The swell of applause rose and fell a few more times, holding me for an embarrassingly long time in stunned standing humility before, gradually, reluctantly, it began to recede...

I sensed the requirement of some sort of speech, and held up my hands to halt the applause properly.

The onlookers gave me silence.

I sucked the air into my lungs. I still felt exhausted, shy and completely out of my depth, but somehow in the exhaustion of victory I found the courage to speak to the people in the face of all of these things.

“Hello.” It was an inauspicious start, but it was what I had. “I’m really sorry about what you have all had to witness here today. These men--” I waved my hand towards the fallen balaclava-wearers, who were now being handcuffed where they lay by the Australian policemen--“are part of an international terrorist organisation called Viper. Viper would seek to destroy our way of life and bring destruction and disharmony to us all. Thankfully, my colleagues and I--” Here I looked each way at Mute and Djinn. They were standing on either side of me, Mute bashfully at the crowd and holding one arm, Djinn inscrutable within her burka. “--were able to intercept and incapacitate them. I am only sorry that we did not become aware of them sooner and that we were not able to prevent more lives from being lost.” My eyes fell on the body of Dan, Aurora’s father. A couple of paramedics had placed it on a stretcher and were pulling a sheet over it, their faces each a pale picture of regret.

I paused in my speech, and looked around a little more among the assembled crowd. I couldn’t see him.

{Where is Abram?} I thought into the mind link.

{I can’t get a lock on him anywhere nearby,} said Mute. {Maybe he’s still attending to Aurora.}

The crowd was still looking at me. This pause was growing uncomfortably long.

{What else am I meant to say?} I thought. {Am I allowed to tell them about Miracle Force.}

“I do not know what Mr Abram would say,” Djinn said out loud, but quietly enough so that only I and Mute would hear. “But it seems to me that--how would you say it?- ‘our cover is gone’ now, no?”

{She’s got a point,} thought Mute. {I think we’ve gone public now, Captain, whether we like it or not…}

A few people in the crowd started forwards, but I held up a hand, and they stopped. Some of them gasped, apparently afraid that I was going to do something to them.

Here goes nothing. I resumed my speech. “Just so you know,” I said. I really need to work on my openings.

{Got that right,} said Mute.

“Just so you know,” I repeated to the crowd, “we are from a UN-sanctioned counter-terrorism and global peacekeeping unit called Miracle Force. We will do you no harm. Our job is to protect and preserve international peace and safety. These are my associates Mute--” I nodded right. “--and Djinn--” I nodded left. “And, er, as you may have heard. I am Captain Weakling.”

Silence.

“Er,” I said. “That’s all, I think.”

At this, the crowd surged forwards towards us like a river bursting from its dam. Another huge cheer went up, and I heard more cries of “Captain Weakling! Captain Weakling!” At the same time, what felt like hundreds of camera flashes went off and a whole melee of different people pushed themselves forwards towards me, fighting with each other to get to me. I could couldn’t keep track of them all but I made out a few things in the mad scramble.

“Sarah Tyler, Sydney Herald : what is the precise nature of your special abilities, Mr Weakling?”

“Can you have your autograph?”

“Sign my T-shirt! Sign my T-shirt!”

“Is it safe to touch you?”

“How long has this ‘Miracle Force’ been in operation?”

“Where did you come from?”

“Who is in charge?”

“Are you single?”

“Get back! Get back!”

This last was shouted by a couple of the Sydney policeman, who together with a number of their colleagues formed a line in front of us and began to shove back the frenzied newspaper reporters and members of the public. Working furiously and efficiently, they pushed them backwards and ushered them behind a yellow-tape barrier which was hurriedly erected, creating a cordoned-off area with only policeman, paramedics, the fallen, and me, Mute and Djinn inside it. We could only look on in bewilderment.

One of the policeman came up to us. “I’m going to have to ask you to come with us.” He pulled out a pair of handcuffs.

The surprise was like a slap in my face. “Er, excuse me?” I said to him. Another pair of policemen approached Mute and Djinn, also with handcuffs. “We just saved you! We’re the good guys!”

I was so shocked I didn’t stop him from putting the handcuffs around my wrists. “Be that as it may, young man,” said the policeman, a stocky man who spoke aggressively, “you have just been involved in a terrorist incident. I’m going to take you and your associated in for questioning.”

“I’m sorry sir,” someone was saying nearby, “but you need to stand back behind the barrier. This a crime scene.”

“Oh, shut up. Get off me, you dullard. Look, here’s my clearance. I’m their Commander.”

That was Abram’s voice. He had pushed his way through the crowd and was striding towards us. Behind him was Aurora, eliciting more gasps and shouts from the scrambling crowd behind the barrier, since her dark glasses and scarf had gone. She looked pale and in shock, quivering, her perfectly chiselled cheeks wet with tears, but she walked along behind Abram almost obediently all the same.

“Get away from him,” Abram said to my stocky captor, waving a little leather wallet that had his picture and some writing on a rectangular square in a plastic holder inside it. I had never seen him this angry.

The policeman said “Hey!” but then looked at the wallet. He stepped back. “Oh, sorry sir.”

I was so glad to see Abram and I was sure my face showed it.

“Commander,” I said. “I hope you don’t mind, but Miracle Force has gone public now. I didn’t really seem to have another choice.”

Abram put a reassuring hand on my shoulder and pulled me in close so that he could speak into my ear.

“What is your problem, Gonzalo?” he said. “Why won’t you just die like a good little boy?”