18. Monster Chiller
Max burst into Joshua's house, with Logan at her heels. She called out, but there was no answer. By the time Logan had seen the news bulletin, it was several hours old. They were both very worried.
A mutant sighting would be sure to draw White. Max was beside herself at the thought of Joshua in the clutches of White and his army. Joshua was gentle and kind. He had never done anything wrong. He had been born with the face of a beast, and in the eyes of society, that was a crime.
She couldn't bear to lose Joshua; she had promised herself that he would be safe.
"Where is Cindy?" Logan said sharply. "What was she doing, while Joshua was freaking out the neighbors?"
Max drew in a painful breath. Where was Cindy, indeed?
"I can't believe Cindy would do anything stupid," he said. "She has her head on straight."
"Maybe Alec gave it a bit of spin," Max said nastily. "She was pretty shook up, Logan. If Joshua got it into his head to run out of here, she couldn't exactly stop him."
"No," Logan agreed. "She's less than half his size. But she could have exercised moral authority." Part of Joshua's gentleness was his childlike nature.
"Something must have happened," said Max. She backed up, and fell over a stack of books. "Damn," she said. "He never puts them back on the shelf." She scooted to the side and got back on her feet. "I'm gonna scout out the neighborhood. Go home, do your thing. See if you can pick up their trail." She wanted Logan in a secure location.
Logan would have preferred to stay by her side, but he knew he'd only slow her down. He felt a fresh surge of impotence. He had a lot of skills, but he couldn't back her in a fight. A man naturally wanted to protect the woman he loved. The fact that his sometime girlfriend was a super-soldier didn't change that. Unhappily, he could only watch and wait. Sometimes letting go was the better part of valor, no matter how much it sucked. All he said was, "Keep in touch."
Alec wandered the city. He was operating with fun house logic. Noise was too loud, and light was painfully bright. He wanted to pull off the top of his head, and claw out his own brains. He wanted to jump in a hole, and draw the dark earth around him. He just wanted it all to stop.
He stepped off the curb, and into the noisy hold of a transport plane. They were over the drop zone, so Alec clipped his static line to the anchor line cable and jumped into the icy black sky. The wind whistled past his head at one hundred and twenty-five miles per hour. He was pretty sure there was supposed to be a parachute playing out behind him right about now, but he was still free falling. He looked over his shoulder. Nope, no canopy. He triggered his AAD, but it was malfunctioning too. "For crying out loud," he said. It was going to be a mighty big bounce.
There was a teeth-jarring impact that left him breathless, as someone grabbed him from behind, hanging on tight around his waist. It was X5-467, free flying. He had adjusted his fall rate to match Alec's, and tracked horizontally until he caught up. He used the grips on Alec's suit to maneuver so that they were face to face. Alec wound his arms through the other man's webbing.
"Always double-check your rig, you stupid shit!" screamed 467, spitting.
"The entire container is fucked!" Alec yelled at the man who would become his friend Biggs.
"Are you ready, 494?" bellowed Biggs, right in Alec's face.
"Yeah!" Alec shouted. They would have to deploy Biggs' reserve canopy, because to catch up to Alec he'd jumped without clipping on his static line. Hopefully, his reserve would be up to the task. Alec braced himself for the opening shock, hanging on tight, and found himself staring into the headlights of an oncoming car.
Someone grabbed him by the arm, yanking him out of the way. Alec found himself staring into the face of a lizard man. His mouth dropped open. Plainly, this creature could not be real. "You are a figment of my imagination," Alec said. He ran away.
"Asshole," said Mole, slinking back into the shadows. He chomped on his cigar, watching the crazy guy take off down the street. Like it wasn't enough they had the whole rest of the world to play in, he thought.
He wished the Ordinaries would stay out of Terminal City.