“How are you going to destroy yours?”
“Some of them. My main line is what got us that information.” He held up a phone. “Call me on this, everyone has this number. I call you back on a different number depending on which part of my network you are in. That way everything is compartmentalized. They went through the numbers until they found a match. People know I know people. That's why I got the warning. They don't know who else I am.”
“Maybe they do,” I said.
“Maybe.” He shrugged. He pulled out a phone and started texting. I got up to get another beer.
“Get me another one, too.”
He was still at it when I got back to the table.
“Mike doesn't know where he is, either. Thinks he might have gone to Vegas and Jen with him. Maybe he'll be smart, marry her and run away.”
Our beers were interrupted by the bartender yelling over, waving the phone. Fiver went and got it. He listened, nodded to me, pointed at the phone. It was one of those old style phones with the cords. I stayed at the table while he turned to the corner. It took him a few minutes. He hung up and rejoined me.
“Jen is going to work it out with him. I might need to go back to the bank to finance this.”
“Do I really need to destroy my phone? I never called Skyborne.”
“Skyborne, Jen, you, your girlfriend and anyone else you called. If we're lucky they stop at two degrees of separation because their list gets too big. Why risk it? They have your old number.”
“And my old address and my real name. Won't canceling it be suspicious?”
“Who cares? We don't want them to track you going forward.” He looked at his phone. “Simon's sending me the play-by-play. Jen and Matt having it out in the hotel. I'll let you know how it goes. Go take care of the phones.”
I finished the beer.
“What's your girlfriend's name?” he asked as I got up.
“Isabelle. She's not really my girlfriend,” I said.
“I could never shut up about my girlfriends, when I had one. Probably better you don't mention her to anyone. Keep the home and work separate.”
I headed back to my flat. Isabelle called and wanted me to meet her for dinner. I altered course and met up for tacos. In the middle of my second taco, she said,
“I really like you.”
The crunching of my taco gave me time to wonder where this was going before I swallowed and said, “I like you, too.”
“I plan to keep seeing you,” she said. “I've got you categorized as a potential boyfriend.”
“Potential, eh? You seem undecided.”
“Well, you get a vote, of course. And you seem undecided.”
“I'm content to get to know you better.”
“Usually that means meeting my friends and family, coming over to my place.”
“I can do that,” I said.
“Yeah… I don't want you to. It's just that I'm living with my cousin, I don't really like him, or know him very well. And I don't really have any friends. I know that sounds weird, I have a few, but they're just people my cousin knows. I don't really like them.”
“Okay.”
“Also, I'm poor. Embarrassingly poor. Like I worry that you'll notice I only wear a couple of different outfits. It's not even a thing, I just don't have money right now. Which is why I'm going to med school, make a better life, yada yada. I just don't want you to find out later and have it be a thing.” She looked sad, but then brightened and said, “But no student loans yet!”
“That's cool,” I said. “I've got no family or friends, either.”
“So who is always texting you?”
“People helping with my research. Acquaintances.”
“You should check out this website my cousin's on. Lots of supra geeks on it. I don't know what it's called. Seriously nerd stuff.”
“You're calling me a nerd?”
“That's what I like about you.” Her little smile melts my heart. I really liked this girl.
We had dinner. She wanted to go for a walk. Back in my neighborhood we stopped for a couple of beers before going to my apartment.
“Something's weird,” I said. I couldn't place it. Isabelle kissed me. I was suitably distracted. She stayed over.
July 31, 2021
I woke up next to Isabelle. She stuck around all day. In the afternoon, Calliope texted me, wanted to know if I wanted to continue following Glory Knight's footsteps.
“Is that one of your non-friends?” Isabelle asked.
“Uh, yeah, research,” I said. I wasn't sure that the Guardian Angels weren't the ones who killed Glory Knight. Still, if Calliope didn't think I suspected her of being involved, I had a chance to learn more. I could take the risk. “I can do it later.”
“That's cool, I've got some studying to do.”
“How many classes are you taking?”
“None right now. I've got the textbooks for the classes next semester and I'm getting ahead of the game so I can take a full load and not struggle.”
“Good strategy.”
She kissed me goodbye.
I replied to Calliope's text. She said she'd knock on my door when she was back.
Jen started texting me then, saying she was in the car with Calliope, Simon, and the Chill, and heading back home. The talk with Skyborne did not go well, but he conceded that he had too many enemies to be active in Santa Maria right now.
So we broke up, she added.
Sorry to hear that, I replied. I genuinely was. I liked Skyborne. I didn't see why we couldn't straight up fight the mobs. I know now that was a very naïve outlook. I was pretty happy that Jen was happy, too. I don't mean that in an ex-girlfriend way, but since we were teammates.
Where are you guys? I asked.
Barstow
It'd be hours before they got back. I was stir-crazy. Nothing else to do, I decided to go watch Full Tilt's garage. I watched from down the street as he worked on a car. Nothing else in two hours. I went back home and ate dinner.
Calliope eventually knocked on my door. I let her in.
“How was Vegas?” She grabbed me by the throat and lifted me off my feet. She scanned the room, saw nothing. She dropped me, I landed on my feet but fell over backwards. She stood menacingly over me.
“How did you know I was in Vegas?” I didn't have a plausible story. I winced and felt my neck and tried to think. “Is someone else here? Who have you been talking to?”
“My friend Jen. She said you were in a car with her coming back from Vegas. Ow.”
“You know her?”
“Yeah. We briefly dated.” She didn't look like she believed that.
“Who else do you know?”
“What do you mean?”
“Do you know the people she knows?”
“Who do you know?”
“You know her boyfriend?” I think the look on my face gave it away. “He's out of the picture, supposedly, but you might be in danger if he shows up again. The mob threatened him, said they'd go after friends and friends of friends.”
“I'm sure that they don't have anything on me.”
“They tracked his phone metadata.”
“I'll get a new phone,” I said.
“Good idea. And smash the old one. Melting is better.”
“Okay.”
“Is that a new chair?” she asked.
“Eh? No.”
“Looks new.” It did look new.
“Maybe my girlfriend cleaned it while I wasn't looking,” I said.
“Maybe someone brought a duplicate into your house.”
“Why?” I asked.
She didn't answer for a minute and then said, “Sorry, just being paranoid.” And, “Sorry about you neck.”
“So who is next on our list?” I asked.
“Huh?”
“Glory Knight's visits.”
“Ah, yeah. Got your car?”
“Yeah.”
“Let's go. I'll tell you on the way.”
&n
bsp; I drove. She talked.
“Arroyo Grande, then. Mission Boulevard. We're going to see the Original Man.”
“Jesus. How old is he?”
“Old. I put him in prison.”
“Didn't he escape over and over again?”
“He was extremely malleable. Is extremely malleable. He can stretch his whole body, or individual parts. He manipulates the density of skin to create armor, becomes thin enough to slip through prison bars, stretches to strike enemies and remain out of reach. He's one of the most dangerous opponents I've ever fought.”
“How did he get out of prison?”
“They don't lock you up for what you can do, they lock you up for what you did. He robbed banks. He took a few extra years for his prison breaks, but that was before the Citadel. Once they drugged him, he couldn't break out, so he sat, did his time, and was released last year.”
“Exactly the kind of guy you'd want on your side if you were planning a prison break,” I said.
“Except he couldn't break out of the Citadel.”
“Not when he was drugged,” I said. “He's not drugged any more.”
Calliope gave me directions. I drove to a neighborhood of quiet streets and small houses in Arroyo Grande.
“It's the one with the Mustang in the driveway. Let's sit and watch how he spends his Saturday night.”
“How do we know he's even in?”
“His car is in the driveway, genius.”
I sat quietly after that.
“So how did you and Jen meet?” Calliope asked.
“Internet,” I said. That's a conversation killer in most circles. The stigma remains 30 years after the invention of the Internet.
“Dating site?”
“Supra forum.”
“A chat room where you talk about supras?”
“A message board,” I said. “We met in person, a few of us from the board. To grab pizza and beers.”
“Isn't that how she met her current boyfriend.”
“Yeah, sort of.”
“Kind of weird meeting a supra online like that.”
“It's just coincidence, really,” I said.
“Weird that she'd end up being Catchpenny,” Calliope said. “Also weird that she'd use Catchpenny's name, even though she's using King Scarab's armor.”
“I guess. Maybe she just doesn't feel like changing names.”
“When did you find out she was a supra?”
I had intended on finding out a thing or two about Calliope, the Guardian Angels, the good old days of supraheroing. Instead she'd just gotten me to admit that I knew Jen was Catchpenny.
“After we broke up,” I said. “Sort of the reason, really. Dedicated more time to the job, no time for anything serious. It came out in that whole conversation.”
“Funny, she told me that only the New Powers had any idea of who she was,” Calliope said.
“Nice of her to protect me like that.”
I could see Calliope staring at me from the corner of my eye.
“Nothing happening here,” she said at last. “Should we move on?”
“Sure,” I said. “Who's next?”
“Jennifer Runyan. Catchpenny's daughter…”
Shit.
“…a frequent visitor of the Citadel during her father's incarceration, and supra with the ability to manipulate supratech.”
Shit.
“Is she involved in Glory Knight's murder?”
“What? No?”
“Carrying messages from a prisoner via her father to someone else outside?”
“No,” I said.
“You know she didn't?”
“Why would she?”
“Daddy asked her to,” Calliope said. “She didn't mention any other connection to Glory Knight?”
“No, she looked around his house. She's the one who found the glass.”
“What glass?”
“She found a glass in the dishwasher the police missed. Purple lipstick on it. No prints.”
“Catchpenny's daughter was at the scene of the crime and brought you evidence?”
“I mean, she wasn't Catchpenny then.”
“Were you with her? Why did she go there?”
“It was very complicated,” I said. “I didn't go. She wanted to see if the police missed anything. Get clues to help with my investigation.”
“Was it your idea or hers to investigate this?”
“Uhm.”
“Think you might be helping your ex- cover up a murder?”
“No,” I said. “You're speculating. There's no evidence. All we know is Glory Knight had her address. He probably talked to her. He probably didn't know she had any powers at all. Oh, shit. He knew the armor was going to be auctioned off.”
No way, I thought. Out loud, I said, “He could have suspected she could use her father's armor. Catchpenny broke into Fort Knox with a suit of armor just like that one.”
“She could use it to break into the Citadel.”
“Still doesn't tie her to the murder,” I said.
“She found evidence that points to someone. Lipstick, no prints. Why frame a woman? She knew it was poison, and poison points to a woman murderer.”
“Actually, men murder with poison more often, because men murder far more often than women.”
“Perception is what matters,” she said.
“It still puts us back to poison not being enough to kill Glory Knight,” I said. “He survived the Bride of Scorpions.”
“Jen's next on the list. Should we go talk to her now?”
“You had her name on the list. Why didn't you talk to her on the way back from Vegas?”
“I put it together on the trip down. She's pretty chatty.”
“Yeah.”
“Besides, this is your gig. I didn't realize you knew her until just now at your flat. I thought that you might be connected, but then I realized you'd have to be an idiot to go out of your way to bring me in on it. Then I realized that you could be using me to lead you to Glory Knight's contacts so you could tie up loose ends, but I don't think you're that smart. I'll feel differently if they all start dropping like flies, I guess.”
“I say we just hang here. I'll talk with Jen tomorrow and see what's up.”
“Saturday night parked in a dark car. This takes me back.”
“I can turn on some make out music if you want,” I said. “I think I can find an oldies station.”
“Funny.”
“So are we going to talk to the Original Man?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I'm afraid of him,” Calliope said. “And I don't think he's going to give up any information that we don't already have.
We sat in the dark staring at a house where nothing was happening. After midnight, the lights went out. I drove for home.
August 1, 2021
Sunday. I finally bought a new phone, and one for Isabelle. I had nothing better to do, so I headed to Kids Remembered. I did laundry. I was deep in thought. All of the sudden it was 2 o'clock and Cal texted demanding I come try the greatest Bacon Bloody Mary ever. I went to Murphy's. The liquid brunch crowd had just started to thin out. Cal and Jen were drinking Bloody Marys. Simon unapologetically sipped a mimosa.
“It's orange juice and champagne! It's delicious!” he shouted at Cal, then announced, “I'm going to have another after this.”
“What's up?” I said, and sat.
“Try this Bacon Bloody Mary,” Cal said. He pushed his across to me.
I sipped it. “What am I chewing?”
“Bacon bits,” Cal said. “Amazing, I know.”
“How long have you all been drinking?”
“Since ten.”
“Last night or this morning?” I asked. “Or since you were ten years old?”
“Dude, relax.”
“Jen, I need to talk to you.”
“We're all family,” she said. “Brothers-in-arms.”
“It's personal,�
�� I said.
“Don't ask her out, dude,” Simon said. “Her boyfriend just left. That's just sad.”
Jen walked with me over to a corner of the bar.
“I really hope you're not going to ask me out,” she said.
“You told Calliope you were Catchpenny?”
“I was sitting around in my King Scarab armor. She was going to figure it out. I didn't say that I knew you, though.”
“I know. I accidentally spilled it when I asked her how Vegas was.”
“Ah.”
“Yeah, she nearly choked me to death in a fit of paranoia.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah.”
“So it's not a secret that you're working with us?” she asked.
“I guess not. But you know she doesn't know Rebel's secret ID.”
“Yes, he reminds me constantly.”
“Well, that's not going to last if she sees us all together. Remember she wandered in here before.”
“So what do you want me to do about it? And why is this hush-hush?”
“I don't know,” I said. “But that's not the hush-hush part. Calliope has the same list that Glory Knight used to track down ex-inmates of the Citadel. Your name is on the list.”
“So?”
“So did he talk to you?”
“Yeah, he told me my dad's armor was going to be auctioned off. He thought I might be able to use it because family members can sometimes use supratech.”
“What did he want you to do?” I asked.
“I don't know. I didn't listen. I don't like the stigma of having a father who happened to be an inhabitant of a supra-prison. I would have told you if I had any information. I don't. I barely said anything to him.”
“But you knew the armor would be at the auction.”
“Yeah, I knew two weeks before East Coast Steve told us,” she said. “By the way, East Coast Steve is the Chill. I mean, officially. I know we already figured it out.”
“I think Glory Knight wanted you to help him break into the Citadel.”
“Why?”
“I think he might have been preparing to break out Leonidas. He was going around talking to former inmates, and one current one, the Nillionaire. He's asking them about the Citadel, under the guise of being interested in the welfare of prisoners. I think he was probing for information on how to get around security systems, get around the drugs, or gage how they worked, and the effects.”
The City That Heroes Built Page 30