“Okay, so he liked staying up past his bedtime,” I said. “Big whoop.”
“Except when he was supposed to be all snug in his bed, he was out there doing the types of things that you’re now complaining about.”
I spent a moment pondering his statement before responding. “Paramount’s cohorts. Those times when Jack was slipping out of bed is when he attacked them.”
“Yep. Guess he heard they were getting out and didn’t like it.”
“What?” I blurted out, unable to hide my befuddlement.
“Oh, you haven’t heard,” Gray said casually. “I’m not surprised, since it isn’t common knowledge, but many from your brother’s old crew are getting out of the orange jumpsuits.”
“How’s that possible? People died because of what they did.”
“These folks were mostly minors when they got sucked into Paramount’s orbit, plus some of them say they were terrorized into doing his bidding. In essence, they’ve done the equivalent of serving time in juvie, so…”
He trailed off, but I finished for him. “So their records will be expunged and they get to go back to life as normal.” I shook my head in disgust.
“Well, there may be some community service requirements in one form or another – you know, using their powers for the greater good to make up for their misdeeds and all that.”
“In other words, each of them was probably offered some kind of deal.”
“I’m not at liberty to say, but that’s a safe assumption.”
“I have a better idea now of why Jack was saying they needed to be punished. He thinks they’re getting off light.”
“Probably, but he also feels an affinity and similitude with you, which may have also guided his actions.”
“What are you implying? That he attacked Incendia and those others because he thought that’s what I’d do?”
“More likely he attacked them because that’s what he thought you’d like to do, without regard to whether it’s something you would actually follow through on.”
“That’s crazy.”
“I don’t disagree. Anyway, when his actions were discovered, a decision was made to warehouse him – keep him in stasis – until we figured out a way to control him. Suffice it to say that it didn’t go well.”
“What happened?”
“I’ll let his handlers tell you.”
Gray reached into the inside pocket of his jacket – presumably for a phone, but instead pulled out what I initially took to be notecards. A moment later, I recognized them as photos. He began handing them to me one at a time.
“This guy, as you can see, got telekinetically staked through the heart with a chair leg… This other young man got flung through a plate-glass window – took a piece of glass through the neck that almost decapitated him… This fellow fell victim to Jack’s teleportation power, and to be perfectly honest, we’ve never actually located the other half of him…”
I frowned in distaste as Gray handed me the photos, each more gruesome than the last. Looking at them gave little room for doubt that my clone was deeply disturbed.
“And finally there’s this lady,” Gray said, handing me a final pic. “She was having convulsions when we found her and it wasn’t until we performed a CAT scan that we discovered the problem. Apparently Jack tossed a paper clip at her head and then phased it, but made it solid again as it passed through her brain. It was surgically removed, but there was some neurological damage, so she has a long road ahead of her in terms of recovery.”
“And these were his handlers?” I asked, flipping swiftly through the photos once again. “He did this to the people he interacted with on a regular basis?”
“Apparently he felt strongly about being indefinitely put into stasis.”
“What about you?”
Gray frowned. “I don’t understand the question.”
“Well, you say he killed or incapacitated all his handlers, but you mentioned that you became involved in the process as well. Why hasn’t he come after you?”
“To begin with, I wasn’t involved in the day-to-day operations, so he didn’t necessarily associate me with those in the photos. In addition…”
Gray seemed to pause for a moment, then cleared his throat. “Ahem. In addition, there is a psychological barrier ingrained in him against harming me.”
“Wait a minute,” I said, focusing on what I’d just heard. “There’s some kind of mental roadblock in place that keeps him from coming after you? How convenient.”
“You assume he had a reason to come after me in the first place. The truth is that he doesn’t. He’s barely ever laid eyes on me.”
“Still, no matter what else happened with this guy, no matter how many gaskets he blew or how many gears he had come loose, you were always safe. Unbelievable. I don’t even know why I’m sitting here with you.”
“You’re here because I can help you deal with Jack.”
“Help me deal with it?” I uttered, nonplussed. “This is your mess. You should be cleaning it up.”
“Perhaps, but I’m not the one implicated by Jack’s actions.”
I just stared at him for a moment, and then, detesting almost everything I’d heard, I teleported.
Chapter 55
I popped up in Mouse’s lab. My mentor, however, was nowhere around. Eager to speak with him and share what I’d learned, I called him on my cell phone. He answered on the first ring.
“Hey,” I said. “Are you coming back to the lab soon?”
“Headed there now,” Mouse replied. “We were at Alpha Prime’s mansion, looking into what happened earlier.”
“Who’s ‘we’?” I asked, curious.
“Me and BT.”
“Okay, I’ve got an update.”
“Great,” Mouse said. “I’ll be there shortly, but BT had something to do.”
“Any interest in taking a shortcut?”
*****
The proposed “shortcut” generally consisted of Mouse pulling over to the side of the road and informing me of his location. I then teleported there and brought him (along with his vehicle) back to HQ. A few minutes later, we were in his lab, at which point I relayed everything that had happened since I’d last seen him.
“A clone, huh?” Mouse muttered after I finished bringing him up to speed. “Fortunately, we have probably the world’s foremost expert on the subject on speed-dial.”
He was
