The Indestructibles (Book 4): Like A Comet (26 page)

Chapter
45:

The
tools at my disposal

Kate saw the surprise on Henry Winter's
face when she stopped him in the hall at the Labyrinth. The older hero stopped
dead in his tracks, leaned back and thumped his cane against the floor.

      "You look like someone on a
mission," he said, glancing back and forth between Kate and her mostly
unwanted tagalong, Emily. How Kate allowed herself to be talked into taking
Emily with her she'll never know, yet here the odd couple stood, waiting on the
director of the Department.

      "We need things, Henry,"
Emily said, folding her arms across her chest.

      "Okay then," he said. "Step
into my office."

      Winter led them just around the
corner to his private office, the smaller one he maintained at the Labyrinth
when he didn't need to be in Washington or on the road. He sat down and waited
for the two young heroes to join him, a pair of empty chairs stood unused in
front of him. Neither girl took advantage of them.

      "So we're in a rush, I take
it," he said.

      "I need the Distribution
suit," Kate said.

      "The what?"

      "The suit the Department took
off Elliott Smoot back after our first mission," Kate said. "I know
it ended up here, because before you were director someone reverse-engineered
it to make their own versions."

      The Distribution suit was a
strangely high-tech bodysuit used by a local drug dealer the Indestructibles had
apprehended very early on in their careers. It absorbed kinetic energy, then
redistributed it back, empowering the wearer, thus essentially granting limited
protection and a sort of temporary super strength.

      "I know the Department
reverse-engineered it," Winter said. "I was a captive here then. I
actually led the team who did the work."

      "So you know where the suit
is," Kate said.

      "I can do you one better,"
Winter said. "Would you rather one of the improved suits? I can just give
you one of those. Do you really want the sweat-stained original we got from
Smoot? That guy was extremely sweaty."

      Kate fired one of her impenetrable
stares at him.

      "I don't have time to learn a
whole new fighting technique," she said. "I don't need the latest fancy
tech. I just want the kinetic redistribution."

      "Didn't realize you were a
tech person," Winter said, his tone curious, not judgmental.

      "I use the tools I have at my
disposal," Kate said. "You of all people should understand that."

      Winter chuckled softly, nodding in
agreement.

      "Understand it and approve
it," he said. "I can get you a replica suit. No bells and whistles,
just a straight reconstruction in your size. Trust me, I worked on the
design—you want one that fits properly to maximize the effectiveness. Baggy won't
do."

      Kate bowed her head slightly in
gratitude.

      "And you?" Winter said,
turning to Emily. "What do you want from Santa this Christmas?"

      "I liked that glove you gave
me," Emily said.

      "I'm glad. Be sure to thank
Dr. Bohr for that though," Winter said.

      "I need more," Emily
said.

      "More gloves? Did you break
the first one?"

      "What? No," Emily said. "The
glove is fine. But it's not going to do me any good in outer space."

      Winter turned his eyes to Kate,
who raised one eyebrow imperiously.

      "You're going to need
something… to help you fight in outer space," Winter said.

      "I'm sorry," Emily said.
"I didn't realize you were suffering hearing loss issues. I always forget
how old you guys are."

      "I'm not—my hearing's just
fine!" Winter said. "I didn't think you'd… never mind. You need to
fight in space."

      "I do indeedy," Emily
said.

      Henry Winter glanced back and
forth between the two women a few times, hesitating.

      "You have a bad idea, don't
you?" Emily said.

      "No I don't," Winter
said.

      "Yes, you do," Kate
said. "Show us."

      Winter ran a hand through his hair
anxiously.

      "Oh, this is such a terrible
idea," he said. "Look, it's something I've been working on for years,
okay? I built it for me. But I could never figure out how to make it all work.
And then we realized… the main problem is it's just too heavy."

      "You're talking gibberish,"
Emily said. "We broke his brain."

      "No, no," Winter said. "Look,
it's easier if I just show you the project."

      He picked up a tablet off the desk
and tinkered with it to retrieve a set of schematics. Kate leaned over the
table, watching as different projects streamed across the screen. When Winter
found what he was looking for, he opened up a set of photos and handed the
device to Emily. Kate intercepted though, taking a look first. Emily stood uncomfortably
close to Kate and peered at the screen as well.

      "Oh. My. Frelling…"
Emily said.

      "No," Kate said.

      "Heck yes!" Emily said.

      "That, Entropy Emily, is
going to be a last resort," Winter said. "Okay? I only showed it to
you in case things get so bad that we need to throw the kitchen sink at these
aliens to stop them. If it turns out they're delicate daisies that wilt under
an angry glare, there's no way I'm letting you use that."

      "You realize you've just put
me in a position
hoping
I need to use that, right?" Emily said.

      "All the options available to
us," Winter said. "Right, Dancer?"

      Kate frowned.

      "Within reason," she
said, watching the insanity on the screen one more time before handing it back
to Winter.

      Emily and Kate both startled when
Billy's voice came through their earpieces simultaneously.

      "Where are you guys?"
Billy said.

      "You need to be more
specific, Billy," Emily said, shooting an apologetic expression at Winter.

      "You. I mean you. And Kate.
Solar's not answering her radio either," Billy said. "Sam says we've
got bad news."

      "We're here with Henry Winter
right now, Straylight. Go ahead," Kate said

      Billy made a series of confused
noises on the other end of the line.

      "What are you doing? Never mind.
Just get back to the Tower ASAP," Billy said.

      Winter gestured to his computer.

      "I heard that. I'll patch Sam
in," Winter said.

      "We'll conference call in,"
Kate said.

      "I hate you just a little bit
for saying that out loud," Billy said.

      Emily tuned Billy out and returned
her attention to Winter.

      "I'm going to need that
thing," she said.

      "I already regret bringing it
up," he said.

      Emily winked at him.

      "Too bad," she said. "No
backsies."

Chapter
46:

The
stockpile

I've seen a lot of weird things in my
time," Agent Black said, while hunched over the control panel searching
for alien aircraft. "But this place is something else."

      The former Prevention surveyed
their haul. Weapons, machines, and inexplicable apparatuses, an arsenal and a
lab. They'd moved a few items closer to the exit of the old Department bunker,
but the place seemed to go on forever, a graveyard of strange tech.

      "The Department comes into
contact with all things unexplainable," Laura said. "This isn't even
a drop in the bucket of what's been locked away."

      "Still," Black said. "It
had to be tough to gather all this technology without being noticed."

      Laura examined a rig, not unlike a
rifle, silver with deep indigo spheres that glowed along the barrel.

      "I had a long time to get
myself in just the right spots," she said. "Requesting the key
assignments, showing an aptitude for the project."

      "Your Jedi mind tricks didn't
hurt, either," Black said.

      "Being able to poke around in
someone's mind to find out what they knew and what answers they wanted me to
say helped, yeah," she said. "It's easier to give the correct answer
if you know the question before it's asked."

      "I can't imagine how you got
into the espionage business with those powers," Black said sarcastically.
He picked up a melee weapon, like a kendo stick; it hummed and sang when he
moved it.

      Laura shrugged. She'd risen
quickly up the ladder in the Department's organizations, in part because of her
telepathic powers, but also because she knew how to work people in more
traditional ways. Even in an organization full of secret agents, she knew how
to push the buttons and make friends.

      "Did anyone ever find out you
were doing this?" Black said.

      "I covered my tracks pretty
well," Laura said. "Made certain reports disappear. Greased a few
palms. And for those who didn't want to cooperate, it wasn't difficult to nip
and tuck their memories a bit to make sure they had no recollection this base
existed. Then it was simply a matter of 'officially' boarding up the location
and boom—secret war chest."

      "Just in case the Earth was
ever invaded," Black said.

      "My employers tell me they
always knew the invasion would happen," she said.

      "But you didn't," Black
said.

      "How often have you taken
money from someone no questions asked?" Laura said.

      Black made a noncommittal movement
of his head.

      "I was doing as they asked.
Stockpile alien weapons and get the Department ready to be militarized. Recruit
and retain any superhumans who stepped up and appeared useful," she said. "Honesty
I thought I was working on a coup."

      "I never liked coups,"
Black said.

      "They have their plusses and
minuses."

      The two mercenaries shared a
professional-humor laugh. Only a couple of hired guns like us can find coups
funny, she thought.

      Black gestured at the room full of
devices.

      "So what do we do with all of
these?" he said. "I don't imagine you and me are going to use them
all."

      "How many people do you think
you'd need to turn this arsenal into something useful?" Laura said.

      "Me?" Black surveyed the
room, his cyborg eye whirring as it took in data. "I don't build armies."

      "You build teams," Laura
said.

      "If you're asking me a
serious question, I'd get ten good fighters—perhaps an even dozen," Black
said. "Hand-pick them for their skills and set them up with the sort of
tech they can make the most out of. There's more here than I'd use, but better
to have a smaller number of tools in the hands of the right talent than to just
start handing out laser cannons to yokels."

      "How long would it take you
to put a team like that together?" Laura said.

      Black turned that cyborg eye onto
her instead of the tech.

      "Depends," Black said. "My
type of people don't work for charity."

      "I have a very generous budget,"
Laura said.

      "It would have to be considering
we're confronting what could be an extinction event," Black said.

      "Bonuses if they survive,"
Laura said. "And really shouldn't saving the world be enough to motivate
them? If we all die, what does it matter?"

      "Exactly," Black said. "Maybe
they don't want to stick their neck out and would rather hope we get lucky with
those super-kids."

      Laura smiled.

      "Something tells me you could
find the right men and women for the job if I asked you to," she said.

      "Are you asking?" Black
said. "And what about you? Don't you know people?"

      "I'm a burned double agent
who infiltrated a government agency," Laura said. "My reputation isn't
stellar on either side of the espionage community. The good guys hate me and
the bad guys don't trust me."

      "How the hell did I end up
working with you then?" Black said.

      "So what do you say. Make a
few phone calls?" she said.

      Black stood up and looked around
the room, as if determining what he'd need from whom to make the best use of
the equipment.

      "I'll get you people if you're
paying," Black said. "We survive this, we're all going to have a big
laugh over helping save the world."

      "Takes all kinds," Laura
said.

      "And what are you going to do
while I'm tracking down mercenaries with hearts of gold?"

      Laura pointed to a section of the
bunker where she'd gathered a very specific set of items.

      "I need to try to find a way
to get a few things to those super-kids to help them out," Laura said.

      "Didn't you incarcerate three
of them a while back?" Black said.

      "Unfortunate, isn't it?"
Laura said. "I'll just have to get creative with my delivery method."