Free Sidekicks by Jack D. Ferraiolo Page B

doesn’t see my reflection in the glass. I was never good at keeping a poker face.
    â€œIt fell off during the fight, didn’t it?” he says.
    â€œNot exactly. She pulled it off.”
    â€œShe?”
    â€œYeah. Turns out Monkeywrench is a girl.”
    Trent slams on the brakes and pulls the car over. “What happened back there?”
    â€œCan we talk about this later? We’re kind of conspicuous out here—”
    â€œTell me what happened.”
    I take a deep breath, then let it out slowly. “We were fighting on top of one of the warehouses and the roof gave way. We fell like forty feet. I’m OK, really … thanks for the concern.” He doesn’t say anything, so I continue. “When I got up to check on Monkeywrench, I saw that her mask had come off.”
    â€œWhat happened to yours?”
    â€œWell, after I saw her, she flipped out and attacked me. I thought she was trying to kill me. She wasn’t. She was just trying to—”
    â€œGet to your mask,” he finishes.
    â€œYeah. ‘Mutual assured destruction,’ she said. I tell people who she is, she’ll tell people who I am.”
    â€œShe’s smart. I’d expect nothing less from our main adversary.”
    â€œRight.”
    â€œSo the girl is someone you know?” he asks.
    â€œYeah, I go to school with her. She’s in my grade. I have a few classes with her.”
    â€œHm.”
    He turns the wheel and hits the gas. We take off again.
    â€œYou don’t seem that upset,” I say.
    â€œBeing upset about it is a waste of energy. Instead, we need to figure out where to go from here.”
    There’s a long pause.
    â€œSoooo, what do I do?” I ask.
    â€œ
You
shouldn’t do anything. As long as you don’t tell, she won’t tell, either. She can’t.”
    â€œBut what if she does?”
    â€œWell, then we’ll have to do something drastic, won’t we?” There’s an odd tone to his voice, almost as if he’s smiling when he says it.
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œNothing. Listen, this could actually be a good thing. We might able to use this to put an end to Dr. Chaotic’s reign of terror once and for all.”
    â€œReally?”
    â€œYes. You two have to stay close to each other now, if for no other reason than to make sure that the other one isn’t plotting something.”
    â€œOK … uhh … So, I’m supposed to go to school tomorrow and pretend like nothing happened?”
    â€œNo. You’re going to pretend that you didn’t tell me or anyone else anything about this,” he says. “You’re going to get to know her. You’re going to get close to her … become friends with her. She’s going to get comfortable with you … then one day she’s going to slip up … get a little
too
comfortable, and accidentally reveal some important piece of information … and … Wham! That’s when we’ve got them.”
    â€œOK, I guess. But … um … you know I’m not exactly great at making friends.”
    â€œI know. Louis has expressed some concern.”
    â€œYeah, so … what if I just turn her in?”
    â€œAnd let her give up your identity?”
    I nod. “It would end their reign of terror, wouldn’t it?” I say. I don’t tell him that at the moment, I don’t think giving up my identity would be that big a loss.
    â€œYes, except that you wouldn’t just be giving up your own identity; you’d also be giving up mine, and who else would keep darkness from engulfing the city?”
    â€œYeah, but … couldn’t we figure something out? Maybe get new identities or something?”
    Trent turns to me. “You don’t get it, do you? Once your identity is compromised, it’ll be leaked to every news source in the world. Pretty soon your name and face will be beamed across the