Hero Stalker

Part Fifty-Two

"You fell in?" Cypher could barely conceal his glee.

I wrung water out of my bun. "I tripped. It happens."

"You tripped on water?"

My knee had buckled halfway out and I'd fallen face first in WashingtonHarbor. Better not to reveal my personal weaknesses until I knew how Harpy had gotten his schematic. He can't be Harpy. I saw both of them at the same time during the Speedway fight. "Why are you always here? Don't you have a job?"

"I have flexible hours. Thought I'd work on Benny. Pulse was supposed to drop by for a lesson in hand-to-hand combat, but the little shit's probably at another poetry reading. By the way, he's an awful poet."

"Don't make fun of people's hobbies."

"I'm not making fun of his hobby. I'm making fun of how he sucks at it."

The window popped open. Peregrine flew in, a pizza box in each hand. "Delivery."

"Excellent!" Cypher jumped up from his chair. "Benny, initiate subroutineCollege Party."

The mobile section of the floor Peregrine hovered over wobbled. A glass box shot out of the ground with a pack of paper plates inside, alongside a twelve-pack of PBR and some red plastic cups.

"See, Shadowcat? I have a useful hobby."

Peregrine handed me the pizzas. She then grabbed the box of beer, flew over to the window, and dropped it out. My eyes widened. She'd just littered in the harbor.

"I hate that shit," she growled, flying back over to the table. "Cypher, bring up Slasher's stash."

"Technically, that would be stealing."

"So pay him off. You can afford it."

"Fine," Cypher said. "Benny, initiate subroutine Get Me The Good Stuff."

A glass-enclosed liquor cabinet rose out of the floor. Cypher closed his eyes and clenched his fists. It popped open.

"He needs to stop using 'password' as a password," said Cypher.

Amanda mixed herself a rum and coke, downed it, and mixed up another while Cypher and I spread the plates out on the table next to the giant TV screen. Part of me worried I'd spill pizza sauce on the seal, but neither Peregrine nor Cypher seemed to care.

"Shots!" Peregrine poured a small amount of vodka into a cup and passed it to me.

I passed it back. "I'm not doing that in uniform."

"Buzz kill." She downed my shot and hers.

"Has anyone seen my psi-meter?" Cypher asked. "Not the team one. The one I built. I left it out on the table yesterday and now it's gone."

"Haven't seen it," I said.

"Femme probably used it as a dildo," Peregrine said. My eyebrows shot up.

By the time I finished my second slice, she'd begun swaying back and forth in her seat. Cypher and I exchanged a worried glance. Peregrine mixed herself a third rum and coke.

"Why are you wet?" she asked me, ripping into a piece of pepperoni and slurring her words.

"I fell in the harbor. Are you okay?"

"I hate that fucking question. Yeah. Why do you ask?"

Cypher spoke up. "Benny's sensors tell me your blood-alcohol content is almost point-seventeen percent. That's twice the legal limit. I'd take your keys if you'd driven here, but all I can do now is ask you not to fly."

"Screw you, Cypher. You sounds like my boss. I hate work."

"Peregrine," I said, slowly and clearly. "What's up at work?"

"Work is hell. My boss wants to hold a big press conference on Harbor Day announcing we've cured cancer."

I stared at her. Did she even try to keep her secret identity secret? "Isn't curing cancer a good thing?"

"You can't cure cancer. It's not one disease. It's a set of symptoms that apply to multiple diseases with different causes. There will never be a single drug to eliminate it. She just wants to brag about everything we've accomplished and raise some hopes. Most of the patients will be disappointed in the end, but who cares? It's not about dying people. It's about getting grant money and making headlines. Hypocrite. Everyone in this city's a hypocrite."

"I accessed Doctor Carlisle's notes from the hospital database." Cypher wiped a drop of sauce off the table with his cape. "Ran a model of the drug molecule. It seems feasible. Could save some lives. Kind of heroic, if you think about it."

Peregrine laughed. "Heroic? You of all people should know better. A real hero has skin in the game. Something to lose. Even if Carlisle's treatment is a failure, she'll keep her nice job, her expensive house, her eight cats that she can't shut up about. We all know what you lost." She pointed her cup at Cypher. "Who you lost."

"I don't want to talk about my parents." Cypher grabbed a beer.

"Why? Because you can't live up to them?" Peregrine stood up, swaying a little. She floated up into the air, leant sideways, and crashed into the ground.

A heartbeat later, I stood above her, holding out my hand. "Come on. I think you should lie down."

She swatted my hand away and reclined on her crumpled cape. "What have you got to lose, Shadowcat? What are you risking to be a hero?"

"Me? I don't really consider myself a hero." Technically, I hadn't even made the team yet. Remembering that less than week remained until Slasher's deadline made my skin crawl.

"That's okay. I don't consider you one, either." A sloppy smile spread across her face. "Come on. What do you have to lose?"

I've made plenty of enemies, Dan said in my memory. I pictured Mom and Dad, my siblings, and Annabelle. What Harpy would do if he knew how important these things were to me?

"Don't be a bitch, Peregrine," Cypher said. "I'm cutting you off."

"Cutting me off?" She rose onto her knees and kicked clumsily off the ground. Her feet clipped the Wall of Fame as she flew across the divider and stood in front of the liquor cabinet. "Make me."

"Leave this one to me," I muttered to Cypher, backing up against the giant TV screen. My running start gave me all the momentum I needed to leap over the Wall of Fame and land two feet from her face. Peregrine jumped backwards. My hand slammed the cabinet shut. It beeped and locked itself. Peregrine looked mad enough to scream until the case shattered.

"Benny, initiate subroutine Eighty Six." Cypher walked up behind me. The cabinet dropped back into the floor.

"Cute," Peregrine said. Her eyes flickered all over me. "What are you really doing here, Shadowcat? Enjoying yourself? Showing off your cool new powers? Jumping from building to building, like life's some kind of game and you're the lucky winner? I've got news for you. You won't catch Harpy. You'll go back to wasting your life as a rich woman's black lapdog. Only this time, Harpy will be melting the flesh off everyone you love."

She shot through the window in a flash of crimson. I stared at her as she went. Was that really how she felt about me? My stomach churned. Tears burned in my eyes.

"Remind me never to give her alcohol again," said Cypher.