The Gathering Read online

  Then a voice called out, “Mr. Jackson? You would do well to surrender!”

  “Perfect,” he muttered to himself. “It’s Junior.”

  “We know your methods, Mr. Jackson! We know you never carry any lethal weapons on a mission where you’re not expected to kill! We have you outnumbered. There is nothing you can do!”

  Right, the gunman thought. You think you know me. You think I’m some honorable assassin who always plays by a set of rules. Well, if you think I didn’t see this coming you’ve just made the biggest mistake of your life.

  He reached into the canvas bag and pulled out a Heckler and Koch P7K3 semiautomatic pistol, a small snub-nosed weapon that in the right hands could be deadly accurate.

  Lying flat on his back, the gunman crawled halfway under the car and looked out. He could see three pairs of feet. Two of his would-be killers had their feet spread apart: the stance of someone proficient with a powerful handgun. Junior’s bodyguards.

  He aimed and fired four times in quick succession, hitting the bodyguards’ ankles. The men fell to the ground screaming.

  The remaining set of feet shuffled, then turned and ran.

  The gunman rolled out from under the car and charged after the young Chinese man.

  Junior had almost reached the entrance to the alley when the gunman floored him with a flying kick to the small of his back.

  He pulled Junior to his feet, pressing the muzzle of the gun into his neck. “Whose idea was this? Your father’s?”

  Junior shook his head. “No!”

  The gunman dragged Junior back toward his car and handed him the keys. “Get in.”

  Shaking, Junior unlocked the car and climbed into the driver’s seat.

  “Start it up.”

  As the car rumbled to life, Junior asked, “Where are you taking me?”

  “Nowhere,” the gunman growled. He reached in, grabbed Junior around the neck and pulled him out of the car. “Just wanted to make sure you didn’t have a bomb wired to the ignition.” He forced the young man to his knees. “You hire me to put your rival out of commission so she’ll miss today’s meeting. You don’t want her dead because that would bring her gang into conflict with yours. That’s good thinking. I applaud that. She misses the meeting and suddenly it looks to everyone like her people don’t care about your precious trade agreements.”

  “Mr. Jackson, I—”

  “Shut up. I’m not finished. So all on your own you decide that instead of paying me my two million dollars, you and your friends will kill me and keep the money for yourself. And Sheng Senior will never find out, right?”

  “No, it wasn’t like that!”

  “Then what was it like?”

  Junior Sheng didn’t have an answer.

  “I thought so. Junior, your old man is a fool if he believes that one day you’re going to be able to take over his organization.” The gunman laughed. “You actually thought you could kill me. You hired me because I’ve got the best reputation in the business. I have never failed to take down a target, but somehow you thought that you and your goons would be able to stop me.”

  He stepped back. “Get up. I’m not going to kill you.”

  Holding on to the car to steady himself, Junior Sheng got to his feet. “I’m sorry, Mr. Jackson!”

  The gunman raised his eyes. “You can’t even get my name right!” He shook his head. “You’re in serious trouble, Junior, you know that? Sure, I did the job. Your rival will sleep for about six hours and there is absolutely no evidence of foul play. The knockout pellet I hit her with will already have dissolved into nothing. But you had to come after me. How’s that going to look? She misses this important meeting and on the same day there’s unexplained gunfire in the alley behind the hotel closest to her apartment.”

  The young man swallowed and stared at his feet.

  “Listen, Junior, you just tell your father that I’m coming to see him today and that I want him to give me my money in person. Plus a little extra…This is a hired car and I’m damned if I’m going to pay for a new windshield. If I don’t get my money, I’m going to kill him. If you or any of your organization tries to pull another stunt like this, I’ll let him live but I’m going to kill you and every other member of your family. Got that?”

  Junior nodded vigorously. “I am sorry, Mr. Jackson! It won’t happen again! I swear!”

  The gunman put his gun away. “Yeah, I’m sure it won’t, Junior. And for the last time, my name is not pronounced Jackson. It’s Dioxin.”

  4

  WARREN WAGNER ANGRILY STABBED AT the buttons on the remote control. “It’s on every channel!”

  Sitting on the sofa next to Warren’s armchair, Colin groaned inwardly. This is all my fault! If I hadn’t been showing off if I’d been paying attention, that guy wouldn’t have knocked me out and none of this would have happened.

  Warren flung the remote control on to the coffee table and—without looking at his son—said, “Colin, how many times over the past few weeks have I told you to be careful?”

  “I know, Dad. I’m sorry!”

  “Sorry isn’t good enough! We have to find a way to fix this…I don’t know, maybe get someone else to wear the Titan costume and arrange it so that the two of you can be seen in the same place at the same time. If Danny Cooper still had his powers…”

  “It wouldn’t work, Dad. Danny’s taller than me and his hair’s the wrong color. Plus, you know. His arm. Anyway, he doesn’t have his powers and there’s no way we can fake them.”

  Mrs. Wagner and Renata came into the room. “Renata just had an idea,” Caroline said to her husband. “Why don’t we start phoning everyone, saying things like, ‘Did you see how Kid Titan looks just like Colin?’ A preemptive strike. It would be better than people calling us about it.”

  “It’s not Kid Titan,” Colin said. “Just Titan.”

  “I really don’t think the name is what you should be focusing on right now,” his father said. He turned to Renata. “Let me take a look at your hands.”

  She sat down next to him. Warren carefully unwrapped the bandages on her hands and examined the blisters. “You’re healing fast,” he said. “You’ll be OK in a day or so. Any pain?”

  “A bit,” Renata said. “But it’s not bad. Look, maybe Titan could make a public announcement saying that he has the power to change his face, like Façade could, and that it’s just a coincidence that the face he chose looks like Colin.”

  Warren shook his head. “And when he’s asked to demonstrate this power, what does he do then?”

  The phone rang. Everyone looked at each other.

  “That’s the first of them,” Caroline said, biting her lip.

  Colin stood up. “I’ll get it. If it is someone asking whether I’m Titan, I’ll just laugh at the idea. Or something.” He went out into the hall and picked up the phone. “Hello?”

  “Col?” It was Brian McDonald; along with Danny, Brian was Colin’s closest friend.

  “Hi, Brian…How’s it going? Hey, were you just watching the news?”

  “Yeah! That’s why I’m phoning. Kid Titan looks just like you!”

  “I know. Now everyone will think I’m a superhero!”

  Brian laughed, then said, “You’re not, are you?”

  “Oh, I wish!”

  “You’re going to have everyone bugging the heck out of you now! Still, maybe some girls will finally notice you.”

  “Oh, thanks a bunch.”

  “Not that you need to worry on that score,” Brian said after a short pause. “You’ve had a hot babe living in your house for weeks. Pity she’s your cousin.”

  “I don’t think of her as a hot babe, though,” Colin said. “Just as someone who eats all the food and forces us to watch girly movies.”

  “You know,” Brian said slowly, “she does kind of look like Diamond.”

  “Brian, I think I’d know if my own cousin was a superhero.”

  “I suppose. Anyway, I’d better go. I just ph
oned Danny but his mum wouldn’t let me talk to him. He’s been grounded or something. See you tomorrow, right?”

  “Sure,” Colin said. “See you.” He hung up. Maybe I should have told him ages ago. He wouldn’t have told anyone else. Probably.

  The phone rang again. Colin hesitated for a second, then picked it up. “Hello?”

  “Colin? Is that you?” a girl’s voice asked.

  “Yeah. Who’s this?”

  “It’s me! Judy Morris! Don’t tell me you don’t recognize my voice.”

  How could I recognize it? Colin thought. You’ve hardly ever looked at me, let alone talked to me! He could hear whispering and giggling in the background.

  “So listen, we were just watching television and guess what we saw?”

  “You saw someone who looks like me. Yeah, you’re not the first one to let me know. How did you get my number, anyway?”

  “Adam Gilmore told me. So it’s not you, then? Kid Titan, I mean?”

  Colin resisted the temptation to say that the name was Titan, not Kid Titan. “What do you think? That I’m secretly a superhero? I wish I was.”

  “He does look a lot like you, though. And we were thinking, OK, that he hangs around with that girl superhero Diamond, and she looks kinda like that girl staying with you.”

  From the sitting room, Colin could hear his mother’s mobile phone ringing. “Judy, it’s just a coincidence that Kid Titan looks like me.”

  There was a brief pause. “If you really were him, you wouldn’t tell me anyway, would you?”

  Damn it! Colin thought. “Probably not. I mean, I barely even know you.”

  “Well, that’s because you never talk to anyone. You’re too shy. You know my friend Emma? The short one with red hair? Well, she fancies you!”

  Another voice squealed, “Don’t tell him that!”

  Despite the seriousness of the situation, Colin couldn’t help being drawn in. “Really?” He’d seen Emma around and had always thought she was sort of cute.

  Behind Judy, Emma was saying, “Oh my God! Oh my God!”

  “Yeah,” Judy said. “You could actually try talking to her sometime. Hold on, I’ll put her on.”

  Colin began, “No, wait…” but it was too late.

  Emma came on. “Erm…Hi, Colin.” She was almost drowned out by a loud burst of giggles.

  “Hi,” Colin said, thankful that he was on the phone and she couldn’t see how much he was blushing.

  At that moment, the sitting-room door opened and his father stepped out. “Hang up the phone.”

  Colin covered the mouthpiece. “In a minute!”

  “Now, Colin!”

  With his father standing there watching him, Colin said into the phone, “Sorry, Emma, I have to go.”

  “Oh. OK then.”

  “Bye,” Colin said, then hung up and instantly regretted it. I should have said that I’d see her soon or something like that! Now she’s going to think I don’t like her!

  Mr. Wagner reached out and unplugged the line from the phone. “We’ve been talking, Colin. We’re all going to have to leave here. It won’t be long before someone figures out that Renata must be Diamond. Then someone will realize that your mother and I used to be Energy and Titan.” He shrugged. “If that happens, none of us will be safe.”

  “There must be something we can do to sort things out!”

  “There’s nothing. There’s no going back. I’m going to phone Joshua Dalton, tell him to arrange transport out of here and somewhere for us to stay. Ever since California, he’s been asking us to go and work for him.”

  “What does he do, anyway?”

  “I’m actually not sure. Some kind of top-secret work for the U.S. government.”

  “So…We’re going back to America?”

  Warren nodded, then smiled. “Yeah. But at least this time we’re not being kidnapped.”

  • • •

  After much badgering from Danny, his mother had finally agreed to allow him to take Niall to see Façade. She laid down the rules: “You are not to stay for more than an hour. You are to go straight there and come straight back. Do not invite him for Christmas dinner—I don’t care how lonely he seems! And don’t go telling him that everything will be all right and that I’ll give in eventually!”

  Having agreed to all the rules, Danny and Niall pulled on their winter coats and set off for the bus stop.

  Danny was thankful that the bus was nearly empty because Niall couldn’t stop talking about his discovery that Colin Wagner and Renata Soliz were superheroes.

  By the time they got to the last stop, Danny was just about ready to throttle his little brother.

  “Right,” Danny said, taking Niall aside. “There’s a lot of people around, so do not talk about Colin or Renata, OK?”

  Niall nodded. “OK. But, right, what if…”

  Danny raised his eyes. “Niall, just keep quiet, OK? And stick close.”

  They made their way through the market square. As Christmas was approaching, most of the shops were still open, and the square was filled with people either laden with packed bags or carrying absolutely nothing and looking like they were on the verge of panic.

  Danny shuddered as a freezing wind whipped through the square. He glanced down at the zipper on his coat. Should have worn the other jacket. Buttons are a lot easier to manage with one hand. “Niall? Help me out here, OK?”

  As Niall zipped up the coat, Danny tried to ignore the looks of the people passing by. He heard a muttered comment, “That poor boy!”

  I didn’t know how lucky I was when I had two arms. I tied my shoelaces every single day and never even thought about it. I could open a bag of chips without having to use my teeth. Now it’s all I can do to get dressed in the mornings.

  Danny’s mother had bought him a new pair of sneakers with Velcro straps. That should have made things easier, but it only made him more aware of what he had lost.

  As they passed Morton’s Electrical Goods, Niall stopped and stared. The window was packed with dozens of television sets, all showing the same film: Kid Titan and Diamond rescuing the shoppers from the fire.

  “Come on,” Danny said. “We don’t have time to hang around.”

  They were just about to turn away when the screens changed to show the photo of Kid Titan without his mask. Oh God, Danny thought. It’s not going to be easy for him. But at least the photo’s not great quality, so I suppose things could be worse.

  And then a caption appeared below the photo: “Colin Wagner, 13, aka Kid Titan.”

  Danny’s blood froze. “No…,” he whispered.

  Niall turned to him. “What does aka mean?”

  “What?” Danny asked numbly.

  “Aka Kid Titan, it says.”

  “It stands for also known as.”

  Around them, people had stopped. Someone in the crowd said, “Colin Wagner…Doesn’t he go to school with our Philip? His mother’s one of the teachers there, right?”

  Danny whispered to Niall, “Let’s just go. Quietly, OK?”

  They turned away, stepping carefully through the growing crowd. Niall kept glancing back toward the store.

  “Come on!” Danny said. “Niall!”

  His brother had stopped walking and was staring open-mouthed at the largest wide-screen television.

  The screen now showed a decade-old photograph of Titan and Quantum. The caption beneath read, “Titan, aka Warren Wagner. Quantum, aka Paul Joseph Cooper.”

  For the first time in his life, Danny swore in front of his little brother. He grabbed Niall’s arm and tried to pull him away.

  At that moment the screen changed once again and showed the same captions over much more recent photos of Warren and Façade.

  “Danny! Look at that! It’s Dad!”

  Danny quickly glanced about: a lot of people had heard Niall and turned in their direction.

  Niall kept talking: “It’s Dad and Mr. Wagner! Danny, it’s saying that they used to be—”

 
Pushing Niall ahead of him, Danny said, “Just shut up and run!” How did this happen? How could someone have found out so quickly?

  A man stopped to block their path. It was Mr. Leopold, who lived in a neighboring flat. “Danny and Niall! Did you see that? About your dad? It’s not true, is it?”

  “No,” Danny said. “Of course not!” He tried to dodge past his neighbor. “We’ve got to go…”

  “Is that why your mother threw him out? She found out about his past?”

  Danny looked around. More and more people were stopping to stare at them. They knew his father was the manager of the local supermarket, and everyone would have heard about how P. J. Cooper’s son had lost his right arm in an accident.

  “Your friend Colin,” Mr. Leopold was saying, “he’s Kid Titan, so then that cousin of his must be Diamond. What’s her name again?”

  Niall stepped closer to Danny as the crowd advanced.

  “It’s all just some stupid hoax,” Danny said, thinking quickly. “There’s a guy who works in the TV station who used to go to school with our dad. They’re always playing pranks on each other.”

  Someone said, “You expect us to believe that?”

  If I had my powers, Danny thought, I’d just pick Niall up and run away from this group faster than they could see.

  A woman Danny didn’t recognize pushed her way through the crowd. “Listen…I’m having some trouble with gangs of kids in the area, always hanging around. Maybe your dad could do something about it?”

  “I don’t like this,” Niall said in a low voice. “I want to go home.”

  Me too, Danny thought. Aloud, he said, “It’ll be OK, Niall. Just stick close to me.”

  Then an elderly man approached. “Quantum saved my life, about fifteen years ago! Pulled me out of the way of a speeding truck. I never got a chance to thank him!” He stretched out his right hand, offering it to Danny to shake, then instantly pulled it back when he saw that Danny didn’t have a right hand of his own. “Oh. Sorry.”

  “Please,” Danny said. “Let us go! It’s all a mistake! My father is not Quantum!”

  A man asked, “You’re Quantum’s kids? For real?”

  “No, we’re not!”

  “Ten years since the superheroes all disappeared,” the man said. “Ten years! We all thought they were dead, but now…” The man’s face took on a snarl. “I know P. J. Cooper! I used to work for him in the supermarket! Four years back my sister was knocked down by a couple of drugged-up joyriders. She’s going to be in a wheelchair for the rest of her life! If Quantum had been around, he never would have let things get that bad.”