Forced Betrayal Read Online Free PDF Page A

parish."
    "So what did he say to you?" asks Watt. "Did Chimpanzero give you any intel before he died?"
    "Zero," I tell him. "Absolutely nothing."
    Watt watches me carefully, taking my measure. Then, he shakes his head. "Maybe it's just as well. That chimp was a notorious liar."
    I nod once and slip the .45 back in my shoulder holster. "Nothing worse than a liar, sir."
    Â 
    *****
    Â 
    It takes a while to get clear of Watt and his men. At least we don't have to sweat Father Obregon; Watt answers his threats and demands by locking him in a confessional.
    When Watt insists on taking me back to the Protectorate offices, I make up an excuse about having to escort Hericane to the police station.
    "The most powerful woman on the planet needs an escort?" That's what the asshole says to me.
    "She needs a shoulder," I tell him. "Now that the action's over, things are starting to catch up to her."
    And so we get a pass--mostly because Hericane is the most powerful woman on the planet. We get in my car and drive off in the direction of the police station, as if we have any intention of going there.
    As if we aren't going to double back and head straight for Fizz Dixon the promoter's place instead.
    What do we talk about on the way? It sure ain't the weather, let me tell ya.
    "Holy shit." My hands are shaking on the wheel. "My own people are in on this. The Superhuman Protectorate's covering this up."
    "Why would they do that?" Hericane frowns from the passenger seat. "It doesn't make any sense."
    I take a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to steady my hands. "It has to." Another deep breath. "Maybe we'll see the connection after we talk to Dixon."
    Hericane's frown deepens. "You think the SP took Mardi?"
    Her denial continues. I'll let it go a little longer. "I don't know what's going on anymore. All I know is, my world just turned upside-down."
    Hericane watches me for a moment, then looks out the window. "I know the feeling."
    Â 
    *****
    Â 
    I half-expect to find Fizz Dixon dead. Things seem to be heading in that direction.
    But he's alive and kicking and burning the midnight oil in his storefront office down on Claremont Street. He doesn't look up when we walk in, but that's not because he's dead; it's because he's sitting behind his big, red desk hunched over his smartphone, texting like a lunatic with his mangled fingers.
    "Fizz?" I weave around the boxes of memorabilia stacked all over the floor. Dixon's got a hot sideline selling souvenirs online from the bouts he promotes--bullets that have bounced off chests, gun barrels twisted into pretzels, that sort of thing. When it comes to super-heroes, he's got all the angles figured out.
    Which he should. Because ol' Fizz Dixon used to be a hero himself before the accident.
    "Be right with ya." He's got a Southern drawl, as you might expect from a guy who used to dress in a Confederate flag costume and call himself Dixieman. He was the premiere super-hero of the Deep South, based in Birmingham, till he overestimated his indestructibility and got chewed up by an out-of-control power plant turbine he was trying to stop from exploding. "All right then." His fingers make one last flurry over the onscreen keyboard, and then he drops the phone in his lap and smiles up at me with his disfigured features. "What can I do you for?"
    "I'm Bonnie Taggart with the Protectorate." I nod politely, then gesture at my companion. "This is Hericane."
    Dixon turns his wheelchair and slides a wider smile in Hericane's direction. "Of course I know you , Ms. Hericane." His face is a mess of gnarled scars and lumps, like the knobby surface of a glazed fritter. He wasn't indestructible enough to escape damage from a power plant turbine, but his hide was too tough for plastic surgeons to repair with conventional instruments or even lasers. "Does this mean my wildest dreams have come to pass? Would you consent to be recruited for one of my bouts?"
    "No, thanks," says Hericane.
    "Maybe you'll change