Jennings had served with distinction in the SAS and many of the Ops he’d led were and still are, highly classified. Yes he’d killed men and once even a woman (she was pointing a Kalashnikov assault rifle at him at the time) he’d lost no sleep over it. But those things he’d blown to ash! What the hell where they?
He stood outside the entrance to the warehouse. For once the sun was shining, even though it was a cold November day. Hidden from sight, were three of his best men. All were armed and had permits to carry firearms. He wasn’t a stupid or trusting man. What had occurred yesterday gave him cause for concern.
The clean up crew had responded quickly. The body removed as well as the blood stained bedding. Some one did call the police before the front door or smashed window could be replaced. The bullet holes had been noticed almost instantly and his Glock had been seized almost at gun point by the Special Weapons and Tactical Unit. They had grilled him for two hours before a phone call was received. Moments later, not only was he released with an apology but his weapon was also returned to him.
The Detective Superintendent himself escorted Jennings from the Police Station, “We received a communication from the Prime Ministers office. It appears you have friends in high places and it also appears that this…incident is one of national importance. The entire enquiry has been taken over by Special Branch.”
Jennings knew that Mister Smith had built up many connections over the years with Special Branch, MI5, MI6 and the Secret Service plus one or two other departments that the public didn’t know about. So Jennings wasn’t surprised at being released. Neither was he surprised to find the story never made the papers or the televised news.
He checked his weapon, unbuttoned his jacket for easy access and knocked loudly on the solid Iron wood double doors. There was hum followed by a click and the right hand door silently swung open on well oiled mechanical hinges. Jennings rubbed his neck and received three separate electronic clicks in his concealed ear piece. “Keep sharp.” He whispered to thin air and received another three separate clicks.
Stepping over the threshold, Jennings found himself in a huge vacant ground floor. The door silently closed behind him. The warehouse floor had one light over a large mesh style gated goods lift over by the far wall. He took the hint and made his way slowly and carefully to the lift door. Before he could press the down button, the lift started to descend.
Jennings stepped back from the lift and held his right hand across his chest, near the grip of his Glock. The lift arrived and he was relieved to see it was the teenage boy. Then he noticed he was dressed in leather and was holding what appeared to be some sort of old Mormon type Preachers hat in his hand.
Chris smiled, as he reached for the gates handle and pulled upwards. Again the well oiled heavy lift gate rose easily.
“Welcome Mister Jennings.”
Jennings stepped inside and stood over to the left with his back to the wall, “William. It’s William Jennings but my friends call me Billy.”
Chris held out his hand, “I used to be called Chris.”
Jennings shook the offered hand, ‘Now what did that mean. Yet another damn question!’
Chris closed the gate and pressed the button marked level 4. He watched as they passed each pitch black floor until they reached level four. The place was well lit and he could instantly see it was fitted out for accommodation.
The first thing that surprised him as the gate opened was the lack of luxury. This was more like a posh military barracks. Now he’d done a little background check on his employer. After all, he didn’t want to find he was working for a criminal or worse some foreign terrorist group. Smith, which he guessed wasn’t his real name, owned dozens of companies all over the world. In fact he had his fingers in hundreds of pies and seemed to be well known (but on a very private level) in many high flying circles with dozens of top ranking politicians, military personnel and the nameless people who run the countries Intelligence services all over the world. Three things he found out did however surprise him. The first being Mister Smith was the richest man or woman on the face of this planet and no one knew. The second fact was Mister Smiths signature appeared on numerous contracts dating back hundreds of years at the very least. For all that he expected to find him living in some lavish penthouse on top of the warehouse.
The third thing far outweighed the first and was new to the list. When he saw for the first time the others gathered to greet him. ‘What the heck was this all about?’
Anvil strode over to greet him. Jennings couldn’t keep his eyes off that bloody big hammer! He allowed himself to be led around the group as Anvil made the introductions. His eyes flickered from faces to weapons and back again. They all had this weird white hair do! He paused longer to stare first at Huntress white eyes, at Hot Cross with electrical sparks coming from his finger tips! Heartless and his metal hands, the one armed knife man and someone who couldn’t seem to stand still in the one spot for more than a few seconds, then of course there was the massively huge bulk that was Rage. He also noticed the injuries. He was introduced to a Priest of all things, one heck of a big lad who actually blessed him and a gunslinger of all people. Finally again more formally to the lad called Chris but who everyone else called Judgement. He did look like some old fashioned judgemental preacher with that hat he seemed to like wearing indoors.
He was shown to a seat and sat down next to the gunslinger called Bulls Eye and again checked out his weapons. “They for real?”
Bulls Eye silently handed over one of his Colts. Jennings loved guns and recognised the real deal when he saw one.
“Nice weapon, you got the barrel rifled I see?”
“Only thing wrong with old Samuel Colts Peacemakers. I use special loads too.”
Jennings remembered the kid laying his hand over his own gun and giving it some sort of blessing. “Let me guess, dipped in holy water or silver bullets made from a church cross.”
Bulls Eye was impressed, “Almost right. Hydro bullets, each one’s filled with a drop of holy water. They explode on impact.”
Jennings raised an eyebrow, “Hydro bullets were illegal last time I looked.”
Bulls Eye kept a straight face, “Then don’t look.”
Anvil called for silence, “Now that you’ve all met Mister Jennings…”
Chris cut in with, “Call him Billy.”
Anvil took a deep breath, “okaaaaay Billy it is. Now we’ve all met each other and in order to save you time and questions. I’ll explain things as best as possible.”
Jennings sat there in silence as Anvil slowly explained in detail his story and that of The Twelve. As Anvil described each member of the team, Jennings looked at each one in turn but said nothing. Anvil told Jennings all about the Shades, ghouls and of course, the Dark. He left out the other monsters and beasts at this point in time. Even Chris was unaware of the exact details, time for that later.
Finally he explained about the arrival of Chris as Judgement and Coffee as The Chosen One. Finished, Anvil walked over to the kitchens fridge and took out a case of beers, offering one first to Jennings then the ladies and finally the others. Chris held out his hand hopefully.
“Not you Chris you’re under age.”
Jennings took the offered beer, pulled the ring pull and took a deep swallow of the cold golden liquid.
“Now correct me if I get this wrong.” He started to say.
“Some of you are six or seven thousand years old. You’ve all died and been re-born with new names and certain abilities.” He glanced to Rage and Hot Cross as an example.
“Chris here is this Judgement mentioned in several ancient prophesies that you received from God.”
He pointed the beer at Priest, “You all fight and destroy grey slime balls called Shades that I shot up yesterday and they move around in this In Between place that human can’t see and thanks to the Devil it’s also been blocked off to you for the moment.”
“I’m working on that!” Chris replied, defen
ding himself.
Jennings took another mouthful of beer, “These creatures are led by a group of twelve monsters, called The Dark. Well, eleven now that I saw Chris here kill one of them. This Edge person used to be in charge until this Coffee girl, called The Chosen One came on the scene.”
He took another swallow,” You’ve been in a sort of ever lasting limbo, destroying Shades and ghouls and God knows what else over thousands of years until the arrival of Chris and Coffee. But now wars been declared and judging … no pun intended”
He glanced towards Chris, “… and judging by the way Chris here or Judgement beat up and destroyed that monster you called Shadow. War has now been officially declared. I think you lot should be able to handle what’s left of The Dark and thankfully you don’t need my help.”
Anvil glanced at Priest who raised an eyebrow, “Well that’s not exactly true.”
Priest belched loudly, “Excuse me. There’s something you and Chris need to know, unless Judgements filled in the blanks?”
Both Chris and Jennings asked together, “What blanks?”
Priest helped himself to half a cooked chicken, tearing off a huge chunk with his teeth he explained that once Coffee arrived and war was declared, it altered the status quoi. The Dark was free now to add further numbers of re- born to there ranks.
“What!” Chris exclaimed.
Anvil added, ”We’re limited to twelve but The Dark can now add a further six.”
Priest swallowed a chunk of meat, ”It’s biblical. We sort of represent the first twelve disciples. The Dark can increase to eighteen and before you ask, six plus six, plus six, makes eighteen, 666 the mark of the Devil. In effect the other side found a loophole and can now exploit it.”
Chris could only stare. Jennings was more explicate.
“Don’t blaspheme!” Priest automatically rebuked Jennings.
“So you will need my help?” He asked.
Anvil nodded, “ With the Shades and ghouls.”
Jennings finished his beer, “ I take care of them so that leaves you free to fight The Dark. I miss anything out?”
Chris asked, “How can you speak for your men. They didn’t witness what you saw?”
Jennings walked over and placed his now empty beer can on the kitchen counter, “Because they believe me and that’s all that matters.”
A thought suddenly struck Chris, “Priest you sure about the six plus six plus six thing?”
“Six plus six plus six makes eighteen in my book.” He replied.
Chris looked first to Priest, then to Anvil, finally back to Priest, “What if it’s six times six, times six times six!”
Priests face went white,” That means a total of two hundred and sixteen!”
Anvil glared at Priest, “One of your prophesies?”
Priest was sweating freely, “It said, ‘When war comes upon the Twelve, so shall The Dark number six, six, six.’ I always thought it meant eighteen in number!”
Jennings rubbed his cropped hair cut, “In my book it also reads six hundred and sixty six.”
Rage was the only one to answer, “Big fight!” He was grinning from ear to ear.
All Heartless could say was, “Shit!” followed by, “I’d better get out the special attachments.”
Jennings looked to Chris for an explanation but all he could do was shrug. Patch explained, informing him that Heartless had a razor sharp curved blade with a serrated back edge that he kept for special occasions, “It snaps in behind the claw.”
Bulls Eye pointed to the tell tale bulge under Jennings jacket, “Speaking of weapons, you’re carrying a gun. You’re ex SAS so I suppose you must be good. I hope all your men carry firearms as well. ”
Jennings removed his Glock 21, “Standard issue, all my class A field agents carry them.” Then he smiled.
“One or two prefer more deadly items. But then you haven’t met ‘Boom Boom’ or ‘One Shot’ yet . Like you said, speaking of weapons, I hope you’ve got more than those two pea shooters!”
Speed was about ask who the heck ‘Boom Boom’ was, when Bulls Eye smirked, “Oh yes I’ve collected a few nice pieces in my time.”
Anvil interrupted, calling an end to todays meeting. He warned Jennings that his life would be in constant danger from this point on.
“I know you’re divorced, no children, no brothers, sisters or parents still living. But if any of the rest of your team are married or have someone close that they care about. Best warn them that this could and most likely will prove fatal for some of them.”
Jennings remembered emptying his weapon into those grey faceless Shades and the creature called Shadow ripping his mans head open. “I’ll call them all in as soon as I get back. We have a contingency plan. All family members are sent to one of twelve secret locations and stay there until the all clear, funny how twelve keeps cropping up.”
Priest had Rage collect a heavy holdall for Jennings, “Twelve, fifty round boxes of nine millimetre ammo, all blessed and converted to Hydro Bullets. Best you share this out between you and your men. I will have more ready when you need it.”
Jennings thanked him, “Best I don’t get stopped then.”
Anvil gave him an ID with his photo attached, “I had this prepared a while ago. In case you needed it. It gives you full VIP diplomatic immunity. Show this and the police can’t search you.”
Jennings looked at the ID, “Looks real.”
Anvil nodded, “It is. You don’t get to be seven thousand years old without making very powerful friends.”
Jennings placed it in his inside jacket pocket, “And enemies.”
Anvil grinned, “That too.”
He left Jennings mumbling something about how he needed his head examining, ‘Seven thousand years indeed!’ he mumbled under his breath
Chris let Jennings shake hands with the Twelve before leading him back to the lift gate. As they descended, Jennings asked, “A bit blasphemous, being called the Twelve and comparing yourselves with the first disciplines.”
Chris kept his face straight, “My father once told me he’d met them in person.”
Jennings nearly dropped the holdall, “You mean he met…you know who!”
Chris smiled, “There’s a lot more to my father than meets the eye.”
“Or he could just be nuts. No offence intended.”
Chris ignored the remark,” We’re also known as the Protectorate of the Human Race.”
“Keep it simple, The Twelve it is then. We can’t loose.” Jennings replied straight faced.
Chris turned his head sideways to examine him,” How so?”
Still looking ahead and keeping his face straight, Jennings answered, “Five more than the Magnificent Seven!”
As he started to walk away Jennings had a sudden thought, “You say you’re based on the original number of disciples?”
Chris replied, “Yes it’s a sort of universal balance thing. Why?”
“Which one of you is Judas?”
With that Jennings walked off quickly down the cobbled street, leaving Chris silently staring after him as be walked away.
Chapter Fifteen
“Well that went well.” Priest commented to those talking amongst themselves.
Heartless nudged Speed who winced in pain, “Hear that Speedy. Do you think it went okay?”
Heartless didn’t wait for an answer, “Or is fatty talking a load of old bollocks!” he replied angrily. .
Everyone stopped talking and looked at him as Anvil strode over to stand nose to nose with Heartless.
“You got something to say big mouth? Then say it but don’t ever talk to Priest that way again. You hear me?”
It took all of Heartlesses will power to stand his ground, he held up his missing hands, “Remember how this happened?”
He turned to show everyone present his metal hand and claw.
“You all know what happened. I was in the trenches during the Great War. I thought I was fighting for King and bloody Country.
Three years I was up to my knees in mud with rats trying to eat me every time I fell asleep. I watched my mates die on a daily basis and for what. NOTHING!”
Anvil crossed his arms over his muscular chest,” So you suffered, so what. We all did in one way or the other. What’s that got to do with Jennings and his men?”
Heartless spun back his metal hand pointing its index finger in Anvils face,” It’s got everything to do with him and his men. It’s this fucking war that’s going to escalate.”
Heartless stabbed a finger towards Priest, “Don’t you go saying, ‘that went well’ because it didn’t. I fucking hate wars! Now we’re involving humans and people are going to die!”
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