Hero Engine (15 page)

“SHI Director Vince Larson has asked us to perform this investigation. Consider this formal.” Ann’s voice is still even; a cop reading a sloppy drunk her Miranda Rights. She leans up against the wall at the back of the cabin, eying Flaura from a distance.

“And you,” Flaura turns her venomous gaze to me, “You been causing quite a stir. Word is, you broke free of River’s psychic ability and there’s even a rumor going around that you laid some pretty heavy hands on The Patriot. Self-righteous prick may have deserved it, but we heroes watch out for our own. I would tread lightly if I were you.” She flicks her tongue off the top of her jagged little teeth on the word ‘lightly’.

Flaura’s gaze moves up and down my body. “So what are you, some kind of secret hero no one knows about? Like a secret agent within a secret agency?” She stretches a mocha colored hand out towards me, palm up. The wrinkles in her hand look like lines in the bark of a tree.

I pull my hands off the table, away from her touch. The heroes must have talked among themselves about my confrontations with River and The Patriot. They think I’m the one with the powers, not Ann. The element of surprise is always a bonus, so I decide to play this hand close and hope Ann goes along with it.

“I’m something of a
special
case, you could say, but we aren’t here to talk about Little Ole Me.” I snap off a wink, camera-shutter-on-a-sunny-day quick. “We’re here to talk about Cendy and Tess. Word is, there was some bad blood in those waters.”

Flaura entwines her fingers on top of the table. “That is putting it mildly. Tess always walked around like a stuck-up twat with a log jammed sideways up her prissy ass. She hated Cendy and me both for no reason. She just brooded through SHI with her nose ten feet in the air like she couldn’t stand the smell of us.”

Well, now that she mentions it, the plane does smell a bit…earthy all of the sudden.

“Do you have anything…more specific?” Ann asks.

“More specific?” Flaura eyes Ann with disgust, upper lip curled in a manner that would make fake Elvises all over rage with jealousy. “
Specifically
, Tess is a bitch. She hates all the heroes and doesn’t socialize with anyone. Keeps to herself and blows off anyone who tries to talk to her.”

“What about River? He seemed to have a pretty strong relationship with Tess.” Ann has her gaze locked with Flaura. She’s not afraid of Gaia reborn.

I turn in my chair to better keep an eye on both ladies.

Flaura spits out a repulsive snort. “River was fucked up. Drugs, booze, gambling. You name it. He was going off the deep end. For whatever reason, Gravitess picked herself up out of her corner and took him on as her little pet project. Once River was sober-ish, he realized how much of a wet blanket Tess is and dropped her.”

That’s not quite the story River gave us. I like his version better. But if he was as fucked up as Flaura claims, who knows how much of his story is real?

Ann keeps the questions coming. “So you think Gravitess hated all the heroes?”

“Yes.”

“Enough to start killing them?”

Flaura sighs, apparently growing bored with the conversation. “Listen, the bitch was crazy, messed up in the head. All right? She was the lonely kid that sat in the corner and no one talked to. One day she snapped and showed up at school with a gun and started shooting. You people can paint some victim’s picture about how she was a ‘good-hearted person’ and helped River get out of a bad spot, but that doesn’t change what she was, what she is. She’s deranged and psychotic, and now she’s taking it out on the world.”

Flaura’s forehead scrunches, her cheeks darkening with color. “The bitch probably has some kind of hero-self-hating complex and is taking it out on all of us. On all the world. For all I know, she’s trying to kill off all the heroes for her own problems. I heard SHI has put extra guards on the Engine. I’d say that’s a pretty fine idea. Crazy bitch would probably try to break the thing in half, if she had the chance.”

So the other heroes don’t know about the Engine, yet. Vince has done one hell-of-a-job keeping that bombshell under wraps. I wonder how right Flaura is about Tess. Hatred makes people say some pretty terrible things about each other. This could just be a super Salem Witch trial. Or Tess could be crazy. Attack Seattle to draw the heroes to her and then show up at Houston knowing they would be looking for her there?

Ann drums her knuckles across the desk. “That is all the questions I have. Mr. Quig, have you got anything to ask?”

“No, I think I’ve heard enough.”

Flaura pushes herself up from the table and saunters to the exit, shaking the floor with every step. A wispy scent of orchids reaches out and touches my nose. The sweet scent overpowers the moldy smell of dirt. She reaches the staircase and faces us.

“Just so you know, when I find Tess—and believe me, I will be looking—I will have my pets tear her limb from limb. My trees will draw and quarter her, and death will come slowly and painfully for what she’s done. She’s ruined things and killed heroes. She is a rabid attack dog and needs to be put down,” Flaura says with a snarl.

Her face softens from harsh lines to a sultry pout. “Have a nice night and keep in touch, Secret Agent Man,” she says in a voice sweet as honeysuckle.

She gently stomps her way from the plane. Out the window, a series of trees separating the park from the surrounding city uproot themselves and follow her out to the streets. The odd group make their way to a crumbled building and start digging at rubble.

“What do you make of all that?” I keep my eyes on the oaks moving large pieces of broken building. Most of the wreckage is charred black from explosions.

“Hard to say. I don’t know that she was lying, but hatred can make a person throw out some pretty terrible accusations.”

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking, but it adds up – sort of. The theory that Tess hates herself for being a hero could fit. Self-loathing has made lots of people do lots of bad things to themselves and others.” I take my gaze off the trees and turn back to Ann.

She rubs a hand across her cheek. “Gravitess hates herself, so she hates heroes. She blows up the Engine and then starts attacking places to draw out the heroes. Kills them one at a time and then splits before they can gang up on her? It mostly fits.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t explain what McCarthy and his AHAssholes have to do with all this. Gravitess really could use her ability to break the Engine in half. Why would she bother having some redneck Walter White cook up a turd bomb to destroy the Engine?”

“Bloody hell, I don’t know.” Ann slaps a hand on the desk. The impact isn’t as impressive as Flaura’s tiptoeing would be, but the table still shakes.

“We need to track down the Grand Sovereign Mage, have a little chat with Tess, and get to the bottom of all this shit.”

“Yeah, all we have to do is get me close enough for Tess so she doesn’t rip us to bits.”

“Sounds like a plan. Now we just need an address, two shots of bourbon, and sixteen hours of sleep to pull this shit off.” I slap the table too, for effect.

“You guys must have quite a plan worked out.” Vince stands at the top of the stairs, wad of gum balled up against the inside of this cheek.

I have no idea how long he’s been there. “Hey Boss, we’re just working out our next move.”

“Did you all get anything useful from Flaura?”

“That she really,
really
doesn’t care so much for Gravitess,” Ann says.

“She had an almost workable theory on things, but we’re still chewing on it. Tastes good at first but there’s this bitter aftertaste that doesn’t sit right with me.” My stomach rumbles loud enough that I’m sure Ann and Vince both hear it. Bringing up food on an empty stomach may not have been the best idea.

Vince steps over and raps his knuckles on the table top a couple times before putting a fist under his chin and staring down at me. “Right. I’m not even going to ask until you’ve swallowed that theory. Just remember, an enemy’s half-cooked conspiracy theory might not be the best thing to work off of.”

“You really don’t think Tess wants to be doing this, do you?” I still haven’t made up my mind on who’s on whose side, but Vince seems to have been pulling for Tess since the beginning.

“I really hope not. The other heroes might not have much nice to say about her, but being a black sheep doesn’t make you a mass murderer. What is your next move?”

“We haven’t quite worked that out yet.” I look over at Ann. “I’m thinking we’ll probably get back with Adriana and see if she’s got any information on Andy Donovan. We’ll go from there depending on her answer.”

“Vince, you up here?” A heavily Russian accented voice says from the stairwell. The Patriot steps into the cabin of the plane. He looks from Vince to Ann and settles his laser-eyed stare on me. He hocks and spits down the stairwell, rubs a hand through his groovy black pompadour. “Vince, we talk, now.”

VINCE TAKES A SEAT
at the desk opposite Ann and I. “Welcome in, Petr. We were just having a meeting and would love the extra company.” He makes no attempt to hide the sarcasm or annoyance in his voice, but he taps the empty seat next to him, anyway.

Ann steps forward from the back of the plane and stands next to me.

The Patriot grits his teeth and marches to the edge of the desk with stomping, military-precise steps. He glares down at me. For a moment, I think he’s going to open his mouth and blast a laser straight through my brain. But he can’t do that, not this close to Ann. He turns his glare to Vince. “Can we talk in private?”

Vince drops the sarcasm and gives a generous smile. “Whatever you’ve got to say, it can be said in front of Mr. Quig and Ms. Pretorius.”

The Patriot grinds his teeth loud enough for me to hear. He leans over toward Vince. “This, this circus go on long enough. These two shit-heels cannot perform a proper investigation. It is far past time for official inquiry into matter. The whole situation needs sorted out and Tess needs found before she can do any more damage,” he says, adding about two dozen unnecessary Z’s in his speech. Out of the public eye his accent is thicker than Grandma Klitschko’s borscht.

Vince clasps his hands together on the desk in front of him and smiles.

“And let me guess,” Vince says, “you think you’re just the man to spearhead this investigation that I should be initiating?”

Petr squeezes the edge of the table. Steel cable muscles and freeway-sized veins pop out through the USA-themed Spandex of his outfit. He looks like an American bobsledder on ‘roids. “Yes. I am the most experienced hero on hand, and I am the most appropriate for this investigation.”

“And what will you do when you finally track Tess’ location?”

“I bring her for trial. She will be held accountable for tragedy. Her self-loathing has made her lash out against human and hero. She is not so stable.”

Another one who thinks loner Tess has gone on a rampage for not fitting in. Situations like that happen with humans almost every day. The kids pick on me, solve it with violence. I hate my boss, solve it with violence. My neighbor’s dogs are talking to me, solve it with violence. All the other heroes hate me, solve it with violence? I’m still not buying it, but Tess going off the deep end is a viable theory for the moment.

Vince watches his hands and takes a deep breath. The sigh he lets out sounds awfully close to, ‘Wouldn’t that be convenient for you?’ Instead, what he says is, “And what will you do if your
attempt
to bring her in peacefully fails? What if there is a confrontation? She has already killed five heroes. Are you ready to see how you stack up against a woman who can bend gravity to her will?”

The desk creaks and groans under Petr’s grip. This close to Ann, his super powers should be null, but I guess he’s still pretty strong. “I am requesting a team. Given the outcome of today’s events, it is clear that no one hero should try to apprehend Tess.” Petr rotates his head. His neck gives a loud pop. “If violence come, she will be taken care of. The safety of the citizens of the world is more than life of one delusional hero.”

“What do you think set Tess off like this?” I’m so caught up in the conversation between Vince and Petr that Ann’s question makes my heart skip.

Petr turns to Ann, the muscles in his shoulders bunched up somewhere around the crown of his head. If it wasn’t for Ann giving his powers the axe, the poor table would be nothing but splinters by now. “What you say?”

“You seem to think Tess is some paranoid, psychotic, delusional sociopath, right? If you’re right, there had to be a trigger. Why start now? What pushed her over the edge?” Ann returns every bit of Petr’s mean-mugging, and then some. She knows he’s powerless and even if he wasn’t, I’m not sure she would back down from him right now.

“What does it matter? She is danger to herself and world around her. Whatever her
trigger
was, is no important. Now will you give me authorization to put together a team?” The last question is for Vince. Apparently, he’s done with Ann.

I agree with her. I do think the
why
matters as much as the
how
on this one, but we aren’t going to get shit out of the Iron Curtain over here.

Vince sits very still for a few beats. I don’t envy his position. If he doesn’t authorize this murder squad—and this
would
be a murder squad—it will look like he’s not doing enough to protect the people. If he gives the go-ahead to the superhero hit team, Tess will end up dead and any information she might have will die with her. I’m no conspiracy theorist, but this shit smells more rotten than McCarthy’s meth plant.

“Four heroes. That’s all I’m authorizing. Out of twenty-one heroes on the roster, I’ve got one AWOL and five dead. Four is all I can spare. There’s still a city to be cleaned up. Who are you taking?”

“Flaura, Inkwell, Vizzy, and Icestro.” Petr rifles them off at a fast clip. He came prepared for this.

Vince nods. “Lead your investigation, but remember, when you find her, I want her alive. Do you hear me? Alive. I don’t care what you have to do to make that happen, or what the cost. I want her living and breathing when you bring her to me. That is a direct order.”