Just Cause: Revised & Expanded Edition (20 page)

“Grandma,” interrupted Sally before her mother could argue. “How are you?”

“Old and decrepit.” Judy cackled with glee. “I’m thrilled you came to see me.” Her voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. “I understand you’re involved with a boy.”

Sally’s mouth dropped open, an expression matched by Faith’s.

“You are?” cried her mother. “When did this happen? And how does mother know and I don’t?”

“It was on
Good Morning America.
” Judy turned to look at Sally. “He needs a haircut, your boyfriend.”

Sondra laughed. “He’s not so bad, really. His hair is charming when it’s all messy like that.”

“Could we maybe not talk about my social life and look at the real reason why I’m here?” said Sally.

Sondra settled down, an indulgent smile pasted across her face. Faith looked scandalized. Grandma Judy snickered. “Oh, to be eighteen and in love again.”

“I’m not—look, I’m not here for that, Grandma,” said Sally. “Mom, stop shooting me that look.”

“I’m not giving you a look. I’m just concerned—”

“Mom, please?”

Sondra wrapped an arm around Faith’s shoulders and steered her toward the door. “Let’s give Sally a little space. I’m sure you’ll have plenty of opportunity to grill her about Mastiff. In the meantime, let’s go get something to drink.”

“But I—oh, all right,” said Faith. “But we will discuss this, young lady.”

Sally fumed as Sondra and her mother left the apartment.

“I wish you two wouldn’t fight so much,” said Grandma Judy. “And I wish you’d be a dear and get me a ginger ale from the fridge.”

“Sure, Grandma.”

“You remind me so much of her when she was your age. No wonder you two butt heads so much. There were days when I could have cheerfully strangled your mother. She was quite the little hellion in her day. If she wasn’t so much faster than me, you might never have been born.”

Sally handed Grandma Judy a glass of ice and poured the soda into it. “I’m not really a troublemaker. I’ve tried really hard to be good.”

“I know, dear. You’ve never had the chance to stretch your wings. Between home schooling, training, and that Academy, you missed out on your childhood.” Grandma Judy clinked the ice in her glass for emphasis. “Now, while your mother is off fuming about your boyfriend, what did you want to ask me?”

Sally slipped the file folder from her bag. “I know you and Grandpa fought a German parahuman the night you met. He wrote a little about that in his book. Do you remember much about it?”

“Oh my, yes. I may joke about being old and decrepit, but I promise you my mind is as sharp as ever, Sally.” Grandma Judy smiled. “How well I recall that night. Your grandfather looked so handsome in that ridiculous pirate shirt he wore, so young and vital. And he was such a good shot with his bow. We never even considered that he might be a parahuman until long after he’d retired and the test confirmed it.”

Sally thumbed through the file until she found the best picture of Heinrich Kaiser and showed it to her grandmother. “Do you recognize this guy? Is he who you fought that night?”

Judy took the picture and stared at it with intensity. Sally chewed on her knuckles while she waited.

“I’m not sure,” said her grandmother at last. “It’s been more than fifty years. I wish your grandfather was still alive, God bless him. He always had a better memory for details. It was the writer in him.” Judy gazed at the picture once more. “This could be him. It’s so hard to tell. Oh!”

“What is it?”

“I’ve just thought of something else. Will you go to my closet? On the top shelf is a file box filled with papers.”

Sally was in and out of her grandmother’s bedroom in a blur.

“So fast,” smiled Grandma Judy. “The speed runs in our blood, Sally, and you’re the fastest of all. Your daughter will be faster yet.”

Sally burst out laughing. “I’ve only barely even got a boyfriend. I’m in no hurry.”

“Of course, dearie.” Judy opened the box and riffled through the papers within. “These are your grandfather’s notes for
Dangerous
. He was meticulous about keeping them so he would have all his details in order. I wonder if he has anything here about your mystery man.”

Sally moved to stand at her grandmother’s shoulder and looked with interest at the notes, sketches, and faded newspaper clippings.

“Aha!” crowed Judy in triumph. “Look at this.” She held up a rough pencil sketch of a glowing figure that floated over water. In the corner was a more detailed study of the face. It had an uncanny resemblance to the photo of Heinrich Kaiser, enough so that Sally whistled in surprise. She held the two pictures side by side.

“That might really be the same guy,” she decided. “You only dealt with him the one time, right?”

“Yes. He disappeared that night and we never did find him again. We always suspected he’d left the country.

“Do you remember anything else about that night? Anything Grandpa didn’t write in his book?”

Judy shook her head. “I don’t, but your grandfather undoubtedly does.”

“That doesn’t really help me.”

“Ah,” said her grandmother. “This will.” She held up a sheaf of papers.

Sally perked up. “What’s that?”

“The original draft of that night’s events. The first chapter of his autobiography. What appeared in the book was much shorter. His editor thought the detail would bore the readers.”

“Really? Grandma, could I maybe borrow it?”

“Of course, dear. It would all come to you eventually anyway. Take the whole box.”

“Wow,” said Sally. “This is awesome, Grandma. Thank you!”

Judy beamed. “I hope it brings you the answers you’re seeking.”

Sally smiled back. She knew what she’d be reading later that evening before bedtime.

Chapter Fifteen

“People say they fear us because they don’t understand us, and people always fear what they don’t understand. They should fear us because of what we are.”

-Isaiah Mohammed, AKA Flashpoint, 1965

January, 2004

Phoenix, Arizona

Sally looked up as Sondra set down the manuscript, a thoughtful expression on her face. She lay on her stomach on the bed in the guest room, her wings spread out like a feathery cloak. Sally sat on the floor and worked her way through her grandfather’s papers.

“I can see why his editor suggested the change,” said Sondra. “This reads more like a chapter from an adventure novel than an autobiography.”

Sally shrugged. “He was a superhero. Our lives by definition are adventurous.”

“Good point,” said Sondra.

“Okay, I have a theory,” said Sally.

Faith bustled into the room. “Sondra, can I get you anything in here? More pillows? A blanket?”

“I’m fine, Faith. This bed is lovely and comfortable.”

“Well, I came up to tell you the pizza’s here.”

“That’s fine, Mom. We’ll be down in a minute.” Sally gave her mother a tight smile.

Faith left and headed back downstairs.

“You ought to be nicer to her,” said Sondra. “You only ever get to have one mother.”

Sally stretched her arms up to work out a kink in her neck. “She’s just so hard to deal with sometimes.”

“Think of her as part of your adventurous life.”

Sally snickered at that. “Her cooking is adventurous, that’s for sure. Trust me, you’ll be glad we ordered pizza.”

Sondra patted her belly. “I love pizza far too much for my figure, I’m afraid. Extra time in the gym for me this week.”

“Do you want to hear my theory?”

“Of course I do, but why don’t you tell me downstairs. Your mother might have some insight to share.”

Sally sighed in exasperation.

“Sally, she’s not your enemy and this shouldn’t be a secret,” said Sondra as they left the guest room and followed the scent of pepperoni and green peppers that wafted up the stairs.

Faith already had one of the boxes open and got drinking glasses from the freezer with one hand while she balanced a large slice in the other. “God,” she said around a mouthful. “I haven’t had pizza forever. Sondra, what would you like to drink? A beer?”

“Beer’s fine. If I’m going to let myself go to hell tonight, I might as well take the full tour.”

“Sally? I’ve got soda and iced tea.”

“Tea is fine, Mom.”

Faith handed out plates and beverages. “Don’t be shy, ladies.”

For a few minutes, the only sound in the room was that of the women scarfing down the pizza. Sondra punctuated the brief binge session with an unladylike belch that made Sally and Faith crack up.

“Now that I’ve gotten that out,” said Sondra. “Sally, please, tell us about this theory of yours.”

Sally wiped her mouth with a paper napkin and took a sip of her tea. “Say that this guy Kaiser is the same guy Grandpa wrote about. He’s a parahuman, and he seems to not be getting any older. Plus he’s a Nazi, or at least he used to be. That means he’s got a pretty twisted sense of the proper way of the world.”

“I’m with you,” said Sondra.

“I’m not, but keep going. I’ll catch up,” said Faith.

“Okay. According to Grandpa’s manuscript, Strongman’s parahuman commando unit found a reactor of some sort when they were in Germany during the War. They also found evidence that the Germans had managed to create a parahuman, who might have possibly been Kaiser.” Sally took another drink. “So if they made one, why didn’t they make more? Where was the army of Nazi supermen?”

“The reactor blew up,” said Sondra. “Small-yield thermonuclear explosion. It killed Sounder and Meteor. That’s when Flicker lost his arm and both he and Strongman suffered the radiation scarring. The War in Europe ended shortly after that. The only information anybody had about the project was in a notebook Strongman and Flicker managed to retrieve before the reactor went.”

“Is there going to be a test on this?” asked Faith. “History was my worst subject.”

“Okay,” said Sally. “So we’ve got this guy, a parahuman created through technology and a Nazi to boot, who’s built himself a cozy little empire in his corner of the world. But now he’s looking to expand and thinks he’d like to recreate the experiment that created him. Only this time, he wants it to work right and to work better. So he enlists the help of a technological genius who’s already known to have psychopathic tendencies. Destroyer.”

Sondra set her empty beer down on the table. “You think they’re trying to make parahumans?”

“I think they already have,” said Sally. “That Antimatter Woman in Wyoming. She’s from Guatemala and she doesn’t have any idea what happened to her. What if she got fed into this… this machine, this reactor, whatever it is, and came out changed?”

“That’s horrible!” cried Faith. “But how did she end up in Wyoming?”

Sondra rubbed her chin. “Glimmer said he detected a massive expenditure of psionic energy right before everything fell apart. There must be a psi user there with enough strength to teleport someone half a world away.”

“Someone like that might be able to reprogram freshly-made parahumans,” said Sally. “And there’s your army of supermen, led by a Nazi warlord, built by a psychopathic genius, and controlled by a mysterious telepath. All they need is a target.”

Silence reigned around the table for a few minutes as the women considered the implication of Sally’s statement.

“God, I hope you’re wrong, Sally,” said Faith at last.

“So do I, Mom.”

“We’d better head back first thing in the morning,” said Sondra. “We ought to at least tell Juice about this. Even if this is mostly conjecture on our part, he’d say this is worth investigating further.”

Over the rest of the evening, the three women demolished the pizza and a quart of mint mocha ice cream Faith found in the back corner of the freezer. Afterward, they argued about movies and finally settled on
Beaches
, Sally’s preference of
The Matrix
having been outvoted two to one. Sally suffered through the two hours of angst in silence, then was shocked to find herself in tears along with Sondra and her mother at the end despite her avowed cynicism toward chick flicks.

After they’d all had a good cry, they decided to call it a night. Sally made sure Sondra was settled into the guest room before slipping into her own bed for the first time in six months. She’d forgotten how much she missed it. Her bed at Just Cause headquarters wasn’t nearly as comfortable. She’d have to check with Harris to see if he could replace her mattress with something a little softer. Superheroes needed their sleep to be restful, she reasoned, since it seemed to be in short supply.

Her phone beeped quietly but insistently and woke her from a dream of running endlessly through the darkness. She looked at her bedside clock as she fumbled for the elusive device.
1:48
.

“H’lo?” she mumbled into the phone.

“
Hey, beautiful, did I wake you?
” It was Jason.

“Yeah,” she said. “But it’s okay. How was your gig?”

“
Lousy sound. The guy running the board was pretty wasted. But we played well.
”

“That’s good.” She yawned. “It’s nice to hear your voice.”

“
Likewise. Did you get to talk to your grandma?
”

“Yeah. We got some good stuff from her. We’re coming home tomorrow. I mean, we’re coming back. I guess I’m home now.”

“
Cool. I’m on duty the next two days, but stop by and see me when you get back.
”

“I will. I think I’m on duty the next two. Stupid schedule.”

Jason laughed. “
Well, I’ve got to get a few hours of sleep. Juice looks down on dozing during monitor duty
.”

“Imagine that.”

“
I missed you today, Sally.
”

Sally smiled. “I missed you too, Jason.”

“
See you tomorrow
.”

“Okay.”

Sally felt warm all over and content as she hung up. Jason had missed her, and he’d told her so. That thought comforted her and lulled her back to sleep.

Breakfast was low-key in Faith’s house. Cereal and tea. Faith admitted to Sondra she didn’t often get inspired enough to cook anything early in the morning. She referred to anytime before nine AM as
Grumpy Hour
, which meant you were on your own. She did manage to find enough coffee to make a pot for Sondra, who confided to Sally that it was about as stimulating as colored water.