Soda Supreme, page 7
~Nope. Reese is actually better that way than most people, so it isn’t bad, really. Also, he’s been being responsible that way, not even flirting with her, so nothing to worry about. I would also add that he’s a bit better with gun and knife than it sounded like earlier. His unarmed could use some work, actually. I’d guess that he’s at about a blue belt level, right now? That isn’t horrible, for fifteen hours of work, but it could come up that he needs more than that.~
There was a nod then, from Lichen.
“You have that, Luminous? Can you work more time for that into the schedule?” He glanced at Carl and Hannah then.
Chloe waved then.
“Get me in on that as well? I can’t promise I won’t perv out on him, of course. Still, you’re what, sixteen?”
Megan outed him, proving she wasn’t the cool mom.
“Fourteen...”
Chloe grinned.
“So, legal, for me at least? Sweet. No competition at all. We also need someone to go over his powers? Who does time or something similar?”
Hannah knew the correct answer for that, even if it wasn’t about time at all.
“Kate can teleport, which seems slightly related?”
Proving that he had a sense of what was really going on, Tomas Lichen waved at Reese.
“There you go, the last of your free time, totally gone. Extra work and you aren’t even getting paid... We can claim it’s an internship? Unpaid, of course. It will look good on your college applications.”
That settled, they had to send six people to get the delivered food. Hannah had already paid for it, but sent two hundred down with the others, as a tip. It was a vast order, after all. Mexican, since that was what Veronica had assessed most of them as liking. Oddly enough, she seemed to be correct. Hannah was fine with that, but everyone else seemed to be more or less happy with it as well. As they ate, Lichen had Reese get everyone’s contact information, and then work out a code phrase, in case they had to contact each other on open lines. After that he did the team assignments, with only a little bit of help from Lichen.
That was mainly due to the fact that the technical team was being headed up by Brain Trust, since he had copies of the minds of about a hundred of the world’s greatest thinkers, inside of him. The second in command was interesting, being Tyler.
Terry and Chloe were on that team, along with Veronica.
The street side team had Vidya in as second, with Linear being the one in charge. When that happened, even if the room simply accepted it, Hannah worked out what had to be happening. Alistair was feeding Reese information. Linear was very trusted, by the telepath. Which probably meant he was the real deal that way, even if no one else there could see it, on the outside. It was a thing to keep in mind.
It also explained why Reese had suddenly started acting so commanding. He had information the rest of them didn’t. She would have been jealous, but figured that Al hadn’t helped her that way because he wanted her to do her own psychic work. Hannah wasn’t as good, or as fast, as he was, but you didn’t gain that kind of skill by not practicing.
There was no sudden shouting about how she was dead wrong, inside her mind, so she figured that was pretty close to being what was taking place. Hannah, sitting on her light-colored sofa, tried to eat then, feeling a bit better, stomach wise. That probably meant the drugs were wearing off. Using a fork and the side of her wrapped up arm to stabilize the plate, she ate a rather standard burrito. At least she tried to. It didn’t work very well. Eventually she had to pick that up and attack it like a savage. Thankfully everyone else was doing the same thing, so she didn’t look that bad.
After cleaning up, Reese and Jaime taking a few large garbage bags around for that, and everyone policing themselves, she sighed.
“Right. Into a trance. I’ll see what I can find. Who’s going to call for me?”
Only four or five people in the room got the idea. If she went deep enough to shut off her conscious mind properly, she wasn’t going to be able to ask the right questions. Since that was her goal, at the moment, to go so deep she was actually using a lot more of her natural abilities, she was going to need someone to do that.
Debbie, looking cute in the green skirt and matching blouse she had on, waved.
“I’m doing that part, sweetie. First, I need to know everything we have on this.”
There was actually a danger in that, since if the person guiding things knew what was going on, they could, inadvertently, lead the psychic to look at the wrong things. Debbie knew that though, and was probably as good as anyone could be at not allowing it to influence her too much.
The weird part was that Hannah had to ignore everyone, as they sat there, watching her work. She did it though and after a bit, starting in at least a light trance, she left them all behind. Focusing only on her goal and the voice she heard.
She knew she was talking, and understood the words as they came out, but couldn’t, for the life of her, recall what she was saying the next moment. Instead of worrying about it, she let herself move into the idea. Trying to see what she needed. That was there, in front of her. Places, names from identification cards, phone numbers and other things. She opened her eyes, when Debbie told her to, the woman smiling.
“Well! That was faster than normal. We need to check the information out, but two people, with all their information, in five minutes is... Significant.”
Green Runner, Accel, moved to the computer and started to use it, without asking. He moved quickly, but not faster than a person normally could. Not really. The typing was intense. The spaces were shorter than normal, between the tapping sounds, she thought.
“We... Have hits. The numbers and names are of real people and the other information, including addresses, matches up. Perfectly. Um, Telepath Person, does that match with what you have, as well?”
Alistair’s mental voice hit the whole room again.
~It does. Perfectly, in fact. Call me Al?~
That got a nod from the man, who was in costume, but with his mask off, since they were all rocking that look, that night. He wasn’t anyone she recognized. His face was a bit boring to look at, to be honest. Plain and slightly wrinkled, without actually making him seem ancient.
The man on the computer nodded then.
“Who’s going in on this, then? We should probably have someone on each of these people who can match or beat their powers. Also, a good back up team.”
That was guiding, but Reese was looked at directly, as if he were honestly still in charge.
“Um, Wisp, can you collect people up for us and take them in? We... Need Hannah or Al to baffle their telepath. Alistair is stronger.” He ducked a bit, and looked almost ashamed of himself.
Hannah simply nodded.
“I can’t stop a person like that, yet. Not that I know of. I’ll work on it?”
Lashondra smiled at her, it was a big and bright thing.
“Good. Besides, you already impressed everyone, for today.”
Reese nodded.
“She really did. That was kind of cool, finding those people like that. Um, so, Wisp, Al from a distance and then... Carl, who would you want for this, if you were going in?”
The thin man stared back, seeming almost like he was going to mock the kid.
“For the telepath or the teleporter?”
“The teleporter.”
There was silence for a moment.
“Accel, Zip, Guardia and me. Damsel if she didn’t have a broken wing, on backup. The truth is, any of us could probably do it alone, in a pinch. D. do we get a map of the location?”
He was talking to her, so Hannah nodded.
“Christopher? Can you draw that for me? I can do this....” She didn’t pause, her mind sinking again. Talking, gesturing and after a bit, coming back to herself. Debbie tapping her on the shoulder. Gently, but it was a real thing, not a game.
“There you are. Girl, that was deep. Good work. We have both locations. No traps or alarms, either. Are you going to run a live blow by blow for us?”
She nodded, but didn’t speak. This time she watched, enough of her conscious mind being aware to recall what was happening. Not that they needed her.
Wisp took Carl in first, dressed as Luther, and he beat the teleporter in the head with the side of a large gun. His Deagle fifty cal. The Desert Eagle didn’t even get blood on it. The woman with the powers went down and didn’t get up. Part of that was due to Guardia having come in with a syringe of something that kept her down. Zip and Accel both stood there, when they were in place, applauding rapidly. Hannah heard sarcastic cheering, at the same time, but that might have just been in her own mind. Or the mind of one of the others.
It was too hard to tell, even sitting there in a trance.
The telepath only had one trick, stunning people. That meant he wasn’t aware of being surrounded until after the next team took him down. Again, they used several fast people, but Accel did all the work for them. Then, ten minutes after they started, they had to move to The Society headquarters, since keeping prisoners at her apartment would have been illegal.
Apparently, they were following the law, that day.
Chapter five
The Society, it turned out, was made up of horrible stick in the muds who at least tried to live by the rules of the world they lived in. At least they weren’t going to allow Hannah to go and torture the needed information from the two supes they’d collected that day. She, it turned out, wasn’t even allowed to question them, or stand in the hallway as they walked in, suggestively fingering a knife.
Hannah knew this, having asked. Several times. For some reason, everyone seemed to think she was playing about the idea. Still, even if she wasn’t allowed to go and confront the freaks, she was allowed into the rather nice observation room, as a government agent from Homeland Security talked to the teleporter first.
The woman was older, and looked like everyone in the world’s grandmother, now that Hannah got to see her in person. She had a mouth like a sailor though, and took one look at the man who walked in and smirked.
“I didn’t do it. Even if I did, you couldn’t prove it and no one is ratting me out, since, as I just said, I’m innocent. I also know everything you’re about to say is a lie, meant to get me to confess to things I didn’t do. I demand a lawyer!”
She really should have said the last bit first, but the Agent simply nodded.
“No. You don’t get a lawyer. You’re being processed outside of the common legal structure, under the Special Super Human Act of Ninety-Seven. You don’t have any rights in this place. You may be drugged, confined, bound or mutilated to prevent you from using any powers, if needed for the safety of personnel here. If you attempt to use any abilities to escape, you will be executed. We have several weapons trained on you right now, and the machines and agents holding them all have reflexes that you can’t beat. Not even as a...” The man looked at the paper then, pretending to read up on the woman. “Teleportation, is it? Point to point, but you can’t do it yourself? You also have weight and energy limitations?”
The woman glared at him, for a long time, not speaking. The man finally leaned forward.
“Your computer records show that you took a job, three days ago. Moving a package that weighed under a hundred and ten pounds, to a specific location. What can you tell me about that?”
The woman seemed honestly baffled, for a moment.
“I had a job come in and did the work. Three thousand dollars for about twenty seconds of work. The timing was crucial. It wasn’t even a long distance. About four hundred miles. Is that what this is about? I did the work. The buyer got back with me and paid the second half, confirming that. How is that a problem? I didn’t cheat him!”
The Agent pretended to read more.
“Well, you transported a young woman, and your buyer was planning to rape and kill her. More to the point, have her raped first, and beaten, then do it himself. It wasn’t even a personal matter, just a freak who wanted to fuck a celebrity.”
The old lady grimaced then.
“I don’t know anything about that! I’m just like Fed-Ex. I don’t open the package first, I just send it to its destination...”
The man, who looked to be in his sixties or so, with silver hair and enough lines to seem like he worked in a lumber yard, instead of under soft office lighting, nodded.
“Sure. That makes sense, even. We have a record of the payment schedule and everything. You also just admitted to kidnapping a woman, even if you didn’t know it was happening. If Fed-Ex did that, someone would be going to prison, don’t you think?”
There was no talking for a long time, the woman just being looked at.
“What do I do? I mean, I sent the package, using my powers. I can’t tell if it’s alive, or drugs or anything. Who... Who was it? You said that my client wanted to fuck a celeb, right?”
Hannah would have thought the man would lie then, or claim that information was secret, to protect her. Clearly, the real-life rules were different than the ones she’d seen on television. At least the man pretended to look at his file. From where Hannah was sitting she could see the whole thing was blank, at least after he turned the top sheet.
“Hannah de Peyser. Some kind of minor reality star? I don’t know the name. Not in that context.”
The old woman put her hands to her face, or tried to. It required bending over, since she was cuffed to the table. Hannah had learned how to escape, if she was the one in a similar situation. It probably wouldn’t work, but that was a size issue. Sometimes, with cuffs, if she couldn’t pick the lock, she could slide out of them, being as small as she was.
“Fucking hell. I kidnapped Wilderness Hannah and she was raped? Fuck... Just... Fuck. I... My not knowing won’t help. That poor dear...”
The woman seemed to actually mean it. Also, she knew who Hannah was, or so it seemed. That could be acting, but if so, she couldn’t see a reason for it.
The Agent laughed a bit then. It was forced and fake.
“Oh, no... You took her, some telepath mind fucked her, so she couldn’t wake up and when she did, with her hands behind her, a hood taped around her neck...” The man leaned in, seeming almost like he was going to scream. That or kiss the woman across from him. They looked to be about the same age, so that part wasn’t even gross. “She took them all, in a fight. Four armed men against one tiny woman. Then she called in people from three different super groups and a few others that I couldn’t even get a phone call in to, and they hunted that fucking rapist mother fucker down. He’s dead. Let that sink in. You kidnapped a woman who put four adult men in the hospital and helped another into his grave... How do you think you’re going to fare?”
The man shook his head, the woman not moving at all.
“Worse... She’s the one that found you. De Peyser herself, located you, using psychic powers and sent her friends to get you. They can do that anywhere in the world. At any time. Even locking you up in prison won’t save you.”
He shook his head, his voice going incredibly phony then.
“So, what do we do with you? Everyone around here, and I mean all of them, think we should put a bullet in your head, just so we don’t have her coming after us. The President asked Superion X and Diaspora, both of them, personally, to protect you, just for the night.”
The woman relaxed then. At least she sat up.
“Why? I mean, why bother? I didn’t mean to do anything wrong. I just have to pay my rent. I move goods. Look, sure, sometimes it isn’t legal. I know that. I don’t do people. I can only move about a hundred and seventeen pounds. She’s small, but most people...”
The man grimaced then.
“Except kids? How many times have you sent kids to be raped and to their death? Other women? You offer your services on the dark web, May. That isn’t exactly the yellow pages.”
The woman shuddered, visibly shaking.
“But... The President wants me safe? He asked those two to protect me? They can do that. No one can beat them.”
On that the older fellow smiled.
“Probably true. Certainly not some little blonde girl with a knife and a gun. Except, when the President asked them to do that, both of them asked him to very kindly go fuck himself. I’m not exaggerating. When asked to ignore the President of the United States or go up against some heiress with a bit part on some cable television program, they didn’t even hesitate to pick her. Do you know why that is? Because I sure as hell don’t.”
The woman was wide eyed, and seemed freaked. Probably thinking that Hannah was going to come for her. Which was tempting, really. This time she had her forty-four on her, after all. A fresh knife, too, since she still needed to clean her main one. The blood had to be horrible for the blade.
Next to her Vidya shrugged.
“He’s just softening her up. It isn’t really needed. She kidnapped someone and teleporters aren’t allowed to be kept in prison. She’s dead, if she doesn’t take a deal. Her power could be useful, so it’s probably going to be about that. You know, she works for us now, or else?”
Hannah made a face, then shook her head, slowly.
“Fine. I can live with that. She’ll be watched? So she can’t do this to anyone else?”
That got a nod.
“Or I can hold Agent Glenn there while you stab her a few hundred times? Either way.”
Hannah got up then, as the man kept speaking. What he was saying, she didn’t know. When she moved, Vidya, dressed in her work clothes, a cute leather skirt made of strips and a leather bodice that couldn’t have been that great in a fight, even if it did amazing things for her bust line, was right there with her. When they got to the hallway, there was another Agent, a more youthful guy, who seemed a bit nervous on seeing them. He was glancing at Vidya more than at her, which was probably correct, all things being equal. More so when he noticed who was standing there.
“May I help you?”
Hannah nodded and pointed at his hands.
“Is that some kind of offer for that woman? May Poscant?”
