25.5 ]G series side story[ Words can sting, silence breaks the heart.

  The bartender held up the battered and stained handset an old landline phone. “We got a Gargan here? Call for you from a guy named Kormac.”

  Now that was a name I hadn’t heard in a while, not since the days when I had first worked for AIM.

  I hesitantly glanced around the bar with an uninterested look on my face as if looking to see who this Gargan guy was, before slipping off the bar stool to put some cover between me and the front window of the bar. No need to make it easy for a sniper to take me out.

  Lifting one finger to get the attention of the older man behind the bar, I gave him a nod as he looked over at me. “It's for me, put the phone on the end of the bar.”

  The older man gave me an odd look, then shrugged. “Okay. Sure.” Tugging some phone cord free he put the main body of the landline phone, one old enough to have an actual dial, on the end of the bar over where it wrapped around a corner away from the front door.

  I picked up the handset. “Whoever this is, you got five seconds to convince me to stay on the line before I’m gone.”

  A familiar somewhat shrill voice answered me. “I’ll keep it short then, do you have a daughter? About eighteen. ”

  Pulling the headset away from my face far enough to give it a look of disbelief, I finally asked.

  “...what!”

  “Young woman, your eyes, looks a lot like your mother’s high school graduation photo I found online. Dresses up in a battle suit with a giant weaponized scorpion tail and a bug with pincers crest on the chest. Calls herself Deathstalker. If she isn’t your kid then she’s stealing your shtick if not your name.”

  I stumbled back a step from the bar. “...What?”

  “Look Gargan, she affiliated with AIM to some extent or another, and her age is right for when we worked with them.”

  There had been that one scientist who showed up at my room wearing lingerie under her lab coat and waving around a six pack of long necks, but… “I wore protection!”

  Kormac sighed. “Jesus man. Even if you hadn’t gotten together with any of them, it’s Aim, all they would need is a drop of your blood and a free lab. And I know Captain Marvel bloodied her knuckles on both of our faces more than once.”

  She looks like my mom... Taking a few deep breaths, I pulled myself together enough to think.

  I had been a private eye at one time, despite everything else I had gone through, I knew how to think, to investigate. I needed facts here. “Where are you? We have to talk. In person.”

  Kormac sighed. “I got a kid Gargan. A little girl. And her mother could go toe to toe with the Hulk. Not win mind you, but she could make him work for it. If you show up ready to go all Norman Osborn on this, at the very least she will put you on or into the ground bleeding from every orifice, if not in literal pieces all over my front lawn. Whatever you need to know, I will tell you right now. Full disclosure. But. Do not show up at my house.”

  I let out a huff as I rubbed my hand down my face. “Fine. Tell me what you know.”

  “Okay Mac. She showed up here looking to kidnap my kid who is as smart as I am.” I rolled my eyes. Kerwin always did have an overinflated ego. “If not smarter. Me and my wife had her tested for advanced placement in a top school before we decided to home school her instead for a few years but your possible kid is next generation AIM. As in her group are all the kids of people who belonged to AIM and she wanted to recruit my daughter by force and bring me and the wife along for the ride.”

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  His voice seemed to smooth out like he wanted to keep me calm. “But… Me, my wife, and her brother got them to change their minds and they left. Peacefully. Neither of our girls were even hurt.”

  Kormac sighed. “I called you out of courtesy since we had worked together in the past Gargan. But they didn’t say where they were going, and I didn’t ask. I also wasn’t totally against getting involved with her and her people. My kid is going to need peers on that side of things as she grows up. But I haven’t heard back from them yet. How do you… hang on Mac.”

  Kormac’s voice changed to something softer, and a lot more kinder, than anything I had ever heard from him before. “Sweetness, I’m on the phone… With an old friend. Yes, the father of the pretty lady your uncle went with, and you shouldn’t volunteer that you listened in on a private conversation that easily.”

  “Conceal the sources of your information, revelations should be reserved for tactical distractions.”

  I stopped breathing. “Kerwin… tell me all about this guy that ran off with my daughter.”

  My old partner made one of those err sounds. “I wouldn’t have described it like that. I’m sure it’s entirely innocent, or at least just professional. The boy is looking to make a difference around this part of the world and having a chapter of AIM backing him up would help with that. But then, they are about the same age… Hang on a moment.”

  After a moment Kormac spoke up again. “Yeah, sorry old man. But my wife says they were, and I'm quoting here. ‘Giving each other hot and heavy looks.’ But I swear he seems like a nice kid. Smart. Good lineage. Powers on par with my lovely wife.”

  I could feel myself getting upset as the wooden front portion of the bar cracked under my hand. I whispered to the bartender. “I’m good for it. Enough to replace the whole thing. Cash.”

  “Who the hell is your wife? And the guy who is… with my possible daughter.”

  Kerwin’s voice went muffled as if he was covering his phone with his hand, but I could hear him talking to someone… “Honey? Alright then.”

  “She is the daughter of Doctor Doom, and Dr. Susan Storm, the Invisible Woman. With all of Doom's intelligence and ruthlessness, as well as all her mother’s powers. Her brother is the same, although he seems more flamboyant, and he might be a nicer person... Ow. Joking dear.”

  Doom and…

  “I will never show up at your house without a direct invitation from your wife, or calling ahead to confirm her permission and that she is aware that I will be there.”

  Kerwin laughed. “That’s probably for the best… So if and when I hear from her or Gus, the brother, do you want to find out more about her? To get in contact?”

  I took in a deep breath. “I… it doesn't matter what I want. I am not a good person for someone to have in their life. I’m… mad, bad, and dangerous to know. Don’t contact me again, you got a family. But give the girl this email.” I rattled off one of the easy to remember throwaways I had set up. “If she is my kid, or want to find out for sure, or if she has any other reason that she wants to get in contact with me, I will leave it all up to her if she thinks it’s worth the risks.”

  Letting out a sigh, I added. “But you can tell her if she’s mine, I would risk anything to know her, and even if she isn’t my kid, she has my support and full permission to be a tribute Scorpion.”

  Hanging up, I peeled off several thousand in hundreds out of the roll from my pocket onto the bar. “That should cover the damage, and give me a tall shot of the best whiskey you have.”

  Sitting down, I held up my glass in a silent toast to a great night from… sixteen years back and threw back a few hundred dollars worth of premium Scottish whiskey.

  “God dam Kormac is whipped… and I might be someone’s dad.”

  I decided that if I did have a daughter, even if she didn’t want anything to do with me. I would be meeting this Gus guy and having a long talk with him.

  Looking at the dregs of my drink, I realized I was more afraid of meeting this girl, whoever she might be, than fighting Spider-man again along with every Avenger there had ever been, all at once.