Acolyte (26 page)

Hopkins was suddenly silent, staring at Kendrick, in shock that the deed was done.

‘It takes a few seconds,' Kendrick said, looking at Jonah and Never. ‘It has to reach the nerve endings before anything will happen, you see, and so much of the body is devoid of them. You two will probably want to wait in the corridor.'

Jonah closed the door as soon as they were both out of the room. The scream that came built slowly, underpinned by the sound of thrashing and clattering, but soon it was the forceful scream of an animal, unrecognizable as human.

They moved further and further from the door, the screams hardly diminishing, the echo of the corridor somehow making it worse as they went. All Jonah could think of was the last thing he'd seen Kendrick do as they left the room – unfasten the arm restraints. He thought of the urge he'd felt when Hopkins had daubed his cheek: the urge to bring his fingers to his own face and make the pain stop. The urge to tear out the offending flesh.

After a time the screaming of the man grew hoarse. The sound of a gunshot brought it to an end.

Kendrick emerged from the room. ‘There,' he said, his face stone. ‘I put him out of his misery. Don't let anyone accuse me of being heartless. Now, come and give me a hand.' He went down the corridor and entered the next door along.

Jonah and Never shared a wary look before following him.

The man who had been ordered to shoot Never lay in his own blood by the interrogation chair in the next room. In the middle of his forehead was a ragged hole where Kendrick's bullet had emerged. The three of them wrestled the corpse into a body bag, Kendrick waving away the issue of the blood pooled on the floor. ‘Ignore it,' he said. ‘We're only cleaning up a little. I'll dispose of the bodies later. I want to leave some mystery behind.'

They returned to the other room and Jonah and Never put Hopkins into a second body bag. Kendrick had already covered the man's face by wrapping a towel around it. The towel had been white; now it was red. Jonah tried to ignore it.

Kendrick left the room again, and when he came back it was with a smile. He nodded to the cameras, holding up a little black USB stick. ‘Just wiped their entire system,' he explained, and Jonah saw a look of extreme interest on Never's face.

Emerging into the night, Jonah was so disoriented he had no idea of the time or place until Kendrick told them. The facility they'd been brought to was in an isolated corner of an industrial park in Newington, to the south of DC. From outside, it looked like a run-down heating distributor. Just another derelict business. One among many.

The industrial park was dark and desolate when they left, Kendrick driving the black four-by-four. Jonah was in the passenger seat, glad of its darkened windows, feeling like every pane of glass
he saw on the buildings they passed had eyes behind it, looking for him. He was keenly aware of the two extra passengers they carried in the trunk, cold and silent in their body bags.

Once on the road, Kendrick drove with a calm precision that belied the intensity on his face. ‘We have a long drive ahead,' he told them. ‘I know you want to bombard me with questions, but all you need to know is that you're safe. It's important that you trust me enough to believe that, at least.' He looked at them both; Jonah turned to see Never, his face still caked in blood, staring at Kendrick like he was speaking in tongues.

Jonah felt the same way.
Trust me.
Two words he wouldn't have expected to hear from Kendrick. Two words he wouldn't have expected to believe.

But somehow, Jonah did. Enough to let the man get them away from danger, at least. He nodded once.

‘You should sleep if you can,' said Kendrick. ‘Mr Geary, you're a mess. The small bag beside you has some cleaning materials. The larger bag has spare clothes. Clean the blood off your skin and swap everything you're wearing. Put it all back in the bag.' His tone made it clear it was the end of any discussion.

Certain that the idea of sleep was ludicrous, Jonah watched the traffic, unable to put any coherent thoughts together. The next he knew, his shoulder was being shaken.

‘Wake up,' said Never, from the back.

They appeared to be in a multi-storey car park. Jonah looked to his left, noting the empty driver's seat. He turned around to Never; his friend's face was clean now, and he was wearing fresh clothes. ‘Where are we?'

‘Baltimore,' said Never. ‘Changing vehicle. Kendrick said he'll be back in minute.'

‘Did you sleep?'

‘Not a wink,' said Never. ‘I hurt all over and my back's spasmed after the fucking impact on the—' He suddenly stopped, and looked at Jonah, horror in his eyes.

‘What? Christ, Never, what is it?'

‘Jesus. Jesus. I forgot about Bob Crenner. When they took me out of the car they'd already shot him. Christ. I still can't believe it.'

Jonah nodded in silence, seeing again the image of Bob's head, knowing they must have used specialist ammunition to cause such devastation. He thought of Ray Johnson, hoping that the call about Ray had simply been part of the ruse, a lie to lure them onto unpopulated roads for an ambush. The level of organization required to pull something like that off at such short notice was terrifying.

He thought of Annabel, too, but had to push the thought away. Hope seemed like such a pointless thing to harbour now.

A brief honk made him turn to the front to see Kendrick sitting in an aging red Honda, out of his suit and in casuals, wearing a red baseball cap. Jonah was unsettled by how different he looked. The other thing he was wearing made Jonah even more uneasy, though: that smile again.

Kendrick reversed into the bay to their left.

With nobody else around, they swapped the bodies from one vehicle to the other. Jonah and Never both moved with slow, wincing caution, Kendrick looking impatient yet half amused.

They left Baltimore, heading towards Philadelphia. It was midnight; traffic was light.

‘Why are you helping us?' asked Jonah. ‘You said you made a promise.'

Kendrick looked at him, taking his eyes off the road long enough for Jonah to be relieved when he finally looked back where he was driving. ‘I have my reasons.'

‘Any chance you might tell us what those are?' asked Never. ‘I mean, seemed to me that you knew that guy. That you had unfinished business. Right?'

‘My advice, Never, would be for you to stay quiet. We still have
some way to go and I've been awake for over twenty hours. Let me concentrate on driving.'

With a grunt, Never complied.

‘What about Ray Johnson?' said Jonah. ‘Answer that, at least.'

‘Who?' said Kendrick.

‘Bob Crenner was the detective who was driving when we were attacked. They shot him at the scene. He'd got a call that his partner, Ray Johnson, had been killed.'

‘Ah. I knew a cop had died when they snatched you, but no other deaths were reported. That call was probably just to reroute your vehicle.'

Approaching Philadelphia, they turned off before the city and took I476 out past Norristown. The cloud cover had broken up enough for the bright moon to lend some light to their surroundings, woodland and wide grass banks at the sides of the road, houses infrequent. Finally, they pulled into a driveway. The house at the end of it was a large wood-clad relic, white paint clinging on for dear life.

Kendrick killed the engine. ‘Now. Your answers. We're at a safe house. You were taken on the orders of Michael Andreas. No surprises there, I'm sure. He's left you alone all this time for one reason.'

‘Tess,' said Jonah. ‘He wants Tess.'

‘Indeed. He didn't want to risk scaring her off.'

‘So how the hell did you know where to find us?' said Jonah.

Kendrick smiled again. ‘That's what I do. I know things. I get things done. Impressed by how quickly they set up your ambush? I used to
run
things like that. Once they knew you were going, all they needed was a tracker on your car and a ten-minute head start. Wherever you are in the country you can be damn sure there's a team nearby ready to go, with a dozen potential grab locations already identified and analysed. They pick one, they get there, they know how to send you in the right direction.'

‘And all these people work for Andreas now?'

Kendrick shook his head. ‘They're just part of the security network, Jonah. They do what they're told. Andreas only has people placed here and there, but it's enough. If he wants something done, it gets done because people follow their orders. I didn't really appreciate that, at first. I could see Andreas had a few people in his pocket, but it reached a critical mass before I knew it.'

There was a snort from the back. ‘And now you're fighting the good fight,' said Never. ‘Sure.'

‘I want revenge,' said Kendrick. ‘Plain and simple. Andreas is the greatest threat this country ever faced, and he abused my trust to put himself in that position. He betrayed me.'

‘And you got us out because you think we can help?'

Kendrick's smile spread across his face. ‘No, Jonah.' He pointed up to the doorway on the front of the house. It opened, and a figure stood there silhouetted in the rectangle of light. ‘I got you out because
she
insisted.'

Jonah looked at the figure. Backlit, too far for him to see clearly, but he knew who it was.

Tess Neil.

They headed for the house, Kendrick leading the way. At the door Tess gave Jonah a long hug that felt damn good until he caught the expression on Never's face, one that said
be careful.

Kendrick nodded to Tess. ‘I have a few things to unload from the car,' he said. ‘Get them inside and bring them up to speed. I think it's better coming from you.'

The inside of the house was run-down, sparse and musty, but it was clean; Never looked up as they entered and Jonah followed his eye line to see cabling running along the ceiling, and odd, fat-bulbed light fittings every eight feet or so. They shared a look and Never shrugged.

Tess brought them through to a large kitchen, an old oak table in the middle. They sat as she crossed to the fridge, returning with a pack of beer cans. Jonah could see that Never was torn between the cold beer and his antipathy towards Tess, so he reached for a can and passed it over to him.

‘Cheers,' said Never, snapping it open and gulping down half of it without a breath.

Jonah took one for himself. He looked at Tess in the artificial light of the kitchen; it was good to see her, but she didn't look well. Thin. Tired. The smile on her face seemed ready to flee at the slightest noise. He had a hundred questions, but one seemed appropriate to ask first. ‘Do you trust him?' he said, tilting his head to the door.

‘Larry?' said Tess.

Jonah and Never looked at each other for a moment. ‘Larry?' said Never.
‘Larry?'
They both burst into laughter; it built until it felt dangerous, but both of them needed the release. Given everything that had happened to them, hysteria seemed the natural response.
Better for it to come out like this
, Jonah thought.

Kendrick walked in a few moments later, visibly bemused by the laughter. ‘Something funny?'

‘No, Larry,' managed Never, before he and Jonah started laughing again.

‘Good,' said Kendrick, walking off.

‘Larry's complicated,' said Tess, when they'd finally settled down.

‘No shit,' said Never.

‘He believes this is largely his fault,' she said. ‘Somehow Andreas managed to escape from the fire, horribly burned. It was Kendrick who found him, who kept him alive, who brought him to his superiors and convinced them to take him seriously. Then Andreas started to improve, to recover. You've seen how he looks now.'

‘As if nothing had happened to him,' said Jonah. ‘That didn't ring any alarm bells?'

‘They thought they
knew
what had happened,' she said. ‘They'd known what Andreas
believed
he was doing, and they took his word that he'd succeeded. Making contact. Bringing something ancient and wise into the world, ready to reveal the secrets of an advanced race. They wanted a piece of it. They shielded him, gave him access and support. To them, his physical recovery was just proof that he had power. By the time Larry realized something was wrong, that Andreas wasn't what he claimed, Andreas was already keeping him at arm's length. So, yes, Larry Kendrick can be trusted. At least as far as wanting to bring Andreas down. He blames himself for the greatest threat facing the country he's spent his life protecting. And whatever you think of him, he's a patriot.'

‘Right,' said Never. ‘Patriotism: the last refuge of psychopaths.'

‘He
did
save our lives,' said Jonah. ‘I think he's earned some leeway.'

‘Maybe,' said Never. ‘But I doubt he saved us just because Tess asked him to.'

‘Larry thinks the best way to get Andreas is with my help,' said Tess. ‘But when he tracked me down, I told him keeping an eye on you was part of the deal.'

From the doorway came Kendrick's voice, making Jonah start. ‘That's not to say you can't earn your
keep
,' he said. He opened a cupboard and pulled out a bottle of bourbon, filling a glass as he spoke. ‘Andreas underestimated me, Jonah. I'd worked out something was
off
with him, long before he knew I had. Long enough to put things in place, things that would let me watch what they were up to. I knew they were coming for you forty-eight hours before they came. From the moment the shit with Torrance hit the fan they got the jitters. Andreas decided he was going to get you off the street one way or another as soon as possible. It's my business to know these things. But there's one thing I don't know enough about. The
shadows.
The ones that you can see.'