The Deal (The Fallen Angel Series Book 1)

by S C Cunningham

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Cloud 9

  “Another cuppa?” Pyke asked Amy as she arrived back to the Unit. “Well done. Excellent job.”

  “Yay, I’m getting the hang of this magnetic energy moving thingy, Pyke. Did you see me move those blinkin’ canisters, every one of those pesky little buggers?” Amy didn’t wait for an answer. “And I luuurve Connor. Can he be my new partner?”

  “I wish. He’s brilliant, and it’s not like him to ask for help. We’re honoured. And well done with the canisters. If we ever get to the next level, we won’t have to worry about things like that. We’ll have a lot more tricks up our sleeve.”

  “What level? There’s another level?”

  “Errr… yeah, I’m not supposed to talk about it. But I know it exists.”

  “What is it?”

  “There is another more superior level of consciousness that exists above us. It’ll mean we have more powers. I won’t have to use this archaic equipment for one.”

  “Wow! Why don’t I know about this?”

  “Only a few get through. It’s very hush-hush, secret squirrel stuff. I shouldn’t have mentioned it. You didn’t hear it from me. OK?”

  “Does Jack know about it?”

  “I guess he does. He deals directly with them from time to time. If he behaves himself, he’ll move up for sure. But, I didn’t say anything, OK?”

  “Yeah, yeah. OK.”

  “Now, Amy,” his said, taking on a more serious tone.

  She grimaced, sinking her head into her shoulders. What have I done now?

  “I need to talk to you about your Twitter account. I didn’t realise you’d been quite so vitriolic. You’ve been freaking a few people out down there.”

  “Err…aren’t we allowed to use our accounts then?” she asked sheepishly, knowing the answer.

  “Absolutely not. How can you? You’re dead. That would upset people way too much, although it would be nice, I know, to say hello to loved ones, but sorry…no. So, those were all your comments? You weren’t hacked?”

  “Umm…”

  When the door smashed open, they both jumped. Jack strode into the room, shoving the door into the wall as he did so.

  “Jack, for gawd’s sake,” moaned Pyke. “Why don’t you just walk through walls like everyone else and quit with the dramatic noisy entrances?”

  “Sorry, mon petite cabbage. Force of habit, mate.” He gave one of his cheeky smiles and shrugged.

  Amy pretended not to notice him. She wanted to rush over and tell him about moving the gas canisters but instead bit her lip and turned away, making excuses she needed to use the washroom.

  Helpless, Jack pivoted to observe her departure from the room. He looked back at Pyke and shrugged his shoulders. Pyke wagged a finger and shook his head.

  “You’ve got to sort this out, mate, if you two are going to work together. Or one of you will have to leave.”

  “Work it out? How? She’s not talking to me. I well and truly fucked up.”

  “I know, and I didn’t help. I told her about you and Mara. I was watching.”

  “Watching what?”

  “You two at it like animals on the street.”

  “For fuck’s sake, Pyke. Can you not do that? It was a private moment. I hate it when you watch. Your spying stuff is creepy. And why the hell did you tell her?”

  “She’s my friend…and I know, so are you…but you can’t lie up here, mate. You get caught.”

  Pyke headed over to a screen and started setting up the next job. Jack followed him, forlorn, head bowed.

  “What the hell are you doing with Mara anyway? Anyone can tell you’re mad into Amy…everyone but her, that is.”

  “I don’t know.” Jack ran his hand through his hair. “I’m a dickhead. It was a goodbye, I guess.”

  Pyke sniggered. “Goodbye? Are you kidding me? She’s toxic, Jack. Something not quite right there.”

  Mara stood in the doorway listening and gave a little ‘I’m here’ cough.

  Jack and Pyke turned to look at her.

  “Awkward,” she sneered. “Don’t mind me, boys.”

  Jack closed his eyes at being caught, but Pyke was unrepentant.

  “I’m sorry, Mara, but it’s true. You and he are toxic, and if you don’t sort it out, one of you will have to leave.”

  “Everyone will be leaving at this rate,” muttered Jack.

  “It was all working fine until Mara came along. Now no one is talking to each other, Maggie is getting grief from above, and the systems are going down.”

  “You can’t blame everything on me,” gasped Mara.” Jack and I are friends. No problem there.”

  “More than just friends,” muttered Pyke, typing text into a code box.

  “I don’t know what you mean?” she said, raising her voice in protest.

  “Mara, shut up. He saw us.”

  “Oh.”

  “Exactly, oh,” repeated Pyke. “What’s going on with you, Mara? Why are you hanging around him like a bad smell? Have some self-respect, woman? Surely you want more than a man who sees you as second best, a man who wants someone else. Move on, for heaven’s sake. Have some pride. That’s my advice.”

  “Mind your own business, Pyke,” she spat. “He loves me and always has.”

  “No, Mara, I don’t. I care, but I don’t love you,” Jack whispered. “I’m sorry.”

  Mara stared at him, shaking her head in disbelief. Her eyes pleaded with him to take his words back. “You don’t mean that, you always come back to me, you don’t mean it.”

  Jack stepped over to her, placed his hands on her shoulders, stared her in the eye, and said, “I do.”

  Mara looked up into his face. “You said that on our wedding day.”

  He dropped his hands to his sides. “I give up.” He walked out of the room.

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Pacing the corridor, Maggie closed her eyes and shook her head. The bastard had left her no choice. She had to come clean. She finally stood still, slumped back against a wall and looked up to the ceiling, waiting for her call to be put through to the Commander.

  “Maggie, what can I do for you?” Micael’s warm voice filled her senses.

  “I need your help, sir.”

  “Don’t call me sir. Makes me feel old.” She could hear the smile in his voice.

  “I am afraid I brought some unpleasant business with me when I came over.”

  “Hey, that’s ok. It’s what we do…sort the unpleasant stuff.”

  “This is a lie I kept hidden for decades, and now I’ve put my Unit in jeopardy.”

  “What is it?”

  “I’d understand if you want me to resign.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. You have a good heart, Maggie. I’m sure it’s nothing we can’t sort out.”

  “A Witness has infiltrated us. He is here because of me, because of my lie. He is going to close my Unit.”

  “It can’t be that bad.”

  “It is...he’s a fucking wanker…oops, sorry.”

  Micael chuckled.

  “I’m sorry,” Maggie said, mortified. Swearing in front of the Commander came across as disrespectful.

  “No worries, Maggie,” he said with a forgiving chuckle. “I’ve heard worse, and I’ve certainly dealt with worse than that excuse of a man, Gregori.”

  “How did you know who I was talking about?”

  “Well, I sort of get to hear everything in my position. And the vetting procedure at the gates is pretty thorough. Your ‘lie,’ as you call it, was highlighted on your arrival, but considered manageable.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “OK, let’s start at the beginning, what’s happened?”

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Alice

  Brighton, UK

  In the corner of the room, Alice sat with her legs pulled snugly against her chest and cowered with her face resting on her knees. She’d lost all track of time, uncertain if the sun shined brightly outsi
de her room or the moon revealed its crater-like faces. The black-grey light kept her out of touch with what was happening in her normal world.

  She tried to blank out the sound of music filtering through the doorframe. The prisoner next door had not been returned. Or had her sense of time deceived her? She could drive herself mad with the constant fretting and predictions of whether she’d be chosen next. She kept asking herself where the prisoner was. Had she been placed in another room? Or worse…had they killed her?

  A slight sound broke her self-induced trance. A muffled humming droned faintly at her door. Perfume wafted over her…his cologne. Or had she imagined it? Was he wavering outside her door, contemplating whom he’d use as his next toy?

  She heard him sing, “Eeny, meeny, miny, moe…”

  She held her breath, buried her face, transported herself to another place, a happier place, at home in the kitchen with her mother. In that heart of her memories, a tender roast cooked in the pot and sent aromas swirling in the warm, homey room she’d long to see again. She desperately wanted to embrace her mother and hug her until she begged to be released, but she wouldn’t. She’d never let her go. The pot roast smelled so much sweeter than that foul, sick, twisted excuse of a man’s cologne stinking outside the door while he sang his taunting, childish tune.

  He deserved worse than hell. She hoped he’d suffer in extreme pain and anguish someday the way he’d tormented so many innocent people.

  A bolt thudded open.

  Lost in her despair, she couldn’t tell which one. Her door didn’t budge. He’d chosen another. She sighed from relief, but her sigh transformed into a cry, then full-fledged sobbing. With each choice outside her room she knew her luck would run out, her turn was coming.

  Soft cries filled the corridor, overshadowing the music. Alice thought it sounded like a young girl begging him not to take her. Or it could be a boy. She wasn’t sure what preferences the filthy bastards had. Fear’s high pitch transcended gender.

  Alice gradually lifted herself off the floor and tiptoed to her door, listening more closely. She heard scuffles in the corridor. The child must have put up a frenzied fight. A pained wailing filled her ears.

  “Please, sir…Noooo!”

  A grunting sound told Alice the captor struggled to keep control.

  She heard a loud slap followed by a heavy thud against her door. Alice jumped back in shock.

  Silence. The victim was no longer making a sound.

  She squeezed her ear closer to the door and listened, but could hear nothing from the child. Then came the familiar wheelchair’s squeaking and humming, grating against the music. The sounds faded as he processed down the corridor, away from her.

  Alice threw herself on her bed and screamed into the mattress, low enough so he could not hear her, loud enough to release her frustration. She didn’t want to make him angry. She knew too well what would happen if she did that.

  As the music stopped, the rest of the imprisoned residents in the corridor could be heard whimpering, begging, praying to their God for help. When would it stop?

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Cloud 9

  “Would you just piss off. I’m in a meeting.”

  “No.”

  Jack sat on the floor outside Amy’s locked toilet door.

  “You fucked her, Jack. You fucking fucked her.”

  “I know.”

  “So, what’s that all about? What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be out there with her? The bitch from hell.”

  “No, I don’t want her. I’m sorry. She pushes my buttons. I may have fucked her, but I was crazy stupid. I was thinking of you. I’m always thinking of you.”

  “Thinking of me…while you’re entering another woman. Great. That makes me feel a whole lot better then.”

  “I know, it sounds bad, but it’s not always that simple. Haven’t you ever slept with someone and imagined it was someone else.”

  “Errr, no. Why the hell would I do that? If I’m thinking of someone else I will go with them. Why fuck someone you don’t love? This is bollocks.”

  “In an ideal world, yes. But sometimes it doesn’t work out like that. It’s not love sex. Its survival sex. People do it all the time.”

  “What people?”

  “Those stuck in unhappy marriages, those too frightened to leave for the sake of the children, money, fear, religion, many reasons. Some people end up having to sleep with people they don’t want to. Fantasy helps make it bearable.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. If you don’t fancy them, don’t fuck them. Simple.”

  He raised his voice. “Life is not always that simple. Oh, it’s OK for you to say, miss high and bloody mighty. Well aren’t you the lucky one to have never been in that situation or been in a controlling relationship, or lived in fear of what your partner will do next, of not knowing how to get out of a bad situation? Sometimes giving them what they want buys you time.”

  “How do you know so much about it?”

  “Because I lived it with Mara, and because I saw my mum go through it. She lived with a drunk. To keep me safe, she let him take what he wanted until we had a chance to get away. She always dreamed of getting away. But by the time I was big enough to help her, she was dead. So, don’t give me that shit that fucking is all about love. Sometimes it’s about survival.”

  Amy quietened. “I’m sorry about your mum. What happened?”

  “It doesn’t matter. I’m not gonna talk about her. We’re talking about us. I fucked Mara for all the wrong reasons. I’m sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry…how many more times can I say it?”

  “So, if I fucked Pyke, for all the wrong reasons, would that be all right?”

  “No. Pyke’s different. He wouldn’t do that to a girl. He’s a lover, not a control freak. And you’re not weak enough to let anyone trap you into that sort of coercive behaviour in a relationship.”

  “And you are? Give me a break. You’ve killed people for a living. You’re not weak.”

  “Apart from the first few occasions when I thought she was someone she wasn’t, every time I fucked her, I dreaded it.”

  “Why didn’t you just leave? I don’t believe I’m hearing this. You’re well over six foot, you know a hundred and one ways to kill someone. This is the worst excuse for being unfaithful I’ve ever heard, ‘Sorry, she had a hold over me,’ bollocks.”

  “Cos, she had her talons in me. I got caught up in the guilt, she got me through the bad times, so I owed her. She knew I didn’t love her, but I still married her. The one person I wanted, I couldn’t have. Mara knew every time I fucked her I thought of that someone, imagined it was her.” He ran his hand through his hair.

  Amy shook her head. Her silence showed him she didn’t understand or didn’t want to understand his explanation.

  “Look. She was good to me. She got me through a breakdown when I came out of the service. She was there for me, and I owed her. How did I repay her? I used her whilst I thought of you. She knew it, but we never talked about it. We were both in some sort of denial.”

  Amy put her head in her hands. This was crazy, and she was falling for it. She opened the cubicle door. Jack sat on the floor hunched over. She sat down beside him.

  “How could you think of me? We didn’t know each other then?”

  He looked her in the eyes. “We’ve always known each other.”

  He pulled himself up off the ground. “I can’t talk here. Let’s go outside. I need to tell you something.”

  She looked up at him. “What you’re saying is bullshit. I was weak once, with that arsehole Dick Parker. I was young, but never again would I let anyone do that to me. So, don’t you dare say I don’t get it, cos I do.”

  “OK, sorry.” He leaned down and pulled her up.

  He took her by the hand and led her out of the building. She went willingly, but as they passed the office, she saw Mara’s angry face watching them.

  He pulled her down to earth where they sat on a park bench in Hyde Pa
rk amidst tourists and families chatting and playing in the early evening sun. She forgot how beautiful it was. She’d never taken time to stop and enjoy the park. She’d run through it many a time when alive, her head full of busy, senseless thoughts: What would she wear? What would she eat? What would she say to her boss? Who was gossiping about whom? She mustn’t forget to pick up her favourite skirt from the dry cleaners, she must call her mother, put out the rubbish, pay a bill, wax her legs, dye her roots, and place a cool image on social media.

  Now it seemed her life had been wasted on worthless goals, selfish dreams, and egotistical desires. It was all much bigger than that, than her. It wasn’t about her. It was about survival, and looking out for our home, the planet and everyone on it. She felt small and ashamed.

  And she still hadn’t learned. She still let a man get to her, let jealousy override her real mission.

  They sat in silence, staring out across the lush green park, letting the evening sun warm their faces and the children’s playful chatter fill their minds.

  Jack reached out to hold her hand. She pulled away, muttering.

  “You know what… I’ve got to go. What we’re doing is bigger than us and our drama. It pisses me off that I let you get to me. It was all so easy when I made that deal with God. A little girl doesn’t have all this drama, this ego of relationships, of wanting to own someone. To a little girl its black and white, her instincts are intact, she either trusts or she doesn’t. Mara and you can have each other. I’m busy.”

  She stood up and walked away, shouting back over her shoulder.

  “Do me a favour, Jack. Don’t follow me.”

  He sat watching her, holding back the words he wanted to say, until she disappeared behind a bank of oak trees.

  Chapter Fifty

  Mara noticed Jack and Amy leave. Jack had dragged Amy out of the building by the hand. He had never taken Mara by the hand like that, and it pained her to realize it. Oh, he fucked her all right, but she knew it was only out of a sexual need to scratch and itch, out of guilt, of feeling sorry for her. If he closed his eyes, he would feel close to his beloved Amy.