Tanner threw himself forward as the change took effect. His body slicked over into

a gray tube with a nose at the front, fins on his back and where his legs merged into

a tail. His hands formed into paddles to help him move forward.

He sank into the concrete of the parking deck, swimming in it. He headed for the

transports at high speed.

He needed to know if the Men in Black were still in their cars. This way was a

dolphin that used solid substances as water. It had the disadvantage of not having

hands, but that was balanced out by being bulletproof.

He leaped from the deck into the door of the first SUV. He expected to see someone

sitting in one of the seats. The vehicle was empty except for discarded clothes. He

passed out the other side and headed for the other car just as fast as his initial charge.

He jumped into the door and slid through the Chevy to fall to the deck on the other

side.

That one stood empty too.

They had parked the cars and walked away while he was looking for the Chevys from

outside the deck. Dumping their uniforms made it hard to locate any that he hadn’t

been close enough to deal with using his powers.

What did he do now?

He had time as the land dolphin. He decided to use that time to swim around the

parking deck. Maybe he would get lucky and spot one of the group.

If he couldn’t locate them that way, he would think of something else he could use.

He refused to give up now.

Whatever was going on meant bad news for Givens and anybody who might cross his

path in the future. He could feel it in his bones. He had to press ahead until he knew

something for sure.

Tanner slid through a wall and swam in a circle around the parking deck. He moved

to the next square of blocks, and then the next, and then the next after that. He gave

up when the timer ran out and he hadn’t seen anything to attract his attention.

He circled back to the SUVs. Maybe there was something there he could use

somehow. His mechanical ability should help glean something.

He waited until he got back to the cars before he pressed the three keys he needed. He

hooked into the first SUV. He found a hook up to a navigational unit. He inspected

that. He smiled. He had a list of everywhere the car had gone in the last few days.

One of those places had to be where they were holding Givens. He had to check them

to see if he was right.

Tanner wrote the addresses down on a scrap piece of paper from his pocket. His

phone would give him Google Maps and he could get to work. He disconnected. He

was surprised that the vehicle wasn’t trapped. He pulled away from the SUV before

finding out the hard way.

He checked the directions for the first address. He pulled on his runner form and

headed out. He took a couple of minutes to get used to moving around people, but

there were plenty of places where he could cut in a direct line toward his goal. The

first place turned out to be a restaurant on the edge of Chinatown.

Tanner repeated his method until he found himself at a church that had closed signs

on the front. He wondered why a church would close.

He needed to get inside and look around.

If this was the place, he would have to be cautious. He didn’t know what he was

facing, or what he should be doing. The last thing he needed was a fight before he

knew what he was doing.

He transformed into his land dolphin shape and dove through the ground. He swam

up to the front wall and slid inside. He hopped into the air. He didn’t see anything on

the open floor. He dove into the floor to see what was beneath the church.

He found a set of steps leading to a stone table in the middle of an open space. He fell

into the floor there. No one shot at him as he looked the room over. Why had they

came there?

He felt like he was missing something.

What should he do now?

He decided that he should retreat and think about what he had found. He was at a

dead end for the moment.

Why had they visited a closed church? What was so important about it? He had his

phone. Maybe Google could help him.

He swam away from the church and took shelter between two buildings where he

could see the front of the church while he tried to think of his next move.

Tanner pulled out his phone after he changed back. He opened the New York Times

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

website. He typed in the address.

A pocket history popped up. He shook his head. The church had been closed after

losing its last priest and another church had been built a few streets over to serve the

congregation. Then the police had caught a cult trying to sacrifice someone in the

basement where he had found the table a couple of decades after that. Then the

Catholics had sold the land back to the city, but nothing has been done with it yet.

The sacrifice thing stood out. Is that what attracted the Men in Black to the place?

Did they plan to do the same thing to Givens? Were they behind the first attempt?

Was it coincidence?

He discounted the theory that it was just a coincidence that two different groups were

interested in the same place. Either they were connected, or the place was special in

some way.

What made it special? It had to be something about the building, right? Why else

would it attract some kind of cult attention from two cults?

How did he prove his theory? Was he on the right track? Were they coming back?

What kind of tactics should he use? The Gold Man had been okay on defense, but

unable to mount a decent offense. He needed to use something with a bigger punch.

He needed to be able to one punch through their defenses before they could figure out

what he was doing.

He had some powers that might be able to do that. He had to be quick. He didn’t

relish another confrontation where he took a face full of fireballs and the bad guys

won.

He had to be the one throwing fireballs and wrecking the other guy’s day. He took the

Gold Man off the table. He decided that Iceberg would be the right powerset if he

could get close enough to get Given’s back.

He wondered if he should be waiting outside, or inside. Either choice had its

problems.

He decided to stay out for now. He didn’t want to be in the church and miss them

showing up. That would lead to them being inside with him, and able to shoot up the

interior while he had to look for cover.

Where were they keeping Givens now if they planned to use the church at some point

later? Were they planning to use the church? Had he stopped at a dead end?

Despite the fact he didn’t like her, he had to admit this was the kind of thing his

cousin was better at doing. Her third eye allowed her to track things easily.

The rest of the places he had visited had seemed normal. Givens could have been

taken to any of them. He would have to get inside and search all of them. He didn’t

know how much time he had before they did what they wanted to do.

The Church was the only place they visited that didn’t make sense. He liked it a

suspect location. How long should he wait before he tried another tactic?

He touched his pockets. Did he have enough money to get something to eat while he

waited? He had two phones.

Why did he have two phones?

He remembered he had taken the one from the dead guy back home. He pulled it out

and weighed it in his hand. What could be on it?

Maybe it held a clue to show where he should go from there.

Tanner keyed in his mechanical power again. He realized suddenly that he had used

this one power more in the last two days than he had the rest of the month. He shook

his head.

The things he got involved with didn’t usually require being able to hack electronics

and mechanics. He mostly used this power to keep his laptop updated and working

right. Sometimes he rerouted a virus back to its creator.

He took the phone’s brain apart after his transformation. Text messages indicated

movements in code. GPS coordinates for his town showed up. Messages back went

to a phone locally there in the Big Apple. A tower transfer showed him the virtual

path to the other phone. He couldn’t hack into it at a distance, but he could see the

signal moving on the ground.

He looked the coordinates up and noted the phone was at a hotel south of where he

was. He pulled out his list. It was one of the places the SUV had been. So maybe the

church was going to be used after all.

Did he want to go to the hotel and search it, or did he want to stick in place? He only

had the rest of the day before he had to come up with an explanation for his parents.

They were going to want to know why he had skipped school. Feeling bad and not

being home didn’t usually go hand in hand.

Things were going to get even more complicated if someone saw him in the school

and reported it. More questions from the vice principal would have to be answered.

He had to wrap this up as fast as possible. He couldn’t wait for whatever they planned

to do. He had to take them out first.

He had to get to that hotel and find the guy, and then ask him about Givens. Getting

Givens back and on a plane back home had to be next. Then he could slide home and

try to come up with an explanation for everything to satisfy his parents without telling

them about the keyboard.

Getting Givens back looked better than trying to explain everything to his parents.

Tanner put the phone away and started walking. He would have to wait for the

mechanical to wear off before he could use a move set to get to the hotel faster.

Hopefully the guy had no reason to move before he could start his search.

He called on the Runner as soon as he could. Direct paths opened up for him to slip

through, hopping over obstacles that got in the way. He arrived at the hotel in a few

minutes. Part of that time was spent finding the place itself.

He needed to find the room for the guy with the phone. How did he do that? Raiding

the desk computer wouldn’t get him anything since he didn’t know what name the

guy was using.

But he had a phone number. Would the guy use the cell number so he could be called

on his personal phone instead of the room phone? Didn’t hotels take in that stuff?

He let the Runner go and called on his mechanical control again. He got the number

he wanted from the stolen phone before he approached the desk. He walked over to

the clerk who was watching him.

“How can I help you?,” asked the clerk. She was a little older than him, hair pinned

back, professional smile on her face.

“Hello,” said Tanner. He put his hand close enough to read the computer without

touching it. “I’m looking for a guest. His name’s Steve Bueller.”

“Let me check for you,” said the clerk. The name tag said Tammy. It glinted as she

moved.

Tanner smiled as he ordered the network to search for the phone number he had. A

room number kicked back within a few seconds.

“I’m sorry,” said Tammy. “I don’t see a Bueller anywhere in the system. Could he

have checked in under another name?”

“No,” said Tanner. “He must have given me the wrong hotel. I’ll call him and find out

where he is. Thank you for your time.”

“You’re welcome,” said Tammy. “Have a nice day.”