what had happened when she’d gone into Hypnotic’s lair. “I was hurt?”
“Yeah.”
“Hypnotic?”
“Actually, Bruce.” Meteorite smirked, then shrugged as if to say What Did You Expect? “He’d been aiming for Hypnotic, but got you instead.”
Her jaw dropped. “Bruce zapped me?”
“Yeah. But you weren’t burned, which was good, and your eyes were clear, which was even better. If you were under Hypnotic’s influence, they’d have been milky white.” Meteorite motioned to one of her assorted computers. “I’ve been reading up on Hypnotic. And based on everything I’ve been reading, we’re in a hoverload of trouble.”
“Okay.” Bruce had almost electrocuted her. Light. Clutching her blanket, Jet said, “Download everything you’ve found about Hypnotic to my wristlet and tell me where I’m needed.” She spun on her heel to head back to the so-called guest room. “And where’s my skinsuit?”
“Where you’re needed is the shower.”
Jet paused, then looked over her shoulder at Meteorite. “Excuse me?”
“Joan,” the other woman said gently. “You’d been fighting for two days without a break, then you were down for the count for two more days. Not to put too fine a point on it, you reek. And a shower will get you more focused for what you need to do.”
“I was unconscious for two days?” Jet thought she sounded fairly calm, all things considered.
“Yeah.” Meteorite sighed. “Courtesy of Iridium. She doped you so you’d finally get some sleep.”
“Iridium drugged me?” Okay, maybe that wasn’t so calm. Maybe she’d actually shouted that last part.
“Get over it, babe. Go on and shower.”
“I don’t have time to shower,” Jet growled. She was going to kill Bruce and Callie. Slowly. And very painfully. “From what I see, everything’s hit the roof.”
“Joan Greene, you turn your ass around and look at me.”
Clenching her teeth, Jet turned.
Meteorite had crossed her arms beneath her ample bosom, and there were thunderstorms in her eyes. “Yes, the shit has hit the fan, even with the overall violence lessening. Hypnotic’s influence is spreading in a growing radius around his lair in Looptown.” Jet must have looked puzzled, because Meteorite explained, “People, both norms and extrahumans, are just staring off into space. Falling under his spell, just like when he first went rabid.”
Jet recalled studying the Siege of Manhattan during Fourth Year tactics training at the Academy. About twenty years ago, Hypnotic had parted ways with the Squadron—violently—and had controlled a small area in New York City. It had taken the Squadron five days to push through his henchmen, then confront Doctor Hypnotic directly. The casualty rate had been horrific. “We can’t let that happen again,” Jet said quietly.
“But it’s already started. The hospitals are overloaded with cases of what the media’s calling ‘zombie plague.’ Total number’s hard to come by, but 212 cases have been confirmed.”
Oh Light.
Duty first, Jet thought bleakly. All those people, lost in their own minds … waiting for Hypnotic to command them. She had to stop Hal, convince him that what he was doing was wrong.
“So far, none of the affected civilians, or extrahumans,” Meteorite emphasized, “have done anything other than go blank.”
Jet frowned. “He got some of the rabids?”
“From what I’ve been picking up, yeah. Thirteen of the zombies were ID’d as extrahuman.” Meteorite listed them all, ending with a name Jet knew all too well from her Academy years: Dawnlighter. “Maybe we should recruit him,” Meteorite said with a tight laugh. “He’s doing some of our work for us.”
“You can help make a difference,” she says to Hal.
“Why, Joan,” he replies, “what a marvelous idea. I’ll have to think about that.”
Jet cursed.
“And that wacky media has also just announced to everyone and their sister that rumor has it that Hypnotic has broken out of Blackbird, so now people are more scared than they were before.” Meteorite snorted. “Which is saying something.”
“This is all the more reason I have to go after him now, before his influence spreads.”
“Will you shut it? I’m not done.” Meteorite glared at her. “The brass hasn’t pinpointed Hypnotic’s lair yet. Derek and I are guessing Hypnotic’s cloaked it somehow. If not for Kai’s distress call two days ago, we wouldn’t have found him, either.” Meteorite frowned. “Just as well. The National Guard would probably bomb him to hell and back rather than go against him directly.”
“Not with all the innocents caught in the crossfire, they wouldn’t.”
“Of course they would. Acceptable losses, and all that.”
“So I have to go after him,” Jet said impatiently. “We can’t give this to the police. It’s too dangerous for them.”
Meteorite shouted, “Scorch it, don’t