Cape Crossed

Chapter Thirteen

"And sent. How do I look?" Jake pressed the phone back to his ear and took it off speakerphone.

"You have the cutest smile." Hannah grinned. She spoke louder than strictly necessary to make sure her voice went through clearly. Meanwhile, she held the phone up and pinched and expanded her fingers to enlarge the picture on her screen. Jake's face grew till it filled the entire space. "Your cheeks are doing that thing I love."

"What thing is that?" Jake smiled quickly, pressing his fingers into his cheeks. Could she mean the dimple? Maybe the way this one raised up more than the other?

"If I tell you, you might stop doing it." Hannah zoomed back out to look at the background. "Looks cold there. You're keeping warm right?"

"Babe it's cold everywhere." They were both silent for a minute and Jake sighed through his teeth. "Yes I'm keeping warm."

"Good good." Hannah pulled her phone back to her ear and browsed through the papers across the desk in front of her. "I miss you."

"Just two more days and I'll be back." Jake twitched the thick curtain away from the window to look out. Still quiet, still safe. He pulled the curtain back in place and settled into the seat he'd pulled up to the window. The others were soundly sleeping in the next room. In a few minutes he'd be able to pull Knightmare out of bed and take his turn getting some rest.

"Two days is like forever away. You know I had to pick up extra shifts at the hospital to make up for the emptiness." Hannah flashed her eyes to her beeper and back to the papers.

"Sounds more like you've been hanging out with Claudia." He shifted in the chair, trying to encourage the blood flow in his legs.

"A bit, coffee here and there." Hannah rubbed her nose with a little scowl. Days after her rooftop escapades she was still feeling the ghost of a broken nose. Ever since she'd taken the sun bolt to the chest her dermal armor had been weaker than she was used to. She'd have to work on her evasive techniques while it recovered. "She's a little clingy."

"So are you." Jake teased. Not that he minded. He made no effort to hide how much he loved being doted on.

"Which is why you should hurry back so that I can get my cling on." Hannah tilted her head up to watch the news flashing across the tv. Solar Flare was helping evacuate a crumbling building, Blackstar had zipped by chasing after Rift, business as usual. There were a few new initiates from both sides playing out some minor squabbles. New heroes waiting in the wings to step into the limelight as the old guard fell. The thought put a sour taste in her mouth.

"What? Was that a Star Trek reference?" Jake covered his other ear to try and hear more clearly. A thin static had stared to grow into a roar.

"No...just...and the....yeah..." Hijack moved the curtains again to look out at the heavy darkness of the night. Nothing moved, the stillness was like a blanket smothering his senses. He could still hear Hannah's garbled voice through the phone.

"Hey babe, actually I've got to go. I'll call you back in the morning." He presses the phone harder to his ear.

"Kay....safe. Bye." He threw out a quick goodbye and flipped his phone sideways in his hands. The screen lit up with an image from outside that dipped and bobbed as the drone hovered about. He tapped the side of the screen and the image changed to the grainy green of night vision.

Hijack hurried out of the room to shake Knightmare awake and almost collided with him as he walked out to greet him. "Yeah, I saw them." The sheathed blade at his side pulsed with a purple glow.

"Keep them busy, I'll get the package moving." Hijack kept the phone where he could still look at it as he headed for the back room. A gun was in his face immediately after he stepped in. "Still me, we need to move." The five men in the room jumped to their feet and the one nearest the bed shook the sleeping figure.

Cassandra slowly pulled herself free of the tangle of blankets and pushed her thick brown hair from her face. One look around at the tense men and she had rubbed the sleep from her face. "Time to go?" She looked at Hijack expectantly.

"Definitely. Grab your things and keep close to me." Hijack kept his eyes on his phone and only looked up when she tucked her hand into the crook of his elbow. He'd protested the first few times she'd done that but quickly realized it was the easiest way to keep her close, her and the sealed briefcase Cassandra kept handcuffed to her wrist.

The front door crashed open and the first few intruders screamed at the terrors that paraded across their eyes pulled from the backs of their minds. Their companions stepped over them, guns drawn and aimed at Knightmare. Hijack checked his phone again and pushed it into his pocket, trading it for a thin black remote. He pulled Cassandra behind him when the window to her room shattered. The gun toting guards circled them, forming a protective barrier as they backed out of the room and made a dash for the side door.

"I thought you were keeping watch." Cass ducked as a bullet whizzed by her ear.

"I was. There's only so much I can see in the dark." Hijack snapped. A guard fell, hand clamped around his middle. No one stopped to help and they finally burst outside with Knightmare just behind them.

"There's like dozens of them and you didn't see?" Cass clutched his arm tighter as they ran for the cars.

"They didn't exactly announce themselves!" Hijack grabbed her by the waist, swinging her around to his other side in time to avoid someone making a grab for her. Cass landed back on her feet at a run and dove into the backseat of the nearest car. Knightmare settled in next to her and Hijack clicked his boots, sending himself jetting up into the air.

He was grateful for the silence the high altitude gave him. Below he counted three of the five guards dead on the round, the last two in the car that was quickly speeding away. Hijack pulled two metal discs from his belt and dropped them parallel to each other behind the car, directly in the path of their pursuers. An arc of electricity formed between them and the car flipped. It narrowly avoided the back of their car as it landed.

The car swerved but otherwise carried on at its normal speed. Hijack felt his shoulders relax just for a moment before the sudden pain in his side took his breath away.