Carrie Vaughn - Dreams of the Golden Age

They’d done this as anonymously as they could. Now all they could do was wait to see if their tip did any good. Unlike fighting fires, they didn’t get the instant gratification of knowing they’d helped someone or seeing news of their exploits in the paper. It was frustrating. But they had to be patient. They just had to.

It happened faster than they thought it would. The very next morning, Teddy called her cell phone, breathless and nearly incomprehensible. She wasn’t even out of bed yet.

“Anna! Anna, have you seen the news? You have to look at the news, I sent you the link, check your messages, right now!”

“Teddy, it’s five in the morning.” She was still catching up on sleep from the night of their raid. Didn’t Teddy sleep at all?

“Anna. Check your messages.” He was suddenly very serious.

She did. Teddy had sent her an e-mail with a link that led to a news story. “Breaking,” the headline announced. She squinted, read on.

Notorious drug dealer Jonathan Scarzen has been arrested on charges based on evidence delivered in an anonymous tip.

Anna clapped her hand over her mouth to keep from screaming. “It worked!” she finally managed to squeal.

“Told you you had to look.”

If he’d been there this minute, she would have hugged him.

What she wanted more than anything was to go to school and rub Teia’s face in their success. But Teia still hadn’t returned to school, third day in a row. This became apparent on the car ride over, and Anna grew more anxious, until Bethy asked, “What’s wrong, you have a test today or something?”

“Yeah, that’s it,” Anna muttered.

She’d printed out the article about the arrest and the anonymous tip. She wanted to frame it, but she couldn’t, so she kept it folded up in the pocket of her uniform blazer. She kept hoping to sense Teia’s approach, hoping that her mother had changed her mind about pulling the twins from Elmwood.

But no, Teia was at home. Again. Anna ducked behind the corner of the building and called her.

“Where are you?” she said when Teia answered.

“You know exactly where I am,” she shot back.

“I thought your mom would change her mind and let you come back.”

“Not a chance. She’s definitely taking us out of Elmwood. We’re home until she can get us enrolled somewhere else.”

“She can’t do that, can she? Not in the middle of the school year.”

“I keep trying to talk to her and she just tells me I don’t know what I’m talking about. Elmwood is suddenly evil. I mean, we all know it’s evil, but not like that, you know?”

“I’m really sorry, Teia. Maybe my mom could talk to her.”

“I don’t think anyone should talk to her, the mood she’s in.”

This proves I’m right about publicity being a bad thing … She didn’t say that because that would just twist the knife, and she wasn’t that petty. Only sort of petty.

Anna continued, casual-like, “I don’t suppose you checked out the news this morning? Look up the Eye, on the front page.”

A few minutes passed while Teia found the website. Anna waited, smug, sure Teia would be impressed.

“Wow,” she said finally, as amazed as Anna could hope for. “Pretty cool.”

“See?” Anna pointed out. “No publicity, no exposure. Fight crime and stay secret, no problem.”

“That was you and Teddy who sent in that anonymous tip? Really?” Teia said.

“Yeah,” Anna said, trying to keep the grin off her face.

“Prove it.”

The breath went out of her, just for a moment. Anna didn’t cough, sputter, tear up, or shout, even though she could have done all of those things. She had never wanted to punch anyone before, but she did, right then. Not because Teia was being mean, even though she was. But because Teia was right.

Anna hung up on her.

WHENAnna came home and told Celia that Teia and Lew hadn’t been at school the last couple of days and were likely withdrawing from Elmwood, Celia wasn’t surprised. It was what she’d have done, finding out her children had this shadow life that her best friend had been manipulating behind the scenes.

What she had to do now was figure out a way to change Analise’s mind. To recruit her to the cause.

She called Mark. He’d left her three messages about the latest vigilante news story. She hadn’t gotten back to him because she’d been distracted with Analise, the doctor’s appointment, a burgeoning hypochondria spurred by the doctor’s appointment, and so on. The vacation was sounding better and better. Surely the city wouldn’t crumble to pieces if she left it alone for a week. After the development plan was settled.

“Finally. I’ve been trying to get hold of you all day,” he said, flustered, and she worried about his heart.

“I know, I’m sorry, I’ve had a lot on my plate.”

“Well, I’ve got another one for you. We arrested Jonathan Scarzen based on an anonymous tip. Good information, the DA thinks she’s got a case, we’re moving forward.”

She had to remind herself who that was, what it meant. Crime lord who’d kept himself very underground. Right. “That’s great, isn’t it?”

“I’m pretty sure the tip came from a team of vigilantes. A different team of vigilantes than the kids at the fire.”

Oh. Oh, dear. “How do you know?”

“We got a call from a cabby about some suspicious activity in the area. He picked up a fare, a couple of kids dressed in black. He thought they might have been cat burglars or something. The timing puts them a few blocks away from where we arrested Scarzen. Frankly, I don’t know whether to be amused that they’re taking cabs around town because they can’t fly or pissed off that they’re putting themselves in so much danger.”

Teddy Donaldson was one of them, she’d bet. He hadn’t been part of the first group, Teia and company. “What are their descriptions?” Celia asked.

“I don’t think I’m going to tell you,” Mark said, sounding entirely too gleeful. “You’ve been holding out on me, now I’m holding out on you.”

She did not have time for this. “I’m just trying to keep you from pulling up to these kids’ houses and arresting them on some trumped-up curfew charge or whatever the hell you’re planning.”

“Celia, it’s for their own good. They’re running around Hell’s Alley in the middle of the night, they’re going to get hurt.”

He was right, of course. It was the same reason Analise was so angry about it. He kept on, “I’ve got two brand-new superhero teams hitting the streets now, and neither of them knows what the hell they’re doing. They’re kids playing with dynamite, and it has to stop before one of them gets killed. You know who they are, you have to stop them.”

“You know how I can tell you don’t have teenage kids?” Celia asked.

“I get teen delinquents in here every damn day. Don’t tell me I don’t know what I’m talking about,” he said, sharp as a razor.

She’d cut too close. Mark didn’t have kids of his own, not because he didn’t want them but because he’d made a responsible choice not to inflict his genes on the next generation. Guy ought to get a medal, not her sarcasm. Backing up, she tried again. “It’s not a matter of making them stop. You’ve been dealing with supers as long as I have. It’s a compulsion with them.”

Mark understood the compulsion, because along with the powers came a need—a need to protect, to act, to control. It was why he’d become a cop when he could have been anything he wanted. Sometimes the Leyden descendants were born without powers, but still they felt the compulsion.