~~~
Twilight saw the trail as the Night Lance launched into the sky. She could not see the target, but the launch site was maybe four blocks away. There was a multi-storey car park in that direction and that seemed like a likely place to fire from; it was high, open, and the top floor was probably fairly empty at this time of night.
Somewhere to the south, Cygnus was in the air and the missile was likely homing on her. She was going to have to deal with that and Twilight hoped she had spotted the thing. There was nothing Twilight could do about that, but she could make sure the launcher never got used again. She turned, and stepped into a shadow.
Moving rooftop to rooftop, she bounced herself through nowhere in the direction the Night Lance had come from. Four hops took her to a building on the south-east side of the parking structure. Three men and a van stood on the highest level, stupidly watching the receding missile. She figured they would pack up and leave soon; even Tonaldo’s thugs were likely to have a sense of self-preservation and sticking around for too long was going to get them caught. Of course, they had already stuck around too long…
Twilight pulled her batons from behind her back, flipped them open with her thumbs, and ported into the shadow of their van. They never had a chance. The first of them fell as she whipped a baton across the back of his skull. She twisted and hit a second man in the face before any of them could react to her presence. The third was pulling a pistol. His reactions were better than the others, but he still had to draw his weapon before he used it. She struck his arm and he let out a shriek of pain, cut off as a second blow smashed into his jaw.
She watched him fall, fairly sure she had broken his jaw, and then turned her gaze south toward the missile trail.
~~~
Penny pulled another tight turn and risked a glance back. The missile was trying to keep up with her aerobatics, but it was moving at far higher speed and, as Twilight had suggested, that gave her a slight edge; the thing had a terrible turning circle. It had barrelled toward her from its launch site so fast her first dodge had barely managed it, and it had then had to turn around from halfway to North Beach to come back at her. Now it was going slower, but still at a couple of times her top speed.
On the other hand, she figured it had been trying to get close enough to detonate for fifteen seconds, tops, and it had a minute’s flight time before its engines died. It was getting closer with each pass, and she was going to start getting tired if she pushed herself this hard for too long. Tired meant mistakes. She needed another plan.
The Night Lance was swinging back her way and she glanced around before turning hard and heading east and diving below the building line. With a bit of luck she could break its lock for long enough to pull something crazy off.
Hard right, then left, and then pour on as much power as she could in a straight-line dash. She could see people on the streets looking up as she flew past. Some were panicked, others were smiling, and several were in uniforms and scrubs… That was when she realised she was heading for the hospital on Hopman Street. She pulled a hard left, up two blocks, and then flew upward. As she had guessed, the missile had gone high in an attempt to reacquire its target. It shifted course and dived toward her as she dropped out of sight again, making a hard right.
The thing was still on her tail and gaining fast. Bank left, drop low, turn right. She heard the roar of rocket engines go past and pushed herself harder. Six blocks down it swung back in behind her and she jinked another course correction. And so it went as the Night Lance chased across half the city until she saw no more buildings ahead of her. She pulled up, climbing as hard as she could and heading for open water.
She was not good at distances, but she figured she was above three hundred feet when she saw the Night Lance swinging around toward her from just north of where she had come out. She continued climbing as it accelerated across the space between them. She figured she had all of two seconds before it got to her. As it roared toward her she turned hard, flying straight for the water.
A glance back showed the missile arcing over her to turn. Her luck was holding, it seemed. Now it just had to hold a little longer… It was closing fast. Penny jammed on the power, pushing herself as hard as she could. Perhaps twenty feet from the surface she slowed, swallowing hard. She could almost feel the explosives driving down toward her body. Then she turned and threw herself upward as hard as she could. There was the roar of a rocket engine, a barely audible splash, and then…
Water exploded around her and she felt the buffeting of the shockwave as it passed her along with various bits of hot metal. Penny looked down to see the water receding back into the hole the explosion had made. She hoped the thing had not excavated too much of the seabed, but right now she was more concerned about the person who had fired the missile in the first place.
Turning, she started in the direction the Night Lance had come from.
~~~
‘You didn’t get your ass blown up then?’ Twilight said as Penny landed on the tarmac beside her.
‘I persuaded it to blow up in the bay,’ Penny replied.
‘Huh. That explains why you’re wet.’
Penny allowed herself a giggle. It sounded a little hysterical. ‘You happened to come across these guys?’
‘I was in the neighbourhood and they shouldn’t be playing with toys like this.’ Twilight kicked the bulky launcher tube by her foot. ‘I figure we’ll have cops up here shortly if they saw you coming this way.’
‘Cops, UID, maybe the National Guard…’
Spotlights flooded the scene and Penny let out a wince. Shading her eyes, Twilight said, ‘And the press.’ There was an NMCPD helicopter up there now, but there was also one from ACPN. ‘Time for me to leave.’
‘Oh no. I agreed to take the limelight, but you still have to tell the cops what happened. A little bit of publicity isn’t going to kill you. You said you might let Svetilo use pictures of you.’
‘Damn,’ Twilight muttered. ‘Okay… right… You’re right.’ Her gaze swept the scene and she frowned. ‘Wonder who’s flying the third chopper?’
Penny turned in time to see a sleek, black helicopter turning and heading down the island. Whoever they were, they were not going to stick around, it seemed. The sound of sirens on the ramps below drew her attention away. The ACPN helicopter was landing on one of the upper stages as well. It was time to put a smile on.
~~~
Bryant hefted the missile launcher, shook her head, and handed it over to a crime scene officer who was waiting to stow it in something which looked like a portable gun safe. The agent turned to Twilight who was standing beside her.
‘Special Agent Dannon said you’d told him about a Night Lance the Tonaldo family had got their hands on.’
‘Uh-huh. They don’t like me or Cygnus much.’
‘Apparently not. High-explosive warhead, Ultra-tracking system… It’s a specialist weapon, military. We’ll dig into how they got their hands on one.’ Her gaze moved over to where Cygnus was talking to an ACPN reporter. ‘Your partner seems to like cameras.’
Twilight noted the rebuking tone. ‘Not really, but more than I do. We have a good arrangement: she stops the reporters from bugging me, and drops my name enough that people know I’m not some psycho vigilante.’
‘Maybe the both of you should back off a bit. Someone could have been hurt tonight…’
‘If we ease up, then the Tonaldos of this world win,’ Twilight snapped. ‘Don’t think you’ll tie this to David Tonaldo, or any of his top people. NMCPD has been trying to nail him for a decade and they can’t even get him on tax evasion.’ She gave a small shrug. ‘That said, Cygnus is going to be out of the state next week so things might ease off a little with her out of sight.’
‘What about you?’
Twilight chuckled softly. ‘Me? I’m pretty much always out of sight. They don’t see me unless I want them to.’
8th November.
‘You make sure you watch your bac
k while I’m away,’ Penny told Twilight. They were up on the top of the Americas Trade Center, the centrepiece of Downtown; one hundred and seventeen floors of offices with a three-storey mall at the bottom and an observation deck at the top. When construction had started it had been meant to replace the World Trade Center in the destroyed New York. By the time it was being completed the American Federation treaties were being signed and ‘World Trade’ had become ‘Americas Trade.’ The view from the top of it was quite something.
‘I’ve been watching my own back for longer than you’ve been registered,’ Twilight countered.
‘The Tonaldos weren’t as pissed off with you then. I heard both our bounties are at fifty thousand now.’
‘Huntress?’
‘Zephyr.’
‘Huh. Well, I’d heard the same. You realise he added the extra money because we keep putting his goons behind bars and they’re scared?’
‘Scared can be bad, y’know? They might go for a lot of overkill, and you aren’t bulletproof.’
‘I know. I’m not going to take any unnecessary risks. You shouldn’t either.’
Penny grinned. ‘I’m going to be a thousand miles away.’
‘The Tonaldos run some of their drug shipments through Florida Quays. They have contacts down there. Don’t go assuming no one will try anything. Aside from them, there’s the guy Thermite was working for, this “Ghostfire.” We don’t know he won’t try again.’
‘Oh… Well, Dom will be there…’
‘Oh it’s “Dom” now, is it?’ Twilight was smirking.
Penny ignored her. ‘And she’s got Moon Coyote coming out from California and maybe someone else. There’s security on the shoot, and that got beefed up after Pulya attacked her…’
‘All right, you’ve got things well covered, but don’t just treat it as a holiday. You’re going to be Cygnus for the whole week, no hiding. Watch your back.’
~~~
‘It’s weird,’ Penny said. ‘I hadn’t thought about it, but she’s right. I’m not going to be Penny until we get back. I haven’t been Cygnus that long since I first changed. Maybe not even then.’
Sitting across from her at the dining table in his house, Bobby gave her a smile. ‘Does this bother you?’
‘I… guess not.’
‘Clearly there is something amiss.’
Penny sliced a piece off the perfectly done steak on her plate and put it in her mouth. It gave her a chance to think. Bobby knew that was what she was doing and did not push. He was good like that.
‘I’m a little afraid I’ll like it,’ Penny said eventually.
‘I was unaware that you found it unpleasant. Or are you thinking that you will not wish to return to “plain old Penny,” who, I would remind you, young June loves as much as she does Cygnus?’
‘Cygnus is a hero, and glamorous. She has fans. She’s going to be appearing half-naked on a calendar so she’s going to get more fans. Penny can’t get the time of day from any man who can actually see. Also, Cygnus doesn’t trip over her own feet and she doesn’t hear voices when she’s stressed.’
‘Well,’ Bobby said, ‘I have never seen Penny, but I find it hard to believe that she is the deformed monster you seem to think she is. Setting that aside, you are always Penny, no matter what shape you take. You should remember this.’
‘I’ll try to. Do you want to meet the other me?’
‘That, gatinha, is for you to decide.’
She frowned at him, trying to decide whether he was being magnanimous or just avoiding making a decision. ‘Not tonight,’ she said. ‘Maybe when I get back. One thing I do know is that Cygnus is way better in the sack.’
‘Oh well,’ Bobby replied, smiling, ‘since I will not get to experience her charms for two weeks, I think we will stick with just the one shape tonight.’
‘That’s what I thought too.’
9th November.
The force of twin turbofan engines pressed Penny back into her seat and her hands gripped the arms as though she might fall out of the aircraft. June, sat on the aisle seat beside her, watched with a grin on her face.
As the wheels lifted and Penny’s stomach lurched downward, she let out a squeak. June giggled, which did not help in the least. In fact, Penny did not even start to relax until the engine noise died back and the plane began to level off.
‘Why did we have to fly?’ Penny asked plaintively. She prised her fingers off the armrests, hoping she had not left dents.
‘Because it would take too long to drive,’ June replied, still grinning. ‘I can’t believe you’re afraid of flying. You fly just about every day. You outflew a missile!’ She had not been so sanguine about that event when Penny had got home. In fact she had been horrified, panicked, even though she had seen on the TV that Penny was okay.
‘That’s me flying. Just me, not several hundred tons of metal. I’ve never flown before.’
‘In an aircraft.’
‘In several hundred tons of metal.’
June flew up to Atlanta to see her parents whenever she could. She was practically a seasoned traveller. ‘Look, statistically it’s the safest form of travel. And if, for some reason, this thing fell out of the sky, you could just punch through the side and fly off.’
Penny looked at the little window beside her seat. ‘Somehow the fact that I could punch through the side of this thing is not really a comfort.’
‘Well, it’s only about two and a half hours. I’ll buy you a drink, that’ll ease your nerves.’
‘Yeah,’ Penny said, ‘sure.’
~~~
The fact that telephones worked at cruising altitude came as a surprise, but Penny heard a phone ring and Dom took hers from her little seat-back table and answered it.
‘How does that work?’ Penny whispered to June.
‘There’s a repeater station on the plane, connected to the ground network over the radio. It’s expensive. I never make calls on an aircraft.’
‘I guess for business…’
‘You got her?’ Dom was saying. That was followed by, ‘Uh-huh… Okay… What problem?’ Her tone becoming increasingly unhappy. ‘So we’re not going to know for sure until we see her? Chert! Well, we tell her we’ll organise that first thing.’ She tapped the phone off and put it down with more force than was entirely necessary.
‘Problem?’ June asked.
‘Yes. No. Maybe,’ the Russian replied, frowning. ‘I have had people trying to get someone for the shoot, another Ultra. It is not an easy thing, yes? She is… elusive, but if we can get her then it will mean a big jump in sales, and the cause is one I think she will appreciate. They contacted her, but she says she wants to meet me and the other Ultras before she will agree.’
‘That doesn’t sound like a major problem,’ Penny put in.
‘It throws off the schedule a little. We send the normal girls out with photographer first thing. It means we have less time for Ultra models, but… Cannot be helped.’ She narrowed her eyes a little and peered across the aisle at the two girls. ‘I think we take June to meet her also. You are used to Ultras. More than many, I think. You will make a good impression.’
‘Okay,’ June said, sounding a little perplexed.
‘Who is this woman?’ Penny asked.
‘She is not exactly a woman,’ Dom replied. ‘She is female, very female, but a woman? I am not so sure.’
Penny’s eyes widened. ‘You can’t mean…?’
‘Ever,’ Dom said. ‘We are going to see Ever.’
Miami, FL.
‘You think she means it?’ June asked. ‘Ever? I mean… Ever’s one of the most powerful Ultras on the planet!’
‘I think she means it,’ Penny replied as she unpacked her bag, hanging her clothes in a wardrobe. ‘She told you what the calendar was for, right?’
‘Nature conservancy… Oh, well, yeah, I guess Ever would be up for that.’
According to semi-legend, Ever had been a Ranger working in the Everglades National
Park, a very idealistic one. Then she had been murdered by people illegally dumping toxic waste into the waterways, but she had not, exactly, died. There were a few, very powerful Ultras who were more an expression of the will of the people than an individual. They were known as Avatar-class and tended to be enormously powerful. America had had Captain Freedom until he had died in New York bringing down Magmatic. Ever was the only one of that kind who seemed to represent the spirit of a place.
‘Isn’t she supposed to be a little… bad tempered?’ June went on after a second.
‘I saw an interview she did once. She seemed kind of serene, actually. She’s the embodiment of the Everglades. She tends to be kind of fanatical about preserving nature, especially here.’
‘Yeah, but… didn’t she kill some people when she first emerged?’
‘She killed the people who killed her, and it’s supposed to be a really bad idea to hunt for sport in the swamp. But she also helped when that jet crashed in oh-six. The police reports stated that there would have been a lot more people dead if she hadn’t shown up so quickly.’
‘I guess. It’s just a little scary meeting someone with that kind of power.’
‘You’ll be fine. You’re good with people and you’ve been hanging around Red and Bobby for nearly a year.’
A knock on the door stopped the conversation going further. June answered it, and Dom strode in, still dressed in the very un-Dom skirt suit she had worn on the plane.
‘You are settling in?’ the Russian asked, smiling. ‘You do not mind sharing the bed, I hope?’ There was just the one bed in the room the two girls were sharing, but it was king-sized.
‘I think there’s enough room,’ Penny replied. ‘As long as June can keep her hands to herself, of course.’
June’s cheeks coloured. ‘I think we’ll manage.’
‘Good,’ Dom said, grinning broadly. ‘I am going out to the airport to collect Moon Coyote and another young model we have coming out from LA. You have the rest of the day to yourselves, do as you wish. At seven we will all meet in the restaurant for a meal and introductions.’
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