The Indestructibles (10 page)

Chapter 20:

Debriefing

I'm telling you, there's a girl in there," Jane said.

      "Are you sure?" Billy said.

      "Why don't you believe me?"

      They sat in the conference room with Doc, reviewing the crap show their storm investigation had turned into. Emily milled about, bored, trying to get the chairs to spin around as fast as possible.

      "I believe you saw a girl," Doc said. "But there's a hundred things that could mean. There could be someone with inherent, natural powers like your own, able to effect the weather, but not able to control herself. It could be a supernatural being — you said she was colorless?"

      "She was . . . she was like the color of storm clouds," Jane said. "Her hair was sky blue."

      "That might mean she's something supernatural, if she were showing signs of not looking fully human," Doc said. "If werewolves exist, then you have to understand that there might be lot of entities you once thought were myths and legends. I've seen more than I can remember."

      "'There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy,'" Emily said.

      Everyone in the room turned to look at her.

      "You gotta be kidding me," Billy said.

      "Think I don't know Shakespeare?"

      "You act like you're semi-literate half the time, and the other half you're some kind of walking encyclopedia," he said.

      "Whatever. I'm going to play video games. Call me when you need someone to mess with gravity."

      Emily left, and Jane watched her follow through on her threat, plunking down on a sofa in a rec area across the hall.

      "What you're saying is it could be anything," Jane said.

      "There are a lot of possibilities, and we need to know more before we can do anything about it," Doc said.

      "Considering what just happened, I think we can safely assume nobody's punching out the storm," Billy said.

      "Maybe she's an alien symbiote. We could deck a symbiote," Jane said.

      "Hey."

      "I'm just saying."

      "Our best bet, for now," Doc said, "is to see what Kate comes back with. Maybe it will help."

      "And if not?" Jane asked.

      "I suppose you'll get your chance to try to punch out a thunderstorm," Doc said.

Chapter 21:

Test Subjects

Kate didn't bring Titus with her when she traveled to pick up the assorted drives from Andrew.
Titus couldn't help but have a twinge of jealousy, but she returned quickly and strode directly towards him, bypassing the room where Billy and Jane were dissecting their trip to the storm front. Emily played a video game in one of the entertainment rooms, alone. She waved when Kate dragged Titus down the hall with her bag full of mistreated tech equipment.

      They walked into the command center and Kate plopped down onto one of the chairs, clearly inspecting the console for something.

      "Tell me this Star Trek nonsense has a USB port," she said.

      "To your left, near the bottom."

      Kate nodded and slid a new thumb drive into it.

      "There wasn't much," she said. "But the funny thing is, Andrew told me, it looked like there was a kill switch on their computer that should have been activated if some specific protocol occurred. He said it was like intentionally putting a virus on your computer."

      "They had a failsafe," Titus said.

      Kate looked back over her shoulder at Titus, who felt as if he had said something wrong. Not having an idea what he might have done to upset her, he sat down in the chair next to her.

      "Yeah, a failsafe," she said. "But remember all the water damage we saw?"

      "Probably from the storm."

      "Exactly. Well, a few of the machines — the laptop I stole, for example — were damaged by the water almost immediately. They basically became inert objects before the virus could be fired up."

      "But if they were inert objects, doesn't that mean they'd be erased?" Titus asked.

      "It's like Andrew told me. Nothing is ever really gone," Kate said. "Look, I don't know how he does this stuff. But he was able to salvage a few files. I mean, really, only a few. Not much to go on."

      Kate investigated the excessively complex console again.

      "Is there a friggin' mouse on here somewhere?"

      "Track pad. Right there. It's hard to see."

      "Dammit, I need to get better with computers if I'm going to do this detective stuff. I'm way behind."

      "You're better than the others," Titus offered.

      "Jane knows how to Google and Facebook. Billy can find dirty pictures online without accidentally downloading malware. That's about the extent of his abilities. And Emily, I found out, is some kind of part-time professional Internet troll."

      "When does she have time to be an Internet troll?"

      "In between sessions of being an antagonistic first person shooter videogame addict, I'm guessing. Did you see what she was doing in there when we walked by? Being a horrible person to people she'll never meet."

      "She might need more to do with her time," Titus said.

      "I'm not sure if that would make it better or worse. I swear she's posting on Reddit while we're on missions." Kate slumped back in her chair. "Anyway. Andrew found a few leads. Some names. One was a sociopathic teen-aged girl who barely survived a car wreck. Sound like anyone we've met?"

      "I can offer a guess."

      "And then there was this one," Kate said. She opened up a text file.

     
Project Designation:
Valkyrie Snow

     
Project Rating:
Partial Success

Overview:
Subject Valkyrie Snow was an attempt to merge a sentient weather pattern (captured off the coast of Norway [date redacted]) with a human body. Body acquired from Malcolm Height, MD, Miami Central Hospital — body belonged to Caucasian female, age 18, victim of hit and run, vegetative state. Appropriate bribes authorized for transfer of body and necessary paperwork to be filed for subject's legal death.

      Initial merging was a partial success — subject began manifesting post-human temperature/weather control abilities immediately. Storm abandoned body within seconds, however. Process to be examined for flaws in retention. Ideal situation would be a permanent merger. Concerns that the storm's mass, while transient, cannot be limited to single mundane body.

      During phase two of the experiment, however, the sentient storm exhibited unexpected intellect and immediately made an escape attempt. Security was increased; several post-human mercenaries have been brought in to supervise.

      Tracking implants have been placed in test subject's body, as well as electro-stimulation implants intended to use pain as a control mechanism should the storm remain in-corpus. By the request of management, we have also placed a cortex bomb in test subject's skull. Should all else fail, we can terminate the human component.

      "Okay, maybe I'm a little slow, but . . . Sentient storm?" Titus said.

      "You know as much as I do," Kate said. "I'm more concerned about the phrase 'cortex bomb' and the fact that it sounds like they bought a girl's still living and breathing body off of a doctor in Miami."

      "We have to tell Doc."

      "We do," Kate said. "But I was thinking — what if we went to talk with that Miami doctor first? We could see if he remembers anything about these body snatchers."

      Titus smiled.

      "We could play good cop, bad cop," he said.

      "I get to be the bad cop," Kate said.

      "But I'm a werewolf. I'm inherently bad cop by definition."

      Kate flashed her most vicious smile.

      "Okay," He said. "You're bad cop. But how are we going to get to Florida on our own? We're a little . . . sedentary."

      "Weren't we just saying there is someone living in the tower who could use more responsibility?"

      "Emily," Titus said. "But do you think she'll have a problem if we play the bad cop card?"

      "You haven't seen what she posts online," Kate said. "She might be more evil than either of us."

Chapter 22:

Valkyrie

Her name was Valerie.

      She was born in a suburb of Chicago to a pair of pleasant if slightly boring parents; her mother was a realtor, her father an engineer, and they met later in life, and married later in life, and retired young, when they were tired of the harsh Illinois winters. They moved to Florida with their daughter, who was a teenager at the time, too young to stay behind, but old enough to resent them for taking her so far away from the life she built.

      She acted up. She misbehaved. Nothing criminal, but often enough and recklessly enough that when she lost control of her car and drove headlong into a truck on I-95, there was more resignation than shock.

      Her best friend, another reckless rebel, died instantly. Valerie ended up in a coma.

      The oncoming truck and the flashes of pain and confusion during those first few minutes were the last things she remembered until this other being took control of her body.

      She sensed the other presence, knew it was alive, but it never spoke. All Valerie felt was this creature's raw emotions: rage, confusion, loneliness. When she opened her eyes she saw only the black and yellow clouds of a ferocious storm, and sometimes the ocean beneath her, or flashes of destruction she knew the storm — that she — was causing.

      But when she closed her eyes, she could see everything.

      She was the eye of the storm.

      And it was thrilling.

      After the first few hours, she felt an agonizing electric jolt beneath her skin, inside her. It tore through her, all the way to her bones. It seemed to try to push her in one direction or another, the right side would hum with electric pain, causing her to jerk away. The storm never left her behind; if she pulled away, the clouds and rain went with her.

      But the third time this happened, the other thing, the presence, took notice. She felt it turn its attention to the pain, and the next time the shocks began, she watched as the electricity was diverted from her body, out into the clouds like lightning.

      And she heard a voice. Not with her ears. She heard it from within, some stranger inhabiting her own brain.

      "No," the storm said.

      "Who are you?" Valerie asked. "Will you let me go? What's happening?"

      And again, the voice spoke.

      "No," the storm said.

      Days went by without another word. Valerie watched like a passenger in an airplane as the world flowed by.

      And then someone was there in the storm. An intruder. Valerie called out to her, yelling for help, but she felt the storm fighting her, hammering her with rain and hail, trying to push her back.

      "Let me talk to her!" Valerie yelled. "Please let me talk to her!"

      But the storm pressed on, growing more violent; Valerie could feel the rage at this intrusion like it was in her own heart. She experienced something else also though, a thrill, a living strength as the storm built in her limbs, in her veins. She felt stronger than she ever had in her entire life.

      And she was terrified.

      Then the other girl appeared, dressed so strangely in a red and gold costume, cape flapping violently in the wind, her hands on fire, like torches held in front of her to light the way. They locked eyes. Valerie reached a desperate hand out to her.

      But the other girl was swept away.