[Vampire Babylon 01] - Skarlet (2009)

by Thomas Emson

  “Oh God.”

  “I get splashed every night. It’s horrible. I thought they were going to kill me, but they chucked me in here with that – ” She made a face and gestured at the form growing in the blood and slime.

  “It’s – it’s Kea,” said Sassie, “they’re resurrecting Kea.”

  “Who’s Kea?”

  Sassie told Aaliyah and Aaliyah shook her head. “I’ve seen crazy, crazy stuff over the past couple of days. My man J.T., he got killed by them. Got bitten and they drank his blood.”

  “They’re all over London.”

  “So how do we get out of here?”

  Sassie looked at Aaliyah, really for the first time. She was tall, and probably elegant and beautiful under the mask of dried blood and muck that soiled her skin and her tattered dress.

  “Have you tried?” said Sassie.

  “Have I tried? You bet I’ve tried.” She showed Sassie her fingernails, dirty and bloody and torn. “I’ve tried to claw myself out of here. And they just look down at me and laugh at me and spit at me.”

  “Who does? How many are there?”

  “There’s the woman – bitch. Then a good-looking guy with a scar down here.” Aaliyah ran a finger from the corner of her right eye to the edge of her mouth. “He just smirks at me. And then you got those things, those – ”

  “Vampires,” said Sassie.

  “Is that what they are?”

  “I think so. I know it’s mad. And this thing” – Sassie indicated the pile of flesh at their feet – “will come alive very soon. And we’re its first meal.”

  Aaliyah sobbed. “I’m going to die in this hole? I don’t wanna die here, honey.”

  “Neither do I,” said Sassie. “But my friends, they know about these creatures, and they know about this place. They’ll come.” But she didn’t know if she believed that. Her legs felt weak. Fear rinsed her veins.

  She wanted to scream and cry and beg for mercy. She wanted Jake to rescue her.

  She looked at the shape in the blood-soiled earth.

  It would stand about seven feet tall. Sassie imagined it rising out of the pus, looming over them. Its shadow would fall across Aaliyah and she as they huddled together and cried. It would corner them in this pit and destroy them.

  The thought made Sassie quake and she wrapped her arms around her chest, trying to stem the panic surging through her.

  “Getting to know each other?” said a voice.

  Sassie snapped out of her nightmares and looked up. Crane stood at the edge of the trench gazing down at them.

  “Ed,” said Sassie, “for heaven’s sake, Ed, what are you doing? Please let us out.”

  “Come on,” said Aaliyah, “help us.”

  “Help you?” said Crane, furrowing his brow. “Sassie, I offered to help you. Had you been willing to be my – friend, well – you wouldn’t be in this, well, hole.”

  “I’ll be your friend, any kind of fucking friend you want, honey,” said Aaliyah, “if you let us go.”

  “Tempting, very tempting. But there’s going to be a show tonight, and you’re the support act. I’m really looking forward to it, so I can’t spoil it all by helping you – despite my lust for a pair of blood-stained, mud-soiled whores.”

  “Fuck you,” said Aaliyah.

  Crane laughed and walked away.

  He kept on laughing, and the mocking, spiteful sound echoed around the cave.

  Sassie clamped her hands over her ears to block out the noise.

  But his scorn still seeped into her head.

  Chapter 84

  CONSPIRACY THEORIES.

  MCCALL, shaking his head, said, “That’s madness. You’re making up stupid conspiracy theories instead of doing your job.”

  But Murray said, “It’s true. They’re all involved. I know they are.”

  She looked at Lithgow, bit her lip, her brow rutted. She took a drink of her vodka, eyes still on Lithgow. Lawton looked at her, then at Lithgow. He tried to work out her expression.

  Fear? Concern?

  What was going on?

  But then McCall said, “You’re accusing a government minister, and a senior police officer of being involved in the murder of – of hundreds of people.”

  Murray spluttered.

  “Yes, she is and I believe her,” said Lawton. “I believe you, Christine.

  Now, are we going over there and forcing our way in, or are we sitting on our arses in this pub all day?”

  “I’m not going anywhere with you,” said McCall.

  “Fine,” said Lawton, “I told you to come along or fuck off. You can fuck off, then.”

  McCall stared into his beer. “My daughter’s been taken from me – ”

  “And my sons from me,” said Murray. “That’s why I’m here. It’s got nothing to do with what happened a few nights ago at that club anymore. We’re up against more than drug dealers. We’re up against creatures we know nothing about. We’re up against a conspiracy that involves a minister in the Home Office.”

  McCall shook his head. “I just can’t – ”

  “Then don’t,” said Lithgow. “Don’t bother. Do what Jake says. Just go, yeah? Look, man, I’m scared shitless. I’m not a soldier like this one” – he jutted a thumb at Lawton – “I’m just a bank clerk who’s likely to lose his job any day, now. Today’s just one too many sickies for their liking. But I’m with Lawton. I want to be counted. D’you know why? Because I want my life back. I want to mope about all day and party at night. I want beer and drugs and sex. I want to stroll home at night without fear of attack. I want to watch MTV and The Playboy Channel, and read NME. I want to travel on the bus with my feet up on the seats. I want the right to shout at a copper, without being dragged off somewhere and getting beaten up. I want not to be scared of politicians like Jacqueline Burrows. I want the freedom to be apathetic and bored and to lounge about. That’s why I want this to stop. It’s completely selfish, but that’s why.”

  Lawton looked at Lithgow and nodded, and then he turned to face McCall, saying, “Well?”

  McCall said, “I want someone to blame for Jenna.”

  “Yeah, and now that you’re not getting to blame me, you’ve got to find someone else. And we’re giving you someone else.”

  McCall nodded. Lawton, satisfied they were all on board, glanced towards the door. He shot a look at the clock above the bar. The pub was near London Bridge. Sassie should’ve been here by now. He’d left a message on her phone.

  Murray must’ve read him. She said, “Try her again.”

  Lawton dialled and her mobile went into answerphone again. He listened to her voice and left a message telling her to call. Fear coiled in his belly.

  “You go over to her flat and we’ll hang on, wait here for her,” said Murray.

  “Are you okay with that?” said Lawton.

  “We are, Jake,” she said.

  “What about your –?”

  “You’re going to save them, aren’t you,” said Murray. “That’s what you promised me.”

  Chapter 85

  FURY.

  JACQUELINE Burrows’s ministerial limousine crawled along the alleyway and stopped outside Religion’s rear door. Burrows didn’t worry about being conspicuous. So what if someone saw the car trundle up this passageway? What would they do? What could they do after tonight?

  Meadows, her chauffer, opened the door, and she squeezed out. The driver punched a code into the security panel and pushed open the door, the hinges creaking.

  He said, “Are you all right, now, Mrs. Burrows?”

  “Yes, thank you, Peter. You go back.”

  The driver reversed out of the alley. Burrows shut the door. Her skin tingled. She took a breath and walked along the dimly lit corridor.

  The air was stale, the whiff of decay in the atmosphere.

  She followed the instructions Nadia Radu had given her earlier, and came to a door on the third floor labelled Manager. Without knocking – she was a government minister
; she didn’t need to knock – she entered.

  Nadia Radu, Professor Ed Crane, and a High Court judge called John Petrou stood in the middle of the room. The window stared down at the street. A year planner hung on the wall. A bottle of champagne perched in an icebox on the desk. Petrou and Crane drank bubbly from flutes. They toasted Burrows.

  “Jacqueline,” said Nadia, greeting her with a kiss on both cheeks.

  “Come have some champagne.”

  Nadia poured her a glass, and Burrows clinked glasses with Crane and Petrou.

  “When will the others arrive?” said the minister.

  “In dribs and drabs during the day,” said Nadia. “We’ll all be here by sundown. Then, the last of the blood will be spilt and Kea will rise.”

  “Where’s Dr. Haddad?” said Burrows.

  “Still in his little lab, holed away like the eccentric scientist he is,” said Nadia.

  Burrows saw a wrinkle of concern on Nadia’s brow. “You’re not drinking, Nadia?”

  “Ion is missing.”

  Crane said, “I spoke to him a few hours ago. He’d gone to retrieve the spear from Lawton’s flat. The line was terrible, though. Couldn’t really make out what he was saying.”

  Burrows glared at him. “It was him you spoke to, wasn’t it, Professor?”

  Crane’s face creased. “How d’you mean?”

  Burrows said, “I mean, it was Ion you spoke to. You say the line was bad. You say he’d gone to Lawton’s place. Anything could’ve happened. You were supposed to confirm that Ion had retrieved the weapon.”

  Crane’s face blanched. “I – I – I did.”

  Nadia grabbed Crane’s collar. Rage flared on her face. “You did make sure it was Ion, didn’t you?”

  “I – I – said I did.”

  Burrows said, “You said weren’t sure, that’s what you said, Professor Crane.”

  “That’s true,” said Petrou.

  “I said I spoke to him,” said Crane, his eyes wide.

  “Phone him again,” said Burrows.

  “I’ll do it,” said Nadia. She got her phone from her bag and dialled, biting her lip as she waited for her brother to answer.

  Burrows could see the fear in the woman’s eyes. Nadia’s knuckles turned white, such was the grip she had on the mobile. After almost a minute, she drew the phone from her ear. She glared at Crane, and Crane, his voice high pitched, said, “Don’t look at me like that, I don’t know where he is.”

  “That was your job to find out,” said Burrows, sipping the champagne.

  Nadia said, “If anything’s happened to my brother, I’ll have you crucified. Do you understand? I will have you crucified.”

  “Get over to Lawton’s flat,” Burrows told Crane, “and find out what’s happening. Find Ion.”

  Crane said, “You’re jok – ”

  Burrows, baring her teeth, said, “I’m not fucking joking, you decadent, useless creep. Get over there or I’ll hammer the nails into your hands and feet myself.”

  Crane bristled. He said, “You – you can’t – can’t threaten – ”

  Nadia lashed out. Her nails gouged Crane’s cheek. Blood oozed from the four stripes whipped across his skin.

  Nadia said, “Go find my brother, you bastard, go find him and bring him back to me.”

  Crane stumbled out of the office, and they listened to his footsteps stagger down the corridor.

  After a while, after giving Nadia time to calm down, Burrows said, “I understand your fury, Nadia – I share it. We can’t have fuck-ups at this stage, can we? But we’ve so much to look forward to. I say we toast.”

  “What are we drinking to?” said Petrou.

  Burrows glanced at Nadia. The dark-haired woman’s face burned with wrath. Burrows said, “To friends reunited.”

  “Friends – ”

  “And,” said Burrows, “to an age of monsters.”

  “An age of monsters – ”

  Chapter 86

  THE CODE.

  ADRENALIN pulsed through his veins.

  She wasn’t here. The door lay open. A table had toppled over. The curtain pooled on the floor, torn down from the window.

  Lawton dropped his rucksack. He steadied his breathing, tried to slow down his racing heart. He needed a clear head to think.

  Shutting his eyes, he focused on the voice on the phone:

  Bloody hell, Ion. That’s a really bad line. You sound weird. Have you got the spear? I’ve got the girl.

  That’s what he’d said: I’ve got the girl.

  The man meant Sassie. Who else could he mean?

  Sassie and the spear went together.

  Have you got the spear?

  No he fucking didn’t have the spear, thought Lawton; he’s fucking dead in my flat. And when I find you, you’ll be dead too, Crane.

  Lawton grabbed his rucksack and raced out of Sassie’s flat.

  * * *

  Murray said, “I’m sure we’ll find her, and we’ll find my sons.”

  “Ed Crane’s involved, Birch, Burrows – who else?” said Lawton.

  “How many know about this?” He looked at Murray and her eyes were wide, her face white. He said, “What’s the matter?”

  She said, “Nothing it’s – it’s just – ”

  “How are we supposed to get in?” said Lithgow.

  They were loitering in Soho, a few streets away from Religion.

  “Knock at the front door?” said McCall.

  Murray asked Lawton if he knew the security code that opened the rear door. He said he didn’t. He looked up at the windows. They were unreachable. Unless you started to scale the building, make a scene.

  And he doubted if they opened, anyway. From the inside, they were never on show; always covered by those red drapes.

  A 4x4’s rear end poked out of the alley.

  “That’s him, that’s Crane,” said Murray.

  “Wait here,” said Lawton. He crossed the road and trotted up the narrow street leading up to Religion. It was a dead end, so rarely had any footfall.

  The 4x4 crawled backwards out of the alley. Lawton couldn’t see the driver yet – which meant the driver couldn’t see him, either.

  The vehicle reversed out. Ed Crane cocked his head from side to side, checking his wing mirrors. There was blood on his face and he looked flustered. He saw Lawton, and his mouth dropped open.

  Lawton opened the door and grabbed Crane. Crane started screaming. He slammed the accelerator. The 4x4 screeched out into the street, lurching over the pavement. Lawton jerked, got dragged along. But he held on, digging his fingers into Crane’s arm.

  “Let me go, let me go,” said Crane, twisting the steering wheel.

  The 4x4 veered, Lawton almost losing his grip and getting tossed into the road. But he leaped up onto the doorframe. He kicked Crane’s foot off the accelerator. Crane punched him in the face. Lawton’s vision blurred, but he held on. Threw punches – one, two, three – into Crane’s temple.

  The 4x4 reversed into a parked Volvo. Crane slammed backwards into his seat. Lawton lost his footing, stumbled off the vehicle.

  Crane shook his head, coming to after being punched. Crane’s foot pressed the accelerator, Lawton thinking, He’s going to get away, he’s –

  Lithgow dived into the 4x4 through the open driver’s door, landing across Crane’s lap, and wrestled with the professor. He bit Crane’s hand.

  Crane shrieked. Lithgow snatched the keys from the ignition.

  “Bastards,” said Crane, thrashing under Lithgow’s weight, “bastards.”

  * * *

  Lawton, holding Crane up against a wall, said, “Where’s Sassie? Where are the kids?”

  Crane, bleeding from the nose and from a scratch on his cheek, said, “You – you should be dead. Ion – Ion was – was supposed to sort – ”

  “Like you see, Ion didn’t,” said Lawton. He rammed Crane against the wall, Crane’s head snapping back and cracking against the bricks.

  Crane’
s eyes rolled back in his head and he sagged in Lawton’s grasp, but Lawton gave him a shake. “You’re not falling asleep on me, you shit. Where are they? Are they in here? In this fucking club?”

  Crane laughed.

  Murray said, “Jake – Jake, you can’t – don’t hurt him, don’t – ”

  Fire in his eyes, Lawton looked over his shoulder at Murray and said, “I’m going to find your sons, I’m going to find Sassie, I’m going to make him take us inside, Christine, or beat the security code out of him. If you’re not up for that, then take a stroll around the corner.”

  Crane, his voice a croak, said, “You’ll get nothing out of me.”

  Lawton bared his teeth and stuck his face in Crane’s face. “You’ve seen that video of me, haven’t you, Professor, you’ve seen me shoot that – unarmed man. Well, you should see what we did to his mates. You might have degrees in archaeology; I’ve got degrees in pain and suffering. I’ll show you my qualifications if you don’t tell us how to get into this fucking building. Give me the code, Crane. Give me the numbers.”

  Crane said, “The number’s fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you.”

  McCall, at Lawton’s shoulder, said, “Is this blowjob responsible for what happened to Jenna?”

  Crane smirked and gurgled.

  “I think that’s a yes,” said Lawton.

  “Jake,” said Murray, “I can’t let you do this.”

  Lawton step back, letting go of Crane. Crane slumped to the floor.

  Lawton, arms held out, said, “Fine, we’ll let him go, Christine. How’s that? Shall I do that?”

  Lawton looked at her, waited. Murray’s mouth gaped. She stared at the wounded Crane. She turned her back.

  Lawton reached for Crane, dragging him to his feet, ramming him up against the wall again. Lawton said, “I know you’ve got Sassie – you rang me. ‘I’ve got the girl,’ you said. Remember the static? That was the radio in my kitchen – where I’d just killed your mate Ion.” Crane grasped Lawton’s wrists and tried to release the grip on his throat, but Lawton didn’t budge, saying, “You’re going to get us in there, Crane.