I shook my head.
“Preventing oxygen from dissolving into someone’s bloodstream is delicate. Think of it like brain surgery. If I don’t do it just right, I’ll kill somebody. It’s not the sort of thing I can do on a bunch of people at once, especially if they are far away, spread out in a big building, and I can’t see them. At best, my efforts won’t have any effect at all. At worst, I’d kill some people.”
“Killing guys like these wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world to happen,” Shadow said.
I glanced over at Shadow before looking back at Hacker.
“I haven’t said this explicitly before, so I’ll say it now. I don’t want us to kill anybody unless it’s absolutely necessary to save Clara or to defend ourselves,” I said.
Shadow shrugged.
“It’s your show and your rules,” she said. “It would be easier if we didn’t have any restrictions, though. I don’t like going into a fight with a hand tied behind my back. If I get my head blown off because I have to hold back, I swear to God I’m going to come back and become your personal poltergeist. I’ll make sure you never get a wink of sleep again.”
I had been watching Hacker carefully, and was pretty sure I saw his breathing rate change.
“Hacker, open your eyes,” I said. “I think you’re just playing possum now.”
There was no response. I sighed. I got up, stepped over to Hacker, grabbed his right ear and twisted it, hard. He yelped, and his eyes flew upon. Hacker’s ear started to bleed where I had torn it a bit away from his skull. I sat back down again.
“Jesus, what’s your fucking problem, man?” Hacker said. He twisted his head around as if to look at his aching ear. That would have been a neat trick if he had been able to pull it off. After a few vain seconds he gave up on that project and turned his head back towards me. His eyes shifted anxiously between me and Shadow. He squirmed a little in his bonds, but he was not going anywhere. I had made sure of that.
“You two have made a very bad mistake,” he said. “I belong to a group that’s going to bury the two of you once they find out you’ve taken me.” His tone grew bolder as he spoke. I think he was convincing himself as much as he was trying to convince us.
“As coincidence would have it, that’s the very group we wanted to talk to you about. The Metahuman Liberation Front. I want to know everything there is to know about the building you came out of before I grabbed you. Let’s start with a teen girl by the name of Clara Barton. Is the MLF keeping her in that building?”
Hacker just stared at me for a moment.
“Go fuck yourself,” he said. I smiled at him.
“That’s a colorful expression,” I said, “but both biologically improbable and unhelpful. I’ll ask you nicely again: is the MLF keeping Clara Barton in that building? If you make me ask a third time, it won’t be nicely.”
Hacker proceeded to discuss my ancestry and sexual habits and my mother’s virtue. I was starting to admire his inventiveness and imagination when Shadow stepped forward. She grabbed the pinky finger of his right hand. She twisted it sharply. I heard it snap. Hacker screamed.
“Is the MLF keeping Clara Barton in that building?” I asked again. “Shadow will continue to break fingers until you answer. When we run out of fingers, we’ll start on your toes. Then, maybe your penis. Assuming we can find it.” Hacker did not respond. His initial scream had trailed off and he was then gibbering in pain.
I shook my head. I was not enjoying this. This was not my idea of how a Hero should be behaving. When I had studied for the Hero Trials years before, no one had said torture was an acceptable tactic to be used by a Hero. What choice did we have, though? What would happen to Clara and God knew who else if we did not get Clara and her explosive powers away from the MLF?
“Break the next finger,” I said to Shadow. Her face was as placid as ever as she moved to comply. There was a second hard snap. Hacker’s screams filled the room. My stomach turned. Bile filled my mouth. I did not let my distaste for all this show on my face, though. I had to make Hacker believe we would do anything and everything to him. I was Truman the Torturer. It was not a role I savored.
Shadow had broken four of Hacker’s fingers by the time his spirit followed suit and broke as well. That was good: I was not sure how much more punishment Hacker could take. For that matter, I was not sure how much more I could take.
Hacker told us everything we wanted and needed to know. Clara was indeed being kept in the building. The building served as both MLF headquarters and as the residence for several of the MLF’s higher echelon members, including the Pied Piper and Bonebreaker. Rainier Holding Company, the entity listed as the owner of the building, was a shell company controlled by the Pied Piper. The building had been bought using the proceeds of some of the MLF’s earlier heists and robberies. As a result of those thefts, the MLF had millions of dollars squirreled away. The group had now turned its full attention to recruiting new members and executing the attacks on the non-Metahuman population it thought would further its cause.
They were keeping Clara sedated and in a locked room to prevent her from attempting to escape, something she had tried when she had regained consciousness unexpectedly days before. They were also pumping her full of drugs designed to speed up the development of her powers and augment them. They planned on using her in a series of upcoming terrorist attacks, and they wanted her explosive power as potent as possible to cause the maximum amount of damage.
Using Hacker’s description of the MLF building, I sketched out on a sheet of paper a map of its interior and exterior. I showed it to him, and he had me make some minor corrections where I had gotten a few things wrong. I also got from him detailed information about the Metas who frequented the building, what their powers and weaknesses were, and who tended to be present in the building when.
I pumped Hacker for information until his well appeared to be dry. I was relieved when I thought I had gotten everything I could from him. I was sick of watching the man writhe in pain in front of me. I felt dirty, but I knew a shower would not wash away the filth.
But yet, it was not quite over.
“Shadow and I are going to go into your building and take Clara away from your friends,” I said to Hacker. “If we’re successful, we’ll tell the MLF where to find you. If we’re not—perhaps because you’ve lied to us about the set-up inside—you’ll sit right here for days and die of thirst. It’s a bad way to die.” I put a hardness into my voice I did not feel. “So, if you have left anything out or need to correct something, speak now or forever hold your peace. Your ass is on the hook here as much as mine and Shadow’s.”
Hacker shook his head weakly.
“I’ve told you everything I know,” he said. His voice was hoarse. I had to strain to hear him. Half-dry blood from his bleeding ear was streaked down the side of his face.
I stood. I wanted to cut him loose. But, if I did, he would certainly warn his friends Shadow and I were coming. I had to leave him where he was. It was the tactically correct thing to do. The correct thing is not always the right thing, though.
Shadow and I left, leaving behind a bound man with broken fingers in a room that had not seen signs of life in years. If Shadow and I got killed trying to rescue Clara, death would again take the place of Hacker’s life soon enough.
I was some Hero. Maybe I should have found a crippled grandmother and tied her up and broken her bones, too. It would put the cherry on top of the day.
CHAPTER 21
Since the MLF had used Clara to cause an explosion, it seemed only right to use an explosion to help rescue her.
I was parked in my car on the street that was behind the MLF building. Though I was a good distance from the building, I could see the window on the third floor that Hacker told us was the window to the large room that served as both the MLF’s library and records room. The Pied Piper was cautious. He was concerned about the authorities or some Hero hacking into the MLF’s computer systems. So, he did n
ot keep any important records electronically. All the records were on paper, and according to Hacker, there were a lot of those records in the library along with a great many books and magazines.
Shadow and I had scouted out the building the day before with what Hacker had told us in mind. He had told us there was a humidifier in the library to help preserve the books and paper in it, so there was not much water vapor in the air of the room for my powers to work with. That was not a problem, though. I knew thanks to my powers and my recon the day before there was a water pipe in the ceiling of the record room. I had burst the water main leading to the building using my powers only a minute or so before, but there was still enough residual water in the pipe in the ceiling of the records room for my purpose.
I reached out with my powers. I was pretty far away, but still within the effective range of my powers. With my powers, I caused the water in the pipe in the ceiling of the library to expand and crack the pipe. Water began to leak down into the ceiling and drip into the room below. No one was in the room. I had verified that with my water-sensing powers already.
Using the same process I had used to destroy John Barton’s car, I broke some of the water up into its constituent parts of hydrogen and oxygen atoms as the water leaked down into the room below. Soon the room was full of combustible gas.
“Now Shadow,” I said into my cell phone. As I watched from the car, Shadow stepped from where she had been pressed against the wall at the back of the building. Though Hacker had told us there were motion detectors and perimeter alarms set up around the building, Shadow would not set them off because of her powers. She stepped quickly to where she had a better angle on the window to the records room above her. As she went, she used a lighter to light the wick of one of the three thick glass bottles filled with alcohol she carried. Once she was in position, she threw the Molotov cocktail up at the window. She had told me earlier when I had insisted she bring two spare bottles that she would need only one.
She was right.
Thanks to her super-strength, the thick lit bottle Shadow threw went right through the library’s window pane. An instant later, there was an explosion that blew out what remained of the partially shattered window of the gas-filled room. Fire shot out of the window. Even as far away as I was, I heard the fire alarm in the building go off. Thanks to me having broken the water main earlier, the sprinkler system Hacker told us about would not be able to extinguish the fire.
I watched as Shadow went back close to the side of the building to help obscure her from the view of someone on the inside who might look out. She walked toward the far side of the building, turned the corner, and disappeared from my view. I would meet up with her shortly. I mentally counted off two full minutes. In my mind’s eye with the help of the intel gleaned from Hacker, I imagined what was going on inside. Thanks to the lack of sprinklers, the fire would be spreading. The Pied Piper was not in the building as he and Bonebreaker had left earlier. Shadow and I had made sure of that before making our move. With him gone, command of the remaining Metas in the building devolved on the person whose turn it was to man the security room where a bank of monitors showed the viewer what was going on in and around the building. With the sprinklers not working, it was that person’s job to go to the scene of the fire and coordinate the efforts to put it out. Most of the Metas in the building were supposed to go to the scene of the fire as well and help. The Pied Piper ran the MLF like a paramilitary organization, and he had drilled his subordinates on this very scenario. I just hoped the Metas inside followed their training.
Two minutes were up. I put the idling car into gear and raced down the street. I turned left, and pulled up as close to the side of the building as I could. I got out. Shadow was already there. The car and I no doubt were setting off alarms in the security room, but with the person who normally manned it off tending to the fire, there would be no one to see or hear it. At least, that was the plan.
We could hear the fire alarm shrieking within. Admittance through the side doors of the building was granted based on a handprint. A scanning panel was mounted next to the closed steel double doors. They were magnetically sealed. Since neither Shadow’s nor my palm would open the door, we ignored the panel. Instead, Shadow grabbed the handle of the left door, planted her feet, and pulled. I wondered which would give first, the magnetic seal or the door. I doubted it would be Shadow.
The answer was the door. With an ear-splitting rending of metal, the metal door peeled open. I went in first and Shadow followed. I had my gun out and my water senses extended. I did not sense anyone in the immediate vicinity. I did not see anyone either. I could smell smoke, though. The wailing of the fire alarm set my teeth on edge. Though it was hard to tell over the noise of the alarm, I thought I heard shouting.
According to Hacker, Clara was on the third floor in a room directly above where we were. An elevator was directly ahead. I ignored it. We did not want to get trapped in it if the fire caused the power to go out or if someone deliberately cut the power to it while we were in it.
I led the way to the stairs, which were on the right. Shadow and I hastened up them. I was about to open the door to the third floor when I sensed a presence on the other side.
“Someone’s out there,” I whispered into Shadow’s ear. Shadow nodded in acknowledgement. Thanks to the fire alarm, whispering probably was not necessary. But, better safe than sorry.
I pushed the door open. A long hallway was ahead. A man in a black and gold costume turned. His eyes glowed red. It was Blaster. Blaster shouted something I could not quite hear. Time slowed. I raised my gun. The glow of Blaster’s eyes intensified. Shadow sprang to the left. Instinct took over. I threw myself forward and to the right. A blast of energy shot from the man’s eyes, hitting the door where Shadow and I had stood a split second before. I heard the door explode behind me. Shrapnel pierced my clothes. I barely felt it. I rolled to one knee, with my gun arm braced on the other knee. I squeezed off shots. It was two, maybe three. I wasn’t sure. Blaster spun to the side. He fell to the floor. His legs and arms twitched.
Shadow raced over to Blaster. I got to my feet and started to run over to him as well. Thanks to Shadow’s heightened speed and reflexes, she got to him before I did. Shadow turned Blaster’s head away from her so his eyes weren’t pointed at her. She carefully, almost clinically, slammed his forehead against the wall. Blaster stopped twitching.
No one else was in the hallway. I sensed no one else nearby. I leaned over Blaster and checked him. He was out cold. I rolled him over. I had shot him at least twice in the side. It did not appear I had hit anything vital. With medical treatment, he would live.
I stood. I looked at the door of the room in front of me. Hacker had said this was where Clara was being kept. I did not sense anyone inside, though. There was a hasp mounted on the door and the doorframe. The hasp was padlocked. Why lock a door from the outside if you did not want someone who was inside to get out? I gestured at the lock to Shadow. She reached out, grabbed the padlock, and pulled. She ripped the lock and hasp off the door as readily as pulling a hair out of someone’s head.
I tried the door’s knob. Locked. I backed up. Putting my weight into it, I kicked at the door just under the knob with the flat of my foot. The door flew open. I stepped inside. My gun was at the ready as my eyes swept over the room.
Clara was inside. She was on top of a bed, fully dressed. Her eyes were closed. Tubes ran from her arm to clear bags of fluids hanging from a metal rack standing by the bed’s side. Shadow guarded the open door while I went to the bed. Though I stood right over Clara, I still could not sense her with my powers. Perhaps her biochemistry was not water-based due to her own powers. I glanced around again. No one else was in the room. I holstered my gun at my hip.
Clara looked even thinner than she had in the pictures I had seen of her. She looked like a miniaturized version of her mother. Her face was the color of white paper. Her mousy brown hair was long and tangled. Her clothes were dirty.
I shook her. She did not stir. I checked her pulse. It was strong and steady.
I quickly but gently pulled the tubes out of Clara’s arm. Blood welled out of the punctures in her arm in their absence. I picked Clara up. She smelled. I slung her over my left shoulder and held her in place with my left arm. She was light, but awkward to carry. Shadow could have carried her more readily. Shadow’s powers were more dependent on her freedom of movement than mine, though.
With my free hand, I pulled an envelope out of my pocket. I placed it on the bed where Clara had been. It contained a note stating where the MLF could find Hacker.
I pulled my gun back out. I went back to the door and out into the hallway. Shadow led the way. We went back down the hall to the stairs. The smell of smoke was even stronger now. We went down the stairs back to the first floor. We got outside without further incident.
I holstered my gun again, pulled out my keys, and tossed them to Shadow. She opened the back passenger door. I put Clara down on the back seat. I went around the car and got into the front passenger seat. Shadow was already in the driver’s seat by then with the motor running. She hit the gas. We left the building behind. The sound of the fire alarm faded behind us. Shadow was whistling softly. I recognized the tune. It was an old ragtime song. It was “There’ll Be a Hot Time in The Old Town Tonight.”
I glanced back at Clara who was still lying in the back seat unconscious. In person, she looked younger than thirteen. She looked much too young to have the explosive power she possessed.
I turned back around and looked at the road ahead. We had rescued Clara. Great.
Now what in the world was I going to do with her?
CHAPTER 22
“I can’t take her back to her parents,” I said to Ginny Southland. “Her father is the one who put her in this fix to begin with.”
Superhero Detective Series (Book 2): The Missing Exploding Girl Page 14