Absolute Power (The New Heroes, Book 3)

by Michael Carroll

  “What do you mean?”

  “Ever since you and Danny were discovered, there’s been a kind of hunt going on. A hunt for superhumans.”

  Colin didn’t like the sound of that. “How do you mean?”

  “They’re saying that some countries are testing every kid over the age of twelve to see if they have superhuman powers. It’s probably not true, but…”

  “But it might be?”

  “Yeah.”

  “That’s not so bad, Brian.”

  “Well, I heard that there was a girl in Belgium who was pretty average in school but then on one exam she scored top marks, so they took her away and gave her all sort of tests to check whether she was reading the teacher’s mind or something. Turned out that she only did so well on the exam because she’d cheated. So then she got expelled and her family had to move to another town.”

  “I don’t know, Brian…That sounds like one of those stories.”

  “Maybe it is. But the kid who died, that was real.”

  Colin felt his skin begin to crawl. “What was that?”

  “How could you not have heard about that? It was on the news a couple of weeks ago. In Newcastle. He tried to prove to his mates that he had super-speed by standing in front of a train. Took the police three days to find all the bits.”

  “Oh God. That’s…”

  “There’s been others. Jumping out of windows and breaking their legs seems to be the most common one. There was a girl who thought she had the powers of a cat and climbed up this really high tree and couldn’t get down. They had to get the fire brigade to rescue her. And there was a little kid who nearly drowned seeing whether he could breathe underwater.”

  Colin felt a trickle of sweat running down his neck. “The boy who was hit by the train…If I hadn’t—”

  Brian interrupted him. “Don’t go blaming yourself for that, Col. You’re not responsible for other people’s stupidity! Besides, it was Danny he was trying to copy, not you.”

  That’s not the point, Colin thought. “Listen, Brian, I’ve really got to go, OK? But I’ll talk to you again.”

  “Soon?”

  “I don’t know. When I can. Take care, all right? And tell your folks and Susie that I said hello.”

  “Will do. See you.”

  “I hope so.”

  Colin ended the call and stared at the phone for a few seconds. Things are getting crazy out there. I should…He paused. I should what? Go back to Sakkara and end up working for the American government?

  He glanced at the TV screen to see a photograph of Reginald Kinsella.

  He picked up the remote control and turned up the sound.

  The newsreader was saying, “…who have all, until recently, appeared to be fully supportive of the superhuman program in the United States. But the recent events in Central America, and other attacks on Trutopian communities, have led many of the governments to call on the United Nations to outlaw the use of superhuman operatives outside US soil. These calls have been backed by the Trutopian leader Reginald Kinsella.”

  Colin muted the TV again and picked up his phone. He selected Harriet’s number and seconds later the call was answered.

  “Hey, how are you doing, Colin?” the woman asked. “Need anything? I’m staying across town, but if you want I can be there in ten minutes.”

  “No, I’m fine, thanks. It’s just that Mr Kinsella said something about going back to America tomorrow.”

  “That’s right.”

  “Can you ask him…Well, I know he’s busy and everything, but…Maybe you can ask him to stay for a few more days?”

  8

  IN SAKKARA, WARREN Wagner opened the door to his quarters to find the blinds closed and his wife lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling.

  “So how are you doing?”

  Caroline smiled. “Not so bad. I’m mostly over it, I think. It wasn’t nearly this bad last time.”

  “Yeah, but you’re getting on a bit now.”

  “You’re the one with all the grey hairs!”

  Warren sat on the edge of the bed and took hold of his wife’s hand. “You’ve been stressing yourself about Colin, that’s all. Just lie still and take long, slow deep breaths.” Then his smile faded and he found that his mouth had suddenly gone dry. “We’re going to have to leave here. We can’t keep putting it off forever. I mean, we’ve probably only got a couple more weeks before…”

  Caroline squeezed his hand. “I don’t want to be here any more than you do, but…It’s too much of a risk to leave. This is the safest place for us. What if someone like Victor Cross finds out? And what about Colin? We need to be somewhere he can find us if he needs us.”

  Warren looked down at the floor. “He doesn’t need us. He can look after himself.” He looked back and smiled. “With the abilities he has, he wouldn’t have any problem tracking us down no matter where we are.”

  “There’s Mina, too. Most of them seem to have forgotten about her. Apart from Renata, I’m the only one who goes to visit her every day.”

  “Caroline,” Warren said, a hard tone in his voice. “We can not stay here, and there’s no way we can bring Mina with us! We have to put our own family first!”

  With a sharp hiss, the door slid open and they looked up to see General Piers entering the room.

  Caroline looked at him with disgust. “Come in, why don’t you?” She turned to Warren. “We have got to start locking that door.”

  “What do you want, General?” Warren asked.

  “A few minutes ago your son made a phone call to his friend Brian McDonald. He stayed on the line long enough for us to trace the call to a network cell in north-east Romania. We’re having trouble getting the exact location, but it’s still the best lead we have.”

  “Did you record the call? How does he sound?”

  “Yes, we recorded it. He sounds good.” The old man gave them a warm smile. “There’s no guarantee that Colin will come back, but at least we know he’s alive and well.”

  Warren got to his feet. “Let’s hear it.”

  “They’re making a copy for you now,” Piers said. “I’ve put Max Dalton on the case. The cellphone networks are different in eastern Europe, but Max is pretty certain that he can track down the number Colin called from. Then you can phone him yourself. After we’ve established contact with him, of course.”

  Warren nodded. “OK. That’s good. Yeah, we can wait a bit longer.”

  The general nodded, then left the room, closing the door behind him.

  Warren sat down on the bed, wrapped his arms around his wife and hugged her close. “When we talk to him, we’ll tell him everything, OK? When he realises how much we’re going to need his help, he’ll come back. I know he will.”

  “No, we can’t. The general’s people will be listening in to the phone call. As soon as they know, they’ll make sure that we never leave.”

  Warren suddenly sat back, and grinned. “Hey, was that a kick?”

  Caroline took Warren’s hand and gently placed it on her stomach. “I think it was!”

  Stephanie Cord knocked on the classroom door and opened it.

  The teacher looked up from his book. “Yes, Ms van Piet?”

  “Sorry, Mr Andrews. There’s an important phone call for Grant Paramjeet.”

  The teacher sighed. “Can’t it wait? We’re in the middle of differential equations here.”

  Stephanie shrugged.

  “All right. Paramjeet, get back here as quick as you can.”

  A tall, strong-looking boy with a bruised left cheek stood up, his chair scraping on the wooden floor. He followed Stephanie out into the hallway, closing the door behind him. He gestured down the corridor. “In the office, yeah?”

  “No,” Stephanie said. “Follow me.”

  With Paramjeet obediently strolling behind her, Stephanie made her way along the dark corridors and out through the side entrance to the deserted basketball court.

  The young man looked around. “I don�
��t get it.”

  “Thank you for trying to save my life.”

  “How did you…? I mean, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “You should have picked a better disguise, Grant. Most boys only have a couple of pairs of shoes. I recognised yours when I saw you in the corridor this morning…You idiot! You could have been killed! What on Earth were you thinking?”

  “I saw you were in trouble…”

  “You’re not exactly the sharpest tool in the toybox, are you?”

  Paramjeet took a step back, and folded his arms. “There’s no need for that. I do OK.” He looked Stephanie up and down. “So…Are you, you know…?”

  “A superhuman? No.”

  “But how did you do that? Those guys were twice your size, and there were three of them! Even I was finding it tough.”

  Stephanie stared at him. “Finding it tough? God, you really are an idiot! If I hadn’t been there, we’d all have a day off school to attend your funeral!”

  “Hey, I was holding my own! I knew what I was doing!”

  “No you didn’t. You don’t know the first thing about being a superhero. Your intentions are good, but your methods are lousy. Where was your back-up? Did you have an escape route? Did you even know who you were fighting?”

  “Well…”

  Stephanie interrupted him. “How did you know that they didn’t have guns?”

  Paramjeet blurted, “Look, I thought there was only one of them!”

  “You’re not exactly helping your case.”

  They glowered at each other.

  “Look,” Stephanie said, “what made you think that you could cut it as a superhero?”

  “I have lots of skills! I was the best on the javelin team in elementary school. I know sign-language and I can lipread – my sister is hearing-impaired so I learned the same time she did. I can fight—”

  “Not in my opinion.”

  He ignored that. “The New Heroes aren’t doing anything to help ordinary people! Someone has to do it! Maybe I don’t have any powers, but…Paragon wasn’t a superhuman either, and he was one of the best!”

  “I know that,” Stephanie said.

  “He was just an ordinary man who knew that he could make a difference. He always knew that one day he might die, but that didn’t stop him. And it won’t stop me, either. This country needs heroes, and if no one else is going to do the job, then I will! No one knows how Paragon died, but I’m betting that he was doing the right thing when it happened. So you can say what you want, but I think he’d be proud of what I’m doing.” He jabbed his finger in Stephanie’s direction. “And you…If you won’t help me, then you just better make sure you stay out of my way! Because if you try to stop me—”

  Stephanie grabbed his finger and twisted it.

  Paramjeet gasped in pain and dropped to his knees.

  “You were saying?”

  “Oh God! Let go, let go!”

  “If you had any brains at all, you wouldn’t threaten me.” She let go, and stepped back.

  Paramjeet got to his feet, rubbing his hand. “Who are you?”

  Stephanie didn’t reply.

  “Look, I know you’ve only been here a couple of months, but…Wait a second…” He frowned, then tilted his head from side to side, examining her face. “You have a sister that goes to North High, don’t you? I saw the two of you together a couple of weeks ago.”

  “So?”

  “The TV said that Paragon’s real name was Solomon Cord, and there was a photo of his family. It was a couple of years old, but…He had twin daughters. You’re one of them, aren’t you?”

  “Yes. I’m Stephanie. And if you tell anyone about that, you’ll regret it. A lot of people still think that my dad was responsible for what happened in Las Vegas.”

  “Then you can help me, Stephanie!” He broke into a grin. “Paragon’s daughter! I should have known from the way you stopped those guys. He trained you, didn’t he? Then you can train me! Look, I know I might not do things the way you’re used to, but I’m not completely useless. You’ll train me, won’t you?”

  Stephanie regarded him for a moment. “No.”

  That evening, on the roof of Sakkara, Renata, Danny and Razor sat in their favourite spot, the western side of the low wall that skirted the roof.

  Razor peered down over the edge, looking at the pyramid-shaped building’s sloping sides. “I need a day off.”

  “Yeah, that’ll happen,” Renata said.

  “I’m serious. I’ve been working on the armour at least fourteen hours a day, every day, since I got here.”

  “And you’ve still not finished it,” Danny said, grinning.

  “Very funny. I’d be a lot further along if I hadn’t wasted ages working on that mechanical arm of yours. I still can’t believe it – all the trouble we had designing and building it, and you didn’t even thank us. You never even looked at the damn thing!”

  Renata said, quietly, “Razor. Stop.”

  “What?”

  “Just don’t talk about the arm.”

  Razor looked from Renata to Danny, and back. “I…OK. Right.” He paused for a moment. “Why?”

  Danny stared out to the west, where the sun was setting over Topeka. For a few seconds, he was silent, then he said, “Nearly fifteen years ago, Quantum had a vision of the future. He saw me leading the world’s superhumans in a huge battle against the ordinary people. He said that billions of people were going to die.”

  “I know about that,” Razor said. “But—”

  “Last October, in the desert in California, I had a vision.”

  Razor’s mouth dropped open. “Seriously?”

  “Yeah. I saw myself with some other kids – maybe thirty or forty of them. We were running from a whole squadron of soldiers. I don’t know if I saw the same future that Quantum did, but in my vision, my right arm was gone. Replaced by something mechanical.”

  “God…But couldn’t that have been just the trauma of losing your arm? I mean, I still see you trying to reach for things with it, and then having to switch to your left.”

  “I had the vision before I lost my arm.”

  “You should have said. If we’d known, we’d never have built the thing. So you’re thinking that if you never take the mechanical arm, then that future won’t ever come to pass, right? There won’t be a war.”

  “Right.”

  “But the arm itself doesn’t have anything to do with the war.” Razor frowned in thought. “What was your hair like in the vision? How long was it?”

  “I don’t know…About the same as it is now. Why?”

  “Never get your hair cut and the vision can’t come true. Then you can still use the arm.”

  Danny gave a nervous laugh. “I wish it was that simple!”

  “Nothing is simple,” Renata said. “Not any more.” She looked across the roof. There were two soldiers standing by the hangar where the new StratoTruck was being checked over by the mechanics. Another two soldiers stood at the top of the stairs, and three more were clustered around one of the helicopters.

  Renata knew that there were a lot more soldiers inside the building: at least thirty the last time she’d counted them.

  Down below, on the grounds surrounding Sakkara, the make-shift army camp that had been set up following Dioxin’s attack was becoming permanent. The ground was covered with precise rows of tents and prefabricated buildings. Military personnel strode back and forth from one building to another. There seemed to be an awful lot of saluting going on.

  At the north edge, a platoon of soldiers marched in formation, while towards the south another group was busy completing the five-metre-high electrified fence that circumnavigated the area.

  A thought suddenly struck Renata, and she almost jumped.

  Danny took hold of her hand. “What is it?”

  Biting her lip, Renata stood up, stepped on to the low wall, and began to turn in a slow circle.

  “You OK?”

&n
bsp; Still turning, Renata said, “They’ve just about finished the fence. How many soldiers would you say are on this base? Including the ones down inside?”

  “A couple of hundred, maybe,” Danny said, looking over the edge.

  “Five hundred and forty,” Razor said. “There’s also seventeen armoured personnel carriers, twenty-four jeeps, eight choppers, and in about two weeks we’ll be getting some big guns. They’re pretty cool. They’ve got state-of-the-art tracking equipment – those babies’ll be able to target a high-speed missile and knock it out of the air before it gets close enough to do any damage. There’s no way on Earth anyone is going to get in here without ending up looking like Swiss cheese. Swiss cheese with a lot of ketchup.”

  Renata dropped back to the roof. “And it’s all for our protection?”

  “That’s it,” Razor said. “You superhumans don’t really need protection, but the rest of us do.”

  “Then let’s look at the facts. We’re surrounded by hundreds of highly-trained soldiers. There’s a huge fence that even I’d have a tough time getting past. When the big guns arrive they’ll be active at all times, right?”

  “That’s right,” Razor said. “Much as I hate to admit it, this is going to be a very safe place.”

  “Then you’re looking at it wrong, Razor. All that firepower will be great at keeping people out. But it’ll be just as effective at keeping people in.”

  Danny swallowed. “I think you’re right. Sakkara isn’t a fortress. It’s a prison.”

  9

  IN HIS HOTEL suite in Satu Mare, Victor Cross removed his jacket and padded shirt, then detached the latex potbelly from around his waist and dropped it on to the bed. He removed a series of devices from his suitcase, placed one in each corner of the large room, then sat down on the bed and dialled a number on his cellphone.

  A few moments later, Yvonne’s voice said, “Yeah?”

  “It’s me,” Cross said.

  “I know it’s you. No one else has this number. You sound different, Victor.”

  “I’m surrounded by sound-mufflers. Can’t risk Colin overhearing our conversation.”

  “So you got him?”

  Cross sat down on the armchair. “Yep. Said I would, didn’t I?”