The Creator

by Neil Carstairs

  ***

  Chrissie pulled Dan into her arms as another shot rang out. She glanced back to see a mall guard fall to the ground. Chrissie pulled him into an alcove lined with shelves of Fantasy and Science Fiction. A teenage girl huddled in one corner as Chrissie and Dan pressed up against each other. She looked up into his eyes. Dan kissed her. ‘Everything’s going to be okay,’ he said.

  Chrissie shook her head. ‘It’s not. He’s come for me.’

  At their feet, the teenage girl reached out, grasped Chrissie’s leg and said, ‘We’re going to die.’

  Chrissie knew how the girl felt. She’d been the same back in the burger restaurant all those years ago. Dan wouldn’t understand and right now she had no time to even try to explain what she meant. Chrissie reached down and prised the girl’s fingers from her leg. She could hear shouts and screams coming from outside the shop. Dan edged towards to end of the alcove as he tried to spot the gunman. Chrissie pulled him back. She pointed up and grabbed hold of a hardback book that stood on the top shelf. She passed it to Dan and mouthed ‘throw it’. Dan tested the weight. He looked doubtful. Chrissie saw movement over Dan’s shoulder and the gunman came into view. Her face must have changed because Dan turned. Du did the same, his smile ferocious as he saw the three trapped souls.

  ***

  Buhl and Pruitt stopped at an information desk to find out the location of the bookshop. The woman on duty put a bi-fold brochure on the desktop. She pointed out where they were and where the shop lay in relation to them. She spoke to them as if they were sixth-graders. Or maybe just plain stupid. Pruitt cut through the bullshit and said, ‘So it’s down there, turn right.’

  ‘Yes.’

  That’s when they heard the gunshots and screams that brought the whole mall to a standstill. Buhl’s skin turned cold. Pruitt moved faster than his partner, already a yard or two away. Buhl snapped a look at the woman behind the desk and said, ‘Call nine-one-one.’

  He sprinted after Pruitt. Shoppers were moving in panic. Some ran towards exits others towards shops where they thought they could get refuge. Buhl dodged round mothers and strollers. He took the right turn fast, still a couple of yards behind Pruitt. Ahead he saw a security standing at the door of one of the units. Buhl heard a single gunshot and the security guard fell to the floor. Pruitt slid to a halt beside the entrance to the shop. Buhl saw people still in view as they tried to decide whether to run or take cover. He made their minds up for them as he shouted, ‘Get down! Get down!’

  The hidden gunman fired again and the window cascaded out. Buhl tried to stop but the frosting of glass on the tiled floor slid from under his feet like ice. Buhl hit the ground, his jacket protecting him from the sharp edges of the glass shards. He was lucky. Two more rounds passed through the space he would have been occupying if he stayed on his feet. Buhl popped off two rounds into the shop front. He aimed high to avoid any civilians but hoped to keep the gunman down.

  Buhl sat up. He got a glimpse of movement, took in the details and lay down onto the bed of glass. ‘Tan trench coat, black hair, heavy build. He’s heading towards the back of the shop.’

  Pruitt moved through the doorway, gun up in a two-handed grip. He saw the target and fired. His round missed. The gunman turned and fired back in a fluid motion that sent Pruitt onto the carpet tiles as he rolled behind a display stand. He took in the scene from low level. Bookshelves lined the walls, evenly spaced tables occupied the centre of the shop. He heard Buhl come through the doorway, shoes crushing glass to dust. Pruitt moved out from his cover. He saw the gunman’s back. Buhl ran by, looking for a clear shot. The gunman slowed, turned to his left and raised his two guns.

  ***

  Dan threw the book as hard as he could in the space and time available. As it flew through the air the book’s covers opened like wings. Dan didn’t see much more than that because he swung round and pushed Chrissie down onto the girl. The world filled with noise. Chrissie screamed. The girl screamed. The gunman fired and Dan felt a punch in his back that drove him into the shelves of fantasy books.

  The next thing Dan knew he lay in a tangle of limbs as a pain like he’d never known radiated out from his shoulder. Chrissie struggled from beneath him and Dan rolled onto his side feeling faint. He could hear the teenage girl weeping as Chrissie jumped to her feet. Dan tried to reach out to her but his body didn’t do what he wanted. The gunman still smiled like a hungry shark. Chrissie moved into the corner of the alcove, away from Dan and the girl.

  ‘Kill me.’ Dan heard her say. ‘Kill me but leave them alive.’

  The gunman seemed to consider the words. Then he shook his head and aimed at Dan and the girl.

  Dan closed his eyes.

  ***

  Pruitt and Buhl had a dozen yards to make up. Both men rated expert marksman with handguns. But firing down the length of the shop at a moving target and with their pulses racing would reduce their chances of stopping the gunmen. Buhl took the right-hand lane between tables of discount books and shelves of bestsellers. Pruitt the left. The gunman took aim at something before Buhl saw a book come flying out. It hit the gunman in the chest hard enough to disrupt his aim and knock him back.

  Buhl knew they had a civilian in the shop, alive enough to defend themselves. He slid to a halt and saw out of the corner of his eye Pruitt do the same. They opened fire as one. Rapid double-taps that punched holes in the gunman’s trench coat. The guy went down hard. Buhl ejected the empty magazine and reloaded. He moved forward, gun trained on the man on the ground. He lay on his side, fingers clawing for the fallen guns. Buhl glanced a question at Pruitt who shrugged. Buhl waited for the guy to touch one of the guns. At least then he’d have an excuse for shooting the sick fuck. That’s when a young woman he recognised as Chrissie Scarrett appeared at his side and kicked the gunman in the face.

  ‘Bastard,’ she said as she kicked him again.

  As Buhl pulled her away he noticed two more people in the alcove. A girl with tears on her face and a guy in a pool of blood. Chrissie struggled for a moment in his hands.

  ‘He’s down,’ Buhl said. ‘We’ll deal with him.’

  ‘He’s a murderer,’ Chrissie spat at Du.

  ‘I said we’ll deal with him. What about these people, do you know them?’

  ‘Yes.’ That took all the energy from Chrissie. She dropped to her knees, not caring about the blood that soaked into her denims, and touched Dan’s pale face.

  ‘What do you want to do with him?’ Pruitt nodded at Du.

  ‘I’d like to kill the son of a bitch,’ Buhl said.

  ‘You can’t.’ Chrissie looked up. ‘He’s already dead.

  ‘What?’ Buhl and Pruitt asked together.

  ‘His name is Du Chae-Hong and he died ten years ago when police officers shot him while he carried out a gun rampage.’

  ‘He’s one of them,’ Pruitt said. ‘The resurrected. Like Ben said.’

  ‘Ben?’ Chrissie asked. ‘You know Ben?’

  ‘We work with him. We had some... intelligence that there might be a threat on your life.’

  ‘From a dead man?’ Chrissie asked.

  ‘It’s a weird fucking world,’ Pruitt said.

  Dan groaned and Chrissie leant close to him. ‘Help’s on its way,’ she said.

  Buhl and Pruitt looked at each other.

  ‘What do you think?’ Buhl asked.

  Pruitt thought about it for a moment. ‘If he dies he might come back again. If he lives we can stick him in a cell somewhere and make sure he doesn’t go anywhere for a long, long time.’

  Du must have heard. His head moved and he whispered. ‘Kill me.’

  ‘It’s your unlucky day, punk. You get to live.’ Buhl grinned down at Du.

  ‘I’ll get up to the front of the shop,’ Pruitt said. ‘Make sure the cops don’t come storming in here.’

  ‘And send down the paramedics when they get here,’ Buhl shouted after him.

  Buhl knelt next to Chrissie. He checked Dan and sai
d, ‘You have a first aid kit here?’

  ‘Yes. Under the counter.’

  ‘Go get it.’

  ‘It’s only a small one.’

  ‘Just get it. Anything that helps slow the bleeding will do.’

  ‘Is he going to die?’

  ‘Only if we wait for him to bleed out,’ Buhl said. ‘Is he a friend of yours?’

  ‘Yes.’ Chrissie smiled. ‘I’m going to marry him.’

  Chapter 15

  ‘I think this is a bad idea,’ Kramer said.

  She sat next to Ben on a bench that overlooked the village pond. A couple of dozen ducks crowded close to the grassy bank of the pond as Connor and Emily tossed pieces of bread to them. Devon and Jane stood nearby, making sure the children didn’t get too carried away with their throws and follow the bread into the water. Ben looked up from his phone and said, ‘I know, bread isn’t good for ducks.’

  ‘What?’ Kramer stared at him.

  ‘White bread,’ he said. ‘There’s no goodness in it. It’s the duck version of junk food.’

  ‘Jesus, Scarrett, I’m talking about the children coming to the village. That’s the bad idea.’

  ‘Oh.’ Ben frowned. ‘I see where you’re coming from but the idea of using Connor as a way of getting into the manor house is pretty good. His mom and Natalie will be there with him, so he should be safe enough.’

  ‘And if he isn’t?’

  ‘Then we’re here and Delta team are a short hop away. We’ve been in the village for a couple of days now and nothing has happened. We need to make it happen.’

  ‘And risk a child’s life?’

  ‘He volunteered,’ Ben said, as he held his phone up to his ear.

  ‘That’s a cop out answer,’ Kramer said. She pushed up from the bench. She waited for Ben to come back with a reply but he’d switched attention to the phone when he didn’t get a reply. ‘Who are you calling?’ Kramer asked.

  ‘Chrissie.’ He checked the time on the phone. ‘She should be around. I guess she’s busy.’

  ‘Lunchtime over there,’ Kramer said.

  ‘Yeah.’ Ben put the phone away. ‘I’ll try later.’

  Ben remained on the bench as Kramer wandered over to talk to Devon and Jane. The idea for Connor to visit the manor house had come from the boy himself. It seemed the logical answer. The only other option Ben and Kramer could come up with involved the two of them making a night-time incursion into the property and that held plenty of risks of its own. He saw Kramer take a call on her phone. She walked away to talk. Ben’s followed her, not because he was interested in the call, but because she looked good in denims and a t-shirt.

  ‘Focus,’ Ben said to himself. He dragged his eyes back to where the children had now emptied their bag of bread. The ducks, with nothing to tempt them, began to drift away.

  A sharp word from Kramer got his attention back on her. She stared at him, talking in rapid bursts that Ben tried to follow. Her expression hardened and her eyes never left his. She listened, nodded as if whoever she was talking to could see her. Ben stood. He waited for Kramer to finish her call.

  Kramer came towards him and when she got close she said, ‘Sit down, Ben.’

  He sat down and said, ‘You never call me Ben. What’s happened?’

  Kramer sat next to him. ‘It’s Chrissie. First off, she’s safe.’

  Ben couldn’t breathe. ‘But?’

  ‘There’s been an attempt on her life.’

  ‘Jesus,’ Ben whispered. ‘Tell me what happened.’

  ‘There was a shooting in the mall where she works. One dead and one wounded. The shooter got taken down before he could kill any more.’

  Ben looked away, his eyes misting up. ‘We need to get guards with her.’

  ‘They’re already there,’ Kramer said, and the way she spoke made Ben frown.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I mean we had a warning there may be a threat against her. We had a team en-route to her when the shooting happened. It was Buhl and Pruitt who took the perp down.’

  A cold edge of dread edged across Ben. ‘Who was the shooter.’

  Kramer hesitated as if she didn’t want to tell him. ‘Du Chae-Hong.’

  ‘It had to be,’ Ben said. He stood and walked away from Kramer. He stopped at the edge of the pond. He stared out over the water for a moment before turning back to Kramer. ‘Why did Dawson send our own team? Why didn’t he warn the local police?’

  ‘Because that’s not his way. He keeps everything in-house. And they did save Chrissie.’

  ‘Yeah, and condemned someone to death.’

  Kramer couldn’t find an answer to that.

  Connor came over to stand next to Ben. The boy touched Ben’s arm and said, ‘Emily and I knew someone was under threat, but we didn’t know who or when. We didn’t sense anything happening today.’

  ‘It’s okay.’ Ben put his hand on Connor’s shoulder. ‘I’m just worried about Chrissie. If you hadn’t given a warning then she would most likely be dead. Are you still sure you want to go through with tomorrow?’

  ‘Yes,’ Connor said as Emily came to join them.

  ‘And have you had any visions?’

  ‘All we see is darkness,’ Emily said.

  ‘So you don’t see anything?’ Ben asked.

  ‘No, that’s what we see. Darkness. If we don’t sense anything we see nothing. It’s hard to explain.’

  ‘But darkness is bad?’ Ben asked.

  ‘It’s not good,’ Connor said with a shrug.

  ‘Kramer and I would like to come in with you but the staff at the home already know us.’

  ‘Natalie can look after us,’ Connor said. ‘She’s tough.’

  ‘So’s Kramer,’ Ben said.

  ‘Yes, but you’re in love with Joanne so you would say that,’ Emily said with a smile.

  ‘I wouldn’t say I was in love with her,’ Ben said.

  ‘We’re psychics,’ Emily said. ‘We know.’

  Ben looked at the girl, feeling his face heat up. ‘You know? Like in you’ve got some kind of romantic sensing ability?’

  ‘No,’ Connor almost laughed. ‘Like in we sometimes see things as visions or in our dreams.’

  ‘Oh,’ Ben said, with a glance across to Kramer.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ Emily said. ‘It was kind of dark and hard to see what was happening.’

  ‘Yeah.’ Ben forced a grin. ‘Next time that happens try closing your eyes or looking the other way.’

  ‘We will,’ Connor said.

  The children returned to their mothers. Ben noticed that they held hands. He walked back to the bench and sat next to Kramer who said, ‘What were the kids saying?’

  ‘About their warning for Chrissie. And tomorrow.’

  ‘We should get them back to the bed and breakfast,’ Kramer said. ‘Make sure we’re ready for the morning.’

  ‘I think it’s going to end tomorrow,’ Ben said.

  ***

  Natalie picked Devon and Connor up from the bed and breakfast at just before nine thirty. She drove a nondescript silver Vauxhall. Ben and Kramer had arranged for Jane and Emily to join them at the B&B, telling Margery that Jane was Ben’s cousin. Devon and Connor pretended to arrive on the off chance that there was a room free. By the time Natalie drove down the sweeping gravel driveway to the manor house Ben and Kramer were in the woodland that overlooked the property. They wore dark clothing, carried binoculars and satellite phones and both were now armed.

  As soon as they saw the Vauxhall, Kramer put a call into Delta team. The soldiers had stayed at a campsite eight miles north. As soon as Kramer called they started rolling towards the village in a pair of vintage VW camper vans. Kramer’s plan, put together in a call with Congrave, wanted one camper to park up close to the manor house with the other stopping on the far side of the village. Delta team carried H&K MP5 sub-machine guns, stun grenades and tasers. Congrave had also decided that if events really did go south he wanted serious backup on han
d. A pair of RAF Typhoon jets loitered over the Bristol Channel carrying enough ordnance to wipe Darlford of the face of the earth.

  Ben watched as Natalie, Devon and Connor approached the imposing front door of the house. He knew Natalie carried a gun and a panic alarm. If she used it he and Kramer would get an instant alert on their sat-phones. The only problem that he could see was the manor house being eighty yards or so away from their vantage point. If Natalie used the alarm she’d have to wait for help.

  ‘How long do you think they’ll be in there?’ he asked Kramer.

  She shrugged. ‘No idea.’

  ‘If Connor can get a sense that something there’s a link to all these events it might trigger a response.’

  ‘Natalie can look after things in there long enough for us and Delta team to go in.’

  ‘What if the same kind of dinosaur that you face in Africa shows up? Or a bunch of heavily armed jihadists? What if we’re not quick enough to reach them?’

  ‘Jesus, Scarrett, why are you asking so many questions?’

  ‘Because I’m scared,’ Ben said.

  ‘You, scared?’ Kramer looked at him.

  ‘Yeah, me.’ Ben put his binoculars down and rubbed his eyes. ‘Is that such a bad thing?’

  ‘No.’ She reached out and patted his arm. ‘We all get scared at some point.’

  ‘You too?’

  ‘Sure. I got scared the other night.’

  ‘When was that?’ Ben frowned.

  ‘When we ended up in bed together.’ Kramer kept her binoculars up to her eyes. ‘I kind of took charge. Some men don’t like that. I was scared you’d back off.’

  ‘It did get a bit competitive,’ Ben said. ‘But I liked that.’

  ‘Only liked?’

  ‘Well, it was fun.’

  ‘Fun?’ Now the binoculars did come down and she looked hard at him. ‘You mean it wasn’t the most passionate experience of your life?’