“Someone started shooting. We got out...she didn’t.”
“Oh no...how did you get back?”
“She showed me how to fly the darn thing on the way up there. It’s pretty simple, really. We saw a large room with these weird pods, had to be thousands of them...there was shooting...she covered us. She’s gone.”
“Man...that sucks.”
“You can say that again, Pops.”
“Guys,” Kendra said, “a lot of stuff on this drive. There’s another level to this place, an elevator down from the hangar. Got fighters down there and everything.”
“What else is on there?” Walter asked.
“A lot of intelligence on these guys we might end up fighting. Other campaigns they’ve waged on other planets, their favored tactics, specs on the mechanized suits, information on their fighters...it will take hours to go through it all.”
“Well, you kids check out the other level and that drive. I’m gonna head out and make sure folks aren’t causing too much trouble. You got my phone number if you need anything.”
“Yeah, just don’t go out of cell range,” Franklin said.
“I’ll try to keep at a low altitude.”
Catherine Mixon didn’t want to go inside with them there, not after what she had heard. She still had the drive Walter had given her, and she was curious to see what was on it, but she didn’t want to go in to retrieve her laptop. She flew away and into the suburbs, checking parked cars along the way and before long, she saw what she was looking for. There was a car parked in a mall parking lot with a laptop in the back seat. A few seconds later, she was flying away with the laptop to the incessant beeping of the car alarm. She went out of the city farther and found a secluded spot where she sat down and plugged the drive in.
What she saw only confirmed what Walter had said, and seemed to make sense in light of what she had heard a few minutes earlier, but what was she to make of all this, and what was she to do about it? One minute, she was on top of the world, and now this. She closed the computer and let out a stream of unprintable oaths, then leaned against a tree and closed her eyes.
“That isn’t any way for a lady to speak,” a voice intruded on her thoughts. She opened her eyes to see Walter standing there with a smile on his face.
“How in the hell did you find me?”
“I heard the car alarm and saw you making a quick exit. Wasn’t hard to follow you. Figured you had a use for that laptop. You care if I return it to the rightful owner?”
“Go ahead and take the damn thing back. I’m done with it.”
“You still gonna be here when I get back?”
“I don’t know. Maybe...maybe not.”
“You want to talk?”
“Not particularly...least not to you...and not to those bastards back at my warehouse either.”
Walter grabbed the laptop and returned without it a minute later, only to see her flying away at a high rate of speed. He caught up to her easily enough.
“Where you off to?”
“I’m not sure. Why do you care?”
“Did you watch the video?”
“Yeah...and heard them talking earlier...not sure what to think.”
“You know they’re up to no good.”
“But what exactly are they up to...and why should I care? I’ve been up to no good since I was ten years old.”
“Nothing short of taking over the world...or another one...but we’re pretty sure it’s this one.”
“You have got to be kidding me. Do you know how that sounds?”
“Yeah, pretty over the top, like something out of a comic book.”
“Or those cheap novels my uncle used to read when I was little. Always someone wanting to take over the world. Who wants that? That’s too much of a headache. Let someone else run the world. I just want my fair share.”
“Even if it means taking it from others?”
“It’s worked so far...or at least it was working.”
“I’m not here to lecture you on that. You know where I stand. I don’t have what you’ve taken recently, but I worked for every last penny of it.”
“Oh, spare me the moralizing. I don’t have any pretensions. I’m not one of these delusional criminals who claims to have a higher purpose to it all. I’m a thief, but I’ve been a pretty good one for a few years, without these...abilities. This just makes it easier.”
“It allows you to be lazier, to take more risks.”
“Perhaps.”
“Uh oh, look out,” Walter said, pointing ahead to a 747 heading directly toward them. They dropped altitude to avoid the jet and when it was past, Walter pulled back next to her.
“I think we’re out of cell range up here,” he said.
“Is that much of a big deal?”
“It could be if the kids need to reach me.”
“I’m not even sure where we are. How fast have we been going?”
“Let’s go down and take a look.”
They dropped below the clouds and the first thing they saw was a herd of zebras.
“If you were looking for a remote place to talk, you couldn’t have done any better,” he said, “Let’s go sit down by that watering hole. Nobody to hear us but the critters.
“Do you find that using your powers works up a huge appetite?” Mixon asked when they were sitting down, keeping their distance from a lion that eyed them warily.
“It can, depending on how fast I’m going. I wouldn’t worry about the lion. They can’t hurt you anyway, and I’ve never had one try yet.”
“You’ve been here before?”
“When I first figured out how to fly, I ended up here by accident. Didn’t know how fast I was going. I’ve come back a few times when I need some alone time. Anyway, what do you think about all this? You got any ideas where you’re headed now?”
“I have no idea. Part of me just wants to say screw it and go on with what I want to do, but the other part of me is a bit concerned with what those two
