Tales of the Scarlet Knight Collection: The Call Read online

  Doing some mental calculations, she determined there wasn’t a blind spot in the museum’s coverage, but there were seams to it. These were the edges of each camera’s vision. While these really should overlap, her calculations indicated they didn’t exactly do that. So long as she stayed along the seams, the camera’s view of her would be minimized; a guard who looked at it might assume she was merely a shadow or bit of static.

  After she took a deep breath, she stepped out onto the floor. She had to walk sideways and creep along the seam to keep her profile as small as possible. As she neared Alex, she came close to one of the guards. Her heart stopped as the guard reached down for the radio on his belt and flicked it on.

  “Hey Art, how’s everything upstairs with our boys in blue?”

  “They’re holding a slumber party up there.”

  The guard snorted. “Sounds about right. You got anything on the cameras?”

  “Nah. A little shadow on A3. Might be a ghost.”

  “Sure, probably a caveman to kill this big elephant.”

  Emma had to bite down on her lip to keep from correcting the guard. She waited until he sauntered off to continue his rounds before she continued to slide along the seams. No alarms sounded and no guards shouted for her to halt as she reached the front doors. This would be the toughest part, as there was no way for her to go through the doors without being seen clearly.

  She caught a lucky break when a guard came in from outside. Emma managed to duck behind him and then barrel out the door, to the front steps. She shuffled along as fast as she could with the cape around her body before anyone shouted for her to stop.

  “Not bad,” Marlin said.

  When she reached an alley, she finally let the cape drop. “They didn’t see me, did they?”

  “Yes, a real crack team you’ve got there.”

  She couldn’t argue with that assessment. Perhaps she needed to speak with the director about some new security measures. “Now what?”

  “Climb up to that building and practice your landings. I’ll go and look for a crime you can thwart.”

  Emma didn’t have any problem with climbing up the side of the building or leaping from the roof. The problem as always came with the landing. She thought back to the Olympics gymnastics competitions she had seen when she was a child. It hadn’t taken her long to realize she didn’t have the grace or balance for gymnastics. She had quit largely at the insistence of her mother, who didn’t want her to get hurt.

  The armor protected her as she once again came down hard, this time on her side. I can do this, she told herself. It was simple physics. If she could calculate the wind’s velocity and resistance, it would help her determine the angle from which she needed to jump. She studied the rooftop and did her best to estimate these variables. Then she took off again, changing her angle slightly.

  The result wasn’t much better. This time she wound up flat on her back, staring up at the night sky. In Rampart City only the brightest stars were ever visible, the rest blotted out by the light pollution. As she searched the orange-brown sky for Polaris, Marlin appeared over her. “Taking a nap?” he asked.

  “I was practicing my landings.”

  “Well, you’re getting much better.”

  “Maybe the Call should have picked a gymnast.”

  “That wouldn’t be a bad idea. Better than watching you flopping around like a fish.”

  “Thanks.”

  “I’m not here to give you a pep talk. I’m here to give you an assignment.”

  She pushed herself up to her feet. “You found a crime?”

  “It wasn’t that difficult. Little grocery store on Eighth and Orchard. Someone’s trying to rob the place. Go stop him.”

  “Sure,” Emma said. She tried to sound more comfortable than she felt. She flew across the gap to another rooftop. This time she tried to adjust her trajectory in mid-flight, so she landed on her knees. This was a little better, allowing her to push back up to her feet and keep going to the next roof.

  By the time she reached the corner of Eighth and Orchard, she managed one landing on her feet. She stumbled a few steps, but she didn’t fall down, which she took as an improvement. I’m starting to get the hang of it, she thought.

  She stood on the rooftop and looked down at the grocery store. There wasn’t anything remarkable about it, just the typical convenience store in a bad neighborhood. Even with the night vision, she couldn’t see inside. “Doesn’t this thing have infrared or anything like that?”

  “No. Back in the old days they were happy to have the night vision.”

  “Can you at least tell me what’s going on in there?”

  “All right, but first we need to cover one last thing.”

  “What’s that?”

  “If you do anything that proves you are unworthy of the armor, you will forfeit your life.”

  “The armor would kill me?”

  “It would protect the integrity of its magic. Can’t have anyone using it for a crime spree.”

  “What exactly would make me unworthy?”

  “All the major sins: robbery, rape, and murder. You should be safe from impure thoughts.”

  “That’s a relief.”

  “In any case, I doubt we have to worry about that. Just something I thought you should know in case you get any ideas.”

  “Thanks.”

  While Marlin floated down to check on the situation, Emma used the cape to parachute down to the ground. Unless Marlin said differently, her strategy was to go in through the back, use the cape to remain invisible and then sneak up on the burglar to disarm him. The problem was someone had padlocked the back door to the place. She was about to take out the Sword of Justice to hack through the lock when Marlin returned.

  “You don’t need to do anything that drastic,” he said. “Just put one of the gloves to the lock and it’ll open.”

  Emma did this and the padlock fell to the ground. “Why didn’t you tell me that earlier?”

  “Maybe if we had been doing this in proper fashion I would have.”

  “Sorry,” she said. “What did you find out?”

  “Just one of them in there at the checkout with a pistol. He’s got it pointed at the clerk, to get him to open the safe. Got a pregnant lady over by the milk cooler in back and then some real brave wanker wetting himself by the salty snacks up front.” She outlined her plan to him and he nodded. “Should do well enough so long as you don’t kick any wrenches.”

  She lowered the visor so he wouldn’t see her roll her eyes at this. Then she wrapped the cape around her body and shuffled into the back room. She hurried as much as she could past racks of snacks and cleaning products. As she did, she heard a man shout, “Open the safe!”

  “I tell you, safe no open,” a man who was obviously the cashier shouted back. “Only manager open.”

  She reached the back of the store; she stood beside a cooler stocked with soda and sports drinks. There she saw the pregnant woman to her right beside the milk cooler. Up front she saw a fat man in a baseball cap cowering by a rack of potato chips, as Marlin had said. She also saw the robber, a nylon stocking over his head and a revolver pointed at the cashier.

  She made it about two steps forward before the robber glanced over the cashier’s shoulder. Then he spun around, the pistol aimed right at her. She let the cape drop. “What the hell are you supposed to be?” he asked.

  “The Scarlet Knight?” she said. Her voice quivered to make it a question.

  “You’re going to be dead if you don’t get down there with the pregnant chick.”

  “No. Put the gun down. You’re under arrest.”

  “Who’s going to arrest me? You, freak?”

  “If I have to. Now, please put the gun down.”

  “Screw you.” She closed her eyes as he pulled the trigger. The sound of the shot was amplified in the tight confines of the convenience store, as loud as a firecracker in her ear. She felt the bullet hit the armor, but she didn’t feel
any pain.

  When she opened her eyes, she saw a bullet hole in the ceiling. The robber fired another shot that harmlessly pinged off the armor to break open a cabinet of cigarettes. “What the hell?” he said.

  She didn’t wait for a third shot; she pulled the Sword of Justice from its sheath. The sword glowed yellow as she threw it towards the robber. Her goal was to use the sword to slice through the weapon to disarm him. Her control wasn’t good enough to pull that off so the Sword of Justice scythed through jars of pickles, mayonnaise, and ketchup while the robber ducked beneath it.

  As he turned to run, the Sword of Justice shattered a gumball dispenser before breaking the front window as well. Gumballs spread out in front of the door and like in a silent movie, the robber fell backwards as he stepped on the gumballs. His arms windmilled comically before he landed flat on his back. Before he could sit up, Emma punched him in the face, hard enough that blood came from his nose. He collapsed to the floor again, unconscious for the moment.

  She turned to the cashier. “I’m sorry about the damages—”

  “You idiot! You break more than he take!”

  “But—”

  The cashier took up a broom and brandished it at her as if she were a rodent. “You go! You not come back!”

  Emma didn’t need to be told twice. She made sure to jump over the gumballs on her way out the door, into the night. Marlin caught up with her a block away as she stopped in an alley. “That went well,” he said.

  “Shut up,” she growled.

  ***

  Becky finished the last envelope with a tired sigh. It turned out Lintner hadn’t lied when he said they couldn’t go home until every envelope was stuffed. Her fingers had started to cramp about an hour ago, so that by now they looked as if she had terrible arthritis. Thoughts rose up in her mind of a nice hot bath and a nice soft bed. The obvious flaw was she didn’t have hot water in her apartment and her bed was lumpy. It would still be better than being here.

  Before she could leave, Connie said, “Hey, you want to get a drink?”

  Becky shook her head. She wouldn’t be twenty-one for a couple more months yet. This wouldn’t usually bother her, except if Emma smelled alcohol on her breath, the kid would give her that disappointed look of hers. “I’d better not. I think I’m going to go home and get some sleep.”

  “Come on, let’s go out and have some fun. Blow off a little steam.”

  She considered this for a moment. If she used a breath mint or two, maybe Emma wouldn’t notice. Or maybe her friend would already be asleep. “I guess one drink wouldn’t hurt.”

  Unlike Becky, Connie owned a car. Or at least it had four wheels and an engine. Like quite a few cars from the Trenches, the exact make and model were hard to determine anymore thanks to rust, spray paint, and mismatched replacement parts. These gave the vehicle a Technicolor Dreamcoat appearance; if Becky had any friends besides Emma she wouldn’t want them to see her in a monstrosity like this.

  The seats were comfortable enough, especially after a day of her hard chair in Lintner’s dungeon. She would have put on her seatbelt, except there wasn’t a seatbelt on her side. “I thought that day would never end,” she said.

  “Me too. Did you see the latest polls?”

  Becky nodded. Lintner had dropped another three points. “He’ll probably have guys with whips in there before much longer.”

  “You think he’ll quit?”

  “Him? God, no. He’s going to stick it out to the bitter end.”

  “Are you?”

  Becky shrugged. “I kind of have to.”

  “Right, your college credits. I was thinking of enrolling in school next winter. Maybe start with a community college.”

  “Good idea. Then you won’t have to work for a jerk like Lintner anymore.”

  “What are you going to do after school?”

  “I don’t know, try to get a job for someone else. Maybe someone who isn’t a complete sleazebag.”

  “That might be hard to find.”

  “In this town? Definitely.” They shared a laugh at this.

  Connie stopped in a lot and they got out to walk another block. Becky saw the line of people out front, all of them women except for the burly bouncers. She saw the neon sign of a pink hippopotamus, the words “Plastic Hippo” in buzzing white lights.

  “Isn’t this a strip club?”

  “Don’t worry, it’s ladies night,” Connie said. “I know some of the girls here. They can get us in for free.”

  “What kind of girl do you think I am?”

  “I thought the kind who liked to have fun.”

  “That isn’t my kind of fun.” Becky turned on her heel and then stomped away.

  “Becky, where are you going?”

  “I’m going home,” she called over her shoulder. She got five blocks from the Plastic Hippo before it started to rain. Just great, she thought. There wasn’t a bus stop or cab in sight. Maybe she could duck into an alley to wait until it stopped—

  She saw she was not alone in the alley. Two men in windbreakers got to their feet; one of them took something out of his pocket. He flicked it open to reveal a knife blade. Becky screamed and then turned around to run.

  Two more men stood at the entrance to the alley, one with a very large pistol. He aimed this at her head. “Where you going, Big Stuff? We just getting started.”

  Chapter 17

  Marlin swooped into the alley when he heard a woman’s scream. As he descended, he saw a fat woman surrounded by four young men, all of them armed. A bit too difficult for the new girl, but sometimes you had to run before you could walk.

  She lay on her back again when he found her. “Still working on the landings?” he asked.

  “I thought I had it this time,” she said. She rolled over to push herself up. “I guess I misjudged it.”

  “Well if you’re done fooling around, there’s a mugging going on in an alley three blocks from here. Four blokes: three with knives and one with a gun. They’ve got a fat girl cornered.”

  The girl took off, still botching her landings. Marlin floated on ahead of her to check on the fat girl. Two of the men had her pinned against the wall while the one with the gun pressed it to her cheek.

  “Please let me go. I won’t tell anyone.”

  He pressed the gun tighter against her cheek. “You’re right. You won’t.”

  Marlin was relieved when the new girl flew down into the alley. She must have sensed there wasn’t time to use the cape or else she’d forgotten how to use it. Whatever the case, she came down like one of her meteors to land face-first in the alley. The gunman turned to where the girl lay.

  “What the hell is that?” He motioned to the fourth member of his crew. “See if that bitch is dead, man.”

  The young man bent down with a knife in hand to lift the girl’s head. That was when she moved, faster than Marlin thought possible. She seized the man’s wrist and with one hand hurled him into a wall. Then she leaped to her feet to face the other three.

  “What you supposed to be?” the gunman said.

  “I am the Scarlet Knight,” she said. This time it wasn’t a question. There was something different about her; not just the menacing growl, but the way she had planted herself. She projected an authority she hadn’t at the convenience store. Marlin could see that this girl wasn’t a shy geologist; this girl was dangerous. “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?”

  “Sure thing, bitch.” He fired three shots, all of these bouncing harmlessly off the armor. “What the hell?”

  The girl again moved faster than Marlin had thought possible to bat the gun out of the man’s hand. She followed this up with a left hook that sent him reeling. Just for good measure, she kicked him in the midsection.

  The other two still had the fat woman and if they were bright they would have thought to use her as a shield. Instead they stood there; one stared as the Scarlet Knight tore the knife from his partner’s hand and then threw the man acros
s the alley, into a wall. The last one dropped the knife and took a step back to spare himself. She gave him a roundhouse kick to propel him into a wall, where he landed on top of his fellow.

  Then she bent down to look into the fat girl’s eyes. “Are you all right? Did they hurt you?”

  “No. I’m fine,” the fat girl whispered.

  “Good.” The Scarlet Knight rummaged through the gunman’s pockets to take out a cell phone. “I want you to call the police and wait for them. I’ll watch you from up there.”

  “Wait, you’re going to leave them like this?”

  “I don’t have any handcuffs.”

  “Why not use that sword you’ve got there and chop their damned heads off?”

  Marlin wondered the same thing. There was certainly no point in leaving these scumbags alive. Even if they went to jail they’d be back out in a year or two to continue their mayhem. The girl shook her head. “I can’t do that.”

  “Why the hell not?” the fat girl said.

  “I can’t,” the girl said without the menacing growl. “Call the police and wait for them to arrive. One of them should be able to give you a ride home.”

  With that the girl ran down the alley; she bounced high up on the wall and then climbed the rest of the way to the top. Once she was there, she took the helmet off. From the way her shoulders shook, Marlin knew she was crying. “It’s all right,” he said. “You did a good job. Gave those bastards what they deserved.”

  She shook her head. “It’s not that.” She looked up, her face red and damp from tears, sweat and the rain. “That woman, her name is Becky. She’s my best friend. They almost—”

  She couldn’t bring herself to complete this thought. “Yes, I know,” Marlin said. “But they didn’t.”

  “What if I had been too late? She would have ended up like Mom and Dad.”

  “Come now, lass, you don’t need to beat yourself up about it. You rescued her, like you rescued Graves. You’re doing good—for a beginner.”