Joseph just watched the woman in front of him go from a post traumatic reorientation to “hey, let’s go pick a fight with the fugitive supers that almost killed us” in under ten seconds, and that was mildly concerning considering that he and Johansen were beaten to hell, exhausted, and unarmed.
Johansen looked past him, nodding to herself and moving her lips like she was tallying something up in her head. Then she was back with him again, a little confidence returning to her demeanor. “Assuming they didn’t just hit the edge of town and keep driving, the most realistic estimate on how far they could travel is maybe a couple hundred miles,” she declared. “Bank’s range isn’t that good, but-”
“If they’re at all competent, they’ll have a dump site nearby where they can leave the truck and switch to something less conspicuous,” Firebreak interjected. “If they aren’t up on their criminal best practices or they don’t have the funding for something like that, we’ll run across them and find ourselves fighting round two on their terms.” He didn’t like it. All Firebreak had on him right now were the twelve workings he’d reappropriated from Johansen’s purse and definitely not the right ones for the job. At the beginning of this long parade of awful choices, he’d been suited up for hunting, and his kit reflected that. He wasn’t geared up for slugging it out with a super like Hugh, not if he wanted to keep his secrets. Plus if the big man wasn’t working independently, that could mean a group with guns, tech, supers, or all three. There were just way too many unknowns.
Johansen seemed at war with herself. A complex mix of emotions flashed across her face while she paced back and forth in frustration. She opened her mouth a couple times to argue with him but stopped herself as other thoughts overlaid the previous ones.
Joseph understood the impulse. After what she’d just had to do, Johansen was looking for a way to take back control of the situation. The bad guys still being out there after trying to kill her prevented Johansen’s psyche from turning the page. In her mind, they would always be out there if she didn’t find them herself, despite how much that frightened her.
Going all vigilante right now wasn’t going to help anyone either. He let out a long breath and softened his tone in hopes of getting through to her. “I know you want to find these guys, but we should at least let the authorities in on this one, right?”
Hot anger flashed in Johansen’s eyes at the mention of that, but she quickly brought it down to a simmer to answer. “I received the third degree from those pickled assholes for the entire morning. They treated me like a criminal just because I had the temerity to be armed and willing to help. You think now that I just so happen to remember putting a tracking device on the getaway vehicle they’ll be ready to work with us?”
“Well, I wouldn’t put it like that, but we do call them the authorities for a reason. They have authority here. We don’t.”
“You’re a superhero.”
“That’s half true.”
A little half smile appeared on her face. “With an AHAB ID and everything,” she mused, tapping a finger on her chin.
Joseph got a sinking feeling in his gut. “Johansen-”
“We could get the authority.”
“No,” he answered flatly. The way Johansen tried to justify her continued involvement in the manhunt struck Joseph as something more than looking for closure. There was a hunger in her that he recognized, one that would likely get her killed.
Plus, going after Hugh as Firebreak was an unnecessary risk. A far better scenario would be to let Hugh and his accomplices scatter to the wind to be picked off later, far away from the prying eyes of the Company. Would Joseph get that opportunity though?
They both needed rest and some distance from the problem to make a clear headed decision.
“It can be our first case. Your breakout debut,” she pleaded with her hands pressed together.
"Johansen, you saw the man after we tangled the first time. If we try to bring Hugh in, it'll be as charcoal. That's the way it's likely to end."
Johansen lowered her chin and held a up clenched fist up in a mock fighter's stance. "Not if we do it the smart way. You, me, and Banks. We work together. We find him. Then we assess our chances. If we think we can't handle it safely, we call the cavalry and find a different case to be your debut. We're going to see justice done," she proclaimed with finality.
Joseph threw up his hands and turned around to limp away toward the ER. “I’m going to go ask for more drugs.”
“Well ask for them to go, because I’m calling headquarters as soon as I get back to my car,” Johansen called after him. “We’ll leave as soon as we have authorization.”
----------------------------------------
“We’re not getting authorization,” Johansen sighed as she flopped down in the chair next to Joseph’s bed as Nurse Betty rewrapped his leg in fresh fiberglass casting.
Joseph knew Betty would do a good job, but he couldn’t help but wonder if she was being a little rougher than she needed to be. Gone was the sunny disposition she’d exhibited at the beginning of her shift this morning. Now she was all business, robotic even. Not that he blamed the woman. She just had a hell of a shift, maybe a double shift, and she got to experience a belligerent super and an evacuation all in one day.
Joseph waited for Johansen to go on. For a minute she just slumped there in the chair with her head back and her eyes closed, but eventually she felt ready to explain.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
“I apprised them of the situation, and at first it seemed like they were going to go for the idea. Your first real case, almost literally dropped in our laps. It was perfect. I mean, this is pretty much what I’m here for, right?”
“Sure,” he agreed reluctantly with a growl.
“For sure. So, I tell them what happened with Hugh and his partner, how we spotted him in disguise when he came in here and how the fight happened. With how they were listening and asking questions, I thought we were going to get rubber stamped,” she recounted, gesticulating with a hand tiredly for emphasis. “Then they tell me to hold on the line and cut the mic for twenty minutes, presumably having a whole meeting that I couldn’t hear. When they finally deigned to include me again, the whole mood had changed. They said based on my verbal report, we’re not fit to handle something like this. We’re out.”
“What about the tracker you put on the truck?” Joseph asked, hoping Johansen wouldn’t have to give over her car for the cops to track it down. Her weapon was one thing, but there was only so much crap Johansen should be expected to take.
“It’s out of Banks’ range right now, but the Company will be able to track it.”
“What? From satellites or something?”
“No. It's not that strong of a signal. They’re sending a ‘specialist’ from Headquarters. They’ll be handling the investigation from here.” She sighed and put a hand on her forehead and massaged. "We're expected to give them our full cooperation when they get here."
That wasn't something Joseph was looking forward to. Gregory Basin was fast becoming a hotspot for corpos.
Johansen looked beat.
“You okay?” He probed.
“No,” Johansen groaned. She stood up suddenly and started pacing behind her chair, stopping to rest her hands on the back of it every once in a while before she was on the move again. “It’s just weird, you know? You and I are right here and willing-”
“One of us is.”
“Shut up. We’re here and we’re willing. Why not let us track them down? It makes no sense. I mean I’m in no hurry to have another encounter with Hugh, but isn’t that what we’re supposed to do? Catch bad guys?”
Betty let out a frustrated grunt as she ripped off the excess tape at the top of the cast. She'd finally run out of fiberglass in her bucket, and she finished up by plopping a pair of scissors into the bucket's bottom.
Joseph leaned over. The nurse's face was red and her eyes had a hard look to them. “Betty? ”
She sniffed and stood up, peering down at him as she held her bucket of tools. “I’m sorry, Mr. Jaeger. You’re talking about H- that man that I asked to take you to your appointment? The man that was here to do people harm?”
“Yes, but you couldn’t have known-”
“I should have. I’ve been working here for ten years, and I know most everybody’s faces. There was a code, and I was distracted. So when I saw him, I just thought he was new or a temp transfer. I let him take you away and do that to you-” she trailed off, her eyes wandering down to Joseph's new bandages on his chest and hands.
“How is Mr. Maldonado, by the way?” inquired Agent Johansen, sitting up straight in her chair again. “He was the code blue right?”
“I can’t really discuss details outside of his family, Miss, but he’s doing alright now. It was dicey for a long while.”
That got the wheels turning in Firebreak’s brain. A hitter like Hugh in the hospital. No one dies but not for lack of trying. Johansen seemed to pick up on it too. She excused herself and stepped out into the hallway, her fingers tapping the receiver in her ear and leaving Joseph with Betty.
She was frantically gathering up little things from the room, collecting bits of wrappers, receipts, and cast off bandages. Muttering under her breath at the state of things. The woman seemed to cope with stress and guilt by cleaning up and caring for others. Not a bad trait for someone in her line of work.
Joseph hopped up and hobbled over to intercept her before she could clean any more. “Hey. It’s not your fault, okay? Hugh came in here with a plan, a disguise, and a hacker to keep you guys in the dark. Plus… and this is a big plus by the way, you saved Brian Maldonado despite everything. You can be my nurse anytime.”
She smiled politely, though the fire never left her eyes. “Thank you, Mr. Jaeger, but if it’s all the same to you, I’ll be praying that you don’t visit us again anytime soon.”
“The double meaning is not lost on me, Betty."
The nurse nodded and excused herself, leaving through the door as Johansen was coming back in.
Once Betty was out of earshot, Johansen leaned in close. “I asked Banks to get us some information. Brian Maldonado went into cardiac arrest five times over the course of today. Only after they changed his entire rack of meds did he start to pull out of it,” she reported in a low voice.
“That tells us something, I guess,” Joseph mused. He thought of Patty Maldonado, the way she talked about her children in the wake of Brian's hospitalization. The way her mind slipped into thinking of Brian in the past tense like a fighter bracing for a heavy blow. That blow almost landed today. His fingers flexed painfully inside his bandages. Maybe bringing the big guy to justice extra crispy was in order after all.
Johansen frowned thoughtfully. “It suggests that Maldonado was poisoned, and that he warrants special attention from somebody.”
“Attention from a super, no less,” Joseph replied, nodding.
The company woman grabbed her purse from the back of the visitor’s chair and slung it over her shoulder. “Yeah. Isn’t it a crap way to poison somebody though? Do it right in the middle of a hospital where they have a good shot at bringing your target back?”
Joseph looked down at the floor as he contemplated. “Hmm. Patty said that Brian was in a bad way even after he was out of critical condition. What if what Hugh gave him was something that normally wouldn’t produce results until it was too late, but Brian was so weak that it started to kill him right away?”
“Maybe," she said. "Maybe I’d like to get a hold of that IV bag.”
“I might be able to convince someone to give us a sample of it at least. Can your AI analyze it?” he asked hopefully.
“Hang on,” she held up a finger and tilted her head to listen to her earpiece. “No. He says he’s not a chemistry lab.”
“We’ll find someone. In the meantime, I think I’d like to take you up on that offer.”
“What offer?”
“The offer to investigate this off the books.”
“I didn’t offer to do that,” she shot back a little too quickly, then she reached into her ear, taking the receiver out. “And I can’t do that.”
“You were going to.”
“Well, yeah. I was, but later. Banks has to report everything he sees and hears back to headquarters. Right now he’s heard me say no, so I’ve got plausible deniability unless an actual human reviews things and picks up on the subtext.”
“That’s another resource we’re not going to be able to use, I guess. Looks like you’re going to have to go native, Agent Johansen,” Joseph declared with a grin.
“I’ll get fitted for a stetson.” Johansen spun on her heel and headed out into the hall, calling over he shoulder as she rounded the corner. "See you bright and early tomorrow."