‘There’s a girl – Kate Meadows. She’s involved in a murder case that’s been on the TV ever since we got here.’
‘I’ve seen it. They think it’s her ex boyfriend,’ Pascal replied.
‘Yes. They have the girl in custody, and apparently her ex abducted her – took her to a big manor house in Bedfordshire.’
‘What does this have to do with my son?’
Duncan’s eyes lit up. ‘She gave the police names, Pascal. There were other people at the house.’
Pascal stretched for the suit jacket he’d dropped at the bottom of his bed. ‘How sure are we that he is there?’ he asked.
‘Aside from her ex, the Meadows girl talked most about two others. She described them in vivid detail – an American girl and a Russian. They fit the descriptions of the two who helped bust Heven in Lima to a T.’
‘Jesus Christ!’ Pascal struggled with his jacket, cramming his arms into it, misjudging where the sleeves were.
‘They are sending armed response teams out there as we speak.’ Duncan got ready to open the door. ‘We don’t have much time.’
‘My chopper fuelled?’
‘I think of everything, don’t I, sir?’
‘Then what are we waiting for?’
Incanto
1
Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire
Josie and Kaleb had followed Brenda’s instructions, heading southeast in the jeep, passing by Hyde Heath and through Chesham. Both places were deadly quiet. The A404 was reasonably clear towards the south, but the northbound direction was a mess, with solid blocks of traffic as far as Kaleb could see – every traveller terrified and clamouring for the emergency shelters that no one could confirm existed.
Kaleb did not know why he decided to turn off the motorway to find his way onto a country road. He and Josie, the others if they were still alive, existed entirely on faith now, their every move guided by it. However, a couple of miles along the country lane, Kaleb realised he’d made a mistake. The road was blocked. With large rocks and paving slabs, corrugated metal, wooden boarding, all built up on top of each other. It would have taken them all day to move it, and there was no time to turn back for the motorway. Besides, turning back could mean facing the Ceron. He had tracked them down once; he would track them again.
‘We need to climb over this and walk the rest of the way.’ Kaleb Said. He picked up the rucksack from the back seat, which was filled with the food and water Brenda had given to them, and they abandoned the jeep.
The sun started to go down, intensifying the unsettling red glow. They wandered for another mile without encountering a single soul, not even a distant vehicle. Kaleb wondered why he hadn’t received a vision of his sculpture for a while, almost wanting it to appear in his mind.
‘Kaleb!’ Josie could feel a thin line of blood running from his bandaged forearm down to the ends of his fingers. ‘It’s because you’re not resting it,’ she said.
‘How am I supposed to do that?’
‘Here.’ Josie took his injured arm and placed it across her shoulders. ‘Now relax. Let me take the weight.’
Kaleb did as she asked, allowing his arm to go limp.
‘I don’t know why they didn’t put it in a sling for you,’ Josie said.
‘Maybe the nurse didn’t realise we were off to save the world.’ Kaleb grimaced through his joke.
‘Keep it like that for as long as you can. Keeping it raised should stem the bleeding.’
‘Are you my new nurse?’ Kaleb asked.
Josie smiled at him, biting down nervously on her bottom lip. ‘If you want me to be.’ The blood continued to drip from his fingertips, landing on Josie’s thighs, soaking into her jeans.
A retro-looking wooden signpost pointed dead ahead, Crowside – 6 miles. ‘We should get there before nightfall, if we’re lucky,’ Kaleb said.
‘If we’re lucky?’ Josie shivered, squeezing his waist.
Another two miles and their legs felt like lead. Josie needed to rest but she would never have asked him to stop if he had not finally set the rucksack down. They helped each other into a nearby field, and Kaleb tried to arrange what little food they had left like a picnic. He laid his jacket out on the grass, positioning the packet of biscuits, tin of tuna, and the two remaining bottles of water the best he could.
‘It looks beautiful,’ Josie joked.
Kaleb paused for thought, then laughed. ‘I’m sorry. I was miles away.’
‘Where were you?’ she asked.
Kaleb stayed silent for a moment. ‘You don’t want to know…I’m sorry.’ In those brief moments, they forgot everything but each other. The sky was clear and full of stars again. How they wished they had met under different circumstances, even though they knew they already had, in some far off galaxy, inhabiting other bodies, other beings. Their souls were familiar.
Josie tried to imagine how the temple of Pariah might have looked when the rebels made their final move and laid siege to it. As they gazed towards the Sentinal’s majesty through the opening at the temple’s pinnacle, did she hold his hand before the end? Had they been searching for each other for all of that time in the vastness of space? It no longer mattered. They were together on earth, and Josie was not going to waste any more time on the might have been. She leant towards Kaleb, finding his lips and running her hands through his curls.
‘We better get going,’ Kaleb said, still savouring her sweet taste in his mouth. The short break had been exactly what they needed. Their legs no longer felt heavy, the hunger-induced nausea had disappeared. Life was life – the reason they fought.
Further ahead, a sign indicated that Crowside was only a mile away. As Josie walked on, she sensed that Kaleb was no longer next to her and she turned back. ‘What is it?’ she asked.
‘There’s smoke in the distance,’ he replied. Over to the east, he could see a mass of thick plumes rising up to further blacken the skyline, as fire spread through a whole village, while even the emergency services could not get beyond all of the traffic. Kaleb doubted their efforts would do much good now anyway.
Josie walked back and reached out for him.
Kaleb took her hand but lingered, gazing on the blaze, wondering if the people evacuated before the fire had taken hold, taking comfort from Josie’s gentle touch.
‘Come on,’ she said. ‘At least it’s not Crowside.’
2
Kaleb planted yet another kiss on Josie. Having her so close, he could not help himself. The country lane narrowed and an outline of buildings took shape on the horizon. Josie pulled back from him so she could speak. ‘So, do you want to?’
Before he could reply, something intruded on their moment. Josie heard them first. Four figures emerged from the field to their left, spreading out to block the road. Silently, three of them stepped forward, and the other, holding a rifle, remained in the shadows. As the three figures got closer, the eerie light revealed two men and one woman. The woman sported a handgun, and torrents of matted blonde hair escaped from underneath a knitted skullcap pulled tight to her head. The two men, one black, one white, were not carrying guns, but even so, they looked threatening.
‘We’re just passing through,’ Kaleb said, edging backwards.
‘Passing to where, exactly?’ The woman’s tone put them even more on edge. She lifted the handgun and pointed it in Josie’s direction. When she noticed that Josie was blind, she shifted her aim to Kaleb.
‘Hey. We’re unarmed here.’ Kaleb held out his hands to show they were empty.
‘I asked you a fucking question, didn’t I?’ the woman snapped.
‘We’re on our way to Crowside,’ Josie said.
‘Uh, Crowside? Do you have family there? If you do, I’ve got some bad news for you.’
‘Has it been evacuated?’ Kaleb asked.
The woman looked back down the road toward the building tops silhouetted against the skyline and shivered. ‘It’s a dead place. I’ve seen it with my own eyes,’ she said.
/>
‘The same as Tylers Green?’ Josie said.
‘You came from there?’
‘Yes. The children there have all become sick – some kind of aging disease,’ Josie replied.
‘Ha – ageing disease!’ The woman remarked to her two companions, and they responded with subdued laughter. ‘It’s not a disease. It’s the end of the world.’
‘Where are you from?’ Kaleb lowered his hands. He guessed that the more relaxed he was, the less likely the woman would get trigger-happy.
‘None of your business,’ the woman replied. ‘But I’m sure you’ve guessed by now that it happened to us as well.’
Kaleb realised how dishevelled they all looked. They smelt like they hadn’t bathed in weeks, and the condition of their clothes suggested they had been sleeping rough. ‘What happened to you?’
The woman lowered her weapon. ‘It happened about a month ago. One day, the kids started acting weird – singing that fucking french song all the time, like they were in a trance or something.’
‘Frere Jacques,’ Josie said.
‘Yeah, right – Frere Jacques.’ The woman paused, remembering the horrible sound of the children’s voices. ‘Within a week, most of them were too weak to walk. Our local doctor made an emergency call, but it wasn’t specialists that arrived. It was soldiers. They cordoned the place off – had us penned in like a fucking concentration camp. We pleaded with them to help the children.’ The woman shook her head. ‘They sent in doctors, but they weren’t interested in helping the kids. They only wanted to study them, try to figure out what was making it happen. A few of us got together, decided to make a break for it, let the media know what was going on – at least, the ones that hadn’t already taken bribes from the government.’ She looked to her nervous companions, and then back again. ‘A couple of the others were killed getting free from the village. Since then, we have been trapped between here and the other quarantine sites, hiding out where we could, searching for a way to sneak in between the barricades.’
‘Why didn’t we come across the soldiers on our way in?’ Kaleb asked.
‘They moved out first thing this morning. Bailey, where we lived, has already been evacuated. We saw them one night, transporting the rest of the village in trucks to God knows where.’
‘Maybe they took them to the shelters,’ Josie said.
‘Those imaginary shelters we’ve been hearing about on the radio? The only place they are transporting our people to is a mass grave.’
‘Didn’t anyone get out of there with a mobile ph—’
‘Have you not checked your signal lately? They set up these big jamming devices to block out all the coverage. We’ve seen one, from a distance.’
‘If the soldiers have gone, how come you haven’t got out of here?’ Kaleb said. The woman took a cigarette from her pocket and lit it, her hand shaking from a lack of food, or from fear.
‘The shit’s about to hit the fan. They’re all running for their lives, just like us.’
‘We’re so sorry about your families,’ Josie said.
The woman shrugged and took another long drag on her cigarette. ‘It’s not like anyone else is going to get off easy. We’re all fucked. What’s in the bag?’ She pointed her gun in the direction of the rucksack that hung from Kaleb’s good arm.
‘Just some food, some water,’ Kaleb said.
‘Toss it over.’
‘It’s all we have.’
‘I said, toss it over.’ She took aim again, clicking back the pistol’s hammer.
‘Alright, fine.’ Kaleb angrily pulled the strap from his arm and threw it at the woman’s feet. ‘Now let us pass.’
The woman laughed. ‘So, you’re calling the shots now, eh?’
‘It’s like you said – what does it matter? We’re all dead anyway,’ Kaleb replied.
The woman’s temper cooled. She lowered her weapon and stood aside. ‘What the hell are you going to Crowside for?’ she asked as they passed her.
‘If everything is going to end, it’s where we want to be.’ Josie could not think of anything else to say without risking an inquisition.
No more words were exchanged between them. The man in the shadows kept his head down as Kaleb and Josie went by. Kaleb did not look back. At least they weren’t too far away from their destination, but knowing they did not have food and water only increased their need for it.
3
Martha, Barnes, Evelyn and Stuart all stood around the bed staring towards Ashley with a dreadful expectation. Celeste’s presence had taken hold. Ashley fixed her blank eyes on the first-born. ‘Where are the others?’
‘Heven’s on his way. He’s gone to find Jerrico.’ As Evelyn spoke, they heard footsteps pounding down the stairs and across the hall.
Heven skidded through the doorway, stopping just short of the bed, almost crashing into Celeste’s electrocardiogram. ‘He’s not there,’ he gasped. ‘He must have climbed down from the window.’
‘Calm down, Heven. He’s—’
‘Here.’ A voice from behind them cut Celeste short. Heven turned around to see Jerrico standing in the doorway. A new darkness swelled within his eyes. He had re-applied his makeup, blackened his nails and lips. He stared at each one of them in turn, as he moved into the room.
Stuart gestured towards his friend, but there was no acknowledgement. Jerrico walked straight past him, taking up a position at the far side of the bed, bowing his head so Celeste could continue.
‘I have some unfortunate news. It appears that we have been discovered. Your human identities have gained a great notoriety – Cradleworth saw to that. Now, the authorities have found the location of this manor, and they know some of you are hiding here.’
‘Vladimir.’ Heven spoke through gritted teeth.
‘It was not one of your own who betrayed you.’
They all knew – Kate was the only other person who had been there. Jerrico’s heart sank deep.
‘This is exactly why I prevented you from bringing your loved ones to this house,’ Celeste said.
‘It’s my fault. I take full responsibility for this. Do you want me to kill them?’ Jerrico asked. His willingness sent chills through the others, Stuart in particular.
‘You taking responsibility will not be enough. You must all shoulder this burden together. It’s the only way we can remain undetected.’ Celeste gazed at them through Ashley’s weary eyes, as if the first-born should know exactly what hatched in her mind.
‘Tell us what to do,’ Evelyn said.
‘Millions upon millions of dimensions exist alongside this one. You possess the power to commune with them, to bring parts of them into this world, and vice versa. We may be able to force this house and its contents into the matterless, the space between this dimension and the next. It is possible that we can remain there long enough for the authorities to pass by us, but you will need to focus. You will need to cast off the shackles of this world, as you have never done before.’
‘We’re ready,’ Martha said.
‘Join hands – form a connection with me.’ Ashley reached down from her chair with her other hand and placed it on Barnes’ head. Stuart placed a hand on the dog’s back. The rest of them joined hands and Jerrico placed his other hand on the chest of the sleeping girl so the chain was complete. ‘Close your eyes. Do not allow what you see to dictate what is really there. Remember how it was when we talked through our minds? How you felt when you travelled through the mirror? Accept the essence of one another. You’re particles – particles mixing together until you become one being. Your flesh is nothing. It no longer exists. You are not bound to it, nor are you bound to this world.’
With every word, the pressure in their heads began to wind up like before, until it reached such a crescendo they felt weightless.
‘Don’t be distracted by the vastness of your capability. Focus on this house, on its solid foundations, its walls and its windows. Now you have become outsiders looking in, focus on this room and
the bodies that inhabit it. Make them slip away through the cracks, like water evaporating through the sands of the desert. Believe it – will it into being.’
The first-born had no idea where they existed anymore – somewhere and nowhere at the same time. They could not see or smell anything. All they could hear was Celeste’s calming voice above the beeping and hissing of the machines that worked so tirelessly to keep her body alive.
4
The procession of police cars and armed response vehicles took the route to the manor which Kate had pointed out on the map. On reaching the entrance to Weepington woods, they had to proceed on foot. Not one officer had heard of the white manor Kate described. Before they left, they tried to locate it on the internet, to no avail.
Morrow trekked through the undergrowth at the front of the search party, alongside the armed officers. Inspector Graystock stumbled behind, trying to catch up. ‘I have a feeling your girl is leading us a merry little dance, Inspector,’ he said.
‘I don’t think so,’ Morrow replied, without turning his head.
‘I can’t believe you allowed yourself to be taken in like that. She’s obviously still in love with Flynn.’
‘I just don’t assume that being in love makes someone a liar.’
‘Suit yourself. We’ll just trample through these woods for another half an hour until we find out there’s nothing to see.’ Graystock fell over a broken branch as he spoke. ‘Morrow wait,’ Graystock shouted.
Little by little, the volume of tree trunks seemed to lessen. To Morrow’s surprise and disappointment, no majestic country house stood before him when he reached the clearing; instead, broad connecting fields, stretching back to another pocket of woodland.
Sweating heavily, Graystock emerged from the trees, perversely satisfied by the emptiness.
‘There must be some mistake. We’ve taken a wrong turn in the woods somewhere,’ Morrow shook his head. He’d been so sure everything was falling into place.
Infanticide (Fallen Gods Saga Book 2) Page 17
