Shadows (Ultrahumans Book 2) (27 page)

She looked up at the polystyrene tiles of the ceiling. Please, God, she thought 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.’

3
^rd
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–’

‘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.’

4
^th
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.