Judgement (The Twelve) (38 page)

Heartless laughed, “Why not just broadcast to the bloody world who we are!”

Chris sighed, “
I would love to tell
everyone
what’s going on but on reflection I think all we’d do is cause mass panic. But Jennings and his men can all handle themselves. With blessed
ammo
they can take care of the Shades and Ghouls. Leave the Dark to us.”

Anvil still said nothing so Chris turned to Heartless, “Seeing your wife grow old and die must have been terrible. But imagine of you’d shown yourself to her, allowed her back into your life? What do you think she would have felt if she watched you stay young whilst she grew old?”

Heartless didn’t answer
but
after a moments hesitation he simply
nodded.

Chris turned to Priest
, “The people go about there daily business not knowing that The Dark is playing Russian roulette with the
m
. At any moment of any day, a Shade can butcher at will
.
Imagine of the people where made aware of this. Imagine the panic!
”

Chris stood
and addressed them all
, “
T
hink on this, for every Shade you destroy, they gather ten more. So in a way aren’t you all partially responsible for all those deaths.”

Speed snapped to his feet, before clutching his side in pain, gasping he collapsed back down onto the settee,” Our fault! How can you say that?”

Bulls Eye remained seated but drew and a gun and started to twirl the chamber, “ At least with Russian roulette I know that there is only one bullet in the chamber and I get the choice whether or not to play and I know the odds. The people have no choice at all.”

Rage who was as usual standing rock still muttered.
“People
get scared if they know. Long time ago,
a group of border guards took shelter from the coming winter in one of our outlying v
illage
s.
I was one of them.
There w
ere
just
eight of us, all ha
r
d fighting men, Kings Men. Well by chance a woodsman
came across a raiding party of forty warriors crossing our border with Finland, heading our way. Well
me
and the lads
were happy.
We could make plans of our own.
That way we could surprise our attackers, turn the table on them,
and kill
them all.”

Slash pulled free one of his knives and threw it hard across the room to stick in a free standing wooden target he used for practice. It just so happened that Rage was standing right next to it, “What’s your point?” He demanded.

Rage glanced at the knife and smiled, “My point is the villagers knew as well. They all panicked, ran around like headless chickens. Some of the families ran off into the surrounding forest.
Found there bodies came the spring. Fools got turned around in their panic and had
run blindly into our attackers and were the first to die. The rest of the villagers wanted us to surrender, hoping they would be spared
. The headsman talked up a storm, all of it treason. MY King expected all of his people to fight all and every one of our enemies. I cut off his head to show the people they were wrong.”

Patch licked her lips, “So if we tell the people you’re saying their will be blind panic and many will die
needlessly
?”

Rage nodded,
“Damage limitations.” He
retrieved Slashes knife and threw it back under hand. Slash snatched it out of the air.

“Thanks. So we don’t tell the people. Is that it?”
Slash asked.

Priest looked over to Rage, “You’re wise beyond your size my friend.”

Chris had to ask,”
What happened
to the raiding party. You were outnumbered.”

Rage grinned, “Glad you asked. That’s my other point. Ten of the villagers were hunters of wolves and could handle bows. Four were woodsmen and could use our single bladed axes with expertise. We joined forces and slew every last one of the devils.” Rage crossed himself. “God have mercy on there rotten souls.”

Priest glared at
Rage for a second before his face softened, “I see your logic my old warrior friend.”

Anvil addressed Chris, “So I bring in Jennings and his people?”

“
Are t
hey all ex army?”
Chris asked.

“Yes
, the very best of the best
.”

“Then the answer is yes.” Judgement
added
, “We need help from mortal man in order that the Twelve can defeat The Dark.”

Chris coughed once to clear his throat, “I was he’d stop that!”

Patch had a question, “But if we can’t use the In Between and Jennings and his men certainly can’t. Where do we choose to fight without the normal folk seeing
us
?”

Anvil looked towards Priest, “I
think I know the place
but leave it with me
.
”

Chris asked, “Do you think Jen
nings
will be okay back there?”

Anvil was holding a disposable mobile phone, “I’ll phone some people I know.”

Chris stood and yawned, “Before I turn in where is this Cross Bones Graveyard Shadow mentioned?”

Priest
answered
, “In the twelve century the stretch of London called Bankside was notoriously famous for its brothels, bear fighting pits theatres and taverns. It was London’s pleasure quarter.
I remember a young talented playwright called William he enjoyed the fleshpots as much as anyone else. But I digress, the life expectancy of a whore was short lived, the church denied them a Christian burial so they were dumped in un-consecrated ground near Bankside itself. Over the years hundreds ended up here. Then in 1665, The Great Plague struck and thousands more where buried in mass graves on top of the bones of the whores. The land once owned by the church was passed down from hand to hand. In the 18
^th
century a survey was conducted of London poverty but they were to scared to walk anywhere near this Cholera over crowded
slum. Years passed, it was sold as a building plot but that was rescinded after I had words, very strong words with those concerned. In the 1990’s London underground dug up part of the area for the Jubilee extension. Those skeletons removed where blessed and some are now interned in the British museum. The rest of the land was left untouched. Eventually rubbish that had gathered over the years was removed, the ground levelled and wild flower seeds sowed. The locals hold a vigil there once every year. Chris this is the Cross Bones Gr
aveyard and according to Shadow, It’s
where The Dark are to be found.”

Chris
thanked Priest, nodded and whispered
, ”
U
n
- consecrated, a
sad and fitting place for The Dark.”

Yawning he excused himself
, “Tomorrow promises to be interesting.”

Anvil looked around the room,”
Yes
tomorrow
will
be….interesting.”

Chapter Fourteen

J
ennings arrived at twelve noon sharp. He’d spent the rest of yesterday and last night thinking about the things he seen. One
point
was absolutely one hundred percent clear.
There was a lot more to Mr Smith than meets the eye
, of that he was certain.

What in heavens name were those creatures? What was the thing that had killed one of his men and what had the boy done to it? He could think of a hundred or so questions but no rational explanations to any of them.

Jennings had served with distinction in the SAS and many of the Ops he’d led were and still are, highly classified. Yes he’d killed men and once even a woman
(she
was
pointing a Kalashnikov assault rifle at him
at the time
)
he’d lost no sleep over it. But those things he’d blown to ash! What the hell where they?

He stood outside the entrance to the warehouse. For once the sun was shining,
even though
it was a cold November day. Hidden from sight, were three of his best men. All were armed and had permits to carry firearms. He wasn’t a stupid or trusting man. What had occurred yesterday gave him cause for concern.

The
clean up crew
had responded quickly.
The body removed as well as the blood stained bedding. Some one did call the police before the front door or smashed window could be replaced.
The bullet holes had been noticed almost instantly and his Glock had been seized
al
most at gun point
by the Special Weapons and Tactical Unit. They had grilled him for two hours before a phone call was received. Moments later, not only was he released with an apology but his weapon was also returned to him.

The Detective Superintendent himself escorted Jennings from the Police Station, “We received a communication from the
Prime Ministers office
. It appears you have friends in high places and it also appears that this…incident is one of national importance. The entire enquiry has been taken over by Special Branch.”

Jennings knew that Mister Smith
had
built up many
connections
over the years
with Special Branch, MI5, MI6 and the Secret Service plus one or two other
departments
that the public didn’t know about. So
Jennings
wasn’t surprised at being released. Neither was he surprised to find the story never made the papers or the televised news.

He checked his weapon, unbuttoned his jacket for easy access and knocked loudly on the solid Iron wood double doors. There was hum followed by a click and the right hand door silently swung open on well oiled mechanical hinges.  Jennings rubbed his neck and received three separate electr
onic clicks in his concealed ear piece. “Keep sharp.” He whispered to
thin air and
received another three separate clicks.

Stepping over the threshold, Jen
nings
found himself in a huge vacant ground floor. The door silently closed behind him. The warehouse floor had one light over a
large mesh style gated
goods lift over by the far wall
. He took the hint and made his way slowly and carefully to the lift door. Before he could press the down button, the lift started to descend.

Jennings stepped back from the lift and held his right hand across his chest, near the grip of his Glock. The lift arrived and he was relieved to see it was the teenage boy. Then he noticed he was dressed in leather and was holding what appeared to be some sort of old
Mormon
t
ype
P
reachers hat in his hand.

Chris smiled, as he reached for the gates handle and pulled upwards. Again the well oiled heavy lift gate rose easily.

“Welcome Mister Jennings.”

Jennings stepped inside and stood over to the left with his back to the wall,
“William. It’s William Jennings but m
y friends call me Billy.”

Chris held out his hand, “I used to be called Chris.”

Jennings shook the offered hand, ‘
Now what did that mean. Yet another damn question!’

Chris closed the gate and pressed the button marked level 4.
He watched as they passed each pitch black floor until they reached level
four. The place was well lit and he could instantly see it was fitted out for accommodation.

The first thing that surprised him as the gate opened was the lack of luxury. This was more like a posh military barracks. Now he’d done a little background check on his employer. After all, he didn’t want to fin
d
he was working for a criminal or worse some foreign terrorist group. Smith, which he guessed wasn’t his real name, owned dozens of companies all over the world. In fact he had his fingers in hundreds of pies and seemed to be well known (but on a very private level)
in many high flying circles with
dozens of top ranking politicians, military personnel and the nameless people who run the
countries
Intelligence services
all over the world
.
Three
thing
s
he found out
did however surprise him. The first being
Mister Smith was
the richest man or woman on the face of this planet and no one knew
.
The second fact was
Mister Smiths signature appeared on numerous contracts dating back hundreds of years at the very least.  For all that h
e expected
to find him living
in some lavish penthouse on top of the warehouse.

The
third thing
far outweighed the first
and was new to the list
.
When h
e saw for the first time the
others
gathered to greet him. ‘
What the heck was this all about?’

Anvil strode over to greet him. Jennings couldn’t keep his eyes off that bloody big hammer! He allowed himself to be led around the group as Anvil made the introductions. His eyes flickered from faces to weapons and back again.
They all had this weird white hair do!
He paused longer to stare first at Huntress
white eyes
,
at
Hot Cross
with
electrical sparks coming from his finger tips! Heartless and his metal hands, the one armed knife man and someone who
couldn’t seem to stand still in the one spot for more than a few seconds, then of c
ourse
there was
the massively huge bulk that was Rage. He also noticed the injuries.
H
e was introduced
to a Priest of all things
, one heck of a big lad who actually blessed him and a gunslinger of all people. Finally
again
more formally to
the lad called Chris but
who
everyone else called Judgement. He did look like some old fashioned judgemental preacher with that hat he seemed to like wearing indoors.

He was shown to a seat
and sat down next to
the gunslinger called
Bulls Eye and again checked out his weapons. “They for real?”

Bulls Eye silently handed over one of his Colts. Jennings loved guns and recognised the real deal when he saw one.

“Nice weapon, you got the barrel rifled I see?”

“Only thing wrong with old Samuel Colts Peacemakers.
I use s
pecial
loads
too.”

Jennings remembered the kid laying his hand over his own gun and giving it some sort of blessing. “Let me guess, dipped in holy water or silver bullets made from a church cross.”

Bulls Eye was impressed, “Almost right. Hydro bullets, each one’s filled with a drop of holy water. They explode on impact.”

Jennings raised an eyebrow, “Hydro bullets were illegal last time I looked.”

Bulls Eye kept a straight face, “Then don’t look.”

Anvil called for silence, “Now that you’ve all met Mister Jennings…”

Chris cut in with, “Call him Billy.”

Anvil took a deep breath, “okaaaaay Billy it is. Now we’ve all met each other and
in order to save you time and questions. I
’ll
explain
things
as best as possible
.”

Jennings sat there in silence as Anvil slowly explained in detail his story and that
o
f
The
Twelve
. As Anvil described each member of the team, Jennings looked at each
one in turn but
said nothing.  Anvil told Jennings all about the Shades, ghouls and of course, the Dark.
He left out the other monsters and beast
s
at this point in time. Even Chris was unaware of
the exact details, time for that later.

Finally he explained about the arrival of Chris as Judgement and Coffee as The Chosen One. Finished, Anvil walked over to the kitchens fridge and took out a case of beers
,
offer
ing
one first to
Jennings
then the ladies and finally the others. Chris held out his hand hopefully.

“Not you
Chris
you’re under age.”

Jennings took the offered beer, pulled the ring pull and took a deep swallow of the cold golden liquid.

“Now correct me if I get this wrong.” He started to say.

“Some of you are si
x
or seven thousand years
old
. You’ve all died and been re-born
with new
names and certain abilities.” He glanced to Rage and Hot Cross as an example.

“Chris here is this Judgement mentioned in several ancient prophesies that you receive
d
from God.”

He pointed the
beer
at Priest
,
“You all fight and destroy grey slime balls
called Shades t
hat I shot up yesterday
and t
hey move around
in this In Between place
that
human can’t see and thanks to the Devil it’s also been blocked off
to you for the moment.”