There was a brief pause as we regarded each other, which I broke. “Archangel – you don’t mind if I call you that, do you?”
“Ah, a tactic to dehumanize me in front of our viewers! No, you can call me that, it is indeed one of my many names and titles, such as my Purple Heart or Medal of Honor – or you could call me ‘Vice Admiral’, also from my Navy service. If I was still operating out of the Department of Homeland Security, you could have called me ‘the Deputy Secretary of the DHS’, although now my official title is ‘Director Saxon-Waite of the Mayfair Group’, an independent consulting agency working with the DHS. Of course my two children just call me ‘Daddy’ and my wife calls me ‘Michael’, but those are probably a tad informal given that you are weighing whether or not to kill me for defending humanity against your kind.” He leaned back, his sherry in his hand, and regarded me with amusement.
I replied coolly. “No, a tactic to keep reminding myself that despite all the other things you just said, you happily murdered an American citizen on American soil who had not yet done anything to even remotely warrant it.”
“He would have. You said you had questions? We have nine minutes left until law enforcement, who I can only imagine is already waiting on the other side of that door”, he gestured with his drink, “come in and take us both into custody – if I am still alive then.”
I glanced at the clock on the wall so I would know when to expect company. “Since time is short, just one: if I was willing to permit you to live today, would you make a promise and swear to me that you will never harm Quantums who have themselves harmed no one?”
This time Archangel laughed outright. “Bravo, Arbiter. Now if I die, it will be because I did not take your deal. But before I say whether I will or not, I have a few things to say.”
I interrupted him, “If those doors open before you accept my deal, your time will have run out.”
“Then I shall be quick.” he replied. “You see, there are some things that the world does not know that it deserves to know.”
“If you reveal my identity or put anyone I care about in danger, you’re signing your immediate death warrant.” I warned him.
“That’s not what I intend to say, though it’s fascinating how comfortable you feel using your Quantum powers to get your way – not surprising, more expected – just like Jack Boynton would have, if we had given him the time.”
“Jack was a very different man than I.” I stared at him. “And your time is still running out.”
Archangel for the first time dropped his smile. “Then let me come right to the point of the matter. There are Quantums out there the public does not know about. A genius serial killer who calls himself Sunyata, for example, who was spotted at the George Washington Bridge just moments before it suffered a complete catastrophic failure. Another Quantum whose name is unknown is traveling across the country as we speak, charming people out of their possessions and taking advantage of his powers of persuasion to rape any attractive woman he finds. There’s the California Quantum who broke herself and her four inmate friends out of maximum security prison and is currently at large, whereabouts unknown. Of course, let’s not forget about Kiza Kazadi who has deposed the official government of the Congo, turning it into his private kingdom, I shudder to think what is going on there right now. I would go on to name more, but we haven’t the time.
“You ask me to swear to you that I won’t harm Quantums? Why don’t you instead swear to me that you will work for this agency to put an end to these people?” Archangel leaned back in his upholstered chair, apparently finished.
I leveled a serious gaze at him across his desk. “I will indeed work with you to stop any Quantum that does evil – if you first swear that you will not harm any Quantum that does not. But you must promise me that your activities of harming Quantums before they have earned it are over, and you must do so right now. Otherwise I cannot permit you to continue to be a threat to those who don’t deserve it.”
“I am not saying it is their fault,” replied Archangel softly, “but anyone with the powers of a Quantum will eventually use them on humans evilly. Power corrupts. Quantum powers corrupt absolutely.” He stood then, continuing “I will not subject myself to any oaths to you, sir; you haven’t earned the right to my oath. You are just a powerful bully trying to compel me to obey you, and you have failed in that. We now have only a minute or two left. What will you do? Murder me or slink away?”
I also stood. My next actions would be a turning point for me, and likely much more than just me, and I knew it. Time was running out. If I made him a martyr, in front of our live audience, that would set off a serious and unstoppable chain of events that I couldn’t predict. But if I left Archangel alive to do as he wished, not only was I leaving all innocent Quantums in extreme danger, but I could never again expect any person to take my threats seriously.
It again came down to the same question as before: how far would I go to make things better? If doing good required that I do evil things, was I willing?
I had to decide, right then, not just about Archangel in the moment, but if I would embrace using whatever dark act that was necessary, from that point on. For as terrible as killing Archangel in cold blood might be, it would be a thousand times worse to kill him and give up later. And I knew he knew that I would realize this – that my decision would be about not just him, but about the rest of my days.
Time was almost up. I took a deep breath and spoke, not to Archangel, but to the world.
“You are being asked to judge this man, and you are being asked to judge me. I suspect that he accepts your judgment, and so do I – but that won’t change anything.
“When I say something, I mean it. That’s why Michael Saxon-Waite must now die.”
Archangel’s eyes widened slightly, as though he hadn’t really expected me to go through with it, but he squared his shoulders.
In the next instant his soul was ejected from his body, decohering and falling apart almost instantly. His corpse fell, uninhabited.
I turned back to the camera. “People can disagree about ethics and morality, and about what constitutes Justice, but the ones with the most power usually get their way. I think right now that is me. You can disagree with me, and I will not harm a hair on your head. You can debate me, and I will converse with you and try to understand your positions – if you give me the same courtesy. But never, ever, disobey me. Because I will use the gift I have been given to make the world a better place, even if that means without you in it.”
I paused, about to say more, when the doors at that moment thunked, then opened quickly. A SWAT team entered the room and I turned to them to greet them, but was cut off by the bullets they fired into me.
The pain tempted me to teach humanity another lesson, but I let it go, zipping back to my room and retaking my body.
And with all we had said and done spreading like wildfire across the internet, chaos erupted around the globe.