One More Day (7 page)

I wanted to laugh. Of course. Considering he already had a bug up his ass about how much time I was spending with Caine, Connor would just love hearing that I’d be spending even more time with him now.

“Thanks. I’ll ask him.”

I just ran into Beta,” Jenson said. “He asked me to tell you that he went back to his lab after you two talked earlier and he thinks he made some progress on a couple of Alpha’s files.”

“Seriously? We should go check it out.”

“What? Now?”

“Now. The sooner we get some questions answered, the sooner we can get Alpha, Nightbane, and Crystal moved to international confinement.”

We headed down to the second floor, which was where David’s lab was. When he wasn’t officially on duty, he could almost always be found there, and he’d been responsible for working on some of our newer tech, as well as security stuff. Jenson and I walked into the lab and found David in his usual place, head bent over his keyboard as he tapped away. He looked up when he heard the door whoosh open.

“Hey, Jolene,” he said, sitting up. He transferred his gaze to Jenson. “Hey Jenson,” he added, his tone changing a little. I was pretty sure he was blushing and it was kind of ridiculously cute.

“Hey. How’s it going?” I asked as I hid a smile, and Jenson gave him a small nod.

“Okay. I think I’m making some headway on those encrypted files.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Look at this,” he said, waving us over. Jenson and I went next to where he was sitting and I bent down so I could see the monitor he was pointing out. “This was the first file I was able to crack.”

I started reading. “It’s an email or something.”

“Yeah. Keep reading.”

I glanced at him. The tension in his voice sent a trickle of fear down my spine. I looked back at the monitor. A lot of it was bullshit about weather and vacation spots and stuff, and then, toward the end of the document, there was a short paragraph: “Regarding your inquiry about the possibility of sharing samples and information, I must admit that I’m intrigued. Especially at the price you offered. As you know, I have many exceptional samples at my disposal, collected for much the reasons you stated. At this time, I will have to decline, as I believe my assets are worth a bit more than even your generous offer. I’m sure you understand. However, I would be willing to consider it for an increased offer. We can continue these discussions when I return from Paris. Cordially, Michael A. Fendrath.”

“Michael is Alpha?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

“Samples. So someone was offering him what I guess was a lot of money for samples of something. Any idea what?”

He clicked, opening another document. “This was the next one. Looks like an inventory. See what you think, and I’m going to hope it’s different from what I think.”

I bent down again, and he stood and offered me his chair. “Thanks,” I murmured as I looked at the screen and Jenson crouched next to me to read. David stood just behind me as I started reading.

It was a spreadsheet. In one column, there was a list of things:

Self-Replication

Invisibility

Super Strength

Super Speed

Contact Toxicity

Heightened Senses

Flight

Alter Outcomes

Teleportation

In the next column, a list of amounts, corresponding to the items in the first column. Numbers in the millions. And in the final column, it looked like some kind of ranking, from one to five.

“Powers of the original StrikeForce members,” I murmured, matching up the power with the hero. “My guess is the second column is a dollar amount. And if I’d known y’all were worth this much, I’d have sold you myself,” I said, and Jenson shook her head. “I think the final column is some kind of ranking, but it doesn’t say of what.” I turned and looked at David. “Is that what you were thinking?”

He nodded, then looked up at the ceiling.

“Did he… so he was talking about samples in the first file. Did he mean, like you guys in particular? Or do you think he meant like blood or DNA samples? Did he even have anything like that?”

And then I remembered. He did. He had DNA. Because one of the very first things I’d had to do was submit to a mouth swab when they’d forced me to join.

“He took blood from us, too,” Jenson said. “In the med wing. He had us give blood, he said, to bank it for if we ever lost too much and needed a transfusion.”

“They never took mine,” I said.

David nodded. “I was able to dig into the metadata. This list was written before you were on the team. These are all individual powers. You have a bunch of them. And I think the dollar figure beside your powers would have been significantly higher, based on what they were talking about for these,” he said, nodding toward the screen.

I closed my eyes. “I think it’s probably too much to hope that his contact was someone working for the good guys.”

“Yeah.”

“Any idea who it was yet?” I asked, opening my eyes to look at him.

“Not yet. But I’m not resting until I crack the rest of this mess.”

Jenson and I stayed and chatted with David for a couple of minutes, and then we started back up toward my suite. We were just getting off the elevator when Portia came on my comm.

“Daystar?”

“Yep. What’s up, Portia?” I asked.

“We have a Dr. Death sighting near Midtown. Do you want it?”

“Hell yeah,” I said, quickening my pace. Jenson did the same.

“Figured so. We’ll meet you in the meeting room.”

“Copy,” I said. I dashed back to my room to change into my uniform, and then we made our way through the corridors, up the stairwell to the floor where the team meting room was. When we got to the room with its sleek black table, walls of glass, and arrays of monitors, Portia, Amy, Monica, Dani, and Toxxin were already there.

“What, we’re all going?”

“If it’s him, we’re gonna make sure we get the bastard,” Monica said from where she was perched on the table beside Dani. “Caine and Beta are staying here.”

“I want another crack at him, without a doubt,” Toxxin said, and I nodded.

“Let’s go then,” Portia said. The next second, we were standing behind one of the parking lots near the Detroit Institute of Arts. The museum was lit up, white limestone glowing in the night. Across the street was the main branch of the Detroit Public Library, more limestone.

“We’ve got a report of an alarm in the art museum,” Beta said over our comms. When Jenson wasn’t on, watching and directing from Command, it was usually Beta. David. I would eventually get used to using my teammates’ actual names. “I’m looking at the security feed now. We got Dr. Death and Daemon near the Kresge Court.”

“Try not to break any art,” Jenson muttered to me as we moved, running, keeping to the shadows toward the nearest entrance.

“I’ve alerted the security guards that you’re on your way,” Beta said.

“Thank you,” Portia told him. I glanced around at our group. Portia was the tallest of us, wearing a half mask, a gray arrow insignia on her chest. Amy, who’d decided to go with the code name “Steel,” had already turned to metal, which I thought was the single most awesome power any of us had, because she looked freaking deadly. Monica, AKA “Swoon,” had a wavy line as her insignia, representing her telekinetic powers. Dani’s red hair flowed from beneath her cowl, and she had a shard of broken glass as her insignia. Screamer. They were silent, serious, and I was surprised to find that I was glad they were with me.

“Okay. Let’s do this.”

“Try not to break anything,” David said over our comms.

“We know, man,” Monica said.

“I was mostly talking to Jolene,” he said.

“Seriously. Why do you all assume I’m just gonna break shit?”

Jenson cleared her throat, smothering a laugh, and I rolled my eyes. Portia tried the door.

“Still locked.”

I stepped forward and gave the handle a hard pull, and the door swung open. “Not anymore,” I said, and we walked in. We were in a lobby area, and there was a short staircase straight ahead.

“Knights and armor is in that gallery,” Jenson said quietly. “Rivera Court is just past that.” We nodded, and Portia and I exchanged a glance.

“I’ll do my thing,” I said.

“You do that,” Portia said with a slight smile. I rose into the air and flew through the museum, past the large, open gallery that held glass cases full of medieval armor and weapons, though to be honest, if the situation had been different, I would have stayed in there longer. Seeing the elaborate coffered ceiling up close was the kind of thing I was grateful to my powers for. I could see things other people never got to see, not the way I could.

Another day, maybe. I swooped toward the Rivera Court.

“Jolene, security updated us. They’re in the Egyptian gallery upstairs now. Third floor. Death is messing with one of the sarcophagi in there.”

“Ew. Meet me there,” I said.

“Copy.”

It was easy to find my way up once I figured out where the staircases were. I took it up, flying just above the floor, since I could fly so much faster than I could walk or run.

“Are they still there?” I asked, pressing my comm.

“Yeah. We’re on two now.”

“Move your asses unless you want me to have all the fun,” I said. I picked up speed. I could see the Egyptian gallery straight ahead of me now, statues of scribes, pharaohs, and, in the smaller gallery beyond, mummy cases. I could hear something scraping, low voices.

“Hold that,” I heard a male voice say, and then I burst into the gallery, through the wide doorway. Daemon and Dr. Death were there, Daemon holding some kind of stone sculpture in his hands, looking bored, which, on my limited contact with him, was how he usually looked. Death was rummaging through the nearby display case, and he picked something up. They both seemed to notice that I was there at the same time, and I made my move. Of the two, as far as I knew, Daemon was the more powerful, so I plowed into him, knocking him into the side of a large stone sarcophagus that sat in the center of the room. His head hit it with a hard thunk and he went limp. I tossed him to the floor and took a step toward Dr. Death, who clutched one of those jars that the Egyptians kept body parts in when they mummified people. I couldn’t remember the word for it, I just knew it was gross as fuck and the dude had issues if he went through all this trouble to get some kidneys or whatever the hell was in there.

“Stop right there,” Dr. Death said, and I smiled. I took another step toward him. I tried to look like I was focusing completely on him. And I was, but I was also trying to keep a look out for his little blond transporter. She always seemed to get them out of trouble at the last moment.

“We’re here,” Jenson said in my ear. “Just outside.”

“Well, at least I didn’t find you doing something really inappropriate with the bodies,” I said to Dr. Death, and he sneered at me. If he wasn’t a psychotic super villain, I guess he could have been considered handsome. He wore a dark suit, black shirt and tie. A fedora pulled low over his dark eyes. Olive complexion, wavy hair peeking from beneath the brim of his hat. Not extremely tall, but muscular looking. He was probably in his late forties, and had that distinguished gentleman look going for him.

Except for the mummified body parts he was holding, of course.

“What are you going to do with that?” I asked him, taking another step.

“This!” he shouted, and threw the jar at me. I dodged it, and the distraction gave him just enough time to bolt for the next gallery.

“Secure that bastard,” I said, gesturing toward Daemon as I ran after Dr. Death. I could hear Toxxin behind me, along with Dani.

“Brianne, now,” I heard Dr. Death say calmly.

“Fuck,” I muttered, and rose into the air so I could move faster. I threw myself at him, grabbing a hold of his arm just as the blond appeared and whisked him away.

The only thing was, because I was holding onto him, this time I went with them. Which would end up being either a really great move on my part or one of those many things that I’d wish I’d thought through more carefully.

Chapter Four

When we reappeared again, I was still clutching Dr. Death, and we were somewhere along the water. Large houses, mansions, loomed across a road, and we stood on the beach near the water.

“Rude, to invite oneself along where they aren’t wanted,” Dr. Death murmured, his calm, cultured tone making me want to punch him in the face even more than usual. More quickly than I would have imagined, he wrenched himself out of my grip, but I had just enough time to hit him in the face before he darted away. He bent over, blood dripping from his nose and onto the wet sand near his feet.

“Get that bitch,” he told his teleporter. Brianne.

“Where are you?” Jenson asked in a panicky voice in my comm.

“Jo?” Caine’s voice rumbled over the comm a moment later. Even if I’d wanted to answer him, I didn’t have a chance to as I saw the glint of a gun in the blond’s hand. I lunged, knocking into her. I heard the gun go off, but if she had managed to shoot at me, my uniform had protected me.

“Not nice. Super villains never have any goddamn manners,” I said as she struggled against me, trying to wrench herself out of my grasp. I held on tighter. She was bigger, bulkier than I am, and she knew how to fight, how to try to maneuver herself out of a situation.