“Makes sense.”
“I looked all over the main level and second floor, but couldn’t find a trace of him,” I said, reaching the bottom of the stairs. “So I came down here.”
The stairway led into a darkened basement. Leaning forward, I reached toward a shelf that held a powerful flashlight. But to do so, I had to get close to Dawn. She didn’t jump back and apologize, as she probably would have done had she been out of costume, but I felt her hold her breath for the few seconds we were close.
I leaned back and flicked on the flashlight.
“Sorry,” I said. “No windows down here.”
“Hiding in a pitch-black basement seems…problematic,” Dawn said with a frown.
“That’s what I thought at first, then I saw this.”
We walked a few steps down the hall, then took a hard right, pausing at a wall full of electricity meters.
“See how all of these are turned slightly?” I asked, shining my light across the meters. “How this line isn’t parallel to the ground.”
“I…yes.”
“Now look at this one. It’s straight,” I said, nodding to the last one. “These are the old-style meters, not the smart ones the rest of the city has. We had one like this growing up. And I remember if you wanted to turn off the power to one, you detach the line, remove the meter, or turn it to the side and seal it with one of these tags.” I reached over to one of the meters in the off position and tugged on the yellow tag that dangled beneath it. “Just turning the meter is the simplest method, but it also makes it the easiest to steal power. All you need to do is cut the tag, turn the meter back to the on position, and pray the electric company doesn’t visit anytime soon. The fact that this one has been righted means someone has been using electricity for this part of the building. And that someone”— I reached to the side and flicked on a light switch, filling the room with light— “is Marty Tong.”
“That…” Dawn blinked. “That’s smart.”
“What? Stealing power? It’s actually not that hard once you know—”
“No,” Dawn replied. “Smart that you thought to check in the first place. I know I wouldn’t have.”
I paused. Had that been a compliment?
Before I could reply, a crash echoed down the hallway. Dawn tensed in anticipation.
I frowned, swinging toward the source of the noise, bringing the flashlight around even though the light wasn’t needed anymore. I flicked it off.
“What was that?” she asked.
“Someone picked up on the fact that we turned on the lights.”
A minute later, we stood in front of a large door that led to a utility room. Another thud could be heard on the other side. The door shook slightly.
“Marty?” Dawn asked.
“Yep.”
On the door, there was a small window, a little below my eye level, currently blocked by a second, tinier door. I reached up and pulled it aside.
Inside…well, it was almost like a campsite. Sleeping bag. Camp stove. And tons of those crappy protein bars that Colossus sold on the side. The one thing out of place was the clearly pissed-off college student, who looked up as I opened the window.
His eyes went wide when he saw Dawn. He launched himself to his feet— without any difficulty either, so I hadn’t hit him that hard—and threw himself at the door.
“You stupid b—” he began.
I shut the tiny door before he could say any more. Unfortunately, the metal didn’t completely muffle his voice.
“He was just as happy to see me,” I said with a shrug.
“I see,” Dawn replied. “Sunshine said he came to Northwest Comics looking for Hunter Davies.”
“The comic book writer?” I shook my head. “Christ, he’s really lost it, hasn’t he?”
“Well, that’s not unusual, compared to some of the other drones. One of them, her name’s Carol? I found her in an alley just a couple weeks back, talking to Calypso.” She shrugged. “Only in this case, ‘Calypso’ was actually a scared homeless man. Last time I checked, she was still hospitalized.”
I felt my face drop. I had known Carol. She had been a part of the benefit job. Hell of a swing with a baseball bat. Made me wonder if she had ever played.
“You fucking bitch,” Marty howled through the walls. “I know you’re out there, both of you.”
I felt my jaw clench.
“No reason to listen to this,” I said. “Let’s take this upstairs.”
“No. I want to talk to him.”
“Um…why?”
“I’d like to know why he went to Northwest Comics to find Hunter Davies, to start off.”
“I assumed it’s because they sell his comics there.”
“It’s one of the places they sell his comics. Why Northwest, and not the two other comic book shops in Bailey City?”
“Isn’t it the closest?”
“It is, and you’re probably right. It’s just…” Her voice trailed off. “Where has he been all this time? His parents have been worried sick.”
I frowned. I had heard that too, through the grapevine. That his rich parents had pulled out all the stops to find their son. Normally, that would have left me bitter. Kids went missing all the time, and the media only seemed to make a lot of noise for those east of the river, the more affluent section of Bailey City. But at the same time…as someone who had lost his mother to cancer just a year and a half ago, I knew all about uncertainty, not knowing whether the one you cared about would live or die. I couldn’t judge them in this situation.
I stepped aside. “You can try.”
Dawn nodded, placing herself in front of the door. She squared her shoulders before opening the window.
“Hello, Marty,” she said, voice clipped and confident. “I heard you had an eventful morning.”
“You.” His gaze went dark. “What makes you think you have the right to talk to me after—”
“Oh, you can call me a concerned party. And speaking of concerned—”
“You let her fall!”
Dawn’s mouth snapped shut at Marty’s protest. And shit, that even gave me pause. He had been pissed before, but now? I watched as his face crumbled. For a terrifying moment, I thought he was going to cry.
“Calypso,” Dawn said quietly.
“Don’t you call her that.” Marty walked to the window. “You don’t have any right to call her by name, Dawn!”
She winced at the sound of her real name but continued without much of a pause.
“Okay. That’s…not why I wanted to talk to you anyway. Marty, I don’t know if you realize it, but you’ve been missing for almost a month. Your parents have been worried sick—”
“Heh, that’s a nice change.” He moved back from the door. “And of course, I know how long I’ve been missing. It’s not like I can’t count days. Why does everyone think that I’m stupid?”
“I don’t think your stupid, Marty.”
“No. You just think I’m nuts. This guy thinks I’m stupid.”
He shifted and pointed at me. Before I could reply, he was talking again.
“You don’t even feel it, do you, Alex?” he said, looking in my direction.
I frowned.
“I don’t know what—” I began.
“Her! Feel her. That hole.” He reached up, rubbing the neckline of his hoodie, close to his heart. “You were only part of it—really part of it—for how long, an hour?”
I nodded. After the benefit, when I had realized that Dawn was Red and Black, I had tried to help her escape. When Calypso had found out, she had made me into one of her drones. Only it hadn’t taken, not really, and I had managed to break free. This was probably why I wasn’t experiencing the symptoms the other drones were.
The weird thing about it was that I hadn’t noticed I was under her control at all. None of them had, really. Sure, they had felt different, but none of them had realized Calypso had done something to them. All except for Marty. And, weirdly enough, it h
adn’t seemed to bother him.
“We need to get you back to your parents,” Dawn said. “They have a special space at Bailey General set up for Calypso’s…followers.”
Marty rolled his eyes, letting out a disgusted “tsk,” and sat on the floor. He leaned up against the side wall.
“I know things seem hopeless right now,” Dawn said, moving closer to the door. “But they’re making progress every—”
“Progress.” Marty pressed his head against the wall. “All they want to do is disconnect me from her.”
“Ah…don’t you want that?” Dawn tilted her head to the right.
“Why would I?”
“So, you can go back to normal?”
“Please. Back to coasting my way through school? Hanging out with people who only cared about my money? I know nobody actually likes me.” He looked me right in the eyes as he said that. “But She…the Mistress. She saw what I could be. I was part of something, man. And now, I’m nothing again.”
He dropped his gaze, staring at his hands. I watched his shoulders droop.
I wasn’t sure what to say to that. Yeah, the thought of crazy Marty with his tire iron being “part of something” sounded nuts, but there was some truth in it. Hell, in some weird way, being part of Calypso’s team had been good for me too. Before, I had been bouncing off minimum wage jobs that took one look at my lack of a high school diploma and assumed I wasn’t smart enough to make change. But under Calypso, I had created the benefit heist, a plan that, had it not been for Dawn and that cop, would have gone off without a hitch.
“Why did you go to Northwest Comics, Marty?” Dawn asked, bringing me back to the present. “Why were you looking for Hunter Davies?”
“Why do you think?” Marty replied, looking up. “He’s the only one that can find her now.”
“Marty.” Dawn’s voice went soft. “Calypso is dead.”
I watched in horror as Marty Tong began to cry. Big sloppy tears ran down his face, leaving me feeling like the biggest shithead for being so hard on the guy. The kid buried his face in his hands.
“No,” he said. “It can’t be. It can’t…”
Dawn rocked back on her heels and looked at me before dropping her gaze.
“I don’t think now is the best time to question him,” she said.
I couldn’t disagree with that.
“This isn’t what I expected,” Dawn said as we made our way up the stairwell. “Carol was crazy, but Marty…” She paused to swallow. “His grief is so fresh. When I told him Calypso was dead, it was almost like he was hearing it for the first time.”
“Yeah, I noticed that too.”
I wondered what this meant about the other drones. Hell, it had been over a month since the benefit. If Marty wasn’t getting any better, then the rest of them…
“Alex?”
The mention of my name made me pause. I don’t think she had said it a single time since she had walked in the door. I looked up to see that Dawn had stopped a couple of steps above me.
“Thank you for texting me. After what Sunshine told me…” She shook her head. “I’m sorry she was so harsh to you. When the police questioned me after the benefit, I told them about how much you had helped, but…”
It didn’t change the fact that people still saw me as Faultline. I blamed that damn comic. Hunter Davies didn’t seem to like me.
I frowned, not sure of how to reply, so Dawn continued to speak.
“At least this finally ends things. Knowing where all of the drones are, I mean.”
She paused and reached to where her side pockets would normally be on her pants.
“Damn,” she said. “I always forget that this thing doesn’t come with pockets.”
“Sounds like a design flaw,” I said, cracking a smile.
“Probably. I just need to get my phone.”
And with that, Dawn closed her eyes. It only took a couple of seconds for her to transform back into the girl I was familiar with. She was a knockout, as always, small in stature, with delicate facial features. I couldn’t help but notice that she seemed to be growing out that dark hair of hers, which now ran past her shoulders. She wore a black leather jacket and red scarf to ward off the November chill, keeping her colors even in civilian mode. I blinked in surprise at the swiftness of the transformation.
“Wow,” I said. “Just like that, huh?”
“Yeah,” she said, ducking her head and smiling slightly, a familiar movement that made her look adorable. “It’s…well, convenient.”
“So, what happens to the stuff in your pockets when you transform?”
“I’ve never been able to figure that out, to be honest.” She pulled out her phone. “Damn. No signal down here. I’ll have to go upstairs to call Detective—”
She turned and began to move up to the stairway, then froze. She looked down to find my hand latched around her wrist.
Word to the wise. When you’re a dude, it’s not a good idea to just go around grabbing women—in any way—out of the blue. Especially if you’re my size. There’s no quicker way to transform yourself from “friendly-looking guy” to “potential threat” than by drawing attention to how easily you can overpower someone.
But in that moment, I was only focusing on one thing. Stopping her from making that call.
“Hey, wait,” I said. “What do you mean?”
Dawn hesitated, looking down at my gloved hand and her captive wrist. I immediately let go.
“I…I need to call Detective Bronson. Tell her that Marty is here,” she said.
“Not a good idea.”
“It’s…we can’t just hold him against his will. He needs to be rehabilitated, like the rest of the drones.”
“The rest of the drones have had their brains scrambled by Amity. Marty hasn’t. Were you listening to him down there?”
“Yes.”
“Well, how long do you think he’ll keep that stuff to himself?”
“Alex.” Dawn dropped her gaze. “I realize that I’m asking an awful lot of you here.”
“And I’m asking you to think about it for a second. Correct me if I’m wrong, but while you’re perfectly able to take care of yourself when you’re Hikari, when you’re Dawn, you don’t have access to any of your abilities. That makes you vulnerable. And if the world were to know—”
“Oh.” She paused. “I…well, you’re not wrong, but I wasn’t thinking about that. I was thinking about you.”
I blinked.
Of course. Marty didn’t just know who Dawn was. Marty knew that I was Faultline. And if he told that to the police, it could easily lead to jail time. Unlike the drones, I didn’t have the excuse of being under mind control. The impact that would have on my sisters…
“You know, you’re not very good at convincing me here,” I said, voice flat.
“Okay.” Dawn paused, then nodded. “Then try to think about it from this angle. Putting ethical and legal reasons aside, there are logical issues here. In the short term…I mean, there isn’t even a bathroom in that room. And unfortunately, what may work on The Flash doesn’t always work in real life.”
“Works on the what?”
“Never mind. Then think about the long term. What are we going to do? Keep him there forever? Feed him protein bars for the rest of his life?”
I winced. Talk about cruel and unusual punishment.
“Yeah, you’re right,” I said, rubbing my forehead. “Not to mention the police. If I managed to figure out where Marty was hiding, chances are they’ll be able to connect the dots eventually.”
“And moving him elsewhere—” Dawn began.
“Would be complicated even if I had a place to put him, which I don’t,” I finished, then shook my head. “Fuck.”
And she had thought I was so smart.
“I can understand where you’re coming from. It just…I can’t, Alex.”
She pulled up her phone again and began to dial.
“Wait,” I interrupted again, r
aising a hand instead of grabbing at her. Dawn paused and looked up.
“What about Amity?” I asked. “She erased everyone else’s minds. Hell, she pretty much reprogrammed that Dana Peterson guy. Why not Marty? Have you seen her since” — I winced— “Everything?
“Briefly.” Dawn scowled. Now there was an expression I’d never seen on her face. In all fairness, Amity had that kind of effect on everyone. “But that was weeks ago. And she didn’t leave any contact information.”
Damn.
“Well, I know she interacted with some of the staff at Colossus,” I said. “Maybe I can track her down. If I had some time…say, a few weeks.”
“No,” Dawn said with a level of firmness I was more used to hearing out of Hikari. “That’s too long. When you put something off for that long…it becomes normal. Easier to forget that it’s a problem. Easier to just keep on going.”
That was a loaded statement.
“Forty-eight hours,” she said, finally.
“Dawn. You’re not giving me that much time. You’re asking—”
“A lot, I know…but you’re asking a lot of me too.”
Ah, right. Dawn, who had been abducted not once, but twice. Makes sense that she would hesitate to do the same to someone else, even if it was in her interest. Me on the other hand…
Nothing to strain that conscience of yours, Amity had said. It had taken a lot more than I expected before I had felt any kind of strain.
“Well, some time is better than no time, I guess.” I paused to run my fingers through my hair. “Okay, I’m gonna see if I can contact my coworkers from Colossus. Maybe track down some of the drones.”
If they could remember me. I was starting to suspect that Amity had erased more than Dawn’s secret identity from their minds.
“And call me if you think there’s anything I can do to help.” Dawn began to turn away, then paused. “I…don’t want you to think I’m not grateful though.” She dropped her gaze. “For looking out for me.”
I felt a smile crack at the side of my mouth. “Well, as you pointed out, it’s not like he doesn’t know who I am either,” I said. “We’re in this together, right?”
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