perched comically on their heads. Waiters froze, huge trays of pasta quivering on their splayed
fingers. Chubby Italian infants covered their eyes with chubby fingers. It was always like this in the
beginning: the shocked silence. Then came the screaming.
A wine bottle crashed to the floor. It broke the spell. The pandemonium started. Holly winced.
Trolls hated noise almost as much as light.
The troll lifted massive shaggy shoulders, its retractable claws sliding out with an ominous
schiiick. Classic predator behaviour. The beast was about to strike.
Holly drew her weapon and flicked it up to the second setting. She couldn't kill the troll under
any circumstances. Not to save humans. But she could certainly put him out until Retrieval arrived.
Aiming for the weak point at the base of the skull, she let the troll have a long burst of the
concentrated ion ray. The beast staggered, stumbled a few steps, then got very angry.
It's OK, thought Holly, I'm shielded. Invisible. To any onlookers it would seem as though the
pulsing blue beam emanated from thin air.
The troll rounded on her, its muddy dreadlocks swinging like candles.
No panic. It can't see me.
The troll picked up a table.
Invisible. Totally invisible.
He pulled back a shaggy arm and let fly.
Just a slight shimmer in the air.
The table tumbled straight towards her head.
Holly moved. A second too late. The table clipped her backpack, knocking the petrol tank clean
off. It span through the air, trailing flammable fluid.
Italian restaurants - wouldn't you know it full of candles. The tank twirled right through an
elaborate candelabrum. It burst into flames, like some deadly firework. Most of the petrol landed on
the troll. So did Holly.
The troll could see her. There was no doubt about it. It squinted at her through the hated light,
its brow a rictus of pain and fear. Her shield was off. Her magic had gone.
Holly twisted in the troll's grip, but it was useless. The creature's fingers were the size of bananas,
but nowhere near as pliant. They were squashing the breath from her ribcage with savage ease.
Needle-like claws were scraping at the toughened material of her uniform. Any second now, they
would punch through, and that would be that.
Holly couldn't think. The restaurant was a carousel of chaos. The troll was gnashing its tusks;
greasy molars trying to grip her helmet. Holly could smell its fetid breath through her filters. She
could smell the odour of burning fur too, as the fire spread along the troll's back.
The beast's green tongue rasped across her visor, sliming the lower section. The visor! That was
it. Her only chance. Holly wormed her free hand to the helmet controls. The tunnel lights. High
beams.
She depressed the sunken button and 800 watts of unfiltered light blasted from the twin
spotlights above her eyes.
The troll reared back, a penetrating scream exploding from between rows of teeth. Dozens of
glasses and bottles shattered where they stood. It was too much for the poor beast. Stunned, set on
fire and now blinded. The shock and pain made their way through to its tiny brain, ordering it to
shut down. The troll complied, keeling over with almost comical stiffness. Holly rolled to avoid a
scything tusk.
There was complete silence, but for tinkling glass, crackling fur and the sudden release of breath.
Holly climbed shakily to her feet. There were a lot of eyes following her - human eyes. She was 100
per cent visible. And these humans wouldn't stay complacent for long. This breed never did.
Containment was the issue.
She raised her empty palms. A gesture of peace.
'Scusatemi tutti,' she said, the language flowing easily from her tongue.
The Italians, ever graceful, muttered that it was nothing.
Holly reached slowly into her pocket and withdrew a small sphere. She placed it in the middle of
the floor.
'Guardate,' she said. Look.
The restaurant's patrons complied, leaning in to see the small silver ball. It was ticking, faster and
faster, almost like a countdown. Holly turned her back to the sphere. Three, two, one ...
Boom! Flash! Mass unconsciousness. Nothing fatal, but headaches all around in about forty
minutes. Holly sighed. Safe. For the moment. She ran to the door and slid the latch across. Nobody
was going in or out. Except through the big gaping hole in the wall. Next she doused the
smouldering troll with the contents of the restaurant's fire extinguisher, hoping the icy powder
wouldn't revive the sleeping behemoth.
Holly surveyed the mess she had created. There was no doubt, it was a shambles. Worse than
Hamburg. Root would skin her alive. She'd rather face the troll any day. This was the end of her
career for sure, but suddenly that didn't seem so important because her ribs were aching and she had
a blinder of a pressure headache coming on. Perhaps a rest, just for a second, so she could pull
herself together before Retrieval showed up.
Holly didn't even bother looking for a chair. She simply allowed her legs to buckle beneath her,
sinking to the chessboard lino floor.
Waking up to Commander Root's bulging features is the stuff of nightmares. Holly's eyes
flickered open, and for a second she could have sworn that there was concern in those eyes. But
then it was gone, replaced by the customary vein-popping fury.
'Captain Short!' he roared, mindless of her headache. 'What in the name of sanity happened here?'
Holly rose shakily to her feet.
'I…That is…There was ...' The sentences just wouldn't come.
'You disobeyed a direct order. I told you to hang back! You know it's forbidden to enter a human
building without an invitation.'
Hollv shook the shadows from her vision.
'I got invited in. A child called for help.'
'You're on shaky ground there, Short.'
'There is precedent, sir. Corporal Rowe versus the State. The jury ruled that the trapped woman's
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