he was also the current Supreme Pontifex for the A-Cs, or, as I liked to think of it, their Pope With Benefits.
“Why don’t you ask Paul whatever it is you need to ask ACE?”
“I have. He says that ACE doesn’t want to talk to me.”
“Huh.” ACE had never had any issue with Chuckie in the past. “What do Naomi and Abigail think?” The Gower girls were the most powerful of the talented A-Cs, to the point where no one, not even Chuckie and the girls themselves, knew the full extent of their powers.
At least, they had been. Until the interstellar invasion.
Naomi and Abigail had used their powers to protect all the various D.C. monuments at the National Mall—and all the people inside them. They’d managed to preserve our nation’s capital and history as well as many thousands of innocent people, but it had come at a cost. They’d had to use so much power for such an extended period of time, it had burned them both out. No one was sure if the burnout was temporary or permanent. The girls seemed to be handling this well, but I wasn’t as intimate with them as Chuckie was.
Chuckie shook his head. “They haven’t talked to ACE since . . . right after the invasion attempt.”
“Operation Destruction was pretty hard on everyone.”
“Yes, it was. We test Mimi and Abby all the time. They still have no more powers than a non-talented A-C.”
“I know you’ll get mad at me for the suggestion, but have you considered giving them a Surcenthumain boost?” Surcenthumain had been created by a whole host of our enemies, Amy’s late father foremost among them, and it was the reason Jeff, Christopher, and Christopher’s “lost aunt” Serene all had beyond-expanded powers. It was also the reason I wasn’t fully human anymore, Jamie having done the mother and child feedback that turned me into a semi-alien.
Chuckie sighed. “All moral and ethical issues aside, Mimi and Abby aren’t handling being ‘normal’ as well as they think they are, so I’ve thought about it. But I don’t want to risk it without some sort of confirmation that it would actually work.”
“What does Tito think?”
“Doctor Hernandez isn’t convinced that we have enough data to safely guess, and none of us like the idea of using Mimi and Abby, let alone anyone else, as test subjects.”
Chuckie was giving me a look that said I was asking stupid questions. I decided to take the logic leap. “So that’s why you want to talk to ACE.”
“Finally. Yes.”
“Does Paul know why you want to talk to ACE?”
“Yes.”
“Huh. Well, okay, let me give it a shot.” I’d been the one who’d figured out what was going on with ACE when we’d first “met,” and therefore ACE had a soft spot for me. As Reader put it, ACE cared most about me and Gower.
Because I never wanted ACE to feel that I took him for granted, I only contacted him when it was important. Nothing had been Earth-shattering, either literally or figuratively, for these past months, so I’d left ACE alone.
I sat in one of the chairs in Jeff’s office, closed my eyes, and thought in my mind. ACE, are you there?
I waited. ACE?
I waited a bit longer, while doing my best to hold down the panic. Maybe leaving ACE alone hadn’t been a wise plan.
ACE? ACE, are you there, are you okay?
Waited a few more long, silent moments. Opened my eyes, cleared my throat, and shared the scary news. “He didn’t answer. And I . . . I couldn’t feel him.”
CHAPTER 4
CHUCKIE NODDED. “That’s what I was afraid of.”
“Do you think ACE has left us? Or . . . died?” I didn’t know if ACE could die in the ways a human would understand, but I did know he could be injured, and we’d dissipated a similar superconsciousness, so ACE wasn’t invulnerable.
“I don’t know. I do know, based on the intel we got from Richard White, that if Gower were killed while ACE was joined with him then the PPB-Net that represents ACE will collapse in on itself and destroy the Earth. I’d have to guess if ACE were to . . . die that it would negatively affect Gower, perhaps even kill him. Gower’s alive and well and we’re all still here, so I don’t know that ACE is dead, at least as we’d be able to comprehend it.”
White was Christopher’s father and the former Pontifex, who now also resided at the Embassy and was my partner whenever we