Not Your Villain (Sidekick Squad #2)(57)
Jess and Abby share a glance, and Jess giggles.
Bells snorts. “Now you’ve got them thinking about each other, Em, great job.” He snaps his fingers. “Welcome back to reality where the rest of us live.”
“Right, right, Jess knows all this, but I technically… don’t exist. I mean, on paper I do, as Abby Jones, yeah, who exists just about as much as Barry Carmichael exists, right?” Abby points and grins at Bells.
“Okay, you’ve got a secret identity, but we all knew that, Miss I-Don’t-Want-To-Pick-A-Hero-Name-Yet,” Bells teases.
Abby’s face falls, and Bells instantly regrets his teasing. He guesses her reluctance to pick a name is mostly because her powers are gone.
She shrugs, deftly changing the subject. “I mean, the League knows that my mom and dad had a kid; they’ve known since I was born that I exist, but that’s all they know. They don’t know my name or what I look like.” Abby shrugs. “My parents wanted to hold all the cards for my future as a hero, you know.”
“Okay, but what’s stopping you from walking into Monroe Industries, other than your promise to your mom—” Emma starts off, scrunching her nose.
“How would she even know since she’s gone?” Bells says, rolling his eyes. He’s still frustrated that the adults just up and left to look for Abby’s dad without even asking their kids for help.
“Because Stone knows,” Jess says.
“Yeah, he was over for dinner once. My dad and he were pretty good friends until their differences about the purposes of the MonRobots,” Abby says sadly.
Emma’s mouth falls open and she gestures wildly. “Who? Is? Stone?”
“He’s on the board of directors at Monroe Industries,” Jess says. “Definitely in favor of militarizing the MonRobots when Phillip Monroe didn’t want to.” She looks at Abby, who doesn’t say anything but squeezes Jess’ hand. “He was the guy standing behind Abby’s dad during the speech.”
“Okay. So you can get into Monroe Industries as long as Stone doesn’t see you…” Bells says, thinking out loud. “Any other employees who could be a problem?”
“I pretty much worked on my own or with Jess, and Stone would check in with me from time to time to see Master Mischief’s progress,” Abby says. “I don’t think anyone else would have noticed that I’ve been gone for the last few months…” She scrunches up her face, clearly searching her memory for other employees who might have noticed her absence.
“So that’s easy,” Bells says. “You get in, get out, and, if you see Stone, run the other way.”
“Not so fast,” Brendan interrupts. “I need Abby here because she’s the only one of you who can code. I’m going to need her help writing the next program, and there are all these logs that need to be sorted manually…” Brendan gestures at the stacks of paper all over the table.
Bells stands up and squares his shoulders. “This looks like a job for Chameleon,” he says, winking at them while giving them his best heroic pose. Everyone laughs, but Emma’s eyes widen and she gives him an appreciative look, which fills Bells with confidence.
*
Monroe Industries is one of the tallest buildings downtown; it gleams silver against the skyline. As Abby, Bells walks right through the front doors, past the desk bots that scan his card and his face at the entrance.
“Welcome, Miss Jones,” the reception bot says evenly.
Bells tips his head at them; Abby’s red curls fall into his face. He walks quickly and finds the elevator as Abby instructed. She said her main computer in her old lab should have access to everything. Abby’s keycard beeps, granting him access to Abby’s locked lab floor. Everything is covered in a fine layer of dust. He relaxes back into his own form and looks around. Machines hum behind the second door on the right exactly as Abby said, and beyond that is a messy office with a computer tower that has multiple dataports. The projector is still on, showing a desktop background with a close-up photo of a mecha-suit.
Bells hums, tossing a datachip into the air and catching it playfully, happy to be doing something, anything, to get away from being a fifth wheel; happy to be doing something that resembles hero work.
He plugs the datachip into the console. Abby’s automatic program scans for the plans. Bells watches the lines of code flicker on the display, and then the program closes. He plucks out the datachip and places it in his pocket. He was hoping for a little action, this was too easy. Maybe he can find some clues about Master Mischief’s whereabouts.
Bells pokes around the lab, but it’s so disorganized, he has no idea where to start. The only area that seems in order is a cabinet full of files that contain the history of all the Mischiefs’ exploits, stolen artifacts, successful pranks, and the like.
Bells throws up his hands and turns around. A map on the wall shows the research department, production floor, various offices… Ah, so that’s where Stone’s office is.
He shifts back into Abby’s form, gets in the elevator, and presses the button for the seventeenth floor. On the map it looked as though Stone’s office was at the end of this hallway. Two people walk past him, but no one gives him a second glance. A cold chill rushes through him when he reaches the last office. Abby said to get in and get the files and get out, but surely seeing what Stone is up to is worth just an extra moment.