Cold night wind lapped at her face, and she was forced to squint against it to see the bridge. It was lit up with head and tail lights through a flow of traffic. Cassandra pulled her arms a little tighter over her chest as she heard the faint sound of grumbling. "You couldn't have wanted to meet in a sandwich shop or something? What's with all this walking?" a male voice called out behind her.
She huffed a chuckle as she turned to face the source. "Walking doesn't really bother me. Once you see this, it'll be worth it."
"Alright, then. What are we dealing with?"
Eddie stood a foot away from her, hands tucked into the pockets of his black jacket against the cold wind. She pulled a file folder from inside her unzipped coat and held it out to him, jutting it in a gesture. "Experimentation. Murder. Kidnapping. And that's just the start," she answered. He took the folder from her hand and eagerly opened it, her words only adding to the intrigue. "The government has contracted Stark Industries to make sentinels using this illegal research."
"Stark?" Eddie raised an eyebrow, though he wasn't surprised.
Cassandra nodded. His eyes drifted over the printed photos inside the folder—postmortem faces of mutants used for experiments. Wrinkling his nose, he carefully sifted through them, as though moving the images might truly disturb the dead. "This is fucking horrific," he said. "Where'd you get all this?"
"I have a government source," she replied.
"Alright, hold on—you got this from a government whistleblower?"
Cassandra shrugged. "I'm not naming names."
This caused him to sigh. He understood protecting sources. However, that didn't curb his curiosity. Who was sticking their neck out for this? But he didn't need to know it was a blur of the truth. The reality that a mutant passed as slain government officials for almost a decade would only add apprehension. This information needed to come out, and it was best done sooner than later.
Eddie snapped the folder closed and exhaled, before looking at her seriously. "Listen, I'm gonna be honest with you. This is some dangerous shit," he told her. "This targets a lot of high-level people who would be more than happy to take either of us out and get rid of the evidence."
"That's a copy, and there's a lot more. The originals are somewhere safe. If something happens, I have about a dozen people ready to take it public," Cassandra assured him.
He stared for a moment, eyes ever so slightly squinted, but the corners of his mouth began to drag up. "Why trust me with this, then? Sounds like you don't mess around with loose ends."
"An old friend of mine got me hooked on your show. I know from personal experience that Tony Stark himself doesn't like the story you already ran on the warehouse fire—which, there's evidence that's connected in the folder as well," she explained. Then, she found herself fighting a grin at the next words that left her mouth. "What better way to say 'fuck you' than run the story here?"
"Well, alright then. I'm gonna need a couple days to put something together, I'm already working on something about the Life Foundation. Maybe I should just make a series about shitty CEO's?"
She chuckled once. "You'd never run out of material, that's for sure. Thank you for doing this. You're going to help a lot of people."
"I should be thanking you—you literally just dropped a couple awards in my lap," he gestured with the file as he took steps backward. "You coming? I didn't see your car."
"I didn't drive."
Cassandra shook her head. Purple smoke sparked as it seemingly traded places with her, her frame dissolved into the cloud. Wisps swirled and danced away rather quickly in the strong breeze, leaving nothing but the view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Eddie blinked. "Holy shit."
END
BOOK ONE
