Council of Peacocks (4 page)

Knee surgery.
For some reason that
rang a bell. A memory flashed through Josh’s mind: going to the
hospital with a skateboard signed by everyone in his class. He
could see himself giving it to a thin-boned pale boy he recognized
as Tommy Delonki. His head started to hurt.

“How can I not remember him?”

“Good question.” Brian cleared his throat and
sank back into the passenger seat, facing forward. “I’ll never
forget. Tommy ran out of the woods. He bolted past everyone and
went straight to you. You saw him and dropped your drink just as he
collapsed. You put a hand on his cheek, like he was a lover or
something, and Tommy just starts crying. ‘
They came back for
me
,’ he said. And you? You didn’t ask him what he was talking
about. You stood up and said ‘
I warned them.’
Then you
grabbed a log off the bloody bonfire and started off into the
woods.”

“I ran into the woods with a flaming
log?”

“Nuh uh. You didn’t run. You walked. Gave me
the damned creeps. Sobered me up, too. That’s why I followed you. I
saw what you did to them.”

“What did I do to them?” Josh stared at his
hands on the steering wheel. They were shaking.

“You killed them.” Brian took a sip of his
Pepsi.

“I what?”

Jan leaned forward. “What the hell are you
talking about, Brian?”

“I saw it. And so did a few others. Only
nothing ever happened. And I mean there must have been like twenty
people around. But we never talked about it. No one went to the
police. How could we? See, those guys, they weren’t black guys.
They had….”

Suddenly the image came back to Josh very
clearly.

“They had wings.”

***

No one spoke for a while.

It was just as well. Josh had a lot to
process. Although he couldn’t recall the events leading up to the
deaths, he could clearly see himself at the party now. He heard the
whirl of air and the crackle of burning embers as he swung the log.
He could see his hands bashing heads, setting green wings on fire.
He also remembered how expected it was. It didn’t seem strange to
him at the time. He knew who they were, knew what Tommy meant by
‘
They’ve come back for me.
’ Now it was all a mystery.

Brian finally broke the silence.

“Is that what you were talking about?”
Brian’s eyes glazed over. “Back there, after the crash, you said
‘I’ve got a few secrets’. Was that what you were talking
about?”

Josh shook his head. “No. Not even close. I
think we need to be clear about something. Those people in the
woods back there were human. They didn’t have wings or tails and
they weren’t eight feet tall. I didn’t see their faces but they
were definitely human. Doesn’t make them any less dangerous. He
looked in the rear-view mirror. Tonia’s body bounced limply beneath
the blanket. Someone had put a seatbelt across her chest to keep
her upright. “Madmen are a different kind of monster. They’ll use
tricks, guerrilla tactics. You just never know what to expect.”

“What if…” Rebecca stopped and cleared her
throat. “I mean, when I think of wings, I think of angels.”

“What are you talking about?” Brian shot her
a look over his shoulder.

Josh felt blood rush to his face.

“I’m just saying,” Rebecca sank back into her
seat, pushing herself as far away from Josh as she could. “What if
those things you killed were angels? Maybe this is some sort of
revenge. Maybe…”

Brian turned around. “Don’t!”

“I know he’s your friend but how can you not
see this?”

“Rebecca, you’re trying in a not-so-subtle
way to say this is all Josh’s fault. So enough of the angel crap.
If it wasn’t for Josh we’d probably all be dead now.”

Matt sank back into his seat, too. “Or we’d
be at the cottage.”

Josh felt like she had kicked him in the gut.
His body went stiff, his eyes very focused on the road.

There was a long stretch of silence again
before Brian continued the conversation.

“So what was it, then? What was your big
secret?”

Once again, Josh felt he could breathe.

“Damn. My dad’s going to kill me. If anyone
deserves the truth, it’s you guys. You know how my dad owns that
garage downtown?”

“Yeah,” Brian said. “I’ve picked you up there
a few times. You worked there during the summer in high
school.”

Josh nodded while Brian talked. “It’s a
front. You ever heard of CSIS?”

“That show on CBS?”

“No. That’s
CSI
. The one I’m talking
about is kind of like the Canadian CIA. My dad works for them.”

“I take it he’s not a janitor.” Jan chewed on
her thumbnail. “Christ, you’re just full of little secrets, aren’t
you?”

Josh swallowed, a sour taste in his mouth. “I
would have told you if I could, Jan. It’s kind of a hush-hush
thing. Dad wasn’t even supposed to tell Mom and me. He’s not even a
regular agent there. He belongs to this secret organization within
the company. They go on special assignments and stuff, the type
that creates a few enemies. Only reason we found out is we were
attacked once.”

“See?” Rebecca’s voice was suddenly very
shrill. “I told you this was his fault. Should have left him back
there and we’d all be safe now.”

“Enough of the psycho drama,” Jan said. Her
voice was little more than a whisper but the strange edge to it
froze everyone. “Rebecca, take a pill and let him speak.”

Josh felt his heart skip a beat. He’d been
thinking exactly the same thing ever since he saw the blade in the
tire. What if this was another attack like Lebanon? Were they after
him to get to his father? He shook the guilt away and tried to
think of what his dad would do.

“I wish it
was
all my fault, Rebecca,
but I don’t think it is. I think it’s all about luck in this case.
Bad luck.”

“When were you attacked?” Brian finished his
can of soda.

“When I was 16. Dad took us on a trip to
Lebanon.”

“I remember. You brought back that stupid
urn.”

“Hey! My mother loves that urn.”

“Josh, it’s ugly.”

“Hardly the most important thing right now.
Anyway, while we were there, this guy took a shot at my dad. Bullet
went right through an open window in our hotel room. Sliced through
my mother’s arm. Long story short, my father felt he had to tell us
what was going on so we’d be ready if it happened again. He taught
me a few things after school and on weekends. I can handle myself
really well. I’ll do everything I can to make sure we get out of
this alive.”

Everyone looked to the back of the SUV
without saying another word. Matt stared at his empty hands, tears
falling freely down his face. His mouth moved but he made no
sound.

“Last question.” Brian looked out his window,
studying the woods. “Any connection between your father’s work and
those things with wings?”

“I don’t know,” Josh said, his voice
cracking. “Can’t see how. Just more bad luck or something. Can you
look at the map and find the next town? We’ve been driving forever
and we’ve only got a half tank of gas. If those guys are following
us I’d rather not meet up with them while we’re still in the
woods.”

“Sure.” Brian bent down to the pouch on the
door where the maps were held. His hand stopped before reaching in.
“What the hell?”

“What is it?” Rebecca leaned forward and put
a hand on the back of Brian’s seat.

Brian sat back up. In his hand was a single
piece of white paper.

“Where’s the map?” Josh took turns looking at
Brian and the road.

“It’s gone. All the maps are gone. This was
the only thing in there.”

Brian reached over and held the piece of
paper out by the steering wheel. Josh looked down at it and hit the
brakes.

It was a crude drawing, like something a
grade school kid would do. A jet black peacock with glowing eyes.
Beneath the drawing were two words written in red crayon.

“No escape.” Josh read the words aloud, icy
prickles jabbing into his skin.

“How the hell did that get in here?” Jan
reached forward and grabbed the paper away from Brian. “Is this
someone’s idea of a joke? Brian, did you do this?”

Josh turned around slowly. “If you keep up
like this we’re all going to die. We need to stop the hysterics and
focus.”

Jan crumpled the paper and threw it on the
ground.

“I didn’t do this.” Brian turned to look at
Jan. “You know that. It was one of them. When was the last time
anyone saw the map?”

“At the creepy gas station.” Jan crossed her
arms across her chest. Tears formed in her eyes. “I put it away
because Josh was having trouble folding it.”

“Right.” Josh tried to think beyond the fear
he felt. Despite his father’s training, he realized he was out of
his depth. “So we had the map then. That’s when they took the maps
and put this little note in there.”

Brian wiped sweat off his forehead, turned
around and looked out the back window. “If they’ve been tracking us
that far, they’re not going to stop now, are they?”

“Worse.” Jan laughed and bit her lip. Tears
flowed faster down her face. “We didn’t see any cars pass us,
right? They went ahead of us and set up a trap.”

“Either that or there’s more than one set of
them.” Brian wiped the sweat away again. “Josh, we need to get off
this road. Fast.”

Josh clenched the steering wheel. Up the
road, a white van appeared. Impossibly fast, it shot up the road.
It’s engine roared, dirty and loud.

Rebecca screamed.

Before Josh could react, the van slammed into
them. He felt a sharp crack as his head hit the steering wheel.

Then there was nothing but blackness and
pain.

Chapter Four

July 31
^st

When Josh awoke, he was in a concrete cell.
He blinked something – blood – out of his eyes. Blood-stained
leather manacles bound his wrists spread-eagle above his head. His
eyes traced chains from each manacle to thick metal hoops in the
ceiling.

‘You’ve got to be kidding.’

His shirt, shoes and socks were gone, his
bare chest covered in bruises and abrasions. The floor was stained
with red and brown smudges. Dried blood.

The cell reeked of spoiled hamburger. Two
bare bulbs swung gently on short wires from the ceiling. They
splashed cold light in puddles. He shook his head, trying to clear
the fog in his brain. The only result was pain. Every part of his
body ached. Although he knew it would be futile, he tried to pull
his arms free of the manacles. He clenched his jaw as leather
chewed into flesh. As expected, he could not get his hand through.
The leather held tight.

He twisted to look over his shoulder. He was
alone. The only entrance was directly in front of him. Like
something from a horror-movie version of an insane asylum, there
was a small window slot in the door. It was covered by a metal
slab. On the other side would be a latch to uncover the window,
allowing someone to look in on him without actually entering the
room. He looked around for signs of a video camera. He saw no
evidence of one.

‘Stay calm,’ he thought. ‘Dad trained me for
this. Keep pulling my hand through the manacle. If I’m lucky, I’ll
draw blood. Use it to lubricate the restraint and make it easier
for me to escape.’

Through the walls, he heard a scream.

The sound was so shrill he could not tell if
it was male or female. Either way, a scream like that was never a
good thing. Someone was being hurt in ways he chose not to imagine.
Moments later he heard another scream. He realized immediately it
was Jan.

‘At least I know she’s not dead. If these
people are after Dad, they’ll keep me alive. At least for now. No
guarantee for the others. I have to move quickly.’

He focused on his right hand, pulling it
repeatedly down. Pain shot through his arm as leather bit into
flesh. Maybe it was the pain or the streams of blood at his feet,
but suddenly memories from the night of the bush party came back to
him. He smelled charred flesh and feathers as the creatures’ wings
burned. He flinched as he recalled kicking in one of their skulls.
In his memory, he moved impossibly fast: like Batman or Jet Li. His
father had taught him things, but nothing like this, not when he
was so young.

Then another image flashed before him.

***

He sat on his back porch with Tommy
Delonki. It was a hot day in late August, the threat of going back
to school imminent. They drank red Kool-Aid from plastic
Jurassic Park
cups. Inside the house, his mother sang along with
the radio as she made the crust for an apple pie. Two skateboards
lay nearby on the lawn. Nothing he saw or heard could explain the
absolute terror the memory brought to him.

***

“Something happened.”

As soon as he said the words he wished he’d
only thought them. His voice echoed off the concrete walls,
emphasizing how enclosed he was. It felt like a coffin. What if
they did not come for him? What if they just left him hanging there
until he starved to death? Claustrophobia set in.

“Stop it,” he said. Sweat fell from his hair.
The room was hot and humid, just like that day in August. “Think of
something else.”

‘I can’t stop them. One day they’ll come to
take me away and I know I can’t stop them.’

Josh raised his head.

Goosebumps ran down his chest. The room
suddenly seemed very cold.

***

“
I can’t stop them,” Tommy said.
“
One day they’ll come to take me away and I know I can’t
stop them.”

“
You don’t know that.” Josh picked up a
chip of concrete that had crumbled off the back porch and threw it
across the lawn. “Things don’t work that way.”

“
You don’t know them.” Tommy grabbed his
Kool-Aid and held the glass against his cheek. “You’ve never seen
them.”