We left the zoo through the gate into the park proper, and passed through a trestled arch covered in flowering vines, or a bush doing an impression of a vine. Xiv sneezed. "What's that smell?"
"Probably the flowers," I said.
"Smells like powder."
"That'd be the pollen."
"I'm getting tired," Stephanie said.
"Can you make it to the car, or do we need to find a hiding spot?"
"I should be good to get back to the car, if we don't dawdle."
"All right. Xiv, you heard what she said, it's time to get going." Xiv frowned, but he fell in beside me as I steered Stephanie towards the side gate. His tendency to not stand upright most of the time made me forget that he really had grown as tall as I was. Heading along the sidewalk, I found where I'd parked the car and helped Stephanie into the front seat. Xiv climbed into the back as I walked around to the driver's side.
"Thank you so much," Xiv said, giving Stephanie a hug from behind. He reverted to his normal appearance with his head pressed against the back of the car seat. Realizing he wasn't disguised anymore, he let go and crawled under the blanket on his seat.
"You're welcome," Stephanie said, sounding quite exhausted.
"I thank you too," I said.
"Oh, just drive. I need to get some rest. We have to swing by the base and get changed, then head on back to Sterling Towers."
"Oh?"
"The board wants to talk to us."
"Both of us?"
"Just drive."
I hadn't realized how long it had been since I'd been in my full Shadowdemon costume until I was attaching the last gadgets. I'd left most of them off for the birthday party, since it didn't seem right to go loaded for bear. I thought about Donny's comment about pockets and went through the options. Belt, harness, bandoleer? I pushed the question off and met Ixa, who stood by the exit to the residential dome. I could hear Xiv excitedly rambling about our trip to the zoo to Nick as we left. Poor Nick.
The drive to downtown wasn't fun, but fortunately, Sterling Towers had parking garage, so I didn't have to hunt for an unoccupied meter. The security checkpoint wasn't much of a hassle, and we were soon on our way up tower two.
"So, what's this meeting about?" I asked.
"The team, and its future. I don't presume that you'll be off active duty forever, so I figure you should be there."
"It hasn't been that long, and Doctor Lindenbaum has to justify his salary somehow."
"Are you really blaming this on him?"
I sighed. "No. The only person who can be faulted is me." I couldn't see her shift in expression behind the jade mask, but something happened. The elevator stopped near the top of the tower, and I followed Ixa past the receptionist. I knew this floor, I'd been here when I gave the disastrous pitch for the Gruefield base. Luckily, my inarticulate flailing didn't sink the idea, and the written proposal was followed through on. An unassuming, bespectacled man in a tweed suit waited for us outside the board room. Of course, it was no secret, even to the public, that Cecil Townsend was Neutrino. He'd been in the business before hiding your identity was commonplace.
"You're late," Townsend said.
"By two minutes." Ixa opened the door as Townsend walked through the wall. I guess if you don't have to worry about doors, why would you. Townsend joined the other four elected members of the board along one side of the long table as Ixa sat opposite them. I took the chair next to her. I could put names to two of the five board members, Cecil Townsend and Berthold Edgars - Neutrino and Torquespiral. The other three were equally senior members of the community. There was a woman, a man who'd previously joked about pitching baseballs through concrete, and an Asian man who hadn't said anything last time. He didn't look any more chatty now.
"You requested this meeting?" the woman asked.
"Yes," Ixa said. "There are two items I wanted to discuss. There is the matter of starting the process to replace two of our team members, who will be leaving for college in a few months. And I'd like a definitive answer on the matter of Photovolt. Is he actually assigned to the team, or are those half dozen references in error?"
"Until you have selected candidates, the first is not a matter for the board," Townsend said.
"Actually, we would like to use the Fund resources to find candidates to fill the traineeship being vacated by Cupric. We know who we want to replace Blue Streak, but the other opening is more up in the air."
"And the Fund receives a mountain of sidekick applications every year," Torquespiral said. "I don't think that requires a board vote to let you coordinate your search with them. So I'm afraid he was right about that not being a matter for the board."
"Before you brush it off entirely, by a vote of four to zero, the team would like to add the eighth Baron Mortis to our roster."
"You held the vote without me?" I asked.
"It said active members."
"By my reading of the charter," Townsend said, "Being an inactive member of the team is not the same as being suspended from active duty. He still gets a vote."
"It's five-zero," I said. "I was going to call the vote when I was reinstated anyway."
"Very well," Torquespiral said. "It will be on the agenda for the next meeting. You'll have your answer by next week."
"And Photovolt?"
"He was suspended for dereliction of duty," Townsend said.
"Unilaterally - by you," the baseball man said.
"If the board sees fit to reinstate him," Townsend said. "I will not interfere. However, this won't make him a member of your team. He was assigned to your base of operations as technical support. Membership is still governed by the process laid out in your charter."
"So he has been hanging around the base?" I asked.
"It is not our place to reveal the civilian identity of a Fund member," Townsend said.
"That means yes, but we can't say who it is," Torquespiral said.
"It's not like he's speaking another language," the baseball man said. "You don't have to translate Neutrino to Earthling for us."
"With any luck, I won't be re-elected, and I won't have to put up with you any more," Townsend said.
"With that attitude, you're a shoo-in." Torquespiral started to stand, but the woman spoke up.
"Keyes," she said. Torquespiral sat down again.
"Care to elaborate?" Ixa asked.
"Irvin Keyes," the woman said. "Since he turned up in that alley, he's been a patient at our sanatorium. But that was never meant as a long term care facility."
"He also needs normal human interaction," Torquespiral said.
"Normal humans are hard to find in the Community," baseball man said. The rest of the board shot him a venomous look.
"Poorly timed jokes aside," Townsend said, "He also needs to be someplace where he can't cause collateral damage. We want to house him in Gruefield for the time being."
"You do know he's a telepath who can see through this flimsy disguise?" I waved my hand in the general direction of my mask. "You'd be revealing the entire team's identities to someone who isn't even a part of the community. It seems a bit hypocritical after our discussion about Photovolt."
"That's why it's a request and not a dictate," Torquespiral said. "You can say no."
"We can't answer without bringing the matter up with everyone at the base - Photovolt and the sidekicks included," Ixa said.
"Of course."
"Ixahau," Townsend said. "Would you mind waiting outside? There is something we need to discuss with Shadowdemon alone." Ixa had another expression change mostly hidden by her mask, but left the room without complaint.
"What is it? And why did Ixa have to leave."
"Doctor Lindenbaum issued a preliminary report," Torquespiral said. "There were
no details, of course, given the subject matter."
Townsend cut him off. "He said he doubted that your acute symptoms would return, but that there were underlying issues with deeper roots that needed to be addressed."
"Is there anyone at this table who doesn't have 'issues'?" I asked. They sat quietly for a moment.
"No," Townsend said. "Which is probably why most of them voted to allow you to return to limited duty - provided you continue to see Doctor Lindenbaum."
"How limited is limited?" I asked.
"You will not be eligible to resume leadership functions, and you are not permitted to conduct solo field work. And a sidekick does not count for the latter condition."
"I understand," I said. I kept my exterior calm, but the back of my mind was having a shouting match about how badly this was going to go.
"Will you abide by these conditions?"
"Yes," I said.
Torquespiral pressed a button on the intercom. "Please send Ixahau back in." When she sat down again, the board explained the limits they'd put on me.
"I'd been hoping to get out of the team leader role," she said. "But I'll take this as a sign he's getting better anyway."
"Don't worry," I said. "No one wants to be team lead. Too much paperwork."
"Speaking of paperwork," Ixa said. "I know what I can assign you to. You can sift through sidekick candidates to replace Cupric."
"Oh?"
"No interviews, just go through the files and find the ones you think best the the team so we can decide who we want to talk to."
"Joy," I said flatly. "I assume someone is going to reactivate my login to the fund network?"
Ensconced in my office across from the trophy room, I saw way too many smiling faces of people ranging from their late teens to way to young for this sort of thing. As I summarily dismissed a ten year old, I was reminded of the fact that I became a sidekick at nine. I couldn't stop begging Mom, and she eventually caved. Of course, I never went anywhere without either Jack or Dad watching over me. And they never took me on any of the actually dangerous missions. The reaction I got was usually a short laugh, then the slow realization that if there was an obvious sidekick facing them down, then a heavy hitter was somewhere nearby. At the time I didn't realize they were laughing at me. I was a stupid kid.
I almost laughed when Nikki Greeler came up on the list. She was technically still young enough to become a sidekick, but after our past encounters, I doubted the team would accept her. On the other hand, she was smart, and capable enough to ambush half the team. On the third hand, she almost gave Xiv a concussion. The image of her shooting him with a tear gas shell and pistol whipping him into unconsciousness crossed through my mind. I dismissed her as a candidate. Shooting me with rubber bullets was one thing, but there are some things I can't overlook.
"Did Ixa get you reinstated to handle all of our paperwork?" Nora asked, looking over the top of my monitor.
"No, but she took advantage of the opportunity to do so."
"Are you really trying to replace me with Donny?"
"You're not being replaced, we're trying to add him to the roster because you're leaving anyway. Besides, nepotism and cronyism are the foundation on which the Community was built."
"That's horrible."
"Blame Jack's niece, she's the one who said it to me."
"I don't really know her," Nora said.
"Are you going to help me sort candidates, or just stare creepily over my computer?"
"I was gonna get bored and wander off."
"You do tha-" She was gone before I finished my sentence.
Part 13
The alley was dark, but I was dreaming, so I saw every piece of debris as if it were lit. Rattling between trash cans, I felt only rage. The empty plastic drums bonged deeply. The garbagemen had come by already. A white speck glided through the starry sky. My gaze zoomed in to see the roughly triangular form of Xiv's outstretched wings. He swooped down into the alley and gawped at me. I wiped the stupid look off his face with a fist. He dropped back into a crouch and belched fire at me. I sidestepped the gout of flame and backhanded him into the brick wall. Jack crashed into the pavement behind me. I didn't wait for 'Mister Thirty-Eight' to engage, I wove through the deepest shadows and narrowest passages to evade him. There are some fights not worth fighting.
I groggily opened my eyes shortly before Mini-Uth-sk began prodding my mind to full consciousness. I'd beaten my 'alarm' by a few minutes. I tried to shake the images from my memory, but it clung more tenaciously than dreams typically do. I must have been thinking about Nikki's attack on Xiv and the way Jack had played guardian angel during my sidekick days. I was sore from the position I'd been sleeping in, and wandered into the shower. Despite waking up before I had to, it felt like I hadn't gotten nearly enough sleep. I tried not to think too hard about it. Enough nights and my internal rhythm will be back in order.
I got dressed, headed down to the kitchen and started breakfast.
"Hey, you're up," Nick said.
"Morning," I grumbled.
"Look, I've been checking into our little car crash."
"Oh?"
"I finally got a meeting with the owner of the car that hit us."
"Fabian Baker?"
"Who told you?"
"Nikki Greeler of all people."
"Oh. Well, since you were there, and you're back on limited duty, I figured I'd see if you wanted to come along."
"I assume we're going as our civilian selves?"
"Of course. How else do you think I got him to agree to talk to us?"
"Sure, I'll come along."
Nick looked down at the cook top. "You're not making enough food. I think you're short your brother, Mister Thirty-Eight, and you."
"Thanks," I said as he moved to the blender with his name on it. Measuring out powdered beef blood, protein mix and water, Nick began mixing up his own breakfast. With the mess his condition made of his intestines, he had rather particular dietary concerns. I finished cooking breakfast as everyone else began wandering into the mess. It was their usual fare.
"Xiv, you look terrible," Jennifer said. I peered through the gap in the kitchen wall at the mess hall. The lids around his left eye were swollen partly shut and stained a pale blue.
"I hit a brick wall," he said.
Everyone stood around Xiv and Jack as they told the tale. "I spotted this - something - in an alley," Xiv said. "I don't know what it was. I think it was darkness. I flew down to get a closer look, and it hit me."
"I didn't see it at first," Jack said, "Because it blended in with the rest of the shadows in the alleyway. But I got a good look when Xiv lit the place up with his fire breath. It was either a living shadow, or one of Keyes' constructs. It ran off when I landed, and I was more concerned about checking on Xiv than chasing it down."
"I'm all right," Xiv said, forcing a smile. "I get hit harder during training."
"What's with the blue eye?" Jennifer asked.
"Xiv's blood is actually blue," I said. "We keep a supply of it on ice in case he needs a transfusion, because no one else can donate to him. If I had to guess, I'd say that's the equivalent of a black eye." My mind raced for an explanation of why my dream matched their story. Had I attacked them? No, I'd never attack Xiv. I'd rejected Nikki on the basis of that alone. Had I seen it remotely? How? Was it a side effect of having been plugged into the imager with Irvin and Serar? Jack said it looked like one of Irvin's constructs. Was there some sort of residual link? It wasn't adding up, I needed more information.
"We're going to stop by Vanguard as a precaution anyway," Jack said.
"They've reopened?"
"Yeah, once the extent of the damage was assessed, they closed off that part for repairs and reopened the rest."
&nb
sp; "How are you feeling?" I asked Xiv.
Gruefield 18 (Tarnished Sterling Omnibus) Page 76