Superluminary

by Olivia Rising

  “Seriously, you can sing?” Sarina asked. “You never mentioned that.”

  “You never asked.”

  “How am I supposed to ask you anything when you’re constantly zoning out with your earphones plugging your ears?” Sarina asked.

  “Fair enough. But, yes, I do sing. I’m only mediocre at best, though. But I am a better guitar player than most, to toot my own horn. Maybe I’ll show you sometime.”

  “I’d like that, actually.”

  He rewarded her with a smile, along with a roguish sparkle in his eyes she hadn’t realized had been missing until now.

  At that point Snow cut into the discussion with her bell-like singing voice. Three heads turned in unison to gape at the white-haired girl with looks of shock and surprise.

  Sarina didn’t understand the lyrics. Considering the girl’s heritage, she assumed it was an Asian language—Chinese or Japanese, maybe. But the melody was undeniably lovely, and Snow’s clear bell voice carried the dulcet tones across the room, rising and falling in a soothing lull.

  No one interrupted. Like the others, Sarina watched and listened with a sense of wonder, too bewildered to even think of anything to say.

  Sunny was the first to find words after the impromptu song had ended. “What was that?”

  “Sleeping song for little boy,” Snow informed them with wistful eyes.

  “You had a little boy?” Jasper twisted in his seat. “You mean like a younger brother? Or a son?”

  “Yes, son,” came the answer. And nothing else. Snow turned away from them, showing her cheek with its single dark teardrop tattoo.

  She looks too young to be a mother, Sarina thought. She can’t be much older than me.

  She stared at the girl, knowing that Snow had zoned out and left them again. Perhaps she was paying homage to the ghosts of her past. It wasn’t the first time that Snow had come out of hibernation to speak to the rest of the team, but she had never talked about herself before. Not once.

  Sarina turned to Sunny. “How did you guys find her?” she whispered, even though she knew Snow’s mind was far away. “She didn’t just walk up and ask to join you guys, did she?”

  The boy’s eyes never left Snow. “We found her while we were driving through Denmark. Well … actually, I found her. She somehow erased her own presence. Not the way I do it, but different. Enough so no one would notice her, but I did.” He jerked a thumb at himself, lifting his chin. “I noticed her when no one else did.”

  “What was she doing?” Sarina asked, eager to picture their first meeting in her head. She had often wished that she could be the mysterious girl’s friend, but Snow had never opened up to her.

  “She was sitting on a curb in a parking lot, crying,” Sunny said. “We had finished shopping, and were on the way back to the car when I saw her. I had to convince the others that she was actually there. They thought I was making shit up.”

  “You? Making stuff up?” Jasper joked.

  “Don’t be an ass,” Sunny complained, but he couldn’t help but to smile. “Want to know how I got her attention?”

  “How?” Sarina asked.

  “I gave her a sandwich,” Sunny said simply. “Turns out she had forgotten to eat for a while. You know the first thing she said to me? You nice boy.” He grinned at the recollection, but all the teenage arrogance was gone from his tone, sounding genuinely gentle now.

  “So we’re both nice guys, huh?” Jasper joked.

  “Hey, I don’t mind.” Sunny grinned. “Once she figured out we had food and a warm place to sleep, she agreed to come with us.”

  “And Ace didn’t mind?” Sarina asked, surprised. I’m not running a charity, mate, she recalled Ace saying.

  Sunny shook his head. “He suspected she was a Revoker so that’s probably why he agreed, since Revokers are hard to come by and all.”

  “Any idea where she came from?” Jasper asked. “She must have family somewhere.”

  Sunny shrugged. “Who knows? We hacked into the Danish missing persons database, but there were no Asian chicks on the list.”

  “So no one even noticed she was gone?” A sad feeling rose in Sarina’s chest.

  “Ace suspects that she had ties to a criminal organization or something,” Sunny said, wiggling his eyebrows as if it would be the coolest thing ever. “Very James Bond.”

  “But surely the Covenant noticed she was gone?” Sarina pressed.

  Sunny shrugged again. “Far as Tess can tell, Snow was never listed in any database as an Evolved.”

  “Never?” Jasper asked incredulously.

  “Nope.” Sunny reached for the empty chip bag and gazed inside.

  I wish the Covenant had never found out about my powers, Sarina thought. If she could have stayed undercover from the beginning, the UNEOA would never have slapped her with an execution order.

  “That’s strange,” Jasper mused. “I wonder if that ties in with the lack of a missing person report.”

  Sunny leaned over and lowered his voice to a mysterious hush. “Her transition must have been really fucked up. That’s probably why she turned all white and quiet.”

  The words drifted in the air for a moment before the silence was broken by a small, distant voice. “Was all red,” Snow said.

  Sarina, Sunny, and Jasper turned their heads to stare at her in unison. Her almond eyes were open as her fingers traced the lace hem of her doll-like dress.

  “Oh, you’re awake,” Sarina mumbled, remembering the girl’s presence in the room and feeling guilty at the same time. “We were … um…” Talking about you while you were sitting right there.

  “Is okay,” Snow said. “Is white now. Is better.” She lowered her eyes. “White better than red.”

  “No shit,” Sunny said.

  Sarina couldn’t help but to stare at Snow, waiting for her to say something else. Nothing came. I hope she’s not talking about blood, she thought. Oh, God, what if Snow killed someone?

  Jasper must have been thinking along the same lines. “Maybe she means that she had red hair or a red dress or something?”

  “Maybe,” Sunny agreed. “Yeah, that must be it. Snow’s too nice to go all Kill Bill on anyone. She’s like a fairy-tale princess who’s lost in a garden or something.”

  Maybe that’s exactly what she is. A fairy-tale princess cursed by an evil sorceress, Sarina mused. She was too old to believe in fairy tales. But then again, there was magic in the world now, and she had read about a rogue Evolved who could ‘curse’ people with bad luck. A woman with a strange Egyptian name. At any rate, Sarina could tell that something terrible must have happened to Snow. She wished that she could help, but she didn’t know how.

  As if he had sensed the mood in the darkening room, Jasper reached for the remote to turn up the television’s volume. By now the French newscast had proceeded to the end of a mundane weather forecast. Jasper changed the channel.

  “…in his latest blog update last Saturday, Mr. Hawkins discussed the possibility of an end-time scenario,” a newswoman’s voice read. “In this scenario, Evolved are tasked with fighting one another to determine which of them will have the power to change the world.”

  Evolved fighting one another? What on earth? Sarina recoiled in confusion. She turned to look at Jasper for answers, but his full attention was directed at the screen as he turned the volume up a couple more notches.

  “The notion that this plan is, in fact, on the UNEOA’s agenda is heavily disputed by a majority of Pulse researchers, but it has certainly succeeded in provoking discussion. We expect to find out more at the world news conference on Tuesday….”

  “That actually sounds pretty cool,” Sunny said, leaning over in his seat. “Kind of like … Highlander! There can only be one and all that.”

  Jasper fixed the boy with a stoic glare. “It sounds pretty awful to me. I like my head attached to my shoulders, thank you very much. Besides, I can’t even swing a golf club, let alone a sword.”

  Sarina forced herself to
think logically. What would David say about it all? she wondered.

  “Those bloggers will publish anything to get attention,” she heard herself say. “The more absurd, the better. It sounds like a bad movie plot.”

  “Hey, Highlander is a great movie!” Ace protested.

  Sarina turned so see their group leader in his bedroom doorway, off the living room. As he rubbed his hand through his hair, he looked slightly agitated. He must have been standing there long enough to hear the last bit of their conversation.

  “Hey, boss. How was the nap?” Sunny asked, not turning around to notice Ace’s stony face.

  Ace crossed the living space in three long strides before shooing Sunny out of the tropical-print armchair. Sunny begrudgingly vacated it, and squeezed onto the red couch beside Sarina.

  “Is something wrong?” Sarina asked as Ace let his weight fall down into his favorite chair.

  He didn’t say anything for a moment. He simply sat there, squeezing his cell phone in one hand. “I got a call from a friend,” he said after a while. “Something just happened in the States—something big—so we’d better lay low for now.”

  “What is it?” Jasper asked.

  I hope the stupid blog theory didn’t turn out to be true, Sarina thought. She had enough fighting to the death to last a lifetime.

  Ace let out a heavy breath. “Well, if there’s any truth to the rumors, there’s a new monster over in the Americas. Something so powerful, it’s got the Covenant pissing their pants.”

  Maybe that was made up by a blogger, too, Sarina mused, failing to convince herself. She didn’t know which friend had called Ace, but this definitely wasn’t the sort of thing to spread rumors about unless it was true.

  “Something as bad as the Sleepwalker?” Jasper asked.

  “Worse,” Ace replied. “Those off-grid guys over in North and South America didn’t just go under the radar like us. Turns out they got eaten by a monstrous thing they’re calling Legion.”

  “Now I’m glad I don’t live in the States,” Sunny said.

  “Don’t speak too soon,” Ace cautioned him. “It looks like it might be on its way to Europe. Maybe it’s already here.”

  “So let me get this straight,” Jasper interjected. “The Covenant knows about this thing, but they haven’t killed it yet?”

  Ace snorted. “The Covenant’s got their heads so far up their arses that they haven’t even found Legion yet.”

  Sarina’s eyes fell on Sunny. Had the boy overheard Ace’s phone conversation and not said anything to them? Come to think of it, Sunny never divulged what Ace talked about in hush-hush tones on his cell phone. Maybe the kid can keep things to himself after all, she deduced.

  Jasper looked at her. “Maybe we should wait this out and forget about heading to Liverpool on Tuesday.”

  “No way. The plan’s not changing,” Ace said. “We’ll be fine in the city as long as we stay indoors or in the car. That’s what Gentleman said, and he’s never lied to me before.”

  “Well, maybe Sarina should stay here,” Jasper suggested. “I mean, she’s not using her powers anymore, and—”

  “No way I’m staying here alone. If you guys are going, I’m going too.”

  Sarina wasn’t going to abandon these guys now, not when there was a super-powered monster on its way to Europe.

  5.5 Escalation

  Liverpool, England

  Tuesday, the 12th of June, 2012

  4:02 p.m.

  We’re here. Sarina peered out the car window, pressing a hand to her stomach to stifle the nervous flutter in her gut as she watched at least a dozen police cars patrol past the NBE headquarters building. There were also small groups of heavily armed security guards positioned every fifty feet or so, a sign the local authorities expected trouble.

  And for good reason. Ever since Shanti’s death, the world had waited for the UNEOA to break its silence and rationalize the decision-making process behind the execution order. Even though the main event was happening in the States, it didn’t take Visionary powers to anticipate acts of sabotage in Liverpool. The Shanti riots across Europe had only recently calmed down. NBE Britain was one of two European news networks that had permission to do live pre-announcement commentary with a direct connection to New York.

  Here come the troublemakers. Sarina forced herself to look away from the ever-present security and focus on the road ahead, wishing for her mission to be over.

  The Nameless were about half a mile away from NBE Britain’s ten-story headquarters when Tess pulled into a parking lot behind an electronics store. Sarina knew the store belonged to one of Tess’s friends, but she hadn’t been filled in on the details. She hoped they were trustworthy.

  “So far, so good,” Tess muttered, pulling the station wagon to a stop next to a sign that said Absolutely No Parking.

  “Did you expect this much security?” Sarina asked as she got out of the car and closed the door behind her.

  “No,” Ace admitted. “But it’s all right. We’ve got coverage, remember?” he clapped Sunny on the shoulder.

  “Right,” Sarina agreed, uncertain.

  Besides, we’re not planning on doing anything to hurt anyone. They wouldn’t have any reason to come after us even if they were able to see us, she reminded herself in an attempt to calm her nerves.

  Jasper emerged from the other side of the wagon, tucking his earbuds into his collar. Together they craned their necks to look at the top of the NBE Britain building, which was topped off with a giant satellite dish as a protruding antenna reached into the overcast sky.

  “Well, let’s get at ’er,” came Ace’s voice.

  While he opened the trunk, Sarina came around to his side to get a better look at the things he prepared for their studio hijacking gig. Her eyes went wide at the sight of the military-issue Kevlar vests stashed in the trunk. She didn’t ask where or how he got those. If she was honest with herself, she didn’t actually want to know.

  After depositing the Kevlar vests in a pile on the pavement, Ace unloaded six sets of gloves, an armful of gray hooded cloaks, and a set of plastic Halloween masks bearing a suspicious resemblance to the ones associated with a certain infamous group of Internet terrorists.

  “Masks? Really?” Sunny protested. “That’s lame, man. I can’t believe you don’t trust my powers.”

  Ace picked up one of the vests, and held it out to the boy. “You know I do. But if your concentration slips for any reason, even for a second … well, let’s say that most of us don’t want our pretty little faces being shown on satellite television.”

  Sunny grimaced. “But Tess shows hers in the video.”

  Ace shrugged. “It’s her choice, not mine.”

  Sarina couldn’t decide whether to admire Tess’s bold decision or disagree with it. On one hand, it took serious guts for the Technician to record herself and broadcast their message to the world. As Tess saw it, people were more likely to believe the words of someone they could actually see and maybe even relate to.

  On the other hand, the Nameless had worked hard to keep a low profile all this time, and for good reason. Many of them, Sarina included, enjoyed their status as untraceable rogues whose names were little more than footnotes in the Covenant’s database. The line between hero and villain was becoming too blurred for comfort these days.

  Ten days ago my biggest worry was if David would get a video of my dancing gig to show Mom and Dad, Sarina thought. And now….

  She shook her head, refusing to let the worst case scenarios into her mind. Not today, when they had something so important to accomplish. The message they were about to broadcast could very well put an end to any future post-surge execution orders.

  “Here. Put this on.” Ace held out a Guy Fawkes mask to Sunny. “There’s gonna be a lot of people in there. A lot of cameras, too.”

  “Tess said her friends will take care of the cams,” Sunny sulked.

  Ace forced the mask into the boy’s hands. “Right, but I’m no
t taking any chances. Not with this.”

  It sucks that even after surging, Sunny’s power still can’t trick technology. Sarina would have felt so much better if the kid could render them invisible on film, too. She peered down the road at NBE Britain’s headquarters where a police megaphone blared an announcement, but the words were too distant to make out.

  Meanwhile Tess joined Sarina at the trunk and reached for a large, bulging duffel bag. “You ready, girl?”

  Sarina took one of the masks. “I think so.” She traced the mask’s grinning features with a finger. Her voice didn’t sound as convincing as she would have liked.

  “It’s just stage fright,” Tess suggested. “You’re a dancer, though. You should be used to that.”

  Sarina screwed up her face. “This is nothing like dancing.”

  “It sort of is,” Ace pointed out. “We all have moves to do, and we gotta do them right the first time or else all hell breaks loose.”

  Sarina jabbed a finger at his Kevlar-clad chest. “No hostages, and no one gets hurt, remember? You promised.”

  “Right. Now put on your vest and cloak. We don’t have all day.”

  “Here, let me help,” Jasper offered, coming up beside her. He had already donned his vest and cloak, and he had pushed his mask up on top of his head so it poked out of his hood like an oversized duck bill.

  We don’t even look like terrorists. We look stupid.

  “Feeling okay?” Jasper asked her, stepping in front of her to help her fasten the vest, his hands fumbling with the clasps.

  “Um, yeah,” she said. “I guess.”

  She raised her eyes from her vest to see Ace and Tess watching with stupid smirks on their faces. What’s so funny? she almost asked them.

  Jasper secured the snaps and looked up at her, studying her now costumed appearance. While she appreciated his caring about her, she would have preferred not to draw any more attention to herself. She was a member of the team, not someone they needed to babysit.

  “Hey, why don’t you ask me how I’m doing,” Sunny complained, pushing his way into Sarina’s attention. “I’m the star of the show, remember?”