Superheroine - Chapter 13
Beth nibbled at her room service meal and leveled an accusatory stare at the time displayed on her phone. She couldn‘t believe only twenty-four hours had passed since she and John had left for the Halloween party. In that time, John had gotten sick, and she had discovered amazing powers. Lives weren‘t supposed to change that much in one day. But hers had.
Stanley hadn‘t called yet with news on John, or with news on the evidence she recovered from Fizzure. Her mind raced with the possible reasons. John was probably dead. Or her infiltration of the Fizzure facility hadn’t paid dividends. Or maybe Stanley had keeled over with a heart attack. The rational explanation was Stanley was still examining her findings, but the unknown raised too many dark spectres.
She unlocked her phone and stared at the mail icon. 13,287 unread messages. Those messages weren’t a recent phenomenon but had accumulated over the last few years. Perhaps it was time to declare bankruptcy and get a new email account.
With a resigned sigh and nothing else to do, she tapped the mail icon and scanned the most recent messages. Ann Taylor, Amazon, White House Black Market, Target, Lou & Grey. On and on the messages went, all junk mail from various online merchants. Two messages jumped out at her, though. Beth had interviewed a week earlier with two news sites and blogs, hoping to get a writing position after graduation.
She opened the messages, almost afraid to look. The second sentence of each message began the same way. “We have selected another candidate…” Beth returned the phone to the desk and closed her eyes.
Before she could lament the rejections, the phone rang, and her eyes flew open. Stanley.
“How’s Ethan?” she asked as soon as the phone reached her ear.
“He’s stable. Not improving, but not getting worse. And they’ve ruled out bacterial meningitis, which was the one possible contagious thing he had. So at least he’s out of the bubble they put him in.”
Beth bit the side of her cheek and shook her head. Her naturally optimistic side tried to rise up, but she had a bad feeling about this.
“Any luck with Fizzure?” she asked.
“Nothing so far with the chemicals and other parts you photographed. Certainly nothing that might cause John‘s symptoms. I’ll keep digging. And the USB drive you planted has only paid limited dividends so far.”
“I thought you said you could gain access to their entire network if I planted that?” She fought back the irritation in her voice as she spoke.
Stanley didn’t speak.
“I’m sorry, Stanley," she said with a guilty sigh. “This whole thing with John has me stressed out. I can only imagine what you’re going through.”
“That’s okay. I understand because I’m going through it, too. No need to apologize.” His voice took on a soothing, fatherly tone as he spoke. Beth continued to listen.
“That computer controls access within the building. It’s the nerve center for those swipe pads you saw at some of the doors. So, the good news is that we can see who comes and goes, and where they go within the building. In theory we also should have unfettered access to move in and around the building.”
“In theory?”
“I can see the traffic patterns in the system, which suggests the building is much more heavily guarded now. The patterns suggest guard patrols.”
“If that’s the good news, what’s the bad news?”
“The computer’s sole job was to control the door locks. It’s segregated from the rest of their network. It’s got no more access to their network than the laptop in your apartment.”
“Lovely,” Beth muttered.
“It’s not all bad news,” Stanley said. “Thanks to the logs on the computer, I know the names of anybody who used a swipe card to move about the building both times you were there. The CEO himself, Demarco Dominick, was in the building, but you didn’t run into him.”
“How about the guy with the silver eyes?”
“I’ve run some of the names through my databases, and all the names are from Fizzure personnel, except for one. I put the Fizzure folks through the state’s DMV database, which keeps eye color, and there was no silver. And the non-employee was in the computer as ‘special guest,’ so there was no name to run.”
Beth twisted her mouth in consternation. Something about this mystery man resonated deep within her, as if she knew him somehow.
“Anything else?” she asked.
“After your encounters, the company’s head of security, Joe Mathers, went right up to Dominick’s office. I’m sure he was reporting in, which means Dominick knows what is going on.”
“And this will help us how?”
“A third man was in that meeting. Philip Gruden. I looked him up, and he’s a talented guy for Fizzure. A chemist, geologist, and a mechanical engineer. Impressive stuff. If Gruden attended the meeting between Dominick and Mathers, then he must be in the loop. In fact, I suspect he might be a key to this whole thing, given his background and the items you found in the basement.”
Beth still wasn’t sure how this information helped, so she said nothing.
“Although the Fizzure facility seems to be pretty heavily guarded now, I suspect Gruden’s home won’t be as fortified. That gives us another shot at this. I’m sure someone like him has a home office or even a home lab. There’s got to be something there that could give us a clue.”
“And you want me to get into his house and poke around, I presume?”
“Not you. I want Sapphire Angel to poke around.”
Beth shook her head. “There is no Sapphire Angel, Stanley. Look at what‘s happened every time I’ve tried to play hero. The first time, I talked John into going into that place, and he got sick. The second time it led to useless information and caused me to have to lie to Ethan.”
“The information wasn’t useless, Beth.”
“Stanley, there’s more. Just last night, before all this started, I was mocking the kind of powers I have now. I made fun of John and his comic books,” she said, her voice trembling. “But I actually enjoyed using my powers tonight.” Disgust welled up in her. Disgust at herself.
“I’m not sure I understand, Beth.”
“I shouldn’t enjoy the sort of thing I mocked, and he loved. And worse, those powers came from the same contraption that put John in a hospital bed. It made me stronger and nearly killed him. Can‘t you see how it feels wrong to use them? And wrong to enjoy it?”
“You don’t know exactly what happened in the Fizzure basement, Beth. Maybe your powers and John‘s sickness are unrelated. I understand what you’re feeling, but this is typical survivor’s guilt. You can’t blame yourself. You can make a difference.”
She raised an eyebrow. There was no way her powers were unrelated to John‘s sickness. That would be too much of a coincidence. She shook her head. It wasn‘t worth arguing the point.
“You have investigators for this kind of work, Stanley. I really want to help, and I would if I thought I could. But you need somebody who knows what he’s doing. I’m done playing hero. Let the professionals handle this. I’m sorry.”
Stanley was silent for a few moments.
“Very well,” he said finally. “I think you just need time to process this, to get through this stage of grieving, but I understand. I pulled my top guy off an assignment out west. He hopped on a plane this morning and should be here within the next couple of hours. I’ll get him on this.”
Beth’s stomach churned as a new type of guilt flooded over her — the guilt from quitting. From letting others down. From letting John down. But it was for the best. She wasn’t cut out for this. Stanley’s investigator could do a better job, and she could avoid the guilt of riding the euphoric high of her powers while John wasted away.
“I really am sorry, Stanley.”
“I shouldn’t have gotten you involved with this. You don’t need to apologize. I need to get to work now, to get things ready for my investigator.”
“I’m going to go see John in the morning,” she said.
“It’s not safe. We talked about this.”
“I understand. But we both know the future is uncertain. I need to see him.”
Stanley sighed. “Very well. Try to keep it brief.”
She planned to keep it brief. She just hoped it wouldn’t be her last time to see her boyfriend alive.
The morning sun streamed in through the row of windows in Demarco Dominick’s office as Joe Mathers entered. Mathers seemed much less apprehensive than during their last visit, Dominick noticed. He hoped it meant his security chief had good news to report.
“I greased some palms,” Mathers said to Dominick. “I got a list from the local hospitals of all patients admitted in the last 24 hours. I whittled it down to males under the age of 50. With all the zombie makeup the guy wore, that was the best guess I could make. But then I got lucky. One of the names stood out.”
“Stood out?” Dominick asked, fidgeting impatiently in his chair.
“It was the name of one our employees.”
“What?” Dominick asked, his face flashing red. “Who?”
“John Devor.”
“Who the hell is John Devor?”
“He’s pretty new. Fresh out of college. His admittance time at the downtown hospital matches up perfectly. Just an hour or two after the chaos in the basement. The guy is in a coma right now.”
“What’s his angle? Could he be working for someone?”
“I don’t know, sir. I did some digging on him, and there’s nothing that stands out. He grew up around here, went to college a couple of hours away, and came back here to take this job after graduation. He’s about as ordinary as they come.”
“No ties to any of our competitors?”
“None that I could see.”
Dominick leaned back in his chair and rested his hands on his ample stomach. He steepled his fingers under his chin.
“We have a decision to make. We could lie low and keep an eye on the Devor kid. The girl, Sapphire Angel, could show up to check on him. Then we take care of both of them.”
“I like that plan, Mr. Dominick.”
Dominick shook his head.
“I don’t. The risk is too great. What if Devor knows something, and that’s why he was in the basement in the first place? Maybe he stumbled on something in his job and was down there to learn even more. He could wake up and rat us out. Then we’re done.”
Dominick swung his chair and stared out his window for a few moments. He didn’t like what he was about to say, but his daughter’s life might depend on it. He returned his gaze to Mathers and continued, with a steel edge in his voice. “We can’t have him talking if he wakes up. Check his background for girls that meet the blonde babe’s description. He might still lead us to her. But we’re not going to wait for her to show up. I want you to get over to the hospital. I want you to kill him.”