Her room was quiet and she was still drowsy. It was still early back home and even though they were vacationing and all of Athens stood outside her door, she wanted to sleep. She knew she couldn’t though, with Jason’s absence. Audrey dwelt on the report she watched earlier and recalled her mother’s fascination with any such anomalies. Her guess was that her mother would hear about it shortly and talk their ears off about it once they returned. Audrey never paid any mind to her mother’s obsession, but since Jason’s recovery Audrey started to reconsider the validity of the stories her mother adored. She researched the up-and-coming events on her own and only briefly mentioned them to her husband. Audrey wasn’t convinced herself.
Audrey's attention wandered from there. She flipped the television back on in hopes of more information about Athens’ Burning Man until she heard a quiet knock at their door. Audrey left the bed and secured her robe before she reached their door and peered through the peephole to discover the knocker. She nearly gasped when she found her husband stark naked at their door. She quickly let him in and immediately asked what happened.
“Jason what on earth? Are you hurt?”
He rushed inside and swiftly shut the door. “Audrey, I-I'm not sure what happened. I was out for a walk this morning because I couldn't sleep. I bought you a bouquet of flowers and a newspaper and was on my way home when I suddenly caught fire.” He walked with her to their bed and covered himself with one of their bed sheets and recounted the incident. He told her he caught fire and within a moment it overcame him. “It burned through the flowers, the paper, and my clothes but strangely it didn’t harm me. I was frightened but it wasn’t until the fire began to recede that I realized I wasn’t hurt. And from there I ran here.”
Audrey told him about the newscast but mentioned there weren’t any photos or video. “They called you the Burning Man if that makes you feel any better.” She saw the worry in his eyes and decided to leave the matter about the news alone. “The newswoman mentioned there are other stories about super powered people, sort of like what mum’s been going on about. You don’t think you might be one too?”
Jason shook his head and asked what she meant. “There aren’t super heroes Audrey. At least, there shouldn’t be.” He frowned and asked what it would mean if he did somehow possess some supernatural power. “What would that make me? What would that make anyone and why after all the time mankind’s been around for, why would I be granted power like this before anyone else?”
Audrey kept quiet for a moment before she mentioned Doctor Reynolds’ interest in him. “Maybe she suspects the same thing but didn’t want to come out and say it. What if–”
“Audrey.”
“What if you did have some sort of power? Would it be so bad if all of this was true?”
They were both quiet for some time before Audrey asked, “Do you know where the fire came from?”
He told her he didn’t.
She nodded and then posed a theory, “What if the fire came from you?”
He only turned and looked at her as if she was nuts. “You think I created it?”
“Sure.”
“That’s insane.”
“Jason,” she glared at him, “I’ve told you about all of the sightings and my mum’s gone on about this for months now. Maybe this isn’t something crazy anymore. What if it’s all true?”
“That there are super heroes in this world?”
“Why not?”
Jason rubbed his eyes and let out a breath. “This…this doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t–it isn’t possible Audrey. I can’t cause spontaneous combustion and I can’t be fireproof. There’s no such thing.”
She frowned and asked how it happened then. “How else can you explain it?”
Jason said he wasn’t sure. He hunched forward in thought and processed her theory while she massaged his back with her hand. Audrey’s wet hair hung nearly motionless in grouped tendrils until she rested her head on his shoulder. She didn’t want to press the matter any further, out of fear that it might spark another heated argument. Jason trembled slightly under her touch.
He told her he couldn’t tell whether she was warm or cold anymore. He let out a shaky sigh and asked her what was wrong with him. “What the hell’s happening to me?”
---*---
3:15 PM
Baltimore, Maryland
The four of them sat in Detective Sage’s old office and discussed the newest fatality. Doctor Wayland Grayson, Sage’s doctor while he was hospitalized, was crushed to death by the collapse of the room Ryan stayed in. It was under reconstruction, as the outside wall of the room was destroyed on the night of Ryan’s disappearance, and though none of the staff or patients at the hospital were allowed to enter the room, Doctor Grayson did and the room collapsed on him.
They weren’t permitted to take notes for the investigation as there wasn’t supposed to be any investigation, yet the four agreed to at the very least record the identity and brief information about each new victim as they turned up. Since REFOIA seemed to find a way to get anything on a computer onto its database, the group couldn’t type their note up without a manual typewriter, which they were still in the process of acquiring. Mia had the best handwriting out of the group and agreed to chronicle what little they could.
“So how old was he?” Bryce asked.
“Forty.”
Mia wrote it down. “Do we know what his ability might have been?”
Murdock shook his head. “Felton and I talked to some of his coworkers, but none of them mentioned anything unusual about him.”
“What about his family?”
Felton told them he was divorced and lived alone.
“Do we know what his blood type was?” asked Bryce.
Felton flipped open a small notebook he used as the case file for the death of the doctor and told him it was O negative.
“Is there anything else we can even add to this?” Mia asked.
“Not really,” Sergeant Murdock sighed.
“Do we have any guesses who the next target is?” Bryce asked.
“Not at all,” Felton told him. “Unfortunately for us he was a doctor, which means he could have met over a dozen new patients in the gap between Sage’s death and his own, and that only covers the people he met through his work.”
“So we don’t really have a chance of finding this person before they’re killed?” Mia asked.
“Not really.”
“Then what exactly are we doing?” She looked at them and muttered, “What’s the use if we can’t save them?”
Bryce frowned and reminded her, “We can’t really do anything without the okay from the chief.”
“And what happens if we never get that green light? Won’t that make all of this completely meaningless?”
“What could we do to apprehend him anyway?” Murdock asked her. “He’s invisible, strong enough to move cars with little effort, and who knows what other tricks he has up his sleeve.”
Mia didn’t answer.
Bryce steered the conversation toward a more relevant subject and asked Detective Felton, “What are you telling everyone about Doctor Grayson’s death?”
Felton told him it was an unfortunate accident. “Sergeant Murdock and I will label the deaths as we can as they arrive.”
“So more excuses then,” Mia muttered.
“Unfortunately yes,” Murdock said.
Mia let out a breath and asked them all if they honestly believed it would ever change. “Do you think we’re ever going to catch this guy?”
Murdock and Felton didn’t answer her. Bryce, being the only optimistic member of the group, told them they would. “The good guys always win, don’t they?”
---*---
4:15 PM
Bellevue, Washington
Mizuno never said anything about the meeting. He told Nick of a car parked outside of a cul-de-sac three blocks from Inglemoor High School where he wanted Nick to meet him a half an hour after school, but neve
r said where they would go from there. The car ride to Bellevue was quiet too, as Mizuno didn’t bother making small talk, and Nick tried to curb any desire to break that silence. Nick was actually fine with silence, but among others he only felt out of place. He wondered whether Mizuno felt that same awkward feeling or not, and if he didn’t, how he managed to ignore it so very well.
“How’re your classes?”
“What?”
“Your classes,” Mizuno repeated. “How are they?”
Nick shrugged, “Fine. I’m already behind on the work though.”
“You don’t care?”
“Not really.”
He expected a lecture of some sort from Mizuno, but it never came.
“How’s Amy?”
“Good.” Nick wasn’t sure what to say about her, or about the two of them together. Nick never thought of himself as someone who was at all boyfriend material, as he was shy, relatively poor, and his future seemed bleak. So the mere thought of him being with Amy didn’t seem right to him. “I…We went out for coffee on Tuesday, so…” he trailed off.
“Do you like her?”
“Yes.” Nick frowned at the question.
“I only asked because I want to know how long this relationship is going to last.”
“What do you mean?”
Mizuno never took his eyes off the road while he told Nick, “People in this sort of life can hardly ever juggle a family, or even a simple relationship, and still be active in this endeavor.”
Nick scowled, “So you want to know how long until we’re through?”
Mizuno nodded, “More or less.”
Nick didn’t answer him.
“I know it sounds terrible, but I’m just being realistic.” He waited for an answer but Nick didn’t say anything. “You two have known each other for less than a month and have only gone out twice if you count coffee on Tuesday afternoon. Nick, this relationship could fall through and it would hardly set you or this girl back more than a few grief-stricken days.”
“I’m n-not…I don’t have that lifestyle you mentioned,” Nick told him.
Mizuno agreed. “Not yet, but you will.”
“No I won’t.”
“You’re only thirteen–well, twelve days into this new world,” he told Nick, “It’ll take some time to get accustomed to it, but once you move past denying that you’ll accept where you are and what it means to be alone for the sake of someone else’s happiness.”
Nick looked at him and asked what he meant by that.
Mizuno only let out a sigh and told him to ask someone named Bruce about it when he had the chance.
They arrived at a deserted department store building in a suburb of Bellevue. The lot was empty but Mizuno still parked near the back of the lot, which perplexed Nick.
“Why do you park so far away from where you need to be?”
“Do you mean why did I park at the end of this vacant lot and why did I park three blocks away from your school?” Mizuno asked.
Nick nodded.
“I parked three blocks away from Inglemoor because I couldn’t risk some student seeing you and I in the same vehicle, as that revelation would cost me the job there, which would be a hassle. I parked back here now because more people should.”
“What do you–”
“If more obese Americans parked at the back of the lot by choice they would burn additional calories from the added distance. Also, getting out of the parking lot is simpler when you park in the back, as no one else prefers to park there.”
“Don’t you worry about your car though?”
Mizuno chuckled and told him that the car was stolen.
They got out of the car, Mizuno neglected to lock it, and they headed inside the building. It wasn’t lit (as the power bill hadn’t been paid in months), but Mizuno had placed electric lanterns throughout the building to light the way to their meeting place…though the lanterns needed to be lit first. Mizuno had no issues moving through the darkness to each lamp without any caution or hesitation, Nick however lagged behind until the next light shone forth. Mizuno led Nick to a stationary escalator and up to a small, vacant area he’d set up with multiple lanterns, about two dozen folding chairs, and a long table with paper plates, plastic cups, napkins, and although there wasn’t any food there yet Nick guessed there would be something soon enough.
“Where are M-M…Where are Mithra and Melanie?”
“Mithra and Melanie are each collecting members of our group from the airport, hotels, and if my guess is accurate enough two of our members were found at a strip club,” Mizuno told him.
Nick frowned, “Why do you think that?”
Mizuno let out a short breath while he brought out another folding table from somewhere beyond the length of the light and while he set the table up he answered Nick, “I think they’re at a strip club because they have very low moral standards. In fact, I know they both partake in very demoralizing activities with the only exceptions being homoerotic and illicit drug use, because they are homophobic and I do not allow the use of drugs. These two are also quite childish, in that they spend their earnings from this group on toys, video games, movies, electronics, and other activities I would prefer to avoid mentioning.”
Nick looked at him and asked which members he meant, but Mizuno only told him that he’d figure it out soon enough. Mizuno walked away again and returned with a cardboard box, which he set on the table he had previously erected. He opened it, retrieved a wireless headset, tossed it to Nick and simply told him to hold onto it.
“What is it?”
“Most of our members do not speak English as their native tongue, so to avoid translating what I have to say three times, this little device eliminates that need.”
“Okay, but what is this?”
“It’s a translator Nick. I say something in one language and it translates it into whatever language you set it to,” Mizuno told him. “Two of our members designed it and Melanie uses her ability to send the information to and from each person’s headset. It’s really just a simple tool, but with the help of some of our members, we can speed up the translation process and nearly eliminate any lag time. Without Melanie and Kyle’s respective skill sets, this wouldn’t be possible.” Mizuno waited only a moment before he added that Nick would meet Kyle soon enough.
“Oh…” Nick fell silent as he tried to peer through the darkness around him.
“There’s nothing here you know,” Mizuno told him. “The previous owner took everything with him except for the shelves, counters, and anything else that was bolted down.”
“Then why are we here?”
Mizuno stopped and looked at him. “Nick, we both know that you know why we’re here. Don’t ask questions you already know the answer to.”
“Sorry.”
Nick fell quiet again and left Mizuno to his work. Mizuno glanced at him and watched as Nick averted his gaze and tried to study the floor with a casual interest. Mizuno let out a strained breath and told him about Drake Winchester’s arrest in Japan.
He looked at Mizuno, who had already returned to setting up the translator system on the table. Nick asked what he meant, and though Mizuno hated the idea of talking about it with Nick, he knew it would become an immediate part of their conversation in a day or two, so it didn’t matter when they talked, just that they did.
“Drake left for Japan yesterday and at the same time he killed his own father, Tony Winchester,” Mizuno clarified. “Only Drake couldn’t have killed his father, as he was on a plane to Japan over the Pacific Ocean.”
“Then what happened?”
Mizuno rubbed his eyes and muttered something under his breath in a language Nick didn’t know. “It means that whoever killed Tony Winchester looked like Drake, but wasn’t Drake…meaning it’s possibly the same person you’re looking for.”
Nick didn’t say anything for a moment. Mizuno continued to unpack the headsets and set them on the table. He walked away from Nick and into the
background for a minute before he returned with a cooler, which he harshly dropped on the tiled floor next to the table with the plates, cups, and napkins.
“You know it’s going to take time to actually find whoever this is, right?”
Nick slowly nodded.
“And you realize that even if you do find whoever this is, you won’t stand a chance of stopping them?”
He nodded.
“Then don’t feel bad.”
“I do though,” he whispered. “My friend’s dad is dead, and the guy who killed him was the same guy who killed my brother.” He looked at Mizuno and asked him how he couldn’t be sad then.
Someone coughed politely behind them near the trail of lanterns that led from the dead escalators toward where they were. He was a thin Japanese man who was clean shaven, kept well combed hair, wore an expensive suit, and carried a metal briefcase.
He apologized and asked if he should come back later. “I don’t want to interrupt anything if you two need to talk.”
“No it’s fine,” Mizuno quickly told him. “Nick, this is a good friend of mine, Ke Kitayama. He’s the founder, owner, CEO, et cetera, of the Kitayama Corporation in Japan.”
Nick was surprised to hear who he was, as Nick knew of some of the games his corporation created, and wondered why someone like him would even be a part of Mizuno’s group. “Why are you here?”
Mizuno answered for him, “Ke joined the group for personal reasons,” he glanced at Ke, who walked past him without making eye contact with Mizuno over to the table in front where the headsets lay. “I only approached him because I learned that his astounding engineering was more than just something he studied in school.”
“What do you mean?”
“His ability allows him complete innovation over various bits of technology, among other things.” Mizuno kept his eyes on Ke and asked him, “Are you still working on the regenerating battery idea?”
Impact (Book 1): Regenesis Page 31