West Pacific Supers: Rising Tide (20 page)

“Alright!” the man
gasped, wrenching his arm around and rubbing the dark red line on his neck
where she had nearly choked him. “I
gotta
clear outta
here anyway. This whole thing’s going south and the cops are crawling all over
the place now.”

“That’s better,”
Midnight said with a satisfied smile that sent a chill up Loren’s spine. “So,
who are these people you work for?”

“Hard to say,” the
man answered, still looking at her warily. “Best as I can tell, they’re
foreigners.”

“Foreigners? You
mean Chinese?” Loren asked. Midnight frowned at him and he cringed inwardly –
he should know better than to ask leading questions.

“No, not Chinese,”
said the man. “Hey, you mind if I light up?”

Midnight glared at
him for a moment and the man took an apprehensive step back. “Very well,” she
finally said, though she sounded disapproving. “You should keep in mind however
that smoking is as likely to result in your premature death as is consorting
with criminals.”

The man shrugged and
fished a cigarette out of a pack in his shirt pocket. “Look, honey, you
gotta
have some pleasures in life or there
ain’t
no point in living it.”

“
Isn’t
any point,”
Midnight corrected. “When you say foreigners, can you be more specific?”

The man lit his
cigarette. “Yeah, well they got accents, you know? English, some of them, and
Irish for others, and who knows what the rest. I wouldn’t put it past them for
being some European supervillain team.” He paused to take a long drag.

“What exactly is the
operation?” Midnight asked impatiently.

The man shrugged.
“It’s all high-tech stuff – I don’t know what they’re planning, but it’s big.
They got muscle, too – mutants and everything. The main one, Erica, she’s one
mean bitch. Old as hell and gun-happy. Never seen anything like her.”

“Is she in charge,
then?” Loren asked.

The man shook his
head. “The guy in charge they say is Dr. Wraith, and I guess he got reputation
and all, but he
ain’t
much to look at and he don’t
really seem to call the shots.”

“Who does?” Midnight
asked.

“That would be Dr.
B. They say he’s Dr. Wraith’s assistant, but if you ask me, which I guess you
are, I’d say he’s the real brains of the operation.”

“Dr. B?” Midnight
frowned. “Do you know what that stands for? Have you ever heard his first
name?”

“Nah, they all just
call him Dr. B,” the man said placidly. “He’s a science-type, probably some
European genius or something.”

“Where are you based
out of?” Midnight asked.

“Well after the
factory, they pulled everyone who was anyone over to
Avalon One
– that’s the
main operation. I
ain’t
never been there yet. Guess
now I won’t be going either.’
“Do you know where
Avalon
One
is?” Loren asked. The name was strange; it sounded more like a
boat than a building.

“Nah, like I said, I
ain’t
never been there. They mostly take ‘
em
out by boat or helicopter though, so I’m guessing it’s
out that way.” He gestured vaguely in the direction of the ocean.

Midnight nodded.
“How did they recruit you?”

“The word on the
street went out a while back – they pay pretty good. But it’s looking like a
turf war shaping up now between them and the Circle and like I said, the cops
and supers are all over everything ever since the Boardwalk. Good time to be
getting out of town.”

“Did your people
have anything to do with that?” Loren asked.

“Hell no! Well,
leastways not that I heard,” the man said. “They all seemed just as surprised
as everyone else, nervous too, since it’s got the cops and supers all riled up.
I tell you, first the factory getting blown and then the Boardwalk - Erica
lately’s
been ape; she just about guns down anything that
moves… ” He looked around nervously. “Speaking of, how ‘bout you let me go now?
I told you everything I know and I
gotta
get moving.”

Midnight nodded and
the man quickly finished his cigarette, stamping it out on a nearby picnic
table. “Pleasure doing business with you,” he said with a nod to both of them,
before he took off down the street.

“Interesting,”
said Midnight after a moment.

“I’d say!” said Loren.
“So it sounds like there’s a new group in town.”

“Up to something
big,” she said. “I need to get this information to White Knight. Very well,
thank you again
Truthfinder
. Your car is two blocks
south.”

Loren’s shoulders
sagged a little; he had just been dismissed. “Right, well, let me know if
anything else comes up – and I’ll get that listing information to you tonight!”

“Excellent,” she
said, but her mind was clearly elsewhere as she carefully picked up the
cigarette butt the man had left behind and walked towards the nearby trash can,
which was overflowing. “This city is going to hell,” he heard her mutter to
herself as he started off to find his car.

10:14 p.m.,
Thursday, April 11th, 2013

Orlando
Boulevard

West
Pacific, CA

This
is going to be a disaster
, thought Blue Star as he stood in one of the WPS mobile
command centers, listening to Dr. Sterling outline the plan for a third time.
The five of them, Blue Star, Seawolf, Camille, Cosmic Kid, and White Knight,
had been expecting a fire rescue training exercise, not a real mission. Dr.
Sterling revealed the truth only after they’d boarded
Basilica
, which was an
impressive vehicle the size of a large bus and fully equipped with
communication and computer hardware and all manner of supplies.

It was all simple
enough. The team had an impressive intelligence network across the city that
utilized a number of sources, some of which were probably illegal, like
wiretaps and vigilantes. Cosmic Kid had gotten hung up on this point, but Dr.
Sterling preferred to focus on the fact that the network had produced a
valuable lead. Mr. Darwin and several leaders of the Infinite Circle’s
operations in West Pacific were having a late-night conference at the Grand
Colonial Hotel. Dr. Sterling had decided that the possibility of a mole on the
team meant she had to plan the whole mission in secret and keep the plan to
herself until right before she was ready for the team to deploy. Even the staff
driving
Basilica
and operating its systems thought they were on a training mission. There were
even firefighters setting up the practice site. It was a very complete
deception, which meant to Blue Star that Dr. Sterling was very concerned about
a mole on the team.

The plan was to
storm into the Grand Colonial Hotel and apprehend as many of the Infinite
Circle operatives as possible. The WPPD would be mobilized as the team
deployed, which meant there would be a longer delay in their response than
ideal, but it would further ensure the secrecy of the mission until the last second.
The small fish apprehended would be turned over to the WPPD and the big fish
would be taken to HQ as the team could hold and question any individual for 24
hours if they were thought to be connected to an impending super crime. It
sounded great as Dr. Sterling went over it all, but Blue Star quickly realized
that she really had no idea who or what was at the meeting. That meant they
could be in for a cake walk or a blood bath depending upon how armed or mutated
those handling security were. More importantly, Blue Star was worried about how
his new team would function together in the field after only a week together.

“Shouldn’t we have a
warrant?” protested Cosmic Kid, who seemed as bothered by the spontaneity of
the plan as Blue Star was.

“We have reasonable
suspicion,” said Dr. Sterling.

“Reasonable
suspicion
of a pending
super crime
is the team’s authority,” said Cosmic Kid. “I know
these are bad guys, but it doesn’t sound like they’re planning on blowing up
the city. If it isn’t a super crime situation, you need a warrant.”

“We believe there is
a connection between the PGZ and the Infinite Circle,” said Dr. Sterling.
“However, tomorrow morning I’ll ask
Matteo
to prepare
a brief to review the mission and whether it was in compliance with the SUPER
Act.”

Seawolf laughed
gruffly. “Cosmic Kid does have a point,” she said. “If this isn’t a legal
search and seizure, then none of the evidence we get will be admissible in a
court of law, no matter what
Matteo’s
brief says.”

Cosmic Kid nodded. “Plus,
you said earlier this week that you thought the PGZ and the Boardwalk attack
weren’t related.”

“I have reasonable
suspicion that I may have been mistaken,” said Dr. Sterling.

“The mission has
been decided,” said White Knight with a slight edge to his digital voice. “This
isn’t about securing permissible evidence but determining who was responsible
for the attack on the team.”

“Exactly,” said
Camille. “Come on, Cosmic, Seawolf - we’re here to shakedown these guys! Once
we’ve got some answers we can properly secure evidence and lock them all up for
good, but we have to respond to the Boardwalk attack.”

“Ah, yes,” smirked
Seawolf. “The shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later strategy. Typical. I thought
we were trying for justice, not revenge.”

“Sometimes justice
is a proportional response - an eye for an eye,” said White Knight. “They
killed two supers from our team; we have to respond and respond we will.”

“Actually, the eye
for an eye thing in the Bible was a call for mercy,” commented Cosmic Kid. “You
know - if someone killed your goat, you didn’t go and kill their wife; the
punishment had to fit the crime. It was fairly progressive at the time. I mean,
in the Hammurabi Code the sentence was death if you like accidentally flooded
your neighbor’s fields.”

There was a pause in
the conversation. Dr. Sterling gave a meaningful look at Blue Star and he knew
what it meant – he had to rein in his team. Normally, he would let supers argue
points out on the assumption that they would eventually drop the bickering, but
this group was still getting used to each other. Allowing the argument to
continue only undermined team unity and wasted valuable time. He needed to
establish himself as a team leader in control of the situation.

“Cosmic Kid, you can
sit out the mission if you want,” said Blue Star. They really didn’t need all
five of them to storm the place, it was a little overkill, and this gave Cosmic
Kid an out for his conscience, if he really was arguing based on his conscience
and not just a desire to showboat his knowledge of proper procedures. Everyone
turned towards Cosmic Kid, who looked taken aback.

“What? No… I’m in,”
he said, clearly flustered but trying to maintain the position of moral
authority. “But we have to minimize collateral damage and the goal has to be
taking everyone alive. Like Seawolf said, we aren’t here for vengeance.”

“Obviously,” said
Dr. Sterling. “Dead men tell boring tales and smell badly.”

“Though we will
respond with deadly force if they do the same,” said White Knight.

“Commensurate to the
situation,” corrected Blue Star. “We have enough firepower between the five of
us to wipe out a company of marines so let’s keep this a light touch exercise
unless something truly dangerous pops up.”

Dr. Sterling
returned to the mission briefing, which included a detailed review of the map
of the hotel and another overview of the key members of the Infinite Circle in
West Pacific. Blue Star knew all about the Infinite Circle. It was THE criminal
organization of the Pacific Rim and had its hand in everything from the drug
trade to identity theft. The media and most law enforcement saw it as some
monolithic organization controlled by mysterious supervillains based out of
Southeast Asia. The truth was that the Infinite Circle was the Cosmic Burger of
the criminal world. It was a franchise system. You made payments to the
Infinite Circle and in return you got to use the name and its distribution
network for drugs, guns, and other illegal goods, and even got access to
webinars and DVDs that explained how to run scams, launder money, and set up
illegal criminal networks. The head of the local Infinite Circle franchise for
the last couple of years was a mysterious Mr. Darwin, who, judging by the name,
was probably someone connected to the city’s booming biotech industry. Mr.
Darwin was the local conduit to the resources of the Infinite Circle and he
used those resources to bring the various West Pacific criminal elements under
his authority, though controlling local criminals was like herding cats. Still
after his private briefing from Dr. Sterling a few days ago, Blue Star was more
than a little concerned.

Last Season, Mr.
Darwin had played the team and the WPPD, using them to wipe out his opposition.
He clearly knew how they gathered intelligence and conducted their operations.
That probably meant someone with law enforcement experience, maybe a former
super. Further, no one had ever met Mr. Darwin; he interacted through
teleconferences, phone calls, or emails – but all of them untraceable or more
accurately, not traceable back to him. This led Blue Star again to suspect a
former super or maybe someone bored with lots of money; the occasional
celebrity or businessman often dabbled in crime – everyone wanted to be a
supervillain nowadays. So Mr. Darwin was someone intelligent, who had
experience with law enforcement and probably money or connections. Blue Star
suspected he might be connected to the team or the WPPD or maybe both – someone
like Major Dagan or maybe a former team member like Circe. Of course, it was just
as likely that he was one of the countless supervillains who the team had sent
to prison over the years. Whoever it was had a real grudge against the team and
that was dangerous. If they were lucky, tonight they just might find out who
Mr. Darwin was.

“So Blue Star, who
will be partners?” asked Dr. Sterling as she wrapped up her briefing.

“Oh – okay, well,
Cosmic Kid and Camille will be one pair, Seawolf and White Knight the other,
and I’ll support them as needed,” said Blue Star. He had expected Dr. Sterling
to make this decision; he was still trying to figure out what was the precise
chain of command within the team. He had picked up enough of the dynamic to
know that Camille and Seawolf shouldn’t be put together. Obviously, that was
untenable in the long term, but this was not the time to tackle that particular
issue.

“Very well,” said
Dr. Sterling, who began to point at locations on the holographic map being
projected before them. “Seawolf and White Knight will advance on the loading
entrance off the service alley behind the hotel. Enter the building here and
take this stairwell up to the third floor. You will advance on the conference
room down this hall and when you turn this corner, you will move to engage all
hostiles.”

“We have a lot of
territory to cover,” said Seawolf. “White Knight has plenty of firepower, but
we can’t engage and also close off all of the escape routes; if they bolt we’re
going to lose most of them.”

“We just need to
secure the priority targets,” said White Knight. “In fact, it’s not a bad idea
to let some of the small ones get away. We might be able to track them back to
something or someone important.”

“The WPPD will be
moving in to support us and they can help round up anyone who escapes our net,”
said Dr. Sterling.

“What about Cosmic
Kid and me?” asked Camille.

“You two and Blue
Star will enter through the main lobby after Seawolf and White Knight are in
position to strike,” said Dr. Sterling, continuing to point at various
positions on the holographic map. “Cosmic Kid will lock down the elevators here
and here. He will also inform the hotel of the situation and get their
cooperation. Camille will move to the main stairwell, go up to the third floor,
and advance down this corridor. Blue Star will move into this interior stairwell
and advance to the third floor here, at which point he can move to support
either Camille or Seawolf and White Knight.”

“Whoa! I have to
lock down the elevators and talk to the staff? That’s…well, that’s a waste of
my abilities,” protested Cosmic Kid. “Just because I said we should have a
warrant doesn’t mean I’m not ready to commit!” He threw an angry look at Blue
Star; clearly the Kid blamed him for branding him as a conscientious objector.

“Every part of the
mission is important,” said Blue Star in his best placating tone.

“Great, want to
trade?” asked Cosmic Kid. “I’ll handle support and you deal with the elevators
and hotel staff.”

“Maybe next time,
Kid,” said Blue Star with a warning look.

“They probably have
someone on sentry duty in the lobby,” added Camille.

“Yes, if they can be
ID’d
and secured that would give us a few more
seconds before they know we are coming,” said Dr. Sterling.

“Hey… why don’t I
just fly up and blast my way through the windows into the conference room?” Camille
pointed at the map showing the outside wall of the third floor.

“We’re trying to
minimize collateral damage on this mission,” said Dr. Sterling.

“Right, a walking
tank and four high-powered supers charging in is how you minimize collateral
damage?” asked Seawolf with a laugh.

“Yes, it is – so
does everyone understand their part in the mission?” asked Dr. Sterling. There
were nods, some reluctant, Cosmic Kid grumbled something under his breath, and
then they divided up into their groups and waited for
Basilica
to reach the
staging point, a parking lot a few blocks from the hotel. As the vehicle pulled
to a stop, Blue Star exited with Camille and Cosmic Kid, and waited outside
while Seawolf and White Knight started jogging down an alley to begin their approach
on the hotel. Dr. Sterling remained inside
Basilica
to coordinate.

“Why isn’t Keystone
with us?” asked Cosmic Kid as he paced back and forth barely containing his
nervous energy.

“You always keep one
super on the sidelines during a mission,” said Camille. “You know…in case we
all get killed or something. Plus he’s probably still playing renegotiating
games.”