‘Yeah, but then why did he set this one up in an almost empty building? Not going to kill many people that way. Anyway, he’s decided to make this personal, whether he thought he was doing that or not. If you feed us what you’ve got on the arsonist, we’ll do some digging.’
‘There isn’t much. He’s careful and the fires remove a lot of trace we might find. It’s too dangerous to check that tin, but I suspect he wiped it pretty carefully before planting it.’
‘Probably wore gloves to make it. Thermite isn’t skin cream. I’ll call Cygnus tomorrow and let her know what happened, but I don’t think there’s much point in them coming back early. Do you?’
Fire Bug shrugged. ‘If they can be here in half an hour if we need them, no.’
Miami, FL, 12th November.
‘You’re saying he set up that secondary device just to catch me and Dom in the flames?’ Cygnus asked, aiming her voice at the speaker on the room’s phone.
‘You can think of someone else who might be trying to get in via the roof?’ Andrea’s voice replied.
‘We have kept our absence from the city out of the news,’ Svetilo said. ‘Someone may have noticed me leaving, but Cygnus flew down under her own power.’
‘After doing a quick patrol and being nice and visible,’ Cygnus added. ‘To be honest, I think my radar sense thing would have spotted it before we opened the door, but I’m not absolutely sure. Be careful, he might try coming after you next, Andrea.’
‘Good luck to him on that,’ Andrea replied. ‘These fires must take quite some time to set up. I think you’ll be back before he sets another one. I don’t usually attend fires except as a bystander.’
‘Ah, but you have demonstrated your utility,’ Svetilo said. ‘You used the imps to find the trapped victims?’
‘Yeah. They could cover the ground pretty quickly.’ There was a muffled sigh. ‘I guess in large buildings there might be a case for me going in and using them again. As long as the power’s out anyway. My imps don’t like bright light.’
‘It seems odd that he picked an office building. So few potential victims at night.’
‘I did a little checking before I went to bed and one thing popped up. There’s an insurance company in that building which insured a lot of property in Churchton. They were in the news recently because they’ve apparently been invoking a clause in the agreements which precludes payment for riots. So someone could have a beef with them, but there’s also a couple of small law firms in there and someone could easily dislike a lawyer or two. And it doesn’t explain the switch from housing to business.’
‘You’ll keep digging?’ Cygnus asked.
‘Of course. The serial killer thing is a dead end right now. Anyway, I need to get to work.’
‘And we need to get out into the swamp. It’s Jennifer’s big day today. I can’t wait to see how she gets on.’
The Everglades.
‘You seem nervous, Jennifer.’ Ever was perched on the little jetty beside her hut, feet absently playing in the water. Jennifer was sitting beside her, with her legs crossed. This was partially because a trio of foot-long alligator juveniles were playing around Ever’s feet, and their mother was lying, mostly submerged in the water, a few yards away.
‘Well… yes, I suppose I am,’ Jennifer replied, watching the alligators. She appeared fascinated, if a little wary. They were taking a break; the shoot was going well enough, but both Rosanne and Svetilo thought something was missing and were trying to work out what.
‘Why?’
The question was so direct that Jennifer’s eyes widened. ‘Oh! Uh… Well, I’m not used to being dressed like this, or having so much attention paid to me, or–’
‘I find it somewhat difficult to believe that you do not receive attention. Especially from men.’
‘I… don’t encourage them. I wanted a career and men are a distraction. Especially the kind of men who are confident enough to come on to me.’
‘So you don’t flaunt your body.’
‘Certainly not like you do.’
‘I do?’ Ever seemed genuinely perplexed.
‘You never wear clothes!’
‘Ah. I’ve never understood why humans cover themselves up. Well, for protection, yes, but I’ve no need for that. I don’t flaunt, however. I simply am. You find my nudity discomforting?’
‘No. Yes, a little. I find my near-nudity more discomforting.’
‘Why?’
‘You like direct questions, don’t you?’
Ever smiled. ‘I find they tend to cut to the core of the matter. I’m an avatar of nature. Humans tend to circle around the truth a lot to save embarrassment and keep up appearances, and I have little time for it. Nature does not care for appearances, only results.’
‘Okay… I suppose I’m just not used to it. This isn’t how I normally behave.’
‘So?’
‘Sorry?’
‘No one is asking you to wander around naked at work or on the streets. Why did you agree to do this calendar?’
Jennifer frowned. ‘Well… It’s for a good cause, or causes. I suppose I was a little flattered to be asked. I mean, June is beautiful and Cygnus is… She’s got the same goddess-like quality you do. That they thought I could be in this is quite a compliment.’
‘Yes, I suppose it is. So, you have two beautiful women suggesting you should appear, and you believe in the causes, and no one is suggesting a change of lifestyle or career. You just need to step out of yourself a little. Hmm, you’re an engineer, perhaps a more practical view… Consider your body as a tool. You have good-quality equipment; it just needs to be used to best effect. Then, with the job done, you can put it away in the toolbox to be brought out again if needed.’
‘Uh… I… hadn’t thought of it like that. But what’s the best effect?’
Ever smiled. ‘Well, I had an idea about that…’
New Millennium City, MD.
‘And you expect me to pick one of these for the publicity material?’ Roger asked, his eyes on the screen of Andrea’s laptop.
‘Well, a couple would be better,’ Andrea replied. ‘Dom wanted your input on them since, you know, we’re putting a poster up in your shop.’
‘Well, yes, but it’s like being in a candy shop.’
‘I was never big on candy shops.’
‘You know what I mean. Picking just a few of these is practically impossible.’
‘That one,’ Zoe said, pointing at the screen. ‘For the shop anyway. That one’s perfect for here. Maybe not nationally, but here that’s perfect.’ The image showed Cygnus and Twilight in costume. One of Cygnus’s arms was around Twilight’s shoulders and Twilight had an arm around Cygnus’s waist. They were blowing kisses to the camera.
‘Okay,’ Roger conceded. ‘Yes, that one is perfect for the signing event.’
Andrea nodded, peered at the image number, and noted it down. ‘I thought it looked a bit posed, but I suppose… Yeah.’
‘You look really natural, actually,’ Zoe countered. ‘You can tell the two of you are friends. Friends wearing costumes that don’t really cover anything.’ She giggled. ‘But it’s not too risqué, which is probably important.’ Zoe pulled at the collar of her black T-shirt. ‘I mean, some of these are making me hot, and I’m strictly hetero.’
‘Huh. I know the feeling. Okay, we have one perfect one. Come on, we can do this. Just a couple more.’
The Everglades.
‘It’s perfect,’ Rosanne said, peering at the screen of her laptop.
‘It’s… not bad, I guess,’ Jennifer said.
‘Don’t be modest,’ Svetilo replied. ‘This is good work. You too, Ever.’
The image they had ended up with, after Ever had coaxed Jennifer through a few iterations, had Jennifer topless with one arm clutched over her breasts and the other outstretched toward Ever. Ever was in the water, with a couple of strategic inches of behind visible above the waterline, and had apparently stolen Jennifer’s bra. One of
Ever’s hands, the one not swinging the bra away, was raised with a wagging index finger, as if to say, ‘Oh no, you don’t need this and you can’t have it.’ To get the angle, Svetilo had had to hover over the water with Rosanne in her arms. The look of shocked outrage on Jennifer’s face was not entirely faked, but ten minutes after they had finished shooting, she was still topless.
‘Well, I guess it works,’ Jennifer conceded, ‘and it’s not actually that embarrassing if it ends up on walls in the office.’
‘I believe,’ Ever said, ‘that the picture has comic effect as well as the necessary erotic quality.’ She gave Jennifer a little smirk. ‘Your co-workers will be looking at you with new eyes.’
‘As long as they don’t forget I’m an engineer, I guess that’s okay.’ Jennifer looked around, appearing a little regretful. ‘So, that’s it? All done here?’
‘Unless you want to come and get naked in a mud hole,’ Cygnus said.
Jennifer raised an eyebrow. ‘Seriously? That’s your next shoot?’
‘Uh-huh. Last year it was me, June, and Ever in that pool back there behind the hut. This year, Ever’s found a mud hole so we can do more frontal work with mud to hide the naughty bits.’
‘Mud-coated nudity? What the Hell. Sure, why not?’
~~~
‘Okay, so that may have got a little out of hand,’ June said.
‘You think?’ Rosanne asked as she tried to rinse mud out of her hair.
‘I think it was fun,’ Susan countered, also trying to rinse mud out of her hair.
‘June started it,’ Cygnus put in. Her hair was not quite the bright white it had been since discovering the true nature of her powers.
‘I just threw it at you,’ June said. ‘You were the one who threw it at Dom, and she wasn’t even in the picture.’
‘Not then anyway. At least Ever had a pool without the mud to wash off in.’
‘I think of these things,’ Ever said. She was the only one not trying to get mud out of her hair; mud, it seemed, did not stick to Ever unless she wanted it to.
‘It was fun,’ Svetilo said. ‘We are not going to be able to use half the photographs, but it was fun.’
‘We are never going to be able to use the naked can-can line,’ Rosanne agreed. ‘Which is a shame, because it’s got everyone in.’
‘Da. Even you.’
‘That’s why we can’t use it. The framing sucks. I checked and you can’t see too much of anything. Censorship via legs, or mud, or muddy legs.’
‘Good thing the camera didn’t get muddy,’ Jennifer said. ‘That was fun, even if I’ll be washing the Everglades out of my hair for the next decade. I’m glad I did this. Thank you for the chance to.’
‘I’m glad you’re not going away unhappy,’ Cygnus said. ‘You know, since I was the one suggested you do it. Me and June anyway.’
‘Yeah,’ June agreed. ‘It would’ve sucked if you’d hated it.’
‘I didn’t,’ Jennifer replied, smiling. ‘I might even buy a skirt when I get home.’
‘You don’t have one skirt?!’
‘Nope. Jeans and a lot of slacks.’
‘Buy hose. It’s possible your legs could rebel if they’re not used to the exposure, and the last thing you need is rebellious legs.’
‘I don’t think you can have rebellious legs.’
June shrugged. ‘They used to say that about people flying…’
13th November.
‘Okay, here we are in the middle of nowhere. Why?’ Twilight looked around at the little clearing they had landed in with its long-rooted trees and sandy soil leading down into slowly moving water. ‘This is a mangrove swamp, right? I’m not exactly a Girl Scout, Cygnus.’
‘But you do recognise mangrove trees all the same,’ Ever said, emerging through a gap in the trees behind them.
‘One reason,’ Cygnus said, grinning, ‘is so you can meet Ever.’
‘Right,’ Twilight said, reaching up to remove her mask. ‘Hello, Ever. I’m Andrea Morgan, or Twilight.’
Ever took the offered hand. ‘It’s a pleasure to meet a fellow avatar, Andrea. Shadows, you know, are hardly an urban feature.’
‘I know, but I’m kind of a city girl. I’ve got the castle in Italy. Not much city there since it’s in the mountains, but I’m mostly urban. And the trees? I have good information retention and we watched a nature documentary about the Everglades. Mangroves are kind of distinctive. I doubt I’d recognise a cypress tree.’
‘Still, I’m impressed. Come, we’re set up a little way north of here.’
‘Set up for what?’
‘Beach shoot by moonlight,’ Cygnus replied. ‘Rosanne thought it would be cool to get all of us in it and I figured I could get you down here fast enough–’
‘Yeah, fast enough… Have you any idea how scary that is? What speed were we doing anyway?’
‘No idea.’
‘Okay, how high were we?’
‘About sixty-five thousand feet, according to my radar. Can’t break the sound barrier at low altitude.’
Andrea gave a shudder. ‘Like I said, scary. That’s coming from someone who makes a habit of scaring people.’ They walked out of the trees again, emerging onto a sandier stretch of open ground. ‘Is this Florida Bay?’
‘The open water is part of the Bay, yes,’ Ever replied. ‘And this is where we’re doing it.’
A little way up the beach, a small fire was burning in the middle of a few fallen logs which seemed to have been artfully placed by someone very strong. It was the dry season, but even so, it must have taken a while to find dry enough wood for the fire. People were visible there, illuminated by the low half-moon and the firelight. Even without it, Andrea would have recognised June, Svetilo, Susan, and Rosanne. June and Svetilo were naked, and Andrea got the impression she knew what the idea for the shoot was.
‘Not much for me to do here,’ Susan said as they approached. ‘You’re providing the make-up, Andrea.’
‘I am?’
‘Yes,’ Rosanne said. ‘One of the reasons I wanted you here is to control the way the shadows fall. You can make sure nothing’s too visible.’
‘And nothing is too hidden,’ Svetilo added.
Andrea glanced around to see Cygnus stripping out of her dress. ‘Okay,’ Andrea sighed. ‘I assume you want me out of this suit?’
Svetilo grinned. ‘Da. Always.’
14th November.
Andrea took a slug of wine from the bottle currently making the rounds and passed it on to Rosanne. It was the last night of the shoot and Svetilo had brought a few wine bottles with her; even if Ever was immune to the stuff and was only drinking to be sociable, they could celebrate the completion of another shooting schedule. The night was not cold and the fire was still burning to keep things comfortable. Above them, the stars were bright in the sky.
‘For someone who seems reluctant to take her clothes off for the camera,’ Rosanne said, ‘you seem really comfortable there.’
Andrea gave a non-committal shrug. ‘I live in a house full of women. And June is not exactly modest so if I was embarrassed about girl bits, I’d have moved by now. And there isn’t a camera pointed at me. You think you’ll actually use any of the shots from tonight?’
‘For December,’ Svetilo said. ‘We find the best of them and put it in for December page. It is like… saying goodbye to this year’s calendar.’
‘A wrap party,’ June suggested.
‘Da. Exactly. It is relaxed too. It is soft image for last month of year. Is my accent slipping?’
‘Just a bit,’ Susan replied, grinning. ‘Are you really thinking of making this an annual event?’
‘Da. June?’
‘What?’ June asked, blinking. ‘Oh, da. I mean, yes. Now she’s got me doing it.’
‘There is a little Russian in June, I think.’
‘You just wish. I think we could make this work annually. Maybe we should make the call after we see how this one sells.’
‘Well,’ Susan said, ‘I’m in, but make the decision sooner rather than later, yeah? Maybe I could have some real time to get things ready next year. We could even shoot in summer, though…’
‘Rain,’ Ever said, ‘might be a problem. I can keep it off to some extent, but upsetting the natural order is not something I like doing for trivial reasons. I would be happy to participate again. There are always places where money can be used here.’
‘And I guess the same is true of New Millennium,’ Andrea said. ‘But maybe we should look into some other projects. If we have the two big ones, plus a “guest” project.’
‘Last year we had Moon Coyote’s youth projects,’ Cygnus pointed out. ‘I mean, that was where she was spending her fee, but it was kind of linked. We put it on the info page at the back. If we could figure out something to get Mink to do it…’
June giggled. ‘You can see Mink doing a nude calendar?’
‘For the right cause…’
‘You’ve met her, da?’ Svetilo asked. ‘I have only seen a couple of pictures. Not good pictures.’
‘She’s certainly… pneumatic enough for this kind of thing,’ Andrea said. ‘Very attractive woman and her costume doesn’t exactly cover her major assets. If there’s a cause in San Francisco she’s interested in, I think she could be persuaded. And it would be a huge draw for the calendar. Like you said, no one gets good pictures of Mink.’
‘I’ll do some research,’ June said. ‘See what she might do it for. Though I think it’d put Lament’s nose out of joint, which might be enough to get Mink to do it just for that.’
Cygnus giggled. ‘Maybe. You heard the Stars got a new member? The Fox. She’s a sort of female Zorro, but she can project energy from her sword.’
‘That team is decidedly female-heavy. Fuego and Bonehead are going to get a complex.’
‘Well, a lot of teams are pretty male-dominated. So, we’re kind of done here? No more shooting?’
‘Da,’ Svetilo replied a little sadly. ‘We come out tomorrow to say proper goodbyes for another year. Then hard work begins.’
‘Production,’ June said, ‘marketing, all the boring stuff I don’t usually have to worry about.’
‘Just don’t forget Hugh and Elaine will be arriving on Monday,’ Cygnus said.
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