by Ian Somers
I climbed off the car and staggered forward to see Sarah Fisher uninjured, in Hunter’s arms. He must have used his gift to cushion her before she fell into his grasp. We’d managed to save her and no one was hurt.
Farrier took the child and climbed into the back of the 4x4 while Hunter got into the driver’s seat. I practically dived into the vehicle, but I jumped out as quickly as I got in. The upholstery was aflame and Hunter screamed at everyone to get out.
‘Run. She’s using her gift to burn the 4x4. Once the flames reach the engine it’ll blow.’
Janice disappeared from the back of the vehicle and reappeared half way across the car park. Farrier and Hunter got out and led Sarah from the burning vehicle.
I looked up expecting to see Ania staring back from the eighth-floor balcony, but she was nowhere to be seen. That meant she was coming after us. I thought it best to stay and fight her off while the others escape then Hunter shouted at me to follow him.
‘Bentley, don’t be a hero. Come on, let’s get to Linda’s car and get the hell out of here!’
I raced after them, as I entered the street my hoodie caught fire and I barely managed to untangle myself from it before the flames burned through to my skin. I didn’t dare look back and threw the burning hoodie to the ground and kept running.
I watched as the others climbed into Linda Farrier’s car. I was almost there but was brought to a halt by a ball of fire that shot in front of me and surrounded the car. I spun round and Ania was standing in the road behind me. Her demented eyes were glowing with rage.
‘Burn!’ she screamed.
Panic overcame me. I knew she meant to set me alight and the mere thought of burning alive sent a tremor of terror through me. I lashed out instinctively, trying to create a wave to knock off her feet before she could produce another fireball, but I had sucked in too much energy from my surroundings. I swung my arm to create the wave and an unbelievable force was released; a car parked on the side of the road was struck and launched into the air. It spun like a skittle through the air and landed on Ania Zalech.
Time seemed to slow down when I realised what I’d done. I stood there hoping that she would somehow creep out from beneath the overturned vehicle, but I knew that was impossible. No one could survive a blow like that.
‘Bentley, get in the car!’
I ignored Hunter. I had to be sure she was dead. I jogged across the street and around the wrecked vehicle to see it was lying on right top of Ania. All that was visible was her head, chest and arms.
She’d looked so insane and terrifying when she was alive. Now she looked nothing more than a helpless child, her frozen eyes staring sorrowfully at the sky.
I’d killed a child.
I spent more time looking at the mirrors than the road ahead as I drove from the shopping centre. No one was following me, but I would have to make another stop before returning to Ania; the petrol light on the dashboard was blinking bright orange and it is never wise to have an empty tank when you are on the run.
I parked the car next to the nearest pump to the road and switched off the engine. I looked along the road, across the forecourt, at the small store, and at the windows of the houses nearby. All was as it should have been. No one was following me.
I checked the contents of my trouser pockets as I left the car and found only some loose change and a few notes. I could not afford to fill the tank, but there was enough to buy me a few miles on the open road.
I looked at the meagre sum in my hands. It was all the money I had in the world. I was currently poorer than a beggar, but that was unimportant; I would have millions of pounds once I handed Sarah Fisher over to Yanhao.
The sum was a mere drop in the ocean for those who bankrolled JNCOR, but it would make a world of difference to my life. Not that I intended to live the life of luxury with the ransom money. No, I planned to use much of that sum to set up a stable life for Ania, one that was far away from the grasp of the Guild and other groups like them.
I would then use the rest of the money to exact my revenge against the people responsible for murdering my parents. Yes, once Ania was safe I would hunt down and punish Viktor Yeleshev and those who had aided him. Perhaps when I finally faced him I would be able to reveal my true self. Perhaps when we were eye to eye I would be free to release the anger and hatred and the violence that had been raging inside me since the night he shot my mother and father.
I leaned against the side of the car and slotted the nozzle of the petrol pump into the tank. The numbers on the digital screen climbing hypnotically. Fatigue was finally setting in. I badly needed sleep, but could not rest until I had offloaded the girl and received the money from Yanhao.
As the screen flicked to twenty I released the handle and returned the pump to the stand. I did it casually. I did it as if everything was normal. As if I had not noticed the man standing close to the streetlight across the road from the forecourt of the service station.
I recognised him immediately even though I had caught just a glimpse of his face. It was Motson – a mole who worked for the Guild. I had no idea how they had found me. That no longer mattered. I now had a fight on my hands. Not from of Motson – he was nothing – I was most likely surrounded by Guild agents.
I screwed the petrol cap back on and stared across the street at Motson. Out of the corner of my eye I saw other figures slowly approaching. They were closing in on me.
I took a step away from the car and looked at the four of them standing just beyond the boundary of the forecourt. I recognised Chapman, who was a mole like Motson, and Adeyemi, an agent who was long past his prime. I had never seen the young man with glasses before, but he looked frightened and timid. I was confident that none of them posed much of a threat to me. This was not going to be the ferocious battle I had been expecting when the Guild finally caught up with me.
‘You should have killed me while my back was turned,’ I called out to Motson. ‘Your only chance of victory is gone.’
‘We are the Guild of the True. We don’t need to shoot our enemies in the back.’
‘You do when you are facing a foe more powerful than yourself. I am stunned that they only sent the four of you – and two of you are washed-up cowards who have spent your lives avoiding the dangerous missions. I would have thought they would send Hunter or Ballentine or perhaps even Armitage. Do they think so little of me that they believe idiots such as you can contend with me?’
‘You underestimate us,’ Motson smiled. ‘I think four of us can handle one delusional young man who doesn’t have a clue how to use his gifts.’
‘I have a very good knowledge of the true gifts. I will show you once you have told me one thing.’
‘And what might that be?’
‘Why did you not kill me when you had the chance?’
‘We want to know who you’re working for, Edward. Tell us and we’ll end this quickly.’
‘We can’t let you live, Edward,’ Chapman added. ‘You have become too much of a liability to us, and to the non-gifted.’
‘Your crimes cannot go unpunished!’ Adeyemi shouted across the street. His tone was far more aggressive than the others. ‘You’re sick in the head! How could you kill those children? Coward!’
‘They were in my way. They had to be removed.’
‘Speak like a man!’ Adeyemi bawled. ‘Fight like a man! Come on!’
I remained calm. Losing my temper and meeting them in a straight fight was not a good idea – it was exactly what they wanted. I decided on a more subtle approach. I began to use my gift of mageletonia.
Using this gift allowed me to sense and then control all liquids in the vicinity – as if they were part of my own body that I could control. It took only a couple of seconds to isolate the weakest of my adversaries by using the gift. Motson’s blood was thick and full of toxins; his heart was working very hard to pump it around his body. He was not a healthy man. I chose him as my initial target.
‘Motson, you smoke too mu
ch,’ I said. ‘Your blood is all gooey.’
Motson began to tremble as I seized control of the blood in his body.
‘Such a nasty habit. One I am glad you indulged over the years. It has made killing you a lot easier than I thought it would be.’
I took full control of the blood in his body and prevented it from passing through his heart. Motson tumbled forward and was dead before his face smacked the pavement. I wasted no time in launching an attack against the others.
I spun round and used my psychokinetic power to yank two of the petrol pumps free of their stands and then quickly switched gifts and used my mageletonia to control the petrol pouring out.
Within a split second there was a funnel of petrol that whipped through the air and created a barrier between me and the agents of the Guild.
Adeyemi was first to react. He sent a precise pocket of kinetic energy that pierced the liquid shield. It was not strong enough to penetrate the inner shield – I had also created a thin cocoon of kinetic energy as back up. I was pleasantly surprised at how feeble the assault was. This emboldened me to go on the offensive and I pinpointed the most immobile of the three remains agents: Chapman.
I allowed the petrol to disperse from the orb and it shot forward and doused Chapman. The impact was powerful enough to knock her to the ground and send her skating across the road.
Suddenly there was a bright flash and I threw my arms over my face and ducked behind my car. One of them was obviously a light-tuner and was trying to blind me. It was an old and common trick, but one that was quite effective when used properly. I remained hidden and used my power to gather up all the loose petrol on the roadside and mould it into a spinning ball of fluid that hovered across the forecourt.
My attackers had fanned out when they should have combined their powers to attack. It gave me enough time to recreate the cocoon of energy that would protect me as I restarted my assault. I stood up from my hiding place and scanned the forecourt.
I noticed Adeyemi using a parked van as cover and fired the ball of petrol as fast as I could. It struck the van, missing the actual target. That did not matter. The force of the impact had created a spark than consumed the floating mass of petrol and there was a tremendous explosion that surrounded the van and Adeyemi. My most imposing of opponents had been dealt with. Now all I had to do was eliminate the other two and I could be on my way.
There was blue flash in front of me as Chapman shot a bolt of electricity across the forecourt. It had not been strong enough to penetrate my shield and Chapman – without knowing it – had made her final mistake. She had revealed herself. I gathered the flaming petrol and weaved it into an immense whip of fire then I lashed out at the old woman.
She tried to run, but the flames slashed her back. Her clothes, already soaked with petrol, caught fire. I watched her running aimlessly and screaming in sheer terror as her body was consumed with flames. For a moment I considered ending her misery by shooting a kinetic slice at her … I quickly decided not to. Her wailing would surely distract the last of my enemies: the young light-tuner.
I could not see him. I knew he was most likely cloaked and cowering in a corner of the forecourt. There was no time to track him down. Instead I decided to allow nature to do my work for me. I paced away from the petrol station onto the road and then sent the last of the burning petrol towards the bank of pumps. The blast was awesome and rumbled the ground under my feet. The fearful light-tuner was most likely barbequed and I could now slip away into the night.
Some locals had left their homes and were standing at the far end of the road, watching the inferno. Others were pressed against the windows of the little houses, their frightened faces painted orange in the glow of the roaring blaze. I kept my head bowed as I walked, not wanting these maggots to give my description to the authorities. Police posed no threat to me, but were an annoyance I could do without.
The battle had been so easy. I loved that I could now dominate not only normal people, but those with gifts. Even the mighty Guild had now failed in trying to kill me. I wiped the perspiration from my brow as I quickened my pace. I had broken a sweat, but that was only because of the heat from the flames and not because of the meagre challenge the agents had represented.
I stalled on the pavement and spun to my left. The sinuous black shape was so fast I could not focus on it. I could not even identify what it was. Only when it had leaped into the air and was coming straight at my face did I identify it as a panther.
My reflexes were lightning fast, but the shock of seeing such a beast bearing down on me meant I hesitated in the most pivotal moment. The large black feline smacked me flush in the face with one of its powerful paws and I felt my teeth rattle out of my gums into the back of my mouth.
I fell back onto the ground and before I could get up the cat dashed across the pavement from behind and latched onto either side of my face with its claws shredding deep into the flesh. It then wrapped its jaws around my neck and its fangs sank into my throat.
Blood was fizzing out of my neck and was pushing up into my mouth. In that last moment I gathered my psychokinetic power and launched the cat into the air. It landed in the middle of the road and an oncoming vehicle struck it before it could attack once more.
The panther was dead yet I was no better off. I could not move and just lay there in an ever widening pool of my own blood. I heard the chatter of the locals along with distant sirens before life finally drained out of me.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Prophecies of Doom
As I sat slumped in the back seat, all I could think of was the empty stare in Ania’s eyes. I would never forget her lifeless expression and the shock of realising I had killed her. She was nothing more than a child and I killed her. I had joined the Guild to protect gifted youngsters and on my first mission I killed one. I felt like a monster for what I had done. All I wanted to do was throw myself from the car and die.
‘Hold it together, Bentley,’ Hunter said over his shoulder from the front passenger seat. ‘You did the right thing.’
‘That wasn’t the right thing to do,’ I replied instantly. ‘Killing someone is never right.’
‘She would have burned you alive,’ Farrier added, as she steered the car into corner and shifted gear. ‘You were backed into a corner and did the only thing you could. No one will hate you for this. Everyone will understand.’
‘I don’t care what everyone thinks. Everyone doesn’t have a young girl’s death on their conscience.’
‘Don’t they …?’ Farrier said distantly. ‘A lot of us have done worse in the past.’
‘Well, maybe I’m in the wrong profession.’
‘You’re not in the wrong profession, Bentley,’ Hunter interjected. ‘What happened back there proves you’re perfect for this line of work. That girl would have killed us all if she’d been given the chance. You saved people’s lives and acted when you needed to.’
‘It doesn’t feel very heroic.’
‘Heroes only exist in fairytales. I’ll talk to you about this when we reach safety. Just try to keep it together until then.’
‘Where are we going?’ Janice asked – the first words she’d said since the fight.
‘Good question,’ Hunter replied as he turned to Farrier. ‘We’ll have to get the girl to Peter Williams.’
‘I know. We can get there in five hours if we don’t make any stops.’
‘Sounds like a plan.’
‘Are you all right?’ Janice asked the young girl, who was sitting in the centre of the backseat. ‘Are you hurt at all?’
The child looked dazed at first, then she shook her head and lurched forward. She sucked in a deep breath then vomited at my feet. Janice patted her on the back and pulled her hair away from her face. I turned to the window and ignored the puke on my runners. I couldn’t even take pleasure from knowing that I had saved Sarah Fisher. I had traded the life of one child for another’s.
The first bang sounded like a firework in th
e distance. It caught our attention, but didn’t set off any alarm bells. The second was like thunder and I felt the force of it rumbling my stomach.
‘What the hell was that?’ Janice asked. ‘Sounded like a bomb or something.’
‘It’s going to be the big fire,’ Sarah said quietly.
‘What?’ Farrier asked.
‘Ignore her. We can’t be wasting any more time,’ Hunter demanded. ‘Linda, we have to get out of this town as quickly as we can.’
‘That might have been the others,’ Janice continued. ‘They could be in trouble.’
‘We can’t forsake them, Hunter,’ Farrier insisted. ‘That’s not the way the Guild does things.’
‘Damn it,’ Hunter said after a moment of deliberation. ‘Take the left turn up ahead, it’ll lead us towards the town centre.’
As soon as the car banked left we saw a great orange glow rising above the rows of houses. I couldn’t imagine what had caused such a fire but all I could think of was Cathy. Was she caught up in it? Was she still alive? Losing her would make life unbearable.
We turned onto one of the main streets and saw the fire in full flow. A petrol station was consumed by the immense blaze that was spilling out on to the road and snatching at the roofs of nearby houses. There were scores of weary people wandering the street and police officers were rushing here and there and pushing them back from the area. Smaller, secondary explosions erupted from the epicentre of the fire and thick black smoke was belched out over the crowd. It looked as if we’d driven to the gates of hell and at any moment the devil would appear before us.
Farrier slowed the car to a halt as pyjama-clad youngsters flooded past us on the pavements and we all stared ahead at the rising flames.
‘Move back!’ a police officer, who appeared out of nowhere screamed at Farrier. ‘Get this car out of here!’