Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (this book - Book 3)
"My life of luxury has come to an end, it seems," Majid Azari said as he stuffed items from his desk into a cardboard box. The man with silver eyes stood across from him, observing the terrorist leader and saying nothing.
"The Americans won't come for me yet," Azari continued. "But my sources say I am on their radar, and the latest news from WarTech only increases the risk to me. When Amal slipped away, Sapphire Angel was about to defeat Mantis. The collapse of the whole company may follow, and the Americans might eventually learn of Amal's presence there. That could lead to me."
"What will you do?" the silver-eyed man asked, without a trace of emotion.
"I planned for this," Azari said. "So I will go into hiding, carrying out my plans, and biding my time. But the real question is, what will you do? Are you any closer to finding your champion? I have grown weary of Sapphire Angel's meddling. It is time to make an example of her, for all the world to see."
For the first time, the man with silver eyes hesitated. When he spoke, Azari saw an uncertainty in those eyes, which he had never seen before.
"I have found two potential candidates," the strange man said. "One is a woman, who has displayed both extraordinary physical prowess, and a hatred for America. Oddly enough, she is an American herself. I have a man watching her closely, and he says she despises Sapphire Angel. Or perhaps resents her, for all the attention the heroine receives. But I am not yet sure she is the one."
"Why is that? What would make you be more sure?"
"I can't get into that. Just trust me when I say I would know."
Azari frowned, but he had learned it was pointless to press this strange man for additional information.
"Then who is the other?" Azari asked.
"The other is this Mantis character. Your man Amal, before fleeing, believed Mantis was about to lose to Sapphire Angel. But if Mantis ends up making it out of WarTech, it would be a good sign. I will try to find out. There is something... different about him."
Azari nodded, but said nothing.
"Signs point to both of them, but there can be only one," the silver-eyed man said. "So if the signs are wrong about one of them, they might be wrong about both."
"Signs?" Azari asked with a raised eyebrow. "What signs?"
The silver-eyed man gave a thin smile. "I can't get into that, unfortunately. And it would seem unbelievable to you. But you must trust me. I will find the champion, although it might take some time. More time than you like. Until then, we must not confront Sapphire Angel. But when we do, the wait will be worth it."
Sapphire Angel found Roy Valik's body alone in the adjoining room, still leaning against the generator, with blood dripping from his face and soaking his clothing. She shook her head. There was no sign of Mark Devlin, who apparently was more concerned with tracking down Amal Nassar, and trying to salvage something, than he was with respecting his scientist's death.
As she studied Valik's body, sadness came over her, both for the dead scientist, and for herself. He may have held information about her powers and her origins, which might have helped her finally learn about herself. Perhaps Stanley could find some information on the WarTech network, but those were questions for another day. Devlin and Chappelle were still out there, hopefully nearby.
With her jaw set, Sapphire Angel left Valik's body, sprinting from the room and retracing her steps through the Penthouse. She passed the storage room and kitchenette, and ran into the elevator lobby. Flashing lights caught her eye through the window to her left. Turning, she looked out the window and spotted five police cars near the research building entrance, their lights flashing.
Sapphire Angel clenched her fists. Officer Jennings had planned to call for help, but reinforcements would not have arrived so soon. If her prior encounters with the Wynton police were any indication, the police presence meant Devlin had called for backup. She needed to find Devlin and Chappelle, fast.
The costumed heroine darted through the lobby and entered the small waiting room outside the Penthouse office. The two guards remained on the floor, unconscious and bound with her zip ties.
As she looked at them, the office door opened opposite her, and Mark Devlin stepped into the room. He froze when he saw her.
"What the f — " he started to say, but Sapphire Angel had already closed the distance, burying a fist into the center of his face. It was a knockout blow, and he collapsed to the ground.
As he fell, Socrates Chappelle came into view, standing just inside the doorway. His eyes were wide. Behind him stood Vernon Clark, the portly, middle-aged detective from the Wynton Police Department.
"Listen," Chappelle said, holding up his hands in a pleading gesture. "Let's make a deal. You name it, and I can make it happen. I'm very powerful. People listen to me."
"Nobody is going to listen to a traitor," she said, glaring at him with her hands on her hips.
His shoulders sagged and his head dropped, before he erupted with a roar, charging at her. She hopped on one leg, lashed out with the other, and the toe of her boot kicked up through his chin. The force hit with such force that even the large senator lifted off his feet, before he crumpled like a doll, toppling forward and landing on top of Devlin.
Behind the two fallen men, Clark stared at her, his body tensed and his hand easing toward his waist. Sapphire Angel raised an eyebrow, frowned, and gave a shake of her head. Detective Clarks' shoulders sagged, and he sighed.
"Fuck," he muttered. "I guess this is the end of the road."
Before Sapphire Angel could respond, she heard the ding of the elevator through the doorway behind her. A moment later, the sound of footsteps entering the lobby filled the room. The heroine gave an inward groan. Would this never end?
A moment later, Detective Will Cooper rushed from the lobby into the room, a swarm of Wynton police officers crowded together behind him in the lobby. They held their weapons in front of them, but relaxed when they saw her, and lowered them. She raised a perplexed eyebrow.
Cooper held out a hand.
"It's not what you think," he said. "We're the good guys."
"Don't tell her anything, Coop!" Detective Clark called from behind her.
"It's over, Vern," Cooper said, peering past Sapphire Angel at the other detective. "Thanks to Jennings, I know what you've been up to. I found the log of all the WarTech payments to some of our officers, and used it to get a search warrant from one of the honest judges. We're here to execute upon that warrant, and to place you under arrest, Vern."
The heroine looked between the two men, recognizing the defeated look in Clark's eyes. He wouldn't attempt to escape. The disgraced detective dropped to his knees and placed his hands on his hand, his fingers interwoven. Cooper nodded to one of the officers at his side, who came forward with a pair of handcuffs, slipping past Sapphire Angel with a look of awe in his eyes, before pulling Clark's arms behind his back to cuff him.
"Jennings is here," Sapphire Angel said, turning back to Cooper. "She found the two kidnap victims and is with them now. She should be able to fill you in on everything."
"I'm sure you can, too," Cooper said.
"That's not really my thing," Sapphire Angel replied, giving him a playful smile. “You'll have more than enough evidence without me."
Cooper paused before giving a nod. "In normal circumstances, I would force a witness to stick around. And in fact, I might catch hell for not doing so. But after all the trouble I gave you, and based on what Jennings told me, I won't stop you."
Sapphire Angel turned to glance back into the office, but it was empty except for Detective Clark and the officer handcuffing him. Most importantly, there was no sign of Mantis. The mysterious man had slipped away.
"Jennings knows how to reach me, if you need anything," she said, before stepping past Cooper, moving through the doorway to the lobby, and slipping between the ten police officers standing about the area. All ten officers wore looks of wonder on their faces as she moved among them.
Before stepping to the elevator, she glanced out the window to her right. The WarTech campus stretched out below her, quiet at this late hour, but soon it would be bustling with activity. Federal authorities certainly would be arriving, given the nature of WarTech's crimes. By then, though, she would be long gone.
Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (this book - Book 3)
Hahahaha! Majid Azari and the silver-eyed man are on the ropes now! I don’t know.....I still think the silver-eyed man may be a super. The silver eyes are screaming “telekinesis” or some kind of mind manipulation......but then again, he could just be a normal guy who was born or built differently. And I’ve been wrong a lot before, so there’s also that. Having Sapphire get completely wrecked without even being touched would hurt.....wonder how she’d get out of that one. So Majid Azari’s going to make himself scarce for a while, and the silver-eyed man is going to try and recruit Mantis and (I’m assuming) Olivia Lockheed to their cause to further their plans, made more evident by the fact that Mantis (and Nassar) escaped the WarTech facility. So many bad guys met their end here, but so many more also went up. We effectively traded Devlin, Chappelle, Gregor, Roy Valik, and Vernon Clark for Majid Azari, the silver-eyed man, Mantis, Nassar, and Olivia Lockheed. I’d probably bank on Azari going first while the silver-eyed man is more patient.
Okay, so at least Sapphire didn’t feel AS apathetic towards Valik’s death as I initially thought she did, which makes me feel a little bit better. Then again.....that may just be because of his potential use rather than him as an actual person. He was genuinely intelligent, and made great strides in finding out what Sapphire’s powers were all about. And then before she can learn anything, what did everyone else do?
ZAAAAAAAAAP----BOOM! Valik head ‘asplode.
I would’ve liked for him to have just been knocked unconscious by the blast, taken into custody, and have him rotting in jail with Sapphire briefly visiting him and interrogating him about what he found regarding her abilities. But I guess, like with John’s death, it just wasn’t meant to be.
And, ahhh......I was not expecting for Mark Devlin and Senator Chappelle to go down that easily, quite frankly. I thought that it was going to be on the same scale as the previous novel’s final battle. But Mark Devlin and Senator Chappelle are more business-type people than actual fighters; they’re not on the scale of, say, Mantis or Gregor. Devlin just went down with one punch and the Senator just went down with one kick.....and I felt like I personally got punched by the final battle’s, uhhh.....“length”. Then again, I understand that not everything can be too high-stakes; we already had the extensive sequence of Valik torturing Sapphire and Gregor.....ALSO torturing Sapphire (albeit in completely different ways and for completely different reasons), but I’m hoping that the first half of this chapter sets up more intense situations to come, with all of these other villains coming to the forefront.
One more chapter to go! It’s been an amazing ride once again! I’m legit driven to finish this series just to know what happens to Azari and the silver-eyed man. Also to see Olivia Lockheed get what’s coming to her. xD