Hostile Territory

by Tom Andry

  "Rock," I turned to Gale. "I saw rock."

  Doe cocked his head, "Very good!" Doe paused for a moment, studying me, "Was it Tay that gave it away?" He laughed, "That talkative bastard. It was."

  Gale shook her head as if the motion could ward off the truth, "What are you saying?"

  I didn't turn to her, but instead focused on Doe, "When we exited the City through the bottom, what did you see?"

  Gale shrugged, "Nothing, really. Just the metal hull."

  "But when Tay's super pal created a field that passed through the bottom of the city, I saw rock."

  "Rock? What does that mean?"

  I turned back to Doe, "That the City isn't in the air at all. That it is really surrounded by rock."

  Doe laughed, "Very good. Exactly right."

  Gale's eyes were far away, "That would mean that the blue field around the Super City is..."

  "Really a huge teleportation field," I finished. I fell back into my chair, "My God. The scale of it. I should have realized. I've been through teleportation devices that made me feel just like that. So we are looking through the teleportation field at the City and they are looking back out at the world. No one realizes that the City isn't in the sky at all!"

  Doe nodded, pleased that we were catching on to the brilliance of his plan, "It was so easy to convince people that the effects were just part of the scanning or because of the strength of the field. Believe me; I tried to work out the distortion effects. They affected me the same as you. But I couldn't do everything."

  Gale leaned forward, "So, where are they? Where!" she yelled.

  Doe pressed the gun into the back of Leon's head, "Now, now, let's keep this cordial, shall we?" Leon squeaked, his eyes wide.

  "Gale, settle down. Doe, do you need a refill?"

  He looked at his glass, "No, thank you. Wouldn't want my reflexes to be dulled." He downed the last of his scotch and threw the glass to the side. It shattered on the bookshelf and rained glass down onto the floor.

  I rolled my neck, trying to release some of the tension that had been building. "Underground. It must be. All that space, not to mention the explosions and such from Proving Ground...it couldn't be above ground." I shook my head, "And if they release the field?"

  "Good guess. I have to say," Doe laughed, "I'm not entirely sure. Eventually they'd run out of air at the very least. More likely, though, the cavern would just collapse. It was designed with the field as support." Doe's hand, moments ago holding the glass, appeared with the metal box topped with buttons he'd used to drop the tubes on us before. "Of course, I've set enough explosives in there to make sure that the latter will happen." His thumb caressed a button.

  Gale gasped, "No!"

  "Oh yes. I plan on finishing the job of The Raven. By the time the sun rises, the rest of the world's supers will be dead!"

  * * *

  Chapter 22

  I sat, stunned. Could he do it? Could it be true? Could nearly all the supers left in the world be wiped out by the unassuming man standing before me? Mass murder? It was...staggering. Had he really tricked all of them into thinking that they were on a floating city when, instead, they were passing through a teleportation field to a city built completely underground?

  "But..." I stammered, "you seem so...sane."

  A smile played at Doe's lips, "I'm not sure that was a compliment."

  I responded automatically, "Take it in the spirit offered." I shook my head. I knew he had a plan. That it had something to do with the City. But this? This was absurd. He had to be bluffing.

  Gale beat me to it, "You're bluffing."

  Doe laughed, "We'll find out soon enough."

  Gale put her hands up, "Fine. Okay. Let's just say you can do what you say. That you are willing to do what you say. First, there aren't just heroes in there. Lots of villains have decided to take up residence as well."

  Doe's brow furrowed, "And?"

  "Surely you have friends in the City? Someone you don't want to leave behind."

  Doe's mouth hung open for a moment as he considered his reply, "Are you trying to appeal to my good side? Get me to think about the lives I'll be ending? Really?"

  I licked my lips. Gale was smart, but she was out of her element. She couldn't possibly understand a mind as twisted as the one in front of us.

  "You're...what?" I interrupted, "Trying to make yourself top dog? Get rid of all the supers so that you can rule the world?"

  Doe slumped behind Leon, both bored and exasperated, "Did you know that supers are showing up younger and younger now? Used to be that you wouldn't see anyone without hair under their arms exhibiting a power. Now?" He shook his head, "They are like weeds. Everywhere."

  "That's no reason..." Gale pulled up short as Doe whipped the gun onto her.

  "I swear to God, if you say another word, I'll kill you where you stand. And no amount of wind will save you. I've made sure of that."

  Gale swallowed, her face red. I thought I was the only one who could make her this mad. At least I didn't need a gun to do it. Time to scale back the tension in the room.

  "So, tell us, Doe. Kill them all, or at least most of them, and you're the oldest super left in the room."

  Doe pushed the gun back to Leon's temple, "Bingo, Bob."

  "And no ransom? Isn't there anything you want?"

  "Nothing that killing all of them won't get me. Plus, I'm not an idiot. Gale is right; if I give them enough time, they'll work out a way to stop me." He paused, thinking, "When The Raven arrived, I saw something I'd never expected. I saw a way to bring all the supers in the world under one rule. One leader. With so many supers, it could never happen. But with the herd culled...it was possible. I could make it happen. And I'd be that leader. In the end, as you said, I'll effectively rule the world."

  "From the throne of the Bulwark?" I asked.

  He sighed, "Actually, I thought about that. It would make sense. Keep this body. This history. They'd call me the one that survived. Or maybe I'd change my name from Doe to Survivor." He shook his head, disgusted, "You know how we love to change our names. But, in the end, I just couldn't. Being around all that...crap. Ugh. I could barely stand it for these last couple of months."

  I let a touch of mirth into my voice, "I can understand. They can be a bit..."

  Doe glanced at my shirt, "Sucky?"

  I laughed, "Quite."

  Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Gale shaking. This lack of movement, action, was killing her. She just wanted to reach out and grab him. There probably wasn't enough air in the room for her to do much. I wasn't sure what that gun fired, but it probably wasn't anything she could block anyhow. We were, technically, at Doe's mercy. Time to give her something to think about.

  "You were at the Tournament. When The Raven showed up."

  "Of course. Nearly everyone was. At least everyone important."

  "But you lived."

  "I'm never without an exit plan."

  "Like now?"

  "Of course. Not that I need much of one. You'll give me what I want or I'll kill your assistant. If you still don't, I'll start killing other people close to you."

  "Like Gale?"

  "Or that fat friend of yours from the City. Chris you called him?" He turned to Gale, "You'd know him as Dirk Dirtwater. The reporter that has been working with your ex-husband for the last few months."

  Gale turned to me, slowly, "You were told you could bring anyone but him."

  I shrugged, "Sorry. I mean, not really, but yeah..."

  "Do you know how much trouble you two could have been in if anyone found out?"

  I looked at her, "You mean, more trouble than we're in now?"

  "That's not the point, Bob."

  Doe interrupted, "That's right, it isn't the point. The point is that I'll kill him, his family, your friend Liz, and anyone that's ever talked to you if that is what it takes. No one is looking for me. No one is looking for you. I have all the time in the world. And your friends don't."

&n
bsp; I sat up, "What do you mean?"

  "I mean that if I don't check in with my henchmen by daybreak, they have their instructions."

  "Which are?"

  Doe smiled, "Perfectly timed and planned, I can assure you. If we do nothing but sit here and talk, you'll be without friends or family by the end of the day." Doe cringed for a moment, "I have to say, your friend Liz? I assigned a particularly disturbed henchman to her. He sort of has issues with women. I'm afraid she won't die quickly."

  I gritted my teeth, "You're a monster."

  "That's not the insult you think it is. Not to me at least."

  It was time. I'd had enough. All but the last piece of information I wanted.

  "Siddeon."

  His eyes grew wide, "You know?"

  "You must be more of an idiot than I'd heard if you thought I couldn't see through this silly disguise."

  "Silly?" Siddeon sputtered. "I had my entire body changed. Completely rebuilt. My own mother wouldn't have recognized me."

  Gale was staring at us like we were explosives on a hair trigger. Siddeon was shaking with rage, as I'd hoped. It was time for him to make a mistake. All I had to do was push him a little harder.

  "You kept talking about all the stuff you designed. All the inventions. But you're just a charlatan. We saw your labs. All the bodies. You used them and threw them away."

  "I gave them purpose!" Siddeon yelled, "They had good ideas, but they weren't smart enough to pass the tests. They weren't super geniuses. But those tippys built the Super City. Each one contributing a single idea, but one by one, they built it. And the Super State? They didn't want to have anything to do with them."

  "There were supers there too."

  Siddeon sputtered, "A few. Yes. When I found out what they had designed, I made sure they didn't pass."

  "And stole their ideas. Passed them off as your own."

  "The plan is all that mattered. Those people were just tools."

  Siddeon's hand started to shake, but the gun was still pointed at Leon's temple. I had to push harder.

  "You're like the kid cheating on his math test. Just a kid too stupid to solve for X."

  Siddeon shouted, "Fuck you, Bob. You have no idea who you are dealing with!"

  I stood, yelling, "You killed them! Piled them up like firewood."

  "You make that sound like a bad thing!"

  The gun started to angle away as he leaned forward to yell at me. I almost had him! Just one more...

  "Take me."

  I almost screamed in frustration. I turned to Gale, my eyes pleading.

  "What?" Siddeon's voice was suddenly quiet, the rage draining from his face.

  "She doesn't mean it. Don't listen." I needed to keep control. Keep him angry.

  "No," Gale turned to me, "I know what I'm doing." She turned back to Siddeon, "Take me, instead of all those others."

  Siddeon's hand was again rock steady, "I have you already. How does this benefit me exactly?"

  "I won't fight you. I'll be your willing hostage. Bob will give you what you want."

  "He'll do that anyway."

  "Gale," I implored, "shut up. You don't know what you're doing."

  She turned to me, "I'm saving lives. I'm a member of the Bulwark. It's what we do."

  Siddeon turned to me, a gleam in his eyes. I glanced up at "Mind's" corner. Why wasn't she stepping in? Why wasn't she doing anything?

  "Okay, just...wait." I put a hand up. "Before either of you do something that I regret, I have one last question."

  Siddeon turned to me, his eyes hard and piercing, "And we finally get to it." He licked his lips, "You were right about me, Bob," Siddeon's calm demeanor was back.

  All that work I'd done in getting him angry was gone. Damn it. Damn it all. Why couldn't she just keep her mouth shut?

  "Right about what?"

  "I'm not a genius." Siddeon sighed, "Do you know that my power was once considered too minor for inclusion in any super group? They didn't want to have anything to do with me."

  "So, now you're killing them? Isn't that sort of cliché?" I taunted.

  He didn't take the bait, "Maybe. But, though they claimed it was my lack of combat ability, I knew the truth: they were jealous. See," his eyes bored into mine, "I'm not some sort of sob story. I wasn't cast out or some sort of disenfranchised youth looking for attention." His smile was cold, "I just like killing people. This?" Siddeon nodded toward the gun in his hand still pointed at Leon's head, "I rarely get to do this. Usually, it is someone else or some trap. That just seems so impersonal to me. So...I don't know...impolite? I would much rather be here, but alas, it often isn't to be."

  I swallowed. "I see."

  "I doubt that, but let's leave it at that for now. I was saying?"

  "Your power."

  "Do you have a guess?"

  I shook my head, "Looks like I'm taking the first step toward knowledge."

  Siddeon laughed, "Quick learner. I do like you, Bob. I wouldn't have expected you to guess. That would have suggested that you were a super. And, I think, I probably would have liked you less. No, not a genius. I can see patterns. Mostly weaknesses. All I have to do is look at someone, see how they walk, hear them talk, and patterns emerge. I can look at a building and see which bricks I'd have to remove to have it fall down. Patterns, Bob, weaknesses."

  This power excluded from super groups? I couldn't believe it. The only thing that made sense was that his teammates weren't jealous; they were likely ending up dead at the conclusion of one of his plans.

  I thought back, "The cars that were following me? That was you."

  Siddeon clicked his tongue, "You're a quick one. What I said before was true. I had heard of you. I angled to get you up to the Super City so I could check you out. The way you kept popping up in many of my side businesses, I figured you must be a super or have something special about you. Even if you weren't a super, I could get rid of you along with the other supers. Two birds, one stone sort of thing. But then, on a whim, I swung by your place. And I got a look at this glorious apartment. That's when the pattern clicked into place. Whatever is special about you? It isn't in you. It is all around you. Like this apartment. I don't know how you did this, but it is beautiful. Once I saw it, I just had to have it."

  "It was you," I accused. "In the car, with the window down."

  "And outside during the S-Clipse and a half dozen other times. I studied this place from every conceivable angle. For the first time since my powers manifested, I found something without a weakness. Not a single one. Of course, I couldn't resist. I had to have it."

  I shook my head, "All this, for an apartment."

  Siddeon looked around, "It's magnificent, Bob. I...I can't explain it to you, you can't understand. To see the weak points in everyone...everything...it's a world of disappointment. Did you know that often it takes little more than a poke in the right place at the right time to kill a person? But this place...what you've created here...it's amazing." He paused for moment, and then added, "Are you listening?"

  I hadn't been listening. Not in me, he had said. All around me. Mind's help. Gale's frequent interventions. Ted's legs and clothes. All the devices I'd used over the years. All provided by or created by supers. I shook the thoughts from my head, trying to focus, "Gideon Sans."

  "Yes."

  "He works for you?"

  "I sometimes use that name, yes."

  I swallowed, muttering to myself, "My God, Tay was getting the clones directly from you all along and he never knew it."

  Siddeon leaned in, "What was that? Clones? Did you say clones?"

  I shut my mouth. Patterns. He saw patterns. I couldn't ask about Nineteen. He'd know. He'd use it against me.

  I needed to change the subject. Talk about anything else. Steer the conversation toward anything.

  "He's been meeting with you, talking to you, and didn't know it. This whole time, Tay has been under your direct control."

  "Unlike my fellow supers, I'm not averse to r
ecognizing the abilities of tippys. Your friend Master Tay, for example, proved quite useful in keeping my machinations hidden from the Bulwark. My henchmen, once properly motivated, are loyal and effective.

  "But you, Bob Moore. What motivates you?"

  I shifted my weight in my chair, uncomfortable under Siddeon's stare.

  "You can't be intimidated. You can't be bought or pandered to. I could promise you...everything. But all you seem to want is more pain. Ever since the death of your daughter, it's the only thing you understand any more, isn't it? It's been with you for so long that you've forgotten what life is like without it."

  "Fuck you," I growled through gritted teeth.

  "So all I can do is give you the option between two pains and let you choose the less painful one. Because that's what you really want, isn't it?"

  "Fuck you!" I screamed, my body shaking. "You don't know me! You don't understand anything!"

  Gale interrupted, her eyes wide, "Do we have a deal, Siddeon? Me for the rest of them? You make that call. Call off your goons and Bob will give you what you want. Right, Bob?"

  All I could do was nod and shake under Siddeon's piercing gaze.

  Siddeon focused on me, "Clones."

  I tried not to react. Tried to turn to stone. But the rage was still racking my body. The edge of Siddeon's eye twitched.

  He looked at Gale, "I'm going to have to decline." Siddeon raised the gun and shot her in the chest.

  "NO!" I cried, my movements in slow motion. I threw myself toward Gale as Siddeon pointed the gun, but I knew, from the moment I started moving, that I wouldn't get there in time. Gale's face was full of determination and resolution. It wasn't until the energy beam hit her chest that it transformed into confusion and pain. She fell backward into the bookshelf and then slid down.

  The moment she hit the ground, time started to flow normally. I was on my knees, her head in my lap. The smell of charred flesh filled my nostrils. Her chest was completely hollowed out. The beam hadn't come out the other side, but instead, had burned a hole big enough to fit half a basketball. I looked for some way to cover the wound. But it wasn't bleeding and it was far too large. My hand waved above it of its own accord, looking for some good to do. There was nothing.