New Markets - 02 (36 page)

She said, "I'm getting single supers here and there, not many though.  Wait, I've got a group about ten miles northwest of us.

Jim moved his map and correlated the rough distance.  Firebane pointed to the industrial park.

"I'd have to say somewhere in here.  I could do better, but I'd have to be closer I think."

I said, "How large of a group?"

"Hard to say, I ... I think about six?"

I asked, "How can you see two of us at the University here and not know the number there?"

She shrugged.  "Maybe it's being closer to the two of you.  Or that you aren't right by each other?  Sorry, this is new to me."

"My bad, I don't mean to get on your case about it.  I'm just worried.  Okay, how about I fly us over there and you detect until we find the building?"

She pointed at the clock on the tablet.  "I can't, I really do have to get back to work."

"People's lives are at stake!"

"I know!  But I can't afford to quit my job!"

"You'll make plenty of money if you keep doing hero work."

"I can't be sure I'll be at it every day.  Until I know, I just can't not be at work.  They'll let me go if I don't show up, or even call in being as I'm not sick."

I can't believe this.  Ugh.  If I just fly around that region I doubt I'd get close enough to pick up Rael or Lance's thoughts inside a building.  Contacting the F.B.I. about it might make them swarm the area with agents, which would just alert the kidnappers.  What to do, what to do....

Firebane was wringing her hands together.  "'I've got that phone, how about I call you right after 4:30pm?

I nodded, "Okay.  Well, if you are detecting six, that must mean that some aren't dead, and since they were kidnapped the other night they aren't offing them quickly.  That might be okay."

Firebane scrunched up her food wrappers and said, "Talk to you in a few hours."  She squeezed my hand and rushed off down the hallway.

Mike said, "This is
soooo
cool."

Jim and I stared at him for a moment.

Mike said, "So is there anything we can search for on the web to help out?  Any computers to hack?

I threw my hands up for a moment and let them drop.  "I don't know.  We've got people being kidnapped who were staying in Iron Cross hospital, and released the other day.  Then they got kidnapped.  Hmm, hold on a second."

I pulled out my H.E.R.O. phone and called Agent Willman.  When he answered I asked, "Agent Willman, this is Psystar.  The girl from Rikesville, Zena - did she stay at Iron Cross at all after she changed?"

He replied, "Yes she did.  She was brought into the supers floor along with the others, and was one of the first released.  Her parents called in some favors to get her released sooner than normal for them."

"Hmm, okay.  By the way, both Spartan and Black Tiger were kidnapped last night around 3 a.m.  Someone figured out who they were and went after them.  I think I'll stay at someone else's house tonight if we don't close this today."

"Their identities are classified due to being agents, that's very quick to figure out who they are."

"Well, the only other connection is that all three of us were also at the hospital, although I'm the only one who was admitted.  Spartan ... wait, Spartan
did
come downstairs wearing the hospital top.  So he had to be in a room at some point.  Would they have admitted him even if unconscious for a little while?"

"Probably, it's one of the first things they would do after emergency care."

"So that's something in common, everyone captured so far has been admitted there, well, except Black Tiger."

"I'm not certain how they would have found him then."

"Wait, he was in the same house as Spartan.  So if they knew about Spartan from the hospital and went after him due to that instead of retribution, and also found Black Tiger there, they'd go after both."

"I agree.  You're thinking they have a mole in the hospital?"

"That could be.  Or they hacked into the computer systems."

"HIPAA would make the security there pretty tight without someone also having physical access."

"I think we need to assume they have a list of all supers who stayed any length of time at Iron Cross."

"I'll head there now with Agent Dunsworth to investigate.  Nice work."

"Thanks, let me know if I can help with anything there."

"Will do, good bye."  Then he hung up.

I looked at Jim and Mike.  "Any chance you guys can hack into a hospital's computers?"

They looked at each other.  Mike said, "We can try.  What would we be looking for?"

"People who were supers were all brought to a special floor.  I dunno, perhaps traces of another hacker?"

"You want us to hunt down traces of hacking from outside their system?  That's a bit rougher."

"Yeah.  Fine.  I'll see if I can think of something else.  The odd thing is that this means there was another team of kidnapper guys.  If there are two or more teams of those, that probably means there is a mastermind behind all this."

Chapter 19 – Mutating

Rael’s Viewpoint

I woke up again.  Same cell, it looked like a new table and new clamps under me.

A man stood just to my right – he was drawing blood from my right arm.  He noticed my eyes and his bulged out.  He turned and looked at a small table of equipment against the wall, and then stepped toward it.

Shit, oh hell no!
  I felt the odd jolt sensation I’ve had in fights before and discovered I stood next to the man, just as he grabbed the gun.

In slow motion he began lifting the gun.  I slammed my right hand down on top of his.  It made a crunching sound.  He whimpered.  Then I realized how hungry I was and bared my teeth.

In a heartbeat I was biting into his neck.  I stumbled back a step and wiped blood off my chin with the back of my left hand. 
Frag me, shouldn't have done that.... 
I looked at the gate.  My claws were pointy; they didn’t have a sharp edge to slice through something like metal with.  A series of barbs rose through each of my forearms.  They appeared to be a line of small shark fins made of the same material my claws were made of.  Somehow I knew the front of each fin would be razor sharp.

I dropped the now-dead man and stepped over to the gate.  At the thudding sound of the body, the guard ran back over this way.  He stopped outside the gate, glanced at the man in the lab coat and back at me.

I couldn’t reach far enough through the gate to grab him.  He pulled out his needler pistol again slowly.  Black tentacles burst out from my trapezius muscles just to the right and left of my neck.  Each had a single finger-like claw at the end.

He began firing the needler at full automatic at me.  I didn't even have to think to move the tentacles; they reached through the bars and stabbed into the man's shoulders, and then yanked him toward me.

The needler made constant 'thwip' sounds as he continued firing into me.  I bared my teeth, reached through the bars and grabbed his neck, then crushed it.

I felt slightly drowsy and sluggish, but it faded quickly this time.  The sound of plastic hitting the floor occurred repeatedly as my body pushed out the needles.

I looked down at him and said, "Asshole."

I rammed my forearm against the bars.  The mini fin blades easily cut through the thick metal.  After doing that both high and low I had cleared a box shaped opening to step out of.

I quickly changed into the guard's clothing, though the shoes were too small and I couldn't wear them.  The hallway had a row of cells made like the one I was in. 

I walked down the row, looking into each room.  There were supers lying in their shorts on tables in each one.  The first few had drip bags, and then I saw the beautiful silver girl I'd seen on Saturday in the emergency room.  Her body had settled on a chrome color for the metal.  It gave her a surreal look lying on the table.  Her hair was still either black or very dark brown, it was hard to tell.

She didn't have a drip bag.  Instead they had some kind of oxygen mask over her mouth and nose.  It was heavily reinforced so it couldn't come off, though not as heavy as the clamps around her limbs.  I felt calmer as I studied her.

Footsteps came from the hallway in the direction I'd just come from.  I glanced to my left, further down the corridor of cells - there wasn't a door at the far end.

I bared my teeth and rushed toward the footsteps.  My claws extended again as I ran.  I turned the corner before they did.  It was a group of four men wearing uniforms like the one I wore.  They were still about thirty feet from the corner.  Two held needler pistols, one held a bola crossbow, another held a huge rifle.  Their weapons were aimed forward, in a position prepared for combat.

They immediately began firing, and I continued at them.  As before, I skipped about ten feet of distance, appearing ahead of the first group of needles.  The fire from them was near constant, though, and quite a number struck me.  They didn't really hurt, though as my rage came back even that bit of pain went away.  The rifle was some kind of large caliber machine gun, and several large slugs slammed into my torso - now those hurt.

I was only about ten feet from them when the crossbowman fired the bola at me.  I twisted hard to the side to try to avoid the large cable.  My tentacles almost acted of their own accord.  The left one snagged the cable in midair, twisted and flung it back toward the men just ahead of me.

The man on the right with a needler took the hit from the bola.  It didn't wrap around him as it was meant to, but the massive shock went between the two metal ends and he began to fall just as I reached the rest of them.

The needles from the first man kept hitting me as I leapt over the first two kneeling men and did a flying kick at the crossbowman standing in back.  I knew that one could knock me out.  My tentacles snapped to each side, the claw stabbing into each wall and pushed me forward even faster.  My foot hit the man in his chest and he flew back about twenty feet.

I've been hit by a bunch of the needles - why aren't I feeling sluggish this time?

The two men spun, and I caught the sound of a tiny voice saying that all security is on the way.  The heavy gunner hit me with a few more rounds as I approached them.  I dropped to the floor onto my back and kicked each of the men.  They flew back toward the corner near the cell I had been in.

I looked back toward the cages and swore.  Then I noticed there were cameras in numerous positions in the hallway near the ceiling.  I glanced down; I was bleeding heavier than I'd ever seen myself bleed apart from other mutant claws in the past.  I still didn't feel the sluggishness from the needle, but the gaping wounds affected me, even if they were very slowly closing.

I needed to get more help for this fight, and the others wouldn't wake up fast enough to help, I thought.  I heard footsteps in the distance, along with the sounds of machinery.  Then I ran toward the only available door - where more security were at.

I kicked open the door at the end of the hall.  It was some kind of machining factory.  Men with weapons ran toward me from all angles, it seemed.

The wall had a row of windows about fifteen feet off the floor.  I ran at them and leaped.  Gunshots started up - it seemed like most of them had switched to heavy machine guns now.  Several slugs hit me while in the air and threw me off target from the window.