True Dark

by Niall Teasdale

  ‘Oh, she’s not going to be popular,’ Penny commented.

  ‘But,’ June said, ‘first female president and first Ultrahuman president. That has to be worth a few points.’

  ‘Maybe.’

  ‘In local news,’ the presenter said, ‘NMCPD officers and UID agents are on the lookout for a new vigilante operating in the Churchton area.’ Penny frowned. ‘Two men identified as probable muggers were found dead just off Lusitania Street. Details of the deaths are being kept back from the media at this time, but sources indicate that the men were killed by some form of directed energy weapon or power.’

  ‘Going hunting tonight?’ June asked.

  ‘Guess I am,’ Penny replied.

  ~~~

  Explosions and flashes of bright light filled the air, though from five thousand feet, the fireworks display at Friendship Park looked a little different. Such displays were, of course, designed to be viewed from the ground, but you still got a fairly good show and there was no crowding.

  ‘Even after flying with you,’ June said, ‘I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to this.’ She was in her Astraea costume, complete with blonde wig and mask, though it was a ‘just in case’ thing since there was no intention that she should stop any criminals tonight.

  ‘Maybe,’ Cygnus replied. ‘I didn’t think I would, but it’s kind of second nature now. Well, except when there’s something interesting happening.’

  ‘Like fireworks coming up to meet us?’

  ‘Like that.’

  Friendship Park was not the only place marking the holiday with a display of military ordnance. To the east, Fairhaven’s beach was being used as the launching point for a barrage of explosives. The Americas Trade Center tower, to the north, was blasting off rockets which exploded into red, white, and blue streamers. It even looked like someone had got some money together to put on a display in Churchton.

  Churchton was where they were going next, but not to look at the fireworks or to actually find the vigilante. If Cygnus spotted a masked crimefighter attacking criminals, then she would intervene, but the real aim was finding Skadi. If there was a rogue Ultra on the streets of Churchton, Skadi was likely to know about it.

  ‘I think I’ve seen enough explosions,’ June said after a minute or two. ‘Somehow, they don’t seem as impressive from above.’

  Cygnus flashed a smile and tapped her earpiece. ‘Denny, where are we likely to find Skadi?’

  ~~~

  Skadi was actually strapping someone’s hands behind his back with a plastic tie when Cygnus and June dropped to the pavement beside her. Clad in dark colours, including a hooded cape and a cloth tied over her lower face, there was not too much visible of the woman aside from her green eyes. She glanced up as the two costumed heroes arrived.

  ‘New costume,’ Skadi said, ‘and new partner?’

  ‘Astraea is just doing… sort of a ride-along,’ Cygnus replied.

  ‘I’m not really active yet,’ June said. ‘But he’s been a naughty boy.’ She indicated the man Skadi had cuffed. ‘Two muggings tonight, three last night. It’s not the robbery he feels guilty about, it’s the violence.’

  Skadi raised an eyebrow, largely hidden by her hood. ‘I’ve got an ambulance on the way for his latest victim. You two didn’t come out here for this though.’

  Cygnus shook her head. ‘Know anything about the bodies they found around here last night.’

  ‘I should do. I found them around midnight. And then I spent the next couple of hours explaining to the UID that an arrow doesn’t result in laser burns.’

  ‘That figures.’ Cygnus was scowling now. ‘Laser burns?’

  ‘Well, that’s what it looked like to me. Deep burns. And I mean the flesh was carbonised. Very tight focus. One of them was more or less cut in two. The other took a single hit to the chest. I doubt we’ll see the autopsy, but I think the beam drilled through his heart.’

  ‘So, maybe an Ultra, maybe an N-class with high-tech weapons.’

  Skadi nodded. ‘No way to call it from the evidence. Oh, there was something left with the bodies. Like a black business card with an embossed, um, kind of a starburst design on it. Black-on-black, so it was kind of hard to see.’

  ‘He’s claiming the kills,’ June said. She nudged Skadi’s mugger with a toe. ‘You should be thanking Skadi. If this new guy had seen you first, you’d be on the way to the morgue.’

  ‘Yeah,’ he mumbled, ‘thanks a whole bunch.’

  June shook her head. ‘Some people just don’t appreciate lucky breaks. See, we can do sarcasm too.’

  6th July.

  This time, Montgomery Hill had descended from on high to visit Jacob and Heather. He liked to work it that way when he had a job for them. There was something about walking into a private investigator’s office which was a little Raymond Chandler. It was kind of interesting to note that the head man of a shadowy conspiracy organisation in the city had a thing for hardboiled detective stories.

  ‘This may be a difficult one,’ Hill said as he sat down in front of Heather’s desk. They generally met in Heather’s office since Jacob tended to have the air conditioning turned down in his. ‘It’s an inheritance case, but we’ve already identified the inheritor, that was not a problem. Miss Janice Leigh Harper, twenty-eight, resident of Seattle in Washington State. A secretary. We determined her contact details and made initial contact. Before we could apprise her of her new estate, which is not inconsiderable, she vanished.’

  ‘How long has she been missing?’ Jacob asked.

  ‘To our knowledge, seven days. She has been reported missing by both her place of work and us, but the police have found nothing and we obviously require our own due diligence.’

  ‘We can look. After a week, I’m not sure we could find something the police haven’t already.’

  Hill gave a nod. ‘There will be a bonus for actually rediscovering Miss Harper, but our requirement is that we show good faith in attempting to find her.’

  ‘We’ll see what we can do,’ Heather said. ‘I think I’ve a way to reduce the expenses too.’

  ‘You do?’ Hill asked, adding an enquiring look.

  ‘Yeah, I happen to know a private air transport service that’s really convenient.’

  ~~~

  ‘You’re sure this isn’t a problem?’ Heather asked. Now that she was actually standing outside Cygnus’s house, she was more concerned that maybe she was asking a little much.

  Cygnus just grinned. ‘I’ve been meaning to try out a new flight configuration. This is a good opportunity.’

  ‘Okay. Good. I mean, it’s really convenient. We get there faster and we don’t have the expense of the flights. And I like the new costume. And hair.’

  ‘June had some time on her hands.’

  ‘Uh, what weight are you up to with this build?’ Jacob asked, looking at the case Heather was bringing and thinking of his own armour.

  ‘With this one, I max out around twenty-five hundred pounds.’

  ‘Oh, is that all,’ Heather said, waving a hand dismissively.

  ‘I’ve got no real offence and no super-strength. It’s all speed and protection from the environment. I guess I could ram something, but it’d probably kill me. You ready?’

  ‘As I’ll ever be,’ Jacob replied, putting his helmet on.

  ‘Okay.’ Stepping between them, Cygnus looped an arm around each of their waists. ‘Please ensure that your seats are in the upright position and your tables are stowed.’

  ‘What–’ Jacob began, and then they were rocketing upward. ‘You’ve got faster.’

  ‘But it’s so smooth,’ Heather countered. ‘The ground’s falling away like crazy, but I can’t feel the acceleration.’

  ‘I met a girl who can run at Mach four,’ Cygnus said. ‘I learned a little about mitigating acceleration issues. I haven’t even opened the throttle up yet.’

  ‘This isn’t fast enough?’ Jacob asked.

  ‘I can do better.’ They were
still accelerating, but Cygnus waited for her radar to indicate they had hit sixty thousand feet before she levelled out and willed herself forward. Suddenly the ground was rushing past at alarming speed and the western coastline was getting closer really fast. After only a minute or so, Cygnus put on the brakes and began to drop toward the sprawling city below them.

  ‘Coast to coast in sixty-five seconds?’ Heather said, sounding shocked.

  ‘Not that satisfying,’ Cygnus said. ‘I barely had time to enjoy it. I’m going to have to do some round-the-world fun runs. Or maybe I could take a trip out to the Moon.’

  ‘Just think what you could do for NASA,’ Jacob said.

  ‘They’ve never asked. Uh, I know I’ve got you here, but where are we going now? I’ve never been to Seattle. I have no idea where we’re going.’

  ‘I got us rooms in a hotel in Bellevue,’ Heather replied. ‘Uh, if we can drop down and spot some street names, I should be able to get us there.’

  Cygnus giggled. ‘Because that isn’t going to make the natives wonder what the Hell is going on.’

  Bellevue, WA.

  They were following 108th Avenue north at about eighty feet in the air when Cygnus came to a stop, frowning. ‘Do you hear… Sounds like jet engines.’

  ‘No,’ Jacob replied. ‘I– Wait, yes.’

  That was when something humanoid appeared from between two tower blocks, turning and braking. It was either a robot or a man in a powered suit, all in black and chrome with no obvious facial features. The noise was coming from a backpack-style unit mounted on the thing which seemed to contain at least a pair of jet engines. There was something mounted over its right forearm which looked like a weapon of some sort.

  ‘Vindicator,’ Heather said. ‘He’s the leader of the Seattle Watchmen.’

  Cygnus grinned. ‘Cool.’

  Vindicator, it seemed, did not think it was quite so cool. ‘Care to tell me what you’re doing flying over Bellevue?’ The voice was amplified and a little distorted by the suit, but Cygnus could still recognise Jonathan Patterson. It was not like the man hid his identity.

  ‘Looking for a hotel,’ Cygnus replied. ‘I’m not staying, just providing the transport. I’m Cygnus.’

  ‘Cyg–’ There was a shift in posture as Patterson relaxed and his suit shifted into a less-ready mode. ‘You’ve changed your costume. Threw the recognition software off. Hold on, you’re Frostburn.’ He indicated Jacob, who nodded back. ‘System says you’re an associate Union member. No point in you staying in some hotel. Come on over to the Watchtower. We can put you up for a few days.’

  ‘Sure,’ Heather said, flashing a smile. ‘Why not?’

  ~~~

  ‘Well, we can’t fly on our own,’ Jacob pointed out as they landed on the helipad which formed the roof of the Watchtower. The tower was built a bit like an oil rig in the middle of Lake Washington. The nearest land was three-quarters of a mile away. The structure rose to a good hundred and fifty feet above the surface of the lake with the majority of it right under the helipad. However, there were tubes leading down into the water between the four huge supports which suggested that there were underwater structures along with the ones above the waves.

  ‘Not a problem,’ Vindicator said. ‘We have three self-piloting helicopters which can ferry you anywhere in the area. We’ll sort out radio frequencies so you can call for one. Really, I know you’re only an associate member, but the Union looks after its own. You’re listed as a “cold environment resource” and believe me, it can get pretty cold around here in winter. Never know when knowing you might be useful.’

  Now on his feet, Jacob reached up and lifted his helmet free. ‘Well, I’m not going to argue it too hard. We’re here to locate a missing person. Maybe you guys have something that could help.’

  ‘We’ll go down, I’ll get out of this thing, and we can discuss it.’ The masked face turned toward Cygnus. ‘I know you said you weren’t staying, but you could at least grab a coffee before you go.’

  Cygnus grinned. ‘I can do that. Sure.’

  The interior of the tower was less utilitarian than the exterior, which featured a lot of steel painted for visibility to shipping, except for the top floor. The floor immediately below the helipad was a hangar deck with three futuristic-looking helicopters and a bay which Patterson used to get out of his complex, armoured suit. The process was automated and took less than a minute, and then he escorted them downstairs to a common room with seating, a couple of big screens showing muted news reports, and a small kitchen with the all-important coffee machine.

  Patterson himself was a relatively nondescript man. Brown hair and eyes, not unattractive with a round face dominated by a Roman nose. He was not especially tall – taller in his suit – and not especially fit. What he was noted for was his brain: not up to Doctor Ultimate’s standard, but Patterson was an engineer of some repute. He had built the Vindicator suit himself, from the boots up, and claimed that it gave him a way to personally give something back to the city which had made him a billionaire. He also financed the Watchmen and had arranged to have their HQ constructed.

  He sat there in a black jumpsuit, which he wore under his armour, sipped from a mug of coffee, and asked the obvious question. ‘Who are you looking for and why?’

  ‘It’s pretty mundane,’ Heather replied. ‘Jacob and I are PIs before we’re Ultras. I mean, I’m barely an Ultra. I get lucky sometimes. I’ve been trying to use it proactively, but it’s flaky at best. Anyway, our client is a law firm trying to give someone an inheritance. They managed to contact her, but before they could get the paperwork sorted out, she vanished. They’ve contracted us to find her.’

  Patterson sipped coffee again. ‘Interesting,’ he said, but he did not really seem to mean the case. ‘Uh, this person has been reported missing? To the police?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Well, the Watchmen have a pretty good relationship with the local police agencies. We can probably help you with that.’

  ‘That would be useful,’ Jacob said. ‘They’ll probably talk to us anyway…’

  ‘But a local contact would ease things,’ Patterson said, grinning. ‘We may be able to help in other ways, but they’ll likely be circumstantial. It occurs to me that if this inheritor is due to get a substantial amount…’

  ‘That’s what we were told,’ Heather said.

  ‘… then maybe her disappearance isn’t a coincidence.’

  Jacob nodded. ‘That occurred to us, yes. Personally, I hope it is a coincidence. She’s been missing for long enough that if she was kidnapped because of the inheritance, finding her alive is probably going to be impossible.’

  ~~~

  ‘This place seems a lot more complex than just a dispatch room for a few heroes,’ Cygnus said. She was standing in the Watchtower’s command centre, which did have a lot of screens and consoles and communications equipment, and also a view out to the north over Lake Washington.

  ‘That’s because it isn’t just for that,’ Patterson said. ‘We do a lot of geological monitoring.’

  ‘Geological?’

  ‘We’re responsible for a city that could have all sorts of problems with natural disasters. Mount Rainier is fifty-nine miles south-southeast of us. That’s an active volcano. It’s dormant, sure, but dormant volcanoes can wake up. You remember when Mount Saint Helens went up in nineteen eighty?’

  ‘I, uh, wasn’t born then.’

  Patterson grimaced. ‘Okay, yeah. I was two, but you’ve seen pictures and heard about the devastation it caused? Well, Rainier is twice the size and has a few other factors that’d make an eruption worse. Then there’s the Cascadia fault.’

  ‘I know that one too. That’s off the coast here and could produce a megathrust earthquake.’

  ‘Exactly, so we form part of a chain of earthquake-monitoring stations all down the coast. We even cooperate with Canada to keep watch on it. We hope we can give some warning if the fault is about to slip.’ Patterson gave a slight
shrug. ‘There’s probably nothing we can do to stop it, and we don’t know the warning will be enough, but…’

  ‘You have to do what you can,’ Cygnus said, nodding.

  ‘That’s why I built the suit. It’s my vindication for my success, my life. Seattle gave me a lot. I guess you feel the same way about New Millennium City.’

  ‘Hm, yeah. I guess I do.’

  New Millennium City, MD.

  ‘That’s a joke,’ June said. ‘This place has never done anything for you.’

  ‘I know,’ Penny said, covering her discomfort by stuffing pasta into her mouth.

  ‘You’ve spent your own money setting up a communications network for the city’s heroes. The police and fire departments were happy to join in with that, but it’s all based around equipment we got from the Union.’ June pointed a fork. ‘You owe more to the Union than you do to the city. The only thing the city ever did was rush to name you the city’s “protector” as soon as they knew Ultranova was dead.’

  ‘I know, but I still have the same imperative to protect people, see justice done.’

  June frowned. ‘I know. And now I think I’ve got the same thing. Or something similar anyway. You know, Astraea, the mythical one, was supposed to return at some point and that would be a portent of the return of the Golden Age. I mean, I don’t really think… It’d be a bit arrogant to think I was… I just have this feeling.’

  Penny grinned at her girlfriend. ‘I remember you telling me once that you didn’t think you’d be able to do it. Fight crime and stuff.’

  ‘And you said I would if I ever got powers. I guess you were right.’

  ‘Always am.’

  Redmond, WA, 8th July.

  Janice Harper had lived in a fairly standard apartment block in Redmond. Hopefully, at least as far as Jacob and Heather were concerned, she would be back. For now, the place was empty.

  Going there was something of a last resort. They had spent a lot of time talking to Harper’s friends and colleagues. They had heard more or less the same thing from all of them: Janice Harper was not the kind of girl to just skip out like this and had shown no signs of nervousness or distress before vanishing. The few who had known about the inheritance suggested she had seemed rather happy; the details had not been revealed, but she had been hoping for something nice at least. One person had mentioned a cabin Harper’s parents had owned out in the hills and that was the really last resort, but the apartment was closer.