Disparity Read online

  There was no scar.

  “We’re not too late.”

  “Yeah, so now all we have to do is convince her guards there is a lookalike out there gunning for her,” Frees said.

  “She won’t want to take any chances,” Arista replied. “Not if she’s as cautious as everyone says she is. It’s probably killing her to be this far away from the island.”

  “Shut up,” a guy beside Arista said. “She’s coming this way.”

  “Echo! Ms. Dante! This way please! Will you be pressing charges? Are you launching an investigation into the arsonists?” People all around them screamed for her like she was the latest musical celebrity. These people loved this woman.

  Echo turned to the crowd and held up her hands. Everyone immediately went silent. “Everyone, please calm down,” she said. She sure sounded like the same Echo. Even if she didn’t look the part. “This seems to have been a simple accident. Fortunately, production will not be affected. We’ll be shifting imports from Atlanta and Baltimore to cover the difference. The city will see no reduction in vehicles from me anytime soon.”

  “Hey,” Arista yelled at one of the bodyguards while Echo continued to address the crowd. “Hey, buddy.” He turned his bald head slightly as if to tell her he was going to keep ignoring her. “How do I report a threat?”

  That got his attention. He tapped his temple and walked over to Arista. “Are you threatening Ms. Dante?” he said, his voice deep and syllables long.

  “No. But I have information she may be in danger. I need to notify someone.” She tried to keep her voice even, she didn’t want to come across as too excitable.

  “Talk to the police,” the man said, beginning to turn away from her.

  “I’ve already done that,” Arista said. “They told me to tell you.” It was a lie. A bald-faced lie but she didn’t care. Whatever it took for him to listen.

  “Yeah?” he asked, turning back. “Who did you talk to?”

  “Officer Foley,” she replied.

  “That’s funny. Foley’s not the kind of guy who pawns off work on other people.”

  She raised her eyebrows. “Could have fooled me. I’m just telling you what he told me, okay?”

  Arista noticed Echo had taken an interest in her and the guard’s conversation. Maybe if he wouldn’t listen, she would. “What’s this here?” Echo said, approaching them. Arista felt the people behind her gasp.

  “This woman claims to have information about a threat on your life,” the guard said, rather bored with the whole ordeal.

  “Oh?” she said, tilting her head slightly. “Please. If you don’t mind.”

  It was uncanny how alike she was to their Echo. Right down to the cadence of her voice.

  “Ma’am, I wanted to warn you,” Arista said. “I…ran into someone yesterday who looks exactly like you do. She is unhinged, unstable, and I believe she plans to replace you with herself. She even has the same haircut.”

  Echo’s mouth turned into a frown. “That’s very odd, isn’t it? Why do you think she plans on…replacing me?”

  Arista grimaced. “Money. Power. Resources. Take your pick. But I wanted to tell you so you could be ready. We’re in the process of trying to find this person.”

  “Are you with the police?” Echo asked.

  “We’re a special branch,” Frees said. “Strictly undercover. But the possibility was too dire to push through normal channels.” Arista glared at him.

  “Ma’am,” the guard said. “They’re just a couple of nuts. They already told me they informed the police who didn’t want to listen. They can’t even get their own story straight.”

  “Regardless,” she said to the guard. “Let’s increase patrols for a few days. We don’t want someone slipping through the cracks. Especially with all this going on.” She gestured to the smoking rubble then turned back to Arista. “Thank you for the warning, Miss…?”

  “Umm, Jessika,” Arista said. “Jessika Thorne.”

  “Miss Thorne.” Echo held out her right hand. Damn! Why hadn’t she put on a glove already?

  “I…uh, I have an injury,” Arista said, indicating the hand in her pocket.

  “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” Echo said, holding out her other hand. Arista took it easily but Echo didn’t let go. She yanked her closer. “It’s not easy when you lose an arm, is it?”

  Six separate warnings flashed in Arista’s vision at once and she wrenched her hand from the woman’s grip, almost stumbling back. Echo hadn’t taken her eyes off her. She winked at her instead, throwing in a little smirk for good measure.

  “Frees,” Arista whispered.

  “I saw it,” he replied.

  “Did you see that?” Echo yelled, gaining her guard’s immediate attention again. “She’s a bionic! Underwood! Stop that woman!”

  Arista turned and ran.

  SEVENTEEN

  “IT’S HER! GODDAMMIT, IT’S HER!” Arista yelled, sprinting in the opposite direction and somehow outpacing Frees. It must be because his power reserves were so low. He might not be able to keep up with her. He glanced behind them to see four security guards and two police officers giving chase. While Echo stood right where she was, playing it up for the cameras.

  “How the fuck did she fix that scar?” Arista yelled, making her way back to the van.

  “No, you can’t,” Frees yelled back as soon as he realized where she was headed. “If they see the van, it will lead them back to Blu and David.”

  He caught her wince and she changed directions, heading down another street, this one busy with delivery vehicles. “Here, pick me up and jump, we have to get out of here.” She slowed so he could catch up.

  “Can’t,” he replied, “Power levels are too low. I can barely keep up with you.”

  “I can’t carry you, so you have to lead this chase. How do we get away from them?”

  He started running again and she followed to catch up. “We may not be able to. But we could split them up. Better odds that way.”

  “Better odds for them too. They can pick us off just as easily,” she replied.

  “Good point. So then where?” he asked.

  Arista slowed and he glanced behind them. Two security guards and the two officers were still on their tail. No telling where the other two had gone.

  “Did your face get on the camera?” she asked.

  “I don’t think so, did yours?” He forced his legs to go faster. They couldn’t let security catch up. When Frees glanced back again the two security guards had drawn their weapons. “Move your ass!” He grabbed Arista by the arm, yanking her forward.

  “Here, follow me,” she said, turning down the nearest street. “I’ve got a rudimentary map of this area. But I don’t know how accurate it is.”

  “Then how do you know where we’re going?” Frees could already feel his power levels dropping. He wasn’t equipped for this today. If his power cell had been full instead of almost emptied, then recharged it would have held up a lot better. But Jill had always told him they were meant to be one-use items. And it wasn’t like he could just pick up a replacement.

  “Just trust me,” Arista said.

  “If I still had the felp this would have been over already.”

  “Yeah, and you’d be in body lock.” They reached a series of doors to a warehouse. Arista slammed her fist on one, breaking the lock and pulled the door open just as their pursuers came around the corner. She ran inside followed quickly by Frees. “No noble sacrifices this time,” she said, running across the open space to another door on the far side. It looked like they were circling back around.

  She got to the other door and smashed its handle too, throwing it open and leading them both back out into the sunlight. A hazy sunlight. “This way,” she said, trotting down the alleyway to another door on the other side of some pallets and other trash. She hit the handle again and they both entered quick, pulling the door closed behind them. “One more. How are you holding up?”

  “Eight percen
t,” he replied, slowing even further as they ran across the second space. This one was stacked with what looked to be old equipment and machinery. It wasn’t that dissimilar to the kind of machines Frees had seen in pictures of before the war. Old human equipment. Why would they keep such old equipment lying around? Who owned this warehouse?

  They reached the far side and Arista smashed the door one more time, flinging it open. But as soon as they burst out into the sun again there was the sound of something charging up behind them.

  Frees turned to see the other two security officers standing on the roof of the building across, pointing their weapons at them.

  “Back in,” Arista yelled, pulling him back through the exit before the officers could fire. Behind them was the commotion of the other four searching the first alley they’d come from. “New plan. You cover this door, I’ve got the other one.”

  “Four against one?” he asked. “I’m the one that’s bulletproof.”

  “No, you’re not,” she called, running away from him to the opposite side of the large space to cover the door.

  Before he could argue, the door slammed open again and one of the two officers pointed his weapon through. Frees, back against the wall beside the door, reached out and grabbed the gun. Before the man knew what had happened, Frees had turned it around and fired, knocking the man back with some kind of sonic blast.

  Frees peeked through the opening to see the man sprawled against the brick of the next building over and the other security guard with his weapon already waiting. He ducked back around the opening just as the blast hit the wall, shaking the entire building.

  He checked his power levels: six percent. He wouldn’t be able to keep this up much longer. And he could only pray Arista hadn’t been captured or killed yet. Not until he could get over there. Frees swung back around and fired his weapon three more times, each missing but causing the guard to duck and cover. As soon as he dropped his head Frees rushed forward as fast as he could and planted an uppercut on the man’s jaw, sending him sprawling. Frees grabbed the second weapon from the unconscious man and ran back through the warehouse to the other side.

  Four percent.

  Frees struggled to maintain his balance. As he rounded two old pieces of machinery he saw one of the police officers on the ground with another security guard. The other two held Arista down; the guard on her chest and the police officer just on her arm, trying to fish something from his belt. Probably that blue thing they’d immobilized her arm when they’d arrested her in the park the first time.

  “This is why we don’t need bionics,” the officer said. “Can’t trust this machinery.”

  The security guard turned just in time to see Frees pull the trigger, sending him flying off Arista, and landing with a thump on the far end of the room. As soon as he was off, she managed to leverage her weight so her leg caught the officer in the back of the head, knocking him off her arm long enough for her to get him in a chokehold.

  “Don’t!” Frees said. “You don’t have to kill him.”

  “Don’t I,” she growled. “Or hadn’t you heard?” There was terror painted on the officer’s face. He’d gone from barely in control of the situation to completely at her mercy.

  “No, you don’t. That’s not you. It never has been.” Frees kept his weapon trained on the officer, but not her.

  “Yeah?” she said, her eyes glistening. “What about Byron? What about Sy? What about everything in Charlie’s HQ?” Frees cringed at the mention of Charlie. “I seemed to do a pretty good job there,” she added, squeezing tighter.

  He approached her and put his hand out to her. “But you don’t have to.”

  “What’s the point, Frees? Just tell me what the point is? It won’t matter. Just one more person dead because of me.”

  “It will matter to you,” he said softly. “And it will matter to me.”

  That seemed to do it. She loosened her grip and the officer struggled to breathe. Her eyes glazed over and she dropped her hold, moving out of the way. The officer held up his hands to Frees as Arista moved out of the line of fire. “Wait, you don’t need to—”

  Frees fired, sending the man skidding across the ground until he struck the far wall, his head connecting with the concrete. When he glanced back Arista was standing by the door, wiping her eyes.

  Three percent.

  “Are they…?” Frees indicated to the two men who she’d already laid out before he got there.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “I didn’t check.”

  Frees bent and checked the pulse on both of them. Weak, but present. He stood again, shoving the weapon into his pants and handing the other one to her. “Let’s get out of here, before more arrive.”

  She reluctantly took it but wouldn’t meet his gaze as she went to the door, checking the opening before stepping through.

  ***

  They made it back to the van without incident, though they heard more security officers searching as they made their way through the back alleys to the van. Frees couldn’t help but think about her face when she’d held the officer on the ground: determined, but completely remorseless. She’d been through too much and it had begun to desensitize her. He would need to keep a careful eye on her; not let her take too much time alone. She was too vulnerable.

  Arista slipped in behind the wheel as Frees got in the back. If someone noticed the van it was better for them to only see one person inside instead of a pair. He was down to three percent; the fight had really drained him. He had no clue as to how he would get a proper charge when they got back. He only hoped they’d figure it out before he shut down completely.

  As the van backed up and pulled into the adjacent seat he could hear her cursing under her breath from the front.

  “Arista.”

  “What?” she barked.

  “It’s not your fault.” He sat up a bit more. “You did everything you could to get to Echo as soon as possible.”

  She hit the side console and cursed again. “Why did it have to be her? Why did she have to be here? I mean of all people, why did she have to be born in this universe? Why did he?”

  “You mean David.”

  “I mean it seems like only the evil people are the ones who get to live multiple lives. Why is that? Why couldn’t it have been Jessika? Or…someone else.”

  That was the problem. She didn’t know any other humans who hadn’t been completely terrible to her. Jessika had been the only one.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “We just have to deal with it.”

  “How the fuck did she get rid of that scar so fast? Something like that should…” she trailed off.

  “What?” he asked.

  “The dermal regenerator. She must have had it when she was blown through. Either that or she used a technology here we’re not familiar with. The fact is she’s already done it and we have no way of stopping her.”

  “What do you want to do?” Frees asked.

  “I don’t know anymore,” she said, hopelessness drifting into her voice.

  She was quiet for a long time after that. Long enough so they almost made it back to David’s place. As she pulled the van into the small garage she finally spoke again, “But I’m going to do something.”

  Frees wanted to respond, only to find he could no longer move his mouth.

  EIGHTEEN

  “WHAT HAPPENED?” Blu asked as Arista helped Frees into the space.

  “His power is almost gone. Can you do the same thing you did before to recharge him?” She’d been so frustrated by Echo she’d forgotten he had been so low on power when they returned. Right after they’d turned in he’d closed his eyes and hadn’t reopened them.

  “Dad!” Blu yelled. David appeared at the garage entrance and ran over to grab Frees, helping to support his weight.

  “I assume…ugh…it didn’t go to plan,” David said, helping Blu to take Frees in through the door. “There’s an all-points bulletin out for you. And him.”

  “Fu
cking Echo,” Arista said under her breath. She grabbed Frees’ other side from Blu and helped David maneuver him back into the same room where she’d originally found him.

  “We can charge him up again but unless we find something more permanent it’ll just happen again. If only I could get a look at his power source I might be able to replicate it.”

  Arista scoffed. Jill would have loved to hear that one. “You can try, but I doubt you’ll be able to. A friend of ours custom-built his energy drive.”

  “It’s worth a try,” David said.

  She didn’t want to give him access to Frees’ internal structure until she remembered he’d already done it once. And if he was going to sabotage Frees he would have done it then.

  “Maybe we can also find his malfunction,” Blu said, appearing behind them. “Dad can take care of his power reserves and I can hook him up to my interface.”

  Arista considered it. The malfunction hadn’t been debilitating in any way, but if Blu could find some way to neutralize it, all the better. And she’d proved herself to be more than capable. She nodded.

  Blu almost squealed. “Great! I’ll go get set up.”

  “Wait!” David said. “I need your help.” He turned to Arista. “Is his primary power source there in his abdomen?”

  “How’d you know?” Was there anything this man didn’t know?

  David chuckled. “It was either there or his hand. They’re the only parts of him missing skin.”

  “You can’t take it out until he’s got a backup power source,” Arista said. “His internal batteries are only meant to be used a short time.” She thought back to when he’d almost sacrificed himself for her when they were trying to kill Charlie. He’d nearly died before Obsidian had gotten him on that charging cube.

  “Got it,” David said. “It’ll be crude, but I have two hydrogen cells I can use to keep him alive while I inspect the drive. It’s what I used to recharge him the first time.”