Sliced Bread 2: The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread

"He said he'd swing by tomorrow to pick me up. Oh, and he also said I shouldn't tell anybody. Obviously I'm ignoring that part," I said to Greyghost and Cruickshank.

They were silent for a second.

"You're not going, of course," Cruickshank said.

"I'm considering it."

"Dennis, for Christ's sake. Thunderhead is a crazy old man. God only knows what kind of shit he's trying to get you mixed up in. You don't want anything to do with him."

"Yeah, well, maybe he's not all that tightly wrapped, but what if he's on to something?"

"I can't spare you for however long Thunderhead wants you. Things are heating up with Underhand. I'll let Thunderhead know you're not available."

"Just like that," I said.

"You aren't employed for the benefit of Thunderhead's quixotic efforts." I think he was glaring at me, but it was hard to tell with the mask and cowl.

I glared back. "Oh. So you're saying that if I took a few days to check out whatever he thinks he's found, you'd fire me?"

"Are you going to risk your job for a wild-goose chase?"

"Well, obviously. After all, if he does manage to turn off all the super-powers in the world, there's certainly no need for me around here anymore. Come on, you know the math--you guys weren't making any progress shoving the supervillains in jail one by one. Here's a way to get 'em all at once."

Greyghost paused to regroup. "You should not go. Thunderhead is... unreliable. It's not wise to put any trust in his judgment."

"I don't know about that. But I've noticed one thing, dealing with superheroes the last couple of years. And that's that you guys tend to be right about stuff a lot more often than you have any right to. So I figure my odds are decent here."

"Dennis, he's out of his goddamned mind," Cruickshank said. "You know where he's been for the last ten years? He's been looking for this magical on-off switch. He looked in Chichen Itza. I think he looked in the Kremlin. He's been all over the world. He looked in Angkor Wat. He looked in Disneyland. He looked in, I'm not kidding, Marilyn Monroe's grave."

"Angkor what?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"What?"

"I said, yeah."

"Yeah, what?"

"What?"

"Enough. Dennis, Thunderhead grew impatient with his responsibilities. He wants a shortcut. He wants to invade an ancient temple and smash the idol. I don't believe that the problems that come with these inhuman abilities have such a direct and simple solution."

"All right. I think it's worth checking out anyway. So I'm going. Then I'll come back and catch up on work. Okay?"

Greyghost turned to go. "You aren't fired," he said.