Superheroes In Denim

by Lee French

  “My talents seem obvious to me,” Stephen said, “but put bluntly, I am good at being very difficult to kill, and incapacitating those who block my passage.”

  The suit nodded. “Alright, this is good enough for now. I’m pretty sure they’ll want to send you to a war zone to try to put a dent in the insurgency, but we’ll see.” He stood to leave the room. “Can I get you anything while you wait? It might be a few hours.”

  “I am kinda hungry,” Bobby nodded. “Whatever’s lying around is fine.”

  Stephen rolled his neck to the side, cracking it. “If you have any females willing to take one for the team, I could use a few pints.”

  “I’ll…” The guy frowned again and tucked the clipboard under one arm. “I’ll see what I can do.” He walked out, leaving them sitting in silence.

  On the way here Bobby saw the road signs, so he knew they’d come to Virginia. This wasn’t the same place he woke up in that lab a month ago. He knew nothing else about it so far. It seemed unlikely this house played a major role in Privek’s operation. He’d be stupid to send them to a location with strategic value.

  “Basement,” Stephen said after the door clicked shut.

  “Yeah, that’s my guess, too. Otherwise, they’d have more security for the ground floor.”

  Stephen stood and stretched. They’d both slept on the drive here, and hadn’t had a chance to walk around much since arriving in mid-morning. “I wonder how long they’ll keep us waiting.”

  Tired of sitting, Bobby followed suit and paced to the window. He pushed the gauzy white curtain aside and peered out. Hagen’s black SUV sat parked outside, no other vehicles in sight. “I wonder where they put the rest of the cars. Round the back, maybe, so it don’t look like there’s folks here so much.”

  “Makes sense to me. I suppose they’d get a little annoyed if we went snooping around.”

  “Probably.” Bobby shrugged. “Reckon they’re gonna ask us to take out terrorists? ”

  “Yes. I also expect they’ll use a very broad, overly inclusive definition of the word ‘terrorist’.”

  Sighing heavily, Bobby kept looking out the window. He’d seen the trees screening the house from the highway on the way in and watched the leaves sway in a breeze. “Yeah, I reckon.”

  “More interesting to me is what they’ll do about my nutritional needs.”

  “You just ate last night. I thought you could go a coupla days between.”

  “I can,” Stephen nodded, “but I don’t like to. It’s best if I get at least a few pints every twelve hours, or a good, heavy meal once a day. That blonde was too skinny to take much from her. Before that, my last real feed was two days before that. It’s getting a little dark in here.” Without any further explanation, Bobby knew Stephen referred to his Hunger taking over, bit by bit.

  “Maybe you oughta been a little more upfront about that.”

  “Group like this probably has a bunch of people who’ll do anything to keep their jobs. The suits strike me as zealots.”

  They both heard footsteps coming their way and went quiet. When the door opened, a brunette with dusky olive skin and brown eyes walked in. She wore a forest green suit with black pumps. Her eyes immediately went to Stephen’s, then Bobby’s, a flicker of recognition lighting them up. “Hablas español o parlez-vous français?”

  She had a smooth voice, one that rolled around in Bobby’s head and made him want to like her. If he had to guess, he’d say she was Spanish or Mexican, because he understood the first two words well enough, and recognized the accent. “No, ma’am, sorry.”

  Stephen also shook his head, and offered her his hand. “This both complicates and simplifies things,” he muttered with a smirk. “Stephen,” he said, gesturing to himself.

  “Elena. English little. You…” She trailed off with a frown.

  Raising a hand solemnly, Stephen gave her a small, gallant bow. “No harm to you, I promise. Sit? ” He pointed to the couch.

  Though he didn’t really want to watch, Bobby had only seen Stephen feed once. At the time, other things had been going on and he hadn’t been all there. Curiosity made him half-watch from the side while still standing at the window.

  Elena perched on the edge of the couch, facing him and watching Stephen. She glanced at Bobby and back to Stephen. Bobby thought he’d be nervous in her position, too. Her boss sent her into a room with two unknown men she had no real way to communicate with, probably without telling her exactly what to expect.

  “Relax,” Stephen said softly, slipping onto the couch beside her. “Five minutes.” Holding up his hand with all five fingers out, he used it to distract her while he seized her arm and licked her wrist. Elena’s eyes went wide and she gasped. Stephen brushed her thick hair away from her neck and plunged his fangs in.

  Elena moaned and grabbed Stephen’s jeans. The small sounds of arousal sounded like “Liam” a few times. Her body pushed back against him. Suddenly, Bobby felt like a voyeur, watching his buddy have sex with a random girl, and he turned away from it.

  Worse, the scene reminded him of kissing Lily a few days ago. Not only did he regret not leaving her note, he couldn’t wipe away the memory. He’d managed to get a few minutes alone with her in the woods around the farm. The second he touched the small of her back under her shirt, she used the pet name for her dead husband. Everything got awkward in a hurry.

  “Much better.” Distracted from his thoughts, Bobby saw Stephen licking his lips, Elena draped across him. His eyes snapped open and he slipped out from behind her. When he’d settled her on the couch, he adjusted his jeans. “That’ll keep me for a day or two.”

  “She alright?”

  “She’ll be fine.” He reached down and checked her pulse chin with two fingers. “Mmm, I maybe took a little more than I ought to have.”

  “She ain’t dead, I hope.”

  “No, just weak. She won’t be down for long, though. Probably.” Stephen shrugged. “All I know for sure is Kris bounces right back with just a night of sleep.”

  Bobby snorted. Stephen’s new girlfriend may or may not be real, but the vampire definitely had a steady source of blood keeping him away from the farmhouse. “What’d you tell her, anyway?”

  “I said I needed to do a thing for my brother and couldn’t say how long I’d be gone. If I get a chance, I’ll call her.” He waved the subject off. “I suppose we ought to let them know she’s out cold.” He paced over to the door and peered out. Someone must have been standing right there, because Bobby heard Stephen say, “I’m done. She probably needs the rest of the day off.”

  The way he said it made Bobby feel dirtier than he had a moment before, like he’d helped Stephen rape the woman. He looked back out the window and shook it off. The guy needed to eat to live and not be a depraved monster, after all. Behind him, someone walked in and carried Elena out without a word.

  Outside, he saw a dark blue sedan pull in and park. A man in a brown military uniform stepped out of the driver’s door, then opened the rear door for what Bobby assumed must be a military officer of some kind. Since he knew what Marines looked like, he knew this man wasn’t one. Navy wore white, he thought, and he knew Air Force used blue, so the tan uniform had to mean an Army guy. Given Lizzie blew up half of that base in Utah, he decided to be glad they hadn’t brought an Air Force guy.

  “I’m thinking they want us to work for the Army.”

  Stephen paced over and peered out over Bobby’s head. “Apparently. I guess this means we get to kill terrorists and find land mines.”

  “I ain’t sure how I feel about that.”

  Dropping himself back on the couch, Stephen shrugged. “If they’re going to send soldiers to do this stuff anyway, we might as well do it and keep those guys from getting shot or blown up. Maybe we can even put the fear of Allah into them enough to make them tell us stuff.”

  “I don’t speak no Arab.”

  The door opened and the Army officer they saw outside walked in with his hat under
his arm and a brown folder in his hand. His name tag read ‘Delane’. Bobby had no idea what all the colored bits and rank bobs meant, other than this guy had more of them than his Daddy had. Hagen escorted him in. As they walked in, Delane nodded to something Hagen must have said moment before.

  “Boys.” Delane had the kind of stern voice that commanded attention and demanded obedience. “I’m Lieutenant Colonel Delane, US Army. I understand you have some unusual talents and would like to use them to serve your country as quietly as possible.”

  Every time he thought he understood what was going on with the suits, something came up that destroyed Bobby’s notions. He didn’t understand how guys who pretended to be FBI, CIA, and who knows what else would have a genuine Army officer guy here to recruit them. Were these guys actually part of some legitimate government agency that somehow, nobody actually knew about? “Yeah, that’s a fair way to put it.”

  “Mitchell, right?” Bobby nodded and Delane opened his folder to read from it. “I understand your father was an excellent Marine.”

  “Didn’t stop him from getting killed.” If they wanted to bring his Daddy into this, he had no reason not to tell it like he saw it.

  Delane barely reacted, giving Bobby only a tiny jut of his chin in response. The man probably dealt with unhappy families all the time. He turned his attention to Stephen. “Allen Cant was a good soldier, too.”

  “Happily,” Stephen sneered, “my older brother is still alive and no longer in harm’s way.” It might be a challenge for both of them to avoid mentioning Matthew and his PTSD issues. They had to, for everyone’s sake.

  “If you two are willing, maybe we can do something to keep more of our military men and women alive and unharmed.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Bobby said hurriedly, wanting to avoid a discussion that would reveal more than they wanted to. “We ain’t real keen to be doing assassinations, though.”

  “I told him that,” Hagen said.

  “And I understand. It takes a certain kind of person to handle that kind of mission, and there’s no shame in not being one.” Delane took the chair and gestured for Bobby to sit on the couch beside Stephen. “It seems to me you’d be best used as a team, accomplishing objectives we’d ordinarily send a larger group to handle. Assaulting strongholds, retrieving prisoners, clearing the way for demolitions and other experts, that sort of thing.”

  “We agreed to take on one mission and evaluate whether we want to work for you after that.”

  Delane nodded. “That’s fine. We’ll need you to run through some basic training, just so you’re familiar with how things work, and some routine survival training. It won’t take long, considering your unusual abilities. We’ll get you some uniforms, too, and all in all, you can be out in the field in three or four days, depending on when we can schedule the flight to get you out there. We’ll give you a few objectives, and when those are complete, if you’re not willing to continue out there, that’ll be that.”

  The only thing Bobby didn’t like about this plan had to do with remaining out of communication with the farm. They knew that might be a problem when they left, and decided to chance it. He should have left a note. Matthew knew. He wanted to come along. They’d turned him down for two reasons: he had no control over his shapeshifting and he couldn’t fly.

  It had taken the pair of them about nine hours to fly to Chicago. Driving would’ve taken at least fifteen, and they would’ve needed to take someone else’s car. Bobby wished they could’ve brought him along, if only so he didn’t have to face the rest of the group when they discovered Bobby and Stephen missing. The memory of Matthew ripping arms off at Hill made him certain they’d chosen wisely on that front.

  He could hardly wait to find out how they all reacted to the two of them taking matters into their own hands. It probably depended a lot on how successful they were and how long it took to get that success. As long as Lily stopped short of hating him for this, he could probably live with it. “Might as well get started, then.” Bobby hopped to his feet and did his best to seem eager to be on his way to glory for God and country.

  Less eager, Stephen stood and offered Delane his hand to shake. “Yes, I think we’re your men.”

  Taking the hand and shaking it, Delane stood, too, and then shook hands with Bobby. “Just so we’re clear, it’s my understanding this will all be done in a classified fashion. That is, only those who absolutely must know who you are and what you’re doing will.”

  Chapter 4

  “These are my clothes.” Bobby said it again, for the hundredth time, as he and Stephen walked off the plane depositing them at some base in Afghanistan. They’d been shoved onto a flight to Germany, then another one to someplace in Turkey, and now here, to the country where both Lily’s husband and Bobby’s father were killed. Would either she or Momma be proud of him for doing this? Doubtful. His Daddy would be, though.

  Stephen huddled in on himself, shrinking down in the harsh light. Though they both wore hats and sunglasses and combat boots and full Army desert camouflage BDUs, the sunshine beat down and reflected off everything. The vampire also wore gloves and a balaclava. With every square inch of flesh covered, he had to look like he ought to be sweating his skin off. As for Bobby, the heat didn’t bother him much. The dryness of the air, on the other hand, took his breath away and instantly made him thirsty.

  It took them twenty minutes and a Corporal to find the guy they’d been instructed to report to. He couldn’t be military, because he wore a suit with no jacket. Everyone around him dressed the same, in business attire with jackets slung across the backs of chairs. It seemed likely these folks were civilians in Intelligence, which made their being directed to him make sense. Sort of.

  “Mitchell, Cant, I’m Klein.” Shaking hands with them, Klein brought them to a table with an unattended laptop sitting open. He had that average white guy look to him. If Bobby saw this guy walking down the street, he’d just assume he was an upstanding citizen with a professional job, then not think anything else about him at all.

  “I’ve been told you’re a two man team of specialists capable of doing things I’m not allowed to ask about, and can handle objectives that ordinarily take a squad or two.” Klein looked to both of them for confirmation. They both nodded. “Okay. I’ve got a couple of missions that you might be able to handle.” He tapped on the laptop, bringing up photographs. “Three different ones, see if any of them sound doable to you.

  “One: a town too far north for us to do anything but airstrikes that we suspect is a weapons stockpile but can’t prove it without sending in a ground unit. Two: a warlord working against us holed up in a secure compound surrounded by civilians. Three: a cave system that needs to be explored. We think it’s mined and there might be an easy ambush against us in it.”

  “Yeah, we can probably handle those,” Bobby nodded, fiddling with his sunglasses.

  “Shouldn’t be a problem. We’ll need maps and…” Stephen had his sunglasses off, too, and he scanned the room. Pointing to a brunette that happened to be the most attractive woman in the room, the corners of his mouth curled up. “Can you spare her for the rest of the day?”

  “What? Wait, back up.” Klein furrowed his brow. “Which mission?”

  “They ain’t too far apart, looks like,” Bobby said with a shrug. “All three.”

  “Uh, okay.” Klein followed the line of Stephen’s gaze. “Then what do you need Jenny for? She’s a secretary.”

  Though he didn’t want to, Bobby shoved aside his squeamishness. “Pretty sure you just said you weren’t s’posed to ask questions.”

  By this point, Jenny had noticed the interest in her and joined the three men. “Did you need something, Pete?” She had a pretty, open face, and Bobby knew he’d be interested in her if he hadn’t met Lily.

  “I’m in need of assistance, Jenny, please, this way.” Stephen sounded so gallant and gentlemanly. She glanced at Klein, who sighed and nodded. The pair of them disappeared out of th
e tent.

  “He ain’t gonna rape her or nothing.” At least, Bobby hoped he wouldn’t. The vampire’s morality on the subject had been left somewhat vague, and Bobby had no idea how devoted he’d really become to Kris in the few weeks he’d allegedly known her.

  Klein’s frown deepened, and he sighed again. “She’s my responsibility.”

  “She ain’t being hurt. You got my word. He’s just got a peculiar…uh…” Giving up, Bobby shrugged. “I got no idea how to explain, so never mind. Gimme all what we need to know, ‘specially about this warlord guy and what he done to deserve killing, and we’ll leave soon as he’s— Soon.”

  Ten minutes later, Bobby had three maps with dots on them and understood the three missions well enough to get them done. When Stephen joined him, coming from the medical tent, he said, “Klein’s a mite worried about Jenny.”

  “She’ll be fine. I was careful not to knock her out. They,” he jerked a thumb over his shoulder, “think she’s dehydrated, which is more or less accurate.”

  Deciding to take what Stephen said at face value, Bobby handed a few things over. “I got maps and a headset for ya. They’ll have someone who can interpret standing by starting two hours from now. I just wanna stop and grab some food and water, and then we can get going, ‘less you want to wait for nightfall. Looks like it’ll take us about two hours to get to the weapon place, the other two are in that same region, maybe a half hour to the caves, another fifteen to twenty to the warlord.”

  “What time is it here?”

  Checking his nice new watch, courtesy of Hagen, Bobby said, “It’s just past three in the afternoon. Klein said it’ll get dark a little after six.”

  Stephen looked around, though Bobby could only tell because he actually turned his head. “Get what you need then let’s get going. I’m covered up, we might as well travel. We can wait there just as easily as here.”

  Bobby nodded and clapped him on the arm. “Meet me on the north end. I’ll be quick as I can.” Without waiting for a response, he jogged off to find supplies. With the First Lieutenant rank insignias they’d been loaned, he had no trouble requisitioning as much food and water as he could stuff into his pockets and a small pack.