Comes Great Responsibility

by Chuck Kienzle

  Mandisa translated for Bora,” She encountered dimensional distortion when she kept The Destroyer from coming through to your world. She is fortunate to be alive.”

  “Are there any long term effects?” John asked.

  “Ms. Tarlock's bio-shield has stabilized at about seventy-five percent of what is normal for her. From what she reported, her clairvoyant abilities seem fully functional. We have not tested her temperature effecting abilities, but I would not be surprised if they are degraded like her bio-shield,” Doctor Franks said.

  “Kabil and Bora agree,” Mandisa said.

  “The Destroyer, are we safe from her?” I said.

  “That is outside of my expertise,” Doctor Franks said.

  “Based on what I have been told, it is likely she will try again, and we are unlikely to be able to stop her,” John said.

  After the meeting, I walked with John and Kim. She suggested that it was time that he and I met the three prisoners that attacked John. Since their interrogations were completed, I thought that this was her way to give us something else to think about, especially John. I walked slightly behind them and their body language had changed. They were more relaxed together. John no longer kept his distance from her, and although they did not hold hands, there hands almost brushed against each other as they walked. Something had changed.

  The Detention Section was on the third sub-basement. The elevator door opened to the guard station. Unlike the rest of the complex, the floor, walls and ceiling were metal. Our identities were re-verified and the inch thick titanium door to the detention cells slid open. We walked into an interrogation room and Kim activated the full wall monitor from the small control unit in front of the center chair. She sat there and John and I sat on chairs on either side of her. The screen split into three images of the prisoners' cells.

  On the left display was Philip McCree, who seemed to look straight at us as he watched a soccer game on his wall monitor. He seemed very calm for someone who some might see as a monster. The middle display showed James Johnson as he sat at a table with a embedded computer screen and was playing solitaire. The left display showed Marge Thatcher on a bed, seemingly asleep. They all wore an orange jump suit and wrist nullifiers, that would activate if the nullifiers in the rooms failed.

  “Thatcher is not sleeping, she is going over several escape plans, none which will work. I think it is something to keep her busy,” Kim said.

  “Why did they attack and who sent them?” I said.

  “Six months ago, they were each contacted by different people they did not know to come to a meeting. Each were told that if they attended, they would get the chance to get what they most wanted. They met in a run down barn in Ohio, south of Akron. When they were all there, one person appeared. Each remembers a different person. The person asked what each of them wanted. McCree wanted great strength. He wanted to be able to beat down anyone. Thatcher wanted a chance to prove she was better than more super-powered, like Apollo. Johnson wanted adventure,” Kim said.

  “And what was their plan?” I asked.

  “To turn off or kill agents that appeared. They assumed that Johnson could hide them to allow them to get away,” Kim said.

  “If I had not shown up, they might have gotten away with it,” I said.

  “Jane told me that McCree just wants the chance to hit someone. Johnson hopes he is not sentenced to the Lunar Prison. Thatcher is waiting for her chance to get free,” John said.

  “When they agreed to work with their new employer, they all fell asleep. They awoke in an underground installation, at an unknown location. They never knew the exact location. McCree was taken away and when he returned seven days later he was like he is now. He has no memory of what happened. They trained in a VR simulation that matched the town. They fought a number of super-powered until Thatcher turned off both Apollo and you,” Kim said.

  “So, that was the plan, all along,” I said.

  “They will all be sentenced to the Moon,” John said.

  That was strange, I thought, that they and I had the same destination, just not the same Moon. That was when the lights went out.

  Chapter 11: Wednesday, July 21, 2:05 PM Mountain Daylight Time

  The emergency lights came on, but not the alarms that I expected. I “looked” around and saw the entire complex dark. I “saw” that the prisoners cells were vacant. The emergency power to the cells did not come on and the doors were open. I “looked” at the control room and saw everyone inside dead, except for one person, Director Tenneth.

  “Power is off everywhere in the complex. The prisoners have escaped and everyone in the Control Room are dead, except for Tenneth,” I said.

  “Which means that it is not Tenneth,” John said.

  The lights came back on and over the loud speakers I heard,” This is Security Chief Hernandez, we have an intruder alert. The Control Room has been compromised. Lighting and hardwired communications has been restored. All internal and external surveillance systems are off line.”

  John went to the communications panel on the wall and punched in his security code.

  He said,” This is Apollo, Ms. Tarlock is with me. The three prisoners are free.”

  “Ms. Tarlock is the best person to deal with the escapees. My main problem is a possible outside attack,” Hernandez said.

  I opened the interrogation room's door and flew out of the room before John or Kim could say anything. At the guard station, both security guards were dead. I took three wrist nullifiers from a drawer under the guards desk. The elevator doors were closed. I “looked” up, expecting to see the elevator, but it was not there. I “looked” down and saw the elevator at the bottom of the shaft, one level below sub-basement five, which I had believed to be the lowest level of the complex. When the doors would not open, I pried them open and flew down the shaft. As I flew down, I “saw” that the elevator was empty. I smashed through the roof of the elevator and looked down the tunnel through the open elevator doors. At the end of the tunnel was McCree and Thatcher. I “scanned” the tunnel and did not see the shimmer of f cloak. I hoped that did not mean that my “sight” had been impacted from my injury. I concentrated and dropped the temperature within the tunnel well below zero. Thatcher, who had been typing into a computer terminal, screamed in pain and fell to the floor. McCray turned and ran toward me.

  I used my “flight” ability to keep my stationary when he ran into to me. He, almost, moved me. I slapped a nullifier on his wrist and flew over him. I put a nullifier on Thatcher's wrist and then raised the temperature.

 

  That was not John's voice. Regardless, I “looked” beyond the wall at the end of the tunnel and did “see a nuclear device. I assumed that Thatcher was keying in the detonation codes.

  “What were you thinking? You two were about to detonate an atomic bomb!” I shouted at McCree as he lay on the floor.

  “Atomic bomb? I don't know anything about an atomic bomb. We were told that was a weapons locker,” McCree said.

  “Who told you that?” I said.

  “They weird guy who set this up. We were to take as many of you heroes out as possible and then get captured. When the lights went out and the doors open, this is where we were to go,” Johnson said.

  “McCree, shut up,” Thatcher said.

  “You may be gung ho and dying for the cause, but I'm not,” McCree said.

  Even if they were misinformed about their target, they knew about the sub-basement that I could not even “see” before, and somehow, they had fooled Kim, unless they had not.

  The tunnel vibrated from an explosion some place in the building. I “scanned” the building and saw a hole blasted in the rear of the building. There had been a quick fight, with mostly Agency personal dead or wounded. A blue skinned humanoid lead a group towards, what looked like a flying saucer. Jane Kim and James Johnson were with him. I grabbed my two prisoners by an arm and flew through the tunnel to th
e elevator. I squeezed the doors together and left them behind. I flew up the elevator shaft and smashed through the roof. The saucer had just taken off and then vanished. I scanned the sky, but I could not “see” any evidence of the craft.

  “This is Security Chief Hernandez, full communications, internal and external security systems have been restored,” I heard over my comm link.

  “This is Tarlock. I have captured the three escapees. The are at the bottom of elevator shaft three. There are injured and dead at the Intake area and I saw a craft take off with about half the Visitors, Jane Kim, James Johnson and a blue alien. The craft cloaked and I can not follow. I am going to help the injured,” I said.

  Unfortunately, the medical staff's efforts were more effective than my abilities to help the injured.

  Chapter 12 Wednesday, July 21, 8:45 PM Mountain Daylight Time

  After a very careful search of the complex, with the two remaining telepaths verifying everyone was who they looked like. The blue humanoid,whom we assumed was the man who to Tenneth's form, appeared in the Isolation Area and offered the Visitors freedom. The Impostor told them to come with him or die. Most of Krelick's people left, most of Abilola's people stayed. Just before the Impostor arrived, Mandisa told them all that there was a nuclear device that the escapees were trying to detonate and that I was going to stop them. It seemed that most of the Northerners did not trust that I would stop the explosion. They followed the Impostor out of the Intake area and the boarded the craft. Mandisa said she could faintly “see” the craft after it vanished, but lost track of it.

  A body of an attendant was found in the morgue and the body of Fifer was missing. Somehow, the Impostor switched Fifer's body for his own back in Idaho. He certainly looked like a corpse. The attendant was seen afterward on security footage until he walked into a camera dead area and walked out as Tenneth. The bio-scanners identified the impostor as both of the men. The impostor released a gas that killed everyone in the Control Room, entered the Director's valid security codes, including voice codes and shut down the Headquarters' power grid.. It was assumed that Kim had read Tenneth's mind to get the codes.

  Hours later, after the base was secured, the Director called in Tiki Topia, a Maori from New Zealand who could “talk” to computers. Tenneth wanted an independent verification of the Agency's computer systems. John and I stood in the Director's office. We were both angry, but based on John's elevated blood pressure, he was barely controlling his anger.

  “An atomic bomb? You already had the Damocles Protocol. And, how the hell did you shield it from our senses?” John said.

  I half expected him to lift Tenneth out of his chair by the lapels and demand answers. He could easily have done that with his remaining standard powered strength. Tenneth was a hell of a lot calmer than he should have been.

  “The Damocles Protocol requires the authorization of the Security Council. The nuclear device is a fail safe if we needed to stop someone like either of you immediately. Apollo agreed to it,” Tenneth said.

  “I do not remember that,” John said.

  “I don't really have time for this. There are twenty-two of our Visitors' missing, like the Impostor and Ms. Kim. The blast that caused the hole in the back of the complex was noticed by the news media and it is not something that can be covered up. In a half hour, I have to attend a press briefing to explain how five of our people were killed and ten seriously injured. And, more importantly, I have to call the loved ones of our dead comrades and explain how they could have been killed in one of the most secure places on Earth,” Tenneth said.

  “How much are you going to tell them?” I asked.

  “Somehow our security was compromised and we attacked. For the moment, we are not saying anything about our Visitors or Apollo's loss of most of his powers,” the Director said.

  The Director tapped his computer screen and the display screen on the left wall lit up. It showed John in his uniform.

  “If you are seeing this, then, my future self, you want to know why I decided to allow a nuclear device fail-safe to be installed under the Agency's headquarters and have that memory wiped from my mind. After the Cleveland Disaster all super-powered people were feared. Some government officials wanted to go beyond the Super-Powered Registration Law. They wanted anyone with more than standard powers rounded up. The nuclear fail-safe was my concession to stop that. It was an insurance that if I went rogue, there would be a safe guard to stop me. The telepath who calls himself Merlyn will wipe my memory of the bomb and give me a command not to “see” it. It will makes everyone feel safer,” John said and the display went dark.

  Merlyn claimed to be the most powerful telepath on Earth and no one was able to dispute the claim. He was an independent contractor who worked for the highest bidder, yet claimed to have a personal code of honor. Despite the claim, some people thought he controlled the world. If he did, he was doing a very bad job of it. No one knew what he looked like or where he was, although, the Agency and the major intelligence agencies had tried their best to find him.

  “I could seen the tunnel and the bomb,” I said, of course, only after I knew where to look.

  “You had left the Agency by that time. No one thought you were a threat,” Director Tenneth said.

  “But you were told about the bomb,” I said to the Director.

  Tenneth nodded and said,”On the day I was appointed. I was, also, told that neither of you knew about it.”

  “Who told you?” I said.

  “The only other person who knew the detonation codes, the, then,,Chief of Security,” he said.

  “So, Hernandez knows?” I asked.

  “Yes, normally it needs two authorizations to activate the detonation sequence, however, if power goes down, only one of them can activate the sequence at the computer console in the tunnel,” Tenneth said.

  It had all been a setup to destroy the Complex and, they hoped, both John and I, with Kim as the inside person who could supply them with all the inside information they needed. The question was: how did she manage to evade detection?

  “Mr. Hernandez is already checking into Ms. Kim's life. As for you two, I understand your wish to hunt down our attackers, but I need you to concentrate and finding a way to stop The Destroyer, including a way to get your full powers back,” Tenneth said.

  “Now, Doctor Torres has, inconveniently, just arrived. You are both assigned to work with her. Give her any assistance she needs. Hopefully, with the help of the remaining Visitors she can find a way to keep The Destroyer away. Now, I need to get ready for the press conference,” Tenneth continued.

  We left the Director's office and walked to the reception area off the main entrance where Doctor Torres waited us. Only a few people past us in the corridors. Once they had been cleared, most non-essential personnel left for their homes to be with their friends and families.

  As we walked, I asked John,” Did you ever meet Doctor Torres?”

  “Once. saying she lacks social skill is an understatement. Her staff called her the Ice Queen, behind her back, of course. Fortunately, for her, her assistant Ian Jacobs is just the opposite. She is never without him,” John said.

  “Are they a couple?” I asked.

  “Doubt it. Jacobs sees himself as a ladies man. Don't be surprised when he flirts with you. He does it with all women,” John said.

  As Artemis and later, I did my best not to flirt. I, always, wanted to be treated as a professional. Of course, I made an exception for Dave, but we were in love. I was told that it made some people think I was cold. Perhaps, that was Doctor Torres issue.

  “They are both are standard powered,” John said.

  That was no unusual, but it was interesting. Standard powered tended to have a higher IQ than non-powered people. It is one of the reasons given for the rapid advancement in technology since John appeared, especially of the past two decades; advancements in computer, aeronautical , space. Health and other fields. It was one of the reasons that non-powered zea
lots gave for their hatred of powered people, the fear that non-powered people could not deal with the speed of technological change and would soon become obsolete. I understood the concern, but I knew too many non-powered people who were not only as smart as their powered cousins, but took advantages of the changes.

  We walked into the lobby and over to the reception area, where a guard stood. He opened the door and we stepped inside, where Doctor Torres and Mr. Jacobs sat. Torres was bent over working with a tablet computer. Jacobs was watching a baseball game on a wall monitor.

  He turned and said,” Please come in. The game is tied in the ninth inning.”

  The Cubs were playing he Reds. The two teams were fighting for last place that year.

  Jacobs was an Adonis. He was tall with black, shoulder length, wavy hair. His smile was broad and his white teeth gleamed. His tailored white suit showed off his build. He was not muscle bound, but the muscles were in all the right places. I did not need to “see” through his closes to notice the bulge at his crouch. As Artemis, I had gotten used to some men's reaction to me. As Clarissa Brown, not quite as often. It did not impress me.

  Torres wore a not tailored gray pants suit. Her black hair was cut short and she wore unneeded glasses over a face with no make up. Not that she needed make up, she was a a classic beautiful face. Her suit was designed to hide her figure as her glasses were to distract from her face. Many professional women wanted to be judged on their talents, not their physical appeal, although the glasses were a bit much. Any one who knew that she had standard powers would know that she did not need glasses.

  “Sorry for the delay,” John said.

  “I am ...” John said

  Before he could finish, Torres interrupted,”Yes, we know who you are, Apollo and the former Artemis.”

  She looked up from the computer tablet and continued,”You know who we are. Now, when do I meet your Visitors.”