by Ian Somers
I forced myself to eat the porridge. I don’t know if it was through near starvation or because I felt sorry for Hunter after what I’d read in the journal the night before. I watched him slurping up his porridge across the table and saw him in a slightly different light. Now I could see there was a real person under that rough exterior.
‘What’s on the cards today?’ I asked as I pushed my bowl away. I took a sip of coffee and winced at its bitterness. ‘Chopping wood again?’
‘We have enough wood to last us a few days.’ He leaned back in his chair and lit a cigar with a match. His face was consumed by smoke and as it snaked over his head I saw he was staring right at me. ‘What would you like to do?’
‘Am I dreaming? Hunter asks me what I would like to do?’
‘Not out of kindness,’ he said with a grin. ‘I just can’t put up with another day of your constant bitching.’
‘I’d like to go to the nearest town to buy a laptop,’ I said. I’d been cut off from the outside world for so long and having internet access would have been like winning the lottery. It would also provide me with a means to listen to music again. That was something that I found hard to be without. ‘I’d like to buy an iPod, too.’
‘I don’t know what an iPod is, but you’re not getting one.’
‘Why can’t I get one if you don’t even know what it is?’
‘Firstly, you’re not allowed near civilisation. Secondly, you have no money.’
‘I have a million dollars, remember?’
‘You honestly think that money is waiting for you in a bank account?’
‘Probably not.’
‘Definitely not.’
‘You have money,’ I said. ‘You could buy me some stuff that would make this exile a little more bearable.’
‘I don’t have a lot of money, Bentley, and I’m certainly not spending it all on you.’
‘Right, how about practising my gifts … properly.’
‘You sure you want to do that?’
‘Why wouldn’t I be?’
‘Because you might end up being embarrassed.’
‘I know you see me as a spoiled teenager – you shouldn’t underestimate what I’m capable of.’
‘Oh, I know full well what you’re capable of, Bentley. You’re capable of being a great liability to those around you.’
‘What the hell do you mean by that?’
‘Meet me down at the forest in twenty minutes. I’ll tell you exactly what I mean.’
He took his bowl and dumped it in the sink before storming out the back door. I felt like a fool for being nice to him! Despite his tragic past, Hunter was an arrogant git whose sole purpose in life was to bully me. He’d been going out of his way to annoy me for weeks. This challenge was a little more than the usual smart remarks; behind his words was an intense hatred of me. Why on earth did he loathe me so much? I had to find out what was behind it. I was going to straighten this out before the end of the day!
I went to the rear porch and watched him storm across the field and disappear into the shadows of the nearby trees. I had no idea what he’d have waiting for me. He’d probably set me an impossible task, but I also had the feeling that it would turn nasty and end up in a confrontation. I wasn’t going to chicken out either way.
I pulled my leather jacket on and stepped onto the back porch. I was growing anxious about what lay ahead of me; after what happened the day before I knew Hunter could turn violent very easily. But I was no coward. I had faced one of the most dangerous people in the world and survived. I would never back down from a fight again. I had to show Hunter that I was unafraid, and that I would be capable of facing the difficulties of being an agent of the Guild. My life had been a painfully lonely one and being part of this noble group would give my life the direction and meaning that it had always lacked. I could not fail. I even felt as if I owed the Guild because they had risked a lot to save me from Golding Scientific. I wanted to repay that debt to them by helping them to save others like me.
I zipped up my jacket and stepped off the porch. It was a cold morning and waves of drizzle were carried across the field on constant wind that rolled in from the north. I was soaked by the time I got to the forest. The pines offered a little shelter. Getting my clothes wet was the least of my worries. Hunter was somewhere in the forest waiting for me.
There was no sign of him. This was no surprise. I was expecting him to be hiding. That’s what he was best at. I didn’t bother searching for him and I leaned on a tree and watched the forest carefully. He was purposely making me wait in an attempt to get me agitated. I remained calm. I needed a clear head if I was to be ready.
‘You’ve learned patience,’ Hunter said. He’d appeared out of thin air and was standing a few yards in front of me. This didn’t come as a surprise to me either, but I’d never fully get used to the light-tuning gift. It was something alien to human nature, just like the mind-switch power that Cathy had.
‘I’d have gone insane if I had no patience,’ I replied evenly. ‘The wilderness life is impossible for an impatient person. I’ve changed in that regard.’
‘Good. As an agent of the Guild you have to choose your moment carefully. Know when to hide. Know when to strike. Know when to run.’
‘I’m not one for running away.’
‘You’re going to learn that you have to retreat when the odds are not in your favour, Bentley. Otherwise you’ll wind up dead before long.’
‘Enough of the philosophy lesson, Hunter. What do you have planned?’
‘A simple exercise.’
‘Oh? I thought you were going to give me a challenge.’
‘A simple but challenging exercise.’ He took a few steps forward and stood right in front of me. ‘I want you to hit me. If you can.’
‘That’s easy.’
‘Show me how easy it is. You can try with your fist or foot, but I suggest you try it with your gift, seeing as though you’re so determined to improve your control over it.’
I didn’t bother continuing the conversation. I stayed perfectly still for a moment then lashed out with my fist without any warning. My hand went straight through his face and I tumbled forward and landed on my knees. His light-tuning gift was tricky. He hadn’t been standing in front of me at all. It had been a reflection of him created by bending light; probably through a number of those mirrors he was fond of creating.
‘Whoops,’ Hunter laughed. ‘Doesn’t seem so easy now, does it?’
I got to my feet – I couldn’t see him. He was close, judging by his voice, but I had no idea where he actually was. I had been foolish when I tried to punch him. We had been talking about patience then I reacted without first considering that he might be using his power to deceive me. I wouldn’t be so careless again.
I stood there waiting for him to reappear. I tapped in to my precognitive power and tried to determine his next move. The rain had eased off and the forest was totally silent now. I would have heard his footsteps if he’d been moving around.
Suddenly I felt a stinging anxiety in my chest. My precognitive gift was telling me that I was about to be hit. I sensed it would come from behind and I spun and lashed out.
Hunter had outsmarted me and simply dodged my strike. He lifted one leg and kicked me full force in the chest, sending me off my feet and crashing down on the sodden woodland floor.
‘Hunter, you asshole!’ I groaned. ‘That was out of order.’
‘I did say I’d embarrass you.’ He smirked as he looked down on me. He extended his arm towards me. ‘Do you want a hand up?’
‘You’re too busy to help me to my feet.’
‘Busy with what?’
‘Busy dodging the tree that’s about to hit you.’
I had taken control of a nearby tree and used my gift to wrench it out of the ground. As soon as it was free I made it swing through the air at Hunter. It crashed on the ground before me and he dived for cover just in time. He wasted no time getting to his feet and the
n sent a burst of energy across the forest. He hit nothing. I had used the time while he was distracted to float off the ground and I’d climbed into one of the trees.
I looked down at him as he slowly backed away, looking right to left and back again. From the higher level I saw the mirrors he was creating to try and trap me, or to shield himself from my eye. It was a very complex arrangement of mirrors that would have had me dumbfounded if I was still on the ground. He had not considered that I’d got up a tree and probably thought I was hiding in one of the bushes. I was amazed by his ability, but I remained focused and kept my gaze firmly planted on him. Look beyond the magic to see all magicians are just like any other man. I watched him moving into a thicket of trees then crouch down. He was waiting for me to reveal myself so he could launch an attack. He was in for a big surprise.
I fired a slice of energy across the opening and chopped a couple of branches that came crashing down on him.
His response came quickly as he fired shot of electricity in my direction. It was merely a spark when it left his body, by the time it reached me it had expanded into a cloud of crackling tendrils. There was no avoiding it and I was consumed by the cloud that zapped at every inch of my body. I lost control of my limbs momentarily and came hurtling to the ground with a painful whack.
I’d sensed the attack, but simply couldn’t defend myself. It was the first time I’d encountered the electropsych gift in a duel. I fought through the pain that was surging through my body and climbed to my feet. I had to be ready to defend myself because I was sensing yet another attack.
I looked around and saw shadows fleeting amid the boughs of the forest. It was a light-tuning trick and I tried my best to ignore it. Hunter was trying to distract me from the real attack.
I summoned all my power and created a sphere of energy around my body to protect myself. I stood within it and peered out at the forest. It was a house of mirrors I was looking at. He had me trapped and I could not see him. He was going to wait it out. Once I dropped my guard he would strike.
I held the shield for as long as I could. After fifteen minutes my power was drained and my protective cocoon gave way. I made a quick dart for the cover of a ditch, but was zapped in the back. The worst part of it was not the initial hit, it was the spreading shock around my body that lasted a few seconds that really hurt. It delayed me too. I was exposed to further attacks and Hunter took full advantage of my vulnerability.
By the time I got to one knee he had emerged from the trees and fired a volley of electricity at me. I managed to defend myself with an outward wave that deflected the electricity over my head. Hunter continued his attack with a psychokinetic spear that took my lightening reflexes to avoid.
He was bearing right down on top of me, but I nudged him off course with a modest blow of energy. It sent him crashing down in front of me.
‘Enough,’ I panted. ‘This is getting out of hand.’
‘I knew you’d give up. Coward!’
‘I’m not giving up!’
‘Hit me then.’
‘Why should I hit you, Hunter?’
‘To give me an excuse to hit you back.’
‘Why do you hate me so much?’ I shouted at him. ‘What did I do to deserve this?’
‘You got Romand killed!’
At last, he’d come out and said what I knew he was thinking! A mixture of insult and rage took control of me. My powers went into overdrive and I launched everything I had, blasting him into the air. I didn’t think he could withstand such an attack but he was back on his feet immediately.
Suddenly there were tiny light orbs all around me and they were growing fast. Within seconds there were as big as beach balls and too bright to look at. I lifted my arm in front of my face and snapped my eyes shut.
I was so tired that my precog gift didn’t kick in and I failed to sense the punch he hit me with. I crumbled to one knee from the force of it striking me in the gut. I lashed out wildly before I crumbled completely and caught Hunter across the jaw and his legs gave way.
We both dived at one another and tried our best to strangle the life out of the other.
‘I don’t know what you did, Bentley, but I do know you led Marianne to that house.’
‘I made a phone call. They probably tracked it. I’ve been kicking myself every second since that night. You think I need you blaming me too?’
‘I knew you led her there.’
‘So did Romand! I told him before she broke in! He didn’t blame me for it, though. And when I knew he was in trouble I put my life on the line to protect him. What the hell did you do? You and your powers? You and all these friends in the Guild? Where were you all? You left us there to die. You knew that evil bitch was working night and day to find us yet you didn’t intervene. You don’t have the right to blame me. You’re the damned coward here.’
He pressed his knee against my chest and pushed me away then swung his boot and caught me in the side of the head. We both sat there panting and watching each other. Both of us unable to muster the strength to continue the fight. Or perhaps we’d both used up the anger we felt since Romand’s death.
‘Why was he left alone to deal with Marianne?’ I panted.
‘He refused to let anyone else get involved. Romand saw her as his own responsibility. He blamed himself because he couldn’t bring himself to kill her when she was a child. His compassion allowed her to reach adulthood and that resulted in hundreds of people becoming her victims. That’s why he was alone to deal with her.’
‘But didn’t you know it was getting too dangerous? Why didn’t you come and help him?’
‘I was in Italy the week it happened.’ He let out a deep breath and hung his head. ‘I was tracking down a gifted youngster who was in trouble.’ He shook his head despondently. ‘I couldn’t do anything to save him.’
‘And I tried my best to save him.’
‘You led her there.’
‘And I’ll live with that burden for the rest of my life. I didn’t ask for any of this. I just want to be left alone, Hunter. I want to go home and see my dad. I want all these assassins and corporations to forget I ever existed.’
‘They won’t. That’s why we’re both on our own. That’s why we’re trapped out here.’
‘I don’t want to be trapped here any more than you do, Hunter. But can’t we see out the next few months without trying to kill each other?’ I extended my hand towards him. ‘Please. I’ll even call you Huntington.’
He reluctantly reached out and shook my hand.
‘You can call me Hunter from now on. You’ve earned it.’
CHAPTER FIVE
Midnight Caller
We didn’t talk much for the rest of the day even though an unofficial truce had been called. This was hardly surprising. We’d beaten the crap out of each other and were both tired and bruised. I think Hunter came off worse than me. Not physically, although he did have a budding black eye, however his ego had taken a knock now that a teenager like me had been able to contend with him in a duel. The cottage was quiet in the evening, but the charged atmosphere that had filled it recently had evaporated and I was able to relax properly for the first time in many weeks. Hunter had stayed in the sitting room the entire evening and drank more than his usual allowance of whiskey. I’m sure it dulled the pain of his injuries and it also sent him off to bed earlier than usual. By 10pm I was sure he was asleep and pulled the journal from under my bed and went to the entry I’d been reading the night before.
Atkinson went into a lot of detail on how Armamenti Tal-Future had been dismantled and wrote about the restructuring of the Guild after Blake’s defeat and also the search for the two mercenaries that had his colleagues so preoccupied. He went on to write about the rise of Golding Scientific. Atkinson explained how the Guild thought they had made the world a safer place by destroying Armamenti Tal-Future, actually though Paul Golding had swooped in and taken over all the contracts that had been vacated when the Maltabased company crumbl
ed. Within the space of a few months Golding Scientific went from being a nuisance to becoming the Guild’s main adversary.
Paul Golding’s activities were causing a lot of strife, but the search for the two mercenaries was their immediate problem, and apparently over thirty Guild agents were scouring the globe for them. The man known as Boxer kept cropping up. Whenever they closed in on him he evaded capture and moved on to another country.
As for the mageleton, Nijinska, they had searched far and wide but no trace of her could be found. There were echoes of Marianne Dolloway’s story here. Just like Marianne, she’d been the number one enemy of the Guild, and proved elusive until the very end.
According to Atkinson’s text, the Guild never actually located Nijinska alive. Her body was discovered in the autumn of 1989. She was mentioned in a series of short entries in the journal that also hinted at the beginning of conflicts that would go on to threaten all who had true gifts.
Despite the upheaval of recent times and the ongoing search of Melissa Nijinska, we have still found the time to search out gifted youngsters, which is always our main objective. Under my leadership, the Guild has reverted to its old policy regarding recruitment:
When the Guild learns of a gifted person, we will make contact – usually when the person is in their teenage years. When the gifted person comes to adulthood, they are invited to live with a mentor to learn about their gifts, and to train for a specific role in our group.
When the Guild learns of a supremely gifted child, we will assign an agent to watch over them closely. If the child is in danger or comes to the attention of the authorities, the agent will remove them from their home and bring them to a mentor. This is obviously a traumatic experience for a child, and is usually avoided at all costs.
In the last three months we have identified four teenagers who showed signs of the true gifts and have sought to take them under our wing. Three of them have joined us and are proving to be most impressive and will surely go on to become invaluable in the coming years. I regret that one has slipped from our grasp.