For once, Tony didn’t have an answer.
“Lady Luck is right around the corner,” he told Butch. “I can feel it.” Except he didn’t. He didn’t believe it and from the skepticism in Butch’s face told him that he didn’t either. They were broke and without money, their plans and dreams of being world conquerors was at a dead stop.
Equally depressed, Butch had gone to grab a shower, leaving Tony racking his brain. He was desperate. He’d even take a job if needed though it was several tiers below him. A god stuck among man.
The sound of a horn blaring nearby didn’t faze him at first. Then as it continued he got agitated.
“Now what?” he got up and walked to the door. The vast array of lights flashed wildly around him as he passed through the scanner at the door.
“Tony,” the computer voice said softly, “you need to burn off four hundred extra calories today. May I suggest a nice jog?”
“Later,” he grumbled. He didn’t have time for that.
“Have a nice day.”
A white pickup truck was sitting at the gate. It was a brand new Chevrolet C-2500. On the door was a sign that read “Great Green Landscaping.” He noticed the oval enclosed “BI” that identified the company as being part of Burroughs Industries.
Tony knew about Burroughs Industries. Owned by one of the wealthiest women in the world, it was a growing conglomerate of local, national, and international companies worth billions. Jessica Burroughs, the owner, wielded the kind of power he dreamed of. More so as she owned the companies outright. There was no board of directors to question anything she did. He remembered her dining at the White House a few months earlier. Something about an award for her charity work.
“Can I help you?” Tony asked as he reached the gate. The driver got out. Tony could see he was a clean cut man in his forties wearing a freshly pressed landscaper uniform. “Bill” was on the name tag sewn into the shirt pocket.
“Good morning,” Bill said smiling. “I’m here for the landscape estimate.
“What landscape estimate?”
“I have a work order to give you an estimate for weekly service of your yard.”
“You must have the wrong address.”
“Is this 21245 South Broadway?”
“Yes it is, but we didn’t request any kind of lawn care service. We don’t have a lawn.”
“Yeah, I can see that. Hang on just a minute.” Bill returned to the truck. Tony could see him talking to somebody on his phone. After a minute, he got out and walked back to Tony. “I’m sorry. They gave me the wrong address. It was supposed to be North Broadway. That’s not even in my district. I’m really sorry for bothering you.”
“It’s not like I was doing anything else.” Tony grumbled. Bill started to walk back to his truck then stopped.
“Hey, do you know anyone looking to make some quick cash?”
“What, mowing lawns?”
“No. I know somebody who is looking for somebody to take some photographs around town. Easy job and the pay is good. Strictly cash under the table. He’ll even provide a top of the line camera.”
Tony thought about it for a moment. It sounded easy.
“Sure why not.” Tony wrote down his number and handed it to Bill.” Have him call me.”
“Will do.”
Returning to the warehouse, Tony ignored the scanners telling him he had gained two pounds since the night before. He moved back to his ragged desk chair and stared at the screen. His mind drifted back to means of getting some cash.
Butch entered using a cotton swab to clean his ear.
“Camera 3 isn’t rotating,” Tony said not bothering to look up. “It probably needs new batteries.”
“I’ll get it,” Butch replied tossing the swab into a nearby waste basket. “I know you don’t get along with ladders.”
“Nope.”
A few minutes later, Butch had replaced the batteries. That was indeed the problem as the faux security camera began swinging back and forth across the yard. Satisfied, he began walking back to the warehouse when he saw the van pull up to the closed gate. He put down the ladder and went to investigate.
“Stork Express” was on the side of the van. Instead of the dumb, slow moving birds often featured in cartoon, the figure on the van was sleek and fast. Its steely eyes gave the impression of determination and purpose. In its beak was the trademark diaper, but instead of carrying babies, it carried two packages wrapped in pink and blue ribbons.
“I have a package,” Lance said getting out of the van. He opened the side door and removed a box wrapped in brown paper.
“Who is it from?” Butch asked.
“Doesn’t say. Just has a delivery address. If you’ll sign here.” He handed Butch the electronic tablet.
“Did you change the batteries?” Tony asked hearing Butch return.
“Yeah,” the slimmer man replied. “And cleaned off some of the pigeon droppings. Tony noticed the package.
“What do you have there?”
“I don’t know. A courier just brought it.” He put the box down and began opening it. “Holeeee….. “
The box contained an expensive, professional grade digital camera complete with various lenses. Butch pulled them out and placed them on the table. Next he removed a thick business envelope. Tony snatched it from his hand.
“Let me see that.” He opened it and removed the letter inside. As he unfolded the paper, several hundred dollar bills fell out onto the floor. Butch dove down to retrieve them as Tony looked on in bewilderment. Finally Tony began to read the letter.
“Here is the equipment we promised as well as a down payment for your services. Please follow the below listed itinerary and instructions. Once you are finished, e-mail the photos to the listed address. Once we have the photos we will contact you with instructions where to pick up the balance of your payment. Fulfill your obligations and we may have future work for you.”
Tony looked over at his partner busily counting the stack of money.
“I don’t get it,” went on looking down further on the letter. “They want us to go to certain parks around…”
“Tony,” Butch interrupted, “there is $1500 dollars here.” Tony gave Butch a disapproving glance, not happy with being interrupted. He continued.
“As I was saying, they want us to go to certain parks around the valley and photograph kids and families covertly.”
“Why covertly?”
“Your guess is as good as mine. It says the memory card provided is encoded to automatically send the photo to an encrypted e-mail address once we are completed.”
“So what does that mean?”
“It means we won’t know who we are sending the pictures to. No name, address, or phone number on the letter either. Was there a return address on the package?”
“No, just our address,” Butch said recounting the money for the fourth time. “They didn’t even have our name on it.”
“There was a guy here earlier who had the wrong address. He asked me if I knew anyone who would be interested in doing some photography work. I told him yeah, but this is a little suspicious that we got this package just few minutes later. The way he talked he knew somebody who was looking for somebody. You said $1500?” Without saying anything, he snatched one of the bills from Butch’s hands and held it up to the light. It was crisp, brand new. He eyed it carefully. “It’s the real thing.”
“You thought it was counterfeit?”
“People don’t start giving out that amount of money to strangers. Not unless what they are doing is illegal or they are wanting to buy your loyalty. Well I’ll tell you right now. There is not enough money in the world that will buy my loyalty.”
“So what are we going to do?”
“We’re going to take some pictures.”
“But you said…”
“I said they can’t buy my loyalty. I didn’t say they couldn’t buy a few hours of my time. Let’s go.”
Leon / Static
I met the others at the garage around noon. Everyone that is except Sue and Nolen was there.
“Good morning, cuz,” Beverly said cheerfully.
“Good morning,” I replied. I went to Kelly. “Any new visions?” I didn’t want to tell them about Sue, or the other events that had occurred. It was all like a dream. Had I dreamed it all?
“Another wrong way driver on the freeway,” she replied. “We notified the police with the license number and the bar where the driver will be drinking at. Hopefully they’ll be able to stop him or her before they kill somebody.”
“That’s it? Nothing about World War III breaking out”
“That’s all I could decipher. Somebody is going to hit the jackpot on Powerball. I just hope they live long enough to get the money.”
“Did you get the numbers?” Renee inquired.
“No, I didn’t. Anyway, we know my dreams usually come to fruition within two weeks. Whatever I saw
yesterday is going to happen and soon. I just hope we can stop it.”
“We will,” Ted said confidently.
I looked around trying to be nonchalant. “Has anyone talked to Sue this morning?
“She called me,” Renee said. “She said was running a little late.”
“Mom took the brat to do some back to school shopping,” Beverly added. “Ugggh, school starts in two weeks.”
“I can’t wait!” Ted exclaimed.
“You are the only kid I know who loves school this much.”
“I look at it as an adventure. You discover new things every day.”
“Fine, you can have your adventure.”
“I’ll take sleeping over adventure anytime,” Connie chimed looking up from her computer screen.
“Hi, guys,” Sue said as she walked in the door. My heart leapt into my throat as I turned toward her. Had it all been a dream? Her getting her powers back? The kiss?
She was wearing a light blue polo shirt and matching shorts. That was normal for her. What wasn’t normal was the makeup. She normally wore just a little. Now she had gone all out. Eye lashes, eye liner, lipstick, a touch of rouge.
When her eyes caught mine, she smiled shyly. It hadn’t been a dream. It had all happened.
“Did Leon tell you?” She said as she turned her attention to everyone.
“I wanted to let you tell them,” I told her.
“Guys, I got my power back. Costume on.” In a flash she was standing in her costume. She took a deep breath and instantly her muscles began to bulge and she grew at least six inches.
“Wow, that’s great,” Beverly said as she and the others rushed over to her.
“Any idea what happened?” Ted asked.
“I guess I was tired,” Sue said. “When I tried later, my powers were back. I went right over and told Leon.”
“Why didn’t you let us know?”
“It was something like one in the morning.”
“Wait a minute,” Renee said. “You went to Leon’s at one in the morning. I’m surprised his dad let you in the door.”
“He didn’t. I teleported into his bedroom.”
“You were in Leon’s bedroom? At one in the morning?” Beverly said giving me a coy smile.
“Very funny,” I said.
“Yeah,” Sue said quickly. “Nothing happened. We talked for a few minutes then I left. The kiss was nice.”
“The what!” Renee exclaimed.
“He’s a good kisser.” Everyone’s mouth dropped open as she walked over to me. We hesitated for a moment, the room falling silent as we kissed again.
“Yuck!” Nolen exclaimed having entered unnoticed. Sue and I pulled away. I couldn’t help but smile at the look in her eyes.
“Nolen,” Beverly said quickly, “be nice.”
“Kissing a girl. That’s gross.” He pretended to stick his finger down his throat. There were a couple of laughs.
The girls gathered around Sue as Ted punched me in the arm.
“Sly dog,” he said smiling.
“Sue’s a nice girl,” I told him. “I like her.” He laughed.
“So I can see.”
After a minute, Connie broke away from the girls.
“I hate to break this up, but who is going to the park to check out Kelly’s vision?”
“I’ll go,” Sue said raising her hand quickly.
“Are you alright?” Renee asked. “You never volunteer.”
“Having lost my powers gave me a lot to think about. I want to officially join Phoenix Force. I don’t want to hide in the shadows anymore. Connie, want to go?”
“I guess so,” she replied. “We shouldn’t need powers to look around a park. That is unless those kids Kelly saw are taken while we’re there.”
“Then we’ll kick some butt and save the kids.”
“Can I go?” Nolen asked. Sue looked at Beverly for approval.
“Okay,” she said after a moment. “Nolen, I don’t want you getting into trouble. Listen to Sue and Connie.”
“Yes, sir,” Nolen said snapping to attention and saluting his sister.
“I mean it.”
“You might as well go to,” I said to Ted. “You can’t study formulas and stuff all the time. It’ll do you good.”
“I guess I can,” he said somewhat reluctantly.
“So what do you say?” Sue asked with an odd bit of enthusiasm. “Can I officially join Phoenix Force?”
“Me too,” Nolen shouted.
“You are a part of Phoenix Force,” I told her.
“I mean to go public.”
I thought about it for a minute. “Let’s wait until after we stop World War Three or whatever Kelly saw. Until we know for sure what is going to happen, we may need you as an ace in the hole.”
I hope everyone enjoys. I hope to post another chapter tomorrow. Let me know what you think. Thanks.