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Our Paranormal Chernobyl "Like I was saying," Stranger continued, "Maybe we should get some kinda game plan together so we are all on the same page when the shit hits the fan. You know, so we don’t step on each other’s toes in the heat of the moment." "Sounds good," Jonathan said. He sat in one of the metal chairs bolted to the deck and rested his elbows on the conference table. "Back on the roof Stranger was asking about what to do if those bad guys I was talking about show up. Not only that, but the pellet problem as well. A game plan works for me." "The pellets work in our favor in a way," Maggie pointed out. "They allow us to track the Plastic People’s victims, and lure them." She shrugged. "If those bad guys show up, I think we can overwhelm them and hold them until PRIMUS shows up." "But what good hold Pla-a-astic if real people get away?" Goo asked. "Should track real people. They in van nearby? In underground su-u-uper secret hideout? How find?" "We’ve already tried to track the signal back, Goo. It doesn’t work. Besides, I’m beginning to feel that PRIMUS is the root of all our evils." Crossfire looked around at the assembled metas. "Here’s my idea of a game plan. First off, we locate the lady with the pellets and Pender. We need to protect the lady from whatever happens and we need Pender to help us discover the extent of PRIMUS’ involvement. Providing she’s okay, something else we need to find out. So, first thing, we find them both, okay?" "Yes, find both," Goo agreed. "But still should tra-a-ack signal. Not signal from pellets—signal from telepresence devi-i-ice. Can be traced? DuFord? Ma-a-aggie?" "In theory, we can," Maggie said. "But in practice, we need to find which frequencies are being used before we can triangulate—and that’s assuming they’re not being dynamically reassigned. We won’t be able to scan for the frequency without being close to the receiver, and if we smash the Plastic People, they’re likely to stop emitting, which will keep us from tracking the source. If we want to track it, we’ll have to get sneaky." "Sneaky. Okay." Goo indicated its approval. "Suppose Stranger, DuFord, I stay in sphere. Ma-a-aggie, Cro-o-ossfire go hospital. Keep sphere over hospital, keep in radio contact. If pla-a-astic people show up, DuFord looks for transmitter. Stranger, I drop down. Get ‘em. Not very sneaky, but a sta-a-art." Maggie shook her head. "The problem is that if we ‘get’ the plastic men, their handlers’ll stop transmitting to them and we won’t be able to track them. We’d need to leave them active until we can track down the source—and with them shifting frequencies all the time, it will be difficult." "Difficult, but it’s a plan," Goo said. "True, many assumptions. Assumes pla-a-astic will show up at hospital. Assumes real people are in van or something. Assumes we can track real people to with. Wish we knew pla-a-astic motivation. Why van. But best I come up they visiting victims twice? What’s second injection?" "Could be a stabilizer for the whatever mutating chemicals are in their body," Maggie said. "Maybe it’s just a way to finish off what they consider failures. This is all just speculation. To get the facts, we’ll need to stop one of them. I say, we jump on them if they show up. Leaving Q-Ball to survey the hospital from above is a good plan, but I’d rather not split up our forces otherwise." "Put to vote, ma-ay-ybe?" Goo suggested. "Who’s for splitting team, two stay with Q-Ball, two go hospital?" Goo raised a pseudopod. Everyone else just kept talking. "If you people flush them out, I’ll do my part to make sure they don’t get away," agreed DuFord. Crossfire spoke up. "Stranger was asking about the folks I’m here to stop. I can tell you this, Woodbridge is kind of a black knight. Armor, medieval weapons, the whole schtick. What else, I don’t know. Right now he’s in a three-piece suit, but I suspect he could change it to plate mail in a snap. He’s got a woman with him named Purity. Damn good martial artist and fast. There’s an old guy; he’s an unknown quantity. And then there’s Darius Blake. Let’s not get him caught up in all of this if we can. I can point him out." "I must have missed something," Maggie said, puzzled, "because I don’t know what you’re talking about." "Good point, sorry. I need a scorecard to keep track of who knows what." Crossfire went on to tell Goo, Maggie, and DuFord the events of his day, described Woodbridge and his assistants, and gave them all the same background he’d given Stranger. "The fact that they’re here at the same time that everything else is happening is too much of a coincidence for me to swallow. Understand though, this is very important to me. He’s a killer, and I will stop him." "Works for me," Goo said. "Get ‘em! But what Woodbridge do?" Goo asked. "Magic eye beams?" "Not sure." Jonathan chuckled; he was glad to have Stranger and Goo onside with him. "He stole a sword though from—" Crossfire cut himself off from saying "parents" and sighed before continuing. "—from the Blakes before killing them. So, if they are there, we find out why and immobilize them. Then we can focus on getting Ken and Barbie and whoever’s controlling them. PRIMUS must be involved somehow. I’d say if we can, get Pender to get us information on PRIMUS. It’s got to be on record somewhere, secret or not. What do you think DuFord?" "I’M SURE THERE IS S…", there was a slight click over the loudspeakers. "Sorry. I’m sure there is somewhere. Records I mean. I don’t know anything about these other people, but if they’re involved than by all means let's catch them." "Might not be around," Goo noted. "If dra-a-agon was reason they showed, now dra-a-agon gone, maybe they left. This technology situation, not magic. But if they show, anybody got anything works against magic? I can smother, gra-a-ab, sto-o-omp—the usual. Nothing special, magical-wise." "Nothing here, really," Maggie said. "Once back in Canada someone told me my technology was hard to disrupt with magic, but that might just have been a result of his magical tradition." "No help here," DuFord said over the intercom. He tapped at a console next to his left hand rapidly. "I’m not sure I even believe in magic!" Crossfire said. "But if you believe what Darius Blake says, it’s for real. He even gave me an arrow." The archer carefully withdrew the rune inscribed shaft from his quiver. "This thing is supposed to nullify all magic. He didn’t say when I’m supposed to use it, though. Maybe on Woodbridge, maybe I’ll just know when it’s time." Jonathan replaced the arrow before continuing. "Blake did say that Woodbridge is the Champion Knight of Christendom. Like I said, he’s a zealot. I’m not sure what it all means, just that I can’t see a Knight for Christ being a killer. The weird thing is, Darius Blake told me I’m supposed be the true Champion." DuFord raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything. "While talking powers, anybody got something that others would get in way of?" Goo asked. Fireball? Lightning? Maybe we need codeword, say, when Cro-o-ossfire does blinding arrow trick, so only bad people blinded." "My magnesium arrow only affects one person and anyone standing immediately by them. I won’t shoot it if anyone else is around. I also have arrows loaded with explosives, but I don’t think a hospital will be the place to use them." Jonathan quickly ran down the other arrows he held in his quiver. "But I’m out of cable arrows and only have three magnesium arrows left. Personally, I’d like to save those for Purity. Like I said, she’s fast, but I’d imagine being blind would slow her down. If we bump into the Plastic folks again, target their weapons first. I can do that with my hunting shafts. It worked once already. Bottom line though, anything happens let’s get it outside fast. If we can’t, immobilize them so they can’t do any harm. I’ve got glue and net arrows that can help." "Chuck out wi-i-indow, works for me," Goo suggested. "I can try, pad fall for pedestrians. We’ll see if need to do that." Goo, who had been in a genderless, humanoid shape since entering the sphere, turned its head to DuFord and looked at him through its newly-acquired sunglasses. "DuFord? Question about suspicions. You think PRI-I-IMUS involved. Who? Who at PRI-I-IMUS? Asking about two people, specifically. One, someone named Sinclair. And, two," Goo paused, "Si-i-lver Avenger Raj Pirhu." "I’ve never met SA Pirhu," said DuFord. "And my involvement with Forrester was pretty slight. I met him at my induction ceremony, and we nodded at one another over some buffet tables on two more occasions. He seemed to be a good man, but…", he shrugged his shoulders. "Pender can hopefully lead us to finding out who’s who. If she can. How far away are we DuFord?" Crossfire asked. "Just a couple more minutes. I’m up pretty high right now so that the chances of a visual sighting of the sphere are pretty low." He made a few adjustments to the control panel in front of him, and all aboard felt a dropping sensation in their stomachs. Goo felt it as a pressure across his entire surface." "I think it best if I drop you off and you head in quick! And we should probably radio ahead to hospital security and let them know we’re coming." "Agreed," Crossfire nodded. "And radio Hammersmith and the police as well. I’d rather they knew we were showing up from us rather than 911." "Yeah, you might not want to mention me too much. I had a bit of a run-in with the hospital staff today." Stranger told the group. "If we do meet up with any of these folks and it breaks into a fight, why don’t we plan on having Goo and I jump up front and Dr. Thorin and Crossfire can stay back and hit them from a distance. And Crossfire, can you come up with a word you can shout before you launch that arrow magnesium so we can all close our eyes?" "Sure, how does ‘fireworks’ sound?" Crossfire made sure the question sounded rhetorical. "Sounds predictable. These things are extremely intelligent and they know what you are capable of. I’d use a word that wasn’t linked to the effect; ‘waterfall’ for instance." DuFord said. "Oh, and one minute until arrival," he added. Jonathan decided he’d have to be more rhetorical in the future. He also had to agree with DuFord. "Good idea. ‘Waterfall’ it is. But don’t worry too much, unless you’re standing right there it won’t affect you. How about I add the first initial of each of you in case that does happen?" "Sounds good," Stranger said. "Oh, and nobody stand behind anyone I hit. They might fall into you." "We only have to decide on Goo’s idea," Crossfire said. "Do we split up or not?" "If you want my opinion," DuFord said, "I say stick together. I can provide external air support, and you’ll need all your talents if you’re going to beat these things." Stranger was pacing. "I think we need to stick to be together when we fight those things, but small groups going through the hospital will be a lot less conspicuous than a whole flock of metas marching down the halls. Between Goo and I we could draw a lot of attention. If we split up we could cover more ground, but we have to be sure that we are all pretty close to each other so if the shit hits the fan we can all come a runnin’. Maybe Goo and I could sneak in the back or something. We should also pick a rally point to meet up at if—I mean when—something goes wrong. How about under Q-Ball?" Crossfire nodded. "Good call. Maybe splitting up isn’t such a bad idea. How’s this then." He rubbed his gloved palms together. "We get Hammersmith on this, maybe Maggie and I can go with him and you and Goo can go with another cop. That way we can stay in contact and have the officials with us at the same time. No muss, no fuss. Just find the answers and maybe some bad guys on the way. Maggie?" Maggie nodded. "I don’t like splitting our forces, but it may be best . I don’t know how much they’d like having Goo walking around the hospital, though. I think it’d be best if Crossfire went instead. We need everyone else on immediate standby though—we might need reinforcements REAL fast. Also," she added, "don’t forget that with Pender in the ICU the hospital is liable to be crawling with PRIMUS agents—and the rank-and-file can’t all be corrupt, and even the crooks have to be careful what they do in a public place. We might have some well-armed allies there." She sighed. "There’s just too many variables to make a solid plan… we’re going to improvise our way through, but I like the ‘Waterfall.’ Things like that can help." She grinned at a sudden thought. "I do have some EMP-generating glue that might scramble the Plastic Men’s communications or disable them outright; even if their electronics are shielded their communications can’t be. I also have a taser I can try, and an entangle gun, but I don’t expect too much out of that. Other than that I’m not really a ranged fighter." "Then we’d make a perfect team," Crossfire said. "Sounds like we’re agreed then. Maggie and I will go in, she can radio DuFord if there’s trouble and the rest of you can make like the cavalry. I guess all that’s left is radioing the police. How’s that coming DuFord?" "IT’S COMING ALON—DARN!" There was a short silence while the craft’s pilot monkeyed with his control panel. "Sorry. I’m getting there. I’ll let you know what they have to say." Crossfire checked his equipment. The bow string was still taut and his telescopic lens functioned normally. He would have preferred a quick stop at his hotel to grab another mask and stock up on his arrows; he'd depleted his supply of cable arrows and could have used a few more magnesium shafts. There wasn't time. Q-Ball had told them they were one minute out from the hospital. About thirty seconds ago. On the ship’s main monitor, the hospital came into sight. On the rooftop, a white Life Flight helicopter sat on the landing pad, rotors still moving. Two paramedics were lifting a stretcher off the vehicle. They looked up as the sphere approached, the look of naked surprise on their faces visible even at this distance. DuFord, talking into his mic while working the controls, steered the ship past them so that they were hovering over the south parking lot, near the Emergency Room doors. The reserved lot closest to the entrance was full, including a police car, an EyeWitness News television truck, and an ambulance. Another ambulance was parked in front of the doors. "Me-e-edia here," Goo noted. "Not good sign. Hope unrelated." "Hope so too," Crossfire replied. "Maybe the cops can fill us in." "I reached Hammersmith," DuFord said. "There are a few police officers already in the building, and the Detective says that he’s on his way over with more men—he can be here in less than five minutes. I also talked to hospital security. The administrators aren’t happy to have more metas on hand, but they’ll cooperate. They’ll meet us wherever we put down." He rotated the sphere so that the front door was facing the ER. "So, you want to be left off here?" "Works for me," Crossfire said while putting the bow across his shoulder. He thought it a good idea to go in passive; after all, he could get at it quick enough if needed. "One way in is as quick as another and this gets us to the folks in charge faster. Maggie can radio you where we’re at and when. You can keep Hammersmith updated on our progress and inform us of anything else that comes up. Be on the lookout for a stretch black limo. Woodbridge was riding in one of those earlier today." "Plates?" Goo asked Crossfire. "I didn’t think of that at the time. Wish I had." The archer decided there must be a PRIMUS officer somewhere inside Goo. "At least the media being here doesn’t look serious. Hammersmith didn’t give any indication anything was going on. ‘course, it wouldn’t be the first time the media knew something before anyone else." "Do me a favor, DuFord," Stranger said. "When you talk to Hammersmith, let him know that I’m a part of the group and ask him if he found out about the phone number I gave him. It was 312 555-2410." "Will do. Going down," DuFord said, and lowered the sphere over an empty space in the driveway leading to the ER door. The side of the sphere opened and the ramp began to extend to the ground. "I’ll contact Detective Hammersmith again as soon as I’m able," the little man said to Stranger. "I’ll keep in touch through Ms. Thorin." Maggie waved a sheet of paper to DuFord. "Here’s a list of frequencies we can cycle through if we get jammed or intercepted. We’ll start with the first one." She left the sheet on one of the consoles and went to the ramp. "Ready, gentlemen?" "Into the breach!" Crossfire said. His attempt at light banter was a shallow exercise. Woodbridge and his cronies had been at the hospital today; so had his uncle. Try as he might, he couldn’t stop that from being his primary focus for being at the hospital. The catwalk shuddered as it touched the pavement, and he walked down. Maggie followed Crossfire out of the sphere while Stranger and Goo remained behind. "DuFord?" Goo asked. "Any sign of pe-e-ellets? Transmissions from pla-a-astic?" "Let me check," the man said. He had on a tiny headset, and he seemed to be listening closely as he fiddled with the radio controls. "Definitely a pellet pulse nearby," DuFord said. He did something to the controls to include Maggie in the broadcast. "Ms. Thorin, I’ve got a pellet signal with the same signature as the woman in the schoolhouse. But that’s not all! I’m getting maybe a dozen other faint, intermittent signals from somewhere else in the building." "What kind of signal?" Maggie asked. "On the same frequency and repetition as the pellets? They’re IP radio, are you equipped to decode those and make sure?" Jonathan looked over at Maggie talking aloud. "You’re getting signals from inside?" He put emphasis on the plural. "Q-Ball is, but yeah," Maggie replied. "Same frequency, at ten-second intervals," DuFord said. "I’m not set up to decode them, but I’m sure I could whip something together." "Don’t bother", Maggie said. "The odds of somebody just using the same scheme as the Plastic People are infinitesimal. Drat, I guess it makes sense that the victims would end up here." In the sphere, Goo listened. Not for sound, but for… that music. The music it—or part of it, anyway—had heard earlier. The music that had led its component parts to find one another. Goo found itself hoping that it would hear the music. That one (or more!) of DuFord’s signals were coming from other Goos. It hoped, it HOPED that this were true, because that would mean… Goo didn’t know exactly what that would mean. It just wanted to know, that’s all. But it didn’t hear anything. |