Originally posted July 11, 2011
((This had been an idea I've wanted to play with for some time. How would Chance react to a threat to his family?))
"Listen carefully, Mr. Thomas," said a modulated voice. "We have your sister."
I hung up and dialed Yukiko's number. It rang twice before an undisguised voice answered. "That wasn't very cool, Chance."
I bit my lip, pressing mute and calling out to Paz as she stood behind the bar, nonplussed. "Track Yukiko's phone, now." The dark haired woman pulled her phone from her jeans and began tapping without a moment of hesitation. Believe it or not, we actually practice responses to these scenarios.
"We don't want any money. We just want you and that gabete, El Alacran, and any of you capas to stay off the West Side docks until midnight." Paz held up her phone to me, showing an address. I confirmed I was still muted before I spoke, "Call Eddie."
"We're watching the restaurant, blanquito. You take a step out, she dies by inches." I listened as Paz rattled off Spanish into the phone. This would have been a good time to say something bold; some tagline they would use in a movie trailer. Instead, I hung up.
My phone rang again in less than five seconds. "You stay put, Mr. Thomas. ¿Oíte?" I hung up, again, and then stared at the phone for a few moments, waiting to see if it would ring again.
"Eddie's on his way to the address," I heard Paz say. "What did you learn?"
"Male voice, tenor. He used some Spanish but had a strange accent. Oite, blanquito. He called you a gabete?"
"A shoelace. Suelta como gabete," she laughed. "Loose as a shoelace. He called me a slut, Chance."
"Well, he called El Alacran a slut, technically," I assured her. Both Paz and Yukiko used secret identities, changing their hair color, covering their faces. Paz even padded her costume to change her shape and distract the bad guys. The bad guy in this case probably didn't know he had captured a superhero. They must have snatched her in the open, with a group of people around. My sister would treasure that information, waiting to use her considerable martial arts ability until the right moment.
Of course, it wouldn't take much effort to tie the Japanese teen and Latina hero that fought alongside The Harrier to his public identity, Chance Thomas. No one else had seemed figure that out, yet.
"He's Puerto Rican," Paz told me. "Those are all Puerto Rican terms." I nodded, my memory working through the list of PR's in the 14th Street Kings. The phone on the bar top didn't ring.
"I should call Danny." Yukiko's boyfriend and fellow super-hero, Junior Defender; Nice kid, not very subtle. "Let's wait a few more moments," Paz suggested. "It might be nothing." The phone on the bar top did not ring.
The restaurant manager poured us two glasses of water. I mumbled a quiet, "Thanks." A few moments passed. "Not very bright, this one," I considered. "He wants us to stay off the docks until midnight. Sounds like they plan to use the same drop point."
Paz nodded, moving her head closer to Chance, her voice dropping as restaurant started to fill. "Only so many places you can unload a boat." She sighed. "He sounds like un bobo, a..." she had to look up to the ceiling to find the English word, "a patsy, for DEMON. He could not organize the pattern we saw last night, I think."
The phone rang. I scooped it up. They missed them. Eddie and his team raided an empty apartment, finding the smashed remains of Yukiko's cell phone on the floor. He shared some other details, a number of clues they had already discovered. I shared what Paz and I had come up with.
"Those are good details, Chance," he told me. "That limits the suspects to just a handful.
"What should I do now, Eddie?"
"Get ready for the lunch crowd, socio." He took a breath. "Give us some time to work this. Let them see you. Let them think you're following instructions. I'll call back regularly. I'll give you every detail. It's a long time until they'll try to make another drop."
"Eddie, we need to let them make the drop. We need to be there when it happens. We need to lock this up. We need to capture these weapons and stamp out what's left of the Kings."
"We have some time before we need to make that decision, Chance." I nodded, forgetting for a moment that he couldn't see me. "I'll call you back as soon as learn anything." He hung up.
"Well?" Paz asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Well," I answered, trying to muster a smile. "What are our lunch specials?"
--
The fact that Kori had to make decisions like this all the time was not lost on me. I like to think that she agonized over the decision to fake her own death, leaving her then fiancé out in the cold, unsure he could ever trust her again. I know she didn't; agonize over it. It was just one more thing she needed to do to save the world. Her boyfriend would either accept it or not. As much as he tried, he just couldn't.
At least Yukiko and I had talked about it. I knew how she'd want me to act. Whether if she would ever trust me after this remained to be seen. Kori promised me no more secrets, and held to it for a while. We fell back into the same patterns. There were things she would never tell me; things I never wanted to hear.
Eddie called every 30 minutes, even if he didn't have any new information. The Kings had grabbed Yukiko as she walked between classes. Her friends thought it was a prank. MCU sponsors a successful "Jail and Bail" fundraiser every year. Yeah. It doesn't make any since to me, either.
The hours clicked by. I called Danny and got him in touch with Lt. Alejandro. Paz and I got the restaurant through lunch, helped with some homework, re-adjusted some schedules, got the place ready for dinner. Some time after the first seating arrived, we made our way to the wine cellar, separately. Together, we retreated to the sub-basement, geared up, and and made ready to head out. Eddie contacted me one last time to go over the details. We wished each other luck.
El Alacran and The Harrier entered Millennium City's extensive network of sewers, heading west towards the docks. I kept hoping Yukiko's grandfather would understand when I explained this to him, later. The retired Yakuza oyabun could put a hit out on me as easily as he could accept my decision. I had made a promise to him, a promise to protect his only surviving family. I hoped he would remember his commitment to the community, his obligation to the larger group of people who looked to him to help make their lives better.
Protect the people close to you or go out, beat the bad guys, save the world. Not much of a decision when boiled down.
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