At first, Andrea had just observed things. For the last couple of nights, she had been taking more direct action. She could now shift over five hundred pounds of stuff with her when she sank into the shadows, so she had emptied two supply trucks of ammo, quietly whisking the crates fifty miles away to leave the quartermasters scratching their heads in the morning. Three food trucks had been emptied the night after. Now the guard on the supplies had been tripled and she was wondering what Xue was going to say when more supplies went missing tonight.
At some point, she thought as she whisked two more crates through the darkness, she was going to have to take on Xue directly. But she needed to somehow neutralise Guàiwù as well, as otherwise the monster would be set free to rampage across Tibet. She needed a plan, and right now she did not have one.
New Millennium City, MD, 4th October.
It had to be admitted that meetings with her agent had become more pleasant since June had sacked Maurice. The agency Svetilo used was professional, efficient, and actually listened to her. They had not even suggested that she give up the calendar, of course; they considered it good publicity. Her bookings were on their way up again. Things were looking up.
Her meeting was in Uptown and several blocks from the O, but the exercise was good for her, even if long walks in heels were not so good. City streets could be murder on the calves.
‘You. The brunette with the legs. Get in here.’ Then again, so could chromed automatics such as the one some thug was aiming at her from the alley she was walking past. There were actually two men in dark clothing – jeans and hoodies – and both had guns. The second held a revolver with a large barrel. ‘Move it, lady,’ the first thug said, twitching the barrel of his weapon to signal her into the alley with them.
June looked blankly at them for a second and then stepped toward the alley. ‘Are you two insane? It’s broad daylight and you’re mugging someone?’
The alley was more of a service passageway, quite narrow with little space for them to operate in. The talkative one waved his gun again. ‘You’re coming with us. Don’t scream. Don’t even speak.’
June’s eyes widened. ‘You’re kidnapping me? I don’t think so.’
The first thug reached out to grab her arm. ‘You’re coming–’ June met his hand halfway, her fingers grazing his palm, and he cut off, blinking. ‘What…’ He looked down at the gun in his hand as though it were a snake. ‘What am I doing?’
‘Sitting down and waiting for the police, I’d imagine,’ June replied. She turned her gaze to the second man. ‘What about you?’
His attention was on his friend, who had now dropped to his knees. ‘What the Hell are you doing, man? Get up. Get the fuck up!’ He was distracted. His next words were more like weird, grunting strangled noises after June’s fist slammed into his crotch. He dropped to his knees, clutching his bruised manhood, and she slammed her fist into his face. Blood flew from his bust nose and he swayed, then collapsed onto the dirty tarmac of the alley.
June put her foot on the man’s shoulder and tapped at her earpiece. ‘Denny, could you get some police to my location? I seem to have a couple of kidnappers that need to be picked up.’ Then she leaned forward, putting her face right in front of the one who was still upright. ‘Now, who sent you?’
~~~
Penny stood up as June was ushered out of the back of the police station. June was looking a little frazzled and a little more annoyed, so Penny said nothing until they were walking out of the building to where she had parked the car.
‘So, that took a while,’ Penny said eventually.
‘There were a lot of questions,’ June replied. ‘It’s not like I knew any of the answers.’
‘Oh. What kind of questions?’
‘Why would someone want to kidnap me? A lot of questions about Cygnus.’
‘About–’
‘I told them that was irrelevant and that they should ask the goons about why someone would want to kidnap me. They’d pretty much concluded that it was because I’m Cygnus’s girlfriend and that I deserved what I got.’
‘They said that?’
‘No, but one of them had the good grace to feel guilty about it.’
‘They’re probably right, you know. The reason, not the deserving it bit.’
‘Maybe. The one I asked before the cops arrived…’ June paused and frowned. ‘It’s weird. I have never wanted to call police officers pigs before, but now it seems appropriate. Seriously, I think part of the reason it took so long was that I’m wearing a short skirt. Anyway, the one I asked didn’t know why they were grabbing me. They were hired anonymously.’
‘They were hired to kidnap you? In broad daylight?’
‘They were hired to kidnap me. The daylight thing was because they hadn’t been able to spot me out of the house at any better time. They were hired a week ago. Their employer was getting impatient, so they took the chance. But they don’t know who hired them, just where to take me when they had me.’
‘Which was?’
‘A disused pier in Deale. We can check it out, but I’m betting we’ll find nothing there. They were supposed to call when they had me.’
‘The number–’
‘Burner phone. Untraceable.’
‘Turned off?’ June nodded a reply and Penny frowned. ‘Whoever it is knew his goons were in custody pretty quickly. I don’t like this.’ She stopped at her car, parked at the side of the road. ‘You’re not going out without Ultrahuman protection for a while.’ There was a bleep as the doors unlocked, punctuating the sentence.
‘I think that’s overkill,’ June responded, opening the door.
Penny waited until they were both sitting down and the engine was running before speaking. ‘Any sort of kill is exactly what I’m trying to avoid. If they avoided the house, they’re worried about Cygnus intervening. If Cygnus is with you when you go out, they won’t have the opportunity to try again.’
June sighed. ‘Having a secret identity sucks. If I was just Astraea, I could just beat up bad guys with gay abandon.’
‘Welcome to my world,’ Penny replied with a grin. Then she pulled the car out and started for home.
9th October.
‘The debate has started,’ Denny said over the radios.
‘No request to fly out to St. Louis for this one, Cygnus?’ Zoe asked. Svetilo had flown out to L.A. that afternoon for a shoot, so Zoe was listening in on the ‘interesting local news,’ as she called the radio traffic. To be fair, Heather listened in from time to time for the same reason.
‘Nope,’ Cygnus replied. ‘I can’t say I’m sorry about that.’
‘Looks like Captain Freedom isn’t there either.’
‘Yeah, well, I’m pretty sure he was there to keep an eye on me rather than as “additional security.”’
‘Maybe,’ Zoe said. ‘Oh, did you watch the VP debate?’
‘Denny watched it and gave us the highlights,’ June put in. ‘She’s very self-sacrificing.’
‘Thank you, Astraea,’ Denny said.
‘I thought Montrose looked uncomfortable most of the time,’ Zoe said.
‘My analysis suggested that she does not really agree with Senator Kilmer’s policies,’ the computer agreed. ‘She did not really defend them in the debate and avoided discussion of some of them as much as possible.’
‘She’s only on the ticket to attract moderate and female voters,’ Cygnus said. ‘I’ve met her. She’s not the rabid anti-Ultra type that Kilmer is. Hell, it was supposed to be her going for president this year, but Washington got nuked and the GOP went for the more extreme option. I’d imagine they think Montrose will be a moderating influence.’
‘Fat chance,’ June replied.
‘Yeah, I think you’re probably right.’
12th October.
New Millennium Third Mutual was fairly quiet. It was nine thirty on a Wednesday morning, so that was not entirely unexpected. The arrival of four men armed with assault carbines was a shock to t
he system for many of the people in the bank, so the two uniformed guards were disarmed before anyone could really react.
When they did react, the customers and staff lay down on the floor without complaint. Most of the staff had been through this before and they knew what had happened last time. Of course, Twilight would not be coming this time because Twilight was missing or dead, but Cygnus was quite capable of handling a bank robbery on her own and there was the new one, Astraea, to lend a hand.
It was as the robbers were heading for the doors with no sign of any Ultrahumans that one of the guards made a mistake. He had a backup piece in an ankle holster and the robbers were not watching him. He pulled the gun and started to take aim. Two carbines opened up on full auto. Bullets buzzed through the air, cutting down the two guards, a customer, and a couple of bank staff behind the counter. There were screams and shouts. Sirens could be heard getting closer, but of Cygnus, there was no sign.
~~~
‘Penny, you should see this,’ Denny said, and the big wall screen lit up to show ACPN. They had a helicopter following a car chase through the broad streets of Uptown. A dark-blue sedan was being followed by three police cruisers, all of them weaving through the traffic.
‘The men in the car robbed the New Millennium Third Mutual bank ten minutes ago,’ Denny explained. ‘Police and EMT radio broadcasts indicate that there are casualties there. The robbers are quite heavily armed. Further radio chatter indicates that a call was placed to Captain Freedom.’
Penny was on her feet, but she paused at that. ‘Any indication that he’s answered?’
‘We have reports of Captain Freedom in the area,’ the on-air reporter said as though answering her. ‘We can’t see him from the helicopter, but– No, there he is!’
On screen, the white-clad shape of Captain Freedom flew in from up the street, dropped down onto the road in front of the sedan, and braced himself. The car slammed into him, coming to a dead stop without shifting the nation’s favourite Ultra by any discernible amount. The windscreen exploded and one of the men inside flew out, past Freedom, to land on the tarmac, bouncing and flailing like a ragdoll. Penny winced.
‘Captain Freedom has stopped the getaway car,’ the reporter announced unnecessarily. ‘Police are surrounding the vehicle now, but it looks like at least one of the robbers will not be making it to trial.’
‘What a mess,’ Penny grumbled, settling back onto the sofa. Then she stood up again and started for the bedroom. ‘I’m going to go join June in the gym. Let me know if anything worse happens.’
‘I feel responsible,’ Denny said from the bedroom speaker as Penny walked in, stripping off her T-shirt.
‘You’re not.’
‘If I still had–’
‘But you don’t,’ Penny snapped. ‘The banks decided to cut the feeds, so you can’t monitor their cameras. The city decided to call Captain Freedom instead of Cygnus, so the death of that robber isn’t on us either.’ Having stripped off her jeans, Penny got back to her feet and Cygnus said, ‘If this city wants to put all its trust in a guy with a military background and attitudes three decades out of date, that’s their problem, not ours.’
~~~
Apparently, the city still wanted answers. Or ACPN did. Penny was sick of changing the house’s number when some idiot at the UID gave it out to reporters. She had simply told ACPN that if they called her up for any trivial reason, she would have Denny screen and block their calls, no matter what. This call was borderline.
‘This is the first major bank robbery for over a year,’ Ian Coltrane said. ‘The citizens of New Millennium City will want to know why Cygnus was not there to stop it.’ Coltrane was a crime reporter, young and hungry for better ratings. Penny had never really liked his reports, which seemed too sensationalist for the usual ACPN style.
‘The citizens had better ask their elected officials,’ Penny replied.
‘Would you care to elaborate, Cygnus?’
The correct answer was ‘not really,’ but she figured she might as well say something. ‘Until recently, the NMCPD cooperated with me and other Ultras working alongside me. Certain other organisations and institutions also cooperated to give us a method of detecting crimes in progress. That cooperation has been withdrawn without explanation. In the case of the police, I was told that pressure was applied to cease their connection to us. Instead, the city has decided to rely on Captain Freedom for support.’
‘Can we quote you on that?’ Coltrane asked. It sounded like he could taste a juicy story being handed to him and did not want it slipping through his fingers.
‘Sure,’ Penny replied. ‘Just remember that I record phone calls too. Don’t misquote me.’
~~~
‘The first bank robbery in New Millennium City in nineteen months occurred this morning, at the same bank hit last year.’ The presenter on ACPN was all professional dispassion. ‘Three bank employees were confirmed dead at the scene, and two customers were taken to hospital where they are listed as being in critical condition. The robbers made their escape by car which was stopped by Captain Freedom after the NMCPD requested his assistance.’ Behind the presenter, the footage showing Freedom stopping the car was rolling. ‘One of the criminals was confirmed dead by police at the scene.’
Penny was glowering at the screen and June leaned over to hug her. ‘Take your own advice,’ June said. ‘This isn’t your fault.’
‘I know,’ Penny grumbled.
‘At a joint press conference at City Hall,’ the presenter went on, ‘Captain Freedom had this to say.’
Sure enough, the screen cut over to an image of Freedom standing behind a podium in one of the City Hall press-briefing rooms. ‘The citizens of New Millennium City can sleep safe in the knowledge that I am here to ensure their safety. No one in this town will get away with criminal acts on my watch, and the local criminals should get used to that.’
The presenter reappeared. ‘There have been questions raised regarding the nonappearance of Cygnus at the bank. Together with Twilight, Cygnus was there to stop last year’s robbery.’
‘Here we go,’ June said.
‘A city spokesman addressed this issue at the same press conference.’
June’s jaw dropped open as the scene shifted to the same podium with a smartly dressed man standing behind it. ‘Recent changes to security protocols and call-management systems may have caused some diminution of the breadth of Ultrahuman response to major crimes within the city,’ the spokesman said. ‘However, the police department is working closely with Captain Freedom to ensure that these situations are resolved in a timely manner with minimal loss of life. Crime in New Millennium City does not pay with Captain Freedom on the job.’
‘And now, politics,’ the presenter said, reappearing.
‘Mute,’ Penny commanded.
‘They didn’t use you at all?’ June asked as if confused.
‘Apparently not.’
‘But–’
‘It seems that ACPN has just joined the list of organisations I can’t trust.’
‘Maybe, but why?’
Penny frowned. ‘I’m not entirely sure I care.’
13th October.
The morning news was just repeating the story from the previous evening, so Penny was ignoring it as she ate breakfast. Denny decided that then might be a good time to mention something which might cheer up her owner.
‘There has been some interesting traffic on the internet, Penny,’ Denny said, trying to sound cheerful.
Penny did not seem to be going for it. ‘What now?’
‘There have been several blog posts and other messages talking about the robbery yesterday and discussing why Cygnus was not there. Some are negative.’
‘I’m sure.’
‘But there are also a number with alternate theories. These alternatives appear to be trending more than the negative ones.’
Penny pursed her lips, then she sipped some coffee, and then she pursed her lips again. ‘Okay, I
’ll bite. What are these alternate theories?’
‘The summarised version would be that the comment given yesterday by the police spokesman suggests that the city has decided to cut ties with Cygnus in favour of Captain Freedom. Reaction to this hypothesis varies between those who think it’s a bad idea to sideline any resource the city has, and those who state openly that Captain Freedom is not up to the task. The latter opinion is gaining traction despite strenuous arguments stating that Captain Freedom is stronger and more invulnerable because even your critics have to agree that you are more adaptable.’
Sipping more coffee, Penny considered that. It was true that the Captain was tougher than she could be. Or, if she focused all her power into defence, she might match him, but then she would have no way of defeating his defences. Similarly, she might match his physical power, but would be largely defenceless. But she could do just about anything and he was stuck with what he had.
‘I guess I am,’ Penny said.
‘Better than that,’ June said, having put down her own coffee, ‘the city officials might think Captain Freedom is the answer to their prayers, but the general public isn’t so sure. You still have supporters.’
Penny smiled. ‘I guess I do.’
16th October.
Cygnus opened the front door and frowned as Marta Hendry, wearing a large floppy hat and sunglasses, stepped out of a small sports car – which Cygnus did think suited her personality – and hurried over.
‘I need to talk to you,’ she said. ‘Can I come in?’ She lifted the brim of her hat and pulled her glasses down her nose. ‘It’s me, Marta.’
Keeping the smirk from showing was too much to ask; Cygnus smirked. ‘I know. What do you…’ There was no camera crew, Hendry was not carrying anything, and the short, tight dress she was wearing could not have hidden a microphone. ‘Okay, come in.’ Cygnus stepped back and let the reporter in. Well, Hendry was not really a reporter. She was trying to break into more serious roles, but Marta Hendry was known more for presenting gossip and chat shows. Aside from anything, it would be interesting to find out what she wanted.
True Dark Page 29
