An Ex-Heroes Collection by Peter Clines

Author:Peter Clines [Clines, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780451496553
Publisher: Crown/Archetype
Published: 2016-02-02T05:00:00+00:00

“DO YOU BELIEVE him?”

St. George shrugged and set another tomato on the cutting board. “Not really. I mean, he was doing it again when I walked in.”

Stealth gave a faint nod. “I have seen him go through the motions of conversations three times this past week alone. There was no evidence of another speaker.”

“Did you check to see if he was talking to someone on the radio?”

“I did,” she said. She carried a stack of plates and bowls to the table. She balanced them on one hand and held the silverware in the other. “I checked five months ago when his behavior patterns could no longer be denied.”

“What?” The knife slipped to the side and grated against his finger. It ruined the edge of the blade. He glanced from the knife to Stealth and back. “Why didn’t you say something?”

“I knew the answer would upset you. And there is currently nothing we can do about it.”

He pulled another knife from the block on the counter and attacked the last tomato again. “And the answer is …?”

Stealth did something quick with her left arm and a single plate slid onto the table in front of a chair. “He is not talking to anyone, George. I monitor all broadcast communications within the Mount, and many beyond it. There have been no radio conversations that match up with the ones he is having. I have checked during sixteen separate incidents since then. He is not communicating with anyone.”

St. George stopped dicing. “What does that mean?”

She didn’t meet his eyes. “It means he is talking to himself. Under normal circumstances, this would be seen as a sign of several possible personality disorders. Chronic anxiety. Dementia. Schizophrenia.”

His eyes fell to the cutting board and he was quiet for a moment. Then he looked at her again. “Under normal circumstances?”

Another plate slid onto the table from the stack in her hand. She framed it with silverware. “It is worth noting that Zzzap speaks to himself,” she said, setting down a spoon. “Barry does not.”

“Are you sure?”

“I cannot say conclusively. The majority of his time is spent as Zzzap, and most of his time in his human form is spent sleeping. However, in five months of observation I have never seen Barry speak to himself.”

“So it’s something about being Zzzap that’s doing this to him.”

“Perhaps. Or something he is only susceptible to in his energy form.”

St. George glanced at the door. He lifted the cutting board and used the knife to sweep the diced tomatoes into the pot. “So what do we do?”

She assembled the final place setting. “I do not know,” she admitted. “We have converted many buildings to solar power, but Zzzap still supplies half the electricity within the Big Wall. It would be a major setback if we decided he was unable to do this.”

“You think it’s that bad? We couldn’t even keep him in the chair?”

Stealth sighed and looked at him. “While Zzzap has often referred to himself as a small star, the

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