Shadows (Ultrahumans Book 2) (13 page)

‘Uh-huh,’ Cygnus replied. ‘How did you guys know I was here anyway? You have psychics on the payroll?’

‘Anonymous tip. Ultra fans call in sightings all the time, though they usually leave a name so we can drop them some credit in the broadcast. Who’s your friend anyway?’

‘Just a friend. I better get back to work.’

Sanders nodded, his gaze drifting toward Andrea, her face half-hidden behind dark glasses. Then he turned and headed back to his van.

Cygnus carried the TV she was holding across to the van they had hired. ‘A little weird,’ she commented.

‘It’s the press,’ Andrea replied, ‘I always think they’re weird. That’s why I prefer it when you handle them. On the bright side, Petrowski looks like someone fed her dog shit. Maybe reporters
are
useful for something.’

Unity Base, Antarctica, 6
^th
April.

Andrea stood naked in a room full of brilliant white light. It was not the most comfortable of experiences, but letting Doctor Ultimate check her out seemed like a good idea and this was how he was doing it. So she stood there with her eyes tightly closed, feeling as though the light was burning into her heart…

It came as something of a relief when the world outside her eyelids dimmed and Ultimate’s voice said, ‘You can come out now, Twilight.’

Still seeing ghost images of the light swimming before her eyes, Andrea edged toward the huge door of the scanning chamber. Cygnus was there, holding out a rather utilitarian wrap, and then helping to steer the way to where the world’s most intelligent man was hunched over various displays.

Alice was there too, giving Andrea a smile. ‘He’ll be up for air in a few seconds,’ she said.

‘He was doing a lot of cooing over the data feeds,’ Cygnus added.

‘Generally that means he’s found something interesting,’ Alice explained. ‘It isn’t always a good sign, but I don’t
think
he found anything to be worried about.’

‘Worriednobutveryexcitingand…’ Ultimate rushed out.

‘Hugh,’ Alice interrupted.

‘…somewhatperp… I was talking too fast? My apologies. I’m…’

‘Excited?’ Andrea suggested.

‘Very! The UID are going to ask me about your reclassification and, frankly, I’m at a loss. Magnitude four, at least. Elemental possibly, but I suspect they’ll stick with A-class. I wouldn’t argue; you are not a normal E. And then there are the EEG readings.’

‘Brainwaves?’ Cygnus asked.

‘Quite.’ He turned and tapped at his keyboard at break-finger speed. Four screens lit up with different graphs showing patterns of wiggly lines. ‘On the left is my baseline, which happens to be my lovely Alice. She has a beautiful mind.’

‘And now you see why I married him,’ Alice said, smirking. ‘He says the nicest things.’

Ultimate gave her a smile and then went on. ‘Beside that is one I took from Cygnus when she was in the scanner.’

‘They don’t look that different,’ Cygnus noted.

‘If you look closely,’ Alice said, ‘you’ll see a relative increase in gamma waves, the higher-frequency ones.’

‘They tend to be associated with cross-hemispheric activities,’ Ultimate explained. ‘This is one of the usual characteristics of Ultrahumans. I have it, Brightstar and Adamantium do, and I’m sure Twilight was showing it before her accident.’

‘And now?’ Andrea asked. She was looking at the last two screens which looked a lot more complicated.

‘Gettingtothat. On the right is me.’ The right-hand screen showed a huge jumble of overlapping brainwaves, a tangle of lines which made no sense. ‘I tend to be running several different thought processes at once and it shows in my EEG. That, of course, leaves us with Andrea’s EEG, which lies somewhere between the two extremes.’

‘So,’ Andrea said slowly, ‘it’s not just some kind of mental illusion? Twilight is really a different personality operating at the same time in my head?’

‘You demonstrate the same sort of compartmentalised thought patterns as I do,’ Ultimate stated, ‘just on a smaller scale. Yes, your two personalities are real, and they coexist.’

‘Never doubted it,’ Twilight commented.

‘As for your powers…’ Ultimate went on. ‘Truthfully I’m at a loss. I’ve called in our expert.’

‘Expert?’ Andrea asked.

Ultimate gave a nod. ‘She’ll be here inside of an hour.’

‘Who?’ Andrea and Cygnus chorused.

~~~

‘Viviane,’ Cygnus whispered as the woman in the red tabard walked into the room.

Once upon a time, the name ‘Viviane’ had struck fear into a substantial amount of the British population and it had taken a team of mystics and the Union to bring her down. She was still feared as much as respected, even though she worked as the principal magic advisor to the Union. Her power was more or less legendary, she was supposed to be immortal, and the gaze she immediately turned on Andrea held the cold distain she was famous for. On the other hand, she was beautiful, in a cool way, with a slim body which her nearly non-existent, tabard-dress showed off to perfection. Her thick, black hair fell over her left breast to her waist. Under it was an angular sort of face with highly arched eyebrows and icy blue eyes.

‘I see being dragged to this Goddess-blasted hole was not without good reason, Hugh,’ Viviane said as she walked toward Andrea.

‘We know you hate confined spaces, Viviane,’ Alice said. ‘We wouldn’t have brought you down here if we didn’t think your talents were needed.’ That explained meeting in the lab; the ceiling there was very high.

‘She’s a bit of a mystery,’ Ultimate stated. ‘The power signature is definitely more like yours than, say, mine.’

Viviane gave a grunt. ‘Come, child,’ she said to Andrea, ‘stand up, let me have a proper look at you.’

Andrea got to her feet and, after a second of hesitation, pulled herself up straight. Viviane reached out a hand toward her, light flickering around her spread fingers as she worked some form of magic.

‘There is inherent power,’ the witch said after a few seconds. ‘She was an Ultrahuman before this… shadow came upon her. I sense animal… sensuous… a cat, but then…’ She stopped, closing her eyes, and her brow furrowed as she concentrated. ‘Something ancient… dark, but only a part, a fragment…’

Viviane stepped back, lowering her arm and looking almost scared. ‘There is something very powerful and very dark inside you, girl. I can’t tell exactly what it plans. I don’t know why it’s there, but I believe it has always been part of you. It feeds on fear… The sword, keep it with you, especially at night.’

Andrea blinked, her hand lifting the hilt of her weapon. ‘This? Why?’

‘You don’t know? Ah, well, perhaps not. It’s old, hand-crafted, ritually blessed to protect the one who bonds with it as you have done. I sense magic which fortifies the spirit, perhaps more. If you don’t know it does that, it is possible that you have not yet tapped its full potential.’ Viviane’s gaze snapped to Ultimate, sitting on a stool and watching the interplay. ‘We need to watch this one, Hugh. She’s dangerous.’

Andrea raised an eyebrow.

‘Tactful as ever, Viviane,’ Alice commented.

‘Darkness is something I have some familiarity with, Alice,’ Viviane replied. ‘From the inside, if you will. I know what I’m talking about.’

Ultimate coughed. ‘Yes, well, I have some additional tests to run. Viviane, I’d like you to observe.’

The witch nodded, her gaze never leaving Andrea, as though the darkness might choose any moment to come out and attack them.

~~~

The snow came up to her mid-calves. Below that it was hard-packed permafrost and quite able to carry Andrea’s weight. It was night, but she could see perfectly. The sky overhead was clear, far clearer than anything she had ever seen before, but the stars were partially obscured by the brilliant green of the aurora as it danced overhead. Alice had said it was brightest in April and October and it was certainly giving a good display now.

‘Aren’t you cold?’

Andrea did not look around at the sound of the voice; she had heard someone trudging through the snow. ‘Shouldn’t I be asking you that? Assuming you’re still in that same nothing dress.’

‘Resisting low temperatures is a simple spell.’ Viviane stepped up beside Andrea, her gaze on the sky. ‘Beautiful, isn’t it?’

‘Yeah… I came out here for the dark, but… Yeah, it’s beautiful.’

‘Darkness calling to darkness?’ Viviane asked, though Andrea got the impression it was an attempt at a joke.

‘I’ve been staring into bright lights all day. I’ve got a headache.’

‘Ah…’ For a second the aurora seemed to be flickering around Andrea. ‘Better?’

The pain behind Andrea’s eyes was already easing. ‘Uh… yes, thank you. If you don’t mind me saying, you seem to have lightened up on me. You were…’

‘Harsh, tactless? Yes, I often am. Alice pointed out a few things. You are, as I said, dangerous, but… Alice reminded me how much effort they had to put into turning my life around and you’re starting from a far better place than I was.’ She sighed. ‘We’re likely to be seeing more of each other and we should probably try to be friends, or at least not enemies.’

‘We are?’

‘I’ll be dropping in now and then, checking up.’

‘Oh. Well… I suppose I should expect that.’

Before Viviane could answer, Cygnus dropped into the snow beside them. ‘Aren’t you guys cold?’ she asked.

‘Inner core of icy space,’ Andrea replied.

‘Possibly the most powerful Wiccan on the planet,’ Viviane said.

‘What’s your excuse?’ Andrea added. ‘You’re standing there in a tiny, plastic swimsuit.’

Cygnus frowned, looking up at the sky. ‘Uh… Actually it was cold for about a second when I stepped out and then… I guess I adjusted.’

‘Hugh mentioned that you had a rather unusual power, not unlike my magic,’ Viviane said.

‘You know,’ Andrea said, her tone a little wary, ‘I still don’t really believe in magic.’

Viviane gave a throaty laugh. ‘For someone who does not believe in it, you have a lot of it hanging around you. Besides’ – and she pointed up at the sky – ‘look at that and tell me there is no magic in the world.’

‘Well… I mean it’s not magic, it’s… Yeah, I guess you have a point. Sort of.’

Silence fell in the green-lit darkness as the three women stood watching the light show above them.

Part Two: Rough Diamond

New Millennium City, MD, 11
^th
April, 2014.

Rex stood beside the bed in the largest of the suite’s rooms. On the bed, between him and the woman in red, was a map of the city he had picked up at a tourist advice shop in Uptown. It lacked detail, but it showed the main areas of the city and was not particularly large.

‘The Tonaldos were pretty quick to capitalise on Ghostfire’s demise,’ Rex said. ‘They’ve regained full control of Fairhaven, Friendship, and Churchton. They ran the docks anyway.’

‘What about these areas, Tracy’s Landing and Downtown?’

‘Most of the locals call them Uptown and Downtown. They were largely run by Ghostfire, but the family is moving back in. Still a lot of independent action going on there. North Beach doesn’t have much of interest anyway, aside from it being where this Cygnus lives.’

She nodded. ‘How is our evaluation of their detailed operations proceeding?’

‘We’ve infiltrated a few of their groups. We’ve got a good hold on things in Churchton and we’ve made good inroads into Deale. Friendship is mostly drugs and burglaries. Easier to control from the top. Churchton’s got the drug labs and the low-rent brothels. Deale, well, shipment and storage.’

‘All right.’ She turned, swinging her legs off the bed and rising to her feet. ‘What about these heroines?’

‘Cygnus inherited a house from some old hero last year. Seems like Twilight moved in with her recently. There was something on the news about it. Did some digging and the landlady wasn’t keen on having an Ultra under her roof. That and her insurance company suddenly upped the premiums. They’re in tight with an inactive named Red Huntress.’

‘I’ve heard of her,’ the woman said as she paced back toward the bed. ‘I like her choice in colour.’

Rex gave her a grin. ‘She runs a club in Uptown, the Huntress’ Den. Seems like Cygnus is there most Friday nights, Twilight less often.’

‘It seems like we’re due a night off. How’re the finances?’

‘We’re good for now, but we’re going to need a cash injection soon.’

The woman walked over to her closet, opened the doors and began going through dresses, all of them red. ‘Make finding Tonaldo’s money a priority. I think he should bankroll his own demise.’

~~~

‘Tell them we can do it Monday,’ Andrea said.

‘Monday?’ Penny asked, her hand over the receiver of the phone. ‘You’re sure?’

‘Monday. I can’t do it until I’ve spoken to Lena. I’ll do that tonight. Better to get it over with; she’s been leaving a lot of messages.’

Penny nodded, but looked worried. Taking her hand away she said, ‘Is Monday good for you? We have some things to clear up and… Okay, yes, at six. That should be fine.’ She hung up. ‘They won’t use it until next Friday anyway.’

‘Yeah, but… This is going to be worse than telling my parents.’

‘When are you going to go?’

‘We’ll run a patrol, then I’ll check in on her.’

Penny still looked worried. ‘Be careful. If Tonaldo finds Twilight in his daughter’s bedroom…’

‘Don’t remind me.’

~~~

The light was still on in Tonaldo’s office, but Lena’s windows were dark. When she had no company she tended to go to bed early. Twilight watched from the roof opposite silently conversing with her other self.

‘I think you should handle the talking,’ Twilight said. ‘You’re more… uh, more of a people person. And anyway, I’m too young.’

It was a fact. There was something… slightly unformed about Twilight, an almost childlike quality to her. She had all of Andrea’s memories, but it was as if she did not have the experience which went with them.

‘All right,’ Andrea replied. ‘If you get us over there and make sure she’s alone, I’ll take it from there.’