Read Fearless Leader (Juxtapose City) for Free Online Page B

be taken seriously. It was a face that creased easily into an expression of frustration. There were so many things he could have done differently, so many ways he could have spared more lives. The thoughts took their toll on days like this. Black had to turn away.
    When he jogged downstairs he was met with a silence normally filled with the sounds of his teammates. The eerie quiet that met him now had pervaded the house for almost a week. This morning he hadn't the strength to break the silence on his own. He let himself out of the house without a sound.
    The air was crisp and redolent of smoke and the smell of burning leaves and wood. Fall was fast approaching but for now it was like any other early morning in Juxtapose City. A cold, harsh sun was slowly burning away the last traces of run-off fog from the bay. The air was still. He burst through the white clouds of his own breath as he began to run down the empty street of their neighborhood.
    Lucas used to complain that they lived in the ghetto.
    "For all the money they spend on our equipment you'd think they could afford to get us digs in a decent part of town," the agent had grumbled. He'd made the mistake of parking his electro-craft on the street and woken up the next morning to find it vandalized. "I mean, come on -- we're important ."
    It had been a hollow complaint, Black remembered. Private citizens provided JC2 with a housing arrangement to be envied. Yes, the buildings he currently ran past might have seen better days -- some were failing, all were old and had never been remodeled. But JC2's building had been discreetly renovated. It looked as old as its neighbors on the outside but inside the connecting wings had been gutted and customized to provide his team with everything they needed.
    Jumping a gutter and briefly skirting a sidewalk, Black wondered if Lucas would have been similarly disappointed with his funeral service scheduled for tomorrow. Having attended one such service already, Black knew it would be a simple affair with a quick speech attended by only a few higher-ranking officers in the department and the survivors of his team.
    Survivors. That's all that it came down to, didn't it? Whoever was left standing got to pick up the pieces and try to continue on. He didn't want to be the last one left.
    Don't think about it. Think about... Calyx Starr.
    It was a distraction that almost sent him stumbling over a hubcap that was lying on the side of the street. An empath for JC2... What was Captain Dickerson thinking? If Black allowed himself such indulgences he would say that Starr would end up being his personal albatross, his bane. But that was thinking foolishly. He told himself that nothing could bother him if he didn't want it to. It was all a matter of control: controlling Starr, controlling his own reactions to the empath. And, yes -- controlling the Bliss that he and the others would have to use when dealing with Starr. That last would be the most difficult.
    So difficult in fact, that if it had been any other person besides Dickerson demanding this Black would have told that person to take his empath and shove it. But this was Dickerson's game and Black was his star player. The man had done Black a favor no one else in this world would have done. Questioning when his debt to the older man would be repaid was a waste of time. Black rounded a street corner, picking up his pace. He could never satisfy that debt. Ever. Black owed Dickerson his life. Whatever Dickerson wanted of him, whatever the captain decided he wanted Black to do for him, Black would do it. It wasn't a question.
    He came to the two-mile stretch of street that was shadowed by the overhead tram that ran the length of Juxtapose City. He usually took note of the time at this point, setting personal goals each time he ran this circuit. Today he ignored his watch and simply ran as fast as he could, forgetting about pacing himself or the fact that there was another mile to go after he