Heroes Lost and Found Read Free Page B

was trying to do at Cherries ’n’ Lemons? Lock onto us one by one and blow our heads off?”
    Outrager appeared honestly sorry, his tongue flicking out to wet terminally dry lips. “We planned to have the special attachment only used in case of an accidental death of a Guardian in the field, something along those lines,” he stammered. “It was never intended to be used like this, against supers who were behaving themselves.”
    I stared at the floor and wondered if I could shoot Outrager through the wires, reach out and touch him long-distance. It took a minute to get my temper under control, but I managed.
    Hunter didn’t even try.
    “Get this fucking thing off me,” he snarled as he bashed his inoperative Guardian brace against a very expensive black mahogany side table. “Get this thing off now.”
    He slammed his hand down again, knocking black wooden chips free. A third strike ripped his skin open, the blood flowing down towards his fingers as he continued to smash the brace against the rapidly deteriorating table.
    A few steps had me at his side, kneeling down as another chunk of table dropped away. The rest of the team sat there, frozen in place.
    “Hunter.” I touched his shoulder, feeling the muscles flex under my touch. “Hunter, stop.”
    The brace came down once more on the table. I glared at Outrager. He stared out from the screen, his expression unreadable.
    “Stop.” I slid my hand down to Hunter’s forearm, covering the brace. “Stop,” I repeated in a whisper.
    Hunter looked at me. I choked up, seeing the pain in his eyes, the tears about to break free.
    “I want this off. I don’t want to be one of them anymore,” he said. “I don’t want to be able to hurt anyone ever again.”
    I moved my hand down farther, covering and intertwining his bloody fingers with my own. “We’ll fix it.” I cleared my throat and glared at Outrager. “What’s the range on this? How close does he have to be to set off a plug?”
    “Within a mile.” Outrager seemed relieved to be able to answer a straight question. “Beyond that it’s not likely to work.”
    “Likely?”
    “It was never tested beyond that.”
    I snorted. “We’re not done talking about this. Not by a fucking long shot.”
    Hunter took a ragged breath, blinking rapidly for a few seconds before eyeing the screen. “We will talk. And I will have answers.”
    Outrager didn’t flinch under our combined attack. He stood still, waiting.
    “I want every one of those special attachments accounted for. Every last one,” I snapped at the Agency representative. “All of those caches as well.”
    “We have one already,” Outrager answered. “We weren’t prepared for this.” The last few words came out in a whine.
    I chewed on my bottom lip, knowing he defined “this” as being the alien invasion, the death of supers and Guardians, and the continued existence of an Agency working for us instead of the other way around.
    “None of us were. Get used to it.” I bit back a series of curses dying to break free. “Okay. So he’s got this device. Why the hell is he gathering supers around him? Why not come back to the Agency? I’m sure you’d be able to find him a job sweeping floors or something.”
    Outrager looked even more contrite, sending my internal organs into spasms. “Nick had a very…basic disagreement with the way the Agency was run. Thought we were babying the supers too much, thought we should be tougher with you.”
    My mind raced back to the training I’d suffered through while learning how to use my powers and the part I’d been assigned in the Agency’s ongoing charade. Military boot camp had nothing on the routines we’d run, the physical tricks and training we’d endured.
    “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
    “He kept most of it to himself during orientation. A private security expert, we recruited him away from one of the best companies in America. A few grumblings and minor complaints in his file but