“Let me guess—Hangman,” Carmen replied.
Jasper nodded. At least, he tried to. His head got about halfway down before stopping in pain. “He broke in after midnight. Crashed through one of the skylights in the bedroom. Said he was here to collect some things his employer wanted.”
“Prism?” I asked.
Jasper tilted his neck a tiny bit to look at me. “You’ve heard of her?”
“Sort of.”
“That’s what we’re here about,” Lulu said. “We want to know everything you know about her.”
“Not much. I never met her face-to-face. I don’t even know her real name, but she calls herself Prism.”
“Dumb name,” Carmen said. “It doesn’t even say what her power is.”
“Dumb or not, she sent me an e-mail about a month ago wanting me to do some special work for her,” Jasper said.
“What sort of special work?” Carmen asked.
Jasper just looked at her with his one good eye.
“Oh. That.”
Jasper was the Bigtime’s preeminent bomb maker. If you wanted something to blow up in the most impressive, spectacular manner possible, you went to Jasper. He did a lot of demolition work for the city’s construction companies, but he also sold explosives and the like to various shady characters and greedy, desperate people who wanted to collect on their insurance policies. Jasper wasn’t hard-core evil—he didn’t deal with ubervillains—but he wasn’t lily-white either. He was sort of like Debonair, but without the sexy body. And eyes. And hair. And lips—
Carmen elbowed me in the side. “Focus, Bella. You can think about your dreamboat later.”
I rubbed my aching ribs and glared at the other woman. Psychics. Geez. Out of all the superheroes, they were the ones I hated the most. There was nothing you could do to keep them from intruding on your thoughts. Even my luck couldn’t help me with that.
“What exactly did Prism want you to do?” Lulu asked. “What sort of bomb did she want?”
“That’s the funny thing,” Jasper said. “She didn’t want a bomb. Not exactly. It was more like a consulting job. She wanted me to look at specs for some device she’d created to see if it would actually work.”
Jasper was also something of a mad inventor and kept coming up with strange new ways to blow the city to smithereens.
“It wasn’t a radio, was it?” Lulu asked. “Some sort of giant karaoke machine?”
The two of us exchanged nervous looks. A few months ago, Siren and Intelligal had built such a device to be the ultimate human controller—and almost enslaved the city in the process.
Jasper halfway shook his head. “No, it was more like a giant laser—the sort of device that can cut through anything—bank vaults, steel doors, iron bars, even solidium. Only an ubervillain would want something like that, which is why I didn’t take the job. She offered me a nice fee, though. A very, very nice fee.” His one open eye grew soft and dreamy at the thought of the money.
“Focus, Jasper. Fees aren’t everything,” Carmen said.
Jasper’s good eye cleared. “I don’t know what she planned on doing with it. She just wanted to know if it would actually work.”
“What did you tell her?” Lulu asked.
Japser gave her a sly grin. “Nothing, of course. I didn’t agree to accept the job. Even if I did, I would have demanded double the fee she offered me before telling her the time of day.”
“Why would Prism need to steal the sapphire if she’s building a laser?” Carmen asked.
“What sapphire?” Jasper asked.
“You haven’t heard? About the robbery at the museum?” I asked.
He tried to hold up his plaster-covered broken arm. “I’ve been a little under the weather. Please, enlighten me.”
I filled Jasper in on what had happened at the museum—starting with Hangman’s attack and ending with the Fearless Five rescuing me. I didn’t mention any of the superheroes’ real names, of course. Jasper knew Carmen and Lulu were friends with the Fearless Five, but he didn’t know Carmen was actually Karma Girl and that Lulu was engaged to Hermit. At least, I didn’t think he did.
“I still don’t understand what she wants with the sapphire, though,” Carmen repeated. Her fingers twitched, as though working on an invisible puzzle no one could see or feel except her.
Lulu snorted. “Haven’t you ever seen a James Bond movie? She’s going to use the sapphire to increase the power or focus of the laser, maybe both. Right, Jasper?”
The bomber nodded and winced. “That could be what she wants with it. The reflective properties of something like the Star Sapphire could be used that way—to great effect if you had the proper know-how.”
“What we really need to see are the specs for the laser. You wouldn’t happen to have kept a copy, would you?” Lulu asked.
Jasper gave her another sly grin.
Carmen and I put our arms under Jasper’s shoulders and helped him downstairs to his bomb-making lair. Lulu hobbled along behind us, her cane thumping against the steps. Jasper leaned against Carmen’s shoulder and punched in a series of codes on a keypad next to the thick metal door. My eyes flicked to the center of the door, which sported a fist-shaped dent as big as my head. I didn’t need Jasper to tell me that Hangman had come knocking.
The door whispered back, and we stepped inside Jasper’s lab. The air smelled like rusty metal, even though a fan whirred in the back of the room. I looked around at all the wires and weird gizmos and blackened bits of metal stacked on the long worktables. I hadn’t come inside the house with Lulu and Fiona when they’d gotten the bombs last time. Bombers were too close to superheroes and ubervillains for my liking.
On a normal day, the workshop would be cluttered enough, but it looked like a tornado had swept through the underground lab. Wires, springs, and tools littered the floor, along with clocks, timers, and other strange devices. Papers had been yanked off corkboards, while various technical manuals had been ripped in half and tossed aside.
Lulu let out a low whistle. “Hangman really did a number on the place, didn’t he? What did he take, Jasper?”
The bomb maker sank down onto a wooden bench and scratched the side of his face, careful not to touch his swollen eye. “Nothing too important. Several explodium grenades I had lying around. He was really after the machine blueprints. Prism didn’t take too kindly to me rejecting her offer. Hangman dragged me down here and demanded I show him where I’d hidden them. When I didn’t give them up, he decided to tap-dance on my face. Lucky for me, Hangman set off my alarms when he busted through the skylight. Swifte showed up about three minutes later, and the police five minutes after him. Hangman split, and Swifte rushed me to the hospital.”
“So you’re the guy in the newspaper, the one Swifte took to the hospital.” My eyes narrowed. “Wait a minute. The papers and SNN said you were attacked by muggers, not an ubervillain. Why did you lie?”
Jasper stuck a finger inside his cast and scratched his injured arm. “Because I, and my clients, like my anonymity. If I told people I was attacked by Hangman, I’d have Kelly Caleb and all the other newshounds camped out on my doorstep. Besides, it was just easier to lie. There’s less paperwork to fill out.”
“Since when are you dealing with Swifte?” Carmen asked, her voice high and squeaky. For some reason, she always got a little nervous whenever Swifte’s name came up.
Jasper shrugged. “I see him around, and we came to an agreement. If somebody breaks into my house, he responds.”
“And in return?” I asked.
Jasper pushed his glasses up his nose. “I don’t sell my supplies to anyone who’s going to use them within three blocks of Quicke’s. Evidently, it’s Swifte’s favorite restaurant, and he doesn’t want anybody blowing it up.”
It made sense in a way. Quicke’s was supposed to be neutral territory in Bigtime—both superheroes and ubervillains could eat there without fear of reprisal from each other or even the police. But I supposed it never hur
t to have a little extra insurance. Swifte was probably like Fiona in the fact that he constantly had to eat to keep up his strength and superspeed. And Quicke’s did have some of the best food in town. Even if it was filled to the brim with hero-villain memorabilia.
Jasper pointed to a dusty floorboard. “The blueprints are on a memory card taped to the bottom. One copy, anyway. What are you girls planning on doing with them?”
“We’re going to pass the information along to the Fearless Five, of course,” Carmen said in a steady voice, prying up the board and reaching down to retrieve the memory card.
I admired her smoothness. I’d never been very good at lying or hiding my emotions, but Carmen didn’t even blink as she fibbed to her friend. Then again, it wasn’t exactly a lie.
“Do you girls or your superhero friends need some extra firepower? Or should I even ask?” Jasper raised an eyebrow.
Lulu and Carmen exchanged a look.
“Let’s see what you’ve got,” Lulu said.
Jasper gave Carmen some directions, and she pulled all sorts of hidden bombs and explosive devices from metal safes in the walls and floors. There was even a case strapped to the ceiling that looked like an air vent.
Jasper took one of the lead boxes from Carmen and opened it on his lap. Inside lay a black velvet case, like the kind women get jewelry in on Valentine’s Day. Jasper cracked open the case, revealing a shiny silver bracelet with a variety of charms dangling off it. There was a tiny book, a high-heeled shoe, a beach umbrella, a martini glass, and other items—thirteen charms in all. All of them were cute and whimsical and exquisitely made. If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought it was a hand-crafted piece from Jewel’s Jewel Emporium.
“This is my latest project,” he said.
“Lucky charms?” I asked, thinking of the door code.
Jasper nodded.
“I didn’t know you were branching out into jewelry, Jasper.” Lulu smirked. “People are going to think you’re going soft.”
Jasper scoffed. “Soft? Hardly. The charms have enough explodium in them to level a city block. They can be used in combination, depending on how much power you need, or one at a time for smaller jobs. Use them all and the bracelet at the same time, and you’ve got something that would take out most of the downtown area.”
Lulu let out a low whistle.
“But wait, there’s more,” Jasper said, beaming over his creation. “The bracelet is voice-activated and key-coded so that only the wearer can use it.”
“How many of these things do you have?” Lulu asked.
“I have a prototype, of course. But this is the only other working model I have at the moment.”
Carmen and Lulu exchanged a look, and Carmen lifted the bracelet out of the velvet case.
“We’ll take it,” Lulu said. “But who gets it?”
Carmen’s eyes glowed for a second. “I think Bella should have it,” she murmured.
Carmen held out the charm bracelet to me. I didn’t want to take it. I didn’t need to be anywhere near any sort of explosives—not with my uncontrollable power. And I definitely didn’t want to be in a situation where I’d have to use the charms and bracelet. I’d never get out of it alive. Even I wasn’t that lucky.
“Trust me, Bella,” Carmen said in a soft voice. “I’m getting pretty good at judging these things.”
Despite my frizzing hair and itchy fingers and general nervousness, I let her fasten it on my wrist. It was actually pretty, in a one-false-move-and-I’ll-blow-your-arm-off kind of way.
“Now, just tell me the code word or words you want to arm and trigger the explosives in the bracelet, and I’ll program it for you,” Jasper said, gesturing at Lulu to hand him some sort of electronic doodad that resembled a calculator.
I gingerly shook the bracelet, watching the charms jiggle back and forth. They tinkled as they brushed against each other. My power pulsed around me, sensing the new device swinging from my wrist. For a moment, I thought something very, very bad might happen, but my power fell down to its usual low hum. Still, it gave me an idea for the words Jasper needed.
“Let’s go with luck be a lady,” I said.
“Why, Bella, are we feeling lucky today?” Lulu quipped.
I ignored her bad pun. Lulu wouldn’t be nearly so chipper if she was the one with this thing strapped to her wrist. Still, maybe Carmen was right. It might come in handy if I ran into Hangman again—or the mysterious Prism. Luck wasn’t much of a power when it came to the world of superheroes and ubervillains. It was barely a blip on the radar screen, compared to all the people who could form fireballs with their bare hands, or freeze a person from head to toe, or zip through the sky like a rocket. Still, I was going to be extra, extra careful with my new piece of jewelry.
Jasper tuned something on his gizmo, then made me speak my command words again. Sapphire eyes on one of the charms—an angel’s head—blinked on and off three times.
“The angel is the key,” Jasper explained. “Once her eyes start blinking, you have about twenty seconds to get clear or get rid of the bomb.”
“Got it.”
Jasper showed me how to slip the charms on and off the silver links and told me which ones were more powerful than others. When we finished, Carmen looked at her silver watch, while Lulu grabbed her cane and headed for the stairs.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Jasper asked.
“What?” Lulu replied. “We got information on the ubervillains, figured out more or less what they’re up to, found the blueprints to their ultimate-evil device, and got Bella some brand-new, supercharged explosives. I think we’re good.”
Jasper cleared his throat. “Well, there is the small matter of my fee.”
Ah, Jasper. Ever the businessman.
18
‘I can’t believe you gave him a million dollars for that bracelet,” Carmen said ten minutes later as we headed for the van. “You didn’t even try to negotiate with him.”
“There was no point. He wasn’t going to get suckered again,” Lulu said. “He let Fiona buy him off with clothes last time because he has a thing for her alter ego, Fiera. He wasn’t going to let me get away with that too. Besides, he still gave me a discount. We are becoming regular customers of his, whether you like it or not. The man could retire on what we’ve spent on explosives in the past year. Sam should just put him on retainer. It’d be cheaper in the end.”
Carmen sighed. “I know, I know. I’ll get Sam to write you a check tonight after work.”
“Nonsense. I’m as much a part of the team as you are, even if I don’t dress up in a costume. Just write another glowing feature on Yee-haw! and we’ll call it even,” Lulu said. “They’ve really done wonders for me these past few months.”
Yee-haw! was a therapeutic riding program financed almost in its entirety by Lulu Lo and her illegal life of crime and computer hacking. She’d been one of the program’s clients for years and was forever expounding on its virtues. In fact, getting publicity for Yee-haw! was one of Lulu’s main passions in life—along with Henry, computers, and making groan-inducing puns all the time.
We left Jasper behind with plenty of aspirin and promised to check on him later. Then, Lulu and Carmen drove me home. Or at least, they started to.
Carmen sat in the driver’s seat, but she didn’t crank the engine. “Maybe we should rethink our plan about taking you home, Bella. If Prism is anything like Malefica, she won’t stop until she’s got the sapphire. She’ll be sure to sic Hangman on you again if she thinks there’s even the slightest chance you have it or know where it is. She might even kidnap you and try to trade you for the sapphire. Then, we’d be right back where we started.”
The plan the superheroes and I had come up with to keep Hangman away from me had been to let Lulu spread the word via her shady contacts that the Fearless Five had recovered the Star Sapphire from Debonair—and for the superheroes to announce it themselves on SNN. If I didn’t have the stone, then there was no re
ason for the villains to come after me. At least, that was the theory. You could never really tell what ubervillains were going to do.
“Why don’t you guys just return the sapphire to the museum?” I said.
“Why would we want to do that?” Lulu asked. “That’s just stupid.”
I shook my head. “If Hangman and Prism want the sapphire to power their laser, they’ll have to try to steal it from the museum again. When they do, the Fearless Five can be there ready and waiting. You guys can capture the ubervillains, keep them from taking the sapphire, and save the city all in a single night.”
I might not like superheroes and ubervillains, but I sure as hell could think and plot like one.
“And what happens if the ubervillains get past us?” Carmen asked.
“You guys are the Fearless Five. Surely that won’t happen.”
Carmen gave me a look. “You should know by now not to take anything for granted—or to be too confident.”
Truer words were never spoken, but I persisted. I didn’t want to sit in the Fearless Five headquarters until they managed to capture Hangman. I’d be bored to tears. And probably have an allergic reaction to all that spandex. Besides, if I was tucked away in a supersecret superhero lair, I wouldn’t be able to see Debonair again. And I wanted to.
Or did I? Did I really want to see the handsome thief? Just because we’d had a hot one-night stand didn’t mean he cared about me. Or that he’d even want to see me again. He’d probably had a couple more sexual encounters since our night together. Hell, maybe even a dozen, if the rumors about him were true.
But part of me still wanted to see him. Wanted to know more about him. Wanted to know if he’d felt anything at all for me besides lust—because I’d definitely felt something for him. It wasn’t love, but there was a soft spot in my heart for the thief now—even if he’d seduced his way into my good graces and bed. Plus, he kept saving my life. It was really hard to be angry with a guy when he did that.