Liberty Page 8

  ‘Okay… Well, there are ways to induce a heart attack in someone. They don’t normally involve an Ultra.’

  ‘Yes, but neither the ME nor Bianca’s labs can find anything in the bloodwork to suggest any sort of poisoning.’

  ‘Huh… You know, the funny thing is that a guy I knew in DC transferred to L.A. a little while ago, and I heard he died of a heart attack last Friday. Fit guy. Never thought he was the type to have his heart pack in.’

  ‘Last Friday in L.A.?’

  ‘Uh-huh.’

  ‘Our guy died on Saturday.’

  Horton was silent for a few seconds. ‘Well, you know, there is such a thing as coincidence.’

  ~~~

  ‘Haven’t had steak in a while,’ Damian commented. The restaurant was a little outside his normal range, but Bianca had insisted on paying tonight and he was not going to argue it too much.

  ‘You need your strength,’ Bianca replied. ‘We only have two nights this weekend.’

  ‘Huh, right… I am convinced you’re trying to kill me.’

  ‘If I were trying to do that, I’d use my hands.’

  ‘You do at–’

  ‘On a different body part.’

  Damian grinned at her, cut another chunk of gorgeously cooked steak, and allowed it to melt in his mouth before speaking again. ‘Speaking of heart attacks.’

  ‘Something of a stretch, but I’ll allow it.’

  ‘I was talking to Horton today and something odd came up. Some guy she used to know at the UID office in DC transferred down to L.A., and then proceeded to have a heart attack last Friday night. She says he didn’t seem the type. Fit. Not that old.’

  ‘And then Cavanaugh goes the same way the following day. That is interesting. Reminds me of something…’ Bianca cut some of her own steak, chewing with a thoughtful expression on her face.

  ‘Horton couldn’t find any current Ultras that killed that way. She did a check.’

  ‘Mm. It was Cygnus’s boyfriend, the one who died. He was killed by an Ultra that could induce heart attacks. With a kiss, as I remember.’

  Damian frowned. ‘Horton didn’t mention that one. A kiss would explain what I saw when I read Cavanaugh.’

  ‘Yes, and the Ultra who killed Cygnus’s boyfriend was locked up. Horton’s check would be for known Ultras who are out on the street. I expect anyway. I’ll give Cygnus a call and see what she knows.’ There was a pause. ‘On Sunday. I don’t want to be wasting any of my Damian-time.’

  ‘Seriously, do I need to leave a note at the office to have my death investigated in the event of heart failure?’

  ‘No point. I’d get away with it anyway.’

  Puget Sound, WA, 12th March.

  Enhydra was a unique sort of girl and it had not made for an especially happy puberty. She had initially been diagnosed with hypertrichosis – sometimes called werewolf syndrome – and it was not until some of her other peculiar attributes were taken into account that she was identified as an X-class Ultra. No matter the diagnosis, being a teenage girl with hair all over her body had not been the most pleasant of experiences.

  Essentially, Enhydra was a sea otter-girl, though her abilities surpassed several of those found in sea otters. She had gone into marine biology because she had some advantages humans lacked, such as the ability to swim at a hundred and forty knots while holding her breath for over thirty minutes. She had an extreme dislike of companies which polluted the waterways around Seattle, and a lesser hatred of people calling her ‘cute.’ Despite the latter issue, she was now twenty-two, had never grown taller than five-foot-three, and had learned that ‘cute’ could get her publicity and time on TV to voice her concerns about the environment.

  Her aquatic abilities also made her quite useful to the Seattle Watchmen, and it was because of them that she was currently speeding through the water of Puget Sound, heading for the general area of Jefferson Point. The water was deepest in that area and the hydrophones the Watchmen had stationed at various points around Puget Sound had been picking up some rather unusual noises for the past several days. When those noises had begun to take on the characteristics of seismic activity, Enhydra had been dispatched to see what she could find.

  ‘I’m coming up on the source area now,’ she said. She did not need to breathe when she was underwater, but when she was working with the Watchmen, she wore a mask. It allowed her to use a sound-based communications system which worked with the same buoys the hydrophones were on. Very convenient for operations like this.

  ‘Any obvious signs of geological activity?’ Vindicator asked.

  ‘Maybe. There’s a lot of silt in the water. Visibility isn’t good. Something must’ve stirred this up.’

  There was silence for a second or two and then, ‘Be careful, Sally. We’ve just had a report that Miss Liberty has been seen overflying Seattle. From what I’ve been reading about her, she’s not the type to fly out here for a quick visit.’

  ‘Yeah. I’m always careful, Jon. You know I– Hold on, there’s… There’s light down here. Something’s glowing.’

  ‘Glowing?’

  ‘Yes, glowing. It’s covering a pretty big area. Not too bright, but a definite glow covering… It has to be over four hundred feet across. If someone’s been dumping–’

  When she was silent for too long, Vindicator prompted her. ‘Sally? Enhydra? What are you seeing?’

  Enhydra watched as the glowing mass which was covering a large expanse of seafloor shifted again. No, not shifted. Shifted was wrong. The mass was moving. It was rising upward with an undulating motion which suggested some form of consciousness. The entire thing had an oddly speckled appearance. The glow seemed to emanate from thousands and thousands of tiny point sources all over the gelatinous ooze.

  ‘It’s moving,’ Enhydra said. ‘Whatever this is, it’s moving. Hell, Jon, I think it’s alive. It’s… It’s rising, and it looks like it has some sort of purpose. It’s getting faster.’

  ‘Any idea which way it’s going?’

  ‘West. It’s heading for Jefferson Point. I figure we have about five minutes before it gets there.’

  ‘And when it gets there?’

  ‘I have no idea. This is not a lifeform I’ve ever seen or heard of. But it’s a massive blob of glowing, green jelly, Jon. That’s the stuff of fifties B-movies. Nothing good ever came of a movie monster rising out of the sea.’

  ~~~

  The heaving, green mass of whatever-it-was was making its way up Jefferson Beach Road leaving a complete mess in its wake. Vindicator hovered above the creature, watching its passage and wondering what could possibly stop it. He had tried blasting it with the laser mounted on his arm, and there had been some signs that he was doing damage. The glow had dimmed as blackened scar tissue replaced the green. But the damage had healed over in a second, leaving no obvious signs that it had been there.

  Miss Liberty was blasting it with some sort of energy beam too, and she was having just as little effect. He had noticed that she did not get too close to the thing, and the reason for that became obvious as it used its own offensive capability. It could extend pseudopods out to some three hundred feet from its body, smashing into whatever it chose to attack. The impact was the least of it: whatever it touched, whether with an extruded limb or with its body, was left coated in a sticky, glowing fluid which ate into almost any surface. Cars were left in its wake, crushed and decaying under the onslaught of the weird acid.

  ‘Jon, are you getting anywhere with that thing?’ Enhydra’s voice, now over the radio. Vindicator had had her picked up by one of their automated helicopters and flown back to the Watchtower; there was really nothing more she could do.

  ‘No. It regenerates damage too quickly and it’s too big. I’m not sure what Miss Liberty’s firing at it, but she’s not doing any more damage than I am. We’re going to need help.’

  ‘Calling in the Union?’

  ‘Yes, but I’ll put a call through to the local rep first.’

&n
bsp; ‘Huh?’

  ‘Cygnus. They made her the US liaison for a reason.’

  Seattle Watchtower, Lake Washington, WA.

  ‘I don’t like just leaving it,’ Miss Liberty said as Cygnus led her down through the Watchtower to the operations centre.

  ‘No, but we need to pool our knowledge and come up with a plan. You shooting at it was just wasting energy.’ Cygnus had arrived with Astraea about five minutes before the rest of the Union’s ‘big monsters’ team had turned up via warp conduit. ‘For example, you arrived before the thing even emerged from the water.’

  ‘I… see things. I get visions. They aren’t always especially clear, but I saw it coming out of the water and I–’ Miss Liberty paused, swallowing hard. ‘I saw some of its victims.’

  ‘Those limbs it throws out look like they could do a lot of damage.’

  ‘Yes, but that’s not the worst of it. The slime is corrosive and toxic. If it gets onto your skin… You die in a lot of pain.’

  ‘Assuming the acid doesn’t eat you alive.’ Cygnus reached to her ear. ‘Astraea, stay well out of reach of those tentacles. It’s not just acid, it’s toxic.’ Astraea was still out keeping an eye on the blob and watching for people getting in its way. An early warning from Miss Liberty had, so far, prevented any people getting under the creature.

  ‘Are you kidding?’ Astraea’s voice came back almost immediately. ‘I’m not going any nearer that thing than I have to. I do not entertain any hentai fantasies.’

  ‘She should be careful touching anyone who’s infected,’ Miss Liberty said. ‘The stuff will stick to her if she touches it.’

  ‘Great,’ Cygnus grumbled. ‘Astraea, Miss Liberty says the gunk it leaves behind will stick to you if you touch someone covered in it. So… Yeah. I’m going to talk to Hugh.’

  ‘Come up with a plan,’ Astraea replied. ‘This thing is heading right for Kingston and I don’t think it’s going to stop for anything.’

  ‘Right.’ Letting go of her earpiece, Cygnus pushed through into the control room. Doctor Ultimate, Brightstar, and Adamantium were already there along with Vindicator – or Jonathan Patterson now that he was out of his armour – and a naked, furry woman Cygnus had not met yet. ‘Miss Liberty says it’s toxic as well as corrosive,’ Cygnus said before anyone else could say anything. ‘Astraea is out there keeping an eye on it, but nothing much seems to be stopping it.’

  ‘We can’t do enough damage fast enough,’ Patterson said. ‘It heals very fast.’

  ‘My energy beam was barely damaging it,’ Miss Liberty said.

  ‘Lewis–McChord are sending out a couple of attack helicopters to see what they can do,’ Patterson went on. ‘Can we get Astraea on the speakers? She can give us an idea of what’s happening.’

  ‘Sure,’ Cygnus said. ‘We’re using UoU channel three. Standard encryption.’

  A few seconds later, Astraea’s voice could be heard coming out of the room’s speakers. ‘Okay, I see the choppers. Does anyone say “choppers” any more? Never mind, they’re heading in toward the blob.’

  ‘We have designated it Eldritch dash zero three, Astraea,’ Hugh said.

  ‘That’s a mouthful. Also, does that mean there have been two more?’

  ‘Two more creatures of unknown origin, yes. None have been Leviathan-class, however.’

  ‘The helicopters are getting pretty close. Someone told them about the range on those tentacles, right?’

  ‘We think so,’ Patterson said.

  ‘They’re getting pretty damn– They fired! Holy Hell! That’s a lot of rockets and some people are going to need new houses, but they hit with, uh, most of them. There’s a lot of smoke and flame… Uh… They’ve blown a huge chunk of it apart, but it’s still moving. They’re swinging around for another attack. Shit! I can see the thing regenerating.’

  ‘Let us know when the helicopters attack again,’ Doctor Ultimate said. ‘This is bad. The creature appears to be able to rebuild itself at remarkable speed. The military may end up doing so much damage to the surrounding area that killing the thing will be rather a pyrrhic victory.’

  ‘They’re firing!’ Astraea announced. ‘One of them’s waiting longer… Oh shit!’

  ‘Astraea?’ Cygnus asked, a little worry in her voice.

  ‘Uh, the second helicopter got its rockets off and the thing’s damaged, but it got too close. The blob… Eldritch three, it threw out five of those tentacles and the pilot couldn’t get out of the way in time. The helicopter… it’s just gone. Smashed to pieces.’

  ‘And the creature?’ Patterson asked.

  ‘I can still see it moving. It’s slower than it was, but it’s moving. And it’s regenerating. When it’s shifted out of the way of the wreckage, I’m going to see whether I can help the crew. I, uh, don’t think there’s much chance.’

  ‘Please tell us when the creature has regained its original mass, Astraea,’ Ultimate said.

  ‘Will do.’

  ‘We are going to need information,’ Ultimate went on. ‘Cosmic energy scans will be the easiest thing to gather. Evacuation. We need to evacuate anyone in its path. Tissue samples.’

  ‘That has to be the most serial random collection of thoughts I’ve ever heard out of you, Hugh,’ Cygnus said, ‘but how are we supposed to get tissue samples?’

  ‘I suspect, my dear, that the answer to that will be you. I just haven’t worked out precisely how yet.’

  Cygnus sagged. ‘Great. Does anyone else want the job of Guardian to humanity? I warn you, it sucks.’

  Kingston, WA.

  ‘You’re sure about this?’ Cygnus asked as she flew along beside Miss Liberty. They were heading for Kingston where Eldritch-03 was busy destroying the town centre. It seemed to be happy to take its time over the process, which was sort of good in that it wasn’t heading for anywhere with a denser population.

  ‘I don’t think it can do too much damage to me,’ Miss Liberty replied. ‘I plan to avoid getting hit, but I think I’ll be safe if it does hit me. Anyway, you’ve a much better chance of this working if someone is distracting it.’

  ‘Yeah… How tough are you?’

  There was a second of silence before the patriotic heroine replied. ‘I guess we’re just about to find out.’

  You could tell where the blob had been because it left behind a trail of damaged buildings, cars which looked as though they had spent the last decade underwater, and a lot of general chaos. It had chewed its way through the majority of the western side of the town, skirted the park on the northern side, and was taking its time munching on a fast food restaurant as the two heroines flew in over the main highway through town.

  ‘Hope it gets indigestion,’ Miss Liberty muttered. ‘Going in,’ she added in a louder voice. Then she was accelerating toward Eldritch-03. At about five hundred feet away, she let fly with a blast of incandescent, white energy which blackened the creature in a thin line across its flank before blasting a big hole in the side of a building behind the thing. Saying that it turned was obviously wrong, but somehow you could tell that the flying woman had caught its attention. Five limbs flailed out at her as she darted in within fifty feet of the thing. Mostly they went wide, but she had to jink to dodge two of them as she launched herself out of range, turned, and fired again.

  Cygnus watched for a second to be sure she seemed to have the blob’s attention, then she lined herself up on the other side of the creature. ‘Sensors working, Hugh?’ she asked, just to be sure. She had a backpack on with an array of scanning devices loaded into it as well as a camera mounted on a headband and a big ceramic jar in her hands.

  ‘Indeed they are,’ Ultimate replied. ‘Proceed when ready, Cygnus.’

  ‘Going in.’ Cygnus accelerated: stationary hover to fifteen hundred feet per second in an instant. She came to a dead stop no more than a foot from the monster’s glistening skin and then reached out with her jar, pushing it into the slick surface. It was like pushing something into thick jelly. No, it was like
frogspawn. Up close, the entire surface seemed to be made up of clumps of glowing particles suspended in a gelatinous material. As Cygnus scooped up some of the glowing goop, she saw several of the clumps break up and flow up her arms within the slime. She had rigged up an extra-strength force field for this engagement; it was not going to help her much if she got swatted by a tentacle, but she was quite positive that the goop would not get near her skin. Still, the sight of the glowing fluid crawling over her body was disgusting and not a little terrifying.

  ‘I think it’s noticed you,’ Astraea called out over the radio.

  ‘Pulling out,’ Cygnus replied. In front of her, the ‘flesh’ of the monster was rippling, beginning to bulge. It was likely preparation for a limb extruding. Cygnus turned in the direction of open air and hit top speed with a bang of exploding air. There was a gasp from Astraea as a pseudopod exploded out from Eldritch-03’s side, passing right through the space Cygnus had been in.

  ‘Cygnus?’ Astraea asked. No one answered.

  ‘Cygnus?’ Miss Liberty asked, now that she had reached a safe distance from the blob. Nothing.

  ‘Cygnus, are you–’ Astraea began.

  ‘Sorry,’ Cygnus replied. ‘Sorry. I’m about a mile south of you. I took a dip in the water to wash that slime off me and the outside of Hugh’s jar. I’m fine, it didn’t hit me.’

  ‘I heard that bang and–’

  ‘That’s what happens when you hit twice the speed of sound from a standing start. I’m heading back with Hugh’s jar of goo. I just hope it isn’t eating its way out already.’

  Seattle Watchtower, Lake Washington, WA .

  As it turned out, it was not.

  ‘The material becomes chemically inactive after a couple of minutes,’ Doctor Ultimate explained. ‘That’s an estimated time, obviously, based on the amount of the container’s inner wall it had eaten through before the process stopped. I’m running analysis on the cellular structures, but first indications are that we are dealing with a colony creature.’