Hostile Takeover
By
Scott Roche
Published by Scott Roche at Smashwords
Copyright 2011 Scott Roche
Discover other titles by Scott Roche here http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ScottRoche
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Special thanks go to Tim Ward, Ry Stevenson, and Keith Hughes for helping me with this story and to Ed Delaney of Peculiar Comics for the cover. Any issues with either the text or the cover is the sole fault of the author who is merely human and likes to refer to himself in the third person.
This short story takes place in the same universe as “X Marks the Spot”, also available from Smashwords. Look for more stories in this world and featuring these characters in 2012.
Children of Legend Stories:
“X Marks The Spot” (Mark Feaney) – Prequel Short Story
“Here, There Be Dragons” (Maria Perez) Prequel Short Story
“Compass Rose” (Rose Covington) Prequel Short Story
Hostile Takeover (Mark Feaney) Children of Legend: Book 1
Knife’s Edge (Maria Perez) Children of Legend: Book 2
Utopias weren’t built in a day and almost never without bloodshed. I was certain the beings who had given me my powers would agree. Why else would they have enabled me and others like me to have abilities beyond those our normal biology allowed?
My thoughts were interrupted by the piercing bleat of the school bell. The shrieking served to amplify the headache I constantly carried with me. Being around too many people made me feel like I lived in a vast echo chamber. Leaching intelligence from the people around me had some wicked side effects, ones the aliens didn’t warn me about. I could damp down the effect, but it cost me. The pain throbbed dully, alleviated only by solitude. Even my prescription for migraines barely touched it, but I could function.
Billy sat across from me. We were the only two in the library during the homeroom period. I was supposed to be tutoring him. I had helped him all through Middle School, at first to avoid beatings. Eventually, even he saw the benefit of a more amiable relationship. While we could never be close friends, he was now less of a threat and more of a weapon I could use when I needed strength of arms.
The need for an adequate defense was coming. The world was controlled by greedy fools. I needed look no further than my own high school to see a power structure determined by looks, popularity, and money in varying combinations. I had none of the above. Certain the government collects people like me for their own use, I knew I would need to do whatever it took to get it.
For the first couple of years after I received my unique set of abilities, I just sat back and observed. I tested my powers, sipping intelligence from those around me and learning how to use the limited telekinesis. I read volumes beyond my years. I kept these things secret from those around me, even my beloved mother.
I looked up and watched Billy flip through Captain Underpants. Once I was ready to begin my journey to power, I began to build the cadre I needed. In addition to this teenage hulk, I surrounded myself with outcasts. Boys and girls who were smart enough to be of use to me, but not so smart that they would catch on to what I did. I tried to add one other especially gifted person to the circle, but the meeting ended in disaster. I mishandled it and she doesn't trust me any more than perhaps she should.
By the beginning of freshman year, I had a few friends I carried with me, and was able to convince my mother and my teachers to let me engage in a period of self-study with these people. I used the free time to begin to build to my ultimate goal, the takeover of the entire school. Mind you, I don't mean takeover in the strictest political sense. I didn't want to be class president or the like. I wanted to run the daily operations. I wanted to control the actions of the adults from the principal down to my fellow students. If I could accomplish it, I reasoned, I could do the same thing once I lived in the real world.
School would serve for me the same purpose it purported to serve the boys and girls grinding through the next four years alongside me. It would mold them into what they wanted to be. The end of the first grading period neared and I had my first target in my sights. A small gang of miscreants "ruled" the ninth and tenth grade, led by Joseph Ramirez, a tenth grader who was by all accounts smart for his age. They weren't a gang as such, but they certainly had a loose power structure and even made money by selling everything from tests to illicit over the counter and prescription drugs.
Ramirez was smart enough not to delve into the harder drug trade. The Dragons and Ochos filled the more violent niches and would step hard on anyone who tried to interfere. I felt certain he knew where the boundaries were and was likely being groomed for upward mobility. I had his name circled in red. I needed him to join me, or I needed to take him out. Neither one would be easy. A meet up was necessary for me to get the ball rolling and feel him out.
"Billy. I need you to take care of something for me."
He looked up from his book, a dull smile on his face. "Yeah, Mark? What's do you need?"
"I need you to go and talk to Joseph Ramirez. I want an audience with him."
"Audience? Is he gonna sing or something?"
I shook my head. "No, Billy. I need to talk to him, and I need you to arrange it. This is very important. I need you to not screw things up."
"I know Joseph. He's on the football team. I'll talk to him between first and second period. Whatcha wanna talk about with him. In case he asks?"
I stroked my chin. "Tell him I have a supply of medications I can arrange for him and his people to sell for me."
Billy's eyes widened. "Selling it ain't legal. Is it?"
I shushed him with my hands. "Think of it this way. My medication will go to waste if it expires. It would be a shame for that to happen. They may know someone who can make use of it. It's my medication after all. Shouldn't I be able to sell it?"
He shrugged his broad shoulders. "I reckon."
Bless the boy; he wasn't very smart when he was outside my zone of influence. The ten or so IQ points he lost when near me was almost more than he could spare without starting to drool. "Great. So, do it. Tell him I will be available during first lunch and will wait for him out by the monkey bars on the second playground."
He started to stand.
"Wait for the bell, Billy."
He sat back down and resumed reading his book, giggling occasionally.
I
looked forward to first period. The "tutoring time" the
teachers allowed me with my big friend was a good way to start the
day, but it wasn't exactly stimulating. When the bell did ring, I
made my way out into the halls and towards class.
When
the time came I waited by the monkey bars. While no self-respecting
high school student would be caught “playing” out here, we were
allowed to take time during lunch to be outside. There were guardians
appointed to ensure no one smoked or started fights, but they took
their jobs watching us almost as seriously as they took their jobs to
instruct us.
I will admit to being somewhat nervous. I was taking a risk, my biggest one to date. I didn’t think anything bad would happen, and in this case my intellect failed me.
Ramirez arrived a few minutes late, flanked by two even larger boys. They were, no doubt, all members of the Junior Varsity football team. If not, I could see no purpose in their existence. They wore puffy jackets displaying the blue and green of our school along with long white shirts and low slung jeans. The fact that Joseph’s blond hair belonged to a bottle was betrayed by swarthy skin. His wing men were both black and looked to be brothers.
I pushed myself off from leaning against the cold metal and walked towards them, hoping I looked cooler than I felt. As I came within what I thought of as “siphoning distance” I got a surge from Joseph. It caught me by surprise. Part of me had assumed he was a typical gang banger. He shook his head and grimaced. Most people didn’t notice the effect my ability had on them. He appeared to.
He nodded to the two young men bracing him and they closed in on either side of me, boxing me in. “So you have something you’d like to talk to me about?”
My eyes flicked around looking for Billy. “Yes. I think we can make a mutually beneficial agreement.”
“Looking for your backup? Don’t.” He stepped well into my personal space. We were approximately the same height, but I weighed two-thirds of what he did.
I tried to steel myself and hoped it didn’t show. “There’s no need for this to be confrontational. This is business. Just b-...”
He poked me just above my sternum, hard enough to cut my words off, but not hard enough to do any damage. “No. Business is between equals. You’re not my equal. You’re just a deluded little freshman. If you’ve got something good, you will give it to me, and I’ll kick your skinny little ass.”
I thought about asking if he meant “or”, but I knew better. I reached into my jacket. The boy on my right, Dolla’ according to the name on his jacket, caught my arm, pinning the hand in its place. “I was just reaching for a sample of the product.”
Joseph nodded at Dolla’, who let me go.
I pulled out the Altoids tin and held it out.
He took it and nodded again. This time Dolla’ and his brother both grabbed an arm. I watched as he opened the small box and removed the piece of parchment holding two Oxy. The mint box went into his jacket, and he fingered open the illicit package. “Nice.” He looked up at me. “You’ll get me more of this.” It wasn’t a question.
“I can do tha...” Again with the poke.
“You will do it.” He looked at his wing men. “Show this young man what will happen if he doesn’t.”
I heard Dolla’s knuckles creak. I desperately looked around for a teacher or any other witness. None were immediately obvious.
“Boys, boys, boys.” The voice came from above and behind us.
The look on Ramirez’s face held a mix of anger, frustration, and surprise I didn’t have a word for.
“You won’t be tuning anyone up on my watch.” A shadow flashed above our heads and I saw a Hispanic girl not much older than Ramirez land lightly behind him. She stood a good head taller than either of us.
Ramirez’s hand dipped into his jacket pocket as he turned. “What are you gonna do to stop us?”
Dolla’ and his friend relaxed their grip on me. I stayed put as much out of interest for what would happen next as out of fear.
“I already have.” Her gaze flicked over to me, and I could swear her pupils were slitted. “And if you’re half as smart as you seem to be, you’ll leave.”
I fell backwards and to the left, going under the monkey bars. I knew I wasn’t free, and I was in no hurry to leave, but it felt nice not to be cornered. My caretakers kept their eyes on the threat.
Silence stretched out for several seconds. “This isn’t the first time you’ve gotten in our business.”
“And it won’t be the last if you goons keep stepping outside of the neat little boundaries I’ve set for you. I can’t stop you from selling poison, not yet anyway, and I can’t stop you from being assholes, but I can keep you from beating up on little kids and selling weapons. You do either of those things and I know about it, then I put my dainty little foot down.”
I watched the two goons try and box her in. She moved towards Dolla’ and dropped into a crouch. Pulling a move more at home in a break dancing video, she went to one hand and brought both legs over her head. Her left foot connected solidly with his face. He staggered back, clutching at his nose. By the time I looked back at her, she stood upright again.
She looked significantly at the other two. “Have I made my point?”
A shrill whistle stopped Ramirez from answering. A teacher must have finally seen something. I back-crawled the rest of the way from under the steel structure and stood. Once sure I could do it without being seen, I moved quickly towards the buildings. I headed to the bathroom first. I almost didn’t make it. My light breakfast exited noisily.
A few of my classmates must have heard me if the disgusted reactions were any indication. I didn’t pay them any mind. While I rinsed my mouth out, I thought about what had happened. My plan had been simple, but I had made the mistake of underestimating Ramirez. I thought he would be attracted to having a new source of product and hadn’t taken emotion into account, or his apparent desire to control everything.
One thing he had said was one hundred percent correct. We were not equals. He had power of the physical sort. He also had a bit more capital than I did. Those things didn’t change the fact that I wanted what he had. Now I thought I knew a way to get it. He had an enemy and based on what I’d just witnessed, she was a formidable one, at least physically. I needed to find out more about her. I’d also needed to watch out for the gang leader. He wouldn’t forget our meeting and he’d want more product.
The time to call a meeting of the board had arrived. I needed more brain power. I pressed a button on my watch and knew six watches around the school were vibrating in time. I’d cobbled the little gadget together when the Middle School outlawed cell phones. I spent the rest of the day trying to avoid anyone who looked like one of Ramirez’s cronies, and as soon as the final bell rang I got on my bike and headed downtown.
Our meetings were about an exchange of intelligence, literally and figuratively. The boys, and one girl, I got together with were all fairly smart, though not overly so. I got to free up a few of their brain cells for my own use, and in exchange we all got to benefit from an intelligence network I had put together. There was also a social aspect to it. Likely as not, we'd play a collectible card game or a few board games. During the evening, we'd also tell one another about anything unusual going on. Another side benefit had reared its head once or twice. The members of the board were less prone to being bullied, both thanks to our resident tank buster, Billy, and due to a sense of confidence from having back up even if it was only our fellow geeks.
On a night like tonight, when an emergency meeting was called, something any of us could do, it was understood every one of us would drop any plans and meet. We had a number of convenient excuses ready for parents, though truth be told, many of our parents didn't care. They were tickled we had friends. In my case, my mother was largely beyond caring about anything I had done.
When I got there I was glad to see by the bike rack that I wasn't the only one. Veronica was here, her blue twenty speed double locked. She was a serious racer and not bad looking. I also saw Steve's red street cruiser. I noticed a beat up VW bug driven by our only member with a license, Reginald. He had just turned sixteen and would give any of us rides. I headed on in to the room we thought of as ours. The librarian who oversaw scheduling the rooms kept one open for us, in exchange for a study supply of bootleg music and movies. I always thought it odd she couldn't get them herself, given her position and relative technical savvy, but she seemed satisfied by the arrangement.
Veronica thumbed through a copy of whatever play the drama club was in the midst of preparing. Her legs were propped up on the table. She seemed clueless to the ogling Reginald was engaging in. Steve shuffled cards one handed. He continually practiced close up magic and worked hard to keep his hands nimble. They all looked up at my entrance. They were all clueless to the feeling of fogginess they got when I was in the room, but there was still something about my being "in range" that drew them. I suspected with age and practice I'd actually be able to affect their thoughts, a rudimentary sort of mind control. Until then, long regular exposure made them at least a little more open to suggestions.
"Glad you could all make it. We're still waiting on Billy and Adam?"
Veronica nodded. "I don't think Billy's gonna make it. He looked pretty banged up in sixth period."
I frowned. That wasn't surprising, but it was unfortunate. I sat down and took the moleskine out of my backpack. "Anyone know if Adam's going to be here?" I flipped to the class schedule grid. "Reginald, you're in Spanish with him, right?"
Reginald turned his attention to me. "Yes. He was there, but said he had to take care of something for his mom."
Adam's mom had a number of illnesses, not the least of which was fibromyalgia. He had to be there for her since his Dad wasn't. I jotted a few notes down. "Alright then, we'll go ahead without them. I'll make this quick. I need to know anything any of you have on Joseph Ramirez's movements for the rest of the day. I'm also interested in finding out something about a new girl, at least new to me. I don't know her name yet."
Steve leered. "Romantic interest?"
I frowned at him. "Not that it matters, but no. She saved my butt earlier today in my meeting with Ramirez."
"Maria Perez." Veronica scratched her head. "She's Puerto Rican I think. I heard some boys talking in gym about a run in Ramirez and two of his golems had with her."
I raised an eyebrow. "Go on."
Veronica sat her play book down. "I don't have too much. They were just saying she got in a little hot water for nearly breaking Samuel Blake's nose."
"Must be Dolla'."
"That's his nickname on the team, yeah. Of course, since she's a girl, it's not quite as bad. No one was going to buy the idea it was anything other than those boys trying to push her around. Self-defense, case closed." She smirked.
Steve's eyes were big. "She stood up to Dolla', Ramirez, and Twenty-two?"
Veronica nodded. "Bigger they are, smaller their gonads and brains are, the harder they fall."
Reginald snorted. "You wouldn't have stood up to them."
"No, but then I'm not a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and a student of three or four other martial arts. Word is, she is."
"That gels with what I saw." I took a few more notes. "Things didn't go well with Ramirez today. We may have to go to plan beta."
"You'll be glad to know your name wasn't mentioned in what I overheard."
"Good, good. Since he wouldn't listen to reason..."
"I tried to tell you." Reginald interrupted.
"Go on."
"He's smart, but he's a little crazy. I hear he actually killed a kid who tried to muscle in on his action last year. You're gonna have to take him out once and for all."
I flipped through my notes. Reginald had indeed pointed out that my notions of how to handle things weren't going to work. I put a star by his name. He was my newest team member, and his knowledge of the existing power structures and players was a factor I'd need to pay closer attention to. "I think I may have the weapon to do just that. Maria said she wanted to take Ramirez out of action, but couldn't. I'm going to track her down and meet with her to thank her and get a little more information."
"Your best bet for finding her is to go to Tiger Kim's studio. She teaches there two nights a week." Veronica dropped her feet to the floor and leaned forward. "Or so I hear."
"You know a lot about this girl."
"She's a... kindred spirit."
I swore to god I think the girl blushed. Rather than let my brain ponder the reaction, I moved us on as a group. “I’m going to see if I can find Maria and talk to her tonight. Veronica, do you think you can accompany me?”
She nodded. “I think so.”
“Steve, I want you to check on Billy. Reginald, you give Adam the low down. I want us all to steer clear of Ramirez and his goons for the next few days. He wants something from me, and I don’t want any more of you caught in the crossfire.”
Everyone took their assignments, and we left the library. While Veronica and I unlocked our bikes, I looked at her closely. She was my emotional core in many ways. I was not only smart, but savvy enough to know I didn’t have much empathy. “Things are going to get ugly. I need to know if every-one's on board with it.”
She smiled weakly. “We all have our own reasons for it, but yeah I think we are. Adam’s going to be the only holdout. His not being here had nothing to do with his Mom. I saw him on my way out. He heard about what happened to Billy and told me he wasn’t coming.”
I grunted. I’d need to visit Adam and have a little talk. I couldn’t afford for anyone to leave the team. It didn’t entirely surprise me, though. Adam had often been a dissenter, but I needed the occasional pushback even if I didn’t particularly like it. “Anything else?”
She straddled her bike and looked at me. “How far do you want to go with this?”
We had been talking about my plan for school domination for two years. While I didn’t let them in on everything, I knew I would have to be honest with my team. If I didn’t it would come back to bite me. “What do you mean?”
“These boys play rough. The Ochos play rougher. One of us has already got a beating, and he wasn’t used to it like,” she paused significantly, “like some of us are.”
I bowed my head and scratched my chin like I hadn’t thought of that fact a hundred times before now. I knew their weaknesses and their strengths, better than my own somehow. "We'll go over the possibility as a group later. I know this is something I have to do, regardless of who's with me and who's not." I looked at her. "I won't think any less of people who decide they have to leave now, before things heat up, but there will come a time when leaving will be harder. Stay with me long enough, and even if you leave you may not be safe."
We stood their looking at each other for several seconds. "Well, that time hasn't gotten here yet. Let's go find Maria."
We got on our bikes and headed for the Tiger Kim's. It took us more than a half hour to make the trip. The studio in question was in a rougher part of town, as such things often were. The strip mall had seen better days. The only businesses with lights still on were Kim's and a Mexican restaurant. Hearing a canned mariachi band overlaid by grunts and the smack of flesh on padding was odd. We stopped in front of what used to be a second hand store whose windows had been covered in old sales circulars. It seemed like a good place to wait.
"So why aren't you in this class?" I pointed my thumb towards Kim's. "I mean learning how to defend yourself might come in handy."
"I could ask you the same question. Weren't you the one who got cornered?"
I blushed. "Not my best moment. I've thought about it, but there never seems to be the time."
"My reasoning too. I'm not sure it would do me any good. My dad's a lot bigger than I am."
I nodded my head. I knew her father was an ex-Marine, and he had been a boxer back in the day. Some of his muscle had gone to fat, for sure, but beating on a fifteen year old girl, even one as athletic as Veronica wasn't hard.
I made a check mark near the mental note to arrange an accident for him. The number of check marks near the note nearly obscured it.
That line of conversation ended by awkwardness, we waited in silence for the class to end. Finally, students started trickling out. Maria must have been the last one. The Hispanic girl was taller than Veronica and broader through her shoulders. Her size didn't make her slow. She must have seen us out of the corner of her eye. She turned quickly, almost assuming a defensive stance.
I held my hands up. "We come in peace."
She smiled. Her teeth seemed oddly sharp. "Good thing for you, if earlier today is any indication."
I'd take criticism like that for my own people, but she didn't have the liberty. "If I were coming to Ramirez for the purposes of war, he wouldn't have walked away." I hoped it sounded as tough as I felt.
Maria nodded. "Maybe. I think you underestimate him on a few levels."
Fair point. "That's why I'm coming to talk to you. He strikes me as a common adversary."
"From what I heard you were coming to him with gifts."
"He didn't receive them in the spirit I intended them to be given."
"You wanted to strike up a business relationship with him. That makes you my enemy. I don't like what he peddles, and if you're in the same business he is, then you'll come to the same fate he does."
Veronica came between us. "It's not like that."
Maria looked at her. "How is it then?"
"Mark wants to take him out. He just planned on doing it in a less direct way than you want to."