The Secret Gift

by Ian Somers

  I slipped my feet into the boots and watched the laces tie themselves up as if they had a life of their own. Using the gift again felt good. It made me feel alive once more. I stood and zipped up my jacket and took another deep breath. I could see no sense in hiding. I’d been isolated for far too long. I owed Hunter a favour and would repay it. That’s how I justified walking out the door with him.

  ‘Have you got a mode of transport?’ I asked as we strode from the cottage.

  ‘No, I was planning on walking the entire fifty miles to the hospital.’ Hunter rolled his eyes and shook his head. ‘Of course I have a mode of transport. Remember, I’ve been doing this sort of thing since before you were born.’

  ‘No need to be so smart!’ I barked. ‘You’re a bloody weirdo, Hunter. It wouldn’t surprise me if you’d been bussing around the country.’

  ‘Wouldn’t catch me dead on a bus,’ he replied arrogantly. ‘I have a 4x4 parked a few miles away.’

  ‘A few miles?’

  ‘I didn’t want you to see me coming. I thought you might have locked yourself away in the cottage if you had.’

  ‘Did you steal this 4x4?’

  ‘I hardly went out and bought one,’ he snorted. ‘You should know the way I operate by now, Bentley.’

  ‘I know you all too well. I know you’re the most reckless person I’ve ever met. And when you’re out and about in the real world you act like a common criminal. Which makes me more than a little wary of partnering up with you again.’

  ‘I’m reckless? Look who’s bloody talking!’

  ‘I’m not as reckless as I used to be. I’ve changed.’

  ‘So you keep telling me. Even though it took less than an hour to convince you to join me on this little escapade. You’re as reckless as ever.’

  ‘I’ll end up turning back if you keep saying that.’

  ‘No, you won’t.’

  ‘I might.’

  ‘You won’t.’

  The 4x4, which looked strikingly similar to Hunter’s old Defender, was parked on the side of the road, a mile outside the nearest village. We climbed in and he sent a shot of electricity from his hand that sparked around the broken ignition and fired the engine. He lit a cigar and blew smoke in my face and laughed before shifting gear and flooring the accelerator. The 4x4 lurched forward, almost breaking my neck, and we were on our way into the unknown. Only now did I remember how much I hated travelling with Hunter.

  ‘Slow down,’ I hollered over the growl of the engine. ‘You shouldn’t be driving so fast in a stolen vehicle.’

  ‘You need to get out more, Bentley. You’re starting to sound like an old granny.’

  ‘If the police see you speeding they’ll run a check on the registration plate and realise that this old banger is stolen.’

  ‘So?’

  ‘So, we don’t want to get arrested.’

  ‘Arrested!’ He broke into a fit of laughter. ‘We won’t get arrested, you fool. Can you imagine the police trying to capture me?’

  ‘I know they wouldn’t stand a chance. My point is that we don’t want to draw attention to ourselves.’

  ‘I’ll cloak the vehicle if a squad car appears. Try to calm down, will you?’

  ‘Sorry,’ I replied. I really was starting to sound like an old granny. ‘Maybe I don’t have the nerve for this type of work anymore.’

  ‘That’s a crock of shit, Bentley, and you know it.’

  ‘It’s not. My hands are bloody shaking here.’

  ‘That’s because you ran away after the trouble last year. You suffered a lot at the hands of that lunatic, and understandably it instilled in you a great deal of fear. The trouble is you ran away and never faced down your fears. You know what happens to a person when they run away from their fears?’

  ‘I have a feeling you’re about to tell me.’

  ‘Their mind blows the fear out of all proportion. They become obsessed with that fear. Everything starts to represent that fear. They become fearful of doing the most mundane tasks, like leaving the house or walking along a busy street. They start to lose their sanity. Sound familiar?’

  ‘Maybe.’

  ‘I believe that is the road you’re on. You haven’t lost your mind entirely yet, but you will eventually. This exercise might help you overcome the fear and make you feel like the person you once were.’

  ‘We’ll see.’

  ‘Trust me, this little sortie will make you feel a whole lot better about your life.’

  ‘Hunter, I need to ask you one question: Is this simply an attempt to coax me back into the Guild?’

  ‘I wouldn’t do that.’

  ‘Honestly, why on earth would you call on me to do this? Surely there are better suited people in the Guild to partner you?’

  ‘Bentley, I don’t like telling you this, but in all my years with the Guild I have not come across a better human being than you. And you’re also a damn good investigator. And there’s few in this world who I’d want by my side in a fight. As for the Guild, there’s been a lot of changes over the last year. I don’t like the way it’s being changed. People are becoming very secretive. I’ve been forced to the fringe of the day-to-day dealings. I don’t have many who I can call on to help me when I’m out of my depth. That’s why I searched you out. I need to work with someone I can trust.’

  ‘That’s all nice to hear, Hunter. It doesn’t seem right, though, that someone like you wouldn’t be at the heart of the Guild’s war plans. Why on earth are you out here in the middle of nowhere chasing down a phantom like Wilson? You should be one of the leaders in the war against Golding.’

  ‘I haven’t exactly been popular since the incident in Portsmouth. I think some of my colleagues are trying to force me out of the Guild because of it. In all honesty, there are lots of people in the Guild who have been looking for an excuse to stab me in the back.’

  ‘I suppose it’s understandable.’ I thought back to the tsunami that struck Portsmouth and the carnage it caused. So many people had lost so much, and Hunter and I were partly to blame because we had followed Zalech without informing the Guild. ‘I remember you and I were convinced we’d be expelled after that disaster. Remember that?’

  ‘How could I forget,’ he sighed. ‘There is more to it. The Guild is going through a change at the moment. There’s a war coming and when it’s finished there will be a lot of jostling for power and position. At least that’s the way I see it. A lot of veterans like me are getting the cold shoulder in anticipation of that power struggle.’

  ‘You think there’s going to be a change in leadership?’

  ‘Not likely. There’s no one on this earth who could dislodge Jim Sterling. The Council and the ranks of senior agents is another thing entirely. There are lots of ambitious people who are watching those positions with envious eyes. People who don’t want to wait until agents like me are ready to retire.’

  ‘I’m glad I walked out on the Guild when I did. Sounds like it’s becoming very different from the vision that Jonathan Atkinson once had.’

  ‘Cathy told you about all that?’

  Cathy rarely mentioned her father, and when she did, it certainly wasn’t about his work with the Guild. He’d practically rebuilt the entire organisation in the early 1990s, after he’d overthrown the previous Council, and their maniacal leader Brian Blake – who’d murdered Hunter’s aunt. I’d found all this out by snooping around Hunter’s home the year before.

  ‘Did she?’ Hunter persisted.

  ‘Yeah. How else would I have known?’ I gave a nervous smile. He’d kill me if he knew I’d found out about his past from nosing around his home. ‘Anyway, the Guild seems to be taking to a dark road. Maybe Jim Sterling wants it to go that way.’

  ‘Sterling is an honourable man,’ Hunter said, almost insulted that I had questioned the leader of the Guild. ‘I won’t hear a bad word about him.’

  ‘It might not matter how honourable he is if the new Council turns on him.’

  ‘As I said
, there’s no one on earth who could shift him.’

  ‘Why? You used to complain that he never got his hands dirty and that he rarely left the Palatium. How do you know he’s so powerful if he never gets involved in the action?’

  ‘Sterling is the leader. Leaders don’t do the ground work, Bentley. Haven’t you ever played chess?’

  ‘I played against my dad when I was a kid.’

  ‘Seems like you’ve forgotten the methodology of the game.’

  ‘I’m simply making the point that he might not be as powerful as he boasts. Therefore, he could be overthrown by one or more of these ambitious agents you mentioned.’

  ‘I know what that man is capable of. He’s as strong as any gifted person I’ve ever known.’

  ‘Well, my gifts are very strong, but I’m also terrified of carrying out the most basic of missions. Sterling mightn’t have the bottle for a fight.’

  ‘Jim Sterling has fought the deadliest foe imaginable and lived to tell the tale. I’m quite sure he’ll be able to contend with a few arrogant agents who fancy a promotion.’

  ‘Who is this foe you speak of?’

  ‘Never mind,’ he grunted. ‘It’s of no importance now.’

  I’d only ever seen Hunter react like that once before. It was when I quizzed him about the Kematian – the great terror that had once threatened the Guild and almost destroyed it.

  ‘He faced the Kematian, didn’t he?’

  ‘I told you it wasn’t important.’

  ‘Come on, Hunter. Did he fight the Kematian or not?’

  ‘You’re a real nag, Bentley, you know that!’

  ‘Tell me and I’ll shut up.’

  ‘Yes,’ he sighed, ‘Jim Sterling faced the Kematian.’

  ‘Where and when? I thought the Kematian disappeared a long time ago.’

  ‘He did.’ Hunter flicked his cigar end out the open window then rolled it up, as if someone might hear him. ‘How much do you know about the story?’

  ‘I know the Kematian’s real name was James Barkley, and that apparently he was once a good man. He had banded together with other young gifted people back in the 1980s and they were planning to set up their own organisation – something like the Guild. From what I heard, Barkley was supremely gifted and that’s what brought him to Paul Golding’s attention. Golding tried to hire him and Barkley refused. That’s when Golding decided to kill him.’

  ‘Yes,’ Hunter nodded, ‘this is fairly typical of Golding’s attitude towards the gifted; if they’re not willing to join him, then they’re his enemy and should be eliminated.’

  ‘He’s a disgusting individual!’ I spat. ‘I wonder how many gifted have died because of him.’

  ‘Too many,’ said Hunter soberly. ‘Do you know what happened when Golding tried to have Barkley assassinated?’

  ‘He hired a mageleton to track Barkley down. I can’t remember all of what Romand told me, but somehow the mageleton found Barkley and his friends on a small island in south-east Asia. She created a tsunami that swept over the island, destroying it and killing all of Barkley’s friends. Barkley flew into a rage, and in that moment he achieved a higher power. It became known as the sixteenth gift. The problem was that his mind couldn’t handle such an immense gift and it drove him completely insane. Apparently he went on to commit many atrocities. There was also talk of him raising the dead …’

  ‘Accurate enough,’ Hunter said. ‘Except for one detail.’

  ‘And that is?’

  ‘Not all of Barkley’s friends were killed. One survived.’

  ‘Jim Sterling?’ I gasped.

  ‘Aye. And he faced what his old friend had become.’

  ‘Wow,’ I breathed. ‘And I thought I’d been in some spectacular fights. How did Sterling survive? What gifts does he have?’

  ‘That’s enough of the history lesson. Remember, you don’t want to know anything about the true gifts or of the Guild anymore.’

  ‘I don’t want to be a part of the Guild. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to know about the single most dramatic moment in the history of gifted people.’

  ‘I’d be expelled from the Guild if they knew I had shared that piece of information with you. The story of the Kematian is top secret. Try to keep that little anecdote to yourself, eh?’

  ‘Who am I going to tell, my cat?’

  ‘I don’t even want your cat knowing about any of that.’

  ‘Suit yourself.’

  In the silence that followed I realised my heart was racing. The story of the Kematian was thrilling to me still, even over two years after I first heard about it. I imagined Sterling and Barkley on a decimated and isolated island using their immeasurable powers against one another, in what was probably the most important gifted duel there had ever been. Despite my apprehension in working with the Guild, I still had a thirst for knowledge of the gifted world. Ever since Romand gave me the first glimpse into the history of the Guild I’d had an insatiable desire for knowledge.

  I wondered then if the gifted of future generations would read of how Romand and I had fought Marianne, about the search for Sarah Fisher and how pivotal it turned out to be; would they learn of my conflict with Edward Zalech, and of how I had created a new technique of psychokinesis to destroy him.

  ‘Stop dwelling on the past,’ Hunter said, snatching me from my thoughts. ‘Mind on the present.’

  ‘All right,’ I replied, ‘do you have a plan this time or are we jumping in with our eyes closed as usual?’

  ‘This should be simple enough as long as we can get into the hospital room without being noticed,’ Hunter said. ‘The authorities think this unfortunate detective is a madman because of what happened with Wilson. So, despite him being on death’s door, they will have at least two armed guards stationed at the hospital.’

  ‘Will they be in our way?’

  ‘I’m not sure. I’m guessing they would be posted outside the room. If that is the case, I will cloak us both and we’ll slip into the room without being noticed. Then you’ll be free to work your magic while I keep watch.’

  ‘What if there’s a guard in the room?’

  ‘I think that’s unlikely. I have some experience of situations such as this; they never have a guard in the room.’

  ‘What happens if they notice us, despite our cloak?’

  ‘They won’t.’

  ‘There’s always the possibility!’

  ‘You’re going out of your way to be awkward now.’

  ‘I’ll blame you if we’re caught.’

  ‘Of that I have no doubt.’

  I gazed out the window at the shimmering grasslands around us, the dark hills to the east, the rolling grey clouds that caressed their peaks. It was a grim afternoon. Not too different from the day when Hunter and I travelled across Scotland to begin the search for Sarah Fisher. That inspired a horrible sensation in my stomach. Anxiety was never far away and I had to fight it back by turning my thoughts to matters unrelated to Edward Zalech. I tried to think of something else and only succeeded in dwelling an even darker image. The sinister figure of the Kematian filled my mind. I was amazed to hear that Jim Sterling had actually faced him and lived. That gave me some hope that the world would survive if he ever returned. The memory of the scribbled drawing in Sarah Fisher’s diary dashed my hope again. I’d always felt since seeing that drawing that the Kematian still lived, and would someday return to terrorise us all. I’d never been very fond of Sterling, but now I hoped he’d stay alive and well for a long time to come.

  The longer the silence lasted, the more that old nagging fear was rising in me and I was questioning my decision to join Hunter on this investigation again. I had to stop myself from thinking of darkness and dread. I needed something else to ponder as we made our way north along the coast.

  ‘When did you go back to working for the Guild?’ I asked to break my grim chain of thought. ‘Last time I saw you I doubted that you’d be up for anything more strenuous than housekeeping.’

&n
bsp; ‘Can you seriously picture me as a housekeeper?’ he said with a smile. ‘I’m still troubled by my injuries but I wasted no time in getting back to work. As soon as I could manage a sprint I was looking for a new investigation to work on.’

  ‘Have you worked on any thrilling cases?’

  ‘My first few tasks were routine searches for gifted children. They all turned out to be dead ends – all thanks to modern technologies.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘The Guild have a few people who monitor the internet for signs of gifted children – you know, strange and wonderful stories that can’t be explained – so strange that they don’t make it into the mainstream. This method of identification has reaped some reward, but more often than not they’re false alarms. The kids I searched for had featured in online videos displaying impressive powers. All of the videos were doctored. How on earth can youngsters make convincing recordings of themselves disappearing or making objects move?’

  ‘Simple computer programs, Hunter. I think you should stick to the old fashioned methods of investigation.’

  ‘That’s what I told those idiots at the Palatium.’

  ‘I guess I was lucky I never revealed my identity in the videos I used to make.’

  ‘Very lucky. You might have ended up like Marianne Dolloway if you had made yourself known in those silly skateboarding videos.’

  My life had been no picnic since the Million Dollar Gift, but I was rather fortunate not to have been subjected to the type of life Marianne had endured. The mere thought of being manipulated into becoming a violent murderer like her sent a shiver down my spine.

  ‘That’s all you’ve been doing this last year?’ I asked.

  ‘No. After those wild goose chases, I was sent out on proper investigations.’

  ‘Tell me about them.’