Hero Unit (18 page)

Chapter 20

“Hell!” Ace growled. “How did they manage that?”

“We’re still working on that. We need you out
there now,” Torment ordered.

Ace started towards the door. “Emily tell her
what you told me. She might have figured some things out,
Torment.”

Every E.E.D facility was equipped with fast
access roof ports for use by Sky Class Heroes. Ace hit theirs going
as fast as she dared. One accident where she had gone through too
fast and torn the doors off had taught her just how fast she could
enter or exit.

Once she was clear of the building she went
up, fairly high, and looked up Einstein’s address on her device.
Once she had it she flew there at just under the speed of sound.
All around her the natural laws bent out of her way.

There was someone waiting for her when she
arrived. They introduced themselves by hammering at her with
kinetic blasts. Just like with bullets the energy dissipated when
it hit her. She landed next to her attacker and gave them a
“gentle” push. They went flying and crashed to the ground. They
rolled another ten feet, but Ace was on them before they could
recover.

“Don’t you dare move!” she growled. The Anti
looked at her in terror. “They didn’t tell me the Fifth was coming!
Please don’t kill me!”

“Shut it! You’re under arrest. Under the
Exceptionals Lockdown order and Article Two your rights are
suspended, so you had damn well better start talking or we’re going
to rip the information out of you!” Ace was letting her temper get
the better of her, but so far she hadn’t lied to him, just
stretched the truth a bit.

I think he pissed himself.

“I don’t know, man, I don’t know! They didn’t
tell me what was going on, just paid me to keep watch and take out
any E.E.D agents that got close,” the Anti cried.

“Damn. Don’t move!” Ace ordered and then
called Torment on her device. “What’s the situation?” she
asked.

“Bad. I’ve got a suspect. We need a team over
here ASAP to see if they left trace behind. I’ve got the scene -
damn! Scene not secure!” she barely dodged out of the way, dragging
the now sobbing Energy Class Anti with her, as a massive Fortress
Class plowed through where she’d been standing.

She slapped suppressor cuffs on the Energy
Class and put him behind a car. “Stay put!” she ordered and then
charged the other Anti. She was big, at least Tomahawk’s equal and
that would make her just as strong. Ace hit her hard, harder than
she’d ever hit anyone, and this new Exceptional flew backwards,
crashing into a tree.

She recovered quickly, charging Ace. They met
midway and the force of the impact broke bones in the Anti’s
shoulder and arm. Unfortunately Ace could feel the damage knit back
together almost instantly.

I’ve always wondered of Esperanza was
stronger than Tomahawk. Now I can say for certain that yes, yes she
is. España is going to be pissed to find her here.

Since her opponent could heal quickly Ace
took her power up another notch. Moving faster than the Anti could
react she threw her to the ground and followed that up by grabbing
her opponent’s hair and slamming her head into the concrete until
she stopped moving. Ace waited just long enough for some of the
damage to heal before she slapped suppressor cuffs on her wrists.
She called Torment back. “Scene secure,” she said through deep
breaths.

“What the hell happened?” Torment asked.

“Damned Anti, stronger than Tomahawk. It
looks like Esperanza Escobar from España,” Ace reported. “I don’t
recognize the other guy, but he didn’t seem to know much.”

“I’ll send a team over. Keep an eye on
things,” Torment said and hung up. Ace picked up the still
unconscious Anti and carried her over to Einstein’s yard. She then
went and ordered the Energy Class to go and stand by her. While
they waited Ace asked him basic questions. She got a little out of
him, like his name. James Wilson. He was just a Reg that the HSO
had bought out. It happened. People were greedy, Exceptionals or
not.

Once backup arrived, in the form of Peace’s
team, Ace went back to the precinct and reported in person to
Captain Angel. “Good work Ace. Fortunately Peace’s technomancer
took care of the kill switch in Esperanza. España is going to be
glad to get her back. Turns out she’s been missing for a
while.”

“Any news on Einstein?” she asked.

“Not yet, but we both know they didn’t take
him for ransom. We can’t let the HSO get the secrets in his head.
They already came up with that damned hybrid. With Einstein I don’t
even want to picture what they’ll do. They might even be able to
get to you. That can’t happen,” the Captain said. He sounded
exhausted. Ace understood that feeling all too well. The HSO
getting a hold of Einstein was probably the worst thing she could
think of happening.

He needs to get some sleep.

“I might be able to locate him, sir, but I
can’t guarantee anything,” Ace said.

“How?” Hope and suspicion warred across his
features. Ace wanted to tell him, but until she confirmed some
things it was too much of a risk.

Are you sure about this Ace?

“It’s… classified,” she replied.

Captain Angel raised an eyebrow.
“Classified?” He stared at her, but Ace didn’t budge. “How much can
you tell me?” He sounded skeptical. That was understandable. Ace
had done some pretty world changing things in her time in the
military and not a one of them were classified. A good portion of
them had been broadcast on international TV. This was different.
She would have to talk to the old man.

The old man is not going to like this. I’m
not disagreeing with you though.

“Nothing at all, sir. I can’t even stress to
you how important it is that you tell no one we even had this
conversation,” she replied.

“And what should I say when people ask what
you’re up to?”

“Tell them I’m working an angle that might
help us locate Einstein.” She didn’t like keeping secrets, hated to
in fact, but there was very little she could do. The old man was
going to be hard enough to deal with already. If she told people
before checking with him there would be hell to pay.

“I could order you to tell me,” Captain Angel
said.

“You could, but then you would have every
last member of the E.E.D Advisory Council in your office and you
would likely lose your job. There’s a good possibility they would
even revoke your Registration. That’s how sensitive this
information is,” Ace replied.

Yeah the last guy that found out “died by
natural causes”.

Finally he let out a sigh and said, “Do what
you’ve got to do.”

“Thank you sir. And for what it’s worth, I’m
sorry,” Ace said and left the room.

She avoided her own office so she wouldn’t
have to run into Emily. She wasn’t certain if her friend would be
able to see the information that Ace had brought out of her
memories, but she didn’t dare risk it happening even by accident.
She left the precinct via the flight hatch and went up as high as
she felt necessary. The air was thin and it was damned cold, not
that any of that fazed her. This was where she went to think.

Was she really going to make this call? She
thought over what could happen if they let Einstein remain in the
hands of the HSO for long. They wouldn’t break him, he was too
valuable, but they would tear information from him. Information
that would give them access to the same technology that allowed the
E.E.D to do its job.

Einstein was the reason the E.E.D maintained
their edge against Antis. With that information in the hands of an
extremist group like the HSO things would get bad fast. It would
probably mean another war. That thought chilled Ace to her core.
Above all else that could not be allowed to happen.

You aren’t strong enough to find him, you
know that. Make the call.

Having made her decision Ace descended back
to an altitude where it was safe to use her device. She punched in
what to most would have seemed a random series of numbers then
turned it off. After a short wait her device switched on and the
screen read, “Warehouse 2.”

She sighed in relief and flew to her
destination. She’d been worried the old man wouldn’t get her call.
Now she just had to convince him.

Chapter 21

Warehouse 2 was actually an abandoned club in
downtown. The owners had met with financial difficulties and the
bank had foreclosed on them. Now it sat vacant, its doors and
windows boarded and city security installed. Ace landed silently on
the building’s roof. The old man was there. He didn’t look
happy.

“The HSO has Einstein,” she said.

“Inside,” he said. He sounded genuinely
angry. That was a surprise.

He’s conflicted. That’s a first.

They went in through a supposedly locked roof
access door. Once the door closed behind them lights came on.
Warehouse 2 was one of a handful of locations that the E.E.D
maintained behind the scenes in order to uphold the law. Ace had
never liked the idea of hiding anything from the public, but she
wasn’t stupid. She knew there were things that people were better
off not knowing.

They walked in silence to the old man’s
office. It was only the second time Ace had been there. The door
closed and Ace waited. The old man sat with a sigh and said, “I am
aware of the Einstein situation. We are currently doing everything
we can to track him down, but like I’ve told you the HSO is damned
difficult to track.”

“You’re not doing everything, sir,” Ace
said.

He frowned and shook his head. “Are you sure
you want to?” She was letting him see what she was thinking.

She nodded. “Let me see my sister.”

The old man sighed and stood up. “There is no
guarantee that this is going to work. One person suppressed is not
enough evidence.”

“Just do it, let me see her,” Ace said. It
was a demand and those usually didn’t go over well with the old
man. At that very moment Ace didn’t really care. She’d waited too
long to test her theory already.

With another sigh he led her out of the room
and down three floors. There were no other people on this floor. It
was cold and stark. The walls were lined with suppression shielding
unlike anything Ace had ever seen. It made the equipment on the
interrogation rooms look like paper.

And it’s still not enough. Good thing
too.

In the very center of the floor they came to
a single door. “I can’t go in there, Ace,” the old man said. “She’s
too much for me, too much for anyone.”

Ace nodded and opened the door just wide
enough to slip through. She closed it quickly behind her and she
turned to face a room that looked pulled from a mansion. Each wall
was lined with shelves filled with books. There was a large, neatly
made bed in the middle. The only gap in the shelves was to make
room for a large desk. Everything on it was neatly organized and
the monitor was dark. The chair at the desk turned and Ace could
feel the tears starting. It was like looking into a mirror. Every
feature, quirk, and movement was echoed by her sister.

“Is it working?” she asked.

Angela nodded, the tears already forming.
“Finally. I can finally control it.”

Ace wrapped her sister in a gentle embrace.
She hadn’t seen her sister since their birth. It had been
immediately apparent that Angela was a Used. As an infant the flood
of information would have been too much so they took her and hid
her away. Layer after layer of the most advanced shielding the
E.E.D could come up with was used to separate her from the world,
for everyone’s protection.

Angela was Ace’s opposite, her complement.
What no one else knew was that between the two of them they had
every power ever found among the Exceptionals. Some were stronger
than others, but they were all there, with a few shared between
them. The main difference was where Ace had precise control over
her powers, Angela had none. It had always been a source of deep
frustration for Ace, but ever since meeting and helping Emily, Ace
had hoped she might finally have found a solution to her sister’s
imprisonment.

“Truly, you have complete control?” Ace
asked.

Her sister nodded, unable to put to words
what she was feeling at that very moment. Ace knew. Now that there
was no shielding between them their minds reached out and
reconnected. What Ace knew, Angela knew, and vice versa. Just as
they were meant to be.

“Let’s get you out of here,” Ace said. She
went and knocked on the door. There was no handle on the
inside.

The old man opened it a small crack. “She’s
fine,” Ace said gently.

“It works? Your power really brought hers
under control?” he asked.

“See for yourself,” Ace replied and pushed
the door open.

For a moment the old man and Angela stood
facing each other in silence. Through her tears Angela finally
spoke, “I’m free.”

The old man stared to tear up and turned
away. “Good. Ace, take your sister out of here. I’ll see to it that
everything is moved to your place. You two go find Einstein and
stop the HSO.”

“Our pleasure,” they both said.

Back at the precinct everyone that saw them
stopped and stared. It was truly impossible to tell them apart as
they walked into the building. They passed through the bio-scanners
separately and they didn’t even flicker when Angela walked
through.

On the E.E.D floor they were met at the
elevator doors by Emily. Ace’s friend stood and stared for almost a
minute before Angela said, “You must be Emily. I’m Ace’s twin
sister. Thank you for everything you’ve done for her. I cannot tell
you how much I appreciate it.”

Emily nodded with a dumbstruck look on her
face. “Any news on Einstein?” Ace asked as she and Angela started
walking towards Angel’s office.

Emily recovered from her surprise quickly and
followed saying, “Not yet. The Captain is about ready to go crazy.
The entire E.E.D is in on this one.”