Hunters: A Trilogy (105 page)

Red relaxed a bit. George said, ‘No, what I mean is…’ he paused again whilst he formed his next words, then said, ‘…the way in which your father maltreated you has helped some of the Demon to take a foothold within you; a little toe-grip is all. He has no influence over your life, the present company that you keep has seen off any such intentions! No, the Dark One uses you like a looking glass, although perhaps a crystal ball would be the better explanation. Through you he has managed to see some of who we are, and most importantly, where we are!’ He finished with: ‘But, in no way, ever, are you responsible for this, in no way whatsoever, of that I give you my most solemn word!’

Red grinned and then relaxed some more. Tori leaned forward and kissed his left cheek, Junior his right. Waiting until they had sat back down, George looked up and then continued with all he knew.

The Demon had indeed captured Maggie, George and the Council had heard her cries of anger and pain. She was in the cave with the man, of that they were almost certain, but where, and why, remained a mystery. The cloak of darkness still covered her from their watching eyes. George shook his head in frustration, said there was nothing more they were able to do about it, and they would all simply have to live in the hope that she was going to survive. By the expression on his face, George didn’t seem to hold much hope in that direction.

He told them to wash the thoughts from their heads. She was alive at this moment and they would stay focused on that for the time being. The device within the bowels of the cave was in fact a nuclear one, nothing large, a simple device constructed in secret under the disguise of fusion research. However, the location in which the powerful bomb had been placed – deep down at the bottom of a long shaft – would ensure that its detonation would be catastrophic.

Ken didn’t get it. ‘Why is it so bad?’ he asked. ‘He’s in the middle of nowhere, the top of some mountain where he’s dug a deep hole and slotted the bomb. Yeah, okay, nukes are nukes, I agree, but other than blowing some mountain to pieces and scattering bloody radiation all over the place, what does he have to gain? The man’s a lunatic! So, apart from Maggie, why are we bothering?’ He raised his shoulders in a gesture of bafflement.

George nodded in agreement, saying: ‘Very true, and may I just say that is almost exactly what we ourselves thought…at first.’

Ken blinked, whispering: ‘What do you mean, ‘at first’?’

George’s reply, delivered some more news, very bad news. ‘Unfortunately, there were some things we were not aware of!’ he said, cocking his head in a sign of apology. Then he explained that unbeknownst to them, and to most of the inhabitants of the planet, there had been several long years of wrangling done between the various superpowers, and other strategically-placed countries, over an enormous gas-field that had been found deep underground.

He said, ‘It is the biggest reservoir of natural gas this planet has ever unearthed. There is enough fuel within its huge underground lakes to power half the world for at least a hundred of their years, and perhaps, with some clever plumbing, even longer…’ He blinked, before saying: ‘It extends far-and-wide and breaches several international borders – many countries stand to make an awful lot of money from the extraction of such a valuable resource.’

As they sat in silence, still not really following him, not seeing where this was leading, George then told them why it was of such a vital concern to them, why the location of the Demon and his little device, was of critical importance.

His tale took them through the twisted secrets of the Hyenas.

There had been several near-global conflicts over the gas field; all the countries involved vying for their slice of the pie. Invasions and wars had already been waged by those trying to outmanoeuvre their opponents, wasteful wars costing millions of lives, their fruitless endeavours already sputtering out like wet candles. No advancements were made by any side and threats of catastrophic retaliation made to any country who tried to obtain the gas without involving the others.

George looked at them and said, ‘The planet is on the brink of a global war, if this gas-field problem is not resolved, then our prediction will be for one of the superpowers to take matters into their own, grasping hands. The result will see the end of civilisation in that dimension. Without doubt it will be the end for that parallel!’ He breathed out deeply, his frustration and anger, his sadness, seeped from the screen and filtered down to them. They began to see.

George finished with: ‘It has been the best-kept secret for many a long year, only the Hyenas know of this terrible Pandora’s Box, one which they are about to have opened on their behalf – opened without their knowledge and without them lifting a finger. When the Dark One initiates his device, it will carry its fire into the womb of the giant gas-field, the resultant explosion will kill millions, but its fire-storm will be nothing compared to the inferno that will rain down from the hand of man himself. Unless we stop the Demon, they are doomed. We must stop him!’

The gathered Hunters didn’t have any problems catching George’s drift this time – none whatsoever. He told them that an agreement had been made, and whilst they waited for a solution to the sharing problem, those in power had decided to press ahead with the development of fusion, because by the time the gas ran out they were going to need something else up their sleeves to power the world. But, in the meantime they had agreed upon the various sites to be used.

When the Demon’s host had become involved, the programme had jumped ahead, in fact it had begun to appear as though they may never need the gas-field at all. With the thoughts of having the ultimate energy-producing technology within their grasp, they had agreed to any, and all, of the man’s requests, which had, in due course, led him unto his current destination. But, little did they know of the ulterior motives that lay within the festering black heart of their man. His was a totally different quest to theirs, and he allowed their greed to blind them from the hidden truths of his real mission. All he wanted, the Demon within, was to rain almighty chaos down upon all of their unsuspecting heads – death and destruction, murder and mayhem.

George’s final words left them with one other thought.

‘Should we fail, then there will be more than just a catastrophe in the confines of that parallel,’ he said. ‘Everything is linked, all things are related. The fabric of time and space that separates the past from the future is but a thin one. Should this terrible event be allowed to occur, then…well, if I am to be brutally honest, no-one really knows what will happen. We have been studying this for some time now and there are many theories, but they are only that, just theories, and they have an annoying way of being wrong!’ He straightened in his seat and rubbed the back of his neck.

George looked tired and Ken wondered how much longer the old man, the keeper of secrets and holder of so much knowledge, would be able to continue. Ken nearly laughed as he caught sight of a mental image of George wearing tartan slippers, pipe in mouth, clipping away at some pink carnations on some far-off planet. He grinned to himself and looked up at the screen. George was smiling down at him, and looking into his faded blue eyes, Ken had a sudden realisation – the image was probably one representing exactly what George would rather be doing, much rather. George nodded gently and Ken knew the gesture was only meant for him. He winked at George, who, seeing Ken’s cheeky eye movement, quickly covered his mouth, let out a small cough and looked away in a hurry.

Jane asked a question, one that had been at the forefront of all of their minds. ‘So, what now, George?’ she said. ‘Are we going up there, like we’d planned to do, before they attacked us?’

The others murmured their consent to that question.

George composed himself, saying it was indeed what they should be doing. ‘As far as we can see, the Demon has hurled himself into an unstoppable rage,’ he said. ‘At this very moment he is attempting to finalise his plans and accelerate the achievement of his goal. However, we do have a little time as his utterly fruitless attempts at killing you all have considerably depleted his manpower. He is very nearly on his own, and although the Darkness is almost too powerful to comprehend, as usual his energies remain shackled by the physical form of the man whom has become his earthly host.’

He stopped and looked at them seriously for a moment.

Then he said, ‘This man remains amongst only a few things that we do not fully understand. We still have no idea as to who he is; even the paper-trail of his life is nothing more than a cleverly-laid fabrication – a lie. We do not know who he is or why he is doing these deeds, and it perturbs us!’ After taking a few seconds to gather himself, he continued, saying: ‘He is the only one we know of that has ever accepted the forces of the Dark One so willingly. He opened his heart to this terrible thing, he opened his mind and he embraced it!’ George shook his head and they saw the horror within him.

Ken had very rarely seen George portray any fear, but this was one of those times. George definitely looked to be more than, in his own words, a little ‘perturbed’.

Michael, who had remained quiet throughout the whole proceedings, asked George a question of his own. ‘How much time do we have, when must we go?’ he said, looking around at the others.

George’s answer once more reminded them of what the old guy considered to be ‘a little time’. Looking down at his notes, and then stacking them neatly by holding the sheaf of papers upright and tapping the bottom against his desk, he laid the straightened pile to one side, and said, ‘By this time next week it should all be over, yes, certainly within a week, with a bit of luck.’

Total silence fell over them.

‘This time next week…’ Ken shook his head at the thought. He knew that if his long-dead friend Geordie Mac had been here, then the King of Comedy would have said something like: “Marvellous, that bloody answer was about as welcome as a French kiss at a focking family reunion!” Yeah, Geordie would have had a field day with some of George’s quaint little understatements.

Instead, Ken looked at George and asked: ‘What do we need, just ourselves, or should we take some guns along, to be on the safe side?’ His mind still twitched. ‘This time next week…’ Ken felt like he would have easily been able to sleep for that long, and would quite happily have accepted at least another month in preparation time, perhaps six months, maybe a year – or possibly forever.

George nodded and replied. ‘Yes, perhaps you should be armed as there may still be some resistance,’ he said. ‘We don’t know if your weapons can be used once you are amongst the mist. That will be something we have to discover along the way.’ He held his hands up in acknowledgment of the fact that his answer wasn’t a definitive one.

In summary, they were told to be ready first thing in the morning and to take whatever they needed. But, apart from making sure they were dressed warmly, they were to travel lightly. Michael then asked another, very sensible, question. That particular question, and its answer, changed everything.

‘Can’t the others come with us? You know: Frank, Jack…all those other guys, the ones who helped us out – why can’t we all go and kick his arse properly, did you see those laser-cannon thingamajigs?’ Michael’s eyes widened alarmingly as the memories of the flittering green fireballs returned to him.

Ken and Jane turned to stare at him, they hadn’t even thought about the possibility. Yes, why not? Surely they would be better off sending fifty, or more, people to have the big fight, especially ones who obviously possessed considerable experience when it came to having a good battle with a certain ‘Mr Dark One’. Yes, why the hell not? It was then that George proceeded to show them the one final piece of his incredible jigsaw puzzle.

‘Although that would be very useful,’ he said. ‘Yes, a band of heavily-armed Hunters would be quite useful, I am quite sure! However, that is not even remotely possible. Most of the people whom you have come to know here in the town, in this dimension, do not actually exist – they are nothing but ghosts.’

Once again the deadly silence fell over his audience.

He continued. ‘Most of them are here, but only in the way in which your eyes want them to be.’ Seeing the completely blank expression upon their faces, he said, ‘When you walk down the street and see Mister Adams’ overgrown hedge, your brain tells you that it must be due a trim in the near future, correct?’

They agreed, silent nods indicating as much.

‘Well,’ he said. ‘Then, as if by magic, next time you walk past that same hedge, lo-and-behold, it has been trimmed! But did you actually see anyone carrying out the task, did you, ever?’

There was no answer to that insanity-inducing question.

The truth of the matter, when they thought about it, is that they’d never seen anyone clipping the hedge in question, ever.

George said, ‘Jane, when you go into the store to do some shopping, who is it that you expect to see?’

Ken noticed Jane squirming, the answer to the rhetorical question, which she was about to give, was not one she herself wanted to hear. Taking a deep breath, Ken’s wife said, ‘When I go into the store, George, I fully expect to see either Frank, or Jack, behind the counter – who else would there be?’ She glanced at Ken and then looked back at the old man who was currently in the process of frying her brain.

Ken saw Jane mentally stuffing her fingers into her own ears and humming loudly, just long enough to avoid hearing George’s reply, he kind of felt like humming along himself, this was getting too near the brink. Ken felt the edge sliding towards him. ‘Yeah, humming would take care of that nonsense,’ he thought. ‘Lalalala-laa-laaa…’

It was about then when George really fucked him up.

‘Kenneth, please stop singing…’ he barked. ‘This is vitally important!’ The old man spoke sharply, and by the gleam in his eye, wasn’t in the mood for any further bad behaviour.

Ken jerked upright in his seat and stopped his mental humming right away. He had a vision of being told to come to the front of the class and having to hold his hand out. Ken saw George swishing the ruler down – hard! In an uncontrollable reply, he said, ‘Ouch! Sorry, George, it’s just that, uuh…I mean, what the hell are we talking about here? Frank and Jack are there, we’ve seen them, every day we’ve seen them – they were here last week, for God’s sake!’ He sat there feeling like the class dummy, one who would be nursing a sore hand.