Part 18 (2/2)
There was a brief moment of silence before the screams of the girls started and possibly one from Chalmers himself.
”QUIET!” Danny ordered and the room fell still.
Jane took out her mobile phone and used the torch app. The others all followed her lead and soon the dorm was bathed in eerie white glows.
”Chalmers, take the girls to back of the room. Mr Duran, do you often suffer power outages?”
”Pretty often to be honest; it's an old building;” the headmaster replied in a slightly shaky voice. ”The fuse box is in the bas.e.m.e.nt. There's a door under the main staircase that leads down.”
”Okay, I'll check it out. You keep this door locked and you stay in here until you hear from me or one of my officers.”
”What about me?” Jane asked quietly.
”You stay here, keep an eye on them and make sure that Chalmers doesn't start panicking. Find a quiet spot and try and find this guy. If he's here, we need to know.”
She watched him slip out of the dorm room and locked the door behind him. Part of her wanted to be at his side, like she had been by his father's 8 years ago, but that hadn't ended in anything but death when she'd gotten in the way.
She watched through the dim light provided by the glowing phones as the headmaster and the superintendant ushered the pupils back to the rear of the room and herded them together for comfort. Duran seemed in control of himself even if Chalmers fretted anxiously; several of the girls were excitable as nervous energy burned brightly.
Once they were settled, Jane sat down on one of the empty beds and switched off her phone. She opened her mind, rus.h.i.+ng the process as time seemed short and her own nerves were frayed. She crossed through the doorway and searched out for his mind. She scanned the Shadow World for him but he just wasn't close. She made several pa.s.ses, each time forcing herself to slow down and check every inch, but there was still no scent.
Reluctantly she came out of the zone and felt the plush bed beneath her, grounding her back in reality. She could hear the soft sounds of the two men and the girls about 30 feet away in the darkness and reached for her phone again. Something was wrong. She was so convinced that she had finally broken the killer's barrier down that she had basked in her success, taking pride in her triumph and never questioning it.
She flipped the torch app back on her phone and the bright light immediately lit up the small area around her. A hand flew to her mouth at the last possible second to stop the scream of shock from spewing forth. All of the victims were now crowded around the bed, bathed in the light of the phone. Their faces were illuminated and twisted into pits of impotent rage and she knew through their anger that she'd made a terrible mistake.
Danny moved quickly and stealthily through the blackened school. He lifted his feet as lightly as he could across the hardwood flooring and willed himself into obscurity; if the killer was stalking them, then he didn't want to be seen. He desperately wanted to call his team but he didn't dare use his phone now as it would give away both his and their position to anyone close by and watching.
He found the main staircase easily as it was a huge structure that dominated the middle of the atrium by the entrance. There was indeed a door underneath and it opened without needing to be unlocked.
As he entered and began to descend the stairs, he couldn't help but think of his father. He'd been a cop of the same rank, tracking a killer into a bas.e.m.e.nt only to never return alive. The similarities between their two cases seemed far too coincidental to be random. There were answers here, answers that he desperately craved.
He crept downwards, slowly and carefully, eager to make as little noise as possible. He used the small but powerful keyring flashlight to light his way and quickly found the fuse box on the wall. The bas.e.m.e.nt was littered with discarded storage. Boxes were piled up, almost to the ceiling, and there was a musty smell in the air as though the room had long been abandoned. Danny fought hard to keep his usually inert imagination under control as it threatened to consume him with childish fears of the dark.
He could see that the main fuse had tripped and he reached out to reset it, but just as he did he heard the creak of a stair behind him; he had been lost in his thoughts and not paying attention. He wished that he had been able to arm the whole team, but police officers in the UK had to be trained in firearm usage and needed to have a d.a.m.n good reason to be issued with them. This whole mission was strictly off the books and there had been no way of circ.u.mventing the procedure.
He spun around a.s.suming a fighter's stance, his eyes darting around anxiously for a weapon of any kind but there was nothing of any use. He lifted the small flashlight upwards aiming for the newcomer's eyes, hoping to blind them.
”Easy, Danny; it's just me,” Jane said as she held her hands in front of her face to ward off the light as she walked down and joined him in the centre of the bas.e.m.e.nt.
”I thought I told you to stay upstairs in the dorm?” Danny snapped.
”I had to reach you, I think..., I think that I've made a terrible mistake,” she panted.
Danny opened his mouth to ask what she meant, but just then the door opened at the top of the stairs again and someone else stepped through. He held up a finger to his lips, silencing Jane, and together they headed further into the bas.e.m.e.nt taking shelter behind a stack of boxes. ”He's already here,” she whispered into his ear, so close that it tickled.
”How?” he whispered back.
”He's been fooling me all along; the whole thing about me getting past his defences was all just a ruse by him. He let me think that I was inside him, but the whole time he was just playing me, letting me think that I was in control so that he could get everyone in the same place at the same time.”
Danny's head snapped up as footsteps crept down the stairs and onto the bas.e.m.e.nt floor.
”What do we do?” Jane asked nervously.
Danny took the phone from his pocket in answer and prayed that there was a signal down here. He hit the speed dial for Selleck's phone but it went straight through to the answer machine. He tried the second b.u.t.ton for Landing's number and this time, thankfully, the phone rang. It took him a few seconds to realise that Landing's phone was ringing from about 20 feet away. ”Landing?” he said, standing up and out of his cover, but the shape approaching was too large to be the female sergeant.
”Danny, is that you?” Bradshaw replied in an inimitable drawl.
”What are you doing with Landing's phone?” Danny demanded.
”Hey, I just found this in the hallway. I didn't know whose it was,” came the answer. ”If it belongs to your sergeant then we better go find her.”
Danny held an arm out to indicate to Jane that she stay hidden. He was unarmed but he knew that the FBI man was, and presumably an expert with it. ”Have you seen Selleck?”
”Oh, s.h.i.+t, he's missing too?” Bradshaw asked with concern, but Danny's mind was already starting to spin.
”Who the h.e.l.l are you, Bradshaw?” he asked, stepping towards the agent, closing the distance slightly.
”Not this c.r.a.p again, Danny. You know who I am.”
”Yeah, but I really don't, do I? You know, it's just occurred to me that I've never so much as seen a badge from you.”
”You wanna look at it now?”
”You show up in the middle of a s.h.i.+t storm, riding to the rescue, and everyone just seems to have taken you at your word. It never occurred to me to so much as check your credentials.”
”I can a.s.sure you that they're real,” Bradshaw said light-heartedly.
”Maybe they are, but I'm starting to wonder if you are. If I ask for some photo ID from your Bureau Chief are they going to email me your picture along with that badge?”
”Jesus, Danny, you're starting to worry me; maybe you've been hanging out with your lady friend a little too much. Maybe you're going as nuts as she is?”
”I thought that you were the believer?”
”Hey, buddy, one thing my old man taught me was to never p.i.s.s off a crazy lady, especially right to her face.”
Danny had closed the distance considerably while they had been verbally sparring; now he could see the man's face a little more in the dim light. Bradshaw's voice was pleasant enough, but his body was tensed as though ready for action. There was something off about the agent, something that had been tugging gently at Danny's senses but he had been too caught up in the hurricane to listen. This was a man who had been parachuted right into the middle of an investigation, an investigation that had rapidly turned to s.h.i.+t right after his arrival.
He took a quick step towards Bradshaw and watched as the agent's hand immediately went into his jacket on instinct. When it reappeared, it held a silver snub-nosed revolver that glinted despite the darkness. Their eyes locked together like animals in the jungle, great beasts ripped with power and danger. The air between them crackled with electricity as both men locked eyes, unwilling to back down despite not knowing why they were squaring off.
There was a moment when Danny wanted to hit the brakes, but Bradshaw's hand snapped upwards, bringing the gun to a fatal aim. His own hand switched on the powerful flashlight and shone it directly into Bradshaw's eyes. The American flailed against the sudden explosion of light and Danny ducked low under the agent's sweeping arm. He ran his shoulder into Bradshaw's gut and was met with an explosion of air as they both fell grappling to the ground.
Jane watched the confrontation from the back of the room. She couldn't understand the sudden eruption of violence between the two men and wondered if perhaps she was lacking the vital appendage that seemed to block out reason.
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