The Professor put a hand on his shoulder. "She knows the risks."
"But this isn't like the old days!" Toby gestured. “She could race to meet the dawn back then."
Professor shook his head. “The Lolit could never race like that, Toby. Always short sprints. And now she's very old.”
“But she’s Empowered."
"Even Empowered suffer the curse of age in the end." He patted Toby on the shoulder. “I’m sorry.”
The Professor looked down at the map spread out on the table in front of him. I crept closer. It was some kind of blueprint thing. My eyes widened. Hideaway. It was a map of our hideaway. There was a circle around it, a dashed blue line. The words were too tiny to make out.
"She wants to make a difference before she goes."
Toby clutched the Professor's arm. "But she's eighty three, Rance. She shouldn't be using her power."
"Then you should especially appreciate how important this is to her."
"But her heart!” Toby started crying.
I looked away, feeling even more embarrassed. I glanced back. The Professor hugged Toby. "She feels like she has to help us do this."
Toby pulled away. "If I'd hung on to that gold, the Lolit wouldn't have to be risking herself." He sat down, crossed his arms, and rested his chin on his chest.
"Not true, Toby. It would be something else. She wants to leave a legacy for Mat here, Tanya, and all the normals, too. A haven for outcasts like us to build a new world. The same dream you and I have.”
The Professor noticed me standing in the corner and motioned for me to come over. My ears felt like they were burning, but I forced my embarrassment down and made myself walk across the room. My legs felt wobbly. I swallowed. I felt bad for Toby about the Lolit.
"Thank you for joining us, Mat," the Professor said.
Toby rubbed his eyes again. "Hey, Mattie."
"Hey, Toby.”
The Professor gestured at the blueprint. It was a huge maze of rooms and hallways. Toby’s dad must have had a lot of cash to build a place like this.
“Roland didn’t build all this,” the Professor said. “We’ve had help from an Empowered that can reshape rock.”
My ears perked up. “Who?”
The Professor sighed. “Unfortunately, she is no longer with us.” He shook his head. “She only wanted me to know her identity. This was before Tanya and Gus joined us. I respected her decision. We had a falling out.”
“Why?” I asked.
“She didn’t want normals included.”
“But we’re the Renegades. Normals and Empowered.”
“She didn’t like normals,” the Professor said sadly.
They were always warning about that in those shows on TV—watch out for the crazy rogue Empowered that hated normals. The Hero Council loved normals, served them. But I had wondered. If you were Empowered, you were different, no two ways about it. Normals knew it.
But Hideaway was about normals and Empowered living and working together. All of us were the Renegades.
My attention snapped back to the present. The Professor was tapping the map on a room that said power plant. “This is our reactor room.”
“You mean like a nuclear reactor?”
He nodded. “I wish it could be something else, but this is what we have, a breeder nuclear reactor. It’s compact, and efficient. I’d prefer for it to be a Tokamak fusion reactor, but those are still experimental and quite expensive to build.”
I had no idea what he was talking about.
He looked back at the blueprint. “Fusion power is tough to harness. Breeder reactor technology is well-established.” He traced the dashed line that encircled Hideway on the blueprint. “It will power our cloak.”
“Cloak? You mean like invisibility?”
“In a way, yes. It will effectively hide our electrical signature, and block ground penetrating radar, should any be employed against us. It will also dampen our heat signature, among other things.”
Crazy, so crazy. I couldn’t help myself. I giggled. “This really will be Hideaway!”
He laughed, and Toby joined in.
“It’s good to hear you laugh, Mat,” the Professor said.
Yeah, I didn’t laugh much, but I hadn’t had too much reason to before coming here. I felt so light all of a sudden, like I would drift away into the sky if I didn’t have a ceiling overhead, if we weren’t underground.
“Can that really work?” I asked.
“If my calculations are correct it will give us one hundred percent reduction in our energy signature and turn Hideaway completely opaque, making it seem part of the surrounding environment.”
Toby looked worried. I patted his arm. “Don’t you believe the Professor, Toby?”
“I want to. I just worry. I don’t know how anything can make this place completely invisible.”
I glanced at the Professor.
“It is possible,” the Professor said.
That was good enough for me.
I was burning to meet the Lolit. I hadn’t seen her around. A speedster! But I didn’t find her, she found me.
I was talking with Tanya in one of the spare “gyms,” a place the size of a hangar, about the job. Suddenly there was a breeze, and the old newspapers that littered the floor gusted up. I blinked.
An old lady in a tracksuit and tennis shoes stood in front of me. Her head was shaved, and she wore big goggles that made her look like a frog.
She grinned from ear to ear. “Shut your mouth if you don’t want to catch flies.”
“Uh, the Lolit?”
She laughed. “That’s me.”
“What does it stand for?” I asked. No one had told me.
I didn’t think her grin could get any wider, but it did. “Lolit?” She tapped her bald head. “Miss, you should be able to work it out”
Tanya was laughing so hard no noise came out. She doubled over.
My face got hot. “I suck at things like that.”
The Lolit did a pirouette, and kicked up one heel, which looks pretty freaky when you are eighty three years old. She pointed at herself. “Little Old Lady In Tennies.” She giggled.
Tanya finally got some air and exploded in laughter, and the Lolit joined her. The huge room echoed with their laughs, which eventually trailed off to just giggling.
Little old lady in tennis shoes. That had been too obvious.
Chapter 8
Toby’s sister lived in a big, fancy house up in the West Hills, above Portland. It had a hedge that had just been trimmed. The lawn was green like a golf course, and there were old fir trees in the back yard, which was the size of the playground at my old grade school.
Driver-man parked our Lincoln Concierge down the street from Toby’s sister’s place. He said he’d wait in the car. He had a walkie-talkie to keep in touch with Tanya, who carried one too.
We were wearing nice clothes, even Gus. He wore a suit, a navy blue one. He kept pulling at his shirt collar just like the guy on TV who isn’t used to wearing a suit. I was in a summer dress, and tennis shoes. Tanya had her hair brushed out in a page boy style and was dressed in nice jeans and a blouse.
“We look like we belong here,” she said, her face sour.
“That’s the point,” Driver-man replied. “To look like you belong.”
“But I don’t have to like it,” she said.
“Better if all of you looked like you were fine with it,” he said.
She didn’t argue any further.
“Where’s the Lolit?” I asked Tanya.
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Around, I guess.”
The Lolit was supposed to take out the security cameras when I killed the tree, but that could be a while. No pressure, I told myself, none at all. I smoothed my dress. I didn’t wear dresses. Not my thing. So, of course, I had to wear one today.
I had to stay across the street from the gate. I could just see the fir trees in the back. They were so far away. I couldn’t reach that far with
my power.
I closed my eyes and tried anyway. After what felt like forever, but was probably only five minutes, I opened my eyes.
“Can’t do it from here.”
Tanya frowned. “You have to.”
“It’s too far. If I could get closer.”
“Security system,” Tanya reminded me.
Gus shifted his feet. I hated the idea that just came to me, but had to ask. “Don’t suppose you could make me blend in with you?”
He shook his head violently. “No. It doesn’t work like that. Can’t help another person disappear.”
Too bad. We stood there for a while. Tanya’s walkie-talkie squawked.
Driver-man. “You can’t stand in one place for long,” he said over the radio. “You’ll look even more suspicious.”
He was right. We looked pretty damn suspicious as it was. I glanced back at the house. Mansion, really. The thing had three levels, with a flat roof. The "briefing" the Professor had given us mentioned that there was a security guard on duty at all times. Geez. All because she had gold coins squirreled away in her freezer? No, the woman had to be paranoid. That was a lot of security. The Professor said she was connected, which made it sound like she was doing something criminal. I had wondered out loud if the guards were really guards or more like gangers.
The Professor had said she was politically connected. I didn’t know anything about politics.
We had to distract the guard on duty, and any other staff: the cook, personal assistant, and her driver.
There was a fir tree by the gate. It looked old. What if I killed it and dropped it across the entrance? That would freak them out.
I walked over to the hedge beside the gate. I hoped I was out of sight of security cameras.
"Hey, Tanya." I waved her over. "I need to talk with the Lolit."
"The plan was for you to knock the tree over in the back, uprooting a power line, and then she'd take out the security cameras. There isn't one in the front."
"How was she going to take out security cameras?"
"She was going to cut their cables."
I thought about it.
"Too complicated," I said.
Tanya's eyes narrowed. "So, new girl thinks she knows better than the genius Empowered Professor and the more experienced older girl."
New girl. That stung. I'd been there for weeks now. But I was the new girl on this job. Like it or not. But this was too complicated. We just needed to get things clear for Gus. She could help with doors and stuff. The camera power thing.
“The Lolit can help with doors and stuff."
The wind gusted, blowing grit into my eyes. I rubbed them. The Lolit stood grinning in front of me, in that tracksuit she loved to wear, and those big frog-eyed goggles over her eyes.
“Kid, this isn't about just using your power," she told me.
"What isn't?"
"Crime." She tapped her bald head. "Use your brain."
My face got flushed. "I can't kill the fir in the backyard from way over here. Besides, that plan was too complicated. We just need to get the guard outside and help Gus get in."
She jabbed a finger at me. "Okay, so tell me what you would do?"
I pointed at the fir looming over us. "Knock this tree down over the gate." Assuming I could kill it. I'd never killed a plant. All that practice with the Professor was to grow plants. And a fir tree, that was going to be tough.. But the Professor was right--knocking a tree down would get their attention.
"Now you are thinking. I had wondered how long it would take you youngsters to figure that out."
Tanya scowled. "Why didn't you say something sooner?" she said.
"Not my plan."
Tanya shook her head. "Great. Frying our butts out here because you decided to watch us be stupid.”
Lolit cackled. “It was pretty funny. You kids think you know everything, but you know what—you don’t have enough imagination. It’s all well and good for the Professor to give you a great plan, but you get here and discover things aren’t what they should be, and you just get stuck.”
“I’m not stuck,” I said. She was getting on my nerves. We’d waited long enough.
I climbed up into the hedge.
“Mat, what the hell!” Tanya whispered behind me.
Lolit cackled again. “That’s better.” A sudden breeze whipped the leaves and I nearly lost my grip.
“She’s gonna have a heart attack,” Tanya said.
The hedge crackled contentedly in my mind, full of sunshine from above and water from below. The leaves caressed my skin. I perched near the top. The fir tree rumbled quietly in my head.
Kill it. I had to kill it. I put my hand on the trunk. I couldn’t kill it. This was just money. The fir was old, and its roots ran deep. Kill it, why should I kill it?
But Hideaway needed the money.
I closed my eyes. The bark was warm against my fingers.
“Cameras are out. All of them. Now comes the rub.” Lolit sounded like she thought this was fucking hilarious. I glanced back down. She stood in the shade. Sweat ran down her face, but she was grinning like a goblin. “Can’t do it, can you?”
“I can do it,” I said through clenched teeth.
“Don’t think you can.”
“Psst, Mat, what’s going on?”
Gus appeared out of nowhere next to Tanya and Lolit. I hadn’t seen him blend in, but he’d been gone for a bit, and then reappeared.
“Not now, Gus.”
Lolit wouldn’t stop cackling. Any minute a police car would come by, I was sure of it. I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate, like the Professor had taught me.
She kept laughing and laughing, or was it just my imagination. I ground my teeth. Screw the Lolit. I’d show her.
I shoved my power into the tree. My heart raced. The tree filled, right down to the roots. Rot was there at the edges of the roots. Maybe there was always a little rot, I didn’t know, but I sank into it. It was like slime, swimming around in my mind. Spread, I commanded, and the rot shot up the tree. Poison, it was poison. I don’t know how I did it, but I made the tree drink it.
Someone was whispering my name, but I kept at the tree.
There was a loud snap. The hedge shivered in my head, and I lost my balance and tumbled. Smacked my ass on the ground.
The fir tree toppled into the gate with the sound of crunching metal.
Tanya helped me up.
No sign of the Lolit or Gus.
“We need to haul ass,” Tanya said.
We crossed the street and got into the Lincoln Concierge. Driver-man went down a cross street and up the hill, parked it so Tanya could see the mansion from there. My muscles hurt like hell.
“Got one,” Tanya said. Her face went slack. Peeping. “Must be the security. He’s out front, with a cook and a woman who looks like Toby. Must be his sister.”
My legs were cramping up.
Tanya’s lips curved into a smile, which looked freaking creepy with the rest of her face slack. I don’t know how the hell she did that—it must be linked to her power somehow. Like her face was slack because she wasn’t seeing out of her own eyes, but she needed her eyes to see through someone else’s. The whole thing made my head hurt.
“What about the Lolit and Gus?”
She snorted. “The Lolit’s probably through the house, opening the doors. And Gus better be inside by now. And no matter what, he’d better be blending.”
This all seemed so easy. I exhaled, massaged my calves. I don’t know why the hell my legs hurt. But I didn’t understand my power. It just was.
“Sis and security are still by the gate,” Tanya said. “But the cook is running back to the house.
“She’s going to call the cops,” Driver-man said, his face grim. “Unless they are already on their way. “Blender and the Lolit better get here soon.”
“But the Lolit can sprint super fast and Gus can hide,” I pointed out.
Driver-man gave me a long look through hi
s wrap-around sunglasses. “Empowered never think of the little things,” he said, matter-of-factly. “Like the fact that this car sticks out, even in this swank neighborhood.”
“Why?” I didn’t get it.
“Because everyone knows what everyone else owns around here, and because we are parked on the street.”
My breath caught. I hadn’t noticed before, but the streets were empty of other cars. All these big houses had gated driveways.
The shriek of approaching sirens made my heart jump.
Driver-man shook his head. “I was afraid of this. They called the cops. We can’t wait long or we’re going to be answering some hard questions.”
Trees stirred down the street from us, like the wind was blowing, but the trees and plants around us were still. Something blurred, streaking toward the car. The blur became the Lolit, bent over, Gus on her back. He slipped down. She took two more steps, then crumpled to the ground.
Tanya and I jumped out of the car and ran over to where she lay. The fall jammed her goggles up her face. An ugly purple bruise spread across her cheekbone. Her left leg was bent. This was bad. Really bad.
Gus got up and came over. Tanya glared at him. “Damn it, Gus!”
“I did what I was supposed to,” he whined, sounding like a little kid. “It wasn’t my fault. She insisted on carrying me.”
“You ought to know better. She’s real old.”
She must have broken her leg. That was very bad for an old person. Maybe it would be different for an Empowered, but I doubted it.
Driver-man leaned out of the car. “We gotta go.” The sirens were headed in our direction.
I squatted beside her, tried to cradle her legs. My stomach lurched at the way her left leg hung at a weird angle. “Help me get her up,” I told Gus. He hesitated. “Now, for fuck’s sake! Lift her by her armpits.”
Her bodysuit was still warm to the touch. We carried her to the car and laid her in the back. I jumped into the front passenger seat, while Tanya and Gus squeezed in on either side of the Lolit.
Driver-man reversed the Lincoln, and then floored it, and we roared up the hill. Tires squealed as we took a sharp turn and headed onto a cross street.
“Gotta find a place to lose the cops,” Driver-man said. “If we don’t do it fast, they’ll call in a copter.”
Renegade: The Empowered series prequel story Page 6