Judgement (The Twelve) (43 page)

Jennings rubbed a hand through his hair, “
You’ve killed two Dark so far but
they’ve
also
sent a clear message. They know all about me and my people. That means they
somehow that
may know a heck of a lot more than you think. It also means I don’t have to force my people to understand, after this they will jump at the chance to fight back.
S
ome of
their
friends died today.”

Chris looked towards the corridor leading to the firing range, “You have injured. Let me see if I can help.”

“No insult intended but there’s nothing you can do. They need hospital treatment a sap.”

Chris walked towards the firing range,” You may be surprised what I can do.”

Jennings looked at the carnage surrounding him,’
after this nothing w
ill
surprise me.’
He thought
.

It took Chris no more than three hours to heal all the wounded, even the critically wounded.  The rest of Jennings people looked on in wide eyed amazement.
  They didn’t know wh
ich of the three white haired strangers
to look at, Chris who could heal with his hands and had seemingly blown the conference room to hell with nothing but a look! The beautiful female archer, with white
flowing
hair that moved around her head as if alive
and
her strange white eyes that should have meant she was blind but wasn’t, or the young man with electrical discharges that arced around and across his body. Their minds still reeled from th
e
grey slime co
vered monsters that had killed three
of the
ir
own. One thing they knew, Jennings had been truthful. They didn’t understand what was going on but they wouldn’t rest until they had avenged the
ir
friends deaths.

Chapter Seventeen

S
tan
ding next to Anvil was Jennings and
in front of them
where
one hundred and
seventy four men and women. This constituted
the entire world wide agent contingency that made up the front line staff of Star light security.
E
x Irish Guards, a few ex parachute regiment
elite
, ex members of the
Australian Security Intelligence Organisation
or ASIO, the Austrian
Abwehramt
or
Military Protective Office
,
the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
National Security Criminal Investigations unit or RCMP, even ex members of the fabled
Mossad
and
the French
Directorate of Military Intelligence
. Jennings had also recruited from the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
and the highly secret British
Secret Intelligence Service
.  But he also had people with specialist kill and weapons skills from units such as the
United States Army Rangers
, the Australian
1st Commando Regiment
, the German
Kommando Spezialkräfte
,  Canadian
Special Operations Regiment
and of course the SAS.

Eight
een
hours previous to this
meeting
, Anvil and Priest
gave Jennings the third degree when he turned up at the warehouse with some of his people and a few that where wounded but healing. They
listened as Jennings explained the bloodbath that had taken place and the fortuitous arrival of Chris, Huntress and Hot Cross, “I’d say my connection to you is known to the other side. A Shade or one of The Dark must have gotten away from the fire fight at
Jenkins
apartment. He or they not only witnessed the death of this Shadow character but my presence
at the scene
, hence the full blown attack on my people.
How they found out who I was so quickly is any ones guess. T
hey intended wiping us out in retaliation for what you’
d
done
but it backfired
.”

Chris came in
shortly after that
to confirm they hadn’t been followed.

“How do you know?”
P
riest asked.

Chris smiled, “I found a way back into the In Between or rather Judgement did. I guess being cut off from it wasn’t allowed.

Anvil and they others listened as Chris explained how he had entered the In Between, “Instead of just willing it so. Picture a wall with a door between you and there, then just open the door.
”

Priest looked amazed, “That s
imple!”

Chris told them to try
and w
h
ere surprised
just
how easy it was
. He
looked at
his son
with deep respect
showing
in his eyes,’
Just how powerful are you?
’ he wondered.

Anvil cast his gaze over Huntress, who was sitting at the kitchen counter drinking milk.  “Considering I’d sent you to the wrong place, namely Embankment and th
at
damn bridge. Care to please explain how you happened to be in the right place at the right time?”

Huntress deferred to Chris. Which gave Anvil pause for another thought, ‘
Are you becoming the leader here?’

Chris spoke quietly, “We were on our way down to Embankment, like you said
and I was deep in thought wishing we could travel In-Between, when suddenly Judgement gave me a vision
.
It was
as I told you
.
Suddenly I
’d f
ound
a
way to
enter the In-Between. All it took was for me to see the wall
the Devil
had put up
and add a door
. I c
ouldn’t
break
his
wall
down
but I c
ould
open a door
supplied by our Creator
.
W
e
were on our way to
Embankment,
so
I took us into the In-Between and
the next second
saw dozens of Shades
in the distance
heading off at the gallop towards the city. I would have ignored them if not for the fact that they had with them a
new
member of The
Dark
and Leach.
”

Huntress took over now and explained
they had decided to follow this new Dark One and the other
. They led them to a brick building and started to attack it,
“The rest is history.”

Priest belched again,” That’s two of The Dark
,
Chris has destroyed. Thank God we didn’t meet
Brick
in some dark alley way! I wonder what other monsters they’ve recruited.”

Anvil was
still
thinking
about that conversation
when
Jennings whispered in his ear,
bringing him back to the present,
“You do realise that
the situation
will undoubtedly
be taken away from you by Her Majesties Secret Service, MI6 and the military
?”

Anvil shrugged, “I
doubt it. Half your team will have reported back to there own Governments about what
happened
.
Most world leaders know about my people and what sort of power they have. They may offer help but they’re out of there depth and they will know it. Besides
I know w
h
ere all the nasty skeletons are buried.”

“Blackmai
l,
I’m impressed.”  Jennings
chuckled.

Anvil snorted,” I prefer enforced
mutual
co-operation.”

Anvil had turned over the second and third floor of the warehouse to Jennings and his people. It had taken them half a day to remove all booby traps, some of which greatly impressed ‘
Boom Boom’
, who loved explosives. The rest of the day they had started to outfit each level fo
r
habitation
. That had taken a week but during that time, his men had slept on
army c
amp cots, none had complained.

During the forth week, crates containing weapons of every kind arrived. Priest and Judgement were kept bus
y blessing them all and outfitting them with holy water hydro bullets.
Hot Cross had helped set up ten bullet presses and showed there armourers how he made hydro bullets from holy water. They set about making thousands of rounds of ammo. That took another t
wo
weeks.

The floor on which Anvil and Jennings now stood was the third floor. It looked spotless and outfitted for luxury. This was the sleep and rest area, plus kitchen and lounge areas. The second floor was the armoury and martial arts area plus a fully stocked medical and sick bay. Jennings had provided four medical orderlies, plus a combat doctor and surgeon. The area also contained an impressive radio communications system, linked into the cities CCTV and several world wide surveillance satellites.