‘Give it up, Inspector. I’m taking my men back to the station. You can stay out here and freeze to death for all I care.’ Graystock pulled the edges of his coat together and chafed his hands.
‘Sir.’ Another detective approached, pointing to a commotion taking place about forty yards away, near the edge of the forest. A group of sharply dressed men tried to force their way past the officers on guard.
‘Who the hell is that?’ Graystock squinted through the darkness, recognising one of the men at the group’s head.
‘He says his name is Pascal Ramirez, from the Weyland Corporation,’ the detective replied.
‘What on earth is he doing here?’
‘Says he wants to speak to his son.’
‘Of course.’ Graystock had a sense of grim delight, knowing that this was someone else who wanted answers that Morrow could not provide. ‘Let them through!’ Graystock shouted to his men, and they eased off, stepping aside to allow Pascal and his five aids to pass.
Pascal pointed an accusing finger in Graystock’s direction. ‘Are you in charge here?’ he asked.
‘No, Inspector Morrow is in charge of this…investigation. He has all the answers you’ll need, I should think.’ Graystock gave Morrow a callous little wink and started to walk back to the trees, head tucked down into his coat.
‘Where is he? Where’s my son?’
‘I would love to be in a position to give you some answers, Mr Ramirez. If I found your son, I would most likely find my suspect too, but as yet, we are drawing a blank.’
Pascal could see the number of officers surrounding them – the search dogs and the spotlights – he knew that they meant business. ‘I want to see this, Meadows girl – the one who claims she has seen Heven.’
‘I’m sure you do, but I suggest you calm down and allow your men to take you back to your hotel. Make no mistake, if your son is with my suspect, I will find him. Then you and your solicitors can spend all the time you want making a mockery of our justice system.’ Morrow didn’t like his corporate type any more than he liked precocious yanks.
Pascal glared back at him, sensing that Morrow was keeping something to himself, and cop or no cop he was so desperate that he wanted to beat it out of him. Ever since he’d set down on UK soil, some sixth sense told him that Heven was close, and here, in this place, the feeling was even stronger.
‘Morrow!’ The call from Graystock interrupted them.
‘What is it?’ Morrow shouted back.
‘There’s been a call. It’s the station,’ Graystock replied. No further elaboration was necessary. Morrow just hoped that the reality did not match what he’d conjured in his mind.
2
Vladimir heard the car pull up outside. The engine shut down and a door slammed. It had to be her. No one else would accidently find themselves here at this time of night. As he moved to the back of the cold storage room, his shoulder struck one of the hanging pigs. Navigating the maze of frozen flesh, he reached the stainless steel wall and slid down to a sitting position, resting his head on Medusa’s barrel, as if in prayer. He needed to rely on the shadows that darkness would provide. That was, of course, assuming he could get close enough. Sasakia had used guns and knives ever since she was a teenager. They were almost as natural to her as breathing.
He could hear footsteps moving through each section of the facility. It was only a matter of time before the sliding doors pulled back. He’d only been in the freezer room for a few minutes, but the intense cold already made his whole body ache. The pain from the bruises he’d sustained falling down the manor’s staircase had been lost in his overall discomfort. Unfortunately, it did not disguise his regret for the choices he had made. Now sober again, he was fully aware of his motivations. He wanted Martha and Heven to hate him. They were getting too close. He had begun to trust them, along with the rest of his new acquaintances. Something had to give. He’d inherited this unshakable and destructive trait from the same person who was coming to put him out of his misery. Most families would try to talk through their differences, but that was never the Volanov way. Violence was always at the root of things, and violence would provide the final solution.
The sounds of the footsteps grew closer. Vladimir readied himself to stand, gripping tighter on Medusa’s handle. The red glow of the night filtered across one side of the freezer room as the door slid open. Long shadows from the hanging meat crept over the floor and up along the left wall.
Sasakia stepped inside, her boot heels crunching on the icy concrete. Smiling through the darkness, the scar on her face curled out into a semicircle. She craned her neck, sniffing the chilled air like a huntress, taking up a position with her shoulder pushed against one of the carcasses. ‘I’ll say one thing for you, Vladi. You surprised me. Managing to evade Duma’s aim is an achievement no other man can boast,’ she said.
‘I can’t take all the credit for that. I had some help,’ he replied.
‘So I hear. I thought I knew everything about you, and then these new friends appear out of the blue.’
‘You can blame Illarion for your ignorance. Wasn’t he supposed to be keeping tabs on me?’
‘I don’t want to discuss him.’
‘Oh, I think you do.’ Vladimir pushed himself up against the wall until he stood straight.
‘Illarion had grown complacent. I saw it coming.’
‘Come on, mother. You can’t hide behind your coldness with me. I know it hurt a little bit when I blew his brains out.’
Angry now, Sasakia dodged around to the next row of pigs, slamming her back against the nearest one. ‘He served his purpose. If it weren’t for you, I would still have a husband to be faithful to. What is it about you and the men in my life? Have you always wanted to fuck me yourself, is that it?’
‘Yeah, that’s it – I’m Hamlet. It’s a miracle your putrid womb managed to bare a human child.’ Vladimir laughed at his own remark. ‘In fact, you didn’t. You produced something far more dangerous – a monster from a monster.’
Sasakia laughed back at him in mockery. ‘You always were crazy, even before your trip into the cellar,’ she said.
‘I’m afraid this isn’t craziness. I have an alien living inside of me, running through my veins. It doesn’t matter what happens here. You and everybody else are finished.’
Sasakia humoured him. ‘In that case, I’m grateful. Grateful I got a chance to kill you before the world comes to an end. I want to look into your eyes. I want you to feel what your father felt.’
‘My father was looking into the eyes of someone who loved him when he died.’
‘I loved him. I loved him!’ Sasakia let loose with three shots from her pistol. Two bullets shattered the ribs of a carcass four rows away from Vladimir. The other embedded itself into the metal several feet from his head. She hadn’t pinpointed his location, but she had a general idea. He needed to move, and make his choice carefully.
She opened fire again at the sound of his footsteps. The frozen flesh standing between them shattered like glass. Vladimir covered his face as he ran, getting two shots off himself. He dived for the workbench on the opposite side of the room. A bullet tore straight through a pig’s hind leg, missing his head by inches. He landed awkwardly on his arm, tearing the semi-healed wound once more. Yelping with pain, he skidded across the cold floor behind the workbench.
Sasakia ceased fire. ‘Give up. You weren’t built for murder. You don’t have the stomach for it.’ She moved further into the room, never letting her guard slip. ‘Your father had it in spades until the day you were born. As soon as he held you in his arms, you took his strength away from him, and from me. I always knew the spell you cast would be the death of him.’
‘I’ve killed. Have you forgotten what happened to your boyfriend?’
‘You kill because you’re hurting inside, not because you want to. There’s a difference. That is why you can never win.’
Vladimir had fought for her affection for years, even after his f
ather was killed, especially after his father was killed. Every rejection had whittled him down until he was nothing. He couldn’t believe that even now, he craved her love. He felt sick with rage. The fury pressed down on him, as if the atmosphere had been sucked from the room.
He threw himself forward and the gun blasts began again. The sound was magnified by their metal enclosure. Frozen sections of meat filled the air, but the two of them only had eyes for each other. They were only a few feet apart when the first shot struck its intended target. The bullet entered the underbelly of a carcass, ricocheted from its spine, punched a hole through its frozen flesh, and entered Vladimir’s thigh, knocking him to the ground. As he fell backwards, he managed to release one final shot into the darkness. He landed heavily on his back and the organic debris from the gun battle rained down upon him. His right leg was numb from the gunshot, and a hanging carcass swung precariously above his head.
He sat up just in time to see Sasakia emerge from the smoke. He was ready – ready to receive some final words of spite and a second bullet, this time to his head. ‘The day you have longed for has arrived. Make sure you savour it, because it’s all downhill from here,’ he groaned. The red light from the open door fell across Sasakia’s face. Something trickled from the corner of her mouth, filling the gulley of the scar across her chin. Vladimir glanced down to her chest and saw the circular wound between her breasts from the final shot he’d taken.
As she struggled to raise her arm so she could take aim, Vladimir scrambled back for Medusa. His weapon had slid out of reach, and at full stretch, his fingertips could only tease the surface of its decorative handle. He thought his attempt to retrieve it would be his last action…but death did not follow the click of Sasakia’s trigger, nor did a gun blast. Her gun was out of ammunition, and she did not have the strength to substitute the empty clip. She lost her footing and fell against a hanging pig, just managing to catch hold of the chain suspending it before she collapsed completely. She slid from the icy flesh, landing in a sitting position facing Vladimir.
Forcing himself onto all fours, he tensed in discomfort, the bullet shifting slightly inside the muscle of his thigh. He crawled over to Sasakia. Fresh blood poured from her mouth, darkening her teeth so she looked like a feeding vampire. The clouds from her icy breath puffed out like a steam engine as she hyperventilated through her pain.
Vladimir got right up close. He could feel her heat on his face. There was no feeling of triumph or closure, only pity and despair.
Sasakia lifted her head, mustering her last weary words of malcontent. ‘Everything your father built will die with me.’ A pocket of blood spewed from her throat, cascading down onto her jacket.
‘The FBI has seized a lot of it, and I don’t care about the rest. Money won’t matter where we’re going,’ he replied.
‘You sound so sure.’
‘Even if he’d lived, it would still have ended this way, wouldn’t it?’
Sasakia nodded. It was moment of pure clarity. Vladimir leaned forward and she closed her eyes to accept his kiss. Her flowing blood transferred itself to his mouth. Her eyes remained shut as he pressed Medusa’s barrel into her forehead.
‘Goodbye.’ Vladimir pulled the trigger.
Are We Sleeping?
1
Briaridge Orchard, Bedfordshire
Eventually, the police and entourage of Pascal Ramirez filtered away from Weepington Woods. Once it was certain they would not return, Celeste released her grip and the manor faded back into the world.
The first-born broke the circle and stumbled, holding their heads, disorientated by the meditative state they had helped create. The only hands that remained joined were those of Ashley and Celeste. Ashley addressed them, still under Celeste’s control. ‘We have evaded them for now, but they will be back,’ she said.
‘So what are you saying? We have to leave?’ Martha asked.
‘We cannot hide forever. I am expecting some kind of sign soon from Kaleb and Josie. They must be close to Tylers Green now.’
‘What if they didn’t make it?’ Stuart said, voicing what everyone else was thinking.
‘If something had befallen them, I would know about it, as would you.’
‘So we wait, and do nothing again?’ Martha said.
‘Yes,’ Jerrico said. Everybody turned to look at him. ‘Celeste’s right. We need to know what Kaleb and Josie have found before we make our move.’
‘You’ve changed your tune all of a sudden. Why’s that?’ Heven asked. Standing still, pissing into the wind, didn’t seem like the right option under the circumstances, and they were all suspicious about Jerrico’s sudden turnaround.
‘They have risked their lives for us. I think we should at least give them a little more time.’ Jerrico did believe in what he was saying, but of course, there were other reasons; reasons he didn’t want to share. If it meant getting to Kate, he would follow Celeste’s instructions to the letter, however much that went against his natural inclinations. He despised Clover, but he knew that the creature would never lie to him.
‘Fading the manor like that will have drained you all. Go and get some rest. I will call you as soon as I sense something.’ Celeste remained in communion with Ashley, watching the first-born shuffle reluctantly out of the room.
Stuart and Barnes looked up to Jerrico as he passed by them. He averted his eyes and headed upstairs.
2
Everyone went their separate ways within the house, fearing that sitting around and debating the situation would make things feel even worse.
Heven was hungry and went to the kitchen to fix himself something. Eating meals had become something of an afterthought. When he’d finished, he climbed the stairs with the intention of retiring. But before he could reach his room, Martha opened her door and dragged him inside.
‘What the hell?’ Heven held up his hands in surprise. Martha let him go and stepped away.
‘I need to ask you something, but you have to promise to keep it to yourself. I don’t want the others finding out,’ she whispered.
Martha’s anxiety was obvious. She listened for footsteps in the corridor, squeezing her hands into fists. ‘Even though you scared me half to death, go ahead – ask,’ he said.
Martha moved closer to him again, lowering her voice even more. ‘I don’t trust Celeste. The longer we stay here, the more she worries me.’
‘This is weird, because I remember telling you this back in Arizona, and you shot me down.’
‘I know and I’m sorry. You’d had more experience of her than anyone else, and we should have listened to you. I should have listened to you.’
‘Okay – what are you proposing to do?’ Heven asked.
‘We can’t afford to wait for Kaleb and Josie. We need to know what Cradleworth is planning, and there’s only one way we can find out.’ Martha led him further into the dilapidated section of her mother’s trailer. She’d chosen Davy’s bed instead of her own. She had already pulled the Alien vs. Predator bedspread back at its corner and placed a bottle of sleeping pills next to one of the pillows.
‘You’re insane. This isn’t a solution; this is suicide. If you try to leave this world, he will be waiting for you, and he’ll swallow your fucking soul like an appetiser. There wouldn’t be any way back from that,’ Heven said.
‘I won’t be on my own. I’ll have some help. Evelyn agreed to instruct her carriers to guide me a clear path through.’
‘Listen to yourself. It wasn’t long ago that you thought these dreams were just nightmares. Now you’re talking about navigating your way through the universe. Have you forgotten their leader, Uriel – he never made it back.’
‘You’re wrong. He did make it back. Something happened to him after he took physical form again.’
Heven shook his head, trying to move away, but Martha wouldn’t allow him. She gripped both of his forearms.
‘I’ve been travelling to other worlds for the whole of my life. I know I can make it
,’ she said.
Heven stared at her, trying to comprehend. ‘And Celeste? If she doesn’t know what you’re up to already, she will do very soon. She can read our minds, remember?’
‘If we act now, she won’t have time to stop us. That’s why I need your help. If you can guard the door – stop any of the others getting in here and waking me up, it may give me just enough time.’
‘What if you need to be woken up? How will you be able to get word to us?’ Heven didn’t know why he’d bothered to ask.
‘I won’t,’ she replied.
He moved his hands across his shaven head. ‘This is crazy – fucking crazy.’
‘You’re right, but you’ll help me because we haven’t got many other choices,’ she said.
That was something Heven could not deny. ‘If you can’t get through, or if you lose the carriers, you promise me that you’ll turnaround and come back,’ Heven said.
‘I promise. I’m brave, but not that brave.’
They exchanged an uneasy embrace. Martha kissed his cheek, then pushed him away from the bed. He shook his head one more time. ‘If you’re not back in an hour, I’ll wake you myself.’ He closed the door behind him and started to pace the corridor outside.
Martha turned to the bottle of sleeping pills next to the pillow. She had found them in the medicine drawer of the second floor bathroom. She chose Davy’s bed for luck, to feel as close to him as possible, hoping that going to sleep under his covers would guide her soul back to his.
3
Crowside, Buckinghamshire
Kaleb saw the impressive spire of Crowside church ahead of them, partially obscured by the broad Sessile oak in front of it. From their high vantage point on the country lane, the village could be seen as a whole, compact little dollhouses set among plush meadows. Even with the clouds looming over it, Kaleb thought that Crowside seemed picturesque.
‘What does it look like?’ Josie shortened the distance between them as they continued plodding downhill.
Infanticide (Fallen Gods Saga Book 2) Page 19