I pushed my plate back a little when the conversation lulled. “Would you please excuse me for a moment?” I said in my best ‘dutiful son’. “Looks like it’s my turn to go to the bathroom now.”

Mom frowned at me sidelong. I hadn’t been this polite all meal and I was never this polite at home. I hoped she mistook my newly re-acquired manners for a sign of my will to please. “Ok then, Gonzalo,” she said.

I got up and threaded my way through the tables to the bathroom doors in the far corner of the restaurant. I wanted to run, but I made myself walk slowly. I got some odd expressions from the other diners. The couple on a date snuck concerned looks at me, no doubt thinking that they were being subtle. I could feel Dr Black’s eyes on the back of my neck.

I made it through the first restroom door then found the gents. Thankfully there was no-one else inside just now. I found a cubicle, locked it, and stared at the toilet.

I felt puke rising and I was nearly sick from panic and seafood, but I managed to hold it in.

What sort of superhero throws up at the first sign of danger?

I put the toilet lid down and sat on it, digging my new smartphone out of my jeans. It had been a gift from Commander Abram. Miracle Force standard issue, he’d said.

Three reception bars adorned the top left corner of the screen. That was a relief.

I fumbled with the screen until I brought up “ICE: MF HQ” in my contacts, then hit ‘dial’, putting the phone to my ear.

A couple of rings, then an efficient woman’s voice came on the line. “This is Miracle Force Base. May I please have your codename and password?”

“Er, codename: Weakling. Password: ......” Crap! What was my password again? “Er...I think my password is...super strength? No, wait, it can’t be that. That would be too easy to guess.”

“I’m afraid that’s incorrect,” said the woman, confirming my worry. “You have two more attempts, sir.”

Shit! Of all the times to forget my fricking password!

“Oh...um...can’t you just let me through anyway? Doesn’t The Base have like, voice recognition software or something? It’s sort of an emergency, you see...”

“Sir, I’m unable to direct your call further unless you can give me your password.”

“Stein,” I guessed. That made sense; my mother’s second name.

“I’m afraid that’s incorrect, sir. You have one more attempt, otherwise you’ll be unable to access this line again until you reset your password in person”

“Damn it!”

“Is that your third attempt, sir?”

“No, no! That was just me cursing! Hold on, give me a moment…”

Of course it wouldn’t be Stein; someone could find that out easily. Come on, you weakling, think, think!

My mind sifted back through the paraphernalia of my life as fast as it could. What had I set my password to be? The stupid thing was that I remembered setting it with George in the briefing room during one of the orientation sessions when I had been given this emergency number to call. But I couldn’t for the life of me remember what I had set it as. What would I have picked? What sort of things did I even enjoy in my life before I had joined the Miracle Force? I enjoyed reading, and writing, and video games, and studying, and listening to retro music, and...Physics?

“Pulsar,” I said.

“Hello, Captain Weakling,” said the woman, “how may I direct your call?”

I sighed with relief, and was pleased by her use of my new title, but there was no time to bask in that. “Just get me Commander Abram, please! Abram!”

“Connecting you now, sir; won’t be a moment.”

There was a click, then a quick series of different-pitched tones, and then another couple of rings.

“This is Abram,” said the voice of the Commander. I had never been so grateful to hear it in my life.

“Commander Abram! Sir! I need to speak to you! I’ve got something to report to you! Something has happened! I don’t know what to d—”

“Woah there!” said Abram over the line in his deep reassuring voice. “Slow down, Gonzalo. You are speaking much too fast. Take a few deep breaths. Now tell me, slowly: What is the matter?”

I took another breath, and another, before I could speak. I was worried I was going to start hyperventilating. I managed to get some words out between the breaths and eventually the rises and falls of my chest began to slow as I told Abram what I wanted him to know. “I’m…huff...having…huff...lunch with...huff...my Mom’s new boyfriend. He...huff...he told me that he knows about Miracle Force and The Base and the details of our last mission...and...and...and he threatened me!”

“What?!” Abram was concerned, I could hear it. “Who is your Mom’s new boyfriend?” asked Abram.

“He’s a doctor! Doctor Black! Doctor Alistair Black! His name is Doctor Alistair Black!”

On the other end of the line…

...Abram laughed.

There was a note of sympathy in it (or was that derision?) as if I had just said something very endearing and ridiculous like a child learning to talk for the first time.

What the hell?! I thought. Why is he laughing?

“Oh, my dear Gonzalo,” Abram said after a moment, “you don’t need to be worried about him. So they’ve told you. I was wondering when they were going to do that.”

I went silent for a moment. The toilet seat was cold against my butt cheeks, even through my jeans.

“What?” I said.

“Didn’t Alistair explain it to you yet?” said Abram. “We know each other. He must have explained it to you. I thought you would have realised even if he didn’t. After all, he was the one who referred you to me. It was a wonderful stroke of luck that you ended up in his medical room. When you showed him your powers, he knew exactly who to call.”

I went silent again for a moment, taking this all in.

“But...but Commander Abram,” I said, searching around for how to make him see sense, “he threatened me!”

At this something in Abram’s voice changed and he sounded a little more alarmed. But only a little. “Did he? What did he say?”

“He told me that if I ever stepped out of line on a mission again then he would make my life a living hell!”

“Did he now?” Abram still sounded concerned, but nowhere near as concerned as I wanted him to be. “Well, though of course I can’t say that I disagree with the general sentiment that you should do what I say on missions...” I blushed at that, glad Abram couldn’t see me. I was still technically on disciplinary leave after what had happened on my last mission. “...I also can’t condone that kind of language. I will have words with him, Gonzalo. But don’t you worry. Alistair is harmless, really. He would never do anything to hurt you, or to hurt your mother. I think it’s just lovely that they’re dating, isn’t it? You go back to your meal and have a good time.”

This was really not the kind of reaction that I had expected, or that I wanted. “But...but Commander Abram…” I stammered. “He threatened my mother too!”

“Did he?” This time it sounded like genuine surprise in Abram’s voice. This was more like it. Now I was getting somewhere. “What did he say to her?”

“Oh, er, well, he didn’t say anything to her directly, he said it to me.”

“What did he say, exactly?”

“Well…” I fumbled. “To be fair, he didn’t actually say he was going to do anything to her, but when I reminded him I had powers he reminded me that he was going out with my Mom! He said it in a sort of...nasty kind of way.” I cringed where I sat in the cubicle. ‘A sort of nasty kind of way?’ What was I, in elementary school?

Nevertheless, Abram’s tone changed again, taking me more seriously—though I still wasn’t convinced he was taking what I was saying seriously enough. “You know what, Gonzalo,” he said, “I can hear this has upset you; I think you had better come in to The Base right away. I know it’s a Saturday and your disciplinary period hasn’t fully elapsed yet, but that doesn’t matter. I’ll have a car sent over for you at once. What was the restaurant? Marios on 34th St was it? I’ll notify your mother too. Go back to your table and wait for the car. You can consider this the end of your enforced leave.”

“Yes sir,” I said obediently. “Sir?”

“Yes?”

“Is my Mom going to be ok?” It was a childish, vulnerable thing to ask, but I couldn’t bear the thought of Mom sat having lunch with that creep, even now, and of her being in any kind of danger.

“Of course she will be,” said Abram. “I will make absolutely sure of it. You have nothing to worry about. Come in to The Base and we’ll talk. I’ll see you shortly.”

He hung up.

I put my phone away and stared at the blue toilet cubicle door in front of me.

I had finished the call with even more questions than when I had started it. But I was glad that I had told Abram.

He would take care of this.

He would know what to do.