A screeching car caused her to jump. She glanced around, feeling vulnerable now that she was out in the open.
She had to run. Follow the signs leading her towards the school district, and hope and pray that The Drone wasn’t following her along the way.
19
Is This A Joke?
“So, you’re telling me there’s nothing you can do?”
The police officer glances up from his paperwork, fixing his eyes, which are heavy with sleep deprivation, onto me through the plexiglass between us. It’s the kind of look that I expected to see in a dramatization on television - not necessarily in real life. The man, his name tag says “Murphy”, appears to be overwhelmed and more than a little disinterested in what I just told him about Bill Flagrant, Austin Spencer, and Kimberly.
He slides his chair back from the counter a few inches, and I can hear the rolling wheels against the worn linoleum flooring clearly as he takes in a breath and responds.
“Look, kid, I appreciate you coming in to speak with us. Both of you.” He nods to Mae, who stands not far behind me with her arms crossed. “But, there’s just not enough information for me, or anyone else in this office, to go on.”
I rub a hand against the back of my neck and lean against the counter. I’m getting nowhere with this guy. If I could, I would ask to speak to someone else. However, judging by the constant noise of people hurrying back and forth between cubicles, phones ringing every five seconds, and the smell of extra black coffee being brewed somewhere out of sight, there is probably nobody with time to speak to me besides Officer Murphy.
I need to rephrase my concern in a way that gets through to him.
“Listen, Officer, I’m not trying to be pushy -”
“But, you are.” The man leans back in his seat and folds his arms. “I’m really sorry, but coming in to say that you have a feeling that something bad is about to happen is not enough to get a squad car out and about. We have real situations with real people going on at this very moment, and sometimes all at once. Our resources are wearing thin even on a good day. So, unless you have a location, a suspect, and proof of wrongdoing, I’m afraid I’ll have to direct you to our tip line.”
He reaches out to the desk and swipes his clipboard into hand, flicking a pen open and poised to jot down notes.
I glance back at Mae who urges me on with her eyes.
I flatten my hands on the counter.
“I do have a suspect,” I say. “Bill Flagrant. I know he’s a wanted man right now - and on the run.”
“Yes, we’ve been looking for him ever since he escaped from that transport. But, it’s been months since anybody saw him.”
“That’s because I’m the last one who saw him,” I reply, and the man raises his eyebrows. “I’m Shaun Boding. Bill Flagrant tried to kill me, my friend Mae behind me, and my grandparents. He also attacked me and many other people in Chinatown a few months ago.”
“He was supposed to be paralyzed.” Officer Murphy taps his pen against the clipboard. “And you don’t have any idea where he might be? A street name, or a building?”
I shake my head. Mae’s visions didn’t get us that far, but I sure as heck can’t tell that to a police officer if I want him to take us seriously.
Officer Murphy grunts. “Can you tell me where he got his mechanized suit?”
The answer is not one that the man is going to want to hear, as I already tried to tell him this information, but I grit my teeth and try to remain friendly.
“He got his mechanized suit from another man named Austin Spencer. He’s operating under a false name -”
“The Cloak,” Officer Murphy finishes for me. He jots down the name on the paper - at least that’s what I think he’s doing, from what I can see, then sets his pen down with a snap. “You really expect me to believe that there are super villains hiding out in the city, waiting to jump you and your friends?”
“But, you’re willing to accept that he has a mechanized suit!” Mae pushes forward so that she fills up the window in front of the desk. “Look, you may not believe that Bill Flagrant is a super villain, but I’m telling you right now that he may have one of our friends held hostage. Now, are you going to help us track her down, or are you going to wait until it’s too late and she’s been murdered?”
Officer Murphy sits up straight and frowns at Mae.
“You need to watch your tone, young lady,” he says. “I’m doing the best that I can. Bill Flagrant is a wanted criminal - I’m not denying that. But, this Kimberly girl that you say is being held hostage has not been reported to us. In fact, she’s not even a citizen of Boston. You tell me that she lives up in Maine. Now, I’m not going to jump to conclusions here, but something tells me that you two are suffering a little from PTSD from having to deal with Flagrant. I’ve seen that sort of thing first-hand, so there’s no judgement from me. Your mind starts to play games with you until it comes to the point that you can’t trust anything any more, and you begin to see enemies and plots around every corner.”
He sets his clipboard on the counter and stands up.
“First and foremost, if Ms. Parker truly is missing, the authorities in her hometown will be the first to respond. From there, if they don’t have any leads, then it will trickle down to us. By that point I’m assuming that there will be more information than just a hunch to work with.” He gives us a sympathetic smile, and I can tell that even though what he’s saying sounds harsh, he probably doesn’t enjoy saying it. “The most I can do is make a note of what you’ve told me and wait for something more concrete to come from the Maine authorities.”
His expression softens.
“Maybe Ms. Parker is just staying at a friend’s house and forgot to call home. I’ve seen that happen in the past, too.”
Mae turns away, her fingers wringing through her hair. I want to comfort her, but there’s nothing that can be said, and even worse, nothing we can do.
I nod to the officer.
“If you could put a note out there, that would be great,” I say. “Thank-you, officer.”
Officer Murphy nods back at me.
“I’m sorry there’s not much more I can do,” he says. Then his brow furrows as he looks at me one last time. “What did you say your name was again?”
“Shaun Boding.”
A look of recognition settles on his features and he tilts his head back slightly.
“Ah, I thought I recognized you for a second. You write those Super Guy books, right?”
“Yes, I do,” I answer.
He presses his lips together. “You know, it’s fun to think about being a superhero and fighting crime, but the sad fact is that we’re all just regular human beings. None of us in this building have superpowers. If we did, I can tell you right now that we’d be out there with capes, ending the fights before they even began. But, this is the real world. The only superheroes I know of are on the glossy pages of one of your comic books. Give me a call if you come across something real, and then we’ll talk again.”
20
The Surprise Visitor
“Well, that got us nowhere,” says Mae.
I shake my head as I pace around her bedroom later that evening.
“I can’t believe it,” I say. “These guys are supposed to be police. Their entire job is to help us!”
Mae gives me a feeble smile.
“Did you really expect them to jump with nothing more than a feeling that something bad was about to happen?” she asks.
I shrug and then let out a heavy sigh.
“I was hoping they would do something besides just jot it down in a notebook.” I rub my hand roughly against the back of my neck, which has become clammy. “I guess that’s why superheroes are the ones who take justice into their own hands in the comic books,” I say.
Mae is right. We can’t expect the police to do much when we don’t have an address or even a written document as evidence of future harm. Even in our own high school it’s not uncommon for pe
ople to make up a bomb scare or some other stupid thing because they don’t want to take a test that day. It becomes the boy who cried wolf.
In the end, I can’t really blame our police force. They have enough work to do as it is.
“It’s time we take matters into our own hands,” I tell Mae. “We have costumes, don’t we?”
“We do,” says Mae. “But I don’t know how much help they will be. Yours is pretty distinguishable from the YouTube video. People were looking for you since they thought you broke into that warehouse.”
I wave a hand at her dismissively.
“That was months ago,” I reason. “Surely nobody will be looking for me now.”
Mae pulls a face and shrugs.
“We just have to be careful, whatever we do, is all I’m saying,” she replies.
I nod then clap my hands together, rubbing them against each other until I feel the heat against my palms.
“Are you absolutely positive that you saw Kimberly in your vision?” I ask.
This is clearly not something that Mae wants to hear again, for the hundredth time.
“Are either of us positive about anything having to do with our powers?” she shoots back, throwing her hands into the air. “All I know is that I saw someone who had to be Kimberly. She had the same hair, and I don’t think I would forget that face.” She frowns at me.
“And she was definitely trapped?”
Mae nods.
“Spire Tech and Virtual Solutions have to be the same place,” she says. “Austin is involved in this mind control operation, and it’s not gonna get any easier moving forward. The guy has resources – a lot more resources than us!”
“There has to be a way that we can guard our minds and take down Spire Tech,” I say.
“With what?” Mae laughs. “Do you want us to put lead helmets on? That might guard our minds, but also give us cancer at the same time.”
I groan.
“There has to be something,” I say. “I’m not resting until The Drone and The Cloak are both taken down.” I turn to Mae. “Can you try using your powers one more time to get some more information?” I ask. “Your vision powers?”
Mae press is her lips together and shakes her head.
“I don’t know how much more I can push this,” she says. Then she walks over to her desk and picks up the virtual reality headset, sliding her phone into the slot behind the eye pieces. “But, I can give it another shot. I just hope that wherever Kimberly is, she’s all right.”
She puts the headset on her face and leans back on the desk. I move a few steps away from her just in case something bad happens like before. I don’t want to be attacked, especially in such an enclosed space as her bedroom.
Now the waiting begins. Nothing seems to be happening, and that’s the truth. Mae opens her mouth and takes in a breath, but still nothing.
“Are you getting anything?” I ask.
Mae shakes her head slightly.
“Nothing,” she says. “The app doesn’t seem to be doing anything to me this time. Maybe I’ve become immune?”
“That’s good and bad at the same time,” I say. “Good that you won’t be influenced by Austin, but bad because we still have no address or any defining features of their headquarters to go on. At least if we could get some sort of address we could go back to the police and let them handle this.”
Mae gives it another moment, then shakes her head.
“I’m sorry, Shaun,” she says, pulling the headset off. “There just seems to be nothing else I can do. We just have to wait, like the officer said, for something in the news.”
My stomach feels all twisty, like I’m going to be sick. I hate the idea of just standing around. Any number of horrible things could be happening to Kimberly at this very moment and we are powerless to stop it.
I pull out my phone and send off a string of text messages to Kimberly’s number.
Mae gives me a sympathetic smile.
“Haven’t you tried that already?” she asks.
“Of course I’ve tried this,” I say. “It was the first thing I tried when you said you saw her in your vision.”
“And?” says Mae.
I frown. “And it’s just like your visions,” I reply. “I’ve got nothing. No response. I would try calling her house, but her number is unlisted.”
Mae places a hand on my shoulder.
“It will be fine in the end,” she says, though I don’t believe her. “I set up my phone with a Google Alert for her name, so if anything happens we will be the first to know. Until then, we just have to stay put and work on our defense. You’re right. We need to guard our minds. I’m going to get on that. You can be my guinea pig again.”
I plop down on a nearby desk chair and resign myself to the situation.
The rest of the evening is spent with Mae sitting on her bed with a laptop perched on her lap while she runs bits of research by me.
What we need to create is a wireless disruptor to stop Austin’s mind control waves from reaching our brains, but we have no idea at this point how hard something like that will be to create.
It’s around nine o’clock by the time I head for home. Flying means that it takes nearly no time at all, and I’m thankful to get up in the sky, even if it’s only for a few minutes. I try to clear my head and get rid of all my anxiety. Worrying is not going to do anybody any good, especially me.
The wind blows through my hair and tugs at my jacket, which is clearly not thick enough at a high-altitude. My arms begin to freeze. But, I descend quickly when I spot the brightly lit neighborhood where Mom’s house is nestled.
Nobody sees me as I land on the sidewalk. I make sure there are no cars going by, and nobody is walking around. My sneakers hit the ground with a snap and the hidden flaps in my soles close.
I’m ready for bed. Maybe a good night’s rest will do me some good.
I’m just pulling out my set of keys and heading up the front steps went a hand reaches out from behind me and grabs me by the arm. I nearly jump out of my skin.
“Shaun?”
I turn, and my jaw nearly drops to the ground.
Standing in front of me, disheveled and pale, is Kimberly.
21
Reassurance
“Gone!” yelled Bill Flagrant as he stormed into the brightly lit workshop. “She’s gone!”
Hunched over a desk that was cluttered with papers, graphs, and various writing instruments, Austin Spencer pounded his fingers in short bursts against his bluetooth keyboard. His hair was disheveled and there was a half-finished pot of coffee steaming on an adjacent countertop.
“What are you hollering about?” Austin muttered as he continued to type.
“What do you think I’m hollering about?” Bill continued as he stomped across the room towards Austin’s desk. His metal-clad feet clinked with every forceful step. “Kimberly Parker has escaped!”
Austin still didn’t look away from the screen that he typed onto. His eyes darted back and forth as the text populated the black terminal window.
“Have you checked everywhere?” he muttered.
Bill stopped a few feet away from Austin and threw his hands in the air.
“Of course I’ve looked everywhere!” he said. “That’s why I’m in here trying to communicate with you. Do you see me? Standing here?”
Austin removed his hands from the keyboard and slowly turned his head until he was looking directly at Bill.
“You don’t have to yell. I can hear you perfectly clear.”
“Then why don’t you look like you’re even the slightest bit concerned?” Bill demanded.
Austin took in a breath through his nose, held it for a moment, then replied calmly, “Because I’m trying to code. Besides, the girl is of no concern to us anyway.”
Bill raised an eyebrow and folded his arms.
“Really?” he said. “And would you mind telling me the reason we were holding her here in the first place if she wasn’t importa
nt?”
“She is not the important piece,” Austin started to explain as he leaned back in his chair. “She’s done her part, but she was never the queen on the chess board. She was merely a pawn. I simply needed her to be detained until I had confirmation that my plan was going to work flawlessly.”
“Again with this plan,” Bill pressed on further. “The secretive plan. Why do your plans always have to be secret, as if they’re a complicated piece of machinery?”
“Because I’m compartmentalizing,” Austin answered before returning to his typing. “Also, the plan is complicated - though it’s not exactly machinery. It’s a complicated string of code - code, which I’m trying to finish up. I promise you that all will be made clear shortly.”
“How shortly?”
Bill watched as Austin typed a few more lines, then hit the enter key with a flourish before pushing his chair back from the desk.
“Right now,” he answered. “Our little incident between Mae Williams and our target, Shaun Boding, was my experiment. Now that I know that it’s a success, it’s onto phase two.”
Austin struck a key and a map of New England appeared. Tiny red dots appeared every couple seconds, spreading across the map like pin-pricks.
“What you are witnessing,” Austin explained, “is the mapping of every person who downloads and launches my app. There is a frequency that is emitted when I activate it remotely from our server, and this frequency renders the user entirely under my control.”
Bill grunted.
“All this talk of you again,” he said.
Austin chuckled.
“Don’t worry. You aren’t left behind. You are the brawn of the operation.”
“So, you hypnotize these people,” Bill said. “Then what?”
Austin smiled.
“Shaun is already a wanted man - strike that. Fallout is a wanted man. So isn’t his sidekick. Once the two of them find us through Kimberly, which they undoubtedly will, we will have a small army waiting to turn them in to the authorities.” He added, “And you will be on hand if things become disagreeable,” when Bill raised his eyebrow.
The Aberrant Series (Book 3): Super Villain Page 9