by Debra Jess
The fourth group disappeared on the heels of the third. It was like his concentration had a good dosing of lube — his commands slipped through to actions with lightning speed. He scooped up the screaming baby next to the unconscious nurse and placed it carefully back in the crib amongst the fifth group. As soon as Scott had her tucked away, he sent them to the Arena. He'd have to come back for the nurses if he had time.
Two and half minutes. He had to find the toddlers. He located the door next to the third unconscious nurse. He left her and McNamara on the floor. If he had time he'd get them out too, he would, but first...
A few of the toddlers were gathered around McNamara, shaking him, trying to get him to wake up. "Hey, kids. C'mon, gather around me okay?"
Most of them waddled over, but he had to chase down two. One minute. More wasted time trying to keep them together. He'd have to leave behind McNamara and the nurses. He threw his arms around as many of the kids as he could and pushed all of them to the Arena.
The crying babies echoed through the cavernous chamber and sang in his ears. There was no explosion. No searing heat or flames to scorch him alive. Scott lifted his head and saw all of the toddlers — safe and sound and looking at him like he was crazy. He could live with that. They all could live... would live. McNamara had failed.
"Grey."
Scott staggered as he tried to stand, but his legs couldn't quite make it. He'd done it. Everyone had lived. At least he hoped so.
Highlight stood over him, in her yellow uniform, her fascinator clipped behind her ear. She knelt down next to him.
"You did it. You saved them all. I knew you could."
He couldn't respond; everything was spinning. All around him people were being pressed into service to soothe the infants. Even the basketball players who'd arrived for practice were bouncing babies in their arms. The spinning wouldn't stop, though. Was this how Hannah felt when she didn't drink enough water before bloodsurfing?
"Hannah. Is she here?"
Highlight shook her head. "I haven't seen her, but that doesn't mean she's not in the building. If she came in through the roof entrance or the main lobby, she might have gone straight down to headquarters."
Would the Shield have taken her here? Would he have used his access to get her inside? Would he have joined her?
Scott pulled out his phone. "I need to call her."
Her phone rang twice before a familiar voice answered.
"She's not here, Grey."
It was the Shield, not Hannah. "Where is she?"
"She's busy. It's a long story. I'll tell you when I get there."
"I'm at the Arena. I got all the kids out."
"I don't train incompetents. Stay there. I'm coming to you."
"But what about Hannah? Where is she?"
"I said I'll explain when I get there. Don't go anywhere until I talk to you." The Shield cut the line.
"He won't tell me where Hannah is."
Highlight’s face softened. "C'mon. Let's get you away from here. I'll take you down to HQ. You expended a lot of energy doing what you did. We'll get you something to eat and drink."
She held out her hand, so Scott took it and tried to stand once more. Before he could topple over, Highlight secured a strong arm around his waist and guided him off the court. Before he left, he took one last look back. He did this. Hannah would be so happy.
The Shield kept a firm hand on Hannah's shoulder as he pushed her toward the exit. She shoved open the door and walked into a war zone.
Three black vans in various states of destruction lay scattered across the near empty garage. Bodies of men and women, all dressed like commandoes, littered the ground, some of them still moaning in pain.
"What the hell — "
From behind one of the vans a giant appeared, dragging another body behind him. He tossed the body next to one of the piles and began to disarm it.
"Who the hell is that?" the Shield growled at her.
"I have no idea."
The giant straightened up and noticed them staring.
"Hi, Hannah!" The giant waved, then jogged over to them, each step like thunder on the concrete. "Let me guess, leather man must be the mysterious Shield."
"Uh, yeah. Who are you?" Hannah stepped closer to the Shield, who had his guns in both hands.
"Oh, right. I'm Danny Rose. Nik's paramour. You've never seen me shift, but it's me."
The giant pulled the elastic out of his hair and let it fall to his shoulders. It had the same brown waves with golden highlights as Daniella Rose.
"You did all this? Where's Nik?"
Danny put his hair back into a bun and the Shield lowered his guns. "Disabling the bombs. We need to evac in case they miss one. I'm headed to the lobby to see if I can lend a hand with last-minute stragglers. Where are you headed?"
"First level," the Shield said. "I'm getting her out of here."
"You've got eight minutes — get going." Danny clapped his massive hand on the Shield's shoulder. He looked at it, but didn't try to shove it off. Danny either didn't notice or didn't care. "I'd say take one of these vans, but I don't think they're in any kind of working order."
"I have a cycle on the ground floor. Easier to get through traffic. We'll take the stairs."
Danny motioned them to follow as he headed toward another stairwell. Once they hit ground level they parted, Danny heading inside, the Shield pulling Hannah in the direction of his cycle. He straddled the bike and motioned Hannah to get on behind him. Two minutes and counting.
The Shield didn't bother with a helmet. The engine revved and they peeled out of the parking space at high speed. Hannah held on for dear life. Not since she and Scott had stolen the muscle car from the Left Fists had she felt like she was about to kiss the pavement. The Shield kept his promise and weaved expertly through traffic, speeding through red lights. After the last red light, Hannah buried her face against his jacket so she couldn't see anymore.
The Shield rode until an explosion rocked the air. The cycle skidded into a half turn and stopped.
Hannah looked back toward the general direction of the hospital, but the explosion echoed from above. Up in the clouds, a light show rained over Thunder City.
Captain Spectacular must have flown one of the bombs into the atmosphere. Only she could have survived.
"Don't let go," the Shield ordered, and sped up the cycle again.
It took a few more minutes before it dawned on her that if the other bombs were going to go off, she would have heard them by now. She pulled her head off the Shield's leather-clad back and looked around. They were far away from downtown, in a sparsely populated area near a set of train tracks.
"Pull over," she shouted, but he couldn't hear her, so she banged on his shoulder. "Pull over," she repeated.
This time he did, finding a quiet area near a telephone pole. Hannah dismounted as soon as the bike stopped. The Shield sat there waiting, patient. She paced back and forth a few times, feeling like she wanted to jump out of her skin. Emotions descended on her, and every feeling she’d shoved away from her heart for the past two days rushed through her, unstoppable.
"McNamara said he was my father. Is that true?" she asked.
"Yes."
"He told you and you believed him?"
"I looked at your file when the Court assigned me to McNamara's facility."
Hannah paused her pacing. "The Court has files on me? No, don't answer that, of course they do. Do you know who my mother is? My real, biological mother? Was she the one Miranda killed? The one who gave birth to me?"
The Shield shook his head. "No, the woman Dane assassinated was a surrogate who had second thoughts and tried to run. Your mother was too busy to carry a pregnancy. You're a test tube baby. McNamara and your mother mixed a bunch of their cells together in a petri dish because they thought the genetic mix would create a powerful Alt. They were right."
"So my mother is alive. Both my father and my mother are alive." The agitation crawled ove
r her skin, so she started pacing again.
"We can't stay out here, Hannah. The Court is going to want to know why I failed to keep T-CASS away from McNamara."
She kept moving. If she stopped, she'd scream. She didn't even understand why she wanted to scream, except to release all of her pent-up fury. "Will they hurt you?"
"Torture me? No. They tried that. It didn't end well for them." He paused, looked away from her and lowered his voice. "There are other ways to hurt a man besides through torture."
He meant there was something valuable out there that the Court could destroy or hurt. Something or someone. She needed answers, because she had a decision to make when she barely understood the question.
"Who are you? Why are you working for them? How did you become a double agent?"
The Shield hefted his leg over the bike so he could lean back against it. "Come here."
Hannah walked closer to him, so close his pure aggressiveness almost repulsed her, but she held her ground and looked up at his face.
The Shield removed his sunglasses and looked down at her. His eyes looked normal, ox shaped, no scarring or obvious signs of disease. The pupils reacted to sunlight, the cornea was clear, the irises looked...gray. Cloud gray. The same shade as Scott's eyes. What were the chances of two men having the same rare eye color in such close proximity?
"My God. You're Scott's father, aren't you?"
The Shield nodded, slipping the sunglasses back onto his head.
"Did McNamara know that when he ordered you to shoot Scott?"
The Shield nodded. "It wasn't supposed to matter. I wasn't supposed to care. Creating Cory was one of my first independent assignments for the Court. Cory wasn't supposed to mean anything except for a possible future subject for the Court. I wasn't supposed to...to love him. I wasn't supposed to fall in love with his mother. I was young and I failed and I did fall in love and I've spent over two decades keeping the Court away from my family. This time, I couldn't."
"So you trained Scott instead."
"If I brought him to the Court, if I could keep him close to me, the less likely the Court would hurt him or Catherine. And maybe, just maybe, I would have someone to help me bring down the Court once and for all."
Her temple started to throb, so she rubbed it. "This is all giving me a headache."
He stayed quiet, giving her time to think, time to process. She knew what decision she had to make. She hoped Scott was successful in translocating the children, because there was only one way that she could see to bring this nightmare to an end.
"Tell me about the Court of Blood. What do I need to know to work against them?"
The Shield tilted his head to the side, studying her. For the first time since she met him, she had the impression he was taking her seriously.
"They're not a huge organization. There's no secret army of Alts looking to take over the world, or the government, or even Thunder City. At least, not now."
"What do they want?"
"To create Alts." He reached out to touch her hair, letting the strands slip through his fingers. "To find the source of Alt power. If they can create Alts, if they can decide what power an Alt will have before they're born, if they can bring about an Alt with more than one ability — that's their goal, their mission, the reason for their existence."
"For now," Hannah said, to confirm her suspicions.
The Shield nodded his confirmation.
"Are they only in Thunder City and Star Haven?"
The Shield shook his head. "There are other locations, but since Thunder City has a higher than normal population of Alts, their main headquarters is...nearby."
Hannah thought about that and a plan blossomed. The more she thought about it, the more determined she became to make it work.
"My mother. What's her role in all this?"
The Shield smiled, and almost managed to not look terrifying while doing it. "She's the Supreme Judge. She controls the Court. The CEO if you will. Everyone answers to her."
"She gives you your orders?"
The Shield nodded his head.
"You can't go back to the Court. McNamara failed, just like Miranda failed, but this time they'll blame you. Even if they can't prove you worked against them, they'll be suspicious. Thomas — he pulled records off McNamara's computer before you found us. All of T-CASS is going to be on the watch for the Court now. The more T-CASS moves against the Court, the more likely the Court will realize you helped me escape."
"So what do you suggest I do?"
He really didn't know, and Hannah didn't know what do with the responsibility he shoved into her lap. The Shield had always appeared to be a dozen steps ahead of everyone else. Why would he listen to her now?
Before Hannah could answer, her phone buzzed in her pocket. It was Scott.
"Answer it." She shoved the phone at The Shield. "Tell him I'm busy and you'll explain everything to him when you see him later."
"What are you up to?"
"Just do it!"
The Shield answered the phone. "She's not here, Grey."
Hannah couldn't hear what Scott said. It was better this way, not hearing his voice. She might lose her resolve if she heard his voice.
"I said I'll explain when I get there. Don't go anywhere until I talk to you."
The Shield cut the line and handed the phone back to her. Hannah pushed his hand away. "You keep it in case he calls again."
"What are you planning?"
Hannah sighed. "The Oversight Committee has a warrant for my arrest. I refuse to go to jail, not for a minute, not for a second, not for them. Not this way. I have to leave Thunder City for a while."
"Where do you want to go? I'll take you there."
Hannah shook her head. "You need to go home. To Scott...Cory. He needs to know who you are. It's his right to know you do care about him and how much you've sacrificed for him."
"If Catherine doesn't kill me first."
"Catherine will get over it." Her heart flipped, again and again and wouldn't stop. "How do you contact the Court of Blood?"
She had the feeling that the Shield knew where she was going with this, but he handed her his phone without protest. "There's only one number. Text the code 9000. When they answer, tell them who you are and where you are. They'll come get you."
She took the phone and shoved it in the pocket where her own phone used to reside. "If they ask about you?"
"Since there won't be a body, best to tell them I rode off into the sunset. They'll try to find me, but I'll lay low."
"At the Blackwood estate."
He laughed again. "I don't think that will go over very well with anyone."
"It's the safest compound in Thunder City and the last place anyone will look for you — living with your wife and her husband."
This time he sighed. "I should be talking you out of this."
"To what end? They'll never stop. The manipulations will continue on forever. There will always be another reason, another excuse to set up a lab and experiment on Alts. We have to bring this to an end. I can do that from the inside. I have to do this myself."
"You don't know what you're walking into." The Shield shoved her phone into his breast pocket. "The Supr — your mother isn't like Miranda Dane. Dane got things done by using a sledgehammer. The Supreme Judge is crafty, cunning, and capable of making you work against your best interests without you even realizing you're doing it."
"Like McNamara."
"Worse."
Hannah didn't doubt it. There was still one more thing she had to do before she chickened out. She reached up to touch the Shield's cheek, but waited for his permission. He leaned forward to let her touch him. There wasn't much for her to fix. For all of the scarring she saw, he was in great shape. Still, no matter how great your shape is, age will rob you no matter how hard you fight it. She couldn't rush this because she needed to touch every point of his body, and did. When she returned to herself, she kept her hand on his cheek because she suspected
it would be a long time before she would touch another human with such tenderness.
"What did you do?" he asked.
"I gave you the body of a twenty-two year old."
He raised his eyebrows.
"There's a war coming," she said. "Whether or not I succeed, T-CASS will go after the Court and the Court will retaliate. T-CASS will need you at the top of your game because you will fight for them, Shield. You will fight for your son, for your wife, and for me. Do you understand?"
He nodded. She lifted herself onto her tiptoes and kissed his right cheek. "That is for Catherine." She shifted and kissed his left cheek. "That is for Thomas." Keeping her lips closed, she kissed him on the lips. When she pulled away, she looked into his eyes. The same eyes as her lover. "That is for Scott. You tell him I love him. You tell him to wait for me. I will come back and when I do, there will be no more Court and we will be together forever. Promise me you will tell him this."
"I promise."
She believed him. He stepped away to mount his cycle. After he was gone, she texted the lone number on his phone. The phone rang a second later. A female voice answered before Hannah could even say hello.
"Shield, where are you?"
"This is Hannah Quinn, daughter of the Supreme Judge. Tell her I'm ready to come home."
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