Cauldron Book II Part 5

I heard Brett's voice on a loudspeaker from the bus! "Perpetrator, you are apprehended."

The trunk of the car bashed open from inside. Imperilus stood up with two machine guns, and said, "The HELL I Am!"

I needed cover. As Imperilus started shooting, I ducked under the car.

The car started rocking. The two nearest creatures were climbing up it! I had to get out! But I wasn't fast enough. As I rolled out from under, the car came down on my foot! I must have screamed.

It rocked back up. I knew I had to move some more; I just couldn't.

Then Liz was there, dragging me away. No one was shooting; at least the creatures had Imperilus occupied. Margaret Jean was off wrestling one of the creatures or something. I'm not sure what I saw there...

The next thing I saw was the lounge inside the bus! Someone had removed my glasses. And the bus was moving! Oh, no! Was the whole bus captured, by whoever had brought the creatures?

I stayed silent, closed my eyes, and just listened. When I opened my eyes again I'd make it count.

A man in a surgical mask said, "She's conscious. This is a strong woman."

Margaret Jean said, "We know."

I dared a glance. She knew what I was thinking. She said, "Summer, you're safe now."

"What happened?"

The stranger said, "You broke two bones in your foot."

"Besides that!"

Margaret Jean said, "We got Imperilus. But he didn't have Holly."

"What!? Please tell me I can interrogate him."

"No way. You think we want to hold him? USIB took him. But now they have this sort of brain thing that keeps him sedated. And they finally brought out their 'professional' interrogator."

"Can I at least watch?"

"Nope. We had to take you for help."

"Arrrh!... What about those creatures? Did they maybe take Holly?"

Mel the bus driver said, "No they didn't. They're with me. I thought you knew about my toe golems. Norma knows. So do MJ and Liz."

Margaret Jean said, "We call him Toejam. He was with us before you joined. One of his golems helped protect you. The others beat up Imperilus, with a little help from a sonic gun Brett came up with. So yeah, he's good."

I said, "Uh, okay... But Holly was nowhere around! How could they give us her signal without her there?"

"They knew about Brain2Web. Imperilus said he dug that thing out of her brain himself with his own pocket knife. But USIB swears he was lying. His friends must have had a real surgeon ready."

"... You mean you got to help interrogate Imperilus?"

"Yep. He was in charge of Holly after she was captured. He didn't want to let her go because she wasn't trained yet, but this one customer really wanted her - in Massachusetts! We're on our way to meet Norma and the others there."

"Aw, dammit. Norma was on to something! Please tell me I can help."

"That's up to the doctor..."

The doctor spoke. "Young lady, you're certainly not fit for your sort of action, but there's no reason you can't observe from safety. If you can tolerate being safe, that is."

Margaret Jean said, "Thank you, Doctor Help. Do you need us to drop you off somewhere?"

"Please, when I'm on a house call, Doc Help is good enough. But no, thank you. I'll find my own way out." There was a pop, and he disappeared!

...

So Margaret Jean got the job done despite me, as much as she could. And you were already getting ready for what needs to happen next, Norma. I'm so sorry I doubted you.

I refuse to be helpless to rescue Holly. I can at least come up with those news briefings like USIB used to give us. And now I'm finally noticing the news from everyplace other than where I am.

• There's some new sort of plague in Europe. Cargo planes have shipped German Jews to Oregon for clinical testing of a new drug. Denmark's been heavily affected too; they've withdrawn their military and political support from Greenland. Cuba has sent advisors and some military to Greenland to fill the void. The U.S. is too busy to care.
• There's a civil war in China, and nobody's quite sure where all their nukes and rockets are. Today, North Korea did a missile test into the Pacific, with a surprisingly powerful rocket - and a live nuke! The electro-magnetic pulse on it blew out fuses in Alaska, and they're starting to look for fallout in Seattle. An aircraft carrier left its base at Puget Sound just to avoid radiation.
• There's gang warfare up and down the west coast. Gang lords are blowing up buildings in Seattle... My mom is there. My kids are there, with my ex-husband. I wish I were back home.

I used to watch the news like a spectator. Now it's like I have to ride it.

I also re-read the briefing papers on Imperilus. He has a history with the guy who's probably captured Holly, which explains why he helped capture Holly. And a lot of this stuff never got published, even though the World Journal Monthly has notes on it. And they publish everything, don't they? Just not on this guy. What's going on?

• Imperilus the Exterminating Son is also known as Joe Johnson. He's the son of Sam Johannsen, commander of the Last Army, a faction of superhumans who fought the world throughout the late 1990s. Sam Johansen's partner was Philippe St. Joseph Lateran.
• Imperilus was a subcommander who helped exterminate a large group of Subhumans. It's odd now that there were two Subhumans in the facility with him in Tennessee... or it might explain it.
• Imperilus did not get along well with his father. The Weekly World Journal mentioned how they abused each other once - as observed by Lateran himself.
• When aliens invaded in 1999, Imperilus's father Sam brought the Last Army into alliance with the rest of Earth. Good for him. He died heroically.
• After most of the Last Army was brought to justice (practically all amnesty), Imperilus spent some time as a professional wrestler, then went to visit his father's old friend Philippe, at a church in Willow Farm, Illinois. Right about then, Philippe's shit hit the fan, because he'd abducted someone in a political plot. Soldiers and superhumans busted the church.
• Philippe had no amnesty, because he was a bona fide war criminal... just like Imperilus. But Imperilus escaped. He confronted the Ultimate Darkness at Willow Farm, and then went on a quest for it. He didn't win. But he survived. Now I know, there's not enough power to throw at this guy the next time he's a problem. Now I'm glad he's someone else's problem. And I'm glad we're going after his associate Lateran now.

... Oh, damn. Now that I have to keep track of the news, I'm writing in bullets for PowerPoint like USIB did.

We saw a convoy of school buses headed back for where we came from. There were grown men on board. Oh, damn, militias are probably still assembling at Nashville.

We got into a campground in Douglas, Massachusetts late at night. Norma greeted us. So did militiamen - and a gorilla! Norma said, "Questions later. Dinner first."

So we had soup for dinner. We all eat lots of soup nowadays, because we all want to boil all the nutrients off everything. They said this was duck blood soup. I believe it. And Norma answered questions.

Philippe St. Joseph Lateran is back! His sister Eve St. Marie made a deal with the Devil to get him liberated from the Vampire Pirates of Tuvalu. Now he's got Holly as his personal attendant! He wanted her as a trophy of what his sister had to go through to free him.

Lateran's mental powers make people naturally follow him or whomever he wants. And not just people...

Yesterday in Douglas, the gorilla who's with us had to run from other gorillas - and an overmind! Lateran's freed the apes from one of the Massachusetts zoos. His mental powers are strong enough to make even apes obey him. They don't fire guns, but they can pick up clubs and slug people with the best of them. So they're great for crowd control. One of the gorillas broke free, though. And it knew sign language! A militia woman interpreted for it.

Lateran has moved in to the best (or at least most convenient) hotel in New England outside the major cities: the FERG Hotel in Douglas! With him here, it is a luxury hotel where they garden in the rain. He's very demanding.

But Norma's ready for him. We're all here. The town militia will help us. Norma has a couple of superhumans on call too; she won't tell us who, just in case Lateran can read minds (though we think he can't). But his days are numbered - and the number is one. We move against Lateran tomorrow!