Chapter 7

I returned home from the Club at 9:35, only to pass an aged Volvo wagon idling outside of my driveway, with a certain auburn-haired professor reading something in the driver’s seat.

At 10:03, Professor McCallister was escorted into my working office by Lillian. I had wheeled the whiteboards to the other side of the converted ballroom and drew the curtain, dividing the room in half. The maps and corkboard filled walls on this half of the room were left uncovered. I didn’t have the inclination, nor time, to move them.

“Boss, your guest is here.”

“Thanks, I’d like a pitcher of water. Professor, what would you like to drink?”

The young professor of history paused after taking a brief step into the repurposed ballroom, trying to take the ordered chaos all in. Remembering where she was, she belatedly replied that water was fine.

I nodded to Lillian who seemed concerned over my guest’s curiosity regarding the world map with the thousand blue and green headed pins scattered unevenly over the western world.

It took me decades to figure out the pattern behind those occurrences. If she could decipher their meaning at first glance, Professor McCallister could have been a significant boon to my work.

Lillian exited quietly. Even quieter, I approached behind my latest acquaintance. “The blue pins represent suspected birthplaces of B-Ranked Supers, the Greens A-Ranked and the Reds, S-ranked.”

She jumped subtly in place. Glancing at me, “Why are there so few in Asia, Africa and south of the equator?”

“Three reasons, mostly. The birth rate of Supers is seventeen times greater north of the fifth parallel compared to all of that below it. No, I don’t know why. The second is that I have to rely on unconfirmed reports for those outside of the western world. I do have a second map with all the unconfirmed listed.”

“And the third reason?”

“Nutrition. Certain vitamins are necessary for a Super to bloom. Without them the likelihood is greatly reduced.”

“Which ones?” I felt her interest pique.

“B, D and potassium. Red meat is also necessary. I don’t know why, it just is.”

“What about fish and pork?”

“There is no confirmation of either being a catalyst.”

“Have you told anyone about this?”

“Yes.”

She turned to face me, “But not everyone. Right? Why are you hiding this?”

“I’m not.”

“But, I haven’t heard of anything like this ... Oh. The people you contacted are withholding the results. Who did you tell?”

“The UN. They are supposed to be the watchdogs of the world and have failed miserably. But they are backed by the world’s powers. I choose to let them deal with the information.”

“No one else knows?”

“Most major universities do. I wasn’t the one that did all the testing or data compilation. Others came to the same conclusion as I did.” Though I did pay for a great deal of the research through grants.

“I thought you weren’t interested in my work?” I asked withholding a chuckle.

I received the look that every male had earned throughout the ages by saying something stupid to an intelligent woman.

Taking a step away from me, Professor McCallister moved on to the next map. “And this one is the current location of known Supers?”

“Last known locations. Updated bi-monthly. Most people, whether Supers or not, do not travel much outside of their home cities, unless on vacation. Those that do migrate, we keep note of. Those we suspect that are on vacation we make note of if they stay away from their base for more than two months.”

“The government has to have this information. Why are you duplicating their efforts? Can’t you just ask them for it?”

“Which government? And why would they hand over their expensive and time-consuming research to someone they oppose?”

“I was told that you help countries by removing the out of control Villains.”

“Not just Villains, Vigilantes and Heroes too.”

“I’ve read the Brazilian piece. Do you kill everyone you remove?”

“Yes.”

Startled, she stepped back. “You don’t look that bloodthirsty.”

“You said that you to read what happened last weekend. Tarantula was a Super whose three drops of blood splashed on the face of a healthy sixteen-year-old girl; those three drops were enough to kill her. How do you propose to keep him in jail or even bring him before a judge for trial without him massacring everyone, if he chose to do so?”

“What about cages like the banks use for their windows? I’ve seen them being used on TV.”

“Short term, that works. Long term, people die. Besides, I only hunt those that go too far, or when asked by a standing government to assist.”

She frowned. “You make it sound too easy to kill.”

“Kattering was a A-Ranked Hero. He killed and raped,” in that order, “twelve sixteen-year-old girls. Can you give me any argument why he should be alive?”

“That is for a jury to decide.”

“He was never convicted of a crime. Hence, he was on good standing with the Heroes Association. Which means that they would not arrest him. Nor was there any real proof that one could bring into a court of law that a good lawyer, under the HA employment, couldn’t get him off.”

“Then how are you sure it was him?”

“His scent was on the bodies. All of them.”

“DNA?”

“None. But scent can linger.”

“There are ways to put someone else’s scent on an item.”

“There are, but he confessed to me. Even told me where the other girls were buried. No court would ever convict him. Should I have let him go free?”

“You tortured him?”

“Yes.”

Abruptly she turned around, said, “Good day, Mr. Bach,” and resolutely walked towards the door.

“If one of those sixteen-year-old girls were someone you knew, would you still think that way?” I calmly asked before those low heels turned the corner.

“Two wrongs do not make a right.” She argued.

“Then next time I plan on stopping a mass murdering serial rapist, should I let them go?”

“We have courts for that. Who do you think you are, God?”

“90%”

“90% what?” furiously standing in the door, she replied.

“The escape rate worldwide for A-Ranked Supers from prison. Its 100% for S-Ranked. Not one A-Ranked Super has remained imprisoned for more than two years without dying or escaping.”

“Bulls...” she didn’t finish the disbelieving word, after seeing the resolute expression on my face.

“Not one. We don’t have the technology. Even Purgatory in Franco had a mass breakout this week and that is a mile-deep iron mine. The rioting has been ongoing for the last nineteen days. Half of the guards have been killed.” Officially.

“I haven’t read anything about that.”

“Suppressed. I bet you want to ask about the South Dakota’s Super-Max facilities.”

“Since you brought it up. Why haven’t I heard anything from there?”

“Remember I said, escape or killed?”

“Yes. Don’t tell me...”

“If you take a look at the top twenty most wanted Supers in the world, you will find that the combined strength of Central City’s top ten Heroes could not bring any one of them down. Or to ‘Justice’, as you would want.”

Seeing her stare at me unconvinced, I continued.

“Do you know that our country is the only western world country, other than Franco, that doesn’t declare Super Villains to be terrorists with kill on sight laws?”

“I knew that.”

“Do you honestly believe that the US government doesn’t kill those terrorists as soon as they are out of the public eye? One A-Ranked Villain can take on a battalion of regular soldiers and kill most, if not all of them, AND still escape.”

“You are asked to kill them?”

“Tarantula’s blood was S-Ranked. Even if he was officially only ranked C, it was acidic enough to even wound me or poison a small city’s water supply.”