Tag Archives: Rodolfo

Cassie: Part 12

Rod swore. Sam said, “I know. I know, but we need to calm down and make a plan.”

I barely listened to her. I was busy looking out the window.

The frog-thing that had tried to open the car door wasn’t coming closer. Not that there was much closer to come. I mean, it stood maybe two feet from the car, breathing and making low moaning noise. The creature tried to open the door once, but Sam had locked it after I pulled it shut.

Even as it grabbed the door, it kept its eyes toward the ground, away from the car’s lights. Continue reading Cassie: Part 12

Cassie: Part 11

Sam and I made it to the side of the highway at about the same time.

Twenty feet below us on the ground, the streets and shops were empty. I doubted that was normal. On the other hand, they’d probably had sirens and alerts too.

Any sensible person would drive home after that, right? Not that we were driving home, but normal people would.

Sam stopped looking down. “Do you see anything? I don’t.” Continue reading Cassie: Part 11

Cassie: Part 10

“We’ll deal,” I said. “The Heroes League fought a legion of immortal soldiers last spring. This can’t be worse.”

“I don’t know,” Rod said. “This is D.C. Every superpowered nutcase in the world gets it his head to kidnap the president, or take over the country’s nukes at least once.”

“Seriously,” Sam said, “only the worst of it makes it into the papers. You’ve no idea how much I missed at Duke.”

“Double V doesn’t miss much though,” Rod said. “Follow their boards. You’ll see how crazy it gets.”

“You’re not saying we should go hide somewhere till it’s over, are you?” Because if he was, I’d walk. Continue reading Cassie: Part 10

Cassie: Part 8

“Meet Patriot Jr.,” Agent Lim said. “His father is Patriot, one of the Liberators. He’s in the Young Liberators, and of course, the two of you know him.” He nodded toward Troll and Red Hex.

“This is the new Captain Commando,” Lim gestured toward me, “and the problem was that those guys,” he pointed at the guys on the ground, “were trying to kidnap a couple people, but it’s over. She stopped them. We’re cleaning up.”

“Nice work,” he said, and smiled at me. “Who are they with?”

“No idea,” I said, “I’m hoping Agent Lim will figure it out.” Continue reading Cassie: Part 8

Cassie: Part 7

“We had to change,” Sam said. “You don’t want to risk exposing who you really are. And then I set up a ward that stopped people from noticing that we were here. That’s why no one else came down the alley.”

“It’s really cool,” Rod said. “Think of it as a Someone Else’s Problem field from Hitchhiker’s Guide.”

So right, another guy who would assume that I’d read that book—because Nick and Marcus weren’t enough.

Continue reading Cassie: Part 7

Cassie: Part 6

I let the gun fall. It hit the pavement just as someone inside the van turned the ignition, threw it into gear and drove away. The van dragged the man I’d just kicked for a few feet, but he fell out when the back wheels hit the road outside the alley.

The van’s tires squealed, and the doors hung open, swinging as it drove away.

Maybe I could have jumped inside if I’d tried, but I hadn’t realized there was anybody in there. Continue reading Cassie: Part 6

Cassie: Part 4

The CIA provides Mom with a car when she needs one for work, so Mom doesn’t keep one in D.C. Even if they were loaning her one that day, I knew I couldn’t take it. I walked a few blocks and took the Metro, D.C.’s subway.

It was rush hour. Almost every seat on the train seemed to be full—men and women in suits, little kids sitting on their parents’ laps, tired maintenance workers still in their uniforms.

I hung on to a metal pole in the aisle, thinking maybe I should have gone for her car. As the possibly dangerous product of mad science, I probably had a thick file (or more than one) with an official assessment of my level of threat to the United States. That made my entertainment needs a matter of national security, and part of Mom’s job, right?

In short, Uncle Sam owed me a trip downtown, but I knew I wouldn’t get to take him up on it—not that night, for sure. Continue reading Cassie: Part 4