by Lucas Flint
“Easy,” said Camel. He nodded at me. “The kid here let us know about your legally questionable dealings. So Jake and I, being the good little law-abiding crusaders of justice that we are, did a little investigation, and boy did we find some gold in them thar hills, didn’t we, Jake?”
“Enough to make Fort Knox look like nothing,” said Jake.
Camel chuckled. “See, Jake, you’re finally catching on to my way of looking at things. Anyway, we did some investigation into some of Munroe Acquisitions’ business practices and discovered quite a few interesting things. Like taxes that don’t match your tax filings, hiring known criminals like ZZZ to take out your rivals … stuff that the Department of Justice would be very interested in hearing about, especially in court.”
Sasha’s face suddenly became pale, like a strange illness had come over her. “You’re not serious.”
“Jake and I are one hundred percent serious, gal,” said Camel brightly. “But we decided to pay you a visit and see if we could talk to you about some of our findings. We wanted to see if maybe you had a good reason for some of the things we’ve found or some information that might help put something like hiring an internationally-known assassin into context for us. Your secretary was adamant about not letting us up, but one thing I’ve discovered in my time as a government agent is that you can get anyone to let you do anything if you threaten to sic the IRS on them.”
He held up his phone, which showed some type of recording app on its screen. “So when Jake and I came up, we overheard you and Beams having your little dramatic confrontation here. Not only did we hear you admit to even worse crimes than we found, but we also recorded the whole thing on this nifty little audio recording app on my phone. I’m sure that the judge who takes this case will be more than happy to listen to you explain, in detail, how you forced a man to sell his business to you and then tried to convince a teenager who isn’t even legally an adult yet to commit murder. Might make a great listen to on his morning commute, better than those audiobooks Jake likes to listen to, anyway.”
Jake merely rolled his eyes at that little jab, but Sasha, on the other hand, looked like she was on the verge of a mental breakdown. Her face had become so pale that she might have died already and become a ghost. She was even trembling in her chair.
“So,” Camel continued, as if he was talking about the weather, “if you would just come with us quietly, we could handle all of this simply and without too much fuss.”
Sasha bit her lower lip. She looked to the left and to the right, like she was trying to find a way out, but there was only one doorway in her office and Agents Camel and Jake were currently blocking it off.
“Well, what about those two?” said Sasha, pointing at the Silent Shadow and Greta. “Those two are the Silent Shadow and the Golden City Robber. Are you going to arrest them, too?”
Camel looked at the Silent Shadow and Greta. “Really? Well, I guess we will, given how they’re both also—”
“Takeshi!” Sasha shouted. “Smoke bombs! Now!”
Without warning, Takeshi threw half a dozen small smoke bombs at us. The smoke bombs exploded when they hit the floor; and by exploded, I really do mean exploded. Smoke shot out of the bombs, instantly blocking off our sight. Everyone except me started hacking and coughing; the only reason I wasn’t was because my helmet’s filter kept my air clean. But the smoke was still too thick for me to see through; it was like standing in the middle of a thick fog. I couldn’t even seen James, who had been standing right next to me when the bombs went off, though I could hear his hacking and wheezing very well. I heard a smoke alarm going off, but no water rained from the ceiling. Luckily for Sasha, because that meant that the smoke would not be dissipated by the water.
Above the alarm and the hacking and wheezing from everyone, I thought I heard a door open, followed by a set of footsteps into someplace. Thinking it had to be Sasha and Takeshi fleeing, I rushed forward and suddenly emerged from the smoke cloud. Even outside the smoke cloud, there was still a lot of smoke, but at least I could now see Sasha’s desk.
It was empty. Neither Sasha nor Takeshi were anywhere to be seen; however, I did see an open doorway on the left wall, a doorway which I hadn’t noticed before. It must have been a hidden exit that allowed Sasha to leave her office without being seen, but given how she and Takeshi must have just left, I might still be able to catch up to them.
But though Sasha was not at her desk, Rubberman was. Unlike us, he had avoided the worst of the smoke bomb; however, he must have inhaled a good deal of it, because he was coughing and hacking, tears running down his face uncontrollably as he wiped them with his hands. The pen with which he had signed the contract selling away his business was on the floor, though Rubberman was still sitting on his chair, one hand grabbing the desk for support and the other on his stomach as he coughed and wheezed like a sick man.
“Boss, are you all right?” I said as I rushed over to Rubberman. “Were you hurt?”
“No,” said Rubberman in a hoarse voice. He nodded toward the secret exit. “Sasha just fled through there. Takeshi, too. Don’t know where they’re going, but we have to go after them.”
“We?” I said. “But boss, you’re still coughing up a storm. You should stay—”
“I’m fine, Beams,” said Rubberman, more sharply than I expected. “Don’t worry about me. Worry about Sasha and what I’ll do to her once I catch her.”
With that, Rubberman rose from his feet and rushed toward the secret exit. I followed him as best as I could, wondering if I was going to have to stop Rubberman from murdering Sasha once we found her. I suppose I would … unless I killed her first.
CHAPTER TWENTY
The secret exit was smokeless and well-lit, meaning that I could actually see where I was going, while Rubberman was coughing less, his eyes drier than they were out in the office itself. The secret exit was fairly narrow, with barely enough room for us to run side by side; this made me worry about how we would fight Takeshi if we caught up with him and Sasha, but I supposed I would worry about that when we got there. For now, we needed to catch them.
At the end of the hall was a set of elevator doors that were currently closed. Skidding to a halt, we looked up at the elevator’s display and saw that the number was rapidly decreasing.
“Damn it,” I said, punching my fist into my other hand. “Sasha and Takeshi must be in the elevator already. How much do you want to bet that they have a getaway car waiting for them below?”
Rubberman looked to the left and to the right, but then scowled. “No stairs, either. Looks like this is Sasha’s private elevator, designed so she could make quick escapes just like this. That bitch.”
“What should we do?”
“Turn around and go down the main elevator,” said Rubberman in frustration. “I can’t force these elevator doors open, and by the time it comes back up here, Sasha and Takeshi will be long gone.”
“But that’s going to take forever to do, especially since we’ll have to go through the smoke,” I said. I looked at the elevator doors suddenly. “Wait, I’ve got a better idea. Stand back.”
Rubberman took a few steps backwards. Once he was a safe distance away from the elevator, I fired my lasers in a continuous, controlled beam of energy at the doors. Carefully, I cut a large hole in the elevator doors. My lasers cut through the metal doors without any problem in a neat circle. It probably looked easy to Rubberman, but for me, it required my utmost concentration, because if I didn’t do this right, I could end up making our situation even harder than it already was.
Finally, when I had completed the circle, I cut off my lasers and punched the circle in the center of the doors. The circle fell out of the hole backwards into the elevator shaft, but I didn’t wait to hear it hit the elevator car below. I just grabbed both sides of the hole and, gathering all of my strength, I forced the elevator doors opened. With nothing to lock them together, the doors slid to the side easily, revealing a dark, empty elevator shaft w
ith moving cables.
“Wow, Beams,” said Rubberman in approval. “Good thinking. That would never have occurred to me, though I guess it’s because I don’t have laser beams.”
I was about to reply that it was nothing, but then Rubberman’s eyes flicked upward and he grimaced. “Oh no.”
I looked up at the elevator display and saw that it now showed ‘1,’ which meant that the elevator car had reached the bottom of the building. At the same time, the moving cables immediately stilled. That meant we likely had only seconds before Sasha emerged from the elevator and escaped into her escape car, which was likely awaiting her below.
“Beams, what are you doing?” said Rubberman. “Come on! We don’t have much time!”
Rubberman jumped out into the elevator shaft, caught one of the cables, and then went down it like a fireman going down a fire pole. I hesitated for only a split second before following. I leaped into the elevator shaft, grabbed one of the cables, and held on tightly. I had never done something like this before; the best I could think of was gym class when the coach would have us climb the rope connected to the ceiling, but this was about going down, not up.
Still, I realized the trick was to hold on, but not too tightly, and soon I was rushing down into the darkness just behind Rubberman, who was looking down the whole way as we descended. The heat from running my hands against the cables would have absolutely shredded my bare hands, but thanks to the material of my costume covering my arms and hands, all it did was feel uncomfortably warm.
But soon—much sooner than I expected—the top of the elevator car came into view below. Rubberman looked up at me briefly and shouted, “Shoot your lasers! Now!”
I immediately understood what he meant. I looked straight down and fired a powerful blast of energy directly at the roof of the elevator car below. The blast struck the car head on, but it didn’t leave a hole. It just left a smoking crater, but when Rubberman and I slammed into it at about the same time, we crashed through the smoking crater as easily as paper. We landed on our feet inside the elevator car itself; me doing a three point landing to soften the fall, Rubberman bouncing slightly when he landed on his feet.
“Boss, are you okay?” I asked, looking up at him.
Rubberman nodded, but then suddenly pointed and said, “There she is!”
Looking in the direction in which he pointed, I saw that the elevator doors were open. Beyond the elevator doors, Sasha Munroe was running to a fancy-looking new blue car. The door passenger door was open and I could see a driver sitting there, waiting for Sasha to get into the car. I was vaguely aware that this elevator had opened out into the street behind the Munroe Acquisitions headquarters, where no one could see Sasha rushing to her getaway car. It was a smart move, but not smart enough.
Rubberman and I rushed out the doors, but just as we exited the elevator, someone jumped down from above and landed in our path. We skid to a stop as the person rose to their feet, blocking our path to Sasha.
It was Takeshi, still wearing his full ninja garb. He also held two throwing stars in his hands and stood in a fighting stance, his deadly blue eyes daring us to try to get past him.
“Takeshi,” I said, glaring at him. “Get out of the way or else.”
“No,” said Takeshi firmly. “I gave Miss Munroe my word that I would delay you for as long as I could. I don’t even have to beat you. As long as Miss Munroe is able to escape in her car, I will see my mission as a success, even if I end up in prison myself.”
Damn it. I hadn’t realized just how loyal Takeshi was to Sasha. He kind of reminded me of Adams, who was just as loyal to Rubberman, if not more so. If I’d had more time, I might have thought more about the parallels between Sasha and Rubberman, because they were a lot more similar to each other than I initially thought.
But I had no time for self-reflection. I fired twin laser blasts at Takeshi, but Takeshi leaped into the air and threw his ninja stars at us. Rubberman and I separated, jumping to the sides to avoid the stars as they embedded themselves into the concrete before us. Rubberman, however, extended his arm toward Takeshi, grabbed his leg, and then slammed him down on the ground like a rag doll. I heard something crack horribly when Takeshi hit the concrete, and for a moment, I thought that Rubberman had actually killed the guy in cold blood he was so still. Given the surprised expression on his face, I could guess that Rubberman felt the same.
Then, however, Takeshi groaned and slowly rose back to his feet. The impact of the crash had loosened his mask, showing more of his face, which was now bloodier than before. He stood awkwardly, leaning over slightly as if his back was too broken to support his upper body. Yet he did not cry or whine. He just stood there, breathing heavily, glaring at us from under his mask. He barely seemed to be aware of the pain he had to be experiencing; either that, or he was simply ignoring it.
“No way,” said Rubberman, sounding genuinely shocked. “You shouldn’t even be standing.”
“It was quite … painful, but certainly not the worst injury I’ve ever experienced,” said Takeshi, shaking his head. He wiped away a bit of blood from the corner of his eye. “All I need to do is endure long enough for Miss Munroe to escape. Nothing else matters.”
Takeshi was right. Sasha was nearly to her car now. If we didn’t beat Takeshi soon, then she’d escape and we might never catch her again.
Rubberman must have been thinking the same thing, because he looked at me and said, “Beams, go after Sasha! I’ll distract Takeshi.”
I nodded, closed my eyes, and fired my lasers into my eyelids. The beams bounced off my eyelids back into my brain and suddenly I felt power flowing through my whole body, like I’d just received an extra strong adrenaline boost.
My eyes snapped open and I jumped high into the air. Takeshi looked like he was going to jump after me, but then one of Rubberman’s fists flew toward him, forcing Takeshi to jump to the side to avoid getting punched in the face.
As for me, the momentum of my jump allowed me to fly over Takeshi. I flew over Sasha, who was nearly to her car, and landed on the roof of her car with a small crunch upon impact. As soon as I landed on the roof of the car, the driver’s door opened and the driver himself fled, screaming loudly about how he hadn’t signed up for this.
Not that I paid him much attention. I whirled around and jumped off the car roof, landing on the ground in front of Sasha. She came to an abrupt halt and nearly lost her balance, but managed to catch herself at the last second. She stepped backwards, her eyes burning with hate and fear.
“You can certainly jump very high, boy,” said Sasha, breathing hard; she probably wasn’t used to running so much. She was even sweating. “Too bad you’re wasting that talent trying to catch me.”
“It’s over, Sasha,” I said, ignoring her comments. “We have all the proof we need to throw you into prison for the rest of your sorry life. Rubberman is going to take down Takeshi and then you’ll have no allies left. Might as well come quietly. You have nowhere else to go.”
Sasha looked from me to Takeshi and Rubberman (who were still fighting) and back again, clearly trying to find some way to escape. But I knew she was intelligent enough to realize that she was the cornered one now. If I’d had the time, I probably would have reflected on how quickly our positions changed. Less than five minutes ago, she had held all the power over me, but now I held the power over her. It was a satisfying thought.
A large shadow suddenly fell over me. I looked over my shoulder and saw a large, hulking brute of a man on the roof of the car where I had been standing previously. The man was huge, probably about a head taller than me, and he was built like a brick wall. At first, I thought it was the Silent Shadow, but then I noticed that the man was wearing a blue t-shirt filled with holes and jeans frayed at his feet, which were shoe-less.
Without warning, the man jumped down and wrapped his arms around my body. With a gasp of pain, I was lifted up off the ground in the man’s arms. I struggled to break free, but he held me like steel
clamps. All I could do was uselessly kick against his legs, blows he didn’t even seem to feel, because he didn’t cry out in pain or even grunt.
“What the hell?” I said, trying to turn my head around to see the man, though I couldn’t due to the fact that he held me against his chest. “Who is this? One of your servants, Sasha?”
Sasha, on the other hand, had taken a couple of steps back. She was also holding her nose shut with her fingers, a disgusted look on her face. “Ew, no. My men never smell that bad.”
“Smells bad …?” I looked down at the huge arms holding me and noticed how decayed the flesh was.
As soon as I realized who this man really worked for, I heard an insane laugh to my right and looked over in that direction. The Necromantress stood several feet away, her arms crossed in front of her chest, an amused and evil grin on her face.
“Excellent work, Bruno,” said the Necromantress to the zombie currently holding me. “Caught the boy before he even knew you were there. The Necromantress is quite pleased.”
The zombie, apparently known as Bruno, said nothing; nonetheless, I sensed that it was pleased to be praised by its mistress. I wondered how zombies could possibly even feel pleasure, but maybe there was more to zombies than I thought.
In any case, it was irrelevant to the fact that the zombie was currently in a position to either squeeze the life out of me or snap me in two. I didn’t know how strong it was, exactly, but given its implacable hold on me, I had no doubt it could do both of those things at once if it wanted.
“Necromantress,” said Sasha, looking over at the Necromantress with a smile (though she still held her nose shut). “I thought you were still fighting Heroes United with the Vigilante Legion across the street.”