Pacific Station Vigilante (Book 2): The Negative Man [Stormfall] (4 page)

Chapter 3 –

Monday Night; Krum’s Comics and Games

**Mystery Man**

This was the place I had written down, a comic book store.  I walked in and the blonde lady behind the counter addressed me with a warm greeting.  “Welcome to Krum’s, anything in particular you’re looking for?”

There was a lot to take in, comics from all over the years and cool trinkets, but I wasn’t here for the merchandise.  “A friend told me to stop by.  Said the gaming was out of this world.”

Without even missing a beat, “You’ll want to join my husband Kim in the back.  They’re just getting set up now.”

There was a black door at the back of the store, so I took that as where I was supposed to go.  When I opened the door, it made a weird sound, almost as if the building was getting ready to take off.  Suspicious of a trap, my paranoia fell when I saw a group of eight people sitting around a table.  By the looks of them, they were probably just like me.

A shorter guy stood up and reached out with his hand.  “Hi there, I’m Kim.  You must be the new guy Crocodile told us about.  She told me you were a bit of a tricky one.”

Huh, so she told them to expect me.  The weird SVIS lady in the odd mask gave me two options when she caught me a few nights ago.  Show up here, learn something, and help or spend a night or two in jail for trespassing and criminal mischief.  I had no intentions of going to jail and having people discover who I was.  So that left me with this unappealing option.  I saw no point in it, but this was my own fault for getting caught and worse, letting her see me use my unique traits.

I wasn’t used to being in a group setting; I’m not a people person.  “Yeah, she said to try this place out, you know because I’m different.  I hope I’m not wrong for trusting her.”

Kim showed me to an open chair and started the meeting.  “Welcome one and all for coming.  As you know, my wife Diana and I aren’t blessed with your abilities, but we’ve been affected by him.”  He acknowledged me.  “We don’t ask for names or what your powers are, but we do want to know why you’re here.”

The group turned to me, waiting to hear my reasons.  “The Negative Man killed my father.  I know it’s not some large scale tragedy, but he took away something very important.”

Two seats over, a red headed man took a turn.  “The bastard killed my child a few years back when he screwed with the city’s power company.  A surge of electricity fried my boy through his ventilator.”  His eyes were turning red, grief setting in.  “It doesn’t have to be large scale to be a good reason.”

A hand touched my shoulder.  It was a young girl, maybe fifteen years old and she looked angry.  “He killed my dad too, but people don’t really mourn his loss.”

I recognized another tortured soul.  “Why do you say that?”

Kim answered.  “This brave young lady is Becky Walker. Her father was Spades, leader of The Aces.”  As soon as he said it, I recognized her father in her face.  “She’s suffered more than any of us though.  Some say she should be held accountable for the terrible things her father did.”

A child hidden in the shadow of their father.  This girl and I had a lot more in common than she knew.  “The sins of the father should never be cast down on their kids.”

“It sounds like you know from experience.”

Her eyes probed mine for answers, but now wasn’t the time to announce my true identity.  It was one I was still carving out for myself.  “I do, but that’s about all I feel comfortable with saying tonight.”

It looked as if she wasn’t going to let me off the hook that easily when Kim’s wife Diana burst into the meeting.  “Turn the television on quick.  We all need to see this.”

Kim grabbed the remote and did as his wife asked.  He flipped two channels and stopped as soon as he saw the inverted picture of the man we all wanted dead.  His soulless face had taken over the screen, taunting someone mercilessly.  “My patience is wearing thin.  For every minute you don’t tell me who your source is, a random family will suffer.”

His voice was calculating, cold.  Whoever was in the crosshairs, I genuinely felt bad for them.  His taunts didn’t stop there.  “Thirty seconds – do you want their blood on your hands?”

I jumped out of my seat.  This bastard was going to start killing random people!  “We have to stop him!”

Diana looked down to the floor, saddened by reality.  “We can’t, at least not yet.  That’s why we meet here.”

The conversation on the television continued.  “Ten seconds and you become a murderer Mr. Howard.”

My God!  Whoever he was threatening just needed to tell him what he wanted.  How could they let a family die?  Finally, “Chief Grimes!  All of our information on Titan has come from Grimes!”

The image of The Negative Man started to fade away.  “Now was that so hard?  You’ve done well Mr. Howard.  I return everyone to their regular programming.”  With that, he was gone, just like he hadn’t even been there.

The news anchor, Brandon Howard, sat there shaking.  Kim turned the television off, sparing us from having to watch the man have a nervous breakdown for all to see.  “The bastard knows no end.  Pacific Station has cowered to him enough.”

An older man to my left shook his head.  “Kim, what can we do?  If the police and their special vigilante squad can’t take him down, how can we?”

As much as he wanted to give us hope, “That’s something we all need to work on.  Together we’re stronger as a unit than we are as individuals.”  This latest episode by The Negative Man seemed to have taken the wind out of him.  “I think that’s enough for tonight.  Feel free to grab some tacos and soda out front.”

I joined the small crowd moving out to the front.  I had no plans to mingle anymore when a hand grabbed mine.  It was Becky Walker again.  “You know me, so how come I can’t know you?”

Even though I was only eighteen, I felt as if I’d been through so much more than anyone.  Yet, this girl, younger than me, intimidated me.  “With names comes power.  If I told you who I was, you’d be able to control me if you wanted.”

“That’s rather cryptic.”  She hadn’t let go of my hand.  In fact, she dragged me over to the table where the tacos were.  “How about this?  You just tell me how you know Crocodile?”

This was almost as bad, but I felt something inside telling me to give in.  “She caught me trying to break into Wonder-Tech Tower.  I thought I was a goner, but she told me to come here instead.  If I did and keep my nose clean, no one would ever need to know.”

We both took a bite of taco at the same time.  Me, trying to keep the awkwardness to a minimum and her thinking of her next question.  “Why would you want to break in there?”

“I have my reasons.”  Damn, these tacos were good.  I grabbed another, not sure where my next meal would come from.  “I thought there might be some answers to my questions locked away in there.”

“Well if you really want to get in, you came to the right place.”  She came a bit closer, as if she was about to drop a huge secret.  “I know Jericho Staley well.  With the right encouragement from me, he’d let the two of us in.”

Huh, could this be a coincidence?  Did Crocodile know Becky Walker came to these groups?  “He bought out gl-O-bal Labs right?”

She seemed to be more interested in the cup of soda than answering me.  “Yeah, not that I wanted to sell, but I didn’t want to be associated with that place after everything.”

“Plus it looks as if you’re a bit young to run a tech enterprise.”

She clicked me on the forehead.  “I might be fifteen but I’m not stupid.  My father made sure of that.”

Well I wasn’t about to let this golden opportunity get away from me.  “So, you think you can get us in?  I’d really appreciate it.”

“Tell you what…”  She dragged me away from everyone else.  “I need a really good reason to sneak you in.  So, you let me in on your secret identity and I’ll really think it over.”

Names had power.  The question was did I want to get into Wonder-Tech that badly I’d be willing to tell someone who I was?  Or perhaps there was another way.  No, lying was never the answer.  So against my better judgement, “I’m Kyle Wonderton, John Wonderton’s son.”

Her eyes dropped away from me.  She knew who my father really was.  “My dad knew who John Wonderton really was.”  She said it in disgust, like what her dad had done was the most deplorable act possible.  “And so the legacy of The Dark Lion continues…”

Chapter 4 –

Tuesday Morning; Wonder-Tech Tower

I was reading over a file that came up from the R&D lab.  It was the newest report stating the processing speed of the Predator cell phone with customer favorability.  Based on my calculations, once we had fifty-one percent of the market, Heather would be able to use our network to trace everybody through their cell phone communications.  There wouldn’t be a target that I wouldn’t be able to reach across this nation.

The Predator was sitting at forty-four percent with a favorability rating of ninety-seven.  With one last ad campaign, I’d be able to initiate the next phase.  In the meantime, I had other, more personal work to do here.  It was time to look into the SVIS goons and get to the bottom of Titan.

I’d start with the animal control problem first.  None of them must have been using my cell phones or else Heather would’ve known.  Knowing that Mike Blackfield was one, I decided it was time to look more into my old friend and see where his life intercepted others.  A quick internet search brought up a number of hits, including his obituary.  Part of me was curious how Heather spun his death, but a greater part didn’t really care, not anymore.  So instead, I found his old social media profiles.

Blackfield was the definition of boring.  Other than an obsession with a comic book store down on Salt Water Cove and a Wednesday night bowling team, there was hardly anything that stuck out.  Well, a comic book shop would be a dumb place to start, so I looked more at the bowling team photo.  Apparently it was a mixed league and the team had three men and two girls.  Why didn’t I do this sooner?  “Ha, this is almost too easy.”

My success was disturbed by my office line.  “Hey Collete,” I had hired a new secretary, “what’s up?”

The older lady was brisk and efficient, just the way a good business should be.  “Miss Walker and a friend would like to tour the facility.  Is that okay?”

Becky Walker, the prodigal daughter of Spades.  When I bought gl-O-bal out, I promised her I would take good care of the business.  If she wanted to take a look around every so often, I didn’t care.  “Yeah, give them visitor passes and let everyone know to be very cordial to our guests.”

“Of course Mr. Staley.”  The phone went dead and I knew Becky was in good hands.  With that taken care of, I went back to my research.

Some more digging into the four other people in the photograph gave me names; Ervin Masters, Barbra Constance, Wendy Chalmers, and Nick Parson.  Each had a very different background, yet one thing in common.  Their birthdays were all around the time of the nuclear disasters.  And just like that, I cracked the code of the SVIS.

I thought I’d be happier about it, but I felt let down.  Granted, I never considered them much of a threat to start with, but to find them all in less than five minutes seemed to be a letdown.  This was just more proof this wouldn’t be a challenge, not like The Dark Lion.  He was an adversary worth fighting, worth putting everything you had into.

I printed off my findings and put them in my pants pocket.  As I got up to go take a walk, two figures were walking around the top floor.  I exited my office to greet them.  “Well hello Becky, I see you’re making yourself at home.”

The girl was a spitting image of her father.  “Of course Jericho, I told you I’d keep eyes on you, to make sure you didn’t follow in his footsteps.”

“I’m a man of my word.”

The boy who was with her looked a tad older, maybe seventeen, eighteen tops.  He looked really familiar too, but I couldn’t place it.  He kept his eyes low and shook my hand rather politely.  “I’m a friend of Becky’s.  I hope it’s cool she brought me along.”

Kids interested in technology warmed my frosty heart.  “Of course it is!  Make sure the two of you go check out R&D sometime today.  I think they’ve got the newest game up and running for the Predator.”

“We know you’re busy sir, but thanks for letting us look around.”

I liked this boy, respectful and he had a thirst for knowledge written all over him.  “You kids have fun.  Come find me later if you have any questions.”

I bid them a farewell and took the elevator down to Legal.  Lunch and revealing the identity of the supers to Heather might get some excitement back.  The Legal floor was buzzing, with copyrights and patents flying between offices for signatures and research.  I found Heather in her office reviewing the patent for the game I told the kids about.  “Jericho?  We weren’t supposed to have a meeting were we?”

“Nah, I figured I’d come save you from boredom with a quick lunch.  Plus I have some files I’d like to go over with you.”

She seemed happy for the chance to get out of her office.  “You want to try the Chinese place two blocks over?”

Everyone at Wonder-Tech knew the two of us were engaged in a relationship, but keeping it professional was paramount to me.  I wasn’t running the company like John had, yet I found myself going back to the things he taught me.  Was it weird to hold a dead enemy in such high esteem?

The sun was high as we got outside.  Thankfully my newest sunglasses were up to the task.  Imbedded in the left lens was an interface that when activated gave me identification on anyone I passed.  I’d been able to hack into the FBI’s facial recognition database and thankfully as corrupt as the government was, there wasn’t anyone who didn’t register.  But I didn’t need that today.  Just the superior UV blocking they provided.

The Chinese place wasn’t very busy, as it was still too early for the traditional lunch hour.  The waitress was happy to escort us to a table in the back and I appreciated the low lighting the restaurant provided.  As soon as we ordered our drinks, I pulled out what I was hoping would excite her.  “I found them.”

She pulled the picture closer.  “A bowling team?”  Then she looked closer.  “Is that Mike Blackfield?”

“One and the same.  Which means his bowling team must be the SVIS guys.”  I sat back and folded my arms, victory in hand.

She pushed it back over to me, happiness radiating off her.  “With this, we can eliminate them in one swoop.  We should go visit that bowling alley on Wednesday and put an end to them.”

I didn’t know if they still had the team, but I got the feeling these four probably had nothing else to hold on to.  Even so, I wasn’t about to go crazy in the middle of a populated area.  “No, we draw them out and take them down in a very public fight.  Since we know who they are, we can discover what buttons to push to lure them in.”

“Does this mean I’ll be part of the fight?”

I did promise her that as soon as we found them, she’d be able to participate.  “Yeah, which means I’ll probably need to design a battle suit for you.  Even though they aren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer, they are still supers and can still deal damage.  Plus we need to keep your identity a secret.”

She clapped her hands together, very giddy about the chance to get a real super human suit.  “After lunch, I’ll email you some ideas on what I want for a suit.  Color scheme and materials, you know?  A girl still needs style.”

Her excitement lit a small spark in me.  Also the chance to design a new battle suit from scratch intrigued me.  I knew getting complacent was bad, especially with the Predator project closing in on its timeframe.  I needed to be at one hundred percent when I began challenging multiple places.  I needed to break out of this funk.

After we ate and returned to the office, another idea hit me.  “A lackey, that’s what I’m missing.”  And the perfect candidate hit me.  I went back on the web and dove in, searching for clues about the burglar known as Hammerspace.  Knowing his M.O., I found a string of unsolved thefts that Grimes was chalking up to my new friend.

I searched through photos, his image still in my mind’s eye from our encounter.  Luck was on my side today, because for the second time, I got a match.  Shawn Jordan, petty thief who disappeared from the scene three years ago.  The same mischievous face that took my watch was on my computer screen.  And thanks to the miracle of public records, I had a telephone number too.

I emailed Heather Mr. Jordan’s number and asked her to trace it.  A minute later she responded with an address – 1161 Crest Ave.  I put up my out of office; I had a business meeting to attend.