Kieran and Roman could feel that the barrier had been broken. Instantly slamming their hands against one another’s, they began an incantation. The white circle elongated quickly into white fog engulfing the monster. Spinning into the air, the smoke twisted like a tornado up into a point high above them where it vanished.
Suddenly the swirling tower of fog and beast were gone, with nothing where they had once been – the Jakyll had vanished. Kristian felt an inkling of satisfaction but this was soon drowned out by a burning sensation that rushed throughout his entire torso. Losing his footing, he stumbled to the ground, but was quickly caught by Jonathon who instantly placed his palm over his wound.
Kristian looked up to see who had caught him but he couldn’t make out the face, it was all a blur now and he began to drift out of consciousness. Kieran and Roman were soon on the scene, helping Jonathon to carry Kristian’s limp body.
“Can you get him to Andromeda?” Jonathon asked through teary eyes.
“No, it would be quicker to drive,” shouted Roman as he pointed to one of the Order’s parked cars on the side of the square. Several of the Order security guards were running to their aid.
“Is he going to be okay?” Kieran shouted.
No one responded to the question. No one really knew the answer but it wasn’t long before Kristian was being driven off in one of the cars.
The people gathered in the square could not believe what had just happened, they didn’t seem so terrified now, just shocked. They began talking loudly to one another about what they had just seen. Some still thought that it had been a street show, others were convinced it was a scene being filmed for a movie or television show. A group of people began to walk towards Roman who was getting into one of the cars. They were shouting at him, demanding answers. He did not give any, but merely looked over to Andrew who was now standing on one of the high walls of the square. The people began to gaze up at him; his old body began to glow and his palms held at his sides began sparkling like stars in the night sky. He was chanting something but no one could hear over the shouts and screams.
As Roman drove off, Andrew looked down upon the people, his eyes a bright white. He scanned the crowed to see if anyone else from the Order remained; they had all left the scene. In then in that instant, Andrew swung his arms out wide and over his head until they collided with a deafening clap. As soon as his hands touched, a bright light shot out in all directions. It spread out fast all over the ground, through the buildings, the cars and the people. It moved so fast it seemed to be more than just light, like a thick bright cloud. It spread as far as anyone could see, the city mile was engulfed by it. After a few seconds, Andrew dropped his hands back to his sides and the light vanished.
The square had changed. No longer was it full of a screaming, panicked mob. The expressions on the faces of the crowd varied from bewildered to lost. Everyone began talking to one another and they all seemed to do a strange little shudder, like a dog shaking itself dry.
Exclamations like “What’s just happened?” and “Hey, how did we get here?” began to flow from their mouths. Others began to say things like, “Oh, this is the wrong place, Buckingham Palace is this way, come on,” and it wasn’t long before normality seemed to return to Trafalgar Square.
Andrew looked around; the spell had worked like the charm it was. The magic had wiped the memories of all those that had witnessed the events and erased any trace of it on recording devices. He contemplated waiting for a car to come back for him, but decided to walk the short distance back to the Order headquarters. As he began to walk away from the scene he looked at the faces of the passers-by. The puzzled looks had disappeared now, and all that were left were the ignorant faces, the blind ones; the happy ones.
…
- Chapter Fifteen -
The Long and not so Lonely Road to Recovery
“Please let me work. Out! Out now!” Susan shouted, ushering Kieran, Jonathon and Roman out of the medical centre. The long room was lit brightly, the staff from the centre were now all working overtime, about twenty people in white coats were rushing up and down the great expanse.
Susan was bent over Kristian examining his injuries. She had never seen a Jakyll wound in practice before, textbooks yes, but the real thing was all new to her. The wound was still open and refusing to heal. Blood had stopped pouring from the gash for some time now but open pink flesh was still visible. She wiped a brown liquid over the wound and began to replace the bandages. Other staff began to connect wires to his chest and prepare an IV drip for the cannula they were inserting into his arm. Susan powered up a variety of machines, which were on a trolley next to the bed.
“Full blood count, U and E and a coagulation screen please, also do whole genome sequencing on the pathogen,” she barked her orders at two nurses who were extracting blood via the cannula. The medical team raced around carrying out Susan’s orders and as seconds ticked into minutes and then hours the team managed to stabilise Kristian’s condition although he still appeared very unwell.
The afternoon soon turned into evening and a member of staff seemed to leave every hour until only Susan and one male nurse were left. Kristian’s condition had remained critical throughout the day. His blood pressure and heart rate were abnormally low and every so often Susan would inject a clear liquid into his bloodstream to try and raise them.
“When did you last get something to eat?” Susan asked the last remaining nurse in the centre.
“Hours ago. You?” he replied.
“I’m a light eater. You go if you like. I shall stay here, Kristian appears stable at the moment, I will call if that changes and I need any assistance,” Susan said, not looking up from the monitor that was displaying Kristian’s observations.
“Are you sure? Do you want me to bring you back anything?” he asked.
“Positive. And no thank you, I shall eat later.”
The mood of the room changed on the nurse’s exit, no longer bright and busy but sombre and dim. The lights were low and Susan was sitting on a wooden stool next to the bed all alone, staring at her patient. Her glasses hung off the end of her nose as her eyes began to feel heavy and she began the fight to not drift off; it had been a long day. It was not long before she jerked awake, kicking her legs out, clean into the air, throwing off a notepad that was resting on her lap.
Reaching down, she picked up the pad and placed it next to her on the trolley; with her other hand she straightened her glasses. Looking over to Kristian and she wondered how long she might have been asleep; it could not have been more than a few minutes she hoped. She stood up and moved over to his still body. His brow was warm, the sweat was building. She took a handkerchief from her pocket and wiped his forehead.
“How’s he doing?” said a man’s voice that came from the bed space opposite Kristian’s, which was badly lit. Susan turned to look as Jonathon’s face became clearer as he moved into the light.
“Jon?” Susan asked, unsure if it was him at first. She paused before continuing, “He’s stable for now. It has been a bit touch and go. He’s required constant monitoring and intervention to keep him stable.”
Jonathon slowly made his way to Kristian’s side and gazed down at the young man’s pale face. He affectionately stroked his hair to which Susan gave him a sympathetic look.
“It’s not your fault you know?” she said reassuringly.
He pulled back his hand and stepped back to sit on the adjacent bed, “Well, it feels like it. I certainly put him in harm’s way. Twice now,” as Jonathon spoke his eyes remained locked on Kristian’s still body.
Susan sat next to Jonathon and put a comforting hand on top of his. “I hate to say this but it’s the nature of this business. It is his job to be in ‘harm’s way’, and you know as well as I do, it’s yours to put him there,” as Susan finished, Jonathon turned to look at her.
“Is it? I keep telling myself that I had no choice, that it’s what we do, how we keep the world safe. However, he didn�
�t ask for this, he has never wanted to be part of our world. Was I right in asking him to come back? I don’t know. Recently I can’t help second-guessing myself all of the time. The job is taking its toll, Susan, I don’t know if I’m up to it anymore.” He sounded exhausted; his hands clutched hers and she could feel them become clammy.
“Look, it’s not supposed to be easy. But you are the best person for the job, you know it, I know it, everyone in this building knows it! You have to make decisions and sometimes it’s hard for you, that’s because you genuinely care about the people who work for the Order; and I, like many, wouldn’t want it any other way. At times like these you should be thinking about all the good things you have achieved, all the important things. Don’t for one second think about abandoning us, the Order and this world need you, Jonathon.” Her tone was harsh and slightly patronising at times but he responded well to it, it was one of the reasons he came to her for advice.
“Thank you,” he said, rubbing his eyes, keeping them dry.
“What else is troubling you?” she asked, sensing there was more troubling his mind than simply Kristian’s condition.
“Words help a little, but they don’t change anything,” he muttered and let out a huff of air, which seemed to release some of the angst he was feeling. “I have a lot on my mind. I’m just stressed and tired that’s all. It won’t seem so bad after a good night’s sleep.”
Susan listened and nodded, she knew that he was hiding something. There was something else in this series of recent events that was really troubling him and although she thought that she could essentially extract these secrets from him if she tried hard enough, she decided now was not the time and decided to let it go. Susan knew the only way she could help Jonathon at the moment was to get Kristian better.
“He’s going to be okay, you know? So that’s one less thing you should worry about,” Susan said.
“What is the prognosis then?” Jonathon said as he regained his composure.
Susan returned and sat back on the stool she had dozed off on, placed her glasses firmly on her nose and took out Kristian’s notes. “Jakyll venom is a toxin, obviously. Well actually it’s remarkable stuff, to call it a toxin would be technically incorrect, it’s more like a pathogen, a retrovirus, much like the vampire or werewolf strains. It manipulates a cell’s genome; it actually seems to have inserted an RNA sequence into Kristian’s cells, which has forced them to replicate until they burst. It’s very similar to an HIV virus actually, except that it’s targeting a wider range of cells and acting instantaneously. I have gone through the records and all of the cases of infection have involved humans who have died days after the infection and in some cases hours,” Susan’s voice was typically clinical and Jonathon took in every word she said. He looked panicked, she noticed and so instantly jumped back into her explanation
“Oh don’t worry, the infection in Kristian is not as bad as I would have imagined. His body has reacted and produced antibodies already, and some of the cells that would have been hosts to the Jakyll pathogen seem to have formed some kind of resistance to the venom. I have absolutely no idea how or why, but it’s good news. My best guess is that his Phoenix is providing a level of immunity. Obviously, there is no direct medical cure, we are just palliating his symptoms but at the rate he’s going, I believe he will make a full recovery. A bit of a leap of faith, but I know a lot about these things, so trust me, okay?” she smiled kindly at Jonathon who returned it.
On hearing this Jonathon felt somewhat relieved. If Kristian pulls through then the day would have been a complete and unforeseen success. The Jakyll captured and no casualties!
Jonathon stood up and walked back to Kristian’s side; he bent down again and whispered in his ear, “Get better soon. Please!” He turned to leave but stopped and looked back at Susan. “Are you sure there is nothing I can do?”
Susan had already contemplated this idea but did not believe it to be necessary or worth the risk. Kristian was recovering and he had his Phoenix to help him.
“I’m sure. I think it’s better to let his body clear it out by itself. I don’t want to take any risks,” Susan said. There were minimal records of people enduring a Jakyll venom encounter and she didn’t want to take the risk of introducing the unknown factor that using a gifted power could introduce into the equation.
“I understand. Well, you know where I am, so please keep me informed. And thank you Susan,” Jonathon said as he started for the door.
She nodded and watched as he left the room. Standing, she moved over to a chair on the opposite side of Kristian’s bed. Her glasses soon fell to the end of her nose as she fought with sleep again; she struggled not to drift off. It wasn’t long before she called for the most rested nurse to come and take over the vigil and monitor Kristian so she could go to bed and get some proper sleep.
…
As each day passed, Jonathon felt the job getting immeasurably tougher. His friend and mentor Karl had often told him that it was the hardest job on the planet and that it required the skills of a great juggler. Jonathon often thought fondly of Karl Wolfenstein, the previous Director of the Order.
He wondered how Karl had managed to make it look all so easy. Jonathon was certain that he had more critics than Karl ever did. He knew that he should put such thoughts out of his mind; dwelling on that fact would only prove his doubters right. Jonathon often had these spiralling thought processes when he was alone in his office. Shaking the thoughts clear Jonathon attempted to distract his mind; he reached forward and opened the top folder of a pile on his desk.
It was just another report from the head officer of the Sydney branch of the Order (Amanda Freeman’s office) expressing how important it was to renew the alliances with the monks of the Kar’sin, and the knights of the Shing’tao. He threw the folder across the room and watched it flutter into the rubbish bin in the corner. He wondered what the point of that report was, he already knew the importance of the alliance, and that was exactly why he had dispatched Yi-Mao and Brendan to ensure its success and that the continuing alliances prospered.
A slight ringing that had persisted in the deepest region of his head all morning was now manifesting as a full-blown pounding headache. He rubbed his temples and forehead in an effort to ease the pain, then pulled open his top drawer and picked out a box of aspirin. Removing the lid, he emptied three tablets into his palm and threw them to the back of his throat. Swallowing them without water, he didn’t wince or gag, clearly used to popping pills in this fashion.
Closing his eyes, he leaned back in his chair. He tried to clear his mind of all thought, to think of nothing, just as Karl had explained once about how he used to function when he was feeling ‘the strain.’ His headache soon eased off and he arched forwards to pick up another folder. With the folder in his hand, a flash of luminous pink caught his eye. The colour was that of a Post-it note, hidden underneath the many piles of paper on the desk. As he pulled it out from the bottom he accidentally knocked a whole stack of folders onto the floor. He swore as paper and card scattered onto the floor at his feet.
Holding the Post-it note up, he read aloud.
Phone call from Mrs. McKenzie.
She has some questions about Oliver?
Julia
He froze in his chair.
“Oliver,” he whispered to himself. With everything that had happened with the Jakyll he had momentarily placed Oliver to the back of his mind. It was very easy in the Order to distance yourself from the families of the workers, even though they were ultimately the people they were working so hard to protect. Although Jonathon was supposed to be somewhat removed from his workforce, he found it incredibly hard to distance himself entirely from them, especially when he was sending them out into the path of danger, potentially, and on occasion, to their deaths. However he found that he rarely thought of the parents, brothers, sisters and children of his people until something like this, this simple note, brought the realities home to him.
He wondered what Oliver’s mother would ask him, he was almost afraid to talk to the woman. Would she blame him? Picking up the phone, he called through to Julia. He asked her to put him through to Mrs. McKenzie. As the phone began to ring, he felt a sharp pain in his chest. He grabbed at it and realised that it wasn’t a physical pain, it was an emotional one.
Suddenly a voice spoke at the other end of the phone. “Hello?” a strong, harsh female southern American voice spoke. Jonathon took a large gulp before talking, swallowing a metaphorical mouthful of courage.
The call lasted for over an hour, more time than Jonathon could really afford to spend, but he felt he owed her that, and more; he wanted to help ease her grief, she had sounded a broken woman. Although she was grief-stricken she was adamant that Jonathon tell her exactly how her son had died. Jonathon was usually extremely reluctant to discuss and to disclose such information, but on this rare occasion he found himself very forthcoming with her, even though the truth was truly horrific. Oliver’s mother knew about the Order, she was aware of her son’s work and the risks he faced; she was deeply proud of her son ever since the day he introduced her to his new world.
When Jonathon had hung up at the end of the conversation, he felt compelled to shed a tear but he held it back. A rage of emotions stormed through his heart like a hurricane building up momentum. Guilt, anger and loss were just a few feelings that fuelled the winds of the storm.
“Make amends,” he whispered to himself. “Make amends”.
…
As Andrew moved gracefully down the corridor he was aware of Kieran racing up behind him and then moving to walk alongside him.
“Sorry, I was asleep,” Kieran said, as he caught his breath.
“It’s no worry, you made it regardless. We shall make our way together,” replied Andrew; this was accompanied by his familiar kind and knowing smile. They continued down the corridor until they reached Jonathon’s office.
The Phoenix Chronicles: Alone in the Light (Book ONE) Page 24