Shadows (Ultrahumans Book 2) (29 page)

‘Hey! No backtracking!’

June paused on her way back to her pacing space and stared at Penny. ‘Huh?’

‘You’re back to anger. You’d got to the depression bit. That’s backing up two stages. Not allowed. Nuh-huh. Nope. Go back to being depressed or I’ll make you watch
Sleepless in Seattle
.’

Giving out a slightly deranged-sounding giggle, June walked over and dropped onto the sofa beside Penny. ‘That movie makes me cry like Niagara Falls.’

‘Of this I am aware. You went through every box of tissues in the house last time you watched it.’

Another giggle, less demented. ‘How do you know what to say?’

‘Huh?’

‘To me. I don’t think I’ve ever been through a break-up like this before, not around you. I mean, when you broke up with Sean we were too busy dealing with Cygnus to go through all this. How come you know what to say to make me feel better?’

‘No idea. I
am
making you feel better then?’

‘There’s still a hole where my heart ought to be, but… Yeah, I feel… Pen, could you take your glasses off a minute?’

Frowning, Penny reached up and lifted her frames off her face and the world became a blur. ‘Why do–’

And then there was June’s face in front of her, in sharp focus. Their lips met. June’s tongue slipped between Penny’s lips as they parted. There was no resistance.

Penny slid her glasses back on as June settled back into her place. ‘I am
not
being rebound girl.’

‘No. I don’t want you to be. But the hole’s a little shallower and… and I’ve wanted to do that for months.’

‘I know.’

‘I’m not going to suggest anything. You’re not really into girls. I know that. But… Um… Could I sleep with you tonight? You stay Penny, and I cuddle up and fall asleep. Nothing else. I really don’t want to go to bed alone tonight.’

Penny took a gulp of wine. Her hands were trembling. ‘I can do that.’

‘Thanks.’

‘I don’t think me being me and not Cygnus would stop you though.’

‘No, it wouldn’t.’

~~~

‘He’s different,’ Andrea said as a man emerged from the warehouse.

‘Too well dressed for thug, but not quite right for family,’ Twilight agreed.

‘Too well dressed for family. That’s a designer suit.’

The man appeared to be quite good-looking with a muscled frame, though the suit was tailored to disguise that. He made his way to a car, not an especially high-end model, but clean and painted in a dark, metallic red.

‘Think we should follow him?’

‘No. Not tonight anyway. We’ll get Jacob to run the plate. I think it’s time to check out the inside of that place.’

Twilight nodded and then waited for the red car to leave before stepping through the shadows onto the flat roof opposite. There was a hatch near one edge which looked like a way down, but… ‘Locked, from the inside. Feels like it’s dark on the other side though.’

‘Do it.’

Stepping into an unknown space was always dangerous. They could end up in mid-air, or in some space it was impossible to move in, or where they might be spotted. Andrea was fairly sure they could
not
end up stuck in a wall, but she also had no major urge to find out they could. Twilight caught herself on a rail as they appeared in what looked like a fire escape staircase. There were stairs down.

‘At least we didn’t end up over the steps,’ Andrea commented.

‘I went straight down. There had to be floor under it.’

‘Unless it was a ladder access to the roof from two floors below, yeah.’

Twilight blinked and started down the steps. ‘Hadn’t thought of that.’

‘I’m the one who comes up with the disaster scenarios, remember? Speaking of which, wonder how Penny and June are doing.’

‘Think we might need to hide out at Jacob’s place tonight?’

‘No. Why? Oh, the noise. No, I don’t think Penny’ll let it go there. Not immediately anyway.’

‘No one wants to be caught on the rebound.’

‘Precisely.’

‘Mind you, I wouldn’t mind June rebounding my way.’

‘I’m rolling my eyes here. Just so you know. I
know
you didn’t get all my libido, because I still have one. I didn’t think there was enough of it to make what the two of us have now.’

Twilight paused at a door. ‘Oh, I’m channelling
years
of your repression. Now hush, I want to listen.’ She listened as Andrea fell silent.

‘No light under the door,’ Andrea said after a second or two.

‘No.’ Twilight cracked the door carefully and, seeing no more light now than before, slipped through. ‘Offices. Unused.’ She moved silently through the dark rooms, going door to door until she found one, near a stairwell at the far end, which had a computer set up on one of the desks. ‘You don’t think they’d be dumb enough to keep records here?’

‘I don’t think they’d be dumb enough to leave it unprotected,’ Andrea replied. ‘Check the drawers.’

Whoever normally used the desk was a collector of office supplies. The top drawer held half a dozen boxes of staples for the large stapler, two boxes of paper clips, and even a box of those weird little ties with metal bars at the ends. ‘Does anyone even use these things?’ Twilight asked. ‘There’s no hole punch… Oh wait, that’s in the second drawer along with… How many notepads does a man need?!’

‘Don’t forget all the Post-Its. What’s on that loose one?’

Twilight picked out the yellow paper square and looked at it. ‘One, two, Brian, nine.’ Her nose wrinkled in disgust. ‘It
can’t
be that easy!’

‘Try it.’

Three minutes later as she was checking through the files on the computer, Twilight was grumbling. ‘Password that easy and he has to write it down? Seriously? You can’t get the criminals these days.’

‘Shut up and open that spreadsheet.’

Twilight clicked on the file and peered at the resulting display. ‘Not getting it.’

‘Shipping dates, probably quantities, and then a number… There was one called “agents.”’ When that one was opened she added, ‘And now we have names to go with the mysterious numbers.’

‘Those quantities are all pretty small.’

‘Yes, and they have a lot of people doing the shipping. They must be bringing small quantities up over land from Florida. Copy the files and then we’ll go see what’s downstairs.’

‘Right.’ Closing the files, Twilight pulled a flash drive from her boot and plugged it in.

‘See that file there, looks like it might be an invoice for something?’

Twilight dropped the two spreadsheets onto the USB drive and then opened the invoice file. ‘Uh… Invoice for paint. Red paint. Delivery to an address in North Beach.’

‘Take that too.’

‘Care to let me in on what you’re thinking?’

‘I’m thinking that “red” is coming up a lot recently.’

‘Uh… Okay. Cryptic, but tell me later.’

The ground floor, when they got there, was lit, but not brightly. Twilight slipped from the doorway to a pile of crates and vanished into shadow again, pulling the darkness up with her as she looked out at the open floor.

There were seven men in the room. Four sat around a table near the door playing cards while the others sat or stood nearby cradling weapons of various kinds. Two shotguns could be seen, and one sub-machine gun. They meant business.

‘These crates are marked up as containing medical supplies,’ Andrea commented.

‘Makes sense. The drug comes in an inhaler, right? What I want to know is, what the Hell’s that thing over there in the corner?’

The corner in question had to be in darkness from the way the lights were hung. The thing in question looked like a hideously malformed monkey with glowing, red eyes and a slit for a mouth. It was black, jet black, and its body seemed to shift slightly as you looked at it, as though it was not entirely there.

‘It’s watching them,’ Andrea said. ‘It’s… I think that’s how the Shadow Court gathers secrets. There’s no way it can be sitting where it is without them seeing it. It has to be as invisible as we are.’

‘Then how are we seeing it?’

‘I guess… It
is
a guess, but it must get its power from the same place we do. Another guess is that it’s watching for us. It’s keeping an eye on things here in case we hit the place.’

‘So we don’t?’

‘Right. I want to talk to Cygnus, tomorrow probably, and check out the address on that invoice. There’s nothing much more to get here.’

Twilight turned, slipping down into the darkness. ‘You really think that address means something?’

‘I think it might.’

6
^th
June.

Penny opened her eyes and wondered, for a brief second, where she was. In bed, obviously, but warmer than usual with another body pressed against her back, firm breasts quite obvious…

‘Don’t get up yet.’ The voice was soft and a little plaintive. ‘I don’t want to and I like lying here like this.’

Given the differences in height, June was almost wrapped around Penny. Getting out without disturbing her, given the arm looped around her waist, would have been hard. ‘Consider it your birthday present. I got shot at while I was looking at something and I haven’t had much time since.’

‘Best birthday present you could give me right now.’

‘Well then… Happy birthday, I guess.’

June gave a quiet giggle. ‘I’ve had better ones, but… I think I can still be friends with Red and…’

‘And what?’

‘It leaves me free to pursue other avenues.’

‘Plenty more fish in the sea.’

‘Yeah. Plenty.’

~~~

‘Okay,’ Cygnus said, once more in the back room of Radium Comics, ‘I did as you asked in the note and checked out that building, and it’s a rented house, fairly large one. The current lease is in the name of a holding company, Diamante Trading.’

‘Okay,’ Andrea said. ‘Don’t suppose you dug up anything on them.’

‘Nothing much to dig up. Registered company, but privately owned so there’s not much documentation. However, Heather called about a licence plate you asked Jacob about.’

‘Red car at the warehouse.’

‘Also registered to Diamante Trading.’

‘Interesting. I think it’s time to pay that place a visit.’

Cygnus grimaced. ‘It’s June’s birthday. I’m hoping we can throw her a little bit of a party.’

‘I’ll go out and do some reconnaissance, you start without me, and I’ll be back not too late. Her room was empty when I got in. You two didn’t…?’

‘She didn’t want to sleep alone. We slept. The amount of alcohol she put away last night, I doubt she could have coordinated anything more.’

‘I know it’s none of my business really, but… Well, do you think you two will end up…?’

‘I think…’ Cygnus heaved a sigh. ‘I think it’s entirely possible, which is a problem because when I’m not this shape I’m less… liberal.’

‘Huh. Makes two of us. Twilight is a bit more open about that kind of thing than I am. Oh, uh, there was something else. Could you do the mind meld thing?’

‘Here?’

‘You need to see this, sooner rather than later.’

‘Okay,’ Cygnus said once she was inside Andrea’s head, ‘what the Hell is it? Also, cool presentation technique.’

‘Thanks,’ Andrea replied, her eyes on the slowly revolving image of the thing they had seen last night. ‘Not really sure what it is…’

‘I’ve decided we should call them shadow imps,’ Twilight put in.

‘And that’s descriptive and not a bad name, but doesn’t help with
what
they are.’ Twilight gave her twin a pout, but Andrea ignored her and went on. ‘I think these are the spies the Shadow Court uses. Some sort of summoned shadow creature. They seem to be invisible, at least in the dark and to normal people. Might be an idea to check around every so often, like you did with Ultranova when he was invisible.’

‘You can see them?’

‘Apparently. Current theory is that they’re like me, so I can see them. We can see them. Whatever. I don’t know if they know that, but it might explain why I’ve never seen them before. They may have been avoiding me.’

‘That could be useful to know.’

‘Yeah, maybe. I’m not entirely sure how long it’s going to last though.’

~~~

If this was the place, the woman they were after had set up shop no more than two miles from Penny’s house. The building was single storey, with a pool, and quite possibly a lot of bedrooms, but not enough for the people Twilight could see moving about within.

‘What’s that? Twelve men now?’ she asked silently.

‘Yeah,’ Andrea replied. ‘The big one seems like he’s in charge, but there’s another, the smaller, wiry guy, who seems important.’

‘You mean he’s sitting around doing nothing while the other ten get on with whatever?’

‘Yeah. Clearly management material. No sign of the woman.’

‘Well, we know there is one. She called Red so she has to be here. Unless this is just a weird frat house or she’s somewhere else. I mean, that’s a lot of guys, even for a house that size.’

Andrea giggled. ‘Maybe she’s got the same libido as you.’

‘Hey!’ There was silence for a second as Twilight scanned the building. ‘Well, maybe, but there’s one light on out at the far end of the house. That’s probably where she is. We could go see if there’s a crack in the blinds?’

‘Looks safe en– Light just went out.’

Twilight scanned back to the lounge and waited. A few seconds later, a blonde-haired woman in a tight, red dress and red high heels walked into the room. She walked with a smooth, easy stride, her hips twitching from side to side with each step, and she was smiling.

‘Confident,’ Andrea said. ‘She’s
really
sure of herself. I think this is the right place.’

All the men, even the lazier one, were on their feet and forming a ring around her. Twilight could see her lips moving and she was turning slowly on the spot, addressing all of them. ‘Look at them. They’re like… adoring puppies.’

‘Yeah… See the dress? Diamond cut-outs over the hips and thighs, bright red, and she makes thirteen of them.’

‘So?’

‘Cards. Queen of diamonds. Ten number cards, jack, queen, and king.’