Joshua Dread (13 page)

“I can’t believe Captain Justice gave me his autograph!” Milton whispered to me as we climbed the stairs.

“Well, technically it’s his exercise machine’s autograph,” I said.

“I know. It’s amazing!” He held out the magazine,
admiring the fresh new signature. I stopped walking when my eyes moved from the autograph to another part of the cover. In the right-hand corner was an image of a smoke creature. Next to it was a section of bold text that read:

My chest tightened. I stared at the photograph of the smoke creature. The image was dark and slightly out of focus, but it was definitely the same thing that had attacked at the Vile Fair.

All the websites about the super community were discussing it too. There’d been dozens more attacks by smoke creatures in the weeks since the Vile Fair. They appeared in supervillains’ homes, or interrupted them in the middle of their evil plots. And each time, it was always the same. The smoke surrounded its victim. A burst of lightning filled the cloud. And then—gone.

All of a sudden it felt like someone had turned down the thermostat in Sophie’s house by twenty degrees. I couldn’t help thinking about my parents. They were close to tracking down whoever was controlling these things. But what would happen if the smoke came for them first?

“You coming?” Sophie’s voice echoed in the marble stairway. She and Milton were at the top of the steps, looking down at me.

I did my best to choke down the knot in my throat and followed them.

Sophie led us down another winding corridor, in and out of grand rooms that were mostly empty or piled with unpacked cardboard boxes. At the end of a long hallway, Sophie pushed open the door to her bedroom.

The room wasn’t very big, considering how huge the rest of the house was. There was a desk in the corner, piled with papers and books. A pair of jeans was draped over a nearby chair. Several framed photographs were hanging on the wall, displaying snow-covered trees, tall rock formations rising from the beach, an old brownstone apartment with boarded-up windows.

Milton immediately began examining one of the photos—a close-up shot of a strand of grass, with a row of buildings in the background.

“Did these pictures, like, come with the frames?” he asked.

Sophie looked back at him, offended.

“No!” she said.

“Oh. ’Cause they’re really good. I thought they must’ve been professional.”

The annoyed look on Sophie’s face vanished. “I took those photographs,” she said. For a split second, I thought her power was kicking in again. But she wasn’t glowing this time. She was blushing.

“Wow! You
took
these?” Milton looked genuinely impressed. “That’s really cool. Whenever I take pictures, they always come out too dark or blurry or everyone has red eyes. But these are great.”

“I have a pretty good camera and lens. That makes a difference. And my mom was a professional photographer. So …”

Sophie’s voice trailed away. It was the first time she’d ever mentioned her mom.

“I took that one a couple of weeks ago,” she said, pointing to the photo of grass and buildings. “That was the day we moved to Sheepsdale. My dad was in meetings all day, so Stanley took me out to the park with my camera.”

This brought a smile to Sophie’s face again. I got the feeling she smiled a lot when the subject turned to photography.

We settled at Sophie’s desk to work on our project.

“I’m gonna have trouble explaining
this
.” Milton pulled the remains of our history book out of his mangled backpack. The cover had been ripped away and half the pages were shredded. His notebook was in even worse shape. “Do you think my teachers will believe me if I tell them a Firebottomed Romper ate my homework?”

“I have another copy of that book,” Sophie said. “In the library.”

“I’ll get it,” I said.

“Are you sure? This house can be like a maze sometimes.”

“I know exactly where it is.”

Sophie still looked skeptical, but I was already on my feet and halfway across the room. I was looking for an excuse to search around a little on my own. Growing up in a house with supervillains, I’d always wondered what a superhero’s home would look like. So far, all I knew was that it was much—
much
—bigger.

“Just take a left at the end of the hallway, then down the stairs, into a room where you’ll see a marble dog beside a tall fireplace, into another hallway, and then you take the third door on your right,” Sophie told me. “Got it?”

I nodded, trying to keep all the directions straight in my head. Left, down the stairs, marble dog, hallway, third door on the right. No problem.

At least, that was what I thought. It took me only a minute of wandering around before I got completely lost. Stumbling from one room to the next, I eventually found myself standing in front of a wall that was entirely covered with televisions. Each showed a different video image of an ordinary scene—a street or a sidewalk or a park.

I stood there, hypnotized. The one nearest to me was of a man walking his dog along a sidewalk, obviously
unaware that he was being watched. The dog sniffed a bush, then scratched itself. Its owner began scratching himself as well.

It was just like the Cafeteria Girls had said. Each television was hooked up to some kind of surveillance video. I watched as the man and his dog continued to scratch themselves.

And that was when I heard the sounds of someone entering the room next door. Footsteps. Then a voice.

Peering around the corner, I saw Captain Justice standing at the far end of the room. He was facing the other direction, still wearing his silver exercise outfit, having a conversation with an enormous disembodied head.

T
he head was a hologram. Pale blue, flickering like a ghost, it was floating in the air in front of Captain Justice.

“I have some unpleasant news,” said the hologram.

“What is it, Fink?” Captain Justice asked.

“The trend data we’ve gathered shows that your popularity is declining.”

“Declining? In which demographics?”

“All of them.”

Captain Justice slumped forward. “What about the
four- to eight-year-old female demographic? I thought you said that was a growing market.”

“Our research has shown that girls under eight don’t relate to you,” said the hologram named Fink. “They prefer softer, gentler forms of merchandizing. Dolls, kittens, boy bands—that kind of thing.”

“What can I do to change this?”

“We’re working on a plush toy. Part of the Huggable Heroes line. Unfortunately, we’ve hit a snag in product testing. It seems that the Huggable Captain Justice is more popular as a chew toy for dogs than as a plaything for young girls.”

“A chew toy? Is that profitable?”

“Absolutely. Pet merchandizing is a booming market. We’re already looking into the Captain Justice Scratching Post and Fun Time Climbing Station for Adventurous Cats. Litter box included.”

“Hmm, yes. I see.” Captain Justice scratched under his headband. “Well, if you think there’s a market, we should pursue it.”

“Glad to hear you’re on board, Captain J!”

“What about the other project? I presume you’re still keeping it a secret.”

Fink nodded his enormous disembodied blue head.

“I’m the only member of the staff who knows about it at this point.”

“Good. Let’s keep it that way. We don’t want any of this to leak to the media. Not until we’re ready to make our announcement.”

“That’s why we’re moving the operation to our remote location. We should be able to continue our work there without interruption.”

“How do you think the public will react to such a different strategy?”

“It may take some time for people to get used to the change,” Fink said, “but it’s a step in the right direction, believe me.”

“You don’t think it’s too … aggressive?”

“The world is a more aggressive place, Captain J. You’re just adjusting to the times.”

Captain Justice paused, as if he still wasn’t quite convinced. I leaned forward, curiosity stirring inside me. What kind of project were they talking about? And why keep it so secret? From everything I knew about Captain Justice, he wasn’t the kind of guy who ever refused media attention.

I might’ve leaned a little too far into the room, because for a second I was sure that Fink noticed me. His enormous blue eyes swiveled until he seemed to be looking right at me. I darted behind the corner, clutching my chest as if I could cover the sound of my own pounding heart. Had he seen me? Could a holographic head even
see
that far? Either way, I didn’t want to stick around to
find out. Stepping as softly as possible, I crept backward and out of the room.

“What took you so long?” Milton asked when I finally found my way back to Sophie’s room. But since he’d just stuffed his mouth full of Justice Jerky, it came out sounding like “Whaa ookk ooh soo ong?”

My heart was still pounding from the sight of Fink’s enormous blue head. I had no idea what he’d been talking about with Captain Justice, but I decided to keep it to myself.

“I just got a little turned around,” I explained. I handed him the history book. Luckily, I’d managed to find the library on my way back.

“I told you this house can be confusing,” Sophie said. “I still get lost too.”

Milton reached into the half-empty bag of Justice Jerky on the desk next to him and took another huge bite. “Waahsum eef urkee?” he asked.

Translation: “Want some beef jerky?”

Sophie shot him a disgusted look. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to talk with your mouth full?”

Milton shrugged, his cheeks bulging. “Buh iss eelithous!”

“What?”

Milton swallowed. “But it’s delicious.” He gave the bag of Justice Jerky an appreciative squeeze. “Seriously, your dad makes the best beef jerky in the world.”

Sophie rolled her eyes. “It’s not like he actually
makes
the stuff. They just slap his name and face onto the package.”

“Whatever,” Milton said, shoving another handful into his mouth.

A couple of hours later, Stanley offered to drive us home and Sophie insisted on coming with us. “In case there are any more attacks,” she said.

We took the hover SUV again, although this time we stuck to the roads. After exiting the garage, the SUV traveled down a wooded path, past surveillance cameras, and over the moat. Stanley drove through the security gate, and soon we were on the road, heading into town.

When we came to a halt at a red light, I glanced out my window and saw something that made me seriously wish we’d taken another route.

My parents.

They were decked out in full supervillain regalia. Mom had on her green body armor and black mask. Dad was wearing the massive silver goggles that he put on only when he was in the middle of pulling off one of his horrible schemes.

They were standing near the entrance to a two-story office building. Attached to the roof of the building was a sign that read
CHEMICO LABS, INC.
My parents had mentioned ChemiCo Labs last night. That was where the zenoplyric acid was being held, the deadly chemical that could help them track where the smoke creatures were transporting villains.

So that was what they were doing. They were there to get that acid.

I recalled the sly look on my dad’s face when I’d asked him how they planned to get their hands on the chemical.
Oh, we’ll think of something
, he’d said.
We always do
.

Apparently, this is what he’d meant by “something.”

The building was surrounded by a tall chain-link fence that was topped by barbed wire. It looked like my parents had rounded up all the employees. People in lab coats and security uniforms huddled in the parking lot. Mom raised one hand, and a vine untangled itself from the wall of the building. The vine snaked forward, levitating under her control, and wrapped around the group.

Dad removed a device from his belt, clicking a button that caused the device to unfold like a miniature satellite dish. I’d seen the gadget before. It was one of Dad’s own inventions. The Dread Deactomatic. When he pulled the trigger, it deactivated all the electronic gadgetry in the crowd, making cell phones and walkie-talkies
useless. Meanwhile, Mom confiscated the security guards’ weapons.

A movement at the edge of the parking lot caught my attention. A gray, disheveled figure was staggering close to the barbed wire fence. Another had emerged from the side of the building. Zombies. My parents must’ve brought them along as an extra precaution.

I wasn’t the only one who’d noticed what was going on outside ChemiCo Labs. Milton and Sophie were crowded next to the window, pointing at the scene.

“The Dread Duo’s breaking into that building!” Milton said. “And they have zombies! Cool!”

I clenched my teeth together. “We really should be going. It might be dangerous.”