‘No need,’ Cygnus said as she dropped to the ground beside them. ‘A broken arm from the crush as they tried to get out. One dead, one in a coma. Probably latents.’ The blonde heroine was looking thunderous. ‘We need this one nailed.’
‘This is why terrorists are the better option,’ Jacob replied. ‘They’d make demands and we could hunt them down. If it’s someone pushing their product…’
‘We do what anyone else does when it’s a financial crime. We need to follow the money.’
Jacob raised an eyebrow, but Twilight nodded. ‘Usual procedure then?’
‘Uh-huh. I’m going to go hang some drug pushers off tall buildings.’
‘Right. But I think I might have another idea. Jacob, could you get me a list of the people caught in the supermarket?’
‘Huh, right,’ he replied. ‘I think I see where you’re going. I’ll see what I can do.’
4th June.
‘The malls were different from the supermarket,’ Penny said as she sipped coffee and contemplated the morning newspaper.
‘They were?’ Andrea asked.
‘Yeah. Better planned, or better executed. Whatever. Bigger area to cover, yes?’
‘In the Uptown one certainly. A more complex shape too.’
‘Right. So I found flour on the floor in several areas and the paper says people reported several small explosions. They used dummy bombs to force people out to the lobby areas where the real one had been set up. The gas is more or less invisible…’
‘So they ran for safety and never realised that it was actually the wrong place until it was too late.’
‘Yup.’
‘Huh. Smart. I checked UltraNet. Jacob sent that list over. I forwarded it. Do you think you could go over it and see if you can spot someone more likely to be able to find the right dealers?’
Penny peered at her. ‘I’m not sure how I’d know who was more likely to be a potential drug addict, but I guess I can try. And I don’t have much else to do.’
Andrea gave her a grin. ‘I better get to work. I’m supposed to be checking the inventory of eighties mutant comics.’
‘Sounds wonderful.’
‘Mostly just depressing. See you later.’
~~~
‘I’ve been asking a lot of questions,’ Red’s voice said from the speaker, ‘and not getting a lot of answers. Whoever this woman is, she’s got better security than Tonaldo had, and it seems to be because everyone is more scared of her than they were of him.’
‘She has the criminals of New Millennium more scared than an old-fashioned crime boss managed?’ Penny replied. ‘That’s not good.’
‘No. It’s not.’
‘What about the Shadow Court?’
‘Still keeping to the shadows. Skadi’s been hunting for them. She thinks she spotted one near that mall in Uptown last night, but he was gone before she could get to him.’
‘Tell her to be careful.’
‘She knows. The Judge taught her something useful about her limitations.’
‘I meant about the Excelsior. She’s an Ultra. She gets a whiff of that stuff…’
‘We built a filter into her mask. She’s safe.’
‘Good thinking.’
There was a short laugh. ‘I thought so. What about you? If you breathe it–’
‘I think I’d be very happy for a while. I’m not really sure I’m exactly an Ultra, but I make sure I’m gas-resistant before I go into affected sites. It’s working so far.’
‘You can just do that? Decide to filter out gasses.’
‘Yeah, I can just do that. Or decide to breathe water. Or… anything. Maybe.’
‘You’re right. You’re not an Ultra. Maybe one day we’ll find out what you are.’
‘Maybe. I hope so.’
~~~
Maddy walked with her shoulders hunched, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible and just looking more like she was doing something wrong because of it. She had tried to avoid this, really tried, but the gnawing desire to feel that good again… It had plagued her for a day before she had started asking around, and she had had to suffer through it getting worse for almost another day, but someone had known someone, and they had heard rumours.
She was not exactly happy to be walking around Deale Harbour in the dark, but here she was and she knew where she was going. The rumours said that she could get what she wanted if she found the right guy. If she found him. He was not always there, the rumours said. He had to be careful because there were Ultras out there who would stop at nothing to get X off the streets.
Stopping at the corner of Lusitania and Belgrade, she looked around. Man in a red cap… Man in a red cap… Man in… There! Her pace quickened as she saw red in a street light and she hurried toward the man who was doing a lot better job of looking like he belonged than she was. As she got closer, she saw him looking at her, frowning, but also appearing to know why she was almost running at him.
‘I need–’ she began.
‘Twenty.’
‘I-is that all?’
‘We’re running a special at the moment. Tell all your friends.’ His hand dipped into a pocket and he took out an inhaler, cupping it in his hand to make it hard for anyone else to see it. Maddy pulled a few notes from her pocket, glancing around to check no one was watching.
And that was when the bulb over their heads blew out.
‘What the f–’ the dealer said, the final word cut off by a scream.
Maddy turned in time to see Twilight holding the unconscious man by his windbreaker. ‘Oh… Oh no…’
‘You need to see a doctor, not scum like this,’ Twilight told her. ‘Unfortunately, I don’t have time to make sure you go to see one. Go home.’
Maddy turned and ran. Suddenly the need to feel high again was not as important as the need to be away from the woman with the jet-black eyes.
~~~
Regina Jacoby was not feeling in the mood. As Red Huntress, she had a club to run. But, as Red Huntress, she had had a number of vertebrae in her back fused by Ultranova and tonight the painkillers were not cutting it. Skadi could have helped. June could have helped if it were not for the fact that, were she actually there, they would be having a very different conversation.
A call on one of her private lines was just what she needed right now. All she had been told was that it was a woman, which suggested it might be June, which was going to be painful…
‘Jacoby,’ she said as she selected line two.
‘Oh, I much prefer “Red,” honey.’
Red hit a button on the phone to record the conversation. ‘You must be our mysterious new crime lord.’
‘Lady, sugar. I am most definitely a lady. And as one lady to another, a little advice. Keep your nose out of my affairs, and be careful what you breathe tonight.’
‘What?’ But the line was dead.
And that was when she heard the screams coming from the club.
~~~
The wind was whistling past their ears at the top of the Americas Trade Tower. It seemed like a perfect setting and the man Twilight had found was clinging to the ironwork as though he might be blown off at any moment, but he seemed determined not to say anything. Cygnus and Twilight regarded him from near the edge, largely because he now smelled of urine to a rather greater extent than either woman wished. Talking to drug dealers had seemed like a good plan, but it was not going as well as usual. They had managed to get his name out of him, Silas Trip, and that was about it. It had become distinctly discouraging.
‘It’s at times like this that I think a cape would have been a good idea,’ Cygnus said, apropos of nothing much.
‘Seriously?’
‘Well… I’d be up here, in the breeze, cape streaming from my shoulders… It’d look majestic.’
Twilight considered this for a second. ‘Well, you’re a flyer. I always think capes look better on flying heroes. I mean Ultranova, for all his faults, could really pull off the caped look.’
<
br /> ‘Yeah. Have to give him that.’
‘Now, I’d just look stupid in one. No way does it really work with martial arts. It’s just a convenient handle to grab you by. I mean, even long hair is bad for that.’
‘It’d be scary though. Huge, black cape? I guess it’s a bit… Well, someone might hit you with a copyright violation suit.’
‘They have rather got that look sewn up, but it’s the practicality that stops me.’
‘What we need,’ Cygnus replied brightly, ‘is a retractable cape!’
‘Are you broads nuts?!’ Trip shrieked. ‘We’re fuck knows how high up in a gale and you’re discussing fashion!’
‘Well, you won’t talk about what we want to talk about,’ Cygnus pointed out.
‘Damn right I won’t! Shadow-bitch can scare me into a coma if she wants, but I ain’t telling you anything about her.’
‘Right. Okay, well, we should let you go then.’ Cygnus looked at Twilight. ‘How far out is international waters?’
‘Twelve miles, isn’t it?’
‘Huh… Let’s make it twenty-five to be sure. We’ll dose him up on Excelsior and I’ll dump him out there. Assuming they ever find the body, they’ll think he thought he was Aquarian or something.’
‘Should work. Are you sure you want to carry him that far? I mean…’ Twilight waved her hand in front of her nose, grimacing.
‘You’re not going to do that,’ Trip asserted. ‘You two are heroes.’
‘Twenty-five miles?’ Cygnus said, ignoring him. ‘It’s not that far and I’m going home for a shower anyway.’
‘You won’t do it.’
‘You want to dose him here?’ Twilight asked, lifting one of the inhalers they had confiscated.
‘No… I mean, he won’t get the full experience if he’s high on that crap. It’s not like he’ll be able to stop me dosing him.’ Taking the inhaler, Cygnus started across the roof toward Trip. ‘Come here, Silas, we’re going for a little trip.’ She glanced back at Twilight. ‘Ha! See what I did there?’
‘That’s funny. I doubt he got it. Kind of complicated for him.’
‘You won’t– Gah!’ Trip was cut off as Cygnus grabbed the front of his jacket and yanked him up with her into the air. She started flying west and then paused a couple of yards off the edge of the tower.
‘Hey, do they have sharks in the Atlantic?’
‘Sure,’ Twilight called back. ‘Jaws is set off New England.’
‘Cool, maybe the drug is overkill then.’
‘I only know where I get the stuff from!’ Trip shrieked.
Cygnus turned, yanking him up so that she could look into his eyes. ‘It’s a start, and if you’re lying to me, I’ll take you out fifty miles before I drop you.’
5th June.
‘Red’s fine, June,’ Penny said to the speaker phone. ‘She had a gas mask in her desk and she was in her office when the gas went off.’
‘I’m still coming back,’ June’s voice announced firmly. ‘She needs me.’
‘She… Look, it’s still dangerous. I don’t want you hurt because–’
‘Bianca has a private jet. I’ll be back in the city by tonight and she’s arranged transport to the house. Armoured transport. I don’t have to leave home once I’m there.’
‘Right, but–’
‘We can have the party at our place tomorrow, okay? I asked Bianca if she could come, to thank her, you know? But she has work.’
Penny closed her eyes. It was all going to come out eventually… ‘Okay, June. It’ll be good to have you back.’
‘Oh yeah. Looking forward to it.’
~~~
‘This is going to be hard,’ Cygnus said.
Andrea did not look up from the comics she was working through, but she nodded. ‘Yeah. Relationships are hard.’
Roger had been perfectly happy for them to meet in the back room of the shop; there was work to do there sorting through some new acquisitions and he figured it was something important. Cygnus was not going to tell him that she just needed a shoulder to cry on. ‘You don’t seem to be having much trouble with yours.’
‘You mean, aside from it taking you pushing me to start it, and then him not wanting to tell anyone. And we don’t exactly date; I just sneak into his house and we fuck…’
‘Aside from all that.’
‘Aside from that it’s great. And the last part is my fault. I don’t want him at risk and if no one ever sees him with me…’
‘You think our mystery woman knows?’
‘Probably. Given that Jane went after him and I think she was working for the mystery mobster… Actually, I think she’s working with the Shadow Court. Or they’re giving her information. Not sure why though.’
‘Business? That’s not getting around the fact that June’s coming back. Red will have to tell her it’s over, and June’s going to need comforting.’
‘I can handle things tonight. You can–’
‘I slept with her.’
‘What?’
‘June. Before I left to face Ultranova, I… slept with her. I didn’t want to leave without knowing… She’s always liked me, even before this.’ The tall blonde waved a hand at her body. ‘I’m not sure I can handle… I don’t know how to do this.’
‘You faced off against one of the most powerful bad guys around, and you put him down. And your best friend needs you, or will do. She’ll need the other you and she isn’t going to want… comforting like that. So you stay in tonight and give her something to lean on, and I’ll go check out this place old Silas mentioned.’
‘Somehow, I don’t think it’s going to be that easy.’
‘That’s because you make things too complicated.’
Cygnus heaved a sigh. ‘I usually find that things get quite complicated enough without me having to add to it.’
~~~
Penny sat in the lounge feeling uncomfortable on one of the big, very comfortable, sofas. The TV was off and she did not feel like reading anything, so all she had to do was stare at the wall and wait.
There had been no shouting. For some reason she had expected there to be shouting, but it was all very quiet. She was not entirely sure whether that was good or bad. Red had taken June into her room about ten minutes ago. There had been no suggestions that Red had tried an alternate, entirely underhanded, strategy either, but the lack of shouting… Well, ten minutes was not a long time, right? Maybe there would be some shouting soon.
The door opened and Red walked out. Penny was glad to see that she did not exactly have a spring in her step. Actually, the ex-hero was looking older than usual, tired. The way she walked suggested her back was giving her trouble, and she was wearing more clothes than Penny thought she had ever seen her in.
Getting up, Penny followed as Red headed for the door. ‘Are you going to be okay?’ Penny asked as they reached the hall.
‘I think you’re supposed to ask June that?’
‘I think it’d be a redundant question.’
‘Yes. Fair. I’ll be okay, in a while. Someone walked into my club and hurt a lot of people. I need to deal with that, and then this on top of it… And this is my fault. I knew I was going to screw up when I first saw Skadi. Couldn’t help myself.’
‘I can understand that. I don’t have to like it, but I understand it. Skadi’s… a young version of you, and I got the feeling she didn’t make it easy for you.’
‘Huh. No, no she didn’t. Look after June for me, okay?’
Penny nodded and opened the door. ‘Like you said, she’s my friend. I’ll take care of her.’
June was walking out of the bedroom when Penny got back to the lounge. Penny opened her mouth, but the wide-eyed brunette just held up a hand. ‘Still in denial. How much wine do we have in?’
‘Uh… probably enough.’
June took a bottle of white from the refrigerator and located a glass, and then started back for her room. ‘I’ll be out when I get to anger.’
~~~
The address they had been given was an industrial park on the north side of Churchton, a small warehousing unit surrounded by similar buildings used for light industry and storage, and one larger industrial complex. The latter gave plenty of opportunity for observation, which was useful.
Twilight sat in the shadow of a large ventilator unit, in sufficient darkness to let her blend in entirely. She was part of the shadows up here, an insubstantial nothing watching the goings-on below, and there were various things to watch.
As the sun had begun to set, people had started arriving in cars. They would park up, walk in, and emerge a few minutes later. Dealers picking up new stock, she figured. And from the numbers they were doing a good trade. The occupants of the warehouse rarely emerged, but they had a couple of smokers among them who were forced to emerge from the building to feed their habit. They looked like street thugs and family men, nothing special.
‘We should take a look inside,’ Twilight suggested.
‘Uh-huh, but not yet,’ Andrea replied. ‘When it’s full dark and we can move around more easily we’ll go take a look.’
‘You think we should shut the place down?’
‘Not sure. If there aren’t too many, then maybe. I mean, I’m pretty sure you can handle it without Cygnus, but she’d be useful if there are a lot of them in there.’
‘I won’t deny that. But you’re not sure about doing it at all.’
‘No. I doubt this is their HQ and we want the boss. She moved when she thought we were coming for her at Tonaldo’s place and I’d bet good money she has another hole she can run to if she thinks we know where she is now. If we can find out, it might be best to leave this for the clean-up afterwards.’
‘So we wait.’
‘We wait, and we watch.’
~~~
‘How can she do this?! She can’t really be serious about some… teenager!’
Penny sipped from her wine glass as she watched June pacing in front of the TV. ‘I thought you were past the denial part?’
June’s hands went up and, miraculously, there was no wine spilled. ‘I am! Mostly. This is angry semi-denial. Fuck! She could have told me sooner. She knew this was coming.’
‘I don’t think they really–’
‘They didn’t, but she knew. If she’d just had the courage to say something… Damn! There was this girl in San Francisco, Elaine. She was so into me and we were alone for most of an evening. I could have had wild, steamy hot tub sex! But no, Red has to go on thinking she’ll resist the lithe little bitch.’
Shadows (Ultrahumans Book 2) Page 22