Mercury Man Read online

  “Yeah? So what happened?” Zak bounced in his chair; he seemed ready to shake the news from him.

  “Tell us!” Miranda said.

  “To begin with, Tarn’s out! He’s leaving for Switzerland tonight.”

  The room erupted in a roar. Miranda squeezed Tom’s hand. He raised it to his lips and kissed it. Then, half in embarrassment, he jumped up and did a kind of tap dance on the concrete floor.

  When things settled down again, Jack told them, “We shouldn’t be so ecstatic. That fellow’s escaped and he’s dangerous. Who knows who’ll fund him the next time? All the same, we’ve got Binkley, and he’s being very cooperative. He just brushed off the break-in, which is pretty good news. No question of reporting it to the police. He even made a joke about comic book heroes and said Fabricon could never hold a guy like Tom. Anyway, he wants to talk compensation for you, Paul, and for Miranda. He said he feared a grave injustice had been done. He referred to a generous compensation, in fact.”

  Paul laughed shortly. Zak said, “Damned right!”

  “That’s just wonderful,” Karen Blake said. She hugged Paul and her father and kissed Miranda, then stood holding Tom’s hand. They all waited as Jack continued.

  “Binkley promised that all Fabricon programs would be re-evaluated, and if any irregularities were found things would be fixed and people would be compensated. As I read it, that’s company jargon that really means: ‘I know we screwed up and we’re going to fix it!’”

  “That means the kids will learn the truth,” Tom said. “They’ve got to be compensated, too. Listen, Grandpa! I saw their secret room. I broke in there. Binkley must have known. I want to talk to the lawyer before they destroy the evidence!”

  “Don’t worry, Tom,” Paul reassured him. “There’s plenty of evidence on that cylinder I lifted from them! And the hard files — which they probably will be too scared to destroy now — even show several models of the kids’ brain charts. The whole process is there. And some very incriminating memos from Binkley. I suspect we’ll be getting him tossed out of Fabricon as well!”

  “Well, he’s already covering his ass.” Jack laughed. “Binkley told me that the idea of unmonitored genetic experiments was abhorrent to him. He actually used the word abhorrent. More company jargon, but I think we can feel good about the result.”

  “It won’t do him any good,” Paul said. He seemed subdued and didn’t look at any of them. “I’ve got the files and Tarn knew he was finished. All that playing around to try to stop us — bringing in your father, Tom — it meant nothing once we got the files. And now they’ll have to come through. They’ll have to make good on this.”

  “I don’t think there’s any question about it,” Jack said. “Binkley even mentioned something like scholarships for Tom and Miranda. That lawyer you put me on to is going to see their lawyers tomorrow. He thinks we have them by the — He thinks they’re over a barrel, all right.”

  Paul Daniel laughed grimly. “We’ll have to get guarantees. They’ll be lucky to keep the company afloat after this. They might all be in jail — where they belong — or the company may be totally discredited. But maybe the good people in the corporation — if any turn up — can get rid of the rats without sinking the ship, if you see what I mean, Jack.”

  “That’s what will surely happen!” Zak told them. “Fabricon is worth saving, and it’ll be worth millions to us when they do save it. We can set up the park again. We can all work together on it! Marvin would have loved this — and my own Mary. We’ll finally be in business again! Hell, if we had an artist, we could even begin another series of comics — a new Mercury Man.”

  “You do have an artist,” Jack announced. “From what I’ve seen you’ve got a very good artist. I’ll leave you to guess who it is.”

  “Grandpa!” Tom got up and paced across the floor.

  “Mercury Man and Tom Strong!” Jack crowed. “I think I’ll have another beer. I want to toast the big heroes of the day. And the heroes of the future.”

  Tom fetched the beer for his grandfather. Jack raised his glass and smiled. Tom noticed that his mother was in close conversation with Paul Daniel. He had to admit that they looked awfully good together.

  Miranda had noticed it, too, and she smiled at him.

  “We have to go find the kids,” Tom told her. “Grandpa will get in touch with them and their parents, but we should see them right away.”

  Miranda nodded and led the way quietly out of the bunker.

  The tunnel was silent, strange. They nuzzled close, making slow progress, but following the tracks along through the half-darkness. They seemed to float along together. Tom felt as if his body and soul were dissolving in pure happiness.

  They came at last to a passageway, dimly lit by a small red sign that said: “EXIT.”

  There was an elevator. Miranda pressed the button and it clanked down the shaft to them. The doors opened and they entered. As they rode up, Miranda said, “Please give me back the ring now.”

  He looked at her in astonishment. She spoke slowly and carefully, but every word was clear.

  He contemplated his ragged costume, thinking how bedraggled and foolish he looked. One glove was gone, along with his mask, while his jersey was torn and blackened with dirt from his experience in the venting shafts. Tom Strong hadn’t done much! His father had saved him by bluffing his way out, and Tarn had simply disappeared. He didn’t feel like much of a hero after all. Even so …

  “Give you back the ring? But why, Miranda?” he pleaded with her. “I mean … I don’t ever want to give it up.”

  She smiled. “You don’t need the ring now. You’ve got me. I’ll give it back to you if I ever think you need it.”

  Tom looked at her doubtfully, hesitated, then worked the ring off his finger and gave it to her. He was stunned. “I guess I’m not Tom Strong any more,” he said, feeling more than a little crestfallen.

  But Miranda stroked his cheek and said, “You are Tom Strong — and Mercury Man, too!” She kissed him until he shivered with joy. “You’ve always been Tom Strong — you just didn’t know it.”

  The elevator doors opened. They were in another tunnel, but clearly no longer underground. Miranda led the way to the actual exit. In a few minutes they stood in Harbour Street, beside the dilapidated shed and next to Mercury House, where so many things were about to change.

  Night had fallen over West Hope. A few early stars were visible, not quite extinguished by the lights of Fabricon, towering above the other buildings.

  Then a Siamese cat appeared, crawling out from under an overturned wheelbarrow and into the lighted space beside them. He waited patiently while Tom and Miranda bent down together to stroke him. But after a while he crept away, gazing back at them only once with his enigmatic blue eyes.