It fell, and I managed to break away from it. But it was already getting up. The only way to stop it was to kill it, and these things were damned hard to kill. Wind brushing my face, I looked quickly around the lab for something that could help.
Hold on. Wind? It picked up in force, and it was emanating from Jocelyn.
She looked pissed.
Treat staggered to her feet, but a hurricane-force gust of wind knocked her back and slammed her into a wall. Then Blue Sparrow turned in my direction. The wind picked up, and I squinted to shield my eyes. My clothes flapped furiously, and I lowered my center of gravity, feeling like I might get swept away like Treat. But I wasn’t Jocelyn’s target. The wind hit the No-Man, sending it tumbling across the floor and crashing into heavy lab equipment.
It was like a tornado indoors. The wind swept endlessly around the room, knocking over chairs and flasks of chemicals and sending papers flying. Blue Sparrow spread her wings, lifting herself into the air as she surveyed the destruction.
Then everything came crashing down.
I hit the floor, feeling as if a building had collapsed atop me. The wind died as Jocelyn plummeted like a bird taken down by a hunting rifle. I strained, but my muscles had all locked up. I couldn’t even lift my head to see where Jocelyn had fallen. Pressed against the hard concrete, I felt like gravity had been multiplied by ten. Coughing, I winced as my breath stirred up dust and dirt from the floor. Windswept papers fluttered down around me like snow, and all I could see was a table that had been knocked over about five feet in front of me. I tried again to turn my head, but it was no use. I was suffocating, crushed by an uncontrollable force.
I’d felt this way once before, when I’d been caught in the range of Agent Lagarde’s powers.
“Get up,” Agent Lagarde said from somewhere behind me.
If she was talking to me, she was going to be disappointed. But then I heard Treat grunt, following by the scuffling of shoes on the floor.
“Load whatever drugs you can carry into the van,” Agent Lagarde ordered. “Quickly.”
“Are you kidding?” Treat was winded, but glee filled her voice. “They’re completely helpless, and I bet one of these vials has acid in it. Let me have some fun.”
“Their backup will get here any second now. Do you want to deal with Freezefire and their telepath?”
“We can take ‘em.”
“Our mission is to move the inventory. Though I’m sure Dr. Sweet will understand when you tell him you got distracted and failed.”
The threat hung pointedly in the air for a second. Then Treat said, “Fine, but once it’s all loaded, I’m killing them.”
I tried desperately to lift myself off the ground. Agent Lagarde’s powers weren’t unbeatable. I’d seen a supervillain stand in spite of them, and if a psychopath like Bloodbath could do it, then so could I. I poured all my focus into moving my arms. Just an inch would be a start…
The sounds of Treat moving back and forth across the room was soon joined by the last No-Man, whom Lagarde ordered to help after it picked itself up from the debris Jocelyn had slammed it into. It wouldn’t take them long to move all the drugs, and I hadn’t managed to move so much as a millimeter yet.
I stopped trying to move and instead focused on my mental defenses. At their core, Agent Lagarde’s powers were telepathic. I began singing “The Song that Gets on Everybody’s Nerves” in my head, trying to shield myself.
“There. Done,” said Treat. “Can I kill them now?”
“No,” Agent Lagarde said. “That’s not part of the mission. Just get in the van.”
“Fuck that,” Treat said. “I know what this is. You don’t want to kill that one because she’s your daughter. Well, guess what? Dr. Sweet told me to keep a lookout for any signs you weren’t completely loyal to him. If you don’t let me kill them, I’ll tell, and he’ll know you can’t be trusted. And you know how he likes to melt people’s faces off when they can’t be trusted.”
“Get in the van, Treat. You’ll regret it if you don’t.”
“You don’t get to boss me around anymore. You’re going to stand there and keep them nice and still while I burn off Blue Sparrow’s wings with a blowtorch and—”
A gunshot rang out, followed by the sound of a body crumpling to the floor. Since Agent Lagarde’s powers still kept me pinned down, I assumed she’d been the shooter rather than the one who’d gotten shot. Poor Treat. She really should’ve learned to quit picking fights she couldn’t win.
Slow footsteps echoed through the lab, going in the direction of the door. Then the crushing pressure of Agent Lagarde’s powers abruptly lifted. I pushed myself up, but Jocelyn was faster. She launched herself into the air and flew after her mother. I followed as quickly as I could, fresh aches pulsing through my body from the No-Man’s hits. I couldn’t help but glance back at Treat’s corpse. The bloody bullet hole sat slightly off-center on her forehead, an expression of shock still set on her face. She must have died instantly.
When I made it out the door, Jocelyn was standing in the middle of the dark street, and the van was gone. I slowed my pace. There was no need to rush since Agent Lagarde had obviously escaped. As I approached Jocelyn, she clutched her right arm. It hung limp at an awkward angle, and closer now, I could see how her jaw clenched in pain. She must have broken it when she’d fallen from the air. Tears spilled from her eyes, but I doubted the pain was the cause.
I hesitantly put a hand on her back, careful not to touch her wings. “She did that to save you,” I said. “Dr. Sweet doesn’t have her completely under his control.”
“He’s not controlling her at all!” Jocelyn spun around. “You heard the way she and Treat were talking! She wasn’t mind-controlled or brainwashed! We were wrong. It’s just like the DSA said. Dr. Sweet put her back together after Bloodbath broke her, and now she’s working for him in exchange. She chose this.” Jocelyn’s left hand flew to her mouth, and she shook with sobs. “She chose it.”
There was nothing I could say to that. I looked down the dark street where Agent Lagarde had vanished along with our last hope of finding Dr. Sweet.
Chapter 13
Back at the safehouse, I put my phone down in frustration after the fifth unanswered call to Dr. Quevedo. Julio looked up from the couch where he sat tending to Blue Sparrow, who cradled her broken arm. Eddy sat in an armchair, face tight with pain from his own injury as he looked on worriedly. Elisa was curled up in the chair beside him, face pale.
“He was pretty spooked before,” I said. “I left a message explaining that it’s safe to come back, and we need him, but… He may decide to stay in hiding longer.”
“I’m fine,” Blue Sparrow said.
Julio rolled his eyes. “I know you say you’re fine. You’ll say that even when gangrene sets in.”
“If that happens, then I’ll go to a hospital.”
“They’ll arrest you on sight.”
“Then they arrest me. We both knew that was how this would end. It’s better than dying from an infection. I’ll be alive, and you’ll be free to stop Dr. Sweet and my mom. You don’t have to worry about me giving you up. My telepathic shields are too good.”
Julio sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “That’s the last thing I’m worried about.”
I wished Dr. Quevedo would pick up his phone. I wished I could do something more to help. There were times when super-strength felt like an utterly worthless power.
“I can set it,” Eddy said, shifting uncomfortably when everyone stared at him. “I’m no doctor, but I’ve done it before. We can find something around here to use as a splint and wrap it up tight. It may get infected, or it may not.”
“Thank you.” Jocelyn smiled. “Let’s do that.”
“It’ll hurt,” Eddy warned. “And it won’t heal as nicely as it would if you got it done at a hospital.”
“I’ll deal,” she said.
As Eddy took care of Jocelyn, I couldn’t help but worry. We couldn’t
keep this up forever, vigilantes hiding from both the law and the city’s supervillains. Jocelyn’s injury was just the first thing to go wrong. And if the wound did get infected…
I looked at Elisa holding her own arm at the same place Blue Sparrow’s was broken. It was either in sympathy, or she could feel the woman’s pain telepathically. She should be at school right now, studying to get into college. What kind of future would this give her?
My phone rang. Dr. Quevedo? I wished he had called before Eddy had set Blue Sparrow’s arm. She’d clenched her jaw and powered through the pain, but Julio had looked like he was going to tear his hair out watching her.
I didn’t recognize the number, but that didn’t mean much. I hit answer and put the phone to my ear. “Hello?”
“It’s me,” Val said.
Her voice filled me with warmth, and I felt tension I hadn’t even noticed drain from my neck and shoulders. “Hey. Are you alright?”
“Better than alright. Dad has a meeting tomorrow afternoon with Dr. Sweet and every other member of their little cabal. We can take them all out at once and then find out what they were planning when they’re lying bleeding and broken at our feet.”
“Sound violent, but I’m in. Where and when?”
She gave me the exact hour and address. “From what I can tell, it’s a mansion. Ritzy part of town. Though, knowing who we’re dealing with, there’ll probably be a few surprises in the security. Just get as close as you can. When the alarm sounds, I’ll do the rest.”
“Be careful,” I begged.
“You too,” she said. “Just think. This time tomorrow we’ll be back together.”
A thrill of longing went through me. “I’m never letting you out my sight again. I might just chain you to the bed.”
“Mmm, tempting,” she purred. “But I’ve got to go. Can’t have Dad losing too much time, or he’ll notice. See you soon.”
We said our goodbyes, and when the call ended, I just stared ahead for a moment and tried to take in how quickly everything was happening. Well, it was quick in one way, but in another, it felt as if I’d been waiting ages for this chance. Finally, we could face Dr. Sweet and end this.
“Well?” Elisa demanded, snapping me from my thoughts. “What did she say?”
I realized everyone was staring at me and felt my face heat. Quickly, I repeated what she’d told me.
Julio rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “That’s not a lot of intel. We still don’t know half the villains we’ll be dealing with.”
“But it may be our only chance.”
“I know,” he said slowly. “And I agree. It’s a risk, but doing nothing is even riskier.”
Jocelyn rubbed her face with her left hand and groaned. “This is just the perfect news to end this shitty day with.”
“You can keep Elisa and Eddy company in the van,” Julio said. Then he paused. “Actually, if Dave and I don’t come out, you should probably fly circles around the place and attract all the police and the press.”
“Good Plan B,” she said. “But considering we don’t know how many cops and journalists these guys can mind-control, why don’t we stick to Plan A and you punch Dr. Sweet once for me?”
“Deal,” Julio said.
Jocelyn leaned back. “Looks like it you, me, and the old man keeping the van warm.” She winked at Elisa. “If anything goes wrong, you’ll have to protect us, because we’ll be pretty much useless.”
“Speak for yourself,” Eddy muttered.
Elisa smiled weakly, clearly distracted. Something was bothering her, maybe the same thing I’d noticed the other day. With her being angry at me, and my relief at being forgiven, I’d forgotten to ask her about it. As the impromptu war council broke up, and everyone went their separate ways (or as separate as they could go in the small safehouse), I followed Elisa to her room and knocked on the door.
“It’s not locked,” she called from the other side.
I came in, and it looked like she’d been lying down on the bed, since she sat up to greet me. “Hi.”
“How are you doing?” I asked.
She shrugged. “Okay. I feel really bad about Jocelyn’s mom. Kind of guilty that I’ll get to see mine tomorrow, while she… You know.”
“Understandable.” I sat down next to her. “But that’s not all that’s bothering you.”
Her fingers, picking at the quilt on the bed, jerked back. “What makes you think something’s bothering me?”
“I’m your father. And I don’t think something’s bothering you. I know something is.” I paused, rethinking my approach. “But I won’t force you to talk about it if you’re not ready.”
She looked away. “It’s stupid.” Then she stood and walked to the door, closing it so we couldn’t be overheard. “You’ll think I’m a hypocrite.”
“I doubt that,” I said with a grin.
“But I’m scared!”
She threw up her hands, her face screwed up in anguish, and I studied her for a moment. My money had been on something to do with Rosa.
“Of course you are,” I said slowly. “You’d be stupid not to be.”
“You don’t understand.” She plopped down on the bed next to me. “All I’ve ever wanted is to prove to you and Mom that I can do this, that I can fight, and I’m not some helpless kid only good for getting held hostage.”
I opened my mouth to tell her we’d never thought of her like that, but she plowed on.
“And now I finally have the chance, and I’m terrified! I’m not even really part of the team, just back-up waiting in the van, but I’m so worried something will go wrong, and you’ll need me, but I won’t be able to help. The rest of you have done this kind of thing for years, but I… What if I screw up?”
“Elisa…” I gazed at her, my brave, beautiful daughter, and felt a warmth blossom in my chest. “You probably will screw up.”
She sputtered, her eyes widening in shock before narrowing to a glare. “This is officially the worst pep talk you’ve ever given me.”
“Let me finish,” I said with a chuckle. “I’ve been doing this for longer than you’ve been alive, and I still screw up all the time. We may have superhuman abilities, but we’re still human. That means we’re going to make mistakes. When it happens, you just have to shake it off and keep going.”
Her lips pursed, and she looked down. I scavenged for more inspirational words but then stopped myself. Is this really what I wanted—to talk her into putting herself in danger? I should tell her that it’s fine to be scared and that no one would think less of her if she chose to stay here in the safehouse.
But was that the life lesson I wanted to teach my daughter? To give in to fear and doubt?
Bad lesson or not, at least she’d have a life to live.
I rubbed my face. “You might not have the experience the rest of us do, but I’ve taught you everything I could, and you’ve been trained by the best telepath on the planet. That doesn’t guarantee you’ll make it, though. I’ve seen some of the strongest, most talented people I’ve ever known fall in battle because the odds were stacked too highly against them or they just had plain bad luck. But you…” I smiled at her again. “You’re brilliant. I can’t promise you anything, but if you set your mind to it, I know when the time comes, you’ll make me proud.”
Wiping tears from her eyes, she hugged me tightly. I returned the embrace, putting aside my worry over the future for a brief, blissful moment.
• • •
The address Val had given me was surrounded by a privacy hedge almost twenty feet tall and thicker than a refrigerator. It did its job, completely shielding the mansion within from the outside world. They could have an actual tank posted on the other side as security, and we’d have no idea.
Julio flash-froze a section of it in the back, making the branches brittle. I grabbed fistfuls of shrubbery and gradually tore apart a hole large enough for us duck through. (It was a hassle, and I would’ve preferred a brick wall to knock down.) Inside waite
d a wide, well-manicured lawn with thankfully no tanks atop it. Palm trees swayed in the breeze, and immaculately trimmed flowers were arranged around statues and a fountain bigger than some swimming pools. There was an actual swimming pool, too, gleaming blue in the afternoon sun behind the sprawling white mansion. It looked like a typical home belonging to the mega rich, and I felt a brief flash of worry that we’d broken into some random person’s property before trusting that Val had given us good intel.
My trust was proven a second later when security guards poured out of the house. Sure, I’d expect a mansion this size to have security, but not a platoon of men wearing body armor and carrying assault rifles, moving like the mercenaries I sometimes saw supervillains employ.
“Looks like we’ve got the right place,” Julio said mildly.
“Sure does,” I agreed. “Let’s go say hello.”
They shouted at us to put our hands over our heads—then just plain shouted as Julio superheated their fancy guns. They dropped their weapons, shaking their burning hands, and Julio dove into them with gusto. Not having his youth or energy, I followed at a more sedate pace, grabbing the first mercenary I came across and tossing him into a nearby flower bush.
Two more charged me. I curled my hand into a fist and lightly bopped the first, breaking the faceplate of his helmet and sending him toppling. The second jerked back, evidently having second thoughts. He was too far away to punch, so I jabbed the tip of my cane into his stomach. His body armor wasn’t enough to soften the blow, and he dropped to his knees, wheezing.
Julio moved through the mercenaries to my right like a human-sized tornado. He blended hand-to-hand combat seamlessly with his powers, superheating the mercenaries’ helmets and armor so they frantically pried the stuff off, then striking where they were exposed. The second I spent glancing at him was enough time for another mercenary to lunge and punch me in the side of the face.
I heard a crunch as his hand broke, and he pulled back, screaming as he clutched his fist. More mercenaries came up behind him, so I shoved, sending him crashing into them and knocking them all down like pins in a bowling alley. I took out two more and noted only a few still standing—which was good, because we needed to get inside the mansion before the real villains could escape.
The White Knight & Black Valentine Series (Book 5): Superhuman Disaster ( Page 10