I answered. “Hey, how’s it going?”
Haley’s voice came over the phone. “He’s moving. He left the house just after you did, but not before we sent in the roachbots.”
The sound of a car’s engine roared in the background, and Haley talked over the noise—but not to me.
“He turned left! Don’t let him go!”
Travis, her older brother said, “I know! Let me drive, dammit.” Continue reading What She Asked For: Part 5
Despite my anxiety, I understood how the Nine had failed to find her. The girl in the picture resembled Cassie the way a picture might if, hypothetically speaking, they didn’t have any idea what Cassie looked like, and instead had to resort to gender-flipping an exact clone of her father in Photoshop.
Cassie could thank Dr. Mind, and splices of DNA from unknown (possibly alien) donors for not having a cleft chin, for lighter blond hair than her dad, and other small details that made her not quite the same.
Of course, we were all still wondering what else he’d hidden inside her.
On Thursday night, Courtney and I walked up to a house near campus. A brown two-story, it had to be around a century old.
The lawn hadn’t been mowed in the last few weeks. The bushes in front of the houses hadn’t been clipped either, and had grown high enough that they partially blocked the windows.
Courtney knocked on the front door, and a college-aged guy opened it. Square jawed with obvious muscles showing through his t-shirt, he fit every stereotype I had about football players.
Of course, I had no reason to believe he actually was a football player, so every part of the stereotype but that.
Courtney smiled uncertainly, and said, “I’m looking for Davis?” Continue reading What She Asked For: Part 3
“Really? How?” And also, I should have said, “What? What did you figure out?”
“I don’t think I should talk about it on the phone.” She sounded a little nervous.
“OK,” I said. That seemed a little paranoid, but honestly, given that Isaac said we were all being watched, it wouldn’t surprise me if the FBI were bugging our phones.
Not that she would know that, right?
“Can we meet now?” Continue reading What She Asked For: Part 2
There were other people to ask, or so I learned on Sunday night. Haley wasn’t mad exactly, but she wasn’t happy either.
“There’s me, and Marcus, and Kayla too. She’s staff, but she’s still part of the team.”
We were in League HQ, but not the main room. After getting back around seven, I’d gone to the lab to recheck the modifications I’d made to the main Rocket suit over the summer, and then start looking over our power impregnator.
Someday soon, I’d have to modify the spare suits, but not tonight.
After we finished talking, Lee said, “The advanced class is coming in soon. I’d have you stay except you’re already going to stick out.”
“I am?”
“You’ve been training with me for years. You’ll stick out. Oh… And by the way, bring the full suit next time. You’ll need the protection.”
“Yeah?”
“Count on it.”
Not long after that, I walked out of the door, finding a group of ten people waiting outside. Continue reading Being Watched: Part 6
He’d never told anyone exactly what he was, but when Lee took a form, it became near impossible to think of him by any name but the one he’d chosen.
Gunther smiled at us, a wide grin full of white teeth.
Picking up a long spear from the pile of weapons in front of him, he said, “Today we’re going to talk about the Greek phalanx—not because I expect you to fight with spears, but because of what it represents.
“The Greeks, and most armies that were any good, fought as a group, not as a bunch of heroes who happened to be on the same side. They had shields that covered themselves and the man next to them.
“Sometimes you’ll be in that situation. Sometimes you’ll be fighting enemies alone. What I intend to teach you is when to fight in formation, when not to, and when to avoid fighting at all. I’m told that other people will talk about loyalty, duty, courage and other values you’ll need to live up to, but let’s be honest, that’s not my field.” Continue reading Being Watched: Part 5
Jaclyn shook her head. Knowing how Grandpa was treated at the beginning of the war, I’m the last person who should be saying, “Don’t worry about it, the government will do the right thing in the end,” but do you know that they won’t?
I considered it. I don’t. Honestly, I really think they will eventually, but I don’t know how long that’ll be, and well, you know about Lee and everything. If that’s Abominator tech, it’s likely to be booby trapped.
I sensed confusion from Izzy.
Who’s Lee?
Oops. I hadn’t meant to pass that on. I felt a pulse of worry from Jaclyn. Continue reading Being Watched: Part 4
“Yeah?” Vaughn looked mildly annoyed. “Cassie’s right. That is messed up. Remember that lecture of Mr. Beacham’s? The one where he compared supers to some kind of medieval warrior class?”
Everybody in our high school knew about that lecture. I’d felt that it had been over-hyped at the time.
It seemed more insightful now. Continue reading Being Watched: Part 3
“Great,” Cassie said, “Is he a Nazi too?”
“Dunno,” I said, and tapped away at the computer, heading for the Feds’ supers database.
Vaughn said, “Aren’t you the guy who knows this stuff? You’re on the Double V forums all the time.”
“Well, yeah, but I don’t know everything. The Nine keep a low profile. Everybody knows they do stuff because sometimes they take credit for things, but they employ supers, and they’re an organization. So when supers show up, you never know if it’s one of the higher ups or some mid-level guy.”
I watched as our system passed our key, and then got an encrypted response from the other server. When it verified that it came from the Feds, we could assume that we’d logged into the real server instead of some impostor.
A little later, I’d searched out the Nine’s entry. I displayed it on HQ’s twenty foot tall screen. Continue reading Being Watched: Part 2