not have been. Such as the Association, if you will recall. By the way, Director,” I said the word with a sneer. “Did you ever find out who took those photos?”
She nodded and adjusted her skirt. “It was Cobalt. He was jealous of your new boyfriends.”
Cobalt. Oh, god. I’d forgotten about him.
“He...he died,” I whispered.
She stilled and looked at me. “What do you mean, he died? And those men, did they die the same way?”
“Debrief will provide all of those answers,” Vortex said, cutting her off. He wrapped his arms around my shoulders and squeezed. “We’re all still a bit shocked by the events.”
“Certainly,” the Director said and sat up straight, her eyes focused on her tablet in her hand.
We landed and I was met by Galactic Gargoyle and Hurricane.
Gargoyle in his human form swept me up into his arms and kissed my lips hard.
“Hello,” I breathed.
Hurricane snatched me away and hugged me tightly. “You are in so much trouble,” he grumbled into my ear.
I patted his arm. “In so many more ways than you know.”
“What?” he asked.
Vortex tapped his shoulder. “Later.”
“Come, let’s go to the debriefing room,” the Director said. “Gargoyle and Hurricane, you are welcome to join us if you want to.”
“Thank you,” Gargoyle said and grabbed my hand. “I would like to come.”
I stayed silent as we all followed the director to the room where we sat around the conference table to discuss the events. To discuss Cobalt’s death and my attempted assassination or whatever that had been. It seemed like a dream now.
Had they really meant to shoot me? Or had they aimed at the monster and screwed up?
I wasn’t sure anymore.
The silence as we walked into the room was thick with suspicion.
Was it wrong that I felt a sense of vindication to know that I wasn’t alone in being suspicious of this woman?
“I’ll tell what happened,” Crystal Woman whispered to me and set her hand on my shoulder.
I nodded and smiled up at her appreciatively. “Okay, but drinks are still on you.”
She rolled my eyes. “Yeah. Yeah. I know.”
“Something happened?” Galactic Gargoyle asked softly.
I nodded, but said no more. I didn’t want to say anything else. Not yet.
We walked into a huge conference room with a table that took up most of the space, and really plushy executive chairs. I sat in one about the middle of the table.
Galactic Gargoyle sat to my right, Vortex sat to my left, and Hurricane sat to his left.
Crystal Woman scowled as she took in the men around me, then took the seat on Gargoyle’s right.
Unsurprisingly, Tremor took the seat to her right.
The Director sat across from us with steepled fingers. “What happened?”
Crystal Woman explained the entire thing, from beginning to end. Once she was done, the Director was scowling.
“Those heroes were recent transfers from the Tenth District. Had I known that they would be such huge liabilities, I would not have agreed to them coming here. I’m sorry they tried to hurt you.” She looked at me. “But I am glad that you are okay. It seems your droid is more useful than we previously thought.”
Why did that last statement come off like she was bitter?
“We will add the names of the heroes who died to our wall and ensure they receive the respect they deserve,” she said. “Losing Cobalt is a horrible event, but no matter how many times I told him he was too cocky, he didn’t back down. That was his way, I suppose.”
“If you knew he was the one who took those pictures and released them, why wasn’t he suspended?” I asked.
“Because we need all the heroes we can get to battle these monsters. If you haven’t noticed, there have been more and more of them lately. Too many for our normal groups to handle.”
“Why do you think that is?” I asked and leaned forward, meeting her eyes steadily with mine.
Her left cheek twitched. “I am not certain, but I intend to find out. We do not like seeing so many of them here together.”
Sure they didn’t. Something told me that she was perfectly fine with so many monsters coming around. The more monsters there were, the more money they made from taxes and business contributions.
“I hope you do find out,” Galactic Gargoyle said. “Losing so many heroes today is a tragedy I’m not certain we can recover from.”
“How many did we lose?” I asked him breathlessly. I hadn’t even thought to ask what happened elsewhere yet.
“Ten,” the Director answered. “We lost ten heroes