shot, and one of the carburetors looks stuck, maybe melted closed.”
“I’ll fix it.”
“With what tools? With what spare parts?”
I stood suddenly, enraged. He was holding the boots as if he meant to keep them from me, to destroy them, perhaps.
“We gonna do it that way?” I said, and Superdynamic came to his feet, his jaw muscles clenched tight. As if realizing the escalation of the situation, Rebecca also stood, looking back at Superdynamic’s costume, too far away to help him now.
“Please, Dale,” she said.
“No,” I said, noticing how tightly I was clenching my fists, how heavy my breathing was. “You’re not keeping me back here just because you don’t like me. There’s too much at stake.”
Alain popped up again, with his servants in tow. His crew either didn’t notice the tension or merely ignored it and started clearing the table of the soup and serving the salad. Alain himself saw us facing each other off, and very quietly helped his crew and returned to the lift.
“Dale,” Rebecca said. “I’m sure Jeffrey’s just worried about your safety.”
He snapped a look at her, angry that she had used his real name.
“Oh, I knew your name was Jeff,” I said. “Or did you forget that Apogee used it back on Hashima?”
Superdynamic looked down at the salad for almost ten seconds before sitting down.
“I can’t trust you,” he said, finally.
I looked over at Rebecca, who was motioning for me to sit, pouring more wine, and I took my chair.
“I can’t say I blame you,” I admitted.
Jeff toyed with his salad a moment before releasing his fork in disgust.
“You see, I saw you, back at Hashima, back in New York. I saw how dangerous you are.”
“I know, but I–”
“Let me finish,” he interrupted. “I need to say this.”
He paused, cleaning his hands with the napkin.
“I was there, Blackjack. You forget, but I was there. The world was in danger and you stood on the wrong side of things.”
“Things ended up all right,” I said.
“Maybe,” he acknowledged. “And according to Madelyne, you saved the day. You turned the machine off when Retcon went crazy...and you saved her life. But that’s just luck, don’t you see? If you had let us do our job, we would have done it just the same. I know you think supers are sloppy, and I know...well...I know that sometimes our methods are questionable.”
“She told me.”
He looked straight at me.
“Madelyne told me that you guys were hired killers.”
Shrugging, he went on, “Well, what do you expect? It gets to a point where you’re a threat to humanity. You’re like Ebola, or Malaria. You think I would have hesitated to take you out? Even if it meant saving just one life.” He snapped his fingers. “In a second. Like that, gone forever and I would have slept like a baby that night, you understand? I know Maddie was conflicted over that, after the fact. But at the moment? You were a threat, Blackjack. You were a danger to every person on earth, and if it makes you squeamish that we might bring overwhelming force on you, and that, yes, you might end up dead...well, you’re in the wrong line of business.”
“I’m learning that the hard way.”
He took a bite from his salad.
“Doesn’t it matter that he has changed his ways?” Rebecca chimed in.
“Has he? Have you? Two hours on this station and you start playing games with a young innocent girl that doesn’t know better–”
“I’m sorry about that, dammit,” I said.
“You forget, I saw that crazy look in your eyes when you pulled that stunt on Epic.”
Superdynamic took a drag from his wine, waving Rebecca off when she went to refill it. “I’m okay, baby.”
“Yeah,” he continued. “He wanted to solo Epic. What kind of crazy bullshit is that? I’ve never seen it in my life. And of course, Epic, being the imbecile he was, takes you up on it. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The world hanging in the balance and you two dunces were playing games! I was there, Blackjack. I saw.”
“But Apogee said he was good,” Rebecca pleaded, trying to find a friendlier way to end the discussion.
“Look, I’ve known Apogee for...fifteen years?” he said after giving it some thought. “I was around when she first came up, when she joined the first Revolution. She’s not just a friend, Dale. She’s like family, like the sister I never had. Me and Mirage, and....” he trailed off, obviously wanting to refer to Pulsewave.