Ultrahuman 01 - Ugly (26 page)

‘I was enjoying that,’ June mumbled. ‘It’s not like we’re naked.’

That was true; they were both in cropped tops and panties having decided that nude was not a great way to proceed. It was not as much fabric as Penny had thought, when it came down to it.

‘Yeah, well… It’s time to get up.’

‘We’ve got an hour before breakfast.’

‘Oh… If I turn back I’ll… change things. I’m going to take a shower.’

‘Okay. Wake me when you come out if I nod off again.’

‘Sure.’ Penny slipped out from under the covers and padded around the carpet toward the bathroom.

‘This is going to be harder than I thought,’ June mumbled just before Penny opened the door.

Pausing with her hand on the handle, Penny tried to think of an answer and finally decided there was not really a good one. She carried on going as though she had not heard her friend.

The Everglades.

Moon Coyote checked the GPS device she was using to navigate, looked down, and then pointed toward a small, wooden building perched on an island in the swamp.

‘That’s it,’ she said. ‘Down there.’

Dom checked where she was pointing and then started down. Moon was in her arms as they flew over the Everglades. Behind and slightly above, Penny was carrying June, and she followed Dom downward toward the small jetty beside the hut.

‘This is where we’re meeting her?’ June asked once all four of them were on the deck.

‘According to this,’ Moon replied, waving her GPS.

‘She can’t leave the Everglades for too long,’ Dom said, ‘finds it uncomfortable when she does, and we are trying to persuade her, so we meet her where she says.’

Penny walked up to the hut, knocked on the door and got no answer, and then tried the door, finding it unlocked. Inside were a couple of straight-backed wooden chairs, a small table against one wall, a cupboard, and no sign of anyone.

‘Well,’ she told the others, ‘she’s not here yet.’

Dom looked up, checking the position of the sun. ‘I think we’re a little early…’

There was a sound: a rippling of water, or a rustling of leaves. It became more pronounced, like a sudden rush of waves, and they all turned toward the end of the jetty in time to see Ever emerging from the shallow water as though she were growing out of the mud beneath.

She was, for want of a better word, beautiful; Penny could definitely see why Dom wanted her on the calendar. Her body was slim and long in the leg and she had very full, very pert breasts, but the first thing you noticed about her was her skin. It was green, the verdant green of healthy plant life. Her eyes were blank, green orbs, adding an exotic touch of unreality to her. Her hair, which was straight and fell to her waist, was a luscious blue-green colour, paler at the crown. And she was quite naked.

Ever stepped up onto the wooden deck, her eyes scanning over the four women. There was no animosity there, but there was no real pleasure in seeing them either.

‘You are a little early,’ Ever said, her voice soft and sultry, ‘but I was watching the hut. I don’t keep time by watches and humans aren’t used to working from the sun and moon.’

‘Ever,’ Dom said, stepping forward and smiling. ‘It’s a pleasure to meet you. I am…’

‘Dominika Zuyev,’ Ever interrupted. ‘Your associate mentioned your name and I asked one of the Rangers about you. He showed me your picture on a magazine.’ She had a distant sort of tone, a little like she was above everything and everyone, or her mind was elsewhere.

‘Right. You asked to meet me and the other Ultras on the project. This is Moon Coyote…’

Ever bowed her head to the Native American. ‘I’m afraid I haven’t got on so well with the local Seminole since they began their gambling activities. Too much business, not enough nature.’

‘I’m Cahuilla,’ Moon replied, ‘though I try to be a representative of all our tribes as much as possible.’

‘And this is Cygnus,’ Dom went on. ‘She’s quite a new Ultra, but she’s been making a name for herself in New Millennium.’

‘And she is very attractive,’ Ever said, smiling for the first time, ‘which cannot hurt sales.’

‘Not at all.’

Penny blushed. ‘No more attractive than you, Ever.’

Ever lifted a hand, looking at her long, green fingers. ‘Many prefer their women to be pink, or at least a shade normally found in humans.’

‘I doubt that’ll be a problem for our market,’ Dom replied. ‘We also brought along June here. She’s not an Ultra, but she’s a friend of Cygnus’ and I wanted you to meet one of our normal models.’

‘Pleased to meet you, ma’am,’ June said, looking a little awed. If Penny were honest, she was feeling a little awed herself.

‘Ma’am?’ Ever said, the smile becoming a grin. ‘I don’t think I’m that old yet. Go in. I keep this place in case I have to meet people from outside. Most of them come by boat…’

‘Most probably can’t fly,’ Penny replied. As she turned toward the door again, it opened on its own. She glanced back at Ever and noted the mischievous quirk which had crept over her grin; among Ever’s extensive list of powers was the control of plants and wood.

There were not enough chairs, but Ever settled herself on the floor as soon as she was inside, so Penny did the same. Moon actually looked more comfortable cross-legged on the floorboards, which left Dom and June to sit on the seats mainly because it would have looked rude not to use them.

‘Susan tells me that you are aiming to raise money for various ecological projects,’ Ever said, getting straight down to business.

That was Dom’s domain. ‘Susan came up with the idea. There are four conservation projects in the Glades, and two around Chesapeake Bay which I thought deserved some extra funding.’

The green woman nodded. ‘Susan told me of the four here. I’m aware of them. I approve. Your two… are outside of my domain. I am inclined to participate, but I am unused to posing for photographs.’

‘Well, neither am I,’ Moon told her. ‘I agreed to this because, well, it’s a good cause and my fee is going to a project I have helping young Cahuilla get to college.’

‘And I’ve never done this before,’ Penny added. ‘June’s the one with the modelling career planned out. No one’s even mentioned being paid, but I think I’d have to find a charity to give the money to anyway.’

‘I’m the one with the experience,’ Dom said. ‘All of the models are new to the business, or not in it. The aim is to give the girls a good start as well as make some money.’

Ever looked between them. ‘Would I need to wear those pointless bits of cloth? I’m not very fond of clothing.’

Dom grinned; she had her final model, and she knew it. ‘
If
we put you in anything, we’ll take pains to ensure it’s all natural fibres, but we can work with nude. It’s not going to be
that
sort of calendar, but it’s just a matter of pose. Jon is very good at getting just the kind of angle and position we need. Just enough flesh on show, not too much.’

Ever shrugged. ‘I’ll never understand what humans have against their own bodies.’

Penny frowned. ‘As I understand it, you were human once.’

‘I remember fragments of Perpetua Donnelly. Her feelings and morals are distant memories, though her ideals were close to mine. I’m more… elemental. I’m closer to the plants and animals of the swamp than I am to her.’ Ever gave a small smile. ‘I think she would have loved it. I understand the ecology of this place the way she strived to. Oh, I can’t really spend too much time on Miami Beach…’

‘Not a problem,’ Dom replied. ‘It’s for nature, we’d like to do some shooting around here, if you’re okay with that?’

‘I know some very beautiful spots.’

Dom nodded. ‘I was hoping you did, but I think… Perhaps we could use this cabin. We can get one of the blondes on the jetty in a pair of Daisy Dukes with a fishing pole.’

Ever laughed. ‘I will do my best to keep the insects at bay.’

Miami, FL.

Penny touched down beside the hotel’s pool and put June carefully down on her feet. The heat in the city, even on the ocean coastline, was oppressive, even if the humidity had dropped a little.

‘That went well, I thought,’ June said. Her gaze swept the poolside, scanning over the bodies doing their best to cook themselves. ‘I think a bikini is in order. I’m going to work on my tan while I can.’

‘Probably a good idea,’ Penny agreed, but something did not feel right. There was something…

She turned her head and spotted the man sitting beside the bar. He was tall, heavily built, huge even, with short-cropped, blonde hair and, she thought, blue eyes. His jaw was solid, his lips thin, and those blue eyes were watching her. Of course, there were several people around the pool watching the arrival of the Ultras and June, but this one seemed more intent, even sitting there in a pair of swimming trunks. Despite his age, which had to be over fifty, he looked pretty good in a pair of Speedos.

‘Yeah,’ Penny continued. ‘I’ll join you. Have to try on that bikini sometime.’

New Millennium City, MD.

Jacob Dannon opened his eyes and looked up at the ceiling of his bedroom. Something had woken him and he was not sure what. He kept his room dark; he liked a real blackout to fall asleep in, but it did mean that seeing anything that might be there was almost impossible.

His gaze shifted toward the foot of the bed. The shadows there seemed darker, or was it something dark standing… No, crouching on the rail… It moved.

‘Oof!’ Dannon said as Twilight landed on him. Her legs straddled his hips, her arms rested on his chest. Her breath was on his face and, this close, he could see the grin on her lips.

‘Evening, Special Agent,’ she purred.

‘You really… have to stop doing this,’ Dannon grunted in reply. ‘How did you get in anyway?’

‘I have my ways. You said there were four people who broke out of the Fortress. One of them was some sort of Ultra hunter.’

‘Jasper Conrad. Jasper Philip Conrad the Third, actually. Austrian. He used to hunt big game in Africa, illegally for the most part, but he decided that wasn’t a big enough challenge. Went mercenary. Fought in Bosnia when that went up, tried his luck in South America against the Amazon Queen’s forces. Now he hunts Ultras.’ The lithe young woman lying atop him shifted slightly and he swallowed.

‘I think he’s hunting Cygnus. I heard David Tonaldo’s rescinded her bounty because someone who’s good at killing Ultras is after her. Is he?’

‘After her, or good at killing Ultras?’

‘Either.’

‘We’ve no idea where he is so I can’t speak for the former. He has a dozen confirmed kills to his name. One was a magnitude four.’

‘Thanks. You might want to inform your Miami office that he could be down there. Otherwise, I think he’ll be around New Millennium.’

‘I’ll do that. You know, you could have just come to the office.’

‘Where’s the fun in that?’ She shifted her hips and grinned. ‘You seem to be enjoying a more personal service as well.’

‘This could be considered sexual harassment.’

‘We wouldn’t want that…’ She rolled off him, falling off the side of the bed in a fluid movement that left him blinking. There was no sound of her hitting the floor.

Reaching out, he turned on the bedside lamp, and then looked down. There was no sign of her, not even under the bed. Dannon rolled onto his back again and sighed. ‘There is no way I’m getting back to sleep now.’

Miami, FL.

There was a message from Twilight waiting for her when Penny signed into UltraNet. Her phone had chirped an alert when she turned it on, and she had frowned and unpacked her laptop. June had grumbled about her bringing work on her working vacation, but if something had pinged then it was probably urgent. Seeing that it was from Twilight, Penny figured it was
very
urgent since her shadowy partner did not send messages otherwise.

It was a very short message.
Jasper Conrad. T.

Frowning, Penny did a search on the name and got an UltraNet profile from the criminal section. There was a picture, and she felt a chill run down her spine when she saw it. Blonde, blue-eyed, lantern-jawed, and he had been sitting beside the pool at her hotel the day before. The report stated that he had been incarcerated for the murder of an Ultra named Violet, based out of Chicago. Despite the unassuming name, Violet had been a skilled huntress of criminals. Conrad had put two bullets in her chest from five thousand yards. The fact that he was in Miami and Twilight had dropped his name suggested he was hunting Cygnus.

Penny picked up the room’s phone and punched in a number. A second or two later, it was answered and she said, ‘Dom, I think we may have a problem.’

~~~

‘Are you sure it’s safe to be standing around in the open?’ June asked, keeping her voice down so that none of the others present heard her.

Penny adjusted the cups on her bikini bra, again, frowning at the little triangles of fabric. ‘His MO is to watch, learn your behaviour, and then ambush,’ she replied. ‘That’s why he was here. Dom says the UID are keeping an eye out for him. All the local Ultras are as well. It’s probably too hot for him right now, so he’ll likely stay hidden. I don’t think this is the right size.’

June gave her a glower. ‘You’re being far too blasé about this, and no, it’s two sizes too small. It makes your tits look bigger.’

‘You don’t think they look big enough?’

‘It’s a trick of the trade. You should be watching Sharon for tips on how to pose, not worrying over your costume.’

Sharon was a buxom young blonde who was currently being photographed by Jon. They were up on a rooftop overlooking the ocean, so the backdrop was fairly pretty, but also did not detract from the model. That was what Jon had said anyway. Penny turned her attention to the ongoing shoot, but she was really not that clear on why one pose was better than another. They all seemed to revolve around pushing your chest out in one way or another. There was the curve of the back, and the placing of one leg forward.

‘I’m not sure I’m ever going to get this,’ Penny admitted. ‘I don’t really think I’m cut out for doing this professionally.’

‘Wait and see what the pictures come out like,’ June suggested, ‘and try not to look too vacant.’