Sakkara

“General, you’ve got to keep all this secret. We can’t let people know that the superhumans have lost their powers. It might only be temporary. But if not…”

“There’d be chaos. I understand. Every crook on the planet would think that all his birthdays had come at once. Max Dalton said the same thing.”

A soldier approached. “Sir? Dioxin…”

“What about him, soldier?”

“He’s…” The man looked sick and pale. “He’s gone, sir. There’s nothing left of him. Dissolved by his own acid.”

“Can’t say I’m sorry to hear that,” the general said. “All right. Get a crew on to it and start mopping up. Treat it as a level-one biohazard situation. I want every remaining particle of that man’s body bagged and labelled.” He turned to Paragon. “So what next?”

“Someone has to follow that tank’s path, find out where it came from. I want to know how something that big could have come this far without anyone noticing it. Then we’ve got to find Ragnarök and finish this once and for all.”

1 (#ulink_52644d7d-4888-5825-8d42-cdbb319e9961)

COLIN WAGNER RUSHED towards the burning toy store. Even from a hundred metres away he could feel the heat of the fire.

It was late December, a little after five-thirty in the evening, the streets packed with rush-hour traffic, the pavements blocked with shoppers carrying bags.

Colin and Renata had been on the other side of town, just about to start their Christmas shopping, when Colin heard the screams. They’d run to a deserted alley and changed into their costumes; Colin was wearing his father’s old Titan costume, which his mother had repaired and cut down to size. Renata was wearing black jeans, a black long-sleeved T-shirt under a short red leather jacket she’d bought for a fiver in the local charity shop, and a mask.

Now the two teenage superhumans pushed their way through the crowds. From far away, Colin could hear the sirens of half a dozen fire engines, all slowly trying to get through the dense Christmas traffic.

“Excuse me!” Colin said to a large man who – like hundreds of others – had stopped to watch the fire engulf the toy store.

The man glanced at Colin, then did a double-take when he saw his costume and mask. “You’re Kid Titan! I saw you in the paper!”

Out of the corner of his eye, Colin saw that Renata was having better luck: she had leaped over the crowd and was now running across the roofs of the slow-moving cars, straight towards the burning building.

Colin ducked past the man, spotted a gap in the crowd and ran for it. He jumped on to the bonnet of a taxi, then on to the roof of a stalled Toyota. The Toyota driver beeped his horn in anger.

Ahead, Renata had reached the building. A frightened-looking, soot-covered woman in a scorched store uniform was talking to her. As he ran, Colin listened:

“We got everyone out of the ground floor, but there’s still people trapped upstairs. Part of the ceiling collapsed! The stairs are burning and there’s no way for them to get out!”

“OK. Get everyone back as far as possible. See if you can get someone to clear the way for the fire brigade.”

The woman nodded and turned back to the crowd.

Colin reached Renata just as she kicked her way through the remains of the burning wooden doors. “What happened?”

“She didn’t know. Said she was working in the storeroom at the back when the alarm went off. She got everyone out of the ground floor. But there’s—”

“More upstairs. I heard that.” Colin squinted around, trying to peer through the thick black smoke. “Stairs are over that way.”

“That woman said the stairs are burning.”

“We don’t have a choice,” Colin said. “Take a deep breath and run for it, OK? I’ll go first.”

“No, let me. I can always turn myself solid if the heat gets too much.”

They ran through the blackness towards the stairway, tearing their way through the displays of burning teddy bears and melting model kits. Renata took the stairs three at a time, with Colin close behind her.

Ahead of them was a wall of flame; Colin could feel the heat beginning to singe his costume. Without hesitating, Renata plunged into the fire. Colin followed and seconds later he crashed into something cold and hard.

Renata had turned herself solid.

Damn it! Colin thought. The heat was too much for her! They were still in the middle of the flames. Colin grabbed Renata’s solid form around the waist and picked her up. He continued up the stairs, moving a little slower now.

He emerged from the flames at the top of the stairway and took a moment to breathe. Ahead was a locked fire door and he could hear something pounding on the other side of it. Knowing that time was crucial, Colin didn’t waste any looking around for something to smash open the door. He muttered, “Sorry about this!” to Renata, then ran straight for the door, using her solid form as a battering ram.

The door crashed open and Colin saw a scared, red-faced man on the other side, holding on to a baseball bat. His name-badge read, “Hi, I’m Dave!”

Colin let Renata drop to the floor and pushed the door closed. “You can’t go that way! The fire’s too hot!”

“What are we going to do?” the assistant screamed. “The sprinklers didn’t come on! We used the extinguishers but they didn’t make much difference.”

Colin looked around. The room was thick with smoke, the only light coming from the fire at the far end of the room. A small bunch of people were huddled together in the middle of the room, coughing, keeping low to the floor where the air was a little more clear. “How many others up here?”

“Five, including me,” the man said. “I tried to break the windows with this…” He waved the baseball bat. “They’ve got wire mesh in them.”

On the ground beside them, Renata turned back to her human form and got to her feet. Colin could see that her hands and arms were covered in large white blisters. “Sorry,” she said. “I panicked.”

“Punch out the windows,” Colin said. “I’ll try to find something I can use to lower everyone down.” To the assistant, he said, “Dave, round up everyone. Get them over to the windows. Tell them to keep low.”

All right, Colin said to himself as Renata ran towards the windows. What’s on this floor? Dolls, action figures, books, puzzles…Nothing I can use.

There was a crashing sound as Renata punched and tore her way through the wire-mesh glass.

What can I do to get everyone out? Need a rope or something…He yelled out to the assistant, “Dave! Skipping ropes!”

“Downstairs, next to the register!” the man called back. “Actually, there’s a special on this week…Sorry. Force of habit.”

“Great,” Colin muttered. He listened carefully: the fire engines were still a few minutes away. Then, from the floor below, he heard a series of small explosions. The paint for the model kits, he realised. It’s flammable! “We have got to get out of here now!” he yelled to Renata.

“It’s too far for them to jump!” she called back.

With a crack, the roof at the far end of the room collapsed, showering them with white-hot sparks.

“You jump!” Colin said to Renata, running over to her. “I’ll drop everyone down to you!”

Renata nodded, then vaulted out of the window. As Colin lifted up the nearest woman, he caught a glimpse of Renata’s skin and costume glistening as she turned solid. Seconds later, he heard her call, “I’m ready!”

The woman in Colin’s arms began to panic as he lifted her over the window ledge. “No! It’s too far!”

“Just close your eyes,” Colin said.

“Can’t you just fly us down? What the hell kind of superhero are you?”