by N. P. Martin
Frank walked with Eva to the back of the Range Rover. Inside, under a false floor, was an array of weapons, spell ingredients and first aid supplies. She took a ready prepared syringe from a plastic pouch and jabbed the needle into Frank’s arm after he had removed his jacket. “Oww,” he said. “You enjoyed that.”
Eva gave him a sly smile and told him to turn around so she could inspect the bite on his shoulder. He stood and examined the holes in his jacket as Eva examined him. “Son of a bitch,” he said. “This was my favorite jacket.”
“It needs sowing,” Eva said.
Frank shook his head. “No, it’s ruined.”
“Your wound, I was talking about, Frank. Not your damn jacket.”
“Oh, right. Just patch it up. It’ll heal soon enough.”
“Fair enough.” Eva put a large square of gauze on the wound and taped it secure. “There. No real tendon or muscle damage, but you probably shouldn’t drive.”
Frank turned around and painfully put his jacket back on. “No fucking way am I leaving my car here for some idiot to light it up.”
“Enjoy the pain then,” Eva said before walking away from him. “Let’s go boys. We still have an appointment with Leland Cunningham.”
CHAPTER 20
The plan to get inside the Watcher Facility, if you could call it a plan, was fairly simple. As Jack was the only one that would be able to go inside without arousing too much suspicion, he was to go in first and allow Frank, Eva, Sam and Tyreese in through a back exit, the same one in fact that Frank had been escorted out of only that morning. There were security cameras everywhere of course, all around the grounds of the Masonic Temple and throughout the building itself, not to mention inside the Facility. Jack had assured the others that the cameras wouldn’t be a problem, that he would find a way to divert the security guard’s attention so as to give Frank and the others a window to sneak in unnoticed by the cameras.
In the meantime, they would wait down the street from the Temple. Once they got the call from Jack, they would run to the Temple and sneak inside the Facility, hopefully unseen. Just getting to the back entrance of the Facility would take over a minute of sprinting, up the street, into the Temple grounds and around the back to the door. Then they would have to make their way to Leland’s suite through the back corridors, dealing with whatever security got in their way, preferably in a non-lethal manner. The plan could go disastrously wrong at any point, but they had no choice but to follow it. They needed to interrogate Leland. He was the only one likely to have answers about what was going on in the city.
Frank’s phone rang as he stood outside a 7-11 down the street from the Temple (the Temple Jack entered fifteen minutes ago) with Eva, Tyreese and Sam. Everyone looked at him as he answered, thinking it was Jack calling. It wasn’t Jack on the other end of the line though. Frank walked away from the others and lowered his voice slightly. “Kind of busy here.”
“You’ll want to hear this,” Lucas said.
Frank turned and looked at the others who were still staring expectantly at him. He shook his head and they all looked away except Eva. He turned his back again. “Go on.”
“It seems you were right about your friend, Leland Cunningham,” Lucas said. “For some reason he appears to be behind this city’s current meltdown, or at least in part.”
“What do you mean? Who else is involved?”
“I’m still digging here. Details are shady and well hidden.” The demon paused. “I am however, aware of one other who is involved.”
Frank waited. “Well don’t keep me in suspense, Lucas. Out with it.”
“A demon. Named Tolloch.”
“Tolloch?”
“I assume you’re aware of this demon’s reputation?”
“Is this the same Tolloch who likes to influence the country’s elite from the sidelines? Confidant to every sleazy CEO and politician in the country?”
“The very same.”
“What’s a Grand Duke of Hell doing getting involved with the head of the Watcher High Council?” Frank glanced over his shoulder and saw Eva staring intently in his direction. He wasn’t sure if she could hear what he was saying or not. Not that it mattered. He would fill her and the rest in shortly.
“Like I said, the details are hazy at this point,” Lucas said. “But my guess is that Tolloch’s plan to influence the elite into creating a new world order isn’t going fast enough. I think he is playing things a little more directly now.”
Frank nodded. “Makes sense. A new world order born out of the chaos, starting right here. Why not in Washington first then?”
“I think they may be testing things out here first, tweaking their methodologies before going global.”
“How do we find this Tolloch? I’m assuming he’s powerful enough to resist a summoning spell?”
Lucas gave a laugh. “Tolloch is powerful enough to resist whatever you throw at him. Should you happen to come across him, be very careful.”
“Let me know when you hear anything else.” Frank lowered his voice. “Any news on the other thing?”
“Not yet. I’ll keep you informed.”
When he hung up the phone, Frank rejoined the others, trying to ignore Eva’s intense stare.
She knows you’re hiding something, Frank. Why don’t you tell her? You can both rescue me together.
“Still no call from Jack?” Frank asked.
Tyreese and Sam both shook their heads at the same time. “Not yet,” Tyreese said. “It’s been twenty minutes.”
“He needs time to sort the cameras out,” Frank said, wincing slightly at the pain in his shoulder.
“What if Leland is on to him?” Sam asked. “He’d be fucked then.”
“Let’s just wait and see,” Frank said. “In the meantime, I just received new information from a source. Apparently, Leland is in league with a major player from down under.”
“Which one?” Eva asked, frowning.
“Tolloch.”
“Christ,” Eva said. She ran her hand through her hair. “This is worse than we thought.”
“Yes, it is,” Frank said.
“You mean both sides are behind this fucking mess?” Sam exclaimed.
“Would explain why it all happened so quickly,” Tyreese said. “Both sides working towards a common goal for a change.”
“Yeah,” Sam said. “Mutual fucking destruction.”
“That’s probably just the start,” said Frank. “If Tolloch is involved then they're trying to create a new world order of some sort. This is the same demon behind nine eleven and half the wars that are happening right now.”
Before they could discuss things any further, Eva’s phone rang. “Jack,” she said as she answered it. She listened for a few seconds, frowned slightly, then put the phone back in her pocket.
“We a go?” Frank asked.
“Yeah,” Eva said.
“Okay, let’s go then,” Frank said.
“Wait!” Eva’s voice stopped them as they were about to start running towards the Temple. She hadn’t moved yet.
“What is it?” Frank asked her, wondering why she wasn’t moving.
Eva started shaking her head, like she wasn’t sure about something. “I don’t know. There was something off about Jack.”
“What?” Frank was getting agitated, wanting to move, losing patience with Eva’s reticence. “Are we a go or not, Eva?”
“According to Jack, yes, but I just have a feeling something was off about him. He was speaking too mechanically. His tone didn’t match his words somehow.”
“Jesus, Eva, are you sure? Are you saying Jack’s been compromised, is that what you’re telling us here?”
Eva’s face took on a tight expression. “I can’t be sure. It’s just a feeling.”
“God damn it!” Frank twisted around on the spot for a moment, torn as to what to do. Eva knew people better than anyone else Frank knew. She picked up on things that most people missed about others, like the tiniest of
tells when they were lying, or what a person was thinking as they stood in front of her. She put her skills down to practice and careful study, but at times her abilities at reading people were uncanny. Frank desperately wanted to believe she was wrong this time.
“Times a tickin’ here,” Sam said. “Are we a go or not?”
“This may be the only chance we get to get near Leland,” Frank said. “Unless you’re a hundred percent sure, Eva, I’m going in.”
Eva stared back at the others for a moment, then she shook her head. “Forget it,” she said. “Let’s move out.”
Everyone started running towards the Masonic Temple.
CHAPTER 21
According to Eva, Jack told her on the phone that they had ten minutes, give or take, to get inside the Facility and make their way to Leland Cunningham’s suite before the cameras went back online. That seemed long enough for Frank as he sprinted across the gravel drive at the front of the Temple, along with Sam, Eva and Tyreese, doing his best to ignore the agony in his shoulder every time he moved his arm. Soon they were running down the side of the great building and then through the cemetery at the back towards the outbuilding and the entrance they were supposed to get to.
As they made it into the cemetery, moonlight shining down on them, they all seemed to stop in unison as they came across a sight that was just too hard to miss, a sight that made them all gasp.
Near the center of the cemetery there was a large iron cross, standing about six feet tall, with long spikes coming out of each end. Spiked through the top part of the cross was a body, the thin spike pushing up out of the body’s chest, the arms and legs hanging lifelessly underneath it.
But there was something odd about the body as well.
“No,” Frank said, shaking his head in disbelief. He walked towards the iron cross with a sick feeling in his stomach. He could hardly comprehend what he was seeing. It was Jack Burnharte impaled on the cross, but his head was twisted one hundred and eighty degrees so that he was looking straight down at the ground. His neck was partly torn by the force of having his head twisted so violently and there was a massive pool of blood on the grass beneath him, his life force having pumped from the wound in his neck. Frank wasn’t sure if Jack had had his head twisted after he was impaled or before. Not that it mattered. One of Frank’s oldest friends was now dead.
Because of him.
The other three had joined Frank and stood silently beside him as they each took in the horror before them.
Frank was fixating on the fact that Jack was alive only five minutes ago, unable to believe that his old instructor, one of the most lethal men he knew, had been killed in so violent a fashion. There was no way a human or Nephilim did this. It had to be a demon. And Leland Cunningham had to have sanctioned the murder.
He was about to voice his thoughts when Tyreese, standing just beside him, shouted, “Get down!” At the same time, he shoved Frank backwards with one massive arm, Frank almost falling back on his ass from the force. A second later, a gunshot sounded. A high caliber rifle it sounded like to Frank. Next thing he knew, Tyreese’s head seemed to explode and he pitched forward and fell like a giant oak.
He was dead before he hit the ground.
A green laser light moved over the back of Tyreese’s skull as he lay dead on the grass next to a tall gravestone.
Then more lasers cut through the darkness around them, quickly followed by gunfire. “Move!” Frank balled just as he felt a bullet whizz past his face, then another that went through his jacket, Frank feeling the heat from the bullet on his shoulder as it passed through his jacket.
He dived behind the nearest tombstone, as did Sam and Eva. With his back firmly against the tombstone, he pulled out one of his Beretta’s, hoping the wound in his shoulder wouldn’t prevent him from shooting. He wasn’t bad with his left, but in a situation like this one, you need more than not bad. Going by the amount of laser lights searching around him, and the amount of bullets being fired, he wasn’t long concluding they would need a goddamn miracle to escape without getting riddled with bullets first.
Eva was crouched behind another tombstone about three feet away, along with Sam. They were doing their best to avoid getting shot as the tombstone offered inadequate cover for both of them.
Going by the direction of the laser lights, Frank figured there were snipers on the roof of the Temple and also on the outhouse roof as well. There was no way the three of them could shoot their way out of the situation they found themselves in. To make matters worse, Frank now saw that there was a team on the ground as well, carrying the same laser sighted guns as the guys on the roof. A quick glance that nearly got him his head blown off allowed him to notice at least four shadowy figures advancing upon their position.
The firing increased, the tombstones they were hiding behind getting shot to pieces, dust and stone exploding all around them.
“We got shooters on the ground!” Frank yelled.
Sam and Eva had already noticed and were doing their best to return fire, an almost impossible task given the amount sights on them. “Fuck this!” shouted Sam, clearly rattled by the fact that they were all going to die very soon.
“Frank!” Eva yelled over the sound of gunfire.
Frank remained crouched behind the tombstone, knowing if he moved an inch he was dead. As more and more bullets hit the tombstone, it began to break and fall to pieces, exposing him a little bit more every time. Eva was still yelling at him, somehow expecting him to get them out of this fuckstorm but he didn’t know how. He looked over at Eva and saw she was taking a chance to return fire on the nearest soldier on the ground, who was about ten feet away from her position.
She got two shots off before Frank heard her scream and get slammed back onto the grass, where she lay for what seemed like a long moment, completely motionless. “Eva!” Frank yelled.
Without thinking he ran to her, returning fire on the approaching team as he did so. He felt the wind of bullets flying past him as he dived towards the tombstone where Sam was, looking helplessly at Eva who still lay on the ground. “Eva!”
Fuck it, he thought and scrambled over to her. He didn’t care if he died. “Eva!” he said again, this time looking down at her face inches below him.
Eva opened her eyes.
The bullet she took went into her left shoulder. “We’re going to die, Frank,” she said calmly.
Frank held her face in his hands as bullets hit the ground all around them. Even when a bullet went through the back of his right thigh, quickly followed by another through the left side of his lower back, Frank didn’t stop looking at Eva. He wanted her majestic blue eyes to be the last thing he saw before he went to Hell.
See you soon, Frank…
Behind him, he heard Sam scream.
Then for some reason Eva broke his gaze and looked over his shoulder. A dark shadow appeared on the grass next to him. They’ve come to finish us off, he thought.
He closed his eyes.
I’m coming, Rachel, he thought.
Something on his shoulder, like a hand.
Then a strange sensation, like that feeling you get from being on a roller-coaster as it hurtles down a track at a steep trajectory.
Then there was the sound of music from somewhere. Eighties rock music. It seemed to have replaced the sound of gunfire.
Frank opened his eyes to see that Eva was still beneath him, but that they were no longer in the cemetery. It appeared they were now lying on a red carpet. Eva looked as disorientated as Frank felt. He quickly got up off her and looked around, immediately recognizing where they were.
The Demon Ecstasy Club. In Lucas’s office. “Lucas?”
The demon was standing beside them, looking down at Frank. The way he was looking at him, Frank could tell that there was something up. The demon looked concerned, if that was even possible for a demon. “Hey, Frank.”
“What—” Frank stopped. Suddenly his head went light and he felt like he was going to vomit.
“Frank?” Eva said. “Oh Jesus, he’s been shot…”
That’s when Frank collapsed unconscious on top of Eva.
CHAPTER 22
When he next awoke, Frank found himself lying in a hospital bed, drugged up and drowsy, hardly able to focus. As he struggled to keep his eyes open he made out a figure standing over him.
“It’s okay,” the person said. “It’s Eva. You’re in my home, in the medical room in the basement.”
“Eva?” He could barely speak.
“Try to relax, Frank. You need rest.”
Then he remembered as flashes of memory came to him. Green laser lights, the sound of bullets flying. Jack Burnharte impaled on a cross. Tyreese dying right in front of him. He shut his eyes tightly at the memory.
Sam.
“Sam…”
“Sam is fine,” Eva said gently. “He’s upstairs resting. I’m fine as well. You need to sleep, Frank. Close your eyes and heal.”
Frank closed his eyes and let oblivion take him.
The next time Frank opened his eyes, he felt a lot more with it. Still a bit groggy, his body feeling like it had been tortured for two days straight, but otherwise he felt okay. At least he was able to focus and take in his surroundings. He was in Eva’s basement, a room he had been in many times before, though not always in the state he was in now. The medical room as Eva called it was used to treat injured Watcher’s, the room being fully kitted out with hospital grade equipment, including an EKG machine that he seemed to be hooked up to right now.
“You’re awake.” He never saw Eva standing to one side of the room. She looked different to how she was the last time he remembered seeing her at the Temple, which only seemed like hours ago. Gone was her battle gear along with the streaks of blood he remembered her having on her face and arms. She now wore tight black slacks and a black turtle neck top. Her hair was tied back as well.
“Hey,” he said, his mouth dry and gummy. “How long have I been out?”