Megamatrix Hero Within Read Online Free PDF Page B

didn’t have any way to research it. Maybe he should have asked the lockpicker and the lookout from the night before where they were planning to sell the medications, but he doubted they would have been in a helpful mood.
    Napalm scanned the front lawn and its scattering of well-armed security guards with a chuckle. “Come on inside. Let’s talk.”
    Fletcher started to pick up the boxes, but Napalm told him to leave them and gestured for Fletcher to follow.
    They went down a hallway and into a plush office with dark red walls trimmed in mahogany. Napalm sat in a leather chair behind a gargantuan desk and pointed to an empty seat across from him for Fletcher.
    “Don’t take this the wrong way, kid, but normally if someone pulled a stunt like that, I’d have him killed. Then I’d find his family, and I’d kill them. Then his friends and anybody he talked to in the last week or two.”
    “What is the right way to take that?” Fletcher asked sheepishly.
    “I guess be thankful I’m in a good mood today,” Napalm offered. “Or maybe I’m just curious. I get that way sometimes. Why is someone with all your powers ripping off medical supplies from some dumpy clinic?”
    “Excuse me?”
    “Okay, we know you can fly. You’re bulletproof and you can grow to at least forty feet tall. First off, how come I’ve never heard of you? And, second, if you can do all that, why waste your time on a piddly little job like this?”
    “Well, first, I just got these powers,” Fletcher answered.
    “Aren’t hormones amazing?”
    “And, second, I guess I didn’t really think about it.”
    “Obviously,” Napalm groaned sarcastically. “I like the way you handled yourself out there, kid—what is your name anyway?”
    “Fletcher.”
    “I like the way you handled yourself, Fletcher.” Napalm reached into a desk drawer and pulled out a wad of money. He peeled three hundred dollars from it and tossed the cash to Fletcher. “That’s more than enough for the medical supplies. And—as you can see—there’s plenty more to be had for a young man of your talents. Interested?”
    Fletcher snatched up the money and shoved it into his pocket while nodding furiously.
    “Good,” Napalm said with a smile, leaning back in his big chair. “Tomorrow evening, I could use a flier to help extract...”
    As he went on, Fletcher’s gaze wandered up the wall behind him. Hanging inside a glass case was a golden spear with three prongs. When his eyes fell on it, Napalm’s words were drowned out by singing. For a moment, Fletcher thought he was going mad, that the Megamatrix was affecting his brain. Then he recognized it as the chorus of voices he’d heard when he was underwater the night before.
    “Are you paying—Oh, you noticed that?” Napalm said proudly as he looked above his head. “Lord Trident’s trident.”
    “Neptune’s Spirit,” Fletcher whispered, not knowing how he knew that.
    “Right. Get it? Like ‘Spear It.’ I took that after he died at my feet.”
    Fletcher swallowed hard. He’d never seen the trident before, but he wanted to jump across the table, smash the glass open, and steal it for himself—no, not steal. He wanted to take back that which was his. Neptune’s Spirit belonged to him.
    “So, are we on for tomorrow?” Napalm asked, snapping Fletcher out of his fixation.
    Fletcher stole more one more glance at the trident and nodded. “Of course. I think this is going to be the start of a great opportunity.”

 
    CHAPTER 8
     
    Tremblor gave off the unmistakable aura of a fat kid who always got picked last for every game when he was in school. He could sway from inordinately nasty to nauseatingly bootlicking in a matter of seconds. He wanted so badly to be liked, yet harbored so much resentment for anyone who looked at him the wrong way.
    The first thing Tremblor did when he discovered his ability to cause miniature earthquakes was use it to tear his high school to the ground and open a fissure through