The Nephilim (10 page)

“Do any of you wish to enter witness protection or travel to Alaska?”

“No!” The three agents all but screamed it at the phone. No one wanted to go into witness protection. Not if they could afford it. Because it was more than just getting new names and homes. It represented the loss of their careers, friends and lives. And Alaska? It was cold and remote and none of them wanted to spend the rest of their careers freezing their butts off.

“Good. But I cannot emphasise to you enough that Special Agent Hamilton is a very dangerous man. In fact he’s probably the most cunning and dangerous criminal you will ever face. There is a reason he managed to become an FBI agent. Not only can no one prove anything about his illegal activities, there isn't even enough to accuse him of it. But despite that he is suspected of murdering one Treasury agent as well as numerous other shootings and killings.”

“If you give him the slightest cause to believe that you are on to him you should expect him to respond with deadly force. And don't imagine that you can run or hide. His forte is hunting people. He hunts down serial killers across state lines and without so much as a name or a face to go on. And that is not an exaggeration. There is no question about what he does. He is the most capable man-hunter the FBI has, and it is a cover he goes to extraordinary lengths to protect. After all that cover grants him access to every criminal database we have as well as opening doors all over the country.”

“In your case he already has your names and has seen your ID's. That was why he asked for them. To know who to hunt if he has to. If he feels threatened he will hunt you down and kill you. He might well torture you for information. And the chances are that your bodies would never be found.”

“Do you understand?”

“Yes Sir!”

Again they all answered as one, knowing it wasn't a question. But privately Agent Barnes just sat there wondering just what the hell they'd landed themselves in. It seemed as if Agent Thomison was telling them that they were living on borrowed time. That sooner or later the agent would come for them. But what he didn't understand was how that could be? How could an agent be a murderous criminal? Surely the FBI did checks on their people? He wanted to ask, but the voice was carrying on.

“Good. Now from this day forward you will all have a vest with you at all times. You will spend considerable time on the range every day. You will practice your counter surveillance techniques with every phone call you receive and whenever you leave the building. Even when you're in it. And you will report to no one but me. Is that understood?”

“Yes Sir.”

“Good. Now if you will each grab one of the boxes from the centre of the table please and open them.”

They did as he ordered and swiftly found themselves staring at autopsy reports. Top of the pile was the very grizzly details of the murder of Treasury Agent Philip Ogden. It shook them all, knowing that those remains had once belonged to one of their brothers in Treasury. And then to see there were others as well. A lot of other bodies. How could an FBI agent do such a thing? How could he still be an agent? And how much danger were they in? Because it was hard to pretend that this was just idle suspicion or a precaution when the evidence was there in full colour right in front of him.

“Now gentlemen in these boxes you will find the main documents outlining the suspected crimes of Special Agent Garrick Hamilton and much of the evidence against him. I want you to be completely familiar with this material by the close of today. But absolutely none of this information leaves the room – is that understood?”

“Yes Sir.”

“Behind you, you will see a confidential documents destruction bin. When you have read these reports you will dispose of them properly. And you will not make copies. If you need a copy of anything it will be provided to you over secure phones that you will be issued with. Phones that even our target does not know exist.”

“You will also find copies of your orders placing you under my command, and detailing your activities including training requirements. Again these will be disposed of when you've satisfied yourselves that they are genuine. You will however, find copies of these on the phones you will be given.”

“After this conversation is finished I would like you to go through those documents checking the signatures and the numbers on the bottom of the letters to satisfy yourself that they are genuine. This is as I'm sure you've realised a black bag operation, but every agent should always know that every part of his involvement in it is authorised.”

And it was authorised. Agent Barnes knew that. He recognised the signature on his letter of appointment to the task force. It was the same one that was on his original appointment letter from when he first started working for Treasury. You couldn't go much higher than that. But still he decided, he would check out the number on the letter.

Now there is at least one piece of good news to go with the bad. Though you don't know and will not learn who the other agents are that are involved in this task force, you may be assured that they have been making steady progress. We are almost at the stage where an arrest can be made. So your situation will probably be resolved in a couple of weeks.”

“When that happens you will all be required to be there to give a verbal confirmation of identification of Special Agent Hamilton as the man you saw with Katarinka Nelos.”

“You also won’t be alone. When the time comes to arrest him it will be done swiftly, with overwhelming force and with the element of surprise. Special Agent Hamilton will not even know he is surrounded by our people. And he will be given absolutely no chance to draw a weapon. Is that clear?”

That at least was completely clear to Agent Barnes. He was implying that they should shoot first and not give Hamilton any chance to draw on them. He didn’t say it verbally of course. Such an order would be illegal. He was simply making sure that they knew what to do when the time came without having to actually say it.

And they did. No one questioned the orders. Not when they had the autopsy report in front of them. A report that said their fellow agent had been tortured before he'd been shot and his body dumped.

Even as he said yes Agent Barnes was already planning on putting a slug in the heart of Special Agent Hamilton if he so much as looked like causing him any trouble. The man would either surrender instantly or he would die even faster. Looking around at the others he knew they had the same thought running through their minds.

Anyone who could kill an agent the way Ogden had been killed was too dangerous to live.

Chapter Six

Katz sat in the middle school common area eating her lunch and wishing she were somewhere else. Anywhere else. She'd finished with school, or so she'd thought. And in truth school had finished with her even before then. They didn't get on. But now she found herself back in one and she didn't like it. She didn't understand it either. Not this one.

It was a strange school she thought. The buildings looked like they had come off the set of a horror movie, especially with all those gargoyles everywhere. Though she had been informed right from the start that they were actually grotesques – gargoyles sprayed water. Why that should matter she didn't know. The uniforms had come out of a Dickens book and they were every bit as uncomfortable as they looked. The rules were from a prison. But then the school was part prison as far as she was concerned. Strangest of all were the students and the teachers. It seemed like she was now living in some sort of circus.

She hated it. She hated it most because when she had first begun to realise that she was different, that she could do things that other couldn't, she had thought she was special. That was important to someone raised in an orphanage with dozens of other kids who were all essentially abandoned children. All of them wanted to be special, but the reality was that all of them had actually been just unlucky nobodies. They weren't special at all.

But for a while she had been. She had had something which lifted her above the others. She wasn't just the child of a crazy mother and a missing father. She had been popular for maybe the first time in her life, when she showed the others how she could easily break in to the priest’s liquor cabinet.

But here she wasn't special at all. She wasn't popular. There were others who could do the exact same thing she could do. And there were many others who could do far more amazing things.

There was one girl who actually bounced when she ran. Big six foot high leaps into the air as though she was on the moon. Gravity didn't seem to hold her the same way it did everyone else. One of the seniors made the ground shake whenever he got upset. And then there was a girl in the year behind hers who it seemed was mistress of the animals. Wherever she went they followed her. Birds landed beside her if she sat for too long. Cats and dogs came from out of nowhere just to be with her. Everyone here had some gift. Some had truly spectacular ones. And all she could do was open doors.

At Westlord Academy Katz was once again a nobody.

Actually she was less than that. The teachers had assessed her academically and looked at her records and decided that she was behind her classmates. So now she had remedial maths and English to add to her days. That was two extra classes every evening when the others would be out playing or enjoying themselves. When they could go into the town, or what little of it there was, she would be stuck reading Shakespeare or studying trigonometry. And that was before she started her detentions. They gave out detentions for everything. Being late to class, wearing make up, running in the hallways, shouting. It didn't matter what it was there would be a detention in it. In just four days she'd already earned five of them. Five hours spent studying and sitting quietly reading books in a hall by herself while the others watched TV or whatever. At the rate she was going she'd never graduate. By the time she'd reached the end of school, she'd have so many detentions awaiting her that she'd have to start over again.

Fortunately she wasn't going to be here that long. Not if she could avoid it.

Still, she did admit that there was at least one good thing to come out of this – though it didn’t affect her desire to leave. Even if she wasn't special any more it was good to know that she wasn't a freak.

Or at least not the only freak. There was Mark for example. He was currently sitting next to her in the middle school lunch area playing with light while she ate her lunch. He was actually
playing
with it.  Actually he called it bending light and he could shape it to will, turning it into amazing shapes, patterns and colours, just with his thoughts. Now that was freaky!  But it was also amazing to watch the light dance in his hands.

He called the gift an aura. Naturally every gift they had here had some strange name. Usually something to do with angels and the bible. The whole place was fixated on them. So she was a key, he had an aura and the girl with the animals had the beast touch. The girl who bounced was said to have lightness of spirit of all things. Katz had rolled her eyes when she had heard that one.

These people were all angel mad, but in a very strange way. They all said their gifts came from the blood of angels that flowed in their veins, but none of them seemed to like the angels. In fact for the most part they seemed to regard them as giant pains in the butt.

But pains in the butt with power. A lot seemed to be scared of them. That she sort of understood. Considering what Cassie had done to her. Katz automatically rubbed at her leg when she thought of the bitch. It still hurt a little, though apparently it could be worse. The principal might call the pain instructive, but Katz called it what it was – sadistic.

“You know Master Timms is going to tell you off if he sees you,” Katarinka hissed at Mark.

It wasn't that he wasn't allowed to use his gift in the school. It was just that the first ten minutes of the lunch break were set aside for eating. Everyone picked up their packed lunch from the kitchen and then sat outside in the appropriate common areas and ate it quietly while the school masters looked on. They were strict too, and even watched to make sure no one was littering and making certain that the lunch boxes they were given were returned before they could go and play. Still, at least they fed her she supposed. And the food was quite good if she was honest. What she'd been eating while she'd been on the streets with her friends hadn't been nearly so good. In fact it had been mostly what they could scrounge. But it had still been better than the orphanage and all the rules. And the nuns! Though funnily enough she was beginning to think they weren't so mean after all. Not compared to the angels.