The Gathering: Quantum Prophecy 2 (20 page)

“I’m telling you for the last time! That was
not
Paragon! That was Dioxin! He stole the Paragon armor!”

A pause, then the president said, “Mr. Dalton, do not speak to me in that manner. I can cut your funding at a stroke. I can have your organization investigated, dismantled and everyone involved prosecuted. Is that what you want?”

Through gritted teeth, Josh said, “No.”

“Then you will find this man—I don’t care whether he’s Paragon, Dioxin or Clint Eastwood—and you will bring him to justice. Alive. Do you understand me?”

“We don’t have the resources to track him and your people are stalling me at every turn. We need full access to all of your telemetry and satellite data, and we need…” Josh hesitated for a moment. “We’re going to need you to stand down the air force, cancel all commercial and industrial flights. If Dioxin is the only thing in the air it’ll be a lot easier to spot him.”

“If I call off the air force then he’ll have free rein to do whatever he wants.”

“Mr. President, he pretty much has that anyway,” Josh said.

“We would have to declare a national state of emergency.”

“I’m surprised you haven’t done that already.”

“Do not try to tell me my job, Mr. Dalton!” The man sighed. “Arguing isn’t getting us anywhere. Can you promise me that you
will
find this psychopath if I agree to your requests?”

“No, I can’t promise that. But it would make the job a lot easier.”

“Then consider it done. You have six hours, Dalton. Any later than that and you’re under investigation, regardless of the outcome.”

“I understand. We’ll do our best, Mr. President.”

“Yes. You will. Or I’ll see to it that everything about your organization becomes public knowledge. Then you will have to answer not only to me, but to the people of the United States of America.” The call was disconnected.

Josh looked around the room. “That went better than I expected. All right, people…this is where we start to fight back. With every unnecessary aircraft grounded, the satellite images should have a much easier time picking out Dioxin’s location.”

“He’ll need to refuel every couple of hours,” Solomon Cord said. “That tells me he’s got a chopper on standby.”

“Good. That increases our chances of finding him. In the meantime, we have to pick up Renata. Reginald Kinsella’s people are taking her to an airfield just outside Cedar Rapids, Iowa. We’ll meet her there. Once she’s back here, we can take the StratoTruck out with Mina on board and try to find Dioxin. The president has given the order to stop him whatever the cost. Do you all understand that? The president has told me he wants Dioxin dead.”

Colin jumped at that. “What? No he didn’t! He definitely said that he wants him alive!”

“You were
listening
? Colin, that’s a federal offense.”

“What are you doing, Josh? You can’t order us to
kill
someone!”

Josh frowned. “What…? Something’s…Did I say dead? I
meant alive. Dead is no good to us: we need to know who Dioxin is working with.” He dropped into a chair and rubbed the back of his head. “I haven’t slept in almost forty-eight hours.”

Warren said, “Then
get
some sleep. We’re going to need you in top condition for this.”

“Right. I will, once we’re ready.” He took a deep breath, then said, “Warren, take the StratoTruck and pick up Renata. The rest of you, get something to eat and prepare yourselves for battle.”

Danny said, “Josh, we need the StratoTruck here: if we find Dioxin we’ll need to be able to get to him as quickly as possible. Send a copter for Renata instead.”

Josh considered that. “Good point. Façade can do it; he can fly a helicopter. As soon as we find Dioxin, Warren will take Mina, Colin and Yvonne in the StratoTruck. Butler? You’re staying here—we’ll need your force field if they launch an attack on us.”

Then Yvonne said, “No. I’m not going.”

“Yvonne…”

Her voice cold and flat, Yvonne said,
“Do not ask me again.”

“I understand. You all know what you have to do. So do it.”

As they left the room, Danny said to Colin, “Once again I’m left on the substitute bench.”

Façade said, “You can come with me for Renata, Danny. We’ve never really had a chance to talk. And it could be a while before we get another chance.”

Then Colin heard his father whispering, “Colin? Get to the machine room, right now. Keep it quiet.” He glanced over to Warren and Solomon, who were standing next to Mina.

Colin slipped away from the others and down to the machine room.

Razor looked up when Colin approached. “How did it go?”

“Not well. We’ve got the president’s backing—for now—but we’re still no closer to finding Dioxin.”

The doors opened on the platform above them and Solomon came rushing down three steps at a time. Without a word, he picked up a handheld device from Razor’s workbench and flipped a switch on it. “If anyone has this room bugged, they won’t be able to hear us. Colin…the only people I completely trust in this place are you, your parents and Razor. Someone has been feeding information to the enemy and I have a bad feeling that Josh is somehow involved. Warren is going to take you and Mina to look for Dioxin.”

“I know,” Colin said.

“I mean, right
now
. Josh is stalling. We should have been out there hours ago.”

“Yeah, but—”

Solomon interrupted him. “We know that Dioxin has to be somewhere in Nevada or one of the neighboring states. The StratoTruck is the fastest way to get there. You’re going to scout around until either the satellite data gives us an exact position or Mina can sense him. It’s a risk; the StratoTruck still has no armor or weapons. It was supposed to have been upgraded, but for some reason Josh kept putting it off.”

“How could he be the traitor?”

“We don’t know. He might
not
be, but he’s definitely getting in the way more than he’s helping. We have to go it alone. Now get going. Your dad and Mina are waiting on the roof.”

Razor slapped Colin on the shoulder. “Good luck.”

“Thanks.”

“You’re going to need it,” Razor added, with a smile.

As Colin reached the door, Solomon said, “Colin?”

“Yeah?”

“Come back alive. If you don’t, Stephanie will really give me a hard time over it.”

A
S THE COPTER ROARED THROUGH THE
sky toward the city of Cedar Rapids, Danny sat in the copilot’s seat and watched the landscape stream by below.

“I don’t know anything about you,” Danny said to Façade. “Nothing real. Every time I’ve tried to talk to you, either you didn’t want to be bothered, or Mum or Niall were there, or I just couldn’t think of what to say.”

“Danny, I can only apologize so many times for what I did. But I genuinely thought—”

“That you were doing the right thing. I know. And I also know that if you hadn’t agreed to take Quantum’s place, Max Dalton would have had me killed. Façade, I’m not blaming you for anything. Not anymore. It’s just…Like I said, I don’t know anything about you. I never knew you could fly a helicopter. I don’t even know your real name.”

“My name is Hector Thomas Millar. I was in the U.S. Air Force for twenty-three years,” Façade said. “I don’t think there’s an aircraft that I
can’t
fly.”

“But…you took over from Quantum eleven years ago. So that means that you joined the air force more than thirty-four years ago! And you have to be eighteen to join, right? That would make you at
least
fifty-two years old.”

Façade nodded. “At least.”

“But…You don’t look any older than Colin’s dad.”

Façade smiled. “Quantum was a lot younger than me when
I changed my appearance to match his. Since then I’ve aged at the usual rate.”

“How old are you really?”

“I’m sixty-one.”

“Sixty-one! But you have a nine-year-old son!”

“So? Men can father children at any age. Charlie Chaplin was in his seventies when his youngest son was born.”

“Razor said that Mina told him Niall has a superhuman aura. He might inherit your shape-changing ability.”

“For his sake, I hope he doesn’t. The only good things that ever came out of my powers were meeting you and your mother, and having Niall.”

Cautiously, Danny said, “I’ve been thinking about that sort of thing a lot…Do you have any other children?”

“No. Niall’s the only one.”

“Were you married before?”

“I was, back about twenty-five years ago.”

“What happened?”

“She died.”

“Oh.”

Danny was about to ask how it happened when Façade said, “I don’t want to talk about it. Someday, but not now.”

“OK. Sorry.”

“Danny, this is a serious situation, you do understand that, don’t you? This isn’t like what happened in California. Max Dalton wasn’t evil, he was just wrong. But Dioxin is a murderer, plain and simple. If we don’t stop him he will just go on killing.”

“I know that.”

“There’s a chance that not all of us will survive.” Façade
glanced at Danny. “I’m telling you this: if your powers really are gone, I want you to stay out of the line of fire. Do not try to be a hero.”

“I’ll give my friends whatever help I can,” Danny said.

“No. You have to think of your mother and Niall. They need you more than Colin and Renata do.”

“Mum and Niall are safe. The others aren’t.”

“If Sakkara falls,
no one
is safe!” Façade said angrily. “Danny, you have the potential to be the most powerful superhuman this world has ever seen. Even more powerful than your father. Quantum was practically unbeatable, but, well…he was also unstable. He had visions.”

“I know that.”

After a moment’s pause, Façade said, “I heard about your reaction when Razor showed you the artificial arm. You freaked out.”

“I didn’t exactly freak out. I was just surprised, that’s all.”

“Danny, I know you better than you think I do. Your reaction was more than just surprise.” Façade stared at him. “You’ve seen something, haven’t you? You inherited more than just Quantum’s speed. You inherited his visions.”

Danny’s mouth dried up. “I…”

“What have you seen?”

“Nothing.”

“Don’t lie to me, Danny! I spent years disguising myself as other people and that was more than just changing my face to match theirs. I learned everything there was to know about body language. I know when someone is lying. What did you see?”

“I’ve never told anyone. Not even Colin…It happened only once. I saw myself. Older than I am now, but not much. I was leading people—I couldn’t really see who they were—and we were being chased by an army. I think it was the war my father predicted. My right arm was gone, replaced with something mechanical.”

“So you’re thinking that if you never take an artificial arm, you’ll be able to avoid that future?”

“Yeah.”

“That doesn’t mean that the war itself won’t happen.”

“I know that,” Danny said quietly. “But…Sometimes I can’t help thinking that maybe Max Dalton was right.”

“When Quantum spoke about his vision of the war, he never said anything about you having an artificial arm. I’m sure that if he had seen that, he would have mentioned it. It could be that back in California you
did
change the future he predicted.”

“Then what future was
I
seeing?”

“I wish I knew the answer to that.”

The StratoTruck raced at full speed over the Rocky Mountains. As Warren Wagner piloted it, Colin and Mina sat in the back.

Colin pulled on the gloves of his uniform and flexed his hands. “This is not the most comfortable thing I’ve ever worn,” he said. He turned to Mina. “How are you doing?”

“OK.”

Colin picked up his helmet and put it on. “Nervous?”

“A little. I’ve never been on a mission before.”

Warren said, “Don’t worry, Mina. All you’ll have to do is find
Dioxin, and Colin will take over from there.” He glanced over his shoulder. “You feel up to the challenge, Colin?”

“Do we have a choice?”

“Not really. You’re absolutely certain that you can’t fly?”

“It’s never worked so far. But you and Mum could, so I
should
be able to.”

“Yeah, but our flight worked in different ways. Mine was more like some sort of antigravity thing. I just had to concentrate on it and it happened. But your mother was able to fly by manipulating energy. I’m not really sure how that worked.”

“Well, either way it
doesn’t
work for me. And I don’t think I’m as invulnerable as you are, Dad. I nearly sprained my ankle yesterday in the gym.”

“You’re still the best weapon we’ve got, Colin. Maybe we should have taken Butler with us. He’d have been able to trap Dioxin in his force field.”

Colin said, “He would have been trapped in there with him though. He has to be on the inside of it.”

“I still don’t know why we didn’t bring Yvonne,” Warren said. “She’s strong too, right? Not as strong as either of you, but she’s also smart. It would have made tracking Dioxin a lot easier.”

“We didn’t bring her because Josh said no,” Colin said.

Mina made a tutting noise.

“What’s that mean?” Colin asked her.

“She has him wrapped around her little finger. Josh
always
does what she says.”

Warren said, “Regardless of how we might feel about Josh, he’s not stupid. He knows how to get the most out of people. Comes from years of being in his brother’s shadow, I guess. He—”

Mina interrupted him. “He’s there!” She pointed off to the left. “For a second I was sure…Go that way, Mr. Wagner! I might be able to pick him up again!”

As Dioxin marched through the small town, people scattered in panic. “Ah, now this takes me back!” he said into his communicator.

“You’ve got company,” Victor Cross’s voice said. “The new heroes are coming in from the south.”

Dioxin immediately fired up his jetpack to full power, heading north. “I’m on the move…What’s going on?”

“They have a way to locate you,” Cross said.

“How? We scanned the armor for tracking devices. Didn’t find anything.”