Subject 12

by S. W. Douglas

  They hadn't appeared together, in public, in over a decade. Maybe two. While they were supposedly still running things at the Guild behind the scenes, the change in attitude after they'd left was palpable.

  That they'd come to greet me was a great honor. An honor with an implicit and very grave threat.

  "I see you recognize us," Steamroller said in a voice that sounded like it should be coming from a fourteen year-old girl wearing a knit cap with cat ears. "I had doubts that you would," she continued, sounding slightly bored.

  "How could I not?" I replied politely. "You are four of the most famous people in the world."

  "But our fame has faded of late, ain't it?" Jackhammer spoke with that gruff voice I'd heard outside. I wasn't surprised. Wildcard couldn't talk and I doubted that any of the techs would have dared speak in such august company.

  "Perhaps, but I'm old enough to have heard about some of what you've done as it was happening, not just in history class. I'll never forget them, or the sacrifices you made." I directed my last comment a little more to Wildcard than the others.

  "You flatter us," Steamroller said, sounding slightly pleased, almost as if embarrassed by it.

  "Flattery implies insincerity, and I assure you my words are sincere." I smiled a small smile.

  "That was quite the show you put on," Venom said suddenly, interrupting the exchange. Her voice was pure honey and made every male in the room who wasn't immune to it want to eat her out. Up. Eat her up. "Judging by what you did at the end of that little altercation it's pretty clear to us you could have taken those guards much faster. Why did you hesitate? For that matter, why did you hold back? It was quite obvious from the start you could have killed them a lot easier than merely subduing them."

  "I wasn't sure what my... host was going to do."

  She nodded. "Because you're afraid of him?"

  A loud snort from the back of the tent made one corner of my mouth curl slightly in amusement. "This prick's afraid of nothin'," The Justice Fiend opined.

  "Thank you for the observation, Clarence. Please remember what we discussed last night," Hypnotico said quickly and far more quietly. The rebuke was followed by some muttering that made Hypnotico elbow his companion. That was a familiarity I wouldn't have risked. "Sorry for the interruption. Please continue."

  "No apologies needed." Venom cleared her throat. "Are you afraid of him?"

  I looked at Venom, saw the answer she wanted, looked back at Hypnotico and The Justice Fiend, and knew I had to tell the truth.

  "No." I found myself shaking my head slowly in emphasis. "Not even a little bit."

  Steamroller and Jackhammer caught each other's eye. Venom looked strangely disappointed. Wildcard continued to stare into the distance.

  "Why the hell not?" Jackhammer this time, his southern accent somehow quite pronounced in those four words.

  "He had orders to deliver me here, unharmed if possible. I figured that out when he didn't try to kill me when I provoked him."

  Venom relaxed slightly and I noticed the corners of Jackhammer's mouth move into a very tiny smile. Steamroller and Wildcard were both still totally inscrutable behind their masks.

  "That is a very well-worded response," Hypnotico interjected. "But it didn't answer the question in full."

  Damn the man.

  "Maybe not," Venom said. "But it answered it enough." She gestured at the sensor equipment. "We were watching and scanning you, though I'm sure you've already figured that out."

  "I had guessed as much, yes."

  "The readings were, our techs tell us, rather interesting. Would you mind if we asked you a few more questions?"

  I smiled my best smile and took a step forward. She didn't flinch, though Jackhammer looked disapproving. "Of course not."

  Wildcard stepped forward and gestured for me to stop. I looked into the poisonous green orbs and shook my head.

  "Wildcard, it's okay." Venom's voice was intensely gentle as she put her hand on his arm. "This gentleman isn't going to hurt me with all of you around, now is he?"

  A quiet, slightly gurgling whistle came from the area of his throat as his mask moved. I realized this was what was left of what stories say was among the most entrancing and spectacular voices ever recorded. I didn't even want to think about what losing it must have done to him.

  "I give you my word I won't start anything," I said, looking up at his mask. That seemed to satisfy him because he took a step back. The tension in the tent dropped back to the original uncomfortable level.

  "Come on, let's take a look at the readings," Venom said, extending her hand to me. I hesitated, unsure, and she shook her head with a smile and grabbed my arm. Her hand was extremely warm and comforting as she pulled me towards the computer screens.

  Apparently this maneuver hadn't been rehearsed and, obviously, wasn't meeting with too much approval. Still, despite some dissension, it appeared they were letting Venom have some free reign. My guess was they wanted to see what would happen.

  Twenty minutes passed as I tried to explain, to the best of my ability and knowledge, exactly what the readings meant without giving myself away. Before it was over I had all four of them looming over my shoulder, listening and watching.

  It started to feel a little claustrophobic.

  Finally I just gave up and gave them what they wanted. I found myself tired of the game.

  "How my powers work can be summed up on one word. Motion. I can control it, redirect it, stop it, absorb it, enhance it, whatever. If someone drops a pencil I can send it into orbit, not that I've tried. All it takes is focus and a little exertion on my part and awareness of the motion in question." I wiped the sweat off my forehead. It was getting warm. "I was trained to anticipate movement, too. Bullets, for example, aren't a threat to me because I can hear them. Now, before you say anything, I know they're usually going supersonic, and that there's no way for me to hear them, but I do. I learned how to track the path of the bullet back to where it came from, usually sending the bullet back along the same path to stop whoever was shooting at me from shooting again." A bead of sweat dripped off my upper lip. My mouth was cottony and my throat dry. Every movement felt like I was swathed in some kind of thick cloth.

  "That's all very interesting, but how did you move like you did when you killed Speedfreak?"

  Speedfreak was the name of the speedster who'd been palling around with Grid Iron. Now how did I know that?

  "I just absorbed all the motion in the room and redirected it into my own movement." It was getting hard to breathe. "I, uh, I, uh..." It hit me. I looked down at Venom's hand and for the first time noticed the small red spot on the inside of her thumb. The realization flooded me as adrenaline or whatever I was making now pumped into my system, wiping the fog from my brain. "I don't think I'll be telling you any more."

  "Shit," The Justice Fiend said, starting to pull himself out of the chair he was sitting in. A quick flash of walking across the courtyard towards one of the wooden doors leading to the inside of the building flittered briefly through my brain. It was going to take some time to piece it all together, but a lot apparently had happened during the last few minutes.

  During the time I'd been drugged. Damn them.

  I stopped him from rising any further, though it took almost all my concentration. The reek of ozone blasted into the room and everyone who could took a step away from me and the sharp smell assaulting their noses. Venom started to reach for me but decided against it as I shot her a look.

  The Justice Fiend fought me with every fiber of his being and I quickly learned that just holding him was harder than any fight I'd ever imagined with him. He snarled, he cursed, he threatened, but I refused to let him go. The drugs in my system were mostly gone, but the aftereffects were still making me weak. It wouldn't be long now and my ability to hold him in place would fail and he'd come flying out of that chair to try to kill me and I wouldn't be able to stop him.

  This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but
with a berserker ripping my limbs off one by one. Fair enough.

  I felt my lips twist into a snarl as I put every last bit of my reserves into holding him. The chair legs started to warp and the floor started to buckle from the spillover I wasn't able to contain any longer. Just another few seconds...

  Something stepped between me and him and blocked my view. Before I could stop myself I looked up to see what it was and broke my concentration. Two green globes met my eyes and something crashed into the back of my head. The surprise and my inability to pull enough focus away from holding The Justice Fiend at bay to redirect it was enough. I didn't even feel myself hit the floor as I fell.

  I came back to myself with a mild headache. I was laying on my back with a pillow under my head in a dimly-lit room with a window open to the night breeze and with nothing but a coarse screen between freedom and myself. I was in no way restrained and my face had been shaved back to the goatee I'd been sporting in Reno. My hair, when I felt my forehead to make sure I didn't have any new scars, had been trimmed to nearly the same length as well.

  "I want to apologize," someone said from a distance to my right.

  "You're the next-to-last person I want to hear from, Venom." I tried to keep myself calm but just hearing her voice made me want to commit violence. "Get out of here. Now."

  "I can understand why. Please, though, call me Vivian." I heard her legs uncross and recross. "Next-to-last? Oh, right, Clarence. Anyway, unless you're going to physically throw me out, I'm afraid you're stuck with me for a little while." She cleared her throat. "I'm on this shift for another hour, then Steamroller's taking over."

  "What the hell are you talking about?"

  "Jackhammer barely got your playmate calmed down enough so the rest of us could get you out of there before he killed you. I'm afraid your little trick really pissed him off. Our level of control over him isn't as great as I or any of us would like, but so far it's sufficed. He may calm down some more, especially if he's willing to let me make him some tea the next time I see him, but it'll take a while. We felt it was best to get you out of the area, even if it meant drugging you some more. For that, and what I did to you back in his compound, I would like to apologize. That wasn't fair of me."

  I sat up. My headache grew immediately worse and my stomach lurched again. I was getting really sick of spending half my time under the influence of more chemicals than a homeless drug addict or a professional athlete.

  "Venom, either get out or shut up. I don't care either way right now." I slumped back on the bed and was grateful for the relief.

  She started to move and before I could react she was sitting next to me on the bed, holding my head against her rather ample bosom in a very motherly gesture, and a spreading warmth was easing my headache. Despite the sudden shift to an upright position again I felt a lot better --- even still, I wanted to push her off me but I couldn't find anywhere I trusted to put my hands or that wouldn't have the potential to be taken rather badly.

  "Call me Vivian. Please."

  She wasn't wearing her costume, though she was still wearing something low-cut and showing off far more skin than I would have thought appropriate for a vigil of this nature.

  As sensation started to trickle back into my body from whatever she'd given me I noticed how cold the air felt after weeks in Rio's tropical soup. She, apparently, was having a similar reaction to the goose bumps running up my arm, but in a more female way --- something was poking me in the eye and she didn't have any pockets in that location.

  "Alright, enough." I said, pulling myself out of her arms more violently than I needed. "What the hell do you want?"

  She sighed. "I'm sorry. When you responded to me being female back in Rio I thought if I dressed a little more provocatively you'd respond again. When you didn't I thought I'd try to be matronly instead of slutty." She crossed her arms over her chest and blushed slightly. "I think I ended up doing both there for a moment."

  "What do you want?" I kept my eyes locked onto hers. "And don't change the subject. What is it you want?"

  She sighed. "I just wanted to apologize. We tricked you, drugged you, and we didn't even understand you."

  "Didn't understand me or didn't understand how my body worked so your drugs wore off too fast, putting all of us in a very dangerous situation you couldn't control?" Every word I fired like a missile and every word hit its mark. She closed her eyes and nodded as she accepted just how much they had screwed up.

  "Yes. All of it. And more." She looked mildly distressed, though I was damned if I knew why. "Would it be okay if I tried to explain? Jackhammer and Steamroller might be pissed, but after that show you put on with Clarence I'd rather you knew the truth."

  "For my benefit or yours?" The words slipped out before I could stop them and I instantly regretted them.

  "I deserved that. Both, actually."

  "Fine." My mouth was a little dry but I didn't see a sink to get some water in or a glass to hold it in even if there was.

  "You're the first outsider to murder a Guild member inside a Guildhall since we founded it. There have been murders, of course, or drunken fights that got out of hand, kinky sex that went too far, unhappy locals coming in with guns blazing, you name it, but you're the first outsider to walk in and simply kill someone like that. That has sent waves through the entire Guild. Jackhammer called me within fifteen minutes of the report coming in, and I was on a flight to get here within the hour. Wildcard was here, I have no idea how, when I arrived.

  "A copy of the footage from the dining hall was playing on their TV and it made for fascinating viewing. Following that was a hastily-done preliminary report from the Hallmaster with exaggerated claims about what had happened. He's been replaced by someone who actually will do his job, by the way. The old one was transferred to our Guildhall in Calcutta, if you're interested.

  "Raymond married a one-off jumper about twelve years ago, so as soon as he heard he was at the Jackhammer and Steamroller's compound. He and his wife teleported into the Guild Hall in Reno to start a real investigation as soon as they could get clearance and she'd recharged. His wife, who used to be a police officer before she started snorting enough heroin to kill a horse and learned about her abilities, stayed behind to run the investigation when he flew to Rio to make sure Clarence didn't... mistreat you."

  "I'm sure you're getting to the point here, and your voice is very pleasant to listen to, but could you please hurry?" I was interested despite myself, I had to admit. I wanted to know what the amazing reveal was going to be.

  She stood up and started to pace.

  "You not only got in, you fooled everyone into thinking you'd been there for years. Your ex-girlfriend has been rather reticent on the subject of your history, much to our surprise. In fact, she clammed up as soon as we started asking any questions beyond what she'd seen and the nature of your relationship. You've told Raymond more about your shared history than she told us."

  That son-of-a-bitch lied to me. I felt my lips twist into a moue as the irritation washed over me. Bastard was good, I had to give him that. But he would be, wouldn't he?

  She turned to me and smiled again. "On the other hand, we can't trust anything you say, now can we? You're almost as good as Raymond, according to the reports we got from him before we paid you our visit. He figures he could only trust about half of what you said to be true, and that was based on observation, not on an ability to trip you up or read you. That's high praise from Hypnotico, you realize."

  "Tell him I said thank you, then."

  She resumed pacing. "You red-lined the power gauges, you infiltrated the biggest and most fortified Guildhall in the world without raising any suspicion, you killed three Guild members without break a sweat, and you took a blast from a neural paralyzer that should have killed you. You lie and act like a sociopath but you seem to have a conscience and no overt desire to rule the world or victimize people. You kill without compunction yet you're kind to people with no obvious gain and antagonize pe
ople who have the potential to kill you." She seemed to be quoting something she'd read and her face looked like she was tasting the words for the first time to see how well the flavor matched her experience. "You're paranoid when it comes to food yet you let a pretty woman get close enough to you that you could be drugged." She stopped pacing again and seemed to be considering something.

  "I was well trained," I said quietly, intentionally interrupting the flow of her thoughts. The warmth of her touch had faded but the lingering traces of it were still coursing through my veins. I wasn't being compelled to answer, I just wanted to. "So was Magda, but in a different way. I was a field operative for several years whereas she was an equipment tech, a gadgeteer. We were both trained by the best."

  "Why are you telling me this?" Her surprise sounded genuine.

  "Because you're the only person so far to actually tell me anything without first putting a price tag on it and then demanding something in return. All you wanted was to explain." I let my face soften and looked her right in the eye as I smiled. "But don't let me stop you from continuing."

  "When it became obvious you were good enough to keep Raymond running in circles for the foreseeable future we decided that we needed to move things forward, so we came down and, well, you know the rest."

  I nodded. "Yes, I do. And yet, you've explained nothing of what you wanted to. Are you really so excited over cracking my facade that you forgot you were trying to tell me something?" I felt mildly disgusted with myself that I'd shared with her as much as I had, though to be honest it was also quite the relief to not have to hide everything all the time.

  "You're right. I'm sorry."

  "I'm getting a little sick of hearing you say that." I smiled again. "Though I'm sure I'm the first guy in the history of the world to say he was sick of hearing a pretty woman say he was sick of hearing her say he was right, I mean it. Cut it with the apologies, please."