The Awakening (14 page)

27

R
AZOR SHOOK HIMSELF AWAKE SUDDENLY
.
What was I dreaming about?
he wondered.
Oh yeah, I was dreaming that I’d spent the whole night driving.

Then he realized that it hadn’t been a dream and that he was still behind the wheel of the car.

And that the car was moving.

He screamed. “Oh
crap
!”

Colin jumped. He’d been half-asleep, staring out the passenger window at the dawn sun rising over an endless line of trees. “What is it?”

“Just remembered I was supposed to meet someone this morning,” Razor lied. To himself, he said,
Jeez, I’ve
got
to pull over.

“Where are we?” Colin asked. “We must be nearly there by now.”

Razor had no idea where they were. He remembered passing a road sign, but couldn’t recall what had been written on it.
I know we passed Raleigh. Have we reached Petersburg yet?

“Where are we?” Colin repeated.

“Nearly there. Exactly where does this guy live?”

“Some place called Highland Springs. Do you know it?”

“Oh, sure, Colin. I know
everywhere
in America. Man, I wish the radio was working. Then we’d be able to pick up the local stations, get a feel for where we are.”

“So you
don’t
know?”

“Not so much. I kind of zoned out for a while there. That happens when you drive all night.”

“Pull over, then. Get some rest.”

“No, we’re nearly there. Probably.” He rolled down the window and let the cool morning air blast through the car. “Any food left?”

Colin reached around and picked up the bag of groceries. “Sure. What do you want?”

“Gimme one of those energy bars.”

“Which flavor? There’s banana, apple or pineapple.”

“Apple.”

Colin handed the bar to Razor and opened a banana one for himself. It was basically banana-flavored sugar wrapped in chocolate, with half a dozen raisins added so that the manufacturer could pass it off as health food.

“So what’s your plan when we find Paragon?” Razor asked. “How’s he going to help find your folks?”

“I don’t know. But he’s the only chance I have. Unless I can get to Max Dalton.”

“But that guy never sees anyone. He’s a total recluse.”

“And he lives in New York, so that puts him completely out of reach. Unless you feel like driving there instead?”

Razor pretended to think about this. “No, let’s just stick with the original plan.”

Razor stopped the car outside the ivy-covered house. “That’s it. Number 1620. You sure you remembered the address correctly?”

“Positive,” Colin said, staring out at the house. They’d reached Highland Springs half an hour earlier and had stopped at a gas station to use the bathroom and buy a map of the area.

“Then let’s go. And let’s hope that he’s not on vacation.” Razor opened the car door, got out and stretched, every joint clicking and popping.

Colin climbed out of the car, very aware of how tired and dirty he must have looked.

“Can you hear anything?” Razor asked.

Colin concentrated, but his enhanced hearing didn’t seem to be working at the moment. “No.”

“Only works at certain times, is that it?”

“Yeah. I’m sure that eventually I’ll be able to do it whenever I want.”

“We don’t have time for ‘eventually.’”

Taking a deep breath, Colin walked up to the front door and rang the bell.

After a minute, the steel garage door was rolled up by a large middle-aged black man wearing grease-covered overalls: the same man from the picture on Trish’s computer. In the garage behind him, Colin could see that he’d been working on the engine of an old car. The engine was suspended above the car, hanging by heavy chains from a series of pulleys set into the ceiling.

He looked at Colin and Razor and raised an eyebrow. “Can I help you boys?”

“Are you Solomon Cord?” Colin asked.

“That’s me. What can I do for you?” He pulled a dirty rag out of a pocket and wiped his hands on it.

“We need your help. I was sent to find you.”

“That so?”

“You used to know my parents. They’re in trouble.”

Cord sighed. “Look, get lost, kid. I’m tired of you people always coming around looking for a handout. Last month, it was ‘our car’s out of gas and we just need a couple of bucks to get us back home.’ Before that, it was the sick baby sister routine.”

“This isn’t a scam,” Colin said. “I’m serious! Look…I know that you used to be Paragon.”

Solomon Cord raised his eyes. “Get the hell out of here before I throw you out!”

“No. We’ve come too far. Mr. Cord, you
knew
my parents. They used to be Titan and Energy.”

“Yeah, sure. And I suppose your friend here with the stupid blond hair used to be Santa Claus.” He leaned closer to Colin. “Now, you listen to me, boy. You start telling people that sort of bull about me and I will track you down and use your head for a football and your rib cage for a CD rack, got that?”

Cord stepped back into the garage, reached up to the door and pulled it down. The door slammed shut.

Colin and Razor looked at each other.

“So you got the wrong man,” Razor said. “Fantastic. You tricked me into driving six hundred miles and we don’t have enough money to get back to Florida. Now what do we do?”

Colin gritted his teeth. “We are
not
giving up!” He clenched his fist and pounded on the garage door. “Mr. Cord!”

From inside the garage, Cord’s voice shouted, “That’s it! I’m calling the cops!”

Razor said, “OK, I’m out of here! Colin, you’re on your own!”

He turned and walked back toward the car.

“No! Damn you, Cord!” Colin crouched down, hooked his fingers under the garage door and pulled up. The metal door screamed as the lock was ripped apart.

Colin stepped into the garage; Solomon Cord was standing at the back, behind the car, a heavy wrench in his hands.

“How the hell did you do that?”

Colin reached out and grabbed hold of the car’s engine, ripping it from its chains. “I
said
, I need your help, Mr. Cord!”

He lifted the engine above his head. His muscles were taut but not strained, his face relaxed.

Cord dropped the wrench and stared. “God…It’s true.”

“Are you going to
listen
to me?”

He looked Colin up and down. “I am now.”

28

C
OLIN LOWERED THE MASSIVE ENGINE TO
the ground.

“What’s your name?” Solomon Cord asked.

“Colin Wagner. My parents are Warren and Caroline. They were also known as—”

“I know who they are,” Cord interrupted. He peered at Colin. “Yeah. I can kind of see a resemblance. So what sort of trouble are your folks in?”

“It’s a long story. I just need to know if you’re going to help me.”

“Of course I will.”

“My dad told me to find either you or Max Dalton. You were closest.”

Solomon Cord nodded. “All right. Let’s go inside.”

Colin turned and saw Razor standing there, eyes wide and mouth dropped open.

Razor looked from the ruined garage door to the engine. “You weren’t making it up, then?”

Cord walked out to the front door and opened it. “Come in. Who’s your friend?”

“This is Razor,” Colin said, stepping into the hall. “He’s helping me.”

The kitchen door opened and a woman looked out. “What is it, Sol?” she asked nervously.

“Wait here a minute,” Cord said to Colin and Razor. He went into the kitchen and closed the door behind him.

“Maybe she doesn’t know about his past,” Colin whispered.

Razor said, “Or maybe we
have
got the wrong house and they’re psychopaths and they’re wondering which is the best way to kill us and hide the bodies.”

Cord came back out into the hall, then opened another door. “In here, please.” He showed them into a small but comfortable den. “Have a seat.”

Colin and Razor collapsed onto a leather sofa.

“How far have you come?”

“From Jacksonville, Florida,” Razor said. “We drove all night.”

Solomon Cord nodded. “I can see that…And how much do
you
know about me?” he asked Razor.

“Is it true that you used to be—”

“
—in the army,
” Colin interrupted. “That’s right.”

Cord lowered his voice and added, “My wife knows the truth, but my girls don’t. And I don’t
want
them to know, understood?”

“OK,” Colin said. “Can you help us?”

“First, we have to lay down some ground rules. You do
not
mention my past in front of my family. Or anyone else. You do exactly what I say, when I say it. Got all that?”

Colin nodded.

“Good. Now, I’ve got a few calls to make—and then you can tell me everything.”

A few minutes later, Cord returned to the den, where Colin and Razor were both already asleep.

He shook Colin awake. “You hungry?”

“Starving.”

“OK. We’ll leave your friend to sleep and I’ll cook you some breakfast while you tell me what’s happened.”

Colin followed him into the kitchen and sat at the table while Cord worked at the cooker. “I asked my wife to take the girls out for breakfast, give us a chance to talk. Bacon and pancakes all right?”

“Great, thanks.”

He took a carton of pancake mix out of the fridge. “So talk.”

Colin wasn’t sure where to begin. “Did you know Quantum?”

“Of course. He told me you would come.”

“What?”

“The last time I saw him. He said something like, ‘When the boy comes to you, you have to believe him. You won’t want to, but you must.’ And then he said, ‘He will be strong. That’s how you’ll know.’ I’d almost forgotten about that. I thought he was just rambling; he’d been acting strange for months. I was pretty sure he was losing his mind. Apparently he used to have visions.” Cord shrugged. “Obviously they were true. So what does this have to do with him?”

“OK…After the attack on Ragnarök’s battle-tank, where everyone lost their powers, my parents moved back home. They still kept in touch with Quantum and a couple of years later he moved there as well. Quantum’s son is one of my best friends: Danny Cooper.”

By the time Colin had related the entire story, he’d eaten his way through a stack of pancakes.

Solomon Cord sat opposite him, listening without comment until Colin was finished, then said, “You don’t know where they are?”

“No.”

“And you don’t even know who’s behind all this?”

“Apart from Façade, no. I’m sure it can’t be Ragnarök.”

“We’ll try to find out which plane your parents were put on, see if we can figure out where it was going.” He scratched his chin. “One thing I am bothered about is that the people who were looking for you in Jacksonville will almost certainly have got my name and address from the woman at the shelter. They’ll come here. They might even figure out who I used to be. If they don’t already know.”

“I’m sorry,” Colin said.

“I don’t have the resources I once had, Colin. I don’t even have any of my old equipment anymore. I couldn’t take the chance that some burglar would find the stuff, so I destroyed it. The only thing I can think of is to contact Max Dalton. He’ll help. And I’ll ask him to set up a safe house for my family.” He sighed. “My wife will
not
be pleased, but she’ll understand. We’ve always known that the past would catch up with us.” Solomon leaned back and ran his hands over his shaved head. “I don’t know how I’m going to explain this to the girls…”

“How come you never told them?”

“After the last battle with Ragnarök, some of us got together. Me, Apex, your folks, Impervia, the Daltons…a few of the others. We all agreed that we’d leave the past where it was. Well, Max and Roz and Josh didn’t have any secret identities to hide behind, so they had to officially retire.” He smiled. “You know what’s funny? I always kind of thought that a couple of them looked down on me because I was the only one who didn’t have superpowers. And after it happened, I was the only one who could still cut it as a superhero. I didn’t lose anything.”

“So why
did
you retire?”

“I was thirty-five. I’d been a superhero for eighteen years. I had a wife and kids I hardly ever saw. I decided I’d done my part.” He pushed his chair back and stood up. “You look beat, Colin. There’s a guest room out back. It’s got a bed and a shower. Get some sleep. I’m guessing that you don’t have a change of clothes, right? Leave your sweater and jeans outside the door, I’ll put them in the wash.”

“Thanks. What about Razor?”

“You trust him?”

“I do.”

“We’ll let him sleep. I’ll wake you both as soon as I hear anything.”

Someone shook Colin awake. He rolled over to see a teenage girl—presumably one of Solomon Cord’s daughters—looking down at him.

Oh my God,
Colin said to himself.
She’s gorgeous!

And then she smiled, showing an impressive collection of multicolored teeth: yellow, green, brown and black, and a couple of very chipped and broken incisors.

Colin couldn’t help staring.

“Finally!” the girl said. “I thought you’d never wake up! My dad wants to speak to you.” Her
S
sounds had a slight lisp to them.

“OK, thanks.” He waited for her to leave so that he could get out of bed.

She looked at him expectantly. “Well?”

“Um…”

“Look, I don’t know who you or your weird-looking friend are, but Dad said that I was to make sure you woke up and not to let you go back to sleep.”

“My name’s Colin.”

“Is that so? I’m Stephanie. Now get out of bed.”

“Stephanie, I’m kind of naked here.”

She grinned. “Kind of naked? How can you be
kind of
naked? Either you
are
naked or you’re not.”

“Well, in that case I
am
naked.”

“I know. I checked.”

Colin jumped. “What!”

She laughed. “Relax. I’m kidding. Hold on—I’ll send in Shaver with your clothes.”

“You mean Razor.”

“Whatever. The one who doesn’t look like he’s seen the business end of either in the past couple of years. Does he really think that long hair and a beard is a cool look? Doesn’t he know that the grunge days are over? And who is he kidding with those tattoos all over his butt?”

“You
saw
his—?”

Stephanie raised her eyes and laughed again. “You’re an easy target, Colin.”

Someone went “Ahem!” very loudly. They turned to see Mrs. Cord standing in the doorway. “Your father asked you to wake him up, Stephanie. He never said, ‘Do your best to embarrass the boy.’”

“Sorry, Mom.”

“I notice you’re still here.”

Stephanie gave Colin a final grin—which he tried to avoid looking at—then Stephanie sidled her way past her mother.

“And take out those horrible things!”

She reached up to her mouth and removed the fake teeth, then flashed Colin a real smile. Her teeth were perfectly white and straight.

Shaking her head in bewilderment, Mrs. Cord followed her daughter out of the room. A couple of seconds later Razor entered.

“Come on,” he said. “Time to go.”

He tossed Colin’s clothes on the bed.

“What time is it?”

“Eleven-thirty.” He grinned. “Max Dalton is here. Amazing, isn’t it? He’s actually
here
! I’ve been reading about him all my life and he shook my hand! He said, ‘How are you doing?’ Like, y’know, we were old friends or something! You know how long it took him to get here from New York? About an hour.”

“Is that fast?”

“Hell, yeah! He has this incredible superfast flying thing. Sort of a cross between a helicopter and a jet. He calls it a StratoTruck. Didn’t you hear it landing on the street? It’s amazing! I’ve never seen anything like it! Anyway, he wants to talk to you.”

Razor sat on the end of the bed while Colin got dressed. “So you met Stephanie,” Razor said. “She’s pretty cool, isn’t she?”

“I suppose.”

“They’re twins, you know that? Stephanie and Alia.”

“What’s Alia like, then?”

“Duh! Didn’t I just say they’re twins? They’re both DDG. Only Alia’s the sane one.”

“What’s DDG?”

“Drop-Dead Gorgeous.” Razor turned around to face Colin. “You know, I still wasn’t sure whether to believe you until Max turned up. He’s got a whole team with him too. Me and Mrs. Cord and the girls are going to the safe house until it’s over. And you too. They don’t want you in any more danger.”

Colin laced up his sneakers. “They’re not leaving me behind.”

“I told them you’d say that. And they said that you don’t have a choice.”

Colin stood up. “We’ll see about that.”

He followed Razor back to the den, which was now packed with people. There were at least eight large men, all dressed head-to-toe in black. Still standing in the doorway, Colin peered past them. He could just about see the top of Solomon’s head.

Just inside the door, Stephanie and her sister were huddled together, whispering about something and clearly baffled as to what was going on. They stopped talking and stared at Colin as he entered.

Everyone else in the room also stopped talking and looked at him.

Then they stepped aside, making a pathway into the room.

Sitting on the leather sofa, looking right at Colin, was Max Dalton.

“Sit, please,” Max said, indicating the chair opposite.

Colin swallowed and stepped into the room.

Very softly, without taking his eyes off Colin, Max said, “If Colin and I could have a few minutes…?”

Everyone else quietly filed out of the room. Solomon was the last to leave. He winked at Colin and closed the door behind him.

Colin didn’t know what to say.

Max Dalton looked just like he had on television a few nights previously, though—like his men—he was dressed all in black. This close, Colin could see that there was a touch of silver to his hair and there were deep lines on his forehead. There was also an old scar on his neck, just below his left ear.

Max broke the silence. “You’ve come a long way.”

Colin nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“The last time I saw you, you were about a year old. And now…Your parents should be proud of you, Colin. Very proud. I know I would be.”

“Thank you.”

“Solomon and your friend Razor told me everything you went through to get here. I couldn’t have done that when I was your age.” He grinned. “Hell, I’m not sure I could do it
now
!”

“Do you know who—?”

“—who has your parents and Danny Cooper? No. But we think we know where they are, or at least where they were taken. We’ll get them back.”

“I’m going with you.”

“Solomon told me you’d say that. He wants you to stay here. Despite your great achievement, you don’t have any experience in the field. Your powers are unreliable. It’s going to be tough enough to extract your parents without having to look after you.”

“I don’t care,” Colin said. “I’m going. Leave me behind if you want, but I’ll find a way to follow you.”

“And suppose we stop you from following?”

Colin stared at him. “They’re my parents. They need me.
Nothing
is going to get in my way.”

Max smiled. “Spoken like a true hero.” He stood up. “That’s what I wanted to hear. Let’s go. We have a lot of work ahead of us.”

“Colin, I’m not sure you’re ready for this,” Solomon Cord told him.

“But I’m the only one here who has—” Colin stopped when he realized that Cord’s daughters were listening. “I’m the only one who can recognize the others.”

“He has a point,” Max said. “Besides, I’ve already agreed that he can come.”

Cord said, “All right, Colin. But you do exactly what you’re told, agreed?”

“I promise.”

Max looked around at the other men. “All right. Let’s move.”

Colin followed them outside, where Max’s sleek black aircraft was blocking the street.

It was smaller than the Chinook, but even more impressive. Instead of standard helicopter rotors, the vehicle had four large turbine engines—two at the front and two at the back—which looked like they could pivot to provide thrust as well as lift.

“Max had the police close off the roads so that the public wouldn’t see exactly what was going on here,” Solomon said.

“This is my fault,” Colin said. “Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize for something like this, Colin. Me and your parents saved each other’s lives dozens of times. I’m happy to extend that to the next generation of superhumans.”