Superheroes In Denim

by Lee French

  “This really ain’t the time, but pretty sure I’m your son. If’n you got any special ways to get yourself away from here, you oughta pull it out, but if not, we gotta take care of that. Your other choice is going back inside.” He jerked a thumb back towards the elevator.

  She looked at Cander, still lying unconscious on the floor. “They won’t let me go so easily.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought about myself, but I done escaped. Ain’t giving up now, not ever.” Unsure how this would actually work, he offered her his hand.

  Turning again, she gazed out over the base. “We may both be killed.”

  Was she trying to talk him out of it, or just making sure he understood the stakes? If anyone understood the situation, it was him. They were extremely lucky not to have sirens wailing already, and that the base hadn’t yet been locked down with guys carting machine guns hoofing it all around. “Wouldn’t you rather go down in the sun than waste away in the dark?”

  A fierce grin transformed her into a warrior angel, a woman come down to kick some ass and not bother taking any names. She let go of the dragon and grabbed his hand, watching with wonder as it darted to his thumb and stuck back on. “You? You’re the drathiké?”

  Instead of answering, he ran, pulling her willingly along behind him. He already knew the layout of the base and took them to the motor pool. It had only a few vehicles, and a handful of dragons would have no trouble grabbing a set of keys. When they stood with their backs against the wall, waiting for his dragon scouts, he looked at her and nodded. “I’m them and they’re me.” It made no more sense now than it had before, but she had a word for them, which made him want to talk about it.

  “How? How is that possible?” She touched the smooth stump of his wrist, running her fingers over it.

  Why did he expect her to have all the answers? The question disappointed him. “No idea. I kinda thought you could tell me.”

  “Me? Why? I’ve never seen anything like this before. It’s strange, bizarre. What are you?” The edge of disgust to her voice hurt to hear.

  “I’m your son,” he reminded her with a mild glare. “They done took your stuff and crossed it with human and made kids. There’s thirty-five of us. None of us is your responsibility, but we are your kin.”

  “Why would they do such a thing?” She let go of him and sighed, staring off into the distance. “I had no idea. Not that I could’ve done anything if I did. I haven’t been allowed outside since I was moved here, and I was drugged for that trip.”

  Whatever he expected, she failed to live up to it. He had to admit to himself that, fair or not, he thought she’d be a lot like his Momma. That noble woman accepted him immediately when he told her what he’d become. She also carried him and raised him and knew him. Asyllis, on the other hand, had nothing more than DNA in common with him. They were strangers.

  “It kinda seemed like you cooperate with it all.”

  Before she came up with a way to respond, the dragons returned with a ring of keys. She watched his hand re-form with rapt attention. “Are the others like you?”

  “Not exactly. But we gotta move now. There’s a Humvee, I’ll point to it. Move quick, just get right in and hopefully we’ll be able to drive away before anyone realizes we shouldn’t oughta.”

  They slipped through the cracked open door, moving low and quiet to avoid attracting the attention of the two soldiers inside. Bobby pointed to the vehicle he wanted Asyllis to get into.

  A soldier jogged to the Humvee with a clipboard in hand. Bobby grabbed Asyllis before the soldier could notice them and pulled her down behind some barrels. The soldier hopped into the vehicle Bobby intended to take and did a bunch of things to start it up, scribbled something on his clipboard, then got out, leaving it running. That whole process took a couple of minutes. He watched the soldier just walk away from the running Humvee and frowned down at the keys in his hand, confused. Never mind. They’d never get a better opportunity than this.

  Hauling Asyllis up, he practically threw her at the passenger door and ran around to the other side. Her door shutting must have echoed, because as he planted his butt in the driver’s seat, a voice called out, “Hey, who’re you?” Good thing he let the other guy start the Humvee up, because he saw nowhere to jam a key in, and it had all kinds of lights and switches and buttons. At least the shifter had labels, and he yanked on it, only to realize he had to push the button and twist the handle to make it move.

  Despite the differences between the two vehicles, sitting in this seat reminded him of driving Lily’s car, taking his turn to get her and her boy to the farm. He had things he needed to say to her, most of it an apology for being such a dumbass. If she gave him five minutes, he knew he could make things right with her. Probably. Maybe. So long as he didn’t say or do anything else stupid. Probably not, then.

  He needed to stop thinking about her. One of the soldiers came around the front of the vehicle with a gun out. Bobby did his best to not hit the guy as he slammed the gas pedal to the floor. “Hold on,” he said. Asyllis already had her seat belt clicked in and she gripped the seat and door so tightly her knuckles went an odd shade of purple.

  The reason for her distress probably involved the sight of the door ahead, only open about halfway and possibly not quite enough to get this thing through it. With the added obstacle of the soldier in the way, Bobby missed, slamming his side of the vehicle into the door. Unlike in the movies, the door failed to fly off. It did buckle enough to get through. The sound of metal scraping on metal grated enough that he clenched his jaw since he couldn’t cover his ears. Somewhere in there, he started making noise to urge the Humvee on, as if him growling would make it go faster.

  Gunshots announced the fact that the soldiers weren’t going to just let them get away. Asyllis ducked down and covered her head with her hands like it would make a difference. Bobby swerved some, not sure if it helped, but at least they didn’t hit the tires yet. This plan probably wasn’t going to get them very far. He needed to think of something else to follow up with. Driving like this wasn’t going to make that easy.

  Glancing back to check on the soldiers, he caught sight of something wore: a small helicopter. He’d heard about drones, and guessed this one had either a camera or a gun. Both options sucked for them. Dragons could take care of it, but he kind of needed both hands to keep control of the Humvee.

  “I’m not sure this is better than being locked up down there.”

  Bobby cranked the wheel and refused to give up.

  Chapter 7

  Another door down the hall stood open. Paul must have left it that way when he came looking for Liam. He pulled Elena through it, giving Paul space to muck around in that man’s head. They slipped in behind the others, all staring through a pane of glass into a dim room.

  “Hi, Elena,” Kaitlin said offhandedly, only barely glancing back. “This is something, huh? Didn’t see it coming, no idea what to make of it.” She pointed at the glass, indicating the vast array of gurneys on the other side, most of them filled with people. There were at least two hundred of them, no more than ten or twelve empty. They held people of both genders and varying skin tones, though they seemed to all be in a particular age range: late teens to mid twenties. Each had a sheet for a covering and an IV bag going into a needle in their arm.

  Elena blinked and waved uncertainly at Kaitlin’s back. Liam squeezed her hand and tried not to be freaked out. “What are the chances this is actually of some interest to us?”

  “I was sent here. There’s got to be a reason.” Kaitlin put a hand on the glass, her fingertips resting on it gently. She sighed and shook her head. “We have to free them.”

  Riker reached out to restrain her the second she started for the other door, the one that would let her into that room. “We don’t know what’s really going on here. If you go in there and just pull those IVs out, you could hurt them worse than leaving them there.”

  Kaitlin stared at him, then blinked. Paul whin
ed behind Liam. “Dammit, does that have to keep happening, over and over?” He shivered and pressed a hand to his head.

  “If we don’t free them now, there will be blood shed over them. I’m not sure, but some of it might be theirs.” Kaitlin put her hand back on the glass, only this time, she clearly did it to support herself. “This isn’t exactly a goddamned picnic for me, either, Paul.”

  “Say we do free them.” Liam tried not to look, because he knew that he shouldn’t leave them behind while Elena got to walk free. He was selfish, and he knew it and had no intention of doing anything about it. When he’d insured her safety, then he’d look at the idea of freeing other people. “Then what? We’re not prepared to get them out of here, and if any of them have medical conditions, we’re not prepared to handle dealing with them. I don’t want to leave them here any more than you do, but we aren’t going to magically find a tour bus in the parking lot to evacuate them with, and even if we somehow did, we’d never be able to prevent some of them from getting hurt or killed in the escape.”

  “We could take one or two, Sergeant,” Hegi offered. “But I don’t know how you’d pick.”

  Riker grunted. “If they’re out cold, we can stuff them in the trunk or something.”

  “That’s my sister,” Paul pushed his way to the glass, even though that put him next to Kaitlin. “She’s been missing for weeks. We thought she ran away from home again, but she didn’t come back. She always came back after a few days or a week, looking for a place to crash again and more money. Mom and Dad were ready to send her to a rehab place, then she disappeared again, but she didn’t come back this time.”

  Only one thing about that made no sense to Liam. “And Privek didn’t use her against you?”

  “No.” Paul still stared at the one girl, not shaking his head or otherwise moving. “I wouldn’t have believed him anyway. When she didn’t come back after two weeks, we figured she was dead. I mean, my parents didn’t come out and say it, and neither did I, we just kind of all silently agreed.”

  Kaitlin crossed her arms and seemed to be having a contest of wills with Riker. “Is she one of us? ”

  “No, we were both adopted.”

  Riker rolled his eyes. “We can’t afford to stand here and argue and chat. Hegi, you carry the sister. Carter, you go pick one out at random. We’ll question them when they wake up, find out if there are any similarities in their stories. I’ll take point with Kaitlin, Paul fall in behind us to handle whatever you need to. Liam, take the rear. You’ll be able to maneuver better than these two.”

  While the others hurried into the room to grab two victims, Liam turned and explained what just happened to Elena as succinctly as he could. She didn’t understand any of this, but thankfully, chose not to ask questions. They fell in behind Hegi. The soldier had a young, pale brunette girl wrapped in a sheet tossed over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. She had more piercings than he considered flattering, making Liam wonder what she got up to when she disappeared.

  With Kaitlin guiding them and Paul there in case anything went wrong, their exit seemed assured. Liam’s phone rang. He pulled it out and frowned at the caller ID. Why was Privek calling him? He hadn’t shirked any duties in particular that he knew of. “Hello?”

  “Moore, where are you?” That was Privek: all business.

  To help him feel an excuse he hoped the agent would swallow, he shrugged. “I went out for some air. Did you need something?” In this moment, he realized he wouldn’t be able to pull anything on Privek face-to-face anymore, not knowing what he knew now, not having rescued Elena like this.

  “Some air. I see.” He heard Privek take a deep breath. “Yes, you’re wanted here. There’s been a development and I’d like all hands on deck. How soon can you get back?”

  “Well, I took a drive and kind of got lost. The GPS can’t seem to connect to any satellites for some reason, so I really have no idea. At least an hour.”

  “Mmhmm.” Liam had a sinking feeling that noise meant Privek didn’t buy it. “Call me when you reach the city again.” He hung up without giving Liam a chance to say anything else.

  Liam stared at his phone, feeling like he’d missed something. That conversation went more or less fine, but it felt off, and he couldn’t— They’d taken Paul’s car. His own car sat in the parking lot. The bastard probably stood next to it when he called. Now Privek knew. As soon as he got reports about everything going wrong today, he’d blame Liam. For all of it, even whatever trouble Bobby managed to get himself into.

  He cursed, then repeated it because he hadn’t meant to say it out loud in the first place. Their breathing room with Privek had evaporated, and they’d lost any chance at a surprise assault. Their exit from this building might even have just gotten more complicated.

  Paul’s phone rang, giving Liam a sudden rush of panic. “Paul, it’s Privek. He’s going to ask where you are.”

  Turning around with his phone already in hand, Paul paled. “What should I tell him?”

  Liam’s brain froze, imagining all the horrible things that could happen to Elena. As a Spanish citizen and not an American, she could be detained, or deported, or worse.

  “Tell him you’re busy,” Riker said, “there’s a girl.”

  Why did he say he’d gone out in his car? He could’ve said he’d gone for a walk. Though he couldn’t have claimed to be lost, he could still have said it would take him an hour to get back. Liam bit back another curse for his incredible stupidity.

  Paul nodded and answered his phone. He said what Riker suggested, mumbling nervously. He hung up the phone and shook his head with a frown. “I don’t think he believed anything I just said.”

  “Worry about this when we get to the car. We’re not out of the building yet.” Riker reached over and patted Paul on the shoulder encouragingly. “Nobody’s perfect, we just do what we can with what we’ve got.”

  “How come you never say anything nice like that to me, Sarge?” Carter joked.

  Riker turned back with a grin. “Because you’re a thick-skull dumbass and only shouting gets through to you.”

  “Oh, right. I forgot.” Carter chuckled and Hegi snorted.

  The banter faded into the background for Liam. He glanced at Elena, hoping that what he and Paul just got her into was really worth it. No, he didn’t mean that. Obviously, being free made her instantly better off than locked up, especially if he’d prevented her from being stuck in one of those beds. Just as obviously, he benefited from having her by his side. He worried, though, that he’d jumped into a rabbit hole without knowing whether she’d get hurt by following him or not.

  Between the efforts of Paul and Kaitlin, they walked out the front door to find their cars waiting, engines already running. Liam wondered how long it would take Privek to hear about this and whether he’d connect them to it. He imagined the guards getting a call any second now, asking about suspicious or unexpected guests. In his head, soldiers fired guns at them, tires squealed, someone got shot, and he had to watch Elena die because the bullet hit her between the eyes.

  One thing kept him from falling apart: the precog. Paul wanted to stay as far away as possible from Kaitlin. Liam pushed Elena towards the car Kaitlin chose. They shared it with Riker, and Platt drove, with Kaitlin’s random male damsel in distress draped across their laps in the back seat. As awkward as it felt, he suspected having Paul’s teenage sister there instead would be worse.

  “Where are we going?” Platt asked as he pulled the car away from the building. “I can figure out ‘off the base’ on my own. I mean after that.”

  Riker turned around to check with Kaitlin, who had the unknown man’s head in her lap as she sat next to Elena. She leaned back against the seat with her eyes closed. “I don’t know, stop looking at me. I’m kind of wiped from all that in there. It takes energy to do that, and I was doing it almost the whole time we were in there. I really need something to eat soon, and a nap.”

  Liam rubbed his eyes with one hand. The
other refused to leave Elena’s shoulders. “For now, head towards Chicago. Maybe something will come up before we get there and we can pick someplace else.”

  “That’s what, ten, twelve hours away?”

  “Something like that, yeah,” Riker nodded. “We can’t drive all the way there like this, though. Not with minimal cash and a body in the backseat.”

  Liam pulled his phone out of his pocket and stared at it. He didn’t like paranoia. It always struck him as silly and stupid, the province of mentally unstable people. Yet, here he found himself pursuing the worst possible dark fantasies imaginable. “I’m concerned that Privek is tapping my phone or I could call my father and arrange to meet his plane at the airport.”

  Without missing a beat, Riker offered his phone. “Odds are pretty low he’s tapping mine yet. That’ll probably change when he’s had a chance to look over the security footage. Might as well use it while we got it.”

  “Who is Privek, anyway?” Platt asked as Liam took the phone and dialed.

  “He said he was NSA,” Liam answered absently, “but I really don’t know.” The last time he spoke to his father had been before Afghanistan. His parents didn’t even know he’d gone there. He hadn’t told them about Elena yet, either. He’d intended to introduce her when he got home. Then Privek took her and he lost sight of everything except getting her back. The one time he spoke to them, he only said he’d miss his next semester at Harvard Business School. They expected so little of him that his father didn’t even give him a hard time about it.

  “Hello?” His father’s voice, full of suspicion, jarred him out of his thoughts.

  “It’s Liam, I’m borrowing a friend’s phone.” He didn’t need to explain. Robert would assume he’d let his phone’s battery run dead, or he’d left it in some girl’s purse. “Can you send the plane to DC for me?” As soon as the words left his mouth, it occurred to him that he should have made this request the way he usually did, by calling his father’s secretary.