‘That’s… Actually, that sounds like a third date.’
‘Lucky man. Rex, honey, just a little less pressure on the spine when I’m on the phone.’
‘What was that?’
‘Nothing, Jane. You just focus on the detective while I get on with planning everything else.’
‘Yeah.’ Jane turned off her phone and tossed it onto the bed. One day that bitch was going to have to pay.
9th May.
‘You know, I’m actually starting to get worried that it’s too quiet,’ Cygnus said, her eyes on the city’s skyline.
‘No more gas attacks and he’s done nothing in three days that’s worth mentioning?’ Twilight asked in reply.
‘Yeah, that. No one’s seen him. He’s planning something really bad. I can just feel it.’
‘Well… On the bright side, things can’t get much worse than that maniac running around the city.’
Cygnus winced. ‘Did you really have to say that?’
‘Sorry.’
~~~
Hanna Richards was not a happy woman. It had been a tough night with not enough clients. She barely had enough to buy a quarter ounce, which meant that food was going to be tight. The kid needed to eat…
‘You can just… tighten your belt, Hanna,’ she told herself as she walked up to Benny on the corner of Barnes and Lusitania.
‘Usual, Hanna?’ Benny asked, glancing around before putting his hand in his pocket. He was a slight man, not pretty thanks to some ugly pockmarks on his face, but usually pretty nice. Not nice enough to give her credit, of course, which was something she understood. Addicts were not people you could trust.
‘Yeah.’ She fished some used bills from her bag. ‘Business good?’
‘Not really. Slapstick’s keeping people off the streets.’
‘I’d noticed. I–’
She stopped as she saw the man walking toward them. Not especially tall, but with a gaunt quality which made him seem taller, and grey hair. The guy was walking down a street in Deale Harbour dressed in a pristine, black, three-piece suit! Did he want to get mugged?
‘This guy nuts or something?’ Benny asked quietly. ‘Slumming it’s one thing, but… Maybe you can make some extra cash before the night’s out.’
‘Somehow I don’t think… Benny, I don’t like the way he’s looking at us.’
‘I think we should–’ Hanna jumped back as Benny’s voice cut off sharply. The dealer’s eyes were bulging as he tried and failed to move a muscle.
‘Distribution of a controlled substance.’ It was the man in the suit. He was closer now and raising his right hand. ‘A felony crime. You are found guilty.’ Something, a glowing rod of light, appeared in the man’s hand, rapidly taking on a more solid shape: a sword. ‘The sentence is death.’ Hanna screamed as the blade sliced down through Benny’s chest, opening him up like a Thanksgiving turkey. And the grey-featured man turned to her. ‘Purchasing illegal drugs, prostitution–’
‘Please! I have a daughter!’ The shriek was barely intelligible, but apparently it was heard. The sword vanished into nothing.
‘Justice is merciful. It will not be again.’ And the man walked off into the night, leaving Hanna to sink to her knees in the puddle of urine she had made.
10th May.
‘You are not going to believe this,’ Red said over the speaker of the house’s phone.
‘Believe what, Red?’ Penny asked. She was curled up on the couch, Andrea sitting across from her. They had been out late and neither felt much like doing anything before midday. ‘You’ve finally killed June by exhaustion?’
‘No, that’d be really unlikely, but this is downright weird. I got a call from David Tonaldo this morning. To offer help.’
‘You what?!’ Andrea squeaked.
‘He said I may not have heard, and I hadn’t, but the Judge is in town.’
‘This is your fault,’ Penny pointed out, emphasising the remark with a finger jabbed in Andrea’s direction.
‘Twilight’s, and she says she’s sorry. But Tonaldo offered to help?’
‘Three drug dealers were killed last night, two of them working directly for the family. He let a prostitute go and she identified him. And you know this guy’s just getting started. Tonaldo said that we may be working different sides of the fence, but the Judge is bad news for everyone. He’ll feed me information when he has it.’
‘The Judge,’ Penny groaned. ‘The guy’s a menace. Tonaldo’s right. I mean, if he just killed criminals…’
‘In his mind he does,’ Red replied. ‘The problem is that just about everyone’s guilty of something. Did you know that Maryland still has laws on its books making oral sex and sodomy illegal?’
‘And adultery,’ Penny said. ‘It’s a ten dollar fine, but that wouldn’t stop the Judge handing down the death penalty. He’s killed thirteen people in the last five years for jaywalking.’
‘Didn’t that kind of thing get declared unconstitutional?’ Andrea asked.
‘Yes,’ Red replied, ‘but he really doesn’t care. He sees things like that as society being soft on criminals. And he hates Ultras, even though he is one. We need him taken out, and quickly.’
‘That seems to be a recurring theme lately,’ Penny grumbled.
~~~
‘Oh, and the Judge is in town,’ Diamond said, her eyes scanning the latest reports from her knaves.
‘That man is bad news, Diamond,’ Rex commented. ‘Should we take him out? Jack could–’
‘No, hun, he’ll add to the pressure on Cygnus and Twilight. We’ll just have to be a little more careful. Tonight goes ahead as planned. Everything’s ready; all the cards have been dealt. We’ve got four aces and the joker’s wild. We can’t lose.’
Part Four: The Joke’s On You
New Millennium City, MD, 10th May 2014.
‘I know it’s supposed to be the national sport,’ Penny said, and then she frowned. ‘Or is that baseball?’
‘What are we talking about?’ June asked.
‘Football, you know, when grown men strap on medieval armour and then try to break each other in half?’
‘Oh, I believe it’s a matter of opinion. Technically it’s supposed to be baseball. Personally I think it’s shooting people.’
‘Huh, well, anyway, I don’t get the appeal.’
‘You’re hardly a big sports fan, hun.’
‘Girl’s got a point,’ Andrea agreed. ‘You’re not a big sports fan. What’s brought this on?’
‘News helicopters buzzing around the stadium, and there isn’t even a game on.’ Penny’s statement brought everyone’s attention to the screen. Sure enough, the George Bernard Young Stadium and the NFL building beside it were visible, though not for any immediate reason. All the lights were on even though the season was over and there were no other events planned. ‘It’s ten-fifteen, it’s not a rock concert, what are they so excited about?’
‘And why are there police helicopters stopping the camera crews getting closer?’ Andrea added.
Penny sagged. ‘I need to get my prescription checked. Time to suit up?’
The phone started ringing and everyone looked at it. ‘I’m thinking that’s a yes,’ Andrea said as Penny reached for the handset.
~~~
The fact that Jacob and Heather were outside the stadium with a UID operations van, and they seemed to be more or less in charge of the police running around like ants at a picnic, was not a generally good sign.
Twilight stepped out of the shadows in the car park and walked over, seeing the look on Jacob’s face when he saw her coming. He did not look pleased. There was resignation, fear, and a little anger, and none of that seemed right. He glanced up as she closed the distance and she knew that Cygnus was swooping in behind her even before the tall blonde dropped to the ground beside her.
‘I’m glad you’re here,’ Heather said, ‘and also not.’
‘Uh… okay,’ Cygnus replied, frowning. ‘What’s going on?’
The van was quite something, large and armoured, and with a lot of electronics being monitored by half a dozen UID agents. All of them looked around as the two newcomers walked in; none of them looked especially pleased to see them.
‘We’ve got visual oversight,’ Heather said, indicating a row of monitors along one wall. They all showed something in the middle of the field, well lit and obviously not hiding, but only one showed it in much detail. Someone, Slapstick, had driven a flatbed truck onto the grass. There was a large, cylindrical object in the middle of the truck bed, and a man sitting on top of that.
‘What’s he sitting on?’ Twilight asked, peering at the monitor.
‘That’s an old Soviet ICBM warhead,’ one of the agents replied. ‘We think it may be from an SS-four. It’s possible that thing dates back to Cuba.’
‘Anyone contacted Svetilo?’ Cygnus asked.
‘Out of town,’ Jacob replied.
‘Okay, what’s the yield?’
‘Probably about two-point-three megatons,’ their informer replied.
‘That’s Special Agent Lorien,’ Heather said by way of introduction. ‘He’s our tame geek.’
Lorien managed a slight grin. He was sweating and Twilight could understand it. He did not look especially geeky, but he did seem to be heavily involved in the technical details of the operation. ‘Pleased to meet you,’ he said. ‘This isn’t the way I’d have liked it to be, but… Our guy is holding a dead man’s switch, so a direct assault is out and sniping isn’t an option. If that thing goes off…’
‘Yeah,’ Twilight agreed and turned to Jacob. ‘Okay, so I currently have no idea how helpful we’re going to be, but you asked us to come and you don’t look like you’re particularly happy to see us.’
Jacob glanced at Lorien. ‘Play the message, Dennis.’
Scooting his chair backward, Lorien turned to another computer and tapped at it until an image appeared on yet another monitor. Paused, it showed a man in late middle-age, maybe older, his face painted in the Auguste clown style with white patches around his eyes and mouth, black lips, and a large, red nose. There was a big, red bowler hat perched on his balding head.
‘We got this just before we got the call that something was going on here,’ Lorien told them. ‘Probably best if you just watch.’ He hit play and the figure on the screen animated.
‘Hi, gentle agents of the Ultrahuman Investigation Division. Yes, it’s me, Slapstick. I’ll be providing the entertainment for this evening, just as soon as you’ve got my co-hosts down to George Young where I will be waiting just like a giddy young schoolgirl. You’ll find me pretty easily; I’ll be the one sitting on the live nuclear bomb. And now you can get lost so I can talk to my lovely guests.’
He paused, looking expectantly at the camera for a second. ‘Good evening, ladies, and welcome to the party. I know those annoying wet blankets are still watching, but I’m just going to ignore them. It’s you I want to talk to. So here I am, in a field, with the biggest party popper I could lay my hands on. I got it especially for you. Well, actually, no. I shouldn’t fib. I picked it up at a flea market years back and I’ve been saving it for a special occasion. It’s triggered by the switch I’m holding. I let go and New Millennium City goes the way of old New York, except with more radioactive fallout! Should be a fantastic sight. Twilight can’t get to me because there are no shadows for her to hide in, and Cygnus can’t get to me fast enough to stop me releasing the trigger. You have until the sky starts to brighten, at which point I’ll set it off anyway! I know you probably don’t want to play the game, but you really don’t have a lot of choice. I’m looking forward to reading your obituaries, if I can find them among all the other ones.’
The video stopped on a picture of the madman’s grinning face and Twilight glowered at it. ‘Okay, so we cut the power, and I teleport in and grab his hand. Then you guys can come in and disarm it. You can disarm it, right?’
‘That we can do,’ Lorien said, nodding.
‘But he’s booby-trapped the power room,’ Heather added. ‘We can’t get to the switch to kill the lights.’
‘Show us,’ Cygnus said.
~~~
‘Your comedian’s made his move,’ Rex announced as he walked into Diamond’s room.
‘So soon? There I was thinking he might hold out a little longer. You don’t look pleased, Rex.’ Diamond uncurled from the bed and got to her feet.
‘I think he may have taken his joke a little too far this time, Diamond. He’s got a nuclear bomb. Maybe we should evacuate–’
‘No, get everyone ready. We’re moving now. Cygnus, Twilight, and the city’s finest are all gonna be busy for a while so they won’t be paying attention to little old me.’
‘Diamond… If that thing goes off, none of us are going to be around to collect the pot.’
Diamond smiled. ‘Have a little faith in the city’s great protectors, Rex. Sometimes you have to play with the cards you’re dealt, and this is one of those times. Get the knaves ready. We move in ten.’
~~~
Power for both the stadium and the NFL building went through the same ugly-looking brick bunker set in a small compound between the two. There were police surrounding it, but they were staying well back. The reason for that became obvious when they got to the main door, which looked like it had been hit with the biggest shotgun in the world.
‘Claymore mine?’ Twilight asked.
There was a SWAT officer standing nearby and he answered. ‘Triggered as soon as the door opened. I’ve got one man dead and two in the hospital.’
‘Sorry. Do we know anything else about the inside?’
‘Plenty.’ He held out a sheet of paper. ‘We found this after we opened the door.’
It was a carefully drawn floorplan of the building, as best Twilight could tell. There was a central corridor with a room off to either side. Slapstick had carefully marked ‘power room’ in one of the spaces, and had added the positions of three mines in that room and another two in the corridor. One of those had gone off, but that still left a further one at the far end. Also marked on the map was ‘laser trigger grid.’ This seemed to belong to a lot of red lines which covered most of the corridor and the entire power room.
‘So if we go in there we get blown to bits,’ Cygnus said.
‘That’s the basic idea.’
‘Great. What about just turning the lights out?’
‘Each of the towers has its own direct line from here,’ Jacob told her. ‘There’s a switch at the base of each, but he’s rigged all of those with fragmentation mines. We can’t get near them, and we certainly couldn’t coordinate turning all the lights out at the same time. It has to be done from the main switch in here.’
‘What about the other room?’
‘The main transformer. There’s not much space in there to move around, but we don’t think he’s trapped it.’
Cygnus looked at Twilight. ‘Any ideas?’
‘We go back to the van and go over every detail,’ Twilight replied. ‘I hate to say it, but we need a plan and it’s probably going to take all of us to figure it out.’
~~~
There were always two men stationed at the elevator doors which gave access to the upper floors of David Tonaldo’s building. They were always trusted family men, well-armed, heavily built, and bored. The most exciting thing they got to do most of the time had been frisking the prostitutes Tonaldo had hired for Lena, or the ones Jonny had summoned to his room. Well, Lena was in Italy and Jonny was in prison, and guard duty was a lot more boring than it had been.
When the blonde in the red, leather trench coat, fishnet stockings, and heels, all of it red, came strutting toward them, things seemed like they were looking up, but she had to be lost because there was no one expected at this hour.
‘Hello, boys,’ Diamond said, smiling. ‘I’m here to see Mister Tonaldo. Kind of a surprise prese
nt.’
‘Mister Tonaldo doesn’t see anyone at this time of night, lady.’
Diamond undid the belt of her coat and then the buttons. ‘Oh come on. I’m sure he’ll want to see this.’ She opened the coat to reveal the red lingerie beneath. ‘And I’ve got nothing to hide, see?’ The two men saw. They stared, in fact, which was what she wanted. Then there were the two cracks from silenced pistols and the guards were falling to the ground with holes drilled through their foreheads. ‘Okay, so I was hiding a king and a jack.’
Not bothering to close her coat, she found a key card on one of the bodies and used it on the elevator control while her men moved in from down the corridor. Then she swept into the back of the car and waited while the corpses were loaded and everyone else squeezed in.
‘Hit the button, Rex. Remember, I want Tonaldo alive. Everyone else goes on the discard pile.’
The car rose for a few seconds and then the doors opened and there were two more silenced gunshots, and the knaves filed out into the corridors of David Tonaldo’s apartments. Everyone knew their targets; Rex and Jack were with Diamond as she strutted off in the direction of Tonaldo’s private rooms. Rex hit the door with his boot and it exploded inwards, and the threesome kept moving even as the man in the bed bolted upright.
Diamond’s arm whipped out as Tonaldo saw them and reached for his nightstand. There was a thud and he jumped back. Sticking out of the polished wood of the drawer was a diamond-shaped throwing star.
‘Now now, Mister Tonaldo,’ Diamond said, her tone scolding, ‘is that any way to greet a new friend?’
‘Who the Hell are you? What do you want?’
And then Rex was there, grabbing Tonaldo by the throat and yanking him to his feet.
‘Oh, David,’ Diamond purred. ‘I can call you David, right? I’m Diamond, and you and I are going to get to know each other so well. And as for what I want… Well, I want everything, hun. Everything you have.’
11th May.
‘What about under the truck?’ Twilight asked.
‘He’s got some sort of light under there,’ Lorien replied. ‘Maybe running off the truck’s battery. There’s no shadow down there deep enough or large enough to get a person into.’
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