Present Day

3Ball shuffled through the papers on his desk, barely reading them. He was furious. It was a cold fury, he had had long enough now for the heat of it to die down and be banked into coals.

The man had tried to stop Sol. It really threw a spanner in his plans, 3Balls’ carefully constructed narrative was teetering on the edge now, he needed to know how much those idiots had said to Sol. How much had they given away. Maybe more importantly though, how had they failed to mind slave a drunkard.

3Ball changed the music to something more grinding with a thumping baseline, hunting for a sound to match his mood. The towering speaker stacks on one side of the room rumbling their way through the track. He pushed the papers together and threw them into his tray on the desk, reached down and opened the bottom draw and withdrew a bottle of amber and a tumbler while he waited.

Sol had tried before to track him down and 3Ball had used his contacts to lay so many false trails, so many hints and clues that the little man had run after his own tail for months on end. Always feeling like he was so close he could taste victory. It had been fun. 3Ball had gained respect for the man and was sad when Sol had finally given up. So when he had come sniffing again it had awoken the old thrill of the hunt and the hunted.

He swirled the liquid around the glass remembering the old days. 3Ball had long suspected that Sol was a Super but whatever Power he had Sol played it close to the chest. No one knew. He never revealed it, it was not something flashy or obvious but he had to be some form of Super to be able to run in the circles he did. Sol had shown up in Arcadia and quickly carved out a little niche for himself. 3Ball had searched for any hint of what he had been doing before Arcadia but no one knew anything about him. Best guess was he had been living life as a Normie before manifesting a Power.

3Ball had gotten sloppy this time. He was so sure that he would be able to run the same game against Sol that he had begun to focus on learning the man’s Super instead of keeping him on a tight leash. Now those White Hand idiots might have screwed the whole thing up. And still, they had not learnt anything new about whatever possible Super Sol had. From all reports the fight had been straight forward, no teleportation, no super strength, no turning into a lemur or spitting acid.

He slugged back the glass in one go and grimaced as the peaty burn struck his mouth and continued down into his chest. Baring his teeth, he hissed. The sounds from the speaker finally matching his mood. There was a knock at the large door to his office which was opened to reveal his body man, Joey.

“Boss, got Snicker Isly here for you. Want me to send him in?” Joey asked.

3Ball gestured for him and in strode Snickers. Well, he tried to stride in but the man was badly hiding how terrified he was. He had dressed up, his signature white gloves crisp and gleaming against the black of the perfectly pressed suit. His wing-tip shoes clipping against the polished wooden floor.

Snickers had left the gloves on, there was no point not to as they both knew that the White Hand powers don’t work against other Supers, only Normies.

“Sir, to what do I owe the honour of this unusual face to face meeting?” Snickers asked over the thumping sounds coming from the speakers.

“You know why, idiot.” 3Ball softly replied while he poured himself another measure.

“The hit? I knew that Sol guy was sniffing around you Sir. I thought, why put you out when my boys could take care of it for you!” Snickers tried to protest.

3Ball settled the bottle back into the draw and took the time to take a fresh sip before looking back up “And? How did your boys work out then?”

Snickers took a deep breathe “Well, this Sol guy is a Super of some sort so they couldn’t finish him.” He paused but 3ball just kept staring at him. “I ‘ave punished them for the failure!” Snickers continued.

“So they tried, failed and gave him more information than he started with. You punished them for this failure.” 3Ball paused and took another sip. He loved playing the villain. He should get a cat he mused, not for the first time.

“What should I do with you then?” 3Ball asked casually. They both knew where this was going but 3Ball liked to watch the man squirm.

“You need me!” Snickers blurted out “You need me to run the Hands for you. To be the front man. I have been good! I always give you the right take and only skim a little. You know that Sir.” He was shrinking away now, trying to find a wall to put his back to.

3Ball had not moved from behind his desk.

The white gloved man rallied once he found the wall, “You can’t kill me! I have put safe guards in place so if I don’t walk out of here then your secret is out. The whole of Arcadia will know by the end of the day who and what you are!”

The man was almost shrieking now to be heard over the sound of the growing music.

3Ball took another drink. It was sad to see these men who live their life with Power, holding it over other people, being faced with anything bigger then they are. They become pathetic children.

Every time.

3Ball sighed, Sol was the only one who came close to being a proper adversary and even he failed.

“You mean if you don’t walk out of here then your man Amper is under orders to release the information you have squirreled away in your safe?” 3Ball asked rhetorically.

And there it was. The widening of the eyes, the draining of the blood from the face. The usual dance.

It was almost boring. Almost.

3Ball continued “Amper has been on my payroll for quite some time. By now your safe should be emptied and the contents destroyed. So please, tell me again, why should I let you walk out of here?”

Snickers knew he was trapped, 3Ball could see the thoughts change from bravado to wheedling. “What do you need Sir? Anything!”

Begging.

3Ball took another moment to try and enjoy the amber and the music but found his mood was beyond the reach of his usual vices.

“What did your men say to Sol? If you tell me what they gave away you stand a chance of walking out of here alive.”

Snickers started breathing again “All they said was the White Hands wanted him to stop sniffing around. Drop the case. That’s it! I swear!”

So they had told him that the White Hands were connected to me, from that he could deduce so much. Idiots.

3Ball smacked his fist against the table, making Snickers jump. A copy of 3Ball appeared standing next to the original. While Snickers was distractedly gaping at this new double, the original pulled the revolver from the hidden compartment in his desk and smoothly fired.

As Snickers slumped to the floor 3Ball placed the gun on the table and brushed his left hand against his copy who shuddered and disappeared from reality.

With Snickers gone and the two White Hands on the hit already taken care of, there was only Ampers left who knew about me. That should tie up that loose thread, keep Sol hunting. Maybe this would work out after all.