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Stories from the Verse
Con Version
Chapter 214: Cooper 68
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Takano 150
“So that’s the situation, William. We’re going up tonight in a little bit, and we thought to inform you and The Eagle of what we know.”
“Hmmm, Belle?”
She did not say anything so Brian assumed non-verbal communication which he could not see over the telephone line.
“Wait for me. I have a powerful car.”
Brian put down the pay phone and walked back to the manse through the falling twilight. He could easily have justified using the manse phone as it really was an emergency, but he was not walking as much as he had been. He missed it. Stalking the night streets of Berkeley was not the same thing as a nice, brisk walk. If he got this situation with Doctor Mordenslice fixed up, he would have to make time to climb some of the other mountains around the valley.
Arriving back, he told the others of William Tell Junior joining them. Twenty minutes later, a powerful Caddy with its headlights cutting paths in the full dark pulled into the driveway. Everyone tromped out and jumped in.
“We geared up?” Keller asked them.
“Yes,” Derek replied. Brian tended to defer to him, as the most experienced verser; Keller, who had been a superhero for many years in Berkeley, did not, but he did respect the other’s skills.
“I called The Eagle.”
“We tried to, but we couldn’t get him,” Tommy interrupted as the Caddy smoothly pulled out.
“He was in his comms shed. It doesn’t have a link through for regular phones. He says it’s a security measure, but I have a private phone number. He wants his neighbor, who is a Cessna pilot, to fly us up. He said he’d meet us up there.” The Caddy ran through the nightstreets, and Keller drove it with a deft touch as the power steering made driving the huge vehicle a matter of ease. But the speed limit was being tossed out, and as they crossed the river bridge, Keller just threw the rulebook away. Brian took a look over at the speedometer which was hitting 103 mph, and decided closing his eyes and praying was the thing to do. He felt the car sway, heard the tires screech, and heard a cool voice from Keller.
“Good, the road looks clear ahead, now I can speed up.”
God, you led me through the fires of the Inquisition, and I’d prefer for all of us to survive this trip, but it's your plan, so I guess I should just enjoy this like a roller coaster ride.
Brian opened his eyes, and watched with calm interest as Keller slid the Caddy around a mountain road’s curve at eighty miles per hour. Revving the engine, they picked up speed. At first, Brian wondered why Keller was driving so fast. Did he know some bit of data the others did not? No; if he did, he would have said it already. Suddenly the memory of being flown unexpectedly off the roof of the BBS building came back to him. Keller had been testing Brian then. Now, he was testing the others.
Brian looked and saw Tommy quietly praying, and Derek to his utter surprise was yawning. Incredulous, Brian stared at the boy who then gave him a very quick wink before going back to ostentatiously yawning. Brian bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing. Derek had figured out what Keller was doing, and was putting on his own show.
The quintet arrived in a cloud of dust at The Eagle’s neighbor’s house. The Eagle’s Roost, at least the lighthouse part, was visible over the thin line of trees that ran part of the property line. A man came out of the front door of the rancher. He was dressed in a gray sweatshirt, blue jeans, and boots.
“Hi, Frank Falcon. I’m The Eagle’s neighbor, and I fly a charter Cessna from the hangar out back. Have a one strip grass runway with a windsock and everything. But I’m fully certified for night flying so we’re good.”
“You’re The Eagle.” Tommy said.
“What? No. Not my bag. No way,” Falcon protested even as Derek and Brian in their superhero costumes looked at him with skepticism. Then Vashti nodded.
“Yes, I see it.”
“How?” A powerful feminine voice came from the dark of the front lawn on the mountaintop, and Sockajawea strolled up to the group.
Keller shrugged. “I don’t know, Socky.”
“Do not call me that, Misses Shot.”
“That is not my Indian name. And I will call you that as long as you keep holding a grudge over one missed shot two years ago,” Keller snapped, but Brian saw the smiles on both of their faces.
“Children,” Falcon began.
“I’m older than you, Frank,” Sockajawea said.
“And yet somehow, I’m the adult in this conversation,” Falcon said with a mix of determination and calm. He did not seem to realize that the other two were playing a prank on him with their banter.
“But really, how Tell?”
“Like I told you, Sockajawea, I did my dual identity bit, and this guy here, the new Mister Justice, saw through it in less than ten seconds. Now we know it's not just him, but all of them.”
“Green Hawk could do the same thing,” Sockajawea said.
“Derek?” Brian questioned with his own vote clear in his voice. Brian was not a fan of lying or anything close to it. He was willing to do the secret identity thing but if it had been just him, he probably would not have bothered.
“Like Green Hawk,” Derek said, “we’re from another universe–all of us. For some reason, everyone in this one has some inability to see through very simple disguises.”
“Simple disguises?” Sockajawea sounded a bit put out. She twisted a ring on her finger, and her superheroine costume transformed into a sensible cranberry skirt and jacket with white turtleneck, and her bangs now hanging over her proud forehead. She put on a pair of black glasses. Brian shook his head.
“I’m sorry, Sockajawea, really, but any of us would instantly see you and think Sockajawea.”
Her mouth hung open.
“I was shocked when Green Hawk did it, but he always said it was ‘the spirits whispering to him’. You act like we’re children playing at disguises.”
“You’ve made your point, Tell,” The Eagle said. “He told us you had told him that you thought Doctor Mordenslice was Doctor Jonas Cutter, but we didn’t see how you could know. We doubted your perceptions. I do not plan to do that again myself.”
“Nor I,” said a more sober sounding Sockajawea.
“Well, then let’s get out to my Cessna. It can carry eight plus gear, and Fisticuff would have wanted to come, but we asked him to guard the City of Berkeley tonight as we fly off to Yellowstone,” The Eagle said even as he donned his face mask. This seemed to relax him.
Using a flashlight, The Eagle checked out his twin engine Cessna private commercial plane. All the checks came back green, and so did his check of the grass runway for any new stones. Twenty minutes later they were racing into the wind. Two minutes later they were circling above the mountain. After that they flew through the night toward Yellowstone City.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
