Lafferty, Mur Read Online Free Page B

thick eyebrows, you clearly cheat your customers, and you’re just a hair above eating babies. When we got kicked out of the Academy, I knew you’d head toward villainy. Why do you think I stuck around so long? I’m protecting the world from Keepsie the villain!”
    Peter was familiar with this story. Keepsie and Michelle had met when they applied at the Academy on the same day ten years earlier. They had been rejected immediately after a quick test each, and had gone looking for a drink together. The closest bar had been two blocks away and was a hero-worship area, signed pictures all over the walls, an old costume of Pallas’s, and other memorabilia. They had decided then to start their own bar, close to the Academy, to cater to First and Third Wavers.
    Ian picked at a spot on his chin. “It’s a gray area. We’re not good or bad.
    It's not like hoping the good guys lose means you hope the bad guys win.”
    “Exactly!” shouted Keepsie, banging her hand on the bar and making them all jump. “That’s what I’m saying! Do I want this city run by Doodad and his little spidery things and smoke bombs and shit? No. But do I want these freaks to screw up the city and take all the credit and get a salary from my tax dollars? They can’t even give themselves reasonable hero names! I mean, White-fucking-Lightning? Come on!”
    “However,” Samantha said quietly, fixing her brown eyes calmly on Keepsie, “who says we can’t work apart from them? We can’t work with them as heroes, but why can’t we work for the same goals? And if we happen to trip them up in the meantime, well, then…” She grinned.
    “Who says we can’t do it?” Michelle said, staring at her. “Are you nuts?
    The government, that’s who. The cops do their jobs, the heroes do their jobs, and us proles go about our daily business and kiss their asses. Without a badge or a license, we’re vigilantes and rogues setting ourselves up to be arrested by people stronger than us. Everyone knows that, where the hell have you been?”
    Samantha's cheeks colored. “I wasn’t sure. I never registered with the Academy.” "Hey, really?” Ian asked.
    “Never.”
    “You know, I don't think I know what your talent is," Ian said, leaning unsteadily towards her.
    Samantha didn’t look up. Her hair obscured her face, and she muttered something low.
    “Sorry, I didn’t hear that,” Ian said. Samantha remained silent. “Look, Sam, I probably have the worst talent ever. You saw them when they looked at me. I make people sick when they see what I can do. What kind of talent is that for a good guy? Yours can’t be worse than mine.”
    “How old would you guys say I am?” Samantha asked, looking up and brushing her hair back. Gray streaks stood out against her curly brown hair and fine lines marked the soft skin around her eyes.
    “Oh, no, I’m not going there,” said Ian. “That’s up there with, ‘do I look fat?’”
    “All right, I’ll ask it another way. Do I look twenty-two?”
    Ian glanced at Peter who shook his head. “Um, no?” Ian said.
    “I’ll be twenty-two next week. My particular power comes with a rather strong curse. I can know anything, I’m fairly sure. But each piece of information costs me, I figure about a year off my life. When I was going to apply to the Academy, I decided it was worth it to use one of those years. I found out that if they had taken me, I would be dead of old age within a year.
    My information would be so useful that the cost to me would be acceptable in their eyes. I discovered my power when I was twelve, and I used it several times for stupid stuff - I won a lot of bets on sports games and elections -until I woke up one morning and discovered that my joints ached and my hair was gray.
    “No one else knows about my power except my parents. I just came here because it was a bar where the heroes didn’t hang out. Once I discovered what they would have done to me, I cancelled my plans to apply and have