Pickman’s Student pt4
Report by
Capt Sandy Wood (first
Fortunately I had gone to bed early. I was
planning to do the Lyke Wake Walk, and was aiming to
set out at first light, which was about
I immediately phoned into HQ, Contessa answered and asked
how soon I could be in
I was ready to move sometime before the
taxi arrived. I got to Leeming just a few
minutes after the chopper and we flew straight to
The team was most of the immediately
available
The team consisted of Black Cat, Cameron,
Grace Darling, Ice Queen, Paige & Sphinx, with Picasso (a civilian)
helping. Then word came in that Cameron was down and headed for the Wilmarth probably for an extended period. Black Cat, AKA
Alex Douglas is Metropolitan Police Special Branch and hence police liaison. Ice
Queen, AKA Dr Eliza Jamieson, is a medic and on staff at the Royal Berkshire.
The incident that caused Gallowsman's withdrawal was an engagement with some Deep
Ones. There have been a number of Deep One attacks, in the last few days. Two
women have been raped and Ice Queen was magically attacked with a spell that
filled her lungs with water.
Price had a quiet word with me outside of
Tulip's hearing. He reckoned he only survived the encounter with the Deep Ones because
someone else was also shooting at them. At the time I didn't understand why he
didn't mention that in Tulip's hearing. Knowing what I have discovered since, I
am pretty sure that it was because he knew precisely who had helped him.
As luck would have it, there had been a
Deep One incident in the
Having a free hand in the selection of
weapons, I took:-
• An M1911 pistol with two magazines of
standard ammunition and two of glaser.
• An SA80 rifle with two magazines
• 2 LAW-80 anti-tank rockets
My one regret was not getting some good
night vision equipment.
As per instructions, I proceeded to Reading
where I collected an unmarked police car and drove to the hospital. I met the team
and Dr Jones, who is the doctor in charge of the Blake. Apparently Blake was
rapidly gaining weight, now weighing about quarter of a ton, without any
identifiable source for the extra material. I was told that this is
scientifically impossible. He had buboes that had burst, revealing little heads
that were consuming the surrounding flesh. Either Jones was hallucinating, or
Blake was in a bad way. As the rest of the team took this at face value, I
assumed the latter.
That night all of the rest of the team would
going into the Dreamlands to thwart the possession at
source; this was the A-plan. If this failed I had to be on-hand to dispose of
the entity should it arrive; this was the B-plan, which I would probably have
to execute alone. I needed to be warned if his possessed body started moving so
we considered how to monitor Blake's room. In the end we settled on a camera
outside the room showing everyone going in or leaving. It would show up quite a
few false positives but not too many.
We discussed the Deep One attacks. We had
to assume that they were related to the main mission and that they were in support
of it.
Black Cat and I went off to the local
police to find out what they knew. By good fortune, we managed to talk to
officers who had actually been at the scene of Gallowsman's
encounter. They didn't really tell us anything we didn't already know, except
for the precise location in
We went to investigate. We found
splattering of body fluids in two places where the Deep Ones had apparently
been hit. We also found the impact marks from two different types of pistol
ammunition, which seem to have been fired from different directions. One seemed
to be large calibre glaser
rounds, and the other smaller calibre conventional ammo (probably about .38). The
two shooters seemed have caught the Deep Ones in cross-fire. We were able to
find one of the large calibre cases (which we assume Price was using) and which
Price seemed to have missed. However the other shooter seemed to have also
picked up his cases as we couldn't find any.
I was going to have to be up all night so I
needed a few hours sleep in the afternoon. Dr. Jamieson let me use her spare bedroom.
Alex stayed with me and kept an eye on the monitor so he could wake me if
'Blake' erupted. While I was asleep, someone reasonably expertly tried to break
into the flat, but Alex scared him off. We tried to get hold of the block's
surveillance video, but it seemed that the cameras are all out of order. It
looked like random vandalism, but might have been intended to look that way.
The team assembled for a meal at Dr. Jamieson's
flat prior to the night's activities. When we told her about the attempted break-in
she explained that she is being stalked by an ex-boyfriend, Lt. James Doolittle
of the SAS. She was on her way to talk to him when she had her encounter with
the Deep Ones.
This all starts to make a lot more sense. Doolittle
was very likely the one who tried to get into the flat, and almost certainly was
the one helping Price with the Deep Ones. Price and Doolittle are in the same
regiment. Price almost certainly knew who it was. That explains the well set-up
cross fire and why Price didn't want to mention the other shooter to Tulip. I
can't break Price's confidence, so that doesn't go in the official
report.
I parked in
I was just past the back of
There were also five civilians on
Suddenly one of the men, the largest and
most vocal, seemed to be taken ill. I couldn't be sure at the time, but I
guessed rightly that this was the lung filling spell that had been used on Jamieson.
The civilians were for the moment pre-occupied with his condition. A further
four Deep Ones emerged from
I stopped, took careful aim and fired,
which brought it down. I finished it with another two rounds and ran towards
the others. I had their attention now, which at least was giving most of
the civilians a chance to escape if they had the sense to take it. Of the four,
two were armed with scimitars, one with a trident and the last with a wand of some
type. The magician was hiding between the others; I didn't approach directly,
so that the magician would have difficulty casting past his bodyguards. As soon
as I thought I had a decent shot, I started to fire at the magician. The first
round winged him and the second brought him down. He wasn't for the moment a
danger, but the other three were charging me now.
I snapped off another round which missed,
and then I had to leg it. It is unwise getting close and personal with Deep
Ones even if you heavily out-number them. At first, they seemed to be keeping
up with me but then I started to pull away. As soon as I thought I had enough
of a lead I turned and fired twice. Both missed so I started to leg it again,
just in time. Having just exhausted my first clip, I reloaded; this time with glasers.
Shortly after that they gave up the
pursuit, and started to return to their prostrate magician. I jogged back
towards them. One, but only one, turned and charged me. It was the one with the
trident.
Again I stopped, aimed and fired. The first
round missed, but the second demolished its leg, bringing it down but rather
too close to me for comfort. Its prostrate form nearly knocked me over. As soon
as I had regained my footing I put another couple of rounds into it. Then I legged it after the others.
The two uninjured ones were helping the
magician back towards the canal. The four unhurt civilians had fled. I decided
that the priority had to be attending to the drowning man, rather than trying
to finish off the retreating Deep Ones.
The man responded very quickly to CPR. I
had just got him into the recovery position when the police turned up. One of
the officers had also been at the scene last night, and I had talked to that
morning. This time, of course, there was some hard to ignore evidence in the form
of two dead Deep Ones, one with a trident. (The retreating Deep Ones must have
retrieved the weapon of the one I put down first.)
I reported in to HQ and was ordered to stay
on the scene until the army arrived. By this time the civilian ambulance
arrived and took the casualty off to the hospital. In due course, a military ambulance
without an officer arrived and took away the corpses and the trident.
Meanwhile the police officers had seen the
Deep Ones close up, the officer realised that the place was crawling with them.
They had been seen fleetingly all over the town. He was convinced that they were
abroad in multiple groups and in large numbers. I phoned this unwelcome bit of
intelligence into HQ and was ordered to withdraw. The army (an infantry
company) was going to be sent in. I was to concentrate on my primary
assignment.
It seems the A-plan worked. The first
indication was Dr. Jones. He made one of his regular visits into Blake's room. Usually
he emerges looking like he is bearing the cares of the whole world. This time
he was invigorated and soon had several nurses in the room, which was further
evidence as most of them had previously been refusing to go there.
Went round to the flat to
meet up with the others for breakfast.