Mark of the Shadow

Hello,

I am, new to this forum. I would like to share the first chapter of a book I am currently writing. It’s a crime thriller with a twist of science fiction. This will be the eighth book I will be publishing within the next few months. Hope you enjoy this chapter I am presenting.

 

Chapter 1

Camberwell Road – Elmington Estate – 1:25am

Detective Sergeant Samantha Drake zipped up her forensic jump suit and looked across the road towards the supermarket carpark.

An array of portable emergency lights lit up the carpark.

A man was shouting at a uniformed officer, complaining the commotion keeping him awake.

Sam walked across the road and watched as another uniform led the shouting man away from the scene. She held up her ID badge. ‘Detective Drake, unexplained crimes unit.’

The uniform lifted the police tape to let Sam pass.

Sam stared at the dismembered corpse of a man. The head lay several feet away.

Detective Sergeant Simon Ash was knelt by the headless body. He looked up at Sam grinning. ‘This one came unassembled.’ He indicated to the severed head several yards away.

‘Christ Ash, you’re a barrel of laughs.’

‘Whatever did this was sharp.’ Ash pointed at the headless corpse.

Sam looked at other forensic officers dotted about the carpark. ‘What happened?’

Ash stood. ‘Looks like a drug deal gone bad.’ He indicated to four sports bags sat in the boot of a 4x4. ‘Forensics reckon there is at least a hundred grand worth of cocaine in those bags.’

Sam looked across the carpark at the body of another man. ‘Any idea who they are?’

‘This is where it gets interesting.’ Ash said glancing in the same direction. ‘He’s been identified as Alexi Kozlov. We found a fake driver’s licence in his wallet and ran it through facial recognition.

‘Fuck.’ Sam cursed.

‘He’s the younger brother of Victor Kozlov.’

‘I know who he was.’ Sam spotted a gun near the body. ‘Were they all armed?’

‘Yes.’ Ash pointed at another sports bag. ‘Along with the cocaine, a cache of weapons was found. Mostly semi-automatic. This was some high-level shit.’

‘If this went sour, then why leave everything behind?’

‘This is where it gets really weird.’ Ash said looking towards a forensic examining the side of a 4x4. ‘Go and have a look.’

Sam walked towards the vehicle.

The side of the car was dotted with ammunition rounds.

‘This one tops them all.’ The forensic said.

Sam examined the side of the vehicle.

‘Pick a round off the side.’ The forensic invited.

Sam slipped on a latex glove and gingerly plucked a bullet from the side of the car.

‘Now walk away from the car.’ The forensic instructed.

Sam distanced herself from the 4x4.

‘Hold the round up and let go.’

Sam held the bullet between her forefinger and thumb. She waited for a few seconds before releasing her grip.

The ammunition round shot out of Sam’s grip and stuck to the side door panel of the car.

‘Jesus Christ.’ Sam stated.

‘The side of this vehicle is one giant magnet. Not only that, the magnetic field has a range of over twenty feet.’ The forensic pointed at a set of car keys stuck to the side of the car before pointing at an Audi. A body lay on the ground near the vehicle. A forensic stood over the body taking pictures. ‘Those keys came from that car.’

‘What could have done this?’

The forensic shrugged. ‘I guess its way they called you from the unexplained crimes unit. There a lot going on here that can’t be easily explained.’ He pointed at a circular dent on the side of the car. ‘Something was attached to this vehicle. It could be the device used to magnetise this car.’

‘Can a magnet do that?’

‘Fucked if I know, this is some serious freaky science shit.’ He indicated to a forensic examining a body near the Audi. ‘There’s the man you need to speak to about what happened.’

Sam walked over.

Two forensics lifted the body onto a stretcher.

‘Any survivors?’ Sam asked.

‘One.’ The forensic replied. ‘He’s at St George’s.’

‘What happened?’

‘In a nutshell, most of these men were hacked to pieces. Whoever did this used multiple bladed weapons. This is the second incident in three days.’

‘The second?’ Sam questioned.

‘There was an incident over at the Cranbrook estate. Four men were murdered in pretty much the same way. A large amount of cocaine was found in the flat where the attack took place but their attacker didn’t touch the stuff.’ The forensic pointed at other officers lifting the sports bags out of the back of the 4x4. ‘Whoever the murder suspect is, he isn’t interested in drugs.’

‘Motive?’ Sam remarked.

‘The way these men in this carpark and that flat were murdered. I’d say our killer is full of rage. This is where it gets weird. The attack took place the other night at the flat. It happened on the twenty-second floor of a tower block.’

‘How is that weird?’

‘No one saw anyone go into the flat where the attack took place. And no one saw anyone leave. When we examined the flat, the window to one of the bedrooms had been blown in.’

‘Someone gained access from the outside?’ Sam questioned.

‘It looks that way. The bedroom to the flat had no balcony.’

‘You’re saying someone scaled up the side of the tower block to get access to the flat.’

‘That’s what it looked like.’

Sam glanced at the cache of weapons nearby before looking at the body being carried away on a stretcher. ‘Who’s the victim?’

‘His name is Fenton Aguta. Part of a gang called the Decker crew. The man currently in the hospital is Corey Flint. They were a bit far out from the area. The Decker crew are from Camden. Looks like these two had gone rogue and tried to branch out.’

‘What kind of killer are we looking for here? Someone who has skill with blades?’

‘Yes.’ The forensic pointed to the side of the 4x4 riddled in ammunition rounds. ‘These guys fired a lot of rounds at whoever was attacking them. He’s also an expert in explosives.’

‘What do you say that?’ Sam asked.

The forensic pointed at the body of a man with half his skull missing. I did a quick examination of that body. The side of the head has burn marks associated with high explosives.’

‘Are we dealing with a rival gang?’ Sam asked.

‘Definitely not. Whoever murdered these men and the other men in that tower block was not from any gang. It’s like I just said. The way these men have been murdered, the murderer was out for revenge. The new Commissioner has been pulling out all the stops to keep the press from finding out what happened in that flat the other night. That’s going to be hard now. Considering what happened here tonight. There are too many witnesses to what happened. This will dominate the news come the morning.’

Sam looked around at the emergency lighting. ‘The surrounding lights are not working, why?’

‘Everything that uses electricity has been fried within a thousand-yard radius.’ The forensic fished a mobile phone out of an evidence box. ‘They all had mobile phones on them but none of them work.’ The forensic pushed a button on the side of the phone. ‘It’s been fried. It was exactly the same when I attended the attack in the flat. When we entered the flat, we noticed that every electrical device had been knocked out. The flats either side were unaffected.’

‘Any ideas what could have caused the power outage?’

‘Until we have had further time to examine these items, we won’t know anything.’ The forensic held up the mobile phone. ‘But if I were to hazard a guess. It looks like there was some sort of localised EMP burst.’

‘An EMP burst?’

‘Electromagnetic pulse.’ The forensic replied. ‘They occur when lightning strikes.’ He looked skywards. ‘It’s clear as a bell. The only other example of an EMP burst I can think of, is when a nuclear bomb is detonated.’ He pointed to the van again. ‘The epi centre of this burst would have come from that van.’ He indicated to the Iceland supermarket. ‘The lights went out over there. That’s when the staff witnessed the ensuing gun battle.’

Sam noticed a uniformed officer talking to a member of staff. She thanked the forensic before walking away.

The officer was jotting down notes as Sam approached. ‘You’re going to love this one Detective.’

Sam smiled at the distraught looking woman. ‘I know you’ve already given a statement. But could you tell me what happened here?’

‘All hell kicked off.’ The woman took a drag from a rolled-up cigarette. Her hand shook.

‘Take your time, start from the beginning.’ Sam coaxed.

‘We were working our first nightshift of the Christmas season. I was out the back checking the stock that had come in earlier in the day. The lights went out. Not even the emergency lighting kicked in. I managed to find my way onto the shop floor.’ The woman took another drag. ‘I heard gunfire and looked out of the window.’

‘What did you see?’

‘These men being murdered.’

‘Did you see the killer?’

‘I saw something, but even I have trouble believing it.’

‘Why?’

‘Whatever killed those men over there, wasn’t human.’

Sam held back the urge to smile at the woman’s comment. ‘What exactly did you see?’

‘An outline of a man, that’s what I first thought. The way he moved was incredible. He was fast. I was barely able to keep track of him.’

‘You saw him attacking the men in the carpark?’

The woman nodded. ‘After he threw one of the men across the carpark. He leapt onto that building over there.’ She pointed to a five-storey building.

‘You say the man leapt onto that building.’ Sam pointed in the same direction.

‘Yes.’

‘Did you get a look at him?’

‘Yeah, but if you are hoping for a description of his face you can forget it. He had no face. He was more like a shadow. Everything about him was jet black. It was hard to see in the dark. When we tried to phone the police, we noticed nothing worked.’ She produced her mobile phone. ‘I tried to film what happened on my phone, but it’s totally fucked. Apple is not going to be very happy with me when I phone them later on today.’

‘How did you manage to call the emergency services?’

‘We had to stop a passing black cab to use a phone.’

A Land Rover Discovery pulled up onto the side of the road.

Sam smiled at the woman. ‘Thank you.’

Assistant Commissioner Jack Bishop climbed out of the Discovery and walked into the carpark.

‘Morning sir.’ Sam greeted.

Bishop quickly surveyed the scene. ‘What do we have?’

‘Seven dead, one in the hospital.’

‘Rival gangs?’

‘No, this is something new.’ Sam indicated to the woman she had just interviewed. ‘According to forensics and that woman, the men in this carpark were attacked by a single individual.’

‘By who?’

‘A shadow.’ Sam replied.

‘A shadow?’ Bishop repeated keeping a straight face.

‘According to the witness, when it was all over, this shadow leapt onto that building.’ Sam pointed at the five-storey building.

Bishop looked over at the woman talking to the uniformed police officer. ‘What do you think happened?’

‘Something went down here. There’s a lot of things that can’t be explained.’ Sam pointed towards the 4x4 dotted with ammunition rounds. ‘That’s just one of the mysteries we are dealing with.  I have just been informed this is the second identical attack in three days. Whoever is attacking these gangs, isn’t making off with any of the gear they were dealing in. So this isn’t about rival gangs.’

Bishop nodded. ‘I am aware of the first attack that happened a few nights ago. Christ, this is all we need a few weeks before Christmas. We’re just coming to terms with the latest attack on London Bridge.’ He looked at Sam. ‘What do you need?’

‘Just Sarah Cook for now sir. We will visit the survivor when he is able to answer questions. Then see if we can turn up anything else.’ Sam looked across the carpark. ‘One of the victims was Dimitri Kozlov.’

Bishop inhaled the freezing cold air. ‘Fuck.’

‘We need to bring Vladimir Kozlov in for questioning. See if he can assist us on who may be behind this.’ Sam suggested.

A sudden flash lit up the surrounding area.

Sam looked across the street to see a group of people gathering.

Another camera flash illuminated the carpark.

‘This will hit the media in a few hours. I’ll organise a statement for the press. We need to move on Kozlov. I’ll mobilise a team to pick him up. You and Detective Cook can conduct the interview. I have a meeting with the new commissioner later on today. Keep me informed.’

‘Yes sir.’

Bishop turned and headed back towards the Discovery.