Avant Guard: San Francisco Meet

[dans]

I don't know how long it will take to finish this one, but here's the start. Love to hear your comments, please!

Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA, a Wednesday early in October, 1959.

It was a typical San Francisco fall morning; the sun was burning through the nighttime mist and it was going to be a beautiful day. A perfect day for a morning skate in Golden Gate Park for tall, thin, blonde Alex Silverstone and her even taller and much more muscular brunette friend Donna Sparks. It was Wednesday, but Alex was self-employed as an artist, and as a member of the San Francisco Police Homicide Squad, Donna normally took her 'weekends' on Wednesday and Thursday and battled crime Saturday and Sunday. So they planned on a long leisurely skate today - start from the Panhandle, cross the bridges and circle Strawberry Hill in Lake Stow, traverse the park as far West as the Dutch Windmill, and then come back. They'd done it before, the path was paved and in good shape the whole way, and they knew it should take a couple hours. They planned to follow up with lunch, and Donna had agreed to help Alex complete her move from her apartment to the house she'd just purchased on Golden Gate Hill this afternoon. And this evening, a club and who knows?

They came around a wooded corner with Alex ahead. "Donna SLOW DOWN! Traffic!" she screamed. A group of bicycle riders hand just turned onto the path from a side path and they were still spread across the path, not yet having gone back to single file - if they knew enough to ride single file. "Heads up! Traffic coming through!" she yelled at the cyclists. Then she was suddenly VERY busy as she tried to weave between the pack of small bikes all but blocking the road. She frantically called on all the skills she'd learned as Rookie of the Year lead jammer for the Dolls of Doom team in the Bay Area Derby Girls Roller League (BAD GRL) a few years ago, barely managing to avoid the closest bike by leaning to one side and frantically balancing on one skate only. She reached out and put her hand on the back of the seat on the next bike to avoid crashing into it from behind, then juked left to avoid the lead bike, then sped up - and broke free of the pack, both skater and cyclists unharmed except for the adrenaline rush.

"Silverstreak, the Dolls superstar jammer, surges through the pack, easily avoiding the opposing blockers, then breaks into the lead, picking up 6 points, then calls off the jam!" She straightened and put her hands on her hips as she mimicked a BAD GRL TV announcer. Then she muttered: "Damn munchkins oughtta stay outta the way!"

And was surprised when someone nearby spoke back! "Hey! I heard that munchkin crack! Maybe you shoulda paid better attention to where you were going! And whattaya mean by grabbing my butt like that anyway?"

Alex risked a quick look back, not far behind her she saw one of the cyclists, a determined look on her face as she pedaled furiously, trying to catch and pass Alex. The rider was a brunette with long braided hair streaming out behind her, wearing a blue sweatsuit with white block letters outlined in red across the chest reading USA. With her photographic memory she realized it was the bike she'd pushed off of the seat to avoid, and all the other riders were wearing similar sweatsuits.

"Mother Gaia, I REFUSE to be be passed by a munchkin on a kiddie bike!" she muttered to herself and dug in hard. She'd have to slow down again soon, as the path went right up to the shore of Stow Lake, then curved sharply to the right to follow the shore line. But she was determined that the cyclist wouldn't pass her until SHE allowed it. The girl on the bike whooped and shouted a challenge: "Gangway! Comin' THROUGH!" and pedaled even harder, and the gap started to close again. By this time, the bike, designed for casual use by pre-teen kids and definitely NOT up to high speed racing, was making alarming clattering noises, but the rider ignored them and just pedaled harder. Alex looked ahead, and there was someone running onto the path just before the bend - she had better slow down now. She was going very fast, especially for skating on concrete and without all the protective gear she'd used as a jammer. A fall now would be very dangerous!

Alex cautiously started to slow, the cyclist WHOOPED! again, this time in triumph, and as she was passed on the left, Alex was yelling at the rider: "SLOW DOWN! BIG CURVE AND TRAFFIC AHEAD!" The cyclist was head-down with the effort of pedaling; at Alex's warming she looked ahead, saw the runner blocking the path, and let out a terrified squeal. She backpedaled frantically to brake, and the bike's over-stressed chain broke and she had no way to slow down and she was about to hit the runner and she yanked the handlebars to the left to swerve and the bike's front wheel jammed and the bike bucked like a bronco and the rider was thrown over the handlebars and crashed down 10' out into the lake from the waterline as the bike tumbled after her!

As she turned toward the pond, in her peripheral vision Alex saw the runner stumble and fall, but she was already running awkwardly across the short strip of sand to try and help the rider in the water. As she reached the edge of the lake, she noted that the bike had not hit the rider, and the young woman had just surfaced and was attempting to stand in the water which was only about up to her waist. Since she didn't seem to need an immediate rescue, Alex turned back to the runner - and was horrified to see that he was lying face down next to the path, with the shaft of an long arrow protruding up from the back of his neck!

[dans]

Donna rolled up to the remaining cyclists at a much more leisurely pace; by now they had pulled off of both sides of the path and were watching their friend chase the skater. One of them heard her coming and turned. "Hey girls, look, it's a giant!"

"So, how'd you guys get here from Munchkin County? Are you lost?" Donna replied, a bit crossly. Then she reverted to her normal 'good cop' persona and continued. "Are you guys alright? I was afraid you and Alex were going to have a wreck or something. Figured I'd need an ambulance by now!"

"Nah, she slipped past us easy, like grass through a goose!" the original talker said, while her friends giggled at the slightly vulgar reference. "Tammi took out after her - and look at them go!" she pointed down the path at the two racers, already a couple of football fields away.

"So you guys must be in Frisco for the gymnastic tryouts?" Donna asked. A bunch of small, very fit-looking women in USA sweatsuits, Olympic gymnastics trials starting today, Donna didn't even need to be a detective to figure that out!

"Yeah, they start this afternoon. We really have to be back at the dorm by lunchtime, then after lunch the bus picks us up and takes us to the gym at 1:30. Maybe we had better see if we can catch Tammi so we're not late!"

"We could just not worry about her," one of the other riders grumbled. "She sure is a big talker!"

"If I know Alex - and I do - they could end up racing for miles!" Donna replied. "Unless one of them gives up, we'll never catch them. Where did you guys plan to ride, anyway?"

One of the gymnasts handed her a map of the park. Their planned ride was about half of what the skaters had planned - but it did include the loop around Strawberry Hill. "Can I roll with you?" Donna asked. "Who knows when I'll see Alex again?" They took to the path again, a few ahead of Donna and a few behind, switching places often. They chatted as they rolled. The gymnasts seemed almost awed at Donna's size; Donna found them charming. Suddenly, one of the lead riders pointed ahead.

"There they are, and something's wrong!" Donna looked ahead and she saw one person kneeling next to another lying on the ground. Alex was standing up and waving frantically in their direction; Donna interpreted her gestures as meaning "Hurry!" She waved back, pointed at herself, then back at Alex, and then skated a little harder; certain that Alex would understand her response. The bikers sped up as well, and the concerned group zoomed down the path towards their friends.

**********

Tammi Paige, the indignant cyclist, heard the skater shout at her and looked up - and yipped loudly in panic. She was about to hit a runner! She tried to slam on the brake, but the pedal chain broke and now all she could do was swerve. She yanked the handlebars way too hard to the left and the front wheel was forced around until it was almost perpendicular to the rest of the bike and was jammed into the path and the back end of the bike was forced up and Tammi was launched into the air as if from a catapult!

Tammi, who had grown up as a circus aerialist, was not totally unfamiliar with flying through the air, although she usually had more warning than now. She reacted instantly, struggling to turn an uncontrolled tumble into something resembling a racing dive, arms stretched out over her head, and then she hit the water - and actually bounced once like a skipping stone and then she landed again and almost instantly the water brought her to a halt. She barely knew how to swim and was on the verge of panic again when her feet touched bottom, and then she turned back to shore, ready to scream invectives at the skater and the runner; with her enhanced hearing, she could hear the skater gasp in stunned surprise as she bent over the runner. Tammi could see the shaft of a long hunting arrow sticking out of the runner's back.

Alex had seen murder victims close up before (see Murder in the Morning and Murder in the Evening). Though she wasn't trained in first aid, she'd seen what the police team did when they first arrived at the scene to see if the victim was still alive. As she picked up the victim's hand and wrapped her fingers around the wrist, Tammi arrived.

"You won't..." Tammi started, then she stopped; this stranger would not believe that her hearing was sensitive enough to tell that the victim's heart was no longer beating from 10' away. Alex couldn't find a pulse - and neither her enhanced vision or Tammi's enhanced hearing could detect any breathing either.

"We better call the police!" Tammi noted breathlessly. "I'll go use the pay phone in the parking lot back there!" She pointed back along the path.

"The girl I'm skating with is a homicide detective with the Frisco police - she'll be here in around 2 minutes, and she can take over when she gets here," Alex replied weakly. She felt like she might throw up and was really glad Donna was on her way. She stood up, used her zoom-in vision to look back along the path to be sure her friend was following. She zoomed in on Donna and waved her arms around, indicating that Donna should hurry. Though Donna didn't have zoom-in vision of her own, she did know that Alex was zoomed in on her, so she did her best to signal back "I'm on my way!", the put her head down and began skating faster.

All the performers in the Haly and Norton circus in which Tammi had grown up had at least basic first aid training. But nothing she'd been taught would bring a dead person back to life. She'd heard vaguely about a new technique to restore breathing, but the first requirement for mouth to mouth was to clear the victim's throat - and this one had an arrow protruding through his throat.

It wasn't long before Donna and the herd of gymnasts arrived. Donna immediately took charge, as Alex had expected and much to her relief. And her friend gave her something to do, right now, that would take her mind off the gruesome scene at her feet for a few minutes.

"Alex, go find a pay phone and call the police and tell them to send a Homicide team fastest! Ask the operator for my branch, and see if you can get through to Detective Ironside, but any Homicide team will do. And tell them they need a medical team, but it's probably way too late for that!"

Before she raced away, Alex stood tall and slowly turned in place, two full revolutions, capturing in her photographic memory every detail of the landscape around them for later review with Donna, looking for clues to this murder. Then she sped back to the last parking lot, glad that she always carried a small purse with her with enough change to make a local call!

[dans]

Other than being outside, the interview with Homicide Detective Ironside was familiar - too familiar. Alex didn't have anything new to add to the story the others told, except for two impressions. "It seemed to me that he was running away from something that scared him. And my impression is that the arrow came from Strawberry Hill." Well, he'd been running directly away from Strawberry Hill, and the arrow hit him from behind, so it seemed reasonable. She and Donna would search her memories for verification when they had a chance to be alone for a while.

Except it wasn't exactly an arrow. "The shaft is fluted, instead of fletched," one of the team's experts told her. "It was probably fired from a crossbow, so technically, it's a quarrel." Alex wasn't about to argue with him, but as far as she was concerned, a projectile launched from a bow was an arrow.

The Homicide team's doctor showed Alex and Tammi the arrowhead, a 2" elongated triangle of shiny metal over an inch wide at the base, narrowing to a wicked point. "Hunting arrowhead, made of titanium, sharper than a razor," he reported, showing them by shaving a curl from a rock he picked up. "The arrowhead severed the spinal column and all the nerves running through it. He was dead before he hit the ground," he added in a soft tone. "Probably didn't even have a chance to feel it. But there was nothing either of you could have done to help him." The two thanked him for that reassurance; each thought that it might help her mental state later, but right now, they were both pretty shaken and depressed.

The witnesses dispersed while the police team spread out, looking for other witnesses and clues. Ironside designated a cop to drive Tammi and her bike back to the USF dorm where the gymnasts were staying. The bike was pretty much totaled - the front wheel was folded almost double. Donna headed to her police station to file a report, no longer off-duty. Alex arranged with her friend to drop by the station in a couple of hours to review Alex's visual 'recordings' to see if she'd seen anything that might be useful in finding the killer.

*****

The bike riders sat at a table together during lunch. While most of the room was boisterous, those who'd witnessed the murder victim were much more subdued, some even talking about withdrawing. Tammi fought against similar feelings. 'I am NOT gonna give up now! I've trained for this all my life!' she frantically screamed at herself in her head. 'A chance to be on Wide World of Sports, NOT gonna miss it!'

Conversations were suddenly interrupted when a previously unsuspected sound system in the lunchroom began playing the opening introduction from Wide World of Sports, the crashing music and the thrilling voice over: "Spanning the globe... the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat." In their minds, many could picture the poor skier tumbling painfully off the side of the jump ramp. "...The human drama of athletic competition!"

As the voice-over ended and the crashing music continued, Tammi tried to sound excited. "We'll be live on national TV, you guys!" Except it came out more weakly than she'd intended. "I feel bad, too," she commiserated with her new friends, most of whom she'd met only last night. "But if we withdraw now, it will just make it easier for one of the other girls to win." She waved her arm to include the rest of the room. "And I didn't come here to make it easy for someone else. I came here to WIN! Gangway! Comin' THROUGH!!!"

A couple of the others nodded in agreement; the rest looked thoughtful, and the talk of withdrawing stopped. But the table became even more quiet as the competitors looked inside themselves and tried to find the motivation each would require to give their best performances this afternoon.

When the end of the TV introduction was reached, the mysterious sound system switched to a an eclectic medley of high energy songs: Rock Around the Clock, Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, At the Hop, Doug the Jitterbug, Tutti Fruitty, Great Balls of Fire. A couple of curious competitors sat down at the quiet table; it wasn't long before one of the witnesses re-told the story, and then the others began adding details, and girls at the other tables overheard and came over to listen more closely, and within a couple of minutes, the bikers were celebrities at the center of attention of a chattering crowd, with everyone hanging on their words and excitedly asking questions. For now, at least, the riders were able to put the horror behind them - they had things to do. Right Now!

*****

From his driver's license and some legwork, the victim was identified as Bobby Palmer, a 24 year old who worked as a night bellhop at one of the more expensive hotels in the city. He had apparently never come to the attention of the SFPD before. He was below average height and thin, with sandy hair, already thinning on top, and apparently quiet and somewhat reclusive.

The MO of the assassin was fairly easy to identify. The quarrel shaft was painted in bands of pink, black, and yellow, styled to look like the scales of a snake. "That sounds like the Coral Snake!" Ironside told his team, sounding a bit stunned.

"The painted quarrel sounded familiar to me, too, so pulled the latest Interpol bulletin about the Coral Snake!" Donna showed the team a file folder with the Interpol logo on it. "Over the past 5 years, there have been several murders around the world by crossbow quarrels painted like this one. The killer has never been identified; the name was given to the assassin by the press because the quarrels are painted to look like the scales on a Coral Snake. A year or so ago, some idiot boasted that HE was the Coral Snake; he was found dead the next day, his spine severed by a quarrel painted just like this one. Since then, nobody has come forward with any other similar claims."

The Interpol bulletin had a lot more information, though much of it didn't seem helpful. Coral Snake murders had occurred in many of the world's major cities - London, Paris, Moscow, Lisbon, New York, Bangcock, and others. The Snake's victims often included seemingly average people, but as often included law enforcement officers and criminals; so far there was no obvious pattern to either the locations or the victims. One thing that WAS clear - the Coral Snake was extremely good at concealing his identity and appearance. "In fact, nobody even knows if the Coral Snake is actually a him or a her - or even if there is only one Coral Snake," Donna concluded.

"We all need to be extra cautious during this investigation!" Ironside summed up. It was a somber crew that went back to their daily routines.

*****

"So that's all we know," Donna told Alex later. "Let's see what else YOU know!" The two were sitting in a conference room; Donna had snagged a portable movie screen as a target for Alex's projections. A scene appeared on the screen - Alex's view of the path, starting just before she had noticed the runner. As the victim ran into her view, Alex slowed, then stopped the playback and zoomed in on Bobby Palmer's face.

"He's terrified," Alex observed from his facial expression. Donna agreed. The scene moved forward slowly, Bobby turned to look over his shoulder, stumbled, recovered, and ran even harder. Both women were frustrated when the earlier Alex turned her head to observe as Tammi, her face strained with effort, her legs pumping furiously on the small, overtaxed bike, overtook her. And then Tammi swerved, and earlier Alex glanced toward Bobby for a second and he was falling forward, and current Alex zoomed in again, and the business end of the quarrel was sticking out the front of his throat, and then the view zoomed around to the left in time to see Tammi flying low over the surface of the pond, her arms outstretched like a flying mystery hero in a Saturday serial, and then there was a confusing series of twists as Alex turned her head back and forth from the man lying on the ground to the girl in the lake and back again.

"Freeze it here!" Donna suggested as the gymnast reached the shore. "Wow! That looks a lot like part of that famous painting, you know, Venus and the Lake, or whatever it's called. I'll bet you could make a fabulous painting of that!"

For an instant, the scene altered, as Alex started imagining the changes she would make when she adapted this scene into a painting. The crumpled bike became an otter, curiously watching the now nude human girl, her arms placed strategically, and then the scene snapped back to the original. "Thanks, Donna! I'll definitely do something with that one! But not now." Alex agreed. Then: "So this is what I saw just before I left to call your boss."

The scene shifted again, it was a view of the park. As earlier Alex spun and surveyed, current Alex stopped the scene again and again and they zoomed in on all the people she'd captured in her memory. None of them were nearby, none of them seemed interested in the scene - and none of them were carrying a crossbow.

"About midway on your first sweep, when you were facing north," Donna began, then turned her head away from the screen as the incredibly realistic scene swung by fast enough to affect her balance. "OK, zoom in on this spot here!" she touched the screen. Alex zoomed slowly, and they could see that an asphalt path led north away from the lake and into a wooded area, with a glob on the path. Alex stopped time and zoomed in some more. Perhaps a human figure, perhaps with a backpack, or perhaps something else. Alex moved the scene backward and forward in time; it was definitely someone walking north, but she'd only seen about 2 strides as she turned, and it was too far away to get any better definition. She put her hand over Donna's eyes and zoomed time forward to her next sweep, and the person was gone. She snapped the view back; she and Donna examined the blurred figure again.

"I can't make it any better," Alex apologized.

Donna nodded in agreement. "A person walked on the path. Just like dozens of other people we saw. Thanks for trying!"

"But I have learned something new about my powers," Alex mused. "I have zoom in vision, and I can zoom in on my memories too - but I can zoom in a LOT closer when I'm looking at something than when I'm projecting my memory of it later on. If I'd zoomed in on that guy when I was looking that way, I could have counted his gray hairs, easy, if he has any. But in the projection, we can't even tell if it's a boy or a girl."

"Well, I think a girl, given the way her hips swung," Donna objected mildly. "And carrying a guitar strung across her back. But we definitely can't see her well enough to check out her gray hairs!" She thought for a few seconds. "Nothing concrete. But I think I'll send a query back to Interpol and see if they have any hint of a woman with a guitar case in the area of any of the earlier murders..."

Donna had to go back to work; Ironside wanted her to talk to people at the hotel where Bobby Palmer had worked. Before she left the police station, Alex dropped around to the office of Detective Danny Wilson. About a month ago, her apartment had been robbed and a number of her paintings had been stolen. At the time, there had been no clues, no fingerprints, and no suspects. The case had been assigned to Wilson and Alex wanted to know if he'd learned anything new, also to let him know that she had been monitoring several art stores, just in case, but none of the stolen paintings had shown up for sale. Wilson had no new information. It seemed like a mystery that might never be solved. Why steal paintings by an unknown artist, but nothing else from her apartment? Of course, she didn't have much of anything of high value, but why take the paintings?

Since Donna couldn't help her move as planned, and she had nothing else on her schedule, once she'd finished talking to Danny, Alex decided to go to the gymnastics tryouts.

[dans]

The Cow Palace, Wednesday afternoon

"You're kidding, right, Jake? Women's gymnastics? C'mon, buddy, when I was hired, they told me I'd get the police beat!" San Francisco Morning Star cub reporter Phoenix Barrows complained about today's assignment, as he complained almost every day; Jake Kincaid, his editor, replied much as he did every day.

"If I'da been the editor back then, we wouldna hired you at all. Get out there and get the damn story and be glad you still have a job. And don't call me buddy!"

And, like he did every other day, Phoenix headed out to get the story. Today he was headed for the Cow Palace, which was hosting the trials for the Women's Gymnastics Team for the 1960 Olympics. He knew his press pass would get him into the stands, along with every other reporter covering the event - but he wanted more.

Outside the lobby under a big sign, a stand was selling bottled soft drinks. Phoenix stopped out of curiosity; he'd never tried Kooba Cola before, though he had often seen it advertised in a number of different media, including his favorite comic books growing up. The guy manning the stand claimed that he had sold out of Kooba Cola much earlier, but he expected to receive a delivery for tomorrow. Phoenix wasn't really thirsty, so he just joined the steady current of people streaming into the lobby of the big arena.

Phoenix was surprised at the number of people entering. There were dozens of small women who must be competitors with their coaches and trainers and many with family members. He noted several TV crews, at least 2 from national networks and he recognized vaguely some reporters from other San Francisco papers. Whatever he thought of covering this event, it was going to be well-attended.

He stopped inside the crowded lobby and looked around. There were a number of tables set up, each with a sign. General Admission, Competitors, Officials, AAU/Olympic Committee Representatives. People stopped in front of one of the tables and presented money or credentials, received tickets or badges, and entered the arena proper through different doors. It was crowded and loud with cheerful noise and the flow seemed endless. Phoenix observed for a few minutes, then made his way back out to the refreshment stand where he purchased a bottle of Colonia Dry ginger ale, the fizziest soda he could remember. He drank most of the soda as he went back into the lobby, then worked his way towards the table serving representatives of the US AAU and the Olympic committees.

Suddenly he staggered and yelled "Watch where you're going!". He waved his arms wildly to keep his balance, and the bottle bottle flew into the corner, spewing foam as it flew. Phoenix grabbed the table to keep from falling. The woman who was checking credentials and handing out passes jumped out of her chair to avoid the foam. Phoenix recovered his balance and stood up, both fists clenched, still yelling, "You stupid idiot!" and looking for the person who jostled him - and then stopped yelling and simple twisted his head this way and that, and then finally speaking again, much more softly. "Sorry folks - it looks like the guy that bumped me has already bugged out."

He walked to the corner, scuffing his feet over the foam spotting the floor, picked up and examined the bottle, then shaking his head ruefully. "Looks like a wasted dime... that guy better hope I don't find him later!" He walked over to the chair behind the table, and wiped it with the hem of his shirt. "Sorry, Miss... Preston," he hesitated as he read her badge. "Did any spill on you? Can I guy you dinner to make amends? Or at least pay for your dry cleaning?" Instead of blowing up at him, she smiled and shook her head.

It wasn't long before things got back to normal. It wasn't much longer before Phoenix used his AAU Representative pass at the door that let him onto the Cow Palace floor.

---

Phoenix stalked the floor in search of some great stories. He didn't pay attention to the specific tricks or routines, and not much more to the results - he could get a list of the winners later, and reading about a double twisting two and a half in the full layout position isn't very interesting to most people. So human interest is what he needed. He counted on his 'reporter's instinct' to try to pick out the ones with the most interesting stories.

"Good afternoon, miss. My name is Phoenix Carson, from National Gymnastic Magazine, and I really enjoyed your performance. Do you have a few minutes to talk with me for a story I'm writing about the tryouts?" He really was writing a story, but they wouldn't have to wait for a couple of months to see it - it would be in the Morning Star tomorrow. Then he'd ask some questions about gymnastics, and then find out more about the gymnasts with a few leading questions.

"So, tell me about being a gymnast. How'd you come to be here?" A winning question!

"Well, I really didn't expect to be here, actually. I competed in the Regionals last month, and I never thought I'd do very well,but I won! That sounds like a good thing, but, see, my family couldn't afford to pay for my travel, so I had to withdraw. But Laurie Montz, the alternate, convinced her family to pay my expenses. She was the alternate - she would be here if I wasn't. How generous was that?"

Next interview... "So, is your family here?" The response was not nearly so happy as the first gymnast.

"I'm an orphan..." Sad as it was, she had a riveting success story. He promised himself he'd come back tomorrow and hand her a copy of the paper with his story!

The next gymnast was bright and bubbly, and he discovered that she was the daughter of two aerialists in a traveling circus, who had lived with a relative for a year in order to train at one of the best gymnastics academies in the country. And then he hit the jackpot! "So, Miss Paige, tell me about your experience so far in San Francisco?"

"Well, we want straight from the airport to the dorm yesterday, and then they had an orientation session for all of us, and then dinner, and then another session - so I haven't seen much of the city yet. But what I have seen is pretty grotty - I've been here for less than a day and already witnessed a murder. How awful is that?"

A murder? A chance to follow up a crime story? Phoenix leaned closer, eager to hear more. And she noticed.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Carson, I really don't want to talk about it right now. And anyway, I don't have time, it's my group's turn for floor exercise."

"Can you tell me the story over dinner? I'd really like to hear more about it!"

She stood up and started walking away. "That could get me in BIG trouble, like maybe even disqualified! They warned us about hanging around with you fraternity guys!"

He didn't let being puzzled get in the way. "How about I pick you up around 7 in front of the SFU Library?" he asked quickly. "I know a great seafood place!" She kept walking.

He stuck around for a while, talked to some other gymnasts, watched Tammi do her floor routine - which wasn't the best he'd seen all day, but far from the worst, and then the real AAU officials shooed the gymnasts into the locker rooms and he went back to the office to write his story. And to check with his editor about following up on the murder.

"Forget it, Barrow. Stone's got that assignment. You're back at the Cow Palace tomorrow - and you'd better get today's story in by the deadline!" Rocky Stone was the Star's long-time crime reporter - in fact, Phoenix had been hired to take his place when he moved into an editorial position... but Rocky had hated the new job and gone back to the police beat. And Phoenix had picked up all the assignments nobody else wanted.

Phoenix got his story in early; it was slotted for the second page of tomorrow's Sports Section. Then he headed for the library on the San Francisco University campus.

[dans]

Alex's Interview with Rocky Stone

Alex was at home changing her clothes, getting ready to head out to the Cow Palace, when the phone rang. "Good afternoon, may I speak with Miss Alexandra Silverstone? My name is Rocky Stone, and I'm the crime beat reporter from the San Francisco Morning Star."

She knew who Rocky was, she actually had two of his stories in her scrapbook, about the Chinatown Protection Racket which she had helped break up, and the Golden Gate Theater murder which she’d help solve (see Murder in the Morning and Murder in the Evening). She hadn’t been mentioned in either story, which was fine with her, especially because Donna got the credit for solving the theater murder. ‘After all, I want to be a famous painter, not a famous detective,’ she thought as she listened to her caller. ‘I’ll be he’s calling about the murder this morning!’

“I’ve been assigned to cover the murder in Golden Gate Park this morning,” he continued, confirming her guess. “I talked to Detective Ironside earlier. He told me you’d witnessed it, and he is very impressed with with your observational skills. He says you must have a photographic memory! I wonder if you’d be willing to be interviewed?”

She’d never mentioned her powers to Ironside, though Donna knew about them. Ironside must have deduced her photographic memory; she hoped he hadn’t deduced more. “I’ve already told Ironside everything I saw,” she protested mildly. “I’m on my way to the Cow Palace – but I guess I could stop by your office for a few minutes. I’ll be there in 20 minutes.” Her photographic memory provided her with a pretty complete mental map of San Francisco; the Morning Star was ‘downtown’.

“So, you guys and the body were here,” Rocky touched a map of Golden Gate Park. “And we think the arrow came from Strawberry Hill,” he watched her closely as he said that, then touched the map. He held up two instant photographs. “This is a picture of Strawberry Hill taken from that spot an hour ago. I circled the spot where I think the shot came from. And this one is a shot from that circled spot, showing a perfect view of the path where the murder took place." He held the first photo closer to her. "Can you search your memory again and see if you saw anything unusual in the circled area?”

She looked at the picture, then closed her eyes and projected her memories on what she thought of as ‘the inside of her eyelids’. When she had first learned to use her powers, when she’d done this she had also projected the same image on the wall; it had taken her a bit of practice to learn to review the images mentally without projecting them at the same time. She definitely recognized the view in the picture; her own mental image was very similar. She zoomed in on it – but she and Donna had already done a similar exercise – in her mental image there was nothing suspicions near that spot. She opened her eyes and shook her head.

“I was pretty much splitting my attention between the girl who ditched her bike in the lake and the body on the ground, but no, I didn’t see anything suspicious in that area. Of course, by the time I looked that way, if someone had been shooting from there, he would have had plenty of time to run away or hide.”

“Ironside said you and the other girl were out in the open, checking to see if the victim was still alive,” Stone seemingly changed the subject. “That wasn’t very smart – if the shooter wanted to take out witnesses, at least one of you might be dead now, too. Hopefully the other one would have been smart enough to look for cover when she saw a second murder.”

“Thanks for the tip! I’ll remember that and look for cover the next time I witness a murder – which I hope is never!” she replied earnestly.

“Did you happen to notice anything unusual about the arrow?” he asked, again watching her intently. In fact, she had – but Donna had officially asked her not to mention it; the SFPD didn’t want rumors of an international assassin in San Francisco starting until they had a chance to do a little more investigation of their own. When she didn’t reply, Rocky continued. “If you are really as good an observer as Ironside insists, you know it wasn’t a regular arrow, and it was painted to look like the scales on a snake – a coral snake, in fact.”

Again, he seemed to change the subject. “You better stay away from high stakes poker until you come up with a better poker face.”

She still didn’t say anything, so he continued. “I stopped in the police lab after I talked to Ironside. It wasn’t a regular arrow, it was a crossbow bolt or quarrel. They were checking it for prints, testing the paint to see if it was unusual, figuring out what kind of wood it was made out of – you know, standard police forensics kind of stuff, and I guess Ironside forgot to tell them not to let me see. So, did you notice anything I don’t know already?”

She closed her eyes and examined the image of the police doctor showing them the quarrel, painted black, yellow and red. She zoomed in on it – no prints that she could see. “That’s a very intricate design. Somebody spent hours painting that bolt, and then used it as a murder weapon. What a gruesome hobby!”

Stone nodded in agreement. “There are some Interpol reports of similar quarrels from other murders in various large cities around the world. It seems like the work of a globe-trotting assassin, who Interpol is calling the Coral Snake, after the scale pattern. But there are no witnesses to any of these murders. In fact, Interpol is starting to suspect that the murderer can become invisible.”

Alex shivered – an invisible assassin sounded very scary. The Coral Snake must have decided to let her and Tammi live. ‘I wonder if I can see invisible things?’ she asked herself. ‘It sounds like I had better learn!’

Stone was clearly a highly experienced criminal investigator. His questions and the thinking they revealed were so fascinating that Alex forgot to check the time, and when she finally did, it was too late to go to the Gymnastics tryouts. Instead, she went home to start on her painting.

"I think I'll call it Nymph Rising from Lake Stowe," she mused. "The Botticelli original had a lot of other stuff in it, but I'm just going to focus on Tammi. And the otter in the water, of course!" She got out her colored pencils, projected the image of the gymnast stepping out of the lake, mentally altering details. The wrecked bike became an otter; the US warm-up sweatsuit a Grecian robe, Tammi's expression changed from furious to bemused, Strawberry Hill in the background moved farther away and shrank "Perfect!" she decided and made the illusion mostly transparent, then began sketching. She’d paint over the sketch next.

"This will be my best painting ever! Even better than the replica of the Matisse, Woman with a Hat, that I did last year! Liling sure wanted to buy it - but I didn't feel right selling her a counterfeit." As a practice exercise in using her powers, Alex had visited the San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts, closely studied the famous Matisse, and then made a copy - using all her skill and her powers to duplicate it to almost microscopic levels. It was one of the works that had been stolen recently. Now she was determined to use everything she'd learned during that exercise in this painting!

[dans]

Phoenix and Tammi Get Mugged

The immaculate, brilliantly Sportsman Red colored 1955 Corvette C1 coasting through the streets of San Francisco towards the University of San Francisco campus was something of a paradox to anyone who saw it. Who bought a 'Vette and then drove it like a little old lady?! Phoenix had found the car in a junkyard, and painstakingly restored it to much-better-than-new condition, and he didn’t care what people thought of his driving. Restoring the shattered fiberglass body had been incredibly difficult, and he didn't want to have to do it over. And a lot of his customizations would be difficult to repeat!

He found a parking space near the library, got out and sat on a bench out front, wondering if his impromptu date would show up... and she did, at about 2 minutes to 7.

"Good thing you are here already, or I would have just gone back to the dorm. I've got a curfew tonight, so let's get this row on the shoad!"

He offered his arm and walked them towards the car. When she realized they were heading for the 'Vette, she stopped, then gushed enthusiastically, "That's YOUR car? It sure is a beauty! I can't believe I'm going to ride in a Corvette!!!" She ran over, walked fully around it once, carefully examining it, mentally comparing it to the beat up old hot rod her one-time date Harvey Taylor drove - and the comparison was hands-down favorable for the 'Vette! 'I can't believe I actually went to the drive-in movie, with Harvey, in that beat-up pile of junk!'

When she got back to the passenger door, Phoenix reached out for the door handle, bowing as he did so. "Come, my lady, your chariot awaits!" he misquoted - but his courtesy was clear. He pulled open the door and held out his crooked arm in case she needed to lean on something as she got in.

Harvey had sat solidly in the driver's bucket seat in his hot rod and urged her through the open window to hurry up and get in... thus losing another mental comparison. 'In fact, it's hard to believe I ever really went out with that treacherous skunk at all!' she finished thinking of Harvey for the evening.

"I've never been in a sports car before!" she said as they pulled away from the curb. "Everyone in the circus drives big old boats because we all have to pull our trailers wherever we go."

"Well, with the V8 in this baby, I could easily pull a trailer... IF I wanted to," he protested mildly. "But it's way more than just a sports car. Got tons of luxury features too, some of which I built myself. Automatic transmission, power convertible top, motorized windows, automatic door locks, channel-scanning dashboard transistor radio, built-in radio telephone, power steering, power brakes, air conditioning..."

"I get it! Everything you could possibly want in a car, you got in YOUR car - including ME!" she replied brightly. "So you said 'seafood'. But I can get fish any time back in Wisconsin. I’d like to try something different, like lobster or Alaska King Crab. My aunt sometimes gets us lobster as a special treat. I really like dipping it in drawn butter! And I’ve heard that King Crab is even better!”

‘And even more expensive,’ Phoenix moaned mentally as he tried not to wince; dinner was going to be cost a lot more than he’d expected. But if he got a good story about the murder out of it, he could write dinner off in his expense account. “I know just the place, down on Fisherman's Wharf!” he did his best to sound enthusiastic. He had been headed to a cheap seafood place near the SFU campus, a place he'd frequented when he was an undergraduate student there, but now he headed toward the tourist trap area of the city.

As he drove, Phoenix asked about the murder but she deferred. "You'll get the whole story AFTER we order. I don't want you running off when you realize how little there is to hear, I'm hungry!"

He laughed at that, while thinking: 'Maybe I deserve that, after all, I am using a false identity. But she doesn't know that!'

Phoenix continued to be the gentleman in the restaurant, pulling out her chair for her. She looked over the menu and instantly selected the most expensive item, the Surf and Turf. He concealed another wince, and was about to ask her again about the murder, but she didn't give him the chance.

"Who are you really?" she demanded. "You don't know ANYTHING about gymnastics, and you don't work for National Gymnastics Magazine - there IS no such thing! So what's your story!"

After a slight hesitation, he told her the whole story. "So I really AM a reporter assigned to the try-outs, but I work for the San Francisco Morning Star." He showed her his real press pass with his real name on it. "And I really DID write a story, a really good story, and it will be in tomorrow morning's Star!" he finished proudly, then added, "No way was I going to sit in the bleachers all day and then try to write an interesting story about people who I never even talked to!"

When she didn't reply for a few seconds he continued. "You're not mad, are you? Tomorrow morning I plan to get a dozen copies of the paper and go back to the championship and give copies to everyone I talked to and included in the story. After we finish breakfast, of course!"

"Hey, hold on a minute! I've got a curfew tonight, and they take attendance at breakfast - and I've gotta compete tomorrow. I'd better not miss curfew tonight, or you're going to regret it, Buster Brown!" She laughed at his overdone crestfallen expression. She changed the subject.

"There isn't really much to tell, about the murder witness thing. I didn't see very much..." She told him pretty much the story as we read it earlier, though in her version, she had easily caught up to and blew by the skater, just before the murder victim ran into her path.

"And then I was in the lake and by the time I got out, he was dead with that awful arrow through his throat!" He quizzed her for about 2 minutes, and then she cut off the conversation. "That's the whole story. So can we forget about it and enjoy dinner? I really do have a curfew - and I'm going to need a clear head tomorrow to WIN!"

They talked about the competition. "I'd hoped to be in the top 10 at the end of today," she said almost apologetically. "But tumbling and the bars are my two weakest events - I'm just barely in the top 25. But I'm WAY better on vault and the beam, I really expect to win both events. I've been training to do stunts on the high wire since I was 4, so the beam seems to be as wide as a sidewalk to me. And I've been flying even longer - I have some tricks that nobody in the world has ever seen before on the vault, things my parents taught me to use on the trapeze. By this time tomorrow, I should be number 1 overall - and the odds-on favorite to win at least 3 gold medals in the Olympics - the first gold medals EVER in the whole history of the Olympics by an American girl gymnast!"

He quickly realized that no matter what they talked about, every conversation soon turned to Tammi - and yet, she was so energetic and enthusiastic that it was charming rather than annoying. 'Although it would be nice if she were a bit more interested in my story,' he thought, more than once.

She seemed to sense his thoughts. "All we've done is talk about me," she noted. "Let's talk about you for a while." Then she grinned devilishly, "So tell me, Phoenix - what do YOU think about me?" She watched his expression, then burst out laughing. "Got you! You said earlier you went to University of San Francisco University. Growing up in the circus, I never even thought about going to college - tell me what college is like! And did you ever meet Bill Russel?"

Later... "That was a really swell dinner - and I am SO glad they have leftover containers - they gave me enough for three more meals!" she sat back with a sigh of satisfaction. "That was ever so much better than eating in the cafeteria in the dorm with a hundred chattering girls!"

Phoenix grinned at the irony of the 'chattering girls' phrase. "So perhaps we can continue this charming evening? We could take a drive on the Coastal Highway, and I know a nice romantic spot not far from where you get off the Golden Gate Bridge!"

"Phoenix, I've told you at LEAST a dozen times, I've got a curfew tonight, and a gymnastics competition to win tomorrow!" she sighed. "Tell you what, let's take a quick walk on the Wharf instead. Maybe we can find time for a drive after they announce the Olympic team - with me on it, of course!" Then, "Can we lock my purse in your car so I don't have to carry it? I hate carrying a purse with me; I never need one around the circus, and I'm always afraid I'm going to somehow lose it."

As they walked down the narrow street next to the restaurant toward the rear parking lot, 4 men were walking down the same street toward them. They immediately started making jokes about the couple.

“Say, buddy, did you win a cupie doll at the circus? Big, strong boy, plays with dolls…" "Isn’t she a little young for you, buddy?" "Say, if you held her upside down by her ankles..."

Tammi pulled on Phoenix's arm, trying to urge him toward the parking lot. “Let's just hop in your 'Vette and take off, Phoenix. Just ignore these jerks. I’ve put up with this same kind of $#!* from other stupid jackasses all my life, and learned that they certainly aren’t worth my time – or letting them mess up our date.” She spoke quietly, but one of the men, at least, had rabbit ears.

“Hey, fellas, the teeny tiny baby girl called us a bad name. That hurts my feelings!” The four changed direction to approach Phoenix and Tammi directly. "Let's show 'em how bad our feelings is hurt!"

Phoenix pushed Tammi behind him and straightened up. "Look, fellas, we aren't looking for any trouble..."

"But you found it!" Unexpectedly, all 4 rushed him, and though he had time to slam a powerful punch into the jaw of the leader, knocking him down, the other three tackled him. His head cracked against the brick wall as he went down, and he lay on the sidewalk moaning.

The leader got unsteadily to his feet and stepped in front of Tammi. “So, Thumbelina, we’re going to have a good time tonight! You're going to pay for your boyfriend trying to deck me!”

Tammi didn't look scared - she just looked furious. “In case you are too stupid to have noticed, he did a lot more than just TRY to deck you. You were decked until your toadies jumped him. You know, $#!*head, we were just going to walk away from you guys and try and forget that there are freaks like you in the world. But you hurt my friend. I can’t walk away from that.”

"Uh, oh! Are you guys scared?" he laughed. "Scared of a midget? That's a joke!" "C'mon, Jack, I seen butterflies that are scarier!" "Who ever heard of a talking baby doll using words like that?!"

“One more warning dimwits," she snarled. "YOU have one more chance to walk away on your own, right now – or you may need an ambulance to carry you away, a few minutes from now. I’ve got some new tricks I want to try out, and it might as well be with you – and I guarantee you won’t find them pleasant. It’s up to you!”

“Ooooohhhh, new tricks from the baby girl. I’m ever sooooooo scared!” The leader, the tallest and perhaps scruffiest of the 4, stepped forward. He was about 2 inches taller than Phoenix – which made him almost a foot taller than Tammi.

She didn't flinch or even move. Instead, she warned him defiantly, “I hope this doesn’t make you deaf permanently. But I’ve never had a chance to practice it on a live jerkoff before.”

Of course, he continued to walk toward her. Then he screamed in fear and agony and slammed his hands over his ears, trying to block out the amplified ROAR of an angry lion coming from just an inch from his head, louder than any real lion had ever roared! Tammi took two steps toward him and leaped forward, twisting (very gracefully, had any judges been watching) so she hit him feet first, just below the belt. She twisted again, still gracefully, and landed lightly on her feet as he fell to the ground and rolled up in a ball, moaning with pain. The other three were shaking their heads, more than a little dazed by the roaring lion, but they weren't yet showing signs of retreat.

"What about a cannon blast?" Tammi mused. For an instant, an orchestra played a few bars from the 1812 overture, and Tammi sang along. "This is the cereal that's SHOT FROM GUNS!" BOOM! The amplified sound of a cannon going off inches away from them was too much for the other 3 attackers; they started running. By now anyone that had been close enough to hear the roar and the explosion were also running for cover, while those inside nearby were looking for somewhere safe in case there were more explosions, and those near phones were calling the police.

Tammi squatted on the sidewalk and helped the dazed Phoenix pull himself into a sitting position. “Well, I warned them they wouldn’t be walking away,” she nodded to herself in satisfaction. "Guess my new tricks work pretty well!"

"I'm .... dzzy and my head.... hurts," Phoenix forced himself to gasp out weakly. "But... YOU made those noises? ... I don't ... believe it!" He was forcing himself to concentrate to try to ignore the pain in his head.

"If you promise not to tell anyone, I'll tell you a secret," she replied. He tried to nod his head in agreement, stopped and gasped in renewed pain. "I can make sounds out of the air. Any sounds I want - and as loud as I want!" It almost sounded like a boast, but right now wasn't the time to boast.

"I don't ... believe it!" he said again; if she hadn't had enhanced hearing, she would have missed it.

"OK - what's your favorite song?" she challenged him.

"In the Mood, by Glenn Miller," he replied in a whisper.

"Of course it is, fits you, doesn't it?" she chuckled sadly. In the background, a saxophone softly played the sharp opening bars of the famous piece, then Glenn Miller's band joined in. And then, a couple of police cautiously approached them; the orchestra stopped playing. It wasn't much longer before an ambulance arrived to take Phoenix to the hospital for observation for a major concussion. As he was strapped to the gurney, Tammi bent to whisper in his ear. "Remember, you promised!"

"OK, Little Miss Music!" he barely whispered, trying to smile.

"You'll pay for that 'little' crack!" she promised him. "Don't worry - I'll buy a dozen papers for the girls tomorrow." She made her own promise. "You get better!"

They pushed him into the ambulance and off it went. She spent the next hour repeating her story, professing innocence regarding the noises - and no one ever did figure out what created two sonic booms over downtown San Francisco that evening! Even though one of the officers drove her back to the dorm, she still missed curfew.

[lee]

As always, Dan, your Avant Guard stories never fail to entertain. I really enjoy visiting you section of this earth.

[dans]

It is great to see you back, Driv! Thanks - wanna finish this one for me?

[dans]

This one has been sitting for a LONG time, but our recent talk about self publishing reminded me that I need to complete two stories in order to fill in some  holes in the AVant Guard stories set on Other Earth so I can publish the collection - the story where Alex and Tammi first met (this one) and the story in which they were invited to join the Alliance of Mystery Heroes - the invasion of Earth by the aliens who crash-landed in New Mexico in the early 60s. (I need to rewrite one of my Earth S stories to fill that hole...)

I originally stopped on this one because I couldn't figure out how to get where I though I wanted to go. So I changed gears a bit, and got another few chapters done. But it's been paused a long time. The next post is a summary of the story so far, and then we can jump right back in!

[dans]

What's Happened So Far?

OK, so how do I summarize this story so you can pick up from here with the next post? You _COULD_ go back to the top and read through the whole thing again, but the following should help you catch up if you don't want to read it all again.

The time is late 1959. The place is San Francisco. The event is the AAU Women's Gymnastics National Championship, and the prize for placing in the top 5 in the two-day competition is a place as a member or alternate on the 1960 US Olympic team.

Tammi Paige is one of the competitors, representing the Milwaukee Gymnastics Academy. She is staying in a dorm at San Francisco University with 19 other gymnasts from all over the country for the duration of the event. Their coach for the event, dorm supervisor, and chaperone is Mrs. Amwake. The trials begin on Wednesday afternoon.

Wednesday morning, Tammi and some of the other girls staying in the same dorm are out for a bike ride in Golden Gate Park. Artist Alex Silverstone and her best friend, off duty cop Donna Sparks, are roller skating in the park at the same time. Phoenix Barrows, a rookie reporter for the San Francisco Morning Star, gets his day's assignment, to cover the gymnastics meet. Phoenix is unhappy; he was hired for the crime beat when veteran reporter Rocky Stone had accepted an editorial job, and then bumped to 'gopher' when Stone decided he didn't like being an editor.

The two groups of women in the park almost collide going round a blind corner, and this precipitates an impromptu match race between Tammi, who is riding a small, cheap rental bike, and Alex, who not long ago had a brief but spectacular career as a Roller Derby professional skater. They almost crash into a runner going round another blind corner of the path. Alex managed to miss him but when Tammi swerved frantically, she ended up crashing into Stow Lake. When the two girls returned to the path they discovered that the runner was dead; a viciously sharp crossbow bolt had severed his spine at the base of his neck and he must have died instantly.

Donna is a cop in the Homicide unit, and it wasn't long before her boss, Detective Robert Ironside, had arrived with his crew. After being interviewed by the police, Tammi and the other gymnasts were released to go to their competition. During some work back at the station, Donna discovered an Interpol bulletin about a mysterious assassin nicknamed 'The Coral Snake' who used a crossbow and had struck in several other major cities around the globe. Almost nothing is known about 'The Coral Snake'.

The victim was identified as Bobby Palmer, a bellhop at one of the city's most expensive hotels, and nobody who knew him could think of any reason someone would want to murder him.

Donna and Alex got together at Police HQ that afternoon and review Alex's memories of the Park; Alex uses her uper power to project images as illusion to show everything she saw at the park on a movie screen, and they use other aspects of her power - stop motion / slow motion / zoom in  to examine everything closely but are unable to locate a specific suspect, specifically they don't see anyone carrying a crossbow.

Phoenix sneaks onto the floor at the Cow Palace where the gymnastic championship is being held using forged Olympic credentials, and interviews several of the gymnasts, pretending to work for National Gymnastic Magazine. When he finds out that Tammi was a witness to the murder this morning, he asks her for a date that night, allegedly to interview her about the murder.

Rocky Stone is assigned to the murder story and interviews Alex, while Tammi competes competes in floor exercise and gets one of the highest scores, and the uneven bars, her weakest event, which she is middle of the pack at best.

Phoenix shows up for the date, and Tammi does too. She has discovered that his credentials were forged, but she shows up anyway, and uses the knowledge to 'convince' him to take them to dinner at a restaurant that is much more expensive than Phoenix originally planned on. He consistently tries to steer the date in a romantic direction; she consistently responds that she has a curfew and a competition tomorrow. As they walk to his car, a group of 4 tough guys tries to mug them. Phoenix is injured when 3 of them gang up on him, but Tammi uses her powers to knock out one and scare off the rest, with some ultra-loud noises directly in their ears.

While they wait for the police and the ambulance, Tammi reveals her powers to Phoenix and makes him promise not to tell, and plays some music for him to prove it and comfort him. As he is strapped to the gurney she reminds him of his promise; he responds "OK, Little Miss Music." Phoenix ends up in the hospital while Tammi is grilled by the police over the mysterious 'sonic booms' that struck the neighborhood while she was fighting the muggers, and the police finally deliver her to the dorm, after curfew.

So, that's where we are right now. Ready, set... Go!

[dans]

Thursday Morning Ups and Downs

There was a real buzz in the cafeteria at breakfast - yesterday's results had been posted. Even though the bars were her weakest event, Tammi was 9th after the first day's trial. Vault was probably her strongest event and she had something unusual planned for the beam - she fully expected to get the best scores today and finish the day in 1st! Of course, most of the women around her felt the same way - which meant a LOT of excited gymnasts on the bus ride to the Cow Palace!

At the newsstand outside, Tammi bought a copy of the Morning Star and quickly flipped open the Sports section. Phoenix's story was on the front page, though below the fold. Tammi bought several copies of the paper, a couple for her own souvenirs, and then distributed the rest to all the competitors Phoenix had named in his story. That led to a run on the paper stand and in a few minutes, the Morning Star was sold out!

Tammi was in the second group to perform on the vault this morning. As she was lazing in the warmup area, a young man with a staff insignia on his shirt started making his way through the crowd of gymnasts, checking their numbers and occasionally glancing at a small paper he held, reminding himself which number he was looking for. He stopped with Tammi.

"Miss Paige, can you come with me, please? Miss Petrova, one of the representatives of the Olympic Committee, would like to speak with you."

Tammi was instantly on edge. "The Olympic Committee? Am I in trouble?" All she could think of was getting in after curfew last night.

"She just wants to congratulate you on your performance yesterday," he replied. "Come along, please!"

It was hard to believe she would be singled out for coming in 9th. Still, her group wouldn't be on deck for another half hour, so she grabbed her bag so it wouldn't get lost or stolen and went with him, mystified and more than a little apprehensive. In a minute, she was shown into an office and introduced to Nina Petrova, a woman probably in her mid-40s with a severe haircut and a perfectly tailored business suit, with the Olympic logo on the breast pocket.

"It wasn't my fault I missed curfew last night!" Tammi started to explain as soon as the messenger had left the room. "I had to tell the police about the muggers - at least a dozen times!"

"Don't worry, dear, there's no problem with that. I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed watching you yesterday. And it wasn't just me - the American sports TV show Wild World of Sports is already calling you "America's Darling"!" Her English was very good, but she had a sharply clipped accent that Tammi didn't recognize.

Tammi almost giggled in relief. "Thanks! I guess I really did OK yesterday... but those were my weakest events. My best events are today! I wonder what they'll call me after I WIN?" She so relieved she didn't even point out that it was really 'Wide World..."

Nina laughed with her, then changed the subject. "A number of the judges for the beam event told me you'd been asking a lot of questions about the rules yesterday. You seem to have talked to them all. I'm a little curious - what has you concerned? It's a bit unusual for one of the competitors to spend so much time talking to the judges. Some people might think you were trying to unduly influence them."

"Oh, NO!" Tam was stricken! "I have some tricks I want to use on the beam today - some things I've never seen any gymnast perform. I don't know all the rules really well, yet... I wanted to make sure I won't be breaking some rule or other. I would never think of cheating! I'm not in trouble for just talking to them, am I?"

"Don't worry, dear, I can help. If you're nice to me, I can not only make sure they accept your tricks, but that they give you the best scores."

Now Tammi was REALLY confused - but she was starting to get suspicious, too. "What do you mean, 'nice'? I'm nice to EVERYONE! And I'm gonna get the best scores - because I'm the BEST!"

"I'm sure you've been 'nice' to your boyfriend," Petrova smiled, but it wasn't really a pleasant smile - more like predatory.

She got it now - and wasn't pleased. "Oh. You want sexual favors in return for swaying the judges to give me better scores..." she stated flatly.

"Now, dear, there's no need to be so crude. Suppose we just celebrate with dinner tonight after you've been named the number one member of this year's Olympic team?"

"No. And No Again!" Tammi replied. "I don't need anyone's help to win today. I have to go, my group is up next." She stood and pulled open the door.

"You have two choices!" Petrova said sharply. "You can sit back down and beg me to give you a chance to be nice to me - or you can walk out of here and I will talk to the judges and make sure you never compete in the Olympics - your hopes and dreams in shreds." She reached out and adjusted the position of a folder on her desk.

"With Wide World of Sports showing everything - and focusing on America's Darling - even your crooked judges won't DARE give me bad scores. You can't stop me from winning! And I'd rather be 'nice' to a poison ivy patch!" She slammed the door behind her.

"Bad mistake, 'dear'," Petrova said to the air, as she, in turn, walked out the door, carrying the folder from her desk.

Tammi was trying to concentrate on her upcoming event, doing warmup exercises, watching the current competitors, and visualizing her planned routine in her mind... and she was failing miserably. She desperately needed someone to talk to, someone friendly, but not a coach and not one of her competitors. She was surprised and somewhat relieved when she was greeted by a familiar voice.

"Good morning, Miss Lake Diver!" Alex greeted her cheerfully. "You don't look very cheerful. That must be your game face?"

"Alex? What are YOU doing here? You're not allowed on the floor," Tammi protested halfheartedly.

"All the Olympic people think I'm just another one of them," Alex replied, pointing to the Olympic emblem on the front of her sweater. "So what's eating you, little one?"

"People who make 'little jokes', for one thing!" Tammi snapped crossly. "Cut it out, huh, or go bug someone else."

"Sorry," Alex replied contritely. "So what's bugging you?"

Tammi quietly gave her the short version of the story. Alex looked horrified. But before she could comment, another Olympic official, who Tammi recognized from introductions on Tuesday evening as the head judge, walked up to them, his face stern. He was towing Tammi's coach, Mrs. Amwake, along behind him, and she looked furious. "Miss Paige, I need to talk to you and coach Amway, in private, right now!"

"But I'm due up really soon. I CAN'T miss my turn!" Tammi tried to protest.

"Your turn is cancelled." he said flatly. "Talk now, or I'll have you thrown out of here." He grabbed Tammi with his free hand and pulled both women - both of whom were much smaller than he - along with him. Alex followed uncertainly. Two big men prevented her from entering the small room the judge led them to.

When they were alone - the head judge, Tammi, Coach Amwake (and the two very large security guards), the judge finally deigned to talk to them again. "Paige, the judges have just been presented with information that confirms that you are a professional athlete, and thus ineligible to compete in the Olympics. You are hereby barred from further competition in this event. This is a serious violation of Olympic protocol." He handed Tammi the packet of papers. "Here's the report and the Olympic decision. There is an appeal process; you can file your appeal Monday and you will be heard the next time the proper Olympic officials are in the States." Tammi was getting over her stunned horror, and about to begin protesting. "If you make a commotion, Paige, or even raise a fuss, you will be permanently disqualified from consideration from all future Olympics, with no appeal allowed - and Amwake here will likewise be forever disqualified from coaching again in the AAU."

The sanctions against her didn't matter any more - Tammi would never want to complete in the Olympics again, and it was a good bet she'd never even watch them again. But the threats against Coach Amwake mattered to her. Mrs. Amwake was in a tough spot. She'd been selected by the AAU from hundreds of coaches nationwide to be the the temporary coach (and chaperone) for the group of 20 competitors currently residing in their USF dorm for the duration of the Nationals, and two of those gymnasts were her daughters. She was torn between her compassion for the unfair treatment of Tammi, and the duty she felt to the other gymnasts.

"You will be escorted from the building, now, and you are lucky the Olympic Committee will not press fraud charges against you... Cheater." The judge turned and walked away - he clearly had no time for someone he considered a cheater.

The 2 security men ignored the muted protests of both Tammi and Mrs. Amwake, and began dragging Tammi out the door. The judge stuck his head back in. "I'm reminding you, Amwake: keep her quiet, or you'll be blacklisted."

Outside the door, Tammi dug in her heels and turned to her coach. "I'll go with them, Mrs. A, you go coach the other girls. And make sure they do GREAT!" She turned to the guards. "I'll go quietly..." Then she broke into sobs.

Alex rushed up to them in concern over her new friend. "What's the matter?" The guards saw the Olympic insignia on her sweater and paused. Tammi shoved the packet into Alex's hands.

Mrs. Amwake was clearly in anguish, trying to decide what to do, torn by concern for her team, and the girl who was no longer part of that team. "Tammi, please go back to the dorm, and tell the dorm monitor what happened. She'll take care of you until I get back - and I promise I'll rush back as soon as we're done competing here." She turned to Alex. "You must be a friend of Tammi's?" Alex nodded uncertainly - she'd only met the other girl yesterday. "Can you go back to the dorm with her? She shouldn't be alone right now."

Alex nodded again, more firmly. "I can do that. You're right, she shouldn't be alone." Alex needed to know more about this; she was starting to wonder if it might turn out to be a police matter that she should talk over with Donna.

Tammi nodded tearfully and the two exchanged a long hug, until the security guys got antsy and started dragging Tammi toward the door again. She squirmed and twisted and broke free and raced to the warmup area. The guards and Alex and Mrs. Amwake gave chase as best they could without simply plowing through and knocking aside the people swarming on the gym floor, then relaxed when Tam picked up her gym bag and returned to the group.

"Thank you, Tammi!" Mrs. Amwake was relieved.

"You coulda just told us you wanted to get your bag!" One of the guards snarled.

"You wouldn't have let me get it, would you?" she snarled back. His non-answer was pretty much a confirmation of what she'd said. "I need to stop in the locker room and change my clothes!"

"Nope - just put 'em on over!" the other guy snarled, and so they stopped in a corner while Tammi put on her street clothes overtop of her leotard.

Halfway across the floor, they passed close to Nina Petrova, who was attended by an aide, a slim Asian woman of indeterminate age. Petrova was staring intently at first one nearby gymnast, than another, occasionally making notes on a pad. She saw Tammi with the two guards and her expression changed to a superior sneer of victory.

Tammi reached into her travel bag and pulled out... a reel of tape recorder tape? She held it up like a trophy. "I've got a recording!" she spoke quietly, but the triumph in her voice was evident. "You'll read about it in the paper tomorrow!" She then turned and marched determinedly toward the door, forcing the guards to hurry to keep pace with her.

Of course, her conversation with Petrova wasn't really caught on that tape yet; this tape currently held a collection of songs she liked to perform to. But thanks to her power, as soon as she could find a tape recorder, that conversation WOULD be on tape, and indistinguishable from the original! She would have preferred to play that tape to the TV team, but Petrova would be sure to keep her away. But breaking this story might give Phoenix a nice boost in his career, and she figured he could call it in by phone if he was still in the hospital.

After they were out of hearing range, the assistant whispered. "Those are the same two who were present yesterday morning."

Nina replied very quietly: "Get that tape - and then kill them both and anyone she plays it for. Away from witnesses, this time, or else! And NO LINKS to the Snake!" There was a snap in the 'or else' that made the other flinch. "I'll finish the rest of our business in San Francisco tonight and we will leave tomorrow."

[dans]

The Start of Something Big?

Tammi heard those whispers, even some distance away in the noisy arena. "Oh NO! They're going to try to kill us! Both of us! Well, it won't be as easy as they think! You stick with me, Stretch, and I'll keep us safe."

Alex was bemused, to say the least. "Who is going to try to try to kill us? Why would anyone want to kill us? And why do you think I need you to keep me safe?"

"You think because I'm small, I'm helpless? I can take care of me, just fine - with plenty left over to take care of you. too!!" Tammi was diving into this head first because it took her mind off the trials. "As to who: I heard that witch Petrova tell that other girl to kill us both. And I think they might have had something to do with killing that guy yesterday - I heard the other one say that we are the same two that were there yesterday."

"You couldn't possibly have heard them talking! It was too noisy and we were already too far away! You're making up some kind of fantasy story because of what she did to you."

"I heard them because it's my super power. And you haven't heard of me yet, but before long, everyone will know about Miss Music, ME! The world's newest, and GREATEST mystery hero!" Until that instant, Tammi hadn't decided on whether she really wanted to be a mystery hero or not - but now she knew!" Alex looked even more skeptical than she had an instant before - which was pretty difficult. So she continued: "Come with me - we'll find someplace where there's nobody around, and I'll prove it to you!"

'Can she really have a secret super power?' Alex pondered. 'It seems impossible... and yet, I have a secret super power. Why not listen - maybe at least it will help calm her down and get back to reality.' "There's a little park not far from here," she offered. "Let's see if it will do. Turned out, there was nobody around that Alex could see with her enhanced vision, or Tammi could hear with her enhanced hearing - although neither knew that the other was employing her sensory power... at least, neither knew yet.

"So, the Cliffnotes version of the story is that I'm a super-sensitive human tape recorder. I can hear a flea jump onto a dog from a mile away, and can remember exactly anything I've ever heard, and I can 'play it back' as if someone had tape recorded it." Alex's facial expression changed; to Tammi, right then and there, it looked like disbelief... but a dispassionate observer might have suggested she just looked very thoughtful. "OK, I'll prove it! This is from when we talked to your boyfriend Detective Ironside yesterday."

From out of the air between them, Alex heard Ironside's voice, asking them questions about the murder, and their voices answering. As best she could tell, the conversation was verbatim, and the voices were perfect. The conversation continued for a half a minute, and then Tammi interrupted herself. "And this is when you were talking to your cop girlfriend, Donna!" Alex and Donna had been in a different room from Tammi at the time - but every word was verbatim, and every voice tone was perfect.

"And this is what Petrova and her girlfriend said as we were walking out of the arena." Again, the exact words and voice tones.

"Wow, that's pretty amazing," Alex didn't sound nearly amazed enough to gratify Tammi. "But Ironside is NOT my boyfriend, and Donna is not my girlfriend!"

"Well, you're telling half the truth, anyway," Tammi chuckled. "But if you believe me, couldn't you at least sound a little more excited? You don't meet a genuine mystery hero every day, you know!"

That left Alex chuckling - and it helped her make a decision she'd been considering a long time. "Actually... I do, sort of, every day. Because I have a super power too, and I'm going to be a famous mystery hero myself - Palette. I'm going to be known as the Princess of Photons! Since you're sort of a human tape recorder, I guess that makes me sort of a human newsreel camera. In fact, my power is how I got on the floor today. Watch this!" She pointed at her sweater - with a start, Tammi realized that the official Olympic logo that had been there before was gone. But as she watched, it popped back into visibility. "That's not all I can do, either!"

So of course, she had to demonstrate her own power, playing back the scene of Tammi flying into the lake and rising from the water, and repeating again their interview with Ironside. An interesting thought occurred to her. "Can you play back that interview again, and match it to my illusion? So we hear Ironside when I show him talking?"

They could, and did - and it was like Alex had been holding a movie camera and filming a talkie of the interview - every word perfectly synchronized with the image! Both were excited, but it was Tammi who made the next leap.

"We should team up TOGETHER! We'll both be EVEN MORE FAMOUS than we would apart! Just think - a little while from now, we'll be making news as America's Best Mystery Hero Team EVER - the NEWS CREW!"

Alex was now well beyond just 'bemused'! "Two problems, little one... you live with a traveling circus in the Midwest, over a thousand miles from me. We'll need to be faster than that crook Zing if we really want to work together. And... that name is... just awful!"

"Don't worry, we'll work out the details as we go along!" Tammi's earlier depression and anger were at least temporarily overwhelmed by her enthusiasm. "And the first thing we're going to do is find out more about that evil Nina Petrova and her friend!" A second's pause. "Hey, I told you not to call me little, Stretcho! If we're going to be the best mystery hero team ever, you better learn to watch it!"

[dans]

Uh Oh, Aren't We Forgetting Something?

An alarmed look crossed Alex's face - closer to terror, in fact. She grabbed Tammi's and dragged her away from the bench they had been sitting on and into a clump of trees, into a crowded space closely surrounded by tree trunks. But the pair never emerged from the clump.

"We're being stalked by an international assassin, right? And we're just standing around, chatting! We need to be way more careful - and we should get away from here!" she explained her hurry. She was spinning slowly in place, consciously using her enhanced vision to closely examine everything she could see between the trees. Tammi listened intently - as far as she could tell, there weren't any people nearby. Each shook her head - as best their powers could determine, they were safe right now, but who knew for how long?

"Here's something else I can do, 'Miss Music'!" Alex's appearance changed instantly; tall, trim, short haired blonde Alex was replaced by a tall, thin man with short graying hair and a pencil mustache, wearing a flowered touristy outfit. "I call him 'Tom' and I practice his appearance all the time, so it's easy. I've never done this for someone else before, so it will take a couple of seconds and may be a little sloppy at first. But we should keep quiet, too!"

Tammi didn't notice as her hair turned from brunette to bright blonde, but her eyes widened in astonishment when she noticed that the official 'Olympic approved' schoolgirl outfit with the plaid skirt in Olympic colors that she'd been issued when she'd arrived turned into a frilly pink romper with illusory lace at the neck and sleeves. Even her sneakers changed into saddle shoes.

"Geez, 'Palette', I hate dressing up," she complained, projecting her whisper directly into Alex's ear. As she moved around to examine her new outfit, the illusion occasionally faltered and her old outfit showed through in flickers, but Alex instantly corrected those slips and was quickly becoming better at maintaining both of their illusory disguises simultaneously.

"For now, I'm 'grandpa' and you're my granddaughter Mildred." Alex whispered, remembering that Tammi could hear her easily anyway. "Let's get out of here! My motorcycle is parked pretty close by."

"Gee, and nobody will EVER think grandpa and his sweet frilly granddaughter getting on a motorcycle is unusual, will they?" Tammi asked sweetly. "Looks like I'm gonna have to be the brains AND the brawn for the 'News Crew', if we plan to live long!"

"Oh, shoot!" Alex whispered some bad words and her disguise began to shift in jerks and stages, from an older tourist to a very thin James Dean with greased-back hair wearing motorcycle leathers. It took longer than the change to Grandpa Tom had taken, and Tammi helped Alex do touch up by whispering snide comments directly into Dean's ear. In a couple of minutes the outfit was done, and Alex altered the facial features so nobody would wonder why a dead actor was cruising around San Francisco.

"Can you pin up your hair, little one?" she asked her friend. "I can't do anything about your height. But if you put your hair up, I can probably make you look like you're wearing a helmet." Tammi already had on a leather jacket, and her face looked somewhat like Elvis. She rummaged in her bag for some hair ties. "And take off the skirt - I can make your legs look like you are wearing tight leather, but I can't make the skirt disappear."

It took longer than they were comfortable with, but Alex was quickly becoming better at projecting illusory disguises. Pretty soon, where there once had been two young women, and then a pair of tourists, standing in the thicket were two male motorcyclists, dressed all in leather and even including skulls and crossbones on the back of their jackets. The shorter of the two was wearing a German WWII army helmet.

"OK, I'm Ralphie, and you're my younger brother Potsie. Can you make a roar like a motorcycle?"

"Of course I can!" Even when mystified, 'Potsie' still sounded indignant. "But, why?"

"I guess actually I'll have to be the brains, but OK, you can still be the brawn. You'll see. But we are NOT going to call ourselves 'the News Crew'!"

"If you don't cut out the 'little' jokes, they're going to call you 'totally crushed beyond straightening'!"

Alex ignored that. "I'm parked over there," she pointed to the lot behind the arena. "Keep your ears peeled!" They hurried off toward her bike, Alex constantly turning to scan their surroundings, while Tammi listened for 'anything unusual'. They made it to the bike without incident.

"OK, you get on behind me and start the motorcycle and keep it running until we're a few blocks away?" Alex asked. "This is an electric motorcycle and it's silent. Tough guys like us don't ride silent motorcycles!"

[dans]

Using the Beta Capsule, Donna Becomes.... Blackout Girl!

They stopped in the parking lot as soon as Alex could see her bike, so Alex could make some changes to its appearance. Then they hopped on, the silent electric bike roared to life, and they zoomed out of the parking lot. Alex took a roundabout route to the Bayview area, always choosing the busiest streets, often roaring down between rows of traffic on the center line, usually driving faster than was normally safe, squealing randomly around corners.

"Gangway! Comin' THROUGH!" Tammi yelled excitedly in her real voice as she kept the motor roaring with her powers. "Aren't you worried someone will report us to the cops?"

"How? We're not us, and this isn't my bike or plates. And there isn't a motorcycle cop in town who can catch ME! Just this one time, I think we're safe from the assassin AND the police. Say, just before we get to that next corner, cut the engine noise, OK?" They skidded around a tight turn and Alex was suddenly very busy, navigating her now silent bike through a maze of overflowing trash cans in the narrow alley.

"Nobody following us, that's for sure!" Alex examined the alley behind them intently in the bike's mirror. "I don't think anyone other than that Zing crook from Chicago is fast enough to follow us here through the streets like that, especially with both of us on the lookout for tails. And, besides, Zing would never dare come into this alley, the stink would kill her for sure!"

Tams wrinkled her nose and sniffed in disgust. "We'll be lucky if it doesn't kill US! I'm sure glad my power works through my ears, NOT my nose! Let's NOT do this again, soon!"

Finally in Alex's apartment, not too far from Candlestick Park, surrounded by all the boxes of her stuff ready for the move to her new house, Alex called the police department and talked to Donna, while Tammi used her power to eavesdrop. Alex didn't mention Tammi's power; instead she told her friend that she'd been able to read the lips of Nina Petrova and her mysterious assistant.

"You've discovered a new way to apply your powers?" Donna was interested and impressed. She and Alex had spent hours discussing things Alex might be able to do, but they hadn't thought of this one. "I guess you can zoom in on their lips, and then watch it over and over again until you figure it out. Sounds pretty useful! Still, Interpol has over 5 years of assassinations that they've linked to the Coral Snake, and no witnesses. Seems unlikely that you'd be the first. Unless..."

The same horrible thought occurred to all three women at the same time. "Unless... they killed any witnesses, and Interpol hasn't connected those other murders to the Coral Snake too!"

"Ask her if Interpol has anything on Nina Petrova!" Tammi insisted, loud enough for Donna to hear.

"I wasn't looking for her name - I never heard of her until just now," Donna replied. "Hold on, let me get someone to check." They could overhear her instructing an office assistant to go search their Interpol files for unsolved murders in the same cities just after the prior Coral Snake assassinations, and also for any records related to Nina Petrova. When she got back on the line, she sounded more worried, as she put another piece together.

"This didn't seem important before but now; we had no reason to connect the Olympic trials to the murder. But, well... we've been interviewing the staff from the Royal Savoy Hotel, where Bobby Palmer worked, trying to find out if he has any known enemies or if there's been anything unusual happening at the hotel lately. Nobody mentioned anything out of the ordinary, important groups stay there all the time, but... a few of them mentioned the Olympic Committee representatives who are in town for the gymnastics championships are staying at the Savoy."

"I'll bet that Petrova witch is staying there! That PROVES that she ordered the Coral Snake to kill him!" Tammi shouted triumphantly.

"It doesn't 'prove' anything. We don't know for certain if Petrova is at that hotel, just because other Olympic staff are staying there, and even if she is, that doesn't prove she had anything to do with killing him." Donna replied cautiously. "But it IS a possible connection - and in a murder investigation, I don't believe in coincidences. You guys bar the door and don't let anyone in but me. I'll call the hotel and see if Petrova is books, and then I'll be there in 15 minutes to help keep you safe. And when I get there we can figure out what to do next."

"NO WAY!" Tammi's voice whispered directly into Alex's ear. "The News Crew is heading to the Royal Savoy to do some investigating on our own!" Alex didn't respond right away, considering everything. "Right?"

Alex shook her head. "Thanks, Donna. We'll see you in a few minutes. By the way, can you bring a small tape recorder?" She smiled. "No, one of us is NOT going to confess to the murder. You'll see when you get here. See ya!" She hung up.

"What do we need HER for?" Tammi yelled. "The News Crew can handle this on our own!"

"Well, for one thing, she's got a gun. And she'll bring a recorder so you can get your 'interview' with Petrova on tape." Alex replied. "And we are NOT 'The News Crew'!" Alex owned a pistol, but it was already at her new house. "Before she gets here, though, we should talk about what we can do with our powers. It would be a GREAT start for our new team if we could capture an internationally known assassin. But we're gonna have to tell Donna about you, OK? She knows about my powers already."

"After you and me team up and send Petrova to prison, Donna's gonna find out anyway. But I get to tell her!" Tammi agreed.

"So what can the two of us... OK, not the News Crew" (That was VERY reluctant!) "...do? Well... I can make really loud noises right inside peoples' ears and stun them, or really loud static and confuse the heck out of them. And it is almost impossible to hide from me or sneak up on me. If there's someone nearby, I can hear him. And I can sometimes identify people later after I hear them breathe. I'm not very good at it yet but I'm getting better. And if I get a few seconds to rememberize them, I can always identify cars, trucks and motorcycles later by their engine noises. And of course, I can communicate with someone who knows my powers almost silently. Whatta YOU got?"

"I can 'zoom in' on the things I can see, like using a binoculars or a microscope. I can see in the dark, but mostly what I see are black and white splotches. I can follow footprints in the dark if they haven't faded out yet. I can make someone temporarily blind by 'blacking out' his eyes or dazzle him with bright flashing colors. You've seen, I can disguise us." She pointed at a wall, and they were watching Dorothy and Toto and her companions in peril skipping down the yellow brick road. "And I can play movies!"

Suddenly, there was singing that matched the movie. "We're OFF to see the Wizard....." Both women laughed. The singing ended abruptly and Tammi spoke in her real voice. "Can you see through walls?" Alex shook her head. "It sounds like your girlfriend is outside - and I can't hear anyone else out there."

Alex opened the door to surprise Donna. She was dressed in her duty uniform and carrying a heavy canvas tote bag. "I told you to wait until you were sure it was me! What if I'd been the Coral Snake?" Donna scolded her friend.

'Donna, do you have a secret power?" Alex asked. Donna was clearly baffled at the change of subjects, and hesitated, and Alex added: "I've started to wonder... I have a secret super power, you know that. And I just met someone and found out SHE's got a secret power as well. What are the chances of that happening? So it made me wonder, maybe EVERYONE has secret powers and just nobody tells anyone else?"

"You really want to know?" Donna asked shyly. Both other women nodded eagerly. "Promise not to laugh!" She hesitated until they both nodded, then took the plunge. "It's not nearly as useful as yours, and I can't do it on command..." Slowed to a stop, but Alex nodded, encouraging her to continue. "I can... well, I sometimes turn streetlights off at night." The other two just looked at her. "I'll be walking down the sidewalk, and the light I'm under will just... go out. Or driving in a car, too. It happens several times a week..." She put out her hands. "Hey, it's not much - not even close to what you can do - but it makes me feel kind of special when it happens, that I can do something nobody else can do... even if I can't do it on purpose. Even if sometimes it's a little spooky."

"So... maybe everyone DOES have a secret power they don't talk about," Tammi mused. "One of the clowns in the circus cam make light bulbs burn out. Sort of like you, Donna, not all the time, but sometimes when he walks into a room one of the light bulbs will flash really bright and go out. All his friends keep extra bulbs just in case he comes over. We even call him 'the Flasher'! And our fortune teller really CAN see the future sometimes..." Both the other women looked at her incredulously. "Not all the time, of course! And not with her cards or her crystal ball. But sometimes, before a performance, she can tell that someone is going to get injured. She's been with the circus for 30 years and everyone says she's never been wrong. So for years now, if she sees someone getting hurt, she tells the Gaffer a he pulls that person from the show that night."

"Well, this is interesting, but my own 'power' isn't very useful unless I could make it work whenever I want. And it would be way better if it worked on all kinds of lights, not just streetlights," Donna replied wistfully. "I could call myself Blackout Girl - and since you can see in the dark, Alex, we'd make a perfect team!" Tammi looked like she was going to protest, but Donna kept talking. "I suppose you brought this up because you're going to tell me your new friend here has super powers too?"

"I do the same kind of stuff Alex does, but with sound. Her powers are much better than mine, though..." Tammi admitted modestly.

Alex thought for a few seconds. "Hadn't considered that yet, but I guess you're right, Tiny Titan," she nodded in agreement and winked at Donna. In case you  haven't noticed, Alex loves giving people nicknames! "My powers ARE better..."

"Hey, whatta you mean by that crack?! My powers are WAY better - the BEST! And I TOLD you to lay off that 'tiny' stuff!" Guess who said that?

Donna changed the subject. "This was fun, and while it might be even more fun to watch you two fight, we have bigger fish to fry. We think there's a deadly assassin looking for you two. What are we going to do about it?"

[dans]

News Flash! Car Bombing in a Residential Neighborhood

"Let's go to the Royal Savoy hotel and search Petrova's room and find out what got poor Bobby killed! Right NOW!" Tammi was gung ho, let's GO! trying to pull Alex toward the door.

Donna was hoping for a near-future promotion to Detective; she was serious about deductions and assumptions. "Petrova might be staying at the Fairmont for all we know. Or living in a storeroom in the Cow Palace. But even if she IS staying at the Savoy, are you just going to break into her room? Are you planning a crime, Miss Paige? If so, I have to remind you, I'm a cop."

"You're comin' with us, of course - and they'll LET you into her room! After all, you're a cop!" Tammi replied.

"As a cop, I need probable cause. I don't have it, yet..." Donna was serious about the law, too.

"OK, how's this? Turn on your tape recorder and I'll GIVE you probable cause." It only took a minute, and then they were recording Tammi's playback of her conversation with Nina Petrova.

"No death threats there... although she WAS racketeering. Might get her fired or not. I've heard that Olympic gymnastics are rife with crap like that. But no death threats..." Donna held up her hand to stop Tammi's outburst. "Just making the same objection a lawyer would make. There's no evidence in that conversation that she plans to have you killed."

"Oh, YEAH?!?! Just listen to this!" Suddenly they were hearing the background noise of a crowded gym, filled with excited gymnasts and spectators, with floor exercise music audible from one corner, and then the background noise faded and they could hear Petrova giving her orders to her associate. Even Donna, who was trying to remain professionally dispassionate, skeptical, and analytical, was chilled.

"It sure sounds like a death sentence for you guys, delivered by someone who has done it before," she admitted with horror. She turned to Alex. "So this is the conversation where you said you read their lip? Can we watch it?"

"Ummm... I sorta fibbed, Donna, sorry... I didn't want to give away Tammi's powers. But I believe her!"

"Me too... I guess you called me for a good reasons," Donna agreed slowly. "Can we get pictures of these two?"

"When Tammi overheard them, she yanked me around," Alex explained. "So yes, I have pictures of Petrova and her assistant, right after she gave the order. They just haven't been captured by a camera until right now." She pulled an instant camera from her bag as the wall of her apartment turned into the inside of the Cow Palace, and there was a dizzying instant as the viewpoint swept around from the exit ahead of them as Alex spun to the crowded floor behind them, then steadied on the suspect pair. Alex kept the scene running as she aimed her camera and snapped the shot.

"This is better than taking pictures of a still scene," she explained to her friends. "An expert examining the photo might wonder why it wasn't a bit blurred if I stopped the playback." The picture whirred from the slot in the camera, and a few seconds later she pulled off the plastic cover and handed the now-developed photo to Donna. Petrova and the woman they were sure was the Coral Snake were easily recognizable in the center of the photo, staring intently directly at the camera.

"But it's still not good enough for a court," Donna cautioned them. "Tammi could have made it up. That's what any good lawyer would say, if we got that far."

"So what, we're supposed to just wait until she kills us, and THEN we have enough proof to go to court?!" Tammi demanded, as she stomped her foot. "I'll bet your boss, Alex's boyfriend, would believe us and DO something! Anything!"

The other two women spoke emphatically at once. "He's NOT (her/my) boyfriend!", then all 3 of them looked at each other and laughed.

"I didn't say we shouldn't do anything, Tammi. I believe you, and we HAVE to do something. But we can't do anything illegal. What you have should be enough to convince Captain Ironside if you show him your powers."

The other two looked at each other, came to silent agreement via Tammi's powers, then both shook their heads. "Nope. Ain't gonna do it."

"OK," Donna had been thinking fast. "Suppose we tell Captain Ironside about Petrova's initial threat, then tell him that after Tammi taunted her, she overheard Petrova give the orders to kill you, and Alex took their picture. Even without the recording, that should be enough to convince him to give you two police protection. But you'll have to convince him that you have really GOOD hearing!' Tammy nodded. "I'll wire the photo to Interpol HQ with urgent priority and ask them to see if they have any records on either of these two, and if they do, that should be enough 'probable cause' to search their rooms at the hotel. But if Interpol doesn't find anything, he's never gonna trust me again. My job's on the line here - last time I'll check, but I got to. This is real, right?"

Before Tammi could erupt, Alex reached out and firmly placed her hand over her new friend's mouth. "It's all real, Donna. Thank you for believing us."

For an instant, there seemed to be storm clouds raising from Tammi's forehead, then they cleared and her voice said, contritely, from the air between the three women, "I swear on a packa Bibles, Donna, this is real!" Alex frowned at her, and the voice continued. "Thanks for risking your job for us."

Alex smiled and removed her hand. "I forgot - shushing you is pretty useless!"

"Don't you forget it again, Stretcho!"

"Great! So let's get you two some police protection!" Donna led the way cautiously to her police vehicle parked on the street outside the apartment building, a police 'pie wagon' - a small panel truck designed for transporting suspects in handcuffs from wherever they were arrested to the police station for booking. She cautiously peeked her head around every corner, then she let Alex examine everything she could see with her zoom-in vision, and all the while Tammi kept her hearing turned up to max. She pointed whenever she heard people breathing nearby so the other two could examine them visually before they moved closer.

"I've an idea," Alex suggested mischievously when she saw the gray police van. She stopped and concentrated, and the van changes colors until it was white, and then colorful letters formed on the sides.

Tammi laughed. "That's my favorite brand!" The she recoiled in horror, grabbing the arms of her friends. "The truck is TICKING!" She concentrated a second. "Passenger side, above the front wheel." Suddenly, the ice cream truck was a police van again.

"You guys get inside! This is MY job!" Donna ordered her friends. "Alex, you call the police and tell him Donna Sparks told you to call in a code 10-45, and it's no prank, and we think it's a time bomb! And see if you can get through to Ironside after you warn the dispatcher! Tell them the address too!" Alex rushed back inside - she knew there was a pay phone in the lobby of the apartment. "You too, Paige, inside!"

"NO! I can help you clear the street!" Tammi argued. "We don't have time to argue!" Before Donna could argue, Donna's voice, tremendously amplified, was shouting up and down the street.

"I'm a cop. There's a time bomb in my van. Everyone clear the street, we don't know when it is going to go off!"

Donna stopped arguing, she just turned one way down the street and started pushing pedestrians into building entrances, while Tammi continued making announcements that were easily heard a block away. When Donna reached the corner, she raced across the street and hurried back up the block, shuddering again during her closest approach to the (presumed deadly and doomed) police van. At the next corner she crossed and went back down the block. By now, over and around Tammi's announcements, they could hear sirens approaching from all directions. The sidewalks were clear for a block and people farther away were running away. "Can tell everyone to stay off the street when you're running, cause it could blow up at any time? Or else, just RUN!" They started running down the cleared sidewalk.

Donna's voice boomed up and down the block - 'boomed' being a bad choice of words because that announcement was cut off by a much louder BOOM! as the time bomb exploded.

***~~~***

Several blocks away, in the parking lot of Candlestick Park, the Coral Snake sat in her rented car and counted down time. She was not in the least surprised when heard the explosion, exactly on time, but a second later began to worry because the sound hadn't come from the direction she was expecting. The van should have been several blocks closer to police headquarters but it sounded like it had still been at the curb in front of the blonde girl's apartment building when the bomb went off. With all the sirens she could already hear converging on the spot, she couldn't safely go back and check her work.

She'd been outside the window of Alex's apartment when the three had decided to go to police HQ; she'd dropped to the ground from the fire escape and slapped her magnetic time bomb inside the wheel well of the pie wagon. It was a tactic she'd adapted from a tong war. Timing was always an issue, but she was sure she'd estimated the actions of her victims correctly. Maybe they'd had engine trouble, or been delayed inside the building. She may have to finish them off some other way, now... it was sloppy work, and she HATED sloppy work.

A half hour later, she was able to relax, as she heard an emergency news bulletin on the radio.

"There has been a vehicle explosion near Candlestick Park. The SFPD reports a tong-style car bombing of a police van in a residential neighborhood. Reportedly, the driver of the van was an SFPD officer who was recently involved in shutting down a Chinatown protection racket and sending many of those involved to prison. Police theorize that the officer was targeted for her part in last spring's bust of this Chinatown Protection Racket."

"An anonymous witness told our reporter that there were two powerful explosions and then the van caught fire and was totally burned out before the fire department could put it out, and that nobody in the van could possibly have survived. The identity of the officer driving the van and any passengers is currently being kept confidential by the SFPD until next of kin can be notified."

(see Murder in the Morning for more information about the Protection Racket bust).

With the police reporting the deaths of her targets and no links to her, she could report back to Petrova and they could finish up their other business in San Francisco tonight, and leave tomorrow with the rest of the International Olympic contingent they traveled with as cover. It was a lucky break that the police were linking the bombing to tong retaliation, but good luck was often the result of thorough planning and careful execution.