Still nothing then.
"Now Jason," Doctor Reynolds continued, "You didn"t notice anything out of the ordinary while you were out of the country, did you? I mean, outside of this business with super heroes."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean have you seen anyone following you?" The doctor concentrated her gaze on him and scrutinized his response. "Have you felt that anyone has been watching you Jason?"
What are you talking about? Jason frowned and said he hadn"t felt anything out of the ordinary. Should I? Is someone, is Joshua Todd following me? "I"m not sure I understand Doctor, what are you getting at?"
Doctor Reynolds glanced away from him and returned her attention to the vial of blood for a moment. What are you hiding from me? Just come out and say it. Don"t dance around the matter just tell me. "Jason," she began, "How sure are you that you spoke to Joshua Todd?"
"What do you mean? Of course. The d.a.m.n lunatic injected"
"Mister Templar," she interrupted, "I do not doubt that someone tried to kill you. I saw the toxins in your blood myself and I do believe you were attacked, however I do not believe it was at the hands of Joshua Todd."
"And why is that?"
Doctor Jamie Reynolds opened one of her desk drawers and retrieved a plain folder. She motioned for Jason to take a look within at the articles and a photograph she"d collected, which were few altogether. She pointed to the date of one of the articles and it proved to be nearly a century old. "There was one man in London who was a Doctor named Joshua Todd who matched your description. That"s a picture of him in eighteen-eighty-three when he was in his late fifties. I couldn"t locate any death certificate or mention in any newspaper, but it"s safe to a.s.sume he"s been dead for nearly a century and a half. Now, again, I do not doubt that you were attacked, but I"m only concerned that it wasn"t Joshua Todd, but someone else who attacked you."
"Then who would claim to be a doctor who"s been dead for one-hundred and fifty years?"
Doctor Reynolds told him it wasn"t her only hypothesis. "How certain are you that you spoke with your a.s.sailant? How certain could you have been given the circ.u.mstances? You were under a very large amount to sedatives and honestly you shouldn"t have been conscious at all."
"I swear he said he was Todd though," Jason said. It was Todd, right? It, it had to be. But, she is right. There"s no way for me to be sure. I never saw his face or any part of him for that matter. I don"t know if it was him. But if it wasn"t, who the h.e.l.l tried to kill me? Who would even think to use that alias? He isn"t a well-known doctor so why would someone say they"re him? Could it be coincidental? Two men named Joshua Todd? That"s not an uncommon name. He might have lied and said he was a doctor and not realized the existence of another Doctor Todd. Yet why would he target me? And my guess is there haven"t been any other deaths in this hospital or any others at his hands or else he may have been noticed or caught. But then who tried to kill me and why did I pull that name out of nowhere? None of this makes any sense. This doesn"t feel right. I feel like I"m lost and I know I"m headed down the wrong road. There aren"t answers here, are there Jason?
"So, basically we have nothing but a surety that I was poisoned," Jason summarized. "Have there been any other anomalies in the hospital in the past few weeks?"
She shrugged and told him nothing unusual had crossed her radar. "We heightened security after your incident and there hasn"t been anything remotely akin to your attack."
"Have you heard of any attacks at other hospitals in London?"
Doctor Reynolds gathered her thoughts for a moment and said she hadn"t. "If there were any I believe the authorities would have made a connection and there would be a manhunt by now."
This doesn"t make sense. This can"t be random. And where would he vanish to? None of this adds up.
The doctor paused for a moment before she admitted there was one oddity at the same time of his attack. "We discovered a few...supplies were missing. Someone stole a liver and heart which were designated for two separate transplants, as well as six liters of blood. We never recovered the specimens or uncovered who was responsible for the theft."
"Why would someone want any of that?"
Jamie Reynolds sighed and told him about some illicit dealings in the world. "People will pay a fortune for human organs Jason. I"m unsure about the blood, but if someone"s dying and either doesn"t qualify for a transplant, often times they"ll look for other means to survive, a.s.suming they can afford the incredibly steep prices and often times the incredibly dangerous work conditions."
"Is this common?"
"No, but it does happen." The doctor checked the time and apologized to Jason. "I really must get this to the lab before my next appointment. Again, I will call you and update you as soon as I can. But in the meantime, please put all of this business about your a.s.sailant out of your mind. You are alive and whoever tried to kill you wouldn"t stand a chance against you now."
She"s right Jason. You"re more than capable of protecting yourself. But all of this, what does it add up to? If the attacker also stole those organs, does that mean he was after mine too? Did he harvest anything I"m not aware of or did it already regenerate whatever he might have stolen? Could it regenerate if removed altogether? I don"t know. Jason what the h.e.l.l is going on? This isn"t adding up. What would someone want all of this for? What are they after?
11:20 AM.
Both.e.l.l, Washington Rachel sat in her room with her landscape art project in front of her on her bed. She decided to draw a view of Lake Washington she managed to get a picture of when she and Vladimir bused their way to Seattle. Reflecting on the event still troubled her, as Vladimir hadn"t been to cla.s.s once in the past week. The only thing she could think of was that he was ill. In fact, she hoped it was the case over her unnerving thoughts of him returning to Romania.
She checked the time on her alarm clock briefly before she returned to her work. Rachel planned on attending church with her aunt as she usually did on Sundays. Rachel wasn"t a very religious person, but knew that it made her aunt happy to have her there. And it wasn"t too much of a sacrifice for her to go, as her aunt let her wear a shirt, flats, and a clean hoodie.
Her aunt knocked on the door and asked if she could come in. Rachel gave her the okay and her aunt cracked the door open and told her they would leave at twelve-thirty. Claire almost left, but stopped and told Rachel, "You know that Drake is going to join us for supper tonight, don"t you?"
"Yep," Rachel said as she nodded her head.
"Oh good." She saw the frown on her Aunt Claire"s face and asked her what was wrong. "It"s nothing really," she told Rachel. "I only feel terrible for him. The poor thing must be a wreck, having to feed himself and live all alone in that great big house Tony left him."
"I"m sure he"s fine," Rachel tried to convince her.
"He"s seemed distraught since his father"s pa.s.sing, but the last time I spoke with him, he sounded like he was finally getting better. I hear he has a girlfriend now too, I bet that she"s helping him through this."
Rachel nodded and told Claire that Drake and Hiromi were great together.
"I told that boy that he was more than welcome to come and live here with us as long as he"d like, but he"s just like his father, he needs to work through things in his own fashion," she said with a smile. "I know that he"ll make Tony proud too. The wonders that boy will do..."
Rachel didn"t comment. She wanted to ask her aunt if she was alright, as Tony was her brother, but every time she did her aunt would only smile and say that he was in a better place.
The doorbell rang and her aunt left to answer it. She returned a minute later with a few envelopes and gave one to Rachel. "Our neighbor from across the street happened to get some of our mail yesterday and didn"t have time to bring it over until today."
Rachel looked at the letter she"d received and asked what it was, though her aunt wasn"t sure. She said it was from the Seattle Art Museum and Rachel felt her heart leap in her chest. She hastily opened it, took out the letter, and two pa.s.ses which were also included.
"What are those?"
Rachel ignored the letter and looked at the two pa.s.ses and told her aunt that she won tickets to see Vincent Van Gogh"s gallery on opening night.
"That"s wonderful!" Her aunt gave her a quick hug (something she did compulsively when she was proud of Drake or Rachel, which Rachel and Drake only found as one of their aunt"s quirks). "Who are you going to take?"
Rachel sulked slightly and said she wanted to go with Vladimir.
"Then go with him."
"What if he doesn"t want to?"
"Why on earth wouldn"t he want to spend an evening with you? You"re a wonderful young lady, a young woman any young man would be lucky to be with."
Rachel wasn"t a fan of being praised. She knew her aunt only tried to keep her spirits up because she loved her, but Rachel worried that Vladimir would still be resistant because of the way things ended between them earlier.
She resolved to ask him anyway and told her aunt she would. Claire smiled and left Rachel alone while she finished getting ready. Rachel took another look at the tickets before she returned to her drawing of the lake she and Vladimir pa.s.sed on their way to Seattle.
7:33 PM.
London, England "I feel like an idiot Audrey."
"That"s the price of fashion dear," she told him with a sly smirk on her face.
Jason stood on a small stool while Audrey took measurements for his legs. He finally agreed on a costume design and asked her to make it for him. She didn"t ask any questions as to what made him have the change of heart. Audrey only thanked him, told him how great it was going to be, and started in on it right away. In fact, all she had left to do was make his pants and cape.
This is embarra.s.sing. I mean, I"m grateful to her for making the outfit, but I wish there was an easier way...or a way that didn"t involve me standing up on a pedestal like an idiot.
"So when am I going to see this costume in action?" she asked him.
As soon as it"s done.
"Once it"s finished."
She smiled and told him she couldn"t wait to see it. Audrey measured his thigh, quickly scribbled down a number, and moved on to measure his waist. "So, can I ask what made you change your mind?"
"About becoming a hero?"
"Yes."
"Well," he took a breath and told her that he could fly.
"What?" she nearly shouted. "You can fly? Jason! That"s, that"s amazing!"
This is the reaction I was afraid of.
Jason said it wasn"t anything special. "Besides, once I was airborne I fell."
"You fell?"
He cleared his throat and told her he did.
"How far down was it?"
"I"m not sure. Maybe one or two kilometers at most."
"And you didn"t die?"
He shook his head. Obviously not. If I had you and I wouldn"t be talking now. "No. I crashed and was perfectly fine."
"Then does that mean you have another power you didn"t realize you had?"
He nodded. A few actually. "Yeah, actually..." Jason went on to tell her about the situation he faced when he climbed back to his feet. He told her about being shot, watching the bullets fly past him in slow motion, his ability to run faster than bullets, and how he destroyed the gun in his bare hand. "Then the girl thanked me, asked what my name was, and I told her it was Ilion."
Audrey was nearly speechless. "Jason! You"re a hero! Oh my word, I mean, it"s terrible that someone nearly mugged that girl, but you saved her! That"s"
"I know, amazing."
"It is Jason," she told him. "Don"t act like it isn"t."
It"s not though, and that"s the problem. I saved someone, that"s what you"re supposed to do. It isn"t heroic; it"s just what should be expected. And if those two p.r.i.c.ks who call themselves heroes actually did what they claim to do then I wouldn"t have needed to save that girl at all. I"m only picking up after adolescents who don"t know how to live properly in this world.
He stepped off of the footstool and took a seat on the bed. Jason set his head in his hands and told her he didn"t want to be a hero. "I really wish this world didn"t need someone like me to save the day. I wish everyone was capable of taking care of themselves and were willing to look out for one another."
"They aren"t though, Jason."
"And that"s why I hate the fact that I need to be a hero," he told her. "All I"m doing is babysitting these people who are incapable of governing themselves within the confines of their own lives. They prey on one another, they"re inconsiderate, and they conspire against one another, and I detest it."
"We all do."
"But you aren"t going to be the one out there, stopping it all on a daily basis." He glared at the floor and muttered, "They shouldn"t need me."
Audrey took a seat next to him and asked if he"d rather leave London in the hands of the Human t.i.tan and Captain Density. "They aren"t going anywhere, even though they"re out in London for different reasons."
The idea only made Jason cringe and feel worse about his role as a protector of London. "Those two buffoons are only going to exacerbate matters if they"re left alone."
"Exactly." Audrey turned his head toward her and looked him in the eyes and told him, "You"re going to change the world and influence billions of people, so don"t think that you aren"t making the world a better place."
She"s right. The world is filled with bad people, filled with laziness and deceit, but maybe it can change. I mean, if it can become corrupt, can"t it cleanse itself too? Audrey, you know what I need to hear. Thank you.
Jason kissed and thanked her. "So what else do you need from me so you can finish this outfit?"
9:15 PM.
Baltimore, Maryland Mia stood in her kitchen and glanced through a list of fifteen possible targets Cladis could attempt to kill in two days. Her contact from the park gave her a clue that cut her workload severely though, as the next victim would need to have AB negative blood. Unfortunately none of the fifteen people she originally believed to be at risk had the blood type. She hadn"t told anyone about the blood pattern. Her ragged friend never said a word about the small taskforce devoted to stopping Cladis and as such she waited to say anything to her team before consulting him.
Their group hadn"t made any progress since Detective Sage"s death, but the stranger Mia met already knew more than their group did and worked off of less as well. It wasn"t as if Mia didn"t trust the others, it was only that her contact proved to be more efficient than the four in her squad combined, and she didn"t want to betray that trust her contact held with her.
"Do you ever intend on cleaning this place up?"
Mia swore and instinctively went for her gun, though she left it with her badge on a small end table next to her front door. She looked up and found the tattered man who acted as her contact in the middle of her living room with his eyes on her mess of an apartment.
"How the h.e.l.l did you get in here?" she barked.
He didn"t say. "Have you found the next target?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"I"m not working with very much to begin with," she reminded him.
He nodded and told her he was sorry about that. "If there was anything else I could give you I would, but there isn"t, not right now at least."
"Is there anything else?"
He nodded. "How well do you know everyone you work with?"
"What are you asking me?"