Midnight smiled as she cut down the last guard outside the office and then slid through the door. There were two Red Poles with the Dragon Head, and they opened fire as soon as they saw the darkness creeping into the room. Midnight waited for them to empty their magazines. Then she raised her pistol and fired twice. The leader let out a scream as his guards’ heads exploded. ‘Sickening,’ Midnight said, allowing her shadows to drift away. He lifted an automatic, but Midnight was far faster. She pulled the trigger and a blast of black fire roared from her gun, slamming into the man’s chest. He shuddered, dropping back into the large leather chair behind him. He was breathing hard and shivering as she walked around the desk toward him. His arm trembled as he tried to lift it, but his body was not having it.
‘You attacked the 8G,’ Midnight said in Cantonese. ‘That was a foolish move. We are stronger than you will ever be.’
‘I–’ he began, but Midnight was not giving him a chance. Her sword sliced cleanly through his neck and she watched as his head peeled away and fell into his lap.
New Millennium City, MD.
‘Halloween is the worst,’ June commented. She was overflying Churchton and it was after midnight. Still, the muggers were out in force and more than a couple had some form of Ultrahuman ability.
‘It’s worse than last year,’ Cygnus noted. ‘We’re getting more Ultras this year. I’m guessing that a lot of them are new, caused by the ships exploding.’
‘Could be. I mean, that spider-kid in Uptown? I’m sure I’d have noticed that one if he’d come up on the news.’
‘Huh, yeah. I’m just glad the web things he was making came out of his hands. That is not where spiders make web strands.’
June giggled. ‘True. What were they charging him with?’
‘Defacing public property. He was claiming the webs are biodegradable, so he might be let off with a warning if they wash away. How’s Churchton? Friendship is calming down. I could come up your way if you like.’
They had been out since seven p.m. It had been a fairly intense night, but things did seem to be getting calmer. ‘Up to you,’ June said. ‘It’s starting to get quieter here too.’
‘I’ll run one more sweep and then come up.’
‘Okay.’
June was beginning to think that was a waste of time and that she should head south instead, when she spotted what looked like a gang fight. It was in northern Churchton, in what had once been the play area of a school until the riots had largely demolished the building. Two gangs were facing off against each other and June could see the lights of a patrol car nearby. Obviously, the police knew what was going on, but there were not enough of them to stop the fight. As she got closer, she spotted another factor which would be keeping the police back: right in the middle of the fray was a tall, heavily muscled figure who had to be an Ultra. People were hitting the man with baseball bats and he barely seemed to notice.
Well, this was a situation Astraea was well prepared for. Drop in, zap them with the peace thing, no more fighting. June was about to move in when another figure zipped in from behind her right shoulder. White costume, male, tall, and attractive. June gritted her teeth.
‘Stay back, ma’am,’ Captain Freedom called out as he flew down toward the brawl.
‘Ma’am?’
The Captain was not listening. He waded into the fight, tossing gang members aside like dolls. Most of them were left crawling across the tarmac, dazed, but a couple stopped moving entirely having bounced into a wall. Freedom was tossing them completely out of the schoolyard in some cases. June considered flying in to check on some of the unmoving ones, but the chances were she would get hit by a flying thug if she did.
Then America’s national hero reached the centre of the fight and got punched in the gut by the Ultra thug. Freedom did not really seem to notice, but he did ask, ‘Care to try again?’ So the thug smashed one oversized fist into Freedom’s jaw. It did not seem to have much more effect than the gut-punch. ‘My turn,’ the Captain said. His fist came up and smashed into the thug’s face. June could tell he had pulled the blow, but even so, blood flew, and the man was thrown off his feet to land ten feet or so from where he had been standing. He lay there, shaking his head and looking up at the white-clad hero. ‘If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay right where you are,’ the Captain said. ‘And the rest of you can wait right here for the police to arrive.’
June flew down to the nearest of the unmoving boys. He looked to be little more than sixteen. His face was a bloody mess where it had scraped over the road surface, but when she checked his pulse, it was still there, if weak. ‘Denny,’ June said, ‘if there isn’t an ambulance on its way here, get them moving.’
‘Of course, Astraea,’ Denny responded.
‘Better make that… a dozen ambulances.’
‘What the Hell happened up there?’ Cygnus asked.
‘Huh. There was a gang fight. Then Captain Freedom happened.’
‘It’s okay,’ Freedom’s voice said from behind June. ‘You don’t need to thank me.’
June straightened up from her crouch and turned. Freedom was smiling and that just pissed June off more. ‘I wasn’t planning to. I could have stopped that fight without hospitalising any of them.’
His expression – which June had decided was more of a smirk – did not change. ‘I couldn’t let a young lady like yourself wade into a fight like that. The leader would’ve broken that pretty face of yours.’
‘No,’ June said flatly, ‘he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t have tried. Look, I get that you’ve been out of touch for a while, but things have changed since the eighties. We try to avoid civilian casualties, for one thing.’
‘They’re thugs. They don’t deserve your compassion.’
At his core, June realised, the man she was looking at was a bully. He had all the power in the world to play with, and he was perfectly happy to use it on anyone weaker than himself. ‘It’s not compassion, it’s the law. It’s excessive force. You’re probably used to dealing with big threats like Magmatic.’ The mention of Freedom’s nemesis made the smirk fade a little. ‘You should leave the local policing to people with the training and experience for it.’
‘The people need me,’ Freedom said before turning on his heel and heading for the gathering police cruisers. ‘Whatever you may think.’
June moved on to check another fallen gang member. ‘Like a hole in the head,’ she muttered.
Hong Kong, China, 3rd November.
It had taken Andrea one entire night to arrange things, but she was ready and it was going to be good. She had had to ‘borrow’ a couple of corpses from the morgue for set dressing. The corpses had needed to be dressed in appropriate stolen clothing. Then she had needed to take a few items from police evidence lockup. All of that needed to be stashed where nothing would be found. It all took time, and Andrea only had the six or so hours when Midnight was asleep to do it.
So, it ended up being two nights after Halloween when Andrea slipped into a supposedly very secure building in Kwun Tong around four in the morning. People believed it was used for manufacturing clothing for western markets, and that was partially true. Only the 8G knew about the basement where they kept girls from mainland China prior to shipping them out to other parts of the world. Andrea had partially selected the place because she was going to have fewer qualms about killing all the 49ers who were guarding it. She had relatively few qualms about killing criminals when it was necessary, but her view on slavers made it just about conscienceless.
Not quite with a song in her heart, but certainly without any major worries, Andrea stepped into the room the guards used when taking breaks and opened fire with an assault rifle. It took her ten minutes to locate and eliminate all the triad members in the building. It was dirty work, slaughter. They had no hope against her: she was faster than they were and, where they managed to get a shot off, she could simply vanish into her shadows. The last of them was on his knees, begging, when she shot
him in the head.
The light was behind her as she stood over the last corpse. She looked down at her shadow. ‘I didn’t exactly enjoy that,’ she said.
‘Good,’ her shadow replied. ‘That means you’re not her.’
‘Yeah… I don’t have to like this for it to work, I guess.’
‘No. No, you don’t.’
Turning, Andrea headed for the cages and their collection of young women destined for a life of slavery on foreign shores. This was one lot the triad would not be shipping out and that was a victory of a sort.
~~~
‘Have we identified whoever is responsible?’ Midnight asked. She was not at the factory in Kwun Tong. Instead, she was surveying the scene at the home of a 438, an Incense Master responsible for the induction ceremonies into the 8G. He had been a minor Ultra, able to create fire around his hands. Now he was a bloody corpse, riddled with so many bullets it was a little difficult to identify him.
‘Here, no,’ Billy said from behind her. ‘The factory gave us more. There was a body we were able to identify. He was a forty-niner in the Sunset Trade Group. It’s likely that they hit all three sites, but we can’t be sure.’
Midnight was silent for far too long. Billy could tell she was thinking, plotting. When she took her time over something, it usually meant things were either going to be allowed to proceed so that she could watch what happened or something really bad was about to happen. Billy’s money was on the latter and he would not have lost the bet.
‘Get everyone together,’ Midnight said. ‘We’re going to take care of this once and for all.’
‘You mean–’
‘Yes, I mean. It’s bringing the operation forward a few months, but I won’t let this continue. Whatever it takes, by next week the 8G will be the only triad in the city.’
New Millennium City, MD, 4th November.
‘Nothing,’ June said, frowning at her toast. ‘I know he killed one of those kids. I checked myself before the EMTs arrived. Broken neck, I think, so they weren’t bringing him back. Nothing on the news about it.’
‘Not much on the news about the entire event,’ Penny pointed out. ‘There was a lot going on and I don’t think they care that much about a gang rumble in Churchton.’
‘Someone died.’
‘Even if someone died.’
June looked up at Penny, her brow still furrowed. ‘Oh, come on, Pen. The UID didn’t even bother showing up. If you’d tossed someone through a wall and killed them, the UID would be all over it.’
‘The UID doesn’t exactly like me.’ June glowered. ‘Okay, so they’re treating Captain Freedom as though he’s above the law. He’s our national hero, June.’
‘I’m not sure what that says about this country. Our national hero is a bully who thinks he’s above the law and, apparently, is.’
Penny allowed a small smirk to show. ‘That sounds just about right.’
June allowed a little grin to show too. ‘Yeah, I guess so. But it’s not how it should be.’
‘If everything was the way it should be, we wouldn’t need heroes.’
June frowned again, but it seemed to be with better humour. ‘Damn! Stop using your reason on me. I’ve got absolutely no defence against it.’
Hong Kong, China, 5th November.
‘Is everything ready?’
Billy wondered at times how Midnight managed to see out through the back of her head. She always seemed to know when someone walked up behind her, even when it was daylight. If he had been trying to kill her, it would have been really frustrating, but Billy had realised a long time ago – or what seemed like a long time ago – that his fortunes were now inextricably tied to Midnight’s. ‘We’re ready,’ he said.
Midnight looked out through the picture window of her apartment. Around three hours until it was dark. There were places she could go before then to do damage, but the initial phases of the operation did not call for her direct involvement. The first volley would be broad and shallow. She would cut deeper and with greater precision tonight.
‘Tell them to go,’ Midnight said. ‘Let’s get this started.’
Briefly, Billy considered arguing. Yes, he was bound to Midnight’s fortunes. Yes, he would do anything she said. But this seemed like it was going to cause more trouble than it would solve. The 8G had their share of corrupt cops, but so did the other triads. Make too much noise and the police might have to act, and the 8G’s bought ones would be outvoted by the other bought ones. Or the situation might get worse than that…
But it was not really Billy’s decision. ‘I’ll give the order,’ he said, and turned away.
~~~
The Dragon Head of the Sunset Trade Group was on the phone when Midnight stepped into his office and cut down his guards. She had been watching for a while and knew that he was talking to someone in the police. He had been demanding that someone do something. His people were being cut down in the streets and the police were slow to respond. What did he pay them for if they were just going to stand around and watch the violence spread? He put the phone down when Midnight started walking toward him.
‘Why are you doing this?’ he demanded. ‘We have done nothing to you. Why have the 8G begun this war?’
‘Nothing? You hit our people first. We lost dozens, some of them important. We lost merchandise. We know it was you.’
‘Your information is wrong,’ he said, leaning away from her and her bloody sword. ‘We did nothing.’
The weird thing was that he seemed to be sincere. Not that it mattered. Things had gone too far to stop now. ‘If that’s the case, then I’m sorry. This would have happened eventually anyway.’
‘You don’t–’ He was cut off, literally, as Midnight’s sword sliced through his neck.
6th November.
Midnight walked out of her room, belting her robe together as she went. Billy had not even been aware that she was back, though it was light outside so he should have guessed.
‘News?’ Midnight asked.
‘It’s more or less become open war,’ Billy replied. ‘The other triads are out trying to get our people, but we’re better armed and we have far more Ultras. We’ve lost people, but they’ve lost more.’
Midnight nodded. ‘I’m going to grab a few hours of sleep. I don’t want to be disturbed unless the sky is falling.’
Billy nodded back. ‘Sure, Midnight. At this point, the tactics are pretty simple anyway.’
‘They should be. I spelled them out clearly enough.’ Turning, she walked back into her room and closed the door behind her.
Billy heard the key turn in the lock and sighed. Six or so hours of relative quiet. If it was not for the number of people dying all over Hong Kong, it would be quite peaceful.
~~~
The daylight was limiting what Andrea could do, but there were places where it was always dark and shadows in many places where it was light. She had no intention of doing anything physical anyway: today she was out to watch.
She was watching the Deputy Commissioner of Operations a lot, because he was in charge of handling, well, operations. He was a large, self-important man, unused to situations where his forces were unable to handle things. That meant he was sweating a lot given that the city had turned into a war zone on his watch. He was also shouting into the phone a great deal or bawling at his inferiors at his desk. It was always interesting to see someone so much in control losing it when that control slipped. Andrea suspected his subordinates massaged the crime figures a little to keep him thinking everything was going precisely according to plan.
When his office door opened, slamming against the wall, the Deputy Commissioner raised his head and opened his mouth to shout, and came to a grinding halt when he saw who was walking in. Andrea had only ever seen pictures; the Chinese national hero was more impressive in person, but not someone she had ever expected to see up close.
‘Jīnlóng!’ The man behind the desk got to his feet as though royalty had just walked in. In some ways
, that was not far from the truth. ‘W-what brings you to Hong Kong?’
Jīnlóng, the Golden Dragon, was not an especially tall man, though he had a couple of inches on the deputy. He was also not heavily built; his body was all whipcord muscle, lithe and powerful. He wore a golden gi with dragons embroidered onto it in red, but even the loose cloth could not disguise the tight musculature under it. He was a good-looking man, a bit like Bruce Lee at the height of his fame: a narrow face with hollowed cheeks, a mane of jet-black hair, and dark eyes which seemed to shine as he looked over the owner of the office. Actually, Jīnlóng’s eyes seemed just a little manic to Andrea. She had never noticed that in the pictures.
‘I am here to clean up your mess, Deputy Commissioner. Due to this emergency, I have brought a contingent of special forces with me. We will require a complete overview of the current situation, and then we will begin putting down this… uprising of criminal activity.’ Jīnlóng turned and started out of the room again. ‘Get someone competent to give us the briefing.’
Andrea shrank back into the shadows and made the jump back to Midnight’s bedroom. She started to get undressed. Sooner rather than later, word was going to get out that the Golden Dragon was in town to kick triad butt. When that happened, Billy was probably going to have to wake Midnight up.
Andrea smirked as she climbed back into bed. ‘Sure sucks to be evil,’ she said, and then she closed her eyes.
~~~
‘Golden Dragon and a bunch of commando types?’ Midnight frowned and pressed the bridge of her nose between thumb and forefinger. ‘Okay. What are they doing?’
True Dark Page 18
