Before she attempted that, she used the radio in the bunker to contact Tonya. The girl sounded out of breath as she said, “You got some good news, boss?”
“I have a cure, but we’re going to need to mass-produce it. I thought you could give me a hand.”
“I’m a little busy right now.” To emphasize this, Melanie heard an explosion in the background.
“No one else on the team can do this,” Melanie said. “Meet me on top of Redoubt City General in twenty minutes. Got it?”
“Yes, sir,” Tonya growled. The connection went dead. Melanie sighed. She didn’t like having to snap orders like a dictator, but sometimes there was no choice. There was the greater good to think about; that had been the theme of this mad enterprise all along.
She grabbed the tranquilizer gun to begin the next phase of this insane operation.
***
It had taken the promise of a lot of shiny things to persuade Garlak to take her medicine. “Remember,” Melanie said as the jetcopter began to lower towards Bancroft Park in the heart of the city, “don’t kill anyone. These people aren’t in their right minds right now. Knock them out if you can.”
“Me try.”
“Atta girl.”
Melanie opened the back of the jetcopter so Garlak could leap out of it. She landed in the middle of a crowd of women dressed in baggy baseball uniforms. Some of them were clubbing each other with baseball bats. As Melanie pulled away, Garlak took one of the bats to take some batting practice of her own.
Melanie hoped the cavewoman wouldn’t do too much serious injury with the bat, a weapon that would probably feel familiar, like the clubs of her ancestors. Maybe it was irresponsible to leave Garlak on her own, but right now Melanie didn’t have much choice. Like in Atomic City, the problem here was much too large for five people to handle, but in this case they couldn’t simply capture the ringleader to put a stop to it.
Tonya waited for her on the roof of the hospital. She had her helmet off so she could smoke a cigarette; Melanie wasn’t sure where she’d found one of those. “Is that wise?” Melanie asked.
“There’s none of that stuff up here,” Tonya said. “And my nerves are shot.”
“I’m sorry about this. If there were another way, I’d do it.”
“Look, boss, it’s no problem. I get it. So I suppose we ought to get down there and get to business.”
“Right.” Melanie used her lock pick to open the roof door so they could get inside the library. As she walked the silent hallways she thought of 28 Days Later, when the guy woke up in a hospital that was completely empty after a zombie outbreak. There were no zombies this time, just a lot of crazy people thanks to Clownface.
On the ninth floor, they found a lab that looked suitable for their purposes. Melanie took out the recipe she’d printed out from the bunker’s computer. Tonya studied the list. “They should have all this stuff around. Let’s hope in enough quantity.”
“Let’s hope.”
It took them a half hour to sweep the hospital to find what they needed. They still didn’t encounter anyone except patients who were comatose from before the disaster. The hospital’s backup generators were keeping those patients alive for now, but eventually something would have to be done with them.
Melanie returned to find Tonya without her armor, dressed in a set of purple scrubs. “I thought this would be more appropriate,” she said.
“It probably is. I should find a set for myself.”
“I put some over there.”
“Oh, thanks.” Melanie went into an adjoining room to slip into the turquoise scrubs. She was glad Mom wasn’t here or else she would probably nag Melanie again about becoming a medical doctor instead of an engineer. Of course now that she was so young, maybe Mom could pursue that dream herself instead of trying to live vicariously through her daughter.
That thought gave her a cold shudder. What would happen if after this they couldn’t find a way to reverse things? Allison had been trying to find a way to reverse the alien beam’s effects for four years now; by all accounts she hadn’t gotten very close. Nor had her old team at Grant Laboratories. That meant the people of the world would likely be stuck as they were.
Tonya must have seen the troubled expression on her face. “Something wrong, boss?”
“It’s nothing. Just hoping we can get this to work.”
“Uh-huh.” They set to work on mixing the chemicals, a very delicate process. As they did, Tonya asked, “You mind if I ask you something personal?”
“Go ahead,” Melanie said, despite that she wasn’t in the mood for talking about her complicated personal life.
“Do you like being this way? I mean, if you could, would you go back to being a man?”
“Most of the time I like it. Except for those five-to-seven days each month. Then I wish I were still a boy.”
“Well, there’s something to look forward to.”
“It’s not a lot of fun: PMS, cramps, having a tampon shoved up in there.”
“But the rest of the time you like it?”
“I do.” Melanie studied the contents of a beaker while she thought about the question. “Mostly it’s because Robin and I had each other. That made it a lot easier.”
“I’m probably in trouble then.”
“I’m sure you’ll be able to find someone.”
“You think so?” Tonya set down a beaker to run a hand along her body. “I’m not exactly supermodel material. It’s probably a good thing I wear the suit most of the time.”
“You’ve got a great look there. I’m sure some girl will snap you up.”
“Yeah, maybe.”
Melanie patted the girl on the shoulder. “If we get civilization rebuilt, I’ll take you out to a few clubs. Then you’ll see it’s not so bad.”
“Sure. It’s a date.” Tonya thought about something for a moment. “You think we should take Diane too?”
“We’ll all go out. The whole team.”
“Even Garlak?”
“Even her.”
They giggled at this and then got back to work.
***
It took about five minutes for Diane to wish she hadn’t volunteered for this. She had been in a soccer riot or two back in England, but this was worse than any of those. She actually saw one girl bite off another’s ear and then swallow it.
For the moment she and Paul had barricaded themselves in a bakery. They had shoved the glass counter to block the front door and some bread racks to cover most of the front window. Diane crouched at the bottom of the window to pick off targets. Remembering what Melanie preached, Diane did her best to hit nonvital parts: knees and shoulders mostly. All this did was make the wounded easy targets for the other crazies.
Paul didn’t even have a gun, so he stuck a pole through a hole to swat ineffectually at the rioters. “This isn’t working,” Diane said.
“We just have to contain the damage until Melanie shows up with the cure.”
“Right.” Diane lined up a woman in a man’s business suit like she had worn as an assassin. She smiled a little as she pulled the trigger. The bullet went through the woman’s left calf to send her spinning to the ground. “They’re like fish in a barrel.”
“That should be right up your alley then.”
“Not really. I’m not getting paid for this.”
“Was it only about the money?”
“Of course not. There was pride too.”
“Pride in murdering people?”
“You sound like Melanie. I suppose that’s why you’re friends.”
“Most people aren’t very supportive of murder.”
“Unless you call it a war. Then all’s fair, yeah?”
“No. I don’t support killing of any kind.”
“Even for food?”
“I’m a vegetarian. Most Pacificans are, though not really by choice.”
“Well you’re all set then.” Diane stopped to empty the clip of her gun and then slap another in. S
o far the rioters seemed too entangled with each other to have figured out where the shots were coming from. This “clown juice” must have dulled their brains.
“Melanie’s not going to let you go back to that line of work once we’re done.”
“Then what am I supposed to do: sit home and play housewife?”
“There has to be something else you can do.”
“Sorry, mate, killing people’s the only thing I’ve ever done well.”
“The old you maybe, but you’ve got a new body now. Maybe you have some new talents.”
“I suppose I could always sell myself for money. Is that what you want?”
“No. I’m just saying, you should start thinking about your future.”
“I have. Soon as we’re done with all this nonsense, I’ll disappear and set up shop again.” Diane flashed Paul a tired smile. “The good thing about my business is it’s always in demand. Probably more so if most of the world’s turned into a bunch of yellow bellies. They’ll pay good money for a girl who can actually pull a trigger.”
“I don’t believe that. I think you’re looking for a way out. You just need to find it.”
“It probably won’t matter as there’s no way we’ll ever piece this world back together.”
“If you think that, why are you still here?”
“Other than the bomb in my neck?”
“I think you like helping people. And if you’re right about the world needing someone who isn’t scared to pull a trigger, then you could always keep working on the right side of the law. You could go to work for the FBI or Interpol or something like that.”
“Maybe I’ll turn into Miss 007, yeah? I’m not that fond of martinis.”
“Think about it.”
There was a crash behind them. Diane spun around to see a mime accompanied by a little redheaded girl with her face painted like a tiger. The mime wasn’t much of a mime as she said, “Well looky here. My dear old friend Hitter. Aren’t you so cute?”
“Clownface.” Diane raised her pistol. “I should have recognized you from the makeup.”
“It is a bit more subtle than I’m used to, but I’m starting to enjoy it.” Clownface pantomimed being trapped in a box. Diane nearly pulled the trigger, but she didn’t want to shoot the bitch in front of the little girl if she didn’t have to.
“It’s all over, Clownface,” Paul said. “Outcast is making up a cure for your little drug. You might as well surrender now.”
“Perhaps. Let me take a moment to consult with my attorney.” Clownface bent down to whisper into the little girl’s ear, “What do you think, sweetheart? Should we surrender?”
The little girl answered by taking something from the folds of her dress. With precision that made Diane proud, the girl shot her and Paul in the arm with a dart before they could flinch. “Shit,” Diane mumbled before she collapsed.
Chapter 22
They knew better than to head back to the bunker. Focal City was out too, as Robin knew where they had lived and worked. Instead, the Velocity Gals ended up at Atomic City College, where there was a lab dedicated to molecular physics.
Allison wrote equations on a chalkboard for her and Sally to study. “You’re sure about this?” Sally asked.
“I think so. The ion discharge of the weapon combined with our superspeed to create a temporal wormhole that sent us twenty years in the future.”
“So what’s the solution? Run backwards?”
“No. We need to modify this gun to emit negatively-charged ions. That should create a wormhole that will send us backwards in time.”
“Uh-huh. But where are we going to end up?”
“I don’t know. We have to be going the same speed as we were the first time if we want the effect to be the same.”
“And how are we supposed to know that?”
“Well, we need to figure out where Neanderthal and Ion Man were on the platform. That will tell us how fast we were going.”
“It’s still not going to be exact.”
“No, I don’t think so.”
“If we really want to get this right—or as close as possible—I guess I need to go back to the platform to do some measurements.”
“Sally—”
“You need to stay here and work on this gun. You’re better at the science than I am.”
“You weren’t a slacker either.”
“Ally, please, you’re the genius here.”
“I’m not a genius,” Allison said. Her face turned red to accompany this. “My IQ is about ten points short of genius level.”
“That’s ten points closer than mine.”
“Sally, please. We can go together. Or I could go by myself. I’m littler; they might not notice me.”
“You really believe that?”
Allison’s face reddened again. “Not really.”
Sally put a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “I think it’s cute you’re still trying to protect me, but I’m a grown woman. I can do this.”
“If you’re sure.”
“I am.”
Allison lunged forward to hug her. “Just be careful.”
“I will.” Sally kissed Allison on a freckled cheek. Despite that she was sixteen on the outside and much older inside, Allison looked almost like Jenny as she cried. It broke Sally’s heart to have to leave her behind, but this was for the best. “I’ll see you in a couple hours.”
“OK,” Allison said with a sniffle.
Sally nodded and then started to run. Even after three years, she was still amazed by how quickly she could run. In a couple seconds she was back in the Midwest; she hoped it wasn’t too close to where she had been the last time.
Like in a Road Runner cartoon, she found herself running through the desert when she slammed into a brick wall. Unlike a cartoon, Sally’s body didn’t fold up like an accordion or splatter like a bug hitting a windshield. Instead, she tumbled forward, rolling down an abandoned highway for a couple hundred feet.
As she lay on the ground, she heard Midnight Spectre say, “I always wondered if that would work.”
Sally tried to stand, but she was too battered. She managed to push herself up so she could see the old woman. “How?”
“You could think of it as a force field. I set it up to blanket a whole line of longitude. Wherever you went, I was going to get you.”
Sally swiped at the old woman’s boot only for her hand to go right through it. A hologram. Midnight Spectre smiled down at her. “Not even I can be everywhere at once. But don’t worry, some friends of mine will pick you up soon enough. Then you’re going to tell us where your husband is.”
“Go to Hell,” Sally said before she passed out.
***
Killer Whale huddled in her bed and sighed. Her only hope of escape was a fat little girl, her spoiled niece. This was what it had come down to for her. She wished her sister would hurry up and kill her already.
The slit on her door went up. A pair of green eyes peered through the hole. “Aunt Whale? Are you here?” Ariel whispered.
Killer Whale slipped out of her bed. She swam over to the door. “Have you come to free me, child?”
“Are you going to hurt Mama?”
“No, of course not. Who told you that?”
“Ursula says you hate Mama. She says you want to send her away like Daddy.”
“That’s nonsense. I would never hurt my sister. I love her very much.” Killer Whale couldn’t deliver this with much conviction, but she hoped the girl wouldn’t notice.
“You promise?”
“Yes, I promise. Do you have the keys?”
Ariel held up a ring of keys. Killer Whale resisted the urge to try to snatch them away; she couldn’t get her hand through to take them. “Put the key in the lock.”
The toddler sucked her thumb for a moment before she nodded. She stuck a key in the lock. The problem soon became apparent: the child was too weak to turn the key in the ancient lock. Killer Whale pounded her hand against the d
oor in frustration. This caused pain to shoot through her hand and the little girl to squeal with fright.
“I should have known better than to rely on a baby,” Killer Whale roared.
“I’m not a baby!”
“No, you’re worse than a baby. You’re a spoiled rotten wad of flotsam!”
It didn’t come as a surprise when the little girl began to cry. “I’m telling Mama!”
It was then Killer Whale heard something rip through the water at high speed. She had just enough time to press herself against the front door before the rear wall of her cell broke open. Debris went flying in all directions, some of it pelting against Killer Whale, but none big enough to hurt her.
Though she wasn’t as close to the explosion, Ariel was far more rattled. She screamed and pressed herself down on the floor, where she sobbed as if mortally wounded. Killer Whale felt the cell shake again; this time the ceiling began to rattle. Ariel screamed again.
This second blast weakened the door enough that Killer Whale was able to rip it open. Her niece shrieked again as Killer Whale scooped her up. She patted the girl’s head and said, “Don’t be afraid, little one. I won’t hurt you.”
“I want Mama.”
“We’ll go find your mother. I promise.”
“Thank you,” the girl mumbled before she jammed her thumb in her mouth and then rested her head against Killer Whale’s shoulder.
Killer Whale had to admit the girl was wretchedly cute. She could see why her sister would become so attached to such a creature. It was like a wounded dolphin or seal, so helpless you felt sorry for it.
She swam out of the ruined back wall of the cell, out into the city. She climbed higher, until she could look down to see how she’d been freed. A black submarine hovered outside the city, its torpedoes wreaking havoc. Killer Whale recognized it as the submarine that had taken her and the others from the Caribbean to the Super Squad’s headquarters.
Killer Whale’s fists curled. It seemed she and her sister had a common enemy. But first, she had to dispose of her niece. She couldn’t possibly leave the girl in the city, where she could be killed by another torpedo. There was another place where the girl should be safe.
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