Regenesis (Book 1): Impact (68 page)

He
felt a twinge of anxiety in the question. He wanted the signal to change so
they could keep walking, or for some event to change the subject, but he
doubted she would let it drop. “Why are you asking me that?”

Lauren
frowned and just asked him to talk about them. Her eyes were fixed on the
sidewalk, her hands shook, and Nick guessed it was the last thing she wanted to
talk about. She took him by the hand and walked over to the side of one of the
buildings, took a seat on the sidewalk, asked him to join her, and waited for
an answer. She still didn’t make eye contact with him, but listened intently in
anticipation.

Nick
looked away from her and asked why she wanted to know.

“Isn’t
it obvious?” she said with a scowl. “Strom and I talked for a minute and he
told me you probably understand what I’m going through…” Lauren glanced his way
and saw his dispirited demeanor, which nearly caused her to retract her entire
query. But she only added that she wanted to know what he did about all of the
strife he’d dealt with. “I…I just want to know what this is like for you.” She
looked at him again, and even though he didn’t look at her, she asked about his
parents one more time.

Nick
wiped off the corners of his lips, took a breath, and started by telling her he
didn’t know his father at all. “He died in a car accident before I was born…”
He paused for a moment before he added that his older brother Victor didn’t
even know him that well. “But my mom was…” he shrugged, “She was a great
person, she loved and took care of us as long as she could and hardly ever did
anything for herself.” Nick frowned and felt guilty in admitting that his
mother sacrificed so much for him. “I remember my brother and I wanted a bunch
of fireworks for the Fourth of July one year, but we didn’t have any money for
anything like that. We didn’t end up getting any, but she took us out to a
fireworks show over Lake Washington and watched everyone’s fireworks go off for
hours.” He smiled and added that he didn’t even stay up through the ride home.

Lauren
asked if he missed her, which she immediately realized was a poor question as
soon as she asked it.

He
said he did and ignored her embarrassment. “She died on the first of July this
year, so yeah, I do.”

“Nick,
I didn’t mean to–”

He
told her it was fine. “You’re dealing with more than I am right now.” Nick
glanced over at her to ensure he hadn’t touched a nerve. He apologized anyway.

“It’s
fine,” she mumbled. She waited a moment before she told him about a fair her
mother and father took her to when she was younger. “I don’t remember very much
from it, but I recall going on a Ferris wheel and seeing Paris at night, lit
up.” She told him it looked like a dream, illuminated in the dead of night. “It
was really cold that night too, which makes me think it might have been in
November. Anyway, my mother and father bought me a pair of blue mittens to keep
my hands warm while we walked back home. I felt too tired to walk the whole way
and my father carried me home.” Lauren smiled and told him it was one of her
happiest memories. She sighed and then told him about her recent years and how
she’d basically became a nuisance who lied to them, who snuck out behind their
backs, stole from them, how she fought with them, and finally she broke down
into tears. “I was a terrible daughter,” she muttered bitterly.

“Lauren–”

“No,”
she snapped, “Nick, I’m a terrible person. I complained the whole way here, I
told my parents I wanted nothing to do with them, I fought with them ever since
we landed…I even walked out after a fight with them to get a drink…right before
they were killed.” She wiped tears away and murmured that she left a poor memory
in her parents’ minds. “They must have felt like I was a failure.”

Nick
wasn’t sure what to say to comfort her, but told her she wasn’t a bad person.
“They remember the good memories as well Lauren,” he reminded her. “Those
moments you love, I’m sure they loved them too and that those are how they
defined you in their hearts. And they loved you, which is probably why they
wanted you to come here with them, right?”

She
shook her head and said it was only because they didn’t want her to get into
trouble while they were away.

“That’s
because they love and care about you.” He told her about how he got into
trouble when he and his friend Jordan snuck into their high school after hours
to steal a set of tests from one of their classes that they both knew they
failed. “We weren’t careful and ended up breaking a window and a desk and were
caught pretty quickly. I just remember getting home, my heart pounding so hard
I thought it was going to explode, how my stepdad yelled at me in front of the
officers, Jordan, my mom, and my brother, and how my mom came into my room
later and told me she was just happy that I was okay.” Nick went on to tell
Lauren about how he broke down, cried, and promised his mother that he wouldn’t
ever let her down again. “She told me everything was fine, that Paul, my
stepdad, would get over it, and that she still loved me.” He made eye contact
with her and told her that her parents still loved her.

Lauren
looked away from him, smiled, and started to tell him about how her mother and
father reacted to the first time they caught her out past her curfew.

---*---

11:50
PM

Baltimore,
Maryland

Mia
sat wrapped in a blanket on her couch with all of her lights off. She forgot to
pay her bills and because of that lit her room with two candles on her coffee
table in the center of her living room. She tried her best to pour over the
little information she had about the individual who stole her identity, but
still didn’t manage to come up with anything.

A
small black crow tapped on her window and perched there in anticipation of
Mia’s eventual willingness to open the way for it. She did as the creature knew
she would and the bird, along with dozens of others, flew into her apartment
and assumed the form of a man in rags.

“You
don’t sleep much, do you?” he started.

“I’m
an insomniac, so no.” Mia looked up at him and asked what he wanted.

Twelve
remained quiet for a moment and asked what she worked on.

Mia
set one of her folders down on the table and told him it was for an identity
theft crisis she faced. “Whoever stole my identity is apparently here in
Baltimore.” She handed him a sheet of paper with information about a credit
card made out in her name and the last three transactions were all within the Baltimore
City limits. “They flew in a couple of days ago.”

Twelve
studied the paper and set it down. “Why are you in the dark?”

“I
forgot to pay my bill.”

Twelve
walked over to the light switch at the front of the room and turned it on. The
lights responded and illuminated the room. Mia scrutinized his actions and
asked why he paid her bill. He turned her heater on and simply said he was
returning a favor. “You agreed to help me, so I want to help you as well.”

Mia
briefly thanked him while she stacked her identity theft papers on her coffee
table. Her apartment was still a complete mess, though Twelve could tell she
made some brief effort to clean it before falling back into her obsessive work.

“We
found the next victim,” she told him. “His name’s James Resnik.” Mia looked at
him, but Twelve only studied the floor and waited for her to continue. “What do
you think we should do?”

“What
did you do last time?”

“We
tried to get him out of the city and we ended up getting the civilian killed,
injuries on our part,” she recalled the injury she sustained to her wrist
nearly a month before, and finished by adding the loss of one of their
detectives.

“I
gather you don’t want it to end up the same way?” Twelve asked her.

“Of
course not.”

“Do
you have a plan?”

She
shook her head, “Nothing concrete. Do you have any suggestions?”

“It
really depends on whether you want James Resnik and all of your fellow officers
to live, or if you want to stop Cladis.”

“Can’t
we have both?”

He
shook his head and said it might not be so simple. “We’re still fighting an
enemy we don’t completely understand. This isn’t a crime lord we just can’t get
close to,” Twelve reminded her, “Cladis has the power and prowess to possibly
hold his own against some of the world’s greatest heroes.”

Mia
mused to herself briefly and asked if any of those heroes might have an
interest in helping them, but Twelve didn’t answer her. She frowned and
admitted that their plight didn’t seem to interest anyone beyond their city.

“It’s
partly because not too many people are aware of the situation,” Twelve said.
“Your police force has done a rather impeccable job of concealing information,
but because of that people are aware of the serial killer and not the actual
threat.”

“But
couldn’t one of the heroes out there hear about it and come running for the
challenge and glory?” she suggested.

He
shrugged and said it didn’t matter. “We can’t rely on others to do what we’re
expected to accomplish ourselves. So let me ask you again,” Twelve locked eyes
with her and asked what she was willing to do to save the city.

Mia
shook a bit and told him she was ready to do anything.

Twelve
nodded and then asked if she was willing to go so far as to kill him. “Would
you kill a man if it meant saving this city?”

She
didn’t hesitate to confirm it. “It’s one option for sure.”

“It
could be our only one at this point,” he sighed, “But his abilities would make
killing him quite strenuous to begin with, seeing as he can become invisible as
well as disrupt electronics so there’s really no way of seeing him.”

Mia
nodded slowly, but looked away from him and gave the matter a second of
thought. She quietly rose from her seat on the couch and walked over to her
kitchen counter and found a photo of a silhouette of a man pushing Angela
Walsh’s car into Mario Evanston’s taxi. She showed the image to Twelve and
said, “We could at least see him if we could somehow cover any area we assume
he’s in with a constant flow of something like rain.”

He
smirked and asked her if she believed rain would be the deciding factor in
their battle.

“I
hope not,” she grumbled, “But it’s something to shoot for.”

The
ragged man chuckled and said he hoped it wouldn’t come down to that. He headed
for the window and let out a breath, “You know, it’s not supposed to rain for
another week.”

“What
are you saying? Our odds are slim?”

He
shook his head, “Our odds have always been slim. This really doesn’t change
anything.”

Twelve
said he would contact her again and fled through the window. Mia didn’t move
for a moment and simply looked at the city lights. She questioned herself a
thousand times and knew her vague queries always ended up proving how
inevitable her job was, seeing as stopping Cladis would only close one door
while dozens others would be opening. Crime, death, and violence never ceased,
and she resented the fact that there wasn’t anything she could do to
permanently stop it.

---*---

Chapter
25

September
28th, 2029

7:18
AM

Baltimore,
Maryland

“Does
anyone have a practical suggestion?” Chief Johnson asked his small taskforce.

Mia,
Bryce, Detective Felton, and Sergeant Murdock joined the chief in his office
for a brief discussion of their limited options. They only managed to submit
the idea for another escape attempt similar to the failed evacuation of Mario
Evanston a month earlier. However, upon reflecting on the utter failure of
their prior effort the group decided it would be wise to devise another
stratagem.

“What
if we put Resnik in one of the holding cells, arm up, lock up, and just try to
hole up inside the station through the night?” Bryce asked.

The
chief gave him a cold stare and asked how they were supposed to shoot at an
invisible target. “Not to mention all of the property damage that would ensue.”

The
group fell quiet for a moment until Murdock asked whether killing Resnik was an
option.

“What
the hell are you talking about?” Felton asked with a look of disgust. “We’re
trying to protect him so why the hell would you even suggest that?”

“I’m
not saying that we do this,” Murdock began, “But isn’t there a chance that
killing Resnik before Cladis can reach him would disrupt Cladis’ string of
murders?”

“Yes,
but there’s no guarantee that it would cause him to stop killing or restarting
the pattern,” Mia answered. “Not to mention, if it was going to disrupt things
I think we would have needed to have killed him before today, since today is
the day Resnik is supposed to die anyway.”

“So
you think that Resnik’s death, by Cladis’ hand or not, might validate him and
his effort all the same?” Felton asked.

Mia
shrugged, “It might.”

There
was a brief buzz on the chief’s desk phone from one of the entryway
secretaries, which he quickly took. “Yes?”

“There’s
an agent Ryuzaki Miyaza here with a small group who say they’re here to speak
to you about…Hey!” the secretary shouted over the line, “You can’t just–”
Johnson heard her knock on the window at the man before she returned and told
the chief that the man and his group walked on ahead without an escort.

Felton
frowned and asked if the name of the agent was familiar to the chief.

“What
do you mean?”

“If
I’m right, that’s the same guy who dropped in unannounced when we held Mario
Evanston before Cladis attacked a month back,” Felton reminded him.

Johnson’s
eyes widened and without a word he left the group to chase after the man. The
group followed after him and asked where he was going. “That guy came here to
see Evanston last time, right? Then he’s here for–” A sudden blindness overtook
the entire station for a brief moment before everyone regained their sight.

The
whole station was stopped and everyone asked if everyone else felt the same
thing happen. Bryce looked about the station and couldn’t believe the
occurrence himself. “What the hell was that?”

Johnson
said it had to do with the Japanese man and continued his pursuit to Resnik’s
holding cell only to find it deserted. The chief ordered Mia and Bryce to head
toward one of the nearest exits while Felton and Murdock sped off in separate
directions to rally backup. Johnson tried to radio for help as well, but
discovered his device was nonresponsive.

---*---

11:40
PM

London,
England

Jason
stood in front of the mirror in his bathroom, fully clad in his complete
costume.
It’s fantastic. Absolutely astounding. Audrey, I can hardly believe
you created this.
The outfit consisted of black milliskin fabric that clung
tightly to his body from his claves to his neck. The fabric was texturized with
millions of small circles which were only marred by the seam work. Audrey made
matching gauntlets and boots, as well as a large, lightweight cape. Audrey
decorated the costume with two deep crimson bands around each of his biceps. To
complete the ensemble, she fitted a flexible plastic mold of a sunburst to the
center of his chest, as a sort of emblem for him to wear. The sunburst was
hollow in the center and had two rays of light longer than the rest at two
opposite ends at a diagonal.

He
admired himself once more before he walked out of the bathroom and, with a
smile, presented his wife her completed work. Audrey not only beamed but jumped
off their bed to meet her husband. “Jason, you look amazing! Does it fit well?
Did the belt help at all? It’s not too constricting, is it?”

“It’s
fine Audrey,” he assured her. “I feel as if this were my second skin,” he
joked.

“Good,
perfect.” She smiled and told him again how wonderful he looked. “And what
about the cape? Do you like it?”

“Yes,
why do you ask?”

“I
wasn’t sure you would is all.”

I
may as well have one if I’m going to prance about as a costumed crusader. It’s
all a load of bollocks, but as the saying goes, all or nothing, right?
He told her he loved
it. “It really looks stunning dear. It’s positively spectacular.”

“I’m
thrilled that you find it perfect my love,” she wrapped her arms around his
neck and quickly kissed him. “Do you know when you’ll take this out for a test
run?”

Jason
shrugged and said, “I could go out tonight, if you are quite alright with
that.”

“Of
course, of course,” she told him. “I made this for a reason.”

Jason
thanked her once more and told her he would try to only stay out for a short
while. “I’m not even sure of what I’m going to do while I’m out there. I guess
I just need to patrol until I find something amiss.”

Just
as he finished his sentence, he heard a familiar voice from afar whispering,
“Jason? Jason it’s Suzy, can you hear me? I need you to come find me at my
school; there’s been another kidnapping.”

“Jason,
what is it?”

He
told his wife to be quiet for a moment while he concentrated on Suzy’s words.
“The girl’s name is Lily Meyers,” Suzy continued, “And-and I know her Jason.
She’s in my theater course, she’s actually in the play I’m in Jason and I-I
don’t know what the hell’s going on. I need your help. He can’t be too far off
by now. She’s been missing for about an hour and–” she broke off into sobs and
begged him to come find her.

Now?
I don’t know who this guy is. I don’t know who I’m searching for. How the hell
am I supposed to help her? I can’t. I can’t. I’m not ready for this. I am not
ready. I’m going to fail. She’s going to die.
Jason felt his whole body pulse along
with the beat of his own heart for a moment before he saw the worry in Audrey’s
eyes.
Breathe damn it! Just breathe and get out there. You are going to fail
if you don’t try you fool. Now go!

“I’m
sorry Audrey,” he started, “But there’s been another kidnapping and I’m
needed.”

She
watched her husband head toward the window and just as he opened it wide and
readied for his departure she raced over to him and threw her arms around him.
“Please, please be careful Jason.”

“Of
course.”

“And,”
she paused while she tightened her grasp on him, “I love you.”

“I
love you too.”

--          --          --

Suzy
stood outside her apartment and smoked cigarette after cigarette. Her hands
trembled violently and she paced stiffly with scattered cigarette butts at her
feet. She kept her eyes on the sky and expected to see her brother-in-law
descend and meet her. The night was cold, as winter approached, and she felt
the biting cold amid the heat of her smokes. She wanted to scream and dart back
to the imagined safety of her bedroom and forget about all of the maddening
events she encircled herself with. As she found her final cigarette in the
crumpled carton, Jason, rather, Ilion descended from the darkened sky to meet
her.

His
feet touched down to the ground and he swiftly walked with her out of plain
sight. “Suzy, I don’t know where to begin,” he started. “You said you know this
girl, what does she look like?”
This is all I can go off of. Maybe if I see
her or can visualize her I can find her in a crowd, or in a car or something.

Suzy
fished a worn and folded picture out of the pocket she stored the trash of her
crushed carton of smokes and gave it to him. “I circled her in that photo,” she
said before she took a long drag. “She was on her way to our rehearsal when she
vanished. One of the girls tried to call her and someone else found her phone
discarded in a few shrubs midway between her dormitory and the theater.”

“Do
you know where exactly Suzy?”

She
nodded and quietly led him near the edge of a long and narrow road. Jason and
Suzy hid as there were police about the area.
No doubt investigating the
disappearance too.
Jason examined the area as best he could given the
parameters but ultimately drew nothing.

“She
was abducted around here, right?” Jason began.

“From
what I know.”

“Then
where on earth would he have taken her?” Jason peered through the night and
recalled that particular road.
There’s nothing here though. It’s relatively
open too so anyone nearby or anyone in a car would have been able to see the
kidnapping. What happened? How did he manage to take her?
Jason stopped and
rubbed his eyes for a brief moment.
You idiot. Listen to what they’re saying
.

Jason
focused in on the few police officers and listened to their conversation.
“Nothing beyond that cell phone really,” one of them began. “There are obvious
signs of struggle, but there’s no trail.” The officer indicated to the other
where the resistance took place before he added, “The attacker seems to have
dragged his victim into the street, but that’s where the trail ends. We thought
the trail would pick up across the road or down the road a ways, but there’s
nothing.”

“Well
what do you think happened?” the other asked.

The
first officer shrugged and suggested they flew off. “It sounds nuts but with
all of the super heroes out there now, it doesn’t seem too farfetched anymore.”

“But
don’t you think someone would have seen two people flying around? Especially
with one of them possibly resisting?”

“I
said it was a guess, not the honest truth. It’s more likely that they got into
a car and drove off.”

Jason
returned to Suzy and relayed what he heard from the officers. “Do you think
that’s a possibility? Could this murderer have some kind of ability?”

Suzy
told him it was possible. “It would explain the insanity behind the
disappearances and how he could discard a corpse so easily, but what if there’s
more to his powers Jason?”

More?
Stop stop stop Jason. You’re getting ahead of yourself. There’s no guarantee
this killer even has an ability. This could be simpler than we think. And what
if it is? Maybe al of the super heroes are throwing things off. Skewing
matters. Facts…Criminals will be able to leave deceptive evidence to suggest
that someone super powered could be behind the mess, when in reality it could
be a ruse. Damn it. Why did this have to happen? Too many factors, too many
loose ends. How am I supposed to stop him? How am I supposed to save her? He’s
throwing me off, toying with me. Damn it where the hell could he be?

Jason
scanned their surroundings once more before he asked Suzy, “What do you know
about this area?”

“What
do you mean?”

“What
if the vanishing act is a trick,” Jason purposed. “What are some other
possibilities other than super powers? Is there anywhere he could hide?
Somewhere he could stay hidden and out of sight while he tortures and kills his
victim? Or at least until the police are out of the area and he could make an
easier escape?”

Be
delicate Jason.
He saw her countenance wane before she answered, “I’m not sure. There are plenty
of buildings all around but all of them are inhabited, and I doubt he could
move her too far.” Suzy’s brow furrowed as she added, “There’s the sewers
though.”

“The
sewers? What about them?”

She
told Jason about the labyrinthine of corridors and tunnels beneath the heart of
London and briefly mentioned their past uses for organized crime and theft.
“It’s possible he could take someone down there, though I don’t know if he
would likely use the sewers for much more than travel.”

“Why
is that?”

“They
echo,” she told him. “If any of the girls woke and screamed out, there’s a
chance someone could overhear it and investigate.”

“Alright.
How far do these tunnels span?”

Suzy
said she didn’t know. “It could be from here to Greenwich for all I know, or
farther.”

Jason
looked around for any manhole covers the assailant might have utilized before
he spied one a little ways down the road.
Could it be that simple? Crawling
about the sewers with his prey? Is it worth investigating? Is this misleading
too? But it is something, progress. But how am I going to get down there? I
can’t race past and remove and close the manhole without causing some massive
damage to the street or drawing attention to myself. What if I lose my grip on
the cover and send it hurdling into the sky and down into London? I could
easily kill someone. But what do I do?