Hero Unit (4 page)

Chapter 4

“Damn it!” Angel swore. “How’d it happen?”

“We don’t know for certain. Riggs and I were
watching him and suddenly he just keeled over. Riggs called up
Einstein and I came to get you,” the officer replied. He looked
worried and a little out of breath. The holding cells were on the
opposite side of the precinct buildings.

“Ace, I think you had better go and get Ms.
Carpenter. Something tells me she is in danger,” Torment said. The
echo in her voice intensified with her worry. Ace nodded and
started jogging down the hall. The security checkpoints let her
through, but not fast enough. Instead of waiting for the elevator
Ace hit the stairs and leapt up to the first floor landing.

Just as she popped out the door to the main
lobby she felt a surge of panic that was not her own. Something
told her it was Emily trying to get her attention. Her heightened
hearing picked up the sound of a car door slamming. Ace ran for the
front doors, having to dodge surprised normals and Exceptionals.
She finally, carefully, went through the main doors and out into
the hot August afternoon.

The streets were crowded, as was expected.
New Davenport was one of the largest cities in the United States of
North America. After the Exceptionals War population centers had
shifted dramatically. Old national boundaries were changed. Some
areas were left completely desolate, others began to thrive.

Ace scanned the traffic, both pedestrian and
motorized, but there was no sign of Emily. Another wave of panic
hit her, again not her own. It brought her attention to a white,
four door sedan that was just turning down Fourth Street. They were
moving with the pace of traffic to avoid attracting attention. Ace
took to the air, natural laws giving way to her as she took off in
pursuit.

Careful. Heaven knows what these people are
capable of.

She caught up to the sedan as it started
picking up speed in the one way traffic. Fourth Street was one of
the fastest ways through downtown because of how wide it was. Four
full lanes of traffic rushed by in the lunch hour rush. Ace didn’t
dare risk an accident by trying to stop the car, so instead she
landed on the roof and put her fist through it. “Pull over!” she
yelled into the hole.

Her order was met by gunfire. The gunman was
using an automatic, and the bullets hammered into Ace’s face. They
didn’t ricochet off her like they would with some Exceptionals.
Instead the bullets hit her, deformed and then fell back down,
robbed of all of their force.

Each impact distorted the Law of the
Conservation of Energy. The kinetic energy didn’t change, or
dissipate, it simply vanished as if never existed. There was
cursing from inside the vehicle as flattened bullets fell back into
the whole. Ace heard Emily scream and she lost her temper. No one
deserved this kind of treatment.

Ace punched through the driver’s side window
and slipped in, faster than any normal could have reacted. Sitting
on the driver’s lap she slammed on the brakes, carefully, and
killed the ignition. She then tore the steering column off and
gently slammed the back of her head into the driver’s nose. The
amount of force she used probably wouldn’t have killed him. A gun
went off and a bullet slammed into the side of her head. She
grabbed the gun, crushed it, and the hand that held it.

While the passenger clutched his ruined hand
Ace got out and tore the back passenger door off. By now traffic
had stopped; the presence of a Hero could do that. Sirens were
wailing in the distance, but she was more focused on securing the
scene.

She pulled the first kidnapper out of the car
and pinned him to the street with her foot. He didn’t struggle
much. Apparently he was the smart one.

“Move and I’ll shoot!” the last one yelled.
The muzzle of his gun was pressed against Emily’s temple. Ace
moved, faster than the nerve impulse could travel from the gunman’s
brain to his finger, and took the gun.

Suddenly disarmed, the last kidnapper tried
to escape through his door just as Left Hook showed up and slammed
it back on the man’s head. The sudden closing of the door on the
man’s head knocked him back into the seat. Ace could tell he wasn’t
getting up any time soon.

“You got everyone else rookie?” Left Hook
asked as he reopened the door and began cuffing the guy who he’d
just prevented from fleeing the scene.

Ace looked around and nodded. “Good. Captain
said to get the witness back to HQ ASAP. Me and the uniforms will
take care of things from here.”

Ace helped Emily from the car. “Hold on,” she
said and lifted Emily into her arms. She then took to the air,
wanting to get back to the relative safety of HQ before someone
else showed up. “Thank you, Ace,” Emily sobbed. Her arms were
wrapped tightly around Ace’s neck; her face buried against her
shoulder

That was nicely done. Hopefully they don’t
try and press charges for the crushed hand.

Ace felt a little awkward as she flew and not
just because of Emily’s almost possessive hug. She hadn’t realized
how much taller than her the other woman was. She had to have been
close to six feet tall. Exceptional strength or not, it was awkward
to carry someone who was so much taller than her. Ace was just glad
it was a short flight back.

Back at the precinct Angel and Torment met
her in the main lobby. “Good work, Ace. Ms. Carpenter, I think for
the time being you should be under witness protection. Whoever was
pulling Technosis’s strings apparently had monitoring devices on
him. When they found out he’d been arrested they hit the kill
switch. We think they found out about you through that device,”
Angel said as they walked back into the building.

Emily nodded. She was still shaking as the
adrenaline left her system from her attempted abduction. The four
of them stayed quiet as they rode the elevators back up to the
E.E.D floor of the precinct. Once the elevator doors were closed
Torment let out a sigh of relief and Angel said, “Now we can talk
freely.”

“What?” Emily asked.

“We can never be sure who will overhear what
is being said in the main precinct. While I trust most of the men
and women in this building, I’m not stupid enough to think that
they are incorruptible. Up here I know what’s going on. It is E.E.D
regulations that all Heroes keep their minds open. We know what’s
going through the head of every single member of the Hero Units
under our command,” Angel explained.

“So what you said downstairs,” Emily
said.

“Was a diversion. We want people to be
watching for you at our witness protection safe houses. I have it
on good authority that most of those sites have been leaked to
various dubious organizations. Besides most of them aren’t
Exceptional proof. Instead we are going to have you stay in the
safest place in all of New Davenport, if not in all of the US,”
Torment said.

Saw that coming.

“Where’s that?” Emily asked.

Ace sighed, “They mean with me.”

Chapter 5

Ace unlocked her front door and deactivated her
security system. “Come on in and make yourself comfortable,” she
said allowing Emily to walk past her.

Emily entered with some trepidation. For her
luggage she only had a single duffle bag. Depending on how the
investigation went her stay might be much longer, but they would
cross that bridge later.

“The guest bedrooms are in the basement, take
your pick. Each one has fresh sheets and blankets. There's also a
full bathroom down there with clean towels. I only have one
kitchen, but I keep it fairly well stocked and clean,” Ace
continued after shutting and securing the front door. She also
reactivated the external security.

Emily looked around and said, “How the hell
did an E.E.D officer afford a place like this?” Ace could see the
wonder in her eyes. Everyone reacted like that when they saw her
house for the first time. It was a big place, just the way Ace
preferred it. She liked having plenty of room to move around and
entertain if necessary. The rest of her Unit had recently started
coming to her place to hang out on their days off. She’d made the
offer on Torment’s recommendation.

“Since you probably will find out anyway,”
Ace began. Emily’s face fell a little. “Don’t worry, I don’t mind.
I mean I work with Torment and Angel, they pretty much know
everything there is to know about me. Well not quite everything.
Besides I don’t blame you for what your power does. That would be
stupid. But to answer your question, I rescued the crown prince of
the Eastern European League. His parents were most grateful. They
provided me with a small fortune as a reward. I’ve done my best
managing it since then.”

Realization bloomed across Emily’s face.
“That was you? But that was five years ago. Wait, how old are
you?”

Ace blushed a little. She hated that
question. Because of her too cute features people had a hard time
telling her age. Most thought she was sixteen, eighteen if she was
lucky. “I’m twenty five. I enrolled in the Exceptionals branch of
the military right out of high school. I received an honorable
discharge a little over a year ago. I went from there to the E.E.D.
My parents weren’t thrilled about either choice, but they didn’t
stop me.”

“Oh,” Emily’s expression changed yet again at
the mention of Ace’s parents. “You’re the daughter of Abraham and
Alison Smith! That makes you a direct descendant of the First!”

Can’t keep a lot from her. Don’t think
she’ll find out about me though, she’d have to get past my
defenses.

Ace nodded in grudging acknowledgement. She
loved her family dearly, but as the only Fifth she got enough
attention from the media. The last thing she needed was people
finding out about her connection to Abraham Smith the First, the
first Exceptional. “I try to keep that under wraps. If people knew
that I was a direct descendant it would cause me all kinds of
headaches. I don’t need the paparazzi stalking me more than they
already do,” Ace said.

“But every other first member of the
generations was a direct descendant. How do people not figure it
out?” Emily asked.

“That I really can’t go in to details about,
because I don’t really know how,” Ace replied. It was only
partially a lie.

She’s better off not knowing.

“You hungry?” Ace asked. She didn’t want to
talk about her family, or the past. That was dangerous ground for
her.

She could help you. Later that is, not
now.

Emily nodded. “I haven’t eaten since
yesterday.”

“Well I hope you like steak,” Ace said
already digging through her freezer.

Emily seemed to turn a little green. “I’ve
never been much of a meat eater.”

Ace turned and raised an eyebrow at Emily.
Vegetarianism had never gained much of a foothold in the
Exceptionals community. Most of them had to eat at lot because of
the extra strain their powers put on their bodies. They couldn’t be
real picky about what they ate, or how much.

“A class field trip, when I was a freshman in
high school, to a slaughterhouse, sort of ruined it for me. My
power wanted to know what was going through the animals’ heads as
they were being killed,” Emily explained.

Ace shuddered at the thought. “Well this is
farm raised beef, from my dad’s farm. He keeps me well supplied. He
does all the butchering himself. I very much doubt it’s like what
happens in a slaughter house.”

Emily regained some of her color, but she
still looked unsure. “Is there anything I can do?” she asked.

“Nope. You’re currently my guest. If this
arrangement lasts for very long, then yeah I’ll have you help,” Ace
replied. “Just go ahead and stow… sorry, unpack. Pick any of the
rooms you want downstairs.”

Emily picked up her bag and went to the
basement stairs. “Thank you, Ace,” she said before descending.

Ace continued getting their dinner ready.
Because the Hero Units worked odd hours and were constantly on call
she had an equally odd eating cycle. There was never really a
breakfast, lunch, dinner rotation to it. It was more whatever she
felt like cooking when she had a chance to eat. She was glad she
never had to actually exercise. She still did, but it wasn’t
necessary for her, or for any Exceptional really. Doctors and
scientists figured it had something to do with their powers.

Of course it’s because of our powers. Even
Mental Class Exceptionals are like that.

Emily returned after about twenty minutes.
“Do you have a job you have to report to?” Ace asked.

“Captain Angel told me that arrangements
would be made with my employer. I actually worked for the firm
where Technosis attacked,” Emily replied.

“I’ve been meaning to ask about that. How is
it that he got you all there during non-business hours,” Ace
asked.

Emily blushed and replied, “We were working
on a project for our company.”

“You do realize that’s a felony, right?” Ace
asked. Not that any of them would be charged, seeing as they were
taken hostage by an Anti. The courts would see that as punishment
enough.

“Sorry, I misspoke. We weren’t working on the
project. We were having a party to celebrate the project’s
completion. That’s how he knew to find us there. Technosis I mean.
Like I told you at the precinct he was once just a Reg like any
other. I knew him as Jim Parker, at least until a year ago. He went
on vacation last summer and I never saw him again, until last
night,” she trailed off.

“That was probably when the HSO grabbed him.
I don’t know much about them, hell, until you mentioned them I
didn’t even think they existed, but I can tell you they aren’t
working for the good of anyone if they are willing to experiment on
Exceptionals,” Ace said.

She’d seen other people who were willing to
perform experiments on Exceptionals- they were not nice people. The
US military had done so, but only with express consent of the
Exceptionals involved. She would have signed up, but none of the
testing equipment really worked on her. It was hard to get a blood
sample if you couldn’t puncture the skin.