Absolute Power. Michael Carroll

fight.

      “Erica! Are you crazy?”

      Crouched over the masked boy, Crew-cut raised the metal bar above his head, aiming for the boy’s head.

      Erica leaped forward, somersaulted in the air, landed on her hands and slammed her feet into Crew-cut’s back.

      The metal bar dropped from his hands: Erica grabbed it as it fell, swung it upwards, hitting Red-bandanna in the back of his knees.

      She whipped the bar in the opposite direction, jabbing the end straight into Tattoo’s bare upper arm, then spun about, a round-house kick that caught Tattoo in the chin.

      Erica straightened up.

      Red-bandanna was on the ground, clutching his legs. Crew-cut was sprawled face-down across the masked boy, moaning and gasping for breath. Tattoo was flat on his back, unconscious.

      Her attack had lasted no more than two seconds.

      The masked boy rolled the still-moaning Crew-cut to one side and awkwardly got to his feet.

      Deep brown eyes peered from the ski-mask with a mixture of shock and gratitude. “I…How did you…? What just happened here?”

      Erica glanced down at the boy’s shoes, then handed him the metal bar. “Next time, leave the superhero stuff to someone who knows what they’re doing.”

      She turned around and walked back to Karen, who had turned even more pale and was starting to shake.

      “Erica…Where did you learn to do that?”

      “My dad taught me.” She took her backpack from Karen’s trembling hands. “Come on. If we’re late, we’ll get into trouble.”

      Still staring at the beaten gang members, Karen said, “OK. Trouble. We don’t want to get into trouble…” She began to walk backwards. “Your dad taught you…What was he? A cop or something?”

      “Something like that, yes.” Erica put her hand on Karen’s face and forced her to look away. “Karen, listen to me, OK? This didn’t happen. Got that?”

      Karen nodded. “Didn’t happen. All right. So what did happen?”

      “Nothing.” They had reached the end of the block and Erica looked back to see that the masked boy had disappeared. “Nothing happened.”

      They walked the rest of the way to school in silence. Erica was glad of that.

      But what about the masked boy? If he starts to wonder about me…

      She remembered the final meeting with the agent from the Witness Relocation Program: “You must always keep a low profile. Your family dynamic is unusual enough that if someone investigates, it won’t take them long to put two and two together and come up with the right answer.

      “That’s the main reason we’re putting the girls into separate schools,” The agent had told her mother. “There are a lot of people who still believe that your husband was responsible for all those deaths, and since his identity was made public, we must do everything we can to keep you hidden. From now on, your name is Kara van Piet. Your daughters are Tanith and Erica.”

      At the end of the meeting, the agent had handed each of them a document. “Sign these, please. They’re to confirm that you’ve understood everything I’ve said.”

      When the documents were handed back, the agent had sighed. “Two out of three. Now, Erica, see how easy it is to get it wrong? It’s vital that you remember that from now on, your name is Erica van Piet, not Stephanie Cord.”

      The New Heroes gathered in Impervia’s office, a small windowless room situated in the heart of the building. She was already sitting down behind her desk when they entered.

      Impervia said, “I know you’ve been expressing some concerns about how we do things here, but that has got to stop. You have to accept things as they are and trust us. Understood?”

      “Yes sir,” Butler said.

      The others didn’t reply.

      Impervia sighed and went on. “On a mission, you do as you are ordered. And you do not question those orders, nor speculate about them. That sort of thing is enough to give any witnesses good reason to believe that we are not acting as a unified team. The media are already asking questions about what we do here.”

      Renata said, “Questions such as, why aren’t we actually helping people instead of blowing up the Trutopians’ emergency supplies?”

      Before Impervia could respond, Danny asked, “Did you know what was on the island?”

      “No, we did not,” Impervia said.

      “If you had known, but the general still ordered you to blow it up, would you have?”

      “Yes.”

      “But that’s crazy!”

      Butler said, “No, it’s not. You have to follow the chain of command. Whatever General Piers says, we do. Back when I was in the academy—”

      “The academy that threw you out?” Razor asked. “Or was there another one?”

      Butler ignored him. “Back when I was in the academy, the first rule we were taught was that people die if you don’t follow orders. The commanders know more than the people under them.” He looked at Impervia. “That’s why you were brought in to be in charge of us, right?”

      Impervia nodded. “Because I have military experience as well as the experience of being a superhuman.”

      Renata said, “Kinsella wants an explanation. What are you going to tell him? That it was a mistake?”