Loonatics Undressed by Kyell Gold (a book to read .txt) 📗

frequent before his disappearance?” Tech asked.

“He grew up in North Haverbrook,” Zodavia said. “He is probably still there. The locals mistrust law enforcement and are likely helping to hide him.”

“After he shot all those people there?” Lexi said.

“The people he shot were government workers. City hall functionaries, police, and a tax auditor.”

“And a superhero,” Duck pointed out.

“We’ll have to comb the town,” Ace said. “I don’t like it.”

“Are there any indications that he might have been affected by the meteor?” Tech said.

Zodavia turned to face him again. “He disappeared mere months after the meteor’s impact. There are army records of him assisting with the cleanup afterwards, and then nothing. That is a highly probable circumstance.”

“So what are we gonna do?” Ace said.

“Go to North Haverbrook,” Zodavia said. “Comb the town. Zodavia out.”

Ace rolled his eyes. “All right,” he said as the rainbow sparkles faded. “I guess we oughta split up into teams of two. It’s not a big town, so I t’ink we can search it pretty quick in three groups. I’ll take Lexi, Duck, you take Slam, and Tech, you can take Rev.”

Rev mouthed, “Yeah take me,” at Tech, making the coyote grin, until Duck cleared his throat.

“And what am I supposed to do with Slam?” he said.

“Gah roo guh.” Slam accompanied his words with a suggestive hand gesture.

“Very funny. I’m taking Tech.”

“Hey,” Tech said.

“Any objection to splitting up with Rev, Tech?” Duck said, leering at him. “You two don’t need to be together all the time, do you?”

“Put a sock in it, Duck,” Lexi said. “Leave Tech alone.”

Rev and Tech exchanged glances and shrugs. “It’s okay I like Slam I’ll go with him and I bet we find him first anyway you ready Slam?”

“Ah rah dah!” Slam spun around a couple times. Tech marveled at his ability to shrug off Duck’s insult so easily. Rev zipped to his side and together they were first out into the jet. Ace and Lexi followed, Ace not-so-subtly patting her butt to scoot her along.

“Sorry about that, Tech,” Duck said, practically preening as they shut off the equipment. “But you know, I was worried you and Rev might get distracted out there and Mister Fudd might catch you in a, shall we say, vulnerable position. So it’s really all for your own safety.”

“You’re a prince,” Tech said.

“If we could just get a tracer on him I could track where he is but we gotta find him first,” Rev was saying as Tech closed the airlock behind him. It stuck a little where Slam had ripped it open, but the Flightronics guys had done a good job with the replacement parts. The engine and the computer console, both luckily undamaged, were the only things Tech had to fix himself; everything else was part of the standard Flightronics X71 body. They had a standing contract that Flightronics was happy to honor, since the Loonatics went through an average of one jet every two or three months.

“If we find him again,” Lexi said, “he’s not getting away.”

“I second dat,” Ace said, powering up.

“You traced those alien ice vikings okay,” Duck said, strapping himself into the seat ahead of Tech.

Rev had himself strapped in before he even opened his beak. “That’s cause Tech analyzed the signature of their albedo and programmed them into the satellite to record on my system and you remember we didn’t get all of ’em just the ones on the boat this guy doesn’t have any emissions that I know of at least not any we can track I bet he stinks but the satellite can’t pick that up can it Tech?”

Tech grinned, and shook his head. “Not unless we deploy a scent-specific bot to relay radio signals based on the chemical composition of the surrounding air. Actually,” he said, half to himself, “that’s not a bad idea.”

Duck turned around. “Say what?”

“A sniffer,” Tech said. “It won’t help us find this guy because we don’t know what he smells like, but it might be useful in the future.”

“Just make sure you keep it away from Slam,” Duck said, “or it’d overload the system.”

Rev rolled his eyes, but Slam didn’t take any notice, or appear to. Tech called up his work journal and scribbled some notes as the jet took off.

“We’ll wear our suits like Tech said, and take the bikes,” Ace said once they were on their way. “You don’t have to bike, Rev, if you don’t want to. Go through the town and talk to people, see if anyone knows Zebediah and where he might be hiding. Tech, anything on the ’net about him?”

Tech shook his head. “Nada. I’m running a few infobots out and we’ll see if they bring anything back. It’s not uncommon for people in these less developed areas of Acmetropolis to take special measures to keep themselves off the ’net.”

“Wish I could keep myself off the ’net you see those pictures someone posted the other day I don’t know who has the time to do that kind of thing,” Rev said.

“There are far more disgusting sites about me up there than about you,” Duck said.

“I’d think dat stands ta reason,” Ace said, and Tech snickered along with everyone else while surreptitiously sending another infobot to grab some of the sites about Rev for later perusal.

North Haverbrook was, as Rev had observed, kind of a dump. Tech and Duck kept skirting piles of debris in the streets as they rode to their assigned starting point, a rather seedy bar called “The Monorail” that filled the air outside with barks of drunken laughter and the clink of glasses. Even before evening hit. Charming, Tech reflected.

The bikes shimmered and vanished as Tech hit the cloak. He pulled another device from his belt. “Now, I synthesized a simulation in the identity projector and I suggest we take turns…” He looked up to see the doors of the bar swinging closed. A moment later, he heard Duck’s voice inside.

“Hey, you swamp rats. Anyone here seen Zebediah Fudd?”

Tech covered his eyes with his