Hunting Will (10 page)

“I don’t know, sir,” Athos replied, “but if that was Energy, I can think of only one source capable of something that strong.”

“Stark,” The Leader hissed, steadying himself against the sturdy table. “Porthos! Was it Stark?”

Porthos didn’t respond; he maintained his posture of agony, the shrieking replaced with a low moan of pain.

“I… think that means yes, it is Stark,” Aramis murmured. “That was an
incredible
amount of Energy power. It’s going to be an immense challenge to capture him.”

“I do not accept failure, Aramis,” The Leader spat. “Capturing Stark solves far too many problems for us, too many for us to simply avoid the attempt because it’s difficult. He’s eliminated as a threat to us, his smooth talking overtures to our people fail to work if he’s in a holding cell, and it’s entirely possible that the escape efforts stop as well. Cancel the original Hunt, Athos. This takes priority.”

Athos nodded.

The Leader glanced at Porthos, who had stopped whimpering and was silent. He then looked at Athos. “Start planning immediately. I want to know where he is, what he’s been up to, and most importantly,
how
you’re going to capture him
this
time.” He paused. “The man seemed nearly resistant to the sleep injection the last time, and he’ll be expecting it this time. You’ll want to come up with something new.” He stood and started from the room. “Don’t fail me again, Athos.” The door shut behind him.

Athos glanced at Porthos, who was finally sitting up. “When you’re ready, we need a location on our dear old friend.”

Porthos moaned, flipped a rude gesture at Athos, and scrambled to his feet. “I’m aware of that. I need to get my head to stop spinning first.” He took several deep breaths, steadying himself, and then activated the mapping software. When Porthos completed his routine, the Hunters had Tracked Will Stark to a city called Pleasanton, located in the southeastern portion of the state of Ohio, within the United States.

“We need to do our homework before we go,” Athos said. “Stark could very well be setting a trap. He’s been quiet for a while; no telling what he’s been scheming in the interim. We need to proceed with extreme caution. Stark’s wily
and
powerful.”

“We’re aware of that, Athos,” Aramis said. “Stark is presently on the hook for around three centuries worth of prison time; it’s difficult to get that high
without
considerable power.”

“Indubitably,” Porthos said. “What do we know about this city he lives in?”

Athos spoke. “Computer, details on the human city known as Pleasanton, located in the state of Ohio in the United States.”

The image displayed, and the three Hunters gasped in surprise. “Wow,” Porthos said. “I have to admit… that’s impressive.”

The city featured sleek, modern buildings that were, at most, ten stories in height. The layout of the city focused the tallest buildings at the center around a central square. The layout featured organized patches of green space, and there were no roads visible. Instead, the sidewalks meandering among the buildings moved, carrying pedestrians along past shops, stores, and offices. The buildings gradually tapered in size, shrinking as the distance from the city center increased. By the time one reached the perimeter of the city, the buildings were only a single story in height. The city was clean, majestic, and beautiful.

It was also covered by a translucent dome that glowed at night in the photograph shown on the table screen.

Aramis looked at the other Hunters. “Why don’t
we
have something like that?”

Neither man had an answer to that question.

“We’ll suggest to some of the architects that they take some vacation time there,” Porthos suggested. “Maybe they can tweak Headquarters or one of the satellite offices with something like that dome, or the moving sidewalks, or….”

“According to this,” Athos said, ignoring Porthos, “the dome was built out of something called nanomaterials, which are incredibly small building components that can be combined together to make something much larger.”

“So what?” Porthos replied. “You take a bunch of small bricks and build a house. You take a bunch of words and build a book, not that the two of you would understand that. You take a bunch of brain cells and build Aramis’ brain. I guess that disproves the theory, though; in that case you’d take
larger
components and build something
smaller
…”

Aramis fired an Energy bolt at Porthos, knocking him from the chair. Athos leaped between the two men. “We have a mission to plan,
gentlemen
. The Leader will not be pleased if we delay our departure because the two of you feel the need to squabble like children.”

The two sat back down while Athos remained standing. “What would
you
know about children?” Aramis muttered.

Athos coughed loudly. “Apparently… these tiny building components make the surfaces constructed with them incredibly strong, and that’s how they could build that dome. It says that the surface is naturally transparent so that sunlight can get in, but at night they can run power to it and the whole thing glows, so it’s literally never dark in that city.”

Athos read further, and then gasped. “Oh, now
this
is interesting.” He placed a hand on the table to steady himself.

After a dramatic pause, Porthos snorted at the delay. “Oh, do tell, Athos. We’re
so
intrigued to hear what you find interesting.”

“The company that built that dome is owned by a man named… Will Stark.”

Aramis and Porthos both sat up straighter in their chairs, eyes wide in their stunned silence.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Aramis said. “I thought for sure he’d gone into hiding.”

“Well, he went into hiding from
us
. Apparently he’s been
very
busy in the human world for quite some time; not sure how we missed that.”

“Because we didn’t
look
in the human world?” Porthos proposed, trying with difficulty to replace his stunned look with one of feigned indignation.

Athos scanned more of the information on the table screen. “Looks like the man has founded or bought dozens of businesses and is widely considered to be the richest man in the world.” He shook his head. “You’re right, Porthos; given the man’s love of humans, we should have been looking for activity there a long time ago.”

“You think you know a guy, and then he goes off and gets rich in plain sight of the humans,” Aramis said.

“Bugger always was an overachiever,” Porthos muttered. “Anything else about him? Does he live in the dome? Can we go there for a visit after we capture him? Or better yet, before?”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, actually,” Aramis replied, scanning through the details about the city that were displayed on the table screen. “Seems Stark owns half the businesses there, and actually
bought the whole city
and rebuilt it from scratch. I think if we go there and start asking questions, there’s a strong possibility he’ll be close enough to figure out we’re there and make a run for it. Or others will hear our questions and tell him about the three guys asking about him. I think we need to get close, but not go into the dome.” He glanced up. “Sorry, Porthos.”

Porthos grumbled, but didn’t argue.

“I’m in agreement with Aramis, for once,” Athos said. He glanced at the information on the screen as well. “Stark is listed as owning a property called De Gray Estates. Computer, show De Gray Estates, holographic image.”

The image appeared, and Porthos let out a slow whistle.

“The guy has style, I’ll give him that,” Porthos said. “Maybe he can plan stuff like this for
us
when he’s in solitary for the next few centuries.”

The others laughed.

The image showed a massive piece of property surrounded by huge concrete walls that looked to be at least twenty feet high and just as wide. The exterior portions of the walls were wider at the top than at the base, apparently to discourage anyone from trying to climb them. A moat roughly thirty feet wide surrounded the walls, completing the look of an old-fashioned castle.

The land inside the walls was heavily covered by trees, and five homes were found inside the community. Stark’s house was relatively small compared to his neighbors, but the home was still quite large and luxurious. The community had only one entrance, a large concrete gate that would sink into the ground when residents or approved guests confirmed their identities with the pair of guards who stood watch over everything around the clock.

Porthos chuckled. “It says there are rumors that the moat is filled with some kind of acid to discourage anyone from trying to swim across and climb the walls. There are other rumors that
Stark
started those rumors. Most are pretty sure that it’s really just water in the moat, but nobody has actually tested it out, though.”

“OK, so our guy works in an enclosed city where most everyone is employed by him, and his house is inside a fortress.” Athos frowned. “We’re trying to get to him without drawing attention to ourselves, without alerting Stark, and ideally without being seen by anyone who might later remember seeing someone different in the area right around the time Will Stark went missing. I think we need to pick the location of the attack before we begin formulating our plans, to make sure that we’re successful in capturing Stark. This time.”

“I think we need to try to get him inside that dome,” Porthos said. “True, many of the people working there work for him and are probably loyal to him. But we’ve always preferred to work where there are large crowds of humans, especially for the more powerful targets. Stark can’t teleport away if we corner him in an
enclosed city
where
everyone
knows who he is, and that’s the key with him. If he can get somewhere he can teleport, he can get far enough away that… even
I
might not be able to find him.”

“That’s true,” Aramis said. “I don’t know what happened at our last encounter, but you’ve said you’ve not been able to catch even a whiff of him since. This is our only break in finding him since then, so we need to take advantage of it. And we need to be better prepared than… last time.”

“Let’s not mention the last meeting, please,” Athos said, his hand touching the scar under his eye, a permanent reminder of that event. “The teleportation issue is a key reason we need to focus on surprise. I just fear that with so many people in that city, somebody is going to notice us, no matter how hard we try to conceal our intent, and word will get to him. I think we have to look at getting him at home. Once we get inside those walls, we’ve got him in an isolated house, so if we can take him by surprise and do something to stop him from teleporting, we can avoid the risk of exposure.”

Porthos shook his head. “Exposure isn’t the biggest risk here. The biggest risk is
Stark
. We have to get him where he
can’t
— or
won’t
— teleport away. What stops him from doing that if he’s sitting all alone in his house and we pop in uninvited? Nothing.”

“And if we’re in that city, we’re
not
going to get him alone, Porthos. He won’t allow it. If we get near him he’s going to make a ruckus and then our anonymity is gone. Who’s to say there aren’t cameras recording our every move while we’re there? There’s too much risk there.”

Porthos stared him down, and finally he looked at Aramis. “What say you, snowman? Dome or estate?”

Aramis sighed. “I think we have more options if we go after him in the house. Maybe we can get the lab to develop a fast-acting sleep potion we can inject into the house before we arrive, or we put it in his drinking water, or something like that. Nothing like that is an option if we’re in a city with thousands of people around.”

Athos smiled in triumph as Porthos threw up his hands in disgust.

“With that decided, we need to figure out our plan of attack,” Athos said. “We need to get to him at the house, where he’s going to be isolated. Thankfully, he’s built his house in a perfect fashion for our pursuit.”

“My first question is this: how do we get inside those walls without drawing attention?” Aramis asked.

“That’s the biggest hurdle,” Athos said.

“Uh, no,” Porthos said. “The biggest hurdle is always Stark. Take that away, and nothing else is an issue. No Stark, we teleport inside the walls without concern and take down the target.”

Athos sighed. “Yes, Stark is, was, and always will be the biggest issue and hurdle we have until he is captured. With that understanding, I’m open to ideas on how to get into the fortress community and get to his house without alerting the man. The trick is that we need to avoid the use of Energy, or at least keep it to an absolute minimum. Stark’s not Porthos, but he’s powerful enough that he can detect at least traces of Energy. So teleporting is absolutely out of the question. Not only does it alert him to the fact that we’re there, it drains us of Energy, even if we only move a few hundred yards. No, we need to be fully Energized when we face him, especially if we can’t find a way to neutralize his advantages.”