Dark Harbour: The Tale of the Soul Searcher (20 page)

Vladimir stood and shook his head, wiping his hand against his trousers as he tried to put yet another distraction out of his mind. They couldn’t see the weasel anywhere, but then Meriadoc began sniffing at the bottom of one of the doors. Eddie went over to investigate, and when he pushed the door open he saw the man in the red tracksuit standing in the middle of the room, what was once a kitchen.

‘Here he is,’ Eddie said.

As soon as he saw Vladimir appear in the doorway, the weasel man freaked out, squealing like a cornered rat, furiously tugging the handle to the back door. It was locked.

‘Stay back,’ Vladimir commanded. He brought out his mobile phone, pressed a couple of buttons and said: ‘Jake, number twenty-two. Go get the car.’

‘No. No!’ the weasel whimpered.

But then, after rattling the door so much, it suddenly gave way and opened. The weasel ran out into the back garden and Meriadoc chased after him, followed by the others.

Out in the overgrown garden, the man turned as he realised a dog was on his trail. He paused and kicked Meriadoc in the head, and the dog whimpered and cowered away.

At that point, Eddie charged at the man, grabbed him by the throat and punched him hard round the face. The weasel recoiled then swiped at Eddie too, catching him cleanly on the chin. Eddie stumbled backwards, surprised by the weight of the scrawny man’s punch.

But then Larry approached. The weasel threw a punch, but Larry caught his fist and in a fluid motion he twisted the guy’s arm round and threw him onto the grass.

Dazed, Eddie was surprised for a moment at Larry’s masterful move, but when he saw the weasel on the ground, he quickly darted over to him and kicked him hard in the guts.

‘You fucking bastard!’

He booted him again and again, but somehow the weasel still managed to get to his feet. Just as he was about to give Eddie another punch, he paused and looked on in horror, his face about to wring with tears.

Jake smashed his fist into the weasel’s face like a meteor hitting the ground. The guy fell to the ground completely unconscious.

‘Thanks,’ Jake said to Larry and Eddie before picking the guy up like a sack of rubbish to be taken to the tip. He carried him along the side of the house to where he’d parked his car.

‘Dog okay?’ Vladimir asked them.

‘I think so,’ Eddie said as he crouched down to the sheepish Meriadoc.

The rain was starting to fall now. Vladimir smiled faintly at them, nodded, then made his way round to the front of the house. Larry and Eddie didn’t know what to do so they just followed him. They saw Jake closing the boot down on a black Mercedes.

‘Okay, let’s get out of here,’ Jake said to his colleague.

They turned to get in the car but Vladimir was hesitant. He looked back at Larry and Eddie standing there in the pattering rain. And there was that poor dog.

‘Do you guys need a lift?’ Vladimir asked them.

‘Sure. If that’s okay,’ Larry replied.

Vladimir opened the door for them. ‘Get in.’

Driving away from the cesspit estate, they soon hit the evening rush hour and became snarled up in traffic. As he clutched onto Meriadoc, Eddie looked out of the side window, trying to see the drowned world outside as the rainwater streamed down the steamed up glass. It was like he’d suddenly been given a new angle on his hometown as he watched the cars trundling by on the other side of the road, miserable looking metal beasts crawling through the tempest like soldiers on a march to combat. Everyone was battling through their lives, trying to make their way back home for the weekend.

But Eddie wasn’t in a rush. Even though he was sitting in a car with two vigilantes, Eddie felt strangely comfortable. He’d heard of their organisation before, one of the many things the kids at the caravan parks used to talk about on his holidays. Not that Eddie had necessarily believed these kids, however intriguing their stories were. But meeting these Halo of Fires members was like he’d met a fat man with a white beard and discovered that Father Christmas did actually exist.

Eddie turned to Larry and said: ‘Didn’t know you were a ninja.’

‘I used to take judo lessons.’

‘Oh.’

‘How’s the chin?’

‘Sure I’ll live.’

‘Where do you guys live?’ Jake interrupted.

Everyone felt a little silly for not having mentioned the subject yet.

‘Oh yeah. Uh, it’s Toledo Road,’ Larry projected over the sound of the rain that thumped against the roof of the car like machinegun fire.

‘Of course. The student end,’ Vladimir added.

The two vigilantes didn’t appear to want to say anything more. It felt an unusual situation for them all to be in, but then what would two Halo of Fires members have in common with two college students?

The traffic ahead crawled along slightly and Jake slowly caught up with the red taillights of the car in front that blurred through their rain-drenched windscreen like simmering hellfire. Suddenly Larry breathed in, about to spark up some conversation.

‘Could I get you guys to go beat someone up for me? If I wanted to.’

Vladimir and Jake remained quiet for a moment, probably waiting for each other to deal with the question.

‘You got someone in mind?’ Vladimir eventually asked.

‘No. I just mean hypothetically. How much would that cost, just out of interest?’

‘I thought students were poor.’

‘Yeah. I just wondered.’

‘Who says our service costs anything?’

‘Do you ever go and kill people?’

Vladimir paused, looking Larry over. He then turned to Eddie. ‘Is your friend trying to tell us something here? Did his professor give him a bad grade?’

‘Most likely.’

Vladimir’s mobile phone started ringing and it killed the conversation. ‘Excuse me a second,’ he said as he turned round to answer it.

Larry and Eddie both looked out of the side windows, pretending that they weren’t compelled to listen in.

‘Hello… Yeah all sorted… No, no we’re not there yet… Because we got held up!… What?… That’s a new one… You want all that
tonight
?… We can’t do that, we’re already tied up… Who?… Junior?… Yeah I appreciate that but there’s no way I can get to the beach and sort that out beforehand. You can’t get anyone else to do that for us?… I know it’s short notice!… Yeah I know, I don’t have time, I… Can you hold on a second?’

Vladimir pulled the phone away from his ear for a moment. His jaw became very tight and he made an idle clicking sound against the roof of his mouth with his tongue, as though giving an indication of the ticking cogs that were trundling in his mind. He shared a quick glance with Jake and they knew straightaway what the other was thinking.

‘Okay, Henry,’ he said as he brought the phone back to his ear, ‘Yeah, leave me the details out… Catch you later.’ He hung up.

‘You think that’s a good idea?’ Jake whispered to him.

Vladimir didn’t answer. He just cleared his throat.

Chapter 5.3

The storm disappeared as quickly as it arrived. Like an angry snake that had spent its sticky venom all too quickly, the clouds were soon exhausted so that there was no more rain to squeeze out of them. Other than a drenched town, the legacy of this outburst was a cool breeze and lethargic clouds that refused to release the late evening sun.

Danny and Michael gave up waiting for their two friends and went to
The Waggon and Horses
without them. Instead of having their usual Friday night doubles contest, they just played a few relaxed frames on their own. Larry and Eddie would most probably arrive there later.

‘How’s Faridah these days?’ Danny asked as he stood chalking his pool cue. ‘Heard from her recently?’

He went for a ball on a tight angle and smacked it firmly into the pocket. Danny was on fire tonight, playing like a professional.

‘She’s good. She called this week.’

‘You guys going to meet up again this summer?’

‘I’m hoping so. Depends if she can get the time off.’

‘That’s good.’

Danny arched over the table again and pocketed another one of his reds.

‘And how’s your assignment going?’ he asked next.

‘Slowly. Wish I’d picked a different story to be honest. It’s been a bit difficult to research.’

‘You still got a while left though, yeah?’ Danny asked as he played his next shot. Finally he missed one.

‘Yup,’ Michael replied, watching the balls clinking around the table and slowly coming to a stop.

Danny sat down but Michael just stared thoughtfully at the pool table as though he was divining something in the arrangement of those yellow and red spheres.

‘Your go,’ Danny prompted him.

‘What happened to you, bud? Seriously, you’ve been like a different person since yesterday.’

Danny looked a little self-conscious but Michael could clearly see the newfound excitement in him. Things that would have been an irritation to Danny before were now like a special gift from the universe, every moment of his life becoming a sparkling moment of magic.

‘Something happened yesterday,’ Danny whispered.

‘So I understand,’ came the reply. But the voice did not belong to Michael. They both turned around.

‘Just what have you been up to, young Daniel?’

There stood a stranger dressed completely in black. He could have easily just materialised from the pages of a Bram Stoker novel such was the fire in his eyes, a blaze that seemed to be polarised through a tampering of his soul forces, freezing the eternally glowing shine of his complexion like the beautiful Dorian Gray. He was darkness and radiance in one.

With his lordly appearance, Michael imagined that he could have just slashed his way out of the celluloid of a science fiction film with a red laser sword, or stepped from a police box as the latest regeneration of a wandering traveller of time and space.

The man was multifaceted yet menacing mystery, as Vladimir was to everyone.

‘Who the heck are you?’ Michael asked as calmly as he could.

Vladimir took a pace forward, both of his hands clutching onto the lapels of his long coat, holding them as though he’d just pulled them apart to reveal an insignia on his chest.

‘Santa Claus visits the good boys; I visit the ones who don’t make his list,’ Vladimir replied to Michael. He edged closer to Danny who stood from his stool and slowly started to back away. ‘And this little one here has been a very naughty boy.’

Michael was perplexed, thinking this must have been a case of mistaken identity. What could Danny have possibly done?

‘You’re Halo of…’

‘Yes we are.’

Two hulking brutes appeared out of nowhere. They both gripped Danny’s arms, towering above him like two wolves with a rabbit under their paws.

Michael threw his arms up in the air and yelled: ‘Hold it!’

Strangely, they both paused and turned towards him with their steely eyes. Michael’s mouth went dry. They were absolute giants and seemed to radiate an unnatural force from every one of their bulging muscles. All of a sudden, Michael lost his words, not that he really had any to begin with.

‘Yes?’ Vladimir asked.

Michael collected himself. ‘You can’t do this. What the hell did he do?’

‘Okay, I can understand your concern, just like a good friend should do,’ Vladimir said to Michael. ‘The problem is, Danny has been playing around with someone else’s girl. Someone else’s fiancée indeed! And this someone else is kind of distraught right now.’

Michael again looked at Danny, the confusion now etched firmly onto his face. ‘Who?’

‘Okay,’ Vladimir said to the Powers, nodding.

While Clint held Danny in place, Jake slammed his fist into Danny’s nose. The dazed young man fell to the floor as two lines of blood streamed over his mouth. Clint picked him up again while Michael could only look on helplessly.

‘Stop it! What’s going on?’ Michael demanded.

‘Dangerous game kid, moving in on someone else’s woman,’ Jake said to Danny.

‘Yeah! Jake can tell you a thing or two about fast women,’ Clint added.

‘Okay guys, let’s get him outside,’ Vladimir cut in.

‘You’re not taking him anywhere!’ Michael shouted as loud as he could, hoping to draw even more attention to the drama taking place right here in this normally unassuming pub.

No one else felt inclined to intervene. Everyone else present just looked on like frightened little rabbits themselves, staring at the two wolves and the one raven, grateful that they weren’t being torn apart by them.

‘Are you going to stop us?’ Vladimir asked.

‘Even if I wasn’t a pacifist, I’m really not that dumb,’ Michael said as he watched the two giant vigilantes dragging away the semiconscious Danny.

‘Sounds a bit of a contradiction,’ Vladimir replied as he turned his back on him.

Michael knew there was no way he could fight these thugs physically but he wasn’t finished yet.