The Cross

he’s a vampire. Even filed his teeth to look like fangs.’ He shook his head quizzically at Joel’s expression. ‘Headline news, St Elowen massacre, jailbreaks, maniac sword killer on the loose, nationwide manhunt — none of that ringing any bells? Guess you haven’t been watching the telly.’

‘No.’

‘What have you been doing?’

Joel shrugged.

Carter put a hand on his shoulder. ‘I wouldn’t ask, but you really do look like shit. Maybe you should go home. What’s that bottle you keep fiddling with?’

Joel hadn’t even been aware he’d been clutching it. It was completely empty now. ‘It’s nothing,’ he said, tucking it back in his pocket.

‘Jesus, that looked like fucking blood all crusted around the neck of it,’ Carter said with a grimace.

‘It’s a sports drink,’ Joel said. ‘High protein stuff. Keeps me energised.’

‘Well it ain’t working, mate.’

‘There’s nothing wrong with me,’ Joel protested.

‘Got to be frank, Joel. I wouldn’t have stuck my neck out for the old man to bring you back on the job if I’d thought you weren’t up to it.’

‘I’ll be fine,’ Joel said.

Carter wasn’t any more convinced than Joel was himself about that. ‘All right, listen. Go home. Take the rest of the day off. I’ll cover for you when I get back to the nick. But tomorrow I want you back at work looking and acting like the Joel Solomon I used to know before you started getting all weird on me. Got it?’

The driver of the unmarked police car seemed a little bemused when Joel got him to drop him off at a little butcher’s shop on Walton Road, half a mile from his flat. Black pudding was made of blood, Joel figured, so maybe it would help the hunger. He was chewing on a mouthful of it as he walked the rest of the way home. He didn’t feel any better yet.

Halfway up the street, his phone rang. He swallowed down the revolting mouthful, answered the phone and heard an excited voice that he recognised immediately. ‘Dec?’

‘Joel! I’ve been shitting meself worrying about you. Are you okay?’

‘I’m back,’ was all Joel could reply.

‘Did you get them? The vampires?’

‘I got some.’

‘What about that Stone?’

‘I got shot before I could get him. I think he might have escaped.’

‘You got shot? Jesus.’

‘Just winged me,’ Joel said. ‘Nothing major.’

‘Listen, Joel, this is frigging amazing and you’re never going to believe me, but I’ve got some news,’ Dec gabbled. ‘I’m teamed up with this guy, a vampire hunter. A proper pro, he is. You should see this place. I told him all about you, about the cross and stuff. You should come out here and join up with us.’

Joel groaned inwardly. He’d told the kid to stay away from all this. ‘What vampire hunter?’

‘Errol Knightly’s his name. Written a book about them, too. The stuff he says in it, Joel, blow your mind. I can’t put the frigging thing down, so I can’t. It’s called—’

Joel had already pulled out his police-issue BlackBerry, tossed the remains of the black pudding in the nearest litter bin, and was running an online search. ‘Got it. They Lurk Amongst Us,’ he finished for Dec, scrolling quickly through the site as he walked.

‘That’s it. That’s the one.’

‘Come on, Dec. Open your eyes. You don’t really think this guy Knightly—’

But Dec was too carried away to listen. ‘If we could team up, with you and the cross and all, and then start recruiting more guys, we could have a whole frigging vampire hunter army. Just think, Joel. The Federation might even get to hear about us, and want to join forces, like. That’d be just so cool. Think how many of the fuckers we could put away. And Errol said that—’

Joel was just about to interrupt him by saying, ‘I don’t have the cross any more, and I don’t know where it is’ when something else he’d caught from Dec’s high-speed babble made him stop. ‘Hold on. Backtrack. What did you just say about the Federation? What Federation?’

‘Errol’s got this video footage from Romania. There’s this group called the Federation that go round destroying vampires with some kind of special gun. They have these agents, highly trained. Errol reckons it’s a black ops branch of the CIA, or MI5, you know, like Spooks? Or maybe it’s some kind of military special forces team that nobody’s ever heard of. I told you this was frigging amazing, didn’t I?’

As Dec was babbling on, Joel had found the TV interview on Knightly’s website. ‘You’ve actually seen this footage?’

‘It’s awesome!’ Dec burst out. ‘Errol’s just about to upload it to the site, any time now. There’s this woman agent who works for the Federation. She’s a stunner, so she is, with this great big frigging hand cannon that must be one of their secret weapons. She’s not scared or anything. She’s cool. You see her shoot this vampire, and he just frigging explodes, man—’

Joel was gripping the phone so tightly that the plastic casing was beginning to crack. ‘Are you at Knightly’s place right now? Give me the address. I’m on my way.’

Chapter Forty

London

VIA personnel needed only a brief glimpse of the look of thunder on Alex’s face to know to get out of her way as she marched towards her office. She hadn’t been back to HQ since Baxter Burnett had given her the slip and promptly vanished. Working from the hotel room that was her base until she could find another suitable apartment to rent, she’d spent countless hours on the phone, using up every trick and every contact she could think of to find out where he’d gone. Nothing. There was no point in just scouring the streets. He was gone, and now the only option left open to her was to admit failure. There would be no way to make this look good on the official report she’d now have to write up.

Alex reached her office door, wrenched it open sullenly, slammed it shut behind her and was about to hang up her coat and bag when she stopped in her tracks.

Cecil Gibson was lounging behind the desk with his feet up on a stack of her paperwork. His close-set eyes seemed to glitter as he saw her walk in.

‘You’re in my chair, Gibson,’ she said.

Gibson clicked his tongue disapprovingly. ‘I know that fool Harry Rumble cut you an awful lot of slack, but let me tell you this, honey bunny. Your days of insubordination are over. You answer to me now.’

‘All right, then get the fuck out of my chair, sir. That do you? I’m busy.’

But far from flying into the indignant rage she’d secretly wanted to provoke, Gibson just smiled knowingly. Something was up.

‘Maybe you didn’t hear me,’ she said suspiciously. ‘I have work to do.’

He shook his head. ‘You don’t have time for that right now. You need to be getting ready.’

Hmm. Something definitely was up. ‘Ready for what?’ she asked.

‘Ready for your visitors,’ Gibson said. ‘You’re in the deepest shit imaginable, Bishop. They’ve been waiting for you upstairs.’

‘Who’s been waiting for me upstairs?’

‘You’ll see.’ Gibson glanced at his watch. Right on cue, there was a loud hammering on the door, and Gibson sprang out from behind the desk to answer it.