Young Sentinels (Wearing the Cape) (Volume 3) (36 page)

“Do not let go, monster,” Nox whispered in my ear.

I almost lost my grip on the floater, which would have been as embarrassing as hell. I couldn’t
see
him.

“What are you
doing
?” Now that I knew to pay attention, I could feel the psychotic little doll’s grip on my tie under my prep-school collar.

“Her Highness used her Magic Belt to render me invisible for a time,” he hissed. “I must accompany you, for she has given me a magic compass and a mission.”

“A mission? What does she want
there
?”

“It is for
you
, monster. The Question Box has spoken again — ‘Today a monster will meet its maker.’ The compass will tell me who he is. The princess fulfills her oath to you today.”

Astra

The quick pass-along conversation with Shelly and Blackstone helped, and I managed to keep the bubbling panic out of my voice. Reminding everyone we were on alert, I directed them to check their epads for schedules (I knew Willis had been tasked to walk the newbies through in-Dome security procedures today, and they could do it in costume) and got out of the launch bay with no more sarcasm from Reese.

Back in my rooms I scrambled out of my fancy brace and into my uniform — the easier skirted formal costume, not my field costume — then back into the brace. Even being careful, I caught a few eye-watering ouches; Chakra’s pain-suppression magic wasn’t saving me from the consequences of straining my healing arm. Not that I was going anywhere, but Blackstone’s departure left me “in charge.” Five minutes after fly-out I walked into Dispatch.

David had a full line of Sentinel bobble-heads up, and he’d left his drawer open. Did he expect
more
action? And what was Blackstone
thinking
? “Astra. Congratulations.” David pointed to the top corner of the main screen. A little box with my symbol in it showed I was the Sentinel On Watch. Blackstone had left a sidelined nineteen year-old college sophomore in command of Chicago’s superhero assets — which was
insane
— and the little glowing box looked cheerfully innocent of intimations of doom.

The cloud view on the main screen had to be from Watchman’s cam, and it displayed their airspeed: nearly seven hundred miles per hour. He could have flown a lot faster alone, but with over two hundred miles to fly, he’d still get them there in a little under twenty minutes.

Twenty minutes for anything to happen.

“What do you think?” I whispered. Everyone else stayed focused on their stations, but that didn’t mean they weren’t listening.

David shrugged. “I think this is worse than the Daley Center. If all of the dark blocks are breached, they’re not going be able to hold the prison.”

“What can’t we see?”

He threw a basic map of the prison up on the screens. Maybe a third of the blocks were black.

“Alpha through Delta blocks are dark. That includes the juvenile detention wing, but mainly the hardest cells and the isolation cells — the cells for superhumans too dangerous for direct human contact. But more than fifty percent of superhumans are D Class, and the spread for supervillains is about the same, so it’s a question of cells, not blocks. There are a handful of prisoners, if they get out of their cells, the prison isn’t holding them. The rest... We’ll see.”

I nodded unhappily. Time was against us, and what David wasn’t saying was that it all depended on the capabilities and goals of whoever was making the jailbreak happen. I tried to think like Blackstone. If they’d gone in with a shopping list, then we might be all right. If they’d gone in to crack Detroit Supermax wide open...

If it
was
the Wreckers, what did they want? Dozer, obviously, but who else and why?
NOJ — not our job
. It had been one of Atlas’ favorite expressions when anyone had brought up politics or police business. Blackstone reserved it for questions outside the current mission, and it was currently outside of mine.
My
job was what could happen in Chicago now, and I was two days out of the loop.

“Shelly?”

“
Hope? Kinda busy here
.” Down in the pit helping Vulcan with his force-to-heat tests, whatever those were, she’d barely poked her virtual head up long enough for me to run my Wreckers theory by her and get it to Blackstone before I cringed my way through dressing. She could multitask like the most advanced computers around, but could only do her
serious
thinking on one thing at a time (plus, I knew from long experience she was still just a bit mad at me for making plans for her behind her back).

“I know.” I ignored David’s raised eyebrow. “Can you give me a summation of everything current on the Green Man and Blackstone’s notes? I
really
need to catch up.”

“
Oh, right
.” The chill thawed a bit. “
Would you like the DSA file, too? You’re cleared.
”

“Yes, please. David? I’ll be in the guest office upstairs?”

He threw me a mock-salute. “No worries. Everything going on out there is Guardians work right now, anyway, and you can stand your watch from anywhere in the Dome. It’s gotten better since yesterday, fewer incidents since everyone easily panicked has gotten out of town or hunkered down.”

I sucked in a breath; I’d completely forgotten about the ongoing state of badness in the city outside, even though it was
right there on the screen
in the orange borders. Was it
that
easy to lose track of the small stuff in the face of looming danger? Still.

Don’t panic, Hope. So the field team is on a field trip — what is the
worst
thing that could happen while they are gone?

That
question really answered itself; my goal changed from not panicking to keeping it out of my voice again. I was getting good at that.

“Does everybody know
we’re
mostly out of town?”

“A bunch of cape-watchers and newsies saw everyone fly out, but we’re not required to notify anyone official... Crap.”

I nodded. “Do me a favor? Could you get Superintendent Sean Redmond on the phone? Stay on the line, I’ll talk to him upstairs.”

“Got it, boss.”

I ran, wincing, up the stairs to the office level. Just the one flight of steps winded me. Closing the door on the guest office, the one Chakra used when she needed to go into meditate-mode and didn’t have time to retreat to her rooms, I caught my breath, made sure my mask and hair were straight, and sat behind the desk.

The desk’s flatscreen computer monitor lit up with the team icon. “
Astra, I’ve got the superintendent’s office on video conference, and they’re getting their boss
.”

“Okay. Thanks.” I sat straight, breathed deep, smiled for the video feed, and Superintendent Redmond’s stern jowly features filled the screen.

“Superintendent,” I opened. “Good morning, and I apologize for calling you away from your — your morning.”
Darn it, that could have been smoother. Breathe, Hope, breathe
.

His lips did something under his mustache that might have been a smile. Or not. “
I’m sure this isn’t for anything trivial, Astra. What can I do for you?
”

“I thought you should know, sir, that an emergency has called away all of the field team and support team, with the exception of myself, Galatea, and Vulcan, and I’m still on the injured list. Given the current state of alert...”

What might have been a polite smile turned into a definite frown. The lines of his face deepened, but he looked away and gave himself a couple of breaths before looking back at me.

“That’s unfortunate. May I ask why?”

“I — ” I didn’t know how much of it was classified. How much would the Proper Authorities want kept out of the news? His frown deepened, and I decided. “They are responding to a possible jailbreak at Detroit Supermax. Please don’t — ”

“Damn. Sorry. And of course I will keep that to myself. What CAI resources do you have?”

“I’m going to ask our Head of Dispatch to give you a rundown of all available capes, sir. I know that Dispatch makes the response decisions anyway, but with the alert — ”

“You thought it was a good idea for me to know my people wouldn’t be able to count on the big guns for a while.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good call. And thank you. So, you are the officer of the day?”

“I — yes. Sir? There is one more thing.”

“Go on.”

“The Green Man investigation is ongoing, and mostly under DSA jurisdiction. However, Blackstone — Blackstone had reason to believe that the Green Man might be connected to the person backing the Wreckers, and the Wreckers may be involved in the jailbreak, may have planned all this before we caught up with Dozer.”

The superintendent’s expression didn’t change. “Do you believe that the Green Man may be primed to use this opportunity?”

I nodded. “I do. We stopped him at O’Hare, and with our heavies gone...”

“The perfect window, yes. Thank you, Astra. I hope you’re wrong, but best prepared and all that.” He breathed deep, sighed. “If we’re being alarmists, the drill will be good. Good luck to you, young lady, and I had best be about it.”

He cut the connection with a brisk nod and I melted in my seat.
That went well, didn’t it
?

“David?”

“
I heard. I’ll get right on our end
.” And he was gone, too. I let out my breath.

Pulling up the file Shelly had sent me, I tried to forget everything outside. How was Grendel doing? He’d seen action the day of his breakthrough, had strength and fight-training at Hillwood, but —
Stop that. Ozma said it, almost nothing in Detroit Supermax has a chance to kill him. So focus.
Focus seemed to be my mantra.

Focusing on what
might
happen here would help me forget the team was flying blind into what could be the biggest superhuman jailbreak in
history
. Really. What could go wrong?