‘But you know where she is. You’re working with her. I know she was here and got out before the police arrived. She was driving a black sports car of a design she’s been known to use before.’
‘Very good. You’ve done your research and you’ve got a good source of information. But not enough good sources. You’re listening to Kuff in SFPD homicide, for example.’
Night Shift leaned forward, looming over Twilight like some sort of black knight out of Arthurian legend. ‘I don’t like it when so-called heroes who are under investigation by the UID try to blacken the name of a good cop.’
Twilight looked back at him. ‘You’ve got a long way to go before you get as scary as me, fella. Kuff has ignored evidence to maintain the idea that Mink is the only person in the area who could be responsible for Snapshot’s death. One has to wonder why. Actually, I don’t have to wonder, because I know. Like I know that Mink isn’t the killer.’
‘And I’m supposed to just take your word for it?’
‘No, you’re supposed to continue your witch-hunt because you’re constitutionally incapable of accepting the truth. Go away, Night Shift. There’s nothing for you here.’
‘Oh, I’ll be watching you, girl. Step out of line again–’
Shadows swelled around them, welling up to surround Twilight and sinking Night Shift in darkness up to his waist. ‘Stay out of New Millennium City. We’ll both be far more comfortable if you do.’
‘No one tells me what to do. I’m Night Shift!’
But the shadows were already collapsing and the great Night Shift was talking to empty space.
19th October.
‘You know, annoying him probably isn’t the greatest idea,’ Cygnus pointed out.
‘No,’ Andrea agreed, ‘probably not, but Twi’s young and he was being an asshole. He’s using the UID investigation as an excuse to ignore anything we say.’
‘Well, like you said,’ Bianca said, ‘he’s an asshole. So… Tomorrow we take out the other place?’
‘Tomorrow, we take out the other place, though I’m not entirely sure how we’re going to do it. We have a day to work it out though. I doubt anything is going to come up to change that.’
~~~
‘I had everything working!’ Herman Kopf was not a happy man. ‘Production of my improved Excelsior was at full capacity. I had cradles ready for automated implant insertion. And you pulled me out without sufficient time to ensure safe replication.’
Zhu Lei watched the German storm with a calm expression. He was not feeling calm, but demonstrating that to anyone, least of all Kopf, would do nothing. The assassin, Diao Hua, was also watching and she was not to know how worried Zhu was. ‘It was necessary, Doctor,’ Zhu said. ‘Our opium processing facility was attacked last night. We believe it likely that your location was also compromised.’
‘So you bring me here, to some… sub-basement of your headquarters? You believe that this is safer? I had certain… esoteric safeguards in place which will take time to replicate. Here I am open, exposed.’
‘And there are over thirty of my enforcers here to ensure your safety. Diao Hua has decided that she will remain at your side until the threat is neutralised.’
Kopf’s eyes flicked over the scantily clad woman leaning against a bench. ‘And what use is she going to be against Cygnus and Twilight? I’ll make my own arrangements.’
‘As you wish, Doctor Kopf,’ Diao Hua said. ‘I will be waiting for Mink.’
‘I don’t believe any of them will find us here,’ Zhu said. ‘My security is excellent.’
‘Make no mistake,’ Diao Hua said, ‘Mink will be coming here, and soon.’
~~~
Bianca glanced at the caller ID on the phone, smiled, and picked it up. ‘Hi, Damian. How’s it going? I haven’t missed a date or something, have I?’
‘No, no missed dates,’ Damian replied. ‘I need to speak to Twilight, if she’s still around.’
‘She is, though I may decide to start charging her for secretarial services.’ Bianca handed the phone sideways to Andrea. ‘Damian for you.’
Andrea raised an eyebrow but took the phone. The planning for getting into Blutadler’s base was continuing over lunch, though Andrea was beginning to harbour a desire to retreat to the hot tub in the hopes that the bubbly water might jog her brain into inspiration. ‘Detective?’ she said into the phone.
‘Hi. Uh, you asked me to call if I got anything useful on this Blutadler character and I haven’t, but… We’re getting indications of Excelsior hitting the streets here.’
Andrea frowned. ‘Any deaths?’
‘That’s the thing, no. We know it’s out there because, well, I pulled in a dealer on Saturday night and he had some of the stuff on him. A few of our people have seen blissed-out people who show the signs in the bulletins. We’ve seen a few bad reactions too, mostly nausea, dizziness, a couple of migraines. No one’s died. Maybe we’re seeing problems with impurities?’
‘Maybe… In New Millennium City, Ghostfire refused to sell the stuff because it killed Ultras. Blutadler has always been interested in Ultrahuman genetics and he might not want them exploding as a result of his work. He may have managed to reengineer the drug to remove most of the bad effects.’
There was a pause and then, ‘If that gets out, people will start trying it just to test whether they’re latents.’
‘It certainly makes it safer. Some people who might have given it a try would have been stopped by the danger. If there’s no danger… Okay, thanks, Detective. We’ll take it from here. We have a lead on the production lab. We’ll put a priority on taking it out.’
‘I’d like to be there when you do. An SFPD involvement would be useful and if the task force gets involved…’
‘I’ll see what I can do. Talk to you later.’ She hit the disconnect on the phone and handed it across to Cygnus. ‘Call Hugh. He likes you better and we need to move things up a notch. Blutadler’s new Excelsior is on the streets in volume.’
‘You want to bring the Union in on this?’ Cygnus asked, taking the phone.
‘I think it’s warranted.’ Andrea turned to Bianca. ‘You’re going to have to sit this out. Someone’s going to feel obliged to arrest Mink if she’s there, and Damian wants in on the bust.’
‘I–’ Bianca started to argue and then sagged. ‘I suppose you’re right. But if you’re taking Damian in there, keep him safe.’
‘Of course we will,’ Cygnus said, the phone at her ear. ‘Hugh? It’s Cygnus. We have a problem…’
~~~
‘That’s a far more… unsubtle costume,’ Viviane commented. She was standing on the rooftop opposite the lab building with Twilight. Two hours after making the call, they had quite the team waiting to breach the place. Adamantium and Brightstar were going to be taking point with Cygnus, Bonehead, and Ultramech backing them up. Backroom was handling coordination via the Stars’ communications system. Viviane was there to handle the wards.
Twilight smiled. ‘Have you seen Cygnus’s suit?’
‘I have. Same designer?’
‘June. I should point out that your dress hardly leaves the imagination any work.’
‘I did not say I didn’t like the new looks. June… She has talent.’ The sorceress turned her head. ‘Hugh, are we ready?’
Doctor Ultimate looked around the rooftop. ‘I defer to my tactical advisors,’ he said.
‘We’re ready,’ Brightstar stated flatly.
‘Very well,’ Viviane said and raised her hands. There was a flare of white light and both she and Twilight were gone, appearing in the alley below. Twilight drew her sword, black flame licking out along the blade; she was providing physical protection for Viviane, just in case. ‘These are quite sophisticated wards,’ Viviane said. ‘I doubt Blutadler created them…’
‘Can you take them down?’ Twilight asked.
‘Please don’t insult me, dear girl.’ There was a sound, a dull thud almost like some huge bubble had collapsed in on its
elf. ‘Wards down. Transporting point team.’
Another burst of light dropped Adamantium and Brightstar into the alley right beside the steps. The big, silver form of Adamantium started down immediately, Brightstar, in her combat uniform of a form-fitting white leotard emblazoned with a blue star, was right behind him. The two complemented each other well in combat: he was her protection, and she provided massive destructive capability at range. Now it was Adamantium providing the destruction as he smashed the door in with a single blow. Cygnus and Ultramech dropped in behind them, both under their own power, with Bonehead carried between them to bring up the rear.
‘We’re in,’ Cygnus said over the radios. ‘No resistance as yet.’ There was the sound of ripping metal and then silence for a few seconds. Then: ‘There’s nothing here. Damn it, there’s nothing here!’
~~~
‘Well, even without all that equipment Doctor Ultimate’s deploying,’ Damian said, ‘I can tell something was here.’
The basement area they had torn their way into was fairly large and had been divided up into two main areas. The larger of the two sections was almost entirely empty, but there was some debris suggesting that various things requiring a lot of power had been there. Cables had been roughly cut and left lying on the floor and there were scrape marks on the concrete. The smaller area still had a few benches in it, various dropped items on the floor, and was likely to yield more information.
‘Indeed,’ Ultimate said, ‘and with it I can definitely say that Excelsior was being produced in this room.’ He waved a hand at the larger area. ‘Chemical sensors are picking up a number of by-products… Yes… Absolutely certain… Irregularities…’ He drifted off into peering at various displays from his equipment array.
‘You get used to him,’ Twilight said. ‘He hasn’t started telling us about four sets of results at once yet.’
‘I’ll take that under advisement,’ Damian said.
‘The only person who really understands him is Patience,’ Brightstar said. She was leaning against a wall looking relaxed, Adamantium not too far away.
‘You’re taking this a lot better than I’d have figured,’ Twilight said. ‘First big operation me and Cygnus call you in for, and it turns out to be a waste of time.’
Brightstar shrugged. She was noted as the Union’s best diplomat, but she had something of a short temper and had never seemed to like either of the two New Millennium heroines. ‘It got us out of the Antarctic for a few hours and… Well, it’s fairly obvious that your information wasn’t wrong and Excelsior is worth jumping on.’
‘Yeah,’ Cygnus said, ‘but I was hoping to get to see you two in action. I mean, up close rather than on a TV screen.’
‘Don’t worry. The next time an eldritch horror rises from the murky waters of Puget Sound, you’ll be first on my call list.’
‘Do you get a lot of that?’ Damian asked.
‘Eldritch horrors in Puget Sound? It happens more often than you’d think. That’s a very interesting new costume you have, Cygnus.’
Cygnus looked down and smiled. ‘Thanks. June designed it for me. She did a new one for Twilight at the same time.’
‘June… Hmm.’
‘…definitely the same basic tech… trace elements of… component design comparable… sodium hydroxyl groups…’
‘Hugh,’ Cygnus, Twilight, and Brightstar chorused.
Ultimate looked up and blinked. ‘Alice in tri-focal audio. Was I gabbling again?’
‘You’ve found something?’ Brightstar asked, taking lead as the senior Union member.
‘Several components common to Kopf’s designs. I believe he has been making more of his newer zombies.’
‘The three girls you saw,’ Twilight said to Cygnus.
Cygnus grimaced and looked at Damian. ‘We need to check missing persons. I think I’d recognise them if I can find pictures.’
‘Further,’ Ultimate went on, ‘there are definitely some unusual chemical signatures here. Blutadler has concocted a unique method of manufacturing Excelsior. Without a sample, I can’t confirm a modification to the molecule itself.’
‘I impounded a few doses on Saturday night,’ Damian said. ‘They should be in evidence unless someone from the task force has vanished them.’
‘Uh, speaking of the task force,’ Elaine said over the radios, ‘I’m getting a number of requests for information from the SFPD. The TAATF is suggesting that they had that location under observation as a Red Flag safe house and want to know what the UoU thinks it’s doing breaking in there without SFPD involvement. Over.’
Ultimate opened his mouth, but Brightstar held up a hand, smiling. ‘Brightstar here, Backroom. Tell them that we have a liaison from SFPD Vice and the Stars here, that their information is wrong, and that no additional police support is required. Over.’
‘They aren’t going to like that much. Over.’
‘Well, frankly they can stick their objections, but tell them that I’ll discuss the matter with their chief of police tomorrow morning, if they feel it’s necessary. Over.’
‘Okay. Lament would like to go with you, if they aren’t intimidated enough by that. Backroom out.’
‘Thank you, Brightstar,’ Ultimate said. ‘Efficient as always. You and Adamantium can return to HQ if you wish. I’m sure the rest of us can handle things here.’
Brightstar smiled. ‘Oh no, we’re going out to dinner. I found an excellent seafood restaurant last time I was here. And we might as well stay on until morning in case they do want me to talk to the police chief.’
‘You just don’t want to go back to the icy wastes,’ Twilight suggested, grinning.
Brightstar sighed. ‘The Antarctic really is very beautiful at times, but sometimes I wish we could have found a tropical island to build our base of operations on.’
~~~
‘It’s the only lead we have,’ Bianca said. ‘Zhu Holdings has an office building in the Financial District, east of Chinatown. Zhu Lei is supposed to live at the top of it. There’s a penthouse apartment up there.’ She was sitting at her console in the basement and several of the displays began showing pictures of the building in question.
‘We’re going to need more than those documents before we can justify hitting that place,’ Cygnus said. ‘The TAATF aren’t going to share, and if we asked for their assistance, it’ll get straight back to the Nine Kings.’
‘Well, I’ll go through everything I’ve got or can get on the company, and the data the Shadow Court provided. We should do some surveillance… I’ll got out later and place cameras. I can piggyback on the local Wi-Fi and tunnel the feeds through to here.’
‘And I’ll send in imps tonight,’ Andrea said. ‘It’s not like I need to be up early tomorrow.’
‘June, can we rope you in for camera-watching tomorrow?’ Bianca asked.
‘Sure. Costumes are done,’ June replied, maybe a little too enthusiastically. ‘But should Mink be going out there with Night Shift hunting her?’
‘I can handle him, if it comes to that, but he’s got no reason to suspect I’ll be in that area and I’m… pretty stealthy.’
‘You’re more likely to run into the Yin Xian girl,’ Andrea said. ‘She does have a reason to suspect you’ll go there. I think she’s probably counting on it.’
Bianca smiled. ‘Her I’m looking forward to meeting.’
~~~
‘Those photographs don’t do this place justice,’ Cygnus said as she overflew the Zhu Holdings building. ‘You’ve got ten storeys and it takes up half a block. If this Mister Zhu has the penthouse apartment, he’s got a small mansion here.’
‘It’s a big building,’ Bianca replied. ‘There could be one or more basement levels. There seem to be no plans filed for it.’
‘Odd. Isn’t it a bit big for a holding company?’
‘There are eight companies registered in there aside from Zhu Holdings, but they’re all subsidiaries. We’ve got finance, computer security, shipping… Pl
enty of bases covered. Huh, one of these companies has a DEA licence to conduct research on schedule one drugs.’
‘Interesting. Okay, what am I doing again?’
‘Tagging every entrance and exit you can find. I’ll go around after dark and place the cameras. That way we’ll have records of pretty much everyone who goes in or out. Hey, can you see anything through Zhu’s windows?’
Cygnus swept lower, circling the building. ‘All the blinds are drawn. All of them. The guy likes his privacy. I mean, if this were my place, I’d have designed in a balcony, but there’s nothing.’
‘I’ll check what we have on him. Andrea said she hadn’t been through everything.’
‘Yeah, well, the Court gave her enough information to keep someone reading for a month. I think her researcher is an overachiever.’
‘One can hope so.’
~~~
‘This is saying that your Shadow Court suspects Zhu could be Jade Flame.’
Andrea looked over Bianca’s shoulder, read for a second, and nodded. ‘Yup. That’s what it says. You don’t think that’s right?’
‘It’s possible, I guess. I think I’m just used to these reports being more certain. They don’t seem that sure. It’s a deduction, based on a limited amount of evidence.’
‘They aren’t omniscient. If someone’s careful, they can keep secrets from the Court. It’s just that most people don’t really think about keeping them when they’re alone in a dark room. Most people leave a paper trail which can be followed. You said this lot were normally careful about what they left lying around, right?’
‘Yes. I think we have them a little panicked.’
‘Uh-huh. Plus, if the identity of Jade Flame has never been important enough to worry about, they won’t have really tried to uncover it. When they get determined…’
‘Not a lot they can’t find out, I get it. It’s like the alphabet agencies.’
‘Pretty much. Except the Court has better resources, but likes to remain more under the radar. Sometimes they miss things due to being too circumspect.’
Bianca turned her head to look at Andrea; they were almost nose-to-nose. ‘Just how many secret identities could you uncover just by making a call?’
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