West Pacific Supers: Rising Tide

by Johnson-Weider, K. M.

  “Surveillance now, pancakes later,” said Samurai, swinging the van into a parking spot in a dark part of the harbor district.

  “Boy, somebody woke up on the wrong side of the dojo this morning,” Goalie grumbled, making a face in Samurai’s direction. “Yeah, yeah, let’s go do surveillance.” They piled out of the van again.

  The South Harbor really had seen better times. A couple warehouses facing Industrial Island had been transformed into an artsy area with some upscale restaurants and a bunch of studios, and there was a yacht club guarded by well-armed private security, but most of the district was rundown buildings and empty docks littered with rusty shipping containers. Loren’s mom had dragged him down here once for the fish market, and he came down for the ferry over to Industrial Island for vigilante meetings, but like most sane people he generally tried to avoid the area, especially at night.

  It was night now, and the place felt ominous. Loren shivered in the cool mist that was blowing off the water. The Trio was moving quietly, even Goalie seemed suddenly somber. Samurai gestured towards a high chain-link fence and Cupid nodded. He tiptoed over to Loren and whispered “Do you have your tools?” Loren patted his satchel and nodded. “Good. There’s a gate, but it’s locked. If we can get in here, we won’t draw as much attention.”

  Loren followed Cupid, who resembled a little lost child in white pajamas and an adult’s black leather jacket. It was a strange image, especially in the eerie haze. The gate in question had an ancient chain and padlock holding it closed; this was the sort of lock picking that he’d cut his teeth on and should have been a matter of seconds to open, if it weren’t for the rust encrusted on the tumblers. Loren dug out his pocket-sized spray can of WD-40, which made quick work of the corrosion. The padlock snapped open with a satisfying click and Loren unwound the chain and pushed open the gate. “Good work,” whispered Goalie as she glided soundlessly past.

  They were entering one of the commercial dock zones from the back, hugging close to the side of an old warehouse. From the outside, this area had looked abandoned, so Loren was surprised to see a hubbub of activity around the dock. A commercial trawler seemed to be loading up; there were a bunch of people milling about the area and on board, but it was hard to see any specifics from this distance.

  “Bingo!” breathed Cupid, close at his side.

  “Good work José,” muttered Samurai.

  Goalie swooped back towards the three of them. “It looks like the Lucky Fisher is the name of the boat, but I’ll need to get closer. Truthfinder, give me the tracker.”

  Loren carefully took out the Daedalus Consulting CT-32 magnetic radio tracker with the extreme weather upgrade.

  Samurai frowned. “This is a dangerous situation. If they see you, there’s no way out. We can’t fight them all.”

  Goalie chuckled. “Then I don’t get seen, right? Relax, this is a no-brainer. You guys chill, I’ll be right back.” She observed the area for a moment more, then glided forward in the shadow of the warehouse.

  As they stood watching her go, Loren felt his own tension magnified a dozen times over in Samurai, who was standing next to him. Cupid reached around and patted Samurai’s arm. “She’ll be fine,” he said reassuringly. Samurai didn’t say anything. Loren quickly turned back to watching Goalie, who had now reached the end of the warehouse.

  She waited there for a few minutes, then made an insane dash across an open area towards a shipping container. The three of them collectively gasped and didn’t let out their breaths until she made it safely to the container. “She’s going to get herself killed!” said Samurai, turning around. “I can’t watch. I’m going to get the van ready to go in case we need to make a quick get-away.” To Loren’s shock, he started walking back towards the gate.

  Cupid didn’t seem fazed. “He plays the tough guy,” he told Loren in an undertone, “but he’s really a big softy. The two of them are crazy about each other.”

  Loren nodded noncommittally, watching Goalie sidle along the shipping container to get closer to the boat.

  “I actually set them up,” Cupid continued, “but they’ve been together and broken up like a dozen times over the last couple of years.”

  “How did you all meet?” Loren asked. He had always been curious on that point.

  “It’s really quite a good story,” Cupid said with a grin. “Samurai was being mugged and Goalie and I rescued him. We just happened to be walking by and it seemed like the right thing to do. We were all living in Shakespeare Court at the time - that sort of thing happens a lot there.”

  Loren nodded; Shakespeare Court was a really crappy section of town. Goalie was now crouched behind a dumpster; she was not more than 30 feet away from the boat and a group of men, who hadn’t seen her – at least not yet. She really was cutting it close he thought.

  “So, one thing led to another - you know how it goes,” said Cupid, who was still reminiscing. “We talked all night long and the next night we got together and walked the streets as a group - like a neighborhood watch.”

  “So that was the beginning of the Trio?” asked Loren, wishing Goalie would hurry up and come back already. She was at the boat now; he could see her activating the tracker.

  “Not quite,” Cupid laughed. “That first night we got beat up by a gang so we gave up on it for a while. But then Samurai and Goalie started dating and eventually I convinced them to try it again, this time with each of us dressing up and using our hobbies to fight crime, like real vigilantes. The first time we stopped a real crime was a liquor store robbery. The guy had a gun but we brought him down. That was the beginning. And the rest, as they say - oh gods!”

  Loren couldn’t even speak. One of the men had spotted Goalie and was yelling something. She turned and took off like a bat out of hell in their direction - which was when several of the guys opened fire.

  “Holy Aphrodite, run!” yelled Cupid.

  Loren didn’t have to be told twice. He started running flat out, then realized that he was leaving Cupid in the dust due to his short legs. He slowed down but Cupid yelled at him again, “Run, run, just get to the van!” and he kept on going.

  Samurai had the van already started and the side door open; he was drumming his hands on the steering wheel and cursing when Loren jumped inside. “Thank the gods, here they come,” said Samurai, and Loren turned to see that Goalie had picked up Cupid and was carrying him towards the van, while men ran in the distance behind her. She was far faster on her inline skates than they were on foot, even though she was weighted down with Cupid. Loren waited impatiently, his heart racing, then ducked back as Goalie threw Cupid into the van and launched herself in. Loren managed to slide the door shut as gun shots rang out and Samurai pulled away with a squeal of tires.

  “That was too close!” he yelled from the driver’s seat. “We are not doing this ever again!”

  Goalie pulled off her mask, her face sweaty again but her expression triumphant. “We got them,” she said with a grin. “We finally did something big. Midnight is going to be proud.”

  Chapter 22

  6:09 p.m., Tuesday, May 28th, 2013

  Operations, WPS HQ

  West Pacific, CA

  “Why wasn’t I informed of these vigilante operations?” asked Blue Star though he knew the answer to his question: the good doctors hadn’t trusted him.

  “Deniability,” said Dr. Sterling. “You could always fire me and honestly claim you knew nothing about the investigation.”

  “I’m sure this was all for my benefit,” said Blue Star sarcastically.

  “This isn’t the time for a quarrel,” said Dr. Hodges, looking between them with a worried expression. “We have a real situation that must be dealt with.”

  “I agree, but can we trust these vigilantes?” Blue Star didn’t have a problem with vigilantes per se, but considering how just last year the team had been manipulated by Mr. Darwin through vigilante intelligence it was wise to be cautious if not paranoid.

  “The v
igilantes have only added to the large pile of evidence we’ve gathered from many sources about Avalon One, the PGZ, and those involved, such as Ian Roache,” said Dr. Sterling.

  “Fine, but you should have informed me about how much you were working with the vigilantes,” said Blue Star. It wasn’t that unusual for a team to use vigilantes for grunt work, but it appeared that Dr. Sterling’s impressive intelligence network was founded on vigilantes engaging in illegal activities. He wasn’t bothered by the illegality per se but the team’s connection to vigilantes was a dangerous Achilles heel.

  “We’re informing you now,” said Dr. Sterling.

  “I’m team leader and you need to treat me as such!” Blue Star said angrily. “I have to be kept informed of things like this!”

  “As I said, I’m informing you now,” repeated Dr. Sterling, who, as usual, looked completely unperturbed by the conversation.

  “Annie, Blue Star is right - you should have informed us about these unofficial investigations,” said Dr. Hodges. “However, be that as it may, we need to focus on the here and now, so please explain the situation.” Apparently Dr. Hodges was as out of the loop as he was; that was deeply troubling. Dr. Sterling really was a one-woman show when it came to running the team.

  Dr. Sterling smiled. “Very well, at the beginning of the year, WPL was robbed in a well-planned and executed operation that stole the formula of PGZ and the company’s first run of the prototype explosive.”

  “We have good security at WPL, but the group exploited our weaknesses,” added Dr. Hodges. “We suspected an inside job, but couldn’t get a lead, except that whoever stole the PGZ sold the formula to China, which we were informed of by the CIA as part of their investigation.”

  “Our first real lead was an anonymous tip, later discovered to have come from Brian Vargas, that a group was creating PGZ explosives at an abandoned factory on Industrial Island,” said Dr. Sterling. “That led to Mr. Awesome’s investigation and discovery of the PGZ and Erica Wilkie. They set fire to the building, but we secured enough evidence to learn they were building charges perhaps intended for underwater demolitions. We also were able to trace a lot of the equipment to various dummy corporations that had purchased them.”

  “How did we ID Brian Vargas as the informant?” asked Blue Star.

  “A rather tedious investigative process using stoplight cameras, Internet research, a missing person report by his girlfriend, and a hunch putting two and two together,” said Dr. Sterling.

  “And where is he now?”

  “In police custody in Salt Lake City.”

  “What have we got from Vargas?” asked Blue Star.

  “He confirmed that Dr. Wraith and Dr. B were in charge of the PGZ operation and that besides the factory they had another base called Avalon One,” said Dr. Sterling. “He also confirmed that the charges were being built for deep sea demolitions work on a large scale.”

  “Very good investigating, Annie,” said Dr. Hodges.

  Blue Star frowned; the last thing that Dr. Sterling needed was encouragement. “Yes, great, but how does that implicate Ian Roache?” he asked. “I did a publicity event with him for the Samurais a few weeks ago. He didn’t seem the maniacal supervillain type.”

  “Ian is on the board of WPL,” said Dr. Hodges. “I had my people take a closer look at all the members of the board. They discovered that last year Ian arranged for some people of his choice to be hired in our security and chemical engineering divisions. They all quit in the last few months and we are tracking them down, but we suspect they gave him the information he needed to pull off the PGZ heist. He’s also on the board of Dynamic Solutions, in fact, he’s the chairman of that board so he probably did the same there in connection with the QHRA heist.”

  “Do we have any positive connection between those involved with the PGZ and the QHRA heists?” asked Blue Star.

  “Yes, Nebula identified Erica Wilkie as one of those involved in the QHRA heist,” said Dr. Sterling. “With both groups involving a ‘Dr. Wraith’ I suspected there might be a connection and contacted the Ultimate League. We coordinated our investigations and are confident we are dealing with one group that was behind both heists.”

  “This sounds like a lot of supposition, especially the part about Ian Roache being involved,” said Blue Star.

  “There’s also the fact that we have confirmed with satellite imagery that Avalon One, which we have finally located, is in fact a deep sea exploratory rig sold at auction by Dynamic Solutions two years ago,” said Dr. Sterling. “It was a private auction and the rig was bought by one of the dummy corporations involved in PGZ production.”

  “Okay,” said Blue Star, who had to admit that Dr. Sterling seemed to be on to something. “What do we know about Roache?”

  “Well, I’ve know him for years; we used to play golf regularly a few years back,” said Dr. Hodges. “Ian does have a shady background. He was involved in the black market of Vanghel artifacts where he made his fortune from unauthorized salvage operations. He’s always skirted the law in his business dealings and then about five years ago his wife and 13-year-old son died in a car accident.”

  “So you think he had them killed?” asked Blue Star.

  “No, I think that might have made him snap,” said Dr. Hodges. “He was quite fond of his wife and especially his son; losses like that can break a mind.”

  “True, but snapped to do what?” asked Blue Star. “I mean we have PGZ explosives for underwater demolitions, the QHRA, and an off-kilter businessman. What do they all add up to?”

  “I’m not 100-percent sure,” said Dr. Sterling. “However, Avalon One is located over a fault line under the Pacific Ocean. With the explosions and the QHRA he may be attempting to catalyst tectonic activity of some sort.”

  “Why?”

  “It could be something as mundane as collecting insurance money or a real estate scam,” said Dr. Sterling. “Ian owns a controlling share in a real estate conglomerate that’s been selling off beachfront property at fire sale prices and using the proceeds to purchase undeveloped property farther inland. Personally, the amount of effort, money, and risk involved in this operation makes me suspect there are other motivations. Regardless, the QHRA is a weapon of tremendous power.”

  “I remember the Vanghel orbital strikes during the Invasion so I have a good idea what we’re facing,” said Blue Star grimly. “But who’s this Dr. B? Their Dr. Wraith was an imposter, but this Dr. B is probably the brains behind this entire operation. If we figure out who he is, we’ll have an idea what they’re up to.”

  “He’s probably on Avalon One, but we have more than reasonable suspicion to take action against them now,” said Dr. Sterling. “So first you and Cosmic Kid go take Roache into custody - he’s here in West Pacific at his house. Once you bring him back to HQ, we’ll begin interrogating him while you lead the entire team out to Avalon One, which is about 400 miles from West Pacific. The Coast Guard, WPPD, and anyone else we can mobilize will move to support. If we’re lucky, we can stop them before they do whatever it is they’re planning.”

  “Are you sure he’s at his house?” Blue Star asked. “Once we move on him, he’ll try to flee.”

  “He’s hosting a campaign fundraiser for Governor Fields tonight so he should be at home handling last-minute preparations,” said Dr. Sterling.

  “Governor Fields?” Blue Star was getting alarmed. “Is there a connection between the Governor and whatever it is that Roache is doing?”

  “Maybe, but we don’t have any evidence of such a connection so our focus is on Roache, not the Governor,” said Dr. Sterling. “I’m hopeful though that once we have Roache in custody we’ll get a more complete picture of the situation.”

  “And what kind of security are we expecting at the house?”

  “They have an army of hired muscle,” said Dr. Sterling, “but we suspect that they’ve been shipping most of it out to Avalon One. Roache himself doesn’t have any superpowers, but he probably empl
oys a few mutant bodyguards, so you and Cosmic Kid need to be prepared for opposition at the house. The rest of the team will be here preparing for the offshore operation, but they can deploy to support you if you need them.”

  Blue Star nodded. They were going after a well-connected and very wealthy individual, with influence even with the Governor. This could end up going very poorly if Dr. Sterling’s hunches were wrong or her vigilantes were playing them. Regardless, there was nothing to do but go along with the plan.

  “So this Ian guy doesn’t have any super powers, right?” asked Cosmic Kid as he drove the team car towards Ian Roache’s house. Blue Star, like most fliers, was a poor driver and hated cars, but they needed one in case Ian decided to come in peacefully.

  “Unless he’s taking metagenic vitamins in the mornings or has a power armor suit, he’s as mundane as they come,” said Blue Star. “The problem is that he probably has security and they might be quite dangerous.”

  “You think he might come in willingly?”

  “Maybe, it’s possible – it would be the smart thing to do, but I think he’s going to try to run,” said Blue Star.

  “Do we have a plan?”

  “Nope, we make it up as we go like in any good crisis.”

  “You know how they write ‘crisis’ in Chinese?” asked Cosmic Kid. “It’s a combination of the characters for ‘opportunity’ and ‘you’re fucked’.”

  “Good one, Kid,” said Blue Star smiling. He had to admit that Cosmic Kid was growing on him. The kid was arrogant, cocky, and too smart for his own good, but he was good-natured and had the skills to be a great super. He was also dating Emily so Blue Star figured he might as well start accepting Cosmic Kid now. Truth be told, he knew Cosmic Kid was far more together than Blue Star was back at 40, let alone 19. Though there were some things about Cosmic Kid that still drove him insane.

  “I should have driven,” said Blue Star. “Kid, the speed limit is 45 which means you can go like 60.”