The Faceless hesitated. These creatures didn’t have eyes, but they seemed to know what was happening around them. Their senses were intact, but she’d not learnt more about how they could do what they did. Charlie Harris, the medical doctor assigned to work with MI18 in the 1980s, had seen several faceless dead bodies and had started a dossier on them. Payne had told her this after the most recent dead faceless victim had been found under the pier.
It increased its pace. It lifted its head and made a wet clicking noise like it was trying to clear its throat of phlegm. There was no point trying to duck around it. These things could be fast when they wanted to be, and she was better off dealing with it head on.
She pointed her gun and pulled the trigger.
The trigger clicked, the hammer slammed down, but the weapon didn’t fire.
Shit.
She pulled the trigger again. Same result.
What had happened to her weapon?
She’d made a mistake and this time it would get her killed. Linwood had had many nightmares about dying alone in the Tombs, but being trapped in the shadows, with a Faceless ready to kill her—no, that had not occurred to her.
The wall was pressing against her back now, there was nowhere else to go. She closed her eyes and prayed it would be quick.
16
7th May 2013
The creature hurried towards her, its hands reached up like claws ready to tear out her throat. Linwood screamed.
“Spencer! Help!” And part of her hated herself for that, but she needed to survive. She had a job to do and oh my god I’m going to die.
As last thoughts went, they were prosaic and embarrassed her.
But suddenly her world changed. A scramble of footsteps came from behind the creature and she shone the torch to see who they belonged to. Expecting to see the search party, finally catching up with her, she was astonished to see two strangers. A man and a woman. Tired looking and dirty. They were rushing up behind the Faceless.
The woman howled. Linwood’s torch picked out the stick in the man’s hand, then realised as it swung, slicing the air, that it wasn’t a stick at all, but an axe.
It struck the side of the Faceless’s neck, and the impact slammed the creature against the wall. Blood sprayed from the wound and Linwood tasted the putrid blood of the creature that had been about to kill her.
The man dug out his axe, kicking down on the Faceless as he did so, preventing it from rising. Jesus, she knew they were tough, but this one was still trying to get to its feet even after having its head half-sliced off its neck.
A grunt and the axe drove home again. Fresh blood fountained from the new wound. A crunch as the metal collapsed the creature’s skull.
Linwood could barely breathe. The woman rushed to her side and dragged her around the jittering body back towards the junction where she waited patiently for the man to dig out the axe and strike a third and final time into the Faceless’s back. This time, it didn’t move. The man worked the axe out from the body then gave the Faceless a gentle kick with the side of his foot.
“Dead,” he said, his breathing rapid. He wiped his arm against his face, clearing the worst of the blood splatter from his skin, then stepped away and rested his axe against the wall. He offered a hand to Linwood.
Linwood took it. “What the hell were you two thinking?” she demanded. “Payne told you not to come down here. You could have been killed.”
Nixon looked affronted to be admonished after saving her life. “We heard noises. I thought there could be more people needing help, but all that we found were these blank people.”
“We’re calling them Faceless. Nice and dramatic,” Linwood said dryly. “How long have you been down here?”
“Since yesterday,” Carter replied. “There were a lot more of these on the upper levels. We escaped only by coming down to these lower areas. There were fewer of them but still enough to trap us. We’ve managed to get into one of the bedrooms and we’ve been hiding out since then. Our phones died and we couldn’t call for backup.” Carter suddenly burst into tears and Nixon quickly came to her side and put an arm around her. “I’m sorry,” she said after a moment, wiping her eyes. “I’m tired.”
“The hell you are. You’re scared. I’m sure I’d have been the same trapped down here with those things.”
Nixon looked angry. “You worked here. This was your headquarters. What the hell was going on? Why did you have these creatures at all?”
“It was Thadeus, my successor. He was building up an army or something. You must have disturbed them.”
Nixon shook his head. “They were already free, wandering around. Hunting.”
Hunting. Linwood didn’t like the sound of that.
Carter looked up, the sniffling had stopped, and she lightly brushed aside Nixon’s arm. “Did you come alone?”
“No, there are others.” And then, as if on cue came the sound of footsteps and voices rapidly approaching.
“We’re back here,” Linwood called. A moment later the search party turned the corner and her heart lifted. Payne caught sight of the two detectives and lowered his torch, running over to them and awkwardly embracing them both in a group hug. He held them tight for a few seconds then released them. Both Nixon and Carter looked marginally embarrassed by the attention.
“What the hell were you doing down here?”
“We’ve just had that conversation with your lady friend,” Nixon replied and pointed at the ground and the dead bloodied Faceless lying in a pool of its own blood.
“Jesus,” Payne said, stepping away hurriedly from the sight. Jaq held her torch beam on the creature whilst Ned approached, gun ready. He bent to reach for the creature’s neck. After a moment, he stood, relief clear on his face. “It’s dead.”
Jaq tapped Linwood on the arm and gestured she should follow. They stepped around the corner, using the light of Jaq’s torch to light the way. They were halfway back to the next junction when Jaq stopped and shone the beam so it caught both their faces. “I knew you were going to be trouble. I should never have agreed to this.”
“I got lost.”
“Like hell you did. You put this mission in danger. We wasted time looking for you.”
“I found who we were looking for.”
Jaq drew nearer. “Why did you break away from the group? What were you looking for?”
Linwood sighed and headed back to the others. “Probably easier if I show you.” The others were already showing an interest in the strongroom door but backed off when Linwood approached. “It’s the MI18 strongroom. In here, we kept the most valuable and dangerous artefacts that MI18 collected over the years. Everything in this room is potentially dangerous, and I needed to be sure that it was still secure.”
“What did you keep in there?” Payne asked.
“It’s classified,” she replied.
“Don’t give us that crap,” he said. “We’ve risked our lives coming down here.” A hard smile appeared, and he folded his arms. “Wait. You never suggested we come down here to help find my men, you only wanted an excuse to check on this strongroom.”
Linwood thought denial might be worth a shot—she had nothing to apologise for, but she was tired and her body ached. She wanted to get back to the surface and couldn’t care less what the others thought of her motives.
The strongroom remained a concern though and she couldn’t dismiss it so easily. Now she was here, she wasn’t about to leave without checking it.
“I’ll go inside with Jaq and DI Payne. The rest of you will have to stand out here and wait. You can do us all a favour and make sure we’re not cornered in here by any more of these Faceless.”
Ned nodded, but Nixon and Carter glanced at Payne first. He nodded, then said, “No more surprises.”
Linwood wondered what he might make of the contents of the strongroom then.
She held her finger to the sensor plate before tapping out an eight-digit security code at the adjacent number pad. With a gas
ping breath, the vault opened. Linwood took one of the handles and swung the door aside. The opening was large enough for them to pass through one at a time and she entered first, her torchlight already picking across the racks lining the room.
Jaq and Payne quickly followed, their torch beams criss-crossing.
“I don’t understand,” Payne said. “What are we meant to be looking at?”
Linwood crossed the floor, reaching up into the dark corners of the room, a sickening feeling deep in her stomach. Eventually, she turned to address her companions. “It’s empty,” she said needlessly. “It’s been cleared out. Someone got here before us.”
17
7th May 2013
On the surface, by the side of the lake, the search party could finally breathe clean air and they rested themselves against the support vehicles. In the daylight, Nixon and Carter looked grubby, their faces covered in dust. Carter’s hair was tangled, and she was running her hands through it, trying to tidy it as she caught up with Payne and grabbed a drink from one of the Department 5 cars.
Linwood was fuming. She had taken a moment to herself to consider her next move, but she had only one. She’d have to contact Kingston and let him know that two decades of artefacts from their MI18 missions were now missing. It wasn’t a call she was looking forward to.
She looked for Jaq and found her drinking from a bottle of water, leaning against one of the pier legs.
“We need to talk,” Linwood said.
“Don’t worry. It’s all going in my report.” Jaq didn’t even have the decency to make eye contact with her.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
The eye contact came then, but the look was cold and hard. “You put us all at risk by going off on your own mission. I needed your support and you let us down.”
“I had to check the status of the strongroom, and I was right to deem that a priority, because guess what, someone knew it was valuable and went to the effort to clear it out.”
“I don’t care about what you were keeping in your strongroom, but I do care about the lives of the people in my command. There were Faceless down there. You almost died. It’s only due to sheer damn luck you weren’t killed.”
But that wasn’t the full story, was it? “Who assigned the weapons to us on this mission?”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“My weapon wouldn’t fire. I was given a dud.”
Linwood caught sight of Ned, taking a swig from a bottle, looking out over the lake. She rushed at him, her hand slapping the top of his arm angrily. “Why did you give me a non-firing gun?”
Shocked, he stared and took a step back. “What? I didn’t give—”
“The gun didn’t fire. You gave it to me. Was that your idea or somebody else’s?”
“You’re as crazy as they say, lady.” And the bastard was smirking. Linwood raised a hand again, but Jaq grabbed it and pulled her back.
“Take a walk, Ned,” Jaq said, and Ned nodded, before shaking his head and walking away.
Jaq shook her head at Linwood. “How dare you do that? Ned is an exemplary agent.”
“You want to keep close eyes on him.” Linwood’s chest felt tight, and she gripped the railing.
Jaq shook her head. “I know what your problem is. You’re just not comfortable with my being in command. I know you’ve had more experience in the field than I have but that doesn’t count for shit if you’re not prepared to put your neck out for your own people.”
“I’m telling you, my weapon was sabotaged.”
“Sabotaged now? It gets better. And why the hell would anyone want to sabotage your weapon?”
“Someone didn’t want me coming back up from there.”
Jaq shook her head. “You’re deluded.”
“I’m telling you, Jaq. Someone wants me out of the way. I’m a problem.” Linwood wanted to tell Jaq who she thought was the real problem but the truth of it was she didn’t know the other players well enough. She’d spent such little time with anyone other than her immediate colleagues at Thames House that Department 5 and TALOS were strangers to her.
Jaq remained steadfast in her expression. Her lips were narrow, and she held Linwood’s gaze. “You’re right. You are the problem. I will suggest to the DG that you be removed from this operation with immediate effect.”
Then she turned and headed back to her people by the support vehicles, leaving Linwood with a desperately sinking feeling.
18
7th May 2013
Payne sat on a bench beside the lake, phone in his hand, waiting for the right moment to make his call. After the horrors of the Tombs, he needed a moment alone to gather his thoughts and consider what next needed to be done. As a serving police officer, he should be making his way back to the station to take charge of this personally, but since meeting Linwood and seeing the events play out in front of him, he knew his place wasn’t back in the confines of the police force, at least not yet. His place was in the thick of the action. At least with Linwood he had some chance of finding out the answers.
He dialled DCI Taylor.
“Spencer, where the hell have you been?”
“It’s a long story, sir. But maybe now’s not the best time to explain.”
“Damn right. The best time to explain would have been two days ago, ideally before you were reported dead.”
“I’m sorry I’ve disappointed you again, sir.”
“Don’t get cocky.”
Payne held his tongue. His mother had always taught him to count to ten when he was on the verge of losing his temper. It was a skill he'd had years mastering whilst working with knobheads like Taylor. His mother always told him to respect his elders. Nope. That would not happen. Not with his boss. As far as Payne was concerned, Taylor could take a running jump off Southport’s pier. He smiled at the thought of pushing the overweight Taylor into the cold waters of the Irish Sea. It might have been enough to lift his spirits for a moment, but then with solemnity he got back to the business of his call.
“I had reasons for keeping quiet about my accident. At the time, I believed I was in danger of repeat attempts on my life and those who were close to me were also in danger. Sir, it’s about the faceless people we’ve seen this last week. I was attacked at my house by one of the Faceless who then blew up just like the one at the station.”
Taylor had been unusually taciturn during the fallout from the attack on the police station. But Payne had expected more of a reaction to this news. Instead he was met with a stony silence.
“Sir, are you still there?”
There was noise in the background. Payne thought Taylor must be in a car somewhere.
“I'm still here. I understand you're with Alice Linwood now.”
Payne didn't like surprises. “Yes sir, how did you know?”
“You need to be careful around Linwood. You might be excited to be dallying with an organisation like MI18 but they are not the key part of the security service you might think they are. They are tolerated. She is tolerated. Nothing more.”
“Can I ask how you know her?”
“MI18 is older than you or I. Let's just say I've been in the police in Southport long enough to have tangled with them from time to time.”
Payne was intrigued but didn't want to press his luck. He was faintly surprised that he’d got this much out of him.
“Are you aware of a facility they have in Southport? A place under the lake?”
Taylor sighed, “They're usually shy in revealing its location. I'm surprised you've been down there.”
How did he know that?
For now, he let that idea go. He could pick it up later.
“I’ve been down in the Tombs. Nixon and Carter have as well. They saw Faceless down there. Dozens of them. I want to help track them down. We’ve both seen how dangerous they are.”
“I take it you're winding down your original investigation.”
“In light of this, there's little po
int in continuing. We're never going to be able to prosecute for the murder of Heather Hudson.”
“Do what you need then. And Spencer,” Taylor began, “be mindful of what I’ve said. Alice Linwood has her own agenda.”
When Payne hung up, he sat there looking at the phone for a minute, wondering quite what Taylor had meant, but sensing in every fibre of his being, that for once, his boss might just be right.
19
7th May 2013
Payne flicked on the lights and held the door open behind him for Nixon and Carter to follow him inside. The operations room was strangely quiet since the incident. DCI Taylor had reassigned the personnel that had been working on the Heather Hudson murder to other more pressing matters. It meant that technically, the death of Harding’s mistress would stay unsolved, but Payne knew how she died. The woman responsible, Max’s wife, had been consumed by the alien life known to others as Irulal. Payne counted himself lucky he’d never met it. Seeing the Faceless up close was one thing, to be confronted by a bona fide alien life form, well that was something totally different.
“Where’s everyone?” Carter asked, heading over to the large display boards at the far end of the room. She began to take down the photos and notes relating to the Hudson case.
“Reassigned,” Payne replied.
“And what about us?”
“Taylor said I can keep you two with me whilst we work on the Faceless problem. If that’s OK with both of you.”
Payne would have expected some of the people he’d worked with in the past to take the free pass on offer and run from an investigation involving these creatures. But Carter and Nixon were harder than that. Tough cops, the pair of them.
Carter briefly turned her head, “Yeah, fine, boss.”
Nixon strolled over to his desk and pulled open the top drawer, pulling out a bag of crisps and opening them. “Anyone?” He offered the bag but there were no takers. He munched his way through the contents, perching himself on the edge of his desk as he did so.
The Faceless Stratagem (Tombs Book 2) Page 10