“I’m still the same person, I promise,” he said. “All that’s changed is I make my own decisions now.”
“Everyone changes, Andrey.”
Andrey let that hang in the air before responding. “Let me know when and where you want to meet. I need to know everything about what happened today.”
Including whether or not you believe you faced the Antithesis, he added silently.
***
Half an hour later, Andrey was in the penthouse suite where the EU hero team stayed. Finding the hotel had been easy enough, but facing the group of heroes who had suffered the consequences of his earlier absence was a different story altogether. A quick scan of the faces in the suite let him know who had agreed to the meeting and who hadn’t. The fact that none of them wore costumes made him stand out like a sore thumb, even after he removed his helmet.
Rune sat a high-backed chair against a tall window, the backlight illuminating his broad-shouldered, well-toned form. He had shaved his beard since Andrey last saw him, but he still wore his brown hair in a braid that hung over the front of his plaid flannel shirt.
Crashbang stood to Rune’s right, a pale, frizzy-haired young man in his early twenties whose wide stance indicated his readiness for trouble. He was intent on playing the hero even while off duty, even going so far as to wear a flashy combination of red trousers and a hooded yellow sweatshirt to match the color scheme of his costume.
Aura, perched on an ottoman beside Rune, viewed Andrey from behind thick red-rimmed glasses that gave her the appearance of a curious bird. She was the youngest member of the team, barely sixteen as far as Andrey remembered, and the smallest to boot. She didn’t weigh more than eighty pounds.
Skyfire positioned herself in the far corner of the suite, leaning against the wall beside the minibar, her delicate young face scowling as she watched Andrey’s every move.
Now, two minutes after his arrival, the awkward greetings were done and he sat in the center of the room, clasping his helmet on his lap. The accusatory stares around him reminded him of a courtroom.
His nerves butchered his English pronunciation as he spoke. “I’m sure you guys have a lot of questions for me. Actually, I’m glad we’re getting the chance to talk. I hope we can find a way to work together.”
Skyfire snorted. “Says the hero who wasn’t there when everything went to shit.” She chased her sarcasm with a shot of something she had poured herself from the minibar.
“Nadia!” Rune hissed in a warning tone.
Skyfire pulled a face, but didn’t say anything else.
Andrey didn’t blame her. No use tiptoeing around the elephant in the room.
He cleared his throat, pushing the bulge of Gentleman’s phone deeper into his costume pocket. “I understand my absence raises questions. But as I told your leader earlier, I had a family emergency.”
Crashbang, at least, gave him a look of genuine sympathy. “I hope everyone’s okay, man.”
Andrey gave him a nod of appreciation before changing the subject. “You’re probably wondering what I bring to the table now that I’m no longer in the Covenant. I’m offering you backup, day or night. As you know, once I receive the coordinates I can reach any location in a matter of seconds.”
“Yeah, provided you choose to show,” Skyfire muttered.
Andrey ignored her. “I also have a few contacts you might find useful. Contacts you would not have access to otherwise. Top-level scientists, UNEOA representatives, that sort of thing.” He wasn’t sure how many of those contacts would still talk to him now that he had gone rogue, but he kept that to himself.
“Useful for what?” Skyfire looked around at her teammates, addressing them. “We’ve talked to scientists and UNEOA officials for the longest time. It’s not like he has a monopoly on contacts or anything.”
“Yeah, but we don’t have any connections to the Covenant,” Crashbang pointed out.
“Does he?” Skyfire bit back.
“Maybe,” Andrey replied.
“Maybe? How do we even know that you haven’t switched sides?”
Andrey had no answer for her. The villain’s phone felt heavy in his costume pocket.
For the first time since his arrival, Aura chimed in. “I don’t think he’s switched allegiances, but he’s conflicted about something. And he is hiding something from us.”
The girl’s words made him feel exposed. He shouldn’t have been surprised because she read people futures and emotions from their auras, and his own powerset didn’t include immunity from Empaths.
Rune thumbed his stubbled jaw, considering Andrey with a cool, judicial gaze. “Does this conflict have something to do with your family?”
“Yes,” Andrey admitted.
Rune looked over at Aura, who gave him a nod. “All right,” he decided. “That’s reasonable.”
Skyfire opened her mouth to speak, but her team leader raised a finger to cut her off. “There are still a number of obstacles we can’t ignore. For instance, the fact that the European Union doesn’t deal with rogues.”
“I appreciate the effort,” Andrey replied, knowing that their meeting here wasn’t an official one. “I’ve spent the last year trying to unite the hero and rogue factions so I’m aware of the official stance.”
Skyfire poured herself another drink from the minibar. “Why did you even call, unless you want to make trouble for us?”
“Because it’s a pointless policy that only benefits the villains in the end,” Andrey replied. “It divides what is otherwise a united front, and it reflects thinking twenty years behind the times. If we want to have a chance of defeating the threats we’re facing now, we’ll have to devise solutions on our own. And we’re going to have to use all the resources we can get.”
Crashbang flicked a thumbs up to Rune, who was rubbing his stubbled jaw again. Andrey felt himself relax a little for the first time since he was seated.
The next question came from Crashbang. “Who’s working with you now?”
“The Latinos. I talk to Calavera daily, but I’ll need a couple of days to check on my other contacts.”
Skyfire raised her shot glass at him. “He means he doesn’t have anyone else. He’s probably knocking on our door because he’s as scared as everyone else of the Antithesis.”
At that point the atmosphere in the hotel suite changed from emotionally charged to something more sinister. Andrey’s grip on his helmet tightened. Crashbang cleared his throat, the sound filling the otherwise silent room.
Andrey broke the silence first. “So the rumors are true?”
“Rumors are only that—rumors,” Rune pronounced. “We don’t know who’s spread this particular one, maybe Dancer started it herself. But in my opinion,” the hero’s face hardened to granite, “I’d say that yes, the rumors are true.”
Andrey’s mind was flooded with scenarios, all of them unpleasant. “But surely Sarina Baumann—”
“Forget everything you thought you knew about Sarina Baumann,” Rune interrupted, crossing his arms over his chest. “We faced the Antithesis a few hours ago, I don’t doubt that for a second. She put one of us in the hospital, and I thank God it wasn’t worse.”
Andrey stared through suite windows, the Swiss girl’s smiling file picture still present in his mind. “I can’t see how….” he trailed off.
Crashbang fixed him with a level stare. “You should have seen the look in her eyes, man. That girl was ruthless and ready to kill. And her powers are off the charts. Didn’t you see what she did?” the young hero pointed at the penthouse window, indicating the still-spouting geyser in the sky across the city. “She’s not all rainbows and butterflies, man.”
As much as Andrey wanted to disagree, he couldn’t argue with him. “Yes, I’ve seen it. But I’m not sure the girl was working on her own accord.”
Skyfire snorted in disbelief. “Well, believe it. That bitch had demon eyes. If anyone is Anathema to the Healer, it’s her.”
Rune’s attention s
hifted back to Andrey. “She exploited our good faith to lure us onto the roof away from her villain friends. Pretended to surrender before attacking us outright.”
That can’t be the whole truth. She’s being manipulated, and I think I know by whom.
Skyfire glared at Rune. “I told you not to trust her, but you didn’t listen, and now Checkmate’s in hospital.”
The Swedish hero heaved a heavy sigh. “Athena ordered us to take the girl into custody. We had to try.”
“Athena ordered you to apprehend the girl?” Andrey asked, straightening. He and Alexandra had discussed the matter that last evening before she broke off communications with him, but he never knew for certain whether she would follow through. Knowing they were on the same page was the best news he had heard in weeks.
A frown formed on Crashbang’s face. “You didn’t know that? Didn’t you say you’re still in touch with the Covenant?”
“You said that,” Andrey corrected. “I said ‘maybe.’ I need to look into it, but I’m glad to know the plan is to take Dancer into custody.”
“Was,” Rune corrected. “The plan was to take her into custody before we knew how resistant she was. I haven’t heard back from our overseer yet, but I have a hunch the plan has changed.”
Crashbang wove his fingers together behind his head. “I mean, how is anyone expected to apprehend her? She warps reality, maybe even time. If she doesn’t want to come….”
That’s not necessarily true.
As Andrey turned the facts over in his head, the idea of sharing his suspicions about Gentleman’s role in manipulating Dancer had a certain appeal to it, but he wasn’t sure the villain’s cell phone wasn’t bugged or whether cameras were planted in the suite. Or that none of the EU heroes would report him to the authorities for keeping the villain’s phone in his pocket. Unfortunately, it looked like his best option was to keep quiet until he had a guarantee that his family would be safe.
Aura spoke for the first time in minutes, her voice an almost whisper. “He’s hiding something. About something else, not only his family.”
He almost forgot there was an Empath in the room. He would have to be more careful from now on. “I have my own theories about Dancer,” he admitted. “But I can’t share them yet.”
Rune cast a glance at Aura, who gave him a nod in return.
None of them trust me yet. Andrey couldn’t blame them.
A hint of coolness crept into Rune’s voice. “We have our own ideas. Whenever you’re ready to share yours, maybe we’ll return the favor.”
I’m losing them, Andrey realized, looking between the assembled heroes. If I’m going to get them on my side, they need to know we share a common cause.
An idea sparked when his gaze landed on Aura.
“Maybe your powers could help me verify a few things,” he told the girl. “Could you tell me what your range is? With Rune’s permission, of course.”
I won’t pretend I’m anybody’s leader anymore.
Rune gestured for Aura to speak and the girl’s face brightened. “It works at any range, but I have to see the person or a picture of them,” she explained. “It’s not as accurate with pictures, and I only see what their future and mood are like right now. But I’m able to find out a few things based on the color of their aura. Green if they’re lying, red if they’re upset, black if they’re going to die soon, that sort of thing.”
Andrey smiled because the girl’s passion reminded him of a younger, less confident Alexandra. “Promise you’ll let me know if I’m going to die soon, all right?” he joked.
The girl gave him a shy smile and giggled.
“Do you have any idea where Dancer is now?” he asked her.
“No. I wish I did, though.”
Rune gently squeezed Aura’s shoulder in an attempt to lighten her mood. “Aura might have information about who was with Dancer. She identified similar color patterns on pictures of most of the European off-grid cases we’ve checked so far, which includes Dancer, Jasper Davis, and the two Irish rogues.”
Andrey slowly nodded. He already figured as much. It was easy to see how the TV station hijacking could have involved the Irish boy’s enhanced senses, not to mention a Technician and a power booster. The mention of the disappeared Europeans gave him another idea.
“What about the Evolved who disappeared in the Americas?” he asked. “Were you able to check on them?”
Aura wrapped her arms around herself, averting her gaze. Whatever nerve he touched, Andrey wanted to take the comment back.
Crashbang filled the silence in the room. “They’re alive, but Aura never wants to look at their pictures again. They look all messed up to her. They aren’t with the Liverpool group, at any rate.”
Everyone’s mind is on Saint, Andrey assumed, his mood darkening. He couldn’t even imagine the hell the South American Guardian went through ever since his run-in with Legion.
“How many do you think are with the Liverpool group?” he asked.
“Our guess is anywhere between five and eight,” Rune said. “Someone cleared an escape route out of the building for them, but we don’t know who. Not Dancer, that’s for sure. The work was too small, too precise. Most likely done by a Revoker. “
“Do you have any idea who that could have been?” Andrey asked. “Unless everyone in their group was invisible?”
Crashbang nodded. “Yeah, we didn’t see anyone except Dancer when we met on the roof. It was like she wanted us to see her or something.”
Aura, eager to help, said, “The security guys said that they could see and hear them for a moment when the television hijacking was going on, but all the villains were wearing masks.”
Andrey tapped his fingers on his helmet, absorbing her words. “What were they talking about?”
“Well, one of them was not too happy,” Rune said. “He was talking to Raven, making threats.”
“A guy with an Australian accent,” Crashbang added.
Andrey recalled a file he had recently reviewed. “Jacob Wilson.”
Rune scratched his chin with a finger. “That’s what we think, too.”
You didn’t want to share that information with me yet.
“Could Aura verify that?” Andrey asked.
“Yeah, if she had a photo. I haven’t been able to find one. Haven’t had time, not with everything that’s going on with Checkmate.”
“It might take me a day or two, but I can get that for you,” Andrey offered, glad to extend an easy favor. “Would one from a distance be okay? Or would you need—” He stopped talking when he noticed the strange look on Aura’s face. “Is something wrong?”
The girl twisted on her chair to whisper into Rune’s ear. The Swedish hero’s eyebrows raised in turn.
“She says you should be careful, Andrey,” Rune told him. “Your aura has gotten darker in the last few minutes.”
Andrey’s eyes inadvertently landed on Skyfire.
“What?” she said defensively. “Don’t look at me!”
Aura’s eyebrows furrowed, forming small wrinkles above the rim of her glasses. “No, it’s not her. I don’t know who it is, actually. All I know is that someone wants you … um, dead.”
That’s nothing new, Andrey thought, weary. Athena had calculated the latest bounty on his head at half a million dollars, but that was back when he was the leader of the Covenant. So much had changed since then. He thought about the phone in his pocket; maybe Gentleman knew where he was and meant to punish him for meeting with the EU team. But if the villain disapproved of his meeting with the other heroes, wouldn’t he have said so?
“When is this supposed to happen?” he asked. “Today?”
The Empath gave a shrug. “I think so. Maybe. Everything is already … ready to make it happen. It has been for the last minute or so.”
“You better listen to her, man,” Crashbang said. “The last time she said someone’s aura went black, she was watching the Traveler on the news. We all know what happened to
him.” The young hero slowly drew an index finger across his own throat.
“So I guess I should change my plans for today, huh?” Andrey asked in an attempt at humor.
Rune looked around the room. “That might be a good idea. You could stay here—”
“No,” Skyfire cut in. “He doesn’t need to stay here. In two minutes he could be in a hotel room four thousand miles away.”
Andrey shook his head at the irony of her words. India was four thousand miles away, and he guessed a billion people there, if not more, wished to see him dead. They wouldn’t know or understand that he was following orders, or that those orders nearly broke him.
“Thanks for the offer, Rune, but I’ll figure something out,” he said.
The awkward moment was interrupted by the jarring jingle of a child’s ringtone emerging from his costume. Gentleman’s phone.
Andrey winced. He hadn’t expected the villain to call him so soon, and the squeaky singing duck’s voice hit him like someone slapped him. If the ringtone had been chosen for effect, it had succeeded. Everyone in the room stared at him as if he was crazy.
“Sorry, but I have to take this.” He rose from his chair to walk across the suite to the exit. This call must have something to do with the impending threat on his family’s life, but he didn’t have any other option but to answer it. He couldn’t afford to piss the villain off now, not while the Luvkovs were still within Gentleman’s reach.
“If I don’t come back, send me a message,” he told Rune. “You still have my secure email address, right?” He pulled the door open.
The Swedish hero opened his mouth to say something, but Andrey stepped into the vacant hotel hallway and closed the suite door behind him. As much as he wanted to keep talking, he couldn’t spare the time. When he was sure he wasn’t overheard by the other heroes, he accepted the incoming call with the touch of his thumb.
“Yes?” he said, irritable, already knowing he wouldn’t like what was he would hear.
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