Karma Girl Part 25

He stared at my outstretched hand for a long, long moment. "Just friends then."

Sam took my hand. All the feelings and sensations of the other night flashed through my head. Tangled sheets. Hot kisses. Slow caresses. I gritted my teeth to keep from pulling him toward me and picking up where we'd left off.

Suddenly, Sam c.o.c.ked his head to one side, listening. He dropped my hand.

"What is it?" I heard nothing other than the tweet of the birds and the occasional drone of a b.u.mblebee.

Sam frowned. "It sounds like a helicopter."

"A helicopter? Is that something to worry about?"

"No, but it's odd because Sublime extends out in all directions for several miles. And no one can fly over the estate without my permission." He shrugged. "It's probably somebody who's just gotten off course. It happens."

I opened my mouth to reply when an icy wave of pain shot through my body. I doubled over. I felt numb, frozen inside. My teeth chattered. My dull headache exploded into a raging migraine. My vision went black. My inner voice screamed.

"Carmen? Carmen!"

"I don't . . . feel so good," I mumbled.

I pitched forward. Sam caught me and lowered me to the ground.

"Cold . . . so . . . cold." My teeth bounced together like a child's rattle.

Sam took off his suit jacket and draped it over my body. "Lie still. I'm going to get help."

"No! Stay with me," I said, clutching at him.

"I have to, Carmen. I'll be back soon. I promise."

Sam cupped my cheek in his warm hand. Blue waves seemed to surround his body. And there was something behind him. I squinted. A black helicopter hovered overhead. Fear crawled up my spine.

"Go! Leave me!" I shouted to Sam.

The roar of the helicopter's motors drowned me out. Flower petals and dead leaves fluttered up into the air and whipped around like shrapnel. Trees bowed under the sudden gust of wind. The helicopter landed on the green lawn. The door slid open, and three figures emerged. My heart sank.

Uh-oh.

Malefica, Scorpion, and Frost sprinted toward us. Sam crouched over me.

KarmaGirl.

"Run! Go!" I screamed.

"I'm not leaving you!"

The three ubervillains came closer . . . and closer . . . and closer. I looked toward the house. Where the h.e.l.l were the others? Hadn't they heard the chopper land on the lawn? Didn't the house have some sort of alarm system? Shouldn't the ground open up to let rockets come flying out or something?

The ubervillains stopped a few feet away. Sam stood. His hands clenched into fists. Somehow, I managed to sit up.

"Well, well, if it isn't Sam Sloane," Malefica drawled. "Or should I call you Striker?"

Sam didn't reply.

"Nothing to say? No witty remarks? No pithy come-back? What a pity. Take him out."

Sam launched himself at Scorpion. The ubervillain threw Sam over his shoulder with ease. Sam hit the ground rolling and bounced right back up. A blue streak zapped through the air and hit the superhero in the chest. He rocked back on his heels and wobbled like a seesaw. Sam's eyes opened wide and grew gla.s.sy. Then, he fell to the ground.

"Noooo!" I screamed. "No! No! Noooo!"

I tried to crawl toward Sam, but the pain pulsing through my body was too great. Every part of me ached with cold. I slumped to the ground, panting for air. Every breath was an enormous effort.

A pair of strappy red sandals strolled into view. Even though every muscle in my body screamed at me to stop moving, I looked up past them.

Malefica loomed over me. A smile stretched across the ubervillain's ruby red lips. "Well, well, if it isn't my good friend Carmen Cole. Feeling a little ill? Pity."

"What have you done to Sam?" I mumbled through my frozen lips. "How did you find us?"

"Oh, don't worry about Striker. He's not dead. Yet."

Fear blanketed my heart like an icy shroud.

"As for you, remember that dart Frost shot you with? It contained a radioactive isotope, which lives in the human body a very long time. After a few days have pa.s.sed, the isotope mutates and gives off a particular amount of radiation that's very unique. And very easy to track if you have the proper equipment. Think of it as a sort of homing beacon. You led us right to Striker."

I closed my eyes. So this had been Malefica's real plan all along. To use me to track down Striker. That was why the Triad had retreated from the park that night. That was why the Fearless Five had driven them away so easily. I'd played right into the ubervillains' evil hands.

Frost stared at me like a doctor examining a patient. "Hmmm. Interesting side effects. See how blue her lips are? I bet her body temperature has dropped at least two degrees in the last few minutes. Are you cold, Miss Cole? Feel like your insides are made out of ice cubes? Hmmm? Have you had any migraines or problems with your vision lately?"

I didn't reply.

"Well, if you're not going to be a cooperative test subject and tell me how you're feeling, I have no further use for you. Shall I take care of her once and for all?" Frost asked.

I stared into the black eyehole of Frost's freezoray gun. My eyes widened. I was about to get dead.

Malefica tapped her long nails on her lips. "Leave her. The rest of the Fearless Five will take care of her when they find out we have Striker. After all, someone has to be the bearer of good news. Get him back to the helicopter."

Scorpion picked up Sam's limp form, slung him over his ma.s.sive shoulder, and lumbered away. Frost KarmaGirl.

followed.

Malefica leaned down until her green eyes were level with mine. "I just wanted to thank you, Carmen.

You played your part perfectly."

"You'll pay for this," I spat out.

"I doubt it. Without Striker, the Fearless Five are nothing but a bunch of second-string superheroes.

With him out of the way, we can pick the others off one by one by one until there's no one left. Once the Fearless Five are gone, Bigtime will be mine. After that . . . who knows? And you made it all possible."

Malefica straightened. "Please remember to give my regards to Fiera and the others. And my sympathy on their untimely loss." She laughed, her voice filled with malicious glee and triumph.

I glared at the other woman. If looks could kill, Malefica would have been stone-cold dead. Too bad I didn't have that particular superpower.

Malefica blew me a kiss and sidled away, her curvy form swinging with every step. She boarded the helicopter and shut the door. The motor roared to life. In seconds, the helicopter was airborne. It roared across the sky and disappeared from sight, taking Sam and the Terrible Triad with it.

Then, the pain came again, stronger this time, and I knew no more.

KarmaGirl.

22.

"I'm fine," I snapped. "Will you quit s.h.i.+ning that light in my eyes?"

"You most certainly are not fine, Carmen," Chief Newman retorted. "We found you lying on the lawn, as cold and unconscious as a rock. If what Malefica said is true, you've been under the effects of a powerful drug for days now. You don't just recover from that. Now, hold still."

I waved his hand and the light away. "I'm fine. You gave me those RIP pills. I feel much better."

"Those are RID pills, Radioactive Isotope Diminishers. They will absorb the radioactivity in your system and cleanse your body of the drug. But they're not a cure-all, especially for something as nasty as what Frost slipped you."

"Whatever. The point is I feel much better."

I slid off the hospital bed and stood. The world swam back and forth. I wobbled.

"Fine, huh?" the chief asked.

He eased me onto the bed. I was back in the sick bay in another pair of clinical, white, lab-rat pajamas.

I'd woken up an hour ago to find Henry, Chief Newman, and even Fiona cl.u.s.tered around me with concerned looks on their faces. Their alarm had grown by leaps and bounds as I described how Malefica, Scorpion, and Frost had kidnapped Sam. Fiona and Henry had dashed out of the room in hopes of trying to track down the Terrible Triad, while Chief Newman had stayed to tend to me.

Luckily, I'd only been pa.s.sed out for about ten minutes before Henry had found me. The three of them had been running through some battle simulations underground. By the time they came back to the library, heard the alarm, and raced outside, it'd been too late to save Sam and almost too late for me.

Fiona had carried me inside, where the chief poured just about every drug known to superheroes down my throat, as well as poking and prodding me with all sorts of cold, metal devices. In addition to being the chief of police, Sean was also a first-rate doctor.

I stared straight ahead as the chief s.h.i.+ned his small pen-light into my eyes. I swung my feet back and forth, and tapped my fingers against the metal rail on the bed. I didn't need to be here. I needed to be in the library with Henry and Fiona trying to locate Sam. I needed to be doing something, anything but sitting still.

"It's not your fault, Carmen," the chief said in a gentle tone.

"Yes, it is. Malefica used me like a puppet, and I didn't even know it." A bitter taste filled my mouth.

"And now Sam's going to pay the price. If only I'd seen what she was up to. I knew there was something wrong about the attack in the park. I could feel it. You guys didn't beat the Triad back. They left because they'd done what they'd needed to do-infect me with their radioactive tracking drug. Too bad I didn't realize what it was."

"None of us did. Not even me, and I'm the one who's psychic. Don't beat yourself up. It's happened to all of us at one time or another. The important thing now is that you rest and get your strength back.

We'll find him, Carmen. We will."

I looked at the chief. "What do you see now? What do your visions tell you? What's going to happen to Sam?"

The chief shook his head. "I only see pieces, fragments of futures that could be. Some of them are quite unpleasant and better left unsaid."

Panic swelled up in my chest. "But some of them are pleasant, aren't they? Aren't they?"

"Yes, some of them are. The future's a funny thing. You can never tell exactly how it's going to turn out KarmaGirl.

until you're in it. It's constantly changing as people act and react to each other. That's the trouble with relying on visions or premonitions to guide you. They're terribly unpredictable. Like Malefica's plan. It depended on several things going exactly her way. Frost hitting you with the drug, us taking you in, you agreeing to stay here, and so on and so forth."

"Well, I'm going to derail her plan this time, whatever it is." I stood again. "I'm going to find her, find out who she is and what dark hole she's hiding in, and then I'm going to find Sam."

The chief blinked at the vehemence in my voice. "I'm not going to be able to stop you, am I?"

"Not unless you chain me to the bed."

"Very well. But I want you to stay seated and take frequent breaks. Agreed?"

"Sure," I replied, even though I had no intention of resting a single second until I'd uncovered Malefica's true ident.i.ty and, more importantly, where the ubervillain was holding Sam.

I retrieved my jeans and T-s.h.i.+rt from the plastic bag the chief had put them in. I dressed as fast as I could and hurried off to the library.

I threw open the door. Fiona and Henry were already inside. Henry had all of his computers fired up, and his mind plugged into them. A bluish-white glow emanated from his fingertips, and his eyes were far away and distant behind his thick gla.s.ses. Doc.u.ment after doc.u.ment flashed on the flat screens.

Fiona stalked around behind Henry. Her cat suit fit her perfect body like a second skin, and sparks flew from her hair. Fiera was all suited up and ready to go.

"Will you go pace somewhere else?" Henry snapped. "I'm trying to work."

"No." Fiona spotted me in the doorway. "What the h.e.l.l are you doing here? Get out. We have work to do."

"So do I."

I ignored Fiona, walked over to my desk, and sat down. I stared at the mounds of papers and notes and charts that littered the area. Time to go to work. This time, I had to find the answer. This time, I had to uncover Malefica's real ident.i.ty.

This time, Sam's life depended on it.

An hour later, I rubbed my aching head, opened my aspirin bottle, and downed three of the hard, white pills.

"Anything, Henry?"

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I checked all the airports and helipads, although I knew they probably wouldn't go anywhere near those. Nothing. I hacked into the local FAA system, but I couldn't find any mention of a black helicopter taking off or landing anywhere within fifty miles of Bigtime. I expanded my search out to a hundred miles. Nothing. It's like they disappeared off the face of the earth."

"There has to be some way to track them down," Fiona said. "They can't disappear. They're not the Invisible Ingenues, you know."

The superhero stalked around the room. Her shoes click-click-clack ed on the hardwood floor. Fiona had been pacing nonstop for the last hour. Every step slammed another ice pick of pain into my brain. I ma.s.saged my throbbing temples.

"Will you please stop pacing back and forth? The noise is driving me insane." I stared at her high-heeled boots. "I don't even see how you can walk in those shoes-"