Jason Willow: Face Your Demons

by G Mottram

  Jason took in a slow breath, pulled back his hands and then threw both his palms forward at the blocked window.

  Twin air-strikes smashed the steel clean away and noise and light blasted in. Helicopter searchlights whipped around the cloister and in one of the beams, a twisted, brutish face span around to stare directly at Jason.

  A Touched - massive, male and it had sensed Jason’s Gift.

  Anna pulled Jason out of the way and Smith let loose with both his Kalashnikovs. They clicked empty after a few seconds and immediately a face and gun muzzle reared up outside the window. Oliver stepped up, his weapon already shooting and the face flew backwards in an explosion of blood and bone. The Touched male had disappeared.

  Oliver stepped further forward, spraying the cloister outside. Smith, reloaded and joined him, again using both Kalashnikovs.

  It worked. Gunfire from other windows opened up and in seconds a deadly storm of cross-fire swept around the cloister. The steel in front of Oliver’s original window slipped down and Eddie and Erin dashed over to take a side each, picking targets carefully with their pistols.

  Suddenly the helicopter lights snapped off and blackness filled the window frames.

  Sergeant Smith fumbled at his belt for a torch.

  Crash. Their door burst inwards and the Touched hurtled into the red-lit room. He was huge. His clothes were ripped to shreds and his flesh ran with blood but he didn’t seem to notice. He fixed burning red eyes on Jason and leapt for him.

  Somehow, Anna was there. She barged Jason to one side and locked down the Kalashnikov’s trigger. Bullets tore into the Touched from point blank range and he was pummelled backwards. Her gun clicked empty as the man sank face down onto the stone at her feet. Carl leapt on its back and shot it through the head half a dozen times.

  An instant later Smith was there, backing into the room while covering the door with his Kalashnikovs.

  He needn’t have bothered. The Touched was dead – there wasn’t anything left of its head.

  ‘Oliver, Eddie, jam that door back in place, Erin shoot anything that moves out there.’

  Jason just stared at the hulking, shaggy-haired man who had smashed through a steel door to reach him.

  ‘Confirm target identified in cloister south east room,’ Jason jumped. A refined English voice crackled out of a black walkie talkie hung on the dead man’s belt. “Sections four to nine, converge on target…”

  The rest faded out to meaningless noise for Jason. He was the target for the entire attack. Somehow they’d known he was here and now every single Brethren knew exactly where he was.

  ‘Sections twenty to twenty three, move to area “F”,’ the Brethren radio crackled through Jason’s swirling mind again.

  ‘Bloody hell,’ he swore and stamped down on the radio and it burst apart.

  Smith grabbed Jason and pulled him into the light. ‘Hold it together, lad – we could’ve done with listening in on that.’

  ‘Sorry,’ Jason managed.

  ‘Never mind – control will be picking it all up. We’re safest here for now. You and your two shields get to the back and bloody well stay there.’

  ‘Come on boys,’ Anna said, pulling Carl up by his good arm. He had started to bleed through the bandages. Pushing Jason ahead, she ushered Carl into the narrower back section of the room.

  Outside the cloister was quiet. It seemed the deadly crossfire had slaughtered everyone and even the fires were dying out in the incessant drizzle. Oliver and Eddie heaved the steel reinforced door up and jammed it back into its shattered frame then tipped over a metal shelf to prop it in place.

  ‘I can’t see a thing out here,’ Erin reported, peering into the dark from the side of the window.

  Jason tried to focus back in on the radio reports in his right ear.

  ‘One troop carrier still high over the cloister.’

  ‘Approach still clear of ground troops.’

  ‘Training halls close positions holding.’

  Jason shivered. How many Brethren were there?

  ‘Heavy attack on the church east face – targeting the windows.’

  Anna scoffed as she checked her pistol magazine for the fourth time. ‘They won’t get in that way. Those windows are bulletproof stained glass set in steel mesh. They’re stronger than your average house wall.’

  ‘They’d need a mortar to even make a dent…’ Carl agreed. He was looking pale but alert.

  Four explosions reverberated through the walls from the east side, the rear of the abbey.

  ‘Mmm, mortars like those might do the trick,’ Anna said.

  The wry smile Jason was so fond of flashed over her mouth. Despite everything he smiled back – it helped fight the fear.

  ‘Anna,’ Jason began, ‘… just then you saved… I don’t know what to say. Thank you.’

  Anna held his eye for a moment and then shrugged into a smile again. ‘Someone has to keep you alive and it would have really upset Carl if he’d been forced to do it.’

  Jason glanced at Carl propped up against the wall. Carl raised an eyebrow. Notwithstanding Anna’s comment, his rival had made sure the Touched didn’t come for him again.

  ‘Carl…’ Jason began.

  ‘Oh hell,’ Erin’s voice cut through the quiet armoury, ‘they’re dropping something into the cloister.’

  ‘Get down.’ Smith yelled and dropped behind a pile of steel boxes. Anna grabbed Jason’s head and pulled them both down to the floor with Carl.

  A single explosion ripped through the cloister and blew the wedged door back into the room and smashed the window shutters wide open on their hinges. Smoke and heat billowed in and set them all coughing for breath.

  A hand gripped Jason around the back of his neck and pulled his head down further. There was air here. Anna’s face was next to his.

  ‘Stay down – breathe slow.’

  ‘I’m fine,’ Jason coughed and peered up from the floor. The whole room was a roiling mass of choking black and grey smoke but there was no sound. No sound at all he realised. His earphone had been knocked out when Anna pulled him down. He tried sweeping his hand over the cold flagstones to find it but it was gone.

  Smith’s shout shattered the silence. ‘You’re leaving lads and lasses – escape route, now.’

  Jason looked up. Just visible as a crouching silhouette six feet away, Smith began to edge forward towards the cloister door.

  ‘Jason, Anna, Carl – unlock the back door. Eddie, Erin, Oliver – get back there with them. Anything comes past me – you kill it. Move.’

  ‘Come on, keep low.’ Anna coughed in Jason’s ear and shoved him backwards.

  They shuffled towards the small door, Jason fumbling to pull his pistol out of its holster at the same time. His mind reeled. They were supposed to be safe here.

  Just beyond Carl, three smoke-shrouded silhouettes scuttled back to form a defensive line. Smith was lost to sight in the swirling red-lit haze.

  Outside, the heavy drone of rotor blades pulsed around the cloister. This time however, only a few scattered bursts of gunfire were raised against them and the deafening rotor noise closed in.

  ‘Quickly,’ Anna hissed as they felt their way blindly through the trapped smoke at the back of the armoury.

  The helicopter downdraft blasted into the armoury and whipped the smoke into a red-hazed tornado just as half a dozen dark figures burst in through the door.

  Instantly Smith’s two Kalashnikovs battered the shadows back against the wall and ripped them apart. All six were slaughtered in seconds.

  A metallic bouncing clinked against one wall.

  ‘Grenade,’ Oliver yelped. He leapt out of cover, stooped to snatch something up from the floor and threw it back out into the cloister. As he turned to dash back behind his boxes, machine gun fire crackled outside.

  Bullets ripped into Oliver and he crashed headlong into the piled boxes.

  ‘Olly.’ Eddie yelled. He and Erin crawled forward to pull Oliver into what was
left of their cover.

  ‘Keep your heads down’ Smith ordered as he raked the window and door openings with bullets.

  Jason peered back through the roiling murk, the smoke burning his eyes. Oliver wasn’t moving.

  Three more grenades clattered in, Carl snatched one up and threw it out but the others were out of reach.

  ‘Down,’ Smith yelled but there were no deafening explosions. Instead, more smoke streamed into the room from the still spinning grenade cases.

  Smoke bombs. No shrapnel. No deaths.

  ‘Get out, now.’ Smith screamed, shooting burst after burst blindly into the smoke. Jason couldn’t even see him.

  ‘Go.’ Anna spluttered and pushed Jason in front of her. Desperate, half-blind and coughing, Jason scrabbled along the wall and found the door handle.

  Smith’s guns stopped shooting.

  ‘Sergeant?’ Carl yelled, stepping in front of the distraught Eddie and Erin. There was no answer. He clicked a magazine home and started shooting into the smoke.

  ‘Open it.’ Anna hissed. She was right by Jason now, her pistol pointing uselessly forward. Just two metres away, Erin and Eddie had stood up shoulder to shoulder behind Carl blocking the narrow aisle. Jason swore under his breath - they were lining up to die for him.

  None of this should be happening. He forced his stinging eyes wide open and leant close to the keypad.

  No one was firing back at them - only Carl’s Kalashnikov rattled out. He sent burst after burst into the red-lit, impenetrable smoke, trying to make sure nothing came near.

  ‘Reload…’ Carl yelled, ‘cover m…’ his voice died in a thick gurgle.

  Erin caught his body as he slumped back, his hands grasping at his neck.

  Eddie pulled them both behind him and pumped twin pistol bullets into the room. Jason couldn’t stop staring at Carl’s fingers clutching at his bleeding throat as Erin lowered him to the ground.

  ‘Open the door or we’re all dead.’ Anna hissed, putting her whole body in front of Jason now. He tore his eyes away and punched his door code into the pad.

  Nothing happened.

  Jason glanced back.

  Erin had dragged Carl right over to them. His hands twitched against his neck now, blood covering both arms.

  Anna sank down next to him and tore at her tee shirt trying to rip a bandage strip from it.

  Carl’s hands slipped away from his throat and flopped to the floor.

  Jason frantically punched in his code again. ‘It’s not working,’ he hissed. His head was clogging up, his brain freezing to useless.

  Eddie’s gun stopped firing.

  Jason twisted around. No, not Eddie. He couldn’t be…

  ‘Re-load.’ Eddie snapped. ‘Erin cover me.’

  Erin flowed to her feet and weaved in front of Eddie, shooting as she moved.

  She barely had time to scream as a knife punched up out of the smoke and into her heart.

  Like lightening, Eddie air-punched past her head. Something crashed back into the smoky haze of boxes and gun racks but it was too late. Erin crumpled, lifeless to the floor.

  ‘Glimmerman.’ Eddie gasped, backing up into Anna but unable to tear his eyes from Erin’s body.

  Jason hammered his code in again. They were all going to die here.

  ‘Thumb pad,’ Anna shouted over his shoulder as she and Eddie shot a matrix pattern of flying lead against the invisible attacker. Wood and metal ricocheted off the floor, ammunition boxes and ceiling.

  Cursing himself for being so stupid, Jason pressed his thumb to the reader and the door inched open.

  ‘We’re through,’ Jason croaked through a throat like sandpaper. He slammed the door back into the corridor beyond and the three of them stumbled out of the red-hazed killing ground.

  Chapter 23

  Jason, Anna and Eddie stumbled into the reception area of the chapter house and fell against the far wall, smoke swirling out after them.

  ‘Freeze.’ shouted a harsh voice and a single bullet thudded into the wall just above Jason’s head.

  All three of them froze. The air was clearer here, the smoke was being sucked out by air conditioning. To their left, a security guard was shooting through his smashed window into the cloister. Three other guards lay sprawled on the ground and a fifth held his Kalashnikov pointing at the new-comers. Jason recognised the last one as Ludovich – one of his escorts from the guesthouse.

  ‘Don’t shoot,’ Jason shouted. ‘I’m Jason, Jason Willow. I need to shut the door.’

  ‘Don’t move.’ Ludovich almost screamed and shot one more round over their heads. He pointed his walkie-talkie at them with a trembling hand.

  ‘Anna Smith and Eddie Braithwaite.’ Anna snapped. ‘For God’s sake, you brought Jason from the guest house half an hour ago – we need to shut the door… there a glimmerman in...’

  Ludovich’s eyes flicked to his walkie-talkie then over to wide open door. ‘Cleared - seal the bloody door.’ he yelled.

  Anna leapt passed Jason and reached into the smoke to grab the door. A split second before reaching the handle she was yanked inside.

  Jason saw it – just for a moment – an almost transparent, shimmering silhouette in the smoke. Anna shot out an arm towards him. He snatched hold with one hand and threw an air punch past her ear with the other.

  The silhouette span away into the smoke and Eddie yanked the two of them back into the chapter house. Instantly Jason leapt up for the door, shooting his pistol into the red-lit haze beyond. As he grabbed the door handle and jerked it shut something brushed past his knee.

  ‘It’s in here.’ Anna yelled. ‘A glimmerman.’

  The three of them backed against one wall, pistols wavering. Ludovich backed up against his partner who was torn between the gun battle outside and the facing the invisible assassin behind him. No one moved.

  Suddenly someone pounded at the armoury door from the far side followed by gunfire.

  ‘Jason, it’s me – Marakoff. Let me in – you have a glimmerman in there with…’ A furious burst of automatic fire cut him off.

  ‘Marakoff?’ Jason hissed, turning to Anna and Eddie. ‘What shall I…’ he began but was drowned out by a hail of bullets tearing into the chapter house main door. One guard returned fire while Ludovich moved back to back with him and scanned the shadows with his Kalashnikov for any sign of the glimmerman.

  Marakoff – if it really was Marakoff - hammered on the armoury door again. Jason bit at his lip. “Demons are faultless mimics.” Marakoff had once told him.

  ‘Jason – ’ more gunfire, ‘my code and print have been blocked and I have no pin transmitter as I told you earlier…’ more fire. Burst after burst now. ‘If you’re alive, let me in…’

  ‘Bloody hell,’ Anna yelled. Ludovich and the other guard stood rigid for a moment then slumped to the floor without a shot being fired.

  Jason took his chance. He threw up an air wall across the corridor cutting the three of them off from the dead guards and hopefully the glimmerman. One hand feeding his barrier, he stepped over to the door, punched in the code and pressed his thumb to the reader.

  Marakoff burst in under a hail of bullets and slammed the door behind him. He backed hard into Jason, flattening him against the wall and swept the Kalashnikov he was carrying across the whole scene in an instant. Winded and with Marakoff’s iron hard body pressing him against the wall, Jason somehow still managed to maintain his air barrier.

  ‘It’s over there…’ Jason began.

  ‘Drop your wall.’ Marakoff whispered. ‘Pretend you’re exhausted,’ he was aiming through the shimmering air wall just above the dead Ludovich.

  Jason hesitated. The thing on the other side had effortlessly killed everyone around him.

  ‘Quickly, Jason,’ Marakoff said.

  Jason sagged and closed his hand. Marakoff flicked the Kalashnikov’s muzzle over to the receptionist’s desk.

  Blood and bone splattered the wall as a bald man materialised and judd
ered backwards with Marakoff’s bullets hammering into him. He crashed over the desk and slid to the floor riddled with bullets.

  ‘How… how did you see him?’ Anna asked, flicking her eyes from the dead glimmerman to Marakoff.

  ‘Footsteps in the carpet.’ Marakoff said, snapping in a new magazine.

  Jason glanced down at his feet which sank deep into the luxury shag pile carpet. Marakoff gripped his shoulder and pulled his attention back. ‘I am so sorry about your friends. I was driven from the roof tops and without my code and pin it took too long to get back into the cloister.’

  A hail of bullets flew through the shattered windows and something hard battered against the front door.

  Marakoff pushed them away down the corridor. ‘Come – we must follow your escape route. I will lead – stop and crouch on my signal. Watch all sides, behind and above as we move.’

  Behind them, the door was hammered again and the hinges shrieked loose from the wall. They sprinted for the exit at the far end of the corridor and Anna tapped in her code.

  ‘It is clear.’ Marakoff said peering out through a tiny window to one side of the door.

  They burst out into the rose garden and cool, clear air washed over them. Sporadic gunfire and droning rotor blades were muffled by the abbey buildings on all sides.

  Marakoff slammed the door shut. ‘Quickly.’ he hissed and they dashed across the grass to the church corridor. They were almost safe. Anna punched in her code.

  ‘We’re in,’ she said just as the tiny window behind them smashed outwards.

  Eddie snapped his pistol around and fired at the jagged black hole.

  Marakoff however remained unperturbed.

  ‘Do not waste your bullets. It is too small to climb through and they will not risk shooting in the dark when a stray bullet might hit Jason – that is why they sent the glimmerman.’

  Eddie stopped shooting but kept aiming at the window as they piled into the church corridor and locked the door.

  Jason collapsed back against one wall. Lit in low level red, the corridor was quiet and calm. To the right, thirty metres away was the white infirmary corridor leading to the training rooms but the three of them turned left towards the stairs rising to the church doors. They were ten steps away from sanctuary.