“Begin walking to the nearest metro station, which would be straight ahead and a right at the corner. You are being followed; don’t turn around. I said, do not turn around.”
Loren cursed internally; it was like one of those psych tests where they tell you not to think of a zebra and all you can do for hours afterwards is think of zebras. His heart was racing now. This had become a potentially dangerous situation and he was right in the thick of it.
He made it to the end of the block, trying to talk casually on the cell phone in order to seem normal. He took a right and started walking past a poorly lit park with a lot of trees. “Hang up but keep walking; I am going to take out the target,” Midnight said over the phone. Loren wanted to offer to help out in some way, but decided that it was better to just stick to her plan rather than have her tell him point-blank that she didn’t want his help.
He kept walking, straining to hear what was going on behind him. There was a grunting noise and a thud as someone hit the ground, then the sound of something being dragged into the grass. He risked a look behind him and saw Midnight waving him over. He dashed into the park and back to where she was standing, one booted foot firmly pressing into the lower back of a man in jeans and a jacket who lay squirming beneath her.
“This was a success. Thank you, Truthfinder. Stop struggling,” Midnight added to the man beneath her foot as she thumbed through the wallet she had just pulled out of his back pants pocket. “I’ll deal with you in a minute.”
Loren started to say that she didn’t need to thank him because he hadn’t done anything, when he realized that he had – he had been the bait that lured this thug out. In fact, that must have been her plan from the beginning. She would have known that there wouldn’t be anything of value in the apartment, but she would also have known that someone would be watching the apartment in case Brian Vargas foolishly returned. Her precision with the timing meant that she had spent a few nights watching the people watching the apartment; there must be a shift change around 10 p.m., which gave Midnight the maximum amount of time to interrogate the man she’d caught without alerting any others from the same organization. All in all, Loren guessed that the mission had been a success, but he couldn’t help wishing that Midnight had trusted him enough to tell him the real plan.
“Alright, let’s get down to business here,” Midnight said, removing her boot from the back of the man and reaching down to pull him up and spin him around into a hold. “Listen to me well,” she told the man, who had a thick-looking face that clearly needed a shave. “I’m Midnight and this is Truthfinder. I have a few questions for you. If you answer them honestly, I will let you go. If you do not, I will turn you over to my colleague here, who specializes in getting the truth out of people, by whatever means necessary. Do I make myself clear?”
The man gave an appraising look at Loren, who met his gaze with what Loren hoped was stern intimidation. For added effect, Loren shook his briefcase enough for the tools inside to rattle, as if to suggest that he was well supplied with implements of torture. Midnight simultaneously tightened her choke hold and the man started sputtering protestations.
“Alright,” he said once Midnight had released her hold enough for him to speak. “You let me go and give me $500 to get out of town and I’ll talk.”
“I don’t pay thugs,” snapped Midnight. She twisted the man’s right arm behind his back while pressing her hand tight against his throat so that he couldn’t scream. Loren winced as he heard the bone start to crack.
“You will talk and you will talk now,” hissed Midnight with a venom Loren hadn’t suspected she was capable of. The man squirmed ineffectively and managed to nod an affirmative when she let go.
“Alright!” the man gasped, wrenching his arm around and rubbing the dark red line on his neck where she had nearly choked him. “I gotta clear outta here anyway. This whole thing’s going south and the cops are crawling all over the place now.”
“That’s better,” Midnight said with a satisfied smile that sent a chill up Loren’s spine. “So, who are these people you work for?”
“Hard to say,” the man answered, still looking at her warily. “Best as I can tell, they’re foreigners.”
“Foreigners? You mean Chinese?” Loren asked. Midnight frowned at him and he cringed inwardly – he should know better than to ask leading questions.
“No, not Chinese,” said the man. “Hey, you mind if I light up?”
Midnight glared at him for a moment and the man took an apprehensive step back. “Very well,” she finally said, though she sounded disapproving. “You should keep in mind however that smoking is as likely to result in your premature death as is consorting with criminals.”
The man shrugged and fished a cigarette out of a pack in his shirt pocket. “Look, honey, you gotta have some pleasures in life or there ain’t no point in living it.”
“Isn’t any point,” Midnight corrected. “When you say foreigners, can you be more specific?”
The man lit his cigarette. “Yeah, well they got accents, you know? English, some of them, and Irish for others, and who knows what the rest. I wouldn’t put it past them for being some European supervillain team.” He paused to take a long drag.
“What exactly is the operation?” Midnight asked impatiently.
The man shrugged. “It’s all high-tech stuff – I don’t know what they’re planning, but it’s big. They got muscle, too – mutants and everything. The main one, Erica, she’s one mean bitch. Old as hell and gun-happy. Never seen anything like her.”
“Is she in charge, then?” Loren asked.
The man shook his head. “The guy in charge they say is Dr. Wraith, and I guess he got reputation and all, but he ain’t much to look at and he don’t really seem to call the shots.”
“Who does?” Midnight asked.
“That would be Dr. B. They say he’s Dr. Wraith’s assistant, but if you ask me, which I guess you are, I’d say he’s the real brains of the operation.”
“Dr. B?” Midnight frowned. “Do you know what that stands for? Have you ever heard his first name?”
“Nah, they all just call him Dr. B,” the man said placidly. “He’s a science-type, probably some European genius or something.”
“Where are you based out of?” Midnight asked.
“Well after the factory, they pulled everyone who was anyone over to Avalon One – that’s the main operation. I ain’t never been there yet. Guess now I won’t be going either.’
“Do you know where Avalon One is?” Loren asked. The name was strange; it sounded more like a boat than a building.
“Nah, like I said, I ain’t never been there. They mostly take ‘em out by boat or helicopter though, so I’m guessing it’s out that way.” He gestured vaguely in the direction of the ocean.
Midnight nodded. “How did they recruit you?”
“The word on the street went out a while back – they pay pretty good. But it’s looking like a turf war shaping up now between them and the Circle and like I said, the cops and supers are all over everything ever since the Boardwalk. Good time to be getting out of town.”
“Did your people have anything to do with that?” Loren asked.
“Hell no! Well, leastways not that I heard,” the man said. “They all seemed just as surprised as everyone else, nervous too, since it’s got the cops and supers all riled up. I tell you, first the factory getting blown and then the Boardwalk - Erica lately’s been ape; she just about guns down anything that moves… ” He looked around nervously. “Speaking of, how ‘bout you let me go now? I told you everything I know and I gotta get moving.”
Midnight nodded and the man quickly finished his cigarette, stamping it out on a nearby picnic table. “Pleasure doing business with you,” he said with a nod to both of them, before he took off down the street.
“Interesting,” said Midnight after a moment.
“I’d say!” said Loren. “So it sounds like there’s a new group in town.”
Loren’s shoulders sagged a little; he had just been dismissed. “Right, well, let me know if anything else comes up – and I’ll get that listing information to you tonight!”
“Excellent,” she said, but her mind was clearly elsewhere as she carefully picked up the cigarette butt the man had left behind and walked towards the nearby trash can, which was overflowing. “This city is going to hell,” he heard her mutter to herself as he started off to find his car.
Chapter 14
10:14 p.m., Thursday, April 11th, 2013
Orlando Boulevard
West Pacific, CA
This is going to be a disaster, thought Blue Star as he stood in one of the WPS mobile command centers, listening to Dr. Sterling outline the plan for a third time. The five of them, Blue Star, Seawolf, Camille, Cosmic Kid, and White Knight, had been expecting a fire rescue training exercise, not a real mission. Dr. Sterling revealed the truth only after they’d boarded Basilica, which was an impressive vehicle the size of a large bus and fully equipped with communication and computer hardware and all manner of supplies.
It was all simple enough. The team had an impressive intelligence network across the city that utilized a number of sources, some of which were probably illegal, like wiretaps and vigilantes. Cosmic Kid had gotten hung up on this point, but Dr. Sterling preferred to focus on the fact that the network had produced a valuable lead. Mr. Darwin and several leaders of the Infinite Circle’s operations in West Pacific were having a late-night conference at the Grand Colonial Hotel. Dr. Sterling had decided that the possibility of a mole on the team meant she had to plan the whole mission in secret and keep the plan to herself until right before she was ready for the team to deploy. Even the staff driving Basilica and operating its systems thought they were on a training mission. There were even firefighters setting up the practice site. It was a very complete deception, which meant to Blue Star that Dr. Sterling was very concerned about a mole on the team.
The plan was to storm into the Grand Colonial Hotel and apprehend as many of the Infinite Circle operatives as possible. The WPPD would be mobilized as the team deployed, which meant there would be a longer delay in their response than ideal, but it would further ensure the secrecy of the mission until the last second. The small fish apprehended would be turned over to the WPPD and the big fish would be taken to HQ as the team could hold and question any individual for 24 hours if they were thought to be connected to an impending super crime. It sounded great as Dr. Sterling went over it all, but Blue Star quickly realized that she really had no idea who or what was at the meeting. That meant they could be in for a cake walk or a blood bath depending upon how armed or mutated those handling security were. More importantly, Blue Star was worried about how his new team would function together in the field after only a week together.
“Shouldn’t we have a warrant?” protested Cosmic Kid, who seemed as bothered by the spontaneity of the plan as Blue Star was.
“We have reasonable suspicion,” said Dr. Sterling.
“Reasonable suspicion of a pending super crime is the team’s authority,” said Cosmic Kid. “I know these are bad guys, but it doesn’t sound like they’re planning on blowing up the city. If it isn’t a super crime situation, you need a warrant.”
“We believe there is a connection between the PGZ and the Infinite Circle,” said Dr. Sterling. “However, tomorrow morning I’ll ask Matteo to prepare a brief to review the mission and whether it was in compliance with the SUPER Act.”
Seawolf laughed gruffly. “Cosmic Kid does have a point,” she said. “If this isn’t a legal search and seizure, then none of the evidence we get will be admissible in a court of law, no matter what Matteo’s brief says.”
Cosmic Kid nodded. “Plus, you said earlier this week that you thought the PGZ and the Boardwalk attack weren’t related.”
“I have reasonable suspicion that I may have been mistaken,” said Dr. Sterling.
“The mission has been decided,” said White Knight with a slight edge to his digital voice. “This isn’t about securing permissible evidence but determining who was responsible for the attack on the team.”
“Exactly,” said Camille. “Come on, Cosmic, Seawolf - we’re here to shakedown these guys! Once we’ve got some answers we can properly secure evidence and lock them all up for good, but we have to respond to the Boardwalk attack.”
“Ah, yes,” smirked Seawolf. “The shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later strategy. Typical. I thought we were trying for justice, not revenge.”
“Sometimes justice is a proportional response - an eye for an eye,” said White Knight. “They killed two supers from our team; we have to respond and respond we will.”
“Actually, the eye for an eye thing in the Bible was a call for mercy,” commented Cosmic Kid. “You know - if someone killed your goat, you didn’t go and kill their wife; the punishment had to fit the crime. It was fairly progressive at the time. I mean, in the Hammurabi Code the sentence was death if you like accidentally flooded your neighbor’s fields.”
There was a pause in the conversation. Dr. Sterling gave a meaningful look at Blue Star and he knew what it meant – he had to rein in his team. Normally, he would let supers argue points out on the assumption that they would eventually drop the bickering, but this group was still getting used to each other. Allowing the argument to continue only undermined team unity and wasted valuable time. He needed to establish himself as a team leader in control of the situation.
“Cosmic Kid, you can sit out the mission if you want,” said Blue Star. They really didn’t need all five of them to storm the place, it was a little overkill, and this gave Cosmic Kid an out for his conscience, if he really was arguing based on his conscience and not just a desire to showboat his knowledge of proper procedures. Everyone turned towards Cosmic Kid, who looked taken aback.
“What? No… I’m in,” he said, clearly flustered but trying to maintain the position of moral authority. “But we have to minimize collateral damage and the goal has to be taking everyone alive. Like Seawolf said, we aren’t here for vengeance.”
“Obviously,” said Dr. Sterling. “Dead men tell boring tales and smell badly.”
“Though we will respond with deadly force if they do the same,” said White Knight.
“Commensurate to the situation,” corrected Blue Star. “We have enough firepower between the five of us to wipe out a company of marines so let’s keep this a light touch exercise unless something truly dangerous pops up.”
Dr. Sterling returned to the mission briefing, which included a detailed review of the map of the hotel and another overview of the key members of the Infinite Circle in West Pacific. Blue Star knew all about the Infinite Circle. It was THE criminal organization of the Pacific Rim and had its hand in everything from the drug trade to identity theft. The media and most law enforcement saw it as some monolithic organization controlled by mysterious supervillains based out of Southeast Asia. The truth was that the Infinite Circle was the Cosmic Burger of the criminal world. It was a franchise system. You made payments to the Infinite Circle and in return you got to use the name and its distribution network for drugs, guns, and other illegal goods, and even got access to webinars and DVDs that explained how to run scams, launder money, and set up illegal criminal networks. The head of the local Infinite Circle franchise for the last couple of years was a mysterious Mr. Darwin, who, judging by the name, was probably someone connected to the city’s booming biotech industry. Mr. Darwin was the local conduit to the resources of the Infinite Circle and he used those resources to bring the various West Pacific criminal elements under his authority, though controlling local criminals was like herding cats. Still after his private briefing from Dr. Sterling a few days ago, Blue Star was more than a little concerned.
Last Season, Mr. Darwin had played the
team and the WPPD, using them to wipe out his opposition. He clearly knew how they gathered intelligence and conducted their operations. That probably meant someone with law enforcement experience, maybe a former super. Further, no one had ever met Mr. Darwin; he interacted through teleconferences, phone calls, or emails – but all of them untraceable or more accurately, not traceable back to him. This led Blue Star again to suspect a former super or maybe someone bored with lots of money; the occasional celebrity or businessman often dabbled in crime – everyone wanted to be a supervillain nowadays. So Mr. Darwin was someone intelligent, who had experience with law enforcement and probably money or connections. Blue Star suspected he might be connected to the team or the WPPD or maybe both – someone like Major Dagan or maybe a former team member like Circe. Of course, it was just as likely that he was one of the countless supervillains who the team had sent to prison over the years. Whoever it was had a real grudge against the team and that was dangerous. If they were lucky, tonight they just might find out who Mr. Darwin was.
“So Blue Star, who will be partners?” asked Dr. Sterling as she wrapped up her briefing.
“Oh – okay, well, Cosmic Kid and Camille will be one pair, Seawolf and White Knight the other, and I’ll support them as needed,” said Blue Star. He had expected Dr. Sterling to make this decision; he was still trying to figure out what was the precise chain of command within the team. He had picked up enough of the dynamic to know that Camille and Seawolf shouldn’t be put together. Obviously, that was untenable in the long term, but this was not the time to tackle that particular issue.
“Very well,” said Dr. Sterling, who began to point at locations on the holographic map being projected before them. “Seawolf and White Knight will advance on the loading entrance off the service alley behind the hotel. Enter the building here and take this stairwell up to the third floor. You will advance on the conference room down this hall and when you turn this corner, you will move to engage all hostiles.”
West Pacific Supers: Rising Tide Page 17