Sakkara

Niall squealed and was practically jumping up and down with excitement. “I told you Colin was Kid Titan!” he shouted at Danny. “I told you!”

3

ALMOST FIVE THOUSAND miles away, in the Chinese city of Jiamusi, a gunman lay on the balcony of his luxury hotel room, a high-powered rifle in his hands.

The gunman was in his mid-forties, though little about his physical features gave that away. He was completely bald – lacking even eyelashes – and his pallid, mottled skin was a network of thick red and white scars. He was tall, but slightly built, with long wiry arms ending in thin, nailless fingers.

He had not moved from his position since before dawn, staring through the rifle’s telescopic sight, which was fixed on a specific window of the apartment block across the busy street.

Through the sight the gunman could only see a small portion of the room opposite, but he had chosen his location carefully: that portion of the room contained a mirror, and reflected in that mirror he could see part of an occupied bed.

Then the occupant of the bed stirred, reached out to shut off an alarm clock.

Finally, the gunman said to himself. Barely moving, he reached into his shirt pocket and removed a single bullet-shaped pellet. He used his teeth to tear open the pellet’s plastic coating, slipped the pellet into the rifle and waited, finger on the trigger.

Two minutes later, the apartment’s window opened – as he knew it would – and directly in his line of sight was a woman’s bare arm.

He squeezed the trigger. The rifle made a faint phut! sound and the arm was instantly pulled back.

The gunman waited long enough to watch – through the mirror – the woman climb back into bed, yawning.

Now – move! He quickly crawled backwards, into the hotel room, disassembling his rifle as he went.

Getting to his feet, he dropped the rifle’s components into a black canvas bag, slung it over his shoulder, then quickly and quietly darted from the room.

The gunman silently raced along the corridor and dashed quickly past the room occupied by the businessman who – for some unfathomable reason – never fully closed his door.

As he ran, the gunman pulled a forged key-card out of his pocket. The previous day, he had picked the pocket of the guest staying in room 1102, duplicated the card then left the original where it could easily be found in the hotel’s lobby.

Directly ahead was room 1102: the gunman slipped the card into the lock and stepped through.

Inside, a startled man was sitting cross-legged on the bed, eating toast and reading a newspaper. He barely had time to say, “What…?” before the gunman emptied the contents of a small aerosol canister into his face.

The man collapsed backwards, unconscious.

The gunman checked the hotel guest’s pulse. Good. Strong and steady. He’ll sleep for about four hours and won’t remember a thing.

The gunman opened the balcony doors and peered out. His car was parked in the alley below, ten floors down. He pulled a thin rope out of his canvas bag, connected the quick-release hook to the balcony’s railing and vaulted over the edge.

Hand over hand, he quickly rappelled down the rope, dropping the last two metres. A quick, sharp tug on the rope and the hook above automatically disconnected. He caught the hook, then ran for his car, coiling the rope as he went.

He had his car keys in his hand and was reaching for the lock when the car’s windscreen suddenly shattered.

The gunman instantly vaulted over the car, just as a hail of silenced bullets ploughed through the air, barely missing him.

Damn it! I knew they’d try something like this!

Then a voice called out, “Mr Jackson? You would do well to surrender!”

“Perfect,” he muttered to himself. “It’s Junior.”

“We know your methods, Mr Jackson! We know you never carry any lethal weapons on a mission where you’re not expected to kill! We have you outnumbered. There is nothing you can do!”

Right, the gunman thought. You think you know me. You think I’m some honourable assassin who always plays by a set of rules. Well, if you think I didn’t see this coming you’ve just made the biggest mistake of your life.

He reached into the canvas bag and pulled out a Heckler and Koch P7K3 semi-automatic pistol, a small snub-nosed weapon that in the right hands could be deadly accurate.

Lying flat on his back, the gunman crawled halfway under the car and looked out. He could see three pairs of feet. Two of his would-be killers had their feet spread apart: the stance of someone proficient with a powerful hand-gun. Junior’s bodyguards.

He aimed and fired four times in quick succession, hitting the bodyguards’ ankles. The men fell to the ground screaming.

The remaining set of feet shuffled, then turned and ran.

The gunman rolled out from under the car and charged after the young Chinese man.

Junior had almost reached the entrance to the alley when the gunman floored him with a flying kick to the small of his back.

He pulled Junior to his feet, pressing the muzzle of the gun into his neck. “Whose idea was this? Your father’s?”

Junior shook his head. “No!”

The gunman dragged Junior back towards his car and handed him the keys. “Get in.”

Shaking, Junior unlocked the car and climbed into the driver’s seat.

“Start it up.”

As the car rumbled to life, Junior asked, “Where are you taking me?”

“Nowhere,” the gunman growled. He reached in, grabbed Junior around the neck and pulled him out of the car. “Just wanted to make sure you didn’t have a bomb wired to the ignition.” He forced the young man to his knees. “You hire me to put your rival out of commission so she’ll miss today’s meeting. You don’t want her dead because that would bring her gang into conflict with yours. That’s good thinking. I applaud that. She misses the meeting and suddenly it looks to everyone that her people don’t care about your precious trade agreements.”

“Mr Jackson, I—”

“Shut up. I’m not finished. So all on your own you decide that instead of paying me my two million dollars, you and your friends will kill me and keep the money for yourself. And Sheng Senior will never find out, right?”

“No, it wasn’t like that!”

“Then what was it like?”

Junior Sheng didn’t have an answer.

“I thought so. Junior, your old man is a fool if he believes that one day you’re going to be able to take over his organisation.” The gunman laughed. “You actually thought you could kill me. You hired me because I’ve got the best reputation in the business. I have never failed to take down a target, but somehow you thought that you and your goons would be able to stop me.”

He stepped back. “Get up. I’m not going to kill you.”

Holding on to the car to steady himself, Junior Sheng got to his feet. “I’m sorry, Mr Jackson!”

The gunman raised his eyes. “You can’t even get my name right!” He shook his head. “You’re in serious trouble, Junior, you know that? Sure, I did the job. Your rival will sleep for about six hours and there is absolutely no evidence of foul play. The knock-out pellet I hit her with will already have dissolved into nothing. But you had to come after me. How’s that going to look? She misses this important meeting and on the same day there’s unexplained gunfire in the alley behind the hotel closest to her apartment.”

The young man swallowed and stared at his feet.

“Listen, Junior, you just tell your father that I’m coming to see him today and that I want him to give me my money in person. Plus a little extra…This is a hired car and I’m damned if I’m going to pay for a new windscreen. If I don’t get my money, I’m going to kill him. If you or any of your organisation tries to pull another stunt like this, I’ll let him live but I’m going to kill you and every other member of your family. Got that?”

Junior nodded vigorously. “I am sorry, Mr Jackson! It won’t happen again! I swear!”

The gunman put his gun away. “Yeah, I’m sure it won’t, Junior. And for the last time, my name is not pronounced Jackson. It’s Dioxin.”

4

WARREN WAGNER ANGRILY stabbed at the buttons on the remote control. “It’s on every channel!”

Sitting on the sofa next to Warren’s armchair, Colin groaned inwardly. This is all my fault! If I hadn’t been showing off, if I’d been paying attention, that guy wouldn’t have knocked me out and none of this would have happened!

Warren flung the remote control on to the coffee table and – without looking at his son – said, “Colin, how many times over the past few weeks have I told you to be careful?”

“I know, Dad! I’m sorry!”

“Sorry isn’t good enough! We have to find a way to fix this…I don’t know, maybe get someone else to wear the Titan costume and arrange it so that the two of you can be seen in the same place at the same time. If Danny Cooper still had his powers…”

“It wouldn’t work, Dad. Danny’s taller than me and his hair’s the wrong colour. Plus, you know. His arm. Anyway, he doesn’t have his powers and there’s no way we can fake them.”

Mrs Wagner and Renata came into the room. “Renata just had an idea,” Caroline said to her husband. “Why don’t we start phoning everyone, saying things like, ‘Did you see how Kid Titan looks just like Colin?’ A preemptive strike. It would be better than people calling us about it.”

“It’s not Kid Titan,” Colin said. “Just Titan.”

“I really don’t think the name is what you should be focussing on right now,” his father said. He turned to Renata. “Let me take a look at your hands.”

She sat down next to him. Warren carefully unwrapped the bandages on her hands and examined the blisters. “You’re healing fast,” he said. “You’ll be OK in a day or so. Any pain?”

“A bit,” Renata said, “But it’s not bad. Look, maybe Titan could make a public announcement, saying that he has the power to change his face, like Façade could, and that it’s just a coincidence that the face he chose looks like Colin.”

Warren shook his head. “And when he’s asked to demonstrate this power, what does he do then?”

The phone rang. Everyone looked at each other.

“That’s the first of them,” Caroline said, biting her lip.

Colin stood up. “I’ll get it. If it is someone asking whether I’m Titan, I’ll just laugh at the idea. Or something.” He went out into the hall and picked up the phone. “Hello?”

“Col?” It was Brian McDonald; along with Danny, Brian was Colin’s closest friend.

“Hi, Brian…How’s it going? Hey, were you just watching the news?”

“Yeah! That’s why I’m phoning. Kid Titan looks just like you!”

“I know. Now everyone will think I’m a superhero!”

Brian laughed, then said, “You’re not, are you?”

“Oh, I wish!”

“You’re going to have everyone bugging the hell out of you now! Still, maybe some girls will finally notice you!”

“Oh, thanks a bunch.”

“Not that you need to worry on that score,” Brian said after a short pause, “you’ve had a hot babe living in your house for weeks. Pity she’s your cousin.”

“I don’t think of her as a hot babe, though,” Colin said. “Just as someone who eats all the biscuits and forces us to watch girly movies.”

“You know,” Brian said slowly, “she does kind of look like Diamond.”

“Brian, I think I’d know if my own cousin was a superhero!”

“I suppose. Anyway, I’d better go. I just phoned Danny but his mum wouldn’t let me talk to him. He’s been grounded or something. See you tomorrow, right?”

“Sure,” Colin said. “See you.” He hung up. Maybe I should have told him ages ago. He wouldn’t have told anyone else. Probably.

The phone rang again. Colin hesitated for a second, then picked it up. “Hello?”

“Colin? Is that you?” A girl’s voice asked.

“Yeah. Who’s this?”

“It’s me! Judy Morris! Don’t tell me you don’t recognise my voice!”

How could I recognise it? Colin thought. You’ve hardly ever looked at me, let alone talked to me! He could hear whispering and giggling in the background.

“So listen, we were just watching television and guess what we saw?”

“You saw someone who looks like me. Yeah, you’re not the first one to let me know. How did you get my number, anyway?”

“Adam Gilmore told me. So it’s not you, then? Kid Titan, I mean?”

Colin resisted the temptation to say that the name was Titan, not Kid Titan. “What do you think? That I’m secretly a superhero? I wish I was.”

“He does look a lot like you, though. And we were thinking, OK, that he hangs around with that girl superhero Diamond, and she looks kinda like that girl staying with you.”

From the sitting-room, Colin could hear his mother’s mobile phone ringing. “Judy, it’s just a coincidence that Kid Titan looks like me.”

There was a brief pause. “If you really were him, you wouldn’t tell me anyway, would you?”

Damn it! Colin thought. “Probably not. I mean, I barely even know you.”

“Well, that’s because you never talk to anyone. You’re too shy. You know my friend Emma? The short one with red hair? Well she fancies you!”

Another voice squealed, “Don’t tell him that!”

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Colin couldn’t help being drawn in. “Really?” He’d seen Emma around and had always thought she was sort of cute.

Behind Judy, Emma was saying, “Oh my God! Oh my God!”

“Yeah,” Judy said. “You could actually try talking to her sometime. Hold on, I’ll put her on.”

Colin began, “No, wait…” but it was too late.

Emma came on. “Erm…Hi, Colin.” She was almost drowned out by a loud burst of giggles.

“Hi,” Colin said, thankful that he was on the phone and she couldn’t see how much he was blushing.

At that moment, the sitting-room door opened and his father stepped out. “Hang up the phone.”

Colin covered the mouthpiece. “In a minute!”

“Now, Colin!”

With his father standing there watching him, Colin said into the phone, “Sorry, Emma, I have to go.”

“Oh. OK then.”

“Bye,” Colin said, then hung up and instantly regretted it. I should have said that I’d see her soon or something like that! Now she’s going to think I don’t like her!

Mr Wagner reached out and unplugged the line from the phone. “We’ve been talking, Colin. We’re all going to have to leave here. It won’t be long before someone figures out that Renata must be Diamond. Then someone will realise that your mother and I used to be Energy and Titan.” He shrugged. “If that happens none of us will be safe.”

“There must be something we can do to sort things out!”

“There’s nothing. There’s no going back. I’m going to phone Joshua Dalton, tell him to arrange transport out of here and somewhere for us to stay. Ever since California, he’s been asking us to go and work for him.”

“What does he do, anyway?”

“I’m actually not sure. Some kind of top-secret work for the US government.”

“So…We’re going back to America?”

Warren nodded, then smiled. “Yeah. But at least this time we’re not being kidnapped.”

After much badgering from Danny, his mother had finally agreed to allow him to take Niall to see Façade. She laid down the rules: “You are not to stay for more than an hour. You are to go straight there and come straight back. Do not invite him for Christmas dinner – I don’t care how lonely he seems! And don’t go telling him that everything will be all right and that I’ll give in eventually!”

Having agreed to all the rules, Danny and Niall pulled on their winter coats and set off for the bus stop.

Danny was thankful that the bus was nearly empty because Niall couldn’t stop talking about his discovery that Colin Wagner and Renata Soliz were superheroes.

By the time they got to the last stop, Danny was just about ready to throttle his little brother.

“Right,” Danny said, taking Niall aside. “There’s lot of people around, so do not talk about Colin or Renata, OK?”

Niall nodded. “OK. But, right, what if…”

Danny raised his eyes. “Niall, just keep quiet, OK? And stick close.”

They made their way through the market square. As Christmas was approaching, most of the shops were still open, and the square was filled with people either laden with packed bags or carrying absolutely nothing and looking like they were on the verge of panic.

Danny shuddered as a freezing wind whipped through the square. He glanced down at the zipper on his coat. Should have worn the other jacket. Buttons are a lot easier to manage with one hand. “Niall? Help me out here, OK?”

As Niall zipped up the coat, Danny tried to ignore the looks of the people passing by. He heard a muttered comment, “That poor boy!”

I didn’t know how lucky I was when I had two arms. I tied my shoelaces every single day and never even thought about it. I could open a bag of crisps without having to use my teeth. Now it’s all I can do to get dressed in the mornings.

Danny’s mother had bought him a new pair of trainers with Velcro straps. That should have made things easier, but it only made him more aware of what he had lost.

As they passed Morton’s Electrical Goods, Niall stopped and stared. The window was packed with dozens of television sets, all showing the same film: Kid Titan and Diamond rescuing the shoppers from the fire.

“Come on,” Danny said. “We don’t have time to hang around.”

They were just about to turn away when the screens changed to show the photo of Kid Titan without his mask. Oh God, Danny thought. It’s not going to be easy for him. But at least the photo’s not great quality, so I suppose things could be worse.

And then a caption appeared below the photo: “Colin Wagner, 13, AKA Kid Titan.”

Danny’s blood froze. “No…” he whispered.

Niall turned to him. “What does AKA mean?”

“What?” Danny asked numbly.

“AKA Kid Titan, it says.”

“It stands for Also Known As.”

Around them, people had stopped. Someone in the crowd said, “Colin Wagner…Doesn’t he go to school with our Philip? His mother’s one of the teachers there, right?”

Danny whispered to Niall, “Let’s just go. Quietly, OK?”

They turned away, stepping carefully through the growing crowd. Niall kept glancing back towards the store.

“Come on!” Danny said. “Niall!”

His brother had stopped walking and was staring openmouthed at the largest wide-screen television.

The screen now showed a decade-old photograph of Titan and Quantum. The caption beneath read, “Titan, AKA Warren Wagner. Quantum, AKA Paul Joseph Cooper.”

For the first time in his life, Danny swore in front of his little brother. He grabbed Niall’s arm and tried to pull him away.

At that moment the screen changed once again, and showed the same captions over much more recent photos of Warren and Façade.

“Danny! Look at that! It’s Dad!”

Danny quickly glanced about: a lot of people had heard Niall and turned in their direction.

Niall kept talking: “It’s Dad and Mr Wagner! Danny, it’s saying that they used to be—”

Pushing Niall ahead of him, Danny said, “Just shut up and run!” How did this happen? How could someone have found out so quickly?

A man stopped to block their path. It was Mr Leopold, who lived in a neighbouring flat. “Danny and Niall! Did you see that? About your dad? It’s not true, is it?”

“No,” Danny said. “Of course not!” He tried to dodge past his neighbour. “We’ve got to go…”

“Is that why your mother threw him out? She found out about his past?”

Danny looked around. More and more people were stopping to stare at them. They knew his father was the manager of the local supermarket, and everyone would have heard about how PJ Cooper’s son had lost his right arm in an accident.

“Your friend Colin,” Mr Leopold was saying, “he’s Kid Titan, so then that cousin of his must be Diamond. What’s her name again?”

Niall stepped closer to Danny as the crowd advanced.

“It’s all just some stupid hoax,” Danny said, thinking quickly. “There’s a guy who works in the TV station who used to go to school with our dad. They’re always playing pranks on each other.”

Someone said, “You expect us to believe that?”

If I had my powers, Danny thought, I’d just pick Niall up and run away from this lot faster than they could see.

A woman Danny didn’t recognise pushed her way through the crowd. “Listen…I’m having some trouble with gangs of kids in the area, always hanging around. Maybe your dad could do something about it?”

“I don’t like this,” Niall said in a low voice. “I want to go home!”

Me too, Danny thought. Aloud, he said, “It’ll be OK, Niall. Just stick close to me.”

Then an elderly man approached. “Quantum saved my life, about fifteen years ago! Pulled me out of the way of a speeding truck. I never got a chance to thank him!” He stretched out his right hand, offering it to Danny to shake, then instantly pulled it back when he saw that Danny didn’t have a right hand of his own. “Oh. Sorry.”

“Please,” Danny said. “Let us go! It’s all a mistake! My father is not Quantum!”

A man asked, “You’re Quantum’s kids? For real?”

“No, we’re not!”

“Ten years since the superheroes all disappeared,” the man said. “Ten years! We all thought they were dead, but now…” The man’s face took on a snarl. “I know PJ Cooper! I used to work for him in the supermarket! Four years back my sister was knocked down by a couple of drugged-up joyriders. She’s going to be in a wheelchair for the rest of her life! If Quantum had been around, he never would have let things get that bad.”

The man next to him yelled, “Where the hell were your dad and his mates when my estate was being terrorised by junkies? Did they just decide that normal people weren’t worth saving any more?”

“Of course not!” Danny said. “I’m telling you, this is all a mistake!”

“That’s what happened, isn’t it?” a young woman asked. “They gave up on us. They think they’re better than we are!”

Mr Leopold said, “All right, everyone just calm down! I’ve known the Coopers for years! They’re good people and taking your anger out on these boys won’t solve anything!”

“Yeah!” someone in the crowd yelled. “Quantum and Titan and the others saved the world dozens of times! They don’t owe us anything! We owe them!”

Danny looked around. He and Niall were completely surrounded. There’s hundreds of them!

Then a large man pushed his way to the front of the crowd, shoving people aside. He stopped in front of Mr Leopold. “Outta my way!”

Mr Leopold swallowed. “What do you want?”

The man pointed at Danny. “His old man owes me. Caught me breaking and entering. I was inside for four and a half years! Do you have any idea what that was like, Cooper?” he roared at Danny. “It was hell! Day after day of eating the same tasteless crap, sleeping in a cramped, rat-infested cell, knowing that at any minute you could be stabbed in the back by some moron who’s got a grudge against you!”

Danny said, “You can’t blame my father for that! If you were stupid enough to break into people’s houses then you deserved to be in prison!”

“So it is true!” The man stepped closer. “Don’t think that just because you’re missing an arm I’m going to go easy on you!”

There was a gasp from the crowd, but the man ignored it.

Oh God, this guy is going to flatten me! The man charged, his powerful fists raised. Danny pushed his brother to one side. Come on, he told himself. Use your super-speed! The power might not be completely gone! He tried to remember what it had felt like to switch into slow-time mode: a prickling sensation at the back of his head, the way everything else seemed to slow down, the way the sounds became quiet and low.