"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?" Ruth pulled me aside. "There's been another murder."
The press was waiting inside the League headquarters press room. The meeting hall was packed with reporters and news cameras.
"Who are all these people?" I asked.
"Justice called a press conference. We've been trying to get hold of you since you left." "Is Scarlett back?"
"No," Ruth said. "But listen to me. There's something you should know—" Larry interrupted her. "Did Ruth tell you yet? Isn't it exciting?"
Isn't what exciting? I looked at Ruth. She hadn't told me anything.
"We caught the murderer!" Larry wheezed with overexcite-ment and asthma. "Can you believe it—us?" The Galaxy Twins strutted past, and Galaxy Girl threw us a distinct "Hmph" over her shoulder.
"Those jerks always laughed at me." Larry ratcheted his voice up a few decibels so they could hear. "Didn't think we could do anything. Yeah, well, who's laughing now?"
I was confused.
"Who was murdered?"
Ruth pulled me aside again. "The Spectrum," she said. "Justice said the Spectrum had found something last night during the autopsy on King of the Sea, but he wasn't exactly sure what it meant. They found his body this morning in the color lab. Listen, that's not the important part—"
"Thorn, can I talk to you?" I looked up at Golden Boy, who was stone-faced, utterly serious. He pulled me aside by the shoulder with more force than necessary. I looked down at his hand on my shoulder.
"Where's Scarlett?" he said. His thumb pressed into my bicep. "Where is she?" I looked over at Ruth and hoped she would rescue me.
"This is serious, Thom." I turned to leave, but he grabbed me by the shoulders. "Get your hands off me." I was fed up with being pushed around.
"Where were you two today?" He was losing it. I'd never seen him unravel like this. "Where were you two yesterday?"
He was interrogating me. I knew where he was going with this.
"You have to tell me, because I know she won't." His eyes grew red. "Tell me!"
I squinted and looked at him to make sure I had this right. He thought that Scarlett and I—me, the guy with a thing for cowboys and Uberman—were doing something we shouldn't have been doing behind his back. Then his rigid posture melted and his shoulders slumped. "If you two have something going on, just say it."
He had no idea. He didn't know a thing about what was really going on.
Then he grabbed me by the collar and stared at me with fierce eyes. "Okay, that's total bullshit," he said. "You tell her I won't give her up, certainly not to you. I'll fight for her. You hear me?"
Then a strong, tanned hand thrust a powder puff between us.
"Justice wants you on camera with the whole team," Uberman said, and nodded at the puff. "Here, you don't want to look too shiny."
Golden Boy and I looked up at him, and Uberman saw the red in Golden Boy's eyes. He disappeared for an instant, and then he was back with a tiny bottle of Visine.
"Allergies," Uberman said, loud enough for the reporters to hear. Then he leaned in and whispered, "We're all sad about it. It's okay to cry." He put his arm around both of us. "Thanks to you, there won't be any more tears." I held the powder puff in my hand, not really sure what to do with it.
"I'll help him with that." Ruth barged in and yanked me aside.
"Listen, just shut up for a minute and hear me out." She dabbed my face with the puff. "I've been trying to tell you since you got here, I saw something, just a quick glimpse forward, but it was clear. I think you know something. You're about to discover it, and it's something only you will know." She glanced down at her watch. "In a few minutes, it's about to happen." She smacked her watch a few times and shook it. "Or maybe it already did, damn this old thing."
"What's about to happen?" I asked.
"Christ, kid, I don't know. What am I, psychic? Just keep your eyes peeled."
Uberman escorted us to the podium, and I walked in a daze. Under normal circumstances, my entire body would have lit up the minute Uberman's perfectly toned arm met my perfectly willing shoulder, but this whole scenario was too strange. The world had suddenly flipped upside down and all around, and I couldn't think straight. I wondered about Ruth's warning, and if I'd already seen whatever it was and just didn't know it yet. I kept my eyes peeled, trying to get a clear shot of every face in the crowd as Uberman parted the sea of reporters and mourning teammates.
Justice descended from the sky. The cameras rolled and flashed and snapped. A hushed silence overcame the audience. Justice raised his head and addressed the room.
"I'm sorry to see everyone on such a tragic occasion." As Justice spoke, I huddled in line next to the rest of my squad. We stood behind Justice, so the lights from the cameras cast a harsh glare on us. The lights blinded me and the glare shot a sharp pain through my temples. No matter how hard I squinted, I couldn't see out into the crowd. I leaned a little to the left to hide my eyes behind Justice's shadow. "I think it's important to let everyone know that the Spectrum died a hero, and his death will not be in vain." He moved slightly to the right, and the light hit my eyes again. "Behind me you will see our newest group of recruits. These are the brave souls who apprehended the vicious criminal responsible for these heinous acts of vengeance on our greatest heroes." As Justice droned on, I gave up trying to scan the crowd for something that I didn't even know I was looking for, and my mind drifted. Standing up onstage with those spotlights on us made me feel exposed. I tried to think of dark, soothing things to shield me from the lights, and my brain filled with images of black capes making shadows in the night. The images felt peaceful and cool.
I was sweating from the lights, so I bent my knees slightly to keep the circulation going in my legs. I didn't want to pass out in front of everybody.
My mind leaped forward in a stream of thoughts, and soon the capes swept away the darkness, and there stood Goran, basketball at his hip. Suddenly I knew for certain why it bothered me so much when he'd said he had a girlfriend, and it wasn't a thought I wanted to hold on to right then, with everything else going on. I tried to think of something else.
I had to clear my head, keep focused. So I thought about Scarlett.
I pictured her jacket. How she must have struggled those first few days with the colostomy bag, staring down at the hole in her belly, connected to a pouch of sterile plastic. How she'd probably stayed up all night trying to think of an outfit that would hide it properly. Looking at herself in the mirror, crying. Forgetting about it
momentarily, only to look down at her belly and to be reminded that a synthetic leech had attached itself to her and wouldn't let go.
"Allow me to introduce you to the killer," Justice continued.
I snapped out of my daydream when I saw Justice gesture toward a curtain off to the side, which lifted to reveal Ssnake, via satellite, in the League's containment facility. He sat in a chair, his head hung low, a curly mop of messy blond hair. He reminded me more of one of those hostages you see in the Middle East than a
supercriminal. I couldn't even tell if his eyes were open underneath his mask.
The cameras went wild, hundreds of hands shot in the air, and the reporters buzzed with questions. I took a step back and ducked behind Justice's shadow again.
"I won't be taking any questions today, but I will indulge you with one answer." Justice levitated a few more inches above ground. I couldn't tell if it was deliberate or if he was just getting worked up. "We will reveal the identity of the killer. There will be no more hiding today. Silver Bullet, if you would, please." He nodded to Silver Bullet, who disappeared in a shiny blur and reappeared next to Ssnake on the monitor.
Silver Bullet tore off Ssnake's mask, and ice shot through my body.
"Ladies and Gentlemen of the world, allow me to introduce you to the killer—Ssnake—Simon Hess." Silver Bullet lifted the man's face to camera level by tugging back on his pale blond hair. I recognized him immediately, even with all the bruises How could I forget the face of the man who gave me my first kiss?