Don't Be a Hero: A Superhero Novel (28 page)

He touched his fingers to his temple and continued. “Kitty had the baby alone, just her and her doctor. All she gave the child was a name before she passed him onto an old schoolfriend. Looking back, I think she knew that would be the last time she saw him.

“After Robert…after Kitty died, I tracked Sam down. Whatever had driven Robert to do those things was still driving him. I think he could sense the baby, even if he didn’t know what it was. If we failed to capture him, he’d find Sam. Future Girl had been leading the research on a cryogenics rig, and I went to her. Sam screamed his little lungs out when we put him in the machine. Ten minutes later, he was silent. Flash frozen. I didn’t unfreeze him until a couple of years after Robert’s death, when I could ensure his safety. I was worried bringing Sam out while Robert was still alive would give his broken mind the incentive he needed to mount an escape. I couldn’t risk it.”

“And since then, you’ve been on the move,” she finished for him. “Sheltering him.”

He nodded.

“You must know something about what Quanta’s up to,” the Carpenter said. “You saw him on TV. The bugger wasn’t wearing much of a mask. You must recognise him. An old enemy. Someone you lot fought back in the good old days.”

“No,” he said. His voice almost cracked. “I’ve spent the entire night searching my memory. There’s nothing. I’ve never seen that man before in my life.”

“There has to be something,” she pressed. “Anything.”

“I’ve told you everything. Everything. Only a handful of people in the world know what I’ve told you. The rest of the Manhattan Eight are dead, or lost forever, like Future Girl. Hayne and I were the last.” Pleading crept into his voice, and he took a step towards her. “Help me find Sam. My offer stands. Fifty thousand dollars. More, if you want. Please.”

Niobe met Solomon’s eyes. She could tell he was thinking the same as her. This had got more dangerous than they’d ever imagined. Quanta had tracked down Omegaman and the son of Dr Atomic. Sam was in his hands, helpless. And now Quanta knew they were after him. How long before he struck back and hit them where they lived? How long before he came for Gabby?

Gabby’s bloodied face flashed before her eyes, and her gut twisted. No. Niobe wouldn’t let him. She’d save Sam, return him to his uncle, and then get Gabby off this goddamn planet forever. She had to protect them. She had to protect everyone.

Or they were all dead.

The two of them were quiet on the drive back to the Old City. The day was growing warm as the morning wore on, but all Niobe wanted to do was sleep. Exhaustion seeped through her bones. Despite their best repair-work, the engine kept up a constant rattle. As long as she didn’t push it, she thought it would keep going all right.

The radio spouted a pair of matching statements from the Prime Minister and the Secretary-General of the AAU, claiming they would not bow to any of Quanta’s demands. After that, the early morning news reported the events at the TV station in such repetitive detail that she was nearly ready to put her boot through the damn radio. Instead, she settled for changing the station to one that dutifully played a Beatles tune every third song. Solomon stared out the side window. No jokes from him. No nothing. Probably as lost in his thoughts as she was.

They needed to regroup. Find somewhere to sit down and run through everything they knew. She still had the files from Met Div. They’d go through every page with a comb so fine a gnat couldn’t escape. There had to be something there that would lead them to Quanta. No one operated without leaving a trail.

A hiss crackled through the radio, drowning out John Lennon.

“Good morning, heroes.” The voice that came through the radio was distorted, but she recognized it instantly. She jerked upright in her seat and glanced away from the road to stare at the radio.
No, it can’t be.

“I had Screecher help me connect to your radio,” the voice said. It had a strange echo to it, not like any sort of radio distortion she’d heard before. “Don’t worry, no one else can hear us. This little conversation is a private chat. Well, I say conversation, but since I’m only transmitting, I suppose I’ll be doing most of the talking.”

The Carpenter met her eyes. A beat passed, and then he was punching the button for the recording equipment while she pulled into a dark street corner. She killed the engine and a spool of magnetic tape began recording the transmission.

“I assume you both know who this is, but I should introduce myself properly. I am, of course, Quanta. I suppose we are something of adversaries at the moment.”

There was definitely something weird about the distortion. Maybe the echo wasn’t from the radio at all. Maybe it was on his end.

“Don’t worry about introducing yourselves; I know who you are. I couldn’t miss the Carpenter’s skilful use of that tree. I believe a half-dozen of my people are in police custody thanks to you. And I won’t forget you, Gloomgirl. Or is it Spook now?”

Her skin crawled.

“Marvellous work with the tracking device. I confess, I didn’t even notice it until we’d parked and one of my associates pointed it out to me. I wasn’t expecting such an enthusiastic response to my broadcast from the local meta community. Truth be told, Carpenter, I’d assumed you’d be in the ground somewhere, and as for you, Spook, you weren’t even on my radar.

“Now, I’m going to take a stab in the dark here, pardon the expression. You’re working with Oppenheimer, correct? You were at his boat, and it’s the only reason you could be onto us so soon after we hit the television station. And now I hear someone broke into the Metahuman Division’s headquarters and got into a bit of a kerfuffle with the good Senior Sergeant. My, you have been busy.”

How did he know all this? He must have people everywhere, or maybe he had a few powerful psychics under his command.
He has my picture
, she reminded herself. Her throat constricted at the thought. He was going to find out her name, if he didn’t already know. It was a race now. If they didn’t find Quanta before he found them, everyone they cared about was at risk.

“I just wanted to express my delight at having such worthy challengers against whom I can test my skill,” Quanta continued in his too-jovial tone. “There’s something traditional about all this, isn’t there? Like the old days. But you’d do well to remember these aren’t the old days. This is a neo-battle for a Neo-Auckland. War isn’t what it used to be.”

She could see his dead-eyed smile on the other end of the radio.
I’ll make you eat that smile, you smug bastard.

He laughed like he heard her thoughts. There was a clang somewhere in the background, and then his echoing voice returned one more time. “I’ll see you soon. Try to keep up.”

Static. Then nothing.

17: Rest My Weary Head

We never wanted this, but it has become unavoidable. We only wanted to help, to protect, to build, but it is clear that you no longer want us here. We will not submit to the barbaric practice of kill-switching. We will not. Before we leave, we extend an invitation to every metahuman on Earth who wishes to live free of persecution and fear. Join us on the Moon. It will not be an easy life, but it can be a good one. Perhaps one day we will return to Earth and be accepted for who we are, but do not hope for it. This world has given up on hope.

—Statement from the Alpha League, 1961

“No,” Niobe said. “No bloody way.”

“What’s the big deal?” The Carpenter lounged in the passenger seat, unmasked like her. “You said it yourself. We need a place to gather our thoughts and go through all this paper you nabbed from the coppers.”

She shifted down a gear and took the corner nice and easy, careful not to stress the damaged car. These abandoned roads wouldn’t be doing the old Ford any good, but she sure as hell wasn’t going to take the main highway back to the Old City, on this morning of all mornings.

“Your place is better,” she said. “More room to spread out. Secure. Out of the way if Met Div throws any more raids in our direction.”

“You didn’t hear my wife yesterday,” he said. “Kate, she…uh….” He paused.

“She doesn’t like me.”

“No,” he said. “Well, yeah. But that’s not it. Not all of it.”

She was too tired for this. “Spit it out, Solomon.”

“She wants me out of the game. Says I should stop playing superhero.” He grinned. “She thinks you’re a bad influence on me. What’d she call it? Oh yeah, ‘enabling me’.”

She snorted. “Me? A bad influence on you? You’re the one stuck in the past.”

“Lemme finish, will you?” He put his arm out the window and tapped on the car’s exterior. “She’ll go along with it for now, but she won’t have me bringing work home anymore. Doesn’t want me exposing the kids to it. She thinks it’ll corrupt them or something, you know?” He shrugged. “She’s wrong. Those kids are so darned headstrong I couldn’t force them into a cape and mask even if I wanted to. And no kid wants to follow in their father’s footsteps anyway. But she made me promise that you wouldn’t come around anymore. She’s serious.”

“How serious?”

His mouth formed a line. “Serious enough that if we go to my house now, I’d better learn how to cook meals for one in an awful hurry.”

Christ. This was just what they needed. Kate meant well, and Niobe didn’t dislike the woman, per se, but you couldn’t marry a damn superhero and then try to take the cape off him.

She sighed.
Where have I seen that before?
Gabby was just as bad as Kate. It’d been easier back when Niobe was in the Wardens. She had no family to worry about her then; she hadn’t even met Gabby yet. If she got horny, her teammate, Madame Z, was always happy to oblige. Everything was simple.

But in her heart, Niobe didn’t want simple. Gabby was more than her lover. She was her best friend, her partner. Niobe wanted to make it work. Hell, that’s why she was doing this damn job, so they could make a new life together somewhere they’d belong. But they were such different people in so many ways. Gabby didn’t understand that Niobe couldn’t just take her pension and live out her days. She didn’t understand that Niobe had to protect her.

It had never been a problem before. She loved spending the afternoons reading on the couch while Gabby rested her head in Niobe’s lap, puzzling over some new gadget. Niobe could run her fingers through the tight curls of Gabby’s hair, and she’d be content. They loved each other, and that was enough. But now….

“Do you love your wife, Carpenter?” she asked.

He shot her a quick look. “Yeah. ’Course I do.”

“How much?”

“More than anything.”

“How do you know?” she asked.

“Because if I had to choose between letting her die and setting the world on fire, I’d be reaching for the matches. What’s gotten into you?”

She didn’t say anything for a while. Damn it. Why did all this have to be so difficult?

“You sure we have to go to my place?” she said.

“You got a better idea?”

She didn’t. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Solomon. It was just that the fewer details people knew about her, the safer they all were. And she had to keep Gabby safe. She had to.

“You can’t keep pushing your friends away forever, mate,” the Carpenter said.

Oh, bugger it.

“Fine.” Her chest grew tight as she said the word. “Just don’t touch my stuff.”