King of Superheroes 3, page 22
With the plan decided, we spent the remainder of our flight attempting to mentally switch off so we could save all of the energy we could muster.
We were definitely gonna need it.
The jet eventually landed after the sun had set, and we were greeted by another arranged driver. Dahlia quickly vetted him and seemed to exchange some sort of codeword, and then we got in the back. We instructed the driver to drop us off at San Francisco Bay, and once we were there, we made our way down to the water.
As we walked down the dock, I noticed a small skiff was tied to the end, and I headed toward it with my team behind me. I didn’t feel great about stealing someone’s boat, but this mission was too important, and we needed to stay as incognito as possible. We’d return the boat, but only after we got what we came for.
“It’s not very big,” Hannah observed once we’d stopped beside the vessel. “How are we all going to fit?”
“As long as I’ve got sight of the island, I can push us toward it with my telekinesis,” I explained. “I think we’ll all fit minus one of us. Rhiannon, can you follow us from above?”
“I can do that.” My Tempest girlfriend nodded.
“Stay low, though,” I said. “I don’t want anyone to see you.”
Rhiannon nodded again before she started hovering over the dock, and the rest of us clambered into the boat, which was nowhere near as sturdy as it looked.
“Are you sure this is going to work?” Dahlia asked as she gripped the side of the rocking boat.
“I got this,” I assured my team while I untied the boat from the dock.
Then I sat with my back facing Alcatraz Island and focused on the waterline of San Francisco. I reached out with my mind and began telekinetically pushing the boat further into the bay, and Rhiannon hovered above us as we slowly floated toward the island.
The force from the waves meant that I had to focus very hard to keep the boat going, since the currents tried to knock us off course. Luckily, after training so hard, I was able to keep the telekinesis up and get us safely to the island. The water was dark around us, as was the shoreline, but I managed to catch sight of a dock and quickly steered us toward it. Then we climbed out of the boat, and I quickly tied it to the dock.
“That felt too easy,” Frank said as he looked around with wary eyes.
“Let’s hope our luck continues,” I said. “Come on, it’s this way.”
I walked ahead and gestured for my team to follow behind me.
Now that we were on the island, we just had to figure out how we were going to get in the buildings.
The gated entrance I’d seen was no longer there and was replaced by an open walkway, so that was one less obstacle to overcome. The watchtower hadn’t been demolished, though, and I tried to reach out with my mind in case there was someone stationed in it. Maybe a security guard of some kind. Danny had mentioned this place was basically a museum in the daytime.
I found myself latching on to something, but it all sounded like complete nonsense.
“There’s someone up there,” I whispered to my team. “I think he’s asleep, though. His thoughts are all over the place. We need to be careful not to wake him.”
“I’ll keep a tab on him,” Dahlia said. “I’ll take control if he becomes a problem.”
We got past the guard tower, and then we followed the same hill I’d been up in my vision. Eventually, we made it to the turn that led to the cellhouse and the old warden’s house, and we continued on until we were in the main courtyard.
Even in the dark, the difference between the warden’s house that I saw in the astral realm and the one that now stood in front of me was shocking. It had gone from a sizable building to a complete shell of its former architecture. Now only half of the outer walls stood facing the northeast side of the island, and the inside had been completely gutted from the fire. It was evident there was no point in us even looking through it, since there was nowhere left for the device to be hidden, so we continued on to the actual prison.
I hadn’t paid much attention to the cellhouse when I was watching the two men, and I didn’t know if the darkness made it look worse, but this place was a dump. It was a huge, utilitarian rectangular concrete building, and it was surrounded by a dry moat. It was three stories high, and from my research, I knew it had four cell blocks.
We scaled the stairs leading up to the front entrance, and a part of me expected a huge spotlight to suddenly be targeted at us with loud sirens sounding out across the island.
But so far, so good.
“You can’t be here!” a deep voice suddenly called out from behind us.
Maybe I spoke too soon.
We turned and saw a guard as he stormed toward us with his hands jammed into his pockets.
“This is private property,” he added. “You kids can only be here during the day, if you’re paying customers.”
He looked pretty pissed, but clearly not pissed enough to walk much faster. Besides, we were probably the most exciting thing that had happened on this island in weeks, if not months. There was no way these guys were getting much action, which maybe explained his lackadaisical approach. That, or he’d definitely just woken up from his second nap on his shift.
“I got this,” Dahlia said and signaled with her hand for us to move back.
Then we watched on as the guard slipped under her control like our mentor cast some kind of spell. His face went lax, and his eyes glazed over. His movements were now robotic as she pulled his strings, and he slowly crossed the courtyard and met us by the main entrance.
“What are you doing?” Hannah asked our mentor in a hushed voice.
“Guards have keys, don’t they?” She smirked.
The guard now stood in front of us, completely expressionless.
“Creepy,” Frank said as he got closer to the guy for a better look.
Dahlia controlled the guy to produce his large set of keys that clanged together on a large ring. He fingered through them until he landed on a large brass key, and he slipped it into the keyhole and turned it. Then he gently pushed the door open.
We all held our breaths as we anticipated an alarm to blare through the building but were pleasantly surprised by silence.
“What are we gonna do about this guy?” Danny jerked his thumb at Dahlia’s newly acquired puppet.
“I’ll park him here,” she said nonchalantly. “He could come in handy. Oooh… speaking of.”
She reached into the holster on his khakis and pulled out a Glock, and we all stared at our mentor and were unable to hide our shock.
Man, she got cooler as the days went on.
“What?” she chuckled as she checked the chamber of the weapon. “My power comes in handy, but it never hurts to have a backup.”
“I don’t know if I’m scared of her or in love with her,” Frank whispered, and he stared after her as she waltzed into the building.
“Back off, buddy.” I laughed and jabbed him in the side before we all followed Dahlia.
The front of the building opened into the administration block, which was made up of a series of offices designated to different ranks. And I knew from the floor plan I’d seen of the cell house that beyond the administration block were the prison cells. So, as we made our way through the block, I knew we were standing in front of the main gate that led to the cell blocks, and my team looked at me expectantly as I studied the door.
“Do we go in?” Hannah asked.
“Won’t hurt to look,” I said as I pushed the door to see if it was locked.
The door slowly creaked open and revealed eerily dark rows of prison cells.
“Man, I bet there’s some pissed ghosts still walking these halls,” Frank said in a hushed tone. “This place sucks, imagine being locked up here.”
I felt Rhiannon move closer to me, and she eventually grabbed my hand. I realized Frank was freaking her out, and she’d come to me for comfort. I gave her hand a reassuring squeeze, but it didn’t help that wind whistled throughout the cellhouse and made some pretty unsettling noises.
“The people they locked up here would’ve sucked, too,” Danny added. “I’m pretty sure Al Capone spent some time here.”
“So pissed and dangerous ghosts with unfinished business,” Frank affirmed. “Got it.”
“Cut it out, Frank,” I said as I carried on moving forward. “Not only are you too old to believe in ghosts, but Al Capone didn’t die here, anyway--”
“Guys!” Frank yelled as he was suddenly pulled into an open cell.
“Frank!” Hannah yelped.
We all darted in behind him to his rescue but were only met with Frank laughing to himself.
“Did I get you, guys?” he asked through a wide, toothy grin.
“Not funny, man.” Danny shook his head.
“Hey, just admit that I got you,” he insisted.
“You got us.” I sighed. “Now, let’s get back to the important stuff, like the power stripping device we’re here to find.”
“Okay, okay.” Frank threw up his hands. “Can’t a guy have a little bit of lighthearted fun? This place is depressing.”
“Behave, Frank.” Our mentor sassily placed a hand on her jutted out hip at our Conduit friend’s unamusing performance.
“Stay focused, my friend,” our healer told Frank. “We can have our fun afterwards.”
“We’re not gonna find anything in these cells, they’ve all been turned out,” I said. “Let’s head to the warden’s office.”
We made our way back through the cellhouse to the administration block. As we sought out the warden’s office, we snooped around in what used to be the armory but quickly deduced that it wasn’t going to be worth our time, so we continued on.
The warden’s office was on the far right of the block and was connected to a secretary’s office and the assistant warden’s office.
The warden’s office itself was a lot smaller than I thought it’d be, considering how extravagant the warden’s house had been. I guess after the fire they didn’t see the point in reinvesting in it to the same degree.
The room, like a lot of the prison, had been clearly staged for tourists to feel like Alcatraz was still running and like a warden would walk through the door at any minute, but that didn’t mean everything here was a decoy.
At least I hoped.
As Rhiannon and Hannah pulled out drawers in the desk, Dahlia started fishing through a filing cabinet. The boys and I took to the other side of the room that had a wardrobe, but it was mostly filled with moth-eaten uniforms that depicted their evolution through the ages.
“Hey, check this briefcase out.” Frank motioned for me to join him.
He held a flashlight up to the battered leather, and I felt my breath catch.
There was no way.
I immediately recognized it from one of the men in my astral projection. Had someone really left it in this staged room?
“Open it,” I said.
Frank clicked the briefcase’s latch, flipped the top open, and then laid it flat on the floor.
“Empty.” He sighed.
“I think it means we’re close, though,” I said. “One of the guys I saw when I astral projected was holding that exact briefcase, unless it’s a replica. But it seems like too big of a coincidence. Let’s keep looking.”
Frank shut the briefcase and slid it back inside the wardrobe he was ransacking, and then we continued searching the rest of the room.
After coming up empty for another ten minutes, Danny broke the silence.
“Mark,” Danny said in a hushed tone. “There’s something behind here.”
I walked over to where he was standing. He had pushed a bookcase away from the wall, and I helped him pull it away further so we could get behind it properly.
I saw a faint outline of a box shape, almost like a mirage, and after further inspection, I assumed we were looking at a safe, but it was hard to tell. This had only happened when I was training with Ghost, and the nature of the cloaking seemed far too similar to my own, which led me to believe it was most likely the work of Gideon.
“I think there’s a safe,” I told Danny. “But it’s been cloaked.”
“Can you uncloak it?” he asked.
“No, I don’t think so,” I admitted as I crouched down beside him. “But I think we can still get inside of it, we just need to figure out the combination.”
“I’ve seen enough spy films to know how to crack one of these,” Danny said. “It would be better if I had a stethoscope, but let me try.”
“Actually, I’ve got a better idea,” I chuckled. “Move out of the way.”
Danny stood clear of the safe and watched as I got closer to it. I felt around the front of the cloaked object until I felt something that resembled a handle I could get a grip on. I grabbed the spoke-like handle until I had a good grip, and then I planted my feet into the ground.
With one forceful pull, the transparent safe door was now in my hand.
Even though the outside was cloaked, it didn’t seem like the contents had been put under the same spell.
“I definitely would’ve been able to do it,” Danny laughed. “But you saved us some time.”
I crouched down and created a crackling ball of fire to help me see, and I held my hand up as I began sifting through the contents. The top shelf was mostly full of old paperwork and ripped open envelopes, so I moved on to the bottom shelf after deciding that paperwork was the least important thing in this room. If we read every bit we’d come across, we’d be here for hours.
The bottom shelf was a lot more interesting.
Behind what looked to be genuine, solid gold bars was a wooden box, and I held my breath as I opened it.
“Is that it?” Danny asked.
I raised my hand with the fireball higher so I could get a better look at the object. I had only gotten a small glimpse of it before Mori pulled me back into the physical realm, but even from what little I’d seen, I knew I was looking at my predecessor’s last project.
The technology was dated, even for a bit of equipment made by an Omega. It was made out of metal and shaped like a rectangle, and a transparent spiral, seemingly made out of glass, came out of the top. There were two buttons on the power stripper, and thanks to that bit of uncomplicated design, I deduced the top button was designed to strip away power and the bottom button was to grant it to another person. Probably. It was at least a fifty-fifty shot.
“We’ve found it!” I called out to the others.
My team gathered around me as they all got a good look at the device.
“Why is it suddenly glowing like that?” Frank asked.
Before I could respond, a loud clang echoed through the hallway, and we all whipped around to face the door.
“What was that?” Rhiannon whispered, but I could still hear her voice shake.
“I don’t know,” I said as I handed the wooden box to Danny. “You guys stay here, I’m gonna check it out.”
I moved slowly toward the door with my heart in my throat.
Are you picking up on anything? I asked Hannah telepathically.
Other than you guys, I can’t get a read on anyone else, Hannah said. Can you see anything?
I held up the ball of fire in my palm to use as a light source and did a full sweep of the adjoining hallway. Then I made my way through the connecting rooms, until I was in front of the main gate leading to the cell blocks. I pulled the gate open and was facing the entrance to what I was sure was B-block, and my shadow flicked menacingly against the prison cells as I looked to either side.
Nothing.
“I can’t see anything!” I called out to my team. “It was probably just an old pipe.”
I turned around to rejoin my team in the warden’s office but was quickly distracted by another shadow in my peripheral vision, and a familiar loud voice bounced through the hall and sent shivers down my spine.
“You didn’t think it would be that easy, did you?”
Chapter Sixteen
“You really thought you’d be able to waltz in and out of here with my property?” Pyro scoffed. “And live? You fledglings get more and more arrogant by the year.”
The world-famous movie star stood broadly at the entrance to the cell blocks. He always had a smarmy look on his face at the best of times, but this time it was mixed with a certain evil that made my stomach turn. I was still holding the fireball in my hand, and the light cast shadows across his face, which was doing him no favors.
I’d only ever seen him in over tailored, far-too-tight business suits, but now he was wearing his super suit. The asshole might have transitioned to Hollywood in the last few years, but he started off like the rest of us. Pyro was a Conduit, so his suit looked a lot like Frank’s. Except where Frank’s was a fiery red that offset his hair, Pyro’s was a deeper shade and almost a smoky burgundy. It reminded me of magma before it completely turned black.
My mind raced with questions. How did he know we were here? Had they been following us this whole time? I knew eventually I was going to face this asshole, but I didn’t think it’d be this soon, or in fucking Alcatraz.
My team had heard the commotion, so they ran out of the warden’s office and joined me in the hallway.
“And you brought your little friends,” Pyro sneered as his eyes flicked over my shoulder. “Even better.”
He took a few steps forward as he cracked his knuckles, and I sensed my team fan out behind me.
“I was hoping just to see you, Mark,” the famous super continued. “But now I can take out all of you in one fell swoop.”
“And what makes you think we’re gonna make it that easy?” I shot back. “Or that the device is your property?”
“Ah, that’s where you’re mistaken. But to answer your first question.” He put his forefinger and thumb into his mouth and let out a high-pitched whistle.
Suddenly, five other shadows flickered down the connecting hallway behind him. I tried not to let it show on my face, but my heart nearly dropped into my ass.
Fighting Pyro alone would have been bad enough, but now we had his little minions to contend with, too.
At least this asshole was cocky. He seemed to be in love with the sound of his own voice. I could use that to my advantage. Let him gloat and think he’s won, and then I would attack when he least expected.
