Free Ultrahuman 01 - Ugly by Niall Teasdale Page B

it.’
    ‘She watches enough TV,’ June added.
    ‘All right then,’ Red said, smiling, ‘let’s see what you know.’
    Penny blinked. ‘Oh… Well, the Tonaldo family runs Churchton, Deale Harbour, and Fairhaven. I think they have their fingers in the gangs in Friendship, and I’d imagine they run financial crime through Downtown. The Knights keep northern Friendship fairly controlled, and Ultranova’s all over the bigger stuff in Uptown and Downtown.’
    Red nodded slowly. ‘Not bad. You’ve got the popular conception of what’s happening down pretty well.’
    ‘I get the feeling that’s not the real case then?’
    ‘Well… The Knights are pretty good at handling street crime, but they’ve never made any significant inroads into organised crime. Luckily, there’s not too much of it in Friendship as a whole, but the drug situation is getting bad. Less so in the north, but it’s still there.’
    ‘Oh,’ June said, frowning. ‘Well that makes me feel safer in bed.’
    ‘You could always move in with me,’ Bobby suggested, his grin broad.
    ‘Stick to blondes, Bobby,’ Red suggested. ‘The Tonaldos do run pretty much everything in the north. They got kicked out of Uptown and Downtown by an as yet unidentified group, though rumour has it that they’re Russian. Friendship still seems to be disputed, and the Tonaldos don’t seem to be the major drug suppliers.’
    ‘Soviet?’ Penny asked. ‘Or escapees?’
    ‘Unclear,’ Bobby replied. ‘It’s possible that the SOP has sent infiltration agents. Possible, but unlikely. They don’t like sending agents out of direct supervision for too long unless they’re heavily indoctrinated, and we would have heard of someone that high ranking.’
    ‘I think I missed something,’ June said. ‘The SOP?’
    ‘The Superhuman Orientation Programme,’ Penny supplied, demonstrating her knowledge. ‘We tend to call it the Superhuman Induction Programme. The Russian works either way, apparently. They find Ultras within the Soviet Union, then they, uh, train them.’
    ‘For train,’ Red said, ‘read brainwash. Though some of them are really that fanatical about serving the cause of global communism. The ones who get away tend to go to Europe, but some come here.’
    ‘Like Svetilo,’ June said, her voice dreamy.
    ‘Should I be worried about competition?’ Red asked, one eyebrow rising.
    ‘No. An Ultra in the bed is worth two in the bush.’
    ‘Hmm… Svetilo does come to the Den once in a while. I’ll introduce you.’ June’s eyes widened, but Red just kept on going. ‘Whoever these newcomers are, they’re powerful. They have at least some Ultras in their ranks. No one has identified them or linked any specific Ultrahumans to them, but their main target at the moment seems to be the Tonaldos. There have been a number of deaths among the higher-ups in that syndicate.’
    ‘Briscetto,’ Penny said.
    ‘Is the latest. David Tonaldo has lost four Enforcers in the last year, one of them his youngest brother.’
    ‘Word is he’s offering a cool one million for information leading to the demise of his rival,’ Bobby stated.
    ‘And no one has a clue who this criminal mastermind is?’ Penny asked.
    ‘Clues, sure, and they’ve all led to people who turned out to be pawns or minor agents. I was looking into one of those leads when I had my little accident. It was a good lead too.’
    ‘Maybe too good,’ Penny suggested. Red looked at her, an eyebrow raised. ‘Well, you said the others led to people, minor players, but people. Yours didn’t. Maybe you got too close.’
    ‘Maybe. I think there’s more than one person behind this, and I think they’re Ultras with a lot of power, and a lot of backing. Like I said, you stick to the minor league stuff until you’ve more experience under your belt.’
    June giggled. ‘None of my current costume ideas have belts.’
    31 st August.
    ‘Are you serious?’ Penny asked. ‘There is no way I am going out in