Frostburn (Ultrahumans Book 4)

by Niall Teasdale

  ‘Uh… wow.’

  Twilight suppressed a grin, mostly. ‘Adamantium and Brightstar are staying the night on Wednesday.’

  ‘You’re just trying to make me jealous.’

  ‘Is it working?’

  ‘Yes,’ Skadi grumped, but any further comment was forestalled as Cygnus dropped into the alley with Doctor Ultimate in her arms.

  ‘Thanks for coming, Hugh,’ Twilight said as Ultimate was lowered to his feet. ‘It’s getting pretty late and–’

  He waved the thanks away. ‘I don’t actually sleep anyway. My brain won’t shut down. One of my secrets of learning so much when I was younger.’

  ‘Oh, but you still go to bed.’

  ‘Well, I need rest, so I lie beside Alice and think problems through. Sometimes, I admit, it’s a bit of a nuisance, but… And anyway, sleeping with Alice is something I am not prepared to give up. Now, what have we here?’ He began producing gadgets from various pockets and turned to the melting sculpture which had once been Bartholomew Hull.

  ‘His name is Barty, uh, Bartholomew Hull,’ Skadi said. ‘The police found a driver’s licence on him. He was about waist-deep in ice when I found him. It’s melting, obviously.’ Barty was now laid out on his back with his knees down and still encased in thick ice.

  ‘Thank you, young lady. Skadi, isn’t it? Red Huntress’s protégé?’

  ‘Yes. You’ve heard of me?’

  ‘Cygnus and Twilight have mentioned you.’ Ultimate began scanning a violet beam over the body. ‘You did good work during the riots here.’

  ‘Uh, thank you, sir.’

  ‘Hugh.’ Ultimate ignored the fact that Skadi was looking like her favourite rock star had just kissed her, or simply failed to notice. ‘Body temperature is close to freezing and rising. It makes time of death more or less impossible to determine since we don’t know what he was cooled to. I would say it was significantly below the freezing point of water.’ He glanced at one of the forensic technicians. ‘Would it be possible to cut away his clothing over the right side of his chest? I realise it’s not correct procedure, but–’

  ‘For you, Doctor, we’ll make an exception,’ the tech said.

  Ultimate smiled. ‘Why, thank you. Of course, you’ll get a full report on my analysis.’

  While the tech busied himself with a pair of scissors, Ultimate took another gadget and began scanning the ice block. ‘Hmm… uniform deposition… layered… Yes, this was a vapour deposition process. Water vapour in the air was directly frozen to his body. The process is similar to the formation of frost. Extremely rapid creation of frost.’

  ‘It’s definitely an Ultra?’ Twilight asked.

  ‘It is certainly not a natural process and, ah yes, as I thought.’ He indicated the area of chest now exposed. ‘You see the slight reddening of the skin there?’

  Twilight frowned, leaning closer and peering down. ‘It looks a bit like a handprint. Blurred, but… Yeah, a hand.’

  ‘It does. It’s essentially a burn. Heat was withdrawn rapidly from the body at this point, burning the skin. Obviously the burn pattern would tend to suggest a humanoid was the source of the effect. The blurring, I would suggest, is the result of working through the ice trap.’

  ‘Well, we thought it was an Ultra… This is the fifth body to turn up with evidence of exposure to extreme cold. It’s the second to turn up frozen.’

  ‘And it belongs to me.’ Everyone turned to see a man in a suit, another trailing behind him, marching up to the scene. Even before he introduced himself, he looked like UID.

  ‘Special Agent Brent,’ Cygnus said before he could make introductions. ‘How nice to see you again.’

  Brent just looked at her. ‘I’ll thank you to vacate my crime scene now,’ he said after a second or two.

  ‘You don’t want the help of the most intelligent man on the planet?’

  ‘I don’t need any help on this case.’

  ‘So you’ve got a suspect?’ Twilight said. ‘News to me, but the UID hasn’t exactly been cooperative on this one.’

  Brent’s eyes scanned over the body. ‘I’ve got a theory.’ He glanced at the crime scene people. ‘Our forensic team will be here in a few minutes to take over. You give them everything you’ve got.’

  ‘If that’s how you wish to proceed,’ Doctor Ultimate said, putting his scanners away. ‘Ladies, let’s leave this gentleman to his corpse.’ He waited until they were outside the police tape and then said, ‘I have full biological and physical scans, Twilight. I’ll analyse and report.’

  ‘Thanks, Hugh. I don’t want to take you away from–’

  ‘Pff! I could do that in my sleep. So you’ll likely have the report first thing tomorrow. I’m afraid it probably will not point at a specific culprit. I’m unaware of any Ultra with this modus operandi.’

  ‘No, but Brent seems to think he knows one.’

  ‘Indeed. Does that disturb you as much as it does me?’

  ‘I’m a little worried, yeah.’

  19th November.

  Jacob looked up as the door of interview room three opened, and then he frowned since it was Alan Brent who had opened it. ‘Alan? What gives? I was told Kent wanted–’

  ‘Kent organised the interview, but I’m doing it,’ Brent replied.

  ‘Interview?’

  Brent paused, considering, and then sat down opposite Jacob. ‘Turn of phrase. Not like you’re under arrest or anything. That said, where were you between twenty-three hundred Monday the eighteenth and zero one hundred on Tuesday?’

  ‘At home. I went to bed just after eleven. I was probably asleep for most of that timeframe. What’s this about, Alan?’

  ‘You were alone? Your little… Your girlfriend wasn’t there?’

  Jacob eyed Brent and frowned. Jacob had a long-held dislike of glory-grabbing Ultras, one which had caused some friction with Andrea on occasion, but with Brent it was something else: Brent was just prejudiced. ‘Twilight doesn’t live with me; we date. And she rarely spends the night.’ Actually, tonight was going to be the first time… ‘Wait a minute. Aren’t you on that serial killer case? The frozen bodies?’

  ‘And we had another turn up on Tuesday morning.’

  ‘I saw the reports on ACPN. What’s that? Five?’

  ‘Five people frozen to death by an Ultra who can apparently lower the temperature…’

  ‘And you’re looking at me? I’ve been cleared. After the flu thing there was no indication of Ultrahuman power in any of the tests.’ Which was true, but Jacob knew it was not the whole picture. There had been other times…

  ‘Yeah, so I’m told. I’m also told there are “unexplained variations in brain activity” and they haven’t completed the biochemical analysis yet. So we’re going to go over your activities for the times of the other deaths and see if we can’t eliminate you positively from this investigation.’ Brent smiled. It was meant to put Jacob at ease, and it failed thanks to the hard edge in Brent’s eyes. ‘Hey, last thing we want is for this to turn out to be one of us. I’m on your side, Jacob.’

  Oh, sure he was.

  ~~~

  A crate around ten feet on each side emerged through the wormhole, followed by Cygnus who was pushing it and continued to do so with some speed, clearing it from the landing site as quickly as possible. There was a slight pause before the second crate appeared with Adamantium behind it, his platinum body clad in T-shirt and shorts. Then a shorter gap between him and Brightstar.

  ‘Welcome to New Millennium City,’ Cygnus said. ‘June will take care of you while I go back for the third crate.’

  Brightstar smiled and looked up at the wedding-cake house while her boyfriend pushed his cargo to stand beside the first crate and Cygnus went back through the portal. ‘Well, this is… an interesting design for a house,’ Brightstar said.

  ‘Be nice, Ally,’ Adamantium said.

  ‘No, really. I mean… It was Zephyr’s, wasn’t it?’

  ‘That’s right,’ June replied. ‘Th
e bottom tier is the more public rooms. The gym is on the middle tier, and the master bedroom is at the top. You need to be able to fly or teleport, or something like that, to get to the top two floors. If I want to use the gym, Cygnus has to fly me up there.’

  ‘What about the bedroom? Surely you–’

  ‘We don’t use it. It’s far more convenient to use the ones on the ground floor and… Well, it reminds Cygnus of Bobby.’

  ‘Oh… Of course…’

  ‘Well, everyone else is inside. Come on in and we can get you settled. We’re putting the two of you in Twilight’s room for tonight.’ June turned and started for the front door.

  ‘I hope I haven’t put you out…’

  June flashed a smile. ‘Not really. Twi’s using it as an excuse to spend the night at her boyfriend’s place. Kind of a big thing. She’s never stayed over there before.’

  ‘He’s a normal, isn’t he? Or, most of the time.’

  ‘Jacob? Oh, Jacob’s not normal at all. Big, strong, and really nice. Actually he’s kind of like Adamantium, but a lot less silver.’

  Brightstar giggled, a somewhat girlish giggle actually. It was sometimes difficult to remember that the voice of the Union of Ultrahumans was only a couple of years older than June and a lot younger than her partner. Adamantium was twenty-eight years older, even if he did not look it; not that age was an easy thing to estimate in a man made of metal, and Brightstar always projected a mature image, older than her twenty-seven years. Right now she was dressed in a designer sleeveless mini-dress and a pair of pumps which gave her enough extra inches to match Adamantium’s height. Brightstar was a beautiful woman, but the push-up bra under the dress suggested to June that Alice was right: Brightstar was a little insecure, especially about her hold on Adamantium.

  ‘Just Adam will do fine, Miss Fullerton,’ Adamantium said.

  ‘Then I think you should probably call me June, Adam,’ June replied.

  ‘And I’m Ally,’ Brightstar said. ‘Alison, really, obviously. Everyone calls me Ally. Makes me feel like a small street sometimes, but it’s been Ally since I was in pigtails.’

  ‘I can’t quite imagine Brightstar in pigtails.’

  Another giggle. ‘I sometimes still do it. Don’t I, Adam?’ There was an embarrassed mumble from behind them and June joined the giggling.

  ‘You realise that proof that you two are a couple is very gossip-worthy, right?’

  ‘We’re trying to keep it on the down-low. It’s not actually a secret, just… private.’

  ‘Well, no need to worry about it here. We’re used to keeping secrets and we like our private lives private.’

  ‘Hmm, yes. It’s hardly public knowledge that Twilight has a boyfriend in the UID.’

  June nodded. ‘I think it would make life easier for them if it was, but Twi is worried about someone using it against her, and harming Jacob in the process.’

  ‘Another difference then. Anyone who can hurt Adam has to be trying really hard.’

  ‘Uh-huh. Jacob’s just a normal guy with a hot, shadowy girlfriend.’

  ~~~

  ‘And it’s a little surprising that your girlfriend had you transported off to the Union HQ so fast,’ Brent said. ‘Like she knew exactly what to do.’

  ‘She found me in a frozen room with a fever,’ Jacob growled. ‘She can recognise weird and she knew who to call. I was lucky she actually bothered to check on me, considering what the agency was doing at the time.’ Jacob settled a slightly malicious grin on his face and looked straight at Brent. ‘We keep coming back to Twilight and she’s got nothing to do with this. What’s the matter, Brent? You jealous?’

  ‘Of you and the freak? Like I’d–’

  ‘I don’t actually recall you ever mentioning having a girlfriend.’

  Brent absently buttoned his jacket closed and pushed down his own anger. ‘Maybe she knew what to do because she’s seen it before. Maybe you’ve had these “powers” all along.’

  ‘Don’t be an asshole.’ The questioning had been going around in circles for far too long and Jacob’s temper was starting to fray. It took a lot to do that. ‘They test for it when you join the agency.’

  ‘They tested you and found nothing, before and after. Maybe you can beat the tests somehow.’

  ‘Oh yeah. Sure. Right… Are you under this much pressure to close the case? The first body turned up months before I was dosed with Excelsior. Hell, I was in Antarctica when one of them happened!’

  Brent shook his head. ‘You were there when the body was found. And we’ve only your word for where you were for several days before that.’

  It was a point. Time of death was uncertain in all the victims and, if Jacob were honest, he had no idea what he had been doing before Andrea found him: he had been delirious, barely conscious. ‘So this whole thing comes down to you trying to prove I’ve been an Ultra all the time. Well, I’m not a damn Ultrahuman!’ Jacob slammed his fist down on the interview room table, metal and reinforced because sometimes the UID needed that in a table…

  And ice flashed out over the surface. Jacob pulled his hand back, eyes widening. He was vaguely aware that he had dented the surface, but that thought was washed away as Brent bolted to his feet, knocking over his chair, and Jacob looked up at him. Behind Brent, the one-way mirror of the interview room was frosting over.

  The door was thrown open and Caldwell was there, his pistol in his hand. Behind him was Kent, the field office supervisor. Kent looked at Jacob for a second and then he spoke. ‘This interview is terminated. Special Agent Dannon, return to your desk, and calm down.’

  ‘Yes, sir,’ Jacob said, getting to his feet.

  ‘You can’t just let him–’ Brent began.

  ‘We’ll handle this through normal procedure,’ Kent snapped. Then he stepped aside as a visibly shaken Jacob headed for the door.

  Normal procedure… Jacob knew what the normal procedure was. Brent had nothing to hold Jacob on, even with this outburst of power. There was still nothing to indicate Jacob had been an active Ultrahuman prior to his exposure to Excelsior. But that would probably not matter to the upper echelons of the UID…

  ~~~

  ‘This is bullshit, sir,’ Heather said, her tone rising toward full-on fury. ‘You can’t suspend Jacob over–’

  ‘It’s regulation,’ Kent cut in. ‘He’s a suspect in a murder inv–’

  ‘That’s even bigger bullshit! I know it. You know it. Brent’s just being a bigoted asshole.’

  ‘That’s enough, Special Agent. Whatever the facts of the case, Dannon has exhibited Ultrahuman abilities. The UID requires that all potential Ultrahumans be investigated pending possible dismissal from–’

  ‘Then you’d better suspend me too.’

  ‘I beg your pardon?’

  Heather glowered at her boss. ‘You’ve read my file. I was borderline for entry. “Unusual levels of cosmic energy emission.” I have full disclosure. I explained that it was just that I got lucky sometimes. That I tended to know about trouble a little before it arrived. They told me “thank you for telling us that, now never mention it again.” Jacob can’t control whatever power he’s got. Neither can I, so if you’re kicking him out, you damn well better do the same to me.’

  Kent frowned at her. ‘That’s entirely different. I’m assigning you a new partner. Shaver doesn’t have a partner yet. You’ll be taking him on so we can get him–’

  ‘No I fucking well won’t!’

  ‘Special Agent…’ There was a dangerous tone in Kent’s voice. Heather was pushing him and she knew it, but she was not going to back down on this one.

  ‘He’s not called “Randy” just because his first name’s Randal, sir. He’s hit on every intern and agent who he could get near and he’s not subtle about it. The only reason no one’s complained about him yet is because everyone thinks someone else will and he’s never tried it with me because Jacob glares at him whenever he comes near me. You give me that prick as a partner, you’ll have my resign
ation.’

  Kent’s jaw worked. ‘I suggest you go home and consider your position, Special Agent Bryant. I’ll expect you to start working with Special Agent Shaver in the morning.’

  ‘Damn right I’ll consider my position,’ Heather replied. She slammed the office door on the way out which made her feel a little better, but she knew what she really needed.

  ~~~

  ‘I’m jus’ saying,’ Heather said, slurring more than a little.

  ‘What are you just saying?’ Jacob asked. He was amused. He was surprised that he could be amused, under the circumstances, but amused he was. Heather had been matching him drink for drink, and he had sixty pounds on her. She was a little drunk, but she was making sense. That fact made Jacob suspect that he was a little more drunk than he thought he was.

  ‘I’m jus’ saying that we should look up… upon, look upon thish as an opportunity.’

  ‘You are drunk.’

  ‘I am not drunk. I may be a little tipshy, but I am not drunk. When I get drunk, I make passes at inappropriate men.’

  ‘Right…’

  ‘Ish an opportunity. We both resign before they kick ush both out, an’ then we go into business for ourshelves.’

  ‘Ourshelves, huh? We open a shop?’

  ‘No, shilly, we start a private detective agenshy.’

  Jacob shook his head. ‘You are so going to regret this in the morning.’

  ‘Only thing I’ll regret tomorrow is having to put my fist through Shaver’s face. No… Won’t regret that. I regret nothing!’ Heather fixed her green eyes on his brown ones and seemed to get suddenly serious. ‘Look, they’re railroading you and stiffing me. I will not work with that vagina-obsessed moron. He never should have made it through shelection. We’re both damn good detectives and we know Ultras. We shtart an agency, just the two of us. Advertise a speciality in Ultrahuman cases. Plenty of people see Ultras under their beds whether it’s true or not. It’s a USP.’

  ‘USP?’

  ‘Unique selling point. Makes us shtand out. Sure, we might end up doing a lot of divorce cases, but who doesn’t like snapping pornographic photosh?’

  Jacob smiled at her. ‘You know, that was pretty good. You barely slurred at all.’