The Awakened Pt. 03

They discussed ways of remaining out of sight as they drove to Kane's house but quickly gave up on the idea. With access to the right people his phone could be tracked, his credit card spending could be tracked. He would leave digital footprints wherever he went. When they went back to the pub to collect his things he'd had to pay for his stay at The Blue Ball Inn using a debit card. He'd run out of cash and using a cash machine would be just as easy to trace.

Si also raised the ugly possibility that one of his neighbours could have been given some money to inform Aldred's people that he had returned home. Kane's gut reaction had been complete denial but if it was couched in the right way - poor man has gone mad with grief and disappeared, family just want to know where he is - then it probably didn't even have to be very much money.

He sighed as they wended their way through the small Devon lanes that led back to his cottage, the little Ford well suited to the Devon byways. Many of the smaller routes were single track roads with raised verges or hedges alongside. Visibility was minimal and there were small passing places just wide enough to allow two vehicles to get past each other. Thankfully traffic was sparse and Si was a conservative driver.

Kane had never been much of a passenger. When Emma was driving he'd had to grab the hand rail for...tears welled up again as he was overwhelmed by memories of his wife and his loss. Si was kind enough to leave him to his emotions. He'd nearly got himself back under control as Furze Hill slowly came into sight when his emotions threatened to overtake him once more.

They drove into his small driveway and he sat gathering himself before getting out of the car. He looked around but none of his neighbours' houses were particularly close and he couldn't see any curtains twitching. He walked up the gravel drive, small stones crunching under his feet. He reached the front door and after a short moment to brace himself for the memories inside he turned the key, pushed the heavy door open and went inside.

There was a pile of post on the hall table, presumably put there by Gus but otherwise the cottage was much as it had been left when they'd rushed out of the door that fateful morning. The answerphone light was blinking away and any number of small tasks loomed ahead. Stupid stuff like washing up the breakfast dishes that were still in the sink; emptying the washing machine that had long since finished its cycle; bringing in the clothes still blowing about on the line outside. Stupid stuff. Kane's eyes filled as he saw reminders of his family everywhere he turned.

He slowly settled onto one of the kitchen chairs and cried his eyes out for his lost life.

By the time he was aware of his surroundings again Si had completely taken over. Dishes had been washed, post had been sorted, something was defrosting in the microwave and he was just returning from the garden with the clothes that had been on the line for weeks.

"Thank you. I..."

"Don't mention it. I wish I'd had a family like yours that I cared about as deeply as you obviously did. Just relax, let it all out and let me get things looking shipshape."

"Nevertheless Si, this is..."

"Kane. It's fine. Deal with the answerphone and the post if you're feeling up to doing something."

So he did.

Later that evening the house was finally warming up, phone calls had been made, messages answered and the wheels of bureaucracy were underway. He had the details of the funeral directors; he'd reassured his elderly parents and his sister; chatted to Gus and though it felt horribly wrong, he'd started the life insurance process. What a horrible word 'claim' was. But the payout would allow him to take a sabbatical from work and really get a handle on how to protect himself.

If he lasted that long.

Over the next two days that they spent at his house, the sense of threat began to diminish. Maybe it was the familiarity and security of being back home? Maybe because it all felt so ridiculous that someone would actively want to kill him. Whatever it was, the number of nervous glances out at the small road leading to their house reduced and the knot in his stomach slowly untied itself.

They spent a lot of time in the spirit world trying to find more effective ways of protecting themselves. It was hard work as neither really knew what they were looking for. Si was a master at hiding himself and Kane knew that practising those techniques would pay dividends. It was towards the end of the second day that Kane stumbled on something.

He'd been pushing himself to move as far away from his body as possible, testing his limits while remaining hidden. Each time he pushed himself it became easier. He discovered that if there was an opening in the wall, like a window, he could pretty much ignore it and just pass outside. It felt slightly odd pushing through the glass but his spirit form was able to essentially ignore the barrier.

That day he'd made it most of the way up the hill behind his house before he slowly allowed himself to be pulled back towards his body. He'd gone at least twenty yards further this morning. Following Si's guidance he kept a constant watch for Brain Claws as he exerted himself, continuously maintaining the dampening field on his aura.

As he got back to the gate in the hedge denoting the edge of his property, he reached out both hands to the posts on either side of the gate to pull his spirit form over the barrier. He knew that he didn't need to use his hands but it seemed to help his progress somehow. As his palms touched the top of the posts there was a bright flash and a line of softly glowing light appeared between the tops of the two gate posts. He jerked his hands back as if burnt. The line slowly faded but he knew that it was still there. He wasn't sure how, but he could feel it.

When he returned to his body he asked Si what he thought had happened.

"No idea, old thing."

"But I've done something. I can still feel it out there. It must do something!"

"Well, only one way to find out."

Si put on his coat, slipped on a pair of wellington boots and walked up to the gate. Standing there he couldn't see or feel anything. He then went into the spirit world and after focusing very hard on the gate and specifically looking for something he was able to see the thread-like line between the posts. Slightly shaken he moved back into his body.

Taking a deep breath he braced himself. He reached out, unlatched the gate, opened it and walked through.

He felt nothing.

Kane felt the connection being disturbed - not snapped, just disturbed. He reached towards it using his spirit form and was suddenly there! One moment he was in the house and the next he found himself looking down on the gate as if it was his physical body there and not Si's. He was able to move towards the point of the disturbance in the spirit world as if teleported!

Giggling like a little child he reached out and tapped Si on the shoulder from the spirit world. Si's heart nearly leapt through his chest, he was so startled.

"You bastard!" he shouted up into the sky, knowing that Kane was hovering nearby, "You know what that does to me! I'm going to wet myself one day."

Kane shifted back into his body and ran to the window.

"Come back inside!"

"This had better be good, damn you."

"Look, I'm sorry, just come back. This is exciting."

Soon Si was stamping his feet on the mat and shutting the cool Exmoor air out of the house.

"Well?"

"I knew the instant that you crossed the line."

"You did?"

"And I was able to move myself there instantly. No waiting to drift over there like normal."

Si looked at him dumbstruck.

"Wow! You mean it? But that's..."

Kane nodded and Si let out a long slow whistle between his teeth. He took his coat and boots off, and slowly eased himself down onto a kitchen chair.

He smiled and looked up at Kane.

"Well in that case that was worth scaring the shit out of me. Do you know what you did? Can you do it again?"

"I think so."

"Go and do the same thing between the gate posts on the drive."

"I'll try but they're much further apart. I'm not sure how I'll reach"

A short time later his spirit form had one hand on the first gate post but he couldn't reach the other one. Slightly frustrated he concentrated on the point of the post where his hand was and tried to remember the feeling when he'd done this on the back gate. Focusing hard on the feel of the post under his hand he squeezed his fingers together and a glimmer of light appeared. He was so excited that he lost focus and it disappeared again.

[Bollocks!]

Trying again he managed to create the light and then slowly moved towards the other post. The line drew out as he'd hoped but it kept dropping as he lost his focus again and again. It was like trying to hold on to a piece of jelly. It was maddening.

After about an hour he took a break and tried to relax before trying again.

After several attempts he was able to get his mind to focus and stay in the zone. He quickly drew the line between the gate posts before he lost his focus again. Just as before it flared slightly and then disappeared from casual view.

Elated he dropped back into his body.

Si looked up as Kane stirred, "Well?"

"It worked! It bloody worked!"

"Are you sure?"

"Damn sure. I can still feel it."

"And how are you? Is it tiring? Do you feel like you're expending energy to do this?"

"No...well, I don't think so. The initial effort is fairly minimal and then it's just there."

"I wonder how far away you can be and still feel it?"

"I've no idea but that could be pretty damn useful couldn't it? Even if we were away from the house we'd have our own method of monitoring anyone coming and going through the gates."

"Are you going to do any other wards?"

"Wards?"

"Well that's what you're doing isn't it? Warding the property?"

"I suppose so. I was going to call it an alarm but you're right, a ward describes it better."

Just then the phone rang. The life insurance company needed yet more details. Kane groaned as he sank into the sofa to go through the details of his claim yet again.

Si realised that this was going to take a while and started scrolling through the news on his phone. He loved the celebrity gossip pages and was browsing through them when he saw a picture of Donovan Aldred and a stunning female model surrounded by security guards arriving in Heathrow. The headline was, "Millionaire playboy cuts holiday short - trouble in paradise..?"

His face looked grim and he appeared to be almost towing the woman along beside him.

Kane got off the phone to see a worried looking Si.

"What?"

"I think that we've been very lucky that Donovan Aldred has been out of the country. But he's back. Look."

Kane stopped and stared at the face of the man that wanted to kill him. Donovan Aldred was an attractive man. Just over six feet tall with a carefully cultivated mop of unruly blond hair, designed to look just so. He had bright intelligent eyes and in this picture was wearing his trademark three piece suit that probably cost a month's wages for Kane.

"How long ago was that? Does it say?"

"The story was posted two hours ago."

"Shit. What are we going to do?"

"You're asking me? You're the powerful one!"

"Si! What should we do?"

"Well if it was me I'd hide. I'd get as far away from here as possible and leave as few traces as possible."

"But he'll come here won't he?"

"He will."

"Shit! Shit! Shit!"

Kane started pacing back and forth trying to decide what to do. His whole life was in this house and who knew what they'd do to it if they didn't find him here. What about the people close to him like Gus and Si?

Kane looked up and could plainly see that the same thing had occurred to Si. He looked pale and kept wringing his hands.

"They probably already know that I've been helping you. My car's been in your drive. We could probably hide out at the lighthouse but I'm sure they'll know about that if Aldred is coming back from a holiday like this."

"Are you certain that he's coming for me?"

"Certain? No. Ninety-nine percent sure? Yes. The abnormalities in your medical case are too strong to point to anything else. You will be a huge priority to him."

"How long do you think we've got?"

"A few hours at most. He is very recognisable so he'll need to lose the press first. After that it depends on how concerned he is about being seen. The benefit we have is that this place is so out of the way. A helicopter would attract too much attention. Coming in force in daylight will be too memorable to people. I'd guess that he'll come at night."

"Tonight then."

Si nodded.

"Shit! I feel so damn helpless. All they need is a few goons with guns to threaten us and then he can sweep in and do whatever he wants while we have guns in our faces."

They both looked at each other. Kane was scared and Si looked terrified.

"There must be something that we can do. You're a software engineer aren't you? Designing games right?"

Kane grimaced - that was a massive simplification - but he nodded.

"Treat this as a game then. What advantages do we have?"

"Well we know the area."

"Good...and?"

"And I can move to a ward immediately. And I can touch people from the spirit world..."

A slow smile spread across Kane's face as a plan came together in his mind.

"What?"

"You're not going to like this," Kane said, smiling grimly.

= = = = = = =

Tank Sherman loved his job.

As an ex-military man his nickname had never been in doubt from the moment that the M4 Sherman tank had rolled off the production lines in 1942 and helped tilt the balance of power away from the axis forces in North Africa.

Tank didn't know or care about the history behind the Sherman. He just knew that it was a tank and he fucking loved being called Tank. He was six foot four and built like the proverbial brick outhouse. Now in his early forties he was paid to scare, hurt and kill people and he was good at all three.

But sitting in the blacked out Range Rover as it turned off the main road towards Furze Hill at 2am he was pissed off. Thirty-six hours ago he'd been lying on a beach on Aldred's private island in the Caribbean, his cock buried in one of the many willing locals and drinking rum cocktails. Now he was back in cold, wet England to babysit Aldred through another one of his weird wild goose chases.

Why was he going after random people like this? Sick people in hospitals? Normal people in normal houses that didn't fucking matter? Tank didn't really care other than the fact that he'd been dragged away from paradise at short notice.

He still looked forward to the work though. His excitement grew as the cars moved further down the single track road and the drivers turned off the headlights, switching to their night vision goggles. The plug in hybrids were eerily quiet as they drove down the lanes towards the target.

The dirt road was muddy and slippy at this time of year but the four wheel drive vehicles ghosted their way past the hedgerows and trees that lined the way. They eased past the farm that the cottage used to be part of and stopped out of sight of the house.

The car doors eased open and Tank was quickly out of the door and into position beside the dry stone wall as the five other figures from the two cars fell in around him. They were all wearing black and carrying silenced handguns. They separated into two groups to either side of the lane, all wearing night vision goggles and viewing the world through an eerie green lens.

The gate to the target was open. Two of the team headed around the back of the property covering off the rear gate and any escape into the Exmoor fields behind the house. The team had drawn lots to see who got that duty - there was nothing worse than being out of the action when it all kicked off and the two men that drew the short straw were thoroughly pissed off.

"They never have the chance to fucking run anyway so what's the point?" was their plaintive cry but they were professionals and did their job to the letter.

Tank signalled the men and he and the three others fanned out, one of them carrying an eighteen kilogram door ram, his weapon holstered to one side. They had memorised the interior layout from the plans they'd been given, knew that there were potentially two people inside and that the satellite footage from the previous day had shown minimal movement outside the house from the targets.

The house was completely dark as expected. The door crashed open as the ram did its work and Tank was bounding up the stairs, through the small hallway and shouldered the door open into the master bedroom with his team mate right behind him.

He looked around for any sign of life but there was no one there, just a neatly made bed and a door that he knew led into the en-suite shower room. Momentarily surprised he looked back at his number two who shrugged before quickly moving round the bed and pushing the door into the shower room open with the muzzle of his silenced weapon. The creaking of the hinges was the only sound.

"Report," came the order through their earpieces.

"Clear," said Tank quietly.

"Clear...clear...clear" came the responses from the rest of the teams.

Tank slowly lowered his weapon and turned towards the door back out onto the landing when he felt a thunderous punch on the back of his neck. It would have felled a lesser man. Years of training kicked in. Slightly off balance, his eyes seeing stars, he whirled into a defensive position and fired two closely grouped rounds into the silhouette that had attacked him.

"Shots fired."

"Report!"

The second team that had checked the other bedrooms rushed in to find Tank looking down at Johnson dead on the floor with two bullets through his forehead and brain matter dripping down the mirror on the wall.

"What the fuck Tank?"

"Report damn it! I said that I needed them alive!"

"Friendly fire incident sir. No sign of the target."

"Who was it?"

"Johnson's down sir," said Tank mechanically, "I shot him."

"Make sure the property is clear and then get yourself and Johnson out of there. McCauley, you're on clean up."

"Fuck, Tank! What happened?" said McCauley, lifting his night vision goggles.

"I was attacked. Something smashed me across the back of my neck. I just reacted."

McCauley whirled around looking at the obviously empty room and then back at the still form of Johnson.

"Why would Johnson do that?"

"I haven't the faintest fucking idea."

Just then the short bark of silenced weapons fired multiple times from the rear garden, followed by screams of pain and then silence.

"What the hell is going on tonight?" McCauley shouted and they rushed for the stairs.

As they ran Tank, at the back of the group, felt something grab his ankle. He didn't stand a chance and tumbled down the stairs head over heels, all two hundred and fifty pounds of muscle crashing down on top of the two men in front of him. Dazed from a blow to the head, he picked himself back up and fired two groups of rounds at the person that was toying with him. As he came to his feet he looked down at his teammates and saw that the first man was out cold, while McCauley was holding a broken leg and struggling to breathe with fractured ribs and, from the sound of his wheezing, a punctured lung.

Tank peered back up the stairs just as he heard the click of lights being turned on. His night vision goggles went from eerie green to a bloom of colour. He ripped them off in time to see a silenced gun pointing at him from the top of the stairs.

It was hovering in the air.

Tank's jaw dropped, unable to believe what he was seeing. His mouth was still gaping wide when the first round exploded through it before ripping through the spinal cord as it exited his body. He was amazed at how little pain he felt before his vision clouded and his corpse hit the floor.