Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (this book - Book 3)
Roy Valik looked around the quiet lab, imagining the bustle of activity taking place just hours earlier. He had finally sent his assistants home. They still had data to review from their testing of Sapphire Angel, but it would do him no good to push them to the point of exhaustion. And the newest results from the Pentorial Sensor wouldn't be ready for at least another day or two. He hoped the sensor's data would be as fruitful as the data from its first scan of the heroine, during her tour of WarTech. That data had given him a glimpse of the power flowing through her.
He was glad his assistants had left for the night. He didn't want them to see him now, despondent and afraid. Devlin would be furious when he learned of Sapphire Angel's escape. The CEO was a desperate man and would take it out on Valik. But Valik cared less about Devlin's reaction, and more about losing the subject of his research. Sapphire Angel could have finally given him what WarTech needed — the means to create the ultimate soldier.
He glanced over at a glass case against the far wall, in which the pieces of the superheroine's costume hung from separate hangers. Valik opened the door of the case and removed the necklace first, unclasping it and sliding it off the hanger. He held it up to its eyes, marveling at the way the light played off the facets of the stone.
He returned the necklace to its place and turned his attention to the focus of the woman's costume — the brilliant blue and white minidress. Even in the dim light, it shimmered, as if it were mocking him for his inability to unravel the heroine's secrets. Valik swore under his breath and reached for it. He took it in his hands, studying it for the hundredth time. He knew just holding it wouldn't give him the answers, but he couldn't resist its call.
His passion was the science, but holding the costume in his hands made him curious what Sapphire Angel was doing now, without it. Had he and Mantis ended her reign as a heroine, by bringing her here and taking her items from her? The image of her, fleeing naked through the halls, would be seared into his memory forever. When she ran, was she leaving behind her life as a superheroine? Or would she simply suit up in a new costume and carry on? If that were the case, it hardly seemed fair. She would continue on, and would leave him to pick up the pieces of his research.
But perhaps hope wasn't lost. A man was en route, at that very moment, with the black rock, the Noctecite, from the research Valik had found online. The rock had been inexpensive to purchase from the researchers, probably because they were happy to make some cash, after exhausting all research without finding answers. When the rock arrived, Valik would analyze it and compare it to the data from the Pentorial Sensor. He allowed himself a smirk at the irony — although they had studied the captive heroine for hours, the breakthrough came from data obtained from the Pentothal Sensor during her first visit. The wait for the sensor’s latest results would be unbearable.
Valik turned his attention back to the famous costume in his hands. After several moments of turning it this way and that, and running his fingers over the smooth fabric, he returned it to the hanger, closed the glass case, and left the room. As he moved down the hall, he didn't notice the figure lurking in the shadows.
When Beth awoke, light filled the hotel room. As she stretched, she glanced at the clock on the nightstand. 7:12 am. She had slept through the night, recovering from her ordeal. Their experiments had affected her more than she thought. She looked around the room, not spotting Conner. Had he returned and left while she slept?
Beth sat up as a jolt of panic struck her. He had left to get her luggage, but she saw no luggage in the small quarters. With a pit of worry in her stomach, she darted out of bed and checked the closet and the bathroom, but found no sign of their luggage.
She chewed her lip and wrung her hands as she paced in front of the bed. He shouldn't have been gone this long — unless a WarTech patrol grabbed him. She slipped back into the bathrobe, which she had left balled up on the bed, and grabbed her phone from the nightstand. She sat on the bed and dialed Conner's number, but his voicemail answered.
Her heart racing, she called Jack. When he didn't answer, she tried Ross. He didn't answer, either. Damn, damn, damn!
She bounded out of bed and paced the room again. This was the time she would move into action as Sapphire Angel. But Sapphire Angel was no more. The WarTech goons had seen to that by taking her necklace and costume, leaving her powerless. What if they had Conner, Jack, and Ross? She was helpless and couldn’t rescue them.
Beth moved to the window and pulled back the curtain to peek outside. She had a view of a half-full parking lot at the rear of the hotel and nothing else. With a sigh, she sat back on the bed. Her stomach growled. When was the last time she had eaten? She couldn't go out wearing only a bathroom, but she couldn't sit here and do nothing.
Perhaps she needed to call Stanley again. He would know what to do. And he deserved a longer talk about her events in captivity, after all they had been through together. She reached for the phone again, when she heard a key in the door. Beth jumped from the bed and backed toward the bathroom door, her eyes scanning the room for something to use as a weapon.
The door swung open, and Conner walked in holding a plastic bag in each hand. A mix of relief and annoyance rushed through Beth.
"Where have you been?" she asked. Her voice was curt, and she regretted her tone immediately. Conner wasn't to blame for her current situation.
"Running errands," he answered. "Getting some breakfast for us, and getting our luggage, which is in the car. But I spent most of the time on one other stop."
She cocked her head. He set one bag down on the bed next to her and nodded toward it. Beth frowned, reached to the bag, and pulled it open. She gasped. The unmistakable glimmer of her costume greeted her. She tore through the contents of the bag. It was all there, including her boots, gloves, tights, and necklace. She spread the items out on the bed.
"How did you get this?" she asked, her voice quivering with excitement — and trepidation. Could she just flick the switch and go back to being a fearless heroine again?
"Before you think of me as some kind of hero, it was easy," Conner replied. "Think about it — where were all the WarTech guards last night?"
"Driving around, looking for me."
"Bingo. When I left here last night, I still saw their patrols everywhere. Everywhere except at the WarTech campus. They even had men on foot in town. They want you back — bad."
Beth bit her lip and nodded. When she glanced at her costume, and imagined putting it back on, a vision rushed to her, unbidden. She pictured the two guards holding her arms, while Valik's scientists peeled her costume off her body, piece by piece. Could she excise that humiliating memory from her brain? Her jaw tightened, and she forced the image from her mind as Conner continued.
"With their resources focused on finding you, there was no way security at the headquarters would be as tight as normal. In fact, the place was almost deserted, so I got in and out without anybody knowing — with Stanley’s help, of course. They probably figured nobody would be dumb enough to come back, or that the technology at the headquarters would keep it secure. But they didn't realize Stanley was inside their network. And he's mastered their network even more since I went in to find you, so he was able to create a few subtle distractions for the people that were there. A toddler could have done it, with Stanley helping. I didn't even need to use the finger this time."
Beth's scrunched her nose in disgust at the recollection of the bloody appendage. She paused and took a deep breath.
"I don't know what to say," she said, her voice cracking. "You didn't want me to become Sapphire Angel again. Thank you. I think."
As she dipped her head and raised her hand to brush away the start of a tear, Conner hesitated, as if trying to read her body language.
"You don't need to be her, you know,” he said. “I did this so it would be your choice, not theirs. But I hope you reflect long and hard about whether you want to continue with this crazy life. And I understand if this ordeal shook your confidence."
Beth's head jerked up as an uncharacteristic flare of temper shot through her.
"Why would it shake my confidence?" she snapped. "It's not like somebody beat Sapphire Angel in a fair fight. That's never happened yet. They caught me in a trap, which is different."
Conner closed his mouth in a thin line as Beth stared at him, before her shoulders sagged and she looked down at her hands in her lap. Was he right? Had the recent events shaken her confidence? Had Mantis and Valik shown she really wasn't a hero after all, but just a woman with some incredible items, that, once taken, made her nothing special? She gave a forceful shake of the head. No. She refused to believe it. Stanley's words, two months earlier, came to her. You've been destined for great things since the day you were born.
She raised her head and stared at Conner. "There's nothing to think about, Conner. Sapphire Angel is a part of me. I have to be her."
Beth wondered if she was saying the words more for her own benefit than his, but it didn't matter. Eric needed her. This might be the end of her relationship with Conner, if she passed up this chance to lead a normal life. But could she be with someone who wouldn't accept her for who she was? Conner interrupted her thoughts.
"I was afraid you would say that," he said. "But I understand."
She cocked her head. "You do?"
"I played baseball in high school and once got drilled in the head by a pitch. I was out for a week with a concussion, and my dad wanted to ease me back in. But my coach stressed that if I didn't dig right back into the batter's box, I'd never get past it. I'd flinch at every pitch for the rest of my career. I took it to heart and had the game-winning hit my first game back. That's child's play compared to your choices, but I understand where you're coming from."
Beth gave a slow nod, perhaps seeing Conner in a new light. "You continue to surprise me," she said.
He shrugged. "That doesn't mean I don't want you to reconsider. I stand by what I said before. This is a dangerous way to live."
"I understand that. But I need to find Eric."
Conner sighed. "You're right. I've never met the guy, but I'd live with guilt forever if we didn't try to find him. But where?"
"All my instincts say the goons at WarTech have him, and probably in one of their buildings. Stanley is in their network now, so perhaps he can locate him."
"Unless they have Eric off the grid, like they had you."
"True. But Stanley can keep trying. In the meantime, there are those things I overheard when I was their prisoner. They have the buyer coming today — for what, I don't know. But it's to a place called 'Building C.' Stanley should be able to figure out where that is, and then I need to get inside. They said some sort of 'product' should be there now, before the buyer gets there. Maybe I can identify the product and then see who comes to inspect it."
"Beth, after what happened, there has to be another way for us to do this. Do you really want to go back in there again? Even with Stanley helping us, they won't be unprepared like they were during my visit. Once they discover someone took your costume and necklace, they'll double down on security."
She nodded. "I'll be ready this time. My mistake was underestimating them. It won't happen again. And if I go now, they won't have time to fully mobilize."
Conner studied her for several moments before speaking.
"Let's get to work."
Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (this book - Book 3)
Valik’s a dead man. He is a DEAD man......unless something else happens that I’m not expecting. At first, I thought “oh, that’s okay, Sapphire may have escaped, but he still has the costume”.....and then I got to the second half of the chapter and came to the revelation that Conner stole the costume back, too. So now he has absolutely nothing, and Nassar and Devlin are on their way. Then again.....he does have the preliminary data and the Pentoral Sensor results, so I suppose there’s that. And the Noctecite is also on its way.....
Also, why did I think Valik was going to try and “transform” the exact same way that Sapphire did? Absolutely NO one wants to see him in that outfit.....I’d be chucking money at him to go BACK to his lab attire.
Initially, when the first half of the chapter ended with a mention of a “figure lurking in the shadows”, I thought it might’ve been someone aligned (or otherwise associated) with WarTech, like Mantis or maybe Eric Stump. I was thinking it was Eric Stump somehow having escaped his cell and sneaking up on Valik to dispose of him in revenge. Or maybe Mantis going in to attack Valik for keeping the research a secret from him. This is just my personal opinion, but I’m glad you let the figure’s identity slip in the exact same chapter it was mentioned; I probably would’ve forgotten about it otherwise. xD
Conner may be on the side of believing that living as Sapphire Angel would be a dangerous life for Beth---and I do believe that other people may say the same thing---but.....it may just be because I’m a huge Marvel Cinematic Universe fan, but I will always be a proponent FOR superheroes in any form of media no matter what. I don’t think a franchise has ever made me want superheroes to be real more than the MCU has. They can protect people just like law enforcement do.....but look WAY more awesome and flashy doing it. Besides, they’ll be less likely to brutally kill innocent people of color on a regular basis than police officers do (“Mastermind”, the upcoming second novel of Phase 2 of the Paragon Cinematic Universe, actually focuses on that). As long as Beth is okay with being Sapphire Angel, no one should try to stop her; even if we are talking about her quitting one day, SHE should decide when she’s done, not anyone else.
To add to that, Sapphire Angel does have a point; when going up against her head-on, she’s always won. Now that I look back on her adventures so far, every single one of her “defeats” involved the enemy resorting to underhanded tactics.
Raven Tristan subduing her with anesthetics.
Mantis ambushing her in the hotel and stealing the laptop.
Mantis and Valik setting an elevator gas trap for her inside WarTech to bring her to her knees.
I don’t quite know if Wheldon and Rockford shooting a rocket launcher at her head-on at the climax of the second novel and sending her plummeting into a lake counted as a “defeat” or not; it probably doesn’t, since she was up and running again after nothing but a quick encounter with Conner. Still, they faced her head-on that one time and did manage to take her down, however briefly.
It seems like she’s going to try and ambush Valik, Nassar, and Devlin when they all group up for the deal.....does she really not know that the “product” IS her? Regardless, WarTech doesn’t have any traps lined up this time, so let’s see how they get by. Who am I kidding? Sapphire’s gonna kick them into next week.