“But that’s exactly what’s happening, though,” Quinn protested. “They are relaxing a little. A month ago, the police forbade the news from using his name, now they’re freely calling him Blue Spekter as much as they want. I think he’s the world’s first superhero.”
“I welcome the chance to be proven wrong, Quinn,” Keegan answered, smiling, “especially by you.”
Dad made a little throw-up sound and Daddio laughed.
Keegan looked at him with a confused expression. Quinn smiled and said, “Don’t mind him, they’re jealous of our young, blossoming love.”
“You keep telling yourself that,” Dad responded, grinning.
“Love?” Keegan asked, looking at Quinn with wide eyes.
Oh, shit.
His dads froze, turned together, and stared at Quinn as the room filled with nervous apprehension. Only the sounds of bubbling water for the non-skewered vegetables and a commercial for automobile windshield glass replacement on the television filled the kitchen.
“Do you love me, Quinn McAlester?” Keegan asked.
Say yes, say yes!
“Um…”
The answer is yes!
“I’m falling in love with you more and more every day.”
Keegan brought his hands to his heart and smiled. “Good. So am I.”
Behind Keegan, Quinn saw his dads silently exhale with overdramatized relief as Keegan swooped in for a kiss and a hug.
❖
Quinn checked the time; it was finally eleven o’clock. His dads had gone to bed an hour ago and he was ready to sneak out of the house to meet Camilla. He got up and dressed quietly, choosing dark jeans, a t-shirt, and a blue-and-gray unmarked hoodie.
It could be a trap, but I’ll fly around and check for agents and soldiers before I land.
He unlocked and pushed open his bedroom window, slipped through it, and quietly lowered it shut. Then, he accelerated and flew into the cold night air, his body glowing blue. When he approached Prescott Park, he ascended and circled around, quietly observing the scene on the ground. Two people were walking out to the pier from the park. He saw no other movement or humans in the area.
He came to a stop and hovered above the pier’s landing and used his super hearing to listen in on their conversation.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” a female voice asked.
Okay, that’s Camilla.
“I have no choice,” the other voice answered. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
Holy crap, that’s Chief Applegate out of uniform.
“All right, that sounds rather cryptic,” the reporter responded.
“This is not fodder for a news story, Camilla. The only way Blue Spekter would possibly meet with me is by meeting with someone he trusts, especially after all the DHS crap we’ve both had to put up with. Hopefully, now that your news report went out, he trusts you and will show up.”
“Well, he’s no fool. If he smells a trap, you can be sure he will not play along with your little charade.”
“This is no game,” the chief said sternly. “I need…no, this city needs his help. He already visited me once at my house, but we have no way to get in touch with him when we need him.”
You need me now?
Blue Spekter descended rapidly, blue light trailing above him as he landed on the railing of the pier.
“Camilla. Chief,” he said flatly, looking down at them. “What made you change your mind about me?”
“As Camilla pointed out, your impeccable track record and my own Lieutenant Doral’s arguments in your defense after the failed Sheraton disaster.”
“Yeah, that was dumb.”
Chief Applegate didn’t offer a response.
Blue Spekter looked at Camilla. “Your news story was nice, thank you. I was surprised you didn’t bring up the second super-powered person?”
The chief stepped forward. “Can you imagine the wide-scale public panic a story like that would create when the people learn there are two of you, one of whom enjoys killing people?”
“Don’t you think that’s going to happen anyway?” he asked.
Chief Applegate nodded. “I know it’s going to get out on the news networks very soon and there’s nothing I’ll be able to do about it. However, I don’t need to be responsible for inciting widespread panic. I hope we’ll be better prepared to handle localized panic when people discover the other guy exists.”
If Blake does something stupid…they’re going to need to trust me to stop him.
“Unless you have a better idea, Blue Spekter, this is completely uncharted territory for us. We have play books for terrorism and other kinds of hostile situations, but we do not have a playbook for the threat of superhuman destruction.”
“Is the second superhuman that serious a threat?” Camilla asked.
Blue Spekter looked at Camilla. “I’m sorry, but the chief and I have a few things to discuss on our own.”
“But I…”
Blue Spekter raised his hand and shook his head. “I want to trust you, but I also know reporters tend to talk when they shouldn’t. I can’t take that chance right now.”
Camilla frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“That’s all right, Chief Applegate and I will go somewhere else.”
“I beg your pardon?” the chief asked.
“But I made this meeting happen!” Camilla protested.
“Yes, you did, and when the time is right, you can tell people how you helped bring us together.”
He jumped down from the railing and looked at Chief Applegate. “Sorry about this.” Quick as lightning, he squatted then jumped at the police chief, carefully wrapping her in his arms as he ascended into the air with her.
Chief Applegate screamed, arms flailing. “Put me down!”
“Mmm, probably a bad idea right now. Wait one second, please,” Blue Spekter said. A moment later, he landed on top of the Memorial Bridge tower. When he let go of the police chief, she shoved him back.
“Be careful,” Blue Spekter cautioned. “You’re not on the ground anymore.”
She gasped and looked around. When she realized she was near the edge of the drawbridge tower, she backed away.
“I’m afraid of heights,” she said, slightly panicked.
“If you fall, I’ll catch you, but I suggest you stay away from the edge, it’s a little windy up here tonight.”
“Why did you just…kidnap me?” she asked, cautiously moving toward the middle of the tower.
“Kidnap you? Really?” Blue Spekter shook his head and pointed behind her. “The stairs are right there, and you can leave whenever you want. I’d prefer you stick around because we need to talk about Dark Flame.”
“Who?”
“I know you work for The Order, so we need to quit playing games and get our cards on the table. If you haven’t figured out that I’m on your side by now then we’re wasting our time, Chief. But remember, you’re the one who called me.”
The chief pocketed her hands, and squared off with him, legs akimbo. She stared at him with hard eyes for a moment, then her expression softened.
“Fine, let’s talk. I need your help, but I don’t trust you.”
“Why not?”
“I’m aware you killed the Hegumenia known as Mother Superior. I worked directly for her. Now, I have to deal with that pompous ass who thinks he’s God’s gift to The Order.”
Blue Spekter shook his head. “Your beloved Order has lied to you for some time, I’m afraid. It was Dark Flame who killed Mother Superior, not me.”
“Why should I believe that?”
Blue Spekter relaxed his powers and all the glowing stopped. He pulled the hoodie off his head, revealing his face. He looked at Chief Applegate and she gazed upon his face with awe for the first time.
She looked at him, amazed. “I was right, you are a kid.”
He shrugged. “A kid with really strong morals and a solid sense of ri
ght and wrong. This is my gesture of good faith, Chief; my olive branch to you. I’ll level with you if you’ll level with me. No more games.” He extended his hand to her. “Deal?”
She looked at his hand then raised her own and shook it. “Deal.”
“My name is Quinn.”
“Nice to meet you,” Chief Applegate said.
He nodded. “First things first; I did not kill Mother Superior. I have not killed anyone, ever. That is the truth.”
She winced and sighed. “All right. I don’t believe you’re a killer. It’s not in your eyes, now that I can see them. But, I need to know what’s going on. When we spoke last in my driveway, we agreed you would look into the orange-glowing superhuman. Did you?”
Blue Spekter smiled and nodded. “Yes. I’ll tell you everything. It’s only a matter of time before Dark Flame does something really, really bad around here in the name of The Order. “
“I’m listening.”
“First, what do you know about us?”
“Mother Superior told me you two were some kind of science experiment gone wrong and that I should do my best to make it look like I’m trying to apprehend you. The other guy kept a low profile, so I wasn’t worried about him. She didn’t expect DHS to show up. They took over and I’ve been sidelined, unable to fulfill her request.”
“And you believe that?”
“What do you mean?”
“Now that you know I’m a kid, do you believe The Order was experimenting on teenagers from Portsmouth?” Quinn watched the wheels turn behind the chief’s eyes.
She shook her head. “That doesn’t make sense to me.”
“Good. Now I know you can think for yourself. Victor has been the primary contact for me for The Order. He told me you were part of The Order and fanatically loyal to Mother Superior.”
“Yes, that’s true.”
“Okay. Let’s go back to Labor Day weekend. Blake—the orange guy—and I were best friends until Victor’s manipulations pulled us apart. Blake and I were camping that weekend and wandered into the orgone reactor at the Rangeley Facility.”
“The what?” she asked.
Quinn looked at her, confused. “Um, do you not know about the orgone reactor cores?”
She shook her head. “No, I don’t believe I do.”
“Well, there’s one in Rangeley, Maine, and there’s one in Portsmouth at the old naval prison. Supposedly, there are others around New England as well. They are massive energy collecting and conversion devices that suck orgone energy out of the air and convert it to a usable form.”
“That sounds wildly fictitious, Quinn.”
“Yet, here I am, a glowing blue teenager with super powers.” Quinn answered. “Anyway, while exploring the woods, Blake and I wandered into the orgone reactor and got zapped by a full charge. We were taken to a hospital, died, were resuscitated, and when we survived, we caught the attention of Mother Superior and Victor. That’s probably when you heard about us because they let us go home, but of course, we didn’t know it was The Order at that point. The doctors who treated us lied to our parents because they’re employees of The Order.”
“You mean Dr. Madison?” Chief Applegate asked.
“You know her?”
“We’ve met once or twice.”
“Well, like I said before, we were an accident, Chief. Mother Superior and The Order didn’t plan for us to happen. However, our survival and the unexpected development of super powers wildly changed The Order’s plans. At the time, Mother Superior wanted to create more of us, but Victor insisted he did not. Blake and I decided a super-human army was really bad, but unfortunately Victor had already gotten inside Blake’s head and he tricked me. I went with him to destroy the facility, but it was a trap—kind of like the one you did at the Sheraton.”
“DHS arranged that.”
“Whatever. Whoever. I don’t care. You can’t stop me, so we’re going to have to find common ground to work together. And don’t feed me anymore horse crap about trying to protect the city when we both know you have The Order giving you instructions in addition to the mayor and DHS.”
She cleared her throat.
“Which begs the question, how can somebody as smart as you get caught up in such bullshit?
“The ideas had merit,” she admitted. “I joined because The Order presented me with a promise to help with climate control. If they obtained the ability to stop and alter destructive weather patterns, well, that was something I wanted to be a part of. I admit, The Order has an alluring, almost cultishly militant side, but I believe my police training helped me cast a blind eye to those elements.”
“And the converse use?” Quinn asked. “Have you thought about that?
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
“Sheesh, these people brainwash everyone they touch. The weather modification abilities can be used for good and evil. Blake told me that Victor promised he would be a part of orgone-induced psychological warfare that will allow him to ‘take out his enemies’ and exact justice on those who exist outside of the justice system.”
Chief Applegate scratched her face with confusion. “I’ve never heard that agenda before.”
“Well, you just did. No matter how much you want to believe in the goodness of The Order, Victor is not our friend. He seduced and manipulated my best friend and ripped us apart. Now, Blake, aka Dark Flame, is starting to act out on his own in ways you can’t stop, which is why we’re talking; you need my help to stop him.”
She nodded. “You are correct. Not so long ago, he nearly killed one of my officers while he was out running one night. Several women claim to have been saved by him, but he’s maimed or killed others along the way. Most of his actions seem connected to crimes, except the one where he assaulted an officer. The difference between you and him is that you either bring the perpetrators to the police or let the officers apprehend them. He acts as judge and jury and almost always lethally punishes the perpetrators. If that wasn’t enough, more and more reports are coming into the station about the orange-glowing man.”
“Crap,” Quinn mumbled under his breath. “So, why didn’t you let Camilla mention Dark Flame in her story?”
The chief stepped forward. “Because unlike you, he’s dangerous. Like I said before, imagine the widespread panic an official story like that would create when we tell people there’s an evil version of you.”
“That’s going to happen anyway,” Quinn responded.
“Of course it will, but I don’t need to incite a riot via a public announcement. This way, people will discover it as it happens and we’re working to be ready for when it hits the news networks. It’s going to be a challenge no matter what we do.”
Quinn looked at the traffic crossing the bridge and frowned.
Chief Applegate looked at him intently. “Unless you have a better idea, Quinn, this is completely uncharted territory for us. We have play books for terrorism, other attacks or disasters, but we do not have a play book for superhuman destruction. We’re going to have a much bigger problem than Dark Flame if you two fight.”
“If it comes down to a fight, Blake and I are fairly indestructible. If we get in a fight, things around us will get damaged. But that’s not all we have to worry about. Victor’s working hard to make more super-humans. You need to know I will stop at nothing to prevent The Order from making more of us. This planet cannot handle more evil super-humans.”
The chief nodded. “Quinn, you’re going to have a problem, too. DHS is planning something that I’m not privy too, so watch your back. I suspect it will be another event like the Sheraton. They’ve brought in some futuristic looking tech and I don’t know what it does. That said, despite our mutual agreement up here, I need you to understand I may not be able to publicly endorse you with DHS breathing down my back. I may even have to work against you, but Lieutenant Doral and I will work together to ensure we can subvert DHS when legitimately possible.”
“Thanks for the tip,” Quinn respo
nded.
“Now, if you don’t mind, please bring me back to the ground. I hate it up here.”
Quinn peered over the edge. “Camilla is still there. She’s leaning on the railing.”
In the distance, someone screamed.
“Sounds like somebody needs a hero,” Chief Applegate said, smiling for the first time.
Quinn smiled back. “Thanks. Now, hang on.”
The chief closed her eyes and tensed her body. Quinn chuckled as his eyes and body ignited with blue light. He moved toward her and returned her to the pier with Camilla. Then, he took off and flew in the direction of the citizen in distress.
3-8 | Interogatoriilor
Blake
“ISN’T DARIEN THE SCHOOL BULLY you’ve mentioned several times?” Victor asked as they walked across the naval prison’s grounds to one of The Order’s vehicles. The afternoon sun was warm and the time had come for Blake to go on the mission Victor asked him to perform with Radoslav.
“Yeah. A couple of days ago, he showed me a different side of his personality. Turns out his family’s got big problems like mine. I think that’s why he’s an asshole to everyone.”
“But you’re not like that,” Victor commented.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Blake asked, noting the defensiveness in his voice. Don’t fuck with me, Victor.
Victor chuckled. “I simply mean to say, you are nice. You have manners and respect other people. You don’t show the need to put others down to build yourself up.”
Blake shrugged. “Maybe my parents got one thing right.”
“I think they got more than one thing right, but that’s just my opinion.”
Blake ignored Victor’s comment. “Apparently, our pathetic excuses for fathers are drinking buddies and my dad asked his dad to ask Darien to stalk me and report back on how I’m doing. Needless to say, he’s seen us talking and guessed you were the source of my new income and living situation.” He intentionally left out the parts where Darien surprised him and spilled the two lattes all over him…and the part where Blake telekinetically pushed him into moving traffic.
“Does that bother you?” Victor asked.
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