Banshee Hunt Read Free Page B

ceiling were also made of concrete. It was built like a cold war bunker. And he knew as he started searching that the next gun man could be anywhere, hiding behind any pillar, just waiting to shoot him. He could also be behind one of the trucks, of which there were several. They were old and wrecked, and the chances were that they had been left behind when the warehouse had closed because they were already beyond use. Time had just added to their decay. But there was still a lot of metal in them and they made good cover.
     
    In the centre of the car park was a large iron cage, something that looked like it had come out of the middle ages. But it was probably serviceable. There were buckets in the corners for the children to do their business. Scraps of food – bread mostly – on the floor. The children had been penned up in it like animals. And he had no idea how long any of them had been there. Worse though was its size. The cage could hold thirty or more children in it. That angered him. Obviously this was no small operation, and he doubted it had just started operating. How many children had already been sold by these scum over the years?
     
    However many children there had been locked up in the cage, they weren't there any more. The iron door was wide open and the cage was empty. The children were running around, screaming and crying, tears streaming from their eyes, and crashing into one another. And they were all so young. He was looking at eight year olds like his daughter. Some were even younger. They should never have been gassed.
     
    But he'd had to use the tear gas. It was the only way he could have taken the basement, especially when he didn't know how many enemies were down there. But it had been a cruel thing to do when it impacted the children as well, and he hated himself for it. He hated himself even more when he knew that his daughter was one of the children running around in blind terror.
     
    He wanted to go to her. He knew he should be comforting the children and getting them to safety. But he was only one man and there was at least one shooter still out there trying to kill him. If he'd tried either of those things the man would have killed him and maybe some of the children too. And then everything fell apart. The men would recover, lock the children away again and the operation would continue. Matti would be sold. It was a hard thing, but he had to ignore the children and concentrate on the gun men.
     
    James began with a simple quarter search. Darting from one pillar to the next, avoiding the panicking children, and little by little clearing the part of the park closest to the stairs. It took time, and whenever any of the children spotted him through their tears, they gave his position away as they screamed. They had no idea that he was there to rescue them. And what they would have seen through the tear filled eyes was a big man in a black mask. A monster.
     
    But he was more worried when he saw that many of the children had started climbing on to the trucks' roofs. They were blind, far too young to be up so high, and the floor was hard concrete. But there was nothing he could do about it. Not without frightening them anymore and giving his position away which he had no doubt would result in a hail of badly aimed bullets heading his way. He had to ignore them as he continued clearing the car park.
     
    He had to ignore Matti too. He looked for her, but in the poor lighting and confusion he couldn't see her. And while every instinct in him was telling him to go and find her, he couldn't. Not while there was a gunman on the loose waiting to shoot him.
     
    The first truck when he reached it was empty. He even checked underneath just in case. He did find out how the children were climbing up though. For some reason on the back of each truck there was a ladder. Why, he couldn't begin to guess. But he used it just to make sure the slaver hadn't had the same idea.
     
    And then he spotted the next