The Doomsday Device (Teen Superheroes Book 2) (18 page)

“Negative,” she said. “We’ll see you at the compound.”

The line went dead.

I sat back in the flight seat as the Flex plane soared across the sky. There seemed little to do after that. According to Agent Palmer it was going to take us around ten hours to reach the site. While there were no beds on the plane, the seats were quite comfortable. I applied more of the plant to Chad’s wounds and forced a little more of the mixture down his throat.

With Drink’s help I tightly applied a fresh bandage to Cecelia’s leg. Fortunately she had only suffered a flesh wound, but she still looked pale. She dozed off and I turned my attention to Chad.

His color had improved a lot. The cut on his shoulder seemed to be drying out. While I examined it he opened his eyes and seemed to recognize me for the first time in hours.

“Hey, is that you, Axel?” he asked.

“It’s me?”

“I don’t remember you being so ugly.”

He was sounding better already.

“I’ve always been this ugly,” I said cheerfully. “You’ve always been the good looking guy.”

“That’s how I remember it.” He looked past me at Cecelia. “Who’s the beautiful girl?”

“Oh, you’ve already met her.”

“Really.”

“That’s Zachary,” I said.

“Really?” he said. “I think I’m going back to sleep.”

And he did.

I returned to the control area and examined the flight controls. This was truly an amazing piece of technology. The controls were a series of touch screens. I didn’t dare touch anything, but I made a mental note to ask for lessons after this whole situation was over.

I remembered the promise Chad and I had made to The Agency.

Well
, I thought.
If we work with The Agency I might learn how to fly this thing. And a whole lot more.

I returned to the passenger area and slumped into one of the seats. The Agency might not even want me working with them. After all, it seemed my powers were fading. Probably the others would remain with the organization. At least The Agency would want Chad. His powers were still fully intact.

Closing my eyes, it seemed like only seconds, but suddenly I awoke. The sound of the engines was changing. Much to my amazement, Chad was up on his feet and looking out the window.

“How you going, partner?” I asked.

“Better,” he said. “Much better. It looks like this thing is coming in to land.”

“Really?”

He nodded. “And not a moment too soon for sleeping beauty. She’s looking as bad as I felt.”

I went over and touched her arm. Cecelia felt cold and clammy. Her face was pale. She looked up at me through half opened eyes.

“Are we there yet?” she asked.

It was Chad who answered. “We are. And there’s a whole welcoming party waiting for us.”

I looked over his shoulder and saw a forest below us. Helicopters and vehicles were parked all through the woodland. Through some miracle of automatic flying, the Flex was able to find a relatively empty area and make a landing.

We climbed out and I breathed in the scent of the Montana wilderness. Wow. I felt like falling to my knees and kissing the earth. Home. Dorothy was right when she said there was no place like it.

I climbed out first, assisting Chad down the ladder. Drink followed next and lingered behind us. A group of people appeared through the trees and made their way through the forest towards us. Agent Palmer was in the lead.

“Well done, guys,” she said. “You’ve really broken open this case.”

“Thanks,” I said. “We couldn’t have done it without Drink and Zachary-Cecelia.”

“Drink?” she said.

I turned around. Drink was gone. The agents checked the plane and the surrounding area. He was not to be found. It looked like he had used the opportunity to escape.

A man of few words
, I thought.

Agency personnel carried the now unconscious body of Cecelia from the plane while Agent Palmer took us towards the compound. No sooner had I asked the agent about our friends than a group of people came into sight.

Brodie. Ebony. Dan. Ferdy.

Yes!

It was a wild reunion, but it only last a few minutes. Agent Palmer came back to us with a frown on her face.

“We’ve got a problem,” she said. “A big problem.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“We’ve got Jeremiah and all the other members of the compound,” she said. “But we can’t find the Doomsday virus.”

“Ferdy opened the canister for Jeremiah,” Ebony said in a hushed voice. She looked at everyone as if expecting them to jump down her throat. “If he hadn’t done it, then -.”

“That doesn’t matter now,” Palmer interrupted. “We think someone has stolen the virus samples.”

“Who?” Brodie asked.

“It’s a man with whom you’re already familiar,” she said. “His name is Solomon Wolff.”

Chapter Thirty-Six

“What?” I said in amazement. “How is that possible?”

“Wolff was fundamental in obtaining the virus for Jeremiah,” the agent explained. “We believe he left the area only a few minutes before we arrived.”

“Can we follow him?” Brodie asked.

“We’re attempting to do that as we speak,” Palmer said. “The whole area is surrounded. We might get lucky.”

But unfortunately as the day wore on, it became apparent that Wolff had slipped through the net. Several other law enforcement agencies turned up over the course of the afternoon – FBI, CIA and Homeland Security. I had never seen so many people in suits in the one place at the same time.

It looked pretty odd, if you want to know the truth. Don’t forget, we were in the middle of the Montana wilderness. A person running about in a forest wearing a suit looks strange no matter how you look at it.

After a number of hours Agent Palmer came back to us to report what they had discovered. We were sitting in one of the many meeting rooms located within the Sanctuary Compound.

“That guy Wolff is good,” she said. “He’s been a thorn in the side of government agencies for years.”

“So you haven’t been able to track him down?” Brodie asked.

“I didn’t say that,” she said. “Most of his business is conducted via disposable cell phones and he made two calls prior to leaving the compound. We’ve been able to trace them.”

“How?” Dan asked. “I thought you couldn’t trace cell phones.”

“Cell phone calls are routed through phone towers,” she explained. “The local tower has a record of the destination numbers.”

“Which are?” I asked.

“There are two locations. One is in Alaska. The other is Paris,” she said. “We’ll be leaving immediately.”

“I bags Paris,” Chad said. “I need the climate.”

I rolled my eyes. Chad was back to his old self.

“Actually we will be involving your group,” Agent Palmer said. “The good news we don’t believe Wolff intends to use the virus.”

“That is good news,” Ebony said.

I glanced over at her. She had looked downcast all afternoon. She was obviously feeling depressed and guilty over encouraging Ferdy to unlock the Barricade code. Under the circumstances, however, it was completely understandable.

“Wolff is a mercenary, but ultimately he’s a businessman,” Palmer said. “Unlike the fanatics in the Sanctuary Compound who were actually interested in Global destruction, he is only interested in making money.”

“So how does he do that?” I asked.

“Blackmail. Simply by threatening to release the viruses, he will extort money from governments. He could do it for years.”

“It’s like that MAD scenario,” Dan said. “Um…”

“Mutually assured destruction,” Ferdy said. “Where two opposing military forces are assured of mutual destruction if they ever unleash their might. First attributed to author Wilkie Collins -.”

“That’s good, Ferdy,” Brodie interrupted. “I think I get the idea.”

“Anyway,” Palmer said. “It’s time we got moving. We need to break into two groups. I suggest Axel, Ferdy and Ebony form one group. Chad, Brodie and Dan form the other.”

I don’t know how everyone felt about being ordered around, but there didn’t seem to be time to argue about it all. Agent Palmer jumped up and herded everyone out of the room. I had all of a minute to catch up with Brodie.

“You didn’t get a chance to tell me about Sanctuary,” I said as we hurried down the corridor.

“Not much to tell.” She shrugged. “Almost got married.”

“Uh, right,” I said.

“No, really,” she said brightly. “I almost got married. I was asked by Jason, the son of the crazy running the place.”

“Lucky you.” I could feel my neck turning red. “So what did you say?”

“I said I’d think about it,” Brodie replied. “What do you think I said?”

How would I know? By this time Chad had raised an eyebrow and was trying to hide a smirk on his lips. I glared at him. Why did I save that guy? I should have left him back in Yodak prison.

“This is Agent Peterson,” Palmer said. “He will take Axel’s group. I’ll take Brodie’s group.”

“Uh, that’s Chad’s group,” Chad said.

“Sure, Chad,” Agent Palmer stared at him. “I’ll take Mr. Magnifico Chad’s Most Glorious Super Heroic Avenger Justice Hyper Group.”

It’s not often that Chad is stuck for words. This was one of those times.

“Okay,” he finally said.

We were all still laughing when we boarded our planes.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

“Paris,” I said. “Here we come.”

Half a day had passed since leaving Montana. I was already missing the others. Especially Brodie. I was glad she was safe, especially after her ordeal in the Sanctuary compound, but it felt like months had passed since we had last seen each other.

And almost married?

I didn’t want to go there.

The plane we travelled in was similar to the Flex Fighter, but it was larger. Agent Peterson turned out to be a large well built man who looked like he spent his spare time bench pressing refrigerators and eating planks of wood for fun. He had little to say until we had almost reached Paris.

“No offence,” he said. “But I should let you know I’m not keen to include you kids on these kinds of missions.”

“None taken,” I said. If I had a choice I’d rather be sitting in a living room somewhere watching television or playing a computer game.

“We have trained agents all over the world who can deal with these sorts of situations,” he continued. “I know you kids have got powers -.”

“Agent Orange was a defoliant and herbicide used during the Vietnam War,” Ferdy said. “It caused birth defects.”

“That’s right,” Ebony said. She was sitting next to Ferdy and gave him a brief squeeze on his shoulder.

It seemed that Peterson had lapsed to silence, so I went back and slumped next to Ebony.

Ferdy smiled. “I’m glad I’m back with Ebony and Axel. They are my friends.”

“We are your friends,” Ebony said.

“Cicero said friendship makes prosperity more shining,” Ferdy said. “And lessens diversity by dividing and sharing it.”

Ferdy – and Cicero – were right. I sat there and thought about Ferdy and the other members of our group. They were my family. I still had no memory of my past prior to being used as a guinea pig by The Agency. I had been told I had a brother. Somewhere. I wondered what he was doing – if he existed at all.

I closed my eyes. When I opened them again Ebony gave me a smile. I had fallen asleep on her shoulder.

“Hey sleepyhead,” she said. “Rise and shine.”

“Sorry,” I said.

“That’s okay. Ferdy does that sometimes too.”

The Flex plane was coming in to land at Charles de Gaulle airport. Once it had come to a halt we disembarked and made our way to a waiting car. Peterson climbed behind the wheel and took us out onto the highway.

Less than an hour later we were coming into the heart of Paris. I had never been to Paris – not that I could remember anyway. It looked like an old city. A beautiful place. Perfect weather. Grand buildings were everywhere. French flags hung from rooftops and balconies all over the place.

“There’s the Eiffel tower,” Ebony pointed.

Wow. She was right. It was one thing to see it on television and quite another to see it in person. Even at a distance it still looked like a graceful structure. We all piled over to one side of the car.

“There’ll be time for sightseeing later,” Peterson growled. “Right now we need to focus on taking down Wolff.”

Okay
, I thought.
We’ll check out the sights later.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“He placed a call to the Hotel le Bristol. It’s one of the best hotels in Paris. If we’re lucky he might be at the hotel. If we’re unlucky, he may have already passed the virus on to someone else for safekeeping.”

We passed an amazing looking walled structure with guards out the front.

“That’s the Elysee Palace,” Peterson said.

“I thought we were leaving the sightseeing till later,” Ebony pointed out.

“Uh…well…” Peterson looked a little embarrassed.

We pulled up outside the hotel a few minutes later. It was a beautiful looking building about six stories high. Flower boxes lined the windows at street level. A curved black and gold awning covered the entry way.

Entering the main reception area, we followed Peterson as he went straight to the front desk and flashed an ID card. He spoke to the hotel clerk in fluent French. After a rapid conversation, he turned back to us.

“We’re in luck,” he said. “A man by the description of Wolff checked in here only a few hours ago. Apparently he left the hotel just before we entered.”

We quickly raced out to the sidewalk. Ferdy seemed to be engaged in looking up at the sky until I quickly explained we were looking for Wolff. We all began scanning the street. Peterson and Ferdy had never encountered Wolff, but they had seen pictures of him. Ebony and I had met him once already.

Once was enough.

“General Solomon Wolff,” Ferdy said, peering down the street. “A bad man.”

“That’s right,” I said. “We’re looking for General Wolff.”

“General Solomon Wolff,” he repeated.

Ebony stared down Ferdy’s line of sight. “Down there,” she pointed. “Ferdy’s spotted him.”