A week had passed since Dinah had informed me of her mothers involvement with
the drug that guy had ingested.
Barbara managed to keep me out-of-commission for a good part of the week by pumping all sorts of drugs into me to keep me sedated and still. I hate it when she does that and she knows it.
Now that my wounds have healed somewhat, I've been going out on "light" sweeps. Dinah's been covering most of the slack. Normally I'd be bitching like nobody's business but it's actually worked out to my advantage.
You see, I've been doing some detective work on Dinah's dear deceased mother in order to find out more about this drug and who's behind it's continued creation. With Dinah on sweeps and me all nestled safe in the warmth of my own bed, yeah right, I've managed to get a name....Jack Culver. He and Carolyn had worked together some years ago and his name kept popping up with people I've talked to.
It's late, Dinah's out doing her thing and Barbara thinks I'm working a shift at the bar for my ailing friend Jennifer. In reality, I'm standing in front of the door to Jack's apartment. Obviously his work hasn't made him much money because he's living in filth. If his apartment is anything like the hallway I'd be forced to pity the man.
I put an ear to his door and try to hear any movement from inside but it's hard to hear over the constant yelling of the couple next door who are airing their dirty laundry for all the world to hear. I'm almost tempted to bust down their door and punch them both in the mouth in order to get them to shut the hell up.
It's impossible to hear whether Jack is in there or not at this point, even with my sensitive hearing, so I'm just going to wing it.
I take a few steps back and then charge at the door, kicking it with my foot, sending it crashing down to the floor. A cloud of dirt and dust flies into the air giving my grand entrance a more menacing feel, but the feeling is lost on only me because he's not here.
It was actually convenient that the couple had been yelling because they'd masked my grand entrance. Now I'm happy I didn't pop them in the mouth.
I check all two of the rooms, which includes the bathroom, and he's no where to be found. The windows are shut so he didn't make an escape, I just have really bad timing.
Looking around the dump I feel compelled to offer the pity I'd previously mentioned. This place is disgusting. I've been in my share of dives but this one could very well top the list.
There are dirty dishes in the sink that look like they've been there for months. The flies are what give me that indication. I'm surprised there are no ro...wait. Never mind. There are roaches. There's some sort of conga line of them around the edge of the counter top near the refrigerator. They must know of some secret passage into the fridge that's not visible to the human eye.
I almost don't want to open the fridge, afraid of what my fly, tumble or spray out, but curiosity gets the better of me.
With the tip of my index finger, I hook it around the handle and pull. No way was I going to put my whole hand on that handle. God only knows what's on it!
I'm almost knocked off my feet from the powerful odor that's now been released into the room. Putting my jacket sleeve over my mouth and nose I fight the urge to gag.
The fridge is empty of food, except for something that looks like it may have been a hunk of cheese, a very old bucket of KFC chicken and a carton of milk that had so much mold on it, it looked like a Banzai Tree.
Maggots, flies, roaches and other nasty little creatures were in their glory. There were thousands of them. It was like an amusement park of insects that had festered on a gold mine. I seriously feel like tossing my cookies.
I kick the door shut and hope at least the odor will dissipate. There's no help for the visual that's forever scared my mind, but whatever.
Quickly, I head towards what's supposed to be the living room I would assume. There's a couch that's full of holes and stains. Not even gonna go there. The springs are visible on the left side and some of the foam is scattered on the floor.
I walk over to it, trudging through a mass of dirty laundry, newspapers, take-out food containers and various other items I don't even want to think about. It looks like someone intentionally pulled the couch apart judging by the way the foam was thrown on the floor all in one place.
Looking closer down into the hole something catches my eye. "Bingo!" A vial of the green fluid is tucked inside towards the front of the couch.
A few scenarios swirled around my head: the vial rolled down there and was forgotten when the others were pulled out or the vial was hidden there intentionally.
I tucked the vial into my pocket for safe keeping and turned around to search the bed. More roaches had claimed their territory there. I'd always heard that they were one of the cleanest insects on the planet but I'd have to beg to differ.
Taking my foot, I maneuvered the mattress off the box spring.
"Well, what do we have here?"
Reaching down, I picked up the Polaroid of Carolyn and Jack that had been sandwiched between the mattress and box spring. There was no date on it but my guess is that it was at least ten years old. The two of them looked pretty chummy from the way she had her arms around him. Interesting.
I continued my inspection of the apartment and struck gold again, this time in the bathroom, of all places.
Inside the tank of the toilet, there was a baggie duct taped to the side full of papers: receipts, invoices and handwritten notes full of chemical jargon that was way over my head.
Satisfied that I had enough to go on for now, I exited his apartment and headed to my own.
***
The following night, I went on sweeps with Dinah for part of the night - per Barbara's instructions.
It was awkward, to say the least. We hadn't spoken since the night she'd told me about the drug and her mother's involvement and now that I had more pieces to the puzzle I felt the awkwardness between us even stronger.
"Don't feel like you have to babysit me or something," she snapped, out of nowhere.
"Huh?"
"I'm capable of taking the entire sweep shift by myself. Not sure why Barbara feels that I need you to tag along."
If that wasn't a cold front moving in then I don't know what it was. A huge part of me wanted to beat her snippy little ass. This was MY watch, MY territory, MY city and MY shift. How dare she make it seem like she could even fill my shoes.
"Keep it up and maybe I'll have that talk with Barbara after all. I'm sure she'd love to hear all about your mother's diabolical plan."
She was in my face in a matter of seconds. This was a Dinah I'd never seen before.
"DON'T you dare speak of my mother in such a tone. Your mother was no Betty Crocker either, or have you forgotten?"
Yep. She was inches away from eating my fist, but Dr. Quinn would be proud. I swallowed the physical anger and did my best to keep it down.
"You're the one that told me about your mother and how sorry you were for her. Now all of a sudden you want it to all go away and be okay? Just because you..."
"Shut up! I don't want to talk about it anymore."
Glancing at my watch I saw that it was late. Perfect timing. "I gutta go anyway."
I got up on the ledge of the roof and jumped off. The cool air that whooshed into my face calmed me down a little.
When I got to street level I headed for an old meat packing plant on the outside of town. The address had been written on all of the receipts and invoices I'd found at Jack's apartment so I decided to check it out. But there was one thing I had to do first...
"Oracle?"
"Go ahead, Huntress."
"I'm just checking in before I sign off for the night. Dinah's over on the market place roof in case you're wondering."
"I've been trying to get in touch with her for about a half hour. She's got her comm off again. You have to stop teaching her things like that."
"ME?!? I didn't tell her to do that."
"Well, we'll deal with it later. How are your ribs and thigh?"
"A little sore still but they'll be fine in a day or so."
"Ya know, I have to say that I'm really impressed with your cooperation over the past week."
Oh, here we go.
"I know it's not easy for you to take my orders sometimes, but you know I'm just looking out for you."
I'd hate to kill her Hallmark moment but if she only knew that I was just doing it in order to do some investigative work she'd freakin' kill me.
"I know I'm a pain in the ass sometimes," I say.
"Sometimes?"
"Very funny."
"Have a good night."
"See you tomorrow."
I turned off my comm and continued on my way to the meat packing plant.
***
When I arrived, I found the place all boarded up. The edges of the windows were charred, indicating that there'd been a fire.
The building looked pretty secure, however. I climbed up to the roof and despite some holes here and there, it was stable.
I climbed down into one of the holes and prayed that when I landed I didn't fall straight through the floor, but luck was on my side for once.
The wood of the floor was dirty and water stained from the fire fighters that had put the fire out. The smoky smell wasn't very distinct. I don't recall any fire in this area so it must have been quite some time ago.
I got to the first floor and found nothing but charred wood, burned equipment and lots of ash and dust.
As I walked along the floor, the clacking of my boots gave off a hollow sound all of a sudden. Looking down, I brushed the dirt around and saw a metal square that looked out of place from the surrounding cement.
Kicking the dirt around some more, I found a small chain. Pulling on it, the metal square slid away and revealed a hole.
I reached into my pocket and took out a small flashlight and shined it down into the hole. There was a ladder on the side and it looked like a tunnel.
Wasting no time, I climbed down the ladder and shined the light forward. The light lit up the long hallway so I slowly walked forward.
Getting to the end of the hallway, it appeared to be a dead end. Concrete bricks in front of me, to my left and to my right. Seemed odd.
I shined the flashlight all around the wall and towards the ceiling and that's when I saw the short pull-chain covered in spider webs that was in the corner. I couldn't help but scrunch up my face as I put my hand in the webbing and pulled the chain. The wall in front of me slid forward and revealed a small room that contained a wooden desk, some metal tables, a few computers, lab equipment and various other nerdy stuff.
I walked in and checked everything out, taking notice of the notes tacked on the wall near a set of glass beakers. The sequence looked a little familiar so I took out the papers I'd found at Jack's apartment. Sure enough, they were the same chemical equations. This must be the pattern for the drug.
There wasn't much dust on the equipment in the room which led me to believe that everything was still in use. So either Jack or the vial man had been here recently. Someone must have cooked up a batch of this shit and sent it out for distribution.
I opened the small cabinet that was sitting on the floor under a table and my face lit up green from the glow that emitted from it. It was packed full of vials of the drug.
I grabbed the back of the cabinet and ripped it from the wall, tossing it to the floor with force. The vials smashed into thousands of pieces and the drug spilled onto the floor in a large neon green puddle.
"What are you doing!" I heard a female voice squeal behind me.
I whipped around and was shocked to see Carolyn standing there, her eyes wide with horror.
"What have you done!!" she croaked as she pulled out a gun and aimed it at me.
"Why did you do this, Carolyn?"
Tears began rolling down her cheeks.
"I worked SO HARD on this project and you've just destroyed MONTHS of work!!"
Before I could say something I found a red-hot bullet embedding itself in my shoulder, sending me backwards from the force and knocking me to the ground.
I laid there motionless for a moment, digesting what had just happened as I stared up at the ceiling.
"I can't believe you of all people wouldn't support my cause," Carolyn said to me as she appeared above me, her gun aimed at me once again.
I heard the snap of the hammer being cocked back.
"DON'T even think about trying anything because I WILL shoot you again. Now get up!"
I sat up and she handcuffed my hands to the metal table that was bolted into the ground. Great. This escape wasn't going to be so easy.
"What'd you do with Jack?"
Her head snapped up and she froze for a moment, stunned by the mention of his name. "Jack?"
"You know, lives in filth, has noisy neighbors...that Jack."
She ignored my question for a few minutes while she dug through her backpack and pulled out a bomb. Setting it down gently on the metal table that I was cuffed to, she licked her lips in satisfaction as she looked at it.
"So...where is he?" My voice contained a hitch as the pain in my shoulder began to become quite an annoyance. It was bleeding heavily and was burning like a bitch.
"Jack tried to take all of this away from me and claim it as his own."
"So you killed him, is that it?"
"Something like that. He even got his son involved. How's that for a family business."
The pieces were started to fit. "Lemme guess, nerdy looking boy, early twenties, reddish blonde hair, buzz cut, blue eyes."
"You know Michael? Where is that son-of-a-bitch?"
"Hmm, looks like me may have to make a deal."
"No deals," she said, grabbing the gun and pointing it at me again.
"Then I guess I can't tell you where he is."
That was the wrong thing to say because the butt of the gun cracked against the side of my eye, re-opening the fragile flesh of the wound that was just about healed.
"Don't fuck with me, Helena."
I thought the circle of stars that swirled above cartoon characters heads was fake but since I was now experiencing it first-hand I had to change my view on that.
Carolyn continued to hook up the bomb and get it set. When I heard the beeping sound I couldn't help but flinch.
"Boom!" she teased as she gathered her backpack and slid it onto her back. "Sorry, Helena. I've gutta move locations now that you've invaded this one."
"You're not gonna get away with this."
"That's right, you're not."
I looked up towards the doorway and saw Dinah standing there, hands on her hips and a pissed off look plastered on her face.
"D-Dinah," Carolyn stammered. "She-she tried to kill me, I had to cuff her to the table and..."
"Disarm the bomb, NOW!" Dinah demanded.
Carolyn's eyes darted back and forth between me and Dinah as she backed up, reaching behind her back.
"Dinah! She's got a gun!"
Carolyn fired the gun in Dinah's direction and I couldn't see whether the kid had been struck or not. I heard her hit the ground with a grunt, but the table blocked my view.
Another shot rang out and the lights went out.
"Dinah!" I screamed. I tried not to move in order to keep from setting the bomb off but it was killing me not to be in the action.
Both women had run out of the room and I could hear more shots and a struggle on the floor above me. The feeling of not knowing what was going on was pure agony.
I leaned forward and rested my forehead on the leg of the table, closing my eyes, listening to the sounds above. Then they stopped.
I waited for a few minutes, holding my breath, listening to the thick silence.
"Dinah!" I called out. No answer.
"Shit," I swore out loud as I slowly got to my knees to look at the bomb on the table. I had five minutes to figure out how to get out of here and it wasn't looking good. Every time I tried to move my hands the table shook. I was a sitting duck.
I heard footsteps approaching the room and felt my body tense up for an attack.
A beam of light shined in my eye and I squinted.
"Helena!"
"Dinah?"
"I'm here," she said as she came to my side, her face bloody and battered from her own mother's hands. And people say my mother was a bitch?
"We only have a few minutes to get out of here before the bomb goes off."
"Let me try and get these cuffs off."
She struggled to focus her powers on the cuffs but it was clear that she'd suffered some sort of head injury and was unable to concentrate.
"I...I'm sorry," she trembled as she continued to force her focus.
The timer was down to fifty seconds.
"Leave me!" I said.
"NO!" she growled through gritted teeth.
"Go, Dinah. Just go. Save yourself!"
"I can't leave you and I won't!!"
My heart was beating a million miles an hour and the adrenaline rush had masked every ounce of pain I was supposed to be feeling.
"Dinah!!!"
"Helena!!"
She grabbed me in a tight embrace as the timer ran down and I squeezed my eyes shut waiting for the impact.
Time stood still.
Everything was frozen.
"Helena?" I heard Reese's voice calling.
"Helena?!?"
It got louder and louder.
"Are you okay?" he asked as I suddenly felt his hands on me.
Opening my eyes I realized it wasn't a dream. "Reese?"
"Dinah? You alright?"
Dinah let go of me and moved away. "Yeah," she mumbled in response.
He drew in a breath and blew it out. "You guys cut it way too damn close this time." He picked up the bomb from the table and held it up so we could see the timer. It was flashing and stopped at 2.
"How the hell?"
"Barbara jammed the frequency from outside and stopped it," he explained as he took my cuffs off and gingerly inspected the bullet wound in my shoulder. "Let's get you two out of here."
***
Channel surfing had to be one of the most boring activities on record. I've been doing it for over an hour and have had enough.
Getting up out of bed, which I wasn't supposed to be doing, but whatever, I went downstairs to see what Barbara and Dinah were up to.
I found them playing a board game at the kitchen table so I decided to join them, at least to offer strategic support if anything.
"You know you're not..."
"Don't," I said, holding up a hand.
Easing myself down on the chair I sighed.
"Who's winning?"
"Dinah here has managed to own every house on the block and also conned me into being the banker."
"That's got trouble written all over it."
Dinah did her best to try and defend herself. "What? I'm not cheating!"
Barbara cleared her throat and smiled.
I sat there and watched them play, thankful that no one brought up the subject of Dinah's mother or the events over the past week. I'm sure it'll eventually come up and we'll have a lot to dish out, but for now it's nice to not have to talk shop in order to feel like...family.
END
