Lafferty, Mur (6 page)

The next day, she had told Keepsie to forget about the incident and focus on her power. They went on a shopping trip to celebrate. It was much more fun than the fuss her mother had tried to raise when she'd gotten her first period.

Through careful testing, they tried to identify her powers. They discovered that the best way to go about it was to take Keepsie by surprise, so her mom would try to take her jacket or her backpack when she wasn't prepared. Keepsie felt a frightening rush of power when she realized that her mom would remain immobilized until she let her go, either verbally or mentally.

It was disappointing to the teenaged Keepsie that, although her power seemed to be a strong one, she had no control over it. She felt no different, she couldn't do anything exciting, but her stuff seemed to be protected for a good long while.

Her grandmother was the happiest of them all when she heard the news.

Having taken the drug Zupra fifty-five years earlier when pregnant with twins, she lost one to miscarriage and delivered Keepsie's mother, a healthy First Wave baby complete with a very minor power. A prosecuting attorney, she wasted no time in suing the makers of Zupra, Haldor Limited Drug. She took their settlement and invested it. Her family lived well off the money, and when Keepsie's powers manifested, her grandmother lost no time in giving her the money already marked off for inheritance.

She enrolled Keepsie in money management classes, and Keepsie sat with people three times her age and learned as much as she could about how to manage her newfound wealth. She'd have been really bored, but the constant knowledge of her money coupled with her grandmother's promised wrath if she squandered it made her pay attention.

Keepsie realized she had been letting the water run over her shoulders for far too long. She had no idea what time it was. She wondered whether she'd rinsed the shampoo out of her hair and then wondered if she'd already conditioned it. She decided to take the chance that she was done and got out of the shower.

Dressing was a quick affair, pausing only to run a comb through her hair and realizing she had not, in fact, used conditioner. Swearing, she shoved a ball cap on her head and left her apartment.

Outside her door, she paused for a moment. She hadn't locked a door since her powers had manifested, but last night proved that there are more reasons for someone to break in than to steal things. She pulled out her key ring and fumbled around, looking for the right one. Her apartment key was shiny and unused.

Keepsie scanned the sky as she walked. This was her normal habit, looking intently like a teenager searching for zits to stress about. Today was different, though, as she scanned the sky in slight fear that she would be followed, chased, captured or attacked.

The apartment buildings in Seventh City stretched four and five stories high, blotting out much of the sky. Keepsie was used to seeing the occasional hero on patrol, or even the occasional villain fleeing a heroic pursuit. These things happened every day.

She sidestepped kids playing on the street and people returning from the corner grocery store. Some called a greeting to her, but she only managed to return a tight smile and a wave. She was not in the mood to chat. The sky was gray with clouds that threatened nothing but casting a dour mood on the day.

Keepsie scowled at them.

Although the diner was only a three-block walk through residential neighborhoods, Keepsie's hands shook by the end of the walk. She gripped the door tightly, feeling the metal knob slide under her sweaty grip. Pausing to collect herself, she pushed the door open.

Her friends waited for her at a corner booth. The restaurant was crowded with Saturday morning customers lounging with coffee and their papers. The booths flanking her friends' each contained a solitary man immersed in his newspaper.

The perky hostess smiled at her. "M'am, are you waiting on a table or would you like to sit at the counter?"

"My friends are over there," Keepsie said, pointing. Michelle waved.

"Then feel free to join them," she said. Keepsie hated her at that moment. So cheerful, so unafraid.

Peter, Ian and Michelle all looked better rested than she felt. They even managed to smile at her. She hated them too.

Ian slid into the booth to make room for her. "Keepsie, you look like shit." She glared at him.

Michelle kicked him. "Did you sleep at all?" she asked Keepsie.

"Not well," Keepsie said, appropriating Michelle's coffee and taking a swig. She made a face. "God, don't you use any sugar?"

"Not when I'm making it for me," Michelle said, grinning.

Peter signaled for the waitress and ordered Keepsie a large coffee while she stared miserably at the menu. The waitress looked down at her. "The usual, Keepsie?"

Keepsie looked up. "Oh, hi Wanda. Yeah, the usual would be good."

The older woman waited for a moment, her hand on her meaty hip. "You must be in a mood today or something, Keepsie."

"Huh?"

"You're messing it all up. You know, you ask me, ‘Hey Wanda, when are you going to come work for me?’" Wanda's voice hit a falsetto that didn't sound like Keepsie at all. "And I say, ‘When I divorce the owner of this joint and marry you, Keepsie,’ and we all laugh."

Keepsie forced a smile. "Sorry, Wanda, I'm distracted today. But you know, if you ever chose to leave, you have a job waiting for you at Keepsie's Bar."

"Sure, when I divorce the owner of this joint and marry you!" Wanda said, chortling, and took Keepsie's order to the kitchen.

Ian watched Wanda waddle away. "OK, that was weird."

"Wanda’s OK," Michelle said. "First Wave, perfect memory for everything, but it makes her a little too attached to rituals. The old jokes are the best ones in her mind."

"Oh. What the hell is she doing waiting tables with a power like that?"

Michelle's voice dropped low. "She's not terribly bright. She can remember anything but she doesn't process well. She fell in love with Larry in high school and wanted to help him run this diner. She's perfectly happy, and it's nice having someone who knows your usual order."

"You should see her when we want to order something different, though," Keepsie said.

Wanda returned with Keepsie's coffee, along with a sugar bowl. Keepsie managed a weak grin that slipped from her face the minute Wanda turned her back.

Peter leaned across the table. "Are you all right?"

Keepsie poured too much sugar into her coffee and regretted it with her first gulp, wincing as she burned her tongue. She put down the coffee cup and slid her hands across her face. "I'm just not ready for this. I didn't sleep well and I have no idea what to do about this whole thing."

Peter nodded. "Yes, I'm at a loss myself for what to do. We are skirting the edge of illegal vigilantism here. We are also skirting the edge of refusing to cooperate with an officer." He drummed his fingers on the table.

Keepsie stared at the table, avoiding their eyes. "You guys aren't in it, you know. This is me, my power. No offense, but none of you could be keeping this thing from them."

Michelle leaned over the table and poked Keepsie’s arm. "We're not going to leave you sandwiched between the heroes and bad guys. No way."

That was it. That was what she had feared. Her power alone was working to stymie those who wanted the device, and she was terrified her friends would call it her problem alone and abandon her. The relief that flooded her was palpable, and she smiled.

Keepsie realized that Ian was prattling on. Only the occasional "dude" and "what the fuck" had entered her consciousness.

" -I mean, I know all I can do is give the damned heroes a face full of shit, but you, Keepsie, you're stronger than they know, and you can hold them back until…" Ian's face became almost angelic with the dawning comprehension. "No, I've got it, by God, we're going to take the device to the SCU Stadium and sell tickets to an old fashioned smackdown! Doodad, Clever Jack, whoever else they're working with, and all the heroes! Winner gets the device! We'll make a fortune in ticket sales, the device is out of your hair, and maybe some of them will be so nice as to kill each other off during the fight!"

He looked so pleased with himself that Keepsie laughed. Michelle giggled, and Peter looked as if he would consider it for a moment. He shook his head.

"There's no way we could make that legal," he said.

"Dude, lighten up, I just thought our girl here could use a laugh," Ian said.

"Thanks, Ian," Keepsie said. Wanda had arrived with their food and Keepsie didn't want her to overhear their conversation.

"So," Michelle said, spreading paper on the table in between the plates, syrup and butter. "I came to some conclusions regarding the villains. I think the Academy made them the same time they made the heroes, and I think they made them to grab political power. Throw some villains out there, then throw some heroes after them, deny all knowledge of the villains and make buddy-buddy with the mayor."

She paused to take a bite of pancake while Keepsie looked over the documents in front of her. Most of them were from conspiracy sites, but they did seem to match what Clever Jack had been starting to tell them the previous evening.

"Since 2012, the laws have equated heroes to law enforcement officers, making them part of the Seventh City Government, eligible for salaries out of our taxes," Michelle said, handing Keepsie a folder of old newspaper articles.

"Every mayor Seventh City has had since 2010 has been endorsed by the Academy. They’re a political powerhouse."

She lowered her voice and they leaned in to hear her. "This is truly a hero-run town, even more so than we'd thought."

"You don't know the half of it," said a voice over Keepsie's and Michelle's shoulders.

The man who had been reading his paper when Keepsie had arrived was leaning over the back of the booth, grinning at them.

"Hello, Clever Jack," Keepsie said.

There was a pause. Peter's eyes darted around; no one had noticed the wanted man casually sitting in the diner. Clever Jack wore a baseball hat and a denim New York Yankees jacket, blending in with the other customers so that even Peter, Keepsie, Michelle and Ian hadn't noticed him.

That's real powers for you.

"Did you tell the heroes I said hello last night?" Clever Jack asked, grinning.

"No, we were too busy trying to not get arrested, thanks," said Ian.

"Yeah, sorry 'bout that." Clever Jack didn't sound very sorry at all.

"Thanks for letting me go, by the way.” "I'm not sure I did the right thing, there," Keepsie said.

"Can I join you?"

Everyone looked at Keepsie, who looked uncomfortable with the leadership thrust onto her shoulders. She paused, and Michelle took up the role.

"Sure. Five minutes, Jack, that's all," she said. "We wanted to enjoy our food."

"Now that's bullshit and you know it," Clever Jack said. He slid out of his booth and snagged a spare chair from a vacant table. He put the chair at the end of their booth and was in it before Peter could blink. He moves like mercury. Peter got a distinct feeling that they should not anger this man. Still, no one in the diner seemed to notice Clever Jack.

The villain reached forward with both hands and grabbed a piece of bacon from Ian's plate with his left and Michelle's folder on the Academy with his right. Keepsie looked at him with obvious dislike, but he ignored her as he munched and flipped through the folder.

"Oh yeah, sure, go ahead, take my bacon," Ian said. "And you say you're not a villain."

Clever Jack looked over the folder at Michelle. "You're pretty smart to pull all of this together."

She smiled, tight lipped, at him.

"But you got one major thing wrong, miss. You got it right where I came from, but not why I left the teat of the Academy."

"My mama's from Elk Park, NC. She got knocked up by her prom date,"

Clever Jack said. "There was nowhere local to have an abortion back then, so she drove to Charlotte to get help. In the Planned Parenthood office, she ran into an Academy official who was stalking the waiting room. This woman offered my mama free health care, free pediatric care, a future for me and even a college education for her, if she would just have me in Seventh City and allow the Academy to adopt me."

"But I thought heroes were the ones with poor mothers getting prenatal care?" Ian asked.

Clever Jack gave him a withering look. "You're not too bright are you? I was raised in the Academy; I was engineered to be a hero."

They looked at each other. "What happened?" Michelle asked finally.

"What happened?" Clever Jack looked at her as if she were an idiot. "I didn't want to be their lapdog. They studied us, tested our powers, trained us, yeah, but they also gave us ethics courses, told us how to think and how to serve and what to do in this or that case.

"We were bred to this, like horses. What happens with a thoroughbred decides not to run? They will give it extra attention. Then they will beat it.

Then, if it still won't run, they might put it out to pasture for stud duty, if they want to risk continuing the undesirable personality quirk. But what if," Clever Jack leaned forward in his chair, whispering intently, "what if that horse could melt metal with his mind, or influence the tides, or could fly faster than sound?

Do you think they would just put it out to pasture?"

Keepsie was very still. "No. They'd put it down."

Clever Jack exhaled loudly. "Finally, someone with a brain. Yes. There were some of us who did not embrace our destinies with open arms. From time to time, the best were apprenticed to the heroes. Well, of course White Lightning and the others got their apprenticeship, and the rest of us were treated like second-rate heroes, then like criminals. Being better than any normal human at something was just not enough for them."