Carrie Vaughn - Dreams of the Golden Age

“Got it,” he said, entirely too eagerly. Must be nice, being able to turn invisible to avoid danger.

“Can you unlock the door for us?” Sam said.

“No, it’s got a code lock on it or something.”

“Then can I please blast it?” Sam called over his shoulder.

“Give Ghost a few minutes to get out of the way and get to Celia. Then yes, you can blast it,” Mentis said.

Once he blew up the door, a battle would start. After that, there’d be little enough Anna could do, compared to her friends who could do so much. But that didn’t matter, because they were all here for the same reason: find Mom, get her out safe. That was Anna’s task.

Teddy vanished through the door again.

THEminions returned and huddled in conference with Majors—out of Celia’s hearing, of course. Alas. Not that she would have been able to do anything with any information she gleaned. She kept glancing at the mentalist, Mindwall, wishing she could interrogate him on the extent of his power. Wishing she could knock him unconscious by sheer force of will. But no, that was Arthur’s ability.

Arthur. She relied on him for so much. She’d taken him entirely for granted, and now she had plenty of time to review in painstaking detail all the mistakes she’d made in her adult life. Little mistakes, inconsequential. A missed birthday here. A failure to listen to her children sufficiently well. An obsession with details she might have been better off letting go. Celia had given herself a pass because those mistakes all paled when compared to the drama of her childhood. Except for the latest mistakes: She really should have told everyone about the leukemia. And when she told Arthur that he was right, assuming she got out of this in one piece, he wouldn’t even say I told you so.

Maybe Majors was right, and she should have let the company go a long time ago. Let the big picture fend for itself while she focused on what was important: Arthur and the girls.

No. Those thoughts were a trap, because while she didn’t have powers of her own, she was still her parents’ daughter. She had the power to make Commerce City better and an obligation to use it. Dr. Mentis of the Olympiad understood. So did Anna, or she wouldn’t have spent all these weeks sneaking out on her adventures.

An explosion sounded, the whump of a fireball in a distant corridor, the hiss of gas and burning, and a group of people shouting in panic that seemed to echo through the building’s foundations and floor. No …

Majors turned back to her, his face drawn into a very serious, very pitying frown. “Remember, you could have stopped this.”

“You’re a psychopath,” she said. “I know your kind.”

“You don’t know anyone like me,” he declared.

She smiled, because she could list the names of all the villains who were just like him, who’d kidnapped her or tried to. Who’d failed, no matter how confidently they’d stood before her and ranted that they were different. The feeling of déjà vu was oppressive.

The sounds continued, changing in ways Celia couldn’t interpret. The blast of a blowtorch, shouted denials, then … rain? Falling water? Whatever it was, the shouting stopped, which could either be good or bad.

Typhoon …

Which was only her mind playing tricks on her. A memory from the old days intruding.

“That’s it, right?” Steel, the thug behind her, asked Majors. They’d all gone very quiet, listening. “They’re done?”

“We’ll wait a few minutes and send Shark in to check. But I’ve studied all the vigilantes who might have come to help her, and none of them could escape those traps.”

Just keep blustering. She desperately hoped he was wrong. Tried to imagine a world where he wasn’t, and her rescuers just met disaster. Tried and failed. She could not imagine herself not getting rescued, and wasn’t that an odd thought? Did Majors know that she’d never not been rescued?

Celia flinched back when she felt a tickling pressure on her left wrist. A tugging at the nylon strap binding her. Then a voice whispered close her ear. “Ms. West, it’s Teddy Donaldson. I’m invisible.”

Of course he was. She sat very still and kept a smile of relief off her face. When really, she wanted to laugh. The nylon jerked a few times, seemingly of its own accord—a strange thing to see—until the knot loosened. The boy was clever enough to leave the strap there but tied loosely enough for her to easily slip her hand free. He quickly did the same to the right hand and then her feet, leaving them entirely free of the straps.

“When we give the signal, make a run for it,” he whispered.

Now this was a rescue. She’d been freed right under Steel’s nose and no one was the wiser.

A tiny breath of a draft marked Teddy’s passing. Steel looked over, as if he’d caught some motion out of the corner of his eye. But he shrugged it off.

Celia wished she could have talked to Teddy, or that he’d leaned close enough for her to whisper a reply: Take out Mindwall. With the mentalist out of commission, Arthur could likely incapacitate the whole room and they could stroll out of here. If only …

She took a deep breath to settle her nerves and waited. Everything was going to be all right, and very soon.

The shadowy figure in green chose that moment to step into the open. The vigilante was tall, impressively fit, his arms and thighs leanly muscled under the skin-suit fabric. He stood in a pose of strength, shoulders back, hands clenched at his sides. His mouth and jaw were visible under the sleek helmet and mask he wore. He was clean shaven and seemed young.

Majors and his people jumped like they’d been hit with a static shock. And Celia found out how Steel got his name when a metallic scraping wrenched from his raised arms, which had become elongated, flattened, and edged with vicious-looking blades. The man’s arms had become mutated, living swords, and he held them out and bent, ready to wield.

She didn’t want her daughters anywhere near that man and hoped Arthur had the good sense not to bring them. The thought of the man standing guard behind her suddenly became that much more terrifying. All he’d have to do was drive one of his arms through her back …

The green-suited super didn’t seem the least put off by the display, almost like he expected it. He announced, “Danton Majors, I need you to release Ms. West and surrender immediately.”

Majors grunted. “Who the hell are you?”

The young super hesitated, as if trying to figure out what to call himself, but he set his jaw and brushed the question away. “I’m a concerned citizen. You’ve broken a lot of laws here, Mr. Majors.”

“Who are you to decide that?”

The vigilante quirked a smile, tilted his head. “Just let her go.”

“No,” Majors said. His grin turned ugly, and he glanced over his shoulder. “Steel?”

The superhuman cocked back his bladed arms and ran forward.

Even Celia knew you never ran head-on at a strange superhuman without knowing anything about their powers. Seriously.

The mystery man leapt out of the way. He literally jumped, his power taking him across the room in a single stride. He bounced feetfirst against the wall, landed on the floor nearby in a crouch, and looked back at his opponents. Meanwhile, Steel had stabbed his right arm into the floor where the stranger had been standing, tearing through the carpet. Snarling, he wrenched his arm free. The man went after his quarry again, still running, as if moving fast enough would allow him to catch the jumper. This time, Steel slashed instead of stabbed, but the vigilante deftly sprang out of the way, bouncing across the room like some kind of insect. This time, he landed near Celia.