Super World

by Lawrence Ambrose

  Talk about goosebumps. Or was it gooseflesh? Jamie pushed back her recently shortened blond hair and frowned in the direction Kim-Ly was gazing.

  "Greetings."

  That word had the group turning again, this time to find Brian Loving perched in the first row up from them. He smiled at them all before his eyes rested on Jamie. She felt herself absurdly wanting to adjust her hair while at the same time wondering if she should add "teleportation" to his list of powers. Maybe he'd just flown in quickly under their radar?

  "We're DARE agents, Interdiction and Enforcement. I'm Jamie Shepherd, agent in charge."

  "DIE. I thought so. My message is somewhat different."

  Jamie scowled. No matter how many times DARE spokespersons or government agencies referred to her division as merely Interdiction and Enforcement, the public had fastened on to DIE as their official acronym. Not that IED, with its tie to Iraq and "improvised explosive devices" was much better.

  Brian Loving stood up, responding to her scowl with an ironic smile. He stepped down from the stands and extended his hand to Jamie.

  "I'm Brian. I noticed you out here. The only ones walking and not praying."

  Jamie shook his hand with her usual gentle touch, but felt a radiant strength in the young man's grip that made her wonder if that was necessary.

  "We believe there may be a severe threat to this facility," said Jamie. "Along with the city as a whole."

  "You mean the Department of Homeland Security?" He smiled.

  "No." Jamie didn't smile back. "A terrorist group likely in possession of nuclear weapons."

  "Oh." He didn't appear either surprised or concerned. "Do you believe they are targeting my event?"

  "That's what our" – she glanced at Kim-Ly, who for once had her head up and was openly regarding the Last Days' founder/leader – "intelligence indicates."

  "That won't happen. Cannot happen."

  "Why?"

  "The Father won't permit it."

  "Why not?" Jake growled. "Then they'd all be martyrs and be singing Kumbaya in your fake heaven forever."

  Brian Loving smiled at him with cool eyes. "Perhaps, but the Father prefers that we enter heaven through conscious choice."

  "So once you make that choice, then what happens?" asked Tildie. "Something I've been curious about."

  "Perhaps you should make that choice and find out, Tilda Armstrong."

  She performed a second-take. "How did you know my name?"

  "I know all your names."

  "Crap! A mind-reader." Tildie backed off, along with a few of the others. Jamie resisted the urge. If Loving was a mind-reader there was no guarantee that a safe distance from Karen Clarkson would apply to him.

  Holding her ground, Jamie was starting to appreciate Brian Loving's "charisma" or whatever the hell it was. Aside from his mesmerizing eyes (another augment power?) he had a presence you could only partly get from a crowd's length away. Despite being average in size he seemed bigger than life without even working at it, as if impressing anyone was the last thing on his mind.

  "You'll probably say I lack faith, too," Jamie said, "but for the remainder of your event we're going to post extra security here. How many more days is 'prayer meeting' running, by the way?"

  "It concludes here tomorrow evening at ten."

  "Through tomorrow morning, then. Can we expect your full cooperation?"

  "Of course, Commander Shepherd. Unless you attempt to shut it down."

  "I wouldn't rule that out. But for now, we have no plans that I know of to do that."

  "Good." He smiled at her – an intimate smile that hinted of an eye-wink. "And I want to thank you for your brave service in East Los Angeles and Reno, Nevada." He paused. "As well as saving your friend here from a terrible fate on the moon, and in being the first to face the alien threat on Mars."

  A disturbed murmur from the other unit members rose up around them.

  "That is classified information you're stealing from my mind! I would be within my rights to arrest and detain you now!"

  Brian Loving smiled blandly in the face of her fury. "Within your legal right, perhaps, but within your capabilities?"

  The group stood taller and closed in subtly, with a savagely grinning Hulk Horner at the front. Jamie was too busy reining in her own urge to lash out and remove the smile from Brian Loving's handsome face. Perhaps more than just the smile. But she wrestled down the urge, and raised one hand to restrain the others.

  Of course it made sense that he would be a mind-reader, Jamie thought. Think of the edge it would give him in persuading others. Revealing their secrets would reinforce their beliefs in his sainthood or a Christ-like figure.

  "The days of secrets are coming to an end," said Brian Loving, his knowing eyes focused on her. "The days of shielding one's pain from others, of suffering alone, as you do, Jamie. The time of pure joy is approaching, for those who choose it."

  "Man, this dude is starting to seriously creep me out," said Tildie.

  "Frightening to think of letting it all go, isn't it, Tilda?"

  "I say we arrest his mind-rapin' faggot-ass right now," Horner snarled. "After I smash in that pretty-boy face of his."

  "That won't remove the pain and anger you feel, Greg."

  "That fucking does it –"

  Jamie slapped a hand on Hulk Horner's rock-hard chest as he lunged forward. It sounded like a sledgehammer striking steel. Horner stopped, wincing a little.

  "Everyone just keep it cool."

  She waited for her own thoughts to cool down a bit more. First, she couldn't think of any laws Loving had violated. The Augmented Americans Registration and Regulation Act didn't contain any laws against mind-reading. Yet. And an all-out fight with someone of unknown powers seemed like a really bad idea without the strongest rationale. Especially when they had truly evil people with nukes lurking somewhere on the horizon.

  "All right," said Jamie. "We'll check back with you here tomorrow. And if I were you, Mr. Loving, I would keep what you know about classified operations to yourself. Perhaps the DOJ and DARE might choose to look the other way for now, but if you choose to reveal top secret information, that may not hold."

  "I understand. And I apologize for my challenge. I guess I've never been too good with authority figures. And yes, I do appreciate the irony of that." His model's white-toothed smile had returned in force. "I have no plans to share what I know about you or your organization. And I will cooperate fully with you and other law enforcement agencies tomorrow."

  "Thank you. We appreciate that."

  Jamie watched him walk away – and vanish. Either super-speed or teleportation. She was guessing teleportation. Great.

  It was going to be a long day tomorrow.

  Chapter 22

  THE LAST DAYS' CELEBRATION was even more celebratory on the, well, last day, Jamie thought. Traffic in the greater San Francisco area had ground to a standstill. Businesses and commuters were crying for the police and city government to do something as thousands more true believers flooded into the city and prayer vigils sprang up wherever a spare space could be found.

  Jamie, Tildie, Denise Rogers (Ice Queen), Barry Apple (particle beam), Joy Kamada (Mind Games) and Allen Lassiter (plasma beam and object-penetrating vision) took to the skies early that morning in their red and blue Interdiction and Enforcement uniforms. They spread out and circled San Francisco and Oakland in separate elliptical patterns a mile or so up that took them over the Coliseum area on the east and a few miles out over the ocean on the west.

  It made sense that the terrorists would come in by air or teleportation. They couldn't afford to come in slowly, either on foot or by vehicle – the latter not being much faster than foot today. Not only would they likely be detected, but they risked being trapped within their own blast radiuses. They might fly in by airplane or helicopter, but the FAA, on orders from Washington, had shut down SF International and every major and minor airport within a hundred mile radius, and had also prohibited
any air traffic over the area. Jamie and her unit had clear skies to watch out for bad guys.

  Jeremy, Jay, Belinda, Hulk, Jake, Kyle/Sandman, and Kim-Ly were dug in at the Oakland Coliseum.

  A special worry was that a teleporter – even a single one – could easily bypass their defenses and drop bombs off at his or her leisure. Their only defense was to spot and destroy any such individual and/or his payload in seconds. Their only real chance of that was a heads-up from Tildie or Kim-Ly.

  After hearing Jamie's report, Mort Anderson had ordered the balance of Team One to fly in last night. With no space at her hotel or the Coast Guard base, the forty-odd agents had found rooms in hotels scattered around the city. Right now, they were posted on the Federal Building roof, the nearby AT&T Park, and in and around the Oakland Coliseum along with the six RANRU agents. Mort and Jamie agreed that putting too many agents in the air might cause the terrorists to change their attack to another day or even another location. Their mission was a "Sophie's Choice" of either dissuading the terrorists from an attack on SF – but which might then persuade them to target any of hundreds of cities with even greater populations – or encouraging the attack with the hope of destroying the terrorists and their nuclear operation once and for all. They were gambling with the lives of hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions – a thought Jamie preferred not to dwell on – but that would be the case until Hibat Allah was stopped. So they chose to keep a low profile and hope for the best.

  Meanwhile, a serious problem was developing in the skies over San Francisco. While the FAA order to stay clear of the city was being obeyed by aircraft, people were taking to the air in numbers Jamie and her team had never seen before. Perhaps the traffic had driven them to it, or perhaps they were inspired by seeing Jamie and her people flying overhead, but a few men and women – even some children – started venturing into the cool air over San Francisco and Oakland. Jamie and her crew immediately intercepted them, but soon they were dealing with dozens of flyers springing up everywhere.

  "What the heck," Tildie moaned, flying in beside her along with the other team members, exasperation written on their faces. Below them was the San Francisco Wharf. "I've heard of morning rush hours, but this is ridiculous. How are we supposed to do our jobs now?"

  "The FAA order only explicitly applies to airplanes," said Barry Apple, who'd been pre-law. "But maybe it could be legally stretched to people. So far there's no law that I know of regulating flyers."

  "Even if we had legal authority over them, how would we enforce it?" Jamie glared at another "flock" of people rising up from the Oakland Coliseum.

  "We could call in the flyers in Team Two and Team One," said Tildie. "They might be able to keep these people on the ground."

  "Then the skies would be full of people, which would defeat the point and probably scare off even the most suicidal jihadists." Jamie shook her head. "No, we'll just have to deal with it as it is. Look for people who don't fit in or are coming from the ocean."

  Watching a swarm of nearly fifty people fly away from the Coliseum, Jamie thought she could see the writing on the wall: a new article added to ARRA regulating flyers – making flying a privilege like driving a car. Skyway Patrol pulling people over for speeding or "reckless flying." She had to smile despite it all.

  "Incoming!" Tildie shouted suddenly, jabbing a finger high over the ocean. "Five people!"

  The group spread out, all eyes on the western skies where Tildie had pointed. Four specks appeared, approaching from on high at ballistic missile speed. The six agents responded as they'd been trained: they sent out all kinds of hurt to greet them, targeting from left to right depending on their relative position. Lightning flashed, particle and plasma beams hissed, and telekinetics crunched. And Joy Kamada added insanity to the mix. Jamie squashed the flyer on her left and whatever he was carrying, and turned her attention right, where the next incoming flyer had either dodged or been beyond the range of Tildie's lightning flash, which petered out at around two miles. She smacked him, but something was falling from the sky below him –

  The white flash was all-consuming. No sound at all. A heat wave like sun on a sweltering summer day enveloped her. Jamie blinked hard, and her vision returned. A white-orange fireball was spreading in front of them. Her clothes were smoldering. The others were drifting through the air, rubbing their eyes, smoke fluttering around them.

  Shock wave coming.

  "Move back – full speed!" Jamie shouted, with enough volume to shatter windows.

  Her team responded with a desultory eastward flight. Jamie ensnared them mentally, and they accelerated as one – hard – away from the growing mushroom ball. They traveled several miles in seconds, blasting past Oakland before she slowed them all down to a hover. Their clothing hung in sooty shreds. Déjà vu all over again, Jamie thought. She was starting to wonder if one of her super powers involved burning off her clothes.

  As they watched the fireball - most of them seemed to have recovered their eyesight - a sound like twenty thunderstorms compressed into one boomed over the city. An eerie stillness followed over the San Francisco peninsula: no honking horns, no lights flashing, no cars moving. The outer ring of the shockwave struck but didn't have much punch at their distance, pushing them back in the air a bit – followed by a thirty or forty MPH blast of hot wind.

  "Holy fuck," Tildie whispered.

  "Are you guys okay?" Jamie asked.

  They gave each other dazed looks, checking out their burnt clothing.

  "I feel like I was out on the beach too long," said Belinda, holding up her red hands. She touched her cheeks in horror. "Oh shit, what does my face look like?"

  "Sunburned," said Tildie, with a droll glance to Jamie.

  "Was that just one nuke?" Barry asked.

  "I think so," said Jamie. "I saw one object fall away from them."

  "Wasn't mine," said Denise. "I froze that fucker and his pack solid."

  "I think Allen and I incinerated the two on the right," said Barry.

  "It was me," Tildie groaned. "I couldn't take down my guy at that range. They had to be over two miles out."

  "I'm glad they were," said Jamie. "Think of what that would've done over the city." She zoomed in on the Wharf area, where some pockets of flame were rising. Fire engine klaxons finally broke the silence. "As it is, I'm not seeing any real shockwave damage. A few fires, that's about it. Some of the people in the air might've been injured or worse, but I don't see any bodies."

  "Me, neither." Tildie was performing a slow half-circle in the air, shading her eyes. "Was that it, then? Was that all they had?"

  "I wouldn't assume that."

  "What about radiation poisoning or whatever?" Belinda was fingering her face again.

  Jamie dug out her cell. It was fried. Her team checked their phones and shook their heads.

  "We need to replace our cells, and update our people on what just happened," said Jamie. "Let's drop down at the Coast Guard base and steal some phones from the guards or Team Two. If you aren't feeling well, get checked out. Have Terry fix you up, if needed."

  "I've had worse burns in a sun tanning booth," said Tildie. "What if there's a second or even third wave of these psychos while we're down there? There are still potentially three more nukes out there – assuming all five of the terrorists had one. We can always get checked out later."

  The others echoed her – even Belinda after a drawn-out sigh.

  "Good point, Til," said Jamie. "Joy, please go down and bring us back six functioning phones. We'll be waiting here."

  They spread out again, scanning the horizon and the ground below. It could've gone a heck of a lot worse, Jamie thought. The damage seems minimal. She could only pray no one had lost their lives. But she couldn't believe five men was all Hibat Allah had to go against them. But maybe it was all they had for today. They'd retreat and plan for another day. Or maybe not. She couldn't afford to make any assumptions or take any chances. Thousands if not millions of lives hung i
n the balance. A sickening feeling. To think that the scariest thing in her life used to be parent-teacher conferences.

  Joy returned fifteen minutes later with new cells. Jamie called Jeremy at the Coliseum. She brought him up to speed.

  "Yeah, we saw the flash," he said. "Man, this is a relief. When you didn't answer your phones, we kind of assumed the worst."

  "What's happening at the Coliseum?"

  "It's pretty weird. The stuff Loving says..." The roar of the crowd rattled through Jamie's phone. "People up on stage talking about making the choice to leave their lives. Kind of disturbing. Sounds like a suicide pact or something. You know, like those Heaven's Gate people. We've been listening to this stuff all morning. We should be looking into this guy, in my opinion."

  "Maybe we should," said Jamie. "But right now I'm more worried about terrorists with nukes."

  "Of course. We're spread out, watching everybody. Or trying to. Anyone who looks even remotely suspicious, we'll jump on them. And Kim-Ly is sitting next to me...in some kind of trance. Maybe she's seeing something."

  "Okay. Let us know. Otherwise, I'll check in with you later."

  TWO HOURS later, martial law was declared in the greater Bay Area by joint decree of President Morgan and Governor Randolph Milgram. The highways were cleared and traffic blocked from entering the main highways into SF and Oakland. Ten thousand soldiers of the California Army National Guard's 1st Battalion and twenty-five hundred from the 49th Military Police Brigade showed up in San Francisco and Oakland with hundreds of military transport trucks to begin evacuating all non-residents from the area – starting with the forty thousand individuals attending prayer vigils in AT&T Park and the hundred thousand-plus in and around the Oakland Coliseum.

  Most of the people refused to evacuate. Jamie and her team in the sky could only watch and shake their heads as heavily armed California Guardsmen attempted to persuade, harangue, and finally forcibly herd thousands of Last Days followers into the canvas-covered trucks. Men with megaphones spoke of the nuclear detonation off the coast and of the threat of more to come. The people at AT&T Park held their ground.