of nowhere today when you hopped over a car and
jumped into the sky with it. A little while later I ran into you at the
elevators."
"So when you jumped on that guy, you just assumed -- without knowing
anything else about me -- that I'd do something about the other two?"
"Yup. I figured all you needed was a distraction to provide a reasonable
opening. You'd just survived a major explosion, so it didn't seem likely that
bullets would slow you down much, and all the guns were pointed at me at the
time anyway. I'd have been real surprised if you hadn't done what you did."
"Surprised?" asked Mandi. "You'd have been dead."
Snapping his fingers as if just realizing that fact, Cade grinningly said,
"Well, then, it's a damned good thing I guessed right, isn't it?"
Mandi's face was stern as she stopped to face him and said, "You certainly
put a hell of a lot of faith in that guess."
"Correction; I put a hell of a lot of faith in you."
"You know what I mean, Ed. What if I hadn't lived up to your expectations?"
"Well, I'd have been somewhat disappointed, of course..."
"I'm not joking, dammit!"
Shrugging, Cade began walking again as he said, "Okay, you weren't joking.
Next subject."
Taking two strides to catch up, Mandy snapped, "What?"
"Next subject. Next topic of discussion. The last one wasn't entertaining
us, so let's talk about something else."
"No! I want to know how you could just presume that I'd..."
Interrupting her, Cade said, "I just did, and it's history, so let's drop
it. As far as I'm concerned, you can probably do anything I can imagine;
anything I ever saw in a comic book. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me at all to
find out that the comics about superhumans began after someone found out about
you or someone like you back in the thirties."
Mandi's gaze narrowed tightly as she asked, "You really think I'm that old?"
Looking her over, Cade said, "Could be. I think you'll probably look just as
delicious another sixty years down the road. Or maybe a couple of hundred years.
How long do superpeople live, anyway?"
Pretending vast shock, Mandi rolled her eyes and softly exclaimed, "Oh,
wonder of wonders!"
Giving her a narrow look of his own, Cade asked, "What wonder of wonders are
you referring to, ma'am?"
Not bothering to contain her grin, Mandi said, "You finally asked me a real
question. Did it hurt?"
"Well, it didn't at t