“Look at the resources. We will be set up well for a long time, and their population will supply us with manpower for future needs. This is a rich planet. There’s no reason it shouldn’t belong to us.”
“Okay, that’s fine, but what’s my role in all of this? I doubt I can go back to Walter now. He knows of our conversation.”
“No, that job is done. You can keep him distracted, though, if our friend Catherine doesn’t manage that herself. Stir up the local riff raff to continue in their mis-deeds and he won’t have time to mess with us.”
“I think I can manage that. What about that business about the prisons?”
“I don’t think we need more troops now. You can check on our facility in Africa and make sure everything is good to go there. I’ll let you know when we’re ready to activate them. There are already enough suits there for deployment.”
“Sounds good to me. I’ll head there right away.”
“Give it another couple hours and show up in the middle of the night. No need to attract any unwanted attention.”
24
Catherine Mixon brought the armored car down the freight elevator, after depositing the driver on the side of the road about twenty miles away, and set it next to the pallets of yet to be laundered money against the far wall.
“You know, you really ought to clean what you have before adding more to the pile,” a voice said from a few feet away.
She whirled around to see Walter sitting in a recliner, sipping a beer.
“How in the hell did you get in here?” she asked
“Through the door, down the stairs. It wasn’t that hard to figure out. You really do need to stock the fridge. I had to bring my own beer. Didn’t your mother teach you anything about hospitality?”
“Didn’t yours teach you anything about knocking first?”
“Couldn’t find the doorbell.”
“So you just barge in unannounced.”
“Come on lady, you forfeited any right to be incensed the minute you started your little crime spree. Do you know how many charges you could be brought up on right now? Murder, theft…hell, the murder charges alone would do the trick.”
“And how exactly do you suppose that will happen? Are you gonna take me in?”
“You think this is some comic book movie where have the big super fight and tear up half the city? That’s what it would take, I imagine, and my daddy had a few things to say about men hitting ladies.”
“I have news for you. I’m not much of a lady.”
“Tell me something I don’t know. Lady or not, I didn’t come here to fight you. I doubt we could do much damage to one another. I came here to reason with you.”
“Now that’s the funniest thing I’ve heard in a while,” she said leaning back and laughing.
“It wasn’t meant to be funny. You’re being used. The guy who gave you your powers…the guy who gave me mine…they’re working together.”
“Now that doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense.”
“Hear me out. Mine were a mistake, then the other guy gave you yours to…even the odds…so to speak.”
“Come again.”
“I wasn’t supposed to be zapped, but it happened. Then you were given your powers to keep me busy so I wouldn’t mess up whatever they’re planning.”
“Do you know how that all sounds?”
Walter removed a thumb drive from his pocket and handed it to her.
“Just take a look at this and see what you think. Then decide if you want to keep listening to that guy.”
“Is this where you try to play the hero and convince me to abandon my wicked ways?”
“I can’t say the thought didn’t cross my mind, but I was never much of a persuasive man. Whatever is going on is bigger than you and me. I’d just like you to see that.”
“If you wanted to change me, you’re about twenty years too late.”
“Maybe so, just look at what’s on the drive. If you still want to go down the same path, that’s on you. Just know that I’ll be there every step of the way, making things difficult for you.”
“You haven’t been able to stop me yet.”
“Give me time. I’m still new to this whole hero thing. Apparently, you have a few more years with the villain part. I’m playing catch up.”
“You know the problem with your kind. It’s not that I have more practice. It’s that you’re good. You actually give a damn about others. That’s not a weakness I have. It will be your undoing. Every hero has a weakness, and since kryptonite doesn’t exist, that is yours. You don’t have the guts to do what it takes.”
“I never thought of compassion as a weakness.”
“Oh, Walter, you have a lot to learn.”
“Just watch the video. Then do whatever you darn well please.”
“I have a mind to throw you out of here right now.”
He handed her a card. “No need to. I can see myself out. Here’s my cell, just in case you want to talk about what you see on there.”
“You know I can track a cell, right?”
“Not if I keep it off and only check it a couple times a day from a remote location. I’m not that stupid. See you around.”
Walter arrived at the house in Seaman, carrying his recliner through the door and setting it down, before sitting down in it himself.
“Where have you been?” Franklin asked.
“Trying to reason with our female friend.”
“How did that go?”
“She doesn’t seem receptive, but I gave her a copy of the video. Who knows if she’ll watch it?”
“Did you manage to plant the camera?” Christy asked.
“Check the feed yourself,” Walter said.
“Follow me,” Christy said, “Everything is set up downstairs.”
Walter, Franklin, and Kendra followed Christy to a bookshelf on the far wall of the living room.
“Let me guess,” Franklin said, “You move a book and the secret room appears.”
“Nothing so low tech,” Christy said.
When she got within a foot of the front of the bookshelf, it slid aside and an elevator
