The Indestructibles (Book 3): The Entropy of Everything (4 page)

      Titus looked to Kate, but she no longer made eye contact with him. Her attention was focused fully on Doc Silence and Annie now.

      "What about you, Doc?" Kate said. "Are you going?"

      "I wouldn't leave you to this alone," Doc said. "I wasn't going to make any of you go, but I won't let you go alone. And you can stay, Kate. I know the work you're doing with Alley Hawk is important to you."

      Now Kate glanced back at Titus. The expression she shot him caused his stomach to writhe.

      "No," Kate said. "If you're going, I'm going. I think you're all insane, but I'm coming."

      "So that settles it," Emily said. "Where's the DeLorean?"

      "We don't travel in a DeLorean, Emily," Annie said.

      "Tardis, then."

      "Not a Tardis either."

      "No Tardis?" Emily said.

      "No Tardis, sorry," Annie said.

      "Is it too late to change my vote?" Emily said.

      "Em, stop it," Jane said.

      "You really don't have to come," Doc said. "It's okay."

      "And miss out what you all look like when you're old? No way," Emily said. "I would like the option of revisiting the Tardis situation in the future, though."

Chapter 7:

Contingency plans

      Henry Winter was bored.

      Perhaps bored wasn't the right word. The former billionaire (now broke), former superhero (now not), man known as the armored hero Coldwall, found himself sitting in an empty office in a West Coast outpost of the Department. Ever since the Indestructibles broke him out of the superhuman prison known as the Labyrinth last year, Winter had been running the Department, and that meant a top to bottom housecleaning. The government agency, designed to deal with superhuman threats, had gone off the rails, having been taken over in some areas by outside influences, and so they'd put the former superhero to work fixing their mess.

      And compared to flying around in an armored suit, playing Chief Operating Officer for a government agency was one of the most boring things Winter had ever done in his entire life. No, he thought: bored is definitely the right word.

      "I almost miss prison," Winter said.

      And he hadn't even been there for committing a crime. Locked up as a stolen resource for his technical expertise, Winter hadn't seen the outside world in a decade. He thought flying around the country fixing the Department's problems would allow him to reacclimatize. Instead, he hid in offices in order to avoid signing paperwork or reviewing personnel information.

      "We can put you back in there if you really want," Doc Silence's voice said behind him.

      Winter spasmed in surprise, almost falling out of his chair.

      "Would you please not . . . mystically appear in the room without warning me first?" Winter said. "I think I need new pants. Why would you do that?"

      "Because it's funny," Doc said, grinning.

      The one thing keeping Winter sane in this inane work with the Department was reconnecting with his old superhero colleagues. Not that there were many of them left, but it was good to see Doc again after all these years.

      Winter used the cane he still relied on to get around and nudged a wheeled office chair in Doc's direction. He caught it and sat down, leaning back until the chair creaked.

      "So is this a social call?" Winter said.

      "Nope," Doc said, looking at the ceiling. "The kids and I are going to go on a little errand for Annie."

      "I still can't believe Annie's back," Winter said. "I thought she was done with this timeline."

      Doc raised an eyebrow.

      "I take it this errand has nothing to do with our timeline," Winter said.

      "The less anyone not going knows, the better," Doc said.

      "Wasn't Annie the one who said we should avoid time traveling at all cost?"

      Doc nodded.

      "You're going to tell me what this was all about when you return," Winter said.

      "If we return," Doc said. "That's why I'm here."

      "I don't like ifs," Winter said. "Is it that dangerous?"

      "It's time travel, Henry," he said. "It's always dangerous."

      Doc slid a manila folder out of his long jacket and handed it to Winter.

      He flipped it open.

      "What's . . . you started a super team and you left a demi-god off the roster?"

      "Those are the files of the known superhumans I didn't recruit," Doc said. "At the time I only went after kids who had activated their own powers—they were the most at risk, the biggest dangers to themselves, and they needed the most help. And they were already scared. No reason to go telling someone they're the son of a half-forgotten mythological being if they don't know it yet."

      "But if you don't come back . . ." Winter said.

      "You may want to go find a few myths," Doc said. "Just as a precaution."

      Winter shuffled to another random page in the folder.

      "You left a half-Atlantean running around out there on her own?"

      Doc smirked.

      "Long story there," Doc said. "She's not unmonitored."

      Winter set the file aside, but kept glancing back at it. His curiosity was on high alert. It was a folder filled with wonder and trouble.

      "When are you leaving?" Winter said.

      "Tomorrow," he said.

      "And you'll return when?"

      "Annie says she can bring us back to almost the exact moment we left," Doc said. "You might not even know we're gone."

      "Good luck," Winter said.

      Doc nodded, then stood up.

      "Sam Barren will help, too. We're going to have him stay in the Tower to watch for us. And to make sure the dog doesn't get lonely."

      "A dog's living in the Tower," Winter said. "I still can't believe you have a dog living there."

      "Different era," Doc said. "Different world."

      Doc started to make symbols in the air, preparing a spell that would blink him out of the room as deftly as he arrived. Before he disappeared, Winter stopped him.

      "You sure this is a good idea, Doc?" he said.

      Silence smiled, that sad half smile whenever he was worried.

      Winter had seen it plenty of times over the years.

      "We've all broken Annie's rule of time travel at least once, Henry," Doc said. "And came back okay when we were young."

      "But we didn't come back the same."

      "Nobody ever does," Doc said, before winking out of existence and leaving Winter alone in his office, a folder full of superhumans waiting to be discovered on the desk beside him.

Chapter 8:

Secret identities,

or lack thereof

      Billy walked Watson, his—
his
, he frequently reminded anyone who would listen, not
everyone's
—ten pound terrier mutt down one of the long and over-lit corridors in the Tower to meet Sam Barren.
Sam, the former Department of What agent who had been their mentor—or, as Emily preferred to call him, their babysitter, while Doc Silence was missing last year—had now volunteered to stay in the Tower to monitor things while they time traveled with Annie. That meant Sam also inherited dog-sitting duty. Whether or not he knew this was part of his job remained to be seen, but Billy figured if he greeted him when he arrived he and Watson might be able to win Sam over.

      I still can't believe we're going to time travel, Billy thought. Dude, have you ever time traveled before?

      The alien sharing Billy's mind and consciousness didn't answer.

      Dude? Billy thought again. Earth to Dude?

     
What?
Dude answered, sounding annoyed.

      Were you ignoring me? Billy thought.

     
When?
Dude said.

      I just asked you if you had ever time-traveled, Billy thought.

      It was entirely possible the alien had traveled through time. Billy was not his first host slash partner. Dude had, under the shared name of Straylight, been acting as half of a superhero duo for more years than he'd ever admitted to Billy. Occasionally the alien said something anachronistic enough that Billy was convinced Dude had occupied an earthling's mind as far back as the Old West.

     
I was not ignoring you
, Dude said.

      What were you thinking about then? Billy thought.

     
Nothing that concerns you, Billy Case
, Dude said.

      You live in my brain. Everything you think about concerns me, Bill thought. Never mind. Seriously though—have you time traveled?

     
I have,
Dude said.
I can't say I'm looking forward to doing so again.

      Why not? Billy asked.

     
I am not a fan of paradoxes,
Dude said.
Very little good has ever come from stepping outside your own timeline
.

      So you're saying I should have voted no, Billy thought.

      Again, Dude fell silent.

      Seriously, Dude, Billy thought. What are you doing in there, watching TV? Nodding off?

     
Your shadow approaches,
Dude said.

      And, as predicted, Entropy Emily came around the corner. She had added a puffy red vest to her usual ensemble of neon green, nuclear fallout symbols, and a scarf reminiscent of the 4th Doctor.

      "Where'd you get the life preserver?" Billy asked.

      "We're time traveling. We hang out with a guy named Doc. How could I not acquire a Marty McFly vest?" Emily said. "I got you one too. Want it?"

      "I'm okay," Billy said.

      "You fear the Marty McFly vest, don't you," Emily said. "You think it's too much for you."

      "I think it looks like a life preserver."

      "You're chicken."

      "Nobody calls me chicken," Billy said.

      Billy and Emily burst out laughing.

      "Where are you taking our dog?" Emily said, picking Watson up and cradling him like a baby. The dog rested his head in the crook of her chin, and Emily swayed back and forth.

      "My dog."

      "Our dog. We found him together."

      "I'm taking him down to meet with Sam in case we never come back from the future and he needs to take care of him," Billy said, walking toward the landing bay where he could hear Sam's ride arriving. "Also, Dude is acting weird."

     
I'm not acting weird
, Dude said.

      "Yes you are," Billy said.

      "I love when you argue with yourself," Emily said.

* * *

      "I said I'd monitor the Tower. I did not say I'd dog-sit," Sam said.

      Billy and Emily were plying Sam with ice cream in the kitchen. Emily was stealthily feeding Watson tiny bits of cheese from a block of cheddar and smirking every time Billy tried to stop her with a glare.

      "He's not that much work," Billy said. "He's ten pounds."

      "I'm an old man," Sam said.

      "An old man with a miraculous healing factor," Emily said. "You ain't fooling nobody, Samuel Barren. You have pep in your step."

      Sam frowned.

      "I suppose you'll expect me to walk him, too," Sam said.

      "Look at how short his legs are. He really doesn't go that far," Billy said.

      Sam looked back and forth between them, sighing.

      "Fine. I'll look after him when you're gone. What does he need, one walk a day?"

      "He's on a four-walk per day schedule," Billy said.

      "Four!" Sam said. "Who has time for four walks a day?"

      "Me?" Billy said.

      "Don't you have a secret identity? Some low-paying day job you go to? In the old days the supers all had secret identities," Sam said.

      "I don't think I technically do," Billy said.

      "I definitely don't," Emily said.

      "You have too much time on your hands," Sam said. "We're getting you a job when you get back."

      "Doing what?" Billy said.

      "Anything," Sam said. He scooped more ice cream into his bowl and rested his elbows on the table. "This is all moot anyway. Not coming back is unacceptable. I expect you all back in one piece before I finish lunch."

      "Have you ever time traveled?" Billy asked. "Dude won't tell me anything about when he did."

      Sam shook his head.

      "Not me, kid," Sam said. "And I'm happier for it. I don't want to know what might have happened. I'm no fan of might-have-been."

      "Is anyone?" Emily asked.

      Sam smiled at her, a warm grin growing behind his outdated mustache.

      "No," Sam said. "I don't think they are."