But how would she go about contacting me after the broadcast? Andrey wondered, surprising himself by thinking about such an unusual idea. Broadcasting his own private number was off the table. Not only would he get spammed by all kinds of hoaxers, but there was no telling what someone with Data’s skills and resources would do if they had his contact information.
There’s always Kathy.
As much as he disliked the thought of requesting Kathy’s assistance again when he could do nothing to repay her, he understood he might need to call her.
“I’ll think about it,” he said after a while. “In the meantime, how about we pool our resources for keeping tabs on Gentleman and other known villains? I’ll send you my compiled notes on him if you like. They’re by no means complete, but maybe you can fill in the gaps.”
Christina replied for the group. “Sure. We’ll do the same.”
“Until that happens, I think we need a better way to communicate with each other,” Andrey said. “Something more secure than cell phones.”
Christina tapped the phone sticking out of her pants pocket. “I was thinking the same thing.”
“Athena promised to equip us with something, didn’t she?” Peter asked.
Nora tossed a handful of braids over her shoulder. “Yeah, but who knows if her offer is still on the table now that Mr. President axed the Covenant’s latest request?”
Andrey stared at her in surprise. “He rejected the Covenant? Why?”
“The Covenant wanted our team mascot.” Peter jerked his chin in Christina’s direction.
Not surprising, given her powerset.
“The Covenant uses GPS and emergency alerts to keep the team connected regardless of location,” Andrey said. “If you know a skilled Technician willing to create a similar system for us, I can get everyone equipped.”
Christina stuck out her lower lip. “Really? Sounds pricey.”
Andrey guessed that she didn’t want her team to depend on him, financially or otherwise. But he had money at his disposal, tucked away in the various foreign bank accounts Athena established for him. He earned a decent wage by working with the Covenant and since the UNEOA covered most of his daily expenses, cash-spending opportunities didn’t present themselves often. He scratched the three apartments off his list of possessions. Two of those had been sponsored by the UNEOA and were not secure anymore. The old flat in Moscow, where he lived before setting off for New York as a newly minted hero, was a different story. The other apartments didn’t hold any meaning for him.
“There are no strings attached to any money I spend on your behalf,” he promised Christina. “The cost won’t be a big deal for me. It would be as much for my benefit as yours.”
Her blank expression didn’t change. “I don’t know.”
“Come on, Chris. The offer sounds good to me,” Peter urged her. “Besides, what other options do we have? Ask Mr. Turner to find us kiddie walkie-talkies or something?”
Nora’s eyebrows knit together. “Didn’t we all agree to leave the bossmen out of this?”
Peter straightened on his chair. “She’s right. If we ask for a budget, someone will tell us where, when, and what we can spend it on. It would suck.”
Christina sighed, recognizing that she was outvoted. “All right. But only if Athena isn’t going to arrange it.”
Peter slid Andrey’s sunglasses over his own eyes, doing his best impression of The Terminator. “Hasta la vista, baby,” he drawled.
After a brief silence, Christina turned her attention back on Andrey. “Hey, Radiant. If Data’s so powerful, I assume he has surged, right?”
“Yes, he has. He was undercover at the time, but we have every reason to believe his surge was among the first in history.”
Christina chewed on the thumbnail of her uninjured hand, her eyes fixed on the melamine tabletop. “You also said that Athena alone can compete on equal terms with him, right?” She let the statement hang in the air while raising her eyes to meet his.
“Right. No Technician, but Athena has always succeeded in creating the complex, adaptive AI systems with the potential to rival Data’s designs—” he was about to go on, but stopped short because he sensed what the young heroine was implying. As much as he disliked the idea, he had to admit it was possible. Maybe Alexandra had surged without telling him. He was content to assume she didn’t keep secrets from him, but anything was possible under such extreme circumstances.
You could have told me. We trusted each other with our lives. How was this any different?
Peter let out a low whistle. “Whoa, you mean—”
“It’s cool.” Christina cut her teammate short and caught Andrey’s gaze again. “We don’t have to talk about it right now. It would be neat to have Athena on our side, you know? Without any political strings attached.”
Andrey knew. He had enjoyed the benefits of having Alexandra on his side for over a year now, and he had little to complain about.
She must have her reasons. Be careful, Alexa. Whatever it is you’re doing.
“It would be,” he whispered.
Soon after the Wardens decided that they would contact him via call or email if anything important came up. Andrey stood from the table to say his goodbyes. “Let me know the instant Gentleman contacts you,” he reminded the young heroes.
“Will do,” Christina said.
Peter offered his knuckles for a fist bump. “Awesome, man.”
Andrey raised his fist and made contact before turning for the door.
“Don’t die in the meantime,” Nora advised him.
***
It was nearly midnight by the time Andrey made his way back to his new home. He had beamed himself to a location near Córdoba before dusk, taking advantage of the last bit of daylight to conceal the luminescent energy accompanying his power. After that he posed as a tourist who missed his last bus and was desperate enough to pay the exorbitant fee for the ninety-minute taxi drive.
It would have been more convenient if he could have beamed himself into Valle de Bravo, but he wouldn’t take the risk. A local villager could spot the oddity in the sky and ask questions, and any gossip about Radiant’s identity would jeopardize his family’s safety.
Before retiring to his own quarters for the night, Andrey stopped by the house across the road to check on things. A glance through the illuminated living room window revealed Alena and Stepan huddled together on the couch in front of an old tube TV. His mother and nephew were probably already asleep in their rooms.
A few moments after Andrey tapped on the window, Stepan was on his feet and squinting through the glass to see who was outside. The illumination of the wall-mounted halogen lamp wasn’t kind to his weary, lined face.
I hope you get more sleep than I do, baby brother.
Stepan motioned at the front entrance before easing the heavy door open. If he was glad to see his older brother, he didn’t show it. His expression was one of weary annoyance. “What’s up, Andrey? It’s late.”
Despite everything Andrey was relieved to his brother’s face. Stepan’s ire was easier to deal with than the fear which had clung to him and the rest of his family the past days.
“I wanted to let you know I’m back,” Andrey said.
“Oh. Good. We were about to go to bed, but if you’d like to come in…” Stepan trailed off. He opened the door finger’s breadth wider, not far enough to allow passage.
In the cozy, yellow-painted living room behind him, Alena flashed Andrey a smile as weary as her husband’s face, but without the poorly concealed annoyance.
Andrey welcomed it regardless. “No, I’ll let you get your sleep. I assume Denis and Mama are in bed?”
“Safe and sound. I’ve got everything under control for once,” Stepan said, stressing his role in the matter.
I get it, little brother. The only reason you need to be saved is because of me. The elephant was in the room, there was no need to address it yet again.
“What did you g
uys do today?” Andrey asked instead.
His brother scratched at his stubbled cheek. “Well, we stuck close to the house, though Mama doesn’t mind staying inside as much since your Latino friends installed the air conditioner in her room.” Stepan lowered his voice. “To tell you the truth, I’m worried about Denis. He hasn’t gone out to play with the neighbor kids, even though they come knocking twice a day.”
“Give him time,” Andrey suggested.
“He’s been so anxious ever since … well, you know.”
The morning when I almost cost you everything you hold dear.
Andrey clenched his jaw. “I’ll take care of the bad guys, brother. You, Alena, and Denis look after each other.”
“If you say so.” Stepan scratched the back of his neck, squinting at the darkness outside his home.
“Good night, Stiopka.”
“Night, Andrey.” The words were echoed by Alena before Stepan closed the heavy door in his brother’s face.
Andrey stood there, staring at the door. He could relate to his brother’s anger, but he was doing everything in his power make things right. He had brought his family here, and he would keep them safe.
He crossed the hard-beaten path to the front door of his small borrowed home. As he dug in his pocket for his key, he glanced over at the four barred windows on the dwelling’s front facade.
As if bars could stop a supervillain.
Calavera had agreed to send a safety engineer to install a state-of-the art alarm system tomorrow, for both this house and the one where his brother was staying. Andrey wasn’t sure how he was going to access his five bank accounts with actual deposits in them because he suspected the UNEOA froze them after his desertion. Perhaps Kathy would be able to help him out without tipping anyone off as to his whereabouts. One thing was for sure: he would not allow Calavera to cover the cost. The Mexican hero had done enough.
Andrey hated the feeling of indebtedness. He had experienced serious financial pressures as a fledgling student of architecture, back when he first dated Natalya, and his debt grew as he struggled to survive while completing his degree. All the while he pretended that he wasn’t penniless whenever he ran into his future father-in-law.
He turned the lights on as he entered the house, locking the door behind him, and sat in front of his computer to check for any new messages.
Nothing.
Discouraged by the lack of communication from potential allies, he stood and poured himself a vodka while Iris rattled off the newscasts stored in his absence. Part of him wished for the peace and quiet the local villagers experienced. They didn’t lack for technical infrastructure, though. Thanks to Technomage’s upgrades to the local infrastructure, this small Mexican village had better radio and Internet reception than Andrey’s Russian hometown.
“Priority tags. Twenty-seven matches,” Iris announced. “Twenty-one mentions of villain were linked to nineteen mentions of crime. Seventeen mentions of hostages. Fifteen mentions of….”
Could be worse, I suppose.
Andrey emptied his shot glass with a final swallow, setting it aside to investigate the details of Iris’s priority tag matches. The UNEOA hostage situation remained unresolved and no demands were made public, according to the news. No sightings of Raven or his gang were reported, and Legion remained an unseen threat. An Evolved duo whose names Andrey didn’t recognize robbed a bank in Cairo, and both escaped before the police arrived. A recently transitioned Evoker in Somalia declared himself a warlord and seized control of many of the villages. Judging by the number of locals who flocked to his cause, the whole country was about to plunge into anarchy.
Let’s hope it’s not the first country of many.
Many of Iris’s updates were direct fallout from the hijacked television broadcast in Liverpool. The Covenant’s hands remained tied as bureaucrats from numerous UN countries searched for solutions. Journalists and bloggers alike speculated about the impact of the broadcast on Evolved politics in general. The UNEOA, ever vigilant to prevent more power surges, had no choice except to put a halt to all outstanding execution orders. Since there wasn’t any way to constrain uncooperative Evolved offenders, super-powered organized crime was on the rise.
Did the Liverpool villains know they’d plunge the entire post-Pulse world into such disarray?
Andrey had to admit the pirate broadcast was well planned and executed. By revealing the correlation between Evolved deaths and power surges, it leveled the playing field in favor of the bad guys. The UNEOA had no choice but to wait until the cause of power surges was better understood. Villains, on the other hand, would run things in the meantime. All of this under the guise of a public service announcement that also tainted the Covenant’s public image? Brilliant.
Meanwhile, China remained an unknown factor in the political landscape. Its national solo effort drew the criticism of pundits from around the globe, the majority of those who didn’t trust the Chinese government to make responsible, transparent decisions about its Evolved community.
At least Russia hasn’t decided to follow suit. Yet.
Andrey opened his email, clicking on the message Rune had sent him the day before. He still hadn’t gotten around to responding, so he cracked his knuckles and began to type.
Rune,
Sorry for the delay. How’s Checkmate? Were you able to take him to a secret location yet? I may be paranoid, but I believe there are villains hunting for rare powersets like his. I suspect that Gentleman has kidnapped Dancer and the newly transitioned Visionary who emerged after Queenie’s death, and a teleporter will be next on his list.
I talked to the Wardens, and they’re willing to cooperate. Calavera and Spirit, the two remaining members of the Latin American triumvirate, are also willing to help out if they are needed. Naturally they have an interest in avenging Saint.
Andrey paused there, wondering if he should tell Rune about Kathy joining their cause. He wouldn’t mention her name, of course. If word of her continued involvement with him got out she was bound to get into serious trouble with her UNEOA supervisors
After a moment of contemplation, he decided to be straightforward. He and Rune had to trust each other if they were going to make their tentative partnership work.
I have a lead on a data jockey who may be able to help us track the Liverpool villain group. What do you think?
Regards, Radiant.
Andrey read it over before hitting send. When the message was on its way, he rose from his chair in anticipation of getting a few solid hours of sleep. An overwhelming amount of administrative and investigation work awaited him in the morning. He didn’t have any time to waste on being tired.
He stretched his arms at the brightly painted ceiling. “Iris, switch to sleep mode. I’ll use my ear bud. Please provide high-priority alerts for the terms ‘Covenant’ or ‘Athena’.”
“Confirmed,” the AI’s voice resonated from the speakers. “Good night, Andrey.”
He was retrieving his ear bud from his bag when it occurred to him that he hadn’t eaten today. His stomach grumbled in confirmation.
He edged the ear bud into his ear, walking into the rustic kitchenette to retrieve the flatbread a kindly neighbor brought over as a welcoming gift the day before. He wolfed it down before climbing onto his hammock and closing his eyes.
“Entering sleep mode,” the AI announced in his ear. “High-priority alert for broadcasts including the words Covenant or Athena or Trubino, Russia.”
Andrey had forgotten how Athena programmed his hometown as a default priority setting. She had always respected how close he kept his hometown—and his family—to his heart.
Good night, Alexandra, he thought as his mind drifted off.
***
Iris’s voice stirred Andrey from his slumber, as calm and impassive as always, but he immediately knew something was wrong. High-priority alerts never brought anything except bad news.
“Emergency alert for Trubino, Russia. Requires immediate att
ention. Please respond. Emergency alert for Trubino, Russia….”
Hearing the name of his birth town sliced through Andrey’s subconscious, shifting him into full alert. He jumped out of his hammock, awake now, and made his way to the computer desk in the adjoining office as fast as possible without tripping in the dark.
“Iris. Details, please,” he demanded.
Iris responded through his ear bud. “Replaying broadcast from Radio Moskva Two, 4:16 p.m.”
Standing behind the chair, Andrey put both hands on the desk to lean in closer to the monitor. The screen remained dark, but a male voice, replacing Iris, played in his ear.
“We interrupt our program with an urgent announcement from the Ministry of Internal Affairs,” the announcer said in fast-paced, agitated Russian. “If you have relatives in the town of Trubino, please contact the authorities immediately by calling the following number….” A long number followed, each digit enunciated with excruciating clarity for the elderly.
What the hell is going on? Andrey’s heart raced. No Russian government ministry would enact such emergency protocols unless something serious was happening. His thoughts flew to his other, more distant relatives in Trubino. They had ignored his earlier requests to vacate the area. Their Luvkov name made them easily identifiable.
“Anything more?” he asked, losing patience with the announcer’s prattling.
“Replaying broadcast from Moscow 24 Live, 4:27 p.m.”
The monitor lit, showing a grainy replay of a news channel transmission. When Andrey’s eyes adjusted to the brightness, he saw a huge wall of fire rising several stories into the air. In the foreground he recognized the dome-shaped parapet atop the Temple of St. Sergius and the highway leading southwest to Moscow. Which meant the town of Trubino was….
The camera swept sideways, panning the highway to the northeast to show an entire platoon of Russian soldiers blocking the roadway leading into and out of his hometown. Their figures were dark silhouettes against the wall of fire in the background which surrounded the southwestern part of Trubino. In the distance, he made out dozens of firefighters caught in a desperate battle with the fiery barricade.
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