“So how’d his brother get into the picture?” I asked.
“Before Mouse joined the team,” my father replied, “we’d sometimes run into a technical problem we needed help with – for instance, weapons and gadgets from supervillains that we couldn’t figure out. DTG was one of the places we’d turn to on those occasions, and they’d usually find the answer to whatever problem we had.”
“And that’s how you got to know Dave.”
“Yeah, but what we didn’t know back then was that if the problem was too thorny for the tech guys on their payroll, they’d hand it over to this specialist who they kept off the books.”
“Mouse,” I concluded.
My father nodded. “Eventually, we found out, and – after some initial misunderstandings – Mouse joined the League.”
“And that robot thing in Dave’s office?”
“It’s called Failsafe. Mouse designed it to be his personal bodyguard, although it usually stayed out of sight until needed. But trust me, if that thing goes into protective mode, you don’t want to be anywhere around. Mouse was supposed to deactivate it, but I guess he found another use for it instead.”
“Okay,” I droned. “Now what about this world domination thing?”
Alpha Prime gave me a confused look. “What do you mean?”
“Well, you and the other League members said something about Mouse taking over the world yesterday, but you also admitted that you didn’t know what he’d removed from the Vault. Then, just a few minutes ago, you said something about Mouse posing a threat to the world. So what aren’t you telling me?”
My father gave me a serious stare for a moment, then sighed. “We weren’t completely honest yesterday. We didn’t know what Mouse may have taken, but the wall stack he was at? Ninety percent of what it contained are components for devices that can be used to destroy the planet.”
“So there’s a ninety percent chance that he took something capable of posing a global threat.”
“Actually, he took part of something that could pose a global threat, but in essence, yes.”
“So he did actually take something?” I asked, following which my father simply nodded. “Do we know what it was?”
“The inventory system is still a mess, but our tech guys have narrowed it down to three items,” he said. “And as you might guess, each of them is a fundamental element in some type of doomsday device.”
“So you honestly think Mouse is constructing some world-destroying weapon.”
“I hate to say it, but that’s what it looks like.”
I spent a moment letting his words soak in, plainly having a difficult time reconciling what I was hearing with the man I knew.
“Okay, son,” my father said, “what’s really bothering you about this?’
“Huh?” I murmured as his words cut in to my train of thought.
“No one wants to believe this about Mouse, but the evidence is irrefutable. Still, despite what you’ve personally seen, you can’t seem to get on board. So what’s holding you back?”
I simply stared at him for a moment, not quite sure what to say, and then I let out a deep sigh that actually seemed to deflate me both mentally and physically.
“He called me,” I muttered softly.
“What?” my father said, clearly not understanding.
“Mouse called me, asking for my help, a little while before the incident with the Construct. I missed his calls because I was off gallivanting on the West Coast – going to movie premieres, champagne brunches, and yacht parties. Mouse has always been there for me, the person I could always depend on, but when he needed me…”
I trailed off, unable to finish.
“You feel guilty,” Alpha Prime stated.
And there it was: the plain and simple truth. The truth about why this thing with Mouse bothered me so much. The truth about why I suddenly felt like it was eating me up inside. The truth about why I couldn’t just accept that my mentor had gone rogue.
“If I had just been there,” I said, “maybe none of this would have happened. Maybe Mouse wouldn’t have been exposed to whatever it was. Maybe we wouldn’t be hunting him now.”
My father laid a reassuring hand on my shoulder. “Son, this isn’t your fault. I was right there when it happened. That being the case, I’m more to blame than you, and I feel the same – like I should have been able to do something to stop this. But what happened, happened. Feeling guilty isn’t going to change that. All we can do is press forward and try to prevent any more damage from this situation. All right?”
I didn’t trust myself to speak, so I simply nodded.
“Good,” my father went on. “Now let’s get out of here.”
Without waiting for me to respond, he then flew over the edge of the building, headed towards the ground. I followed, and a few seconds later, we both touched down next to his parked SUV. Smokey was sitting behind the wheel while Electra was in the front passenger seat. Upon seeing me and Alpha Prime, they both got out, obviously expecting that everyone would go back to their original seats. However, they had barely exited before my father tapped the communicator in his ear.
“It’s me,” he announced. A moment later, a look of serious concern settled on his face. Looking at me, he stated, “It’s Mouse. He’s attacking again.”
“Where?” asked Smokey.
“HQ,” Alpha Prime answered. “The helipad.”
He then turned his attention to me. Knowing what was expected, I simply nodded and teleported the four of us.
Chapter 43
The helipad was located under a retractable dome ceiling on the roof of HQ. When we appeared, it was immediately clear that an intense battle was underway.
There were several blackened and charred areas on the rooftop – indicators that some type of explosive device had detonated in those places. Debris was everywhere, with smoke billowing from several large clumps of twisted metal,
