Hero Engine (9 page)

“SHI has sent me here to question you about Gravitess.”

River raises a blonde eyebrow. “Formally?”

I shrug. “More like, no one but Vince knows I’m here.”

“And you are here alone?” River watches me over the rim of his glass as he takes a drink.

“No, of course not. My partner is over there at the craps table. The one with her hair back that looks completely out-of-place at a casino at three in the morning.” I turn and wave at Ann.

Her eyes go wide as she catches River and I staring. She diverts her attention back to the craps game. Someone at her table gives a roll. Bystanders whoop with excitement.

River laughs, dribbling his drink down his chin. He wipes it clean with the back of a sleeve. “You seem an honest man.” His lips pull back in an almost smile. Canine teeth show wolf-like.

I look him in the eyes, deadpan. “Someone who spends as much time as you around shitholes like this is probably pretty good at spotting a bluff. Why fuck around?”

“Man, Quig, you’re one cool cat. Anyone ever tell you that?”

I sigh. “More than once.”

The dealer passes out hands.

River taps the table for another card, never taking his eyes off mine. “It’s my impression that SHI would have a hero investigate a hero crime. That would probably keep investigators from turning up dead when questioning the wrong hero about things they don’t want to talk about.”

“Well, that’s probably the ‘By the book’ way of SHI investigations.” I check my hand. Eighteen. Tap the table. Draw a two; call it done. “Seeing as how this is off the record, we can just assume I’m expendable. I guess it’s up to me to not piss-off the wrong hero.”

River shows his cards. Twenty-one. Dealer shows nineteen. I’m back up twenty bucks.

“You’ll do good with hands like that.”

I’m not sure if he’s talking about cards or lives, so I let the comment glide off me like butter, leaving only a hint of grease behind.

“So what makes you think I know anything about the Gravitess situation?” River downs the rest of his drink. Sets the empty glass next to the whiskey bottle.

“A little bird told me that you two used to be a thing, before she moved on to The Patriot.” I take a drink of my beer. Tastes like piss, but I’m beginning to wonder if anything in this city doesn’t.

A particularly loud buzzer goes off behind me. A little old lady in a fanny pack and ‘Viva Las Vegas’ sun visor leaps up and down as coins pour out of her machine.

“The Patriot,” River says his name in a derisive snort. “That fucking red-white-and-blue Ken doll can go fuck himself.”

I want to tell him I beat the shit out of The Patriot earlier today, but that would bring up a lot of questions I just don’t want to answer right now.

“What about Tess?”

Dealer Tony sends out another hand.

“Give us a couple minutes, would ya, Tony?” River slides Tony a hundred.

Tony tucks the money in his vest pocket, puts a ‘Table Currently Closed’ sign on the felt, and steps away from us.

“Tess.” The name comes out of River’s lips with more care than The Patriot’s had. His eyes stay trained on the stack of cards, unfocused. Hazy with memory, maybe. “We had a time together. She tried to keep me straight. Helped me get a lot of my shit together when SHI probably wanted to pull the plug. Same old story I guess, Good Girl thinks she can help Bad Boy turn his life around.”

River rolls a thousand-dollar chip across his knuckles back and forth. A roar erupts from the crowd around Ann’s craps game. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see her watching us as the crowd exchanges hugs around her.

“So what happened?”

“Same things that always happen. She helped me get better, but my urges never went away. Tess wanted me to give up drinking, give up gambling. I said I’d rather give up breathing. Something about it just draws me in. I think it’s all the people and the excitement. Delving into human minds can be rough. People think some fucked-up shit and I’m privy to all of it. Something about the hustle and bustle of a casino just makes it blend together. I can’t hear any one thought, kind of like trying to pick out one conversation in a cafeteria.”

The woman in the sequin dress offers River another drink. He refuses, but eyes her ass as she walks away. “And the view’s not half-bad either.”

“So you chose casinos over a good woman who tried to help you?” I can’t hide the accusation in my tone. A woman who cares about a man is a hard thing to come by, not something that should be thrown away for lights and money.

River’s jaw pops as he clenches his teeth. “Yeah. I guess that’s what I did.” He sucks in a breath that wrinkles up his nose. The gesture looks like something a guy would do before spitting on the floor. “She left me and found her way to that fucking Uncle Sam motherfucker.”

“Went from you to The Patriot, huh? You guys sure get around.”

“Small dating pool.” River lifts his gaze to stare at me. “Most heroes would rip a human in half if they fucked them. Do you know how hard it is to carry on a relationship when I can’t help but read minds? That waitress, the one in the sequin dress?”

“Yeah?”

“When she first came over here, do you know what her first thought was?”

“What’s that?”

“She thought, ‘Oh great, a fucking cape is here. He better leave a good tip, the guy gives me the creeps’. That’s exactly what went through her mind as she gave us her million-dollar smile. And that’s a tame thought compared to some of the shit I’ve heard people think.”

A tension builds in my neck. I push it down and try to hold my temper. This isn’t getting me anywhere and one super-powered fistfight is enough for today. “Okay, I can see how that might be frustrating. Do you know anything about her relationship with The Patriot?”

River blinks and his eyes gleam in the lights. His mouth does a funny little twitch at the corner for a half-second before he catches it and pops his lips to reset his face. “I, uh, I don’t know. She seemed, fine. I guess.”

“Any idea why she terrorized Seattle?”

“She’s…fed up?”

“Fed up?”

“I guess. Hell if I know what she’s thinking. If she’s anything like the rest of us, she’s pissed at being taken advantage of.”

“Taken advantage of?” My voice rises a couple decibels. These heroes have it made. They sit around with super powers not worrying about a damn thing. From what I’ve seen so far, it seems like a group of people stuck in high school. Adults separated from the workings of the real world.

“Yeah, taken advantage of.” River’s voice rises to match mine. “We take care of you humans. If there’s a problem, we fix it. Terrorist attack? Heroes hunt down the evil villains. Natural disaster? Don’t worry, heroes will pick up the pieces and search through the rubble. Boredom? No fucking problem, heroes can throw a parade and pretend to be happy for all the ungrateful humans lined up to watch like a goddamned traveling zoo. All we’re missing is the cages.” River’s face burns red. He’s stopped rolling the chip across his knuckles and is squeezing it between his fingers instead.

“Cages? You are on leave to hang out at a casino. The money you are gambling doesn’t mean a thing to you because you have everything taken care of. You don’t need to work sixty hours a week at two jobs to make sure your house doesn’t get foreclosed on. You don’t have to worry about where your food is going to come from, or if your government is going to collapse. You don’t even have to worry about getting sick because you have access to all the world’s best doctors. So fuck you and your self-pitying entitlement bullshit.” I keep my voice short of a yell to draw as little attention as possible.

Ann is still watching closely from her table.

River starts twirling his chip again. He smiles at me with his wolfish grin. Things are getting dangerous. I have to put this situation in its place before someone gets hurt. The time to act is now. My hand reaches for the gun at my back. I can’t let the situation escalate. Thumb flicks off the safety. The threat must be neutralized. The barrel of the gun comes to rest, pointed at the instigator. I feel the cool metal of the gun pressed against my temple.

People scream in the background. It’s time to end this. My finger squeezes against the trigger.

A whoosh like tornado winds blowing through an open window sweeps across my brain. Awareness snaps like a firecracker. I am pulling the trigger of a gun pointed at my head. River is staring at me, smiling. I catch a glimpse of Ann running towards me. She’s shouting, but I can’t hear any words. As his hold on my mind breaks, I whip my arm out. The butt of the pistol connects with River’s left eye. Orbital bone cracks audibly.

River falls out of his chair. When he tilts his head up to look at me, blood flows from the cut over his eye. The crimson liquid stains the pristine white of his shirt and puddles on the black carpet below. He stares at me, eyes narrowed in concentration. I stand and drive my knee into his nose. Another satisfying crack. Fuck this guy and his sleazy town.

A large man rushes toward me from my right. I suppose that would be casino security. My hands rise in defense, but the guard grabs two handfuls of my shirt and slams me against a tiled column. The impact jars the shit out of my head.

I open my mouth to speak. Security Dude’s arm draws back. A foot impacts the side of his head and knocks him to the ground. When he tries to stand his arms give out. His face smacks the carpet. Ann stands next to me, one leg held out in the air – frozen in the ‘face-breaker’ yoga pose. She’s not even breathing hard. That’s one hell-of-a woman.

Another large man rushes our direction.

“SHI, freeze.” Ann holds up an ID card and the man halts in his tracks.

He cocks his head to the side like a confused pit bull as he reads Ann’s identification. Another guy—smaller, but better dressed—shows up and puts a hand on the pit bull’s shoulder. “Easy, Ronald, that will be quite enough. See that Jonathan is examined by a doctor.”

The big dude Ann kicked is still flopping around on the ground like a newborn giraffe. Ronald hooks him under the arms and hoists him to his feet. The two limp off toward the back of the casino.

Well-Dressed Guy skims over Ann’s ID. “I am Jerry, head of casino security.” He looks at River lying on the floor in a puddle of blood. “Can someone explain this disturbance?”

“We came to have a word with River over there. He got a little daft and had to be calmed down a bit,” Ann says. “But I believe my partner and I have got all we needed, and we’ll be on our way. Sorry for the carpet.” Ann wraps an arm around me and leads me toward the exit.

My legs wobble and my head is a bit foggy, but I’m still alive after pissing off a superhuman for the second time today. I’ll call that a win.

ANN RUSHES ME OUT
the front doors with all the delicacy of a cop handling a juvenile delinquent. Yes, I’m well aware of the irony.

Another scary-looking guy follows us and stands just outside the casino entrance with his arms crossed. Guess we aren’t welcome back at the Grand. What a heartbreaker.

Our ride is parked on the side of the road, the SUV just close enough for me to make out our elderly driver leaned up against the rear quarter panel smoking a cigarette. I take a couple steps in that direction, but Ann pulls me off course.

“What are you doing?” I snatch my arm away, lose my footing, and windmill to regain my balance. Now is a good time to admit I might be concussed. I run my hand over the goose egg on the back of my head. That tile will be sorry it ever fucked with Cool Jim Quig.

“Just come with me.” Ann drapes my arm behind her neck and helps me punch-drunk limp my way to an open lot next to the casino.

We walk past two more women handing out flyers for sex. Their ribs show through see-through tops, and track marks make a predictable pairing with bloodshot eyes. I’ve never met a city as proud of its filth as this one.

“Where are we going?” My head is really starting to hurt and I could use a nap.

“Ah-ha, there.” Ann points to a man crouched on the sidewalk.

The guy looks up and smiles. I recognize him as the same homeless guy from earlier when he lifts his McDonald’s cup.

“You’ll have to find a way to cash these in. It might be best to get a friend who’s better dressed to go exchange them,” Ann says. She drops a handful of large-denomination Grand chips in the cup.

The man peers at her offering and shivers. He jumps up to his feet and shakes Ann’s hand with the vigor of an excited presidential candidate. Ann smiles and leads us toward the car.

“Where did you get that money?” The fog is starting to lift.

“While you were busy jawing at River, I had a hot streak.” Ann blushes a little.

“So that’s what all the shouting was about?”

“That or the guy pointing a gun at his own head.” It’s an accusation as much as a statement.

I drop my eyes to the pavement. “Yeah, I guess he uh, he kind of got in my brain there at the end.” I scratch the back of my head and knock my goose egg. Bad idea.

“Ya think?” Ann’s voice holds a kind of concern. “This whole bloody
Let-me-handle-the-super-humans-on-my-own
nonsense stops here. It’s my job to keep you alive and help you with this. I know how to fight. I know how to interrogate.
And
I nullify all the heroes’ powers. From now on this is a partnership, not a dictatorship. All right?”

I nod, and the quasi-concussion once again reminds me to keep still as possible. My head is clear, but my balance is still kind of fucked.

Our driver opens the door as we approach. “Find what you needed?”

“Something like that,” I grumble and pause to let Ann in front of me.

“Back to the airport?” he asks, getting in.

“Yes, please.” Ann buckles her seatbelt. “So did we find what we needed?”

“Hell if I know. River says Tess is probably just bitter. Said some shit about how all the heroes feel used and she’s probably tired of it. He seemed a little
off
when he talked about her. Maybe it’s because she cared for him and now she’s going crazy. I don’t know what to make of it all.”