Master of Darkness

by K T Kaye

  “Do you have any of Alex’s files?”

  “No, the Colonel has them.”

  “Don’t you find that strange?”

  “It is a bit. Is there something in those files you think I need to see?”

  Danny sighed, “I don’t know. I assume that the Colonel would know. I did some background research on Alex. He has a very bloody past. He even has links to the Jack the Ripper murder cases.”

  Angel was silent, “Does he have past affiliations with Mr Jet?”

  “I don’t know, it’s hard to find out about him.”

  “Okay,” Angel thought for a moment, “Find evidence. Continue doing your research and when you have got some solid evidence, I’ll deal with this then. Right now, let’s just deal with the Mr Jet issue.”

  “Okay,” Danny agreed, “But don’t keep Alex too close.”

  Angel didn’t answer, instead she looked down at the notebook, “Looks like this is finished. You were right about the late-night visitors. Paris was certainly popular with the ladies, and with the gentlemen too it seems.”

  “Most of them aren’t from the base, he probably just picked them up at a club or something. He must have had a pickup portal. That’s the only way he could’ve got them onto the base.”

  “A what?”

  “It’s a new device being sold on the black-market. They’re tiny portals that can carry two people. The idea behind them is, if you pick up a girl at a bar you can teleport her back to your place before she has a chance to change her mind, hence the name ‘pickup’ portals.”

  “That’s,” Angel muttered disgusted, “Wait, how do you know about them?”

  “When we raided that goblins place a few months back, he was selling them. We confiscated a load, come to think of it, it was me and Paris who logged them into evidence.”

  “These portals, would they be able to break through the base’s forcefield?”

  Danny thought for a moment, “I don’t think so, not unless Paris got the portal authorised. Authorised portals don’t have to go through the forcefield’s security.”

  “If this is the case, then we need to find out who authorised Paris’ portal.”

  “First we need to find out if he had one.”

  * * * * *

  Hiroshi, Jin, William, Jonathan and Ambroise arrived early the next morning to search Paris’ room. Angel unlocked the room to let them in, then left them to it. Angel went to her messy office and sat herself down behind her desk. Angel’s office was slightly bigger than her room and was pack full of stuff. Files sat in piles littering the floor and boxes filled with paperwork were stacked in a corner. A computer filled her desk and two battered chairs were sat on either side. On the desk was a crystal ball which contained the contents of the mind take. Angel connected the crystal ball to her computer and watched. Angel fast forwarded through the dead girl’s memories. The dead girl had turned out to be Ellie Jones, a witch from Tsunamis squad. Angel had recognised her face, but it wasn’t until she started watching Ellie’s memories that she realised that they had joined the base at the same time. In fact they had been in the same training squad for a short while. Angel flicked through Ellie’s memories feeling extremely uncomfortable. She was watching this girl’s life through her eyes. Everything was from a first person point of view. It was as if Angel was living these memories. But these memories belonged to someone else. These memories were private. They were personal. They were not supposed to be watched and studied. Angel swallowed her feeling of discomfort, blocked out the voice in her head telling her it was wrong, and continued. She flicked through every birthday, every Christmas, every ‘you-had-to-be-there’ moment until, after hours of searching, Angel finally found what she had been looking for.

  “I’ve brought food,” Angel looked up to see Alexander in the doorway holding a plastic container full of food, “Sara made it. She was concerned when she didn’t see you at lunch.”

  “Lunch? What time is it?” Angel muttered. Alexander entered and sat on the chair opposite Angel, placing the food on the desk.

  “It’s just gone three o’clock.”

  “Really!? I’ve been doing this longer than I thought.”

  “What have you been doing that’s kept you so busy?” Angel turned her computer screen in Alexander’s direction.

  “Is this from the mind take?” he asked, “Did you find anything?”

  Angel nodded and pressed play:

  “Why is he coming here?” Ellie Jones whispered to Paris Surf.

  “How should I know? He never tells me anything!” Paris hissed.

  “How exactly are we going to get him onto the base? The borders are completely shut down!”

  “I’ve sorted that.”

  “How?” Paris took out a small black circular object.

  “What is that?” asked Ellie.

  “It used to be one of those ‘pickup’ portals, but I’ve had it modified. If we attach this to the border, Jet can use this to get onto the base.”

  “Will this work?”

  “Should do. I’ve been doing some test runs. It’ll only manage two journeys though.”

  Angel hit the pause button and muttered, “That’s what that crack in the border is. Hopefully, now that we know what it is, we’ll be able to remove it. The Colonel and a group of experts are apparently working on it. I also found this.” Angel skipped the memory forward then hit play.

  Ellie was in her room, sat at her desk. She was writing an action report. By the side of her hand was a plain white warlock’s card. For a few moments the footage showed nothing more than Ellie filling out the report, but then the warlock’s card glowed dark orange. Ellie picked the card up and words appeared:

  Be in the forest tonight.

  Then the message vanished. Ellie took a pen and wrote on the card: what time?

  For a moment there was nothing then the card glowed once more, and the words vanished. The card remained blank for a few minutes until it glowed again:

  When Lightning Squad’s night patrol begins.

  “That’s how Mr Jet is communicating with his followers,” Alexander muttered as Angel hit the pause button, “A warlock’s card.”

  “I have to hand it to them, they outsmarted us there. Warlock’s cards can’t be traced or detected.”

  “That warlock’s card looks like the one you found in the forest.”

  “I was thinking the same. Do you still have the card from the forest?”

  “Be right back,” Alexander zoomed out of the room only to return seconds later holding the warlock’s card. He handed it to Angel.

  “They look very similar,” Angel muttered, “I’ll keep this and take it into evidence.” Angel put the card in her pocket and then stuffed her mouth full of food. Alexander smiled as he watched Angel eat but then he noticed the personnel files on her desk, and his smile faded. The files of every Lightning Squad member lay open, each covered in highlighted scribbles and sticky notes.

  “Are you going through everyone’s files?” Alexander asked.

  “Yeah. I just read through Paris’ file and it’s perfect. Completely perfect! I’ve read through all the reports, no one ever says a bad word about him! It’s just…”

  “It’s not your fault, none of us saw this coming. We all trusted Paris. He was good at his job.”

  “Yeah well now he’s in the cells and I have to try and work out if I have any more terrorists in my squad!”

  “Have you read my file?” Alexander asked.

  Angel paused, “I don’t have your file. Actually I wanted to ask you about that. Why does the Colonel have your file?”

  Alexander didn’t say anything for a moment, “That’s classified.”

  “Classified? Why would someone’s personnel file be classified?”

  “Ask the Colonel.”

  “I intend to.”

  “If the Colonel thought you needed to see my file, he would have shown it to you. Besides you know me well enough without my file.”

&
nbsp; “But I don’t Alex, that’s the problem,” Angel sighed, “In fact I know practically nothing about you.”

  “I’ve lived for around two thousand years so admittedly I have not told you my entire backstory but believe me when I say that the person who knows me best, the person I’ve been the most honest and open with, the person who understands me best, is most definitely you.”

  “You say that but, you see, how do I explain this, I don’t know why but I’m not, when it comes to situations involving you, I’m not the most objective. I don’t want you to be, no matter what people say about you or what your history might be, I don’t want you to be a bad guy. I’m not saying you are, what I’m saying is that, I trust you Alex however I probably shouldn’t, at least not as much as I do.”

  Alexander nodded. There was a moment of silence. Alexander studied Angel for some time before he asked, “Do you think I’m a terrorist?”

  Angel was silent than muttered, “No. But I also never thought Paris was one.”

  “True,” Alexander lifted his hand and, after a moment’s hesitation, gently pulled something from Angel’s hair.

  “What are you doing?”

  “You had rice in your hair.”

  “Oh, that’s gross.”

  “Are you aware that you inhale your food rather than eat it?”

  “Oh I’m well aware. Werewolves aren’t exactly taught table manners.”

  Alexander laughed. It was then that Angel realised that Alexander’s hand was still lightly touching her cheek. If she had wanted to, she could have easily pushed it away, however she didn’t.

  “I’m not a terrorist,” Alexander said sincerely, “I know you can’t just take my word for it but, I want Mr Jet dead as much as you do. Perhaps even more.”

  “Why?”

  “He did something to me in the past, something that he needs to pay for.” Angel was about to ask more but her phone rang. Alexander quickly moved his hand away as Angel picked up the phone. She spoke briefly to Jin and then hung up.

  “They’ve finished logging all of Paris’ stuff into evidence,” Angel explained.

  “You should go look through it,” Alexander got to his feet, “You may see something the boys have missed.”

  * * * * *

  The evidence locker was a massive white warehouse run by goblins. Angel entered the warehouse and went over to the main desk, behind which two goblins sat. One of the goblins was a man with a long ginger beard that reached the floor and bright green eyes. He was typing away at a computer, looking highly irritated by something on the screen. The other goblin was a female with green skin and bleach blonde hair. She was reading a magazine, which she quickly put down as Angel entered.

  “Afternoon,” Angel greeted the goblins, “I’ve come to see the Paris Surf evidence.”

  “Can you show me some ID please?” asked the male goblin.

  “Really? Francis, how long have you known me?”

  “Just following procedure. Can you show me some ID please?”

  “Yeah sure,” Angel pulled out of her pocket her Lightning Squad ID badge.

  “Okay, can you hold out your hand for me?”

  “Why?”

  “Just follow the procedure.”

  “Alright,” Angel held out her hand, Francis placed a small square object onto her palm. From the object a blue light shone across Angel’s body. Then a small needle pricked Angel’s skin.

  “Ow! What was that for!?” Angel exclaimed as Francis took the object away.

  “DNA testing. We have to make sure you are who you claim to be,” Francis plugged the square object into the computer.

  “This is a bit much!”

  “We have a lot of dangerous objects in here, we can’t have any of them falling into the wrong hands,” stated the female goblin.

  The computer made a beeping sound, Francis smiled, “She checks out.”

  “Okay almost done. I just need you to sign here, here, here and here,” the female goblin handed Angel a form.

  “Are we done now?” After signing the necessary paperwork, Angel handed the form back to the female goblin.

  “We’re done. If you’d like to follow me, I will lead you to the Paris Surf evidence room.”

  “Finally,” Angel sighed. Francis picked up his clipboard and led the way. The evidence locker was separated into many different rooms that each held different types of evidence. Angel followed the goblin through the maze of evidence rooms until they came to a small room with a blue door. The goblin pressed the electronic pad on the wall and the door swung open. Angel stepped inside to find the other captains, minus Axel, waiting for her. The room was completely white; white walls, white furniture, and a white floor. There was even a white computer hidden in the far corner of the room. Hiroshi and Jin were sat on chairs, flicking through some of Paris’ old paperwork, whilst Jonathan, Ambroise and William stood by a long white table, discussing the objects that lay on it in detail. The captains looked up as Angel entered.

  “When you are finished, press the blue button on the wall and a goblin will come to escort you back,” Francis explained.

  “Cheers Francis,” Angel thanked the goblin as he left.

  “What did you think of the evidence police?” asked Hiroshi.

  “That procedure is ridiculous! It never used to be this strict.”

  “I think some evidence went missing a while ago,” Jonathan explained, “They stepped up their security after that.”

  “It’s still ridiculous! You have no idea how much trouble it was to log this stuff in!” Hiroshi exclaimed.

  “Did you find anything interesting? And where’s Axel?”

  “Axel? No idea, probably sleeping. The stuff on the table over there are things that seemed a bit out of place, but apart from that there’s nothing of real interest,” Ambroise gestured to the table. After putting on a pair of gloves, Angel headed over to the table. The shapeshifter studied the array of objects that lay before her. Amongst Paris’ things was a pickup portal as well as a white warlock’s card.

  “This is how Mr Jet is communicating with his followers.”

  “A warlock’s card,” Jonathan muttered, “Clever.”

  From her pocket, Angel pulled out the warlock’s card that she had found in the forest and held it next to Paris’.

  “I found this in the forest, I thought it might have belonged to one of the terrorists. Jonathan are they the same? They look the same but, magically, are they?”

  Jonathan pulled out his wand and gently tapped each of the cards. The tip of his wand glowed purple.

  “Yes, both cards are the same. They were created by the same warlock.”

  “How can you tell?” asked William.

  “Everyone who uses magic has their own magic, err I guess you could call it a, fingerprint. Both these cards have the same ‘fingerprint’.”

  “What the?” Angel muttered as the two cards glowed orange and words appeared. The words stayed on the card just long enough for Jin to write them down, before they disappeared.

  “Mr Jet clearly doesn’t realise we’ve found the cards.”

  “Or he does and he’s trying to trap us,” Angel mumbled.

  Ambroise looked at the words Jin had written, “This looks like an address.”

  Jin typed the address into the evidence room’s computer then exclaimed, “Oh that’s not good. The address is for the warehouse that sends supplies to the Polar Base.”

  “The Polar Base? What do they want the Polar Base’s supplies for?” Hiroshi asked.

  “You don’t think,” Angel muttered, “That they’re going to try smuggling demons up there.”

  William sighed, “It’s only old McLean and a few workers there, it wouldn’t be hard to sneak demons up. I think we need to inform the Colonel.”

  * * * * *

  Alexander was stood in the graveyard waiting. The graveyard was the only quiet place on the base. It was a small green field in which rows of graves, housing the bodies of fallen D
.D. Squad members, stood glistening in the sunlight. Woodland spirits ran across the gravestones, keeping the place clean and beautiful. A bat flew past Alexander and transformed into Araminta.

  “Why did you want to see me?” Alexander asked.

  “You’re going to have to start checking in with me four times a day, like we used to,” Araminta stated.

  “Are you kidding me!?”

  “No, these are orders from above. You’re to be checked and monitored.”

  “How many years has it been? I haven’t done anything!”

  “Calm down, if you don’t make a fuss and do as ordered, there won’t be a problem. If you haven’t done anything wrong, then this will prove it.”

  “These orders came from above? So they don’t trust me either.”

  “Can you blame them? Let’s just take a look at your history.”

  “Which wasn’t my fault! You all seem to have forgotten that part. I didn’t choose to become like this! What happened wasn’t my choice!”

  “I know,” Araminta said softly, “I know, but what happened, even though it wasn’t your choice, did happen. We don’t know exactly what they did to you or whether they can still influence you.”

  Alexander hissed, “Angel was asking to see my personnel file.”

  “I can get the Colonel to create a fake one for you.”

  “It has to be good. Danny, for some reason, is digging into my past as well.”

  “Why is he doing that?”

  “Because he doesn’t trust me, and he doesn’t like me around Angel.”

  “About that, above don’t want you near Angel either.”

  “I can hardly avoid her. I’m her vice-captain and we live in the same house!”

  “Still keep your distance. Above don’t like how close you two seem.”

  “In case you’ve all forgotten I left, they’re the ones who brought me back here. They’re the ones who made me her vice-captain and put me in the same house as her. I...”

  “You ran away. When you realised who she was, you ran.”

  “Yes, yes I did. And they brought me back.”

  “So that you could take responsibility for this issue and deal with it. Not for you to fall even deeper...”

  “Tell those above, that my life is mine. Me and Angel, that’s something for me to deal with.”