Hero Unit (11 page)

“What’s his reason?” Emily asked. Inside the
E.E.D Mayhem’s motivations were well known, but Emily was new and
this was the first time the mercenary had shown up in a while.

“He says we failed to protect someone. He’ll
never say who, but he says the laws we enforce are corrupt. He’s a
survivor of the Exceptionals War and, like some of the other
survivors, he didn’t like what came out of that conflict. Over time
he’s vilified the E.E.D. We’ve just never been able to catch him,”
the Captain replied.

Emily’s expression changed. “Is Ace going to
be okay? I only vaguely remember the explosion that hit the truck
and I’m assuming that was Mayhem.”

Ace shrugged. “I’ve squared off against
Mayhem before. He didn’t beat me then, there’s not a chance he can
now.”

“Pride before the fall Ace,” Angel said only
partially joking.

She nodded. Every Exceptional had limits,
they all had vulnerabilities, weaknesses. Just because Ace hadn’t
found hers yet didn’t mean they didn’t exist. The Captain had every
right to remind her of that. “Okay, Ace keep your radio on you just
in case your team needs you. Then if you would please escort Ms.
Carpenter to the interrogation rooms before you leave. Torment is
waiting for her.” Recognizing the dismissal they left Angel’s
office.

They made a quick stop at Ace’s desk where
she shrugged out of her armor and hung it from the back of her
chair. She grabbed her badge and clipped it to her belt. She
unholstered her sidearm and put it in her top desk drawer.
“Alright, shall we?” She asked turning to Emily.

Together they went back to the elevator and
headed into the basement. They were both quiet on the ride down.
The doors opened and Torment was waiting with her arms crossed. She
was dressed in business casual, as usual on interrogation days. She
smiled when she saw them. “It is good to see you both up and
about.”

“It’s good to be up and about. If I had to be
confined to my house for another day I was going to lose it,” Ace
replied.

“At least you had company,” Torment said.

“That only works if the company won’t go
crazy right along with you, and I was about to. I’ve never been
forced to stay inside, at least not since I was a child. Can’t say
I’m a fan,” Emily said.

It’s amazing how unbearable something can be
when you are forced into it.

Torment laughed and said, “I’m glad you are
here. Ace, I’ll take it from here. You don’t have a particular beat
to fly. The Captain just wants you out and about, as visible to the
public eye as possible as an enforcer of order and an officer of
the law. Especially with Lock Down and Article Two coming into
effect.”

Ace nodded. She punched (not literally) the
button for the ground floor. Once she was outside she took a deep
breath and physics started to bend a bit. Her breath brought her
the smells of the city. Of all her heightened senses smell was the
strongest. She could pick out individual scents from miles away.
Gas from cars, garbage from the alleys, the faintest whiff of the
sewer, the powerful smell of the Mississippi, cologne, perfume,
body odor, food of various types, all wrapped together into the
smell of home.

In that mix of smells she caught only the
faintest hint of what she was after. She’d made a call that morning
and she’d just received her answer.

That happened faster than I’d expected. I
think he misses you.

She took to the air and headed in the general
direction of what she had smelt. Ace took her time. She started
into her patrol, wanting to take time to gather herself before
acting on what her senses had told her.

As she moved through the morning air she
heard crimes being committed. She called them in. Her job wasn’t to
stop the crimes; it was to report them to those who could. Unless
of course there were Exceptionals involved.

Muggings, domestic disputes, drug deals; they
all passed by her eyes and ears and she passed locations and
descriptions back to dispatch. It was going to eventually mean many
hours spent in a courtroom waiting to testify of what she’d saw and
heard, but that too was part of the job.

After two solid hours of flying Ace finally
made her way to the scent she had picked up when she’d first left
the precinct. It was a bakery on First Street with a perfect view
of Monument Park and the river. Ace had read about what this area
had been like before the Exceptionals War. The river was polluted
and flooded almost regularly. Davenport had been just a part of a
group of towns that shared this patch of river, the one place where
the mighty Mississippi had flowed east to west for any significant
distance.

The Exceptionals War had devastated it all.
There had been an active military installation, an arsenal, right
on the river and the Anti-Registration Army had leveled most of the
area, killing thousands. After the war the E.E.D had moved in and
New Davenport was founded.

Now it was a thriving city, constantly
growing and advancing. Thanks to Exceptionals like Hellfire and
Boon the river was clean and safely contained. Downtown was a
historic site, filled with monuments and memorials to those who had
fallen in the war.

For a long time there had been a great deal
of understandable tension between Exceptionals and normals.
Exceptionals like Einstein and Hellfire had gone a long ways
towards easing that tension. When the Monument to the Fallen had
been created by Einstein, where the names of those normals who had
been killed by the ARA were listed, the tension had eased a
little.

When the normals had built the Wall of
Heroes, honoring the Exceptionals that had fought the ARA the true
healing began, but there was still a long way to go.

After taking a moment to look at the
monuments Ace entered the bakery. It was still early enough in the
day for much of the bread and pastries to be considered fresh.
Almost all the seats were empty.

She spotted who she was looking for sitting
in his usual spot. He was an unassuming gentleman with gray hair
and a weathered face. Anyone looking at him would have assumed that
he was just another retiree spending his days reminiscing. Ace knew
better.

“Long time since you’ve come here kid,” he
said as Ace joined him.

“Been a long time since I’ve needed help,”
Ace replied.

The old man snorted. “I sure as hell hope you
don’t mean Mayhem. The only reason he got away from you in Egypt
was because he blew the whole damned building up with you still
inside.”

Of course he knows about that.

Ace shook her head. “I’m not worried about
Mayhem, I’m worried about who hired him. We’ve got too much
evidence pointing to heavy HSO activity in town and all the sudden
Mayhem shows up? No, something else is going on here I need to find
out what.”

“You ain’t a detective kid. Get that boss of
yours off her pretty ass and in gear,” he replied.

Watch your mouth old man.

“Right, because she’s just been sitting and
doing nothing for the past week,” Ace said with a roll of her eyes.
“Torment and Angel are both busy, plus we’ve got another on the
case with us.”

“Yeah I heard about her. Being around you
nearly got her killed.”

“You know that I don’t control people’s
actions,” Ace retorted.

“Like hell you don’t. Just being in the same
room as you changes the way people would normally act. It doesn’t
matter if you intend it or not. That is the consequence of your
existence,” he snapped right back.

Ace only just kept her temper. “And I will
never tell anyone they can’t use their powers for the betterment of
others.”

“That’s Tomahawk talking. Look at where all
his noble intentions got him.”

You made him old man.

“And who trained him?” she growled. That made
the old man flinch, he had treated Tomahawk like a son. Tomahawk’s
murder had been hard on him. That was one of the reasons Ace hadn’t
been punished for what she’d done.

“You probably already know, but the E.E.D now
has possession of the weapon responsible for killing Tomahawk. It’s
one of my service weapons, now,” Ace said.

“The hell they doing keepin’ it for? I say
burn the damned thing. You sure as hell don’t need it,” he said
with a look of utmost disgust. Ace would have responded but one of
the girls from the counter came and poured them both a cup of
coffee. “You want anything kid?” the old man asked.

“Sure, just my usual,” Ace replied. This was
hardly the first time they’d met like this.

“If you would be so kind Betty?” he said to
the girl.

“Sure thing,” she said and went back to the
counter to get Ace’s usual.

“So what about that gun, at least I’m
assuming it’s a gun,” he continued turning back to Ace.

“Einstein wants to keep it around so he can
learn more from it. Maniac drools over it every time I mention it.
Sorry, but it’ll be around for a while, but don’t worry I’m not
going to let it get out of our hands,” Ace replied.

I pity anyone who tries to take it.

He made a noncommittal noise and waited for
Betty to come back and put two large chocolate, chocolate-chip
muffins in front of Ace and a pot of coffee for the table. She left
the bill and then went back behind the counter. The bakery was
still empty but that didn’t seem to bother anyone who was working
there. People walked by the door, seemingly oblivious to the smell
of fresh baked bread and pastries.

“What do you need a gun for anyway, kid?”

“That is your fault. You wrote the rules for
the E.E.D, not me. If I wasn’t on flight patrol I’d still be in my
body armor and we both know how pointless that is,” Ace replied.
“Besides they come in handy on occasion. If I’d had one when Mayhem
hit me last time I’d’ve been able to fire back instead of just
keeping my friend safe.”

“That idiot Einstein still hasn’t worked out
something reliable for you?”

“He has but it’s hard for him to manufacture.
A lot of what he’s been able to come up with is because of the gun
that killed Tomahawk,” Ace explained. “He has put my service
weapons together, but the Captain has me out as bait, see if we can
get Mayhem to come at me.” She held up a hand, “Stupid idea I know,
but we can’t use anyone else right now. Anti activity is on an
upswing right now.”

“Yeah I know. It’s those damned HSO idiots.
We know it’s them, but I’ll be damned if we can find them,” he
replied.

“Well that’s what Emily is working on right
now along with Torment. They’ll have answers.”

“Is she really that powerful?” he asked.

Ace nodded. “She read right through the
interrogation room walls. She explained to me later that the
shielding did dampen her ability somewhat so we know she’s not a
Fifth; the power gap isn’t big enough. Even Torment and Angel
occasionally experience power bleed through in the interrogation
rooms.”

She still doesn’t know about me either.
She’s not powerful enough.

“So we might actually be getting a break in
the investigation?” he asked.

“Maybe, they still have a lot of people to
question and some of them are not being very cooperative,” Ace
said.

He nodded. “Alright kid, I’ll keep my ear to
the ground and see if I can figure out who brought Mayhem in. Just
don’t discount the idea that this is just him taking advantage of a
bad situation. You are the only one who’s ever come close to
capturing him. He prides himself on being untouchable.”

“Don’t I know it,” Ace said. She still had
flashbacks of the different times she’d faced off against Mayhem.
Each and every time the mercenary Anti had gotten away.

He’s scared of you and he hates himself for
it.

She finished off her muffins and the coffee.
“Thanks for your help old man.”

They both stood and Ace gave him a hug. “Just
be careful out there kid.”

Ace left the small bakery and it faded from
view. She could never tell if it was real or just a powerful
illusion. With the old man it was always hard to tell.

Not even
I
know that.

Again she took to the air with a renewed
sense of purpose. With the old man directly on the case they stood
a much better chance of getting results.

Chapter 12

“So you’re going to be on air patrol for the
foreseeable future.” Emily hadn’t phrased it like a question.

She doesn’t sound happy about it.

Ace nodded. “Unless Torment needs me the
Captain wants me out and doing things. I called in a lot of cases
today. The normal cops had a busy day. On the other hand there was
nothing for the E.E.D to do beyond what you and Torment were
dealing with. How did that go?”

Emily shrugged. She finished setting plates
out on the dining room table. It was a big, black, heavy thing with
square corners and room for at least six. Everything in Ace’s
kitchen was black and steel gray. Most people found it oppressive,
she found it soothing. Go figure.

“No real results then?” Ace prodded.

“Not yet. A lot of the people we spoke with
were the ones that were less cooperative when we visited them in
their homes. Sometimes Regs can be such babies,” Emily replied.

Ace had to laugh at that. “What?” Emily asked
confused for only a moment before realizing that she was still just
a Reg. “Right, I’m still just a Reg. I wish there was a different
name for those of us who actually want to use our powers to help. I
really don’t want to be associated even a little with some of the
petty whiners I had to listen to today. Seriously how can people be
so damned closed minded?”

“It’s pretty easy when you think about it.
Just because we have powers doesn’t mean we’re any better or any
worse than the rest of humanity, no matter what the HSO or Tomahawk
say. This is going to sound horribly cynical coming from a
twenty-five year old, but I’ve learned that as a rule people are
selfish. They quite often are content looking after number one. If
they have a family they might include them, they might not. That’s
one of the reasons the E.E.D rarely calls on Regs who aren’t
already closely linked with the E.E.D. We hate having to deal with
their whining.” Ace had seen that very attitude on her very first
assignment with her squad here in New Davenport.