Free Masked (2010) by Lou Anders Page B

Who
series, for which he has twice been nominated for the prestigious Hugo Award. He is also the author of the novels
Something More
and
British Summertime
, and the creator of Bernice Summerfield, a
Doctor Who
companion who has gone on to spawn her own series of books, short story anthologies, and audio dramas. A fantastic writer in any form, Cornell gives us a tale that pushes the limits of double identities.

Secret Identity
    P AUL C ORNELL
    Jim Ashton heard the magic explosion. So could all of Mantos. He tried to look surprised. He put down his pint, spun around, looking out across the canal. Pretending he didn’t know what that was.
    “Look at Lois Lane,” said Hugh, sitting beside him. He, typically, hadn’t flinched at the noise.
    “What?” Jim turned back from the window, annoyed at the other man’s grin.
    “Is Chris really going to come out of the loo and sit back down here? Come on. It’s all right. If anyone can keep a secret, this lot can.”
    “You reckon? And,” he quickly added, “I don’t know what you’re on about.”
    Hugh lowered his voice. “Chris is the Manchester Guardian. Everyone knows they’re the same bloke.”
    Jim found himself wearing a sad smile as the sound of anotherexplosion echoed over the water. “Do they?”

    The Guardian caught the second of the Top Hat’s magic spikes a nanosecond after he’d thrown it, clenched his fist on it, and dumped the energy into the atomic void in his palm. This magic villain really could do anything: change time and space. The first throw had caught him off guard, spun him round in a whiplash of colors. But now he was closing on his opponent, flashing through the air toward him as their enhanced senses calculated the impact—
    He had a second to see the shocked expression on the Top Hat’s face—
    He was there faster.
    His senses were better.
    He deflected the bolt intended for his head up into the sky. He wouldn’t let it hit Canal Street.
    Enough of this! He broke through the Top Hat’s magical shields with one punch.
    He grabbed the magician by the collar and slapped the hat off his head.
    It went spiraling down into the lights of the bars and restaurants along the canal.
    The Top Hat tried to say something, his hands flailing, his expression demanding mercy now that he was powerless. He knew where the Guardian would send him. His eyes reflected the moon.
    The Guardian grabbed him with both hands and spun three times, until he was at maximum magical velocity—
    He released the magician. Straight at the moon.
    The Top Hat blazed a sudden bright line into the stratosphere. A reverse meteor. Faster than escape velocity.
    He’d hit the lunar surface in about three days.
    Without his hat to grant the wishes that gave him his powers, this time it might actually take him a while to escape.
    The Guardian glanced down and used his magical vision to find the hat. A group of students had grabbed it, were laughing about it,trying it on. Gay lads from the Uni, a couple of fag hags with them. They’d been queuing outside one of the bars while watching the battle. The people of Manchester had always watched the magic “hero fights” in their skies, treating them like the weather.
    The group of straight sightseers in front of them had also been watching, but now they’d gone back to arguing with the doormen. That bar had a door policy of quizzing people who wanted to get in, trying to enforce gays only.
    The Guardian didn’t understand how people could be like that.
    With a thought and a rainbow blur, he was there.
    He took the hat from the kid who was holding it. “Dangerous magic. Would you please let me deal with that, sir?”
    “Sure, sorry.” The kids were beaming at him. “Bloody hell, it’s you!”
    “It is!”
    “He’ll tell you!” one of the girls from the party by the door called out. “We’re mates of his!” She gestured over her shoulder at the party of grinning straight lads with her. “Tell him we’re all very very