Wes wondered how long they had watched the paper to grab him. That took some

  patience. He supposed that they had known he had escaped and survived to finish the

  job. And they knew he was a reporter. Linking him to either paper would have been

  easy to anyone who knew who to call.

  The fact they had taken Marsden the same way had not escaped his mind. He

  wondered about that. He pulled on his clothes off the road and looked around for a

  place he could hide until he could sneak away.

  He didn’t like the fact that they waited for him. He thought they had known he was

  going to be at the paper. If they had, someone had told them he was going to be there.

  Could Clancy have sold him out?

  He thought about it as he marched across the countryside. Had Clancy sold him out?

  Had he sold out Marsden?

  There was a way to test the theory. It was simple and direct. If he was right, he didn’t

  know what he would do about it. He wasn’t much of a vigilante. Dropping people off

  a building seemed too much like work.

  He wondered if Clancy had put any extra money in his bank. That should be easy to

  check with his skills.

  Everything was starting to be computerized. Banks were investing millions to switch

  their old record books to networks that could be reviewed instantly. He doubted they

  could keep someone like him out.

  All he needed was where Clancy banked, and what his file number was. Then he

  could just ask at the bank for the account statement. He doubted he could steal the

  passbook from Clancy since he didn’t know where the editor kept it.

  But he did know that Clancy kept his checkbook at the paper in his desk. All he had

  to do was get inside and get a check from it. The rest would follow from that simple

  move.

  He paused as he contemplated what he was thinking. He had made a bad move

  breaking into Delveccio’s place and stealing his ledgers for the evidence he needed.

  Now he was thinking about doing the same thing to one of his managers on the

  suspicion that the guy had tried to get him killed because he was a mole.

  He had no proof that Clancy had done anything. He might be letting paranoia run

  away with him.

  Did his new condition lend itself to being paranoid? He might be cracking up.

  And what did he do if Clancy was crooked?

  First he had to know for himself. He could look at the bank records. He could call

  Clancy and tell him he was free to move, and wait to see what happened. He could

  tell Clancy that he was at his place, and wait to see if goons showed up.

  He liked that. It was simple. And if they showed up, he knew Clancy was involved.

  He didn’t know what he would do if he did confirm things. He wasn’t particularly

  violent, so he didn’t want to beat the editor while he was calm and thinking. That

  might change if he got angry enough.

  The first thing was proving his suspicions. He might be wrong. It might still be bad

  luck that goons showed up the same time as he was arriving to deliver his story. They

  might have been watching the building.

  Wes looked around. A piece of civilization was ahead. If they had a phone, he would

  be able to call Clancy and tell him he was okay. He could fly to his place and wait for

  the goons to show up to pick him up.

  He had to figure out where he was before he made any calls. He didn’t want to give

  the goons any clue where he had gone when they found the trunk was empty.

  He had to fly home and set up before they showed up. He could watch them looking

  for him while he thought of his next move. He doubted he could call the police on

  anyone. It was a thought.

  Wes found a road sign that told him he was ten miles out of the city. He nodded. Now

  all he needed to do was make the phone call and see what happened. He also had to

  consider that the phones at the paper were bugged. He didn’t know what to do about

  that, but it could clear Clancy if he could find them in the phones, or buried anywhere

  else in the office.

  Once he called, he would know in a few hours if someone was handing Delveccio

  information from the paper.

  He didn’t know if Clancy was involved, but barring someone else knowing about him

  getting to the paper and a hidden mike, it was the only explanation for what had

  happened. He could test that too.

  He just needed Clancy to pretend to call from a phone not at the paper.

  How hard could that be?

  Would Clancy figure out he was being tested with this scheme? That was the spot he

  didn’t know. It all depended on how stupid they thought he was.

  They would think he was really stupid if he fell for the same scheme again.

  So he had three real options. Delveccio had someone other than Clancy in the

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  newsroom giving him information. Or, Clancy had sold him out with a phone call. Or,

  they had watched the building until he had shown up and took him to do the things

  they wanted to get the stolen records back.

  He doubted he would look the same after they were done with him.

  He believed he would have wound up at sea like Marsden with more injuries from the

  beating he would have taken.

  He decided to call Clancy from home to make his call more authentic. If anyone

  traced the call, they would see the call came from his apartment.

  He flew home in his flat form. He let himself in with a spare key he had hidden in a

  gap behind the outside light. He looked around at the row of tiny cabins pushed

  together. He didn’t see anyone watching the place and he was happy about that.

  Time to go to work, Wes. Once you know one thing, you can ask about others.

  Stealing the ledgers without telling anyone had been a good idea if there was

  someone on the paper telling Delveccio who was investigating him.

  He hoped he was wrong. He didn’t want Clancy to be calling the mob on him. He

  wanted to hand in his story and move on to the next. And he had no idea what he was

  going to do if Delveccio’s mob showed up at his place.

  He would have to have words with Clancy if that happened. He doubted he could

  commit violence on the man. It had been a long time since he had tried to hurt

  someone intentionally.

  Maybe he should think about turning the ledgers over to the police, or the Feds. He

  doubted the locals would do anything, but maybe he could get someone to look at the

  operation and draw some of the heat off himself.

  He reached for his phone. He needed to make this call before he chickened out. Then

  he could make his next move to try to get out from under with his skin intact.

  If Delveccio’s men showed up, it showed that he couldn’t trust the paper to help him

  out of his problem. He would have to think of some way to get the mobster off his

  back that didn’t involve being filled with holes and set on fire.

  He called the newspaper and asked the switchboard to connect him with Clancy’s

  desk. The night editor instantly answered the phone.

  “I had some problems coming in with my story,” said Wes. He moved to keep an eye

  out one window while he talked. “I am at my place getting some clothes together. I

  am going to have to take off for a while until the heat goes down. I’ll let you know

  when I get back in town.”

  “What do I tell the boss?,” said Clancy. “We were counting on that story.”

  “I’m going to leave it and the ledgers in the bedroom closet of my house,” said Wes.

  He went to the closet and took the clothes out of it and bundled them in a bag to take

  back to the hotel. “I’ll leave the door unlocked for you.”

  He placed the bag next to the door. No one was outside yet. The longer he waited, the

  more likely he would run into Delveccio’s stooges. He needed to get somewhere he

  could watch the door without being seen.

  “I have to go, Clancy,” said Wes. “I will call when I am back in town.”

  He took his bag and flew over to the roof of another set of row houses across the

  street. He laid down to keep his outline out of sight as much as possible. He wanted

  them to go in without figuring that he was waiting on them to show up.

  Wes watched his watch as he waited. He planned to give the goons a couple of hours

  before he headed back to his borrowed room at the hotel. Either Clancy, or someone

  close to him, told Delveccio where he was, or they didn’t. He wasn’t going to wait

  around all night to see which it was.

  He really hoped Clancy showed up to get the story in person. Then he could watch

  what happened without any problem. The most likeliest thing to happen if he did

  show up, was he left with the box of shoes. The rest would be making sure he went

  back to the paper and opened the box.

  That was the only way to make sure Clancy hadn’t tried to get him killed.

  Tracking the leak if he could clear Clancy would be a small problem, but it could be

  doable with the right bait.

  He couldn’t string any inside man along for long before he became suspicious that

  someone was suspicious of him. Then he would bail and let know Delveccio know

  he was blown.

  Two cars rolled up outside of his house. He recognized some of the men who got out

  and started for the front and back doors of his place. It looked like Clancy had turned

  him in.

  He should have known he couldn’t trust the night editor. What did he do now?

  How many other papers did Delveccio have his fingers into? What happened if he

  approached someone else with what he had?

  He needed to think about going full on vigilante. He couldn’t let Delveccio hunt him

  across the city. He had to turn things around. He couldn’t run forever.

  He had to get to his room and stow his baggage. He needed to make sure that his

  registration was still legitimate as far as that goes. He had to fix things if it wasn’t.

  Then he had to get something to eat and think of how to get out from under.

  He had not ever thought things would go this way. He had thought reporting was the

  way that he could change the world for the better. He had never thought that he would

  have to put on a mask to protect himself.

  He needed to think about how he wanted to go ahead to deal with Delveccio.

  He definitely wasn’t going to be able to do anything through the system.

  He decided that going down there and busting those guys up for breaking into his

  place would get him nothing. He might have a small twinge of satisfaction but he

  would still have the same problem. He was on the run from a criminal chief who

  wanted him dead and he had no way of fixing that except by doing something like

  drowning him in the ocean.

  He wasn’t ready to do that yet.

  He needed clothes he could wear when he was flat. He needed another permanent

  place to stay. Eventually someone would get wise to the hotel dodge. When that

  happened, he was out of a base of operations. And he needed a way to get Delveccio

  to confess to his crimes so the mob boss would be off his back.

  He had no idea on how to do that. He needed ideas and he had no one to talk to about

  this. He needed to look into what other masked men did if he wanted to be one

  himself.

  He couldn’t use the newspaper morgue. Clancy would call the mob on him as soon

  as he showed his face. He decided that he could use the library to do what he needed

  to do.

  Old papers were kept for a bit, and there was a microfiche

  reader with older prints than that. He could read up on other masked men and see

  what kind of methods he could use to help himself out.

  He would have talked to Mister Robot, but the adventurer had been killed with his

  team of allies years ago. No one knew what had happened to Animal Boy, or if he

  was still around.

  The Mark had vanished from the spotlight. Wes had no way to call him, or anyone

  based out of the East Coast.

  The closest active hero to him was the Rockets. There had been talk that the second

  one was moving east to join a team, but no one knew for sure.

  He made a note to look for a way to call either one. Maybe they could give him

  pointers, or point him in the direction of someone who could help him.

  That would be better than flailing around waiting to be caught out in the public

  and shot dead before he could use the tattoo to heal his wounds with the

  transformation.

  Wes transformed and flew off into the night. He still had things to do.