“What’s wrong with them?”
I think they are in a vegetative state. I am cross-referencing their faces with… yes, they are in the recovered database. All three are or were students at the academy.
“Hello?” I say over the PA. No response. Sensors at full power along with ECM and everything else still working I enter the room, sweeping from side to side. “I thought you said—” The sound of a toilet flushing catches my attention as a man walks out of the bathroom. He smiles at me as he crosses the room to wash his hands.
“Are you Ericsson?”
He chuckles, “That is a name I haven’t heard in a long time. Yes, my dear Amelia, I am… or was… Harold Ericsson. You’ve come a long way to confirm who I am. Is that all you wanted? There are easier—”
“Shut up and stop pretending to be some effete jerk who still thinks he’s won. You’ve lost. It’s over. Your coup failed, your company is in tatters and as soon as the UN finds out about this place it will be destroyed. Spare me your idiotic assumptions that you can somehow still defeat me. Got it?”
His smile vanishes and I can see anger in those blue eyes. A light on my HUD catches my attention, the ECM master alarm is flashing. Something is interacting with it. The metallic ink I sprayed over my suit lights up like a diamond under a spotlight. I close my eyes for just a second as fear spikes through me. I hope I did this right…
I open one eye.
“Epic, am I still me?”
I have not detected any change in your brain waves nor has any abnormal energy penetrated the suits shielding.
I let out a huge sigh.
“Impressive,” he growls, “You found a way to block telepathy?”
“Are you stupid? Of course I did. You mind-controlled my parents, you mind control telepaths and you think I’m going to walk up here and not be ready for it?” I’m sick of this. I march toward him. I can just stun him and take him back to Earth.
His eyes narrow as I come for him. In a flash he whips out a semi-auto pistol Epic identifies as a Colt 1911A1.
“You can’t hurt me with that.”
“I can hurt them.” He fires a shot. The gun bucks in his hand. My sound system protects my ears but it leaves me deaf for a heartbeat. The closest of the three men slump over, not even registering he’s been shot. Blood seeps out of his chest as his heart continues to beat.
“Bastard,” I spit.
“Come any closer and I’ll shoot another one.”
I freeze. Let him think he has me for a second while he talks.
“You didn’t come up here to put me in jail, Ms. Lockheart. What do you want?”
“I would think it was obvious. I want you to fix my parents.”
He smiles like a used car salesmen who is about to take some schmucks last dime.
“Of course, why didn’t you just ask? I’ll happily do this for you if in turn, you show my scientist how to make your armor… and of course, leave here without me.”
I shake my head, “That isn’t happening and you know it.”
“It’s your choice. You might be able to stun me before I kill another person, but know this—I will never. Ever. Undo what I did to your parents. You’ve cost me a hundred years of planning and probably doomed our planet in the process. You think you’re the hero with your righteous crusade to free your parents?” He laughs, waving the gun around.
I need to know what he knows and it is clear he is willing to talk about it.
“You’re the second person to tell me that. What do you know that I don’t?”
“Volumes.” I walked into that one. Idiot.
“You know what I mean. The Protector, before your lapdog killed him, told me the same thing. What is going on here?”
He cocks his head to the side I can see him thinking.
“I’ll make you a deal, Ms. Lockheart. I will tell you what I know about this. If you will listen and understand. I don’t think you can… but… if you truly can understand then maybe we can salvage this situation and save the human race. Deal?”
I hate this smug jerk more every second but the more info I have the better. “Deal.”
He lowers his pistol and I lower my sword. I try hard not to think about the dead man laying ten feet away. The man whose whole life was stolen by this jackass.
“Good. I know you’re smart, you must have realized by now what I’ve achieved is beyond human means?”
I nod. We suspected alien... but believing and knowing are two different things. “I was born the moment Tesla threw the switch on his Wardenclyffe tower experiment. The first baby born when extra-dimensional energy poured through our world. I didn’t know it then, but I was also the first child born with a superpower. As time went on and I continued to… live… I noticed a pattern to things. War, hate, murder, all of it committed in mass scale by the very people we elected to lead us. Do you know the problem with all governments?”
“Usually they’re given too much power and allowed to run unchecked.”
“Close,” he says. He turns around and pulls out a small decanter, pouring himself a drink, he takes a sip before continuing. “Not too much power, not enough. But, if you give a man ultimate power he has such a short time to implement he scrambles and destroys everything. I am effectively immortal. I want what is best for mankind and I have the power to ensure those around me are loyal. I am the perfect tyrant, in the Greek sense of the word.”
“The Greeks elected Tyrants when their city-states were out of control. We’re hardly out of control.”
“You’re short-sighted then. I see a world divided by petty differences. Why is it you were ordered to stand down on the Mexican border? What moral right did they have to stop you from saving lives just because of an imaginary line on a map?
“I tell you, none! I want to craft a world with a unified purpose. And believe me, we need it. War is coming. A war like none other and if we aren’t unified as a people we will be destroyed. This is what you’ve upset. This is what you’ve ruined. Unless you help me rebuild, we’ll never be ready.”
“Epic, can we break the encryption on this jar of pickles and steal all his info?”
No. Even if I could defeat the AI it would likely delete everything in a last ditch effort to keep us from having it. I predict only a twenty-three percent chance of victory. I cannot recommend that course of action.
“Discussing it with your AI? I have to say, I’m incredibly impressed. It took your mom seven years of eighteen-hour days to develop the coding language and hardware specifications to make an AI.”
It took me seven years too, the only difference is I was six when I had the idea. Anger flares up in me and I want to smash this jerk to a pulp.
“Don’t talk about my parents. Did it ever occur to you that if you’d come out of the shadows, tried to help us instead of controlling us we might have all achieved together what you tried to take by force?”
“Why do you think I made Cat-7? I wanted to unite the superpowered people under one cause. But as soon as power was on the table, the government tried to take it. No, little girl, after a hundred years I can tell you what people will do before they even know themselves. Recruiting telepaths was my last ditch plan to rule from within the system. Now, all I have left is to make a new system, one that I rule utterly and completely, for our own safety and future.”
His points sound reasonable and valid, but so did Stalin’s. “Neither you or Pythia, are gods. You don’t get to say what’s best for anyone. We decide that. You’re done, Ericsson. Finished, you can live the rest of your so-called immortal life in prison. We will stand together and win, or we’ll lose, but we will do it as a free people. As old as you are I would think you would’ve studied more history… ‘They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.’ You know who said that?”
“A stupid, short-sighted fool who couldn’t imagine global extinction. Don’t quote Benjamin Franklin to me. You’ve made your choice
then, have you? Think you’re simply going to frog march me to a shuttle and take me to Earth?”
“That is exactly the plan.” I leap forward with an assist from the Emdrive. I ignore his feeble attempt to bring his weapon up since he can’t hurt me and I’m between him and his pets. The gun explodes in fire. He staggers back from the wound, blood flowing from his mouth. I freeze. Shock or horror I’m not sure which. Why would he kill himself?
“What?”
The voice startles me and I spin around, half jumping. The middleman, covered in blood from the dead guy next to him, stands, looking down at his hands.
“How?”
“It’s okay you’ve been—”
“No you twit, how come I’m not you?”
Then it dawns on me why there are so many missing people. So many gaps and different names but the same signature… he isn’t immortal.
Amelia. I think he means to transfer himself into you. If not for the ECM it would have likely worked.
“No matter, I shall simply try again.” He leaps past me, slides on the floor. I scramble to catch him but before I can he sticks the gun in his mouth and pulls the trigger.
“Dammit!” The third and last man stands. I shake off the shock and cover him with the IP cannon. “You move and I will stun the crap out of you.”
“So? What are you going to do Ms. Lockheart? Surely even you must see by now that no prison can contain me. When I die, every time I die, my consciousness is transferred to the nearest individual. It is why I keep so many people around. Please, by all means, take me to Earth. I need to start over anyway and this won’t do.”
Amelia, we cannot let him return to Earth.
“We can’t let him live either, there has to be a way. Scan the room… does he have any orbital controls here?”
His panel appears to have all the master controls for the satellite.
“I know you’re trying to figure out how to beat me, but you can’t. I’ve had a hundred years to plan for this moment. Even if you crashed the satellite and killed everyone on board… I’d still live. You can’t win, dear. Do you see now why you must join me? Only I can lead us through the blight that is coming. When they come, and they will come, if our planet isn’t united under one strong leader, all will be lost.”
Ignoring him, I find the controls and fire up the panel. I put the sword away so I can have a free hand. The panel lights up and after a quick status check comes back one-hundred percent. I flip through the menus looking for what I want.
Amelia… what about the other people on board?
“Access the PA.” I make sure to cover Ericsson so he doesn’t move.
Access granted.
“Attention all personnel, this is Arsenal speaking. You have five minutes to abandon ship. The clock is ticking.” I hit the klaxon. Alarms ring and a computerized voice says: All hands abandon station. All hands abandon station.
“What are you doing?” Ericsson asks me.
I am unlocking the escape pods and shuttle bays for the crew.
“Epic, can you lock out the AI from here?”
Affirmative. He does not appear to have full access beyond his security protocols. While he is excellent at his job he is not allowed outside the one function; Network security. Mr. Ericsson, however, has given this panel full control. Probably under the assumption that he would be the only one who could use it.
“Lock him out of the entire system. I don’t want him to have access to anything anywhere on the station, other than food.”
What are you doing?” Ericsson shouts, stepping forward with his hands balled into fists. “You can’t win. Surely you see that?” Is that desperation I hear in his voice? The outside of my suit sparkles under his renewed assault.
The station shudders as a hundred escape pods launch from it like bullets from a gun. I watch the counter go down to zero.
All pods away. He is the only remaining person on the station.
“If you knew me at all, if you knew my parents at all, you would know one thing about me.”
“Oh please, spare me your desperate attempt at bravado. If not today, then one day I will show up and you will be bound in your chair and on that day you will lose. For I will become you. Ultimately you cannot win.”
I reach over and activate the orbital maneuvering system. The station shudders again, this time it doesn’t stop as all the jets facing ‘west’ go into full burn, increasing the orbital speed of the station.
“When I was a child I was told my parents were dead. I was told I would never walk again. I was told I couldn’t make an AI and I was told my suit would never work. I was told I would lose.” I move around the console, leaving one hand on it long enough for Epic to lock in my instructions and then lockout the console.
“I overcame all of that, you know why?”
“Because of your pluck and persistence? I clearly will not make the mistake of—”
“No, Ericsson. I’m here because I don’t believe in the ‘no-win’ scenario.”
His eyes go wide and I trigger my IP cannons.
63
“How do you know he’s still up there?” Luke asks as we snuggle under a white goose down comforter. He’s letting me stay with him until I can find a new place to live. I gave the house away to Carlos’ older brother, whose family needed a place. I used a phony contest so he wouldn’t feel any shame in accepting such a gift. Since I flattened the HQ, well technically more than flattened, I’m homeless.
“Epic rigged one of the cameras we found to keep an eye on him.”
“But how did you keep him there? I know you don’t have a lot of manual dexterity when you’re in the armor.”
I smile as he pulls me tight, running his big hands through my hair. God, I needed this. “The station had living quarters for three hundred people, I just piled every mattress I could find on top of him. When I left I had fifty pushed into the room, I could barely shut the door.”
“You’re kidding me,” he says as he kisses my neck.
I practically purr, “Nope. Epic wanted me to break his arms and legs but I’m not Prince Humperdinck—”
“Who?”
“You didn’t just say that,” I sigh. “How has your film education been so neglected?”
He nibbles my ear and thoughts of movies go right out the window.
The last few days have been interesting in the Chinese sense of the word. By order of the Federal government, all state militias were disbanded in favor of national teams. I guess Ericsson got his wish after all. A thought that runs shivers up my spine. They will still be based on region but they will have more members, better training, and FBI-like authority. The one caveat to state’s rights is the governors of the regional areas they are based out of can deploy the teams as needed.
Three days after I returned home the station passed through the Van Allen belt, the ultimate Faraday Cage ensuring Ericsson can never return to Earth.
A knock on the front door interrupts his exploring of my neck. With a sigh, he drags himself out of bed. I roll over to watch the ripple of muscles up and down his back and legs as he slides on jeans. I still have a lot to think about. What’s next? It doesn’t take him long to answer the door and I hear him say my name, “Amelia, it’s for you.”
The only people who even know I’m here would call first before coming over and Kate’s already visited. Not that she would use the door. It’s like she has an allergy to them or something.
“Whoever it is, tell them to go away.”
“You really need to come out here. Want me to come help?”
I growl as I toss the covers back. This better be worth it. I’m a pro at getting in and out of my chair so it only takes me a few seconds to slide in then pull a shirt over my tank top. I grab my breakfast on the way out, a half-eaten PB&J Luke made me an hour before.
I freeze half way in the living room. I’ve only ever seen the man standing in the door on TV, not in person. The President’s blue suit is impeccably tailored. As
he shakes Luke’s hand I can tell the man spends time in the gym, fabric pulls around his shoulders the same way Luke’s does. Two men flank him, one of whom I recognize from the White House battle.
He smiles to Luke before turning his brown eyes on me. “May I come in?” The President asks casually.
“Of course sir, yes sir,” Luke spits out rapidly.
The President flashes Luke an amused, but grateful grin as he walks in. The two secret service men follow him in and check out the apartment for a second.
“Luke, manners,” I say to kickstart him.
“Right! Sir, please have a seat. Can I get you anything to eat or drink?” Poor Luke is speaking so fast I can barely understand him.
“Thank you, son, no I’m good. I’m afraid I can’t stay long, though. May I have a moment with Ms. Lockheart?”
Cautiously I reach into the pouch on the side of my chair and retrieve my glasses. I don’t need them to see, they’re my link to Epic. The chair I’m in is nothing more than a normal chair. My Mark II is done for and we’re going to need to start working on a Mark III.
He’s older than he looks on TV, I guess they probably try hard to make him look young. I can only imagine how he feels leading the country. The last few weeks have aged the crap out of me. I keep expecting to find a grey hair when I look in the mirror. Twenty-One is only a month away so why do I feel twice that age?
He waits patiently for Luke to leave the room before holding his hand out to me.
“Thank you, for what you did. Your country owes you a debt of gratitude.” I purse my lips together desperate not to blush. “I don’t suppose I could ask you to be on any of our teams? You could run it, have the whole thing to do with as you please? Clearly, you can be trusted.”
“Mr. President, I thank you for your faith in me sir, but I wasn’t being altruistic. I was trying to stop the man who kidnapped my parents and mind-controlled them.”
His eyes drop to the floor as he speaks, “I’m aware and I’m very sorry about that. But,” he says looking at me, “I don’t think you give yourself enough credit. Without the help of you and your… friend… I’d be dead and the country would be no more.”
Full Metal Superhero Box Set [Books 1-6] Page 34