West Pacific Supers: Rising Tide (19 page)

Gregory hit the
brakes and the tractor-trailer screeched to a halt.

Dr. Brandeis
screamed “Run her over!” That had been the plan if they encountered any
problems; the last thing they were supposed to do was stop.

“Are you insane?!” snapped
Gregory. “That’s Nebula - she can create a laser beam that would slice us all
in half!” Now Dr. Brandeis remembered. Nebula was a member of the Ultimate
League. She couldn’t fly and wasn’t a speedster, but she could absorb matter
and convert it into deadly energy effects.

Larry yelled out,
now fully embracing his part, “Nebula, move aside! Dr. Wraith has come!”

From his perch on
the back of the tractor-trailer, Cliff unloaded his rifle at Nebula. The
bullets flew at her, but with a wave of her hand she changed them into a black
smoke that merged with the black clouds circling her. Then she pointed at Cliff
and Dr. Wraith and a beam of black light flared out. Dr. Brandeis looked in the
side mirror and saw Cliff’s rifle-holding arm get sliced off; both Cliff and
his arm dropped off the tractor-trailer. He then saw Larry’s head and shoulders
roll down the windshield and fall somewhere in front.

Nebula started
walking towards the tractor-trailer. Kill
O’Watts
unleashed a massive bolt of lightning, which battered down Nebula’s defenses
enough to send her flying back. Erica finally caught up with the
tractor-trailer and climbed up outside the driver’s side of the cabin. “Drive!”
she ordered.

“We aren’t going to
make it if the Ultimate League is on us, are we?” asked Dr. Brandeis as the
tractor-trailer turned down a street for one of their secondary routes. Kill
O’Watts
kept blasting to put Nebula on the defensive. She
did manage to flare out once with a laser beam that cut into the QHRA.

“No, but we go to
Plan C,” said Erica, pulling out her HoloBerry and hitting a few buttons.
Seconds later the power started to go out across the city. “Dynamic Solutions
manages several power production facilities in
Cosmopolis
and a ‘virus’ just hit them.”

“I’m impressed,” said
Gregory. “That should tie up the CPD and the Ultimate League for a little
while, but they’re going to be out in force pretty quickly. But… Dr. Wraith is
dead?”

“Ah, just that
corporeal form,” said Dr. Brandeis quickly; he didn’t know how the death of Larry
factored into their plan. His body, well part of it, would soon be in police
custody and then there was Cliff, who might have survived as well. It had not
been the clean get-away they’d hoped for.

“In forty-five
minutes we’ll be rolling out of the city in a completely different truck and in
two hours we will be on the way to West Pacific,” said Erica. She sounded
confident but Dr. Brandeis was pretty sure that she was actually more than a
little worried.

Soon Gregory had
pulled the tractor-trailer into the warehouse they had set aside for the
transfer. Thirty minutes later, the QHRA was loaded into a Cosmic Burger truck
and moving south on I-380. Erica, who was looking much more relaxed now, was
driving the truck with Gregory in the passenger seat and Dr. Brandeis sitting
behind in the sleeping compartment. Yuri and Kill
O’Watts
were in the back with the QHRA. “If they don’t catch you by the time you hit
the interstate and go beyond the city’s borders,” said Erica, “then they aren’t
going to catch you.”

“True. So are you
guys going to destroy a city or something with this thing?” asked Gregory.

“Not quite, it’s all
about real estate,” said Dr. Brandeis with a smile. “However, if you want to
get in on the ground floor I think that can be arranged.” He looked at Erica
who nodded an affirmative. He really had the instincts to be a mastermind.

10:37 p.m.,
Sunday, April 7th, 2013

Cosmic
Burger, 34th and Mariposa

West
Pacific, CA

Loren
tried not to slurp as he drank the last of his strawberry shake. Meeting at
Cosmic Burger had been Midnight’s idea, and he didn’t think it qualified as a
date because they were about to go break into an apartment. Still, it was only
the second time they’d ever been alone together and there was food involved, so
it counted for something. She was very intense, even eating a cheeseburger, and
he couldn’t help feeling intimidated by the silence. What was even more awkward
was the way that the few late night customers kept staring at them. It figured
that Midnight would wear her full costume even when getting fast food.

Two nights ago, they
had sneaked into the abandoned factory and assembly warehouse on Industrial
Island that Mr. Awesome had been investigating the week before he died. There
had apparently been a fire after Mr. Awesome left the scene, no doubt started
by the villains to cover their tracks, and the cops had subsequently cleared
the place of everything else of interest. There was no remaining PGZ at all,
which was disappointing to Loren, who had hoped to get a chance to personally
analyze a sample of the experimental explosive. According to the specs that
Midnight had gotten from White Knight, PGZ was extremely volatile and powerful
enough to level mountains. It had all the hallmarks of a military-grade explosive.
Loren theorized that the PGZ was being prepped at the factory for shipment to
China, which might be planning a full-scale Celestial invasion, but Midnight
had pointed out that it would make more sense for someone to simply sell the
formula to China, which could synthesize as much as they wanted themselves and
without attracting as much unwanted attention. Without any new information from
the factory, they had wrapped up the evening early.

Loren had been
pleasantly surprised when Midnight called him yesterday to say that she had a
new lead, they should meet up Sunday night, and he should bring anything he
needed to break into an apartment. He’d been stuck babysitting an open house
all afternoon, and the thought of an upcoming mission had really raised his spirits.
He’d carefully repacked his briefcase to make sure that he had everything he
might possible need, and met her at the 34th Street Cosmic Burger promptly at
10:15 p.m.. Unfortunately, so far all that had happened was that they had
ordered food and ate it in silence while Midnight occasionally looked at her
wristwatch and frowned as if she were expecting an overdue call. She didn’t
seem in any rush to explain what her lead or plan was and he was intimidated
enough by her to not want to push the point.

“So a whole lot of
beachfront properties just came on the market,” he said, casting around for
something to talk about. “I don’t know if you’re in the market for a house, but
there are some genuine bargains to be had
.”
The words had hardly left his mouth when he realized his mistake.
Dumb, dumb, dumb!
She doesn’t want to hear about real
estate and now you’ve blown your secret identity.

To his surprise, she
seemed interested by the news. “What kind of properties?” she asked.

“Oh, just about
anything you could want,” he told her. “I mean, it’s actually kind of a strange
situation. There’s this conglomerate that’s dumping all of their beachfront and
buying up undeveloped lots farther inland. I can’t quite figure out what
they’re up to. But I’ve never seen prices like this. I could hook you up with a
condo or a single-family home for probably half of the usual selling price, or
even less. If you’ve ever considered buying a rental property, now’s the time
to do it.”

“Have you talked
about this with anyone else?” she asked.

Loren wasn’t sure
where she was going with this. “Well, I mentioned it to the Trio and they’re
thinking about pooling their cash to get a condo. My mom’s taking out a second
mortgage so we can put a down payment on a three-bed, two-bath with an
in-ground pool and a mother-in-law cottage. I never thought we’d be able to
afford something like that.” If the deal went through, they would rent out
their current house and he could move his lab to the mother-in-law cottage, which
would be twice the space and infinitely more comfortable. He would actually
have room for a real bedroom.

“How about something
larger?” Midnight asked, reaching for some cheesy fries.

“Like a mansion?”

Midnight nodded.

Maybe she’s one of
those rare self-made millionaires-turned-vigilante
, he thought, even
more intimidated now. She did have better gear than any other vigilante he knew
and was as serious as they came.

“Sure, if you’ve got
the cash, there are some sweet deals to be had,” he told her. “There’s this
amazing place I checked out the other day - it had fountains and everything. If
I remember it right, it’s eight-bed, six-and-a-half bath, 7,000 square feet,
caged heated pool, and four-car garage. If you’re interested, I’d be happy to
arrange a showing.”

She frowned. “I
wouldn’t be able to come in person, of course. But perhaps you could send me
the details and a video tour?”

“Sure,” he said
enthusiastically.

“Excellent. If the
price is as good as you say, then perhaps you could make an offer on my behalf
and I could arrange a wire transfer to finalize the sale. Obviously the
inspection would need to come up clean.” She methodically folded her sandwich
wrapper and tossed it and the empty fry box into the trash can beside her.

Loren’s eyes went
wide, his mind whirling as he thought of the size of the commission involved.
“Of course - I’d be thrilled to! If you’re paying cash, we can get the price
even lower. I’ll get you the details tomorrow - no, tonight - after we get done
here.”

“Good,” she said,
wiping her mouth carefully before pulling a small bottle off of her utility
belt. “Hand sanitizer,” she commanded and he put out his hands obediently as
she squeezed a small amount onto his open palm.

Loren rubbed his
hands together and considered that the real estate conversation had brought
them close enough together that he could venture a question. “So what’s the
plan?” he asked as casually as he could manage.

“Trash first,” said
Midnight, looking pointedly at his empty shake container.

“Oh, right,” he said,
jumping up to throw it away.

“Very good,” she
said curtly. “Yesterday, the Trio tracked down one of the individuals suspected
of having been employed at the factory: Oscar
Madrilènes
.
They discovered him at the morgue – he seems to have been killed a few days
after Mr.
Awesome’s
incident at the factory. He had
been shot several times in the face, which made identification difficult.”

Loren shuddered, but
Midnight continued unperturbed. “Another missing individual, Brian Vargas, was
determined by White Knight to have been the one who provided the tip to WPS
that led to Mr.
Awesome’s
investigation. The police
have already searched his apartment, but Mr. Vargas is still at large. No doubt
he is laying low in an attempt to avoid Mr.
Madrilènes
’
fate.

“At precisely
10:48p.m., we will leave this restaurant, get in your car, and proceed to Mr.
Vargas’ apartment building. You will enter the building, break into apartment
432, and look for any evidence of interest: fingerprints, computer records,
phone numbers, that sort of thing. Then you will exit the building and we will
rendezvous to go over the information.”

“You’re not coming
in?” he asked, disappointed.

“No,” she said. “One
person is less likely to be noticed than two, especially as your clothing is
much less obvious than mine. Do you think you will have any difficulty getting
into the apartment?”

“No, not at all,” he
assured her. “Piece of cake.”

“Excellent,” she
said. “Very well then. Let us go.”

It was
in fact a piece of cake to walk into the apartment building and then break into
apartment 432. Loren was disappointed; he was never going to impress Midnight
if all the jobs they did together went off this easily. To make matters worse,
the apartment, like the factory, had been cleared out, and by people who knew
what they were doing. The police had been here, sure, but this was something
more. The place was clean - no electronics, hardly any furniture, not even
fingerprints left on the shower curtain. He felt he’d reached a new low when
the security officer actually held the lobby door open for him as he left and
told him to have a good evening. Loren nodded but he felt too glum to smile
back. He had gathered absolutely no intelligence at all.

He walked towards
where he’d left his car and was startled to see that it was gone. His first
instinct was that it had been stolen, which would totally suck, but then he
remembered that Midnight had been sitting in the driver’s seat, prepared to
drive getaway in case the break-in went poorly. Clearly she had driven off somewhere.
If Midnight was a self-made millionaire she would hardly need to steal his old
car, so that didn’t make sense, but this hadn’t been part of the plan.

As he was wondering
what to do, his phone rang. It was Midnight.

“Begin walking to
the nearest metro station, which would be straight ahead and a right at the
corner. You are being followed; don’t turn around. I said, do
not
turn around.”

Loren cursed
internally; it was like one of those psych tests where they tell you not to
think of a zebra and all you can do for hours afterwards is think of zebras.
His heart was racing now. This had become a potentially dangerous situation and
he was right in the thick of it.

He made it to the end
of the block, trying to talk casually on the cell phone in order to seem
normal. He took a right and started walking past a poorly lit park with a lot
of trees. “Hang up but keep walking; I am going to take out the target,”
Midnight said over the phone. Loren wanted to offer to help out in some way,
but decided that it was better to just stick to her plan rather than have her
tell him point-blank that she didn’t want his help.

He kept walking,
straining to hear what was going on behind him. There was a grunting noise and
a thud as someone hit the ground, then the sound of something being dragged
into the grass. He risked a look behind him and saw Midnight waving him over.
He dashed into the park and back to where she was standing, one booted foot
firmly pressing into the lower back of a man in jeans and a jacket who lay
squirming beneath her.

“This was a success.
Thank you,
Truthfinder
. Stop struggling,” Midnight
added to the man beneath her foot as she thumbed through the wallet she had
just pulled out of his back pants pocket. “I’ll deal with you in a minute.”

Loren started to say
that she didn’t need to thank him because he hadn’t done anything, when he
realized that he had – he had been the bait that lured this thug out. In fact,
that must have been her plan from the beginning. She would have known that
there wouldn’t be anything of value in the apartment, but she would also have
known that someone would be watching the apartment in case Brian Vargas
foolishly returned. Her precision with the timing meant that she had spent a
few nights watching the people watching the apartment; there must be a shift
change around 10 p.m., which gave Midnight the maximum amount of time to
interrogate the man she’d caught without alerting any others from the same
organization. All in all, Loren guessed that the mission
had
been a success, but
he couldn’t help wishing that Midnight had trusted him enough to tell him the
real plan.

“Alright, let’s get
down to business here,” Midnight said, removing her boot from the back of the
man and reaching down to pull him up and spin him around into a hold. “Listen
to me well,” she told the man, who had a thick-looking face that clearly needed
a shave. “I’m Midnight and this is
Truthfinder
. I
have a few questions for you. If you answer them honestly, I will let you go.
If you do not, I will turn you over to my colleague here, who specializes in
getting the truth out of people, by whatever means necessary. Do I make myself
clear?”

The man gave an
appraising look at Loren, who met his gaze with what Loren hoped was stern
intimidation. For added effect, Loren shook his briefcase enough for the tools
inside to rattle, as if to suggest that he was well supplied with implements of
torture. Midnight simultaneously tightened her choke hold and the man started
sputtering protestations.

“Alright,” he said
once Midnight had released her hold enough for him to speak. “You let me go and
give me $500 to get out of town and I’ll talk.”

“I don’t pay thugs,”
snapped Midnight. She twisted the man’s right arm behind his back while
pressing her hand tight against his throat so that he couldn’t scream. Loren
winced as he heard the bone start to crack.

“You will talk and
you will talk
now
,”
hissed Midnight with a venom Loren hadn’t suspected she was capable of. The man
squirmed ineffectively and managed to nod an affirmative when she let go.