‘Okay. Yes, I’m sure she’ll jump at it… but shouldn’t you be telling her this?’
‘I would also like it if you were to come.’
‘What?!’ Penny gave her a confused grin. ‘I’m not a model.’
‘You have the looks. I would not ask, but the shoot is for a calendar. The profits are to go to charity. It will be good publicity, and for a good cause. The more famous bodies we can get on it, the better.’ She grinned. ‘I would ask your friend, Twilight? I think she is too protective of her identity, however.’
‘Not really her scene. She doesn’t court public opinion. Neither do I, to be honest, but I recognise that it’s useful… You know what, I’ll ask her. She might surprise me. And I’d need to arrange holiday. I have a day job. Since it’s a charity thing… I’ll do it if June will.’
‘Otlichno!’ Svetilo raised her glass in salute. ‘It will be fun, I promise.’ She took a drink of wine and Penny followed suit, grinning.
‘You know, I thought you got me up here with ulterior motives, not to discuss modelling jobs.’
The Russian’s eyes brightened noticeably as she leaned closer. Her hand found Penny’s thigh, and slid up to her hip where her fingers circled. ‘I did have ulterior motive, but I wanted business out of the way first.’
Penny’s breathing quickened. Svetilo’s glowing eyes were inches from hers and she could feel the woman’s breath on her face. She licked her lips, waiting for the kiss she knew was coming…
The window exploded inward and Penny heard someone yell something in a language she did not understand. The voice sounded metallic and, as Svetilo twisted away to face the attacker, Penny saw a large, robotic figure standing in the shattered remains of the window. There was a bullet-shaped head, an armoured body, all of it painted red with a yellow hammer and sickle design stencilled on the chest. There seemed to be gun barrels mounted over the forearms and one of them flared with light. Penny felt something akin to ants crawling over her skin, and Svetilo let out a shriek. Penny glanced at her and could not immediately figure out what was wrong. Then she noticed that the Russian’s eyes were just blue; the glow had gone.
More Russian burst from the speakers on the robot. No, Penny decided this was likely a man in a suit, and he was raising his arms to fire again. She dived across Svetilo, fairly sure that their attacker had somehow neutralised the woman’s powers. Bullets ploughed into Penny’s back, a couple of them hard enough to leave bruises. As the impacts stopped to allow the man to take stock, she turned and threw her, now empty, wine glass at him and, to her surprise, a pulse of energy leapt from her palm. It hit his right shoulder and appeared to surprise him as much as it had her, but it did nothing to the suit or the man within it.
He raised his arms again, but now he was concentrating on Penny, and she was moving. Balling her fist, she leapt forward and let out a scream as she swung at him. There was an almighty clang as her fist slammed into his chest plate, leaving a dent in the surface, and he staggered back onto the balcony, falling against the railing where he flopped about like a clockwork toy. Penny stepped closer, raising her fist again, but he seemed to be down.
‘Who the Hell is this?’ she called back into the room.
Svetilo appeared beside her, still looking weak. ‘Pulya. He works for the SOP. They must have caught American spy to have him come here. They will not risk armour if they cannot get it back.’ Her accent was thicker when she was distracted. ‘They give you new toy, Alexander. This power draining is new, yes?’
‘Da!’ he snapped, his right arm rising to aim at her.
Penny’s boot lashed out, hitting his arm at the elbow joint. There was a shriek of electronically distorted pain as the arm broke like a twig, and then silence.
‘Alexander never did know when to give up,’ Svetilo said, her breathing sounding laboured.
‘He didn’t hit you, did he?’ Penny asked quickly.
‘No. That is not the way I wanted to have you lying over me tonight, but it was most effective. I will call UID. Watch him in case he comes round.’
Penny glared down at the fallen would-be assassin and gave his armoured boot a kick. It did not look like she was getting laid tonight after all. ‘Should’ve broken your damn neck,’ she muttered. ‘Russian prick.’
26th October.
‘Okay,’ June said as she examined the damage to Penny’s costume, ‘I can fix this. It’s not too bad and the material is designed to reknit…’
‘Good,’ Penny said, adding a sigh of relief for good measure and adjusting her glasses to see what June was doing better. ‘He was using armour-piercing bullets, would you believe?’
‘And your skin still stopped them?’
‘Uh-huh. Stressed the suit fabric though.’
‘So I see.’ June took a gun-like tool from her sewing kit, pinched one of the small holes closed, and began moving the wide muzzle over the plastic. ‘The question is: what were you doing in Dom’s apartment when this guy attacked her?’
Penny had rehearsed this one a couple of times in her head and hoped the answer was going to come out sounding confident and casual. ‘I was discussing a job, actually.’ She was not sure she had managed confident or casual, but June decided to bite.
‘A job?’
‘I should probably let her tell you, but she’s going to invite you to do a calendar shoot with her in Miami. And it’s a charity thing, and she wants me to do it too. And I said I would, if you would.’
June let go of the pinch, her head darting around to look at Penny. The plastic was closed, but looked kind of wrinkled. June continued running the gun over it and Penny saw the fabric relaxing back into shape.
‘A Miami calendar shoot with Dom?’ June said.
‘Bikinis, lingerie, and some tasteful nudes she said. A week’s shooting.’
‘That would… I mean a prestigious photo shoot like that with Dom…’
‘And maybe some more big names.’
‘Like Cygnus? You know she’s trying to get into your panties, right?’
‘That thought had occurred to me, yes. We can protect each other’s virtue.’
June turned back to the suit. Happy with the first repair, she pinched the next hole shut and started working on it. ‘Dom likes riding crops, it’s not your virtue I’m worried about, it’s your ass.’
~~~
‘A week in Miami with Dom?’ Bobby said, one eyebrow rising.
‘Uh-huh, for a charity calendar.’
He smirked, stepped forward, and swept her legs. She landed on her back with a thud. ‘Get used to that position. Legs a little wider maybe.’
She swung her legs out wider, twisted, applied a little upward force, and did a semi-aerobatic Arab spring back onto her feet.
‘Like that, yes,’ Bobby said, grinning.
‘You don’t sound like you’d mind that much if I did go to bed with her.’
‘I am not possessive, gatinha.’ He moved in, feinted right, and then was not too surprised when she blocked his kick on the right side. He was a little more surprised when her counter actually caught him on the side, forcing him to roll away from her. ‘You are getting much better at this. You did not hit this Pulya like that, did you?’
‘Uh, no.’
‘Then why do you hold back with me?’
‘Bobby, I put a dent in his chest plate when I hit him. I shattered his arm, through armour, in five places, with a kick. I am not going hit you full power. Ever.’
‘That, gatinha, is the lesson I hoped you learned from your little encounter with Pulya.’ He darted in, throwing quick jabs at her face. ‘You have great power.’ Pressing forward, he threw a punch at her chest and then drove a knee into her stomach as she blocked it. His elbow swung at her jaw, but she pushed out, planting her hands on his chest and tossing him ten feet across the room. He landed on his feet, a gust of wind stabilising him. His eyes flicked over her, watching her stance. ‘You must never lose your temper with a normal and strike them too hard.’
Penny grinned at him. ‘Yeah. Believe me, the dent taught me that one.’
27th October.
‘A missile?’ Penny said, not quite believing what she was hearing.
‘That’s what Lena told me while you were entertaining Svetilo,’ Twilight replied.
‘I wasn’t entertaining…’
Twilight held up a hand. ‘What you do to get laid isn’t my concern. I was getting busy with a gangster’s daughter to find out about this. I did some research and there’s something called a Night Lance. Morgan-Gorman makes them. It’s an autonomous, self-guiding missile, with radar, signal homing, and something that lets it lock onto Ultras. They can fire it from a man-portable, reusable launcher, which means they can use it anywhere.’
‘And you think it’s meant for me?’
Twilight shrugged. ‘They don’t need a high explosive warhead to kill me.’
Penny grunted. ‘What kind of load do they carry?’
‘There’s a non-lethal warhead. The UID uses it for captures. Explodes into some sort of sticky netting. I doubt they got one with that. The two most probable are a basic high explosive, and a self-forging projectile system. That last one’s meant to punch through tank armour.’
‘But they’d need a direct hit?’
‘Uh-huh. The missile’s way faster than you, but it probably has less manoeuvrability, and you can go a lot slower than it can.’
‘Outfly the thing?’
‘I think, if it comes to it, that’s your best bet.’
Penny blanched. ‘I hope Bobby’s lessons are paying off then.’
29th October.
There were sirens again and Penny’s heart sank. It was fairly early, just before eight, and she had not expected to see much. Instead there were police cars, ambulances, and fire engines heading down Uptown’s 10th Street. She diverted her course over the buildings, located the cars already at the site, and flew in.
There was no sign of a fire, but Svetilo was already there, talking to a uniformed officer and Special Agent Dannon. There was a cordon of cars surrounding the entrance to a shopping mall. Penny had never been in the thing as the prices were sky high and everything had some designer’s name on it. If she remembered right, there was even a designer hero costume shop in there.
Penny dropped to the ground beside the little group, nodding to Svetilo and Dannon. ‘When I heard the sirens I thought Thermite was up to his tricks again…’
‘And you are right,’ Svetilo said, ‘except that he has added some hostage-taking to his usual résumé.’
Penny frowned. ‘Not entirely new. He’s held hostages before. He pulled a bank job in Red Bank, New Jersey, and took hostages when the police surrounded the building.’
The lieutenant standing with them looked at her. ‘Did he get away?’
‘They caught him, eventually. That was after he incinerated the hostages and most of the bank.’ There was a bleak look on her face as she said it. ‘He’s going to kill those people.’
‘He’ll have some sort of escape plan…’
‘Don’t count on it. He likes burning things. What was he doing in there anyway?’
‘Information is,’ Dannon said, ‘that he marched up to the second floor and into UltraStyle demanding they fit him with a new suit.’
‘He’s blasted the elevator and the staircases are on fire,’ the lieutenant continued. ‘The interior is open, he’s got a clear view of the entrance. We can’t get anyone in there without him turning them to ash. We don’t even have good intelligence on how he’s set up.’
‘What we need,’ Svetilo said, ‘is a stealth specialist. Someone like…’
‘Me?’ Twilight suggested, walking up from behind Penny.
‘I am starting to think we should get to know each other better, Twilight,’ Svetilo said, grinning broadly. ‘You don’t happen to be a blonde, do you?’
Twilight gave her a look. ‘Can I get in through the roof?’
‘Fire sensors say the stairwells are burning,’ Dannon supplied.
‘In that case I’m going to need a distraction.’
‘I can do that,’ Penny stated flatly. She turned and started for the door of the mall. ‘You said it was open in there, right? Let’s see if he’s any good at hitting a moving target.’
‘Are you nuts?!’ Dannon asked.
‘I thought we’d established that, Special Agent,’ Penny replied as Twilight fell into step beside her. Penny glanced at her partner. ‘His blasts cover a wide area, but they’ve got lousy range. He probably can’t hit with full force at the door if he’s near the back, but it’ll still give you crispy edges if you’re caught in it, so move fast.’
‘I can move faster than you, if I have to,’ Twilight replied.
‘I know. I’m just saying… Be careful. I want Thermite, but I’m not willing to lose you to get him.’
Twilight flashed her a grin. ‘Aww, I didn’t know you cared. Just keep him off me for a second. That’s enough.’
Penny stopped at the door. The glass was shattered and the metalwork of the frame was blackened and half-melted. Worse, a few yards inside were two bodies, or the twisted, charred remains of two bodies. They were holding guns in semi-skeletal hands.
‘Ready?’ Penny growled, lifting into the air.
‘I’ll be in right on your tail.’
Penny powered forward, accelerating into the building. There was a portico with a couple of kiosks lining it, and then she was into a wide plaza that went up four storeys to a glass ceiling. The ground level had had seating until Thermite had tossed a couple of heat blasts down from…
She spotted a man on the first balcony at the back with dark, unkempt hair. He was dressed in prison overalls and a camouflage coat. The visit to UltraStyle seemed like a good idea, given his current look. Penny guessed she had around twenty-five yards to turn in, and Thermite was a psychopath, not a soldier. Somewhere in his back brain, he had seen her enter the room, but his conscious mind had not received the message. She pulled up, swinging past the balcony for a closer look.
Twilight slipped into the building behind Cygnus, dropping to a crouch to look up at the far end. She spotted Thermite, knew he had barely taken in her partner’s passage into the room yet, never mind seeing the slim, black-clad figure in the shadows of the portico behind her. He was on the second level and there were two floors above him. Her eyes flicked to the left, checking the balcony on the third floor. Teleporting was a matter of simple will; she wished to be elsewhere and she moved. The difficult bit was the mental gymnastics she went through to work out how her body should move in space-time to get to where she wanted. She had never really understood how it worked; it was just some sort of special extra sense that let her do it, and now it worked perfectly. She breathed out on the ground floor and in on the third-storey landing.
Penny swung past Thermite, maybe five yards away, and scanned the balcony and the shop front behind it. He had set up in front of UltraStyle; convenient for him. She spotted two people kneeling in the doorway, their hands tied behind their backs; someone else was just about visible inside the shop. Most of the view was obscured by four manikins dressed in the latest heroic outfit styles. Part of Penny’s brain noted that her own costume seemed to be fairly à la mode; brief and high-hipped featured on one of the female dummies.
She turned, swinging around to face the door as she prepared to make her exit. Twilight was moving along the balcony above Thermite, heading for the front. It was definitely time to leave. Tightening her turn, she poured on the power and headed for the door.
Twilight got about two-thirds of the way down the balcony and paused to check the situation below. Cygnus was leaving, but it looked like Thermite’s brain had caught up with his eyes. He raised his hand and a bolt of red-orange light flared from his palm, missing Cygnus by a mile and slamming into the balcony across from Twilight. The effect was still dramatic. Glass exploded, and concrete glowed an incandescent shade of red. The dummies in the windows o
f two shops were reduced to molten pools of burning plastic in a second. Swallowing hard, Twilight continued moving.
Penny felt the backwash of the explosion above and ahead of her, and poured on the power. She was out and banking up and left before he had a chance to try again. Turning, she swept back to street level, landing beside Dannon and Svetilo.
‘He’s a floor up,’ she said, ‘at the back, right outside UltraStyle. He’s got two hostages in the doorway, at least one more in the shop. Oh, and he’s a lousy shot.’
Dannon was holding a radio and it spoke with Twilight’s voice. ‘He doesn’t need to be a good one. If that was a long-range hit, and weaker, I don’t want to see what it does at full power. I’ll be in position in another couple of seconds. I’ll talk then.’
‘Do we know how many hostages he has?’ Penny asked.
‘No,’ Dannon replied, glancing around as the lieutenant returned from wherever he had been.
‘No, we don’t,’ the policeman agreed. ‘He let a lot of people just run out, but we don’t know how many he pushed into the shop. I doubt there were many customers in UltraStyle itself, though they do sell fancy-dress versions of famous costumes for normals.’
‘I can confirm six,’ Twilight said over the radio. ‘Thermite’s looking pissed off. He’s waving a pistol around and screaming obscenities. It’s a Desert Eagle, one of the big ones, fifty calibre.’ There was a pause where they could hear ranting in the background and then, ‘He’s yelling down. He wants to make demands.’
Scowling and looking nervous, the lieutenant turned and headed for the door.
‘What are our options?’ Penny asked. ‘Can we get in some way? The roof was glass.’
‘Too risky,’ Svetilo said. ‘You might be able to get to him before he could launch one of those blasts, but you would get one shot, and then be ploughing into the balcony. If he was still standing, he would kill you, and the hostages.’
‘Svetilo’s right,’ Twilight said. ‘You’re fast enough, but hitting him where he is is asking a lot at that speed. Wait until we find out what his demands are. The lieutenant is calling up to him now…’
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