The Check-In by Adam Taylor

The Check-In by Adam Taylor

Sometimes people who receive gifts of extraordinary power do not use them for the benefit of all humanity. Most of the time, these people would be captured by the heroes or other forms of law enforcement and made to answer for their crimes. It would be inhumane to lock up most of these individuals for their entire lives so they will often have the opportunity to be paroled in the same way anyone else who is convicted of an offense that does not lead to life imprisonment would be.

This is where Theodore Altman found himself. He was an enforcer for one of the biggest names in organized crime operating out of New York City for decades. He was sent to capture a journalist who was looking into the affairs of the mysterious figure. Unfortunately for him, he decided to try and kill her at the moment where the world changed, hundreds of people received extraordinary powers, and the journalist would become the hero known as Excellence.

He was not totally out of his depth in the ensuing conflict because he was given powers of his own. He received the ability to control and create fire from out of his hands which just attracted more attention to his activities. Arson is hard to hide, especially when there is no traceable origin of the fires he would set. Following an investigation and a fight in a warehouse that caused the public outing of the existence of Excellence, he was captured and imprisoned in a new section of Rikers Island designed to hold those with dangerous endowments. He was sentenced to four to seven years in prison and released on parole after four.

The prison on Rikers Island where they held the endowed was basically a repurposed basement where the detainees were held with minimal amenities, even for the standards of the facility in question. Because the technology designed to limit the use of endowments was fairly new when he started his incarceration, he and the others were limited to living in their cells 24 hours a day. For the duration of his incarceration, he only ever interacted with the guard who brought him food but beyond that, he sat in virtual solitary confinement. He was in no rush to return to that life.

Part of the terms of his parole were that he would report monthly to an office in lower Manhattan to meet with his parole officer. This was mostly administrative and almost entirely designed to just make sure that parolees were following the most basic of directives from their parole agreement.

The waiting room of the parole office was strictly utilitarian. There was nothing to indicate what its use was and the sterile lighting reflecting off industrial gray-painted walls just added to the sense of unease that anyone walking in would have. Theodore walked into the room and directly to the sign-in sheet. He did not pay any mind to the other person in the room, partially because he saw that man there every week and partially because he just wanted to get out of that room as quickly as possible every week. He signed the paper, noted the time, and sat at one of the empty benches in the room.

After about ten minutes, the other man got up from his seat, adjusted his large coat for a second, and moved next to Theodore. “What brings you here?” The man asked Theodore.

Theodore sighed and pulled up the sleeve of his jacket, revealing a small device on his wrist with a blinking green light. “What do you think?”

The man laughed and pulled his sleeve back too, revealing an identical band. “I kinda figured, I was just curious as to what you did to put you here in this room today.”

Theodore waved his hand dismissively at the man. “None of your business.”

“I’m not going to argue that, I was just curious.” The man said, holding out his hand. “Name’s Phillip Rowley, they call me the Technomancer on the news. I could probably get that band off you.”

“Seems like an entrapment scheme if you ask me.” Theodore said, looking away from Phillip.

“So what then, you’re just going to give up this part of yourself forever?” Phillip asked.

Theodore considered this for a moment. “I went this long without my abilities, I can probably go the rest of my life without them.”

“You won’t be answering to anyone once that thing is off.” Phillip said, gesturing at the device on Theodore’s wrist. “Consider me your fairy godmother, a snap of my fingers and it could be off you. Well, not off-off, it would still be on your body but it would be deactivated while registering as working to those that matter.”

Theodore weighed this for a moment. “I’ll let you know. I got a second chance, I don’t want to just take the shortcut and go back to what got me into this mess in the first place.”

Phillip smiled and produced a business card seemingly out of nowhere. “Well either way, keep me in mind.” He handed Theodore the card and Theodore shoved it in his pocket.

Just as Phillip stood up to leave, a short balding man in a suit came out of a door on the far side of the room. “Who are you here to see?” He asked without focusing on either person.

“I’m here to see you? Didn’t I have a check in scheduled for today?” Theodore asked.

The man sighed. “Not you, I know why you’re here.”

Phillip turned towards the exit. “I was just leaving, I was looking for a bathroom.”

“In the parole office?”

“Is that what this is? You’d think they’d have a sign in the lobby or something.” Phillip said as he walked towards the exit. “My apologies, I’ll just be leaving.”

The man turned around to open the door he walked out of. “Altman, let’s go.” He said without looking at Theodore and gestured towards the door. Theodore walked up behind the man and into the room.

Somehow the atmosphere of the room he walked into was more oppressive than that of the waiting room. Beyond the fact that he was trapped with no avenue for escape, the only thing on the walls was a department year-long calendar. The desk was old, apparently holding itself together, and the computer that sat upon the desk did not appear to have been made that decade. The man, Parole Officer Kincaid who was assigned to Theodore’s case, sat opposite Theodore and slowly started pecking out some words on the keyboard. “Anything new to discuss?” He asked without looking up.

“Nothing new.” Theodore said, looking down at his fingers in his lap.

“Still at the same address?”

“For now. The job hunt has been tough. I don’t know how I’m going to make rent this month.” Theodore looked down at the floor as the weight of saying what was bothering him out loud hit him. The economy wasn’t great and getting a job with a criminal conviction was hard enough. He had taken a few odd jobs here and there but was barely scraping by. Since the construction and landscaping jobs had dried up and there was a distinct lack of snow, he was going days without work.

“Is your landlord aware of this?” Officer Kincaid asked without looking up from his computer.

“I haven’t told him yet. I had an interview at a supermarket but that did not quite pan out.”

“Why not?” Kincaid asked.

“I mean the interview went great, then I filled out the online disclosure about my offense and they withdrew the offer. I thought they couldn’t discriminate against people with criminal convictions in New York?” Theodore said.

“They can if they think that hiring the person would present an undue risk to their business, employees, or customers. People who have powers tend to fall into that category. You also were an enforcer for a criminal organization and escaped custody in the past, even if you didn’t have powers I’d have reservations about hiring you” Kincaid said, again without looking at Theodore.

“But theoretically if I’m out on parole wouldn’t that mean I’ve been deemed to be rehabilitated enough to go back into society with supervision?” Theodore asked.

“Theoretically yes but you have to consider it from the perspective of the person running the business. Plus, I’ve been at this long enough to know how often people end up violating their terms and going back to prison.” Kincaid finally looked up from his computer to meet Theodore’s line of sight causing Theodore to look away.

“Do you have any advice?”

“Advice about what?” Kincaid asked.

“Advice about finding a job. I’m running out of resources and if I can’t make rent I’ll be homeless. Are there any resources available?” Theodore asked with a tinge of anger invading his voice.

“Well I don’t have anything for you, nor is it my job to. What happens if you can’t make rent?” Kincaid asked, attempting to feign interest and failing.

“I’d probably have about a week to come up with it before I am kicked out of the house and I’m homeless,” Theodore replied.

“You’re definitely going to need to find a job or come up with that money somehow. It’s against the terms of your parole to be homeless.” Kincaid said.

“So what is your role then? Shouldn’t you want me to become a functioning member of society?” Theodore asked, anger rising in his voice.

Kincaid leaned forward in his chair, focusing his full attention on Theodore. “My job is not to babysit you or to be your life coach. My job is to make sure you are following the strictest interpretation possible for the terms of your release. If you don’t, my job then is to make sure I get your parole revoked and you serve out the rest of your sentence incarcerated. My goal is to keep the public safe and whether I do that by throwing you in the deepest hole I can find or by making sure you’re following all these rules to the strictest interpretation, my goal will be accomplished.”

“But what about me?” Theodore asked.

“What about you?” Kincaid repeated. The question hung in the air between them like an unwelcome guest as Kincaid turned back to his computer and continued typing. “You should have thought about this before using your gifts for personal gain.” Kincaid said without looking up.

This was not the first time someone had offered Theodore this advice. To call it advice was generous because he always considered it to be in the same category as “you’ve made your bed now lay in it.” He knew he shouldn’t have tried to kidnap Victoria, he knew he shouldn’t have worked for the largest organized crime syndicates in the city for as long as he did, he even knew he should have gone to trade school to be an electrician like he always planned but at this point, all these shoulds were as useless as the resume he was trying to use to get hired since he had that felony record.

“So all you can offer me is the advice to not get evicted?” Theodore asked, allowing a shade of defeat into his voice.

“That’s all I need to do,” Kincaid said, turning from his computer to a large calendar that hung on the wall and served as the only piece of décor in the office. “Come back in two weeks, we will discuss your progress.”

“If I’m not homeless by then,” Theodore said under his breath, mostly to himself.

“Well in that case you’ll see me sooner,” Kincaid rebutted. “And don’t worry, you will have a place to live shortly after.”

Theodore stood up and pushed the chair in before walking back into the main reception area and out of the building into the busy street. A thought crept into his mind, one word that he had considered before and was hanging in front of him like a physical obstacle.

Run.

Sure the dampener he had on his wrist served as a tracking device but that couldn’t be hard to remove could it? He hadn’t heard of anyone breaking out of them before but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be the first. He held his arm out in front of him, rolled up his sleeve, and inspected the device as he walked with no real sense of direction but just knowing his goal was the bus terminal. That was when someone from behind put their hand on his shoulder.

“So have you considered my offer?” The familiar voice asked and Theodore could imagine the smile on the man’s face. “Either way you should hide that and not display it in the open like that. Don’t need to start a panic here do we?”

Theodore rolled his sleeve back down to conceal the device and looked back at Phillip who had now followed him down the street. “Why the obsession with me helping you? There are thousands of people like us who aren’t in my situation that would be willing to help you.”

Phillip picked up his pace slightly to keep pace with Theodore. “You have experience that a lot of others do not have. Experience that I found very valuable in this situation.”

“What experience is that? I’ve fought one of the deputized endowed and I lost that fight.” Theodore said.

“You lost but that loss is significant. No one has gone toe-to-toe with Excellence before or after. I mean other people have fought her but no one almost put her down the way you did. You exposed a weakness in her and the powers that be know that.” Phillip clasped his hands together, allowing the excitement to overtake him. “Don’t you want that revenge? She took your life away. I read your file you know, I bet I know more about you than you do. Did you know they did tests on you in the days you were unconscious and in custody after your little spat?”

“I had a feeling,” Theodore said, rage starting to bubble up. “Listen, I have enough problems right now without getting caught up in your nonsense.”

“So you’re on parole right?” Phillip asked.

Theodore sighed. “You met me in the parole office remember?”

Phillip shrugged. “Just making conversation.”

“Look, I don’t want to be an accessory to murder,” Theodore said, stopping short and looking directly at Phillip.

“And I don’t expect you to be. I don’t think our goal should be to kill Excellence but it would be nice to have someone who can incapacitate her on our team should things not go well.”

Theodore raised his eyebrow, his interest piqued by this mission that Phillip was ambiguously proposing. “And what exactly is the plan? And what would I get out of this arrangement?”

“There’s a storage facility in Queens that houses an experimental weapon designed by a collaboration of some of the greatest scientific minds alive today. Its existence is highly confidential and we can steal it.” Phillip clasped his hands together in excitement.

“With no due respect, I think you’re full of shit,” Theodore said and started walking again.

“Why?” Phillip asked, chasing him down.

“First off, you can control technology to the point where you can access confidential information so if this is for money or something you should theoretically just be able to steal money in a boring and untraceable way. Why do something so bombastic if this isn’t some kind of setup? Secondly, what is your plan with said weapon if you get it? Use it on people? Hold the world hostage? Third, if this was real, why would you be discussing it in the middle of a crowded city street?” Theodore asked.

“I mean how often do you pay attention to other conversations that happen on the street around you? Millions of people, all living lives as complex as yours, none of which you care about beyond the passing acknowledgment that there may be someone there,” Phillip said.

“Honestly that was the least important of the questions I asked,” Theodore said.

“I don’t plan to use it, I just plan to bring it to people’s attention. You drop a bunch of documents on the internet and people either ignore it, call it fake, or the feds immediately shut it down. You steal the real thing and provide physical, irrefutable evidence that something exists and you’ll bring about change,” Phillip said, continuing to follow Theodore.

Theodore stopped short and turned back to look at Phillip. “So you’re an altruist then?”

“Oh god no, I plan to live a long, long, time and live in luxury the whole time. That’s not going to happen if there is a potentially world-ending superweapon hiding under a warehouse in Bayside,” Phillip replied.

“So what do I get out of all this? If we are running the risk of some of the deputized endowed interfering I feel like there’s some element of risk,” Theodore asked.

“Money means nothing to me at this point. Like you said I can just get more with my powers. I’ll make you wealthy beyond your wildest dreams,” Phillip offered.

Theodore considered this. It would solve all of his financial issues and with his dampener disabled, he could disappear when this whole thing was over. One thing nagged at him though and it came to the surface in the form of a question. “If this weapon is so dangerous, why would the deputized endowed interfere to keep us from revealing its existence?”

“The endowed who have been deputized do their best to keep people safe from the world of people like us who threaten their safety. Unfortunately, the definition of threatening safety has been expanded to include the safety of the entire system we live in.”

Theodore stopped and turned to Phillip. “And what if this goes south?”

“It won’t.”

“You can guarantee that?”

“No one can guarantee anything in life but this is as close to a guarantee as you’re going to get. Besides, what’s your alternative? Continue applying for grocery store jobs? Hope the minimum wage keeps up with rent prices? The solution is to come with me, make a difference, and then disappear into the night with no one the wiser.” Phillip said, holding out his hand. “Now do we have a deal?”

Theodore hesitated, only for a second before shaking Phillip’s hand. “I’m warning you, if you screw me on this, I won’t hesitate to show you why I went away. Now when do we start?”

* * * * THE END * * * *
Copyright Adam Taylor 2025