Dreams of the Golden Age (6 page)

“She’s just chicken,” Sam sneered.

Teia was the one who jumped in with, “Sam, shut up, you don’t know anything about it. She’s not afraid. She just wants us to do this
her
way.” She turned to Anna, eyebrow lifted. “Right?”

“I’m just saying we have to be careful,” she said, knowing she was losing this fight.

Teia’s thin mask across her eyes didn’t do much to hide her identity, and if Anna were that pretty she wouldn’t either. She was sixteen, striking, and she knew how to stand—hands on hips, shoulders back—to look particularly heroic. “I say we announce ourselves, stage some events, get some publicity—”

Anna said, “You can’t do that. My mother is watching us. She ID’d Teddy off one security tape. We have to be sure we can stay secret—”

“Why?” Teia said.

Anna had taken it for granted and resented having to explain it yet again. “Because that’s how they get you. It’s how they got to my mother, back in the day.” The argument felt stale, she’d said it so many times. As soon as her grandparents’ secret identity had been revealed—that Captain Olympus and Spark were actually socialites Warren and Suzanne West—Celia became a target. She’d been kidnapped a dozen times after that. Even the Destructor had kidnapped her, leading to the whole sordid mess that happened after that. No, you had to keep the secret so they couldn’t find you.

Teia disagreed. She crossed her arms and glared.

Anna soldiered on. “You don’t go vigilante for the publicity, you do it because it’s the right thing to do. Because you can help people, save lives—”

“
And
for the publicity,” Lew added, a roguish glint in his eyes.

She just couldn’t win, could she?

Teddy pointed. “You should listen to Anna, she knows what she’s talking about better than anyone.”

“Because of her famous grandparents?” Sam shot back. “Because of her dad? They haven’t done anything in forever. Maybe if you could knock down walls I’d be more inclined to listen to you.”

The bad arguments tended to come back to that. The others had flashy abilities, powers you could see, that could actually do something. Powers that looked good on camera. Hers, not so much. When she tried to explain to them how useful her power really was—who was going to be the one to track them down if they ever got in trouble, after all?—she sounded lame and whiney.

And in the end, Teia was right. All of Anna’s credibility rested on her family name, and what did that really mean in the end? She couldn’t defend herself.

“I’m right,” Anna said. “Give it time, you’ll see that I’m right.”

“And I say we won’t know until get out there and
do
something,” Teia replied, pointing into the vague darkness of the city.

They had arrayed themselves, Teia, Lew, and Sam on one side; Teddy and Anna on the other. They’d all settled on their places in the argument, and nobody was going to change anyone else’s mind.

“So much for teamwork,” Anna muttered and walked away.

“Anna—” Teddy called after her.

“See, that’s what I’m talking about,” she said, turning on him. “We can’t even remember to call each other by our code names. How are we supposed to keep our identities secret?”

“I’m sorry, I forgot—Rose, wait a minute.”

Her code name was Compass Rose. It had seemed so clever a few months ago when she came up with it. “Just give me a minute,” she said and kept walking. Teddy didn’t follow.

She needed to think—by herself, before anyone could say anything more awful.

What she really needed to do was figure out if this was all worth it. Of course it was worth it, she told herself, as she always told herself. Otherwise their powers were nothing more than circus tricks. The powers had been more than that to her grandparents.

She wandered to the fountain, almost by habit. It was the park’s main gathering point. This late, the park was quiet. The sky overhead seemed heavy, and the trees surrounding the fountain’s wide plaza were still. The setting was right for having a long serious think, but she wasn’t sure that was a good thing.

She’d planned on spending a few minutes sitting here at the fountain, with its graceful, stylized lily spouts, shut off and quiet for the night, the water in the marble pool still, until the argument had been forgotten and they were ready to go home. But someone was already there.

The man crouched on the rim of the fountain, perched like a cat who’d casually leapt there and might casually leap off again at any moment. He wore a dark green skin suit that showed off a lean body with well-defined muscles. His rigid helmet-type mask hid his appearance and made guessing his age difficult. He was older than she was, but he didn’t seem
old.

“Who are you?” she asked, trying to sound suave and confident rather than worried. In truth, she felt a touch of panic. They’d expected to find muggers in the park, not a strange vigilante.

The guy didn’t seem at all worried. In fact, he donned the hint of a smile. “I’m Eliot.”

Like this was some kind of normal introduction and they weren’t both wearing masks.

“That’s it? No superhero name?”

“Not yet.” His expression turned chagrined. “Having trouble deciding on one.”

“Have you been watching us? Following us?” Wouldn’t it figure, all they’d done was practice and someone had already found them out.

“I saw the flash and came to check it out. That’s all. Don’t worry.”

Blaster’s bolt, the flames on the tree. So much for being subtle. She gave a sigh and couldn’t find the motivation to stay angry. The guy was just being polite.

“It’s kind of embarrassing. We don’t know what the hell we’re doing.”

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”

This guy seemed to have it down pat. His uniform was slick. “So. You new in town or just getting started?”

“I’m—”

“Hey, Rose, what are you—” Teddy came trotting up from the jogging trail and stopped to stare at the man on the fountain. “Whoa. Who’s that?”

The man twitched but remained in place. Nervous, despite his calm manner. He almost ran, but didn’t.

“It’s okay, we’re just having a talk,” Anna said.

“Yeah. Okay. But Sa—Blaster’s ready to take off. We gotta go.”

“Give me a sec.”

He regarded her, uncertain.

“I’ll be fine. I’ll scream if I’m not. Then you can practice rescuing me, right?”

Her confidence was possibly not well founded, but Teddy backed away and left her alone with the guy. She was sure he hadn’t gone far.

“Rose?” the man asked. “That’s not your real name, is it?”

“I’m Compass Rose,” she said. She felt ridiculous, but she stood tall, refusing to let it show.

“Your superhero name.”

“That’s right.”

“What’s your power, then? Perfect sense of direction?”

She blushed, because it was hard to explain, and compared to people like Teddy or Sam, hers wasn’t a real power anyway. “I find people. I know where they are.”

“That’s handy.”

“Sometimes.” Her sour expression told otherwise. Her power worked only on people she knew well, friends and family. But she didn’t have to tell him that.

A car horn honked half a block over, where Sam had parked. “I have to go. See you around?”

“Probably.”

“Okay—” She’d been about to say good-bye when he jumped, straight up, muscles in his thighs rippling as they launched him a hundred or more feet into the air. He didn’t fly but sailed over an arc that would carry him to the other side of the park.

Hell of a power.

“He’s gonna get pissed off when the blogs start calling him Frogman,” she murmured.

*   *   *

She’d been fourteen years old when her power awakened. The books and biographies about superhumans and their powers said they often manifested at puberty. It had for her grandmother and father. Anna had started to assume she wouldn’t get powers at all, like her mother. But she woke up one morning, and her brain ached. Aspirin didn’t help. It was like her entire mind cramped—she’d had her first period the year before, and this felt like that, only in her head instead of her gut. Then she seemed to
fill up.
Her mind expanded, taking on an extra sense. Because of who she was, who her family was, she’d known exactly what was happening. Her awakening power was probably mental, like her father’s. Was she developing telepathy? Telekinesis? Clairvoyance?

But no, after a couple of months of testing, trying, and thinking way too hard, the cramps settled, the extra sense lodging firmly in her hindbrain. Her mind felt full, but the information was limited. Shortly after the cramps faded, she came home from school, started for her mother’s office like she always did after school, and realized before she got there that Mom wasn’t there. She was in a meeting at the West Corp offices ten floors down. It felt like a light in her mind, bright as a flashlight turned on in a dark room. And her father was in his office, and her grandmother was in the lobby, coming home from a lunch outing. Without calling, without checking, she just
knew.
Their presences were glowing spots in her mind. She was a human radar. A homing device.

She didn’t tell anyone. She didn’t want to have to explain it, and she didn’t want to hear what they’d have to say about it. Time passed, she grew firmly into adolescence, and her family stopped watching for what power she’d develop. She began to move furtively through the world, because she didn’t want anyone to guess.

Her power—any power—had to be good for something, she’d thought then. She still thought. Otherwise, why have power at all? She just had to figure out how to use hers.

And then her best friend, Teia, came to her with a secret, and Anna began to hope.

*   *   *

Teddy and Sam had another argument about getting paint all over the inside of his car, until Teddy finally stripped to his boxers and stuffed his outfit and Lew’s paintball gun into a couple of grocery bags and put them in the trunk. Teddy sat in the front seat, arms crossed, pretending he wasn’t shivering. Blushing red the whole time, with Anna trying not to stare at the curve of his bare shoulders. The three of them piled into the backseat, practically in each other’s laps. She thought about offering to sit in Teddy’s lap to warm him up, but that would embarrass them both, and they’d all had enough embarrassment for one night.

Fortunately the drive wasn’t too long.

“Who was that guy?” Teddy finally said. They’d all seen the stranger make that epic leap out of the park.

“I don’t know.”

“Was he checking us out?” Teia asked.

“Probably,” Anna said.

“You think he goes to Elmwood?” she asked.

“No, he’s older than that. Maybe he goes to the university.”

“So much for being careful,” Teddy grumbled.

“He wouldn’t have stuck around to talk to me if he was planning on giving us away,” Anna said.

Sam looked at her in the rearview mirror. “You sure he’s a good guy?”

“I don’t think he’s a bad guy.”

“I don’t like it,” Teddy said. “Guy’s sneaky.”

“Maybe you should give him a break until we know more.”

“You think he’s hot, don’t you,” Lew said, grinning.

Teia turned to her, disrupting their precarious seating arrangement. “Is he? Hot, I mean?”

“I don’t know, he was wearing a mask. Don’t worry, if he blows our cover, I can track him down and blow his.”

Teddy craned around to look in the back. “Can you do that?”

“Sure,” she said, but she didn’t know if she could. She’d never purposefully looked for someone she’d met only once. She hadn’t even seen his face. But he’d told her his name. It was a start.

“Well, no worries, then,” Sam said.

The route took them past West Plaza first.

Anna told him, “Sam, don’t go to the front of the building, pull around back.”

They said
good-bye
s and
see you at schools,
Teia leaned over to give her a hug, and she clambered out while a reorganization went on around her. From the sidewalk, she watched Sam’s sedan drive away. Teddy waved at her through the window.

*   *   *

The secret elevator took about twice as long to work its way back up to the penthouse than it did to glide down. Thank you, gravity. On the way up, the thing creaked, and Anna could feel each tooth of each gear catch stiffly in its sprocket as the old mechanism cranked on. She was sure she’d get stuck, but she didn’t, and finally she was in the stairwell, through the door to the real elevator, then up to the penthouse, and back home.

The only complication: Her hindbrain sense located her father in the kitchen, not the bedroom. He was waiting up for her, and the only way to sneak into the penthouse was to walk right past him. Her first option: hide somewhere. Don’t go home at all. He couldn’t wait up forever, and as soon as he gave up, she could sneak in and pretend like nothing had happened. Except that her father wouldn’t give up, and he already knew she was here, dithering. He could feel it.

Second option: walk in and face him. To do anything else would delay the inevitable. Fine, then.

She let herself in. The place was dark except for the faint circles from a couple of night-lights in the kitchen and hallway. Enough to find her way to her bedroom, and she didn’t make a sound on the carpet. But the moment she crossed the kitchen, the lights came on. Her father was standing next to the light switch. She wasn’t surprised.

“You’re out rather late,” he said, his English accent coming through strong. He did that for effect, when he wanted to intimidate. He wore a button-up shirt tucked into his trousers. He’d dressed for the occasion. Smiling wryly, he leaned against the wall.

Her heart pounded, but she forced her mind to stillness. Don’t think of anything, or if she couldn’t go blank, think of the beige carpet or green grass, anything but what was actually at the front of her mind. Shove it far back, bury it, and maybe he couldn’t see it. She certainly couldn’t let her thoughts run wild, flailing, where he could read them on the surface without even trying. She’d had a lot of practice at this but couldn’t guess how successful she was. Arthur Mentis, the Olympiad’s telepath, never let on what he did or didn’t know.