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Authors: Daniel Halayko

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The Prospects (18 page)

BOOK: The Prospects
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“There will be a radioactive shockwave,” said Sergeant Hammer, “but it’ll only be dangerous within a few hundred feet. The MAB agents around the tower will die. Not many others.”

Alex pulled out his smartphone.

Sergeant Hammer snatched it. “No you don’t. If the villains inside see them withdraw or take cover, they’ll get suspicious.”

“Alex, we can eradicate our worst enemies at once,” said Jim. “Sure, some agents will die, but they knew the job was dangerous when they took it. How many more would die fighting these villains? And the building is insured for twice what it’s worth, so Griffin Industries will recoup its losses.”

“What about Charlene? She’s still in there. And I don’t think Harry got out.”

“Acceptable loss,” said Sergeant Hammer.

“Vijay and Trista are also in there.”

“He’s useless,” said Sergeant Hammer, “and she’s evil.”

“She’s not so bad when you’re not biting her,” said Alex.

Again, Sergeant Hammer was nonplussed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I think you know. What about the Young Sentinels? Only two of them made it out.”

“I talked to their manager,” said Jim. “They’re insured too. With the extra money he’ll make in increased merchandise sales after their heroic deaths, he’ll be able to form a younger, better-looking, and more profitable team.”

“You can’t do this. You’re going to let innocent people die. You’re supposed to be heroes.”

“We had a vote,” said Stormhead. “I was the only one who said no.”

“Don’t Charlene and Harry get votes?”

Jim shook his head. “She’s incapacitated and he’s insane.”

“What about me?” said Alex.

“You were never one of us, agent,” said Jim. “You didn’t earn a place on the team. We only let you on because the government said we had to. So go back to the government and tell them how bad you are at stopping us from doing anything. Sarge, get him out of here.”

Sergeant Hammer slapped one hand over Alex’s mouth. His iron grip felt exactly the way it did in the memory Trista shared with him. The feelings of violation and helplessness made him panic as Sergeant Hammer carried him back to the elevator.

Alex regained enough presence of mind to grab Sergeant Hammer’s little finger and twist it until his mouth was free. He shook like he did after Trista stopped sharing her memories.

Sergeant Hammer threw Alex out of the elevator as soon as it opened. He yelled at Jenny, Knockout Rose, and Pinwheel. “Scram.”

“What about our friends?” asked Knockout Rose.

Sergeant Hammer grabbed the sweatshirt’s hood, lifted Knockout Rose like a kitten picked up by the scruff of its neck, and threw her onto the sidewalk. Pinwheel and Jenny ran after her. Sergeant Hammer grabbed a table and slammed it into the doorframe.

Sergeant Hammer unslung his hammer. “In two minutes Griffin Tower will be destroyed. You’re not going to try a last-second rescue.”

“Threatening and manhandling an agent,” said Alex. “I’m going to report this.”

“Do what you want. I’m Sergeant Hammer. I’m an icon. No one will arrest me.”

“You won’t be an icon after I report what you did to Trista.”

“Report what? That I made her cry?”

“Did you know she’s pregnant?”

Sergeant Hammer froze. “What does that have to do with me?”

“She told me everything.”

“Everything she says is a lie.”

“She’s not a good liar.”

“Did she tell you that?”

“She shared her memories with me.”

“Are you saying she entered your mind?”

“There’s other evidence. I saw the doctor’s report. I don’t want to think about what you did to her in the interrogation room, you sick …”

“Agent, are you not aware that it is within her power to rewrite what you think you know? Everything you saw or heard, it’s what she wanted you to believe. All she’d have to do is conjure a fantasy and a few details like that report and you wouldn’t be able to tell it from a real memory. Any evidence you think you saw only exists in her mind and yours. Mind Dame played mind games with you.”

Alex didn’t say anything.

“Don’t forget she controlled you once before and almost made you kill yourself. She’s doing it again. This time, she’s turning you against your own team.”

“The whole team was against me. You lied to me too.”

Sergeant Hammer put down his hammer. “Agent, I carried you out of the Empire State Building the night she made you want to die. I took you to the loony bin myself. I didn’t leave until you were safe.”

“Bullshit. You wanted me dead.”

“I wanted the government out of our business. I wanted the freedom to save the world without bureaucrats in our way.”

“I’m an agent of the law, Sarge. It’s that simple. And, for that, you so-called heroes wanted me dead.”

“But you don’t know how many times I defied Jim’s orders to save your life. If he had his way, you would’ve been maggot shit a long time ago. Whatever plans our leaders have, we men on the front line look after each other.”

“Then why are you willing to let Charlene and Harry die?”

“We lose two teammates, one with an alien virus and the other insane. We kill all of our enemies. Think about it. If we could get Le Parrain, the Shade Blades, the Skreaks, the Iron Pirates, the Idea Man, and Micro-Sapiens to all kill themselves in exchange for a few heroes and a hundred MAB agents, it would be a great deal.”

“It’s not heroic.”

“No, but there will be fewer casualties than we’d get in drawn-out battles. You don’t get to tell the women who don’t become widows, or the children who don’t become orphans what you spared them from. Those fiends kill more people in one of their typical plots than we’ll let die tonight. That’s why it’s acceptable loss.”

Alex dusted himself off. “This nuclear implosion, is it supposed to be silent?”

“Don’t be an idiot. A skyscraper getting crunched to the size of a marble would make lots of noise. Not to mention the screams from everyone caught in the radiation shockwave. I saw one tested with a herd of pigs. That was some horrible squealing.”

“We’ve been talking for two minutes. I haven’t heard a sound.”

Sergeant Hammer pulled out Alex’s smartphone and looked at the time. “It was supposed to detonate at midnight.”

Alex took the smartphone back. The clock read 12:01 a.m.

 

 

 

Chapter Eighteen

 

Asura entered the last lines of code into the mainframe behind the elevator.

The monitor read “PLAN FAILSAFE ABORTED.”

“Now to collect my reward.”

Broken marble flagstones and shattered glass littered the front lobby of Griffin Tower. Asura nonchalantly stepped over the snoring Bone Terror. He reached the elevator as the doors were closing.

There was barely any room inside the elevator due to the girth of the two Skreaks already on it. Between them was Lady Amazing, who was encased in a huge chunk of something that reminded Asura of dried snot from her neck down.

“Vijay?” she said.

“It’s Asura.” He flared his green and black trench coat’s collar and pressed a button below the floor the Skreaks chose.

“What are you doing here?”

“Working my way up the food chain.”

“You were a creep, now you’re a traitor.”

“I shut down Plan Failsafe, so don’t expect death to save you from whatever the Skreaks have planned.”

“I’ve escaped tougher situations than this.”

The doors opened. Before Asura stepped into the research lab he said, “Oh, remember that camera I put in the women’s bathroom? This afternoon, I uploaded the footage of you showering. It’s already been downloaded ten thousand times.”

As the elevator doors closed Lady Amazing wriggled furiously. “I’m going to kick your ass to the moon and back!”

Several Iron Pirates were scrutinizing Sunburn’s Helio-cannon when Asura entered. He ignored them and walked to the glass case containing the Golden Gryphon battlesuit.

A metallic voice bellowed, “You’re not one of us.”

Asura turned. Behind him was a two-headed obese behemoth made of twisted flesh and tangled circuitry. One head was that of a hairless man, the other completely robotic. Two flexible tentacles sprouted from behind his back and two extra metal insect-like legs supported his girth. In the middle of his chest was the skull-and-crossed-wrenches of the Iron Pirates.

“Captain Rust, I presume,” said Asura. “I’m here for my payment.”

The robotic head’s eyeless visor glowed. The human head said, “Everything in this lab but the Skreak’s machine and the neurotransmitter is ours.”

“Le Parrain promised me the Golden Gryphon battlesuit.”

The robot head’s visor dimmed. The human head said, “That’s mine.”

“No, it’s mine. I’m going to rewire it, update its circuitry, add two extra arms, and give it a reflective coating.”

“You’ve put thought into this.”

“It’s my lifelong dream. I will be the Silver Shiva, destroyer of cities. Be nice and I’ll let you pillage behind me.”

Captain Rust’s clawed tentacles dragged Asura back by his neck. “Dream on. It’s mine.”

“Hey!” Asura indignantly fixed his coat’s collar. “You wouldn’t be here right now if not for me. I relayed information, planted false tips, disabled the security systems, diffused the implosion bomb …”

“We lost two men when we checked out the Skreaks’ radiation generator.”

“Not my fault. I opened the door to the research lab for them.”

“You’ll get nothing from us.”

Asura almost snapped back before he noticed the other Iron Pirates drawing guns. He raised his hands and said, “I’ll talk to Le Parrain. He made all the deals. He owes you compensation, and he owes me the battlesuit.”

Asura returned to the elevator, inserted a metallic sliver into the keyhole under the buttons, and pressed the penthouse office button. The normally locked button lit up.

The elevator opened at James Griffin’s penthouse office. A dozen men in Griffin Industries’ light blue security guard uniforms stood as still as terracotta warriors.

“Don’t mind me,” said Asura. “I have to talk to the big man.”

The security guards didn’t move.

Asura flicked one in the nose. There was no reaction.

“Wow, the Idea Man did a number on you guys. No personality left at all.”

Asura stepped around the psychically incapacitated guards to Mister Griffin’s office. Men in tailored gray suits and red ties stood like soldiers at attention at each end of the desk. Le Parrain sat back in James Griffin's padded chair. Stardancer stood in front of him, her lithe body and the sparkling leotard and tights that covered it shivering in fear.

The elderly man poured wine into a glass. “For you,
ma chère
.”

She trembled and didn’t touch it.

“You must understand,” said Le Parrain, “I will not hurt you unless forces beyond my control and expectation force my hand. Should that happen, it will be quick. Until then, do not see yourself as my hostage, but as my companion.”

Stardancer gingerly sat in the chair next to Le Parrain. The henchmen pushed it close to him.

Asura tried to storm into the office but stopped when two of Le Parrain’s henchmen produced pistols.

Le Parrain, unperturbed, pointed to the Sergeant Hammer Comics #1 on the wall. “Bring me that.”

A henchman took it down, shattered the glass, and handed it to Le Parrain. The crime lord lit it with a match and used the most valuable comic book in the world to light a cigar held by a henchman.

“So many nights I prayed for this to happen. Sitting next to a beautiful woman in my nemesis’s chair, drinking his wine, burning the symbols of his success, this is my finest moment.”

Asura tapped his wrist-mounted tablet. The lights flickered on and off.

Le Parrain pointed at Asura. “Why is he here?”

“The Iron Pirates won’t give me the Golden Gryphon battlesuit,” said Asura.

“Did you ask nicely?”

“Look, I did my job, I want my payment. Throw a few million bucks their way, I’ll get my battlesuit, and everyone will be happy.”

Le Parrain muttered. Asura didn’t catch a single word. He guessed the meeting when the henchmen shoved him out of the office.

Asura rolled into the back of a security guard’s knees. The guard fell and didn’t get back up.

As the office doors closed Le Parrain said to Stardancer, “Tell me, have you ever seen constellations from a yacht in the Mediterranean?”

Asura pressed the zero-level button on the elevator and tapped on his wrist-mounted tablet. “Better surrender now, Frenchie, because this means war.”

The elevator opened in front of Zero Level’s gym. Asura stepped over the dark red puddles of blood and past Big Bad Roy as he carved his name into the wall with his power chainsaw. He kicked Zany’s jester stick and almost tripped over the psychic nullifier.

Asura walked through the same corridor Alex led the Prospects to when they encountered the Shade Blades. He continued until he reached the subterranean bunker. There were more ninjas there than he could count in the dim emergency lights.

The ninjas ignored him. They surrounded Cantrip, who hung blindfolded and gagged from a hook in the ceiling.

“Did you pull a rabbit out of his ass yet?” asked Asura.

The Shade Blades turned.

Asura showed none of the fear he felt. “Who’s the head ninja?”

“We don’t have a leader,” said one.

“We’re a collective,” said another.

“All are equal in the shadows,” said a third. “Who are you?”

“I’m Asura. Listen up, communist ninjas. You stole Agent Exo’s exoskeleton. I’ll buy it for twelve million dollars.”

“We already have a buyer lined up,” the first ninja said.

“And he’s willing to pay more than twice that,” said the second.

“How did you get twelve million dollars?” asked a third.

Asura tapped his smartphone. “Le Parrain has accounts all over the world. I found a few.”

“Le Parrain has always been good to us,” said the first ninja. “Why should we deal with someone who robs him?”

“Because he robbed you. That exoskeleton is useless. If you turn it on, a software virus will make it explode.”

The Shade Blades looked at each other.

The fourth ninja asked, “Why do you want to buy it?”

“I’m the best hacker ever. I can get rid of the virus before Le Parrain figures out who took his money. He cheated me out of the Golden Gryphon suit, but I can make do with this.”

The Shade Blades huddled and whispered for a few minutes in Japanese. Asura watched them gesture and nod. Three of them went into the next room. They came out rolling a metal barrel with “water” stenciled on the side.

The ninjas put the barrel up on its end, opened it, and pulled out the exoskeleton.

“It was in the building the whole time?” said Asura. “That’s definitely the last place anyone would look.”

Two ninjas walked behind Asura as the first one spoke. “You will give us twelve million dollars, and you will fix it.”

“So we have a deal.”

Two ninjas behind Asura poked him in the back with their swords.

“If you fail to fix it, we will kill you.”

“What? If I buy it, it’s my problem.”

“We never said it would be yours. You are going to give us the money and fix it, and then you will go away.”

“That’s not …” Before Asura could finish complaining, the ninjas drew weapons. “I need more than an hour. Mr. Griffin’s best guys spent a week on it without breaking the code.”

“You have fifty-nine minutes left. Let’s see if you’re really the best hacker in the world.”

Asura used his smartphone to transfer twelve million dollars from Le Parrain’s account into a fund for the Shade Blades. He then accessed the exoskeleton’s software through safe mode. A few minutes later he said, “Here’s the problem. The virus isn’t written in a human programming language.”

“Fix it,” said the second ninja.

“You don’t get it. Agent Exo got the virus from a Skreak computer. It’s a Skreak program. I can’t read this.”

The ninjas behind Asura grabbed his arm.

“Then we have a second punching bag,” said the third ninja.

“Wait. I’ll ask the Skreaks for help. I saw them in the elevator. They’re going to the bioscience lab.”

“We’re not going to let you run away,” said the second ninja.

“Then kill me now. I’m sure your buyer will love paying millions for a bomb.”

“Where’s Ujimushi?” A short and skinny ninja with two long knives tucked into his violet sash bowed before the first ninja. “Follow him. He has fifty-five minutes left.”

Ujimushi nodded and followed Asura back to the elevator. While they waited, Asura said, “If you guys are an equal collective, how come you got stuck babysitting me? You didn’t say anything. You bowed like a Geisha bitch.”

Ujimushi said nothing. The elevator doors opened.

“What does Ujimushi mean?” Asura googled “Ujimushi Japanese word” on his smartphone. “It means maggot?”

Ujimushi squirmed.

Asura laughed. “I thought it’d translate to something like ‘night fox.’ Maggot? How did you get a ninja name like that?”

Ujimushi whispered, “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Asura stopped outside the bioscience lab’s door. “I could be dead in fifty minutes, but damn if your name isn’t funny.”

Billy Two bleated from his pen near the door.

“Even the goat thinks so.”

Not even Ujimushi drawing a knife could stop Asura from laughing. Ujimushi hit the back of his head with the knife’s pommel until he did.

“Fine, fine. I don’t want to get killed by a maggot.” He laughed again and opened the bioscience lab’s door.

The extraterrestrial device Agent O’Farrell pointed out in the trophy lab was in the middle of the room. Arcs of yellow and blue energy ran through its projected antennas to create a shade of green that made Asura queasy. He couldn’t see anything else past the line of stumpy extra-terrestrials in their gray rubber suits.

Asura stomped. “Hey, gray aliens. Take me to your leader.”

Rubber suits squeaked and creaked as a few aliens turned. Between them, something vaguely human writhed on the floor. He had to blink to realize the shifting mass of popping blisters and growing tumors was wearing Lady Amazing’s costume.

“What the …”

An arm reached out. Lady Amazing said weakly through the masses of flesh that dangled over her mouth, “Viiijaayy, heeeelllppp.”

Asura turned away in revulsion. A Skreak stood behind him and spoke quickly in a voice that sounded like someone drowning in oatmeal.

“Whatdoyouwant?”

“Uh, about the …”

A bump appeared in Ujimushi’s mask. He lifted it. Vomit poured out.

Asura closed his eyes. “I need to fix that virus in the Agent Exo’s suit.”

“Donotwasteourtime.”

“The Shade Blades will kill me if I don’t.”

Ujimushi asked, “What are they doing?”

“Thevirusmakesitshoststrongforthenextchange. Thehostwillprocessallmicroorganismsbadtousandspreadthevirustomakemorehosts. Withmorehoststherewillbemoreprocessinguntiltherearenomoremicroorganismsbadtous. Thenwewillliveonthisplanet.”

BOOK: The Prospects
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