“Celia, I … take care.” He clicked off.
They needed to have a nice long talk. God only knew when that would happen.
She entered the command center in time to hear Suzanne say, “Arthur, thank God you’re here! And Celia—did you sleep well? Are you feeling better?” she called from her post at the communications terminal. She was in street clothes, though her skin suit showed under the collar of her blouse.
Her mother assumed she’d been in bed—here, in bed—all day. Maybe she and Arthur wouldn’t be discovered.
“Mark just called. He wants all you guys off the streets. The cops are ready for a standoff.”
Suzanne said, “Arthur, call Warren and Robbie in, we can’t risk a confrontation with the police.”
“I already contacted Warren. Robbie’s with him.”
“Are they coming back?”
“I don’t think so—” He cocked his head, listening to an unheard voice, sensing something ethereal. “Something’s happening.”
The city’s vigilantes and police force had avoided an outright battle for over twenty years. Forty, if you counted the Hawk’s tenure. Surely one wouldn’t erupt now.
Suzanne turned a dial that brought the volume up on the police radio. A voice crackled from the speakers.
“Shots have been fired, I repeat, shots have been fired. There’s been a flood, a wave of some kind, we have men down—”
TWENTY-SIX
SUZANNE returned from discarding her civilian clothes. She was Spark, now. When the costumes came out, they ceased being her parents and became the four-color heroes of legend.
“Suzanne, what do you possibly think you can do?” Arthur said.
“I don’t know.” Spark paced back and forth along the computer console. “I have to be ready. They might need me.”
The news channels had finally gotten cameras to the harbor area, though the police forced them to keep a wide berth. Pierson Street was completely flooded, as if a tidal wave had crashed in and scoured the place. No one had been killed outright, but two police officers were missing, and feared swept out to the harbor. Typhoon had disappeared during the confusion, and one officer reported seeing the Bullet—briefly.
Reports were mixed as to whether the police had fired at Typhoon before or after she released the tidal wave.
All Celia, Suzanne, and Arthur could do for the moment was watch the jerky, static-laden images from the news cameras, listen to the sensationalist commentary—talk of the superhumans gone rogue, of a new criminal mastermind taking over—and listen for the latest reports on the police radio.
Then Captain Olympus buzzed the Olympiad’s emergency line. The flashing red light made them all flinch; Spark pounded the button to reply.
“Yes, Captain, we’re here,” she said to the speaker.
“We’re coming up from the garage. We have injured.” He cut off the line.
Without comment, Spark ran to the back of the room and the elevator that led straight to the subterranean passage, where the Olympiad gained access to its hangar and vehicles. Arthur, more calmly, went to a supply locker hidden behind a secret panel that lay flush with the slick wall and removed a first-aid kit.
Celia waited by the table. She’d only get in the way if she tried to help. The injury couldn’t be serious—a graze, a twisted arm. There was only so much they could do with a first-aid kit. She liked to think if the injury were serious, her father would swallow his pride and go to the hospital. Take Robbie to the hospital—no way was Warren the injured party.
The elevator door hissed open. Captain Olympus exited first, assisting someone, a woman, her arm over his shoulder. Spark went to her other side to help, bringing her into the light. It was Typhoon, her blue suit damp and shining with water—and blood. The Bullet followed them to the table.
Typhoon was walking under her own power. She just seemed weak. Her taut jaw made her face, or what was visible of it, a picture of grim forbearance.
Stunned, Celia pulled a chair out from the table and offered it to her.
She’d keep her mouth shut. Until Analise said something, she’d keep her mouth entirely shut. She stepped out of the way as her parents helped the young woman into the chair. Then, the bloody gash in her shoulder became visible. It had been bound with a strip of cloth. The wound had mostly clotted, but rivers of blood streaked Typhoon’s arm. Not life-threatening, but the shock and blood loss were probably telling on her. She kept shaking her head.
Celia caught Arthur’s gaze.
He nodded.
“A shot grazed her,” Olympus said. “I thought it best to get her to safety.”
“I feel so stupid,” Typhoon muttered. “They started shooting at me and I just lost it. I never lose it like that when the bad guys are shooting.”
Spark said, “It’s because you know you’re better than the bad guys. The police confused you; they’re supposed to be good guys.”
“They still are,” Arthur said. He knelt by her and got to work, peeling off the makeshift bandage and dabbing at the wound with a gauze pad. “They believe they’re following orders and protecting the city, just as we are. Best not forget that. We’re all being played, I fear.”
“By the Destructor?” Typhoon said. “It’s his style.”
“That remains to be seen.”
“You didn’t have to do this. I’d have made it out on my own.” She tried standing, as if she really were well enough to walk out of there.
Olympus put his hand on her shoulder and held her in place. No one could argue with that grip, and Typhoon didn’t have a body of water nearby to help her. “You’re staying.”
“I’m not taking my mask off.”
“No one told you to,” Olympus said.
Typhoon … Analise—Celia was getting confused—caught her eye and glared briefly.
So be it.
Celia leaned against the table and watched the news broadcasts. The police had issued a warrant for Typhoon’s arrest. The bulletin warned the public that she was dangerous. Not armed and dangerous, Celia noticed.
On one station, helicopters panned searchlights over Pierson Street. Rivers of water ran along gutters to pour back into the harbor. That wave must have been incredible, a wall of water as tall as the buildings sweeping down the street. Red and blue police lights flashed off glistening brick and concrete. Dozens of cops scouted the area; out on the water, divers searched from a police boat. They wouldn’t stop until they’d found the two missing officers. Their condition would determine which way this whole business swung.
She turned off the mute key on another monitor, showing a different news station. A woman anchor intoned, “… have word that another of the city’s superhuman vigilantes has broken the mayor’s curfew. This is an exclusive report. Gina, what do you have for us?”
The scene switched to the jerky video from a news helicopter—and why the hell weren’t the reporters being hauled in for breaking curfew?—and the rough sound feed filled with background noise.
“Thank you, Paula. Reports say that Breezeway has been sighted in the lower downtown area. A police helicopter has been dispatched. Now, we’ve been ordered to stay out of the area, but our cameraman thinks we have a good chance of spotting something if we— Hold on. Wait a minute. Yes, there. Can you see that?”
The view zoomed abruptly as the cameraman brought a distant point into focus. The shot was wobbly,
