Dark Side Darker (29 page)

Rufus seemed to be taking him seriously now. “Yeah? Can you help me get my friend up?”

Ian nodded. “Sure.”

“I-I don’t want to move,” Josh stammered as they began to pick him up. “The whole world’s spinning!”

“It’s alright, Josh,” Rufus said pulling him to his feet and then propping his arm over his shoulder.

“So what are you doing here?” Ian asked.

“I wasn’t joking before. I really don’t know where to begin.”

Ian nodded. “Listen, I don’t think we can stay here very long. The people who are looking for you probably know about this place, and I shouldn’t even be here.”

“Yeah?” asked Rufus. “Why not?”

Ian shook his head. “It’s complicated. We really don’t have time! How do you and your friend feel about coming to mine? We can piece the whole thing together there.”

“I don’t know, man. I mean I don’t even know you.”

“Well, you said you needed help right? I can give you somewhere to hide till we’ve worked this out but I can’t force you.”

Rufus nodded tiredly. “So this isn’t an arrest?”

“kid, I’m not even officially on this case. My involvement is of a more... personal, nature. The truth is I want to keep you away from my colleagues as much as you do! For now at least.”

Josh managed to speak. “Man we need to go somewhere!”

“So why are the police after you anyhow?” Ian asked. Even now he recognised his first duty was as a cop.

“I’m not even sure they were the police!” Rufus blurted. “I mean there was sirens but it sounded like they were still coming. Man I tell you we’re caught up in some real messy shit!”

Ian was thoughtful for a second. “I can keep you safe as long as you haven’t done anything too serious,” he paused. “Have you?”

Rufus shook his head. “No, it was Carthy! He shot someone!”

Ian’s head was beginning to swim. He didn’t know what he’d expected to find out but this wasn’t it.

“
Carthy
? Look I sense this is a real long story, you’re gonna’ have to tell me the whole thing back at mine. The same people who are probably after you could have got the same info’ I got, so this place isn’t exactly safe. I think we should go now.”

Josh spoke. “We can’t. Not yet!”

“Yeah,” said Rufus. “We’ve got to wait for Karen and Sarah to get here.”

Ian was getting more confused by the second. “There’s more of you? I can see I’m out of my league here!”

“Seriously, it’s crazy!” Rufus told him.

At that moment another black taxi pulled up. The three of them looked up to see Karen getting out. When she saw Ian, she looked suddenly panicked.

“It’s okay!” Rufus shouted. “He’s a good guy!” Then he looked back to Ian. “You’ll have to carry Sarah. She’s in a coma.”

“What? A coma!!? Why?”

“Man, I’m telling you, it’s a mess. She’s on the same drug as him, only she’s even more fucked up!”

“So are you telling me this is all about drugs somehow?” Ian rubbed his head. “Jesus!”

“It’s all about drugs!” Josh said. “This fucking whole thing!”

Ian shook his head. How any of what he’d seen back at that house could ever be linked to drugs completely escaped him.

Karen paid the driver and opened the back door to reveal Sarah’s unconscious body laid out across the seat.

“Jesus!” said McCalister. “I see you weren’t joking. Come on, I’ll get your friend.”

SPIDERS

“HOW THE HELL CAN YOU be sure he wasn’t Casendrull?”

Zackeriah was furious. He was pacing around the room with barely contained anger. The news that one of his crew had been murdered and that someone was now on to them had not been well received. Chairs had been thrown and kicked across the room, plant pots smashed in a blind fury which had ceased only when a threat to call the police had been shouted through the door. Now Zackeriah was tensed with barely contained anger which it seemed he might unleash at any second. The atmosphere around him was charged with static and above him the light erratically pulsed and dimmed.

Nickoloi just sat smiling, casually playing with his magic eight ball. He waited for Zackeriah to finally stop pacing before he spoke.

“Since when have Casendrulls worked with humans?”

Zackeriah glared at him. “Then they must have been cops!”

“No,” said Nickoloi defiantly. “One of them was definitely of our kind. If you need proof you need only look at the fact that he took out Malok.”

Zakeriah cursed and continued to pace about the room. He stopped, suddenly distracted by the TV.

“Oh damn it,” he growled. “I’d hoped they would vote off that fat annoying pig of a girl! Her incessant sounds send me quite mad with rage but no, no, no they vote for...”

Nickoloi interrupted him. “
Zackeriah
, what is to be done?”

Zackeriah paused, thinking. His eyes still burning holes through the Tv screen. “Well there may be something to your claim that they were not Casendrull, as I fear we would already be quite dead if they were!
But who else could they be
? And if not the police...” He was talking more to himself than to Nickoloi, just an unclear outpouring of his thoughts.

Nickoloi interrupted again. “It would appear the police are on to us, too. When I made the decision to go back there were black cars everywhere. When the real police showed they were sent away by men in suits. Some kind of special unit it would seem, but their involvement is very real all the same. If I may venture, I would say we have entered the bad place.”

It was impossible to know if Zackeriah had even heard. He continued to pace and fume. “No, no, no, but this won’t do!” He stopped, again distracted by the Tv. “God I wish someone would gut that fat pig, see how high she squeals then!” Static rushed over the screen and the sound broke apart.

Nickoloi was desperately trying to keep Zackeriah’s mind focused. “
Zackeriah
, there are more pressing issues.”

“Yes, yes quite true! Well whether they’re Casendrull or not, it seems that the time for us to leave this city has come. Nick, see to the disposal of all our meat puppets! I don’t want to leave any loose-ends! In fact talk to them first, ask if any one has come around asking any questions then gut them like pigs, yes it’s the only thing to do! Rip them wide fuckin’ open! Incompetent bastards!” He punched the wall and someone on the other side knocked back.

“Fuck you!” He bellowed.

“Should I do that now?”

“Why yes, boy! Post haste! Transport will have to be arranged as well, of course. I’d prefer to keep things above board, so tomorrow take some money from our funds and buy something suitable for the transport of our merchandise. yes, yes, yes speed is of the essence now! I feel we have to assume that it is the Casendrull that we are dealing with and knowing that each second wasted could be our last! They are not well known for their inefficiency!”

Nickoloi laughed. “Zack, you talk too much and say too little. So is our plan simply to tuck our tail between our legs and run! Don’t you feel we should at least find out who we are dealing with?”

Zackeriah looked at him coldly. “I’ve got us this far have I not? Are your pockets not fat with their money?”

“
None of which am I permitted to spend
,” sneered Nickoloi.

“Nick, Nick, Nick... that’s for the next city. Here we were to simply lay-low, establish a beachhead. Start a network—all of which seems to have turned to shit now! No, I am quite keen to find out who these cunts are! Now they have taken one of our own, pissed on our plans!
But where to start
? It’s a big city and it seems safe to say that from their actions it is them who are coming for us and not the other way round! It is we who are the hunted and if it does turn out to be the Casendrull...”

“No,” said Nickoloi. “They were not Casendrull. As you have pointed out they do not make mistakes!
If they had gotten this close we would be dead
. We are not, so they are not!”

Zackeriah nodded stroking his chin. He turned thoughtfully on his companion. “I agree. Are we agreed, however, that this is the time to exit this place to pastures anew?”

“Well, it would appear some kind of net is closing and that it may be twofold. It also appears that they will find us before we find them, after all, we have no way of knowing how much they already know or what we are actually up against. I say yes we leave. We have no hold to this city and we lose nothing other than Malok in going. I disagree to the slaughter of the meat puppets however.”

“Ahhh, your deep-felt morality, no doubt?”

Nickoloi laughed low. “Zackeriah, we gain nothing by their deaths. They hold no memory of us anyway! In questioning they would simply run a blank. However, by going to them, we risk capture by whoever it is who knows of us. Since it was from there which we were followed, returning seems unwise. I say we simply secure the van, pack and leave.”

Zackeriah slumped down into a chair. His brow was crumpled in deep frustration. He suddenly let out a low growl which rose in ferocity till he once again stood, his whole frame vibrating with fury. He turned on Nickoloi and his eyes burned white hot. “These fuck pigs, this excrement cannot be allowed to go unscathed!” he snarled. “Tonight as they sleep their brains will leave a trail of piss! Each thought of us, of our operation, will lead us closer to them. We’ll seize their sleeping corpses and have them gut each other with knives! Have them tear at each other with teeth, rip with claw and nail, tear holes from each other!”

Above him the light had all but gone out. A strange whining sound was being emitted by the Tv and the images on it were warped and bleeding. Zackeriah’s hair had raised up with charge he was radiating and he made a terrible visage, brimming with power.

And still Nickoloi merely sniggered.

“Is that wise?” he asked. “If they are in the company of a Weird, we, by going to them may in turn bring him to us!”

Zackeriah’s eyes had grown black and yet a single beam of super intense white shone from their centres. “Then let him come!” he bellowed. “Malok screams for vengeance and in this way we leave victorious and not as snivelling dogs!”

His sudden fury now exhausted, he simply slumped back to his chair. He turned back to Nickoloi, face suddenly beaming friendliness. “So tell me Nick, who do you think they’ll vote off next?”

PICKING UP THE PIECES

JOSH’S VISION SWAM. His head ached. He sat recovering in a large arm chair in the chaotic surroundings of McCalister’s living room. It seemed the worst of his trip was over. Rufus and Karen sat in quiet contemplation. Ian sat in front of a large whiskey, frowning. They had been talking for some time.

“Drugs?” McCalister said, again. “
This is really all about drugs
?”

None of the answers were coming easily. Ian was still having trouble accepting everything he was being told. To him it just didn’t fit. He failed to see the link between what he’d seen at 103 Longview and narcotics.

After weeks of searching into similar cases for the most bizarre of explanations he found it difficult to accept that the answer could be found in something as mundane as drugs. No matter their source.
Quite simply, drugs did not rip holes in the space-time continuum
.

“But I don’t understand. What I saw there was...” He searched for words that could accurately describe the scene he had witnessed and found there were none. Ian was visibly disturbed as he recalled the horrors of that night. He appeared close to breaking down. All that emotion, like a dam about to burst. He’d held so much in, for so long and with no one he could trust to share it with. Ever since his visit to 103 Long view, Ian’s life had fallen into quiet desperation and self-doubt. He struggled against it, choking it back and wiping silent tears from his eyes.

“—it wasn’t of this Earth,” he finished quietly after a long period of silence.

“
Neither was what we saw at Rob’s flat
!!!” Rufus almost shouted. He was smoking a cigarette from a badly shaking hand and his nerves were at their end. It was being shot at that had finally done it.

Josh put down the beer he was drinking and turned to Ian seriously. “These aren’t normal drugs!” he told him. “Whatever these people are,
wherever they come from
, well, the drugs are from the same place!”

Ian was still shaking his head and half laughed. “But drugs?”

Josh reached inside his pocket, retrieving the film canister. “Here,” he said and threw the canister to Ian.

Ian caught it shakily. “What’s this?”

“Open it,” Josh told him.

Ian popped the lid, looked inside, blinked and then looked back up. “
Is this
...?”

Rufus was nodding. “Yep, that’s it, that’s Blue. That’s what this whole fuckin’ mess is about!”

Ian was studying one of the remaining three capsules between his finger and thumb. He returned his attention to the group with a raised eyebrow. “Well I can tell you one thing, I’ve never seen anything like it. I’d love to get one of the lads down at the lab to take a look at this.”

Josh looked up with fresh interest, his mind straight away turning to Sarah. “You could do that?”

Ian grimaced. “Well it would be risky but yeah I think it could be done.”

Josh barely heard. Labs meant analysis and analysis meant a cure.
If there was one
.

“But it
can
be done?” he asked urgently.

Ian considered. “If there’s a will, there’s a way lad.”

Josh half-nodded and went back to worrying about Sarah. It was made worse by the fact he could still hear her screaming in the back of his mind and it didn’t end.

“Oh Christ it feels like my brains gonna’ explode,” he murmured.

Ian looked concerned. “This
stuff’s
pretty rough, huh kid?”

Josh had returned his face to its resting position in his hands. His face was hidden by a curtain of mank hair. He didn’t look up when he spoke, but his voice clearly showed the strain. “Man it feels like everything’s playing backwards and that the whole world’s screaming inside my skull.” There was a brief pause while he thought how best to explain the sensation. “It’s like the universe is expanding inside my brain and everything’s some kind of weird psychic echo.” Another pause and he smirked to himself. “Most of all though it just hurts like a motherfucker!”