Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (Book 3)
Savage Dawn (this book - Book 4)
VIOLENCE WARNING: The two stories in the Savage Gang saga, and especially the second story, involve a gang practicing extreme violence toward everyone — women, the elderly, the protagonist, etc. I am placing this warning on all chapters, including those without such violence, so you can choose whether to continue.
CHAPTER 3
HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, TEN DAYS LATER
Beth Harper sat in a quiet corner of the Stone House, an Irish pub and restaurant in downtown Harrisburg, across the river from her apartment. She picked at a salad and drank a Diet Coke. Across from her sat Ethan Moore, a young man with lightly tanned skin and straight, dark hair. He possessed the thin, athletic build of a skier or perhaps a runner — capable, but not ripped with muscles. He had above average looks, which were enough to keep women interested, but not enough to intimidate them.
Beth's closest friend and confidant, Ethan had been the best friend of Beth's college boyfriend, John. After John's tragic death, he and Beth and had developed a special bond. They spent many nights curled up on the sofa watching movies, or lunch hours sitting in a local restaurant trying to solve life's puzzles. They often tried to make sense of Beth's amazing powers as Sapphire Angel, since so much of her alter ego was a mystery to her. Today, though, her focus, and her worry, was on Ethan.
"How are you holding up?" Beth asked. She and Ethan hadn't talked since his return from a trip two days earlier.
"I'm fine," Ethan replied, but she had learned not to take such a response at face value, since he never complained. "This might be the only day this week I can break away for lunch."
"Did Stanley realize how much work this would be?" Beth asked with a frown. "Between this gig, and keeping the company afloat while he's away, you're going to run yourself into the ground."
Stanley was Stanley Devor, Ethan's employer and a man who was a father-figure to Beth. He ran a specialized private investigation business, with Ethan as one of his only employees. Stanley had also placed Ethan in a temporary internship with VOMAC, a tech company specializing in online social networking.
"I'll be okay," Ethan replied. "He wants me to understand super-complex server infrastructures like this one, which is accessed by people around the world."
"That sounds like Stanley speak for learning to hack."
"He didn't come right out and say it, but, yeah, I think so. It's all part of him increasing my duties with the business."
"If I didn't know Stanley better, I'd say it sounds like he's grooming you to replace him. But Stanley will never give up his work."
Ethan shrugged. "He said he won't be around forever and wants to plan ahead. But nothing is imminent. For now, he doesn't want to be the only one who knows this stuff. He calls it 'human redundancy.'"
"Just take care of yourself, okay?"
"I will. Once he gets back in town in a week, my load will lighten. But how about you? Making any progress?"
She understood what Ethan was asking. In Colorado, four months earlier, Sapphire Angel had encountered a scientist who seemed to know more about Sapphire Angel's secrets than Beth knew, but he had died before revealing answers to any of her questions. What Ethan didn't realize was that Beth almost didn't want to discover those answers, as she feared what she might learn about herself.
"Nothing," she murmured, and her shoulders sagged.
"Maybe when Stanley gets back, he can make sense of it," Ethan said. "His trip was bad timing. And long."
"He didn't ask for his friend to get sick," she said. "He and Mrs. Devor are like family to the guy."
"But four months? You barely got off the plane from Colorado when he had to rush away, and you've hardly heard from him."
Beth shrugged. "Stanley has his own life, Ethan. He's not here just to look after Sapphire Angel. I'm glad you've learned the ropes of the business enough for him to get away."
"I'm sorry you haven't figured things out," Ethan said. "I'm sure it weighs on you."
"It hasn't been too bad. I searched for info on Altor Unitas, which was the name the scientist mentioned, but found nothing."
"Let's see what Stanley has to say next week. That gives you time to focus on Conner."
Beth squirmed and forced an uncomfortable smile.
"I thought things were going better with you two?" Ethan asked. He gave an odd squint as he studied her. If it were anyone but Ethan, she would have read the look as one of longing. But he viewed her as a good friend and nothing more.
Beth glanced around as she sighed. They sat alone in the corner, and the television in the corner just over her shoulder helped mask their conversation.
"It was, for a while," she replied. "I scaled back a little as Sapphire Angel, which helped. But the entire time, something was eating at me, reminding me I could be doing more to help people. She — me — has been pretty busy again the past few weeks, if you didn't notice from the news. And now I feel guilty about Conner, again. Like I'm a pretty terrible girlfriend."
Ethan leaned back, folding his hands behind his head. He tilted his head as he looked at her.
"First, you shouldn't feel guilty. He understood what he was getting into. You were very upfront with him. So you shouldn't change what you're doing out of guilt. But, second, and this is the big one — you should change things not for him, but for yourself. You deserve to have a life, too. You're out of balance."
Beth groaned. He was right — he was always right — but she couldn't ignore the difference she made as Sapphire Angel. Harrisburg was becoming a better place because of her, even if she couldn't enjoy it.
As she slumped in her chair, she saw Ethan's attention turn to the television. She looked over her shoulder to gaze at the screen. The noon news played on the screen,, and a pretty anchorwoman was explaining how Sapphire Angel had broken up a large weapons deal involving a local gang and a gang from New York. In the screen's corner, Beth saw an image of herself as Sapphire Angel.
"The chief of police has confirmed Sapphire Angel tipped them off to the location of a major illegal weapons deal last night," the anchor explained. "When the police arrived, they found fifteen suspects waiting for them, already bound with restraints, and with a stash of weapons nearby. In an exclusive, News Six has obtained video surveillance footage from a nearby security system. It shows Sapphire Angel breaking up the deal and overcoming the men. Here it is."
The footage started to play.
Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (Book 3)
Savage Dawn (this book - Book 4)
Ahhhh, yay! Glad to meet up with Ethan Moore once again after some time! I absolutely his and Beth’s dynamic, honestly; anything that normalizes the fact that a guy and a girl really can just be very good, close friends without anything romantic happening between them is amazing, and we need more of that kind of thing. Like Carla Rosenblood/Nightclaw and Brian Banks from “Nightclaw”!
The Stone House sounds like someplace I’d like to go to as well, if I found myself about to catch up on old times with a longtime friend. The atmosphere and occasional television here and there just sounds like it would be very relaxing at some times, but absolutely hectic at others if there were a lot of people. Could you imagine a high-stakes football game playing on those televisions and the sheer chaos that would erupt from the spectators if their favorite team scored a touchdown? Bye bye, eardrums!
Hope Stanley’s doing okay, and that this friend of his recuperates soon. He’s helped Sapphire Angel for quite a bit, and though he had a slightly reduced role in the third novel compared to both the first and the second novels, he’s not the only technologically-experienced one in the group. He was also essentially Beth’s “Mission Control”, but, like, as she said, he has his own life, too. Maybe someone else can pick up the slack when it comes to the machinery. My vote’s on Ethan, with Conner being a close second. That VOMAC internship definitely helps Ethan’s credentials, too......
Again......if you just heard a loud crack around the paragraph where John is mentioned again, that would be my heart breaking. Getting split into two, hit by a high-speed, double-decker bus, thrown in a meat grinder, and then sat on by an elephant. I applaud Beth for moving on adequately, because I definitely wouldn’t have done the same if I were in her shoes. I mean......if someone I was dating just ended up dying that abruptly, it’d scar me for literal years and I don’t think I’d ever be able to move on without support. And I don’t have as big of a circle as Beth does, so there’s that.
Neat recap of a few key points from the last three adventures, from Stanley Devor, John, Conner, and the whole WarTech situation. Stanley, Conner, and Ethan all know that Beth is Sapphire Angel, as well as Raven from Power Play (Book #2), though we haven’t seen her in a while. It’s such a good practice that you’ve made it so that people are able to jump into this novel relatively easily without having read the previous ones, though having read the previous ones will definitely help with background understanding. Ethan’s advice is honestly SO good, though; a person’s own health and happiness should come before all else, even those whom they’re close to. They shouldn’t change everything about who they are FOR that other person......otherwise they’ll lose their entire sense of self. But Beth’s life as Sapphire Angel isn’t something she can exactly just give up on entirely. I still say the best solution is to give Conner superpowers. Or otherwise allow him to have a drastically increased role in helping Sapphire fight crime. He’d definitely like it, I’ll say that much.
.......Was the fact that the TV was about to play footage of one of Sapphire’s rescues supposed to be some kind of big, devastating cliffhanger? As long as she stayed in costume the entire time, there shouldn’t be anything to worry about, right? Especially since she’s Beth Harper at the moment? And that no one at the scene should’ve found out, because of the necklace’s “doubt aura”.......? Oh, well! I guess we’ll check it out in the next chapter! (The story also said that Beth and Ethan’s corner was “quiet” and “empty”, and the television set over Beth’s shoulder looks to be one of the only ones mentioned. Unless there’s actually a LOT of people in the restaurant, and it was just that corner that Beth and Ethan were at that was “empty”).