by Matt Blake
And as his vision faded away, his last image was of Anita’s smiling face when she found out they could move out of that shitty bedsit and to somewhere fresh.
They were starting again.
Hank’s metal detector passion had finally, finally come through.
They were going to be millio…
His vision totally blackened, his thoughts went blank, and Hank slumped down onto the road.
“Make it look like suicide,” Moira said.
She looked down at the metal sphere and couldn’t help smiling.
Because what she held in her hands made her the most powerful woman in the world.
8
I wanted some downtime at the arcade with Damon and Avi, but I forgot that downtime in a public meeting place for geeks wasn’t so easy when you were so recognizable.
It was the middle of the afternoon on a Monday, so, in theory, this place should be empty. But it was still the tail end of the summer vacation, so geeks like me were making the most of their last opportunity to game with a load of fellow geeks before the return to normality.
Only today was a special day.
I felt it when I walked through the door. It’d gone warm outside again, so I felt a little sweaty and sticky, which always put me in a bad mood. The arcade had just gone silent. People had stopped gaming. They’d turned around, looked at me, looked at their friends, and a sense of stasis had kicked in.
Then they’d all charged toward me shouting and cheering, begging me for selfies, sticking phones in my face, as well as comics. Yeah. I had my own comic now. I’d done a deal with one of the major companies to fictionalize my adventures. I think some people read those comics and believed everything that happened in them. Never underestimate the ability to confuse fiction and reality in the twenty-first century age of information.
Damon patted me on the back as the mob approached. “Good luck, man.”
“Don’t leave me with these people.”
Avi laughed. “Bro, they’re your fans.”
“But I don’t feel comfortable.”
“Just enjoy it,” Damon said, grinning. He clearly loved how uncomfortable this whole thing made me. He held out his arms as he walked off toward the new House of the Dead VR game. “Hey. If I’d kept hold of my powers, I’d be lapping it right up. Make the most of it, man. Now I’ve got some VR zombies to shoot.”
I looked around at the smiling crowd, the smell of their stale sweat hanging in the air, and I just about managed a smile back.
But that wasn’t the easiest thing to force.
I signed comic after comic, shook sweaty hand after sweaty hand. Some people asked me what it was like taking Saint out. Others asked me what I’d done with him, whether they ever had to worry about him returning. One guy, with an acne-ridden forehead and glasses so thick his eyes looked the size of tennis balls, led me to the back of the arcade and introduced me to a video game I didn’t even know existed.
ULTRA: The Last Hero.
“You get to play as you,” the guy said, chuckling after every word. “Right from when you’re a kid. Then there’s the fight with Nycto. But the best bit’s when you get to choose between saving your mom or your dad. And whoever dies, you go apeshit. It’s genius.”
I felt a little sick and dizzy. I’d okayed this game? A game that fictionalized the most traumatic event of my life?
“That’s—that’s great,” I said. “I need to… the bathroom.”
“You okay, Glacies? You’re looking pale.”
“I’m not Gl… I’m fine. Really. I just need some air. That’s all.”
I battled my way through the army of people. I just wanted to get to the bathroom and get out of here. I didn’t want to face the reality of this crowd. And, shit. This was a crowd of fans that thought I didn’t have any abilities. If they knew I did… then how in the name of hell would I ever be able to go out and do the things I wanted to do? How would I ever hope to be normal?
I reached the door to the bathroom corridor, opened it up.
That’s when I saw them.
It was only for a fraction of a second. Literally a case of them being there one second then gone the next.
But I saw the dark shadow at the opposite end of the corridor, and I got the feeling that someone was watching me.
The door to the corridor slammed shut as it swung behind me, making me jump out of my skin. I walked down the corridor slowly, fingers tingling, heart racing. I wanted to call out to see if anyone was down there. But more than that, I just wanted to get to the bathroom. Take a breather. And then get the hell out of here.
I walked into the bathroom. I took a cubicle, the feeling that I was being watched still overwhelming. When I looked up at the ceiling, I saw some graffiti beside a hole in the panels.
No peeping.
And beside it, someone else had written in red pen: Why? ;)
I looked back down and saw feet under the cubicle door.
Before I knew it, the door burst open, and someone threw a fist at me.
I acted on instinct. I grabbed the attacker’s hand and froze it in an instant.
Then I teleported through him, behind him, kicked him in the back and onto the bathroom floor.
As I stared down at the mess, still in shock at what had happened, I didn’t notice the other guy until the last second.
I spun around and grabbed his chest, but it wasn’t quick enough. He fell onto me and tried to push a long metal rod at me.
I took a breath, composed myself, and I pushed that metal rod back, using my mind to force it away. I clenched my teeth together, increasing my focus. The metal rod bent and moved toward the guy’s head.
He dodged it. Slipped out of its way.
Then I grabbed him with my mind and lifted him into the air.
I opened up a wormhole on the bathroom floor.
And I tossed him and his friend into it.
When they’d gone, I collapsed onto my knees. I tried to compose myself. Tried to steady my breathing. Someone was after me. Two people. And they weren’t just random idiots, clearly. They had weapons, so they’d been sent by someone.
And if they’d been sent by someone, that meant someone knew I still had my abilities.
Someone knew I wasn’t being completely honest.
I took a few deep breaths. They were gone now. They couldn’t hurt me. I just had to get out of here and go back home. I couldn’t ever come back, either. It was just too risky.
I walked over to the bathroom door and went to step outside.
If I wasn’t as rusty as I was right now, I might’ve sensed there was someone out there waiting for me.
I might’ve been able to stop them pressing a metal rod to my chest, sending a burst of electricity surging through my body.
And I might’ve been able to stop myself falling to the floor, cracking my head on the hard, trodden down carpet, and slipping away into unconsciousness.
9
I opened my eyes, but I might as well have kept them closed.
It was pitch black. So pitch black that I wasn’t sure I’d be able to put myself in as much darkness if I squeezed my eyes together. My head felt dizzy, and I could taste vomit. My throat was sore, and my body felt weak and woozy. Part of me wanted to fight against the darkness, fight against whatever the situation I was in was.
But most of all, my body just wanted to give up. To accept the darkness. To sink down into its warm arms and let it surround me, returning to sleep.
And then I remembered what happened.
I was at the arcade. I’d been there with Damon and Avi. I’d got caught up in a crowd of geeks, who were way too interested in me for me to be anywhere near comfortable. I’d seen a video game re-enactment of my life and it had freaked me out, so I’d done a runner to the bathroom.
Only the bathroom plan hadn’t turned out such a great idea. I’d been attacked. I’d used my abilities to stave off that attack.
Then when I’d gone to leave the bathroom
, someone had stepped around the door and electrocuted me, rendering me powerless.
I tasted that vomit tang growing stronger in my mouth as the urgency of my situation grew. Why was I always going and getting myself caught like this? Whatever. I had to get away. It might be a struggle, but I wasn’t keen on sticking around in… well, mystery dark place, wherever mystery dark place was.
I went to move.
That’s when I realized I was tied down.
I tensed my fists, tried to freeze the ties around my arms and my ankles, tried to snap them with the full force of my abilities.
I couldn’t.
A sickening realization hit me in a strong tidal wave of force. Someone had hunted me down. They’d put me in here. And the fact that my abilities didn’t seem to be working right now meant that someone was repressing them in some way.
Which, in turn, meant that whoever had captured me knew I was lying about my abilities.
They knew I was still an ULTRA. They knew I still had powers.
They knew I was still Glacies.
They knew the truth.
I took a few deep breaths and closed my eyes. I couldn’t freak out. I had to stay calm and composed. I’d been in situations like this in the past, and I’d found my way out. I couldn’t act rash. I had to think. If my abilities were being suppressed, then how could I break free of ties around my arms and legs? Sure, the suppression of my abilities might be strong, but surely my abilities themselves were stronger?
It might take it out of me. It might not be easy. But I was going to have to find a way to break out of this situation one way or another.
I gritted my teeth together and focused on the power, right at my core. Sometimes, in the quietest moments, I could feel my abilities, like they were an organ in my body. I could feel their silent electricity floating through me. I wondered, if I could feel it, maybe others could detect it too. Maybe that’s why I was here. Perhaps that’s what had happened all along. I had been caught out. I’d tried to outrun my past, but all I’d really been doing was jogging away from it limply and pathetically. Now here I was, the real me, lying back in the darkness, unable to—
“Turns out you’re not so powerless after all, hmm?”
The gruff old voice made me freeze, and not in the ability way, unfortunately. It sounded like it came from in front of me. Right in front of me. And then I realized I could smell the sour breath of someone just inches from my face, and I knew for certain then I wasn’t alone.
“What’s wrong? You gone quiet on me all of a sudden?”
“Let me out of here.”
I heard a chuckle. This guy, whoever he was, sounded old. “I’m afraid that’s not going to happen, Kyle Peters. Not until we’ve had a proper conversation.”
Right on cue, a mass of lights switched on. I closed my eyes, the light so blinding that it made my head hurt. When I opened them again, I tried to focus on the man standing over me as he came into view.
When he did, I realized my suspicions about him being old weren’t far off the mark at all.
He looked ancient. Wrinkly. Thin white hair. He was hunched over, and he looked as if he could fall apart if someone so much as flicked him. He couldn’t have been more than fifty kilos, which was even more dramatic considering how tall and lanky he was, even bent over. His fingers were long and bony, and his knees protruding against his scruffy gray trousers.
“I would offer a hand,” the man said. “But I don’t think shaking your hand is an option right now.”
I looked down and realized I was tilted forward on a kind of table, my arms and legs tightly held back to this surface, whatever it was, wherever it was. I looked around at the rest of the room. It was pretty large, with white tiles all over the walls. It reminded me of one of those rooms people with issues are put in when they’re considered a threat to society, only these walls weren’t lined with anything soft.
“My manners. I apologize. I don’t get to meet many new people anymore. I’m Michael Williamson. You probably haven’t heard of me, which I always find terribly unfair.”
“Yeah well life’s shit. Not everyone gets to be a celebrity.”
“I’m no celebrity,” Michael said, a smile of yellow teeth (at least those that were still remaining) stretching across his face. “But you should know that if I weren’t here, then you wouldn’t be an ULTRA right now, and neither would anyone else.”
I frowned. I wasn’t sure whether to take this guy seriously. It was a bold claim, but it was a claim I had to consider. “You… Wait, you created the ULTRAs?”
Michael turned around and walked away, hands behind his back. “It was the seventies. The Second World War was long over, but there were new issues. The Cold War was intensifying. The Soviets were growing more powerful. The Vietnam War was in full flow. The world was staring Armageddon in the face. But there was a reason the Cold War never became a truly Hot War.”
He turned around and smiled at me.
“And that reason was America’s completion of the Hero program. A program that had been researched for years prior, actually. The first Hero tests predate the Second World War, even. But it came to fruition with my project. With Project Beta. Then, eventually, just over fifteen years ago with the Heroes that followed. Your biological father included. Orion.”
My mind spun. He could’ve just been a batty old man, but there were pride and sincerity to his words that made it hard to doubt him. “So… so what has that got to do with why I’m here now? Why you’re keeping me captive?”
“I wanted your kind to be free. I mean, when I say your kind, you have to understand that I figured a way to get the Hero program into the bloodlines of those first individuals who had been gifted with their abilities. That wasn’t the vision of the government. But it was something I wanted. An idyllic idea of the future, I imagine. The next stage in humanity’s evolution. Only there was a catch. If I wanted to complete my project, I had to create a failsafe.”
“A failsafe?”
“An off-switch. I was against creating it. But after the first conflict with Saint, I was convinced that the Failsafe had been lost. I made moves to make sure it disappeared and could never resurface. Even if it put all of humanity at risk, I wanted to let nature do its thing, as it should do. But now it pains me to say that it appears a second Failsafe has surfaced. It must’ve been a backup or an exact copy. But make no mistake about it. This Failsafe is in the hands of some dubious individuals.”
I was so entranced that I’d pretty much forgotten I was tied down still. “This Failsafe. Why should I give a damn about it? And what does it have to do with anything?”
I saw a slight paleness stretch across Michael Williamson’s face.
“Michael? What is it?”
“You should care about it,” he said. “You should care about it very gravely. Because the Failsafe was designed in case of a major disaster. A major accident.”
“I don’t understand.”
“The Failsafe has the ability to destroy every single ULTRA in existence. It’s the ultimate weapon of mass destruction. And it’s just fallen into the hands of some very dangerous people.”
10
“Are you okay? You seem to have gone a little… pale.”
I leaned back against the chair, which Michael Williamson had kindly allowed me to sit in now he was convinced I wasn’t going to burst out of here in a ball of ice. I wasn’t sure what time it was, or what the weather was like outside. I was completely disoriented, growing used to the white walls of the room I’d been trapped in earlier, and the gray metal walls of this other room in here, which appeared to be some kind of office. There was a strong smell of food in the air, though, and I noticed a microwave on the floor below where Michael and I sat. I figured Michael must pretty much live here, secluded, totally cut off. Wherever here was.
“So the people who have the Failsafe. They’re dangerous?”
I looked into Michael’s eyes and I saw a hint of a smile, like he was relieve
d that I was finally acknowledging his presence, and his concerns. “I don’t mean to use hyperbole. But rest assured, I am gravely concerned about what might happen should these people put the Failsafe to use.”
“How do they put the Failsafe to use?”
Michael paused and looked away. “There is a place. Like a lock to a door. If you take the Failsafe to that place, turn the key so to speak, all ULTRAkind falls in an instant.”
I pictured that horrible image. Not just myself. I didn’t think about myself at all, really. But more Cassie. My sister. And the rest of the Resistance, who’d all gone their separate ways after the battle with Adam, but were still out there somewhere.
I tried not to think about the guilt I felt over the Resistance’s split. I’d turned my back on them, all for an easy life. After that, they’d just collapsed.
“Would you like something to eat?” Michael asked.
I shook my head, as dry as my throat was and as roaring as my stomach was. “This… Failsafe. Why didn’t anyone just activate it when the stuff with Saint went down?”
Michael rubbed his fingers through his thin, stringy gray hair. “Quite straightforward, really. The people in power were too afraid of giving up their own power. Because, sure, they could take down the ULTRAs. But then what do they have left? The American government’s greatest military expense in history, gone in the click of a finger. What do you think that would say to the rest of the world?”
“The rest of the world almost wasn’t a thing.”
“Not true,” Michael said.
I frowned. “How can you say it’s not true? I was there. I fought in that battle. I took down Saint.”
“Exactly. You did your job. There was a threat. Admittedly an unconventional threat. A dangerous threat. But the true purpose of the Hero program shone through. Because you won. Didn’t you?”
I had to admit Michael had a point. “People died. Lives were lost.”