Age of Power 1: Legacy (16 page)

I
blinked. Brand gave a snort, and then just started laughing. Dana said, “BJ!
Stop embarrassing the birthday boy!”

He
chuckled and said, “Relax, Vaughn. Alex told me you were straight; you’re safe
from me!”

I
nodded and smiled. Dana sighed. “Please forgive my brother, he’s insane, and he
needs serious psychiatric treatment.”

Brand
laughed again. 
“Really?
 Then these two ought
to be perfect together!”

My
face went red and I glared at him. BJ just chuckled some more, then pulled a
flash drive out of his front pocket and handed it out to me. “Here, it’s my
present.”

I
took it with an inquisitive look. I asked, “That’s nice. What’s on it?”

He
shrugged and said, “Dana said you liked comics. So I made a copy of the digital
copies I had at home. I also added some historical reads. It’s good for
a phad, iPad, or any laptop. Enjoy. I figured it would be a good present.
It’s about half full, so you can add more if you want.”

I
nodded and glanced at the flash drive, then looked again. The thing held
three-terabytes of memory. Oh my, that was a lot of comics and
history books!

I
said, “Uh, thank you, BJ, I think you just gave me every comic known to
mankind. I appreciate it!”

BJ
smiled and said, “Mind you, some of that’s from my collection. So don’t read
those in public.”

From
behind me, Dana said, “BJ, be nice. Stop scaring the natives. They get edgy and
tend to blow up asteroids.”

BJ
coughed and stared at Dana as she and Brand came up to join us. 
“Really?
 You had to go there?”

Dana
said, “Naturally; how better to foil that psychotic humor of yours? Short it
out before you can build it up. Vaughn, don’t worry, you’ll get used to him. BJ
grows on you—eventually.”

I
chuckled as BJ shook his head, bemused. Dana put her arm around my waist and
said, "So how are you holding up? I heard about that fracas at the high
school. 
But what about everything else?
 Are
you doing all right?”

I
just looked at her. I took a moment to answer. I knew what she meant—or,
actually, I knew 
whom
 she meant. Finally, I said, “I miss him.
Didn’t think I would. But whenever I read comics we liked, or see something
about science, I think of him. And he isn’t there to talk to.”

Dana
hugged me tighter. I didn’t mind. I liked my hugging.

BJ
nodded to what I’d said. He then said, “Goddess, I know what you mean! He could
talk your ear off when it came to physics and space stuff. You know, if you
ever want to talk over this stuff sometime, I’ll be in town again in a few
days.”

Brand
said, “I like you already, BJ. Let’s have lunch the next time you’re in town.
But while I hate to say it, bud, you and I need to head out. Your mom
wanted me to get you home by nightfall. Your parents have something in the
wind, I think. And I want to do some stuff at home, myself.”

“Yeah,
I noticed that you ate a lot of bean dip and chips. What, you don’t want to use
up the toilet paper here?” I said, joking with him. Brand didn’t miss a beat as
he raised a middle finger. That broke the tension that had been hanging in the
air. It also ended the party. I wondered what my mom was up to, but I wasn’t
going to push Brand for details. I’d noticed earlier that she and my dad hadn’t
mentioned presents or anything. That was fine, since I felt that my parents
getting back together was enough for me.

Okay,
I was a sentimental idiot at times. But I put that aside and said, “Okay, but
Dana, can we help you clean up?”

She
hiked a thumb at BJ and said, “That’s why I brought him along. He makes a good
maid!”

BJ
coughed. “Gee, Sis, I love you, too! 
Maid?
 Please! 
Maître
d’
 is better!”

Brand
came up to us, tossing me my jacket and hat. He flipped his hood up and said,
“I don’t know, I think being a butler would better for you. And it comes with
fringe benefits if you have the right employer.”

Reaching
out, I offered my hand to BJ and he shook it, meeting my eyes with his green
and gray-flecked gaze. I noticed that his hand wasn’t cool to the touch as much
as it seemed to feel like with people these days. Odder still, there was this
buzz in my head when we touched. Lightly felt, but definitely there.

He
leaned closer and, in a softer voice, he said, “He snored, you know. And man, was
he like a furnace when he slept! It drove me out of bed sometimes. He liked
cigars, arguing about politics, and he was a major science and science fiction
geek. And boy, could he ever talk you to death about the weirdest things from
obscure movies. He could be boring when he talked too long. And I think you’re
right to remind people of all that.”

I
nodded after a moment of absorbing that. 
Two good
friends sharing a moment, missing a dear friend.
 It helped ease
something that I hadn’t even known was there. I guess my friendship with Alex
was deeper than I thought. Not once in all those weeks of defending Alex had I
admitted that. BJ had just helped me to let go of some of the pain of losing my
friend. Wow.

He
let go of my hand. I said, “Thanks. I think I really needed that.”

Dana
came up and gave me a hug. She whispered in my ear, “Don’t hesitate to come
here or to my place if things get you down too much. Okay?”

What,
did everyone know I’d been a little down in the dumps? Okay, massively down in
the dumps. Well, I was; I had to admit that. I noticed Brand smiling slightly
and realized how she had known. Dana grinned at Brand and said, “Oh, I’ll be
bringing your presents in the morning, so don’t stay up all night.”

“Aw,
my mom said not to get drunk, and now you say I can’t stay up all night. It’s
my birthday, and yet, nobody’s letting me have any fun,” I said with a laugh.

With
a final wave to Dana and BJ, the two of us walked out and down the stairs. Even
in the twilight, I could see my breath in the air. The sun was just past the
horizon now, and what little light there was did nothing for the warmth.

But
Brand had one more surprise for me. “Hey, I forgot to tell you—I may be going
to CTI next fall. Maybe we can be roommates.”

I
grinned and hit him lightly on the arm. “Great! Chicago Technical is a good
school! How did you swing that?”

Brand
shrugged and said, “Oh, the old man went and pulled some strings. The school
sent me a letter about it while you were off on your trips.”

“I’m
happy for you, bud! Maybe we can find somewhere to live together,” I said. I
fell silent after that. His mention of my trips, mixed with the chill of the
night, had pushed me back into a funk.

Finally,
after a couple blocks of walking, Brand sighed, “Okay, out with it.”

I
didn’t say anything for a moment while we crossed a street. After more walking,
though, I said, “I’m fine, Brand.”

Brand
said, “Bullshit. You aren’t fine. You should be telling me all about
the plans you have with the comics you got from BJ, how you plan to tell your
online friends about them, and talking about how hot Danielle has gotten since
graduation. Man, we should be talking about where we're going to live in
Chicago! Instead, you’re walking there, silent as…as, well; frankly, you’re
making me think of Shaw.”

When
he mentioned Alex, I must’ve tensed, because Brand said, “Ah ha! So that’s what
the problem is. Those media guys really got to you.”

I
said, “Is it that obvious? Yeah, they got to me. I wasted my time, Brand.
Avatar is the big thing now, not Alex Shaw. It sucks, but while we were in the
hospital, Alex turned into the answer to everyone’s prayer. That’s how people
now see him. I tried to get everyone to see him as a human being. I wanted them
to see that his final act wasn’t the only important thing about him.”

“And
I blew it. But at least now I know why.” Brand grunted as I told him what my
mom had told me about Joe Andrews. Now I told him about the stuff that had come
up during the last interview in New York City. The Andrews family had dug
Alex’s birth certificate out of a courthouse archive in Wisconsin Dells,
Wisconsin. It had showed Claire to be his mother, but the space for the birth
father’s name was blank.

Inconvenient
for the Shaws, of course, but it was very convenient for the idea of creating a
new messiah. The story also came out that Claire’s body 
was
never recovered
 when her plane crashed in Lake Meade, Nevada. And
that only added to the mystique. Alex had never told me that stuff about
himself. So I couldn’t answer all the questions put to me about these facts.
Alex had just told me that his mom had died in a plane crash.

But
Alex’s dad, Brian Shaw did have answers. He said that Claire Grell had been
pregnant when she’d married him. After my mom said something about how Joe Andrews
was involved, I was certain that the old man had coached Brian Shaw on how to
say things. Add the strange sightings around the world of the Avatar—and the
religious fervor had only grown.

I
thought about those sightings. It bothered me that they had happened at all. I
would almost accuse Andrews of pulling some sort of a propaganda
stunt if it weren’t for the fact that the stories 
were
spread
 too far apart geographically and happening at the same time
to make it likely. Witnesses had seen things in the deep of night, some in
forests, others in desert country; they all swore it had to be the Avatar,
because what they’d seen were things that only he could have done.

People
glowing, acts of superhuman strength, moving statues, hazy videos of flying
people taken from a distance, glowing eyes, and, in one case, the so-called
Avatar had been seen jumping over the roofs of Boston, laughing. All I could do
was point out that Alex wouldn’t do things like that. If he were alive, he
would just return to Riverlite. Or he would be a superhero and not hide in the
shadows.

In
the last interview, they had all but ridiculed me in front of a national
audience. After that, I was done. I came home. I was dejected, and then, with
what happened at the high school, I had had enough. But, while I still felt
like a failure, I had to get back up on my feet. It wasn’t going to be easy to
do. Even while I laughed and joked at the party, I’d been feeling that sense of
failure. Now, I told Brand all of this as we walked the streets of Riverlite,
slowly heading home.

Brand
was quiet, taking it all in, and we walked in silence for a while after I
finished talking. Then, as we crossed another street, heading south, he said,
“Would it help if you knew that the Avatar movement isn’t all that it’s cracked
up to be?”

Sarcastically,
I said, “Really? Gosh, I couldn’t tell that. 
What with
all the fervor going on.
 Hell, they’re selling ‘
I saw the Avatar
’
t-shirts in stores. They're planning a movie about Alex’s life. In fact, I got
an offer to be a part of the team to do up his life-story, before he was
‘blessed.’ Hey, do you want to join in? You’d love Hollywood.”

Brand
reached into his coat and swore. “Crap! I left my smart phone at the library!
Do you have yours on you? I want to show you a website.”

I
shook my head. “No, I left mine at home.” I didn’t want to tell him about the
strange feeling I got from laptops and cell phones. It wasn’t normal, by any
means, and Brand wasn’t exactly into the esoteric.

He
didn’t ask why, though, and said, “Damn. Well, it’s like this, the Avatar is—”

Brand
stopped when we heard tires screeching on the road. We saw a burnt orange
Roadster speeding toward us. That worried me. But seeing who was behind the
wheel scared me out of my wits.

Brand
muttered, “Holy shit, Nathan Jessup!”

CHAPTER NINE

We ran. Taking a chance, we cut across a parking lot with a
locked gate that kept Nathan out. Brand pointed down an alleyway between two
business buildings that fronted the lot and we ran through to the other side.
From there, we ran out of the alleyway and onto Esther Avenue. We were just in
time to see Nathan, his tires squealing on ice and asphalt as he came around a
corner.

I grabbed Brand’s shoulder and changed direction. Running, we
cut between homes and leapt over fences to keep off the streets so the bastard
couldn’t run us down with his car. After a couple blocks, we came to a backyard
and stopped near a fence. I heard the Roadster as it passed us by, its engine
roaring down the street. As it passed us, we began to run the other way, hoping
that he wouldn’t think to double back.

I snapped at Brand, “I thought he was in jail for assaulting
Hector Gutierrez! What the hell is he doing out?”

Brand said between heavy breaths, “How in the hell should I
know? Maybe his mommy got him out with her crazy whining. 
Whatever.
 He’s after us now, so keep running!”

“I am running!”

“Run faster!”

A loud crunching sound came from down the road. And from the
sounds of things, he didn’t care who he hit in order to get to us. We cut
across side and backyards, sometimes slowed by fences, but still, we kept
moving. Behind us, I heard the roaring engine closing in on us. Thinking fast,
Brand and I decided to head to his place and call the cops from there.

We didn’t have much choice. Businesses
were
closed
now, and when we knocked on doors of homes, no one answered. It
didn’t help my mood, since I knew people were home in some of those houses. I
hoped that at least one person would call the police before Jessup caught up to
us. After one last fruitless try for help at a house, we took a chance and
crossed the next road to run down another alley.

While running, I found myself listening for the Roadster. Jessup
had his car tricked out to rumble like a heavy-duty drag racer. That made it
easy to hear as it came closer. Finally, I saw it crossing one street over. He
must have seen us, though, because I heard spinning tires. We ran faster down
the road until I saw a red house on the next corner. I could hear the car coming.
We started to pass the corner home when I realized that it had something that
might help us.

Getting Brand’s attention, I yelled, “Head down that way! We can
cut into a short-cut know about!”

Brand didn’t argue. At the end of the driveway, I pointed past
the garage to a space between it and a tall wooden fence. I pushed Brand to run
down the path, which
was made
wet and sloppy by
melting snow from the roof. We had to be very careful because of the muddy
ground, but we didn’t slip. I just hoped that we weren’t leaving prints for
Jessup to follow. Getting around to the back of the garage, we crouched between
two tarp-covered piles of firewood and waited.

The car stopped somewhere out of sight, and I took a chance and
stuck my head up and look above the woodpiles, trying to figure out where
Nathan was. After a few moments, I saw three people moving back and forth,
looking between the houses.

I muttered, “Wonderful, he brought friends.”

Brand snorted and said, “Of course he brought friends. He couldn’t
just run us down with a car now, could he? That would be too easy!”

Damn, I knew we’d have to move soon. I had hoped that Nathan
would’ve just kept driving around. Then I winced when I recognized one of
Nathan’s friends. It didn’t make me feel any happier. I’d seen this guy before.
Every town had its crooks. And some were seriously bad. Joe Tindal was one of
the worst. He sold drugs at the college, and, on occasion, he would show up at
the high school.

He wasn’t a big man, but he had the wiriness that made fighting
him a definite no-no. The rumors were that he was fast, and he pulled out
a knife whenever he felt even the slightest bit threatened. With a scruffy
black beard and dark green eyes, his look alone usually dampened people’s
enthusiasm. He wasn’t even wearing a jacket; I supposed it was to prove that he
was ‘tough.’

Despite the cold, he wore only a black t-shirt, blue jeans, and
leather boots. The third guy in the group made me think of soldiers or cops I
had heard about in real crime cases. Stories about bad people
who’d seen too much killing and came to like it
. This guy
looked as if he would just as soon kill me as talk to me. Wearing a leather
jacket, he had long, dark red hair and a slight point to his chin, but what
grabbed my attention was an old knife scar at the left corner of his mouth,
running up to his left eye. Oh no, this was not the kind of guy I wanted to
meet in a dark alley!

Brand whispered, “God, I am so stupid…should’ve remembered my
cell phone! Get to my place…and call the cops…”

I whispered, “I left mine, too…hell, I’m surprised people in the
area haven’t called the cops yet!”

Just then, my hearing went super again, and I heard, “Nate,
they aren’t anywhere around here, man! Come on! Let’s just go! You gave the
punks a scare! That’s enough! You can go after them any time!”

Nathan snapped at Tindal, “I don’t want to just scare them,
Danny! I want them dead!
Now!”

What came next froze me in place. I found myself unable to
breathe as I heard the sound of a gun
being cocked
. I
tensed at the sound. My hand brushed the tarp in front me, and it crackled
slightly in the cold air. I froze, hoping that no one had heard it.
No such luck.

Nathan yelled, “Hey! They’re over here!”

I looked up and saw Nathan staring at our position. Just enough
light from the streetlamps was shining down to allow him to see us. I looked
back at him and saw the gun in his hand. Worse, he was weaving in place. He’d
been drinking before he had come hunting us. I didn’t waste any time. Jumping
to my feet, I whipped a snowball at the guy. Not waiting to see if it hit, I
turned and I pushed Brand ahead of me. Together, we leapt over a fence into
another yard. I heard more yelling.

Just the same, I said, “Go! Don’t want a bullet in my back,
thank you very much!”

Brand yelled, “Wait!
Bullet?
Well,
damn! This just got serious!”

I realized that my super hearing was kicking in again when I
heard Nathan muttering about us holding still so he could shoot us. Then I
heard his breath catch...he was about to fire. Without thinking, I grabbed
Brand and yanked him down into the snow. I yelped in pain as thunder roared in
my ears, followed by the sound of a giant bat hitting wood somewhere. But,
looking back, I found that I had to laugh when I saw Nathan flying back off the
fence. The idiot had fired his gun again while climbing over the fence! I heard
Nathan’s friends trying to help him on the other side of the fence. Drunk as
they were, it sounded like some Three Stooges movie scene. I decided then and
there that there was no way I was going to let those idiots kill me.

Brand grabbed my shoulder. “Come on! Let’s hit the road again!”

As we ran, the pain in my ears started to fade. I didn’t have
time to think about what had just happened. Still, my hearing stayed hyped up,
and I winced at the sound when my footfalls resounded off the snow-covered
ground. Then, in the next second, my hearing went back to normal. I didn’t know
why I had this ability, but I wished right then that this super…whatever it
was…would make up its mind.

And then, naturally, it came back. I heard something click
behind me. Out of sheer reflex, I grabbed Brand and whipped him into an
alleyway. Ice and snow crunched under our boots just as another gunshot sounded
behind us. I actually heard the bullet whiz past me and into a snowdrift just
ahead of us. I grabbed Brand and pulled us around the corner to stop in front
of a two-car garage for a second. That was when I heard Brand groan.

I looked and saw that he was clutching at his stomach, bent
down, and shivering hard.
“Brand?
What’s wrong?”

Through the chattering of teeth, he managed to get out the
words, “Hot, man, so damn hot…I don’t feel too good.”

I knelt down to get a better look and saw that he looked like
hell. He was gaunt and looked ready to collapse. I was cold, too, but for some
reason, this run was killing him. I reached out to his back, but pulled away as
I felt heat rising from him like crazy. Up close, I could swear that waves of
heat were visibly coming off his body.

Before I could do anything more, I heard the roar of Nathan’s
Roadster. The sound was echoing off the homes and garages lining the alley. I
realized that with Brand just barely standing, I had to keep Nathan’s attention
on me. Hearing the Roadster spin its wheels on the icy ground of the alley, I
swallowed hard and ran. The headlights spotted me perfectly.

Nathan whooped with triumph when he saw me. I hoped to get to
the end and lead them down the street and away from Brand. That, of course, was
when my luck ran out. Just as Nathan hit the gas, my feet slipped out from
under me and I slid into an old wooden telephone pole.

I shook my head to clear it and scrambled back to my knees. Our
eyes met. Nathan sped toward me, rage filling his face. I had time to scream.
The world flared to a blinding white light. In a massive burst of pain, pure
power ripped out from deep inside me. And the yell I made turned into something
that I’d ever heard before in my entire life.

Bit by bit, the pain faded from my head as my vision cleared. I
didn’t hear Jessup’s car engine anymore, and I saw why when I looked at the
flickering lights. Getting to my feet, I swayed for a moment as a wave of
vertigo passed through me.

Hearing a groan, I turned to see that one of the guys from the
Roadster was on the ground, lying near my feet. In the glare of the flickering
headlights, I’d almost stepped on the poor bastard. His head moved, and he
looked up at me with raw fear in his eyes. He twitched a hand toward me, and I
flinched back. Deep cuts and heavy bruises covered his head and face, and he
was bleeding onto the ground. Blood was quickly darkening what was left of his
clothing.

My foot crunched on something. I looked down and saw glass
sparkling all over the snow and icy ground. The glass was from the car’s
windshield. Somehow, the man had virtually sailed through the windshield. I
swallowed down the bile threatening to rush up my throat.

Against my better judgment, I went to get a closer look at the
car. When I got past the front, I blinked for a moment, confused. What I saw
made no sense. The metal sides of the Roadster had big bends in them from the
engine to the back trunk. No, not bends—waves. For a second, I had this image
of a half-closed accordion; it looked a little like that, but smoother.
Ripples...that was the word.
If something could cause damage
like this…I realized that I didn’t want to look inside the car. But I had to.
Seeing the one man on the ground was bad enough. I had to know about Joe Tindal
and Nathan. I realized in the silence that the one I didn’t know was no longer
groaning. Whether he was dead or not, I didn’t know.

I could hear nothing coming from the passenger area. Breathing
hard, I swallowed back the taste of bile. It took everything I had to push myself
to look. Once I did, I wished I hadn’t. Nathan Jessup had crashed forward into
the steering wheel. The airbag had deployed, but just the same, I could see his
entire jaw line turning purple and dark blue. It looked dislocated. Blood was
all over his chest, trailing from both his ears and his mouth. So much blood—he
was breathing, but there was so much blood.

When I looked in the back, I lost it. Everything I had eaten
that day ended up in bushes on the side of the alley. Tindal hadn’t had his
seat belt on. He’d flown forward into the back of the passenger side seat, and
his neck had been broken. Blood didn’t flow from his ears, but there was blood
everywhere in the backseat. It even soaked his hair. He looked like a tossed
around ragdoll. Then I heard the icy ground crunch. I got control of myself and
looked up to see Brand staring at me, at the car, trying not to look at what
was inside. He looked at me with wide, saucer-like eyes.

He said, “Vaughn, what did you do?”

I whispered, “I don’t know…”