Steel Life (Cape High Series Book 25), page 16
“You’re Kelly, right?” Aubrey asks, heading for the bed. “Can I hold your hand for a moment?”
Kelly hesitates, looking over her shoulder at her parents, who nod and make an encouraging move. Aubrey looks at them as she sits on the edge of the bed, wondering if this was set up by the parents. After a moment she shakes it off, figuring that it doesn’t matter. The Hall had verified that this was an actual case, and from the looks of the little girl, it is.
She reaches out, taking Kelly’s hand. The girl is distracted by the bracelet Aubrey’s wearing. “That’s pretty,” Kelly says. “I like the symbol.”
“Thank you,” Aubrey says. Kelly keeps looking at the bracelet as Aubrey’s hair starts to float around her. Aubrey ignores it, going to work on all the problems that the girl is dealing with. It’s no wonder she’s been from hospital to hospital, Aubrey realizes as she keeps working. The poor girl has gone through a lot.
She barely even notices as Kelly tries to take the bracelet off. “No, sweetie, you can’t have that,” Summer says, jerking Aubrey’s attention back to the present.
“I just want to try it on,” the girl says, looking as if she’d been slapped.
“I’m sorry, I can’t take it off,” Aubrey says, fighting the urge to feel offended. That reaction hadn’t been guilt—it had been acting like a victim; as if Summer had attacked her by telling her no. That sort of thing just doesn’t set well with Aubrey. But… little girls like shiny things, that’s not that big of a deal, right? She can’t focus on that sort of thing while working. “But I’m glad you like it. My boyfriend made it for me.”
“You have a boyfriend?” Kelly asks, excitedly.
“I do,” Aubrey says, giving her a smile before going back to work. This is a full-body job. The disease has spread throughout her body, and it’s resisting Aubrey. Aubrey frowns slightly and pushes harder, taking it out spot by spot.
“I feel funny,” Kelly whispers.
“It’s okay, sweetie,” Summer says, sitting on the other side of the bed. “You have some very pretty flowers here.”
“They aren’t real,” Kelly says. “I never get to see real flowers. They say they’ll make me sneeze. The metal is moving,” she says, drawn back to the bracelet that Aubrey is wearing. “Why is it moving?”
“And… we’re done,” Aubrey says, finally pulling her hand away. She can’t help but look down at the bracelet to make sure it’s still there. She smiles at the question. “It’s a magical bracelet,” she tells the girl. “Now, I really do need to be going—”
A loud thump comes from the wall between the room and the hallway. The boring picture that’s hanging there falls to the ground, the glass shattering.
“What in the world—” Kelly’s mother says as Aubrey and Summer race out the door.
They stop, Aubrey groaning loudly as she sees her boyfriend pinning a man to the wall a foot off of the ground, his other hand clenched in a threatening manner.
“What in the world are you doing?” Aubrey asks him.
“This is one of the guys that messed up all those houses in my neighborhood,” Jack growls. The hospital guards are running their way, pulling out their stun guns, ready to take on the rough looking man with the mohawk. He’s still wearing his illusion watch, so they don’t realize who he is.
“Jack, honey,” Summer says, her hands on her stomach, “put the man down, please. We can take him to the police station. This is outside of our jurisdiction.”
“I didn’t do anything!” the man says as soon as Jack puts him down. “I don’t even know this guy! Who do you think… you…” he stops as Jack lifts his hand and pointedly taps on his watch. The guards who’ve been running up to this point stop, looking shocked.
The man he’d just put down lets out a curse of shock and turns, attempting to make a run for it. Before he can get very far he finds himself grabbed by a vine. It lifts him into the air.
“Lady Rose, you need to be more careful,” Aubrey says. The man looks at her, hopefully, clearly thinking she’s standing up for him. “I know you’re used to lifting heavy objects, but I still don’t want to threaten your sense of balance,” Aubrey says, patting her arm.
“Oh, yes, you’re right,” Summer says. “Jack, honey, let’s take him outside—or perhaps you would be willing to take him off of our hands?” she asks the guards that are just watching the scene.
“I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” a doctor says, storming over. The sight of Jack in all his metallic glory and Summer and Aubrey in masks doesn’t even make him hesitate. “This is a place that must be peaceful and reassuring, and right now it’s neither. So either you leave by choice, or I call the cops—”
“Just one thing,” Aubrey says, holding out her arms. A light spreads out from her body, rushing over the entire floor, much to their shock. She floats for a second, and then drops to her feet. “There. Cold Steel, honey, we’re leaving.”
Jack looks at the guy he’s holding. He looks at the guards who are staring at him warily. “If I give him to you, will you turn him into the police?” he asks.
“We would be going off of your word against his,” the boldest one says. “And you’re the one that attacked him in a hospital.”
“Then I’ll take him,” Jack says, digging in his pocket and pulling out a handful of ball bearings. They shift in his hold, turning into a set of cuffs, which he puts on the man.
“I want my lawyer!” the man says, struggling against his hold. “This is a super attack! I want the entire world to see—”
“We have it on video,” Jack says, right next to his ear. “You’re so caught it ain’t funny. Did you really think bashin’ in the windows of a bunch of single moms’ places was gonna make me happy?” he asks.
“Why wouldn’t you be?” the man asks in a surly tone. “They’re the ones that hate you! They’re the ones that did somethin’ to you! I ain’t done nothin’!”
Jack snorts, dragging the man to the stairs. “We’re leaving. If you want to call the cops on me, go ahead. They need to deal with this guy, anyway.”
The ladies follow him, watching the guards a bit warily, in the case of the black suits. They don’t speak until they’re halfway down the stairs. “They’re going to call the cops, you know,” Riley says.
“I know,” Jack says. “It’s standard procedure for security when dealing with a cape in a situation that hasn’t been pre-planned.”
“I’m so proud; you’ve been paying attention in class!” Summer says. Jack looks over, groaning as he realizes he’s making her take the steps pregnant.
“We should have taken the elevator,” he says. “Summer, you want me to carry you? Or I could see about findin’ a metal sheet somewhere—” They start to laugh as he looks around. “What?”
“I’m sure you’d be able to find PLENTY of metal sheets here, honey, but most likely they’re already being used,” Aubrey says.
“I can handle stairs, Jack, but thank you for your concern,” Summer says. The man that Jack is forcing to come along stumbles, almost falling, but Jack picks him up easily.
“What about me, huh? I’m having trouble,” the man says.
“You’d probably trip just to say I pushed you,” Jack says, cynically.
“You’re a real jerk, you know that?” the man asks, looking at him.
“I was a lot like you, once,” Jack says. “If you think I don’t get what you’re thinkin’, you’ve got a lot of learnin’ to do.”
“How were you like me?” the man demands.
“I’m a mad scientist’s creation,” Jack says with a little grin. “Before I was Cold Steel, I was just a punk hanging out on the streets.”
“Then you should hate them even more—”
“Nah, man,” Jack says as they reach the first floor. “It’s people like you that give them reason to be scared of guys like me. Why’d you gotta do that, huh? Do you really think I can’t deal with my own problems? Or were you just using me as an excuse to break stuff? I don’t like being used as an excuse. You just pawn off the trouble to me that way. I don’t remember hiring you for anything.”
The man has a glower on his face that says he’d be fighting more if he hadn’t just been lifted like a child. He stumbles again, but Jack catches him, setting him back on his feet. They head out the front of the hospital as nurses and patients watch them warily, right into the center of a ring of cop cars.
“Cold Steel! Let go of the norm!” a cop calls over a megaphone. “Do not make us call in your Hall leader!”
Jack looks at them, and then over at Summer and Aubrey. “Go on,” he says. “I can handle this.”
“Oh, really,” Aubrey says.
“Yeah, I got classes on it,” he says. Summer and Aubrey step back, letting him take “center stage.”
“He attacked me!” the man Jack is holding cries out. “I was just walking down a hall and he attacked me! I think my ribs are broken!”
“Assaulting a norm goes against Hall law,” the cop says.
“I just grabbed him,” Jack says, irritably. “Look, I have the video of him vandalizing several houses—Technico, I DO got a video, don’t I?” he asks more quietly, tapping on his watch. The strangest thing happens—he gets static as a reply. “Technico?” he repeats, tapping on the watch again.
“Call the Hall,” the cop says to the man behind him. He calls, but then frowns and taps on his phone a few times.
“I’ve got no signal,” the other cop says. “We can’t stay here, though, we’re blocking the entrance of the hospital.”
“We… could take him in?”
“And his hostage,” another agrees.
“Do you REALLY think we can force Cold Steel to stay in a jail cell with metal bars?” the cop with the megaphone asks, dryly. “It would be like inviting Technico into a tech store and expecting him to not do anything.”
“Technico?” Jack repeats, still tapping on his watch. He reaches up, tapping on his earbud, and getting more static. He turns, looking at Summer and Aubrey. “Are either of you getting a signal?”
They check, even bringing out their phones. “Nothing,” Aubrey says. “Grab on, we can teleport—” she taps on her watch, and then groans as she realizes it’s not working.
“This isn’t normal,” Summer says, looking around. She pauses as she sees a man disappear into the crowd. Her hands clench and she takes a step forward, only to stop as several guns cock. The cops are starting to get worried. None of their communication devices are working, either.
Jack lets go of the man and lifts both hands into the air. “Fine,” he says. “Take me in, and take that guy in, as well. Any key will work on those cuffs,” he says, looking past the cops. “But we can’t block a hospital like this. We could cause problems for a lot of people.” He looks back at Aubrey. “Go back to the apartments and get Mastermental and Nico,” he says. “They can handle this without anyone getting into trouble.”
“You’re going to jail, honey,” Aubrey says dryly. “I think we’re past that.”
“I’m coming with you,” Summer says. “Something’s going extremely wrong, here, and—”
“Yeah,” Jack says, cutting her off. “There’s no way in hell that Nico’s tech would just suddenly cut out. That’s why we can’t argue right now. Go get Nico.”
“We’re going to ask you to stop chit-chatting,” the cop with the megaphone says.
“You’re right, someone come take this guy,” Jack says, pointing at the man. “His name is Jackson Campbell, he’s got a rap sheet already, so you should have plenty to talk to him about. Now, whose car am I going in? Wait, better yet, take me in the bus. I won’t mess up the shocks on that as much.” He starts forward, only to pause. “You want me in cuffs, first?”
“That would just be giving you a weapon, wouldn’t it?” one cop asks, although the vast majority of them are trying to hide their relief at how compliant he’s being.
Jack turns, looking all around, searching for something, but not finding it. He pauses as he reaches the cop with the megaphone. “We need to get out of here quickly,” he says.
“What?” the cop asks.
“Technico tech can work from outer space,” Jack says. “It ain’t workin’ here. Somethin’s goin’ on that I can’t handle. You think you can?” And then he climbs into the back of the van, which rocks dangerously with his weight.
Behind him, Aubrey, Summer, and the black suits head for their van, which is far enough away in the parking lot that it starts up. They head off as quickly as they can, only glancing through the back windows as the line of cop cars drive away.
***
“I know who you are,” the cop driving the van says casually as he looks in the rear view mirror at Jack. “A lot of the guys in the area still remember you from… you know, before.”
“Yeah?” Jack says, grinning slightly. “Bet you’re glad I’m not hangin’ out in the old areas, huh?”
“We definitely are,” he says. “Not because of what you’re thinking, though. It’s good to see how much you’ve turned your life around.”
“Didn’t stop me from winding up in the back of a cop car,” Jack says, looking around for a moment before digging his phone out of his pocket. He taps on it, hoping that he’s out of the range of the block. All he sees is static. A part of him wants to curse, but the other part relaxes slightly, because he’s positive that it had followed him and not Summer and Aubrey.
“What happened?” the cop asks.
“We’re being followed,” Jack says, not bothering to hide it. “I ain’t sure why, because Nightstep is the one this guy should be most P.O.’ed at…” He looks at his watch, seeing the metal there. “No, maybe I do know why,” he admits a second later.
“Who is following us?” the cop asks, glancing in the mirror as if he’ll be able to see them that way.
“His name is Herold,” Jack says. “At least that’s who I think it is. It COULD be Firefly’s ma, but I don’t think so… I mean, blocking Technico comms from getting through takes more than just some static electricity.”
“Firefly’s mother?” the cop asks. “Was she the one that attacked you at the wedding?”
“You saw that, huh?” Jack asks, even as the motor on the van blows out and they slow to a stop. “Yeah, it ain’t her,” he says, getting to his feet. Before he’s even fully upright, the back door of the van is ripped off and he’s grabbed, physically, and hauled away.
The cop doesn’t even realize what’s happened until he hears the door hit the ground.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Nico looks at the metallic guinea pig sitting on the table, examining it thoroughly for a moment before nodding and rubbing Clinky’s head with a finger. “Good job, little buddy,” he praises him. “You got all of the parts exactly where they should be. I’m proud of you.”
Clinky lets out a proud squeak and poses dramatically. It’s even reaching the PETS of the school, not that Nico even notices.
“Now we’ll just do this—” Nico says, waving a finger through the air. The metallic guinea pig that had just been built starts to move, his eyes glowing bright yellow. He looks around, and then up at Nico.
“Nyaa,” he says.
“Squeak,” Clinky corrects him.
“Sque…yaa,” Micro says.
“Squeak squeak,” Clinky says with a little shrug. It’s close enough!
“Now, as soon as we arrange for some fur, you two will be sharing the tubes, so you better get along well, or at least figure out a sched—”
“NICO!” Aubrey’s voice bellows over the speakers. “Nico, we have a problem! Something just blocked our transmissions to you—phones, earbuds, everything! Jack’s been taken in by the cops for grabbing a guy—”
“The man was one of the people that vandalized the houses in his new neighborhood,” Summer says.
“But he went with the police and told us to come find you. We’re almost to the school area, but we don’t want to go there in case he’s following us,” Aubrey finishes.
“No, he’s not following you,” Nico says, a twitch showing up under his eye. He should have noticed the moment it happened, darn it! “He’s after Jack. Computer, bring up Cold Steel’s location,” he orders the wall.
A map of the entire Central Hall appears on the wall, with one blank area that’s glaring out obviously at him. He stares at it for a moment, feeling the urge to punch Herold in the face all over again. It had calmed, while Herold was in the Cape Cells. He’d started to appreciate the man’s intellect, if nothing else, but now that they’re back on opposite sides again, he’s right back to wanting to hit him.
“Nico,” Summer says. “What… what can Herold do to Jack?”
He doesn’t reply, because none of them want to hear it.
“Won’t the E.P.B. stop Herold from… from hurting him?” Aubrey asks quietly.
“If… let’s just say we need to find him,” Nico says.
“What about the security field, Nico? Can he get through our security fields?”
“No,” Nico says. “He can’t get through that. I couldn’t, so he can’t. That’s not a problem. I’m heading out now. I’ll get Jack back.”
“I… I should have said yes when he asked,” Aubrey whispers.
“You’ll get to,” Nico says. “Herold isn’t a—” he stops, because he can’t say with a clear conscience that Herold won’t kill him. “Well, he’s not stupid enough to just kill the golden goose,” he says after thinking about it for a moment.
“How is Jack a golden goose?” Summer asks, suspiciously. “Have you been experimenting on him, Nico?”
“I just took a hair or two,” Nico says. “Don’t have time to talk, honey, I’ve got a kid to save!” And he runs, although they all realize he can talk while flying. That’s just not an argument he really feels like having right now. Besides, Jack had GIVEN him the hairs!
