The Hidden Gift

by Ian Somers

  ‘Our first killer is back in the lead,’ Hunter said as he examined the body. ‘Lambell’s killer surely did this. Identical modus operandi.’

  ‘A nasty way to go, though not quite as excruciating as the death Dunlow was given.’

  ‘Indeed. We must have just got here minutes after they left. We should look the place over and try to find some clues if we can.’

  ‘We won’t get lucky again. I doubt Hanley left the girl’s name and address lying around.’

  ‘It’s unlikely, but we have no other options. We can’t give up. That’s not the way the Guild works. Did Romand give up on you, even when you were surrounded by Golding’s people?’

  ‘No. I’m sorry, Hunter. It’s just this is all very hard to deal with.’

  ‘I know, lad. If it’s any consolation, you’ve handled it very well.’

  ‘It’s not.’

  We both spun around to the doorway. A sound was coming from one of the other upstairs rooms. A voice. Someone was whispering.

  Hunter pushed me aside and sprang towards the door. I saw him create one of his light mirrors to render himself invisible to anyone in front of him. As I stood behind him I saw small tentacles of electricity flowing out of his fingers as he paced out onto the landing. He was ready to give someone the shock of their life.

  There was silence again but we hadn’t imagined the voices. Someone else was in the house. My heart began to pound as Hunter slowly made his way to the next door over. My mouth was going dry at the prospect of all hell breaking loose once he opened that door. He used his psychokinetic ability to turn the door handle then to force the door. It swung open and we looked into the modest bedroom lit by a single lamp on a stand beside the bed. Sprawled across the bed was another body, this one a middle aged woman. She was lying on her side and there was a dark stain in front of her face. It seemed she’d met a similar fate to her husband.

  There was another whisper from behind the only unopened door on the landing. Hunter and I exchanged a long and very tense stare. He nodded at me to get ready then went to the door. I summoned my power and was ready to send a volley of energy at whoever was hiding in the bedroom. I used all the anger that had been building up inside of me that evening and it would be enough to kill an elephant.

  Hunter kicked the door open and I retracted my power as I got my first look inside. I recognised the two children from the portraits in the dining room. The girl was probably around three years old and her brother was two or maybe three years older than her. They were huddled close to one another under the sill of the room’s only window.

  ‘Calm down,’ I said, stepping towards them with my hands raised. ‘We’re not here to hurt you. We’re here to help. Just try to calm down.’ I only realised how stupid I sounded when the words had left my mouth. Their parents had just been murdered and I was trying to get them to relax.

  ‘Where’s my mum?’ the boy asked, as he put himself between me and his sister. ‘Is she all right?’

  ‘She’s …’ I looked at Hunter and he gave a slight shake of his head. ‘She’s gone out. I’m not sure where…’

  ‘The man hurt my daddy, didn’t he? Will he be OK?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ I went to him and put my hands on his shoulders. ‘I really don’t know what’s going to happen.’

  ‘Who are you?’

  ‘We were trying to find someone,’ Hunter said as he entered the room and stood next to me. ‘Your father was supposed to help us.’

  ‘The other man was looking for someone too.’

  ‘The other man?’

  ‘I heard him talking to Daddy. He was angry and told him that he had to know where the girl was.’

  ‘Did you see this man?’

  ‘No. I was hiding in here the whole time. He was shouting and my dad was scared. I was too frightened to leave the room to help him.’

  ‘What did your father say to this man?’ Hunter asked. ‘Did he give the man an address?’

  ‘I can’t remember.’

  ‘Bentley, I need you to use your time-scanning power.’

  ‘What good will that do?’

  ‘It works on humans as well as objects. Scan the child. Look into his past and you’ll be able to hear what he heard.’

  I stood and whispered in his ear, ‘Wouldn’t it be better to scan his father?’

  ‘No,’ Hunter whispered back. ‘Never scan the dead. If you scan through their death you can die yourself from the shock. Scan the boy, Bentley. We’re running out of time.’

  ‘Will you hold my hand?’ I asked the boy as I knelt before him. We were eye to eye and I felt guilty that I was using him in this way. I had no other choice, though. ‘It will help me to find this man who likes to hurt people.’

  ‘Will it make him stop being angry? I don’t want him to come back here.’

  ‘Just hold my hand for a moment.’

  The boy reached out and I wrapped my hand around his. I wasn’t very well versed in time-scanning but I had used it before when I was doing the tests in The Million Dollar Gift. I shut my eyes and awakened the gift from deep within. This power was much more difficult to control than psychokinesis, and harder to summon than my precognitive skill, that seemed more instinctive. I concentrated on the physical connection with the boy and after a moment I felt as if my mind was separating from my body. I was surrounded by darkness and was floating aimlessly through it. The time-scan had begun and I saw and felt what the boy had. I scanned into the past and as he clutched his sister tightly while Hunter and I were in the other room talking. I went further back and the boy had been hiding under the bed and was holding his hand over his sister’s mouth. There were footsteps outside the door. I gathered all my strength and forced it into the gift. Time spun past me and I watched his movements in reverse. I stopped when he was standing with his ear to the bedroom door. I rolled the scan forward and I felt the deep fear that the boy had experienced when the intruder had dragged his father up the staircase.

  ‘I have already killed Lambell.’ The man had a foreign accent, but his English was perfect, almost better than most people who classed it as their native tongue. ‘You see, killing is not a problem for me. Death and murder have been a part of my life since childhood. Ending your life means nothing more to me than swatting a fly.’

  ‘What the hell do you want from me?’

  ‘I only want information, Mr Hanley. Your newspaper ran an article three days ago about a girl who could predict future events. According to Lambell her name was Sarah Fisher.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘And I want to know where that girl is.’

  ‘She’s just a disturbed child. We run articles like that all the time. People seeing the future, people who talk to animals, kids who make things move without touching them. It’s just a joke. No one really believes it.’

  ‘Call me a believer.’

  ‘What do you want with the girl?’

  ‘That, Mr Hanley, is my own business. You should be more concerned with your own safety and that of your wife.’

  ‘Please don’t hurt her.’

  ‘Take a seat before I break off one of your arms. There, you seem much more comfortable now. It is like this, Mr Hanley: tell me the girl’s address and I will only kill you. If you lie, I will return and murder your wife.’

  ‘Please don’t do this. I’ll tell you where she is but spare my life.’

  ‘No. You have seen my face and that means you must die. Look on the bright side, your wife can still live a fulfilling life. Maybe even remarry.’

  ‘You sick bastard. I’ll kill you!’

  There was a loud bang followed by a hissing noise and I could hear Hanley moaning and struggling.

  ‘This pain you are experiencing,’ the killer said in a calculating tone of voice, ‘is nothing compared to how I can make you suffer if you choose to resist me. Tell me where the child is and I will bring your torture to a swift conclusion.’

  ‘She lives in the Highlawn Estate,’ Hanley pan
ted. ‘It’s a few miles outside of the city.’

  ‘The exact address.’

  ‘I can’t recall …’

  There was silence for a moment before furious shuffling and a loud bang.

  ‘The address!’ the stranger shouted at Hanley. ‘Tell me or I will make your lovely wife suffer in ways you cannot imagine.’

  ‘77…’ Hanley, who sounded like he was in agony, said. ‘It’s 77 Highlawn Estate. She lives there with a young couple who take in troubled kids.’

  ‘Good. If you had only been so helpful at first I would have spared your wife.’

  ‘But you said–’

  There was a struggle and muffled screams from Hanley.

  ‘I am sure you would like to kill me, Mr Hanley, but you cannot beat the devil at his own game. You see, I am the devil and killing is my game.’

  I broke off the time-scan and crumbled to the floor. An intense pain drove into the back my skull and I could hardly breathe.

  ‘Bentley!’ Hunter lifted me from the floor. ‘Are you all right?’

  ‘I’ll be fine. I just scanned too far into the past. It leaves me very weak when I do it.’

  ‘Did you get the girl’s address?’

  ‘77 Highlawn Estate. It’s somewhere north of here’

  ‘Good work, lad. Now, we have to be on our way.’

  ‘What are we going to do with the kids?’ I lowered my voice. ‘We can’t let them see their parents’ bodies. I won’t allow them to experience that.’

  ‘We can’t take them with us either.’ Hunter looked past me at the two terrified children. He went to the boy and looked down on him sorrowfully. ‘Are there any friends of your parents living on this street?’

  ‘Mary Barton. She lives across the road. She’s Mum’s best friend.’

  ‘Listen, son, you did a very brave and clever thing tonight. Now that you’re safe I want you to get out of this house and don’t come back. I want you to take your sister over to Mary and tell her that a bad person broke into the house and that you don’t know what happened to your parents. Do you understand?’

  ‘Where’s my mum?’

  ‘I don’t know, kid. You have to do as I tell you. Go to Mary’s house and tell her what I said.’

  ‘OK.’

  We couldn’t allow them to see what had really happened to their parents so Hunter went and closed the doors to the other rooms before I led the children out of the room and down the stairs. As I brought them downstairs I felt an uncontrollable anger rising in me. These two innocent souls just had their parents, their protectors, and their futures stolen from them. And for what? Information? To know the whereabouts of some kid who might not even have a gift?

  When we got outside we sent the two youngsters racing across the street. We quickly climbed into the 4x4 and were off within seconds. I’d never felt so bitter in all my life. All I could think of was the voice I’d heard talking to Hanley. How cold and emotionless it had been, how wicked the person behind it was once Hanley had tried to withhold the girl’s location – he’d tried to protect her, but it was just too much for him.

  ‘I’m going to kill this man,’ Hunter snapped as he thumped the steering wheel. ‘I’m going to kill him and I’m going to make him suffer.’ He thumped the dash board and a spark of electricity rebounded into the air. ‘He’s dead whoever he is!’

  He was echoing my own sentiments. This was no longer about solving a crime or finding a prophet. This had turned into a revenge mission. The killer could not get away with what he’d done, and Hunter and I were the only ones who could inflict an appropriate punishment upon him.

  Hunter was furious and hissed some very colourful language under his breath. I just sat there motionless, stunned by all I had seen that evening. The last vestige of innocence I had as a teenager had been eradicated. It had been killed just like the staff of the newspaper.

  I caught my reflection in the passenger window as a streetlight lit my face. I had the same stern expression that Hunter and Romand and Ballentine always had. I now shared that hardness and cynicism that most of the Guild agents had. I was probably destined to be like my mentors, probably had been since the moment I left London with Romand. I should have found that deeply disturbing but in that moment I wanted to be like them.

  I couldn’t get the sound of Hanley’s voice out of my head. His stuttering and pleading. The weeping. It was such a dreadful and tragic night.

  The one good thing that came from it was the killer was in such a hurry that he didn’t search for the children or hadn’t noticed the photos in the dining room. At least the kids could have some chance at a future. That didn’t lighten my mood much.

  Hunter never slowed the 4x4 as we headed for the council estate on the northern end of the city. He didn’t take his eyes off the road for a single second and determination was written all over his face. I gave him directions and he just grunted and occasionally slapped or punched the steering wheel or dashboard. I remembered what Atkinson had written about Hunter’s aunt being killed by Brian Blake. The murders must have struck a chord in him. How could it not? Maybe what had happened to the Hanleys had brought it all back to him.

  I couldn’t blame him for being so furious. I was just as angry, and as willing to use my gifts to put an end to the killer’s rampage through the suburbs.

  At 10.30pm we were nearing our destination and the tension in the vehicle was palpable. Surely we’d beaten the killer to the girl or at least we’d catch him in the act this time.

  We entered Highlawn estate and Hunter released his seat belt, ensuring that he was free to react if needed.

  ‘You ready?’ he asked. ‘No second guessing yourself if we stumble on him. Kill first, ask questions later. You got it?’

  ‘No problem. My dislike for violence has faded as this night has gone on.’

  He turned the vehicle onto the road and I caught sight of flames swooping from the windows of a house near the opposite end. Hunter suddenly spun the steering wheel and turned the car around and back towards the exit of the estate.

  ‘Where are you going?’ I shouted at him. ‘Didn’t you see the fire? That had to be the house the girl is living in’

  ‘I saw the fire. I also saw that car there.’ He pointed ahead at a car speeding away into the night. ‘He beat us to the girl, but he won’t be getting away this time.’

  ‘Hunter, I know you’re dying to get your hands on this creep, but it would be best to keep your distance.’

  ‘I will. We’ll have to wait until he stops before we make our move.’

  The most intense hour of my life followed. We kept our distance from the silver saloon but it never got far enough in front that we lost sight of it. Who was the driver? Who was this man that spent an entire day killing total strangers? How could we defeat him when the time came? Would he claim one of our lives before the other could execute him?

  CHAPTER NINE

  The Face of a Killer

  We tracked the car until after midnight when it cut off the motorway towards one of the small satellite towns. The driver made no stops as the car passed along the main street then through the many rows of terraced housing. My nervousness grew as each second passed and at times it seemed the car would never stop rolling onward. I simply wanted this excruciating chase to end.

  It did. The car turned off the winding road into a spacious car park outside a tall apartment block. Hunter reacted quickly, driving our 4x4 onto a nearby street with houses on either side of it. He killed the headlights and we both looked back over our shoulders through the rear window.

  The car park was well lit and we both got a good look at the driver when he left the car. He was average height and had an athletic build. His hair was cut tight, shaven at the sides with the top slightly longer, like a marine’s haircut. He was much younger than I’d expected – probably in his late twenties. He had very pale skin and there were deep shadows beneath his eyes.

  He lingered beside the car and surveyed the car park bef
ore ushered two youngsters out of the back seat. The first to step out was a girl who looked about eight years old and fitted the description of the troublesome prophet who had caused all the bother. She was followed by an older girl, maybe twelve or thirteen years old with hunched shoulders, long black hair and a surly expression on her ghostly-white face.

  ‘Well, well, well,’ Hunter said shaking his head. ‘Look who it is.’

  ‘You recognise him?’

  ‘I certainly do. He’s a Guild assassin – one who’s supposed to be dead.’

  ‘Don’t you mean a Guild agent?’

  ‘No. We have a special branch of the organisation that deals with the hottest situations. Anyone who is part of it is known as an assassin, not simply an agent. I have been part of it from time to time. So has this dirtbag.’

  ‘Who is he?’

  ‘His name is Edward Zalech. He was meant to have been killed in a house fire in Switzerland a few days ago. The older of the girls is his sister, Ania - she was also meant to have lost her life in the blaze. Seems we have solved two separate investigations. These two are now responsible for ten or more deaths in three days.’

  ‘Maybe Ania isn’t responsible and is just following her older brother. She only looks about thirteen! I can’t believe she’s a cold-blooded killer.’

  ‘We’ll find out in due course.’ He took the mobile phone from his coat and punched in a number. ‘We’ll need back up. Zalech is a very powerful mageleton and we’d be taking a major risk tackling him by ourselves.’

  He held off putting the call through until the Zalechs and the young prophet had gone inside the apartment building. I remembered the passages in Atkinson’s journal concerning mageletons and how the Guild didn’t like them to be fully trained because of how destructive they could be. I once thought that I would never face an enemy as powerful Marianne Dolloway again, but now it appeared I was on a collision course with a foe who was just as deadly.

  ‘Ballentine, we found the girl.’ Hunter announced when the call was connected. ‘Yes, it does have something to do with the spate of murders in Newcastle that’s all over the news. We’ve come up against a most unexpected adversary. We’ve also solved the case in Switzerland for you … Oh, I’m not talking rubbish at all. Edward Zalech has the prophet and I’ve just followed him to an apartment block a few miles out of the city … Yes, his sister is with him. They obviously set up the fire in Cramer’s house and they’re definitely the ones who killed the newspaper people … Don’t worry I won’t do anything rash. You better send a team here as soon as you can … I’ll text you our location.’