The Supernaturalist Part 14

'Oh, I think we both know what the problem is.' Ellen Faustino rose from the couch, straightening her linen suit.

Stefan was out of the sofa, staring down into the woman's eyes. 'I said, what problem, Professor?'

Faustino stared right back at him, not in the least cowed. 'Don't talk to me that way, Stefan. Your mother would not approve. Answers, that's why I brought you here. That's why you and your little vigilante helper aren't in the interrogation block right now.'

Ellen Faustino ran some more footage on the ceiling screens.

'Look up, Stefan. They're playing your song.'

Stefan settled back into the couch. Overhead a familiar scene played out digitally.

It showed the Supernaturalists blasting Parasites on top of the Stromberg Building, in glorious true-tone colour.

Stefan winked at Cosmo. 'That doesn't prove anything. Those people are wearing fuzz plates, so you can't see who they are. And even if you could, they're not hurting anybody.'

Faustino looked around dramatically. 'This is not a court room, Stefan. I don't see any lawyers in here. If I wanted you on charges, I'd have had you two years ago.'

Stefan's surprise broke through his mask of indifference. 'You what?'

'That's right, young man. I've had my electronic eye on you for a long time now.

A special scope on the Satellite, dedicated to your nightly activities. Well, if you will insist on running around rooftops. And believe me, I have plenty of footage of your smiling face without a fuzz plate. Not to mention Miss Mona Vasquez and a certain Lucien Bonn, aka Ditto. I have enough evidence on your little group to have you buried deeper than a core-ore tunnel.'

Stefan clenched his fists so tightly the knuckles popped. 'What's going on?'

'Don't you want to know why I never had you pulled in?'

'Until tonight,' corrected Stefan.

Faustino waved her hands. 'Tonight was a mistake. You got mixed up in another department's operation. If you knew the favours I had to call in to get you two released into my custody. That said, I have been trying to find you for the past few weeks.'

'I thought you were the president. Surely you could track us with your all-seeing Satellite?'

'I'm just the president of Developmental Projects. Mayor Ray s.h.i.+ne is the big cheese. He doesn't even know we're working together.'

Again, Stefan was stunned. 'Now we're working together?'

'Of course you didn't know it. You've been taking care of the city's infestation problem, or so we thought.'

Aha, thought Cosmo. Here comes the reason why we're not in pain right now.

'Infestation?' said Stefan innocently.

Faustino smiled. 'Oh come on now, Stefan. Don't play dumb with me. I see them too, you know.'

'See who? See what?'

Ellen Faustino crossed to her desk, activating a 3D projection on the floor. She transferred the Stromberg footage from the ceiling screen, and a 3D high-resolution rendering of the Supernaturalists sprang into life in the centre of the room. Shot from above, they resembled characters in a video game. A single Parasite crawled along an adjacent wall. Faustino froze the footage, manipulating the video until only the Parasite remained.

'I see them, Stefan. Un-Spec 4. The life-eaters.'

For the third time in as many minutes Stefan was stunned.'You see them? Un speck what?'

Faustino enlarged the Parasite's image. 'Un-Spec 4. Uncategorized Species Four.

The other three are deep-sea creatures that we're pretty sure exist, but haven't been able to capture yet. A species is not considered to be categorized until it can be captured and examined. Of course not everyone can see this. To a normal person, we're looking at a blank projection, but to a select few, your little group included, the truth is all too clear.'

Faustino turned to the security guards.

'Out. All of you.'

The chief security guard took a step forward. 'President Faustino, that's against regulations.'

Ellen said nothing, just stared into the man's lenses. The two-hundred-plus-pound gorilla backed down in less than five seconds.

'Very well, President. We'll be in the elevator.'

Ellen perched on the desktop, remaining silent until the lift door slid shut.

'When I joined the force, before I began lecturing, Booshka was my beat. Back then there was still a semblance of order down there. One night I took a knife in the ribs, breaking up a domestic. I nearly died: out of body, into the light, the whole thing. The paramedics brought me back. But I saw something that night. Something I've been able to see ever since -'

Cosmo sat bolt upright. 'You're a Spotter. Like me.'

Stefan sighed through his nose. 'Why don't you just sign a confession, Cosmo?'

'I kept it to myself,' continued Ellen. 'These sightings, convinced that I was crazy.

But then I heard about someone else who raved about blue creatures. You, Stefan, after the accident. You were quite a joke in the police academy for a while. Section Eight, everybody said. As your personal tutor and a family friend, I tried to help you through the trauma. I hoped you would open up to me.'

Stefan's eyes widened. 'All those therapy sessions. All those questions about post- traumatic stress and hallucinations.'

Ellen sighed. 'But you wouldn't open up to me. Apparently you had realized that n.o.body wanted to listen.'

'All that time in the academy together, and we both had the same problem. Why didn't you just tell me?'

'I should have, I know, but I was afraid that it would get out and my career would be finished.' She lowered her eyes. 'I didn't trust you; I'm sorry. After you left the academy to set up your vigilante squad, I finished my second doctorate and came to work for Myis.h.i.+, in research and development. One of my jobs was a small budget project to trace tiny power surges that were impacting on the Satellite's dish from the planet's surface. Nothing serious. Small charges, not enough to cause interference. I figured out in about ten minutes where the charges were coming from. Un-Spec 4 were venting them. Naturally I never revealed my findings: I had a career to think of.

Eventually the charges were attributed to industrial discharge from Satellite City. I went on with my work, trying to make things better in my own small way. But then, a few years ago, the charges began to increase. Slowly at first, but then at an alarming rate, so much so that they began to damage the dish plates. Now the discharge is so great that it's a constant stream. We're losing links with the surface. People are dying.

It's a red-light crisis for the corporation.'

'People have been dying in Satellite City for years and Myis.h.i.+ have done nothing about it. Now, when there's money involved, suddenly they're interested.'

For the first time Ellen Faustino's voice took on a hard quality. 'Don't be so naive, Stefan. Money gets things done. As soon as the Satellite lost its first link-up, all developmental projects were frozen. I had two hospitals and a rehab centre in the pipeline. Gone now, unless we can sort out our Un-Spec problem.' Faustino's temper disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared. 'You've been handling the creatures for years. Destroying them very efficiently. There was no need to start up a team, or so I thought.'

Stefan sat up. 'What does that mean?'

'The lightning rods. Very clever, the residual charge itself gets the creature.'

'Parasites,' interrupted Cosmo. 'We call them Parasites.'

Ellen nodded. 'Parasites. That's good. You were wiping out the Parasites with a single-mindedness that Myis.h.i.+ employees could never match, so I kept an eye on you and left you alone to do your work: our work. But after the recent increase in charges, I put together a small team to investigate. There are two factors that bring on the second sight, in my opinion: near-death experiences, coupled with a lifelong exposure to Satellite City's chemical smog. The computer ran a search in the Myis.h.i.+ personnel files and I interviewed everyone on the list. I found three other Spotters, all under twenty-five. I am the only one over forty. We began an in-depth study of the Parasites, especially what happens to them after you shoot them. And we found out something you might like to know . . .'

Faustino crossed to the elevator door, checking it was closed. She then ran a bug sweeper over the walls and phones, looking for surveillance devices. When she was certain that n.o.body had an eye or ear on the Observatory, she took a crystal video chip from her wallet, pressing it into the 3D projector.

'Next-generation technology,' she explained. 'We can get two hundred hours of video on one crystal chip. Myis.h.i.+ will kick Phonetix's b.u.t.t next quarter.'

A life-size 3D representation of a Parasite materialized in the room. Stefan automatically reached inside his jacket for a lightning rod.

Faustino laughed. 'Relax, Stefan. Amazing quality, I know. These are the first generation of lenses that can even photograph Un-Spec 4. What I'm about to show you is the result of months of surveillance. I'd say it was cla.s.sified, but who are you going to tell?'

The Parasite began its curious lope along a projected wall.

'Un-Spec 4 seems to be made of pure energy, which it obviously expends through activity. We notice the Parasite's luminosity fades the further it travels.' Faustino switched on a laser pointer. 'This glowing centre here is Un-Spec 4's equivalent of a heart. As it runs out of energy the heart pulsates more slowly. Eventually the heart will feed on the creature's body, absorbing it to keep beating.'

The 3D Parasite faded to a pastel blue. Its skin lost coherence and shortly after that, the heart itself did not have enough energy to keep itself intact. It disappeared in a blue flash.

'That flash,' said Cosmo. 'Is that what Myis.h.i.+ is worried about?'

Faustino shook her head. 'I wish. Those flashes barely register on our meters. No, Un-Spec 4 only lets real sparks fly after absorbing energy.'

The picture changed. This time a Parasite was crouched on the chest of a fallen fireman. A stream of white-gold energy flowed into the creature's palms. The Parasite glowed like a bag of stars, then drifted up a nearby wall. The cameraman followed the creature to a window sill where it rested briefly. The absorbed energy ran through its organs with increasing speed and agitation. After several seconds of unrest, an energy discharge burst through the pores of the creature's skin, spiralling skywards.

'Now that I've never seen before,' said Stefan.

'We believe that the Parasite's organs scrub the energy, then release completely clean power.'

Cosmo's adolescent mind got it first. 'So, you're saying all this trouble is being caused by Parasite p.o.o.p?'

Ellen smiled. 'Exactly. People have tried to say it better and couldn't. It's a bit like trees taking in carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen. Nature's filters. This next clip is the part you'll be really interested in. We only got it last month; since then I've been trying to track you down.'

A new clip appeared in the projector ray. This one showed an obsessed-looking Stefan Bashkir in the middle of a disaster zone. Emergency vehicles were converging from all sides and Parasites were feeding on the victims of a riot.

'I remember that,' said Stefan. 'Food riot in Booshka, near the Blockade. Nasty.'

In the projection, Stefan was letting fly with his lightning rod, blasting Parasites from their perches. The camera caught one Parasite at the moment it exploded into a dozen s.h.i.+mmering spheres. The Satellite camera tracked a single sphere for several minutes, following its rise into the atmosphere.

'Have you any idea how much it cost for this footage? I had to buy camera time for an entire day.'

Stefan didn't even hear the complaint, he was too focused on the sphere. It stopped rising after more than a kilometre, drifting slightly in the prevailing wind. The camera zoomed in until the sphere was the size of a basketball, hovering between land and s.p.a.ce.

'In order to photograph the Parasites, our new lenses are coated with a chemical compound,' said Faustino. 'It took my team months to find the right solution. We told head office it was anti-glare spray.'

Stefan did not respond. His eyes were glued to the projection.

The sphere's surface began to ripple slightly; inside, the energy coiled itself into a rope, chasing its tail into intricate knots.

'What's happening?' asked Cosmo.

Stefan reached out his hands, sinking them into the projection.

'No,'he breathed.

The ropes solidified, becoming more complex. A silver star shone at their centre.

'It can't be. Not after all this.'

Two round eyes appeared. Then blue fingers, pus.h.i.+ng against the sphere's surface, forcing the skin.

'What have I done?'

The sphere's surface split and a brand-new Parasite appeared. Fully formed and ready to siphon life from a human in pain. It spread its arms and drifted earthwards on the winds.

Stefan's face was a mask of anguish. 'All this time. All this time, I've been helping them. Not destroying them. Helping them to reproduce.'

Faustino switched off the projector.

'It's not your fault, Stefan. How could you know? All you saw were creatures who had destroyed your life. You fought them the same way I would.' She helped Stefan on to the sofa. 'What we need to decide now is how to continue the fight.'

'There is no fight,' said Stefan glumly. 'They win. It's over. How can I go on? It would take me ten lifetimes just to undo the damage I've done.'

'Not necessarily,' said Faustino. 'To defeat Un-Spec 4 you have to understand them. Let me fill you in on what my team have learned after hundreds of hours of Satellite surveillance. Un-Spec 4 is a parasitic species that feeds on energy, preferably human life force, hiding their activities by feeding on the sick and injured. They absorb energy by osmosis, scrubbing it through bodily filters, then venting the clean energy. These ventings have grown to dangerous proportions due to the increased number of Parasites. Generally the Parasites split into two ent.i.ties after several years, when they have acc.u.mulated enough energy but, because of your efforts, they are reproducing rapidly and in huge numbers. Thus contributing to the energy burst problem. It's a vicious circle.'

Stefan's scar stretched his mouth into the cruel facsimile of a grin. 'You forgot to mention that there's no way to kill them.'

Faustino couldn't resist a little smile of her own. 'Oh, I didn't say that.'

She reactivated the projector, fast-forwarding to a different file. Another Parasite appeared in the light beams. This one was colourless and almost completely transparent. Its starburst heart reduced to a flickering ember.

'This one is dying.'

Stefan's enthusiasm returned in a rush. 'How? What caused it?'

'We did,' replied Faustino. 'Unintentionally. A starved Parasite will sometimes resort to electrical energy; not their meal of choice, you understand, but sometimes there isn't enough misery to go round. This one latched on to a uranium rod from a nuclear generator in one of our disa.s.sembling plants. There was too much contaminated energy. The creature couldn't recycle it and it clogged up its system.

This is security camera footage, we only got it by accident. n.o.body objected; after all, to them there's nothing on the screen except old equipment. Luckily for us a new lens had been installed during a routine upgrade.'

'So all we have to do -' said Stefan, thinking aloud.

'- is pump them full of contaminated energy,' completed Cosmo.

'Exactly,' said Faustino, clapping her hands. She took an aluminium briefcase from under the sofa, laying it carefully on the coffee table. 'This is our proposed solution.'

She flipped open the case, revealing a metallic cuboid cradled in a gel-coolant pack. The cuboid was connected to a digital timer.

'Not very pretty, I know. But we're not trying to sell it on the ma.s.s market.'

Stefan studied the device. 'Some kind of pulse device. The police riot squad use these to knock out power in the buildings they're raiding. They take out mains and local generators.'