Dreams Of The Golden Age Part 9

"If you could just be careful for the next week or so-"

"You be careful. You stay home twiddling your thumbs. That's what your real power is, isn't it?"

"I'm only trying to help-"

"I gotta go. Mom wants to have a family night. Bye."

She'd already clicked off before Anna could reply.

Anna knew how to go out and fight crime without drawing attention because of her grandparents. Or she thought she did. The others wore the masks as much because they looked cool as to hide their ident.i.ty. They didn't understand how important hiding their ident.i.ty really was. Things had pretty much fallen apart for the Olympiad when their ident.i.ties had been revealed.

Teddy's observation about them having all the firepower had clarified an issue for Anna: It was easy for Teia and the others to be brazen and forward with their powers, to look for publicity and appear in pictures on the front page of the paper all high and mighty and bada.s.s. Their powers were offensive. They could actually do c.r.a.p. All she and Teddy could do was duck and stay out of the way. How were they supposed to look bada.s.s in a picture that way? They couldn't. But that wasn't the point. The point was to help people, stop bad guys, protect the city. The best heroes didn't need publicity. Publicity was a by-product, not the point. Finally, she figured out how to prove that.

At dinner that night, her parents were distracted. Even Grandma noticed and bustled around the kitchen and chatted more than usual. Anna had planned all kinds of excuses about staying up late studying and not to worry if they saw her bedroom light on, she had to write an essay for tomorrow, and so on. But n.o.body even asked her how her day went. She stayed quiet and tried not to act too weird. Bethy kept looking at her, like she knew Anna was hiding something, and Anna almost yelled at her for it. But she kept her mouth shut, hunkered in on herself, and studied the lasagna on her plate.

Even if Bethy had powers, Anna wouldn't have taken her little sister along. She didn't think Bethy was getting powers. She wouldn't be able to shut up about it if she were.

Late, after everyone else had gone to bed, Anna put on black pants and boots, a black long-sleeved T-s.h.i.+rt, and found a stocking cap and mask to hide her hair and face. Didn't look like much when she stood in front of the mirror to check herself out. She looked like a bank robber. Strands of red hair kept slipping out from under the hat. Like that wasn't a tip-off. Oh, well, it would have to do.

She pulled off the hat and mask and shoved them in her backpack with the rest of her gear.

She and Teddy didn't plan to meet at City Park. That was the old meeting place, and it had become too obvious. Too tainted. Teia and the others were at home, so Anna wouldn't run into them. But it was as if the park was their place; Anna and Teddy had to find a new spot now. Fine. They could do this on their own. As an alternative, they went to Pee Wee's, the popular all-night coffee shop near the university campus. They wouldn't stand out there-they'd look just like any other pair of kids studying.

The gla.s.s-fronted cafe had dim lighting and stainless-steel fixtures, hip and retro, a menu written on a chalkboard and baristas with interesting facial piercings. The music was something new and aggressively independent, and Anna didn't want to look like a freak for asking who the band was. She pretended she already knew, like she'd heard it before.

The place was cool, too cool for her, and she tried to act like she belonged as she walked in, shoulders back and expression blase. The bus ride had taken longer than she expected, and Teddy was already there when she arrived. Also dressed all in black, he sat hunched over a coffee while his foot tapped a rapid beat, and he looked sidelong at the rest of the room. She slid into the booth across from him, furtive, wis.h.i.+ng she could disappear, like Teddy.

Right. Not only did they not look like they belonged here, when they sat together they looked like a couple of hapless emo Goth types getting ready to mug children.

This wasn't going to work.

"This isn't going to work," Teddy said.

"We can still call it off."

He didn't say anything, which she guessed meant he didn't want to call it off. She ordered coffee and brought it back to the table so they could both sit there looking sullen and conspiratorial. Nothing suspicious about that at all. Maybe people would think they were in a band.

She drew a packet of computer-printed pages from her backpack. Her voice was hushed. "We can't win in a straight-up fight, not like the others can, so I figure we have to go at this backward. We can't be fighters, but we can be spies, right?" Teddy didn't seem happy. Well, it wasn't her fault they'd been born with stupid defensive powers and couldn't blast lasers like Sam. She pressed on. "We can find out things that no one else can. Then we can call in the cavalry. Anonymous tip to the cops. The goal is to stop bad guys, that's how we do it."

Teddy snorted. "So we just wander the city looking for ... for what, random secrets to jump out at us?"

"No." She spread out the pages she'd gathered. News articles for the most part, some police blotter reports. She'd zeroed in on one set of stories in particular. Jonathan Scarzen was head of a nascent drug cartel putting down roots in Commerce City, but the DA didn't have enough proof to bring charges, and the police couldn't make an arrest. As far as public records went, Scarzen was an upstanding businessman working in imports. But the drugs were coming in somehow. The police were looking for a witness or for evidence linking Scarzen's import business with the new influx of heroin.

"We can do it," Anna insisted. "We can get the evidence."

Teddy nodded thoughtfully. "I sneak into the warehouse or whatever, search the place, bring a camera to record, and bingo. Is that what you're thinking?"

This was why she liked Teddy, he always knew what she was talking about. "Exactly."

"But we don't know where his warehouse is. The cops don't know, that's the whole point," Teddy said.

"I can find it," she said. "I've been looking for it, and I think I know where to find it."

"Anna-" Teddy's tone was more than a little skeptical. "You don't actually know this guy, do you? Don't you have to know someone to be able to find them?"

"I've been practicing. Just because you guys can't see it when I do-"

"I've never doubted your powers, Anna."

Yeah, but she did. She had to prove she could know someone just by reading enough websites about him. If she was going to be anything more than a walking GPS locator for her family and friends, she had to stretch. She had to be able to do more.

Scarzen was thirty-two years old, of Cuban and Italian ancestry. He'd been arrested four times, spent a few years in prison for auto theft in his early twenties, and since then had managed to evade authorities while building influence among the criminal element in Commerce City. According to his mug shots, he had a snake tattoo on his neck, and descriptions said he had more tattoos on his arms. Not just gang signs but also personal imagery. She needed to know as many details about him as she could. Any listed addresses were probably not accurate, but he had a few places where he had been seen. Police usually knew where to find him. The trouble with Scarzen was the cops didn't have any solid evidence to use against him in court, thereby justifying an arrest. He seemed like an ideal candidate for their first mission. a.s.suming she could find him, and the evidence.

Like some kind of fortune teller, she pressed her hands to the articles, the printed mug shots, the police commentary, and focused. She thought about where he might be, imagined the spots on the map where he'd been seen before, and concentrated on that needle in her mind, waiting for it to press against her awareness. People she'd known her whole life were easy to find. But what about someone she knew only by reputation?

Teddy waited patiently, quietly.

She didn't think she had her eyes closed, but she no longer saw the coffee shop. Instead, she saw a brick building with a fire escape climbing up the side like an exoskeleton. The building was low compared to others in the neighborhood, and older. Some of the windows were boarded up. In h.e.l.l's Alley, of course. Not the best part of town. She was pretty sure she knew where it was. To the needlelike instinct in the back of her mind, it glowed.

"I think I've got it," she said, breathless.

If they were going to keep doing this, this taking the bus thing had to stop. Sam was the one with the car-the others didn't have this problem. Anna was going to have to talk her parents into letting her learn how to drive. And they'd ask "Why?" and she'd have to come up with an excuse. Maybe she could say she was volunteering somewhere.

And her father would know she was lying. After tonight, she might not be able to stand in the same room with him ever again.

She'd worry about that later.

The bus driver raised an eyebrow at them when they got off at their chosen stop-a few blocks from their target but still in a c.r.a.ppy part of town. Two kids, dressed in black, in h.e.l.l's Alley. No, nothing suspicious here. Anna's heart was racing, and her face flushed. She tried to ignore it. Had to concentrate on the task at hand. She put her hand on the mug shot photo of Scarzen, folded up and stuffed in her pocket. Turned that image and the information over and over again in her mind.

The bus's diesel engine growled as it pulled away, and off they went. She led Teddy around a corner. Once off the main street, she retrieved her mask from her bag; Teddy had his shoved in a pocket. They suited up.

That made Anna's heart race even faster, but with something other than trepidation this time. Suddenly, they looked like they were on a mission.

Not many streetlights worked in this part of town. No people around, either, and the few storefronts that weren't boarded up were locked with grates and dark. How could a place be scarier when it was utterly deserted?

"This is so cool," Teddy whispered. The invisible boy-Ghost, she reminded herself-walked decisively. In fact, he wore a thin smile under his mask, like he was enjoying this. Even after getting beat up last time, he was happy to be out again.

He actually looked like a superhuman vigilante-chin up, alert, confident. She wasn't sure what she looked like. The scruffy sidekick? She should be so lucky. Anna was a little freaked out, truth be told. But they'd be fine. They'd watch each other's backs. She had her cell phone with her.

When they crossed the next street and turned onto another block, she stopped, startled, because the building they approached made her feel a stabbing moment of familiarity, like she'd been here before, even though she never had. That needle in the back of her mind was singing. He was here, right now, in that building. It was the right shape, had the skeletal fire escape, and seemed to nestle among the buildings around it.

She grabbed Teddy and pulled him into a nearby alley. "That's it, that's the one."

"Okay," Teddy said, with a world's worth of confidence. Like he was absolutely sure he knew what he was doing. Maybe that was the trick of it, you had to act like you knew what you were doing. "Let's go over it again. I get in, stay invisible, and take pictures of the drugs or weapons, right?"

Anna said, "And a picture of Scarzen, if you can. It's best if you can get them all in the same shot." They had decided that Anna would stay outside, rather than have Teddy unlock a door to let her inside. If Teddy were discovered, he could turn invisible and phase out of the building before anyone caught him. Anna would be stuck. As much as she hated staying out of the real work, she had to defer to logic. She'd stay hidden and wait for Teddy to get back.

Teddy tested the camera on his phone, taking a couple of shots of the brick wall. "I'm set."

"Make sure the flash is off," she reminded him.

"Got it. And the ringer." He put the phone in a pocket and cracked his fingers. "Awesome."

This could work. This could actually work. "I really want to go with you."

"We talked about this..."

"It's just I feel useless."

Surprising how much expression she could read in just his mouth and jaw, under the mask. He was determined, confident, and his lips pressed in a sympathetic line. "You need to stay out here and call for help if something goes wrong." Trying to make her feel better by giving her a job, even a silly job that a real superhero shouldn't need. He gave her arm a brief touch that was probably meant to be comforting.

All she could think was: Even on Team Defense, she was the useless one. Great.

"This shouldn't take long," Teddy said breezily and offered a grin.

He left her standing on the sidewalk, arms crossed, trying to look una.s.suming and not horribly out of place as she leaned against a brick wall. The night was pleasantly cool, but Anna still s.h.i.+vered. Behind her, something rattled, made a screech-a cat, trotting the other way, vanis.h.i.+ng into shadows. It happened so fast she didn't have time to be startled. She waited, trying to figure out how she could go into a situation like this without being totally useless. If she could track not just one person, but everyone within a certain area, she could warn people. If she could do that, she'd be great at surveillance, at knowing when the bad guys were around, when the cops were-but the only person in that building she could sense right now was Teddy. He'd made his way inside and was moving upward on a staircase. She knew Scarzen was there, somewhere. But not what floor he was on, or in what room. Her power could only make the generalization.

Maybe if she had a gun-but that defeated the purpose of being a superhero. Superheroes weren't supposed to need guns. She didn't know the first thing about getting hold of a gun, much less using one. No guns, then.

What had her father done when he was with the Olympiad? He couldn't run faster than the eye could see to get out of trouble like the Bullet, he didn't have the sheer raw firepower of her grandparents, Captain Olympus and Spark. Oh, yeah, he didn't just read minds, he could control them. He pried information from them, intimidated them with his reputation, and incapacitated them by forcing them to sleep.

He insisted that he'd never used that particular aspect of his power on his daughters. Mostly, Anna believed him.

Mom and Dad were at home, in bed. Bethy was in the living room-she'd probably snuck out to watch TV. Anna would have to dodge her when she got home. Her power had never felt so inadequate. It was a parlor trick, that was all.

Her sixth sense followed Teddy's progress as he reached the third floor, where he stopped for a long time. Minutes dragged.

She wanted nothing more than to run over there and find out what was happening. She'd call, but they'd turned their phones to silent as a precaution. At least they figured that much out. They weren't entirely stupid, or so she kept telling herself.

More minutes pa.s.sed, and Teddy hadn't moved. He might have had a good escape plan-turn invisible and phase out was pretty darned good-but even the best escape plan could go wrong. What they hadn't worked out was a signal for when she should call for help if something really did go wrong. How would she ever know? It would be terrible if on their first outing as a superhero team they had to call for help. Wouldn't Teia love that? Oh, but if this worked, Teia wouldn't be able to say a thing.

She started pacing until her knees felt wobbly, then she crouched and hugged herself. And waited.

If things went really wrong, she'd probably hear gunshots. So she started listening for the sound of gunshots from the squat building.

After what seemed like half the night, Teddy started moving again. The light of his presence moved back down the stairs. Quickly. She went to the corner across the street from the building to wait for him.

A dark figure phasing through the door, he emerged from solid metal. It was always disconcerting seeing him do that. You blinked a few times and looked again, sure that there'd been a gap in the wall that you didn't see, or that the door that was there had opened without you noticing. But no, he ran through solid matter without stopping. He arrived at her corner, and they ducked into a doorway, out of sight.

"Well?" she asked.

"Got it, let's go," Teddy said, bodiless. He pressed his hand to her back, urging her on.

The buses had stopped running, but they'd planned for that and she'd brought along cash. They shoved their masks into their bags and had to walk eight blocks to find any cabs. Even then, it took three tries to flag one down, this late and with them dressed like cut-rate ninjas.

The driver studied them in his rearview mirror. "Don't you kids have school tomorrow? It's a little late."

"Just go to Seventy-second and Pine," Teddy muttered.

On the drive, he showed her the pictures he'd shot. They were good. They'd nail the guy.

They stopped a few blocks from Teddy's house. That would have been stupid, going straight home. After dropping him off, Anna had the cab take her to a hotel a couple of blocks from West Plaza. She had to hope that was good enough to throw people off. Her calculations were good and she'd collected enough of her allowance to pay the driver. Twenty minutes later, she was at West Plaza taking the secret elevator up.

Finally, she could breathe. She hadn't realized she'd spent all night feeling like she was strangling until she got home, and the air seemed clearer.

But they'd done it. They'd really, really done it. They'd show everyone. And Dad wasn't even waiting up for her. Victory.

Nothing in any of the superhero biographies or memoirs talked about how you were supposed to get any sleep, fighting crime at night and pretending that everything was normal during the day. This was even worse than the nights they all went out to practice. She hadn't burned herself out on adrenaline those nights. She hadn't spent those nights with her heart beating in her throat.

Getting out of bed and getting ready for school the next morning was a complete nightmare. Especially since the work from the night before wasn't over.

Her parents were distracted when she asked them if Tom could take her to school early today. She had a test to study for, she lied and didn't care if her father knew. But he didn't even blink. Bethy howled over having to leave early, but Mom and Dad didn't seem bothered by the change in routine. They told Bethy she'd just have to study in the library an extra few minutes before school started. Bethy stared bullets at Anna. If anyone was going to guess what was going on and blow the whole thing open, it would be Bethy.

She wondered if Bethy had learned to read minds and had sense enough not to tell anyone. That gave Anna a chill, which she had no choice but to ignore.

At school, she waited for the town car to pull out of sight. Then she ran. There was an Internet cafe a few blocks away. A lot of the kids went there for caffeine jolts before school, so Anna wasn't out of place. This was part of the plan, and she had work to do.

Anna had already taken the photos from Teddy's camera and stripped identifying information off them, except for the location marker. The pictures were great-he had gotten one with Scarzen standing right behind a pile of money and weapons, and another showing a pile of bagged white powder. They ought to work. She mailed them to the "tips" address on the police department's website, using an anonymous and she hoped untraceable web address with no identifying info.

They'd done this as anonymously as they could. Now all they could do was wait to see if their tip did any good. Unlike fighting fires, they didn't get the instant gratification of knowing they'd helped someone or seeing news of their exploits in the paper. It was frustrating. But they had to be patient. They just had to.

It happened faster than they thought it would. The very next morning, Teddy called her cell phone, breathless and nearly incomprehensible. She wasn't even out of bed yet.

"Anna! Anna, have you seen the news? You have to look at the news, I sent you the link, check your messages, right now!"

"Teddy, it's five in the morning." She was still catching up on sleep from the night of their raid. Didn't Teddy sleep at all?

"Anna. Check your messages." He was suddenly very serious.

She did. Teddy had sent her an e-mail with a link that led to a news story. "Breaking," the headline announced. She squinted, read on.

Notorious drug dealer Jonathan Scarzen has been arrested on charges based on evidence delivered in an anonymous tip.

Anna clapped her hand over her mouth to keep from screaming. "It worked!" she finally managed to squeal.

"Told you you had to look."

If he'd been there this minute, she would have hugged him.