Absolute Power (Book 1): Origins Read Online Free PDF Page B

had miraculously cleared in the last couple of minutes.
    “Do you know how many times I've disappeared and shown up two countries away?”  Phillip waved a dismissive hand.  “Tell me, how are you going to explain to the ladies that you’re younger than you look?”
    “What?”  Porter asked confused.
    Phillip ruffled the hair at his temple, and Porter took a moment to glance at himself in the mirror.  The hair there was going grey.  He'd first noticed it after being captured in Russia but hadn't paid it much attention.  Now it had grown to a long streak that faded behind his ear.
    Porter grunted and ignored the comment.  Then said, “Flip.”
    “Yeah.”
    “I'm going to enjoy calling in the favor you just incurred here.”
     
1989, New York
     
    An old man stood staring into a mirror remembering when he wasn't so old.  AJ Rodgers rubbed the socket where his eye used to be.  The eye patch that had once bothered him seemed normal now.  He still had all his hair, except that it was white.  On cold days, his knee hurt like hell where it had been shattered.  The cane that he'd been using for the last twenty years felt weightless in his grip.  It was a perfectly balanced instrument.  AJ didn't have to check the sword inside to know it was clean and finely honed.  A sword master like him would have nothing less.
    “The kid is late,” Porter said.  He was sitting in an armchair near a massive window.
    AJ's office overlooked The United Nations Plaza.  It was an excellent view considering the glass was eight inch thick bullet resistant material.  He hated it; it made him feel disconnected.  He hated the office too; for the same reasons.  The One Director yearned for the old days, before the war, even before The One.  The best times were when it was just him on his own, hiding in the shadows and scaring the crap out of criminals.  Now he was relegated to giving orders from a desk thousands of miles from the action.
    “Kid?” AJ raised an eyebrow as he turned around.  “Major Kelley is only six years younger than you.”
    “I still remember him as the boy genius from that show he had in the sixties,” Porter said.
    AJ laughed because he remembered him the same way.  The image of a tiny seven year old in shorts and a bow tie was ingrained in his mind.  Billy Kelley would stand behind a podium answering all sorts of nonsense the audience asked him.  It was hard to believe that the tot had grown up to be Major William Kelley.  No matter how much money his family had, they couldn’t wash that out of existence. Of course, recently he'd been using that to his advantage.  AJ had to hand it to him, he was a brilliant strategist and maybe that would be enough.
    “It is impressive how he turned everything around,” AJ said.
    “You mean the embarrassment of being found out as a Super-Human and not a genius?” Porter asked.  “Or getting people to stop calling him Billy.”
    “The newspapers ate him alive,” AJ recalled.  “That was back before The One had changed the reputation of Super-Humans.  To take that much ridicule at that age.”
    “It sounds like you’re trying to convince yourself,” Porter noted.
    “You know I hate this, John,” AJ replied.
    Porter was reading the morning paper and looked up.  “What?  The speeches or quitting?”  He didn't mean it to sound as angry as it did.  “Sorry, sir.  I'm not too happy about it either.”
    “Then take the damn job,” AJ's voice got louder.
    “No offense, sir,” Porter put down the newspaper, “but I'm not going to make the same mistake you did.  I can do more good in the field than in an office.  Out there I have a chance to shape the future of The One without getting tangled in the red tape.”
    There was no point arguing with him because AJ agreed.  He took a seat across from Porter and held his cane between his legs.  The silver head of a cat adorned the handle, and its ruby red eyes stared at him.
    “But when this