Hero Stalker

Part Twenty

Femme waved us over to the table on the other side of the wall of memorabilia. I made sure Slasher walked in front of me. The odds were good he had throwing stars in his other bracer as well.

I followed Cypher and Slasher's lead in sliding into one of the black leather chairs surrounding the table. "Smiles, team," Femme said as she tapped the giant screen on the wall. Mayor Hollis' face popped up. His puffy cheeks and the scrap of ham trapped in his mustache were the last things I wanted to see magnified to a hundred times their size.

"Afternoon!" he boomed out. He could have made an excellent mall Santa Claus. "I see you've got a new member!"

"This is Shadowcat," Femme muttered. "She's very happy to meet you."

"And I'm happy to meet her, too!" His smile vanished. "What I'm not happy about seven dead homeless people. 'Missing Your Poor?' I've had reporters calling my office all day asking why the police didn't know anything about this. Bums vanish off the streets all the time; how the hell were the police supposed to know this was different?"

I remembered the times I'd dodged eye contact with Goldie Newman and bit my lip to keep from speaking up.

"It's their job to know," Femme said. "It's also ours. We're working our hardest to apprehend the culprit."

"I met with Commander Ayer earlier today. The DA's willing to let Harpy's henchmen walk on abduction charges and they're still not talking. Ayer thinks Harpy made them watch the killings. What are you going to do about this?"

"Follow procedure."  

"I've seen his manifesto. The bastard says he's going to shatter our faith in public institutions. Harbor Day's in less than two weeks. There will be almost a hundred thousand people in WashingtonHarbor. It's the historic district. We can't get a single emergency vehicle through those streets without going up on the sidewalk. If we can't apprehend him before next Saturday, we're going to have to cancel."

"No!" I blurted out. Harbor Day made August worthwhile. Everyone in Bayton came. There were jugglers, acrobats, carnival games, and fried food. Businesses large and small showed off new products and handed out free stuff. I got half my tee-shirts there. Plus, every year the Centurions would come out in public and demonstrate their powers. We couldn't cancel the Centurion Expo.

Femme coughed. "What my young colleague means is that Harbor Day generates millions of dollars for the municipal government and provides an economic boost for hundreds of local businesses. Cancelling it because a two-bit lunatic in a robot suit carries out a single crime is the height of stupidity. We'd be waving a white flag to the League of Liars, saying 'come at us, we're scared'."

It exists? I gasped. Was she joking?

"Is she okay?" Mayor Hollis said.

Slasher elbowed my side. "Shut your mouth before a rat builds a nest there."

I shut my mouth.

"She'll be taking the Oath on Harbor Day," Femme said. "At the exposition. It'll be her official introduction to the city. Understandably, we don't want it cancelled."

"Then it's on your shoulders." He pointed a thick, meaty finger at the screen. "Get the bastard."

The screen went blank. Femme massaged her temples. "Any questions, team?"

Why did I vote for that asshole? "Is the League of Liars really real?" I'd read a thousand different rumors about it. The League was ruled by the most elite supervillains in the world, the League secretly controlled the president, the League had partnered up with aliens . . .

 "Yeah." Cypher said. "It's like a fraternity for evil. Prospective members have to take twenty-one shots, kiss the mascot's naked ass, and murder five hundred civilians before they're in."

"You can also get in by stealing upwards of twenty million dollars or killing two Centurions with your bare hands." Slasher said. "Or if the leader takes a shine to you. He's a flexible son of a bitch."

 "Must not be a very big club," I said.

Cypher shot a glance at Femme. Slasher glared at me. "Don't worry about Harbor Day," he said. "Shadowcat will stop Harpy long before then. After all, it is her deadline."

 I squirmed. Just keep reminding me, will you?

"Leave the mayor to me," Femme said. "Shadowcat, will you swear on the Bible, Torah, Koran, or Plato's Republic?"

"I swore on a bottle of gin," Slasher said. "Still got it somewhere if you want it."

"Bible," I said, automatically. "But . . . " Tens of thousands of people came to the expo. Plus the mayor and city council members.Sure, I could recite the Centurion Oath by heart in my bathroom mirror, but there'd be reporters at the exposition, and none of them would be as friendly as Annabelle. What if Valerie came? Could I possibly take the oath in front of my boss?

And when it ended, my masked face would grace newspapers across the country. Everyone would know Shadowcat's name. You joined the Centurions for life. When I got in for good, I'd never want to leave. But how could I keep checking The Worldley Fewe if there was a chance people would be talking about me?

"You know what? Why don't I just take the oath right now?" I said.

"You haven't earned that right yet." Slasher said. "Besides, when you swear an oath, you need as many witnesses as possible. So if you break it, the whole world will know you're an untrustworthy bitch with nothing but ground-up tires between your cute little cat ears."

"It's all about appearances." Femme kicked the air. Her leg shot out at a ninety-degree angle to her body. A metal spike flew out of her stiletto and hit the bulls-eye of a target across the room. Green gas leaked out of the tip. "Water vapor and dye. But you'd be surprised how many idiots think they're choking to death when they see it."