Blood of the Masked God (Book 1): Red Wrath Read online

  All the while I kept an eye on the red-numbered clock that ticked away the time.

  The crowd in the gym was light today, but the place was popular, and if I focused more on my clients I could make a decent living here. But all I could think about was Carter’s data on Chronos and what it might mean if we could zero in on his comings and goings. And the hero’s new or emerging heightened reflexes were confounding. Besides my rifle, what else could I actually do?

  “I asked you a question,” Ms. Nagata said. She had slowed down on the machine and then stepped back off of it.

  “You asked something about…diet?”

  “Yes. Which foods should I be eating this week?”

  “I’m not a dietitian, but the gym has one who can consult with you.”

  “But I’m paying you. What foods to lose weight?”

  The question was a bear trap. She didn’t need to lose any weight. Instead, she needed a diet with carbs and protein so she could have energy for her workouts.

  “Lean proteins,” I said by rote. “White fish, lean chicken, lots of vegetables, and whole grains.”

  “But I won’t eat gluten. And I want something fast.”

  “There’s plenty of good grains that are gluten free. And if you want something fast, the snack bar has several energy bars mostly made of nuts and dates and all that good stuff. Some actually taste good.”

  She didn’t smile at my little joke.

  I escorted her there and she appeared happy enough getting the sales clerk to go over all the ingredients in the snack bar’s many products. Soon she had several boxes of energy bars and some bottles of specialty energy drinks in front of her. While she blew a hundred dollars on overpriced groceries, I watched the TV at the bar, where ongoing reports continued documenting the Atlantic meteor disaster. Front and center, Chronos was flying a pair of fishermen to a Royal Navy patrol boat. The impact site itself was obscured, as some bad weather was blowing fog and rain about, complicating things. The clouds looked tinged with red.

  New York City was experiencing some minor flooding but so far the tsunami hadn’t affected North America by any great degree.

  I was still reading the closed captions when Ms. Nagata said it was time for her massage. Distracted, I took her downstairs where the masseuses plied their trade. Her favorite wasn’t in, even though they had an appointment. Neither of the other two who were usually around had shown up that morning either.

  My client left the gym in a huff, and I didn’t get a tip.

  Chapter Ten

  I texted Carter and he showed up in minutes to pick me up in front of the gym.

  “Were you waiting here the whole time?” I asked as I climbed in the car.

  “Yeah. I went to a coffee shop and worked remotely. But I was mostly organizing data collected from last night.”

  The etched dark lines beneath his eyes gave them a hollow look.

  “So how much coffee is that for you?” I asked as he pulled into traffic.

  “I don’t count.”

  “I hope your computer is doing most of the heavy lifting. Because if you’re not sleeping, you won’t be much help.”

  “I’ll be fine,” he said, his face clouding.

  I was feeling cranky and was in no mood to apologize for giving him a hard time. It felt like the whole city needed a morning off. Between a disaster the scope of which was still being understood and everyone suddenly having a rough night and a migraine, a state of emergency should have been declared where everyone got to go back to bed. I began to wonder in the greater scheme of things what good a man like Chronos could even do in the face of a calamity like a meteor smashing into the planet.

  When I turned to stuff my gym bag in the back seat next to the rifle case, I noticed we had a tail. A minivan this time, but the driver looked to be one of Princess Pike’s ski-masked thugs. I got down low in my seat but kept peering over my shoulder.

  “What?” Carter asked.

  “That guy behind us is one of Princess Pike’s cronies.”

  “Princess Pike? The villain? How do you know?”

  “Because a few days ago they followed me and tried to stomp my face.”

  I told him the story of the ambush. Carter started to nervously check and adjust the mirror.

  “Stop it,” I said. “Make it a little less obvious that we see them there.”

  He quit messing with the mirror. “Okay, okay. What do we do?” His forehead was already shiny with sweat and the car was slowing.

  “First off, drive normal. We’re going to be fine. Now signal and change lanes.”

  Carter did as he was told. “He’s following us. Why is he following us? What do they want?”

  “No clue.” I peeked again. It looked like there might be others in the van as well, but it was hard to tell with the glare. The thought of a supervillain and her goons driving around in a mommy van would have been funny except for the fact they were following me. And this was Carter’s own car, not something borrowed or stolen that could be abandoned. If Princess Pike had a halfway decent hacker among her contacts, she could track Carter down even if we evaded her.

  Traffic slowed us to a stop. I watched our tail, thinking that at any minute they would come out of the van and attack us. Princess Pike’s weapon would slice Carter’s Mercedes in two, no problem. And she had mentioned something about upgrades.

  “Can we get to why she’s following us?” Carter said, an edge of panic in his voice.

  “Remember the thing with the school bus on the Upper West Side about six months ago?”

  “Yeah, it was some sort of kidnapping or something. Eight months ago, wasn’t it? What does that got to do with us?”

  “You remember then that it devolved into a brawl with some low-rent superheroes and villains. Princess Pike was there but running late as usual. I was waiting for Chronos to show up when she and her goons pulled up near me. After they all piled out, I took the jack out of my car and removed the back wheel of her van. Princess Pike returned before I could get my jack back out. Apparently she had forgotten something. But she got a good look at me. And, stupid me, I got in my car and took off, so she got a look at that too. I was kind of hoping she forgot.”

  Carter just shook his head. “What do we do?”

  “First off, keep driving steady like you are. You’re doing great.”

  “Is she going to kill us?” His eyes were frantically watching the mirror. The cars ahead were moving, leaving a large space.

  “Carter, stop looking back and just drive.”

  That was when they bumped us. The collision wasn’t a big one but it was enough to knock the Mercedes forward and jerk us around. Carter started to change lanes.

  “What are you doing?” I asked. “You can’t pull over.”

  “This is our exit.”

  “Well don’t take it! You don’t want her knowing where you live, do you?”

  I took my phone out and called 911.

  “The police?” he asked.

  “Yes, the police. Unless you want us to wait for Chronos to save us.”

  The van behind us was flashing its lights. The man with the ski mask was pointing towards the shoulder. Maybe he just wants to exchange insurance information, I thought wryly. When Carter kept driving, the van rammed us again.

  The 911 system answered with a canned message. I was informed I would be connected to an operator in ten seconds.

  They smashed into us again and began driving us off the road. Other cars swerved out of the way. The Mercedes should have had a more powerful engine, but Carter wasn’t trained in tactical driving. We were almost on the shoulder, but just up ahead was a pair of New York Department of Transportation trucks with a few men working behind a row of cones.

  I put my phone away and climbed into the back. The van was coming in again. As it banged into our backside, Carter swerved and raced past the bridge crew. The Mercedes’s trunk was crumpled and we had left a good deal of plastic behind us from the shattered taillights.


  “What about the cops?” Carter asked.

  “Line’s busy. And no one will get here in time. Just keep us on the road.”

  I pushed aside the gym bag and opened the hardcase. As I tried to put the rifle together, another impact walloped the car and almost threw the weapon from my hand.

  “Traffic’s stopped up ahead,” Carter announced.

  “Pull over behind the sand barrels.”

  The van tailgated us as Carter drove onto the shoulder. I fumbled with a bullet, almost dropping it, but finally I got it seated and slid the bolt closed. Carter started to climb out of the car.

  “Stay here,” I said.

  I piled out and backed away from the Mercedes, my rifle pointed at the street. Both van doors opened. Princess Pike emerged and pushed past one of her henchmen. I could see now she had three men with her, including the driver. It was only then that I realized how much taller she was than her thugs, with none of them higher than her shoulder. Her signature weapon, the long spear, was in her hands and she swung it about. It sliced into the back end of a sedan that had stopped next to them and cut through it like it wasn’t even there. Only her eyes were visible through her mask, and they were locked on to me. The sedan raced away.

  “Sweetheart,” she said, “I told you I’d catch up with you.”

  I pointed the rifle at her. Her outfit had too much skin showing for her to be confident in any armor effect. As far as I knew she wasn’t bulletproof. And my rifle fired big bullets. Her thugs took a step back, but to Pike’s credit she didn’t waver.

  “Where’d you get that toy?” she asked.

  “You can’t be going through all this trouble to catch me just because I ruined your day one time,” I said.

  “You underestimate my appetite for ridding the world of a nuisance like you.”

  “I’m nobody. You’re willing to go through a lot of effort for revenge.”

  “You think this is all because you sabotaged my van that one time?” she asked with a laugh. “Everything I do better have a payday, including snuffing a pest like you. This has the added benefit of teaching anyone else inclined to butt into my business to stay out of my way.”

  “Killing me has a payday?”

  “You’d be surprised.”

  “How’d you even find me?”

  “A little bird chirped to me. Chirp, chirp, chirp.”

  “Who?”

  Instead of answering, she advanced on me. Her weapon was up and she swung it around. Another couple of feet and I’d be in reach. I shouldered the rifle, aiming it at her van. I fired dead center into the front grill. The explosion of the shot split the air. A large hole appeared in the metal. Steam erupted from the shattered engine and liquid began to pour down onto the asphalt.

  Princess Pike flinched as I turned the weapon her direction again.

  “Are you crazy?” she screamed.

  Had she not noticed I was holding a rifle? “Maybe a little crazy. Maybe I just don’t like bullies. Now back off!”

  If she knew her weapons, she’d know I’d have to reload. The rifle only took one bullet at a time and I didn’t have another on me. As a long couple of seconds passed, I could see her tense up like she was ready to spring forward. The boom of the shot died around us and she still looked uncertain.

  “The next bullet splatters your brain,” I said. I returned to the Mercedes and got inside. “Drive!”

  Carter gunned it. Mercifully, no one had stopped to watch the action and traffic was moving along. We had a relatively clear route before us as Carter sped us away.

  “She was going to…then you…” he babbled. He kept both hands on the steering wheel.

  “Yeah, I know. I was there.”

  I watched behind us in case they procured another vehicle and tried to follow. Carter took the first exit, and soon we were making turns on surface streets as he drove us towards his place. My hands were calm as I broke down the rifle again. Then I surprised myself by laughing. It was a nervous thing, and I felt a strange rush of relieved tension knowing we had successfully escaped and that no one was behind us.

  Who hired Princess Pike? Why would anyone want me dead? All my questions would have to wait. At that moment I was feeling pretty good just being alive.

  “Are you okay?” Carter asked, a worried look on his face.

  I nodded. “Just feeling pretty good, I guess. I just faced down a supervillain with an empty rifle.”

  Chapter Eleven

  It was Carter who needed the rest of the morning off. He sat at his kitchen counter and watched as I got on his computer and looked at his data. Without his help, navigating page after page of numbers got confusing. He had a coded system of labels where each value came from. I needed him out of his funk and to bring up the map so I could make sense of it all. But he needed time to process our encounter with Princess Pike.

  I didn’t want to bug him, but I had to know if he was capable of continuing.

  “I’m sorry about your car,” I said.

  He nodded. “I have insurance.”

  I went into the kitchen and opened a few of the cabinets in search of something to eat. “If it’s any consolation, it was me she was following and she saw me at the gym. I don’t know how she tracked me there. Maybe it’s best if I got out of here. I’d hate for you to get mixed up in this.”

  He eyed the growing mess I was making in his kitchen. “I’m already involved,” he said. “I don’t care about that. Plus, if she can find you at your gym, she might find where you live. It’s not safe for you to go home.”

  “It might not be safe here either. She saw your car and might trace it back here.”

  He nodded slowly as if he already understood the possibility. I found a jar of sunflower butter. According to the label it supposedly could be eaten like peanut butter, but when I took the lid off and swiped my finger in for a taste, I made a face and closed the jar back up.

  “This would be the time to call the cops,” I said. “Tell them some girl with a rifle carjacked you.”

  “I’m committed to this just like you,” he said. “No need to get melodramatic.”

  “I’m just giving you a way out if you want it. Princess Pike might be a bit of a joke to men like Chronos, but she’s also a killer. She mentioned something that makes it even more complicated. It seems someone gave her my information. I have no idea who.”

  “How does that even make sense? Who else knows what you’re up to?”

  “No one. Just you.”

  “I didn’t tell her, or anyone. All my internet use is via a proxy network and I scrub my tracks every time before logging out.”

  “Relax, Carter, I’m not accusing you of anything. I could have been spotted a hundred times over by anyone. And someone must believe that I saw something worth hiring her to kill me. Because I don’t think this is about me pulling the tire off her van.”

  The cabinet held a few packages of pasta and a neat basket of wrapped chocolates. I dumped the basket out and sifted through the chocolate. Nothing with caramel. And all of it was dark. Carter was watching with increasing concern.

  “Are there other villains you interfered with?” he asked.

  “No. I’ve always kept my head down. I messed with her on a whim because I knew she was up to no good. But now with what happened on the bridge, your car and your face are out there and connected to me. That means you’re at risk unless you cut me loose.”

  “Do you want me to do that? Cut you loose?”

  I sighed. “Look, it’s been great having someone else with me. I haven’t had anyone to talk to about what I do. You’ve gone as far as a friend can go. But now it’s getting dangerous and I don’t want you getting hurt.”

  He got up and went to the refrigerator and took out a beer. I hadn’t seen him drink anything since our first date. He offered me one. I accepted just to be polite. It was a bitter pale ale from a local brewery, but it was cold and the slight fuzzy feeling that followed relaxed me.

  Ca
rter stood next to me and drank half of his before speaking. “Look, we’ve both lost loved ones to Chronos and I don’t know how else to tell you that I’m committed. How many other people are going through what we are, with messed-up lives and holes in their hearts? When Eden died, I was robbed of everything I ever cared for.”

  Maybe it was the few sips of beer or the post-adrenaline drop, but I leaned in and kissed him. He almost backed away, but then he relaxed and kissed me back. I tried not to think about how I hadn’t brushed my teeth and no doubt tasted like beer.

  “What do you say we try to make sense of all these numbers?” I asked.

  He nodded and exhaled slowly. Was he blushing? I knew I was. He went over to the computer and set his beer down. We were on the same page again, and we had work to do.

  Moving in with him was easy enough.

  I had said I should grab some of my things, and he agreed. It would make it easier for us to continue our Chronos hunt.

  He drove me by my place so I could gather some clothes and toiletries. I was on edge. He had dropped his damaged car off at a shop and had a rental, so even if Princess Pike or anyone else was looking for a smashed black Mercedes, they wouldn’t spot us in the light-green Prius he now drove. I had him take us around the block anyway, and I checked every parked vehicle for anyone keeping an eye on my building.

  It looked clear, so I had him let me out across the street and wait.

  Making a go-bag was quick enough, but then I considered all the reloading equipment and other gun supplies I wanted with me. A box of bullets and a cleaning kit would do for now. I could always come back later. From my little gun safe I took out my .357 and a couple of speed loaders along with a shoulder holster.

  I still had to decide whether I would shoot Princess Pike or any other villain that tried to stop me. Now that there was one after me, such an encounter was a real possibility. And what about another hero? What if some low-caliber do-gooder got between me and Chronos? What about a cop? It wasn’t lost on me that I was putting myself in the position of making an orphan or widow, or even just crippling someone, as I tried to get my revenge.