The Tale of the Wolf (The Kenino Wolf Series) (35 page)

Big finish!

‘ …
and your kiss!’
I swivelled dodging the last pair.

The place exploded with cheers. The leader collapsed.

‘
I am the Deliverer and I pick him.’ I pointed at Milkie. More cheers.

‘
Remove the seal!’ Milkie ordered. The place was in chaos. Two of the brethren ran up to the old leader held him down while a third pulled off the big medallion and placed it on Milkie. He came running across to me.

‘
Thank you. You have done us a great service.’ He was panting and beaming with joy.

I was still on the altar and loving it. Okay these people went a bit far, and yes I know ‘Kiss’ was actually written by Prince, but sometimes it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it, and nobody says it like Tom Jones.

‘
Here.’ He handed me the drive. I’d been loving the Tom Jones karaoke so much I’d forgotten why I was doing it.

‘
Cheers.’ I waved it at Tabatha and Curtis. They jumped for joy. ‘Play the song one more time.’

‘
Really?’ Milkie looked amused.

‘
Course! Tom Jones is a god.’

‘
That’s what we tell people. You heard the Deliverer! Hit it!’

‘
Kiss’, blasted from the walls. It was a party and everybody was getting down to a bit of Welsh magic.

We had the drive. We had Magenta Devine's list. I’d survived the madness and was loving it. We were partying to one song on a continual loop and it was great.

‘
So what do we do now?’ Tabatha asked mid-swivel.

‘
We call Jeremiah. He’ll know how to find Magenta Devine, and we cut a deal.’

‘
You’re mad. You know that, don’t you?’

‘
That’s why you love me.’

‘
Is it?’ She smirked.

We'd won; we were the champions. We were just about to get into a clinch when there was a scream from the doorway.

‘
JONESIANS!’

Panic swept the room.

I jumped off the altar, with Tabatha following, and ran behind Milkie towards the front door.

The sight that greeted me was something I wouldn’t have expected to see if I’d lived to be a thousand. There, coming over the hill, were at least thirty black PVC-jumpsuited individuals, with nylon chest wigs and medallions, being led by … Colin, who was dressed identically to his brethren. They were singing ‘Delilah’ and wielding sticks.

‘Iiiitttt's Kruchenko.’ Milkie stammered.

‘What? Where?’ I returned.

‘There … leading the Jonesians.’

‘That's Colin.’

‘That's Nikita Kruchenko.’

‘Oh shit!’

Colin was Nikita Kruchenko. The whole time the fucker had been playing us.

‘Is that Frazer?’ Tabatha had noticed Frazer. Scott Frazer was standing next to Colin.

‘Yeah, that's Frazer.’ I replied.

They were lining up in front of us, preparing to charge.

‘What now?’ I said to no one in particular.

‘
To arms!’ Milkie commanded smiling. The Tomsians dashed around the hall grabbing any implement they could use. ‘Prepare for battle,’ he continued. Milkie was impressive; a PVC Napoleon.

‘
You’ve got to be joking!’ Curtis said, seeing the stampeding chest wigs. I pulled out the tranq guns and flung one at Curtis along with a few darts. Tabatha dashed to Betsy and dragged out the rifle.

‘
You’re not serious?’ Curtis said, holding the tranq gun.

‘
I’m the Deliverer.’

‘
No, you’re not!’

‘
You think I’m giving the
Black List
to that fucker, after what I’ve just gone through?’

‘
Fair point.’

‘
Well then, like the guy in the big medallion said … to arms!’

‘
What the hell. To arms!’

We lined up preparing to meet their charge. I caught Colin's gaze and he signalled he was coming for me.

I gave him the finger and the big'un, telling him to bring it.

He smiled, then signalled his army to charge. The Jonesians came flying down the hill. It was on: ‘Delilah’ versus ‘Kiss’; Jonesians versus Tomsians.

We only had seven darts between us, this was going to end up as close contact. Tabatha started shooting first. The rifle had a better range. She'd taken down two and was loading up for a third when they crashed through the door.

Black PVC versus white PVC.

I shot one straight in the medallion. Bosley was pitching in as were Muzzi and Curtis; even the crazy cat was having a go. It was a full on battle. I managed to get a stick off one of the Jonesians, and started cracking heads. Curtis and Tabatha were battering Frazer. They had him on the floor and were stamping on him. I was just about to get swinging against another Jonesian, when Colin crashed straight into me. We went skidding across the floor. The battle was on. There was so much man-made fibre rubbing together that the air tingled with electric; my hair was actually standing on end.

Colin smashed me in the jaw and I winced in pain.

‘I hate you, you verminous roach.’ He swung another fist. I blocked it and rolled out the way. Colin was strong and quick. I got back on my feet and launched a boot at his still rising frame. He caught my foot and flipped me back down. He leapt back on me and rained punches into my side. I flung a monster hook, which connected wickedly with his jaw, stunning him enough to let me get back up again. He staggered on to his feet.

‘
I’m going to kill you.’ His mouth was bleeding. ‘I’m going to kill you.’ He had a proper hate on.

‘
Come on.’ I beckoned.

A pair of brawling brethren crashed into Colin sending him skidding on to the floor. I chased him down and, instead of trying a kick, I leapt into the air and landed on his chest. He squealed in pain, the wind blasted out of him. I could see Milkie brandishing his medallion like a gladiator. Heads were cracking under the might of his golden disc. We were winning.

I should have paid more attention to my own battle. Colin flipped me over again and I went tumbling to the floor. He leapt at my throat, his hands firmly wedged around my neck.

‘
Why won’t you die?’ he screamed, trying to smash my head in the floor. I grabbed his throat and started to throttle him back.

‘
Because your mother will get lonely,’ I gurgled back. We were rolling across the floor trying to throttle each other.

I heard the sound of gunfire, then I saw the granite head of Tom Jones come flying off towards us. We rolled out of the way in different directions, as the head smashed on to the floor.

I rose up slowly. Everyone had stopped fighting. Frazer had escaped from Tabatha and Curtis and was wielding a machine gun. We only had fake medallions: we'd lost. I saw Colin stand up smiling, wiping the blood from his face.

‘
Where are you, Milkie? Come out.’ Colin sneered.

Kevin Milkie stepped forward.

‘
Where is it? Where is the thumb drive?’

‘
I don't have it ... I threw it away. It was of no use to me.’

‘
I hope you’re lying, because otherwise there's going to be a lot of dead Tom Jones freaks.’

The Jonesians looked at him perplexed.

‘
What? You are freaks. I only took over so I could find this idiot.’

I actually felt sorry for the Jonesians. Colin had played them like everybody else.

‘
Now where is it?’ He directed his sneer back at Milkie.

‘
I don't have it.’

‘
Milkie ... you know me well enough to know I'm not joking. I'm going to start killing people, starting with him.’ He pointed at me. ‘Although, in all honesty, I was always going to kill him.’

‘
Nice to know I'm on a special list.’ I replied, the fuck it mentality hadn't completely gone.

‘
Oh you’re on a very special list … you’re on the verminous cockroach list; the list of people that need crushing under foot. You have been nothing but a thorn in my side. You escaped my little diamond trap and killed my friend The Beggar.’

‘
In fairness, he killed my friend first.’ I returned.

‘
And Laussant.’ It was Bosley.

‘
Yes detective, I had Laussant killed. I thought he would be able to tell me this fools location.’ He gestured Milkie. ‘Alas he didn’t know the answers.’

‘
You’ve been behind it all, haven’t you? The tax office, the drugs and money left in my house.’ Bosley queried staring daggers.

‘
Yes detective, you should have heeded my warning and stayed out of this. Now alas I’m going to have to kill you too.’

‘
Why did you take my car?’ If Colin was behind Bosley’s tax adventure, he was behind my DVLA one aswell. He was the one that took Betsy from me.

‘
For amusement Mr Wolf. I disliked you from the moment I met you. With the detective I used the Tax office as a ruse so Mr Frazer could plant my little threat, but with you it was strictly for pleasure. I wanted to play with your life. It amused me to tamper with your world.’

‘
But why did you use us for the diamonds?’ It was Tabatha, she still had a one track mind.

‘
Ah, Miss Lane, the lovely Miss Lane. So pretty, yet so stupid … I wanted the location of your friend Nikos. When I first proposed my little scheme, my plan had been to have you all arrested and, in exchange for your freedom, you would have given me your friend’s location. He, in turn, was to give me the location of Milkie. But your friend Nikos appeared all by himself, and alas he did not know this buffoons whereabouts. But by then my little robbery scheme was already in place, and it did me no harm to have you continue with it, especially as I already had the majority of the diamonds which, as you know, was not a sum to be sniffed at.’

‘
You bastard. You played us like fools.’ Tabatha was raging.

‘
That's because you are. You are all nothing more than puppets, and I am the puppet master. Right, enough chat. Give me the gun, Frazer. I'm killing this one personally.’ He meant me. Frazer smiled and handed Colin the gun. Colin raised the gun ‘Any last words before you die, Mr Wolf?’

‘
Just two,’ I smiled.

‘
Really ... and they are?’

‘
Hello, Cus.’

‘
What?’ Colin hadn't noticed what I had. Walking up behind him accompanied by the four Russians, all of whom were carrying considerably more guns than Colin, was my cousin Jeremiah.

‘
Put the gun down, Nikita. ’ Colin lowered his gun reluctantly.

‘
Jeremiah Cain, why if it isn't Magenta's pet. What brings you here?’ Colin snarled.

‘
I do.’ Upon hearing the words, Colin's face dropped so low it looked like it was going to hit the floor. As the person who had uttered them appeared from behind the granite Tom Jones statue, accompanied by two suited and heavily armed individuals, Colin looked like he was going to piss himself.

‘
Magenta!’ He blurted out. She strode forward towards him. She was dressed in a black suit with black sunglasses and jet black hair. Colin took a couple of steps back nearer to me.