Read Online Emergence by Various - Free Book Online

Ninja Turtle. I was getting a little worried about him, given I wasn't sure he'd taken his costume off in the past two days. Still, both of us were enjoying some badly needed time off before we started thinking of our next heist.
    “Is it time yet?” Captain Bullet asked.
    “Not quite,” I said, watching. “Still a couple of minutes.”
    “And you're sure this is going to work?”
    “Nothing is certain in life, which is why it's interesting.” I reached over to take a drink of my margarita as the masseuse packed her lotions and oils. “Thank you, my dear. That was awesome.”
    “If there is nothing else, Mister…Oilman?”
    “Oh, heh. No. Thank you.”
    “Tomorrow? 10 a.m.?”
    “Better make it 11…I plan to sleep in.”
    “Of course.”
    As she excused herself from the suite, I sat on the couch in just a towel, with my laptop in one hand and margarita in the other.
    Captain Bullet looked over at me. “I'm sorry you had to abandon everything back home,” he said, surprising me. “Especially your pretty wife, eh?”
    “I understand she’s refusing witness protection and, additionally, intends to sue the government.”
    “Probably already has a book deal lined up. I was the Freelancer's Sex Slave .” Captain Bullet laughed at his own joke.
    “Right.”
    I had to admit I was missing my wife. Lisa may have been a sociopathic bleach-blonde debutante who only cared about the money I'd brought in, but that was why I'd fallen in love with her. There were plenty of women whose values were similar, yet none would ever be able to replace her.
    Maybe I should look to date a lawyer next.
    Or an aspiring politician.
    Ooh, a Wall Street executive.
    Eh, who was I kidding? I'll likely be dating supervillains from now on.
    “You know, Argyle will come after you once he sorts everything out,” Mihailo said. “I think maybe you should have killed him.”
    I smiled. “No, this is much better.”
    It was time. My laptop feed showed Juggernuke driving up to his house in his second car. I set the empty margarita glass on the side table, grabbed the burner phone laying there, and dialed.
    I watched him pick up.
    “Hey, Juggers.”
    “You little shit. We're going to find you. You should have taken our deal.”
    “Oh, like you weren't going to toss me behind bars as soon as you were done with me. I understand it's a media circus around Motor Hills these days. The Night's King getting credit for defeating interdimensional invaders and all that, even if they are all cartoons.”
    “I'm hanging up now.”
    “Before you do, you might want to check your trunk.”
    The expression on his face was hilarious. Going over to his other vehicle, Juggernuke opened the trunk before reeling back in disgust. The tattooed body of the late Thrax, minus most of his bald head, was probably pretty ripe by now. That was something I'd arranged to dispose of myself. In the distance, sirens were heard, as I may have dropped a tip about it.
    Juggernuke glared at his phone before saying. “Do you really think this is going to hurt me? I'm the fucking authorities! This is nothing, you little shit!”
    “Probably,” I said. “But given Thompson knows you're responsible for trying to kill him, he knows exactly who to send his friends in Congress after in the resulting investigation. Given I've told all of the various supervillains in Motor Hills his secret identity, and that you're responsible for any problems they ran into during our heist, I think you're both going to have your hands full dealing with the resulting fallout, probably for the rest of your lives. Certainly, I doubt either of you will be able to operate freely anymore given the increased scrutiny. You can't go half-superhero.”
    “Who the hell do you think you are?!”
    “I'm Keyser Soze, Lex Luthor, and King Kong. I’m the Freelancer.” I hung up on him and tossed the phone to Captain Bullet. He caught it. “Throw that out the window for me, would you? I think we should rob