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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 (#ulink_5c27aa74-31eb-5cc7-a85b-8326de2a6041)
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 (#ulink_83ab71e4-c813-5ae7-b29b-41a18634a81d)
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.
