“Dad, we need to talk.”
Paul put down the tablet he’d been reading through. “Sure, Anne. How was school?”
“I – kind of skipped out and went to meet Agni.”
“Huh. Not the answer I was expecting.” Paul sighed.
“… You knew?”
“Well, the school did call me and ask why you’d walked off in the middle of the day. I asked if you’d been seen anywhere near Wanda, and they went quiet.”
“Yeah… she sort of confronted me. Said some stuff.”
“And violated the ground rules we agreed on with the administration, I see.”
“That’s not important. We just spoke; she said a few things that had me concerned.”
“Concerned enough that you needed to go and talk to Agni? Please tell me you haven’t ordered a hit on her.”
Anne scoffed. “I don’t need Agni to carry out a hit, Dad.”
“That is not as reassuring as you think it sounds.”
“I’m not going to go around massacring people I don’t like. You and Mum raised me better than that. Speaking of which - there are a few things I need to ask you about.”
“Ask away.”
“Clarisse Harper.”
Paul felt his heart drop. “Where did you hear that name?”
“She’s Wanda’s aunt.”
“Ah.” Paul pursed his lips. “Did not know that.”
“Wanda told me that you testified at her trial. I didn’t know.”
Paul nodded gently. “They wanted to keep the trial quiet. Officially to prevent retaliation from the Grunters – not to mention the public outcry.”
“Can you do that? Keep a trial secret?”
“You can if all affected parties agree. I wanted you protected from the ugliness.”
“Dad, I deserved to know.”
“And I would have told you, dragonfly – when you were older. I didn’t realize you’d grow up this fast.”
A sigh escaped Anne. “I’m not mad at you, Dad. Just – I kept wondering if what Wanda said was right. If Mum actually had some links to the Grunters…”
“Never. Neither of us had anything to do with those… gangsters. I know better than to allow them into our lives.”
“You never had to deal with them at the CWA?”
“Not much. They do tend to try shaking down contractors, though, so we’ve seen a few run-ins.”
“Run-ins like?”
“Grunter operatives coming to a business and asking protection money. Used to happen a lot, after the station attack sent a message to the cops that they couldn’t go toe-to-toe with armoured battlesuits. And the city’s sanctioned heroes started to spend more time on PR than patrols. Franklin Pierce was trying to change that – it’s one of the reasons he became CWA president.” Paul pursed his lips. “Suppose I might as well tell you – Franklin was planning to run for Mayor someday, possibly as a successor to Aldiss.”
“Huh. If he’d run, would you have stood for CWA president?”
“We hadn’t really thought that far ahead. Franklin actually helped me to get my act together after Hilary passed – he also helped make sure the case got prosecuted. Used his contacts in the administration. Without that, they’d never had taken it to trial.”
“Did Harper actually claim Mum was a Grunter?”
“She claimed your mother was carrying an inventech weapon.”
Anne swallowed. “Um – Dad – is it possible she was? I mean, are powers hereditary?”
“Not as far as we know. And I’m pretty sure I’d know if my wife was an inventor.”
“Then why would Harper say something like that?”
“Harper claimed that your mother – while hiding in the salon – shot someone with an electric bolt.”
“There’s no chance she could have? Maybe she took an inventech weapon from a downed Grunter?”
“The police swept the area for an inventech weapon, Anne. They looked pretty hard. They even confiscated your mother’s phone and asked for passwords.” Paul paused. “I remember it caused some controversy when they couldn’t crack the encryption on her files…”
“Wait. You’re telling me Grandma’s phone – the one I have – Mum was carrying it with her when she died.”
“Yeah. Hilary told me once that carrying the phone made her feel closer to her mum; I figured it might be the same for you, someday. It’s why I never suggested swapping the phone out. And why we backed the files up to the HMS.”
“I wonder if the phone’s inventech.”
“The manufacturer’s representative swore it wasn’t. And examination of the victim showed that they died due to being shot through the heart by a laser beam, not electric shock. The defence argued that the electric shock raised questions over the likelihood of her being a Grunter agent; the prosecution successfully argued that since Hilary wasn’t carrying a weapon, even if she had used a taser on somebody, it wasn’t justification for the use of lethal force. Especially if all she’d done was electrocute a corpse.”
“But … that still doesn’t explain why Harper would lie.”
“Sometimes, under conditions of extreme stress, people’s minds play tricks on them. Cops are supposed to be trained to deal with that, but clearly Harper wasn’t. In any case, there were no grounds for Patrolwoman Harper to shoot to kill.” Paul sagged in the chair. “I’ve gone over this a hundred times in my mind, Anne. Harper made a mistake – and that cost me the love of my life. It cost you your mom. And while I’m sorry that means Wanda doesn’t get to see her aunt, you and I are not at fault here.”
“… at least I understand Wanda a bit, now. I still hate her, but I understand her.”
“Hate, not fear?”
“She doesn’t compare to a Carnotaur, Dad. Or flying off the Tower with Lynxians dropping out of invisibility every few seconds. Which reminds me of another thing.” Anne paused. “She said she figured out that we – all of us – were actually Grunters in hiding. And she’s written an email exposing us … to Belessar.”
“…. Say again? She’s writing to Belessar accusing us of being Grunters?” Paul thought for a moment. “I suppose we should count our blessings…”
“It gets better. I offered her a deal – she wouldn’t expose us to anyone else, and in return I’d cut off all ties with Brad Meadows.”
“Hmm. So you gave her something you didn’t want in return for something you did. She agreed?”
“I’m pretty sure she plans to stab me in the back. She said she wouldn’t reveal our identity to any heroes.” Anne smirked. “Of course, if there happens to be a villain in town who’s associated with Andrew – and might have a bone to pick with the Grunters…”
A quiet pride filled Paul. “Well done, Anne. It’s good to be able to think on your feet – especially with what she did to you.”
“I’ve decided to put that behind me. After all, I got a cool new power out of it, right? And if she hadn’t pushed me – who knows. Maybe Andrew wouldn’t have shown up – and then we’d never have been able to find you. Or wake you.”
“There is that.”
“Dad?”
“Yes?”
“Wanda might have been wrong, but – have you ever thought about what happens if we get exposed?”
“You mean, like a supervillain showing up at our house?”
“Dad – be serious.”
“I have, actually. Andrew is – less cautious about his identity than he should be.”
“Hey, he can’t help it if his body suddenly resizes in the middle of a fight.”
“Doesn’t change the fact that there’s probably quite a few people who have some idea of what he looks like. Maybe some partial photos, too. And given his rapid rise, there will be a lot of people trying to trace him. And you.”
“So how do we stop them?”
“We can’t, actually.” Paul looked his daughter in the eye. “Eventually, they’ll figure it out. There are only 450,000 people in Tanisport. Families with an older brother and school-age sister – at most, twenty thousand. Maybe less.”
“You think they’re already looking for us.”
“I think that, eventually, we will be found. By someone. And at that point, we’ll need to move.” He waved his hand around the house. “Despite everything Andrew’s done to secure the house – we’re not immune to an actual attack. By, say, Grumman. Or anyone else who has a dislike of Belessar.”
Anne bit her lip. “I’ll be more careful. I’ll tell him to be more careful.”
“Enough is already known, Anne. How long do you think it’ll take investigators to look into twenty thousand families? Pinpoint the ones with kids who weren’t in school the day of London, or Liverpool?”
“… will it help if I stop sneaking out of school?”
“Not at this point. Although your phrasing has me a bit worried.”
“Hey, I don’t usually skip class.”
“At this point, if you did so because you met a nice boy and went on a date, I’d probably celebrate.”
“Dad!”