The Indestructibles (Book 2): Breakout by Matthew Phillion Page B

up!"
          "Dude?"
          Hit the door, Billy Case.
          Billy slammed his shoulder into the door and his signature blue-white light flickered, alien energy redirected to the impact site. The door snapped easily off its hinges. Emily, without thinking, expelled a hand gesture and the door stopped falling. She floated it gently to the floor.
          "I do this like we didn't just break his door," Emily said. "Oh, let me place the door we just kicked down on the floor nicely, because we're polite."
          The dark apartment was small, modest, tidy, with stacks of books and dark, aging furniture. The photos on the wall were of a younger Sam and a woman — his wife, Billy thought, he said she'd passed away but he never told them much about her — smiling back at them from vacations on Cape Cod, in Paris, in the Florida Keys.
          "This is where he lives?" Emily said. "It's so . . ."
          "Lonely," Billy said.
          "It is. Why didn't he come live with us?"
          Billy picked up a coffee cup on the tiny table in a small kitchenette. The surface of the coffee was oily and gritty, as if the cup had been sitting unfinished for days.
          "Em, check the bedroom." Billy said. Billy pushed open the bathroom door. Please don't let me find him on the floor, Dude. Please.
          He is not here, Billy Case.
          Billy yanked aside the plain blue shower curtain to find the tub empty.
          "Billy!" Emily yelled.
          He went tearing through the apartment to the bedroom to find Emily standing by the nightstand, replaying a phone message.
          "Sam has a girlfriend!" she said. "Listen listen."
          Emily hit the play button again. The voice on the line sounded older, not nearly Sam's age but mature, and happy, and kind.
          "Where have you been, doll?" the woman on the line said. "Are we still on for dinner tomorrow? I'm worried about you. Give me a call and let me know you're okay? It's not like you to play mysterious. Love you."
          "Girlfriend!" Emily said. "Sam. Girlfriend. He's so old. I wonder if she's old too. She doesn't sound old. Maybe it's a May-December romance! Or September-December. He is bald. Also mustache."
          "Girlfriend who hasn't heard from him in a few days, Em," Billy said.
          "That too."
          "Carp."
          "Yeah. Where the heck is he?"
         

 
     
     
    Chapter 19:
    Breakout
         
         
          Where are you headed?" Jane asked, watching Kate walking out of the control center in full uniform.
          "I've got to do a street patrol. I've been negligent."
          "Right now?"
          "I'm the only one who does street-level patrolling. Someone has to do it."
          "I just mean," Jane said. "We've got clues about who or what is making these people sick. We need you here."
          Kate's mouth softened from a hard line into a gentle frown. She kept pace in direction of the landing bay, but then slowed to let Jane walk with her.
          "Let me do this," Kate said. "It'll clear my head. I'm no use to you all wound up."
          Jane nodded.
          "You want company?"
          Kate raised a quizzical eyebrow.
          "I just mean you've got a few people looking for you. I'm offering to watch your back."
          "No," Kate said. "No offense. Seriously. I just need a few hours alone. Maybe I'll come up with some way of figuring out this other thing if I can get some fresh air."
          They looked at each other for a minute, an awkward, uncomfortable silence, and then Jane smiled.
          "Watch your back," she said.
          "I always do."
          Kate hoped on one of the hoverbikes and took off. The dog, who had trotted down alongside them from the control room, barked at the bike and chased it a few feet until he realized he'd never catch it. Then Watson fixated on something behind Jane, one paw