CHAPTER 102: A HUMAN LISTENING BUG.

Jon’s heart fluttered and he kicked all groveling aside as he motioned at her to calm down. He was pondering on what she said. He had read the apocalypse guidelines and collected a lot of books on apocalypses: natural disasters or zombie or alien invasion.

He had told Trevor to concentrate on the ones that involved awakenings. He had been reading them slowly and even now he was in halfway through another novel. So, he knew a thing or two about superhumans.

It seemed like fate had decided to give him a gift that was extraordinary: a wife with super hearing!!! Not only could she hear everything that was close but her ears were so extraordinary that her abilities stretched beyond the walls of their base and reached into Fortress Four!!

This was the spy he had been craving for. She was a gift of untapped potential that could be used in many ways, whether it was in the apocalypse or after.

"Honey, can you hear what Hades is up to?" he asked her with eager eyes.

The eagerness died when he was blasted with a glare that nearly choked him.

"That is what you want to know!" Tracy shouted at him. "Not one question about Bob but instead you want to know about Hades freaking Quinn! Are you in love with him or something? I am tired of your obsession with him. All I hear is my Bob crying and I want him back Jon. Bring my baby back" She shouted at him.

Jon reared back because she picked up a table knife. "Another time then." He said.

He was not going to give up on getting her to be his human bug. Who needed real tapping devices when she was around? He just needed to find a way to get Bob back. But how?

Hades was going to hold on to the damn cat just because he could.

****

Bob was not crying because he was hungry or unhappy, he was happily playing with Castiel and Robo-dog in the private indoor children’s playground on Fortress Four. Earl was enjoying the slides and Ariel was working.

He was sitting in the beanbag chair with a laptop and a cup of milk chocolate tea that Cathy had delivered to the playground. He looked like a serious business man in the middle of typing a proposal.

Grandma Rori was supervising the children, making sure that Castiel was not bitten or scratched by the cat and dog.

Sunshine and Hades were in the playground but they were sitting in a different corner, whispering about Major Elio.

"We can send him to Jon’s base if you are worried." Hades suggested.

She thought about sending someone with super sight to Jon and grimaced. "You want us to send a superhuman with super sight to the base of a man that tried to sneak a listening bug in here! We might as well open our gates and welcome Jon inside."

He was just trying to help, trying to put her at ease. Hades looked at her and said, "I don’t know about your experience with superhumans but to me, Major Elio is an asset."

Sunshine tapped Hades’s arm absentmindedly. "You saw what he did, or heard about it. He saw into the neighbor’s house. There is no such thing as privacy around those people. Even now, I feel like we are being watched." She looked at the walls, searching for invisible eyes. "I have never liked superhumans with that particular gift, honestly."

"Bad experience with one." He noted.

"Make it two." She said. "They both double crossed me for bigger benefits. One happened to be part of Cassius’s harem as it turned out."

He put his right arm around her shoulder and his fingers brushed against the skin of her hand. He was petting her as one would a cat in need of comfort. "Cassius is a Quinn and he wronged you. I am a Quinn and I would never betray you. You cannot lump all of us Quinn’s in the bad apple category just because you met one rotten one or two.

It is the same for Major Elio. You cannot lump him in with the other superhumans with the same gift as him just because you met some bad ones.

Imagine what kind of benefits it could do for our missions if we have someone like him. Reconnaissance without drones, real time threat detection...."

"I know all that." She cut in. "I have heard those same words being used to describe and praise people like Elio. They are strategic assets to any team. They are some of the superhumans that were most sought after by bases and scavenging teams in the apocalypse. Some of them could even see into the mist and others could tell when a mutant monster was miles away. With them on a team, searching for herbs, fresh food, shelter and other things was so simple."

Hades nodded. It was as he expected, someone with such abilities was as an asset. "You mentioned heading out to help Nimo look for her brother. If you go with someone like Elio, the odds of you succeeding are even higher."

Sunshine parted her mouth a little as she came to realize that maybe this was the reason why Nimo had stayed back to talk to the Major. With his help, they would not need to get out of the cars during their search.

"Suni, I understand your worries and I share them." He said slowly. "But, Elio has earned his place here so far and I believe that we should give him a chance. He works two times harder than any other soldier on the base and he follows your rules. He awakened and kept it a secret like you advised most superhumans to do.

He has not demanded to be given special treatment because he is different from ordinary humans now. If he was Helena Drew, the whole base would know that he had awakened and he would be demanding to be allowed into the first wall and have his supplies multiplied."

Sunshine leaned into his side and exhaled. The old part of her that trusted no one screamed for her to take the knife and gouge out Elio’s eyes. The new her that needed to build a team of trusted superhumans commanded that she listen to Hades because he was right.

"If this was Nimo, would you be worried?" He asked her.

She raised her head. "Of course not. We would be popping champagne and dancing. Nimo is my bestie, I trust her."

"Then let Elio earn your trust." He told her. "He can take on observation duty on the base and keep an eye on others. In due time, we will be able to find out if he is using his abilities for protection or penetration. If he breaks your rules.....our rules, then he’s out. Not just out but dead because like you, I am not willing to see a man that knows all the secrets of our base walking out of our gates with breath in his lungs."

She turned her frown into a smile and leaned her head on his shoulder. "Now that is a deal I like. Thank you for letting me see things more clearly."