Pacific Station Vigilante (Book 1): The Negative Man (City of Chaos) (2 page)

I turned my television on in the morning to the local news.  It seemed they were in the middle of live, late breaking news already.  “I’m sure the Pacific Station Electric Authority will have more for us on the power surges and random outages citywide.  Thanks the latest down at the power plant.” 

The camera changed from one angle to another of the news host, Brandon Howard.  “But the news you all want to hear about is the fight between The Ace Diamonds and The Dark Lion.  We’re going downtown where correspondent Geri Paisley is on hand with Police Chief Grimes.”

The screen flashed right to PSPD Chief Harvey Grimes talking about the disturbance the night before.  Geri was in the process of grilling him about the activities the night before.  “So you’re okay with The Dark Lion killing one of The Aces?  Shouldn’t he be arrested for murder?”

Grimes voice was like a growl from a large bear.  A very angry bear that was interrupted from hibernating.  “Murder?  The man did us a public service!  If he puts those other three assholes six feet under, I’ll personally give him the key to the city!”

Murmurs broke out amongst the reporters.  Paisley asked a pretty shocking follow up.  “Let me get this straight?  You’re okay with The Dark Lion, or any of the other super powered vigilantes killing criminals?  What about due process?”

“When will you prissy idiots understand?”  He slammed his hand on the podium.  “These super powered criminals have declared war on Pacific Station!  For all we know The Negative Man’s behind this!  The only place these criminals can’t hurt us is with their dead bodies in wood boxes!”

I flicked the TV off, a bit shocked by how far Chief Grimes was willing to go.  Any hopes of talking DL out of killing anymore of those villains just went out the door.  Over the past few weeks, I’d been getting frustrated with his lethal force.  I thought we were better than that.  Getting ready, I hopped in my car and headed back to the office.

I spent a majority of my time there.  Between my regular nine to five IT job, most nights were spent behind the desk in John Wonderton’s secret lair.  It was a hidden floor directly below his, separating the thirtieth floor from the twenty-ninth.  Only the man upstairs knows how he got the permits for that without raising suspicion.

The Wonder-Tech building was just on the edge of downtown.  The glass monstrosity shined in the sunlight, hurting my eyes.  I guess all those years looking at computer screens late into the night fried my eyes, making them incredibly sensitive.  My polarized sunglasses were my saving grace.

I dug into my pocket with my left hand and pulled out my keycard to get in.  I nodded at the newest security guard (I never learned their names, they generally only lasted a week for some reason), and headed for the elevator.  I was the only one close by, which was nice and I entered.  Hitting the twenty-seventh floor, I leaned back ready to go up.

A hand stuck in between the door and the incredibly beautiful Heather Adams sauntered in.  I’m no slouch at five nine, but in her tall black heels, she was easily six foot.  Her skirt barely covered her ass, and the white shirt she was wearing hugged her toned body.  She’d been an all-conference softball player in college and remained in remarkable shape to this day.

Playfully she hooked her finger around my sunglasses and pulled them off.  “Jericho, I swear you cover up your eyes on purpose.”  I’d known her almost since day one of starting here (we were hired two days apart) and I still wasn’t used to the attention she gave me.

The fluorescent light of the elevator was harsh, irritating my eyes.  “Forgive me, I’m like a mole.  The light doesn’t agree with me much.”

“Stop staring at computers all night and that won’t happen!”  Her shoulder length brown hair with blonde highlights shuffled as she gave a small laugh.  “I’ll never understand why Mr. Wonderton makes you work so hard and so late.”

My hair was almost shoulder length too, but not nearly as attractive as hers.  I tucked my black hair behind my ears.  “We’re working on some pretty cool prototypes.  Or we were until the servers got swiped last night.”

“I heard about that this morning.  Chief Grimes went off on a reporter about the whole thing!  I couldn’t believe he okay’d the use of extreme force.”

Before I could respond, the floor dinged.  “Well this is where I get off.”

She flicked my nose.  “I’ll be seeing you around Jericho, don’t you worry.”

I got off the elevator confused.  Heather always took an unnatural interest in me, but I was just a weird computer guy.  The guy who greeted me off the elevator couldn’t help but notice too.  “Adams talking to you again?  I’m telling you, she’s got something for the dorky, brooding type.”  He shook his head.  “Why couldn’t it be me?  She wastes her attention on you, I swear.”

“Yeah, stopped the elevator to get on with me.  A girl like, she’s probably just toying with me huh?”

Mike Blackfield nodded knowingly. “Girls like her want to have nerds at their disposal.  Flash us a smile or brush up against us and they think we’ll be at their beck and call.”

“Aren’t we?”

He laughed.  “You’re damn right we are!  What else do we have going for us?”

I entered my office and clicked the shade button.  Much better.  With another click, the radio came on and I got down to work.  I opened my email and saw DL sent me one already this morning.

Jericho,

Attached is a blood analysis from Diamonds.  I want you to read it over and come up to my office later to go over your findings.  As always, keep this between us.  Also, can you get with Jenkins about the servers?  I figured between the two of you there’s a chance we hadn’t lost everything.

John W.

Jenkins could wait, but the blood analysis was too tempting to put off.  I opened the attachment and began reading what the Mass Spec came up with.  Genetics weren’t my area of specialty, but I knew a bit more than DL did.  Plus whatever I didn’t understand, I’d just use the Internet to figure out.

I must’ve lost track of time because I heard a knock on my door.  It was always open, but I think people were leery of me.  You know, that creepy IT guy stereotype.  Looking up, Heather Adams was back.  She had a few files in her hands too.  “Are you busy?”

I motioned for her to come in and take a seat.  “Yeah, John has me going over some schematics, but what’d you got there?”  I pointed at the files.

“Phil Jenkins gave these files to me to review.”  Heather was our legal editor by the way.  “I have some concerns, but before I go to Mr. Wonderton, I wanted to run them by you.”

She handed me the files and gave me a few moments to look over them.  “These are prototypes for the next gen of cell phones.  What’s got you bothered about ‘em?”

She pulled her phone out.  I recognized it right away as the Mercury Five by gl-O-bal Labs.  gl-O-bal’s owned and operated by Owen Walker, a true genius.  John Wonderton’s a smart guy, don’t get me wrong, but he’s more the shrewd and merciless business man type.  Owen is one of those truly special men that come up with every design by himself.

She handed me the phone.  “Look closely at the Mercury Five and the design Jenkins is proposing.”

As soon as Heather pointed it out, the similarities were uncanny.  I won’t bore you with details, but suffice to say Jenkins wasn’t coming up with his own work.  “John’s going to be pissed.”

“Yes he is.  He wants to beat gl-O-bal, but not like this.”

I slid the phone back to her.  “Obviously we need to tell him, but I’m guessing you don’t want to be present when I do?”

She gave me that award winning smile.  “He won’t bite your head off.”

“True.”  I sat there for a minute, letting her sweat it out a bit before answering.  “I’ll take it to him, but you owe me in the future.”

Heather winked before getting up.  “I’m always good to pay back my debts.”

I’m sure she was and as she walked out, I’m not going to lie – I totally watched her ass sway back and forth until she reached the elevator.  She turned around and caught me, but seemed to enjoy that.  Add in a small wave as the elevator closed, I could almost hear Mike’s head explode.

I turned my attention back to the report on my screen.  It confirmed what we figured out last night during the confrontation, Diamonds was immune to feeling pain.  Not exactly a very useful super power, but he also called himself the diversion.  That would make sense, use your weakest link to do so, knowing the chance of survival might not be that great.

Bad Jericho. Don’t try to dissect their plans.  This was DL’s problem not mine.  My problem was going to be fixing Jenkins’ shitty work and get him to create something better.  I looked down in disdain at the knock off prototype drawing when I noticed something very peculiar.  On the display was a drawn up game of solitaire.  I knew Jenkins was weird, but this was a bit over the top.

I narrowed my eyes and looked even closer.  The only card that was actually legible was the Ace of Clubs.  Annoyed, I doubted that was a coincidence.

I tossed the files on DL’s desk.  “Jenkins is copying gl-O-bal’s tech.  Heather from Legal figured it out.  This prototype looks just like her Mercury Five phone.”

John Wonderton, aka The Dark Lion, was a big man.  Easily six foot five with a linebacker’s frame, the middle aged man looked at the papers and sighed.  “Well then I guess I’ll just have to fire him.  Is that what you want?”

“Actually no, look at the prototype closer.”

He squinted and held the paper close.  “What am I looking for?”

“The display, check out the phone’s display.”

DL studied the paper, but it seemed to be missing him.  “So he likes solitaire?”

For a guy who was a powerful superhero vigilante, sometimes he was impossibly frustrating.  “How do you miss the Ace of Clubs staring at you?”

Boom, there it was.  “You don’t think this is just a coincidence, do you Jericho?”

“Makes all the sense in the world.  Diamonds would’ve been easily able to steal the servers if Jenkins was in on it.”

Seeing my viewpoint, “So you want us to keep him here, to figure out the end game?”

“We know Diamonds was just a distraction, probably the weakest in the group.  You never know, he might’ve sacrificed himself in his fight against you for a reason.”

This logic made me think of the suicide bombers.  You know death’s coming, but instead of fighting to stay alive, they embraced fate with open arms.  “Maybe stealing the servers was just a curveball, get us to chase the bad pitch while they steal home.”

I got a rare smile from the superhero.  “Your baseball analogies suck.”

Yeah, sports weren’t my thing, except baseball, hence the pretty bad analogy.  I’d keep trying though until I got it.  Computers, technology, those were my areas of expertise.  That didn’t stop me from trying though.  “My point is, we keep acting none the wiser and Mr. Clubs might lead us to real answers.”

“The Negative Man…”

The fact DL even said his name wasn’t a good sign.  “We don’t even know if he’s still alive.”

“He is; his presence hangs over Pacific Station like a black cloud.”  He looked out his large window, which out of respect to me he put a darkened film over.  “Can’t you feel his energy?”

I felt energy alright, probably a nervous energy from DL.  “There’s a threat in front of us we can deal with, The Aces.  I wouldn’t worry about The Negative Man, not yet.  And who knows, maybe we’ll get lucky and another Ace will slip up with more info on him.”

He stabbed the prototype file with his finger.  “You’re right.  Take this down to Research and get Jenkins to create another.  While talking to him, see if you can get anything worthwhile too.”

“You want me to interrogate him?  That’s not smart.”

He shook his head.  “No, talk to him, nerd to nerd.  When you guys get together, you can’t help but gush over the latest and greatest.  He might slip up.”

I doubted it, but I scooped up the files off his desk.  “If he catches on to me, my death is on your hands…”  He pushed me out of his office and closed the door.  He didn’t even ask me about Diamonds blood analysis.

On the elevator ride down, I tried to think of the best way to first tell Jenkins we were on to his copycat schematics, but also see if he’d spill any secrets.  My mother, God rest her soul, always said I was pretty damn conniving when I wanted to be.  The elevator door opened, the R&D Lab was buzzing.  Between the lost servers and the usual deadlines, the lab coats were running in a frantic state.

Jenkins was at his monitor towards the back.  I shuffled between all the hub-bub and found a seat next to his desk.  He didn’t look up but did acknowledge I was there.  “Jericho.”

“Jenkins.”

It’s not that we were on bad terms, but nerds tended to try to stake claim to Alpha-nerd.  I’m a computer guy with an extensive background in engineering and he’s an engineer with an extensive background in programming.  There was a built in rivalry.

His eyes were going a million different directions behind his glasses.  “Something I can help or explain to you?”

I put the file on his desk.  “You can explain to Mr. Wonderton why this prototype looks exactly the same as the Mercury Five from gl-O-bal.  He’s not happy.”

“Caught that did he?”  He stopped working and made eye contact.  “Or did one of the legal bums figure it out?”

“So, you did that on purpose?”  Color me confused.

He opened the file.  “Of course I did!  I work my ass off down here and everyone just takes credit without ever even coming to me!  Do I ever get a good job?  Or do they even come down to get an explanation?”

Ahhh… “So you did this just to see how observant the legal team was?  And to see if Mr. Wonderton even personally looked over everything?”

“Exactly!”  He popped out of his chair.  “Tell me Jericho, was it you that noticed?  As an intellectual peer, that would be most obvious.”

“Yeah, Legal dropped it off with me to take on for approval.  That’s when I noticed the design.”  Was I lying?  Yes.  Was this my way in?  Yes.

Jenkins closed the file and dropped it in his trashcan.  He pulled another file out of his desk and handed it to me.  “This is the real prototype.  So new that it wasn’t even in the servers yet.”

This piqued my interest.  I opened the file and was blown away.  “Whoa, this is incredible!”

Just from my initial quick glance, I could see Jenkins was taking the normal parameters and expanding them exponentially.  The phone’s processor was going to be faster than anything on the market.

I closed it and handed it back to him.  “What’s the name of this top secret project?”

“In a nod to my French heritage,” he looked as French as a guy named Wonderton, “I’m calling it Project Trefles.  It sounds very fancy and expensive that way.  The population won’t be able to resist.”

Say it adds to my nerdiness, but I’m fluent in three different languages (not counting binary), including French.  Trefles is their word for ‘clovers,’ which is also what they refer to the ‘clubs suit’ in cards.  This just furthered my assumption.

Smiling, “Would you like me to take this to Mr. Wonderton for approval or does it need more time?”

Jenkins was itching to get this project out to the open, you could see it in his eyes.  He refrained though, for whatever reason.  “Not yet, I’d like some more time to work on this.”

“I don’t know what you could do to make this even better, but I’m excited to see.”

His eyes lit up at the praise of a fellow tech head.  “Between me and you, gl-O-bal Labs’ Owen Walker has reached out to me, wanting to know more about this.”

“How does Walker know about this?”  I asked the question quietly, like I was excited to hear more.

Picking up on my enthusiasm, “He read my thesis on cellular acceleration a number of years ago and we’ve remained in contact ever since.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m loyal to Wonder-Tech, but having a friend like Walker’s nothing to sneeze at.”

DL was going to have a heart attack.  “I’d keep that between us okay?  I don’t think the big guy or Legal would be thrilled with that association.”

Jenkins nodded and I got up.  As I was getting ready to leave, “I thought you were just Wonderton’s yes man.  I think I was wrong about you Jericho.”

“I appreciate that Jenkins.  Maybe one night after work we can grab a beer.”

He looked down and typed out a quick text.  An answer came back almost immediately.  “Yeah, we definitely should do that.”