The Code War (53 page)

Chopper looked around him at each of the
six men in turn ensuring he had their complete attention. The
figurine in his hand was like a broken Action Man in the hands of a
spoilt boy.

'I'm going to capture Mr Kelly and I'm
going to show all of you how we dispose of those who target us. I
don't care that he's a cop. We're not just going to wait around
while they pick us off. They come sneaking at us like cowardly
assassins in the night. But we will respond with courage, like real
men should. All those cowards in uniform will learn a lesson from
his death.'

Wolf Smoke looked up adoringly at his
master and growled. He looked at the other men in the room as if
he'd understood the word 'death' and wanted to get started right
away.

Chopper was finished with his
tirade and now began to give orders. 'I am Kwok, the bane of
policemen and I have spoken. Nescafé, you and Mars work together.
You're the hard men of the outfit. This time don't screw up. I want
you to lift Mr Kelly off the street as soon as you can and take him
to the Blue Diamond. Make sure no-one sees you. Let me know when
you've got him and we'll make the final arrangements for his
departure to the afterlife. I promise you,' he said, looking down
at the panting Wolf Smoke, 'it will be an event worth
watching.'

Kodrob's Squadroom,
Inferno

Jabez stirred from his dark slumber. All
his water was gone and he was thirsty again. Kodrob had removed the
empty bottle and presumably hidden it. His broken wing was sore
again and he could hardly change position without a stabbing pain
shooting down one side. The chains on his wrists were heavy. So
unnecessary too. How could he escape from a dungeon deep
underground in Hell? Now someone had laid a bundle of ropes on the
chains, threading them around and between his arms. What was the
point of that? The heat was stifling. No Music. No friends. No
laughter. No Lamb.

Voices growing louder. Kodrob and
Zhivkin. Zhiv the cruel. Coming this way down the corridor.

'Why can't you take care of it by
yourself?' Zhivkin.

'I told you,' said Kodrob, 'he's got an
amazing strength. I've tied him up tight several times but he keeps
working his way free. I thought you might have some ideas.'

'The Zhiv has always got ideas,'
sniggered Zhivkin whose eyes were now like drills, 'when it comes
to keeping people quiet. Luckily I've got a few tools on me that
might help.'

They entered the room and Jabez writhed
against his bindings, genuinely scared.

Zhivkin came towards him and began
his work with a savage kick into the angel's back. But as the boot
landed, Zhivkin lurched sideways with a cry. Jabez twisted his neck
around and saw a long knife was in Kodrob's hand. Its point was
deep in Zhivkin's back. Deep, but not deep enough. Zhivkin pulled
himself away gasping in pain and pulled a scimitar from under his
cloak.

'I never trusted you, Kodrob, you
corpse-eating worm. That's why I wear chain mail under my shirt.
Never take it off. Your little plan has failed. Pu Gash!' he
shouted suddenly.

'No-one here, Zhiv, I've sent them
all home,' replied Kodrob quietly, masking his disappointment that
his pre-emptive strike had failed. 'It's just you and me. One of us
is for husking, it's just a matter of who.' Both demons circled
each other, pushing the table out of the way and clearing the space
in-between.

Jabez pulled his legs tight against the
wall. Kodrob's failed attack had tipped the hulking Zhivkin
mentally off-balance. He knew the big demon would slice him in a
second if he got close enough and he had no defence against a sharp
blade.

Both demons continued circling,
each one looking for another implement they could use as shield or
weapon. Chairs were seized by both and their seats punched out,
enabling them to be used as combined shield and four-pronged
jabber.

Zhivkin threw himself at Kodrob's
left, pulled back at the last moment and switched sides pushing
into Kodrob's right with the chair while slashing low with his
curved blade. Kodrob leapt high out of the way but Zhivkin had
achieved what he wanted. He was now closer to Jabez than Kodrob and
was waiting for the right moment to turn and strike the prone
angel.

Kodrob leapt forward
with blade and chair outstretched and tried to
take the initiative. Thrown back he tried again. Then a third time.
Panting for breath, Kodrob hesitated. While he looked for advantage
he inadvertently gave Zhivkin the space he wanted. A shock of air
blew past the ruthless Russian as he turned sharply and drove his
scimitar down into the body of the angel. His blade hit rock. Jabez
at the last moment had beaten down with his one good wing and
propelled his body to the other side of the girder that held his
chain.

It was Zhivkin's last move as a
satyr. As he tried to pull his scimitar from the rock that held it
fast, Kodrob's knife came down on him from behind and this time
made no mistake. The blade entered his body with so much force that
it pulled behind it a dozen unbroken mail links into his body,
rupturing his lungs and forcing a spume of blood and air up his
bronchial tubes, out of his mouth and onto the wall.

Zhivkin collapsed like an airplane
struck by lightning in a storm. His body and armour were so heavy
that Jabez and Kodrob felt the thick walls shake when he hit the
ground. His scimitar remained stuck in the floor, impelled deep
into the dead-rock by his ferocious strength.

A genital-shortening curse boomed
through from a disturbed demon in a neighbouring
barrack-room.
Dust ghosted down from the
ceiling.

All went quiet.

Ho Fook Restaurant,
Yaumati

The
police landrover hit top speed as it blared its way
north-south down Nathan Road, blue light flashing. Black smoke
poured from its exhaust as the three-shift-a-day, fourteen year old
vehicle reached 40 mph and 200,000 lifetime miles. Its four
uniformed occupants looked embarrassed as they gazed enviously out
of the vehicle at the windows of the jewellers and TV stores they
couldn't afford to shop in. In the outer lane a taxi delivered a
middle finger insult as it casually overtook the clapped-out
emergency car and continued to accelerate ahead.

Ruth walked slowly the other way,
keeping in beggar character, head down and shuffling her
cloth-bandaged feet. The gateway to the Fifth was now just a few
feet away. She had broken all the rules by coming here alone and
putting herself at extraordinary risk. If she could get back in one
piece it would be worth it. She turned left, down a sidestreet and
stopped. Holzman smiled broadly at her, blocking her way. The
gladiator killing machine stepped towards her and flicked off her
hat. He stood on her foot, pinning her in place. His left hand
grasped her waist while his right held a knife to her stomach.
'We're going to the Fifth, lady, but my place, not yours,' he
grinned.

Holzman swivelled the knife in his hand
so its point was towards his elbow. He punched Ruth in the stomach
then hauled her around in a half-circle towards the gateway. He
knew she had travelled here alone and once on the other side it
would be easy to conduct her towards Inferno.

A galvanized steel dustbin lid frisbeed
at a perfect horizontal and travelling at twice the speed of the
disappearing police vehicle surfed Ruth's head and sliced into
Holzman's neck. Ruth slid to the ground gasping for breath as
Holzman relaxed his grip and brought his hands up to pinch the
flesh and stem the blood loss, an instinctive reaction for a 1st
Century BC gladiator. He stepped back and tripped against a bag of
empty yoghurt and soy milk cartons from the nearby health food
shop.

As Holzman went down the heel of a
leather cowboy boot descended heavily on his face. It struck him
full on his nose and moved his entire nasal structure, bone,
cartilage
, skin and flesh two centimetres
to the side. Blood poured from the torn wound.

Dozens of emissaries from several
different tribes of wasp rose from the bag and buzzed over Holzman
li
ke helicopters on a
battlefield.

Luke's black arm reached around
Ruth's shoulders and hauled her upright. As she coughed and hauled
some air into her lungs, he leaned down and tucked his body into
her midriff.

Before Holzman could recover Luke
had Ruth over his shoulders and was sprinting to the gateway. Once
through and into the Fifth he transferred Ruth to his front,
holding her between his strong arms against his lumberjack-shirted
chest and transferred all his energy to his dorsal muscles. Luke
beat his wings harder and faster than ever before, accelerating
through the speed bands as though all the demons of Hell were in
his wake, all the while looking behind in case there was hot
pursuit.

Holzman appeared through the gateway
moments later and immediately gave chase, the powerful German
holding his neck wound with his hand while his skin wings beat
frantically. Without a burden to carry he was faster than Luke and
was gradually overhauling the angel. Luke knew he had only minutes
before Holzman would be upon him. Again he glanced behind and saw
the broken face of the demon, the contorted expression twisted in
pain, the determination to catch and kill. Ruth was still in no
condition to fly, Luke could hear her praying.

Ahead, lights appeared
unexpectedly in the firmament, approaching them. They'd been seen
by a patrol. Reconnaissance flights and cavalry patrols had been
stepped up recently because of the emerging situation resulting
from the Leader's outrageous demands. Was it luck or an answer to
Ruth's prayer?

Luke could have sung for joy. Ruth gave
thanks. The closing speed meant it was a fine calculation whether
the rescuers would reach them before Holzman did. But the demon
settled matters. He was already demoralised by the neck and nose
wounds and now he knew he was heavily outnumbered. He might be able
to reach Luke and deliver another injury to Ruth but he risked
being iced or worse.

He flattened his wings out to
brake as quickly as he could. An outriding angel passed Luke and
Ruth in the opposite direction at high speed. Using his velocity
the angel crashed straight into Holzman and sent him tumbling and
spinning off his flight path. Now the demon had a broken arm to add
to
his other injuries. The patrol of four
male and two female angels surrounded Luke and Ruth
protectively.

Within minutes more lights ahead
told them additional reinforcements were on their way. Not that
they were needed. Soon there was an escort of hundreds of flying
and mounted seraphs cheering and offering to help Luke with his
burden. Which of course he declined.

'We're out of danger, we'll soon be
home,' gasped Luke to Ruth who was recovering in his arms but
showing no interest in spreading her own wings.

'That's real nice, Luke. What a story
I'll have to tell Michael and Gabriel when I see them at the next
cocktail party. They'll be so interested. I'll put in a good word
for you too, you know?'

'You're just too big-hearted, Ruth. I'm
thrilled to know that the archangels will be interested. Really,
I'm excited. Well OK, not very excited. Anyway, I thought you were
too frightened to go to Earth. You were most reluctant when Jabez
first mooted it.'

'Y'all must know, that was the
most scary thing ah ever done in my life. It was excitin' though.
Specially when you showed up in the side street with the sands
o'time runnin' out, just like in the movies.'

'Movies? If that was a movie it was
nearly a horror. That demon was a nightmare.'

'Mebbe. But it just might have been
worth the risk. Nancy and Dan got talkin', just like we bin tryin'
to arrange all along.'

'Tell me later. I don't know whether I'm
still furious enough with you to drop you down the Glacier Chimneys
of Choldotsk. They're on the far side of Paradise a long way from
me, Jabez and Agatha. A long way from everyone really.'

Luke was cruising now that the danger
was over. Other angels were circling them, globing their friends in
flight.

'Oh, they sound cool Luke, tell me
more. Glacier Chimneys. Fun.' Ruth was now as wide-eyed as an 8
year-old. No longer gasping for breath.
Still no inclination to fly, though.

'Oh, you want to know, do you?
You're up for a little scaring? OK then, see how you like this. You
see the tunnels in Choldotsk are too narrow to fly in and angels
have been known to get lost and wander around there, out of the
Music and even out of Creator's sight, for centuries. Crying
bitterly. And when angels cry there, it's so cold that they cry
ice. Only, there's no gin and no tonic to go with it. Yeah, it's
that bad.'

Ruth was showing mock horror, her
fingers in front of her mouth.
'And no
lemon?'

'
No. And
when those sad, beautiful but hopelessly misguided angels do
eventually find their way out of those extremely dark, extremely
cold, extremely endless tunnels they're normally reformed
characters who are cured of a passion for loneliness and doing
things on their own and meeting evil creatures on the sly in
yoghurty alleyways in British colonies. Instead they delight in
company and friends and telling people what they're up to and being
generally thoughtful and considerate and all.'

Ruth looked up at him adoringly.
'Oh, Luke, that's a wonderful story. You know my daddy used to tell
me tales like that when I was a little itty bitty girl back in San
Antone. He frightened me and my sister under the bed and we loved
it. You've got such a gift for story time. You should develop your
talent.'