. He kept hurting us, rambling about powers and how hungry he was. That dude is seriously messed up.”
I led her over, sitting next to her on the couch across from Abby and Mom. They took turns hugging Mimi, though I’m not sure if Abby intended to let go. Dad took the empty chair, waiting for Abby to finish.
Once Abby had returned to her spot, Dad asked. “What happened to you, Mimi?”
Mom hissed. “Michael, the girl’s been through hell. You know what happened enough for now.”
Mimi held up a shaky hand. “Mrs. Ward, it’s okay. I need to tell you what happened. Tommy said Max is gone?”
Abby barked a bitter laugh. “By the time the Reclaimers get done with him, there won’t be a greasy spot left.”
“Good.” Mimi withdrew into herself as we waited. She looked around at each of us. “Once you’d left, it was the same as always. I ran the diner, and Blaze took care of the rest. When Max finally showed up again, being his old creepy self, sniffing at me, telling me how wonderful I smelled. Then bang, back to disappearing for days at a time. Blaze and I struggled to keep up with everything. Mandy started helping out after school, so Blaze hired her to run the front.”
Mom’s eyebrows shot up. “Mandy?”
Mimi smirked, some of her normal personality shining through her pain. “Yep, Tommy’s kissing partner.” She elbowed me. “I think she kept hoping Tommy would come back, but then we saw you all die on Saturday Night Showdown.” She paused for
a bit, wrapping her arms around herself. “I thought she would stop coming, but she didn’t. The Lair was all she had left of you.”
I felt guilty as I hadn’t thought of Mandy since I’d left Redemption. The idea that she’d worked there because of me made me feel awful. I hadn’t considered the people who thought we’d all been killed. The teachers, Mom’s co-workers, the other kids. They all thought we were gone, and it had to stay that way.
She continued. “Blaze left shortly after you all died. He left Max in charge, which didn’t make me happy. I started to notice a few of the regulars stop coming in.”
Dad frowned. “Regulars?”
She shrugged. “Guys like Benji, Gary, and Turk. They all ran together. There were rumors some Gifted had freed them and left Granite Falls.”
Well, it explained how Turk had gotten out. I remembered Benji and Gary. They hung with Turk, so I’d steered clear of them.
“At first Max worked at keeping the place just like Blaze liked it. A couple of weeks later, he started disappearing again. Always some new girl he’d met. I couldn’t figure out how any girl could like that creep, but I caught on too late. One night I was there about to close; Max had been back three days or so and acting totally freaky. He sniffed at me all the time. Griggs threatened to kill him if he smelled him again. One night he’d sent Mandy home early. It probably saved her life.” She reached over, gripping my hand in hers. “Something happened. Thompson and Griggs were hanging out to walk me to my car. Three more Gifted women had been abducted, and I was scared. I’d been feeling strange for about a week. Occasionally, I’d hear mumbling voices. I figured I was over-stressed with the long hours.”
Mimi paused, so I ran to the kitchen and poured a glass of water for her. I returned, handing her the drink. She thanked me and took a mouthful of water before continuing.
“Max came into the diner, carrying four beer bottles. I pointed out Blaze didn’t allow drinking here. Max shrugged it off, saying we were closed and had made our numbers, which deserved a toast. It’s not like one beer would hurt, so we each took a bottle. Surprise, he’d drugged our beers. When I woke, we were chained to the beds where you found me.”
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