Dark Side Darker (28 page)

Rufus looked dismayed. “But...”

“No buts!” Carthy told him. “It’s the only way. After all that action the police are going to be looking for a damaged black Ford and if we’re in it at the time—well I’m sure you can imagine.” He wrenched open the door and crouched down beneath the dashboard and reached for the right wires. Next he began to kick at the steering column till part of the casing fell away.

Rufus watched, amazed by the efficiency and the fury. It brought back unpleasant memories. Somewhere in the distance they could here police sirens.

“There!” Carthy announced, rubbing some of the grime off his hands.

Josh regarded his handy work with less conviction. “Will that be enough?”

Carthy shrugged. “Well, I’d prefer to torch them both but we don’t have time. Come on.”

With that Carthy seized the gun back off Rufus and half hid it inside of his jacket, leaving the barrels hanging beside his legs, and began rapidly hurrying away.

Behind him Josh and Rufus exchanged glances and then reluctantly followed.

“I don’t really want to lose my car,” Rufus said sadly, looking back to his vehicle as if he was walking away from an old friend.

“He’s probably right,” said Josh, then lowered his voice. “But I’m not sure I want to be involved with this Carthy guy anymore. He’s fucking dangerous!
You see the way he just executed that guy
? Hell, I don’t even know what he is!”

Carthy was still some way in front of them.

“Man he’s psychic, how the hell do you suggest we ditch him?”

Josh shrugged. “I don’t know, but I get the feeling something’s about to happen.”

“Ahh shit, don’t say that Josh!
What
?”

Another shrug. “Don’t know, just stay alert.”

Josh could feel some kind of weird energy beginning to pulse through him as they walked. It felt as if his body was vibrating, could feel it pulse around his muscles. It was a sensation of dread.

ESCAPE

IT HAPPENED AS CARTHY REACHED the end of the alleyway and with such sudden speed which surprised them all. Sleek black cars came screeching in to block his exit. Even as they ploughed to a halt, doors were opening and lights were flashing onto them. The whole move was one of extreme precision.

The three of them paused, stunned.

“Nobody fucking move!”

“What the hell’s going on?” Rufus asked, panicked. In the distance they could still hear sirens.
This wasn’t the police
...

Josh blinked in the torchlight that was being shone directly into his eyes. He took a step back. “I said nobody move!” Josh tried to see who had spoken, but all he really could see was possibly four figures silhouetted by headlights and torches.

“You with the gun, put it down!”

Josh and Rufus stood anxiously. For one second it looked as if he was going to obey and then with a smile Carthy quickly raised the shotgun and fired, blowing a head sized hole into one of the car’s window screens.

“Shit!” someone screamed and dived for cover. A machine-gun flared, scoring along the wall just to Josh’s side. Carthy fired again. Josh and Rufus still stood stunned. The events seemed to be happening in slow motion. And then Josh regained his senses and as everything sped up again into real time, he looked at Rufus and screamed, “run!!!!!!”

Their feet pounded hard as they ran, both terrified. From behind there was another burst of machine-gun fire and Josh heard and felt a bullet pass just over his shoulder and past his cheek.

As they reached the corner, they both flung themselves around it, past the two broken-up vehicles and kept hurtling towards the other entrance.

“No wait!” Josh yelled and grabbed Rufus, pulling him in another direction just as another black car rolled up to cover the new exit. A door opened and another flashlight was dancing over them.

“Hey!” came the shout, but neither of them were listening.

“Come on!” Josh shouted, heading towards a wooden gate that seemed to block another much smaller alley and then they were both scrambling up over it.

They fell in a chaotic tangle to a hard floor and then were again running.

Behind them they could still hear gunfire, only now it was just the sounds of automatics.

Josh and Rufus were running side by side in a blind panic, leaping discarded plastic bin bags which littered the way.

“Right at the end,” Josh managed breathlessly. They skidded ‘round, both glancing off the wall in their haste and then Josh reached forward to grab Rufus by the shoulder. “No, wait!”

“What you talking about man? I can see the street!!”

“Trust me,” Josh managed between gasps. He hadn’t ran that hard in a long time.

At the mouth of the alleyway the road was suddenly lit by headlights and was followed seconds later by another black car which stalked past slowly.

“Jesus,” Rufus whispered in awe. “
How are you doing this
?”

Josh was silent for a second, still catching his breath. “Can’t explain it. It’s like I’ve seen everything before but I only know just before it happens. It’s the Blue! I think it’s altered me somehow.”

“You gonna’ be alright? I mean—well—Cally and Sarah—”

“I feel in control,” Josh told him. “I can’t explain it, but it feels almost natural somehow.”

Rufus nodded and then looked out to the road. “Man, who the fuck were those guys anyway?”

“Don’t know.”

“You think they were the guys Carthy’s after? Shit,
do you think he’s dead
?”

Josh had doubled over, sucking in deep breaths. His lungs were on fire.

“No,” he said at last. “He ain’t dead!”

“You can tell?”

“Somehow, yeah.”

Rufus was silent for a second, still staring out at the street. “So we safe here?”

Josh shook his head. “No, not by a long shot.”

“No, I mean
now
. Are we safe here for
this moment
??”

“Oh, I get you. I don’t know. I mean it just sort of happens.” He paused for a second. “I kind of get the feeling we should go now though.”

Rufus nodded again. “Well it’s worked so far. Come on.”

Rufus began to make his way to the end of the alley. He looked back at Josh. “You know, I don’t know how much more of this shit I can take! I mean we’ve got fuckers shooting at us now.
On top of everything else
?” He shook his head and laughed. “Shit, and I thought this was going to be a boring term!”

He reached the mouth of the alley and cautiously peered around.

“It’s all clear,” he announced.

“Okay, let’s go straight into the alleyway on the other side.”

They both darted across the road, shadows in the street lamps and then back into darkness.

“What now, Josh? I mean what the fuck is our plan of action now?”

“Well, we keep going, play it by ear.”

“Shit man, I mean on a bigger scale. We’re just getting deeper and deeper into shit!”

Josh thought for a moment. “Oh shit! Karen! Hey, pass me your phone.”

“What, here and now? Don’t you think we should get a bit farther away?”

“Man, she’s got to get her and Sarah out of there as quick as possible, before Carthy gets to them.”

They’d both broken out into a mild jog, their pace subconsciously building and building as they’d hurried away from their unknown attackers. Josh dialled as they ran.

“Man, this shit’s got crazy,” Rufus said to himself.

“Come on, pick up, pick up!” Josh urged down the ringing phone.

“Hello?” came Karen’s voice.

“Karen!” Josh gasped. “Man, you’ve got to get the fuck out of there! We’ve ditched Carthy and somebody’s trying to kill us!”

“What the hell are you talking about!? Are you both alright?”

“Yeah, we’re fine. I nearly got shot but no we’re both fine!”

Karen’s voice exploded out in panic. “
You nearly got shot
! Who the hell was shooting at you?”

“I don’t know. Look that doesn’t matter right now. You and Sarah have to get out of the flat now!”

“How? She’s still out cold!”

Josh thought for a second. “I don’t know, get her into a taxi or something.” A vision of him saying something very similar before opened up inside his mind but he shrugged it off. “Tell them she’s drunk! But you have to get her out!”

Karen was silent for a second. “Okay, but where should we go?” Josh was stunned, found he had no idea and then suddenly he did. “The studio,” he said. “Get her to the art studio!”

ANOTHER STAKEOUT

OUTSIDE JOSH’S ART STUDIO—shrouded in darkness—there sat a silver Mondeo. Inside Ian McCalister was resisting the urge to light a cigarette, knowing the light could give him away. He’d been sitting for close to an hour now and he still wasn’t sure he was making the right move. Still some voice at the back of his head said it was.

Finding out who Josh and Rufus were had been relatively simple detective work. Catching up with them was proving to be far more difficult, however.

First step had been to go to Rob’s mum’s house. There he’d found his mother half-convinced that she’d already been visited by the police. Rob had been another story. He was shaken as hell, had clearly seen something but would in no way go into what had happened at his flat. Normally Ian would have made more of an effort to find out, but right now he was more concerned in finding out who the hell had already paid him a visit. Besides, this was personal not official. Rob, as it turned out, had known who they were, a couple of Art students, but had only known their first names. After ten minutes of getting nothing but hysterical burbling out of the lad, McCalister had decided to move on.

Finding out the full names and addresses of his leads hadn’t proved difficult either. He’d simply sweet-talked the university dean and come away with photocopies of Josh Holt’s and Rufus Raffertie’s home addresses for the term. The dean had seemed concerned and surprised, but McCalister had assured him they were only wanted for routine enquiries.

That’s where his luck had ended, however.

McCalister had decided he was now too close to get personally involved. He’d given a false name to Rob’s mother and the dean, but that would still easily lead back to him. That couldn’t be helped, but he wanted as little evidence of his involvement as possible.

He’d decided he’d approach the students on a more personal level, just catch them as either left their houses. Only problem was they’d never showed.

He waited a number of hours outside of the Rafferties to no avail. Next he’d waited outside Josh’s place but the only kid who’d left hadn’t matched the photocopied pictures he’d received off the Dean. He’d waited a while longer and then a black executive-looking car had shown up and some guy in an expensive looking suit had walked over and knocked on the door, so McCalister had made a sharp exit.

Knowing that special branch or someone else even higher now knew where to look, he assumed the houses were under surveillance and he hadn’t dared return. It also seemed that the kids were smart enough to lay low.

Then he’d remembered the address of the modified art studio that had also been given to him; with nothing else to chase up, he had decided to go there and hope something turned up.

It did.

A black cab had rolled up at about twelve, and two kids, one white, one black, had got out. At first Ian couldn’t make out their faces but it seemed too much to be mere coincidence.

At first he had decided to confront them straight away but instead of moving towards the building’s entrance they seemed to be waiting by the street for something, so he had waited too.

That had lasted about twenty minutes and then the white kid had started to hold his head and when he fell to his knees, Ian had decided something was definitely up and decided to make his move.

Ian opened his door and as casually as he could, made his way towards the couple.

“Hey!” he shouted as he neared them.

The black kid had looked up. “Oh shit Josh, it’s one of those guys again! Run!!”

He tried to pull Josh back to his feet, but he had merely crumpled to the ground, unmovable.

“What’s wrong with him?” McCalister asked.

Rufus eyed him suspiciously. “Nothing,” he said. “He’s fine. Come on Josh get the fuck up!”

“I can’t move,” Josh mumbled.

“He’s anything but fine lad! So what’s wrong?”

Rufus looked anxious. He looked down at his fallen friend and then up at Ian. He looked behind him, seemed to be considering running and then realising he couldn’t leave his friend behind, resolved himself to his fate.

“So who are you man?”

Ian stuck out his hand. “Detective Ian McCalister.”

“I guess we’ve been caught,” Josh murmured from the pavement.

“What’s wrong with your friend, son?”

Rufus said nothing for a second. “A drug. He’s taken a drug of some sort,” he finally admitted.

Ian was surprised. “
A drug
?? What sort of drug?”

Rufus shook his head. “Look I don’t really know but someone’s trying to kill us and there’s a guy looking for us! Man can you help?”

“What exactly are you involved in kid?”

Rufus laughed, looked close to desperation. “Man I wish I knew! So you here to arrest us?”

Now Ian regarded him suspiciously. “Should I be?”

Rufus laughed again, then looked down at Josh. To Ian he looked close to his breaking point.

“Should I be?” he asked again.

Rufus shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

Ian smiled mildly. “No I’m not here to arrest you. I’m not even here on an official basis. I just need some—information and the trail leads to you. So what exactly are you both involved with?”

Rufus laughed. “Shit where to start! Monsters, drugs or demon cops. Man you won’t believe the things I’ve seen!”

Ian was quiet for a second. It seemed he was talking to right people.

“Try me,” he said.

Rufus just stared at him. “Seriously, you won’t believe me! you’ll just think I’m crazy!”

Ian nodded, again went silent for a moment. “About a month ago I saw... something.
Something
that’s made me question a lot of things I once would have thought were complete nonsense.”