Chapter 16
“I was expecting you.”
I hadn’t even knocked when the apartment door opened.
Connor stood naked, oblivious to the taboo of answering the door in his birthday suit.
His face remained void of emotion. There were two people I could have gone to with this conspiracy, but only one who wouldn’t question me about the other day.
I decided on the emotionally null individual.
Baby steps before walking into the office.
“I need your help.”
“Come in.”
I entered his apartment, not surprised by the decorations.
Everything in sight had a muted gray, as if he feared color.
A single bright yellow pillow sat on the edge of his couch.
I wanted to ask why the single item, but minded my own business.
I opted for Connor over Orion for the lack of judgment.
The least I could do was return the favor.
“Your camouflage isn’t as effective as you think.”
He moved into the living room, where I could see a small hallway leading into his bedroom. A faint light from the nightstand showed a human-sized bump under the blanket. I was about to apologize when I saw two bodies move closer together, spooning.
“I didn’t mean to disturb you.”
“No worries,” he said. “I ensured their satisfaction. Twice.”
“Not appropriate.” After the incident with Apex, Connor had sworn off deception. In theory, honesty was the best policy. He struggled with how much honesty was necessary.
“Over-share?”
“Very.” I tiptoed over to the door, shutting it. I had the primal urge to high-five him, as if he might need validation of his dating prowess. “Wait. How did you know I was coming?” I had dodged busy streets, cloaked myself, and randomized my approach.
“I’ve upgraded my recognition software. You did a good job avoiding human detection.” If Orion heard the statement, he would see it as a challenge. “I commend your efforts. You evaded detection for nearly 12.7% of your walk from Rossi’s. I have room for improvement.”
It was hard to take him seriously as my eyes continued creeping down his body. “Would you mind putting on some pants?”
Connor smirked. “Is my extremely large penis distracting you?”
He taunted, and I couldn’t help but fire back. “I’ve seen bigger.”
“No.” Now he smiled. “You haven’t.”
I remembered him from before his body. He had been a crude and sassy computer.
While he explored his humanity, the quippy AI had taken a backseat, but now and then it popped up.
This was the Connor I remembered. Thankfully, he conceded and grabbed sweatpants off the couch.
Sliding them on, I wasn’t distracted by his… yes, extremely large package.
“I need your conspiracy brain. I have a problem that requires the board.”
Orion had programmed his obsession into the AI powering Connor. I needed his discreet and straightforward analysis. I believe I had all the clues, but I needed another set of eyes to help me connect the dots.
He gestured to the empty wall.
“What?”
“Oh.” He waved his hand, and the hologram of a corkboard filled the room, wrapping about us in three hundred and sixty degrees. “Human. Sometimes I forget.”
I was impressed by the improvements on Orion’s conspiracy board.
On our side, the screen held a map of the city with dozens of tiny dots moving through the streets.
I recognized the HeroApp? logo and could only guess the dots were active villains.
They had indeed flooded the streets. Vanguard needed its heroes, but for right now, I needed to focus on the mystery in front of me.
As I touched the board, the light broke, and my fingers passed through a sparkle of blue.
“Impressive.”
“I know.” He hardly moved as a rectangle appeared and then filled with a picture of Synergy. “I assume this is your goal. Or would you rather start with Booker?” The board shifted to a picture of my partner… shirtless. I’d need to ask questions about that later.
“Let’s start with Synergy.”
“Key players?”
“Ricardo. Catherine Keyes. Tia. Cypher. Redford.” As I spoke, a photo of each of them appeared. These might be the key people involved in this mystery, but there was somebody outside the building who was somehow connected. “Carmen LaToya.”
The photos moved around the board. Ricardo slid to the side. Cypher and Redford moved to the right, “Apprehended” appearing over their faces.
“Tia is an ally.”
Connor scoffed. “Janet is going to hate this.”
“I won’t tell if you don’t.”
“Deal.”
“This leaves Catherine Keyes and Carmen LaToya.”
I moved closer, studying their faces. Keyes had a controlled expression, as if she were trying to maintain her composure. LaToya, on the other hand, didn’t feel as if she tried—emotionally vacant came naturally. I could only imagine the lack of excitement of being in a room with both of them.
I put a finger on Tia’s photo and moved it between them. “There’s our link.”
I expected a confirmation, but when I turned, Connor’s eyebrow had lifted ridiculously high on his forehead. With two fingers, I tapped Tia’s wrist. A square appeared, zooming in on the tattoo. “That marker is the giveaway. Keyes planted it in the file. She must have known it’d catch my attention.”
“This data is insufficient for a proper conclusion.”
“I assure you—”
The photos flew off the board, replaced by a photo of me. “Drew Hayes. You are the missing data point.”
“I don’t follow.” Unfortunately, I did. Admitting it would mean—
“Aka Tint.” A second photo appeared with me in costume. Behind me, Wyatt and Orion were striking poses. I hated to admit it, but Janet’s conviction that we needed press photos wasn’t a bad idea. We looked like a real superhero team. “Aka Hellion.”
In a millisecond, my greatest fear became a reality. Photos shifted until three sets of eyes stared back at me, all of them mine. Seeing them side-by-side, I almost didn’t recognize my face. I had siloed each identity to the point of dissociation. I needed to react, to push away the truth.
“What?” I turned to eye Connor. “No. Me? Hellion? That doesn’t make sense.”
“Oh. Am I supposed to be shocked?” His jaw dropped, and his eyes went wide. The gasp was unnecessary. “I would have never suspected.”
“You knew.”
He pointed to his face. “Not the face of knowing.” Speaking without closing his mouth was a nice touch. “Shocked!”
“Who knows?” I growled.
There were a thousand questions I wanted to ask. How had he figured it out? What in my routine had given it away? With how often he scanned surveillance cameras, perhaps he caught some telling sign? With the computer running inside his brain, who knew how he had connected the dots.
“I didn’t till just now.”
My eyes darted around the apartment, looking for the cracks as reality shattered.
The world hadn’t come crashing down. The only disturbance came in the form of a snort and a snore from his bedroom.
Turning back to the board, it had happened.
With a thin blue line connecting each of the photographs, I had been exposed.
“Oh.”
His face relaxed. “The tattoo is the mark of the Trident. They’ve been highly active in Southland, specifically looking for one street-level vigilante.
If Carmen LaToya used Tia’s tattoo for what I suspect is the Centurion gala, and for Keyes to know it’d trigger you…
Synergy is no longer the center of the conspiracy. ”
The photographs moved about. Lines connected me to everybody, but now there were additional lines from Hellion in the mix. I could hardly wrap my head around it. I had been outed, and Connor moved on as if it were an observation about the weather.
“I’m impressed you avoided me for this long.”
“Thanks.” I think?
“Not a compliment.” He took a step from the board, eyes moving from one image to the next. “I missed it. That’s a lapse in analysis.” I still took it as a compliment.
The longer I stared, the more I kept coming back to Tia’s photo. Keyes had included it. But for her to use it as a decoy meant… Did she know I was Hellion? “Connor, what’s the probability that Keyes has been sending assassins to kill me?”
“I’m not a calculator.”
I thought back to my first run-in with them. It had started before I met Keyes. Unless she could see into the future, that didn’t make sense. “I faced the Trident before being assigned to this case.”
Leaning in until my nose almost touched the photograph, something looked off.
I might not be a living computer or have access to the city’s camera network, but I had a skill unlike any other on the planet.
This wasn’t the bone-crunching vigilante, just a regular superhero with simple powers.
“The lighting is off.” The color of Tia’s dress is all wrong.
Something blocked the light, as if there were an object standing immediately to her side.
“Can you do your magic?”
“Magicians wish they could do this.” At times, he made it obvious that Orion had programmed him.
“It appears something has been erased from the photo.” One square at a time, he returned whatever had been taken out.
After a second, the outline of a person appeared.
When he finished, Ms. Keyes stood next to Tia in an innocent photo-op.
“I don’t need to be a supercomputer to know that’s damning,” he said.
“I don’t know if she has any involvement with the assassins,” I said, “but I think we found the person causing havoc at Synergy.”
“Who would suspect the head of Human Resources of being in charge of bad hires?”
“Your sarcasm is noted.”
Connor patted me on the back. “Thanks.”
I’d have the rest of the night to replay every conversation with Catherine.
She had done an amazing job of manipulating me, creating a tense situation so I’d jump in.
I wanted to be angry, but I couldn’t direct it at her, not entirely.
My inability to let discomfort exist in the office had allowed this to happen.
Drew had been a doormat she walked all over.
The next time we met, she’d have to deal with Drew and his less-than-friendly alter ego.
“Do you want me to alert the team?”
“No.” I spat out. “I mean, not yet.”
“You know they’re worried.”
“I know.” I still wasn’t entirely convinced. Not of their concern, I believed that. It was the confession I feared. If I could solve this riddle, then maybe it’d soften the blow of revealing my truth. “Let me solve this first.”
I had everything I needed. Tomorrow morning, I’d have a little chat with Ms. Keyes. It looked like we both had secrets. By the end of the day, she’d be in handcuffs, and Booker and I could celebrate our victory.
“Do me a favor?”
“Of course,” I said.
“Tell that hussy to leave my ex alone.”
“Did you just say hussy?” I didn’t think Connor harbored lingering feelings for Apex. Apparently, I misjudged him.
“Illogical, I know, but I’m only human now.”
Hearing him admit his humanity made me smile. If he could evolve beyond his programming, then perhaps there was hope for us all. “Consider it done.”
“Now leave. I’m ready for more satiating.”
And with that, I headed home, knowing that we had broken the case.