After leaving instructions that she was not to be disturbed, Evelyn Everett sat behind her massive desk and adjusted the webcam clipped to the top of her thin, sleek monitor, then typed her password into the locked computer… one of her passwords. This one brought up the other desktop, the one that had the special conferencing program. She adjusted her hair, making sure it was pulled back and held securely in place before she ran it.
The program, on top of securely encrypting the transmission with technology 4B couldn’t yet match, would also digitally add her Storm Siren mask. It was a good way for her to conduct necessary super business during the day while minimizing the already minimal risk of somebody bursting into her office, but it looked glitchy if her hair was poking out of it.
The screen was split into four quarters, all of which were blank. She wondered who was missing… normally it would have been six segments. She pulled the microphone stand closer and said, “Storm Siren. Plains area heroes.” She was identifying herself both to the program, and… once it had verified her voice print… to the others joining the conference. None of the screens would come on until all the participants had done so.
“Alcheman, mystic heroes,” a salubrious voice said. “I’m afraid science will go unrepresented today. Dr. Day sends his regrets. Again.”
“And yet you are prompt as always,” a smooth, cultured voice said. “Thoth and Bast, for the west coast supers. I’m also filling in for the Detective, for detectives. I suppose I can attempt to field any science questions as they come up, as well.”
“Champion, east coast supers. Do you have to bring your wife every time, Thoth?”
There was a laugh.
“She brings me.”
There was a low growl of disapproval from another voice, and that was all the program needed and all the introduction the voice’s owner would give. Three of the four windows went from blank grayness to a profusion of color. The other went black.
“Alright, we get the point, Shadow… let’s get down to it,” Thoth said. “First order of business…”
“Excuse me,” Champion said. He flickered out of view, and then came back a few seconds later. The burst of superspeed caused the video image to stutter and break down a little. “Sorry about that. Bank robbers with powered armor and lasers… more than the police can handle”
“In the Harbor, too?” Thoth said. “I believe the Technologist may be back in business. I was going to bring that up, after the first…”
“Excuse me, but I don’t believe there is more than one piece of business worth discussing,” Evelyn said.
“Speak for yourself, Everett,” the Dock Shadow said. “If someone’s arming the scum in my city…”
“Our city,” Champion said.
“As it happens, Siren, your cousin is the first order of business,” Thoth said. “Myra is quite the escape artist, but twice in twenty-four hours may be a new record for her. The first time she was assisted by Portalien probes, though she seems to have parted company with them rather quickly.”
“If the things could think, they would have realized that Rhyme of all people has no reason to help them,” Bast said from inside her shared screen. “They killed her parents.”
“If they are in fact dead,” Alcheman said. It was a ridiculous thing to say, but then, Evelyn had always thought that the portly Alcheman was a ridiculous little man. His gold satin hood looked like something out of a cheap Halloween costume, and as it didn’t cover up his fussy little beard it did nothing to conceal his identity from anybody with even a passing acquaintance with him.
“It’s been almost twenty years,” Evelyn said. “Seven is enough for a legal declaration. And Bast, if you knew anything about my dangerous relation, you’d know that probably endeared them to her, more than anything.”
“Uh huh,” Bast said absently, looking at something in her hands, down below the level of the camera.
“To keep this on track,” Thoth said, “I think we can rule out probe involvement in the second escape. Posing as 4B agents is many degrees beyond the sophistication of the current probe generation, and I’ve leaked enough technology to the department to be quite certain their vehicles cannot be assimilated.”
“You play dangerous games,” Shadow said.
Thoth shrugged.
“If you think 4B is a threat, imagine what the invaders could do with access to their databanks and equipment,” Thoth said.
“Imagine what 4B could do with yours,” Shadow countered. “Every time you let them in the backdoor, you run the risk that they’ll make off with more than you intended to give them.”
“I don’t think so, old friend… they take what I leave out for them and then they scurry away, congratulating themselves on being clever enough to steal from me,” Thoth said. Evelyn cleared her throat, and Thoth looked abashed. “In any event,” he continued, “it may not be much to go on but I was able to obtain satellite footage of the expressway when the van went into cloak mode.”
He reached for something out of sight, and in doing so his elbow brushed his wife. She twisted aside, bringing her cell phone into view of the others.
“Checking movie times, Bast?” Shadow asked her.
“Text messages,” Bast said, not looking up.
“We can see that,” the vigilante said. “Something going on that’s more interesting than this?”
“Watch it,” Thoth warned.
“Actually… kind of,” Bast said. “In fact, I’d say yes… I think this text message is the most interesting thing in the virtual right now.”
“One of these days I’m going to have a conversation with you two about your secret phone pal,” Shadow said from within the shadows.
“I’m sure I don’t know to what you are talking about,” Thoth said.
“Oh, it’s not him, anyway,” Bast said. “But I’ll put the phone away, if nobody wants to know where Rhyme is.”
“What?” Evelyn asked.
“I’m sorry, I missed that,” Champion said. “There was a monkey…”
“Well, not exactly where,” Bast said. “But I think at least I know who has her.”
“Who the hell are you texting now?” Rhyme asked as Spinnerette furiously typed away on her phone’s tiny keyboard. Rhyme had taken some soot off the wall and smeared circles around her eyes as a crude imitation of her customary greasepaint mask. The two of them had been slinking down a rubble-and-girder strewn corridor when Spinnerette had been seized with a seemingly overwhelming need to whip out her phone. “If it’s your mother again, I swear to God I’m going back to the lab and climbing back into the suit.”
“Nobody!” Spinnerette said, flipping her phone shut. Rhyme grabbed it away from her and flipped it open.
“’guess what i got a new boss n u will b sry u laffed @ me’,” Rhyme read. “And ’sry i called u bitch i didnt mean it’.” She sighed. “Let me guess… though this is hardly going out on a limb. Bast?”
“She’s my archnemesis. I’m taunting her.”
“Janie, Janie, Janie… she isn’t,” Rhyme said. “And you aren’t taunting her… you’re trying to impress her.”
“No!” Spinnerette protested. “No, I’m not!”
“Janie…”
“Okay, a little,” Spinerette said. “But it is impressive, isn’t it? As far as I know, I’m your first henchwoman.”
“Oh, well, I suppose… if that’s what you want to be, Janie,” Rhyme said. “That isn’t how I see you, though. That isn’t how I see you at all.”
“You said…”
“That I love you,” Rhyme said. “And that’s just it. All those other villainesses… they had to keep you down in the ranks. It was the only way to keep their distance from you emotionally. Me, I could never do that.”
“You couldn’t?” Spinnerette asked.
“No, dear Janie,” Rhyme said. “I see you as my equal.”
“E-equal?” the would-be henchwoman repeated. She sounded almost afraid of the word, like she thought it would bite her.
“Yes, equal,” Rhyme said. “We’ll share in everything, the responsibility and the rewards. When I plan… when we plan a caper, you’ll input will be just as important as mine. Your opinions will carry the same weight. There won’t be any of this ‘yes, ma’am’, ‘no, ma’am’ business between us. You’ll be me lover, not my underling. Doesn’t that sound wonderful, darling?”
“I… uh… yeah. O-of course,” Spinnerette stammered.
Rhyme turned her head to look down the corridor, which also allowed her to break out into a grin without her new “partner” seeing it.
“The pain of Jane is mainly quite insane,” she muttered to herself.
“What?” Spinnerette asked.
“Nothing, dear,” Rhyme said. “Come along.”
“Wait… you have a mole in the Web of Shadows?” Dock Shadow asked, after Bast explained her theory about where Rhyme was.
“Not exactly,” Bast said. “But the last time we broke up one of Webmistress’s corporate espionage rings, I gave my phone number…”
“You didn’t,” Thoth said. “Oh, Bast… we’ve talked about this.”
“Yeah… we talk about a lot of things,” Bast said.
“I know you mean well, but you aren’t going to save her.”
“Well, why not?” Bast asked. “Saving people is what we do.”
“What exactly are the two of you talking about?” Evelyn asked.
“Yeah, you’ll need to catch me up,” Champion said. He sounded slightly out of breath. “The monkey, again. Or maybe it’s an ape… hard to tell when they’re that big. Which ones have tails?”
“Monkeys,” Alcheman said.
“It’s more accurate to say that apes do not have tails,” Thoth said. “But only New World monkeys do.”
“Well, this didn’t,” Champion said. “The Professor’s going over it…”
“I will ask one more time,” Evelyn said. “What are you talking about?”
“Samantha Jane Leibowitz,” Bast said. “Spinnerette.”
“The Webmistress’s lackey?” Evelyn asked. “She’s an informant of yours?”
“She’s… she has a little girl crush on me,” Bast said. “Sometimes it’s useful, like when she lets me know when she’s going to be in town… or when she texts me out of the blue to tell me she’s got a new boss.”
“A fascinating bit of criminal psychology, but does she mention Rhyme in particular?” Alcheman asked, stroking his chin.
“No, but… it fits,” Bast said. She turned towards her husband. “You said that the P’aliens lack the sophistication to fake a 4B vehicle. Who does have that kind of sophistication? We could probably do it, but we’re fairly sure it wasn’t us. Day could, but he works for them…”
“With them,” Thoth said.
“Always so quick to defend him,” Dock Shadow said.
“Gentlemen,” Alcheman said.
“He’s a colleague, and a brilliant…”
“Gentlemen,” Evelyn said, and the argument stopped.
“I just said that,” Alcheman groused.
“Bast was speaking,” Evelyn said. “Continue.”
“Right. Nobody except for a few people could convincingly fake one of the black van, but with Webmistress’s resources and contacts she could conceivably have stolen one,” Bast said.
“It’s thin,” Shadow said.
“It’s an angle to be investigated,” Thoth said.
“Then let’s get to it,” Evelyn said.
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