The Superhero's Son Omnibus Volume 3

Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

As it turned out, my worries were basically for nothing. Wrath—who said he had some experience in the medical field—managed to surgically remove the bullet from Sarah’s shoulder and close the wound cleanly. In fact, he did it so professionally that Sarah didn’t even scream, though she did whimper throughout the whole process.

But according to Wrath, Sarah would still need to rest and would not be allowed to leave her bed for a while, meaning we’d need to get her food, water, and stuff like that. Sarah, for her part, didn’t seem upset about that. She actually seemed excited at the thought that she’d get to lie around and tell us what to do; I mean, she didn’t say it, but when Wrath mentioned that it would fall on us to meet her needs until she recovered, all of her moaning about her pain vanished and she put on the smuggest grin I’d ever seen on another human being’s face. It made me wonder, if only for a moment, why I was even friends with her, but that thought left my mind as quickly as it came and I soon forgot all about it.

But, while Sarah was given the opportunity to rest, the rest of us weren’t. Thaumaturge summoned us to his office—a nice, large room on the second floor, complete with polished oak desk and bookshelves containing old book after old book, many of which had titles in languages I could neither read nor recognize—in order to debrief and discuss our next course of action.

Sitting in the comfy chairs on the other side of the desk, Incantation and I explained everything that had happened at the White House. Thaumaturge listened well, as did Hopper and Technical, but none of them looked very happy to hear that the G-Men had apparently foresaw our attempt to get the folder with our leader’s location in it.

When I finished, Thaumaturge stroked his chin. The folder was on the desk in front of him, opened to the first page, where I saw the picture of the Visionary’s old face upside down. Again, I had this strange sense of revulsion when I saw the picture of the Visionary, even though I wasn’t sure why.

“This is bad,” said Thaumaturge after a few seconds of contemplation. “Very, very bad.”

“How did the G-Men know we’d be there?” said Hopper, his voice panic-stricken. He pulled at his dreads. “Do we have a spy on the inside?”

“Unlikely,” said Thaumaturge. “Each member of Vision goes through a vigorous test to ensure their loyalty to the Vision. If they fail the test, their memory of the test is wiped and they are not admitted into the organization, meaning that they never get a chance to learn anything of importance.”

“Shade said it was because Director Smith suspected we’d try to break into the Oval Office,” I said. “Said that since I’d ‘disappeared’ a week ago, Director Smith expected we’d try this, which is why he assigned Shade to protect the folder there.”

Thaumaturge—who had been stroking his chin all through my explanation—suddenly halted, a look of alarm appearing his eyes briefly. “’Since you disappeared’? What did she mean by that?”

“Nothing,” Incantation said. “That woman is nothing more than a liar and deceiver. She was trying to confuse Bolt by taking advantage of his amnesia. Just a psychological tactic meant to disorient him, a typical G-Man tactic. That’s all.”

I nodded. “Incantation is right. I don’t remember ‘disappearing’ last week and I certainly don’t remember Shade. She didn’t seem like an honest person, so I think she was just lying.”

But frankly, I felt like I was the one lying here. I mean, yes, I didn’t have any memories of Shade, but there was something intensely familiar about her. Maybe I’d known a woman just like Shade once, but had forgotten about her at some point. But that didn’t seem quite right; even with amnesia, I doubted there was any way I could ever forget a woman like her.

Yet I did not say that aloud, because I didn’t know if there was anything to this feeling of mine. It was probably nothing more than another product of my amnesia. No doubt it would go away with time … I hoped.

“Yes, the G-Men are very good at psychological warfare, due in no small part to the help of their telepathic leader,” said Thaumaturge. “I am glad that you did not fall for her lies, Bolt. Otherwise, the mission would have been a failure and none of you would have returned alive.”

“Yeah,” I said, still not showing my doubts. “She wasn’t a very convincing liar.”

“Right,” said Thaumaturge. “Now onto the matter of our leader’s location.” He tapped the folder lying open in front of him. “I studied this folder while you were watching Wrath heal Sarah. It does, indeed, tell us where the Visionary is being kept and what they are doing to him.”

“Is he safe?” said Incantation, putting her hands together like she was praying to a god. “Is he still in good health?”

“He’s still alive, but apparently has yet to awaken from his coma,” said Thaumaturge. “They’ve done surgery on his head and brain and are keeping his body alive with some life support machines, but they’re studying his brain.”

“Why?” I said. “What are they looking for?”

“I am unsure,” said Thaumaturge. “The notes say that scientists are trying to see if they can figure out which part of the brain generates superpowers.”

Incantation grimaced. “Neogenetics. Ew.”

“I know,” said Thaumaturge. “When will they ever learn that powers are a social construct? In any case, they haven’t had much luck so far. Apparently, the bullet to the brain damaged the Visionary’s brain pretty severely.”

“Meaning that even if we rescue him, he might be too brain dead to even speak?” said Hopper fearfully.

“The Visionary is a wise and intelligent man,” said Thaumaturge. “Even if his brain was damaged, I doubt his wisdom will be. Yet even if it is, we must still rescue him, because without his guidance and presence, Vision will fall apart and the world will continue in its intellectual ignorance about the truth behind superpowers.”

I stood up. “Then let’s go. I’m ready to save him now.”

Thaumaturge looked me in the eyes. “No. We are not going to the facility where our leader is kept.”

Incantation, Hopper, and I stared at Thaumaturge in shock.

“What … what did you say?” said Incantation. “You didn’t just say we’re not going to break into the facility where our leader is being kept, did you?”

“I did,” said Thaumaturge. “You heard correctly.”

“But he’s our leader,” said Hopper. “This is the first clue to his location that we’ve ever found! Why shouldn’t we go and rescue him? Do you think we can’t break into the facility or something?”

“No, I think we can,” said Thaumaturge. “I even think we could get to the exact room where he’s being kept.”

“Then why don’t we?” I said. “Heck, I could probably do it myself. I’ll just tear the place apart and take down anyone who gets in my way, G-Men or otherwise.”

“Because the government will be expecting it,” said Thaumaturge. “You don’t understand. Cadmus Smith is a dangerously clever and intelligent man. He probably already knows about the theft of the folder, even though it’s been less than an hour since the theft, which means that he knows that we now know where our leader is also.”

“So what?” I said. “Who cares if the government is expecting it? The government can’t stop us.”

“Actually, they can,” said Thaumaturge. “I know Cadmus from my years as a member of the Neohero Alliance. I worked alongside him to fight off the first Pokacu invasion. Trust me when I say that he will expect us to break into the place where our leader is being kept and will have set a trap accordingly to catch or even kill whoever we send there.”

“And there’s also the possibility that he will order the G-Men to move our leader to an entirely different location,” said Incantation. She cursed foully under her breath. “Meaning that all of this work will be for nothing.”

“Precisely,” said Thaumaturge. “As I have said, Cadmus Smith is smart. He will no doubt set a trap for us and also move our leader to a different location, so that even if we do get past Facility Fifty-Two’s defenses, we won’t even get to see our leader.”

“Was all of this in vain, then?” I said. “Was our entire mission a failure? Did Sarah get shot for nothing?”

“Don’t despair just yet,” said Thaumaturge. “Not all hope is lost, despite how grim the situation is.”

“Do you mean you know of a way for us to save our leader?” said Technical in a hopeful voice. “How?”

“Simple,” said Thaumaturge. “We track down the vehicle the G-Men will use to transport our leader to wherever his next location happens to be. Then we ambush it, kill its drivers and guards, and remove our leader from it well before they reach the other facility to which they will try to transport him.”

Hopper and I breathed a sigh of relief at that simple plan, while Incantation crossed her arms and said, “Okay, but how do we locate the vehicle that will take our leader away? How will we be able to track it?”

“That is also easy,” said Thaumaturge. “Because we know where our leader is currently being kept, we can send someone to spy on the facility and place a tracking device on the vehicle. Using that device, we will figure out the vehicle’s path and set up an ambush somewhere along the way that the G-Men will not expect.”

“We have tracking devices?” I said.

“Yes,” said Technical, nodding. “I’ve built some of my own, based off your dad’s own designs, actually. I haven’t had much of a chance to test them, but I know they work.”

“See?” said Thaumaturge. “And what makes it even better is how Cadmus will never see this coming. Despite his intelligence and cunning, that fool cannot foresee every action we’ll take. And then, once the Visionary is safely in our custody, Vision will rise again, stronger and better than ever before.”

Thaumaturge spoke very confidently, which made me trust that he knew what he was doing and that his plan would work. At least I hoped it would, because if it didn’t, then I wasn’t so sure about the fate of Vision.