Killing The Dead | Book 23 | Come The End

by Murray, Richard

  “How long since you were in touch with them?”

  I couldn’t answer that and Cass, shaken, shook her head slowly to let me know that she didn’t know either. There was no need to contact the island. Not unless we were requesting specific supplies or updates. The supply boats had a regular schedule and the ministers that I had left in charge over there were capable of keeping the place running.

  “Check in with the island,” I instructed Charlie. “Now.”

  She didn’t reply, just tapped on her keyboard with one hand while reaching for her headset with the other. I didn’t pretend to know how she had set everything up so that she could access whatever she needed from her terminal, but I didn’t need to. It was why she was so important to us, because she knew what the hell she was doing.

  We waited in tense silence for what seemed an eternity, all the while Charlie was trying to connect to the island. With each passing moment, my alarm grew and a gnawing pit of fear began in my stomach.

  “Try Genpact!” I snapped, taking a step towards the terminal as though just being closer would make the damned island answer.

  More silence and I gripped the handle of the knife on my belt as though it was the only thing keeping me upright.

  “We hear you.”

  The sudden gasp of relief that escaped me was enough to have my knees feeling like jelly. They had answered!

  “This is Charlie, contact ID Echo, Romeo, Four, Eight, Two. Who am I speaking with?”

  There was no immediate reply and I glanced questioningly at Cass who shrugged uncomfortably. We’d never had anything less than prompt responses from them.

  “Hello.” A voice I recognised as belonging to Eunice. “What do you want?”

  “We’ve lost contact with both the satellite and the island,” Charlie said. “Wondered if you folk would be kind enough to give us an idea of what’s going on.”

  “Access was terminated,” Eunice replied, smug superiority coming through with every word.

  “We had a deal-“

  “That too, is terminated,” she said.

  “You need us, dude. We gave you bloody food and we’re gonna kill the damn parasite for you!”

  “We have ample food supplies and in a matter of hours, the parasite in what used to be Liverpool will be dead.”

  “How-“

  Laughter was the only reply to her question and I felt that fear clawing its way up my throat. There was only one way they could have a weapon to kill the parasite.

  “Oh god.” My whispered words carried clearly through the room.

  “The hell have you done?” Charlie demanded. “We had a fucking deal. We helped you!”

  For a moment I thought she wouldn’t reply but the speaker crackled as her voice came through, loud and clear.

  “You shouldn’t have.”

  Chapter 17

  The argument raged for days and always it came back to the same question and utterly pointless answer. We couldn’t go over to the island without a boat and all of the boats were with the island. Therefore, we could attempt to build one, which would be difficult with the sawmill burned to ash, but not impossible. Or, we wait.

  “My son is over there!” Evelyn yelled, throwing her arms in the air in a rather dramatic attempt at punctuating her point. “My mother too!”

  Charlie rolled her eyes behind my sisters back and I almost grinned. Seemed that she was as sick of the pointless arguing as I was.

  “There’s a boat due in less than three weeks,” Lily said, not needing to mention it was barely days less than three weeks. “Until then we can keep trying the radio.”

  “I can’t wait that long.”

  “What else can we do?”

  “I don’t know... something. Anything.”

  Tears shimmered in her eyes and I held back a sigh. There were much more important things that I could have been doing right then, but sitting in the dining room listening to people argue was, apparently, something that would please Lily.

  Why that was, I didn’t know, but since Angelina had her morning reading and writing lessons, I couldn’t be training her anyway and I had nothing else to actually do.

  Being a good person was boring as hell. The village bored me, the petty politics bored me, even the likelihood that something terrible had happened on the island bored me. The only interesting thing was the raiders and they hadn’t done anything in the three days since they had set the sawmill alight.

  Which made things utterly boring.

  I needed to kill someone. Sure, the three raiders had been fun, but I needed the ceremony, the ritual. That slow and inexorable creeping fear in their eyes as they came to terms with what was about to happen.

  The soft sound of the cloth as I cleaned my blade and the harsher metallic ring of steel on steel as I sharpened it, followed by another cleaning. The cleaning of the victim as they lay bound, unable to move or bother me with their inane begging.

  It had been so very long since I had completed a kill like that and in that time of complete and utter boredom, there seemed to be little else that I could think of.

  “Ryan!” Evelyn stormed, slamming her hands against the wood of the table.

  “What?”

  “He wasn’t even listening!” Cass snapped, a scowl on her face. “Not like he cares either.”

  About what? I had no idea, and as the room full of annoyed people stared at me, I realised that I had drifted off with my thoughts and missed the question they had asked of me.

  “I probably don’t,” I agreed. “Ask again, anyway.”

  Looks were exchanged, scowls and snarls aplenty cast my way and yet still I sat, impervious to their condemnation in my bubble of intolerable boredom.

  I really needed to kill someone.

  “It was suggested,” Lily said, voice low and soothing. “That we reach out to the nearby communities. Someone must have a boat. What do you think?”

  I studied each of their faces for several seconds as I thought, trying to conclude why they would care about my opinion on such a trivial matter. Then it hit me and I smiled.

  “Let me guess. Isaac has already told you that speaking of such things on the open radio will let everyone know that we are potentially weakened. Since we are being harried by the raiders who seem intent on keeping us here, letting them know we have no other means of leaving by sea would embolden them to attack.”

  “What makes you think they want to keep us here?” Lily asked, glancing quickly at the others before bringing her attention back to me.

  “The ambush was not a serious attempt to kill us, merely to hurt us and scare us into heading back to the village. Tactics I myself used against the raiders. They burned the sawmill to the ground simply because that was our only source of cut timber. Without that, we will struggle to strengthen the defences and we have no way of building even a raft to escape.”

  “I have no doubt,” I continued on. “That each of the roads leading from the village are watched and should we attempt to leave, another attack will occur. Each time we will be driven back here.”

  “But, why?

  I didn’t allow Cass the satisfaction of seeing me gloat as I replied to her question. No, as displeased with me as she was, any such gloat would simply increase her anger which would make things difficult for Lily. So, I kept my face impassive as I turned to her.

  “The last clear image we had of Birmingham and the surrounding area showed movement.”

  “A lot of it,” Charlie agreed.

  “The leader of the Riders was bloodied and lost a great deal of face with his people when he was soundly defeated.” I had to grin then. “Not to mention the damage I caused on my journey here.”

  Clearly, that was the wrong thing to say from the way their scowls deepened. Even Lily looked annoyed.

  “So,” I continued. “They are likely gathering their forces, forming alliances and telling any raider group that will listen about us.”

  “Which means what?”

  I
barely held back a sigh. How Two had managed to gain an invite to the meeting I couldn’t say, and considering her being a slave from a young age, a stupid question now and then was to be expected.

  “It means that they see us,” Lily said, so that I didn’t have to. “A large group with uniforms...”

  A glance then to both Isaac who wore the same naval fatigues as his troopers and Samuel, who wore as much black as possible, though absent the full head covering that marked every other minion as a member of the same group.

  “Which likely means a group with access to food and other resources that many people are lacking at the moment.” Lily ran her fingers through her hair, sighing softly. “They see us as a group that has something they want and they are keeping us here until their main forces arrive.”

  “Even more reason to find some boats and get the hell out of here then!” Evie said, voice rising. “We can come back with more people and fight a war later. For now, we need to know our families are safe. I’m not the only person here with someone back on the island that I’m worried about.”

  “Which is a valid point,” Lily agreed. “If we don’t get answers soon then we will start losing people as they try to find a way across to the island themselves.”

  “If the raiders know we are vulnerable, we will be in real trouble,” Isaac argued gruffly. “At the moment, they must know we aren’t from here. They could have seen the last supply boat arrive, which means that they know we have a lot more people to back us up. They find out we don’t...”

  No one needed him to complete that sentence and I leant back in my chair, watching each of them in turn. Fear and confusion reigned on their faces and I almost chuckled. Until I saw that same worry reflected on hers.

  “What about the drones?” I heard myself say, and swore softly as everyone looked at me again.

  “Not enough range.”

  “Thank you, Charlie. But is there any way for you to find a way to get one across anyway?”

  The young engineer sank into a thoughtful silence as all attention turned to her, the people in the room all hoping that she would be able to give them some hope of an answer.

  I hoped she had one too, that way I could be done with the intolerably dull meeting and be about my business.

  Of being bored in another room.

  I really needed to kill someone.

  “Maybe,” Charlie said. “I can try, but the only drone that has a chance is the one I was going to use to check on the parasite.”

  “Use a smaller drone,” Lily ordered. “Fly it down the road and see if the bloody things tentacles are still moving. If not, it means Genpact have done what they said they would. Hell, if necessary, we’ll send an armed force to check it.”

  “Then I’ll get to work,” Charlie said. “I’ll hopefully have an idea if it’s possible by nightfall.”

  “Good.” Lily leant forward, face hardening as she looked at Isaac. “Keep the patrols close to the walls. Shore up the defences as best you can and I want a plan of action for when the attack comes.”

  “Aye, lass.”

  “Cass, keep on the radio. I want you to reach out to anyone willing to talk. Find out what they know, listen more than you speak and be circumspect.”

  “Yes.”

  “Keep trying the island too.”

  “Of course.”

  “Samuel.”

  “Yes, My Lady.”

  “Prepare your people. Push them hard but have them ready.”

  “We are ready.”

  “Be more bloody ready!”

  “What about me?” Evelyn asked. “I need something to do. I can’t just sit and wait.”

  “People are going to be scared and worried about their loved ones. You need to keep them calm, keep them focused and above all, keep them here.”

  “I can do that.”

  “We will get answers and we will find our friends safe and well back on the island. I’m sure of it.”

  She was lying, of course. If the problem was something as simple as a broken communications system, the people on the island would have already sent a boat. That no boat had arrived did not bode well and I suspected that everyone knew she was lying by the way they shuffled their feet and avoided looking at one another.

  Weird. If they knew, why did they accept it? I would need to ask Lily later, but for the moment, it seemed that the meeting was drawing to a close and I would soon be able to return to my task of being bored out in the garden.

  “What about me?” Two asked, and Lily gave her a hard look before her eyes flicked to me.

  “I have a task for you and your, Furies.”

  “Good. What is it?”

  Again, she glanced at me and her shoulders sagged as she closed her eyes. For a moment, she seemed defeated, but then she squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. She looked directly into the eyes of the young Fury and spoke.

  “You will leave the village under cover of darkness and travel north along the coast.”

  “Why?”

  “There are seaside towns all along the coast. I’m sure one of them must have a shop that has rowing boats or even inflatables. Anything we can use to get someone across to the Isle of Man to check on the people there.”

  “Is he coming with us?”

  It took me a moment to realise that Two was asking about me, and a moment longer to realise that my boredom was not to be relieved any time soon as Lily refused to look my way.

  “No. Just you and your group.”

  “Okay.”

  I had made a promise to stay, to not leave her again. That was a promise I would keep, no matter how bored I was. But, at that moment, as she avoided looking at me, it was damned hard to do.

  It should be me heading out into the darkness. I should be the one hunting down those raiders and making them pay for the attacks on my people! The darkness smothered me day and night, a ravenous hunger demanded to be fed and one that I could not sate.

  Training with my daughter was the only thing keeping me remotely close to being able to keep that promise. But even that would not work forever and I would need to find another way to keep my promise.

  Watching her send others out to do the killing was not making that easy though.

  I really needed to kill someone.

  Chapter 18

  `They returned before the dawn, bloodied and beaten, anger writ large across their faces. Of the five women that had set out, only two of them remained.

  I wanted to weep.

  There was no time for that though, not as those women staggered back through the gate that had been erected across the north road. Not as Two held up her companion, the red-haired woman who never spoke, face twisted in pain as she clutched a bloody hand to her side.

  “Caught us before we even reached the next town,” was all Two said as she brushed past me.

  I closed my eyes, trying my damnedest not to weep but that was nigh impossible as she turned back, voice leaden with her anger.

  “Five was taken alive.”

  My tears did come then and I turned away, not able to look the young woman in the eyes. I couldn’t bear to see the anger, the rage, that was there. It had been a mistake, I knew that as soon as I had given the order. I knew what had been needed, but I couldn’t do it.

  I couldn’t bear to see him leave again, knowing that he might never return.

  The task I had been doing as they returned was forgotten and I found myself back at the house. For once I was grateful for the watchful silence of my bodyguards. I needed no sympathy or commiserations. I needed to accept that I had been wrong and put it right.

  How I could do that was something I didn’t know, but I had to try.

  Inside the house, Cass was seated beside Charlie, dark smudges beneath her heavy-lidded eyes and headphone in place as she worked the radio. She looked up as I entered the room and the flash of anger died as she caught sight of my face.

  Putting down the headset, she pushed away from the table and hurried over
to me. She didn’t say anything, she didn’t need to. She just pulled me into an embrace and held me as the tears I had fought so hard to contain were released all at once.

  I couldn’t say how long we stayed that way, just standing in the entranceway to the dining room, Cass holding me close as I pushed my face against her shoulder and wept as quietly as I could so that I didn’t wake the children.

  Eventually, my crying slowed and I pushed away from her, offering just a small smile of gratitude for her just being there for me. Charlie, bless her, was studiously avoiding looking our way as she pretended not to have borne witness to that moment of weakness.

  “You have to let him go and do his thing.”

  “I know.”

  God help me, I did know and I couldn’t hold him back any longer. He delighted in killing in a way that made him seem almost supernatural at times. He moved with a grace that any dancer would envy, but only when he had a blade in his hand and enemies surrounding him.

  I couldn’t keep on allowing people to die in failure when I knew that he would relish the task. More than that, he was less likely to fail simply because he didn’t care. While any others I sent would break and run, they would hesitate or make a mistake due to fear or empathy. He wouldn’t.

  No, he would blithely kill without a shred of doubt or conscience and he would likely succeed simply because he wouldn’t doubt himself or for even a moment consider that he might not win.

  “If I lose him...”

  “I know.”

  “What happened?” Ryan asked, stifling a yawn with the back of his hand as he blinked blearily. “What time is it?”

  “It’s time for you to go forth,” Cass said. “To do what you do best.”

  “Oh.”

  Just that. One word, with barely any other reaction. He could have just been told that he would be asked to go to the local shops for all the emotion he showed. For a moment, I could barely comprehend how I had fallen in love with such a man.

  Then, he tilted his head to the side, those beautiful eyes of his meeting my own and I saw something remarkably like concern there. He had noted my puffy eyes and cheeks still wet with tears and he wanted to know that I was okay.