"It's a tough time, and between the two of us there isn't enough sanity to cover everything."
She sighed. "Exactly."
"No sweat. I've got it covered," I said. "I'll take care of business, release the pressure, Felicia will probably go back to her glamorous life in private security, and everything will be like it usually is— which is good."
She covered one of my hands with hers and said, "It is pretty good, isn't it."
"I always thought so."
She took a deep breath and nodded. "All right. I'll… somehow avoid clawing her eyes out. I can't promise you anything more than that."
"I'll take it," I said. I kissed her again, and we went back into the living room.
Felicia hadn't eaten anyone's omelet. She was, however, giving the fridge an enthusiastic rummaging, setting things haphazardly on the counter by the sink as she did.
Mary Jane paused, and her cheek twitched a couple of times. Then she took a deep breath, clenched her hands into fists, and sat down at the table without launching even a verbal assault. She began eating her omelet in small, precise bites while Felicia continued foraging in the refrigerator.
Felicia eventually decided on the leftover pizza and popped it in the microwave while I sat back down.
"All right," I said to Felicia. "What did you find out about Gothy McGoth and her brothers?"
"That we're in trouble."
"Gosh. Really."
She stuck out her tongue at me. "Mortia is connected, and in a major way. She controls at least half a dozen corporations, two of them Fortune companies. She's visited the White House twice in the last five years and has more money than
Oprah—none of which can be found in documented record or proved in a court of law."
I frowned. "How'd you find out, then?"
"Let's just say that I know some very intelligent and socially awkward men with a certain facility for the electronic transfer of information." She checked the pizza with her fingers, licked a blob of tomato sauce from them, and sent it for another spin cycle in the microwave. "The point is that these people have money, employees, and enormous re-sources. And bad things can happen to people who start sniffing around. Several investigators looking into their business turned up dead in really smooth professional hits. They looked like accidents."
"How do you know they were murders, then?"
"Because the Foreigner said so."
Mary Jane frowned at me. "The Foreigner?"
"Professional assassin," I said quietly. "He killed Ned Leeds. Hired a mutant named Sabretooth to kill Felicia."
Felicia smiled, and it made her eyes twinkle. "He can cook—oh my goodness! And his wine cellar is to die for."
Mary Jane blinked. "You dated him? Before or after he tried to kill you?"
"After, of course," Felicia said with a wicked little smile. "It made things… very interesting."
Mary Jane's fork clicked a bit loudly on her plate for a moment as she cut the omelet into smaller pieces with its edge.
"I'm out of the business," Felicia said, "but we keep in touch. I went skiing with him in South Africa last summer. Even the Foreigner's information on Mortia was very sketchy, but it gave me places to start looking." She took a bite of pizza. "And our best move is to blow town."
"What?" I asked.
"I picked up four plane tickets for London, and from there we can cover our tracks and get elsewhere. I can have new identities set up within the day."
Mary Jane blinked at Felicia and then at me.
I finished my omelet's last bite, swallowed, and set my fork down. "Four?"
"You, me, Aunt May, and MJ," Felicia said. "We have to get all of you out together."
"Why do you say that?"
"This is a no-win, Peter," Felicia said, her tone growing serious. "Without more knowledge, you can't take those three on. And if we start nosing around to get that knowledge, one of their managers is going to notice it and correct the problem."
"And hit men are supposed to be scarier to me than the Ancients?" I asked.
She finished the first piece of pizza with a grimace. "I guess you cooked, eh?"
"Stop trying to dodge the question," I said.
She looked down for a moment, her expression uncertain. Then she glanced at Mary Jane. "The Ancients are rich. One person has already found out about Peter's alter ego by spending a lot of money and using his brain. If they're willing to expend the money and manpower, it's only a matter of time before the Ancients know, too." Then she glanced at me. "And then you won't be the only one in danger."
My stomach felt cold and quivery, and my eyes went to Mary Jane.
Her eyes were wide with fear, too. "Aunt May," she said quietly.
Aunt May was out of town at the moment. Her friend Anna had won two tickets on an Alaskan cruise liner in a contest on the radio, and they were off doing cruise-liner things for the next few days. The brochure had said something about glaciers and whales.
It occurred to me that there really wouldn't be anywhere for Aunt May to run or anyplace to hide, trapped out on a ship like that.
"The people they send won't be obsessive, melodramatic maniacs like your usual crowd, Pete," Felicia continued, her voice calm and very serious. "They'll use strangers, cold men, with years of skill, patience, and no interest whatsoever in anything but concluding their business and taking their money to the bank. They'll find you, stalk you, and kill you, and it won't mean any more to them than balancing their checkbook."
"All the more reason to take care of it right now," I said quietly.
"No," Felicia replied. "All the more reason to run right now. For the moment, the Ancients don't know any more about you than you do about them. If Peter Parker and his family vanish now, you'll be able to hide—to bide your time until we can figure out more about the Ancients or else get some help in taking them down."
"I'm not—," I began.
"Whereas if you wait," Felicia said, running right over me, "if you keep going the way you are, they'll find out who you are, probably within a few days. Then it's too late. Then they'll use their resources to keep track of you and everyone you care about, and you won't have the option of running anymore. You won't be able to get out of sight long enough to come up with a new identity."
Silence fell.
I've been afraid of bad guys before. That wasn't anything new. The people I care about have been put in danger before. That wasn't new, either. But this time was different. This time a choice I had to make would determine whether or not they'd be in danger. If I stood my ground, the Ancients would use them to get me out in the open, and the only way I could keep them absolutely safe was to hide them—or else to get eaten, in which case my loved ones would no longer be of value or interest to the Ancients.
But it would mean vanishing, maybe for a while. It would mean leaving behind a lifetime there, in our town, our home. New York can be dirty and ugly and rude and difficult and dangerous, but it is by thunder my home, and I would not allow anyone to just rip it away.
Bold words. But I wondered if I'd ever be able to look at myself in a mirror again if MJ or Aunt May got hurt because of my stubbornness.
I looked up at Mary Jane, searching for answers.
My wife met my gaze and lifted her chin with her eyes slightly narrowed, a peculiarly pugnacious look on her lovely face.
I felt my lips pull away from my teeth in a fierce grin.
Felicia looked back and forth between us and drew a small packet consisting of airline tickets held in a rubber band from her jacket pocket. She tossed it negligently in the trash can. "Yeah," she sighed. "I was afraid you'd see it like that."
Chapter 11
Felicia accompanied me to the libraries, plural. The New York Public Library system is enormous, and it took most of the morning to get through the three different branches I wanted to visit. By the time I was finished hunting through the stacks of books, Felicia looked like she might simply explode from pure nerves.