THE NEW HEROES
THE QUANTUM PROPHECY
MICHAEL CARROLL

To the staff and pupils – past, present and future – of St Thomas’ National School, Jobstown, Dublin

CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page

Dedication

Ten Years Earlier …

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3

4

5

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9

10

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38

One Week Later

Keep Reading

Copyright

About the Publisher

TEN YEARS EARLIER…

RENATA SOLIZ STOOD in the centre of the empty field, directly in the path of the approaching figure.

She had her long black hair tied back and was wearing grey jeans and a plain red T-shirt. The only thing that marked her out as anything other than a normal girl was a pair of thick leather gloves and the black Zorro mask she’d “borrowed” from her little brother.

The midday sun broke through the clouds and illuminated the tall man making his way towards her.

Renata stood her ground, watching him approach.

Though Dioxin was still twenty metres away, there was a stench of death about him: a putrid, damp, fungal smell that reminded Renata of the rotting timbers in the basement of her grandmother’s house. He sneered at her as he stomped forward over the rough ground, his grin spreading across the blotched yellow and red skin of his face like an opening wound. “Haven’t you got the sense to run away, little girl?”

He continued walking towards her, the grass dying where his bare feet touched it.

Renata watched him carefully. She knew all about Dioxin, knew what he could do. His skin oozed a thick, clear, acid-like venom and if his touch didn’t scorch the flesh from your bones, it infected you with a deadly poison.

Dioxin stopped a couple of metres away. “Seriously. Run away.”

Energy had told Renata that of all the villains she had faced, the one who scared her most was Dioxin. Ragnarök was incredibly intelligent, strong and fast; Brawn was four metres tall and capable of knocking a moving train clear off its tracks; Slaughter was a ruthless killing machine; but they were nothing compared to Dioxin.

“So what do they call you?” Dioxin sneered.

“Diamond.”

Dioxin looked her up and down. “What’s the deal here, kid? Don’t tell me that you’re one of Titan’s crew! You’re what, fifteen?”

“Fourteen.”

“Fourteen. And you think you can stop me?”

With that, Dioxin lunged towards her, his poisonous arms outstretched.

Paragon quickly checked the information that was projected on to the inside of his visor. Flight power was down to less than forty per cent.

A plasma bolt hit him in the left shoulder, burning a hole into his armour. He dodged to the right, quickly unclipped the still-burning shoulder pad and let it fall to the ground. A deep red welt appeared on his dark skin. One of the few active superheroes who didn’t have any superhuman abilities, Paragon relied on his armour and weapons as much as his natural intelligence and athletic abilities, but there were times when even these weren’t enough.

Paragon was sweating – and it wasn’t just from the weight of his armour, or the heat of the plasma bolts.

This was a bad situation.

There had been no sign of Ragnarök for months and now this: a hundred-metre-long mobile fortress, rumbling its way across Pennsylvania towards the city of New York. The tank stopped for nothing; cars, trees and even houses were crushed beneath its giant wheels. Unable to halt or even slow the machine’s progress, the police and army had concentrated on evacuating people from its path.

Another volley of plasma bolts streaked towards him and Paragon cut the power to his jetpack and dropped, angling his descent so that he was falling directly into the path of the enormous battle-tank.

He reactivated his jetpack ten metres above the ground and found himself face-to-face with Ragnarök, protected by the battle-tank’s metre-thick windshield.

They stared at each other for a split second, then Ragnarök frantically gestured to one of his henchmen, mouthing the words “Kill him!”

The armoured hero dodged to his left just as a huge column of white flame scorched the air around him.

He swooped down towards the battle-tank’s undercarriage, settled long enough to attach the explosive charge, and then zoomed away, dodging a storm of bullets and plasma bolts.

Paragon glanced around. He could see Energy floating above the battle-tank, using her powers to deflect the tank’s fire away from the others. Paragon activated the communicator built into his helmet. “Everyone! Pull back! Three seconds!”

There was a flurry of activity as the assembled superheroes darted to a safe distance, then—

The sound of the explosion was almost unnoticeable over the roar of the tank’s massive engines, but everyone felt it; the ground trembled, the blast rattling windows for ten kilometres in every direction.

Paragon peered through the huge column of smoke and dust. He activated his visor’s infrared filters and … Yes! The tank was burning!

“All right, people!” Paragon said. “Maybe the big guy isn’t with us, but it looks like we’ve just had our first break. Max?”

Max Dalton’s voice said, “I’m here, Paragon.”

“Get inside the thing. See if you can lock on to someone.”

“I’m on it.”

“Energy, follow him. You might need to shield him against weapons-fire.”

“Will do,” Energy said.

“Quantum?”

Silence.

Paragon paused. “All right. We’ll have to do it without him. Anyone know how Diamond is holding up?”

Dioxin raged. He ranted. This is impossible!

He’d reached out to infect her and the girl – Diamond – had simply locked her hands around his wrist and changed.

It had taken less than a second; she had shimmered, glistened and become solid, unmoving and transparent. Even her hair and clothes had changed. It was as though she’d been replaced with a statue carved out of solid diamond.

Dioxin couldn’t shake her off. She wasn’t moving. He didn’t think that she could move in this form. All she was doing was holding on to his wrist, still staring at him with that determined look on her face.

A voice called out, “Dioxin!”

He turned to see an annoyingly familiar figure behind him.

Dioxin sighed. “Dalton.”

Joshua Dalton smiled. “You can let go now, Diamond.”

As Dioxin watched, the girl instantly turned back to normal. She let go of his wrist, jumped backwards and ripped the leather gloves from her hands. She tossed the gloves aside. Even before they hit the ground they were a smouldering ruin.

“See, the trouble with your power, Dioxin, is that you can’t even lift weights to build up some muscle, can you?” Joshua Dalton said. “No, you’d just burn through the bars. Now me, on the other hand… Well, I’m not that strong either, certainly not compared to Titan. But a psychokinetic doesn’t need to be strong.”

Dioxin felt a sickening lurch in the pit of his stomach, then looked down to see that he was floating a metre above the ground, unable to do anything but wait to be arrested.

High above the battle-tank, Energy concentrated on drawing the enemy fire towards her. Tiny flashes of blue and orange lightning crackled around her body and through her short auburn hair. Her eyes – normally a pale grey – were now almost solid white.

She knew that she could absorb a huge amount of power, but there was a limit. Pretty soon now she’d have to discharge that power.

A voice crackled over her communicator. “Energy? I’m on the way!”

“Titan! Thank God! Where are you?”

“Just crossing the east coast. I’ll be there in a minute,” Titan replied.

“Make it quicker! We’re not doing well here. I’m trying to pull in all their plasma bolts, but it hurts. I’ve never seen so much fire-power!”

“I see you!”

Energy looked to the east and Titan was suddenly hovering in front of her, his dark blue cape billowing in the light breeze. “Don’t just float there! Do something!” she told him.

“Yes, ma’am!”

Titan gave her a quick smile then darted down to the battle-tank.

Shots blasted into him, missiles exploding to his left and right. It was as though the battle-tank had been designed with the sole purpose of hurting him – and it was doing a pretty good job.

Titan was strong and fast, but he wasn’t invulnerable. When he was hit, he felt it. And he was being hit a lot right now. Soon his chest was a mass of bruises and his costume – bright blue tunic and leggings, darker blue cap, gloves and boots – started to get more holes than a fishing net. Much more of this and he’d be flying around in his underpants.

Through the tank’s metre-thick windscreen, Titan could see Ragnarök at the controls, ordering his men about. The madman had a determined look on his face. That wasn’t unusual for someone like him; they all believed in what they were doing.

Where the hell is Quantum? he wondered. He should be here by now! He’d be able to phase himself inside the tank! And what about Max? Why hasn’t he been able to reach someone on the inside of it? Could Ragnarök have found a way to shield the tank from Max’s mind control?

Titan looked again at Ragnarök. The villain was looking determined, but not concerned.

There’s something else happening here. What is Ragnarök planning?

For the first time in years, Titan was genuinely worried.

Diamond stood on a low hill, some way from the main battle. Ahead, she could see Ragnarök’s battle-tank as it rumbled onwards.

The tank had left a channel of destruction as far as she could see.

“It’s huge,” Diamond said. “Energy said it was big, but I didn’t think… Josh, how can we possibly stop something like this?”

He hesitated. “I don’t know. Look, Diamond… You shouldn’t have to face this. Not yet. I’m going to leave you here. Somewhere safe. OK?”

“No! Not OK! You can’t just leave me out of it!”

“This is your first battle.”

Diamond stared into Joshua Dalton’s eyes. “I can take care of myself! I’m invulnerable! And I’m strong! A lot stronger than you are!”

“Physically, yes.” He glanced past her, to the battle that was raging. “Emotionally, you’re not ready. You stay put, Diamond. That’s an order. Got that?”

She nodded.

“Good.” Joshua Dalton leaned forward and kissed her gently on the forehead. “Wish me luck.”

Max Dalton’s power, like his younger brother Joshua and sister Roz, was mental rather than physical; he could temporarily take over the minds of anyone within a twelve-metre radius.

Max and his siblings were always easy to spot, even on this crowded battlefield; the members of The High Command were the only superheroes who didn’t wear masks. All they wore were matching black Kevlar uniforms.

Now, as he ran across the battleground towards Paragon, he was glad of the fact that his costume was bullet proof.

Max helped Paragon to his feet. “You OK?”

The armoured hero coughed and spat out a mouthful of blood. “I will be. Thanks. How are we doing?”

“Not good,” Max replied. “Titan can’t get close enough to the tank to do any damage. I’ve no idea where Quantum is. Impervia and Brawn are locked in a stalemate. Apex is down; The Glyph got him. The others… I’m losing track of them.” Half an hour earlier, Max had seen the five members of Portugal’s Podermeninas team battling dozens of Ragnarök’s henchmen. Since then, there had been no sign of them.

“Max, I don’t mind telling you… I’m scared,” Paragon said. “I don’t think we’re all going to make it. If we can’t stop that machine…”

“We will stop it.”

“How? We’ve thrown everything we have at it and it’s still going.”

Max Dalton bit his lip. “I know. Listen, I passed something on the way back to you. It’s… I think it was Thalamus. I think he’s de—”

Max spun away, his hand clutching his neck. Blood dripped between his fingers.

Paragon grabbed Max’s free arm and dragged him to the relative safety of a fallen tree.

“Let me see it,” Paragon said. He pulled Max’s blood-covered hand away and inspected the wound. “You’ll be fine – I’ve had worse shaving cuts.”

He removed a large bandage from his med-pack and pressed it against the wound. “This’ll help for the time being and we can get it looked at properly when this is all over.”

“Thanks.” Max grabbed Paragon’s shoulder and hauled himself to his feet.

Paragon said, “What we need right now is a miracle.” He paused. “Or, to be more accurate, we need—Quantum!”

“Exactly.”

“No, I mean… he’s here!”

Max Dalton and Paragon ran towards the battle-tank. Quantum, the fastest superhuman of them all, could not be seen, but there was no doubt that he was there. Ragnarök’s henchmen were being knocked about by some invisible force, their weapons ripped from their hands, their armour torn off.

“Quantum, where the hell were you?” Paragon shouted as they neared the tank.

The white-clad superhero suddenly appeared in front of him, slightly out of breath. “I… I don’t know. Something happened to me. How badly are we doing?”

Max said, “We have some dead and a few missing. We thought you were one of them. Look, we need Impervia to help Titan, so you’ve got to take on Brawn. You feel up to it?”

“Sure. Yeah. I can slow him down at least.”

Paragon shook his head. “No, wait. Quantum, use that intangibility trick of yours; get inside the tank and see what damage you can do. At the very least, try and take out Ragnarök.”

“OK,” Quantum said, nodding. “I’ll—” He shuddered. “Something’s wrong.” He looked down at his gloved hands. They were shaking. “I… I don’t seem to be able to move.”

Paragon exchanged a quick glance with Max. “What is it?” Paragon asked.

“I… Wait! There’s a sense of… There’s a machine, it’s dangerous to us. Ragnarök’s been used…” Quantum blinked rapidly, swaying back and forth. “Paragon? You’re older.”

Quantum’s knees buckled and he collapsed.

Paragon reached out and caught him. Paragon turned to Max, who was staring at Quantum. “Don’t just stand there, Max! I’ll look after Quantum. You get to Brawn – maybe you can control him.”

Max hesitated. “No, it’s never worked on him before.”

“Damn it, Max! You have to try!”

Paragon watched Max go, then looked down at Quantum. “You still conscious?”

Quantum’s eyes rolled back. “Paragon…” His voice was weak, barely a whisper.

“I’m here.”

“When the boy comes to you, you have to believe him. You won’t want to, but you must.”

“What boy? What are you talking about?”

Quantum smiled. “He will be strong. That’s how you’ll know.”

He reached out and grabbed Paragon’s hand. “You’ve been a good friend.” Then, in a stronger voice, he added, “Next, we lose. We all lose. Paragon, don’t tell the others. Promise me.”

“I promise,” Paragon said. “I won’t say a word. But I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You will, Paragon. Not for a long time, but you will.”

1

IT WAS A Thursday in October, early afternoon. Normally at this time, Colin Wagner would be hiding behind the boy sitting in front of him, because Thursday afternoons were what his teacher liked to call “Discussion Time”. This was when Mr Stone would pick a topic he found interesting and do his very best to make sure that none of the students would ever find it interesting again.

The previous week, Mr Stone had shown them a five-minute video about how birds build their nests and then proceeded to lead the class in a discussion about birds, nests and why he believed that starlings were more evil than magpies. But today, for a change, Mr Stone had picked an interesting topic.

Today they were talking about Mystery Day.

Mr Stone waited until everyone had settled down. “So… tomorrow it’s Mystery Day,” he began. “Exactly ten years since the disappearance of all the superheroes. When this all started, nine years ago on the first anniversary, it was supposed to be a day of remembrance. But somehow over the years it’s turned into a bloody holiday! Instead of the heroes being honoured for giving up their lives, we get balloons and parties, and people setting up stalls at the side of the road to sell knock-off Titan action figures and T-shirts. And if you think it’s bad here, it’s ten times worse in America!”

He picked up his chalk and began to write on the blackboard.

Titan, he wrote, and underlined it twice. Podermeninas, he wrote next, but he only underlined that once. He followed that with a series of other names: Paragon, Apex, Impervia, Thalamus, Thunder, Inferno, Energy, Quantum and Zephyr.

Then he picked up his red chalk and wrote Ragnarök. Underneath that he wrote Rayboy, The Glyph, Terrain, The Shark, Slaughter, Dioxin and Brawn.

“Right…” Mr Stone turned around to face the classroom. “Superheroes,” he said, pointing to the words written in white. “And supervillains.” He tapped at the words in red. “Who were they? Where did they come from? Where did they get their powers?”

“Nobody knows, Sir,” Colin said.

“Weren’t the powers inherited?” Brian McDonald suggested.

“That would certainly explain The High Command: Max, Josh and Roz Dalton,” Mr Stone said.

Malcolm O’Neill put up his hand. “I heard they all came from another planet.”

“Speculation,” Mr Stone said. “Pure speculation. Let’s just stick to the facts, shall we? Their capabilities – their powers and strengths. Titan, who could fly and had the strength of a hundred men. Energy, who had the ability to absorb and then release almost any kind of energy. It was said Quantum could move so fast he was able to out run a supersonic jet. But then ten years ago at least twenty-five superheroes and upwards of a hundred villains were involved in a battle just east of Pittsburgh. Ragnarök’s huge battle-tank caused massive destruction as it rumbled across the United States towards New York City. Three whole towns had to be evacuated. There are reports of a huge explosion and then… nothing. So what happened to the superheroes? Colin?”

“They disappeared, Sir,” Colin answered.

The teacher nodded. “Disappeared. Vanished. Where to? Danny?”

“Nobody knows,” Danny Cooper replied. “But it wasn’t just the heroes who disappeared. The villains did too. There weren’t any bodies found in the wreckage. It was probably all covered up by the government.”

“They went back to their home planet,” Malcolm O’Neill said.

Adam Gilmore laughed. “Give it a rest, Mal! They were probably just vaporised in the explosion!”

“They can’t have been,” Colin said. “Brawn or Impervia would have survived any explosion. Energy could have absorbed the blast. Quantum could have just out run it.”

“Right,” Danny Cooper said. “And Max Dalton and the rest of The High Command survived.”

“Yeah, but they weren’t there,” Adam said.

“Mr Gilmore raises an interesting point,” Mr Stone said. “Despite what some witness claim, the official word is that the Daltons were not present during the attack. As far as we know, they are the only superhumans to have survived Mystery Day. Every other superhuman – whether or not they were present during Ragnarök’s attack – has disappeared.” He shrugged. “Tonight Max Dalton will give his first interview in ten years. The first time he’s ever spoken in public since he retired.” The teacher walked around to the front of his desk and leaned back against it. “Anyone want to guess what he’s going to say?”

Brian turned around to look at Malcolm O’Neill. “Hey, Mal! Maybe he’s going to tell us that he’s going to take you back to your home planet!”

The class laughed. “Right, Brian…” Mr Stone said. “You’ve just won the right to set today’s homework for the rest of the class.”

“Seriously?”

“Why not?”

Brian glanced around the room. Every other boy was staring at him with the same expression, doing their best to send Brian the same telepathic message: make this easy on us or you’re a dead man!

Under his breath, Colin muttered, “No homework! No homework!”

The teacher said, “Mr McDonald?”

“I think that for our homework we should all have a good think about what it would have been like to be a superhero.”

“A good think?”

“Yep,” Brian said, nodding vigorously.

“Perfect. You all have a good think about it and then, when you’re done thinking, write down those thoughts in the form of an essay.”

Everyone groaned. Someone shouted, “Oh, well done Brian!”

“It won’t be that bad,” Mr Stone said. “There’s no school tomorrow, so you have a three-day weekend in which to get it done. Four pages should be enough. And I want normal-sized paper, too! No more essays written on bloody Post-It notes!”

Colin, Danny and Brian lived in different areas of the town, and every day they followed the same “going home” ritual: they would walk together until they reached the north-west corner of the park, then Colin would go east, Danny would go north to the apartment blocks and Brian would go west. As always, however, they spent an hour or so sitting on the low wall, chatting, arguing and watching out for flash cars or good-looking girls.

It was while they were doing this, sheltering from the rain under the park’s enormous pine trees that overhung the path, that Brian spotted his younger sister approaching on her bike, doing her best to cycle around the puddles.

“Hey, here comes your girlfriend, Danny,” Brian said.

“Oh, ha ha,” Danny replied.

They watched as Susie wobbled her way towards them and stopped right in front of Danny. “Hi, Danny!”

Danny muttered a greeting, but deliberately avoided looking her in the eye.

“What do you want?” Brian asked her.

“Mummy says you’re to come home now and stop dawdling.”

“Does she really?”

“Yes.”

Brian thought about this. “OK… I’ll race you. You on the bike and me running.”

Susie wasn’t about to pass up an opportunity to show off in front of Danny. “OK then.”

“I’ll even give you a head start,” Brian said. “I’ll let you get as far as the end of the road.”

She eyed him suspiciously. “No. You’ll cheat or something.”

Brian tried to look innocent. “Cheat? Me? Never! Danny will vouch for me, won’t you, Dan?”

“Sure,” Danny said, reluctantly.

With that, Susie tore off down the road, pedalling like mad.

Brian watched her go. “Sucker.” He turned to the others. “Pretty cool about the homework, isn’t it? A lot better than maths or geography.”

“Couldn’t you have come up with something easier?” Colin asked.

“It wasn’t my fault! I didn’t think he’d make us do an essay!”

“I’m going to pick Thalamus,” Danny said. “He’s my third favourite after Titan and Paragon.”

“So why not do Paragon, then?” Brian asked.

“Because he’s everyone’s second favourite. What about you?”

“Thunder.”

Danny laughed. “He’s the one with the dumbest powers! Power over rain! What use is that? You never hear stories about how he managed to use his abilities to do anything other than make a loud bang or cause a sudden downpour! Why not pick Apex? He was pretty cool.”

“Yeah, but no one knows much about him,” Colin said.

“That’s what makes him a good choice.”

Brian said, “Well, maybe you think that Thunder is a bad choice, Danny, but I’ve got a few ideas to make it work. Who are you going to choose, Col?”

Colin shrugged. “I don’t know… I’ll probably end up forgetting again and doing it when I’m having my breakfast on Monday morning.” He grinned. “I seem to work better when my Dad is standing in front of me telling me over and over that I shouldn’t put things off until the last minute.”

“You could always write it from the point of view of one of the villains,” Brian suggested.

Danny raised his eyes in disgust. “Brian, you’re a moron! He said we have to write about one of the heroes, didn’t he?”

“Yeah, he did. But look at it like this… Suppose that, say, Ragnarök thought that he was a hero.”

Colin looked up at this. “Yeah, he always believed he was doing the right thing.”

Danny nodded. “That’s true, but let’s face it; Ragnarök was a complete nutter. How the hell could robbing banks and holding the world to ransom be anything but the work of a villain? If you do evil things you’re still evil – no matter what the reason.”

They fell silent as they spotted a quartet of girls wearing the uniforms of St Mary’s.

One of the girls glanced at them as she passed. “Hi Danny!”

Danny was taken aback. “Er… Hi, um…”

“Judy,” Brian whispered.

“Hi Julie!” Danny said.

The girl gave him a filthy look and hurried a little to catch up with her friends.

Brian thumped Danny on the arm. “You idiot! I said Judy, not Julie!”

Danny rubbed his arm. “How was I to know? I’ve never even seen her before!”

Brian said, “Danny, two weeks ago she spent an hour listening to you going on about how Manchester City were the greatest football team in the world. She was all over you!”

“That was her?”

“How do you do it?” Brian asked. He got up from the wall, pushed back his sleeves and held out his bare arms. “Look at that! I’ve got muscles! Everyone knows that girls like muscles, but this lanky git gets more action than both of us combined!”

Danny said, “Maybe they go for quality over quantity.”

Brian sighed, shook his head, and sat down again. “So what time’s the party tomorrow night, Col?”

“About eight.” Like many people, Colin’s parents always threw a party for Mystery Day. For Colin’s mother, it was really just an excuse for a family get-together. Sometimes Colin felt that his parents only wanted the party so that they could embarrass him in front of his cousins. “You’re definitely coming, then?”

“Yeah, but… right, here’s the thing, OK? My folks are going out and they said it’s going to be hard to find a baby-sitter for Susie. So they asked me to ask you if she could come to your party.”

“I’m sure my folks won’t mind. And she’ll be able to keep my little cousins busy.”

“Speak of the devil…” Brian said.

The others looked up to see that Susie was cycling furiously back to them.

“She does not look happy,” Colin said.

Susie stopped her bike in the middle of the road and glared at them. “Brian!”

“Now what?”

“I’m telling on you!” She yelled across at her brother.

Brian laughed and got to his feet. “OK! OK! I’m coming.” He turned back to Colin and Danny. “Right, I’ll see you tomorrow. What time did you say the party starts, Col?”

“Eight,” Colin said. “You’ll be there, right, Danny?”

But Danny wasn’t paying attention. He was standing very still and staring into space.

“Danny?”

Suddenly, Danny screamed, “Susie! Get out of the road!”

Colin turned to see the out-of-control bus screeching around the corner. Heading straight for Brian’s sister.

Cell 18 was four metres to each side and a little over three metres high. It contained a narrow, uncomfortable bed, a single chair, a small desk, a large, full bookcase, a hand basin and a toilet.

The walls were made of reinforced concrete. There were no windows. The only light came from two small but powerful bulbs set into the ceiling, shielded by unbreakable glass.

A man stood in the centre of the room, staring at the blank wall. He had not moved for over an hour.

Later, he would sit on the bed, or perhaps lie on it; he hadn’t yet decided. Then again, he might just choose to remain standing.

The wardens referred to him as Joseph.

He was in his early forties. He was tall, thinner now than he had been ten years ago, but by no means skinny, and had long, unkempt black hair and a greying beard.

A decade ago Joseph had been carried, unconscious, into the cell. On his clear days, when he was aware of his situation and his surroundings, Joseph knew that officially he was not a prisoner; there had been no trial and no legal proceedings of any kind. He didn’t even know where this cell was located. But the clear days were few; most of the time, Joseph existed only inside his own head, living with his memories and nightmares.

Joseph continued to stare at the wall. Last night he’d had the nightmare again, the same terrifying, recurring dream: visions of blood, pain, murder and death on an overwhelming scale.

Joseph was often glad of his imprisonment. Here, he was safe. No one could harm him. And likewise, he couldn’t harm any one else.

If I’m here, he would say to himself, then everyone is safe.

This thought was always followed by a conflicting one: But I’m not just here, I’m out there too. And if I’m out there, then no one is safe.

Joseph slowly turned and looked towards the bed. I could sit. Or I could lie.

He smiled.

Why not? I’ve lied before. Sometimes it seems like my whole life has become a lie.

He wondered how long he had been here.

Then he wondered how much time he had left.

How much time the world had left.

2

COLIN UNZIPPED HIS anorak and hung it in the hall. As he was pulling off his rain-soaked runners, he heard his father shouting from the kitchen.

“What time do you call this?”

“It wasn’t my fault!” Colin shouted back. Colin went into the kitchen, where his parents – Warren and Caroline Wagner – were sitting at the table.

“It’s never your fault,” his father said.

“No, really it wasn’t.”

“Your dinner’s in the oven,” his mother said. “Another ten minutes and it would have been in the bin. If you’re going to be late, the least you could do is let us know.”

His father said, “How come your mother leaves the school at the same time that you do and she’s always home hours before you are? Maybe the teachers have access to a special short cut that the students don’t know about – is that it?”

“But it wasn’t my fault!” Colin said. “Let me tell you what happened.” He sat down at the table and looked at his parents.

They looked back at him and he could see from their expressions that they were both thinking, “This had better be good.”

“OK, well… Me and Brian and Danny were hanging around at the corner of the park…”

His mother interrupted him. “What were you up to?”

“Nothing. We were just talking. Anyway, Susie came up on her bike to tell Brian that he had to go home and then…” Colin paused. “I don’t really know exactly what happened – someone said that there was a fight on the bus and the driver turned around to look – but anyway, the thing is, Susie’s there in the middle of the road and all of a sudden the bus comes screeching around the corner. Heading right for her. And the next thing we know there’s this really loud crunch as the bus hits her bike.”

Caroline Wagner put her hands to her mouth. “Oh my God!”

“No, no!” Colin said. “Mum, she’s OK, she’s fine! I don’t know how he did it, but Danny saved her! He ran across, picked her up and saved her life! It was brilliant! She went all white and she was shaking and everything, but apart from that she was OK. Her bike was wrecked, though. And she wouldn’t let go of Danny for ages. Now she’ll be even more nuts about him. The police came and an ambulance and everything, but they didn’t need it. No one was really hurt.”

“You’re sure she was OK?”

Colin nodded. “She was. It only took her a few minutes to start blaming Brian for the accident, so that means she was back to normal.”

“Who were the ambulance crew?” his father asked. He was a paramedic, based at the local hospital.

“I didn’t recognise them.” Around a mouthful of mashed potato and peas, he added, “but they checked her over and said she was OK.”

Colin’s mother gave him her famous thin-lipped look, the one that told him she wanted to believe him, but wasn’t so sure. “You promise you’re not making this up?”

“No, it really happened!” Colin waved his cutlery around, demonstrating: “The bus came brrrrrmm around the corner, really fast, and Susie was here, OK? And we were on the corner and all of a sudden Danny was like … zoom! One second he was right next to me and the next he’d scooped Susie up in his arms and was lying on the far side of the road, holding on to her. Then the bus went screeee because the driver hit the brakes, but it was too late because he still hit the bike.”

Colin’s parents looked at each other. His dad said, very quietly, “I see.”

“It’s true,” Colin said. “I swear! You can ask Danny or Brian.”

“That was… very brave of Danny,” his mother said, “and very stupid of Susie to just stop in the middle of the road.”

“Yeah, I know. You should have seen Brian’s face, though. I thought he was going to throw up or faint or something.”

Mr Wagner pushed himself back from the table and got to his feet. “I’d better phone Susie’s parents, see if they need anything. And Danny’s parents too.”

“He’s fine,” Colin said. “There wasn’t a scratch on him.”

“Well, I’ll phone them anyway. Danny might have gone into shock.” He went out into the hall, closing the door behind him.

“So,” Colin’s mother said, “will Danny be coming to the party tomorrow?”

Colin nodded. “Yeah, I think so. And Brian says his parents are going out and they wanted to know if Susie could come too. So I said it was OK. Who else is coming?”

His mother began to list the friends and relatives that had been invited to the party. There were the usual last-minute cancellations and changes and Colin found himself wondering why they couldn’t go to someone else’s.

“And I don’t want you staying up late tonight. We’re going to have a full day tomorrow getting everything ready.”

“But I want to see Max Dalton’s interview!”

“You can tape it and watch it in the morning.”

“You just said that we’re going to have a full day tomorrow!”

“Then you can watch it the day after.”

“Then I’ll be the only one who hasn’t seen it!”

Caroline Wagner sighed. “All right, then. You can stay up for it. Now finish your dinner.”

After dinner, Colin phoned Brian. “So are you coming out tonight?”

“Are you kidding?” Brian said. “My folks went mad about what nearly happened to Susie! They said it was my fault for teasing her. I added up all their punishments and apparently I’m grounded until I’m sixty-one. They’re not even letting me go to your party tomorrow night!”

“You could tell them that you have to come so that you can thank Danny for saving Susie’s life.”

“I already thought of that, but they told me to phone him instead. You know what Susie did? Remember when I had my camera last summer? Well, she took all my photos that Danny was in and she put them up all over her bedroom wall.”

Colin laughed.

“Mad, isn’t it? And you know something else? You know the way we have to write about one of the heroes for homework? Well, Susie’s class has to write an essay called ‘My Hero’, and she’s going to write about Danny.” He let out a long sigh. “God, he’s going to have even more girls after him now! And it’s not as though he’s really a hero. I mean, he just happened to have been looking in the right direction to see the bus. Any one of us could have done it.”

“There was no way he could have seen the bus coming from where we were standing. He must have heard it.” Colin paused. “Though I’ve always had good hearing and I didn’t hear it coming. Did you?”

“No.”

“Then how did he know?”

Brian didn’t have an answer for that one.

“And how did he move so fast?” Colin asked. “I mean, one second he was right next to me, the next he was picking Susie up.”

“I suppose… Col, I wasn’t looking in the right direction. I heard Danny shouting at her, so I turned to look at him. I mean, I was looking right at Susie. I turned to look at Danny when he shouted, but he was gone. And then I looked back and they were on the ground on the other side of the road. I didn’t actually see it happen. Did you?”

“I did,” Colin said. “He was just a blur.”

“But my point is this: he did it in the time it took me to turn my head twice.” They both fell silent again, then, slowly and carefully, Brian said, “Col, that’s not possible. No one can move that fast.”

“Not these days, anyway,” Colin said. “Not since all the superhumans disappeared.”

There was another long pause.

Brian said, “What if…?” He stopped. “Nah, that’s crazy.”

“What?”

“Well, what if Danny is a superhuman?”

Most of the prison was underground. From the air, it looked like a small, isolated farmhouse. Its exact location was known only to a small handful of people. Even the prison doctor didn’t know how to find the place on his own; he was driven to and from the prison in a truck with blacked-out windows.

Warden Mills stood in the doorway, squinting his eyes to shield them from the dust stirred up by the twin rotors of the descending Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopter. Even before the copter touched down, the rear ramp was dropped and fourteen people disembarked. The woman was dressed in a simple black trouser suit with a white blouse and flat shoes, but the thirteen men were wearing crisp army fatigues and all were heavily armed.

“What’s all this?” the warden asked.

“Random inspection,” the woman said.

“But we just had one last month!”

“I think you’ll find that the key word is ‘random’. It wouldn’t be a random inspection if you knew we were coming, would it?”

“Guess not.”

Mills led them along the hall and down into the storm cellar, where a hidden door slid back to reveal the wide stone stairway that led into the prison.

As the men began to unpack their equipment, Mills turned to the woman. “How long will this take?”

“Not long,” she said. “Anything to report?”

“No.” That annoyed the warden a little; they were aware of everything that happened – they even monitored his vital signs – but they still felt they had to ask him stupid questions.

One of the men sat down at the warden’s computer and began tapping away at the keyboard. The other men took out sophisticated scanning devices and started to check the integrity of the doors and walls. Two men made several trips back up to the helicopter, bringing in heavier equipment.

“So,” Mills said to the woman. “How’s life in the outside world? It’s Mystery Day, right?”

“You know I’m not allowed to discuss such things with you.”

“I kind of miss the celebrations.”

The woman didn’t respond to that. Instead, she examined her clipboard. “Now… I’ve been ordered to check on the prisoners.”

Another test, the warden said to himself. “Not possible. No one but me and Doc McLean get to see the prisoners. You know that.”

“We’ll need your access codes to override the locks,” the woman said.

“Yes, you would. If you were getting to see the prisoners. Which you’re not.”

“I’m not asking you, Warden Mills. I’m telling you. Give us the codes.”

“You know I can’t do that without a signed order from Central Command,” Mills said with a smile, to give the impression that he was playing along. Inwardly, he was beginning to get worried. They occasionally sprung surprises on him, but this one felt wrong.

The woman turned to one of the soldiers. “Davison?”

The soldier stepped up to Warden Mills, saluted, and said, “Sir! Direct order from Central Command, Sir! You are to provide us with the override codes necessary for us to access the cells, Sir!”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, soldier.”

The warden found himself facing the dangerous end of a gun. He sighed. “Son, put the gun away. You’re embarrassing yourself.” He turned to the woman. “Now, I know that you’ve been ordered to put me to the test, but let’s not, and say we did, OK?”

The soldier fired.

Mills glanced down to see a tranquilliser dart protruding from his chest. He collapsed to the floor.

Davison leaned down and smiled at him. “We know you’ve got a biometric implant that will trigger an alarm if your vital signs fluctuate, Warden Mills. Can’t have that happening.” He reached out and pulled down on the warden’s eyelids, closing them. “Don’t worry, you’re not dying. I’m just closing your eyes to prevent them from drying up. You’ve been dosed with a muscle relaxant. You’ll be paralysed for about seven hours.”

“We have to move fast,” the woman said. “Get those doors open!”

One of the technicians said, “We won’t have time to open them all.”

The woman said, “We don’t need to open them all. Just…” she checked one of the computer screens. “Just Cell 18. The man we’re looking for is called Joseph.”

3

LATER, AS HE was attempting to do his homework, Colin couldn’t get the thought out of his mind: Suppose it’s true? Suppose Danny is a superhuman? Maybe he’s been one all along, but kept it secret. Or maybe Danny didn’t even know. This could be the first time he’s ever done anything like that.

If super-powers are inherited, wouldn’t that mean that one of Danny’s parents is a superhuman too?

Colin dismissed this idea almost immediately; Danny’s parents were just too ordinary. Danny’s father was a manager in the local supermarket and his mother was a driving instructor. Danny also had a seven-year-old brother, Niall. If Danny inherited superhuman powers from one of his parents, then that would mean that Niall might also become a superhuman.

Colin forced himself to focus on his homework. A single four-page essay. That shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours, then he would be completely free of homework worry for the rest of the weekend.

He was lying on his bed, on his stomach, with his homework book open on the floor at the foot of the bed. He had half a page done and he wasn’t happy with it. He’d been trying Brian’s idea of writing from the point of view of one of the villains, but it was proving to be tougher than he’d expected.

OK. Concentrate! Suppose I had superhuman powers… Say I could fly. That’d be cool!

While he was day dreaming about joining the school’s athletics team – if he could fly, he’d be a champion long-jumper – a thought came into his mind: I wonder if Danny will be able to fly?

Maybe Danny won’t want his powers and he’ll find a way to give them to me.

Colin sighed and looked down at his homework again.

“I’m not getting anywhere with this,” he muttered to himself. OK. Start over.

He turned to a blank page and began to write: “If I was a superhero, I wouldn’t even tell my best friends because that would put them in danger. I would have to come up with some good excuses for always disappearing to go off and save people.”

Danny’s never done that, so maybe he’s not a superhuman after all. But then, how did he do it? How did he move fast enough to rescue Susie?

Colin looked at the few lines he’d written, put his homework book away and wandered downstairs to the sitting room.

“How’s the essay coming along?” Colin’s Dad asked.

Colin sat down on the floor with his back to the television set. The sound was off and clearly his parents hadn’t been watching it. “Not great. I don’t really know all that much about superhumans. What was it like when they were around? It must have been strange.”

His father said, “I was about your age when the first superhumans began to appear. You know the way they always keep weird stories until the end of the news? Well, that was what it was like, for a while. It was all, ‘And finally, it seems that in New York there’s a new force fighting evil.’ That kind of thing.”

“But weren’t people scared?”

“No, because for a long time most people didn’t really believe it. Not until Paragon went up against Façade.”

“Why? Why was that any different?”

“Because everyone saw it happening live on television. It was in Detroit, one of those charity telethon events, like Comic Relief. They were trying to raise twenty million dollars for… can’t remember what it was now.”

“Education,” Colin’s mother said.

“Right, education. Anyway, it’s all just about over, and they’re going on about how much money they’ve raised, then all of a sudden one of the guest musicians comes out and he just transforms himself into Façade. He’s got a whole bunch of thugs with him and Façade demands fifty million dollars or the studio audience and all these celebrities will be killed. Façade is strutting about, showing off his powers by shape-shifting into different people, when Paragon just drops out of the ceiling and lands on top of him. Bam! One punch to the head and Façade is out cold! A couple of his henchmen turn their guns on Paragon, but he just flies right into them, knocking them over. Then he launched a dozen gas grenades. The gas instantly sent everyone in the studio – even the hostages – to sleep. The cameras were still running, though, so we could watch him tying up Façade and his men.”

“It would have been a great court case, too,” Caroline said, “if Façade hadn’t escaped from custody on the way to the trial.”

“What about Paragon, though? If he arrived so quickly, doesn’t that suggest that he lived nearby? I mean, from what I’ve read about him he wasn’t able to fly very fast.”

“Maybe he just happened to be close by for some other reason,” Caroline said.

“Yeah, but… I suppose the police had the TV studio surrounded, right? That means that Paragon would have had to get past them in order to get into the studio. So you know what I’m thinking?”

“What’s that?” his father asked.

“Maybe Paragon was a cop. In his real life, I mean. Maybe they knew all about him.”

“I doubt it, Colin. Even if he was, he wouldn’t have let anyone know that he was Paragon. The only heroes whose real names we knew were the Daltons. And that was only because they were already rich enough to protect themselves. All the others probably had ordinary lives.” Warren looked up at the television set. “Speaking of which… Only a few minutes to go before Max Dalton’s interview. Right, Colin – put the kettle on.”

“It’s not my turn!”

“It is if you want to stay up and find out what Dalton has to say for himself.”

As Colin carried the mugs of tea into the sitting room, the specially-extended edition of the ten o’clock news was coming to an end. It had already reported that Times Square in Manhattan was blocked with people. The news report had showed a sea of banners and flags, cheering people dressed up as their favourite heroes and mounted policemen attempting to keep the crowds under control.

The TV cut back to the female newsreader. “And after tonight’s exclusive interview with Max Dalton, we’ll be opening tomorrow’s poll: ‘If you had to be a superhuman, which one would you be?’ You can choose between Titan, Apex, Paragon or Max Dalton. We’ll have the results this time tomorrow night, with updates throughout the day.”

The male newsreader chuckled. “Thanks, Diana. No Ragnarök on the list, then?”

“Oh, I don’t think he’d get too many votes, Tom, do you?”

“Guess not! You can vote by pressing the red button on your remote, through the website, or by phone. Calls cost—”

Colin’s father hit the mute button, then said, “So who would you choose, Colin?”

“I don’t know,” Colin said. “Sometimes I’d like to be Thalamus, because he was the smartest man on the planet. But I kind of like Joshua Dalton, too.”

Colin’s mother asked, “Because he was rich and he’s had a string of supermodel girlfriends?”

“Mostly because he has his own helicopter. I’d love to have a go in a helicopter.” Colin turned around to look at his father. “So why do you think that only The High Command survived?”

“Maybe they all survived, Colin. Did you ever think of that? Maybe they all survived and decided that it was time to retire.”

Colin laughed. “Oh yeah, sure. If you had the sort of power that Titan had, you’d never be able to just sit around when some disaster happened. You’d have to try and help. That’s what Titan was like.”

“You don’t think that he could have just decided that he’d done enough?”

“No. I mean, I wouldn’t. Titan was the most powerful man ever. He had a responsibility to use his powers to help everyone else.”

All this talk about superheroes reminded Colin of his earlier conversation with Brian.

“Dad… Remember what I was saying about how Danny saved Susie’s life?”

“Yes…” His father said, cautiously.

“Well, me and Brian were thinking about it. Danny was really, really fast. Maybe he’s a superhuman.”

“How? How could he be? Apart from the Daltons, there aren’t any superhumans left any more.”

“But the way Danny moved…” Colin shook his head. “I saw it myself and I still can’t believe it.”

“The mind can play tricks on you, Colin,” said his mother. “Especially under a stressful situation. It might just have seemed a lot faster than it was.”

“I suppose… But, you see, I was thinking about this, right? Most of the superheroes got their powers when they were teenagers and Danny’s about the right age.”

Warren grinned. “Are you seriously suggesting that your friend Danny Cooper has hidden powers?”

“Well, it seems like it.”

“Then let us know if he learns how to fly. That could come in handy.”

Colin’s mother said, “It’s starting!”

Colin pulled one of the cushions off the sofa and stretched out on the floor, facing the television set.

The screen showed lots of old footage of the superheroes in action – most of it very shaky and out-of-focus – then cut to a black-and-white photograph of a handsome grey-haired man in his mid-forties.

“Maxwell Edwin Dalton,” the presenter’s voice said. “Billionaire CEO of MaxEdDal Pharmaceuticals, first came to public notice when…”

Colin twisted around to face his mother. “What’s CEO mean?”

“Chief Executive Officer,” she replied. “The boss, in other words.”

Colin turned back to see that the screen was now showing the outside of the MaxEdDal headquarters in Manhattan. “At the age of fifteen,” the voice continued, “young Max Dalton discovered that he had the ability to know what other people were thinking, and to some degree influence their thoughts to make them do what he wanted. Yet, unlike most other superhumans, he chose to go public with his abilities. With his younger brother and sister, Roz and Joshua, he formed The High Command.” The screen showed photos of the Daltons as teenagers.

“Is that the best they can do?” Colin asked. “Isn’t there any film of Max in action? You know, actually doing something?”

It was another fifteen minutes before the presenter finally said, “Tonight, Maxwell Dalton will give his first interview since the events of the original Mystery Day. That’s next, coming right up after this!”

The television cut to a commercial. Colin yawned.

“I heard that the TV stations are charging a fortune for these ads,” Caroline said. “Twice as much as they charge for ads during the Superbowl.”

When the programme finally returned the interviewer was sitting behind a desk. To his right, on a long leather sofa, sat Max Dalton. He was dressed in a sports jacket, white shirt open at the collar, and faded jeans.

“He looks, well, kind of ordinary,” Colin said. “I thought he’d be bigger.”

“Shhh!”

“Thank you for joining us, Mr Dalton,” the interviewer said.

“It’s my pleasure, Garth,” Dalton said, smiling. His teeth were the whitest Colin had ever seen.

“Now, first, I guess the most obvious question – and one that I’m sure most people want to know – is why now? Why, after all these years, have you decided to finally break your silence?”

Max paused for a second. “Tomorrow’s the tenth anniversary. I think ten years is long enough to wait.”

“Tell me this, Max… Can you read my mind right now?”

Smiling, Max said, “Garth, I don’t do that sort of thing any more. Those days are gone.”

“Tell us about those days, if you will.”

“Much of what has been written about my life as a superhero is apocryphal at best.”

“Apocryphal?” Colin asked.

“Made-up,” his mother said.

Max continued. “Yes, we fought crime, helped people, tried to make the world a better place. If you’ve been given a gift – like I was – you’re honour-bound to use it for the greater good.”

“And can you tell us what happened ten years ago?”

“Despite what a lot of people have been saying, I wasn’t there. So your guess is as good as mine, Garth. All I know is that Ragnarök had built some enormous machine and was driving it straight for Manhattan. Then… well, who can say? There was a big explosion and that was it. No more superhumans.”

“Except yourself – and your brother and sister.”

Max nodded. “Exactly. I have no idea what happened. Josh and I visited the site the following day. All we found was a lot of wreckage.”

“No bodies?”

“No.”

“Doesn’t that seem strange that you have no more of an idea what happened than we do? Surely you must know something?”

“Now, that’s why I don’t usually do interviews! You have to remember that we lost some very good friends during that battle. Energy, Quantum, Titan, Apex, Paragon… all the others. We fought alongside them for years.”

“I know, but—”

Max interrupted him. “Do you think that if I knew something I’d just sit back and let it go? Would you? If some of your closest friends suddenly disappeared, wouldn’t you want to investigate it? We did everything we could to find out what had happened to them.”

The interviewer said, “Can you tell me, then, why you and the other members of The High Command weren’t present at that final battle?”

“We might have been superheroes,” Max said, “but even we couldn’t be in two places at the one time.”

“But there were other superhumans who weren’t present, and they’ve also disappeared.”

“This is apparently true,” Max said.

“Care to suggest how that might be?”

“No,” Max said. “I mean, I’ve got a few ideas, but nothing concrete. Nothing that hasn’t been suggested before. Maybe they retired from the business, just as I did.”

“And may I ask, why did you retire? If you don’t mind speaking about that.”

“Whatever happened ten years ago… well, as I said, your guess is as good as mine. We do know that every other superhuman in the world disappeared that day, heroes and villains included. Roz, Josh and I talked about it – at length – and we came to the conclusion that with all the supervillains gone, we weren’t needed any more.”

“Yes, but—”

Max interrupted him. “We realised that we could do more good by focussing our efforts on other areas of our lives. MaxEdDal Pharmaceuticals specialises in effective, low-cost medicines that have certainly saved more lives than I ever could have as a superhero.”

“Don’t you miss those days?”

“At times… but I don’t miss the constant struggles, or the fear that one day a new supervillain might emerge who would be powerful enough to destroy the planet. At least we know that if there are no more superhumans, there will be no more supervillains.”

Max Dalton turned to look directly into the camera. “So for better or worse – and I firmly believe that it’s for the better – the age of the superhumans is over.”

4

VICTOR CROSS SAT in a dark room, the only light coming from the two computer screens in front of him.

His fingers flew over the keyboard as, on one screen, computer codes appeared line after line, page after page.

On the second screen, a complex computer-generated image of a large silver ball rotated slowly. Cross watched this as he typed. He didn’t need to watch the other screen. He knew exactly what was on it.

The letters and symbols on his keyboard had been worn away on all but two of the keys: backspace and delete. Victor very rarely used them. He didn’t make mistakes.

Cross was twenty years old, tall with an athletic build. He normally kept his blond hair short, but it had been months since he’d last had time to get it cut, and it now hung over his face.

The phone beside him buzzed once. Victor hit the “Speaker” button. “Talk to me.”

“It’s me. What’s the situation?” The voice was electronically disguised, giving it an artificial, machine-like quality.

“I’ve just heard from the extraction team. They’ve got Joseph.”

“Good. You know what you have to do?”

“Of course. We’re all prepped and ready.”

“The tech team are on their way to you now. They should be there within the hour.”

“Good,” Victor said. “My own team are going to be working around the clock on the nucleus. It’ll take a couple of days. You’re sure that we can contain him for that long?”

“Shouldn’t be a problem. Keep me posted.” The call was disconnected.

Victor continued typing at the same ferocious speed.

He had a complete mental image of the computer program he was writing. All his fingers were doing was transferring the program from his brain into the computer.

Even as he typed, his mind was occupied with several other matters. In the background, he was considering ways to speed up the typing process. The ideal solution would be some sort of human-machine interface through which he could upload his programs directly into the computer. That would save a tremendous amount of time.

At the same time, he was wondering how to deal with the coming situation. He knew from experience that not everything would go according to plan, because other people were involved. Computers did what you told them to do, but people had a tendency to do what they believed they were supposed to do.

He set another part of his brain working on ideas for alternative plans, just in case anything went wrong.

Victor was aware that most people didn’t – or couldn’t – use their brains in the way that he used his. The average person could keep no more than six or seven different thoughts going at once, and most of those were of the “What will I have for dinner?” variety.

But Victor could run dozens of different thought processes at the same time; he could program his brain as efficiently as he could program a computer.

A mental alarm reminded him that he’d now been working for eight solid hours and that it was time to take a break.

Victor pushed himself back from the computer terminal, yawned, and ran his hands through his hair.

The phone buzzed again. “Mr Cross?”

“What do you want, Jeff?”

“Can you spare a few minutes?”

“What’s the problem?”

“We’re having trouble getting the nucleus up to speed. Or, rather, we can get it up to speed, but then it’s not stable.”

“Sounds like an imbalance in the mag-lev platform. Put Rose on to it. She’s the expert.”

“I already asked her, Mr Cross. She said you told her the diagnostic scanner was more important than anything else.”

“All right. I’ll talk to her.”

Victor Cross left his office, went out on to the walkway and peered down at the cavern below. Dozens of people – most of them in military uniforms – milled about.

In all, the complex was currently home to over a hundred people, with another hundred expected to arrive within the next day.

As Victor walked along the rough-hewn corridors, he met two workers awkwardly carrying a life-sized glass statue of a girl. Victor stopped them. “I told you to bring her to the upper store room. That’s up on level one. She already was on level one! What are you doing down here with her?”

The two men exchanged a nervous glance. One of them said, “Er… It kind of fell. Over the rail.”

Victor glared at them. “What?”

“It was an accident, Sir! I tripped and, well, it just fell over the edge. I tried to grab it but it slipped out of my hands.” The man nodded to his companion and they set the statue back on its feet.

Victor walked around it, examining it carefully. It appeared to be intact, other than the finger marks in the light coating of dust.

“She fell from level one down to here? That’s six floors. And no fractures, cracks, or chips. Not even a scratch.”

“Yes, Sir. Sorry. I don’t know what this thing is made out of, Mr Cross, but it’s not glass. Whatever it is, it seems to be absolutely invulnerable.”

5

THE WAGNERS’ MYSTERY Day party passed off the same as it had every year; the adults all drank too much and started singing, and the younger kids fought over board games.

After a couple of hours, Colin and Danny decided that going for a walk was a more attractive option than listening to Colin’s uncle Norman trying to entertain everyone by repeating the same old jokes he’d told the previous year.

Colin and Danny walked in silence for a couple of minutes, shoulders hunched against the rain, until Colin was sure that there was no one around.

“So… How did you do it, Dan?”

“How did I do what?”

“You know what I’m talking about. How did you move fast enough to save Susie?”

Danny shrugged. “Just lucky, I suppose.”

“That wasn’t luck.”

“Of course it was. What else could it be?”

“That’s what I’ve been wondering about all day. The speed that bus came around the corner… I went back there this afternoon, just to have a look. There’s no way any normal person could have run that fast.”

“Well, obviously I did.”

“But you’re not a normal person, are you, Dan? You’re a superhuman.”

Danny laughed. “Are you nuts?”

“You lucky—! I’d give anything to be a superhuman!”

“I’m not a superhuman!”

“OK, OK,” Colin said. After a few seconds, he said, “So, was that the first time?”

“The first time what?”

“You know what I’m asking. Has anything like that ever happened before?”

“No. Of course not. It was a fluke.”

“What did your parents say?”

“Ah, you know the way parents are. My mother kept focussing on the wrong things. Like asking what Susie was doing in the middle of the road and why I hadn’t just come straight home from school – that sort of thing.”

“What about your dad?”

“He just said, ‘Well done!’”

“That’s it? You saved a little girl’s life and he just said, ‘Well done!’?”

“What else would he say?”

Colin carefully considered his response. “He could have asked you what I asked you. If you were a superhuman.”

Danny paused. “Well, he didn’t ask me that.”

“I’m asking.”

“I know.”

“And?”

“And I keep telling you! I’m not a superhuman, OK? Just leave it!” Danny walked away. “I’m going home. Thanks for the party.”

Colin hesitated for a second, then went after him. “Wait, wait!”

Without turning around or slowing down, Danny said, “What?”

“Just tell me the truth. Please. I swear I won’t say anything to anyone else! I just have to know. If you don’t tell me then I’m going to be wondering about it for the rest of my life.”

“There’s nothing to tell.”

“Nothing to tell me. I’m supposed to be your best friend!”

Danny stopped walking. His shoulders sagged.

“Swear that you won’t tell anyone?”

“I swear.”

“Especially not Brian, OK?”

“I promise!”

Danny took a deep breath and looked away. “It started happening a couple of months ago. Like, I’d be listening to a song on the radio and all of a sudden it would slow way down, like it was being played at the wrong speed. I went out on the bike on Saturday morning and cycled all the way around the park. It usually takes me a quarter of an hour, right? I did it in under five minutes. But it didn’t feel like I was moving any faster, more like everything else had slowed down. Things… things are changing. Inside me.” Danny swallowed. “It’s… it’s kind of freaking me out a bit. It’s like I’ve got no control over it. I mean, I could run home now and be there before you can blink. Or it might not work at all.”

The two friends stared at each other.

“So it’s true,” Colin said. “You’re a superhuman.”

“It’s looking like that.” A smile slowly grew on Danny’s face. “I really shouldn’t have told you.”

“God, you are so lucky! You know what I’d do if I was you? I’d join the athletics team. I’d win first place every time! It would be great!”

Danny shook his head. “Nah.”

“Seriously,” Colin said. “You should do it. You could be the next…” He paused. “Who’s a good runner?”

“I’d rather be a footballer.”

“You could do that, then! You could try out for Man United! They’d snap you up in a second!”

Danny grinned. “Or I could even try out for one of the good teams.”

“So, show me! Do something!”

“It might not work.”

“Give it a go anyway.”

Danny looked up and down the street. There was no one around. “Watch this!” He reached down to the ground and picked up a small white stone. He handed it to Colin. “You’ll recognise that stone again, right?”

Colin turned it over in his hands. “Sure. I suppose.”

“Now throw it.”

“Where?”

“Down the road.”

“OK.” Colin reached back his arm and flung the stone into the darkness. He didn’t see where it landed, but assumed that it must have hit a patch of grass, because it made no sound.

He turned back to Danny. “So?”

Danny smiled, held up his hand and opened it. The stone was resting in his palm.

“How…?”

“I caught it,” Danny said.

“But you didn’t even move!”

“Yes, I did. I ran after the stone and picked it out of the air.”

Colin laughed. “That’s amazing!”

Danny frowned. “Now the power’s just gone again. I suppose that I’ll be able to turn it on and off at will eventually. In the meantime, I have to be careful – and you’d better not say anything to anyone!”

“I won’t, I won’t… So you’re going to be a superhero! God, I wish it was me! How does it feel?”

“Weird, I suppose. It’s like I exist faster. When I’m doing it, I don’t really feel I’m running that fast. It’s more like everything else around me has slowed way down, like the rest of the world has gone into slow motion. And the more I concentrate on it, the slower everything becomes.”

“Are you going to tell your parents?”

“Actually… that’s the really strange thing about all this.” He hesitated. “All right, I know I can trust you. The strange thing is that they told me, in a way. Once they heard what happened with Susie, Dad told me everything. He said that he was sure I’d figure it out anyway. And he’s teaching me to control the power, too. He said that you have to focus on it, kind of like meditation. You let yourself relax, clear your mind of everything except the power. I wasn’t able to do it, though. He said that it takes a while to learn.”

“How does he know all this?”

“You swear that you won’t tell anyone?”

“I swear.”

“Sometimes – though not always – it’s hereditary. Dad was a superhuman too.”

Colin’s mouth dropped open. “You’re serious?”

“Yeah.”

“Someone famous?”

“Believe it or not, my father used to be Quantum.”

6

JOSEPH STEPPED DOWN from the helicopter and looked around. He was wearing a pair of sunglasses one of the soldiers had given him, but the light from the setting sun still hurt his eyes.

The copter had landed at the bottom of a small canyon, barely a hundred metres across. A set of huge steel doors were set into the canyon wall.

“Who are you?” he asked the woman. “What is this place?”

“Call me Rachel. We’re in California. It’s an abandoned gold mine.”

“How long was I locked up?”

“Ten years. Almost to the day. I have to know… your abilities?”

He gave her a weak smile. “Gone, of course. Do you think I’d have stayed there if I’d still had my powers? It was only a concrete cell. Why… why did you wait so long?”

“After the battle-tank, everything fell apart. It’s taken us this long to rebuild. It’s not as though we could operate openly. And no one knew where you were.”

They began to walk towards the steel doors, which were now slowly creaking open.

A young man walked out and stopped in front of them. “Joseph, I presume?”

Joseph nodded. “Who are you?”

“This is Victor Cross,” Rachel said. “He’s the one who tracked you down.”

Cross said, “We have some quarters set up for you. They should be a lot more pleasant that your prison cell.”

“You know who I am?”

“Of course. I know everything about you.”

Joseph stood in silence for a few seconds, then said, “I know I’m not the man I once was, Mr Cross, and I’m very much afraid that all that time as a prisoner has affected me. I find it hard to focus and even the smallest of things can distract me, but I’m not entirely stupid. Why did you wait so long before freeing me?”

Victor regarded him for a moment. “Honestly?”

“Yes. Honestly.”

“We didn’t need you until now.”

“I see. I feel… different. Clearer. Were they doing something to me in that place? Drugging me – to keep me docile?”

“Almost certainly,” Victor said.

“And what about the boy? What’s happening there?”

Victor ignored the question and called over two workers. “Escort this gentleman to the med-lab. We’ll be there shortly. Give him anything he wants, understood?”

Joseph smiled. “How old are you, Cross?”

“Almost twenty-one.”

“So you’re too young to have been one of us, then? You weren’t a superhuman?”

“No. I was only ten years old when Ragnarök’s machine was used.”

Joseph smiled again and nodded.

Rachel and Victor watched as he was led away.

“What do you think?” Victor asked.

She shrugged. “He was definitely being drugged back at the prison. Some sort of low-level scopolamine to keep him relaxed and compliant. It should be completely out of his system in the next couple of hours.”

“It had better not be,” Victor said. “We want him relaxed and compliant. Make sure that he stays that way, got that?”

“Sure.”

She followed Victor into the mine.

“So… the break out was a success,” Rachel said.

“Obviously.”

“I’ll write up a full report for you.”

Without looking at her, Victor said, “We have Joseph and you weren’t traced. What’s to report?”

“We left the Warden alive, but it’ll be a few more hours before he wakes.”

Victor nodded.

Rachel followed him up the metal stairway. “Don’t you want to know who the other inmates were?”

“Not really.”

“You did a good job locating the prison.”

Victor stopped outside his office and turned to her. “Rachel, I have work to do. If you want to make small talk, find someone else.”

He went into his office and closed the door behind him. He sat down at his desk, switched on his computer and keyed a number into his phone.

The call was answered immediately. It was the electronically-disguised voice again.

“Talk to me,” the voice said.

“We have him,” Victor said.

“Good,” the voice said. “You’re at your terminal?”

“Yes.”

“Find the file called Protégé. The password is ‘Apotheosis’. The file will tell you everything you need to know. Got that?”

“Got it.” Victor disconnected the call and began typing.

He found the file, entered the password and read through it.

Then he made another phone call. After a couple of seconds, a man’s voice said, “Hello?”

Reading from the computer screen, Victor said, “Icebreaker.”

There was a pause. “Say again?”

“Icebreaker.”

Another pause and the man sighed. Then he said, “Damocles.”

Victor read the counter-code. “Ultimatum.”

The man said, “I… I understand.” After a brief discussion, he gave Victor his location, then asked, “When?”

“Within the hour. Be ready. This is a code-one extraction. Do you understand what that means?”

“Yes. It means that you want the boys no matter what it takes. Everything else is secondary. All lives are expendable. Even my own.”

7

DANNY COOPER’S FATHER was in the sitting room watching television when Danny arrived home. “You’re late.”

“Sorry,” Danny said. “The party went on longer than I expected.”

“All right. Good party, was it?”

“It was OK. Everyone kept asking me about what happened with Susie.”

“You didn’t tell any of your friends, did you?”

“No, of course not!” Danny lied.

Danny’s father hesitated for a second, then nodded. “Good, good. Actually, Dan, if you’re not too tired, I think you and me need to have a little talk. I need to show you something important.” He pushed his massive frame out of his armchair and stretched.

“At this hour?”

Mr Cooper turned off the television set. “It won’t take long.” He led Danny out into the hall.

“Keep the noise down,” he whispered. “Your mother and Niall are asleep. Now, Look at this…”

Danny watched as his father pulled the casing off the fuse box.

“There’s a switch…” Danny’s father groped around and there was a soft click.

He turned to the large photo of Danny’s grandfather that hung in the hall and lifted it off its hook. Danny saw that there was a panel behind it. His father pulled the panel open and removed a small black canvas bag.

“What’s that?”

“Just some stuff from the old days.” He closed the panel and re-hung the photo. He slung the bag over his shoulder and opened the front door.

“Aw, Dad! I don’t want to go back out into the rain again!”

“It won’t hurt you,” Danny’s father said.

They left the blocks of flats and walked in the direction of the main road. “What’s up?” Danny asked.

His father opened the bag and took out a small metal device, about the size of a personal stereo. He flipped a switch on the device and a small red light began blinking.

“What’s that for?” Danny asked.

“It’s a transponder,” his father explained. “I’m sure that these days they could make something like this about the size of your fingernail, but it was state of the art back then.”

“I thought that transponders were something to do with aircraft?”

“Not necessarily. It’s looking for a specific signal. When it gets it, it sends a counter-signal back. Someone with the right equipment will be able to pick up our signal and find us. Doesn’t matter where we are on the planet, they’ll find us.”

“Who?”

“You’ll see soon enough.”

Danny considered this. “So… this is a mission, then?”

“Yeah, sort of.”

Danny grinned. “Cool! But what if someone recognises me? Shouldn’t I have a mask?”

“It’s not really that kind of mission, Danny.”

“We should have left a note for Mum. I mean, just in case anything happens.”

“No, better if she doesn’t know. I didn’t tell her everything that I did when I was Quantum. Can’t have her worried all the time.”

“Do you still have your old costume?”

Mr Cooper smiled. “It wouldn’t fit you. Not yet, anyway. You’ll need to fill out a bit.”

Danny realised that they were heading in the direction of Colin’s house and suddenly felt worried. He shouldn’t have told Colin about his powers. What if we are going to Colin’s? he wondered. Suppose Colin says something, lets it slip that he knows?

For a second, Danny wondered if he could race ahead to Colin’s house, tell him not to say a word, then run back without his dad noticing that he’d gone.

No. That wouldn’t work. Anyway, we can’t be going to Colin’s house. Why would we?

Despite the fact that he hadn’t got out of bed until midday, Colin was exhausted. He felt dizzy, almost nauseous, as he removed his clothes and dropped them on the floor.

Danny’s a superhuman.

The thought jumped into his mind, as it seemed to do every couple of minutes.

He turned off the light, pulled back the blankets and awkwardly climbed into bed; the muscles in his arms and legs were sore, as though he’d been working out all day. This had been happening on and off for weeks now; growing pains, his mother called them.

Danny’s going to be off saving the world and having fantastic adventures, while the rest of us have ordinary, boring lives. It’s not fair; I want to have super-powers! I want to be able to move as fast as Quantum!

Colin knew that he’d never be able to sleep with these thoughts running around in his head.

He rolled over on to his side and tried to think of something – anything – to keep his mind off the fact that his best friend was going to be a superhero.

It wasn’t working.

Colin shifted around to his favourite position – on his back, with his hands tucked behind his head – and tried to focus on the gentle hum of the traffic on the motorway; this usually helped him to drift off to sleep.

But this time, as he focussed on the noise of the traffic, it seemed to him that the sounds were becoming sharper.

Outside, on the next street, a car beeped its horn twice.

Someone saying goodbye. His own aunt had done the same thing earlier. Why do people do that? Surely getting into the car and driving away is a pretty good indication that you’re leaving. You don’t have to beep your horn and wake the whole neighbourhood up!

He wondered who it was and listened carefully. He faintly heard a woman calling, “Bye!” as the car pulled away. Colin recognised her voice: Mrs Healy from number twenty-three. He heard her close her front door, then go into her kitchen and fill the kettle.

I’m dreaming, Colin thought. There’s no way I can hear Mrs Healy filling her kettle!

He imagined that he could hear his parents downstairs in the sitting room. The television was on, but they weren’t paying attention to it. His father was about to fall asleep; Colin could hear his breathing slowing, becoming more regular. His mother was humming quietly to herself and… yes, she was reading; Colin could hear the pages turning.

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