Steel Life (Cape High Series Book 25), page 18
A rock shoots up and Cheval’s face appears on the screen. “Please identify yourself,” she says.
“Ah, yes, I knew it would be near here,” he says, walking over. “Cheval, lovely to see you once again.”
“Mastermental!” she says, breaking into a smile. “A bit late for a social visit, don’t you think?”
“Unfortunately, this is not a social visit. I need to speak with Rochester.”
“Oh… dear… he’s at his other job right now,” she says. “I can call and have him come—”
“No, I can go to him, thank you,” he says, lifting a hand. This is actually the first time he’s been sent to do Nico’s dirty work. Usually Nico sends one of his students, or the other apartment dwellers. Truthfully, a part of him finds it somewhat irritating, but he understands why it needs to be him.
He taps on the watch he’s wearing, bringing up a hologram. For a moment he searches through the various destinations that have been pre-programmed in. Then, growing irritated, he speaks. “Technico, please set destination to Rochester’s second workplace.”
He disappears a second later, leaving Cheval to look out at the empty area, curiously. After a moment, the panel drops down, hidden once again.
***
A second later, Mastermental appears in front of a small bar in the French Quarter. He steps to the right just as someone is thrown out of the building. He does take a moment to dust off his uniform as the man hits the ground.
“An’ STAY OUT!” Rochester says to the man, “At least until yer sober,” he adds, and then breaks into a grin as he sees Mastermental. “If it ain’t Mastermental, himself!” he says, coming out. “To what do we owe the pleasure?” he asks, shamelessly holding out a bare hand.
Mastermental looks at the hand, amused. He takes it, only to have Rochester groan and grab his head. “I knew that would happen,” Rochester admits, starting to laugh. “So, what’s up?” he asks, looking into the bar again.
“I need your assistance,” Mastermental says. “Nico says that you and I should go for a short trip across the world.”
“Ah, okay, sure,” Rochester says, clearly hesitating. “But tonight’s a—”
“He wants to know what Herold has to work with,” Mastermental says a bit bluntly. “He is in the area. He took Jack captive this evening.”
“Jack?” Rochester repeats, his eyes widening with surprise. “He kidnapped Jack?” his voice is a bit too loud, but the music blocks it out. He brings out his phone and sends a quick text before heading for Mastermental. “Let’s go,” he says. “Should we be lookin’ for Jack, while we’re out there?”
“No, he escaped,” Mastermental says, smiling slightly. He rather likes Rochester. It’s a shame that they both realize he’s more useful in this branch than he would be in Central. “But Herold has a few very important items thanks to the kidnapping, and it has become a matter of… concern.”
“I’d say so,” Rochester says dryly, placing a hand on Mastermental’s shoulder as soon as they turn a corner, stepping into the shadows. They disappear, leaving the man lying in the alley staring blankly at where they’d just been. He looks at the half-filled bottle in his hand and very calmly puts it down, stumbling away from it.
***
Mastermental looks around the jungle where they’ve just appeared, sensing several minds around them. It’s quite interesting to see just how intelligent the monkeys are, but it’s a bit disturbing to hear the sound of guns being cocked, at the same time. Rochester looks around as well, and then slips his shoes off, walking barefoot.
Mastermental has no need to touch the other man to see what he’s seeing. The world is suddenly covered in several layers of memories, most of them monkeys moving around, bugs flying, etcetera, but then he stops, finally reaching the time that Herold had been on the island. The two men watch as he lands, looking around for a moment before heading through the forest—away from the creepy castle like house. They follow him, not saying anything, even though they both realize it’s a memory. He stops, searching the densely wooded area in fast forward and then suddenly crouching and running a hand over the ground. They watch as he finds a handle, pulling open a hatch in the ground.
“Did Nico know of this place?” Mastermental asks as Roch reaches down, opening the hatch in present time.
“I guess not,” Roch says as he starts down the stairs. No lights come on, nothing. It’s a wonder that Herold even found it. “How did he know this place was here?” he asks as they make their way down the stairs. He has to focus on the present, because he’s actually stepping on the stairs. Herold hadn’t bothered, and Mastermental isn’t, either.
“Perhaps he has more experience with hidden lair placements than Nico does,” Mastermental says. Roch nods, but stops as they reach the bottom of the stairs, looking around the room. There are files—not computers, actual manila folders—piled all around them. They turn, watching the memory of Herold heads for a small table in the back, picking up a tube of mud.
“Clay?” Herold says, tapping on the tube experimentally. The mud moves, but there’s no verbal response.
“Or perhaps he found out from an old friend of his,” Mastermental says, grimly.
In the memory, Herold smiles slightly. “I suppose you’re too far away to control this, aren’t you? That’s… extremely useful.” He puts the tube down, but watches it for a moment before starting to work. Rochester waves a hand, and things begin to fast forward. They watch silently as he reads through the files as mechanical parts float around behind him. Item after item is rebuilt, until a base much like Nico’s stands there in the memory. He often takes a moment to pick up the tube and speak to it, even connecting it to the machines and scanning it for long periods of time. He even captures a few of the monkeys, experimenting on them before releasing all but one, which he makes into a pet.
At one time they see him take a call from someone, pretending to be a pizza salesman, and Mastermental’s expression turns ice cold. He says nothing, though. A few moments later Herold pours out the mud onto the table and starts forming it into parts before heating them with his powers to bake them. He incorporates the parts into a vest, which he quickly takes apart and rebuilds into a pendent the size of his hand. There’s a smug smile on his face as he looks it over. Of all his creations, this is the first time he’s looked that way. Mastermental and Rochester look at one another, the same sense of unease filling them both.
In the memory, Herold abruptly looks up, letting out a curse before waving a hand. All of the things he’d built break back down into scraps, and drop in the corner of the room—and then he’s gone. The only things he took with him were the monkey and the pendent he’d built off of the schematics of the vest, and he’d been wearing it ever since he created it.
Rochester goes over to the corner, digging through the parts and pulling out the newest drawn paper. “This is… huh,” he says, looking at the images there. “Spaceship?”
“What was he thinking when he drew it?” Mastermental asks.
“Leaving,” Rochester says. “He wants off the planet.”
“It is tempting to give him what he wants,” Mastermental admits.
“Ya know what he did ta Doris, don’t you?” Roch says, scowling. Oh, sure, Doris refuses to shake hands with him, but she’s always been straight forward about it. She’s straight forward about EVERYTHING, and she keeps Skye and Ariel happy, which makes her a great person in his eyes.
“Yes, I realize,” Mastermental says. “She is, sadly, not the only victim that he has left behind. But it seems the only things he left with are the strange pendent, and the monkey, yes?”
“Nah,” Rochester says, looking at the files that surround them. “He left with a LOT more than just that. If he’s got the same type of mind as Nico, he left with all of Colleck’s contacts, every single one of these designs, and the capacity ta make them a heck of a lot better.”
They stare at the piles and piles of folders, all created by one of the oldest and greatest minds of the present day—well, it had been until Shadowman got to it. “Nico has always said that it takes a genius to create…” Mastermental says.
“An’ just a smart person ta copy it,” Rochester agrees. “But what if ya take a genius’s work an’ have it copied by another one?”
“I see. We will bring in some staff to sort through all of the files,” Mastermental says. “We need to bring them back to the Hall.”
“But what about the clay?” Rochester asks.
“We will inform Nico,” Mastermental says. “But it does explain his difficulty in finding him.”
***
*The next morning*
Jack drops his surfboard to the ground, his hand firmly on Sandra’s shoulder, a wide grin on his face. “Okay, little sister! Get to work,” he says, motioning to the dirt ground that spreads out in front of them.
She turns, just staring at him. “What are you paying me per hour?” she demands.
“Ten!”
“Twenty,” she says.
“Oh, come on—”
“Twenty or I walk,” she says.
“Fine,” he says, and then taps on his watch. The lines on the ground light up, showing the plans for the basement. It’s a huge area, with several rooms. “I plan on setting up some apartments in the basement for travelers. I know Morgan’s gonna be gone most of the time, an’ since she’s Aubrey’s best friend, well, she can’t live in a hotel when she gets back.”
“She still hates you, though, right?” Sandra says, walking the lines and looking them over. “Sunny’s got that trick of his… let’s try that,” she says, and then lifts her hands, mimicking lifting a heavy object. The ground in front of her rises into the air. She smiles, just a little bit smugly, and turns, dumping all of the dirt right on top of Jack.
He comes up, spluttering, and glares at her as she starts laughing. “It’s just wrong, you doin’ that while wearin’ an illusion!” he complains as he tries to dust himself off as he steps out of the dirt. There are norms filming this, and they’re all wondering who she is. Several of them are certain that she’s Gargoyle Girl, but are afraid to say it too loudly, since if she is, she’s helping a villain. Others think she might be one of the unknown Cape High kids.
“This is a LOT more fun than I thought!” she says, repeating the process. Jack jumps on his board, dodging the dirt rain as well as he can. He has dirt EVERYWHERE, including several clods in his hair. He shoves his hair up with his hands, trying to dislodge them. “I changed my mind, I ain’t payin’ you to throw dirt at me, sis,” he says.
“I’ll charge Aubrey, then,” she says shamelessly, laughing as she keeps digging up the earth. It shifts and changes as she works, forming shapes as she places them around the area. When they start to crumble, she holds out a hand and they harden, turning into “Art.” Jack stares, knowing there’s a trick—and then goes higher, looking down at it.
“You’re NOT puttin’ the words ‘Metal butt’ on my front yard!” he says as she bursts out laughing.
“Suck it up, metal butt!” she says, clearly enjoying this far more than she’d planned. Another massive wall of rocks rise into the air and she moves it to the side, only to look at it thoughtfully and turn it into a one-room house, fusing the rocks together, save for a few windows. “A dog house,” she says, “for when Krispy moves in.”
“Okay, that I can accept. But no argument over who gets him?” he asks, tugging his coat off and shaking it out.
“Nah, I’m not gonna stick him in my underground lair. He needs sunlight,” she says. “But I expect to be able to come visit whenever I wanna see him.”
“You know you can,” Jack says, grinning.
She jumps into the biggest hole, running a hand over one of the walls. They turn into crystal at her touch, and a doorway forms when she traces a finger over the wall. He sits on the board, just watching her work with a hint of amazement.
“Hey! Cold Steel!” he hears someone shout from the crowd. He turns, seeing Chris Campbell standing there, looking enraged. “Did you try and get my brother tossed into prison last night?”
Jack groans, lowering the board so he’s in front of the guy. “Get on,” he says.
“What, going to throw me into prison, too?” Chris demands. “I thought you were cooler than that.”
Jack picks him up by the waist, ignoring how he struggles to get free. “Let go of me!” Chris says, even as the board goes up. He dares to look over the edge, obviously contemplating jumping.
“If you jump, you’ll break something,” Jack says. “So… what happened with your brother?” he asks.
“Shouldn’t you know better than I do?” Chris asks.
“He drive?” Jack asks.
“He’s got no gas in the car,” Chris admits, with a surly look. “We haven’t had cash for gas for weeks.”
“Was he in need of a hospital?” Jack asks, his suspicion growing stronger.
“For what?” Chris asks blankly, and then narrows his eyes. “Did you beat him that hard?” he demands.
“I didn’t,” Jack says. “I ran into him in a hospital, twenty miles from here.”
“What?” Chris says. “What was he doing out there?”
“He was being bait,” Jack hears Nico say over his earbud. “It sounds like Herold’s been watching you for a while.”
“Bait,” Jack repeats, only to groan. “Of course he was. Why am I so stupid?”
“My bet is that you still have some metal in your brain,” Sandra yells up to him, having heard the question.
“Thanks, so much, for that evaluation,” Jack replies irritably.
“Who IS she, anyway? Is that Gargoyle Girl?”
“Yeah,” Jack says, barely thinking about the question.
“Seriously? She looks like THAT in real life?” Chris asks, digging out his phone.
“No,” Jack says.
“She doesn’t look like that?”
“Your brother was used by the same guy that grabbed me last night,” Jack says, not going into an explanation. “And if he knows about your brother, he knows about you.”
“Wait, what?” Chris says, starting to sound like a broken record. “What do you mean someone grabbed you last night? There wasn’t anything on the news or the fan sites!”
“Well, yeah, because this guy is NOT part of the Hall,” Jack says.
“Jack,” Nico says.
“Nico, if he used his brother, he might use this guy, too,” Jack says, touching his earbud. “’Course he might have everything he wants from me…”
“But there’s a chance he doesn’t,” Nico says, but it’s not over the comm link. Jack turns, seeing Nico sitting in the air a bit over his head. “Trust me, I thought about that.”
“How long have you been here?”
“I’ve been setting up lookouts throughout the entire city,” Nico admits. “He’s using something annoying to keep me from finding his tech, and he’s going to go underground while working on production. That little bit he got from you isn’t nearly enough to do something interesting with.”
“Yeah… what happened to this guy’s brother?” he asks.
“They let him go with a slap on the wrist,” Nico says. “But they’re looking into it. I’ve offered them access to the security cameras that are set up on your land. They dislike using my cameras, because they think I could easily alter the footage.”
“Could you?” Jack asks.
“Of course I could,” Nico says easily. “But I don’t need to. I’ve got no reason to frame these guys. I’ve never even seen them before.”
“You two are… friends?” Chris asks, looking back and forth.
“He’s my principal,” Jack says. “He’s the one teaching me to be the best villain I can be,” he adds with a grin. It falls quickly, his serious expression coming back. “We need to get you off of his radar,” he says to Chris. “I might just be bein’ paranoid, but better safe than sorry. Nico, can we send him somewhere?”
“Why should I go anywhere you tell me to?” Chris asks. “You’re gonna get my brother tossed into jail! I don’t HAVE anyone else! It’s just him and me! Our old man’s in jail and our mom, she left years ago. And you’re out to take the only one I have left away from me!”
Jack looks at him for a moment, and then sighs, running a hand over his face. “Ya know… I want to sympathize, an’ a part of me does,” he says softly. “I’ve been there. But… with a guy livin’ like that, do you really think he gives a crap about what happens to you? He’s an adult, right? So where’s his job? Even if he doesn’t have one, is he even looking for one? Instead, he’s spending his time busting up houses of people he doesn’t even know. If he really cared for you, he’d be working his butt off trying to provide. I won’t blame someone that doesn’t have a job who’s LOOKING for one, but is he? Tell me, Chris.”
Chris looks like he’s been slapped. “I’ve been looking,” he says in a mutter.
“Then we’ll give you a job,” Jack says, touching his earbud. “Max, get me the paperwork for a lackey, would you? You still in school, Chris?” he asks.
“I dropped out,” Chris says, looking away. “I needed the time to find a job… an’ they weren’t teaching me anything, anyway.”
“And get me an application to take the G.E.D.” Jack says. “He might need some classes before he does, but we’ll get it all set up.”
“Why? Why are you offering all this when I hate you?” Chris asks.
“You don’t hate me,” Jack says, looking a bit surprised at the thought. “Does he hate me?” he asks Nico.
“You know I’m even worse at reading people than you are, he might hate you,” Nico says. “Are you sure you want to hire a lackey that has it out for you?”
“I want to hire a guy that’s willing to try, even if he’s in a bad situation,” Jack says, looking at Nico. “He worked hard the other day. I figure he’ll keep working hard, in the right position.”
Chris looks stunned. “What… what about Jackson?” he asks.
