“Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing”
Gar Logan looked around the room again as the rest of the team assembled behind him. Vicky Winters, a reporter who’d threatened to expose a traitor, lay dead of a gunshot wound. Flamebird let out a cry and ran to the fireplace. “We’ve got a problem,” she said. “What?” Gar asked. Bette pointed. The blazing remains of the folder could just barely be seen. “Great,” Gar said. “So somebody wanted to cover this up.” “What now?” Tara asked. “Simple,” Vibe replied. “We head out and call the cops. They can take it from here.” Bette was rubbing her chin. “Wait a second. She wanted an interview, right?” ”That’s what she said,” Eagle said. “She must have been planning to do it in here,” Flamebird explained. “Everybody look around for a cable or a camera. I’m sure she wouldn’t have missed the chance to get this on film.” The team quickly fanned out around the room (although most kept their distance from Winters’s body. Finally Leonid stopped at a wall. “Bette!” he called. “Look at this.” Bette hurried over and saw that Leonid had discovered a cable that ran up the wall. “New,” she observed. She pulled a chair over and climbed up to peer into a small hole in the wall. She grabbed a flashlight from her belt and shone it into the hole. She was rewarded by the light reflecting off something made of glass. She jumped down and ran down the wall to a door. She tried to open it but it was locked. Bette frowned when she saw that there was something jammed in the lock. “Gar, could you-“ Bette started, motioning at the lock. ”No problem.” Gar changed into a spider and crawled under the door. A second later, the door swung open. Bette hurried in and discovered that the room was set up like a production room. Monitors showed different angles of the mansion, but Bette’s gaze was drawn immediately to one that had a wide-angle of the desk. “Run that tape back,” Bette said. Gar bent over the console and rewound the tape. Bette carefully watched as the image reversed. Finally she saw what she was looking for. ”There!” she yelled, pointing at the screen. Gar set the tape to play at normal speed. Bette watched as the butler walked into the room, pulled out a revolver, and shot Vicky at point-blank range. “So that’s it,” Jason said. He’d pulled his helmet off and set it down on a table safely away from the blood-splattered desk. “We’ve just got to find the butler.” ”Okay,” Gar said. “We’ll have to go Scooby-Doo on this. We’ll split up and explore the house. Whoever finds the butler, don’t try and fight him. Just call the rest of us and we’ll handle it. ”As far as teams, I’ll go with Tara. Mal, you and Karen. Bette and Paco. That leaves Jason and Leo. Let’s go.” “Now this is just great,” Jason said as he and Leonid walked through the abandoned mansion. “You’d think that the rest of the house could have been kept up like what we saw.” Leonid frowned as he opened another door and looked into an empty room. “This entire evening has been too much of a production for my tastes. I do not enjoy being thrown on a stage by a complete stranger.” ”That’s it,” Jason said. “I’d had a funny feeling all night. Everything’s just been a big production and nothing’s been real. Do you think-“ ”Nyet,” Leonid said, cutting him off. “I served in the Russian military. I have seen bullet wounds. That was real and that woman was dead.” “Man,” Jason said. “This is nuts.” ”Da,” was Leonid’s only response. Miles away, a door slid open in an abandoned warehouse. It had been registered under the name of Farr Industries, a dummy corporation that would hold up under passing scrutiny. Mark Dayton slowly walked into the dust-free room and the door hissed shut behind him. He smiled as he saw that nothing in the room had been touched. He pressed a button and a tabletop scrolled back. Inside, in perfect condition, lay what he wanted. He slowly reached out a hand to touch the cold blue metal of the helmet. Mento was back. “Are you sure?” Mal asked as he and Karen searched a hall in the darkened mansion. “I think so,” Karen said. “Talking with Donna really helped me.*” (*Arsenal #7 – db) “If you’re sure,” Mal said as he took her hand and squeezed it. “You know whatever you decide…” ”I know,” Karen said. “Now all I have to do is get up the courage to tell the others.” Paco and Bette crept into a room and looked around. The floor was covered in dust. ”No one’s been here,” Bette observed. “Great,” Vibe said as he dropped onto an old mattress. “Nothing I love more than exploring dusty old empty houses.” He thought a moment. “How do we even know that butler’s still here?” “That’s what we’re looking at,” Bette said. “If he’s gone he would have broken a window. Vicky Winters said that all the doors were locked and she implied that she had the only key.” ”Do we know he didn’t take the key?” ”Yes. I watched the tape, remember? He shot her and then left. Nobody else went near her until we all came in.” “Great. So we’re trapped in here with a nut with a gun.” Bette smiled a sarcastic smile. “What? Is it your first time?” In another room, a sleeper awakes. The shadowy figure glanced at a clock and grunted. Where was Vicky? Shouldn’t this ordeal be over yet? With a sigh, the figure settled back into the comfortable chair. Maybe it was just taking a little longer than expected. Five more minutes, the sleeper decided. Then I’m going to see what’s going on. “This is certainly romantic,” Tara said dryly as she and Gar walked through a ballroom. “Hey, it’s got to get better,” he said. “After all, before too much longer, you’ll be walking down a certain aisle.” “And all that’ll be on the end of it is you,” Tara said with a smile. “Hardy har har. Can we find the butler, please?” Upstairs, Bette and Vibe had entered another room. “Hey, the bed’s still here!” Paco yelled as he hopped on the bed. Clouds of dust billowed up where he landed. “Cute,” Bette said as she swept her flashlight around the room, looking for evidence that someone had been in there. A moment later, Paco was at Bette’s side, sweeping her hair back, and kissing the side of her neck. “Come on, babe,” he whispered. “Just a few minutes.” Gar and Tara stepped into the kitchen. “Gar!” Tara whispered as she pointed at a black shoe that was sticking out from behind a counter. Gar frowned as he stepped forward. The beam from the flashlight followed up to dark pants and a jacket. “Great,” he said. “Not only do we have a murderer running around, but he’s naked, too.” Tara frowned. “Just what I wanted to hear.” She turned and opened the walk-in freezer. She screamed as a naked, dead butler fell out on top of her. Bette tried to push Paco off her as they bent over the bed. “Stop,” she whispered. “We need to find the killer.” ”Who cares?” Paco whispered in her ear. “I’ve got all I need right here.” “Paco, I’m serious!” Bette started to squirm, trying to find a way out. “Let me up.” ”Sorry, babe,” Paco said with a smile. “That train’s left the station.” Bette struck at him. Her fingernail scratched his forehead. Bette screamed as she realized that a chunk of rubber was under her nail. “Bad move, babe,” `Vibe’ said as he backhanded her. He backed away and pulled a pistol out of his jacket. “I was going to give you the time of your life before I did this.” He cocked the hammer. “But you just decided to skip the fun part.” ”Get away from her!” the shadowy figure jumped into the light, revealing itself as Vibe. Vibe raised his hands and sent shockwaves into the imposter, blowing him out the window. Vibe ran to the window and looked down. “He’s gone,” he said as he offered Bette a hand to help her up. “You okay?” Tears were running down Bette’s face as she pulled him close. “I am now.” The next day, after squaring away a great deal of paperwork with the police, the Titans West sat around their meeting table. “So we’ve had that guy running around with us ever since the Brotherhood caught us?” Jason asked. “That’s insane.” “I can’t believe that none of us caught the switch,” Karen said. “Whoever he was, he was good.” “I did have some suspicions,” Gar admitted, “but it just never clicked.” “Check this out,” Vibe said as he threw a screamer at the Chameleon Boy clone that Tara was trying to encase in an earthen cage. “Something about the sonics puts `em to sleep!” Why doesn’t he just use his powers, then? Gar wondered. Then another Chameleon clone was on him and he turned his attention to the battle.* (*It happened in TW #37 – db) “I can’t believe I didn’t put two and two together,” Gar fumed. “I should have seen it.” ”It wasn’t too bad,” Paco said. “At least from what I can remember. They kept me pretty drugged.” ”How’d you get out?” Bette asked. “That Winters chick,” he replied. “She paid off the guards.” Meanwhile, Red Star was barely listening to any of what was being said. His sources in Russia had gotten him an important message. They were coming… Next Issue: Mento’s back! Or is he? Previous Issue | Next Issue |
