Chapter 9: Headquarters
Night was falling as the Fifth Director's jet cruised over the mountains, drawing ever closer to the secret headquarters of the HIVE. The Director himself stood behind the pilot's chair, staring directly ahead as the course adjusted to aim the craft for a particularly high peak. Jinx lay asleep in the cell near the back, her futile efforts at escape having apparently exhausted her. The Director had sat and watched her for some time; after deciding she wasn't going to wake up any time soon, he had come forward to where he could have a view of the passing terrain.
As the jet approached the mountain, it seemed at first as though it was going to crash into the side, at least to the untrained eye. The Fifth Director knew better. Just before the impact would have occurred, the mountainside flickered and then parted as the holographic field deactivated, revealing a long metal passageway into which the jet flew. It headed down the corridor for several minutes, until coming to a pair of metal doors that opened to reveal a massive hangar built deep within the mountain. The jet hovered for a moment above the hangar floor, and then gently sat down.
The exit ramp descended, and the Fifth picked up his staff from where it rested against the wall and swooped down it. Second waited for him there, flanked by a half-dozen of his own soldiers. Fifth gave his colleague a brief, faintly mocking salute.
"I see you have returned," Second observed. "Do you have her?"
"I would not have returned if I did not," Fifth replied. "She is in the cell aboard my jet- I shall have my guards bring her down presently. I trust you have fulfilled your part in this?"
"I have. The transference device is prepared and tested. All we need now is a few hours to reset it for Jinx, and her power will be ours."
"The Mistress's, you mean," Fifth said.
Second's eyes narrowed behind his mask. "Indeed. Now bring her down. I want to get started."
Fifth looked back up the ramp and motioned at his soldiers. They nodded and ducked back inside the jet, returning in a few moments with Jinx, whose hands were now bound by a pair of cuffs that would generate a painful energy field if she tried to use her powers. There was a groggy, unfocused look in her eyes as well- Fifth had ordered his men to drug her as an additional precaution.
Second seemed to smile beneath his mask as he saw her. "Excellent. Scan her powers so that I can have a readout to use to calibrate my machine, and then take her to the holding cells."
"These are my soldiers," Fifth pointed out in a quiet, dangerous voice. "You should think twice about commanding them."
"You brought her here- your role is ended. From here on out, she is in my hands. Your presence is no longer required." Second smirked beneath his mask and then stalked off deeper into the base, the soldiers leading Jinx following closely behind him.
"No longer required?" Fifth whispered when he was gone. "I am afraid, my friend, that this is an area where we must disagree."
The three captive HIVE soldiers looked up darkly as Kid Flash was let into their holding cell. Since they'd been captured earlier this morning, the police had confiscated their distinctive golden armor and insect helmets- all were now dressed in plain black jumpsuits they'd presumably worn beneath the armor. They clearly weren't happy to see the teenager partially responsible for their capture, but neither were they foolish enough to try and attack him without their technology.
"Take as long as you like," the officer at the door said. "We'll be waiting right outside if you need us."
"Thanks a lot," Kid Flash told him, and waited to let him step outside and shut the door behind him. Then he turned back to the prisoners. "We've got some things to talk about," he said.
"What, come to gloat?" one of the soldiers asked him. "Sorry, but I ain't interested in listening." He turned away from Kid Flash and stared defiantly at the featureless wall.
Kid Flash sighed. "Look, I'm not here to gloat, and I'm not here to hurt you. I just want you to answer some questions for me."
"About what?" one of the other soldiers asked, standing up.
"About my friend Jinx," he told him. "She was just kidnapped a little bit ago, and your boss- that creepy guy in the purple cloak who called himself the Fifth Director- was the one who did it. I want to know what he wants with her."
"Well, you'll have to look somewhere else, buddy," the soldier said, chuckling darkly. "We don't ask why the Directors want something when they decide they want it- that's a really good way to end up strapped to a table the Second Director's lab, and believe me, nobody wants that. We don't know what the boss wanted with your girl, and even if we did know, why would we tell you?"
Kid Flash sighed. "All right then, another question. Where would he be taking her?"
"You just don't seem to get it, kid," the third soldier said. "We're not going to tell you anything. What're you gonna do- beat it out of us? Sorry, but you don't look like Batman to me."
For a fleeting moment Kid Flash found himself tempted, thinking of whatever horrors might be being visited on Jinx in the HIVE's sanctum, but then he shook his head. "No," he said. "You're right. I don't have it in me to do something like that. I'm not some grim avenger of the night- I'm just a guy who's trying to make my city a better place, and right now that means I need answers out of you. Why are you so loyal to the HIVE, anyway? What've they got on you?"
"They pay," one of the soldiers said, and the others shrugged. "That's all we need."
"Really?" Kid Flash asked, looking around at the cell. "Doesn't seem to me like that means a whole lot when you're locked up in a cell."
"Are you naïve or what, kid," the soldier said, shaking his head. "The HIVE'll get us out of here in a few days- they've got resources and connections you wouldn't believe. We won't be here long."
"Wow. That's really pretty impressive- most criminal organizations I know wouldn't go that far to help out a couple of grunts." Kid Flash leaned up casually against the wall. "Must be nice working for the criminals who care."
That struck a nerve- he could see the prisoners looking at each other warily, the thought that loyal service might not be rewarded apparently a new one for them. It was still something they didn't seem to have trouble believing- Kid Flash breathed a sigh of relief as he realized he'd been right about the kind of people the HIVE leadership were.
"And I suppose you can offer us a better deal?"the first of the soldiers who'd spoken asked.
"If you tell me what I want to know, I might be able to put in a good word for you with the police and the court, get you out of here a little earlier." He shrugged. "Course, if you went back to doing mercenary work for crime rings I'd just have to catch you again. But we don't have to go through that if you don't want to."
"Still one problem," one of the other prisoners said. "The Directors- they won't take it too well when they find out we helped you. Personally, I value my neck, and I'm not going to put it on the line for you."
"Give me enough good stuff, and I can shut them down for good," Kid Flash said. "Secret societies don't do too well when they're not secret anymore. And if they're as nasty as you make them out to be, you're probably already on the hit list just for talking to me. Seems like you're best option is to help me out here, least in my opinion." He looked at them all again. "So- do I have any takers?"
"Kid's got a point," the third soldier said. "We're not getting out of here any time soon, and helping take down the HIVE'll look real good for the courts."
"And if he screws up, we can always just say he forced us to do it," the first pointed out. "Not even the Directors can read minds. Hedging our bets either way sounds good to me." He turned to look at Kid Flash. "All right, kid. What do you want to know?"
"Where were you taking Jinx?" he asked.
A few moments later, Kid Flash was shooting out of the police station at top speed, the name and location of a certain mountain locked firmly in his mind.
Jinx sat alone in the holding cell, head bowed and cuffed hands resting in her lap. She'd tried to fire off a hex and escape as soon as the drugs had worn off, but all that had gotten her was a very nasty electrical shock that still had her tingling. If she was going to get out of this one, it wasn't going to be with her hexes, and it wasn't going to be easy.
She might have drifted off to sleep again- the cell was so dark she couldn't be quite sure- but when she looked up again she realized she was not alone. A shape too large and blocky to be a person filled one corner, and Jinx could hear the faint humming of the engines that kept it levitating an inch off the floor. Studying it more closely, she realized that it was a chair of some sort, and that there was someone sitting in it.
"Who's there?" she asked, trying to sound more confident and dangerous than she felt.
"The one responsible for your presence here." The voice was recognizable as female, but only barely, it was so dry and raspy. The figure in the chair made a motion, and lights around the edges of it flickered into existence. The chair itself was revealed to more strongly resemble a golden pod or cocoon that any normal seat, and it indeed had engines lining its back and underside to keep it in the air. The one who sat in the chair was still half in shadows, but Jinx could tell that she was tiny and wrapped in a purple cloak similar to the one the Fifth Director wore. This individual, however, wore no mask, and what little of her face that could be seen in the hood's shadow was withered and deeply lined. Jinx didn't even want to guess at how old the woman was.
The only other visible features were the eyes. They were bright and penetrating, and betrayed no hint of frailty or weakness. The will behind those eyes was still strong, despite the age of the body, and they looked at Jinx with such intensity that she almost felt they could see through her flesh and deep into her very thoughts. She shivered without meaning to.
"You're the HIVE Mistress, aren't you?" she whispered.
The hooded head inclined. "I am."
Sudden rage rose up inside Jinx. Snarling, not even trying to call on her powers, she leaped to her feet and hurled herself at the Mistress's chair. The old woman only shook her head sadly, and the Jinx slammed into an invisible force field inches from her face and was thrown back to the floor. She pulled herself back up to her knees, nursing several new bruises.
"That was foolish," the Mistress said. "Surely you did not think I would come to see a prisoner by myself and unprotected?"
"What do you want?" Jinx asked angrily. "Besides the whole taking my powers and using them to get your youth back thing."
"What do I want?" the Mistress asked softly. Her chair hovered closer until she was right next to Jinx, and she reached down with one nearly fleshless hand and cupped the girl's chin. "Child, you do not have the experience or the vision to understand what I want. When I first entered the criminal underworld, I saw that it was disorganized, chaotic, destructive of itself as much as its enemies. I decided to change that, to create a criminal empire that would span the globe and endure for all time so that it could realize its true potential. But to do that I need time, and you will give that to me. You should be proud to know that your powers and your mind will be given up so that a perfect criminal empire might be born."
"Why are you telling me this?" Jinx asked.
The Mistress pulled her hand away. "I only thought it appropriate that I should see you, and that you should know for what cause your energies will serve." She doubled over, coughing, and then fixed Jinx again with her fierce, beady eyes. "Now I must rest and prepare." Her chair lifted slightly into the air and glided towards the cell door. Before it exited, the Mistress turned around and faced Jinx one last time. "We will not speak again," she said, and was gone.
Once more, Jinx was alone in darkness.