Supervillainess (Part One) (14 page)

Pleased at the distraction, Reader opened it
and shifted to see the words written in her father’s elegant
handwriting.

Task 6: Uncover the secret Reader’s savior
is hiding, the reason why he came here. Use any means necessary –
but keep him alive. As a reminder, the score is Reader 3, Thunder
2.

“Dammit,” she muttered and handed it to
Igor. “Couldn’t be something simple like burning down one of the
mayor’s houses again or torching the city’s oil supply.”

Igor read the card.

“Add another team to the doctor’s
surveillance,” she instructed him.

“Do you want us to take the doctor in?”

“Not yet,” she said, mind racing. “I’m going
after my brother. I need some leverage.”

Thoroughly disappointed by her evening, she
trailed him to the car and hopped inside, unable to shake the ache
inside her or the sense her father was about to start pursuing
those she didn’t want harmed. After her discussion with Jermaine,
he wasn’t going to spare anyone she cared about. He’d be healed
from his wounds by morning and wouldn’t hesitate to corner the
doctor and torture him, if that was what it took to level up in the
games. Now that her father had inserted the doctor into their
games, the chances of Kimber living through this were slim.

I have to get Igor out of
town,
she thought, gazing again at her
nanny.
The doctor, too.

But how? Was there another way to keep one
or both of them safe?

“I figured out the word you were looking
for,” Igor said. “Admire.”

“Admire.” Reader repeated. She met his gaze
briefly in the rearview mirror. “I like that word.”

I don’t want anything to happen to the
doctor, because I admire him.

It fit, even if the sentiment was so very
foreign.

Kimber’s night out was worth the hangover.
It was the first time he slept through the announcements over the
intercom and the busyness of the bay where doctors and nurses
working overtime came to rest.

Kimber awoke groggy with a headache pulsing
in his temple – but otherwise more rested than he could recall
being since arriving to Sand City. He was alone in the bay and
checked his phone for the time, pleased to see he had awoken before
his alarm.

He showered and dressed then took his
belongings to the locker room to secure them before his shift. The
locker room, too, was quiet. Kimber left, wondering where everyone
was, until he reached the chaos of the emergency room.

It was packed, both with hospital staff and
dozens of people. The normally quiet area was loud with cries of
pain, orders issued among the staff, and concerned visitors. He
gazed around, trying to understand what had happened to cause the
sudden influx. Whipping on his coat, he crossed to the nursing
station, which was jammed with impatient visitors demanding news of
their loved ones.

“What the hell happened?” Kimber asked,
bending over between the two frazzled nursing aids.

“The Savage twins blew up a bus station this
morning,” one replied. “We’re short staffed in resuscitation and
minor surgery.”

His stomach sank, filled with dread.

Kimber rose and left, weaving through the
crowd towards the hallway leading to the minor surgery rooms
attached to the ER. Patients lay on stretchers lining the hallways
or on the ground. Whatever he thought about Keladry’s insane
aspirations to become a villain, it was clear she and her brother
were menaces to the city.

“Doctor.” Someone gripped his coat and
tugged him to a halt. “I need help.”

Kimber gazed down at the man seated on the
floor, clutching his bloodied head. He knelt beside him. Kimber
shone a penlight in the injured man’s eyes. He was in his early
twenties with short, dark hair, dark eyes and an athletic frame
covered in bloody clothing.

The man’s gaze was dilated and
unfocused.

“May I take a look?” Kimber asked, reaching
out to the t-shirt the man had used to create a bandage.

The wounded man lowered his hands. Kimber
unwrapped his head gingerly, took one look at the gaping wound in
his skull, and rewrapped it.

“Any numbness? Chills?” he asked.

“I can’t remember how I got here.”

“Can you stand?”

He was answered with a nod.

Kimber helped him to his feet and supported
his weight. They wove through the crowds. Kimber waved over one of
the nurses and very slowly guided the wounded man towards the area
designated for high risk patients.

“Do you help all of these people?” the dazed
man asked.

“I help as many as I can,” Kimber said.

“Hey, are you the hero doctor from the
newspaper?”

Kimber almost sighed, hating the photographs
in the papers. “It’s my picture, yeah.”

“That makes me feel better. You rescue
people all the time, don’t you?”

“I do my best.”

“Why?”

Kimber glanced at the man. “Why do I help
people?”

“Yeah.”

“Because they need it.” He lowered the man
to a bed and straightened to address the nurse. “Priority one.
Suspected cerebral edema.”

The nurse nodded and went to the head of the
bed.

“We’ll get you taken care of,” Kimber told
the man with a smile.

“Thanks, Doc.”

How many other people in critical condition
were floating around the emergency room? Kimber looked around,
hating the Savage twins for causing such pain and suffering. He was
equally disappointed in himself for caring enough about Keladry
that he hoped she wasn’t responsible for this.

“Doctor Wellington!” one of the nurses
called.

Kimber turned. He dismissed all thoughts of
them and anything else, throwing himself into assessing those
wounded who had not been seen by a doctor or nurse.

The injured people kept coming. Whenever he
had a moment to breathe, another influx of patients appeared and
overloaded the ER. The hospital was at max capacity by noon – and
the flow of patients showed no sign of stopping.

In addition to the bus station, he learned a
mall had been attacked as well as a college sporting event. Sand
General was the nearest to all three events. The more he saw of the
damage, the angrier he became. How could the police allow the
Savage twins to destroy the city this way? Would no one stand up to
them? How did the people of Sand City not demand more of their city
government?

He wrestled with the thoughts during his few
breaks. It was not the first time his double shift turned into
twenty hours. At the twenty four hour mark, he was ordered to sleep
by the administrator acting in Tish’s place while she was out
sick.

The bay where he had been sleeping for the
week – aside from the night at Keladry’s – was packed with doctors
and nurses trying to catch a few minutes of sleep before wading
back out into the human suffering.

Kimber grabbed two blankets from those kept
in the linen closet and left, heading towards the wing housing the
managers’ offices. He went to Tish’s darkened office and walked in
without knocking or bothering to turn on the lights. Setting his
alarm to go off in four hours, he stretched out on the couch
butting against one wall the best he could given his height and
closed his eyes.

“Reader didn’t do this.”

Kimber snapped up into a sitting position.
He’d been too tired to notice if anyone was in the room when he
entered. How he missed the hulking frame of Igor, though, was
beyond his ability to guess. Kimber flicked on the flashlight on
his phone and shone it in the direction of the voice.

Igor was perched on the edge of the desk,
dressed all in black.

“What’re you doing here?” Kimber demanded as
he swung his legs over the couch.

“What the boss ordered.”

“I thought I made it clear. I don’t want her
protection.”

“Boss does what she wants.”

“Like blowing up a bus station?”

“She didn’t do this,” Igor replied.
“Jermaine’s framing her.”

“I don’t care. I don’t want anything to do
with either of them.”

“You’re in danger, Doc.”

“That’s my business, not hers. Or yours!”
Kimber snapped.

“But think about it. If you get hurt, who
will take care of all these people?”

Kimber rubbed his face, exhausted. He lay
down with his back to the desk. “Leave me alone, Igor. I have four
hours … actually, three hours and fifty seven minutes before I have
to start a new shift.”

“I’ll be outside.” Igor moved to the door
and opened it.

Kimber lifted his head to tell the massive
man to leave the hospital. The door closed, and he sighed. He was
too tired to deal with the police. If Igor were present when he
awoke, he’d definitely contact the authorities.

***

The alarm went off too soon. Kimber’s dreams
were filled with patients he was trying to treat, except more and
more flooded into the ER, and he was the sole staff member present.
Left alone to deal with dozens of hurt people, he desperately ran
from person to person, struggling to stop the bleeding and help
everyone before additional patients appeared.

He awoke stressed out and exhausted.

“Doc, you need to go,” said Igor, opening
the door.

I was really hoping he was
part of my dream,
Kimber thought. “I know.
I’m up. Did they call for me over the intercom?”

“Not exactly.”

Kimber stood and took a moment to stretch
back and regain his bearings. Digging in his pocket, he pulled out
a squishy candy bar, set it down, then pulled his phone out.

“I’m calling the police, Igor. You probably
don’t want to be here when they arrive,” he said and gave a stern
look to the man propping open the door with his body.

“They’re already here.”

“What?”

“Have a look.” Igor motioned to the windows
behind Tish’s desk.

The blinds were closed, and daylight
outlined the edges of the window.

Kimber crossed to the
window, ready to call Igor’s buff. He peeked through the blinds.
Dozens of police cars had surrounded the building and created a
barrier, behind which swarms of reporters, hospital staff members
and others waited among fire trucks, a truck marked
Bomb Squad
, and SWAT
teams.

“What happened?” he breathed.

“Nothing yet,” Igor said.

“Is your boss trying to take out the
hospital?”

“She’s not behind any of this.”

Kimber released the blinds and faced the
door. “Then what’s going on, Igor?”

“We need to get you out of here.”

“Why?” Kimber crossed his arms.

“Boss says you need to leave, so you need to
leave.”

“First, she’s not my boss. Second, I’m not
going anywhere if there are people here in danger or who need my
help.” He gathered up his things. “You can tell me what’s going on
or …”

Igor didn’t speak.

I’ll find out
myself.
Kimber pushed past the large man
and started down the hallway.

“Jermaine is here.”

Igor’s words stopped him.

“He took everyone in your department hostage
when he couldn’t find you.”

Kimber turned to face Igor. “He’s here?”

“Downstairs. Along with a bunch of his
henchmen and enough explosives to take out the entire
building.”

“For me.”

“You helped Reader. That makes you his
enemy.”

Kimber studied Igor briefly. After his
apartment building fire, he wasn’t about to let anyone else get
hurt because of his association with the Savages. He dropped his
belongings onto the ground. “Tell your boss I’m not one of her
minions. I’m not going to let Jermaine blow up the hospital just to
get to me.” Whirling, he stalked away.

“Doc, boss won’t be happy.”

“She won’t be surprised either. By now, she
knows I’ll always do the right thing!” Kimber retorted.

He ran down the hall and to the elevator.
Punching the button to descend, he ran a hand through his hair and
paced nervously. Confronting Jermaine Savage was the last thing he
expected to happen today. But if the choice were between his life
and those of the hundreds of people in the hospital, Kimber was
going to save everyone else, no matter what Reader thought of his
actions.

“Boss wants to talk to you.” Igor had
trailed him. He held out a phone.

Kimber glanced at it, tempted to ignore half
of the reason the ER had been taken hostage, before anger got the
best of him. He snatched the phone.

“Keladry –” he started.

“Reader,” she corrected him.

“Whatever. Tell Igor to back off.”

“If you surrender to Jermaine, he’ll torture
you and murder everyone else.”

“If he has me, he won’t need everyone
else!”

“Exactly.”

Kimber drew a deep breath. “I shouldn’t be
in the middle of this. I’m going down there, Keladry, and I don’t
care what you think.”

“Doc, you don’t know what you’re getting
yourself into. Don’t be a hero, and don’t believe anything my
brother tells you.”

“I’m no hero, but I’m not an asshole,
either,” Kimber snapped. The elevator dinged, and its doors opened.
“I’m not going to let anyone get hurt because of me. Call off your
nanny and get him out of harm’s way.” He handed the phone back to
Igor, who accepted it.

Kimber walked into the elevator, wired and
worried, and punched the button for the ground floor until the door
closed.

The ten-second elevator ride to the first
floor was the longest of his life. Uncertain what to expect from
the second Savage twin, he couldn’t stop thinking about the lives
he had unwittingly put in the crossfire of psychopaths by helping
Keladry.

The elevator doors opened. Five men in black
stood outside the lift, weapons pointed at the interior of the
elevator. One of them stepped in to block the door from closing
while another motioned for him to exit.