Sudden Superhero

15. Wet

IT TOOK ME only a few minutes to make it to the warehouse. Once I was within seeing distance, I slowed down. I paused by a tree, glancing down at my hologram map to make sure I was at the right place. I was. I looked up, taking in the details of the warehouse. It was gray in color and shaped like a rectangle. The long side that was facing me had three large garage doors, all of them closed. The wide side that I could see had a single, large door that was open. The light was dim, but there was definitely light, so I was assured that there was someone there.

I went closer slowly, sticking to the shadows, fixing the mask that covered my whole head. I had yet to exploit the full powers of the mask, and I wished that I'd had more time to study the program and figure it out before I got myself into a situation such as this one. I was planning to stick to what I knew, to keep from messing up.

I saw the redhead's car parked in the relatively empty lot, along with a few others. I bit the inside of my cheek, doing a quick calculation in my head. There were four cars. I knew for a fact that one of them belonged to two people, the redhead and his companion. If I assumed that the other three cars had one person each, then there were five people in that warehouse. Good odds, in my opinion, unless they had an arsenal of those weapons ready. And they probably did.

I had to do it fast, then.

I ran over to the entrance and stopped right next to it. Did I have time to look for another entryway? I had no idea. I peeked my head around the corner, but there was no one there, at least not in the front of the warehouse. I stuck to the wall was I walked in, listening for voices. I could hear people toward the back, talking about money and deals...and about me. How I might be on to them.

I found a ladder and climbed up it carefully to the walkway that ran across the top of the warehouse, and I crawled forward on my stomach. I didn't want to take any chances of being noticed, so I didn't bother standing or crouching. They'd probably notice me over the railing.

I found a spot to stop and peeked through the grating of the walkway to see what was going on. It wasn't the weapon-filled warehouse I'd been hoping for, but I think that I would still be able to use this to help. Redhead and the awkward one were there, talking to three other men. One of the men was sitting at a work table, holding a screwdriver and using the tip to clean dirt out from underneath his fingernails. Another was sitting on the table, playing with a bright red Nintendo. The final person was standing in front of a pool.

I should have been proud that my prediction of a total of five people had been correct, but I was too busy being confused by the pool. It wasn't even an inflatable one—it was a pool built into the ground, filled to the brim with water. The man standing in front of one corner was looking down at the water with disinterest. I narrowed my eyes at the water. There was something inside, but the water was warping my vision, and I couldn't make it out.

"Good evening, Red Soldier."

Oh, crap. Water reflects things. He was looking at me.

He turned around and smiled up at me. He looked friendly, and I found that so ironic. Redhead and his companion bolted, running out of the warehouse, refusing to let me catch them. I knew I'd have to get them sooner or later, but they were only buyers. I was here to take down the sellers.

I stood up on the walkway, and the man's eyes followed me as I went down a ladder so we were on even ground. I regretted coming down immediately, because even though we were standing a considerable distance apart from each other, I was very, very short in comparison.

Screwdriver man snickered. Nintendo didn't even look up.

I took a deep breath and straightened, tilting my head up, praying that I looked confident. "You've been selling stolen goods from Henderson Technologies," I declared.