Regenesis (Book 1): Impact (53 page)

Her
aunt knocked on the door and asked if she could come in. Rachel gave her the
okay and her aunt cracked the door open and told her they would leave at
twelve-thirty. Claire almost left, but stopped and told Rachel, “You know that
Drake is going to join us for supper tonight, don’t you?”

“Yep,”
Rachel said as she nodded her head.

“Oh
good.” She saw the frown on her Aunt Claire’s face and asked her what was
wrong. “It’s nothing really,” she told Rachel. “I only feel terrible for him.
The poor thing must be a wreck, having to feed himself and live all alone in
that great big house Tony left him.”

“I’m
sure he’s fine,” Rachel tried to convince her.

“He’s
seemed distraught since his father’s passing, but the last time I spoke with
him, he sounded like he was finally getting better. I hear he has a girlfriend
now too, I bet that she’s helping him through this.”

Rachel
nodded and told Claire that Drake and Hiromi were great together.

“I
told that boy that he was more than welcome to come and live here with us as
long as he’d like, but he’s just like his father, he needs to work through
things in his own fashion,” she said with a smile. “I know that he’ll make Tony
proud too. The wonders that boy will do…”

Rachel
didn’t comment. She wanted to ask her aunt if she was alright, as Tony was her
brother, but every time she did her aunt would only smile and say that he was
in a better place.

The
doorbell rang and her aunt left to answer it. She returned a minute later with
a few envelopes and gave one to Rachel. “Our neighbor from across the street
happened to get some of our mail yesterday and didn’t have time to bring it
over until today.”

Rachel
looked at the letter she’d received and asked what it was, though her aunt
wasn’t sure. She said it was from the Seattle Art Museum and Rachel felt her
heart leap in her chest. She hastily opened it, took out the letter, and two
passes which were also included.

“What
are those?”

Rachel
ignored the letter and looked at the two passes and told her aunt that she won
tickets to see Vincent Van Gogh’s gallery on opening night.

“That’s
wonderful!” Her aunt gave her a quick hug (something she did compulsively when
she was proud of Drake or Rachel, which Rachel and Drake only found as one of
their aunt’s quirks). “Who are you going to take?”

Rachel
sulked slightly and said she wanted to go with Vladimir.

“Then
go with him.”

“What
if he doesn’t want to?”

“Why
on earth wouldn’t he want to spend an evening with you? You’re a wonderful
young lady, a young woman any young man would be lucky to be with.”

Rachel
wasn’t a fan of being praised. She knew her aunt only tried to keep her spirits
up because she loved her, but Rachel worried that Vladimir would still be
resistant because of the way things ended between them earlier.

She
resolved to ask him anyway and told her aunt she would. Claire smiled and left
Rachel alone while she finished getting ready. Rachel took another look at the
tickets before she returned to her drawing of the lake she and Vladimir passed
on their way to Seattle.

---*---

7:33
PM

London,
England

“I
feel like an idiot Audrey.”

“That’s
the price of fashion dear,” she told him with a sly smirk on her face.

Jason
stood on a small stool while Audrey took measurements for his legs. He finally
agreed on a costume design and asked her to make it for him. She didn’t ask any
questions as to what made him have the change of heart. Audrey only thanked
him, told him how great it was going to be, and started in on it right away. In
fact, all she had left to do was make his pants and cape.

This
is embarrassing. I mean, I’m grateful to her for making the outfit, but I wish
there was an easier way…or a way that didn’t involve me standing up on a
pedestal like an idiot.

“So
when am I going to see this costume in action?” she asked him.

As
soon as it’s done.

“Once
it’s finished.”

She
smiled and told him she couldn’t wait to see it. Audrey measured his thigh,
quickly scribbled down a number, and moved on to measure his waist. “So, can I
ask what made you change your mind?”

“About
becoming a hero?”

“Yes.”

“Well,”
he took a breath and told her that he could fly.

“What?”
she nearly shouted. “You can fly? Jason! That’s, that’s amazing!”

This
is the reaction I was afraid of.

Jason
said it wasn’t anything special. “Besides, once I was airborne I fell.”

“You
fell?”

He
cleared his throat and told her he did.

“How
far down was it?”

“I’m
not sure. Maybe one or two kilometers at most.”

“And
you didn’t die?”

He
shook his head.
Obviously not. If I had you and I wouldn’t be talking now.
“No. I crashed and was perfectly fine.”

“Then
does that mean you have another power you didn’t realize you had?”

He
nodded.
A few actually.
“Yeah, actually…” Jason went on to tell her
about the situation he faced when he climbed back to his feet. He told her
about being shot, watching the bullets fly past him in slow motion, his ability
to run faster than bullets, and how he destroyed the gun in his bare hand.
“Then the girl thanked me, asked what my name was, and I told her it was
Ilion.”

Audrey
was nearly speechless. “Jason! You’re a hero! Oh my word, I mean, it’s terrible
that someone nearly mugged that girl, but you saved her! That’s–”

“I
know, amazing.”

“It
is Jason,” she told him. “Don’t act like it isn’t.”

It’s
not though, and that’s the problem. I saved someone, that’s what you’re
supposed to do. It isn’t heroic; it’s just what should be expected. And if
those two pricks who call themselves heroes actually did what they claim to do
then I wouldn’t have needed to save that girl at all. I’m only picking up after
adolescents who don’t know how to live properly in this world.

He
stepped off of the footstool and took a seat on the bed. Jason set his head in
his hands and told her he didn’t want to be a hero. “I really wish this world
didn’t need someone like me to save the day. I wish everyone was capable of
taking care of themselves and were willing to look out for one another.”

“They
aren’t though, Jason.”

“And
that’s why I hate the fact that I need to be a hero,” he told her. “All I’m
doing is babysitting these people who are incapable of governing themselves
within the confines of their own lives. They prey on one another, they’re
inconsiderate, and they conspire against one another, and I detest it.”

“We
all do.”

“But
you aren’t going to be the one out there, stopping it all on a daily basis.” He
glared at the floor and muttered, “They shouldn’t need me.”

Audrey
took a seat next to him and asked if he’d rather leave London in the hands of
the Human Titan and Captain Density. “They aren’t going anywhere, even though
they’re out in London for different reasons.”

The
idea only made Jason cringe and feel worse about his role as a protector of
London. “Those two buffoons are only going to exacerbate matters if they’re
left alone.”

“Exactly.”
Audrey turned his head toward her and looked him in the eyes and told him,
“You’re going to change the world and influence billions of people, so don’t
think that you aren’t making the world a better place.”

She’s
right. The world is filled with bad people, filled with laziness and deceit,
but maybe it can change. I mean, if it can become corrupt, can’t it cleanse
itself too? Audrey, you know what I need to hear. Thank you.

Jason
kissed and thanked her. “So what else do you need from me so you can finish
this outfit?”

---*---

9:15
PM

Baltimore,
Maryland

Mia
stood in her kitchen and glanced through a list of fifteen possible targets
Cladis could attempt to kill in two days. Her contact from the park gave her a
clue that cut her workload severely though, as the next victim would need to
have AB negative blood. Unfortunately none of the fifteen people she originally
believed to be at risk had the blood type. She hadn’t told anyone about the
blood pattern. Her ragged friend never said a word about the small taskforce
devoted to stopping Cladis and as such she waited to say anything to her team
before consulting him.

Their
group hadn’t made any progress since Detective Sage’s death, but the stranger
Mia met already knew more than their group did and worked off of less as well.
It wasn’t as if Mia didn’t trust the others, it was only that her contact
proved to be more efficient than the four in her squad combined, and she didn’t
want to betray that trust her contact held with her.

“Do
you ever intend on cleaning this place up?”

Mia
swore and instinctively went for her gun, though she left it with her badge on
a small end table next to her front door. She looked up and found the tattered
man who acted as her contact in the middle of her living room with his eyes on
her mess of an apartment.

“How
the hell did you get in here?” she barked.

He
didn’t say. “Have you found the next target?”

“No.”

“Why
not?”

“I’m
not working with very much to begin with,” she reminded him.

He
nodded and told her he was sorry about that. “If there was anything else I
could give you I would, but there isn’t, not right now at least.”

“Is
there anything else?”

He
nodded. “How well do you know everyone you work with?”

“What
are you asking me?”

“Do
you trust them?”

“Yes.”

He
nodded again and walked over to her wall and examined her updated pages of
information on each victim from the detailed reports that he gave her at their
first meeting. The man asked where she came up with the method of laying out
all of her information.

“The
detective who headed up the case before me did this,” she reported. “It seemed
effective enough for him–”

“Wasn’t
he killed by Cladis?”

“Yes,”
she mumbled.

“Then
why do you want to travel down the same avenue he did?”

She
shrugged and asked why the man cared.

The
stranger stepped away from the wall and told her he didn’t like watching people
throw their lives away. “You know what you’re doing and I admire that,” he told
her. “As such I don’t want you to simply discard yourself in a useless manner.”

“Detective
Sage didn’t die for nothing,” she snapped.

He
only looked at her solemnly and asked what he provided the group through his
death. Mia couldn’t answer. “There isn’t any sense in dying just yet,” he said.
“There’s still work that needs to be completed here before you can even begin
to think about sacrificing yourself.”

Mia
scowled and asked him who he was. “You’ve been breaking in my home for weeks to
examine what I know about Cladis, you took one of my hunches and dug up five
graves, you found a pattern no one else managed to notice, you’re aware of the
small task force under Chief Johnson, and you seem to possess your own
abilities,” Mia fixed her eyes on him and asked who he was.

Her
contact let out a sigh and said she could call him Twelve.

“Twelve?”

“Yes.”

“Why
Twelve?”

“Why
does it matter?” He looked at her and said it wouldn’t matter what he called
himself. “Call me whatever you’d like, you will still question me no matter
what name I gave you, so it doesn’t matter what I call myself.”

“Who
are you really?”

“I
am Twelve.”

“Seriously.”

He
told her to figure it out on her own. “You’re avidly playing detective, so
piece it together yourself.”

“Alright
fine,” she glared at him, “How do you know so much about Cladis and this
investigation?”

Twelve
walked silently past Mia and into her kitchen. He looked over her notes and the
fifteen brief biographies of fifteen people she had previously suspected of
being the next target. Twelve frowned and said she was looking at the
investigation the wrong way. “I’ve already told you about the blood pattern, so
why aren’t you focusing on that?”

“Are
you nuts?” Mia took a sheet of paper off of the wall next to Red Iron’s bio and
handed it to her ragged partner. “I ran the averages for the city and there are
somewhere around sixteen-thousand two-hundred people who have AB negative
blood.”