Judgement (The Twelve) (39 page)

“I’m working on that!” Chris replied, defending himself.

Jennings took another mouthful of beer, “These creatures are led
by a group of twelve monsters,
called The Dark
. Well, eleven now that I saw Chris here kill one of them
. This Edge person used to be in charge until this
C
offee girl, called The Chosen One came on the scene.”

He took another swallow,” You’ve been in a sort of ever lasting limbo
,
destroying Shades and ghouls and God knows what else over thousands of years
until the arrival of Chris and Coffee. But now wars been declared and judging … no pun intended”

He glanced towards Chris, “… and judging by the way Chris here or Judgement beat up and destroyed that monster you called Shadow
. War has now been officially declared.
I think you lot should be able to handle what’s left of The Dark and thankfully you don’t need my help.”

Anvil glanced at Priest who raised an eyebrow, “Well that’s not exactly true.”

Priest belched loudly, “Excuse me. There’s something you and Chris need to know, unle
ss
Judgements filled in the blanks?”

Both Chris and Jennings
asked together, “What blanks?”

Priest helped himself to half a cooked chicken, tearing off a huge chunk with his teeth he explained that once Coffee arrived
and
war was declared
, it
altered the status quoi. The Dark was free now to add further numbers of re
-
born to there ranks.

“What!” Chris exclaimed.

Anvil added, ”We’re limited to twelve but The Dark can now add a further six.”

Priest swallowed a chunk of meat, ”It’s biblical
.
W
e
sort of
represent the first
tw
elve disciples. The Dark can increase to eighteen and before you ask, six plus six, plus six, makes eighteen
,
666
the mark of the Devil. In effect the other side found a loophole and can now exploit it.”

Chris could only
stare
. Jennings was more explicate.

“Don’t blaspheme!” Priest automatically rebuked Jennings.

“So you will need my help?” He asked.

Anvil nodded, “ With
the Shades and ghouls
.”

Jennings finished his beer, “ I take care of them so that leaves you free to fight The Dark. I m
iss anything out?”

Chris asked, “How can you speak for your men. They didn’t witness what you saw?”

Jennings walked over and placed his
now
empty beer can on the kitchen counter, “Because they believe me and that’s all that matters.”

A thought suddenly struck Chris, “Priest you sure about the six plus six plus six thing?”

“Six plus six plus six makes eighteen in my book.” He replied.

Chris looked first to Priest, then to Anvil, finally back to Priest, “What if it’s six times six, times six times six!”

Priests face went white,” That means a total of two hundred and sixteen!”

Anvil glared at Priest, “One of your prophesies?”

Priest was sweating freely, “It said, ‘
When war comes upon the Twelve, so shall
T
he
Dark
number six, six, six.
’
I always thought it meant eighteen in number
!”

Jennings rubbed his cropped hair cut, “In my book it also read
s
six hundred and sixty six.”

Rage was the only one to answer, “Big fight!” He was grinning from ear to ear.

All Heartless could say was, “Shit!” followed by, “I’d better get out the special attachment
s
.”

Jennings looked to Chris for an explanation but all he could do was shrug. Patch explained, informing him that Heartless had a razor sharp curved blade with a serrated back edge that he kept for special occasions, “
It snaps in behind the claw
.”

Bulls Eye pointed to the tell tale bulge under Jennings jacket, “
Speaking of weapons, y
ou’re carrying a gun. You’re ex SAS so I suppose you must be good
. I hope
all your men carry firearms as well
.
”

Jennings remove
d his Glock 21, “Standard issue,
all my class A field agents
carry them
.” Then he smiled.

“
One or two prefer more deadly items.
But
then
you haven’t met
‘
Boom Boom
’
or ‘
One Shot’
yet
. Like you said, speaking of weapons,
I hope you’ve got more than those
two
pea shooters!
”

Speed
was about ask who
the heck
‘
Boom Boom
’
was
,
when
Bulls Eye
smirked
, “Oh yes I’ve collected a few nice pieces in my time
.
”

Anvil interrupted, calling an end to todays meeting. He warned Jennings that his life would be in constant danger from this point on.

“I know you’re divorced, no children, no brothers, sisters or parents still living
. But if any of the rest of your team are married or have someone close that they care about. Best warn them that this could and most likely will prove fatal for some of them.”

Jennings remembered emptying his weapon into those grey faceless Shades and the creature called Shadow ripping his mans head open. “I’ll call them all in as soon as I get back. We have a contingency plan. All family members are sent to one of twelve secret locations and stay there until the all clear
, funny how twelve keeps cropping up.
”

Priest had Rage collect a heavy holdall for Jennings, “
Twe
lve,
fifty round boxes of n
ine millimetre ammo, all blessed and converted to Hydro Bullets
. Best you share this out between you and your men. I will have more ready when you need it.”

Jennings thanked him, “Best I don’t get stopped then.”

Anvil gave him an ID with his photo attached, “I had this prepared a while ago. In case you needed it. It gives you full VIP diplomatic immunity. Show this and the police can’t search you.”

Jennings looked at the ID, “Looks real.”

Anvil nodded, “It is. You don’t get to be seven thousand years old without making very powerful friends.”

Jennings placed it in his inside jacket pocket, “
A
nd enemies.”

Anvil grinned, “That too.”

He left Jennings mumbling something about how he needed his head examining, ‘
S
even thousand years
indeed
!’
he mumbled under his breath

Chris
let
Jennings shake hands with the Twelve before leading him back to the lift gate. As they descended, Jennings asked
,
“A bit
blasphemous
,
being called the
Twelve
and
comparing yourselves with the first disciplines
.
”

Chris kept his face straight, “My father once told me he’d met them in person.”

Jennings nearly dropped the holdall, “You mean he met…you know who!”

Chris smiled, “There’s a lot
more
to my father than meets the eye.”

“Or he could just be nuts. No offence intended.”

Chris
ignored the remark
,”
W
e’re also known as the Protectorate of the Human Race.”

“
Keep it simple,
The Twelve it is then.  We can’t loose.” Jennings replied straight faced.

Chris turned his head sideways to examine him,” How so?”

Still looking ahead and keeping his face straight, Jennings answered, “Five more than the Magnificent Seven!”

As he started to walk away Jennings had a sudden thought, “You say you’re based on the original
number of
disciples?”

Chris
replied, “Yes
it’s a sort of universal balance thing. W
hy?”

“Which one of you is Judas?”

With that Jennings walked off quickly down the cobbled street, leaving Chris silently staring after him as be walked away.