‘Huh, yeah. We think she was brought here. What does she actually do? We’re mostly guessing.’
‘She’s some sort of psychic, but her powers only work on men. To a man she looks really beautiful and she’s incredibly charismatic. She also seems to have some sort of ability to… brainwash them, but that takes time. What she usually does is to find some man she likes, the bigger and dumber the better, and she gets them to commit crimes for her. She likes being rich and pampered. When they get caught, and they always get caught, she dumps them and finds a new one.’
‘And if she gets caught?’
Elaine gave a laugh. ‘The police have a fairly large proportion of men in them. The only reason we know who she is is that Lament and Dali’s Muse nailed her one time. She still managed to find a man she could persuade to get her out before they could lock her up.’
‘Right. And her powers don’t work at all on women?’
‘Not even a little. She hates it. You said she was brought in by someone there?’
‘That’s what we think. Someone’s taken over the local crime family here and we think they brought her in as part of a distraction plan. We still have no idea who they are though.’
‘Well, you’re probably looking for a woman.’
‘We are?’
‘You are. A man who knows what she does would either be smart enough to know not to call on her, or they’d have been making dumb mistakes by now and you’d have caught them. This is probably a woman, a really smart one. Good at planning from the sounds of it. You had Slapstick in town recently too, right?’
‘Yeah. I am still laughing at the really amazing joke.’ The sarcasm in Cygnus’ voice was apparent even over the speaker.
‘So this planner managed to get Jane and him in town, and causing trouble, and you still don’t have a clue about them. That’s careful, clever work. I’d say you should be cautious about this one.’
‘Thanks for the information, Backroom. Is June there with you?’
Giggling, Elaine looked out of one of the windows where the blind had been drawn back. June was visible standing beside a huge, silver, very masculine figure. ‘She’s outside cooing over Ultramech.’
‘Aww damn, she’s getting to meet Ultramech? That is so not fair!’
‘Ha! Well, come over and visit sometime. I’m sure he’d love to meet you too.’
New Millennium City, MD.
‘Excuse me. Could you help me? I’m… kind of lost.’
Jacob paused outside his house as the attractive, almost melodious tones floated over him. He turned and his eyes widened at the sight of a stunningly attractive blonde who was watching him from the sidewalk. ‘I, uh… yes, of course…’
‘Jane. I’m Jane. Thank you so much.’ She rushed closer, looking scared. ‘I don’t know the city and… and I think someone’s been following me.’
The sudden urge to protect the woman washed over Jacob like a wave. His eyes scanned the street, but there was no one to see. Still, if she thought she was being followed… ‘You’d better come inside. I’m a UID Special Agent, Jacob Dannon. We can see about getting you some protection once you’re safe.’
Jane smiled and his heart lifted. ‘I feel safer already, Jacob.’
It was past nightfall and the hallway inside was dark, but he ushered her in and closed the door before reaching for the light switch. Nothing happened when he flicked it on and he frowned. ‘That’s odd. Bulb must’ve blown.’ He drew his pistol. ‘Stay right there until I’ve got a light on.’
‘Sure,’ Jane said, her voice carrying a hint of huskiness that went straight to the more basic parts of his brain. ‘I know I’m safe with you, Jacob.’
He moved past her, heading for the lounge. It seemed far darker in the house than it should have. Something was wrong and he was not quite sure what it was. ‘You are. Don’t worry.’
And that was when Jane heard the voice whispering in her ear. ‘You’re not. That’s my man you’re trying to sink your claws into, biatch.’
The loud scream brought Jacob running back into the hall, where he found Twilight gripping the dress of a rather plain blonde who was hanging limply in her grip. He put his gun up sharply and frowned. ‘What happened to Jane?’
‘Jane… isn’t quite what she appears to be,’ Twilight replied, grinning. ‘I’d be upset at you chasing blondes if she wasn’t an Ultra. Get Heather over here, would you? This needs a woman’s touch.’
31st May.
‘She… really didn’t look like that outside my house,’ Jacob said, watching the video screen which showed Jane sitting in a cell.
‘She has psionic powers,’ Cygnus said. ‘She can make men see her as this beautiful, charismatic woman and–’
‘I trusted her. Just like that.’
‘I wouldn’t beat yourself up over–’
‘I could stand to watch him beat himself up a bit more,’ Twilight broke in. ‘Fawning over a blonde like that.’ She shook her head slowly.
‘I, uh…’ Jacob looked at her, rather sheepishly. ‘I mean, blondes have nothing on brunettes.’
‘Huh,’ Cygnus grunted, tossing long, blonde hair.
‘Uh, well, yeah, but–’
Heather laid a hand on Jacob’s arm. ‘Give up while you’re ahead. We’ll get her into a women’s prison. She should be safe enough there, especially with a Neurotronic collar. What bugs me is that she’s not too bright, there’s no way she masterminded this, and she’s not giving up who did.’
‘A woman,’ Cygnus said. ‘Intelligent, malicious, probably psychopathic. She kills people, in as painful a way as she can, because she likes doing it. And she has Jane there scared enough not to give up who she is.’
‘Can’t wait to meet her,’ Twilight replied. ‘I’m going to teach her what scary really means.’
Part Six: Excelsior
New Millennium City, 2nd June 2014.
Rex was frowning as he entered Diamond’s room. She smiled at him. ‘What’s wrong, Rex honey? Someone beat your flush?’
‘They caught Jane.’
‘Well, of course they did. Did you really think that dumb blonde would stay out of trouble forever? I didn’t think she’d last this long.’ Stepping closer, she patted his cheek.
‘She’ll talk.’
‘No, she won’t. She’s stupid, but she’s not that stupid. She knows I’d get to her. And she knows what I’d do to her when I got to her. Besides, she doesn’t know anything. We’re ready. I want the first one to go off tonight.’
Rex gave a nod, but he looked worried. ‘You’re sure about this, Diamond? That stuff’s… unpredictable.’
‘I’m quite sure, hun. And when we’re done, we’ll have this whole city begging us to take their money.’
~~~
Madeleine Barker sat at her checkout, shoulder’s slumped, and prayed to every deity she did not believe in that her shift would end soon. A few hundred years ago, though maybe it was last spring, her careers advisor had suggested that her looks and personality, along with her lack of any aptitudes for anything, would make her invaluable in the hair styling or manicuring industries. Becoming a beautician had struck her as a completely dead-end job and she had decided not to try it. And that was one of a long list of bad decisions she could look back on when she was lying on her death bed. Given that she might die of boredom at any moment, she would not have long to wait.
The supermarket was not exactly full. People did not do a lot of shopping on a Monday, but there were always some. Fridays were a nightmare, but at least she was kept busy. Checkout duty on a Monday was almost a punishment detail. Actually, given that her supervisor hated her, maybe it was punishment for… well, probably for existing. Maddy was cute and blonde, and her supervisor was short, dumpy, dark, and almost always grumpy. Maddy hated the stupid, pink uniforms, but looked reasonably good in them. Her supervisor, Maddy had decided, could make anything look bad.
She looked up at the polystyrene tiles of the ceiling. Please, God, she th
ought as loudly as she could, let something exciting happen.
There was a sound from somewhere at the back of the store, a dull thud like a very quiet explosion. Maddy looked that way, wondering who had dropped a bag of flour or something. There seemed to be a cloud of… something rising above the shelves. Then there were screams and her eyes widened. The cloud was spreading, rapidly, coming her way.
‘I didn’t mean it!’ she yelped, pulling in a lungful of air and turning to run for the exits. The cloud wrapped around her and she struggled onward. There were no more screams and, somehow, that seemed like a reason to run faster.
The door would not budge when she got to it. She pulled and pushed, but nothing moved more than a fraction of an inch, and there were others trying the other doors and getting nowhere. Her lungs screamed at her to give them air. She pulled harder, her vision blurring and then going red. She opened her mouth, exhaling rapidly and breathing in and…
All the pain vanished in a wave of euphoria. She was aware that she was on the floor, but not how she had got there, and anyway that did not matter. She could not move, did not want to move, but she felt as though she could fly! She could hear people’s thoughts, smell their emotions. The world was a bright, shimmering, beautiful place, like nothing she had ever seen before.
Madeleine Barker let out a giggle. Suddenly the supermarket was the absolutely best place in the whole world.
~~~
‘Anyone dead?’ Cygnus asked as she watched people being carried out of the supermarket on stretchers.
Jacob shook his head. ‘One unconscious who may be a problem, but the rest are all coming down off the high.’
‘This is crazy! They must have released buckets of the stuff. I mean… Why?’
‘Terrorism seems the most likely motive. We’ll probably get demands soon.’ The agent was looking grimmer than usual and staying back from the doors. Heather was inside with Twilight, both of them wearing gas masks, but Jacob had stayed outside.
‘Maybe. Not keen on going in?’
‘I’ve had that stuff in me before. Considering what it did to A– Considering what it did to Twilight, I’m surprised she went in.’
‘She was kind of determined about it. I think she has her own theory about who did this and why, and she’s not pleased.’
~~~
‘Here,’ Twilight said, her voice relayed to Heather through the radio in her mask. She had found a device hidden behind cereal boxes on one of the upper shelves; several flask-like cylinders were connected to a nozzle by metal tubes. The nozzle itself was blackened, as though some kind of pyrotechnic had been set off in it, and there were a few boxes scattered on the floor in the aisle.
‘Small charge to clear the way,’ Heather suggested, ‘and high-pressure cylinders to propel the gas.’
‘That would be my guess. Fairly basic charge. Cordite or gunpowder. A firework.’
‘We’ll pull the camera footage for this aisle. Hopefully someone will show up–’
‘They won’t. Someone rigged the doors to lock before this fired. They were in the security room to do that so I’m betting you’ll find the cameras on this aisle have mysteriously malfunctioned.’
‘Organised. If they are terrorists, they’ll be a pain to catch.’ She looked at her dark companion. ‘You don’t think they are.’
‘No.’
‘Then… why?’
‘I think,’ Twilight said as she turned for the exits, ‘that this was business.’
‘Business?’
‘Product promotion. Excelsior is addictive. Jacob’s staying clear of it because he knows he doesn’t want to catch scent of it again. How many of the people hit in here do you think are going to have his willpower?’
‘Oh. That’s…’
‘Damn clever, if they can set off a few more without being caught.’
‘I was going to say something like “diabolical.”’
‘It’s that too. We need to nail this woman before she has the entire city craving Excelsior highs.’
‘You’re sure it’s the same one?’
‘Oh… I’d bet my sword on it.’
3rd June.
‘Cygnus, are you monitoring the police band?’
Cygnus felt her stomach sink a little as she heard Twilight’s voice in her headset. They had decided that keeping in touch might be important tonight and it sounded like they were right. ‘You’re the one with the gadgets.’
‘Two malls. One in Friendship, the other in Uptown.’
‘Shit. I’m about a minute away from Uptown.’
‘Good, I’m closest to Friendship. Just remember not to breathe any of that stuff.’
‘As long as you do the same. Which mall?’
‘Eighteenth and Percival.’
Cygnus swung around and powered off in that direction. ‘Keep in touch.’
~~~
Burton’s Mall was not one of the larger ones in town and on a Tuesday night it was not going to be full, but as Twilight emerged from the shadows, she could see people piled against the doors. They were all moving, which was a plus, but none of them were moving much and the cops were standing around looking like they had no idea how to handle the situation.
‘Hey,’ she yelled at the nearest group, ‘you guys have gas masks?’ She knew they had been issued with them ever since Slapstick had been in the city.
‘Uh… yeah,’ one of the men called back.
‘Then get them on and start getting these people out.’ Pulling her own mask from behind her back, she settled it in place and started for the nearest door. It was locked, but the point of her sword put a crack in it and then she could slam through. There was no obvious release of gas, or anything else, but her mask was staying in place until she was sure it was clear.
The sound of moans and a few giggles came from the assembled shoppers. It looked like almost all of them, and most of the mall staff, had made it to the lobby before the gas had taken effect. That seemed odd. Leaving the cops to take care of the incapacitated civilians, Twilight moved inside. There was something…
‘Upstairs, I think,’ Andrea said. ‘You hear that? Moaning. Not the “I’m feeling so much pleasure” kind.’
‘Right.’ Twilight bolted for the stairs across the lobby, taking them three at a time as she rushed to find whoever it was that was in trouble. With Excelsior if you were normal it made you feel like an Ultra, and if you were an Ultra it made you feel dead. If there was an Ultra here…
‘There,’ Andrea said as they reached the top of the stairs. ‘To the left, at the back. She doesn’t seem like she’s in pain exactly.’
At the back of the upper landing was a girl, or Twilight assumed it was a girl. Visible were a pair of fairly long legs clad in black and blue leggings and ending in a pair of black, high-heeled pumps, and there was a lot of blonde hair. She had her arms wrapped around her knees, the arms covered in a loose, black, mesh fabric. She was rocking gently, but seemed neither euphoric nor agonised.
Until Twilight moved closer and her head snapped up. ‘No! Stay back! I can hear you. In my head I can hear you. I can hear all of them and it hurts. Stay back. Please…’ Twilight backed away a few paces and the look of horror on the girl’s face subsided into fear and anguish.
‘She was a latent and the drug triggered her instead of killing her,’ Andrea said.
‘Doesn’t seem like it was a much better option. You thinking some sort of telepathy?’
‘Uh-huh, and she can’t control it. Talk to her.’
‘Hey,’ Twilight said aloud, ‘what’s your name?’
‘Megan.’ The girl sniffed and wiped at her eyes. ‘Megan Sullivan.’ She looked to be sixteen, maybe seventeen, and trying to look older with the high heels and the strappy bodice under the mesh shirt. She was pretty, cute really, though the mascara on her cheeks was not helping.
‘Okay, Megan, I’m Twilight.’
‘I’ve heard of you. You work with Cygnus.’
‘That’s right.’
‘What… what happened to me?’
‘Someone gassed you with a drug. You were lucky. It seems like you had some latent Ultrahuman genes and most people like you who breathe it… It’s not very pleasant. With you it seems to have triggered the genes.’
‘I could hear all of them, yelling and laughing, and moaning…’
‘Yeah. That can’t be good. Listen, I’m going to keep everyone away from you for now, but I’m going to call a friend of mine at the UID. If you’ll let him, he can put a collar on you which will suppress your powers. You won’t be able to hear the voices.’
‘That would be good.’ Twilight reached for her earpiece and stopped as Megan added, ‘Twilight… You… It sounded like you were three people.’
‘She can hear the other one,’ Andrea said. ‘Let me talk to her.’
‘Okay…’ Twilight lifted her mask away from her face and Andrea dropped to one knee.
‘Someone used that drug on me, Megan. It… did something to me. It’s like a split personality thing. I’m the second mind you heard. Twilight is like me, but a little different. We can’t talk to the other one. What did she sound like?’
Megan pushed herself back against the wall. ‘She wasn’t… saying anything. She… She sounded… scary, like a nightmare. I don’t think I’d like to meet her.’
‘No. I don’t think I want to either, but she’s locked away. She can’t get out. I’ll make the call and you can go back to being normal for a while.’
‘What’ll happen to me after?’
Andrea sighed. ‘I’m not sure, Megan. Sorry, but I’m really not sure.’
~~~
‘No demands yet,’ Jacob said as Megan was carried away in an ambulance. ‘Still too early to call it, but Heather told me your theory and I’m starting to think you’re right.’
Twilight gave him a shrug. ‘Not entirely sure which is worse. Anyone hurt at the other place?’
‘We were going there when you called, so I’m not sure. I’ll call in and–’
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