War Within (Death's Contract Book 2)

by KJ Harlow

  “Thank you.” I sighed and looked straight up. “So that’s it then? It’s another failed mission? We weren’t able to prevent the Tormented from blowing up the GRO and Mortimer killed Sid.”

  “Well technically, Mortimer didn’t kill Sid,” Agatha said, looking at me intently. “It seemed like he was already dead when he got there.” Memories started appearing as the fog cleared: Mortimer standing at the end of Sid’s bed, his Ombre Gun drawn. A doctor with bullet holes in his back, red splotches marring his coat. Me trying to shoot Mortimer, not knowing if I’d hit him or not.

  “How did he die?” I asked.

  “I don’t know,” Agatha said. “It wasn’t my priority to find out. I had to get you to safety and keep Mortimer at bay.” I wondered if she used the flamethrower version of her Lucent Gun to roast Mortimer but didn’t ask.

  “How about that doctor?”

  “The one who tried shielding Sid from Mortimer? He became a Conflicted; I Ridded him.” Agatha said offhandedly. Was he the doctor the nurse told me about? Was he giving his own life to try and save the life of the man who had saved him decades earlier?

  “So what now?” I said glumly.

  “We’re back at square one and the Tormented are at square… 50,” Walter said darkly. Agatha frowned at him.

  “They are not at square 50,” she said admonishingly. “They have the upper hand, yes, but they’re not so far ahead that they can’t be stopped.”

  “They have played us every step of the way,” I said hollowly. “First the appearance at the cathedral, then Andover, then the hostages, then the gas tankers–”

  “Enough,” Agatha said sharply. “I will have no more of that.” My mouth hung open as I looked at Agatha. There was a knock at the door before Tracy peeked her head in.

  “Trace!” I said, sitting up straight.

  “Hey you,” she said, giving me flashing her brilliant smile. She looked over at Agatha and Walter. “Have visiting hours started yet?”

  “Should you really be on your feet yourself?” Agatha said, wrinkles of concern lining her forehead. Tracy pushed the door open.

  “Never better!” She said, putting her hands on her hips and sticking the super hero pose. “Death patched me up good.” As the door swung open, I saw Tor standing behind Tracy. The moment he saw me, he started coming in. The door frame wasn’t big enough for the two of them. Despite his best efforts, he bumped Tracy.

  “Hey watch it!” She squawked at Tor. “Geez, somebody’s keen.” Tor paid her no heed, but I flashed a glare at her. Tor silently padded over to the left side of my bed and knelt down. Without hesitation, he gently threaded his fingers into my left hand. He looked at me quietly, his face open and gentle.

  “We’ll… be on our way,” Walter said, winking at me. “Just make sure he doesn’t tire you out too much.” I would have blushed if I could. I narrowed my eyes at him instead. Agatha smoothed out her habit as she stood up, smiling at me knowingly.

  “That means you too,” Walter said, as he tried to hook Tracy’s elbow with arm. She sidestepped out of the way and shot Walter a sharp look. He flinched, taking a step back in mock fear. Tracy winked at Agatha as she left the room and closed the door behind her.

  “How are you?” Tor said, his cool, blue eyes searching my face.

  “I’m fine, Tor,” I said smiling sheepishly. All I did was lie next to him and draw on his skin. Now he acted like we were a couple. I had to admit though, it was nice getting attention again from someone attractive of the opposite sex. I looked at Tracy, who had just sat on the chair Agatha had vacated. Mirroring Tor, she took my right hand and threaded her fingers between mine. For good measure, she kissed the back of my hand and nuzzled it against her cheek.

  “How are you?” She mimicked, failing to suppress a giggle. Tor looked at her unsmilingly before looking back at me. I laughed out loud; it was good to forget about our hopeless situation, even if just for a moment.

  “How are you?” I asked, looking pointedly at Tracy.

  “As good as you can feel after being blown up,” Tracy said wryly.

  “So there was a bomb down there then.”

  “Yeah. Followed that pest all the way down. It’s like some sort of big database server thing. Must have had terabytes of data on every single person in the UK for the last 100 years. Then before I know it…” she unthreaded her hand from mine a mimed an explosion with her hands.

  “Did it hurt?”

  “I didn’t have time to feel anything,” Tracy said. “One minute I was there, next minute…” her smile faded. I took her hand again and squeezed it.

  “I shouldn’t have gone off to Rid those Conflicted. If I had stayed with you, we might have been able to stop Matylda from planting the bomb and detonating it.” I said contritely. She smiled at me.

  “Don’t worry about it. I’m not sure we could have done much with that machine anyway. It would have had layers and layers of security and passwords. I doubt it would have just let us look up Mortimer as if it was Google.” I grinned at her. I turned my head to the left when Tor gave my hand a gentle squeeze.

  “Thank you for protecting me,” I said squeezing his hand back. He looked at me, letting the smallest of smiles come to his face. He withdrew his hand and cradled his chin while he rested his elbows on the bed. “How do you feel now?”

  “I’m well,” he said. “I’m ready to go back up and fight.” His face hardened as his mind conjured up images of enemies for him to gun down.

  “I heard that Sid died,” Tracy said quietly. My smile faded as I looked at her.

  “I checked every, single hospital in a 20-mile radius of London, both sides of The River Thames. I was dead on my feet by the time I got to the last one. That one happened to be the one that Sid was in. I thought he had just gone in to get supplies for his healthcare center. Turns out he was a patient.” Tracy nodded at me.

  “I got careless. I could feel like someone was following me but I never found out who it was. It must have been Mortimer, keeping his distance. He didn’t know who had revealed his birthday to me and told me that Weston was his real last name. But he knew that I knew and that as long I tried to find him, he could find him too.”

  “He waited for his moment; waited until you got tired. When there was just one hospital left, he made his move.” Tor said, his brow furrowed in anger. I looked at him and nodded solemnly.

  “Agatha said that Mortimer was a loner right? Maybe he did know the person who revealed those details to you.” Tracy said thoughtfully. I shook my head.

  “He went to every single room, shooting the patient if there was one in there. He left no stone unturned. He wanted to be sure that every person became a Conflicted. Apparently, Sid didn’t become one because he died before Mortimer could shoot him.”

  “He was one of the lucky ones,” Tor said somberly. I looked at him; I would never have thought of dying as making someone lucky, but if it was dying on your own accord versus being shot by a cursed gun that trapped your soul in a dead body, then I guess that did make Sid lucky. I looked back at Tracy. She looked focused and deep in concentration.

  “Is it possible that…” she started before trailing off. I looked at her impatiently.

  “What?”

  “If Mortimer didn’t know who he was looking for and he was just going from room to room shooting people,” Tracy said slowly. “Is it possible that he didn’t see Sid?” She looked at me, her eyes shining with a glimmer of hope. My eyes glazed over as I thought about what she said. If I hadn’t seen someone for several decades, I probably wouldn’t recognize them either. Couple that with the fact that Mortimer was in a shooting frenzy and didn’t know who he was looking for made it very possible that Mortimer didn’t even recognize who he shot.”

  “What’s your point, though? Sid’s dead as it is…” my eyes widened as the realization slammed into me. I jumped to my knees and grabbed Tor’s shoulders, surprising him. “Sid’s dead!” I shouted, shaking Tor’s shoulders. Tracy wa
s on her feet as she looked at me in alarm.

  “Maybe you should–”

  “Tracy, you’re a genius!” I spun around on the bed and launched myself into my friend, almost toppling her with a fierce hug. She staggered back a few steps as she looked at me in bewilderment. She exchanged a glance with Tor behind me, who stared at her nonplussed.

  “Sid’s dead, right?” Tracy nodded slowly. “That means he’s come down to the Underworld.” I watched Tracy’s eyes widen as the same epiphany I had slowly dawned on her.

  “The waiting room,” she said under her breath. “He could still be in the waiting room unless…” I jumped off the bed. Landing on my feet, I swayed a little. As I put my hand out to regain my balance, I felt a large, muscular arm wrap around my shoulders. I looked up and smiled gratefully at Tor.

  “Go,” I said to him. “Find Death. Tell him that we need to find a soul called Sid. You’ve seen him. Describe what he looks like. Tell him that he cannot be judged. He can’t go to Heaven or Hell yet. We need to talk to him.”

  “Is that even possible?” Tracy said. I turned around and looked at her. “The only instance I’ve heard of souls being picked from the waiting room is when Death has chosen them to become Deliverers.”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “All I know is that Death must pull Sid into his office so we can interrogate him.” I looked at up Tor. “What are you waiting for? Go!” Tor held on to me a moment longer before striding to the door and disappearing down the hall. I walked back to where Tracy was and shakily sat down on the chair next to her. Before I had a chance to relax, the door opened again. Walter poked his head through.

  “Sorry to interrupt, but we’re going to have our Regroup now. You up for it?” I stood up, trying to hide my tiredness. I felt Tracy slip her arm through mine, gently leading me towards the door. I smiled at her.

  “Yeah, let’s go.”

  “Wow, so Dante basically let you shoot him?” Tracy said in awe. I nodded. Looking back around the group, Silas, Walter, and Agatha were watching me closely. Walter had a frown on his face. He must have been grumpy because Death had said Tor didn’t have to be in the Regroup as he was ‘helping him with something’.

  “Well, he gave me the choice to either shoot him or to walk away,” I said looking back at her. “So like any sane individual, I chose to shoot him.” I looked back at the two male Deliverers in the room. “If it wasn’t for Silas and Walter, I would have found myself down here earlier than expected or even worse, gone from this dimension entirely.” Silas dipped his head gracefully at me while Walter continued to frown. I raised my eyebrow slightly but decided to ignore him.

  “As the boys were busy with Matylda and Dante, I set out to find Sid. I tried the Central Hall where I had taken him during the hostage situation. They didn’t know where he went. Then I tried his health care center for the homeless. No one was home. I’d just about given up this point but then Agatha,” I said, looking down at the nun with a breathless smile on my face, “told me to try the hospitals in the area in case he had gone to get supplies.”

  “So then I started hitting every single hospital in the London area. It was already quite late by this time and I had survived a bomb blast, escaped from a hospital and negotiated with a police officer to get my Lucent Gun back. Safe to say I was pretty tired, but I had to keep going. With every hospital I tried, I had no luck.

  “Just as I was about to give up, I was directed to Charing Cross Hospital. According to one of the nurses at one of the other hospitals, Sid had rescued some kid several years back who had then become the chief of the hospital. If he needed anything, he would go to this doctor. I go there and there is no staff; just a doctor at the front desk. I tap him on the shoulder then he swipes at me and nicks my jugular.” I cup my neck with my hand as I relived the moment.

  “As I’m bleeding, I hear gun shots. Someone’s in the hospital and it’s most likely Mortimer. I was pretty busy by this stage, but I kept going. I made it to Level 4. I come out and follow the sound of gunshots. I heard them moving away from me and down the hall. Mortimer’s shooting everyone in every ward.

  “I’m close to passing out but I make my way down the hall and find Mortimer standing in Sid’s ward. He’s dead. There’s a doctor who’s just got five shots in his back, slumped over Sid. Mortimer turns around, points his Ombre Gun at me. I point my gun at him and…” my eyes swiveled over to Agatha who sat there smiling politely at me. “Agatha saves the day.” Agatha thanked me, gesturing me to sit down.

  “I got there just on time. I rushed up as fast as I could, ignoring the patients, doctors, and nurses who had been turned into Conflicted and ended Mortimer’s temporary reign of terror. I called Silas and Walter to make their way from Trafalgar Square to the hospital while I kept Mortimer out of action.” She cast a glance at me. “Rose was actually pretty close to dying; the nick from the scalpel turned out to be deeper than initially thought. I managed to stem the bleeding somewhat and keep her alive until we had all come together.” Agatha sat down and looked at Silas as he stood up.

  “Walter and I came as fast as we could. Not only did we have to make it before Rose died, we had to Soul Step far enough from the Tormented so they didn’t have a trail to follow. We came into the hospital, Ridded the Conflicted that Mortimer had just turned and made our way up to Level 4. From there, we retreated,” Silas said.

  “Have we got any new movements on the Tormented?” I said, looking around the room.

  “No,” Silas said, looking across at me. “They themselves have retreated after we successfully dismantled their Trafalgar Square operation.” It was definitely a good thing that we prevented the imminent deaths of hundreds, maybe thousands of innocent Londoners, but I couldn’t help but feel the pang of failure from losing our leads on Mortimer’s torment.

  “Maybe we should–” Everyone’s head snapped towards the glass door as Tor appeared.

  “We’ve found him,” Tor said, his eyes blazing with triumph. “We’ve found Sid Weston.” I stood up and stared at Tor.

  “What?” Tor looked at me, his eyes blazing with hope behind his calm exterior.

  “His name is Sid Weston – he’s Mortimer’s brother.”

  Twenty

  “You’re…” Sid raised his hand, pointing it at me. “You were with that big lad. You brought the jogger to me.” The Deliverers were all in Death’s office. We stood in the shape of a crescent moon, backs facing the fireplace. Death sat in his tall arm chair. He was trying his best not to look over at us, but I caught him trying to sneak a peek every moment or so.

  Sid stood in front of us, his hand still pointed at me as if in accusation. His eyes flitted amongst us, lingering on Tor’s face before resting on mine.

  “Yes, that was me. My name’s Rose Eaving.” I started to move forward but hesitated. Did I go and shake his hand? What was the social protocol in the Underworld? I opted just to stand there with one foot in front of the other awkwardly. Sid let his arm drop to his side. He set his mouth in a tight smile.

  “Sid Weston.” He said, nodding at me. Now that he was dead, he wasn’t hobbled by his age anymore. While he still looked in his late 60’s, the way he shuffled his feet impatiently gave the impression that he was a young, sprightly 20-something that he had to be somewhere.

  “You didn’t tell us that was your full name,” Tor said, a hard edge lining his voice.

  “You didn’t ask me.” Sid retorted almost immediately. I caught a glimpse of a wry smile on Agatha’s lips. I cleared my throat loudly and Sid looked at me again.

  “Tor,” I said looking up at the hulking Norwegian, “tells me that you are Mortimer’s brother.” Sid’s shoulders dropped slightly. He looked down at the carpeted floor for a moment.

  “Yes, that’s true,” he said, eyes flicking back up to me. There was something he wasn’t telling us. It was however written all over his face and the way he held himself. His eyes suddenly darted over to Walter. “Why were you shooting him like you had to d
estroy the last living thing on the planet?” An incredulous expression crossed Walter’s face as he stepped forward to defend himself.

  “It’s a long story,” I said quickly, cutting off Walter before he had a chance to respond. I glanced at him and surreptitiously shook my head. “Why don’t you tell us more about you and Mortimer before we fill you in?”

  “Why should I?” Sid said warily.

  “I…” I was flummoxed. I just assumed that he would tell us.

  “Because,” Agatha said calmly, “London needs your help.”

  Sid swiveled his eyes cautiously to Agatha. He looked her up and down as if appraising her. “Sister…”

  “…Burnside,” Agatha finished. “But you can call me Agatha.”

  “Sister Burnside,” Sid said, ignoring the last part of Agatha’s sentence. “I’ve helped London plenty over the last few decades. I’ve given free medical care to the poorest people without asking for a cent in return.”

  “I am aware of your contributions to our city. As a servant of our Lord Jesus Christ, I thank you.” Agatha smiled. Tracy raised her eyebrow and exchanged looks with me. Was she pandering to a complete stranger? Sid dipped his head gracefully, accepting her thanks. Agatha’s smile faded.

  “However, London needs a hero. Mortimer is committing atrocities, massacring innocents and bringing our country to its knees.” She took a step toward Sid. “We need to know more about Mortimer’s past to understand why he’s doing this. Once we know the truth about his torment, we can end his reign of terror and restore peace not only to London but the United Kingdom.” The room was quiet as everyone looked at Agatha. Death wasn’t even pretending to work now, his fountain pen suspended inches above a document he was working on. Sid sighed and acquiesced.

  “Fine, but only because I can’t say no to a sister of the Catholic Church.” I let out an audible sigh of relief as the tension in the room dissipated. Sid looked across at the other armchair facing Death’s desk. “May I?”