Chapter 10

Tuesday, June 5

London, United Kingdom

Heathrow Airport

8:30 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time/4:30 p.m. EDT

"I'm taking off early. Emergency in the family. My aunt."

With that brief remark to the assistant manager running the Sundollar kiosk, Sophie the barista took her knapsack from the too-tiny manager's office that made up the back portion of the kiosk. Without another word, she walked out of the kiosk and down the hall, way down the hall, and well out of the line of sight of the kiosk.

Sophie kept walking until she came upon a women's toilet. The petite brunette with a ponytail walked past, to a unisex toilet 12 meters away. She went in, locked the door, and began to remake her appearance.

Twenty minutes later, a young woman with shoulder-length hair walked out. Her short heels went well with her brown business suit and her reddish shoulder bag. She pulled a hand mirror from the bag, marveled at how well she had done her makeup, and walked back in the direction she came from.

Sophie soon arrived at the first place she wanted to stop at, a 19th-century-style English tavern named The Sophie. She smirked at the irony, then glanced at the Sundollar kiosk across the way. Satisfied that none of the workers had noticed her, she walked into the tavern.

Within moments she knew he was there, somewhere close by. That he would be close was obvious by the size of the tavern – the lighted 'WOMEN' sign over the women's washroom in the back was easily seen from the entrance – but seeing him in the darkened atmosphere would be more difficult.

Why couldn't he have picked a café, Sophie thought as she sat down at an open table. She briefly pondered the irony of this tavern bearing the first name she long used for her legend, then raised her hand to get a waitresses' attention.

"Hello there," said the waitress, with a decidedly un-British, very southern U.S. accent, as she handed Sophie a menu. "Would you like to start out with an appetizer?"

"Just a light cola, please," Sophie replied. "I'm not very hungry."

"One light cola comin' right up," said the waitress before she turned around to get Sophie's order.

Sophie took the time to look around the establishment. Her first impression was how dimly lit the pub was; the bar went the length of the left wall, tables and chairs lined the right wall, with video monitors scattered around the pub showing football, news and airport information. The washrooms were in the very back, with the lighted MEN, WOMEN and NON-BINARY signs over each door. And somewhere in here was Haswari.

The waitress returned with Sophie's order. Sophie pulled out her phone and opened her Ca$hFlow app; the waitress held her WayneTech Merchant Device up, and Sophie transferred five pounds from the app to the device. "That includes the tip," she said.

"Thank you. Thank you so much," the waitress said. "I'll leave you to enjoy your light cola, now."

Sophie nodded. She was curious about the young woman, and found her to be very, very attractive. Had I not been on the job, Sophie thought, I might have flirted with the waitress, even asked for her number.

Over the next five minutes, she scanned the pub, looking for Haswari. Five minutes wasted. He must be in the washroom, she thought. Or he's not here. Maybe he left through the service entrance—

Then she saw him.

Haswari was in the very back, at a table with someone with long brown hair.

Sophie only had to wait another 20 minutes or so before Haswari got up, kissed the person on the cheek, and headed for the front door – and right by her. She looked at her phone as he walked by, gave herself another minute, then got up and left.

Sophie walked out of the pub and found him several meters away, headed for the transporter pad. She gave herself another few seconds before walking to the pad, at a steady pace.

The pad Haswari was heading to was designated for travelers to North America, and she picked up her pace to get there at the same time he did; the pad operated every 30 minutes, which was all the time he needed to disappear. She needed to keep pace with him to verify where he was headed.

She caught up to him as he was showing the clerk his ticket. She pulled her own ticket out of her bag, and ended up getting the last spot on the pad, standing 12 meters behind Haswari. She handed her bag to another clerk – it was considered carry-on luggage and therefore would be transported separately, with the other users' luggage on a separate pad – and waited to be beamed up.

Unlike Haswari, Sophie kept her eyes shut; she was more prone to believe the urban legends than most people. She felt a light tingling, wondered if she was going to die, and was relieved when the tingling stopped and she heard people moving off the transporter. She had no time to waste: Haswari was on the move.

After getting her bag from the luggage pad, Sophie looked to her left, down the corridor in the direction she saw Haswari going, then picked up her pace to keep him in her sights.

Despite herself, she couldn't help but stop when she passed the first set of windows past the pad and saw Earth. She stared for a few seconds, remembered why she was here, and looked down the corridor. Sophie could still see him; in fact, it was if he had slowed down.

Knowing why she was here, Sophie pulled out her phone, pulled up the Maps app, and touched the information icon on the screen.

The North Atlantic Orbital Transporter Hub is located 22,500 miles over the northern tip of the Atlantean island of Poseidonis and is located at 40°49'53.9"N 41°20'32.3"W. The Hub was built jointly by the United States and European Union at its present position, opening in 2016. Its position over the northerly of the twin surface islands of Poseidonis and Atlantis was agreed upon by Atlantis, the U.S. and the European Union—

Good to know where I'm at in space, she thought. Now to find Waldo.

Haswari stopped to use a men's washroom, and Sophie caught up to it a minute later. There were Sundollar and Starbucks kiosks across from the washrooms, and Sophie waited at the Starbucks, ordering a tall latte, and calling up a map of the North Atlantic Hub on her phone.

A few minutes later, Haswari left the washroom, and headed down the corridor, towards the facility's promenade; she stayed right on him, keeping a discrete distance but always keeping him in her sights. Going through the promenade, Haswari went in the direction Sophie expected him to go: towards the transporter pad for Washington.

Sophie caught up as Haswari showed his ticket to the clerk and got on the pad. There weren't as many passengers on the pad, so Sophie knew she would get a spot. She reached in her bag to pull out her ticket, and time seemed to stop.

Hello.

Oh God, she thought. Who was that?

"It is I." She looked over the clerk's shoulder and saw Haswari walking towards her.

"Look around," he said, politely but firmly; despite the still small voice in her spirit telling her not to obey him, she did as he ordered. No one was moving, no one was even breathing. It was as if time had frozen.

"What the—what did you do?", she said. "Have you hurt these people?"

"I've done no such thing," Haswari said. "I have merely frozen time."

Pull it together, girl, she thought. "You froze time."

"I have many talents," he said, charmingly. "I am impressed with your skills. You are well trained, and you have performed your duties very well. That is a compliment both to you and to the woman who trained you."

"You—you—" Sophie was speechless. Is this me, or him doing something?

"I would enjoy the pleasure of your company for dinner and a drink," he said with a smile. "Not at that boring place we were just at. I have more romantic places in mind: Paris, or Madrid, or Rome—I beg your pardon, did I offend you?"

How did he know?, she thought. She thought she had a perfect poker face.

You do have an excellent poker face, she heard him say in her mind. I have many unique…talents and capabilities. I am also a man, with feelings. I sensed you were offended – disgusted – by my generous offer. It was not my intention.

"Why are you speaking in my head," Sophie said.

"Please pardon me," Haswari replied. "I am accustomed to using more discretionary means when having conversations I don't wish strangers to overhear. Of course…" He stretched out his arms wide, palms up. "No one can hear us because of the temporal distortion I have enabled."

"Let these people go," Sophie said, wondering if she could do anything to make him do that.

"In due time," he said. "I am not offended. I understand why you did what you did. I respect a lovely woman like yourself who's focused on her…career."

"Then you know who is interested in your whereabouts."

"I do, and I have a simple message for you to give your handler," he said, with a smile that was both charming and creepy. "'This is personal. Do not test me on this'. That is how you know I would not do any harm to you. Not even wipe your memory."

Sophie almost wet herself. She was aware of the stories about Haswari erasing people's memories, or minds, sometimes permanently.

"And now I leave you with a blessing," he said as she felt him enter her mind. Satanas expetivit vos ut benedicat tibi et crescere te faciam vultum suum gloriam.

Is that Latin?, she thought.

It is. Here is the blessing in English.

When Sophie heard the 'blessing', she felt her blood turn cold.

Haswari smiled, then snapped his fingers, and the people around them began to move about, as if the last few minutes hadn't happened. Sophie tried to move, but felt frozen in place, and when she tried to yell, she felt her vocal cords and her closed mouth just as frozen. She could only watch as Haswari showed the clerk his ticket, walk up to the platform, and beam down to Earth.

"Miss? Miss? Are you alright?"

Sophie heard an older lady tapping her right arm and turned to face her. "I'm…I'm sorry," Sophie said. "Yes, I'm alright."

"You were just standing there, not moving," the lady replied. "That old thing" – she pointed to the transporter pad – "is plain ol' weird."

"Yeah, I suppose it can be that," Sophie replied. "I apologize for bothering you. I do hope I didn't impede you—"

"What does 'impede' mean?"

"Oh. It means…stand in your way. I hope I didn't stand in your way very long."

"Oh okay…and you didn't stand there for very long. In fact, I was making my way up there to show them my ticket, and you just appeared, out of nowhere."

Sophie felt another chill go up her spine, and decided she needed to place a very important call right then, and somewhere more private. "I won't bother you, any more than I already have."

Before the lady could ask another question, Sophie was on her way to find a more private and secure area. She settled for a luxury class lounge that she got into by spoofing a Pan Am luxury account pass on her phone. Once she was satisfied no one was around to eavesdrop, she placed her call. "Zero-eight-Alpha-four-seven-Delta-Blue-nine."

Two beeps and several seconds later, Sophie was speaking to her handler. "He's gone. Transported down to Dulles about five minutes ago."

"Anything unusual?"

Sophie thought unusual was a severe understatement. "He froze time."

"Explain."

"He froze everyone and everything. I have to assume for now he froze the entire station. No one else has commented on it. I was completely aware of what was going on, as was he, but I was unable to speak or move."

"He's done that before," the handler said a few moments later. "Another one of his talents he's picked up."

"Should I follow?" What Sophie wanted to do then didn't matter; there were unpleasantries that came with her job, and she endured them without question or complaint. "The next transport is about 25 minutes from now—"

"No. We have people here tracking him. I need you back at home base for a debrief. Check your phone."

God what a relief, Sophie thought as she opened an app that showed a transporter pass for New Troy International Airport. "Confirm receipt."

"Get something to drink, if you wish. Otherwise, we'll have something for you here. Then we'll debrief, and put you in a safe place."

Metropolis, New Troy

The handler disconnected the call, and paused for a few moments, pondering her next move.

The skyline of downtown Metropolis filled the spacious window that took up one side of her executive office, and neither it, nor the blue-and-red streak high in the sky, caught her attention.

The bastard is in the States, she thought, and we're all in danger.

She quickly reviewed her options as far as assistance, starting with NCIS, then the FBI, CIA, Homeland, then her contacts in the military, then the Justice League and, finally, the President himself.

No, she thought. This is my bloody responsibility. She hit a button on the phone sitting on the left side of her mahogany executive desk. "Antoine. Hold all calls for the remainder of the day, tell them I'm busy…no, for the next few days, at least until Friday."

Talia Head, the Chief Executive Office of LexCorp, tapped a spot on her desk that caused any observers from the outside of the building to see her sitting at her desk, working – which was what she wanted any observer to see. Then, she walked to a bookshelf on the far wall and gave a series of taps; the bookshelf opened, and she walked into a small elevator made to her predecessor's specifications.

The elevator was taking her to a restricted area at the top of the 88-story LexCorp Tower, where a transporter pad awaited. Talia had no love for the Beast – a nickname given to Haswari by the media during The Siege of 2005 – and had long assumed that, one day, she would have to put him down.

The Beast has to be dealt with, she thought, as the elevator opened to the rooftop area where the transporter pad was installed. Not even my father can – will – stop me.