The floors went by; windows went by. Occasionally Abe saw a flicker of movement in those windows, but no avenue for escape.
He flies? Abe was amazed, but also fearful. This man picked him out of thousands. He must know. He must work for Palucci!
Oh shit!
The two of them crested the building as if experiencing a sunrise speeded up. Suddenly, instead of going up… Abe looked down. Must be ten floors!- They started to move sideways. The stranger set him down gently on the roof and spun him around to face him. Abe was fearful, but also intrigued. He didn’t try to disappear. Besides, this man before him, dressed in a black suit, black dress shirt, a black tie, and large black fedora knew who he was. He’s obviously far stronger than I. Running wasn’t really an option.
“That was quite a show!” The stranger seemed to smile tolerantly.
“What do you mean? Who the hell are you?”
“I was watching. You’re pretty good.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, meshugener. And, by the way, you just flew me up here. You fly, dammit, and you’re talking to me about putting on a show?”
“Well, yes, I do fly.
I’m pretty strong, too…”
“I noticed.”
“-And I can do other things…”
“Like what? Like scare the shit out of an innocent old man?”
“Innocent? Hardly. Like I said. I was watching you. As my time permitted, I watched you as you were watching Palucci; prepping to rob him. That was nicely done by the way, but you’ll have to stop now.”
“Stop? Why? Since you seem to know everything already, can you tell me why I chose Palucci?”
“The same reason you chose all your victims. It’s dirty money- stealing money from thieves, right? I’ve been following your career these last six or seven months, since you came to our notice.”
“Our notice? Who?-”
“In a minute. Anyway, I’ve noticed that you never steal from any honest citizens. Moreover, I know that you donate a good deal of the stolen money to good causes. Very admirable.”
“So? Who are you anyway?”
“They
call me Titan. What’s your name?”
“Abe.”
“No, your superhero name.”
“Superhero? Hell, I’m just an old man… I’m no superhero.”
“So,
you don’t have a name.”
“Sure
I do. I told you already. It’s Myron Abraham Agronski. But you know all that
already, don’t you? You know that everyone calls me “Abe”. If you know all this
other stuff about me, surely you know my last name, and that, not only don’t I
have a spandex suit hidden away in my
secret lair, I’m 81…” He spread his arms to show his old used up body.
“Does anyone really want to see this
in spandex?”
Just then, his cell phone vibrated in his pocket. Abe held up a finger and pulled it out.
“Oy! Not her!”
“Don’t you want to talk to her? –To call out for help?”
Abe took another hard look at Titan.
“Nope. She’s my noodge cousin- always calling to bother me for some piddling thing. Besides, you’re not going to kill me are you?”
Titan smiled and shook his head.
Abe put the cell phone away.
“Now, where were we?”
Titan smirked indulgently. “Working out and certain vitamin regimens can make more difference than you think. How old do you think I am?”
For the first time Abe really examined the stranger. A pigeon flew by distracting him for just a moment. He drew his eyes across Titan carefully.
“You’ve see forty years, I’ll bet. Maybe fifty…”
“Very good. I’m 48. But, I’m healthy …and-”
“Powerful. Yeah I know. You flew me up here. I caught that. Now what?”
“Alright Abe… (we really need to think of a name for you)-”
“ I HAVE-”
“Yeah, I know, but another name… You have to stop doing what
you’re doing, though.”
“Why?
I’m not hurting any good people.”
“Because you’re getting in the way. We’re watching Palucci, among others. Like I said, you came to our notice when you started turning up at all of our investigations.”
“I pick my …ummm… victims by finding bad people in the paper. If they’re guilty, and they use their money and power to beat the rap, I go and extract a bit of justice… Plus there’s rent to pay… So, you can read the paper, too, eh? Good. Glad to hear it. You gonna take me down or are you going to make an old man walk down twenty flights of stairs?”
“Abe, you’re going to stop. But I do have something else to offer you.”
“Oh yeah? What?”
Being a six year old, alone on the streets of Liepzig during war made him calculating and street-wise very quickly. “I’m not afraid of you. You know that?”
“I don’t doubt it, Abe. If you’d told me any different, after all the sorrow and hard times you’ve gone through. I’d have thought you were lying.”
“What do you know about my sorrows, and my hard times?”
Titan ticked off information on huge fingertips: “Born outside of Leipzig just as World War Two was getting into full swing. Your family lived in fear, until they were rounded up with all the other Jews who hadn’t left Europe early. Somehow…” He paused and looked at the little old man.
“Somehow, you vanished at the last minute. Should I go on?”
Abe scowled.
“-From there you drifted to Dessau, but that was a bad place for anyone then, especially a kid. Finally, you ended up in the outskirts of Berlin. Just dumb luck, you were well West of the Soviets. You were picked up by a Jewish Medic and eventually adopted, relocating with him after the War to New York. Eventually, you moved to L.A. after your adopted parents died.”
“How in the hell do you know all this?”
“The government does little research projects for us. In return, sometimes we turn over some of the information we uncover back to them; sometimes it’s actionable information, and bad guys go to jail…”
“So. What’s this offer you’re about to make to me?” Abe poked Titan with his boney forefinger with each syllable.
He’d consented to being blindfolded and was whisked high up into the sky.
Just as well I can’t see a thing. Probably barf from fear.
He felt the sun beating mercilessly on his balding pate. Wonder if we’re going into the desert?
There was something about the desert. You always knew…
Of course. I visited some friends up in Idylwild, once. That wasn’t the desert but the sun could get awfully strong there too… But there wasn’t any other noise save for the rushing air. No car horns, trucks laboring up a grade, no birds… Yep. Desert.
In time, he felt them descending, and he also felt the heat radiating up off the ground or floor.
Yep. We weren’t in the air all that long. I’d say up in the Mojave… Maybe near Lancaster or Rosamond.
They soon landed and in quite short order, Abe felt the blessed, cool shade.
Titan walked him a few yards further, and then stopped him. Taking off Abe’s blindfold, he gestured to the rooms arrayed before them.
“Welcome to our headquarters.”
“Headquarters?”
“Yes!” Titan said proudly.
Abe looked up at him.
“Like the batcave or the fortress of solitude?”
“Exactly.”
“-And you’re a superhero?”
Titan got a little flustered. “Did you not see me fly you here? What more do you need?”
“Well, technically, I didn’t see you fly me here, but I guess I get your meaning…”
Abe looked around. The room’s underground, I guess, judging from the lack of windows.
While large and rambling, it was not by any means opulent or high tech. Abe looked up at Titan after a few moments.
“Not exactly the Ritz. More like an abandoned underground K-Mart waehouse. Aren’t superheroes supposed to be rich?”
“How can we be rich when we don’t charge for our services. We make a little money here and there; we have a few patrons who help support our mission.”
“Your mission?”
Titan gestured that they should walk. He led Abe to a area intended for gatherings: Formica counter top, stools, and higher chairs pushed up to it with a small kitchen nearby.
“We try to use our special abilities to work, as much as possible behind the scenes. If we are up front, with what we do, we feel; that we’d become lightning rods, for crazies. Also-” They sat. “-If we were around all the time, well, people would start to depend on us, and then, maybe not do for themselves… Like you.”
“Me?”
“Yeah. You. You’re the flip side of that coin. You’ve been taking too much into your own hands.”
He turned to the open expanse and shouted. His shout was something more penetrating and primal than Abe would have expected.
“Mercury! Can you come here, please?”
“What? No intercom?”
Titan gave Abe a dark look.
A black youth of perhaps fifteen suddenly appeared in front of them. He wore a skin tight black and grey spandex outfit that only served to emphasize his skinny and still developing form.
“Wow! Where did he come from?” Abe flinched in surprise.
Titan smiled indulgently. Mercury is the fastest human alive. He can run so fast, that you can’t even see him! And, he’s just getting faster as he gets older!”
“What is this place? Why isn’t this kid in school?”
“He is, in a way. We have regular classes for Math, English, Geography and so on, but we also train people, mostly young people how to use their powers for good, and not evil.”
At the word “evil” Titan looked at Abe pointedly.
“What?”
“Abe, you’re getting in the way. Keep this up, you…or someone else…someone innocent, might get hurt. We’re professionals, I’m a professional. Let us handle it. We have super powers but we try our best to stay hidden. Someone like you could expose us. That might be…problematic.”
Titan reached into Abe’s coat and deftly extracted the bundle of 100’s. He held it out.
“Mercury, please put this money back.”
“Wait just a second! I worked hard for that!” Abe reached out but Mercury had grabbed the money and was suddenly ten feet away. It was as if he’d teleported!
“Pretty quick, isn’t he? Think you can catch him and take your money back?”
Abe fumed.
“Mercury, get a tracking helmet and input Mr. Palucci’s …ummm “client” number. We need to replace that money before he counts it at home and decides that the bank manager cheated him. That would…”
He looked pointedly at Abe who flinched a bit.
“- pretty much spell the manager’s death. And he would be an innocent, right? We try not to hurt innocents…”
“But I needed that money to live on. Palucci cheated hundreds of people to get that money. He doesn’t deserve it!”
“You can stay here for a while… I’d prefer if you did stay here. We’ll cover your food and lodging. Despite your escapade, I’ve been checking up on you. I think, we think, that your experiences might be valuable as a teaching tool for our kids.”
Mercury reappeared nearby with a glossy helmet that had a heads-up view overlay on the visor. The youth concentrated on the readout in front of his eyes.
“Titan. I got him. He looks like he’s heading home.”
“Can you beat him there?”
“Fer sure!” The youth waved as if he felt the question didn’t even need to be asked.
“Can you do the swap without getting caught?”
“Aw, c’mon, Titan. You worry so much…”
Titan smiled.
“Alright. Go do it. – But be careful -And come right back.”
Mercury was long gone by the time Titan had finished saying “Go do it.”
He turned to Abe laughing a bit to himself. “…Damn kid is so fast…”