Superluminary (Powered Destinies Book 1)

by Olivia Rising

  “Yes?” he said, irritable, already knowing he wouldn’t like what was he would hear.

  An unfamiliar male voice responded. “Hello, Radiant.” Another one of Gentleman’s henchmen, he assumed.

  “Make it quick. I’m in public.”

  “That’s fine. It’s a simple message from the boss.” The words were in flawless, accent-free American English.

  Andrey scanned the hallway to ensure he wouldn’t be overheard. “What is it?”

  “He’ll miss his favorite hero if you make the mistake of going home and getting yourself killed.”

  Andrey’s grip on the phone tightened. After Aura’s warning only minutes ago, the words didn’t startle him. It was the unknown caller’s mention of ‘home’ that caught him off guard.

  “You’ll need to be more specific,” he said, stepping away from the suite door so Rune’s team wouldn’t overhear him. “I’ve got more than one place.”

  Please, God, please don’t refer to the house where I was raised. He knew that his mother would be at his childhood home in Trubino right now.

  “I’ll give you a little background, since you’re being so nice and all. Super-powered hit squads are forming as we speak. You know, the usual. Angry guys who need cash. There’s a lot of cash on your head, as you know.” The caller’s smug voice made Andrey want to punch a wall.

  “Who the hell is this?” he hissed.

  “That doesn’t concern you. What concerns you is that Data has traced one of those hit squads to Moscow, and the boss wants you to know they’re not connected to us. So our deal’s still on, got it?”

  Moscow.

  Despite his hatred for Gentleman, Andrey believed what the caller said. People were at his Moscow apartment, setting a trap for him. The scenario matched Aura’s prediction.

  He scanned the hotel corridor again without seeing anyone. “Who are they?” he demanded.

  “That’s all the information I’m authorized to give you. If you want more, you have to offer something in return.”

  “I’ll decline.”

  No deals with the devil.

  “Have it your way.” With that, the call ended.

  Andrey felt a chill as he lowered the phone from his ear. If the assassins didn’t locate him, they might do what Gentleman had done—bait the hero by going after his family.

  He tucked that damn phone away in his costume while walking to the nearest window. As he pulled his helmet on, he noticed movement in the stairwell to his left. A man in a business outfit appeared at the top of the stairs and gasped, frozen in his tracks by the sight of the costumed hero.

  Radiant was in no mood for fans or worse, haters. The instant the helmet’s mechanism snapped shut at his temples, he beamed himself through the window into Liverpool’s steely-gray sky, heading west. He toyed with the idea of going back to his Moscow apartment to grab his most important belongings, but the thought of Aura’s warning and Crashbang’s words held him back.

  The last time she said someone’s aura went black, she was watching the Traveler on the news. Radiant remembered all too well what had happened to the popular Australian Evolved.

  He couldn’t dismiss the mystery caller’s message, either. Someone was waiting at his Moscow apartment to kill him. He couldn’t go back there now, not even to retrieve the data stick with all the notes and research he accumulated over the past few years.

  Damn it all to hell.

  The idea of his enemies getting access to the information on that stick was repulsive to him. The confidential contact information of potential allies was stored on it, along with drafts of possible action plans for himself and a number of Evolved who might join his cause. The stick also contained facts and observations to complement the powers lists he compiled, information about Covenant informers, and notes about Sarina Baumann. Now all of that would fall into an unidentified villain group’s hands. He growled in frustration.

  The first speed of light jump took him to an abandoned field in northern Kazakhstan, as good a place as any to make an urgent call. He only had to rid himself of the possibly bugged phone first.

  Down.

  Dropping to an altitude of a few feet above ground, he let Gentleman’s cell phone drop from his hand. It landed in a patch of grass next to a triangular rock formation.

  If you’re tracking me, I want to know what you make of this.

  With that done, he beamed himself back up, putting distance between the device and himself. The call he was about to make was too important to let any villains eavesdrop. When he was reasonably sure that he was clear of the bugs’ range, he activated his helmet and was rewarded with Iris’s familiar boot-up sequence.

  Hurry up already.

  He had to talk to Stepan. Now. Had to make sure he didn’t disappoint his brother. Again.

  The wind rippled across the thin spandex of his costume, reminding him of his vulnerability here. Now that he had lost Saint’s protection, a single bullet could end his life in an instant. It was a weakness he shared with most Evolved.

  Iris’s voice chimed in his ear, using a timbre painfully similar to Athena’s. “Three hundred and seventy-nine new stored broadcasts.”

  He shut his eyes in longing. His desire to speak to Alexandra in person had never been stronger. She would have said all the right words, would have identified all the flaws in his plans, and set him on the right track.

  He forced himself back to reality. “Iris, establish a connection with Stepan.” Long seconds passed before the AI’s confirmation. “Connection established with home phone. Secure line detected.”

  A wave of relief washed over him. “Stepan? Is everything all right with you and yours?”

  “Andrey?” his brother returned, instantly on edge. “Why? Should I be worried about something? Because this morning you said we’d have a couple of days—”

  “We’ve got to move quicker than that. I don’t have time to explain. Grab Alena and Denis and get out of there. Now.”

  “For Christ’s sake, Andrey, I don’t think Alena can take any more—”

  “Stepan, shut up and listen to me! Get out of there now. Take the car, or get on a bus. Whatever. But leave the city, all right? And call Mama, and tell her to pack a bag. Only the essentials. I’ll be with her in a few minutes.”

  “God damn it, Andrey. Fine. If there’s any chance the same thing will happen again, we’ll leave.” A muffled ruckus was heard on the other end of the line as Stepan informed Alena of his brother’s call. Radiant’s heart went out to the woman when he heard her wail in despair.

  You’ll be able to feel safe again soon. I promise. He clenched his fingers into fists to keep them from twitching.

  When Stepan came back on the line, his voice was flat and weary. “Okay, Andrey, we’re going. I’ll call Mama now.”

  “Good. You better be on the move when I call your cell in five minutes.”

  Hang in there, baby brother. It’s for your own good.

  It was only a precaution at this point, but Radiant couldn’t take any more chances with his family’s safety. Especially now that he knew yet another villain group was alive and well in Moscow, out for his blood. He had to get in touch with Calavera to accelerate the evacuation plan.

  The plan had changed since the voicemail he left for the Mexican hero earlier in the morning. The assassins were probably in his apartment already, leering at pictures of Natalya and rifling through what was left of their personal belongings.

  He reached for the silver cross, but realized it was absent from around his neck. He assumed the villains would gain access to his home network now that Athena was no longer available to counter any infiltration attempts. Shutting everything down was the only way to deny them access.

  “Iris,” he said into his headset. “My apartments are no longer secure. I need you to terminate all home stations immediately.”

  “This process will deactivate communication with Olympus from all home stations,” the AI’s voice informed. “Proceed?�
��

  The question gave him pause. Olympus—Athena’s core server—was responsible for the routing of any and all communications with him, including phone calls from Calavera and his family. If he cut himself off from the server, he would also lose access to Athena. He wasn’t yet ready to face the possibility of never speaking to her again.

  What’s more, Olympus linked him to the secure database containing backups of all the data he accumulated during his hero career. Even if whoever was in his apartment right now took his memory stick, Andrey could recreate most of the files it contained within a day if he convinced someone with access to share the Olympus files with him. Without access, it was impossible for him to get that information back. The shutdown would undo years worth of work.

  “Can you recreate the access network from a new home base?” he asked, not yet knowing where this would to end. All he knew was that he needed to get his family to safety, somewhere beyond the reach of the shadows from his past.

  “Yes, if the requirements are met and the user’s identity is verified,” Iris confirmed.

  Radiant tapped a gloved finger against his helmet for emphasis. “I’m wearing you, Iris. How much more verification can you get?”

  “The process to recreate the access network to Olympus requires a higher level of identification.”

  Leave it to Athena to plan for every possible thing that could go wrong.

  “Will you be able to maintain all of my communication until a new home station is established?” he asked. “I need to make a few urgent calls.”

  “Only outgoing communication. Incoming queries are stored until access to Olympus is reestablished through a new home base.”

  That will have to do.

  Radiant’s helmet allowed him to call already established contacts, including Calavera and his family. He would have to get in touch with Rune soon, but that could wait until after the Luvkovs were out of harm’s way.

  “Proceed with the termination,” he said.

  “Termination in progress,” the AI confirmed.

  He never ceased to be amazed by how the AI ran even the most complicated of tasks no matter where he was located. Even from middle-of-nowhere Kazakhstan. “Establish a connection with Calavera for me, please.”

  “Connection established,” Iris confirmed. “Calling.”

  Please answer.

  He counted the seconds while he waited for the Latin American hero to pick up. He got to eight before he heard a click on the other end of the line.

  “Andrey? This is you?” a familiar male voice asked in broken English with a thick Spanish accent.

  “Hi, Calavera. Did you get my message?”

  “Ah, yes. You contacted me earlier. There is a problem?”

  Radiant did his best to focus on the conversation and shut out the images pulsing behind his closed eyelids. “You could say so, yes. I need to accelerate our evacuation plans. We can’t wait any longer. My family has to leave Russia immediately. Can you make it happen?”

  There was a pause before the Mexican hero spoke again. “Ah, that will be difficult. But yes, maybe. I need to make calls, too. For your entire family, sí? Three adults and a child?”

  “Yes.” Radiant’s voice nearly cracked on the word. He had other, more distant relatives in Trubino, but he knew they wouldn’t agree to an immediate evacuation. Convincing them was going to take more than an hour or two.

  “Moscow has two airports, no? Which one is better?”

  “Vnukovo is closest. I also need someone to drive a car out to Trubino where my mother lives.”

  “Okay, okay. My team makes preparations for private flight, okay? Tell the others to get to Vnukovo now, and I send a car to pick your mother up, yes?”

  Radiant recited his mother’s address, grateful for the secure line.

  “When all is done and everyone is safe, join me in my home,” Calavera urged. “We talk about favors then, sí? How you help us.”

  Radiant had a hunch about those returned favors. What Calavera and his teammate Spirit wanted the most was revenge for Saint, meaning they would ask Radiant to find Legion. The debts he owed wouldn’t distract him from his number one mission, though: finding Dancer.

  “I’ll need a place to stay as well,” he forced himself to admit. “It looks like there are powered assassins after me and this time they’re a bit more determined than the last bunch.”

  Calavera clicked his tongue. “Ah, that is not as easy as hiding regular people, sí? But for you, we can do. So two favors now, okay?”

  “Yes, okay. Thanks, Calavera.”

  “We talk soon, yes? Buena suerte, Andrey.”

  Radiant didn’t waste a moment after the call ended. He had to call his brother to make sure he was on the road to Vnukovo before reclaiming Gentleman’s goddamn phone.

  7.4 Beacon

  Valle de Bravo, Mexico

  Thursday, the 14th of June, 2012

  2:06 p.m.

  “Andrey, pay attention to any error messages that may pop up. I don’t know everything about Athena’s code, but I know enough to tell if it’s going to explode in your face.” Kathy’s voice came through the phone without a shred of concern.

  “You’re enjoying this,” Andrey said, plugging a data transmission cable into the small socket at the back of his helmet. Iris confirmed the connection with a small blinking light on the side of his new desktop computer.

  “Of course. When does a humble IT systems manager ever get the chance to play with the toys of a goddess? Jeez, my job’s so boring.”

  “I wouldn’t consider a position as the Covenant’s systems manager boring.” Andrey wedged the phone between his shoulder and ear, double-checking the computer’s connection to the wall socket that used to be hidden behind a bookshelf and a retractable wall. He only knew about its existence because Calavera told him about it. Technomage, a rogue Technician who used to live in the area, had created the access point for the Latin American hero team a few months before she became one of Legion’s victims.

  “Tsk.” Kathy clicked her tongue over the line. “My job’s basically a glorified help desk worker. I replace parts, order new ones, and install boring system updates for the office sitters downstairs. Athena gets to do all the fun stuff.”

  Andrey adjusted the office chair’s height before reclining and bringing the phone to his ear.

  “…but she doesn’t let me touch any of the interesting parts,” Kathy rambled on, her voice flirtatious now. “She’s like you in that regard.”

  Andrey pinched the bridge of his nose between two fingers, thinking about giving a friendly yet firm reply to discourage her from rambling for the remainder of this call. He decided to leave it alone. “Should we proceed with the set-up?” he asked. “The connection looks fine on my end.”

  “Go ahead, Toymaster. Give Iris the command to run the Genesis initiation sequence. Big Sister is watching.”

  “Okay. Keep your fingers crossed.”

  He pulled his helmet onto his head and felt its familiar mechanisms click into place. Within moments, Iris filled his ears with her faint hum of activity and the visor lit up before his eyes.

  “Iris,” he said. “Initiate Genesis sequence for connected base.”

  “Scanning new base,” the AI replied. “Resources exceed required specifications. Continue with identity verification?”

  “Yes.” Andrey braced himself for whatever sort of physiological authentication Athena had contrived. Retina scans and movement sensors were child’s play to her. No, he suspected this would be something foolproof, something far more personal. He hoped Kathy wasn’t able to hear.

  The visor darkened before flashing a variety of color hues. Light brown and black. Smooth and coarse. A millisecond later, the image—whatever it was—disappeared. His body reacted immediately to whatever it was that his brain was too slow to recognize, and his pulse throbbed while blood rushed to his groin.

  Light brown skin. Supple curves. Mounds of black curls. Alexandra, as
only he knew her.

  “Familiar reaction pattern detected,” Iris chimed. “Exact pupil dilation and pulse acceleration confirmed. Genesis will now initiate.”

  Breathing hard now, Andrey barely heard the words. A long moment after the projected image had vanished from his visor, he remembered to remove the helmet while lines and lines of computer code filled the screen in front of him.

  He dropped his helmet onto the desk. The distant sound of Kathy’s bellowing voice came from his upturned phone, reminding him that he was still having a conversation, so he brought it to within a few inches of his ear.

  “…messages on the screen? Hello? Earth to Andrey? I know you moved to Mexico, but this isn’t the time for a siesta. Comprende?”

  He swallowed. “I’m here.”

  Kathy’s voice dropped to a normal conversational volume. “You sound strange. Are you feeling all right?”

  “Yes, fine. I think the initiation sequence is triggered. I passed Athena’s identity test.”

  “Oh, what did she invent this time?” There was a moment of silence as Kathy answered her own question. “Oh, wait. Oh, no, tell me she didn’t!” she squealed, dissolving into a fit of laughter.

  Andrey squirmed in his seat, rubbing the back of his neck. This was exactly why he didn’t usually ask for Kathy’s help.

  “You heroes are such perverts!” Her mock terror triggered a pang of regret.

  I’m not a hero anymore, remember?

  “Um, do I need to do anything on my end? Set-up-wise, I mean?” he asked, wanting to get on with the task at hand. He watched as the updates flickered across the screen, moving too fast for him to make sense of them.

  “No, it’s all moving along fine from what I can see. Do you have a progress bar or anything?”

  Andrey glanced to the bottom of the screen. “It says overall progress is at seven percent.”

  “We have lots of time for a chat, then.”

  Andrey pinched the bridge of his nose again. “Are you sure? You must be busy right now arranging the Covenant’s new headquarters and everything, right?”