Ultrahuman 01 - Ugly (17 page)

The docks were pretty quiet. Nothing had come in or out for over an hour and the area around Pier Six was more or less deserted. Penny had seen a homeless person wandering past the perimeter fence. Pier Six was large, handling containers, and the staff had left hours ago.

‘Are you sure about this?’ she whispered to the woman lying beside her on the, rather cold, rooftop of the container building at the end of the pier.

‘My information’s good,’ Twilight replied. ‘They’ll be here.’

Almost on cue, there was the sound of engines and a large, black SUV pulled through the gates followed by a van. Both came to a stop near the water and a squad of six swarmed out of the car, all of them armed with sub-machine guns.

‘Okay, so that looks hopeful,’ Penny admitted. ‘Still no boat.’

Twilight lifted her binoculars from scanning the men on the ground and looked out into the bay. ‘There,’ she said. ‘It’s got a black hull. Some sort of powerboat.’

Penny looked out, her night vision easily picking up the slight wake from the slowly moving vessel and then the craft itself. ‘Got it. Do we have a plan?’

‘Normally I wait for them to load the van, knock the men out, and call the cops. But I’ve got you here so maybe we should just pick the van up and take it to the local station.’

‘I’m not
that
strong,’ Penny replied, and then noticed Twilight was grinning. ‘Okay, so same as usual, but you don’t have to do it alone?’

‘Pretty much. You go in and draw their fire, like before. I’ll hit them from behind. Pull them away from the van, and I’ll make sure it’s not going anywhere.’

‘And the boat?’

‘Not our main concern once the drugs are on land.’

Penny nodded. ‘I’ll need a minute to circle around. Say when.’

It took the men twenty minutes to lug the contents of the speedboat to the van and they looked nervous the whole time, as though they were expecting to be jumped by someone. Penny took off and looped back along the long building they were on as what looked like the last load was being carried up.

She swung around toward the rear of the van and came in at top speed, spreading her arms wide as she streaked in, low to the ground, and clotheslined two men carrying boxes before pulling upward into the sky. The gunmen were not even vaguely prepared for that and by the time they began firing she was a hundred yards away and their shots were wildly off target.

‘You guys really need a new line of work,’ she yelled as she looped up, let herself stall, and fell back into a power dive. The motion gave her a chance to look at the van. No one was paying attention to it or the dark figure at the rear punching out its tyres with her sword.

There was a roar of powerful engines from the water. Someone had got the bright idea that leaving the scene would be good for their health. Penny ignored it; Twilight was right, the drugs were the important thing. She swooped down, ignoring the sting of a bullet against her right shoulder, and slammed into one of the gunmen, carrying him half a dozen yards across the yard before dropping him against a container.

She pulled a tight turn in mid-air, just like on the obstacle course in Bobby’s house, and started back. She saw Twilight then, twin batons in hand, striking down one of the gunmen. One of the others heard his fellow’s gun hit the ground and started to turn, but the girl was like a predator on speed; one baton pushed the sub-gun aside while the second slammed into her victim’s solar plexus.

Penny swept through grabbing a man in each arm and flying them out and up over the water before dropping them. She knew that left one and hoped Twilight could take him without her help, because at the speed she was going it would take her a couple of valuable seconds to get back. She turned…

There was a cloud of smoke where she had last seen Twilight. The man was unloading his sub-machine gun into it in what Penny would classify as panicked fire. It was also useless since Twilight was standing behind him, her pose relaxed as she waited for him to empty his weapon. As the smoke cleared and he realised he was shooting at nothing, she stepped forward and smacked him across the back of the head with one of her batons. His gun clattered to the floor, followed by his body. Twilight turned him over as Penny flew down, and began going through his pockets.

‘What? We robbing them now?’ Penny asked.

‘I want a cell phone to call the cops,’ Twilight replied.

Penny’s eyebrows went up. ‘All those pouches on your belt and no cell phone?’

‘Yeah, but…’ She found what she was looking for and dialled 911. ‘Poetic justice. Yes, this is Twilight, registration MD-triple-zero-five-two. I’ve got a drug shipment and some thugs on the waterfront at Pier Six. The container yard… That’s right. Thanks.’ She dropped the phone onto the thug’s chest. ‘Happier with your share of the goons?’

‘Three each. I should check on the ones I dumped in the harbour, but how did you get behind that guy? I mean, the smoke I get, but you had to move like lightning to get behind him that fast.’

Twilight glanced at her. ‘Trade secret. I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.’

‘Right.’ Turning, Penny flew off to pull the two men out of the water. Twilight had given no indication she had any actual powers, just skills. The smoke bomb made sense, but there was something more about her than a well-trained, sneaky gadget-user. The trust, it seemed, was not running quite that deep yet.

17
^th
October.

Penny’s smartphone buzzed at her twenty minutes before home time. A message had come in for Cygnus. There was no content, but she knew it meant that UltraNet had flagged something for her attention. She had found the alert feature and used it to tag reports matching several different criteria. Knowing she had to wait until she got home to check was, however, annoying.

June picked up on it on the O. ‘What’s got you so impatient to be home?’ she asked. ‘You’re looking far more wired than usual.’

‘I got an alert through about something,’ Penny replied. ‘I won’t know what until we get there.’

‘You think it’s him?’

‘Maybe.’

It seemed to take far longer than usual to get home. Then Penny’s computer seemed to be taking its own sweet time booting up. By the time it had and she had loaded the UltraNet software, there were two items for her attention. She hit the news button first.

The report which her search had flagged was a hotel fire in Morgantown, West Virginia. Two people dead, one fireman injured trying to put the flames out. There was also one resident missing and his description matched that of Thermite.

‘Morgantown,’ June said, watching over her shoulder. ‘That’s definitely closer.’

‘Uh-huh,’ Penny replied. She clicked through to the private message box. There was something there from Twilight.

I assume you’ve seen the report from Morgantown. Looks like you were right about him heading for the big city lights. I’ll keep a lookout. T.

‘And it looks like your mysterious friend is going to help,’ June added.

‘She’s an odd one, but… It was kind of like she understood where I was coming from.’

‘Losing someone isn’t an uncommon reason for becoming a hero.’

‘That’s not really why I did.’

‘No, not exactly, but it has to be part of it.’

Penny closed down the program. ‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘It’s part of it.’

18
^th
October.

Andrea unclasped the scarf she was using as a skirt and let it drop to the floor. Her corset still did a reasonable job of covering her, but Lena’s eyes roved appreciatively up her long legs, past the narrowed waist to the up-thrust breasts.

‘That’s quite the outfit,’ Lena said, her voice throaty.

In truth, a lot of the money Andrea earned from these visits went on buying clothes to visit Lena in. The corset had cost a fair amount, but it did fit well and the effect it was having seemed to be worth it.

‘You said you wanted something… assertive,’ Andrea said. Bending down she pulled a riding crop from her bag and slapped it against her thigh. ‘So I’m being assertive. On your knees, bitch.’

‘Oh God,’ Lena groaned.

Andrea kept her face straight, took two rapid steps forward, grabbed Lena’s hair and pulled her off her seat and onto her knees. ‘I said, on your knees. If I have to tell you twice again, you won’t be sitting down for a week.’

Lena let out another groan. ‘Yes, Mistress.’

‘Much better,’ Andrea said. She twisted her fingers in the mass of blonde hair at the back of Lena’s neck and pulled, stretching Lena’s neck so that she was looking up. ‘Keep that up and I’ll make you feel
very
good.’

~~~

Cygnus was on patrol over the city, sweeping over Friendship Park, her eyes scanning the shadows, which were not shadows to her, for any signs of people in trouble. A few people spotted the white shape above them and waved, receiving a wave back when she saw them.

Cygnus was looking for people in trouble, and Penny was on the lookout for the man who killed her parents.

Morgantown was five or six hours away by car. It was quite possible that Thermite had made it as far as New Millennium by now. Quite possible, but she had no idea how he was travelling or the route he had taken. He could be anywhere. He could have
gone
anywhere and stopped off on the way.

Still, the alternative was not looking. She could wait for him to kill someone else and then try to track him. Cygnus would not stand for that and Penny was not going to either.

~~~

‘Poppa’s really pissed off,’ Lena said, her voice quiet. ‘It’s crazy around here at the moment. I was surprised they let you up here. Pleasantly surprised.’

‘What’s got him so angry?’ Andrea asked. Her thumb grazed over Lena’s right nipple as she said it. The blonde’s arms were still cuffed behind her back, not that she would have resisted anyway.

‘L-like I said, it’s crazy. That hero who saved his butt a couple of weeks ago, Cygnus? She busted up some shipment Poppa had coming in. Her and another girl, uh, Twilight. Second deal they’ve screwed in a few weeks. Poppa wants them dead. And that’s after they saved him from a bullet in the head.’

‘It’s just business,’ Andrea replied, continuing her stroking.

‘I wish he was in another line of business.’

‘If he was, we’d probably never have met.’

‘I h-hadn’t th-thought of that. Are you going to l-let me out of these c-cuffs?’

Reaching behind her, Andrea picked up a strap-on harness. ‘Do you really want me to?’

The only reply was a whimper, but it was a good answer.

19
^th
October.

‘No sign of your incendiary friend,’ Twilight said, ‘but we have another problem.’

Penny crossed her arms under her ample chest. ‘Right now, my only concern is Thermite.’

‘It won’t be if David Tonaldo puts a bullet in your eye.’

‘We saved him.’

‘And then we bust up his drug shipment. He’s gunning for both of us.’

Getting dead before she got to nail Thermite was not going to help. Penny scowled. ‘Serious threat?’

‘They don’t trust Ultras. Won’t use them. But we know he was trying to get heavy weapons and he may have got some from another source.’ Twilight gave a shrug. ‘I guess it’s more of a problem for me, as far as a physical threat goes, but you’re a lot more visible.’

‘I guess I’d better watch my back. Aside from anything else, I don’t want civilians hurt while they’re trying to get to me.’ She fixed her gaze on Twilight. ‘You be careful too. I don’t want to have to take Tonaldo down to avenge your death. I’d rather you were there to see it.’

There was a look of surprise in Twilight’s brown eyes. ‘You’d actually do that? Hunt him down to avenge me?’

Penny nodded. ‘Aside from the fact that getting rid of that lot would be a good thing… Well, we have an odd sort of partnership, but you’re my partner. You’re helping me with Thermite. That means a lot to me. I’d finish what you started if you couldn’t.’

There was silence as the black-clad girl looked at the white-clad one. Twilight was used to being alone, doing things alone, not trusting anyone. Yet she was working with Cygnus, bright, highly visible, everything Twilight was not, and so much a complement, and someone who had trusted her to help find the man who had killed her parents.

‘You know my classification, right?’ Twilight said.

‘You’re an N-one, aren’t you?’

‘That’s what it says on UltraNet.’ Twilight paused and then blurted out, ‘I lied. Kept something back when I registered.’

Penny looked at her, eyebrows raised, and said nothing. She could see this was not easy.

‘You asked how I got behind that guy. Well…’

Penny blinked. There had been no light, no sound. There was a weird sense of movement, of shrinking away into the shadows, but Twilight was no longer standing in front of her. Slowly, she turned around.

‘I can teleport,’ Twilight said, almost timidly. ‘It’s got its limitations. I need to have a deep shadow, or darkness, but I can hop from place to place just like that.’

‘Wow,’ Penny breathed, a smile slowly forming.

‘You’re the only person who knows. The
only
one aside from me.’

‘Our secret,’ Penny said. ‘That’s… I mean I think flying is fantastic, but teleportation… Wow.’

‘It’s not
that
amazing. I’m pretty much limited to what I can carry easily. I can only go where I can see, or where I’ve been before, and there has to be shadow. I can do it fast, even use it in combat, but that can be dangerous so I only do that in an emergency and I’m not fast enough to dodge attacks or anything.’

‘You are belittling a fucking awesome power,’ Penny stated. ‘You can
teleport
!’

Twilight grinned. ‘I guess it is kind of amazing,’ she allowed.

‘Too right. And thank you for trusting me.’

Twilight gave a shrug. ‘Like you said, we’re partners.’

20
^th
October.