Frostburn (Ultrahumans Book 4)

by Niall Teasdale

  ‘Net! Sukkub! Stay back!’ Svetilo raised her hands, crossing her fingers as though warding off a vampire.

  Penny giggled. ‘I assume we’re still doing the signing at Radium on Friday?’

  ‘Da. I have box in car with copies for you to fly around models.’

  ‘Cool. I’m starting off tomorrow morning. I’ll do Florida and then head over to San Francisco.’

  Svetilo nodded. ‘Do not forget to get Susan to sign. We used one of the stills with her in, so she gets her name on calendar for more than just production.’

  ‘I won’t. I’m feeling really positive about all this. We’ve got a few problems around the city, but I think this is going to be the start of something good.’

  Andrews Field, MD.

  Elevator doors which looked like they belonged on a battleship opened and Herman Kopf found himself looking at a man in a suit. Behind him, a corridor stretched out into the distance, blank and rather uninviting, which was a fairly good description of the man.

  ‘Doctor Kopf, my name is Gerald Theakstone.’ Theakstone seemed to be important: his suit was better fitted than everyone else’s.

  ‘Good… Is it morning or afternoon here?’ Kopf said, frowning. ‘Or night? I have not seen daylight in a number of days.’

  ‘That was necessary, Doctor. You are, after all, a convicted criminal serving a life sentence in the Fortress.’

  ‘Yes… Of this I am sure: we are not in the Fortress.’

  Theakstone gave a thin smile. ‘As far as the people of these United States are concerned, you are in the Fortress. Remove the shackles, please.’

  More men in suits, the ones who had escorted Kopf since his arrival in… whatever location this was, rushed forward to remove the cuffs and chains which Kopf had assumed were some form of administrative joke. He was somewhere on the eastern side of the continent, from the time of travel, but he had no idea in which direction they had flown.

  ‘Might I ask what is going on?’ Kopf asked.

  ‘The United States government requires your assistance, Doctor. Walk with me.’ Turning on his heel, Theakstone started off down the corridor. Kopf followed, and so did the agents in their suits. ‘We have learned from our previous failures with you. All of your equipment from San Francisco and everything we could get from New Millennium City has been impounded and brought to this facility. We will be providing you with extensive research facilities to pursue your goals. However, we are not really interested in procuring “super-soldiers” at this time.’

  ‘Then what?’

  ‘There are two issues of immediate concern, both of which we believe you have some familiarity with.’

  Kopf’s eyes narrowed. ‘Cygnus,’ he said.

  ‘An Ultrahuman of such massive power, having no ideological ties to this country, is a danger to the state. You produced a mechanism to neutralise her powers–’

  ‘A system which failed.’

  ‘And now you’ll have everything you need to perfect it.’

  ‘I believe it may be a matter of sufficient power… Everything I need?’

  ‘Everything. We have significant resources.’

  ‘Very well. And the second matter?’

  Theakstone gave another of his thin smiles, walked on a few more paces, and opened a door. The room beyond was dark and fitted with a one-way mirror, which explained the dim lighting. Through the mirror was another room, what looked like a bedroom with a single occupant.

  Kopf recognised her immediately, an almost inhumanly attractive young woman with very large breasts and long legs, a cap of blonde hair and clear, blue eyes. ‘Heartbreaker.’

  ‘Adrienne Philips, also known as Heartbreaker. A tragic case of the curse Ultrahuman genetics can bestow upon its victims. Any man she kisses dies soon after of heart failure. She was imprisoned for the murder of Robert Lee, also known as Zephyr. I believe you were attempting to “cure” her condition.’

  ‘I was,’ Kopf replied. ‘You want me to cure her?’

  ‘Of course not. What we want is a palliative. What we want is a means of control. We want a drug, one which will suppress her abilities for a short period. No more than forty-eight hours. We at Project Jekyll are not in the business of helping Ultrahumans; we are here to make use of them. Just as we plan to make use of you.’

  Kopf nodded. He expected little else from government officials and petty dictators. ‘When can I get started?’

  New Millennium City, MD.

  ‘What is this, the third?’ Cygnus spoke as she walked into a firehouse in Friendship, the fire burning in it dying as she went.

  ‘Fourth,’ June’s voice said over Denny’s communications system. ‘Fire Bug is busy with one in Uptown.’

  ‘He has us running all over city,’ Svetilo commented from her place beside Cygnus’s shoulder. ‘He is destroying services trying to stop him. He failed on us–’

  ‘So far,’ Cygnus said.

  ‘So far. Now he goes after normal people.’

  ‘That’s what worries me. I have no idea how he got the bombs into these places, but I’m betting there are more.’

  ‘They are being looked for in every–’

  ‘That’s exactly the problem. We’re going to–’

  ‘Cygnus,’ Denny’s voice broke in over the channel. ‘I am monitoring reports on the fire department radio channels.’

  Cygnus looked around and spotted men behind her, running in after her with concerned looks on their faces. ‘Oh shit,’ she said.

  ~~~

  When Cygnus had ‘designed’ her search and rescue configuration, she had cut back on a lot of the rapid-action, emergency, and combat strength she deployed normally. She had, however, assumed that some lifting capacity would be a good idea and she had measured her dead-lift capability at almost eight hundred pounds. It was not exactly record-breaking, but it helped.

  Now, as she joined Svetilo in clearing debris from a burning firehouse, Cygnus was of two minds about her choice, possibly three minds. It was valuable, for sure, but having it meant that she was likely to be that much closer to the body her radar sense had spotted when they got there. Plus, she really wanted to hit something right now.

  Three men had managed to get out of the building when the bombs had gone off. All of them on fire. Two had managed to shed burning clothes fast enough that, with treatment, they would survive. One had not been so quick, and there had been seven volunteers searching the firehouse. So far, Cygnus, Svetilo, and Fire Bug had uncovered two corpses and the chances of the remaining two being alive were, essentially, nil.

  ‘We’ve pulled the remaining search teams out,’ Fire Bug said over the radio. ‘If there are more devices… We’ll just have to deal with the aftermath.’

  ‘I could–’ Cygnus began.

  ‘It’s too dangerous. We’re not losing more people to this bastard.’

  ‘He’s crippling the department’s response capability in half the city. That’ll cost lives down the road.’

  ‘We’re working out plans to provide more cover from Deale and North Beach. We lost two houses in Churchton in the riot anyway…’

  ‘Da,’ Svetilo commented. ‘We did, and bomber has not hit anywhere north of Uptown.’

  ‘Yet.’

  ‘Da, but is interesting. What about warehouses in harbour district? Many would make big show, if bomber is pyromaniac. Better than offices and homes.’

  ‘You think he’s got an actual agenda?’ Cygnus asked.

  ‘Maybe. Thinking aloud.’

  ‘It’s a valid thought,’ Fire Bug said. ‘I want to know how he managed to get these devices in place. These places should have better security than your typical apartment block.’

  ‘From the descriptions of the explosions,’ Cygnus said, ‘he used a bunch of the smaller devices, the thermite bombs. He has to have been smuggling them in for a while, hiding them around the stations. He has to have had extended access to the buildings.’

  ‘Yeah…’ Fire Bug replied, his voice so
unding a little distant, or disturbed. ‘Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.’

  ‘You are having thought yourself,’ Svetilo suggested.

  ‘I am, and I’m going to keep it to myself for now. It’s not a good thought. Actually, it’s a thought that makes me goddamn sick.’

  16th December.

  ‘You’re sure you’re okay with doing this?’ June asked.

  Cygnus, in full costume, put down the fairly large case she was carrying and turned to her lover. ‘Yes. Last night was… horrible, but this will make me feel like I’m doing more than fighting fires. If you’ll excuse the pun.’

  June grinned. ‘Just listening was bad enough. I don’t ever want your job.’

  Leaning forward, Cygnus kissed June’s cheek. ‘If you ever had the choice, love, you know you’d rise to it.’

  ‘Maybe… Anyway, I guess I’ll see you on Thursday.’

  ‘Unless there’s an emergency.’

  ‘Yeah.’

  Cygnus reached for her bag, stopped, straightened up again, and then looped an arm around June’s waist, lifting her off her feet. ‘Forgot something.’

  ‘You– Mmmf!’ June’s head swam as Cygnus claimed her mouth, and when their lips parted again she said, ‘If you’re going to kiss me like that every time, you can go away more often.’

  Cygnus set June back on her feet and smiled. ‘Not if I can help it, love.’ She reached down and took up her case, and then she was airborne and rocketing upward into the winter sky.

  ~~~

  He had maybe a day before the pain started, so it was going to have to be tonight. The first time had been the worst, when he had simply not realised what he had to do to stop the spread of cold through his body, the knotting of muscles, the throb of pain. Striking out, feeding the heat-hunger, had been an accident, sort of. He had just wanted someone else to know what he was feeling, someone else to suffer the same fate…

  When he spotted a woman, maybe fifty, a little grey in her hair, walking along ahead of him, he knew he had found his next donor. She was, he judged, a waitress. The uniform, a little worn in places, was the clue to that, but she was dressed in sensible shoes and carried a world-weary air about her. He recognised that look.

  Quickening his pace, he closed the distance. She knew he was there, behind her and closing, but she did not look around. She pulled her bag tighter in under her arm and, he figured, hoped that the potential mugger was not armed. Well, he was not armed, but then he did not need to be.

  As he drew alongside her, on the outside of the sidewalk, he glanced in her direction and smiled. Her own smile had relief in it, right up until the point where he jolted sideways, shoulder-barging her into the shadows of an alley. She fell, sprawling on the tarmac, turned, and scrabbled away from him. Her eyes were wide in the darkness. He wondered whether she was praying, hoping that Twilight was watching tonight.

  Ice swirled around the woman, cold gripped her limbs, she felt herself slowing, felt the bitter frost clamping down around her until she could no longer speak or even breathe. And there was no Twilight there to save her as the cold began to sink into her bones…

  Belvedere, CA.

  Cygnus circled once over Bianca’s pool house home and then dropped into a landing on the decking out front. Then she raised an eyebrow at the blonde waiting for her.

  ‘Elaine called over from Alcatraz when you showed up on radar,’ Bianca explained, grinning. ‘She enthused about your velocity some, but I kind of decided not to think about flying that fast without an interstellar rocket.’

  Cygnus grinned back. ‘I’m not good at judging speed up there. I just accelerate until I can’t go any faster and aim. Thanks for putting me up for the night.’

  ‘It’s for a good cause. Come on in. How was Ever?’

  ‘Good.’ Cygnus followed as Bianca led the way into the house. ‘I mean, you’d have to poison her swamp, a lot, to make her not good, but she was pretty happy. Enthusiastic about the calendar. Especially after I told her the sales figures they’ve gathered so far. It’s looking like this one will outsell the last one.’

  Bianca giggled. ‘Elaine got her pre-order copies yesterday.’

  ‘Copies? Plural?’

  ‘One for home, one for work, I guess.’ Bianca frowned. ‘Not sure what the third one is for. I think she just got carried away when she was clicking.’

  Cygnus giggled and slumped down onto a sofa. ‘All this breaking the speed of sound does get tiring.’

  ‘Cygnus, you don’t so much break it as make it go and whimper in a corner. Should I break the wine out early?’

  ‘Coffee first.’ Cygnus’s eyes widened. ‘Oh my God, I don’t think I’ve had any coffee since I left this morning!’

  ‘Oh, you poor baby,’ Bianca responded, grinning and heading for the kitchen. ‘I’ll set up an intravenous feed.’

  ~~~

  ‘She lied,’ Cygnus said while Elaine grinned at her. ‘I had to drink the stuff, just like normal.’

  ‘I’m not a medic,’ Elaine replied, ‘but I don’t think putting caffeine straight into your bloodstream is a good idea.’

  ‘No, agreed. It’s a great idea. Any news on Beatdown or Diamond?’

  ‘Beatdown,’ Bianca said, reaching for the glass of wine she had balanced on the edge of the hot tub, ‘killed an old girlfriend who sold him out to Lament a few years ago.’

  ‘Damian was assigned to the case,’ Elaine added, ‘and he came to me, or Backroom, when he figured out Beatdown was involved.’

  ‘And Elaine told Mink, and Mink’s on the case too.’

  Cygnus glanced across the bubbling water at Bianca. ‘So does that mean–’

  ‘Damian knows who Mink is, and he also admitted that his information source is rather unconventional. He can do the same sort of psychometry trick that you can.’

  ‘Huh, useful for a detective.’

  ‘And I think I got him thinking that that was a very valid point, and that he should learn to make more use of what he’s got, but it’s probably going to be a bit of a struggle for him.’

  ‘Denial is not just a river in Africa?’

  Bianca snorted. ‘Yeah. And it’s a damn big river so navigating it could take a while. He’s getting there. I don’t think we’ll be asking June for her costume design skills any time soon.’

  ‘Oh, I see Damian more in the sort of pulp era costume school. A domino mask and a big, black raincoat.’

  ‘That… could actually work.’

  Elaine giggled, then sobered. ‘No sign of Diamond and her gang at this point. They could be anywhere, but they’re keeping their heads down.’

  ‘I suspect she wasn’t best pleased with Beatdown,’ Bianca said. ‘If he’d done an adequate job of covering his tracks, I doubt she would have worried over one body, but it was not that hard to figure out that the suicide was faked. I guess there was no way Beatdown could know about Damian’s talents, but the autopsy suggested foul play.’

  ‘She’ll know,’ Cygnus said. ‘She’ll have arranged something so she can keep an eye on the homicide department. She’ll know if Damian suspects Beatdown.’

  ‘Yeah… That worries me a little.’

  ‘Uh-huh. It probably should. Diamond tends to leave bodies in her wake.’

  New Millennium City, MD, 17th December.

  Twilight looked down at the chilled corpse and sighed. A waitress, from the uniform, maybe in her forties or fifties. Too young to die trying to scream as ice closed around her like a vice. It had been a cool night, to say the least, bordering on freezing for most of it. The ice had lasted well, preserving the victim in her death pose: sprawled on her back and screaming.

  ‘Surveying your boyfriend’s handiwork?’ The voice had a hollow quality, Darth Vader without the asthma, and Twilight recognised it immediately.

  ‘Have you ever heard of the doctrine of presumption of innocence, Night Shift?’

  ‘When I bring him to trial, he’ll get it.’

  ‘How many people have actua
lly called you an asshole to your face? Someone has to have had the courage to do it. I’m thinking it’s in the high nineties.’ His gloved hand closed around her arm and she turned, blank eyes regarding his blank faceplate as though she could see right through it. ‘Move it or lose it, asshole.’

  It was early. The sun was yet to rise, though the sky was coloured a sharp, wintery blue. The alley they were in was getting very little of that light and Night Shift was using his visor’s multi-spectral imaging system to see clearly. He was a little surprised when the dark shadows in the corners thickened into opacity and began to rise up around them. He let go of Twilight’s arm. ‘The evidence is right in front of you,’ he said. ‘He used the same trick on me.’

  ‘Check UltraNet.’ As quickly as the shadows had come, they fell away. ‘You’ll find two registered Ultras and six known villains who can trap someone in ice. It’s not actually that uncommon as a power, especially among the cold-themed Ultras.’

  Not a stupid man, Night Shift had already done that search and had to admit that she was right, but… ‘None of them are thought to be in this city right now. Dannon is here, now. I have no idea why you’re sticking with him. What the Hell kind of relationship can–’

  ‘I can take colder temperatures than he can, and my sex life is none of your concern.’

  The grunt that came from Night Shift’s speakers was a weird sort of sound, but with a scoffing edge. ‘I’ve seen your pictures in that calendar. Your sex life is the talk of the internet.’

  Twilight peered at him with undisguised scorn. ‘Your idea of research is reading gossipy fan threads on internet sites? Now I know why you screw up so easily.’

  ‘That calendar gives Ultras a bad name.’

  ‘That calendar is already raising a lot of money to help redevelop Churchton. And I really don’t care what you, or anyone else, thinks of me if this city benefits. You’re not going to be charged with assault, by the way.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘You broke Jacob’s hand. He’s not pressing charges.’

  There was a metallic laugh. ‘Because he’d get nowhere with it.’