2019.

Alone in the Crypt together, things were all business between Gracie and Danny. Kevin had sent her down to get her voice and palm scanned for security, apparently unaware the two had any tension between them.

Danny said nothing about the morning. Mostly he kept his eyes on the monitor as he pulled up the security software. Gracie sat in front of a microphone with what appeared to be a portable palm scanner nearby. She spoke the password into the microphone five times, got her palms scanned, and then Danny said, “Ok, you’re good.” 

He opened up new windows on the screen in front and began typing, not elaborating further or dismissing her from his workspace.

Gracie didn’t want to leave it there. “So that’s it?”

“That’s it.”

“Cool.” She looked around the Crypt, at the isolated pools of light illuminating the Crimson Wraith costume, weapons, and equipment. “Did you want to give me that more detailed tour you were talking about before?”

“Not right now,” he said. “Gotta index the data from your work-outs this morning.”

“Oh, ok.” But Gracie didn’t get up just yet. “What does that do?”

His fingers hovered over the keys for a moment. “It gives me info on what to expect when you’re out in the field, what a naturally elevated heart-rate looks like, oxygen consumption, and all that. Gives me an additional heads-up if something is seriously wrong while you’re in the field — like you’re drowning or you’ve been electrocuted. All that fun stuff.”

“Fun stuff…” Gracie repeated, and then silence overtook them again. But she didn’t want to give up. “I saw Stephen this morning, outside, over Edward’s grave.”

“Yeah, he’s there every day.”

“Two of them were close?”

“They were lovers. For about thirty years or so. Then Edward left.”

“He left?”

“Yep,” Danny turned to Gracie. “See, most of the guys who have been the Crimson Wraith, they don’t retire. It’s more like they get retired, you feel me?”

Still, he was trying to school her, trying to get her to appreciate the gravity of their mission. This time though, Gracie didn’t take it as an insult, didn’t push back. She made herself maintain eye contact and nod. 

Danny continued, “Now, Edward, you could say he was one of the lucky ones. Some bad shit happened, but he got to walk away from it. And then he had to watch as one Crimson Wraith after the other did not get that lucky. 

“And then there was Zero Hour. The way Kevin tells it, the wrong call was made and Titan City lost about two thousand lives. People got real upset that the Crimson Wraith only stopped the one bomb at the Titan City Justice Center. Those whose loved ones died on the bridges wanted to know why he hadn’t been there for them too.

“We had some harsh Crimson Wraith hate going on there for a bit. Crimson Wraith number six, Christopher O’Neil, he retired over that one, Esperanza too. She went into legitimate law enforcement, while he got himself checked-in to one of those places with the fingerpainting and real soft walls, you know what I mean?”

“Wait, he went to, like, a fucking asylum?”

“Please. This ain’t the nineteenth century. It’s a psychiatric hospital.”

“Holy shit.”

Danny nodded, seeming to appreciate her reaction. “Christopher has been getting good treatment. We see him on holidays.”

“That’s… I didn’t…” Gracie shook her head. “I didn’t know.”

Danny sighed. “Anyway, all that public hate for the Crimson Wraith must have brought up bad memories for Edward about his time in the mask, so he bounced. Said his good-byes and went to live by himself in an old folks home. Stephen begged him to stay, but Edward had his mind made up.”

“They broke up over that?”

“I don’t think so exactly. Stephen was always over there a few times a month. One time, it was Edward’s birthday, and Stephen baked him a cake but he left it here by mistake. So, I brought it down for them, and when I showed up, those two old dudes were sitting on the couch together, holding hands, and watching some black and white movie.”

Gracie said, “That’s actually really fucking cute.”

Danny nodded, and as he did, he looked like he was seeing them sitting together once more, sharing a moment of peace after a lifetime of adventure. She could see how it affected him. Danny might have thought of his job as knowing things, but Gracie wondered if, really, his job was caring about people, these people. She didn’t want to leave without making sure he knew that she cared too.

“Hey, um, I just want to say…” Her gut was burning to speak, so why was it so hard to make the words happen? “I can see why I rubbed you the wrong way. For real. I was just thinking about me and about everything I had going on, getting arrested and shit. To be honest, I saw you guys up here in what looked like the lap of luxury and thought you couldn’t have a care in the world. I had no fucking clue.”

“Well,” said Danny, “I guess it isn’t really fair to expect you to care about shit we work real hard to keep buried in mystery. If you don’t know, how can you care?”

“But, now, I do know, and I do care, you know, about being part of what the Crimson Wraith does. I want to learn. I want to be good at it. And maybe I could be. Maybe this is, like, what I’m supposed to be doing with my life. Maybe that’s why I haven’t been good at anything else.”

Danny shrugged. “Maybe. Honestly, I haven’t seen anyone else try since I came on board.” He seemed to relent in a way that said maybe he’d been also thinking about their conversation and not feeling good about it. “But Kevin believes in you. And it looks like you got Stephen’s stamp of approval. I’m sorry I was hard on you. I guess… It’s been pretty rough around here lately, what with Edward getting murdered and…”

“Wait,” said Gracie. “Edward was murdered?”