Just Cause Universe 2: The Archmage (4 page)

After a few minutes, they retrieved the culprit. Jack laughed when he saw it. It was a horseshoe, caked with rust. “Here you go, Sally.” He offered it to her. “You can start a collection. Or maybe keep it as a replacement in case you ever lose one of the others.” Sally had inherited a pair of horseshoes that her grandmother had wielded like brass knuckles back in the ‘40s when she fought crime as the hero Colt for Just Cause’s precursor team
American Justice
.

She took the shoe with a hint of distaste. “Thanks… I think.”

“Don’t mention it.” Jack grinned. “Let’s pack this fellow up. We’ll shoot an email over to the Colorado Historical Society and let them know what we’ve found. They’ll probably want to take a look at his bits and pieces. Good opportunity for some PR.” Jack was Just Cause’s official Public Relations manager, and looked at everything from a promotional angle.

Jack marked the boundaries of their dig in case an archaeology team wanted to do any further digging. Sally helped he and Sondra pack the bones back onto the ATV. She grimaced at just how dirty she’d gotten from a bit of digging. “I’m going to need to take another shower.”

“Too bad Jason’s on duty today or he could scrub your back,” Sondra whispered to Sally.

“No kidding. I hate it when one of us has monitor duty.”

“It’s got to be worse for you.” Sondra flapped her wings to snap the accumulated dust from her feathers. “Since you’re a speedster, time’s got to pass a lot slower… especially when you’re bored.”

“You got that right.”

“Well, ladies,” said Jack. “I’m all finished up here with the packing. I hope I’m not interrupting your conversation or anything.”

“Oh, sorry, Jack.” Sally smiled and hefted the horseshoe. “Thanks for this, anyway. Maybe I’ll try to clean it up.”

When she got back to her room, she left the horseshoe on her desk by the two from her grandmother. She took a five-minute shower and scrubbed herself pink. She sighed in discontent at her mass of once-again-wet hair. She did her best to towel-dry it and then worked it into her customary twin braids.

She made her way through the headquarters building toward his office. It seemed much emptier since both Forcestar and Glimmer had died in Guatemala, leaving the team two members short.

Juice’s real name was James Forsythe, but he was one of those rare superheroes whose alter ego seemed to fit better than his given name. Almost nobody called him James; even his wife tended to call him
Juice, honey
. He bent over his desk, locked in mortal combat with a stack of paperwork that could choke an industrial shredder. A fine film of sweat shone on his clean-shaven brown head.

Sally rapped her knuckles against the door frame. “You wanted to see me?”

He smiled, took off his reading glasses, and set them on top of the paperwork, all of which bore official Department of Homeland Security or Just Cause logos. “Sally, what’s this about you finding a body today?”

She sighed inwardly. News traveled faster than she could outrun it when Jack was involved. “Not exactly a body. More like some bones that are probably a hundred years old or more.”

Juice chuckled. “You know, we’re sitting on some seventeen thousand acres out here and I’ll bet that in sixty years nobody has done any kind of serious surveying. They used to manufacture chemical weapons and pesticides here way back when. I doubt they ever looked around all that much. Who knows what else is out there, just waiting for you to trip over it?”

“I don’t know.”

“Rhetorical question, Sally. Sit down. Don’t worry,” he said as he saw the look of concern on her face. “You’re not in trouble or anything. We’re getting two new team members. One is temporary, the other might be permanent. Do you know about a psi called Switchboard?”

“Isn’t he on the Second Team?” Just Cause had a second unit based in Richmond, Virginia.

“Yes. They’re going to loan him to us for awhile. I’ve got my eye on a promising kid in the Academy, but we’re looking at a minimum of thirteen months before we can bring him aboard even as an intern.” Juice closed a file folder on his desk. “Switchboard is a better telepath than Glimmer was, but unfortunately he doesn’t have such a wide range of other abilities like Glimmer did. It’s too bad psionics are the rarest of parahuman powers. They’re just so darn useful to have around.” He leaned back in his oversized chair, which creaked under his weight.

“Yes sir.” She wondered where Juice was going with all this.

“His name’s Chris… he’s a good guy and should fit in fine here. However, the other para we’re being assigned I don’t know anything about. And you do.”

“Who is it?”

“Shannon Tokugawa, also known as Vapor. What can you tell me about her?” Juice cracked his knuckles with a sound like boards snapping.

Slut. Bitch.
The words came unbidden to Sally’s mind and she clamped down on her tongue lest they escape between her lips. “She’s nice,” she lied.

Chapter Two

“There are probably more independent parahumans now than there are on teams, which is actually a pretty sobering notion when you really think about it.”

-John Stone, appearing on
Hardball with Chris Matthews
, February 19, 2001

May, 2004

Denver, Colorado

Just Cause Headquarters

“Shannon—” Jason’s brow furrowed.

“Tokugawa,” said Sally. “She was in my class at the Academy, you big dumb jock.”

Jason rolled onto his back and put his hands behind his head. Sally had stayed up late so she could spend some time with him after his duty shift was over at midnight. She laid her head on his chest and toyed with the whorls of fine blond hair that dotted it.

“Yeah, I know who she is.”

“Oh?” A slight twinge of jealousy spiked in Sally’s mind. “How?”

“We, uh, we went out a couple of times.”

“I see.” Her voice took on a frosty tone.

“Hey, that was like two years ago.” Jason lifted his head so he could look into Sally’s eyes. “I haven’t talked to her at all since I graduated.”

She tried to push away her sudden possessiveness. “I’m sorry, Jase. I know I’m not your first girlfriend. You were honest with me about that. I just get a little crazy thinking about you hooking up with anyone else.”

Jason’s cheeks colored. “Who said anything about her and me hooking up?”

You don’t have to
, she thought.
Your face tells the story
. “Anyway, she and the guy from the Second Team are supposed to be here tomorrow. Guess who gets to give them the grand tour?”

“Tomorrow? You mean later today.” He chuckled. “Hope it’s not too early.”

“No,” laughed Sally. “I’ll get plenty of beauty sleep. Eventually.” She winked.

“You’re insatiable, you know.” His eyes sparkled in that way that turned her insides warm and glowing.

She kissed his stomach and enjoyed the feeling of an abdominal muscle as it fluttered under her lips. “Can’t help it. You bring out the best in me.”

Jason casually kicked the covers off the bed. “Well… it’s been a long day in the command center. You know, saving the world and stuff. But I think I can find the energy to satisfy you yet once more tonight.” He started to sit up but she pushed him back down. Rather, he allowed her to push him back down; with his strength, very few people could push him around. She straddled his chest, leaned down, and kissed him hard. If she accomplished anything at all tonight, she thought, it would be to drive any stray thoughts of Shannon Tokugawa from his mind.

The next morning came far earlier than Sally would have liked. She rolled over and kissed Jason, who had just started to stir. “You’re amazing,” she whispered. That had become one of their rituals ever since the first time she spent the night with him.

By the time Jason stumbled into the bathroom, Sally had finished up in the shower. “Morning,” she said, bright and cheerful.

He grunted.

She stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around herself while Jason brushed his teeth. His shoulder-length hair stuck out in random directions and made him look like a sleepy, overgrown toddler. She stepped up onto the toilet so she was high enough to lean over and kiss the side of his neck. “You know what? I think I’m in love with you.”

Jason choked on his mouthful of toothpaste and struggled for a moment before he managed to spit most of it into the sink. “Really?” he said as he wiped his mouth on a towel.

During the ensuing pause, Sally felt her ire start to rise. She forced it back into the dark recesses of her mind. She whispered in his ear, “When someone tells you that, you’re supposed to say the same thing back to them.”

“Oh. Duh.” Jason’s familiar grin returned. “I’m so falling for you too.”

Sally sighed. That was probably the best he could manage before caffeination. She decided she’d better ease him into the morning after her bombshell. “Are you guys practicing tonight?” She referred to Jason’s band,
Velma’s Glasses
. He played guitar and sang.

He nodded. “Yeah. We’ve got a big performance coming up in two weeks—we’re the headline act at Bart’s.” Bart’s Basement was the first place Sally had seen the band perform; it had been their first date.

“Cool. I’ll be there. Gotta run. Noobs will be here pretty soon.” She decided to dispense with her braids, wrapped her hair up into a sloppy bun, and shoved a couple of chopsticks through it to hold it in place. She dressed quickly and headed out the door.

Jack was on duty in the command center, and Juice was on a conference call with Homeland Security, so only Sondra and Doublecharge, Juice’s second-in-command, sat in the cafeteria. They were paging through file folders and talking quietly when Sally walked up to them with a bowl of yogurt, some fruit, and toast in one hand and a full cup of heavily-sweetened, caramel-and-whipped-cream-drizzled coffee in the other. She’d learned to love coffee after a year on the team, even though super-speed jitters were no laughing matter. “Morning,” she said. “What’s up?”

“Looking over the new members’ files.” Doublecharge didn’t smile, but she almost never did.

“Want a look-see?” Sondra slid a folder over to Sally.

“Absolutely.” She took a sip of her drink and debated whether it needed just one more sugar or if it was actually sweet enough. She lifted Shannon Tokugawa’s file to the top and started to page through it. She told herself it was just good practice, getting to know a new teammate via her file. Shannon wasn’t the competition.

Surely not.

Although Sally had been in the Academy with Shannon, they hadn’t talked much. Sally didn’t really know much about her besides her midnight visits to the boys’ dorm, which she’d bragged about to the other girls. Her parapowers of invisibility and insubstantiality had proved to be a great boon to sneakiness. After graduating from the Academy, Shannon had declined to do an internship with any of the existing teams. She seemed to have dropped out of the superhero business altogether. Instead, she’d chosen to attend George Washington University with a major in Political Science.

“I don’t get it…” Sally speared a piece of melon. “Why go to all the trouble to go to the Hero Academy at all if you’re not going to do anything with your powers?”

Sondra shrugged and took a piece of bacon. “Maybe she decided it wasn’t for her after all.”

“Then why’s she coming back?”

“You have to read between the lines somewhat,” said Doublecharge. “She didn’t volunteer herself. She’s being sent by Homeland Security. That means she works for the government in some capacity.”

“You think she’s a… a covert operative?” asked Sally in surprise.

“You watch too many spy movies.” Doublecharge nearly smiled, which was enough to make Sally hold her breath in case the world was about to end. “I suspect that she’s just another employee of Homeland Security like you and I, except she’s not attached to any team.”

“But not covertly? The girl can become invisible and insubstantial. Any dirty tricks agency like the CIA or NSA would turn cartwheels to get her on their payroll. Hell, I suspect even Homeland Security would like to have her checking out the suspects on their watch lists.” Sondra finished the sludge that was her coffee and set the cup back on her tray. “Maybe she’s being sent to spy on us.”

Doublecharge snorted. “I’m sure Homeland Security has more important things to do than keep tabs on its parapowered operational arm. You’re reading way too much into this.”

Sally’s phone beeped. “
Morning, Sally. Are you up yet?
” asked Jack from the Command Center.

She raised the phone up to her mouth. “You know very well I’m sitting here in the cafeteria.” She looked up at the nearest security camera and made kissy-lips toward it.

“
Stop, you’re breaking my heart. Anyway, our new teammates have arrived and are waiting for you in Juice’s office
.”

“Has he already given them the welcome speech?”

“
He’s doing that now. Oh
,” said Jack suddenly. “
Thought you might be interested… the lab places those bones between a hundred twenty and a hundred forty years old. Congratulations, you’re officially part of Colorado history
.”

“Like the
Wild Wild West
, right?”

“
Frontier days
,” agreed Jack.

“Pretty cool. Okay, I guess I’ll go meet the fresh meat.” Sally pushed back her chair from the table.

“Be nice,” warned Sondra. “You were the fresh meat five months ago.”

“I know, and I will.” She left the cafeteria and made her way to Juice’s office, where the team leader was just wrapping up his welcome speech.

She took a moment to examine them through the glass before knocking. Chris—Switchboard—wasn’t a typical reedy psi. He was built like an Olympic wrestler, with shoulders like cantaloupes stuffed inside his polo shirt and a jaw like a lantern. He wore his brown hair in a short, athletic cut, and seemed very much at ease with Juice.

Shannon, on the other hand, appeared much more nervous the way she shuffled her feet and looked around her. Sally remembered feeling that way at her initial meeting with Juice. And pretty much every time since then, she had to admit to herself. Shannon’s dark hair was cut short in a bob. Her face looked mostly Japanese after her father, but her skin was fair with a sprinkle of freckles across her nose courtesy of her mother. She looked natural in her business suit, as if she wore one most days.