No one was laughing now, some broke down in tears, others were exhausted by the power of the Amaymons, even though it had crossed time to affect them, and only for the briefest periods of time at that. Inspector Humphreys finally closed his gaping mouth to turn on the two agents in anger.
"What the hell did you just do, look at the people around us, they are either terrified, exhausted, or both, and you promised me that nothing would happen to the crime scene." He snarled.
"I am sorry Inspector, I never expected this to happen, like you I too felt it was a group of psychopathic killers." Rob said. "However, I think that you will find that the crime scene is intact Joe, but who or whatever we just saw were very real, look, we have a video of them on my iPhone." Rob said taking his phone back.
Rob too had been affected by what he had seen, and terrible as it had been he knew that the effect had been lessened by coming across time through the thin veil of white smoke. Thankfully, the bloody scene they had viewed had occurred in the poor light given off given off by the black candles, ones that had been visible through the veil of smoke, so the terrible image had been muted somewhat. To be present back then must have been worse than even Hollywood could have portrayed, with the jagged slit around the victims` throats and the mutilation to their heads.
He now replayed the recording he had made, and on the iPhone the figures and sounds of the terrible scene were no less real, and Inspector Humphreys and some of the forensic team, those not too badly affected by what they had seen, watched in horror as they saw the Amaymons glaring angrily at them. In fact, Rob had to stop the playback as he could feel the malevolence behind those glowing red eyes even through the iPhone.
One of the forensic team, John Rivers, strode forward angrily. "It is all a trick, the smoke was their screen for a hologrammatic show." He snarled angrily.
"John that was no show, the evil and power behind those red blazing eyes were real, you felt it too, I saw your reaction." Alan Powers said contradicting his man.
Powers then turned on Rob. "Just who the hell are you and your friend, you certainly are not from the Yard."
"They are from the SIS, they are experts in the paranormal, the Yard called them in, however no one really expected them to come up with anything, themselves included." Humphreys said stepping in front of Powers. "What we all saw here must stay within these four walls, what these two men have recorded must first be analysed by our people. I, personally, have no idea what just happened, or what it proves as far as this case is concerned, but my god I believe that it proves that evil really exists as a malevolent force, and one that we here have all now felt, and been affected by. I for one am seriously contemplating changing my lifestyle." Humphreys said in a tone that told those around him how serious he was.
It was now that Humphreys received a phone call, his face drained of its entire remaining colour as he attempted to take in what was being said to him over the phone. When the caller had finished he turned to Rob.
"They have found another seven bodies, they believe they were killed early this morning, this time the bodies were strung up in a deserted warehouse in North London, it is why they have only just been found, some kids found them while playing war games." Humphreys said grimly. "We have been asked to go there and join the investigating team."
Humphreys now walked briskly from the church with Rob and David following behind him and they drove over in silence to the new crime scene.
**********
Magnus One had been stunned when he had been transported back into the church of St Luke's, and not only were his victims of the previous night still hanging there, but within the church were a dozen very live humans, and all of them were staring in revulsion at the scene before them. It took him only a moment to realise that he and his team were not in fact there, they had not gone back in time, he was having some sort of a vision. Someone amongst the humans had done this, but how? In seconds he had identified three people who could be responsible for it, a tall young man and two slightly older and shorter men. His eyes bored into those of the tall human, his mind delving inside the human`s mind. He was just on the point of identifying Rob when Rob smashed the glass bowl and the vision dissolved in front of him, once again he was back within the Church of the Second Coming.
He knew immediately that this could change things radically for his nation, if there were more humans who could see into the past then his nation could only ever be tourists on this planet, he would have to find these three men and take them prisoner, and then interrogate them to find out who amongst them had done this thing. He learned the answer to part of this far sooner than he expected, from Linguia, who had been connected to the mind of Humphreys, and he had learned quite a lot. That he was a police inspector working for Scotland Yard, a major human law enforcement force; he had also learned that the other two men were agents of the Special Intelligence Services. However, when he had delved further into the mind of Humphreys he had also learned that it was the other two men who had made the connection across time possible. When he informed Magnus One of all that he had taken from Humphreys` mind he was congratulated on his success and ordered to learn all that he could about the two human law enforcement forces.
**********
When they got to the warehouse in North London, Humphreys stopped just outside the building and after getting out of his vehicle, he waited for Rob to join him.
"Rob, how on Earth do we give the senior investigating officer your evidence without him kicking us out of here and me out of the force?" Humphreys asked.
It was now that some of the forensics team who had been at the church of St Luke's arrived, and they gave the three men a wide berth, out of fear of what they seemed to be, practitioners of the black arts, and what they could apparently do. Powers on entering the disused warehouse immediately sought out the investigating officer in charge of the case, Chief Superintendent Mark Reynolds, and he told him all that they had just witnessed at the church.
"Dr Powers, are you honestly asking me to take you seriously, at best it was some sort of a magician`s illusion. Please get on with what you are here for, serious police work, and I will get on with mine." Reynolds said angrily.
When the three men entered the warehouse the first thing that Rob noticed was the smell of blood, it was so strong that it attacked his senses; he could almost taste the blood. He then saw the four men and three women strung up exactly like those at St Luke's had been, their blood drained and their heads mutilated, and beneath their hanging bodies was a freshly painted pentagram. He stopped walking, he just wanted to run from the building, away from the horrific scene before him, however he knew that secret agents were not allowed this luxury, they had to stay and work. He would have to live with what he saw and smelt, force it into a separate compartment and not allow these experiences to affect the way he reacted when amongst his young family.
Rob forced himself to look again at the crime scene, at the pentagram beneath the bodies, he immediately noticed that just as the scene at St Luke`s there were no signs to show that the pentagram had been charged. This simple fact told Rob and David that they had not been murdered by Satanists, a group of people even more foul than Satanists had killed these innocent people. It was now that Chief Superintendent Reynolds made his presence known.
"What are you trying to do to my investigation Mr Hinds; you are here on sufferance as the commissioner personally requested your help in this terrible matter. However, if you try any more stunts like the one you staged in St Luke's, then I will have you charged with wilfully destroying evidence and attempting to pervert the course of justice, do I make myself clear?"
Rob was still reacting to what he had seen earlier that day and what was still on view here at the warehouse, and he was ready to explode, especially when an insufferable bore forced his way into his face.
"Chief Superintendent, I will not take umbrage for your insulting behaviour, however I will demand an apology when you come crawling to us for our help, now
please leave us alone to continue on with the only lead likely to come up with a result." Rob said scathingly. Only just able to contain his anger after what he had seen, he turned away from the fuming police officer and spoke to his friend.
"David, do you feel anything here?" Rob asked. His anger at the rudeness of the senior policeman and his revulsion of what he was seeing before him apparent in both his face and his voice.
Reynolds saw that Rob could easily explode violently if he said another word, and this sent a shot of fear straight to his heart. To be fair to Reynolds, he too had felt sick when he had seen the dead people yesterday at St Luke`s, but this did not excuse the way he had gone for Rob. Reynolds turned hastily away and walked off towards his junior officers. Reynolds too was almost ready to explode, but his anger was generated from the way that Rob had treated him, his face turning purple with rage he looked for someone nearby upon whom he could vent his anger.
David resisted the urge to shake his friend`s hand for standing up to the bully, instead he closed his eyes to feel for any latent satanic evidence.
"No, Rob just as at St Luke's there is no mental sign that Satanists were behind this massacre, however Rob, if you look at the pentagram you will notice that this one is inverted, and it too has not been charged." David said quizzically.
An inverted pentagram is similar to a regular one except that two of the points project upwards instead of one for a regular pentagram; it is also exclusively used by Satanists and others of that ilk. David pondered this conundrum for just a moment before putting it to the back of his mind for at a more convenient time.
"Even so Rob, there is no doubt in my mind that our sick villains are the very same monsters we saw in our show at St Luke's, they just did not have a ready painted pentagram to use here in the warehouse, so they had to construct one." David replied after making a second mental search of the area for any satanic residue, and once again not coming up with anything.
David had become attuned to the residue left behind by Satanic ceremonies, it had helped him more than once during the time that he had stubbornly gone against the Catholic Church`s wishes to help those he knew to be in danger from evil.
"If you two gentlemen want to stage another of your little shows then we will all have to wait until the early morning, when the circus has returned to the Yard or their beds. There is no way that the chief super will allow you to put on your show while he is here, even the commissioner would not blame him, not without first witnessing your act; the video on your iPhone would be put down to a clever piece of special effects." Humphreys said in a low voice that would not carry beyond its intended recipients.
"Agreed." Rob replied. "What time do you suggest Joe?"
"There will always be a police guard on the place, until the case is completed that is, but I should be able to get the constable to agree to your putting on your show, as long as his part in the proceedings remains our secret." Humphreys replied. "Let us say five o`clock tomorrow morning, our people will be too busy for you to try before then. I just hope that those sick bastards take a night off; fourteen such murders are more than enough. Tell me Rob, David, can either of you explain exactly what happened in St Luke's, that is to say just how did your stage act work?" Humphreys asked.
"Not the mechanics Joe, we are just interested amateurs; however I did hope that someone on our side, an angel or whatever, would be looking down upon St Luke's after the way it was used, and from the result we got I must have been right. The spell itself is one that I found in a book once owned by a real Satanist, one thankfully no more. Of course using what we do not fully understand is dangerous, but I thought that in this case the benefits would outweigh any possible dangers, and I was correct, don`t you agree Joe?" David replied.
"I do up to a point David, however I am not so sure that the dangers are so small, those red staring eyes blazed hatred when they saw the two of you. There is even a chance that the leader of our madmen realises that you are on to him, if so he might just try to kill you?" Humphreys asked anxiously.
"You may be right Joe." Rob replied. "It is a danger we have had to face before when dealing with very powerful Satanists. Initially I put this down to a group of very sick individuals, however after having those blazing red eyes searching deep into my soul I need time to think, to go over all that we know about them. Maybe you should keep your distance Joe, in two previous cases we lost friends to the dark unseen forces that wait in the night for those unfortunate enough to be noticed."
Joe looked hard at Rob, to see if he was making fun of him, but when he saw that Rob was serious his blood ran cold.
"Rob you and David here, and your boss, you talked about Satanists this morning, but just so there is no misunderstanding, you are saying that real Satanists do exist. That is ones who follow Satan, rather than people who just play at it, who dance around a bonfire and are just after kinky sex, that there is a hell complete with demons and the devil?" Humphreys asked incredulously.
Rob and David looked at one another and as one they replied. "Oh yes Joe."
"It is all very true Joe, we know for we have been there, got the tee shirt and seen Lucifer himself, and we were both lucky to get away with our lives and souls still intact." David added.
Joe looked at the two agents expecting to see their faces smiling at him, hear them break into laughter, but he saw that they were being serious. Since being teamed up with the two SIS agents he had seen so much and learned a great deal more, much of which he wished he had never learnt because he was sure that he would suffer from the worst ever nightmares for weeks, if not months, into the future. Before pushing these thoughts aside he wondered just who he had pissed off so much, to put him on this case, however he knew that anyone above his rank would have to be included on the list.
Chapter Three
Plans are made
It was just after three in the afternoon and Rob, David and Inspector Humphreys were sitting in the offices of the SIS, Sir Willoughby Brown had called them in to speak to them.
"I have had an angry phone call from Chief Superintendent Reynolds, he has accused you Rob of attempting to pervert the course of justice, you had better have a good reason for doing so or else you will be facing a very long suspension, or worse."
Rob knew that he should have anticipated such a call, his one failing, not suffering powerful fools gladly, had been the cause of this interview, but he did not feel anger towards his superior, he knew that Sir Willoughby Brown had to ask him if the complaint held water.
"I could have called the man an idiot to his face Sir Richard, however I confess that it would have been a little unfair to him, seeing as how he has not faced up to Satanists, demons and Lucifer himself. However, he is certainly not the man to run this investigation; he mind is far too closed. I will not say anything more about the subject Sir Richard until you have watched the video that we took at St Luke's, and which prompted the complaint. I am sure that everything will then become clear to you, after that I will gladly answer any questions so as to fully clear up the matter." Rob replied evenly and without resorting to insults, David was very proud of him.
"This video Rob, I assume that it shows everything that angered Reynolds so much?"
"Yes, Sir Richard, everything." Rob replied. "Although he never asked to watch it, he just assumed that we are attention seeking jokes."
"OK then Rob, let`s see what you and David came up with, and it had better be good." Sir Willoughby Brown said and feeling sure that it was just that.
Rob had transferred the video onto his computer, as the small screen on his iPhone would not have done the subject justice, and he now played it back. As Sir Willoughby Brown watched the video, Inspector Humphreys spoke on behalf of Rob and David.
"Sir Richard, I saw this video taken, it is not a fake, I saw no hologrammatic projector and in any case neither Rob nor David had the opportunity to set one up, they have both been with me ever since we were introduced. Also, with the forensic team working at th
e church no one else would have had the opportunity to do so." Humphreys began. "Sir Richard the seven people that you see hanging there, that is exactly how I saw them before they were taken down, their bodies were actually in the mortuary when this video was taken. Now if you will look at the thirteen people who are looking at us, especially the one in the centre, even on the video you can feel the power behind their red blazing eyes. I might add that had you been at St Luke's this afternoon you would know just how awesome that mental power actually was, and no projector of any sort can do that. It has been further suppressed by transferring it on to the computer, for we were even affected when we watched it replayed on the iPhone, in fact Rob was forced to turn it off."
The video got a little jumpy now as Humphreys continued with his narration. "If Rob had not run forward here and smashed the glass bowl which held the potion, and which ended the spell, I fully believe that these beings could have made me do anything. I personally felt someone delving into my mind; I could feel the control of my mind slipping away from me, Sir Richard it was an extremely scary experience. I call them people, Sir Richard however I am positive that there was nothing human about them, Extra Terrestrials maybe but not human."
Sir Willoughby Brown turned to Rob.
"Rob, play the video on your iPhone, let`s see if it affects me, or whether it was just your location that magnified the effects of what you witnessed from across time." He asked.