‘Oh yeah. I can’t wait to show it to Jacob. He’s probably going to have a fit. Two fits. The apoplectic one will follow the drooling, incoherent one.’
‘Huh. Okay, so that’s the place?’ Cygnus looked down at the alley below them. ‘Looks just as quiet as you said. Nothing moving.’
‘Yeah, so it’s not a night-time thing. Mind you, I guess it’s Saturday. It could get active on weekdays.’
‘Possible.’
‘Fly us down. I want to check the area down there.’
‘What if he’s got cameras down there?’
Twilight frowned. ‘If he does, he possibly saw me last night, but I didn’t see any cameras. If they’re there, they’re hidden fairly well.’
‘Fair enough.’ Cygnus looped an arm around Twilight’s waist and they stepped over the edge, floating gently down to street level. ‘Any idea what we’re looking for?’
‘Not really. Magic runes, some sort of… laser grid or something. He’s got something that wards against shadow imps.’ There was a slight pause and then, ‘Andrea says we should look for any other evidence that the place is occupied. Maybe you should try your psychometry thing on it too.’
‘I can give it a go, but it’s an alley. I wouldn’t get your hopes up.’
The alley looked much the same as it had the night before, just brighter. Twilight looked down the steps to the door at the bottom and then along the wall, searching for any sign of something strange or out of place. Cygnus walked slowly over to the steps, trailing her fingers over the wall as though she was trying to feel something in the grey-painted concrete.
‘I don’t think there are cameras,’ Cygnus said. ‘Possibly to hide the fact that it’s in use.’
‘Or because it isn’t,’ Twilight said.
‘Or that.’ Cygnus began walking down toward the door.
Twilight’s eyes narrowed and she stepped down too, running her fingers over the paint. ‘There’s something here. Like a row of runes. Someone used the same coloured paint to draw them out, but it’s fresher, smoother. You can just see it if you look closely. And I can’t sense any shadow beyond them.’
‘Well, that’s something, I–’ Cygnus’s fingers brushed the door as she looked back up at Twilight, and she stopped as a sudden flash of images sprang through her mind.
‘Cygnus?’ Twilight asked, looking concerned.
‘Three women. Girls. Tied and gagged. They were… carried down by six men. I’m not getting much in the way of details on the men. The girls were afraid, terrified. They didn’t know what was happening to them.’
‘When?’
‘Not sure. Less than a day.’ Cygnus looked at the door. ‘If we go in now, we might save them from whatever was going to happen.’
‘But it’s more likely we’re too late and we have no idea what’s waiting for us in there. And I can’t bring in demons to help.’
‘We’re going to have to wait. I don’t like it, but we have to.’
Twilight nodded. ‘I’ll call Shaftsbury and see if he knows how to get around these wards. He’ll want to know how Kopf has been hiding from the Court anyway.’
Cygnus started back up the stairs. ‘Okay. For now, we back off. Let’s get out of here before someone does see us.’
~~~
Cygnus and Twilight crouched atop another rooftop, this time in South San Francisco, looking across at what looked like a distribution warehouse. Indeed, it was the registered address of a logistics company, but that was partially why Bianca had tagged it as a potential lab site.
‘Swift Wind Logistics has cropped up before when I’ve been looking into the Nine Kings tong,’ Bianca said over their headsets. ‘It’s owned by a bunch of shell companies that lead up to Zhu Holdings. Zhu Lei is a businessman who seems to be pretty high up in the Nine Kings. Not that you’d know it from his public face. He’s a rich Chinese guy with his finger in all sorts of business enterprises.’
‘Well,’ Twilight said, ‘I agree with Cygnus’s assessment. There’s a little too much activity over there for eight o’clock on a Saturday night. I mean, logistics. They might be busy, but there doesn’t seem much in the way of large trucks, or small trucks for that matter. And the people visiting don’t look the type to be turning up to a logistics warehouse.’
‘You mean they look like they belong on a street corner, peddling drugs?’ Cygnus asked.
‘That. Yeah. I’ll send in the imps.’
‘Those things give me the creeps,’ June commented over the radios once two of the little creatures were on their way.
‘They’re kind of supposed to,’ Twilight replied. ‘Primal fears of the dark and all that. Just be happy you haven’t seen their big brothers.’
‘Only when I sleep alone. Fairly sure I’ve seen them in nightmares ever since that one attacked Cygnus.’
Cygnus shuddered. ‘That was unpleasant.’
‘The imps are useful for scouting,’ Twilight said. ‘It’s a shame they’re not much use in the light, but at night they’re pretty great.’
‘And these things are how your Shadow Court uncovers everyone’s secrets?’ Bianca asked.
‘Pretty much. They have human agents too. The imps are stealthy and they can get anywhere dark enough for them, which is most places at least some of the time, but they’re not too bright. Sometimes you need a person on the job. And they do a lot of research to target their more direct methods. It’s a bit like the CIA or the NSA. A lot of the people in the Court are intelligence analysts.’
‘How long are they going to take to look around the place?’
‘Um… Do you have some string we could measure? Depends on what’s in there, how much shadow they have to work with…’
It was, in fact, twenty minutes before the imps returned to their mistress to report. Cygnus watched with a bemused expression on her face as the little monsters gibbered at Twilight, who seemed to understand what they were saying, even if it mostly seemed like the creatures were just making noises.
‘Okay,’ Twilight said, ‘it looks like we’re on to something. From what they’ve seen, we’ve got a chemical lab set up in the basement, and packaging is done in one of the back rooms.’
‘You know,’ Cygnus said, ‘those things do not look like they’d recognise chemistry gear if they saw it. How do you get that?’
Twilight grinned and looked at an imp. ‘Show Cygnus the chemical stuff.’ There was a gibber. ‘Go on, she’s not going to bite.’
Looking a little sullen, if that was possible, the imp turned its red eyes on Cygnus and gibbered… And Cygnus saw images. Large tanks with pipes in and out of them, more distinct chemical apparatus on benches, men in white coats monitoring equipment. ‘Oh!’ Cygnus said. ‘That’s… Uh, thank you.’
There was gibbering and Cygnus heard, ‘Mistress told me to.’
‘It’s some sort of telepathy,’ Twilight said. ‘You have to actually hear them chattering, and they have to hear you speak, but it’s like the words leap into your brain. And they read the intent behind what you say, even if they don’t actually understand English.’
‘Right. So this is a lab, and those images suggested opiates.’
‘They’re manufacturing their enhanced heroin again,’ Bianca supplied. ‘That stuff’s not much better than Excelsior.’
‘All right, so we take it out. We’re going to need filter masks.’
‘And Mink. I’m not sitting this out.’
Cygnus frowned, but she said, ‘Okay… So Twi stays here to keep an eye on things. I’ll fly back for you and the equipment.’
‘I get all the fun jobs,’ Twilight said with a sigh.
~~~
June was busy examining Bianca in her Mink costume when Cygnus got down into the basement. Cygnus paused for a second to take in the view as well.
‘I feel like I’m being examined under a microscope,’ Mink said.
‘I like it,’ June stated. ‘The make-up mask idea is great.’ June turned to look at Cygnus. ‘She
has a machine that sprays it on.’
‘You would like that costume, love,’ Cygnus replied. ‘She’s more or less as naked as I am.’
‘There is that. This mink’s fur is pretty sexy. And it’s the same bioplastic as your suit so it won’t slip. Who designed it for you, Bi– uh, Mink?’
‘Combo effort,’ Mink replied, grinning. ‘I designed it with Elaine. She did most of the technical work. And she’s responsible for the big hole in the front. I was aiming for something a little more subtle.’
‘I had a thought,’ Cygnus said. ‘Once we bust this place, the cops will turn up and Mink shouldn’t be there when they do. How are you getting back?’
‘Oh, I have that covered. By the time we’re finished there, I’ll have transport.’
‘Okay. Cryptic, but okay.’
Mink flashed her an apologetic grin. ‘Sorry. I’m so used to being mysterious in this outfit, I can’t stop myself.’
~~~
‘Okay,’ Twilight said once Cygnus and Mink were on the roof beside her. ‘We’ve got five technicians in the lab downstairs along with four guards armed with sub-machine guns. Nothing terrible. Upstairs we’ve got twelve people handling the packaging, another dozen grunts shifting boxes, a couple of men taking money and handing out supplies to the dealers, and another six guards with sub-guns. They’ve got assault rifles and a couple of rocket launchers hidden away in a storage room too.’
‘You’ve been busy,’ Mink commented.
‘I had like ninety minutes and a plentiful supply of imps. I did some planning too.’
‘Okay…’
‘If I have a couple of demons start trashing the downstairs lab, it should flush the ones from downstairs up, and it’ll reduce our chances of exposure to nasty chemical crap. How good’s your night vision?’
Mink tapped the corner of her right eye. ‘The contact lenses don’t just change my eye colour. They let me see in the ultraviolet. It’s not much use in real darkness, but it works well under starlight.’
Twilight pursed her lips. ‘I can’t black the place out then. I’m going to waste a lot of the overhead lights, make it easier for me and harder for them. You should be okay with that.’
‘I’ll manage. You two can see in total darkness?’
‘Yeah,’ Cygnus replied. ‘When I first changed, it was night and I guess I adapted. Twi’s, uh…’
‘Magical avatar of darkness and shadow,’ Twilight supplied. ‘Though I had fairly good night vision before that. We doing this? Say the word and I unleash Hell. It’s a dark sort of Hell, but it’s a pretty good description, considering.’
‘We’re just going in and taking down anyone coming out?’ Mink asked.
‘Usually works.’
‘Okay, do it.’
Twilight turned, looking to her right. ‘Okay, go tell the demons to get started. Then take up position with the other imps. Give it thirty seconds, then I want the lights going out.’ There was a gibbering noise from the invisible imp beside her. ‘Okay… Give it a couple of minutes and the fun starts.’
‘You didn’t see a records office in there did you?’ Mink asked.
‘Ground floor. There are a lot of filing cabinets and computers in a room on the right of the main floor.’
‘Okay, I’ll take that side and make for there. I’m pretty sure you two are better at crowd control than I am anyway.’
‘Uh…’ Cygnus was frowning. ‘I’m bulletproof and Twi’s basically invulnerable in shadow…’
Mink lifted an arm. ‘The bracers have my computer and GPS system in them, and force field generators Elaine designed for Ultramech. Not that much use against melee weapons, but they’ll stop most projectiles.’ She grinned. ‘Some people think they’re magic.’
Across the road, lights began to go out, and then they heard a scream. ‘Let’s get moving,’ Twilight suggested, pulling the shadows up around her. Cygnus looped an arm around Mink’s waist and lifted off, flying out and across the road to drop down in front of one of the big loading doors toward the right of the building.
Cygnus raised her hands. ‘Knock, knock,’ she said, and slammed both fists into the door. There was the sound of tearing metal and then she was stepping through the hole she had ripped. Off to her left, boiling darkness was moving at a steady pace into the room and leaving shivering, terrified men behind it. Bullets splattered uselessly against Cygnus’s skin and she ignored them, holding her position as Mink moved in behind her. ‘Don’t look in my direction,’ Cygnus said softly.
‘Go,’ Mink said.
Then Cygnus raised her arms and let her Guardian aura spread out around her. It did not have quite the same impact as Twilight’s fear, but most of the box shifters and two of the gunmen just stopped, standing there staring at the angel who had just appeared in the room. Mink bolted for cover on the right and Cygnus lifted into the air, sweeping forward to take on the remaining guards.
Someone launched a stream of jacketed lead in Mink’s direction as she ran. She dived and rolled, and saw the slight shimmer of a single bullet impacting her force screen but felt nothing as the field absorbed the hit. Someone in overalls waving a length of two-by-four tried to block her path and she slipped around him as he swung, slamming her elbow into the back of his skull as she passed. The firing had become sporadic: either Cygnus had flattened the men or they were reloading. Mink ignored all that and kept going toward the offices on the right of the room.
Bursting through the door, Mink came to a stop as the man inside launched a stream of bullets at her. He was aiming high and obviously not used to the recoil. Dust and debris from the walls and ceiling fell around Mink and she ignored the two impacts on her shield to unsling her rope dart from around her hips. The man, probably a low-ranking tong member, was realigning his weapon for another burst when the weighted dart smacked into the side of his head. His eyes rolled back and he keeled over sideways, unconscious.
Mink risked a look back into the warehouse, noted that things seemed to be going well enough, and started for the filing cabinets.
Shards of blackness erupted from the greater shadow around Twilight as new gunmen ran up from the basement. The fan of projectiles caught two of the three, felling them before they could even take aim. The third saw Cygnus, started to raise his gun… and then he stopped, a dopy smile spreading across his face as he slipped silently to the floor, still smiling.
Silence fell, aside from a few moans.
‘I guess we should tie them up,’ Cygnus said after a second.
The shadows subsided from around Twilight as she walked forward with a handful of cable ties. ‘I guess we should. You know… I think we need harder criminals to fight.’
Cygnus turned the, still smiling, man who had been the last to fall, and pulled his arms back to tie them. ‘Statements like that are just asking for trouble,’ she said. ‘June, put a call through to the local cops, would you? Better make sure they know it’s drug-related, and have a couple of ambulances thrown in for good measure.’
‘Give me five minutes, would you?’ Mink responded before June could reply. ‘I want to get copies of a couple of things in here. The Narcotics Task Force people can handle most of it.’
‘Should be okay,’ Twilight said, checking over one of the men her shards had hit. ‘These two are unconscious, but stable.’
‘Okay,’ June said. ‘Five minutes and then I’m calling them.’
‘Use the secured line,’ Mink said. ‘This is interesting stuff. As in, someone screwed up leaving this here.’
‘What do you have?’ Cygnus asked.
‘Documents linking this place directly to Zhu Holdings. I get the feeling they set this operation up in a hurry. They’re normally more careful.’
‘Well, under the circumstances, careless is good.’
~~~
‘Zhu Holdings… Never heard of them.’
Cygnus watched Special Agent Grayson as he shuffled various papers on the desk. He was wearing an expression of calcula
ted disinterest, a sort of ‘I’m not showing my hand in front of a non-professional’ look. ‘You have now. The connection is fairly clear, isn’t it?’
‘Oh, I’ll take the paperwork in, all of it, and make sure it gets the attention it deserves. Zhu Holdings is based out of San Francisco. This comes under their TAATF.’
‘Fast work.’
‘Sorry?’ Grayson looked at her, frowning.
‘You’ve never heard of them. That’s quick work finding out they’re based in San Francisco.’
Grayson’s frown deepened and he grabbed up one of the sheets of paper, peering at it. ‘Right there on the letterhead,’ he said after a second. ‘Registered office in San Francisco.’
Cygnus leaned toward him. ‘Good save, Special Agent. You’re on the TAATF, aren’t you?’
‘I split my time between there and the NTF, yeah.’
‘Uh-huh. Well, I’ll be looking forward to seeing action on all of this evidence in the news so take special care with it. We wouldn’t want any irregularities cropping up regarding chain of evidence, or anything getting lost.’
‘I’m a professional, lady,’ Grayson said, sounding annoyed. He blinked as a bead of sweat rolled into his eye.
Cygnus smiled, hoping for something predatory. ‘Of course you are, Special Agent. Is it hot in here, or is that just you?’
~~~
Outside the building, Twilight watched as a sleek, high-end town car rolled up to the police cordon. It was far too good for a police vehicle and looked out of place. When she saw the driver get out encased in articulated power-armour with a blank, black faceplate, she understood.
‘Someone placed a call to Night Shift,’ she said.
‘He’s there?’ Bianca’s voice over the radio.
‘Yes, just arrived.’
‘He’s looking for Mink?’
‘I’ll let you know.’ Twilight stepped forward as Night Shift bulled his way past the cordon and started for the warehouse. ‘Looking for something?’ Twilight asked.
The armoured detective stopped and, possibly, glared at Twilight. ‘I’m looking for Mink. You’re Twilight, correct?’
‘That’s right. Mink’s not here.’
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