Hostile Territory

by Tom Andry

  Or college. It could be college.

  Finally, they declared me healed and I slowly stood up, checking my body. There wasn't a mark on me, but I could still feel some of the injuries. The supers told me it was a phantom pain and to drink lots of fluids, which I promised to do, and to get some rest. I just nodded. I had a feeling rest wasn't in the cards. I felt stiff and bruised, but more like the day after a hard workout than being through a near death experience.

  Okay, like people who workout had told me they felt the day after.

  I really needed to get into a gym or something.

  I slipped on a pair of underwear and shorts. Remembering, I went through the tattered pants looking for my keychain, but it was gone. Lost during the battle. I grimaced as my stomach tightened. I didn't want to lose that. Did not want anyone else touching it. I exhaled loudly. There was no way I could go back now. Not without arousing suspicion. Up in my office was my dartboard. I'd have to remember to get that. I couldn't lose it as well.

  I checked the bathroom to make sure the Multikey was still in place. It was so I went out to the main room to follow my doctors' orders. Chris and Leon were waiting for me, Chris wearing a hard expression.

  "Nice doctors," Chris held out a glass of scotch. "I see you came back just as unscathed as you promised."

  I took the glass, glowering, "Hey, I came back didn't I?"

  Chris shrugged, his eyes hard. I didn't meet his eyes. Eventually, he stopped glaring at me and took a sip of his own drink.

  "Are you okay, boss?" Leon asked. His appearance hadn't changed much. Still the long furry ears and sharp teeth.

  "Yeah. Just a little motorcycle accident."

  "Did you find out anything?" Chris sat forward, his own snifter of brandy swirling in his hand.

  "Yeah. Tay is running the smuggling business."

  Chris' eyes were wide, "You are kidding."

  "Not only that," I continued, "seems he had been working, at one time, with Siddeon. Says that Siddeon may have been connected to EnviroKop."

  Chris sat back, thinking. I let him. He was smart enough to figure out the angles without me walking him through it. Though he didn't know about Gideon Sans, he didn't have to in order to come to the right conclusions.

  "What does that mean, boss?" Leon queried. I didn't respond.

  Chris finished his brandy, "The police and the supers rounded up all the henchmen they could after the thing with The Raven."

  The "thing" was that I, with Alan's help, had led a group of them out to the final battle with The Raven to be a distraction and fodder. This had proved to the supers that they were a threat, and they'd dropped the hammer on them. Gale was sure that all the henchmen were captured or too scared to try anything else.

  "Still," Chris stood and crossed to the bar, "could make a good headline. 'Siddeon's Henchmen: Back!'"

  I laughed, "It might be better than that." Chris turned to me, a bottle of brandy in one hand, his snifter in the other, "Tay thinks Siddeon might still be alive."

  Chris' mouth dropped open and the bottle nearly slipped from his grip. He turned back to the bar and set them both down before turning back to me, "No way. Alive? But that would mean..."

  "Hey," I put up a hand, "don't quote me. This is coming from Tay, so you can take it for what it is worth."

  Chris sat, eyes unfocused, "If he escaped...that means he let everyone think he was dead. Even his own henchmen. That means he has something big planned. Something huge. Something he doesn't want anyone to know about."

  "That's right."

  Chris stiffened, "We've got to go."

  I nodded slowly. Chris...Alan...was quick. We'd come to the same conclusion. If Siddeon was really still alive, his natural target would be the Super City. All the supers in one place? It would be too tempting. And with Gale sending Doe, Nissa, and others down to recruit, he could be sure that nearly every super left would be here. They'd be kids. Powerful, sure, but power was no real substitute for experience. Watching Gale in Proving Ground was proof of that. Some of those supers had more raw power than I'd seen in a long time. But they didn't know how to use it. They'd be easy prey for someone like Siddeon.

  "I don't get it," Leon was stammering.

  I smiled at him like a parent at a child, "If Siddeon is alive, this would be the place to strike. And since people are starting to die...well, it seems like something is in motion."

  "But..." Leon paused, "he isn't though? Right? He was at the Tournament. Plus...stuff has been going on here for a long time. From what I hear, people get hurt regularly. Lots of traffic accidents before they installed the walkways. Not to mention the accidental deaths in Proving Ground."

  I shook my head, "Sure. You're probably right on both counts," it was my turn to lean in, "but what if you aren't? What if Siddeon is really alive?"

  "He isn't."

  Gale stood in the door, her hands on her hips. Her white fabric was blotched with dirt and what I guessed were flecks of blood. There was a smudge of something black under her left eye that continued up to the corner of her white eyemask.

  I turned to her, "But what if he is?"

  "We'd know." She looked at Chris and Leon in turn, "Would you two excuse us?"

  They left without a word. Probably to Chris' suite. I didn't know where Leon was staying. It again struck me that I'd only arrived in this City this afternoon. It had seemed like a good idea at the time. Now...I felt overwhelmed. I needed time to process all of this. Time I wasn't likely to get.

  "Why are you doing this, Bob?" Gale demanded. She moved to the bar and started mixing a drink. When she turned around, her glass held a rose-colored liquid with ice.

  "Doing what?"

  "Spreading fear? Rumors? Siddeon's dead. We're sure. Doe and the other super geniuses have been studying the footage for months. We've got scanners searching the planet for any signs of supers so that we can recruit them. We would have picked him up by now."

  "Are you sure? I thought no one knew what his power was."

  She shrugged, "We don't. But I'm sure he has one. Had one. No one could escape from that many prisons and traps without some sort of power. No one."

  "Well, you know what they say about assumptions?" I chided.

  "That I'll punch you in the face if you finish that stupid saying?" Gale responded.

  I smirked. She sipped her drink.

  "Bob, what were you doing down there? You had no business in Proving Ground."

  "Just doing a little research."

  "And you're not going to tell me what it was about."

  "Do you tell me all your secrets?" I countered.

  She didn't respond at first. Finally, she said with a sigh, "That was dangerous. Proving Ground is nowhere for a tippy."

  I smiled, "Hey, it's me."

  Gale looked at me, concern not quite covered by her eyemask, "You say that like it explains everything. It doesn't. I'm afraid you are starting to believe your own press."

  I shrugged, "I'm fine, Gale. Look at me."

  "I am. I'm looking at a man who thinks he's invulnerable. Despite the fact he just had to be put back together by two of my best healers."

  "Hey," I objected, "I don't think I'm invulnerable. But you can't argue the evidence. I'm still here, aren't I?"

  She shook her head, falling silent.

  "Listen, Gale. Are you worried about me? I mean..." I couldn't finish the sentence. I didn't know what to say.

  Apparently she didn't either because she changed the subject. "And I suppose Ted rigged that USB for you somehow?"

  I glanced at it, "Yeah. But..."

  "Bob...about Ted."

  "Um...okay."

  "He's been detained. We found him and a few others in the catacombs. He said he was looking for the engines, but we have evidence that he was in the Australian Embassy."

  My brow furrowed, "In the Embassy? So?"

  "Within the last few hours before you found the Ambassador dead. We have ways of telling."

  "Oh," I
sipped my drink, "Oh! Wait, you don't think Ted..."

  "I don't know what to think, Bob. Ted's been complaining and sulking for months. There have been a lot of people who have said they've overheard him saying some pretty inflammatory things. Things that, had they come from anyone else, I might have had them questioned. But now he's connected to a murder..."

  I shook my head, my thoughts racing. I had to tell her. She was going to be mad, but she had to know. "You're not going to like this..." I began. I told her of the night Doc Arts died. Of how Ted had used his device to change his appearance to appear as a cop. About how he pocketed gear. About how he said he didn't take anything to do with the microbots, but that he wasn't sure what all he had grabbed.

  When I was done, Gale finished the last of her drink and rolled the glass in her hands, "Jesus, Bob. Why didn't you tell me?"

  I shrugged, "It's Ted, Gale. You know Ted. He's like that. He acts first and worries about the consequences later. He was there for you when you needed him with The Raven and that was way after Doc Arts died. If he hadn't developed those teleporter things, you never would have killed The Raven."

  "He's not dead," she muttered absently.

  "What!"

  She looked at me, "Oh, that's right. You haven't been taking my calls or answering your door for months and you weren't there at the end of the fight. We damaged him enough to capture him, but we couldn't kill him."

  "Couldn't, or wouldn't?"

  "I don't know, Bob." Gale responded, exasperated, "Both maybe? But don't worry, he's contained."

  "Contained? Are you insane?" I nearly screamed. "He nearly killed EVERYONE!"

  "Exactly. And we barely got the best of him. But it isn't like we didn't try to kill him. He just keeps regenerating."

  "And you are sure of this containment? Sure he won't break out?"

  "Positive."

  "What is it?"

  "It's none of your business."

  "Really? That's the way you want to play this? Okay, fine. Then let me ask you this: who designed his cage? Because, unless I'm mistaken, Ted was the only one around at the time."

  Gale didn't answer, but the air around us grew a few degrees colder. She was nervous.

  I sighed, "I want to be there." Gale opened her mouth to protest, but I cut her off, "I don't want to hear it. If he's behind all this, I want to know why. I want to know why he'd do all this. And why I seem to be a part of it. I want to be in on the questioning."

  Gale slowly nodded, "Okay. Let's go."

  I'd only had one of Ted's resistant suits, so I had to throw on something else. Basically, all I had were a few extra white dress shirts and some T-shirts and shorts that I slept in. I ended up having to stop by Chris' place for a pair of his slacks. They fit, if a little big. There were too many slippery surfaces for bare, metal feet, so I had to settle on walking around in a pair of fuzzy slippers I liked to wear at night. Gale had laughed at them.

  I followed Gale in silence. I think she occasionally floated me along, but I wasn't paying attention. I had too much on my mind. Ted, Siddeon, Mind, Tay, Nineteen, Garvey, Swell...how did it all fit? Were these single events, unconnected except by their proximity in time, or were they part of some grand design? I felt like a hamster on a wheel, wondering when the road would end. I kept reaching into my pocket for the keychain that wasn't there.

  When we arrived at the interview room, Ted was already seated. Gale and I stood behind a two-way mirror and watched him at the small table. The room he was in was about eight feet by six feet and could have been a repurposed closet. The desk barely left room for a person to pass on one side. Ted was in a chair behind the table facing the door. There was a chair across from him and a second pushed up against the wall behind it. There wasn't room for anything else in the small space. There was a lot of light in the room and we were standing in relative darkness.

  Gale turned to me, "You ready for this?"

  I swallowed back my misgivings and nodded.

  Gale grabbed my shoulders and turned me toward her, forcing eye contact, "Bob, I'm doing the talking, okay? You're only here to observe."

  I nodded slowly, unable to stop myself from examining her eyemask, "I understand. Not a word."

  "You swear?"

  "Cross my heart."

  Satisfied, Gale grabbed my forearm and led me out of the room and into the hall. She motioned to a door and I opened it. Instead of letting her through, I stepped in first.

  "Okay, Ted," I demanded, anger causing my voice to be higher than normal, "we've got some questions and you better have some answers."

  * * *

  Chapter 16

  Ted looked up from his chair, his jaw slack, his eyes wide. He was still wearing the plain persona he had at Snow earlier. "What...Bob? What are you doing here?"

  I slammed my hand down on the desk, "Cut the crap, Ted. We know you were at the Australian Embassy only hours before the Ambassador ended up dead. We also know that you were one of the few who had access to Doc Arts' lab. So talk. Or it's to Compartment with you."

  "Compart..." Ted's face paled, "Gale, what is he talking about?"

  "Just answer the question, Ted," Gale sounded annoyed. Ted didn't have to know she was annoyed with me.

  "Well...yeah. I was there. He called me over. We've been working on figuring out how they were smuggling technology. He promised to use his pull with the Super State to get me access to the engines if I helped him shut down the tech leak."

  "Why would he care?" I spun the chair nearest to the desk around and straddled it, my arms crossed over the metal back.

  "Look, I don't know," Ted put his hand up, "scout's honor. He wanted to shut down the trafficking of technology and I wanted information. Listen, it was his idea! Ask one of his assistants. Ask that super of his. He should know."

  "He's dead, Ted!" I slammed my hand down again. It was starting to sting. "They are all dead!" I turned to whisper over my shoulder at Gale, "Right?"

  "Dead or missing. Yes."

  "Dead or missing!" I exclaimed, "You hear that, Ted? Dead or missing?"

  "What does that mean?"

  I turned to Gale, "Yeah, what does that mean?"

  She scowled at me, "It means that we never found the assistants. None of them. The place was barren except for the two bodies in the lobby."

  "That's weird."

  "Yeah," I echoed Ted. "That is weird."

  Gale rolled her eyes behind her mask, "Bob, if you are done?" I shrugged and stood. Gale pushed past me, "Ted, are you sure you didn't accidentally pick up any of the microbots?"

  "Um..." Ted shook his head, "I mean, I don't think so. Wouldn't I have noticed?"

  "Well, we're noticing now, aren't we?" Gale stared into Ted's eyes.

  He shrank under her glare.

  "Is there anything else? Anything I should know? Because if I find out you're hiding anything from me, the very best you can hope for is a reduction in rank."

  "No, nothing. I swear. Wait, what do you mean, reduction in rank?"

  "Ted," Gale shook her head, "we can't have high level citizens involved in the murder of tippys."

  "But...but..." Ted's face was turning red. "That's not fair!"

  "What about the unitards?" I muttered.

  Gale and Ted both turned to me.

  "Ted, tell her about the unitards."

  The blood started to drain from his face.

  Gale turned back to Ted, "Unitards?"

  Ted shrank into his chair, "It was only an exercise. I made them years ago. I was drunk...you know how it is."

  "No, Ted," Gale's voice was hard. "Tell me how it is."

  His voice was cracking, "I was mad, okay? I was pissed off. I'd just gotten passed up for Level 2 citizenship again and I went out and had a few too many. And this guy turned me down. And then a girl. I was a mess. So I came back and thought, 'screw those guys, I'll get me some henchmen.' But that's as far as it went, I swear."

  "But you still have them, right?" I nodded toward Ted, "Tel
l her, Ted."

  "Sentimental reasons?" his voice was barely loud enough to hear.

  Gale turned her back on Ted, her eyes boring into mine. Finally, she paced past me and toward the door.

  "Bob, tell her," Ted pleaded. "Tell her you believe me. That I'd never have anything to do with this."

  I shook my head, "I wish I could, Ted. But the way you've been acting has got a lot of people nervous. Even me. I'm sitting in a bar completely safe in my yellow field and see you typing away. A few seconds later and my field turns to red, you're nowhere to be seen, and I've got a dozen supers trying to kill me."

  "That wasn't me, man!" Ted shouted. "I'd never do that to you!"

  "Maybe...maybe not. But the evidence...man, I don't want to see you in Compartment any more than you want to go there. I've heard stories about what it is like in that place." I shook my head dramatically, "Sounds horrible. So, if you know anything, you better come clean."

  "Bob," his voice cracked; he was near tears, "come on, Bob. Come on."

  I turned and walked out, my head hung low and shaking side to side as I exited. Gale was waiting on the other side, the air cold around her.

  "Unitards, Bob? I'm just finding out about this now?"

  I shrugged, "I wanted to show you that it couldn't have been him." I pointed back at the door, "Look at him, Gale. He'd sell his grandmother down the river right now. He's shitting bricks. There is no way he did any of this. I mean, look how he freaked out when you mentioned reducing his rank."

  Gale turned and walked away, "I don't know, Bob. You made a pretty convincing case."

  I followed, "You're kidding, right? Unitards? I bet just about every super genius on the planet has considered it. I know that henchmen are usually just associated with villains, but take off the masks and throwaway the weapons and they're lab assistants." I grabbed Gale's shoulder, spinning her toward me, "Come on, Gale. You know Ted. He didn't do this."

  Gale stepped into me, so close I could smell her breath and see my reflection in her glossy eyemask, "Okay, Bob. Let's play devil's advocate. Say he did. Say he turned and he's been biding his time to get the access he needed to carry out his master plan. What better way than to remove a few US Ambassadors until you show up. Then, all he has to do is unleash the microbots he stole from Doc Arts and everything points to him. Which, of course, you won't believe and you'll come to his aid. You'll muddy the waters; you'll advocate for him with me giving him all the time he needs to finish whatever he has started."