Chapter 19

For all of Mal’s audacity and love of the game, what he was doing now had never entered his mind as worth the risk for any amount of payoff. But if Ludgate got the drop on them before they found Danny’s friends, they might never get this chance again.

One thing that could always be counted on about people was that they rarely recognized someone out of their element. Take a guy they’re used to seeing in all black or suits or a sleeveless duster and goggles and put him in a baseball cap, sneakers, and hoodie with his hands shoved into his pockets, and even the few officers who looked right at Mal as he strolled through the OCPD merely walked on by without a second glance. Mal had considered donning his stolen police uniform again, but he couldn’t take the risk of someone catching wise at a second sighting.

He wasn’t stopped once during his trek to Captain Shan’s office.

“Hey. You’re not supposed to be…” the captain didn’t finish when Mal closed the door behind him and pulled down his hood, tossed aside his hat, and held a finger to his lips with a silent hush.

Shan tensed, hand going to his gun though he didn’t draw it, as Mal crossed the room to the man’s computer. He ignored the captain until he’d slid the USB into place and every reflective surface in the office turned matte just as Priestly had promised.

“Wouldn’t want our mutual friend Ludgate to eavesdrop,” Mal said, facing the captain, who’d let his hand go limp as he looked around the room at the frosted surfaces. “Wish I could take credit, Captain, but this one belongs to Zeus’s team. Pity I can’t find them anywhere.”

Sporting a wary frown, Shan snapped back to Mal. “What’s going on? Where’s Grant?”

Mal smiled. He’d suspected the captain knew Zeus’s identity; now he was certain. “So you haven’t seen him yet…” That might actually work in their favor.

“He’s still on suspension until next week. Thanks to you. Went to all that trouble to protect your unworthy hide, and there was still an anonymous tip pointing to your location. Couldn’t look the other way when it got sent to every detective in the precinct. You getting sloppy, Cho?”

“Not an anonymous tip, Captain. Danny himself made that call.”

Shan’s eyes betrayed his surprise. “You finally screw up? He was ready to fall on a bullet for you.”

“Yeah,” Mal said with no humor in his voice this time. “I think he just might have.”

Despite how on edge he appeared, Shan relaxed while waiting for an explanation, so Mal gave him one. Told him everything he’d discovered, as well as his concerns that Danny’s friends and family were in danger because Danny wasn’t himself.

“I need their help to put the missing pieces together, but all of them are MIA. You wouldn’t happen to have seen Grant Senior today?”

“No…” Shan sagged into a look of concern. “So this copycat isn’t a copycat? It’s Zeus?”

“Ludgate’s behind it. He’s behind everything. We just need to prove it and get Danny back to his senses. This,” Mal gestured at the frosted surfaces, “is a start. But now I’m facing a Zeus who might not pull his punches.”

Shan nodded. “I’m trusting Grant’s good nature here that you really have his best interest in mind. Don’t prove him wrong. Now…” with a look of pained resignation, he sighed, “what do you need?”

“Zeus’s hideout. I hate to out his team, but if I give up their names, maybe you can lead us in the right direction.”

“Don’t need their names. Most detectives aren’t quite so buddy-buddy with CSI and the M.E. You want their hideout? You’re standing on top of it.” Shan spread his hands, causing Mal to look down—the basement. “There’s an old morgue down there they think everyone’s forgotten about, but they’re only right because I keep it that way. You need blueprints?”

Instead of only seeing this man as a thorn in his side, Mal was growing thoroughly impressed. “It’s a start. Think you can have the power cut so it looks like a natural blackout?”

Shan backed up a step, then narrowed his brow. “Why not just break in?”

“Because Ludgate could be anywhere, and Danny can travel anywhere in a heartbeat. I need as much of an element of surprise as I can get. But the most important thing I need from you, Captain, is the biggest risk of all. Call Danny,” he said, knowing the weight this request carried if Danny really was unhinged. “Keep him occupied for as long as you can. If he notices something’s up, he’ll be inside that hideout in seconds, and I need to be sure he isn’t there when we make our move. Can you do that?”

Shan took a breath with the appropriate amount of trepidation. “I can. What should I expect from him? Is he really brainwashed?”

“I don’t know. He’s not himself. You’ll see it. Just try to keep your reasoning for calling him normal. Yell at him a little. He expects that, doesn’t he?”

“How long do you need?”

“Twenty minutes, if you can manage.”

“How do I contact you if things go south?”

Ah, now that was the crux of the matter—another gamble. “I’m putting a lot of faith in you, Captain. Could ask for a lot as the tradeoff. A pardon, for example, if I manage to help bring in Ludgate.”

“Is that what you’re after?” Shan’s indignation was definitely all for Danny.

Good.

“No. I want Danny safe.” Reaching slowly into the pocket of his hoodie, Mal revealed a set of comms like the ones that had once sat in evidence in this very building. “These comms will connect you to my team. If you recognize any voices…maybe pretend you don’t.”

The captain accepted the comms. “You better save him, Cho,” he said when Mal turned to retrieve his hat from the chair next to the door. “He turned his whole life upside down trying to save you.”

Mal paused, facing away from Shan, before he finished snatching up his hat. He secured it in place, lifted his hood to cover it, and nodded at the captain as he reached for the door. “I know.”

R

Shan didn’t let him down—later that night, the grid encompassing the downtown OCPD precinct went dark just when Mal needed it to.

“Stay hidden, Hephaestus, and stay alert,” Mal said into his comms as he gestured Dom and Lucy to go ahead of him into the underground garage that the blueprints Shan gave him indicated was the best entry point. Officers swarmed upstairs from the loss of power, giving the Titans unfettered access. They had precious little time, especially as the emergency lights flickered on.

Priestly was back at the safe house, watching the station’s cameras that he’d hacked into. They operated on batteries in the event of a power outage, allowing Priestly to stay on the comms and lead them through the precinct remotely, as well as keep watch for any telling signs of lightning headed their direction.

Shan had checked in when Danny was on his way to the station—which, knowing Danny, would take only moments—then they had at most twenty minutes before they had to worry about company.

The dim blue color of the emergency lights from the backup generator cast an eerie glow over the interior of the basement. The semi-darkness might—might—keep them hidden from Ludgate’s all-seeing eye, but too many hallways boasted reflective surfaces. They had to be quick, especially with dozens of officers upstairs.

“If they’re being kept alive, the most likely place is either in the main room of the old morgue, ironic as that sounds, or in one of the deeper rooms.”

“Honey…don’t say ‘if’,” Lucy said with a catch in her voice.

“Sorry,” Priestly said, and while Mal had possibly never heard Priestly apologize before, he could tell the kid meant it. “Next left, door at the end is the locked one into the secluded section.”

“Got it.” Mal led the way, peering around the corner to be certain no cops were still about. They weren’t exactly blending in like he had in his stolen uniform or hoodie—wearing his navy duster, Lucy in her cloak, and Dom in suspenders and a tank top—but the outfits weren’t only befitting as Titans, they were practical to their power sets.

Lucy stepped forward to try the door—locked, as expected. She pulled her hand back and vines grew out of her skin like awakening tattoos until they stretched and coiled from her fingers almost needle thin to wind into the mechanism of the lock. Within moments they heard a click, and she pushed the door open.

“Age before beauty,” she gestured Mal to enter first.

Dom chuckled and pushed on ahead of them. In all fairness, she was two months older than Mal. Mal still gave Lucy a dirty look for the remark but let her bring up the rear. He wished it was worth the risk to wear his goggles—and Dom her welder’s mask—but he’d already done that once and underestimated Ludgate; he wouldn’t make the same mistake again.

The problem, though, was that he had no way of knowing how close or far the cold field extended once he turned it on.

Priestly guided them through the hallways to the door into the main morgue. Once again, they found the door locked and Lucy made quick work of it, but when they pushed inside, there was nothing but the flicker of emergency lights.

“They’re not here,” Mal said, willing himself to stay calm. “Where to next, Hephaestus?”

“The blueprints aren’t much help, since they’ve likely repurposed most of the rooms. You’ll want to check them all. Head back out into the hallway and take the first right.”

Mal and the others worked like a flawless stealth unit, having committed crimes together for years, able to predict each other’s movements and keep every corner covered without using words. They still wasted several minutes checking various hallways and additional rooms, most of which were locked when they tried them. They were on borrowed time no matter what happened next.

“I can’t get this one,” Lucy said, attempting to unlock the final room but retracting her vines in defeat. “The lock’s busted.”

“That door leads to the largest area besides the main room,” Priestly said. “Has a bathroom attached, complete with showers.”

Mal pushed Lucy aside, thinking that at any moment Danny might appear and catch them. “Helios,” he said once he’d confirmed the door wouldn’t budge, “fry it.”

Dom raised her hand with a grin.

“Wait,” Lucy hissed. “You’re forgetting to use your brain, idiot. Relax.” Pushing Mal out of the way as he’d done to her, she rapped her knuckles on the door. “Anyone in there?”

Mal stiffened, because a broken lock did not mean it was safe to announce their presence.

A silent moment passed, but when Lucy backed away and Dom readied to burn the door to cinders, a voice called back.

“Who’s there?”

“Andre?” Lucy flew back to the door. “It’s Lucy. You alive in there?”

“Gaia?” Vaughn rejoiced. “You are a goddess, no joke. Prometheus and Helios with you?”

“With bells on,” Mal said. “Open up.”

“We can’t. Danny did something to the door.”

“Move back!” Mal called louder, then shooed Lucy away so he could blast it with his ice. He reared back with a kick once it was frosted over, but whatever the door was made of, it was more reinforced than he expected. He turned to Dom.

With a nod as if to say ‘about damn time’, she took aim and burned every inch Mal’s ice had touched, further destabilizing the integrity. When she stepped forward and gave an impressive kick to rival Mal’s, it gave way with a cascade of smoking dust.

Lucy dove through ahead of Mal, and he followed with Dom right behind them. The room they discovered was a mess, with blankets and dishes strewn about, as if those inside had been there…well, all day and last night.

Everyone they’d hoped to find—Grant Senior, his adopted daughter and son, Vaughn and Rivers—were accounted for. They looked tired and haggard, and Rivers had an arm in a sling like it had been sprained or broken.

Mal scanned the room with a hush and a finger to his lips like he’d done with Captain Shan. There were several surfaces Ludgate could use as a window.

There. No computer or laptop, but a tablet rested on the counter. Mal went to it, found the USB port, and plugged in the flash drive. Every surface that had been glossy and reflective turned matte.

“Hey!” Vaughn said in accusation, untangling from Lucy’s embrace.

“What happened?” Mal demanded. Grant stood back with his children, Vaughn remained by Lucy, and Rivers sat in a chair cradling her injured arm. “Scratch that,” he shook his head, “there isn’t time. Have you seen Ludgate since Danny…changed?”

“No.” Grant frowned. “But we know he’s behind this.”

“That’s why Danny turned off the Miasma Maker,” Vaughn said, gesturing to the frosted surfaces. “Has to be. But we haven’t seen the guy. Only Danny. It’s like some Jekyll and Hyde trick. We’ve been trying to figure out some way out of here, but every time we come close, Danny appears. His lightning jumps kind of make it easy to be everywhere at once. And everything we’ve come up with so far to get one over on him might seriously hurt him.”

“Tell me you have a plan,” Grant’s daughter said—Stella. Mal had seen her before, he realized, at the shelter in his neighborhood, but he didn’t have time to dwell.

Twenty minutes had come and gone. They had to move. “This,” Mal indicated the flash drive, “only works on one room at a time. Your Miasma Maker—it can affect the whole morgue?”

“Yes,” Vaughn nodded.

“Where is it?”

“In the main room, my computer. We just need to turn it back on.”

“Then let’s go. We turn it on…then wait for Danny. With my amplifier—”

“Cho!” Shan’s voice blared over the comms, causing Mal to wince.

“What is it?” he held a hand to his ear.

“You better be ready. Grant just left.”

“You got that, Hephaestus?” Mal said. “Tell us the second you see Zeus or any lightning through those camera feeds.”

“Got it,” Priestly said.

“Move,” Mal told the others.

While Dom helped Rivers from her chair, Mal bee-lined for the door, but Stella caught his wrist, suddenly behind him as if she were the one with superpowers.

“He’s been better. Even when he wasn’t…he was never like this. What do you think Ludgate did to him?”

Mal paused before looking back at her. “I don’t know. But we’ll figure it out. And we will get Danny back. We owe Ludgate now—all of us. So first we need to make sure he can’t get inside. Then we’ll save Danny.”

Stella nodded as she released him, wholly trusting, which Mal wasn’t used to from so many seeming strangers.

Like a human train, one after the other, they made for the door to return to the hallways. Mal had to wave his hand in front of the opening to see clearly, since the frozen ashes were still drifting downward, creating an odd sort of smoke shield, and the main lights were still out, casting everything in blue.

Then, just as he was about to step through to the other side, he choked—literally, as a hand caught him by the throat and a tall, familiar figure started to push into the room from out of the ash.

“Dann—” Mal tried to speak, while the others gasped. Why hadn’t Priestly warned them?

“Tell me, Cho,” Danny said with a terrible, manic grin on his face and a cold look in his eyes as he held Mal aloft without any effort. “Did you miss me?”