The 13th Horseman - By Barry Hutchison Page 0,67

one name I thought of. Can you guess who it was?”

“Me,” said Drake. He felt his heart sink. “What now?”

“Now, I’m going to eat them.” His face split into a wicked grin and madness blazed behind his eyes. “And when I do, I’m going to get all my old strength back, and then... This is the best bit... Then I am going to split this world in two, Drake. I’m going to split it in two!”

“Why?”

“Why? I thought you, of all people, would know why.” He gestured up at the sky. “We’re in the Armageddon business, you and I. The end of the world – it’s our purpose.”

“Everyone will die. Everyone.”

Mr Franks nodded. “That’s the general idea. But listen, it’s nothing personal. I’m just following orders. It’s my job, after all.”

“Was your job,” Drake reminded him.

“Then consider me freelance.” His face darkened. “They told me I could end the world – they created me to end the world – and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. It’s right there, in my contract of employment. ‘Begin the Apocalypse.’ I’m only following orders. I’m just... bringing forward the schedule a little.”

“You’re going to decimate the world because you’re a jobsworth?”

“Not decimate, Drake. Didn’t your last school teach you anything? Decimate means reduce by ten per cent. I’m not going to decimate the world.” He couldn’t fight back a self-satisfied smile. “I’m going to obliterate it!”

Drake took a step forward. Mr Franks’ finger reached for a button on the control desk. “Ah, ah, ah!” he warned. “Look at the pole holding your girlfriend there. Check out the bottom, where it meets the roof.”

A bomb, that’s what Drake saw. He didn’t know how he knew it was a bomb, he just did. It had a certain bomby quality that was unmistakable. “Take another step and she falls,” Mr Franks told him. Drake shuffled back, and the teacher’s finger relaxed on the button.

He looked Drake up and down, as if seeing him for the very first time. “So, you’re the new Death, eh? You’re my replacement? I expected something a little more... impressive.”

“I guess they thought I was impressive enough to follow you,” Drake retorted.

“Ha!” said Mr Franks, without humour. “You think you even come close to matching me? I was Death for a thousand years. I was the longest-serving of all the Deaths.”

“Longest serving so far,” Drake said.

“You don’t still think you’re going to stop me, do you?” Mr Franks laughed. “I’ve been planning this for the last five hundred years, putting every element of it into position for the past six decades. I’ve thought of every last detail. What, you think giant robots build themselves?”

“Yeah, I’ve been meaning to ask,” Drake said. “A giant robot? Isn’t that a bit, you know, crap?”

Something that may have been the beginnings of a cringe passed across the teacher’s face. “It was the fifties,” he explained. “Giant robots were all the rage.”

He took a step away from the control deck, thought better of it, then moved back into position beside it. “You know what it’s like, sitting around in that shed for a thousand years? No, of course you don’t, you’ve only been there a few days. Maybe you can imagine it, though. Their voices, everything they say, it just becomes this... noise in your head. Like the quacking of ducks. Quack, quack, quack. Quack, quack, quack.

“And then there’s the sound of Famine chewing, like some bloated, masticating cow, hour after hour, day after day, chomp, chomp, chomp, continually, on and on.”

Mr Franks shook his head, as if trying to drive out the memories. “Pestilence, with his constant whining and complaining and his itching and his flaking and his endless series of spectacular rashes. And War?”

The teacher’s voice had been rising throughout his rant. He stopped and brought it back under control. “God, I hated him most of all, strutting around, acting like he was the Big I Am. I was supposed to be the leader. Me! So why did they always listen to him?”

“Because you’re a friggin’ headcase?” Drake suggested. Fury flashed across Mr Franks’ face. He looked at Mel. His finger went to the switch on the control deck, but a shout from Drake made him hesitate. “Kill her and I’ll kill you!”

The teacher’s finger hovered above the button. “Kill me?” he said. “I don’t think you would.”

“I would,” Drake said. “I will. I’ve... I’ve killed before.”

Mr Franks smiled and shook his head, but his finger withdrew from the button. “No, you see, me,