“Yeah. Okay. Teddy—thank you.”
Suzanne stood by the entrance to the command room, watching Anna, her expression thoughtful. Anna prepared her usual defensive glare.
“Don’t tell me that I shouldn’t go out, that I’m too young, that I can’t handle it—”
“I’m not going to do that. Wait just a minute, though.”
Back in the command room, Suzanne went to one of the metallic cabinets along the side wall and opened a drawer. She didn’t have to dig around long before drawing out a set of thumb-sized devices and wires—earbud and microphone sets.
“Take this,” she said, hooking one of the devices around Anna’s ear, settling the bud in place. “It’ll keep you in contact with the command computer. We never had to use them much because of Arthur. I hope they still work. Bethy, here, you take one, too. We’ll need you to monitor the computer scanner and keep us all in the loop. All right?”
“You want me to help?” Bethy stared at them both. Anna wanted to hug her.
“I won’t have to teach you how to use the computer,” Suzanne said. “You’re your mother’s daughter, you know very well it isn’t all about the powers.”
“Bethy, you’re the smart one,” Anna said. “Everybody knows it.”
She had a look on her face like she didn’t believe them.
“Oh, Celia used to look just like that when she was your age.” Suzanne chuckled.
Bethy quickly hooked the speaker over her ear and turned to the console.
Back in the hallway, Anna’s phone beeped a missed call at her. She hit Reply. “Teia?”
“Teddy just texted and said someone grabbed your mom.”
“Yeah, I really need your help, can you come?”
She gave a short growl. “We’ll try. We usually sneak out after Mom’s asleep, but she’s up now and practically sitting in front of the door. But we’ll figure out how to get past her.”
Anna had a radical proposition. “Maybe if you just told her what’s happening—”
“And tell her everything else? I don’t know that I’m ready for that.”
“What is it?” Suzanne said.
Anna realized she was going to have to tell her grandmother everything. “Okay—Teia and Lew, they’re … they’ve got powers, too. We … we’ve all been practicing together, and we have to figure out how to convince their mom to let them go—”
“Anna, let me talk to Teia,” Suzanne said, holding her hand out for the phone.
Confused and caught too off guard to argue, Anna said, “Teia, my grandma wants to talk to you.” And she handed the phone over.
“Teia? This is Suzanne, is your mother there? May I talk to her? Just tell her Suzanne wants to talk to her.” A few moments ticked by, then she said, “Hello, Analise. Yes, this is Suzanne West. How are you? Not great, I’m afraid … Celia’s missing. That’s right. Can you help?”
Anna would have given anything for five minutes of superhearing, to be able to follow both sides of this conversation.
“Frankly, I don’t much care about that,” Suzanne said, hand on hip. “But will you please let Teia and Lew come over? Anna very much wants their help on this … Yes, Anna, too, they’re all in on it together … I know, but what did you expect? Yes, Arthur and I will be there looking out for them. So will Mark Paulson … That’s fine, just get over as soon as you can. Thank you.”
She clicked off and handed the phone back to Anna.
“What was that about?” Anna said, baffled. Ms. Baker knew about them? About everything? But how …
“You kids think you’re the only ones keeping secrets. Let’s go downstairs and meet your friends.”
“What secret is Ms. Baker keeping?”
“Not mine to tell. Bethy, are you going to be okay?”
“Yeah,” the younger girl said. “I’ve tapped into a couple of video feeds around Horizon Tower. I think I can tell you what’s going on, at least on the street. I’m trying to see if I can hack into any cameras on the inside.”
“Good girl. We’ll be back soon. Anna, I assume you have a suit or costume of some kind? Grab it before we leave.”
“Okay.”
“Grandma, Anna—be careful.” Bethy’s voice was stark, and Anna pursed her lips.
“Yeah. We will.”
On the elevator ride down, Suzanne snapped her fingers a few times. When she did, sparks flashed above her hand, and on the last snap a torchlike flame burst to life and burned for a moment before fading away.
“I’m really out of practice,” she admitted. “I may not be much help if this gets rough.”
“I’m really glad you’re here,” Anna said. “Thanks.”
“Family tradition. Your grandfather would be loving this.”
“Loving that Mom got kidnapped?”
“Maybe not that part. But he always loved showing her kidnappers exactly how he felt about it.” Her smile was almost gleeful.
Anna fielded a couple more calls by the time they reached the lobby. Sam was driving Teddy over, and Teia and Lew were on the way—with their mother. Teia wouldn’t say how she felt about that. Probably because Ms. Baker was driving the car. Anna didn’t have a chance to ask or find out about their side of that conversation. Time enough to discuss that later.
Outside, the day was overcast, and on the sidewalk and wide off-street drive that marked the front of West Plaza, the late afternoon rush-hour crowds were walking past like everything was normal, which seemed terribly wrong to Anna. That hole where her mother should have been still gaped. People in suits left the building, moving down the sidewalk, picking up cars from valet parking. Taxis sped by. She tapped her foot and looked at her grandmother, wondering how she could be so relaxed.
She was about to say something when she spotted an odd pair striding around the corner and crossing West Plaza’s front drive, right toward them. A man and a woman, they were athletic, muscular like sprinters, and their sleek black skin suits showed off their powerful figures. The woman had black hair clipped up off her neck and sharp, glaring features. The man was thuggish, intense.
“Grandma…” Anna murmured, touching Suzanne’s arm.
The pair looked, walked, acted like superheroes, but Anna didn’t recognize them. They didn’t wear masks. Anna and her grandmother seemed to be their targets.
The man kept his gaze on Suzanne while the woman focused on Anna.
“Anna West-Mentis?” she said.
“Who the hell are you?” Anna replied. Then Anna recognized her, mostly from her hair and the shape of her face—the woman from the video who’d snatched her mother.
“God, she’s just like her mother,” the man muttered.
“I need you to come with me,” the woman said, reaching for Anna as if she would just go along with her.
“Excuse me, can I help you with something?” Suzanne said in a falsely pleasant voice, pulling Anna back, stepping deftly in front of her.
The woman glowered at Suzanne. “Please get out of the way.”
“Do you know who I am?” Suzanne shot back.
“She said to get out of the way,” the man growled, grabbing Suzanne by the arm and yanking.
So no, they didn’t know who Suzanne was.
She grabbed him back, clutching the arm he’d wrapped around her to immobilize her—then she glowed. Her form seemed to waver as heat radiated off her skin. The cuffs of her blouse started to smolder. Her captor was sweating, his face reddening and his teeth gritting in pain. Suzanne—Spark—must have been boiling him. Finally, he cried out, and Spark wrenched away from him.
In the meantime, the woman grabbed Anna, who slammed a heel on the woman’s instep. Turned out to be harder in practice than in theory—Anna’s foot mostly slid off the woman’s armored boot. But the woman hissed, and her grip loosened. Anna dropped her weight and yanked herself away.