Kingdom: The Complete Series (51 page)

He turns to her. “Look,
if killing him is the only way to stop him, fine. But I don't think we
can.
He's
practically invincible.”

“
The
others might have an idea of how to stop him. There's got to be something,
right?”

“
I'm
not going back to the safe-house, Stace.”

“
What?
Why?”

“
I
don't want to.”

“
You
haven't even seen Jamie or any of them, don't you want to at least say hello?”

“
Hello
would be followed by a discussion on how to stop the King. Plan A: get Mark
really drunk and set him loose. I'm not a weapon, and that won't work.”

“
You
mean,” says Stacy, “that you're not going back because you might have to drink
again.”

He bites his bottom
lip. “All I can taste is that horrible whiskey after-taste. My breath is
disgusting. My chest feels all burned and tight and stuff. I've got the shakes
already. I like a drink Stacy, but not this much, christ. I just want to stop
being drunk for a while, ok?”

“
But
if it means stopping him...?”

Mark ignores her and
walks around the fence, pulling back the board on a broken window.

“
I'll
need to lay low,” he says. “You head back if you want.”

She throws her hands
up. “Well I'm not leaving you on your own am I? God, fine, we'll sleep in -”
she looks up at the house, “- the set of a horror movie, apparently.”

Mark holds the board
open like a doorman, managing a weak smile as she clambers into the gloom.

Episode
4

The
Long Night

There's silence in the
safe-house, hanging over everyone like a headache and making them seem so much
smaller.

Trespasser One,
stripped of his armour and sitting in his vest and shorts, perches on the edge
of a camp bed, his half-burned face pale and gaunt. He looks around at his
squad – all there bar Mark and Stacy – and sees them unwilling to meet his
eyes. Their fight with the King is still fresh in their mind, their expressions
stuck in the same fearful grimace.

“
We
didn't get the guns, did we?” he asks. Nobody says anything; they know the
answer. “Not that it matters. He doesn't need guns to be a threat.”

“
How
are you feeling?” asks Cathy.

Trespasser One glances
over at Donald, and smiles. “I'm fine.” He turns to the rest of them. “We did a
good job; we know things about the King now that are game-changers. We know
what he wants.”

“
We've
always known what he wants,” says Chloe, looking up from her perch on Jamie's
knee. “Total control of every soul in this city.”

“
Well
now it's within his reach,” says Trespasser One. “Any news on Mark?”

She shakes her head.
“Nothing after that text from Stace saying they were fine.”

“
Definitely
from her?”

“
Yeah,
code word at the end was right.”

Trespasser One puts his
hand on his chin, then leans forward into his hands and steeples his fingers,
letting a tense breath ripple between his palms. He gazes into the floor,
talking to himself under his breath.

Gary, still cradling
his aching head in one hand, lifts his eyes.

“
What
do we do, guys?”

“
Stop
him,” says Jamie, breaking his silence. They look over at him, sitting like a
king with Chloe draped over him, their foreheads touching. His clouded features
are still shiny with sweat.

Cathy responds. “I
don't think it's going to be that simple, son. I mean, if Mark can't beat him
-”

“
We
think outside the box. Maybe Donald's power will affect him,” he shrugs. “Or
mine. We haven't tried everything.”

Donald shakes his head.
“Even if we can hurt him somehow, where do we put him? What prison can hold him?”

Jamie's words turn the
air cold. “Who said anything about prison?”

Trespasser One shrugs.
“I'm inclined to agree. He's too dangerous to be allowed to live.”

“
I'm
not killing again,” says Donald, shaking his head. “I'm a doctor for christ's
sake.”

“
We
aren't asking you to, Don,” says Jamie. “I'd have done it myself if the bastard
wasn't bullet proof.”

“
I
have an idea,” says the Trespasser. “The first time I ever met Mark, I had to
take him down without killing him. He was shrugging off cannon rounds from a
helicopter, so I shot him in the face with an expanding foam compound to stop
him breathing. Knocked him out. That was Agency technology, but I could
probably get my hands on it again.”

Chloe looks up. “You
think that would work on the King?”

“
Worth
a try. He's human.”

“
Barely.”

Jamie clears his
throat. “Speaking of the Agency...”

“
What?”

“
Why
don't we let them know what's going on? Their resources would come in useful.”

Trespasser One shoots
down the idea. “The King would tear them to pieces. I won't bring soldiers here
just to die.”

“
Whatever
we do,” says Gary, “it has to be soon. If he's going for this whole Kingdom
idea, there's not much standing in his way is there?”

Jamie answers him
before the Trespasser can.

“
He'll
need cameras, and soldiers. Best guess is that his soldiers take the main
routes in and out of Glasgow – probably why he's been convincing criminal
collectives from across the country to join him, and arming them. By virtue of
his power alone, he can just declare Glasgow his own and kill anybody that
tries to stop him. That's how a nation is born, right?”

Gary scoffs. “Wouldn't
they just drop a nuke on him? I mean, a city of criminals, that's a golden
target. Wipe out all your problems in one blast.”

“
He'll
keep the civilians here,” says Jamie. “His Kingdom needs citizens. Hostages,
essentially.”

“
So
we've got a rough idea of
how
,” says Cathy. “The question is, when?”

“
He
could do it now,” says Trespasser One. “There's nothing stopping him except his
own timetable.”

“
You
know what I think we should do?” asks Jamie, looking around at the sodden,
gloomy group.

The smell of rain has
followed them in, stuffing up the place with sweat, blood and fear. It smells
like a slaughterhouse.

“
What?”
asks Donald.

“
I
think we should get out of Glasgow.”

Even Chloe gives him a
strange look, leaning back to scowl at him.

“
Whatever
the King has planned, he's not going to let his 'citizens' leave. If we're here
when his Kingdom becomes a reality, we'll be at the mercy of him and his entire
army. We'll be at a major disadvantage.”

“
If
we leave, we can't help,” says Donald.

“
Says
who? There's better ways to beat the King than us all ganging up and fighting
him. We've proven that already.”

“
Guys,”
says Chloe, silencing them. “Can anyone else hear that?”

They stop and listen:
the crackle-hiss of the radio over by her tech-desk.

Cathy nods. “That's the
police scanner.”

Chloe leaps off Jamie's
lap and rushes to the bank of monitors. “Maybe they picked up on our tip? Found
the King?”

“
For
their sake, I hope not,” says Jamie.

She crashes onto the
seat and jams the headphones on, focusing. The rest of the squad follow,
clamouring round her and hushing each other, until silence falls.

“
What
is it?” hisses Gary.

Her eyes unfocus, and
she lifts the headphones off like a surgeon removing his mask after a failed
operation.

“
Pitt
Street,” she says, pushing herself back from the desk and tensing up. “Maryhill
Road. Two police stations in the city centre.”

Trespasser One pushes
her. “And?”

“
Both
requesting armed response backup, immediately.”

“
Oh
shit,” whispers Donald. “It's happening. He's doing it right now.”

Gary steps away and
rushes for his campbed, where his armour lies. “We need to get to those
stations and help -”

“
It's
too late for them,” says Trespasser One, signalling to everyone to get suited
up. They disperse as he shouts over the clatter: “The King will eliminate any
resistance and then broadcast his intent. Units are probably already taking the
motorways, the train stations, and so on. It's too late to stop that.”

“
If
it's too late,” shouts Jamie as he fastens his armour on and begins to pull his
long coat over the top, “then why are we suiting up?”

Chloe flicks every
monitor on as her fingers dance across the keyboards. “Tony, are you thinking
what I am?”

“
He's
going to need to broadcast.”

“
The
BBC building,” she answers him. “Right?”

“
Right,”
says Trespasser One. “He'll want something with reach, something live: where
better than the place they broadcast the news from?”

“
That's
where you're heading,” says Stacy. “Right on the edge of the river.”

“
Masks
on,” says Trespasser One. “We don't want our faces on the news.”

“
So
what's the plan?” asks Cathy as she helps Gary with his armour.

Trespasser One pulls a
pump-action shotgun from his toolbox, the end sawn off, and checks it over as
he talks.

“
We
wait there until he shows up,” says Trespasser One, “and then we kill him.”

“
What,
we just default to killing him?” asks Cathy.

The click-clack of
preparation stops, and she gets a series of low, disappointed looks.

“
What?”
she asks, and then the realisations sets in. “Oh my god, am I the only one here
that hasn't killed someone? Really?”

“
Hi
I'm Gary,” says Gary in mocking tones as he suits up, “and I'm a murderer. Well
done Gary, sit down, you're very brave. Welcome to murderers anonymous.”

“
It
was self defence,” says Donald. “You remember the whole Destroyer thing, you
were there. We all took lives.”

Cathy looks at the
ground. “I just kinda forgot that those were people.”

“
Less
talking,” shouts Trespasser One, “more preparing. We're on a very limited time
here. Vehicles?”

Jamie answers. “I found
us two earlier, got them waiting outside.”

“
Good.
Chloe?”

She looks up. “Yeah?”

“
Can
you get a hold of Mark and Stacy?”

“
I've
tried a hundred times.”

“
Try
one more. Send them a text explaining what's happening. We could use those two
especially, even if it's just Stacy to shut down the broadcast. The King is
nothing without his public image.”

“
He's
kind of a super-powered invincible maniac without his public image,” says Gary.

“
I'll
try,” says Chloe. “Now, everyone accept the incoming call.”

Over the static and
beeping of her bank of computers, they hear half a dozen echoes from each of
their phones coming out a speaker.

Trespasser One pulls
his face-mask on, leaving only his eyes visible, and loads his shotgun, pumping
the slide with a satisfying crunch.

“
We're
ready,” he says. “Stay in touch.”

They head for the
hatch.

Jamie is the last one
out, and before he goes he jogs back over to Chloe's workstation and leans
over. She briefly takes her headphones off and gives him a flustered look.

“
Jamie
there's no time, you need to -”

He touches her, and the
world turns grey as he lifts his face-mask off. The two of them are the
brightest thing in the room, almost sparkling.

“
No
time?” he asks, smiling.

She relaxes, looking up
at him with her big blue eyes. “What is it?”

“
Two
things,” he says. “First -”

He leans in and kisses
her, their noses brushing together as he pulls away with a coy smile.

“
Fair
enough,” she laughs. “The second thing?”

His face darkens so
suddenly that it unsettles her, and she slides back in her chair.

“
No
matter what happens tonight, I don't want you here when I get back.”

She looks at him as
though she doesn't recognise him. “What?”

“
If
this fails, the King is going to make Glasgow just like it was before, and if
he finds you then he's going to try and cash that debt we owe him. And I might
not be here to do anything about it this time.”

“
I'm
not leaving,” she says, “not until all of you do.”

“
Just
get out of Glasgow, sweetheart,” he says, begging. “I can't do this with a
clear head if I'm worrying for you. Just get far away, ok?”

“
No.
We go together, or not at all. That's how we've always worked.”

They stare at each
other in silence, clashing without words.

“
Chloe
-”

“
End
of discussion,” she says, and reaches out of her chair to put a hand on his
cheekbone and kiss him. As she pulls away, she tiptoes up to his ear. “Put him
in the ground, Jamie.”

He nods, and steals a
last kiss.

Colour returns to the
world, and Chloe falls backwards onto her chair with a heavy sigh.

Jamie is gone.

Mark sits on a dusty,
stained carpet in the shivering darkness, his weathered face cast in shadow by
the cold light of a phone screen. Stacy comes through from another room with
two bottles of white wine in her hands, the glass clinking together as she
shakes them.