Ian stopped him and asked, "Victor worked for your father?"

Drake nodded. "Apparently he did."

Drake told Ian about the security tape of the night his father was killed, how he was on the camera, how the a.s.sa.s.sin had a serpent tattoo similar to the one Ian described on the doppelganger Nick on the day Victor was killed, and how the connection made him a.s.sume an a.s.sa.s.sin was involved.

"It's outlandish, but it makes sense once you add it all up and realize how outlandish the entire situation is."

"What isn't nuts nowadays?" Ian muttered.

Drake sighed and told Ian that nothing had changed. "The world's always been strange; we simply never knew it was. Now our day has arrived, things seem out of proportion to the way things were, but this is where we stand on earth, like it or not, and we have to play our parts." He set the remote down on the coffee table and asked him, "So where do you want to go for lunch?"

7:21 PM.

London, England They've got to expect it. They must. They're just keeping it a big old b.l.o.o.d.y secret and smiling through their teeth at me. The whole world must know. A guy survives a bombing and is miraculously healed? I have to be Ilion. I have to be. There's no way they're that stupid, that blind and oblivious.

"Jason?"

He snapped back to reality. Another dinner. That's all. Calm down Jason. Calm down. No one knows. No one makes a.s.sumptions like that. You need to calm down. They were halfway to Audrey's mother's home when Audrey said his name and pulled Jason back into focus. He drove, as usual, while she listened to the radio which she kept low. Audrey would normally chat with him the whole way there but Jason's distance troubled her. Keep your head about you man. Don't show this worry, this fear.

"Are you okay?"

He nodded. "Just a bit distracted is all. I'm sorry."

She gave him a weak smile and looked out the window. A familiar old tune by the Smiths played through the radio like a whisper. Audrey recognized the song but asked her husband if he knew the name of the song. Jason only shook his head, without giving the tune a moment of consideration.

Audrey apologized for the dinner engagement she agreed for the two to attend without consulting him. "I always agree without asking you and I'm sorry. I forget how exhausted you are at the end of the day, but at the same time I know you're going to be busy in the evenings soon with your new endeavor."

That's true...but that's not even what I've mulled over for the past fifteen minutes. Jason gripped the wheel tighter while his hands shook. "I'm just worried is all."

"Worried about what?"

About becoming a ma.s.sive target. I'm on everyone's radar. Look at the amazing flying man in the colorful costume. I'm a sideshow freak in a cape and mask. They're all looking for me around every corner. They're lurking, waiting, watching...

He failed to answer. Audrey's heart sank and she returned to her own thoughts.

"Wasn't it the most exhilarating experience?" Abigail began. "I swear I felt as if I was there in the helicopter with them while he retold the story. And Ilion? He sounds perfectly gallant."

"I have a pal at my work who swears he saw him stop a mugging this past evening in Greenwich," Jack added. "He said Ilion grabbed the bloke by his jacket, flew him up to the edge of a building, and dangled him there for a minute until the sorry fellow apologized to the victim."

Jason muttered how impressed Ilion sounded. I never did that. How many rumors are there? I haven't even worn my completed costume yet, how are there so many lies about me already? It hasn't been a week even. Are these people so fixated on this, the gossip, that they can't sort it out for themselves?

Jason and Audrey sat in two chairs around a small tea table where most of the party kept their respective drinks. Jack and his wife Samantha managed to get a sitter for the evening and as such they helped themselves to a hearty amount of wine that evening. Suzy sat in an armchair opposite her mother with a small cup of tea and her cell phone to occupy her in lieu of the conversation. Alan even joined the conversation for once, though he only allowed himself one small gla.s.s of wine and only water from then on.

"I think it would be absolutely lovely to see one of these heroes in action," Alan added. "How marvelous, can you imagine? These men and women can perform feats beyond what we could imagine. Who knows the extent of human potential now?"

Quit all of this, please. I don't want to hear about it. I know this is something unnatural to everyone, but I feel like I'm in the spotlight and they're dissecting me without permission, and I can't utter a word contrary, or else they'll know, they'll know, they would know, they must, oh they'll know, they already do, the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds, each and every last one of them. The d.a.m.ned little liars, smirking all around, talking, dancing around the subject, dancing, taunting, teasing me. Me! They know and I know it. They all laugh because I can only confirm it, there's no denying any of this.

"Jason, are you quite alright?"

He stopped. He stopped and looked around the room. All eyes on me, all eyes. They're waiting, they are always waiting. No no no, Jason no. Calm down. Just take a deep breath and tell them the truth. Tell them exactly what this is. Jason took a breath and realized he'd spilt his tea over his hand and wrist. The cup was half empty over the saucer and his lap and the floor.

Breathe and answer them. He looked at Samantha, who broke his concentration, his stream of consciousness, and apologized. "It's fine, I'm sorry. I've had poor nerves ever since the hospital. I'm not sure why. It might be an effect of whatever, whoever healed me, I don't know."

The party reluctantly returned to their conversation while Alan hurried out of the room for a rag to sop up the spilt liquid from his otherwise immaculate white carpet.

"I read that crime has already dropped three whole percent since Ilion's debut," Jack continued, "Can you imagine that? Three percent and he hasn't even caught his stride I'll bet."

"It doesn't sound like much Jack," Suzy chimed in.

"It is Suzy," he told her flatly. "Three percent nation-wide and possibly even a full percent worldwide, maybe more."

"How the h.e.l.l could you track something like that? And, mind you Jack, a city's crime rate must fluctuate within a few percents on a daily basis."

Alan returned and edged his way between Jason and the stain. Jason promptly removed himself and stood nearby his wife.

"Oh come off it Suzy," Jack told her while he rolled his eyes. "Just be happy we have so many amazing heroes in London."

She shrugged and reminded him that there were plenty of criminals at large amid the vigilantism across London. "Two girls have been abducted in the past week at my university and there hasn't been a word about any heroes patrolling for their whereabouts."

"Well they can't catch every single criminal dear," Abigail tried to remind her.

"Yes, but I only feel that kidnappers and possibly rapists should be higher up the ladder in terms of these super heroes' priorities."

Jack rolled his eyes, "Don't act so melodramatic Suzan."

"I'm not, Jackson," she snapped. "They aren't the first girls who have gone missing in the past few months either. Four other women all in my area have been gone for weeks, a few bodies have turned up even, mutilated mind you, but yet no b.l.o.o.d.y super heroes in sight. All I'm getting at is that I wish these heroes would spend less time in the spotlight and more time trying to stop whoever's behind this."

Jason murmured his agreement. Maybe that's something I should look into. Audrey mentioned a few murders in the past month and all of them began as disappearances. Maybe there's something there. Jason cleared his throat and asked, "I've forgotten, which school do you attend Suzy?"

"Roehampton University."

"She studies theater," Jack piped in.

Jason ignored him and mused for a moment. Where did Audrey say the last person was found? Saint Margaret's? Or was it Marble Hill? Was it even in Richmond or was it Isleworth? d.a.m.n it, I should have paid more attention. Relax Jason, relax. Just ask her later.

"I heard about a couple of murders near there," Samantha added. "Someone turned up at Richmond Hill, something gruesome happened if I recall correctly. Do you think they could be connected?"

Suzy frowned and said she hoped not.

Audrey tried to smile and a.s.sured her little sister it wasn't the case. "I'm know they'll turn up soon. This can happen from time to time in college. I had a few friends who wandered off without saying a word to anyone for weeks at a time, only to turn up one day without so much as a word about it. One of my best friends was gone a week and a half after she fell in love, more or less, with a young artist she'd met at a pub."

This isn't helping Audrey. She knows the situation isn't good and whoever's behind all this is dangerous. I need to find them. This isn't good at all. But...they can't be random. Why would they be? This person is after things, hideous things, but something they need. What was it that's been stolen from the bodies so far? I remember skin from one, the lips and tongue from another, and blood. There must be something else in common between them. But what would they need this for? I know, or rather, I've heard of organ harvesting and other shady business, but what good is a tongue, skin, and blood for? I don't think you can transplant that without immediate access to the recipient, right? And the tongue? I don't think that could be transplanted. More questions. And what if this is the same person who attacked me? What if they're behind all of this and they were after me? But, why would they want me? I was dying and burned alive. Maybe they discovered the regeneration too? Perhaps they thought my body might hold some special key? But what about the fire then? I was only there by coincidence. The fire. Was it coincidence or was it planned? But why burn down an apartment complex? The people killed would be of no use. Unless...unless they were targeting me from the beginning. But they wouldn't know, would they? Unless they've been watching me, watching me for a very long time. Waiting, waiting for the moment, the right moment, the perfect time to attack, to weaken me enough to attack and hurt and kill me.

"Jason."

He looked up and returned to the room. Jack, Abigail, and Suzy were deep in a discussion about something Jason a.s.sumed revolved around the rise of the heroes in London while Alan and Samantha readied dessert.

Audrey put her hand on his arm to stop his shaking. "Jason, are you alright?"

Does she know too? Do they all know? d.a.m.n it stop! Stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it now! Breathe, breathe, breathe and relax. You are alone, you are safe and alone. No one's after you Jason.

He took an unsteady breath and whispered to her that he worried about what Suzy said. "I think I need to help them Audrey. I-I'm not sure what I need to do, but I need to help them any way I can."

"Jason, are you"

"I'll be fine Audrey," he cracked a weak and trembling grin. "I'm going to be just fine."

12:45 PM.

Kenmore, Washington Strom stayed with Nick since they discussed Jeremy Dalton's involvement in Victor's murder. It worried Nick, seeing as how the shape shifter didn't trouble Mizuno enough to post a guard with Nick, yet the revelation of the MP3 a.s.sa.s.sin gave cause for Nick's defense. He wasn't sure what it meant though, which left Nick unsettled throughout the week.

Nick sat in Mizuno's cla.s.sroom while Mizuno himself was out at the staff lounge having his lunch with other members of the faculty. He hated waiting in the cla.s.s alone, not that Nick was required to stay in the cla.s.sroom on his own. He simply felt it was the most sensible course of action. But truthfully, Nick didn't know anyone at his school, aside from Amy and a few of her friends. He couldn't call any of Amy's friends anything more than casual acquaintances and a part of him had no desire to try to become anything more than that.

Mizuno finally returned and without waiting a moment he told Nick he'd given him a seventy-one on the last test. "I thought it would be prudent to have you struggle through the First World War," he told him.

Nick wasn't even aware that they were even that far in their lectures yet. He never paid any attention in cla.s.s and since Mizuno did all of his homework and test work for him he never needed to do anything but follow Mizuno's orders in regard to their mission.

"How are you and Amy doing?"

"Fine," Nick mumbled. "Why're you asking?"

"I was just curious."

Mizuno leaned against one of the desks next to Nick and appraised his demeanor, melancholy, and lack of engagement and asked him what was wrong.

"Why is Strom staying with me?"

"He's out of money."

"No he's not."

Mizuno said that was true. "I'm not sure why Dalton's even in the picture to begin with, which is why I wanted Strom to stay with you, in case I overlooked something and you happened to be endangered."

Nick looked at him and asked what he meant. "You said you didn't understand the situation, yet you think I'm at risk?" Nick scowled and asked him what he knew.

Mizuno crossed his arms and said he still wasn't sure. "I'd rather not tell you something I don't believe myself, yet I want to ensure nothing goes awry if I missed something."

"But what do you know?"

Mizuno didn't say another word about it. Instead he got up, headed for the front of the room, retrieved a thin pen from the tray at the electronic white board, and wrote three words on it. "I had the opportunity to speak with the author of a book called Origins." Mizuno stopped briefly to ask Nick if he'd ever read the book, though Nick said he'd never heard of it. "You should look it up sometime, it's...enlightening, to say the least."

"What's it about?"

"It's a memoir, but it's really about human potential...but that isn't important right now." Mizuno took a step back and revealed the words 'capability,' 'limitations,' and 'achievement' on the board. "I posed a hypothetical question to the author though. Something precious was stolen from a man named Adam. Adam, his family, friends, and the police all searched for the item and the thief, but the culprit was never apprehended and the item wasn't found. Everyone gave up, friends, family, cops, but Adam couldn't let go of it. He continued to look for the bandit, but Adam couldn't achieve his goal because he didn't know where the crook was and didn't know how to go about searching for the burglar. I asked the author if Adam could accomplish his goal or not."

"What did he say?"

"The author told me Adam needed to find some way to surmount his own inadequacies; otherwise he was doomed to fail."

"So Adam needed help?"

"Yes."

"Meaning he needed his friends again?"

"Yes and no." Mizuno folded his arms and rested against the board as he explained Adam's situation. "Adam could use his friends to aid him, but he could also manage by simply learning to handle the situation on his own. However there is something else that Adam can't control that still hinders him."

"What?"

"It's the thief. This thief is unknown to Adam, which allows the individual to disappear entirely without Adam's knowledge. The bandit has already succeeded; all he has left to do is escape. Adam's fighting a difficult battle, seeing as the crook holds all of the cards, knows the victim, and has the ability to vanish for good before Adam figures out who he is."

"So does Adam ever find the thief?" Nick asked.

Mizuno only shrugged, "It was a hypothetical question, so no."

"Then why did you bother telling me this?" Nick questioned the man.

Mizuno stared at him and told him he needed to figure it out on his own.

The bell rang and students slowly began to trickle in. Amy was one of the first. She took her seat next to Nick, said h.e.l.lo and asked how his day was, and retrieved her books for their cla.s.s.

"My day's been alright," he routinely told her. "How about you?"

"It's been alright." Amy stopped briefly and told him they wouldn't be able to hang out over the weekend. "I'm going to Oregon with my mom so I won't be back until Monday or Tuesday."

Nick was honestly relieved that he wouldn't need to find an excuse for the time he'd need to execute Mizuno's plan, but he still felt a twinge of concern and asked if everything was alright.

"Yeah, she just wanted to visit her brother."

"Oh, I thought that maybe something had happened."

She only smiled, apologized for her lack of clarity, and said everything was fine.

8:49 PM.

Baltimore, Maryland The task force a.s.signed to the Cladis investigation didn't manage to find anything over the past three days. Bryce informed the group about the blood pattern, but it didn't lead to any breakthrough or further revelation. All they managed to do was limit their search to a defined category, although that category was miles wide.

Bryce left the station later than he usually did simply because he didn't want to give in; he knew Cladis would kill someone with O positive blood on the following day and wanted to do everything he could to possibly save them. It was hopeless though. He carried his uniform, a spare change of clothes, his shoes, deodorant, and a few other odds and ends in a duffle bag he slung over his shoulder and only paid enough mind to it to ensure he didn't hit anyone else on the street with it. His mind was gone though and remained on the case and the relatively improbable chance he had of saving the pending seventeenth victim.

"Could you spare any change?" someone asked him.