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The first thing that Rob did on returning to his hotel was to have a shower and a change of clothes. Then he phoned the office to find out what if anything his people had found out about the dangerous Mr Bourbon, up until this moment in time they had nothing to tell him except that Bourbon had made a fortune on the stock market during the last five years and had many influential friends. He was told to take care not to tread on any tender toes, also it seemed that his Chief had a bad feeling about this private enterprise being carried out by his agent, and he advised that Rob should be extra vigilant while on this particular mission.
Rob was disappointed that his office had drawn a blank so far, but maybe he could turn up something tonight. He thought much about what had happened to him earlier at the manor house as he ate an early dinner in a charming restaurant near to the hotel, but couldn`t come up with any idea as to what had happened. He hadn`t eaten or drunk anything while he had been there so he hadn`t been drugged, and if gas had been used then why hadn`t it affected the other two men in the room. No he had been hypnotised, but how that was possible he couldn`t say.
Returning to his hotel room, he pulled out his MacBook and went into the Google Earth program. He zoomed into the manor house and the estate that encircled it. Most of the estate consisted of woodland, going by the name of the ten-acre woods, and Rob noted all of the trails that his Google Earth search revealed. He decided against using the main gate to enter the grounds, instead he decided on a part of the fence that would put here near to one of the smaller trails. Satisfied with his work he then set his alarm clock for midnight and caught up on his sleep.
The alarm clock woke him at exactly midnight and Rob doused his face with water to awaken him fully, and then he collected a few useful tools from his suitcase. He didn`t need to use his car as the manor house was within walking distance, so he walked quickly along the now silent roads, by well-ordered lawns and quiet homes, and people who were sleeping, blissfully unaware of a particular danger that was so near to them. A few cars passed by him, and he also said good evening to a man out walking his dog, but he saw no one that showed any signs of being a danger to him. For once he was a citizen of the country in which he was operating in, and he was going about his lawful business, well for the moment anyway.
Arriving at the part of the stout wooden fence that he had already decided upon, Rob quickly climbed over before anyone came along and delayed or spotted him. Coincidentally John Ryman had also entered the estate at this very point just nine months earlier. He quietly slipped through the woods; they had been standing on this side of the estate for centuries having been planted by the first owner of the manor house. The manor house itself finally appeared before him as the far off church clock struck one o`clock, a nice time for a spot of house breaking Rob thought.
Breaking into the house was easier than he had imagined, for he had found that the door that led into the spacious kitchen had been left unlocked. His ease of access made him worry a little, but he thrust this aside and put it down to fate taking a hand on the side of righteousness. Rob turned his small flashlight on for just a few moments as he quickly surveyed the room before moving forward. In those few moments Rob had memorised the position of everything in the room, for he didn`t want to knock anything to the floor and alert the enemy to his presence.
One thing Rob was sure of was that they were indeed the enemy, following the attempt to hypnotise him what else could they be? Slipping quietly towards the door ahead of him he came across yet another door and it too was slightly ajar. This door though was quite solid looking, especially for an inner door; Rob flashed his torch through the opening and saw a steep staircase behind it that would lead him down into the cellar. He decided to check here first and descended into the cellar, although he felt more and more like a fat juicy fly being invited to dinner by a spider. A quick scan with his flashlight lit up the cellar and offered him two possibilities, but he chose to walk towards yet another partly open door that led him into yet another room. His mind was telling him to beware, there had been far too many opened doors, yet he knew that he had to proceed onward, for otherwise Christina would be forever lost to him.
Rob entered this new room, but the light from his small flashlight only hinted at what was within it, so Rob felt around for a light switch and soon found one. The lighting in the room was provided by a single light bulb hanging from the centre of the room, unfortunately it cast shadows that to Rob`s horror took on the demonic shapes of the many statues that were in the room, and some of the shapes appeared to be moving! He was in a Satanic Temple, Rob couldn`t believe his eyes. Ahead of him was an Altar complete with black candles, around the walls were statues of grotesque beings in various poses, some violent and some sexual. On the floor directly in front of him was a pentagram, and within it was a picture of a goat`s head with large horns stretching out to the rim of the circle that encompassed the pentagram. A large tapestry hung from one of the walls denoting to Rob`s eyes a very unpleasant scene. So this was Bourbon`s secret, he was a Satanist. This thought immediately triggered another; this is why the Christina and her family had been kidnapped, for these perverts needed them to participate in some obscene ceremony.
His first thought was to find Bourbon and tear him apart, limb by limb, but before he could build on this thought he noticed something from the corner of his eye, something that was appearing out of thin air within the pentagram, it slowly grew out of the floor until its head touched the ceiling! Rob stared in disbelief and looked around the room for a sign as to how the trick was being done, but without any success. The thing was now taking on a solidity and that really began to worry him, he could feel the hairs on the back of his neck begin to stand on end. Rob then realised that the room had become icy cold, as was always the case in any film about Satanic evil, this thought rushed into Rob`s mind as once again he began to sweat profusely. He decided not to wait for the ‘Thing’ to fully complete its materialisation, maybe this time discretion would be the better part of valour, Rob turned and rushed from the room, fear lending strength to his limbs. Once outside of the temple he quickly slid the door over, shutting off whatever it was in the temple but also the dim light from the temple that had lit the outer room, he leant against the door and tried to get his beating heart back under control. In fact the room he was now in was pitch black after the comparatively bright temple, his eyes taking a moment to get used to the limited amount of light penetrating into the cellar via the open cellar door at the top of the wooden flight of stairs. Rob felt in his pocket for his flashlight just as the fist from Guy Rochelle crashed into his jaw. Blackness once again enveloped him. He didn`t feel the needle enter his arm.
“That will keep the good Mr Hinds asleep until we are ready for him to participate in the next part of our plan, whatever it may be.” Bourbon snarled. His hatred of this man who had dared oppose him was very apparent. Bourbon knelt down and taking out a small pocket knife of his own he hacked off a lock of Rob`s hair.
From inside the temple the demon could be heard as it moved around the room, Bourbon slid open the door and entered the temple; he looked across at the creature that had now fully materialised and he sneered at it.
“Be gone foul thing, back to the fires of hell until such a time as I need your assistance again.” The demon scowled at Bourbon, but it was only a minor demon who had only taken on the appearance of one of the more powerful creatures of hell. It might hate the human but it was powerless to disobey him, for he was bound to Bourbon, body and soul, if such creatures ever possessed such a thing. Even so it didn`t immediately leave, for as yet it had not received its payment. This time though Bourbon told the demon to exact its blood money from the man lying unconscious just outside of the temple. The demon`s eyes gleamed as it moved swiftly to the open door, and it took its payment in full, plus a little extra to tide it over until the next time that Bourbon called for its services. Rochelle and two of the heavies that were in Bourbon`s employ had ne
arly wet themselves when the demon had exited the temple and pounced on the still body of Rob, somehow they had managed not to faint, or to wet their trousers.
The demon was soon satiated and it returned to its real master down in the depths of hell, it had disappeared in a puff of red smoke leaving a vile smell behind it to remind its human master of its recent presence there.
Inside of the temple Bourbon walked across to the altar and slipped behind the tapestry that showed the scene from Dante`s famed book, and he entered his small laboratory. He once again put a glass jug onto the table that filled the centre of the room, then he took various ingredients down from the shelves around him and after emptying some of their contents into the jug, he mixed them with his ornate glass spoon. Satisfied that his mixture was once again correct he now put the lock of Rob`s hair onto the deep glass tray that Bourbon always kept on the table; next he poured the contents of the jug into the tray.
“Veigel obey my call, appear before me now.” Bourbon demanded loudly within the confines of the small laboratory. Moments later a thin veil of smoke began to rise from the liquid before him and he now spoke again.
“Veigel, Come to me now, I command you.” Bourbon said in a loud voice that reached the ears of the men waiting fearfully outside of the temple.
The minor demon appeared, and the stench of hell as always preceded it.
“What is your command Master?” Veigel asked in a suitably subservient voice.
“Show me to whom this man gives his allegiance so that I might know him all the better.” Bourbon commanded.
Bourbon looked at Rob`s image that appeared within the veil of smoke, he was approaching an office building with the words ‘Special Intelligence Services’ printed upon a sign at the entrance to the building. With this knowledge Bourbon knew that he had caught no ordinary man; no, he would need to be rid of this nuisance in such a way that would not cast suspicion upon him. If such a thing were to happen then it might spoil his plans for the upcoming celebration, and that would never do, for it was to be his greatest attempt yet to obtain more power from his Lord Lucifer.
Bourbon was exhausted after his long day; demons had to be paid whenever he called them. Unfortunately for Bourbon both of these demons took only one form of payment, and unlike the last demon, Veigel insisted on taking it only from him, it had to be his own blood. He felt faint for a moment and had to hold on to the altar before he staggered back to the other room and looked down upon Rob`s unconscious body. As he looked at Rob, a plan began to unfold within his depraved mind.
“Sir what is wrong?” Rochelle asked concerned when he realised the state of his master.
“You don`t think that the demons will help without extracting some sort of payment in return. Now take him upstairs and put him into the rear of our small van, it seems that we will have to take extra care in ridding ourselves of this particular nuisance. The drug will ensure that he stays asleep long enough to suit our purposes, In fact he will still be asleep when our good constabulary find him in flagrante delicto.”
Bourbon had almost recovered his strength when he turned to his other two men, who were standing there patiently awaiting his orders, but there earlier fears were still clearly etched upon their faces. These men had been present at ceremonies such as the one witnessed by John Ryman, and had few scruples left within them, but the presence of demons always made their thin veneer of courage crumble into dust.
“Go and get the mother, bring her to the van, you may tell her that we are taking her home.” Bourbon laughed at these words and then followed Rochelle who was effortlessly carrying Rob up the cellar stairs.
The two men gladly left the temple and went to the other end of the large cellar. The leading man felt around behind a large empty wine rack and pulled a lever down, the wine rack and wall that it was attached to moved forward, behind it was yet another door, a light switch was on the newly revealed wall that was previously hidden behind the false wall. The man slid the bolt across that locked the door and then operated the light switch. He then opened the door and went into a smaller room, within it, two women and a young girl opened their eyes and looked questioningly at the two men who now took out their automatic pistols and pointed them towards the captives.
“Mrs Ryman, come with us, you are going home.” The first man said derisively. Christina and Cassie looked up, unsure as to how to take the man`s words.
“What`s going on, when are we also to be released?” Christina demanded to know.
“When we are ready to release you, now be good or be dead.” The second man sneered and waved his gun about like a deluded moron.
“It`s alright Christina, if they were going to hurt me they could just as easily do it here.” Her mother said rising to her feet. Christina and Cassie rushed to her and threw their arms around her.
“We will see you soon Mummy.” Cassie cried out hopefully and Christina nodded her head in agreement with her younger sister. Their mother was then led out of the room, the door was shut and locked and the light switched off. Inside the room Christina now turned on the small wall light, this was provided by Bourbon to keep his guests sane.
“Don`t worry Cassie, I`m sure everything will be alright.” Christina whispered but secretly she had her doubts that they would come through this alive, unless Rob arrived in time to save them that is, but where was he?
Outside of their prison cell, the old wine rack was pushed back into place and their mother was led up the cellar stairs and into the van waiting patiently outside of the kitchen door. She immediately saw Rob lying there, completely dead to the world, Mrs Ryman put her hand to her mouth to suppress a scream for she instinctively knew that she was going to die soon, and at her house, but what had Rob to do with it, was he also to die?
It was three o`clock in the morning when the van turned into the road where the Ryman`s lived and backed quietly on to the small concrete parking bay in front of the house. Bourbon already had possession of her keys and he led her back inside of her house and took her through to the kitchen.
“Sit down Mrs Ryman, your problems will soon be over.” Bourbon said malevolently. Mrs Ryman couldn`t stop the shudder that ran through her body, nor the tears that ran down her face. She watched as Rob was brought into the kitchen and left slumped against the wall.
“What are you going to do to us?” She asked fearfully. She was looking directly at Bourbon so she didn`t see the iron bar come crashing down upon her head, she never even realised that she was being murdered at that precise moment. She fell to the floor and blood began to flow from her terrible head wound, it would take a while for her to die but she wouldn`t wake again. The man with the iron bar had gloves on so that he had left no trace of his fingerprints upon the murder weapon, but Rob did when the iron bar was pushed into his limp hand. A whisky bottle was brought from the front room, for Mrs Ryman liked a small whisky occasionally, and the entire contents were forced down Rob`s throat, and then the empty bottle was first pushed into Rob`s other hand and then it was cast to one side. Rob`s free hand was then put into the ever growing pool of blood and his hand then pressed against the wall to leave his hand print there, proof indeed thought Bourbon that he had murdered the woman in a drunken rage. The Satanists then quietly left the Ryman house, leaving the front door wide open to make the discovery of the drunken murder all the easier to find. The subsequent search for the two daughters would reveal nothing, especially at the manor house, for everyone would be gone by then. Because of Rob`s intrusion into his affairs Bourbon was forced to bring forward his planned trip to France, and his ancestral home. He would arrange for Moira, his daughter, to stay with a relative who lived nearby. She was a maiden aunt who lived in a nearby village, Bourbon had arranged this when he had first decided to live in the manor house more or less permanently. Bourbon, smiled as the van pulled away, for even though his plans had been disrupted by Rob, he had ensured that Rob would be the number one suspect behind the disappearance of Christina and Cassie, as well as th
e murder of Mrs Ryman.