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  Heather put three rounds in his chest, but he just kept coming, grabbing at her and missing as she twisted aside. He was too close now, but she pushed her SIG’s muzzle into a chest which seemed to have too much give and fired. This time she saw her bullets hit the wall behind him, each bursting through his back with a spray of water. His arms grabbed at her again, not gaining purchase. ‘Get the Hell off me!’ she shrieked, firing again and again. He grabbed her arms and seemed to flow up her body, enveloping her in a film of liquid which clung to her, cutting off her airways.

  That was when Jacob ploughed through the crates, took in the scene, and reached out for the body which was now clinging to Heather’s back. His hand made contact with the fluid man and there was a loud shriek, but the man hung onto Heather as she struggled inside his filmy coating. The shrieking went on for a second and then faded out. Heather pushed out through the film, her blouse sticking to her skin wetly, her hair soaked through; she generally looked like she had just climbed out of a river. The man who had attacked her was lying on the concrete with a sheen of ice on his skin.

  ‘Thanks,’ Heather said. ‘Why is it always me that ends up having to hold her breath?’

  ‘Just lucky?’ Jacob replied, smiling behind his faceplate. ‘Harper’s in here, alive.’ He spotted the officer from the door rounding one of the walls and pointed. ‘Officer, we need paramedics and some UID agents with neurotronic cuffs. Sooner the better.’

  ‘You found her?’ the cop asked, holstering his pistol.

  ‘We found her, but I don’t know how long she’ll last without a hospital, so move.’

  ‘Right on it!’

  ‘Score one for Fortuna Investigations,’ Heather said, wiping water off her face.

  ‘Are you two okay?’ Vindicator asked from behind Heather. ‘Looks like you got the Ultra.’

  Heather turned to look at the armoured hero, plucking at her jacket. ‘I’m wet,’ she said, ‘but I can hold my breath longer than a couple of seconds and Jacob didn’t even get his armour scratched.’

  ‘Yeah.’ There was a short pause and then, ‘Uh, wet looks good on you.’

  Heather grimaced and hung her head. ‘I need to get changed.’

  Seattle Watchtower, WA, 11th July.

  ‘Miss Harper’s in the ICU,’ Heather said, ‘but they’re expecting her to pull through. She’s suffering from severe dehydration.’

  ‘And,’ Patterson said, ‘having discovered how this guy works, the police were able to locate the bodies of five other women he’d killed. It gives some closure to the families. They’ll get more when Osmotic is locked up in the– In wherever the government is locking dangerous Ultras now.’

  Cygnus gave a shrug. ‘Who knows. They haven’t made the site public. Lots of rumours about black sites that have been housing secretly captured Ultras for the last couple of decades, but no real proof.’ She had flown over to bring Heather and Jacob back to New Millennium City, but she was staying for a coffee before flying back.

  ‘Must admit,’ Jacob said, ‘this guy makes me feel better about my powers. Not being able to stand room temperature doesn’t seem too bad compared to someone having to suck the moisture out of living humans to stay alive.’

  ‘No. So, what’s this guy’s story? Osmotic, you called him?’

  ‘What he called himself,’ Patterson replied. ‘With a neurotronic collar on, he’s returned to something like normal. He says things went bad in May, around the time of the blackout. Suddenly, his body just seemed to melt. Over the course of about two days, he went from a normal kid to a liquid held together by his will to stay the same shape.’

  ‘And if he doesn’t suck moisture out of people, he gets sicker and sicker,’ Jacob said. ‘Seems like he… evaporates.’

  ‘And I’d have more sympathy for him if he was stuck with that condition and tried to get help,’ Heather said, ‘but he decided to prey on attractive young women he could get alone. He basically tortured those girls to death over the course of several days. I’m not a psychologist, but I think that suggests some psychological disturbances beyond the trauma of becoming a living puddle.’

  ‘Huh,’ Cygnus said. ‘You said he started changing after the blackout in May?’

  ‘That’s right,’ Patterson said.

  ‘You think he was affected by the cosmic energy burst?’ Jacob asked.

  ‘Seems likely,’ Cygnus replied.

  ‘It really has caused more people to express Ultrahuman powers?’ Patterson asked.

  ‘Oh yes. Doctor Ultimate’s pretty sure on the matter. He’s been getting DNA samples from as many new Ultras as possible. Not all of them should be capable of expressing powers in the normal way. Some of them would, but there was no obvious reason for their sudden activation. You might want to drop Doctor Ultimate a note about this Osmotic guy.’

  ‘That I can do.’ Patterson grinned. ‘And now, if I need some investigative resources out here, I know who to call.’

  ‘Tell your friends,’ Heather said. ‘Especially the rich ones.’

  Patterson’s grin became a smirk. ‘That I can also do.’

  New Millennium City, MD, 13th July.

  Eric Hoffman marched through Starblaze International with his back straight and a determined expression on his face. Partially, the posture and expression were because his back still ached after long flights, but it was also part of his image when he had a job to do.

  And Eric had a job to do. The last time he had been to New Millennium City, he had made a little bit of a fool of himself. He had become fixated on the possibility that a UID agent, Jacob Dannon, had been freezing people to death, had managed to trigger the final emergence of Dannon’s powers, and had then been beaten to the actual culprit by superior detective work carried out by Dannon and his partner, Heather Bryant. It had been annoying, but Eric had managed to come out of it without too much lost face.

  This time, there were no suspects, just a lot of bodies. The killer, apparently going by the name Blacklight, had struck again on Friday night: a drug dealer had been murdered, which meant a total of five dead attributed to the vigilante. Eric really disliked vigilantes. The UID knew that and knew of Eric’s reputation, and they had agreed to bring him in on the case. That worked just fine for Eric Hoffman, aka Night Shift. He was looking forward to nailing yet another rogue Ultra.

  ~~~

  ‘Penny, Night Shift arrived in the city about thirty minutes ago,’ Denny announced. ‘I had no specific watch out for him, which is why it took some time for my background processors to flag the identification to me.’

  ‘He’s here for Blacklight,’ June said. It was something of a foregone conclusion.

  ‘Thanks, Denny,’ Penny said. ‘Yes, he’ll be here for Blacklight. It might even be a good thing. He’ll be staying at the Millennium Royal again. I’ll drop in and pay him a visit tonight.’

  ‘I don’t expect he’ll like that.’

  ‘If he doesn’t want visits, he should find somewhere else to stay. He can’t be after anyone we know. It’s pretty obvious this is a new guy.’

  June pursed her lips. ‘Probably.’

  ‘Probably?’

  ‘What? I don’t trust the guy. He jumps to conclusions so fast it’s like a super-power.’

  ‘He doesn’t have any actual powers… But I do know what you mean.’

  ~~~

  Hoffman did not look up from his armour as Cygnus landed on the terrace outside his hotel room window and then walked in without knocking. He did look up when she sat down on one of the sofas in the huge suite he hired whenever he was in New Millennium City. ‘I like the new costume,’ he said. ‘You look less like a Vegas cabaret dancer.’

  ‘Wouldn’t know. Never been to Las Vegas. You’re here looking for Blacklight?’

  ‘I assume you’re not here to tell me not to accuse some friend of yours.’

  Cygnus smiled. ‘The only person I know of with anything like this power set was Ghostfire. He’s dead. So far, I have no clue who Blac
klight is.’

  ‘Neither does the UID.’ Hoffman put down the section of armour he was looking over – it looked like part of an arm – and sat back on his own sofa. ‘They got a fingerprint off one of his business cards, but they can’t match it to anyone. That means the guy’s got no record and doesn’t travel. No one’s seen him.’ He held up a finger as though correcting himself. ‘No one alive has seen him. No unidentifiable DNA at any of the sites, though if the fingerprint didn’t come up with a match, it’s unlikely DNA would either. Known abilities include invisibility and some form of focused light attack. The invisibility appears to involve bending light since that store you visited has a security camera and he doesn’t show up in the recording. Basically, we’ve got next to nothing to work on.’

  ‘You’re being pretty open about this.’

  He shrugged. ‘I figure I get a bit of a pass for San Francisco. It really looked like Mink was the killer. Okay, so maybe I should’ve looked harder at some of the evidence, but… Frostburn looked like the right suspect too, but I was too ready to jump on that without looking at alternatives. So that’s two times you and your friends have made me look like an idiot. I may be stubborn, but I do learn from my mistakes.’

  ‘Plus, there really are no obvious suspects this time.’

  ‘That too. I assume you’re keeping a watch on Churchton. I’m going to do the same thing. Another pair of eyes is the best we can do until Blacklight screws up and leaves some evidence we can use.’

  Cygnus nodded. ‘Okay. Fine. I’ll have my computer send you a frequency you can use to talk to our network. Up to you whether you want to use it, but it’s there. And, um, be careful with this guy if you do find him. From what I’ve seen, that laser attack of his is pretty powerful.’

  Hoffman actually smiled. ‘Why, Cygnus, I didn’t know you cared.’

  Cygnus flashed a smile back and got to her feet. ‘Who says I do? I mean, it would be horribly embarrassing if some vigilante offed the world’s greatest detective on my watch.’

  ‘That’s a good point. I’ll try not to get killed then.’

  ‘Ouch. Have you ever heard of tempting fate?’

  Hoffman gave a shrug and picked up his armour. ‘After falling down that stairwell in San Francisco, I think fate owes me a pass this one time.’

  Hong Kong, China, 14th July.

  Billy was getting used to his new role as Dragon Head of the 8G triad. He had never been more nervous in his life, but it was an easy kind of nervousness. All he really had to do was pass on orders. He was a figurehead and he was perfectly happy with that. He wore designer suits and he was treated with respect. Yes, the respect came out of fear of someone else – hence the nervousness – but it was still respect. The triad would never have accepted a foreign woman as their leader, one who spoke barely a word of Chinese at that, but they would accept Billy because Midnight was going to kill anyone who did not.

  There were, of course, some issues. Issues such as Hu Jié and his brother Yàn. Hu Yàn had been in the Midnight Dancer on Saturday night, drunk as a fish and probably incapable of working out what he was seeing or saying. Things had gone downhill from there. When Billy spotted Hu Jié entering the club, he suspected it was something to do with what had happened on Saturday night.

  ‘You!’ Hu spat as he arrived at the table where Billy was sitting, surrounded by various girls who seemed very happy to be in his presence. ‘What happened to my brother? He was last seen here, but he has not been seen since Saturday. Where is–’

  Billy held up a hand. ‘Hu Yàn was here on Saturday night.’ It was weird, but Billy did not feel any fear at the belligerence of this man who was, Billy knew, carrying a weapon. He had his orders for such situations: stay reasonable until that became impossible. ‘He came in drunk. He lacked self-control. He became more drunk. He was disrespectful to the dancers.’

  ‘What of it?!’ Hu waved a dismissive hand toward the dance poles where three girls were doing their jobs in various states of undress. ‘He was a forty-niner of good standing and these women… They are whores!’ He had failed to notice that one of the three dancers had left her pole and was moving toward him, slinking with the shadows in the room drawing up around her high heels as she went.

  ‘Yes,’ Billy said, ‘that’s what your brother thought. He forced Midnight to take an interest. I’m not really sure what she did with him.’

  ‘Midnight? This shadow monster they say you have in your pocket? Where is she? I’ll–’

  Billy switched to English as Midnight, dressed in a string bikini and heels, stepped up beside Hu. ‘Midnight, this is the brother of the man you took on Saturday night. He wants to know what happened.’

  Midnight smiled. ‘Is he as respectful as his sibling?’

  ‘About the same.’

  ‘I see.’ She turned her head to look at Hu; his eyes met hers and he began to visibly shake as a look of terror came over his features. ‘Do you really want to know what happened to your brother?’ Slowly, Hu nodded. ‘As you wish.’ The shadows swelled up around them as she reached out to grab the front of his tailored jacket. When the darkness fell away, neither of them were there.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ Billy said to the cowering girls on either side of him, ‘she won’t harm you unless you harm her.’ Which was true enough. For a given value of true.

  ~~~

  The first thing Hu Jié noticed was the wind. It was whistling past him in an upward direction, which seemed wrong. Then he noticed that the Midnight woman was still with him, still holding his lapels. And the final thing he noticed was that there was nothing under his feet.

  ‘You wanted to know where I took your brother,’ Midnight yelled over the roaring of the wind. ‘I brought him here. We’re about twenty-five thousand feet above the South China Sea. I brought him here, and then I went back to the club while he fell. Water is just as hard as rock when you fall from this height.’

  ‘No!’ Hu shrieked.

  ‘Yeah, that’s what I thought.’ The darkness enveloped them again and Hu sprawled out of it, his suit soaking up the water from the puddles he rolled through. ‘Your brother was an asshole,’ Midnight said, her voice calm and quiet now. ‘You’re also an asshole, but you get to live because he was too drunk to pass the message along. If anyone thinks they can get away with shit in my club, then they have no respect for me. If they have no respect for me, I’ll kill them. If I ever see you in the Midnight Dancer again, what happened to your brother is going to seem like a mercy.’

  Hu struggled to regain his feet. His hands were still shaking and it felt as though they would never stop. What he had seen in those eyes… ‘I understand,’ he said, but he was talking to empty space. Midnight was gone, vanished back to whatever Hell had spawned her, or so it seemed to Hu.

  New Millennium City, MD.

  Cygnus swung low over Friendship Park, eyes scanning for trouble. She was on her way to Churchton but making at least a showing over the other districts had become a habit. It let the criminal element know she was still watching, even if she had to spread her attention wider with Twilight still missing. Jacob was out here somewhere too and Night Shift would be in Churchton, hunting Blacklight or maybe just hoping to get to one of the vigilante’s kills fast enough to make a difference.

  She was a little surprised to see an actual mugging in progress. Someone was desperate, it seemed. Changing her flight angle, Cygnus dropped toward where a man with a small revolver was holding up a woman in what Cygnus suspected was the ‘uniform’ of a waitress.

  That was when something white dropped out of the sky, landing in front of the mugger and grabbing his wrist. There was a single shot, but the figure in white hardly seemed to notice. Cygnus barely noticed considering that she was too busy trying to work out whether she was seeing what she thought she was seeing.

  ‘Was that really necessary?’ the man in white asked of the mugger.

  ‘Uh, sorry, Captain. It, uh, just went off.’

  ‘You’re lucky
I’m in a good mood.’ Captain Freedom, America’s national hero, looked up as Cygnus dropped into a delicate landing. ‘I don’t suppose you’ve got something to restrain this idiot? I wasn’t expecting to need to take someone in.’

  Cygnus pulled a cable tie from her boot. ‘I never travel without them. Welcome to New Millennium City, Captain. I’m–’

  ‘Cygnus. Obviously. I’ve heard a lot about you.’

  Grimacing, Cygnus pulled the mugger’s hands behind his back and began tying them. ‘Oh dear.’

  ‘President Vanlaren was very complimentary. He said you risked your life to hold off an alien invasion.’

  ‘Naryan Tan was my problem to solve and the solution cost me more than I’d have liked.’

  ‘Yes. The loss of Twilight was… I don’t know how they could vote to give you to that… thing. You told them what would happen. They ignored you and they paid for it.’

  Cygnus gave a shrug. ‘The plan called for me to get aboard Naryan’s ship, provide a distraction for Twilight. It was the only way we had of getting rid of him. To my knowledge, no one has ever managed to permanently kill a Guardian before. Uh, what brings you to New Millennium? You didn’t stop off on your tour.’

  Freedom smiled. ‘No, because that was organised for me and this is personal. I’m thinking of getting a place here and I wanted to see what the, uh, night life was like.’

  ‘You’re planning to move to New Millennium?’

  ‘It’s close to the government, but not quite as close as I am now. The national hero has to strike a balance. Being at Andrews was good when the politicians were in Washington. Now what’s left of the politicians are at Andrews…’