The Miranda Contract

by Ben Langdon

  The car swerved as she lost control of the steering wheel, but Dan lunged inside and stepped on the brake, stopping it and the traffic behind. The woman screamed but Dan ignored her and pulled out the keys.

  He jogged around to the back of the car, headlights from the cars stopped behind the woman, blinding him temporarily. He shoved the keys into the lock at the boot and pulled it open.

  He was running out of time.

  When he grabbed his grandfather, Dan could see the arrogance and power had leeched from his body, and it didn’t take much to lift him up and dump him into the car’s boot. He saw the man’s small, startled eyes for a second before he slammed the boot shut.

  “What are you doing?” Halo asked, bringing Miranda closer, keeping her in between the two of them like a hostage. “Are you crazy?”

  Dan hesitated when he saw Miranda, face streaked with tears, her lips still trembling. But then he threw the keys down between the two sections of the bridge and they disappeared into the darkness to be consumed by the river below.

  “You’d better get away from here,” he said to the terrified woman driver. He turned around to look at the cars stopped or moving slowly around him. “Everyone should get the hell out of here now!” he shouted. “There’s a dangerous maniac in the boot.”

  “They won’t listen,” Halo said.

  “I can’t help that,” Dan said and turned fully to face off against his former team mate. Miranda looked confused, but a light of relief had crept into her face. She pulled away from Halo and shook her jacket back into shape before pulling her hair into a pony tail.

  “Are you..?” Dan asked. She nodded her head but wouldn’t look at him. Instead she walked a bit further and leaned against a pylon, soaked but alive.

  “Well that was interesting,” Halo said.

  “You want to give up yet?” Dan asked.

  “I never give up,” Halo said, stepping back away from the car. “You should know that by now.”

  Dan shrugged.

  “Thing is,” Halo continued as he walked backwards, putting distance between himself and Dan. “Everyone wants to be somebody. Even me, even you. That guy in there, he didn’t understand that other people have ambition too, that not everyone is a puppet.”

  He suddenly stopped moving and a smile broke out on his face as he pulled out a silver keycode device like the one that had originally been attached to the briefcase.

  “You were never going to kill her,” Halo said. “Everyone knew that, except the old man. And none of us wanted you to kill her either, if you’re wondering.”

  “What are you saying?” Dan asked.

  “I’m not the enemy. Here,” he said, tossing the keycode device to Dan. “I took the combination from Grim’s head before it was too late. It’s set to deactivate your bracelet as soon as you connect the two.”

  Dan looked at the silver box, red lights blinking rapidly in a cycle. It was Grim’s work and identical to the briefcase code he’d had earlier.

  “I don’t get you,” Dan said.

  “No surprise there,” Halo said. “Get your powers back and get out of here.”

  “And what do you do?”

  “I stay here with the old man and plot your death, keep him angry and off your scent until you’re ready to take him down.” Halo shrugged and looked back towards the city. “Or until the Celestial Knights come back.”

  Dan touched the keycode to his wrist and there was an audible click.

  A wave of freshness blew through his head, like water, and in its wake he could see the shots of electricity and signals which fired in all directions. He closed his eyes and he could still see how everything was connected. The bridge was linked to the western suburbs and the blinding light of the city.

  When he opened his eyes he could feel the hum in his mind again and marveled at the world.

  “You don’t have to look so satisfied,” Halo said.

  Dan lifted his hand towards the car parked to the side. The woman was gone now, running down the sloping road. With only the smallest of urges he pulled the electricity from the car’s battery, whipping it out in a blue lightning bolt which lifted into the air and flew into Dan’s fingertips. He moved his hand across to the other cars which had stopped and their energy fed him as well.

  “Always keep an angel in your pocket,” Halo said. He sat down on the curb, his face smiling as the electricity flew into Dan and made him stronger. It was a saying Dan had heard before. Halo used it on the girls, a smooth opening. Dan’s senses were softened, out of focus with the new lines of energy feeding him from the cars and grid around him. He felt like he was floating, drifting away from the cold and the rain.

  He saw Halo’s self-satisfied smile but then it changed, replaced with shock. Something stirred behind them, pulling Dan’s attention back to focus.

  Miranda screamed.

  Dan spun to look at her but she was already gone. He reached out with his powers, flaring the lights which lined the bridge, throwing the whole space into an overcharged glow.

  He could see the ice trail, like a skateboard ramp rising over cars and then across to the other side. Dan jumped from one side of the bridge to the other, pulling himself across the gap which led to the river below. He narrowed his eyes and flared the lights again, but he couldn’t see where she had gone.

  And then he saw his breath mist in front of him and he felt the temperature drop.

  He turned and saw a dozen spikes of ice lancing towards him. Some collected cars but enough made it to strike Dan, knocking him backward and onto the ground. A second wave of spikes smashed the pylon he had fallen against, broken metal jutting out from where the ice cut through.

  A flash of white crossed his field of vision as another ice trail propelled Lily and Miranda over the bridge and back towards the city.

  “Now that’s a complication,” Halo said from somewhere.

  “Shut up,” Dan spat back at him as he stumbled to look down the road again, pulling shards of ice from his t-shirt while others melted from the ambient electricity in his body.

  The streak of white zigzagged ahead, ricocheting from courier vans to buses as it sped away from him, leaving him gasping on the road, not quite connected to the flare of headlights and traffic all around him. The red brake lights of cars and the overhead street lights weren’t enough to capture Lily’s features, but the swirl of ice and cold, angry air in her wake were clear signs that Miranda had been grabbed by his one-time friend.

  Dan’s breath blew out in short explosions of mist. His chest was tight from the sudden drop in temperature, but otherwise he was unhurt, and that meant he had to move. There wasn’t time to tantrum, to hate the world for always dragging him down. He stepped on to the road and picked up a flared piece of metal from the shattered pylon. A car careened past him, horn blaring, followed by a truck and the buffeting wind of speeding vehicles.

  Three steps towards the side and Dan was charging up, channeling electricity into the metal, changing its properties. The lights on the bridge flickered and then burst, one after the other down both directions. Their light extinguished, the power arced across the darkness and into Dan. He fielded the energy from all around him. Drivers swerved to avoid the flashes of blue-white energy, even as their radios flickered and their car batteries were sapped. It didn’t take long for Dan to feel the pressure in his arms and legs, his whole body brimming with power. He slid the metal fragments under his shoes and they clamped on like metal soles.

  He hadn’t felt that fullness for weeks, the danger and the warmth.

  But Miranda was gone, spirited away and getting further and further into the night. He turned back to the highway, knowing his body was glowing with the power, knowing that the drivers who changed lanes with sudden jerks and screeches of rubber were seeing something monstrous.

  They saw death swathed in blue lightning.

  A truck side-swiped a little sedan, sparks flying into the night. It righted itself quickly, coming close to Dan, clo
se enough for him to leap at it. With his whole body charged, Dan could do things that other young men couldn’t do. His body hit the side of the truck, arms out wide, hands plunging into the metal. His shoes magnetized and clamped hard against the truck’s side. He carefully pulled himself up to the top of the truck’s container, the metal from the pylon helping him keep attached, serving as a third magnet.

  He had practiced magno-hopping the year before, more out of boredom than any sort of training. He’d started by magnetizing Noah’s frying pans and then using them to leap from one level of the fire escape to the next. Somehow he’d progressed to jumping on trains and trams.

  He stood up on the truck, scouting ahead. It moved alongside a utility and Dan leapt down onto the tray, stopping only to engage and disengage his magnetized shoes, before leaping on to the next courier van. He made good progress but Lily was already off the bridge, which meant he needed to employ more indirect methods to stop her from getting away.

  As he leapt to the next car, landing with a thud that sent the driver swerving in alarm, Dan pushed his mind outward, along the power lines. While his consciousness sped blindingly fast into the city, he picked up phantom images of everything he passed. Hotels, nightclubs, traffic lights, darkened department and retails stores, museums and finally a dark space in his pseudo-vision.

  Lily was cold. Heartless, perhaps, but definitely cold. The absence of warmth was easy to pick up and he reacted to it without thought. Bestial reflexes, not thinking of consequences. Not even thinking of Miranda. His consciousness burst out of the power lines just ahead of Lily and struck her from her ice sled down to the street. Power surged out from blocks around, channeling into the dark space until it fractured and fell away.

  Back on the bridge, Dan shook his head to reorient himself in his body, but he caught the second or third burst of light from up ahead. Something ignited where Lily was. He could see the flickering of flames.

  With another leap into the traffic, Dan caught a ride on the bonnet of a BMW, but only stayed long enough to leap onto a truck heading for the city. Within minutes he came to a road block, police already on the scene to keep traffic from getting close to the explosion.

  Dan didn’t waste a second. He leapt off the truck and helped himself to a motorbike which stood idle while its owner talked with police. The engine hummed into life at his touch and he weaved his way past the police van and closer to the intersection where he’d managed to stop Lily’s escape.

  Dan expected another fight.

  He came prepared, his body still glowing blue with the stored energy, but Lily wasn’t moving. She lay on the road surrounded by what looked like an ice web pattern stretching out in all directions from her at the center.

  He knelt down next to her and touched her skin.

  It was cold.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

  Her eyes opened halfway, the darkness behind the lids showing only a little recognition. Dan stroked her black hair and looked up and down her body but there didn’t seem to be anything obviously broken.

  “I think it’s concussion,” Miranda said from the side of the street. She was holding a metal pole, perhaps three foot long. Dan wondered where it came from, and then he saw the demolished café and imagined Lily had crashed her way through it after he’d struck her with the lightning blast.

  “Are you okay?” Dan asked, looking back at Lily once more before he stood up.

  “I’m the one holding the bat,” she said, and tapped it into her palm twice.

  Dan wasn’t sure he understood what she meant. His body was getting cold. He felt the bruises suddenly, the battering he’d taken that night. And Miranda looked a little torn as well. She’d tossed away her jacket and her cheek was bloodied.

  “We go now,” she said.

  Dan nodded.

  Chapter 25

  The Small Gods

  The Grampians, Five Years Before

  Dan sat with the handkerchief pressed hard against his nose, the blood turning it a dark red. He could hear the ringing sensation in his ears and looking across to Halo, he could still see the scowl on the Pakistani’s face.

  It wasn’t over.

  Ever since their first night at the camp, Halo had been pushing Dan. Tripping him on hikes or shoving him into walls, it didn’t seem to matter. Bree had tried to play peacemaker, but Dan’s grandfather ignored the growing animosity. Dan even thought that maybe his grandfather was pleased with the bullying.

  Halo pulled his arm away from Bree who was wrapping it in a bandage. He shook it hard and then pulled on his jumper, hiding the bright red electrical burn Dan had whipped across his skin.

  “I’ll kill you,” he said, pointing at Dan. “Next time I’ll kill you.”

  Bree shot Dan a worried look but followed Halo as he left the clearing. She excelled under his grandfather’s teaching, moving earth and rock as if it were simply extensions of her imagination. Halo was also making the old man proud.

  A shadow passed over Dan’s face and he looked up to see the wild-haired man who had brought them all to the mountains. His eyes were intense, crazy.

  His grandfather placed a hand on Dan’s shoulder and then carefully used his other hand to pull away the bloody cloth. Dan winced as the blood gushed again. He tried to pull the handkerchief back but the old man held it away.

  “Our blood is strong,” his grandfather said.

  He breathed in, and the gnarled hand tensed slightly. Dan felt a warmth rush through his shoulder and then up his neck to his face. Everything seemed to be suddenly clearer and he blinked hard against the bright light of the sun.

  His grandfather nodded and stepped back, breathing through his nose. The blood had stopped flowing and Dan felt stronger.

  “I hate him,” Dan said. “I hate Halo.”

  “No,” his grandfather said. “You all must live together. Constellation is not made by a single star, Danya.”

  “He hates me.”

  “He wants to be you.”

  “He kicked me in the face,” Dan said, standing up, looking towards the cabin where Halo and Bree were probably talking about him.

  The old man chuckled.

  “You burned him,” he said. “A thing he will never forget now. A lesson most valuable for our Halo. His power is of the mind, but you are of the world itself.”

  Dan grinned, looking down to the dry grass. He lifted his eyes and met his grandfather’s gaze.

  “Did you see it?” he asked. “Did you see what I did?”

  The grandfather smiled widely and slapped his hands on Dan’s shoulders again.

  “I saw it, I did. And I felt it, here.” He balled his hand into a fist and thumped his chest. “When you call the sky to open, you call to me as well. You and me, we are the same.”

  Dan reached forward to hug his grandfather but the old man stepped back, his attention moving to the household. Dan stumbled after him, kicking up dust and grass and he shuffled along. He could hear Halo shouting in the house.

  “What has our little angry god done now, I wonder?” his grandfather asked, another chuckle in his voice.

  Chapter 26

  Miranda

  Melbourne, Present Day

  “I just want to rub it all out,” Dan said, sitting on the dumpster with his knees drawn up. Miranda sat next to him, listening to the distant sirens, her eyes hidden again behind the dark shades. It was a miracle she hadn’t lost them, or her bag. When it was a Gucci, she guessed you just didn’t let it go. She looked up at the night sky, squinted and imagined she was sitting back home in California. The sky didn’t look all that different, she figured. Stars all looked the same to her.

  Beside her, Dan rubbed at his wrist again. The bracelet was gone but it’d left a mark. His skin was red. It reminded her of burns.

  “So that was your grandfather?” she asked. She didn’t know where to start.

  Dan shrugged.

  “And your friends?”

  He shrugged again. She was g
etting good at this, she thought. He was really coming out of his shell.

  “I guess you really are messed up then,” she smiled, checking her left shoe, running her finger over the snapped heel.

  “Sorry about that,” he said softly.

  “Oh, is it your fault?”

  “Probably.” He shrugged again.

  Miranda leaned forward and looked to the end of the lane. Dan followed her gaze and they saw a few people, normal people, walking in the lights of the street. They had decided to wait ten minutes and she knew it was running out. They’d have to move again soon, and that would mean getting themselves back into the world, and probably back into the Mad Russian’s sights. Unless he’d been killed. She told herself it was a possibility.

  “You know, I bet you would have been a really boring kid at school,” she said.

  Dan shrugged again.

  She stood up and awkwardly put her shoe back on, hopping a little and having to rest her hand on the dumpster to steady herself. Dan slid to the ground too, his trainers splashing a puddle as they landed.

  They walked to the end of the lane, quietly, neither of them really excited about the prospect of moving into the city streets again. But there was no choice, she knew. The Mad Russian would be back to his crazy self in no time, and from what she knew of him, he was probably going to pull up the skyscrapers one by one to get to his grandson.

  “Let’s go,” she said.

  It didn’t take long for Dan to find a car. Three steps, in fact. It was a blue sedan with a baby seat in the back and family stickers plastered on the rear passenger window. He looked around and then pressed his hand against the door. Miranda heard a clicking sound and the car unlocked.

  She wondered whether he’d let her drive, and was relieved when he slipped into the driver’s side. She hobbled around the front of the car and got in beside him. The engine was already humming when she closed the door, and he moved smoothly into the traffic.