Hero Unit (12 page)

That guy was a complete ass.

That had been the assignment that had ended
with her buried under a building all because a Reg had been too
slow to listen to a direct order. The property damage sustained was
substantial and the ensuing lawsuit from the company was still in
court. The Reg in question had had his license suspended pending a
trial.

Incidents like that almost turned Ace against
all Regs. Then she would meet one like John Holander, who was more
than willing and able to use his powers when called upon. Regs like
him restored her faith in her fellow Exceptionals.

“That’s pretty much a lot of what we
encountered today. There were even a few that hadn’t even really
read the contract they signed to get their Registered status. They
thought they were just letting the government know. There was one
lady that had wanted to have her Registered status revoked. We had
to bring in a lawyer to explain to her that if she did she wouldn’t
be able to use her powers again without a supervising officer of
the E.E.D present. I almost wish she’d done it. We don’t need
people like that out there making a bad name for those Regs who are
willing to help.”

Ace brought their dinner to the table. “You
got any plans for the evening?” Emily asked as they ate.

“Do I ever? If you haven’t noticed from the
video games and movies I don’t exactly have a thriving social
life,” Ace replied.

You gave up on that after your last date.
That guy was an idiot.

“Why is that? I might not be seeing anyone
now, but I’ve never lacked for dates in the past. The whole
uncontrolled power thing prevented most relationships from getting
very far, but still I was out there,” Emily said.

That was a sensitive subject and Emily picked
up on Ace’s mood change quickly. “If you don’t want to answer…”

Ace shrugged. “It’s hard being the only
Fifth. Most Fourths are either intimidated or terrified of me. Some
only want to prove they’re better than me and I’m not just talking
the Fortress Class. There was a telekinetic in Basic that was
unrelenting. I nearly had to break that jackass’s neck before he
would let up. I won’t even mention the Thirds and below. And you
know most men; they can’t handle the idea of a woman being stronger
than them. Can you imagine even one of your exes putting up with my
powers for more than an hour?”

Emily let out a deep breath. “I am sorry. You
are right. I’ll not bring it up again.”

“I appreciate that. My social life will
figure itself out eventually. For now I’m happier to be here with
my friend than out trying to fish for Mr. Right.”

They spent the rest of the evening watching
TV. Football season was just starting and the Exceptional’s League
had just gained another expansion team. The Professional Sports Act
of the year two-thousand had brought an end to the long standing
rivalry between the various professional sports and those
Exceptionals that had wanted to play. Now if an Exceptional wanted
in on a sport they had to choose; either they could use their
powers in the Exceptional’s League, or they left their powers alone
and played with the normals. Most chose the Exceptional’s
League

Ace liked watching both and since the various
cable networks and satellite companies wanted to reach the widest
audience they could, they played both. It was probably a scheduling
nightmare; especially when dealing with teams from outside of North
America. All Ace cared about was getting to watch the New Davenport
Bandits beat the Chicago Bears.

The next few days passed uneventfully. Ace
kept up her air patrols still hoping to draw a response from
anyone. New Davenport was a city of over five million people, the
highest population in all of post war America. It covered more land
than any other large city in the United States of North
America.

At the rate Ace was taking it, it would take
longer than a week to truly cover the entire city. She made certain
to vary her search pattern. The most and least likely areas got
covered first; areas like the warehouse and shipping districts and
the suburbs and residential blocks.

One positive was crime rate dropped
considerably while Ace was on patrol. The other Heroes that did air
patrol welcomed her added assistance. Not all of them had the
heightened senses that Ace did. There were eight others who joined
her on various rotations. They would occasionally meet and discuss
any patterns that they felt were emerging. The law prevented them
from taking direct action against any normals, even with Article
Two in effect, but they reported everything they saw to the normal
police.

At the end of the fourth day of air patrol
Ace was called into Captain Angel’s office. She entered and was
surprised to see Bones, who ran the E.E.D in New Davenport and
Police Commissioner Albert Miller inside. “Ace, come in and have a
seat,” the Captain said as she closed the door.

You knew this was coming.

She carefully took one of the remaining
chairs and said, “You asked to see me?”

“That’s right, I was just talking with these
gentleman about our recent air patrol efforts, and they had some
questions to ask you.”

Ace nodded and waited. Bones was the first to
speak. “We’ve been looking over the results you and the rest of the
officers on air patrol have been bringing in. You all have been
doing good work. Whose idea was it to start collaborating between
the E.E.D and the normals?”

Bones was one of the older Fourths out there,
born not long after the generation had started, she didn’t know
much more about him than that. His brown hair was just starting to
show grey. He was clean shaven his green eyes were sharp.

There is something familiar about him.

Ace thought back over her times out
patrolling. “I couldn’t say for certain, sir. I have to admit my
mind has been on other things.”

“That is unsurprising. Torment has been
unable to determine if you or Ms. Carpenter was the target of the
recent attack. For all we know it could have been both of you,”
Commissioner Miller said. He shook his head and continued, “We are
quite pleased with what has come out of this more concerted effort
on the part of the E.E.D officers. And Bones and I have decided
that it was time to make it more official.”

“We want you to head up the aerial patrol
here in New Davenport. All officers that are assigned to aerial
patrol, both normals and Heroes will report to you. This would
necessitate you being promoted to lieutenant. You would still be
under Torment’s command for those cases where her unit is called
in, but for the rest of the time you would report to Captain Angel.
What do you think?” Bones asked.

It took Ace by surprise. She was unable to
come up with a response. “But my seniority…”

Right, because people are going to
complain about
you
not having authority.

The Commissioner waved his hand. “Your time
in the military serves as your seniority. We interviewed the other
E.E.D offers on patrol. They all agreed that you were the driving
force behind the increased reporting and the cohesiveness that
we’ve seen over the past few days. The other Heroes look up to you
Ace.”

“But why?” she asked.

We’ve really got to work on your
self-confidence.

“They’ve seen what you can do. The power you
have and the control you exert over that power is inspiring to all
the men and women that work for us, Exceptionals and normals. You
are a hero in the truest sense of the word. We need that right
now,” Bones replied.

Again she was stunned to silence. Was she so
unobservant to have missed the supposed respect her fellow officers
had for her? She thought it over, but couldn’t come up with a
satisfactory conclusion one way or another.

The three men looked at her. In their faces
she could see confidence. Whether that confidence was misplaced or
not was yet to be seen. She agreed, trying not to let her
reluctance show. “I’ll do it.”

“Good. Captain Angel has your new insignia
and the details of your new rank and the members of the aerial
squads. It is up to you to make sure you know your men and to keep
them working together,” Bones said. He and the Commissioner stood.
Ace and the Captain followed suit.

“We expect results Lieutenant Ace,” the
Commissioner said and extended his hand. Ace took it, gently. He
blinked and shook his head. “It is hard to believe that so much
strength comes from someone so small. After getting used to
Fortress Classes like Tomahawk and Bulldog it is very strange.”

Ace reigned in her annoyance and shrugged
instead. People were going to forever underestimate her because of
her stature. That was just part of her life. There was no use
getting annoyed or angry about it. Bones also shook her hand. “Keep
up the good work.”

Definitely something very familiar about
him.

“Thank you, sir,” Ace said.

Captain Angel escorted the two higher ups out
of his office. Ace went to her normal desk, but all of her stuff
was gone. “We had to give you an office Ace,” Angel said. He’d come
back from the elevators. “You’ll be coordinating a lot of officers
and you are going to need the extra room. Here’s your key, it’s the
one just down from mine.”

She took the small silver key from the
Captain. It had 5E stamped on it. Even with the advent of almost
fool proof electronic locks, and bio-monitoring security the police
still liked to use regular old hardware locks for their doors.

Ace followed the Captain’s directions and
unlocked the door. Inside was a desk that was bigger than her old
one, a new computer and two filing cabinets. She opened one and saw
it was full of personnel files, presumably for the officers who
were going to be under her command. The other was filled with case
files. She would have digital versions of all of them on her
computer, but again the police were still old-fashioned about some
things.

She looked over the case files first. A lot
of the cases were those that she and the others on aerial patrol
had reported over the last few days. There was also the case file
on the open investigation of the HSO presence in New Davenport.
There was a newer one centering on the search for Mayhem. Most of
the information had been provided by Ace.

There was a knock at her door and she looked
up to see Emily standing there with a look of appreciation on her
face. “Nice office,” she said when she saw Ace look up.

“I don’t know that I deserve it, but it will
help me get my work done,” Ace replied.

Again with that lack of confidence.

“I’d heard there were some NDPD higher ups in
the building. They were here for you I take it.”

Ace relayed what had happened in her meeting
with the Commissioner and Bones. It still felt strange to say it.
Emily took a seat and said, “I think you do deserve it. I know the
minds of your fellow officers better than you. Part of the respect
comes from your time spent training with Tomahawk, but the rest
comes from you. You are tough, and I don’t mean your powers. They
are looking beyond your powers to the actions behind them. Hell,
you came back to work after having a building fall on you. There
have been other Heroes who broke after far less. Even Tomahawk had
to take a month’s leave after he got hit by a fifty cal. They know
you had to be ordered to take a break after the Mayhem
incident.”

Yet again, you really need her. She hasn’t
told you they talked with her.

Ace felt herself blushing profusely. She
didn’t think of herself as tough, at least not like Emily was
describing. She did her job, focusing on the tasks that she had
making sure they got done. Nothing she’d ever done had made her
want to quit being an officer of the E.E.D. She remembered talking
to Tomahawk about the fifty cal incident. It had shaken him, badly.
Not even having a building collapse on her had done that to
Ace.

“Well now that you have more responsibilities
how are you going to handle them?” Emily asked.

“I’m honestly not sure yet. I think the first
thing I’m going to do is call a meeting of all those now under my
command. I’m sure some of them aren’t happy to have a rookie in
charge of them, despite the assurances of Bones and the
Commissioner,” Ace replied.

“That’s probably a good idea. Do you want me
there?” Emily said.

Ace hesitated. She wasn’t sure if she had
that kind of authority. Yes, Emily was now an official consultant,
but she’d been brought in for a specific case. “You want me to ask
Captain Angel to come in?” Emily asked.

Ace shook her head. “I’ll go ask him.”

She went to the Captain’s door and knocked.
“Come in, Ace.” The Captain almost sounded amused. Ace entered and
before she could ask he said, “You have that level of authority.
Besides I think we, as in Bones and I, might be bringing Ms.
Carpenter on as a permanent E.E.D officer, if she is willing. She’d
have to go through some training first, but she has been invaluable
in our recent investigations. Her abilities are much stronger than
even Bones’. There aren’t many Exceptionals that would be able to
resist her. I think you are the only one that can.”

Ace nodded. “Thank you, sir.”

“Now get back to work. I think your idea of
meeting with all of those officers under your command is a good
one. Because you’re right, some of them are going to hate working
for a younger officer, let alone a Hero.”

Again with the I told you so.

Feeling a little foolish, but encouraged all
the same Ace went back to her office and started looking over the
NDPD calendar. She would have to wait a day or two for the orders
to filter down properly, but once it was officially in place she
had a date set for the first meeting with the newly formed Aerial
Squad joint task force.

“I would very much like for you to be there
when I meet with these officers. I need to know where their true
loyalties are and what they really think of my orders, rather than
what they think of me. I don’t give a damn what they think of me,”
Ace said to Emily after she had set the date for the meeting.