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  Adamantium looked a little embarrassed. ‘To be honest, I didn’t think of it until you were here.’

  ‘So quickly I am forgotten,’ Andrea said on a sigh. ‘I’ll go see what I can find.’ The shadows flooded upward from around her feet, swallowing her. When they fell away again, Andrea was gone.

  Whisper, standing nearby, let out a little gasp. ‘That is a most interesting ability. She can control the shadows in any way she wishes?’

  ‘There are some limitations,’ Cygnus replied. ‘These days she can smother quite bright lights, but she prefers to work where the shadows are natural. And she can take people with her. Travelling that way is… kind of disturbing, but it’s fast. Anyway, if there’s anyone alive in there, she’ll find them. She can see out of any shadow, anywhere.’

  ‘Amazing.’

  Cygnus grinned. ‘That’s Twilight. They don’t call her the Avatar of Shadows for nothing.’

  ~~~

  Andrea materialised on the far side of the blockage and looked back at the fallen rubble. The rescuers were going to be at it for a while longer: they had managed to clear maybe half of a hundred feet of obstruction. And then it stopped. There was next to no light in the tunnel, but that meant nothing to Andrea, and what she saw looked… wrong. The roof had fallen, sure, but it had fallen in a fairly well-delineated area. Behind her, the tunnel was clear until another fall had blocked it maybe six hundred feet to the west. The train had come to a halt about a hundred feet from the western blockage. It would have had no power at that point; the trains were fed electricity from overhead lines which had been cut when the roof collapsed. Andrea frowned. Collapsed might not be the right word.

  The train had no power, but at least some of the emergency lights were still functioning. The light was dim – and Andrea did not need it anyway – but it was there, casting more shadows than providing illumination. It did make it quite clear where the train was. The thing was a bunch of silver blocks on wheels, like many a subway train across the world. This one had purple paint above and below the large windscreen; purple, or maybe magenta, was the colour used to identify the Ōedo line. There seemed to be absolutely no damage to the vehicle, nothing had fallen on it, but there was no sign of the driver in the cab. From what Adamantium had said, no one had been able to contact anyone on the train since the earthquake.

  She shadow-stepped into the train’s cab. Still no driver. The cab door was unlocked, however, and pushing through into the passenger cabin revealed a man in a uniform along with various other people in suits and casual clothing. It was June, summer, and a couple of people in the car looked like westerners, probably on holiday. Not a happy holiday: everyone Andrea checked was dead.

  ‘Someone did a particularly thorough job of eliminating the occupants of this train,’ Midnight said from the darkness on Andrea’s left. There was no compassion in the voice. Midnight was not exactly a compassionate personality.

  ‘They don’t seem to have been wounded in any way,’ Twilight said from Andrea’s right. ‘There’s no reason for them to be dead. It’s only been thirty-six hours or so since the earthquake.’

  ‘And yet, dead they are. They died in terror it seems.’

  Midnight had a point. A lot of the bodies were huddled into corners or wearing frozen expressions of horror. As Andrea worked her way down the eight cars, the situation did not change. In the sixth car, one of the doors had been forced open and there were a couple of terrified, dead people lying on the ground outside. Andrea stepped down to check on them and noticed a body lying beside the rubble at the western blockage. She would check on that one after she had worked her way through the train cars.

  It was in the last car that she found someone alive. A young man, quite fit and with a fairly muscular body, and he was alive, but huddled under one of the emergency lights, shivering. He started at the sight of Andrea’s boots appearing in his field of vision, looking up at her as if terrified at what he might see. ‘Kage,’ he said.

  ‘Do you speak English?’ Andrea asked.

  ‘Kage,’ he repeated.

  ‘I’m going to take that as a no. I’m sorry, but this is going to come as a bit of a shock.’ Reaching down, she put one hand on his shoulder and another over his eyes, then she pulled the shadows up around them and slid through whatever space her darkness seemed to occupy to the far side of the tunnel blockage.

  The light barely had time to return before the man let out a shriek and bolted backward, ending up sprawled on the tracks. ‘Kage! Kage!’

  There were rescue workers and paramedics rushing toward him almost immediately, but he just kept repeating the same word in a strangled, terrified voice even as he was being stretchered away.

  ‘Okay,’ Andrea said once he was gone, ‘what’s “kage?”’

  ‘Shadow,’ Whisper supplied. ‘It is likely that he was shaken by your transportation.’

  ‘It freaks me out a little,’ Cygnus said, ‘and I haven’t been trapped in the dark for a day and a half.’

  ‘That would be great if he’d just started saying it now,’ Andrea said, ‘but that was all I could get out of him before I jumped him. And he wasn’t in the dark. The emergency lights on the train are, mostly, still functioning. He was huddled right under one of them. Um, he was the only one I found alive. There are about thirty-five people in there and the rest of them are dead.’

  ‘All of them?’ Whisper asked. It was impossible to tell whether he was frowning, but you could sort of hear a frown in his voice.

  ‘All of them. Well, there’s a body outside the train I haven’t checked. There could be one or two more, but none of the other people have a pulse. More or less all of them look like they were scared to death.’

  ‘An Ultra,’ Cygnus said. You could see that she was frowning.

  ‘Or something like an Ultra. I’m going to go check anyone I haven’t. While I’m doing that, you can decide whether you want me to jump the victims out or wait for the tunnel to be cleared.’ With that, she turned and vanished into the darkness.

  ~~~

  ‘His name is Hiraku Moto,’ Adamantium said. ‘Physically, he’s suffering from mild dehydration and milder starvation.’

  ‘Most people can last a day without food,’ Andrea said. They were back in the school, back in the refectory in fact, with coffee mugs set before them. ‘He looked pretty fit. I’d imagine he could fairly easily survive a day or so without water.’

  ‘Quite. His physical state is recoverable, but his mental state… He refuses to sleep with the room in darkness.’

  ‘That sounds familiar,’ Cygnus commented.

  ‘I was home all day yesterday,’ Andrea said. ‘Denny would know if I’d gone out. Aside from patrolling anyway, and she keeps tabs on our locations even then. Jacob’s in Baltimore, so I didn’t have any reason to go out.’

  ‘I wasn’t accusing you.’

  ‘I was. I’m getting my alibi ready for when I start second-guessing myself. If they’d all been frozen, I’d be really worried.’

  ‘The one body you did bring out died of heart failure,’ Adamantium supplied. ‘The autopsy results just came through. They rushed it, considering the circumstances, but they are quite clear on the cause of death. It’s speculation at this point, but it appears that Mister Moto died from exhaustion.’

  ‘That also sounds familiar,’ Cygnus said.

  Andrea nodded, a deep frown on her face. ‘Yes, it does.’ She got to her feet, ignoring the remainder of her drink. ‘I need to go home and pick up my working clothes. Then I need to stop off in Italy. I’ll be back here later tonight. Is there somewhere I can stay for a few days, or should I organise a hotel?’

  ‘We can arrange something with the academy,’ Brightstar said. ‘Adam and I are staying in one of the staff complexes. I’d imagine they have a few more spares. But why? What is it you think killed these people? Or who?’

  The shadows drew up around Andrea as she prepared to leave. ‘I’m not absolutely sure, but it sounds like a shadow demon. And if there is one of those wandering around Tokyo, then it’s my job to get rid of it.’ The shadows drifted away like smoke, and Andrea was gone.

  Schatten Schloss, Italy.

  ‘Anyone home?’ Andrea walked up the stairs from the deep, dark rooms in the basement of the castle, searching for either of two specific women, though anyone would do when it came down to it. The kitchen had been empty, even though it was around time for an evening meal, so she had carried on up into the great hall dressed in her combat gear and carrying a small suitcase.

  An attractive brunette with very dark eyes turned as Andrea walked through the door. Her eyes widened and she smiled warmly. ‘Grand Mistress. It is a pleasure to see you here.’

  ‘Morning, Mia. I mean afternoon. Evening? Is it evening here? I thought we’d got past all that Grand Mistress stuff.’

  ‘I enjoy the way you cringe a little when I call you that.’

  Andrea’s eyes narrowed. ‘Sometimes, I wish Lena hadn’t helped you improve your English. Is she around? I need to ask the two of you about something.’

  ‘It’s a nice evening. We’re eating in the tower. You’re welcome to join us…’

  Shrugging, Andrea headed for the big door at the other side of the hall. ‘Well, I haven’t had lunch yet.’

  The castle had a single tower, built so that the surrounding area could be observed. These days, the probability of someone attacking the place was fairly small, so there were no longer watchmen posted there, but someone had carried a table and three chairs up into the room at the top. It was plastic furniture since there were no glazing in the windows and the rain was sometimes blown in from the Italian Alps, but the chairs had cushions on the seats to provide a little more comfort, and it was a nice evening. The summer sun was s
till quite high in the sky and the waters of Lago di Molveno glistened in the light at the bottom of the mountain.

  Buxom and blonde, Lena Tonaldo was sitting at the table and smiled as Andrea emerged through the hatch from below. ‘Hey, Andrea. You joining us for dinner?’

  ‘Lunch in my case,’ Andrea replied. She bent to give Lena a kiss on the cheek and then walked around to one of the free chairs. ‘Lunch and information.’

  ‘Court information, I assume?’

  ‘Well, I wouldn’t come all this way for advice on sightseeing in Rome. Are we… missing anyone?’

  ‘Missing anyone?’

  ‘The defections,’ Mia said. ‘I believe we are discussing the people who seem to have left the Court without our agreement.’

  ‘I didn’t think the Court ever agreed to let anyone go,’ Andrea said.

  ‘It’s rare. People retire from active service, but they generally remain members. A few people have been granted the right to leave under various specific circumstances. However, we did have a number of people vanish during your time in China. Many of them have been tracked down and dealt with. Others have not.’

  ‘Any in Japan? Tokyo specifically?’

  Mia frowned. ‘I would have to check our records…’

  ‘No, you don’t,’ Lena said. ‘That was the weird one. Uh… No, I’d have to check to give you the name, Andrea, but there was one guy who vanished from the Tokyo office and he was a bit of an outlier.’

  ‘Ah, yes. The adept.’

  ‘Why does that make him an outlier?’ Andrea asked.

  ‘We lost several adepts in Beijing,’ Lena replied. ‘They have all been confirmed dead following the nuclear explosion there. We lost others there too and the remainder have moved to reinforce the Shanghai office since the government moved there.’

  ‘Uh-huh. I’ve been to Beijing. I’m not surprised we lost people.’

  ‘Yes. However, most of the people we have lost and who remain at large are shades. They have access to more magic and are better trained. They have managed to hide from us by one means or another. The man in Tokyo was an adept, an analyst. He has no field skills or experience, and he was never taught shadow magic. Despite this, no one has been able to track him down.’

  ‘The Tokyo office will know more about him,’ Lena said. ‘I’ll get you the address when I check on what his name is. I take it you’re going after him?’

  ‘If only to clear him,’ Andrea replied. ‘You know there was an earthquake down there recently? Well, a trainload of passengers were killed, but not by the actual quake. Seems like they died terrified and exhausted.’

  Lena gave a small shudder. ‘A shadow demon.’

  ‘Seems like it, but if this adept never learned magic, I really doubt he could summon a demon. So, you say there are others still missing?’

  ‘The most senior is a man named Iain Jankowski, a shade in the Warsaw office. That’s in Poland, in case you weren’t aware. From what I remember, he wasn’t entirely pleased with the changes we’ve made to the Court. When you went missing, he took the opportunity to go his own way. Or that’s what the Warsaw office thinks.’

  ‘That is the other odd thing about the man in Japan,’ Mia put in. ‘Most of those who vanished did so during your absence. He went missing around the same time as the cosmic energy burst over Asia. Aside from the people confirmed dead in Beijing, he was one of the very first to disappear.’

  ‘Hm…’ Andrea frowned in thought for a second or two and then smiled. ‘I’ll check up on that when I get back to Tokyo. Let’s eat.’

  ‘Of course. You’ll have a glass of wine with us?’ Mia plucked the bottle from its cooler and stood to pour the wine.

  ‘Well, just a glass to be sociable. I’m heading straight to Japan from here. If I drink too much, I might get lost in China again.’

  ‘That,’ Lena said, ‘isn’t something we want. Seriously, the Court turns into a bunch of old maids if their Grand Mistress isn’t around to keep them straight.’

  ‘Agreed,’ Mia said as the wine poured. ‘No more vanishing in foreign countries. Next time, we will have to come looking for you.’

  Andrea took a sip of wine. ‘Well, that’s me told.’

  Tokyo, Japan, 5th June.

  ‘Which one are you?’ Andrea asked as one of Multiplier’s clones showed her to the apartment the academy had assigned her.

  ‘I am Jūni. Number twelve. I handle the night shift with Jūichi. This way, Onēsan never misses anything.’

  Andrea smiled. ‘Useful. I’m glad I’m not keeping you up past bedtime.’

  ‘Oh, no. I go to bed at eight thirty in the morning, after breakfast with Onēsan. Tomorrow is a school day, so she will be up quite early.’

  The building they were just arriving at was a fairly modern design, very clean and obviously new, but it followed a pattern Andrea had seen on a number of ‘slice of life’ anime episodes: it was a block structure with walkways and stairs on the outside, the doors of the apartments opening onto the open ‘corridors.’ While she could not confirm their presence from this side, Andrea was pretty sure that there would be a balcony for each apartment on the other side of the building. They started up the steps to the upper floors and Andrea noted the vending machine beside the staircase.

  ‘School life in Japan is pretty hard, right?’ Andrea asked. ‘It’s an early start?’

  ‘Classes begin at eight forty-five, but there is homeroom before that. At Urutoraakademī, we are fortunate, however. It is never very far to travel from the dorms to the classrooms. At Onēsan’s last school, she had to travel for almost an hour in each direction. Here it never takes more than fifteen minutes.’

  ‘Yeah, but I bet you weren’t constantly being watched back then.’ Andrea pointed up as they passed under a security camera which was watching the stairs. Or it looked like a security camera, but there was something a little odd about it.

  ‘We are constantly monitored here,’ Jūni agreed. ‘All the cameras also have cosmic energy sensors in them. This helps maintain security and can detect the emergence of some powers before even the student becomes aware of them.’

  ‘Right.’

  On the top floor, Jūni turned left and walked down to the last door on that side of the block. ‘This is your apartment. The pass they gave you should open the door.’

  Andrea lifted the key fob device she had been given and presented it to what appeared to be a combination of intercom and locking mechanism on the wall beside the door. The sound of the lock disengaging was audible. Jūni smiled as she pulled the door open, outward, to allow Andrea to enter. Andrea spotted a light switch and pressed it – it was more of a light button – to get the lights to come on in what appeared to be a hallway leading into a room which did look as though it had a balcony through the window at the other end.

  ‘Do you think you will need any help finding your way around?’ Jūni asked.

  ‘The apartment? I think I’ll manage. If manga has taught me nothing else, it’s what to basically expect from a Japanese apartment. Hey, do you have any homeroom teachers who are about four feet in height with pink hair and a flat chest?’

  Jūni giggled. ‘No. I think that only happens in manga.’

  Andrea walked into her home for the next day or two, shaking her head. ‘See, now you’re destroying all my illusions…’

  ~~~

  Ginza was the kind of shopping district you found in many large cities. Designer shops abounded, but you could find more reasonable prices if you went looking. Andrea was not looking for clothes, but what she was looking for was a little out of the ordinary under the circumstances. She was used to the Shadow Court using legal firms as front companies for their regional offices. Lawyers frequently needed research departments, which nicely covered the majority of the Court’s activities. In Tokyo, the company was called Byakuya, which meant ‘white night,’ and it was a management company for singers, actors, models, and other celebrities. That just did not seem to fit the rather staid, shadowy nature of the Court.

  She found the place occupying a three-floor office structure above some sort of designer outlet she had never heard of which was situated on what was almost a back alley. Despite the relatively ignominious location, the reception area was bright and welcoming. The receptionist smiled warmly as Andrea walked in wearing a plaid miniskirt and a string-strapped camisole top. The latter was black with the Chinese hànzì character Mù printed on the front in white. It was what she had called herself in China. She had the suspicion that it was pronounced differently in Japan, and possibly that it meant something else, but she was not going to worry about it right now. She was also wearing sunglasses, which meant that the receptionist did not immediately recognise her.