Ditto sat at the table, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands. 'For as long as I can remember, the creatures have been there. We don't communicate exactly. Not like humans, but we sense each other. I know when they're agitated or sleepy. There was one other Bartoli Baby with the same ability. Number eighty-two. But the second sight terrified him, drove him insane. Now he lives in Booshka and wears a blindfold.

Never takes it off. I didn't go crazy because I suspected the creatures were there to help us: make the pain bearable, prepare us for the next life.'

Cosmo interrupted. 'There's a next life?'

'Yes. I catch glimpses of it every now and then.'Even Mona was interested. 'What's it like?'

Ditto thought about it. 'Different.'

'Quiet!' yelled Stefan. 'All of you. If this is true, why didn't you tell me years ago?'

Ditto lifted his eyes. 'I almost told you a million times, but I had no real proof except what I felt. For the first time ever I was part of a family and saying what I felt would have destroyed that. And for what? You would never have believed me then without proof. If anything, you were more fanatical in the beginning. Time is beginning to mellow you, Stefan. Recently you've even started to worry about the troops: that's a new development.'

'You could have tried.'

'I know I should have, but I decided to do what I could from within. You weren't actually destroying the Parasites, I felt that all along, and I was able to do whatever I could for the accident victims. I didn't know we were helping the creatures reproduce.'

'Fight from the inside,' muttered Cosmo.

Ditto nodded. 'Exactly, and it would have been just fine if Myishi hadn't got involved. Do you realize what you did tonight, Stefan? If what you say is true, you killed huge numbers of the creatures. I wish I'd had the courage to tell you the truth earlier, but I never thought this Energy Pulse scheme would work: scientifically, it shouldn't. How many humans are in pain right now because I stayed quiet? Humans like your mother?'

Stefan began to shake. 'Shut up!'

'You don't want to listen, Stefan, because for years you've had someone to blame for your mother's death. This is the truth, Stefan. Accept it.'

'I don't know what it is, but it's not the truth. Nothing you've ever told us was the truth. You wouldn't know the truth if it popped out of a manhole and took a bite out of your Bartoli backside.'

Ditto took out his phone. 'Just call Faustino. Tell her you have reservations. Ask her team of scientists to study the possibility that these creatures do not drain life force, just pain. Natural anaesthesia.'

'Why should I?'

'Because if I'm right, thousands of people are crippled with pain who shouldn't be.

Just like your mother wasn't, at the end. Just like you weren't, if you let yourself remember.'

Cosmo remembered how, after his rooftop fall, the pain had disappeared the moment the creature had touched him. He remembered how all he'd felt was calm.

No fear.'And if you're wrong?' asked Stefan.

Ditto stood on the bench, drawing himself up to his full height.

'If I'm wrong, I'll pop out of a manhole and take a bite out of my own Bartoli backside.'

Ellen Faustino was in the car when Stefan called.

'I thought I might be hearing from you, Stefan,' she said, a smile tugging at one corner of her lips. 'That was you at the Satellite, wasn't it? Floyd Faustino indeed.

How on Earth did you get those access codes? Surely I didn't accidentally allow you to glimpse my computer screen.'

'I don't know what you're talking about,' said Stefan innocently.

'I thought you might take matters into your own hands,' continued Ellen. 'In fact I hoped you might. Sometimes the red tape just takes too long to unravel.'

'It's starting to sound like I'm working for you, Professor Faustino.'

Faustino's smile widened. 'Yes, it does, doesn't it. That was you at Clarissa Frayne too, I presume. The Supernaturalists don't waste any time, do they?'

Stefan chose his words carefully. 'If that was us, and I'm not for one second admitting that it was, then we may have a problem.'

Ellen frowned. 'A problem? But the Energy Pulse worked perfectly. I would have preferred it if you hadn't knocked out the power in ten city blocks, but it was short- term and my team have been gathering Un-Spec 4 bodies all morning.'

It was Stefan's turn to frown. 'Gathering bodies? What for? Why?'

Ellen held a finger to her lips. 'I don't want to say any more on a company line, I've already said too much. Just excited, I suppose. You can see for yourself on your next visit.'

'To pick up my pay cheque?' said Stefan wryly.

'I'm a busy woman, Stefan. What's this problem that has you so worried?'

'One of my team, a soon to be ex-member, feels that the Parasites, Un-Spec 4 that is, may not be as malignant as we thought. He believes that they simply ease our suffering. Take our pain, as it were. If that's true, then there's no need to fight them.'

Faustino seemed genuinely worried. 'What?' Faustino paused. 'I can't imagine how that would be possible, but I'll put my entire team on it immediately. No more Energy Pulses until we determine the truth. Just stand down for the time being, until we can put some trials together. It shouldn't take more than a couple of weeks to get results. Can you wait that long?''I've waited three years,' replied Stefan. 'I can wait a couple of weeks.'

Faustino s eyes were downcast. 'I know that this must be hard for you to accept, Stefan. But remember, nothing has been proven yet. We may still be on the right track.'

'Two weeks,' said Stefan, closing the phone.

Ditto released a breath he'd been holding for almost the entire call.

'Two weeks. I'm right, you'll see.'

Stefan threw his phone to him. 'I don't want to hear it, Ditto. Whatever the results of Professor Faustino's trials, you've been lying to us for years. We put our faith and our lives in your hands, and they never were your priority.'

'I never did anything to hurt anybody or anything. I won't apologize for that.'

'It's too late for apologies, Ditto. You deceived us all. We can't trust you any more. At first light, I want you out of here.'

Ditto looked up into Stefan's eyes. They were hard and hurt.

'Very well. If that's how you want it, that's how it will be.'

Stefan turned his back on the Bartoli Baby. 'That's how I want it,' he said.

Cosmo lay on his bunk, watching a cl.u.s.ter of rust mites eating into a bolt head on the ceiling. It seemed that as soon as the Supernaturalists came out of one crisis, another one dropped from the sky on their heads. Cosmo felt like a rat in a maze, never knowing what seemingly innocent course of action would lead to disaster. And for what? So they could persecute a group of supernatural creatures who were just trying to help mankind. If what Ditto said was true.

Look on the bright side, he told himself. At least your hair is growing. In a couple of months, you won't look like the back end of a troll any more.

Mona appeared in the doorway to his cubicle.

'Oi, you awake?'

Cosmo sat up on the bunk. 'Yes. I got a couple of hours' sleep, but I dreamed about Ditto.'

Mona perched on the end of the bunk. 'I know what you mean. I don't think Stefan can cope with this. First he's helping the Parasites multiply; now they were only trying to take our pain.'

'If Ditto is right.''Yes, if Ditto is right.'

Mona pulled her hair back into a ponytail, wrapping a band around it. 'I've been thinking about moving on, Cosmo. Maybe getting a job with Jean Pierre in Booshka; he's been trying to rope me in for years. Anyway, if he's not going to be around much longer, someone has to keep the gangs' cars on the road.'

Cosmo felt his stomach churn. The idea of Mona actually leaving had never occurred to him. 'Are you sure? You seem such an action girl.'

Mona smiled. 'Yeah, I love the shoot 'em up. It's like a vid game. Blast the evil blue aliens. But they're not aliens, maybe they're not even evil. I don't think I could point a rod at something unless I was one hundred per cent certain.'

Cosmo nodded. He felt the same.

'So I was thinking, I'm going to need a grease monkey. Someone who learns quick. You think you could do a sim-oil change?'

Cosmo grinned, his teeth shining in the darkness.

'Me? You want me to come with you?'

Mona punched him on the shoulder. 'Why not? We make a good team. You're always saving me.'

Cosmo opened his mouth to say yes, but the word stuck in his throat. 'I'd love to, Mona. There's nothing I'd like more, but Stefan took me in . . .'

Mona's eyes were sad, but not surprised. 'I understand, Cosmo. Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere until Ellen Faustino has finished her tests. Maybe you'll change your mind.'

'Maybe,' said Cosmo gloomily. Just him and Stefan. What a laugh riot that was going to be.

Myishi para-legals are very good at being quiet. An entire squadron could run past a deer and the animal would never even c.o.c.k its head. They also have a lot of high-tech gadgetry that helps them to be even more sneaky. Each para-legal carries a total of thirty kilograms of equipment to help them climb, cut, burn and capture.

The para-legals and their thirty kilograms are transported through the air by Myishi Whisper Copters. A combination helicopter and glider with vertical lift-off capability and rigid glider wings. Not to mention enough armament to obliterate anything stupid enough to point more than a finger at it.

The para-legals have several methods of entry in their manual, but their all-time favourite is ghost-like. They like their quarry to wake up in a cellophane wrap, with no idea how they got there. No fatalities. Less paperwork.

Abracadabra Street was no great challenge for a squadron that had broken into several foreign banks, two crime lords' strongholds and a private kindergarten. They simply abseiled down the walls, set radio jammers to cancel out the motion sensors and adhered large squares of gla.s.s solvent to the windows.

When the squadron leader gave the command, the para-legals pa.s.sed a current through the solvent squares and suckered the windows out of their panes. The entire procedure was covered by the building's heavy curtains.

Two dozen para-legals entered the premises through various entrances and set their goggles for body heat. When the command was given they split into four groups and went after their specified targets.

In truth, many of the para-legals felt slightly disappointed. They had heard a lot about the vigilante, Stefan Bashkir, and were hoping he would make a real fight of it.

But it looked as though this would be done the easy way. n.o.body would resist them here. It didn't even look like anyone was awake.

Cosmo opened his eyes to find three Myishi para-legals in his cubicle. One was jacking a cartridge into his rod. Cosmo took a deep breath to inflate his chest.

'You've done this before,' said the para-legal, pulling the trigger.

Mona, always a light sleeper, actually made it out of the bed before they got her.

Amazingly for someone with no formal combat training, she managed to incapacitate two para-legals before the third tagged her with a Shocker. They waited until she had stopped shaking to hit her with a cellophane slug.

Stefan heard the struggle in Mona's cubicle. He burst through his own cubicle door, straight into the arms of half a dozen para-legals. Several more were packing up the Supernaturalists' weaponry and computers. For the first time in his life, Stefan Bashkir went without a fight.

'You're making a mistake,' he said, lacing his fingers behind his head. 'We are working with Myishi. Just contact President Faustino at the R&D department. I'm telling you, this is all a mistake.'

A para-legal wrapped him at close range.

'That's what they all say,' he said.

Ditto was lying awake on his cot, fully clothed. His duffel bag sat on the floor, ready for the morning.

'Pazza delivery?' he said to the first para-legal through the door.

'No one likes a smart-a.s.s,' said the man, and wrapped him.

CHAPTER 9:

LAB RATS.

MYISHI RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT FACULTY, Mayor Ray Shine Industrial Park, Satellite City THE Myishi para-legals read the Supernaturalists their rights, then winched them up to a waiting Whisper Copter on the roof. They took a ten-minute hop north to the Ray Shine Industrial Park, landing on a helipad on the roof of a Myishi facility. Cosmo's favourite vat man was waiting for them beside the plasti-gla.s.s vat in the building's detention area.

'Hiya, sweetie,' he said, attaching the suction cup to Cosmo's head. 'I had a feeling we'd be seeing each other again. They flew me over here specially for this job. I'm on double overtime.'

The Supernaturalists were tossed unceremoniously into the vat of yellow acid, dangling from a series of suction cups. The sedative in the cellophane had seeped into their systems by then, so they offered no resistance, relaxing in their liquid prison.

The acid solution immediately went to work on the cellophane wraps, eating through the virus. It was a slow process and it would be at least an hour before they had any mobility. Until that time, they had no choice but to hang there and think nice thoughts. Any struggle would only tighten the cellophane's grip on their chests.

Once the vat man had finished tying off the last Supernaturalist, he made a call on the building intercom. Within minutes, Ellen Faustino arrived flanked by two bodyguards. When she saw the Supernaturalists suspended in the vat, she actually slapped the vat man on the chest.

'What do you think you are doing?' she demanded. 'These people are supposed to be dead! All I wanted to see was four bodies to be sure they were dead. These are clearly very much alive.'

Inside the vat, Faustino's words cut through Stefan's daze. Dead! There must be a mistake. What was happening here? Why would Professor Faustino want them dead?

Ellen Faustino wouldn't want anybody dead. She was a scientist.

The vat man didn't exactly bow, but he came close. 'Sorry, President Faustino.

n.o.body told me. I'll lower them immediately. In twelve hours there'll be nothing 4eft but molecules.'

Stefan tried to speak, but his breath barely rippled the cellophane. He thrashed weakly in the acid vat, but the wrap held him tightly.'So you're awake, Stefan,' said Faustino, resting her palms against the plasti-gla.s.s.