A New Day (StrikeForce #1) (20 page)

He shook his head. “Don’t need to know. He’s done shit since putting that mask on.”

“What about Alpha?”

“Alpha is all about Alpha. He doesn’t care about this city, or the little super hero team, or anything. He plays dirty, as you well know. Think about it. You’re not the only one who isn’t there out of the goodness of her heart or because you felt a need to save the world.”

“I’m going to have to play along. He’s threatening to lift the protection around my mother, leak my identity--“

“Daystar, report,” Jenson said in my ear.

I held up a finger, telling Killjoy to wait. “I lost him,” I said into the comm. “Coming back in now.”

“Copy,” she said.

“I have to go back,” I said.

He took a breath. “Just be careful. All right?”

I nodded.

“I’ll try to keep an eye on your mom,” he added, and I could have kissed him.

I started stepping away. “They tried to recruit you, too,” I said, remembering what Nightbane had said.

“Yeah. I’d rather fuck a wasp’s nest than put any part of my life in their hands,” he said. “And I make sure I stay just out of their reach.” He bent over me, just a little. “It was good seeing you again, even if it was under shitty circumstances. You’ll figure something out, smart girl.”

“You keep calling me that,” I said.

“Because it’s true. Use your mind for something other than figuring out the best way to rob somebody blind,” he said.

Then he stepped back and took off at a steady jog. I stood there for a while longer, then I started flying toward Command.

I was so not looking forward to having to grovel to Alpha to not release my true identity, having to listen to him berate me for failing to bring Maddoc in.

Chapter Fifteen

In the end, Portia had been the voice of reason over Alpha and Nightbane’s desires to leak my identity and lock me up again. And the news cameras on the scene had, thankfully, captured a quick image of the blond who had taken Maddoc away from the scene, so they couldn’t really even blame me. They did ask about him crashing through the window, and I said he was stupid and maybe he just couldn’t find the door. It wasn’t exactly a lie; everyone knew he was about as dumb as a rock, and less pretty.

Seven days on the team, and it already felt like a lifetime. I hadn’t been allowed out of the towers or even out of view of one of the other team members since that night and it was starting to make me crazy. If this was the rest of my life, it was going to be long, boring, and irritating. Nightbane took every opportunity to remind me that he thought I was garbage, Alpha always looked like he smelled something bad when I was around, and Crystal enjoyed making the occasional comment about white trash when I was in hearing range. On the plus side, Caine, Toxxin, and Beta were all all right, so at least I wasn’t totally surrounded by assholes.

Still, they were technically the enemy, and I had to keep reminding myself not to trust any of them.

I missed my freedom, and being surrounded by assholes made me wish I could see Killjoy again. At least I felt alive when he was around. It was like the rush I used to get from robbing places, but better.

Ugh. Stupid.

I got called into a team meeting and made my way into the meeting room. Nightbane, Alpha, Caine, Toxxin, and Chance were already in the room when I arrived. I greeted Caine and Toxxin and settled in just as Jenson appeared on one of the comm screens in the room.

“We’re getting reports about a disturbance in Dearborn. Local law enforcement called for back up.”

“Okay. Get me the coordinates. And get Portia in here. You’re coming with us this time, Daystar.”

“Sure,” I said, standing up, practically giddy to be able to get out of the sterile building.

Nightbane seemed to be reading something. After a moment, he turned to us. “All right. This is an apartment complex not too far from the Henry Ford museum. Reports of a woman screaming, and it’s so loud it’s breaking things and causing injury to anyone in the vicinity. Local law enforcement can’t get close enough to stop her, and she’s evading any bullets they’ve fired—“

“They shot at her?” I interrupted.

“Yes. She won’t stop.”

“Screaming. I get it. They’re shooting at a woman for screaming. Really,” I said, shaking my head. “Bunch of wusses.”

“They’re doing the best they can,” Nightbane said. “Though of course a career criminal would know better than they do.”

Portia walked into the room at that moment. “Whatever. Let’s go,” she said, and Nightbane gave the okay, and then I felt a weird, buzzing feeling over my skin, and then a whipping motion, like I was being pulled, dragged, flung around like a rag doll, and then everything was solid again, and the first thing I knew was the loudest sound I’ve ever heard.

“Initiating ear protection now,” Jenson said in my comm, and I felt my mask seem to move, and then the screaming was nothing but a dull keening, buffered by whatever noise-canceling thing was in the sides of my mask.

We walked, Portia in the lead, to the courtyard that was surrounded on all four sides by the four-story apartment complex. It looked like a decent place to live; shade trees and a winding path led through the courtyard, nice wooden benches placed here and there. Standing on one of the benches was a thin, pale young woman, red hair covering half of her face as she leaned forward and let out another ear-splitting screech. Portia waved at the police to back away, and they did so, gratefully, falling all the way back to the exterior of the complex.

“Miss, can we help you? Are you hurt? We’re StrikeForce, and we—“ Portia’s little speech was interrupted by a louder, crazier scream from the woman. My ear protection hissed, popped, and died, and then I got the full force of her screams.

I had no idea that sound could hurt so much.

They all went down, even Caine, which, for some reason, I found disappointing.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake. Someone turn this stupid dampener off before she hurts more people,” I said, not sure who I was talking to.

“Alpha? Your call?” I heard Jenson, barely, in my comm.

“Negative,” Alpha’s voice came over the comm.

“Dipshit,” I muttered, glancing around, seeing the rest of the team, just like the citizens in the area, on the ground, writhing under the impact of the woman’s screams.

I could run now, I realized. Take off, figure out how to get the dampener off, eventually. But if they were dampening me, they were likely also tracking me with it.

So that was no good. I’d have to play along.

I glanced up, and the woman just kept screaming. My head was buzzing, aching, pounding. I forced myself up and took shaky steps toward her, holding my hands out, trying to let her see it was okay.

“Faraday, that’s not worth it. Get ready to leave as soon as Portia’s up. Law enforcement is enroute to take her down,” Nightbane said.

“Nope,” I said, and I took a few more steps toward her. She watched me, eyes wide, mouth wide. Terror. She looked terrified.

“Okay, babe. Come on now,” I said, loud, not sure if she could hear me over herself, but hoping she’d get my intention anyway. “Come on. Shhh.” She let me approach. “Call law enforcement off, Jenson,” I said quietly.

“Alpha?” Jenson’s voice.

“Negative. Fall back, Faraday.”

“Come on. Don’t make me have to fight a bunch of cops, because I will,” I said, as much for my dumbass leader’s benefit as my own. Because I would. She was terrified, not evil. “Unless you like watching that kind of thing,” I said, smiling a little trying to put her at ease.

“Faraday, fall back. Now,” Alpha said.

“Come on, kiddo,” I said. She was maybe eighteen or nineteen, so only a few years younger than me, but those wide, fearful eyes made her look so much younger. “Please.”

All of a sudden, the sound stopped, and she closed her mouth. Tears streamed down her face.

“Portia, get up and get us out of here before the police show up,” I said.

“You’re not in charge there, Faraday,” Alpha snarled in my ear.

“Portia?”

The girl started crying, and I held my arms out to her.

At that moment, I heard police cars screech up.

The first shot was fired.

I grabbed the girl and fell to the ground, keeping her under me.

“Are you hit?”

“N-no,” she said, still crying.

“Portia, are you going to stand there and let them kill her, or what?” I shouted.

In the next instant, I felt that buzzing, pulling feeling, and then my squad, plus the screamer girl, were all in the detention facility.

“Shh,” Toxxin said, touching her ungloved hand to the side of the screamer girl’s neck. Screamer instantly went limp, eyes closed. I glanced at Toxxin.

“Nice job,” I said.

“My ears could use a break!” She said, really loudly, and I nodded, wincing. The rest of the team gathered around, and then the doors opened, and Alpha stalked in with two guards. Nightbane grabbed my arm roughly from behind.

“One cell for the screamer. One for Faraday,” he said, glaring at me as one of the guards led me away. I blew a sarcastic kiss at him.

“Some fucking hero, willing to let a girl die because his weak ass team couldn’t handle her. Weak!” I shouted over my shoulder, and I glanced back just in time to see Caine and Toxxin giving Alpha less-than-pleasant looks. Portia stood, not looking at anyone or anything.

Chapter Sixteen

A Jenson met me at the entrance to the cell, and she, along with a female guard, relieved me of my uniform, mask, and comm. My dampener, of course, stayed, and the uniform was replaced with a lime green prison uniform. Jenson seemed like she was trying not to look at me.

“It might not be forever,” she said quietly, glancing around. “Just be good. Behave yourself.”

“You’ve been collecting data on me?”

She nodded.

I felt a smile cross my lips. “How likely you think it is that I’ll be good?”

“I think you’re smart. Get over that chip on your shoulder and be a grown up about this,” she muttered.

“Don’t talk about maturity to me. Not when the man you all answer to would have rather seen a girl die than have me in charge for a couple of minutes.”

“He doesn’t trust you.”

“And that excuses what he did back there?” I hissed. She looked away, and I shook my head.

“Sit, Faraday,” the guard said, gesturing toward the chair, just like the chair I’d woken in what felt like days, weeks, months ago. I did, and the manacles went around my wrists and ankles.

Jenson left without another word, and then the guard, and the door whooshed shut behind both of them. I closed my eyes, and leaned my head back.

Well, now I was screwed. I didn’t plan on just kissing Alpha’s ass, saying he was right. And yeah, he didn’t trust me, and wasn’t likely to now.

But I didn’t trust him either.

Typical rich asshole, I thought to myself. He’d bankrolled the team. Ran it. Badly. I’d wondered before why the team sucked so horribly. He was why. If he had sense at all, he’d put Portia in charge for real, not just have her doing the stuff both he and Nightbane felt was beneath them. She was sharp. And she knew right from wrong; I could tell that much from the way she’d handled herself with the screamer.

Really. How could a well-funded team of super heroes possibly be this bad? I thought with a laugh.

Not my problem.

My problem was finding a way out of the cell, figuring out how to disable my dampener, and getting my ass free. Hopefully before Alpha leaked my identity or someone got to my mother. The only thing that kept me from totally panicking, worrying about my mother, was the fact that Killjoy had promised me he’d keep an eye on her. I wasn’t entirely sure about Killjoy, but for some ridiculous reason, I trusted him to do what he’d said he would. It was one less thing to obsess over, and sitting in the chair as I was, all I could do anymore was think.

I dozed off, and when I woke up, everything looked the same. That would be the thing most likely to make me crazy, I realized — the constant sameness. Even the lights had been the same every second I’d spent in confinement. I wondered if they let us up for exercise, or if we just kind of atrophied, sitting like that.