Dark Tidings: Ancient Magic Meets the Internet Book 1 (28 page)

The car drew into the driveway at Michael’s Liverpool home and three very happy passengers disembarked… freedom and high quality alcohol fuelled their joy. They thanked the driver and Tung gave him a departing ‘Believe Me’ to make sure he hadn’t picked up any incriminating evidence from their conversations. The poor man drove away totally distraught about the dreadful ordeal his poor, innocent passengers had been put though.

They crunched across the gravel driveway and made their way into the house. Tung retrieved the Scroll from its buried hiding place in the garden. That had been clever. It would have been virtually impossible to find it without digging up the whole of these substantial grounds.

They made their way into the house. It seemed even more welcoming than usual. They were home and they were home free.

As he closed the door, Michael sang ‘In my Liverpool home’… just those four words over and over because that was all he knew of the song. He lit a fire in the large grate in the front room and the three of them settled down in front of the fledgling flames. They were relaxed and feeling satisfied with their work.

“It is wonderful when a plan comes together,” said Michael. “Full marks for the A team. In fact, we’re the A+ team.”

Neither Tung nor Madrick had any idea what he was talking about, but they were happy. Tung tried his own rendition of ‘Liverpool home’ but he didn’t even know four words so it was pretty poor. Madrick sang along with different random words which just made the whole thing worse, but it added to the fun.

“Now our destiny is in our own hands. No more running, no more being chased. You came up with a great spell, Tung, and I worked out how best to use it. Now we don’t have to react to what others are doing, we’re in charge of what happens next.”

“And don’t forget about me. I told you what the spell did so you could come up with your great plan,” said Madrick. “And now we’ve space to sort out our future. They won’t be after us for about a year. With any luck, they may never come after us again.”

Everyone was calm. There was no need for urgency, but there were still things to be done.

“The first thing I’m going to do is post all the footage we have of the Occultus Populous meetings on the Internet. We’re going to totally obliterate that organisation. We’re going to make sure they never again have the power to destroy people’s lives. And they won’t have a clue who’s doing it. I love it. Even if they remember us in a year, there’ll be nothing of the organisation left to chase us.”

“The first thing I’m going to do,” said Tung, “is order three of the world’s biggest pizzas. We need to celebrate and we need to celebrate big.”

“The first thing I’m going to do,” said Madrick, “is get some sleep. I’m wiped out. I’m shattered. A man of my age can’t endure this kind of turmoil without it taking a toll on the body. I need to rest. I need to sleep.”

So Madrick slept, Tung ordered pizza and Michael went to work on his computer.

He retrieved all the video files he had of the Occultus Populous meetings. He watched segments of them and quickly realised just how damning the footage was. He edited together a compilation of the juiciest bits and posted them on a number of popular forums. He knew the world’s media would soon pick these up and they’d shine a very bright spotlight on this shadowy organisation. The exposure would destroy these people and their secret society, and they’d have no idea who’d done it to them. The Council members believed he was an innocent bystander and they’d continue to believe that no matter what evidence to the contrary was presented to them.

Well pleased with his work, Michael joined Tung. They ate, they talked and they enjoyed the warmth of a fire which was now roaring like a hungry pride of ferocious lions.

Eventually Madrick appeared. He’d slept for an hour or so and was totally refreshed.

“There’s no pizza left, sorry.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not particularly hungry.”

“We’ve been chatting.”

“Are we all good?” Madrick asked. “Are we ready to do something for ourselves? It’ll make a pleasant change if we could make a dream or two come true.”

“I’m all for that,” said Tung. “I can’t remember the last dream I had which came true. I remember plenty of nightmares happening though, and a lot of them were in the last few days.”

“I know,” said Michael. “We deserve some joy after what we’ve all been through. And I’m nearly ready. But there’s one last thing I need to do before we start thinking about our own futures. I need to talk to Faith.”

Much of the Occultus Populous members’ wealth was inextricably linked to the fate of IIBE, but because they had the inside track, they were shielded from any significant losses associated with the bank’s problems. In fact, most of them had made money from the financial disaster. Just as Buckingham had promised, by knowing when the IIBE systems would be offline, they all had numerous opportunities to ‘bet’ on market movements which they knew, for sure, would happen. The uninformed investors were losing millions in the chaos, but these already immensely wealthy individuals were sucking up profits like a Dyson on steroids.

However something very bad had happened in the midst of the financial free-for-all. Secret footage of their recent meetings had been leaked into the public domain. This was a disaster.

The pressures on the Occultus Populous were immense. Who had exposed them? How could they minimise the damage? Massive resources were committed to stifle as many information outlets as possible. The members owned many of the national and international newspapers so they made sure no part of the story was printed in the press. Most of the online news feeds were shut down which meant only a comparatively small number of low-traffic blog sites continued to carry the article.

These successes were nowhere near enough to change the way Sir Samuel Buckingham felt about what had happened. His world had disintegrated. In a matter of hours he’d changed from being the man who’d fulfilled the destiny of the Occultus Populous to being the man at the helm when the organisation’s thousand year old secret was exposed. If they didn’t kill the exposé completely, he would be known as the man who’d destroyed this incredible Society and steered it onto the jagged rocks of world attention.

He’d not slept for days. How could he? He spent every hour marshalling all the organisation’s resources to kill the story. Most of the effort was concentrated on plugging the leak, but a small contingent was tasked with finding the source of the story. This small group presented reams of evidence which clearly identified Michael as the guilty party, but because of the ‘Believe Me’ legacy, Buckingham dismissed the idea. In fact, he became extremely angry when the same evidence was re-presented to him as being indisputable.

“Stop wasting my time and yours,” he bellowed. “This man has nothing to do with it. He’s completely innocent. Don’t trouble me again with these stupid and false accusations.”

What could his men do? They knew who had caused the problem, yet the powers that be wouldn’t believe them. And they couldn’t take action against the culprit because they understood the dire consequences of acting against the instructions of their bosses. They were left with nowhere to go because every other investigative line was totally pointless. Jim Robinson was particularly frustrated by Buckingham’s ridiculous refusal to recognise the undeniable. Buckingham too was totally frustrated. How could his usually reliable lieutenants make such little headway in their investigations? They were generally infallible in their endeavours, so this latest incompetence just added to the pressure he was feeling.

He was in his office when it hit him. The pain in his chest came on like a bolt out of the blue. It was as if a ton of bricks had been dropped on him. His life didn’t flash before him, nor did he think lovingly about his family. His over-riding thought was to imagine how he would look lying on the floor. He wondered if he’d be able to get himself into a dignified position before he became totally immobilised.

He mustered all his strength and pulled his phone from his inside pocket. A sense of duty drove him to call Jim Robinson rather than summon medical help. The phone was answered quickly, as it always was.

“What can I do for you, sir?”

He always answered the phone the same way. He never wasted time with frivolous small talk and right now, ‘not wasting time’ had never been so important.

“I want you to promise me that you will not allow my son to destroy the organisation we have both served so loyally.”

“I’m sorry, sir. I don’t understand.”

Sir Samuel spoke two more words. They were the last words he ever said.

By the time his secretary found him he was dead. He looked surprisingly serene as he laid stock still on the plush carpet. The immense anxiety of the last few weeks had combined with a genetic weakness to bring on a massive heart attack. The news of his death spread like a wildfire through both his organisations.

The Occultus Populous had tried and tested procedures to cope with the loss of the boss. The Great Grand Master is dead, long live the Great Grand Master. Marcus Buckingham, or Sir Marcus as he now was, the eldest son of the deceased Sir Samuel, would lead the organisation. It would take a few days for him to be briefed and to give him time to read and absorb the family history which would now be revealed to him for the first time.

IIBE had procedures too and an emergency board meeting was hastily convened by the deputy chairman. It was an unsightly affair because the directors were more concerned about the opportunity they each had to elevate themselves, rather than any compassion for Sir Samuel. Personal greed and self-aggrandisement definitely ruled in the IIBE board room. They agreed they would vote for a new chairman at their next scheduled meeting.

An uninformed observer would probably have thought that the death of Sir Samuel Buckingham was a serious set-back for two evil and pernicious institutions. That observer would have been quite wrong because this event had, in fact, resulted in a much nastier presence coming into the ascendancy.

“I need to talk to Faith. I know you think I’m crazy, but I really need to do this.”

Michael knew from their faces that they were deeply concerned by this bolt out of the blue. He understood why they were so shocked, but this was a necessary evil. This was the sort of idiotic thing Tung would do, thought Madrick, as he tried to muster his arguments against what he considered to be madness.

“But she betrayed us. You can’t want to talk to her. She’ll just mess you around and maybe even put us all in danger again. You need to forget you ever met her. She’s bad news. You must know that talking to her doesn’t make any sense at all.”

“I know why you think that. But I can’t forgive her for what she did to me, what she did to us. I want a little bit of revenge before I forget about her. I’ve lost my Faith and I want her to suffer for what she’s done. She needs to learn a lesson; a hard lesson.”

Michael didn’t generally approve of petty vengeance, but this particular situation was different. This woman had broken his heart and she’d happily given them up to a ruthless enemy who would almost certainly have killed them had they not been so well prepared. He knew they’d have suffered horribly had it not been for the Believe Me Spell. And she just let it happen.

To make matters even worse, she’d humiliated him and made him feel incredibly stupid in front of his friends. Not good for a man with his ego, not good at all. So he needed to do something, for closure. He didn’t want to hurt her physically the way she’d planned to hurt them, that wasn’t his style, but he did want to hurt her mentally. He wanted revenge, but nothing too cruel because, inexplicably, he knew he still loved her.

He talked through his plan with Tung and Madrick. They listened, and the more they heard, the more relaxed they became. They began to understand why he wanted this, why he needed this. They could also see why it was virtually risk free. When he’d finished outlining his thoughts, they all laughed and agreed it was a good and just retribution. She deserved it.

“When do you want to do this?” asked Tung.

He was the main man in the plan.

“Now is as good a time as any. Are you up for it?”

Michael phoned Faith’s mobile.

“This number is not in use. Please check and redial.”

“Damn.”

He tried Suzie’s mobile, it was the only other point of contact he had for Faith. He certainly didn’t have the number for her secret phone. Suzie was reluctant to let him speak to her friend, but after a brief discussion she called Faith and Michael’s heart jumped when he heard her say his name.

“Michael, I am so, so sorry. I never meant it to end the way it did. I thought they just wanted their money back. I didn’t know that they’d haul you away like terrorists. And now I find out that you weren’t even involved in the fraud. How can I ever make it up to you? Will you ever be able to forgive me?”

He hadn’t had the chance to say a single word. She’d launched straight into her apology the second she’d come onto the phone. She sounded so sincere and remorseful. He started to have second thoughts about hurting her, so he handed the phone to Tung before he changed his mind.

“Believe me, you want to listen to everything I’m about to tell you. You don’t want to hang up. You’re madly and deeply in love with Michael. There’ll never be anyone else who you’ll be able to love. Michael used to love you, but your deception has hurt him so much that now he hates you. There’s nothing you can do to make him change his mind. Everything that’s wrong in your life is your own stupid fault. You’re going to be very unhappy and you’ll hate yourself forever for what you’ve done.”

Faith listened carefully and the more she heard, the more her heart ached. Her eyes filled up and she bit her bottom lip so hard that blood started to ooze down her chin. Suzie could only watch, although at one point she tried unsuccessfully to take the phone. She hated seeing her best friend become so upset. Faith shrugged her off and continued to hang onto every word which was being said to her.

“Oh yes… and everything you wear makes your bum look big.”

Tung hung up.

“I hate myself,” said Faith as she handed the phone back to Suzie.

She burst into tears. Sadness and a feeling of total despondency overwhelmed her. Suzie tried desperately to console her friend, but she failed miserably. Faith tried to thank her for her kindness, but the words were choked by sobs.

“I need some time in my room. I need to be alone.”

As she walked away, she caught sight of her reflection in the full-length mirror. Her eyes were drawn to her bottom and her wailing became uncontrollable as she broke into a headlong dash for her bedroom.

In Liverpool the mood was completely different. Everyone was feeling buoyant. The three men high fived and gave each other arm’s-length man hugs.

“Thank you for that, Tung,” said Michael. “You’ve helped me put a sad and unfortunate chapter of my life behind me. I thought she was going to be the happiest and best thing that ever happened to me, but in fact she was the complete opposite. Now, because of what you’ve done, I reckon I’m ready to move on. No more looking back for me, I’m ready to plan for our futures. The sky’s the limit.”

“Don’t tell me the sky’s the limit,” said Tung, “because I know… it’s not.”

He hadn’t quite remembered the end to the expression, but they all knew exactly what he meant. Everyone agreed wholeheartedly.

Tung and Madrick were both delighted that Michael had suggested this last interaction with Faith. They’d both been a bit nervous about it, but it was clear it’d been the right thing to do. They all knew it was a bit mean to curse her for the rest of her life the way they had, but she deserved it and it seemed to have given Michael the closure he needed. Anyway, in reality, it wasn’t going to be for the whole rest of her life; it was only for a year if Madrick’s memory of the spell was anything to go by.

“So now it’s time for us to move on. Time to leave the past behind and concentrate solely on the future; our futures,” said Michael. “What’s wrong with you, Tung? You look as if you’re having a thought and the thought’s hurting you.”

Tung was having a thought. He was thinking that now would be the perfect time to cement his friendship with the others. He’d never really had friends in his life, before Madrick, and now Michael. He didn’t want to lose them. So why not make sure? Why not make sure they stayed best friends forever?

“Believe me,” said Tung. “I am the most wonderful friend you guys will ever have. I’m honest, kind and reliable. You’ll love me forever and cherish my friendship until the end of time.”

Madrick and Michael looked at each other and smiled widely. They were unaffected by Tung’s little speech so it looked as if the Believe Me spell had now run its course.

“Good effort,” said Michael wondering if Tung had planted any other lies in their heads. He realised he’d never know the answer to that particular question.

“And by the way, I really do cherish your friendship. There’s no need for a spell.”

They all spontaneously, albeit a little uncomfortably, embraced in a proper group hug. It wasn’t at arm’s-length this time and it felt surprisingly good.

“Right,” said Madrick breaking the moment and moving away. “It’s time to see what spell the Scroll throws up next. The sky’s not the limit.”