Soda supreme, p.21
Soda Supreme, page 21
Eventually Aliza managed to piggyback to people on the road, no more than a minute or two away from where Hitoshi was. That didn’t help a lot, until, eventually, she gasped.
Her voice was happy.
“I spy, with my little eye, something that begins with J... A kid playing a game with his brother, using binoculars, is looking at the plate. I have it!”
So, thanks to Aliza, they got the plate numbers, and Hannah had traced out a route, that showed the man was in Texas. Which was High Command territory.
“We have backup there. I... Need... my... phone.” She was out of it, she understood. Not totally understanding what she was saying. Instead of acting too good to ask for help, Stan went to the wall, and tapped a device there, for a bit. Until a voice spoke into the room.
“High Command. State your emergency.”
Stan, sounding deep voiced on a level that was impressive, spoke almost instantly.
“Behemoth, from The Society. Damsel and Hyper Gamma have located Hitoshi. He’s in your rough area. We have him traveling south, along twenty-seven, headed toward Lubbock. It’s a white Civic, we have plate numbers.” Those were for Washington State, which would help a bit, she had to think.
The man kept going then, after a moment.
“He has a psychic jammer of some kind with him, which could impact a lot of different powers. We don’t know what will work or not, or I’d tell you more.”
The voice on the other end of the phone, spoke again then.
“Dispatching now. Thanks, Behemoth. Is Damsel there with you?”
“Yes. Listening.”
“Damsel? This is Rick. We have some targets that need to be investigated, if you have the time?”
She nodded, so Stan spoke for her.
“It seems she’s good with that? Pass those here and we’ll start now.”
What they got was a listing of various codes. They were just numbers, which worked well enough for her. After all, if she didn’t know what she was looking at, then she couldn’t make up a story about it. It was actually a lot harder to get good data on things she knew too much about. Not impossible for her, now, but it took a real trance, to make that happen well.
Rick’s way meant that she could just collect what came to her. The man stayed on the phone, but let Stan run things. On occasion, Aliza would speak as well.
“I have the target. Cage Cabot... A professional dancer. A stripper. He’s currently with a crowd, in a club, dancing, but... He’s the one you want. He moonlights as a professional thief, using his ability to pass through solid objects. Not walls or anything, but he can reach through safes and lock boxes and pull out whatever is inside of them. I have his home address.”
That came, a lot faster than Hannah would have gotten it. They did similar things on several of the other people they were looking at. Not all of them. Twice, the people actually managed to stop Aliza from reading their minds. That didn’t keep Hannah from finding where they were, or the other woman from moving with her, back away from the targets, to find others in the area who might know things of use. Like their own home address, if it was a neighbor. Once they even got the phone number of the person blocking the telepath.
Two hours later, Rick cleared his throat.
“And that is nearly a month’s worth of work! Including a few things I doubt we would have managed at all, without the help, thanks. All of you. Do we just get with you there for this in the future? Each Friday?”
Hannah shook her head. After a moment, she managed to speak.
“Let’s do it on Thursday? Unless there’s an emergency? That way, we can leave the busy nights of the week open. Or, you know, go out, if that’s ever a thing again?” She meant for her, but Rick made a sound that seemed less than optimistic about the idea.
“Right. Thursdays at, are you all available between four and seven?” That seemed to work for all of them.
Aliza grinned, as soon as the other man was off the phone.
“We’ll meet on Mondays then, so we can get ahead of the crowd? That thing, following along with you, that really worked. I can’t just get a name and read minds at a distance, normally, but you got me to the right people, just, instantly. I have to be in the same room with people for that, so this was... Pretty fun.”
What she could do though, if she was in touch with a person, was talk to them. Alistair did that all the time, but Aliza was a lot more willing to interrupt a person she’d never met, once the idea was brought up. That, the person they were going to bother as a test, was Gregory.
“After all, you already know that he wants to bang you.”
That pretty much had to be the case, and the dark woman, who was probably in her late teens, even if working there professionally, smiled.
“That he does. He’s really no worse than most of the guys around here. He just can’t filter things in time not to act on them, yet. He’ll get it, eventually. Now, you can find him?”
She was pretty much in the correct state, so nodded, let go of everything and let her subconscious do the work. That took a minute, but as soon as she could see his face, well before she would have felt secure that she had a connection, Hyper Gamma spoke.
“Hey, cutie. This is Aliza. I’m just checking up on you and the situation there?”
She paused for a while, finally going on, after about half a minute.
“Sounds good. Call in if the situation changes, or every six hours. Behemoth, Damsel and I have the coms tonight. So far. Behemoth will probably need to hit the streets, soon, as a show of force. Let me check on that?”
After a moment, she murmured.
“Damsel, can you find June for me? Then Superion?”
She could. Both of them were surprised to find the woman speaking in their heads, but they didn’t whine about the lack of cell phone use. It was clear that the real point was that Aliza was having fun, suddenly showing powers that she hadn’t before.
It was a bit of a team thing. Still, Hannah didn’t have to do much, so, eventually, she started to think about the next night, and the party she was supposed to go to and not at all ready for. Aliza didn’t make a connection for her, thankfully. That would have been awkward. It was, by that time, far too late to call anyone. At least normal people. She glanced at the man, and found that he was out, patrolling, which made total sense.
Still, a call the next day wouldn’t be out of line. One to Brian, of course.
Hannah didn’t go home, being shown to an empty room there in the tower, at about three in the morning. She needed sleep, but even if things were relatively quiet, out on the streets, no one wanted to risk sending her in a car. That meant she was up by seven, tired and wondering where she was. Needing a change of clothing, and a shower. It took about twenty minutes for her to get out of the building, since they took security seriously there, it seemed.
On the nice side, they provided a car for her, so she didn’t have to bother some poor Uber driver at that hour. She got to wave at the men on the door, who were all new ones, it being a different shift, no doubt.
That meant she was on her own sofa, sipping black coffee, and feeling miserable, no more than an hour and a half after waking up.
“Come on, get to work... Being tired isn’t enough reason to...”
Her phone rang, which got her to blink, as she pulled it out.
Tapping it on, she spoke, trying to sound chipper.
“Hello?”
“Damsel? This is Guardia... Um, can I borrow ten thousand dollars?”
She blinked.
“Where do I send it?”
Guardia went silent, then cleared her throat.
“I have an account number here. Let me... Aren’t you going to ask what I need it for? What if I take it and bet on the ponies or use it on hookers and blow?”
She grinned.
“Then I’ll think you’re a lot more fun than you probably really are? Though, if you just need to get lucky, I’m free... Also, I know several nice guys, if that’s more your speed?” She could introduce her to Gregory, as a joke.
There was a sigh.
“I’m good, that way. No, it’s... I have to buy a woman out of slavery.”
Which, of course she did. That was why people borrowed money, after all. Not that Hannah expected it back. Not for that kind of thing.
“What are the numbers for that account?”
It would take a few hours for the transaction to clear, but Hannah sent it immediately. Then she went and exercised, played some VR games and generally wondered what kind of things really went on, in her friends lives. It probably wasn’t the kind of stuff she knew about, most days.
Chapter fourteen
Hannah had tried, a bit selfishly, to get into the Never, so she could heal the damage from the attack, to no avail. It wasn’t that Nevernever wasn’t available to take her, though that was true. Being a bit bored, after her regular practice, Hannah had tried getting with anyone else she knew who could take her there, to no avail.
Debbie and Lashondra were suddenly just gone. They did that on occasion, but neither one had bothered to check in with her, so she had no clue as to if it were important for her to locate them or if that would be prying into things she was better off staying out of. Kate was in, but didn’t know if she could teleport to another reality. It was very likely, but she’d never done it, so was hesitant to try.
John Fawks spoke, after a woman did, then yelled at her, for being an interfering little cunt. That had gotten her to blink, but he’d hung up, almost instantly.
She stared at the phone and frowned.
“No one calls me little... Grrr...” She grinned, assuming something else was going on. The man might call her names, but he’d probably have a reason for it, if he did.
Given that they’d been on good terms the last time they’d met, she had to think that one was about something other than her, really. It would have made more sense if he’d complained about her ignoring him too much. They weren’t that close, after all. Not on a level that had put the man at the top of her list for... almost anything. She nodded though, and sat on her sofa, instantly.
Then she looked into what was going on, over in London.
The man wasn’t in his shitty apartment, or drunk, though he’d sounded a bit like that. The fuzzy, fleeting and disjointed images that she got from him seemed to show him being tied to a chair, at the moment. He was a bit desperate, but his yelling hadn’t been about him begging her for help. No, he was trying to protect the people who had him strapped down.
From her.
Which was interesting, and different, she had to admit.
Not that they weren’t hitting him, every few minutes. Not that hard, however. They were all women, and one had a knife, but the man was making decent inroads toward charming them all. Into bed. Given that two of them were lesbians and still solidly considering it, that was impressive.
The one with the knife, when Hannah moved back in time to get a feel for things, had stomped John’s phone, after holding it to his head. She was very angry, but didn’t think she could really bring herself to murder the man in cold blood. Even cutting him a little was out for her. The other two were in pretty much the same place, which, she understood, was why John wanted her not to be involved.
After all, to his mind, her go to move would be calling in Superion X, or worse, Wisp and the Requiem and that could go sideways, fast. Mainly because they might bring her in, and everyone that went up against her ended up being stabbed or shot. At least to his way of thinking.
Hannah didn’t let herself feel bad about the idea, since the man honestly wasn’t judging her on it. Most of the time, he thought her way of doing things was the smart one, in fact. He just didn’t want his friends hurt at the level that The Damsel could bring down on them. That was all. So he was sweet talking his way out. A thing he wasn’t certain he could really pull off, anymore.
Sighing, being an interfering cunt like she was, Hannah focused on the lady with the knife, who didn’t have a cell phone on her. She did have a cute accent though, being British, and a friend behind her who was nervously swallowing, trying to find a way out of killing John, for having cheated her friend...
Out of some money. Years before.
It was a lot for all of them, being about fifty thousand dollars. Pounds, probably, which was even more. Honestly, the woman’s flower shop had folded, after John had wandered off with her life savings like he had. That, when Hannah checked, was even real. The man had not only done it, but only barely recalled it having happened, years later.
It was hazy, of course, in her reading of things. She could get information, but it was still slow and rough. Plus, she was distracted, since the women really didn’t know what to do, in the moment. Finally, Hannah got the second woman’s number, since she, foolishly had a phone on her, and slowly worked out how to handle things.
It took time. John was beaten for a while, nearly half an hour. Slowly and without that much force being used, of course. Finally, she dialed her cell again, after having done some banking. That had required her to come partially out of her trance, though she went back in a bit, before speaking.
When it picked up, the lesbian woman actually used her own name. It was adorable.
“Connie here, I’m a bit busy just now...”
“Hi, Connie. This is Hannah. The interfering cunt that John spoke to, earlier? I’m interfering... you get the idea... It’s how I do. Anyway, would it be possible for me to speak to Nora, do you think? This isn’t a bad thing. I just need John left alive and know that none of you really want to kill him, so I think I can fix this?”
There was a pause, at least.
“Uh... Nora? There’s a woman on the phone for you? Hannah?”
That got the thing handed over, as John swore loudly enough for her to hear. Then there was actual yelling from the man again. He sounded rather displeased.
“No! Whatever you’re going to do, don’t! These aren’t bad birds, Damsel. This is just a minor disagreement!”
When the woman she was trying to speak to came on, her voice was different than Hannah would have expected. Soft and polite. Like a middle-age librarian.
“Um, hello? This is Nora.” A bit tentative, due to the mad man in the background, yelling like he was. Trying, rather obviously, to save the women’s lives.
“Nora? This is Hannah... I was wondering if you’d allow me to buy John back from you? A quarter million, American, which will pay back what he took, plus interest and a bit extra? We can make him do work for you too, if you want, so he has a personal stake in things? Call it for, a year?”
The woman didn’t speak, for a long time, though it was clear she was hushing John, who had been screaming, louder and louder, the whole time.
“I get paid back what he took and he just walks free?”
That wasn’t what she’d said, of course.
Hannah let her head play side to side.
“Well, I mean, we could try to call the police in, but a lot of them just died, so that would be annoying of us, right? It’s even worse over there than in the States. So, basically... Yeah. I mean, you got to beat him, and you get the money... If we do get the courts involved, well, you and your friends kidnapped and tortured a man, while threatening to kill him. You really did that, by the way. That isn’t the kind of thing they’ll just forget about. John on the other hand is begging me not to have you killed or locked up, even while tied to a chair. So, it sounds fair? Is there anything else you’d like?”
There was a long-suffering sigh, and then a fake sounding growl.
“Fine! How do we do this?”
Hannah had that lined up.
“Nora Gemma Poscue, London England...” She rolled off the account number, which had the woman scrambling to find her own data. In her desk.
Since they were beating a man in her own apartment.
“That’s all correct... How did you get that?”
She didn’t answer, since it would take too long to explain. Instead, she moved to the table in the dining room, that held her laptop, and hit a few buttons. It was already set up, after all.
“There we go. The transfer is happening, now... It could take a bit to show up.”
It was real though, and John, realizing she wasn’t bringing in superpowered people to slap the rather average seeming ladies around, had shut up. Finally. She didn’t let herself smile about the idea, just shaking her head.
There was a gasp, from the other side of the phone, which was pressed to her ear with her right shoulder. The splint and broken left wrist, which she’d never bothered to get a cast on, hoping, if secretly, for some magical healing, wasn’t that useful as far as typing went.
“It... You really put the money in? This is a trick...”
She needed to move past that bit of thinking, immediately.
“Nope. This is compensation, for your troubles. Now, not to be a pain, but I could use John, for a bit? You could make an appointment to beat him again? Don’t let him near your money, of course. He’s been reforming himself some, lately, hanging with a better crowd and all that, if that helps you to not kill him?”
She wasn’t that concerned with the idea, but she could understand how the women felt on the matter. One of them had been wronged, in what had basically been a love con and the other two had actually been friends of John’s, before he’d done that. The ones who had introduced Nora to him in the first place. So they felt obligated to set things right.
Nora sighed.
“Okay. Here, do you want to talk to him?”
Hannah did, actually.
“Yes.”
There was a bit of fumbling noises, for a bit first. The man being untied, she thought.
“Hannah, love! Sorry about earlier. I know that cunt is a bit stronger, language wise, across the pond. Seriously, we use it kind of like a period over here, just to round out the end of a sentence.” He was putting on the charm, as if name calling were going to be the problem of the moment.
“Can you walk?”
Her voice was low, and serious. Deadly sounding, even if it was coming from her.
