Don't Call Me A Hero

Chapter 12

“Lutsfy had a partner?” Charlie asked, leaning forward. The chair below him shook slightly and I frowned as I saw cracks spread across the glass table. Charlie didn’t seem to notice as he watched Maria intently. She nodded enthusiastically at him as she scrolled through her smartphone. She had always been so excited to teach people new things. It was heartwarming to know that she hadn’t changed all that much.

“His partner owned a medical office with him,” Maria explained, excitedly waving her hands to emphasize her point, “according to the news articles, he had no idea Lutsfy was doing such a thing. He was too busy picking up the slack at their medical office because of Lutsfy's personal project. This is all what he said, no one knew for sure if he was innocent. The police never found any connection and the bad publicity only lasted a few years before his practice was back to its former glory.” 

“How old is Geabble?” Charlie asked after a brief silence.

“Old,” I shrugged, narrowing my eyes, “definitely over fifty.”

“So, say he’s fifty. That was nearly twenty years ago. He would have been around thirty at the time. Was he teaching already?”

“Yes,” Peter spoke up, “I interviewed all of Alex’s professors. He said he’s been teaching for over twenty years.”

“Why would he want to do something like this when he already had a profession,” I asked, I folded my arms as I leaned back against the office chair. A childlike urge to spin around into the chair but I pushed it down as I waited for someone’s response.

We are all adults here. 

“Maybe he’s a scientist that can’t make it as an actual scientist?” Peter offered, “he couldn’t land a job or keep one so he taught? Perhaps the college provided something he needed for the experiments that he couldn’t get himself? A perfect cover?” 

“What if his father didn’t agree with it but he did?” Maria questioned, “what kind of classes does he teach?”

“I have him for biology,” I leaned forward, “but he teaches all science classes.” 

“Whether or not any of those are true,” Charlie spoke up, interrupting our line of thought, “we have no proof.”

“But we may have a clue,” I locked eyes with Peter with a small grin as we came to the same conclusion. I voiced it before he could, “if it’s him, couldn’t he be hiding her on campus?”

“Could be a possibility,” he nodded with a grin as he pulled out his phone, “we need to find everywhere that has connections to the science program. We’ll narrow down places once we get that list.” 

“I’m on it,” Maria said as she stood up. Though it was a serious matter and someone’s life was at risk, she seemed excited to have a job to do. As before, a wave of nostalgia washed over me. She may have gained powers and aged four years, but she was still that same old girl that used to trap me in some of her many lectures about something she had learned about that day. She had always been crazy excited about it.

She was a woman that broke the stereotypes. She was gorgeous and could probably get any man she wanted to, powerful or not. Instead, she had focused on her education no matter how often guys, even those in high school, had come to knock on her door. Even if her face hadn’t always been stuffed in a book, she only ever had eyes on Charlie. 

“I am going to go talk to a radio host that spoke with Arthur a few years ago,” I told them as I stood up, “maybe he can tell us a little something about his life. The article said something about him being on something and acting crazy. Perhaps he said something that could help us figure out where she’s being hid.” 

“You’re not going alone,” Peter stated as he dialed something into his phone.

“He’s not,” Charlie said, “we’ll both go and my guys are bound to find us at some point. We’ll be fine.” 

Peter nodded and pulled his weapon out of his holster. He held it out for me and I slowly took it out of his hands. He held his phone to his ear and stepped away from the table. I stood frozen and held the gun out like it would come alive any minute. I have never even held a gun. 

Who just gives someone their gun? I should not have a gun. What is Peter thinking?

“Let’s go, Alex,” Charlie said from the door. I took a breath and shoved the gun in the back of my jeans like I’ve seen them do in the movies. I pulled my shirt down to cover and followed Marcus out of the building. 

“You have a car?” he asked as we walked down the sidewalk. The main road was a few blocks from where we stood and the train station was only a few blocks further than that. It was around noon so we had plenty of time but I soon realized that I was going to be missing the rest of my classes. 

My first day of college classes and I’m missing most of them. 

“I was planning on taking the train,” I told him, “it’ll get us downtown where his office is unless you have a car?”

“The train is fine. Who are we even going to go see?”

“A Pedro Jimenez,” I read off my palm, “he spoke to Arthur two years ago. Apparently, Arthur was acting crazy.”

“How so?”

“I don’t know. They don’t have the recording posted anymore.” 

“Does he know we’re coming?”

“Nope,” I said and realized that might have been an easier tactic. If I could have found an email, this trip wouldn’t be necessary. This trip also wouldn’t be potentially useless. 

Oh, well. 

“Great,” Charlie muttered as we continued forward. Nothing else was said as we made our way to the train station. I bought the tickets as he lingered back, eyeing the people who passed by him. They all stared back, most with pity and others with a weird look of fascination. Kids pointed and some hid behind their parent’s legs in fear. 

“Your ticket,” I said and handed over the thin piece of paper. I looked down as the ground before me started to shake slightly as the train came in. We stood in the poorly made line and waited for it to come to a full stop. It was one of those sleek bullet trains with a red streak across the gray body. A door opened toward the back and I watched people pile out of it. Everything seemed so normal. They had their normal little lives…

I shook my head and turned forward as the line started moving. I stepped forward and noticed something in the corner of my eye. With reflexes I didn’t even know I had, I caught the bottle with my hand. I winced and let it crash into the ground once it made contact with my many cuts and glanced back at Charlie. 

The bottle had been heading for him. 

“What the hell?” someone called out from the line. My eyes zoomed in on a group of college men pushing and shoving each other. Their eyes were on Charlie as they giggled their way toward campus. 

Oh, I was pissed. Charlie might hate me but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to-

“No,” Charlie said, grabbing a fistful of my shirt and softly pushing me back. I hadn’t even realized I had stepped toward them. I found against his grip but only succeeded in stretching out my long sleeved shirt. 

“They just-”

“I know,” he said, “thank you for catching the bottle but Amanda’s a little more important than them.”

I spun around with a groan before he could say any more and slowly climbed the steps into the train. I paused for a moment as I tried to find a seat that would fit both me and Charlie. There were more people in the train than I had thought. I felt his hard hand on my back and he urged me forward. I didn’t realize where he was taking me until I noticed the two empty rows across from each other in the back. We took our seats and I sighed when I noticed people still staring. He, of course, sat across from me and took up two seats in that row. 

“I’ve been kind of an ass to you, haven’t I?” Charlie spoke up as the train started forward. I answered with a shrug and sat back against the cushioned seat. It was nowhere near as comfortable as I had been hoping. My hand still throbbed from where that body had slammed into it. I looked down and glared at the thin red line that had started to appear bright against the white bandages. 

What do I do? Apply pressure? Go to the doctor? Peter had given me stitches himself to avoid another doctor’s visit. Perhaps I actually needed to go this time?

“I know it wasn’t your fault,” he said, bringing me out of my panicked thoughts. Oh, he was still talking. I glanced over at him and raised an eyebrow. He was looking at everything else besides me, “I just…”

“Need someone to blame,” I finished, my eyes still on my bleeding hand.. His head snapped toward me and I offered him a small smile, “I understand. I blame myself too.”

“Alex-”

“Stop,” I snapped, desperate to be out of that conversion, “we aren’t here for some drama movie moment where we make up and become best friends like we used to. That isn’t going to happen. However, we need to have each other's backs right now, right? Whether it’s from flying beer bottles to kidnappers in black, okay?”

“Okay,” Charlie said, his voice small as he shifted his body to face the window. I did the same and leaned back against the hard chair. The world passed by in a blurred haze and I closed my eyes as I waited for the announcement to come that let them know the downtown stop was coming. The pistol dug into my back and I desperately wanted to remove it from my pants. 

Could you imagine if I did that? 

What would they even do that would be worse than what I already have? At least in jail I’ll actually be safe. I sat forward and ran my hands through my hair. I grabbed bunches of it and pulled slightly, desperate to feel something besides the terrible dismay that had fallen over me. 

Amanda didn’t have much time and here I was thinking about my own safety. Peter was right when he had said I was self centered. I was focusing on the wrong things. Why had I even gone to class today? I should have been out looking f I took a deep breath and released my hair, the pain in my scalp subsiding and the pain in my palm increasing. 

Damn it, I thought as I glanced at it once more. The blood was more of a blotch now instead of just a line. Peter had said that the cuts in my hands barely needed stitches. Hopefully I was fine until I could get back to him so he could fix me up again. Focus, I thought to myself. Focus on Amanda. Nothing else matters more than saving her life. 

You can handle pain, I chanted to myself just as the announcement came that our stop was coming up. I took a deep breath as I grabbed a hold of the seat with my other hand. It was bandaged as well but didn’t seem to be bleeding. I shoved my other hand in my pocket as I pulled myself to my feet as the train started to slow down. I stumbled forward against the seat as it came to a complete stop. I was already moving down the narrow walkway before anyone else.

Hopefully he was still at that radio station. 

Hopefully Pedro had something for us. 

Hopefully it was something we could use.

I was riding on a lot of hopes.