Judgement (The Twelve) (41 page)

Huntress took the last chicken leg, “So we go out tomorrow. Why not
today
?”

“Time to heal.” was the simple reply.

Speed looked at the empty plate, “Any more food left I’m starving.”

Priest grinned,” Tell you what
.
I’ll cook us up a
load of smoked Haddock
. How’s that sound?”

Speed rubbed his stomach,” How long will that take?”

Priest belched,” As long as it takes me to
steam the Haddock
,
boil up a few
pounds of new potatoes
dripping in butter
and
bake
four loaves of bread
, all
hot and
soaked in lovely butter
as well
. I’ll even throw in three bottles of
1983 Chateau Mouton Rothschild that
I’ve been saving for a special occasion.”

Speed grinned,” Sounds like a modern version of the Last Supper.”

None of the others laughed.

Chapter sixteen

A
cross the city, Jennings was greeting the first of his people. The Security
Company
owned a shooting range and armoury. There was a large conference room attached to the range complete with a map wall. London was currently displayed.

The room could seat sixteen plus the Chair. Presently it held
fifty
six field agents
. M
en and female
ex special forces
,
called in from
all four corners of the globe
. All current operational duties
were
suspended, which caused
a few
to question this decision as they where body guards to top government officials and members of
four
Royal house hold
s around the world
. But Jennings message had been brief, this was a triple A recall. That meant, ‘
get your arses back here pronto, the shits hit
ting
the fan.’

Jennings had
two deputies, an ex- lieutenant from the Para’s, called Pat
Mackinnon
. Six foot three, broad across the shoulders, broken nose and looked like a bouncer, but clever as hell and an expert with explosives. His nick name was ‘
Boom Boom’
. H
e was a master
when it came to using
C4
and other chemical
explosives
.

The other was an ex- Staff Sergeant
from the SAS
but a different unit to the one Jennings had been in charge of. Mike
‘
Sure
Shot’
Edwards was a normal looking sort of guy. He hid his
well muscled and finely honed body behind casual slacks and a baggy open necked Hawaiian shirt. He been recalled from Kuwait and hadn’t has time to change.
Once he removed his sunglasses however, h
is eyes gave him away, grey,
cold like a shark
. He was a pure killing machine, expert with the knife, garrotte and the Big Gun. His weapon of choice was the
McMillan Tac-50
sniper rifle
that fired the big .50 calibre rou
nd, accurate up to 1,600 metres, but Mike had made a kill at 1,900 metres.
That was one mean firearm.

Jennings had already prepped both men and it had taken him quite some time to win them over
. If it wasn’t for the fact that both knew him so well, they would have dismissed him as mad and walked away. Now Jennings was trying to explain the situation to the rest of his
team
and already hands were flying skywards.  After half an hour of answering questions
,
the entire subject material was made eas
ier to explain.
The firing range was protected by a silent intruder alarm. A red flashing strobe suddenly came on over the map wall.

Jennings turned to  ‘
Boom Boom’
Mackinnon and asked him to check the entry door which had been left locked. No sooner had he left the room,
when
the re-enforced door burst open and in flew Mackinnon, landing with a heavy thud on his back.

Mike Edwards who was nearest the door wondered who the hell could have done that to
Pat
.
The guy was a human tank.
His answer came in the form of three deformed and obviously dead individuals, two men and one female to be precise.  Each one was in a different status
of decay and each one stunk the place out.
The ghouls
burst into the room, followed by a dozen or so grey faceless monsters.

Instantly the scene was changed to one of utter chaos
.
Three m
en fell
,
ripped apart were they stood. Then training kicked in, weapons where drawn and now return fire was given. Two of the ghouls were literally blasted apart by fire from ten different side arms. But the Shades were inside very quickly and now there was a chance of hitting each other. Jennings had one pinned against the wall so he blasted it several time until it exploded. His gun had been blessed by Judgement.
The other agents
hadn’t been issued with the new ammo yet.

Some carried knives which they drew and used to slice o
f
f huge chunks of body parts. ‘
Boom Boom’
had recovered enough to use the first weapon that came to hand, a steel framed chair.
One of the Shades flew across the table with its head caved in. It tried to rise and as it did, ‘
Boom Boom’
dived across the polished table and brought the chair down with so much force it
smashed the creature to the floor.
Mike pulled his pistol and careful precision aimed with his arm outstretched. The creature came upright and Mike shot it once in the right eye, it staggered but stayed upright so he shot it again in the left eye. T
he Shade
exploded in
a spreading cloud of
red hot ash.

Mike was struck dumb
,
“What the fu…”

Pat
‘Boom Boom’
Mackinnon threw his chair at another Shade, “Cover fire!” He ordered in a drill Sergeants voice.

Jennings
added
,” Normal weapons are no good
unless fired in concentration. We need to blow these things apart,
best aim for what goes for the
ir
necks. Decapitate them and they explode. Back up towards
the firing range
,
form two
lines down by the target area.

The door to the range stood three quarters of the way down the conference room. Most made it as ordered some weren’t so lucky.  Jennings tried to help a wounded man by the name of Reilly but he was snatched from his hands by the remaining ghoul, who sank its teeth into Reilly’s neck. Jennings recognised a dead man walking when he saw one. Instead he grabbed a female who was laying semi unconscious and dragged her through the door. He passed her to
‘
Sure
Shot’
, “
Grab hold, I think I can reach Thomas.”

The man in question
was crawling towards him on hands and knees;
he was bleeding badly from a head wound. A Shade jumped upon his back but before Jennings could shoot,
Sure Shots gun discharged directly behind him and at the same moment the bullet struck the creature in the forehead,
an arrow pierced its skull
from behind
and the thing exploded.

A beautiful white haired woman stood in the door way armed with a large hunting bow, he recognised her as being the one called Huntress. She ran forward, somersaulted over one of the Shades who was feeding off one of his men and landed on the table. The one called Hot Cross was next
. I
n his hands he held balls of lightning.

‘Boom Boom’
strode up to
protect his boss who was pulling Thomas back to the door of the firing range
,
“Shit
me not! Ar
e they
the ones you talked about
?
”

Jennings
grunted as he kept pulling Thomas across the floor and
watched Hot Cross laugh as he threw first one then the other ball of lightning. Two Shades violently exploded into a cloud of drifting red hot ash.

Hot Cross strode into the room to make way for
Judgement. As far as Jennings and ‘
Boom Boom’
where concerned, time visually slowed down
as
Judgment slowly entered the conference room, each slow step he took echoed with each footfall upon the carpeted floor.

The Shades that ran at him veered away in panic. Those still fighti
ng or feasting on Jennings team
stopped everything and backed away in fear. With his wide brimmed hat covering his eyes and with
his
head slightly downcast. Judgement approached the centre of the fifty foot long room, but a thirty foot solid three quarter ton mahogany conference table stood in his way. Judgement lifted one foot and kicked out. The table slid the full length of the room as if made from cardboard. With a resounding crash it struck and partially embedded itself in the
stud wall
. Judgement stepped forward until he stood centre stage, “Get the wounded out now.” He ordered.

Huntress grabbed two that were still able to walk. Hot Cross lifted another female who was unconscious but alive. Jennings ran into his conference room and lifted up a man who he knew was called Patterson. The man was bleeding badly from
a neck bite but still alive.
That left
three bodies.
With
his
eye on the cowering Shades, ‘
Boom Boom’
checked the others, “Dead. “ He explained to this strange youth wearing a wide brimmed Preachers hat.