No Master Plan Here (Madness Runs in the Family) by Joel Burdick Read Free Book Online Page B

definite reaction to his touch. Anansi sighed again and muttered to himself before waving over his shoulder to the woman, off once again to find the shower he was desiring.
     
    -~-~-
     
                  Denise watched Anansi leave, the tiredness in his stance as he walked, dampening but not hiding the arrogant confidence of the supervillain. Once he was out of sight two hallways down, she allowed her form to return to natural, shedding the Asian features and skin tone like water at a thought, instantly growing an inch and trading the pudgy figure for her muscular form, pale skin for darker. She watched the hallway with confused thoughts playing about in her mind.
                  “He didn't recognize me.”
                  She made a mental note to test the development a couple more times, but if Anansi no longer could see through her disguises, it would mean she would be able to participate in the mission as opposed to just overseeing it, and that was preferable. Easier to keep a handle on things that she was near than just getting reports of.
                  She smiled, turned, and walked back to the cafeteria for another cup of coffee, a noticeable spring in her step.
     
     

    Chapter 5
     
                  June 11, 2017
     
                  Anansi watched out the window of the helicopter as they flew above the Sierra Nevada Mountains, a childish grin on his face as he stared at the forests and peaks below. Beside him sat Agent Ruthers, arms crossed and eyes shut, across from him sat Agent Lopez, a burly Latino who moved little and spoke less, and beside Lopez sat the Asian agent he had run into in the hallway, who had eventually introduced herself as Uso. Over the past several days he had seen her numerous times around the SHIP base, which was a high-tech submarine that served as a mobile command and containment center for the superhuman branch of the United States government. Anansi had shared the joke of SHIP on a ship with the agents, but none of them had found it as funny as he had.
                  Anansi had explored the submarine wherever he had been allowed to go, avoiding the restricted areas because his curiosity could have gotten the better of him and annoying his captors/co-conspirators would probably be a bad thing this early on in the collaboration. They had allowed him access to their armory, which was filled with the best Maker gear the government would buy, most of them bearing the mark of the company Blue Steel, Inc., which belonged to his sister and was occasionally supplied blueprints by him. Agent Lopez had looked at Anansi funny when he started laughing hysterically. Anansi hadn't told him what was so funny.
                  While their armory was good, it wasn't as good as his, which led to a request that sent the three agents and the villain in a helicopter ride over the mountains.
                  Thus far, he had figured Lopez for a Bruiser type, strong and near invulnerable, Ruthers for a Blaster, probably capable of blasting electricity from her hands, and Uso for a low level Works, but as none of them had actually demonstrated their powers and nobody let him get anywhere near a computer without supervision, he was restricted to guessing and not downloading the agency's files for future reference.
                  Anansi didn't mind. He was used to dealing with unknown factors.
                  Ruthers waved to get Anansi's attention, then activated the microphone on the oversized headphones he wore. “Where are we going, exactly?” the agent said, her voice garbled slightly by the noise canceling software in the cabin intercom. Anansi smiled as his mind went off on a tangent, playing with an idea to fix the problem. It would probably take him all of ten minutes with the computer to write the program, as if they would let him have a look.