Judgement (The Twelve) (49 page)

Watching from the monitors deep underground, he issued orders, “Inform Thames House we are under attack and to send re-enforcements now.”

The radio operator to whom he was speaking, looked up from his computer, “
Mister Morrison Sir, t
hey’re under attack as well as New Scotland Yard, the treasury Building, St Paul’s, The Houses of Parliament and Horse guard barracks. Besides that there are hundreds of incidents throughout the area. Every police patrol is engaged. Every hospitals either full or under attack.”

‘
God help us all’
was the
only thing he could think of.

Silently he watched the fire fight taking place above him. Starlight security seemed prepared for the attack. Apart from their normal side arms, he saw at least eight machine guns, Heckler and Koch MP5’s by the look of them. The men were firing in short controlled bursts. Dozens of those monsters were blasted apart but kept on coming until finally they exploded in what looked like fire and ash.

‘
Come on guys!’
he willed them to win
.

Then right before his eyes,
two figures materialised out of thin air! One was a leather clad gun Slinger for heavens sake! The other
was
a one armed man,
also in leather,
look
ing
soaking wet but carr
ying
a nasty looking knife. What was it called,
a yes a Bowie knife or Rambo knife depending on your age,
it was a nasty weapon indeed.
But then again his body
was covered in sheathed knives, including what looked like a
short sword
strapped
down his back
.

The one with the twin guns, (hang on they looked like Colt Peacemakers!) sprang to fill a gap between the still firing security men and women.
He carried a large holdall, which he carefully lowered.
He made no attempt to hide and stood with hands dangling on either side of each gun. My God it was your genuine gunfighters crouch. Then faster than he thought possible, both weapons sprang into his hands and started to buckle in his hands as he emptied each gun. A dozen monster exploded
within as many seconds, each one a head shot.

‘
Boy that guy can shoot!’
thought Morrison
He watched as the gun fighter started to reload. The one armed man took his place and
in the blink of an eye
ran forward twenty
feet
. No one could run that fast! He started to spin and turn, the Kukri carving huge circles in the air before him. Shade after Shade exploded as each one was either beheaded in cut in two, the bodies just kept on exploding for Gods sake!

The gunfighter had reloaded and sidestepped to get a view and opened fire, his bullets whistling past on either side of the one armed knife fighter. Between them and the security guards, they destroyed nearly all of the Shades. The last few turned and ran for the wall but were cut down before they could escape.

Morrison breathed a sigh of relief, “They did it!”

Then a hundred and fifty plus Shades burst over the walls, “Oh shit.”

The one with the Colts spun each weapon back into there holsters, “No, No carry on firing!” He shouted.

The man wasn’t fazed and slowly he knelt to unzip the holdall and produced a bloody hand held mini Gatling gun with a belt of bullets leading back into the bag.

The gunfighter waited until they were within fifty feet, “Slash hit the deck!”

The one called Slash dived for the ground as the gunfighter opened fire. Hundreds of spent bullet casings bounced and spun through the air
. The weapon roared with fire as over five hundred rounds were fired in fifteen seconds! When the rotating chamber slowed and stopped, the garden was empty except for a cloud of spreading red hot ash. A single bush caught fire and a thin tree fell slowly over into its side.

The security guards straightened up, waving away grey clouds of gun smoke and in that smoke the strange leather clad duo disappeared.

Back in Trafalgar Square,
Priest screamed once in pain
and screamed out one word
, “
Death
!
”

“NO!” Anvil roared.

Bulls Eye and Slash
reappeared at his side. Chris ran over. “Old Bailey.” he said quietly. Closing his eyes, he willed himself and Anvil to the In Between, together they ran
at an unbelievable speed
. It took them no more than three minutes to reach there destination. Anvil smashed three Shades to oblivion who were blocking the entrance. Chris sent a wave of pure energy down the corridor.” Be Judged.” But this time it was in his voice and not that of Judgements. The air rippled like a moving wave of water. As it struck, Shade after Shade exploded
in flaming ash. Chris charged down the corridor
instinctively turning
left and ran up a public
stairwell. The others followed hot on his heals. They burst onto the corridor that led to several courts, over eighty Shades turned to stare at him. Anger showed on his face. Chris removed his wide brimmed hat, “Be Judged and damned!” He roared and sent his hat flying. Fire burst from the rim and like a giant Catherine wheel it cut through the Shades. A great bubbling wail rose and was almost instantly cut off. Chris’s hat
completed a half turn
and spun back to his hand
,
i
n its wake
,
nothing
was left but
a
huge
cloud of slowly settling black ash and red hot
soot.

Even Anvil was impressed, “Which way?”
He asked.

Chris shook his head, “
D
read awaits
us
.” His voice was a strange mixture of both voices.

Stepping through
the
deep mound of ash, Chris pushed open two big thick wooden doors, leading to court number 1. He noticed both large brass handles where melted. A ghouls hand was stuck fast, charred and melted into the metal.

Inside, the place was a bloody
carnage. Bodies lay everywhere.
A Police Constable wa
s
sitti
ng on a bench
with a gashed face was
holding onto a badly bleeding forearm.
A door behind the Judges bench was wide open.
Chris noticed that the
police officer wasn’t
looking at him but off to his left behind one of the
wide open double front doors to the court.

Springing forward he
raised a fist as if to strike before
slowly lower
ing
his hand. Anvil saw the look on his face and moved so he too could see behind the door, as did Bulls Eye and Slash.

Huntress was sitting on the floor, silently weeping. In her hands she held the body of Hot Cross. His head was missing.

She looked up as they entered, “He took it.”

Anvil cleared his throat, “What?”

She looked up into his eyes, “Edge did this. He took the head as a trophy.
”

She turned to look up at Chris, “
He told me to tell you
this was for Shadow
.”

Anvil rested a hand on Huntresses shoulder, “Come on let me carry him back to Priest.”

Huntress nodded towards the police officer, “We got the
civilians out through the back but he stayed back to help, a damn brave human. The funny thing was
Edge could have killed me but he left me
as a witness
so I could tell you who had killed
Hot Cross
.”

Anvil walked over to Constable Fitzpatrick instantly recognising the man had lost a hell of a lot of blood. “You need medical help my friend.”

The officer slowl
y looked up into Anvils face, blinking several times to clear his vision, “You’re a big bugger aren’t you!” He looked from his Asp that lay across his lap to Anvils hammer, “Swap you.”

“Son this man needs your help.” Anvil asked.

For a second he thought Chris hadn’t heard then reluctantly Chris walked over to kneel down be
sides the badly wounded officer and willed him to live. Tears flowed down his cheeks as he healed the policeman.

When he’d finished, the officer had a nasty scar on his cheek but would live.
Chris
slowly climbed to his feet and shrugged off his fathers arm, “Chris, son what now?”

Chris replaced his hat upon his head and stepped out into the corridor. Slash asked him what he was going to do.

“
To
Kill
or forgive. The choice shall be theirs.
”
His voice was filled with sorrow as well as anger.

Chapter Twenty One

L
ondon was burning. At least
a hundred and
forty
major
fires raged throughout the city. Drury Lane theatre was well ablaze as was part of New Scotland Yard
. T
he lower eight floors of the Gurkin
burned fiercely as twenty fire fighters fought to save the building.
Three underground stations where infernos.
T
he House of Lords
was full of black smoke as hundreds of years of tradition and history went up in flames
but the fire brigade looked like they where g
etting it under control, Fire river boats sprayed thousands of gallons
of river water
in through shattered windows.