Banshee Hunt

by Curtis, Greg

  James didn't know what to say. He didn't know what to think. All he knew was that he needed to hold her. And that he needed to kick himself for not having thought about it. No wonder she'd been so upset!And now it was his turn. Dear God he was thirty eight! He couldn't have another baby now! And he couldn't tell her that either. But eventually one thing did occur to him.

  “And now you tell me? Here and now?” It seemed like if there was one perfect time and place not to drop a bombshell like that on him, this was it.

  “Well I thought you should know. Before … you know. Just in case.” She hummed and ahhed a little awkwardly.

  “Oh dear God! You are a prize idiot, woman!” But still he pulled her close and held her tight, not knowing what to say.

  “No, I just have low standards when it comes to men! Hanging out with people who only have a Masters degree!”

  James groaned but didn't respond. He still didn't know quite what to say. But eventually he realised there was absolutely one thing he had to tell her.

  “You need to go back where it's safe.”

  “Chivalry?” Yasmin let out a small laugh. “Now?! It’s a bit late now! But one thing you can be sure of. Whether I've got a baby on board or not, I am never going to be hiding in the bushes playing it safe! So get that black and blue butt of yours moving and let’s hunt the bitch down!”

  And just to make sure he got the message she goosed him, before pulling free of his embrace and heading off again, leaving James to follow and try to think of some other reason she should stay behind where it was safe.

  Suddenly the sound of weapons fire intruded on the quiet of the night, and he forgot everything else. The battle had been joined which could only mean that the cry of dispassion hadn't been as effective as it should have been. But given what the banshee surely knew of their tactics it wasn't surprising. She must have prepared her people for it. Ear plugs and wards might work. He gripped his weapon tightly and hurried towards the clinic, trying to keep in front of Yasmin. But even in stilettos on grass she was faster than him just then.

  Before they made it all the way things ahead grew wilder. There were flashes of light and the sound of arrows whistling through the air that he knew were the knock out spells being fired. At one point all the windows on the second floor simply blew out and then he heard howling. Obviously they had some sort of beast master among them. The question was who had the beast master? Them or the banshee's people?

  More weapons were fired and more bullets flew by the time they made it to the missing front entrance and James was suddenly uncomfortably aware that he wasn't wearing his vest. Not getting it might have been a mistake. After all, his coat wasn't going to stop a bullet. And Yasmin wasn't dressed properly either. Maybe Mark had been right to tell them to stay back.

  Fortunately the front room was largely empty as he discovered when he peered in. There was one man there, lying on the floor, and he wasn't one of theirs. In fact he was dressed as an orderly. The chances were that the spell of dispassion had got him. James was almost certain of that when he went to check on him. The man was alive and breathing, and his eyes even managed to follow him around a little. But he simply wasn't moving. He certainly wasn't reaching for the Glock beside him. But James appropriated it anyway.

  “Is he …?” Yasmin called from the doorway.

  “He's fine.”

  After that James started doing a sweep through the ground floor as he'd been trained to. A room by room search. Something that was easier when the rooms were all so large. The ground floor was mainly filled with lounges, reception areas, a dining hall and kitchen. There was even an outdoor dining area leading out to a courtyard at the rear of the building. This was the communal part of the facility where the patients could wander freely and hopefully enjoy their days as they recovered.

  The patients weren't there though. They were presumably in their rooms though he doubted they were sleeping any more. Instead he found at least a dozen more prone bodies, all of them dressed in the outfits of staff. Nurses and orderlies. And all of them had weapons on them which he confiscated. Even the cooks had guns. By the time he was finished picking up weapons and dropping them on the reception counter, he would have guessed that there were at least twenty hand guns and half a dozen assault rifles piled up. All of them were police issue. There was no doubt that the banshee had managed a major weapons heist among her many other crimes. She was a very dangerous woman.

  But at least he thought, they were safe here. Naturally that was when everything fell apart. Actually it was just the ceiling. A huge hole had been torn in it, and even as he was watching a man fell through it, tumbling a full dozen feet to the floor. He hit it with a thunderous crash, something that was probably made worse by the ring of lightning he was surrounded by. He was an elementalist of some sort. And he was also an enemy.

  James drew and fired at him before he'd even started trying to find his feet, not caring what spell the gun was loaded with. And then he clicked the lever and fired again just to make sure. But in case he failed twice Yasmin already had his lightning shield transformed into something that looked like a ball of rain circling him. Either way, he didn't get up. He just lay there with rain falling on him in the middle of the room.

  “Yasmin?” He turned to her.

  “A stormlord. That bitch has some sway. But he won't be creating any more bad weather for a while. Should have known better than to mess with a meta!” She smiled happily at him looking every inch a victorious Amazon warrior.

  Then she screamed as the sounds of weapon fire intruded. Reactions on full noise thanks to all the adrenaline rushing through him, James managed to run and dive on her, bringing her crashing to the ground, even as he turned and fired at the hole in the ceiling but he had no idea if he was fast enough. What he did know was that he was deadly accurate.

  A moment later he watched as another man tumbled out of the ceiling to come crashing down on the floor beside the first.

  “Dear God!” He let out a quiet whisper of relief. Though the man had missed them thanks to the angle and the darkness, and probably the fact that he wasn't a trained shot, it had been too close. And he realised, that Yasmin might have the answers when it came to magic, but she could do nothing about bullets. And from the look in her eyes, she was beginning to realise that too. She might have come to protect him, but this was not her bailwick despite her gift.

  But she knew that, and he knew that repeating it would not help. So wordlessly he helped her to her feet, forgetting the pain in his flesh, and then brushed her down a bit. Even in a huge duffel she would not want to be dirty.

  “So now what?” Yasmin asked as they stood there staring at the fallen men and the arsenal beside them. All the action was happening upstairs. They could still hear the sounds of the knock out spells firing one after another, though thankfully not much more automatic gunfire. It seemed that the resistance had been mostly overcome. Now he assumed the clean-up was in progress as their people went room to room overcoming any remaining opposition and making sure the patients were secure.

  “Now I'm going to hunt down that damned woman and finally put her away. While you're going to stay here and help the others.”

  “Others?”

  James pointed out through the missing front widows to the long drive way and the vehicles outside the gate which he assumed was Will and the rest of their people. “Them. The rest of our people have finally arrived.”

  No doubt there were going to be a lot of people needing to be taken away and deprogrammed, and a lot of weapons to be disposed of. He hoped there wouldn't be any injured or dead.

  “You be careful.” Yasmin didn't try to stop him for once. She didn't even argue. Instead she just grabbed him up and hugged him. She was frightened, and he couldn't blame her for that.

  “I'll be fine. And it'll be quick. I already know where she is after all.”

  With that he left her, heading for the stairs and the third floor. Specifically to room 310. Because acco
rding to the whiteboard behind the nurses' station that was where Sheryl was, and he knew that that would be where Soo Chi was as well. The banshee had been caught and she was trapped. Cornered. Where else would she go save to where she thought he would go? If she was going to go down she was going to try and take him with her. He was the one she most desperately wanted to kill.

  The stairs were wide and shallow, and more importantly they had a good solid handrail, something for which James was extremely grateful. Especially when there were so many stairs. The restorative he'd been given might have helped a bit but it had its limits, and he had to take it slowly up each flight, hanging on to the railings as he went. But that was alright. His quarry was almost within his grasp. He would get through this.

  The second floor was a mess. There were half a dozen bodies lying in the hallway on both sides of the landing, and people were still going from room to room as they hunted the banshee. There were a pair of lions too, growling as they prowled along its length. He wondered where they'd come from, though in the end he was more grateful that they were on their side. He had no idea whether the ray gun would work on lions, and he doubted his Sig would bring them down.

  The search was going to take time and it would be risky. Fairview Haven was in the end a sizeable facility holding up to a hundred patients, each with their own room. And of course there were numerous other rooms as well. Treatment rooms, small sitting areas, bathrooms, offices, meeting rooms and so on. Even having a dozen men it would take time to search the facility thoroughly. And every room could have more of the banshee's men in it, waiting. Knowing what they would be facing.

  But they had an advantage. One of their number was a locksmith who was able to lock and unlock doors with a thought. That meant that none of the patients were escaping their rooms to add to the confusion, and their rooms could be entered one by one. There were some very useful magical gifts in the world and that was one of them. As long as the man didn't turn into a safe cracker which James supposed would be the temptation that the gift offered.

  They hadn't yet started on the room by room search of the third floor when he finally made it to the landing. But they had cleared the hallways of armed men, all of whom were now lying on the floor, downed by any number of different spells. And the two men standing there guarding the fallen didn't seem to be in any great hurry to start searching.

  “Room 310?” James called out breathlessly to them from the landing, extremely grateful that there wasn't a fourth floor.

  One of the men pointed to a door just along from him, and James headed for it at a steady amble. There was little doubt that he was in poor shape. But equally the adrenaline was starting to run through his veins once again as he got closer, and he knew he'd have the strength to get through this. Not much more, but he could do this. Still, his heart was beating in his chest like a runaway jack hammer and his palms had become quite sweaty. This was the moment he knew when everything ended. One way or the other.

  The door was locked of course. James didn't even bother trying the handle. He just put his ray gun away, drew his Sig and shot the lock out before kicking the door down and striding through. Suddenly he was a cop again. Doing exactly what he'd done a hundred times before. And he had all the energy he needed.

  Inside things were fairly much as he'd expected. It was a good sized room with a bed and a couple of easy chairs, and a bathroom off to one side. There was also a large window that could be used by the banshee to escape. The banshee might have had to jump assuming there wasn't a fire escape outside, but it was only the third floor and she could have survived.

  But she wasn't running. He hadn't expected her to. This was the end and she knew it. Even if she got out of the building the grounds were filled with her enemies, and all of them were warded against her magic. And worse than that she worked according to a plan. The same plan her family had developed over the centuries. A plan that had contingencies for everything. Except this. She couldn't get away. That was why she'd come to Sheryl's room. And it was why she was currently standing over her bed with a carving knife pressed up hard against his ex-wife's throat. James had expected something like that as well. But not the knife. The shear brutality of the weapon shocked him when it was held against his ex-wife's throat.

  Sheryl meanwhile was quiet. She'd been lying there for some time no doubt, and you could only scream for so long. But she was terrified. Pales and sweating. Her face lined with fear. She didn't know what was happening except that some strange woman had come into her room and was now holding a knife to her throat.

  She looked older than he remembered. A lot older. Time had not been kind to her. Especially not these last five years. And though she was still a pretty blond, he would have put her at fifty instead of her late thirties. There were deep lines around her eyes, made more prominent by the dim light being shone from the lamp in the corner of the room. Her cheeks were more sallow than he remembered, and she'd obviously lost weight. Actually he would have called her gaunt. The guilt was eating her alive.

  Something broke within him when he saw her there lying like that. That huge wall of hatred and anger came crashing down inside him, and all that was left was the need to save her.

  He hadn't expected that. He hadn't actually even thought about it. He'd been so angry with her for so long. So bitter. But seeing her after so long, James lost all his residual anger. He felt pity instead. This woman had hurt him so badly and for so long. And yet in that moment she was only Sheryl, the woman he had once loved. The mother of his daughter. And he knew there and then that he could never let her be harmed. He could never tell Matti that he had let her mother be killed.

  “Put the gun down!” Soo Chi did her best to sound as if she was in control. But she wasn't and even in the darkness that was written on her face. She had had a plan. Everything had been perfect. And now it was gone and she had nothing.

  “You really don't learn, do you Soo Chi?” James looked up at her and smiled. Once more he knew, he had to be the one in control. And this time he had to be the Iceman. Utterly cold. “Just not very bright I suppose. I mean, what possessed you to bring a knife to a gun fight?”

  “I said –.”

  “I heard what you said. And no. I'm not putting the gun down so you can pick it up and shoot me. So dream on. That was never going to happen. And if you had two brain cells to rub together you would have known that from the start. I'm going to shoot you. And I'm going to enjoy it – a lot.” Outside the room he heard the sound of feet running, and he knew others would be coming to back him up. He also knew that they probably couldn't. This they hadn't prepared for.

  “I'll slit her throat!” The banshee yelled it at him, her voice shrill with fear as it started to dawn on her that things weren't working out as she'd wanted. She really had thought he'd put down the gun and she could pick it up and shoot him. Sheryl started screaming too. “And I haven't twisted her thoughts at all. She'll be the same woman you love when she dies in front of you! Her blood will be all over your hands!”

  She was lying. She hid it, but James knew in that instant that the words were lies. The reason she hadn't twisted Sheryl's thoughts was that she hadn't had the time. She'd been here only a day. She'd arrived injured. And she'd needed every second she could find to twist the thoughts of staff so that she had her own private army. Safety first. That was always the plan. Never take unnecessary risks. That was the way she worked. Slow, cautiously, treating every action as a move in a chess game. And now she was trying to do it again, even starting from scratch. So she'd spent all her efforts on building her army. Pity for her it hadn't been enough.

  James had to wait until both women quietened down a bit before he could tell them what neither of them wanted to hear.

  “Are you brain dead woman?” James knew he had only one chance to save his ex-wife. And it began and ended with scaring Soo Chi senseless as he played her game against her. He only prayed he could pull it off. “Did Daniels not tell you? I am the Iceman. The coldest m
an alive. And you're dumb enough to hold a knife to the throat of my ex-wife? The woman who not only betrayed me, but did it with my brother? Who destroyed my every hope of ever having a relationship with my daughter? Who sold my daughter into slavery? Who steals every dollar I make through alimony? And you think she's some use as a hostage against me?” He poured all the scorn he could find into his words.

  “And I'm still going to kill her!” The banshee screamed it at him, fear starting to claim her as it began to dawn on her that she might not have the perfect hostage she thought she had. Sheryl meanwhile had turned completely white and was staring at him in terror.

  “I know you are.” It was a bluff, but it was what he had to do. “And then I'm going to blow you apart piece by piece.”

  “Blow me apart?” The banshee squeaked at him.

  “Oh hell yes! Did Daniels not tell you? I never use that pathetic weapon they gave me. I'm not interested in simply paralysing people or making them throw up. “This is a Sig ten mm. Its bullets have been double loaded for extra impact. And they're dum dums. When they hit your flesh they're going to spread. They're going to powder your bones. The pain will be excruciating. Your arms and legs are going to hang off your bones, and their useless remains will have to be removed by the doctors.” He'd seen that in a movie somewhere, and though he couldn't remember anything else about it, that line had stuck with him.