Halfheroes by Ian W. Sainsbury

Author:Ian W. Sainsbury [Sainsbury, Ian W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-05-09T18:30:00+00:00

24

Shuck's call, when it came, was a relief.

"She's awake."

"Already?"

Abos didn't know why she responded with surprise. Habit, she supposed. She knew that Rasputin's new body—Susan—was conscious. She had known it as a stirring of fresh consciousness in her own mind, an opening of sorts. Unmistakable. Something similar had happened with Shuck, but, until it the second time, she had not known what it meant.

She was speaking to Shuck from the top of the tallest building in New York. Shuck was probably standing in the yard in Cornwall as the mobile phone signal was strongest there. Abos could picture what he was seeing almost as clearly as the sun that was sinking behind skyscrapers in front of her.

"I'll call you back."

Something had been happening to her for days when she allowed it. A freeing up of areas of her consciousness. Abos would have been hard-pressed to describe it. How do you describe a new smell to someone if there are no grounds for comparison? How do you describe a new taste if it's neither sweet nor sour, rich nor thin, sharp nor bitter? In the simplest terms, she knew she was now able to experience a little of what Shuck, or Susan, were experiencing. She wasn't privy to their every thought. It was more like an extra sense, always present. She knew if they were awake or asleep.

Abos was perched on the top of the spire of One World Trade Center. This reminded her of another thing she hadn't understood in the superhero movies Daniel had shown her.

"Why do they always do that? Find a high place in the city and stand, or squat there?"

"Probably cause it looks great. The cape blowing in the wind. Moody, atmospheric. You know."

She didn't know.

"And what about the way they land? Many times they ruin the surface, crack the concrete because they are not landing properly. If they can fly, they can certainly land without causing an earthquake. It's irresponsible."

"Abos, I'm not sure superhero movies will ever be your thing."

Now she thought she understood. She wanted to be alone, unreachable.

She had failed Daniel.

Abos had spent the previous days following a trail that was never really there. Someone had taken Daniel, the rest of his IGLU team, the Newcastle drug dealer and his companions. Whoever was behind this had the resources to break into the Gravesend prison—a place no one was supposed to even know existed—and to use an unlisted private jet with no flight plan history.

Twenty-six hours earlier, she had been in Tokyo hotel investigating a sighting of a Gulfstream G650 that morning. The lead had been a dead end. An email response from Palindrome hadn't lifted her spirits.

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