The Nephilim (25 page)

Job done Garrick turned off the phone and pulled the battery to make sure. Not just to save power but to stop them being traced. Although the phone had no GPS system – it was too simple for that – even without it the phone could be traced simply by triangulating off cell phone towers, and he was sure that the police would be desperately trying to do just that. It was inevitable when they were being given so many tips from the one phone in a mere twenty four hours. He didn't want that to happen.

“They're rebuilding armoured cars in there?”

Maricia seemed surprised, and he supposed from her point of view it didn't seem likely. After all, it didn't look like a place where heavy industrial work would be carried out. But he was sure. He could see the planning that had gone into the operation as clear as day.

“Yeah. We should probably leave before the police arrive.”

Maricia seemed to agree as she turned the key and they drove off down the street. She had no wish to be stopped by the police. Actually she was probably even less pleased by the thought than he was, although as far as he knew she had nothing to hide. Of course, if Benedict was as well connected to the various government databases as she said, then they would both be in his sights the moment their names went into the system. It was best that that didn't happen.

“So what is his plan?”

“Wish I knew.”

And he did. What they'd seen so far was extraordinarily complex, and the armoured cars being rebuilt were just the tip of it. The crew he was assembling was astonishing – though hopefully most of them were already behind bars. The guys tunnelling into the various security and telecommunications infrastructures had had all the equipment they could ever need, and the various passwords too. The three safe houses they had set up for their crews seemed at least two too many and they were too well provisioned. They could hide twenty men from the police for six months if they had to. And then there were the explosives. So many tons of them.

“At a guess it's a robbery, but a big one. And gold not cash. Maybe the Federal Repository. I’d hazard a guess that the explosives are to take down the various infrastructures after the event and stop Armando’s team from being tracked. The paint shop is for painting the gold bricks – to disguise them as something else, maybe actual bricks. And the computer guys have been brought in to hack into the system and then crash everything. A major stock market database crash, telecommunications failure, banking failure and major city catastrophe all at the same time and all in New York could trigger another global financial crisis.”

“So much these days is on line, and digital money is worthless if there are no computer records. If people also don't have the physical certificates for the shares they own or the money they have in the bank, they're vulnerable. My guess is he was planning to crash the entire world triggering another global economic meltdown.”

“Banks would topple, investment companies and insurance companies with them. Corporations would collapse in their wake. After that it's pensions, retirement savings, mortgages, mass unemployment, protests, riots and panic. And from there it's a short step to complete anarchy.” Anarchy which he presumed Benedict wanted.

The chaos he would leave in his wake wouldn't just cover his escape; it would let him go into hiding without any worry of being caught. Not for twenty years at least. And the man was already well into his late sixties. So while the world tipped into chaos he would sip cocktails by a pool in some foreign country and party. He wouldn't give a second thought for all those people whose lives he'd destroyed. Garrick also figured that Maricia was right; once he had done that he would release the information he had about the nephilim, the Choir and Diogenes. He would do it the moment he was safe in his new home. A bunch of religious wars on top of another global financial crisis. It would simply add to the confusion. She had been right to come to him when she had.

“That would make whatever gold he got away with even more valuable. Because gold would become the only secure currency. And he would finally have enough to buy himself a safe home for life in whatever cash strapped third world country he wants. A country without an extradition treaty.”

But it was worse than that. He didn't know what information Benedict had. But he did know what Benedict thought would be the effect of releasing it. And it was far worse than Maricia had said. Here Garrick wasn't just thinking of wars. He also expected that both the nephilim and Diogenes would be completely destroyed. Benedict's expectations were that there would be some sort of twenty first century witch hunt. That the nephilim would become public enemy number one and might well be exterminated. That Diogenes would be raided by the governments across the world who would want to control every scrap of information they had. It would be a means of maintaining control as the world slid into religious anarchy. No wonder even the Choir were worried. No wonder Cassie was stretching her rules to the limit.

Garrick had no doubt about Benedict releasing the information he had on the nephilim and the Choir. The latter might have hopes that the man would turn back to the light, but Garrick knew better. As he'd hunted him, little by little he'd gained a sense of the man. That too was in the spore he left behind. And what he now knew was that this was not only about the money. It never had been. This was about pride.

Benedict had been born a small boy in a rough area. He'd been born poor too. Everything in his entire life seemed to be about overcoming that. It was about being the biggest, the brightest and the best. And it was about proving that to the world, over and over again.

If it had only been about the money he could have retired long ago. But it wasn't. He had to pull off this robbery because it would be the biggest robbery ever committed in the history of the world. It would make his name. And then he had to release the information he had because with it his name would once more become famous. He would be the man who had single handedly destroyed the world. He would be feared as no one else. He would be remembered too. And he was reaching a point in his life where what he was remembered for was becoming important. Because sooner or later old age and ill health would force him to retire. All he would have left was his reputation.

So Garrick had absolutely no doubt that Benedict would release the information. And he would do it publicly and with as much razzmatazz as he could.

“But we've stopped it?” Maricia asked.

Garrick only wished he could tell her the answer she wanted to hear.

“Don't know but I don't think so. Not yet. We've damaged his plans, but I don't think we've stopped them. Benedict always has backups and contingencies. It's one reason he's never been caught. Even with everything we've done he might still have enough of his organisation left to carry out his plan.”

“Except for Katarinka?”

“Except for her,” Garrick agreed thankfully. The girl was the key to his plans, literally, and as long as he didn't have her they were safe. But sooner or later he would come for her.

“Left at the next lights.”

Garrick sensed their next target not that far away. A few miles perhaps. Another building of some sort that was part of Benedict's plan. Another building that was about to be reported to the police for investigation. And the sooner the better. Garrick was once more on the hunt and he could sense traces of his quarry’s spore ahead, this time a bit more fresh. And as always the scent of his quarry getting nearer always filled him with excitement. He only wished he was driving so that he could push the gas peddle down a little further than Maricia seemed willing to do.

It was going to be a long night.

The phone rang unexpectedly as they were driving towards their destination. Not one of the burner phones which had no battery just then and which Garrick had every intention of dumping when they were finished. His own personal phone. A call at three in the morning was unexpected and a frisson of apprehension grabbed him.

“Hello?”

“Garrick?”

Garrick recognised the headmistress' voice immediately. But he also recognised the sense of panic in it, and that worried him. She was not one to panic. And if she was calling him at three in the morning and panicking that could only be bad. “Patricia?”

“We've been attacked.”

Those three words sent shivers of alarm running down Garrick's back. It was a school. Who would attack a school? But even as he asked himself the question he knew the answer. Benedict. It had to be. Everything was about him lately. And as the headmistress came out with the rest of the sorry story he knew why.

The thief had done the unthinkable. He hadn't tried to sneak in and grab the girl as they'd expected. He'd organised an armed assault to get her back. Automatic weapons, shock grenades and actual explosives unleashed on a sleeping school by a team of assailants in body armour. It was if nothing else a reminder that Benedict was never one to stick to a single approach. He changed things up. And he had absolutely no conscience.

People were dead. One of the school masters and a student – both shot. Many more were injured, some seriously. Five attackers were also down. Not dead, but badly injured. Taken out by the nephilim using their particular gifts. One had been thrown off a building through a mystic push. Another had shot one of his companions and then himself after the headmistress had used the voice on him. The inside man kidnapping Katarinka had taken a nearly fatal fall down the stairs when one of the students had hit him with a blast of light, completely blinding him. And a fifth man had suffered a heart attack – those who healed could also cause injury.

But a sixth man had picked up Katarinka and escaped with her. Currently she was in the wind somewhere, while the entire school was locked down and police were everywhere. He could hear the sirens in the background and he was certain the press would not be far behind.

It was a disaster! And hearing it Garrick felt a sense of both disbelief and horror. This was his home! These were his people! And armed men had come in and killed them! And now the shit would hit the fan. The police would be everywhere and the chances of hiding their existence would be small. All it would take was one accidental revelation of a nephilim’s gift by a frightened child. Patricia was going to be busy. And he had no doubt the Choir would be there, making a pain of themselves. They had done nothing at all to stop the attack. But they would probably punish those frightened kids who had defended themselves with their gifts. Some days he just wanted to scream at them. And then there was Benedict, free and clear with the girl in tow. But how close was he to carrying out his robbery?

All of which left him with the reason Patricia had called, and it wasn't to tell him the news before he heard it over the radio. She wanted him to hunt down Katarinka. To find her and get her away from Armando. And of course he knew that he had to do it. The kid might be a giant pain in the arse, but she was a kid and she was one of his people. He would get her back no matter what.

But years as an agent told him that that would have to wait. You always had to think logically instead of rushing in and doing something stupid. First he had to finish what he was doing and destroy Benedict's plans. Once that was done the thief would be left without a robbery he could complete. Katarinka could open the doors he needed opened for him, but she couldn't drive trucks loaded with gold or smuggle it out of the country. She couldn't bribe customs agents or hire ships. All of which meant that he would have to start again. A new plan, a new target. And even for Armando that would take time. Time while he would have to keep Katarinka alive. Hopefully it would be enough time for Garrick to hunt him down.

Sometimes being a trained agent meant seeing a situation for what it was. For doing the smart thing and not the thing that you most wanted to do. Every part of him wanted to drop everything, rescue the kid and hunt the man down like an animal. But that wasn't smart. If Benedict completed his heist he would have no reason to hang on Katarinka. Her job would be done and her value to him would be nothing. And considering that she had been abducted from her school by his goons to carry out a robbery for him, the chances were that she would make a devastating witness against him should it come to a trial. And then there was always the chance that she knew something about his plans to escape. All of which led him to one inescapable conclusion.

Benedict was going to kill her the moment she had done what he needed her to do.

The best hope she had of surviving was if Benedict's plans stopped here. Garrick turned to Maricia and gave her the bad news and his decision.