The Superhero's Son Omnibus Volume 3

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

I rushed Triplet to the second floor, into one of the empty rooms, and placed him on the bed. Triplet was barely breathing and bleeding heavily; in fact, he was in such bad shape that I was surprised that he was even still alive.

I was worried that we might not have a first aid kit on hand, but it was only a couple of minutes later that Blizzard and Ivan came up with a first aid kit and a bunch of bandages they’d found in the cabinets of the kitchen. It was Ivan, however, who did the majority of the work healing Triplet, because he said that he’d learned first aid during his brief stint in the Russian army in his twenties, but we helped in other ways, such as taking Triplet’s coat and shirt and getting Ivan whatever he asked of us.

By the time Ivan finished cleaning and patching up all of Triplet’s wounds, Triplet looked much better than he did before. But his skin was paler than it usually was, no doubt due to the blood loss, and he had fallen completely unconscious. His heart, however, was beating and his pulse was stronger than before, so Ivan assured us that he would probably be all right.

“He just needs rest,” said Ivan, wiping the blood off of his hands onto an old rag I’d gotten from the bathroom. “I think we managed to get his wounds cleaned and bandaged just in time. If we had been too late, they might have gotten infected and he would almost certainly have died.”

“What happened to him?” said Blizzard, looking down at Triplet with worry. She stood next to me, rubbing her hands together in worry. She looked at me. “Did he tell you how he got this way?”

I shook my head. “He only mentioned Mastermind and the G-Men, but he didn’t go into much detail about what he meant.”

“What was he doing all the way out here, I wonder?” said Ivan. “Surely he couldn’t have known we’d be here.”

“Triplet visited this mansion once,” I said, remembering my first meeting with my grandparents what felt like a lifetime ago now. “So he knew where it was. But, yeah, I wonder why he’s here.”

All of a sudden, Triplet’s eyes flickered open. His eyes darted over to me, but he didn’t seem to be entirely conscious.

“Bolt?” said Triplet. He grimaced, probably due to the pain from his wounds. “Ow …”

“Don’t make any sudden movements,” said Ivan. “Your injuries are still quite serious. Best to remain as still as possible.”

Triplet looked down at his bandaged body. “Yeah, I can tell. Better than being dead, I suppose.”

“Of course,” said Ivan.

“Maybe you shouldn’t be talking, Triplet,” said Blizzard. “You need to rest.”

Triplet shook his head slowly. “No. Can’t rest. Not for long, anyway. I need to tell you about my findings.”

“Can’t it wait until you’ve healed a bit more?” I said. “Even talking might be too much for you.”

“No, you need to know this right away,” said Triplet. “And I mean you, specifically, Bolt. At this point, you’re the only one I can trust.”

“Uh, okay,” I said. “You don’t seem surprised to see that I’m out of prison.”

“Why should I be?” said Triplet. “I knew that you would break out eventually. Ultimate Max may be secure, but like every prison in the world, it has its weaknesses that you obviously exploited.” He looked at Ivan and frowned. “But I have no idea who this guy is.”

“Ivan Yadernoy,” said Ivan. “Or, as you might know me, Nuclear Winter, the first supervillain and first inmate of Ultimate Max.”

Triplet’s eyes widened and he looked at me in shock. “Bolt, is this guy joking?”

“No,” I said. “He really is Nuclear Winter.”

“But he’s a good guy now,” Blizzard said quickly. She looked at Ivan. “Right, Ivan?”

Ivan shrugged. “I am not and never have been a good man, but I’m no longer interested in committing crimes anymore, if that’s what you mean.”

“Jesus, Bolt, I knew you were going to try to escape, but I didn’t think you’d get help from Nuclear Winter, of all people,” said Triplet. “He’s insane.”

“It wasn’t just Ivan,” said Blizzard. “He also got help from a bunch of other criminals, including a few we’ve beaten ourselves.”

“So you led an actual prison breakout,” said Triplet. “I don’t remember that being part of the plan.”

“We had to improvise,” I said. “But really, you don’t need to worry about Ivan. He’s fine. He’s on our side and isn’t planning to kill us or anything. In fact, he’s the guy who cleaned your wounds and bandaged you up.”

Triplet looked at Ivan skeptically, but then sighed and said, “All right. I’m not sure I believe that, but there are more important things to worry about at the moment, including what Mastermind is up to.”

“And what is Mastermind up to?” I said. “What are you even doing out here in this forest? Why did you come to the mansion?”

“I came because I thought I might find you here,” said Triplet. “Looks like I was right about that. But anyway, I’ve uncovered Mastermind’s identity.”

“You have?” I said in surprise. “Who is he?”

“Cadmus Smith,” said Triplet.

A shocked silence fell over the room. Blizzard and I exchanged surprised looks, while Ivan just stroked his chin, a look of concern and confusion on his Russian features. Only Triplet seemed unaffected by that announcement, but then that made sense, given that he’d been the one to make it.

“Cadmus Smith is Mastermind?” I said. “That can’t be true.”

“It’s what the evidence suggests,” said Triplet. “And it’s why I almost died.”

“Start from the beginning,” I said. “How did you find out that Cadmus Smith is Mastermind?”

Triplet rubbed the back of his head, but stopped and groaned, putting a hand on the bullet wound on his chest. “As you know, I’ve been investigating the identity of Mastermind for some time now under the orders of the Leadership Council of the Neohero Alliance. I’ve been searching for him everywhere, but it wasn’t until recently that I finally began to find some clues to point to his identity.”

“Clues?” I said. “Like what?”

“I found a man who claimed to have met Mastermind once,” said Triplet. “He told me that he’d worked as minion for Mastermind at some point in the past and wanted to talk with me. Unfortunately, when I went to meet him, I found out that the man had committed suicide.”

“That’s horrible,” said Blizzard.

“And not suicide,” said Triplet. “He’d shot himself in the back of the head three times; at least, that is the police’s official report of his death. I tried to investigate the crime scene myself, but the police told me that they had been given orders not to let me onto the scene. It was odd how they were trying to keep me, in particular, from investigating it, but that’s what made me suspicious.”

“What happened after that?” I said.

“I was contacted by Mecha Knight,” said Triplet. “I was told that the NHA did not want me investigating the Mastermind case anymore and that they were instead handing over the investigation to the G-Men.”

“What?” I said. “Why did they do that?”

“He didn’t say,” said Triplet, “but that was shortly after the announcement that the G-Men were going to have a presence on Hero Island, so I suspected that there was something about this case that the G-Men didn’t want me investigating. That was when I heard back from Professor Hernandez.”

“Professor Hernandez?” I said. “You mean the guy who helped me get my powers back and who is also the leading authority on the study of neogenetics?”

“Yep,” said Triplet. “He was helping me with White Lightning. Remember how I theorized that White Lightning might be your clone?”

I nodded. “Yeah, what about it?”

“Well, I had managed to get some of White Lightning’s DNA from one of the sites of his attacks and sent it to Hernandez for him to study,” said Triplet. “It was tricky, since White Lightning rarely leaves anything that could be used to track him, but through some of my connections in the police force, I managed to get my hands on a strand of hair that had been confirmed to have fallen off of White Lightning’s head from his attack on the White House.”

“But how would that prove if he was my clone or not?” I said. “I didn’t give Hernandez any of my DNA.”

“Got a strand of your hair from Blizzard,” Triplet, nodding at her. “She got it from your bed in the House, so I sent both hair samples to Hernandez to compare.”

I looked at Blizzard in disbelief. “You mean you took some of my hair without my permission?”

Blizzard smiled at me sheepishly. “Hey, Triplet said that it might help us defeat White Lightning. Besides, I didn’t think you’d really care, because you were in prison and that hair was just on your bed.”

I frowned, but since I was more interested in Triplet’s story at the moment, I said to him, “Okay, what did Hernandez find?”

“No idea,” said Triplet, “because the government confiscated the hair samples, his equipment, and his data from him before he could analyze it.”

“What?” I said. “They just took it, without justification?”

“According to Hernandez, the government had told him that they were confiscating the material because they thought it might put national security at risk,” said Triplet. “Personally, I think that it was because they knew that Hernandez was about to find out that White Lightning is indeed your clone and didn’t want anyone outside of the government knowing that.”

“But why would they be against that?” I said. “Wouldn’t knowing White Lightning’s origin be helpful? At the very least, it might lead us to whoever Mastermind’s friend in Ultimate Max—the one who gave him my DNA in the first place—is, which could then lead us to Mastermind himself.”

“You’re missing the point,” said Triplet. “The government doesn’t want us knowing that White Lightning is a product of Project Neo.”

“He is?” I said in shock. “Why do you think that?”

“Let me finish my story,” said Triplet. He took a deep breath, no doubt due to his painful wounds, and continued. “I found it strange how the government had confiscated Hernandez’s possessions; strange and alarming. So I decided to take a trip to Texas to visit Hernandez himself, but along the way, I was attacked by G-Men agents.”

“G-Men agents?” I repeated. “Who?”

“I didn’t recognize them,” said Triplet. “It was the middle of the night when they attacked me on the road. They forced me to crash my station wagon and flee into the forest, but they didn’t let me get away. They attacked me in the forest and nearly killed me; that’s why I was in such terrible shape when you guys found me.”

“How did you escape?” said Blizzard.

“My Thirds helped,” said Triplet. “I split up into my Thirds and scattered into multiple directions, forcing the G-Men agents to split up themselves. I managed to use the darkness of the forest to my advantage, however, and captured one of them, a scrawny guy with a face like a rat. I interrogated him and he told me that he’d been sent by Cadmus Smith to take me down before I learned the ‘truth’ about Mastermind, White Lightning, and Project Neo.”

“Is that all he said?” I said. “What did he mean by that?”

“I think he meant that Mastermind is Cadmus and that White Lightning was created in Project Neo,” said Triplet, “but I’ll never know for sure, because that guy ate a cyanide pill and killed himself. I left his body in the forest.”

Blizzard covered her mouth with her hands. “That’s awful. Why did he kill himself?”

“To ensure that the truth would not get out to the people that the government would rather not know it,” said Ivan. “That is typically how things operate in the spy world.”

“Precisely,” said Triplet. “Anyway, I managed to lose the remaining G-Men agents, but I probably would have died if you guys hadn’t been here.”

“Then we have to leave,” I said. “If there are G-Men agents nearby—”

“I doubt it,” said Triplet. “I scattered and confused them so much that I doubt they’ve left the general area where we initially fought. Besides, the G-Men have never been very good trackers; they couldn’t even follow a road off a cliff.”

“But we should still flee anyway, yes?” said Ivan. “If the G-Men find us, they will probably kill us or at least throw us back into prison, where we will probably be killed by the guards.”

“Yes, but fleeing will be difficult to do,” said Triplet. “Aside from my own injuries, the government of New York is no doubt working very closely with the G-Men to find all of you.”

“Yeah,” I said. “But Blizzard said there was an INJ member nearby who might be able to help us. We think that the INJ will be able to keep us safe from the G-Men until we can beat White Lightning.”

“I hope so,” said Triplet. “But the destruction of San Francisco really hurt them. I am unsure how much help they will be against the G-Men, who are as strong as ever, if not stronger thanks to the events of the invasion.”

“The INJ is still our best shot,” I said. “By the way, how do you know that Cadmus is Mastermind?”

“Because it’s only logical,” said Triplet. “Why else would the government not want me investigating Mastermind if he was not someone important? Why would the government send their own agents to kill me if Mastermind wasn’t connected to the government in some way? And Cadmus Smith is about the only person I know of with the kind of intelligence and resources that someone like Mastermind would need to pull off the kind of crimes he’s committed.”

Triplet briefly stopped speaking and closed his eyes, probably due to the pain from his wounds, before opening his eyes again and resuming. “In fact, the only other person who could match Cadmus Smith in terms of intelligence was your father, Genius. There are a few mad genius supervillains out there, but none of them, I think, could be Mastermind.”

“But why?” I said. “Why would Cadmus Smith go to all of this trouble? Why take up the Mastermind identity and why create White Lightning? Does throwing me into jail have anything to do with this?”

“It may,” said Triplet. “I don’t know for sure. But I do know that Cadmus has always been something of a control freak. He’s always seen the superhero community outside of the G-Men as a threat to the United States. He is probably trying to control us.”

“Why?” I said.

“Because that way he can ‘protect’ the United States,” said Triplet. “It’s why he’s establishing a G-Men office on Hero Island, and it’s also why he will probably go after the INJ at some point, too.”

“It still doesn’t explain everything, though,” said Blizzard.

“Right,” said Triplet. “But that’s the best explanation I can come up with at the moment. There’s still a lot of facts I don’t have, so I will need to resume my investigation at some point in order to confirm my theory.”

“But not right now,” I said. “You need to rest and heal up.”

“I agree, but that’s a luxury I can’t afford at the moment,” said Triplet. “It won’t be long before the G-Men agents who tried to kill me will figure out where I am. If I stay here, I’ll definitely get killed, especially in my weakened state.”

“Then we can bring you with us,” said Blizzard. “I’m sure the INJ will help you.”

“No, they won’t,” said Triplet with a groan, probably from another spike of pain in his abdomen, based on how he grabbed it.

“What?” I said. “Why not?”

“Because one of my investigations put one of their members in jail a while back,” said Triplet. “Don’t think the Midnight Menace ever quite forgave me for that.”

I almost asked who that had been, but decided that it didn’t really matter. “Okay, but we can’t just abandon you. You’re in no shape to take care of yourself. We’ll bring you along anyway, and if anyone in the INJ objects or tries to harm you, they’ll have to go through me first.”

“Thanks,” said Triplet. “But I would just slow you all down. You should leave me here. I can take care of myself.”

“We will probably be moving slowly anyway in order to avoid being detected,” said Ivan with a shrug. “Carrying you around will likely not be that big of a problem.”

“I know,” said Triplet, “but …”

His voice trailed off. He was not looking at me, Ivan, or Blizzard anymore. Instead, he was looking straight ahead toward the open doorway, so I looked at it with him, wondering what he saw.

Standing in the open doorway was Rime. I had completely forgotten about him, though now that I thought about it, I didn’t know why he hadn’t come to help us with Triplet. Maybe he’d been in the bathroom or something.

But Triplet was staring at him like he’d just seen a ghost. His hands tightened around his blankets, like he wanted to throw something at him, but he didn’t move because of his injuries.

“Um …” I felt kind of awkward, like I should know what was going on. “Triplet, is there a …”

“So,” said Triplet, his voice more threatening than before. He was addressing Rime, who had not moved an inch from the doorway. “I didn’t know that you were one of Bolt’s fellow escapees, Rime.”

“I saw an opportunity and I went for it,” Rime said, his tone colder than the ice he created. “But I don’t think you’re going to be able to do much about it at the moment, considering you look like you just lost a wrestling match with a grizzly bear.”

“I don’t understand,” I said, looking from Triplet to Rime and back again. “You two know each other?”

“I was the one who put Rime in prison in the first place,” said Triplet, still without looking at me. “And I’m very shocked that you are working with him, Bolt, given his history.”

“I know he’s a criminal, but he helped me escape,” I said. “I’m not saying I support whatever he did, but—”

“No, I mean his history with you,” said Triplet. “Or with one of your friends, at least.”

“What?” I said. “What do you mean?”

Triplet looked up at me, a serious look on his face. “The reason Rime was put in prison … and the reason I was hired to investigate him in the first place … is because he is the murderer of George Reynolds, the father of your friend Tara Reynolds.”