Heroes Rising Fiction: Golden Hunt part 7

Part 7

At the London BADGE HQ.

Troy took the cup of tea handed to her and blew over it as she watched the massive monitor at the front of the room. Agents dashed around taking care of the normal business and continuing work on clean-up after the Cupid incident.

“Ma’am!” A man at the comm station called out.

“What is it?”

“We have word from our operations leader in Paris, the BADGE station is moving out. We have completed all the cleanup.”

“Good. Tell them to get back here on the double.” She sipped her tea.

Just then two men walked up. One was wearing green with green wings. The other had on a brown leather duster, brown pants, and no shirt.

She addressed the shirtless hero first, “Martial, good to see you.”

“Likewise, ma’am,” he answered.

The green man bowed to her, “Hello, I’m Dr. Blake.”

“Ah, Donald Blake, I wasn’t expecting you dressed like that.”

He chuckled, “I don’t always wear a lab coat.”

Martial Law held up a golden coin, “We found this while coming back from Paris.”

She took it with a frown, “What about it?”

Dr. Blake answered, “It is an old Irish gold coin, probably from the fifteenth century.”

She gave it a good look, “I...see. It is in fantastic condition to be that old.”

“That’s what caught my attention. We found it near a riverbank and it was in this condition.”

Troy shook her head, “I still do not see what you’re doing here with this.”

Martial Law held a scanner, “We use these to scan for any latent energy signatures left from the battle with Cupid. When we found this coin I scanned it, this thing is saturated with the same energy as Cupid used.”

Dr. Blake said, “Whatever powered Cupid, is part of this coin.”

Just then Zanazola came into the room, holding one of those coins. “Commander Troy I...oh, I see you have one.”

“Another one?” Troy said.

“I was scanning for signs of the hooded man and followed a lead to this coin. It has the same energy...”

“As Cupid.” Troy finished the thought. “Here, give it to me.”

“No. I want to keep it.” Zanazola pulled it back.

“Commander!” The man at the comm called out, “We are getting messages from all over the planet. Heroes are reporting finding gold coins.”

“What could this mean?” Zanazola asked.

Martial Law stepped up, “This is the same signature as that Hooded guy. What if he already has the pot of gold and is using it to distract us? We sure as hell cannot find him if we are picking him up in a thousand different locations.”

Troy said, “If that’s true, then we have a big problem.”

Zanazola said, “What about those heroes you sent to find the Leprechaun? What happened to them? For that matter what happened to the Leprechaun?”

Before Commander Troy could give this any thought, a red light beeped on the huge monitor. The computer announced, “Incoming distress signal.” A specific code flashed across the screen.

“That’s from the comm unit I sent with Chase. On-screen now.”

The massive monitor shifted to a fuzzy image and then came a close shot of the Leprechaun. He weakly said. “Please, find me gold. Me power...is weak. Help. Get it back to me crock...before...it’s too late...” the image cut off.

Everyone was silent for a moment. Finally, Dr. Blake asked, “Was that a real Leprechaun?”

“Probably the only one.” Troy stated and then pointed at the comm, “Director Nova, now!”

In almost no time, the screen changed to the interior of the BADGE HQ in New York. Nova stood before them almost two stories tall, “I got the same message, Commander Troy.”

“Then you’ve seen the reports on the gold coins?”

“Yes. Only moments ago.”

“What are your orders, sir?”

Nova said, “We don’t have a lot of information. But, we have to go on what we know. Tell all heroes to gather any coins they find. Tell Chase...”

“We haven’t been in contact with your agent since she left us two days ago.”

“Damn it!” Nova smacked the table near him, “Get someone up there ASAP. I want boots on the ground yesterday! Find this Leprechaun and my agent!”

“What about the gold coins and his crock? He said something about those.”

“Tell all of your people to find those coins and get them back to him. I’ll get the word out from here as well. Get on this, now.”

“Right away, sir.” She turned to the other heroes, “Zanazola, I need you to lead a BADGE team across the entire UK, help search for those coins. Dr. Blake, Martial, head to Carlingford.”

All three heroes acknowledged their orders and were quickly on the job. Troy turned back to the screen where Nova waited. “We’ll find your agent and this Leprechaun.”