The Colonel Vs. the Parson's Lawyer Chapter 9
Marcus Hamilton has raped the Colonel's fiance, and as a result, she now carries Hamilton's baby. But the strange genetic code that Hamilton gave her is rapidly morphing Annie Coburn into someone even John Casey may not know.
His head lay on the hospital bed, and soft snores were heard from both the sleeping colonel and his snoozing brother. They had kept vigil over Parson Annie Coburn for over a week, but the only sound they ever heard was her soft moaning, and the ever vigilant heart monitor. Marcus Hamilton was in the wind; no one knew where the monster was, but all were fearful he may be on the way to Seattle and Harbor View where Annie was staying.
Suddenly, an alarm from the i.v. machine shrilled into John Casey's ears, and both he and Jayne jumped up with their pistols poised, trying to pinpoint the origin of the sound. Then John's eyes fell to the hospital bed, empty, still warm, the bedding rumpled and half on the floor, the heart leads hanging from the machine, and the I.v. Tubing dripping onto the floor.
"Dear God, where did she go, Jaynie? If that s.o.b. took her, I will tear his arms from his torso and force feed them down his gullet!" John was frantically checking the bed, and then crouched under the mechanism.
"Got blood spots." He spied the tiny droplets, and his sharp eyes began to follow the trail, his twin Jayne Cobb closely behind him. As they approached the elevator, their identical brother Chad Shelten stepped out with fast food sacks in both hands, but when he saw the faces of his twins, he threw them down and asked, "Hamilton?"
Jayne shook his head, and pointed to the blood trail on the floor leading down the hall past the elevator.
"It's the Parson. She got out of the room right under our noses."
"I don't understand. She had the finest security around, you two, and still she got passed you?" Chad drew his Glock and begin to follow his brothers, as they half ran down the hall, the Colonel slowing down only enough to follow the drops. Several nurses gave the men a wide bearth, as they bore down the hallway with guns locked and loaded.
"Lord Jesus, the drops are getting bigger, boys. She's bleeding out. Annie, where are you, beloved?"
The Colonel paused, leaned up against the wall, and closed his eyes, his gun hand messaging his temple. "Dearest Jesus, show me." He stood absolutely quiet, then his brilliant eyes shot open, almost black with the passion of his quest. He spoke one word, resolutely. "Chapel".
The three men pushed open the stairwell door, the dark drops still visible on the door jam. Casey flew down the first flight of steps, pausing only long enough to check to see if Annie had entered that level. Jayne and Chad followed close behind.
"I don't see how she could navigate these here stairs, Alexander, if she was bleeding out like this blood shows." Casey only grunted in response to Jayne's comment.
"Magnitite. It's given her some strength she never has had, I'm sure. John, how can you be sure she's in the chapel?" Chad asked, his breath coming out now in huffs since they had descended four flights.
"Look, she's entered this floor, and the chapel is here. Geesh, Shelten, getting too soft at the F.B.I.?"
John teased his brother as the three men flew through the stairwell door onto the chapel floor. They continued to followed the blood, which was not beginning to concern John more and more. Finally, the three men ran to the closed doors of the chapel, and stepped aside of a large puddle of blood before the doors. John threw the door open and called out loudly, "Parson? Beloved?" He raised his Sig, the hairs on the back of his nape were standing on end, and there was a scent of expensive men's cologne swirling around the small sanctuary. Various religious symbols were on the walls and a small wooden kneeling bench was down near the front platform. John scanned the room, calling out again for the parson, but there was no answer, except for a soft scrapping noise, and a small yelp.
John hand motioned for Chad and Jayne to spread out along the aisles of the sanctuary, and the three men slowly moved closed to the front, their sights on a small door to the side of the platform.
Suddenly, a woman's voice screamed out, "John!" and the side door flew open. Marcus Hamilton, his face scratched and bloodied, his nose broken, blood spewing out of it, had the parson in a choke hold, a knife to her neck, and he dragged her very slowly over to the metallic looking cross in the center.
"Bloody hell, three of you? Which one of you is the Colonel?" Hamilton's eyes were crazed as they darted between the three men. Annie was gasping for breath, but it was Jayne that spoke first.
"I'm the Colonel." He nodded at Annie, and slowly lowered "Vera" to the floor.
"Cobb, you numbnuts. I'm the Colonel." Chad lowered his Glock but did not release it. Hamilton seemed indecisive, and he pushed the knife in a little. Annie gasped, and she tried again to pull Marcus' arm away.
John stepped even closer, his eyes only on Annie, and then Marcus grinned. "Ah, will the real Colonel stand up? The eyes...they always give love ...and evil away."
John still had the gun up, his hands sure and aimed right at Hamilton's forehead. "The windows to the soul, eh, Parson?" Casey kept advancing until he saw a large flow of blood from Annie's neck.
"Put it down, Colonel. Your woman already has lost enough blood to kill an elephant. See, she not only leaks from her neck, but her fluids are rolling down her legs." Marcus took a deep sniff in. "Ah, I remember the peaches...the blood. Your woman is magnificent. Proud, stubborn, lively...like you, I suspect, Colonel."
The Marine was growling, every tendon, every muscle in his body ready to leap ahead, like a caged lion, but he never looked away from Annie, still staring at the tear stained brown eyes that plead silently for his help. He watched her body pushed against Hamilton, and force him to step closer to the metal cross. Casey was going to advance but he saw Annie shake her head slightly. He blinked rapidly twice in a row, and she smiled slightly.
"Xander, don't let him goad you." Jayne was only ten feet away from Hamilton, but his frustration at the impossibility of getting any closer was gnawing at him. He tried to step in, but Hamilton pushed the tip in further, and then back out as Cobb retreated slightly.
Hamilton's eyes swung to Chad, and he motioned with his head, wiping his nose on the blade of the knife. "Lose the Glock, cousin." At that, all three men startled, blinking in unbelief.
"Oh, I know who you are. My uncle's sons. Magnificent specimens of manhood. Of course, the family resemblance is uncanny, boys. Your ma should be proud of you. Now, my father on the other hand dabbled in the dark arts, and before I knew it, I was knee deep in the family business, extortion, greed, women." At that word, Hamilton ground his pants fronts into the Parson's backside, and licked her blood. She shook, not from terror, but from the pure exhaustion he was causing. Still, she glanced once up to the cross above their heads, and she pressed against his large body, forcing him again to step closer to the cross.
"Hey, Parson, you are one hot woman. You want me, don't you?" Hamilton grinned widely, and bent again to lick her blood on the neck. When he did, Casey yelled, "Now, Annie!"
The Parson swiftly pulled her arm away from Hamilton's and rammed it in his gut. He released her and grunted, as Casey's Sig fired into the monster's forehead. Annie swung to the side, reached for the cross and hoisted it off off the hook that held it to the wall, and threw it at Hamilton, piecing him through his privates with the sharp points of the cross beam. He screamed an ungodly scream, and before the four of them could move, he began to melt around the cross, as the magnitite cross swiftly drew the life out of him. As Annie collapsed to the floor, the doors to the sanctuary burst open and the room was flooded with S.W.A.T. Teams. Casey holstered his Sig swiftly and ran to the parson's side, cradling her in his arms, as he rocked her slightly, his tears flowing down onto her face. The uproar from the room dimmed in his ears, and he began to sing haltingly, softly, in the ear of the woman for whom he was so willing to die.
"John...is he really gone?" Annie gasped as she grabbed his hands and pressed them to her front. He glanced over to the special forces team captain, and when he saw David Dixon bending over the cross with nothing but a pile of dust beneath it, he nodded. "He's gone, beloved. Forever. Killed by the cross."
"The magnitite cross." General Beckman's voice sounded above the two. "It was Annie's idea, John. She knew somehow that Marcus would be killed if he got near the metal, and she forced him to come here, where we hung a specially made cross on the wall." Beckman kneeled and kissed the forehead of the parson. "You are an incredibly brave woman, Annie. Anyone willing to take on Marcus Hamilton and the Colonel all in one lifetime has got to be brave. Now, Marine, take your woman to her specialist up on the 8th floor. We have to check on the baby." Casey easily lifted Annie into his arms, and laid her gently on the gurney that Jayne had somehow found. He held tightly to her right hand, as Jayne and Chad steered it to the service elevators.
By the time the three men and the parson were on the 8th floor, Annie slipped back into a coma, and she was haemorrhaging onto the gurney and the surgical floor. Only Jayne and Chad pulling on their brother made Casey release his woman's hand, and let the specialist slip in amongst the flurry of physicians surrounding the preacher.
"Blood type, Colonel." The doctor hollered the question at the ashen faced Marine. All three men said "A+", and then they looked at each other sheepishly.
"I did a background check on her, bro. Just to make sure she wasn't gonna flinch you out of the millions you've earned at the N.S.A." Cobb grinned, and stuffed his short stub of an unlit cigar into his grinning face.
"And Chad? How did you know?" Casey demanded, a little angry at the obvious invasion of the parson's privacy.
"Easy does it, Colonel. The board of elders at her church was required by law to have anyone in leadership have a background check and when I saw the requests come through the police data system, I remembered you telling me you had a new girlfriend who was a pastor. I'm with Jaynie, here, bro. We just want to make sure she's the one. After all, you need to pass Mom's seal of approval before you two get married, right?"
At the sound of their mother's name, John Casey stood up tall, and there was a flick of fear passing over his face. He nodded curtly, and then punched both of them in the jaw, first Jayne and then Chad. They sprawled onto the hospital floor, both of them nursing their aching jaws, as he stood over them swaying, and clenching and unclenching his fists.
"Next time, brothers," Casey growled, "ask me, for God's sake."
Reviews are always welcomed. And thank you to all for such delightful ways of getting rid of Marcus Hamilton.
