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Urban Renewal

by Erin Halfelven

 

Tessie stared up and up at Mr. Paine. "You sure don't look much like a babysitter," she said.

Leo smiled and crouched down, though this still put his head nearly a foot above Tessie's. "Well, I'm a special sort of babysitter's assistant. Your aunt is coming over to do the babysitting and I'm here just to chase monsters away."

Tessie nodded thoughtfully. "Do I know you?"

He shook his head, "I don't think so, little lady. I'm sure I'd remember someone as cute as you." He winked.

Tessie blushed. Her brother Kenny crowed with laughter.

* * *

"I couldn't believe it when you said okay to me coming along," Candace told Todd. They were in the big SUV, headed up into the mountains where the kidnappers' plane had crashed.

Todd sighed. "I think the kids will be safe. Krystal is pretty level-headed and Paine is one deadly, fricken.... He's good."

"He's scary. Where do you know him from?"

"We used to be on the crook together.... Bad old days. Him, M'Caliber, Blooddraught, and me. Before Masquerade, they called me Reaperman. None of us had powers then...long story." He didn't say anymore for a bit and she stopped herself from asking for details.

They got off the Interstate and started up the narrower roads, heading high into the Cascades. Green trees, gray rocks, blue sky.

Finally he spoke. "Your job is going to be to keep me sane. Who else could I get to do that?"

* * *

Kendra took a cab from the airport. "Marshalldale? Lady, that's sixty miles away, you sure you want a cab? I'll have to charge you both ways, you could rent a car a whole heckuva lot cheaper."

"I don't drive," said Kendra. She didn't tell him that complicated machinery involving moving pieces of iron or steel tended to have some rather severe failure modes when under the control of a practitioner of psionic sorcery.

"You got an address?" he asked.

* * *

The jet carrying the world famous surgeon, philanthropist and composer, Dr. Hyman Meridien left Dubai airport two hours ahead of the sunrise, heading in a pole-crossing path directly for the same airport Lady Karma had just left.

It might have been fate but it wasn't.

In the "clinic" in the back of the plane, Spartako began the chemical and psychological process necessary for his new mission. It wasn't something he wanted to do but it felt like part of him, part of his destiny. But it wasn't.

In the wide, friendly lounge in the middle of the plane, the philanthropic doctor removed his mirror shades and looked deeply into the eyes of the boy, Johnny. Fascinated, Johnny couldn't look away. Dr. Meridien smiled.

Six miles below them lay the land where fortunate happenstance was called kismet. Dr. Meridien didn't believe in kismet, destiny, fate, fortune, luck or accident. Everything that happened in the world must have a purpose -- preferably Dr. Meridien's purpose.

* * *

"We called ourselves The Carrion Crew, and our big idea was to take scores away from other crooks. Sort of a Robin Hood thing, except we kept the swag instead of giving it away."

Candace smiled. The SUV bucketed over the washboard of a fire trail, the crash site couldn't be much further, she hoped. Her backside, however well-padded, had taken a beating.

Todd's grin looked off-center. "M'Caliber was a genius with any kind of long range weapon and pretty good at figuring tactics and operational needs. A bit of a coward in a stand-up fight though, but Catclaw, Leo as he calls himself now, more than made-up for that. Anyone more ferocious in hand-to-hand wouldn't be human. Literally."

After a moment, he repeated it, "Wouldn't be human."

* * *

Krystal lay down her cards. "Knock," she said. Tessie and Leo moaned and began to count their penalties.

"You keep feeding her," Tessie complained. "Let's switch chairs."

Krystal ran the totals quickly. "I'm out, 300. We could play something else?" she suggested, glancing over at Kenny, still lying in the floor and watching The Incredible Hour on television.

"Nah," said Leo. "Cutthroat is my second favorite game." He gathered the cards in his big, scarred hands. "We'll just deal the other direction this game. That way I can feed you for awhile," he said to Tessie who promptly blushed.

"What's your favorite game?" she asked to cover her embarrassment.

Leo and Krystal exchanged glances.

"Oh," said Tessie. "Gross." Leo winked at her and she blushed again.

* * *

"Blooddraught was our intelligence, finding jobs and getting details. A punker chick who went deeply goth before goth was cool. She liked to think of herself as Mata Hari or something and almost no one caught wise that their new girlfriend had set them up."

"Men are stupid that way," agreed Candace, causing Todd to snort.

A pair of boulders, and the surrounding trees, effectively blocked the progress of the car so they got out. Rain hats and slickers kept off the worst of the high altitude drizzle, the day like so many on this side of the mountains had gone all gray and damp.

"Take this," said Todd.

Candace belted the holster on then checked the load and safety, using the open rear hatch for shelter. A simple 9mm holding 13 rounds, a lot like what most cops carried these days, she knew. Todd had two guns; another nine and a ten, a fully automatic machine pistol.

"What was your job in the group?" she asked.

Todd checked his load and safeties and passed her another gun, a one-shot flare she could clip to her belt.

"I had to convince people we would kill them if they didn't give it up," he said. He closed the hatch and they started up the hill.

* * *

The cabbie asked, "You sure this is the place."

"I'm certain," said Kendra, "but can you wait, I may not be here long."

"Sure, the meter's running, though, lady. And I need another hunnerd before you get out of the cab."

She gave him the money and stepped out on the curb next to the Munson mailbox.

* * *

The family mutt had taken one look at Leo and hid himself in the back of Kenny's closet behind the toybox. Now he emerged and made his way to the family room. Whining, he placed his head in the boy's lap and cut his eyes toward the front rooms.

Kenny looked up and frowned. "Mr. Paine?" he called out. "Someone's outside, Beefus always knows."

Leo grunted, glaring at his hand. "He and I both knew that ten minutes ago, he's just getting around to telling you." He looked across at Krystal and Tessie. "Got any fours?" he asked.

* * *

"Do you think we're going to find anyone up here?" Candace asked.

"Yes," said Todd, pulling a black and red ski mask over his face.

When she had her solid red mask in place, Candace asked, "Why?"

"Because the rangers told me on the phone that the police haven't gone over the site with their usual thoroughness. The kidnapping took place in Marshalldale, so yeah, maybe the suburban PD doesn't have the resources. But the Washington State Patrol could be called in and for a kidnap case, the FBI has jurisdiction.

"No cops means someone is blocking the investigation, which means there may be something at the site worth seeing. Someone may be coming back to destroy evidence because no amount of pressure can keep the cops off of working a homicide for long."

"Homicide?" said Candace.

"The kidnappers died, Tessie killed them."

"How? Didn't the plane just crash?"

"No, Tessie made it crash."

"How do you know that?" asked Candace, whispering.

"She told me."

* * *

When Kendra knocked on the door, a dog somewhere inside barked once. Less than a minute later, a very tall, lean man opened the door. "Well, hello," he said, leaning on the jamb and looking her over.

"You aren't Todd Munson," she said.

"Nope," he agreed. "I'm Leo. The Munsons aren't in. Can I help you?"

Kendra considered. The man did not act like an intruder but as if he had a perfect right to be there. "Actually, I'm here to see their daughter, Tessie?" She leaned closer to the tall man. "There are men sitting in a parked car down the street and more men hiding in the neighbors bushes."

Leo grinned. "I know. But I don't know if they're good guys or bad guys. Which are you?"

She smiled. "I was going to ask you the same thing."

He laughed and stood out of the way. "Come on in. Tessie's whomping my ass at cards, I could use a break." After Kendra passed him and said hello to Crystal inside, Leo stepped out on the lawn and waved at both sets of hidden watchers. "That oughtta put a knot in their knickers," he muttered before going over to tell the cabdriver to get lost.

* * *

Hyper-acute senses inherited from Dr. Domino warned Todd that, yes, someone smoking a cigarette and using a battery-powered drill was working at the crash site. Multiple someones.

He waved Candace to wait for him behind a screen of trees then used Miss Glamour's power to become invisible. He approached the scene slowly, stepping on needles to avoid footprints mysteriously appearing.

Three mountaineer motorbikes sat parked on a trail. One man stood guard with a peculiar-looking weapon while two worked with tools on the plane wreckage, apparently removing identifying marks.

Todd positioned himself carefully and fired three shots from the 9mm in his right hand. Z9 hadn't had M'Caliber's incredible long range accuracy but he could never miss such easy targets with his favorite gun.

* * *

The motorcycles exploded in one very satisfying fireball; Dr. Domino's talent for biggest result with least effort had certainly helped that along. The guard with the strange looking weapon started toward the blast but stopped suddenly as Todd stepped out of concealment. The other two agents scrambled for their own weapons, more ordinary pistols, while at the same time taking cover inside the wreckage of the plane.

Still partly invisible, and apparently about four feet left of where he actually stood, Todd spoke in a huge voice that seemed to come from the sky. "I am Death Masque, the Eater of Souls! Give up your secrets and live or I will drink them from your dead skulls!"

The guard brought the bell of his odd gun around and fired at the place where he saw Todd's simulacrum. The gun fired a sabot that disintegrated into hundreds of armor-piercing needles and dozens of scalloped, razor-edged darts -- specially designed to penetrate the armor of Star Troopers and butcher the man inside. In this case, however, the needles and darts destroyed only some bushes, the ten-foot wide steel cloud not quite wide enough to touch the real Todd.

A four-round burst from the 10mm full-auto in Todd's left hand nearly cut the guard in two. Not a technological marvel like the buzz gun but lethal nontheless.

The painful psychic impact of the guard's death hit Todd's mind and he screamed like Lucifer falling from Heaven.

* * *

Leo paused on the lawn after dismissing the cab Kendra had used. Grinning, he mimed the two groups of hidden watchers coming out of concealment and performing lewd acts on each other.

Inside the house, Tessie launched herself at the civilian-clad Lady Karma with a shout of "Auntie Kendra! You came!"

"You don't have an Aunt Kendra!" protested Krystal.

Tessie hugged Lady K with eight-year-old ferocity. "You wouldn't know her, Aunt Krystal. She's actually Daddy's aunt. And Kenny's named after her, so there!"

"Huh?" said Kenny.

Kay rolled her eyes, Tessie winked at her, and Leo came back in, just then, still grinning. "I think the guys in the car are state cops but the ones in the bushes may just be local perverts," he said. He looked at Kendra, "Now who in the name of Sam Spade are you?"

"She's my Auntie Kendra," announced Tessie, giving Kay another hug.

"Wait a minute!" Krystal began. A scream from outside interrupted her.

* * *

While Dr. Meridien and the boy, Johnny, enjoyed the hospitality of one of the local plutocrats, Spartako rode out to an auxiliary airport in the desert. The cis-orbital craft called the Screamer took a lot of room to land.

Spartako looked forward to piloting the hypersonic scramjet again. He'd be leaving Dubai in less than an hour and arriving in eastern Washington mid-afternoon, Pacific time. Then a more conventional two hour flight to some little town called Marshalldale.

Spartako buckled his monomer gloves on and snuggled down his annealed rare earth glass helmet. He really looked forward to piloting the Screamer again. Marshalldale just sounded like more boring work.

* * *

Todd's scream had words in it. Down the hill, a quarter mile away, Candace heard them clearly.

"Blood Masque! Second guard in the trees. Kill first, question later."

She cursed under her breath, muttering, "I think I'm supposed to be Blood Masque!"

* * *

"Candace?" Todd called.

"Up here," she said.

He looked up. Candace crouched about fifteen feet up on the limb of an evergreen, she had the flare pistol in one hand with the other bracing her against the trunk. "What are you doing in a tree? I didn't know you could climb trees." He pulled his mask off and smoothed down his hair, grinning up at her.

"You said.... Where's the guard you warned me about?" She pulled off her own mask to look down at him.

"Still running, with the other two, I think. I had to kill one of them.... But I got the information I wanted, I know who hired them. I just don't know why."

He stepped forward to catch her as she dropped the last few feet and they hugged each other with relief. "I'm sorry you had to..." she murmured in his ear.

"Me, too." He kissed her. "You've got mask hair," he said.

"Oh!" She ran her fingers through her tangles for want of a comb. "Oh, that voice! How did you do that? Whose power was that?"

"That's actually my original power. Or non-power. Remember I said my job was to convince people?" He showed her the microphone in his mask and the tiny bud-like speaker cones he could scatter around an area while they walked back to the SUV. "It helped that in high school when everyone else wanted to play guitar in a rock band, I was building my own speakers and wiring sound boards. Actually worked as a roadie for a couple of groups."

Later, on the way back down the mountain, he told her, "His name was Paul. Paul Doncaster, they called him Donk." She understood him to mean the man he had killed. "And the guy that hired Donk was a crooked State Patrol lieutenant named Frank LeJeune."

She looked at him. They'd been married fourteen years, she knew he didn't want to tell her the rest. But he would.

Todd set his teeth in a grimace. "From the Marshalldale office. We'll call Leo as soon as we get down to where cell phones work again."

* * *

The screaming outside turned out to be from the state cops out of the parked car down the street trying to arrest the two FBI agents who had been hiding in the bushes. One of the federal agents was a small brunette woman with a penetrating howl.

Leo stood around enjoying kibitzing while the four law officers tried to settle their jurisdictional dispute before calling in any superiors.

Krystal, Kendra, Tessie and Kenny watched through the windows for a bit then Tessie drew Lady K away for a private talk in the kitchen.

"Urban?" said Kay. "Is that really you?" It seemed unlikely that the grizzled old street warrior had become this little pig-tailed blonde pixie.

Tessie wrinkled her nose. "Yeah, it's me. But I'm Tessie too. Do you really think you can help my daddy?"

Kendra nodded. "Yes," she said. "I really think I can."

Outside on the lawn, Leo made a suggestion. "Why don't you guys shoot each other? That would solve the whole thing."

Three of the law officers snapped at him, "Shut up!"

The fourth put one hand on one ear and held his cell phone to the other. "Yes, sir," he mumbled then closed the phone up, looking satisfied. "That was Lieutenant LeJeune, he's got a meeting at the airport then he's gonna come over here and sort out Fred and Wilma."

Meaning the FBI agents, all pairs of which were called Fred and Wilma, or Fred and Barney if more appropriate, or very occasionally, Wilma and Betty, by local cops all over the country. Any third agent was automatically Dino. Generally speaking, the Feds hated the nicknames.