“It’s not my fault this stuff keeps happening. If it was up to me, I’d never leave my lab.”
140
The Villas are breathtaking. Where the rest of the city is a hodgepodge of architecture, the Villas on the hill overlooking the downtown core are a unified design of Argentinian glory. Manicured lawns, artistic statues, and stained-glass windows, that must look amazing in the sunlight, adorn the property. Each Villa sprawls over several acres. Some estates are large enough that only their rooftops can be glimpsed above the many trees protecting the occupants’ privacy.
“That one,” I say, pointing at the four-story villa at the end of a cul-de-sac. The exterior walls protecting the property are twice my height. The only entrance I can see is a wrought iron gate that leads to a red brick driveway. I can’t see where the drive terminates but I imagine it is at the house.
“What’s the plan?” Tia asks.
Kate looks back at me, her eyes darting downward for an instant. She doesn’t say it, but I know what she’s thinking so I take the burden from her. “The source of the dome has to be stationary, whatever it is. My calculations put it in just about the center of the villa. If the dome falls ‘down’ from a central location, then putting it on a hill makes sense. It may be on a pedestal. I don’t know enough to tell you anything else. I’m not even sure how to disrupt it.”
“You’re full of good news,” Kate says.
“I’ll wait here,” I say with a wink to her, so she knows I’m okay with it. “You two go in, find the source of the dome and knock it out. Then I’ll armor up and we can get the heck out of here.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Kate looks to Tia as she speaks. “Are you okay with this? Breaking and entering, I mean?”
“It is my job to protect the people of this city. Not just uphold the law. So… yes.”
The two women exit the vehicle at the same time. Kate gives me one last smile before shutting the door with a thump. I watch the two of them move toward the wall. Kate flexes her legs and leaps over in one smooth action. Tia simply floats over the wall and they both disappear.
“This is a terrible plan,” I mutter to myself. Everyone in the car agrees with me.
I pull up the clock on my wrist computer and set it to alert me in five-minute intervals—or to signal me if it reaches Epic.
Five minutes pass, and I reset the alarm. Then ten. Fifteen. I break out in a cold sweat from worry. I don’t know how long this is going to take, but Kate is an expert infiltrator… it shouldn’t take that long.
After thirty minutes my anxiety gets the better of me. I flip on my wrist computer and scan for frequencies. I find three, tuning to each one, I locate the villa’s security team. Unfortunately, they aren’t speaking English and I can only make out bits and pieces of their Spanish.
Enough to know my friends have been caught.
“Dangit,” I mutter as I crawl into the front seat. It’s awkward as hell, pulling my legs around behind me. It takes far longer than I would like but I’m eventually in the driver seat. The entire time, my mind wonders how they could have been caught? It has to be another super- one we aren’t already familiar with. Rafael owns a company full of them, it seems.
How to help? I check out the Escalade. It has an autopilot function—which is helpful. But it’s tied to the GPS—not helpful. Accessing the code of the chip in the car only takes a few minutes and then I have the function tied to my wrist computer. A few more modifications and I can steer as well. Now I just need a plan.
I take a quick pic of the VIN; I keep hoping I’ll return one of these ‘borrowed’ vehicles but that doesn’t seem likely.
The wrought iron gate doesn’t look terribly sturdy. More for privacy than for actual security. The guards with the SMGs probably provide enough of that. Speaking of which, I really don’t want to rely on luck if they start shooting at me.
With a sigh, I pull myself into the back seat, again, ignoring the ache running up and down my arms—well, groaning in pain more than ignoring. Once I’m situated on the floor of the back seat, I pull up my computer. It’s easy enough to display the car’s different cameras so I can see to drive by. Thankfully the designers were thoughtful enough to include night vision displays.
The engine flares to life with a roar. I keep the lights off while I put it in gear and start my way back down the street. The SUV jerks around as I give it too much gas then too much brakes and it shakes me around in the back until I get the hang of it.
“It’s not like I need fine control over it, I just need to cause a distraction for her,” I say out loud to reassure myself.
Once at the end of the block, I manage a three-point turn that would make a driving instructor proud. I take a deep breath and focus my thoughts and feelings. Kate can read me, so she knows how I’m feeling. Not even light years of separation can dim it.
“Okay, hon. Get ready… three… two… one…” I give it the beans. The big V8 roars, the tires squeal and we jet off toward the gate. I make it to third gear and sixty miles an hour when the grill smashes through the gate; the wrought iron crumples under five-thousand pounds of force. I flip the high beams on as the SUV bounces along the main path. Two guards scream curses as they leap out of the way.
I let out a yelp as I collide with the back seat before I’m thrown back down. The front wheels grab, and the SUV shoots off to the right, toward the trees.
“Not that way,” I shout as I overcorrect. Glass rains down on me as the private security opens fire, shattering the windows. Bullets ping off the car as I manage to swing back around the path. A parked car looms in front of me and too late I realize I won’t clear it. The truck jerks to the side with a horrendous wrench as I pull the grill off a Rolls Royce. The rear camera shows the Rolls smashing sideways into a fountain.
“Sorry,” I yell out instinctively as I steer around another obstacle. The house looms in front of me and I punch it. The engine roars, speeding me toward the big double doors. I roll on my side and do my best to wedge myself between the seats. The impact sends a shudder through the whole vehicle. Metal, wood, and glass all rend, shatter, and break as the SUV crashes through the foyer and into the main room, only to hit the marble staircase. I scream as the front end of the vehicle climbs the stairs and flips on its side like a turtle.
I manage to stay upright, wedged like I am, as the car slides to a halt. The engine continues to rev, trying desperately to keep the vehicle moving. After a few seconds, I kill it and let the engine die. The rear tires still spin but without power, they slowly come to a halt.
“Tell me, senorita, what exactly was your plan?” A man’s voice, filled with mirth, says to me from above.
I look up, he’s pointing a gun at me, which sends an icicle of fear through my heart.
“I really hadn’t thought that far ahead,” I tell him. He laughs, before placing the gun behind him. Taking a knee on the ruined door, he reaches down through the window and holds his hand out to me.
“You are my kind of crazy,” he says as he pulls me up through the broken glass. I just hope it was crazy enough.
141
The room where they deposit me isn’t empty; five men with submachine guns line the far wall, each dressed in a tan uniform the same as the man who pulled me from the wreck of the SUV. Two other men in fancy suits stand to one side, speaking quietly to the woman with the silver hair whose creepy fingers mind-controlled Tia.
Of the three chairs in the center of the room, two are occupied. Tia is unconscious in one, slumped over to the side. Kate is in the other, hands and feet bound with duct tape over her mouth. Concern and worry are plain on her face. I must not have been in time with my distraction.
The nice man who laughed at me sits me down gently on the third metal chair. “I hear you cannot walk. I don’t know if you are brave or stupid to try what you did. Either way, do not make me hit a cripple,” he says as he stands.
I hate that word. The genuine look in his eyes tells me he isn’t an evil
man, at least. Though, it doesn’t exactly take a humanitarian of the year to stop someone from hitting a woman in a wheelchair.
“Domingo, did you search her?” the silver-haired Witch asks him.
“Si, she has no weapons.” He leaves me unsecured—not that I can get up and run away. I have to sort of lean back to avoid falling out of the plain metal folding chair. At least they could’ve put me in a chair with arms.
I look over at Kate. Her big green eyes full of worry. I hope she can pick up on my emotions. Despite what I told Domingo, I do have a plan… loosely speaking. The three in charge continue to converse in hushed tones while Domingo walks over and addresses his men. I glance down at my wrist computer and check the status. The computer has the house’s internal security system zeroed in. With the tap of a few buttons, I have all the access I need. I just can’t get too animated otherwise they will wonder why I am so interested in my wrist.
I shoot Kate a wink and a smile.
She rolls her eyes at me.
The Witch pats the two men on their shoulders before walking over to me. She looms above, gray eyes glaring down at me. “You’ve caused us a lot of trouble.”
“Oh my gosh, I’m soooo sorry, like, I had no idea,” I say in my best valley girl accent.
Her eyes narrow at me. “Americans,” she mutters. “Now isn’t the time for a flippant attitude.”
“Is that later? Or did I miss the window to be disrespectful to the evil villains?”
Her hand shoots up and the eerie white light envelopes her fingers—
“Uh uh uh,” I say, holding my wrist up with my fingers on the pad.
“What is that?” she asks, taking a step back. Everyone in the room stops talking, all eyes turning to me.
“My failsafe. You see, your boss thinks I’m like Ericsson. But what your el jefe doesn’t realize is that I have nightmares about Ericsson. I didn’t leave my lab for a solid month after my encounter with him. And you know what happened the first time I did?” I ask, looking around the room making sure I have their attention.
She shakes her head, eyes glancing between my wrist and face.
“I was abducted by aliens… Aliens! Can you believe it? I sure couldn’t. So, what we have here,” I nod to her, “is a brainwave scanner hooked up to a ZPFM in an overload loop. I’m sure you know what brainwaves are?”
She nods. I can see fear creeping into her as understanding dawns.
“Excellent. The ZPFM is a design of my own. It’s an unlimited power source. This has about as much self-contained energy as a nuclear reactor.” Now they’re really afraid. The guards are all backing off toward the door. The Witch takes a step back. Interestingly enough, the other two men don’t move. “If you use your powers on me, my brainwaves change, and this thing goes boom. I figure it will release energy equivalent to a few tons of TNT. In case you’re wondering, that is enough to level a square mile. So please, mind control me.” I tell her with a glare.
“You wouldn’t kill your friends or yourself so frivolously,” she says with confidence I don’t think she feels.
“Lady, I most certainly would.” I hit the button.
She screams, reaching for my arm. I squeeze my eyes shut. I wasn’t lying, I do have it hooked up to a ZPFM. It’s slightly smaller than a thumbnail and it can produce as much power as a nuclear reactor… theoretically, not practically. This one can produce more than enough for my needs. All the lights in the room vanish, plunging us into darkness. The holographic interface lights up and fires off a brilliant white strobe light. The sudden darkness followed by the strobe disorient and blind those in the room. Those who didn’t have their eyes closed.
“Kate, Full Beast Mode!” Whatever they had binding her might have been strong enough to resist her flesh (despite the fact that she is far stronger than any human has a right to be), but her metal arm? Nope.
Metal pings as she shatters it. Her chair falls over and in two steps she lunges at the Witch, swinging her arm hard up under the gray-eyed woman’s chin. The blow connects and the Witch staggers back to the wall before slumping down in a stupor. The moment her mind is freed, Tia snaps out of whatever trance she was in and growls.
The chair rends with a horrid painful squeal as the amazing woman increases her mass to the point the tile floor cracks under her. She yells and charges the guards. I hit the button canceling the strobe then turn the lights back on. Dust sprinkles down on me from the ceiling as each step Tia takes is like a herd of Rhino’s bearing down on the five guards. The first one goes for his weapon when Tia backhands him. It’s like he’s hit by a semi. The man flies against the far wall, crumpling on impact with the sound of broken bones.
The others, including Domingo, throw up their hands. They aren’t stupid. Their weapons clatter to the ground as she approaches them, each step shaking the building.
“Tia?” I yell to get her attention. “Rein it in!” She looks down at herself and does a little shake. Her body seems to shrink—though I know it’s a trick of her powers. She doesn’t actually grow or shrink, but something about her taking on so much mass and density changes the air around her. It’s fascinating! I could spend a year studying the way her powers work.
“Just so you know,” she looks at the men she has backed up against the wall, “I still have the mass of a bull elephant… so try me, si?”
“We don’t have any powers, we’re just paid security,” Domingo explains. He takes one knee, then another. “Don’t kill us, por favor.”
I shake my head. “Domingo. Seriously? She’s wearing a police officer’s uniform? What kind of people do you think you’re working for?”
His eyes go wide as he recognizes it. Tia long since lost her badge and the uniform is more than a bit smudgy, but now that he knows…
“I’m very sorry. We all have to make a living. Believe me, I didn’t know you were policía.”
Tia nods. “I believe you. Now, stay over there and be a good boy.” She carefully steps on each of their discarded weapons, the crack is audible in the small room.
The last two men haven’t made a move toward us, just backed up with their hands raised to waist level. Now that I have a second, I realize they are twins. One has a beard, full, just past his chin. The other one is clean shaven—not so much as a whisper of hair. While Kate binds the Witch in the same ultra-strong steel wire they used on her, I flop over a little to my left, holding myself up with my arms to look at the two men. I hate this. I feel useless in these situations.
“Hi,” I say, waving at them. “I’m Amelia. Who are you?”
Beard-bro looks at Clean-shave apprehensively. “I’m Orlondo Muras,” Clean-shave says, “and this is my brother, Carlos.”
I glance at Kate, who shoots me a grin. “I sure wish he was here too,” she says, referring to Mr. Perfect, as she puts the last strap around the witch’s eyes. “Wait a second…” Kate stands up swiftly, eyes on the twins' faces. “You’re the Magnificent Muras Brothers?”
They both stand a little taller when she recognizes them. “Si,” Orlondo says, patting his chest, not unlike an ape in the wild.
“What the hell are you two doing working for scum like Rafael? What are you doing down here at all? I caught your act last year and it was good,” she says.
“Act?” I ask.
“They’re stage magicians. From Vegas. Good ones too,” Kate says. She walks over to me and takes a knee, giving me something other than the chair to lean on.
“We’re here because what Rafael is doing is right,” Carlos speaks up. Orlondo puts a hand on his shoulder to restrain him. Clearly, the bearded fellow is eager to convince us of his righteous crusade.
“He’s imprisoned an entire city… how many people died today because of him? How do you justify that?” I ask them. I’m not angry or anything—I’m curious. Also, I want them to talk a little more. The more they talk, the more info they will give us. Kate is already going to town, filling the room with her pheromones to gently persuade them to be ho
nest.
“Sometimes, you have to do bad to do good,” Carlos says. He pulls on his suit jacket indignantly.
“How does hurting innocent people do good? And who are you doing the good for? Surely not the people who died tonight,” I tell him.
He looks at his brother then back to me before answering. “Sacrifices must be made.”
God. Where have I heard all this before? Oh right: everywhere. It’s what the Nazi’s said. It’s what the jihadists say to get people to blow themselves up. It’s what Ericsson said. I’ve read it in history books. And I’m sure the list goes on and on.
“Never your sacrifice, though, am I right? Always the poor innocent slob who’s just trying to make ends meet for his family. Or the soldier or police officer who just want to do their job. It’s always them, right? Never you, in your ivory tower looking down at all the peons with the sure knowledge that you know what it is best for the rest of us. And if some of those peons have to die for that to happen, well then… sacrifices must be made.”
I glance over at the guns littering the floor. Probably a good thing I don’t have one right now because I swear… “It doesn’t matter if you think the greater good is at stake if you have to kill an innocent person to do it. Do you know what that makes you? It makes you a monster. Good people do not kill good people in order to stop evil people. Period.”
Carlos spits at me. It falls far short. “You’re a hypocrite. Are you the only one who gets to decide when people should die? We all know you wiped out an entire species just because you could. What happens when you think it’s justified to do the same here?”
His words cut me to the quick. The room wobbles a bit and I’m suddenly having trouble sitting on the chair. The floor is far more comfortable anyway and I end up on it.
“Amelia?” Kate’s voice is a million miles away.
I shake my head, trying to clear the noise. “We were at war,” I whisper. “You didn’t see what they did to Luxilla… you don’t know.”
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