by Jason Zandri
“Save it,” Jennifer said, and then pulled her phone from her back pocket and unlocked the screen. “What are you going to threaten me with? Never working in this field again? I’ll bag groceries the rest of my life if I need to in order to keep my soul, and conscience, clear of all of this. And as far as exposing it all,’ she said while tapping on the screen of the phone. “I don’t need to; you just did.”
Jennifer held up the company phone, screen forward, and then tossed it to Jane, who fumbled it slightly but managed to catch it.
“Don’t fuck with your I.T. personnel; especially when we have nothing to lose. You don’t even know how we work your systems and networks, and we do it in ways you can’t even understand.”
Jane looked at the screen of the phone and noted all the different news and information outlets that had been notified with all the documents of recent activity regarding the covert efforts against Nathan, from inside the agency. She looked up from the phone and at Jennifer, as multiple lines to her desk phone lit up simultaneously.
“You stupid, stupid girl … you have no idea what you’ve done,” Jane said in a disgusted tone.
“I know exactly what I’ve done,” Jennifer said, walking toward the door of the office. “I’ve completely implicated myself, too, with everything that actually occurred. This way, if I somehow disappear, the people will know. I don’t fear working in the light. You vampires do.”
Jennifer walked out, and the office manager barged in. “The phones are ringing off the hook,” he said, both excited and nervous.
Jane walked around to her seat and looked at all the red lines lit on the phone at her desk. She flopped into the chair. “Let them ring,” she said, sounding defeated.
“And the girl?” he asked.
Jane looked up at the badge on the desk. She then took Jennifer’s phone and placed it next to the badge. “Let her go; the damage is done.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Lisa waited uncomfortably in the waiting area for emergency admittance. Rebecca stood stoically and stared at a blank space on the wall.
Lisa had tried to make small talk with her once she’d gotten all caught up with the current status on Nathan, but Rebecca acted as if she was in and out of a fog in the conversation—at times acting distracted and not totally there.
Adia had texted that Jack was already on site and had setup up a security perimeter to keep the press and the curious back. She indicated she would get there as soon as she could.
Minutes became hours and moved too slowly. Eventually, Adia showed up, and all that while Rebecca had barely moved.
“What’s going on with her?” Adia asked Lisa quietly while shifting a bit to get comfortable in her seat.
“I don’t know,” Lisa said. “She was full of fire and brimstone when she got here; I felt concerned that she would harm people. Then she acted as if she’d been hit in the stomach. After that, she walked away from emergency admitting and stared at the wall. It’s effectively all she’s done.”
One of the surgeons exited the emergency prep area and approached.
“Ladies,” he said, taking off his glasses and cap. “He’s one tough bastard, that guy. I make the assumption by the damage, and from what little I’ve read in the papers about his powers, that they were not active.”
“The Patriot doesn’t have invulnerability; bullets and knives and such, if they can hit him, will harm him,” Lisa said in a low voice.
“Yes.” The doctor nodded. “He initially exhibited some fast healing; his metabolic healing rate was extremely accelerated—”
“Oh my God,” Adia said, jumping to her feet. “The first responders in emergency … they would have cut his shirt to work on him. It negated his healing powers as The Patriot.”
“Is there a variety store nearby?” Lisa asked. “If we can get him another shirt, any hero with fast healing or regenerative powers …”
“It won’t matter,” Rebecca said in a quiet tone, turning away from the wall and staring down. Her eyes had gone completely white. “The Watcher Thaddeus is gone. The altered connection is corrected. Nathan’s powers are as they were before. Without an emergency, they will be inactive.”
“He’s dying; that’s a big emergency in my book, Zeus,” Lisa said while looking up at the ceiling. The doctor moved a bit, uncomfortable with the conversation, and Rebecca’s earlier entrance still left him frightened.
“He’s injured, but he’s not in current danger,” Rebecca said, closing her eyes tightly and touching the side of her head with her fingertips. “He will heal over time.”
“You seem to be up to your full power,” Adia said.
“The Olympians intentionally limited Nathan’s powers and abilities. When I performed the enchantment on myself, the one that bestowed Gaea’s powers of Earth and the elements, I set no limitations. I’m not impacted in the same way that Nathan is.” Rebecca turned and walked toward the outside exit. “All we can do now is wait for nature to take its regular course.” Rebecca’s eyes turned back to their normal shade and color hue. The doors parted, and a small breeze blew her blond hair back. “I don’t suppose the police discovered anything?” she asked, tipping her head back to look at Adia peripherally.
“They’re working leads still,” Adia said and walked part of the way over to address her. “They’ve set up a four-block perimeter in the area from where the shots were fired. They’re going door to door. If he didn’t escape during the shit storm, when you brought the rain, we’ll get him.”
Rebecca turned her head towards Adia, and her eyes filled and became completely black. “Perhaps I will simply level the four blocks. If that doesn’t catch the shooter, it will be a strong message and act as a future deterrent.”
“Don’t do anything foolish, Rebecca,” Lisa said nervously while coming over. “Every other person in that area is totally innocent. No one knew what was going to happen. You’ll injure or kill hundreds.”
“You’re right,” Rebecca said then turned away. “That’s too few. You won’t get the message.”
Rebecca stepped outside the doors, and the media converged on her. She waved her arms outward, which sent them all reeling back, and then she lifted herself up and away to the sky.
“Do you think she will?” Lisa asked Adia in a hushed tone.
“I don’t know,” Adia said as she stepped out through the doorway to watch her disappear out of sight. “She is capable, and she has the power. I don’t know what her full intentions are. All I know is that only Nathan can stop her.”
***
Hera made her way into the amber fields. The wind blew the grains, her hair, and her dress. Artemis appeared and made her way over. “It seems, time and again, though we’ve never been on the best of terms, we find ourselves with aligned concerns.”
Hera nodded. “We both understand the reasons for those differences, and they are from the long past. Not forgotten, but long just the same.” Hera turned to allow the warm breeze to meet her face. Artemis turned in the same direction. “Still,” Hera said with a small sigh. “Things needed to be addressed.”
“I can feel the full connection to the Prime Universe once again,” Artemis said and closed her eyes. “The message from the Watcher known as Cici was correct, and this has set the scales back.”
“Are they that far back?” Hera asked. “Yes, our connections are restored. It was enough to bargain with Hades for a way through the Unknown Passage.”
“We will have to bargain with him again, if The Fates and The Watchers are correct in what they see,” Artemis said, and then turned around so the wind was at her back again. She gave Hera an intent look. “I find myself regretting the limitation on the Hero Nathan. If I could do it again, I would grant him full access to his gifts. He has earned them time and again. I am embarrassed for my doubt of the man.”
Hera held up her hand, feeling a small measure of remorse for Artemis. “We all had reservations in one form or another. None of us has forgotten Ahzeem Ama and th
e price paid to defeat him. Now it would seem the essence of his malevolent nature lives on still and will need to be defeated again.”
“I find it interesting that The Watcher known as Cici seemed to be most correct on all the things she observed. I cannot recall another Watcher who had that much proficiency over their birthright,” Artemis said before she moved away.
“My very concern is that proficiency,” Hera said and turned in the opposite direction. “Between what she has seen and what The Fates have foretold, the outcome seems grim.”
“But with respect to what The Watchers see, they are only the most likely outcomes given the prior paths taken.” Artemis stopped for a moment to look back. “If we have learned anything of the Earthers, it is that they are often surprising, and can deliver an unanticipated outcome from actions not expected to be taken.”
“Yes,” Hera said, and a small smile came across her face.
“Do you believe Zeus will have us directly intervene?” Artemis asked. “As we did before?”
“I don’t know,” Hera said and closed her eyes to let the wind grace her skin. “I would think that he would, given that Ahzeem Ama is our responsibility. At the same time, if The Watcher is correct, and this isn’t exactly Ahzeem Ama himself but rather a manifestation of evil, the matter becomes mixed. We created a problem when we gave Ahzeem Ama the powers of a champion. Evil, which man wrought, is what overcame Ahzeem and what appears to be in play now. Zeus may decide that it isn’t fully the Olympians’ place to decide that outcome.”
“But I don’t understand,” Artemis said. “We granted Ahzeem his powers—”
“And, as a man with free will, he allowed them to corrupt him,” Hera said. “It may not be our place to correct that.”
“Despite all the talk about the need to bring all things back into balance?” Artemis asked.
“We will have our places for action, like the ones you took recently. In the end, however, that is why The Watcher chose Nathan; it is mainly up to him now.” Hera said, then opened her eyes and turned to look at Artemis.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The early morning fog hung thick, and Congressman Patrick Johnson had some difficulty navigating his pure-bred Labrador Retriever over to the area in the park where he would meet Jane Parker. Still early morning, the sun hadn’t yet risen, although the morning light had increased.
The dog pulled him along and, in short order, the grassy area and the bench came into view.
“Well,” he said, quietly coming along the path in front of the bench. “We don’t have to worry about being seen by anyone; you can’t see a damn thing with this fog.”
“It’s supposed to burn off later,” Jane said and rose from the park bench. “Thank you for coming. I know you didn’t want to.”
“No,” he said in a stern voice. “Your I.T. person blew the lid off the whole thing; revealing a lot what your division was doing—”
“Under your ask,” Jane said.
“For the common goal,” Congressman Johnson said. “For the safety and security of America.” The Congressman walked away when his dog tugged him into the grassy area. “We still don’t have all the answers. We’ll have to find new ways now to get this taken care of.”
“To what end, Congressman?” Jane asked. “It’s been nearly a month since the assassination attempt on Nathan’s life. The only things he’s done, since the day he left the hospital two weeks ago, were to dismiss the issue of the attack, explaining he’d have to be more careful in public locations, and then going back to helping people like he always has.”
“Saving cats from trees … what Nathan does best. While he’s showing the world he’s busy being a hero, we’re sure he’s doing something else in all those cities, and we can’t get the access to those locations to figure it out. And now there are two of them, with that Farnsmith woman …”
“Who’s also done nothing more than assist Nathan,” Jane said.
“We have no ability to address either one of them, if they should go rogue, as it is. And if the two of them decide to be Father and Mother gods on us, then it’s game over.” The Congressman tugged at his dog to coax him out of the grass and back onto the path. “No … we need a contingency, to defend ourselves if we must.”
“How was the assassination attempt on Nathan defending ourselves?” Jane asked. “More people are pissed and upset over that incident than anything else. Even the people who supported the notion of protecting ourselves against any type of rise against the nation, by Nathan or any other super-powered being, are now upset that the government is the bigger threat. Our departments are doing things in the shadows and behind closed doors with zero transparency. We have no approvals or backing, and for that matter, most of the clandestine effort is in the form of shadow operations.”
“It was an opportunity hit.” The Congressman ignored Jane’s additional comments. “From the few things we learned about Nathan and his powers from your research and study, and due to the fact he was hanging around the park that day, it was a perfect opportunity. Ground surveillance moved in close enough to hear their conversation. Nathan was waiting on his two friends to show up, so we knew he’d be there a short while. That gave us the time to set up in the high-rise locations once we realized that he was in his Patriot costume. We knew his powers at that point didn’t offer personal force-fields or invulnerability, as The Patriot has neither of those.”
“So what went wrong?” Jane asked.
“I’m not sure I follow,” the Congressman said.
“Well, you clearly had more than one sniper; how did he walk away?”
“Yes …” Congressman Johnson said softly. “We ordered the kill shot, but the trees in the park covered clear headshots from all three positions. It’s a shame, too, as that would have ended that threat right there and then.”
“You do realize that on top of executing a civilian, you nearly took down a police officer.” Jane said and moved around a little. “The shots from those high-powered guns went clear through Nathan and into Officer Adia Santiago. If she hadn’t been wearing a vest, she might have been injured or killed. If it had been a straight through head shot …”
“No one ever wants collateral damage, but it does happen from time to time,” he said, looking about in the fog. “Where’s your dog today?”
“Home,” Jane said.
The Congressman looked around into the fog in different directions, and then slowly walked over to the park bench. He looped the dog leash around the armrest and gave it a tug to ensure the dog couldn’t get loose.
“Is everything all right?” Jane asked.
Congressman Johnson didn’t respond. Instead, he walked up the path and into the fog, and then back in the opposite direction. Once he’d done that, he walked back over to Jane, grabbed her buttoned up blouse, and ripped it open.
“Congressman!” she screamed. “What are you doing?”
“You’re never here without your dog when we meet,” he roared, fishing around her clothes and holding her in place. “If you’re wired, it won’t hold up in court, you stupid woman.”
Jane smiled. She reached up to her ear and pressed the device. “Okay, Rebecca,” she said, her voice now sounding like Nathan’s. “You can drop the fog cover; we have what we need.”
Congressman Johnson kept a tight grip on “Jane” as her features slipped away and she became Nathan. The fog rolled away, and the bright, clear morning air exposed a tech crew not too far away in the park, along with Rebecca, who hovered several feet off the ground, Senator Kelly near the tech van, and three secret service men, who made their way over.
The Congressman looked over at the wrinkled shirt on Nathan. In deep blue lettering, he read the name of the hero, “Morpho.” Slowly, he let the shirt go.
The agents moved in, took the Congressman’s hands, and bound them. Senator Kelly walked up, tapped one of the agents on the shoulder, and glanced away. The lead agent whistled and spun his finger over his head, and the three mov
ed away a short distance, standing in a triangle formation around the others.
Rebecca flew overhead at a low height so she could hear.
“Patrick,” Senator Kelly said quietly. “What the hell were you thinking? How did you think this would all play out?”
“I’m not sure what you mean. None of this,” he said, rolling his eyes because his hands were bound “is going to hold up in a court of law. This is an unsanctioned act, and you’ve no backing.”
“First off,” Mackenzie said, leaning in. “I am here at the direction of the Oval Office; they wanted to get to the bottom of this once Jane Parker’s involvement was exposed. She was all too happy to implicate you as a part of a plea bargain. Regardless of how long you and your lawyers tie this up in a court of law, the court of public opinion will judge you much more swiftly.”
“You’re an idealist, Mackenzie. You think Nathan and Farnsmith are wonderful assets to have. This one here …” He looked over at Nathan. “He has declined operational directives more than once despite the fact the President of the United States gave the orders. And that one,” he said, looking up. “We know nothing about her at all. You can trust and verify all you want. What do you do when one of them snaps? The power goes straight to their head, and you can’t deal with them?”
“You mean like when they might go off the reservation? Like you’ve done with your covert operations?”
“Exactly,” Congressman Johnson said. “That’s a perfect example. Imagine what would happen if I had Nathan’s powers. No one could stop me. I’m not the only man with ambitions that have made him blind to reasonable things.” He looked up to Rebecca, who hovered directly overhead. “And I guess these days that applies to women too.”
“Has it even dawned on you that some of the people you worked with, allies and compatriots, launched their efforts on the courthouse early to tie you up as one of their loose ends?” Senator Kelly said, walking in a semi-circle in front of the Congressman.
“It did … after. I was working on figuring out who those people were so that I could deal with them.” The Congressman said quietly. “I’ll have to continue that effort a little later than planned now, I suppose.”