Broker

Chapter 38

Martin scowled at the roof of the building, standing in the midst of the battle that had ended not too long ago. The damage wasn’t severe, but it was enough to raise eyebrows. The sounds of explosions had garnered the attention of the NYPD and after a call came in about two light-touched engaged in a fight on the roof of a building, he and Lucian had been sent to investigate. The perpetrators were already long gone by the time they’d arrived. Martin knelt next to one of the blasted pieces of concrete wall, explosives?

Lucian was standing nearby, his eyes fixed on the building in the distance. “ASTA Labs.”

Martin scowled and looked towards the building as he got to his feet, “Not surprising there would be light-touched watching that woman.”

“You think she was involved?” Lucian asked.

“Not sure, I want to say so but that may be my bias getting the best of me,” He grunted and glanced down at one of the scars on the ground. He knelt down next to it and ran his fingers over it. His eyes narrowed, “Lucian, measuring tape?” He called over his shoulder. 

Lucian grunted and walked over, “We’re on the field, I’m Ironsides.”

Martin snorted and shook his head as he took the measuring tape, unfurling a little and holding it against the hole; it was remarkably clean and deep. The smoothness indicated that it was done with a single stroke, probably a missed attack. He lowered the tape inside after pinching the tip a little to let it reach the bottom and checked the depth. He frowned and wrote it down on his notepad, “Lu- Ironsides. What were the measurements on the murder weapon for that cabbie?”

Ironsides looked more attentive now, he pulled out his own notebook and rattled off the figures and Martin grinned, “It’s a match.”

“The killer from Korea?” Ironsides asked, kneeling next to the hole in the concrete roof. “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure forensics will agree with me,” Martin said and brushed off his hands, “A foreign killer with light-touched abilities arrives shortly after the Pandora Act passes, murders a cabbie-which I don’t have an explanation for, leaves a number of bodies behind the hotel he’s staying in, gang members,” He sussed out, crossing arms. “Do we have any word on the body, by the way?”

“Still nothing, it’s just gone.” Ironsides shook his head, “The next thing he does is go to the roof of a building overlooking the ASTA labs and is attacked,” Ironsides continued, “He’s here for Chernovna.”

“Probably, from what I’ve learned about Shark he’s very territorial so it’s likely he took the murder of the cabbie personally, he’s probably been tracking him just like we have, there was a fight here,” Martin said and gestured around, “Looks like it came to a draw since there’s no blood.”

“We’ll have to warn her about the risk, Hero Day is tomorrow,” Ironsides said.

“She already knows,” Martin grunted.

“Not this again,” Ironsides sighed, “Enough with the conspiracy theories Martin, our focus is this case and Shark.”

Our real concern is Ishtar. If only someone would listen to me. He sighed and got to his feet, shaking his head, “Fine.”

–

The Lurker growled and bore its teeth, pacing back and forth on the street. It’s shiny black fur stood on end, powerful claws tensing inside of enormous fingers. It’s hunched back flexed as it locked eyes with its prey, but it didn’t move right away. Shark grinned at it, bearing his own razor-sharp teeth and dropping into a wide open stance, his arms spread out. He’d been looking forward to hunting all day and now he finally had a chance to blow off a little steam. Not that this kind of opponent was hard for him anymore.

“Come on ya big dumb git,” He snarled, his off-gray skin gleaming a little in the artificial light above him. He flexed his webbed fingers, “Come to daddy Shark.”

The beast roared and broke into a loping run, it’s body turning into a blur for anyone observing. For Shark though, it felt like he was moving in slow motion. He threw his arms forward and caught the creature’s hands with his own, fingers flexing over and locking down in a ruthless grip. The creature hesitated, it’s eyes widening momentarily as it processed the sudden stop. It had been expecting to bowl him over, but rather, it was now standing still. It quickly made a decision and opened its mouth, rows of bladed fangs moving to clamp down on Shark’s shoulder.

“Oh no ya don’t!” Shark barked, twisting his arms and letting out a grunt as he pulled the creature to the side, slamming it onto the ground. The Lurker let out a whine of pain before rolling and flipping back to its feet with a snarl. Shark laughed and cupped his right palm, shifting back a step. The Lurker tilted its head, assessing him again. Stupid bastard, you only have one strategy, just come at me! Shark grunted as water began to pool in his palm, it rose into the air and began to condense into a tight sphere just as the Lurker made its next attempt.

It roared, lunging towards him and Shark threw his hand out, launching the sphere like a bullet. It struck the beast in the head, sending it hurtling backwards with the force of thousands of psi of water. It bounced across the ground a few times, sliding to a stop and getting groggily to its feet. It shook its damp head and turned to look at Shark again. Shark frowned, “Not enough pressure to puncture, eh?” He grumbled and flexed his fingers again, “Come on, come on, come on, do it, c’mere,” He rattled on, gesturing at the creature to attack him.

It narrowed its eyes and broke into another run, this time angled past Shark. Shark grinned, “Stupid bastard,” He laughed and threw out his left hand as it began to alter its trajectory, aiming for Shark’s flank. It launched through the air, picking up terrible speed only for its eyes to widen again as something burst out of the ground beneath it. An enormous octopus tentacle wrapped around its waist and squeezed, a horrible crunching sound preceded the Lurker being thrown back to the ground yet again. It whimpered and stumbled, trying to get to its feet.

Shark strode towards it, “Looks like you’re out of steam, bruv,” He mocked it, showing off his teeth with a wicked smile, “Y’see, I’m king around here, and you mutts are my dinner!”

It tried to move but the tentacle simply wrapped around it again. It struggled and thrashed, whipping its head around and clawing at the ground beneath it. Shark held out his right hand again, “Now sit still, I’m trying somethin’ out.”

The water pooled in his palm taking the shape of a sphere once more. He narrowed his eyes, concentrating on the shape. Tighter, denser, more pressure, more! He focused, his fingers curling until they were like claws around the ping pong ball sized sphere of water. A bead of sweat dripped down his brow, Yeah… that should be enough. He pointed the sphere at the struggling Lurker and released. A narrow ray of water erupted from his curled fingers and pierced through the skull of the mighty beast and out the other end. It collapsed in a gurgling heap, dead.

“Finally!” He barked, “I’ve got it under control, just like the Mistress said.”

“You got ‘em!” A shout nearby drew his attention. 

He glanced over his shoulder and spotted Trigger and Wake walking over, oddly colored mist billowing at Wake’s feet. He rest his hands on his hips and smiled broadly at the two of them, “You’re not dead! How’d it go boys?” He barked with a laugh, walking over to shake hands with the two of them. 

“He’s a beast,” Trigger grunted, scratching the back of his neck, “Moves like you wouldn’t believe, he ain’t human. No offense, boss.”

Shark barked out a laugh, “I forgot about bein’ human ages ago, how were his abilities?”

“His blood is like metal, telekinesis with it too, he can make weapons and even armor out of it,” Trigger explained, “No idea how he’s got that much blood in him. He covered his entire body.”

Shark rubbed his chin, “Probably comes with a regeneration feature, good information.”

“He was scoping out the ASTA Labs,” Wake chimed in, pulling back his dark hair to reveal the deep bags under his eyes. He grinned, his shoulder’s hunched, “I think he’s after that Sonya woman. Maybe we should leave him be a bit and let him take out the Voice of the Heroes.”

Shark frowned, “Nah, I want this fucker,” He said darkly crossing his arms over his broad chest, “If he’s good enough to take out someone that important, he wouldn’t have messed with me. He’s already killed a few of our guys,” He grumbled. He’d hated the idea of sending some of his men, light-touched men, to their deaths. But Mistress Ishtar’s words were gospel, she had a plan and he would get his payback one way or the other. Besides, maybe she was right, there were plenty of men out there willing to take their place.

Trigger grinned, “That woman will be out in the open tomorrow, she’s the speaker at Hero Day,” he said, rubbing his hands together, “This guy won’t be able to resist.”

Shark held up a hand, “Easy there, we have a plan for tomorrow. No mucking it up,” He said sharply, fixing Trigger with a stare.

Trigger’s shoulders fell but he nodded, “Right, boss.”

“There’s gonna be a lot of aspiring heroes there,” Wake said hesitantly, “Are we really gonna make that much of an impact?”

Shark grinned at him, “Of course we are! Besides, the whole point is to sneak our boys into the prison system anyway so we can do some more recruiting, but we won’t be going in without a fight,” He raised his fist and showed his teeth, “I’ll be there in person at the New York Licensing.”

Trigger’s mouth opened in surprise, “Really?”

“Yeah boys, that’s right, I’m ready to make my debut,” Shark said with a proud smile, putting his fists on his hips and raising his chin. “Tomorrow I’ll be reborn as Kingshark!”

Wake and Trigger looked at one another excitedly and Shark couldn’t help but feel a wave of smugness wash over him. He glanced back at the corpse of the Lurker. It had taken a while for him to get used to his powers but Ishtar had insisted that he practice and fully understand his abilities. He’d thought he’d been limited to controlling existing water but that was far from it, he could produce his own. Eventually, he could feel it, he could create tidal waves if he wished it. For now though he was more than ready to deal with the unhoned wannabe heroes.

He thought back to the moment when she’d brought one of the ability detectors and he’d put his hand on it. Orange-gold. Mythic. His power was capable of the peak of what a light-touched could do and Ishtar seemed convinced he would be mighty one day. Tomorrow was the day to put that to the test.

Hero Day, I can’t wait…

–

Sonya sat on the couch and Marta in front of the TV. If she didn’t know, she wouldn’t have believed it was the caretaker. Her lip twitched, You and your hobbies. Marta’s hair was long and down to her waist now, lime green and shining a bit in the dim light of the room. She wore a frilled jet-black Victorian gown and was sitting on the ground more like a refined young lady. She glanced back over her shoulder at Sonya and beamed at her, her yellow-orange eyes glittering with delight. Sonya sipped at her wine and smiled back at her, “Like the dress?”

“I love it,” Marta said delightedly, even her voice had changed. Sonya glanced past her to the screen, an elaborate purple mech was in a firefight with a dark red mech that had a much more simple design. Marta turned back to the show, “This is one of my favorites.”

“I like the main character,” Sonya said thoughtfully.

“Of course you would,” Marta laughed knowingly, “Might not be a bad idea to watch the whole series, Sonya. You might learn a few things.”

Sonya frowned and glanced at the screen, “Oh?”

As she sat and watched her mind occasionally drifted towards the events of the coming day, meticulous planning to make sure everything went off without a hitch. Her expression narrowed a bit as the story played out and she felt her jaw tense a bit. She sipped at her wine and leaned forward, Have I really accounted for everything? Tomorrow will set the stage for everything going forward. No, it’s impossible to predict everything that could happen, I’ll need to stay flexible. 

The most important piece is getting as many of my villains into the prison system as possible. I’ll make sure they’re spread out, there’s still an issue though. She sipped her wine again, How do I make deals with people without being present? There has to be a way. Sussing out a contract with the heroes didn’t work, when I wrote it down my ability didn’t react. Is there something I’m missing?

She set her glass down on a panel of light as the credits for the second episode rolled, I’ll be more exposed than ever tomorrow as well. Razor will have an opportunity to strike if he’s as arrogant as I think he is. He’s let his powers get to his head, killing a cabbie was sloppy even if he wasn’t used to dashcam culture. He thinks he’s untouchable. Her lips twisted into a vicious smile, It’s time for a reality check.

She paused, But what if he spots one of the planted villains in the crowd? He might be more cautious, but I need him to make his move already. How do I force him to act?

“Sonya?” Marta called out to her. “You okay?”

Sonya glanced up, “Mm? Oh I’m fine, that was an interesting twist at the end. I’m looking forward to more,” She said and got to her feet, “Unfortunately we should get some rest, big day tomorrow.”

Marta nodded and smiled at her, “Thank you for watching it with me.”