The Wraith: Danger Close (Superhero by Night Book 4) Read online

  Wraith: DANGER CLOSE

  SUPERHERO BY NIGHT BOOK 4

  JEFFERY H. HASKELL

  Wraith: Dange Close © 2019

  by Jeffery H. Haskell. All Rights Reserved.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

  Cover designed by www.vividcovers.com

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Jeffery H. Haskell

  Visit my website at www.jefferyhhaskell.com

  Printed in the United States of America

  First Printing: Aug 2019

  Molten Press

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  PREFACE

  What has come before...

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  EPILOGUE

  PREFACE

  I’m doing something a little different here. I wrote this book, and to some extent, Arsenal Reloaded, at a Chic-Fil-A in Nampa Idaho. Most places I go are only concerned about getting out as fast as possible so that they can seat more people. Writing at Chic is like writing at home if I had a personal assistant who would come to my room and refill my drink. From 6:30 am when they open, until noon, when I leave, I never have to get up get a drink. They are always super polite and friendly. They ask how my book is going and they do a really great job of making me feel welcome. To the staff there, I say thank you. You make my job easier by being exceptional at yours. Working at a fast food place ain’t glorious, but they sure make it look like it is.

  All the best,

  -Jeff

  What has come before...

  As told by Krisan Swahili, famous writer, Pulitzer award-winning reporter, and all-around perfect woman...

  Okay, maybe that last bit is a stretch. However, Madi told me I could tell her story one day, and that day is here. Through this blog, I will catch people up on what is happening with the Wraith, from her painful beginnings to the bitter end.

  After all, there’s only one way this story ends for Madisun Dumas, but let’s not dwell on that.

  Madisun is a former fashion model who lost her job at the tender age of 27. She returned home to New Orleans, a city she hated to visit because it is where her twin brother died. She had been home less than a day when her ex-husband and a superpowered gang murdered her entire family and left her for dead.

  After six months in a coma, she awoke to find her whole family had been “killed in a Thanksgiving day fire.” Accodring to the authoriteis it was a tragedy, but not murder. Madi knew that the would come for her next, so she ran. She fled to the only other place she realy knew, New York, only to have assassins dog her trail. She finally met an FBI agent who belived her… only to have him murdered in front of her.

  It was then, Madi realized there would be no justice. Not even for her little sister whom she loved more than anything else, and who had died in her arms. So she did the only thing she could think of to do, she ran, heading west for a place she had never been before, hoping to lose herself in the wide open spaces of the west and try to live some semblance of a life.

  Then she read an article I had written about Detroit's very own costumed vigilante, The Wraith. She went there hoping to find him and have him take down ISO-1, but he couldn’t be that guy anymore. He was done killing.

  Instead, he ended up training her. The Army’s basic training that turns boys into soldiers over three months has nothing on what she went through; brutal, grueling, intense training that he made as hard as possible. He held nothing back... and she passed every test.

  About the time time her training was complete ISO-1 decided I was writing to many exposés, they came for me, lucky for me I had a guardian angel. During the fight, the man who killed Madi’s sister showed up. He and Madi fought and even though he had superpowers, she managed to kill him. It was pretty amazing. However, it cost her everything.

  What I didn’t know at the time was that Joseph, the original Wraith, had an entity in him… something that fed off killing. It transferred from him into Madi and saved her life.

  She was the new Wraith.

  And oh my freaking god was she good at it.

  In two nights she wiped out the biggest drug running, human trafficking gang in Detroit. I’m telling you, she is an artist and her art is death.

  Once she was ready, she returned home to New Orleans for her long-awaited justice. It wasn’t easy. ISO-1 had a big plan to kill The Saints, New Orleans’ super team. They had an angelic hero on the team that kept the team who’s superpower prevented any kind of mindcontrol and would reveal corruption. Since ISO-1’s M.O. is to blackmail, bribe, and threaten everything, they couldn’t let that stand. Too bad for them, Madi was in town and she killed every one of them. In the end, she gave her ex-husband a choice; side with her or betray her. He betrayed her and in doing so, caused his own death.

  Before she left town she killed the flaming woman, El Fuego, who had burned Madi’s mom alive and their house to the ground. I don’t always agree with my friend’s methods, but it isn’t my job to judge her. I’m a reporter, but killing a woman in front of her parents... that was brutal. Justice without the temper of mercy. That’s Madi to a tee. No mercy.

  After that, we headed for the fabulous crime-infested country and city of Belize. There Madi got their attention by killing a night club full of low-level thugs. During her time in the city, she learned that ISO-1 had put a bounty out on her and also used its contacts in the US Government to move her to the top of the FBI’s most-wanted list

  She found out from a black market contact about an island where they shipped girls. She went there and killed all of them and sent the girls toward the US on a stolen cargo ship. From there, she found out about a “hospital” where they were shipping about a third of the abducted girls.

  It turns out they were experimenting on them in some ugly, genetic mix of alien and human DNA. They made creatures that were straight out of nightmares. Madi fought and killed them all, and in the end, blew the facility to smithereens. On a side note, I learned that my superpower also could be used to read computers, not just phones. Very cool.

  Madi returned to Belize with an ‘old friend’ she met in the hospital, but, she knew it wasn’t her friend but a shapeshifter. The shifter led her into a trap, which was exactly what Madi wanted. She killed the public head of ISO-1 and made the shifter turn herself in as ‘Madi’ to the police so we could continue our crusade unmolested.

  Unfortunately, Madi found out that the man she killed wasn’t the real head of the organization. The real leader went by the name, “Mr. Axiom,” and was an a
lien.

  Yeah. That’s what she said.

  We needed help to bring him down and the only person I knew who had any experience or vested interest in bringing down the aliens, was Amelia Lockheart... the Full Metal Superhero!

  Time to fangirl.

  CHAPTER 1

  One thing I didn’t lack, was commitment. I had proven that time and time again with the Wraith. I understood a little better how the Wraith felt about it since I was now the one relying on someone who I felt lacked that same level of commitment. When the Wraith first inhabited me, we fought over if I was going to go through with my plans or lose my stomach for the killing. I’d be lying if I said all the killing was easy. It helped that the people I ended were all bad. Still, even a killer needs a break now and again.

  But not this day.

  I was crouched on the rooftop corner of a six-story apartment building on the outskirts of downtown Phoenix Arizona. Even at night, the heat was miserable. I had traded my usual leather pants and jacket for light cargo pants and a t-shirt. I couldn’t even think of putting on my red scarf, not in this heat. Next to me was a duffel bag with a scoped MK12 rifle. It was chambered in 5.56 and had a thirty-round magazine.

  My target was the night club next door. Through Krisan I knew it was a front for a lesser cartel that was using the activities of the place to launder its dirty money from drug running and human trafficking. The porous southern border invited this kind of criminal activity. With ISO-1 practicly gone since I killed their boss in Belize, there were plenty of cartels and syndicates ready to take up the mantle.

  Krisan interrupted my dark thoughts with her cheery voice. “How cool is this, huh, waiting for a superhero raid? Do you think they’ll do it?”

  I shrugged. “Lockheart seemed willing to go through with it to flush out our quarry. That’s all I care about,” I said to my companion on the other end of the cell phone.

  Lockheart had offered us communications devices, but I didn’t trust her. If superheroes were really in it for the people, they would handle this crap, and what happened to my family wouldn’t have happened.

  “You know you can call her Arsenal or Amelia, you don’t have to keep using her last name as a... well, a pejorative,” Krisan said.

  Was she offended I wasn’t all gaga over the armored hero? Sure, she saved the planet a couple of times. That really was beyond anything I could imagine. I was less concerned with saving the planet than curbing the infestation of evil that seemed to inhabit every corner of it.

  “She’s not our friend, Krisan, not even our ally. She’s a convenient resource that will likely abandon us the second she decides she doesn’t like our methods.”

  Krisan didn’t respond to that, but that was okay. I didn’t need her too. Since I took on the mantle of the Wraith things had escalated again and again. Every time I thought I was close to wiping out ISO-1, another layer was revealed. Last time was when the man I thought was the head of ISO-1 really wasn’t; some crazy-ass alien was actually the leader.

  An alien.

  How the hell am I supposed to fight an alien? Alvarez nearly killed me with his plasma gun, and if the alien had more of those...

  Which brought me to where I was, working with a super who used a suit of hi-tech armor to fight crime and bad guys.

  This is such a frigging mistake.

  “Tsk tsk, Madi. Give it time, I think working with the Full Metal Superhero will do us good,” Spice said from behind me. I leaned out over the side of the building, resting on my knee while waiting for any sign of our target.

  “Since when are you the play nice with others type, Spice?” I asked while peeking over my shoulder at the innocent-looking teen. Wraith always liked to change up Spice’s appearance; sometimes she wore shorts and a t-shirt for playing ball, other times her Sunday best. This time she wore her school uniform, straight out of an anime with her plaid skirt and white shirt. She swears she can’t read my mind, but sometimes I think she uses the image of my little sister to piss me off, and other times manipulate me. I’d tell her to change clothes, but it would just play into her hand.

  She took the sucker out of her mouth with a loud ‘popping’ sound and smiled at me. “Since you decided to get sensible and team up with someone who killed forty billion sentient beings.”

  I shook my head. Like an alcoholic looking for her next drink, of course that’s what she’s thinking about.

  A high pitched whine drifted through the air from the south. Soft at first, but growing louder by the second.

  “I think that’s our girl,” Krisan said over the phone.

  A few seconds later I saw her. Flying through the air at a decent clip, the moonlight reflecting off her brushed steel suit. I didn’t actually think it was made of steel, but it was what it looked like.

  She circled the area once before coming down to hover above me then dropping to the rooftop. The suit hit the gravel with a crunch; she barely flexed her knees when she hit. I knew the suit gave her super strength—I watched all the footage of her I could get my hands on—still, it seemed incredible for her to have it.

  I turned from the night club and walked toward her when I heard a pop behind me. Instincts honed by training and use kicked in; I had my Colt 1911 out and pointed in the face of the woman who had appeared behind me.

  She was absolutely the most beautiful woman I had ever seen in my life and if I were still a model I’d tell her to get in that line of work. She wore a form-fitting black outfit with pockets and bandoleers. Multiple holsters on her hips contained pistols of some kinds, and from my cursory glance, I spotted a few grenades. My examination of her was interrupted by the tip of an eighteen-inch sword that was pressed against my stomach.

  Arsenal’s helmet receded into her suit, revealing her face to the world.

  “Uh, Madisun, this is Kate, otherwise known as—”

  “Oh my god it’s Domino,” Krisan squealed in my ear, blocking out whatever Arsenal was about to tell me.

  “Wraith, I presume?” the woman said to me. She hadn’t lowered her sword yet. I narrowed my eyes at her.

  I didn’t like her.

  “Domino,” I said. We stood there, weapons pointed at each for a long few seconds.

  “We’re on the same side here,” Arsenal said from behind. She put a hand on my shoulder to let me know it was okay. I wasn’t sure it was.

  I pointed the pistol up before sliding it into the holster at my hip. The sword vanished into her arm; one second it was there, the next it retreated not unlike Arsenal’s helmet. I glanced at the two of them, my mind going through the possibilities of such tech.

  “Are you in a suit of armor too?” I asked the woman with the dazzling green eyes.

  She cocked an exquisitely manicured eyebrow at me. “You don’t watch the news, do you?”

  I shook my head. “I hear enough lies from the people I’m after. I don’t need to hear it on TV too,” I said.

  She smiled at me and I found myself smiling back. Maybe I would like her after all.

  “I don’t trust her,” Spice said from behind me. I glanced back at her—she wore a scowl. “She’s too perfect. No one should be that perfect.”

  Spice wasn’t wrong, Domino was a vision of human perfection. Was it her powers that did that, or something else? And the way she smelled… it was just... nice being around her and I found myself relaxing.

  “What’s the plan, Amelia?” Kate asked as she walked by me to stand next to her friend.

  “Madisun?” the armored superhero asked me.

  I pointed at the building across the street. “Inside is a man named Carmine Torino, he’s a low-level thug for the Acosar cartel. He’s of no importance other than his brother-in-law is the head of the Cartel. If Carmine goes down, they’ll send someone to investigate. Then I can start climbing up the chain until we get to Acosar...”

  Kate looked at Amelia then me. “You’re going to kill him?”

  I pulled the bag off the sniper rifle. “Yes.”

/>   “No,” Amelia said. “We do this our way. If he’s in jail you’ll get the same results,” she said with a shake of her head.

  “He has superpowers. And he’s sitting in that club while scoping out girls to send south of the border for a life of slavery. He deserves to die,” I said to them.

  “That’s not how we operate,” Amelia said to me. “If you don’t want him in jail we’ll go in and flush him out. From there we can follow him, tap his phones, find out what he knows. After that, we can make a plan going forward.”

  I shook my head. “He needs to die. Once he’s gone, it will take them time to find someone else with his powers to take over. During that window, I can dismantle their entire human trafficking organization here in Arizona.”

  Kate took a step toward me, putting a hand on my arm and smiling. “Let’s try it our way first. Worst case you can always kill him tomorrow,” she said with words like honey.

  I felt like there was a bee buzzing around my thoughts and I found myself agreeing with her. “Sure, there’s always tomorrow,” I said. But did I believe that?

  Amelia nodded. “Okay, here we go.” Her armor closed up and a whine emitted from the boots as she shot up into the air.

  “What kind of powers does he have?” Kate asked.

  “He’s an empath. Specifically, he can touch women and get them to do and believe whatever he wants them too. It lasts about twenty-four hours. Why in the hell a power like that exists is beyond me,” I said.

  She nodded, a dark cloud covering her face, and I instantly felt bad for her.

  Why the hell do you care at all that she’s sad?

  I shook my head, trying to get rid of the annoying buzz that just got louder and more insistent.

  “Madi, you okay?” Krisan asked.

  “Yeah, why?” I replied in a whisper.

  “Uh, you don’t sound like you, is all.”