New Markets - 02 (41 page)

She looked thoughtful for a moment, “Sorry, it was a really hectic night.  I remember what happened after we went into the gold-haired girl’s room, but not what I said before that.”

“Ah, it was the first time you warned me about being bloodthirsty and dangerous.  I remembered you saying just before I, well, hmm … let’s just say before I caused great harm to a villain.”

She smiled.  “I’m glad I could help.  How’ve you been handling it?  The bloodthirst, I mean?”

“Pretty good.  Sss … err, Psystar’s been helping me stay calm, barring fights.”  My mind flicked back to a few hours ago, when I somehow got out of the bonds and killed that doctor or scientist.

“I see your claws are, uhh, sheathed?”

I laughed.  “They don’t really sheath.  It’s the entire fingertip; they all just change into the claw things.  I apparently have tentacles now too.”

She quickly looked me up and down, obviously wondering how she’d missed seeing tentacles.

I laughed again.  “No, they appear out of my trapezius, here and here.”  I pointed at my shoulders just on either side of my neck.

“Under the costume?”

“They just tear through it.  Fortunately it mends itself.”

She reached an area with towels in the emergency room area, took one out and handed it to me.  I quickly dried off my costume as best I could.  I’d still be damp, but that was livable.

She said, “I heard about that rescue you did with some others.  The one where you saved a bunch of the mutants we had here before they were kidnapped.”

“Yeah.  That was quite the battle.”

She then walked me over to the elevator and pushed the button for the secured floor.

She said, “Some of the people have been released home now.”

“Yeah, but not enough.  I still don’t like how they are being kept sedated.”

“Not all are now.  A few super volunteers – not H.E.R.O. agents though – are helping them adjust.”

“Really?  That kicks ass.”

She nodded.  “I’ve been alternating shifts between the emergency room and up here, so I’ve gotten to speak to a few.”

“I wonder why they didn’t become H.E.R.O. agents.”

She shrugged.  “Who knows.  Is it an easy thing to do?”

“Not really.  I’ve gotten shot, clawed, stabbed, exploded on, shocked and drugged all in the last week.”

She stopped and looked me up and down.  “You’re okay?  I see a few tears in the costume….”

“Yeah.  Those were some big hits from maybe twenty minutes ago.  Weird guy who could make water explode when it hit you.  That’s messed up.”

“Didn’t you say you had tentacles?”

I raised an eyebrow at her.  “Okay, fine.  That’s pretty weird too.  Not like we seem to have any choice over these changes.”

The doors opened, two officers stood on guard with their hands on their guns.  One held up a hand and asked for ID.  I showed him my H.E.R.O. ID and said, “I’m looking for Agent Willman, he should be around here somewhere.”

“Come on in, Black Tiger.  Welcome back, Kim.  Agent Willman’s right over there.”

“Ah, security at the entrance now, that’s a start.”

The officer noted my name in a log of some sort, and then looked toward where he had pointed.  I saw Agent Willman working with Agent Dunsworth, from the kidnapped kid’s house, and another agent I was unfamiliar with.

I thanked Kim for helping me out and walked over to them.

Agent Dunsworth noticed me and whispered, “Incoming.”  He apparently didn’t realize how acute my hearing was now.

The other two looked up.  The unknown agent’s upper lip curled slightly at the sight of me.  Agent Willman stepped over to shake my hand.

He asked, “Still raining, is it?”

“Yeah.  It’s still a downpour.  Find anything out here?”

“I’ve got a guy working with their computer people, so far no holes showing in the security from outside.  We think it’s an inside job, but everyone here is checking out.”

The unknown agent stopped staring at me and looked at Agent Willman.  “He was here before the mutants first attacked.  He was never checked in.”

Agent Willman said, “Why were you here before then?”

“Psystar had changed and was kidnapped and brought here.  That’s why.  I’ve also just broken out of the kidnapper’s facility after being shot, drugged for half a day, shot some more and had to escape.”

The unknown agent said, “And yet here are, looking just peachy.  Very convenient.”

“Who the hell are you?”  This guy was beginning to piss me off.

“Agent Dimmer, F.B.I..  Bachelor’s degree and ten years of experience in the F.B.I..  What about you,
hero
?”  His voice dripped with sarcasm.

I jabbed one of my now-clawed fingers toward my chest.  "Did you not just hear me?  I'm the guy that goes into danger, gets shot, stabbed, clawed, punched and so on to save the victim or stop the monster."

"You
are
one of the monsters, freak."

Agent Willman put his hand in the air between us.  "That's enough, gentlemen.  Calm down or leave - both of you."

I'd like to stab this guy in the head with my tentacle claw, sheesh.

I said, "Anyway, the place I escaped out of was some kind of factory doing metal tooling.  I leapt through a window about ten or fifteen feet up, it might be hard to replace that quickly.  There were a lot of factory buildings around it."

"All right.  Black Tiger, you come with me.  I want you to describe what occurred in detail.  Dimmer, Dunsworth, you two continue working on the leak here."

Chapter 23 - Hackers

Stephanie's Viewpoint

I asked Megan if she'd join me near the cafeteria again.  I wanted to eat before I ran off with Firebane after the kidnappers.  She agreed, though her thoughts gave away that she couldn't afford to eat at the cafeteria often.

I offered to buy her food.  She felt like she was bumming off me, and wasn't happy about it.

I grabbed her shoulders and said, "You're a friend, and I've earned extra money from the heroing thing.  If you can help me with things like this I don't mind buying you food as well."

She said, "You sure?  I don't want you to get irritated over time because I'm leeching food off you."

"Yep.  I'd have to fly off campus and find someplace without many people to be able to buy food myself."

She smiled, "Okay then.  I'm good with being a mooch and scoot then."

My personal cell rang; it was an unknown cell number.  I answered.  "Hello?"

"Hi, is this Stephanie?  As in, lunchtime Steph that was with Jim and Mike the last two days?"

"Huh?  Who is this?"

"It's Jim.  Sorry about calling out of the blue, but we got some information for you."

"How'd you get my number?"

"We hacked into the University records, looked up everyone with the first name Stephanie, then looked at the pictures until we found you.  Although the brown hair almost fooled us.  Your cell number was in your records."

"Holy crap, that's scary."

"Sorry, would have been easier if you'd given us your number.  But yeah, we found a website I think you'll be interested in seeing."

"Okay, where should we meet?"

"Probably best to meet at our dorm room.  Building C, room 304."

"Uhh, okay.  I'll head over there."

Megan looked at me with a questioning look.

I said, "Some computer guys apparently found something interesting to show me."

"Computer guys?"

"Some guys I met yesterday while trying to figure out how to get lunch.  Same issue as here, I couldn't go in."

She shrugged, "Okay.  You want fruit, as with breakfast?"

"No, a large sandwich please.  The type doesn't matter much, though I don't need condiments.  That and a water."  I gave her money for the cafeteria and she walked in.

Oh my god, they hacked into my student records?  I wonder what else they are hacking into?

It took Megan a few minutes to go in and navigate the cafeteria line.  She came back with a pair of sandwiches, water and a soda for herself.

I said, "Let's eat on the way to the dorms - that is where you are heading now, right?"

"Yup."

When we reached the outer door to the building we found it still pouring outside.  I looked at Megan.

I said, "Well, this ought to be fun, we're going to get soaked just walking over there."

She nodded, "How about we just eat here first?"

I replied, "I agree.  It'd just be silly to try and eat while walking in that."

I spied a few students running between buildings, heads down so they could still see, but they looked drenched even from here.

So we sat and ate our sandwiches just inside the building.

While we ate, Megan thought,
Can you hear me say this?

I brought her mindview close and thought to her,
Yep, I hear you fine.  What'chya wondering about?

I was just wondering if you could hear me out of the blue.  Also, why do you move your hand like that?

Sure can.  It seems to be getting easier to pick out your mental voice out of the crowd as well.  And what hand motion are you talking about?

Megan thought,
So we should do all our talking like this?
  Then she pictured me moving my left hand toward my face, almost as though I had a cellphone in it and wanted a closer look.

I don't mind, though I might respond to some of your off-the-cuff thoughts by accident.  Like when you checked out that guy back there.  As for the hand thing, I probably do that when I pull your mindview up closer.  I don't want to do it, but apparently it's a crutch.

I did not check anyone out!

Uh, yeah, you did.  I saw exactly what you were staring at.  Although there's not much of a question in 'Ohh, nice.'

You really do see everything I do?

Everything you see and think.  I try to ignore most things, like when you thought about you and Brad last night....

Oh my god.  You saw that?

Kind of.  It's not like I see it from a third person view, I see if from
your
viewpoint.  Kind of wild at times, distracting at other times.