by KJ Harlow
“Tracy and Walter are downstairs; go down and get them. Tor still hasn’t recuperated, he won’t be going back up.” He looked down at Agatha. “Agatha, you will be leading this mission. I want you and Tracy to go to the General Register Office and take care of Matylda. We cannot leave London unoccupied, so I’m having Silas and Walter stay there just to keep an eye on the city and deal with any isolated packs of Conflicted.” He turned on his heel and started walking back towards his office.
“I can’t go,” Agatha said, calling across the room. Death stopped.
“Why?” He demanded, without looking back at us. Agatha patted her habit and shrugged.
“The Tormented took my Lucent Gun,” Death’s shoulders dropped as he sighed.
“Fine. Rose,” I perked up as I heard my name. “You go up instead. Tracy will lead.” Before I could say anything, Death was back at the other side of the room and had gone back to his office.
“What the hell was all that about?” Walter said as he came through stairwell door. I grinned at him.
“Oh, nothing. Just Agatha using her own style of persuasion to get Death to let me go on missions again,” I said.
“Persuasion, huh? Sounded more like a verbal take down,” he said, walking towards us. Agatha gave a faint smile as she looked at Walter. “So what shenanigans are the Tormented up to now?”
Sixteen
“Duck!” I pushed Tracy out of the way just as a golf ball hurtled towards her. We lay on the fairway for a while, watching the golf ball roll into the thick grass.
“Are we even yet?” I said, looking at Tracy. She got up and dusted herself off.
“Pretty sure I’ve still got one up on you,” she said, flashing a cheeky grin at me.
“Oy, what are you doing there?” A rather corpulent, Scottish man with a ghastly orange hair piece bellowed from 50 yards away.
“Come on,” I said, grabbing Tracy’s arm. “Let’s get out of here.” We Soul Stepped out of the golf course onto the road. Putting my hands on my hips, I looked around for street signs. I spotted one about 10 yards away: Coastal Road. I looked to my left and had my breath taken away.
“Tracy, look!” She looked in the direction of my hand out towards the sea. She shrugged as she scanned the horizon.
“Whatever, it’s just water.” The sun wasn’t in the middle of the sky yet. It could have been about 8 or 9 am. For once, it wasn’t hidden behind clouds as it cast out its rays westward, the sea radiant and sparkling. “What sort of person plays golf when there’s death and destruction bringing a country to her knees?”
“That fat bagpipe of haggis, apparently,” I said casually. Tracy burst out laughing, covering her nose when she snorted. I tried not to smile, but I couldn’t help but giggle when she did that.
“Some people just don’t care, I guess,” she said, eventually calming down. “If it doesn’t directly affect them, they’ll just go about their day as if nothing’s happened.”
“That, or he’s given up and is just trying to enjoy the rest of his days,” I mused.
Tracy looked at me with an arched eyebrow. “Wow, dark much?”
I shrugged. As I stood there, feeling the cold breeze nibble against my cheeks I forgot that there were such things as Tormented. I imagined living a peaceful life without having to shoot things all the time. I didn’t need much, just people that I cared about.
“Next time the Tormented choose somewhere to be evil, could they do somewhere warmer?” Tracy grumbled. I thought of chastising her but held my tongue.
“Come on,” I said, smiling at Tracy. “We’re not far from the General Register Office,” we followed the road north, eventually coming to a roundabout.
“Agatha, do you read me?” I said into the Light Bug.
“Loud and clear,” came her response almost immediately.
“We’re at the corner of Coastal Road and…” I paused as I looked at the signs, “Weld Road. Where do we go from here?”
“Go right, then right again into Lulworth Road. Keep going down until you reach Grosvenor Road, then turn left. It’s a big, red brick building; you can’t miss it.”
“Is Matylda still there?” Tracy asked.
“Yes, she’s…” Agatha paused. Tracy and I exchanged looks as we waited for her to find her again. “She’s not there anymore.” My eyes widened.
“What do you mean?”
“Before you paged me, I could still see her at the front of the building.” She went quiet as she waited for the security footage to flip through each camera, “I don’t know where she’s gone.” I looked at Tracy in alarm.
“Come on, she might have already gone inside.” I went through the directions in my head again then Soul Stepped out to the front of the General Register Office, Tracy not far behind me. We stood outside the gates, looking up at the building. Agatha was right; we couldn’t miss it. It had a proud, old Victorian look about it but it wasn’t run down. A car beeped at us and we hurriedly moved to the sidewalk. I put a hand up in apology. Peering back into the building, I could see that the car park was 80% full.
“Damn it. It must be a workday,” I said under my breath.
“These people really don’t care that there are hundreds of people dying in London?” Tracy said, shaking her head.
“They might be even busier than usual, what with all the people being killed,” I said. I walked in through the gates and towards the front door. Tracy caught me by the elbow and I stumbled forward.
“Wait, we still don’t know where Matylda is.”
“She should be inside, right? She’s going in to find and destroy Mortimer’s birth information.”
“I don’t know. The Tormented have really upped the –”
“That’s them!” a little girl’s voice squealed. “They’re the bad people I saw walking around my school!”
Tracy and I whirled around. A little girl wearing a school uniform was tearfully pointing at us. Even with her new disguise and her hair in braids, I knew Matylda when I saw her. A policeman consoled her while three others started approaching us.
“You were saying?” Tracy said, backing towards the door.
“Damn it, what is she playing at?” I growled.
“Lock the gates!” A police officer yelled to the security guard. He pressed a button and the gates to the General Register Office started closing.
“What do we do now?” I said.
“Matylda wants us to leave so that she can turn all of these people into Conflicted, then go in and destroy Mortimer’s birth details,” she said as she started drawing out her Lucent Gun. “We can’t leave.”
“She’s armed!” One of the policemen yelled. They pulled out their guns and pointed them at us.
“Damn it!” Tracy swore. My hand rested on the hilt of my weapon. Was it better to keep it hidden or to draw it, now that Tracy had already drawn hers? There was only one person I wanted to shoot, but she was being protected by a police officer. I took my hand off.
There was a sudden gunshot in the distance. All but one of the police officers spun around, looking beyond the gate. The one officer who hadn’t turned around fired at us.
“Split!” Tracy yelled. We spun out of the way as the bullet shattered the glass on the front door. We heard screams from the inside of the building as people started panicking. It sounded like the stray bullet had hit someone inside.
“What’s happening up there?” Agatha demanded.
“The shit has hit the fan,” Tracy said flatly. “Matylda showed up. She someone how got a child’s uniform–” she stopped short as her face went white as a sheet. I looked at her and knew what was on her mind. It was a horrific thought, but not one that we could afford to let distract us right now.
“She came back to the GRO with a disguise. The police are here. They think we’re the bad guys. They’ve fired a shot at us. Someone’s been hit inside the building. We’re locked in.” I said in rapid time. Agatha went quiet. For a moment I thought that she wasn’t going to
answer.
“Stay where you are. Protect the GRO. I know it’s chaotic right now but we can’t afford to let Matylda destroy Mortimer’s birth information.” I pushed my body into the sandstone pillar as I heard five more shots fired. None of them came anywhere near us. I heard bodies crumple to the floor. The color had returned to Tracy’s face as she stared at me.
“Did Matylda just–”
“Come out, come out wherever you are!” Matylda said in a sing-song voice. Holding our Lucent Guns close to our chest, we stole a look back to the front. Matylda stood in the middle of the path as the police officers and security guard twitched on the ground. We spun out and shot at Matylda at the same time. Our bullets crossed paths but Matylda had disappeared.
“Where did she go?” Tracy said under her breath.
We slowly stepped out in the middle of the path, to survey our surroundings.
“Better take care of these guys first.” I pointed my Lucent Gun and shot the Conflicted before they had a chance to be a nuisance to us.
“Rose, watch out!” Tracy tackled me with her shoulder just as a bullet came whizzing past my ear. We looked back at the building. Matylda was perched on top of the balcony above the sandstone pillars, her Ombre Gun dangling lazily from her right hand.
“How did this happen? I’m here,” she said, pointing to herself, then slowly pointing her weapon back towards us, “and you’re there.” She sprayed a dozen shots towards us. Tracy and I split again to opposite sides of the front lawn.
“Oh, by the way, that shot you heard before outside. That may or may not some of our Conflicted Members of Parliament door knocking to garner support for their cause.” She said, smiling sardonically. “You know, the old-fashioned way.”
“Tracy!” I hissed into the Light Bug. “What do we do now?”
“She’s bluffing,” Tracy said flatly. “She’s full of it.” Suddenly, we could hear gunshots all around us, some within 100 yards, others further away.
“What about now?” I said. Tracy didn’t say anything. I could almost hear her mind working as she tried to decide on the best course of action. We jerked our heads back to the building; there were gunshots and Matylda wasn’t on the balcony anymore.
“Damn it!” Tracy said. “Fine, you go and hunt down these Conflicted. I’m going in and stopping Matylda myself.” I nodded and ran towards the security officer’s station, slamming my hand down on the gate button. As I watched it open, I looked back towards the bush that Tracy was hiding behind. She was already gone. I had a moment of indecision. Should I stay here and stop Matylda? There was a flurry of shots 50 yards away. I made my decision and bolted out the gates, towards the source of the gunfire.
I slowly lowered my gun. The Conflicted I had just shot had been seconds away from killing another innocent victim. The mother cowered in the corner of the alleyway, desperately trying to shield her baby. I watched the black ashes rise into the air. That was a close one. I turned my head towards the south; there was another one, maybe 200 yards away. I cast one more look towards the mother and baby to make sure they were well and Soul Stepped away.
Arriving at the scene, I saw a trail of blood as someone tried to escape the Conflicted that was advancing on them. They had been hit in the leg by a bullet.
“Hey,” I said, shouting to the Conflicted. It turned around and looked in my direction. “That’s not how you win support from the people.” The Conflicted raised its gun but fell back onto the ground before it had a chance to shoot me. The man with the injured leg looked at the Conflicted in terror as it twitched and then started disintegrating in front of him. Unable to walk any longer, he fell to the ground. He pushed himself back as I approached him.
“It’s OK,” I said, speaking to him slowly. “I won’t hurt you.” He babbled incoherently and pulled away from me more as I tried to reach out and look at his injury. I stood up as he kept shuffling away. Besides the man’s sobbing, there wasn’t any more sound. I had Ridded a dozen Conflicted that had been spaced out over several miles. I didn’t even know where I was. I walked back towards the closest main road. Eventually, I found a sign. “‘Burnley’,” I mouthed to myself.
Damn it. I was all the way to the west. I heard sirens approaching; time for me to get out of here. I Soul Stepped back the way I came and in a few seconds, I was standing in front of the General Register Office again. The gates were barred and police had set up a crime scene. Making sure that my gun was hidden I approached one of the police officers.
“Excuse me,” I asked, “I think one of my friends could be working here today. Can I go in and check if they’re in there?”
“Sorry ma’am, I’m afraid not,” the policeman said tersely, not looking up from his notepad. I narrowed my eyes at him and tried again.
“I’ll only be a moment –”
“What part of ‘no’ don’t you understand?” He said, glaring at me. I stared at him, not refusing to back down.
“Peterson, come and have a look at this,” his colleague yelled urgently, waving at him to come over. Peterson glared at me a moment longer before stomping off.
“Rose?” Tracy said. She was running.
“Yeah, I’m here.”
“Geez, you took your time.”
“Sorry, the police are outside and they’re a pain in the–”
“Can you get in here? I’ve been chasing Matylda all over this building. She’s going around and turning anyone she can find into Conflicted. It’s like a game of Pacman and I could use a Player 2.” I chuckled at the gamer reference; I didn’t know she had it in her.
“The police aren’t letting me in.”
“So find a way to get in!” The transmission abruptly clicked shut. Guess she couldn’t always be chirpy and bubbly. I looked over at the policemen who were inspecting something on the ground. What could they actually be here for? I had an idea. I bounded over to Peterson. I looked at his badge to make sure I got his title right.
“Sergeant Peterson,” he looked at up me and rolled his eyes.
“You again?” he said, pursing his lips. “Why won’t you just–”
“I know what happened to the four missing police officers,” I said. Peterson narrowed his eyes as he looked at me. I kept a straight face. I wasn’t lying; I did know what happened to them, he just wouldn’t believe me if I told him.
“Well? Spill it.”
“Let me in first and then I’ll tell you,” I said calmly. He laughed at me derisively.
“That’s not how it works here.” My patience was wearing thin. I breathed slowly as I watched Peterson turn away from me and look back at something insignificant on the ground. Think, Rose, think! There had to something that would make them open up. I scrunched my eyes in concentration. Why was it so urgent that we came to the GRO in the first place? My eyes flew open as I remembered.
It looks like they’re planting explosives.
It had completely slipped my mind that that was how they were going to destroy the facility.
“Sergeant,” Peterson didn’t respond. “Sergeant!”
“Can’t you see I’m trying to –”
“There’s a bomb in the building.” He stared at me incredulously.
“What did you say?”
“There’s a bomb in the building and there’s a child in the building. She’s from the school down the road. She wandered in and my friend who’s a teacher there is looking for her.” Peterson and his colleague both looked at me. The chinks in their armor were starting to appear.
“Do you want to be the ones responsible when it turns out that I wasn’t lying and this whole place blows up, killing a child and a teacher?” I questioned sharply. Peterson was sweating as he eyed me furiously. Conscious that his colleague was watching him, he caved in.
“10 minutes,” he murmured. “10 minutes is all I’m giving you.” He paced towards the gates and started unlocking them.
“Thank you, constable,” I said, breathing a sigh of relief.
“Don�
�t disturb the evidence or I’ll have you–” He had to hold onto his hat as Soul Stepped into the building, kicking up a flurry of dust in my wake.
“Trace,” I said, pressing the Light Bug deeper into my ear. “Where are you?” The GRO was quiet – too quiet. How many people had Matylda actually turned?
“Rose,” she whispered. “I’m here. Can you hear me?”
“Yes, where are you?” I whispered as I crept through the hall. I froze as the floorboard creaked beneath my feet. I pointed my Lucent Gun around, scanning left and right. Nothing jumped out at me.
“I’m underground. I’m down about four or five levels. Matylda’s down here somewhere.” My eyes widened.
“Trace, stop. You have to come back up right now, there’s a – argh!” I fell as a bullet pierced my left thigh. I spun around and fire three rounds into a middle-aged Conflicted with thinning hair, wearing a tie. He fell to his knees and started disintegrating right in front of me. I gritted my teeth and fell on my right knee as my nerves screamed.
“Rose, what’s happened?”
“I’m hit,” I said. “Got careless.”
“Just stay there then. I’ve got Matylda cornered anyway. I’ll find her and stop her. She’s not going to destroy Mortimer’s birth details.”
“You need to get out of there. It’s a trap, there’s a b-”
I felt it deep in my bones before I heard it; maybe it was the heightened senses as a Deliverer. Every cell in my body seemed to brace itself as the shockwave hit. I felt the floorboards beneath my hands begin to splinter as a raging ball of fire expanded outwards, destroying everything in its path. I was thrown back into the front door and watched as the fireball enveloped the hallway that I had just walked through.
I closed my eyes as I prepared to die. I felt the flames lick my face and singe my eyebrows. The remaining glass that hadn’t been destroyed by Matylda exploded. Car alarms started blaring in the parking lot outside as the shockwaves traveled outwards. I covered my face, moaning in agony. My ears were ringing again; I couldn’t hear anything else. I couldn’t hear what Constable Peterson asked me as he opened the door and yelled at me. I couldn’t hear the sirens of the ambulance that arrived. Someone might have been talking to me on the Light Bug; I couldn’t hear them either.
