Just Cause Universe 2: The Archmage (8 page)

“He needs money,” said Sally with a sudden insight. “We destroyed his last battlesuit.”

“Well, technically it was you who destroyed it,” Jack reminded her. “Credit where credit is due.”

“Ok,
I
destroyed it,” continued Sally, “but if he didn’t have a spare suit handy, he’d need to build himself a new one. That’s going to cost him big bucks. Why not build something quick and dirty and sell it for a big profit?”

“Why don’t you think he’d have a backup suit available? The man is the king of contingency planning.”

“It’s that contingency planning I’m thinking of,” said Sally. “Would he have a backup suit that was more advanced than his current ride? I don’t think so. Would he keep an old suit lying around when he could cannibalize it for the next model? Probably not.”

“Good point,” conceded Jack.

“And unless he’s already developed his next generation technology, he’s probably going to be spending a lot of time and money building the next suit.”

“And when he does,” John Stone grumbled. “Everybody better look out, because it’ll be worse than anything we’ve seen yet. With the kind of mindset he has, you know he’ll come gunning for Just Cause again. Especially you, Sally.”

“I’ll be careful, Mr. Stone,” she smiled.

Jack burst out in laughter. “Slow and cautious, that’s my girl.”

She decided to give in to temptation and go check on Jason. Maybe he’d finished practicing and would be up for a little recreational exercise. She almost blushed at herself as she headed for the dorm. She let herself into the room.

Shannon straddled Jason’s lap with her arms around his neck.

Sally’s perceptions accelerated until the scene was a frozen tableau spread out before her. She could see every nuance of detail from the look of surprise on Jason’s face to the raw desire on Shannon’s. She stood helpless in the doorway with her mouth hanging open and her eyes wide in surprise for what felt like forever. A massive landslide of emotions crashed down onto her: fury, despair, jealousy, hatred, disgust.

She ran.

She needed space, distance, the feel of wind rushing past her. If she ran fast enough, perhaps she could outrun the pain.

She tore down the hallway and left a vortex of scrambled air and a very confused janitor in her wake. In just a few seconds, she reached the perimeter fence. She ran along the edge until she spotted a break large enough for her tiny frame. She squeezed through the hole in the fence, which tore her t-shirt and scratched her face, and ran down a road bordered by trees on one side and open fields on the other.

The sun had already dropped behind the mountains. She ran east at a hundred miles per hour and left civilization behind her. Dark fields whipped past as she kicked up a dust cloud in her wake. Burning pain wracked her feet suddenly and she tripped as one of her shoes came apart. She skidded off the side of a dirt road into an irrigation ditch. She’d run the soles right through on her off-the-rack cross-trainers.

As Sally sprawled in the damp reeds of the ditch, her feet blistered and aching, the image of Shannon and Jason arose fresh in her mind and nausea washed over her like a bucket of icy water. She tasted bile at the back of her throat and vomited. Her heart hammered as she wiped her mouth with the back of one shaky hand. Dry heaves racked her body again and she moaned as her stomach and throat muscles quivered. She dragged herself out of the ditch and sat on the bank and had a good long cry.

After what felt like hours, she ran out of emotional energy. Her tears stopped and she just sat, miserable and hurting. Her feet burned and she wondered how badly she’d damaged them in her incautious sprint. She felt weak and foolish, and she had no idea where she was except a dirt road in the middle of some fields. The stars came out one by one overhead until the sky was filled with a hundred times more than she ever saw in town.

Sally got to her feet and nearly fell as the world spun around her. She felt lightheaded and terribly thirsty. She hobbled along the road until she came to an intersection of a paved road. She turned south in the hope that she might find her way to the interstate. She could see distant lights that must have been farmhouses, and near the horizon a line of lights that might be a freeway on-ramp. As she walked closer, she saw the bright lights of an all-night diner attached to a truck stop. She limped the rest of the way there.

Sally staggered up to the door and pushed on it stupidly for a minute before realizing she had to pull to open it. She stepped inside into a world of dim light bulbs coated with ancient grease, neon signs featuring popular brands of beer, and a comforting smell of coffee and French fries. There were a few patrons inside, mostly truck driver types in t-shirts, tight jeans, and baseball caps. They all paused in their eating or conversation as she took a hesitant step forward.

“My God, are you all right?” cried a heavyset black woman with her graying hair coiled into a bun.

Sally nodded. “I’m okay,” she mumbled. “I just need to sit down for a minute.”

The waitress, whose name tag read
Hazel
,
took her to a booth and sat her down with a glass of water. “You sure you’re not hurt, hon? You need me to call somebody?”

Sally sank onto the bench. “I’m fine. I just went for a jog and… and I got lost and fell in a ditch.”

“All right, sweetie. What can I get for you? How about a cup of hot chocolate?”

“Please,” said Sally. “And some ice and a towel?”

“Sure thing, hon. I’ll be right back with that. You let me know if you want something to eat or need anything else, all right? It’s just me out front here tonight, so you just give me a wave or a yell if you need me.”

Sally sat and stared at ancient water rings on the surface of the table in front of her. The scene of Jason and Shannon replayed in her mind over and over again, as if taunting her. She was so lost in her own thoughts that she jumped when Hazel set down a glass of ice and a steaming mug of hot chocolate topped with whipped cream.

“Take your time with that, hon. It’s plenty hot,” the waitress said.

Sally nodded without really hearing. She poured some ice into the towel and began to ice her feet. They were bruised and scratched, but she hadn’t damaged them as much as she’d feared. Years of running, even with her special boots, had toughened the skin with thick calluses. She hated her feet and thought they were ugly, but had to take special care of them nevertheless. Even her ministrations couldn’t distract her from her thoughts.

“Honey, that chocolate ain’t so hot anymore and you haven’t touched it,” said Hazel. Sally started and looked up into the waitress’ kind face. “You look like you got something heavy on your mind. Want to talk about it with a complete stranger?”

Sally smiled sadly. “That’s okay,” she said, taking a sip of her lukewarm chocolate. “You’ve got other customers and stuff. I’ll just finish this and be on my way.”

“Suit yourself, hon, but you’re the only one left and all I got left to look forward to is doing dishes… and I’ve done enough of them in my life to know they ain’t in any hurry to get done any sooner.”

Sally looked around to see that sure enough, she and Hazel were alone in the diner.

“You mind if I sit down for a few minutes?” The older woman slid into the seat across from Sally without waiting for an invitation. “
Lord,
that feels good. I been runnin’ all day and this is the first chance I get to sit. I recognize you from your picture in the paper. You’re the one named after a song. What’s it again?”

“
Mustang Sally
.”

“That’s right. I always liked that song. Well, Miss Sally, what brings you all the way out here to the middle of nowhere? Let me guess…
man
troubles.”

Sally lowered her eyes. “Is it that obvious?”

“Believe me, I’ve had enough of my own to know what they look like on someone else’s face.”

“I caught my boyfriend cheating on me.” Sally’s voice quivered a little as she admitted aloud what she’d seen.

“Hmmm…” she said. “Well he must be blind or stupid, because anyone could see you’re a real
peach
.”

For some reason, the term struck Sally as funny. “Got any words of wisdom for me, Hazel?”

“Honey, I could write a
book
with all my words of wisdom. Problem is, folks who really
need
them ain’t bright enough to buy a book and I’d still be waiting tables here.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” said Sally. “You’ve got a way with words.”

“They ain’t none of them that haven’t been said a thousand times before.” She smiled confidently. “For example…
if you love someone, set them free
. You heard that before, right?” Sally nodded. “And if he returns, he’s yours forever. If he doesn’t, he never was. That’s plain and simple. Took me a couple of husbands before I took that one to heart.”

“So I should just let him go? Let him get his jollies with someone else?”

“This boyfriend of yours… how old is he?”

“He’s almost twenty.”

“Then he’s young enough he don’t know
what
he wants yet. He probably won’t know when he’s
twice
that age. Boys that age ain’t thinking with their
brains
, if you catch my meaning.”

Sally smiled a little. “I can be guilty of that myself.”

Hazel burst out laughing. “Oh, honey, we’re
all
guilty of that! That’s something the Lord gave us to remind us we ain’t much better than the animals. But He gave us the ability to
control
it, and that’s what makes us human.”

“I guess so.”

Hazel leaned forward. “Listen, hon. In any relationship, one person is
always
begging the other. You can be the one doing the begging, or you can be the one in control. Took me a couple
more
husbands to figure
that
one out.”

“So you’re saying I should make him beg?”

“What I’m
saying
is that if he truly loves you, you won’t
have
to make him beg. He’ll do it all on his own. You just have to give the boy some time to understand his own mind. Now do you want him back?”

She thought for a few seconds. “Yes,” she decided. “Yes I do.”

“Then you just give it a little time and see what happens. Let him go. He’ll decide whether he wants to beg for you or not. And if he’s got a smart bone in his body, he’ll beg.”

“Because I’m a peach.” Sally chuckled. She didn’t feel very much like one; to borrow one of Jack’s favorite vulgarities, she felt more like ten pounds of shit in a five pound bag.

“
Ex
actly.”

She finished her chocolate, which
was
very good in spite of not being warm anymore. “Thanks, Hazel. I guess I
did
need someone to talk to.”

“Well… we ladies got to stick together,” said Hazel as she leaned back. “I was like you once, Miss Sally—young and in love. I even have a little power of my own.”

“Yeah?” Sally perked up, interested.

“Oh, it ain’t
nothing
so fabulous as yours.” Hazel held up a finger, concentrated, and an ice cube leaped out of Sally’s glass and skated across the table. “Not much good for anything, ‘cept if I drop my pencil.”

“It’s still a parahuman power,” said Sally. “More than most people will ever have. Didn’t you ever try to do anything with it?”

“Lord, no.
This
is my life, hon. I never wanted more than what I have, and I’m perfectly happy with what I
do
have. I’m a waitress, and
damn
good at it. And at the end of the day when I go home, I know I’ve been the best waitress I can be.
I can’t even imagine myself as some kind of superhero like you, hon
. Can you imagine me trying to squeeze
these
hips into a Spandex suit?”

Sally laughed, but then stopped for fear of offending Hazel, but the waitress smiled and chuckled at herself in a good-natured way.

She looked at her empty cup and her good cheer dissipated. “Well, I should get going. I’ve been gone for a long time and they’re going to wonder what happened to me. What do I owe you for the chocolate?”

“On the house, hon.”

“Are you sure?”

“Ain’t no thing.”

“Okay. Thank you very much, Hazel.” Sally stood up and limped toward the door.

“You’d better not be leaving here on foot, young lady.” Hazel took on the stern air of an authoritative mother.

Sally looked down at her filthy, bare feet and blushed. “I… I guess I kind of am.” She looked out at the highway. “I’m not even sure where I am.”

Hazel picked up her phone. “I’m calling you a ride back into town, honey. Don’t you worry none, we all get lost from time to time. Sometimes we have to find our own path, but other times someone will be there to show us the way.”

Chapter Five

“Heav’n has no rage like love to hatred turn’d

Nor Hell a fury, like a woman scorn’d.”

-Line from
The Mourning Bride
by William Congreve, 1697

May, 2004

Denver, Colorado

Just Cause Headquarters

“I
don’t care! We’re through!”
 

Sally’s intention to keep a cool head with Jason had lasted almost two minutes into their conversation, but then her temper flared like a spark in dry brush. She’d cornered him in the rec room and stood before him like David confronting Goliath.

“Look, I
said
it was an accident,” Jason growled.

“Oh,
right
. She just
happened
to fall into your lap.”

“I told her I wasn’t interested!”

“Was that
before
or
after
I walked in on the two of you? How far would it have gone, Jason?”

“I was pushing her away!”

“
How far would it have gone?
” Sally screamed at him.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. It was dangerous for him to lose his temper with his strength because things might get broken. Like walls or people. “Not
that
far,” he said at last.