Frostburn (Ultrahumans Book 4)

by Niall Teasdale

  ‘No you–’

  ‘Jacob, she’s stunning. She’s a fantasy image made flesh. I do not have a problem with not looking as good as Cygnus because I know why she looks so good, and because I’m not insecure about my body. I have a damn good body.’

  ‘Damn right.’ Jacob paused in his flicking. ‘Damn right, and I didn’t think this calendar was going to be showing off quite this much of it.’

  Andrea’s cheeks coloured. ‘Oh, there are a couple in there that aren’t for the calendar. I was naked anyway, except for the boots, and me and Twi figured we might as well get a few snaps done… for you.’

  ‘For me? You’re not wearing your mask in this one.’

  ‘Twi talked me into it. She said you’d think it was hot and… I was naked anyway. We thought you could pick one and then I’d get it framed for you. You know, signed, with little kisses after the signature.’

  ‘Uh, I could probably accept such a gift, yeah.’

  ‘Cool. And, obviously, if we break up and it ends up on the internet… Well, I know where you live.’

  Miami, FL, 11th November.

  Waiting in the arrivals area as Cygnus was, she reflected, a somewhat surreal experience. Penny often did this job, usually waiting to ferry June home, but Penny attracted no attention from anyone. Penny tended to fade into the crowd and would have needed a flag to wave to get the attention of the person she was waiting for, except that June had never treated her as a background feature and always spotted her immediately.

  Cygnus was pretty sure no one was going to have trouble spotting her. She was almost six-foot tall for one thing. The long, white hair which fell to the small of her back in soft waves was kind of noticeable. Her figure, slim and fit with unnaturally firm, large breasts, tended to make her stand out. Mostly, however, she figured she would be noticed because just about everyone was looking at her and not the arrival gates.

  What they were going to think when the woman she was meeting got there was anyone’s guess.

  Jennifer Pulli was actually six foot in flats with clear, blue eyes and long, platinum-blonde hair wound up into a bun for travelling. She was dressed in grey slacks and a white blouse, neither of which managed to disguise long legs and a very substantial bust. She was pulling a small, wheeled case behind her and looking nervous. She was out of her element here, because her element was engineering; she had worked on the Guardian spaceship Fullerton Technologies had analysed in San Francisco, which was how she had come to the attention of June and Cygnus.

  She did, indeed, spot Cygnus almost immediately. ‘Hi,’ she said, stopping in front of the heroine. ‘Well, I didn’t chicken out yet.’

  ‘Apparently not. Do I call you Jennifer, or Jenny, or Miss Pulli?’

  ‘Jennifer, please. I hate when people shorten it.’ Jennifer looked around. ‘Is everyone staring at us?’

  ‘I’d have thought you were used to that. Come on, I’ve a car waiting.’ Cygnus turned and started for the exit to the car park.

  ‘Uh, great. So… Um, what’s the plan?’ Jennifer fell into step, easily keeping up.

  ‘Engineer. Right. Got to have everything planned.’

  ‘Nervous engineer wants to know what she’s got herself into, more like.’

  Cygnus grinned. ‘Fair enough. We’re going to the hotel where Susan, our make-up and costume supervisor, and also general Miami agent, will be making sure the costume she’s arranged for you actually fits properly. Then I’ll fly you out to meet Ever. She’s watching over June and Svetilo’s shoot at the moment. We figured you’d like to meet her before the actual event tomorrow. And Rosanne, our photographer, obviously.’

  ‘I guess it’d be nice.’

  ‘Tomorrow, you do the shoot. We’re using a set we used last year. It’s a hut in the swamp that Ever used to use for meeting people before the visitor centre was built. I think Rosanne wants to have you on the jetty with Ever rising out of the water beside you, or some such. I think you’re flying back on Thursday?’

  ‘That’s right.’

  ‘In that case, I figure you’ll have most of a day you can spend relaxing by the pool or something, but we wanted to make sure we had time for problems.’

  Jennifer frowned. ‘Problems?’

  ‘Not expecting any, but… I don’t know. If you don’t add contingency, something’s bound to go wrong.’

  ‘Oh, well, yeah. I can get behind that.’

  ~~~

  ‘I think we have a problem,’ Jennifer said, peering down at her chest while she tried to reposition the cups of a pale-blue bikini bra.

  ‘What?’ Susan asked.

  ‘Well, I don’t usually wear bikinis, but aren’t they supposed to cover more than this? I think it’s the wrong size.’

  ‘I said more or less the same thing,’ Cygnus replied. ‘It’s supposed to look like that. Makes your breasts seem larger.’

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

  ‘I think,’ Susan said, ‘that you have a fine pair of breasts and this shows them off well. Now, these shorts are another matter.’ She held up a pair of denim shorts, carefully frayed and stressed to look designer-worn. ‘These need to be snug, but if they’re too small we get unsightly bulges. Put them on over the bikini. Rosanne will probably want pictures with and without, but the strings showing from under the denim is always a popular look.’

  ‘Right… This costume gig is more complicated than I thought. You know, for a girly calendar thing.’

  ‘That’s why they pay me the big bucks.’

  ‘They do?’ Cygnus asked.

  ‘Well, no. That’s where the analogy fails. And I’m doing this basically at cost. Living expenses. But that’s why they should be paying me the big bucks. Are you comfortable in heels, Jennifer?’

  ‘Not really. I mean, low ones, more or less. I usually wear flats because men tend to prefer women they can look in the eyes…’

  Cygnus and Susan shared an exchange of looks, but neither gave the obvious reply. ‘We’ll go with barefoot then. That should work fine with your height.’

  ‘Just try to push up on the balls of your feet a little,’ Cygnus suggested. ‘Extends the legs, makes them look longer.’

  ‘Oh. Okay. This whole thing is more complicated than I thought it would be.’

  ‘I felt the same way last year. Do you have a boyfriend?’

  Jennifer glanced at the heroine, a little flustered. ‘Not currently. I’m told I’m intimidating.’

  ‘Taller and brighter than most men,’ Susan said. ‘They can be so insecure. I know where Cygnus was going with that question. It’s just a trick to get the right look if you do straight-to-camera shots. It’ll work with a favourite actor or someone. Rosanne or Dom can coach you on that if it’s needed.’

  ‘Dom?’ Jennifer asked. ‘Oh, Svetilo. Her real name is Dominika, right?’

  ‘Dominika Zuyev, but it’s an appropriate nickname.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Cygnus said. ‘And if she invites you to a meeting in a hot tub, just politely decline.’

  ~~~

  Susan had found a chainmail bikini for Svetilo to wear, and a prop sword from an old sword and sorcery movie which looked pretty good, so when Cygnus flew in with Jennifer in her arms, it was to see the Russian playing at being a barbarian warrior goddess with June, stark naked, more or less draped up one leg. The professional quality of the shoot went rapidly downhill as Cygnus could not stop giggling.

  ‘I had more or less the same reaction,’ Ever confided.

  ‘It looks great, and Dom’s built for it,’ Cygnus said, ‘it’s just kind of silly. Camp. Uh, Ever, this is Jennifer Pulli.’

  ‘Miss or Doctor?’ Ever asked.

  ‘Oh, it’s just miss,’ Jennifer replied. ‘I have degrees in engineering and metallurgy, but I never felt like a doctorate was worth it. And anyway, Jennifer is fine.’

  ‘Jennifer then. I’m Ever. I understand you didn’t actually work on the project here?’

  ‘Not directly, no. Elaine told
me some of my materials work went into the design of the nanomachines, but I didn’t even know about it until after Cygnus asked me to come here for this. I wrote the paper up… two years ago or something.’

  ‘You had a hand, or a brain, in it so I welcome you to my swamp all the more warmly.’ The green-skinned goddess smiled and Jennifer’s shoulders relaxed almost imperceptibly.

  ‘Could we go out to that area?’ Rosanne asked. ‘I’d like to get a few shots of it, mainly for my own interest, but we might be able to use them in some publicity stuff.’

  ‘We can, if you wish. The area is regrowing, but it still shows some of the devastation the contamination caused. You can certainly contrast it against the lusher vegetation here.’

  ‘Sounds perfect. Now, Jennifer, I suggest you watch how this all works. It’ll prepare you for tomorrow. I want a couple more shots of these two and then, Cygnus, there’s a deer-hide dress and sandals in the case which will… barely fit you. You should be busting out all over the place. Put that on and we can have a few shots with the two of you fighting over June.’

  ‘If I win,’ Svetilo said, ‘do I get to keep her?’

  ‘Don’t make me dropkick you into the Gulf, Dom,’ Cygnus replied.

  ~~~

  It was not, perhaps, one of the more attractive sections of the Big Cypress, but it had to have looked a lot better when the stand of palms and cypress trees had been alive. Set on the southern side of US-41 a few miles east of Carnestown, the area affected by the chemical spill was irregular but obvious.

  ‘The tanker was driving west,’ Ever explained as the group stood beside the road and looked out over the devastation. ‘The road was wet and when the car in front of it braked suddenly, the driver lost control and it fishtailed across both lanes, ending up smashing into the trees on the south side. Four people died, including the driver of the truck and the occupants of the car it crushed on the way. A small family. Mother, father, and a six-year-old girl. Tragic from the start, and the damage it did to the land just compounded the insult.’

  ‘One tanker did all that?’ Cygnus asked. The area of dead trees seemed huge, spreading from the road several hundred yards out into the swamp in an irregular pattern almost like a fern leaf.

  ‘The chemical flowed out along the water channels and then sank into the soil. It was apparently designed as a highly concentrated agent for setting plastics, but it worked exceptionally well at turning the soil into concrete. The trees died quite quickly, unable to gather any moisture through clogged roots. The entire area was becoming stagnant, poisoning what remained.’

  Rosanne was on one knee, her camera pointed out across the swamp. ‘But it’s regrowing, like you said. I can see green shoots. There’s life out there.’

  ‘Sometimes with a little encouragement, life tends to find a way to return. No matter what horrors mankind perpetrates, even accidentally, life prevails. The nanomachines you helped to make, Jennifer, cleared out the soil. I cleared the water channels and pressed the plants to put in a little more effort. Next summer, when the rains come, things will really get going. It will likely take a couple of seasons to make this place whole again, but it will happen.’

  ‘You know,’ the photographer said, ‘there’s a lot of parallels here with Churchton. I mean, they couldn’t be more different at a superficial level, but from our point of view… Ever’s promoting the regeneration of her swamp here, and Cygnus is trying to regenerate Churchton. They’ve both been damaged, but they both have life in them. It just needs… coaxing.’

  ‘Da,’ Svetilo said. ‘We need a couple of extra pages in calendar. Pictures of swamp and city. A little bit of text with each. Could you write something short to say what you want to do here, Ever? A little “message from Ever” in the calendar might actually help sales.’

  ‘Hmm,’ Ever replied. ‘Not one of my greatest skills, but I can get help from some of the rangers.’

  ‘I suppose you’ll want something from me?’ Cygnus asked.

  ‘From you and Twilight,’ Svetilo replied. ‘Between the two of you, you should be able to come up with something.’

  ‘Oh, she’ll love that.’

  New Millennium City, MD.

  The night air was cool against Twilight’s skin, and she loved it. It was a crisp night, the sky was clear, and the stars were shining down. Reports from Florida suggested that the shoot was going well. Twilight had got to scare a mugger half to death earlier. All was right with the world.

  When she started hearing reports of a fire in Uptown over the police band, she initially ignored them. ‘Cygnus and Svetilo are in Florida,’ Andrea reminded her.

  ‘We’re not exactly set up to help in a fire,’ Twilight replied.

  ‘Probably not, but we might be able to help. Worst case is we decide we need Cygnus back here in a hurry.’

  ‘Okay. Fair enough. We can go look.’

  One quick step sideways and Twilight was up on the top of the Americas Trade Center, a frequent meeting place during her early career with Cygnus. The fire became obvious quite quickly: to the north, a column of smoke was rising and, even from the tower, flashing lights in blue and red were visible. Twilight reached out and found a patch of shadow close by, stepped through it, and then it was just a case of finding Fire Bug.

  ‘It’s not a good one,’ the fireman said, ‘but we don’t think there are any people trapped.’ The building was tall, as was common in Uptown. Twenty-plus storeys, all in darkness except for the glow of flames on the lower floors. ‘The security guards on the ground floor got out before the fire took properly. They say the cleaning staff should all be out, but they’re not sure. They don’t think anyone was working late–’

  ‘But they’re not sure,’ Twilight finished for him. ‘I get it. Anyone in there is stuck?’

  ‘All the emergency stairs are burning. Phone lines were taken out by the initial explosion. Oh, and someone has set a fire in the local cell tower too. Cell reception is notoriously bad around here as it is. All the tall buildings. If there’s anyone in there, they can’t get out, and they can’t tell us they’re in there. And Cygnus and Svetilo are in Florida this week.’

  ‘Yeah. I can have them back here in thirty minutes.’ Fire Bug gave Twilight a look of surprise. ‘Cygnus can really motor when she needs to, and she can carry Svetilo. However, do you need them for the fire or searching the building?’

  ‘The latter, primarily. I wouldn’t mind the help, but we can manage the flames.’

  ‘Could you get a helicopter to the roof to take survivors off?’

  ‘Yes. Until the fire gets up that high anyway. And I think we’ll have it under control by then.’

  ‘Right. I’ll handle the search and get anyone I find up to the roof. We can lift them out from there. This is that same arsonist?’

  ‘Seems likely at this point. The superficial signature is the same. You’re going to search a twenty-storey building? On your own?’

  Twilight smiled. ‘Nope. I’ll have help.’

  ~~~

  Twenty pairs of feral, glowing red eyes looked up at Twilight with a weirdly adoring look about them. The shadow imps were not exactly pretty creatures. Actually, they usually looked like they wanted to tear out someone’s throat at the next opportunity, but they were all ears for their shadowy mistress.

  ‘Okay,’ Twilight said. ‘Spread out and see if you can find anyone above the levels that are on fire. I’m not expecting you to roast to do the job, but try your best. If you locate anyone who is breathing, come back to me with the info. I’m going to go up to the roof access and make sure it’s open. Questions?’ There was some gibbering. There was always some gibbering. No one, of course, had any questions since, so far as Twilight could tell, the imps read her intentions as much as they did her instructions. ‘Right then, off you go and do Mummy proud.’

  There were a few more gibbers, which sounded sort of amused, and the imps scattered. Twilight turned and headed for the stairwell. Hopping to the roof had been eas
y, and then she had made an educated guess about the layout below, arriving in a small lobby below where the door to the roof was. All good so far.

  The stairwell was pretty warm. Down at the bottom, the fire was burning pretty intensely and the heat from that was rising. If there were people below, they would have to move fairly fast to get out, but they could probably make it. The imps would be finding it uncomfortable, but hardly unbearable.

  Twilight climbed up two flights, and then came to a stop. There was the door out onto the roof, and right in front of it was a metal canister, probably an old paint tin, wrapped in some sort of jacket. Wires connected the jacket to the door and frame. It looked like some sort of improvised explosive device and it also looked like it was rigged to go off when the door was opened.

  ‘Oh, swell,’ Andrea commented.

  ‘Yeah,’ Twilight replied, moving closer. ‘I’m thinking that looks like thermite paste around the can. Pyrotechnic initiator. I can probably just take that out and it’ll be safe.’

  Andrea was silent for a second. ‘Yes, agreed. It’s a very simple device. Clever, but simple. It wasn’t meant for us.’

  ‘Cygnus and Svetilo. They’d have come up to the roof, kicked the door in.’

  ‘And I’m guessing they’d have been covered in what amounts to napalm. This fire is as much a trap for them as it is an act of arson.’

  ‘The arsonist doesn’t know they’re out of town then.’

  ‘No. Let’s get this thing disarmed. We can worry about the details later.’

  ~~~

  ‘Five people saved and a bomb defused,’ Fire Bug said, grinning. ‘You can come to more fires.’

  ‘Oh… Thank you for your generous offer,’ Twilight replied.

  ‘It wasn’t bad work,’ Andrea commented. ‘Take the compliment.’

  ‘I guess it did work pretty well,’ Twilight said aloud. ‘And Cygnus and Dom would have had that thing go off in their face…’ They were both watching as two men wrapped in enough padding to stop a rocket put the paint tin and its thermite wrapper into a bomb safe.

  ‘Yes. Worrying. He clearly was not pleased that his last attempt was less destructive than it might have been.’