"That wasn't the deal." Raymond Kruger's voice tended to rise when upset, and right now he was working toward high C. It didn't matter that this was one of the finer restaurants in town; Kruger had a back room reserved at all times for whatever purpose he chose. It pleased him to have this evidence of his wealth and power, this ability to drop in unannounced at an expensive establishment and be on a first name basis with the maitre d'—who of course always referred to him as 'Mr. K.' Dinner with some of his subordinates had been on tonight's agenda, and those subordinates had been dismissed to the outer chamber while Kruger dealt with this problem that had walked in on him unannounced.
"Too bad." The young man was unimpressed with Raymond's histrionics. The uninvited guest was broad-shouldered, a bit on the short side with sandy hair falling into his eyes, and, truth be told, a bit on the seedy side. And worse, bellowing failed to intimidate him. He folded his arms in a gesture of finality. "I want twenty million. And ten million each for the others. Otherwise I'll hold an ebay auction for the highest bidder." He smirked. "Cute. Computer auction for a computer disk. Maybe I'll do it anyway." He grinned again. "C'mon, pops," he said, even though Raymond was a bare ten years older than he, "you know that you're going to get three times that amount from your buyer, whoever that is. I just want my share."
"Your share," Raymond gritted out, "is what I say it is." He dropped his voice, trying to sound deadly. "You remember the horse head in the bed thing, from The Godfather? When do you think he got the idea?"
Play time was over. The young man turned cold. "Not from you, pops." He picked up a glass still half-filled with a deep red wine. "You see this? I want you to think about this while you get my money." He concentrated, his even features going hooded. The wine glass dissolved into silicon sand, the wine dribbling onto the white table linens and staining them beyond repair. He wiped his hand carelessly on the napkin dropped onto the table, ruining it as well. Then he stood up and regarded Kruger with an icy stare. "Tomorrow night, pops. Or a three day auction goes up on ebay."
* * *
"Vacate," Lexa insisted. She turned off one computer, not waiting to see it finish the procedure before moving on to the next machine, telling it to give up its electronic life temporarily. "It's damage control time. We want to minimize the wreckage that's going to take place."
"You want us to run away?" Brennan asked in disgust. He gestured to the open hallway gleaming around them, looking up at the light elemental standing just above his eye level on the staircase. "Lexa, Sanctuary is our home. We've defended it before, we can do it again."
"You haven't gone up against a Back-Up Squad." No matter how many times she said it, the title always came out with capitals. She quelled the quiver she felt just saying the words. She had once—just once!—been on the clean up crew that had followed a Back-Up Squad after a mission. It had literally been scorched earth. It was the first time that she had ever seen a human body burned to a cinder, and she counted herself fortunate that she had gotten through the mission and to the privacy of a bathroom before giving in to her appalled insides. "And use your brains for a change, Brennan. The Squad isn't interested in Sanctuary, or anything we have there. They want the computer disk, and Jesse. Not the three of us. We'll only be in their way, and people in their way tend to get killed. Our best plan of action is to leave the place entirely for a few hours while they search it. We'll even leave the defenses off while they work, to demonstrate our willingness to cooperate. Then we go back home and clean up the mess. And try to find Jesse before they do."
"That part I can get behind," Shalimar said. "The part about finding Jesse, I mean. I'm not sure I like the thought of these people pawing through my things."
"You don't have to like it, just live with it. And I'd like to emphasize the live part. These people are not good to mess with, Shalimar. Sensible people stay out of their way." Lexa changed the subject to a safer one. "Let's try to find Jesse ourselves. Where would he have gone?"
Brennan grimaced. "I feel like I'm betraying my best friend here." He sighed. "Jesse went out several times last week, after working on the computer. He never said where he went but he never looked happy when he returned. I didn't pay any attention at the time. Now I wish that I had. You're good with computers, Lexa. I hate to ask this, but can you break into his e-mail? There's probably a clue there."
"If I'm lucky," she replied, "and if he didn't do too much in the way of encryption. This could take time, which is what we don't have. We should be out of Sanctuary by now."
"Take Jesse's laptop," Shalimar suggested.
Lexa brightened. "I'll try and trace his activity through that."
But Brennan came up with another idea. "This other mutant, the one that's not Jesse. I'll see if I can put together a picture from the security cam videos and identify him."
"Hope you can do it from the Helix's computer links," Lexa said, "because we are so out of here."
* * *
This was odd. Sanctuary was deserted.
Well, maybe not so odd. Jesse had to be honest with himself; his last departure hadn't been the model of decorum. And if he'd confided in his team mates from the get go, he'd have had help in finding a place for Elena and her baby. The pair wouldn't have been stuck in an abandoned safe house. Mistake, Kilmartin. Shoulda' trusted them. Hadn't wanted to get them involved, in case Kruger came after them. This wasn't a Mutant X problem, it had been a Kilmartin problem. Still was. Pretty noble, Kilmartin, but stupid. Real stupid.
The safe house had been dry but dusty; Elena had looked around doubtfully before cleaning a spot to lay Nicky down for another nap. The kid had been astonishingly good, as though he knew the stakes. Barely a whimper came through, and Jesse, without much experience with children, thought that that seemed unusual. No matter; he was grateful. Elena too was wiped out, and Jesse had settled her in with the strict admonishment not to go to the doors or open any of the window shades. Jesse triple locked everything. Getting in and out for him was not an issue.
So here, at Sanctuary, it was deserted. Jesse wondered if the others were out searching for him. He wouldn't put it past them, and felt guilty for not confiding in them. He'd even left his comm. ring behind, and felt guilty over that. He glanced around for the ring, feeling a moment's annoyance that it wasn't where he'd left it. Sure Lexa had been out of line, demanding that he tell her everything, but Brennan and Shalimar hadn't deserved the cold shoulder.
Then he recalled what Lexa had said. He'd been too anxious to get to Elena to pay attention, but Lexa had said that the Dominion was involved.
That struck a wrong note. Why would the Dominion be interested in a small-time gangster and his battered wife? Setting up video surveillance on a local hood was something that the neighborhood cops would do, not a high-powered organization like the Dominion. Although it would explain why Jesse had been caught on tape: Elena had turned the estate cameras off as she'd said, but the Dominion would have had their own set, with Jesse in a featured role.
This put a whole new light on things, and it became more important than ever to get Elena away before the Dominion went in to take out her husband in a very decisive and permanent fashion. Kruger must have done something to seriously annoy them, and people like that tended to not only get dead, but people around them died, too. Elena didn't deserve that, and Nicky was only an innocent baby. Maybe it was a good thing that Jesse had acted so quickly. Once he gathered up Elena's money he would have to see what he could find out. It might make a difference as to where he directed Elena to go hide.
Sanctuary really did seem deserted, more so than any other time that Jesse had been here alone. Most of the time there were computers running, little bells and whistles chattering softly to themselves as they went about the business of dealing with the home of Mutant X. Most of the operating machinery had been shut down. Jesse wondered why the other three had done that.
No time for idle thoughts. Jesse needed to pick up Elena's money and skedaddle. He ambled along the corridor to his room, not running but not wasting any time, either.
The door to his room was ajar. Jesse felt a moment's worth of annoyance, then quashed it. What did you expect? Lexa was pretty angry. And you didn't exactly answer any questions.
This was personal. Lexa had no right to demand answers.
Annoyance grew as he surveyed his room. The lock was broken, and his things pawed through. That was going beyond all decency. He respected their privacy, and he expected them to respect his. Breaking in, he could see, but leaving his things like this was way out of line even for Lexa. Had they found Elena's money? He breathed a sigh of relief to find it all where he'd left it. The others might have found it—Jesse hadn't taken any especial pains to hide it under his clothes—but at least they left it where it was. He quickly picked it up and stuffed it into his pockets, making a small bundle from his jacket to carry the rest. He could vent his outrage later.
Wait. He heard something. A small noise from outside in the corridor. Jesse turned toward the door. "Brennan?"
No answer.
Every red flag he possessed ran up the flag pole and screamed a warning. Deserted Sanctuary, all the machinery turned off. Jesse didn't like the feel of this whole situation. He picked up his jacket bundle, and quietly phased through the back wall of his room.
Just in time to escape three bullets. They puffed through the space that he'd just occupied, and put three unlovely holes in the wall.
* * *
"Hah!" The outburst came from Lexa, pouring over Jesse's laptop in an effort to persuade the little machine to give up Jesse's secrets. "Got it, you little piece of hard-wired slime."
"I take it that means that you figured out Jesse's password," Shalimar observed.
"Damn right. I should have known."
"Translation: Jesse changes his passwords regularly, and has a system for remembering which password it is which you have just figured out."
"Give the lady a cigar."
"I don't smoke. What's his password?"
"Magnesium."
"And that's a system?"
"Absolutely. His first password was hydrogen, the second helium. The sixth was carbon. Eighth was oxygen, ninth was fluorine. Catching on?"
"The periodic table," Shalimar nodded. "Why am I not surprised? How about his e-mails? Any hints there as to where he is?"
Lexa hunched over the little screen. "Now it's getting interesting. Jesse know anybody by the name of Elena?"
"Well, duh."
"Sorry. Let me re-phrase: do we know anyone by the name of Elena who is a friend of Jesse's?"
Shalimar shook her head. "Nope. Never mentioned her, although he doesn't talk a lot about his childhood. Neither do any of us. Somebody he met recently, maybe?"
"Haven't a clue. Not yet. Let me keep poking around here. Brennan, you getting anywhere with the ID?"
"Yeah." On his own computer screen in front of the co-pilot's seat, high above the city in the Helix with Shalimar piloting, Brennan was conducting his own research. "I've pulled together a probable sketch of our mystery mutant, and I'm running it through Sanctuary's database of mutants. Working—damn, the computer never seems so slow when Jesse's running it—working some more. Ah, got it." He leaned closer. "Dustin Harold Brightman, aka Dusty. Molecular, like Jesse, but while Jesse can alter the density of whatever he touches, Dusty here can only weaken the molecular bonds so that every molecule falls apart. Yeah, this sounds like our boy. It explains the dusty mess that he leaves behind as a calling card."
Groan from the Light Brigade. "Couldn't he have picked a better nickname?"
"Last known address?" Shalimar kept her eyes on the controls of the Helix.
Brennan gave it to her. "And step on it."
* * *
The good news is that every bullet they've aimed in my direction, with unerring accuracy I might add, has bounced off. The bad news is that phasing slows me down, and they're catching up.
They had chased him out of Sanctuary and into the heart of town. Jesse walked swiftly down the sidewalk, trying not to look behind him, feeling the itch of a gun sight centered between his shoulder blades and praying that the men in black suits weren't prepared to open fire on a busy city street during late afternoon rush hour. That they were prepared to use guns was a given: Jesse had deflected at least six bullets back at Sanctuary. His only chance now was to lose them in the busy city. His car had been left behind as a dead giveaway. Red and wild, it was a magnet for every radar in the city.
He couldn't get back to Elena. There would be no way that she could get away from these men, and Nicky would slow them down further. No, Jesse had to ditch the four men by himself before returning to the safe house. That they were from the Dominion was all but a given. Lexa had as good as told him that Elena's husband Raymond was involved with something that the Dominion wanted. Did they suspect Elena of having whatever it was? In which case the team of four men behind him would be determined not to lose their quarry who would supposedly lead them to Elena.
Not a chance, fella's.
He worried about the rest of Mutant X. Were they dead, killed by the four men in suits? That would explain the silence in Sanctuary. Jesse felt his heart clench with fear. This was not what he had expected when he'd stormed out of Sanctuary last night to rescue Elena. They couldn't be dead. The bodies would have been left behind as a warning to give himself up.
He had to contact them. They had their comm. rings; he did not, and he regretted his hasty actions in leaving it behind last night. A single call would have cleared many things up very quickly. Well, Jesse Kilmartin wasn't licked yet. Just get him to an adequate computer set up, and he'd be able to set up a channel. Assuming they were alive. If they weren't…Jesse refused to consider that option.
But first, he had to lose his shadows. Time to get serious. Jesse ducked into a men's clothing store and made sure that they saw him. Their pace quickened, anxious not to lose sight of their quarry. Jesse headed toward the wall; once there, he could phase through, and the quartet would lose valuable time going back out and around.
It worked. Jesse phased out through a rack of imported over-priced European ties to stand in a grimy alley that stood between the clothing store and the pawn shop next door. Another quick phase, and he stood in front of a grouping of forlorn guitars given up to the pawn shop by their owners in favor of putting food on the table. He gave the high sign to the owner who gaped at him in astonishment, and made a beeline for the back. Once there, he phased through the back fence, trotted through another back alley lined with trash cans, and back onto busy city streets to mingle in with pedestrians striding swiftly home from work. Jumping onto a city bus completed his escape.
Next step: contact Mutant X. Adam had had a small computer set up in the safe house where Elena and Nicky were staying. He hadn't checked, but it was likely to still be in working order. If he were exceptionally lucky, no one had broken in and stolen it. Jesse set his steps in that direction.
* * *
"The name Kruger ring any bells?" Lexa asked, still peering at the computer screen.
"No. Should it?" Shalimar continued to fly toward the address that Brennan had given her on Dusty Brightman.
But Brennan had the answer. "Yeah. Raymond Kruger. He's a small time hood with aspirations to bigger and badder things. So far nobody's paid him any attention from the big leagues. Nasty temper, rumored to have killed a couple of people himself on the way up to being a big fish in a small town. How does Jesse know him?"
"Not sure that he does. But he's been e-mailing Kruger's wife."
"Wonderful," Brennan groaned. "Tell me he's the third in a triangle with a gangster's cheating wife. Way to go, Jess."
"Looks like it," Lexa said grimly. "He's making plans to get her away from Kruger. Correction: after his little performance last night, I'll bet he's already done it. No wonder he wouldn't talk to us. Didn't want us to know that he was dancing with another man's wife."
Shalimar caught on at once. "Of course. Man like Kruger, he has to have security cameras all over the place. Jesse naturally assumes, when you come in accusing him with the video of the bank robbery, that the tape is of Kruger's place. All he hears is 'video tape' and not the 'bank robbery' part. He panics, thinking that Elena is in danger, and goes running to her aid."
"Now that sounds like Jesse," Brennan put in.
"You know," Lexa grumbled, "for a bright guy, Jesse can be kind of stupid sometimes. Why couldn't he leave well enough alone? Falling in love with someone else's wife is not a good move, career or otherwise."
Brennan moved on. "All right, we can assume that Jesse's hiding out somewhere with Kruger's wife. Where would he take her?"
Brennan looked at Shalimar. Shalimar looked at Brennan. Together they chorused: "Safe house."
"Hold on," Lexa said in alarm. "Don't turn the Helix around. We've got to check out this Dusty guy."
"He can wait."
"No, he can't," Lexa insisted. "Look, guys, think a moment. This mutant has the computer disk that the Dominion wants. Jesse is safe for now, hiding from Kruger but also hiding from the Back-Up Squad. If we can rescue the computer disk, we can give it back and I can talk really fast and hopefully the Dominion will call off the Squad."
"Brennan?" Shalimar kept the Helix going in circles.
Brennan sighed. "She's right, Shal. Head for this mutant dust bag. He's got to be the easier one to take down, compared to the Dominion."
* * *
Jesse phased through the wall, not wanting to chance opening the door. "Elena?"
"Jesse?" Elena came awake from her position on the sofa. Nicky was snuggled next to her, warm and comfortable, breathing noisily and enough to warm anyone's heart. A little puff of dust wafted up to twinkle in the fading sunlight that pried its way through the shuttered windows. "Did you get the money?"
"Yeah." Jesse dropped his jacket onto the sofa next to her, pulling the rest out of his pockets. A packet or two slipped to the floor, and he bent over to pick them up. "Listen, Elena, I don't think we ought to stay here."
"Raymond's found us?" Her eyes flew open with fear.
"No, no," he hurried to assure her. "Not your husband. But…there are some men who are after me. I'm not sure why, and right now that's not important. What's important is to get you and Nicky someplace safe."
"And where is that?" Suspiciously.
Jesse squirmed. "Some place away from me." At her protest, he held up his hand. "I'm going to send you to some people I know a few hours from here. You'll go by bus. I'll take you and Nicky to the bus terminal, see you safely on the bus and out of here. My people are expecting you. They'll protect you and Nicky from Raymond. They're pretty good at hiding people on a very permanent basis."
"But what about you, Jesse?" Elena pulled a sleeping Nicky close in an unconscious effort at comfort. The baby murmured, and settled himself more comfortably in her arms.
"I'll be all right. If I have to deal with these people who are chasing me, I'd rather do it without having to worry about you." Jesse picked up the diaper bag and handed it to Elena. "Put the money in here. No one will ever look for it inside this bag. While you're doing that I need to check out the computer, see if I can get hold of some friends of mine."
"They're going to help?"
"I hope." I really hope so. This has gotten bigger than I'd anticipated when I agreed to help you, Elena. Lexa had been plenty upset. He went into the other room to find the computer. The set up was dustier than anything else in the safe house, or so it seemed, when he lifted the dust cover off. He held his breath while the thing booted up.
The screen came on with a comforting chirp. Jesse started to feel more at ease. This might just work.
* * *
Dusty Brightman had turned his place into a dump.
It wasn't just the usual I-can't-be-bothered-to-pick-up-after-myself sort of home. It was truly a disaster. It took them a few moments to realize what was going on, but gradually it sunk in. There were piles of dust littering the floor all over the apartment in irregular spots but mostly to each side of the overstuffed chairs.
It was Shalimar who finally made the connection. "He's practicing."
"What?"
"He's practicing his powers," she explained. "Look at these piles of dirt. They look like what was left after he went through the steel doors at the bank."
"You're right." Brennan knelt to examine one of the dust piles, rubbing the particles between his fingers. "I'll bet this one used to be a pillow."
"A couple of beer bottles over here," Lexa agreed. "This used to be green glass. How big an item can this guy take down?"
"Bigger than a breadbox," Brennan said. "And bigger than a bank vault door. Beyond that, who knows?"
Shalimar looked around, even sniffed the air, exploring. Her eyes turned feral, to better examine the devastation that Dusty Brightman had wrought. He'd left the bigger pieces of furniture alone, but Shalimar had a feeling that it was deliberate. Dusty might have been practicing, but he wasn't stupid. Turning all of his chairs to dust meant nothing to sit on, and chairs were expensive. The fact that he lived in a one room studio apartment suggested that money didn't exactly grow on trees for Dusty. The bank job sounded like his ticket to the easy life. She wondered how long he'd had his powers. Couldn't have been too long.
"I think," she said deliberately, "that we need to be extremely careful with this one." Brennan raised his eyebrows. "So far," she explained, "all we've seen him do is dust non-living things. Anyone want to hazard a guess as to what would happen if he got hold of something alive?"
Lexa gave her a baleful look. "You come up with the most pleasant ideas, Shalimar."
"We aim to please."
Her comm. ring crackled, and Brennan's followed suit. "Shalimar? Brennan? You there?" It was hard to understand through the static, but there was no mistaking who it was. There was only one man alive who knew the frequency that the rings were tuned to.
"Jesse!"
"Where are you, man? Are you crazy, running off like that?" Brennan demanded.
"Brennan, shut up and listen. Sanctuary's been compromised. There were some men in suits running around, taking shots at me. Are you guys okay?"
"We're fine, but Jesse, you are in big trouble," Lexa put in. "The Dominion wants you dead."
"Dead? Me? Why? What did I do?"
"You robbed a bank," Shalimar told him.
"When? In my sleep?" Then it hit him. "Is that why those guys are shooting at me? They think I robbed a bank?" Groan. "Tell me the video tape that Lexa talked about was of the bank, not of a certain estate that I know."
"Yup."
"Uh…can someone tell them it wasn't me?"
"Jess, they're not real big on the 'honesty is the best policy' concept. 'Shoot first and maybe ask questions when we get around to it' is more their speed." Brennan paused to think. "I think we'd better get together real fast, man. 'Safety in numbers', to keep working on the clichés."
"I like that idea fine, Brennan, but I've got a problem—"
"Does the problem have a last name like Kruger?" Lexa asked waspishly. Shalimar threw the light elemental a sharp look. There was a world of meaning in Lexa's words, more than a mere male ought be able to decipher.
"Well… yeah. I've got to put her on a bus for nowhere, where she'll be safe, her and her baby. She's got a husband that makes a cockroach look noble. She needed to escape, and fast; too scared for the Witness Protection thing."
"What?" Lexa was confused. "I thought you two were… That you… She…"
Jesse's voice, when it came back on, held equal parts annoyance and amusement. "You thought that I was enticing her into cheating on her husband? You've got an exaggerated idea of my masculine charms, Lexa. Flattering, but wrong." He shifted back into business. "Now tell me why the Dominion wants to kill me. They usually don't get this peeved over a bank robbery."
"They do if you steal a computer disk," Brennan said.
"And I take it that this disk holds information that will destroy the world as we know it?"
Lexa shrugged sheepishly.
"Lexa says yes," Brennan translated.
"And do we know where the disk is?"
"We think it's in the possession of a mutant named Dusty Brightman."
"Never heard of him."
"Neither had we, until a few hours ago."
"A mutant. What can he do?"
"Turns things to dust."
Groan. "Hence the name Dusty. Do we know where this Dustman is with the disk?"
"We were kind of hoping you would."
"And why would I know where he is? Don't tell me; let me guess. It's because I robbed the bank where the disk was."
"You got it, bro."
"This is really a mess," Jesse said. "Listen, I've got to take Elena and Nicky—"
"Nicky? Who's Nicky?"
"Nicky," Jesse explained, annoyed at being interrupted, "is Elena's four month old son. Who is currently sleeping, so keep your voices and the static down."
"You've got a kid with you?"
"An infant. You think dodging hit men is hard? Try taking care of a four month old. That's hard. Now, as I was saying, I've got to take Elena and Nicky to the bus terminal. Meet me there, and we'll trade information. Plan?"
"Plan."