The Rise of the Fat Mogul (The Defenders Saga Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

something, otherwise I think our new friend Dennis here is going to be hanging on to us for the foreseeable future.”
    “Your brother is quite keen, Ms. Rose.  If you have any information that we may be able to utilize in locating Arthur Flores, we may be able to ignore the discussion of your recent whereabouts.  For now.”
    “Fine,” Alexa gave in reluctantly.  “Like I said, I had been meeting with Artie for a few weeks after we fought Damon.  It wasn't much, just little bits of chit chat.  He told me that he felt he needed to hang low since the government did the whole Mind Wipe thingie again, especially since you were already investigating him.”
    “We’re already aware of the fact that he is in hiding, Ms. Rose.  That’s why you’re here.”
    “I don’t know what else to tell you.  The last time I talked to him, he sounded like he was afraid for his life.  In fact, after that moment, he locked me out of The Bunker because he was certain that I would be, well, talking to you, I guess.”
    “Are you aware that in the past three months there has been a dramatic increase in missing persons in the Sun City metropolitan area?”
    “No,” Alexa answered.
    “Would it interest you to know that each of these missing people were on our watch list for exhibiting apparent meta-human abilities?”
    “Are you saying they were supers?” Buddy asked.
    “Yes, Mr. Jackson, they all had appeared to have been developing abilities that would commonly be called superpowers.  In fact, if we hadn’t already been keeping tabs on them due to this, we wouldn’t have even been aware of their disappearance.  For some odd reason, we’ve found during our investigations that even their closest family members appear to have no knowledge of them ever existing.”
    “And you think Flores is behind all of this?” Ryan asked.
    “Yes, we do.  In fact, we have very little reason to believe otherwise.  We just have nothing to solidify our assumptions.  Would you have any information that might be able to help us make our case, Ms. Rose?”
    Alexa was silent.
    “Ms. Rose?”
    “He didn't say anything about it since the whole thing with Memphis, but. . .well--”
    “Please continue, Ms. Rose.”
    “Okay, fine.  The whole snatching meta-humans thing and erasing the memories of those around them, that's nothing new.  In fact, that's how he built up his army in the first place.  I mean, he usually tried to snatch people who had no family to worry about, homeless folks, orphans, you know the idea.  But, well, there was always this contingency plan in place, this crazy Hail Mary idea he had in the situation that anyone ever figured out what he was up to down in The Bunker.”
    “And that plan was?”
    “First, I just want to say that I was never all that crazy about this idea.  In fact, I thought I had talked him out of it ages ago.  But, I guess he must have been more afraid of what you guys might do than I thought he was.”
    “The plan, Ms. Rose?”
    “Okay, well, first, I want you to know that I’m not a rat, so when I say Artie’s got an inside guy within this department, I have no interest in selling him--”
    “Oh, we are already fully aware of Agent Parker's involvement with Arthur Flores, Ms. Rose.  Please continue.”
    “Oh, um. . . okay.  Well, anyways, they knew you guys had a list of people with powers.  So, the idea was that if it was ever necessary, they would go out and snatch up every last one of them, wipe their minds clean, and train them to be a part of his army.  If what you're saying is right, he's preparing for war.”
    “War?” Zero responded excitedly. 
    “Why would he be preparing for a war?” Buddy asked.
    “I don't know,” Alexa responded.  “But if he's activating his backup plan, he thinks something big is coming.”
    “That doesn't make any sense, sis.  I mean, he had over a thousand people working for him already.  Why would he need any more?”
    “Probably depends