Jackson Humes is Not a Superhero

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

A deep chill ran down my spine. Mr. Saltzman had been in a rush to go somewhere and had promised that our questions would be answered. Had he left to meet up with Officer Velasquez's brother?

"Did your brother ever talk about Mr. Saltzman?" I asked her.
She tilted her head at the question. "Your neighbor?" She shook her head. "No. Why?"

"Because a couple of days ago he left in a hurry. He didn't say where he was going, but I'm thinking he may have been meeting up with your brother because he said he would have more answers for us. He called me last night, but the line went dead. I tried calling him back, but he never picked up."

"Whose us?" She leaned forward.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"You just said 'he would have more answers for us,' so whose us?"

Crap.

It wasn't that I didn't trust her, I just wasn't sure that I was ready to drag Marv into all this, or Wendy for that matter. "That's not important right now." She was about to interrupt, but I didn't let her. I quickly told her about the Silhouette and how he'd been floating outside my window and had tried to carry me away.

"Why didn't you say anything sooner? Why didn't you file a missing person's report?" She jumped off of the couch and ran back to the computer.

"Up until a few minutes ago, you thought I was lying about the flying thing. How would you have reacted if I had gone into the whole story about the Silhouette trying to abduct me?"

She stopped to look at me briefly, and gave me a quick nod. "Fair enough. Do you happen to know Mr. Saltzman's phone number?"

I'd call his number so many times I had it memorized. She punched it into the computer and the two of us watched the blank screen eagerly. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be looking for but then a small bubble popped up over a map of Kane. She zoomed in until we saw the bubble was hovering right over Kane Hospital. We exchanged worried looks before she reached for her phone and made a call. She spent several minutes on hold while she inquired about Mr. Saltzman, but he hadn't been admitted to any portion of the hospital.

She punched in another number that I didn't recognize, but her search came back empty. She stared at the screen for a very long time, lost in thought.

I waited patiently for as long as I could, but I finally couldn't take the silence and anticipation. "What's going on? What's happening?"

"I'm thinking that you're right. I think Mr. Saltzman probably went to meet my brother somewhere when they were both taken."

I glanced back at the map and gasped. "They were taken back to the lab? But I thought there wasn't anything there."

"There isn't. Or at least there wasn't the last time I was there." She grabbed her phone again.

"What are you going to do?" I asked, trying to keep my fear in check.

"I need backup. I'm going to call the only person I can trust." Before I could say anything else she started to speak to someone on the other end. "Chris, I need your help. I can't explain it over the phone, but I need you to come to the abandoned warehouses in Kane. Take the narrow road all the way to the back. You'll see my car parked next to the entrance. No this isn't a joke," she said wryly. "Get here as soon as you can."

"Why are you only calling one person?" I asked when she was done. "Shouldn't you be calling for all the backup you can get? This guy is a maniac."

"My brother made me swear I would never tell anyone his secret. I can't just take the whole squad in there knowing there might be a guy that can fly and do who knows what else."

Her words were alarming. "Wait, what do you mean? Can he do more than fly?"

She stood up and went to a locked cabinet. I followed closely behind her and watched her unlock it. There was a large safe inside of the cabinet. She punched in the combination and opened it up. There were more weapons and ammunition than I had ever seen in my life. "My brother has long suspected that this Silhouette figure, as you like to call him, has multiple abilities, but he has no proof." She grabbed a duffle bag off of the top shelf and proceeded to fill it.

"I want to go," I said without thinking.

This stopped her in her tracks. She turned around to look at me. "I appreciate the offer, but you are not coming along. I am not putting you in danger."

"You're going to need help. The guy can fly. How do you plan on catching him?"

"I don't need to fly," she grabbed a gun off the shelf and waved it to emphasize her point, "I have bullets."

Across the room, her phone began to ring. She moved to get it, but I was faster. I ran forward, grabbed it off the desk, and jumped into the air. This time I succeeded. I was planning on holding it as a bargaining tool, but I realized I recognized the incoming number.

"Hello, Marv?"

"You little shit," she said below me. I had to do some fancy flying to avoid getting hit with a stapler, a roll of tape, and the couch cushions she sent careening my way.

"Dude, where are you? Your brother just told me what happened. I'm afraid I might have—"

"Tanner told you what happened?" I didn't let him finish. I wanted Officer Velasquez to know that Tanner had totally ratted us out. That stopped her, which was a good thing because she was holding the heavy paperweight.

"Why in the world did you tell him about us?" It was clear that there were two angry people with me at the moment.

"It's complicated, but I'm in a safe-house in one the warehouses at the end of Kane city limits," I said quickly. "Mr. Saltzman is in trouble. Some dude that can fly tried to kidnap me last night. I'm here with Officer Velasquez. She's going to go to the lab under Kane Hospital to find him, but I can't convince her to let me go with her. She thinks her brother was taken as well. He was kidnapped and experimented on when he was younger."

Officer Velasquez was positively murderous.

"Holy shit," Marv said. "What should I do?"

"We're going to need your help. Come to the safe house as soon as you can. It's the one at the very end. You'll see a car parked next to the entrance."   

"Okay. I'm on my way right now. Don't do anything stupid before I get there," he said before hanging up.

"Idiot," she spat out. "Why would you do that? Do you think this is some sort of game?"

"I know exactly what's at stake. Whoever this man is tried to kidnap me. I'm not going to stand by and not do anything. Besides, you're going to need our help."

"I should shoot you right now," she said angrily.

"You could, but if anything happens to me my friend will call the cops and blow the lid on this whole thing." The dialogue was straight out of a cop drama. Who says streaming hours upon hours of shows didn't come in handy?

"Fine, but if you get killed, it's not going to be on me." She dropped the paperweight and went back to the safe.

Someone banged on the door. I flew to the other side of the room and took cover behind Officer Velasquez, but I didn't come out of the air in case I needed to make a quick getaway. Officer Richards stepped out of the hallway and into the room. He looked a little put off having been asked to come to the middle of nowhere, but his expression quickly turned to one of shock when he realized I was hovering in the air. He whipped out his gun and aimed it directly at me.