The Supernaturalist Part 9

The Frenchman rubbed his cheek. 'A kiss? From Mona Vasquez? You're not sick, are you?'

Mona glared malevolently at the Parasite. 'No, Jean Pierre. I'm not sick.'

Mona refused to say another word until she and Cosmo had put two blocks between them and Jean Pierre's workshop.

'Those monsters. Sometimes they know when a person is in harm's way.'

'Why didn't we do something?'

'Do what? Blast a hole in the air in broad daylight? Jean Pierre would have shot us himself. There's nothing we can do here, no more than we can go shooting up hospitals. Maybe Jean Pierre will have a heart attack and the Parasite will push him over the edge. Natural causes, you see. Or maybe the Parasite will just siphon off a few years. That's the beauty of their race, no one ever knows. No crime, no foul play, no suspect, no victim. You know, only a year ago, you would never see a Parasite out during the day. But now it's happening more and more.'

Cosmo studied the growing crowds on the street. It was harder to see the Parasites in the daylight, but they were there, squatting on their targets' shoulders or shadowing them from overhead.

Mona saw him watching. 'That's right. They don't like the light much, but they're here. They don't like water either. It won't kill them, but a good soaking can suck the energy right out of them. That's why every day I pray for rain.'

'Is that it, then? Once a Parasite selects you, it's all over?'

'Not necessarily. You can be saved by paramedics, or beat the odds, or like us, not go out on patrol that night. Parasites don't generally show up until the incident occurs, but sometimes the smell of death is too strong to resist.'

They hurried through Booshka, towards the Blockade. Cosmo kept his head down, terrified to draw attention from the Parasites. Scared that his gaze would attract one of them down to perch on his shoulder.'Leaving so soon?' said a voice.

Miguel and the Sweethearts were hanging over a rail, three storeys up.

'Gotta go,' replied Mona. 'I got work to do.'

'You should stick around, chiquita. There's something big happening tonight.

We're unveiling the Myis.h.i.+ Z12. We're going to clean up.'

'Really? Maybe you should give it a miss. I hear the smog is bad later.'

Miguel laughed. 'What are you talking about, girl? The Sweethearts don't care about no smog. Tonight we have business to take care of.'

Cosmo glanced upwards, from the corner of one eye. Half a dozen Parasites were adhered to the wall above the Sweethearts' heads, round eyes staring almost fondly at their targets.

Mona continued walking. 'Looks like we're going to be busy tonight too.'

CHAPTER 5:

SWEETHEARTS AND BULLDOGS.

TWELVE hours later Cosmo was back down in Booshka. This time in the back of the Pigmobile with the other Supernaturalists. Mona parked in the shadow of a corrugated sheet-metal awning opposite the Sweethearts' headquarters: an abandoned police station inside the Blockade. Outside, everything was locked down for the night and the streets were deserted, apart from roving groups of youths and homeless wanderers.

Stefan was not happy with the situation. 'The Parasites can be wrong. We could be wasting this entire night.'

'There were too many, Stefan,' responded Mona. 'One could be a mistake, but the creatures were waiting for a major disaster. Miguel said the Sweethearts were bringing out the Myis.h.i.+ Z12 tonight. They're bound to win and the other gangs are going to go ballistic'

Stefan shrugged. 'The gangs are always going ballistic'

Mona's eyes flashed. 'Those guys were my family for a long time, Stefan. You have to look out for your family, you should understand that.'

'OK,' said Stefan grudgingly. 'We tail them for a couple of hours, but then we're back on the computer.'

'Thanks, Stefan.'

Ditto turned away from the window. 'All right, everybody. We're on.'

The Sweethearts were leaving the police station underground car park in a series of souped-up Kroms, led by Miguel in a heavily camouflaged Myis.h.i.+ Z12.

'There she is,' said Mona. 'The price of my freedom.'

Cosmo rubbed a peephole through the dirty window. 'It doesn't look like much.'

Mona started the Pigmobile's engine; it was surprisingly quiet in spite of its size.

'That's the clever part. If the Sweethearts arrived with the Myis.h.i.+ Z12, n.o.body would bet against them. This way, they stand to make more money.' She pulled on to the road, staying well behind the Sweetheart convoy. 'You never did tell me the story of how you got that car, Stefan.'

Stefan grinned. 'I liberated it from the Myis.h.i.+ experimental division. They were testing a couple and one didn't make the curve. Ran straight into a fuel dump. I followed a swarm of Parasites into the facility and started blasting. The lawyers got a bit close to me so I took the other car. That thing's amazing, years ahead of the compet.i.tion. It's even got wing slots if you want to upgrade. It really pained me to part with it.'

Mona thumped him on the chest. A fond gesture for her. 'OK, Stefan. Thank you.

How many times do you want me to say it?'

'Another couple of thousand should do it.'

The Sweethearts paraded down the avenue, honking personalized horns to wake up the street. Soon crowds of people were gathered on the balconies, fluttering bandannas. Miguel waved royally out of the window.

Mona hung back in the Pigmobile until they had cleared Red Square. The convoy swung east.

'OK. East. That's Bulldog country. They're racing in the old Krom factory.'

Ditto typed this information into the on-board computer and in seconds the warehouse server sent back a schematic of the factory.

'It's perfect. If they use the a.s.sembly lines, you have two five-kilometre lanes set above solid asphalt.'

'Access?' asked Stefan.

'Six doors on the ground level, which I presume we won't be using.'

'Correct.'

'Then I recommend the lines of solar panels on the roof. No doubt the locals have long since made off with the panels, so we should be able to climb into the upper gantry.'

Cosmo groaned. More rooftops. But he didn't say anything aloud.

Stefan seemed to read his thoughts. 'Don't worry, Cosmo,' he said. 'You did well last night. You laid down that bridge like a fireman. Not too bad with the lightning rod either, although you did hit more wall than Parasites.'

'A compliment from Stefan Bashkir?' said Mona, in mock surprise. 'You should record that and play it back every night, because you probably won't get another one.'

Cosmo laughed. But Stefan's words had meant something to him. For the first time, he felt almost a part of the group.

Mona squeezed the Pigmobile down several narrow alleys, knocking the wing mirrors flat to the doors. The Krom factory loomed ahead, orange firelight flickering from empty panels in the roof.

'This must be the place,' said Mona, cutting the engine. She climbed into the back.

'There'll be at least fifty Bulldogs inside. All armed with gunpowder antiques and maybe some shrink-wrappers or shockers. My guess is that there's going to be some kind of accident; either that or a gang fight.'

Stefan nodded. 'OK. We don't get involved until whatever is going to happen happens. Then we take care of our spirit friends.'

Mona didn't like the plan. 'Shouldn't we try to break the whole thing up? Prevent the disaster.'

'No. We can't tell the future. Maybe when we try to break things up, we actually cause the disaster.'

It made sense, even if Mona wasn't happy about it. Stefan put a hand on her shoulder. 'Are you OK, Mona? Will you be able to do the job?'

Mona snapped a power cell into her lightning rod. 'Don't worry about me, Stefan.

I know what we came here for.'

'Good. We go up the fire escape, through the roof and on to the gantry inside. Stay sharp, the gangs could have grown some brains and posted sentries on the roof.'

Ditto Velcroed a first-aid kit to his chest. 'And pigs will fly.'

The alley was so narrow that they had to disembark from the rear of the Pigmobile, then climb over the roof to reach the Krom fire escape. The sounds of roaring engines and cheering were only slightly dulled by the factory walls. The fire escape's bottom rung was a metre above Stefan's reach. Rather than deploy a ladder, he grabbed Ditto by the belt.

'Ready?'

Ditto nodded. 'Going up.'

Stefan hefted the tiny boy-man straight up, until he could grab the bottom rung.

His weight dragged the fire escape ladder to ground level. They climbed one by one, with Stefan taking up the rear. If anyone was likely to break a rung, it was the tall youth.

The fire escape bore the weight and minutes later the Supernaturalists were face down on the gently sloping roof, peering through an empty solar panel frame.

Stretched out below them were the cannibalized remains of a megafactory that had once employed over twenty thousand Satellite City residents.

The raised a.s.sembly lines were bolstered by welded lengths of girder. Builder androids had been stripped of any useful components and hung limply in their cradles like robotic skeletons. Complicated overhead gantries and magnetic monorail systems weaved through the air, hooks, clamps and lighting rigs hanging from them like mechanical jewellerv.

The Bulldogs and Sweethearts were facing off in cla.s.sic tribal fas.h.i.+on. At least a hundred gang members postured around their vehicles, chests out, chins up, sucking in their guts. The vehicles themselves were the automobile equivalent of peac.o.c.ks'

tails. Huge spoilers inset with digitized graphics, old-fas.h.i.+oned rubber tyres and hoods stripped away to reveal throbbing engines. Only the Myis.h.i.+ Zl 2 was unadorned. A panther at rest.

The racing had already begun. Two cars at a time were ramped on to the a.s.sembly line, tearing down the five-kilometre strip in an afterburn of gasoline and nitrous. The rules were simple. An electrified gate sat on each lane. When that gate was lifted, the driver put his foot down. Go too late and the race was over, too early and the gate's charge would blow car and driver clean off the track. First past the post took the honours and the winner's purse.

The Supernaturalists weren't the only beings in the upper regions. Several dozen Parasites clung spiderlike to the infrastructure, dropping down to suck a few drops of life from any injured drivers. As always, the drivers were oblivious to the group's attentions.

Cosmo drew his lightning rod.

'Wait,' instructed Stefan. 'This is not the main event. You don't get this many Parasites for a few minor injuries. We have to hold back until something big happens.' Stefan's fingers were twitching over his own lightning rod. It was obvious that allowing the Parasites to steal even one drop of life essence was killing him.

Sometimes leaders have to make tough choices.

Ditto studied the altimeter on his watch. 'We're at least two hundred feet off the ground here. If something does happen, I'm not going to be able to help anybody.

And the only reason I'm here is to patch people up. You know how I feel about blasting Parasites, so if I'm not allowed to heal, then I may as well go back to the old job. The pay is better and I don't have to put up with your teenage moods.'

Stefan's gaze could have drilled holes in t.i.tanium.

'Ditto. Now is not the time.'

Ditto glared right back. 'Not the time? Now we only save lives when you say so?

Well if I had known that I would have stayed home in our palace and had a few beers.'

Stefan ground his teeth. Both in frustration and to stop himself smiling.

'Ditto, one of these days I'm going to sign you up for kindergarten, so help me.

OK, take Mona, get down near ground level. No risks, though. These are not the type of people we generally deal with. These are armed killers. If you can help someone, then help them, but my advice is to tranquillize them first. And wear your fuzz plates; you never know.'

Ditto grinned. 'Stefan, you're a sweetheart.'

The Bartoli Baby trotted down a connecting stairwell, sure-footed as a goat. Mona ran after him, swearing in Spanish. They made their way across pipes and down rails until they straddled a cable conduit directly above the a.s.sembly line. In the event of a disaster, it would be a simple matter to lay down a bridge to ground level.

Stefan followed their progress through field gla.s.ses.'They're safe.'

Cosmo lay beside him on the gantry. 'Shouldn't we go down with her . . . them?'

Stefan kept his eyes on the scene below. 'A bit of advice, Cosmo. Don't get too attached to Mona. She is the best Spotter I've ever seen, but some day she'll move on.

And to answer your question, we can cover them from here. If they get made, we can create a diversion, draw fire away.'

Cosmo sighed. Drawing fire sounded even more dangerous than everything else they had done so far.

Stefan misinterpreted the sigh. 'Don't worry about it, kid,' he said, rapping Cosmo playfully on the robotix plate. 'I don't suppose they teach military tactics at Clarissa Frayne.'

The rap reminded Cosmo that parts of his body were not the originals. How much had changed in a week. New knee, new forehead, new friends, new life. Cosmo gazed down at the hundred armed gang members. New life - for how long?

Ditto balanced easily on the cable conduit. He was a natural gymnast in spite of his size. Maybe you got used to your body when it hadn't changed in decades.

'So you like the kid?' he said in a teasing tone that belied his angelic face. 'Your little chico?'