The Book of Death (Bourbon Kid 4)

utterly unlike anything he’d ever encountered
before. The sounds that made their way up to the window in the Control room
were quite sickening. Crunching bones, ripping flesh, screaming beasts. This
was not a place he really wanted to be. All he wanted was the Bourbon Kid, but
since the exploding smoke bombs and arrival of thousands of zombies it was now
impossible to see the serial murderer anywhere. Bull’s quest for revenge was
not going according to plan.
    Tex remained glued to his seat
staring at the bank of monitors in front of him, watching and commentating on
the events as they unfolded. Razor took up his position standing guard over
Beth. He had drawn a pistol from its holster by his ribcage and had it aimed at
her in case she had any thoughts of escape. Of the three, he was the most on
edge. This was a man that followed orders and when there were none being barked
out, he got anxious.
    ‘What are we gonna do, boss?’ he
asked.
    ‘I’m trying to spot the Kid in
this crowd,’ said Bull craning his neck to get a better view out of the window.
‘Hang on, I see something.’
    ‘What is it?’ asked
Razor. ‘Is it him?’
    ‘It’s a fucking car,’ said Bull.
‘Someone’s driving right through the middle of the zombies and vampires, toward
the front doors.’
    ‘Is it the Kid?’ Razor asked
again.
    ‘I can’t tell.’
    Tex interrupted. ‘The Kid is
already inside the building,’ he said. ‘Look!’ He pointed at one of the
monitors on the top row. It showed the view from a camera in one of the Casa de
Ville’s outer corridors.
    Bull strode over to take a look.
He recognised the figure on screen. ‘How the hell did he get inside?’
    ‘He must have smashed a window
or something,’ said Tex, flicking a few switches on his control panel. The
image on screen changed as a different camera angle came into play, this one
showed the Kid from behind. He was walking towards a large black door at the
end of a corridor.
    ‘Where exactly is he?’ Bull
asked.
    ‘This is a corridor in the East
wing,’ said Tex. ‘He’s heading towards the reception area.’
    Bull pulled his pistol from its
holster and double-checked that it was fully loaded. He’d checked it less than
an hour earlier and not used it since, but he needed to remind himself exactly
how many bullets he had at his disposal. The bullets were still there. He
tapped Tex on the shoulder. ‘Come on, let’s get to the main hall. There’s a
group of Jessica’s personal bodyguards in there. We can send them down to the
reception area to deal with him.’
    Tex didn’t look convinced. ‘How
many of them are there?’
    ‘About ten, mostly werewolves I
think.’
    ‘In that case, he’ll probably
kill them all, right?’
    Bull nodded. ‘Most likely, but
they’ll slow him down. By the time he gets up to this floor, you and me can be
concealed in the main hall, waiting for him, armed to the teeth. He won’t know
what hit him.’
    Over by Beth, Razor still looked
on edge. ‘What about me?’ he asked.
    Bull pointed at Beth. ‘You stay
here with her. Keep the gun pointed at her head. And watch what’s happening on
the monitors. If you see me get taken down, you put a bullet through her face.
Understand?’
    ‘You got it, boss.’

Forty-Five

 
    Kacy had been doing her best to
keep the group of young girl scouts calm. In the wake of the Bourbon Kid
murdering just about everyone who had been out in the streets outside the
church, she was able to assure them that there wouldn’t be any more vampires
flying in through the windows any time soon. She had the girls all seated in the
pews at the front of the church and was doing her best to give some kind of
off-the-cuff sermon about how the Good Lord would spare their lives. She was
making it up as she went along because in all honesty she wasn’t the religious
type. As she began to run out of stories to tell, the girls’ attention began to
waver and one of them asked a question.
    ‘Why does the Bourbon Kid kill
people?’
    Kacy grimaced. This was a tough
question that needed to be handled tactfully. ‘Well,’ she said. ‘The Bourbon Kid
was sent by God to protect us all. When we came to the church and begged for
God’s help, he sent us the Bourbon Kid, and it worked out pretty well for us
all, didn’t it?’
    ‘Does that mean he’s like
Jesus?’ one of the girls asked.
    ‘Yes. He’s exactly like Jesus,’
Kacy replied.
    It was a lie, of course. But it
seemed to make the