Even with the fire out, my arm felt like I had stuck it into a fireplace full of red hot coals. I’d have to survey the extent of the damage later. I looked to see how Zookeeper and Shadow were faring. Zookeeper and Andre were trading tremendous blows, although Zookeeper looked to be getting the better end of the deal. The guard I had not seen before was grappling with Shadow on the floor. His skin shimmered gold. The black guard stood nearby with his arms, both in flames, stretched out. Waiting to get a clear shot at Shadow, obviously. His head was still inflamed.
I pulled another water globe off my bandolier. I threw it hard at the black guard, aiming for his head. My aim was true. The globe hit his head forcefully, bursting open. The water extinguished the fire around his head with a hiss. I exerted my powers further, forcing the remaining water up his nose and throat. The guard spun away from Shadow, clawing at his face. It was impossible to pull water off, especially if it was under the control of an angry Hero. The guard fell to the floor. He would be unconscious soon.
While keeping the water around the guard’s head, I glanced around for Lobb, who had disappeared. No, there he was! He was on the other side of the room. A painting that had been on the wall was now on the floor at Lobb’s feet. The door of the safe behind it was open. Something was in Lobb’s hand. A second Chaos gun! He lifted it, pointing the Chaos Gun down at where Shadow and the guard grappled. Was he targeting Shadow because she was an unknown quantity to him? I did not know, and it did not matter. I also did not know where the gun I had dropped was. That did not matter either. I had brought a spare. It was in my hand before I even consciously realized it.
“Drop it Lobb!” I shouted as I raised the gun towards Lobb.
Too late. Lobb fired. Whether accidentally or on purpose, Shadow rolled out of the way. The shimmering bullet Lobb fired passed through spot Shadow had been at an instant before. It passed through the office floor and disappeared from view. It was as if the floor had been merely air to the bullet. If Avatar was any lesson, the same would not be true of Shadow’s flesh.
Lobb shifted his aim, readying to fire again.
I fired four times.
Lobb’s body jerked like a puppet with its strings being tugged. The Chaos gun fell to the floor. Lobb followed, his body sinking into the carpet like a demon descending into Hell.
CHAPTER 30
Things were a mess for a while. Then they got better.
I had killed Lobb. Shadow, Zookeeper and I defeated his guards, though the fight largely went out of them once they realized their boss was dead. Zookeeper called the police. He and I remained in Lobb’s office and waited for them to arrive. Shadow left before they got there. All three of us agreed to that. Even though I was a fugitive, I was still a licensed Hero. The law permitted me a certain latitude, as it did Zookeeper. That was not the case with Shadow. Plus, she was an unregistered Meta who used her powers, which was very clearly against the law. Shadow also gave me the strong impression that she might have been wanted for certain serious crimes abroad. I would not have been surprised. The last thing Shadow needed was to be taken into police custody and processed. They might have never let her go. As for us, Zookeeper and I thought we could weather the inevitable shitstorm.
Zookeeper and I were taken into custody. I was charged with the murders of both Avatar and Lobb, plus what seemed like every other crime known to man. I cooled my heels in MetaHold for a couple of weeks until things got sorted out. I did not even mind too much. It gave me time for my wounds to heal. It gave me plenty of quiet time to mull some things over that had been bothering me. Also, I caught up on my sleep. I had not been getting too much ever since the Sentinels had hired me. It seemed like a very long time ago.
Things were eventually sorted out. In addition to the second Chaos gun Lobb had shot at Shadow with, the authorities found in Lobb’s safe the device Antaeus had used to drain off some of Chaos’ energy. They also found meticulous records indicating Lobb paid Antaeus to break into MetaHold and to bribe John Barrow. The records further showed Lobb was secretly up to his armpits in various crimes, corruption, and influence peddling. Plus, Kierra Singleton and Donna Marina corroborated the story I told the authorities. The authorities slowly but surely became convinced I had not killed Avatar. First Zookeeper was released from MetaHold. Then I was. Me shooting Lobb was determined to be both justifiable homicide and a killing in self-defense. All charges were dropped.
The true story of what had happened spread. When I was released from MetaHold, I realized I had gone from being a pariah in the eyes of the world to being a hero. I transformed from being the reviled killer of the world’s greatest Hero, to the man who had solved the murder of that same Hero. The people who had cursed my name before now sang my praises. There was even some talk of giving me the key to the city. When I publicly asked if the key was a skeleton key, the idea was quietly dropped. Even State’s Attorney Willard Flushing, his finger always raised to see which way the wind was blowing, held a press conference praising me and congratulating me on exposing Avatar’s true killer. I hoped he would choke on his words of praise. He did not. Sometimes there was just no justice in the world.
I did not let all the adulation go to my head. I had experienced firsthand how quickly the winds of public opinion shifted. Something that fickle could not be trusted. Today you’re a hero, tomorrow you’re a bum. Being thought a hero was certainly better than being thought a bum, however. It just went to show that the only thing people loved to watch more than a fall from grace was a redemption story.
There was just one loose end that needed to be tied up.
***
I sat in the armchair in the dark room. There was a light blanket in my lap. I felt like Grandma Moses. I wanted a drink, something with lots of alcohol in it. People could not always get exactly what they wanted. The world was a hard, unfair place.
The door in front of me opened. The light flicked on. I blinked at the sudden brightness. Donna Marina dumped her keys in the bowl by the door. She saw me and jumped. She clutched her throat for a second, then relaxed.
“Jesus, you scared me!” she said. “How did you get into my house?” She looked great. Her hair was pinned up, off of her neck. She was in a white blouse, an above-the-knee black skirt over bare legs, and black heels. She looked like a million bucks. Actually, she looked like considerable more than that. She no longer wore around her neck the ring Avatar had given her.
“I’d say the city provided me with a skeleton key, but they did not. Those welshers. I was forced to pick the lock.”
“Why? What are you doing here?”
“The three of us need to talk,” I said. Donna glanced around in confusion. No one else was in the room.
“The three of us? Who are you talking about?”
“Well, there’s you. And there’s me.” I leveled my gun at her. “And baby makes three.”
Donna’s eyes got big.
“What do you mean? Why are you pointing that thing at me?”
“Because it’s the first step of the Truman Lord Criminal Justice Program. Step one: point gun at murderer. Step two: take murderer to jail. Let’s execute step two right now. I was recently in MetaHold. I know the quickest way there.”
“What in the hell are you talking about?”
I sighed.
“Don’t play dumb with me. It doesn’t suit you. You might be the smartest person I’ve run across in quite some time. Things have worked out quite nicely for you. Avatar is dead, Lobb is dead, and you’re now the CEO and majority shareholder of UWant Enterprises. Plus, richer than Midas.”
“So? Richard did not have any children and no close family. He left his ownership interest in the company to me. He and I worked closely together. He knew I was the best person to run UWant if something happened to him. Me running UWant now is not a crime.”
“No, but killing Avatar is.”
“I didn’t kill Byron. Richard did. Or hired someone to. Everybody knows that.”
“Everybody but
you and me. I first grew suspicious of you when you told me Avatar was the best lover you ever had. Unbeknownst to you, one of his Sentinel teammates had told me Avatar’s orgasms were so,” I struggled for the right word, “forceful that he could not have sex with a normal woman. An Avatar orgasm would literally kill her.
“And yet, here you stand, very much alive. I started thinking about how that might be. I started thinking about how maybe you and Avatar shared more than just a bed. Maybe you, like he, are a Metahuman. Maybe you, like he, are invulnerable. It would explain how you were able to have sex with him. It would also explain why Avatar was comfortable dating you and contemplating marrying you when he had always avoided romantic relationships in the past. Because he was such a visible Hero, he had been afraid of his loved ones being targeted by an enemy and getting hurt. Maybe he was willing to commit to you because you could not be hurt. Let’s test my hypothesis.” I dipped my gun quickly down, firing at her leg. The bullet hit her bare thigh right under her hemline. It ricocheted off of her. A vase on the other side of the room exploded. Donna’s thigh glowed faintly yellow for a moment where the bullet had struck her.
“Now that is what a scientist would call a successful experiment,” I said. My ears rang from the gun blast in the enclosed area. “My hypothesis has been verified.”
Donna had not even flinched when I fired at her. She knew I could not hurt her.
“Okay, I’m a Meta,” she said. “I did not tell you before because it is neither any of your business nor relevant to Avatar’s death. Being a Meta is not a crime.”
“Oh but it is a crime if you are not registered under the Hero Act. Which you are not. I checked with the Heroes’ Guild.” I waved my gun in slight dismissal, still holding it pointed in her direction. “But, there is a bigger crime at issue, namely you shooting Avatar. Once I started thinking about the fact there was more to you than met the eye, I started thinking more about how Avatar had been shot. Three times in the chest. Not in the back, not in the side, but in the chest. Avatar was super-fast with super-fast reflexes. If someone pointed a Chaos gun at him head on, he should have been able to move out of the way of the bullet. Hell, he was so fast he probably could have disarmed the shooter before he even pulled the trigger.”
I smiled, indicating a happiness I did not feel.
“But not if he was asleep when he was shot. Even Avatar needed to sleep. Who had access to a sleeping Avatar who also had access to a weapon that could kill him? Why you, his lover and fiancée, of course. You easily could have shot Avatar in the chest while he was asleep. You could have, and you did.” The look on Donna’s face was inscrutable.
“So here’s what I think happened. A lot of this is guesswork on my part, but I have a hunch I am right. I think Lobb knew all along you were a Meta. In fact, maybe he hired you with an eye towards eventually making a move against Avatar. Lobb was always thinking several steps ahead, as you know. He had you seduce Avatar for the purpose of getting close to him, knowing you were, thanks to your invulnerability, uniquely qualified to get close to Avatar. As long as Avatar had been alone, he must have been quite thirsty for companionship he did not have to worry about endangering. Companionship you could provide. You agree to kill Avatar for Lobb, but only if he agreed to make you his successor at UWant. He did so. I checked with the lawyers of his estate; the timeline for when they drew up the paperwork at Lobb’s request fits. Then you killed Avatar. Lobb planned on Avatar’s death being an unsolved mystery. As long as Avatar was dead, it suited his long-term plan to discredit Metahumans and Heroes.
“But then I came into the picture. I discovered Lobb was The Spider. I forced him to change his plans. He decided to pin Avatar’s death on me, probably calculating I would be killed as a result. He did not count on how tough I am to kill. Or, on my friends.” I thought of Shadow and her power of immunity from electronic detection. She was an X factor, a variable Lobb could not account for. Her involvement may well have saved my life. “I instead killed Lobb, and you became the head of UWant.” I had a sudden flash of insight. “Or, maybe you were the one who thought to pin Avatar’s murder on me. If I had died when the authorities tried to apprehend me, you would have eliminated someone who was getting to close to the truth. If I survived, I would take Lobb out of the picture by killing or arresting him. After all, you were the one who suggested I could find evidence implicating Lobb in his safe. You would then become the queen of UWant. If Lobb had lived and had merely gone to prison, if he accused you of being the one who killed Avatar, no one would believe him. He was the mysterious criminal mastermind Spider, after all.” The look on Donna’s face told me I had hit pay dirt. She was silent for a long while.
“You can’t prove any of this,” she finally said. There was a hint of smugness on her face.
“You’re right, I can’t. I can’t prove a damned thing. I won’t need to. You’re going to confess.”
“Confess?” She looked like I had gone mad. “Why would I confess? You admit you have no proof.”
“You’re going to confess because I’ll shoot you if you don’t.”
Donna glanced at the gun still in my hand. Disdain was on her face.
“With that? You can’t hurt me with that.”
“No, I won’t shoot you with this,” I said. I dropped the gun on the floor. I reached into the blanket on my lap and pulled out the concealed Chaos gun. I pointed it at her. “I’ll shoot you with this. If it could kill Avatar, it can kill you. No leg shot this time. I’ll be shooting to kill. You killed a Hero and a Hero then kills you. That adds up to justice in my book.” Two Chaos guns were in the custody of the police. This was a third Chaos gun that had been in Lobb’s open safe. I had given it to Shadow for safekeeping before the cops had arrived on the scene. I had an inkling then of Donna’s involvement. I had thought a third Chaos gun under my control could prove useful.
Donna looked frightened for the first time. She stared at the barrel of the Chaos gun.
“You’re not going to kill me.” Despite her words, she did not sound certain. Maybe how I felt about her, Lobb, and this whole sordid mess showed on my face. “You’re a Hero.”
I sighed. I was tired of this conversation, tired of Donna, and just plain tired.
“Don’t you bet your life on it sister. You have two choices: confess and go to prison, or get shot and hopefully killed. Three seconds to decide which it’ll be. One...” Donna was studying my eyes. “Two...” She must not have liked what she saw there. Before I could say three, she rushed me. She reached for my gun or my throat. I was unclear as to which.
I fired.
CHAPTER 31
“First of all, we want to apologize for any statements we might have made to the public which implied we believed you were guilty,” Seer said. “As we indicated to you when we first met, a Hero of Avatar’s stature being murdered without a suspect being named would lead to even more Heroes being killed. We had to think of the greater good.”
“Some of us did not agree with those statements being made,” Doppelgänger growled. I could almost feel him glaring at Seer despite the fact his face was completely covered by his mask. “Some of us were outvoted, though.” Ninja nodded in agreement.
“Doppelgänger, it was your staunch support that sustained me in my hour of need,” I said. Doppelgänger turned his glare to me. I knew how to win friends and influence people. I should have added that to my business cards.
I was sitting yet again in the Situation Room of the Sentinels’ mansion. The Sentinels had summoned me yet again. So, I had come, despite not really wanting to. I had worshipped the Sentinels for too long to turn down an invitation, despite all that had happened. As when I had first come here, all the surviving Sentinels were present.
“Second,” Seer said, proceeding as if no one else had spoken, “we want to congratulate you on successfully concluding this matter. Richard Lobb is dead, and Donna Marina, the woman who actually pulled the trigger and killed Avatar, is in the hospital recovering f
rom her wounds. When she is well enough, she will be transferred to MetaHold pending trial. Though she apparently insists she never confessed, we are confident your testimony about her confession will be enough to convict her. We have already transferred money to your account to pay your bill in full. We even added a bonus. You will find it substantial.” Bully for me. I could buy all the alcohol I could drink, and then not drink it.
“Third, and most importantly, the Sentinels find ourselves short two members,” Seer said. “Though we tend to only invite Heroes to be members who are higher on the power scale than you, we have realized you have certain skills and contacts with the criminal underworld which we lack. We took a vote. It was unanimous. On behalf of all the Sentinels, I extend to you an invitation to join Earth’s greatest Heroes. Do you accept?”
Everyone—Seer, Doppelgänger, Ninja, Mechano, even Millennium—looked at me expectantly. This was a dream come true. I had loved the Sentinels since I was a child. They were part of the reason I became a Hero. How could I say no?
“No,” I said. I stood up. “I appreciate the offer. But I work alone.” I wished I had a mic handy so I could have dropped it. Instead I turned and walked out of the Situation Room. Kenton Pearce scurried behind me. The Sentinels were silent as I left. I would not work with a group of people who would so readily hang me out to dry. Plus, Donna had said Avatar believed one of the Sentinels had been getting payoffs from Lobb. Perhaps she had been lying about that. She had lied so much. But, why take a chance? With teammates like that, who needed enemies? Never meet your idols. They will disappoint you every time.
As I walked back through the mansion towards the exit, I thought about what I had said to the Sentinels about working alone. That was actually not true. I worked with people I liked, respected, and loved. People like Shadow, Zookeeper, Glenn Pearson, and Ginny. Especially Ginny.
Superhero Detective Series (Book 4): Hunted Page 31