Murray Hill || A Superhuman Tale - 1

Chapter Seventy-Nine

Javier had done an excellent job keeping things in order in Tommy's absence. He even had some thoughts on marketing and had floated the idea of coming on full-time. It was a grand idea. Tommy liked the business, liked the challenge of buying and planning, the tactile pleasure of making the product, and the joy of seeing the pleasure it brought others. But he had other obligations now. He would need Javier's help.

Tommy flipped a few switches and checked some dials before grabbing his things and heading downstairs. He'd gotten back to the City several hours before. It was his first full day back home after Amy's funeral three weeks earlier, and he didn't want to be late to pick up Rhonda from work.

Laying his friend to rest in Flagstaff had been almost more than Tommy could bear, especially given the manner of her passing and the added indignity of fielding enquiries from local officials about the circumstances of her death. Tommy had convinced Linda to allow his lawyers to sort things out. To his surprise, though, Linda had been a rock for both Sam and him. She had long since given over to her grief and had moved beyond it. There was much of Amy in her.

After the services, Sam almost immediately had returned to Chicago with the girls. It had taken him little effort to convince Christy Sue to join them.

Few of the 98 abductees they'd rescued were comfortable returning to their old lives. Most felt marked by their own governments, and over the past weeks, Philly had negotiated a "package deal," as she called it, with Sam's Las Vegas contact to provide them new identities. She'd also begun building Internet profiles and credit and work histories for those new identities.

The young woman merely had looked at Tommy with pity when he'd expressed surprise that she could do such things.

For his part, Tommy had divided the money he'd netted from the sale of the diamonds among their new charges as best as he was able. The sum hadn't been princely, but it was a great deal more than he'd first anticipated, and there hopefully would be enough for each to make a fresh start.

A few immediately had struck out on their own. Others had opted to relocate to San Francisco, to benefit directly from Philly's help and kindness. Some decided to settle in Chicago near Sam and Christy Sue, who had all of what passed for medical records they'd salvaged from The Farm. Several of the refugees would require ongoing medical help for months or years to come.

To Tommy's surprise, nearly 50 of the former prisoners had chosen to relocate to New York City. Despite Sam's admonishments to stay out of sight, most had watched from the windows of the medical center as he and Tommy had battled Ulysses and his mercenaries. The looks of awe and veneration he'd received from the frightened people filled Tommy with unease, as such things often had. But he wouldn't let them down.

Philly found renewed courage in their victory and had returned home still set on building a support community for Gifted everywhere. She would do so with Tommy and Sam's full support. Tommy wasn't coming out of retirement, but no longer would he bury his head in the sand. It was still not perfectly clear how the government had identified the people they'd abducted—Tommy was convinced Morse had played a prominent role in that—so they all needed to remain vigilant.

Much to Tommy's amusement and pleasure, Camille, who'd been back on duty for less than a week, already had texted for his help on two different cases. In Brooklyn, a large, muscular man in a leather mask, wearing a pea coat and watch cap, had detained two heavily armed bank robbers before dashing down an alley and up the side of a four-story building. Rumors on the Internet were that the Roustabout had returned to the City.

As Tommy entered the ER doors, he was still pondering how he might best finance his various ventures. Rhonda saw him and rolled up with a coo and a sigh.