Hostile Territory by Tom Andry

Author:Tom Andry [Andry, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Superheroes
Published: 2013-02-21T05:00:00+00:00

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Chapter 13

The cold air hit me like a punch to the lungs. My breath came out in a large cloud. I pulled my jacket around me as I stepped off the bike. Walker looked back at me and nodded.

"Thanks for the ride, John. So...do I meet you here or..."

"I'll look for you." He didn't wait for a response and sped off on the bike. It made a sound more like a whirr than the rumble I'd expect from a conventional motorcycle.

I turned to the building. It glowed blue from the interior light passing through the ice walls. I stepped toward the doors and, for once, they didn't slide aside. Instead, I had to push them in manually. They swung back and I had to take a quick step inside to avoid getting hit on the backswing.

The bar was, in the simplest terms, made of ice. The chairs were ice, the counter was ice, and I saw a woman in what looked to be a costume made of spider webs scrape ice off the wall and add it to her drink. She glanced over at me, taking me in from head to toe. I pulled my jacket tighter and tried not to look at her chest as she looked away with a faint look of disgust.

It was early in the evening and only a few patrons were in the bar. Most were huddled in groups of two or three around tables that somehow had small fires burning in the center. Some warmed their hands, others cooked food on skewers, but most just sipped their drinks. In the center of the room was a glass sphere floating about a foot off the ground. The bottom third of the sphere was filled with what looked to be snow while the rest was empty air. The globe was huge and the interior was easily the size of a large living room.

I scanned the room for familiar faces. I found more than I would have expected. Luckily, most of the ones I recognized were previous clients rather than the people I had investigated. While the clients often had a reason to resent me, not the least of which was because of my prices and my penchant for uncovering their true names, they at least had no reason to attack me out of hand.

In the back right corner of the room was a group of supers. Their table had no fire and they were providing at least half the noise in the bar. I couldn't quite make out what they were saying over the music. The background music sounded like someone trying to break a guitar over a set of drums while receiving shock therapy.

I moved toward the bar, noticing a second darkened table on the left side of the room. As I sidled up to the bar, I thanked my stars that Ted's clothes were resistant. While they'd get wet, they'd dry quickly and I was unlikely to feel the cold through them.

"Good evening, sir.

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