Blaze of Glory

by Sheryl Nantus

  “Nothing.” Limox sighed. “Nothing to see here, folks, just move along.”

  Leaning down, I grabbed another mouthful, talking around the food. “Thanks.”

  “Always be prepared.” Hunter grinned. “Think it’ll take a long time for this hair dye to wash out?”

  “Oh, yeah,” I mumbled. “Besides, you make a good brunet.”

  “Thanks. I think.” His fingers brushed my lips as he positioned the last bite of the bar. The sudden heat flaring up from his touch sent a shiver along my spine. Without thinking, my tongue shot out, licking the last of the chocolate from his hand.

  His eyes went wide, a playful smile on his face. Pulling away, he twisted back up beside me, still holding onto my hand.

  “Okay.” His voice was steady and calm. “This is how we’re going to do this…”

  Chapter Ten

  I could tell you that we came in with a picture-perfect landing like the cover of a thousand comic books, touching down with the gentle whiff of a butterfly’s wing.

  I would be lying.

  “It’s pretty flat,” Hunter had said a few minutes earlier, squinting as he stared into the darkness. “Keep as low to the treetops as you can. Without killing us, that is.”

  I grunted, too busy to snark back at him. The small trees were still in full flower, making it hard to see where the sky ended and they began until my feet literally began to drag across them.

  “Hey!” Limox roared in my ear.

  “Shut up. You’re just fine,” I growled through the link. A nasty branch tangled around my ankle, forcing me to suddenly lose altitude.

  May’s terrified squeak lasted as long as it took for me to yank my foot free, sending us into a strange spiral spin up into the night.

  “Jo…” Hunter’s low, calming voice filled my ears. “There’s a clearing just to our left. Head for that.”

  Without arguing I shifted our bubble down towards the small grassy spot, no bigger than maybe twenty feet wide in an odd rectangle shape.

  I eased back on the imaginary throttle, knowing this wasn’t going to be anything to tell the tabloids about.

  We landed, a writhing mass of arms and legs atop each other, tangled up in a pile of bushes a good mile from what Hunter said was the entrance to the Agency. As I extracted myself from the stack I could have sworn I heard someone chuckling.

  “If I’ve broken anything, I’m going to sue you,” Limox grumbled, brushing twigs and dirt from the front of his black sweatshirt.

  “Stuff it. I thought you liked being on top.” I turned to May who was busy shaking her head back and forth, trying to dislodge a handful of colorful leaves that had taken root. “Are you okay?”

  “Just fine.” Her cheerful voice was a welcome distraction. “That was great.” She beamed at Hunter. He shook his head, carefully plucking the last of the leaves from her hair.

  “Glad you like it. Going to have to do it again to get back home.” Hunter looked at Limox, then at me. “Ready to go?”

  “Do I get a vote?” Limox asked, lifting one chubby hand into the air.

  “No,” both Hunter and I responded at the same time. Mayday let out a giggle behind one hand. I heard Limox cursing under his breath behind me and considered telling May about it but thought the better of it—we still needed his powers to get through this.

  The barn and farmhouse were easily visible in the early light of dawn. Hunter looked up at the rising sun as we trod down the dirt road.

  “Not bad time-wise.” He glanced at his watch. “Going to make it right at shift change.”

  “And that’s a good thing?” Limox asked.

  “Sort of,” Hunter said. “There’s always a bit of confusion during a shift change, people not being exactly where they should be, a loss of communication for a few minutes. Enough to take advantage of, if you know how.”

  “And twice the people to deal with,” Limox shot back. “And this is your great plan?”

  “It’s as good as it gets,” Hunter replied. “If you’ve got anything else, you should have spoken up before.”

  Limox spat on the ground. “I sure as hell didn’t think we’d be walking into a nest of trouble.”

  The static began in my mind, a low rumble. “Limox, shut up. We all agreed to this before we even left Toronto, so just shut the hell up.” I turned to May. “It’ll be fine. You know Hunter’s a smart guy.”

  “The smartest.” She smiled back. “And he looks good as a brunet, don’t you think?”

  I grinned. “So do you.”

  Hunter pointed at the barn. “That’s where the main facility is, according to what I remember. Farmhouse is for the security people, mostly. They actually run the farm.”

  “Any external alarms?” I tried to see as far as I could in the dim light, wishing I had been gifted with night vision as well.

  “Nope. They’re not afraid of being attacked. They know where every super is, right?” Hunter reached out and tapped the jammer unit still tucked inside my jacket. “And that hides all of you.”

  “As long as we stay close,” Limox grumbled again.

  “Which is why Jessie gave each of you your own,” Hunter shot back. “Or didn’t you bother to bring yours along?”

  Out of the corner of my eye I saw the super raise his hands, fingers extended in what could be a possible attack.

  “Enough,” I growled at the two men. “Save it for the Agency thugs. ’Cause you know they’re not going to let us walk in, pop this computer program and walk out.” My own gloved hands moved up. “And if I have to shock the two of you and leave your bodies here while May and I do it, I will.”

  Limox’s hands fell back to his sides with an annoyed grunt in the darkness. Hunter remained silent.

  “Right.” I nodded towards May. “As soon as you can, start doing that thing you do.”

  May looked at Hunter, lifting her hands. “How much?”

  The Guardian raised his thumb and index finger, placing them an inch or so apart. “Knockout much, May. And a bit of a headache afterwards. They’re not really nice guys.” He paused. “Be careful. They may be pretty tough.”

  She shot him a smile that belonged on a much younger woman. “Buster, they ain’t seen nothing yet.”

  The low buzz in my brain jumped in intensity, finally stopping with an abrupt mental snap. A few seconds later she grinned.

  “All done,” May announced as if she’d just won the pie-making competition at the county fair. “Should be good for close to a half hour, maybe.”

  “Maybe?” Limox squeaked, slapping his right ear with his hand. “And, for your information, I’ve got a heck of a ringing here.”

  “Should have been nicer to her.” Hunter waved us towards the barn. “My code should at least get us in the front door. After that, well…”

  “Three floors down, the computers. Four floors down, Jenny,” I repeated from our briefing back at the apartment. I still couldn’t call it a base. “And the first two are filled with security as the welcoming committee. Wonderful.”

  “What’s under the girl? Any treasure vaults?” Limox muttered as we advanced on the two red barn doors. There were no screaming alarms, no tripwires activating death beams, no land mines shooting up to disembody us in a microsecond. Nothing but dirt and stone under our shuffling feet.

  “Training and discipline facility,” Hunter said, an almost-sorrowful tone in his voice. “Been empty for years.”

  “Good.” I reached the door first, gloves fully charged up. “I think we have enemies enough, don’t you?”

  The small keypad was hidden behind a loose plank of wood, the peeling red paint running off in long strips. Hunter tapped in a nine-digit code and held his breath.

  After what seemed like an eternity the small light flickered from red to green, and the sound of a deadbolt being unlocked was loud and very noticeable.

  I took a deep breath, thinking of Mike. “Time to rock and shock, people.” Lifting my hands, I motioned for Hunter to open th
e door.

  Contrary to what people might think, Guardians aren’t equipped with guns. And Hunter had made it very plain to me that he refused to carry one even if we had managed to get one for him. So my surprise when he charged through the open door, yelling like a banshee, was genuine.

  And totally wasted when we found ourselves on the first floor with an unconscious security guard slumped over the desk, the monitors revealing a slew of similar scenes all through the complex.

  Limox stared at May, a sudden burst of respect in his voice. “You did them pretty good.”

  Judging from the expression on her face, it was a surprise to May as well. She glanced at Hunter, who just nodded his approval with a touch of a smile on his lips.

  The elevator doors opened quietly—no mellow music to accompany us down to the third level. Hunter tilted his head close to me, holding the nightstick and taser he had liberated from the first guard.

  “Don’t get cocky. This isn’t going to be that easy.”

  “Don’t get cocky.” Mike’s voice echoed in my ears as we swooped down on the first supervillain, another newbie called Danny Pulse. He stood there in the middle of the park with his hands on his hips, looking rather smug in yellow spandex with a goofy grin.

  “Just don’t let him…” Mike’s words died away as the kid with the long red mullet lifted his fists towards me, firing off a pulse wave that not only rippled along the ground under me, tearing up the grass, but also blasted me out of the air, shattering my control.

  I smashed into the oak tree behind me and slid down to the ground in an embarrassing heap of arms and legs. Metal Mike landed behind the punk who was too busy laughing, bent over and clutching his stomach at my confusion.

  “That is why you don’t get cocky,” Mike rumbled as he slammed one metal fist into the side of Danny Pulse. “Now get to your feet and do your job.”

  The elevator doors slid open, Hunter and myself taking point. A guard slumped behind his desk, a line of drool running out of his mouth. Hunter stopped to pick up the taser from the guard’s belt and then looked down the corridor.

  “No idea which door it is. Better split up.”

  I gestured to Mayday and Meltdown. “Go hunting for anything that looks important enough computer-wise.”

  Limox scoffed. “Well, that’s specific enough.”

  “How about anything that looks like it’ll blow your head off?” I snapped back. “We’ve only got a few minutes before they wake up, and I’d rather not fight my way back out, okay?”

  Hunter lifted his hands. “It’s going to have a map screen of all the supers and where they’re located, recording the GPS signals as they come in. Look for something that’s really, really impressive.” He studied May’s face. “Be careful,” he said in a low tone. “These men are not playing.”

  “I’ll be fine.” She strode down the corridor, heading for the first door. “I’ve been in tougher spots before.”

  I couldn’t help glancing at Hunter. “Yes, she has.” He grinned. “But that’s another story.”

  Limox muttered something as he passed the two of them, moving towards another door and leaving me the last door at the far end.

  It would have been nice if we had gotten lucky on the first door, but as it was we ended up regrouping in the middle of the hallway a few minutes later.

  Limox was chewing on a chocolate bar. “What?” he responded to my stare. “I was hungry. And I didn’t have any change for the machine.”

  “Whatever.” I focused on May and Hunter. “No luck either?”

  “Guess it wasn’t going to be that easy.” Hunter’s smile was forced, the worry lines on his forehead deepening.

  “Stairs.” I pointed at the clearly marked door. “One by one until we get it done.” Sparks leapt from my fingers as I flung open the door and led the team down the stairwell.

  “Time is not on our side.” Hunter tapped his watch. “Maybe another ten minutes before they raise the alarm, max. And that’s if they don’t answer their check-in call from the nearest Agency center, probably in Buffalo.”

  “Pretty lax security,” Limox groused, moving past me into the empty hallway. “I wouldn’t hire these guys to watch my plants.”

  “Not really,” Hunter replied. “They’re not expecting an attack so they’ll take a few minutes to realize what’s going on. And we’re not standing in the front daring them to take us on. Still, less chat more splat would be good.”

  A very girly shriek from Limox signaled the end of the plan. We burst through the door, spotting him at the business end of a taser, staring down at the electrodes imbedded in his chest as the electrical shock ran through his body. The guard holding the business end looked at us as if we had appeared out of nowhere, his mouth dropping open at the sight.

  “No.” I slammed him back against the wall with a double blast, knocking him and his weapon out. May knelt by the semiconscious super, cradling his head in her lap. Limox was drooling, his eyes unfocused and his fingers twitching every few seconds. I knew what a taser would do to a normal person—hell, I was a taser—but Limox wasn’t normal. For all I knew he was about to go into a seizure that could kill him or turn his powers on and melt us all into goo.

  “Take care of him.” I sprinted towards the first door and tossed it open. “Get him up and moving as fast as you can.”

  I skidded to a stop just inside the darkened room, my senses on overload from the amount of electrical energy snapping around me. As my eyes adjusted to the dim lighting I saw what we had been looking for, no doubt.

  And it was fucking scary.

  The transparent map hung on the wall, different red and blue lights spotting all over the continent. Some faded in and out, some were steady colors—probably the attempt of other supers to block the GPS locators. There couldn’t have been more than forty, maybe fifty at the most on the map.

  Last time I had gotten a straight answer out of Mike he had claimed there were more than five hundred supers in North America.

  The computer screens were littered with code sprawling back and forth, across, up and down. A few unconscious technicians lay on the floor. After making sure they didn’t have any weapons I sat down at the nearest terminal and pulled out the flash drive Jessie had given me.

  “This should shut down the system.” He had plucked the small black oval box free from the USB port on the computer and handed it to me. “I’ve programmed in a virus that’ll not only delete the detonation sequence but also scramble your codes to the point that no one will ever be able to use them again.” He eyeballed Hunter, who was sitting on the couch with May as she expounded on how nice he would look with black hair. “Better warn him that he won’t be able to threaten her anymore.”

  “Like he ever has.” I smiled as the younger man laid his hand on her arm, reacting to something the senior said. “Makes you wonder who’s really in charge.”

  “Yeah, well…guess they don’t check Guardians as much as they should, eh?” Jessie stopped, seeing the pained expression on my face. “Sorry about Mike, again.”

  “Yeah.” I slipped the flash drive into my pocket. “Just keep an eye on the skies.”

  The flash drive slid cleanly into the USB port and started doing its thing without me prompting it, sending a spiral of words and letters and numbers across the first screen in front of me and then spreading to the other monitors in the room. The map began to flash and shift, the red dots flickering with the blue ones disappearing totally. Finally the entire map went blank, nothing left at all.

  “It can’t be that easy.” I let my breath out slowly, feeling a familiar ache in the pit of my stomach. “It can’t be that easy.”

  “It’s not.” The unfamiliar voice had me spinning around in my chair, palms raised.

  A woman stood in the doorway, her long white hair falling down past her waist. She shuffled towards me using a walker, the floral print on her dress faded and worn, the hem dragging on the floor. Her face had a cheerful look about it as if sh
e had just won the church bingo without spending too much money on the cards. But there was an air of relief as well.

  “There’s a backup system one floor down that you’ll have to physically destroy.” One shriveled hand waved towards the hallway. “Your friend can do that much while we talk.”

  “Who are…?” I lowered my hands. “Jenny?” The whisper caught in my throat. “Are you Jenny?”

  She smiled a faint wispy smile that faded away before I had even registered it in my mind. “Welcome to the Agency, Jo. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

  Hunter came out of the darkness and skidded to a stop behind her, breathless. “Limox is okay,” he choked out as he stared at the woman. “Jenny?” The word was tinged with more than a little shock and fear.

  “Hunter.” She nodded at him and then gestured past him down the hallway with one pale finger. “May and Harris can get down to the next floor without any trouble. The guards are all unconscious. Just tell them to be careful and not to blow up too much stuff. There’s always a chance something’s going to give them a bigger blast than they can handle.” She gave Hunter a pat on the shoulder as the startled man stood there. “Been a long time, Hunt. You’ve gained weight.”

  “Yeah,” he whispered. Then he turned around and shouted behind him, “One more floor down. Destroy the computer banks.” Hunter looked at the woman in front of him. “Will that do it? Will that take out all the plugs?” He exhaled as if he’d been running a marathon.

  “For now. You go keep an eye on the kids, Jo and I need to have a talk.” She shooed him out the door as if he were a wayward child seeking a cookie before dinner. He hesitated only a second, glancing back at me before disappearing into the hallway. In the distance I heard him berating Limox for setting fire to something and May’s voice calming him down even as she repeated her earlier diatribe to Limox about his language.

  “So. You’re the one causing all the fuss, I hear.” She took hold of the rolling office chair I pushed towards her and settled into the black cushions. “These make my back hurt so. Darned people. Make it hard for an old woman to get around. And they took away my wheelchair a month ago, so…”