by Ian Somers
Ballentine and Hunter despised each other, and there was usually a lot of shouting involved when they were forced to work together. Ballentine didn’t trust Hunter at all. He believed the big Scot was irresponsible and old fashioned – which was true most of the time – and never took his advice or believed his theories on investigations.
Hunter began the conversation by telling Ballentine about what had happened at the hospital, then the gathering of spies on Windmill Street, and of the hit list we had found in Brofeldt’s apartment. Ballentine was furious that Hunter hadn’t called for help immediately after the incident at the hospital – I could hear him shouting down the phone from across the room.
Hunter told him to shut his mouth and to send in back-up. This was followed by more shouting from Ballentine. Then Hunter told him to shut up again and gave him the address of the hotel we were staying at and the room number. There was a moment of silence before he threw the phone on the bed.
‘That went well by the sounds of it,’ I snorted. ‘You really hate that man, don’t you?’
‘He’s an awful person to deal with,’ Hunter grumbled as he returned to his chair by the window. ‘Always telling me I’m wrong. He talks to me as if I’m a novice! Romand and I were hunting down gifted murderers long before Ballentine even knew he had a gift! And he thinks he can tell me what’s what! Bloody fool!’
‘Is he going to send help or not?’
‘Four assassins who are stationed in Belfast will be sent to back us up. They should be here in about three hours.’
‘I should leave soon,’ I said. ‘It wouldn’t be wise for me to be here when they arrive.’
‘Hmm,’ Hunter grunted. ‘Probably be for the best. You get your stuff together and you could make it back to your cottage by morning.’
‘I don’t intend to go back there,’ I admitted. ‘I’m going to France. I need to be sure that Cathy is safe.’
‘She is safe.’
‘Not until the Guild gets to the bottom of all this. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if anything happened to her. I have to go to her.’
‘And what if you’re followed? You could lead these people straight to her.’
‘I’m not going back to that empty cottage, Hunter. I’d drive myself mad out there knowing that there are assassins searching for Cathy.’
‘They are also searching for you.’
‘I can look after myself.’
‘I think it would be best if you remain here with me. Now that I think of it, you might not be safe in the cottage alone.’
‘No way. I can’t work for the Guild again. If the other agents see me here, the entire Guild will know about it within a day or two. I swore to myself, and Cathy, that I would never go back to this type of work.’
‘You already broke that promise, Bentley.’
‘But she doesn’t know that.’
‘Take an hour to think it over.’ Hunter climbed onto the bed and rested his head on the pillows and let out a long, tired sigh. ‘Wake me up when you decide what to do.’
I turned away from him and looked out over the street. I had three options: To remain with Hunter, to return to the isolated cottage, or to travel to France and protect Cathy. Remaining at the hotel was the safest, and probably the most sensible, course of action, but it would lead me back into the Guild. The other options represented serious danger, but I would at least be following my own path by choosing either of them. There was no easy way out for me. Why did I always end up in disasters like this?
An excruciating hour passed. At one point I was sure that leaving for France was the right option and was about to sneak away into the night. I couldn’t bring myself to do it, though, and ended up sitting by the window once more. I raised the binoculars to my eyes and focused them on the apartment across the street. Wilson was standing by the window, talking and gesticulating. It seemed like he was arguing with someone again.
I twisted the rim of the binoculars and zoomed in on the window. Wilson filled most of the frame, but I could still make out the couch behind him. There was no one sitting on it. There didn’t appear to be anyone else in the room. Who the hell was he arguing with? And where were Verbannk, Brofeldt and Vanev if they weren’t in the apartment?
I drew back from the window and allowed the binoculars to slip from my hands. By the time they landed on the floor I was shivering. My precognitive gift had come alive. I was sensing extreme danger. My brain felt like it was on fire. My limbs were shaking uncontrollably. I was so disorientated that I barely heard the knock on the door.
‘They’re early,’ Hunter groaned as he left the bed. ‘They shouldn’t be here for at least another hour.’
‘Get away from the door!’ I screamed. ‘Get down!’
My body became energised as panic swamped my senses. I bolted out of my seat and flung my arms forward, releasing the immense power that was building inside me. A wave of psychokinetic energy rolled across the room, cracking the plaster of the walls, splitting the wooden floor and blasting the door into a hurricane of splinters. I heard Hunter cry out as debris showered him. He tumbled to the floor like a rag doll, then scrambled away hissing in agony, and disappeared through the open door to the bathroom.
In the hallway, as the dust settled, I saw Verbannk slumped against the far wall. His body was bent and soaked in blood, his eyes still wide with the shock he had experienced in the instant the blast had killed him. I stood in the centre of the room breathing heavily and staring at the dead man, when I really should have been preparing for what I knew was about to come.
My precognitive gift brought me to my senses. I sensed that the danger was yet to pass and that I would soon be under renewed attack. I looked through the shattered door frame and a warm light consumed the hallway … just before a thick funnel of flames twisted into the room. Brofeldt’s gift of pyrokinesis was only supposed to be partial. Judging by the inferno she had created, it was clear Hunter’s assessment of her abilities was very wrong – she was a master of that deadly gift.
The funnel of flame rose up and struck the ceiling of the hotel room, then exploded out above me in all directions. I created a spherical energy shield and it protected me as the furniture on all sides was set alight and the window behind me exploded from the intense heat that was rising in the room. I held the protective barrier in place for a few seconds, but the heat managed to radiate through it and there was steam rising from my clothes and sweat was leaking from my skin. I was slowly being cooked within the shield I had created, and all the while more and more flames were rolling into the room from the hallway. Within seconds I would pass out, the shield would collapse and I’d be burned alive. I looked through the doorway and saw that Brofeldt was standing in sight, laughing wildly as flames swept from her hands and incinerated everything in the room. I was losing control. The shield was slowly but surely giving way.
I did the only thing I could: I collapsed the shield and used the energy within me to blow a hole in the wall to my left. I dashed through the flames and leaped into the opening and landed on the floor of the next hotel room. There was no time to waste. Hesitating for even a few seconds would see this room under attack and I would find myself being cooked once more. My only option was to go on the offensive.
My temper was rising and with it came a tremendous power. I raced across the room and forced out a bolt of energy ahead of myself that slapped the door right out of its frame. I sprang forward into the hallway and fired out a slice of energy blindly to my right. I watched as Brofeldt was cut down, the psychokinetic slice chopping off her left arm above the elbow and opening a ragged wound across her chest.
Vanev stood next to the door to 408 and remained uninjured. Our eyes met and for a couple of seconds we just stood there staring at each other. He wasn’t making the first move, so I went on the attack once more. I launched an invisible spear of energy directly at him. It moved along the hallway at mesmerising speed and struck the end of corridor. Vanev had disappeared in a flash o
f white light before the spear made contact.
A faint trail of white light shot forward and passed though my chest. Hunter had told me that space-rupters like Vanev often left trails of light as they made their jumps through time and space. It was the only way to track them.
I spun around and watched the light moving quickly away before there was another bright flash. When the light faded I saw Vanev had reappeared and was pointing a gun at me. I raised a simple barrier of energy to protect myself before he pulled the trigger. Three loud shots went off and, to my astonishment, the bullets shattered my shield. Two bullets embedded themselves in the wall next to me. The third sliced through the arm of my jacket, so close to my skin that I felt the heat of it in my bicep. Bullets that could penetrate psychokinetic shields? This would certainly level the playing field.
I couldn’t stand there and face him. Even I, with my great powers, could not contend with this new weaponry. Again I had to attack. And in more creative ways.
I focused on the doorways either side of Vanev as he pulled the trigger again. The two heavy wooden doors were wrenched from their hinges and sandwiched him. Well, that’s what I thought at first – until I saw a line of light darting away. He had disappeared again just before he was clattered from both sides.
I ran along the hallway, following the misty trail that Vanev left in his wake as he used his gift to slip through the barrier of reality. The trail arced along the hallway and through into a room on the right. He wasn’t getting away from me. I sprinted along the hallway, launched a wave of energy ahead of myself that ripped a gaping hole in the wall, then bounded through the rubble into the room to see Vanev at the far wall firing shots at me. I jumped to the floor, one bullet missing me, another was so close that it severed a lock of hair from the top of my scalp. From the floor I shot out a small, precise burst of energy at him, but again he disappeared into a flash of light. This guy was really starting to annoy me!
I saw his wake of light spiralling around the room before sinking through the floor. I had to be relentless if I was to catch him. I climbed to my feet and fired a shot of energy at the floor that opened a hole to the room below. I quickly jumped through it and landed in the third floor room and saw the trail sinking through the wall into yet another room. I blasted my way into the next room then ducked to evade another flurry of gun fire. I rolled across the floor and released a burst of energy in all directions. Vanev was struck by it and bounced off a desk by the window. He was slowing down. I almost had him.
I clambered off the floor and prepared to attack, but to my frustration Vanev slipped away once more. This time the trail moved upward, back to the fourth floor. I fired energy downward and was lifted upward, though the hole in the ceiling to the fourth floor room again. I caught sight of the trail of light gliding across the room and through the ceiling. I raised my arms and screamed as I released a terrible wave of psychokinetic power. There was an almighty blast as the ceiling opened up to show the low clouds above.
I took one deep breath, levitated through the opening in the building and landed on the roof. I turned and saw a burst of light further across the rooftop. Vanev had finally made a mistake. He had gone to the roof where there was nowhere to conceal himself. He was out in the open at last. By the time he lifted the gun I had already shot an invisible burst of energy at him. He crumbled to his knees, clutching at a melon-sized hole in his stomach.
‘You didn’t do your homework, Mr Vanev,’ I said confidently as I strode towards him. ‘Didn’t your friends tell you that I’m a born killer?’
‘You …’ Vanev gasped. He stumbled forward and looked up at me. ‘You … are the devil …’
‘Yeah, and you’re an angel. Who are you working for?’ I stooped to pick up the strange handgun that he’d armed himself with. ‘Where did you get this bloody thing?’
‘From the people …’ he coughed out a mouthful of blood onto the rooftop, ‘… who will kill you and your kind. The world cannot be subjected … to the horror …’
He was dead before he finished the sentence. What on earth was he talking about? What horror could the Guild pose? It didn’t make any sense at all. Perhaps he was the crazed fanatic that Hunter claimed he would be, after all.
‘Crap,’ I hissed. In the chaos of the battle I had forgotten all about Hunter. He’d scrambled into the bathroom to escape the inferno. He’d surely be dead by now if he hadn’t managed to find a way out.
Sirens were wailing in the distance as I found my way back to 408. Flames were still spewing through the doorway and part of the hallway was on fire, thick smoke rippling along the ceiling and walls. Guests were screaming and shouting in the hallways below. Amid this chaos I saw that Hunter had managed to free himself. He had dragged Brofeldt along the corridor, away from the fire, and was looming over her, a tendril of electricity joining his hands with her face.
‘Hunter, we have to get out of here,’ I shouted at him as I approached. ‘In a couple minutes this place will be crawling with police.’
‘I’m extracting information, Bentley,’ he shouted back. ‘Shut up, will you? She’s near death.’
I stood a few yards away, half watching Hunter electrocuting the spy, half watching the stairwell at the end of the corridor. I had just killed two people. That didn’t weigh too heavily on me, though. I had taken the lives of Verbannk and Vanev in the heat of battle and I only did it to save myself. This, on the other hand, was torture and it wasn’t easy to stand by and watch. To my shame, I did nothing. I could not intervene.
‘Who are you working for?’ Hunter shouted at Brofeldt. ‘Tell me and I will bring this to an end. Don’t put yourself through unnecessary pain. I can make this even worse if you don’t talk!’
She screamed as the electricity became more intense and connected to her temples.
‘Talk!’ Hunter shouted at her. ‘Talk, damn you!’
He took his hands away from her face and the stinging lines of electricity quickly fizzled away into thin air.
‘Tell me who you are working for!’
‘I’ll tell you,’ Brofeldt said weakly. She was almost dead, had been tortured and was facing a most brutal man in Hunter. Still she managed a defiant grin. ‘I’ll tell you that your time is coming to an end. You and your lot are finished. A new dawn is creeping up on the horizon.’
‘Cut the crap!’ Sparks of electricity began to spin around Hunter’s fingers again. ‘Tell me or else.’
‘You’re too late to stop us, you fool. The Master has been working against the Guild for decades. He has dozens of loyal soldiers and they have been in positions of power for years. We have people working in governments, in the police services of many countries, and we even have people inside the Guild. And we’ve all been very busy working on the revolution.’
‘Who are you working for?’ I couldn’t stop myself from asking. ‘Is it Golding?’
‘Golding?’ She tried to laugh. ‘Golding works for us now. We seized control of his entire organisation three months ago. Now do you realise how hopeless your situation is? You are facing a legion of gifted soldiers, all dedicated to one cause, to one man, and we have the arsenal and finances of Golding Scientific at our disposal. And soon we’ll merge Golding Scientific with the Guild of the True.’
‘Lies,’ Hunter insisted. He pressed his fist against her swollen cheek. ‘Lies!’
‘It’s true,’ she spat. ‘You’ll see.’
‘We’ll stop this master of yours,’ I said.
‘No, you won’t,’ Brofeldt boasted. ‘The two of you will be dead soon. The Master will send his finest assassin after what you have done here tonight. He’ll track you down and murder you both without breaking sweat.’
‘Who is this master?’ Hunter asked. ‘Tell me his name.’
‘Get ready for a surprise, Hunter,’ she replied weakly.
‘Who is it?’
Brofeldt’s eyes rolled back in her head and she slumped to one side, dead. The floor all around her was soaked in h
er blood, as were Hunter’s clothes and hands. He looked like a killer from a slasher movie as he straightened up and turned to me. Only now, that I could get a good look at him, did I see that one side of his face was riddled with splinters of various sizes, his eyes were bloodshot and his nose was badly busted.
‘Bentley, I will beat you to death with my bare hands if you ever blow up a door in my face again.’
‘I didn’t have time to warn you properly,’ I explained. ‘And we don’t have time to debate this right now.’
The hallway was filling with black smoke as the fire spread to other rooms. The sirens were screaming outside and raised voices were coming from the stairs. We were almost out of time.
‘We need to get moving,’ I said. ‘Let’s find a way out of here.’
‘Just give me a moment,’ Hunter said, leaning against the wall. ‘I need to catch my breath.’
It was only then that I noticed a shard of wood, as thick as my forearm, sticking out of his stomach.
‘Oh, my God,’ I gasped. ‘Hunter, you’ve got a –’
‘I know,’ he sighed. ‘I know.’
‘How deep in is it?’
‘A few inches I would say.’
‘We need to get you to a hospital.’
‘No,’ Hunter insisted. ‘It’s too much of a risk.’
‘Too much of a risk? Hunter, that injury will kill you if you’re not operated on.’
‘I refuse to allow a piece of wood to kill me.’ He forced himself off the wall and stood, rather unsteadily, in front of me. ‘I’m using my powers to stem the blood loss. I’ll be all right for a couple of hours.’