Black and White Read Online Free PDF

or lack of honor. None of them had the obvious signs of a junk freak—no tremor in the limbs, no red-tinged eyes.
    Confront.
    Forcing a thin-lipped smile, Jet said, “Thank you for your concern, citizen. I’m fine.”
    “We can see that, baby,” a second kid said, almost swimming in his leather jacket. “You’re
so
fine.”
    “Absolutely luscious,” said the leader.
    From one of the others: “Must be hot under that cape, ’cause I’m sweating just looking at her.” Various snorts and chortles accompanied the statement like a laugh track.
    Jet felt her cheeks heat. Her face was hidden by her cowl, so she didn’t have to worry about revealing her embarrassment. Professional, polite, powerful—the three
P
s of being an extrahuman civil servant. Voice crisp, she replied, “Thank you.”
    “No, thank
you
, hero.” This from the leader, still the grinning shark. “Me, I’m glad you’re here. I’ve got to make me a citizen’s arrest.”
    “Oh?” She considered him in his blacks and heavily ringed face. He leered at her, all but undressed her with his eyes. But no matter how loud his bark, he was just an average human—no powers of which to speak.
    In other words, not a threat. She said, “Whom do you wish to arrest?”
    “You.”
    That took her aback. “On what grounds?”
    “The things you’re doing to that bodysuit have
got
to be illegal.” Shark wolf-whistled and slobbered as his friends high-fived and made kissy noises. And one of them pumped his crotch, miming sex.
    Fighting back the urge to roll her eyes, Jet’s smile stretched painfully thin; her cheeks were still sore from all the fake smiles for the holovids before, and her jaw throbbed from where Iridium had punched her.
    She got away
, Jet thought.
Again.
    “What do you say, hero? Want to get down and dirty, Grendel-style?”
    Jet prayed that her Runner would show up in the next thirty seconds, because otherwise she might let out some of her frustration on these kids. And not the frustration the gangbanger was implying, either.
    “I’ll even let you be on top. I know you heroes like that sort of shit.”
    She clenched her fists. Once she had her new comlink in place and Ops back in her ear, she could fly and scan the rooftops. Iri could still be in the area; it might not be too late to rectify her mistake. “I’m flattered,” she said to the teen, “but now I must be off. A villain is on the loose, and I must stop her before she hurts someone. Good day.”
    She turned away, already concentrating to summon a floater to whisk her into the air for her to better see the Runner—who should have been here by now—but a fierce tug on her cap spun her around … and into Shark’s arms.
    “No, Luscious,” he purred, his hands gripping her biceps tightly, “it’s going to be a
great
day.”
    Stupid kid.
“Unhand me.”
    “I don’t think so.” He grinned hugely, revealing smoker’s teeth and halitosis that would fell a rhino. “I don’t think you want to be heroing off just yet. I don’t think you’ve had a good time in ages.”
    Planting her feet for leverage, Jet said, “Actually, you just don’t think.” Then she slammed her forehead into his ringed nose.
    He screeched and let her go to cover his face. An upper-cut to his chin knocked him back. He fell against the alley wall and slid to the ground, hands still over his nose, blood gushing between his fingers.
    There was the sound of metal behind her.
    She spun to see three of the six Grendels holding naked blades—Hogans, she thought; what were they doing withHogans?—and two sporting plasguns. One had morning stars poised and ready to throw.
    It looked like she’d get to release some of her frustration, after all.
    A flicker of Shadow was enough to clog the barrels of the guns; a bit more concentration to ring the edges of the throwing stars and dull the blades into a child’s toy. All in less than a second; their weapons were rendered useless before the toughs even