The Creator

by Neil Carstairs

  Ma brought her shotgun, ready to shoot, thought better of it and did as she was told.

  Edwin stood too far from the cabin to do any good. He lifted his gun, took careful aim at the group of men who still hadn’t come to terms with their existence, and fired. His round went high but made the gunmen aware of where they were. The block of AK47s fired as one. Thunder rolled across the empty ground. Jane saw bullets impact on the ground and Hurley’s pick-up. Windows shattered on the vehicle. A tyre exploded. Edwin danced as a dozen rounds plucked at his chest and face. He seemed to dissolve into a cloud of blood as he pirouetted to the gravel.

  Jane scrambled backwards reaching Hurley and Ma already in the cabin. Hurley grabbed a handful of Jane’s blouse and hauled her to her feet. He flung her into the room and kicked the door shut. Ma went to a window. She peered out around the frame. ‘They’re coming,’ she said.

  With the door shut Hurley had a moment of calm before he said, ‘They killed Edwin.’

  ‘Get away from the door!’ Ma shouted. She ran across the room, to the side window. Jane caught a brief glimpse of running figures as some of the gunmen tried to surround the house.

  The first shotgun blast made Jane flinch. Ma cackled in joy as one of the attacker’s fell in a bloody heap. She pumped another round into the chamber and fired again as a hurricane of noise engulfed the house. The men out front opened fire. Glass fragments flew into the house. The front door splintered and Hurley swore and fell, a long strip of wood stuck into his thigh. Jane pulled him away from the door. She picked up enough momentum to drag him as far as the stairway. She saw Pete up there He held Emily’s hand. Their eyes met, one of those desperate moments in time when each knew that this was the end. Joshua appeared around the corner of the stairs. He fired back into the kitchen. Ma joined him, and two blasts from her shotgun seemed to settle that debate.

  The front door flew open and the raiders stormed in.

  ***

  ‘Shouldn’t be too far now,’ Delta One said. ‘Flash them now.’

  Delta Two flipped the RV headlights to main beam half a dozen times and the Chrysler they were following braked to a halt. ‘See if you can pull over a bit more. We’ll get the lads out. They can double time up through the woodland to get an overview of the cabin. I’ll go in with Sierra Team.’

  He popped his door open and jumped down as Delta Two manoeuvred the RV onto the grass verge. Sierra One met him at the side of the Chrysler, ‘Are you going in carrying that?’ she asked with a pointed look at the sub-machine gun he carried.

  ‘I won’t show it unless I have to,’ Delta One said.

  She sniffed, looked as if she was going to argue the point and then said, ‘Let me and Sierra Two do the talking.’

  ‘It’s your op,’ he said.

  ‘Exactly.’ Sierra One gave him a smile.

  A flock of birds burst from the treetops in fright as the air filled with a sound like torn fabric. Sierra One looked up at the sky, expecting thunder clouds or maybe a low flying plane. Delta One didn’t. He knew that sound and it tightened his guts. His team had gathered by the motorhome, just chatting like it was a day at the races. At the sound of gunfire they scattered into the long grass by the side of the road and dropped out of sight. Delta One pulled Sierra One down behind the car.

  ‘How far to the target?’ he snapped his question.

  ‘About a quarter of a mile,’ Sierra One said, suddenly breathless.

  Delta One looked across towards his team. He made a series of quick hand signals and they moved out, three to each side of the road at a fast jog.

  Reuben opened the Chrysler’s door. ‘What’s happening?’ he asked.

  ‘Shit’s happening,’ Natalie said. She pulled the Sig Sauer P226 that their consulate contact had supplied the day before. ‘Let’s go.’

  Delta One saw the cabin first. The front had been shot to hell, and from the sounds of it there was a war going on inside as well. He took in the sprawled bodies to the front and sides of the house and called over Two. ‘Take Four and go round the back. We haven’t time to synchronise entry. Just go in hard and dirty.’

  As Deltas Two and Four set off on a hard sprint up the side of the grassed frontage One pointed at Delta Five. ‘Set up down here, best point you can find. The rest of you, we go in the front. Flash-bangs first, then shoot anything that looks like a bad guy. Priority is the girl’s safety. Questions?’

  There were none. He led Delta Three and Six up the slope at a hard sprint. Whoever was inside had too much on their hands to keep a lookout as the Delta sub-team reached the veranda. One dropped to his knees as Three and Six took up positions either side of the front windows. He gave the signal and they threw the stun grenades in. One closed his eyes and opened his mouth. The thunderous blasts rocked the air and he came to his feet. Six and Three were already going in through the windows as Delta One took the doorway. He stepped left, away from the silhouetting daylight. Through a blanket of smoke, he saw a man on his hands and knees crawling towards a dropped AK. Delta One put a three round burst through the guy’s skull and looked for his next target.

  ***

  Natalie almost trod on Delta Five as she cut across the grass verge towards the cabin. As the team’s designated sniper, Delta Five had set up his position at an angle to the house so he could see the front and most of one side. Right now the guys at the front were going in on the tail of their stun grenades. Natalie’s trip across his legs disturbed his concentration. He growled a warning at her to stay out of his firing line. She mumbled an apology and pointed Reuben up the left-hand side of the garden. Natalie stayed to the right as she listened with growing horror to the blasts of gunfire. She prayed that the girl was okay. Then added another one that any local cops were far enough away not to get involved for the next thirty minutes.

  She came level with the house as smoke drifted from shattered windows. The shooting abated a little but another blast from the rear of the cabin made her flinch. She realised it wasn’t all over yet. The side of the building she faced had three ground floor windows and four on the upper storey. Pausing to catch her breath Natalie saw movement at one window. The next moment it broke outward in a cloud of glass as one of the gunmen threw himself through it. Natalie had one of those disbelieving seconds as she processed his fall and roll. He came to his feet at the same time her training dropped her into a shooter’s stance. She snapped off two quick shots. They both missed.

  Natalie saw the AK47 swing up at her. She dived left as an uncontrolled burst sent a swarm of bullets hissing through the air above her. She continued her roll, fired one handed and missed again. She swore and prayed at the same time as earth kicked up close to her face.

  Delta Five had the feeling he was missing out on all the fun. There’d been no clear shots on any targets despite the fact that the telescopic sights made it possible to pick out pretty much every detail on the cabin’s exterior woodwork. Good to 600 metres for a hit and over a kilometre for suppressing fire using the L-115A3 across the cabin’s land seemed unfair. At least he had been able to get a close-up look at Sierra One as she ran up to the building. She was easily the best-looking spook he’d seen outside the movies. Right now she had disappeared from view and Five relaxed a little. The next sound he heard sharpened his senses. More gunfire, but not muted like before when it had been indoors. This came from outside. He lifted his head from the sights, scanned the property and saw Sierra One in a mad roll across the ground tracked by a spray of bullets that kicked up clods of earth and grass.

  He swung the rifle to cover her but had no target until the shooter came into view as he chased Sierra One down. Delta Five sighted him in a split second. The gunman’s angry face so close Delta Five could see pockmarks on his cheeks. Five squeezed off a shot and in his magnified view saw the 8.59mm round tear through the lower half of his target’s face in a smear of bone and flesh. The target went down. Delta Five checked on Sierra One and saw her on her knees. She looked back at him and raised a weak h
and in thanks. Delta Five smiled. He’d get a drink out of her for that.

  ***

  Pete looked down on a scene from hell. Jane and Hurley tangled together at the foot of the stairs. They had blood on them but Pete had no idea who was wounded. Maybe both of them. Emily clung to him, her whole body rigid. Pete picked her up and carried her to the master bedroom. ‘Stay in here,’ he tried to sound calm and in control. ‘We need to know you are safe so we can do our jobs.’

  Emily sank back onto the rug, her eyes full of tears. Pete took the time to kiss her forehead. ‘Everything will be fine,’ he said, surprising himself that it sounded true.

  He returned to the landing. Jane and Hurley were coming up. Beyond them, Ma Jacobs and Joshua were blasting out at the men who had stormed the house. Pete drew his own gun. He had height advantage. The open sided landing formed a balcony above the living room and let him see the men hiding behind two sofas and an upturned table. He fired down into them. Heard screams and then saw upraised faces and guns. The volley of fire shredded the balustrade and blew holes in the ceiling. Pete flung himself back. As he bounced off the wall he heard Jane scream his name. He lay winded until he saw Jane and Hurley make it to the top of the stairs. Pete rolled to his feet and pushed them towards the bedroom where Emily hid.

  Pete returned to the top of the stairs. Ma backed up towards him. Shoot-pump, shoot-pump. Joshua gave covering fire until a gunman appeared from the kitchen area and sprayed the stairway with wild fire. Joshua took the brunt of the volley. The bullets smacked him to the floor like he was a toy. Ma survived, somehow, the long skirts of her dress plucked apart. She leant around the wall and stuck the shotgun in the gunman’s face before she blew it away.

  ‘Ma, now!’ Pete went halfway down, rapid firing to give her time to scramble past him. Pete followed her. Hurley appeared. He shot down past Pete as Pete ran back up the stairs. Pete and Ma fell to the bare floorboards as they reached the landing. Below them the gunmen rushed forward and opened fire again.

  ‘Where’s Joshua?’ Hurley was on his back, reloading his Ruger Vaquero revolver.

  ‘He’s gone, Hurley. They got him.’ Ma Jacobs sat with her back to the wall. The stock of her shotgun stood on the floor between her legs as she fed cartridges into the magazine.

  The sound that came from Hurley made Pete’s blood freeze. He knew what was coming and reached out for the old man as the sound of running feet reached them. Two gunmen stormed the stairs. They shouted the name of their God as they came. Hurley rose to meet them. He fired three times before Pete got hold of him. One attacker fell back. He tangled with his companion and they tumbled down the stairs as the men on the ground floor saw Hurley exposed and fired up at him.

  Pete felt the bullets hit Hurley as he dragged him down. The old man slammed hard to the floor. Pete dragged him back out of sight. Pete rolled over, stuck his gun beyond the lip of the stairs and put two shots down just to keep the raiders back. When he looked at Hurley he knew it was too late. The old man had a bullet wound in his chest and a ragged wound in his neck where one round had ripped through. Blood pooled on Hurley, on Pete and on the floorboards. Hurley’s legs trembled, as if his body wanted to run from the pain, but when Pete looked into Hurley’s eyes he saw all the light had gone.

  Pete looked up. Ma Jacobs had tears on her face. She’d known Hurley for years, maybe decades. Pete wanted to say something but right now the words wouldn’t come. He reached out and took Hurley’s Vaquero, replaced the three rounds Hurley had used, and got ready for the next assault.

  The next moment the cabin rocked to a series of deafening blasts. Lying on floorboards, Pete had some protection from the bright thunderflash, but still it disoriented him. He stared up at after images that danced across his vision. More gunfire, shorter, sharper reports. Pete blinked. He knew that sound. He’d worked with SWAT teams enough times to know a stun grenade when he heard one. In the next few seconds he heard screams in Arabic and barked orders in English and he knew that somehow they were saved.

  Pete crawled to Ma Jacobs. ‘Stay here,’ he shouted. ‘Don’t show yourself.’

  Jane lay in the bedroom doorway with Emily behind her. ‘What were those explosions?’

  ‘I think they were stun grenades,’ Pete said. ‘Someone is attacking the attackers.’

  She reached out and they held hands. They listened to the gunfire down below. It lessened and then became a rhythm that Pete recognised. Their rescuers were clearing the ground floor. Grenades into the study, followed up by two men shooting into corners. Same for the games room and his office. He let go of Jane’s hand and edged to the top of the stairs. He waited until a voice shouted out.

  ‘Upstairs?’

  ‘All clear,’ Pete replied.

  ‘We’re coming up. Two men.’

  Pete stepped back and put his gun down. The two men appeared, sub-machine guns up at their shoulders. They stepped over Hurley and proceeded along the landing. They kicked in doors and swept the rooms. They looked under beds, inside wardrobes and even knocked over a linen basket. Pete knew it wasn’t overkill. Guys like these only got to home at night if they were careful.

  Finally, one of the men went to the landing balcony and shouted down, ‘All clear!’

  ‘Bring them down.’

  One of the men knelt next to Hurley and checked his vital signs. He looked up at Pete and asked, ‘One of yours?’

  Pete nodded, unable to speak. The man closed Hurley’s eyes and then offered a hand to Ma Jacobs as she struggled up. Pete beckoned Jane and Emily from the room and together they went downstairs. Part of the room was smouldering where a stun grenade had set fire to some furnishings. One of the group had stamped on the flames and began to kick the embers around to put them out.

  Something about them nagged at Pete. They dressed casually, jeans and t-shirts, and other than the combat webbing jackets they wore could have been a bunch of friends on a day out. But Pete guessed they were military. One of them said, ‘Let’s go outside, this isn’t a good place for the girl.’

  Pete knew what he meant. Most of the men who had attacked the house had died of head shots and even Pete, who’d seen enough crime scenes in his life, felt sick. The air outside freshened him. If he looked far enough in the distance he could almost see this as another glorious Wisconsin day. Ma Jacobs sat on the steps of the veranda with a sigh that made one of the men kneel down next to her.

  ‘Problem?’ he asked.

  She nodded, lifting the hem of her dress. Blood ran down her leg. ‘Just winged,’ she said. ‘But hurts like buggery.’

  ‘First aid kit’s in the RV,’ Delta Four said.

  ‘Go get it.’ Delta One gave the order. ‘And drive the RV down as well.’ He pointed at Reuben. ‘You go get your car.’

  Pete watched a young black woman join the group. The group’s leader said to her, ‘We need to roll.’

  ‘Get the Little Birds moving. Sierra Two and I can stay behind and dispose of the vehicles.’

  ‘What about the girl?’

  ‘I’ll ask.’

  Pete had heard enough to make him step next to Jane and Emily. The young woman smiled at them and said, ‘Hello, Emily. My name is Natalie. I’m a friend of Connor. Do you remember he said we were coming?’

  ‘Yes.’ Emily pulled away from Jane looking at the men. ‘Are you all his friends?’

  ‘We are, and we’ve come all the way from England to see you.’

  Pete snapped his fingers. That was it. Their accents.

  ‘England?’ Jane looked from Natalie to Emily and back.

  ‘Connor has similar talents to Emily. He told us about Emily and how important she is. That’s why we are here. We want you to come back to England with us.’

  ‘Do you know the Queen?’ Emily asked.

  ‘No, but I have met Prince William and Prince Harry.’

  ‘Really?’ Emily’s eyes lit up. ‘Do you know Princess Kate?’

  ‘No, but I’m sure she’d want to meet a girl as
special as you. Do you want to come to England?’

  Emily looked up at her mother. ‘Can we? Please, can we?’

  Jane shook her head. ‘I don’t know; I mean...’

  ‘We can look after Emily and you,’ Natalie said to Jane. ‘We’ll take you to Canada now and fly you back to the UK.’

  ‘What about Pete?’ Emily asked.

  ‘Him too,’ Natalie said with a smile.

  ‘Pete?’ Jane looked at Pete for help.

  ‘Will Emily be safe?’ he asked.

  Natalie stood. ‘I can’t guarantee you one hundred percent. But these troops just put their lives on the line for you and will do the same whenever they need to.’

  ‘Time’s ticking.’ Delta One came over. ‘Little Birds will be airborne in twenty. We need to be on site.’

  Pete frowned. The soldier who had gone for the first aid had returned driving a huge motorhome. Two of the team were now treating Ma Jacobs’ leg wound. Pete looked around, the rest of the team were throwing weapons into the RV. Pete said, ‘Are you here legally?’

  ‘It depends on what you mean by legally,’ Natalie replied. ‘My government is aware of our operation and it is cleared at the highest level.’

  ‘What about my government?’ Pete asked.

  Natalie shrugged. ‘If you decide you don’t want Emily to be safe in the UK we’ll leave. We are not here to force her. We came to protect her.’

  ‘Pete?’ Jane reached out. He knew the answer already.

  ‘We’ll go,’ he said.

  Natalie smiled in relief. ‘Great.’

  Pete went to Ma. The trooper had bandaged her leg and given her shots of painkiller and antibiotics. Pete sat next to her on the steps and said, ‘We’ve got to go.’

  ‘I know. I heard.’ She still held the shotgun as if expecting more trouble.

  ‘I’m sorry. If I’d known what was going to happen I wouldn’t have come here.’

  Ma put a hand on his leg. ‘I should have married Hurley. He proposed ten years ago after his wife died. I said it was too soon. Now it’s too late.’