PART 10

Stepford!

It echoed around Peck's drugged head, and a vision of a broad, tall, muscled man in army fatigues shimmering out of focus leapt ghostlike into his nightmare. Bald head and eyes shining in the dimming light, the figure took a step towards him. All restraint and reason had been stolen from Peck by the drug and he screamed piteously. The life left the man before him then and the background flickered and changed; Stepford was in a hospital bed, tubes in every orifice. Not knowing why, Peck moved toward him, slowly reached out a shaking hand.

Stepford lurched forwards but it was not Stepford, it was the Colonel. But Hannibal as Peck had never seen him before; his skin was yellowing as aged parchment, rotting and rancid, worm-bait, the bones of his bleached skull visible in places, there were black gaping holes where his eyes should be, only the head of silver grey hair told Peck this was his Colonel.

His fright and fear overwhelming, Peck screamed once more. And then the setting lurched again, he was running. He glanced over his shoulder and saw Lorelei bizarrely tottering on high stilettos but still moving faster than he was. He tried to run but his energy was all gone. He was hot and cold, sweating and sobbing, unable to accomplish his escape but aware that he had to do something.

Peck cast around desperately. Everything was so utterly familiar; he was in an unlit alleyway. There were puddles on the sidewalk and the way ahead was obscured by the gloom of the darkening night. His guts knotted as he saw the wire fence that stretched right across the alleyway looming up in front of him.

Shit! He couldn't climb that, not now! His legs were going to give up the ghost and dump him on the floor at any minute. An iced vein of fear shuddered down his backbone as he slid to a halt. Behind him he heard the deep, humourless laugh of his assailants over the raw throatiness of his own laboured breathing.

He turned back, shivering as the hot sweat on his skin froze to the air temperature around him. He had blown it, screwed up again. He couldn't do this, not on his own. He should never have even tried, should have seen that this was the only way it was ever going to end; a dirty, dark alley stinking of piss, a shattered body only capable of vaguely remembering its physical prowess of yesteryear and a cold bullet delivering the ultimate punishment for his over inflated confidence.

"Hands up, Peck!" A voice called. "This is the Police. We got you surrounded!"

Peck started puzzled. But it had been Lorelei chasing him into the alley – where had she gone? And where in hell had the cops come from? Suddenly, again, the final solution of a bullet seemed a better option than the years of imprisonment the police were touting.

Peck gulped, his lungs were still burning and his legs felt like jello. He didn't want to move, not back there. Desperately he glanced around and it was then that he saw it……

….. the smaller alley snaking away behind the building to his right. But this one wasn't dark and dingy, oh no, this one was white and spotless and glowing so brightly through the gloom that Peck had no idea why he had not noticed it before. It promised sanctuary and warmth; an escape from both the law and the bullet. And then the voice came to Peck's ears, enticing him, pulling him forwards.

"Face," the voice said and Peck beheld the brilliant bright figure before him, so vividly drenched with light that Peck could not make out the features. Still he knew the voice. "Hannibal?" he whispered hoarsely.

The figure of light appeared to beckon to him. "Do not be afraid, kid!" the unworldly voice continued. "Accept…"

"Hannibal?" Peck groaned. "Help me!" He turned back to the cops. The memory of this dream hit him; he knew how it would end – a bullet in his chest. His fear was intensified by the drugs, cold and clammy, it rushed through him as violent shivering. He could not let it happen, not allow it to end that way this time. Tamping down his fear, swallowing it deep he forced himself to turn back to the light, and took a step towards it.

"About goddamn time!" Hannibal's voice was calm and firm, radiating out towards his lieutenant. Peck looked about himself, noting the still bright light, the airy atmosphere, but a place so different from the alley. Where was he?

"Excuse me?" he asked huskily.

"I've been waiting for you for months, Face," Hannibal said softly. There was an ethereal sheen that seemed to glow from the Colonel as he stepped out of the direct light and his features, serene and calm and human as before, came into Peck's view.

"I don't…. I don't understand," Peck stammered.

Hannibal reached out and laid a comfortingly, corporeal hand on Peck's shoulder. "I want to help you, Face. I always have."

"But you're…. you're…."

"Dead?"

Face nodded, running his hand through his hair. He found himself unable to pull his eyes away from the Colonel's encompassing gaze. He needed to look around, take account of his situation but all was hazy, all indistinct except the power of Hannibal's stare.

"Why should that be a problem?" Smith asked.

Peck snorted. "Normally it's sorta terminal to a relationship!"

"How do you know?"

"Because…. Because…."

"There are lots of things you don't know, Face; things you could not even begin to believe. But if you won't accept anything else that's fine, accept this one truth – I can help you!"

"Help me?"

Hannibal's piercing blue eyes twinkled. "Have I ever let you down before?"

"You've never been dead before!" Face shook his head as if to clear it. "Jesus what was in that hypodermic that bitch gave me?"

Hannibal tensed, for the first time his tranquil air slipping. "Don't do that!" he hissed.

"Do what?" Peck blinked.

"Stop believing that I'm here! The only way I can be here is if you truly believe. Once you start to doubt I will disappear."

Face sighed. "Hannibal, believe me, there is nothing I would want more that to have you back but it's not gonna happen!"

"Sure it can, kid!"

Peck suddenly felt slack and weightless, as if he was floating. "OK, OK," he sighed, lacking the energy to do anything but play along. "If it's true then what the hell are you doing here, Hannibal? Shouldn't you be in heaven?"

The smile was broad as Hannibal sniffed. "Boring; no cigars and no jazz!"

Peck gulped, his long repressed Catholic upbringing aroused. "I kinda thought there would be no cigars but no jazz in heaven?"

"Well not the sort I like!" Hannibal smiled. "Besides I can't be happy there, not until my boys are safe. You were the best team I ever had and you the best lieutenant, Face!"

Peck rolled his eyes suspiciously. "What about Smudge Marks?"

"Didn't even come close!"

"But I screw everything up!"

Hannibal smiled. "You take risks sure and sometimes they don't come off but I wouldn't change you, Face, not in anyway. Now you are going to have to stay strong; that Stepford bitch is even worse than her father! And believe me, she is gonna take you to hell but you can survive it, kid. You have to keep believing!"

"Believing in what?"

"Me, the team…. Murdock. He will come for you, you know. But most of all you have to believe in yourself. You are special and you can endure!"

Face nodded. His mind was reeling and he was finding it very hard to think through the fog. Visions assailed him of Hannibal dying, of Stepford too, of Lorelei and Murdock. He tried to order them, control them by centring himself on just one thought that he voiced weakly. "Are you real, Hannibal?" he asked longingly.

"As real as you want me to be, kid."

Peck was suddenly overwhelmed by a sense of complete exhaustion. "Oh I want you to be," he whispered faintly. "So very much!"

Then the bright, white light dimmed to a mere pinpoint and Hannibal was gone. Peck slept in a dreamless sleep.

Peck came around slowly, relying on his hearing and touch to sense where he was. He remembered his conversation with Hannibal with clarity but discarded it as merely the drugs working his tortured imagination – he had more important things to worry about.

"Open your eyes, Peck," Lorelei's voice commanded him. "I know exactly how much stuff I gave you and when its affect should wear off to the minute. I am in complete control of you."

Face let out a feeble groan but opened his eyes. His vision was watery and blurry, as images shimmered before him. Someone was shining a light into his eye and then he felt a pressure cuff on his arm.

"All vitals within set limits," a voice pronounced.

"Good," Lorelei answered. "Then we can proceed." A figure dressed in black stepped closer and by concentrating very hard, Face managed to decipher that it was Lorelei. "Did you enjoy that little sojourn?" she asked, running her finger down Peck's cheek, his skin tingled weirdly at her touch. "That was just a little test to see how the drugs affected you, next time we'll try a little more and see what effect it has on your mind. But for now I want you as rational as you can be – we need to talk. Give him some water."

While she spoke Face had been assessing his surroundings as his senses came back. He was tied to the chair again although not gagged. There were a number of other people in the room that hovered on the edge of his consciousness but his vision was still too blurry for him to ascertain their features. His throat was burning and he gratefully accepted the cool water that was pressed to his lips with small sips.

Lorelei watched, her cruel eyes never leaving him as they spat their hatred. Face took the last gulp and then he forced his muscles to relax as he nonchalantly returned her stare.

"My father died last night," Lorelei said dispassionately.

Peck gulped. "I wish I could say I was sorry," he replied finally. "But I wondered why the world felt a better place this morning!"

She glared. "Keep digging, Peck!" she spat. "All your sassy comments and your wise mouth won't help you now, in fact it makes me more determined. You see I made my dad a promise and I will keep it. He was an organised and thorough operator and he sorted all his affairs out before he died. Left me to inherit everything on a firm, solid footing, laid the foundations of a vast empire, that I will see grow as a monument to his endeavour. He left me with nothing to finish except for one small thing. He was vexed by the fact that you escaped his justice; that you ran away like the coward that you are, not once but twice, and denied him the chance to resolve his final issue. You are the only thing he left unsettled."

She paused before continuing. "So I promised him I would do it. I promised him I would exact the proper price from you. I would make you scream so loud he would hear the quality of your pain in heaven."

Peck snorted derisively. "You surely don't believe that heaven is where a man like your father will end up?"

She stepped forward and slapped him hard across the face, rocking his head back. Peck's nostrils flared as he held her challenging glare.

"Don't you dare speak of him with your foul, lying tongue!" she spat.

Face forced himself to smile, pressing his point now he had her rattled. "Drug pushing, swindling, extortion, murder – why would he be anywhere else but burning in the fires of hell for eternity?"

She raised her hand to strike again and he flinched but she stopped the blow, controlled her anger. Her voice was calm as she said, "No, I am in control here. You cannot provoke me with your childish taunts, Peck. I plan as well as my father; you will not get me to change what must be. Now I have another guest I would like to introduce you to."

"I don't want to meet any of your father's cronies!"

She allowed herself a dripping laugh then, the sound of battery acid falling on unprotected flesh to Peck who thought he could even hear the sizzle. "On the contrary I think you will be more than delighted to meet this particular person. You owe her." The laugh came again; as treacherous as thin ice. "You have spent a lifetime chalking up debts, Peck; well now it's time they were called in. And I am going to do that – and you, dear Templeton, you are going to pay!"

Peck snorted, flexing his wrists to see if there was any scope for escape but there was no room for manoeuvre.

"Go get her!" Lorelei ordered and then turned back to Peck. "You are a sad excuse for a man, are you not, Peck?" she mocked as she moved back to him again. He noted the small cassette recorder she had in her hand. "You have always managed to talk a good game, but when it actually comes down to delivering you screw up every time. Let me illustrate."

She clicked on the tape. Peck drew in a ragged breath as he heard his own voice;

"…..and I promise you I will not allow anyone to harm one single hair on your pretty lady's head. You got the Faceman's word on that!"

And that of Drake; "The Faceman's word? The most famous conman in the world's word!"

Lorelei cackled. "Oh how easy to con the young with your silver tongue!" She shook her head. "All bullshit!"

She fast forward the tape and pressed play again:

"Trust me – I won't let you down on this." Face's voice boomed again.

Followed by Drake's; "Faceman's word is good enough for me!

"How the hell….?" Peck snapped.

Lorelei smiled with triumph. "Such trust in you and after you accused him of betraying you! How ironic that the leak in your camp was nothing to do with him and everything to do with you!"

Peck felt the seed of fear deep inside begin to grow and branch out to clutch at his guts. "What do you mean?" he stammered, trying to hold on to his composure.

Lorelei tossed the recorder to Thomas who was standing behind her. In her hand she fingered a platinum pen. Peck's mouth went dry as he recognised it as the one she had given him at dinner days ago and he had kept on his person ever since. He felt such a fool as she continued, "It's amazing how small they can make microphones now, isn't it? And the range you can get on these suckers!" She popped the pen apart and showed him the bug in its inners. He tried to keep the dismay from showing on his face. "I knew everything," she continued smugly. "Everything you said. Everything you did!" She screwed her flawless features into a scowl of distaste and taking a hold of Peck's hair shook his head savagely. "You really are a sad, conceited, perverted little shit aren't you? But this time you've screwed up big time and there is no body gonna help you now!"

Peck gasped, his teeth jangling and his eyes moist as she finally let go of him. His vision rocked again, came back into focus on a scene that froze his bowels completely. Shannon, her face pale and stained with tears, her eyes wide and full of fear stood in the doorway, flanked by the burly forms of Westwood and Thomas.

Peck struggled impotently in his bonds. "Let her go!" he spat. "You've got me, you don't need her! Let her go and I'll do anything that you ask," he snarled.

Lorelei's laugh was beginning to grate with its unquestioning arrogance. "Oh you'll do anything I ask anyway – I told you that before. But I made a promise to my father and I will destroy you and any shred of decency that you possess. And I don't care who I damage to do so!" She moved towards where Shannon stood shivering uncertainly. The girl whimpered as Lorelei reached out and gently stroked her long blonde hair. "Just to prove that your word is as useless as the rest of you, I will harm more than one single hair on this pretty lady's head!"

"NO!" Face lurched forward as far as the ropes would let him.

"Peck, Peck, Peck," Lorelei's voice was condescending in the extreme as she moved away from the petrified girl and back towards the chair, hypodermic in hand.

"No!" Face repeated frantically fighting with the ropes so violently that the chair tottered. Lorelei snorted and indicated for the two heavies behind him to hold him. He continued to struggle but it was useless as Lorelei calmly inserted the needle and injected her poison straight into his blood stream.

"Tripping again, Peck – such an annoying habit," she mocked. "Who knows what may happen when you're out of it this time!"

"No," Peck repeated, still fighting but his resolve was weakening like his muscles. He threw a desperate glance toward Shannon, saw she was as defenceless as he, and as the guilt knotted in his stomach, he lurched over the edge into the black abyss created by the drugs.

TBC