Chapter 28

Whilst Donnie was working with the SNP cabinet to try and find ways of counteracting the UK Government's plans to ignore the independence vote, the goddess had decided that it was time for action on other fronts.

Beira stood on the summit of Ben Cruachan, the heavy snow falling around her cut visibility down to around twenty feet or so. The golden aura surrounding the goddess seemed to deflect the flakes of snow away from her. The expression on Beira's summer face seemed like one of distaste for the wintry conditions.

All at once, the expression changed to one of resolve – as if the goddess had come to a decision.

"Fionne, Epona, I have need of your service!"

Epona appeared before her and she bowed low. Beside the goddess of fertility another deity appeared, this one in male form. He was of only average height, but his aura exuded power almost in visible waves.

Beira turned to Epona first.

"You have already meddled a little on my behalf with the second and third wives of the Gregorach. I need you to go a little further with Lizzie. She has no gifts as yet and maybe if she had access to your gift she might be somewhat more confident about what her future role will be. You can serve me by granting her your gift."

"As you wish, Mother."

Epona faded from view, presumably to perform her service for Beira.

Beira turned to Fionne.

"You Fionne are the warrior god with the words of a poet and magic in your fingertips."

Fionne bowed his head slightly in acknowledgement.

"I have reason to ask that you share your gifts too. Your service to me will require that you visit two of the mortals before the evening has passed. Serve me well."

"It will be as you say, Mother."

Fionne faded from view as Epona had before him.

Donnie was tired as he parked the VW Polo and turned off the engine. The driving conditions had been treacherous and the focus and concentration required had taken quite a bit out of him. He reached within himself to draw a little on the gift of Tailtui before getting out of the car. Before he could take a step towards the house, he felt the familiar queasiness in his stomach that signalled the goddess was transporting him somewhere.

Looking around himself, he could see that he was at the base of silo #8. The bulky outline of the recycling plant was clearly visible due to the glare from the growing lights above. To his surprise, Donnie also saw the goddess herself standing before him.

"You are doing well, Dòmhnall. Things are coming to a head now and I'm afraid that my time with you is growing short. I have brought you here to give you one of my final gifts."

Donnie looked to where the goddess was pointing and he saw a building that he had never noticed before. It was single storey, brick-built and didn't appear to have any windows.

"Look inside."

Donnie walked to the door of the building and saw that it was controlled by an electronic system through a keypad.

"The pass-code is 7359,"

He entered the number on the keypad and the door swung inwards. As Donnie walked inside, lights came on overhead, clearly activated by a motion sensor. With the lights now on, Donnie could see that the length and breadth of the building was stuffed full of armaments.

"Perhaps I should have said that this gift is for Archie rather than yourself, Dòmhnall, as I have little doubt that his eyes will light up when he sees everything that I have given you. When you show him this you need to stress that all of the people here need to be trained as quickly as possible – even your wife and family."

"Are things going to get so bad that we'll need all this?" Donnie asked somewhat fearfully.

"I need to make sure that you are prepared, Dòmhnall. I may have overdone it a little, but it's better to be safe than sorry. Try one of the rifles."

Donnie walked over to one of the gun racks and lifted a rifle. It seemed to be a replica of the one he had fired when he had healed Archie all those months ago in Waziristan.

No sooner did he have the rifle in his hands, than he felt the vertigo sensation once again.

"Now you are prepared for your next task. Do not hesitate to use the gun this time, Dòmhnall. Not only your life depends on that!"

Pollokshields, Glasgow 03:10 23 September 2012

The group was six strong, five of them armed with wooden baseball bats and the sixth carrying a sledge-hammer. They quickly walked away from the white Ford Transit that had brought them north from Yorkshire and turned the corner into the road where the house they had targeted was situated.

Ski-masks were pulled tightly over their faces as they neared the tall gates that blocked access to the drive. It was clear that the occupants didn't feel the need to worry about security, as the gates weren't even locked. Within moments all six of the group were through and heading up the drive, the snow muffling any sound they might have made.

By unspoken agreement the five with the baseball bats stood to one side of the door to the house to allow the one with the sledge-hammer room to swing it. He aimed the head for the point on the door where the lock was situated then swung with all of his might. There was an almighty crash accompanied by the sound of wood splintering. Another swing was sufficient to part the lock from the doorjamb, and the group had entry.

A quick look told them that the noise didn't seem to have carried to any of the neighbouring houses, as there were no lights suddenly being switched on. Without a word said, the group pushed forward into the house.

The noise of the forced entry may not have disturbed the neighbourhood, but it had most certainly rudely disturbed the occupants of the house. A Pakistani youth of perhaps nineteen or twenty burst from a doorway to investigate what was going on, but he froze when he saw the masked men in the hallway. Another Pakistani teenager appeared behind the first.

A noise from the stairwell drew the eyes of the masked group and they saw an older Pakistani man on the landing above. He was dressed in nothing but a pair of boxer shorts. A woman, much too young looking to be his wife, was clutching at his arm and her face expressed her sheer terror.

It was almost as if time had been frozen, as the three separate groups stared at each other, but didn't move for a few moments. Then things exploded into action.

Three of the masked men bolted for the stairs. The woman screamed loudly and the man pushed her back into one of the rooms they had come from.

"Lock the door Amira!" he screamed at her before turning to face the stairs once more.

The two Pakistani teenagers were brave and they rushed towards the remaining three masked men in the hallway. Their bravery was repaid harshly, as their charge was met by two of the masked men with swinging baseball bats. Completely unarmed, the two boys went down under a welter of blows. Once they were down, the man with the sledge-hammer aimed a single sickening blow to each of their heads.

Upstairs, the older Pakistani didn't fare any better given the odds that he faced. In moments he too was down, unconscious, and the blows focused on his now unprotected head. Although brutal, at least death had been relatively quick for all three victims so far. The prospects for 'Amira' seemed different though.

"Ricky! Get up here with the sledge-hammer. Perhaps we can have a little fun with the one that's left before we finish her off."

Donnie heard a series of thuds and then a man shouting for someone to bring a sledge-hammer. He turned around to try and figure out where the goddess had transported him to and he saw what looked like a young Pakistani woman standing with her back to him.

The woman had a large pair of scissors in her hand and she was totally focused on the door to the bedroom that they were in. Donnie guessed she was preparing to defend herself from whoever was on the other side of the door.

"Stand to the side of the door," he ordered, drawing on his gifts to lend him more strength and confidence.

The woman spun round, a look of panic on her face. Despite the gravity of the situation, Donnie couldn't fail to see how beautiful she was. Her hair was long, silken and straight, falling to the middle of her back and it was so black it almost shone blue. Her eyes were brown and at that moment they glinted with menace. The robe she was wearing was tied tightly at the waist, which emphasised her figure. Donnie estimated that she was only around twenty years of age.

He mentally shouted at himself, as he realised that this was no time to be admiring the woman. If he didn't miss his guess, she was on the verge of launching herself at him with the scissors, clearly seeing him as the most immediate threat. Putting all of his inner gifts into his words, Donnie tried to persuade her otherwise.

"I'm not going to harm you," he said. "Stand away from the door to give me a clear line of fire."

The young woman seemed to register the rifle in Donnie's hands for the first time and she dropped the scissors before quickly snatching the weapon from him. At that moment there was a tremendous crash and the bedroom door flew open. A masked man with a sledge-hammer in his hands was framed in the doorway and the woman didn't hesitate in firing a short burst that caught the man in the chest.

As the first attacker fell to the floor, two more appeared and the woman fired the rifle again, hitting both in the upper body. Sounds outside in the hallway suggested that there were others, but that they were now trying to get away. The woman was quick and agile, as she leapt over the bodies now crumpled in the doorway.

Donnie heard the rifle firing several more bursts and he started towards the bedroom door to see what was going on.

"Not yet, Dòmhnall. You were foolish in letting her take the rifle from you and with the battle fever upon her; she might easily decide to shoot you too. I will bring her to you later."

Donnie felt a tingling sensation in his stomach and quickly found himself standing in the armoury at the base of silo #8 once more.

"Goddess! Goddess! What they hell is going on?" Donnie demanded.

There was no response and he was left trying to figure out what had just happened. He had no idea who the girl/woman was or who had been attacking her or why? He didn't even know where he had been.

"I'm not even sure if she spoke English," Donnie thought to himself. "She certainly knew how to handle a rifle!"

Ardbrecknish, Argyll, Scotland 08:30 23 September 2012

Some of the mystery surrounding where he had been the night before was cleared up for Donnie when he turned on the TV news that Sunday morning.

... a police spokesman said that there have been nine fatalities in this house on this quiet suburban street. The owner of the house is a merchant, Gurat Yurab and I understand that his son and daughter live here with him. The police will not confirm whether Mr Yurab and his family are amongst the dead, but I can exclusively reveal that a source indicates at least two of the deceased have strong links to the British National Party.

We can't speculate of course, but this tragic event is beginning to show all the signs of being racially motivated. Finally, the police have confirmed that they do have one person in custody, believed to be a young female...

He heard sounds coming from upstairs and guessed that Katie was getting up so he started some scrambled eggs for her.

"Morning, sleepyhead," Donnie greeted her when she walked into the kitchen.

"Morning. What time did you get back?" Katie asked.

"It was after three," Donnie replied.

"What kept you?"

"We worked late on a series of things that we could do if Westminster really does decide to refuse to accept the independence vote," Donnie explained. "After that I had to drive back here from Edinburgh with the roads in an awful state due to the snow."

Katie nodded to show that she understood. She rubbed her left arm and then reached to grab a mug so that she could pour herself some coffee.

"I'm not finished yet," said Donnie.

Katie poured the coffee and gave him her attention once more.

"Maybe you should have a seat?" suggested Donnie.

Katie was suddenly more wide awake and the morning sleepiness vanished from her eyes. She pulled out a chair and sat down, rubbing her upper arm again as she did so.

"When I got back here, the goddess put in an appearance," Donnie continued. "She transported me to silo #8 and showed me a complete armoury full of weapons. I've got to admit that it was scary. She told me that we were going to need the weapons to defend ourselves and she cautioned me to make sure that Archie trains all of us."

"Weapons?" asked a shocked Katie. "Defend ourselves against who?"

"The goddess didn't tell me that," Donnie admitted. "But that's no surprise, when does she ever show me the full picture. Anyway, she wasn't finished with me."

"You mean she asked you to serve her?" Katie asked, absently rubbing her arm yet again.

Donnie nodded and then pointed to the TV set that was still reporting from outside the house in Glasgow.

Katie turned her attention to the news report and Donnie remained quiet while she listened. He could see that the colour was draining from her face.

Once Katie had understood the gist of the story that was being reported, she turned back to her husband.

"That was you?" she asked. "You killed nine people?"

Donnie could see that she was stunned and on the verge of going into shock. He rushed to try and avert that.

"No, I didn't kill anyone," he said. "When I got there, there was a girl locked inside a bedroom. She looked as if she was getting ready to fight for her life using only a pair of scissors. She was fast, I'll give her that. Before I could stop her, she'd snatched my rifle..."

"She snatched your rifle?" gasped Katie. "When did you suddenly get a rifle?"

Donnie realised that he hadn't explained that part of events.

"No, sorry. I missed that bit out," he said. "Beira asked me to pick out a rifle in the armoury before she transported me to where the girl was. Anyway, the girl snatched the rifle and then someone smashed the door in. She didn't hesitate, she just shot him. Another two appeared in the doorway and she shot them too. After that she ran out of the room and I heard more gunfire. I was going to look to see what was happening when the goddess transported me back here."

"So it was the girl who killed them all?" Katie asked, her eyes wide with growing astonishment.

"I don't know for sure," said Donnie. "I saw her kill three and I heard more gunfire, but I didn't see what happened outside the bedroom."

"What are you going to do?" Katie asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, are you going to contact the police?"

Donnie shook his head emphatically.

"No way, how could I ever explain how I got there or how I managed to get out again?" he asked. "And remember, it was me who took the rifle into the house, so I could be guilty there too!"

"You must have been stressed when you came to bed," said Katie, in a seemingly unconnected statement.

"Huh?"

"You must have been tossing and turning or something, enough to upset me," Katie tried to explain. "It made me have the strangest of dreams. You wouldn't believe me if I told you."