Pacific Station Vigilante (Book 1): The Negative Man (City of Chaos) Read Free Page A

paper close.  “What am I looking for?”
    “The display, check out the phone’s display.”
    DL studied the paper, but it seemed to be missing him.  “So he likes solitaire?”
    For a guy who was a powerful superhero vigilante, sometimes he was impossibly frustrating.  “How do you miss the Ace of Clubs staring at you?”
    Boom, there it was.  “You don’t think this is just a coincidence, do you Jericho?”
    “Makes all the sense in the world.  Diamonds would’ve been easily able to steal the servers if Jenkins was in on it.”
    Seeing my viewpoint, “So you want us to keep him here, to figure out the end game?”
    “We know Diamonds was just a distraction, probably the weakest in the group.  You never know, he might’ve sacrificed himself in his fight against you for a reason.”
    This logic made me think of the suicide bombers.  You know death’s coming, but instead of fighting to stay alive, they embraced fate with open arms.  “Maybe stealing the servers was just a curveball, get us to chase the bad pitch while they steal home.”
    I got a rare smile from the superhero.  “Your baseball analogies suck.”
    Yeah, sports weren’t my thing, except baseball, hence the pretty bad analogy.  I’d keep trying though until I got it.  Computers, technology, those were my areas of expertise.  That didn’t stop me from trying though.  “My point is, we keep acting none the wiser and Mr. Clubs might lead us to real answers.”
    “The Negative Man…”
    The fact DL even said his name wasn’t a good sign.  “We don’t even know if he’s still alive.”
    “He is; his presence hangs over Pacific Station like a black cloud.”  He looked out his large window, which out of respect to me he put a darkened film over.  “Can’t you feel his energy?”
    I felt energy alright, probably a nervous energy from DL.  “There’s a threat in front of us we can deal with, The Aces.  I wouldn’t worry about The Negative Man, not yet.  And who knows, maybe we’ll get lucky and another Ace will slip up with more info on him.”
    He stabbed the prototype file with his finger.  “You’re right.  Take this down to Research and get Jenkins to create another.  While talking to him, see if you can get anything worthwhile too.”
    “You want me to interrogate him?  That’s not smart.”
    He shook his head.  “No, talk to him, nerd to nerd.  When you guys get together, you can’t help but gush over the latest and greatest.  He might slip up.”
    I doubted it, but I scooped up the files off his desk.  “If he catches on to me, my death is on your hands…”  He pushed me out of his office and closed the door.  He didn’t even ask me about Diamonds blood analysis.
    On the elevator ride down, I tried to think of the best way to first tell Jenkins we were on to his copycat schematics, but also see if he’d spill any secrets.  My mother, God rest her soul, always said I was pretty damn conniving when I wanted to be.  The elevator door opened, the R&D Lab was buzzing.  Between the lost servers and the usual deadlines, the lab coats were running in a frantic state.
    Jenkins was at his monitor towards the back.  I shuffled between all the hub-bub and found a seat next to his desk.  He didn’t look up but did acknowledge I was there.  “Jericho.”
    “Jenkins.”
    It’s not that we were on bad terms, but nerds tended to try to stake claim to Alpha-nerd.  I’m a computer guy with an extensive background in engineering and he’s an engineer with an extensive background in programming.  There was a built in rivalry.
    His eyes were going a million different directions behind his glasses.  “Something I can help or explain to you?”
    I put the file on his desk.  “You can explain to Mr. Wonderton why this prototype looks exactly the same as the Mercury Five from gl-O-bal.  He’s not happy.”
    “Caught that did he?”  He stopped working and made eye contact.  “Or did one of the