Inescapable Arsenal

by Jeffery H. Haskell

Kate taps my shoulder, refocusing my attention.

  “Right, yes, Tony, of course, we want you on the team. We trust you and I know how much you love running.”

  He smiles so big I worry his face is going to split. His hands are a blur as he rips off his apron and switches to his blue Fleet costume. Little bolts of lightning flash around him until he stops moving at super speed.

  “Where do you want me?”

  Kate smiles at him, “Welcome aboard, Fleet. Here’s the address. Talk to Milton when you arrive and he will square you away. You’re going to love the cafeteria. Puts Down Under to shame.”

  “Thank you,” he says as he looks us both in the eye for a moment. “Thank you so much.”

  “See you in—” a gust of air blows my hair in my face and Kate’s dress sideways and he’s gone.

  “I guess he’s not going to give notice… hey,” Kate says narrowing her eyes at me, “You haven’t told me if there’s a paycheck. I used to make quite a bit.”

  Crap. I hadn’t thought about that. The DB’s paid a measly forty a year with benefits. It was a decent wage but I never really felt like it was commensurate with the risks we took. Especially considering the amount of money Cat-7 received from the deal.

  “I’ll talk to the lawyers, but more than we made on the Diamondbacks. Plus, you need to hire some PR people. I hadn’t thought about it when I set up the company. You mentioned toy deals and what not, could be a good source of income for you folks.”

  “For us? Not the company?”

  “Kate, I’ve got a few billion and growing, what the hell do I need with toy money? Also, now that I think about it... whatever we do pay you in salary, will be independent of living quarters and food, company cars and what not. That will all be benefits. Not to mention the best medical I can find.”

  “You’re not really nailing the whole ‘ruthless CEO’ thing.”

  I shrug as we leave the shop. She holds the door open for me as I wheel out into the cold Boston air. “I can always make more money.”

  You can? Epic adds in.

  “Okay, okay, you can always make more money.”

  Credit where credit is due.

  “Yeah yeah. You know, I gave you life.”

  Thank you.

  I laugh. Kate pushes me over to the waiting car. We manage to be on our way in a few minutes despite the crazy traffic of the big city.

  “Where next?”

  Kate taps a few keys on her phone pulling up the list of potentials we all came up with. “DC. We might as well drive there and have Epic meet us with the plane. It’s longer to the airport than it will be to drive to Dr. Contee’s house.”

  “You think he’ll even talk to us after what happened to his wife?”

  “You’re too hard on yourself, Amelia. You did everything possible in DC.”

  I still can see her, or what was left of her after Behemoth beat her head through an armored vehicle. I thought for sure she was dead but somehow, by some miracle, she lived. Poor Bricklayer hadn’t. He didn’t have a wife but I sent flowers and a card to his parents. I’m sure lots of people did.

  Samantha Contee was the top powered agent on the Presidents secret service detail. F4 strong and invulnerable and it meant absolutely nothing to Behemoth. She rolled over her like a train over a bunny.

  “She’s still in a coma, though,” Kate added. “He may not want to leave DC.”

  “We’ll cross that warp barrier when we get there.”

  Kate rolls her eyes at me before putting in ear-buds and laying her head back. According to Epic, it’s an hour and a half drive.

  The drive itself wasn’t half bad. I’d never really been out here, not as a sightseer anyway. The city disappears, replaced by the ocean with its rolling waves and whitecaps. Kate delightfully snores beside me, not loud but enough I almost wanted to record her log sawing. If for no other reason than to remind me we all have our flaws, no matter how perfect we seem on the outside. I take a second to text Luke, letting him know I’m okay and I miss him. I do.

  The last few months especially. Aliens are coming, hell they’re already here and I’m not ready. My mass driver stopped one and that was only just. What if the next one was tougher? What if they just bomb us from orbit? I shake my head, I can’t afford to think like that. We are masters of our own fate, Amelia. We can do this. I don’t care what Ericsson or Pythia say.

  Time flies by and before I realize it, we’re pulling up next to a suburban house with a once-manicured lawn. The outside doesn’t look like anyone has cared for it in a long time. Overgrown weeds, dandy lions, and a half-finished garden box fill the yard.

  For a moment, a half-forgotten memory flashes through my brain. A house a lot like this one, with a daisy, painted on the door. I close my eyes and push the memory down. My childhood that could’ve been, but wasn’t.

  “Hell,” Kate mutters. She opens the box I gave her and slips on the necklace with the brainwave blocking chip inside. “I don’t think he’s going to come with us,” she says wiping tears from her eyes.

  “That bad?”

  “I don’t even know how to describe the depths of his sorrow.” She touches up her makeup with a compact from her purse.

  “We need him, Kate. He’s the only person in the US with his kind of abilities. Epic’s math is never wrong. We have to have a very specific team composition for optimum performance and he needs to be with us.”

  She nods, “Just don’t get your hopes up.”

  It takes a few minutes to transfer to my chair but once we do we’re halfway to his door when it opens. Dr. Contee is a tall man, six foot easy, with a runners build. Though I can tell he’s let himself go a bit lately. His clothes are a little too tight around his waist. He wears an open button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up. His head is shaved smooth, or maybe he’s bald I’m not sure, but his beard more than makes up for it.

  “Go away,” he says before turning back to his house.

  “Dr. Contee, I’m Kate Petrenelli, I left you a message on your cell phone?”

  He stops at the door. I can’t really tell his age, his smooth black skin is only marred by scar tissue around his hands.

  “I don’t care who you are, go away.” He slams the door behind him.

  “Well, who else is on the list?”

  “I’m not giving up,” I tell her. Wheeling forward I come to a stop at the porch and wait. When Kate doesn’t do anything I glance over at her and nod my head.

  “Right! Sorry.” She lifts me up, chair and all, as if I weighed nothing, and sets the wheels down on the porch. Looking at her, with her hourglass figure, I forget she can bench a thousand pounds. In the ranks of ‘strong’, she doesn’t even register. But to a normal human? She might as well be a supergirl.

  The doorbell button doesn’t have a light but I push anyway. If that doesn’t work I’ll knock. No response. I knock on the door. When that doesn’t work I gesture to Kate. Her knocks are slightly louder.

  The door flies open, “Do you want me to call the police? Get off my property.”

  “Dr. Contee, please just listen for a moment,” I ask. When I speak he looks down at me, his eyes narrow as he scans my face.

  “I’m Amelia Lockheart, you may have—”

  The screen door flies open and he drops down, wrapping in a bear hug I hadn’t expected. Kate stops herself an inch away from flinging him off me.

  “I’m so sorry! I thought you were here to ask me to heal you. I didn’t know it was you. Thank you,” he says. His shoulders shake as he sobs into my shoulder, “Thank you.”

  It takes a few minutes but once inside, he offers me a cup of coffee. I take it but don’t drink. The house smells of unwashed dishes and dirty laundry. He had to clear a place off the couch for Kate before he disappeared into the kitchen and came back with two cups of coffee in paper cups.

  “Dr. Contee, we’re here to ask—”

  He holds up his hand, sorrow and regret plain on his face, “I’m sorry. I owe you more
than you know, but I really can’t heal you. I have to use my powers within twenty-four hours of the injury or it doesn’t work. After that…” he shrugs.

  I glance at Kate? He thinks I’m here to ask him to heal me? She shrugs. Right. She put on her pendant. She can’t feel his emotions. I’m not surprised, the guy looks like a train wreck hit by a nuke.

  “I’m really very sorry Ms. Lockheart, truly. If I could restore your ability to walk I would.”

  I smile, which confuses him. “Dr. Contee I’m—”

  “—Teddy, please. I haven’t been a practicing Doctor in years.”

  “Okay, Teddy. I’m not here to ask you to heal me. I’ve been paralyzed since I was six. Trust me, I’m okay with it.”

  “Oh,” he says surprised. “I saw you on TV and I just assumed… I’m sorry. How can I help?” He slips his phone out of his pocket presumably to check the time before putting it face down on the table. “Bear in mind I have to leave in a half-hour to go see my wife.”

  “Teddy,” Kate says with her million-watt smile, “We’re here to off you a position on our team.” I can feel the calming vibes she’s putting out. Even with the smell of the place, her pheromones must work. He relaxes slightly, his shoulders slump and his hands go from tense grappling to relaxing in his lap.

  “I thank you for your kind offer, but I’m not really looking for a job. I have my wife to care for and her pension is more than enough for us to live on.”

  I shake my head and hold out my hand to stop Kate from continuing. I read Teddy’s file. He’s a doctor of Neurology, one of the hardest fields in all of medical science. His powers let him regenerate cells and promote life energy passively. If he focuses them he can heal wounds in seconds, strengthen a body’s immunity to disease, all kinds of great things. He worked hard for his position, growing up poor in the Congo, then managing an education visa to the US. He’s a good man who believes in doing the right thing. I don’t need a psychology degree or Kate's powers to convince him to help us.

  “Teddy, while I am offering you a job, it isn’t for you to be a doctor, well not just a doctor.”

  “I’m afraid I’m confused, then.”

  “I want you to join my team. My super team. I’m putting together a group of extraordinary people to help defend humanity.”

  His eyes go wide, “Defend humanity? Ms. Lockheart, you already did that. I read the story. The man who controlled Cat-7, you sent him off into space, didn’t you?”

  “Amelia, please. And yes I did. But you heard about Seattle?”

  “The meteor strike?”

  Ugh. I hate the media. Terrified that people would freak out they buried the alien part of the story. “It wasn’t a meteor, Teddy.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “It was an alien scout ship,” Kate says without missing a beat. “Sent here in advance of what we can only suspect is some kind of invasion force.”

  The man looks back and forth between us. A grin splits his face and he lets out a deep belly laugh. It goes on and on and I can’t help but smile. I don’t think he’s laughed in a while.

  “You can’t be serious,” he says, wiping his face, “Right?”

  I glance at Kate. She’s smiling too, which is always a heartwarming sight. “Yes. We are serious. I built and fly a suit of armor, Teddy. My friend here can teleport. I don’t think it’s that big of a leap to aliens being real.”

  He nods, the mirth slowly leaving his face. “Yes, I guess you’re right. But… what do you want me to do? Offer them health care?”

  I chuckle, “I want you to join my team. Your powers make you invaluable in a fight and let’s be real, you’re a very smart man. Specifically, you are educated in a field I no next to nothing about.”

  “You are a scientist? I thought you controlled your armor with some form of elemental control? That’s what the media says, anyways.”

  “Yeah, they never believe me when I tell them I’m an engineer. But yes, I’m a scientist.”

  “She doesn’t have any powers, Teddy. She’s just a smarty pants,” Kate adds.

  I stick my tongue out at her before turning back to Teddy. “Well, can you help us?”

  “I—I’m afraid my answer is still no. I can’t leave my wife. You see I wasn’t able to get to her in time. The damage done to the city was extensive. People were hurt and with the media blackout, I didn’t know… by the time I found out, it was too late. I failed her once, I won’t again.”

  I smile because I’m ready for this. “Teddy, I can have her and you flown privately to Arizona and she can have her own private room with full-time care in our HQ. You tell me the name of the doctor and nurses you want looking after her, and I will get them. You can sleep in the same room with her and spend all your free time with her. And—” I raise my hand to forestall the question I know he’s about to ask. “If for any reason we are in the field or away from Arizona, Kate here is a teleporter. She can take you to your wife in a heartbeat at any moment.” Okay, technically the last part isn’t entirely true. But it will be eventually… I hope. Kate gives me a raised eyebrow but doesn’t say anything.

  He looks down at the floor for a second, one large hand rubbing his chin as he thinks. He seems to come to an agreement with himself because he nods just before speaking.

  “I guess you’ve got yourself a doctor then. Uh, will I have to wear a costume and have a codename?”

  “Part of the job I’m afraid,” Kate tells him.

  “Don’t worry though, I have the best costume and name in mind for you. You’re going to love it!”

  Idon’t know about this, Kate.”

  The South Dakota UltraMax isn’t on my ideal list of places to visit. Especially without my armor. Kate is nonplussed by it all as she pushes me through airlock after airlock, separating us from the outside world. I had to leave my armor chair behind and use one the prison provided for me. Not to mention Kate has none of her paraphernalia on her. With no real way to dampen powers (and I sure as hell am not sharing my anti-telepathy tech with the government) all they can do is construct special cells designed to resist the powers of each inmate. They start from five hundred feet underground so even if someone escapes they have nowhere to go.

  “Tessa Harper is perfect. She matches every criteria Epic has to fill out the team and most importantly, she didn’t escape when Cat-7 opened the doors and shut the security off. Almost every other inmate did. You said it yourself, having a telekinetic on the team would prove invaluable.”

  Pouting is not my strong suit, but I do my best. I did say that. I just… she worked with White Rhino and I still have occasional nightmares about the things he said when I locked him up.

  “You read her file, Amelia. She never had a chance. Let’s give her one.”

  Ugh. I hate it when she’s right. Which is like, all the time. After the sixth entry point we pass, which scans us for everything from metal to radiation, we’re admitted into a sealed elevator. The shaft is a vacuum, even if someone could break into it, they would never be able to traverse it without breathing apparatus. The lift zooms down fast enough to put my stomach in my throat. I wish I could talk to Epic but they block all signals and without my armored chair, I have to do this without him.

  Sensing my building panic, Kate puts her hand on me, “It will be okay, hon. Relax.”

  As always, her powers do wonders for me. My chest relaxes, losing the tightness of my anxiety.

  “Better?”

  “Always.”

  The doors open, revealing another airlock type station. This time there are four men in tactical gear all pointing hi-tech looking rifles at us. From the way the circular magazines glow I’d say they aren’t loaded with physical projectiles…

  “Are those Ion Pulse rifles? You bastards,” I roll forward so fast Kate loses her grip. “You stole my designs!” As one, they take a step back training their weapons on me.

  “Halt for scan, ma’am. If you come a single foot closer we will fire.” I slap th
e wheels and stop the chair. I growl in my head, I’m so angry. Friggin stole my work. Of course.

  A speaker clicks on, “They’re clean, let ‘em pass.”

  The men all lower their rifles and the leader nods at us, “Ladies, this way.”

  “Tell me officer, who made those rifles?” I ask him as I roll by.

  “I’m just a grunt, ma’am, I couldn’t tell you that.”

  I grumble something incoherent and make a mental note to have Epic find out. If they think they can pilfer my work then they have another thing coming. Another thought stops me cold… what if someone stole more than my IP Cannons? Oh God. What if they have the ZPFM or particle beam tech?

  “Amelia, focus, we can worry about this later.”

  I shake my head trying to clear away the anger, it doesn’t do much good. Kate pushes me through the door and I just put my hands in my lap white knuckling them together, trying not to scream at everyone here.

  “I need you to calm down, hon. I know this sucks, but let’s focus.” I can feel her powers work on me, they don’t really force me to change, just let me get a handle on my anger. They took our phones and all other electronic devices to prevent us from contacting the outside world… but when I get back I am going to sue the pants off these people. Literally.

  “I’m good,” I grumble. “Mostly.”

  The guard leads us down a nondescript hall barely large enough for my chair. He has to stoop to walk through. They really take their defenses serious and in layers. The final door rolls out of the way. As we pass through it I am amazed at how thick it is. Ten feet of steel easy.

  Once past the door, the place looks more like a normal prison. Offices, bulletproof guard stations, the whole bit. The prison itself is built like a rock quarry deep into the South Dakota bedrock. Each layer is open to a central courtyard which is bathed in sunlight. I glance up at the ceiling expecting to see the sky but instead, it is a series of mirrors reflecting light through tunnels.

  “Cool trick.” The guard just smiles at my compliment and ushers us into a normal looking elevator. A few minutes later he leads us to a series of isolation chambers. Transparent walls prevent privacy, but the rest of the room is normal. He parks us in the one labeled four.