So she’d created her own picture: a gentle, soft-spoken man who was honest and unfailingly loyal to her. He’d be hardworking, unassuming, and an avid reader. A combination of Atticus Finch, George Bailey, and Petrarch as he wrote love poems to Laura.
“I’m sure he’ll be someone worthy of you,” her father said. “Whenever he joins our group.”
Wheneverhad already taken too long. Charity was more than tired of waiting.
4
Enzo Vasquez had always wanted to ride in a flying car but not like this. While his partner gripped the steering wheel and swore, Enzo turned to survey the man in the back of the squad car. Normally, criminals weren’t much of a problem once they were bound in dura-rope, let alone handcuffed, but this guy was a telekinetic.
Before putting the man in the squad car, Enzo had buckled a hood over his head so he couldn’t see. Standard practice for telekinetics. Otherwise, they’d find some way to hurt you. Two years ago, an officer had been careless with a capture and had been strangled by his own seatbelt. But even without sight, telekinetics could still manipulate anything they touched. In this case, the car.
The man was stronger than any of the mutants Enzo had dealt with before. He’d lifted the car like it rode on an invisible elevator. Either Empowereds were getting stronger, or someone could be doubly a mutant—both a telekinetic and a forte, extra strong.
“Hey,” Enzo barked, “if we crash, you’ll be just as dead as the two of us, so I suggest you return the car to the ground. Straight down or you’ll run into a building.”
The car jumped upward, a motion that pushed Enzo into his seat.
The criminal laughed. “Everyone knows that once the government gets a hold of you, you might as well be dead. I don’t have a problem taking a couple of you butchers with me.”
Great. The guy had a death wish. “And you don’t care about crashing into buildings and killing innocent people either?”
“Nope,” the man said. “But if you untie me, I promise not to drop this car a hundred feet from the sky.”
Like promises mattered to Empowereds.
Merkley, Enzo’s partner, snorted. “The freak is telling the truth. He doesn’t care about destroying anything, including this country.” He cast a look over his shoulder at the bound man. “Which group has butchered more people? Empowereds or those of us who stop your kind?”
The guy tried to move, but between the seatbelt and the dura-rope, he only managed to shift a little. “I haven’t killed anyone who wasn’t in my way. Right now, that’s you.”
Yes, it was. Enzo blamed this mess on whoever had filled the sleeping vials in his kit. The shot should’ve knocked the guy out until they reached a holding cell. But maybe this mutant was more resistant than most Empowereds. Enzo had zapped his shock collar when he first started lifting the car, and the man had just lifted it faster. Enzo finally had to stop for fear the man would lose power and plunge the car onto the street.
“Nobody has to die today,” Enzo said in a calming tone. “If the government deems you trustworthy, they may want you to work for them.” This wasn’t completely a lie. It was in the realm of possibility that the Department of Empowered Affairs wouldwork with a telekinetic. Although granted, not this guy. He’d been caught levitating a motorbike from a car lot to steal it.
“Think this through,” Enzo said. “Do you want to go through the pain of broken ribs and a punctured lung from slamming a car into the ground?” The car would fill with oxygen gel during an accident, but it had its limitations, and they’d probably already passed them. A twelve-story building stood to one side, a sixteen-story building to the other. The car looked to be about fourteen stories up.
“Untie me,” the man demanded. “Unbuckle this hood, and then we’ll talk.”
Yeah, and Enzo knew what that talk would be—the guy’s sinister monologue about the stupidity of the police while he pulled their dura-rope guns from their holsters and strangled them. Police didn’t carry real guns when dealing with telekinetics. There’d been too many instances of telekinetics using handguns to kill police officers, often mowing down innocent bystanders in the process.
Merkley smacked his hand against the steering wheel. “We’re not stupid, freak. If you want to live, set us down.”
The car’s cameras showed that a group of people had gathered on the street corner below, hanging about and gawking at the sky. Such foolishness. Any sane person who saw a car hovering in the sky would know it had to come down sometime. The impact from this height would take out a lot of the area around it. Basic physics. But no. The group loitered near the probable crash site, phones out, recording the event.
Enzo pushed his radio button to connect with a dispatcher. “Have someone move the crowd below us, asap.” He had called for backup as soon as they lost control of the situation. Only two minutes had passed, but he’d expected to see some sort of police presence. A distant helicopter, at least.
The dispatcher answered in a faint voice. “Help is on the way, officer.” The woman didn’t say anything more. She wouldn’t give out any information the criminal could hear.
“Is it a big crowd?” the man asked. “I’ve always wanted to die in a spectacular way.”
No point in feeding the guy’s ego. “Just an elderly couple out walking their dogs, but I have a soft spot for golden retrievers. It would be a shame if we hit them.”
The telekinetic didn’t respond. The man was bluffing about being willing to die. If Enzo knew anything about Empowereds, it was that they were selfish to the core. The man wanted to live. Enzo just had to wait the guy out.
Merkley grew more agitated by the moment. His neck flushed, and his eyes bulged with anger, maybe fear. Enzo couldn’t remember if his partner had ever mentioned having a fear of heights.
Merkley let out a long, growl-like breath. “If I’m going to die, you gong farmer, I’m going to get my pound of flesh first. Literally. I always carry a knife.”
Was his partner serious, or was this part of a good cop/bad cop scenario? Merkley always played the bad cop. He took to the role naturally.