Underbelly (72 page)

“
The car’s up there. It’s unlocked. Sit inside and we’ll be with you directly,” Laura commanded.

“
He’ll kill him,” Germaine said frantically.

“
You need to be out of the way. Go there and I’ll go inside,” Laura said authoritatively and Germaine obeyed and she ran to the car as Laura walked leisurely to the hangar where she waited outside.

With Germaine gone Grey walked close to Octavius with a distance of around 10 metres between them as they examined each other in the dark light that entered through the high windows.

“
I blame myself for this,” Grey said. “You used me to hop into Mr Collinson’s body. By your rationale he is an innocent. I would feel bad for removing you if you hadn’t taken my wife from me. You made this personal.”

“
I have fought savage armies with my bare hands. You think talking to me with some bass in your voice will make me tremble?” Octavius said, mocking him.

“
My bite is much worse than my bark,” Grey practically growled. “So whaddya think of the 20
^th
Century, Octavius? Hope you had fun because the tour’s over.”

With that Grey did exactly what Octavius had expected he would try and do. Octavius’ borrowed legs buckled and he knelt on one knee as he tried to stand as he felt the essence of Jack Collinson merge with his entity.

“
I am the stronger,” he said gutturally and he reached out with his right hand to Grey and appeared to grab at something and his fingers squeezed the imaginary object. Grey felt his heart begin to strain and fought through the pain, doubling his efforts to eliminate Octavius from Jack’s brain. He fell down face first though managed to raise his right arm to break the fall. He had to ignore the pain from his heart and carry on...

Grey’s heart attack and subsequent lapse into unconsciousness ended the assault on Octavius and Jack Collinson was gone. He stood up and ignored Grey, looking instead to the witch who had entered and strode towards him slowly.

“
I expect a better fight from you,” Octavius said.

“
Naturally,” Laura said, feeling a rush at the confrontation as she summoned a gust of wind that sent him crashing into the nearest plane. She saw that he remained conscious and she sent him flying into the other plane which was enough to knock him out. She concentrated on Grey and gave him internal heart massage and she managed to establish an irregular heart rhythm. He remained unconscious and she went to the ‘great’ Octavius and performed a quick spell to make his slumber last a long time.

“
It’s nothing major. It’s just a minor heart attack. Okay, that’s not as insignificant as I’m making out, but it’s not life-threatening. It’s ticking away again now,” Laura said as she placed Grey in the passenger seat of the car. Her sorcery kept him asleep to reduce his discomfort. Germaine had come running when she saw Laura carry him out and she hovered at his side.

“
It stopped beating?” Germaine said, aghast at this.

“
That’s a heart attack, Germaine. Can you drive him to the hospital?”

“
I’ve never been behind the wheel of a car in my life. I’d do more damage to him,” Germaine said. She felt for his pulse at his neck and her findings distressed her further. “That’s weak!”

Laura shook her head, discounting her panic. “Do you routinely check his pulse? He will be fine, I’ve seen to that. It’s not hard to drive.”

“
I don’t know where we are. The nearest hospital may be miles away.”

“
Look, Octavius isn’t quite dealt with yet so I would rather stay here. Get in the car,” Laura said, trying to keep her patience with her.

“
I can’t drive it,” Germaine repeated, becoming teary-eyed.

“
I’m going to drop you both off at the hospital quickly then come back. Get in the back.” Laura had never driven before either and kept this information from Germaine who was hysterical enough and reached from the back to clasp her husband’s hand throughout the journey. It took several minutes for Germaine to notice that the car ran silently; the engine was not turned on.

“
Did he hurt you at all?” Laura asked, finally spotting a hospital signposted.

“
Not until he did this. I’m sorry I was a mess. When he wakes up I’ll be strong.”

“
Give yourself a break. You’ve been through a lot. I’m just snappy because I don’t want to leave such a dangerous creature unattended for long. Plus I don’t appreciate what he did to the showman here.”

“
He told me I was safe if I behaved. It was the two of you he was determined to torture, and when James came in I knew he’d hurt him...” she said, trailing off as she began to weep again.

“
Octavius has never wounded. He kills, that’s it. That makes his attack on James an abject failure. He survived him. I never told you about Inge because James wound me up by judging me for killing one of her cohorts and I wasn’t going to let him condemn me again. I should have put your mind at rest. This time I will. I’m going back there to kill Octavius, permanently,” Laura pledged.

“
I’m glad,” Germaine said, any sympathy she could have had for Octavius gone.

Laura ‘drove’ the car back from the hospital even quicker, faster than the car’s top speed. Grey was right, there was some pleasure to be found behind the wheel. Grey would be waking up soon to the familiar sight of the inside of a hospital. The outcome was regrettable and avoidable if he’d listened to her. Still, she’d made worse mistakes than that and she understood why he had to be the advance party before the heavy artillery came in to save the day. This time she parked right by the hangar and revived the great Octavius.

Laura stood back as Octavius regained his senses. He ignored the pain of his broken ribs and jumped off the floor and lunged at Laura, aiming at pressure points with a force that would have felled mighty men and made little impression on her as she shielded herself with a simple spell. He fought her all the way as she restrained him, using his shoelaces and one of Germaine’s stockings to fasten him securely to the chair.

“
You will suffer for this, bitch,” he said venomously, furious at her victory.

“
Call me what you want but keep your voice down or I will be forced to gag you. I respect who you were and I take no satisfaction from doing this to you,” she lied, her ego boosted greatly by how poorly he had fared against her, but she did not want to antagonise him further as she did want his aid. She tried questioning him politely to the secrets behind his dominion; her questions were firstly met with bilious rage before he turned silent, expressing his contempt with his stare.

Even after almost 24 hours she was getting nowhere and she decided to change tack to try and break his wall of silence. She should have gone to visit Grey in the hospital and her lack of progress irritated her and she changed tactics. She pulled out her ceremonial knife, which she showed to Octavius, who remained unimpressed, even as Laura proved the sharpness of the blade by making a criss-cross pattern on her forearm. His secespita was a true ritualistic weapon to inspire fear in his prey, unlike her dainty crescent-shaped boline.

“
You can’t hurt me without damaging this innocent man,” he said, speaking again at last, which made the gesture worthwhile.

“
I realise that. I have done many unsavoury things in my quest for power, perhaps worse things than you were guilty of. This would barely register.”

“
Slaughter him if you wish, but heed these words before you begin cutting. I trained my body and my mind to withstand extreme torture so go as far as you wish and you will still get no answers and no reaction from me.”

He sounded convincing and Laura regretted threatening him, a ploy that was never likely to succeed. She had been prepared to inflict minor damage on him to get him to talk which now seemed a pointless endeavour. “I’m surprised a man like you would deem Jack Collinson a worthy host.”

“
He will be by the time I’m done with him. This body will harden fast,” he said, planning major changes.

“
Before you begin training for Mr World you will have to escape from your bonds, and get past me. The power, the strength, the charisma – it’s all gone, Octavius,” Laura said, criticising without mocking. “Once girls like Germaine would have fallen at your feet while instead she wanted her comparatively mortal husband over you. In your prime I readily admit that I could never have secured you in this position. You are not the mighty force you once were. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t a role for you in this world.”

“
You are known for your treachery. I would never make a deal with the Ninth Heretic. Not because you would never keep your word, though that is true. I would never make a deal with you because it is beneath me, as are you,” he said with disgust and he spat at her, his spittle landing at her waist.

“
I am prepared to let you keep that body, if you help me. All I want is information. I can wait forever. Wouldn’t you like a drink?”

Octavius stared at her stolidly and lapsed back into silence. She wasn’t going to make visiting time tonight...

Octavius’ mind was strong though his body was weak and he drifted off to sleep at three in the morning. Laura lit up the hangar with iridescent light emanating from her and she twirled around the vast space after waking up Octavius with a gust of wind that lifted him and his chair so that his head brushed the ceiling.

“
Good, you’re awake. Who would have thought the greatest of us all, the legendary Octavius, would be such a bore? Inge, for all of her flaws, was never that.”

“
Parlour tricks do not impress me,” Octavius said fearlessly.

“
Does anything? I’m amazed you even want to live again, if this is how miserable your new life makes you. You were so aligned to Rome – what would be the point of your new life? Your empire is done.”

“
It was finished in my lifetime. I carried on because I had sport. Yourself and Inge, even this Harding woman, have a measure of my respect – none of you are pushovers. Grey and Georges Steil and his group – I could have swatted them in the blink of an eye.”

“
You don’t know that for certain. You thought you would beat Chesmu,” she said, needling him. She put him back down to earth as a reward for him reopening the lines of communication.

“
He is also on the list. I’ve killed more powerful men than him, single-handedly too. You wouldn’t have beaten Inge without that German woman’s help.”

Laura didn’t bite at the dig and he continued bragging, saying, “With my sport, it all depended on my mood as to how swift the kill was. I toyed with some of them for months. I could have killed Logar and Tole a long time before I did but their desperation amused me. When I realised that they were searching for the Northern woman I let them continue, as I wanted her flushed out. That prophecy was inaccurate – I was not beaten by a Northern woman.”

“
I thought it was wrong too. The exact wording was that a Northern woman presented the greatest threat to you and it came true, in a way. I don’t mean myself, or Inge or Jemima. Chesmu’s wife, Usdi Unole, was the woman who’s responsible for your defeat. Chesmu admitted to me that he wouldn’t have beaten you if her life hadn’t been at stake. She was to have been ritually sacrificed in the most brutal of ways if he lost and that spurred him on to perform beyond himself.”

“
That’s stretching it. Another witch I enjoyed seeing flapping about was an Anglo-Norman woman called Acca Ord. I pursued her over a continent. I would spy on her and feed on her terror – it’s always amusing to see a witch pray.”

“
You killed hundreds in your time…”

“
Thousands, but only a few hundred were connected with the occult.”

“
Of the hundreds that you killed, you didn’t pick her name at random. You know that she and I were acquainted,” Laura said, a little angry but masking it well. “Never mind. Let’s move on.”