"Hail Mary, Mother of G.o.d, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death." Mary closed her eyes for the last time.
"Amen."
Jack poured out most of the petrol in a semi-circle around himself, keeping his back against the rear of the house. He kept a last reserve of the accelerant in the can, which he put on the ground between his legs. He pulled his precious Zippo lighter from the inside pocket of the suit jacket and ignited the flame.
As the policemen drew nearer, Jack bent over and lit the semi-circle of petrol.
It burst into flame, hungrily consuming the gasoline on the ground. One of the policemen tried to step across the line of fire but his trousers caught light. He stumbled away, flames racing up his uniform and engulfing his head.
"Don"t like that, do you?" Jack sneered. "I love it. Fire is alive, it"s powerful. It doesn"t need friends, it doesn"t need family, it doesn"t need a Mum or a Dad. It just needs fuel and oxygen.
Then it can burn forever."
Another policeman tried to cross the flames and was driven back by the intense heat. But the ring of petrol was burning away too quickly. Soon it would be gone and Jack would be vulnerable. He was trapped, surrounded and unable to escape.
He stared at his warped reflection in the polished metal casing of the lighter.
"I wanted to burn forever too. But I guess it"s better to burn out young than get old, all your fire gone, no spark left." Jack made a decision. He glared at the policemen gathering around him. "Who wants to come with me?"
Jack picked up the can and poured the last of the petrol over himself. It stung his eyes but he didn"t care anymore. He ignited the lighter one last time. Around him the flames on the ground were spluttering out. Jack touched the lighter to his sleeve. He screamed as the flames shot up his arm and around his head.
Jack threw himself at the nearest policeman.
Brick, Billy and Charlie were leading the way to St Luke"s, while the Doctor and Tommy followed just behind them. The smog got denser the closer the group came to the church, cutting visibility to an arm"s length. The leading trio disappeared into the mist, leaving the Doctor and Tommy behind.
"Brick! Slow down, or we"ll lose each other!" Tommy shouted.
"Alright Tommy!" a voice replied from up ahead.
"Alright Tommy?" another voice hissed quietly. The gangster turned to see Detective Valentine emerge from the smog, a shotgun aimed at Tommy"s chest. "Who"s your friend?" Valentine asked, jerking his head at the Doctor.
"My name"s Smith, Doctor John Smith but everyone just calls me the Doctor." He offered a handshake to Valentine, who ignored it.
"I"m not everyone, am I Tommy?" the detective replied. "I"m your stooge, your little flunky, fetching and fixing at the sound of his master"s voice." He nudged the gangster in the chest with the end of the shotgun. "You don"t mind if I call you Tommy, do you? I know you prefer to be Mr Ramsey, but since our circ.u.mstances have changed..."
"Now then Bob, there"s no need to go overboard," Tommy said.
"Oh, it"s Bob now is it? I don"t recall inviting you to use my first name." Valentine swung the b.u.t.t of the shotgun around, striking Tommy in the side of the face. The gangster staggered but stood his ground.
"You treated me like dirt," Valentine said. "You took my weakness and exploited it, turned me into a bent cop, a standing joke on the force. I was just a washed-up drunk waiting for a pittance of a pension. But things are different now the shoe"s on the other foot."
"What are you on about?" Tommy asked.
"I saw your friend Steve MacMa.n.u.s earlier."
"He"s no friend of mine!"
"He"s no friend of anybody"s anymore I spread his brains over the back window of that precious car of his. Of course, he was never anybody"s friend to start with so I doubt many will mourn his demise." Valentine paused for effect. "You"ve probably been wondering where all your best men have got to Dave Butcher, the others. I took care of them as well."
"Why you " Tommy was cut short by another vicious blow to the head.
"Compensation, you see, for all those times you humiliated me. Now it"s your turn, Mr Tommy Ramsey." Valentine smiled.
"You thought I was your little lapdog, but I"ve got a new master now. They speak to me in my head, telling me what to do. They sent me to kill you and anyone else I thought might offer some resistance."
"Look, old chap, we really don"t have time for " the Doctor began.
"Shut up, or I"ll shoot both of you!" the detective shouted.
The Doctor took a step towards him. "It"s just that we"re in quite a rush "
"I said shut up!" Valentine swung the shotgun towards the Doctor, his finger beginning to squeeze the trigger. "I don"t know who you are, big nose, but you can keep your hooter out of my business. Permanently!"
Tommy grabbed for the shotgun but the detective was ready for him. He neatly side-stepped the crude lunge, sticking out a leg for Tommy to trip over. The gangster went sprawling on the road. Valentine turned back to the Doctor. "Now, where was I?"
The Doctor silenced him with a chop of the hand, the finely directed blow catching Valentine"s windpipe. The detective was choked for breath, dropping the shotgun. The Doctor followed up with another strike, this time punching two fingers into a nerve cl.u.s.ter on the side of the neck. Valentine went down, the left side of his body numb and useless.
"As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted," the Doctor announced, "we really don"t have time for settling old scores."
"That"s where you"re wrong," Tommy replied. He picked up the shotgun and held the end of the barrels beneath the chin of the stricken detective. "There"s always time for settling old scores. Goodbye Bob."
"Tommy, don"t " the Doctor protested but it was too late.
Tommy pulled the trigger, a smile playing around his lips.
Brick, Billy and Charlie ran back to find the two men arguing over the headless corpse of Detective Valentine. "What the h.e.l.l happened?" Brick asked.
"This murderer just executed another man!" the Doctor said furiously.
Tommy was unrepentant. "It was self-defence."
"He was lying on the ground, unable to move!"
"But he tried to kill me. He tried to kill both of us," Tommy replied. "You should be grateful I stopped him."
The Doctor shook his head sadly. "Murder can never be justified."
Tommy leaned close to the Doctor"s face, their noses almost touching. "Yeah? Well how are you planning to stop the Xhinn?
Ask them nicely to leave?"
"I already tried that."
"Then I guess you still need me and my methods." Tommy smiled triumphantly. "Face it, Doc you and me, we"re quite similar."
The Doctor glared at the gangster. "You couldn"t be more wrong."
"We"ll see." Tommy reloaded the shotgun and motioned for everyone to get moving again. "Let"s go!"
At Mary Mills" house, Jean and Rita were still hiding in the understairs cupboard. Jean was desperate to go to the toilet but did not dare leave the cramped s.p.a.ce for fear of discovery. She had promised Mummy not to go out and she would keep the promise as long as possible.
Rita started coughing and wheezing again as the air in the cupboard became increasingly stale. Jean wondered how long her sister would survive. Bette had faded away over several hours and now Rita was showing the first signs of the same slow, painful process.
Something creaked in the house. Jean had jumped at the first few noises they heard while hiding in the cupboard, but that was just the house shifting. At night she sometimes thought the house was like an old man breathing, the way floorboards creaked and groaned. But this noise was different. Somebody was at the front door.
Jean put a finger over her sister"s lips, willing her not to cough. Then the elder girl crept to the door of the cupboard and pressed her face against the wood. She peered through the gap between door and wall, trying to catch a glimpse of what was happening.
The footfalls grew nearer, as someone stepped into the hallway from outside. Wood splintered and broke apart as the visitor stood on the broken front door. The steps got louder as the intruder shuffled along the hallway, getting ever closer to the cupboard.
Jean saw movement as a dark shadow pa.s.sed the cupboard, but she could not make out the shape of it. She craned her head round, trying to follow the figure. A smell like rotting fruit began to fill the hallway and filter into the cupboard, putrid and disgusting. Then Jean heard the sniffing.
The intruder was breathing in heavily through its nose, then hissing the breath out through its teeth. Jean could see the intruder twisting its head, as if trying to locate the source of an elusive scent. Then the figure turned around beneath the naked lightbulb in the hallway and Jean forced her fingers into her mouth to stop herself screaming.
"Can you hear that?" Brick asked. "Sounds like screaming, people screaming."
The quintet had reached St Luke"s and was making final preparations before entering the church. The Doctor opened his satchel and flicked a switch on the device. Lights began blinking into life as the power supply began to spread its energy through the a.s.semblage of wiring and circuitry. The others were reloading their weapons and filling their pockets with spare ammunition.
In the heat of battle there would be no time to stop and open boxes of bullets before reloading. All five men were stopped by the sound of screams.
"Where"s it coming from?" Tommy asked. The smog deadened sound, making it difficult to determine from which direction it was emanating. A light flashed briefly from a building in the distance, accompanied by more screams.
"The bread factory, over there!" Brick said.
There was another flash of light, accompanied by a single, female scream. This time the source was inside St Luke"s Church. The stained-gla.s.s windows were illuminated from within by a powerful beam.
"And that was the church," Tommy said. "Where"s Jack and the rest of the lads? There"s only five of us here. We can"t split our numbers up even further!"
The Doctor gazed at the church before making his decision.
"I recognised that last scream. It was Sarah. She"s still inside St Luke"s."
Tommy took a step towards the church but the Doctor stopped him. "No, I"ll save Sarah. I brought her to this place, it"s up to me to see she gets out alive.You have to go to the bread factory and try to close it down. More and more police stations are falling under the control of the Xhinn. London is dying from this smog, but you"ve seen how the Xhinn use even the dead to do their dirty work."
"That"s where the old bill is getting all the reinforcements!"
Tommy realised. "So no more bread, no more coppers to fight?"
"Exactly. You have to shut down that factory. Stopping the bread supply will take away their army, make them weaker and more vulnerable."
"What about you?"
"I"ve got to face the Xhinn myself that"s why I came here.
Unless I can stop them, this world will be ripe for colonisation.
This is just a scouting mission. Stop it and the main Xhinn force might think twice."
"Might?"
The Doctor smiled weakly. "It"s the best we can hope for."
"What about Miss Smith?" Brick asked.
"If they haven"t already killed her, then she"s a hostage. It was Sarah who persuaded me to come here, to stop this tragedy. I won"t let her become another victim of the Xhinn."
"I"m coming with you, Doctor," Brick said.
"But Brick " Tommy began to protest.
A single glance from the big man silenced his boss. Tommy turned to Billy and Charlie. "You boys ready for some action?"
The brothers grinned at each other. "Too right!" they agreed.
"Then let"s get going," Tommy replied. "Good luck, Doctor."
He shook hands with Brick. "Thanks for all your help, Arthur.
It"s appreciated."
Brick didn"t trust himself to speak.
Tommy and the brothers ran off into the smog, towards the bread factory. They were quickly swallowed up by the yellow and grey mist. The Doctor and Brick walked to St Luke"s. They paused in front of the church.
"Brick, I want you to stand guard outside these doors. Let n.o.body else in," the Doctor said. He held up a hand to silence the big man"s protests. "I know you want to save Sarah we both do. But what I have to do will be very dangerous. I need you here, guarding my back. Fair enough?"
"Fair enough."
"Good man." The Doctor checked the contents of his satchel, straightened the frilled cuffs of his shirt and opened the door to St Luke"s Church. Light blazed from within, almost blinding him. Squinting to see his way forward, the Doctor stepped inside and the door closed slowly behind him.
Brick took up sentry duty outside, listening intently for noises from within.
Jean could not help staring at the dead policeman. She knew he was dead because his lower jawbone was missing, along with the flesh and skin that should have surrounded it. His clothes were soaked with dried blood, as if someone had spilled beetroot juice down his front.
Jean noticed the dead man still had his tonsils, even though his tongue was missing. Her own tonsils had been removed when she was five. Her Mummy had promised she could have all the jelly and ice cream she wanted afterwards but Jean"s throat had been so sore she didn"t feel like having any. She wondered if the dead man liked jelly and ice cream.
He seemed to be staring right at her, but his eyes had no life.
They were more like a doll"s eyes, empty and cold. Instead he was trying to sniff them out. Jean closed her eyes and started praying silently to herself, lips mouthing the words. Please don"t let the bad man find us, she thought, and please look after Mummy and Bette. Jean knew Mummy had gone away to die but she hadn"t cried in front of Rita. Better to be brave. Better not to let her little sister know the truth, that they would never see Mummy again.
When Jean opened her eyes, the bad man had turned away again. He shuffled into the kitchen. We"re safe, Jean thought then Rita began coughing again. Jean crouched by her sister and clamped a hand over Rita"s mouth.