The Anomaly (Scarrett & Kramer Book 2)

by Neil Carstairs

  “Stand back.”

  Hannah guided the muzzle of the Sig to the padlock and fired. She tested the padlock.

  “Quick, quick.” Emily’s frantic voice came right over her shoulder.

  Hannah wrenched the padlock off as the first growls from their attackers reached her. She broke two fingernails hauling the door open and shoved Emily inside as a clawed hand curled around her neck. Hannah fell back. She saw a mouth lined with teeth descending upon her face. The Sig went in first, and she blew the back of the creature’s head off. It fell, tangling limbs with the others and giving Hannah a chance to scramble into the store on all fours. She slammed the door shut. Another emergency light gave enough illumination to see there was no way of locking the door from the inside. Hannah grabbed the first thing to hand, a holdall of cricket gear and shoved it against the door. Only then did she look for Emily.

  The girl had retreated to the furthest corner. Water dripped from clothes and hair, pooling around her feet like she’d wet herself. Pounding on the door made Hannah jump. She ran to Emily, picked her up and lifted her onto a stack of equipment.

  “Get onto the top shelf,” Hannah said. “If they come in I’ll hold them off as long as I can.”

  “It’s okay,” Emily said. “My angels will help.”

  “Angels?”

  Emily pointed, and Hannah turned to see the five golden figures materialise inside the store. I’ve seen everything now. The angels lined up across the doorway and seemed to merge into one to form a glowing wall.

  “Okay,” Hannah said. “The Watch Team should be here soon. We might make it after all.”

  An odd silence fell as the sound of the storm retreated into the distance. Peace descended on the store room. Hannah wiped water from her face. That’s when she heard the voice.

  “Help! Help me!”

  Hannah took a step forward. Another cry for help came, this one ending in a scream of pain.

  “It’s Tim,” she said.

  “Who?” Emily asked from up on the top shelf.

  “Mr Munro. He’s outside. Why?”

  “He must have seen us. He’s come to help.”

  “Oh, Jesus,” Hannah whispered.

  “Go to him,” Emily said. “He needs help.”

  “I can’t leave you.” Hannah closed her eyes as he called out again. This time she heard her name. Please, God, no.

  “The angels will protect me.”

  Hannah looked up at Emily. Shadows hid much of the girl’s face, but she saw the look of determination that had carried this child through Darlford and now here. Hannah nodded. She walked to the door and hesitated behind the angel wall. They didn’t move.

  “Ask them,” Emily said.

  “Er, excuse me?” Hannah said, softly. “I need to go outside.”

  A face turned. A middle-aged woman. She looked nice, like a hospital matron. The angel smiled and stepped aside. Hannah pulled the bag away from the door enough that she could make a gap to squeeze through. She peered out. A face filled the gap, hissing anger at her. She put a bullet between its puss ridden eyes. Then she was out, back in the wind and rain. The door slammed shut behind her.

  Hannah stared into the dark, searching for Tim.

  ***

  The storm raged like a living thing. Tim thought of it like that. A beast that stalked the sky and hurled down its monstrous children to make war on Hannah and Emily. He had no idea why. He saw Hannah with a gun, at least he thought he saw Hannah with a gun, but the way the lightning flashed and the thunder rolled it could be his imagination. Maybe he’d died out here on the grass. Struck down by a lightning bolt. And now here he stood, in his own version of Hell, stalked by men created from earth and mycelium.

  He tried to follow Hannah but lost in her the dark. He found himself surrounded by the strange men. At first he moved amongst them unseen. They had some mission, and he was not part of it. It took a minute for Tim to realise that they were hunting Hannah. If he stayed with them, then he would find her. So Tim stepped with them, cold and wet and scared until he saw the sport’s store.

  They crowded the door and pawed at the wood. Tim stopped. Hannah and Emily must be inside. At least they were safe. He could wait here and...

  A hand slammed him down. Tim stared up at a nightmare face full of beetles and worms. He rolled left as a hand came for his throat. Instinct made him kick out. The creature fell alongside him. Tim came to his knees, thinking to run when it moved again, faster than a striking snake. He screamed in panic, kicked and punched and scrambled free.

  “Help! Help me!”

  On his feet again he got six steps before another one jumped him. Stinking arms wrapped around his body and sharp teeth bit into his shoulder. Tim screamed as hot blood gushed out of the wound. The sharp, copper smell triggered some kind of frenzy in the men. Tim fell under a barrage of bodies. They fought for him, tearing great lumps of earth from each other’s bodies. The one who’d bit him lost its head. Another crumpled alongside Tim; its ribcage ripped open from throat to abdomen. Wet soil, water and insects spilled forth. Tim puked. His shoulder burned. Feet kicked him, hands clawed at him. Pain filled every fibre of his being. He screamed again, and a thunderclap exploded above him.

  No. Not thunder. A gun. Tim saw half-a-dozen muzzle flashes and the beasts were gone, leaving him on the blood-soaked grass. Hannah knelt beside him; her blonde hair plastered dark against her head. Dirt spattered her face and made strange patterns on her skin in the rain. She looked like a warrior princess as she touched his wound. Her hand came away slick with blood.

  “Can you move?” she asked.

  He tried, managing to get to his knees before pain brought an edge of shadow to his vision. Tim wanted to speak, but no sound would come. He felt so cold and so weak. He wanted to lie down again, but she wouldn’t let him, urging him to get up.

  More light. Shadows danced in Tim’s vision. He saw Hannah more clearly now and turned his head in a slow, painful rotation to see another monster bearing down on them, this one with glowing eyes that sent iridescent beams across the playing field. It came at them with a roar and Hannah stood to meet it. Tim reached out to her. He didn’t want her to face this beast. It would kill her.

  The lights changed. Tim saw a Range Rover slide to a halt, and four armed men came out. Hannah pointed them to the sports store. They stormed it. Tim saw them shooting down the monsters before kicking down the door. Seconds later they were out. Three of them formed a triangle with the fourth man at the centre carrying Emily. She went into the Range Rover. Hannah went with them. Tim heard a man say,

  “Who’s that?”

  “One of the teachers. He’s hurt.”

  “Bad?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is he coming with us?”

  “Is there room?”

  “We can put him in the back.”

  The pain when they lifted him tore into Tim’s heart. He caught a final glimpse of Hannah as she reached out to touch him. Her fingers brushed his face. He’d so wanted her to touch him like that. A lover’s touch.

  He fell into darkness.

  Chapter Ten

  “You look better.” Geordie had his feet up on a desk and a mug of coffee in his hand as Kramer walked into the office.

  “A shower and a couple of hours sleep work wonders,” she said.

  “Are you sure it was sleep?”

  She sat down, gave him a hard look and said, “I thought you were a gentleman?”

  Geordie grinned over the rim of his mug. “So where’s your boyfriend?”

  “Sleeping it off,” Kramer said.

  Geordie almost choked on his mouthful of coffee. He wiped his lips and said, “Can you warn me next time you’re going to say something like that?”

  Kramer laughed, “No, I’d rather see you covered in coffee.”

  “Thanks,” Geordie said as he put the mug down and wiped at the damp stains on his regimental t-shirt.

  Tiny came into the room, saw Geordie and said,
“He’s worse than a three-year-old.”

  Kramer laughed before she asked. “How’s Macca?”

  “I reckon he’s faking it now,” Tiny said as he dumped himself into a chair. “All those nurses fussing around him have made him think he’s onto a good thing being in hospital.”

  “But he is okay?” Kramer asked again.

  “Yeah. He’ll set a few airport security scanners off with the amount of metal they stuck in him but he’ll be back, as annoying as ever.”

  “That’s good to hear.” Kramer sat back. Back in what she thought of as the real world where she could start thinking about other people and not just herself.

  “It seems a bit quiet around here considering what happened in Cornwall,” Geordie said.

  “Scarrett told me Congrave’s in London for a meeting. I guess until he gets back we sit tight.”

  The office door opened again and this time Reuben stuck his head in. “Ops room,” he said. “Now.”

  Geordie’s eyebrows went up a notch. “He seemed a bit sharp.”

  “Not like him,” Kramer said.

  “Guess we’d better find out what he wants, then,” Geordie stood up.

  As the two British soldiers left the room Kramer used a desk phone to call her room. Ben answered after half-a-dozen rings, “Yeah?”

  “It’s me, get up, dressed and down to the Ops room.”

  “When did you leave?” he asked.

  “About the time your snoring got the better of me,” Kramer said.

  “I don’t snore.”

  “Yes, you do, and before I spend the rest of the afternoon arguing with you about it we need to be in the Ops room ‘sharpish’ as the Brits would say.”

  “So why are you making this conversation drag on for so long?”

  “Jesus, Scarrett, just get your ass downstairs,” she almost slammed the phone down. Of all the times to think he could have a joke this wasn’t one.

  The Operations Room held the central command and control systems for the organisation. There were still plenty of separate units running their own schemes scattered throughout the building but this one place had an overview of everything going on in the UK and in some cases beyond.

  Kramer found a place to stand near the back of the room. It seemed pretty crowded to her. Most of the senior intelligence officers were in place and so were members of field teams who were present at Sheddlestone. She saw Congrave’s second-in-command stand up. Norma Johnstone looked pale as she waited for some kind of silence to descend.

  “I asked for this meeting...” She paused as a door opened and Ben appeared. Everyone looked at him. Kramer sighed and hoped he wouldn’t come and stand next to her. He did, making enough noise to stop Norma’s speech until he was in place. Kramer gave him a look that could turn blood to ice and concentrated on Norma.

  “I asked for this meeting because a number of events have taken place that put us in an extremely difficult position. Firstly, Cornwall. I don’t want to say we were lucky, but the fact that the military authorities requested we leave the exclusion zone means that no responsibility can be placed on us for that disaster. I have spoken to the Prime Minister and she has asked us to take over again. I will be putting a team together to carry out a clean-up operation. Next are two items much closer to home. Douglas Congrave has been reported missing. He was last seen by his close protection officer entering his hotel bedroom in London at around six o’clock yesterday evening. His bed had not been slept in. Hotel security cameras do not show him leaving but no trace of him can be found. Met police are carrying out enquiries but we will be sending a team down to carry out our own investigation. Finally, late this morning, a paranormal event took place that was an attempt upon the life of Emily DeForrest. Thanks to her close protection officer and members of the Watch Team, she survived.”

  Norma looked around the room. “We therefore have three events that may be linked. In some ways, I hope they are as it will make for a simpler resolution. As it stands, you will all be detailed to one of these incidents. Emails will be sent out in the next hour. Please make sure anything you are currently working on is set aside for this. The Prime Minister is watching and our results will tell her if we are worth keeping as a department. Thank you.”

  “Welcome back,” Ben said to Kramer. “Looks like you got here just in time for all the fun stuff.”

  “Where d’you think Emily is?”

  “Either at home or in the hospital wing,” Ben said, he waved Reuben over. “Emily’s okay?”

  “Shaken up,” Reuben said. “Her mum’s with her at the moment while the docs check her over.”

  “Can we go up?” Kramer asked.

  “She’s asking for you.”

  “She is?” Ben said.

  “Yes, that’s why you’ve been detailed to her.”

  Ben frowned in suspicion. “Is there something we should know?”

  “You’ll find out when you talk to her.”

  Ben watched Reuben walk away. “You know,” he said to Kramer, “there’s times when I think this place might be bad for my health.”

  “Thinking of resigning?”

  “Heck, no. I just think we get sent on errands that look like they should be simple but turn out not to be. I mean, go speak to a ten-year-old girl. What harm can that do?”

  “Let’s find out.”

  They found Emily sitting in an armchair and swinging her legs as a military nurse took her temperature with an ear thermometer. Jane sat close by, holding her daughter’s hand and looking as if she had spent the last hour crying. When she saw Ben and Kramer, Jane released Emily’s hand and came to them.

  “What’s happening? Everyone I talk to just says we’re checking Emily, that it’ll be alright.”

  “We don’t know,” Kramer said. She took Jane and led her to a pair of chairs. They sat, with Kramer holding Jane’s hand.

  Ben wandered over to Emily. “Hey, Em, how’s it going?”

  “Okay, I think.”

  “Good.” He sat in the chair vacated by Jane. “You okay after this morning?”

  “It was scary.”

  The nurse made notes and left. Ben waited to make sure she couldn’t hear him and said, “As bad as Darlford?”

  “Worse because I got lost in the storm. If Hannah hadn’t found me the creatures would have killed me.” Emily’s eyes dropped to the floor.

  “Hannah’s your CPO?” Ben asked.

  “My what?”

  “Bodyguard.”

  “Yes. She saved my life. And Mr Munro’s.” Ben had to strain to hear her voice.

  “Who’s Mr Munro?”

  “One of the teachers at school. He came outside as well because he’d seen us. The monsters hurt him but Hannah went back and rescued him.” Emily looked up at Ben and he saw in her eyes how scared she must have been.

  “Is he okay?”

  “I don’t know. He was covered in blood.”

  “I’ll see if we can find out how he is,” Ben said.

  “Thanks,” her voice brightened a little. Ben touched her arm.

  “Is there anything you can tell me about this morning? How did it start?”

  “There was a thunderstorm.” Emily took a breath, as if the whole experience was playing out in front of her eyes.

  “And you were trapped outside?”

  “No.” Emily looked down at the floor. Ben waited. He sensed something else in Emily’s story.

  “So you went outside?” he asked when she didn’t speak.

  Emily nodded.

  “Why?”

  A tiny shrug. Ben looked out of the window. He saw armed soldiers patrolling, something he’d not seen before. He guessed Norma Johnstone had decided not to take any chances. Emily sat quite still at his side. She still hadn’t looked up. Ben thought about pushing for an answer but knew she’s likely clam up if he did.

  “You’ve only been at the school a few days,” he said. “Did you get a chance to make any friends?”

  She shook
her head.

  Ben didn’t know what to say now. He thought Kramer would do a better job because she’d known Emily longer, back to when the girl and her mom were living at Kenyon Air Force Base. A quick glance showed that Kramer and Jane were still chatting quietly. He didn’t want to interrupt and he didn’t want to walk away from Emily, either.

  Reuben saved him as he came into room in the company of a young woman.

  “Hannah!” Emily jumped up and ran to Reuben’s companion. They hugged each other.

  “Are you feeling better now?” Hannah asked.

  “A bit.”

  After Reuben made the introductions, Emily said, “Is Mr Munro okay?”

  “He’s been taken to the nearest hospital,” Hannah said. “The last I heard he was being taken into theatre for surgery.”

  “Was he badly injured?” Ben asked.

  “He’d lost a lot of blood,” Hannah said. “One of the things that attacked us bit him. It looked horrible to me.”

  “Lucky you were there,” Ben said.

  “If I’d kept a better eye on Emily, we would have both been safe inside the school and so would Tim.”

  “Possibly,” Kramer put in. “But if the things were after Emily, they could have entered the school and the situation would have been a lot worse. Imagine them inside with all the children at risk.”

  Hannah nodded. “I hadn’t thought of it like that. It would have been carnage.”

  “There’s always a bright spot somewhere,” Ben said.

  “Right now,” Reuben said, “I’m not sure where it would be.”

  “Out of sight,” Ben said.

  “Which is why we’re going to have to go look for it.” Reuben pulled a chair up and Ben decided that whatever Reuben had to say would be best heard from a sitting position.

  With Emily next to her mom, Hannah next to Reuben and Kramer dragging her chair over, Ben realised he’d missed out. “Hey, Kramer,” he said. “Can I sit on you lap?”

  “You can ask.”

  “I just did.”

  “And the answer’s no.”

  “Thanks.” Ben looked at the table and decided it seemed pretty stout. He pushed up onto it and said, “One thing I forgot, Reuben. Did you ever track down the people who sent that crate?”