Off The Pages: A Superhero Science Fiction Adventure

Chapter Sixteen Part One

Jericho watched as she stepped outside the cabin and took off. He changed into a pair of loose jeans and a t-shirt, slipping his cell phone into the pants pocket after placing a barrier around it. Before he stepped out, he turned to the woman preparing food for her children. "I won't be gone for too long," he said.

Her expression told him she had it as together as she could get. "I'm going to feed them and then I'll be off to bed," she said. "I...this isn't right for me to say, but you guys are going to have to kill my husband, aren't you?"

A sigh escaped his lips. "I would like not to," he said. "I really would. But it's not looking good. He just made it a life-and-death issue."

She tended the pan. "I know," she replied. "It's just not fair."

"No," Jericho agreed. "It's not. In a fair world, none of this would happen."

He stepped outside and took to the air. It probably wouldn't have taken long to teleport there, but he wanted to feel the wind against him. A wave of calmness passed over him as the air brushed past his body. In a few minutes, he arrived at a small panel house, on the outskirts of a small town, just off a dirt road. He knocked on the door.

A panel slid open and eyes regarded him. "Come in," an older man's voice cried.

"It was a good idea to keep this off the map," Davis Wilson said, sitting in a chair off to the side.

"I kept this place to meet with informants in secret," Sam Louis remarked, shutting the door and locking it twice, "not to meet with people likely to become public enemy number one."

Jericho took a seat at the small wooden table. The house had that late seventies yellowish décor, with faded light blue tiles in the kitchen and ancient linoleum, complete with barred, translucent windows. The outside wore lower class decrepit paneling. All in all, he considered it a perfect fit with the abandoned homes from the 2008 crisis. "So," he asked, "you agree that he's going to target Jennifer and I specifically?"

Sam nodded. "Yup," he said. "And what's worse is, we expect this to happen soon."

"Not that I doubt you," Jericho argued, "but why's that?"

"Logically," Davis cut in, "you're the most powerful ones. And let's face it, we expect that this figure is very powerful. Maybe as powerful as or more powerful than Jennifer." Davis saw the worry building on the man's face. "Let me introduce you to someone." He gestured.

A third man, seated at the table, had been quietly waiting for his turn. Jericho had seen the mid-forties person, red t-shirt with collar, and black jeans, unassuming build, and wondered. Still, he hadn't said anything because he wanted to hear what the FBI agents had to say first. The man had a scholarly look about him, his green eyes and vaguely English features, round chin and close together soft eyes, and a look on his face of intrigue. "You're Jericho Torvalds," he introduced, "Sam and Dave here have told me all about you. My name's Raymond Weiss." A short cut, right parted head of wet soil colored hair adorned his head, with small threads of bangs touching his forehead.

The billionaire open mouth smiled and extended a hand. "I've been wanting to get in touch with you!" he exclaimed. "You're the physics professor from UC Berkley!"

"Believe it or not," the man replied, "I've been wanting to meet you too, because I think this whole thing has gotten out of hand, and you guys are going to need my help." He shook the man's hand. "I think it's best if I show you what's been going on with me."

At the University of California, Berkley, in a physics lab, Doctor Raymond Weiss sat staring at a series of equations on a board. For the better part of two months, he'd been pouring over data sent to him. All of the equations had proven solvable except these. The math had evaded every attempt to figure it out, and his effort was so focused he didn't notice the sound of footsteps approaching.