Super Thieves

Andrew

"It would really be unfortunate if any superheroes were on this flight," I mumbled, taking a seat next to Carter in our private room. It was almost an eight hour flight to Quebec. Hopefully that's enough time to plan out our next move.

"News reports are already buzzing about our most recent theft," Heather laughed as she scrolled through her tablet, "as of right now they think we're still in Seattle."

"You hacked into NSL systems?" I said with a slight roll of my eyes, "can you stay out of trouble for at least an hour?"

"I need to know what they're planning. We won't get very far if they beat us to the last piece and launch an ambush," she replied. Her eyes never broke contact with her tablet and she typed and scrolled with lightning speed.

"Do we know where the piece is located?" I asked.

"Some museum in Quebec City. And Black Ice's base is in Chicago," Carter answered, taking a sip of some of the soda the flight attendants left in the room for us.

"I don't care about securing the last piece, that's the easy part. I'm trying to figure out how the hell we're going to attack the nuke base and live," Heather chuckled.

Getting help from supers is out of the question. And mercs would be slaughtered in seconds, even if we hired the best ones around. We can't exactly sneak in and take everything we need. He's bound to have hired guards and other super villains patrolling the place, in addition to millions of security system. Even if Heather is able to shut everything down we wouldn't be able to get what we need before something kills us. We could destroy the last two pieces but that wouldn't stop the heroes from going to war.

"What is our plan to take on Black Ice exactly?" Carter chuckled.

"I am securing superhero reinforcements as we speak. They're going to meet us in Quebec," Heather answered simply.

"And what if they try to arrest us again?"

"I've encrypted that chip Glow Woman gave us. It's password protected now."

"How does that stop them?"

"One of two things. If they try to use the chip and input the wrong code, as million viruses will enter their computer system and start sending any and all files to the Deep Web. Alternatively, breaking the encryption will activate a fail safe that will cause whatever it's plugged into to overload and explode."

"You little devil," I laughed, "what does the chip even do?"

"It's the master control chip for the base. Without it, the majority of their systems are nonoperational," Heather replied with a very satisfied grin on her face, "so regardless, they have to plug that chip in and they have to unlock it."

Leave it to Heather to find a way to cover our backs. I don't feel like I've given her enough credit, she's saved us time and time again and all I do is yell at her for being reckless. She does sometimes rush into things without planning, or makes a mistake that suddenly throws us into danger. But so do I, and so does Carter. She's no worse than any of us.

"I'm going to go stretch my legs," Carter said as he left the private room and headed down the hallway into the rest of the plane. Heather and I sat in silence for a very long time, she was still typing away and focused as ever.

"Hey, Heather," I said quietly.

"What?" she replied without breaking focus.

"I'm sorry," I mumbled.

"What was that? You need to speak up?" she said. I could see a little smirk start to make it's way across her face.

"I'm sorry," I said again, much louder this time. Heather just finished typing and looked up at me with a small smile.

"I'm sorry too," she said.

"You were right. And I should've believed in you. But I couldn't bear the thought of something happening to you or Carter."

"Andrew, Carter and I almost left without you. And we could've made it to Quebec and back right now if we had. But Black Ice almost killed you, and I didn't want to leave you when I already almost lost you."

"You could've left me."

"If it were me or Carter in that hospital bed, would you have left?"

"No. I wouldn't."

Heather set her tablet down on the chair next to and moved over to me. I wrapped my arms around her and squeezed her tightly. Even after all of the fights, all of the disagreements, all the fantasies about leaving her abandoned on the side of the road, I still don't want to lose her. I love her as if she were my own daughter. And I guess she is in a way, even if I did kidnap her.

"You're a pretty smart kid," I laughed, releasing her from my embrace.

"We'd be dead by now if I were an idiot," she chuckled before her attention returned to her tablet.

This might be it for me. The last job. I don't know if I have what it takes to keep doing things like this and, as much as it sucks to admit, I'm getting up there. I'm not what I used to be, I'm not as strong or as fast. I'd be okay passing the mantle down to Heather. Maybe she'll turn our little operation into something much bigger.

But the future can wait. We have an artifact to find.