Shadows (Ultrahumans Book 2) (22 page)

‘You are here on another photo shoot?’

‘Swimwear. It was
really
last minute or I’d have tried to send word I was coming. Still, I figured you’d see me if I walked out here and waited a while.’

‘Indeed. It was a pleasant surprise. You are well?’

‘Oh yes. Work’s really picked up. Doing that calendar helped a lot. You know those shots of the three of us in the little pool get a
lot
of fan mail.’

‘I did not, but I am not surprised. I am told I have received a few appreciative letters as well. I have not paid great attention to them. However, the money from the calendar has been put to good use.’ She paused, pursing her lips. ‘There is a charity event at the new visitor centre this Friday evening. Would you be able to attend?’

‘I guess so. We’re supposed to wrap by then, though they’re keeping us here until Sunday in case of reshoots. The evenings are pretty free anyway and they wouldn’t stop me doing something for charity.’

‘Excellent. I shall see to it that an invitation is sent to you. Now, tell me what’s been happening in New Millennium City. I have heard that Cygnus dropped a submarine on some smugglers.’

June laughed. ‘Yes, well, that’s Cygnus for you.’

New Millennium City, MD.

Skadi dropped silently into an alleyway in Deale, eyes scanning for the source of the sound she had heard. It had sounded like a fight, or someone being mugged, but now that she was here there was nothing. No one was looking guilty, and no one was lying in a pool of blood, though the shadows made it hard to spot anything much even to her eyes. She lifted her bow, knocking an arrow, and took a step further into the darkness.

A flare of golden light revealed her mistake even as it leapt out of the black and struck her in the chest. There was no pain, no sensation of impact, but as she tried to turn to aim her bow, she realised what had been done to her. She was paralysed, unable to move or make a sound, as the golden sword she had been dreading appeared in the night and began moving slowly closer.

‘The charges are vigilantism and obstruction of justice,’ the Judge intoned. ‘These are the most heinous of crimes and must be dealt with in the most serious way possible.’ Like he ever did anything else. Skadi tried to force her muscles to move as the sword rose, but whatever the effect was he had used on her, it was powerful. ‘The verdict is guilty.’ The sword slashed down and Skadi could not even close her eyes.

There was a ringing clash, like metal on metal, as something interposed itself between Skadi’s skull and the golden sword. ‘Word of advice,’ Twilight said from the shadows, ‘never bring a bow to a sword fight.’ She twisted out of the darkness, her boot slamming into the Judge’s chest. The golden armour flared to block the strike, but he staggered back from her, anger in his eyes. ‘And you, you need to stop yapping if you’re going to kill someone.’

‘Justice will be served!’ The statement was punctuated by the flashing of the golden sword. Twilight blocked it with her own weapon and something like black flames flickered around the gold at the point they joined. Twilight twisted, swinging her blade around in an arc. Black fire burst against golden energy and burned through, cutting into the man’s chest and slashing open his black suit and the white shirt beneath. Half his tie fluttered to the ground.

‘Justice better give up or it’ll be breathing through a ventilator.’ Twilight’s sword was rising again and this time she slashed upward. The force field took a lot of the sting from the blow, but the strike still opened up a long gash on the man’s arm and his swing struck nothing but the ground. Twilight thrust her sword out, the shield flaring as the black flames and steel edge pierced it. The golden sword swung around and she stepped away from it, seeing the glazing of his eyes and the loss of balance as the pain cut through his anger. The Judge crashed to the ground to lie in the dirt at her feet.

Twilight pulled a strip of plastic from her boot and began cuffing her victim with it. ‘Any idea how long you’re going to be stuck like that? I don’t want to embarrass you by having the cops turn up with you still stuck, but I’m a little worried he might bleed out. Not that that would be an entirely
bad
thing…’ She got no answer from the petrified archer. ‘I forgot; you can’t talk either. Well… I doubt their response time will be
that
good anyway.’ She took her miniature phone from her boot and set it into her ear. ‘Call police.’

~~~

It took ten minutes for the police cars and an ambulance to arrive, and nine for the paralysis to wear off. Skadi was still a little dazed when the Judge was being wheeled away from the alley, but at least she was alive and mobile.

‘You make sure you get Neurotronic cuffs on that guy before he comes to,’ Twilight told the cops getting into the ambulance with him. ‘He can teleport. He’ll be out again before they can treat him.’

‘We’ve got it covered, ma’am,’ one of the officers said.

Twilight nodded and then walked back to where Skadi was waiting. ‘I’m “ma’am” now. Makes me feel old.’

‘I think they say that to civilians,’ Skadi replied. ‘It’s like calling a guy “sir.”’

‘Maybe. You okay?’

‘My pride is in ER, but the rest of me is fine.’

‘Ask her,’ Andrea said in the back of Twilight’s mind.

‘Got time to talk?’ Twilight asked aloud.

‘I figured I’d go… go home and take a shower. Work on resurrecting my self-esteem, so… I guess.’

‘Cool.’ Twilight looked upward. ‘Meet me on the roof.’ She stepped toward the alley and the shadows seemed to thicken, wrapping around her as she approached.

‘That
is
kind of a cool trick,’ Skadi muttered as she located a drainpipe she could use to reach the nearest fire escape. By the time she reached the rooftop, Twilight was leaning against a ventilator hood, her mask in her hand. Shrugging, and not realising what that meant, Skadi pushed back her hood. Carefully pinned copper hair shone in the moonlight.

‘So,’ Andrea said, ‘you’re sleeping with Red Huntress.’

Skadi’s eyes widened. ‘What? I–’

‘All that shit about grasping opportunities. June’s out of town and the two of you grasped something. I’m thinking it was each other’s butts. I saw the way you danced with her too. So did Cygnus. She may be refusing to see it, or staying silent about it, but she’ll have noticed. She’s observant. And if you were trying to hide it, you were doing a
really
bad job of it.’

‘Well… Is this any of your business?’

‘I live in the same house as June, kid. She’s my friend. So if Red’s two-timing her, I consider it my business. You’re going there now, right? That little pause before you said “home.” I think I’d like playing poker with you. Tell Red that if she keeps this a secret from June,
I’ll
be the one explaining and that would not be a good thing.’ Reaching up, Twilight pressed her mask back into place.

‘I’ll tell–’ Skadi began, but the shadows had already swallowed the woman she was speaking to.

21
^st
May.

Penny stood at the window of a jewellery shop, staring at a display of bracelets. She was considering buying one for June, but the reason she was considering it was also the reason she was
not
considering it. She had seen it, and she was sure Andrea had seen it. Neither of them had said anything, but they both knew that Red had found herself a new girl to bed while June was out of town. The bracelet would be a consolation prize, though there was June’s birthday coming up…

It was not exactly hard to understand. Red was a hot-blooded sort of woman. She had pushed June to the threshold of her comfort zone a few times, especially with Svetilo. They were not exactly a
perfect
match, but June had been happy. More or less happy. There was always that little something, the little something which had happened before Cygnus had left to confront Ultranova. It sat there in the background, never mentioned, but always there. Another reason not to buy the bracelet…

And Skadi was another archer. She was practically a mini-Red. Red had said she would train the girl, though apparently some of the training was in bedroom technique. Skadi seemed to be fairly fearless, probably open to some of Red’s more extreme tendencies. It was a good match and June could find someone more suited to her… Except that the person she was going to
want
was Cygnus. That was not going to be a problem for Cygnus, but for Penny…

The noise in her head came on in a rush. She had barely noticed the whispers starting as she stared at the jewellery and considered the future, but now the voices burst in on her. Shouted sounds, words, screams, the cries of battle and death and mayhem. Wincing, Penny clutched her head in her hands and sank to one knee, and that was when the window in front of her exploded.

The screams were outside her head now. Had that been a shot? She pushed herself away from the window, feeling broken glass cut into her thigh. If someone was shooting at her… But the noise in her head was making it difficult to think and…

Hands grabbed her, pulling her across the concrete of the little arcade. There was another shot and she was sure she could feel the bullet passing her hips. Then there was shadow and she saw a planter, and then the man who had saved her. Fairly young, quite good-looking, dressed in an NMCPD T-shirt from the academy and jeans.

‘You okay?’ he asked. ‘Are you hurt?’

The voices subsided enough for her to focus on what he was saying. ‘Cut my leg on the glass. I’ll be fine. You’re a cop?’

‘Not yet. Any idea why a sniper would be shooting at you?’

‘Me? No. Unless… I’m a witness on a case involving the Tonaldo family, but killing me wouldn’t help them.’

‘Yeah, well… The Tonaldos aren’t noted for their forgiving nature. We’ll just wait here until the real police arrive. I’m Tony Ellis, by the way.’

‘Penny, Penny Worthington.’ The sounds of battle had receded from her mind now leaving an odd, silent calm behind them. ‘I think he’s gone, whoever he was.’

‘Maybe, but–’

‘Oh, I’m not going to move. I’m perfectly happy sitting here for now.’ Well, he
was
quite an attractive young man.

~~~

‘If they were going to hit you over the case, they’d have done it before now,’ Andrea said, pouring two mugs of coffee as she did so. ‘There’s no point now and revenge isn’t a valid motive, not when the thing’s tied up the way it is.’

‘Agreed, but I’m glad you’re thinking the same way,’ Penny replied. ‘So why did someone take a shot at me?’

Andrea handed over a mug and sat down. ‘Good question. We can shake some trees and see what falls out, but my
guess
would be that it’s because you live here.’

‘You think someone’s trying to get to Cygnus?’

‘Or Twilight.’

‘Okay… Well, Penny’s not leaving the house until we sort this out, which is annoying. I’m glad June’s out of town.’

Everglades, FL, 23
^rd
May.

The visitor centre was new, built of fairly ecologically sound materials in an area Ever had pointed out as being somewhat disturbed already, not close to any gator feeding areas, and with a good view. There were various presentation areas around the low building, and a restaurant with a balcony overlooking the wetlands, and the latter had been cleared of its tables to host the event June had been invited to.

There had been no trouble getting the time off since they had finished shooting on time and were not expecting to need to call anyone back, but the designer responsible for the swimwear had almost begged her to wear one of his dress designs and then rushed around getting her fitted. It was deep red, the back cut a little like a sports swimsuit, but the front was basically a bra and skirt, leaving her midriff bare. She had matched it with a pair of strappy sandals which went quite well. It was not
exactly
what she might have chosen to wear to a swanky fundraiser, but she was used to being eye candy and that was certainly the case now.

And it was not like there was a shortage of shorter dresses among the attendees. Various older men had younger women on their arms, and there were a few women about who seemed to be unattached and not in gowns. June noticed one blonde walking among the people with a look of distinct boredom on her face, and she was in a short, tight dress composed of purple, black, red, and orange panels, with a triangle of bare skin showing beneath her bust. Andrea had the vague feeling she should recognise her, but the name was not springing to mind.

Everyone was waiting for Ever to show up. When she did, barely anyone noticed for a few seconds as she emerged over the side of the balcony and settled the twined fronds of various plants she was using as a dress into place. The fact that she was wearing anything at all surprised June, but it did seem as though things were changing for the goddess of the swamp.

People had been more scared of her than anything. She had been known to kill people hunting for sport in the Everglades, and had done very nasty things to companies attempting to pollute the waters. But it seemed like the fear was finally fading, perhaps in part because there were some people in the room who likely had pictures of her on the wall to tell the date by.

June stood off to the side, beside a table of snacks, and waited. She was not a VIP at this event and Ever had people she had to say hello to, but it did seem like the green-skinned Ultra was pressing palms as quickly as possible to get through them all. June noted that the blonde she had seen earlier was not pushing forward either and wandered across to where she was standing, more to be companionable than anything else.

‘Not rushing to meet our guest of honour?’ June asked.

‘We were talking two hours ago and crowds make me itch. Besides, you’re not rushing forward either.’

‘I’m not rich.’ June held out a hand. ‘June Summerfield, model.’

The blonde grinned at her and took her hand. ‘Bianca Fullerton, rich person.’

‘Bianca Fullerton, CEO of Fullerton Technologies?’