Capes

by Drabble, Matt

  “She also burned a lot of innocent Christians in her war on SOUL,” Jamie-Lyn said warily.

  “Not this bleeding-heart bollocks again!” Crimson said in a frustrated bark. “There was a war on. You know that. We all did! We all saw what those maniacs did up close and personal.”

  “Hey, I’m not arguing.” Jamie-Lyn held her hands up. “But I also remember that the whole country went a little crazy. Every Christian was expected to answer for the crimes of a few crazed fanatics. I also remember the churches that were burned down, priests attacked in the street simply for wearing a collar. I remember my mother being too afraid to wear a cross around her neck.”

  “No offence, Jamie-Lyn, but that sounds a little paranoid,” Jesus said softly.

  “Paranoid!” Jamie-Lyn exclaimed as she pointed at the TV. “Really? Have you not been paying attention, Jesus? They’re saying that you blew up a care home and killed a whole bunch of patients, that Doc here is a paedophile, that you’ve been running an illegal hit squad… hell, that I murdered my friend. Are we all being paranoid right now?” Her voice trailed off into a sob and was met with silence as her words landed hard.

  “Listen!” Link suddenly pointed up at the TV screen, and they all turned their attention back to it.

  Summer touched her immaculately manicured finger to her ear and paused before continuing.

  “I am just getting word that I can, in fact, mention that Rosemary Williams was to be one of guests here on ARK this week… yes… yes…” She nodded as though receiving instructions through her earpiece. “I am getting clearance that we can reveal our former prime minister was coming in to talk about the Queen’s Guard and her revelations stood to be quite explosive indeed.”

  “Another log on the fire.” Doc sighed.

  “We are just getting news through from one of our impeccable sources,” Summer continued. “Yes… yes….” She nodded with her finger to her ear. “Ladies and gentlemen, I can exclusively reveal that the police investigation is set to focus on the Queen’s Guard member known as Crimson.”

  “Hey, here we go! They didn’t forget about me.” Crimson grinned as the news mentioned him personally.

  “I am being told that the manner of the – well, folks, I suppose we have to call it murder – that the manner of the attack was consistent with the methodology of Crimson, also known as Royce Langston, the Poet of Death, the Scarlet Avenger, the Masked Blade.”

  “You got enough nicknames?” Link asked, turning to Crimson.

  “Hey, in my line of work, it pays to advertise.” He grinned back.

  “I repeat, our breaking story at this time,” Summer announced again gravely. “The former prime minister, Rosemary Williams, has been found murdered just a day before she was due to come in to us here at ARK and reveal some shocking facts about the Queen’s Guard and her own career, as well as to talk about the battle of Havencrest. She was found brutalised at her home this evening, and the police are actively seeking the masked criminal known as Crimson in relation to her murder.”

  There was silence in the room but no one was watching the screen anymore; instead, they were all lost in their own heads and worrying for their own safety.

  “You said Cynthia Arrow was a busted flush,” Jamie-Lyn finally said as she stared hard at Jesus. “Looks to me like she’s working perfectly… a hell of a lot better than you.”

  Jesus had no answer for that. His own face told a tale of a man falling deeply into his father’s shadow and drowning there.

  “Okay then,” CJ announced as he took centre stage. “We are in a corner, but it’s nowhere that we haven’t been before.”

  “Really?” Crimson sneered. “Let me tell you something, Jolly-Green, if what the newbie here says is right, then you’re all about to be on my side of the line now, and trust me, it’s not a pretty place to be.”

  “We shall prove our innocence,” CJ replied grandly. “We have all served this great nation with distinction. They shall not forget that. They shall not forget our deeds… they cannot.”

  “Oh, brother, do you over-estimate mankind!” Crimson laughed bitterly.

  “CJ might not be wrong. Surely there will be a proper investigation, right? They’ll find out that this is all lies, won’t they?” Doc ventured, but Jamie-Lyn, Jesus and Crimson all shot her pitying glances.

  “It was on TV, or at least it’s going to be,” Jamie-Lyn said. “It’s going to land hard. People believe what they’re told. Trust me, I worked in the industry. The general public have lazy brains, not all I grant you, but enough to make it stick. They don’t want to think for themselves, they don’t want the added pressure of having to process information; they just want the facts shortened and easy to swallow.”

  “I can’t believe that,” CJ bristled. “I won’t.”

  “Come on, CJ. You really don’t think that?” Jamie-Lyn asked, turning her attention to him. “Have you been stuck in a lab for so long that you’ve forgotten what the world is like?”

  “People are morons: always have been, always will be,” Crimson added unhelpfully.

  “Social media is going to eat this up with a spoon,” Jamie-Lyn continued. “It’s not exactly the place for reasoned nuanced debate. The conspiracy nuts will be out in force. Trust me, before the night’s out, we will getting blamed for everything.”

  “That’s not a very comforting thought,” CJ said sadly.

  “Well I’ve got a nastier one for you.” Crimson grinned bitterly. “What do you think that Cynthia Arrow is going to do with all this? Because if I was in her shoes, I know what I’d do.”

  Jamie-Lyn looked at him and they shared a knowing glance.

  “She’s going to flip it.” Jamie-Lyn finally breathed. “Oh my god, she’s going to flip it all the way round. We’re the bad guys now and she’s going to use us like Williams used her to cling onto power. She’s going to use the media to turn the whole country against us and rewrite history.”

  “You can’t be serious?” Doc gasped.

  “Yes I am. I can see it now: SOUL, the misunderstood, religious, peaceful organisation. Jesus, from what you know of her behind the scenes from your father, does it sound likely that Williams would be about to bare her soul and confess all on live TV?”

  “No.” He shook his head firmly. “Not a chance.”

  “Right.” Jamie-Lyn nodded. “Think about it. Now that she can’t say anything about anything, ARK can say what they like about her, about what she was about to confess.”

  “Want to bet they’ve got a signed letter? A box of evidence? Proof up the asshole?” Link agreed.

  “That’s right,” Jamie-Lyn continued. “They can say that Williams manufactured the war, that they created the SOUL extremists, that SOUL were actually innocent all along. Who’s going to challenge that? Us? We’re all a bunch of murdering criminals now. Who the hell’s going to believe us now?”

  “This… this can’t be…,” CJ said, shaking his head. “The people will listen to us, they will remember. Surely? We held the line. When the country was under attack from homegrown terrorists, we were what stood on the front line and held back the darkness. They will remember that. They have to, right?”

  “Told ya, genius,” Crimson replied sarcastically. “People are morons.”

  “Hang on a minute…,” Jesus said, thinking aloud, and the others could see his brain buzzing about beneath the surface. “We’re all here.”

  “Well thanks for that particular insight,” Crimson sneered.

  “No, think about it,” Jesus pressed on. “There was just me and CJ here. This place is largely a research facility now. Doc, you’d left years ago and no doubt never envisaged yourself ever stepping foot in here ever again, right?”

  “Right,” she agreed.

  “What does any of this matter?” Link interrupted. “We should be getting out of here, shouldn’t we?”

  “Button it, kid, this doesn’t concern you,” Crimson answered.

  “So Marshall gets killed by
this… beast,” Jesus continued. “You came back for his funeral, right? Quite possibly the only thing that would’ve forced you to come home.”

  “Where are you going with this?” CJ asked as Doc nodded with the last statement.

  “Think about it. Doc is forced home for a funeral, Crimson is attacked but gets away. He gets away, and where does he go? He comes right home,” Jesus continued.

  “Hey, it wasn’t exactly easy saving my own skin,” Crimson bristled.

  “Look, I’m saying that maybe that beast that attacked you, maybe it let you get away? Maybe it was trying to drive you home as well.”

  “What about Bull?” Jamie-Lyn asked. “He didn’t get away.”

  “Doc,” Jesus said turning to the woman, “when you… did your thing at the care home, you saw what happened. Was there a point when Bull could have gotten away?”

  Doc thought about the question for a moment, running the scene through her mind again.

  “Yes,” she answered carefully. “At least, I think so. There was a moment when the beast was down, but Bull went to it instead of running away.”

  “Always had to play the bloody hero,” Crimson said, shaking his head, but it was tinged with a trace of sadness.

  “Maybe Jesus has a point here,” Jamie-Lyn mused. “I mean, look at me. When I think about it, Summer Sloan took my place at the station, after Marshall. I wanted to front the story, but they gave it to her instead and I walked. I walked out of there and right back to here.”

  “So this was all part of some master plan? Some evil genius behind the scenes pulling the strings?” CJ asked the group with a little more enthusiasm than most of them were comfortable with and they all turned to him.

  “You wanted this?” Doc asked incredulously.

  “He’s thinking it could be his bloody Lex Luthor,” Crimson answered and CJ bristled.

  “Not at all, and I resent the insinuation.”

  “Resent it all you want, pal. I don’t need to read minds like Doc to know that she’s right,” Crimson said.

  “I’ve told you all before, I can’t read his mind,” Doc replied testily.

  “No, but you can read his face,” Crimson added. “We all can.”

  “Is that really right, CJ?” Jamie-Lyn continued, nodding to herself. “You want to get it back? The team? The war? Do you really miss it that much?”

  “This is ridiculous,” CJ replied haughtily as he drew himself up.

  “Yes, yes. That’s exactly what it is, CJ,” Jamie-Lyn replied softly. “You’re still a hero, you’ve always been one. You don’t need a villain to be a hero, CJ.”

  “You forget the bodies?” Crimson demanded.

  “That’s a little rich coming from you, my friend,” CJ remarked.

  “Hey, pops, I am what you made me.” Crimson shrugged.

  “I made you to be a force for good. You took that gift and twisted it, used it for your own profit,” CJ preached, “killing people for money, far from the noble cause I envisaged.”

  “Really? You forget how much blood is on your hands there, chief?” Crimson volleyed back. “Because I don’t. I saw you on the battlefield. I saw you elbow deep in the blood and guts.”

  “That was war,” CJ said in a low tone that he rarely used. It was one that the others couldn’t help but feel a little afraid of.

  “Well maybe you liked it a little too much,” Crimson countered. “Maybe you made me in your own image, but you can’t stand to think about it.”

  “Look, this is getting us nowhere,” Link spoke up.

  “Maybe this is the sort of conversation we should have had years ago,” Crimson said, crossing the room and standing in front of CJ before turning to the others. “I know it’s one that you always wanted to have. Right, Doc?”

  “Look, I just want to get out of here and back to my life,” she responded. “None of this is helpful.”

  “Way to go, Doc.” Crimson clapped. “Way to stand up to him.”

  “Look, can we focus here?” Jesus exclaimed. “This is exactly what the enemy wants.”

  “And what enemy’s that?” Crimson said, turning to face the man. “You don’t know dick, and we all know that! In fact, why the hell should anyone listen to you in the first bloody place?”

  “So what’s next?” Link interjected before the conversation turned physical as Crimson refused to back down as Jesus stared right through him. “The police? An investigation into us? Do we turn ourselves in?”

  “Oh, kid,” Crimson said, shaking his head as though speaking to a child. “What comes next is that they come to kill us.”

  “Kill us!” Link exclaimed. “You can’t be serious?”

  “Deadly,” Crimson responded. “If they take us out now, then there’s only ever one side to this argument. If we’re out of the way, then they can frame it any way they like. They can say that we attacked them, that we fired first and they were just defending themselves.”

  “No one would believe that,” CJ said firmly as he shook his head.

  “Think about it, big man. Think about what Jamie-Lyn was saying. Think about what it meant just to admit to being a Christian a few years back. No one could have seen that coming and yet it did. The government shaped the landscape to suit them, to suit their message, only this time, the bad guys have got the media sewn up and they’ll use it to bury us.”

  “So what do we do now? I mean, seriously, where the hell do we go?” Jamie-Lyn asked the group. “If what we’re all thinking, about Cynthia Arrow… if she’s planned all this out so meticulously, if she’s set us up to be the bad guys, then what can we do?” But no one spoke and no one would meet her worried gaze.

  “Just out of interest, why are we here? I mean, this particular facility?” Crimson asked, infuriatingly politely.

  “Because it’s protocol,” Jesus snarled back, his eyes unblinking.

  “Hang on a minute, won’t they know that?” Crimson asked in the same annoying tone.

  “What?” Doc asked worried.

  “Won’t they know that this is where we’ll all be right now?” Crimson clarified.

  No one had a chance to debate that particular point as they were all suddenly plunged into darkness.

  “You know what? Sometimes I really hate being right,” Crimson said from the darkness.

  chapter 20

  THE OTHER SIDE OF THE LINE

  Summer Sloan took a well deserved break as she rested in her spacious dressing room.

  She had been sitting in front of the camera for almost three hours now and while it was a position that she loved, even she had her limits.

  The viewing figures were coming in now and she was demanding constant updates as it seemed more and more of the country were tuning in to see her face fronting one of the biggest breaking news stories in the country’s history.

  Her original remit had been to investigate what the Queen’s Guard were up to out in the field, but fieldwork had never really been her strong suit: a makeup chair and the studio lights were much more to her liking.

  Her one regret was that she hadn’t gotten to see Quentin Link again. The young man had intrigued her and not many men had that effect. She was used to being pursued from the handsome to the powerful; what a shame it was that the two types rarely collided into the perfect man.

  She had reached out to Fontaine to see what Link was up to, but she had been curtly told that the man was no longer her concern, and that she had bigger and better fish to fry.

  She checked that the door was shut and locked before she opened a small vitamin bottle in her purse and quickly swallowed three Adderall tablets.

  The pills did their job as she sat back and allowed the extra kick to her system to take hold. She was going to need the extra energy as the night ahead was going to be a long one.

  There was a light tap at the door.

  “Come in,” she called out.

  A young man entered. She didn’t know his name; he wasn’t far enough up the food chain for her to b
other knowing it. He wore clothing denoting an IT worker and he carried a tablet that he was watching and swiping as he came into the dressing room.

  “Viewing figures up 8%,” he said without taking his eyes off the screen. “The show is trending on social media.”

  “And me personally?”

  “Currently second worldwide.”

  “Second!”

  “Some pop star in China just drove her car into the front of a kerbside restaurant… word is that six people are injured, one might be dead.”

  “Oh great, so I’ve got to kill someone to make the number one spot?”

  “Looks that way,” the young man answered honestly.

  “Don’t give me any ideas, kid,” she snarled back at what might have been sarcasm or an honest answer. “Give me that,” she ordered, and he handed her the tablet.

  She started to scroll through the reams of data. In truth, she wasn’t much of a technical whizz, but when it came to her own popularity and personal standing, she made sure to be the smartest person in the room, mainly so that people couldn’t lie to her.

  “Miss Sloan?”

  “What?” she answered distractedly.

  “The items coming up… on the show. I mean, it’s… well, it’s just that…”

  “Spit it out, kid,” she demanded without looking up.

  “Well, it’s just that no one seems to be fact checking anything, are they?”

  “Fact checking?”

  “Yes, Miss Sloan. I couldn’t help but notice that there are some pretty incendiary accusations slated for later on the show this week. I was just wondering where the information was coming from?”

  Summer put the tablet down and looked at the kid. “So I suppose that you think we should be the ones fact checking?” she said, putting a sarcastic emphasis on the last two words.

  “Kind of. I mean, didn’t they fight for us? The Queen’s Guard? My father told me that they did a lot of good for us, and to be honest, it just kind of seems like we’re chucking them under the bus without an awful lot of evidence.”

  “So we should be the ones running our own investigation, poring over the information coming in? We should what? Put all this on hold? Maybe wait a few days? Invite the Queen’s Guard to come in and put their side of the story over? Journalistic integrity and all that?”