Liberty Page 3

  The big machine, which seemed to have come out of nowhere, hung in the middle of nowhere for around fifteen minutes. Then its main engine began to burn as attitude thrusters aligned the vessel for flight. Soon it was powering away toward the inner solar system. Toward, in fact, a small red planet which was not too far away. For a given value of ‘far.’

  New Millennium City, MD.

  The evening news had just one thing to talk about. ‘The plan calls for a new town, to be known as Federal City, located to the north of the current city limits of New Millennium City.’ Hart had personally presented the plan at a news conference that afternoon and given credit where it was due: President Vanlaren’s administration had been working on the idea for most of the previous year. Hart thought it was a good plan, but a lot of the work had been done for her.

  ‘While it is expected that construction will take years,’ the presenter went on, ‘the initial phase is expected to be completed by the end of twenty seventeen. This will see the building of replacements for the demolished White House and Capitol. An extension to the O monorail line will also be built at this time.’

  ‘That’s an ambitious timescale, I think,’ Penny said. She was being Penny today – short, dowdy, brown-haired, ordinary Penny – because she had spent a lot of time as Cygnus recently.

  ‘The ambitious timescales,’ the presenter said, because presenters are psychic, ‘are likely to require a large number of construction workers from New Millennium City. A spokesman for the mayor had this to say.’

  The picture cut over to one of the City Hall briefing rooms where a man in a suit was talking. ‘New Millennium City welcomes the building of Federal City on our doorstep. However, following the events of twenty fourteen, the city has lost some considerable housing capacity. While construction of new housing has been initiated’ – that got some barks of laughter from Cygnus and June – ‘more work will be required to house the number of workers Federal City will need.’

  ‘They want federal grants to put Churchton back up,’ June said, ‘having spent the last three years just brushing the rubble under the carpet.’

  ‘Of course,’ Andrea commented.

  June’s eyes narrowed. ‘You are up to something. You knew about this already, didn’t you?’

  ‘It might have been mentioned by the Shadow Court when I got back.’

  Now Cygnus was regarding Andrea shrewdly. ‘What’ve you done?’

  ‘Nothing much. I’ve been buying up land in Churchton through a dummy company the Court set up. We own about sixty percent of the property up there, plus some of the worst death traps that are still standing.’ Andrea grinned. ‘That’s why it was so easy to find places to set up Denny’s remote radio-monitoring stations. We did a little work to improve safety in the slums, but the aim is to move everyone out, demolish, and then rebuild. With the grants we can get from the city, the federal government, and your redevelopment fund, we can build some pretty decent housing on the ruined areas and we won’t need to charge a fortune in rent.’

  ‘You sneaky…’ June began. She shook her head. ‘Well, sneaky is you all over.’

  ‘Well, you know, I try.’

  Scottsdale, AZ, 27th January.

  January was a good time of the year to be a resident of Scottsdale. The temperature was warm instead of scorching. It rained sometimes. The local mall opened up its glass roof to let real air in, and you could find birds sitting in the trees in the food court.

  In the library at Scottsdale Community College, the air conditioning was drying out the air and Weston Carter knew he would break out in a mild sweat as soon as he walked out. Then again, he was already in a mild sweat: he had ten minutes to get the books he needed before the library closed for the weekend, and he was having trouble finding one of them.

  ‘There!’ he more or less gasped. Miss-shelving library books should be made a criminal offence. They still had the death penalty in Arizona, right? Pulling out a volume on the design of carburettors, West turned and…

  ‘Well, well. If it isn’t our African American colleague.’ West did not consider himself short at five-foot-eight, but Harold Deek – Harry to his friends, and that did not include West – had a good five inches on him. Deek was also all bone and muscle. As far as West knew, that included the space inside his head, assuming that there was any space in there. In many ways, Deek was not a racist, just a bully and all-round asshole. Scottsdale was pretty white, so Deek generally had to come up with another reason for hating a victim. It was just easier if you had black skin. Deek had started calling West his ‘African American colleague’ after using the N-word had almost got him tossed out of college. So, maybe there was something inside his head besides muscle. ‘He just loves his books does our homeboy.’

  Deek had a couple of friends with him, who spread out to make sure the aisle was blocked. For the first time in his life, West felt something like anger rising in him when he was actually facing a bully. He had maybe five minutes to check out his books and get out of the building. Deek knew it. He was deliberately delaying West. Just another annoying little persecution in the bully’s campaign which no one ever did anything about.

  ‘Let me past, Harold,’ West said.

  ‘Or what, Carter? What are you gonna do if I don’t?’

  West glowered. He could hear a roaring in his ears. He wanted to hit Deek so hard it would knock out teeth. He wanted–

  ‘Deek? Do you hear that?’ one of Deek’s toadies asked.

  ‘What? Don’t bother me with–’ They were not exactly the greatest last words ever said.

  New Millennium City, MD.

  Penny noticed the wall screen coming on even before Denny spoke. ‘I believe you should see this, Penny.’ The this in question was an ACPN helicopter’s view of what had probably been a building. Now it was some walls and a collapsed, burning roof.

  ‘… in Scottsdale, Arizona,’ the presenter was saying. ‘Emergency services have just arrived on the scene, but it appears that there is little they can do aside from putting out the fire. The devastation appears to be complete. Once again, the Scottsdale Community College library has exploded.’

  Penny turned to June. ‘Coming?’

  ‘I’ll get changed,’ June replied, getting to her feet.

  ‘Can’t see much point in me going there,’ Andrea said as Penny set off for her room. ‘Aside from anything else, it’s Arizona. There’s not much shadow to work with at this time of day.’

  Penny nodded. ‘We’ll keep in touch.’

  Scottsdale, AZ.

  Another sudden bang made the emergency teams at the library look around for any signs of further explosions, but there was nothing. No smoke. No flying debris. Nothing until a woman swooped in out of the blue sky to hover over the wreckage.

  No one recognised her, though some of them guessed who she was from the costume she was wearing. She was tall and beautiful with honey-blonde hair featuring streaks of paler blonde and quite large, blue eyes. Her nose was thin and pert, her lips full, and she had quite a strong jawline. Her costume was a high-hipped, long-sleeved leotard affair and over-the-knee boots, all in red, white, and blue. Most of the leotard was blue with white stars on it, but there were red and white stripes over the right shoulder and the arms were a swirl of three patriotic colours. Even her boots were red and blue with white trim. She had been seen once, helping Cygnus to rescue a failing passenger jet, and now she was here. Miss Liberty, the new national hero of America.

  And she looked a little lost. She looked down at the burning wreckage, frowning as though she could not work out what to do now she was here. That was, in fact, precisely the problem. Miss Liberty was new and she had no idea how to deal with a situation like this. She turned in the air, looking out toward the east and hoping…

  ~~~

  ‘There’s another flyer at the scene,’ Cygnus said as she slowed toward their destination, Astraea in her arms. In atmosphere, Cygnus was a lot faster than Astraea was, hence the carrying.


  ‘One of the locals?’ Astraea asked.

  ‘No idea. I’m not sure who operates in the Phoenix area. Well, Cottontail’s from out this way, but I doubt she’d be much good at an incident like this.’

  ‘Guess we’ll find out soon. Let me drop and I’ll cover the rest on my own.’

  ‘Okay. I’ll drop in and smother the flames as best I can… It looked a little big for me on TV, but we’ll see.’ Cygnus let go of Astraea and they flew in alongside each other, Cygnus switching her power configuration as they got closer to the scene.

  ‘It’s her,’ Astraea said as the figure hovering over the ruined library became visible. ‘It’s Miss Liberty.’

  ‘Great,’ Cygnus said, and she ignored the patriotic heroine to drop down and hover over the middle of the library’s roof, which was currently at more or less the same level as the floor. Almost immediately, the flames died away in a circle around her, but she had been right: a lot of the building was covered by her control field, but the edges were not and she was missing a lot of the corners.

  ‘That’s amazing,’ Miss Liberty said, flying up to hover beside Cygnus.

  ‘Not big enough to cover the whole building, but…’ A couple of seconds of effort and Cygnus had her powers refocused. The flames died away almost all the way to the corners of the building. ‘Got it.’

  ‘Wow…’ The blonde shook herself. ‘What can I do to help? I… I don’t know what to do.’

  ‘Well, the first thing is to go find Astraea. She’ll be with whoever’s in charge of the rescue efforts. You’re strong, so the best thing you can do is help Astraea shift some of this debris. I’m about as strong as a typical human right now, so all I can do is point in directions where we might find… bodies.’

  ‘Bodies?’

  ‘Something blew up in this building and more or less demolished it. If we get anyone out of here alive, it’ll be a minor miracle.’

  ‘Okay. I guess… I guess I should’ve expected that. I’ll go find your friend.’

  Cygnus nodded. ‘Oh, when we’re done here, I need to talk to you. No flying off without warning.’

  ‘Oh. That doesn’t sound good.’

  ‘It’s neither good nor bad. I have a request from President Hart to pass on.’

  ‘Oh, well, if it’s a request from the president…’

  ~~~

  By sunset, they had almost all of the debris cleared from the shell of the library. They had got two people out alive, though one of those was unlikely to make it through the night. Those two had been in a restroom at the back of the building, so they had had some protection from the main blast and the collapse of the roof.

  Cygnus was confused. ‘It just doesn’t make sense,’ she said to one of the arson investigators on scene. ‘I mean, this had to be a big bomb, right. I’d say gas explosion, but the epicentre seems to have been in the stacks. How do you get a bomb this big into a public library? Why? Forgive me, but Scottsdale Community College does not strike me as a particularly important site for a terrorist attack.’

  The investigator shrugged. ‘Someone really didn’t want to pay their late fees?’

  ‘That’s… actually pretty funny.’ Cygnus flashed him a smile. Gallows humour – always appropriate. ‘Also not the worst reason I’ve ever heard for mass carnage.’

  ‘No?’

  ‘Slapstick was willing to nuke New Millennium City so that me and Twilight would play a game with him.’

  ‘Oh. I guess I could see his point if it was naked Twister.’

  ‘It wasn’t. I’m going to call a friend. Maybe she can make some sense of this.’

  ‘It’ll be dark in about twenty minutes,’ the man said. ‘We’ll have to shut down the search then.’

  ‘Ah, but working in the dark is another thing she’s good at.’

  Miss Liberty was sitting with Astraea, trying to get her head around her afternoon when Cygnus came over to join them. There was a parking lot beside the library and the two women were on the tarmac, chatting. Miss Liberty looked like she had been crying.

  ‘I guess I just didn’t expect it to be this bad,’ Miss Liberty was saying. ‘I helped with the airliner and the worst anyone had was a twisted ankle. This time…’

  ‘You get used to it,’ Astraea replied. ‘No, that’s a lie. If you get used to it, you’re probably not human. You…’

  ‘Learn to cope better,’ Cygnus said. She settled onto the ground beside Astraea. ‘You learn to accept that you can’t always save everyone. In fact, the best you can sometimes do is give a few families some closure and a body to bury.’

  ‘You were there for the riots in New Millennium,’ Miss Liberty said. ‘I saw you in a camisole soaked to the skin, but you were helping with the fires. And there was that arsonist and the missile attacks. You must have seen a lot of death.’

  ‘I think I’m legally obliged to say “too much” at this point. President Hart would like to meet you. She didn’t exactly say “at your earliest convenience,” but I think it might be rude to keep her waiting.’

  Miss Liberty grimaced. ‘I… kind of hoped I could stay out of politics.’

  ‘This isn’t really politics. At least, I don’t think it is. She’s an Ultra. She seems to be a fairly straightforward woman. You should meet her.’

  ‘I’ll see what I can arrange. I–’ The national hero stopped in a squeak that was not very heroic as Twilight – in costume – stepped out of the darkness with a fully armoured Frostburn right beside her. He was carrying a shopping bag which was also not terribly heroic or high-tech.

  ‘We come bearing gifts,’ Twilight said. ‘There’s a flask of coffee in the bag. And sorry, Miss Liberty, I didn’t mean to surprise you. These two are used to it.’

  Cygnus was already on her feet. ‘Coffee? You brought coffee? Jacob, I’d kiss you but your girlfriend’s scary. Plus, you know, the helmet.’

  ‘Helmet’s staying on,’ Jacob said. ‘Why do we go to warm places?’

  ‘In this case, because I wanted Andrea to look at the site of an explosion. Since you’re here…’

  ‘I’ll look. If someone can find me a flashlight.’

  New Millennium City, MD, 28th January.

  ‘That’s better,’ Jacob said as he pulled off his helmet in the cool of Andrea’s bedroom. They had just stepped through Andrea’s shadows from Scottsdale, and the clock display in the helmet had immediately ticked over to midnight.

  Andrea flashed him a smile as she began stripping herself of her harnesses and the weapons attached to them. ‘It was cooling down by the time we left.’

  ‘Not that much. I don’t know how anyone lives in that place, never mind me.’

  ‘Air conditioning. Lots of air conditioning.’

  ‘That’s a point.’ He followed Andrea out into the lounge.

  ‘Welcome home, Andrea and Jacob,’ Denny said. ‘I have Cygnus and Astraea on radar. They will be arriving soon.’

  ‘Thanks, Denny,’ Andrea replied. She glanced at her boyfriend. ‘I’m right, though, aren’t I? That bomb site was weird.’

  ‘I’m not exactly an explosives expert,’ Jacob replied, ‘but it didn’t fit with anything I’ve ever seen or been told about. The blast pattern at the epicentre was… yes, weird and the damage seemed too spread out.’

  ‘Well, a thermobaric device could explain the greater spread and the amount of burn damage, but those things are usually pretty big. Someone would have noticed a big bomb in among the stacks.’

  Jacob nodded and sat down beside Andrea on one of the sofas. ‘The FBI will put it down as domestic terrorism.’

  ‘Probably, but who’d want to blow up a library in Scottsdale? There’s a big mall not that far away.’

  ‘And the timing was wrong,’ Denny put in. ‘I checked, and the explosion happened only a minute or two before closing time. That would tend to reduce casualties, I would imagine.’

  ‘Practice run for something else?’ Jacob suggested. ‘Maybe something bigger. Denny, could you chec
k for events happening in the Phoenix area in the next… month or two? Things with a lot of people in an enclosed space.’

  ‘I can, Jacob. I will initiate it now. It would be a lot easier if your internet had some structure to it.’

  Andrea smirked. ‘A lot of things would be easier if the internet had some structure to it. I might even have social media accounts if that was the case.’

  ‘You have UltraNet,’ Denny replied. ‘You should really check up on your fan mail. There are a number of people who have written to you concerning your return.’

  ‘I’ll…’ Andrea pursed her lips in thought and then shrugged. ‘I’ll take a look, I guess.’

  ‘Ready for Monday, Jacob?’ Cygnus asked as she strode into the lounge.

  ‘Monday?’ For a second, Jacob looked confused. ‘Oh! The move. I will be by Monday. Are you ready?’

  ‘Dom arranged for us to get a container like the one we had for Zoe. It should be big enough, but if we have to make two trips it won’t be a problem. You’re bringing some furniture, right?’

  ‘He wouldn’t come without his chair,’ Andrea said, smirking.

  ‘We figured there’s space and Andrea doesn’t have furniture, so we’re bringing a few things, yes,’ Jacob said, giving his girlfriend a half-hearted glare. ‘I doubt we’ll go over a container-full.’

  ‘If we do, it won’t be by much,’ Andrea said. ‘As long as it’s individual items or a box or two, I can ship them over myself.’

  ‘I’m not sure why we need the container,’ June said. ‘You could just jump everything through your shadows without any trouble at all. Even that sofa can’t weigh too much for you.’

  ‘I’d be taking a lot of trips. And anyway, are you really telling me you want to miss out on a chance to see Cygnus lifting something heavy? Come on, you know you love it when she bunches those muscles.’

  ‘Actually,’ June said, pulling herself up straighter, ‘I do. Is Jacob going to be joining us for our dojo sessions? I think I might enjoy that too.’

  ‘I thought you were gay?’ Jacob asked, frowning.