“No, no, no,” the SecDef said. “I remember the briefings, Mr. Peaks, I remember being in a conference room three, no, almost four years ago, watching your PowerPoint and you telling us that conventional means would be useless against people with enhanced abilities.”

“Not useless,” Peaks said. “Just . . . limited. Justin DeVeere, the one who calls himself Knightmare, is not fast; he moves at normal speeds, and we are confident that we can take him down. Dekka Talent as well, and the Adamo kid.”

“But not the Chicago girl.”

“As you know, we’ve studied powers. Super-speed presents a very tough challenge. The girl in the PBA who called herself the Breeze moved at just under the speed of sound in short bursts, or could travel distances at something like two hundred miles an hour. We think Shade Darby is faster, maybe quite a bit faster. And she appears to form some kind of protective armor over a streamlined shape. It’s a physical impossibility to aim a gun at her—she’s effectively invisible when she’s moving.”

Monster, Chapter 14