Regenesis (Book 1): Impact (71 page)

Jessica
asked if he could get her out of the country, but he said it wasn’t an option,
as her mother and father were well respected individuals, and wherever she went
there would be a news article about it and eventually Dalton would catch up
with her.

She
paused a moment and gave Nick’s situation some thought. “You said you know for
a fact that the MP3 Assassin and this mystery killer are in league with one
another now?”

“Yes.”

“Then
do you think they were involved in your brother’s murder, as well as that of
whomever that woman was that was killed at Jordan’s work?”

He
nodded and said he did. “Why?”

She
frowned and said he might have a larger problem than he realized. “If the MP3
Assassin and the unknown killer are a partnership, then you may have to deal
with both of them if Laruen is ever attacked.” She looked at Nick’s sudden
melancholy and asked if he thought he could still protect her.

“I
don’t have much of a choice, do I? I mean, I can’t leave her to deal with all
of this on her own,” he muttered. He rubbed his eyes and told her it was his
fault he didn’t save her parents in the first place.

“Nick,
you can’t place the blame on yourself. You didn’t kill them and I’d like to
believe that you’ve never done anything like this before, right? So I’d say
it’s a miracle he didn’t kill you and this girl as well.”

Nick
nodded, but still said he felt responsible. “I’ve got to figure this out
though.”

“Well,
are you willing to kill either of these two murderers?”

He
said he didn’t want to.

“Then
how can you ensure her safety from these two without killing them?” she asked.
“If you stopped them from killing her, but left them alive, they’d only return
to try to finish the job so long as someone wanted to pay them for the deed.
Which raises another point Nick, you’d have to find and stop, or kill, the
person who hired them.”

“And
I don’t have a clue as to who that might be.”

“Then
this isn’t the easiest situation to rectify Nick.” She didn’t want to say it,
but told him that in order to save Lauren he might have to step beyond his moral
code to save his friend. “I don’t want to sound harsh, but this isn’t something
you can take lightly and base all of your decisions around a moral code. These
people don’t follow what you believe and will kill you if they know you’re not
up to killing them.”

“I
know, but that doesn’t change anything.”

Jessica
looked at him and asked why he thought it wasn’t justified to fight for
someone’s life like that. “If someone tried to kill my brother, or any one of
my friends or family for that matter, I wouldn’t hesitate to kill them first,
so long as I could save whoever I wanted to protect.”

Nick
asked her if she thought murder was ever justifiable, which Jessica said she
didn’t believe it ever was.

“This
is different Nick. This is something people debate over in ethics courses
around the world, and you’re in it. There isn’t a right or wrong answer in my
opinion, and I truly doubt there is anyone who knows.” She waited a moment
before she told him this situation was entirely in his hands. “You’ve got time
to think this over too. It’s not as if they’re knocking on your door.”

“I
know,” he said. “It feels like they are, but…” He stopped and simply told her
he never thought he’d have to make this decision.

Jessica
frowned and told him it wasn’t fair, but he still had to choose. “If you asked
me Nick, I’d say signs point to you killing these guys.” She explained her
reasoning by reminding him that his ability consisted of his creation and
duplication of firearms, his ability to be bulletproof, his association with
one of the most notorious assassins in the world, and the fact that his brother
was killed by an assassin. “I don’t believe in God,” she told him, “But I would
go so far as to say it almost looks as though someone from above is giving you
the okay here Nick.” She added that she was sorry she couldn’t help more, but
told him it wasn’t something she really had a hand in. “Just think it over and
do what you feel is right.”

---*---

September
29th, 2029

12:36
PM

London,
England

Although
Ian still felt like a tourist, he already loved his new home. He spent a good
amount of his spare time sightseeing and trying local cuisine, as well as
photographing his expeditions across London. His gallery expanded much faster
than he initially expected, but it was what he loved and soon enough it would
be his livelihood too. Ian found a job at a small photography shop where his
primary duties were taking portraits and handling prints. He didn’t start for
another week so naturally he tried to use the rest of his freedom to its full
extent. However, Ian’s double life as Voltage kept him sleeping through most of
the day, so when Ian did venture out into the afternoon, his time was limited.
His social life hardly existed either. Beyond occasional video calls with Coop
and Wally, Drake was the only person Ian had contact with. Drake constantly
wanted to transport him to Dubai or Tokyo for exploring or lunch, but Ian
always refused. He wanted to make the most of the little time he had left
before he started his job.

Ian’s
nights were always filled with patrolling the city as Voltage. When he first
started he was lucky and managed to have an eventful beginning, saving people
from various degrees of peril. The nights were dull since then, which made Ian
think he might be wrong in assuming London needed any super powered help at
all. His other concern was that crime thrived and he failed to see it. Ian
patrolled every evening, sometimes for a few hours and other nights until the
sun rose.

Ian
hovered above the River Thames and scanned the surrounding area for any
mischievous activity, but failed to find any. He let out a breath and continued
to scour the area.

Drake
told him he thought vigilantism was a futile act, as caped crime fighters only
had enough power to prevent acts of violence against someone or something,
which Drake felt happened too rarely. He also believed that guarding the city
as a form of savior reminded the public that there was crime, as there was a
need for those heroes. Drake pointed out some of Voltage’s compatriots, such as
the Human Titan, were trouble seekers, heroes who went around beating the
bushes for anything they could use to fuel their legitimacy. He still wished
Ian the best at what he wanted to do though.

Ian
hadn’t heard a word from anyone other than Drake, Coop and Wally, and his
mother since he moved. From what Drake said Nick was off the deep end and
hadn’t been seen since he changed schools and Jordan and Rachel went through a
pretty bad breakup, though Drake told Ian he tried to push Jordan into calling
him. Ian usually felt fine on his own, but some nights he wondered how fast he
could fly and how long it would take him to get back home. At those times he
tried to convince himself that he truly was home.

Ian
glanced about and nearly decided to turn in when something caught his eye. A
figure, a man, came out of what looked like an old condemned apartment complex.
The man carried something Ian couldn’t make out, but he hovered and watched as
the man walked over to a manhole plate and quietly shift it open. He slipped
inside and at the last moment Ian saw what he carried, a young woman,
unconscious or dead.

His
heart stopped for a moment as he watched a potential killer escape into the
sewer and recover the manhole plate. Ian collected himself and dashed to the
place where the figure vanished from. He used all of his strength to lift the
cover open and quietly slipped inside.

The
stranger was nowhere in sight, though the dark tunnels could have hid him right
before Ian’s eyes. He took a reaffirming breath and started down the tunnel in
search of the man, a body, or light. Ian kept his right hand pressed against
the wall and his left arm forward as he felt his way through the shadows. He
wanted to run, to dart forward and escape the corridors once and for all but he
felt any rash decisions could spell his demise.

As
Ian walked he suddenly hit an acrid stench that hung in the air. He stopped
momentarily to collect himself while he imagined what it might be. After he
summoned the courage and stomach to continue, he pressed onward, still with one
hand on the wall and his other covered his nose. The further he walked the more
pungent the air grew. He soon found a light far away from him and hurried to
meet it, though he believed the source of the odor lay in the same direction he
marched toward.

Ian
heard the sound of running water as he reached an opening with electrical lamps
that illuminated the wide room around him. He searched the room quickly to find
multiple tunnels, an underground river, and the man who escaped him with a
young woman on the cold floor at the opposite end of the room.

“Stop!
What do you think you’re doing with her?” Ian called out.

The
figure remained still. He breathed heavily and quietly asked who he was. “You
are not familiar to me…” the man turned and faced Ian. He showed his scarred
and disfigured, gray face. His breathing remained uneven and short when he
said, “You need to leave hero, this girl is a sinner, a traitorous harlot and
must be destroyed, otherwise she will infect and corrupt our world.”

Ian,
unsettled, asked for an explanation, “What has she done?”

“This
one,” the elderly man sighed, “This one has lied and cheated and stolen and
defiled so many hearts of both men and women…” He continued to list her crimes
and sins with clarity.

Ian
finally stopped him. “So what if she’s done such horrible things? She’s human,
leave her alone.”

The
stranger shook his head and regrettably told Ian he could not. “This girl must
die. She will be made to atone for her crimes and sins.”

Ian
frowned and readied himself to attack if needed, “You know I won’t let you do
that.”

“And
you will stop me? You will oppose the Lord and His will?”

“I
don’t know who you believe your God is, but what I believe tells me this is
wrong.”

The
disfigured man retrieved a rusted blade, opened it in a quick movement, and
held it out a small way from his body. “I know what I have been told, commanded
to do by God, by my God through His angel. Do you believe you can overcome me
then? With only your will to stop me?”

Ian
shifted his weight to his back leg and raced forward. He seized the knife from
the old man’s hand, threw it into a wall far away from the three of them, and
in one swift motion he stuck the villain in the chest with just enough force to
send him reeling back into a wall. Ian resumed his battle stance once more, now
with the girl he protected safely behind him.

The
stranger struggled to return to his feet. He stared at Ian for a moment before
he asked, “What are you?”

Ian
remained ready and immovable, his eyes fixed on his opponent. But the young
woman stirred at his feet and regained consciousness. He glanced down at her
for only a second, but in doing so his foe vanished into one of the many
tunnels. Ian frowned but decided to let him go, as he felt rescuing the girl
took highest priority.

She
awoke and after a moment jumped when she saw him. “Who are you?”

Ian
tried his best to assure her everything was fine. “My name is, er…well call me
Voltage. I’m going to get you out of here. Do you think you can walk?”

The
girl nodded and Ian helped her to her feet. After a moment the pair slowly made
their way through the same passageway Ian entered through, all while he kept
his hand pressed against the wall in search of a ladder to return them to the
surface. He listened too while they made their escape for footsteps, incase
their enemy might try to ambush them on their way out.

---*---

September
28th, 2029

7:20
PM

Seattle,
Washington

Rain
poured over Seattle as Rachel and Vladimir made their way through the
International District in search of Cipriana. Vladimir walked amidst the rain
without any worry or care. Rachel on the other hand utilized the small black
umbrella Vladimir gave her the day they met to shield herself from the storm.

“How
are we supposed to find her?” Rachel asked Vladimir.

“It
is usually simple when Pyotr and I are tracking someone,” he admitted, “Simply
because there is a bit of a body count that acts as a trail. However, when we
deal with anyone who is involved with Constantine it is far from that easy.
They, Constantine and his group, have learned to cover their tracks exceedingly
well.”

“Do
you look for him yourself?”

Vladimir
shook his head and told her that Pyotr handled the initial sleuthing. “I can
hardly scour the papers here in this state for a trace that might lead to him,
while Pyotr has a much wider and larger search area. Ideally I would do a
majority of all the leg work, but when you have an angel with heaven on his
side, you tend to let them take up whatever part of the workload they offer to
carry.”