“That guy is probably solving that problem,” Tonya says.
“Except he’s trying to do it off the books,” Melanie says. She wonders if the disgraced Peacekeeper Elders are involved or if this Dwald is working on his own. She supposes they’ll have to find out.
“Should we call Kila?” Mom asks.
“Not yet.”
“You don’t think she’s in on it, do you?”
“She might not be, but if there’s a traitor in their organization, we don’t want to tip anyone off.”
Tonya shifts in her seat. “Can’t say I’m thrilled with the idea of going up by ourselves against something this ugly that can do magic.”
“You won’t have to worry about that. I need you to go where Diane landed and see if you can find out what happened to her.”
“You sure about that, Boss?”
“Garlak and I can handle it.” I hope, Melanie adds to herself.
“Sure. If you need anything, give the word and I’ll come in guns blazing.”
“Thanks.”
Tonya’s voice turns icy as she says, “But after this is done, you and I have some issues to work out.”
“I understand.” Melanie knows that will involve a lot of screaming and probably some tears as well; she only hopes it doesn’t come to blows. She doesn’t want to have to hurt Tonya.
Chapter 15
The plane lands in Kolwezi, where the Peacekeeper office for central Africa is located. Tonya’s spent ten minutes in the plane’s bathroom wriggling back into her armor. She puts the helmet on and then runs through the start-up sequence. The displays come to life, showing her a map of the area. On the northwest corner is a red asterisk to indicate where Diane landed.
Melanie and the others have already left the plane by the time Tonya disembarks. A part of her still wants to punch Melanie for recklessly sending Diane alone into the African jungle. The rest of her tries to focus on the mission at hand. She has to find out what happened to Diane to persuade her to become a man again. More importantly, Tonya needs to find out why he doesn’t remember anything from the last year.
“Good luck, boss,” she says to Melanie.
“You too.”
Tonya can’t resist tapping Melanie’s chest with one gloved finger. “When I get back we’re going to have a long talk about all of this.”
“I know.”
That’s probably the worst thing about Melanie: she’s so damned nice. It might not count as a superpower, but she has that kind of charisma that it’s impossible to really stay mad at her. That gee-whiz earnestness of her is impossible to resist, which is largely how Tonya ended up as a member of the Super Squad Auxiliary trying to save the world; that and the bomb planted in her neck.
She pats Garlak on the elbow, about the highest she can reach without getting on her toes. “See you around, big stuff. You look after yourself.”
“Me will.” Garlak gives her a shove that nearly topples Tonya. The big girl still hasn’t realized her strength yet. It seems almost impossible that homo sapiens could have triumphed over Neanderthals if they’d all been like Garlak.
She settles for shaking Melanie’s mother’s hand. “It was nice seeing you again, Mrs. A.”
“You too. Good luck.” It’s easy to see where Melanie got her personality from; her mother was probably the type who had cookies and milk waiting after school every day and would read her son—at the time—a bedtime story before tucking him in for the night. Not like Tonya’s mom, who had spent most of her evenings as a practice dummy for the old man after he came home from the bar.
“Well, see you in the funny pages,” Tonya says before she can get too maudlin. She takes a few steps back and then rockets into the air.
She’s never been to Africa before, especially not this part of it. As a kid a safari had always sounded like a cool idea, but there had never been the time or money. Once she’d built the first suit of combat armor as a man he’d had too many other problems to worry about seeing the world. And the last year she’s been working on her solar research mostly in Arizona and Australia—plus spending as much time with Diane as she could.
That is the reason for this little safari. She needs to find out what happened to Diane. Tonya refuses to believe Diane wanted to be a man bad enough that she’d throw her whole life away and decide to live as a fugitive. Sure Diane had some issues about being a woman, mostly related to her dead sister Danielle, but when they were together it never seemed like a problem. She couldn’t have hidden it so well, could she? Well Diane had been a world-class assassin; you didn’t get to be that by always being honest.
There’s not a lot to see below her at the moment. Tonya had secretly hoped to see plains filled with giraffes, elephants, and zebras, but this isn’t that sort of area. This is jungle, like the rainforests in South America would probably look like. She can’t see much through the trees, not unless she wants to land, but she can make a lot better time in the air.
In a window she displays the infrared view. There’s still not much to see, except little blobs that are probably monkeys or some other small animal. There’s certainly nothing large enough to be a hidden lair for a supervillain or anything like that.
Up ahead the jungle starts to thin, giving her a better view through the trees. This doesn’t help as she still can’t see anything out of the ordinary. She goes down lower for a better look. She doesn’t know what she really hopes to find: footprints, a trap door, or maybe a big neon arrow pointing out a clue.
There’s a grassy plain more like what she had expected to find in Africa. This leads to some gentle hills. Finally Tonya sees something: the remains of a camp. She touches down gently at the edge of this so she doesn’t disturb anything.
There are a few fire pits, but the infrared signature is cold, meaning whoever had been here took off a while ago. She wanders around, noting the tire tracks. From the size and width, they’re from a big truck—probably more than one. It could be a hunting party, poachers out for some of the game she’d been hoping to see.
Something purple draws her eye. She gets closer to see it’s a kerchief, the kind Diane usually wore, though Tonya didn’t think she wore it in the field, lavender not exactly being good camouflage. Tonya takes off her helmet and then picks the kerchief up. She presses it close to her nose; that is definitely Diane’s scent. Tonya would know that anywhere.
She’s about to tuck it into a pouch when something stings her in the neck. She figures it must be a bug of some sort, but then her hand brushes against a dart. “The hell?” she manages to get out before the world and she collapses into the grass.
“Looks like I got me a trophy,” Hitter says. Tonya wants to say something, but instead she passes out.
***
As in Focal City, the Peacekeeper office in Kolwezi isn’t much to look at. Like much of the rest of the town it’s a ramshackle white concrete building that had probably seen better days. There’s no one around, just like there hasn’t hardly been anyone up to this point. Those few people they did see quickly hurried away after seeing Garlak.
Something is not right here. These people are afraid of something, something more than Garlak, Melanie is certain. What has that “Peacekeeper” been up to here? “This is an odd place,” Mom says. “Not very welcoming.”
“No, they aren’t. You should really get back to the plane—”
“I’ll be fine, sweetheart. After all, I have you and Miss Garlak to protect me.”
“Right.” Melanie wants to argue she doesn’t want to have to protect her mother. She wants to be able to focus on the problem at hand. Certainly Mom is older, but she hasn’t had any training to be a field agent. She doesn’t have any proficiency in self-defense or with a gun. The fact Garlak is here doesn’t make her feel that much better, as Garlak isn’t really trained as an agent either. The Neanderthal is more of a failsafe in case a lot of brute force is needed in a hurry.
This is a bad idea, Melanie keeps telling herself. She’s
compounding her bad idea of sending Diane into the jungle by bringing Mom and Garlak out here. By all rights she should ask Robin to get the Super Squad together and take over. But she keeps telling herself that first she needs to know what they’re dealing with. Moreover, she doesn’t want to let Robin, Starla, and Alan clean up her mess. But wouldn’t that embarrassment be better than risking Mom’s life?
Melanie knew it was a bad idea to let Mom work at GAIA’s office. At the time Melanie had agreed to it because Mom needed something to do since becoming a young woman again and GAIA didn’t have much of a budget to hire someone more qualified. She should have known Mom’s involvement couldn’t stop at filing and answering phones; Mom would eventually want to join in on the excitement. Providing they survive this, Mom will probably want Melanie to start training her to work in the field.
It occurs to her this is a large part of the reason she’d kept her identity as the Outcast secret from Mom for about four years. She hadn’t wanted her mother to worry her daughter was going out at night beating up criminals. Mom couldn’t have probably slept a wink then. And if Mom were to want to be a field agent, Melanie imagines the shoe will be on the other foot.
She brings herself back to the present as they reach the Peacekeeper office. There’s no security codes or anything to open the front door; as Earth’s guardians they have an “open door” policy in case anyone needs their help. Beyond this door is a waiting room with four cushioned wicker chairs that look rarely used. On the coffee table are the same stale magazines in any doctor’s office, except these are in a variety of languages.
No one is at the reception desk. The whole place is silent—as a tomb, the phrase goes. Melanie wonders if that will prove accurate. Just in case she takes a shuriken from her belt to keep at the ready.
The door to the offices is locked. Melanie has lock picks in her belt, but instead she gestures to Garlak. The Neanderthal in one swift move yanks the door off its hinges. “Oh my goodness,” Mom says as Garlak tosses the door across the room as if it were a Frisbee.
Melanie leads the way down the silent hallway, her shuriken poised to throw. She still doesn’t hear anything, which means either the offices are empty or someone’s lying in wait to ambush them. At each door they pass she motions for Mom and Garlak to halt before she opens it. She peeks inside to make sure no one is there and then moves on.
At last they reach Dward’s office. The door here is wider to accommodate the alien’s spherical body. Melanie taps on the glass. “Peacekeeper Dward? I’m General Melanie Amis, Global Autonomous Intelligence Agency. I need a word with you.” There’s no answer. She tries again without any result before she motions to Garlak.
The cavewoman kicks in the door as if it were made of paper. Melanie lunges through, her shuriken still at the ready. But she soon realizes she won’t need it.
The Peacekeeper lies on the floor, most of him dissolved into a greasy brownish puddle. The smell makes Melanie gag. Mom goes a step further, turning to throw up in the hallway. As usual with Mom, she manages to do it daintily.
“It dead,” Garlak says.
“Yes, it’s dead,” Melanie says. And with that their trail goes cold.
Chapter 16
Dr. Pierce tries to stay as close to the sleeping pen as possible. They’ve hidden the baby Khala in an old crate, enough holes punched in a tarp over it to provide air. The problem is of course that like any infant, the young Khala wakes every so often and cries out for her mother. That’s part of the need to stay close to the pen, so Khala’s mother can grab her baby and lull it back to sleep.
So far none of the guards seem to have gotten wise to the trick. Dr. Pierce doesn’t know how long that will continue, not in a place with such heavy security. She doesn’t like to think about what will happen once the guards see the baby.
As she sweeps, Dr. Pierce looks for some way they might be able to smuggle the baby out. If she had any currency—or something equally valuable—perhaps she could bribe a guard to take the baby out of here. She doesn’t really trust these thugs with that sort of job, but it’s better than the alternative.
The other women have been doing the same. Tikembe reports back that so far no one has found anything, nor have the guards shown any sign of having discovered the secret. “Let’s hope that continues for a while,” Dr. Pierce mumbles.
The rest of her job has settled into an unpleasant routine. It seems if for no other reason than spite the guards poke her in the ribs every couple of hours and growl at her to keep working. She says nothing to them, knowing the price to be paid for that.
There’s a break in the routine when she hears a shriek of metal followed by a scream. Dr. Pierce out of instinct runs towards the screams to see a woman hunched over, a pool of blood forming beneath her. It’s clear the woman caught her arm in the machinery.
“What did you do?” a guard shouts at her. The woman babbles something in her native language. This only enrages the guard, who starts to pummel her with a baton. Dr. Pierce throws herself against the guard to deflect one of his blows.
“You animal! Can’t you see this woman is injured?”
The guard replies by hitting her in the midsection with his baton. She doubles over in pain. “That’s enough out of you,” he says.
“You monster!” she says with a wheeze. “We are human beings!”
“Not to me you aren’t.” He hits her again. And again. She drops to her knees beside the injured woman, whose screams have turned to whimpers while blood continues to flow from a nasty cut on her right arm.
The woman gamely gets to her feet and tries to go back to work. It hurts her spirit as much as one of the guard’s baton blows to watch the woman try to work with one hand. She attempts to screw two pieces of metal together, but the pieces slip from her hand to land on the floor with a clank. This focuses the guard’s attention back on her.
Before the guard can hit the injured woman again, Dr. Pierce gets to her feet. “You stay away from her!” she shrieks. She doesn’t recall hitting the man, but he stumbles back a few inches.
“You’ll pay for that, kaffer,” the man says. Then he blows a whistle.
Dr. Pierce tries to run, but a swarm of guards are immediately on her. She’s hit in the ribs, the back, and both legs at the same time. Even as she drops to her feet they continue to pummel her. Her body finally does the smart thing by going limp and passing out.
***
Dr. Pierce wakes up later in the sleeping pen. Tikembe grins down at her and shakes her head. “You are a very brave woman. Also very foolish.”
“I’m sorry,” Dr. Pierce whispers. She wishes she hadn’t woke up; her entire body aches worse than when she was an old woman. Tikembe dribbles some precious water into Dr. Pierce’s mouth. “Thank you.”
She makes no attempt to sit up. She wishes she had access to an X-ray machine to check for internal injuries. It’s very likely she has two or three broken ribs and perhaps more that are cracked. She might have small fractures in her arms and legs too. “What happened to her?”
“The woman you tried to save? They killed her.”
“Oh.” Dr. Pierce knows she should have expected this. To these men they’re nothing more than slaves, each as disposable as a wrench or screwdriver. They probably threw that poor woman in a dumpster to be tossed out like so much trash.
“Don’t worry, young Khala is still safe.”
“That’s good news.”
“Would you like to see her?”
“That’s not necessary.”
“Very well. She is doing quite well. Thanks to you.”
“At least I could save one life.” For how long? She doesn’t want to think too hard about the answer to that question.
“Would you like some food?”
“No.”
“You should eat. You need your strength.”
“You’re very kind. More so than I deserve.”
“Do not underestimate yourself. You are an inspiration to these women. Yo
u saved the baby—and her mother. You stood up to the guards.”
And what good has it done? Dr. Pierce thinks but knows better than to say. Tikembe is trying to be kind; she shouldn’t look the gift horse in the mouth. She accepts Tikembe’s help to finally sit up. As she expected, this involves considerable pain all through her body. She puts a hand to her head, wondering if she has a concussion as well. That would seem very likely after the beating they gave her.
She is relieved to see the baby sleeping in her mother’s arms. The mother waves slightly, not enough to wake the child. Dr. Pierce waves back. She lets Tikembe help her ingest some of the awful gruel the guards consider “food.”
“Have you found any way to escape?” she asks Tikembe.
“No, not yet.”
Dr. Pierce nods. She didn’t think they would be that lucky. She wishes she had stayed with Diane; that woman could break them out of this awful place. She suspects Diane could do most anything she set her mind to. Not like her, who can merely serve as a punching bag.
She’s grateful when the bowl of gruel is empty. Then Tikembe helps her lie down in the most comfortable position so she can try to get some rest before she has to begin work again.
Chapter 17
Tonya wakes to find herself stripped of her armor. They did at least leave her clothes on, which she takes as a good sign. This hope lasts until she finds herself chained to a wall like a prisoner in the Tower of London back in olden times.
“About time you woke up, love,” Hitter says.
“Where are we?”
“Our base. Now that you’re up, you can meet the boss.”
“I thought you worked alone.”
“I do, but someone has to pay my fee.”
“Who would that be?”
A door creaks open. In walks a bald man with a red beard. From the beard and his general size he looks like a 21st Century version of a Viking. But when he speaks, it’s with an Australian accent. “It’s the famous Ion Girl. I didn’t think you’d look so young.”
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