chAPTER 12

The sun was just beginning to rise when Heller phoned me. "Hey, MacGrath, get back to the warehouse. I've got something I wanna show you."

I wasn't sure I liked the sound of that, but it sounded important, so I took off, leaving the TV station to the Truth, as that Brandon character started calling himself. I was sitting near the station for a couple of hours, waiting to see if the DUP would try to reclaim it. Other than a couple of patrols, there was no activity, meaning that either their message was spread far enough, or the station wasn't strategically important enough to make sure it remained in DUP hands. Either way, they weren't interested in it anymore.

At the warehouse, people were just starting to wake up. Nix was pacing around the lounge, getting restless from the hours of inactivity she'd been having. That was one hornets' nest we'd have to deal with sooner or later. Mendoza was also up, yawning while brewing some coffee. And, of course, Heller was awake, staring at a map of the U.S. I walked over to him, looking at the map. "What's all this?" I asked.

Heller folded his arms. "I asked a friend of mine who specializes in... irregular energy signatures to track the one we found in New Marais."

I frowned. I remembered Heller saying something about an energy signature before I found my other self's ashes, and his echo. "You find anything?" I asked.

"Actually, we did." He pointed his finger at an area of the map, in the Michigan region. "There's one somewhere in Motor City."

I shook my head. "Of course it would be there."

"Look, I've got a plan. You and Mendoza will pose as a married couple-."

"Whoa whoa whoa, wait. Hold the damn phone," I interrupted. "Your wanting to treat this like some undercover op?"

Heller eyed me seriously. "You have a better plan?"

"Drop me in there, I make the grab, we get the hell out."

"Look, Motor City is a densely populated area, and we do not have Washington's approval to drop a Conduit of all things into that area." My frown deepened at the emphasis on what I was, but Heller continued without even taking note. "We need to be discreet about this."

"What do you even care about these echoes?" I asked.

"I don't. But you were pretty quiet on the way back from New Marais, so I figure there's something about these things that interests you."

I paused to think for a moment. When I found that echo in New Marais, I saw my other self, the one that came from the future, and he even taught me a new power. If I could learn enough powers from him, then we might just have a chance to win this war. I sighed. "How are we getting there? I'm not exactly plane-compatible."

"Already got that covered," Heller replied, tossing some clothes over to me. "Here. You'll need to blend in."

I looked at the ugly-looking orange and white jersey he handed me and grimaced. I was never much of a Motor City Tigers fan. Guess I'd have to act the part, at least while Mendoza and I were there. "Head to the helipad on the roof when you're finished changing. And no, you can't bring the fork."

I walked to the showers and threw on the clothes, wishing I could take my backpack and Amp. Before walking out to the helipad, I decided to check on Nix. "Hey," I said, a bit cautious with her current state.

"I can't do this, Cole," she said, still pacing. "I gotta do something. This sitting around is killing me."

"You just gotta be patient, Nix," I replied. "If you go out there tearing up the place, that's gonna draw attention to us that we don't need."

She groaned. "They're out there hunting us down, one by one, and I'm stuck in here, not able to do anything about it? How fair is that?"

"It's not," I admitted. "But we don't have a choice right now. We have to keep a low profile, at least until the Beast arrives." I looked at her for a moment, saw her trying to calm down. She was never one for patience, but I had to admire her attempt now. "Can I count on you with this?" I asked.

She hesitated, but nodded. "Yeah," she muttered.

I nodded. I'd have to accept that.

I met Mendoza and Heller on the rooftop, by the helipad. Mendoza had her arms crossed, not exactly thrilled about the idea of posing as a married woman. Couldn't say I blamed her. "You ready?" I asked.

"As ready as I'll ever be," she replied. "I haven't done many field ops, and I've been hoping to keep it that way." She sighed at my quizzical look and continued. "My last op, I was running surveillance for one of our highest-level field agents. Intel said it had something to do with the First Sons. We were prepared for a lot of bad guys with powerful guns. What we didn't expect was Kessler."

I hid my cringe at the name. Even after his death, that bastard was still causing people pain. I had no way of knowing who all he had affected with his plan, and I was happy in my ignorance. There was enough pain in the world without knowing just who this other self of mine hurt.

"Agent Mullins fought Kessler the best he could, but he was never going to be able to beat him. It took all of twelve seconds for Mullins to end up dead, and Kessler to turn his attention on me. I didn't even wait to check on a pulse. I just got out of there."

I sighed, understanding her feeling completely. I of all people knew what it was like to be powerless. "This is gonna be different, Mendoza," I replied. "We swing in, find the echo, then come right back. What could go wrong with that?"

Mendoza nodded, calming herself. "You're right," she said, taking a breath. "You're right. Let's do it."

We loaded up in the helicopter and let Heller handle the flying. We tried small talk on the way there, but it always fell flat. Despite the relative easiness of the job ahead, we were all tense, silently hoping it would be as simple as we thought it would be.

It took a good couple of hours to get from Washington D.C. to Motor City, Michigan. When we finally got there, relief hit me. Not only was the flight over, but Motor City looked fine. No Beast, no DUP, no problems of any sort. I stepped out of the chopper, happy to have solid ground under my feet again, when I remembered that I was here for an undercover DARPA mission. Grumbling to myself, I stepped into the elevator with Mendoza and Heller.

As we descended to street level, Heller reached into his coat pocket and pulled out two small pieces of paper. "Tickets to the game, courtesy of the Pentagon."

"Thought you said we didn't have their permission to be here," I muttered.

"Managed to call in a few favors," Heller replied, handing a ticket to Mendoza and myself. "Now, intel says that the energy signature is coming from somewhere in the stadium, so that's to your advantage. Sneak in, do... whatever it is you do with those things, finish watching the game, then meet back here for extraction."

"Sounds easy enough," Nora remarked, pocketing her ticket.

"Oh, and one more thing," Heller said, reaching back in his jacket. When he removed his hand, three small, shiny rings were in his palm. "You're married, remember?"

Nora and I grabbed the rings, albeit reluctantly, and slipped them on our ring fingers. Mine felt a little too comfortable, though I wasn't exactly surprised that the government could size my damn finger. Looking back at Heller, I saw him smirking at Mendoza and I. "You may now kiss the bride," he quipped.

Nora glared daggers at him while I flipped him off. The elevator dinged, signaling our arrival at the bottom. Before we stepped off, Heller grabbed onto my shoulder. "Hope this is worth it, MacGrath."

I frowned slightly. "Would you have gone through all this trouble if it wasn't?" I returned.

He paused for a moment, but released my shoulder and stepped back, and I left the elevator to follow Mendoza. Out on the street, we were greeted with humidity and the clap of thunder. I groaned, drawing Nora's attention. "You okay?" she asked.

I placed my palm on my temple and applied pressure, keeping the nudging of my powers down as much as possible. "Yeah," I replied. "My powers just react a little strongly to storms."

Mendoza looked up at the sky, noting the light cloud cover. "Looks like it's going to pass us by. You'll be okay."

I nodded, and started walking toward the stadium, blocking out the dull thumping in my head. Mendoza frowned as she caught up with me. "Wouldn't it be faster if we got a cab?" she asked.

I shook my head. "Not unless you want this 'undercover op' to blow up in our faces. Literally."

Mendoza sighed but conceded my point, and we started walking toward the stadium. Along the way, I noticed her give me sideways glances, as though she was sizing me up or something. I caught her glance a couple of times, causing her to look away quickly, a small blush beginning to take shape. I frowned, though it was more of an amused one than anything. Was she checking me out?

I couldn't believe it. Here we were, on a freaking undercover mission, and Mendoza was walking right beside me checking me out! I mean, I've never thought that I was unattractive, but no one really ever expects to be blatantly ogled by another person. On the other hand, Agent Mendoza was quite attractive herself. Her skin was the perfect balance between light and dark, and her Latina origin was proudly prominent. She wore modest clothing, being a company woman, but it added to how good-looking she was.

I stopped my thought process abruptly. Now here I was checking her out. What the hell was wrong with me? How long had it been since I'd lost Trish?

My God. How long had it been? I frantically started racking my brain, trying to remember the last time I saw her face. And I didn't mean the picture I still had of her. How long had it been? How long since the Blast, since Empire City's destruction, since New Marais, since I last fought the Beast? Time seemed to move by so slowly, a day or so feeling more like a couple of weeks. How long before I forgot about Trish's death? How long before I didn't even recognize her anymore?

My thought process was interrupted by our arrival at the stadium. The Motor City Tigers were an infamously dirty football team, almost constantly under investigation for steroid use, backroom deals, even throwing entire games to drive up the owner's profits. Nothing ever stuck, which usually led people to point to the Mafia, but a team with a shark of an owner like they had didn't need outside help to be dirty. The way I figured it, the sooner we found the Echo, the sooner we could get the hell out of this damn city.

Nora and I turned our tickets to the front office, who sent us to Section F in the stands. We found our seats, and I even bought a soda for good measure. A few minutes before kickoff, I told Mendoza that I was"going to the bathroom". She nodded, understanding that I meant that I was about to begin my search for the Echo.

"Be careful not to get caught," she cautioned quietly. I nodded and left the seat, using my powers to try to locate the Echo. Unfortunately, with the storm overhead, my senses were more haywire than usual. Usually I could sense electrical sources, energy echoes, and the plague. Now, only the plague sense seemed to be working properly, though Motor City wasn't bad with it yet.

It took some trial and error, but I finally was able to find the trail of the Echo, and started following it to its source. A few people gave me a sideways glance, wondering just what in the world I was wandering around aimlessly for. I ignored them and continued on, until I found the Echo, or at least where it was supposed to be. "Damn," I muttered before phoning Mendoza. "We've got a problem," I told her. "The Echo is inside the VIP box. No way I'm getting in there without drawing a lot of attention to myself."

Mendoza cursed. "Okay, let me see what I can find out. Sit tight."

"Sure," I replied, a little uneasy. It wasn't like there were two bouncers who looked ready to pummel my sorry ass out of existence.

While I waited for Mendoza to find a solution to our little problem, I decided to watch the game. The Motor City Tigers were taking on the West Coast Guerillas. Probably an attempt to convince people that everything was still normal. I couldn't even think about the possibility that the entire world could end up in the thick of this war. For now, it was pretty small, even with many people knowing about it. But how far would it spread? And what would happen if it did?

My thoughts were interrupted by a low murmuring. It wasn't the voices of the crowd. No, this was something else. Something I hadn't had a lot of experience with, but enough to know what it was. An earthquake, here in Motor City? Motor City was never known for earthquakes. How in the hell-? It hit me all at once. A Conduit. There was a Conduit in the stadium.

And they were causing an earthquake, with all of these people here