The Gift, Part 2

The rooftop was cold, and the icy wind howled in off the lake and cut through Andy Parker like a knife.

He had been a beat cop and knew a thing or two about the cold, but this was something different altogether. He stomped his

feet, which the Flying Squirrel had already told him twice, was not the way to remain stealthy while

biting one's time on somebody else's rooftop, but he didn't seem to be able to stop himself.

Just as well, he was not the masked hero part of the equation and never pulled this kind of duty, he thought, except tonight.

It had been only a few hours since the villainous Santa bombs had been thwarted, but a great deal had happened,

and Parker had to admit that there were parts of it that he did not understand.

It had taken Tank Brody's surprisingly little time to get the driver to admit that he was a minion of the Nazi fifth column master who called himself Archangel,

who had been behind so many of their cases of late. That part had been clear enough,

and they had swiftly moved against the warehouse from which

the plot had been organized in the hopes of netting some bigger fish. Those prisoners had been

spared Brody's fists, but paid for it by spending time in the thrall of the Red Panda's hypnotic powers.

The assembled heroes and agents had their first real lead on Archangel himself,

and he was so close that Annie Parker could almost reach out and touch him. And still they waited.

I don't understand what we're waiting for, he said, not for the first time.

Patience, Andy, the flying squirrel said from her perch on the rooftop water tower, from which she watched the building across a street like a hawk.

"'All will be revealed.'

"'Does that mean that you don't know either?' he asked, before he could stop himself.

This wasn't like bantering with the other agents. This girl had some serious game,

and had seen more than he could imagine. But Parker had known her for years and considered her

a friend, secret identity notwithstanding, and it had just slipped out.

...