Josefer Martin - A Day in the Life - Chapter 4

"…ome in. I repeat. Joe, Jess, this is Control, Come in." came the panicked voice over the radio.

"Control, this is Joe, we're here," I replied. He looked over to Jessica, and then at the vault around us, empty as it was.

"Joe, what happened?"

"Control, we have a problem. Mission failed."

"What do you mean failed," interrupted James over the radio, "Mel and I trounced those robbers like two minutes ago. Heck, we'd be out of here by now if you two hadn't been incommunicado."

"Jay," I said, my voice strained, I wasn't mad at him, but at myself, "The vault is empty. It was cleared out about thirty seconds ago. Poof, gone, and I didn't have time to trace it."

"What? But, you've been in there for three minutes, are you telling me you let them escape?"

"No," interjected Jessica, "He's saying we couldn't do anything about it. They'd already collected everything by the time we got here. If they had wanted to, we wouldn't have known until they checked the vault after we were gone."

"It was a trap," I added, "and a damn good one."

"Joe," commanded Control, "are you two ready for an evac?"

I looked over to Jessica, she nodded. "Yes Control. What's the location?"

"The roof, Jay and Mel are up here already."

"Roger, we'll be up in minute."

"You've got thirty seconds."

I quickly removed my headset, and looked at Jessica, "You ready for a jump?"

She nodded, "Yeah." She then took a step and hugged me. I blinked, and we dropped thirty centimeters to the roof. I released the hug after a quick squeeze, and turned to face the waiting helicopter.

"You two lovebirds coming or not?" asked Jay over the roar of the rotors. I barely heard him, but the headset was still in my hand.

I looked at Jessica, then tipped my head towards the waiting chopper. She nodded and we jogged over to the open door, ducking low so that the down-wash wouldn't knock us over.

We got inside and strapped ourselves in.

Jay tapped his headset, so I got the hint and put mine back on.

"Control, we're secure," I said, as the helicopter lifted off the roof of the bank.

"So," asked Melissa, "anyone we know?"

"Yeah," replied Jessica, "Zelda and Mike."

"What," exclaimed James, "I thought they'd skipped town!"

"Probably did," I explained, quickly thinking over the situation, "got themselves some costumes, probably some handles, and definitely some mooks. They came back for a reason."

"Money?" asked Melissa.

"Well," I explained, "not exactly. Yeah, they got the money, but it was to gloat, and to tell Jess and I that they were back, and that they weren't playing nice."

"Well, I'm sure the Supes can capture them," offered Melissa.

"No," said Jessica confidently, "Mike's too smart for that. Heck, you know how hard it was to communicate through that vault. If Zelda can put up a protection zone that secure in an unfamiliar place, image how secure their lair would be."

"Yeah," I conformed, "plus, Mike's smarter then most of the Supes in the city. Combined with Zelda's spells, which are as potent as any Supe in state can muster, they'll be nearly unstoppable."

"Nearly," confirmed James, "but you got a plan, right?"

I smiled, "Oh, yeah, lots of them, but they'll never work." I paused, then continued, "You see, I don't know enough of the details. Mike made sure of it. He knows as much about my limitations as I do, maybe more. He knows that I need clues to deduce from. Even Sherlock Holmes would have trouble with this one. The security on the vault and Zelda's hold on Jess and I ran out almost ten seconds after they left. I need a teleport to be less then two seconds old before I can get a lock, Jessica, being a teleporter doesn't need that fresh a trail, but still, ten seconds was too old. We couldn't trace the teleport before the trail dissipated."

There was a pause, then Melissa chimed in, "But, they've got a weakness, right? The universe won't let someone get that much power with a weakness. It's a fundamental law."

"Yeah, and that's the one bright spot in all of this," I acknowledged. "Zelda's a spellcaster, which slows her down. Mike's got an ego the size of a small moon."

"So," asked James, "we'll get them, right?"

"Yeah," I said, but it lacked confidence. I looked out the window at the city passing below us, "we'll get them. He's got something of mine, and I intend to get it back."