Blood Hunter

by Debra Jess

  The Fargrounds neighborhood didn't have that complicated a layout. Most streets lay in a grid fashion with small houses or townhouses lining each rectangular section. Each intersection had a stop sign. The Shield ignored most of them, barely slowing down to check for oncoming traffic before blasting through. The cop in Scott knew better than to not stop, so he lost ground as the Shield barreled toward the industrial section of town.

  Traffic picked up around the warehouses, with trucks of all sizes pulling into and out of the loading docks. The Shield dodged them all, still without stopping, but also without trying any movie-style dramatics. Scott figured he'd be less careful too if he had a shield covering his body. Must be nice not to have to worry about broken bones or concussions.

  They dodged and weaved their way through the Fargrounds in record time. Scott managed to keep pace, even with the Shield trying to lose him at every turn. The Shield even pulled the old "turn into an alley and turn off his headlight" trick when he thought he'd lost Scott one block back. Scott was hip to that trick and pulled into the alley right after the Shield did. The Shield then damn near knocked Scott off his Harley when he engaged in a game of chicken while getting back onto the main road. Scott dodged first. He had enough bruises from their sparring the night before. He didn't want to have to ask Hannah to secretly heal him again. This was his fight, not hers.

  They broke through the last main intersection, leaving the Fargrounds behind. Scott wasn't familiar with this section of Thunder City. The railroad line lay ahead, though the station where he and Hannah had been ambushed was farther west. There wasn't much out here except larger warehouses, and beyond that, farmland. It was sort of like what the quarry was to Star Haven: unincorporated territory, not really attached to Thunder City, but still reliant on the City for basic services. It was no-man's land otherwise.

  No-man's land. Unincorporated territory. Geographically a part of Thunder City, but not subject to its laws. Or at least, not subject to Thunder City laws without a fight. The Shield hadn't led him out here just to test Scott's high speed chase abilities, though the mysterious Alt was certainly doing that, too. He knew how cautious T-CASS was with training new Alts. He'd led Scott out here as a dare. He wanted Scott to use his translocation ability, but he knew Scott wouldn't break Thunder City's laws. Out here, the Shield could toss Scott into the deep end of the pool to see if he would swim or drown, without landing his ass in jail or getting expelled by the Oversight Committee.

  Railroad tracks ahead. The morning rush hour was over, but the trains ran throughout the day. Scott could hear the blast of the horn as the train approached a long abandoned intersection. The train driver still followed the laws, even out here in the middle of nowhere.

  The Shield sped up, heading toward the intersection at high speed. The guard arms rang out a warning even as they dropped to block access across the tracks. If the Shield didn't stop, he'd smash through the guard arms and hit the tracks at the same time as the train. Scott couldn't speed up fast enough to cut in front of the Shield and run him off the road.

  The train couldn't stop. The Shield wouldn't stop. Did the Shield know for sure that his Alt ability would protect him? Had he done this before?

  No time. Scott had no time to think this through, or wonder if he could save the Shield. He knew he'd fallen for the Shield's trap even as he telekinetically grabbed hold of the Shield and brought his own bike to a screeching halt.

  The Shield and his bike disappeared a hair's breadth from the train as the engine careened past the intersection, horn still blasting loud and clear. The Shield reappeared to Scott's left, the bike still in motion. The bike shot forward past Scott, but the Shield brought it to a controlled stop.

  Scott couldn't stop shaking. He not only had translocated a live person, just as he had done with Hannah when Miranda Dane had tried to shoot her, but he'd transported a Harley moving at high speed. The adrenaline rush washed over his fear. He could see stars at the edge of his vision. Scott ripped off his helmet to gulp air.

  The Shield twisted around on his bike to look back at Scott. Now that he was sitting only a dozen or so feet from the Shield, he could see the Shield's lips twist into a smirk. Then the Alt revved his cycle's engine and executed a perfect hairpin turn before he sped past Scott, back the way they came.

  Scott didn't try to follow. He sat there and waited until the rush died. When his muscles melted into mush and the stars in his eyes disappeared, only then did he perform his own, less precise turn, and head back to Thunder City.

  He'd done it. He'd saved the Shield, but the Shield hadn't needed saving. They'd both used their powers at full tilt, but at what cost?

  Scott still didn't have any answers as he raced across the border and back into the city.

  9

  Hannah almost crawled her way to the video room, her dinner balanced on one of her gloved hands and a drink in the other. The plate was piled high with brisket, roasted green beans, and a small square of caramel-covered shortbread on the side. Garret hadn't seemed to mind when she’d asked if she could eat in the video room. Alek had called from the Arena and left her a message while she was with McNamara. Nik's emergency had left him bruised, but he would be fine. Alek hadn't left any details, and the news hadn't picked up the story yet. Hannah almost wished the media would hurry up. If Nik's investigation had led to something big, maybe the reporters would stop talking about her and the quarry raid. Really, just five minutes without being reminded about how different she was would be nice.

  She wanted to call Scott right away, but her stomach couldn't wait. She needed to decompress after discovering she could bloodsurf through the dead - sort of. The sensory experience of dark, claustrophobic silence haunted her. When she'd said she never wanted to do that again, she'd meant it. McNamara had clasped her shoulder as he led her back to his office. His previous concern for her had disappeared behind his excitement at her "accomplishment."

  Hannah slipped off her brown gloves, taking a moment to let the sweat between her fingers cool. Bloodsurfing into a cadaver had felt more like a trip into a Halloween horror house than an accomplishment, but she hadn't wanted to dull McNamara's enthusiasm. He'd supported her against the Oversight Committee and she couldn't afford to lose that support. Not when she couldn't have Scott by her side.

  She activated the app for the televideo. Scott's face appeared after a second ring, his face pinched, his brows lowered. He looked just like she felt.

  "What's wrong?" she asked before anything else.

  His face jerked away from the camera as if he were trying to hide his face. "Nothing. Just have a lot to think about. How are you holding up?"

  Oh, I'm just fine. I bloodsurfed into a corpse. It was dark and creepy and just awful. Scott already looked troubled. How could she add to his burden by telling him she did something she would never, ever do again?

  "I'm fine." She speared a green bean with her fork. "Just really hungry. McNamara autopsied someone while I watched. He said I should see at least one to make sure I could handle it. Hope you don't mind if I eat while we talk. Did you go for training today?"

  "I'm glad you can eat after watching an autopsy. Not sure I could."

  They both laughed a little at his comment. It was a good sign, and his troubled look eased.

  "I just got back from training," he said. "I still have a fifty percent failure rate with beanbags, even after — ."

  Hannah nibbled on her food. "After what?"

  "Nothing. Just everything that's happened."

  He either was referring to the raid, or to their escape from Division 6, or both. "That's not bad. It's not like you've been doing this since you were a kid. You can do it when there's danger. You just need to find a way to trigger your ability without the danger component."

  Scott scrubbed his face with his hands. "I know, but it's boring as hell. I just stand there with Highlight staring at me. Shinzo was there too, recording everything. No pressure, right?"

  "It'll get easie
r with practice. It can't be all that different from bloodsurfing. One day it'll just click and the next thing you know, you won't have to struggle. You'll just go poof, and what you want will appear right in front of you."

  His smile grew, his brows opened up his face so she could see his gray eyes, still stormy and intense, but not so troubled.

  "It would be nice to have a beer appear in hand whenever I want."

  Hannah choked on her brisket. "Yeah. You could pull me right into the room with you with just a thought."

  "Don't tempt me." He wiggled his eyebrows. He thought he was being funny, but her body took it seriously. Calm down. You're not going to have phone sex. Not tonight. She drank her soda instead.

  "Seriously, though, how are you feeling? What happened with McNamara today?"

  Nothing like talking about dissecting a human body to hold back the raging hormones. Blood and guts cooled her off, but she still wanted to give Scott an honest answer. "I'm angry, but I'm tired of being angry. I didn't even realize how angry I was until Jimmy's mother slapped me."

  "Betty. Her name is Betty Chung. You have every right to be angry with her."

  "I don't want to be angry, though. I don't want to be..." She hesitated, struggling for the word. "Unforgiving." Yes, that's it. Unforgiving. It fit Miranda perfectly. She didn't want to follow in that woman's footsteps. Could she forgive Ms. Chung? Just a little bit to save herself from falling down that path? "I just want to know what happened to her son. If I focus on Jimmy, then maybe his mother won't bother me so much."

  Maybe thinking about Jimmy Chung rather than Miranda would help her get through today. Tomorrow the evidence of her crimes in the quarry would be staring her in the face.

  "I spoke to Betty Chung this morning." Scott reached off screen for his own drink.

  "You did? What did she say?"

  "Not much. She showed me videos of Jimmy taken before his surgery."

  "What did you see?"

  Scott shrugged. "He was an active, energetic kid. Nothing like what we saw at the hospital."

  "He could still be reacting to the surgery. I asked McNamara about it and he said he can't think of any reason for a surgery like that."

  "Huh. Well, the man is a pathologist and not a surgeon. He can't know everything."

  Why not? Hannah bit her tongue. Scott was just making a general observation. She pushed away the defensiveness, because Scott was still talking.

  "I'm going to talk to Betty's sister as soon as the harbor operation is finished. I'll talk to Nik, too. He's the detective in the family. Maybe he could give us a hand. What did you see inside Jimmy, anyway?"

  And just like that, her emotions were back to normal. "It looked like someone had cut through his spine, but even McNamara couldn't tell me why anyone would need to do that. I need to know more. I need to see his medical records. I need to understand what happened to that kid. McNamara said I could get access to his records once I'm officially working at the hospital, but that isn't going to happen until after tomorrow."

  "Sounds like you'll be spending a lot of time with McNamara."

  His tone of voice carried the low, suspicious tones she’d heard from Miranda. She hadn't imagined his earlier dismissiveness. Just what she didn't need: a jealous boyfriend. Well, Scott wasn't the only one who could deflect and distract.

  "I need to do something, Scott. Every time you talk about your training, it sounds like they're following a protocol set up for third graders. No one has bothered to tell me how they plan to train me."

  "They've never had to train anyone with your abilities before. They don't know what to do with you."

  "Yeah. No one knows what to do with me." The food on her plate lost its appeal. "Miranda didn’t know either."

  "Don't talk like that." Scott put his drink down with a thump. He leaned toward the camera, the intensity she loved so much back in place. "Miranda had an agenda, she was never supposed to be anyone's mother. She couldn't handle a bright, willful child with Alt abilities."

  Hannah shrugged. Willful sounded accurate, but bright? Sometimes she had to wonder. If she was as smart as someone like McNamara, would she have tried to run away? No, she would have found a less disruptive way to fight the Committee. "Anyway, if the Committee has a problem with me working with cadavers, they can take it up with McNamara. If anyone can put the Committee in its place, he can."

  "You're probably right." Though he agreed with her, Scott looked away from the screen, as if he wanted to hide his doubts. "T-CASS has been around long enough to become entrenched in its ways. Everyone is too scared of Catherine to suggest changes. She's too busy to notice."

  "Yeah." A familiar buzz tickled her backside. She'd forgotten to turn her phone off, damn it. Her time with Scott was precious, even if she was still annoyed with him, so she ignored it. "Catherine assumes I'm going to join T-CASS but I just don't know if it's what I want. I mean, it's not like I'm not thinking about it, but every time I do, I see people having their lives disrupted because of one emergency or another. Maybe I want to explore what it's like to be a Neut? I could set up my own medical practice. I could have a schedule, control how many people I heal in a day. Have a life after hours — "

  Her phone buzzed again.

  "Scott. I'm sorry, it's my phone. I'm going to check to see who it is."

  The recorded message icon flashed. She double checked the number. It was McNamara.

  Hannah hated to leave Scott hanging out in chat, but the faster she returned the phone call, the faster she could get back to Scott.

  "Hannah?" McNamara answered on the first ring. He'd been waiting for her.

  "Yes. I'm sorry, I was eating dinner. I'll arrange for a ride to the hospital tomorrow morning."

  "The earlier, the better."

  "Did something happen?" Her panic picked up speed with McNamara's clipped tone. Her imagination grasped onto the worst case scenario. "Did the Oversight Committee tell you I couldn't work with you?"

  "No. I haven't told them yet. I received a call from Star Haven, though. They asked me to arrange to have you down at the harbor when the bodies arrive."

  "Me? Why? I mean, I'm going with you to the harbor anyway." More horrible scenarios played out as her stomach rebelled against her dinner.

  "True, but I never told Star Haven that. I figured we'd keep you hidden in one of the warehouse's offices until after the bodies were delivered and the delegation had left."

  She shouldn't have been surprised, but McNamara telling her didn't help. "I don't understand. Are they going to try and arrest me at the harbor for breaking the anti-Alt ban?"

  "I don't think so. There are too many legal loopholes and they'd be fools to try with so much security in place. They wouldn't have the resources to follow through on your arrest and they know it. The interim mayor claims there's a package waiting for you in his office. His phone was also ringing off the hook, so he didn't elaborate. He insisted that you be at the harbor, nothing more. Do you know what this package might be?"

  Her throat closed up, fear snatching away her ability to talk.

  "Hannah, are you there?"

  "Yes." She could barely talk over the tight throat muscles. "I'm here. No, I don't know what the package could be."

  McNamara sighed. "I'll contact T-CASS and let them know. They'll want to double up security if you're around."

  "I can do it. I live with the Blackwoods, remember."

  "Yes, but let me make the call anyway. This isn't like me hiring you and springing it on the Committee later. I can outmaneuver the Committee about that. This has danger carved into it and my report should go through official channels. They'll want to send someone to ask me questions."

  He made the whole thing sound like a done deal, but her inner rebel leaked through. "You make it sound like I have no choice."

  This time McNamara kept quiet for a minute. "I can't force you, but I need to let Star Haven and T-CASS know one way or the other. You do have a choice, but it took a lot of politics and
negotiating for me to get Star Haven to agree to bring the bodies here instead of me going to Star Haven. Telling them you're not willing to join me at the harbor could torpedo this agreement to the bottom of the Bay."

  This whole arrangement screamed of a set-up. But if she wanted to get a look at Jimmy's records, she couldn't afford to piss off McNamara.

  "I'll go. It's just...I'm the one who disabled those guards, left them unable to defend themselves. I'm the one who killed Joe Austin."

  Tears blurred her vision. Would Scott see? Damn it, why did she have to do this at all?

  "Hannah, I promise. I'll be right beside you the whole time. I won't let anything bad happen to you. You won't be alone."

  She took a deep, calming breath. The tears receded. "Thank you. I'll be there. I'll meet you at the hospital in the morning."

  "I'll see you then." McNamara disconnected the line before she could.

  "Hannah, what's wrong?" Scott asked.

  She'd forgotten to mute the chat, so he'd heard her side of the story. She explained McNamara's side.

  "I don't like it. Any of it. You should have said no. Call him back. Tell him you can't do it. You can't go to the harbor and you can't work for him."

  Her tears might be gone, but the rebel remained. "Why would I do that? It's not like the harbor isn't going to be blanketed in security. And there's no good reason not to work for McNamara. He can help me with Jimmy's case. He can protect me from the Committee."

  Scott leaned closer to the camera, his face tight with worry for her. "Working for McNamara is only going to throw you into the middle of the quarry investigation. You don't need to be dragged through that again. Let me handle Jimmy Chung and his mother."

  Her rebellion turned to cold fire. Despite his worry mirroring her own, he didn't understand her need to make her own decisions. To grasp this one tendril of freedom she had. If she didn't, she might as well surrender her soul to the Committee.

  "I'm not being dragged anywhere. I want to do this." I want to see Miranda's body. I want to see her dead. "McNamara is going to help me maneuver around the Committee. They already control too much of my life. He can give me some space to call my own."