Judgement (The Twelve) (37 page)

Anvil straightened up,
he had to ask,
“Shadow
did you kill him
?”

Chris wiped away a tear, “
Only his body.
God allowed
his soul
to
find his family
. “

Anvil grunted and
turned to Jennings, “You’ll need a clean up crew.”

Jennings was staring at Chris, “Who the hell are you?”

Chris smiled, “
You can call me Chris.”

Jennings was only just starting to gather his wits about him
and remembered what Anvil had just said
, “And the police! With all that gunfire someone will have called the boys in blue.”

Chris took a deep breath, “No
Judgement
arranged it so nothing would be heard outside of these four walls. Of course someone may notice the smashed in front door downstairs.”

Anvil took Chris by the arm, “We have to go. What you have done will have a massive impact on what is to follow.”

Jennings held up a hand, not the one with the pistol it in, “Care to explain what the hell’s just happened?”

Anvil looked him square in the eyes, “No.”

Jennings stood his ground for a moment, before re-holstering his weapon
and removing the shoulder holster
.
He held it out to Anvil, “You’d better leave
. I
’l
l call
some people to clear this up. Best not call the police, there’s no way I can explain what the hell happened and forensically bullets from my gun are all over the bloody place. We know who or what the murderer is but no way would the police understand. Hell I don’t understand and
I wont accept a simple ‘
N
o’
from you
Mister Smith. Jenkins was one of my own
and I just watched him rise from the fucking dead and blew him away again
.
I
deserve
to be told
.”

Anvil considered it for a fraction of a second before giving him the warehouses address. Jenkins recognised it of course. Anvil told him to meet him there tomorrow at twelve noon.

“As for this,” Anvil indicted the hallway full of ash and bullet riddled walls plus the dead body.

Jen
nings
shrugged,
“
my people will
clear it up.”

Chris looked at the body, “Is it that easy to hide a murder?”

Anvil pushed him gently towards the door, “I’ve found that over the years money can by almost anything.”

Anvil was impressed with the way Jenkins was handling the situation. He knew the man must be totally shaken by what happened but outwardly he was all professional.

He
shook Jennings hand,” Thank you for
your
help and I’m sorry it led to this mans death. Does he have any family?”

“An e
x wife and two teenage children, he used to
send them money from time to time.”

Anvil nodded, “See to it that they get a big lump sum, a widows pension and a
g
ood funeral
. Tell his
ex
wife that his death saved lives. Tell her you can’t go into details.
Top secret
and such, but he died a hero.”

Jennings looked at the body, “Yes I can’t really tell her he died with a
ghosts hand sticking out of his head now can I.”

It was obvious the man was very upset and angry. Anvil shook his hand and again promised him a full explanation tomorrow.

As Anvil and Chris walked down the flight of stairs, Jennings stage whispered over the balcony,”
See you at noon
then
”

Anvil looked up and just gave a quick nod and was gone. Jennings turned back to the apartment, “Right better start phoning.”

Chapter Thirteen

T
o say that Anvil was angry was
a
n understatement! He paced back and forth across the living area, his eyes daring anyone to get in his way.
But his friends had been with him for a long time and knew when to stay out of his way. All that is except for Chris who pushed off the kitchen counter he’s been leaning against and walked over to block Anvils pacing.

The others rolled there eyes or let out shocked gasps or whistles of amazement. Anvil found him self almost nose to nose with his son. The boy had grown unnaturally fast over the last few weeks and was now almost as tall as he was and as Anvil noticed, filled out across the shoulders. He guessed this was Judgements work.

“Best move.” He growled.

Chris stood his ground, “I’ll explain
it
one more time. It was Shadows time. I judged him and
allowed him to
ascend.”

Anvil took a step to the left as if to carry on pacing but Chris moved to block him again. Rage growled softly, Priest blessed himself
.

Heartless allo
wed himself a cackle of delight, “Good job he’s not carrying that bloody hammer kid.”

Anvil took a deep breath, folded his arms across his chest and asked, “Why ascend for Gods sake?”

Priest started to say don’t blaspheme but Anvil told him to shut up. Chris shrugged, “Judgement
saw his past
and found something that was worth saving.
He allowed Shadow to re-join his wife and
children
.”

“Have you any idea how many people Shadow has killed?” Anvil shouted. “He’s one of The Dark!” He bellowed at the top of his lungs.

“Only because of what
the Ellish and
Edge made him believe. It wasn’t his fault!” Chris shouted back.

“Not his fault then who…” Anvil roared.

Chris
raised his hand to
cut off his father
’
s wraith, “
The death of his family changed him
! It l
ed him down the dark path of revenge. You should have helped him with his re-birth and he would have been one of us but you missed the opportunity thinking Slash was the only one you were there for that day. The Ellish didn’t.”

Anvil drew in a deep breath, held it for a second
before visibly deflating
. He had no answer for that.

Priest realised there was a chance to calm things down, “We’ve always believed this has been our fight and ours alone but now
with Jennings due here,
I’m starting to wonder.”

Chris remembered thinking something along those lines ages ago about it being wrong that people didn’t know what was happening around them.

Anvil moved over to the fridge and poured himself a can of stout, “Go on.”

Priest cleared his throat, I’ve thought for some time now that it’s not right that….normal people don’t know that they are being killed and harvested by The Dark.”

Slash added, “Sometimes I think that as well.”

Huntress looked towards Hot Cross, “Remember when that
woman’s
child was taken and you said it’s a pity she couldn’t be told. Remember whe
n we watched her at the funeral, knowing the coffin was empty and we saw
Edge laughing from the crowd but couldn’t do anything about it?”

Hot Cross
sparked with an electrical discharge, “
It s
tunk!” he snarled.

Heartless shrugged,
“
Dead is dead what does it matter
!”

He
dived
quickly over the back of the armchair as an
electrical arc flashed very close
past his metal hands
.

Rage added,” I remember you when you weren’t so nasty Heartless.”

“Shut the hell up!”

Chris asked, “When was that Rage?”

Heartlesses face went from anger to sadness, all in a split second. “He means when my wife died.”

Rage finished explaining
, “He was married before he died. Kept going back to his wife in the In Between, couldn’t let her see him. Not allowed or so Anvil said. He watched her grow old and die. Change then.”

Heartless looked crest fallen, “Here we are doing this fantastic job for God, making all these sacrifices and no one is supposed to know about it. That stinks!”

Anvil looked around the room, “You all feel that way?”

No one answered, so he drank his beer in silence, deep in thought.

Chris spoke to his father, “Getting back to Jennings.
Remember when I asked why you hadn’t killed Hitler and you told me that The Twelve didn’t get involved in human affairs. That God gave mankind the choice to make his or her own decisions?”

“Yes so what of it?”

“Well you said nothing about humans helping us.
”

Anvil just
stared at him so Chris continued, “Bring him into the warehouse introduce him to us. Let him know what’s really going on. He saw it w
ith
his own eyes anyhow, so my guess is he’ll absorb the truth a lot easier than being lied to.
“