by G Mottram
They dashed through the massive nave, their footsteps echoing back at them from each alcove and ceiling arch. There was no one to be seen, nothing else to be heard. Jason unlocked the massive entrance doors and Ilena eased them open a little way to reveal the abbey’s gravelled approach.
Brash’s trap for the initial Brethren attack had been devastatingly effective. Outside, bright floodlights glared and silvered the drizzle that drifted silently over dozens of Brethren bodies. The corpses lay sprawled in tight groups around their burning and blasted vehicles, slaughtered, it seemed, the moment they’d tried to run. Some of them were even half naked. Perhaps they’d ripped off their black hooded robes because they were on fire or maybe they were trying to surrender. In any case, they’d all ended up dead.
The tree line that had hidden the ambushers showed no sign of life now and the garage and guesthouse windows lay dark and empty.
In the centre of the gravel a single Land Rover Discovery waited for them, its headlights on and engine running.
‘There are, of course, many of Brash’s men still in the trees and just back from the windows,’ Marakoff said as they peered out around the half-open doors.
‘Anything on the radio?’ Dad asked. He’d taken out a machine pistol from somewhere - it looked similar to Jason’s MK23 but had a long magazine snapped into the butt.
Marakoff had Anna’s walkie talkie and ear piece. ‘They have cut it off.’ he shrugged.
Jason glanced at the pistol Marakoff still held to Anna’s head. Would he really shoot her if Brash tried to stop them?
Anna caught him watching her and gave him a tight smile. He looked away, stopping himself from chewing his lip. Was she in on this set-up from the start? Had she known her father had learned to summon demons, had put one inside Violet. Of course she had. She was the enemy as well now … just like Alan Brash… and Fast Eddie and… just about everybody he’d met here who hadn’t been killed in front of his eyes trying to keep him alive.
‘Stay close together, move quickly,’ Dad said and stepped out through the doors.
They dashed out, taking the massive stone steps two at a time. Dad went first and Marakoff hobbled along behind him with his gun at Anna’s back. Jason ran next and Ilena brought up the rear with her twin Kalashnikovs sweeping across every window, door and dead body they passed.
Nothing happened. Fifteen feet from the idling Land Rover, Dad held up his hand and they skidded to a halt between the burnt out husks of two jeeps which shielded them from most angles. Two Brethren had tried to find cover here as well. They both stared up at Jason with eyes pulled wide open.
Jason tore his gaze from the bodies and stared at his father’s back. Dad was totally calm, totally focussed on the mission. He’d barely said a word to Jason since finding him fighting for his life against a demon. This must be the Dad of twenty years ago - Richard Darillian, the demon hunter.
Jason wasn’t sure he liked it. The father he knew was gone… replaced by someone powerful, cold and ruthless. Was this how he, Jason, would become if he ever joined the Watch?
‘Ilena,’ was all Dad said and Ilena sprinted across to the Land Rover. Dad covered her dash with his machine pistol and Marakoff edged Anna back to watch their rear. The three of them were like some sort of machine, each part shifting and adjusting to support the others. Jason felt like spare baggage.
Ilena checked the vehicle doors, inside, underneath and then jumped in.
‘Get ready,’ Dad said.
Ilena slammed the Land Rover into reverse and roared back to them. The moment she skidded to a halt they scrambled inside. Ilena rolled over the seat into the back and Dad took the wheel. Marakoff urged Anna into the back seats next to Ilena and Jason followed her in. Then Marakoff scrambled around to ride shotgun with Dad and they roared off.
Jason stared out of the back windows as they tore over the gravel and rounded onto the driveway. Slick from the rain, the black marble monolith of Darkston Abbey gleamed back at him under its floodlights.
Another life lost to him.
The Land Rover tyres gripped firm tarmac and they shot up the drive. There was no one living to be seen. Dad ripped through the gears and the gatehouse loomed into view. Blasted, fire-gutted vehicles and scattered bodies forced them to slow down but in moments they were roaring beneath the massive arch and rattling over the fallen gates.
They were out. The thatched cottages of Darkston Village waited for them at the bottom of the Abbey hill, with the soft yellow of the old fashioned street lamps lighting their way.
As they closed in on the houses, Jason’s eyes widened. Every window and door had was sealed with steel shutters.
‘This whole village is a training ground, I think?’ Marakoff said. ‘Am I not correct, Miss Brash?’
Anna ignored his question. ‘Are you going to let me go at the pizzeria as you agreed?’
Jason looked across at her but she stared straight ahead through the front window, not meeting his gaze. Blood was smeared over her face and an angry red welt from Marakoff’s bullet seared across her forehead.
Dad switched his headlights to full beam as they roared between the first houses. There was no damage or debris to slow them down – the Brethren must have simply raced through the streets on their way to the abbey. It was clear no resistance had been offered – Brash had wanted them inside his trap as quickly as possible.
Finally Dad answered Anna’s question. ‘I’m sorry, Anna but we need to get further away from your father. I’m not convinced he’s happy about letting us go. I’m afraid we’ll have to hold on to you until we’re clear of Drunken Abbot.’
Jason couldn’t believe it. Dad always kept to his word. ‘Let her go where we said, Dad. We’ll be fine.’
Dad’s voice was flat as he hurtled along the narrow streets. ‘We need to get out, son – and we can’t trust Brash. Anna will be safe enough where we drop her at the edge of town.’
‘No, she won’t. You heard what Brash said – the Brethren are escaping through the town and I know what the bloody lunatics who live there are like. No way are we leaving her there.’
‘Brash’s security will find her quickly enough – they won’t be that far behind us.’
Jason chewed at his lip. They would be in the High Street in a moment and passing the pizzeria. He glanced at Anna. For the first time since they’d kidnapped her, she looked worried.
‘We stop at the pizzeria or I’ll blow the back end off the car,’ Jason said resolutely.
‘Enough theatrics, Jason – this isn’t a game,’ Dad said, his voice still level. ‘We drop her as we leave Drunken Abbot.’
Jason breathed in deeply, drawing in the air’s energy and forming an iron-hard glove around one fist.
Marakoff looked back at him from the front seat and held his eyes for a moment. Then he turned back to scanning the road ahead. ‘I think he means it, Richard.’
‘I know he does,’ Dad said and hit the brakes. The Land Rover skidded to a halt despite its ABS system hammering madly.
‘For God’s sake, Jason, you’ll get us all killed,’ Dad swore but Jason was already getting out of the back door.
Despite his injuries, Marakoff was out next to him in an instant, cocking his pistol and scanning the rooftops. ‘Please, no long goodbyes.’
Anna jumped down next to Jason. ‘Thank you,’ she said and, after a moment’s hesitation, flung her arms around him and pulled him close.
‘Did you know?’ Jason said into her ear. ‘Did you know what your dad was doing… to Violet?’
Anna stiffened and slowly pulled away. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Jason… you don’t know how many of our people are getting slaughtered out there. This is the only…’
‘We have to go,’ Jason said. ‘Make him take the demon out of my friend.’
Anna just held his eyes. He knew she couldn’t make her father do anything. She turned to jog towards the nearest house, quickly building up speed. The steel shutter hissed down from the main do
or as she approached.
‘Get in – quick,’ Dad shouted from the driver’s seat. ‘We’ll talk about this later.’
Jason jumped back into the Land Rover and Marakoff took up shotgun again. Jason stared out of the window.
The cottage door swung open and Anna dashed inside.
Then the sirens sounded.
Anna’s walkie-talkie burst back into life on Marakoff’s belt. Schmidt’s voice rang out. ‘Brethren counter attack in the village. Secure abbey perimeter.’
‘What is this?’ Ilena said. ‘Brash said that the Brethren were retreating through Drunken Abbot.’
Dad slammed the gearstick into first and floored the accelerator.
‘Armed – seven o’clock,’ Ilena shouted.
Three black cloaked soldiers burst out from the side of the pizzeria and skidded into firing positions behind its low terrace wall.
Ilena smashed the fixed bench-seat windows and let off three Kalashnikov bursts to keep their heads down just as Dad pushed his right hand out through his open window.
The wall and half the terrace burst apart and the three gunmen smashed back against the steel shutters of the pizzeria.
Marakoff suddenly started shooting from his side. He’d whipped out a second MK 23 pistol from somewhere and was emptying both magazines into a single black hooded figure sprinting towards them.
The figure stormed down on them despite Marakoff’s bullets thudding into its body. It had to be Touched.
Dad floored the accelerator and sped away but the Touched dived for the back doors. The thin steel buckled with the impact but held shut as Dad swerved from side to side trying to dislodge the assailant. A second later the Touched ripped one of the twin doors right off its hinges.
Ilena pushed Jason’s head down with one hand and fired her Kalashnikov with the other as Marakoff shot his twin pistols through the space where Jason’s head had been.
The Touched roared and heaved itself into the Land Rover’s rear section but bullets pounded into its face and body. It slumped to the metal floor – dead.
Ilena whipped out a bowie knife from her belt and hacked the head off before kicking the body out through the ripped-open doorway. She threw the head out after it.
‘Bugger,’ Dad said and pulled the Land Rover around in a tight arc.
They’d reached the perimeter fence but rifle shots rang out from a dozen black hooded Brethren crouching on the far side of a small pair of gates.
Ilena snatched up her Kalashnikov and returned fire through the open back as Dad screeched around a corner.
Dad slowed down. ‘I’m guessing all the gates will be covered. We can’t run through the perimeter fence, as it’s reinforced and electrified. Any ideas how we get out?’
The sirens had stopped and it was now deathly quiet in the village. The Brethren counter attack seemed to be very “low key” and why were they trying to keep people from leaving the village?
‘It’s not the Brethren hunting us, is it?’ Jason said.
Dad glanced at him in the rear-view mirror. ‘I don’t think so, Son - it’s Brash’s people.’
Jason’s mind flicked back to the killing field in front of the abbey… some of the dead Brethren had been stripped of their clothes. Brash must have ordered his men to grab their Brethren disguises and get into the village the moment he realised he’d have to let Jason out of the abbey. The question was – were their orders just to stop them leaving or to kill them?
‘Why bother with the disguises?’ Jason asked.
‘To confuse our decisions,’ Ilena said as Dad pulled in to a small alleyway. ‘Perhaps we would not leave the village if we thought the Brethren were...’
‘However,’ Dad cut in as he stopped the Land Rover, ‘leaving the village is what we need to do. Again… anyone got any ideas?’
‘I know a way out,’ Jason said, ‘– two minutes from here. It’s a break in the fence where the Skins sneak in to fight with the Brash. It’s in the park where I got beaten up.’
Marakoff shook his head. ‘Brash controls all the gang fighting, Jason. It is just another form of training for his… apprentices at the school. The way will be closed to us.’
‘Maybe,’ Jason said, ‘but Eddie told me that it’s always left open so they never know when the Skins are coming … like a constant test for Brash Security. I don’t think it’s meant for cars though.’
‘That is not a problem – we have made back-up arrangements on that side of the fence,’ Ilena said.
Dad nodded. ‘Two minutes – it’s worth a go. It’ll be a weak spot at the very least, even if it is sealed now. If we can get through the fence before they realise what we’re doing we’ll have half a chance...’
Dad hit the accelerator and they roared towards the end of the alleyway. ‘Which way, son?’
***
In under a minute Dad was crashing the Land Rover through the main gates into Abbeywell Park.
‘I think the gap’s on the far side of those trees,’ Jason said.
Wisps of morning mist rose from the branches. Dawn was coming, splitting the dark cloud cover with ragged cracks of lighter grey.
Accelerating hard, Dad slid them around the well on the damp grass and raced for the trees.
Suddenly tyres screeched behind them and two cars hand-braked into the road running past the park and waited, engines revving.
‘It appears Brash has worked out our cunning plan, yes?’ Marakoff said
‘As soon as we stop, everyone out on the tree side. The three of you find the way out and I’ll slow down our friends back there.’
More cars and Land Rovers joined the others and then, as one they surged forward and smashed straight through the fence after them.
Dad yanked the wheel and they slid broadside almost into the tree line. ‘Go!’ he shouted and they all clambered out into the trees using the Land Rover as cover.
Dad slipped out after them then punched out with both fists over the bonnet.
Two cars thirty feet away crumpled as if they’d hit the side of a house.
‘Subtle, yes?’ Marakoff coughed as he, Jason and Ilena scuttled into the trees.
‘Move it,’ Dad barked and turned back to the remaining vehicles skidding to a halt on the grass.
Ilena closed with the limping Marakoff and he threw one arm around her shoulders. They picked up speed as he took huge hops with his good leg. Jason took a last glance at Dad as gunfire and explosions began and then he was lost beyond the trees.
Thirty seconds later they skidded to a halt before the fence - electrified, fifteen feet high and topped with razor wire.
Marakoff immediately spotted the Skins’ secret entryway - four square feet of wire was electrically isolated from the rest. It had been clipped and then hinged with clear plastic fastenings to make it almost indiscernible.
‘I’m not leaving without Dad,’ Jason said and pulled out his pistol.
‘Glad to hear it,’ Dad’s voice called out of the trees a moment before he appeared. ‘Now get going.’
Marakoff pulled open the isolated fence section and scrambled through into the garden of a derelict terraced house. Rubbish and nettles were everywhere and smashed windows stared out of the cracked wall in front of them.
‘Wake up.’ Dad hissed and pushed Jason through the gap.
Gunfire erupted behind them as Ilena sprayed her Kalashnikov into the trees. Dad dived through the gap then took over the covering fire through the fence as Ilena leapt through.
Marakoff stumbled over to them with an old metal bin held on a wooden plank. The moment Ilena was clear he jammed the bin sideways into the gap with the wood. Sparks flew from the fence as the bin ripped through the insulation and electricity leapt through the metal.
Dad threw up a shield wall and he and Marakoff backed through the garden whilst Ilena pulled Jason after her to the house, kicked in the back door and dragged him inside. Dad and Marakoff tumbled in and slammed the door as the first bullets thudded into t
he walls.
They were in a tiny kitchen that stank of something dead. Marakoff knocked out the remaining glass from its single window and shot at shadows flitting through the trees beyond the fence.
Dad tapped Jason’s shoulder and the two of them scurried after Ilena into a narrow corridor running passed a rotting staircase. Ilena burst into a front room and raced to one side of a jagged window pane.
Jason and Dad followed her in. The street outside was empty, leached of all colour by the pre-dawn grey.
Ilena pulled out a small walkie-talkie like the one Marakoff had used in the abbey hours ago.
More shots sounded from the kitchen and Jason glanced back down the hall. Marakoff had his Kalashnikov trained on the dustbin-filled breach in the fence, waiting for anyone foolish enough to try to remove it.
‘Louisa – thank God.’ Ilena’s cracking voice brought Jason’s attention back into the living room. ‘Are you all right? Brash said the Brethren were escaping through the town…’
Jason stared at her. Was Louisa in Drunken Abbot? He’d assumed she and Mouse would be safe in their cottage… but that wouldn’t be safe now, of course - not if Brash was hunting for them. Was Miranda with her?
‘Yes, yes, we have Jason safely with us,’ Ilena said. ‘We are just inside the town. We will meet you as arranged but you need to know – something has happened – Brash has summoned a demon and he does not want any of us to leave.’
A hail of bullets hammered through the window into the kitchen wall. Marakoff returned fire as best he could from below the window frame.
‘I suspect that they have decided to… make their move, now.’ he shouted above the gunfire.
‘Or distracting us while others come around the front,’ Dad said. ‘We need to leave Ilena.’
She nodded and shouted into the walkie-talkie. ‘I will call when we are closer to you for the pick-up. Keep hidden my darling… we will be with you very soon.’
Marakoff crawled through from the kitchen, keeping his head down as lead ricocheted all around the room.
‘Their guns are bigger than mine,’ he said.
‘Clear outside.’ Ilena reported and Dad led them to the front door and out into Drunken Abbot.